Fort Worth Outlaw Country | Signal 51 Chronicles Case 6 Ep 2

Speaker 1: This is the signal 51 chronicles part two of Fort Worth, the outlaw country. This is a signal 51 chronicles. I'm John Henry with cohost Jake White, retired sergeant of the Fort Worth Police Department. And we come to you from an undisclosed location in Fort Worth, Texas as part of Sunset Lounge DFW platform. This is part two of Fort Worth Outlaw Country. On the other side of us is rock star producer, Ashley. Hello friends. Who learned how to be a rock star in Azle, Texas. Another lot of rock and roll in Azle, Texas.

Speaker 2: Let's not credit them for anything.

Speaker 1: Confederate Parkway, doing a lot of rock and rolling.

Speaker 2: I didn't spend a lot of time there.

Speaker 1: Jake, she's now the pride of Hood County.

Speaker 3: Hood County?

Speaker 2: Yeah. They'll take me.

Speaker 1: Well, heck yeah.

Speaker 2: Hazel tried to get rid of me a long time ago.

Speaker 3: Gave you the boot from Hazel?

Speaker 2: They told me to get the f out.

Speaker 1: Alright, Jake White. It's time for

Speaker 3: our last meal. The last meal.

Speaker 1: What do you got for us?

Speaker 3: Well, we've got the case involving Russell Bucklew. This case occurred in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.

Speaker 2: A couple of Missouri right here.

Speaker 3: Another another random Missouri references here. For those not familiar Water up there.

Speaker 1: What's in the water up there?

Speaker 3: A lot of murdering, I guess. Southeastern southeastern part of the state along the Mississippi River. On 03/21/1996, Bucklew broke into a trailer home where Michael Sanders was staying with Bucklew's former girlfriend. Never goes well. Bucklew shot Sanders to death inside the residence. After the shooting, Bucklew kidnapped his ex girlfriend and drove away, later assaulting her badly, if you will, before she escaped and alerted authorities. Buckley was arrested the next day after a police chase in Missouri. He was convicted of murder and other crimes and sentenced to death in 1997. Now this one drug out for a very, very long time. Bucklew actually had two last meals. His first run at a last meal was in June 2019.

Speaker 1: So twenty two years after the murders, all right.

Speaker 3: Yep. That one got pushed.

Speaker 1: So was scheduled to die, got a last meal.

Speaker 3: Yeah. No. Sorry. Not in June 2019. I don't his first date of execution, I don't I don't know the exact date. But on 06/25/2019, the Missouri Supreme Court scheduled an execution date of October 1 for Bucklew. Then governor Mike Parsons denied clemency for Bucklew on the morning of his planned execution, and he was executed as scheduled on 10/01/2019, pronounced deceased at 06:23PM, eight minutes after that lethal dose. He was

Speaker 1: scheduled for execution, got ordered a last meal, Presumably consumed it. Mhmm. And then the state supreme court or I don't know. You know, don't know. United States supreme court. Somebody stepped in or maybe the governor stepped in and halted it. Yep.

Speaker 3: Yep. Then 2019.

Speaker 1: What was this last meal that he had?

Speaker 3: Well, what's your I wanna hear what your pronunciation of it is.

Speaker 1: I call it a euro.

Speaker 3: Okay. Well, know, it's just one of those things where

Speaker 2: A gyro.

Speaker 1: I've heard of the gyro. I've heard it all sorts

Speaker 3: of stuff. I go with the gyro myself. I don't know. So we've got a Greek gyro, which we have a phenomenal Greek gyro place just mere blocks from where we're at right now.

Speaker 2: You just introduced me to this, and oh

Speaker 3: my god. Just introduced Ashley to it. Yeah. Great place. Ashley's in love.

Speaker 2: I'm a fat kid today.

Speaker 3: Yeah. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. Yeah. So he had a Greek gyro, french fries, and a Coca Cola.

Speaker 2: I'm here for

Speaker 3: it.

Speaker 1: A gyro, french fries, and a Coca Cola. Yep. I could get jiggy with that.

Speaker 2: I'm only guys.

Speaker 3: Let's see. We're gonna split this one. Here, I'll give you this. Perfect. You wanna grab some of those, by all means. Bon appetit.

Speaker 2: Bon appetit. Oh. I thought I was full until I ate this gyro. I honestly And now? Really

Speaker 3: I'm I'm projecting a very high score on this.

Speaker 1: I would die for this.

Speaker 2: Well, somebody did die after they ate it.

Speaker 1: You're a badassie.

Speaker 2: I couldn't help myself. Best one yet. Hands down.

Speaker 1: This is an 8.5.

Speaker 2: I'm here for it. Mom.

Speaker 1: You know, this is a true crime podcast. Yes. That's what they say. What's the dumbest way you've ever seen a criminal get caught? Anybody. Of course, Jake's got probably the most experiences.

Speaker 3: That's almost a that's a hard one to I mean, that's hard to answer. The dumbest way anyone's got caught.

Speaker 1: So for example, found a man in Florida, a Florida man.

Speaker 3: A Floridian?

Speaker 1: Yes. Felipe Cruz.

Speaker 2: Okay.

Speaker 1: Who was charged with attempted bank robbery after trying to rob a Chase bank. Cruz went up to the teller, handed her a note demanding money. The teller however, who was behind a bulletproof glass simply backed away from the window and called the police.

Speaker 2: Okay.

Speaker 1: Cruz fled the scene. But the note Cruz gave the teller happened to be written on the back of a job application form

Speaker 2: that

Speaker 1: he had begun to fill out. Apparently Cruz didn't get the job because he was looking for another way to make money. FBI agents were able to lift fingerprints from the note, find his records and his address.

Speaker 3: Okay. That's pretty dumb.

Speaker 1: That is dumb. Then there was a gentleman in Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Dominic Pelletier, who aspired to a career in law enforcement. The Chicago native applied for a job with the FBI, And during the hiring process, Pelletier took a polygraph test during which he admitted having had a collection of, what do we say, explicit Child. Young Mhmm. Person pictures.

Speaker 2: Things he should not have.

Speaker 3: Things he should not have. Yeah.

Speaker 1: He also stated that he had filmed himself having intimate relations with a young person.

Speaker 3: That too is pretty dumb.

Speaker 1: The FBI obtained a search warrant and arrested mister Pelletier after indeed finding explicit pictures of young people in his home. Hard to get through those.

Speaker 2: So he failed a polygraph.

Speaker 1: He failed a

Speaker 3: no. He asked the polygraph. Polygraph.

Speaker 1: That's how he Everything he said was true.

Speaker 2: Oh, fair. Did he think that he was still gonna be allowed to be a cop?

Speaker 1: Kind of, experience you have with polygraphs?

Speaker 3: Mostly ours were more, like, administrative when we would do them. For for, like, the internal affairs style stuff? Yeah. We didn't do them often than the units I worked at. I mean, they still still do, and I don't know how often. I mean, those polygraphers are really good at talking to people and getting them to admit things.

Speaker 2: Mhmm.

Speaker 3: Really good at that.

Speaker 1: Need to go to a calligrapher test or a school.

Speaker 3: I think it's like it's pretty long. I'd looked at it one time many years ago. I think it's six months or something. I mean, it's a long process. I don't know. I know it was several months for sure. It was in San Antonio or Austin when I'd looked at it, but

Speaker 1: So do you have any instances, with polygraph tests and internal affairs? No, not any No one required one

Speaker 3: I don't recall for anybody failing it or you want to phrase it. You know, obviously, you have to take them to become a cop. There are, I mean, you've gotta be, I mean, I'm probably, I'm, well, I know. I'm not cool enough to wear.

Speaker 1: You could lie and get through one?

Speaker 3: It's so nerve wracking. Get all this shit hooked up to you, and you're like, somebody serious.

Speaker 1: You know? You were convinced you were gonna fail this thing because you were so nervous. Yeah. Because, mean, that's what it's rate that's what it's gauging. Right? It's it's I

Speaker 3: don't know. We'd have to get our man on here to give us the, low down on that.

Speaker 1: Find him. How long how long were you under the scope?

Speaker 3: I mean, it felt like hours. Probably not, though. An hour? Forty five minutes? Yeah. Probably somewhere in that ballpark, I would think.

Speaker 1: You remember what they asked you?

Speaker 2: A lot of it's just, you know, is what are you

Speaker 3: what you're telling, you know, the truth, the About your answers to

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 1: Mhmm. Mhmm. Application questions or whatever.

Speaker 3: Yeah. That's a whole different world. I mean, that's where the Rick Holdens of the world come into play and can, mean, he could probably talk for six hours about one and how they work. I don't know exactly how they work. I just know that those dudes are historically pretty good at talking to people after the polygraph test and then getting getting them to admit to stuff. So Alright.

Speaker 1: Let's get on with Fort Worth, outlaw country, part two. And we found out in part one that on 08/21/1958, Bobby Ray Foote was shot dead in his car as he traveled northbound in Polytechnic Heights. A man in a car traveling southbound in the other direction forced Foote to stop. He got out of the car and began shooting into Foote's vehicle. A known underworld figure, police detectives immediately zeroed in on suspects. They were Donald Kenneth Gott, Larry Wade Goosellis, and Garrett Milton Ramsey. Now in our last episode, we introduced our viewers to this book, Fort Worth from '19 from World War two to 1960, written by mister Harold Rich, published by University of North Texas. And we found in here that in 1960, a list published in the Star Telegram of the 10 most undesirable hoodlums in Fort Worth in 1960. And on this list is Garrett Ramsey, known to Fort Worth Police as the kingpin of Fort Worth Prostitution and wanted at this time, or around this time, or a little bit later,

Speaker 3: for the murder of Royce Heard. Almost two weeks after, the grand jury issued indictments for Ramsey, Gantt, Guselis, but Green was in custody in Fort Worth for driving a stolen car. 09/23/1958, Green was located in a vacant duplex in South Fort Worth. Green admitted to possessing the stolen car, and when detectives searched the stolen car, they found a torn up military base pass with the name Beatrice Hejewitz. Green stated the car belonged to a lady known as Beatrice Tolbert. Green told Fort Worth detectives that Tolbert quote ditched him at a bar for a sailor. The story takes another turn because now we have detectives from San Jose, California police department flying to Fort Worth to interview Johnny Green. So why did they fly to Fort Worth to interview Johnny Green?

Speaker 1: So, as it turns out, on 09/20/1958, a month before the shooting of Bobby Ray Foote, the body of Beatrice Hayjowitz was found in an industrial area 200 yards from the San Jose police station. Beatrice was discovered with the sleeve of a sweater tied around her neck. Evidence also indicated that Beatrice, married to a sailor and the mother of two sons, had been sexually assaulted. Next to Beatrice's body was a coat with a handwritten phone number and a matchbook. The handwritten phone number was traced back to a relative of Johnny Green who lived in California. When Green was placed under arrest for the murder of Beatrice, he told detectives he was going to surrender because all they had on him was a stolen car. And quote, I wouldn't be stupid enough to leave my coat at the scene of a murder. Now, as we were doing our research on this case, there's some irony about the coat. This was not the first time Green was caught because of a discarded coat. Two years prior, Green became a suspect in a burglary after detectives found his coat at the scene of a crime. In this case, however, Green was able to prove he was out of town. After Green's arrest, Green agreed to an extradition hearing and was flown back to San Jose. After landing in San Francisco, investigators drove Green to San Jose. On the drive from San Francisco to San Jose, Green promptly blurted out, Hell, I might as well get it over with, and confessed to the murder of Beatrice. So Jake, now take us through this tragic tale

Speaker 3: of humanity. So Green told San Jose detectives that he killed Hagewitz in the mountains near Oakland, California. Greene, as described in press reports, has a, quote, husky tattooed hoodlum, choked Beatrice with his bare hands, and then threw her into the backseat of the car.

Speaker 1: After choking Why can't we use the word hoodlum anymore?

Speaker 3: That's good one. I mean, summarizes a lot. I don't have a problem with it. All right. So after choking her with his hands, he tied the sleeve of a sweater around her neck. After killing Beatrice, Johnnie Green drove with the deceased's body out of the mountains. When he entered San Jose looking for a place to discard Hayjawitsch's body, someone rear ended him when he was at the stoplight. Green told detectives, I realized I couldn't wait for a traffic investigation with that body in the back seat. Green fled the scene of the accident and found what he thought was a desolate area in San Jose. A desolate area only 200 yards away from the police station. Speaking of dumb criminals. Yeah. This Green guy is yeah. Not good. When Green pulled the body from the car, and unbeknownst to Green, his coat was under Beatrice's body. His coat eventually fell on the ground as he drugged the body to a mound of dirt. After discarding Beatrice's body, Green drove to Compton, California where he slept for a few hours and then he made the 1,500 mile journey back to Old Cowtown. Green also provided detectives with a written confession that detailed how he killed Beatrice. So

Speaker 1: why did our man Johnny Green go to California in the first place?

Speaker 3: So as it turned out, Green was now involved in three murders. As we mentioned earlier, he was the passenger in Bobby Ray Foote's vehicle.

Speaker 1: Yeah. When he was killed. When he was killed.

Speaker 3: He confesses to Beatrice Tolbert. Yeah. But he had also been charged with the murder of a one Jesse Thane Williams at a bar near Riverside Drive in Fort Worth. Mhmm. Green fled to California not because of the suspicion he murdered Williams, but because he told police that Ramsey, Gant, and Gusillis were responsible for the murder of Foote. So this guy

Speaker 1: went to California because he was scared for his life, and then he ended up raping and killing a woman in California. Mhmm.

Speaker 3: He did. But quick work by the detectives in Fort Worth and San Jose. He was apprehended quickly and ultimately given a life sentence in California for killing Hayjowitz.

Speaker 1: So meanwhile, the investigation involving Foote continued here. In early June nineteen fifty nine, a continuance was granted because authorities were having a difficult time tracking down a witness to serve him as a subpoena. The defense alleged that another man, Jim Miley was present at the time of the shooting and furthermore hinted that he was in Ramsey's car. Said an assistant district attorney at that time, his name was Elwood Winters, They've had everybody in that car but President Eisenhower. In January 1960, Winters and defense attorneys, Dave Miller and Ronald Altman flew to San Quentin to depose our hoodlum Johnny Green about his role in the murder of Foote.

Speaker 3: Yep. So Garrett Ramsey seemed to be a counterpart in terms of gang leadership from Johnny Ray Foote. Ramsey led one criminal enterprise and Foote led another and they clashed. In April Right. Yeah. Yeah. Not uncommon. In April 1960, Ramsey's trial and the death of Foote ended in a mistrial or with a mistrial. Gant, he was convicted and sentenced to ninety nine years. But this was not Ramsey's last run-in with the law involving a murder. In 1960, Ramsey,

Speaker 1: were now calling the, quote, King Fin in 1960, Ramsey,

Speaker 3: who who police were now calling, quote, the kingpin of Fort Worth prostitution

Speaker 1: We saw that in list, right?

Speaker 3: That's what they called him. He was facing murder charges for the death of another these terms are great. Police character.

Speaker 1: Royce Leon Leon Hurd.

Speaker 3: Royce Leon Hurd. On 06/18/1960, the deceased body of Heard was found in a ditch on a then rural road near Kennondale. On 06/18/1960, at approximately 02:30AM at 3700 Sandgate, heard knocked on the front door of a home reportedly rented by none other than Paul English.

Speaker 1: Paul English. So heard of this name Paul English.

Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. You you most likely have. This one's called Outlaw Country. Right?

Speaker 1: Outlaw Country. What is what is this connection of Paul English?

Speaker 3: So Paul English, the drummer for Willie Nelson and Delbert Delbert McClinton. That is him. What happened at the home of Willie Nelson's drummer is another example of how the underworld always finds themselves in these precarious situations. Heard knocks on the door at

Speaker 1: 02:30AM. 02:30.

Speaker 3: 02:30AM. Never a good sign. Never a good sign. But instead of English answering the door, police hoodlum Garrett Ramsey answers the door. Garrett Ramsey. Yep. When Ramsey opened the door, Heard rushed in, armed with a pistol, and ordered Ramsey to sit down. Soon after Heard rushed inside, a second unknown assailant kicked in the back door. Heard went to the kitchen and shots rang out. During the commotion, Ramsey fled out the front door. Ramsey told police he dodged bullets from other would be assassins hiding behind a car across the street.

Speaker 1: Gotta to be one of these gangsters, you gotta have a head on your on

Speaker 3: a swivel. Have it on a swivel. I guess this Ramsey guy did.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Tough to live that way.

Speaker 3: Mhmm. Ramsey returned to the house a short time later and saw Heard on the kitchen floor with a gunshot wound. Heard, still alive, indicated that he did not wanna go to the hospital. Gunshot wound, don't bother taking me. Ramsey told investigators he wrapped the wounded herd in a blanket and put him in the trunk of a quote borrowed car. Next, Ramsay called Meisner Funeral Home and reported he found an accident victim on the side of the road. Ramsay then drove Heard to a desolate road near Kennandale, where dumped Heard's body. Ramsey returned to Paul English's home and washed the car. In addition to washing the car, Ramsey also said he woke up two other occupants who were reportedly inside the home during the shooting, a one Bobby Lott and Cynthia Martin. Lott and Martin later told investigators they did not hear any commotion inside the house, but they helped Ramsey clean up the blood in the kitchen. Nice of them. Yep. Super nice of them.

Speaker 1: Gunshot gunshots going off, and they didn't hear anything.

Speaker 3: Yeah. They didn't hear anything. We'll help you clean up the blood. No big deal. But Lot and Martin, they're no strangers to the law either. No. Birds Yep. Lot, who was released from the Leavenworth United States Prison only five days prior, and Martin was on probation for aiding the escape of a prisoner at the Gregg County Jail here in Texas. To clear his name, Ramsey asked the police to give him a lie detector test and a paraffin test.

Speaker 1: Yeah. So that returning to Paul English's home to wash the car, it reminds me of recalls to mine the that scene in Pulp Fiction.

Speaker 3: Mhmm. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1: So what is this? A paraffin test. What

Speaker 3: Yeah. So it's basically What is a paraffin? The predecessor to the gunshot residue test. A paraffin test was a forensic test to indicate whether a person had recently fired a gun in which the person's hand is coated in hot paraffin wax, which cools and sets and is peeled off and tested for the presence of residue from the gun. Gotcha. A little bit easier now. Lawton Martin agreed to a lie detector test, but declined the paraffin test. Ramsey and Lawton were both charged with the fourth PD charged both Ramsey and Lott with the murder of Heard. However, there might have been a little bit of hesitation on the police side because one detective said, he's coming too clean to be lying. Ramsey, the elusive criminal, he was kind of a big fish as I mean, he's in he's on the list. He's on the list. On the he's on the endorsed list from J Edgar Hoover.

Speaker 2: Yep.

Speaker 3: So to help them reel in the big fish, Fort Worth PD asks assistance from the Texas Rangers. Police weren't taking any shortcuts in trying to solve this case. They sent everything, quote everything, to Dallas for test, including the wind including the windshield from Ramsey's borrowed Cadillac. Mhmm. In a strange twist, Ramsey, the same guy who had assaulted a police officer several years prior, wanted the police to thoroughly investigate the murder of Heard. Ramsey, laughing and swaggering said, I don't know who those guys were. It looks like they set a trap for me. I want the work to clear myself. I can't afford another charge. The work is what Ramsay got, and the work ultimately led him to being charged in the murder of Heard. Keep in mind, Royce Heard was also no stranger to the police. None of these guys are. No. No. He was arrested 11 times in 1959 and three times in 1960 leading up to his death.

Speaker 1: It's keeping the police awfully busy. Yes. So what happened what happened with these murder

Speaker 3: charges? Ramsey's elusive slick Ramsey. Slick Ramsey. The murder charge he and Lot faced were ultimately dismissed because they reportedly passed the polygraph exams. In true Ramsey style, he couldn't keep himself out of trouble for long though.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Like seven months he was back in trouble with Seven. Yep. Tell me about that.

Speaker 3: Late January nineteen sixty one, Ramsey traveled to the small town of Hereford between Amarillo and Lubbock. Yeah. You probably have a Hereford story, don't you? I don't. But I know it well. I'm surprised by that. There, Ramsey broke into a grocery store and stole over $9,000

Speaker 1: So how so so a $9,000.

Speaker 3: How'd he get busted for this? Well, we just read about some of the some similar kinda similar in the Bull Police blotter. This one was different. Ramsey, the slick, elusive crook that he He did what was described as a slick job opening the safe, but he dropped his wallet that had his hunting license. So

Speaker 1: This this this, recidivist outlaw in trouble all the time who does nothing by the book except hunting. He has his hunting license. He's everything's in order with his hunting license. Yeah. And he drops it.

Speaker 3: Mhmm.

Speaker 1: And that's how he's caught. Was he convicted of this for god's sake?

Speaker 3: Yeah. He was. He was arrested in Fort Worth, taken back to Def Smith County by Hereford Police Chief

Speaker 1: Def Smith being a hero of the Texas Revolution.

Speaker 3: Go ahead. You have a Def Smith reference, I'm sure. He gets taken back to Def Smith County by Hereford Police Chief Henry Aycock. Ultimately, Ramsey was sentenced to eight years in prison. Ramsey later served time in San Quentin with his buddy Green for a string of coin machine thefts. After a stint in San Quentin, Ramsey returns home right here to Fort Worth and seems to maybe take a break from some criminal activity. Starting in 1989, Ramsey at the now age of 56, continued his life of crime and committed several armed robberies. Ramsey was incarcerated in Texas until 2003 when he was paroled. In 2005, Ramsey committed his last theft. The very last one.

Speaker 1: What was that Last one.

Speaker 3: He took over $1,000 of the Tarrant County taxpayer money for his burial. Ramsey was buried.

Speaker 1: Of course he did.

Speaker 3: Cemetery in Southeast Fort Worth. I believe we got that information in that line from the Fort Worth Star Telegram or from a Fort Worth Star Telegram article. Yeah. So Ramsey's ramshackle life ended in 2005. The moral of the story, crime does not pay. Between dodging a rival's bullets or not dodging them as Bobby Ray Foote's fate played out. Or a life behind the walls of the state's big house as Green's and Ramsey's tales of woe demonstrate.

Speaker 1: All right. That. So long, Garrett Ramsey.

Speaker 3: So long, Garrett Ramsey.

Speaker 1: All right. That does it for fourth. Outlaw Country. Outlaw Country Part two.

Speaker 2: Do you wish there were still outlaws in Fort Worth like that?

Speaker 1: I don't know.

Speaker 2: Might be. Oh, there

Speaker 1: probably are some kind of

Speaker 2: Don't we wish there were still mafias? Do you think they would clean They're up the around.

Speaker 1: Well, you know, we got cartel. We got cartels up here.

Speaker 2: Have you seen the there was a recent documentary that came out that talked about how mafias aren't the mafias of the past. So it, like, goes to today's mafia versus what it used to be, and it's more of, like, a a stature than it than it's a like hardened criminal thing.

Speaker 1: No. I haven't seen that.

Speaker 2: Yeah. There's a I saw I don't remember where I saw it, but it was based on like New York mafia. And it was so interesting because like you see pictures of mafia members like and you see movies and that kind of stuff of like hardened, like you don't want to mess with these guys and these dudes are like pot bellied and you're just like oh, okay.

Speaker 3: You know we

Speaker 1: had the cartel attorney got murdered in

Speaker 3: South Lake.

Speaker 1: South Lake about eight, ten years ago, something

Speaker 2: Well, like we're not that far from the border, so I expect us to have a cartel.

Speaker 1: Yes. Tell all your friends about us.

Speaker 2: Keeping that in the I'm keeping that in for bloopers for later.

Speaker 1: Sorry. Got to. Yeah, tell your friends about us. Tell all your cartel friends about us. Your mafia friends.

Speaker 3: No, no.

Speaker 2: We'll do stories on them.

Speaker 1: Hit like, subscribe. Yeah, they'll give us good content. Hit like, subscribe. You can find us everywhere from YouTube to Apple thing, podcasts.

Speaker 3: Everywhere. Everywhere.

Speaker 2: Can find us anywhere you get your podcast, my friends.

Speaker 1: We are the signal fifty one chronicles. We will see you next time. Next time. Go rangers. It's baseball season. It will be. Adios. This is a Stolen Water Media production.