Between June 19th, 1996 and June 30thof that year, Presley was involved in five robberies at gunpoint. . But he never cut ties with Winona, where his grandmother remained and where he committed a slew of small-time thefts in the years before and after the Tardy Furniture murders, according to public records. The prosecutors had said repeatedly at trial that the only suspect seriously investigated was Flowers. After learning that Willie James Hemphill was an initial suspect in the murders at Tardy Furniture, reporters for In the Dark wanted to find out if he'd ever broken the law before. Judge Joseph Loper asked Evans if the state had any exculpatory evidence.. According to court records, he was "swinging a machete and causing a. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. Authorities put together alineup later that day of black-and-white photos, and she identified Flowers from the lineup as the man she briefly saw that morning when she came outside to move her car. Montgomery County Sheriff Bill Thornburg searched Moores home and found a size 10.5 Fila Grant Hill shoebox in a dresser at her house. The police there picked up the investigation and also apparently probed the Tardy Furniture connection. Selected filmography. The July 16, 1996, killings of Tardy Furniture owner Bertha Tardy, 59, and three employees, Carmen Rigby, 45, Robert Golden, 42, and Derrick Stewart, 16, have haunted this town ever since. James Montgomery Dobbins (1864-1951): homenaje de Find a Grave In the Dark - Google Podcasts By his own account, someone told investigators that they'd seen him on Front Street that morning, though Hemphill has said repeatedly that he wasn't there. He thought back to when Small took the gun. "I was coming out of Piggly Wiggly and there was a woman, I will never forget her name. Lab officials, however, say the gun never arrived and was never tested. He spent 11 days in jail before authorities released him. His mothers mutt, Patches, was barking in the crawl space, causing him to find a gunbeneath the house she was renting. Hallmon told APM Reports that he became a prosecution witness in spring 2001 after being arrested on multiple drug charges. "I don't understand how she said that.". After examining the autopsy reportsand crime scene photographs, Baden said the evidence suggests one person maintained control while another person carried out the execution-style killings. "I don't know nothing about it.". Asked if she remembered where she was when the murders happened, she recalled the morning clearly. Willie James Hemphill 1952-2006 - Ancestry He told APM Reports that he was arrested and questioned in the . Email Address: w XMLS @yahoo.com +1 email. Burial will be at Barber Memorial Cemetery Why was he questioned? After a multistate manhunt, Presley and Gamble were arrested in Norfolk, Virginia. A defense expert responded in a sworn statement that the bloody footprints left behind by the popular shoe could havebeen anywhere between sizes 8.5 and 11. Willie Hemphill Obituary 2018 - Lindquist Mortuary Ive been confused of the day from the beginning. A bloody shoe print found in the store (left), and an investigator's sketch comparing the print to the Fila Grant Hill sneakers. But both denied having committed the Tardy murders and said they'd never even been to Mississippi. Whoever did this crime (the Tardy murders) was a good shot.. Could those responsible for Tardy Furniture murders have escaped a different way? In The Dark | Podcast | APM Reports He's also targeted women in general and often women carrying purses. Baran found Hemphills booking card showing he had been arrested and jailed a few days after the killing. But his demeanor when approached by In the Dark investigative reporters was consistent with innocence. Nine days later, on July 25, 1996, the bodies of two innocent people were discovered in a pawn shop in Birmingham, Alabama. Fourteen lawyers. This case was filed in U.S. Courts Of Appeals, U.S. Court Of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. ADVERTISEMENT BY ANCESTRY.COM. His age is 79. That might not be so if the whole world wasnt watching, but it is. Willie James Hemphill (1941 - 2008) - Gaffney, South Carolina In a remarkable turn of events almost 23 years after four people, including a 16-year-old boy, were gunned down and left inside the Tardy Furniture store in Winona, Mississippi, three things have happened. He said he told investigators he was shopping with a woman in Memphis. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Sound for the film Belfast. Add a Memory. Though he was a suspect early in the investigation, according to law enforcement records, and questioned extensively, Hemphill was later released after 11 days in jail and ruled out as a suspect for reasons that remain unclear. A photo array that contains Marcus Presley (No. In The Dark was clearly righteous in exonerating a black man condemned by a ludicrously unjust system. By the end of the two episodes devoted to the Flowers case, they had all abandoned Curtis as a suspect. In total, he killed four people and wounded three others in the space of just three months. Podcasts should stick to exonerating the innocent. He's shown a fearlessness about committing brazen attacks and thefts in daylight with high risks and low payoff, in places close to where he's lived and where people are more likely to recognize him. And the gun that Armstrong says he discovered is additionally important . Send Flowers. "We have never had any evidence that showed anything other than this defendant's guilt," Evans said. But Curtis Flowers is somehow still not cleared of the gruesome quadruple murder on July 16, 1996. He told the podcast he had an airtight alibi. Photos. Willie James Hemphill has lived in Evansville, IN 47714; Greenwood, MS 38930. It was a .380-caliber automatic handgun, coated in dirt and rust. Reporters from In the Dark tried to contact Hemphill online to present him with these findings. Not the right Willie? 0 Reputation Score Range. Willie Hemphill's passing at the age of 97 has been publicly announced by Arnold Family Funeral Services Inc. - Hillside Chapel in Altadena, CA.Legacy invites you to offer condolences and share memori The Blues Years : Willie Dixon - The Big Three Trio 1947-1952 (Roots N Updated: June 22, 2016 . View More. Search by Name Search . "[I]t's almost like a hair trigger that would cause a reversal if you've got false testimony that is significant.". "After a short time, we realized that he didn't know anything about the case.". Maybe theyll cover that in their next season. John Johnson, the DAs investigator, told the jury, I think they talked to him for five minutes. "I can't recall seeing him that day," Woods said. Willie James Hemphill is confronted by reporters at an Indianapolis courthouse in June 2019. While that case was delayed for more than two years, Hallmon murdered three people, including his ex-girlfriend, Marquita Hill, and her mother. Their names are Michael Lee Boies , Crystal Davis , and six others. On July 14, his mother, Lola, died of surgery complications. He didn't work on July 4, a holiday, and didn't show up for work on July 5, 6 or 8. He lived near Tardy Furniture at the time of the murders, and near where a gun that might have been the murder weapon was found. Both men bounced from one traumatic living arrangement to another with no respite. The suspects include the gunman in an Alabama crime spree that summer that bore several similarities to the Winona killings and a violent career criminal who at the time of the murders was living with a girlfriend across from the furniture store. Flowers was convicted and sentenced to death in the first three trials, but each time, the verdict was overturned on appeal for prosecutorial misconduct in the first and second trials, and for racially discriminatory jury selection in the third. But the investigative file turned over to Flowers defense attorneys didnt mention the possible link. Whoever killed four innocent people in the Tardy Furniture store on that fateful day in 1996 was familiar with armed violence and kind of liked it. He also tried to shoot his own 12-year-old son who was hiding in a closet, though the boy survived. The podcasts reporters spent months methodically proving that prosecutors systematically denied black people a seat in the jury box, and how a man who is likely innocent has been repeatedly sentenced to death. The accused has had his conviction overturned for the sixth time, the woman who put him at the scene of the murders has backflipped on her story and another man has been forced to deny it was him all along. He attended Erskine College, where he earned a A.B. Prosecutors have always said that Curtis Flowers was the only serious suspect in the Tardy Furniture investigation. Who was he? Me and her was leaving," he said, forfeiting his Memphis alibi altogether and placing himself a short walk from Tardy Furniture. Willie Hemphill Obituary (1926 - 2012) - Dallas, TX - Dallas Morning News When Flowers went back on trial, Armstrong heard no mention of the gun by either prosecutors or defense attorneys. Suppressing the evidence theyve already gathered might mean denying justice to the victims. January 5, 1960 - August 13, 2009. 5 Visits. Hemphill was born on September 10, 1971. Reporter: Mr Hemphill. He quoted Bertha Tardy as saying he would have to be responsible for paying for the batteries. In the sixth trial, inmate Odell Hallmon testified that Flowers told him about carrying out the Tardy murders, helping lead to Flowers conviction. Willie Smith in Kingwood, TX - Address & Phone Number | Whitepages Are you a wh*re?, Reporter: Did you commit the murders on Front Street? It wasn't until Flowers' sixth trial that jurors heard anything about the Alabama suspects. 20151004 Willie James Hemphill Criminal Civil Records Episode 10 of the In the Dark Podcast was largely dedicated to the strange case of Willie James Hemphill, a local bad boy with a violent streak who was continually getting cross-ways with the law. It might mean letting someone get away with an abominable crime. One of them wore Grant Hill Fila sneakers. Menu. An investigative team from American Public Media has uncovered evidence that law enforcement had at least two other suspects in the 1996 quadruple homicide in Winona that put Curtis Flowers on death row information that was not shared with his defense attorneys. In the past, Willie has also been known as Willie James Hemphill, Willie A Hemphill, Willie James Hemphill, Willie J Hemphill and Willi Hemphill. Each victim of the July 16, 1996 murders was murdered execution styleone or two bullets to the back of the head. Curtis Flowers on death row: Missing gun, more questions about evidence Explosive end to case thats rocked America. So where was Hemphill during the day? Why was he questioned? The crime itself was extraordinary, but the case drew In The Darks attention because a local prosecutor had tried Flowers six times for the murders. So, if I am forced to pick an alternative perpetrator in this awful case I would lean toward the Birmingham Boys, Presley in particular. If you recall our last conversation, I wasnt in the city., Reporter: You said you were in Memphis with Twanda Woods. And Hemphill had a history of committing crimes in Winona and Memphis. After finding the weapon, Armstrong wondered how the gun had wound up under the house his mother was renting on Knox Street, only 700 feet or so from the furniture store. Willie Hemphill, Virginia (30 matches): Phone Number, Email, Address But there was a three-week gap in the Alabama crime spree right at the time of the Tardy murders. State investigator Jack Matthews, one of those who had read Hemphill his rights, said hed only talked to Hemphill for a short time before realizing he didnt know anything. … Ive had many trials where no black jurors were struck., But the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned Flowers conviction in his third trial, ruling Evans had intentionally struck African Americans from the jury. Six trials and six successful appeals. 20181228 Willie James Hemphill Criminal Civil Records He told the Commonwealth, I think these (APM Reports) folks are just coming up with anything they can to discredit the case. Willie James Hemphill, 44 - Rock Hill, SC - Has Court or Arrest Records Curtis Flowers, as any prison guard who has ever worked with him can tell you, has no demons. But there was no mention of the Alabama crimes and suspects in the investigative files the prosecution had turned over to Flowers' defense attorneys. We developed information that Doyle was missing from work that morning for about 30 or 40 minutes, which was about the time of the murders, he said. Willie James Hemphill, age 37, Justice, IL Search Report. Share to Facebook. Reporters also poked holes in Hemphill . Willie Hemphill (1891-1969) FamilySearch How an investigative podcast helped free Curtis Flowers Evidence of false testimony by prosecution witnesses could potentially get Flowers' conviction overturned, Bennett Gershman, a former prosecutor who now teaches law at Pace University, told the APM reporting team. S2 E10: Discovery In The Dark podcast - player.fm View Willie Smith results in Kingwood, TX including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. They have also lived in Franklin, NC and North Fort Myers, FL. Eight days before these murders, a side door key was stolen. Hemphill said he was wearing his Filas when in walked into the Sheriffs Department. What an Alabama crime spree might reveal about the Curtis Flowers investigation. INDIANAPOLIS At first, Willie James Hemphill was calm. But after several hours of interviews conducted over two days, Hemphill finally disclosed his alibi: He said he was at a mall in Memphis at the time of the murders, with a Winona woman named Twanda Woods. One, Rigby,was killed with two shots to the head. Like LaSamuel Gamble, Hemphill wore Fila shoes and had a criminal record. For Flowers, the new information including Flemings changed story adds weight to his case for a full acquittal. View the profiles of professionals named "Willie Hemphill" on LinkedIn. District Attorney Doug Evans insisted he'd given the defense access to all records of the investigation. "If he's guilty, he's guilty.". Police arrived at the factory and interviewed employee Katherine Snow. Jessie Mae Hemphill; Jimmie Gordon; Jimmy "Duck" Holmes; Jimmy Burns; Jimmy Dawkins; Jimmy Holmes; Jimmy Johnson; . Shortly after the killings, police arrested Hemphill, then 24, who was wearing a pair of the Grant Hill Fila shoes. After months of looking for Twanda Woods, In the Dark reporters located her a few months ago at her trailer in Winona, half a mile south of Tardy Furniture. It was his legal obligation, but its easy to see why he didnt. The fourth and fifth trials ended with hung juries. He said that while in jail he talked to Evans about the Flowers case, and he saw a chance to gain his freedom. Willie Hemphill Obituary (1926 - 2012) - Dallas, TX - Dallas Morning News But instead of stopping there, its reporters started snitching to the same system whose injustice they had just unmasked. . At the time, investigators in Mississippi told the media they were looking into whether the crimes could be connected to the murders at Tardy Furniture. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. A series of Willie James Hemphill mugshots ranging from 2000 through 2016. Reporters spent months combing through police and court records in Mississippi, Tennessee and Indiana to compile his extensive, and at times violent, criminal history. Presley murdered four people and wounded three others in a spree of robberies and murders that year. How did your name get involved in this?, Hemphill: I wasnt in the city. Reporters also poked holes in Hemphill . Photos. Hemphills name came up briefly in Flowers 2010 trial. Willie James Hemphill, Greensboro Public Records Instantly And that's what I know," said David Goldberg, now retired from his job as a detective in the Norfolk Police Department. The ordeal of Curtis Flowers screams for correction. But he believed Gamble's denial. View Willie Hemphill results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. (Although that figure is, at best, an educated guess.). Steven McKenzie, the driver of the getaway car in the pawn shop murders, was arrested on August 1 in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. Hemphill, now almost 50, hasnt been arrested for violence in more than a decade, according to the rap sheet assembled on In The Darks website. A surveillance camera revealed that the killer was wielding a 380 pistol that jammed repeatedly. Curtis Flowers was raised in a loving home by a gospel-singing father and a mother known for her culinary and entrepreneurial abilities. Willie James Hemphill Willie Hemphill (1919 - 2000) Jump to: Bio graphy Family Photos Comments Obit uary. Before he disappeared into a men's bathroom, he once again dodged the question of where he was on the day of the murders and insulted two female reporters with vulgarities. "Yeah we was leaving. Share to Twitter. S2 E10: Discovery-In the Dark There is little doubt that Hemphill has done terrible things. If the state Supreme Court were to order a seventh trial for Flowers, the district attorney would face a difficult task, Saums said. In fact, he said, police never searched the crawl space beneath the house. "I was out of the whole jurisdiction in another state.". I just didnt know how to say it. Afraid that he would be shot on sight if he didnt surrender, Hemphill turned himself in at the local police station (wearing Grant Hill Filas, the shoes investigators had linked to a bloody footprint at the crime scene) and was immediately handcuffed and booked into the local lock-up. Yet theyre willing to hand him over to the prosecution, to possibly watch him die. And if the two had spent just an hour at the mall assuming the mall, which is now closed, opened as early as 9 a.m. they'd have needed to leave Winona no later than 7 o'clock that morning. Where were you?, Hemphill: I was in your p***y. Illuminating Journalism from American Public Media. Sure, he had worked at Tardys in the past. Willie James Hemphill was detained for 11 days following the Hardy Furniture murders and wore the same brand of shoes as the bloody footprints found at the scene. Includes Address(1) Phone(2) Email(1) See Results. Green is a reporter in Toronto. Willie James Hemphill was confronted in an Indianapolis courthouse last week, 23 years after police deemed him an initial suspect but later pursued leads against Flowers. And why didnt DA Doug Evans even consider the Presley-Gamble connection? Why was he questioned? Support investigative journalism with a donation to In the Dark. And Hemphill had actually lived for a time in Winona. At first he was reluctant to divulge who he was with that morning, but later said it was a woman named Twanda Woods. 0 Rate Willie. But that doesnt mean that he killed those four people at Tardy Furniture. Actually,In the Dark hasnt weighed in on the guilt-innocence issue (thats not what they do), but their careful dissection of DA Doug Evans case against Flowers has left the case in a shambles. Willie Hemphill Found 194 people in Mississippi, Illinois and 31 other states. (1870), A.M. (1872), and LL.D. View contact information: phones, addresses, emails and networks. He wouldnt have had the (mental) capability, he said. He never responded. Its almost impossible to not hate him and to believe he is guilty. The second season of the In the Dark podcast is about the case of Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for the same crime. December 6, 1948 August 11, 2018. If it hadnt been for a single slip of paper in the prosecutors file with Willie James Hemphills name on it, theIn the Dark squad wouldnt have known about the man. Small is now claiming that I never gave (the gun) to him, Armstrong said. Willie James McDaniel Obituary - tributearchive.com Hemphill says he was in Memphis on the day of the murder and his alibi might check out. Wiilie Hemphill passed away in Bryan, Texas. He is aiming to get bail, which is rare in capital murder cases. A wealthy lawyer who killed his wife and son at close range has been sentenced in one of the most troubling cases the judge said he had seen. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window). Saums believes whoever carried out the crime had inside information. "We did go to the mall, but it wasn't the day of the killing. If Woods had been at the mall with Hemphill at the time of the murders roughly 10 a.m. she couldn't have been back in Winona any earlier than noon. He lived near Tardy Furniture at the time of the murders, and near where a gun that might have been the murder weapon was found. F.T. Hemphill seemed surprised when reminded that he'd told In the Dark in June 2018 that he was with an old friend named Twanda Woods. The Dallas Morning News Homepage. During nearly 30 years of crimes, Willie James Hemphill has shown a quick temper, and a penchant for daytime robberies and violence against women. In October 2015, some 20 years after the murders, Katie Ali, one of Flowers attorneys in his appeal, recognized him in the photo lineup law enforcement used to implicate Flowers: In those Alabama crimes, store employees were shot execution-style with a .380 handgun the same type weapon used in the Tardy Furniture Store killings that might have jammed, and a suspect was wearing Fila shoes the same type shoe found from a bloody shoe print at the scene. Prosecutors said repeatedly at trial that the only suspect seriously investigated was Flowers. Her sister says she was in the house with her and not where she said she was.. The only other such form in the file was signed by Flowers. APM Reports, the investigative and documentary reporting team based in St. Paul, Minnesota, spent a year digging into the Flowers case for its In the Dark podcast. They did, however, find bullets, bullet fragments and shell casings at the crime scene. Right now, Willie Hemphill lives in Rock Hill, SC. He has been behind bars ever since. Information APM Reports obtained from the Montgomery County Sheriffs Department through a public records request shows Hemphill was held for 11 days in jail. WINONA Renowned pathologist Dr. Michael Baden said evidence he reviewed of the 1996 Tardy Furniture slayings suggests more than one personcarried out the quadruple murder. If youve listened toIn the Darkor watchedWrong Manon the Starz channel, you either came away convinced that Curtis Flowers didnt kill four people in cold blood back in 1996 or you werent paying attention. The first of these events took place last month when the US Supreme Court tossed out Flowers conviction. Back in 1996, there had even been speculation in the media that the crimes could be connected, and investigators had told the local paper they were looking into it. He allegedly committed robberies to fund a drug habit. And the investigative file not shared with the defense showed investigators had considered Marcus Presley, the gunman in the murders and a string of similar crimes that same summer in neighboring Alabama. . It's not like you're going to say, 'Yeah I robbed this 7-11, but I didn't rob that 7-11.'". The second season of the In the Dark podcast is about the case of Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for the same crime. Usually if somebody starts shooting, he said, others will run.. James Hemphill in the Republican primary for the 11th - cleveland Willie James Hemphill's alibi doesn't check out TIMELINE: Hemphill's long criminal record. A shoeprint in a pool of blood found in the Winona furniture store was found to be from a Grant Hill Fila shoethe footwear Gamble, McKenzie (and just about every other young man in America) was wearing while in Mississippi. Hemphill, Willie Mae Willie Mae Hemphill, Born March 8, 1926. Nationwide News Pty Ltd 2023. According to Yesko and Mann (2019), Hemphill dropped out of high school and was living back and forth from his mother's house to his grandmother's. James Mather at IMDb; This page was last . Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. In October 2015, almost 20 years after the murders at Tardy Furniture, one of Curtis Flowers' lawyers was paging through his case file, when she saw a familiar face.