Nor was there any record of the evidence gathered from Hemphill. Could those responsible for Tardy Furniture murders have escaped a different way? Flowers through six trials present Presley and Gamble as an alternative theory of the crime? 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. He allegedly committed robberies to fund a drug habit. Later, he said, one of the officers, Vince Small, came by, and he handed the officer the gun. She had at least 2 sons and 1 daughter with James Tobias Whitehead. In addition, one jailhouse snitch has recanted, he said. Both involved store employees who were shot execution-style, a .380 handgun that might have jammed, and a suspect wearing Fila shoes. Nothing in the investigative file for the case explains why officers let him go. The podcast, which uncovered evidence used by Flowers to get his conviction overturned, spoke with witness Clemmie Fleming. Goldberg couldn't tell whether he was telling the truth. How did your name get involved in this?, Hemphill: I wasnt in the city. But that doesnt make Doyle a cold killer. 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. Grief Support. 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. Although authorities quicklysettled on Flowers as their main suspect, he wasnt arrested until seven months later. Relatives were alarmed to see a swarm of police cars descending on their homes in search of Willie James. They didnt question him about other suspects or bring up Flowers name. LAYTON - Willie Morris Hemphill, 69, passed away August 11, 2018 at St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also tried to shoot his own 12-year-old son who was hiding in a closet, though the boy survived. When he showed up the Montgomery County Sheriffs Department two days later, he said, they immediately cuffed him and that the investigators made it clear he was a suspect. That was a lie, Hallmon told APM Reports in an interview on a contraband cellphone from his prison cell. Goldberg doesn't remember the alibis Presley or Gamble gave, but he said following up on those wouldn't have been his job. APM lead investigative reporter Madeleine Baran found one page among the documents Evans did give the defense attorneys, a form someone named Willie James Hemphill, then 24, of Memphis had signed at the Winona Police Department five days after the murders waiving his rights to an attorney. And then Hemphill stormed off, ending the interview. He spent 11 days in jail before authorities released him. Shortly after the killings, police arrested Hemphill, then 24, who was wearing a pair of the Grant Hill Fila shoes. According to testimony in Flowers' first trial, authorities found $255 hidden in the headboard of Flowers' girlfriend. It would indeed have been a solid alibi except it didn't check out. The crime had a random and senseless quality to it. When Willie Hemphill was born on 14 August 1891, in Mississippi, United States, her father, Thomas Wiley Hemphill, was 23 and her mother, Izora Sullivan, was 21. Case Details Parties Documents Dockets . Where were you?, Hemphill: I was in your p***y. I knew Curtis had started to get involved in crack. John Johnson, the DAs investigator, told the jury, I think they talked to him for five minutes. Shooting a handgun with accuracy is more difficult than people think, said private investigator Charlie Saums of Ridgeland. "False testimony is a corruption of the truth-finding process of a trial," Gershman said. Hours after the killings, authorities interviewed Flowers, who said he had been babysitting the children of his girlfriend, Connie Moore, and also gone to his sister's home and a nearby store. Winona, Mississippi lies three hours west of Birmingham on Highway 82. 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. Each victim had been murdered execution styleone or two bullets to the back of the head. An early suspect in the murders, Willie James Hemphill, who has a long criminal history, lived less than a mile from where Armstrong found this gun in 2011. He never responded. 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. There is little doubt that Hemphill has done terrible things. Contacts (5) Locations (10) Family (3) Social (2) Before he left on July 3, he said she gave him $30. Presley murdered four people and wounded three others in a spree of robberies and murders that year. Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife and son. UNLOCK PROFILE. Willie married Janeen Winegar on August 10, 2003 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Inside the store, authorities discovered bloody footprints left behind by a Grant Hill Fila basketball shoe. What an Alabama crime spree might reveal about the Curtis Flowers investigation. Their size was a.380. Search by Name. I dont think they learned anything.. Includes Address(1) Phone(2) Email(1) See Results. F.T. If, hypothetically, theIn the Dark team was charged with defending Curtis in a seventh trial even an all-white jury selected entirely of Winona residents couldnt find him guilty. 0 Add Rating Anonymously. 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. It remains unclear why Mississippi investigators ruled them out as suspects. Investigators said the Simpson brothers were eliminated quickly because they were both at work at the time of the murders. LOW HIGH. The Dallas Morning News Homepage. The shooter, Marcus Presley (16) and his accomplice, Lasamuel Gamble (18) were arrested in Norfolk, Virginia on August 9, 1996 after two weeks on the run. Her sister says she was in the house with her and not where she said she was.. (Page 3) Willie James Hemphill in Georgia Fulton County arrested for U/S VGCSA POSS* BLOG; CATEGORIES. Willie James Hemphill Obituary. But it isnt necessary to prove a case against any of these people; the real scandal is that the existence of alternative suspects was systematically withheld from defense counsel. Menu. Jessie Mae Hemphill [1]1923-2006 Blues musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist, percussionist Blues musician and vocalist Jessie Mae Hemphill [2] was a paradox. He said he told investigators he was shopping with a woman in Memphis. Willie James Hemphill, Willie J Hemphill, Williae Hemphill. At first, Willie James Hemphill was calm. 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. In the past, Willie has also been known as Willie James Hemphill, Willie A Hemphill, Willie James Hemphill, Willie J Hemphill and Willi Hemphill. The district attorneys office isnt commenting. "Yeah we was leaving. Sure, he had worked at Tardys in the past. Marcus Presley, then 16, points a gun at pawn shop owner John Burleson shortly before killing him on July 25, 1996, in a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. Hemphill was held in jail for 11 days, according to county records, though it's not clear why he was held. This score is (-15%) Above the National Average View Actual Score View Reputation Details . Willie James Hemphill was born on May 27, 1919. Illuminating Journalism from American Public Media. Hemphill supposedly had an alibi for the time of the murders, but when In The Dark dug into it, they were able to determine his alibi was barely credible if at all. District Attorney Doug Evans insisted he'd given the defense access to all records of the investigation. Thats just standard procedure. In fact, it appears Miller had specifically asked for the photo of Presley from an investigator in Virginia, where Presley and his accomplice, LaSamuel Gamble, were apprehended. She lived in Winston, Mississippi, United States in 1930 and Beat 2, Winston, Mississippi, United States in 1940. Armstrong said a law enforcement officer told him the gun had been sent to the state Crime Lab, determining this .380 handgun wasnt the murder weapon. On November 16, 2015, Marcus Presley signed an affidavit claiming that Lasamuel Gamble and Steven McKenzie (the driver of the getaway car) had been in Mississippi the day of the Winona murders and had returned with several hundred dollars in their pockets after claiming to have hit a lick (committed a crime). At a hearing, the attorney generals office told the judge that prosecutors knew of no such gun. The district's Republicans should nominate James Hemphill as their candidate for Congress in the May 3 primary. 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. Search by Name. Prosecutors have always said that Curtis Flowers was the only serious suspect in the Tardy Furniture investigation. Hired by Starz to examine the case, Saums said the crime"suggests somebody who has done it before. Me and her was leaving," he said, forfeiting his Memphis alibi altogether and placing himself a short walk from Tardy Furniture. The justices wrote that it was as strong a prima facie case of racial discrimination as we have ever seen in the context of a Batson challenge. "We did go to the mall, but it wasn't the day of the killing. Current Address: EHZR Hannah Dr, Rock Hill, SC. But both denied having committed the Tardy murders and said they'd never even been to Mississippi. In other words, Evans committed two egregiousBrady violations that will, in the days that lie ahead, force the courts to grant a new trial and, just as likely, insist that Doug Evans recuse himself from this case. Flowers has remained imprisoned the entire time, for more than 20 years. Curtis Flowers, as any prison guard who has ever worked with him can tell you, has no demons. In The Dark also found out that prosecutions star witness, Odell Hallmon, secretly received special treatment prosecutors dropped charges in seven felony cases against him in exchange for his false testimony that Flowers made a jailhouse confession. Prosecutors said repeatedly at trial that the only suspect seriously investigated was Flowers. 0 Reputation Score Range. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. The fourth and fifth trials ended with hung juries. Are you a sl*t? He told us the truth … The statement that he gave in court I made sure was the truth before we used it.. 6209062-Willie-James-Hemphill-all-documents Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t11p6kj93 Ocr ABBYY FineReader 11.0 (Extended OCR) Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.7 Ocr_module_version 0.0.13 Page_number_confidence 7.04 Pages 1705 Ppi 300 Scanner Internet Archive Python library 1.8.5 Source Prior to his death, Doyle came across as a passive man working hard to stay out of trouble. Miller, the Mississippi investigator who made the lineup and asked for the two to be interrogated, declined to answer questions from APM Reports. You can send your sympathy in the guestbook provided and share it with the family. They did, however, find bullets, bullet fragments and shell casings at the crime scene. Mr. Willie James Hemphill, of 1119-101 Kevin Lane, died Thursday, November 9, 2017. Maybe he and Doyle were co-perpetrators. And that's what I know," said David Goldberg, now retired from his job as a detective in the Norfolk Police Department. In 1996, Mississippi investigators told the local paper they were looking into a possible connection. The first of these events took place last month when the US Supreme Court tossed out Flowers conviction. Miller would not comment. APM Reports recently interviewed a man named Willie James Hemphill, who said he was a suspect early in the investigation. "It just kind of jumped out," Ali said. Also known as Willie L Hemphill, Hemphill Wilie. At the time of his first known arrest, in 1990, he was an 18-year-old high school dropout bouncing back and forth between his mother's house in Memphis, Tennessee, and Winona, where his grandmother lived. This narrative turn places In The Dark firmly, disappointingly, and alarmingly in the mainstream of the True Crime genre. 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. 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. When we finally found Hemphill, living in Indianapolis, he had some very surprising things to say about the case . 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. 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. Sympathy Ideas. INDIANAPOLIS At first, Willie James Hemphill was calm. Evans has spoken to the Greenwood Commonwealth, most recently about APM Reports analysis of his record of striking potential black jurors vs. white juries 4 1/2 times more often. 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. As I argue in the course of the program, Simpson seemed to be bending over backwards to let the world know that a gun had been stolen from his car in the parking lot of the garment factory where he worked. Hemphill said investigators told him he was a suspect because witnesses had placed him on Front Street near Tardy Furniture Store on the morning of the murders and because of the kind of shoe he wore: Fila Grant Hills, the shoe investigators determined had made the bloody shoe prints inside the store. A series of Willie James Hemphill mugshots ranging from 2000 through 2016. Hemphill's ex-girlfriend Monkra Moore told In the Dark that she and Hemphill lived together on the east side of Winona in 1996 and that he was at home around 7 a.m. on the morning of the murders when she was leaving for work. I was nowhere around., Reporter: The one thing that makes sense to me is that maybe if you had been on Front Street (where the murders took place) and you had seen something , Hemphill: Im done talking to you, youre trying to put me on Front Street., Reporter: Did you commit the murders that day?, Hemphill: Did you? It takes no imagination at all to imagine Marcus Presley committing a crime like thatwe have the video from the pawn shop. The Dallas Morning News. He took the gun and placed it into a nearby shed. The judge denied Flowers' request to attend his mother funeral here on July 21. The obituary was featured in The Bryan-College Station Eagle on August 16, 2009. 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. AVERAGE AGE. Mississippi Smoldering: Tom Mangold reports on the Curtis Flowers case in 2009, Dwelling in a land of disbelief: My University Years . They wanted to ask him about his alibi for the day of the Tardy Furniture murders, an alibi that hadn't checked out. Phone Number: (704) 751-NZMM +2 phones. So, if Curtis Flowers isnt guilty, who is? Like LaSamuel Gamble, Hemphill wore Fila shoes and had a criminal record. Can Marcus Presleys affidavit be trusted? Illuminating Journalism from American Public Media. He didnt mark it or put it in an evidence bag, he told the Clarion Ledger. In the months before the Tardy Furniture murders, Presley hit a grocery store, a fireworks retailer, three gas stations and three liquor stores. "I haven't heard anything about them," John Johnson, the investigator for the District Attorney's office, had said when questioned about the Alabama suspects at the sixth Flowers trial. "[I]t's almost like a hair trigger that would cause a reversal if you've got false testimony that is significant.". Photos. But we found a document showing that another man, Willie James Hemphill, had also been questioned just days after the murders. You may also light a candle in honor of Willie James . Why offer up another suspect? Willie James Hemphill an early suspect in the Tardy Furniture murders was charged with disorderly conduct last week. . Record for Willie James Hemphill 27 May 1919 - 14 July 2000 in Quantico National Cemetery, Triangle, Prince William, Virginia, United States from BillionGraves GPS Headstones. So, maybe Curtis didnt steal the gun after all. 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. Check resumes and CV, arrest records, places of employment, social media profiles, photos and videos, public records, skilled experts, publications and memorials . In fact, he said, police never searched the crawl space beneath the house. He told APM Reports that he was arrested and questioned in the . Mark Weingarten is an American production sound mixer.He has been nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Sound Mixing, winning in 2017 for Dunkirk.He has worked on more than 120 films since 1987. Share to Tumblr. Sarah Warnock and Jerry Mitchell/Clarion Ledger, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. The whole time Ive been telling them, I dont remember the day, Fleming said. And in the first Flowers trial, in 1997, he testified that "there were numerous suspects" in the early days of the investigation. Matthews never responded. That brings us to a theory that has been explored extensively by some of the folks currently representing Mr. Hemphill said investigators tape recorded the interrogation and took notes, none of which was in the file given to Flowers defense attorneys. The police there picked up the investigation and also apparently probed the Tardy Furniture connection. He's also targeted women in general and often women carrying purses. View contact information: phones, addresses, emails and networks. 1. Willie James Hemphill didn't come up until the sixth Flowers trial, and law enforcement officers said he was eliminated as a suspect in about five minutes. Doyle, he said, used to work for Tardy Furniture.. Soon that would change. Baran found Hemphills booking card showing he had been arrested and jailed a few days after the killing. 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. Search by Name Search . Following their Alabama crime spree, Presley and Gamble fled north to Boston, where Gamble had relatives. "If he's guilty, he's guilty.". The funeral service will be 1pm Sunday at China Grove A.M.E. Zion Church. Share Obituary. We encourage you to research and . If the state Supreme Court were to order a seventh trial for Flowers, the district attorney would face a difficult task, Saums said. Burial will follow in Hemphill Star Cemetery, Boyce. Willie James Hemphill, Willie J Hemphill, Willie J Hemphill, Willie James Hemphill. And there he was. When we finally found Hemphill, living in Indianapolis, he had some very surprising things to say about the case. The second best result is William E Hemphill Sr . A surveillance camera revealed that the killer was wielding a 380 pistol that jammed repeatedly. Law enforcement had interviewed a different suspect with a violent criminal history, Willie James Hemphill a fact which was not disclosed to the defense. Psychologist John R. Goff tested Flowers, concluding his IQ was 75. (1870), A.M. (1872), and LL.D. 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. In 1996, central Alabama saw a string of armed robberies, where the criminals told store clerks to lie down and held them at gunpoint, sometimes killing them. Hallmon told APM Reports that he became a prosecution witness in spring 2001 after being arrested on multiple drug charges. Although Presley was only sixteen, he seems to have been the driving force behind these crimes. And Gamble wore Fila sneakers the same brand of shoe that left a bloody footprint at the Tardy Furniture scene. 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. And he's shown a quick and violent temper, particularly with women who don't comply with his demands. "I was coming out of Piggly Wiggly and there was a woman, I will never forget her name. That said, I dont see a compelling motive, and none of these people is any more capable of pulling off an outrage on this scale than poor Curtis Flowers. Even before finding the gun, Armstrong had doubts about whether Flowers played a role in the quadruple murder. Then why havent the defense attorneys who have represented Mr. He attended Erskine College, where he earned a A.B. A woman who admitted having sex with a 13-year-old boy and becoming pregnant with his baby has avoided jail time. 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. Asked if she remembered where she was when the murders happened, she recalled the morning clearly. Belfast (2021; co-nominated with Denise Yarde, Simon Chase and Niv Adiri) References External links. EPISODE 16. Marcus Presley and Lasamuel Gamble werent raised at all. 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. My mom, my stepdad were afraid that, hey, if they're manhunting me like that, they may shoot me down in the street, Hemphill told them. US States (36975K) Current Events (51K) Celebrity (272) Exonerated (117) Favorites (421) FBI Most Wanted (848) Gangsters (49) Historical (131) Interpol (1.7K) . An August 15, 1996, article in The Winona Times reported that law enforcement officials in three states "released statements that they believe [Presley and Gamble] could be linked to Winona's case.". Green is a reporter in Toronto. Willie Hemphill Found 194 people in Mississippi, Illinois and 31 other states. SEND FLOWERS. Judge Joseph Loper asked Evans if the state had any exculpatory evidence.. The murder weapon in the Tardy Furniture case was a .380, and an unfired round was found at the scene; investigators believe that might indicate that the gun had jammed. But In The Dark was apparently unsatisfied with exonerating the innocent: It needed the narrative closure of guilt, and found its key to that in Hemphill. But, just like Curtis Flowers, Doyle Simpson fails the motive test. Because Mr. Evans didnt tell them about the Alabama connection. He allegedly stabbed a woman with a screwdriver, among other violent crimes. NEWSPAPERS. The murders rocked the small town. Willie James Hemphill didn't come up until the sixth Flowers trial, and law enforcement officers said he was eliminated as a suspect in about five minutes. So where was Hemphill during the day? He freely admitted that he had been a suspect and even says that, although innocent, he would have made a more convincing suspect than Curtis. Presley wasnt the only suspect defense attorneys didnt know investigators had seriously considered. In the Dark has previously reported that Hemphill was an initial suspect in the days after the July 1996 murders in Winona, Mississippi. Send Flowers. It was Geraldine. December 6, 1948 August 11, 2018. Add a Memory. The Tardy Furniture murders were committed at a store on Front Street in Winona, Mississippi, at about 10 a.m., and around the time that one of the store's employees, Carmen Rigby, was returning with a bank bag. Burial will be at Barber Memorial Cemetery 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. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. But if Curtis Flowers doesnt get relief in the face of these well-publicized facts there will be hell to pay. Now the spotlight is on three other deaths that are linked to the case. His misdeeds, while abhorrent, are also likely inseparable from his decades-long history of poverty and addiction. View the profiles of professionals named "Willie Hemphill" on LinkedIn. Hallmon is now serving three life sentences in Parchmanwithout the possibility of parole. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results Willie James Hemphill (1952 - 2006) Try FREE for 14 days Try FREE for 14 days. His full criminal history is too lengthy to reproduce here. It was June 21 just an hour before the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Curtis Flowers' conviction and reporters for In the Dark had intercepted Hemphill at a courthouse in Indianapolis. It's not like you're going to say, 'Yeah I robbed this 7-11, but I didn't rob that 7-11.'". Share to Pinterest. He told the Commonwealth, I think these (APM Reports) folks are just coming up with anything they can to discredit the case. . . It was June 21 just an hour before the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Curtis Flowers' conviction and reporters for In the Dark had intercepted Hemphill at a courthouse in Indianapolis. Just after the murders, police arrested and jailed him as a suspect, but then let him go. Willie James Hemphill, 38. A Hearing. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Sound for the film Belfast. She said that investigators have never questioned her about Hemphill's story. In addition, he won an Emmy for the television show The West Wing.. His alibi is weak, according to In The Dark. After a multistate manhunt, Presley and Gamble were arrested in Norfolk, Virginia. Visitation will be 10 a.m. to 7 p.m . Miller also asked the investigator to interrogate Presley and Gamble about the Tardy Furniture murders. By licks he meant places to rob.. APM lead investigative reporter Madeleine Baran found one page among the documents Evans did give the defense attorneys, a form someone named Willie James Hemphill, then 24, of Memphis had signed . Presley and Gamble did four of the June heists together and one crime was perpetrated by Presley alone. Sign the Guest Book . Flowers, who had been fired from the store 13 days before the murders, reportedly owed a small amount of money to one of the owners. Search for Roberto Thorpe Living on Prison Blvd in Sparta, GA. Get started for free to find contact info for nearly any adult in the U.S. By the time Presley and Gamble were arrested, Doug Evans wasnt interested in alternative scenarios; he knew Curtis was the killer. I knew his sisters, I knew his brother, he said. Last month, the Supreme Court overturned Flowers latest conviction, citing In The Darks reporting. The host, Madeleine Baran, carefully noted that only some of evidence seemed to point in Hemphills direction, even though a flimsy case was enough to almost execute the man her show just found innocent. Its a pretty cold-hearted human being that can kill four people.. And the case file doesn't contain the report Goldberg says he would have sent to Mississippi authorities, or any indication of what might have been done to substantiate it. Whoever did this crime (the Tardy murders) was a good shot.. Find an Obituary. Following that arrest, Hemphill committed crimes nearly continuously for the next three decades. And why didnt DA Doug Evans even consider the Presley-Gamble connection? Select this result to view William Thomas Hemphill's phone number, address, and more. listing of 6209011-20040428-Willie-James-Hemphill-Criminal-Civil_jp2.zip; file as jpg timestamp size; 6209011-20040428-Willie-James-Hemphill-Criminal-Civil_jp2/ The presence of Presley in the lineup raised some questions about the testimony of law enforcement witnesses who'd said under oath that Presley was never a suspect in the Tardy case. 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.