0:00

Before we get started with today's episode,

0:02

I just wanted to give you a heads up that I will begin

0:05

to post photos from this case

0:07

on my Instagram account which is at

0:10

Weinberger Media, including some

0:12

of the most crucial evidence which

0:14

sat untested for decades

0:17

now on to today's episode.

0:21

Maybe nine months

0:24

or so after I moved to Florida,

0:26

there was a series of murders.

0:29

That's the voice of Mark Lopez, a

0:32

friend of Billy Halburn's and an

0:34

ex employee of the Apollo

0:36

Jim.

0:38

I didn't know exactly what was going on, if they were

0:40

selling dope or they were doing

0:43

shakedowns or whatever they were doing,

0:45

but suddenly people

0:48

started to get killed, and

0:50

a lot of them were two

0:53

murders at a time. They were either

0:56

shot in the back of the head roats

0:58

cut.

1:01

Mark is talking about the nineteen eighty six murder

1:04

of Billy Helper and as well as the eighty

1:06

seven murders of Billy's friend Mitch

1:08

Hall, Mitch's girlfriend char Linda,

1:11

and two more fellow members of the

1:13

Apollo Jimmy high Note

1:15

and Harry.

1:16

Collier, and

1:19

the Common Thread amongst them, where they were

1:21

members of the Apollo Gym Right and

1:23

some of these guys, you know, pad

1:26

ties to gil.

1:28

Five murders, but even more

1:30

unanswered questions like why

1:33

were they killed? Were all of the murders

1:35

connected, and if so, who

1:38

was behind them.

1:40

My brother came to me and

1:42

he said, Billy Helpern

1:45

died and I'm going to find

1:47

out who killed him. And I

1:49

said, Mitch, don't can involve with those

1:51

type of people. And then six

1:54

months later, May sixth is

1:56

when he was killed.

2:00

Scott Weinberger, investigator, journalist,

2:02

and former deputy sheriff. And

2:04

this is cold blooded. The

2:07

Apollo Gym murders.

2:16

Back in May of nineteen eighty seven, local

2:18

investigators from the Miramar Police Department

2:20

and the Brier County Sheriff's Office had

2:22

their hands full. They

2:25

were sitting on five execution

2:27

style murders at three different

2:30

crime scenes, no suspects,

2:32

and very few leads. What

2:36

physical evidence found at one of the crime scenes

2:39

was about to pay some very

2:41

big dividends, with the potential

2:44

to break all three cases wide

2:46

open. Investigators

2:49

were able to pull a single partial

2:52

fingerprint from the electrical tape

2:54

found wrapped around Mitch Hall's

2:56

wrists, and lo

2:59

and behold, that print

3:01

was a match with one of the victims

3:03

found shot eight days later

3:06

in Pembroke Pines, Harry

3:08

Collier.

3:11

I never knew very Gollier, but

3:13

apparently his fingerprints were on the tape.

3:16

They found the Collier's prints

3:18

on the tape for his

3:20

girl.

3:21

Yes, this

3:23

was huge. The discovery of

3:25

Collier's partial print at the scene of

3:28

the earlier murders seemed to be irrefutable

3:31

proof that Harry Collier was

3:33

at least one of the people responsible

3:35

for killing Mitch Hall and his girlfriend

3:38

Tarltonda Drought.

3:41

They came to my work, I remember I was working

3:43

at over there by the airport,

3:47

Kay Realtive.

3:50

That's Mitch's sister Kim, who

3:52

remembers how Broward detectives delivered

3:54

the news that they were making headway

3:56

in her brother's case.

4:00

Were basically saying that because they

4:02

believe Collier and they believed Jimmy

4:05

was there and they killed him,

4:07

and now they're both dead, so

4:10

we're going to close his murder case.

4:12

I'm like, okay, you know what am

4:14

I going to say? They're both dead,

4:17

But they still believed there

4:19

was other individuals involved.

4:23

And given the similarities to the helping

4:25

crime scene investigators were eager

4:28

to conclude that Collier was

4:30

a strong person of interest in

4:32

Billy's murder, but obviously

4:35

so many questions remained, like

4:39

why was Billy killed in the first place,

4:41

what was the motive? And who killed

4:44

Jimmy high Note and Harry Collier.

4:47

Those were the questions that haunted

4:49

this case and that Danny Smith

4:51

and I were determined to answer

4:55

because Detective Smith wasn't

4:57

willing to let sleeping dogs lie.

5:00

Someone was behind the execution of

5:02

five people and they had gone unidentified,

5:05

unpunished for nearly forty

5:07

years. It was time to bring

5:10

that person to justice.

5:16

International assist Kayla, can I help you?

5:18

Hey?

5:18

Kayla is Cassie and by chance, this

5:23

is Danny Smith from Mirmarpiti.

5:26

In April of twenty twenty three, Detective

5:29

Danny Smith reached out to a private DNA

5:32

lab located in Deerfield

5:34

Beach, Florida, to request testing

5:36

on some of the physical evidence that was collected

5:39

in nineteen eighty six by the

5:41

original investigators of Billy

5:43

Halpern's murder. The

5:46

evidence that seemed to have the most promising

5:49

potential pieces of black

5:51

electrical tape that were found around

5:54

each of Billy's wrists. They

5:56

had been stored in an evidence locker

5:58

at the Baro Kenny Sheriff's office for

6:00

nearly forty years,

6:03

and before now, they had never

6:06

been tested for evidence of DNA.

6:10

The first moment

6:12

that I realized that we may have something here

6:15

is when we were able to locate the

6:17

bindings from Billy Hawpern's wrist, the electrical

6:20

tape. When that was found in evidence, unmolested,

6:24

sealed, everything was good to go with

6:26

that evidence. That was the first turning

6:28

point for me where I actually said to myself,

6:31

we have a shot here.

6:33

This has never been tested before. We have

6:36

it, we have a lab that's willing to test

6:38

it, we have the money to test it. Let's

6:40

get it done.

6:42

Danny's on the phone with Cassie, a

6:44

case manager at DNA Labs International.

6:48

I also wanted to confirm who if.

6:53

The tape is all kind.

6:54

Of like jumbled up and you.

6:55

Know, as pretty much, and isn't okay

6:58

if we kind of like trying to easily take apart

7:00

when it happened.

7:02

Yeah, yeah, I mean it needs to get

7:04

tested and you know, let's

7:08

be honest, it's almost forty years

7:10

old.

7:10

We do we have to do when

7:14

Billy's body was discovered the ribbon

7:16

of thick black electrical tape wrapped

7:19

around his wrists were actually torn

7:21

in two, which should give

7:23

you an idea just how strong

7:25

Billy was. The

7:28

two hundred plus pound bodybuilder

7:31

had apparently broken free of his

7:33

makeshift handcuffs in the struggle

7:35

to save his own life, a struggle

7:38

that tragically ended with his throat

7:41

being slashed from ear to

7:43

ear. But before

7:45

he died, Billy had also managed

7:48

to grab a fistful of hair, presumably

7:51

from one of his attackers here

7:54

that was recovered from the crime scene and

7:57

also had the potential to help

7:59

identify his killer.

8:03

And regarding the hair, do you

8:05

want me to go back and get it and drop it off to you guys?

8:07

Or wait, I.

8:10

Hold off the world why and longer?

8:13

Okay, see what we get off of the and

8:15

then we can kind of go from there.

8:18

Danny was feeling confident that the DNA

8:21

from the tape or the hair might

8:23

finally reveal who is responsible

8:25

for Billy's murder and answer a question

8:28

that had dogged law enforcement for

8:31

years. Was it connected to

8:33

one of their own? Former Miami

8:35

Dade Police officer Gil Fernandez.

8:39

Well, what I've read about it was he

8:41

was very violent, and

8:43

he was in internal

8:45

affairs a lot that he

8:48

had a reputation for roughing up suspects.

8:52

They seemed like a very violent

8:54

individual, and he was like that as

8:56

a law enforcement officer and continued to.

8:58

Be that way.

9:00

That's Cindy and Parrada. Cindy

9:03

had started her law enforcement career as

9:05

a police officer before putting

9:07

herself through law school and eventually

9:09

joining the statewide Prosecutor's office

9:12

in Florida. And

9:14

there may be no one who knows more

9:16

about gil Fernandez and his

9:18

career as both a cop and

9:21

a criminal, which makes sense

9:24

since she's ultimately the one responsible

9:27

for putting him in jail, but

9:30

we'll get to that later. Gilbert

9:37

Fernandez Junior was born and raised

9:39

in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New

9:41

York, which in the fifties and

9:43

sixties was a rough and tumble

9:46

neighborhood of working class immigrants,

9:48

Puerto Rican gangs, and the Irish

9:51

mob. Street

9:53

violence was commonplace and

9:55

often fatal. It's no wonder

9:57

why his parents moved the family to Florida

10:00

when gil was just a teenager.

10:03

The Fernandez family settled in Dade

10:05

County, just outside of Miami. Gill

10:08

Junior played a little football in high school,

10:10

but skipped college instead

10:13

entering the police academy and joining

10:15

the Miami Dade Police Department as

10:18

a patrolman in nineteen seventy

10:20

six. In

10:22

photographs, Fernandez looked

10:24

like the part of a perfect cop,

10:27

cropped black hair, a chin sculpted

10:30

from granite, and a six foot

10:32

two hundred and twenty pound frame that

10:35

filled out his crisp blue

10:37

uniform. But

10:39

over the next six years, Fernandez

10:42

was dogged by internal affairs

10:44

and a growing list of brutality

10:47

complaints. After

10:49

the race riots broke out in Miami in nineteen

10:52

eighty after the death of Arthur

10:54

McDuffie at the hands of white

10:56

Miami Dade cops, Fernandez

10:58

was singled out in the press for his

11:00

brutal tactics. The reporter

11:03

dubbed Fernandez the meanest

11:05

cop in Miami. Guys

11:08

that new Gil from the gym said he

11:10

reveled in the notoriety. Here's

11:13

Mark Lopez.

11:16

When I met Gil, I never

11:18

got the cop vibe from Gil. Like

11:21

it almost still is crazy to me

11:23

to think about it, because I just can't really

11:25

picture him as a cop in my

11:27

mind, because when I met Gil. The

11:30

first impression to me in my mind

11:32

was that guy is a fucking gangster, right

11:36

Like, there was no Hey, this guy is

11:38

law enforcement.

11:40

But his days in law enforcement were

11:42

numbered. The brass pulled him

11:44

from his beat and banished him

11:46

to the property room. He turned

11:48

in his badge in nineteen eighty

11:50

three. After

11:53

quitting the force, he turned his full

11:55

attention to bodybuilding and

11:57

found a new home at Them.

12:02

I know, Gil didn't have really

12:04

tons of money at that time. I mean he was driving around

12:08

like a five or six year old Camaro

12:11

that the air conditioning didn't work. You

12:14

know, he was always kind of scraping for money.

12:17

He started, really the first guy that I

12:19

ever knew of that started doing personal training,

12:21

and he was selling steroids as well.

12:24

The Apollo became his refuge, and

12:27

within months he had added forty

12:29

pounds of pure muscle. The

12:32

steroids helped, but

12:34

they also made him irritable and

12:36

short fused. Mark Lopez

12:39

witnessed Gil's notorious

12:41

temper firsthand.

12:44

I'm in the gym working out. Gil was

12:46

there behind the front

12:48

desk, and there's

12:52

a guy in the gym working out, another body builder by the name

12:54

of Frank. It was a firefighter,

12:56

but there's some type of verbal

12:59

beef and all I heard Frank

13:01

say.

13:02

Was, well, fuck you, Gil.

13:04

He says, no fuck me, just

13:07

no fuck you, and Gil

13:10

basically picks him up by the seat of the pants, in

13:12

the back of the sweatshirt and ramrods

13:15

his head right into the plate glass windows in the front

13:17

of the gym.

13:18

And I mean he.

13:19

Hit his head so hard against the windows

13:22

that I swear that the

13:24

concrete slab shook that day when he

13:26

did that, And like I thought

13:29

that he killed them, like his next

13:31

broke. You know, it just he's done,

13:34

and everybody was just really silent, and when all

13:36

that was over, everybody just went back to their business

13:38

and their workout.

13:43

Gil eventually became a co owner

13:46

of the apologym with his mentor

13:48

and former mister Florida, Bert Christie,

13:51

who was twenty years Gil.

13:53

Senior, and

13:56

I think he nurtured that relationship

13:59

with Gil when Gil was younger and

14:01

became almost like a father figure at the Gil

14:04

and you know, they had a very close relationship

14:06

for a long time.

14:09

Together. Bert and Gil trained a

14:11

new crop of young bodybuilders,

14:13

and their motto, if you're going to

14:15

be dumb, you better be tough,

14:19

but eventually their partnership

14:21

would go far beyond

14:24

bodybuilding.

14:27

And that was when Burt Christy came into

14:29

the picture. He was supposedly the organized

14:32

crime connection.

14:34

Christy cut his teeth in racketeering by

14:36

collecting debts for Joey

14:38

Flowers Rotano, who ran

14:41

a gambling ring from a string of

14:43

flower shops in Browie County.

14:46

According to one federally protected

14:48

witness, Christy may have also been

14:51

responsible for two contract

14:53

killings in nineteen eighty and

14:55

nineteen eighty two. By

14:58

the time he put Gil Fernandez under

15:00

his wing, he was putting together his

15:02

own crew, hiring muscle straight

15:05

from the gym. It included

15:08

Gil Fernandez and a handful of

15:10

local bodybuilders like Tommy

15:12

Felts, Jimmy high Note,

15:14

and Harry Collier.

15:17

Gill and Tommy were the muscle, and Bert

15:19

was basically the guy given direction.

15:22

I think that Burt trusted Gil but

15:24

nobody else. So he would go to Gil

15:26

with potential targets,

15:29

and then Gil would get Tommy

15:31

Felts or Collier, whoever it

15:33

was, to go with him to do the job.

15:37

The work was simple but brutal.

15:40

On Bert's direction, they might shoot

15:42

up a home of a local drug dealer and

15:44

then return to sell them protection

15:47

under threat of extreme violence.

15:50

Another favorite scheme set

15:52

up phony drug buys with local dealers

15:55

in order to steal their stash, money

15:58

or both.

16:00

They were basically going to guys that Tommy

16:03

Felts had gone to high school when junior

16:05

high school with in Hollywood, that

16:07

were guys now that were.

16:09

You know, in the drug business.

16:10

Generally just you know, little

16:13

crews that banded together that were selling

16:15

drugs, smuggling drugs.

16:18

The drugs then flowed out of the Apollo

16:20

gym with impunity while

16:22

Bert and Gil scoped out bigger

16:25

and better scores.

16:28

And they were doing that to a number of different crews

16:31

out there from all

16:33

over the place.

16:33

So you know, you're going to do that to the.

16:35

Wrong people and eventually somebody

16:38

is going to come for you.

16:41

In nineteen eighty five, Tommy

16:43

Felts was first to fall victim

16:46

to a rival's violent retribution.

16:50

Eventually Felts, you know, did

16:52

that to the wrong guy, and they rolled up on him at

16:54

a stop late right at Stirling Road. I

16:56

got a Sunday afternoon and broad daylight and gunned

16:59

them down.

17:01

In nineteen eighty seven, Two more

17:03

members of their crew, Jimmy Heinot

17:05

and Harry Collier, were also found

17:08

dead, this time with

17:10

bullets to the back of the head. As

17:14

Mark Lopez remembers it, a rising

17:16

body count was starting to attract

17:19

the wrong kind of attention.

17:22

They started to notice that were, you

17:24

know, a lot of cop

17:27

surveillance around the gym's right,

17:29

And I didn't know what it was initially

17:31

at the time, and like it could have been anybody, right, because

17:33

there was one hundred plus guys

17:35

in the Jim DeLand dope. But then

17:38

when you start hearing about friends

17:41

getting called in by BSO and

17:43

detectives spoking around asking questions,

17:47

that's when you kind

17:49

of knew the shit had hit the fan.

17:53

The BSO would be the brawer of Sheriff's

17:55

office also sniffing around

17:57

the Apollo. The FBI.

18:02

Defense were the ones that started the

18:04

investigation because there

18:06

were all these homicides,

18:08

all these drug ripoffs that were in

18:12

all different locations. But also I

18:14

believe part of their interest was because

18:17

of Bert Christie's organized

18:20

crime connections, and I think that they

18:22

were trying to

18:24

make a reco case against him.

18:28

At that time, we knew

18:31

that law enforcement was out there poking

18:33

around about Gil. They were

18:35

starting to question people that were close

18:37

to him, including me, And

18:41

when it happened, I told Gil about it.

18:43

I specifically told.

18:44

Him that BSO

18:47

was trying to call me in and

18:49

that I said, listen, I said,

18:51

I'm.

18:51

Going to go in.

18:53

I'm going on record with you now to tell

18:55

you I'm not saying

18:57

nothing. I don't know nothing. And

19:00

I said, one word done, pawkin. I

19:02

said, I'm gonna come right back to you and tell you exactly what They

19:04

asked, MA, I'm gonna ta you exactly what I said.

19:07

Detectives were looking for someone willing

19:10

to testify against Fernandez

19:12

and Christy.

19:14

I said, you guys honestly

19:17

think that me or

19:20

anybody else like me is

19:22

going to cooperate with you to go

19:25

after Gil Fernandez. I

19:28

said, you're crazy, Like

19:30

I'm not that crazy. For one, I

19:33

said, because if I ever agreed to do something

19:35

like that, you know my fate

19:38

is sealed.

19:40

In other words, at the Apollo Jim,

19:42

snitches get much more than

19:44

stitches. They might wind

19:47

up dead. But as

19:49

the scrutiny from law enforcement increased,

19:51

neither Gil nor Bert were above

19:54

doing a little polishing of their

19:56

public image.

19:58

Well almost overnights, not

20:01

just him, but him and Bert Christie

20:04

become born again Christians, okay,

20:06

which is like a black to

20:08

white moment, right, And

20:11

to me, I just love from the surface

20:14

this is a cleanup act, right.

20:17

But given the litany of their past sins

20:19

and victims, there was little chance

20:22

they could outrun their reputations.

20:25

Bert just couldn't sell that act. He just

20:27

couldn't, right, He tried to, he

20:29

couldn't.

20:33

But according to Mark Gill's

20:35

act was considerably more

20:38

convincing.

20:41

Gil changed considerably

20:44

and I didn't know if it was an act or

20:46

if it was genuine. He went

20:48

off all steroids, you know, so he lost

20:51

a considerable amount of size and weight.

20:52

His attitude changed.

20:54

He started putting pictures of Jesus

20:56

or religious pictures in the gym. He

20:58

was going to church every week.

21:01

And I was again

21:03

small enough never to ask is

21:05

this an act?

21:08

But despite all the suspicions scrolling

21:10

around him and his potential involvement

21:12

in multiple unsolved homicides,

21:15

Jill Fernandez was never arrested,

21:18

never even brought in for questioning.

21:21

Do you have to realize something that people were very

21:24

afraid because you know, if

21:26

he and he was the one committing these murders.

21:29

They knew not he was the hardcore gangster,

21:32

but he was

21:34

an ex cop and he had friends

21:36

still on the force, not just in

21:40

Miami Metro where he was a cop, but

21:43

you know, Hollywood, Davy,

21:46

Cooper City, Fort Lauderdale,

21:48

North Miami Beach.

21:50

We had cop friends all over.

21:51

So it was like, well, if you runted a law

21:54

how do you know that one of his buddies, I'm going to look

21:56

it back to him and then you're in trouble.

22:00

But it would only be a matter of time before

22:02

someone close to Gil would be forced

22:05

to take that gamble. It

22:07

would happen. In nineteen ninety, a

22:09

member of Gill's crew was popped

22:11

in Alabama and was being held on

22:14

extortion charges, but rather

22:16

than face federal time, he

22:18

said he was ready to make a deal

22:21

and he had the goods on

22:23

Gill. He said,

22:26

remember those three bodies that were found out

22:28

on Danger Road, Yeah,

22:31

that was us.

22:43

Cindy and Parrado always wanted to be in

22:45

law enforcement, and after graduate

22:47

school, she spent nine years as

22:49

a uniformed officer in Tallahassee.

22:54

This was the early eighties,

22:57

so there was a lot of resistance

22:59

with mal law enforcement officers

23:02

for females to be part

23:04

of the crew. A lot of them only

23:06

had high school educations and I had a master's

23:08

degree, so they didn't like that, and

23:11

you know, they could have figured out why I was there.

23:14

But she eventually earned her stripes

23:16

and her props within the force.

23:19

I think the first time I got in

23:21

a fight and got punched out

23:24

and didn't cry or quit or

23:26

anything else, then I became one of the boys and

23:28

they accepted me.

23:30

In nineteen eighty nine, Cindy began working

23:33

her way through law school, eventually

23:35

taking a job with the statewide Prosecutor's

23:37

office in Fort Lauderdale. She

23:40

first became familiar with the name gil

23:42

Fernandez in nineteen ninety

23:44

when she was a brand new prosecutor

23:47

assigned to a triple homicide case

23:49

that had gone unsolved for

23:52

seven years.

23:54

I worked homicide briefly when I was in

23:56

Tallahassee, and it was

23:58

like, well, you know, you were thomis IDEs

24:00

before, and now you're a lawyer and

24:02

you were a cop, so we're putting you

24:04

on this.

24:06

In nineteen eighty three, three

24:09

years before Billy Hoppin's murder, the

24:11

bodies of three men have been discovered

24:14

on the edge of a canal about ten miles

24:16

inland from Hollywood Beach. It

24:19

was a stretch of Everglades backcountry

24:21

that locals dubbed Danger Road.

24:25

Michael White took his entarrain vehicle to Jones

24:28

Fish Camp in the Everglades on a Sunday

24:30

morning in April of nineteen eighty three. He

24:32

hasn't forgotten what he found that day.

24:34

Oh, we were riding along and we thought it

24:37

was like a store dummy or something, and

24:40

we stopped and got off and

24:42

looked down to make sure, and there were three

24:44

people dead there. I walked down

24:46

there to the closest victim

24:49

to me and nudged him with my

24:51

foot to see, in fact, if

24:54

he was dead, And how's the positioned. He had

24:57

his hands time behind his back, laying

25:00

face down.

25:03

The crime scene suggested a

25:05

professional execution. Three

25:07

men had been bound, blindfolded

25:10

and shot point blank in the head.

25:14

The victims were identified as twenty

25:16

six year old Walter Leahy, twenty

25:18

five year old Richard Robinson, and

25:21

thirty one year old Alfred Triingalli.

25:24

Suspected low level cocaine dealers

25:26

who had all grown up in and around

25:29

South Florida. At the time,

25:31

Brower County investigators had chalked

25:33

up the murders to the escalating violence

25:35

surrounding the drug trade ravaging

25:38

South Florida in the early eighties.

25:41

Their killers could have been Colombian suppliers,

25:44

local mobsters, or just another

25:46

group of crooks in a drug deal

25:49

gone bad. With

25:52

no witnesses or leads, their

25:54

cases went unsolved for years,

25:57

just another triple homicide in

25:59

an never ending drug war. But

26:03

in nineteen ninety that all changed

26:06

when a detective from the Broward Sheriff's office

26:08

responded to the Fort Lauter office

26:10

of the FBI to hear the proffered

26:13

statement of a man named Michael

26:15

Carbone.

26:18

I asked Mark Lopez what he

26:21

knew about Carbone.

26:23

Michael worked for a

26:25

local mobster by the name of Joey Rotuno, who

26:28

was a colombo guy. Joey

26:31

everybody called Joey Flowers because he owned

26:33

flower shops around Hollywood

26:35

and Paramac and Allendale.

26:38

Typical kind of strong

26:40

arm mob guy where they

26:42

were running you know, shylock

26:44

business, sportsbook doing

26:47

extortion, doing some drug dealing, some

26:50

of the low level scams and stuff like that.

26:54

The stocky, blonde haired Carbone

26:56

was also a fixture at the Apollo

26:59

Gym.

27:00

Michael was generally mister

27:03

Shakedown as I used to call him. But

27:05

he was a dope because every time he

27:07

tried to extorte somebody, they ran to the FBI

27:10

and he'd get pinched. He

27:13

was always in trouble, always was a

27:15

liability. He wasn't well liked

27:18

by anybody.

27:20

As they say in the movies. He also

27:22

had a rap sheet a mile long, including

27:25

convictions in five separate

27:27

felonies.

27:29

Well, Michael Carbone got arrested

27:32

again, so he knew he was going to

27:34

prison.

27:35

So that's when he said, well, I have

27:37

something.

27:40

Something was an understatement

27:42

in exchange for immunity. Carbone

27:45

was ready to confess to his role in

27:47

the Everglades triple slaying,

27:50

a crime he claimed was ordered

27:52

by Burt Christie and carried out

27:55

by his protege, Gil Fernandez,

27:58

who in April nineteen eighty three,

28:00

when the murders took place, was

28:02

still a uniformed member

28:04

of the Miami Dade Police Department.

28:09

According to his sworn statement, Carbone

28:12

had agreed to meet Fernandez and

28:14

Tommy Feltz and a department in

28:17

Hollywood Beach, where Gil had

28:19

set up a drug buy with a trio

28:21

of local dealers. When

28:24

Danny Smith got his hands on Carbone's

28:26

statement, it read like a scene

28:28

out of a gangster movie.

28:32

The plan that was given by Gil

28:34

Fernandez was to have Carbone waiting

28:36

or hiding into a nearby bedroom.

28:39

They would show the drugs, and

28:41

then Fernandez would give Carbone

28:43

the signal he would call to him. Carbone

28:46

would come out with his machine gun and

28:49

essentially take charge of that room

28:51

and make sure that nobody leaves

28:53

or does anything that Fernandez doesn't

28:56

want them to do well.

28:58

Carbone claimed that when he entered the

29:00

room wielding a vintage Tommy

29:02

gun, he saw three men on

29:05

their knees and Gil wearing

29:07

latex gloves, holding a

29:09

chrome plated revolver in the

29:11

mouth of one of the victims.

29:15

And then Carbone

29:19

comes out of the other room with

29:21

the Tommy gun and they all get gagged

29:25

and blindfolded.

29:27

They were there for quite some time, sitting there,

29:29

blindfolded, bound with

29:32

some kind of rope and held

29:35

at gunpoint. They were

29:38

contained and isolated,

29:40

and they were essentially neutralized.

29:43

Gil's crew would eventually

29:46

relieve their victims of a cooler

29:48

filled with eight kilos of cocaine

29:51

worth close to one million dollars.

29:55

But Fernandez had

29:57

another much darker

29:59

plan. This is actual

30:01

audio from Michael Carbones's

30:04

later court testimony.

30:07

And I just feel that it's more than just going to be

30:09

a rip off right here and then. And

30:13

then, you know, they were yelling out that they were going

30:15

to see the boss and different

30:18

things like that. But I

30:21

just knew deep down inside that there was more

30:23

than this.

30:29

The men were transported to Carbones car.

30:32

Then they drove them in west out Highway

30:34

twenty seven and pulled off the

30:36

pavement just past a ramshackle

30:39

tavern called Jones's

30:41

Fish Camp. When

30:44

he cut the engine in headlights, they

30:46

were engulfed in the impenetrable

30:49

darkness of the Florida Everglades.

30:54

The Everglades are a

30:57

place that's in

30:59

addition to all the rumors and

31:01

speculation and almost

31:03

infamy of that area where

31:06

quote unquote bodies have been left

31:09

and never found over years and years,

31:13

the Everglades is desolate, not

31:16

very well lit, and

31:19

the only time that anyone goes out there is

31:21

either for hunting and vision or

31:24

for something nefarious.

31:26

In his statement and in court,

31:29

Carbone went on to describe how

31:31

Gil removed each of the men from

31:34

the car and made them kneel at

31:36

the edge of the Miami Canal.

31:39

All I saw was him getting in the water with

31:41

the individual, told the individual to kneel,

31:44

and I heard a gunshot and

31:46

then I heard the water splash.

31:49

So you can imagine how terrified they

31:52

must have been when they're telling you to walk down

31:54

this shirt road into

31:56

the water, and especially once you hear

31:59

the first person get shot and dropped into

32:01

the water. You know what's coming, You're

32:03

next. It's not what You're never going to walk away.

32:06

So the terror that they must

32:08

have lived through from the

32:10

time they were tied up until the time they were

32:12

actually murdered, it's actually it's hard

32:14

to conceive.

32:17

Ultimately, Gil fires

32:19

twice more, killing the other two

32:21

men with bullets to the back of their heads.

32:26

There's no doubt in my mind who shot the m three individuals

32:28

there was Gil Fernandez.

32:31

Carbone also clearly recalled

32:34

what Fernandez said next.

32:38

Says, if you ever opened your mouth, he says, I will kill

32:40

your family.

32:41

He says your kids, and he says,

32:43

I o'kay, how far you go to China

32:45

or whatever? He was going to kill my family.

32:48

You get the feeling that he was

32:50

supposed to be killed that night,

32:53

because Gil was so frantic,

32:55

telling him, if you ever say anything, I'm going to kill

32:58

you, I'm going to kill your family.

32:59

I'm coming, I'll come for you. And

33:02

it just sounded like.

33:03

Carbone probably was supposed to be taken

33:06

out too, but it didn't happen.

33:10

Ultimately, Carbone netted

33:12

fifty thousand dollars for his cut

33:14

of the robbery. Bill received

33:17

one hundred and fifty thousand, and

33:19

the rest of the loot trickles upstream

33:22

to Burt Christy and beyond.

33:26

I know it was a lot of money for all of

33:28

them, And of

33:30

course they were instructed, according

33:32

to Carbone, to not go

33:35

and buy anything fancy,

33:37

do anything silly that would bring law enforcement

33:40

attention, and I think everybody did just

33:42

the opposite. These guys are going out

33:45

buying new cars and doing silly

33:47

things, which of course gets law

33:49

enforcement's attention.

33:52

But incredibly, Bill and his

33:54

Apollo crew were not only able to

33:57

avoid arrest, we'll continue

33:59

to operate their criminal enterprise for

34:01

years with little to no

34:04

interference from the police.

34:07

But as some members of the crew would

34:09

find out the police were

34:11

not the only threat they had to worry about.

34:15

Two years after the danger Road murders,

34:18

Tommy Felts would be gunned down

34:20

in his car.

34:23

Originally, the theory

34:25

was that Gil had killed Tommy Felts

34:28

because Tommy was there at the triple.

34:31

Over the next year, Jimmy high

34:34

Note and Harry Collier would also

34:36

meet their fate. Was

34:38

guild cleaning house or was it payback

34:41

from his growing list of dangerous enemies.

34:44

Either way, the chickens

34:46

were certainly coming home to roost.

34:49

The basic premise was that

34:52

his mo was to

34:55

rip off drug dealers and

34:57

then kill them, and then kill

34:59

whoever was with him when he did it, so there

35:01

would never be any witnesses, and

35:04

that's why Michael Carbone the fact

35:06

that he was still alive

35:09

was a lucky thing for us. But everybody

35:11

else that he was involved with was

35:14

murdered.

35:15

And when Carbone turned state's witness,

35:18

it seemed that Gil Fernandez and Burt

35:20

Christie might finally face

35:23

the music. But one

35:25

thing remained uncertain. As

35:28

law enforcement untangled the bloody web

35:30

of ripoffs, shakedowns, and

35:32

murder, would they ever uncover

35:35

the evidence necessary to

35:37

connect the murder of Billy Halpering

35:40

or was there someone out there

35:42

determined to keep it buried deep

35:45

behind the thin blue

35:48

line. According

36:00

to Cindi and Perrado, the young prosecutor

36:02

assigned to the case, Michael Carbone's

36:05

cooperation against Gil Fernandez and

36:07

Bert Christi was never guaranteed.

36:11

I think he was afraid before of Gil, that

36:13

Gil would kill him if he ever gave

36:16

him up. Everybody was afraid, so

36:19

Carbone was reluctant. But then when he was

36:21

looking at significant time and

36:24

this was federal time, That's

36:27

how he ended up becoming a witness for the statewide

36:29

prosecutor.

36:31

Another real risk someone

36:33

tipping off their suspects and Fernandez

36:35

and Christie going on the run

36:39

incredibly. Mark Lopez

36:41

discussed this possibility with

36:43

Fernandez himself.

36:46

And I told him more than a couple of times,

36:48

But I said, Gil, you

36:51

know is how this is going to end, right, Like, why don't

36:53

you just grown like going

36:55

to lamp And I just

36:57

think that he wasn't going to do that, right And his wife

36:59

was pregnant by the time with their second

37:02

kid, and he was like, well, he didn't

37:04

say this to me, but I just thought he had the attitude like, if

37:06

this is gonna come, I'm going to take it on the chin and I'm

37:08

going to do what I can do. But I

37:11

don't think he ever had any intentions in trying to run.

37:14

Law enforcement was snooping around at the gym.

37:16

They were going to Apollo. They were talking

37:18

to people that he knew, and

37:22

I think Gil definitely knew, because that

37:24

was the theory is that's why he left

37:26

the police department, that he knew that it

37:29

was just a matter of time, and especially

37:31

once we had carbone.

37:36

Finally, in July of nineteen

37:38

ninety, law enforcement made

37:40

their move.

37:42

We didn't know exactly when it was coming, but we

37:44

knew it was coming. They knew he left

37:46

early in the morning to go to the Apollo to open

37:48

a gym. He would get there at five to

37:50

work out. So I think, to my understanding,

37:53

that they called the house right at like

37:55

four o'clock or four thirty, and

37:58

he entered the phone, they hung up. He

38:01

was an ex cop, right, He's like, yeah, that's the all

38:03

the strick in the book. They're trying to see

38:05

if I'm here. He gets in this car driver to the gym

38:07

and they pull him over on the road on the way to the

38:09

gym, and they take him down right there.

38:11

Thirty seven year old Gil Fernandez and

38:14

fifty seven year old Bert Christie were

38:16

both arrested and charged with three

38:18

counts of first degree murder.

38:22

Before their trial, each man was

38:24

offered a chance to avoid the maximum

38:27

penalty on the law by testifying

38:29

against their alleged accomplice.

38:32

I believe they were both offered life

38:35

to cooperate against the other one.

38:38

So Christy was offered.

38:40

Life to testify and

38:42

skill and Gil was offered life to testify

38:45

against Christie, but

38:47

they both rejected it, which is

38:49

pretty normal for

38:52

organized crime types the

38:54

wise guy mentality.

38:58

Both men would stand trial for the three homicides

39:01

in nineteen eighty three, but there was

39:03

also pressure to hang more charges

39:06

on Fernandez and Christy for

39:08

their suspected involvement in many

39:11

other crimes, including other

39:13

murders.

39:16

There was talk about if we had

39:18

enough information to

39:21

try to do a Williams rule when

39:23

you have similar type

39:25

crimes, that you can bring evidence of the other crimes

39:28

in to prove the crime

39:30

that you're trying.

39:32

Even with several unsolved murders on the

39:34

books, that strategy carried

39:37

significant risk.

39:39

In Florida, almost every

39:41

case that prosecutes used Williams

39:43

rule evidence, it seems to get reversed because

39:46

it's just cumulative and kind of overwhelming

39:48

for the jury. You're looking at this triple homicide,

39:51

but now you're going to talk about five other

39:53

homicides or how many other homicides

39:55

that they allegedly occurred that you don't have enough to charge

39:57

them.

39:59

Charging Christine Fernandez in a federal

40:01

reco case could have also allowed

40:04

prosecutors to include other

40:06

past homicides, possibly

40:09

even the murders of Apollo Jim

40:11

members, Jimmy high Note and Harry

40:13

Collier, and if the evidence

40:16

led them there, Mitch Hall and

40:18

Billy Halpern.

40:21

I had all those reports about all

40:23

the different homicides and all the different players,

40:26

so I was definitely familiar

40:28

with it all. But it ended up being

40:30

the focus on the triple, and the judge was very

40:32

clear that we couldn't.

40:33

Talk about anything else.

40:35

But there just wasn't enough evidence in other

40:37

cases at the time.

40:40

CHRISTI and Fernandez's trial would

40:42

be limited to the Danger Road

40:44

murders.

40:48

I never saw him post arrests. I

40:50

was given in strict instructions from my father,

40:53

do not go to County to see him.

40:55

Do not go to trial.

40:57

When he goes to trial, do not go to trial and go in

40:59

the courtroom, stay away from the

41:01

trial.

41:04

With the brutal details of the triple

41:06

homicide and they're alleged ties to

41:09

organized crime, the trial

41:11

did attract a considerable amount

41:13

of attention from the press.

41:17

Today, a Gilbert Fernandez, the ex com

41:19

sits in court charged with killing

41:21

the three men White found eight years ago.

41:24

Prosecutors say Fernandez tied the victim's

41:26

hands and shot them in the head. Investigators

41:29

say the triple murder was the end result of

41:31

a million dollar drug ripoff. The alleged

41:34

mastermind is co defendant Hubert

41:36

Christie.

41:38

The trial's high profile put not

41:41

a small amount of pressure on the

41:43

young state prosecutor.

41:46

I don't know if it was because it was such a high

41:48

profile case.

41:49

It's a triple homicide.

41:50

You've got every newspaper,

41:53

every camera on you

41:55

twenty four to seven, so it can definitely make or

41:57

break somebody's career, to your years

42:00

out of law school doing a triple homicide, death

42:02

penalty case, doing the opening

42:04

statement, So it was very intimidating.

42:09

Given the defendant's reputations for violence,

42:12

and retribution against those

42:14

that betray them. There was also

42:17

considerable concern about the safety

42:19

of their star witness.

42:22

Carbone is the state's star witness,

42:24

and he's expected to take the stand later

42:26

this week. Carbone's testimony against

42:28

Gilbert Fernandez and Hubert Christie will

42:31

keep him from going to jail on unrelated

42:33

charges.

42:35

We had a battle at the judge because

42:37

we wanted the marshals to

42:39

be in the courtroom when Carbone

42:41

was testifying, and he didn't

42:43

want them there. The chances

42:45

of somebody taking somebody out

42:48

in court with all the security that we

42:50

had for that child would be hard

42:52

to imagine, but you never know what's

42:54

going to happen.

42:56

As the trial got going, the challenges

42:59

for the prosecution became readily

43:01

apparent.

43:03

There were no angels in this trial because

43:05

even the victims

43:08

were drug dealers, but certainly

43:10

no one deserves what happened

43:13

to them.

43:14

Fernandez took his victim, who

43:16

was gagged.

43:17

Blindfolded, his hands tied behind

43:19

his back, to the bank of the

43:21

canal. He instructed him to kneel

43:23

down, and with the coldness of an executioner,

43:26

shot him twice in the head and killed him.

43:30

Prosecutors painted a compelling

43:32

picture of events, but they

43:34

also had no murder weapon, no

43:37

forensic evidence tying the accused to

43:39

the crime scene, and no one

43:41

able or willing to corroborate

43:44

Carbone's story.

43:47

One big concern was is

43:49

jury going to believe Carbone? Obviously

43:52

for him to be able to hold three

43:55

people at gunpoint

43:58

for multiple hours and be

44:00

there for a triple homicide and be involved in other

44:02

things, obviously he wasn't a good guy.

44:05

We're out there on sketchy

44:08

grounds relying on his testimony.

44:10

I mean, if the jury didn't believe him, I

44:12

think, you know, we would have been in big

44:14

trouble. You know, it's not like we had fingerprints

44:17

or DNA or something that you go to the

44:20

jury and say, absolutely, this is what

44:22

happens.

44:23

So it's Carbone was

44:25

basically the case.

44:28

Neither Christi or Fernandez testified

44:31

in their own defense, much to the

44:33

dismay of the press and the trial

44:35

audience, many of whom were giving

44:38

the benefit of doubt to the Bible

44:40

toting X cop and former

44:42

mister Florida.

44:46

There are people in there that were now coming in that

44:48

only new Gill is born again Christian

44:50

Gil, right, So these

44:53

are people that are like, how I can't

44:55

believe this? You know, I can't. He's

44:57

such a good guy and so, you know, a

44:59

sweetheart. I'm thinking I

45:01

might go, well, you know, he might be a

45:03

sweetheart in the hell. But believe me, a year ago, who

45:05

you wouldn't have had.

45:07

Fernandez and Christie sat

45:10

there stoically as Carbone

45:12

offered testimony that could put

45:14

them both in the electric chair.

45:18

Carbone, who's under the Federal Witness Protection

45:21

Program, told the jury he was hired

45:23

as a surveillance man to help in the drug

45:25

scam. Since coming forward, Carbone

45:27

has told his story half a dozen times.

45:29

Each time details of his testimony

45:31

changed.

45:34

The problem with Carbone was he

45:36

had given a statement to the Feds, he'd

45:39

given a statement to the grand jury.

45:41

He had given a deposition.

45:43

So again, as you know from being a law enforcement

45:45

officer, when you get a person

45:47

on the witness stand and their

45:50

subjects to cross examination, and now you've

45:52

got four or five different statements

45:54

and you can make a big deal out of small

45:57

inconsistencies,

46:00

it would be hard for me to fathom

46:02

the jury not believing he was there.

46:05

No one knew the details like he did.

46:07

I mean, you knew that these people were ripped off. You knew

46:09

they were murdered.

46:10

You suspected Gil and Bert were involved,

46:13

because that's how they operated.

46:16

And Carbone there, you

46:18

just couldn't make up all those details

46:20

that he had about it.

46:26

His story was also bolstered by the testimony

46:29

of his wife, who also took the

46:31

stand to say that Carbone

46:33

had confessed to witnessing

46:35

the triple murder.

46:38

He told me that they got into the

46:40

car, and that they took them out to some

46:42

place somewhere out west

46:46

by some water, and

46:49

that they got out of the car,

46:52

and that Gil took the one man

46:55

into the water and

46:58

then he shot him.

47:01

The defense rested its case on

47:03

one simple premise that the

47:05

testimony of a career criminal purchased

47:08

with a promise of immunity wasn't

47:11

worth the paper it was written on.

47:15

They didn't put on a real I

47:17

mean, it was mostly just a tear apart our

47:19

case, and be like, we'd improve it beyond a reasonable

47:21

doubt, And how can you believe Carbone?

47:23

And he's getting this sweet deal.

47:25

He'll say whatever they want him to say.

47:29

Now, there are many other lines that you'll find out, he

47:31

says.

47:31

The law enforcement on other cases,

47:34

You're going to find.

47:34

Out that he's a five time convicted.

47:38

Felt Mark

47:41

Lopez, the former Apollo employee,

47:43

had no love for Michael Carbone,

47:46

but he thought relying solely

47:48

on Carbone's testimony made

47:50

the state's case against his former

47:52

boss flimsy at

47:54

best.

47:56

Look, he was a three time loser basing

47:59

fifteen to life if this third extortion

48:01

beef, and he would have gave up his own mother.

48:04

To walk right.

48:06

So I think that they thought that John was going to

48:08

be able to break Carbone down on the stand, and

48:10

that the jury would see that and think

48:12

that he was allying a three time loser

48:15

scumbag trying to save his own ass, which

48:17

he was.

48:19

It would be up to the jury to decide

48:22

who to trust.

48:26

The highly publicized murder trial of

48:28

a former Metro Dad police officer and his

48:30

business partner is in the hands of a brower jury

48:32

at this hour.

48:33

The men are accused of killing three drug dealers

48:35

in the Everglades.

48:38

Usually in a criminal

48:41

case, the longer the jury's

48:43

out, it's usually better for the defense.

48:46

So when they were coming back with questions

48:50

about different degrees of murder

48:52

and everything else, we were believing we

48:55

were sweating it out that they were going

48:57

to come back with a lesser or do something

48:59

else, or that they were going to be a hung

49:02

jury.

49:04

Instead, the jury found

49:06

both men guilty.

49:09

As to the defendant Gilbert Fernandez,

49:11

as to count one of the indictment, the

49:13

defendant is guilty of first degree murder without

49:16

a firearm. To defendant

49:18

Hubert Christie, as to count one of the

49:20

indictment, the defendant is guilty of first

49:22

felony murder.

49:24

Eight years after the triple homicide on

49:26

Danger Road, Fernandez and Christy

49:29

were convicted of three counts

49:31

of first degree murder in the commission

49:33

of a felony and were handed down

49:36

heavy sentences.

49:38

Judge Tyson gave them

49:42

consecutive life sentences,

49:44

so there's no chance

49:46

of him getting out, which was the idea.

49:50

I was a little surprised, to be honest with you,

49:52

because, like I said, I knew that

49:55

you know beyond character witnesses, So

49:58

I thought, wow, man, you can they can send

50:00

you away for triple life on

50:03

one guy's testimony like

50:05

it was.

50:06

That to me was a little surprising.

50:09

As for Michael Carbone, he

50:12

hasn't been seen in Florida since, and

50:14

speculation is that for the last

50:17

thirty four years has been a guest

50:19

of a witness relocation program.

50:22

I just talked to a regular friend of mine

50:24

here that's local in Palm Beach County that was

50:27

an' a member of the Apollo Gym too, And

50:30

he had just asked me like a week ago. He said, Hey,

50:32

whatever happened to Michael Carbone? We don't know

50:35

you know where he is or anything. And

50:37

I said, well, he's not Michael Carbone

50:39

anymore, right, I said, he's Joe

50:41

Smith in you know, Idaho.

50:45

They said he's in witness protection.

50:46

They got a new identity.

50:48

So if he's still alive, which Michael

50:50

would have to be pushing in like seventy now, you

50:53

know, he's not Michael Carbone anymore.

50:58

But despite justice being served for their

51:00

role in the Danger Road murders,

51:02

investigators believe there are

51:04

still multiple unsolved homicides

51:07

that they have good reason to believe

51:10

were ordered and carried out by Bert

51:12

Christi and Gil Fernandez.

51:15

They include the brutal slayings of Mitch Hall,

51:18

his girlfriend char Linda, and of course

51:21

Lori Halpern's brother Billy.

51:30

They had pretty much told me that Gil committed

51:32

the murder, so I just figured

51:34

which I'd be grateful if they can prove it. But

51:37

Mike Hallman did not thought.

51:39

You know, they didn't want to spend the money. They kind of knew

51:42

that he did it. We really need to go

51:44

any farther. Do you want to go through a trial?

51:47

We kind of know we did it. I

51:49

said, well, I don't want my

51:51

parents to go through that. And if you know, I

51:53

don't want them to. You know, they're going to make

51:55

Billy look bad. And if if

51:58

you think Gil killed Billy, then look, leave

52:00

it alone.

52:01

Bill kill Billy.

52:04

But something in her heart told

52:06

her that this wasn't the full

52:08

story.

52:10

I have sent, you know, feelers

52:12

out to see if at some point Gil

52:15

would be willing to

52:18

confess to the rest of the murders

52:20

to give the family member's

52:22

peace of mind, if nothing else, for

52:26

just pleading him out to concurrent

52:29

time. And I

52:31

do believe that the state's attitude was,

52:34

like we can exceptionally clear these

52:36

cases. You know, he's already serving life. He's

52:38

not calling it, but he's lost all his appeals. It's not

52:40

like he's going to walk out. But his

52:43

attitude has been from the beginning

52:45

that he's not saying anything. He's

52:47

got two sons, I

52:50

believe, and he never

52:52

wants them to know what

52:54

he did.

52:57

But maybe would the emergence of more evidence,

53:00

Jill Fernandez could be convinced

53:02

to.

53:02

Talk Calassie,

53:06

say, what's going on?

53:08

I just wanted to

53:10

touch base with you, so we got some.

53:12

Quant and go back.

53:14

There is DNA there.

53:17

Maybe with the new DNA evidence,

53:20

he would have to.

53:22

Did you go him?

53:25

Now? Whatever you show me, I'll

53:27

try to help you.

53:28

But other than that, you know, really I'm

53:30

on to hell out of respect.

53:32

Of course, you know, I will just

53:34

stay see you later.

53:35

Man, if you ain't got a warn and you ain't gonna take me

53:37

to jail or whatever, because I already a jail

53:40

so you know, but yeah, go ahead,

53:50

cold Blooded. The Apollo Jim Murders

53:53

is a production of iHeart Podcasts

53:55

and Authentic Wave Media. Scott

53:58

Weinberger, Kevin be and Walker

54:01

LeMond are executive producers.

54:04

Sabrina Sire is our line

54:06

producer, scoring sound

54:08

design and mixing by Mark

54:11

lamarg Z for iHeart

54:14

Podcasts, Christina Everett

54:16

is executive producer, and David

54:18

Wasserman is brand marketing manager

54:21

and with special thanks to the Miramar Police

54:23

Department Chief del Rich Moss,

54:26

Pio Tanya Ardaz,

54:28

and Detective Susie Smith.