Jack and the Beanstalk (Matthew Hope) (34 page)

A:  It seemed like the right amount.

Q:  But what made you think Mr. McKinney would give you $10,000?

A:  I knew he had it. The farm was costing him forty thousand. That’s what Sunny told me.

Q:  Yes, but why did you think he would
give
you so much money?

A:  To keep me from telling the cops.

Q:  Telling them what?

A:  That he was planning to grow pot.

Q:  What did Mr. McKinney say when you asked him for the $10,000?

A:  He told me to go fuck myself. Is it all right to say that... with the tape going, I mean?

Q:  If it’s what he said...

A:  It’s exactly what he said.

Q:  What happened then?

A:  He told me to get out. I told him I wasn’t going noplace till he gave me the ten thousand. One thing led to another...

Q:  What do you mean by that?

A:  He started shoving me, I guess, and I shoved him back... and like that.

Q:  Like what, Mr. Crowell?

A:  I guess I pulled a knife on him.

Q:  You went up there with a knife?

A:  I always carry a knife.

Q:  Is this the knife you had with you that night?

A:  Yeah, that’s it.

Q:  Please have the record indicate that the knife being offered is what is commonly known as a switchblade knife, and that it is equipped with a spring-release button that opens a six-inch-long blade. It was found on the premises at 1134 Archer Street in apartment 202...is that your apartment, by the way, Mr. Crowell?

A:  That’s my apartment.

Q:  By Detectives Rawles and Bloom at 3:10 a.m. this date, August 27, and marked with an evidence tag at that time. What happened next, Mr. Crowell? After you pulled the knife? You said this is your knife...

A:  Yeah, it’s my knife, all right. I guess I told Jack I was going to mess him up unless he gave me the money.

Q:  What did you mean by “mess him up”?

A:  Cut him.

Q:  What happened then?

A:  He ran in the bedroom. He had a gun in there on the table alongside the bed. He went for the gun.

Q:  What did you do?

A:  What would
you
do, a guy reaching for a gun?

Q:  I’d like to know what
you
did.

A:  I stabbed him. His back was still to me, he was getting ready to turn with the gun in his hand. So I stabbed him before he could shoot me. It was self-defense.

Q:  You stabbed him in the back?

A:  The first couple of times. I kept stabbing him to make sure. He sort of...like he turned when he was falling, you know? So I stabbed him in the front too. Wherever. I just kept stabbing him.

Q:  What did you do then?

A:  I looked around for the money.

Q:  Did you find it?

A:  Yeah. He had it in his toilet tank. In a plastic bag. Like hanging from the plumbing inside there, you know?

Q:  How much money was there?

A:  I didn’t count it till I got home.

Q:  How much money did you discover was in the plastic bag?

A:  $47,000.

Q:  You counted it.

A:  I counted it.

Q:  And it came to exactly $47,000?

A:  And some change.

Q:  How much change?

A:  Twenty, thirty dollars, something like that.

Q:  What did you do then?

A:  After I counted the money?

Q:  No. Before you left the apartment.

A:  Oh. I washed off my knife and where there was some blood on my clothes. I washed my hands too. Before I left. I didn’t want to go out of there with blood all over me. Also, I took the gun, tucked it in my belt under my jacket. It was a good piece, no sense leaving it there.

Q:  Is there anything else you’d like to tell me about that night?

A:  No. That’s all that happened that night.

Q:  You told the police that you and Miss McKinney were together that night...

A:  Yeah, but not all
night
. I told her I was hungry, said I wanted to go out for some more burgers. I left her about nine o’clock. It’s only ten, fifteen minutes to Stone Crab. That’s where I went when I left her. To her brother’s apartment. To get my $10,000.

Q:  You got a lot more than that, though.

A:  Yeah, I was lucky. I almost didn’t look in the toilet tank, can you believe it? That was a last-minute idea.

Q:  Miss McKinney told the police that you were together all night on the night of the murder. Why did she do that?

A:  That was my idea.

Q:  Did she
know
you had killed her brother?

A:  No, no, you think I’m crazy?

Q:  Then why did she alibi you?

A:  It was the other way around.

Q:  I don’t understand.

A:  I told her the police would think
she
did it.

Q:  I still don’t understand.

A:  I told her if the police knew I’d left her alone there in my apartment, they’d think she ran out to kill her brother.

Q:  Why would they think that?

A:  Brothers and sisters, you know? The cops always look for that kind of shit. Excuse me.

Q:  So you talked her into believing she needed an alibi.

A:  Well, I didn’t do it
that way
. I mean, I didn’t make it sound like I was
conning
her or anything. I made her think I was protecting her, you know? Like I’d lie for her to save her skin, back her up if she said she was there with me all night. That way the police wouldn’t try to pin anything on her.

Q:  And she believed you.

A:  Yeah.

Q:  Then why did you kill her?

A:  Well, that’s another story.

Q:  Yes, it is. Maybe we ought to take these in order. Mr. Crowell, are you familiar with a tract of farmland approximately midway between Calusa and Ananburg, what is known as the Burrill farm?

A:  I am.

Q:  Did you visit the Burrill farm on the afternoon of August 22?

A:  I did.

Q:  Why did you go there?

A:  To see Burrill.

Q:  See him about what?

A:  Same thing I went to see Jack about.

Q:  And what was that?

A:  Money.

Q:  What money?

A:  The $4,000.

Q:  What do you mean?

A:  Sunny told me her brother gave him a $4,000 deposit on the land.

Q:  So you went to see him about this $4,000.

A:  Yeah. Same as Jack.

Q:  How was it the same as Jack?

A:  Well, I
wanted
that money, you see.

Q:  You already had the $47,000 you took after you killed...

A:  Yeah.

Q:  But you wanted an
additional
$4,000?

A:  Yeah, well, every little bit helps, don’t it?

Q:  So you went to Burrill’s farm to steal it from him?

A:  To
ask
him for it, not to
steal
it.

Q:  You expected him to
give
you $4,000—

A:  Well, I had a gun, you see. The gun I took from Jack’s apartment.

Q:  Then you
did
plan to steal the money.

A:  No, just
ask
for it. ’Cause I figured it belonged to Jack, you see? ’Cause Jack was dead now, and there wouldn’t be no deal on the land. That four thousand belonged with the
rest
of the money, you see?

Q:  You went in there to commit armed robbery...

A:  No, just to ask him for the money.

Q:  
Did
you, in fact, ask him for it?

A:  Sure.

Q:  Were you holding a gun on him at the time?

A:  Well, I had it in my hand.

Q:  Then you
were
committing armed robbery.

A:  No, I wasn’t threatening him or anything.

Q:  Is this the gun you had in your hand?

A:  Yeah.

Q:  Is this the gun you fired at a man named Matthew Hope earlier today?

A:  Yeah.

Q:  Let the record indicate that the gun is a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, and that it was recovered from Mr. Crowell outside the premises at 1134 Archer Street at 2:20 a.m. this date, August 27. What did Burrill say when you asked him for the money?

A:  He said he didn’t
have
it, even though Sunny told me her brother had given it to him. A deposit of $4,000!

Q:  But he said he didn’t have it.

A:  He said it was in Escrow. I didn’t know what that meant. Where the hell is
Escrow
, I asked him. I never heard of noplace in Florida named Escrow.

Q:  What happened then?

A:  Same thing.

Q:  What do you mean?

A:  He tried to rush me, and I had to shoot him. Same thing as Jack, if you see what I mean. All I wanted was the money, they shouldn’t have tried nothing.

Q:  How many times did you shoot him?

A:  Three, four times, is all.

Q:  Then what?

A:  I looked for the money. I tore the place apart.

Q:  Did you find it?

A:  No. I asked Sunny later where Escrow was. She started laughing.

Q:  When was this?

A:  When was what?

Q:  That you asked her...

A:  Oh. That same night, I guess. The night before she split. We were laying there in bed, I asked her where the hell Escrow was. I figured maybe it was in Texas someplace. She starts laughing, tells me it’s something has to do with lawyers and banks, where they hold money till a deal is settled. I said something like, “So
that’s
what he meant,” and she asks me what I’m talking about, so I told her about Burrill, about what happened with Burrill. We were drinking a lot, I guess I’d had a little too much. Otherwise I wouldn’t have mentioned it. About Burrill, I mean.

Q:  You told her you’d killed Burrill?

A:  Well, I didn’t put it in those words.

Q:  How
did
you put it?

A:  I mentioned we’d had a little hassle.

Q:  She must have heard about Burrill’s death by then, wouldn’t you think?

A:  Well, it was on television and all.

Q:  In which case, she’d have
known
what you meant by “a little hassle.”

A:  Yeah, I guess she knew what I meant.

Q:  She knew that you’d
killed
him.

A:  Yeah, I guess so.

Q:  What was her reaction?

A:  Scared.

Q:  Did you tell her you’d killed her brother as well?

A:  Yeah. Shit, I’d had too much to drink, that’s all.

Q:  How did she respond to
that
information?

A:  She wanted to know why I’d done it. I told her for the money. I told her we could do a lot of things with all that money. I showed her the money. I had it in the toilet tank, same as her brother had it, I got the idea from him. She seemed impressed.

Q:  She wasn’t scared anymore?

A:  I didn’t think so. She just said that was a lot of money. No shit? Forty-seven grand? I needed
her
to tell me that was a lot of money?

Q:  But she wasn’t scared then, is that right? After you told her about her brother?

A:  I didn’t think so at the time. She must’ve been, though. She split the very next day, didn’t she?

Q:  Did that bother you? Her leaving?

A:  No, the world is
full
of girls.

Q:  But you went looking for her. You went to the M.K. Ranch...

A:  I wasn’t looking for
her
, man.

Q:  Then why’d you—

A:  I was looking for my money, man! She took my money with her!