No Defense (27 page)

Call your next witness,” Judge McNabb
directed Junior as soon as the coroner had completed his
testimony.

“The State calls George Dorr,” Junior
said.

The bailiff left and a few minutes later
returned, followed by a dour man around seventy years old who had a
large beige hearing aid in his right ear. Of average height and
weight, he wore a gray cardigan sweater, a white shirt, and black
pants.

Chip had explained to me that those FBI
memos I’d seen, several of which were from Dorr, weren’t admissible
as evidence. Nor would Dorr be allowed to testify about any of the
things Dean Reese had told him.

After his name and address were given,
Junior asked Dorr, “Are you employed?”

“No,” Dorr answered. “I’m retired.”

“What did you do before you retired?”

“I worked for the FBI,” Dorr said.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation?”

“That’s right.”

“When did you begin working for the
FBI?”

“In 1930.”

After several questions about his training
and experience, Junior asked Dorr, “Were you employed by the FBI in
1963?”

“Yes.”

“What was your job description?”

“I was a special agent.”

“Where was your office?”

“The Atlanta field office.”

“Did you work on one type of case or
many?”

“During the late fifties and early sixties I
worked primarily on civil rights cases that arose in the
South.”

“Who was your supervisor in 1963?”

“Carl Best, the chief of the Atlanta field
office.”

“Did you ever come to Tallagumsa, Alabama,
in the course of your work?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Could you describe why you came to
Tallagumsa?”

“Because Jimmy Turnbow and Leon Johnson were
killed outside Tallagumsa and we were investigating their
murders.”

“Did you know anyone in Tallagurnsa prior to
your visit?”

“Yes. Dean Reese.”

“In what context did you know Dean
Reese?”

“He had given us information on several
occasions.”

“Was he an employee?”

“Sort of. We paid him for information on a
case-by-case basis.”

“Did you have similar relationships with
other individuals?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“We had informants all over the South. We
needed them for information on the Klan, demonstrations, assaults,
harassment, killings, and the like. We used the information to save
lives. We also used it to prod state authorities to get them to
move on some of the worst cases. If they wouldn’t, and we had a
strong enough case, the Justice Department sometimes filed a
federal case, which we helped prepare.”

“Did you talk to Reese before you visited
Tallagumsa?”

“Yes, I called him to see if he had any
information on the murders.”

“What did Reese tell you when you called
him?”

“Objection,” Chip said. “Hearsay.”

“Sustained,” Judge McNabb said.

“Did you talk to Dean Reese on the
phone?”

“Yes, I did.”

“What did you tell him?”

“That I wanted to know if he knew anything
about the murders.”

“Did he give you any information?”

“Objection,” Chip said. “Hearsay.”

“I believe Mr. Dorr can testify as to
whether Mr. Reese gave him any information without repeating what
Mr. Reese may have said,” Junior argued.

“You may answer the question,” Judge McNabb
said.

“Yes, he did,” Mr. Dorr said.

“As a result of that information, did you
come to Tallagumsa in August of 1963?”

“Yes.”

“On what day did you arrive?”

“I arrived on August 30, left again that
afternoon, and returned to Tallagumsa on September 4. I left town
for good on September 8.”

“Did anyone accompany you to
Tallagumsa?”

“Yes. Another special agent, Frank
Moon.”

“Is Mr. Moon still an agent?”

“He was until he died two years ago. He was
shot in the line of duty.”

“What happened after you and Agent Moon got
to Tallagumsa on August 30?”

“We talked to Dean Reese and the
sheriff”

“Who was the sheriff?”

“Newell Hagerdorn, the defendant.”

“Could you describe your August 30, 1963,
conversation with the defendant?”

“It was before lunchtime. Agent Moon and I
dropped by and told him generally why we were in town. The sheriff
was very cooperative. He told us how the young men died, showed us
the location on the map, gave us some shells and wadding he and his
deputies found at the scene of the crime, as well as the shot
removed from the bodies during the autopsy.”

“What did you do with the items?”

“Sealed them in FBI evidence bags, marked
the bags with the date and my initials, and turned them over to Ray
Bartozzi, one of our firearms identification men in Atlanta.”

“You also testified you saw Dean Reese that
same day, the thirtieth of August. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Where was that meeting?”

“At his home.”

“Did Dean Reese give you anything at that
meeting?”

“Yes. A gun.”

“What kind?”

“A shotgun.”

“Can you recall the manufacturer?”

“It was a Winchester Model21 Custom, with a
walnut stock and fancy checkering on the forearm.”

“Do you know what gauge it was?”

“Twelve.”

“What did you do with the gun?”

“I marked it with a tag with my initials and
the date and took it by the sheriff’s office to see if the sheriff
could identify it. Dean Reese had told us it belonged to-”

“Objection, Your Honor,” Chip said.

“Sustained,” Judge McNabb said.

“What happened at the sheriff’s office?”

“Sheriff Hagerdorn wasn’t there. The deputy,
Bev Carter, was, and he identified the gun.”

“What did you do with the gun?”

“Drove it back to Atlanta with the shells
and shot and gave them all to Ray Bartozzi.”

“Why?”

“We wanted to know if it was the gun that
killed Jimmy Turnbow and Leon Johnson and whose fingerprints were
on it.”

“Did you ever talk to the defendant,
then-Sheriff Hagerdom, again?”

“Objection,” Chip interrupted. “May we
approach the bench, Your Honor?”

Judge McNabb nodded. Junior and Chip
approached the judge, their vast height difference accentuated by
their proximity to one another. I stared at their backs, unable to
hear what they were saying. They left the bench.

“Answer the question, Mr. Dorr,” Judge
McNabb said.

“What was the question?” Dorr asked. “I’m
afraid I’ve forgotten.”

The court stenographer read it back.

“Yes,” Dorr said. “On September 4, Agent
Moon and I went to the defendant’s home to talk to him.”

“Why?”

“He was a suspect in the murders.”

“Was he home alone?”

“No. The door was answered by a young lady,
I think a daughter. She called him to come to the door. I don’t
know if anyone else was there.”

“What happened then?”Junior asked.

“The defendant came to the door but didn’t
invite us in. We all stood on the front porch. I told him we were
sorry to be there but that we had reason to believe that he was
involved in the murders of Leon Johnson and Jimmy Turnbow.”

“What did he say?”

“He laughed.”

“When you say ‘He laughed,’ was it a nervous
giggle or a hearty laugh?”

“Your Honor,” Chip interceded, “I don’t
believe the witness is qualified as an expert in laughing.”

“I’ll let it in,” Judge McNabb said. “Go
ahead.”

“Not so much nervous, but shock and
disbelief.”

“What did he say?”

“That it was the most ridiculous damn thing
he’d heard in a long time. He said he was not involved, that he’d
never killed anyone
in his
life. That he could guess who’d
told us and he was surprised we didn’t have better judgment.”

“What happened next?”

“I told him we thought his shotgun was the
murder weapon and asked if he could explain that.”

“Did he say anything?” Junior asked.

“No, he seemed truly taken aback,” Dorr
said. “He appeared to be thinking about something but didn’t say
anything.”

“Did you talk with him further?”

“Only a little. We asked if his daughter had
ever dated a Negro.”

“Why?”

“Our investigation had uncovered this as a
possible motive for the crime.”

“What did the defendant say?”

“He said that this was getting way out of
hand, why didn’t we go do our job, something like that.”

“And then you left?”

“He walked in the house and shut the
door.”

“Did you talk to anyone else that
evening?”

“Yes. We visited Floyd Waddy at his home. We
asked him what he was doing on the night of August 27, 1963, and we
told him he was a suspect.”

“What did he say?”

“He was furious. He called his wife to the
door and repeated what we’d said. According to her he was with ten
other people at some kind of party that night. We got some of the
names. He slammed the door in our faces. Later we checked it out.
His alibi seemed airtight.”

“When was the last time you saw Dean
Reese?”

“The night of September 5.”

“Where did you meet him?”

“In a deserted barn.”

“Do you remember where the barn was?”

“No, I wouldn’t be able to get there now. I
just remember the barn was off Route 23 and was not far from
town.”

“Where was Agent Moon?”

“At the hotel; he had a stomach bug or food
poisoning. We didn’t know which, but he was pretty sick.”

“Can you describe Dean Reese as he appeared
to you that evening?”

“He was in his twenties–midtwenties I’d
guess–tall, kind of a big stomach. He had a tattoo on his upper
arm: a heart, and inside the heart the name ‘Liz.’ He smoked
constantly, looked real tired, had dark circles under his eyes. But
he was relaxed. Other times I’d seen him he’d been real hyper.”

“Tell us about what happened at the meeting
with Reese.”

“As I said, I met him in this abandoned bam.
There were two chairs and a small table in the middle, and on the
table was a tape recorder. We sat down, talked a few minutes, then
he told me-”

“Objection,” Chip said. “Hearsay.”

“Sustained.”

“What happened next?” Junior asked in an
exasperated tone that conveyed his frustration with the defense for
impeding his search for the truth with technicalities.

“He made a statement into the tape
recorder.”

“What happened to the tape?”

“I took the tape back to my motel room and
marked it with an evidence sticker, initialed and dated the
sticker, packed the tape in a brown envelope, which I also marked,
and then took the package back to my office in Atlanta when we
returned.”

“Do you know where the tape is today?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Where?”

“It’s in that box there, under your table in
a tape player.”

Chip jumped up quickly. Several pencils flew
across the defense table. “Objection, Your Honor! This is the first
we’ve heard that this tape existed. The witness told the grand jury
he didn’t know where the tape was, that the tape was lost. The
prosecution can’t bring it up now, mid-trial. That tape should not
be admitted under these circumstances.”

“We aren’t trying to sneak anything by
anyone here, Your Honor,” Junior said. “We didn’t get the tape
until yesterday. This was the best we could do.”

“No, it wasn’t. You could have told us
yesterday,” Chip asserted.

“The State had to listen to the tape,”
Junior answered. “The witness had to listen to it as well. And if
the defendant hadn’t insisted on starting this trial absurdly
early, we’d have had the tape to the defense well before any
reasonably scheduled trial began. We have done everything we could.
I apologize for the timing. Now the tape is here, and we submit it
is admissible.”

“Being sorry doesn’t make it admissible,”
Chip said.

“You’re right. If Mr. Dorr can authenticate
the tape, that makes it admissible,” Junior said. “The only basis
for excluding the tape would be if it isn’t what it purports to
be-that is, if the tape has been altered or if the tape isn’t
really a recording of Dean Reese making a statement on the night of
September 5, 1963. Mr. Dorr will testify that the statements on the
tape are those he heard Mr. Reese make on the night of September 5,
and that the tape has not been changed in any way since the day the
tape was made. Therefore, it’s clearly admissible.”

“If the tape can be authenticated, I will
admit it subject to the defense having the opportunity to inspect
the recording, assure themselves that it is authentic,” Judge
McNabb said. “Go ahead with your examination.”

Junior pulled a brown cardboard box out from
under the attorney’s table and removed an old-fashioned
reel-to-reel tape player. A tape was already in the player. He
lugged the machine over to the witness stand. “Let the record
reflect that we have marked a
reel-to-reel
tape as State’s
Exhibit One for Identification.”

“Mr. Dorr, have you
ever
seen Exhibit
One for Identification?” Junior asked.

“Yes.”

“When?”

“The night of September 5, this tape was
used to record a statement made by Dean Reese.” Dorr stood up
slightly and bent down over the reel. “Those are my initials and
the date in ink on one of our evidence stickers, right there.”

“Was anyone else present when this tape was
made, other than you and Mr. Reese?”

“No.”

“When did you last see the tape, prior to
yesterday?”

“It was in my file cabinet in my office
until I retired. When I retired I sent it to archives. Then when I
got the subpoena to appear before the grand jury here I asked
archives to find the tape. It took awhile, but finally they did,
yesterday. An agent drove it over from Atlanta immediately.”