The Thin Blue Line Page #4

and was looking for me.

While she went out in the parking lot

to find me, she went to one room...

and someone in the parking lot said:

"If you're looking

for the lawyer from Dallas...

"he's in room... "

And he gave her the room number.

I immediately began to suspect...

from the time I was that close to Vidor,

I was being followed and observed.

Doug Mulder had been there

the week before I had...

and had told the people in Vidor that I was...

an Eastern-educated

civil liberties attorney...

and that I was down there

to discredit David Harris.

And then I had been recommended

to see one particular policeman...

who had been led

to the solution of this case.

And I had the impression...

that he was the one honest policeman

I could trust in Vidor.

He told me that

after the policeman was killed...

David Harris went back to Vidor.

But before he was arrested,

he committed a robbery down there...

and had someone on the floor

of a 7-Eleven type of store...

with a shotgun at her throat.

Got back there...

robbed O'Bannion's 7-Eleven with a. 22 rifle.

Committed some other burglaries

and what have you.

All this time I was on probation.

Juvenile probation.

Eventually I turned myself in

for this stuff in Vidor.

I think I made a confession.

I can't even remember exactly.

So I'm told I did.

He had told us he had robbed stores,

and we laughed.

"Sure, we know you have. "

I'd given him one of my hats.

It's an old Bonnie-and-Clyde-looking

hat, it's turned sideways.

We said, "We'll draw you a little

mustache, walk in with that gun.

"Nobody'll know who you are. "

About 2:
00 that morning,

I was asleep and the phone rings.

I said, "Hello?" He said, "This is

David. " "This is David Harris?"

"Yeah," he said, "I did it.

Will you come and get me?"

I said, "I'm not coming to get you.

I'm asleep. "

He didn't have a conscience.

If I do something bad, it kind of gets to me.

I feel, "Shucks, I shouldn't have done

that. I feel bad about it. "

But it didn't bother him.

Didn't bother him at all.

We asked the D.A. In Vidor, Texas...

what they were going to do

with little David. They said:

"We'll send him

to the Texas Youth Council. "

And we sort of tried to inquire...

didn't he think it was strange

that there was a robbery committed...

with that same pistol.

And here it was David Harris' pistol...

David Harris' automobile

that picked up Randall Adams.

Didn't he think it was a little odd...

that all the utensils for committing

this so-called murder...

were furnished by David Harris

who got off scot-free...

and was being a witness

for the prosecution?

And all he said was, "We don't

feel that way in Vidor, Texas.

"Our people just are not that...

"We're not that keen

on ruining a young man's life. "

I tried to introduce the crime spree theory.

The theory that David Harris

was on this series of crimes...

both before and after

the killing of the policeman.

That he would be the person who had...

the heart filled with malice

most apt to commit a murder.

But the judge would not allow me

to introduce any of those crimes.

They'd had a 28-year-old man.

The only alternative

would be prosecuting a 16-year-old...

that could not be given

the death penalty under Texas law...

where our 28-year-old man could.

That's always been the predominant

motive, in my opinion...

for having a death penalty case

against Randall Adams.

Not that they had him so dead to rights.

But just that he was a convenient age.

The judge is supposed to have said...

That Don Metcalfe

is supposed to have said...

to Jeanette White, Dennis White's wife...

"What do you care? He's only a drifter. "

I grew up in a family...

where I was taught a great respect

for law enforcement.

I became acutely aware of the dangers...

that police officers go through,

law enforcement officials go through...

that I think much of the public

is not really sensitive to.

My father was an FBI man.

Probably at the worst possible time

to be in the FBI.

It was from 1932 to 1935 in Chicago.

He was at the Biograph Theater

the night that Dillinger was killed.

It was a hot summer evening.

Little air conditioning in Chicago...

and people were out for a walk.

My father would tell me

that when Dillinger was killed...

within a matter of two minutes...

people were dipping their

handkerchiefs in the blood...

to get souvenirs.

And he vividly remembered one lady...

who, all she had was a newspaper,

held it up and said:

"I bet I'm the only lady from Kansas

City with John Dillinger's blood. "

He told me, the "Woman in Red"...

she had on an orange dress.

This is trivia, okay?

It looked red under the lights.

He said it was really orange.

So she got to be known as the

"Lady in Red" that fingered Dillinger.

He said, "It was really the Lady in Orange. "

As her reward, she got a new fur coat...

and a one-way ticket

back to her native Romania.

His whole story

from the start was two hours late.

I met this kid

at around 10:
00 in the morning.

He says we met at noon.

I say we were at the Bronco Bowl

at 2:
00 or 3:00.

He says it was 5:00 or 6:00.

Everything that we did coincide with,

he was two hours late.

Two hours later. Two hours into the night.

His testimony is that...

as we were getting off the freeway

on Inwood Avenue...

he stated that I'm driving the car...

that we're pulled over.

He gets scared and he slumps down

in the seat of the car.

That, as the officer walks up...

and shines his flashlight,

and I roll down my window...

I pull the pistol out and blow this man away.

His testimony is...

when I finally do drive to the motel...

I get out. I tell him, "Don't worry about it.

"Forget this ever happened. "

That's crazy.

The police officer was killed at 12:30...

which is about two and a half hours

after he last saw me.

Just before he went into the motel...

he'd gone across the motel courtyard...

to a little store over there

and bought some cigarettes.

And I was supposed to go and find out

if the man remembered him...

coming in there just before 10:00

to buy the cigarettes.

I didn't get over there

to Fort Worth for a long time.

We got some pictures from his family

that didn't show him in jail clothes.

I took the pictures in to show them

to the man behind the counter.

He was very cooperative

and he wanted to help us.

But he honestly... He said:

"I don't remember anything

about this guy coming in there...

"I couldn't tell one night from another.

Might have been that night or another.

"Cause they were always coming

for cigarettes. "

His brother...

at first...

was saying that at the time

of the murder, that he was home...

watching... I believe it was

a wrestling match on TV.

And he said, "Me and my brother likes

wrestling matches. He was with me.

"Randall, my brother,

was with me all night long.

"He couldn't have done it. "

He was trying to cover for his brother.

Later, as I recall, he changed...

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