Speaker 1: Hm, I walk straight line.
Speaker 2: Shackle change, Oh weesome, gird, it's calling my name.
Speaker 3: There is no mercy and it's been a tentery juice
as the Hill Stream game Rainbow three.
Speaker 4: I'm here be.
Speaker 5: By me to die.
Speaker 3: Inside these walls, inside the wild.
Speaker 6: Hadn't went more girls as.
Speaker 4: I Hey everyone, and welcome back to Bloody Angola, a
podcast one hundred and forty two years in the making,
the complete story of America's bloodiest present. I'm Jim Chapman,
and look, today we are going to discuss a little
bit of the really dark side of prison. Now, you've
all heard the saying don't drop the soap when it
comes to people getting sent to prison. There was even
a bit that Chris Rock did way back in the day,
way before or Will Smith slapped the piss out of
him at the Oscars. And this bit was hilarious and
it featured a man he termed the tall salad Man.
So for those of you that aren't familiar, you're in
for a treat.
Speaker 1: I want you to.
Speaker 4: Listen to this clip from Chris Rock.
Speaker 6: Oh they will rape you in jail, boy.
Speaker 7: See, the whole damn country is so damn conservative now
everybody's like.
Speaker 8: Jails ain't tough enough. Jails ain't tough enough. We gotta
have a death pilty. Jails ain't tough enough. Jails are
fucked up. Okay, don't believe the hype.
Speaker 7: The problem is the reason jails are so crowded because life.
Speaker 9: Is fucked up.
Speaker 10: Coats lot, people.
Speaker 6: Are broke, people are starving, lighte shit, life is catching
up to jail sit. If you living a whole project,
new jail, ain't that.
Speaker 7: Bad, y'all watching h y'all have this special on the
Jail Special a couple of months ago. Now, normally when
you see a special about jail, it's on regular TV
and there's a lot of shit they don't show. Oh,
not the HBO Jail special. Oh, they showed it all
the interview and the brother and then they said, now, sir,
when a new inmate comes in and he wants some drugs,
how do you initiate him?
Speaker 6: The guy goes, well, the first thing I do is make.
Speaker 1: Him toss my salad. The guys they tossed my salad, Well,
what's that?
Speaker 11: God?
Speaker 6: Well, having your salad toss means having your ass whole
eating out with jelly or Sir, I for first, sir,
I gotta thank you this up.
Speaker 7: And then the guy said, why must you go through
all of that, sir, why not just eorl sex?
Speaker 6: And he goes, well, when a man sucking yo day,
he could pretend that's something else.
Speaker 8: When he's eating ass.
Speaker 9: He knows this ass.
Speaker 1: I do. We don't need a death bilody.
Speaker 12: We got to.
Speaker 6: Toss solid man. Should have I had a choice right
now between the electric chairl tossing a.
Speaker 1: Salad, I'd be like, so where.
Speaker 9: Are you plugging in?
Speaker 8: Should not be wat.
Speaker 11: Now?
Speaker 1: Everybody tell old schools.
Speaker 9: Are out of control.
Speaker 8: Oh, they're out of control. We need prayer in the schools.
Speaker 1: We don't need prayer in schools.
Speaker 6: We need to toss solid man in school.
Speaker 1: That was straighten the kids out.
Speaker 6: Hey, Jimmy, you gotta d don't you gotta do?
Speaker 12: No?
Speaker 4: No, I want to talk to silence.
Speaker 6: I love it, Gus, I've a ree I'm a learnery.
Speaker 11: Now.
Speaker 4: When Chris Rock did that bit, like everyone else thought,
this guy had to be a fictional character, right, it
was made up for this bit. There's no way this
guy really exists. However, people started scouring YouTube looking for
the interview with this guy. Sure enough, the tossed solid
man was real. Listen to this quick clip.
Speaker 13: First of all, if he's a newcomer, right, I want
him to suck my ass in jelly. That's what they
called toss the sound. That's the slang where he tossed
the sound. It means sucking my ass right.
Speaker 4: With jelly or without jelly.
Speaker 14: Some people use certain I prefer the god to use jelly.
Speaker 13: Right, I would reach my climate, right, I would automatic
get hard, right, I would you know, come automatically if
he's sucking my ass for about ten minutes so long ago. Right,
it's a sensation film.
Speaker 4: It makes you feel real good. Most all gays.
Speaker 13: Do that, you know what I'm saying, like guys to
suck the ass. It's just like a pussy, right, But
the only difference is not a push. Right, it's clean,
the prison is decent, and person know that that's an asshole.
Speaker 4: But in mind he's looking at.
Speaker 14: It as a pussy because he's in prison. So toss
my cell and let him eat me, you know, we straight.
That's so as funny as Chris Rock is in that first.
Speaker 4: Clip I played, and as you heard in the second clip,
this ship really happens it's real and it's right, plain
and simple. I mean, who could forget this clip from
the Shawshank Redemption with Bogs and the Sisters as they
were known on Shawshank Redemption when they got a hold
of Andy.
Speaker 1: Do frame that's you fight better than me.
Speaker 12: I wish I could tell you that a default the
good fight and the sisters let him be. I wish
I could tell you that, But prison is no fairy
tale world. He never said who did it, but we
all knew the sisters kept that inference. Sometimes it was
able to fight him off, sometimes not. And that's how
it went for Andy. That was his routine. I do
believe those first two years with a worste Ward, and
I also believe if things have gone on that way,
this place would have got the best of it.
Speaker 4: So Morgan Freeman nailed it. When you were most vulnerable
for this type of thing, it's usually in those first
few years of prison, and when they get you, it's
known as turning you out. And today I'm going to
tell you about a Louisiana State Penitentiary inmate by the
name of Howard Lee Higginbotham. Now, what is absolutely wild
about Howard Lee Higginbotham is he turned what was a
nine year short stant sentence for burglary inside of a
jail into a life sentence without parole inside Bloody and Gola.
And that's what we're gonna discuss today. So in September
of nineteen seventy seven, Howard Lee Higginbotham, he gets arrested,
then charged, then convicted of simple burglary. He actually with
an accomplice, they pulled off some kind of burglary of
a hardware store. And this was in Awatchitah Parish, Louisiana,
which y'all is in the far north of Louisiana almost
to the Arkansas line. Now, for this conviction, Howard Lee Higginbotham,
he gets sentenced to nine years in the Awatchitaw Parish jail.
It's a relatively short stint in prison. If you keep
your nose clean, you may actually get out in less
than six years. But old Howard he can't do that.
He can't keep his nose clean, apparently, because the very
same year, as a matter of fact, in December of
nineteen seventy seven, just three months into that nine year sentence,
Higginbotham does something that turns that nine year stint into
life in prison without parole. So what did he do well?
And keep in mind that at this time in nineteen
seventy seven, Higginbotham is thirty seven years old, old enough
to know better, right, So, as seventeen year old kid,
he gets put in a cell with five other inmates.
Don't ask me, Obviously, that sentence alone should raise a
ton of red flags. I have no idea why this
kid got thrown in a cell with five other inmates,
but that's what happened. Higginbotham being one of those inmates.
In over an eight day time period, he Higginbotham in
the other four inmates beat and rape this kid over
and over and over again. As a matter of fact,
Howard Lee Higginbotham, he was charged with raping this boy
three times. He had three counts of rape crimes against nature,
which means anally during that eight day time period. So
he goes to trial for those three counts of aggravated
rape and he is sentenced to life inside of bloody
Angola without the possibility of parole. Now we're going to
fast forward a little bit, actually quite a bit, to
July of twenty twenty five, just a few months ago,
and Howard Lee Higginbotham, he goes in front of the
clemency board for hearing. And what this clemency board will
determine is if the now eighty five year old inmate
qualifies for clemency. If he does, if they feel like
they're comfortable in recommending him for clemency, they're going to
send that recommendation to the governor. The governor then would
either sign off and approve it or he would deny it.
So this is Higginbotham's chance to get out of prison
after forty five plus years. So the hearing only lasted
about ten minutes, but you gotta listen to this. It's
pretty shocking. In this hearing, Higginbotham does discuss whether or
not he actually committed that crime, and in addition to that,
he also discusses his version of why he committed it.
You gotta hear this.
Speaker 15: My name is I would leave higginbottom eighty eight one
one six.
Speaker 16: All right, mister Higbotham, let me just read some information
into the record. You're classified as a fourth felony offender.
You're seeking a convers you're seeking a commutation of your sentence.
You were sentenced December nineteen seventy seven for three counts
of aggravated you received a life sentence. You have a
prior sentencing date which was in September of nineteen seventy
seven for two counts of simple barbary and you received
ninet years on that is convictions?
Speaker 11: Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 9: Right?
Speaker 11: So I'm just going to turn it.
Speaker 16: Over to mister Prayer because your case has been assigned
to him this morning, this afternoon.
Speaker 10: Yes, sir, how are you today, mister higg and.
Speaker 9: Baba oh fending? Pretty good?
Speaker 10: Okay, wait, remember what you did to get yourself there
and to what have you done since to make us
believe that you are needing to be out?
Speaker 11: But you can be safe to let you out?
Speaker 15: Well, I worked at the processing place, did you where
the process food? I worked there at ten years and
I worked a fence around the fence. After that that
when the last time I took my heart started barbing
and the last place I worked was the process and
they closed it down and where they used to process
all the.
Speaker 9: Food, and that's the journey.
Speaker 15: Then after that I worked the dormitory around the fences.
All of the jart group.
Speaker 11: I think I think he wants you to tell him
about your crime you committed. How'd you get here? I'll
get there?
Speaker 15: You go that the crime, yeah, aggravated rapist, say, and the.
Speaker 9: Paths Yeah, I'd done it, which is.
Speaker 11: Then that's what I want to know about it. Okay,
you were arrested in nineteen.
Speaker 17: Seventy seven for simple burglary and you got put in
jail and Washington Parish.
Speaker 9: Is that correct, yes, sir?
Speaker 17: And while you're putting jail, while you were in jail
waiting to get out, they put a seventeen year old
in the sale with you.
Speaker 9: Is that correct, yes.
Speaker 17: Sir, And you and some other inmates be and it's
that seventeen year old for eight days?
Speaker 11: Is that right?
Speaker 9: Yes, sir? Ken why'd you do that? What gave you
the right to think that you could do that in.
Speaker 10: Any normal world?
Speaker 15: Well, by when they had that game stuff, if you
didn't do this, we do this to you. And so
you know how they into jail, the path he got
the groups and I you know, and I was I
was thirty seven years old, and another do old than
I was. They had been there ain't golden to so
if I didn't do nothing, what they've done they gonna
do it to me, you know, and that's the way
it was gone at the past.
Speaker 9: Are you the least been sorry for what you did?
I'm sorry. Yeah, I know it. When I got older,
you know, I realized I was wrong. You know I
got older, you realized he's wrong.
Speaker 11: Yeah, you didn't realize it. Never mind, I'm wanting.
Speaker 9: I'm wanting to help you here, mister Higginbota.
Speaker 10: Are you remorseful at all of how you ruined someone's life?
Speaker 15: I knew.
Speaker 9: Yeah, well I know that ruins people's life.
Speaker 11: Yes, I'm sorry for that.
Speaker 15: But you do at the time, I ain't had no charge.
The forced into it like a gang stuff.
Speaker 12: Uh.
Speaker 9: And then you know they got pairs, so you don't
do this, we do this to you.
Speaker 11: I don't have any other question.
Speaker 9: Question.
Speaker 16: Well, I forgot a ward with n Noir. Can you
tell us about mister big and Botham?
Speaker 11: Yes, Graham, he's assigned.
Speaker 17: He's medium customer as signed to the treatment center on
the war too because of his age and his medical
and he's got a lot of medical conditions.
Speaker 11: I mean that's where he lives.
Speaker 18: Yeah, I got a question, Uh.
Speaker 11: How old are you eight or five? Eight?
Speaker 18: Five year Oliver, you've been incarcerated.
Speaker 15: Barber party about forty seven year, says eighty eight since
eight eight. Okay, that's good. That's good. So you're not
running with a gang.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 18: Have you been taking any classes since you've been incocerated?
Speaker 15: Well, the classes on the class I went to with
the class on that sex class got a tific on it.
Speaker 18: Okay, And how do you how do you feel about it?
What you learn about it?
Speaker 15: I learned a lot of things about it.
Speaker 9: About that, you know how you got to kill?
Speaker 11: Tell me what you learn.
Speaker 15: I learned you don't spose nobody to do nothing. And uh,
the thing you try to go from it. If you
see it happening, try not to be around it. The
thing I learned from that of him, you know, like
trying to out, trying to turn somebody out.
Speaker 9: They called it. I know that's wrong. I know that's wrong.
But they got a lot of guys don't think it's wrong.
But I know it's wrong.
Speaker 11: Now do you remorseful about it?
Speaker 9: Huh?
Speaker 11: Do you feel remorseful about it?
Speaker 9: That's stuck you?
Speaker 11: Sure? Yeah? Why are you?
Speaker 18: Why why do you feel remorse.
Speaker 11: Well? Why? Well? Uh uh hum? Why do you feel
bad about doing what you did.
Speaker 9: I feel bad about it.
Speaker 11: Why he wants to know why you.
Speaker 15: Feel bad by being around people's sin was happening by
by age and get older, you get more wise to
what's happening. And I see things happening, I try to
go around. That's why I feel bad about it.
Speaker 18: I see, thank you.
Speaker 11: I have no person, mister Higginbos. You got any family?
You got any family? Yes? Now where are they at today?
Speaker 15: I got four sisters and two brothers. One my brother
he got Chamcer, he eighted three and one I'm in
swer Fort, the one you know, trying to stay by.
He got Champceer he hated three.
Speaker 9: I mean you know I want to be round him
for you.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 15: I got a lot of nephews and nieces and my
ruge baths Drop Monroe, swell Fort, bad Ruge.
Speaker 9: I got people all in California destroyed.
Speaker 16: I was just wondering why nobody's here with you today?
Speaker 11: Are there with you today?
Speaker 2: Do you know?
Speaker 9: I really don't know?
Speaker 15: My brother you would have been here, but they counts
the bard you don't want coming up as a siement.
Speaker 16: Okay, I see, all right, thank you, sir. I don't
see any other questions, mister Higginbotham, I think we're.
Speaker 11: Ready to vote. Mister Prater, my.
Speaker 17: Vote to deny. I think of the horrible nature of
the crime. I'm having troubles. I'm having trouble getting a
feeling of remorsefulness out of mister Higginbotham, and I feel
like that you would give.
Speaker 11: It a life sentence and unless things change that just
when you need to.
Speaker 18: Sir, mister tell Us, my vote is to recommend coming
his commutation of since ninety nine years with immediate eligibility
for perule Missus Stackleton, I'm working.
Speaker 19: My recommendation is to deny.
Speaker 11: This was a cruel brule.
Speaker 19: I'm against nature of a seventeen year old boy by
five men, which you were involved in. And I do
not find I couldn't hear any remorse statement either.
Speaker 16: All right, mister Higginbotham, you don't have any family here,
so I don't see any evidence of any family support.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 16: I will agree that your last write up was a
long time ago, and you you know you only had
twenty one write ups, but thirty percent of those were sexiphencies.
Speaker 11: I don't too.
Speaker 16: I have concerns about your lack of programming, particularly victim awareness.
So my vote today is going to be to deny
your application. So good luck to you, sir. Today your
application has been denied.
Speaker 4: So, as you heard, the clemency was denied, but shockingly
to me, at least one guy voted to recommend the clemency.
I mean, this dude was convicted of three counts of
aggravated rape. To me, I don't care how old you
are aggravated rape, you lose your shot at ever getting
released from present. In my view, it's my opinion. Yeah,
he's been in jail forty five years and that's right
where he's going to stay. And his excuse did you
hear that, Well, they were going to make me do
it or they were going to do it to me. Look,
that may be true, but it's no excuse right now.
If you're curious how common statistically this takes place throughout
the country, I'll give you the latest stats I could
find on that they're around ten thousand cases reported annually
of inmate on inmate rape, which, considering there's over one
point two million people that are currently incarcerated, that may
not seem like a large number. Now consider this, how
many inmate on inmate. Right cases go unreported, I personally
would think a lot. I would probably if I put
a number on it, I probably put fifty five to
sixty percent go unreported. These guys aren't going to tell
I mean, that'll get you killed in prison. You're a
right at that point, right, So how many actually get reported?
But I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
Do you think he should have been released at eighty
five years old? Yes, he's costing the taxpayer's money and
he's probably not at this stage of his life a
threat technically to anyone. But should he serve out the
sentence he was sentenced to, which is life? Let me know,
look quickly check out Crime Why Are Weekly. That's a
podcast I do with Kelly Jennings of Unspeakable, a true
crime podcasts by Kelly Jennings. It drops every Friday. We
cover the headlines in the world of crime all over
the country and even a few global crimes that we
tell in our unique way of telling it. So check
that out. And for those of you that may not
be familiar with Crime Wire Weekly, I'm going to play
just a short clip one story that we did from
the most recent episode of Crime Wire Weekly.
Speaker 5: All Right, well, look, we're gonna go into our neck
of the woods. And this is a story that's really
important to Jim and I both because it's including law enforcement.
So one deputy was killed and another was seriously injured
into shooting at the Ibberville Parish Courthouse on Monday night.
It's kind of a lot of people don't know this,
but we go by parishes here and not counties, so
we're different in that respect. Officials said that Deputy Charles
Riley and Captain Brett Stassey Junior were shot by Latrell
Clark at the courthouse before eight pm. Staplelice said that
deputies had brought Clark to the courthouse for questioning connected
to an ongoing sex crime investigation. That's when state police
say that Clark grabbed for the gun. Several shots were fired,
resulting in all three people being struck by gunfire. Deputy
Riley Clark died at the scene and Captain Stacy Junior
is fighting for his life. Please pray for the deputy
we lost and their family, and continue praying for Sheriff
Stasy's son. Every loss of an officer hits hard. Pray hard.
And that according to Attorney General Liz Merle. Now Parish
President Chris Dagole asked for prayers for the Ibberville Parish
community and for Sheriff Stacy's family as well. It's a
sad day today in Ibberville Parish and we're praying for
all of those involved. Ibberville Parish flags were lowered Tuesday
as the community warns the loss of Deputy Riley, and
a blood drive is being held for Captain Stacy Junior.
Speaker 11: Now.
Speaker 5: Clark had quite an extensive criminal history. He's been arrested
four times in East Batanige Parish and twice in Ibberville Parish.
Clark's earliest arrest in ebr was in twenty fifteen, when
he was indicted for tributing to the delinquency of minors
and possession of marijuana, but the case was dismissed two
years later. He was arrested again in twenty twenty for
driving a car that was stolen from Hertz rental company.
The following year, he was booked for stealing a different vehicle.
Clark was sentenced to one year of supervised probation on
a reduced charge of theft under one thousand dollars. Instead
of unauthorized use of amovable All other charges were dismissed.
In November of twenty twenty four. Clark had two active
warrants for him in East battanyge Parish, and documents say
he was accused of shooting a gun into a home
and a separate domestic violence incident. He was arrested in
December for battery of a dating partner, aggravated criminal damage
to property, illegal use of a weapon, and simple criminal
damage to property. Court records say he bonded out in
January of twenty twenty five, and he wore an ankle
monitor until April. In June, he was formally charged with
a misdemeanor domestic abuse battery charge.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and a couple things there in We'll just start
with the charges and I'll put a little bit of
context into that. So with regard to the shooting incident
where he was firing into the home, it was actually
his father's house, and he was also firing into the
truck of his father's And from what I understand, what
happened was he wanted to borrow his father's truck. His
dad told him no, he went to leave, and as
he was leaving, he popped like fifteen rounds into the
truck of into his dad's truck. He then calls someone
to pick him up, which was his girlfriend at the
time from what I understand, and his girlfriend comes and
picks him up, and he's so pissed off. He eventually
beats the shit out of her allegedly, and so that
was what led to the battery charge that you just
alluded to. But horrific situation. Of course, one of these officers,
Captain Stassey, his dad is sharing statsity is the sheriff
in Iberville, Perish and that puts him in a really
tough position because you know, you've got an officer that
has been killed, your own son has been shot, and
you know, horrifically injured. Like it wasn't just a grace,
I mean, he was seriously injured. And you've got to
not only be sheriff, but you've got to be a
dad at the same time. And I cannot imagine my
heart's thoughts, prayers and all that go out to him
and everybody who knew and loved both of these gentlemen.
I hate to see it anytime officers get shot, whether
it's close to home or not much less get killed.
It's senseless, all right.
Speaker 5: So obviously, in the court of public opinion, people who
are not in the know have no no concept whatsoever
of how law enforcement works. They're going to start interjecting
and saying, well, why was there a gun in there
in the first place? Okay, well, listen, typically there wouldn't
be you know, typically I guess best practices would be
no weapon in the interrogation room. But whatever the case
may be, there was a weapon. What it all comes
down to is that this guy, though decided in an
instant that he wanted to grab that gun and hurt
these officers, and he did it. So policies, I'm sure
we'll change, be updated, There'll be way more training now
on this. But I don't want to. I don't want
to rock back on policy and look like we're trying
to blame anybody for this. It's just people want to know,
how could this happen? What can we do better? Do
better in the future. Now I want to add this,
Thank God that uh Stassy is still hanging in there
in the hospital. Our prayers absolutely go out to that family,
to the officer that lost his life. His family's world
has forever changed. But there is something I saw personally
yesterday and I want to bring this up. My mother
is in the hospital and nine people, at minimum nine
strangers had to sit down, put out their arm and
give blood to have saved my own mother's life. This
past week. She got nine bags of blood that complete
strangers were willing to donate. And I want to thank
anyone who donates blood. But when I went yesterday to
go thank the blood bank and I wanted to do
some type of collaboration with them, I looked in the
waiting room and you know what I saw, Jim, I
don't know police officers invest in uniforms sitting there waiting,
and that's when it dawned on me, Oh my god,
they're here to give blood for a friend.
Speaker 8: What a gift.
Speaker 4: And you know one thing I didn't speaking of giving blood.
I never realized this till yesterday when another podcaster that
I deal with was doing her podcast and she does
local news here in Louisiana, and she mentioned that, you
know a lot of the benefits to you. I always
assume when you're giving blood it's because there's shortages of blood,
but actually it's a bill thing. You get charged for
giving blood. Yeah, I never are getting blood? Should I
say so? If you're in the hospital and you have
these big blood drives, it helps with your hospital bill.
I always thought it may I'm just ignorant that it
was just because you never want to run out of
blood at the hospital and people are giving it. Yeah,
that's definitely plays a part. But I yeah, that makes sense.
But I didn't know you build people for blood.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you get you get a credit and you can
say whose name you want to apply your blood credit to.
Speaker 4: And seen years on this earth, I didn't realize.
Speaker 5: Now you know, but you would be shocked how much
and I don't want to be labor this point here,
but how much blood donation has affected my own family
because my husband almost died and had multiple I mean
so many units of blood in a motorcycle accent and
now here I am, all these years later and my
own mother. So thank you to everybody that's giving blood,
that has given blood. And look, if you're looking for
something good to do, please go to our lady the
Lake on Essen Lane. It's it's quick and you can
give blood and you can save a life and reduce
a bill, and I think those are both great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I learned something new on that for sure.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Thoughts and prayers out to Sheriff Stassy and their family
in the all sir that was killed as well. Thoughts
and prayers to his family Clark. Yeah, Deputy Riley Clark,
his family and friends at all he knew and loved him.
Speaker 5: Amen.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for listening. Check out the Patreon
for commercial, free early releases, bonus episodes, and more. Patreon
dot com slash Bloody and Gola podcast and until next
time for Bloody and Gola, a podcast one and forty
two years in the making, the complete story of America's
bloodiest present Peace.
Speaker 2: Wall Street, Line, shackle, chain, some girdie.
Speaker 1: It's calling my name.
Speaker 3: There is no mercy and it's been a tentery Jesus
as the Hillstream game, Rango, the three.
Speaker 7: I'm here.
Speaker 1: By mere to die.
Speaker 3: Inside these walls, inside the wild.
Speaker 9: And when the girl, as I know
Speaker 3: It's oldbody, angle, obody, angle, impudent,