Sudden Attack: The Jason Johnson Case

0:06 Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell stories of real crimes with real victims, whose cases are so shocking that many are left wondering how is this even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections, and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator, dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning. Unspeakable as intended for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey, y'all, it's kJ You're back for another episode of Unspeakable. How's it going?

1:02 What are you doing? You know? I got to tell you something that happened to me in my own life this past week. And we went to a wedding, okay in Florida, and so we're sitting there. It was kind of like on the beach at this little bar thing. AnyWho, We're just standing there. My husband was in the wedding hanging out, and the preacher walks over and says, well, hey, during the wedding, you want to come stand next to me, and my husband, being the sweetheart that he is, said sure, I'll be there, and she said, I bet you will. And I'm like, what is going on here? And so she said, all right, so when the vows start, you're gonna do this, You're gonna do that, you can do this, You're gonna do that. And my husband's like, okay, okay, okay, and I said hold on a second, stop and they both looked at me, and I said, do you think he's the groom and she said, well yeah, I said, he is not the groom. That's the groom. And I pointed over to his cousin, who, by the way, they look just alike because their dads are identical twins. And she looked back at my husband and looked back at him.

1:54 She's like, oh my god. I said, honey, you are not You may be a preacher, but you are not gonna take my husband and marry him off to somebody else. You better watch your back. And she laughed and I laughed, and I was serious. So then after the wedding, I'm standing in the aisle and we're, you know, all talking or whatever, and she comes walking down and she bumps into me and I'm like, I know this preacher. Later, lady, don't want beef with me. We are at a wedding, and so she turned around and I said, first of all, you tried to marry off my husband. Now you want to bump into me, you better watch your back. And then she busted out laughing because she now I was just playing, and I hugged her and she said, you have just been such a joy. I said, I'd like to say the same about you, and then we laughed again and she walked off. Anyway, y'all better watch a'all's husbands if y'all go to weddings, because someone will straight up try to try to marry them off. Hey, I'll tell you what. I'll put pictures on my Patreon of my husband and his cousin, so y'all can see how much I'll like they do look and you know it was an honest mistake, but you better watch it all right now. I spoke about this case in the past during another podcast about how much I hated this man in this in this particular case, and then I realized I never actually did the whole case. So I'm gonna do it for you today. It gets my blood freaking boiling, Okay, And you know when we listen to cases about children getting hurt and how you're like, that's just a whole different level. You just don't go there. To me, this is this falls along those same lines, and so it caught my attention for a multitude of reasons. And this one isn't one that made huge waves necessarily in the media.

3:24 It's certainly one that's not in the news today. But the motive and the continued behavior after the fact really lends itself to why I am the way that I am, Why the why I think the way that I think? Whenever I'm presenting cases to you in the podcast. This is just a prime example of it. But this one's going to go back to nineteen ninety nine and it's going to take place in Joplin, Missouri. This was the home of twenty eight year old Jason Johnson. His friends called him JJ. When I tell you, Jason was a kind Christian athletic better than the average joe. It's sports.

4:08 I mean, just looking at him, you can tell that he was somebody and that he definitely was going to make a mark on the world is looking at him. He's a leaner, He's like an athletic black man that he kind of gives you the feel of like boys to men. Do you remember when they were at their their peak, that clean cut, fresh haircut. He just had that thing, that that it factor about him that just made him. You just knew he was somebody. He was educated. He was a psychology student at Missouri Southern, and he came from a very close family. He had two brothers, Brian and Darren, and his parents. I cannot tell you enough about his parents. Just listening to these guys talk, these are the best people saw of the earth, godly people, well dressed, articulate, Their home was manicured. Their essence about them just screams success. And Mom was very involved with her boys. She worked short hours when they were younger, so she could spend a majority of her time with her boys. She wanted to be a homemaker and be very involved in her children's lives, and something about her She always had hot breakfast on the table for her boys, and she always had dinner for them at night. They knew that they were loved and that they were taken care of, and they were wanted, and they were needed in her life. And Daddy, by the way, he was

5:40 there too. Daddy was there to support and take care of his boys. All the boys played sports, he was in church. He was just a good kid overall, and when mom was talking about him, she would say things like he was always smiling, and he he was loud when he laughed. He had that boisterous laugh that when you heard it, it made you laugh because it just was overwhelming. He was always with his mama when he was younger. He was a mama's boy. And she said that something that was always was precious to her about her son was that if one of his friends was having problems, he would call his mama and ask her to pray with him for their friends. And something I've learned, you know, in my lifetime, is that a friend who's willing to pray for you is a really good friend. Now, when he was little, they did learn that he had some learning disabilities. He was struggling. He was not doing well in school, so they got him tutoring. They actually pulled him out of public school and put him into private school for three years to kind of assist in his growth and make sure that he got a more one on one opportunity in the classroom. And once he got back on track, they figured out what some of his disabilities were in the learning in a learning environment. Afterwards, he excelled. He excelled in everything he played soccer, baseball, basketball, football, and football was his main love. And I'll tell you this, I know this about kids. We all know this. If

7:12 they are in sports as a pretty good indicator that they will do better in life. Now, did I just say if your kid doesn't play sports, I'm not going to do all life. I did not say that. What I'm saying was sports teach our kids a lot about trusting in others, team building, working, hard, work, ethic, sacrificing, right, putting in time. Sports are just an absolute wonderful pathway to adulthood to teach you about a lot about life. He was a Parkway North High graduate and he then went on to the University of Cincinnati. But he wasn't there very long before he called his aunt, not his mama.

7:52 He had called his aunt. Was talking to his aunt, and at eighteen years old, he was crying to his aunt because he wanted to be home with his family. He did not want to be stuck in the dorm. And a lot of his friends would go home during the holidays because a lot of them were local, and he couldn't he was home, and so he really wanted to come home. When his mama and his daddy found that out, they drove straight up there to get him right then and said, ain't no way, my child is not going to feel like this. And so right then he came home. And then he transferred to Missouri Southern, and while he was there, he worked at some different places, including the Gateway Youth Center because he loved kids. He loved interacting with them. They loved him. He was fun and they liked to be around him. He was a great role model for these kids. And he also worked at a place called the Finish Line where he was selling shoes and he just loved helping kids pick out their shoes. And he would like joke with the parents when they would come in and say, don't let this kid just come get shoes from anybody. They to come see JJ, right, He's going to get him the fast shoes.

8:56 So I think his character screams from what his life was like and the things that he did, and the fact he wanted to come home during the holidays. So typically, and I think you know me, if you've been listening to my show, if this is your first time. You may not know this about me, but normally I will give you such a great description about the characters in these stories which I had to use even use the word character. They're real people, the players in these stories. But race is not typically something that's of any consequence. It's not something I don't even think that I normally would bring it up. But in this case, it's gonna matter.

9:38 Jason was a black man and he was in a predominantly white area. But don't get it twisted. It's not what you think that. This is not going where you think it's going. This wasn't an issue because Jason was raised with people. Jason was raised to look at a person and determine if they were worthy of his time or not, ba on their heart and how they treated him, Like all of us, I would think and hope was how we were raised, right. I mean, obviously Jason could see color in people, but it made no difference. Matter of fact, majority of Jason's friends were white. So I know you're like, well, why are you even bringing this up? It?

10:20 Trust me, it's gonna matter. But even to bring it, bring it up. Jason's best friend, his name was Jerry Coble. Jerry was white, okay, so he interacted well with other people. The friendship group that he had, white people loved him. They're good people. Good people love good people. So Jason's birthday was September the twenty ninth, so on October the second, he and a few of his friends, Andrew Martin and Mark Wolfe. They met at a Joplin restaurant to celebrate his birthday, just a little bit late. So, you know, dinner was typical guy talk, sport, girls, whatever that whatever it does guys talk about. I don't know, I haven't gone to a I've never been a guy, but I assume that it was, you know, talking about work and plans and you know what guys talk about sports. They had a beer or two, you know, just a good time sitting at a restaurant, and afterwards they decided, you know what, let's go downtown. Let's go to a club, a nightclub, let's go, let's go have some fun. But Jason wasn't driving, and so when they left the restaurant, he went and got into Andrews nineteen ninety six Ford F one P fifty pick up, and Mark Wolfe followed them in his Camaro. Now, they decided on the way to the bar or to the club, that they were going to swing into a gas station, but only Jason was going to go inside. The other two guys waited out in the car, and so he goes inside and he picks up a forty ounce beer and a can of chewing tobacco. While Jason is waiting in line, there's

11:55 approximately seven or eight other patrons in the store, and this includes a woman that's standing directly in front of him, and her name is Tammy Lawson. In the timeframe, it's just before ten pm, and all the people are just standing there patiently waiting, you know, they're waiting for their turn to check out or whatever. And there is closed circuit television of this instance, and it looks like an average exchange and a gas station. Between all of the people, there's nothing of any noticeability happening. I've watched the video. People are standing in line, then they pay, then they leave.

12:38 So Jason paid for his items and then he returned back to the vehicle. So he and Andrew drove off, and Mark continued to follow behind them in his car, and eventually they came to a stop at the corner of Fifth Street and Joplin. So when they come to the red light and they stop, another vehicle pulls up alongside their vehicle, and then a man starts yelling at Jason through his open window. So the car that pulled up pulled up on the passenger side of the vehicle that Jason was in, so somewhat surprised by what was going on, Jason is hearing this man yell whatever at him, and so he responds back. So they kind of start exchanging words for a few seconds, and it was almost like, you know, there's no video of this, obviously, but it's almost like you get the gist that Jason was kind of somewhat taken by surprise, and then like, who the hell are you? Like, what are you talking about? Kind of was the exchange. And in a matter of those seconds of the words being exchanged, the driver of the vehicle that had pulled up beside Jason jumped out of his vehicle, lunged in the window, and stabbed Jason through the neck. Blood began spurting out with every heartbeat that Jason had, and Jason and didn't realize it, but his jugular had been completely severed as well as his carotid being nearly completely severed, so not realizing that he was

14:11 mortally wounded, Jason opened up the door and came out of the car, and he staggered toward his assailant, and he had a beer bottle, that forty ounce beer bottle in his hand, and he attempted to throw it at the guy who had just stabbed him in the neck. But just as quickly as that stabbing had happened, and Jason opened his door and staggered out, the assailant jumped back in his vehicle and it sped away. So completely stunned by what had just happened, the men all scrambled to assist Jason, who had then just collapsed right there in the roadway. He didn't make it five steps. So some good Samaritans from a cafe that was nearby, some good Samaritans kind of heard the ruckus and they came and ran outside and they all tried to help Jason.

14:57 They even got some towels and clothing and they were trying to stop the blood that was just gushing out of his body. And one worker ended up calling nine to one one to try to save him and get somebody there. We need help. Now there's blood pouring out of this victim, So an ambulance was dispatched and they responded within minutes, just minutes of the stabbing. But as we all know, a completely severed jugular vein and a damaged carotid artery is likely not something many people will survive. So if you're not familiar real quick with the body, I thought it would be important to explain to you that the jugular vein is a very important vein that you have running through your neck because it's going to ensure that the blood is going to flow smoothly to and from the brain right and throughout the head, and that requires a lot of oxygen. If the jugular vein is cut, not only can the victim bleed to death, or if it's severed, not only can they bleed to death, but they very quickly can start suffering brain damage because of the lack of the oxygen flow. And another issue that Jason was facing in that moment was that, due to the severity of the wound in his neck, his blood was draining back into his airway, so he's starting to aspirate and suffocate. But in a short time, those paramedics got there, they were able to get to him.

16:15 He was already unresponsive, but they did their best to keep him alive and get him to the hospital. Now, when Jason arrived at the hospital, he was in very serious condition. His stab wound was bleeding profusely, and as it was noted that stab wound was about five to six inches deep, and he had now been without oxygen for a while. So, just for just your own sake, whatever you're doing right now, think about the depth of your neck. Look like, feel your neck, put a pin up to your neck. Imagine a knife going through your neck to give you the perspective of how badness was.

16:56 So Jason's friend started to make some phone calls because they were like, we got to alert his face of what is going on. They need to get here, and they need to get here now. So one person ended up calling Jason's girlfriend, who in turn called his mother to break the news to her that her baby boy was seriously injured. His parents had settled in for the night. They were just relaxing and watching TV when their phone rang. Miss Charlie, that's Jason's mama's name. Miss Charlie said that she answered the phone and she just recalls how slowly and deliberately Jason's girlfriend was speaking to her. It wasn't the normal conversation. And she said, Miss Charlie, Jason got cut.

17:44 And she said cut. What do you mean he got cut? How is he? And she said, I really think you guys need to come. You need to come up to this hospital and see him. And Miss Charlie said that she just froze in place. She didn't know what to do. It was like she was numb. She couldn't move. Her child was hours away and she couldn't get to him quickly. So to verify what was going on and to understand Jason's daddy jumped on the phone and called the hospital where he was to kind of figure out what was going on, and they confirmed this was not just bad, this was very serious. And my heart hurts for Jason's friends, even in this instance because my own husband. By the way, if you've been a follower, you might know that he had a traumatic brain injury due to a motorcycle accident so bad they actually lined him in chalk on the ground because they thought he was dead. And his best friend at the time, Eric had to make that phone call to his mother, who by the way, had already lost her other son in a traumatic boating accident, and say something's wrong, and she was like, oh, oh my god.

19:00 And he had to break the news to her that I'm pretty sure Blake's dead. Thank god he wasn't. But can you imagine even that in and of itself has to be just so sickening, so rough. Not to mention that this was senseless, It didn't make sense. So, realizing that they were not equipped, Daddy called a friend and said, Jason's hurt. We need help. We're about to go drive and see him. And the friend said, no, you're not, y'all do not need to be driving. I'm coming to get you. Loaded up the both of Jason's parents and took them to the hospital. Now it was a drive to get there, and that night, Miss Charlie said that it was lightning and that it was storming and it was really bad weather. And she said she turned and she looked out the window of the vehicle and all she could see was like this image of Bill Cosby.

19:54 Now I want to stop real quick. I know, in twenty twenty four, this sounds weird Bill Cosby because of what we know now and you know the whole history with Bill Cosby, but I want you to remember that this was the nineties. It was the peak of Bill Cosby's career, and he was very loved and you know, he was the dad right on TV. Well, what a lot of people may not know about Bill Cosby, or maybe you do, but he had a son who had just recently been murdered, his only son. Matter of fact, Ennis Cosby was the only son of Bill Cosby, and he was murdered in January of ninety seven. He was on the Interstate four h five in Los Angeles and he was shot in the head by an eighteen year old during a failed robbery attempt. Innis was only twenty seven years old. So what Miss Charlie was saying here, I understand what she's saying. Now. All she could think of was Bill Cosby and he had just gone through this with his son, and now here she is with her son basically the same age. And her whole thing was, Oh, my god, I don't want to go through what Bill Cosby just went through. I don't want to feel that.

21:00 I don't want I don't want that to happen to my baby boy. So as Jason's mama was coming to grips with the horrors she was likely to face when she arrived at that hospital. The detectives were on the scene trying to determine what had happened to Jason, and as most of you are probably wondering, why why did this happen? They were at a red light? What could have possibly gone down? Now, to be completely transparent, there's not a lot I have on exactly how the investigative process, you know, went step by step. Because this is an older case. I think that's probably why. But due to I guess my experiences, I'm going to pretty much put together how I think this went down. I may be off a little bit, but we're just going to go with filling in the gaps. But I'm not making anything up, if that makes sense. So at the gas station, there was closed circuit television that cc titer that I told you about, and so remember the men stopped there right before Jason was stabbed. So the friends on scene were easily able to describe the suspect. They were able to describe what vehicle he was driving, and they also were able to tell police, Hey, we stopped at a gas station right before we came here, so it would make sense that police would go back to pull that closed circuit television, which is exactly what they did. So when you go look at the closed circuit television, you can see all the people that were inside, and then you

22:32 can probably see the vehicles that were outside in the parking lot. It was pretty easy to see a connection here that the vehicle that pulled up next to Jason when he was stabbed was the same vehicle that that woman, Tammy, that was in front of Jason got into that Ah, okay, you see how that kind of went down. So it was at this point police are like, all right, well we want to go talk to Tammy. We want to figure out, well, what's going on here, So let's talk a little bit about Tammy. Tammy is a white woman in the CCTV. She looks to be in her late thirties, maybe her early forties. You only kind of get the back of her head a lot of it, and she's got that curly brown hair. It kind of looks like every woman in a bar in the late eighties that she looked hard, like she was rode hard and put up wet. How you want me to say it people, I'm trying, all right. So police wanted to dig deeper into kind of what she was about, and so they found that she had a living boyfriend who was forty three year old Gary Black. Now Gary was no church boy by any stretch of the imagination. Matter of fact, digging deeper into Gary's lifestyle, it would become quite apparent that he was a quite unlikable fella. And his job, if you were curious, was he was a pimp. Pimp pimp.

23:53 I wonder if you put that on his tax returns. So, to be honest, I'm gonna tell you something real quick, I'm not sure that they were actually boyfriend and girlfriend. I felt I feel like this was more of like a pimp prostitute situation because guess what, Tammy was a prostitute. She was out there tooting around town and they just happened to live together. I don't think so. So I felt like this was more of, like I said, a pimp prostitute relationship. They lived together and they were both known to be methadicts, So you're kind of seeing what I'm what I'm going at here. So this this whole pimp prostitute thing could honestly be like an entire episode in and of itself. But I'm gonna give you a brief look real quick into the lifestyle of the pimp, because something that I've learned is that a lot of people don't actually understand what pimp and prostitute role is.

24:49 We almost people dress up as it for Halloween. We kind of laugh about it almost in a way, and it is funny to see people dressed up as a pimp because it's so ludicrous. But the reality is some people are actually living this lifestyle. So I'm going to take the time to explain this because it's going to play an indirect role in the outcome of the case. All Right, pimps are always going to refer to the prostitutes that they control as their girlfriends or as their women. They'll say, and the pimps are going to say, my boyfriend. Why because they're not going to admit to the police or to other people that they're being controlled by this other male. So they're going to make it like it's a relationship. And the reality is that a lot of people get it in their head that prostitutes are kind of like the movie Pretty Women, that they have Hearts of Gold and that they're just on hard times. But that's not always the case, and very rarely is prostitution anything like the movie Pretty Women are Pretty Women. These are typically drug addicted women who sell their bodies in exchange for money and more likely dope. Okay, nobody becomes a prostitute for the money. These women become prostitutes because they are addicted and they will do anything to get the dope. That's why they're doing it. And the thing is, it's tough out there on these streets, and it's a really hard business to be in. Prostitutes get killed, they get beat up, you know, it's like being in prison.

26:17 You have to make some sort of alliance for safety reasons. That's the reality of it. And so there's even a lot of there's a lot of studies that are literally dedicated to prostitution and the role of the pimp and prostitution, But the average citizen isn't gonna go research to get these realities of prostitutions. But I wanted to give you a couple of stats here to put it into perspective. There's an organization called the Whisper Organization, and they found that ninety percent of prostitutes are pimp controlled ninety percent. That's why I'm telling you what I'm telling you about this boyfriend girlfriend relationship. I just don't buy it. The US Department of Justice even contends their data is that at fifty percent of prostitution is controlled by pimps. Obviously, though if you're not someone who's ever done this type of studying, it's a social science that's driven by data that we collect through interviews with prostitutes. So it makes data collection kind of iffy, But there's still a trend here that you're seeing. Okay, either way, whatever their relationship was, a warrant was cut for the arrest of Gary Black because he was the boyfriend and he was the one in the car with her. They were able to track him down in Oklahoma and they did place him under arrest for that Missouri warrant that they had cut. Now, I know I've mentioned search incidental to arrest before, but kind of in that realm of things, while they were taken, the police were taking inventory of the things inside of

27:48 Gary's car. Police located none other than an empty knife sheath. Now, I don't believe in coincidences. I tell you that all the time, and neither should you. When police took Tammy aside and they were questioning her, she told them that she was in the car when the vehicle stopped and when the stabbing took place, and she said, and look, after we drove away, Gary had thrown the knife into a grassy area that was near a cemetery. Where's the cemetery, Tammy? She said, it's about twenty blocks from where the stabbing occurred. And she was able to give that information. So police went on their way trying to find that knife. Back at the hospital, Jason's family was praying for a miracle, but that miracle would not come. Doctors spoke with the parents and they had to break the news that their son was going to remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his life because he had severe brain damage from the loss of oxygen, and because of that loss of oxygen and because of the lack of the blood flowing, he had suffered multiple strokes. And he was currently alive simply because he was on life support. So his parents made the heartbreaking decision that having him alive and in a vegetative state was just not what was best for him. Mss Charlie said, my son was lively, and he was loving, and he was playful, and this

29:19 is not the life he would want. He would not want to do this. And I admire a mother's wherewithal to differentiate between wanting her son with her so bad, but understanding that that's not what was best for him. She took self out of it. She recognized he was only remaining alive because of the machinery and the life support, and in order to even keep him alive and sustain his life, he would need great amounts of medical intervention along the way. So she made the decision and his daddy made the decision that they would remove the life support, and three days after Jason was stabbed in the neck stranger, he was pronounced dead at the hospital. His mama said later in an interview, this is a quote I remember saying, Jesus is waiting on you. He's waiting on you, and it's gonna be okay. And that's when my son took his last breath. I was there when my baby took his first breath, and unfortunately, I was there when my baby took his last breath. So on October the fifth of nineteen ninety eight, Jason Johnson was pronounced dead. This was no longer now a serious assault with a deadly weapon or anything of that nature. This was a murder.

30:43 So police did more questioning to find out what led to this stabbing, and it turns out what Tammy had to say is so vile. It is so vile in conjunction with what Gary had to say that I know for a fact that evil is real and this case will serve as proof to you. Tammy claimed that while they were in the gas station, Jason made an unwanted sexual advance towards her and she was hurt by this, and that Gary took it upon himself to address it. Now, the reason I find her statement so incredibly vile is because, like I told you, I've watched the video, I've watched the supposed interaction at the gas station, and the answer is there was none. There was no interaction between the two of them. Jason did nothing to that woman, and that fact that she would make this up and it then in turn resulted in Jason's death, I find that to be disgusting. Yet, when Jason exited the store, that's when Tammy went back to the car. With Gary and pointed him out and said, that's him. That's the guy that made a pass at me. It did not happen.

32:13 I am telling you, it did not happen. When people lie, y'all, it makes me so angry. And when a woman lies at a level like this, it pisces me off. This is the same type of nonsense that got emit Till killed. And if you're not, if you don't know that case and its role in history, you need to go do a little research on that. So Gary, under question it and real quick, let me go back to And she's also the type of woman that makes it really hard for legitimate sexual assault victims. She's doing a disservice to every woman. It's it's it's disgusting. So Gary, then under questioning, would start explaining that Tammy, you're gonna love. This's ready.

33:00 Tammy wasn't his girlfriend, Like off the top, he says, that ain't my girlfriend. He said she's a prostitute and I was thinking about taking her under my wing. So we'll just start there, okay. His account of things is that he was working in his pimp roll when they stopped at the gas station. He said Tammy needed cigarettes, and then when she came out of the store, she was clearly upset and said that a black man rubbed up on her butt, and so she turned around to tell him to get away from her, and at that point that black man grabbed her, grabbed her by her hand, and pushed her up against the counter. And that's when Gary said, that's when I realized that that black guy was trying to take my prostitute as his own. Are you listening to what I am telling you? Jason did nothing of the sort. These two fucking cuckoo could choose are out on another planet. And that's when Gary said, that's completely unacceptable in my world. He's not going to do that to me on my turf, So he said, when the black guy exited the store, he said, boy, I want to talk to you, and that's when he said.

34:29 Jason tore off, running and jumped into a brand new Ranger truck. He told Tammy get in and they tore off following that truck. He said, we caught up within about five seconds of the time that we drove off, and I pulled up alongside him at the light, and he admitted he said Tammy was screaming, oh God, please don't do this. Well, you know what, Tammy, you should have been screaming, Oh God, please don't do this, because you are a liar. But he looked at Tammy and he said, I reassured her I was about to kill his black ass. That's a quote from him, not me. Gary then said he stepped out of the car, but the quote black guy stepped out with a bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag. End quote. Gary said, that's when that black man yelled out at me, you want some of me, old man. And he said it made me mad, so he said nothing but your bucking ass. Boy, I can't help it. But the way that this guy's telling the story, I can't help it. I'm envisioning Yosemite sam Oh. I say, boy, this is what I did.

35:28 But like he's such an ignorant ass. And if you're looking at him while he talks, he's smug. He looks like everyone from the backwoods racist villa of anywhere. Bald on top, long hair on the sides. Just gross, just absolutely gross. And he said, that's when the black guy swung the beer bottle. But I dropped down to my knee and raising up with my blade already out, I stabbed over my shoulder, Like, what, what are you a ninja? Is that what you're claiming happened here? He claimed he swung up over his shoulder, which is why the blade landed into the side of the guy's neck. So, asking what happened next, he said, well, that's when the arterial spray of blood it just shot out everywhere. It was like four four to six feet. It was just spraying out like a garden hose. And he said, I stepped back, and that's when the guy staggered back towards his truck.

36:27 So I got in the car, threw the knife on the dash, I closed the door, and it was all in self defense. If he hadn't charged at me, I wouldn't have stabbed him. All right, Cool, I'm gonna tell you real quick, it's really hard to believe this because if you look at the crime scene photos, there's a ton of blood in the truck where Jason was sitting. So, I mean, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. If he was stabbed running towards Gary, then wouldn't the blood be there if he came up in his amazing ninja move and stabbed him in the neck. Why was the blood in the car? Just gonna throw that out there. I do have the photos. I'll put on patron for you. But then he says something right after that last statement of self defense that made my head literally snap back, like almost in a visceral response, where I said, excuse me, I could not believe he said it. He said at that point Tammy was panicking and said, oh my god, what happened. And that's when he openly admitted And this is a direct quote, and I won't use the language, but you'll get the gist of it. He said, quote nothing, honey, It's just another in word down end quote. Even if I was on board and willing to believe parts of his story, or if I was even willing to entertain the self defense

37:57 claims and try to put that into a plausible thing, that line and the use of that word against that man that he just murdered, throughout everything in terms of credibility for me as a human being, I have goosebumps. If you're watching me on patree, if you're watching me podcast right now, I have literal goosebumps. I cannot believe that someone would say that I can, But are you kidding me? What would make you even think someone would align with your thought process there? So I sat on that for a second trying to figure it out. And so I'm like, either he's a flaming racist, which doesn't look good for him, or he's trying to just be billy badass, which also doesn't look good for him. So I'm not sure why you would say that last line. Anyway.

38:46 The only thing it proved to me is that you have hate in your heart. Gary, You're hateful. That line and self defense cannot coincide. They just can't. And I did so much research on Jason. I spent so much time getting to know him as a human being. I never met him in this lifetime, but I certainly got to know him through court records and interviews with his mother and other, you know, media methods of research that I did. And what I can tell you for a fact is that this man that he referred to as the in word is one of the most vile. It's one of the most vile things that I have encountered.

39:27 And I think, considering the stories that I tell on this podcast, it says a lot. It's just so it's so ill fitting and inappropriate. To have total and complete disregard for the life of another human being is something I just can't relate, you know. It kind of makes me think of that. There's a y'all listen to Billie Eilish. I don't know, maybe you don't, but there's a song she does, and she she says, you know, I can't relate to you, no, because I'd never treat me this shity, and that line just sticks with me. I cannot relate to him. I just can't understand being so hateful towards another human being and knowing that you've killed him, and yet you refer to him as a racial slur. And it tells me everything I need to know about you, Gary Black. You are a racist and you are a hateful human being. But what if, if you're not already just disgusted, what if I told you that this wasn't Gary's first time in deep trouble with the law. I will stand and die on this hill, and I don't give a shit who doesn't agree with me. I will preach harsher penalties until the cows come home. And this case will serve as just another great example why before I even get to the outcome of Jason's murder case, I feel compelled that I have to I have to

40:59 tell you there's more to this story. When the justice system fails to do what it is supposed to do, and when people are not held completely, fully responsible in full, if they do not pay in full for the crimes that they commit, it leaves room for people like Jason Johnson to be murdered. So what exactly am I talking about? Well, guys, the more you research, the more you know. And this led me to realize that Gary was already an established criminal. Do any of my listeners see a trend here? Why do these people get to offend over and over again?

41:43 A simple check into Gary's past verifies that he not only has a long criminal behavior, but he has a long violent behavior. In March of nineteen seventy six, on a Friday night, Jackie Clark Webb was driving through town in hopes of showing his girlfriend a good night out, and while driving, they came to a stop at kind of an off the beaten path and behind them a vehicle pulled in and blocked them in. They didn't know who this was, so he turns and he looks out the window, and that's when another man approached them, and before he could even say anything or react, that man put a sawed off shotgun in Jackie's face and then claimed to be a police officer. Being a good decent person Jackie, by the way, who grew up to be a high ranking firefighting firefighter, he followed what this person was telling him to do because he respected the law and he respected law enforcement. That man made him get out of the car, pushed him up against it, and made him stand spread eagle with his hands up. And at that point, the so called police officer, obviously a lie, kept that shotgun in his face while he stole Jackie's wallet and the keys to his car. It's sick, but

43:13 that's not even the worst part. He then, after taking exactly what he wanted from Jackie, shot him with the shotgun. Jackie collapsed on the side of the road. The man jumped in the car and he sped away. There in the dark. Jackie lay alone, dying, and he knew it. He couldn't get help for himself, and he felt that slow creep of death upon him in the dark, by himself on an unbeaten path. Lucky for him. I guess God right. Someone called paramedics. They found him and they rushed him to the hospital, where they found over forty pellets in his body, including two in his heart. He had to have his spleen removed and they had to take away half of his lung. I don't know what he was thinking while he lay there in the dark, but I do know what he was feeling, because Jackie amazingly survived, and he talked about how cold he became.

44:31 He was laying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, and he said, I felt cold, just start creeping up my arms. Eventually my arms were numb, I couldn't feel them, and then my body became so cold, and I just knew. I knew I was dying, but I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything. But he lived. He made it, and the police would later identify none other than that son of a bitch, Gary Black I've been talking about as the assailant, and after fully expecting to murder Jackie, he left him on the side of the road for dead, but Jackie lived. I want you to ask me what was he sentenced to for pulling someone over, robbing them and then shooting them with a sawed off shotgun. I want you to ask me what the penalty was? You ready twenty five years? You ready for this? And it's more common than you think. He was released after only serving twelve years. How long do you think the recovery period was for Jackie? Because I'm gonna argue maybe the bad guy should stay behind bars at least until this victim is recovered. The dude lost along,

46:06 he had to have surgery. I have some pictures with the scars. It's incredible. And he served twelve years. And this is why my podcast I feel so passionate about it. And it's so important to understand sentencing and parole opportunities and what all of that means. And if you don't know what good time means or double good time means, respectively, let me let you in on a little something. Good time. This is real. Good time is a reward for prisoners who exhibit good behavior, such as following rules, they participate in programs, if they complete their job assignment. So it's basically a earn an early released credit system. For example, I'm in Louisiana. Last time I checked, an inmate gets thirteen days of credit for every seven days they are an actual custody served. Now, this does not count in violent offenses in Louisiana. As matter of fact, I did some research on this, and I think the laws have just been updated in twenty twenty four legislative session. But still they're good for seven days behind bars, so they get thirteen days credit. I wish I could go to fucking work work seven days, get paid for thirteen. That'd be great. But no, I don't get that. But they get the credit for acting normal, for acting normal, and considering, I'm gonna be honest, considering when this case took place, I don't even know if good time was a thing then,

47:38 but he definitely got out early, and he only served just at half his sentence. Something was in play. So Jackie nearly dies, suffers tremendously, and his attempted killer does only half of his sentates. Tell me what I'm missing here? Tell me if Gary Black hadn't been released early, then he wouldn't have been out on the streets to do what he did to Jason. Period. It wouldn't have happened. It couldn't have happened. Do you recall my older cases I've done Reagan toakes, maybe comes to mind that she was raped and murdered and by an offender who should have already been behind bars and been tracked like we need to get a grip in society. Going back to Jason's case, Tammy Lawson later told police during questioning that Gary's anger increased when Jason allegedly yelled at them, and she said that Jason screamed out calling her a bitch and a whore, and the two men exchanged words from the vehicles. Well, seeing what I saw on the tape from the gas station and knowing her relationship with Gary, it looks like she actually is a lying bitch and a whore. If I'm being honest, I don't think Jason really said it, but if he did, it also looks like he might have been spot on. Sorry, not sorry, I said what I said. This case, it did end up going to trial, and Gary stood by his self defense claim, but the jury saw straight through it. Something

49:10 I noted is that even after all of the years of court, which I'll explain a second, was a long time. Even after everything that had gone down, Gary Black knew Jason Johnson's name, but he continues to refer to him as the black guy. He doesn't even have the decency of using Jason's name. I would also like to tell you this, It couldn't have been a self defense case. You know why, because Gary followed Jason for over a mile for nearly ten minutes before getting out of his car, walking over, reaching through the window, and stabbing Jason in the neck. They don't align whatsoever. That's not self defense.

49:55 You don't follow someone in self defense. But this case would eventually be turned over to an all white jury, And let me tell you something. In less than two hours, that all white jury found Gary Black guilty of the first degree murder of Jason Johnson. And during the penalty phase, the jury cided two statutory aggravators, meaning two things that made it worse to them. One his previous serious assault of convictions and number two is just absolute depravity of mind. In essence, what that jury said was he was just pure, consistent evil. That jury may have been all white, but honey, all they saw was red. This case was legitimate good versus evil. Jason's mom matter of fact, didn't even ask for the death penalty, but the jury gave it. Anyway, We could all applaud now right, but you always know there's more with me. He would eventually appeal his death pen three times until the state decided to offer him a plea deal. If he would admit guilt in exchange, they would give him life in prison and take him off of death row. And guess what it was, it was accepted. This is when I just I'm telling y'all, I'm gonna die of a heart attack because this is the shit that makes me just want to explode. Gary's

51:28 own attorney spoke out against the death penalty, saying, what good does it do to kill somebody who's killed somebody else? Well, to me, the answer lies in this very story. If they would have killed Gary the first time he tried to kill someone, he wouldn't have had the chance to get out and actually kill a second person. That's what good it does. It stops violent offenders. He then went on to say that there's no magic wand that we can wave to know if someone will reoffend or not. Well, uh, there kinda is. It's called a custody behavior report. Are you curious to know how Greg acted behind bars? Are you curious? Because I can share some insight I've got my magic glittery wand and I'm ready to amaze you with some facts. Gary broke a broom handle over the head of another inmate in nineteen eighty two during a fight.

52:30 In nineteen eighty six, he admitted to beating the shit out of another prisoner. He was investigated for stabbing an inmate in nineteen ninety three. In nineteen ninety five, he was placed in disciplinary segregation for fighting other prisoners and while awaiting trial for Jason's murder. While awaiting trial for murder, he attacked one of the jailers in injuring him so badly that it left his left eye impaired permanently. So I guess, bippity boppity boom, motherfuckers, I guess you know.

53:12 How's that's for some magic insight for you. I don't even know what to say. It blows my mind. I can add a little extra sorcery on top of it. How about some context clues. How about we look at how Gary chooses to decorate his body. Tattoos are amazing sources of trickery. I guess that this attorney isn't ready for Gary is a white supremacist. It's through and through you can. It's documented all over his body. He's got vast artwork, including the double lightning bolts the Nazi the Nazi lightning bolts common indicators of the AB or the one two. Whereas people would call it on the street, I guess the Aryan Brotherhood. The average Joe doesn't, I guess look for this. Even the prison. The prison uses him by name Gary Black. The prison specifically specifically uses his name as a case study for jailers and correctional officers.

54:13 They use him as a case study because when they are talking about the master manipulation tools of inmates behind bars, he is literally their poster child. A quote from one of the captains that has overseen Gary behind bars for years said, and this is a direct quote. She said, quote, you know, we have some behavior modification techniques that's basically like loss of privileges, so we don't let him out of their cell for many hours. But Gary doesn't care if they take away anything from him. Gary doesn't care. Even if he gets locked in a cell by himself, he yells out and he gets other inmates I'm assuming ones that are also Arian Brotherhood because they work together.

55:00 He gets other inmates to go and do his bidding for him. And this is a quote that she said that stuck with me. She said he lives on the torment of others. She also equipped, I don't know if I even have the words to describe how racist Gary Black is, adding that he uses mental attacks and psychological warfare against everyone. He is aggressive, angry, evil, and a threat no matter where he is. And y' all, this is coming out of the mouth of the people who deal with him daily, not just the people who see him dressed decently in court for a hearing. And I know that there are soft hearted people out there, and I do appreciate them. They add value to this world. However, with all due respect, they need to step aside when it comes to dealing with these monsters. You are not equipped to understand the evil that is around us if you have never been around it. His attorney also said that everyone does bad things, but we still have to see them as human. I don't think keeping Gary behind bars is really necessary. All of his anger and hate has passed. It's not benefiting anyone at this point, when his attorney said that Gary was seventy two years old, so rather than even go all rather than even address

56:31 his statement about what he said. Remember, we still have to see him as human beings, and keeping him behind bars isn't really benefiting anyone at this point, as anger has passed. Rather than address the statement, I'm just going to read a direct quote from Gary himself at the age of seventy two, nearly thirty years after he murdered Jason. Quote. I do not regret the death of Jason Johnson. He was a fake player. He stepped into a game that he knew nothing about. He wanted to play a pimp, and when he played, he was dead. Nothing matters to me, nothing means anything to me. I'm just a killer. End quote.

57:20 So many people, by the way, went to Jason Johnson's funeral. They actually had to bring charter buses because there was no parking. And his mama, Charlie, said she was so incredibly proud of this, and she said, I cling to the fact that we did a good job and we raised a good man. And she said she felt close to him because of that. And I have to say, ride on with you, miss Charlie. You raised the hell of a man. And following her son's death, this mama missed Charlie Johnson started her own prayer ministry, and she said, God is always our refuge, and he is always our strength. And the anger that I had has changed. She said, as a Christian, I have to forgive, and it took a long time, but I can tell you sincerely that I have forgiven him. She also said that she didn't want him executed, and real quick this will show you how mature this woman is and how confident she is in her words. She said, I didn't want him executed because I wanted him to have enough time to feel remorseful.

58:30 And she said, I hope that for the rest of his life he sees the face of Jason Johnson. I admire that woman's strength, her resolve, and honestly her class. Through all of this, she had every reason to not be But something else Gary said continues to echo in my mind as well. He said, and this is a quote. I'm definitely a racist. I grew up in the Klan end quote and he said it was such anger and with a chip on his shoulder. Well, Gary, I grew up in Louisiana, where we take care of one another.

59:11 And to that note, one of my very good friends happens to be a man named Kevin, and you, sir, if you ever met Kevin, would probably first notice that he happens to be a black man. But my relationship with Kevin is purely based not on the color of our skin, but on the content of our character. And I love my friend. I would go to war for my friend, and he knows it, and I feel he'd do the same for me. Likewise, Jason's best friend was a white man. Matter of fact, his best friend even shaved his head in honor of his late best friend over a joke that they had between each other that white men can't rock a bald head like black men do.

1:00:02 Do you know he still wears his head bald to this day, thirty days later, in honor of his friend. What a tribute to an unbreakable friendship. I mean, even death couldn't stop it. And I bet that just pisses you off. Gary. So to that point, race doesn't matter when you love people for who they are, when it comes to protecting what is good and what is right. I'm just gonna say, with the same tenacity that you taut your racism, that I came into this world kicking screaming and covered in somebody else's blood, and I have no problem going out the same way