5: Who do you want to be?

Alligator Candy

USG Audio

Books, #Missingchildren, #Alligatorcandy, #Truestory, #Emmyrossum, #Truecrime, #Memoir, #Florida, Arts, #Missingchild, #Davidkushner, Kids & Family, Parenting, True Crime

4.9 • 614 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jonathan’s brothers fight for him, one last time.

Credits:

Jessica Grimshaw- For USG Audio

Josh Bloch- For USG Audio

Jennifer Sears- For USG Audio

Gretta Cohn- Executive Producer

David Kushner- Executive Producer, Host

Emmy Rossum- Executive Producer

Alex Sujong Laughlin- Producer

James T. Green- Producer, Sound Designer

Sara Nics- Executive Editor

Lacy Roberts- Managing Producer

Rick Kwan- Mix Engineer

Nocturnal Sound- Sound Design

This is a USG Audio Podcast in collaboration with Transmitter Media.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you covered cops or courts, you knew about this case.
0:04.1	It was just one of those things that you learned about Tampa when you came here,
0:07.0	particularly if you're around cops and prosecutors and people like that.
0:10.4	The story of my brother's murder came back into the news in the fall of 1997.
0:16.1	One of John's killers, Johnny Paul Witt, had been executed 12 years before.
0:23.1	The other one, Gary Tillman,
0:30.3	had been sentenced to life in prison. Now he was up for parole. Andy and I flew down to speak at the hearing. I was there on a mission. You know, that's how I personally felt. I was there on a mission
0:35.1	to put this guy away for the rest of his life. Make sure he never gets out. Look, you and I wanted to win. That's the bottom line. We wanted to win. We needed to win. So we were going to do whatever the fuck they told us to do, basically. I mean, for me, it was a bit, I'm sure for you too. I mean, it was, it was very vulnerable. It was very
0:56.4	vulnerable. It was very, I felt uncomfortable. I'm David Kushner. This is alligator candy. On the morning of the hearing, the St. Petersburg Times headline was,
1:35.3	Hearing will resurrect 1973 horror.
1:39.3	Sue Carlton wrote the piece.
1:42.3	I did reach out to your family before the parole hearing, and I think I was politely declined,
1:46.6	and that was fine. Even with the family not wanting to talk at the time, there was no lack of
1:52.1	people who were able to talk about how they felt about this guy.
1:55.4	Sue had been to other parole hearings, but not for a case as notorious as this.
2:00.9	I went super early, I remember, because I knew it was going to be a busy day and wanting to have a seat so I could see everybody and make sure that I could cover it.
2:12.4	The small windowless courtroom not only had all the other people waiting for their hearings,
2:18.3	there was also a row of reporters and cameras in the back.
2:24.1	I'd never spoken publicly about John's death.
2:28.1	As a journalist, I was used to writing the stories, not being the subject.
2:36.4	It was hard enough to have to make our statements at all, let alone having to do them while being filmed for the evening news.
2:43.5	You and I decided that, well, we decided that ahead of time that we didn't want our faces to be
	...

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