The Murder of Father Patrick Ryan Part 3: Railroaded

Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

Vincent Strange

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nearly a year after the murder of Father Patrick Ryan of Saint William Catholic Church in Denver City, Texas, a confession call came into Albuquerque, New Mexico 911. The confessor had already been interviewed by Odessa Police Detectives and eliminated as a suspect, but frustrated detectives and politically motivated prosecutors were chomping at the bit to close the case. Though the only evidence that this man, 26-year-old James Harry Reyos, had beaten the priest to death at the Sand and Sage Motel in Odessa was his drunken confession, he was convicted of the crime. The problem is, Reyos did not kill Father Ryan. Part 3 of 3.

If you have any information about the 1981 murder of Father Patrick Joseph Ryan, please call the Odessa Police Department at (432)335-496 or Odessa Crime Stoppers at (432)333-8477

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The Odessa American, the article “Who Killed Father Ryan?” by The Austin Chronicle’s Jordan Smith, Michael Hall’s Texas Monthly article “The Apache, the Irish Catholic Priest, and a 40-Year-Old Miscarriage of Justice,” the article “Man who denies murder of Limerick priest moves closer to seeing conviction quashed” by Ann Murphy in The Irish Examiner, NewsWest9.com, and Scott Lomax’s book “The Case of James Harry Reyos: A Wrongful Conviction Revealed” were used as sources for this episode.

#WhoKilledFatherRyan #PardonJamesHarryReyos #Odessa #OdessaTX #EctorCountyTX #Texas #TX #TexasTrueCrime #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #Homicide #UnsolvedMysteries #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we start, we'd like to thank everyone who helped out our special little girl reach
0:07.5	her goal of going to Girl Scout Diva Camp by buying cookies.
0:12.2	It means a lot to her and to us.
0:15.1	Thanks y'all.
0:16.4	Now onto the episode.
0:18.6	The Gone Cold Podcast may contain violent or graphic subject matter, listener discretion
0:23.4	is advised.
0:26.6	In November of 1982, the case of the murder of father Patrick Joseph Ryan was as cold as
0:33.5	they come.
0:35.6	By that time, detectives had chased down leads at home in Texas, neighboring states like
0:41.8	New Mexico, and even as far away as Washington State.
0:46.8	It had been nearly a year, and though the police in Odessa, Texas, seldom went a day without
0:52.7	thinking of the slain priest, particularly Detective Jerry Smith, investigation on the
0:59.2	case was basically inactive.
1:02.6	The cops had nothing.
1:05.3	That all changed on November 18, 1982, beginning with a 2 p.m. phone call to Albuquerque, New
1:12.1	Mexico 9-1-1.
1:14.5	9-1-1, which your emergency?
1:17.6	I know about a killing that happened in Odessa, Texas, involving a priest, a Catholic priest.
1:24.3	What is your emergency?
1:26.1	There's no emergency.
1:27.8	I would like to talk with the proper authorities about a murder that took place in Odessa, Texas,
	...

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