The Trail Went Cold - Episode 284 - Earlene Barksdale

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.5 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 July 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

July 7, 1973. Tampa, Florida. The nude body of 34-year old Earlene Barksdale is discovered in the back office of the children’s clothing store she owns and she has been raped and shot in the head in an apparent robbery. Police soon focus on a suspect named Joseph Green Brown, who was involved in a similar robbery at another location on the exact same date. After he is implicated by an accomplice, Brown is charged, convinced and sentenced to death for Earlene’s murder. However, even though Brown comes dangerously close to being executed, the case against him is fraught with problems, so his conviction is eventually overturned and he is released from prison in 1987. Even though there seems to be evidence which implicates Earlene’s spouse as a possible alternate suspect, no one else is ever charged with her murder. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore a very controversial and complex murder case which has contained a number of shocking developments over the past five decades. Additional Reading: https://www.cltampa.com/news/who-killed-earlene-barksdale-12238174 https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2001/05/31/the-story-with-an-ending-we-ll-never-know/ https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-05-10-mn-6644-story.html https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetailpre1989.aspx?caseid=36 http://www.floridacapitalcases.state.fl.us/Documents/Case_updates/Htm/042546.html https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/yes-im-angry-yes-im-bitter-im-frustrated https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/supreme-court/1980/46925-0.html https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/785/1457/275908/ https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2012/09/30/facing-another-murder-charge/29124588007/ https://www.deseret.com/2012/9/26/20438164/man-once-on-death-row-faced-financial-problems “Dead Wrong: A Death Row Lawyer Speaks Out Against Capital Punishment” by Michael Mello “The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content. “The Trail Went Cold” will be appearing at the True Crime Podcast Festival, taking place at the Westin Park Central Hotel in Dallas, Texas on August 27-28, 2022. To purchase tickets, please visit https://truecrimepodcastfestival.com/ “The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on GetVokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website. The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote. All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, before we begin this episode, I just want to play a quick promo for another true crime podcast titled Citizen Detective.
0:07.0	Do you obsess over cold cases?
0:09.0	Do you go down endless rabbit holes on online forums, searching for clues to solve your pet case?
0:14.0	Are you an armchair sloothe?
0:15.4	If so, we'd like to invite you to check out our new podcast, Citizen Detective.
0:19.5	I'm Mike Morford.
0:20.6	I'm Nomekates.
0:21.7	And I'm Dr. Lee Mellor. We work hand in hand with citizen detectives just like you to examine some of the most puzzling unsolved mysteries out there.
0:29.0	Citizen Detective is out right now. A new episodes drop every other Saturday.
0:33.0	Subscribe now so you don't miss a single episode of Citizen Detective.
0:37.0	July 7th, 1973, Tampa, Florida.
0:44.0	The nude body of 34-year-old Erlene Barksdale is discovered in the back office of a children's
0:48.5	clothing store she owns after she has been raped and shot in the head in an apparent robbery.
0:54.0	Police soon focus on a suspect named Joseph Green Brown, who was involved in a similar robbery
0:58.9	at another location on the exact same date, and after he is implicated by an accomplice, Brown is charged, convicted, and sentenced to death for Erlene's murder.
1:08.0	However, since the case against Brown is fraught with problems, his conviction is eventually overturned, and he's released
1:14.2	from prison in 1987.
1:16.8	Even though there seems to be evidence implicating Erlene's spouse as a possible alternate suspect,
1:21.7	no one else is ever charged with her murder.
1:24.0	After that, the trail went cold. Oh, uh, uh,
1:34.0	uh,
1:35.0	uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
	...

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