Pod Insights Infamous America MIAMI SHOOTOUT Ep. 3 | “April 11, 1986” About this episode While FBI agents wait for information which might reveal the identity of one of the armed robbers they have been chasing for six months, they decide to set up a surveillance operation in South Miami. On April 11, 1986, Michael Platt and Bill Matix drive into the FBI dragnet. After a brief car chase, the robbers engage the agents in the bloodiest shootout in FBI history.
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1:11 Speaker 03 On April 10, 1986, the Miami FBI office was still waiting for information from the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles. A couple of weeks earlier, FBI agents had driven around an area of about 50 square blocks, looking for a white Ford F-150 pickup truck, which belonged to one of the two violent robbers who had plagued Miami for the past six months. Agents spotted 10 such vehicles, and now they were waiting for the Florida DMV to send driver's license photos of the owners. When the FBI had the photos, agents would show them to Jose Colazo. Jose Colazo was in the hospital recovering from four gunshot wounds. He had been shot and left for dead by the two robbers,
1:55 Speaker 03 and he was the only person who could identify them. During the robberies, the two men had worn masks, and they left no usable physical evidence behind. Agents were hoping that Colazo would recognize one of the driver's license photos, and then they could finally make an arrest.
2:12 Speaker 03 But the process of receiving the photos from the DMV was moving at a snail's pace, even in a time before lightning-fast computers and the Internet. So on April 11th, FBI agents decided they were done waiting to get lucky. They would make their own luck. Supervisory Special Agent Gordon McNeil assembled 13 agents in addition to himself for a new surveillance operation.
2:40 Speaker 03 Most of the agents worked in teams of two. Four teams stationed themselves at four banks, one at each bank, in an area where the robbers had concentrated their crimes. Three of the four banks were within two miles of each other on South Dixie Highway, and all three had already been targeted by the robbers. Florida National and Professional Savings Bank had been hit on the same day in November 1985. Barnett Bank had been the site of the two most recent robberies, one on January 10, 1986, and one on March 19. Four teams, eight agents, set up at their respective banks around 9:00 a.m. on April 11th. The other six agents functioned as rovers, who were ready to help wherever they were needed.
3:25 Speaker 03 It was a fishing expedition, and they had to hope the robbers would swim into their net. The shortest gap between robberies had been three weeks. The longest had been two months. On April 11th, it was exactly three weeks since the March 19 robbery. Maybe the robbers were anxious to get back to work. If so, the FBI would be ready. Agents knew the robbers were heavily armed with pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles, and the robbers were willing to use them. But with 14 agents in a relatively small area, who were armed with an assortment of weapons, they figured they had enough collective firepower to overwhelm the robbers. Collectively, they did, if they were all in the same place at the same time.
4:09 Speaker 03 But that wasn't fated to happen. The robbers, Michael Platt and Bill Maddox, did come out of hiding that day, and they were armed with pistols, a shotgun, and an assault rifle. And they let loose on the FBI.
4:35 Speaker 03 From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season, we're telling the story of the no-holds-barred robberies of Michael Platt and William Maddox in the mid-1980s in Miami, which culminated in a deadly shootout with the FBI. This is episode three, April 11th, 1986.
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6:01 Speaker 03 By about 9:00 a.m. on April 11th, the agents were in place. They kept up a steady stream of radio chatter, which could be monitored by anyone with a police radio scanner. As it happened, a reporter for the Miami Herald newspaper was listening that morning, and he recorded much of the conversation. His tape would be valuable to investigators afterward, and the FBI included a transcript of a portion of the exchange in its official report. Special Agent Ben Grogan and Special Agent Jerry Dove were in their car near the Barnett Bank, which had been the site of the most recent robberies. All the agents chatted aimlessly as they waited to see if anything would happen, and then Agent Grogan broke in with an emergency alert.
6:45 Speaker 03 At 9:30 a.m., he was as surprised as anyone when he announced that the suspects drove right past him.
6:53 Speaker 03 Platt and Maddox entered the FBI dragnet in the black Chevy Monte Carlo they had stolen from Jose Colazo. Grogan and Dove started to follow Platt and Maddox and to give updates on their location. Special Agents Ed Morales and John Hanlon were nearby and they quickly joined the pursuit. Supervisory Special Agent Gordon McNeil was also in the area and it was his warning which prompted immediate action. This is part of the radio exchange that morning. Grogan, pay attention all units. We're behind a black vehicle, two-door, Florida license plate NTJ891. North on South Dixie, 124th Street.
7:38 Speaker 03 It's a black Monte Carlo, two males in it, NTJ891. Dove, two white males in the vehicle, one with a mustache. Grogan, they're making a right on 117th Street, right on 117th. Dove, getting spooked guys, southwest 81st Road, heading south again. Morales, right behind you, give me a cross street. Grogan, right turn on 120th Street, going west. Morales, Ben, we're right behind you, you wanna do it? Let's do it. Grogan, negative, let's get some marked units. McNeil, just looked at them, they're guys loading up something in the front.
8:22 Speaker 03 Grogan, let's do it, take 'em, felony car stop, let's do it.
8:30 Speaker 03 Agents Grogan and Dove had trailed Michael Platt and Bill Maddox up South Dixie Highway and then through a series of turns which looped them back to 82nd Avenue. Grogan initially wanted to call in Miami police officers to perform the traffic stop, but then Agent Gordon McNeil, who had joined the pursuit, spotted one of the suspects loading a weapon in the front seat of the car. At that point, the agents decided to make the felony car stop, an official procedure by themselves. Just like in old movies, Grogan hit the siren, rolled down his window, and slapped a blue magnetized bubble light onto the top of his car. Grogan and Dove raced ahead of the robbers and cut in front of them.
9:13 Speaker 03 At nearly the same time, Agents Ed Morellis and John Hanlon joined the pursuit and pulled up beside the robbers. Agent Richard Minouzi, in a car by himself, sped up behind the convoy that was heading down 82nd Avenue. Platt and Maddox were essentially boxed in. Grogan and Dove were in front of them. Morellis and Hanlon were beside them, and Minouzi was behind them. Minouzi rammed the back of their car. At about the same time the suspects reached a T-intersection with 122nd Street and had enough room to maneuver, they pulled a U-turn. The sharp movement knocked Morellis and Hanlon off course and sent their car careening into
9:55 Speaker 03 a small concrete wall several yards off to the side of the road. As Platt and Maddox spun their car around, Agent Minouzi slammed on the brakes and ripped the wheel to the left to make a sharp U-turn next to the suspects. Because Minouzi had been behind them, he was able to react fast enough to stay beside them as they made the turn. When they came around, Minouzi rammed the suspects again, this time from the side. The abrupt U-turn had happened right in front of a duplex at the intersection of 82nd Avenue and 122nd Street. In front of the duplex, there was a circular driveway which also functioned as a small parking lot for the adjoining homes. Two cars sat next to a tree in front of one of the homes.
10:39 Speaker 03 As Platt and Maddox made their U-turn and Agent Minouzi followed their move and slammed his car into theirs, Minouzi pushed Platt and Maddox into the circular driveway. The robbers and Minouzi were headed straight for the tree with the two parked cars beside it. Minouzi's car actually hit the tree, but the crash wasn't severe. Platt and Maddox stopped before impact, but now they were trapped. On their right, there were two parked cars. On their left was Agent Minouzi. And in front of them was the tree. Behind them, the other agents reacted quickly as everything happened at once. Agents Grogan and Dove, who had been in front of the robbers when Platt and Maddox made their U-turn, spun their car around and rushed back to the duplex.
11:26 Speaker 03 The agents parked half in the street and half in the circular driveway to block the robbers from backing up. Agent Gordon McNeil sped down the street and screeched to a halt at an angle near Manausi's car. Platt and Maddox were locked in place. Maddox was in the driver's seat and Platt was next to him. When they looked through the driver's side window, they looked directly at Agent Manausi. A little farther back was Agent McNeil. When they looked out the rear windshield, they saw Agents Grogan and Dove. And behind those two agents, Agents Morellis and Hanlon were running across 82nd Avenue from the spot where their car had crashed. The two robbers didn't even think about surrendering to the six agents.
12:08 Speaker 03 Bill Maddox raised a shotgun and fired through his driver's side window at Agent Manausi as Manausi was diving out of his car. Despite outnumbering the robbers 6 to 2, the FBI agents were outgunned. Both Platt and Maddox carried .357 Magnum revolvers. Maddox had a pump-action shotgun, and Platt had the Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic assault rifle. Agent Manausi had been driving with his service revolver sitting in his lap. When his car hit the tree at the end of the chase, his revolver went flying. When he saw Bill Maddox raise the shotgun, Manausi dove out of his car.
12:47 Speaker 03 Most of the blast from Maddox's shotgun hit Manausi's car, but some of the pellets struck Manausi's back and head as he tumbled onto the pavement.
12:57 Speaker 03 Manausi, unarmed, ran across 82nd Avenue and ducked behind the short concrete wall near Morellis and Hanlon's car. As Manausi sprinted past Agent McNeil's car, McNeil stepped out to engage the robbers. As soon as McNeil exited his car, Michael Platt started firing the Ruger Mini-14 through the robbers' car toward McNeil. McNeil advanced a few steps, leveled his .357 Magnum revolver over the hood of Manausi's vehicle, and fired all six shots at Platt and Maddox. At least one of the shots hit Bill Maddox in the neck. As blood poured from the wound, Maddox in the driver's seat was temporarily out of the fight. But Michael Platt was just getting started.
13:41 Speaker 03 As McNeil fired his weapon dry, he took a bullet to the hand from Platt's rifle. McNeil scrambled back behind his own car to try to reload, but the task was nearly impossible with a broken hand. He was able to slip a couple rounds into the chambers of his revolver, but he could not fully reload the weapon. Meanwhile, Michael Platt's rifle held thirty rounds in each clip. For that brief moment, he was contending with four agents. Agent Manouzzi was unarmed and out of the fight on the other side of the street. Agent McNeil was injured and struggling to reload his revolver. Agents Grogan and Dove, who took cover next to their vehicle, were armed with nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistols. It's believed at that point,
14:25 Speaker 03 Agent Jerry Dove scored a hit on Michael Platt and put a bullet in Platt's chest, but the shot didn't kill Platt or knock him out of the fight. At the same time, Agents Morelles and Hanlon were running across Eighty-Second Avenue to unite with the other agents. But Hanlon had a similar problem to Manouzzi. Hanlon's primary weapon, his service revolver, had not been in its holster during the car chase. When Hanlon and Morelles crashed into the concrete wall, Hanlon lost his gun. He jumped out of the car and ran across the street, armed only with his backup gun, a five-shot, thirty-eight-caliber snub-nose revolver. Morelles, next to Hanlon, was the most heavily armed of the group, with his revolver in his holster
15:09 Speaker 03 and a Remington shotgun in his hands. As the two agents crossed Eighty-Second Avenue toward the gunfight, they split up. Morelles veered to the left toward Agent McNeil's car, where McNeil was hunkered down with a badly injured hand. Hanlon veered to the right toward Grogan's car, where Grogan and Dove were trading shots with Platt and Maddox. Before Morelles made it to McNeil, he got hit with a bullet from Platt's rifle. The round shattered Morelles's left arm and dropped him to the ground near the back of McNeil's car. Seconds later, McNeil suffered a second gunshot wound from Platt's rifle, this one much more serious than the wound to his hand. The bullet hit McNeil in the neck, knocked him flat onto the ground,
15:54 Speaker 03 and temporarily paralyzed him.
15:58 Speaker 03 Agent John Hanlon made it to Grogan and Dove, and he fired all five shots from his snub-nose revolver at the two robbers who were still blasting away from inside their car. Grogan and Dove, especially Dove, kept up steady fire with their 9mm. But as soon as Hanlon fired his final shot, a bullet from Michael Platt's rifle smashed Hanlon's right hand. That made three agents, McNeil, Morelles, and Hanlon, who were down with injuries. And Platt and Maddox capitalized on the opportunity to move. They crawled out of their car and shuffled around behind the two cars next to them in order to use the parked cars as additional cover. Both men had been wounded an unknown number of times, but they were determined to keep fighting.
16:44 Speaker 03 And just as they found new cover, Special Agent Gilbert Arantia and Special Agent Ronald Reisner arrived on scene. Arantia and Reisner parked their car in the grass alongside 82nd Avenue, about 150 feet from the firefight. Though it'll be tough to envision without a diagram, they were slightly north of the duplex and the parked cars where Platt and Maddox were hiding. Grogan and Dove, the only two other agents who were still capable of firing, were slightly south of Platt and Maddox. The two pairs of agents formed two sides of a triangle as they fired at the common point of Platt and Maddox.
17:22 Speaker 03 But Grogan and Dove were much closer to the robbers, and they were absorbing a ton of fire. In those moments, a bullet crashed into the side of Agent Dove's gun and disabled the weapon. Grogan and Dove were briefly distracted as they examined Dove's gun, which was why they didn't see Michael Platt slide away from Bill Maddox and creep down the side of one of the parked cars. But Arantia and Reisner did see Platt make his move. Reisner screamed at Grogan, Dove, and Hanlon, who were all huddled behind the same car, but they couldn't hear him over the continuous roar of the gunfire. Reisner and Arantia fired at Platt, but there were five vehicles between the agents and the gunmen.
18:04 Speaker 03 Platt made it to the back of Grogan's car, leaned over the trunk, and fired at point-blank range. The first shot hit Agent John Hanlon in the upper leg. He was still dealing with his wounded right hand, which had been mangled by one of Platt's bullets. Now, Hanlon's leg near his groin erupted in what he called "a geyser of blood," and he collapsed onto the cement. Then Platt shot and killed Agent Ben Grogan and Agent Jerry Dove. Michael Platt, with his Ruger Mini-14 rifle, had single-handedly dismantled most of the FBI team. Platt continued around the back of Agent Grogan's car and slid into the driver's seat. Bill Maddox broke cover and hurried to the car.
18:49 Speaker 03 Maddox climbed in beside Platt, and it looked like they had a chance to escape, even though both men were seriously wounded. At a minimum, Maddox had a wound to the neck from Agent McNeil, and Platt had a wound to the chest from Agent Dove. But right up until that moment, the two former soldiers were still winning the fight. The closest man who could stop them was Agent Ed Morelles. He was behind Agent McNeil's car and out of sight of Platt and Maddox. Morelles still had his Remington pump-action shotgun, but his left arm was shattered. In order to load the weapon, he laid down on his back, braced the gun between his legs, grabbed the slide with his good right hand, and racked around into the chamber.
19:32 Speaker 03 Then he rolled over, pushed himself up onto one knee, and balanced the weapon on the rear bumper of McNeil's car. From that angle, Morelles was aiming straight down the length of McNeil's car toward the driver's side window of Grogan's car. Michael Platt, in the driver's seat of Grogan's car, was no more than 20 feet away. Morelles pulled the trigger and sent a blast into Grogan's car. Morelles slumped back to the ground, repeated the loading process four more times, and fired four more blasts at the car. His shots peppered the driver's side window and the front windshield. Platt and Maddox were showered with shattered glass and shotgun pellets.
20:12 Speaker 03 Then Morelles rose to his feet, drew his .357 revolver, and staggered toward Platt and Maddox. He shot and killed both men while they sat in the car. As Agent Morelos fired the final shots of the bloodiest shootout in FBI history, the cars of the other six agents raced up to the scene. They saw Morelos end the gunfight, and they and Agents Arantia and Reisner grabbed their radios to call for every emergency vehicle in South Miami.
20:47 Speaker 03 Reisner, we got people down. Let's get some help over here. Redacted, Agent. Seventy-seven to three-hundred, emergency. Redacted, Agent. Notify the SAC. We have two injured agents who have been shot. Redacted, Agent. Ten-four, we have ambulances en route. Metro Dade has been advised also. Arantia, please advise SAs to immediately report to this area. Agents are down.
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22:32 Speaker 03 The bloodiest gun battle in FBI history lasted about five minutes. Or put another way, less than half of the time that it took to describe it in words. In the most famous shootout in American history, the gunfight at the OK Corral, seven men fired 30 shots in about 30 seconds. In the Miami shootout, eight FBI agents and two bank robbers fired 143 shots in five minutes. Most at a range of 20 to 30 feet, from a mix of revolvers, 9mm pistols, shotguns, and Michael Platt's Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle. The vast majority of the damage to the agents was caused by Platt and his Ruger Mini-14.
23:15 Speaker 03 Supervisory Special Agent Gordon McNeil had wounds to his hand and neck, and believed he would never walk again. Special Agent John Hanlon believed he would bleed out on Southwest 82nd Avenue with wounds to his hand and groin. Special Agent Edmundo Morales had a shattered left arm. And Special Agents Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove were dead. All of their injuries, serious, life-threatening, and fatal, were caused by Platt and the Ruger Mini-14. Special Agents Gilbert Tarantia and Richard Minouzzi suffered superficial wounds. Special Agent Ronald Reisner was the only agent who was not injured. The forensic investigation at the scene of the shootout was mammoth,
24:00 Speaker 03 one of the most complex shooting investigations in Miami PD or FBI history. It took five weeks to piece together the events of the car chase and the gunfight, and to learn hard lessons in unfortunate twists of fate.
24:18 Speaker 03 The surveillance operation on April 11th was the third surveillance effort of the past two months. In the previous two efforts, the FBI had coordinated with or worked with the Miami-Dade Police Department. On April 11th, the FBI did not notify Miami PD of the new surveillance plan. Miami Police only learned about the operation during the car chase. Of the five agents who were most directly involved in the shootout, McNeil, Hanlon, Grogan, Dove, and Morales, only Morales was wearing the ballistic vest which had been issued to each man. But as the FBI report noted afterward, the vests would not have mattered.
24:59 Speaker 03 Investigators learned that the vests would not have stopped the 223 caliber rounds fired by Michael Platt's Ruger Mini-14. And then, the problems which hampered the agents more than any other were their weapons and ammunition. Nearly all of the heavier weapons in the 14-man squad were with the agents who were not involved in the gunfight. According to Morello, agents who were not SWAT-qualified could not carry assault rifles. Of the five who were seriously or fatally wounded, only Morello had something more powerful than a handgun. Meanwhile, one man, Michael Platt, with a semi-automatic rifle, killed two agents and nearly killed three more.
25:42 Speaker 03 And while Platt's bullets were powerful enough to pierce the FBI's ballistic vests, the agents' bullets were not powerful enough to incapacitate or kill the robbers. Early in the fight, Michael Platt took a 9mm round to the chest from Agent Dove's gun, but the shot barely slowed Platt.
26:01 Speaker 03 By the time it was all over, Michael Platt had been shot 11 times, and Bill Maddox had been shot six times. The Miami shootout on April 11, 1986 would be added to the growing collection of incidents in the modern era, which would influence the debate about the types of weapons which should be carried by law enforcement personnel, since the general public increasingly had access to high-powered rifles. Major highlights included the 1974 shootout between members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the group that kidnapped Patty Hearst, and the Los Angeles Police Department.
26:37 Speaker 03 Next was the infamous Norco California Bank robbery in 1980, in which a ragtag group of five men with assault rifles, overpowered local police officers, and sheriff's deputies. Then came the 1986 Miami shootout, and they were all topped by the 1997 North Hollywood Bank robbery, during which Emile Madasiranu and Larry Phillips used semi-auto assault rifles, modified to fully automatic, to sustain a 45-minute gun battle with the LAPD.
27:07 Speaker 03 In 1986, the FBI paid a heavy price, but it finally stopped Michael Platt and William Maddox. Special Agent Ben Grogan was 53 years old and a 25-year veteran of the FBI. Special Agent Jerry Dove had just turned 30 years old and had only been with the FBI for four years. Both men were added to the FBI's Wall of Honor. Agents Morellis, McNeil, and Hanlon eventually recovered from their serious injuries. It took Agent McNeil three years to return to active duty. Six months after the shootout, the International Association of Chiefs of Police gave Agent Morellis its National Police Officer of the Year Award.
27:52 Speaker 03 Three years later, one day before the three-year anniversary of the shootout, the FBI presented Morellis with the first-ever FBI Medal of Valor.
28:07 Speaker 03 At the time of the shootout, no one knew the identities of the bank robbers. Michael Platt and Bill Maddox were finally identified by their fingerprints during the postmortem. But the most painful twist of fate happened at nearly the same time as the gunfight. Almost exactly a month earlier, Platt and Maddox had ambushed Jose Colazo at an old rock quarry on the western edge of Miami. Colazo had been doing target practice with his 22-caliber rifle. Platt and Maddox drove up to Colazo, shot him four times, and left him for dead. They stole his black Monte Carlo, which they used in their final robbery one week later and which they were driving at the time of the shootout on April 11th.
28:49 Speaker 03 Jose Colazo survived the attack, and he provided the FBI with descriptions of the men's faces. For the first time, the FBI knew what the men looked like, but they still didn't have names to go with the faces. In addition, Colazo confirmed that the shooters had been driving a white Ford F-150 pickup truck. After the attack, FBI agents drove around the region where the robberies had happened and looked for white Ford F-150 pickup trucks. They found ten vehicles which matched the description and gave the names of the owners to the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles. The Florida DMV was supposed to match the names to driver's license photos and send the photos to the FBI.
29:30 Speaker 03 Then the FBI would show the photos to Jose Colazo to see if he recognized any of them. The painful twist of fate was, he would have recognized Bill Maddox if he had been shown the photos in time.
29:45 Speaker 03 In the days before everything was computerized and searchable through the Internet, the search for the driver's license photos and the delivery of the results took weeks. There was a delay which accounted for some of the time, but it was still a naturally slow process. The FBI received copies of the photos either right before or right after the shootout. Sure enough, Bill Maddox owned one of the white Ford F-150s. A copy of his driver's license was one of the ten records sent over by the Florida DMV. If the FBI had been able to show the driver's license photo to Jose Colazo, Colazo could have positively identified Maddox. The FBI could have surprised Maddox at his house and arrested him.
30:30 Speaker 03 Willingly or not, Maddox would have led the FBI to Michael Platt. It was highly likely that a violent confrontation could have been avoided. But the DMV records arrived too late. When investigators searched the homes of Platt and Maddox after the shootout, they found clear evidence of the crime spree. And then, almost right on top of the shootout and the delivery of the driver's license photos, two hikers in the Everglades stumbled upon the mostly skeletal remains of Emilio Brielle. Six months before Platt and Maddox shot Jose Colazo and left him for dead, they killed Emilio Brielle in the same spot. They dumped his body in a field in the Everglades, where he lay until he was discovered in April
31:13 Speaker 03 of 1986. Suddenly, all the pieces fit together, except for maybe two pieces which investigators reviewed with fresh eyes. As investigators examined the personal histories of Platt and Maddox, they developed a theory that the crime spree had started two years before the murder of Emilio Brielle. Bill Maddox's wife was savagely murdered in Ohio in December of 1983, and the crime was never solved. Six months later, Maddox moved to Miami where Platt lived. Six months after that, in December 1984, Michael Platt's wife died by apparent suicide. Now, investigators theorized that the two men had formed a murder pact.
31:57 Speaker 03 They thought it was possible that Platt had gone up to Ohio and killed Maddox's wife, and Maddox had killed Platt's wife in Miami. Ultimately, there was no way to prove the theory was correct. But for some investigators, a murder pact was still more plausible than believing the deaths of the two women were total coincidences. In the end, Michael Platt and William Maddox were Jekyll and Hyde personalities. Their friends, family members, and neighbors were shocked to learn that the two men were robbers and killers. Platt and Maddox were never arrested or questioned. They didn't leave behind manifestos or confessions. Obviously, they wanted fast money. Their military training led them toward direct and aggressive action.
32:42 Speaker 03 But no one would ever fully understand why they were so cold-blooded and ruthless.
33:05 Speaker 03 Next time on Infamous America, we go back to the 1930s for the story of another cold-blooded and ruthless gang. The Barker Gang did it all: robbery, murder, kidnapping, and extortion. They stole more money than John Dillinger, and they killed more people than Babyface Nelson. One of their leaders, Alvin "Creepy" Carpus, was the final Depression-era outlaw to wear the crown of Public Enemy Number One. Their story begins next time on Infamous America.
33:43 Speaker 03 To binge all the episodes of a new season and to listen to every episode of the podcast with no commercials, subscribe in Apple Podcasts or sign up through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. The series was researched, written, and produced by me, Chris Wimmer. Original music by Rob Valier. Thanks for listening.
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