Life Means Life
Bloody Angola: A Podcast by Jim Chapman9 Nov 2023

Life Means Life

In today's podcast episode of Bloody Angola we tell you 3 short stories of Life at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola including the story of Warden John Whitley who started his professional life and ended it at Angola, the story of Billy Blake Johnson who lost his life attempting to escape Angola, and the Prison View Golf Course which makes "Life" better for the Correctional Officers at Angola.#bloodyangolapodcast #LifemeansLife #JohnWhitley #Podcast #LouisianastatepenitentiaryGET FREE BREAKFAST FOR LIFE AT HELLOFRESH!HelloFresh delivers step-by-step recipes and fresh, pre-portioned ingredients right to your door. First, you set your meal plan preferences with options for carnivores, vegetarians, calorie-counters, and more. You'll choose from 30+ delicious weekly recipes carefully put together by the amazing chefs!Click Here to get FREE breakfast FOR LIFE!www.Hellofresh.com/BloodyAngolafreeTRANSCRIPTBLOODY ANGOLA PODCAST: LIFE MEANS LIFE
Jim: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Bloody Angola, a podcast, 142 years in the making the complete story of America's bloodiest prison. And I'm Jim Chapman. Woody Overton could not join us today. We're working on some big, big stuff. And Woody's on assignment, that's all I can say. But there's going to be some really big stuff coming around the bend for everybody, so look forward to that. And I thought today, it would be fun to tell you some of the stories of Angola that you may not be familiar with, that aren't necessarily stories that can fill up, like, a whole hour of content, but at the same time, need to be told and are really good stories. So I wanted to share those with you, and we're going to jump right into it.
The first story I'm going to tell you about is actually about a former warden of Angola by the name of John Whitley. And John Whitley was actually the warden of Angola from 1990 until 1995. Look, John Whitley, the prison warden, was probably as prototypical as you can get to a prison warden when you would think of one. Kind of like the opposite of Burl Cain. Burl Cain was someone that, when you saw him, you wouldn't think he was the warden for the largest maximum-security prison in America. Same thing with John Whitley, but on the total opposite end, he is exactly what you would picture. He was a cowboy character. Actually, wore a cowboy hat and dressed with button up shirt. The picture I'm actually looking at now, he has a vest. It's almost like a leather vest over that button up shirt, and wears glasses, mustache, just looks like someone you would picture as a warden. And had a short but storied history at Angola relative to being a warden. Although he started off at the very bottom, and we're going to tell you all about that.
John Whitley attended Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana, which is actually probably about an hour and 20 minutes from Angola. From where we record, right outside of Baton Rouge, it's actually about a half hour from us. It is I guess the second largest college in Louisiana outside of Louisiana State University. Good college. Whitley attended that college. He was actually born in Hammond, Louisiana as well. So he went to school same place he was born in. Now, after he left college, he ended up graduating in 1968. He enlisted in the United States Army. That's important. That was an important step in his life, because that was kind of in the heyday of Vietnam. People weren't necessarily just enlisting into the army. They were getting drafted. So it shows you John Whitley's courage and his commitment to his country that he would enlist in the United States Army. He actually served during the Vietnam War and was discharged in 1970.
Now, shortly after that, he started his career in corrections. So Whitley started that career at Angola in 1970, and he rose pretty much through those ranks quickly. He eventually became a deputy warden, and then he was promoted to warden of another Louisiana prison. So he was deputy warden at Angola. I know you've heard about us talk about Hunt Correctional Center, which is a prison, it's kind of like the baby brother to Angola, just a smaller, not so violent a prison as Angola. They needed a warden, and he actually got promoted to the warden of Hunt Correctional. From there, he left the state, and he ran a private prison in Texas. I know you've heard us talk about that with the private prisons are actually-- they're not ran by state employees. They're ran privately, and the state pays them for that service, and Texas has several of those, and he ran one of those private prisons in Texas.
Now, in 1990, Louisiana was like, “Man, what's going on here? This guy is in Texas, and he's got all this experience. He's a Louisiana guy, and we need him at Angola.” This was 1990, and Angola was in just a mess at that point, and they needed someone to restore order there, basically. At the time that they were seeking out John Whitley, they were having frequent, very frequent stabbings, suicides. They were dealing with a lot of escapes. And a US federal judge had actually declared, what's known as, a state of emergency at the prison in response to an ACLU lawsuit against the state specifically for the horrendous conditions at Angola. So it was a situation where they needed someone, not only with some Louisiana ties that really cared, but they also needed someone that had the experience to handle such a prison. John Whitley started there, rose all the way up to deputy warden. That was back since 1970. He was the perfect candidate for that. And so he took that job.
Within two years, Whitley had pretty much stemmed all of that violence. He established incentives for good behavior, which is something they did not have in Angola prior to his arrival there as warden. Some of those incentives for good behavior, he'd allow the inmates to have extra visits. He would increase the educational opportunities for the inmates. If you were good, maybe you had the opportunity to learn a trade that you had to have good behavior in order to get to learn, like maybe welding or something. I mean, you don't want someone that's causing a bunch of trouble in Angola getting a halt to a welding machine. So those things, he figured out-- He figured out the important thing-- When you're running a prison, and that is you've got to have incentives for the inmates. If there's no incentive for good behavior, they're not going to be good. That's just the bottom line.
So that was something he really stemmed, education wise for them. Also, literacy tutoring, computer and paralegal courses. He started bringing those into the prison not quite at the level that Warden Cain did later on, but the infancy of that is a credit to John Whitley and the things that he did. So he also enabled some trustworthy and deserving inmates to travel outside of the prison as part of some athletic teams and inmate bands that provided entertainment for-- They would entertain churches, they would entertain nursing homes and other charitable organizations throughout the area. John Whitley was kind of the guy who came up with the idea to start offering these things as a deterrent, if you will, against violence. He knew that these programs were the way to start.
So he also launched an outreach program to all the criminal justice programs in the state of Louisiana. So he would basically send prison officials and inmates, and they would go into these college classrooms, and they would help, both the students and the faculty better understand the realities of not only managing a prison, but life in prison as an inmate. Those things weren't done, at least with Angola inmates, before John Whitley became warden.
Now, one thing that's very important in prison, but is not commonly practiced, I guess you could say, is having an open-door policy with the media. Take it from me, y'all know that I love to research. It's not easy at all to find information about Angola, or probably most of your state prisons, and that is, they keep things that go on inside that prison, and you got to really dig to find information on stuff like that. But he was committed to, what I would call, an open-door policy with the media, and even The Angolite, which-- We've done several episodes about The Angolite and read many, many articles on that.
Well, The Angolite, the biggest concern with that magazine as time went on, and I noticed this as I was reading it was, it got a little farther and farther away from what was actually happening. What they were printing was the truth. But where in the 40s and 50s, when The Angolite was produced, they were talking about all these escapes and stabbings and all the things that happened inside that prison. When it got around to the 80s and 90s, it was a lot softer. There were things going on, but they weren't allowing The Angolite publishers or editors, rather, to print that [chuckles] or talk about it. And so didn't necessarily mean it wasn't going on. It's just the editors weren't putting it in there. But he wanted to have a welcoming nature with the media and try to cooperate with them rather.
And so one of the things that he allowed The Angolite to do was to produce material for radio and television journalism inside the prison, which-- Believe it or not, they have their own radio station there. They have a lot of film equipment there. They can actually film documentaries and stuff. The prisoners actually learn how to do this, and are as good as-- They got some producers in Angola that are as good or better than I am at doing that. Some of them probably better, and just amazing people out inside that prison that produced these things. But he didn't want them censored. The claim is that John Whitley did not censor the radio shows and stuff that were coming out of Angola, which is very interestin

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The Profile

The Profile

In this episode of Bloody Angola podcast, we delve into the chilling world of serial killers and the intricate process of catching them. Drawing from the case of Derek Todd Lee, a notorious serial killer in the Baton Rouge area of Louisiana, we discuss how the FBI profiling of serial killers has evolved over the years. We highlight the challenges law enforcement faced in accurately profiling Derek Todd Lee, who defied the initial FBI profile by being a person of color. The episode delves into the power of DNA evidence in catching serial killers, using examples like Brian Koberger's case, where familial DNA played a crucial role in identification.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

29 Feb 202434min

Prison Solider: Cop Killer Wayne Felde

Prison Solider: Cop Killer Wayne Felde

In this episode of Bloody Angola, the podcast we delve into the life story of Wayne Felde, a troubled individual who was born in 1949 and grew up in a family with a history of military service. Wayne's father was abusive and struggled with alcoholism, which deeply impacted Wayne's upbringing. Wayne enlisted in the Army during the Vietnam War, hoping to become a war hero, but the harsh reality of the war quickly changed his perspective on conflict. He endured traumatic experiences in Vietnam, including exposure to Agent Orange, which had long-lasting detrimental effects on his health.After returning from Vietnam, Wayne struggled with PTSD and alcoholism, leading to a series of tumultuous events in his life. Tragically, Wayne ended up in a confrontation where he unintentionally killed a friend due to a PTSD-induced episode. Subsequently, Wayne was involved in a fatal incident with a police officer, resulting in his arrest and imprisonment. Despite attempts to take his own life and a tumultuous legal battle, Wayne was sentenced to death and ultimately executed in the electric chair at Louisiana State Penitentiary on March 15, 1988, just days before his 39th birthday.The podcast reflects on Wayne's complex life, the impact of war trauma on his actions, and the justice system's final verdict on his fate. The story highlights the complexities of PTSD, accountability for one's actions, and the tragic end that Wayne faced. Through detailed storytelling and historical context, Bloody Angola provides a deep dive into the life of Wayne Felde and his ultimate demise in the electric chair at the notorious prison.Timestamps:0:02:16 ]: Wayne Felde's Childhood0:05:58 ]: Wayne's Enlistment in Vietnam0:10:03 ]: Impact of Agent Orange0:14:02 ]: Wayne's Return to the U.S.0:15:24 ]: Wayne's Struggles after Vietnam0:22:31 ]: Wayne's Murder Trial0:30:09 ]: Wayne's Escape 0:34:56 ]: Wayne's Time on Death Row0:36:37 ]: Wayne's ExecutionFACTOR!Healthy and Fresh never frozen meals, prepared by chefs and ready to eat in just 2 minutes! Factor saves us time to get back to podcasting and Bloody Angola Podcast listeners get 50% off now by going to https://www.factormeals.com/bloodyangola50 and using the code bloodyangola50 for 50% off!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

22 Feb 202440min

Bad Girls

Bad Girls

In this episode, we explore the history and future of the Louisiana's Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW). We discuss the challenges faced by women at LCIW, including limited access to education and overcrowding. We also highlight the appointment of Kristen Thomas as the second-ever female warden and the construction of a new facility with improved amenities. #BloodyAngolaPodcast #LadyConvicts #LCIW #PodcastTimestamps0:02:20 Women's fate after leaving Angola: LCIW and its history0:04:04 Construction of St. Gabriel, a female-only prison near Baton Rouge0:04:31 Early years of LCIW: Housing, Orientation, and Behavioral Assessments0:06:37 Work release program and healthcare at LCIW0:14:58 Female warden appointed to increase diversity in leadership0:19:18 Groundbreaking for new LCIW facility in September 20220:27:14 Success Stories: Horticulture, Upholstery, and Welding Classes0:29:13 Re-entry Programs and Support for Incarcerated Women0:36:43 Inside Knowledge of Prison Life and Security MeasuresFACTOR!Healthy and Fresh never frozen meals, prepared by chefs and ready to eat in just 2 minutes! Factor saves us time to get back to podcasting and Bloody Angola Podcast listeners get 50% off now by going to https://www.factormeals.com/bloodyangola50 and using the code bloodyangola50 for 50% off!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

15 Feb 202442min

Preparing to Die

Preparing to Die

In this episode of the Bloody Angola podcast, we explore the Louisiana State Penitentiary Execution Manual. We discuss the procedures and requirements for executions, the role of witnesses, and the importance of professionalism. We also touch on the legal process and the rarity of exoneration.Timestamps0:03:20 Chain of Command and Roles in the Execution Process0:05:48 Incarceration and Transport of Death Row Offenders0:07:02 Communications and Media Regulations0:09:11 Visits, Visits with Family, and Special Visits0:15:47 Preparation and Security Measures for Executions0:18:13 Witness Selection and Pool Reporters0:23:25 Execution Process and Post-Execution Procedures0:28:34 Execution process and the role of the coroner0:30:13 Paperwork involved in the execution processFACTOR!Healthy and Fresh never frozen meals, prepared by chefs and ready to eat in just 2 minutes! Factor saves us time to get back to podcasting and Bloody Angola Podcast listeners get 50% off now by going to https://www.factormeals.com/bloodyangola50 and using the code bloodyangola50 for 50% off!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

8 Feb 202442min

Smiling Jack

Smiling Jack

A 16-year-old brutally murders an 8-year-old while biking in Saint Francisville, Louisiana. Trevor Reese confesses which leads to a sentence in Bloody Angola for life without parole. We discuss the horrific crime, the legal proceedings, impact statements in this episode of Bloody Angola Podcast.Timestamps0:04:24 Background on Clinton and St. Francisville0:12:44 A typical summer day in Louisiana0:14:32 Tragic encounter with Trevor Reese0:16:36 Monique's Desperate Attempt to Save Jack0:18:10 Trevor Confesses to the Carpenter0:18:34 Trevor's Brutal Crime0:20:11 District Judge rules Trevor eligible for prosecution as an adult0:22:54 Arraignment: Not guilty by reason of insanity plea entered0:23:42 The shocking murder and the grief-stricken parents0:26:06 Trial dates set and the plea deal confusion0:28:14 Judge Carmichael questions Trevor's plea and explains the process0:30:49 Trevor's monstrous nature and absence of remorse examined0:32:15 Dr. Scott speaks about Monique's trauma and PTSD0:34:04 Monique's realization and the horrifying details of Jackson's injuries0:35:56 Jack's grandfather's heart-wrenching victim impact statement0:36:32 Devastation and Hatred: The Scar You Left Behind0:37:39 Jack's Father Pleads for Maximum Sentence0:40:04 Trevor's Admission of Guilt and Sentencing0:42:31 The complexity of victims on both sides0:43:04 A Father's Responsibility and the Change in LawThank you to Cyndi Overton for her assistance in researching this case.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

1 Feb 202446min

The Decision | How Henry Montgomery Gave Life to Lifer's

The Decision | How Henry Montgomery Gave Life to Lifer's

In todays episode we discuss the Louisiana Supreme Court decision called Montgomery v. Louisiana, which involved Henry Montgomery, the longest-serving convict in Angola Prison's history. Henry was released in 2021 after spending 57 years behind bars. We start with the events of November 13th, 1963, when Officer Hurt encountered Henry at a park which led to the murder of the officer. The community goes into lockdown, and Montgomery is eventually found, confesses to the shooting, and is convicted of first-degree murder. Despite initially receiving a death sentence, he is later granted a new trial, resulting in a life sentence. The 2010 case Graham v. Florida, in which the Supreme Court deemed juvenile life without parole sentences unconstitutional for crimes other than murder was the start of some life changing Supreme Court rulings for juvenile offenders. Miller v. Alabama followed and was used as a precedent to have Henry Montgomery's case reviewed by the Supreme Court, resulting in his life without parole sentence being thrown out. Known as Montgomery vs Louisiana this ruling became one of the most historic rulings in history as it relates to juvenile lifer's.You are going to want to tune into this one! It's FIRE!Chapters0:07:17 Officer Charles Hurt and Henry Montgomery's Fateful Encounter0:11:27 Confrontation Turns Dangerous with a Pistol Drawn0:15:18 Montgomery's Trial and Sentencing0:22:14 Montgomery's Eligibility for Parole0:28:02 Tough Decision: Denying Parole0:33:12 Henry Montgomery's Release and Reflections on Freedom0:42:19 A Police Officer's Perspective and the VerdictFACTOR!Healthy and Fresh never frozen meals, prepared by chefs and ready to eat in just 2 minutes! Factor saves us time to get back to podcasting and Bloody Angola Podcast listeners get 50% off now by going to https://www.factormeals.com/bloodyangola50 and using the code bloodyangola50 for 50% off!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

25 Jan 202451min

Correcting the Record | Response to Changing of the Guard

Correcting the Record | Response to Changing of the Guard

This emergency drop is in response to information received regarding the most recent drop of Bloody Angola titled "The Changing of the Guard".For the article referenced in the "Changing of the Guard" episode, see the attached link below.https://www.fox8live.com/2023/12/21/governor-edwards-pardons-57-inmates-october-through-december/Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

19 Jan 202411min

The Changing of the Guard | The Pardons of John Bell Edwards and Gov. Jeff Landry's Solution

The Changing of the Guard | The Pardons of John Bell Edwards and Gov. Jeff Landry's Solution

***We are retracting the portion of this podcast referencing that all of these inmates received a full pardon, we like most of the general public received incomplete information. While all received "a" pardon", most received clemency meaning they got a reduction in sentence, However 5 inmates in particular did receive a full pardon. The episode following this episode contains the details of this retraction.***In this episode of Bloody Angola, we explore the recent transition of power with the election of Governor Jeff Landry as it relates to crime and the recent pardons of outgoing Louisiana Governor John Bell Edwards.. Previous governor, John Bel Edwards, is known for his leniency in crime and numerous acts of clemency. We delve into the governor's authority to grant sentence commutation, the role of the pardon board in reviewing applications, and the different types of clemency that exist.We focus on the actions of John Bel Edwards, who commuted the sentences of many prisoners and granted several inmates full pardons.The current governor, Jeff Landry, known for his tough stance on crime, Landry stands firm on his commitment to restoring law and order.Chapters0:02:07 Changing of the Guard: New Governor, New Policies0:05:36 Clemency Applications and Eligibility Requirements0:14:09 John Bel Edwards' High Rate of Sentence Commutations0:16:03 Pardons explained0:17:12 Pardons of Convicted Individuals.0:19:07 Continuation of List: Pardons.0:21:03 Additional Pardons for Murder and Other Crimes0:28:29 Jeff Landry's Tough Stance on Crime0:30:26 Jeff Landry's Anti-Crime Ads as Governor CandidateFACTOR!Healthy and Fresh never frozen meals, prepared by chefs and ready to eat in just 2 minutes! Factor saves us time to get back to podcasting and Bloody Angola Podcast listeners get 50% off now by going to https://www.factormeals.com/bloodyangola50 and using the code bloodyangola50 for 50% off!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

18 Jan 202436min

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