Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Murder of Mickey Bryan Part 6: Final Injustice

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The Murder of Mickey Bryan Part 6: Final Injustice · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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The Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter. Listener discretion is
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advised. It's unclear what, if any crimes career police officer Dennis Murray Dunlap
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was considered for after he was declared the killer of seventeen year old Judy lou
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Whitley. Dunlap abducted, raped, and murdered Judy in June of nineteen eighty
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five, and although he wasn't living in Clifton at the time or even in
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Bosqui County, there are interesting details that might be considered starting points for investigating
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his potential involvement in the nineteen eighty four murders of thirteen year old Helen Marie
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Kilgore and nineteen year old Sheilia Denise Vandygriff, particularly Shelia's murder, she and
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her friend Jenny were abducted in Hood County by a man they'd seen moments before
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in a convenience store. Dennis Dunlap described deribed as strange and intense. Was
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known for making contact, if you will, with potential victims in or around
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convenience stores. He also resembles the composite sketch and description of Sheilia's killer.
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It's not much, but it's not nothing, especially considering the murders of Shelia,
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Helen Judy, and forty four year old Mickey Bryan were markedly unusual for
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Bosky County at that time and in such a short period of a year and
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a half. At the very least, the still unsolved murders of Helen and
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Sheelia and the then unsolved murder of Judy should have given Joe Brian's defense team
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alternate suspects during his trial for killing Mickey, even if those suspects were unknown.
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But the Clifton Police and Texas Ranger Joe Wiley, for that matter,
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were well aware that one of their own policeman, Dennis Dunlap, was a
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perfect suspect in the Judy Whitley case and therefore a viable alternate suspect the defense
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might have used in Joe Bryan's two trials. District Attorney Andy McMullen and Special
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Prosecutor Gary Llewellyn, however, failed to provide Joe's attorneys with that information and
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also information about two other potential suspects who were seen not long after Mickey's murder
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not only acting suspiciously but also in the possession of a van that had no
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license plates and had just been spray painted green from white. Those men had
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rap sheets that included weapons charges, theft and invasion of privacy between them.
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When it was declared Dennis Murray Dunlap killed Judy Whitley, her sister Patricia had
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long believed that he might also be responsible for the murder of Mickey Bryan,
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and when it was all said and done, the Whitleys were far from the
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only ones who believed it. Managing editor of the Clifton Record, w Leon
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Smith, had both brought to light and discovered information that suggested police had not
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done their due diligence during the Mickey Brian murder investigation, but he didn't know
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what to make of it. Another possibility presented itself when he began receiving anonymous
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letters from right there in Clifton claiming that Mickey was killed because she'd known too
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much about local drug trafficking. When taken alongside the threats to Joe's life in
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prison which were said to be linked to drug activity, and the subsequent uncovering
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of a drug operation at a house not far from the Brian home, it
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didn't seem impossible. Joe had a hard time with that possibility. Micky didn't
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know anything about low drug activity, he told Leon. The newspaperman never found
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out who the letters came from. Leon had learned Dennis Murray Dunlap was friendly
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with the men who had spray painted their white van green around the time of
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Mickey's murder. It too, was a piece he could not fit into the
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puzzle. After a lengthy investigation, and after Dunlap died of suicide, Leon
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felt Joe Brian was an innocent man, but he couldn't put everything he now
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knew together in a way that proved it. Guilt nagged at Leon as the
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result. As the years went on and the century turned, Leon became mayor
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of Clifton, and though he still spoke with Joe regularly, it was more
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as friends than investigative partners. Everything seemed to be at a dead end.
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It looked like Joe Brian would die behind bars. By early October two twenty
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ten, nearly twenty five years after his wife was murdered in cold blood,
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Joe was in poor health. Heart and circulatory issues made his recent parole denial
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even more painful. He was now seventy years old, the person who actually
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killed Mickey might still walk the streets a free man, or perhaps he hung
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himself fourteen years back. Joe didn't know. While he languished in prison,
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angered he didn't make parole, his cousin, a court reporter approached Waco attorney
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Walter Skip Reeves and asked him to take a look at Joe's case. Reeves
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supervised a wrongful conviction clinic at Baylor University in Waco, and he was appalled
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by the fact that the state was able to land a conviction based upon the
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circumstantial and pseudo scientific evidence. Reeves's clinic got right to work. In twenty
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eleven, he petitioned the court for DNA testing on the supposed seamen stained underwear
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and cigarette butt found at the scene, also the flashlight allegedly found in Joe's
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car trunk. The testing took a while what seemed like an eternity, until
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in June of twenty twelve the results came back. Reeves and his students knew
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not to expect much from the testing, and it was a good thing they
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didn't get their hopes up. No DNA profile could be found on either the
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cigarette butt or underwear. There was DNA found on the flashlight, but it
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was insufficient to build a meaningful profile. It wasn't enough to file a writ
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of habeas corpus, a legal motion used to bring an inmate before the court
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to determine if they have been imprisoned unlawfully. It was the only option they
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really had since Joseph Heels had been exhausted. The roadblock was par for the
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course, but things started turning around in twenty thirteen when second year law student
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Jessica Froyd joined the Wrongful Conviction Clinic upon reading the transcripts from Joe Bryan's nineteen
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eighty nine retrial. Like her professor, Jessica was appalled by the conviction.
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As she transitioned from student to practicing attorney, Jessica doggedly worked Joe's case and
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enlisted the help of a private investigator and Clifton Record editor W. Leon Smith.
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The renewed investigation really picked up steam after Joe's new attorney was granted access
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to both Mickey Brian and Judy Whitley's case files. Upon reviewing transcripts of interviews,
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they found something huge In their post suicide investigation into Dunlap. Clifton police
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detectives interviewed one of his ex wives, who claimed he bragged about having an
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affair with the school teacher who'd been murdered and Clifton in nineteen eighty five,
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referring, of course, to Mickey Bryan. He further stated the ex wife
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said he'd been with her the night she was killed. The detectives questioning her
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left it at that, no follow ups, no revisiting the subject. Unfortunately,
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the ex wife wouldn't respond to the team's requests for another interview. There
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was something else that wasn't followed up on, this time by Texas Ranger Joe
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Wiley. In the initial investigation, Dennis Dunlap had left Clifton three weeks after
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Judy's murder and days after her grandmother's house burst into flames. But in his
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notes on October sixteenth, nineteen eighty five, Ranger Wiley wrote, met Dunlap
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at Lazy Fisherman Friday night question mark. He was referring to two women possibly
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meeting Dunlap at a Waco restaurant the friday before Mickey was found dead. The
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notation raised the possibility that the ex Clifton cop was in the area. Around
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the time Mickey Brian was murdered. In twenty sixteen, a WRIT was filed
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laying out the case for a retrial. Not only had many leads been ignored,
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but the discovery of evidence involving Dennis Murray Dunlap, they argued, would
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have certainly been heavily considered by a jury, casting doubts on Joe's guilt.
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Just as important was the role blood stained pattern analysis played in the case.
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Bob Thorman's testimony on that subject was incredibly influential at trial, but he had
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limited experience. In fact, the Mickeybrian murder trial was the first time he'd
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applied his newly learned techniques on a major case. Those techniques he learned after
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taking a court of only forty hours. Mickey's body and the bedsheets too,
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had been removed from the scene before Thorman even arrived. In late twenty sixteen,
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Attorneys Jessica freyd and Skip Reeves amended the writ when they received the following
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news. The Texas Forensic Science Commission, which was created to investigate possible misuse
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of forensic evidence or testimony, called Thorman's testimony unreliable. Celestina Rossi an extensively
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trained professional on bloodstained pattern analysis and crime scene investigator for Montgomery County, called
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Thorman's analysis false, unscientific, and the most horrifying thing I've ever read in
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my life. After thirty years in prison, things were finally looking up for
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Joe Bryan. In the summer of twenty seventeen, a motion was filed by
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Joe's new team for additional DNA testing. It was granted by a Comanche County
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court on August fourteenth of that year. Among items sent for analysis were numerous
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swabs from Mickey's rape kit, fingernail clippings, various hares and hair combings,
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including the hairs found in the box in the trunk of Joe's car near the
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flashlight, and two anonymous letters with envelopes. Both were postmarked and sent in
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nineteen eighty eight. The Texas Department of Public Safety deemed handwriting analysis impossible it
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wasn't natural handwriting. Included in the letters were the following lines. Joe Brian
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did not kill Mickey. Brian wanted to blackmail us. She had info on
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names of drug dealing in the county. The gun is in Lake Whitney.
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We took the gun away from her. She offered us everything she had to
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not hurt her. I was in the house when Joe called. The others
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came later. It was easy to frame Joe. He is too trusting.
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Sorry about this, Joe. We had to take care of us. She
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told me when Joe was leaving and where he was staying. Yes, Mickey
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had to die. She was going to tell if we didn't pay our connections.
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Wanted Joe killed while he was in prison, but we could not get
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it done. We now believe that Joe doesn't know anything, or he would
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tell it regardless of the cost. Micky's family is as greedy as she was.
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Shame, shame, shame. We almost got caught putting the flashlight in
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Joe's car even without the DNA testing. These letters read concerns. Dennis Dunlap
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was apparently confirmed to have been under investigation by the FBI for narcotics distribution once
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again, although Joe Brian didn't believe it, Mickey's possible knowledge of major drug
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activity entered the equation. In another anonymous letter, a man named Jimmy is
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implicated in Mickey's murder, a friend of Dennis Dunlap, but those concerns were
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not the only ones provided by non DNA evidence. A couple days after Mickey's
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murder, a police department memo was made describing a caller as saying there was
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a suspect they should be worried about who was potentially responsible for both Mickey and
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Judy Whitley's murders. Yet it was another piece of evidence pointing to an alternate
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suspect. Joe Brian's original defense team was not privy to all of this and
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more, was argued by Attorney Jessica freyd at the Comanche County Courthouse during an
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attempt to get Joe a new trial. Evidentiary hearings that began on August twentieth,
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twenty eighteen. Spectators packed the courtroom, including members of his family,
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who wore Justice for Joe t shirts while Joe sat in black and white prison
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stripes. The seventy seven year old's health wasn't great, though the genuine amiability
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and optimism he was always known for hadn't faded from his eyes. When former
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Buskie County District Attorney Andy McMullen took the stand at the hearings, he acted
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with transparent defiance toward attorney Freud's questioning, McMullen told Freud he simply could not
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remember details of the case he described in nineteen eighty nine as the most brutal
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crime in the history of Bosqui County, a case that was undoubtedly among a
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very shortlist of his career's highest profile cases. However, he recalled with clarity
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minute details that had been used in nineteen eighty six and nineteen eighty nine to
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damn Joe. And then there's the victim's brother, Charlie Blue's other story.
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A police report in the file details Charlie as stating he was with a friend,
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not Bud Saunders, when they discovered the flashlight in the trunk, the
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state's key piece of evidence at trial. Charlie and that friend, this report
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states, then drove somewhere and called Bud Saunders, the ex FBI agent and
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employee of Charlie Blue's agrochemical company. The agreed upon narrative at trial was that
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Charlie and Saunders, the private investigator he'd brought in earlier that very same day,
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found the flashlight within hours of his arrival in Both Charlie and Saunders claimed
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to have handled the flashlight, yet no fingerprints had been found on the outside,
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only Joe's prince on the battery within. McMullen said at the hearing that
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Texas Ranger Joe Wiley had recommended Special Prosecutor Gary Llewellyn to him that he was
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responsible for bringing Llewellen into the case. That stood in major contrast to both
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Charlie Blue's testimony at the original trial that he had paid Llewellen ten thousand dollars
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to help try the case and Ranger Wiley's testimony at the hearing that he did
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not recommend him. He didn't even know who Llewellen was before the Mickey Brian
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murder case. Wiley told the court, if it could be proven McMullen had
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relinquished control of the case to attorney Gary Lewellen, it would be a violation
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of state law. No one saw Joe leave on nor did anyone see Himmeris
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car in Clifton the night Mickey was killed. He joined colleagues for breakfast the
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following morning at seven am, and no one reported him as sluggish or tired.
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But back to the flashlight, the only piece of evidence that put Joe
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at the crime scene when DNA's supervisor for the Texas Department of Public Safety in
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Waco, Brent Watson, took the stand at the hearing. He said that
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the lens of the flashlight tested negative and presumptive tests to identify blood. One
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small speck that tested positive could not be proven to be human blood, and
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it was on the side rim of the flashlight. Though there were blue plastic
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particles on the flashlight that were consistent with snake shot rounds, the gun had
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been used to kill snakes before. In fact, the photographer for the Clifton
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Record had been out to the Brian home once before to take pictures of a
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particularly big rattlesnake Joe had killed. It was in the newspaper. The plastic
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being on the flashlight proved nothing, Nor did Bob Thorman's blood spatter analysis,
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said Montgomery County crime scene investigator and blood stained pattern analyst Celestina Rossi. The
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flashlight spatter, which appeared not to be blood, did not match the analysis.
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Bob Thorman had testified too with such competence at both the nineteen eighty six
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and eighty nine trials of Joe Bryan. To the contrary, investigator Rossi testified
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that the spatter could not have happened the way the state presented the case,
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which was Joe holding the flashlight toward Mickey while he was firing so he could
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see Bob. Thorman, too, provided Joe's legal team with a signed affidaephet
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that stated, although he did not lie at Joe's trial, he agreed that
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he was incorrect in his analysis of the blood spatter patterns. When journalist Pamela
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Koloff published a compelling and detailed story about Joe's potential innocence, she contacted two
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forensic scientists herself. Both refuted virtually every aspect of Thorman's original analysis of the
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crime scene and commented that they were troubled by it. The blood on the
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lens, they said, wasn't blood backspatter. It was also an impossible task
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to deduce the scenario that Thorman testified to. Both men agreed with the evidence
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that was available the killer holding the flashlight during the murder and then cleaning up
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in the master bathroom, or products of the imagination rather than anything based on
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fact. In the end, state scientists could not determine if Mickey Bryan's DNA
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was on the flashlight and in fact, both she and Joe were eliminated as
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contributors to the profile found on the flashlight's power button. As far as the
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underwear found and the master bathroom wastebasket, the pair that Special Prosecutor Gary Llewellyn
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presented as the result of some sort of perversion Joe had that he ejaculated in
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while murdering Mickey. Prosecution said DNA supervisor Brad Watson could not determine whether Mickey
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or Joe was a contributor. It couldn't even be determined seamen was present the
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analyst in nineteen eighty five. Anyway, could not say the underwear had ever
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been moist, As Texas Ranger Joe Wiley testified to at court, he never
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wrote anything about the stains being wet in his notes or reports. DNA also
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could not be lifted from the cigarette but found at the scene. Again,
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neither Joe nor Mickey Bryan smoked. Since the beginning, reasonable doubt was in
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such abundance, and evidence quite the opposite, that the case should never have
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gotten past a grand jury. By the time the twenty eighteen hearings were over,
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a new trial for Joe felt certain Joe Brian was not granted a new
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trial, even after the pseudo scientific evidence presented in his two trials was deemed
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unreliable at best and pulled completely out of the imagination of police and prosecutors at
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worst. Texas Judge Doug Shaver denied the request. The many alternate suspects,
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particularly former Clifton police officer Dennisbury Dunlap, the shaky timeline, the fact that
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neither Joe nor his car had been seen by anyone the night Mickey was murdered,
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not leaving Austin and not in Clifton while the crime took place, the
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negative presumptive tests for blood on the flashlight, Charlie Blue's contradictory stories hell why
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Charlie Blue needed to turn in his rental car to drive Joe's car in the
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first place. It certainly wasn't because the successful businessman was worried about spending the
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money that Special Prosecutor Gary Llewellen paid ten thousand dollars by Charlie Blue ran the
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show, a violation of Texas law, evidence presented at his two trials,
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but that somehow never made it in the initial reports and notes. The moistness
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of the underwear and the traveling cigarette butt. The prosecutions withholding of exculpatory evidence
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from the defense, none of it, not a single point, swayed Judge
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Shaver. It was perhaps even more appalling than the original convictions had been.
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The state was never able to prove an evidence backed motive at any time.
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During his nineteen ninety one interviews with Clifton Record Managing editor W. Leon Smith,
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Joe Bryan said he believed he knew where the narrative that he was gay
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came from. While working the scene of Mickey's murder, police searched the entirety
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of the Brian home in plain Sight, along with other books or two in
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which the subject matter was the psychology of same sex relationships. The material wasn't
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pornographic in any way, of course. Joe said that he and Mickey had
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purchased the books because they had to deal with situations where gay and lesbian students
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confided in them, because in the late nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties small town
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Texas, these students felt they could not go to their parents. The explanation
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like the explanation that the Chippendale's Hunk of the Month calendar found in Joe's car
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trunk was a gag gift for a widowed friend. Was completely believable and much
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more likely than the narrative Joe was living a secret life as a gay man,
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without a single person who could testify to such. It was also insinuated
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Joe wanted to collect on Mickey's insurance money, which was one hundred and fifty
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thousand dollars, not three hundred thousand dollars as was testified to in the first
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trial. But no one could describe Joe as a greedy man or even one
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driven by money much at all. Joe and Mickey rarely had disagreements and could
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be seen walking the streets of their neighborhood and beyond almost every night. They
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always held hands, smiled, and laughed together as they strolled. There were
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no financial struggles or anything else that might have put a major strain on their
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marriage. If Joe Brian had set up Mickey's murder as a burglary scenario,
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why did he ever say anything about the money, whether he'd actually found it
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in the trunk of his car or not. That made about as much sense
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as using the three fifty seven loaded with shotshell rounds to do the job instead.
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Of a gun with regular ammunition, a detail that made much more sense
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in a scenario that didn't include Joe at all, but instead an intruder.
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Nothing about the state's case had any weight to it, which is why journalist
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Pamela Kuloff wrote her two part article for Pro Publica and The New York Times
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earlier in twenty eighteen. She also wrote follow ups after the hearings took place.
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In twenty nineteen, law and crime novelist John Grisham released a book called
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The Guardians, a story based in part on Pamela Koloff's work on Joe Brian's
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case. Grisham wholeheartedly believed Joe was innocent, and in April of twenty nineteen,
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was among the many supporters who petitioned the Parole Board to let him out
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of prison. Regardless, for the seventh time, Joe was denied parole.
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The seventy eight year old, the board said poses a continuing threat to public
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safety. On January fifteenth, twenty twenty, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
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denied Joe's application for a writ of habeas corpus. Just three months later,
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in March, on his eighth parole hearing, Joe was granted release. It
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isn't known why they had a change of heart, but it's difficult to imagine
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the work of journalist Pamela Kloff, author John Grisham, and especially attorney Jessica
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freyd didn't have everything to do with it. Joe Brian went to Houston to
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live with his older brother James and his wife, Jeretta. Many members of
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the Blue Family still believe Joe is guilty, and Mickey's sister Penny expressed as
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much in an episode of ABC's twenty twenty that aired in October of twenty twenty
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one. When talking about Mickey describing her assault of the earth and the person
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that completed him, Joe still gets emotional. At the time of this recording,
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Joe Dalebrian is eighty three years old and has still not been exonerated of
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Mickey Brian's murder. According to the Innocence Project of Texas dot Org, after
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the Supreme Court declined to hear arguments on his case, all current legal avenues
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to prove Joe's innocence have been exhausted. If you like Gon Cold's mission to
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