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the song is called the cheater here Bob cubin and the inmen in the 1960s for lead singer
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Walter Scott the cheater became both his signature song and a hit single but like so many others Walter
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Scott was a on hit wonder never able to repeat the success with another song after 14 straight years of performing on
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the road mostly one nighters Walter Scott disappeared many believed that the lyrics watch out for the cheater weren't
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just words but an omen [Music] the famous Arch in St Louis missou stands as a symbolic Gateway recalling
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its role as the last stop for Pioneers before heading west later St Louis became a well-known
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stop along America's music Corridor which included meis and New Orleans pop Legends Chuck Barry and Tina
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Turner launched their careers here as did a local boy Walter [Music] Scott for the
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cheater make way for the CL Walter Scott was the lead singer for the rock and roll band Bob Cuban and the Inman in
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1966 the group started recording and gained national attention thanks to Walter's stage presence and vocal
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range I can't get over how he can remember all those words in those in those songs cuz I couldn't do it he was
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really good at that he loves singing though he really loved it when he was in the bathtub the neighbors next door used
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to come out and sit in their yard to listen to Wally saying Wally's taking a
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bath Wally could have been doing the showrooms in Las Vegas let's put it that
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way his chops were so good that last rehearsal we had I couldn't believe it I
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mean the guy just blew me away I had no idea his voice had gotten that good eventually the band's signature song the
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cheater reached number 12 on the Billboard Chart along with the notoriety came the
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women well that's true he was quite a lady and man you take a good-look guy and he's like a like a movie star back
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then you know to to a lot of women I'm sure and uh you know he he liked the ladies throughout the 1970s and 80s
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Walter continued to sing with various bands throughout the United States doing what are called one
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nighters this kept Walter away from home for most of the time anyway this song Sold over main copies in my way of
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saying thank you to sing it for you it's now it wasn't long before Walter's Life
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mimicked the lyrics of his hit song watch out for the [Music] cheater while Walter was married to his
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first wife Doris he was having an affair with the girl he met while on the road Joanne Kolkata it wasn't long before
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Walter divorced Doris and married Joanne although his family didn't approve Jo
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was false she was false from day one everything was joying joying joying I still didn't feel like I could
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trust her and I didn't think she was good for Wally but I what could I do ladies and gentlemen Miss
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Susan with Walter's travel schedule his second marriage didn't work out any
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better than his first and he got involved in a sexual relationship with one of his dancers Suzanne
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Flynn not surprisingly Walter wasn't the only one cheating his wife Joanne was
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having an affair with an electrician Jim Williams whom she met while he was doing
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some work in her home her and I just kind of HD it off you know we just really liked each other's conversation
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she was really down about Walter being on the road a lot because he was on home like about 10 12 weeks out of the Year
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Jim Williams was cheating too he had been married to his wife Sharon for 20 years it was like Payton Place everybody
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was running around with each other's wives husbands in October of 1983 the Williams family received some
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terrible news Sharon Williams had been in a serious automobile accident her car had run off the road and down an
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embankment just a few miles from her home when help arrived there was a grass fire of foot high burning beside the car
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Jo I got a victim here I got a female Vic car pretty good we Sharon was on the floor of the car she was unconscious and
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barely alive give me hand I got it I got it somewhere around 7:30 in the evening
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I get a call from the uh Sheriff's Department told me that my wife had been in a bad car
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accident not to leave the house an officer would come out and pick me up there was only minor damage to the car
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but Sharon had received a serious head injury okay I got a pul county got to get she was rushed to a local hospital
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there wasn't much that could be done her skull was fractured she never regained
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Consciousness the doctor comes to me he said we can pull the plug and let her go
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or you can leave the plug plugged in and keep her like this for years well what are you going to do Jim Williams took
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her off life support the following day no autopsy was performed 2 months later there was more
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bad news this time for Walter Scott's family it was Christmas time and Walter
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Scott had just returned home from his concert tour to spend the holidays with his wife and
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children friends said said that Walter didn't appear to be himself that he was
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distracted 2 days after Christmas Joan Scott called police to report Walter missing she said he had left for a
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garage to get a new battery for his car and that he had not returned home the owner of the garage said Walter never
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arrived the next day the police found Walter's automobile abandoned in a parking lot at the St l Lewis
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airport but none of the flight manifests listed Walter Scott as a [Music] passenger when Walter Scott was first
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reported missing his father wasn't terribly concerned Walter had a reputation for taking quick trips out of
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town I didn't figure nothing wrong with it but my wife says something wrong with wal Ah hell here'll
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be home here come here we come showing up the next day Walter's parents visited
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their son's home and were surprised by what they saw okay Jim Williams was sitting at the kitchen table going
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through Walter's jewelry case how you guys he looked as if he was a valuating
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the quality of Walter's jewelry about the gun two of Walter's guns were sitting on on the edge of the table his
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third a 22 caliber pistol was missing are those waterers guns yes what are they doing there I was
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just looking at and police learned that Jim Williams car had been parked in front of Joanne's home the entire night
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before Joanne insisted the Jim had slept on the sofa Walter was missing for only 24
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hours before Joanne called Walter's manager cancelling his performances for the next nine weeks
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can two days later Jim Williams and Joan Scott drove to Pennsylvania where they looked through the band's trailer for
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any personal items Walter may have left behind while there they shared a motel room we stayed in a motel together she
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was in this bed and I was in this bed she you never took her clothes off I took my shirt off I had a t-shirt under
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the search for Walter Scott continued throughout the spring and summer no family member or fellow musicians had
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seen or heard from him the trail had turned cold I had doubts I I really did I had
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doubts that we would ever find him I held out I thought that Wally had taken off the last thing in my mind was that
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something had happened to him desperate for any help she could find Walter's mother even consulted a psychic
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and he told me that he's in cold cold water it's not moving water and there's a big red
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Barrel or something Red by the side of the road where he's at and he's not far
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from home it was then that Mrs Noti had an inkling of where Walter might be and Jim Williams had a red door on his
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house police searched Jim Williams property but found nothing suspicious 9 months after Walter disappeared Joanne
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filed for divorce citing abandonment and adultery Joanne then married Jim Williams at about the same time there
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were some big changes being made at the medical examiner's office in St Louis a
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forensic pathologist was hired to conduct autopsies on all suspicious deaths Dr Mary case was the new forensic
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pathologist so they asked me if I would look at an old case that they had and they brought me this it was like a twft
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stack of material it was the Sharon Williams automobile accident case the car accident was rather a minimal
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front-end collision and there was no explanation for why she should have any kind of impact injuries to the back of
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her head there were a number of suspicious elements in this accident the driver's side door was wide open the
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driver's seat pushed back as far as it could go yet Sharon Williams was not a
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tall woman there was no damage to the car's fuel line yet a grass fire burned
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near the car and in the emergency room nurses reported a strong smell of gasoline on Sharon's body body with so
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many unanswered questions Dr case ordered Sharon Williams body exume for an autopsy the body told a far different
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story than the accident report there were two blunt impacts to the back of her head that caused vertical
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lacerations and very massive skull fracturing this is not consistent with a head-on collision of a very minor nature
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so um her death was then considered a homicide Dr case believes that a pipe or crowbar caused these head injuries not
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the automobile accident but who had orchestrated Sharon's death to look like an accident
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I didn't kill Sharon Williams but police weren't too sure [Music] once Sharon Williams death was ruled a
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homicide her ex-husband Jim became the prime suspect police also suspected that Walter Scott's disappearance was somehow
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connected by this time Walter had been missing for 3 years when police heard that Jim
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Williams AR strange son jimy was serving time in a Florida prison for an unrelated crime they decided to pay him
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a a visit during questioning Jimmy Jr made some provocative statements about the
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3year search for Walter Scott's whereabouts he was kind of sarcastic he I guess was kind of making fun of the
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police making comments like you guys aren't smart enough to figure this out it was cold it the rivers were frozen
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the Lakes were frozen you couldn't the the ground was frozen where would my dad get rid of a
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body he was very very suspicious that his father built a flower box over the sistern and that sistern has been
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exposed his whole life police took out a warrant to search Jim Williams home at 5647 gutmouth Road the sistern was in
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the backyard covered with concrete there was a flower box on top upon taking the cover off the flower
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box we immediately noticed that the sistern was full of water after looking down
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inside the sistern we could see what appeared to be a body floating on top of the water in the same type of jogging
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suit that Joan had reported Walter wearing the last time he was seen after the body was removed the
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sistern was drained there were several large concrete blocks at the bottom along with a sealed plastic bag with
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Walter's credit cards and driver's license Walter's body was bound with a yellow
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rope the wrists were bound the knees were bound and the ankles were bound and there was a length of that rope
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extending from the body that had a large loop tied in it surmising that it was tied do some bricks that were in the
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bottom of the system Walter Scott's autopsy revealed he had been shot in the
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back what I could see on the X-ray was what we call a snowstorm effect tiny little fragments of Leed where a high
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velocity bullet has kind of shattered in the body and that's a very typical thing
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that allows um a forensic pathologist to say well that's a high velocity gunshot
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wound because of the severe decomposition it was impossible to determine what type of weapon was used I
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didn't kill Walter Scott if I'm going to kill a man I'm going to shoot him right
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between the eyes I ain't going to take a chance of missing the heart shooting
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them in the back Walter's family believes that he was murdered at home now I'll tell you
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the reason why every time he'd come in the house he took off his shoes when they found his body he was
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fully closed even his socks were still on his feet but no shoes Jim Williams was arrested and
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charged with the murder of both Walter Scott and his wife Sharon Joanne Williams was also charged
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in Walter's murder k and Walter notti inomed their son at the Valhalla mosum in St Louis
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after 3 years and a sistern under water they wanted to keep his body above ground with Jim Williams and their
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ex-daughter-in-law awaiting trial they believed the worst was behind them or so they thought
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[Music] Jim Williams and Joanne Williams were tried separately for murder Jim Williams
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trial was first this house Liv prosecutors believe that on October 19th 1983 Jim and Sharon
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Williams got into some kind of argument possibly about Jim's affair with Joanne
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yeah well who is the [ __ ] anyway why don't you bit some other time all right
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I'm out of here and you're going to go back to don't you worry about where I go
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[Music] the argument at some point turned violent she was hit twice in the back of
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the head fracturing her skull causing massive internal bleeding to make the death look like an
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accident prosecutor say Jim placed Sharon's body in her car and drove down the embankment
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[Music] he then Set Fire to the grass nearby and fled the scene before police arrived with Sharon out of the way the
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only one standing between Jim and Joanne was Walter the forensic evidence shows that
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Walter was shot in the back with a high velocity [Music] pistol Walter's body was placed in the
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sistern on Jim Williams property there were no eyewitnesses the murder weapon was never
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identified the Rope which bound Walter Scott did not match rope in the Williams Garage however Witnesses saw Jim
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Williams pouring concrete over the sistern and building the flower box a few weeks after Walter's Disappearance
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in 20° weather during a snowstorm no one knows how Walter Scott's car found its way to the
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airport or how williams got home after his wife's accident Jim Williams said he was
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innocent and took the stand in his own defense for the first time he revealed he had seen Walter on the night he
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disappeared I went on into Ken's aut Supply and come out and I seen Walter standing over there with some guy a big
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guy you know a big black coat and a black hatat you know they were talking well the guy was in in the coat got in a
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in a Cadillac a black Cadillac and Walter pulled out right behind him but Williams had no
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explanation for how Walter's body mysteriously found its way into the sistern Jim Williams was convicted of
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two counts of capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole with only circumstantial evidence
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against Joanne Williams her trial never made it to court in a plea agreement prosecutors
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dropped the murder charge against Joanne in exchange for a guilty plea to the felony charge of hindering the prosec
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ution it was a decision I made along with my family Joanne was sentenced to 5 years
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in prison and a $5,000 fine she was released after serving only 18 months as far as I'm concerned there still is no
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justice she would have been tried with Jim Williams uh I believe she would be in prison also for the same
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offense in his first television interview since his arrest Jim Williams still maintained his innocence and now
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says his son may have had something to do with Walter's murder how did my son
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know he was back there Jimmy says it was a guess awful good guess to send the cops to the right
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place right on the button Kay and Walter no ties are appalled that their former daughter-in-law served only 18 months in
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prison there's only one person that would ever get close enough to W to to kill him without him even suspected
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it and that would be joyan and that's the reason I think that Joanne was the one that shot
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Wally Walter Scott is missed by his family friends and those who loved his talent his wit and his
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spirit I listen to his records all the time and golly when you walk in the stores and they're playing the songs
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that he sang all the time it used to bother me but it doesn't now makes me feel good he really made it good on and
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uh in the music business and but I still don't understand how he can remember all those
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words the who used to build you up to let you [Music] one [Music] [Applause] [Music]