Cold Case s01e13 Episode Script

August 11, 1939 Here's to big Bertha and her big old Oh, she was something else.
You best keep it down before miss Marion hears you all.
She gonna kick us all out.
Sadie, honey, miss Marion's not hearing nobody when she done drunk a whole jug of hooch herself.
You're damn right.
Don't you talk mean about my mama.
Who you think you sassing, girl? Can I have a nip? Your mama gonna have a fit she catch you up.
I'll tuck you in a sec.
Hey, Sadie, you said you was going to the juke joint.
Not tonight.
Well, honey, my candy man pay me plenty, but I still got to work tonight.
Candy man give you candy, miss Blanche? You wanna call it that, honey.
Go on to bed.
Go on.
Arletta make you think on your own little girl, huh, Sadie? Where you say your girl stay at? Virginia.
She with my cousin.
I bring her up when I get the money saved.
Blanche? Manross waiting! Miss Blanche, miss Sadie.
Go, Manross, go! Wait proper-like.
Candy man looking mighty fine.
I thought you said you was working tonight.
I am, honey.
Whoo! You a big ten years old today.
Happy birthday, baby girl.
When my mother passed away a few weeks ago, I found this letter among her belongings hidden away.
It's the last letter that my grandmother ever wrote to her.
When was your grandmother murdered? Her name was Sadie douglas.
Came from Virginia.
Moved north to find work in the '30s.
I don't know much more than that.
Your mom didn't talk about her? She was only ten years old when Sadie was killed.
And she never really forgave her for what she was.
Which was what? The police called her a common two-bit hooker.
My mother referred to her as a white man's whore.
It was hard for her, knowing that that's where she came from.
How about you? Maybe it's affected me somewhat, too.
These letters you have are from 1939? Sadie wrote one to her every week.
Look, I know I'm asking a lot, but Sadie mentioned someone, here.
"He best not hurt me.
That milkman best not hurt your mama.
" - What milkman? - I don't know.
She never referred to him in her other letters.
Back then, the police said Sadie was a prostitute killed randomly by a John, but I think my grandmother knew her killer.
Cold Case ORIGINAL AIR DATE ON CBS: 2004/01/25 Homicides, assaults, rapes basically every criminal record before 1950 is filed here.
County even sticks us with their medical charts, too.
We need homicides.
Right down there.
I thought you said they were filed.
They were, once.
I mean, what's the point? Doers are probably dust in the wind.
Thanks.
Don't want to waste any more of your precious time.
Or cut into your web-surfing activities.
White woman stabbed.
Suspect, White male with get this, slender build and black whiskers.
it's a murder ledger, Scotty.
Going all the way back to 1903.
All in a you-stash-it off the highway.
Yo.
I found Sadie.
I had to put them in plastic.
They were falling apart in our hands.
Sadie douglas.
Colored female.
Nativity, Virginia.
Occupation, Prostitute.
Resided at a boarding house for colored women.
Proprietor was a miss Thea marion.
Women in the boarding house were all hookers.
Sadie was raped and suffocated at the hand of an unknown assailant.
Maybe our milkman.
A ticket for New York dated the night of the murder found in the victim's belongings.
Sadie's daughter was living in Virginia.
So why is she going to New York? Last to see her was another tenant at the boarding house, colored female, 26.
Blanche D.
The rest of her name is missing.
You find Blanche, maybe we find out why Sadie was going to New York.
Like the geezer's gonna remember.
You and Mr.
Sensitivity track down the milk companies that delivered to Sadie's boarding house.
Rush and Valens'll be on geezer patrol.
Looks like she fought back.
Something under her nails? Back then it didn't matter.
It does now.
So if the family gives the green light maybe we dig her up? Yep.
Go talk to her granddaughter.
An exhumation? Is that really necessary? She may have fought her killer, Sarah.
We might get something useful.
Match the DNA to the doer or his descendants, if either's in the system.
All right.
I'll sign whatever papers you need.
Last to see your grandmother alive was a woman named Blanche.
You recall that name in any of her letters? Blanche Sadie wrote about a fair she went to with a Blanche.
That's them.
I had my first cotton candy today.
Like eating sugar from a cloud First thing you come up, I'm gonna get you your own cotton candy, baby.
We'll be so happy together.
Your mama misses you like dry land for rain.
Love, mama.
She sent that photo with this letter.
Could I take this and the letters? Will you bring them back? They're all I have left of her.
Thing's making me seasick.
At least I got my roll on.
You can't even do yours.
Yeah.
Stop.
Damn thing's gonna explode.
Good lord.
Looks like a Baylor's milk company delivered to north 15th street through the 1930s.
Where Sadie's boarding house was.
Board of revenue's got Baylor's employee records 1930 to 1938.
But nothing for 1939.
So why is that year missing? Fire.
January 1939.
Company stopped keeping records after that.
Fire must've really wiped them out.
They went out of business a year later.
If this fire cost lives, newspapers would have carried accounts, right? Yeah.
So maybe our milkman's in one of those newspapers? We sure this place got prostitution arrests before 1950? Hookers, homicides, the works.
If Blanche got picked up, we'll find her here.
Wonder where she is now.
Wherever hookers who make it to 91 end up.
Let's hope it ain't hooker heaven.
Debbins, blanche.
This our girl? She's a dead-ringer for this Blanche.
Arrested for prostitution in 1940.
Delaney manross paid for her bail.
Manross delaney? The candy man? Delaney's delights? You never had a Delaney delight? No.
Guy's got a candy franchise.
Been raking it in forever.
Maybe our hooker's moved up in the world, hmm? Blanche debbins? I ain't used that name in decades.
Whaddya you want, honey? Philadelphia homicide, miss Blanche.
And the police, too.
Make me feel young again.
Honey! Manross! - I'm watching my talk show, honey! - Well turn it off, honey! We got guests.
That was the depression, honey.
Times were hard all over, especially for colored women coming up alone from the south.
You did what you could to make ends meet.
Today's young people don't understand.
You all help yourself.
Try my number nine.
He gets on his high horse sometimes.
Don't mind him.
That's what I do.
Isn't that right, candy man? Day she called me candy man, I fell head over heels.
Been falling for her ever since.
Do you know anything about a trip Sadie was taking to New York, miss Blanche, night she was killed? She told us she was going to bed.
Not to New York.
Well, did Sadie ever mention anyone, maybe a milkman she was afraid of? That rebby boy, what's his name? Southern rebel wannabe.
Wasn't more than northern white trash.
what was his name? I don't recall, honey.
Pierce.
That was his name.
Had burns all over his face.
I'm telling the story, honey.
He had burns all over his face.
Had it out for Sadie, too.
All because of that damn milk.
I ain't getting out.
Not for no colored whorehouse.
Let them get their own damn milk.
Oh, here comes another one.
She looks almost white, don't she? Come and get it! Who that cooze think she is, huh? Hey, dump it! / Huh? I said dump it, Jonesy! Let her clean it up.
Don't.
Sadie turned and walked right back into the house and left that milk out in the street.
That other milkman wasn't no better.
Didn't I say I'm telling the story? This, uh, Pierce cause any other trouble? Not that Sadie mentioned.
I avoided him and his milk truck after that.
But Sadie was afraid he might hurt her.
Wrote about him in a letter to her daughter.
Honey, Sadie couldn't read or write.
None of us could back then.
But she sent letters to her daughter.
Lots of them.
Well, she might have sent them, but she sure didn't write them.
So who wrote Sadie's letters? No one in the house could read or write.
A John, maybe? Whoever it was might've known more about the milkman.
Well, if the milkman was this guy Pierce, then we might have the answer.
Newspaper from 1939.
Pierce mcclintock listed as a burn victim in the Baylor's milk company fire.
The same company delivered milk to Sadie's boarding house.
Yep.
Fire was set by pissed off white workers when the company hired blacks.
Killed ten, injured five more, including Pierce.
But lucky for us, newspapers back then printed the victims' addresses.
We just got to pray that Pierce is still there.
But yeah.
And I'll throw in a hail mary, we find who wrote this letter.
So this is from 1939, huh? Interesting.
Well, you can tell from someone's handwriting who they are? No.
Gender, age, personality type, region of origin, pretty much, yeah.
How? See these looped letters? Curved forms combined with medium pressure are usually indicators of femininity.
Writer was female? Eh, best guess.
Kinda K.
O.
's our theory of a John as the writer.
So who the hell wrote this letter? Give me a few hours, I'll have an answer for you.
What's that tell you? Ah.
Firm.
Logical.
Running from something? Your grandfather, Pierce mcclintock, owned this house? He passed away ten years ago.
I inherited the house from him.
I can't understand what he has to do with this woman's murder.
We don't know either, miss Reilly.
That's why we're here.
He was a good man, my grandfather.
Not a murderer.
So you'd agree to volunteer your DNA to prove that? I don't need to prove that to anyone.
We can get a search warrant.
For what? An old man's knickknacks? A dead man's diary? Pierce kept a diary? After the fire at Baylor's milk, Pierce refers to something called the fifth day in his diary.
- The fifth day? - Mentioned it a bunch of times.
Don't you dare put that in your mouth.
I like cheez whiz on my cheesesteak.
So what? Fifth day sounds like some sort of group Pierce started.
Guys from the milk place injured in the fire.
What'd they do? Doesn't say.
But check that entry out.
May 1939.
Pierce's milk bottle war with Sadie.
He writes about it.
Thing Blanche told us about? The aftermath Delivered to that colored's boarding house today, and that flooze just left them bottles out on the street.
Damn it.
She didn't even pick them up.
Look at that coon, will you? Standing there like she runs the joint.
Fifth day ought to teach her a lesson.
Fifth day is right.
Take that gleam outa that quiff's eye.
Go on, Jonesy.
You show her.
Here's your milk.
So maybe Jonesy was our evil milkman and not Pierce.
No Jonesy listed as a victim in the fire.
But all them fifth day guys got messed up in the fire, right? So how'd Jonesy get involved with them? And what's he mean the fifth day ought to teach her a lesson? Maybe that's what their little club did, teach lessons to women like Sadie.
Let's check criminal records for Pierce mcclintock.
Maybe his fifth day activities made the books.
Any word on the city okaying the exhumation? - Kite's been in court all day.
- So ask him tonight.
Or tomorrow.
I've called you three times about this exhumation.
Closing arguments on the wicker job.
Besides, you've ignored a few of my calls lately, too.
Been busy.
Well there you go.
We're both busy.
Anyway, we got direction on this job.
From '39.
/ So? So it's hard to make a case that the exhumation is pressing, you know what I mean? Maybe the judge should meet the victim's granddaughter.
It's pressing to her.
Look, Fisk hasn't gotten to it, but I'm guessing you'll need more probable cause.
The city's strapped for cash.
And this granddaughter wants answers.
Don't we all.
- How're the cats, anyway? - Good.
Call me.
When you hear from Fisk, I mean.
Sure.
Get anything in criminal records? Long rap sheet on Pierce.
Assaults on males and females, all black.
Victims claimed they were attacked by a group of young white males.
African american history museum had a listing of hate groups in '39.
They list the Fifth day as one in Philly.
White supremacists.
Took their name from the Fifth day of creation.
God said, let us make man in our image and let him rule over all the earth.
Meaning the white man, of course.
Mission was to terrorize blacks coming up from the south looking for jobs.
Every Fifth day, they'd go on a rampage.
Beat up some black person for the crime of being alive.
Murder part of their game? Could be.
Check it out.
The Fifth day.
Meet Pierce and our friend Jonesy.
Jonesy don't look burned.
Could have them where the sun don't shine.
Museum didn't have last names on these clowns.
Id'd them here only by their monikers or first name.
We'll keep looking.
Lilly still with the ADA? Our handwriting expert came back with a profile of the letter writer.
It was a kid.
Only child in the boarding house was the owner's daughter.
Ten years old at the time of the murder.
I'll go pick up Lil.
This was miss Sadie's favorite room.
My mother took in boarders during the depression.
I hear this place is a bed and breakfast now? Owners say it was okay for us to come in.
Bring you back to your old home.
I'm glad no one tore it down.
Did you write Sadie's letters here? I wrote them, yes.
But the words were hers.
Her baby girl meant the whole world to her.
Do you remember writing about a milkman who might hurt Sadie? Jonesy.
I remember him well.
Why? Because of what Sadie found in the milk.
Show her who's boss.
Here's your milk.
Nothing but poor white milkman trash.
Who he think he is, trashy ol' Poor white milkman trash left a note, miss Sadie.
/ Shush, girl.
What's this say? He says, forgive me.
Crazy white trash.
He's saying he's sorry.
I still say he trash.
That ain't nothing but tinder for the fire.
Go on, Arletta.
Throw it in.
Wait.
Write something for me.
Why should I? Because you are a lady.
I forgive you them.
What's your name? My name is Sadie.
Those notes went on and on for months, right till she died.
Why did she think Jonesy would hurt her? I think it was her heart, she meant.
Did they exchange notes the day she was killed? Jonesy wanted her to meet him here that night.
For a proper visit.
Miss Sadie kept each and every note.
Hid them behind the stove where no one would look, and no one ever found them.
Why not? Because I took them.
Still have them, too.
I was raised by other people, Sadie.
Don't even know my own folks.
Jonesy was an orphan? Maybe check the children's homes in the area, look for his name.
I'll care for your little girl, even if she ain't my own, because she's like me.
Every child deserves to be loved.
He wanted to make a life with her.
And take her kid in, too.
A real 180 from the Fifth day.
So was Sadie killed by the man who hated her or the man who loved her? Pierce or Jonesy? Maybe something happened that night at the boarding house that turned the tide of Jonesy's love.
Love can turn on a dime.
We know a candy man? Do you love me, Sadie, or do you love the candy man? Blanche's husband.
Blanche and I, we just started dating, and I, uh had a little crush on Sadie.
Don't you do this to me, Manross.
We can talk somewhere else, if that would make it easier.
I was young foolish thought I could have my cake and eat it, too.
Sadie never went for it.
Because she was involved with Jonesy.
- So you knew about the affair.
- Not till the night she was killed.
They hid it well.
You had to, back then.
If anyone found out, one of them would be dead.
One of them is dead.
So how'd you find out? the night of Sadie's murder We were all supposed to meet up at the juke joint.
I thought Sadie was going to be there, but she she wasn't.
So I went down to the boarding house to get her.
We got to go tonight, Sadie.
We can't just go.
But we talked about this.
We was just going to visit.
- That's what you said in your note.
- I know, but Something came up.
What? Look you gotta leave with me right now.
I already got the tickets, the train leaves in a half-hour.
We go now and we could make it, Sadie.
/ I want to.
but why's it gotta be tonight? What's wrong, Jonesy? I went back to the juke joint.
Never seen her again.
Sadie was asking for trouble taking up with that half-blind white boy.
What do you mean, half-blind? Couldn't see out of one eye, on account of the fire.
Why didn't you ever tell anyone what you saw that night? Because I didn't want to hurt the woman I love.
But I did, anyway.
Manross volunteered his DNA, fingerprints, shirt off his back.
You really think this guy's the doer.
Sometimes jealousy beats out love and hate, hands down.
What I don't get is Jonesy was just gonna visit Sadie that night, but then something happens.
And he's frantic to get out of town.
Something like what? Pierce found out his white supremacist pal fell in love with a black woman? Threatens revenge on them both.
Got our milkman.
Nathan jones.
Just his name, but it's a start.
Grew up in a boys' home in Philly.
Ran him through autotrack, DMV, even military records.
Got a thousand and one hits back.
Manross said Jonesy was injured in the fire, went half-blind later.
If he applied for military duty, he'd have been rejected, right? Wait a sec.
My old man went through this.
A class 4F rejection.
Unacceptable for military duty.
Made him feel like he had to wear a dunce cap, back in the day.
So we check Nathan jones with 4F records.
Then maybe we finally nail down this son of a bitch.
Hey, rush.
Hi.
how'd it go? Judge Fisk K.
O'd the motion to exhume.
What? Not enough probable cause.
We've got three possible doers here, Kite.
Look, it's an ancient case, okay? And the bottom line is cold cash.
We don't have any to spare.
Sorry.
Sarah? Hi.
Any news? I thought you might want these.
Notes to Sadie from the milkman in her letter.
She wasn't afraid of him, Sarah, she was in love with him.
I'll care for your little girl, even if she ain't my own.
He wanted to take care of her.
And your mother.
I wish she had had a chance to see this, to, to know this.
Your mom? I'm sorry.
It's okay.
I have some bad news, too, Sarah.
The D.
A.
's office didn't grant the motion to exhume.
But I'm the family.
Don't I have a say? It's not that.
They need more of a reason to do it.
Solving my grandmother's murder isn't a good enough reason? It's complicated.
Financially difficult.
I'll pay for it.
Sarah An exhumation and autopsy cost at least $10,000.
I've memorized all of her letters.
These past few days, I feel as if I've come as close to meeting my grandmother as I ever will.
I know how she lived.
But I still need to know how she died.
Body is in an early stage of dried mummification.
soft tissue.
desiccated down to the bone.
What are the odds on DNA, Dr.
Barnsley? This is my first 65 year old cadaver.
but DNA can last hundreds of years.
She fought back, broke three fingernails.
Maybe the doer left a souvenir.
The fingers are in advanced stage of dehydration, but I might be able to collect some scrapings.
Valens.
You're kidding.
Where? All right.
Jeffries and Vera found Jonesy.
He's still alive? And kicking it in New York city.
Detectives, the index finger of the right hand.
I think maybe we've got something.
Maybe Sadie's speaking from the grave.
Lab's trying Pierce's DNA from his granddaughter.
Manross', too.
That's going on the cheap.
Taking SEPTA and New Jersey transit.
We gotta find Amtrak car way back.
take a free hop when we saw her.
Kite pissed you off, uh? Not fight for the exumation.
It wasn't really his decision though.
Or was it something else with Kite pissed you off? I gotta be psychic in an answer outta you? I, uh, might've made a mistake.
Rush.
Okay.
Thanks, boss.
Manross' cleared.
His DNA didn't match to what was under Sadie's nails.
So candyman ain't our doer.
Gotta admit it.
Glad for Blanche.
It must be nice to know and get someone grow old and useless with.
Yeah, it must be.
Grandpa? You got visitors.
We're here about Sadie douglas, Mr.
Jones.
You remember how she got killed? Raped, suffocated.
Hey.
What are you saying to him? Never mind.
Frankie, why don't you go watch TV? You didn't finish your soup, grandpa.
I'm done, Frankie.
Go on.
Yeah I remember how she died.
Cops back then said it was a John.
Oh, no, she wasn't a prostitute.
She lived in that house because she had to.
Times were rough back then.
She didn't make her living hustling? Sadie was a lady.
I gave her some money from time to time.
Of course, she couldn't tell anybody where she was getting it from.
Times being what they were.
Yeah.
And you being in love.
Who the hell is Sadie? You know, her her little girl ought to know that her mama was a lady.
She's dead.
Sadie's daughter.
Night of Sadie's murder, you wanted her to leave town with you.
Why? Because they were coming.
Who? Them.
They were coming.
So then, I says to her, you may look almost white, but you is black as midnight.
Jonesy over there don't think I'm funny.
Oh, that's because he's giving her his morning milk.
Time that bitch got a real taste of white man's milk.
Yeah, sure.
Ain't that right, Jonesy? Damn right.
/ Yeah! Fifth day's rolling, boys.
Tonight! Tonight! Sadie? Sadie! Sadie! I tried to save her, but she wouldn't go.
I begged her, but she wouldn't go.
And I left.
A man loves a woman and leaves her to that? All this was forever ago.
Why you care now? Because a woman died, and a family wants to know why.
And because what happens in the past never really goes away, does it? No.
It don't.
My grandpa didn't do nothing.
Would you volunteer your DNA to prove that? We got a sister lab here in New York.
It'll take a few minutes to run your DNA.
And we can go right now.
He'll do it.
Right, grandpa? I'll get your coat.
He didn't do nothing.
We'll settle this whole thing in four or five minutes, Mr.
Jones.
Lab's got a process called, uh, electronic DNA sampling.
EDS for short.
Zaps your DNA through the internet.
Compares it with what we found under Sadie's fingernails.
Finds a match.
Unless you want to skip the trip and tell us what really happened? If you have the question, ask it.
Thought I just did.
Come on, grandpa.
I'm ready.
Go ahead and ask your question.
What happened night Sadie was killed? You gotta leave with me now.
Look, I already got the tickets.
Train leaves in half an hour.
We go now, we can make it, Sadie.
I want to, but why it gotta be tonight? What's wrong, Jonesy? We gotta go.
- The train to New York is - New York? But my daughter lives in Virginia.
We'll send for her.
You promised we was gonna be a family together.
We will, but we gotta go now.
What about her? What about her, Jonesy? That's, uh that's your daughter? You promised to care for her like she was your own, remember? Because every child deserve loving, you said.
You, uh never showed me that before.
Why won't you look at her, Jonesy? You and me, we can make it together, because no one'll know, Sadie.
No one'll know what you are.
You barely look it, Sadie, and you can pass.
Shut up! She can't pass but you can.
And we can have a life together and no one'll ever know.
Shut up! Because I love you, Sadie.
I love you.
No.
You don't.
Just told me so.
Well, look at what we got here.
Jonesy's getting a leg up on us, boys.
Ain't you, Jonesy? Jonesy! Let her be, Jonesy.
What's wrong with her? Get up! Hey, I said get up! Sadie Sadie Sadie was a lady.