← All Cases / Episode #303
The Case of Billie Allen
📻 Episode #303
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Oct 27, 2022
About This Episode
On March 18, 1997, two men exited a minivan and walked into the lobby of a bank in St. Louis, MO wearing ski masks and armed with semi-automatic rifles. Shots were fired and a security guard, Richard Heflin, was shot and fatally wounded. Billie Allen, aged 19, was arrested at about 2am the next morning…
Case status as carried in this site's original 2026 profiles. Independent record verification is rolling out episode by episode — statuses are being re-checked against court and registry sources and date-stamped as verified.
The Case
On March 18, 1997, two men exited a minivan and walked into the lobby of a bank in St. Louis, MO wearing ski masks and armed with semi-automatic rifles. Shots were fired and a security guard, Richard Heflin, was shot and fatally wounded. Billie Allen, aged 19, was arrested at about 2am the next morning and taken to police headquarters where he remained in an interrogation room, handcuffed to a table, for the next several hours. Later that morning, he was positively identified in a line-up by two forestry workers who had come across an individual in the woods. According to the police, after being told of these identifications, Billie Allen said he wanted to discuss the robbery, recanted his request for a lawyer and made statements incriminating himself in the murder. Billie Allen was charged with committing an armed bank robbery and using a firearm to commit a crime of violence. He was convicted on both counts and sentenced to death.
https://linktr.ee/freebillieallen
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:06:24“Speaker 1: but these witnesses later denied saying any of the things Speaker 1: Nickerson had attributed to them, So, you know, just sat Speaker 1: around just making shit up. He perjured himself to make Speaker 1: Lamar's culpability even plausible. And then there's a cash incentivized Speaker 1: eyewitness who was convinced by investigators that the mass gunman”
00:24:47“Speaker 3: My clothes not a single trace of gasoline was found. Speaker 1: On anything and they knew that as well as that Speaker 1: you didn't match any of the. Physical descriptions you didn't Speaker 1: have the injury to your right hand that was described by, Speaker 1: the witnesses an injury that would have explained the blood”
00:43:10“Speaker 1: actual freeing of four, people, NOW right I Mean, Keith Washington, Speaker 1: Valentino Dixon, eric. Speaker 2: Riddick And Now Orlando. Speaker 1: Trey, jones right these kids are doing an absolutely. Phenomenal Speaker 1: jobs some of them have even come to work for Speaker 1: us or have gone on to law school working as”
Listen to the Episode
🎧 Listen on Omny / the podcast's platforms
Resources & links from the episode:
Share this case, follow the organisations working on it, and support the podcast's fight for the innocent at lavaforgood.com.
← #302 Chester Hollman III #304 Robert DuBoise →
Also on the podcast: #542 Nicholas Allen · #576 Billie Allen