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The Case of Bobbie Jean Johnson
📻 Episode #103
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Nov 20, 2019
About This Episode
Bobbie Jean Johnson was given up for adoption at birth, survived abuse in foster care, and ran away into the sex trade of New Orleans as a teenager. In 1977, a New Orleans antiquities dealer, Arthur Samson, was shot in the stomach and stabbed approximately 100 times inside his shop at 1130 St Charles Ave.…
The Case
Bobbie Jean Johnson was given up for adoption at birth, survived abuse in foster care, and ran away into the sex trade of New Orleans as a teenager. In 1977, a New Orleans antiquities dealer, Arthur Samson, was shot in the stomach and stabbed approximately 100 times inside his shop at 1130 St Charles Ave. His store was ransacked, and the safe was missing about $2,000. A month later police stopped 2 men and Bobbie Jean Johnson for a traffic violation in a stolen car. At the time Johnson was not a suspect, but police were on the lookout for a .32 caliber revolver. They found one in Bobbie Jean’s purse. She endured a violent interrogation that resulted in a tape recorded false confession, riddled with inconsistencies. One of the men that had been in the car with Johnson told police that he had slipped the gun into her purse while they were being pulled over, but his statement was both ignored by the prosecution and hidden from the defense. To make matters worse, her trial lawyer, Thomas Baumler, had been described as a “warm body”. In 1978, Bobbie Jean Johnson was convicted of 1st degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. After serving 41 years behind bars, Bobbie Jean continued to maintain her innocence; however, she was forced to plead guilty to manslaughter and armed robbery in order to obtain her freedom in February of 2018. To make this story even more tragic, Bobbie Jean spent less than 18 months as a free woman before passing away.
Donations made to IPNO with the note “Bobbie Jean Johnson” will be matched dollar for dollar! https://ip-no.org/support/donate/ or can be mailed to P.O. Box 792808, New Orleans, LA 70179.
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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.
00:04:00“Speaker 3: he said, oh, we got a knife and a gun. Speaker 3: I said, that is not for me. But they took Speaker 3: us to Homoicide Division and they put us in different Speaker 3: rooms and kept questions and I wasn't questions and I Speaker 3: kept telling him I don't know nothing about it. I”
00:15:05“Speaker 3: That's when I was starting I started fighting, and all Speaker 3: this it didn't matter no more because I had at Speaker 3: It was like, well, Baptigi, you got a life sentence. Speaker 1: Now, it's nothing you could do. Speaker 3: You're going to die in this prison.”
00:26:38“Speaker 1: that one. I got it. Okay. Perfect teamwork makes the Speaker 1: dream work. So this is the part of the show Speaker 1: that is my favorite part because this is the part Speaker 1: of the show where I get to first of all, Speaker 3: You, thank you for having me.”
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← #102 Rodney Reed #104 Daniel Holtzclaw →
Also on the podcast: #36 Lorenzo Johnson · #64 Calvin Johnson · #94 Messiah Johnson