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The Case of Gary Williams
📻 Episode #428
🎙️ Hosted by Maggie Freleng
📅 Feb 19, 2024
About This Episode
In February of 1999, 86-year-old Rosemary “Mama Rose” Williams arrived at a hospital in Queens NY, claiming that she’d been raped at knifepoint. She named her 36-year-old grandson, Gary, as the assailant. Despite there being no physical evidence that Ms. Williams was assaulted, and the fact that Gary was in another state he was sentenced…
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
In February of 1999, 86-year-old Rosemary “Mama Rose” Williams arrived at a hospital in Queens NY, claiming that she’d been raped at knifepoint. She named her 36-year-old grandson, Gary, as the assailant. Despite there being no physical evidence that Ms. Williams was assaulted, and the fact that Gary was in another state he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Years later, Mama Rose admitted to family members that she regretted making the accusation, saying, “It’s time to get Gary out.” Speaking with Maggie at Fishkill Correctional Facility, Gary says that he believes his grandmother was in the early stages of dementia when she made the claim that sent him to prison - and that he forgives her. “I have to,” he says, “because I believe that something was wrong with her.”
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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.
00:04:48“Speaker 3: his back, you know what I'm saying. So I never Speaker 3: mean told my dad because my uncle, like, he's the Speaker 3: type of person that liked to fight. So I didn't Speaker 3: want to see two brothers fight over something. I try Speaker 3: to avoid things like that. Wh She was a drug”
00:18:29“Speaker 1: What did they offer you? Speaker 3: Oh? They offered me a flat fifteen. First of all, Speaker 3: they don't offer no body but my record a flat Speaker 3: bay off. You always put the l behind you. Fifteen Speaker 3: a life with me? They offer me flat fifteen. I”
00:32:30“Speaker 1: had sold Mama Rose's house in Queen's for around seventy Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Mama Rose was now living with him in Speaker 2: And she testified there was no money left over. So Speaker 2: someone made about seventy thousand dollars on the house, and Speaker 2: it sounds like it wasn't her.”
Listen to the Episode
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← #427 Lamont Hunter #429 Greg Brown →
Also on the podcast: #153 Willie "Pete" Williams · #196 Gary Drinkard · #290 Carl Williams