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00:00Football was very important in how they said he's throwing date he's got it we had a lot
00:09of talent coming up and then all of a sudden your world comes crashing down I got a call
00:18from the police that they found bill and that was the worst news I ever heard you know what
00:27happened we had never thought it was murder man and then rumors really started flying you had
00:37all of these relationships and two different love triangles this case blew up attorney dick
00:44DeGaran said that there's been no evidence that he had a pistol in his hand southeast Texas Friday
00:49night lights football murder it's like gumbo this was the gumbo of all stories
01:19on Monday April 22nd 1985 a man was picking berries in the big thicket a very remote part
01:43of Polk County when he stumbled on a man's body the body was not in very good shape it was so
02:00decomposed that it was unrecognizable but where he was found was not a place where people go
02:08frequently the big thicket is of National Preserve it's thousands of acres in southeast
02:16Texas it's absolutely a miracle that the body was found the man who found the body just happened
02:25to be in the right place at the right time he called law enforcement officers and they came
02:30out to the location and there were a lot of puzzling circumstances right off the bat
02:39there was no identification on the body and it had a coach's whistle around his neck but
02:51he had no shoes why would there be no shoes especially in the middle of the big thicket
02:57if you're going hiking or walking why would you be missing your shoes they did see a couple of
03:04wounds on the body that made them believe it might have been a two gunshot wounds there are
03:11only two clues that could help investigators identify the victim a coach's whistle and a
03:17class ring the body had a ring from Stephen F Austin State University at Popular College and
03:26in southeast Texas inside the ring there were initials BMF dated 1973 after they found the
03:36ring they went to Stephen F Austin University in Nacogdoches and had them look at the 1973
03:43alumni roster and there was only one person that ring could have belonged to and that was Billy
03:50Mack Fleming
04:06the autopsy showed that Bill had been shot twice in the back of the head execution style with a 22
04:16investigators learned that Billy Mack Fleming was a football coach and they said and Billy
04:25Mack Fleming had been missing for about 10 days investigators learned that the school
04:31superintendent Kenneth Wojtek had reported Billy Mack missing and he had been last seen
04:37on April the 12th at about 3 p.m. when investigators spoke with the superintendent
04:45he said that Billy Mack didn't have any enemies that he knew of but a weird thing did happen
04:50about a month before he witnessed the superintendent received this anonymous letter
04:56March 15th 1985 dear mr. Wojtek coach Fleming has been seen in a very compromising position
05:07with Laura Nugent during his class periods and at lunch times the letter claimed that
05:15the coach was having an affair with a school secretary what really concerned me and other
05:25parents is the fact that they can carry on their lovemaking at school and get away with it
05:37Dayzetta was just a rural little oilfield town people worked for the plants and then you had
05:50some of your farmers and stuff a lot of people work with their hands you know if you're driving
05:56through Dayzetta I mean it's just a straight shot no stoplight straight shot that's it we
06:04can't afford a lot you know I'm saying there's nowhere to put it it was just a real tight-knit
06:11community that didn't have a lot you was either working or doing sports if you didn't do sports
06:17you worked I knew from I was three years old that I was gonna play football and my goal in junior
06:25I was playing the NFL football was very important in how they said we had great pepper rallies and
06:35people came to the games you almost can close the town down you know cuz everybody was at the
06:40football games fair enough is just banging you know I'm saying I mean you lived and breathed
06:48football whole days that it wasn't notable as one of the great football powerhouses but the
06:55fact that they weren't a big brutish winning team in a big city probably made it more endearing
07:00because when they won it meant something they won the state championship in 1979 that was a
07:08great achievement and once you win it now it gives the rest of the players that follow something to
07:15shoot for so everybody wants to go after their state championship just growing up now you wanted
07:21to be that team that got to go again he's got it so that's what we were striving for just to win
07:27the state championship just to taste it and get there and win it Bill began coaching at the holidays
07:37at a junior school in August of 83 Billy Mac Fleming's job at the junior high was to prepare
07:45players for the high school varsity levels he was in charge of putting together the building blocks
07:51that would ultimately take the Bobcats to another state championship you started in seventh grade
07:58that's when you started getting evaluated you were basically doing the same place that the
08:05high school plays at to groom us for high school because I mean we had a lot of talent coming up
08:12Billy Mac had been a star football player in high school and college when he was hired to come to
08:19hold Isetta he was a popular teacher and coach about an hour away from Houston but he and his
08:26wife Linda were looking for a change Linda was an English teacher in another school district she
08:33said Bill had convinced her to move they're telling her that they could have a farm and a
08:37lot of space around them and it would be a more relaxed easier living the thing that everybody
08:45talked about was Billy Mac was the new kid in town the new football coach he was a little bit
08:51of an outsider so you have to earn your stripes coach Fleming you could look at him and he was
09:00strong as an ox and fast as a gazelle if he latched on to him man you better you better be
09:07ready to ride a tornado so to speak and just his charisma was the greatest thing everybody was just
09:16drawing to him that was the thing I admired most about it probably he could be walking down the
09:21hall and kids just flock to him and he'd make him laugh and had that will so he would twirl that
09:28will so he was just a great great great guy to be around not just for me but for them I can talk
09:35to him anytime I wanted you know if you have any problems come talk to me I felt like he was a lot
09:42more than a coach for me coach Fleming was he was he was like a father figure to me that first year
09:51he was there he was handing out football numbers and he come to me he goes Ford he is what number
09:59you want I said coach I really don't know he goes what do you play you play linebacker huh I said
10:03yeah I'll play linebacker he goes here he's digging around in the bag and he pulls out number 15 he
10:11goes that was my number in college you take that yeah that was special to me I got the
10:21Warriors number number 15
10:41dear mr. Wojciech my main reason for writing this letter to you is because I've had no results with
10:50this embarrassing and unmoral situation that exists at the junior school one of the first
10:58steps for investigators was to get to the bottom of this strange letter accusing Billy Mac and
11:03Laura Nugent of having an affair what I am referring to is the love affair that has existed
11:10between coach Fleming and Laura Nugent investigators learned that Billy Mac Fleming separated from his
11:18wife and he did see Laura on the side and it was the talk of the town everybody knew it you couldn't
11:24hide it in hold a set of Texas if this situation is not corrupted immediately it will be reported
11:33to the school board signed considering parents there were a series of anonymous letters that
11:42were sent Billy Mac had received one the school principal had one and so did Billy Mac's wife
11:48Linda no one ever admitted sending those letters but it was a introduction into the rumors that
11:57were swirling around law enforcement officers are trying to find out who would have such a
12:04grudge or so much hate for Billy Mac Fleming who would have written these nasty bitter very
12:10personal letters who would have done that
12:27I probably never forget it was uh it was a normal day I got a call from the police that
12:40they found bill in Polk County in a field and that was the worst haha that was the worst news
12:50I ever had yes it was a tough and they said he was shot execution style on his knees in the back
13:07of the head and and me just picturing that bill being shot like that and being executed it was
13:17tough it was very very tough all I remember is all of us coming out of our classes everybody
13:26you know it seemed like the whole damn school just busted out our class a bunch of us guys
13:34went running to the gym you know we were looking for coach Brooks we went running into the side
13:42door running into the gym coach Brooks was in there and he was crying he just he couldn't talk
13:48he just ran out you know when we understood because all those guys are standing there
13:54just bawling dude it was so bad so yeah that was a bad day I was scared I can say it being
14:06there cuz you don't know who did it what what happened or anything and so it just kind of
14:13shattered our world cuz you know all of a sudden you're in a safe little small town and then now
14:19you're wondering you know how safe is it and then there was no answers you know we had a lot of
14:29questions but there was no answers I'm just kind of keeping it from us me being around 15 we were
14:36mad and wanting to know you know cuz he was our guy you know but as far as information nothing
14:43there was nothing they wouldn't tell us nothing I feel 100% sure that it's gonna be solved I was
14:53on air I was the breaking story reporter Scott Lawrence Channel 6 News in the beginning I was
14:59hearing some things from people most people didn't want to talk about it but there were people that
15:03were telling me that Billy Mac Fleming was in love with the school secretary and it became a
15:07very passionate fast-developing affair and that had something to do with the murder of Billy Mac
15:13Fleming I was sent to holidays that had to cover the Billy Mac Fleming case and I talked to Laura
15:21Laura was a pretty woman she had long dark hair and big brown eyes and she was very kind of wistful
15:32and men found her very attractive she worked as a school secretary so everybody knew her she lived
15:41a simple life she lived with her mother in a small frame house out in the country on a country road
15:48she wasn't femme fatale she was a very quiet person and a very private person when investigators
15:59spoke with Laura she admitted that she and Billy Mac had been dating since January which was about
16:05four months before Billy Mac's death Billy and Linda had been married for about six or seven
16:10years and shortly after they moved his whole day Zetta Billy and Linda separated he got his own
16:17place Linda was upset when Bill wanted to move out it wasn't what she had wanted I think she
16:24expected him to go off on his own for a little while and then return to her but in January of
16:3085 Bill came to Laura and said that he had moved out of the house that he was getting a divorce
16:37from Linda he started dating Laura then it didn't take long to kind of get the sparks burning and
16:44turned into a full-fledged fire Laura Nugent loved Billy Mac Fleming they were planning to get married
16:53she was devastated by his death Laura said she last saw Billy Mac the morning of April the 12th
17:00the last day anyone saw him Bill had told Laura that he'd be at her house at 430 to have dinner
17:07with her parents but he never came on Saturday the next day Laura drove to the apartment looking
17:18for Bill the truck wasn't there the apartment was locked and Bill didn't answer the door she
17:24went to the middle school and she saw that Bill's truck was still in the parking lot on Monday when
17:32Bill didn't show up at the school she was beside herself with worry Laura told the superintendent
17:40that he was missing the superintendent called the local law enforcement and reported it Laura
17:47didn't know who was writing the letters stating that she and Bill were having an affair but
17:54Billy did tell her that both he and his wife Linda received letters as well Linda and Bill
18:04were still married and after Bill died Linda checked in with the school to see if she was
18:11still the beneficiary and his life insurance policy and she was it was $50,000 the law
18:19enforcement officers found out that there was life insurance so of course that's the first
18:23thing law enforcement officers look at is their money Billy Mac Fleming died just days before
18:31the divorce was scheduled to be finalized everything that he had all of his assets went
18:37to her small towns keep quiet but I guarantee you you dig around in any small town they're
18:59skeletons I mean you wouldn't think that these people that you look up to have flaws because
19:07you got them kind of on a pedestal you know what I'm saying I didn't know it as a 12 year
19:11old or 13 year old I thought that coach women and Laura knew you might have dated or something but
19:18I didn't really know I knew there was kind of flirting you know but back then you stayed out
19:24of grown-ups business you know what I'm saying like you was seen and not heard and you better
19:28not be seen too much and there was rumors floating around you know of all kinds of stuff
19:35so I heard about some letters don't know what they entail and so don't really know what to
19:41believe you never saw nothing I mean you didn't know until it all just literally just slammed you
19:50in the face you didn't know in talking to the investigators they did tell me they were looking
20:02at everybody anybody and everybody that might have a motive to kill Billy Mac Fleming even
20:09Linda Fleming Linda told investigators that she and Bill had been married for seven years and it
20:17had been a tumultuous marriage they talked about going to a marriage counselor trying to save the
20:24marriage Linda did make an appointment but Bill didn't show up after the separation Bill continued
20:31to come over to the house and see Linda twice they had sexual relations afterward Linda told
20:39me that she felt as if she had been used Linda suspected that there might be another woman in
20:45the picture but she didn't really know for sure until the first letter showed up you know she
20:52received three letters she showed them to Bill Bill came over and she said somebody's really
21:00angry with you there's somebody out there that's that's sick they were seen checking into a motel
21:07on March 9th 1985 at approximately midnight and left the following day at 1120 a.m. one of the
21:17letters had a copy of a motel receipt where Laura and Billy had a tryst she parked her car in the
21:28rear of the motel and he parked his truck in front near their room we have pictures to prove the
21:34motel situation there were suspicions about Linda Fleming and her impossible involvement in the
21:42murder for financial gain and bitterness and anger all of those elements came together to raise
21:47suspicions Linda's alibi was that she had taught school that Friday that Bill disappeared she then
21:55gave one of the other teachers a ride home and then had the commute back to hold his Etta which
22:01took more than a half hour when they asked Linda if she can think of anybody who might want to hurt
22:08her husband she said there was one shady guy from Billy Mac's past a guy named Doug Duncan
22:14before he started coaching in holidays at a bill worked with a friend of his in the carpet business
22:25it was rumored that the guy had a drug problem and they lost all their money and the guy just
22:32disappeared Douglas Duncan had a history of drug use then there were allegations of a shady
22:40background and so you have these two people Billy Mac Fleming and Douglas Duncan who were
22:46aligned and both disappearing under bizarre circumstances police searched Bill's apartment
22:56and they found a small amount of cocaine in the bathroom when they tested it it was 90% which is
23:04a very high quality so Billy Mac Fleming had to be dealing with somebody to get the cocaine when
23:12it was a friend or a cocaine dealer there were several clues that seemed to point to some kind
23:19of drug-related killing and his business partner was missing the drugs raised questions about
23:27Douglas Duncan and a possible motivation for the killing of Billy Mac Fleming when his body was
23:34found he didn't have his boots on now that's kind of the signature of a kidnapping or was by
23:44the drug cartel they'll take their shoes off it means they can't run very far it was a lot of
23:53gossip a lot of people saying this and of course I never seen Bill do any drugs of course he drunk
24:01a little bit alcohol but I've never seen him do any type of drugs I don't believe it I don't care
24:09what the news said I don't care what the police said I don't care what anybody said I just know
24:13the character of that man and that didn't fall in his character most of the gossip around town
24:19centered on the mysterious letters and what their connection was to Billy Mac's murder the word was
24:26that whoever wrote the letters was someone from the junior high school with a connection to Billy
24:31Mac Fleming and Laura Nugent the letter to Linda had the hotel receipt and showed that Billy Mac
24:38Fleming and Laura Nugent had stayed in the hotel in the Travelodge together so the law enforcement
24:46officers went to the Travelodge they showed the school yearbook to the clerk to say who came in
24:53and to get a copy of the receipts and when they identified that person this case blew up
25:23the letters were the key piece of evidence one of the letters showed that Billy Mac Fleming and
25:33Laura Nugent had stayed in the Travelodge together
25:43the clerk picked out the picture and definitively identified Hurley Fontenot
25:48Hurley Fontenot was the principal of the junior high school where Laura Nugent was a secretary
25:55and Billy Mac Fleming was a coach April the 23rd 1985 we're at the sheriff's office in Liberty
26:08Texas my name is Tom Walker and this is pertaining to a interview with Mr. Fontenot
26:17investigators brought Hurley and I questioned him about the day that Bill disappeared at
26:24approximately 2 50 p.m. that's when he told me that he was leaving campus then and that he would
26:31see me Monday he was getting a divorce to marry a young girl named Laura Nugent right is that not
26:38right was she employed by you or yes she worked in there she was your secretary she was an aide
26:46okay during while you were single didn't you date Laura Nugent I sure did for how long it was
26:56occasional dating investigators discovered there was a lot of talk in town that Hurley and Laura
27:05dated for about two years before Bill hired on as a coach at the junior school Laura wanted to
27:13marry Hurley but he wasn't ready then after you and Laura dissolved y'all's relationship
27:22then she started dating Bill Fleming right and he told me that he had never been as happy as he was
27:34in his life you liked Bill a great deal you don't gone right I sure did I cried four times today
27:42you know that they were going and seeing one another at motels you know that I knew they were
27:53seeing one another you wouldn't have done anything to cause the relationship between him and and Laura
28:01any problems would you you didn't harass them you didn't mail those letters did I mail those letters no sir you
28:10didn't do any background checking or you didn't check on Bill Fleming and his relationship at any
28:15motel I didn't know they went to motels you never followed them to a motel mainly a travel lodge up
28:26in Crosby I have never been to that motel in my life and of course whoever done that was
28:34the ones who probably mail the letters and with the scheme to discredit the coach with his affair
28:41with Laura you didn't do that no sir emphatically no Hurley said I received these letters they're
28:54not just to other people I got them to in a statement Hurley said that he had gone to pick
29:02up his daughter Vanessa at the airport in Houston that Friday that Bill disappeared he had a parking
29:12receipt from Intercontinental Airport saying he got there shortly after five and then he drove
29:18back to and stayed at his sister's house that night in Holiday Zeta it's 1009 and it's still
29:26the same day April 23rd this interview 1985 junior high school principal Hurley Fontenot a lifelong
29:36resident of Liberty County is a suspect in the murder of Holiday Zeta coach Bill Fleming the
29:41connecting point and perhaps even the reason leading to the young coach's murder is a secretary
29:46of the school by the name of Rob Lugin whom both men at one time were dating. Mr. Fontenot to me
29:54didn't seem like he could do it I didn't I never looked at it seen him like that way as far as
30:00being angry at Bill I never could think that he would do something like that. Hurley was a well
30:08respected member of the community they saw no way that he possibly could have done it. Hurley was
30:14very positive in his approach to his students and he was very very popular. I felt like I could
30:22go knock on Mr. Fontenot's door anytime and say hey I need you and they would be there he'd be
30:28like hey what are you guys doing how's your week going you know anything I need to know about your
30:33grades good you know and he'd always come by us like us four or five and be like how's my boys
30:41doing we were his boys and that's what he called us. I was there I remember walking along with him
30:54Mr. Fontenot did you do it why did you do it he didn't answer but when I interviewed him at his
31:00office he said I love Billy Mac Fleming then I didn't do it.
31:03Hurley Fontenot the junior high school principal in the Hull Dayzetta school district and the suspect
31:19in the murder of Hull Dayzetta coach Bill Fleming was indicted by the Polk County Grand Jury and
31:25has now been released on $50,000 bond set by Justice of the Peace Johnny Loftin. Evidence as
31:31we received it from the various sources in the case indicates that a school-owned pickup truck
31:36that Fontenot left him on the Friday when Fleming disappeared or then was quite dirty was returned to
31:42the school washed clean on Monday however we've learned that underneath the bed of the truck
31:46untouched by the wash job a large amount of blood was found on one of the truck's frames.
31:51I was shocked I thought back to my interview sitting across from him and I thought my lord
32:00there's no way he seemed like he cared about Billy Mac Fleming he cared about the school
32:06and community why would a principal do something like that. I didn't think he did it you know you
32:15don't want to think he did it when one of your mentors is accused of killing another that is
32:23your mentor it messes you up as a kid it just does a number on you. The community was divided
32:31when Hurley was arrested Bill Fleming was an outsider in Hull Dayzetta his family had not
32:38been there for generations like the Fontenot's had so he was kind of looked at as this person
32:44who probably had some dark past that had followed him to Hull Dayzetta and somebody had come to even
32:53the score or seek revenge they saw no way that Hurley could have done it while other ones said
33:00well you know when two men are interested in the same woman bad things can happen. We're hopeful
33:07we'll get a fair trial and then a fair trial Mr. Fontenot will be declared innocent. It was Hurley
33:14Fontenot's brother that called me first he asked me if I would be available to meet with Hurley and to
33:22consider taking the case I said I would. Dick DeGuerin he was an amazing attorney he'd had huge
33:29cases in southeast Texas he represented David Koresh there was the blood and money case in
33:35River Oaks that he handled he was noted as one of the best criminal defense attorneys in Texas
33:40and the nation. Even as a younger lawyer I feel like my career was at the point where I had a
33:50pretty good bullsh** detector and when Hurley came to me and told me the story I turned on
33:56my bullsh** detector and it didn't go off. When I first heard that Hurley Fontenot hired Dick
34:04DeGuerin my first thought was he did it why else do you hire Dick DeGuerin? But then I
34:10thought he's got an amazing attorney and this is gonna be a heck of a case.
34:35I went to the trial every day and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. The trial had almost a
34:43circus-like atmosphere there were people standing in line hours before the courthouse opened to try
34:49to make sure that they had a seat in the courtroom. The Hurley Fontenot love triangle murder case was
34:57as big as they come it had everything you could want in a story it had crime it had love it had
35:04hate it had small-town persona southeast Texas Friday Night Lights football murder it's like
35:11gumbo this was the gumbo of all stories. It was played up as being a love triangle that was the
35:20state's case. He was in love with the school secretary she left him for the coach who else
35:27would have had a reason to do it? They had tied him to the letters and a Travelodge receipt. And
35:35the prosecution argued who else would have had a reason to write those letters if it weren't
35:41Hurley Fontenot. I think it was small-town jealousy and people wanting to create a stir
35:49there were never fingerprinted or author was it never found. I think that the clerk that was behind
35:57the desk wanted to be a part of something that was really big and she just identified Hurley. I
36:03think it was a case of mistaken identity. I think there were other people with motives that were
36:10just as likely to have done something the coke dealer the ex-partner that disappeared. Dick
36:19DeGaran raised Douglas Duncan called him a drug dealer that had a reason to kill Billy Mac Fleming.
36:25But it turned out that he hadn't been hiding he lived in another state and he had an alibi for
36:35the day that Bill disappeared. The evidence was entirely circumstantial. They did not have a gun
36:43and their strongest suggestion was blood under Hurley's truck. But there was no DNA back then
36:51you just could tell that it was human blood. What I discovered was that it was probably
37:00menstrual blood from Hurley's wife that she had thrown her used materials in their trash barrels.
37:12They lived in the country and they had they collected trash barrels and then they would
37:16have to take the trash barrels to the dump. I thought oh my god what kind of argument is that?
37:23But his wife went on stand she testified said she had a heavy menstrual period and that there would
37:29certainly be a reason for that blood to be in the back of the pickup truck due to that. Attorney
37:35Dick DeGaran said that the state hasn't produced a smoking gun. There's been no evidence that would
37:39show that Hurley Fontenot had a pistol in his hand that he fired the pistol into the back of
37:44Bill Fleming's head. They hand the paper to the bailiff and the judge then takes it up and flips
37:57through it. We the jury find the defendant and he looks up. Not guilty. There were gasps I could
38:12literally you could hear gasps of horror of anger of shock and maybe a little bit of gasping like
38:19in favor and support of Hurley Fontenot. I'm extremely happy. I feel that justice was done.
38:26I've always maintained my innocence. I don't think the verdict was correct. You think there was enough
38:35evidence that the jury just made a mistake? I don't know. I don't know what happened. I was
38:44shocked honestly. I've always believed that Hurley murdered Bill. But people really liked Hurley. He
38:53was still really revered within the community. Hurley was a part of those towns. Bill was not.
39:02Bill was the outsider. He wasn't one of them. All roads point to Hurley Fontenot. Knowing what I know
39:12in investigating the case, no one else that it could have been except Hurley Fontenot.
39:19People still wonder if Hurley got away with murder or if he was an innocent man who should
39:30never been tried. But we'll never know. We'll never be sure. Why was he killed? Why would
39:42somebody do that? Killing Coach Fleming like that? I mean he has no justice. It ain't right. When is
39:51Coach Fleming gonna have a voice? That's what I'd like to know. My favorite memory of Bill's is
39:59mainly on the sidelines and us coaching together. Those were some great times. But Bill's death
40:07affected me in a positive way. I made it a positive because I didn't want what he taught
40:13me to go to waste. And I wanted to work as hard as I possibly can in my career as a football coach.
40:21And after 40 years of coaching, I think he'd be proud of me. The dude was so genuine and Coach
40:35Fleming kept us. He just kept us. We could communicate with him. It was almost like Coach
40:47Fleming, I feel like, was the first grown man that actually listened to me as a young man. I
40:53can't think of a day, even whenever I was in the Army or since my third year, that I haven't
41:00thought about Bill Fleming. I don't know where my teenage daughter is. I'm afraid to walk further
41:21into the house. I think she knew exactly who her killer was. It literally felt like everybody was
41:27looking at me. I couldn't believe someone could do something this heinous.