Becoming The Warden Part 2 | The Legacy and Legend That Is Burl Cain

[Bloody Angola theme]
Jim: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another edition of Bloody- Woody: -Angola.
Jim: A podcast 142 years in the making.
Woody: The Complete Story of America's Bloodiest Prison.
Jim: And I'm Jim Chapman.
Woody: And I'm Woody Overton.
Jim: And we are in the second part-
Woody: Second part.
Jim: -of the great Burl Cain. The legend.

Woody: The legend. And, y'all, thank you for your response. The first edition, if you haven't listened to it, go listen to it, because absolutely, Jim does all the research and we have an idea of what we're going to tell. But when we just got into it, there was so much in coverage of Burl and so much stuff that came up, but it was all fire.

Jim: When we left last time, Woody Overton, we were getting into some little stories that we like to tell of Burl Cain and one of the amazing relationships that he had, and one of his favorite people on earth, really, was Billy Cannon.

Woody: Right. And super-duper episode, Louisiana legend, only Heisman Trophy winner until Joe Burrow. But there's a rise and fall of Billy Cannon, ultimately the redemption, which came because he was afforded that opportunity by Burl Cain in Bloody Angola.

Jim: That's right. And he has consistently, in his past interviews said that was the best hire he ever made, was hiring Billy Cannon as the orthodontist at Angola.

Woody: Right behind me.

Jim: Yeah, right behind Woody Overton.

[laughter]

Jim: That's a good point. So back in 1997, Cannon, y'all, he was broke, he was looking for a job. And obviously, this guy being the Heisman Trophy winner, he ain't got to look for--

Woody: He'd been to prison and everything else.

Jim: A little bit of a troubled past, but Warden Cain and Billy knew each other. And there's a quote of Warden Cain's that I'm going to read you, and it says, "Prisoners are chronic complainers, but they don't complain about the dental part of the prison. Dr. Cannon has the leadership skills. He's compassionate, he diffuses tension. I give him free rein and say, 'If it's broke, fix it.'"

Woody: Right. Those of you who haven't listened to the Billy Cannon episode or don't know about him, he was a dentist. When he got into his trouble and it came out, couldn't get a job,

and Burl took a chance and hired him, he came in and just absolutely was awesome. And that's what Burl is saying here about the dental part. And the prisoners complained about a lot, but they don't complain about that. Billy basically did what Burl did. Billy Cannon let the convicts know, "Hey, I'm in charge, but I'm going to treat you like a human being. I'm not treating you for what you're in for, not treating you like shit because you're a convicted murder or whatever. I'm going to fix your teeth." Burl Cain, being the leader that he is, took notice of that and ultimately promoted Billy Cannon to be over all the medical at Angola, which is huge. And now you have a dentist that's overseeing everything. You know why? Because Burl knew that Billy Cannon was going to lead by example, and he was going to put people in positions underneath him, just like Burl had, that were going to take care of business.

Jim: That's right. And a major responsibility that Billy Cannon just hit it out of the park with that--

Woody: Right. [crosstalk] -leader.

Jim: They became obviously very close. So close, in fact, that Burl Cain was chosen as one of the speakers at Billy Cannon's funeral. And he tells a story that is very touching. He actually wore a ring to that funeral that was a championship ring that the football team at Angola earned. They actually play football against other prisons.

Woody: Yeah, they do.
Jim: So, he had that ring on at the funeral. And he tells a story of how he got that ring. And

we're going to play that clip right here.

[clip begins]

Burl: Too short anyway, I was playing basketball. Anyway, I'm wearing this ring today. This ring is a Crunch Bowl ring. There you go. We got Dr. Cannon on board. We have a football league. And so, we had the best coach going, guys. [unintelligible [00:06:21] And so we would play DCI and Hunt, but we won every time because he had so many tricks up his sleeve, we just did it. So, I got the ring. All the players got one of the rings. He had a stroke while he was there at work during the day. So, Dr. Lavespere called me, said, "Man, we got to get Dr. Cannon to Baton Rouge real quick. We think he's having a stroke, and so we need to ship him quick." I said, "Okay, well, what ambulance are you taking him in?" Because I knew the ambulances, some of them weren't in very good shape because we had been having some problems and no money to buy any new ambulances and so forth. And he said, "Well, we're going to take him in the best one we have." And I said, "Well, okay, well, that's not good enough. Put him in the best one you have and then get another ambulance and follow that ambulance because I can't afford for Dr. Cannon dying on the side of the road."

[clip ends]

Jim: So that kind of tells you in that clip you just heard how close they were and how much respect he had. Best hire outside of Woody Overton he ever made.

Woody: Yeah, pretty amazing story. Just absolutely both of them are legends. That's just beautiful.

Jim: Really is. A lot of people have messaged us since the first episode, and they wanted to know about some Katrina information.

Woody: Oh my God, the worst time. I have PTSD about two things, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

Jim: Yeah.
Woody: And it's the worst time to be in any type of law enforcement or corrections ever. I

guess maybe since COVID but I was out when that happened. But just horrible times.

Jim: Really was. And for those of you that-- well, I'm sure everybody's familiar with Katrina, one of the worst hurricanes of all time. But one of the things you might not have thought of was the effect that had on the prisons in New Orleans because New Orleans flooded.

Woody: Yeah. Well, Katrina wasn't the direct cause of all the measuring New Orleans when the levees broke the days afterwards. And now Orleans Parish Prison was not only the largest in the state of Louisiana, being parish prison wise is also consistently ranked as the worst central lockup in the United States of America. They did studies online. Worse than New York or Los Angeles or anywhere else. I've been in this place on murder cases and stuff and they lost my people. And it just absolutely stunk. It was just horrible. And some of the worst, drunks and stuff too. But all these murderers and everything else that they caught, they were housed there. This place is massive.

Jim: Yeah, actually I remember you telling that story about the prisoner that actually got lost. Woody: When the levees broke, it got flooded too. I'm talking about could have drowned

them, flooded us, that's how high the water was.

Jim: That's right. And if you're the state of Louisiana and you've got problems like this and you've got prisoners that you have to deal with, who are you going to call? Not Ghostbusters.

Woody: That's right. Because their job is you're responsible for them. Your agency or whoever incarcerated them, your one job is to keep them alive and healthy.

Jim: That's right. So, they called Burl Cain, they called Louisiana State Penitentiary, they called Bloody Angola and they said, "We've got a jail over here that is about to go completely underwater. We've got hundreds of prisoners and nowhere to put them. Help." And Burl Cain helped. And the first thing he had to do was obviously drive-- and he went up there himself, y'all. He went up there with obviously a lot of backup, and they assessed the situation. And this next clip I'm going to play you is Burl Cain, and he is talking about a very scary situation when he first approached the Orleans Parish Jail to assess the situation and get these prisoners to safety. It's right here.

[clip begins]

Burl: One really scary situation we had was in the jail, they said that they had breached the armory on the 9th floor and so we went and assaulted the 9th floor, but we thought were assaulted in an area that had guns and inmates were armed, but we had to do it anyway because we couldn't let them out. Nobody escaped from us, from that jail. There were all kind of rumors people escaped. If they did, they got away before we got there. I remember they had torn-- and I went through the jail and looked at it, it was devastating. They tore it all apart. The deputies were on the first floor and the mezzanine and kind of like a porch thing all the way around it and their families were there too. And there was no food and water. They had some MREs, and they gave the MREs to the wives and the children and they didn't eat. There was no food to give the people in the jail and so they didn't have any. They ran out. And so, the inmates were really rioting and they were tearing the place apart.

In that time, it would be dark, but there were nobody up there with them to speak of in the area we were, in some of the jails they were. But in the one right over where the sheriff's office is, the main building, there wasn't. The walls were cinderblock, but they didn't put concrete in them when they built it. And they would knock through the blocks with the fire extinguishers, using them as battering rams and get into the next cells. So, they all got together. And I'm sure a lot of really bad things happened in there at night with the predators and the prey and so forth. And we heard those stories, but they had gotten all the way down to the door to the bottom floor and there was one door separating them from getting out and getting in with all the deputies.

Now, if they had the guns down there, it would've been real a bad scene. So with the tag team, when we opened that door, we were there with the beanbags and they shot the first two or three that tried to get out with the beanbags and they'd knock you down, so the rest of them thought they were shooting them with real live bullets. So, they all turned around and scrambled back up the stairs and ran back up to where the jail was. So, that turned them around and then we could orderly bring those on out. That was a scary thing in there, two scary deals.

Now, consequently, the armory hadn't been breached and they weren't armed, but we had the information they were. And they would burn fires and you see smoke coming out the window and they'd hang out flags and banners, "Help me," "Save me." I remember Andrew Jorder, one of our inmates, was there. When Warden Benoit got there, Andrew Jorder just fell in his arms. He was so glad to see him and rescued him. And you'd never think somebody be so glad to come back to Angola.

[clip ends]

Woody: All right, so y'all, another great clip, but what do you do? So, Burl gets there, his career in corrections. He assessed the situation, and he's like, "Mm, what do we do? No problems, only solutions." He finds a Greyhound bus station, which is a pretty big establishment itself in New Orleans, and it's one of the areas that wasn't flooded. They constructed it, and they made it one of the top priorities of building New Orleans and turned it into a makeshift prison. Now, here's the deal. Not only do you have all these people that are housed, you have all these people that are still committing crime, and they got to be locked up somewhere. So, he was genius in-- And they came in, they built it. There were 16 cages of chain link fencing that were topped with the concertina razor wire that were erected at the bus stop under the canopies to house up to 700 people.

And the work was done by convicts from [crosstalk] Angola under the direction of Burl Cain. Now, after the storm, most of the suspects had been arrested for looting or curfew violations, vehicle theft, intoxication, resisting arrest. Every department had that problem. But in New Orleans, wasn't just NOPD. OPP housed all the Jefferson Parish inmates and all these other small outlying communities, it could be St. Bernard, you name it, they were all flooded.

Jim: That's right.
Woody: And they had nowhere to go, and people were still being arrested. So, Burl brought

in the convicts, and being the professional that he is, he built it up. Jim: Made a jail right out in the middle of New Orleans.

Woody: Made a jail out of a Greyhound bus station. And by September 8th, nine inmates had been incarcerated for attempted murder, and outdoor cage could hold up to 45 people. There was no furniture, and inmates had to sleep on the asphalt ground of the bus station without mattresses and had to use an open portable toilet. Now, what they're not telling you

about here is all this water is around, and when it recedes, it stinks. The mosquitoes would have been saber-tooth rock breakers, Louisiana state bird tearing their ass up. And they're sleeping on the black top. But Burl's like, "Hey, we didn't promise you a soft mattress."

Jim: That's right.
Woody: "I promised you that I was going to keep you alive."

Jim: Yeah. Some people who weren't criminals, who flooded, lost everything, and were sitting on their roofs.

Woody: Right, [crosstalk] in their attics. But the food consisted of MREs, y'all, meals ready to eat or military-issued meals, which would have came through the National Guard and ultimately FEMA when they rolled in.

Jim: I actually don't mind those, by the way. Woody: Those are--[crosstalk]
Jim: I don't mind those.

Woody: When I was in, it was the pork dehydrated patties. you had to add water to, and there was no heater elements and all. Nowadays, they got M&M'S and tabasco, heater packs and everything else. But at nighttime, you're going to escape. But the facility was fully lit at night with electric power being generated by an Amtrak engine. From a locomotive engine that ran 24 hours a day. Another genius idea.

Jim: Innovative.

Woody: There was no power. Nobody else had it. They were dark for a long time in the city of New Orleans. Inmates were guarded by correctional officers from Bloody Angola, Louisiana State Penitentiary Angola, and at least five mercenary companies were enlisted to round up prisoners and keep the jail running.

Jim: How about that?

Woody: Back then, in the day, that would have been Blackhawk and all of them before they got in trouble, y'all, but they were working off federal grants, but ultimately, they would have fallen under supervision of Burl Cain. It's just crazy. But they kept the jail running, and on the outside of the camp was protected by the Louisiana National Guard, right?

Jim: Yeah. So, this was open-air functioning prison in the middle of just this nightmare that was the aftermath of Katrina. And they even had a processing center where they would photograph and fingerprint these prisoners. They had a public defender, believe it or not, and he wouldn't do like they do now, where you get this individual advice. He comes in and he talks to you, learns about your case. You're basically standing in a line, and he says, "What did you do? Okay, here's how you're going to plead." And it was, let's just say, a very antiquated version of what you would get these days, and rightfully so, concerning the situation.

Woody: [crosstalk] -guilty or not guilty. And they stuck your ass back in the cage. Jim: That's right.

Woody: Because court systems weren't running. The courthouses were destroyed. Everything was destroyed. There was not a gas station open. Okay. For a long time, almost 30 days, they didn't let anybody back into the city.

Jim: Yeah. And so, it was unique time that Burl Cain was leading the charge in. The first inmates actually went into that prison on September 5th of 2005, and it's about six weeks that that prison was in existence. And they called it Camp Greyhound. And believe it or not, Warden Cain was the warden of Camp Greyhound. A lot of people don't realize he was the warden of two prisons at the same time.

Woody: Probably one of the first persons ever do that, right. Jim: Yeah.

Woody: Y'all, I'm telling you, when the levees broke and it was rescue mode, and then getting everybody out of the city mode, and they built this prison very quickly. And like Jim told you about the public defender, you pled guilty or not guilty. And the only option was, if you agreed to plead guilty and agreed to community service, then they would let you out. But if you didn't, you were sent to a more permanent facility at a later date, and you had to wait a minimum of 21 days for your case to get processed further. The first inmates were placed into the facility on Monday, September 5th. Now, the storm happened on the 29th to the 30th and levees breaking just a couple of days before that. So, that's how fast they did this. The inmates were clad in prison orange, and they weren't allowed to notify the relatives or their lawyers where they were. No phone calls were permitted.

And a report by the Washington Times from September the 9th, y'all, this is just like 10 days later of 2005, indicated over 220 people suspected of looting were at Camp Greyhound at the time. These are the idiots that before they kicked everybody out of the city you see running out with the big screen TVs and there's no power.

Jim: Yeah, it was like a war zone in Kosovo or something.

Woody: And we were the first SWAT team with our boots on the ground before Louisiana State Police and got called back because of stuff that was happening here. But I remember one of the sheriff, Willie Graves, calling us out, and they were one of the last load of buses were coming. And we had these-- they used to call them refugee centers, but that's what they were, evacuation centers. And they were guarded and everything. We had to run them 24 hours a day, and they were feeding them and everything else.

But we knew there were bus loads coming in out of New Orleans, the last bus loads. And Willie had information that it was full of criminals. Last people to leave were the criminals. And so, we met the buses, and they were getting off. And one guy had a wrist full on both arms of TAG Heuers and Rolexes on still with the price tags on them. And Willie told him, said, "Get back on the bus or you're going to my jail." And he told the bus driver, "Drop them to the next parish." But Burl, the ones that they got their hands on, he locked them up in Camp Greyhound.

Jim: That's it. You didn't want to go to Camp Greyhound. We're going to play a clip of Warden Cain. He was interviewed regarding Camp Greyhound, and I think you're going to enjoy it. And it's right here.

[clip begins]

News Anchor: New Orleans now has a place to put looters when they arrest them. The Louisiana State Penitentiary helped set up a makeshift jail in the bus and train station. NPR's Jeff Brady toured Camp Greyhound.

Jeff: Warden Burl Cain says when police arrived to open up the jail at the Union Passenger Terminal last weekend, they found people inside stealing.

Burl: We ran the looters away, and Amtrak was really happy, and so were Greyhound because they have a safe here with money in it.

Jeff: Cain came down after the hurricane hit. He's the warden of the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. He echoes the sentiments of a hand-drawn cardboard sign on the front door that reads, "We are taking New Orleans back." As city officials try all kinds of things to restore order, Cain says his Camp Greyhound is making the city more secure.

Burl: And this is the one thing that works, to have a jail. They realize you can't have security till you have a jail, and therefore then we've arrested over 233 people have been brought through here. One shot at a helicopter. One of the guys had a shootout with the police. But they got them off the street so we could have reconstruction. Without a jail, no reconstruction.

Jeff: Cain says they didn't even have to travel to find one of the prisoners.
Burl: The first guy we caught here, come driving up to buy a bus ticket in a stolen car, and

he bought a ticket, all right back here to that screened area.

Jeff: Out back, the first noise you hear is a loud Amtrak locomotive. It runs 24 hours a day and provides electricity to the jail. But what you see first out here is the dozen or so cages. They're about 15 foot square and made of chain link with razor wire on top. Inside, there are no chairs or benches. Prisoners sit on the cement floor. They are exposed to the 95-degree heat and the high humidity. But Cain says prisoners won't stay here more than 24 hours before they're shipped to a more permanent facility where court can be held. That place has to be more comfortable than Camp Greyhound.

Burl: They got the porta-potties in there. We give everybody plenty of water in the bottle, have bottled water. We don't have water hose or nothing. We do it right, and we give them MREs. And they get MREs, three meals a day. If you don't have any shoes, we give you some sandals. We want you to have shoes on, and we scrub it down every morning.

Jeff: Cleanliness is a concern. The place reeks of disinfectant, and inmates swab the floors. Dr. Joseph Gotro says he's on the lookout for a variety of illnesses.

Joseph: A lot of these people that are coming in probably have not been vaccinated for years. So, we have to look for pharyngitis, diarrhea, gastritis, vomiting, fever.

Jeff: Anyone who's sick doesn't stay here long, they're shipped out so diseases don't spread to the other prisoners. Step over to the entrance of Camp Greyhound, and you see this isn't just a jail, but a miniature justice center is being put together. Walter Lejay is taping up a sign on a shop window. It announces a temporary office for the Orleans Parish District Attorney.

Walter: We're accepting evidence from people that are arrested in property as they're processed through the booking procedure here.

Jeff: And you're doing it in a gift shop there, looks like?

Walter: Yeah, it looks like this gift shop was partially looted. And we've taken over some of the office space, and we're setting up files in there.

Jeff: The building certainly isn't as secure as a typical jail. Two banks of glass doors on the sides of the building remain unlocked. Warden Cain says they just don't have a way to lock them.

Are you worried about security here because--?

Burl: No, I got security. Look at that automatic rifle out the front door. Look, you'll see them all around. I got everywhere security. I got shotguns on the roof when we load the buses, and we're well secured. That's the National Guard out there, and Louisiana State Police is in the front. Man, we rock and roll. See that rifle right there?

Jeff: Cain says he has just about everything he needs to run a jail right now. He's even planning to have air conditioning soon for the staff, not the prisoners. And he says Camp Greyhound will do until the flooded jail is repaired and can once again house prisoners. Jeff Brady, NPR News, New Orleans.

[clip ends]

Jim: Okay, so that kind of gives you an idea of that situation with Hurricane Katrina and Burl Cain's just amazing leadership ability on that front. Now, in the first episode, we told you about his first execution he ever did at Angola and how he regretted a lot about that situation.

Woody: He gave the thumbs down.
Jim: Yeah, and he-- [crosstalk]
Woody: And he'd only been on job a short time at Angola. Jim: Yeah, three months.

Woody: Three months. So, he just knew what the old protocol was and what he was supposed to do. But after he did it, and he told his mama, "Hey, that really bothers me." And she's like, "It's your job."

Jim: That's right.
Woody: "Those people are prepared to meet their Savior."

Jim: Amen. And so, he had that situation come up again. And there was a condemned inmate by the name of Antonio James. And Antonio James' execution was publicly known and covered, actually by a documentary company that worked for ABC. So it was a big deal. The execution itself was not on video, but the prior, the lead up to was-- this particular documentary actually went up for an Oscar. It was that good. It's called the Execution of Antonio James. And Warden Cain was determined that it was not going to happen the same way it did the first time as far as he was concerned, he was a man of faith. And so, in his book, he described that situation. And we're going to quote Warden Cain here and just really get you an in depth look at exactly what he was feeling at that time.

He says, at the date of his death row drawing near, Antonio asked the warden a lot of questions, "How is it when you die? What happens to your soul? And how does it really work?" Cain listened, taking the man's questions seriously. He quoted Jesus' words to the

thief hanging next to him on the cross. "Today, you will be with me in paradise." He also told Antonio what Billy Graham in his book, Angels, said about the celestial beings and how they escort the redeemed souls into heaven. Antonio asked Cain if he would hold his hand when the time came so he would be connected to this earth while he reached out into heaven with the other hand, and Cain promised he would.

Woody: Yeah. And so, y'all, on afternoon of March 1st, 2000, the condemned man and his family gathered in the visitors' room in the death house for the final farewell. They sat around a long table, laughing and reminiscing, and eventually Burl Cain walked in, and the families shifted their attention to him. And Burl spoke briefly. He said, "Thank you for coming so Antonio can say goodbye. I know how much he appreciates it." He did not add, nor did it need to be said that he applauded Antonio's mother, siblings, nieces, and nephews for being brave enough to offer unconditional love to him at the time he needed it most. And as he left, Cain stared at James, who acknowledged his glance. "I'll be seeing you shortly," Burl said, and it was time for Antonio to prepare for his last meal.

Burl Cain had done his best to prepare Antonio James for death, and the two men had spoken often about what was about to happen, including that day. And Burl had explained what would happen when he would arrive to escort James from his holding cell to the death chamber and he spared no detail, believing that James would be helped by knowing exactly how things would play out. And that makes sense, because if you're in that hyper, almost panic state, if you're aware of what's going to happen and nothing deviates, then you're not going to buck up and fight and flip out, right?

Jim: That's right. Look, he cared-- in that documentary, if you haven't seen it, I recommend watching it. But he made no bones about the fact that he cared about this guy. And it was very important to him that spiritually, he was ready.

Woody: Yeah, he cared about him spiritually. And there's no doubt that, again, Burl wasn't there to punish them for what they did on the outside. But there's no doubt that Burl had his jacket and his file, and they knew the heinous crimes that he had committed.

Jim: Yeah. So, he goes into this description, and he described the concrete block death chamber and the gurney positioned diagonally inside the room. He told James how a guard team, specially trained and rehearsed, would buckle him securely to the gurney and how an EMT would insert a needle into each of his arms. Cain explained that only one needle would be needed to administer the lethal combination of drugs, but the second one would be in place in case the first one failed. Cain made it clear that he would try as hard as he could to ease James' departure from the world. The inmate, he listened intently. He took everything in without interrupting, almost as though the procedure were meant to help, not put him to death. The calm expression on his face did not change as Cain explained what was going to happen. "Any more questions?", the warden asked. Antonio shook his head. "Let's pray together," then Cain said. And Antonio said he appreciated that very much.

Woody: Yeah. And then, Burl Cain reached out and took a hold of Antonio's hand. And as he whispered, "Dear God, you're about to welcome Antonio into your kingdom. Help him to keep his focus entirely on you during the coming hours. Help him to realize that he is about to come into the presence of Jesus. And Father, we just pray for the victim's family, that you'll be with them and comfort them." He never forgot about the victims, but I think it's an honorable thing to do. And he came out of it from his first one.

Jim: That's right. And as we told you, an ABC television crew, they were there. They filmed the last walk. And sometimes, when these prisoners come out, they're panicking. They're being sentenced to death here, and it's about to happen.

Woody: The CERT team is trained for any and all possibilities. Look, they get, whether it's a trusty or another correction officer, and they train for months on ends before these. Everybody's got a job, one person grabbed this hand, one person grabbed that hand, and when they're taking them out, a lot of times, they basically have to skull drag them down the hallway, kicking and screaming. But Antonio was able to walk on his own.

Jim: Yeah. He didn't need assistance. Warden Darryl Vannoy, who was his spiritual advisor was also accompanying him. And when James entered the death row chamber, he paused at the microphone, and he addressed the witnesses. He told the victim's family he was sorry and asked for forgiveness. He turned, looked at the gurney, walked over to it, sat, and laid down.

Woody: Wow. It's crazy. And that's when the CERT team, the efficient strap down team, as they call them, did their work in 90 seconds, securing the leather straps around James' ankles, thighs, abdomen, chest, and shoulders. Then, the executioner began searching for a vein in his right arm into which he could insert the needle. "Antonio was so calm, his pulse so low, that we couldn't locate a suitable vein even when he made a fist," Cain said. And he apologized for making things difficult. The EMT slapped his arm to see if he could raise a vein, and that didn't work. So finally, they inserted the needle into his leg.

Jim: Wow. And they completed all that. Cain took a hold of Antonio's hand, stared into his eyes, and he said, "Antonio, the chariot is here. Get ready for the ride. Here we go. You're about to see Jesus."

Woody: And then, a gesture that the warden took to mean that he fully understood and expected to see the Lord. James squeezed Cain's hand, and Burl turned toward the one-way glass. He could not see the executioner who had administered the drugs, but he could give the signal. And he did. Cain nodded-

Jim: Yeah, and he wasn't doing the thumbs down stuff anymore.

Woody: -instead of doing thumbs down. The process of irrevocable began, and in a moment, the first drug began to enter Antonio James, and he breathed two deep breaths. Then, he relaxed his grip on Burl's hand, and he closed his eyes for the last time. And the [unintelligible [00:34:50] all had tears in their eyes. And later that night, in front of the TV cameras, Burl would announce that, "We have sent Antonio James to his final judgment." But Burl purposely avoided using the words "execution" and "death".

Jim: I think that's really huge. He was not trying to sensationalize that any more than it was. He always remembered the victims. But more importantly, I think in that whole situation, he felt okay with himself on that one versus the first time around.

Woody: Like his mama told him, "It's your duty as a Christian to make it the best that you can and make sure they know what's about to happen and they have a chance at least to meet the Savior."

Jim: 100%. And so, we're going to talk about another program now that Burl Cain instituted, that, in my opinion, one of the certainly top two or three programs, there's so many he did there. But it's the hospice program under Burl Cain.

Woody: It's supposed to be one of the best in the world.

Jim: Yeah, it really is. They had a hospice program prior to him being there, but it was very antiquated, really non-successful. But when Burl Cain started in Angola, he was approached by members of the Lifers Association, no affiliation with Real Life Real Crime Lifers, and the

HIV-- which HIV at that time was still very huge, the HIV Peer Education team concerned about the increase in the number of inmate deaths due to natural causes. Now, y'all got to remember, as Woody's told you, as I've told you many times, these guys that go to Angola, they die there, typically. And so, Angola's population was aging. Tons of 65- to 75-year-old inmates that really required hospice care for many reasons.

Woody: Just because you're locked up doesn't mean you don't get cancer, dementia. Jim: That's right.
Woody: Everything that free elderly people get.

Jim: That's right. So, they had a problem. And, of course, if you've learned anything so far during the series, it's that Cain was a master at solving problems. His longstanding concern, obviously, was those aging, growing old inmates. And so, he actually completely revamped and innovated a brand-new hospice program within the Angola R.J. Barrow Treatment Center. He did this in an effort to provide really the best end-of-life experience possible for this gigantic population of inmates that were aging. And the first inmate patient was actually admitted in January of '98. Louisiana became just 1 of 11 states to even have a prison hospice program.

Woody: Isn't that crazy? Jim: It's nuts.

Woody: The other states, either they just died where they died, or they had to ship them out to different silly cell. Ultimately, at the end of the day, Burl starting this, like everything else he did in Angola, he made it more self-sufficient and actually saved us money. But the program structure and objectives consisted of five core goals. One was to provide quality end-of-life care. Two was honor the patient's support systems. Three was to address the patient's needs holistically. Emphasize palliation of physical, social, spiritual, and emotional suffering. Four was to assist the patient with activities considered life affirming. And five was to maintain an end-of-life care system.

And Angola's hospice is run on a daily basis by the interdisciplinary team or the IDT, which consists of a seven-member team. The team creates a plan of action for each patient and ensures the maintenance of appropriate care. A common feature of prison hospices and an essential part of Angola's program is the participation of inmate volunteers who have a role in the creation of the hospice and the primary care. And the hospice program has a real impact on powerfully changing many of those who make it a part of their lives, particularly inmate volunteers. [crosstalk]

If you think about that, now, you could be the sorriest motherfucker on the face of the earth, but people grow and they change. But if you get assigned to this and you're looking at somebody who's dying and they didn't just pick anybody, dude, you had to be somebody [crosstalk] special. But if you're involved all the way through burying this person and you go to care about them and you see them as they die slowly or fast, however it may be, but if you focus on that, then you're not raping and murdering, doing drugs, all this bad shit that goes on in prison.

Jim: Amen.
Woody: That's powerful.

Jim: Yeah. Working in that prison hospice program, all the way up today, folks, is one of the most, if not the most desirable jobs at Angola. They know how to think like hospice staff. They've had enough time to process what they've learned and experienced. It takes a long time, y'all, to understand hospice and to think kind of like a hospice person. Now, when that program first started, one week into the training program, word spread.

Woody: Big training program too.

Jim: Yeah, it was. Prisoners talk and word gets around quick. And so, the word started to spread around the prison, I mean, everybody wanted to sign up for this program. Every out camp was hearing about this information. Even those some 20 miles away from the treatment center were hearing about this. Inmates relaxing in the open rec rooms were now used to seeing the inmate volunteers and hospice instructors going in and out of training centers every day at 06:00 PM. They had notebooks, clipboards, 100-page hospice volunteer manuals under their arms. And these inmates are looking at that and they're thinking, "Wow, these guys are doing something with their lives, even though they're behind the wire."

Woody: Right. It's basically putting love in a place where there's no love.

Jim: That's right. And after a week of that program kicking off, five or six prisoners a day were requesting to become part of the training. So, like Woody said, they don't just let anybody do this. They have a security screening. These guys would be inmate leaders. And they were carefully selected by six of the most trusted and influential inmates in the community, including Wilbert Rideau, who was the editor of Angola's award-winning magazine, The Angolite. Hugely respected. Probably one of the most respected inmates ever at Angola, Wilbert Rideau. And he was on that kind of like that board. Think of it like a board, y'all. 25 inmates represented a cross section of the population. There were Muslims, Catholics, Baptists, some of the representatives from some of the most active clubs in Angola. Through those volunteers, this message filtered out and it literally caused this program to, as Woody said, become one of the most successful in the country, if not the world.

Woody: And again, I just keep going back to, you got the most hardened criminals. And again, I'll put convicts at Bloody Angola against any convict from anywhere in the world, and I guarantee you, we have the worst. But these guys are looking if they get exception program, they're looking death in the face because for the first time, they're actually caring about somebody. It's like becoming a cop. It's one thing being in an academy, it's a whole different thing when you're on the street doing it. So, they go through the training, but then they meet-- if I'm becoming your hospice care person, and I meet you for the first time, I'm like, "Holy shit," and then I got all this training I'm going to try to use because I want to do good. And then my love grows for you and life happens.

Jim: Absolutely. One day, we'll do a story, y'all, on just the hospice program and all the different things that it offers. But one of the programs, again, that Burl Cain brought into just the stratosphere of perfection, really, as far as prison hospice is concerned.

Woody: Through the volunteers, it was a powerful message that went out to the whole prison population that the administration was finally addressing an issue that had been discussed among not only those behind the wire, but amongst many free people as well, meaning that you got five life sentences, you're like, "Holy shit, what's going to happen when it comes my time? Because I'm going to die here. I'm just going to die in my bunk, slobbering on myself?" But now because of Burl Cain in starting this hospice program, they knew that they were going to be shown love and compassion, probably like they never had in their entire lives in their final moments, right?

Jim: Yeah, that's right.

Woody: That's from the time they got diagnosed or needed hospice to all the way through the burials. And we talked about that before, and they gave them the honor and dignity. That's another thing Burl started, but this is in another episode. Think about that. We're all going to die, but I really don't care what happens to me right now. But if you get diagnosed with hospice, you care.

Jim: Yeah, because you're seeing it happening right in front of you.
Woody: Hospice means you're going to die. There's nothing else you're going to do. We're

just going to give you the best quality we can. Jim: Make you as comfortable as possible.

Woody: Right. And with as much dignity as possible. And these convicts have never had that, and they never had dignity in their whole life. And in death, and going through the process of death, Burl Cain established it and gave it to him. Just like he did for Antonio James and the people that were executed afterwards. And just like he gave Billy Cannon a second chance, and Billy Cannon rose to be a superstar. I know we mentioned on a previous episode, but Billy Cannon was one of the only people ever to be laid at wake--

Jim: In the assembly.
Woody: Assembly--[crosstalk] Jim: [crosstalk]
Woody: It's just a beautiful thing.

Jim: The story I'm about to tell you is super interesting, and that is the story of Barbara Walters Beige. Now, most of you probably have never heard of the color Barbara Walters Beige, but you have now.

Woody: I hadn't heard until you told me about it.
Jim: Barbara Walters, a few years ago, y'all, she did a show from the lethal injection room in

the prison.
Woody: At Bloody Angola.

Jim: At Bloody Angola. And in doing that pre-production prep work, she decided that the color of the paint on the wall did not fly to her skin tone.

Woody: That's funny.
Jim: That would bother me, and it bothered her. Woody: Pretty sure I've never thought about that. Jim: Yeah.

Woody: But she's a world-famous career journalist. Everybody knows who the hell Barbara Walters was.

Jim: Warden Cain had actually mentioned that Barbara Walters was one of the two most favorite celebrities he ever had visiting Angola. He just absolutely loved Barbara Walters. Probably someone that you meet and you can't help but love. So, when she went to him and she said, "This color on this wall don't flatter my skin tone. Do you mind if I paint it?" Burl Cain was like, "You can paint it if you want to." So, she had her own people come in. They repainted the walls of the death chamber to go better with her skin at the prison. And the new death chamber color actually is informally referred to as Barbara Walters Beige.

Woody: That's so cool.
Jim: And it actually is still to this day painted that color. Woody: Always will be, probably.

Jim: And of course, I just mentioned that she was one of his favorite celebrities. You may wonder who the other is. And I don't know if he's definitely a celebrity as he's world known, but the Reverend Billy Graham was his other. So, that's something that in these interviews, in the past, Warden Cain has mentioned, is those two people were his favorites of all time as far as famous people that have visited.

Woody: And not Barbara Walters, but Billy Cannon that we talked about earlier today and the Reverend Billy Graham were both buried in caskets built by another program that Burl Cain started, which was inmates-- we talked about it on another episode, the inmates building these beautiful handmade caskets.

Jim: Yeah.

Woody: Do you know who else was buried in--? And my mama sent this to me after she listened to the episode. Governor Edwin Edwards was actually buried in one of those. But then his family got a lawsuit, and they dug them up and they cremated him. Before, they were just burying them in cardboard boxes.

Jim: Yeah.
Woody: Burl Cain is a stud.

Jim: He really is. So, we're going to go ahead and end this episode. And look, we still got exciting stuff to bring in.

Woody: So much stuff, y'all.
Jim: We're not going to cut-- typically, we don't do these longer series, but look, this man,

you can't tell a story in an hour. I mean, you just can't. You can't tell in two hours. Woody: You can't do justice.
Jim: No.
Woody: We won't do 10 hours, but even then, you would never know.

Jim: That's right.

Woody: Everything that this man has had, how he has impacted so many people's lives. Hell, I was 21 years old when he impacted mine.

Jim: Yeah. So, look forward to coming back and checking it out next week as we do part 3. We want to thank all of our patrons.

Woody: Yes. Patreon members, we love you and appreciate you so much, and I hope you're enjoying all your perks. And, hey, everybody that's listening to this episode, we love the feedback. Y'all been blowing it up. Put your comments in.

Jim: Yeah, please do.
Woody: And we like to talk about it. If you have any questions about it, also, we can add that

in.
Jim: Absolutely.
Woody: Because you might be thinking of something that we hadn't thought of yet. Jim: That's right. So please do that.

Woody: Yeah. And Patreon members, go to patreon.com/bloodyangolapodcast, check out all the different levels. You rock, and we love and appreciate you. You can't be a Patreon member, we get it. Thank you for liking and listening and sharing. And, y'all, our numbers grow every single month. It's stupid, we're stupidly blessed.

Jim: Yeah, we really are. And we want to thank our sponsor. HelloFresh. Woody: HelloFresh. And so go to hellofresh.com/bloodyangola-
Woody and Jim: 16.
[laughter]

Woody: I had HelloFresh last night. I had my wife cook two different ones. Man, that shit is good, bro.

Jim: Man, my wife used to get excited when the Amazon driver pulled up. Now, it's when the HelloFresh comes to the--[crosstalk]

Woody: Yes, indeed. Hey, you talked about when they were sponsoring Real Life Real Crime, it was a different code, but you were talking about the lava cakes. I said, "Well, yeah, I never get any desserts. I guess I'm digging an ice box last night," because I got kind of sick earlier, but then I laid down and I got back up, everybody going to bed, I'm digging ice box. I found some lava cakes.

Jim: Oh, wow. Those are good.
Woody: [crosstalk] I'm pretty sure she's saving for herself.

Jim: [laughs] Well, you're a nicer man than me, Woody Overton. I'd have tore into that lava cake because they are good. Look, you get 16 free meals plus free shipping by going to BloodyAngola16 and HelloFresh.com. And it's a hell of a deal.

Woody: You deserve to give it a try because I'm a foodie, Jim is a foodie, we're from South Louisiana, people. And if we tell you it's good, it's not because they're paying us to tell you it's good. I'm telling you it's good because it's freaking good.

Jim: That's right. And so, we appreciate, love all of you. And until next time, I'm Jim Chapman.

Woody: I'm Woody Overton.
Jim: Your host of Bloody-
Woody: -Angola.
Jim: A podcast 142 years in the making.
Woody: The Complete Story of America's Bloodiest Prison. Jim and Woody: Peace.