Wilbert Rideau The Real Story

           In his memoir In The Place of Justice (Random House 2010), Wilbert Rideau portrayed the February 16, 1961 cold blooded murder of Julia Ferguson as an unintended “panic” killing. That day Rideau, armed with a pistol and a knife, entered a local bank in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He robbed the bank, took three employees hostage (two females and one male), drove the hostages to a remote location at the edge of the city, shot and wounded two of the hostages as they attempted to flee, and killed Julia Ferguson by stabbing her through the heart and slitting her throat. Rideau said that when the two hostages tried to escape, “everything [went] to hell” and “the gun went off, unintentionally or not—I didn’t know which. Everything happened very fast … like a blur. Hickman ran, and I started firing until the gun wouldn’t shoot anymore. Both women fell. Mrs. Ferguson got up. I ran to her and stabbed her. I was acting on panic and impulse.”

            Virtually all the media who have reviewed Rideau’s memoir embraced the “panic” killing theory despite overwhelming evidence that the crime was planned beforehand and the killing of Julia Ferguson and the attempted murder of the other two hostages were premeditated. I have chronicled the cold blooded theory in a series of articles posted on this website (here, here, here, and here). Not one of Rideau’s supporters or his journalism colleagues have been able to refute this fact-driven evidence. They parrot the “panic” killing theory because a jury in 2005, some 44 years after the crime was committed, found Rideau guilty of manslaughter and not murder as he was charged. The verdict, they surmise, lends credence to Rideau’s “panic” killing theory.

            But Rideau himself gave law enforcement authorities two confessions immediately after  his arrest—an arrest that occurred on the same day the crime was committed—in which he admitted that his actions on February 16, 1961 were premeditated. The first confession was given to Calcasieu Parish Sheriff H.R. “Ham” Reid which was videotaped and broadcast over a local television station. That’s the confession which triggered the most attention and resulted in U.S. Supreme Court reversing Rideau’s conviction and death sentence in 1962. The second confession—a written one that can be found here—was given to FBI agents. That hand-written statement, in its entirety, reads as follows:

            “I, Wilbert Rideau, made the following voluntary statement to James Francis Wright and James W. Hamilton who have identified themselves to me a [sic] special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. No threats or promises have been made to me and I know I am not required to make a statement. I know I have the right to consult with a lawyer but I do not desire to do so at this time. I know that any statement I make may be used against me in a court of law.

            “I was born on February 13, 1942 in Lawtell, Louisiana. I presently lived at 1820 Brick Street, and have been employed at Halperns [sic] Fabric Shop in the Southgate Shopping Center in Lake Charles for about 2 years.

            “Halpern’s is located two doors from the Southgate Branch of the Gulf National Bank. In the past I have had the occasion to do business in this branch frequently, and I came to know Mr. Jay Hickman, the manager and the two tellers, Julia Ferguson and Dora McCain.

            “On Wednesday, February 15, 1961, on my lunch hour I want to Waldmeier’s Pawn Shop in downtown Lake Charles and purchased a .22 caliber Omega revolver, blue steel with a white handle, and a hunting knife, with a brown handle and about a 5-inch blade, and a scabbard for the knife. They cost me about $1400 [sic]. About 20 minutes later I bought a box of .22 caliber short cartridges at the G.I. Surplus Store near the Southgate Shopping Center.

            “The next morning, February 16, 1961, I went to work at 9:00 a.m., taking with me the revolver, the knife and scabbard, and all or most of the cartridges I had bought the day before. I had these in my coat pockets. I worked until 1:00 p.m. when I had about an hour off for lunch. I ate a cheeseburger at Youngblood’s Café. I returned to Halpern’s at about 2:15 p.m. I asked Mrs. Irby, my boss, for the remainder of the day off and she said it was all right. I told her I was sick, and I did have a slight headache. She suggested I go home.

            “I did not go home that afternoon, but went to Lee Martin’s Store and helper the porter there for awhile, perhaps until 3:30 p.m. I then went to Mason Rideau’s car parked in the lot behind the shopping center and slept until about 5:30 p.m. I went back to Lee Martin’s and talked with the porter until about 6:00 p.m. and then to Weingarten’s supermarket, and just fooled around talking with various porters there, until about 6:10 p.m. when I bought a soft drink. I sat down and started thinking about all the money in The Southgate Branch and I decided to rob it. I was already familiar with the people who worked there and generally with the procedures on Thursday night. I knew that Julia Ferguson did not usually work in the branch on Thursday nights. I had been in the bank once previously that morning to get change for the store. I knew that they closed at 7:00 p.m. I was also familiar with the kind of automobile each of the 3 employees drove and knew where they always parked them while at work.

            “I decided to buy a suitcase to put the money in, and to make my getaway by making the employees accompany me in Dora’s 1959 Buick, drive to the English Bayou area and then let the employees out of the car.

            “I want to the American Department Store at Southgate and bought the blue suitcase, for which I paid $12.02. I then walked to the rear of the bank, where I could see through the rear door there were no customers. I entered the bank at 6:55 p.m., put my suitcase down in the hallway just inside the door and walked into the lobby. Mr. Hickman was standing behind one of the teller’s cages in the rear of the lobby. I told him a woman wanted to see him outside, and he followed me to the rear of the bank where I ordered him into a small side room. I had my hand on my revolver in my coat pocket, and I told him I meant what I said. After we entered the side room, I told him to call to the tellers and instruct them to lock the front door and pull the front curtain. I had loaded the revolver with six cartridges just before I entered the bank. I showed the gun to Mr. Hickman, by pointing it at him, and I made him know I was serious. The women closed the drapes and Mr. Hickman on my orders called them in the back. On my orders we all went into the bank proper and there Mr. Hickman put stacks of bills in my suitcase, taking the money from the teller’s cash drawers. The women were seated at a table in the rear of the teller’s cages, as I had ordered them. While Mr. Hickman was placing the money in the suitcase, the telephone rang. I ordered  him to not to answer it, but when he said someone might get suspicious if he didn’t, I ordered him to answer it, but to ‘talk right.’ He talked briefly, and hung up. I became suspicious of this call and hurried Hickman up in putting the rest of the money in the suitcase. I had planned to enter the vault and obtain the money there, but as I knew that would be a delay of 15 minutes I abandoned this idea.

            “I then ordered the 3 employees out the rear of the bank, and after ordering Mrs. McCain to get the keys to her car, she explained she did not have her car that day. I then ordered Julia to get her car keys, and we all walked to her Vaux ball [sic] parked behind the bank. I ordered Julia to drive and Dora to sit beside he. Mr. Hickman sat on the left side in the back seat and I beside on the right. I made Hickman carry out the suitcase of money and he put it in the back seat of the car. I sat with my revolver in my right hand, and instructed the employees to follow my orders and Julia to drive where and as I told her. We drove to Front Street and then to Mill Street and eventually to Opelousas Street, and to Highway 171. Mr. Hickman asked if we were going to English Bayou. I then changed my plans, and ordered Julia to turn around. We returned to Opelousas Street and followed it to the dead end east of Hwy. 171, where we turned left or north on the dirt road. We drove on perhaps a half mile to a bridge across a bayou or creek, when I ordered Julia to turn around and we re-crossed the bridge and just south of the bridge, where I told her to stop the car, and I ordered them all to get out. They got out as I ordered, and I then emptied the six shots from my revolver at the three of them. Mr. Hickman ran, but I knew I had hit him, and I heard him fall into the bayou near the bridge and I figured he would drown. Dora fell directly in front of me on the west shoulder of the road, and I believed I had killed her. When I shot, Julia fell down on the same side of the road near Dora. When Hickman ran off, I followed him for a few yards and then returned to the car. As I neared the car, Julia tried to get to her feet. I went to her with the hunting knife, I stabbed her once, twice or maybe three times, and left her for dead. I believed they were all dead, and I intended that they be dead.

            “I then got in the car and drove back to Opelousas Street and turned west on it, but turned around again when I realized I was heading back toward town. As I neared the end of Opelousas street I stopped the car, got out, and threw the revolver out in a field. I don’t remember just where I threw the knife and the scabbard, but I had got rid of them before I proceeded on.

            “I then drove to near Iowa, La. Where I got on Highway 165 and continued north almost to Fenton, La., where I was checked by a State Trooper. He let me go and I continued on north, and almost 5 minutes later I was stopped again by 2 troopers and was taken into custody.

            “At that time the suitcase containing the money I had taken from the Southgate bank was on the floor in the back of the car.

            “I was taken to the Sheriff’s Office at Lake Charles, LA.

            “I have read this statement of 9 pages and it has been read to me by Mr. Hamilton. It is true and correct to the best of my recollection.”

            The statement was signed by “Wilbert Rideau.” It was witnessed by two FBI agents: James W. Hamilton and James F. Wright, both of whom were from the New Orleans office.

            Rideau discussed both confessions in his memoir as follows: “Sievert and Leithead (court-appointed attorneys) tried to keep out of evidence the confession the sheriff had obtained from me the night of the crime. They argued that I confessed before anyone advised me I did not have to say anything or that I had a right to have an attorney. They objected even more strenuously to a second confession, written by FBI agent James W. Hamilton five days after the crime and based upon a session he and another agent had with me. Besides expressing a high degree of intentionality—necessary to prove premeditation and win a death penalty conviction—the FBI’s version of the crime differed from my initial confession mainly in that it said I ordered the three bank employees out of the car after it had come to a stop and before I fired at them. The judge allowed the prosecutor to read both confessions to the packed courtroom.”

            The chronology of events leading up to the crime and its aftermath as detailed in the ”FBI’s version” (as Rideau called it), the confession made to Sheriff Reid, and Rideau’s memoir confession differ only slightly. The primary difference in Rideau’s memoir confession and the law enforcement confessions is “premeditation.” In his memoir Rideau takes the core facts and twists them to suit his “panic” killing theory.

           But there are several core facts Rideau cannot twist: he entered the bank with two weapons, a loaded pistol and a knife, and he brought a suitcase with him to carry away all the money he planned to get. He knew the bank’s “Thursday night” routine, including who would be working and even where they parked their vehicles. And whether Dora McCain and Jay Hickman tried to escape at which time Rideau started shooting at them (as described in his memoir) or whether he simply started shooting at them after ordering them out of the vehicle (as described in FBI statement) is immaterial to the premeditation involved in the murder of Julia Ferguson. By his own admission, Rideau said he ran over and stabbed Ferguson as she tried to get up. It doesn’t matter how many times he actually stabbed her. The fact is that she had a stab wound to the heart and her throat had been cut. She died from those wounds. Rideau killed a defenseless woman who posed no threat to him: she could not run, her screams would not have been heard by anyone,. He killed her solely because he believed she was the only surviving witness who could identify him.

           The “facts” show that Rideau killed Julia Ferguson with the same premeditation he had when he tried to kill McCain and Hickman. He emptied the gun at them, even though by his own account they were fleeing and therefore posed no immediate threat to him (if you accept his memoir version that he planned to release them unharmed). Furthermore, the “facts” show there was no “panic” in the crime from start to finish. Rideau purchased all the items he would need to complete the robbery—gun, knife, and suitcase—and he had the presence of mind to get rid of the weapons after he killed three people. Keep in mind that when Rideau fled the murder scene, he believed he had killed all three employees. He did not know when he threw away the gun and knife that McCain and Hickman had survived his murderous assault.

           As for the “FBI confession,” I have no doubt that either agent Hamilton or Wright wrote it and Rideau signed it. But he wasn’t forced to sign it. He had been in jail five days. No one had beaten or tortured him into confessing. He freely embraced the “FBI’s version” of the crime because those were the facts Rideau had provided to them in a previous interview. So just five days after the crime was committed, Wilbert Rideau told us exactly what his state of mind was that February 16, 1961: “I believed they were all dead, and I intended that they be dead.”

           The liberal media establishment can buy into the “panic killing” theory till hell freezes over, but the bottom line is that Wilbert Rideau intended, with absolute and complete premeditation, to kill Dora McCain, Jay Hickman and Julia Ferguson that February 16, 1961.