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In this episode, I’ll introduce you to my family, the Halls. We were a lower tier crime family. We weren’t the Corleones, but back in the 1980’s and 90’s, we made national headlines! My mom – Phyllis – went from flirting with criminality to actually sleeping with it. She spent 6 months in prison for child endangerment. My stepdad – John Hall – was the Philadelphia PD’s favorite snitch. By the time he was done, he’d insert my family into two of Philly’s biggest unsolved murders. Ah, but first, you have to meet the family!
Show Notes
My family did criminal things the way other families did normal things. We didn’t rob banks or murder people. But, we murdered peoples’ lives and robbed them of their freedom.
To be precise, my stepfather JOHN HALL did that. A lifelong drug addict and a criminal always needing to negotiate down his jail time, John became the Philly PD’s favorite snitch, capable of getting confessions from people the Philly PD couldn’t. By the time John was done, more than twenty-five people ended up in prison, many for crimes they did not commit.
That included my brother Herbie. And an innocent man named Walter Ogrod who John Hall put on death row for 24 years.
I this episode, I’ll tell you why this podcast is called “The Hall Closet”, how I lost my best friend growing up because of my family. How a wonderful neighbor lady named CINDY took me by the hand one day on my way to school and – for the first time in my life – parented me in a loving fashion.
It was one of the first times in my life that I ever felt safe.
My mom had a lot to do with that – my never feeling safe. She put every one of her men ahead of her children – and there were lots of men. It probably isn’t surprising that my brother Herbie – growing up being abused himself – would turn abuser himself. As you’ll hear, lower tier crime families abuse each other in an astonishing number of inventive ways.