D&P Highlight: Five men were convicted in a 1988 arson explosion that killed 6 KCFD firefighters. Now, one has been granted compassionate release.

0:00You are listening to the Dana and Parks podcast on KMBZ. I was pleased to see this over the weekend. Don't be angry. If you really, really looked into the details of this case, you would be pleased too. One of the men convicted in the 1988 Kansas City firefighter deaths has been released from prison. We are not taking away from that historic day in this town or how devastating that tragedy was for so many. However, I continue to believe passionately they did not get this one right with respect to the prosecution of all of those kids years ago. A federal judge has ordered the release of Richard A. Brown this week vacating the life sentence he received nearly three decades ago for his role in the 1988 arson that led to the deaths of six Kansas City firefighters. The order was handed down Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. It granted Brown's amended motion for compassionate release. It credited him for the nearly 29 years he was incarcerated. Part of the reason that the judge

1:02agreed that he gets to go home is that he was 18 at the time. And knowing everything that we know now, whether you believe this group did the crime or not, I don't know that in today's day and age for a crime like that at age 18, you would get much beyond 30 years. So I remember covering this trial in a federal court downtown in the late 1990s. And something rubbed me the wrong way. And I was just a young buck reporter. So, you know, what do I know? But there was just something about it that I was like, hmm, let's listen to this when we can see star. And then I want you to remind everybody your recollection of this over the years. The case has been criticized by the fallen firefighters families, prosecutors and the defendants convicted alongside Brown, who have always maintained their innocence. None of them have ever gone back to say, all right, I didn't let me out. They probably

2:03could have gotten out earlier if they had said I did it. They have always said it was not me. And calls for accountability came after the Department of Justice report said a Department of Justice report said there was credible evidence that two other people were involved. It's my recollection and you know, this is a 30 year memory. So forgive me that all or most of them were tried at the same time. I believe that is correct. And I remember as a young reporter here at KMBC, I was sent down to cover this entire trial at the old federal courthouse downtown. And which I think is now a post office, if I'm not mistaken, but whatever. And there was a little walkway that would go to an underground parking garage at the old courthouse. And after they had been convicted and sentenced, they were brought up from the underground parking garage up this long, concrete ramp, you know.

3:08And all of us reporters were dangling our microphones over the side to see if any of them would say anything. And I don't know who it was. I don't recall one of the males. It was. There was only one woman involved if I remember correctly. But one of the men screamed out, they've got the wrong people. We didn't do this. Do you not remember Scott that prosecutors offered some or all of them immunity to flip and just tell us what happened on each other, not a single one of them took the opportunity. And you know, prosecutors said you're facing life in prison. Why don't you just flip and tell us what happened? None of them agreed to do that. They said we didn't do it. Then they said we didn't do it now. One of them died in prison. And I think one or two still remain behind bars. That is correct. One of them has been released called into our program a couple of years ago when he was released. I remember. And I would love to talk to Richard Brown. If at some point he's

4:10willing to do an interview now that I'm looking at pictures of Richard Brown, I want to say, I can't say this definitively. I want to say it was him who screamed up from that walkway. They've got the wrong people. We didn't do that. Brian Shepard was released from prison in 2017. He's the one who called into our program after he was incarcerated 22 years. Skip Shepard died in prison in 2009. Darling Edwards and Frank Shepard remain incarcerated. You know, and saying all of this, and I want to be very clear for both of us, we're not taking anything away from the absolutely tragic deaths of those six Kansas City Missouri firefighters. And may God bless them always and their families. It was just, and this was in 1988, if I remember correctly, these people didn't go on trial till 1997. And you know, just to repeat myself for just a moment, the entire time I was watching

5:13this trial, I'm like, where's the evidence? Where is it? And I sat through every second of that trial downtown and wondered every single day, where is it? Where are the fingerprints? Where's the nothing? I know. In the Justice Department report that was finalized in 2011, but never publicly disclosed in its entirety until when was that star investigation in 2022? I think is when they when they read this, records released back then by the Justice Department through a court order show investigators found new information 10 years prior to that to suggest the two security guards may have been involved. And where are they now? I don't know if they are still alive or not, Scott. One of the best investigations was a late Kansas City star investigation into this. And I'm trying to find that investigation. It wasn't my

6:13Kendrick's, but it was somebody that poured years into this and then wrote about it and made the very compelling case that not only did these, they were not the sharpest knives in the drawer if you will back then. Let's call it what it is. They were Yehu's. They were Yehu's. And part of the argument was, do you really think that these five dingolings who never would take the bait and turn on each other to say what happened despite the fact they were all facing life in prison? Do you really think they pulled this off? And not only pulled it off, but got away with it for nine years. Or were they the easy targets in investigation that needed to be wrapped quickly because it devastated this town? Now, let's go back to the story. On the release of Richard the story says compassionate release. Normally, that means that somebody has a terminal illness. Compassionate because he was 18 at the time and he's already served 30 years. This does not mean he's exonerated. This is still on his record. He'll go on probation. It was Mike McGraw,

7:17the late Kansas City star investigative reporter Mike McGraw, who did an incredible series of stories beginning in 2007, examining that case. And so many witnesses years later, Scott said they were pressured to implicate the defendants years later. Because you know this, the city was under pressure to get the damn things all right. Keep in mind. And again, repeating myself, it had been nine years since the explosion in South Kansas City until the arrest of these five. Many of them related to one another. And I, and again, I think all five went on trial at the same time. If I'm not mistaken, it was a four year court battle just to have the documents released from the Department of Justice. And by the way, hats off, it was shook Hardy and Bacon that represented the other defendant who said, no, no, we are going to fight to have these records

8:18released. When the records were released, low and behold, the investigation showed we think it might be the other two. So why not then with the, with the other two dark and Edwards. And I think it's Brian Shepherd who remains in prison still. Why are they not? And maybe they are appealing all of this to have now been released one died in prison. Yeah. And to remain in prison. Why are they not fighting tooth and nail saying, look, look at these documents. You know, investigators were under the impression that it might have been to security guards. A friend of one of the security guards signed an affidavit that was included in the stars reporting that said he had come to one of the security guards apartments on the morning of the explosions. She appeared upset and nervous and allegedly said, quote, I've been involved in something bad and we didn't mean for anyone to get killed. Now, did they set out? If in fact, it was those security guards, did they set out to murder

9:23the firefighters? You have to remember this started with a truck arson. And the truck arson then spilled over to the hazmat site that was never properly marked. Firefighters move in to put out the fire and the trailers that held the didn't know the hell they were wanting to explode it. And from there, we have our current day hazmat triangular warning signs. That is a fact that was born out of the Kansas City case. I did not know their construction sites. Some eyes now all have those dark red dark blue. Yeah. What is that shape? Diamond shaped placards that tell you there's an ammonium nitrate here. Yes. 913-586-7798-586-7798. You're on Dana and Parks. Thanks for listening to the Dana and Parks podcast. Remember you can catch us online anytime at KMBZ.com.