The After Show: Diary of a Killer

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Hello, everybody.

I'm Deborah Roberts, and welcome to 2020, The After Show.

This story is one that I will not forget, and probably most of our viewers and you listeners won't either.

It was a murder investigation that shocked a small community, one that was known to feel safe and very picturesque.

A beloved mom, Angela Bledsoe, shot to death inside her home in Montclair, New Jersey.

Now, many of you learned through our 2020 episode called Diary of a Killer that I reported this case.

I spoke with Angela Bledsoe's family, along with investigators about the 44-year-old mom who had been a financial advisor and the murder case that led to an international manhunt.

This story was nothing short of mind-boggling, and it led to an unforgettable twist.

And I am so looking forward to catching up to talk about this story on today's 2020 The After Show.

Joining me is senior producer Taji Smith.

Hey, Taji.

Hey, Deborah.

How are you?

I'm good.

I'm good.

You and I are always bumping into each other in the hallways.

Yes, we are.

When we're not working on stories together and you're always giving me the scoop on the latest, but this one you and I worked on a few years back.

A few years back, yeah.

Yeah.

And it was one that you get really passionate about stories.

And I get the impression from you that particularly when there's family, like really deep family connections to these stories, it really moves you.

Well, yeah, yeah.

Especially this one, because it did happen in my backyard.

You know, Angela, when I look at this story and her case, I'm like, that could have been me.

That could have been one of my girlfriends.

I mean, she had a young daughter, same age as my daughter.

We lived in a, you know, same community, lived very similar lifestyles.

I'd seen her around town.

So

you had a sense of who she was.

I had a sense.

And, you know, when people turn to true crime, sometimes it seems like, wow, you know, we hear this, this isn't the type of thing that would happen where I live.

But when this story broke in Montclair, New Jersey, it became so clear that it could have happened to anyone.

Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, Angela was a woman of color, upwardly mobile, you know, solidly upper-middle-class woman, a financial advisor, just the type of woman who just seemed like she was on her way to a successful life.

except she had this significant other that turned out to be a problem.

What attracted you to this story in the beginning other than the fact that clearly this was somebody you related to, but you really clearly thought that twists and turns would be interesting for our viewers.

Oh my gosh, like we love anything with a plot twist, right?

Like where there are twists, turns, nooks, crannies.

And in this case, it was never a question of who killed Angela.

But this was really about why.

And, you know, this case just had so many elements.

There was so much here that we don't always get.

You know, audio recording, a diary,

conversations that James Ray was recording, you know, with his friends and family just moments after the killing occurred.

So there was just so much there, so much to dig through and get into.

Yeah, I remember you met her family, her parents and her daughter, and you convinced me that I should be involved in this story, which I was quick to jump into, but you were really touched by her parents and also the fact that her daughter now was left without her mother.

And that was a big part of the story, trying to convince them to sit down and talk with us about their memories of Angela.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, you remember her parents, right?

Salt of the earth.

Just very

humble, wonderful people.

Her dad, as you recall, was a lifelong educator.

They were church-going folks.

They raised their kids.

They were a tight-knit family.

And I remember we were both struck by, you know, just how broken up they still were

about the case

and about their daughter's death.

But yeah, certainly this was a case that I lived with for a long time for years, because it did take several years for it to actually go to trial.

And for it to all play out.

Well, let's talk about the beginning of the story.

It was October 2018.

Investigators are called to Angela's home in Montclair, New Jersey, and it's a pretty rough scene.

It's a gruesome scene.

It's a gruesome scene.

She is dead on the floor.

Talk to us a little bit about what they found when they got there, because oftentimes these stories start off with the suspicion that either there's a killer on the loose or a crime scene that looks a little suspicious.

Talk to us about what the police found when they first got there.

So when police first get to the scene, they discover Angela Bledsoe shot to death on the kitchen floor.

They see a blood trail that leads from the living room into the kitchen.

They see firearms.

They see a gun cleaning kit.

They see her cell phone on a stool.

And they're just not sure what to make of the situation.

What they don't see or who they don't see is her significant other, the father of her child.

So they have a dead woman on the floor in an affluent community in a big house.

you know and there's no partner husband there's no one there And so that was kind of curious for them.

But what they did have was a call, James Ray, who was Angela's, the father of her child and her significant other.

And his brother had called and said, you know, you need to go take a look at this house in Upper Montclair.

My brother's left me a message and he said that there's something going on in the house.

And when police got there, that's what they discovered, Angela dead on the floor.

But her daughter was not there.

Her daughter was not there.

Unfortunately, You brought to our story Howard Ryan, who is a former

detective.

Former state police officer.

He'd been with the New Jersey State Police for 25 years, retired, and became a crime scene investigator, somebody who goes into crime scenes and figures out for

prosecutors and law enforcement what took place.

And that was very important too, because when we're unspooling these stories, it's always about trying to help the viewer understand what was significant and when the police got to the house, what they found.

And you described the scene with the phone.

And initially, and this happens in a lot of the stories that we cover, detectives will talk about finding a scene where it doesn't look quite authentic.

It's made to look like, you know, in this case, maybe she was playing or dealing with a gun, but clearly they could tell that it felt a little staged.

They didn't feel like this was self-inflicted.

No, absolutely.

Howard Ryan goes into great detail in our show that there was a gun cleaning kit there were shell casings three shell casings that were lined up next to each other howard believed you know and led authorities to believe that the cell phone that had been placed on the stool um they learned that that was angela's cell phone but that it had been placed on the stool after

she had been killed.

Yeah.

What was interesting about this case, and you'll remember, is this letter.

Yeah.

Right.

He leaves a letter first for his brother.

And the letter really is James Ray's version of events.

And he said that there had been a fight and that Angela or an altercation, verbal dispute.

He says.

His version of events, again, that he was cleaning his guns and Angela picked up one of the guns, pointed at him, and he felt like his life was in danger.

And that he had to flee.

Yes, that he had to flee.

And what Howard Ryan found and what authorities believed was this didn't look like self-defense.

No matter what James Ray said in his letter, to them, it looked like the crime scene had been staged and made to look like it may have been self-defense.

Yeah, which happens so often in these stories we cover.

Well, I want to dig deeper into that with you, but we're going to take a break.

And when we come back, we're going to jump right back into this investigation and why federal authorities, the FBI, got involved after they got an unexpected lead about Angela's killer.

So stay with us.

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Hi, everybody.

I'm back with Taji Smith, senior producer here at 2020, and we are discussing a story that we worked on together, the Angela Bledsoe murder case.

And we were just talking about the surprising evidence that police found when they got to the crime scene and just sort of piecing this all together.

There's a note from Angela Bledsoe's significant other, the man who would ultimately be found responsible.

But as you said, detectives weren't sure what to make of this scene.

And let's talk about James Ray and what we learned about him.

She was a very smart, bright investment banker type.

Yeah, financial advisor.

Financial advisor.

And what about him?

He also, too, was a very respected guy, had been a former cop.

Oh, yeah.

Former cop, former Marine, an attorney.

You know, he ran several businesses.

He was a martial arts expert.

Very interesting man.

Yeah.

There's so many nuances to this, this story that we really couldn't get into.

And that's why I'm so glad we're here.

Yeah, because talking about behind the scenes is what we give listeners a chance to learn a little bit more about.

This is a story about lifestyle.

You know, and here you had Angela when she meets James Ray.

You know, she's living in Brooklyn.

She owned her own brownstone by the time she was 27 years old.

Huge feat.

She's financially secure.

And she wants a family and she wants children.

And she meets James Ray.

And he's living this great lifestyle.

I mean, he's living this upper middle class, African-American lifestyle in Montclair, New Jersey.

You know, he's a member of a Greek organization, you know, big fraternity.

He's got a great car.

He's also got a family.

Yeah.

Yeah.

A family that she doesn't really know all the details about.

She doesn't know the details about, but she meets Ray.

They begin a relationship.

And, you know, she finds herself pregnant.

And

unfortunately, you know, he's still married and he still has his family.

Right after Angela's murder, what we find through her text messages is that she's struggling with the fact that, you know, there had been this other woman and this other family.

And they live apart for a while before she moves into that home in Upper Montclair, after Ray manages to get his first family out of the home, by the way.

And so now she's here and she knows she's living in essentially another woman's home and she's angry about the way that he treated her during her pregnancy.

He felt like she hadn't done enough for her and the baby.

But she's taking a risk and she's hoping to start her own family.

But yet there was a lot of tension in their relationship and we explore that in the story and clearly things start to go south.

Oh yeah.

After a while, I noticed

every time she called, she was complaining about him more and more and more.

She would just text me little things he would say, little things he would do.

He became a little paranoid, and he became more controlling after a while.

That clearly is a place that police begin to look because her relationship is falling apart.

Police start to use all of these details to kind of shape their case.

And we talked to investigators, attorneys in this case, and there was a whole timeline here, but just those little crumbs, the letters that were left, the audio recording.

And this story also involved a rare international extradition from Cuba.

So Ray is on the move.

Police are trying to, they've got a woman here who's been killed.

They can't find the guy who is responsible.

And let's talk about, because that was one of the things I think that was so intriguing about this story.

He is on the go and he's on the move and they cannot find him and he winds up in Cuba.

He ends up in Cuba.

And how he gets there.

I mean, he takes this circuitous route, which we learn about later in a journal that's found when they catch him in Cuba.

But we learn through James Ray's own handwritten journal that he lives as a homeless man in Philadelphia.

He hitchhikes with truck drivers.

He ends up in Texas.

He takes a bus to Mexico.

And from Mexico, he flies to Havana, Cuba.

When they finally said that they had apprehended him and that he had gotten all the way to Cuba was just mind-boggling.

Nobody seems to remember any case where Cuba was involved, where there was an international flight, a pursuit out of the country, an apprehension, let alone the fact it was a homicide in one of the most affluent towns in New Jersey.

I think he felt like, oh, America doesn't have an extradition treaty with Cuba, so I'm going to be here and forget about it.

But that's not how it works, buddy.

If you commit a crime in the state of New Jersey, we will not forget, we will not forgive, and we will find you.

This story was so fascinating that way because we had a map to help the viewer understand his whereabouts and so forth.

And Taja, you and the rest of the team did a great job sort of shaping all of that.

After he's apprehended, because eventually they do catch him, they get a tip.

And I still, you know, as a journalist, I still don't know where the tip came from.

James Ray was in Havana, Cuba, but he's not there long before he's apprehended.

We see him being, you know, let off of the tarmac onto a U.S., you know, charter plane and taken back to the United States.

And we talked to one of those investigators who rode with him.

It's rare that we get insight into a person who is found guilty of murder, but in this case, in his own words, in this diary, I mean, and I want to talk about that because that was so fascinating.

We're going to take a break though.

And when we're back, we're going to talk about that and also the shocking twist in this case and what we know about Angela's young daughter today and how things wound up.

So stay with us.

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We're back talking talking about our episode of 2020 called Diary of a Killer.

Angela Bletzo was murdered and found in her Montclair, New Jersey home.

Her boyfriend, James Ray III, fell under suspicion.

He fled the country.

He was extradited back here.

Taji Smith worked on this story for a very long time along with our team.

And let's talk about the trial.

So when investigators are trying to piece this all together, initially, you know, Ray is claiming it was self-defense.

Of course, investigators don't believe it was self-defense.

They sort of sketched out how they thought she was shot and she was not shot in a way that would have been lunging toward him, right?

Exactly.

Like according to investigators, and when we say investigators, we mean detectives from the Essex County Prosecutor's Office in New Jersey.

We mean police officers from the Montclair Police Department.

And we mean Howard Ryan, who was hired by the Essex County Prosecutor's Office to sort of figure out what happened that day.

According to those authorities, there was absolutely no evidence that would suggest that this was a case of self-defense.

The evidence showed that Angela had been shot in her back.

In her head, in her chest.

The evidence, according to authorities, the prosecutor, led them to believe that she had been shot from above, that someone stood above her and shot her.

And that was critical.

And that was critical

while she was lying on her back.

So, you know, that physical evidence, the fact that you can see that she crawled, you know, on her hands and knees from the living room, when authorities look at the blood trail, it showed that she had crawled on her hands and knees from the living room to the kitchen.

And she was shot from above in that kitchen.

Okay.

And so she was shot in the back, but she was shot from above.

And that was critical.

And also, and they didn't see any signs that she was like lunging toward him and trying to attack him.

And that was very critical in how we presented our story.

Absolutely.

You got a crime board for Ryan to kind of walk me through, to show me all that key evidence, which when we are telling these stories, I mean, that's so important for our viewers to be able to see how these things played out in court and also in the investigation.

And we would be remiss not to say that investigators, the prosecutor Michelle Miller, also,

you know, thought that Ray's own writings helped implicate him.

And what's interesting and ironic to me as a producer is he writes this letter to his brother to say, this is what happened.

This is what Ray believes happened.

There was an argument and I know I'm not going to get a fair trial and no one's going to believe me.

So I have to go on the run.

Take care of my daughter.

Make sure she goes on the trip that I've planned.

Continue to give her golf lessons.

He drops off the golf clubs.

And he is setting what he believes.

Remember, he's a lawyer.

Right.

Very, very county.

Accounting case for self-defense.

But the prosecutors weren't buying it.

And the physical evidence, according to those investigators, just did not support this claim.

When we reported this story,

Ray had been found guilty.

He was awaiting sentencing.

Michelle Miller felt very strongly about this case.

And she really felt satisfied that she had argued this case.

And then you and I were talking with her and there had been a big, a big twist.

A big twist.

Yeah.

In fact, Michelle was away when this twist happened.

One of our producers received a phone call from Ray's family saying he'd been found dead in his jail cell.

And that's when I alerted, you know,

you and our team to say, wait a minute, James Ray isn't.

We think he's dead.

His family's saying he's dead.

And we were still hoping that maybe we might get an interview with him.

We were really pushing forward in this story.

And so often it's sort of lost in these stories.

And I think one of the things that we pride ourselves in here at 2020 is that we so deeply focus on the victims, the families, people whose lives have been affected.

And his family so wanted to have that day in court and to be able to talk about how this had affected them.

And Angela's family was so deeply affected by this, but also so looking forward to having their opportunity to speak in court about how their lives had been affected.

And so James Ray is found dead.

Of course, it's deeply suspected that he had taken his own life.

It was shocking to everyone, including the prosecutor in this case.

And what was interesting was that there was a big question about

what would happen.

So now Ray had been found guilty.

And now we were awaiting the sentencing.

Angela's family so wanted to be able to speak out in court in victims' impact statements to talk about their lives and so forth.

So this was the big moment in this case.

And then of course he's found dead in his jail cell.

And the question becomes, did he take his own life?

So that's an investigation.

And you and I were sorting that out at the end of the story.

We had had an opportunity to meet Angela's daughter.

And of course, we sat down with the family.

They were so heartbroken.

Before we get to the case and where it all ended, what about the family?

I mean, her daughter was so impressive and so, so lovely.

How are they doing?

Because you often keep up in these stories with families.

I do.

She's doing great.

An honor student.

She's thriving.

She's beautiful.

Despite it all, you know, it speaks to the strength of the Bledsoe family and how close they were.

Her aunt, Angela's sister, Lisa, who was prominent in our show, was an empty nester.

She was looking forward to, you know, life with her husband.

But she took on the blessing of her niece, of her sister's daughter.

And really what we did learn, sadly, that this was, this is a case about two people who really love this little girl.

And at the root of this,

this was a couple who was going to split and they both wanted this child and they both wanted the best for her.

And unfortunately, it imploded and ended in this tragic end, but it was rooted in them, James Ray wanting his daughter and not wanting her to be taken away from him.

And Angela Bledsoe also wanting her daughter and wanting to raise her without him.

Yeah.

This bitter dispute, which happens in so many of our stories.

Well, let's talk about today where it all stands.

I mean, the surprising ending to this story.

And we didn't know what would actually happen with the case.

So what, I mean, breaking news.

You've got breaking news here.

Well, yeah, I do.

I do have breaking news.

So, you know, I've stayed in touch with the prosecutor, Michelle Miller, about this case.

And she told me that she's able to confirm that James Reed III did, in fact, take his own life.

That's the first thing.

Now,

we also know that while he was found guilty of the murder, he was not convicted.

He was not

officially convicted.

He was not officially convicted.

In the state of New Jersey, you are not convicted until you are sentenced.

And he was found dead in his cell, ironically, on Father's Day of all days.

And so for months, we just didn't know what was going to happen with the case.

For months, we didn't know if it was suicide or if he died of natural causes.

Michelle Miller recently told me

that she had to dismiss.

the case.

Wow.

And she said, I avoided it and I avoided it.

And so Michelle Miller, that passionate, dogged prosecutor who who fought so hard for justice for angela's family she had to move to dismiss the case and when i talked to her and i quote this word for word she told me it was the worst feeling in the world michelle said even though ray wasn't convicted she

um and the family find comfort in the fact that he did not die an innocent man.

I can imagine.

I can imagine.

I mean, for the family, but specifically for her having worked on this case, sometimes there's a surprise ending to these.

Yeah, a better end to these stories.

But Taji, I got to tell you, it was one that I think viewers won't forget.

Listeners here, I think, will remember this story and can go back and find it, of course, in our 2020 files.

It was such a fascinating story, and you did a great job on it.

Thank you.

So did you.

I was glad to work with you on it.

Thank you for coming by.

Well, it's always great to get a chance to talk a little bit more about our stories behind the scenes.

We also want to note that if you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or a loved one, call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free and confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

That will do it for us on this episode of 2020 the After Show.

The 2020 After Show is produced by Amira Williams, Susie Liu, and Sasha Oslanian with Matt Lombardi, Brian Mazurski, and Alex Barenfeld of 2020.

Theme music by Evan Viola.

Janice Johnston is the executive producer of 2020.

Josh Cohen is the director of podcasting at ABC Audio.

Michelle Margulis is the operations director.

Laura Mayer is the executive producer.

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