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[keyboard clacking]

[foreboding music]

Bruce: April 16th, 2023.

[crickets chirping]

Editor’s note.

There were probably some things that need to be said

about this sheriff’s department.

If the people who hate us kill me,

the sad truth is

they will probably accomplish much of what they want.

- On the other hand... - [keyboard clacking]

if someone hurts my son or his family,

my every waking moment of every day

will be dedicated to bringing the people responsible to justice.

Never a good idea to wound a bear.

[switch clicks]

Reporter 1: Tensions running high here in Idabel.

Reporter 2: A small town family-run newspaper

at the center of a firestorm.

Reporter 3: Articles alleging corruption in McCurtain County.

McCurtain County leaders caught on that audio.

Reporter 4: Across the nation, outrage...

Reporter 5: ...involving Sheriff Kevin Clardy.

- Reporter 1: ...Sheriff Kevin Clardy... - Reporter 6: ...Kevin Clardy.

Reporter 7: ...heard on a secret recording.

Reporter 7: ...making a death threat against journalists.

Reporter 8: ...racist remarks.

- Reporter 9: ...lynching Black people and killing journalists. - [tape clicks]

Kevin on tape: One of these days I’m gonna bounce his ass.

I know two or three hitmen.

- that would cut no fucking mercy. - [tape clicks]

[low tense music]

[bright music]

[keyboard clacking]

Bruce: Newspapers used to be very, very profitable.

Today, they are, uh...

they’re not in the greatest of shape.

My name is Bruce Willingham.

My wife, Gwen, and I bought the McCurtain Gazette in 1988,

and we’ve been running it for the last 36 years.

Gwen does the books.

Gwen: I do payroll.

Oh, okay.

Maybe a manager,

maybe is a good way of putting what my job is.

Bruce: My son, Chris, does police beat work.

Cops and courts it’s called.

Bruce: And his wife, Angie, his copy editor.

Everything we know about journalism,

we’ve learned from Bruce.

He is the consummate newsman.

It’s always been an interesting experience with Bruce.

He doesn’t have blood.

He has printer’s ink in his bloodstream.

Bruce: With a family business like this,

you have a lot better relationship

with the folks who work here too,

’cause they know what you’re really like.

They’ve... [chuckles] They’ve seen you on the good days and bad days.

They know what you’re really like. [laughs]

- [beeps] - Operator: Tommie, line one.

Uh, hang on.

Uh, this is Tommie. Can I help you?

Uh-huh.

I put the paper together

and do the ads.

Bennie burns the plates, and then it goes to press.

Bennie: I’ve worked here 23 years.

That press is probably 70 years old or older.

It’s getting old,

just like me. [chuckles]

Chris: We serve McCurtain County.

My dad has a strict rule that everything on the front page

has to be local.

We don’t put news on the front page

that’s outside of the county line.

[keyboard clacking]

Gwen: We all know our job is to get that paper out

three times a week.

Whatever we need to do, we do it.

Chris: McCurtain County has 33,000 people.

[cow mooing]

It’s multigenerational. There’s...

there’s families that kind of stay in the same place,

stay in the same town.

Their grandfather was a moonshiner.

Their dad may have grown marijuana.

You know, their uncle cooked methamphetamine.

It’s very much an outlaw culture.

And there’s some pride in that in... in those families here.

Bruce: We have what we call "page from the past"

where we take one page from the archives

and put it in the paper on Sunday.

Chris: "Wagon-Tilted, Spilled Liquor."

"Carload Full of Booze Found."

Dad, do you wanna do this?

I’ve messed it up somehow.

Bruce: You gotta go under the glass like that.

Yeah. That’s it.

Christopher as a journalist

had a very good role model. His dad.

And he is a chip off the old block.

Bruce: I guess he just saw a lot of it

when he was growing up, [chuckles] you know.

Maybe he got the bug some too that way. I don’t know.

Both my sons had newspaper routes.

That was my first job as a downtown paper boy at eight,

carrying papers to various businesses.

I joke that I’ve had nearly every job there.

I’ve been the press operator, a reporter.

You jump in and you do whatever you have to

to... to make the business run.

[low tense music]

My dad took me to my first murder trial

when I was 12 years old.

The weight of the seriousness of that in the courtroom

and just the absolute silence.

I remember, I just really found it interesting.

[intriguing music]

Bruce: This is district courtroom.

And I have covered about a hundred murder trials here.

[camera shutter clicks]

- We are well known for covering a lot of police stories. - [siren wailing]

Our readership seems to like it a lot.

I’ve always had a very open, friendly relationship

with law enforcement here.

We’ve trusted each other and, and relied on each other.

But if they do something that’s immoral or against the law,

we’re gonna write about it. We’re gonna report about it.

We’re gonna rub your nose in it,

the public’s gonna know about it.

Johnny: In a small community,

sometimes you have something written about someone

that’s akin to you or something like that.

You may not like it,

but they’ve been on newsstands forever.

So, obviously somebody likes what they write. [chuckles]

Oh, Lordy.

My name is Johnny Tadlock.

I was a... a sheriff in McCurtain County

for three terms.

I served from 2005 until 2014.

In this case, I know people want swift justice.

Pretty much now I just chase cattle around.

McCurtain County is made up of so many little communities.

You couldn’t keep up with the incoming calls,

much less follow up on those things, you know.

Burglaries, larcenies, assaults, and drugs.

In the late ’80s,

they wanted to address some of the drug problems

there in the county. So, I started working drugs.

I worked undercover.

Drugs kind of come and go.

The flavor of that year, you know.

Weed was always there.

One time we had crack and then meth.

And in McCurtain County,

hit real, real hard on... on meth.

Chris: McCurtain County

has a huge methamphetamine problem.

I think all crime here at the root

is probably meth-related.

Johnny: When I was sheriff,

Chris, Bruce, they dropped in every day.

Chris: Because I’m there every day,

they’re telling me about these cases.

"Hey, we recovered a bunch of stolen four-wheelers."

"Grants for new equipment."

"Look at all this meth we got in this drug bust."

He’d walk into my office, sit down,

and we would have a good conversation.

He was welcome to come to operations and stuff.

So, obviously, there was a certain amount of trust

between he and I.

Bruce: If they tell him something’s off the record,

it’s like a religious thing with us.

We will absolutely...

We’ll go to jail before we burn a source.

Under every sheriff for the past 19 years,

I’m in that office five days a week.

Or I was.

Always had a great rapport with these officers. Always.

And, really, up... up until this sheriff, um,

all the law enforcement officers loved him.

Kevin Clardy is the sheriff of McCurtain County.

Chris: When I first met Kevin,

he was a deputy for Johnny Tadlock.

I’ve probably known him 15 years.

I always got along with Kevin

and had no problem with him at all.

He was actually my undersheriff at one time.

My first undersheriff.

Probably six months.

And I think we just had a difference of opinion about things,

about how we ought to conduct it.

I wanted things going a little bit differently,

so I actually... And then I had another undersheriff.

[tense music]

Chris: In 2016, he was elected sheriff.

It was a good campaign. There was high office morale.

Kevin has several kids,

and he’d been married to his wife for a long time

and seemed to be a good family man.

I mean, went to church.

Bruce: He had a lot of relatives.

He was pretty well known.

Chris would go to the sheriff’s department every day,

go through all the reports every day.

And it was just like it had been for every other sheriff.

[coughs]

Near the end of his first term,

they hired Alicia Manning.

She was a domestic violence officer.

She did quite a few cases.

Alicia: I’m an investigator with the sheriff’s office, okay?

This is what I do for a living.

And I do it because I care about people. Okay?

So if we need to try to find you a place to go,

I have resources where I can do that.

She was no stranger to law enforcement.

Her father had been a state trooper.

Bruce: Alicia moved up in rank, which she did very quickly,

to the alarm of some of the other officers

until she was, uh...

I believe they called her captain of all officers.

Chris: That position didn’t even exist in the department

prior to her getting it.

That upset a lot of guys that had been there 15 and 20 years.

Curtis: I went into Kevin Clardy’s office one time,

and I told him that some things needed to change

or he was gonna start losing people.

Losing people he could not afford to replace.

After that, things started changing towards me.

My name is Curtis Fields.

Currently living in Idabel,

and up until a few years ago

I was a law enforcement officer for 16 years

in McCurtain County.

To this day...

...I honestly feel like Kevin Clardy owes me some teeth.

Towards the end, there was no trust

between anyone and Kevin Clardy.

And I know this because I knew every deputy in there.

I’m compelled to speak of this for the people who can’t.

There are active members of law enforcement

who are still disgusted by it, that can’t talk about it.

When I first started at the sheriff’s office,

I idolized the man.

I hung on every word he ever spoke to me.

Deputy 1: Move forward.

Deputy 2: Clear.

Curtis: Walden, will you turn that light on and go back to that other room.

Alicia Manning. I taught her Reserve Academy.

Alicia: Open door on the right.

Curtis: She was hard-working, smart, and committed.

She showed great promise.

Taser, taser.

[taser zapping]

Ah!

Five seconds.

Chris: Things slowly started to shift.

Kevin began to have marital problems.

There was allegations of cases

that weren’t being followed up on.

Here comes this new officer. She’s promoted very quickly,

and then she’s telling them how to work a case

and how to take a call, what to do.

Officers began, kind of, quietly pulling me aside

and saying that Kevin and Alicia are having an affair.

There were allegations of him living with Alicia

and she was living in Choctaw County at the time,

and by law, the sheriff has to live in McCurtain County.

So at that point,

being fair, I asked Kevin for an interview.

I interviewed him about a number of things.

Chris: As it began, it was fairly open.

I sat on the other side of his desk as I had many times.

Chris: Eh, it was just rumor.

And it was... That’s... that’s not what we do.

[machine whirring]

But once I got evidence room pictures,

that’s when I knew...

this is big.

Bruce: The first story he did that really got him angry

was some pictures of the evidence room.

Chris: It was in the sheriff’s department. It’s a locked room.

There’s murder case evidence in there.

There’s drug case evidence.

And the pictures I got...

complete disarray.

There’s biological bags out on the floor.

There’s drugs spilled out on the floor.

Things falling off of shelves.

Looked like a teenage kid’s [laughs] mess.

It was... it was unbelievable.

Everything was piled on top of each other.

Unorganized.

And of course, it could cost you. You know,

you could lose a murder case because of that.

It was no small matter.

Chris: And I knew, "Okay,

Now I can write a story."

[typewriter clacking]

[coughs, clears throat]

What’s up?

My name’s John Mowrer.

I worked for the sheriff’s office for about six years.

Um, presently, I’m just an entrepreneur.

I had no business in the evidence room,

but the first couple of times I seen it,

yeah, it looked array, bro.

It looked a mess. It was a fucking mess.

And those deputies needed to be fucking hammered,

but they let it go to the paper

and then it all fell back...

It falls back on the sheriff.

Chris: They were mad.

Most of what I’d written in the past

was cases they’d worked and had done well on,

and this was quite the opposite.

And, of course, they knew

it had to come from somebody in the department.

Alicia started trying to find out

who we were talking with in the department.

[keyboard clacking]

I was called in to their office

when this stuff first started hitting the... the paper.

And I threw my phone on

and I told them all, "I’m recording this."

[gentle music]

Josh: As you cross the border

from Choctaw County into McCurtain,

you get hit with this, like, deathly stench

that’s coming from the international paper mill.

So, you know, you know you’re in McCurtain County

when suddenly it smells like death.

It’s a fitting

introduction to... to the area as you enter, unfortunately.

My name is Joshua Kline.

I’m a private investigator and I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I work mostly criminal defense.

I have spent a lot of time in McCurtain County.

I would go to the library every time I’d go down to McCurtain,

and I would read the newspaper,

and one day, I pick up a copy of the paper

and it’s this big spread of an evidence locker

in total disarray,

a series of firings that occurred,

and then, of course, the reported affair

between Kevin Clardy and Alicia Manning.

I read that story and it... it just blew my mind.

Incredibly ballsy.

This very small-town newspaper

is going really hard against the sheriff,

which you don’t see at rural newspapers

in Oklahoma at least.

Nobody goes against the powers that be in the area

because they can make life very difficult for you.

The administration under Kevin Clardy

may be the most corrupt law enforcement agency

I’ve witnessed in Oklahoma. Maybe period.

It’s the kind of place where if you make enemies

with someone in the sheriff’s office,

you know, you probably shouldn’t drive home at night.

[siren wailing]

- Bruce: By the time the second big thing happened... - [indistinct radio chatter]

...which was the Bobby Barrick case,

that’s when we had just a full-blown break.

The sheriff’s office would not tell us anything.

They would not give us anything.

Erin: We are getting a clearer picture

of what led to Bobby Barrick’s arrest in McCurtain County.

Barrick died in a hospital several days later,

and his family has since filed

a two million dollar wrongful death lawsuit.

Bobby: Please, don’t. Don’t kill me.

There were people alleged he tried to break into a store.

Chris: He had some kind of medical

or drug-related episode in Eagletown.

He was hog-tied by locals.

Deputy: Well, this is interesting.

Bruce: We wanted to see the bodycam footage.

They refused.

We wanted the initial crime report.

They refused.

We made a formal Open Records Act request for ’em.

They would not give us anything.

Erin: Open Records were repeatedly denied

by the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office.

Bruce: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

said we’re gonna have to file a lawsuit if we’re gonna get ’em.

- And they did. - Deputy on bodycam: Turn around.

- Bobby, turn around. - Bobby: Please, ma’am, record that, please.

Deputy: You’re being recorded. Turn around. Bruce: And when we got

what bodycam footage there was, we saw why.

Deputy: Hey, Bobby. Hey, turn your feet around. Bobby: Help me!

Bruce: He was begging for his life. Bobby: Help me, ma’am.

Bruce: He was saying they were gonna kill him.

Bobby: They’re gonna kill me. I am! I am! Deputy: Turn your feet around.

Bobby: My hands are behind my back.

Chris: I was told they tasered him multiple times,

and then he flatlined and never recovered after that.

I wanted the serial number of the taser.

When-- You know, where it was purchased from,

where that officer had received training, and just black out.

I mean, they gave us nothing.

They wouldn’t even tell me he was dead. Bobby: Help! Help!

Chris: They just wouldn’t talk to me. Bobby: They’re murdering me!

Bobby: Help!

They’re killing me!

We learned the guy who had done the tasing

had told the other deputies to turn off their body cams.

We actually ran a picture in the paper of him

being hogtied on the ground.

And they refused to let us look at their reports after that.

Chris: And that was pretty much it.

Nobody would really talk to me anymore.

They started locking the door,

and the sheriff’s department said,

"There’s no reason for you to come here anymore.

We’ll just email you the reports."

Bruce: Officers were telling us

that Alicia was spending a great deal of her time

trying to retaliate against Chris

because they knew that we were getting information

from somebody in the department somehow.

[buzzer sounds]

John: Alicia. She was tough.

She was tough.

I didn’t know who went to the paper.

I didn’t care who went to the paper.

They hired Alicia Manning’s brother, Mike Manning.

More control.

People they can trust.

So I wrote a story about that.

There was a lot, a lot of controversy about that.

You know, you got the Mannings in there now.

They all felt like, "Oh, he’s got the Mannings.

That’s his downfall."

Joshua: It was very tit for tat, back and forth

from one story to the next.

It was an escalation.

Withholding crime reports, spreading rumors.

They wrote straight stories on ’em, you know.

They just didn’t like ’em.

And at the same time, we began getting more allegations

of violence against inmates in the jail.

People being held, beaten, and released,

but there not being any charges.

Curtis: Kevin Clardy was able to convince

the county commissioners

to allow Larry Hendrix to be the jail administrator.

I thought Larry was brown-nosing quite a bit.

Chris: Larry is hired as jail administrator.

Within weeks,

we have the largest jailbreak in county history.

Four felons break out of the county jail

through the ceiling.

The county’s pretty much locked down.

It was a complete madhouse.

Reporter: The sheriff’s office says a jailer has been arrested

for helping with the escape.

No matter how insignificant you may think it is,

please contact us. We’re tracking down any and all leads.

Reporter: If you see any of them, call 911

or the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office.

Chris: Around the same time as the jailbreak,

Alyssa Walker-Donaldson,

who was a former Miss McCurtain County,

she went missing.

There was a large community effort to try to find her

and seemingly zero effort by the sheriff’s department.

Curtis: We have a ridiculous amount of missing persons cases

here in McCurtain County.

It’s such a rural area.

I mean, someone could be 20 feet into that woodline right there

and you’d never know.

Madison: Growing up in McCurtain County...

...my dad and my mom made it a lot of fun.

Those are, like, the innocent years.

And then you get old enough to realize how truly...

...just wicked it is here.

My dad went missing my junior year.

We filed a missing persons report.

Kevin Clardy handed my dad’s case off to somebody else

as quickly as he could.

My best friend, Alyssa,

she kept me sane after losing my dad.

I always told her she just felt like sunshine.

She was the first African-American

to win Miss McCurtain County.

Host: Your Miss McCurtain County for this year.

[audience cheering]

Madison: And she wore that title so well.

But some people in the town

were kind of ugly to her over that

because she won

and somebody’s white daughter didn’t.

Craig: All righty.

You know, in most small areas, there’s always a line.

In Idabel, it’s a railroad track.

The west side is predominant Black.

The east side is predominant white.

I just do believe that in some cases,

that some lives don’t matter as much as some lives matter.

That make sense?

Alyssa was last seen at a business in Hochatown.

Supposedly.

Hochatown is a local tourism area.

And there’s this big lake.

Broken Bow Lake.

Alyssa went missing on the 5th of February.

She was going to Hochatown

to have some drinks with people who had been her friends

since high school.

People that we trusted.

From what I saw on the footage, she left in her car.

Chris: And...

...just gone.

The sheriff’s department didn’t seem to be doing

anything about it at all.

A business owner, here in Hochatown,

called me one morning and he said,

"Chris, I’ve got a 150 people in my parking lot right now

and they wanna go look for Alyssa Donaldson,

but they don’t know which direction to go in,

where to start."

I said, "Well, have you called the sheriff’s department?"

He said, "Yeah, multiple times. There’s no deputy out here.

Where’s the sheriff?"

It had been several days.

A local citizen rented a plane and saw her car underwater.

Madison: I don’t remember Clardy showing up

until her car was found.

I just immediately picked up on the fact

that something wasn’t right with this man.

Man: So Mr. Clardy’s doing everything in his power.

We know where the car is. I seen it with my own eyes.

The car is out there in the water.

Reporter: The search for a missing young woman

in McCurtain County unfortunately ends tragically.

Reporter 2: Oklahoma Highway Patrol dive team recovered

her vehicle with her body still inside.

There was a lot of concern by the community

of people that thought that was a murder,

and the law enforcement claimed it was an accident.

Madison: The narrative that was pushed

by the sheriff’s department was that Alyssa was so drunk,

she drove herself into the water that night.

He just said, "when her car was pulled out of the water,

there are no signs of foul play,"

and that was before an autopsy had been performed.

Kevin: Shortly after 11, 11:30 at night, uh,

she backed out and then went in a northern direction.

Uh, at that, at, at that point, we lost...

We couldn’t make the vehicle. There was no other vehicles,

- on the road, at that time... - Bruce: There had been a video

of a TV station in which many law enforcement officers

who saw it, told us,

"The sheriff is tweaking. The sheriff is on meth.

We know what it looks like. He’s on meth."

We searched through

many hours of, of video.

We did not find this vehicle leaving.

Uh, at that point in time, we had, uh,

a drone trying to fly and see, see along the roadways.

Uh, and three airplanes...

Chris: I received information that the sheriff

had a previous history with methamphetamine.

Kevin: ...observed what they thought possibly...

Well, they have to take random drug tests.

The whole department does.

At that point, we told the county commissioners,

"Seem to be having a lot of problems with the sheriff.

We have this tip that he’s on meth.

I bet if you just forced him to take a drug test,

if he is on meth, he’s probably going to quit,

he’s not gonna take it."

Bruce: The head of the board of county commissioners

came back and said that, "The sheriff will be drug tested

if Chris will be drug tested." And I’m like,

"Chris? What’s he got to do? What’s he got to do with it?"

It’s a literal pissing contest. You know?

I said, "I’m not going to do that.

I’m a private citizen.

He’s a public official that’s sworn an oath."

Bruce: Naive me, I thought,

"Oh, they want a Gazette employee.

They want to drug test a Gazette employee."

And I thought, well, I run the place. [laughs]

Let ’em drug test me. That’ll be fine.

He said, "No, it’s got to be Chris."

And I said, "Why does it have to be Chris? Why? What?

He, he doesn’t work for you guys."

The sheriff said, "Well, I’ll tell you what,

I’ll take it anyway."

They had their entire sheriff’s department down there.

One of them was tapping a gun standing behind me.

Chris: He stood on a chair in that meeting,

above everyone else, and read a statement,

rather loudly, about my harassment

of law enforcement had to stop,

and they were not going to just bend to our every whim.

And he just said, "This all stops.

We’re not going to be harassed by the newspaper anymore."

John: What’s factual?

Kevin showed up, took a drug test,

and it became negative.

So he ain’t on dope.

Or at least he wasn’t or got clean or whatever.

Chris: He turned down the hair follicle test,

which goes back six months,

versus a urinalysis with meth would go back four days.

[printing press machine]

John: One after another, after another.

You know, what is it? What is it?

What’s really going on?

Are they pissed because they think the sheriff

and the captain’s sleeping together?

Who cares?

Their jobs still being done.

Gwen: When Christopher and Bruce started looking into it,

I had concerns.

I didn’t realize how much my concern should be.

But, of course, you know,

I’m always concerned for their safety.

We’ve had things we’ve covered before,

and usually you get threatened to be sued.

But, you know, this is escalated

way beyond those things.

Jones: Kevin was a really good boss

for his first term.

And I think Kevin got manipulated.

And at some point it was just too far to go back.

I’m John Jones.

Previously, I worked

for the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office.

But we want it to be the right way...

There was some department meetings,

and they made it very clear that

anyone who talks to the newspaper would be fired.

They felt like their laundry was getting aired

and they didn’t like that.

One point, Alicia, she told me that she was going to write

search warrants for everybody’s phones

to find out who was talking to the newspaper.

Curtis: Alicia was chomping at the bit

to start anything she could to discredit Chris.

And then all of a sudden, one day Alicia Manning

is hot and bothered about this Ian Highful case.

Joshua: Ian Highful was already known at that point

as a likely pedophile.

There had been rumors and accusations.

Reporter: Well, it’s a case in the works for years,

charges finally being brought against former Broken Bow

and Eagletown school teacher, Ian Highful.

Alicia investigated it, the DA filed it,

and they went to Texas and brought him back,

took him to court, and he was found guilty.

Judge: 25 years in jail.

Reporter: A former Oklahoma high school teacher

is headed to prison after pleading guilty

to multiple child sex crimes.

Bruce: It was gut wrenching.

I mean, these were teenage guys

and it, it, it was really heavy

and some, some of the jurors cried.

You know. Uh.

Terrible, terrible stuff.

Alicia: There are other victims that

we have not interviewed.

They’re just people... It’s just something they really don’t want to talk about.

I really just want it to go away.

And it’s not gonna go away.

Bruce: At the time that they’re arresting

Ian Highful for the stuff that he had done,

Alicia started saying,

"Well, this was a pedophile ring,

and there’s a prominent person involved,

we believe, and we think we’re gonna get that person pretty soon."

I believe that this is the beginning of something much larger.

I believe there are more people involved.

[phone ringing]

Chris: On October 6th of 2022, I got a call from a source

and they told me that Alicia is trying to associate you

with this pedophile case.

You need to understand what she’s saying about you.

She said, Bryan Nicholson, Brad Porton, Ian Highful,

who are all three convicted pedophiles,

that I was one of them

and that there was this pedophile ring in McCurtain County of...

well-known hot, high-up people

that were running this big pedophile ring and she was gonna bust it open.

I mean just absurd stuff.

But when it comes from law enforcement

and it comes from the sexual assault investigator,

people believe it.

She wasn’t going out in public herself and saying this stuff.

She was just saying it to the officers that she was the supervisor of, right?

And some of them would go out and tell other people.

And the next thing you know, it’s on social media, right?

This guy’s a pedophile and the newspaper is covering up for him.

Gwen: They knew when they said those things

that it would shake him to the core.

People who spread rumors like that have,

evil in their heart.

Chris: I think it changed my personality.

I, I just can’t describe it. I mean, it.. .

Going out in the community, I, I think I started to become

more of a recluse. I, I didn’t...

Other than going to work, I, I just didn’t want to go out

in public anymore.

Angie: We had friends that we’d had a long time who said,

"We believe you, but,

we just can’t be seen in public with you. You get it, right?"

Chris: It severely affected my mental health.

I wasn’t sleeping,

I began having suicidal thoughts.

Yeah, I talked him out of it one day.

We were having lunch, you know, and he, uh,

he just said he’d taken about all he could take.

And, uh,

that he was really thinking seriously about it.

And I said, "You can’t do it."

You’ll be an absolute coward if you kill yourself.

You’ve got two sons

and you’ve got a wife that loves you,

and you can’t do that to them.

You’re gonna have to man up,

and I’ll help you every and any way I can to fight it.

People need to know what these people are

and what they’re doing.

We have got to get that out.

And we-- And if it takes lawyers to do it,

it takes lawyers to do it. Makes no difference.

We’ll do it that way.

Angie: At that point, we filed a lawsuit against

Alicia and the sheriff’s department for slander.

Bruce: We thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse.

It did.

An officer from another county

said, your sheriff’s department is up in Oklahoma City

trying to get a forensic interview on Chris’ sons.

A lot of people don’t know about forensic interviews.

It’s the first step toward

trying to take somebody’s kids away from ’em.

When they start getting the grandkids in it,

that was the breaking point for me.

I said, this is evil.

This was evil.

And I said, "We have to stand up to ’em.

We have to go after ’em."

That’s when I take off the gloves.

I was aware for some time

that sheriff’s office was going

into the county commissioner meetings after the news media left.

Which is illegal.

And it occurred to me,

you know, this might be the opportunity if I could get proof,

maybe they could actually do something, right?

The way the law is, if you’ve got two of those

county commissioners there and they’re talking county business,

it doesn’t matter what time they say that meeting is over,

that meeting is continuing.

And so I talked to the lawyer and I said,

here’s what I wanted to do.

I need to know if there’s a legal way to do it.

And, uh, I come across this pen.

It says 15 hours recording time

and it’s voice-activated.

Oh, that’s pretty neat.

The county commissioners have a coffee cup full of pens on their counter.

So I put it in there,

went home and listened to it that night,

and nearly fell out of my chair.

And Gwen was already asleep because I, I knew it was going to be long.

It was ten or eleven o’clock.

I just turned it on and stuck it in the thing.

Had no idea if it worked. I, I hadn’t tested it.

Alicia was there.

Sheriff Clardy, Larry Hendrix,

and Mark Jennings, County Commissioner.

Bruce: You know the vast majority of it

was just, uh, routine stuff.

Bruce: You know, a little flir-- flirtation kind of stuff.

But, um...

there was, there was some pretty disturbing stuff on there.

Bruce: I’ve been covering commissioner’s meetings for decades,

I’ve never heard anything like that.

It was, uh, pretty appalling.

Near the end, they were talking about us.

Chris: My dad called and he said,

"How much life insurance do you have?"

I, I think half a million. I don’t know.

"Well, get another $250,000.

You know, you’re, you’re 40 and you’re healthy. Do it today."

And I said, "What’s on the tape?"

And he said, "I’m not going to tell you."

And I said, "What’s on the tape?"

I knew they didn’t like us.

I had no idea they would talk about killing us.

Chris: It was so shocking, appalling

and we knew no one would believe us.

’Cause if I write this, they’re gonna say that’s a lie.

So we knew we had to release the audio somehow with this story.

Angie: But, we were in a bind.

You know, none of us at the newspaper

are very technologically savvy.

Erin: At the time, the McCurtain Gazette

had zero online presence whatsoever.

It was simply a newspaper

that only the people of McCurtain County were reading.

They had no Facebook presence.

They had no website.

That became an issue.

My name is Erin Christy.

I am a news anchor and reporter in Tulsa, Oklahoma

for KJRH channel 2.

I received a news tip one day.

I thought it sounded outrageous.

Flagrant racism.

Potentially plotting to kill journalists.

So I try to call the McCurtain Gazette.

That’s when Chris Willingham indicated to me

this was a culmination of efforts.

And he said, "I have a Google drive,

and I’m just going to send you all of the articles." And I’m thinking,

"That’s the only place I can find these articles?"

I-- I couldn’t get over that.

Joshua: Once the Willinghams’ defamation lawsuit started,

I started doing some work for them.

Advised them on the basics of how best to,

you know, protect yourself while doing your job.

I mean, really, to me, it was like,

"Get the fuck out of there immediately"

was, you know, was the top suggestion.

It had suddenly become like this immediately dangerous situation.

Extremely unpredictable.

How do I protect myself?

What kind of security system should I get?

What kind of dash cam should I get?

I suggested he put an AirTag in his shoe.

Bruce: I mean, we started locking doors, you know,

that we don’t normally lock.

I sort of wrote a farewell editorial.

Put a part in there saying, "I want you to know,

if you kill my son,

you’re gonna have a lot worse adversary with me."

Because if you kill me, he’s going to move.

Gwen will probably sell the paper,

and you’ll get what you want.

But if you kill him, I’m coming after you.

Chris: Angie came up with the idea of putting a QR code on the front page

that would link to the audio so people could hear it for themselves.

[rattling]

Bennie: I don’t really know that much about it.

Just what I read in the paper while I’m printing it.

Talking about killing people and junk like that.

They sounded serious.

I knew it had the potential for being

a massive statewide story.

I don’t think anyone could have anticipated

it taking off the way it did.

County officials discuss killing comma burying reporters.

By Monday, it was a national news story.

Across the nation, people are outraged

over an audio recording.

The conversation that’s now been exposed,

allegedly captures several county level officials making...

Racist remarks, including comments about.

Lynching black people and killing journalists.

It was quite an avalanche of media interest.

We’re gonna play a snippet of the recording.

Reporter: A warning though, the language here is disturbing.

And here we go. Here it is.

Mark: Take a damn black guy, whoop their ass and throw ’em in the cell.

I know. Take ’em downhill on Mud Creek

and hang ’em up with a damn rope.

Holy shit.

I know two or three hitmen, they’re very quiet guys.

"They would cut no bleeping mercy."

I never imagined that the story

would go beyond McCurtain County.

The journalists they’re talking about are the father and the son,

who are the publisher and the reporter

of this newspaper, the McCurtain Gazette-News.

The William, the William.

Willingham, excuse me. Willingham family.

Spencer: Voices continuing to join the cause

for those McCurtain County leaders caught on that audio to step down.

Lonnie: I mean, everybody was buying that paper.

So me and my wife sitting here and we listened to the audio.

That’s when I really started getting sick to my stomach

and somebody had to speak up on it.

My name is Lonnie Watson.

I am a retired correctional officer.

You talk about a

little small towns where everybody knows each other.

Somebody’s gonna know me.

We started showing up at the commissioners meetings

with our picket signs,

our protest signs, and we wanted our voice to be heard.

There’s been a lot of cover-up around here.

That’s all they do is cover up.

And we, we are tired of it.

They need to resign. We want their resignation.

Craig: My phone started ringing and ringing.

Citizens of the city started calling me and saying,

"What are we going to do about this racist group

of folks in this county?"

Folks was frightened.

I mean, what would you expect?

So, I called the governor.

Reporter: Oklahoma governor, Kevin Stitt, has called

on all four to resign.

The mayor of Idabel has done so as well.

Craig: I asked the county commissioner to resign.

He called me two days later and he said,

"I’m gonna do just what you asked me to do.

In the morning at 9 a.m.

I’ll be at the courthouse to resign."

Chris: I mean, there was no doubt in our minds.

They’re gonna resign Monday morning,

and we just celebrated and thought it’s over.

There’ll be a new sheriff.

There’ll be a new county commissioner.

Erin: The series of events that have taken place this week

involving the McCurtain Gazette and those audio recordings

that we’ve talked about so much this week.

They were protesting outside of the county commissioners’ office,

but the signs that they were holding up

weren’t just about Chris and Bruce Willingham.

Madison Peavy hopes this revelation

will lead to authorities investigating more cases

including her missing father

and mysterious death of her friend.

And I’m beyond thrilled to see that this is finally

coming to the surface because this has been a long time coming.

I did feel a little hopeful.

Maybe, maybe this is gonna get out.

The governor responded by asking for those involved to resign.

Mark Jennings, a commissioner, resigned a few days later.

But the others did not.

Spencer: Tensions running high here in Idabel.

Sheriff Clardy, why will you not resign?

Excuse me.

Please don’t touch me.

Sheriff Clardy, why will you not step down?

Do you have anything to say to the governor?

Do you disagree that you should step down?

Sheriff Clardy, why will you not step down?

My name is Adam Yamaguchi with CBS News.

I’m Gary Tuchman with CNN.

- There’s been a lot that’s said about the sheriff’s department. - Yeah.

Do you admit that that was your voice on these tapes?

All the attorneys are saying, "Hey, no comment."

I’ve been told to make no comment.

Do you feel bad about what happened?

Do you feel bad about the things that were said?

I’ve been instructed to make no comments.

Kevin: I haven’t personally talked to the sheriff,

but we’re looking at all legal, legal avenues

uh, for impeachment, and I know my general counsel

is working on that.

Erin: Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond states

there is no provision of law in Oklahoma

to throw elected officials out of office

merely for saying something offensive.

Drummond has said, "Being racist isn’t a crime."

In Idabel, Erin Christy, 2 News Oklahoma.

Crickets. I mean, really.

They got the attention, but they didn’t get results.

John: There was no charges filed on Kevin.

They were joking. Yeah, they were joking.

They ain’t, they ain’t burying nobody.

These people ain’t burying nobody.

My opinion about that was a lot of nonsense

being talked on there.

They were talking about things they didn’t know nothing about,

and they were just having a...

BS conference in there.

The part about the hitman,

the police thought that was a lark.

Angie: The sheriff’s department

said that they were very sorry to have to address this,

but there was a recording that was illegally made,

and they believe it didn’t precisely match

the transcript that was provided.

Reporter: The post also says, "Many of these recordings

have yet to be duly authenticated or validated."

Angie: Just nonsense.

Joshua: It became pretty clear

that Clardy was going to double down.

So now what happens?

Is he really going to get away with this?

Attorney General Gentner Drummond

came out and said.

Thank you for being here.

Erin: These are reprehensible comments but they’re not illegal.

There’s not going to be any investigation.

I thought, "Did he hear the whole recording?"

Did anybody at the Attorney General’s office

listen to the whole recording?

I think for Drummond, it would be a political move

that’s calculated.

I’m here to announce that I am running for governor

of the great state of Oklahoma.

Joshua: He’s got bigger political ambitions down the road.

I mean, that’s the way that people do business in McCurtain County.

This backroom-dealing, good old boy system.

[mouse clicks]

Chris: I mean, three years at this point,

we’ve been writing stories about him

doing terrible things and nothing’s come of it.

Sheriff Clardy is, uh, running for re-election this year.

[mouse clicks]

If he survives the primary...

...he has a good chance of winning.

Man: You don’t have to go out there and commit adultery.

You don’t have to go out there and be hooked on drugs.

God came to set you free.

You can laugh all you want. God is not mocked.

I pray for your salvation.

I pray that you make it home safe.

I pray that your judgment day is not today.

Reporter: In downtown Idabel, a city park

that’s usually pretty clear of people

was filled with hundreds of people

all looking up at the sun,

ready to see the total solar eclipse.

Craig: We love tourism here. We love it here.

But who wanna come to a county

where folks don’t feel like they’re protected.

Jones: We don’t wanna be known

as the county with the racist sheriff

that wants to kill reporters and hang black guys from trees.

Like, that’s not who we are.

Chris: A lot of people here, they felt like

I’ve brought all this negative attention to the county

by these stories that I’m writing,

and I should just stop doing that.

Lonnie: I love this county,

but I’d compare it to an onion.

You know, our county has layers and layers and layers of stuff.

We just bury it and bury it and just hope it goes away.

It’s not going away.

[crowd cheering]

Woman: Oh, my God!

[cell phone ringing]

That’s a "call the editor" thing we do.

[telephone ringing]

Woman 1: Hi, I was just wondering if this newspaper

would be able to run an update?

Man 1: Yes, I have a sports question.

Woman 2: He’s gotten away with this twice,

and I just don’t think that’s right.

- Woman 3: Thank you. - Woman 4: Thank you.

Man 2: Thank you very much.

Tommie: There was a lot of arguing back and forth

about who was telling the truth.

So people that were already upset with us,

they just doubled down.

It’s very clannish.

She called four times.

Okay. [laughs]

Taylor: I mean, you know how people are with law enforcement.

Law enforcement’s the way,

and anybody who bucks that system,

they’re a problem. That’s how it was here.

Like, we were a problem.

I mean, they’re talking about killing two reporters,

and they’d be the ones investigating it.

It’s terrifying because that stuff...

It’s easy to make that stuff happen.

Tonya: It was pretty tense. We got threats.

We put in new camera systems.

The sheriff’s son, um, threatened us.

Tommie: People around here escalate.

So if they say something,

then they feel like they have to back it up.

And it does not end well for anybody.

[keyboard clacking]

[clicks]

Curtis: I do remember rumors

being started about Chris Willingham being a pedophile.

There’s no way.

Chris had started suing the sheriff’s office,

the sheriff and Alicia, over slander.

John: I think the paper started writing these articles

about the sheriff’s office because of the Ian Highful case.

And I think that they believed that

the sheriff’s office was investigating Chris Willingham.

I believe that’s... That was the whole thing about it.

I was told that a victim came forward

and an investigation was being conducted,

and that’s all I know about it.

Chris: This guy I’ve never met came out of the woodwork.

Through a source, I’d received some audio.

We had planned to depose him in our case.

And I’ve never met this guy.

He’s got about three different aliases.

Griswold was a social media persona.

Instead of going for the deposition,

he went and talked to Alicia Manning

and he talked to Kevin Clardy.

- [clicks] - [tape whirring]

Chuck: I’m not entirely sure how Manning and Clardy

came to interview Farley Griswold.

My advice would have been, "Do not touch it at all.

You’ve got to refer that out."

The fact that they have an ongoing conflict

with the newspaper is bothersome.

That’s the problem.

My name is Chuck Sullivan.

I’m the retired district attorney for District 18 that

covered Pittsburgh and Haskell counties in Oklahoma.

I had previously prosecuted Ian Highful

and gotten a resolution on that case.

So when this case came forward

with the, uh, Farley Griswold accusations

against Chris Willingham,

it was sent back to me.

Particularly when I started on the Highful case,

there seemed to be a lot of mistrust

on the law enforcement side of the Gazette.

Alicia Manning mentioned it to me as well.

I know she had strong feelings against the Gazette.

I know the Gazette had really negatively affected her life.

Chuck: Well, she... she appears to be giving him legal advice.

Telling him...

"Don’t talk to anyone unless I tell you you can."

That’s...

A... A lawyer would tell his client that.

But typically, an investigator wouldn’t.

- [clicks] - [tape whirring]

Chuck: So in reviewing the case,

I looked at the reports

and I listened to the interviews.

I learned Farley Griswold spoke to the OSBI first.

Here in Oklahoma, that’s the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

He told OSBI that it did not happen,

and he told Manning that it did.

The state’s burden is proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Well, here comes your reasonable doubt.

"I said it’s true, I said it’s not true.

I said it’s true, I said it’s not true."

Well, you can’t believe either one,

and you’re only left to wonder.

Um, the alleged victim,

my personal belief

is he’s certainly been affected by something.

And I would hope that he can find help,

that he can find some closure to whatever that is.

Um, but... you know,

I, uh... As far as,

"Do I have a consistent story or do I have conflicting?"

And... and I found conflicting evidence.

And so based on that, I decided not to--

I declined to file the case.

Chris: This came out of nowhere.

Came out of nowhere.

I don’t know this person. I’ve never met this person.

And he’s on audio for an hour-and-a-half

talking about all this.

Erin: Sheriff Clardy in a recent Facebook post

urged the media to publicize egregious allegations

about Willingham.

Just happened to be two weeks

before Kevin’s re-election to sheriff,

and he’s begging the public to come look at this report

that he includes my name in.

"All you have to do is come submit an Open Records Act

to the sheriff’s department, and I’ll give you this report."

Farley Griswold abandoned his business,

just fled town with his wife, and hasn’t been seen since.

Nobody’s been able to track him down for over a year.

He’s just in the wind.

We have been an open book about everything from the beginning,

and my story has stayed consistent

because it’s not a story, it’s the truth.

And their story has changed a hundred times.

Tawsha: I just thought it was a bunch of BS that

anyone was spreading rumors about

Chris Willingham being friends with Ian Highful or Brad Porton.

Because I knew them all three, like, well.

The three of them never hung out with one another.

You know, uh...

There wasn’t any connection between ’em.

Taylor: You know how rumors go. People wanna believe them.

They want to believe rumors.

No, I mean, I’ve... I’ve known the guy forever.

It was... it was ridiculous.

You can’t escape some of those allegations.

I mean, even if they’re just allegations,

they’re out there and people, they’ll always be out there.

Tawsha: It’s horrible.

I mean, you can’t live in a little town like this

when there’s one store to go to and one grocery store

and people staring at you.

They had to leave town.

Well, I mean, that’s just how it is.

That’s just how it’s gonna be. I mean, that’s just...

If you’d grew up here, you’d know. [chuckles]

- [clicks] - [tape whirring]

[indistinct conversation]

[slow piano music]

Gwen: Bruce.

D-Don’t waste the film.

Man: And a nice shirt.

Gwen: What do you think, Christopher?

[choral singing]

Chris: I love Idabel.

- But I don’t feel safe here. - Gwen: Christopher!

Chris: I don’t want my children to grow up here anymore.

I did for a long time.

Announcer: He is the son of Bruce and Gwen Willingham.

Chris: In many ways, I feel betrayed

by the place I grew up in.

[choral singing continues]

Angie: It took us a couple of months to work up the courage

to tell Bruce and Gwen that we were leaving.

And it was something that we really grappled with.

Bruce: Gotten to the point it was, uh,

terrible for the whole family

and had to do something else.

[music stops]

[audience clapping]

[indistinct chatter]

[indistinct conversation]

Chris: After the tapes came out,

we moved to Tulsa for my family’s safety.

What do y’all wanna ride? What do you wanna ride?

- Boys: Gravitron! - Okay.

Gwen: This is my stress reliever.

You can pull weeds and shake and nobody yells at ya.

[both chuckle]

Gwen: Used to be a lot of games in this backyard with the boys,

- Slip ’N Slide and a little T-ball. - Bruce: Mm-hmm.

Gwen: You know, we miss that a lot.

Thanksgiving, him, Angie and the boys came down

and it was nice to have family back in the house.

They’re just coming to our house. It’s no big deal.

He was a little concerned about being out in public, so.

Gwen: We usually don’t go out to eat.

We usually bring something in and just have family time.

Bruce: I mean, we hated to see him go, but we understood.

Gwen: It was really starting to hurt the boys.

Bruce: I think it’s important that they understand

that their parents were extremely strong

and stood up to it as long as they could.

They didn’t do anything wrong.

All they did was do their job,

and for that, you had some people

that tried to destroy them.

Yup. Just another day in Idabel, Oklahoma.

You know.

It’s kind of funny about elections

because not a lot of people show up to vote.

Reporter 1: Today is election day in Oklahoma.

Reporter 2: Folks across Oklahoma lined up and cast their ballots

in today’s party primary election.

Now, the race getting the most attention

is for McCurtain County Sheriff. After a year of controversy

surrounding the McCurtain County Sheriff...

Bruce: If he makes it against the Democrat in the fall,

he’s gonna win

because so many people will vote straight-ticket Republican.

They voted 83% for Trump last time here.

But are they voting early pretty well?

Woman: Uh, yeah, 229.

Bruce: Yeah. That’s pretty good for a... for a primary.

- Yeah. - Woman: I think so. I think it is.

They get the election results within, what,

hour-and-a-half? Two hours?

Woman: Yeah. Bruce: No hanging chads or anything like that.

- [grunts] Yeah. - [car door closes]

The sheriff has had to do kind of a weird campaign

because there’s so many questions.

He says, "You have to talk to my attorney."

[laughs] You know, that’s...

I think he’s not sure what he’s allowed to say

and what he’s not allowed to say.

[intriguing music]

Lonnie: He’s got a lot of family in this county,

so family’s gonna support family.

And then you got supporters that [scoffs] just

Some people believe in what he does.

And some people don’t think there’s anything wrong

with what he did and what he said.

John: I had a sign

in my front yard, "Re-elect Kevin Clardy."

And then I was told, "John, man, Mowrer,

you should’ve never done that."

"Why?"

"It’s because now you’re a target.

Everybody knows you support Kevin Clardy."

I said, "Well, I work for the man. He commissioned me."

You know, he was fair to me.

He was a good dude from what I seen.

For some reason, they believed the tapes,

they believed that...

you know, the stuff the paper was printing.

You know, they, they, they bought into it.

They said that one got a little heated.

- That one got spicy, yeah. - Um...

Yeah, that’s what everybody said. I’m like,

"Oh, of course, the part that I couldn’t watch

was the part that got good."

- But... - [machine buzzing]

Bruce: Yeah, we’ll know tonight. [sighs]

Barber: I know.

Bruce: We’ll know tonight.

I’m not arrogant enough to think I need to tell you how to vote.

Right?

And, uh...

they will do what they do.

[line ringing]

Election board. This is Stephanie.

- [line ringing] - Stephanie: All right. How are you?

[indistinct chatter]

Man: How are you?

Lonnie: We said a year ago, "This is not going away."

And even leading up to this election,

even if he wins, it’s still not gonna go away.

Bruce: We’ve got 16 precincts out of 30 in.

I’m sure we’ll get a lot of phone calls tomorrow.

How’d it go?

Woman: Slow.

Bruce: We’ve said all along, we believe in the, uh,

common sense of the local people.

Six precincts left.

Gwen: Gotta pray.

Bruce: It’s, uh, eight o’clock

and it’s probably over in half an hour.

There it is. Last one just came in.

And...

[laughs in relief]

[Gwen chuckles]

- [crickets chirping] - [enigmatic music]

Reporter 1: Well, the governor had already requested

that McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy resign,

which he didn’t do,

and now he’s been voted out of office.

Reporter 2: Clardy came in last in tonight’s contest.

Reporter 3: No matter what, come November,

McCurtain County will be electing a new sheriff.

Curtis: His world crumbled...

during that primary election.

And he deserves it.

No one wanted to be affiliated with him after that.

I remember something that used to be said back in the day.

"Don’t ever make the Willinghams mad.

They’ll look into you and they’re good at it."

And they are.

[cell phone ringing]

Bruce: And that’s Christopher.

Hello? Well, what do you think?

Chris: I never saw it going that way.

- Bruce: I didn’t either. - Chris: Kids are running around

- cheering and screaming, I mean... - [Bruce laughs]

An incumbent only getting 18% of the vote

is pretty weak, isn’t it?

Chris: An embarrassment, yes.

Bruce: Yeah. That’s what I would say, too. [chuckles]

So, end of an era, right?

- Chris: Yeah, right. - Bruce: Yeah. I’m putting in stuff

we’ve never carried before and making a series out of it.

Okay, send me a pic... send me a picture, huh?

Chris: They’ll probably push back.

Bruce: Oh, they’ll... Oh, they’ll go nuts. You know they will.

Christopher and I talk three or four times a day.

He doesn’t still work for the paper,

but I still talk to him a lot.

Here’s the picture...

[laughs heartily]

...uh, which we’ll run today.

Okay. This is "First of a series."

For some, it’s the end of an era.

For others, it’s a crucial step

toward ending a nightmare

and a national embarrassment for the county.

But it isn’t quite over yet.

There’s still more than six months to go

before Sheriff Kevin Clardy,

now humiliated by Republicans in his re-election bid,

leaves office early next year.

Okay.

Yes, sir?

Chris: Okay. Uh, she’s been married four times.

All four have been in trouble with the law.

Two of them are felons.

Oh, wait a minute. Oh, yeah. That’s different.

Four times.

Alicia Manning had a married name

she used on legal documents.

"Alicia Harrison."

But perhaps she avoided that last name

because then people might learn her husband

had been convicted of manslaughter.

Not a good look for a law enforcement officer.

But more than that, her current husband was her fourth,

and two of the four were felons.

Also not a good look for a law enforcement officer,

but for some reason, Clardy didn’t care.

They’ll be furious. [scoffs]

[laughs] Alicia will be furious.

John: I believe the people in McCurtain County was misled.

I think the McCurtain County Gazette

had a lot to do with misleading the people.

Sometimes I just wish

McCurtain County would burn to the ground.

I mean, really.

Jackson, you want a treat? Come on.

I mean, it’s sad to say that. I hate to say that,

but sometimes things need a rebirthing.

You know, I talk to Kevin often.

We shoot the shit.

I think Kevin was given a raw deal. [smacks lips]

You know, I really do. I think Alicia

busted her ass

and she was done wrong. I really do. I mean...

they wanted Kevin out of office

and it showed that on the election.

You know, he was voted out.

Curtis: I haven’t seen Clardy in public,

but I’ve heard that he wants to fight me.

So I’ve been looking for him to oblige him.

I watch for him everywhere I go.

Chris: After the election,

Kevin and Alicia just didn’t show back up to work.

Alicia said she’s opening a... a restaurant

and a table of prayer.

Kevin’s working for his brother at Hilltop Lumber in Idabel.

Angie: And what have we accomplished?

Sure, Kevin and... and Alicia are out of office

but it cost us everything.

And people still tell these awful, horrible stories

about Chris and I see what it does to him.

I thought that what we did made a difference,

and it was pretty shocking to feel all that vitriol

and be so hated

when... all I felt was so much love for this place.

I just wish it... still loved us.

Craig: Sometime, I tell folks this all the time.

This is one thing I tell folks about living in a small city

when I’m out talking to ’em.

Success is hell.

Joints look pretty good.

Craig: Once you start with a negative rumor,

folks will take it with ’em to their grave.

I mean, it’s really weird

if he was this kind of person. Chris, and those rumors,

why he was never arrested for it?

So, guess what?

The sheriff failed the citizens again.

Johnny: With the new sheriff,

a lot of things now are like water under the bridge.

People like that there’s not any controversy going on.

They like that there’s peace.

[gentle music]

I still see McCurtain Gazette being delivered.

And I think with any news source, I mean,

people are human that write those things.

It’s not like it’s the Bible.

But I like local newspapers, I do. That’s just me.

Of course I’m old school. I’m a 100 years old,

so I like those sort of things. So I... I grew up like that.

So I like... I like, uh, local papers.

Lonnie: My mom’s obituary was in the paper. My dad’s obituary.

My little brother’s obituary.

You know, and, of course,

some of the stuff we’ve been doing,

you know, they’ve been really good

with getting the news out there.

And, uh, you know, we wanted to...

we wanted our voice to be heard.

That’s how you get closure,

and that’s how you move forward.

[captivating music]

Gwen: Keeping the paper afloat

is very important to Bruce and I.

I mean, I love working at the paper.

I... I... I love being here.

But it is a challenge.

Chris: The paper doesn’t make any money.

This is truly a passion project.

My dad loves that paper.

And he loves this community.

Bruce: What Christopher has gone through

should not have to come with the turf. You know?

You expect some bad stuff,

you expect some really bad stuff,

but nothing like what he’s gone through. It’s...

That’s not part of the job.

Chris: It’s changed Angie and I, fundamentally who we are.

And it’s made me so much more dark and cynical.

Just not believing

"if you do the right thing, everything works out."

You know? It’s...

I really believed that. Just follow your heart, and...

...do the right thing,

and good things will happen...

and everything will work out and...

Maybe it will in the long run. I... I hope it will,

but it... it certainly doesn’t feel that way.

Bruce: Gwen and I are getting old.

We’re gonna have to do something.

You know, we’re both over 70,

and you know, we can’t do this forever.

We have to start making preparations for succession.

But if we sell it to somebody,

they may not look at it the same way.

It’s very sad to us.

I don’t know. I’m very worried

about the future of newspapers

and very worried what’s gonna happen

with corruption in small-town America.

Because, uh...

...corrupt people will always run for office.

It’s just an unfortunate fact of life.

And...

...there’s not a whole lot of people

willing to take the risk to, uh...

bring ’em to light.

[pedal steel guitar music]

[birds chirping]