The Florida Files

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Miami's Murderous Cult Leader: Yahweh Ben Yahweh, Pt. 2 Aug 26, 2019

Show notes

It's the 80s and mysterious Yahweh Ben Yahweh is buying up hotels, opening schools and grocery stores, and cleaning up rundown apartments. When he takes over a complex in Opa-locka, six miles from the Temple of Love, two residents resist leaving. Twenty-four hours later, the residents are shot dead. Found hiding in the bushes, sniffed out by a police dog, is Neariah Israel, a member of the Nation of Yahweh. He is arrested. Miami detectives find a link between those murders and several homicides where the victims' ears are severed and taken. Police say all the cases have another link – the road leads back to Miami's Temple of Love.

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Miami's Murderous Cult Leader: Yahweh Ben Yahweh, Pt. 1 Aug 19, 2019

Show notes

It is the late 1970s when the oldest son of a Pentecostal minister from Enid, Oklahoma, arrives in Miami. The predominantly black neighborhood of Liberty City is in one of its most vulnerable times and the time is right for a spiritual leader to bring the community together. Hulon Mitchell Jr., proclaims himself the son of God, Yahweh Ben Yahweh. He founds the Nation of Yahweh and the Temple of Love. But, then people start turning up dead.

What is really going on inside Miami's Temple of Love? Or is it all a government conspiracy?

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Death of a Bombshell: Anna Nicole Smith, Pt. 6: Rest in Peace? Apr 15, 2019

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Finally, Anna Nicole Smith is buried in Nassau, next to her beloved son Daniel along with ashes of her billionaire husband J. Howard Marshall.

Yet, there's still no rest in peace in the Bahamas.

A paternity and custody fight is playing out in court over Smith's five-month-old daughter Dannielynn, and mama Virgie believes she's the best fit to raise the child, despite a DNA test that will soon prove who the biological father is.

Back in Broward County, the Seminole Police Department and the Broward Medical Examiner are ready to release the results of what killed Anna Nicole Smith in South Florida.

Despite conclusions, 12 years later, Judge Larry Seidlin says there are still red flags waving. The little girl Anna Nicole always wanted, Dannielynn, is now 12 going on 13. She's on the honor roll at school and a Girl Scout. Contradictory to what the media reports, it's not likely that anytime soon she'll become one of the richest kids on the planet.

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Death of a Bombshell: Anna Nicole Smith, Pt. 5 - The funeral that almost wasn't Apr 08, 2019

Show notes

In death, Anna Nicole Smith is getting the same kind of attention in life that brought her fame. Anna Nicole Smith's body is accompanied by a motorcade of police out of the Broward Medical Examiner's office to Miami International Airport in a procession usually reserved for heads of state. The Bahamian arrival is just as royal. Her mother, Virgie Arthur is the last guest to arrive at Mount Horeb Baptist Church in Nassau. She is in Nassau Supreme Court up until the last minute trying to stop the funeral and take her daughter's body back to Texas.

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Death of a Bombshell: Anna Nicole Smith, Pt. 4 - (Almost) Everything Shifts To Bahamas Apr 01, 2019

Show notes

After a judge approves Anna Nicole Smith's body to head to the Bahamas for burial, mama Virgie puts up a fight in Palm Beach County court.

Meanwhile there are legal battles aplenty in the Bahamas over custody of little Dannielynn and who owns the waterfront mansion that the baby and Howard K. Stern are living in.

Plus, surprises are around every corner regarding paternity testing.

Hear interviews from Larry Birkhead and former Local 10 reporter Roger Lohse on the fight for the burial in the Bahamas and more.

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Death of a Bombshell: Anna Nicole Smith, Pt. 3 Mar 25, 2019

Show notes

It's disorder in the court as the Battle to Bury Anna plays out on cable television, and the ringleader? Judge Larry Seidlin.

In one corner, Anna Nicole's estranged mother Virgie Arthur wants to take her daughter's body to Texas. Is Virgie selling stories to the media for money?

In the other, companion and attorney Howard K. Stern who wants the bombshell buried next to her son, Daniel in the Bahamas, but there are questions about his intentions. Larry Birkhead just wants to prove Anna Nicole's baby daughter is his.

Now, 12 years later, hear interviews from those who lived through the media mayhem and the three-ring courtroom circus, and why the infamous Cryin' Judge says the Anna Nicole case still haunts him today.

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Death of a Bombshell: Anna Nicole Smith, Pt. 2 Mar 18, 2019

Show notes

She was charismatic and beautiful, but after the death of her son Daniel, friends say Anna Nicole Smith lost her spark. The Broward County Medical Examiner's 84-page report details the former Playboy playmate's last few months, last few weeks, and final days.

It's a rollercoaster.

Birth of a daughter, and three days later the death of her son. Companion and lawyer Howard K. Stern says, "she didn't want to trade out children: one to be born and another to die." While the father of her daughter, Larry Birkhead, believes it was something she could never recover from.

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Death of a Bombshell: Anna Nicole Smith, Pt. 1 Mar 11, 2019

Show notes

Anna Nicole Smith died 12 years ago at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. But her death would be only the beginning of the media circus that would converge on South Florida's Broward County. So what happened that afternoon in Room 607? Why had she come to the Hard Rock Hotel to begin with? Hear from the yacht broker who was getting her pink boat Cracker ready to take its maiden voyage back to the Bahamas, and from her sister, Donna Hogan, who regrets to this day not being able to save Vickie Lynn Hogan Smith Marshall. Plus, other revelations that reveal why Anna Nicole Smith became part of The Florida Files.

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Florida Files: Parent of Parkland victim talks about life after son's death Feb 14, 2019

Show notes

Nothing and everything has changed for Manuel Oliver since his son was shot by a gunman at his high school. The husband and father moved his family to the United States to escape the violence of Venezuela, but on Feb. 14, 2018, his son, Joaquin, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School became a statistic. Joaquin was one of 17 people shot and killed in the deadliest shooting at a high school in U.S. history. Hear how Manuel Oliver is coping with the tragedy.

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Miami FBI Shootout of 1986, Part 5 - Secrets Taken to the Grave Dec 21, 2018

Show notes

William Russell Matix and Michael Lee Platt are a modern day version of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. What happens on April 11, 1986, is like something out of a Hollywood movie. Two FBI agents gunned down, and a trail of blood from Ohio to Florida. Even decades later, questions still remain about the two-faced killers, military veterans and family men who had neighbors, wives, pastors, and police fooled.

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