|
Sunday, August 15, 2004 --
3:45 PM
The witness, who played a supporting role in the victim's
film and helped out with crew duties when he wasn't on-screen, was interviewed at the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Office. The
interview was conducted by Detectives Armstrong and Murphy and was
recorded on a portable tape recorder with the witness' knowledge and
consent.
- TA = Detective T. Armstrong
- SM = Detective S. Murphy
- DW = David Woolworth
SM: For the record, please state your name, age, address and
occupation.
DW: Most definitely. My name is David Woolworth. I'm 43. I live
at 316 County Road 288, and I'm a physics professor at Ole Miss.
And I'm also playing with this band now. It's really great
getting into the club scene and everything around here.
SM: You said your address was 316 County Road 288.
DW: Yeah.
SM: That's the lodge. You don't live there.
DW: It's the only place I've got. I moved out of my other
place before the shoot. I've got no place. I was hoping maybe I
could catch a ride back out there with one of you guys.
TA: David, that's a crime scene. It's sealed.
DW: Yeah, but....
TA: You can't stay there. So where are you going to stay tonight?
DW: Up in the Proud Larry's office, above the restaurant
maybe?
TA: That doesn't sound too good. Got another plan?
DW: I dunno. Billy'll probably let me stay with him.
TA: Now, David, how are we gonna find you if we need you?
DW: I'll be around. C'mon, I'm not going anywhere. Look,
I'll give you my office number on campus, 915-XXXX.
TA: Okay. Can we get to some questioning now?
DW: Yeah, it's your show, man. Go right ahead.
TA: All right. Tell us how you met this Fitz.
DW: Uh, let's see... Cooters'... I met him at a party one night.
He told me what he was doing, and I said I'd be glad to help. I
didn't think he was serious. I've been around all kinds of
guys who want to make a movie or put on a play. It hardly ever happens.
I told him I could act. I love to act. So anyways, I see him around town
all the time, and he keeps stopping me and asking me. Finally he stops
me one day and pulls a script out of his backpack and says, "I got a
role for you. It's this guy named Miguel." I get the
role of a Mexican guy. I mean, that's cool, don't get me wrong,
but me? A Mexican guy? Tell me Fitz wasn't casting
against type. I loved how this guy was thinking.
TA: Okay, sure. Then what?
DW: So then I read it. It sounds fun. I had a sabbatical and needed
time to write my new book. It's kind of a self-help book telling
people how to fight insomnia by applying chaos theory to circadian
rhythms. I admit, a self-help book sounds a little light compared
to some of my other books like Non-logic and Paradox
in Chaos Theory, which was just reprinted by University Press. But
that one is no best seller and that's why I had to write this one.
I need the cash.
SM: Okay, okay. So you joined the crew and moved in, right?
DW: Yeah.
SM: What was the date?
DW: May 10th.
SM: Who was there by the time you got there?
DW: Everybody. I was the last one.
SM: What did you notice when you moved in? What was going on
at the lodge?
DW: Well, there were some good drugs out there. Mind you, I didn't
take many. But it was definitely in the plenty.
TA: Who had it?
DW: Huh? Oh no. You're not getting me to rat on anybody. We're
here about a murder, correct? Don't turn this into a drug bust,
man.
TA: Dammit, Woolworth, settle down! Just tell us who supplied the drugs. He's already in custody.
DW: Mummy?
TA: Mummy?
DW: S***.
TA: What did Mummy have?
DW: Man, nothing. Just some pot. Some pills. They were prescription.
TA: Cut the act. We know what was up there. We just need to know how
much there was. We need to know if this killing is drug-related.
DW: No way, man. Haven't you seen by now, the whole world is drug
related? We're all on medication, only the doses are different.
To say that one murder is drug-related is to say they're all drug
related. Besides, what does it matter to you? You just want to know
who did it, right?
TA: A-plus, Professor. Who did it?
DW: I don't know. I was sleeping, man.
SM: Now you slept in the upstairs bunkroom with three other guys, correct?
DW: Well, yeah, but we were all in separate beds.
TA: Yeah, yeah, we know. Now, what woke you up this morning?
DW: The gunshot blasts, man. There were like five or six of them, just
blam! blam! blam! just blasting away in there. And I bolted upright
in bed at the sound of that.
SM: Who was in the room?
DW: I don't know 'cause as soon as I bolted up, I figured I was
dreaming and immediately fell back asleep.
SM: You didn't hear screaming?
DW: Yeah, but it was just an echo in my ear. What really woke
me was Alsace jumping out of his bunk. He nearly landed on my head.
SM: And then what?
DW: Well, he bolted out of the room. Billy was standing
there wiping the sleep from his eyes. I don't know where Brett was.
I was all groggy, but then I heard Katrina screaming and crying. Billy and
I ran down to Corwin's room, and that's when we knew it.
SM: All right, where was Flamé?
DW: He was in the bedroom stomping around and reciting his lines, just
kind of going nuts. And Alsace was trying to keep us out, and at the
same time he was grabbing for him. And there was Katrina just crying her
eyes out. It was chaos.
SM: Where were Johnny and Macy?
DW: They came up after us. Everybody gathered around, just amazed. We
couldn't leave that spot.
SM: Did you go downstairs?
DW: No, I don't think so. Maybe a couple of them did. I was just
lost in the sadness of it.
TA: Had Fitz been threatening to kill himself?
DW: No, not really, man. But he hadn't been right. There were some
issues he was dealing with, which weren't entirely known to us.
You know, I tried to keep out of everyone's business. After all,
I had my book to work on.
TA: Did you ever see him shoot at anybody?
DW: He shot his gun off all the time. All we had on that
set was blank bullets. It was Alsace's job to make sure of that.
Of course, Alsace didn't always do his jobs. He was out in the
woods all the time.
SM: What did he do out there?
DW: I don't know. No one knows.
SM: Did Fitz shoot at Flamé? Chase him up a tree?
DW: Probably. I think he did it a lot. Maybe I was missing something,
but I always got a big kick out of that. I mean, they were blanks. He
wasn't going to kill anybody.
TA: Blanks are still extremely dangerous. You don't just go shooting
guns off at people. Just the sound alone...
DW: Yeah, but we all wore earplugs. Our characters wore earplugs. And
we lived the roles of our characters.
SM: Tell us about Flamé. What we was he like?
DW: He was depressed. Everybody's depressed. I don't understand
it. I mean, Fitz was paying us a decent wage. We were out there
acting like kids. I mean, acting is just like being when you were a
kid. You know, you start living your life in the classroom, like I have,
you take on this certain duty to knowledge. It's... it's
too constraining.
SM: Dave! Focus! Tell us about Flamé, and cut all that other stuff out.
DW: What? What do you want to know? I just told you!
TA: What made Flamé stay out there?
DW: Blackmail, dude. Plain and simple blackmail. That's why all
of them were out there.
TA: Yes! That's it. Tell us more.
DW: I wasn't being blackmailed.
TA: Who was?
DW: Flamé. Man, I shouldn't even be telling you this. You're
not gonna put this s*** out on the internet like you did last time,
are you? I don't appreciate that--
TA: David, this is a serious investigation. We're liable to have
the media crawling all over us if this thing drags out. The sooner you
tell us what you know, the sooner we can close this case and the less
chance all this gets out. Now tell us, what did Flamé do? Why was
he being blackmailed?
DW: He was having relations with one of the other guys
on the set. Fitz caught it on videotape, man. He showed me the
tape one night when we were up smoking-- uh, we had some cigarettes
and beer.
SM: Who was he with?
DW: I'm not gonna tell you that. I don't know, anyway.
SM: Yeah, you do. Who was it?
DW: I can't tell you, chief. I honestly don't know. The other
guy on the tape was too obscured for my eyes.
TA: How do you know it was a guy, then?
DW: Well... heh, heh. You know... you don't always have to see
a person's face to know what sex he is. If you know what I mean.
SM: Okay then, enough said. Why was Mummy being blackmailed?
DW: Easy. Drugs. Had that on tape too.
SM: And Macy Lamar?
DW: She was addicted to danger. Wasn't happy unless there was some
sort of crisis in her immediate vision. Adrenaline junkie.
SM: But what was she being blackmailed for?
DW: No, no. There were two divisions of people -- those who were
being blackmailed to stay at the lodge, and those who were willing hostages,
thus guests.
SM: And who was being blackmailed?
DW: Okay, let's see. Flamé, of course. Mummy. Mr.
Montenado had
done some nasty things.
SM: Such as?
DW: Well, the story I heard was that Corwin somehow found out that
Alsace's
parents had died and left him to be the guardian of his younger brother
and sister. And, well, there's no easy way to say this: he prostituted
them. I know, it's a sad thing, and nobody even knows if it's
true. I mean, there's no video surveillance on that, thank God.
TA: Who else?
DW: Johnny was just along for the ride. He was so enamored with the
whole process. I'm telling you, Johnny was the only true professional
among us. What can I say? I love this guy.
SM: Didn't he want to leave?
DW: Oh, he was just a mess. But he couldn't leave. He was loving
it too much.
TA: Tell us why Katrina Brook was there. What was she being blackmailed for?
DW: I couldn't get a read on her, man. I think she fell in love
with Corwin.
TA: Did he rape her?
DW: What? No way. I think it was probably the other way around.
TA: What are you saying?
DW: I mean she was a maniac. Couldn't get enough of him. They slept
together every night. Hell, I thought she'd killed him. She was
the only one who was ever in that bedroom. There sure as hell wasn't
anybody else around for miles.
SM: What about the people who came to the house?
DW: Who?
TA: Chuck King and Helen Troy.
DW: King was a bad scene. He busted up in the house swinging his
arms like a big man and inspecting everything. What a boob! He started
making suggestions, like, talking about Cheyn, "We need to dress
her down." The guy's wanting to see more skin. Can you believe
it? This guy's a f*****' doctor, and he's comes in--
SM: Who is Cheyn?
DW: Huh? Oh, Katrina. That was her character's name.
TA: Did Fitz get violent with King?
DW: Just yelled at him. Told him to get the hell off the property or
else he was gonna strip his title of executive producer. Shot off a
few rounds in the air. What a weasel that guy was.
TA: Did he ever come back?
DW: Hell no. Would you?
SM: What about the girl?
DW: Helen Troy? She was great. She came in one day out of the
blue, wanted to read for a part. She ran around in this crazy outfit
doing this wonderful monologue, very Shakespearean. Wait, wait. How
did it go? "My life is a comedy. A big fatty muddy pig of a comedy.
Rejoice! In a flash it turns to tragedy, and you join the jesters and
revelers!" She was doing all these strange contortions. Like a
clown on acid or Protizine. Have you heard of that? The astronauts
created it when they were up there in space for several months--
SM: What was Corwin's response?
DW: Oh, he was just showing off. Chased her out of there without ever
giving her the benefit of the doubt. He was a sourpuss so much of the
time. A cynic. A joker.
TA: And what about you, Dave? Where to you fit into all of this?
DW: Hey, man, I was content. It was like a vacation for me. I cleared
my mind and wrote my book. Just digging all the amenities. I mean, all
the food and dope, dopamine. I mean, like, you're brain works overtime,
just being out in nature like that. Gets plenty of fresh, natural chemicals.
But all good things must come to an end.
TA: You're right about that. You'll be around? We can reach
you at this office number?
DW: That's right. Just leave a message if I'm not there. I
check my messages like every 15 minutes.
TA: I'm sure we'll be calling. Thanks.
DW: Anytime, guys.
Interview ends -- 4:51 PM |
