Love, Lies, and Murder (19 page)

“Without my kids around . . . ,” Perry cut in.

“Exactly! Look, here’s what I thought. I thought maybe, you know, go to that school. . . . Do they take the kids to school?”

“One of them does,” Perry replied.

“Just one of them does?” Farris asked. “Is it her or him that takes them to school?”

“That I don’t know,” Perry said. After a moment he said: “Both of them do. . . .”

“Well, you know . . . I could just get her, you know, catch her going back into her house and I would wait there for him to get there.”

“My kids would probably be there.”

“Let me ask you one other thing . . . if I got to him and not her, would that still help you? Or would she still, you know, be a big—”

“Do it, you have to do it when they’re both together for it to help me,” Perry said.

“I’ve set [
sic
] on the side of houses and waited for people, okay?” Farris said. “It don’t take but a second, Perry. . . . I want to do it in a way to get where I can get rid of ’em, you know, period . . . like they’re just gone.”

“There you go,” Perry said.

“I’m gonna have to buy two cars, you know,” Farris said. “I’ve got the money to get two cars, because one car’s just gonna be for that sole purpose right there, you feel me? How am I gonna know where the hell they’re at, you know?”

“Their house,” Perry said. “I’m gonna give you their street address, okay?”

Perry proceeded to provide Farris with the Levines’ home address. If giving him their house number and street name weren’t enough, Perry provided detailed instructions on how to find the Levines’ home, right down to the fact that it was a corner house off Highway 100, near a church called St. Henry’s. He even included the fact that their house did not have a fence around it.

Because the Levines were getting their house renovated, according to Perry, they had moved temporarily into an apartment.

“They will go to their house every day,” Perry said. “One of them will go to the house every single day for lunch to see . . . how the house renovations are going.”

Perry described the location of Larry Levine’s office in Nashville, and explained that it was easy to find.

“I think he doesn’t go to work a lot,” Perry said. “I think he stays home with her during the daylight . . . which is perfect.”

“Look here, Perry, if they’re both in that house, if they answer that door, it’s over,” Farris said.

Perry cautioned Farris about leaving any form of evidence behind, and told Farris that he was leaving it up to him, the “pro.”

“I might look like I’m . . . just some rugged bull or something . . . that’ll kill somebody . . . but, Perry, like I’ve said, I’ve done this before.”

“We don’t need to be talkin’ like that, let’s just get back at it,” Perry said.

“I’m just lettin’ you know I am dead serious,” Farris said. “Perry . . . here’s what I want to happen. After these son of a bitches are gone, after I take care of them, they’re gone, you get out, I want . . . within a year for us to have some kinda business down in Mexico.”

“Within three months, I hope,” Perry said. “Let me tell you something, deal with them. And when that happens, they’re not gonna let me out immediately. . . . It’s gonna be two months before . . . their case falls apart. . . . They might even try to go to trial on my case. . . . It goes from forty percent chance for me (walking), I go to ninety percent. . . . My lawyers think I’ve got a sixty, seventy percent chance of walkin’ right now.”

“Perry, I don’t give a fuck about no murder wrap,” Farris said as he and Perry continued their jailhouse discussion about planning the murders of the Levines. “This is like my ultimate project. . . . The things you’ve told me, you know, like those express kidnappings we talked about . . . that’s right up my alley. . . . I can do the footwork, Perry.”

“You won’t have to, I’ll be with you,” Perry said. “Here’s the thing—I’m not a pussy, right?”

“I know you’re not a pussy.”

“Umm, I’m not . . . as tired, sick as I look, the way I look, right. . . . Trust me. I can whip someone’s ass that easy. . . .”

Perhaps as an incentive to further whet Farris’s appetite to carry out the mission of killing the Levines, and then later going to Mexico to live the high life and engage in “business” with Perry, Perry turned the conversation toward a wealthy family that supposedly resided in Puerto Vallarta. Philip Rolfe, he said, was a British citizen who, according to Perry, was a billionaire, and there were those in his household who, if kidnapped, would bring forth a hefty ransom from Rolfe.

“How much money do you think he’s got in his house?” Farris asked.

“Not too much, but you don’t need that,” Perry said. “That’s not the right way to do it. His daughter is a wacko, who he loves more than anything.”

“How old is she?”

“About, I’d say, forty, and she has a daughter. [Rolfe’s] grandkid. And Rolfe hired me to protect the daughter, and get the kids out of trouble. . . . He said, ‘I don’t care what it takes.’ I’m just tellin’ ya . . . givin’ you an idea. . . . We could possibly do a Rolfe thing.”

“Uh-huh,” Farris grunted, feigning interest in Perry’s kidnapping scheme.

“Three hundred thousand dollars without a blink of an eye.”

“That would be great, Perry.”

“In a day . . . easy . . . maybe more. . . .”

Perry gave Rolfe’s daughter’s name to Farris, as well as his granddaughter’s, and said that he had been in the daughter’s house a dozen times or more.

“I know . . . every entrance. I know exactly how to do everything, how they keep everything.”

“Do they have a safe?” Farris asked.

“You don’t need a safe,” Perry responded. “Philip Rolfe is a safe. . . . Let me just tell you this. If I got a hold of [the daughter] . . . in that day he’d have your three hundred thousand in your hand.”

Perry and Farris spoke of being partners, and Perry suggested that Farris not “do anything” until he had some “chillin’ off ” time once he made bail.

“Leave me here riding for thirty days or whatever,” Perry said. “That gives you plenty of time to get what you need. . . . You take your time at it, you don’t make any mistakes, you go carefully, you figure your reconnaissance.. . . Then thirty days, forty-five days later, you do what you need to do . . . you have to be ready to welcome Metro at your door ’cause they’re gonna put it together.”

“Well . . . they’re not gonna think that I’m actually capable of, you know, probably doin’ somethin’ like this,” Farris said.

“They’re still gonna come and question you,” Perry cautioned.

Perry advised that Farris live in such a manner that he would not raise suspicion that he was going to Mexico. He also advised against Farris leaving the country right away after the killings because, he said, it would cause the police to focus on Farris, and then himself. He said that the police would soon think of looking in Mexico for Farris if he was suddenly unavailable for questioning regarding the Levines’ deaths.

The two conspirators talked at length about passwords that Farris could use to convince Perry’s father that he was who he claimed to be, once he got to Mexico. They discussed using his dad’s maid’s name, a dog that his father had been fond of in his youth, and an uncle’s name from East Chicago, among others. Farris continued to feign interest in the scheme, and played his deception to the hilt. Perry insisted that his father could be trusted.

“I trust my dad with my life,” Perry said. “A hundred percent. Any day of the week. . . . Can I say something? If I’d call my dad, if I had a clear line, I’d say, ‘Dad, come up here and shoot the Levines.’ My dad would be up here and shoot the Levines.”

“He’d shoot ’em hisself ?” Farris asked.

“Yeah, my dad, when they kidnapped my kids . . . in 2001 . . . my dad got on the phone . . . four mercenaries . . . fuckin’ mercenaries. They were gonna come in, kill the fuckin’ Levines, grab my kids, and take ’em back to Mexico. . . . My dad would take care of you like a son.”

Farris spoke of being able to get a gun, and Perry cautioned him again about not leaving any evidence behind. He also cautioned him about not doing anything that could connect Farris and Perry to the Levines’ deaths.

Farris expressed concern about crossing the border into Mexico because, he said, he had never done that before. Perry explained to him how easy it was, that people walk back and forth between the United States and Mexico all day long. All he would need, Perry said, was the proper identification. Farris acknowledged that he knew how to obtain fake identification.

What would he tell the officials at the border, when he was ready to cross, what his business in Mexico would be?

“Tell ’em you wanna get pussy!” Perry said, laughing.

Perry cautioned Farris about the risks of trying to take drugs across the border, and suggested that he should do a test run at some point. Their conversation turned again toward which location, the apartment or the house, would be best to carry out the killings. Perry said that the apartment would be best, but he did not know the name of the complex or where it was located. Farris indicated that he could find out its location by following the Levines from their house.

“How would I go about getting rid of their bodies?” Farris asked.

“I don’t know.”

“I mean . . . should I just set ’em on fire after they’re dead or somethin’? It’s gonna be pretty scary for me to leave ’em there . . . say I’ve gotta put ’em in my car or somethin’ and that’s really gonna spook me. . . . You’re not gonna get a fair trial,” Farris said.

“I know. . . . When somethin’ goes down (inaudible). . . . Within, within an hour the police (inaudible). . . .”

“Oh, I know they’re, they’re gonna come quick, but look, but, Perry, look . . .”

“Somebody without question, somebody is going to put us together,” Perry said. “You’ve gotta be prepared for it.”

“Look, let me tell you a story,” Farris said. “One time me and this guy, we went and did a, a job. . . . We didn’t kill nobody, but, you know, the person got their finger cut off and everything. Look here . . . when that happened, another person come to the house, they got in the house before we even knew anything. We started shootin’ at each other. We take off runnin’, we steal a car. . . . We’re runnin’ from these people shootin’. We know they just called the police. Look here, the car breaks down on Dickerson Road. . . . Look here, listen, listen, you know we had dope, money, we had, like, three guns. Okay, but the car broke down on Dickerson Road, about a half a block from the Circle K, which we call the cop shops. It’s full of cops. I walked straight up in the store, police everywhere, I buy beer, I buy some cigarettes, a lighter, you know, like nothin’ happened, you know.”

“Face the fear,” Perry said.

“You’ve got to, we’ve got to.”

They spoke briefly about taking precautions with the evidence, particularly the kind left behind from firing a gun—gunpowder residue.

“Gun powder on your hands,” Perry said.

“I know, look, you know, when you shoot a . . . handgun . . . but like, you know, there’s ways around that type of stuff.” “Gloves,” Perry said.

“Exactly, gloves, long sleeves, and look . . . I’m gonna get a silencer, too. They’re expensive as hell to get, but I know I can get one. I can get all of that, and look the way that I go about gettin’ me the gun and all this type stuff, I’m gonna get more than one gun, but, I mean, you know, as far as I know that you won’t tell on me, Perry, and, look, let me assure you of something, Perry, if I got caught—”

“I don’t wanna hear it. . . .”

“Well, but I mean we’ve got to look at everything.”

“I don’t wanna hear it. . . . We have everything under control. . . .”

“Well, look, I guarantee you I’m not gonna get caught,” Farris assured Perry. “Okay. Look, when I do this, look it’s gonna be so quick. . . . Here’s what’s in my head, here’s what I want to do. I want to find out where they’re stayin’at this apartment. . . . I’ll wait till they go back in the house, if I can’t find where this apartment is. Both of them there, knock on the door,
boom boom.
I don’t touch nothin’, nothin’ . . . they’re gone; you know what I’m sayin’? The only, you know, the only thing that my presence, the only thing if anybody else’s presence being there is, is four bullets.”

“What?”

“Four bullets.”

“I don’t know if they have video cameras in this apartment,” Perry said.

“Look, don’t worry about that, Perry. I wear wigs . . . gold plates that go over your teeth, you know. Look, I put on a ski mask, but before I put ’em on, look here, Perry; look here at me. From here to here, I paint it brown, put on a ski mask; you know I look like some black guy with gold teeth. Another thing, now look, take wigs, put ’em in a ponytail, put hats on like—”

“Maybe you can . . . when they’re gettin’ in a car or something,” Perry suggested.

“Exactly. If I could catch ’em both gettin’ into the car, it’s over. . . . Perry, I don’t plan on, I don’t plan on gettin’ caught, and look, Perry, I don’t plan on going back to prison for these other charges I’ve got, either. What I plan on doing is, is—”

“Going to Mexico,” Perry reminded him.

“Going to Mex, yeah exactly, going to Mexico with you and . . . Sammy . . . and . . . Zul?”

“Tzipi,” Perry corrected him.

“Tzipi. I want us, you know, and . . . the dog, Snowball?”

“Yeah.”

“Snowball and Diamond,” Farris added, referring to Perry’s dogs. “I want us on the, on the beach somewhere.”

“We will be.”

“I know we will be—”

“We will be. I just tell you on trusting, don’t even have one shade of doubt about my dad. . . .”

“Look here, the reason why I’m not doubtin’ your dad—for one, he’s your dad; for two, he’s your dad.”

“I want you to know that we’re like, like this,” Perry said, indicating the closeness between him and his father.

Perry and Farris agreed that Arthur March would be the contact person in Mexico, and not Carmen. Perry also cautioned Farris against doing anything that would cause the police to look for him in Mexico.

“I know . . . I’m gonna tell you . . . where the police are gonna look. They’re gonna look in East Nashville.”

“Of course,” Perry agreed.

“Well, you know, I don’t even think that they will come and question me. But if they do, well, look, look, what they’re gonna be thinkin’ is that this was, you know, they’re gonna make up some story, ‘Well, he, you know, his hit man from Singapore . . .’”

“They’ll charge me with it,” Perry said.

“But you’ll beat it.”

“I know.”

“But look, you know, I don’t think that they’re gonna think about me, you know, they might come and question me and try to, well, you know, ‘If you know anything about him,’ and I’m gonna say, ‘Hey, man, look, dude, I don’t know much . . .’ I’m gonna say, ‘He was some fuckin’ petty-ass lawyer or somethin’. I used to talk to him and he’d give me food.’”

“That’s it,” Perry agreed.

“You know what I’m sayin’? ‘I’d talk to him because I wanted candy bars and envelopes and—’”

“And he wanted to know what prison looked like,” Perry added. “You just call my dad up on Monday.”

After some more small talk, Perry laid out the plan, or what he had envisioned as the plan, that Farris would follow in communicating with his dad. He said that his dad would be communicating via e-mail.

“He sends an e-mail to my sister, right?” Perry said.

“Okay.”

“Then she prints and then sends it to me in regular mail,” Perry said. “So, I get it, like, in three or four or five days right? In normal mail from Chicago, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Here’s the way we’re gonna do it,” Perry said. “I’ve got this old BMW down in Mexico. Just call it the BMW, okay? We’re gonna have two stings, okay? We’re gonna talk about them; sellin’ the BMW . . . the BMW is gonna equate to our thing we’re talking about here. It’s gonna be the same thing . . . so, here’s what you’re gonna do. Once you establish a rapport with my dad, you’re gonna have my dad send a message through an e-mail, which is, ‘Bobby Givings is gonna buy the BMW.’ Tell my dad, e-mail Perry and say Bobby Givings is gonna buy the BMW. Okay, now . . . that should be at least a few days before you do anything.”

“Okay.”

“So that way . . . you can say don’t sell it. . . . And don’t sell it, means don’t do it.

“Okay.”

“Or Bobby Givings can’t find a way to buy the BMW now. He’s gonna buy it next month . . . got it? When I get my dad’s e-mail, I’ll just call my sister and tell her that, and I can send my dad an e-mail that says tell, uh, you know, tell Mr. Givings that I’m not ready to sell it. . . . You get that part of it?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, that’s real important,” Perry said. “What makes my stomach hurt is when Bobby Givings buys the BMW . . . it’s gonna be all over the news, it’s gonna be all over the national news.”

“You think, you think it’ll be on national news?”

“Hundred percent.”