Episode 092: Stewart Fillmore – Tenaha, Texas Corruption Cover-Up

Retired agent Stewart Fillmore served with the FBI for 29 years. He began his Bureau career as a support employee and after three years received an appointment to the special agent position. Stewart Fillmore was assigned to the Little Rock, Chicago, Dallas, and Tyler, Texas offices. A career “street agent,” he worked most of the criminal investigation under the jurisdiction of the FBI. However, his primary specialty was investigating public corruption. In this episode of FBI Retired Case File Review, Stewart Fillmore reviews a case initiated based on allegations that minority motorists were being illegally stopped on an isolated stretch of highway in rural East Texas. The case was eventually redirected to determine how and by whom drugs and firearms confiscated from motorists had gone missing from the Tenaha, Texas police evidence room. Stewart Fillmore wrote a book about the case, Tenaha: Corruption and Cover-Up In Small Town Texas. The true crime story provides an inside look at how an actual FBI public corruption investigation is worked. Since retiring from the FBI, Stewart Fillmore currently operates his own private investigation company.

Special Agent (Retired)

Stewart Fillmore

8/24/1987 – 12/31/2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stewart Fillmore initiated his corruption case based on news reports from CNN and the Chicago Tribune about allegations of racial profiling in Tenaha, Texas which later proved to be false. The following are links to one of those early reports and to articles covering the outcome of the corruption cover-up case and the release of Fillmore’s book about the investigation:

Chicago Tribune – 3/10/2009:  Highway robbery? Texas police seize black motorists’ cash, cars

ABC9 KTRE – 9/11/2017:  Former FBI agent writes true-crime book about corruption, crime in Tenaha

Stewart Fillmore’s investigation uncovers lies and corruption, centering on drug dealing and a mysterious death in Tenaha, Texas. It can be purchased here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jerri Williams

View posts by Jerri Williams
Jerri Williams, a retired FBI agent, author and podcaster, jokes that she writes about the FBI to relive her glory days. After 26 years with the Bureau specializing in major economic fraud and corruption investigations, she calls on her professional encounters with scams and schemers to write police procedurals inspired by true crime FBI cases in her Philadelphia FBI Corruption Squad crime fiction series featuring flawed female FBI agent Kari Wheeler. Jerri’s FBI for Armchair Detectives nonfiction series enables readers to discover who the FBI is and what the FBI does by debunking misconceptions about the FBI in books, TV, and movies. Her books are available as ebooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks wherever books are sold. She’s also the host of FBI Retired Case File Review, a true crime podcast with more than 300 episodes available on all popular podcast apps and YouTube.

4 Comments

  1. Jason ShoffnerNovember 29, 2017

    Fabulous interview and I will be picking this book up

    Reply
    1. Jerri WilliamsNovember 29, 2017

      I was so surprised that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge the City Marshal.

      Reply
      1. E.M. CrawfordFebruary 21, 2018

        In my opinion there was enough evidence to charge him. And others. Too many threads left in tact. Walkers own words that they bugged City Hall. The fact that they showed where the stolen guns were dumped. Oh and incidentally, there were recordings of interviews by Fillmore and Davis of McClure and Walker.

        Reply
        1. Jerri WilliamsFebruary 21, 2018

          The United States Attorneys Office determines who is charged and who is not. I wonder what facts and circumstances their legal opinion considered.

          Reply

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