Greg Smith's Informant

All of these people that Abraham would normally just pick up the phone and talk to or stop by to see were getting text messages.

Mike Ford, who's the driver, says, you need anything? Abraham, who's staying in the truck, says, yeah, give me two quick picks.

Everybody was very uncertain. Dee Dee had an answer.

Elizabeth's phone rings, and she opens her phone and sees it's Abraham calling. And she said, oh my God, it's Abraham.

Dee Dee befriended her. And they're having dinner together one night. The phone rings. And it's Abraham. Hi, Mom. I love you. Oh, baby, I miss you. Where are you? I can't hear you. It's so loud. I can't really hear you. But I'll be home soon. I love you. I love you, too. And that's the end of the call. Dee Dee says, oh, my god. You know, he called you. See? He's OK.

And Miss Walker appears to feel, be relieved, but not quite sure. Because Abraham sounded different.

Didi tells Abraham that for his benefit he needs to sign over his assets. and so that she can have control of those assets. That's the way she can protect him from anybody coming after him for any money.

So she drives the SUV down a dark country road one night and two Latino men, this is her story, hijack her SUV, tie her up, rape her, beat her and throw her on the side of the road and take off with the SUV. Long story short, she had hired these guys to take the car and hide the vehicle from everybody.

The thing that really turns the case was when Elizabeth Walker got that call from her long-missing son. Dee Dee Moore was at dinner with Elizabeth Walker when Abraham called.

And this was just, you know, stink in the high heavens.

She said, she's going to pay me $350. I didn't feel right about it, but I thought I was helping Miss Walker feel better because she's been worried about her son. Greg told them then, I think that Abraham is dead. They said, we think so too. They said, you know, we need you to keep meeting with Dee Dee because we think she has something to do with this. And we need you to work for us.

Abraham's life has been hardscrabble for its duration. Abraham dropped out of school. He had been in a little bit of trouble as a youth, nothing major, just little petty theft kind of things. And as he grows older, he takes on a series of odd jobs, riding the garbage truck for the city of Lakeland, sweeping up in somebody's barber shop.

I just need some time to get freaking Abraham by.

Yeah.

But he told her if she tells anybody, he'll never call back.

Say that if she tells anybody, Abraham told her, he would never call back.

You tell him, yeah, he's still living.

Here comes a brand new laptop and a brand new printer. But she is very paranoid now about leaving any traces that can be taken back to her.

she is determined. You will not find any DD Moore DNA here.

The letter is more like a treatise about everything that Abraham would be trying to explain to his mother about why he went away and what hassle he went through once he got all the money and how sometimes he wishes he didn't have all this money, but that he's doing okay and he's trying to stay away and get his life together. I mean, it went on and on and on for pages.

By this point, all of the law enforcement officers' instincts are firing on Code Red. They feel that Diddy Moore knew what happened to Abraham Shakespeare, what they need. They need the evidence.

They come up with this idea that they will get a fall guy who will say, you know, I'll take the blame and say that I killed Abraham Shakespeare.

And his last name happened to be Smith, the same as Greg Smith, and they pretended to be cousins.

When can I talk to him?

You feel like you're in the country. Diddy's property has two ranch-style houses that are several yards apart.

I think to a lot of people's surprise, Abraham did not go buck wild, as they say, when he got his money. He didn't overindulge.

Greg and Dee Dee then meet when all of a sudden, boom, the cops pull up. They jump out and they bust Greg.

Dee Dee at various times blamed everybody under the sun for killing Abraham.

The media was doing a stakeout to try to get reaction from Dee Dee. And she drives by in a truck, rolls her window down,

And it develops into kind of an impromptu news conference.

Prosecutors claim Didi more swindled... Journalists are always looking for something that is unprecedented.

Or unusual conflict. Scandal. And this had pretty much all of the elements.

Of course, Dee Dee's behavior in the courtroom also helped keep the story going.

Greg Smith had been recruited by the sheriff's detectives to become her confidante, and the courtroom was just spellbound by his testimony.

The defense, such as it was, was primarily based on that old premise that the States case was all circumstantial, that there was no hard evidence, there were no eyewitnesses.

The judge made a brief statement about how heinous her crime was and that he would be sentencing her to life in a Florida state prison without the possibility of parole.

People did not hesitate to come to Abraham and say, you know, I need money for my mortgage. They've got to foreclose my house. They're going to repossess my car. I've got to bury my mother. Everything you can think of that someone needed.

Imagine just spending your last four dollars, which is what Abraham Shakespeare did on those lottery tickets, putting your last money on a far-fetched dream. Abraham did a lot of good with some of his winnings. The favor wasn't returned to him.

There's something called the lottery curse. Lottery winners go bankrupt. They are killed, robbed, kidnapped, and scammed till the end of days.

But that also meant that he had to make arrangements with them for when they would pay back and how much they would pay back. This was becoming overwhelming.

Suddenly, there's a lawsuit against Abraham filed by Mike Ford, who is claiming that Abraham stole the tickets.

Willie Gary is a force. Very self-confident. Willie has a private jet. He drives around in Rolls Royces. He wears, of course, custom-made suits.

Ford versus Shakespeare was a five-day trial. Michael Ford did his best to present his case, but the jury only took an hour to find against him.

A woman named Doris Moore. They called her Dee Dee. Florida-born, very ambitious, pretty smart. She comes along.

She learns that he has all this money out there in the community. She said, you need a financial advisor. You need some financial help. I am an expert at that. The next thing you know, Dee Dee is Abraham Shakespeare's sidekick and his emissary who goes around to collect money.

In April of 2009, there's a stir going on in the community about nobody having seen Abraham Shakespeare in a while. A little buzz at first, and then it gets louder and louder and louder and becomes a thing.