Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: Who is Wild Bill and what crimes was he accused of?
If they want a criminal, I'm going to show them the best damn criminal there is. And that's what I did.
Each year, thousands of people facing trial or incarceration in the United States will flee. Some simply across state borders. Others will head for safe havens in other countries they may have family ties to, or that have no extradition treaty with the United States. However, for those wanting an easier to reach country to hide, they'll head north for Canada.
or try their luck in the warmer climates of Central and South America, hoping to disappear among the crowds and live out their days on white sandy beaches. And that's exactly what the man known as Wild Bill would do.
I'm 43 years old. I was Central America's most celebrated and sought-after assassin, hitman, professional killer. from 2006 until 2010. I was arrested in 2010. I'm serving 46 years for quintuple homicide inside the most dangerous prison in the Western Hemisphere. In that prison, I'm also the prison's chaplain. I've been here for 13 years in prison.
I'm recording this from inside a super maximum security cell block in La Nueva Hoya prison in Panama.
My name's Jack Lawrence. Welcome to Wanted.
I'm a wanderer of the soul Before the end I plan to be whole But I know I'll lose myself along the way What's gone is gone What's past is past Let me leave what belongs in the past
So it was after chatting with Chad Hauer that I began to do some more research in the world of wanted people, looking up stories of men and women who have been on the run from authorities. And it was while reading through these different stories that I came across William Dathan Holbert, or Wild Bill. Now, unlike Chad, Wild Bill is a man who's guilty of some very serious crimes.
They were America's most wanted fugitives. That is until Monday. A couple who lived in Asheville is being detained in Nicaragua, accused in a string of killings in three different countries. They're also facing a laundry list of charges in the U.S. from stolen cars to a high speed chase and fraud.
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Chapter 2: What led Wild Bill to become a hitman for a cartel?
I grew up very athletic. I played American football through the shot put and discus and track just to have something to do in the off season. Really cookie cutter American life. Well, I studied agriculture at a place called Blue Ridge Community College, which in those days was called Blue Ridge Technical Institute.
And we called it Redneck Tech because pretty much everybody that went there was just looking for a trade or something. So I pulled down an associate's degree in agriculture from Redneck Tech there in western North Carolina in a little town called Hendersonville.
So Bill was living the all-American life, doing the normal things most young kids his age were doing. However, he does admit that even from a young age, he had a, shall we say, entrepreneurial spirit.
When I was 16, I learned how to make these little black boxes that beat the cable. You know, everything was cable back in those days, and we made little analog black boxes that would give you pay-per-view and HBO and all the other channels for free. I made them in the basement of my grandfather's house. and would sell them for $200 a piece, which was a considerable amount of money in 1995.
You know, I was always doing something. I was always involved in some sort of a, certainly illegal, but right on the edge of being illegal, but also socially acceptable. I sold stolen equipment. I didn't steal it myself, but I sold stolen equipment. I did all kinds of stuff, you know.
So Bill had his scams running here and there, which would continue into his college years when he branched out into forging documents.
So I remember when I was in college, I dated this chick that was a librarian and she had access to this machine that made like library cars. And I reset it up to make actual North Carolina driver's licenses. So if you wanted to buy a fake ID because you couldn't drink until you were 21, you go to college and you're 18, but you couldn't drink.
And all the college kids want to go party in the club, you know. And so. If you wanted to buy a fake ID, what you do is you bring me your driver's license and I would scan it. And what I would do is just change the date, the birth date, and to make you just a little bit older and then make you a driver's license.
Now, if a North Carolina state trooper pulls you over and you give him that fake driver's license, he's going to run that driver's license and that driver's license is going to come back good. because the only thing different on it is the birthday, and it's very unlikely that anybody's gonna catch the birthday, you know?
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Chapter 3: How did Wild Bill's upbringing influence his criminal path?
So we go outside and I told my lawyer, his name was Bill Gardeau. And I told Bill Gardeau, I said, look here, man. I said, it's been nice knowing you. I'm leaving. And he said, what? I said, I'm leaving. I said these words and I remember them. And it's like something really famous, you know, in my life. And I said, if they want a criminal, I'm going to show them the best damn criminal there is.
And that's what I did.
the world was about to see just how wild Wild Bill could be as he embarks on a crime spree. In fact, it's a crime spree he still can't go into too much detail about.
Some of the statute of limitations hasn't run out on it yet, and I want to avoid being prosecuted for it. But I amassed an enormous amount of money in the United States with plans of leaving the United States, exiting the United States, which I did. I had about $350,000 in cash and I decided to go to Central America. And the reason I decided, I got hot as well.
I was, the police, several times I evaded the police and I knew that it was just a matter of time. I couldn't make enough fake IDs. I couldn't make them fast enough to change identities and I knew that I was really short. for the world, you know. It wasn't going to be long before the authorities caught up with me.
Things in America had now reached fever pitch. It was getting far too hot for Bill to stick around. And it was time to leave. Bill was wanted.
I'm a wanderer of the soul Before the end I plan to be whole But I know I'll lose myself along the way What's gone is gone. What's past is past. Let me leave what belongs in the past.
And so I had been on vacation with my mistress in 2003. I say mistress. That's not really an accurate word because I didn't ever start one. a relationship with this woman until I was separated from my ex-wife. I was actually separated from my ex-wife. I wasn't the dog that I am today. Back in those days, I was actually pretty, you know, I was pretty loyal actually.
And I began a relationship with a young woman who was my secretary at the gym. And she and I went off on a little rendezvous to Costa Rica for a weekend once. And it was only the first time I'd ever been out of the country. And I really enjoyed it. And so when I became a real full-time, 100% boss-to-the-wall criminal, she decided to come with me.
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Chapter 4: What illegal activities did Wild Bill engage in during his youth?
So that's what they did. They scooped him up and they threw him back in this little pickup truck and drove away. And Mario's looking at me very, very nervously, me holding that pistol. And I ejected the magazine from the pistol, unchambered the round that was in it, and handed Mario the pistol stock first. And he took the pistol from me and I gave him the magazine.
I said, keep this because you might need it. And he's like, thank you, Bill. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, thank you. You know, he's an Italian guy. He speaks perfect English, but he was an Italian guy from Milan. And it turned out that these three guys were like bank robbers and shit like that. And they were also bad guys on the run, you know?
It was while he was staying with his Italian friends that he would meet his next employer.
And I don't want to say his name because anybody can find out this information that wants to look, but a man came in who owned a smuggling operation. But I don't like to talk about, I don't want to mention people that I've killed because this man I did end up killing later. And he had a smuggling operation in which that Asian people, primarily from China, would pay money
to be smuggled into the United States. And they came in on container ships, in a container. After the container ship passed through the Panama Canal, they'd be smuggled off of the ship and up the Caribbean coast, they would go to Jamaica, from Jamaica on to, I don't know, Texas, Florida, Alabama, somewhere there. through the Gulf of Mexico.
So I picked up a job running the leg from Bocas del Toro, where they were housed in Bocas del Toro. I picked up the leg from Bocas del Toro, Jamaica.
And that's all we've got time for. But coming up in our next episode, while Bill gets himself involved in the smuggling business. And this is where he would have to kill for the first time. He says in self-defence.
So he comes back and tries to tackle me and I moved to step out of the way but I slipped and the deck was wet and I slipped and I fell back on my back and he fell on top of me.
If you want to find out more about the man who was once Central America's most infamous hitman and now a serving Christian minister in a Panamanian prison, Bill has written a book about his experiences inside Central America's prison system, the details of which are in the show notes of this episode.
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