"The book was completely inaccurate," said Barksdale. "Even the publisher himself said it was a fictional book. I would say 90 percent of it was fiction, hearsay, testimony that's never been under oath."
Like Mike Shea and Mat Evans, Barksdale said he wants Earlene's killer brought to justice. Unlike Shea and Evans, Barksdale said it is preposterous to think that he might have been mixed up in the murder.
"There is no question in my mind that that nigger that's going to law school — you can put the word down there, underline it as nigger there, that's what I consider him," said Barksdale. "I'm interested in putting that fellow back in state prison for murder."
Only his political and personal adversaries would think him capable of homicide, he said. "I've got a lot of enemies," said Barksdale, who boasted that he used to be able to deliver up to 4,000 votes to favored candidates in Tampa elections. "If you're involved in politics, they're always going to shoot at you."
Barksdale questioned Shea's honesty and the Brown defense lawyer's motivation for writing the book. About some of his other skeptics, Barksdale offered these observations:
Barksdale said he keeps in touch with Earlene's kids, "except that little asshole Mat." On the day of the murder, Mat Evans was too busy partying with high school girls to see if his mother was all right, Barksdale said.
Calling Dick Rivett a "piece of shit," Barksdale said the ex-Tampa police detective is still angry because Julianne Holt wouldn't hire Rivett as an investigator after she was elected public defender in 1992.
Rivett acknowledged talking with Holt's office about a job. But Rivett said he decided against finishing the application process. He denied that Barksdale influenced that decision. Rivett said he harbored suspicions about Earlene's murder long before 1992.
Barksdale accused Gerry Fox of failing to pay Earlene's estate for the half-interest in the Just Kids Shoppe that she assumed after the murder.
Fox said she wasn't asked for compensation by Fred Barksdale or Earlene's family. Fox said Fred Barksdale and Abe Rigau owned the property where the shop was located. The shop was unprofitable at the time of Earlene's death, Fox added.
Barksdale doesn't seem as interested in physical evidence as he is in seeing Brown hooked up to a polygraph, like Barksdale said he was. Lie-detector results, of course, are usually inadmissible in court.
Shea wouldn't permit Brown to be polygraphed anyway, said Barksdale. "You can rest assured that his alleged incompetent lawyer will tell him not to take sodium pentothal or a lie-detector test," said Barksdale.
The Aftermath
The Barksdale murder case has generated sporadic national publicity and calls from Hollywood over the years.
The Los Angeles Times did a front-page Sunday profile of Brown shortly after his release. The ABC newsmagazine 20/20 broadcast a segment.
The national spotlight has shown brightest on Brown's extraordinary personal journey. A guilt-ridden black man confesses to a motel stickup and narrowly escapes the death penalty after a clumsy white prosecutor in a racist Southern city manages to pin a murder rap on him, too.
Brown's story is presented as a parable about capital punishment.
The Penalty, with the names changed, hints at forces beyond just racism that may have compelled police and prosecutors to single out Brown.
Shea has done numerous interviews, mostly on radio, about the book across the country. But The Penalty has received little local publicity.
Tribune columnist Daniel Ruth, a cub reporter covering police on the day that Earlene Barksdale was killed, interviewed Shea for radio but not for print.
It was Ruth's WFLA-970 AM radio interview with Shea last June that brought the lawyer-author and Earlene's oldest son together. Rivett also came out of the woodwork to tell what he knows.
Now a private investigator, Rivett recalled his chat with Fred Barksdale at the Tampa police station on the night of the murder.
"When I interviewed him, I handled myself like a gentleman, didn't accuse him of anything," said Rivett. "But I did ask him: "Did you murder your wife?'"
""No,' very calmly, "no.'"
Rivett said Barksdale also denied any problems in his relationship with Earlene and said that he did not own a gun.
Mat Evans said Fred Barksdale owned two handguns in 1973. Gerry Fox told Shea that Earlene had confided to her shortly before the murder that the victim's relationship with Fred Barksdale was strained.
