I’m Ready To Tell The Truth About My Interviews With Graham Welsh, The Man Found Innocent After 20 Years On Death Row
I was told that I couldn’t actually be charged with anything, but talking about my interactions with Graham publicly could change that. However, they never said anything about putting my story in writing.
By 
Jack Follman
Graham ignored my next few calls when I tried him in the morning. I gave calling after 5pm a shot and got him on the first ring.
We set up our next meeting at his office on-campus. I’ll fast-forward you through the unimportant first 25 minutes of one-sided conversation which touched on night crawlers, routes to Memphis, and Michael Oher not actually being a nice guy.
ME: Was the first appeal you pursued something you, or your lawyer, decided to do?
GRAHAM: You asked me about John Cole last time, at The Filling Station?
ME: I did.
GRAHAM: I actually knew John.
ME: You did? How?
GRAHAM: He worked subcontract on a project I worked on in Batesville a few years before all the bullshit. Good guy.
ME: How good of a guy?
GRAHAM: Honest, hard-working, kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back. He wouldn’t lie to you.
You can hear me trip over my own tongue for a few moments on the tape.
ME: Would you still say that if you knew that he was asked about the Oxford swimming hole killings and swore he didn’t do it?
GRAHAM: I’m just saying what I’m saying.
ME: So you knew John though?
GRAHAM: Drinking, fishing buddy. He lived in Batesville, Mississippi, for like nine months. I don’t think most people know that.
ME: I certainly didn’t. What year?
GRAHAM: 1993.
ME: Are you playing games with me?
GRAHAM: Ah nah…if I was playin games with you I would be saying stuff like, Bill Clinton did it! Aha!
ME: Okay.
GRAHAM: Clinton wasn’t bad though, just couldn’t keep his dick out of the wrong place. Still can’t, from what I hear over in D.C.
Graham was the master of the misdirection. He clammed up about the case again.
I chewed on Graham’s information for a while. He was a caustic bastard. He had the personality of an aging punk singer even though he was a tone deaf country boy from Mississippi who probably thought The Sex Pistols were some kind of male nude revue.
