The Georgia Church Murders Part 2: Dennis Perry's Story of Wrongful Conviction and Redemption

Summary

Gone South - Season 5, Episode: The Georgia Church Murders Part 2: Dennis Perry's Story of Wrongful Conviction and Redemption
Host: Jed Lipinski
Date: May 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into the decades-long struggle for justice in the 1987 murder of Lita McClinton, weaving through wrongful accusations, law enforcement failures, and a relentless family quest for truth. Using new interviews and archival research, host Jed Lipinski and writer/investigator Deb Miller Landau explore the intricate web connecting power, race, and privilege in the American South—shining light on how Jim Sullivan, Lita’s estranged husband, repeatedly escaped accountability before finally being convicted. The episode is a gripping examination of systemic flaws and perseverance amidst profound injustice.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Recap of Lita McClinton’s Case

• Host Jed Lipinski revisits Lita’s murder and her tumultuous relationship with Jim Sullivan, an eccentric, wealthy white businessman.
• The initial investigation falters due to lack of evidence connecting Jim (who was in Palm Beach during the murder) to the crime.
• FBI interest is piqued by a mysterious phone call linking an Atlanta Howard Johnson’s to Jim’s mansion, but the North Carolina lead is never pursued.
• Jim swiftly remarries and lives extravagantly, seemingly unfazed by the case.
  • Notable quote:

    “Jim and Suki are traveling all around the world, spending money like it's going out of style.”
    — Deb Miller Landau (03:54)

2. First Federal Indictment and Dismissal

• By 1991, with the statute of limitations looming, the Feds hastily indict Jim for murder-for-hire (04:27).
• The trial is based almost entirely on circumstantial evidence; there is no physical evidence or identified hitman.
• The judge, to widespread shock, dismisses the case before the defense even presents.
  • Notable quote:

    “The judge says, I don't think the U.S. attorney's office has enough to go on. And so, sort of to the shock of absolutely everybody, the judge dismisses the case, and Jim is a free man.”
    — Deb Miller Landau (06:17)

• Victim’s family and public share mixed reactions. Some jurors agree the evidence was insufficient (07:30).

3. Civil Suit and Further Judicial Evasion

• Lita’s parents pursue a civil suit, where Jim represents himself, hoping to garner jury sympathy.
• He is found liable for wrongful death and ordered to pay $4 million, but the verdict is overturned on appeal due to Florida’s statute of limitations (08:53).

4. Breakthrough via Media Exposure

• The McClintons appeal for public help through tabloid TV, generating fresh leads.
• A significant tip comes from Belinda Trahan in Texas, who reveals her ex-boyfriend (Tony Harwood) had once been paid by a wealthy man to “take care of” his estranged wife in Atlanta (10:07).
• Deb Miller Landau recounts:

  “She had been living with Tony in North Carolina... and he moved some furniture for a wealthy white man. And the guy asked him to, quote, take care of his estranged wife up in Atlanta.” (10:45)

5. John Lang’s Investigation Reopens the Case

• GBI agent John Lang leads a renewed investigation, flying to Texas to interview Belinda, having her record conversations with Tony Harwood (15:15).
• The investigation reveals Tony was indeed the trucker who moved Jim Sullivan’s furniture, confirmed via old company records containing both men’s signatures (19:21).
  • Notable quote:

    “The first box that I went to... there was a Jim Sullivan moving documents, and Tony Harwood was the driver. So I had Harwood's signature, and I had Sullivan's signature. I said, shit, this is real.”
    — John Lang (19:21)

6. Tony Harwood’s Arrest and Confession

• Tony is arrested without incident, famously greeting police with:

  • “I've been waiting for you boys for a long time.”
    (21:14)

• In questioning, Tony admits to orchestrating the hit for $25,000 but vehemently denies being the shooter, offering a dubious story about a masked accomplice (22:44).
• Lang remains skeptical, noting,

  “Tony Harwood's so full of shit that a little bit of truth goes a long way with this guy.” (22:44)

7. Sullivan Becomes a Fugitive

• Tony’s arrest leads to a warrant for Sullivan, but the Fulton County DA inadvertently warns Sullivan via his attorney—Sullivan flees to Panama, sparking an international manhunt (26:25).
• Years pass with no leads; Sullivan is put on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Investigator John Lang develops a bond with Lita’s parents during the hunt (27:54).

8. Global Pursuit and Final Arrest

• In 2002, a tip from Thailand reveals Sullivan is living openly under his own name. He is arrested and held in a Thai prison before being extradited back to the U.S. after a lengthy legal fight (28:49).
• Sullivan is described as a diminished figure upon his return, “a shadow of his former self..." (29:33).

9. Trial, Testimonies, and Justice—Finally

• By Sullivan’s Atlanta trial, Tony Harwood admits to being the shooter and testifies alongside Belinda Trahan.
• The defense tries to discredit them due to their past drug use and inconsistencies, rattling the victim’s family.
• Ultimately, the jury swiftly finds Sullivan guilty; he is sentenced to life without parole (31:10).
  • Notable moment:

    “It takes the jury just a few hours to deliberate, and the jury comes back and finds him guilty of murder and eventually saves him from the death penalty, but says that he will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.”
    — Deb Miller Landau (31:10)

10. Reflections on Legacy and Justice

• Deb Landau’s book, A Devil Went Down to Georgia, stitches together the story’s fragments, examining race, power, and systemic failure (32:06).
  • Notable quote:

    “You can be the carrier of the thread that has been dropped again and again… It gives you the opportunity to respectfully honor the life that was lost… and to look at historical sort of cases through new lenses so we can better understand both what happened to them and better understand ourselves.”
    — Deb Miller Landau (32:36)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:08] - Recap and introduction of the Lita McClinton case
• [03:54] - Jim Sullivan’s post-murder lifestyle (Deb Miller Landau)
• [06:17] - Courtroom dismissal and public reaction
• [07:51] - Civil case and overturned verdict
• [10:07] - Breakthrough tip from Belinda Trahan
• [14:31] - John Lang joins the investigation
• [19:21] - Discovery of the mover’s records linking Harwood and Sullivan
• [21:14] - Harwood’s arrest
• [22:44] - Harwood’s confession, skepticism
• [25:36] - Sullivan flees after DA’s blunder
• [27:54] - Years-long manhunt; personal connection with victim’s family
• [28:49] - Sullivan discovered in Thailand and arrested
• [31:10] - Testimonies at trial and final conviction
• [32:36] - Reflections on storytelling, justice, and history

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Notable Quotes

• “Jim and Suki are traveling all around the world, spending money like it's going out of style.”
  — Deb Miller Landau (03:54)

• “The judge says, I don't think the U.S. attorney's office has enough to go on. And so, sort of to the shock of absolutely everybody, the judge dismisses the case, and Jim is a free man.”
  — Deb Miller Landau (06:17)

• “[Belinda] said, Tony's going to Atlanta and going down there and going to these titty bars. That's the words that she used. And so she just kind of dismissed it...”
  — John Lang (17:15)

• “The first box that I went to... there was a Jim Sullivan moving documents, and Tony Harwood was the driver. So I had Harwood's signature, and I had Sullivan's signature. I said, shit, this is real.”
  — John Lang (19:21)

• "I've been waiting for you boys for a long time."
  — Tony Harwood, via Deb Miller Landau (21:14)

• “Tony Harwood's so full of shit that a little bit of truth goes a long way with this guy.”
  — John Lang (22:44)

• “You can be the carrier of the thread that has been dropped again and again... so we can better understand both what happened to them and better understand ourselves.”
  — Deb Miller Landau (32:36)

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Conclusion

This episode offers a masterclass in patient, persistent reporting and storytelling, exposing the ways wealth, power, and judicial missteps can warp justice for decades. Through deeply human interviews and careful unraveling of the case’s labyrinthine turns, listeners are reminded of the continued relevance of past injustices. The episode also foregrounds the importance of revisiting cold cases and honoring victims with the full truth.

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For more content from Gone South, follow @GoneSouthPodcast or subscribe on Substack.

Transcript

[Jed Lipinski]

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[Jed Lipinski]

this is the second part of a two part series. In the last episode we told you about the murder of Lita McClinton. Lita was a black woman from a prominent family in Atlanta who, against her parents wishes, had married an eccentric white millionaire 10 years her senior named Jim Sullivan. Their marriage was rocky from the start, but it got rockier when Jim bought a mansion in Palm beach and started sleeping with other women, causing Lita to file for divorce. The divorce proceedings dragged on for over A year. Then, on the morning of January 16, 1987, someone shot and killed Lita on the doorstep of her Atlanta condo. Her husband Jim was the prime suspect, but he was in Palm beach at the time, and the cops had trouble tying him to the scene. That changed when the FBI got involved. They discovered that shortly after the murder, someone had placed a call to Jim's mansion from a Howard Johnson's outside Atlanta. An agent traced the call back to an individual in North Carolina, and the Bureau's North Carolina office promised to take it from there. But for one reason or another, they never acted on it. And the case, after finally gaining traction, went cold. By most accounts, Jim was unfazed by Lita's death. Eight months later, he'd married his former mistress, a beautiful Korean socialite and serial divorcee named Suki Rogers. The two could be seen driving Jim's Rolls Royce around Palm beach, where they were regulars at the exclusive Bath and Tennis club.

[Deb Miller Landau]

Jim and Suki are traveling all around the world, spending money like it's going out of style.

[Jed Lipinski]

This is writer Deb Miller Landau, who spent years investigating the Leda McClinton case.

[Deb Miller Landau]

And then, you know, what quickly happens between them is the same thing that happened between Jim and Leda. He starts to get super, super cheap. He starts to be very controlling of Suki, starts to follow her question. Her every purchase and life for Suki is not as good as it once was. And she starts sort of looking at her exit strategy.

[Jed Lipinski]

It was now 1991, more than four years since Lita's murder. Under federal law, the statute of limitations on a murder for hire charge runs out after five years. The U.S. attorney's office in Atlanta was aware of the deadline and they were debating whether they had enough to charge Jim.

[Deb Miller Landau]

And, you know, what they've got is largely circumstantial. They have a phone call from Atlanta area rest area to Jim's house that he says he doesn't know who answered. They have this connection between the Howard Johnson's hotel and Jim, but there's nothing sort of concrete. They don't at this point have a hitman. They don't have a weapon. They don't have any sort of narrative that tells them exactly what happened or any kind of paper trail that connects Jim to anyone. You know, they've looked into all of his financials and don't see any sort of a big purchase like a payment to somebody flagged anywhere in his financials. But the time is ticking. And so, you know, the U.S. attorney's office decides well, we don't want this to just sort of go so. Five days before the statute of limitation expires, Jim Sullivan is indicted for murder in Atlanta.

[Jed Lipinski]

The indictment marked the Fed's first serious attempt to hold Jim Sullivan accountable for his wife Lita's death. But as he'd already shown, Jim was used to getting his way. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is gone south. Jim Sullivan's federal trial began in November of 1992. Everyone in Atlanta was watching. Lita's case had been in the news for years, and Jim had always been the main suspect. Locals were ready to see Lita get justice.

[Deb Miller Landau]

The trial starts, and the prosecution gives its side of the story, and they lay out, you know, all of the theories that they have and all of the circumstantial evidence that they have. And the trial breaks for the weekend. And, you know, one of Jim's defense attorneys, sort of right before the weekend happens, he says, you know, they don't have enough to go on. You know, we should call this a mistrial. And, you know, it's a common sort of tactic for defense attorneys, but they break for the weekend, and it's a super stormy weekend in Atlanta, and all sorts of power is out and everything. So when they come back on Monday, it's, you know, windy and cold, and everybody's sort of settling in to sit down for another long day of trial. And the judge says, you know, this is before the defense has even given its side of the story. The judge says, I don't think the U.S. attorney's office has enough to go on. And so, sort of to the shock of absolutely everybody, the judge dismisses the case, and Jim is a free man.

[Jed Lipinski]

After the dismissal, Jim painted himself as the victim of prosecutorial overreach. Lita's parents, meanwhile, were furious with the decision. They felt a jury should have been allowed to decide Jim's fate. Other reactions were mixed.

[Deb Miller Landau]

You know, there were conflicting views. Some people who were on the jury and interviewed later said that they believed that, yeah, they didn't really have enough. You know, they need to. In a case like that, you need to, beyond a shadow of a doubt, understand what happened. And nobody could really talk about that without the hit team and without, you know, really understanding what happened that day.

[Jed Lipinski]

Shortly after the federal case was dismissed, Lita's parents filed a civil suit against Jim in Palm Beach County. In a criminal case, jurors have to be certain of someone's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. But in a civil case, the bar is lower. A jury only needs to believe it was more likely than not that the defendant did it. The worst they can face is a financial penalty, not prison time.

[Deb Miller Landau]

So it's an incredible scene. Jim decides to fire all of his lawyers and represent himself, you know, to sort of say that he doesn't have enough money to pay for lawyers, but, you know, they believe it's sort of a ploy so that the jury will feel, you know, compassion for this poor guy who's, know, has to stand up and speak for himself. But after that trial, the verdict, the jury decides that Jim is in fact guilty of wrongful death and is ordered to pay the McClinton family $4 million. It's a huge win for the McClintons, who do not want his money, but do not want him to continue to use his money to defend himself.

[Jed Lipinski]

And yet Jim managed to get out of this one, too. His lawyers appealed the verdict, arguing that Leda's family had missed Florida's two year deadline to file a wrongful death suit. Three years later, in 1997, the Florida supreme court agreed and reversed the verdict. Once again, Lita's parents found themselves back at square one. Feeling as if they'd run out of options, they decided to take their case to the media. In 1998, 11 years after Lita's murder, they gave an interview to the tabloid TV show Extra and made a public plea for information about the case. The federal case was dead, but in Georgia, there's no statute of limitations on murder. The fact that over a decade had passed made no difference. After the episode aired, dozens of tips rolled in. Most of them went nowhere, but one of them had legs. It came from a young woman named Belinda Trahan. Belinda was a receptionist at a small law firm in Beaumont, Texas, a blue collar refinery town outside Houston. Around the time the extra episode aired, Belinda had walked into her boss's office

[Deb Miller Landau]

and told him, I got something I gotta tell you. Way back in 1987, my then boyfriend, a trucker named Tony Harwood, took money from a man who asked him to murder his wife back in Atlanta. And of course her boss is like, wait, what? You know, what are you telling me? What is this crazy story? And Belinda sort of tells him, you know, that she had been living with Tony in North Carolina at the time, and he was a long haul trucker who did, you know, moving for people, and he moved some furniture for a wealthy white man. And the guy asked him to, quote, take care of his estranged wife up in Atlanta.

[Jed Lipinski]

Belinda said that was all she knew, that a wealthy white guy had once tried to hire her ex boyfriend Tony to kill his wife. She'd broken up with Tony years before, but he'd recently started calling her again and wanted to talk. Belinda didn't know what to do, but she thought she ought to tell her side of the story.

[Deb Miller Landau]

So her boss quickly tells her, you know, stop. Don't meet with him. Don't meet with this guy. Let me figure out what we're gonna do here. He goes home and he says to his wife, you won't believe what Belinda told me today. And his wife, who was also an attorney, had seen the extra episode that had just come out, and she said, this is the story.

[Jed Lipinski]

The next day, Belinda's boss called the authorities in Atlanta. The Leda case was over 11 years old by this point, and detectives didn't immediately recognize it. But supervisors with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation did, and they assigned one of their agents to the case. What that agent found would break the case wide open. Lately I've been thinking a lot about how much easier life feels when your wardrobe just works. When you've got pieces that are comfortable, versatile and still make you feel pulled together without having to plan it out too much. That's where Quint's has really been a game changer for me. Their spring staples make getting dressed feel simple again. I'm talking about 100% European linen shorts and shirts starting around $34. Their 100% Pima cotton tees are another favorite. Super soft, really clean and fit and just an instant upgrade from basic basics. And even their pants have that same feel. Relaxed comfort but still tailored enough to wear out and about without thinking twice. What really surprised me is the quality. For the price, everything is typically 50 to 80% less than similar brands because they work directly with ethical factories and skip the middlemen. I recently added a linen shirt to my rotation, and it's become one of those items I keep reaching for. It just looks good every time. Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to Quince.com GoneSouth for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada, too. That's Q-U-N-E.com GoneSouth for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com GoneSouth

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[John Lang]

May I ask you this? Do you have the capability of editing things that I say? Yes, because sometimes I use vulgarity.

[Jed Lipinski]

This is John Lang. He's a retired special agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. At the time of Lita's murder, John was working narcotics, and he wasn't too familiar with the case. But in 1998, a woman named Belinda Trahan told authorities that her ex boyfriend, a former truck driver named Tony Harwood, may have had something to do with it. So the GBI put John on the case. Soon, John and his partner were flying to Beaumont, Texas, to interview Belinda.

[John Lang]

What happened during the interview? Quite interesting. You know, from my narcotics experience, I was used to recording just about everything that we did just to memorialize events. But she began explaining the series of events. And then I decided, I said, well, why don't we get you in touch with this Tony Harwood guy and record a conversation between you and Harwood and so I can hear his voice and see what he says about this. And she agreed to that. She reached out to him and said, hey, you remember what you told me back when you were going to Atlanta for those trips, and you told me that you were going with a guy named John the bartender and somebody else to take care of this woman? And he goes, yeah, I remember that. She said, well, there was a TV show on, and they're talking about that case and there's a likeness of you with these composites that they have. So that really kind of stuck with Tony there, and it piqued his interest. And he said, well, I can't talk now or whatever. And he said, I'll call you back in a day or two.

[Jed Lipinski]

Tony eventually called back. When he did, John was in the room with Belinda listening in. He sat next to her and scribbled notes, coaching her on what questions to ask. While Tony didn't admit to killing Leda, John was convinced he was involved in some way. At this point, you might be wondering, why did Belinda Trahan wait 11 years to tell anyone that her ex boyfriend had admitted to being involved in a murder? According to John, there were two likely reasons for this. One was that when Tony first told her the story, Belinda thought he was lying. At the time, they'd been living in Albemarle, North Carolina, and she thought Tony had made up a crazy story about taking care of a black woman in Atlanta to cover for the fact that he and his buddies had spent a week blowing money at Atlanta strip clubs.

[John Lang]

She thought, and what she told us is, she said, tony's going to Atlanta and going down there and going to these titty bars. That's the words that she used. And so she just kind of dismissed it, you know, him and his buddies going down there and hanging out. And I have no reason to believe that she knew. She'd never seen Tony with a gun or anything like that. She'd never met any of his associates that she knew of.

[Jed Lipinski]

The other possible reason Belinda dismissed Tony's story was that she wasn't in the best frame of mind back then.

[John Lang]

Without degrading Belinda's lifestyle. I guess I'm trying to choose my words here. She was was doing a lot of drugs at the time and really wasn't up to day to day events.

[Jed Lipinski]

Regardless of why Belinda had failed to mention this story before, she was now fully cooperating. In addition to recording calls with Tony, she told Special Agent John Lang everything she knew about him at the time of the murder. For example, she said that Tony was working for a moving company called North American Van Line in Greensboro, North Carolina, about an hour's drive from their house. She believed Tony had moved some furniture for Jim Sullivan when Jim proposed that he take care of his wife. So John called the office of North American Van Lines to see if Tony still worked there.

[John Lang]

I said, look, I'm a homicide investigator and I'm working on a case that happened a long time ago where one of your truck drivers may have witnessed something. And I made up a story about a traffic fatality, I think to make him want to cooperate and not anything about a murder. And I said, did you have a guy named Tony Harwood working for him? He goes, yeah, yeah, I remember a guy named Tony Harwood. And I said, well, does he still work for you? And he said, no, he's no longer with us. And this is, you know, a lot of time had passed.

[Jed Lipinski]

John asked if they had any records confirming that Tony had worked there back in 1987, the year Lita was killed. The guy wasn't sure, but he said he had some boxes up in his attic that dated back to the 80s. He said John was welcome to look through them.

[John Lang]

So when I got up there, I told him, you know what the real scoop was about? Tony was being involved in a homicide investigation in Atlanta. He said, here, go up in the attic. And lo and behold, the first box that I went to was 1986 or whatever. And opened up, went through about three folders, and there was a Jim Sullivan moving documents, and Tony Harwood was the driver. So I had Harwood's signature, and I had Sullivan's signature. I said, shit, this is real. This is the guy here.

[Jed Lipinski]

The moving documents revealed that Jim Sullivan had hired a company to move some furniture from his home in Macon, Georgia, to his new residence in Palm BEACH in late 1986, just months before Lita's death. Those documents, combined with the recorded phone calls, were enough to secure an arrest warrant for Tony Harwood. Tony, it turned out, was still living in Albemarle. With the blessing of local cops, John and his partner set up a small office at the Albemarle Police Department. John wasn't sure how Tony would react to his arrest or if he'd agree to talk. So John decorated their little office to make it look like they had more info on Tony than they actually did.

[John Lang]

So I got these file cabinets down there, and I printed up labels, I guess, and put them on the file cabinets, and I labeled them, Lita Sullivan, Homicide Task Force. And then I have another label put up on a file cabinet drawer, and it said, Tony Harwood. And, you know, I had all this stuff. It was all just. But it looked impressive if you came in there and you say, hey, holy shit. Look at all the stuff they've been doing on me.

[Jed Lipinski]

It turns out John didn't need the theatrics when he and his partner knocked on Tony's door to arrest him. Tony answered. Here's Deb Landau.

[Deb Miller Landau]

Tony answers. It's early in the morning. He's about to go to church. She's living with his wife and her children. And he opens the door, stands in the doorway, and he says, I've been waiting for you boys for a long time.

[Jed Lipinski]

John brought Tony back to the police station for questioning. To John's surprise, he was willing to talk.

[Deb Miller Landau]

Tony is a big brick of a guy. He's affable, though he's friendly. He grew up kind of in a dirt patch in this part of North Carolina, had a grade nine education. At 17 years old, he was arrested for petty theft and burglary and spent seven years in jail. So, you know, he spent the good chunk of his formative years in prison. But he knows how to talk to people and he really likes to be liked. It's important for him to be understood and liked. And so when he sits down with John Lang, an Atlanta police detective who's accompanied him, Tony's nervous. But he's like, I got this. You know, he's thinking, okay, like, I can talk my way out of this because I've spent my lifetime talking my way out of everything.

[Jed Lipinski]

In the interrogation, Tony admitted that Jim Sullivan had paid him $25,000 to take care of his estranged wife. He also confessed to orchestrating the hit, but he adamantly denied that he was the shooter. When John Lang asked who the shooter was, Tony said he wasn't sure. That was a long time ago, he said, and, you know, his memory wasn't what it used to be. John wasn't buying it.

[John Lang]

Tony Harwood's so full of shit that a little bit of truth goes a long way with this guy. He lied so damn much about this stuff. He said the guy had a ski mask on that he went down there with, and when they got the flowers and he drove around to the side of the building there, and the guy with the ski mask gets out and takes the flowers. And he said, I know what he's going to do. But I just sat there, I was driving the car, and I'm thinking to myself, well, who the fuck is going to get out of their car? And Buckhead, which is an affluent area of Atlanta, at 8 o' clock in the morning or whenever it was 7:30 with a damn ski mask on and walk up down the street and then walk up to somebody's door without arousing some suspicion. So I knew that was just total bullshit.

[Jed Lipinski]

Still, Tony's confession represented the biggest break in the Leta McClinton case thus far. For the first time, the cops had someone who placed Jim Sullivan at the center of the murder conspiracy. But Jim had spent the last 11 years outrunning justice, and he wasn't about to stop now.

[Deb Miller Landau]

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[Jed Lipinski]

Not long after Tony Harwood was extradited back to Atlanta, the Fulton County DA secured an arrest warrant for Jim Sullivan and charged him with felony murder. After more than a decade, it looked like Jim's days on the outside were finally numbered. The problem was Jim Sullivan wasn't in Atlanta. He wasn't even in Palm Beach. As investigators learned he was most likely at another one of his homes in Costa Rica. So John and his partner were told to go find him.

[John Lang]

We were in Miami. We had gotten our overnight passports. We had our photos done. Everything had the airline tickets. And Atlanta police called us back at the last minute, called back and said, no, we're not going to authorize you guys to go because something could happen to you down there. We don't know how far Sullivan's tentacles reach. We're going to pull you back.

[Jed Lipinski]

So John flew back to Atlanta. At this point, the fact that the DA had an arrest warrant for Jim had not been made public. And John says he warned the DA to keep it that way. Jim was a major flight risk and was already living in a foreign country. If he learned there was an arrest warrant out for him, he would almost certainly run. The DA's name was Paul Howard. John, put it this way, told Paul

[John Lang]

Howard, make sure that Sullivan's attorneys don't find out about this. Don't let Sullivan find out there's an arrest warrant for him. Well, what did Paul Howard do? He called his defense attorney and let him know that there was a warrant for him. And that's when Sullivan booked up and took off over to Panama. I mean, it was days and he was gone. Calls a pilot and calls somebody else, and he's gone.

[Deb Miller Landau]

And what ensues after that is, you know, an International manhunt. They cannot find Jim. He vanishes, and nobody knows where he is.

[Jed Lipinski]

Lita's parents were aghast. Investigators had finally gathered enough information to arrest Jim, but the county's lead prosecutor had let him slip through their fingers. The FBI put Jim on their most wanted list. Interpol agents fanned out in search of him.

[Deb Miller Landau]

They're looking for Jim. They can't find him. All over the world, tips are coming in, and they don't find any trace of him. They hear rumors that he might be in Thailand, but there's no evidence of him coming through the Thailand borders.

[Jed Lipinski]

Jim was profiled on America's Most Wanted. Unsolved Mysteries did an episode about him, but nothing happened. A year passed, then another, then two more. By 2002, Jim had been on the run for four years. During these years, John Lang befriended Lita's family and kept them abreast of the search for Jim.

[John Lang]

They lived not far from where I lived in Atlanta. So my son and I would go where I'd stop by their house, the McClintins, and she give my son, I don't know, he was six or seven years old. Give him a Coke and sit on the couch and talk about the case, about what was being done to facilitate his arrest.

[Jed Lipinski]

Then, just when it seemed like Jim might never be found, the feds got a tip. The caller lived in a fancy resort in the seaside town of Cha Am, Thailand. He'd seen a rerun of the America's Most Wanted episode and recognized Jim Sullivan's mugshot.

[Deb Miller Landau]

And he's like, oh, my God, that guy lives in my building. They call the local police, and sure enough, Jim Sullivan has his name on the door. He's living in a resort community with another woman and is seemingly sort of oblivious to the fact that there's an international manhunt for him.

[Jed Lipinski]

The FBI told Thai authorities to place Jim and his girlfriend under surveillance while they secured the paperwork for his arrest. Two months later, the Thai police moved

[Deb Miller Landau]

in, and they finally knock on his door July 2, 2002, and say, you're under the arrest for the murder of Leda McClinton. And he's like, what do you mean I'm under arrest? I didn't know there was a warrant out for my arrest.

[Jed Lipinski]

After his arrest, Jim was taken to a Thai prison to await extradition. Amnesty International had recently published a report detailing the horrific conditions inside Thai prisons. But apparently, Jim preferred to stay there than face the music back in Atlanta.

[Deb Miller Landau]

So he fights extradition, and it takes another two and a Half years before. Finally, the US Marshals load him onto a plane and bring him back. And he lands at Hartsfield International Airport. And he is a shadow of his former self. He's wearing a mask. It's the time of sars. He's got a brutally infected tooth. He's wearing a single shoe because his gout is so bad.

[Jed Lipinski]

Another two years would pass before Jim finally stood trial in Atlanta for Leta's murder. By this time, Tony Harwood had finally admitted to being the gunman and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Jim was charged with five counts, including malice murder and felony murder. The state was seeking the death penalty. Once again, the city of Atlanta held its breath. Jim's first trial had taken place in federal court 14 years earlier. Back then, the prosecution's case depended largely on circumstantial evidence, including a phone call placed from an Atlanta area rest stop to Jim's house in Palm beach shortly after the murder. But the feds could never prove what was actually said on that call, and the judge dismissed the case. This time, prosecutors had something they didn't have before. The alleged hitman and his ex girlfriend, both of whom agreed to testify on the stand. Tony described how Jim had asked him to take care of his wife. He also admitted that he was the one who'd called Jim from that payphone to confirm the job was done.

[Deb Miller Landau]

But Jim's defense team does a really good job of saying, you know, you had not enough in the 1992 trial, and now you've got Tony and Belinda, who never tell the same story twice, who were active drug users back in the time of the murder, and you're going to believe them. So for a while there, it's a little bit hairy, and the McClinton family is like, oh, my God, are we headed to this again? Is he going to get out of the noose again? But finally, it takes the jury just a few hours to deliberate, and the jury comes back and finds him guilty of murder and eventually saves him from the death penalty, but says that he will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. So Jim today is almost 84 years old. He is still in prison in Georgia and will never, ever get out again.

[Jed Lipinski]

As I mentioned earlier, Deb Landau had originally covered the Leta McClinton story for Atlanta Magazine. But after years of interviews and research, she expanded it into a book called A Devil Went down to Georgia, which was published in 2024. Until then, Lita's story had existed mostly in fragments. A headline, a court filing, a segment on America's Most Wanted, the thread picked up only to be dropped again.

[Deb Miller Landau]

And so one of the things that I think is important about looking at stories like this again is that you can be the carrier of the thread that has been dropped again and again and again. And it gives you the opportunity to sort of put it all together and respectfully honor the life that was lost. And then in a way that you can look at it through the lens of the things that we're reckoning with today in our culture, around race, around economic disparities, around relationships and power dynamics between men and women. I think it's important to look at historical sort of cases through new lenses so that we can better understand both what happened to them and better understand ourselves.

[Jed Lipinski]

If you have information, story tips or feedback you'd like to share with the Gone south team, please email [e-mail] that's gone southpodcastmail.com for bonus content. You can follow us on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram at Gone south podcast. You can also sign up for our newsletter on substack at Gone south with Jed Lipinski Gone south is an Odyssey original podcast. It's created, written and narrated by me, Jed Lipinski. Our executive producers are Leah Rees, Dennis, Maddie Sprung Keyser and Lloyd Lockridge. Our story editor is Katie Mingle. Gone south is edited, mixed and mastered by Chris Basel. Production support from Ian Mont and Sean Cherry. Special thanks to Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Kurt Courtney and Hilary Shof. Thank you for listening to Gone South.

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[Deb Miller Landau]

is not hard to destroy a college.

[Jed Lipinski]

Last season, the podcast Campus Files brought you stories of fraternity drug rings, stolen body parts, campus cults, and more. And now Campus Files is back for another season. There's a guy screaming into his phone. He's like, I just saw Charlie Kirk get assassinated right in front of me. Every week is a new episode and a new story. It was so chaotic, it's almost like

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a university under siege.

[Dr. Harini Bhatt]

Listen to and follow Campus Files available

[Jed Lipinski]

now wherever you get your podcasts.