For the Mississippi Goddam series, the Reveal team spent three years reporting on the suspicious death of Mississippi high school football player Billey Joe Johnson Jr. during a traffic stop. This page collects important documents, police reports and official files that the team obtained while reporting the story. We’re sharing these files with the public because of the lack of transparency and accountability around Mississippi’s system of investigating these types of incidents. We’ll be updating this page throughout October and November 2021, as new episodes air.
These documents have been redacted to remove personal information.
Explore the files:
- George County grand jury report on Billey Joe Johnson Jr.’s death, published Feb. 9, 2009
- Incident reports: Reports by George County Sheriff’s Deputies Joe Sullivan and Eric Purvis on the traffic stop that ended in Johnson’s death
- Mississippi Bureau of Investigation diagrams of the parking lot where Johnson died
- Lucedale Police Department incident report on an alleged break-in at Hannah Hollinghead’s father’s home
- Narrative summary by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation of the scene of Johnson’s death
- List of witnesses scheduled to testify before the grand jury looking into Johnson’s death
- Color of Change petition to then-George County District Attorney Tony Lawrence, asking his office to examine inconsistencies in the police investigation of Johnson’s death
Listen to the Mississippi Goddam series here.
Case Files from Mississippi Goddam: The Ballad of Billey Joe is a story from Reveal. Reveal is a registered trademark of The Center for Investigative Reporting and is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization.
This post was originally published on Reveal.