Among the true crime stories garnering national headlines back in 2007 were O.J. getting busted in Las Vegas for a kidnapping and robbery scheme, World Wrestling Entertainment star Chris Benoit murdering his wife and seven-year-old son before taking his own life, and the mysterious and still unsolved disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann from a resort in Portugal.
Here in Chicago, a story that was front and center during that year was the brutal murder of 28-year-old pharmaceutical executive, Nailah Franklin. The story would make headlines again in 2015 when her killer was finally brought to justice.
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Transcript:
Bianca Sloane: (00:00)
Among the true crime stories garnering national headlines back in 2007 were O.J. Simpson getting busted in Las Vegas for a kidnapping and robbery scheme, World Wrestling Entertainment star, Chris Benoit, murdering his wife and seven-year-old son before taking his own life. And the mysterious and still unsolved disappearance of three-year-old Madeline McCann from a resort in Portugal.
Bianca Sloane: (01:24)
In Chicago, a story that was front and center during that year was the brutal murder of 28 year old pharmaceutical executive, Nailah Franklin. The story would make headlines again in 2015, when her killer was finally brought to justice.
Bianca Sloane: (01:40)
Hello and welcome to the Dark Side of Love. I'm your host Bianca Sloane, author of Suspense Novels about the Dark Side of Love, and this week I'm putting a spotlight on the case of the lady and the liar.
Bianca Sloane: (01:54)
If this were a romantic comedy, this would be the meet cute. In March of 2006, Nailah Franklin and Reginald Potts met, of all places, on a random street in Chicago's glitzy Gold Coast neighborhood. And on paper, they seem like they would be a great match. Nailah was a successful sales executive with pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly, living in a condo in the trendy University Village neighborhood. Reginald was a real estate investor who drove a sparkling white Bentley, wore tailored expensive suits and lived in a gorgeous high-rise with a view of Lake Michigan in the ritzy South Loop neighborhood. She was upbeat, fun-loving, beautiful. He was handsome, charming, and prosperous. Sounds like all the right ingredients for a frothy Hallmark movie. Except, this isn't a romantic comedy.
Bianca Sloane: (02:49)
If anything, neither Reginald nor Nailah took the relationship as anything more than casual. A fling. An on and off sexual relationship that played out until August of 2007. As Reginald told Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell that same year, he was quote absolutely not her boyfriend. For her part, according to friends, Nailah, didn't see Reginald as her happily ever after. One of Nailah's co-workers spotted Reginald with another woman at a boat party, but didn't even bother to bring it up to her colleague because she knew that Nailah did not view Reginald as a quote long-term boyfriend.
Bianca Sloane: (03:26)
Someone who did seem to have potential as long-term was Milwaukee-based attorney, Andre Wright, who Nailah met at an art show in July of 2007. The relationship seemed effortless. Scrabble games, watching movies, going on dates, just hanging out, doing all the things that boyfriends and girlfriends do. While things are going great with this new guy, Nailah still needed to cut ties with the old guy. And she'd started trying to close the door on the relationship with Reginald about the time she met Andre.
Bianca Sloane: (04:02)
And this wasn't just a case of, oh, I've met someone else or it's not you it's me. This really was Reginald. As in the guy was straight up bad news.
Bianca Sloane: (04:14)
Reginald first made headlines back in 2001 when he escaped from FBI custody and was on the loose for two weeks. He was known to be a gang member, had driven by which I mean, stolen, expensive cars right off the lot. There were drugs, weapons, fraud, threatening cops, assault. And according to the Chicago Sun-Times, during his two week sabbatical, we'll call it, he even called agents to basically say na na na boo boo, you can't catch me. Well, they did eventually catch him under a bush of all things, outside the apartment of a girlfriend. He was sentenced to two, three years in prison, serving his time at Big Muddy Correctional Center in downstate Ina, Illinois.
Bianca Sloane: (05:04)
Besides his criminal past, Reginald was also keeping some pretty big secrets with regard to his romantic life. For starters, dude was married. Separated, but married, with two children and had a newborn daughter with yet another woman. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported in 2016, wife and girlfriend were both eventually granted restraining orders against Reginald for, among other things, choking, slapping, shoving, punching, attempting to smother one of the women with a pillow.
Bianca Sloane: (05:40)
And that swanky lifestyle he purported to have? The Bentley, the downtown high rise, the successful real estate career? Well, he had a friend underwrite the car for him, and apparently he never had a real job, but had money to spend on a high-end wardrobe and designer shoes, but was sleeping on a mattress in that fancy high-rise. So, Reginald was basically was a big fat liar, a cheat, a bully, a con, and just an all around bad dude.
Bianca Sloane: (06:12)
In the process of extricating herself from Reginald, Nailah had tracked down one of his girlfriends, Ina Jones, who had given birth to Reginald's baby during the summer of 2007. She tracked her down on MySpace to let her know that they had a friend in common. The two women became chummy, calling each other and trading emails about the messy reality show known as the Life and Times of Dating Reginald Potts. In fact, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Nailah dubbed the whole thing as a quote, bad Mary J. Blige song.
Bianca Sloane: (06:47)
Still, this was more than a love affair gone wrong. Nailah had told friends that she was afraid of Reginald. She filed a police report due to some threatening phone calls that he had made to her and planned to get a restraining order against him. This doesn't sound familiar at all. This guy never gets restraining orders. She even gave friends her passwords out of fear that something could happen to her at Reginald's hand. To make it crystal clear she was done with him, according to the Chicago Tribune, in July of 2007, in an email simply titled adios, Nailah let Reginald know just what she thought of him. Crazy and pathological were just two of the descriptors she used. She urged him to concentrate on his kids. She said, I'm done peace out. Apparently, Nailah had also found a news article about his escape from the FBI and sent it to some mutual friends of theirs via email, adding his name to the CC line.
Bianca Sloane: (07:50)
Mr. Reginald was none too pleased about this. In fact, he was so pissed about it, he sent her a nasty, understatement, email in response, spewing all kinds of derogatory comments, calling her names, threatening to release sex tapes, dropping F bombs, and just about every curse word in the book and probably a few new ones. He'd also delivered a threatening voicemail message that according to the Sun-Times, Nailah played for two friends. In it, Reginald said he would quote, erase her ass and make her disappear and let her know, "I should have somebody come get you now." The Chicago Tribune reported on earlier voicemails where Reginald blathered on that she was bitter and he didn't care about her, telling her three separate times in the space of one message, "I'm wealthy. I'm very wealthy. I'll always have women around me. You don't deserve what I've got."
Bianca Sloane: (08:53)
September 18th, 2007.
Bianca Sloane: (08:56)
Andre Wright, Nailah's new boyfriend, is confused. Despite living in different cities, the two had made a habit of staying in constant touch, and he hasn't heard from her, which is unusual for the couple. Things are going really well for them. They spent the previous weekend attending a wedding in nearby Lake Geneva, and they're talking about moving in together. So things are going really well, things are getting serious. As Wright told the Chicago Tribune, they spoke twice on the night of September 17th and Nailah was her usual, normal, cheerful self. They chatted again on the morning of the 18th. However, as the day dragged on, radio silence, which again is really unusual for them. So, he calls leaves her a voicemail. He got back what he called a cryptic text that said "at dinner, call you back." The next day, Andre still hasn't heard from Nailah. So, he sends her an email in all caps, "Are you alive?" Oh gosh. Can you imagine?
Bianca Sloane: (10:06)
On Wednesday, September 19th, Nailah missed a meeting with her boss who was worried because this just isn't something she would ever do. In fact, the supervisor had texted Nailah about the meeting and received that same weird, "at dinner, call you back" message. So, when Nailah didn't show up, the boss reached out to her family and Nailah's sister, Leila Franklin Acox, who immediately went to her sister's apartment and discovered her work and personal computers, gone, her car gone, and a full voicemail box. Something was wrong. Really, really wrong.
Bianca Sloane: (10:44)
Folks spring into action, papering the city with missing person posters, taking the story to the media, putting the pressure on to find her. Neighbors at Nailah's building point police to the only possible suspect in her disappearance. Reginald Potts. To I'm sure, no one's surprise, Reginald had spent a few days stalking Nailah just before she disappeared, because this is the kind of thing this guy does.
Bianca Sloane: (11:11)
Nailah's next door neighbor saw Reginald creeping around the parking garage on September 16th. Another neighbor spotted him following day, actually inside the building and the building next door, a security guard witnessed Reginald pacing around the stairwell in the condo building on September 17th, which is the day before she disappears. He was smoking and said his name was Johnson, while also rattling off a fake unit number. Neither the security guard nor her colleague bought it, and they called the police. By the time the police showed up, Reginald was gone, although they did find a piece of tape over the garage door lock, meaning that you wouldn't need a key to get in. Dear God.
Bianca Sloane: (11:58)
September 21, three days after the last time anyone has seen Nailah. Her company issued car is found in Hammond, Indiana. The following day, some of her personal effects, including pharmaceutical samples and jewelry, are found near the River Oaks Golf Course.
Bianca Sloane: (12:17)
Thursday, September 27th. Two Calumet City police officers out on patrol spot something kind of strange in the parking lot of an abandoned building on their route. It was earbuds dangling on a tree, of all things. Now, this is something you may or may not find near an abandoned building. Still, it was enough to spur the cops to investigate.
Bianca Sloane: (12:41)
They discovered the nude, decomposing body of a young woman covered in leaves and other rubble near the Wentworth Woods Forest Preserve at River Oaks Drive and Gold Coast Lane near a lagoon. Dental records would eventually identify the body as Nailah. An autopsy confirmed the cause of death to be asphyxiation. She was 28 years old.
Bianca Sloane: (13:08)
Of note here, Calumet City is near Hammond, Indiana where Nailah's car was found abandoned. Also, remember some of her personal belongings were discovered near the River Oaks Country Club, which is not far from where the body is found. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that points directly to Reginald as Nailah's murderer.
Bianca Sloane: (13:31)
To start, there were those witnesses who spotted Reginald lurking around Nailah's building in the days before she disappeared. There are also those text messages that came from Nailah's cell phone to her boss and boyfriend on the night she disappeared. We'll come back to those in just a minute. There was the police report she had filed against him. The restraining order she was planning to get. Turning over her email passwords to a friend in case Reginald did something to her, which she was seriously afraid of. Reginald was questioned by police, and of course, denied he had anything to do with her murder. He says he was at a restaurant downtown the day she disappeared. He was having dinner with one girlfriend, drinks with another, had met up with another girlfriend late that night. And in between all of that, he was at a Target store shopping with two friends. Except no, not according to the surveillance cameras from that Target. And no, not according to the cell phone tower records that showed he wasn't in any restaurants downtown or otherwise. We know where he was.
Bianca Sloane: (14:38)
The surveillance camera footage from Nailah's building showed her leaving with Reginald on the morning of September 18th, the day she disappeared. Prosecutors believe he ambushed her, brought her down to the garage in her building, strangled her, then stuffed her body in the trunk of her car before taking off. Second, as the Chicago Sun-Times reported, Reginald gave police the ultimate gift, leaving behind a trail of electronic breadcrumbs that allowed them to track his every move, starting with the day Nailah vanished. The cell phone records show both Reginald and Nailah's phones pinging off the same towers. Those cell phones were together in Calumet City where Nailah's body was found. They were together in Hammond, Indiana, where her car was abandoned. And according to prosecutors, after disposing of Nailah's body, Reginald phoned a friend from his own phone, presumably, asking those same buddies, he said he was with at Target to come pick him up in Hammond, which is near where he ditched Nailah's car because he was stranded.
Bianca Sloane: (15:50)
Reginald conveniently still has Nailah's phone. Remember that Andre, her boyfriend, had left her a voicemail earlier and he received a text message back that she would call later? That was Reginald. He sent a similar message to Nailah's boss, who had contacted her that night about the meeting that they had for work the next day. And now this is where Reginald thinks he's being oh, so clever. He calls 911 three times that night from Nailah's phone in a pathetic attempt to make it look as though she was still alive. The calls only lasts a second or two, which meant that they couldn't be traced. He didn't say anything. All you could hear in the background was music, so, dispatchers really didn't know what was going on during the course of those calls.
Bianca Sloane: (16:41)
And one last little detail. Remember Ina Jones, Reginald's girlfriend and the mother of his newborn baby? She recognized the abandoned building where Nailah's body was found as an old video store that used to be owned by Reginald's brother-in-law once upon a time. Hashtag too many coincidences.
Bianca Sloane: (17:03)
Three months after Nailah's murder, Reginald was arrested and charged with first degree murder. Even though he was arrested in 2007, he wouldn't go on trial until 2015. Yes, you heard that right. 2015, almost seven years later. Reginald totally gamed the system by coming up with every delay tactic you can imagine. He constantly hired and fired attorneys, at times declaring he would just represent himself. He trumped up technicalities around evidence. I mean, whatever he could do to drag out the process, dude did it. At one point, according to CBS 2 Chicago, he appeared in court nearly 100 times before he ever even went to trial. A hundred times! That's crazy.
Bianca Sloane: (17:49)
He was no prince when he was in jail, either. Again shocker. During his time in custody, he perpetrated over 200, 200 violations, ranging from jacking up the plumbing in his cell, assaulting guards, and even lit up his cell on fire another time. Cook County jail chief, Terry Williams, classified Reginald as one of the quote, top 10 worst inmates he'd encountered in his career. So, that has to tell you something.
Bianca Sloane: (18:19)
After finally sticking the landing with a team of public defenders, Reginald's trial commenced on October 28th, 2015. Prosecutors said the motive was anger. Not only that Nailah had broken up with him, but that she'd spilled the tea about his lengthy rap sheet to mutual friends. She'd ripped the mask off his carefully crafted persona as the successful businessman with the tailored suits, fancy address, and the big time Bentley to expose the fraud underneath. The charming, violent sociopath with a rap sheet several miles long, who would say and do whatever he had to in order to get what he wanted. Who would do anything to control those around him, especially women. Despite the lack of physical evidence, i.e., DNA, between the witness testimony and those digital breadcrumbs, a jury convicted Reginald of first degree murder on November 10th, 2015.
Bianca Sloane: (19:24)
Reginald never testified in his own defense, but following his conviction, did have the opportunity to stand up and speak to the court. He took 40 minutes to tearfully declare himself innocent of murder, innocent of stalking Nailah, blaming his situation on the media portraying him as a killer with a violent past. And in his version of events, none of the beatings, slaps, or punches his wife and girlfriend testified to and had restraining orders for, were true. So, this was all a lie. And all those assault claims from his time in jail? He was merely defending himself against crap treatment from the guards because, see, those guards didn't know who he was. Those women were just mad because he left them because he didn't want them. He also adamantly wanted the court to know that it was he who asked Nailah to leave him alone, to quit calling him. He broke up with her. She did not break up with him. He was the victim. Not his wife, not his girlfriend. Not Nailah. Him.
Bianca Sloane: (20:32)
Cook County Judge Thomas Gainer Jr. was wholly unimpressed by this, we'll call it, impassioned plea of righteous goodness. The judge tore dude a new one, declaring him to be a quote, cold, calculating, conniving coward of a con man before sentencing him to life in prison without parole.
Bianca Sloane: (20:52)
Nailah's family, they weren't the only ones rejoicing at justice being served. During the sentencing phase of the trial, Highland Park police officer, Mike Leonard testified that while investigating Reginald for car theft in 2001, which was connected to his infamous escape from FBI custody, Reginald called him. Officer Leonard said Reginald informed him that quote, "I'd see the end of his 45 and that he'd kill my family and that I never be safe." Officer Leonard was spooked enough that he kept Reginald's photo on his refrigerator. He wanted his family to know exactly who Reginald was in case he ever attempted to make good on his threat. That picture stayed on Officer Leonard's refrigerator for six long years. He finally took it down when Reginald was arrested in 2007 for murdering Nailah.
Bianca Sloane: (21:53)
Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of The Dark Side of Love. I'm your host, Bianca Sloane and show your love for the Dark Side of Love by visiting thedarksideoflove.com for show notes, transcripts, and a chance to support the show. Thanks for hanging out with me and join me next time for another tale of love gone wrong. I'll see you on the Dark Side.
Sources:
CBS 2 Chicago – Top Local Stories, reporter Jay Levine
Chicago Sun-Times – Reginald Potts ex-wife, former girlfriend recount abuse, by Rummana Hussain, June 24, 2016
Chicago Sun-Times/Press Reader – Cell dialing tripped up suspect in Nailah Franklin murder: prosecutors, by Rummana Hussain, October 29, 2015
Chicago Sun-Times – FBI catches escapee after 2 weeks by Steve Warmbir, June 22, 2001
Chicago Sun-Times – Potts: I did not murder Nailah by Mary Mitchell, October 28, 2007
Chicago Tribune – Ripped as ‘conniving coward,’ Reginald Potts, Jr. given life in prison by Steve Schmadeke, March 9, 2016
Chicago Tribune – Slaying suspect had a past, by Angela Rozas and Kayce Ataiyero, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporters James Kimberly, Lisa Black, and Matt Walberg and freelance reporter Victoria Pierce, December 9, 2007
Chicago Tribune - Proffer of evidence against Reginald Potts Jr. by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office (Eric Zorn column), December 13, 2007