KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, LouisianaExcerpts from Rideau TV Interview

Excerpts from Rideau TV Interview

July 1, 2004
Reported by Theresa Schmidt

The court battle is underway to determine what tapes, statements and other evidence a jury will get to review when Wilbert Rideau has his 4th trial for murder. After a court ruling Thursday, prosecutors will be able to show several media interviews in the trial.

KPLC has obtained excerpts of one interview first aired 23 years ago. It was 1981. By this time, Rideau had been convicted of murder three times and was serving his sentence at Angola State Penitentiary. He was interviewed by former Baton Rouge T.V. Reporter Jodie Bell. He talked about the killing of Julia Ferguson and the injuries of the two bank employees who lived.

The reporter asked, "You didn't cut their throats? I was told you cut their throats."
Rideau replied: "Yeah, one."
Reporter: "You cut one?"
Rideau: "That's the one who died."
Reporter: "Why did you do that, rather than shoot that person?"
Rideau: "I think I ran out of bullets."
Reporter: "Okay, so you took four, you took three, shot two and killed the other one."
Rideau: "Right."
Reporter: "I know I've asked you a lot of questions, just interesting about why you would want to kill them when they hadn't done anything to you. I'm not in the right frame of mind to understand what you're saying."
Rideau: "You have to understand what happened. Back then, like Billy pointed out, I was criminal. I needed to be locked up even before I committed the crime."
Reporter: "How old were you when you did it?"
Rideau: "Because I was dangerous. I was 19 years old. I had just made it. And aside from being criminal, back then I had to-- the fact that I hated white people added an extra dimension to the whole affair. I mean, you're not that concerned about the humanity of people you hate."

Though Rideau was sentenced to die, he escaped the possibility of execution after state's death penalty law was thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court. He talks about the death penalty in the interview:

Reporter: "Should you have been executed for what you did?"
Rideau: "Yeah."
Reporter: "Why?"
Rideau: "Because, if you have a law you gotta enforce it."

Rideau also talks about life in prison being worse than death: "It's just another form of death. It's just that this one is more excruciating than the other because he's going to suffer for the rest of his life." By this time, Rideau was pleading his case for release from prison. In fact, he says the time he spent on death row gave him empathy for his victim. "It made me realize what my victim must have felt, because I did the same thing to her. I ignored her pleas."

The Jodie Bell interview is one of three media interviews the defense sought to keep out of the trial. However, the judge denied the motion. Judge David Ritchie ruled to allow use of a written statement Rideau gave to the FBI in 1961, but defense will appeal to the Third Circuit. Both sides will be back in court at 9:30 Friday morning to continue hearings on pre-trial motions. The trial is set for October 25th.