ABC will present a special two-hour broadcast of 20/20 titled In The Cold Dark Night on July 17th. The program will look at the 1983 murder of a young black man named Timothy Coggins.
What’s Happening:
- ABC News’ 20/20 and Lone Wolf Studios filmmakers will present a two-hour broadcast, In The Cold Dark Night, on the story of Timothy Coggins’ murder on Friday, July 17 (9:00 – 11:00 pm ET) on ABC.
- 20/20: In The Cold Dark Night also takes a close look at the community and its culture, including deep-rooted racism which impacted Coggins’ case and that several interviewed say still exists today, the dynamic between those in positions of power and the black community, the role of law enforcement and the journey for justice.
About the Story:
- Timothy Coggins, a young black man, was brutally murdered in 1983 in a small Georgia town due, in part, to his relationship with a white woman. When both state and local authorities stopped investigating and the Coggins family received threats to remain quiet, the case went cold for nearly 35 years.
- In 2017 the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reopened the cold case and eventually charged Frankie Gebhardt and William Moore, Sr. with Coggins’ murder, despite having no new DNA evidence to prompt the re-opening.
- The filmmakers embedded in Spalding County, Georgia as these surprising new developments unfolded. They gained unprecedented access to the Sheriff’s department, including evidence and a diary written in the 1980s by a local police officer who infiltrated the KKK, discovering the KKK claimed to have members who worked in the local police departments; exclusive footage from inside the courtroom during the case, which captured Gebhardt’s murder conviction and when Moore pleaded guilty to manslaughter; and interviews with the families of Coggins, Moore and Gebhardt.
Creative Team:
- Terri Lichstein serves as executive producer
- David Sloan is senior executive producer
- Taigi Smith serves as producer
- Marc Dorian serves as producer
For Lone Wolf Studios in association with Radical Media:
- Stephen Robert Morse is director/producer/writer
- Max Peltz is producer/writer
- Miikka Leskinen is editor/co-producer/writer