Texas Monthly – August 2019

about how her reserved husband would

deal with the world—in particular his

family. She was desperate for him to feel

at home. “You have to communicate

with us,” she had told Ed. “Especially

me.” She knew she could be pushy, but

that was the only way her family had

survived for this long. She also knew

Ed was still angry and that she would

have to help guide him, to find a way

to not let his bitterness consume him.

Kim watched her kids talk to mem-

bers of the crowd. Kyra, 23, is like her

mother, expressive and quick with a

hug, and was laughing with total strang-

ers. Zach, three years younger, is like

Ed, reserved and stoic. He stood alone,

nervous about reuniting with his fa-

ther, whom he had never seen outside

prison walls.

Finally, a little past noon, someone

called out, “I think I just heard the

gate open,” and everyone stood up and

looked across the street. A tall, bald

man was walking down the sidewalk.

A few people cheered. Ed, wearing a

Ultimately, Ed needed the approval of
two out of three commissioners in the
parole board office in nearby Palestine.
Clayton asked for help from experienced
parole lawyer Roger Nichols, who, work-
ing pro bono, presented the case to one
of the commissioners on March 27. An-
other commissioner interviewed Ed the
next day. Toward the end of that meet-
ing, Ed would later recall, the man said,
“What I’m getting is, you didn’t do this.”
Usually it takes two to three weeks for
the board to make their decision public,
but Ed was granted parole the next day.
When Clayton heard, she immediately
called Kim, who was at work. “Ed made
parole,” she said through tears. Kim
had to excuse herself and walk outside,
where she started crying and hollering,
“I knew he was coming home!”
On a muggy morning in early Septem-
ber 2018, Kim drove her kids to Hunts-
ville, where Ed had been transferred
prior to his release from prison. She
wished she could’ve brought Margie too,
but Ed’s mother, suffering from Alzhei-
mer’s, had killed herself the previous
summer. By the time the Ates family
arrived, there was a crowd of fifty peo-
ple standing vigil, waiting for Ed. Many
were women from East Texas, though
one had traveled from California, an-
other from Arkansas. Most of them
were strangers, but they had seen one
another’s photos on the Truth & Jus-
tice Facebook fan page. They couldn’t
believe that Ed was getting out—and
that they were going to witness it. A
few carried hand-lettered posters that
read “We stand with Ed” and “Welcome
home, Ed. Love, the T & J Army.”
Ruff was there, and he greeted Kim,
Kyra, and Zach with hugs and tears.
This was a huge day for Ruff, the end
of a remarkable campaign. Podcasts had
barely existed ten years before, and Ruff
knew, as did everyone else in the crowd,
that Ed would still be stuck behind bars
if Ruff hadn’t started one and found
an army of followers. Like a few other
podcasts—Serial, Empire on Blood, In
the Dark—his had successfully drawn
attention to a questionable conviction
and actually helped free someone. In
addition, Ruff had raised more than
$35,000 from listeners to help Ed get
back on his feet.
Kim looked around at the crowd. “I
don’t think he’s ready for this,” she said.
More than anything, she was concerned

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