Long Search For Justice
This is the story of a brutal murder, and the long road to justice. Correspondent Susan Spencer first reported on this story last December.
The story begins in 1975. Lita McClinton, 23, was the daughter of a well-to-do family in Atlanta. She was interested in fashion, and working in an upscale boutique in suburban Atlanta.
"She could almost be a model. She was really very attractive and her clothing always fit really nice," says Aida Flamm, one of Lita's closest friends.
Lita, who was black, fell in love with James Sullivan, a white 33-year-old businessman who'd inherited millions. "He swept her off her feet," says Flamm. "She thought he was a dashing, debonair wonderful man."
But Lita's parents were worried about how a biracial couple might fare in Macon, Ga., where the two planned to live. They were also worried because they didn't like Jim Sullivan.
He was a pathological liar, the McClintons say, who often omitted inconvenient information. They also say he waited until the night before the marriage to tell Lita that he had been married before, and had four kids.
"It was not a good scene," says Emory McClinton, Lita's father.
Despite that, Lita married Sullivan the next day. The newlyweds moved to Macon, but soon Lita began to see a different Jim Sullivan.
According to John Connolly, a writer and former New York City cop who has been tracking the story for years, Sullivan cheated on her constantly.
Lita agreed to move to Palm Beach, Florida, into an oceanfront mansion. She hoped that the change of scenery might help the marriage. But the cheating continued. In fact, Flamm says that Lita once found someone else's bra in her bed.
Without success, Sullivan was trying to move up the social ladder in Palm Beach. Those who know him say he blamed his wife. Connolly says Sullivan thought that Lita's race was an impediment.
After nine years of marriage, Lita finally had it. She moved back to the townhouse in Atlanta, filed for divorce and refused to settle for an agreed on $2,500 a month alimony payment. Instead, she wanted half of Sullivan's $5 million estate.
A judge was set to rule on January 16, 1987. But early that morning, Lita's neighbor Bob Christenson noticed a stranger in the courtyard near her front door. He was carrying a box of flowers.
"I started to walk toward him and I just got a very bad feeling about it," remembers Christenson. "It's hard to say why, just sort of an instinctive like don't mess with this guy. He's somebody you don't want to mess with."
So Christenson turned and went back to his house. The stranger rang Lita's doorbell. Then Christenson heard three shots. He immediately thought that Sullivan had ordered his wife to be killed.
The man ran off and Christenson raced to Lita's side. She'd been shot in the head, and was alive but unconscious. She died soon afterward at a local hospital.
Jim Sullivan was in Palm Beach, hundreds of miles away. But the McClintons were sure that he was responsible.
The only real evidence was a collect call to Sullivan's Florida estate 30 minutes after Lita's murder, made from a rest stop near her home. Police think it was the hit man telling Sullivan that the deed was done.
While the McClintons were dealing with Lita's death, Sullivan lived the good life. Eight months later, he married his girlfriend Suki Rogers and became a Palm Beach insider.
The phone call did lead to conspiracy charges, but a judge dismissed the case. The McClintons sued Sullivan for wrongful death, but by the time they'd won the case, he'd stashed his money offshore.
Then, in 1998, a surprise break arrived: an eyewitness came forward. The alleged hit man's girlfriend turned him in.
"She was present at that meeting when Sullivan and the hit man had their discussion about having this murder committed," says Brad Moore, a lawyer for the McClintons.
The alleged hit man, police said, was Philip Anthony Harwood, a 47-year-old trucker with a history of petty crimes. Once arrested, he quickly implicated Sullivan.
Eleven years after Lita's murder, prosecutors indicted Jim Sullivan for murder. Authorities decided to contact his lawyers instead of bringing him in -- which turned out to be a very bad move. Sullivan flew the coop, with millions of dollars.
Over the years, there were scores of Sullivan sightings and rumors of sightings in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and Ireland. Finally, police tracked him to a resort town about a hundred miles south of Bangkok.
The FBI enlisted the Royal Thai police, who found out that Sullivan was living in a posh condominium community, overlooking the gulf of Thailand.
The Thai police went undercover, and kept Sullivan under surveillance for two months. Finally, they arrested them in July 2001.
"Once we moved into apartment we moved inside and he was sweating all over and he looked like he was feeling sick or something," says a Thai cop. "He was completely shocked. He had no idea."
Apparently not: He'd used his own name on the front door.
Sullivan is now in a crowded Bangkok prison. The arrest overjoyed the McClintons. "We both had a very good cry," says Joann, Lita's mother. "This possibly was it and we both just had a good cry like we've never had before during this entire search for Jim."
But finding him and putting him on trial are two different things. Sullivan is fighting extradition from Thailand. Authorities worry that, as always with Sullivan, this too may come down to money.
According to FBI agent, Bob Cahill, Sullivan has millions of dollars socked away. However, Joann worries that he will be able to buy his way out of jail.
Since we aired this story last December, Sullivan has appealed his extradition ruling. A decision is expected in a few months. Until then, he sits in a squalid jail thousands of miles away from Atlanta.