RAIFORD, Fla. - William Haake has spent more than 25 years behind bars for the murder of a St. Petersburg police officer in 1980. Tonight at 11pm on ABC Action News, I-Team investigator Michael George asks Haake tough questions about the murder, and revisits the story of a forgotten fallen hero.
But there is another murder in which Haake was a suspect. Evelyn Haake, William’s wife, was shot and killed on January 29, 1977. Her murder has never been solved.
Haake was investigated for the murder, but never charged. Just three years later, he and another man shot and killed Detective Herbert Sullivan during a drug deal.
In his first ever interview, I asked Haake some tough questions about the murder. He was forthcoming about some parts of the crime, and evasive about others. There is no statute of limitations on murder, and the case is still considered open.
The following is an exchange that took place inside Union Correctional Institution in June.
“When the murder happened, what was really going on there? You said you were considered a suspect. Did you murder Evelyn?” I asked.
“No, absolutely not,” Haake responded.
Haake tells me on the night his wife was murdered, they were planning to go to a friend’s birthday party. They were headed there separately. When Evelyn never showed up for the party, he went home to look for her.
“I discovered her on the flood, dead,” Haake said.
“Where were you at the time of the murder?” I asked.
“I really don’t know. I was either at the office or… I don’t know the actual… I’ve forgotten the time span or timeframe that police actually figured out that she was shot,” he responded.
“What do you think happened?” I asked.
“As far as what?” Haake said.
“The murder. Who do you think did it, and why?” I asked.
“Well, I really don’t want to get into that aspect, because that’s still an open investigation. But I will make this statement. There’s only one person alive that had anything to do with that murder, and that’s me. As far as she was concerned, it could have been me,” Haake told me.
I thought that was an unusual statement. I pressed him further.
“What do you mean by that?” I said.
“I said, it could’ve been me. It was a toss-up, as far as I understand the situation. But I will never understand it, to tell you the truth. I will never understand it. I mean, it just was a senseless thing,” he said.
Haake was getting more evasive. He went on to say he meant that a lot of time had passed since the murder, and the police wasted time focusing on him rather than the actual perpetrators.
“It was your gun that was used in the murder, is that correct? Wasn’t it your gun?” I asked him.
“Yes.”
“Was that not in your possession?”
“Yeah, well, after we got robbed, it was like, when we came home, wife and kids, we opened the door and realized this place had been ransacked and robbed, and I didn’t know if people were still in there. It frightened me, it really did. You have to go through a home invasion to understand the fear and the outrage that finally comes back when you finally get the fear set aside. From that point on, I kept a gun right by the door. So that if I did come in there again and the house was in…I felt danger, I could reach over and pull this gun out. It was fully loaded and ready to go,” he said.
“Now, you had a life insurance policy. You were sued over that life insurance policy on your wife,” I asked him.
“Yes.”
“$50,000 was a lot of money back then.” I said.
“It sure was.”
“There were some who said in the court records that your wife was worth more to you dead than alive. What’s your response to what they said back then?” I asked.
“Bull****. She made that in the last year in the real estate business, and she was on the fast track, we were both on the fast track to double that,” he responded.
“So those folks that think that you’re responsible, what would you say to them?” I said.
“I’m definitely responsible.”
His response threw me a bit. His comments indicated he was saying he was either involved in the murder, or knew who was.
“You’re responsible?” I asked.
“Sure.”
“But you’re not the killer, is that what you’re saying?” I said.
“No, I’m not the killer.”
“What do you mean, you’re responsible?” I asked.
“There’s something that I have to have done in my lifetime or in my rise to where we were that affected someone adversely. And it doesn’t make any difference that I didn’t pull the trigger on my wife, the bottom line is that I still feel responsible for her death,” he said.
I asked him if he was saying that Evelyn’s killer was really after him.
“There was a message that was being sent there. I received the message,” he said.
Haake wouldn’t elaborate any further.
William Haake has been denied parole on multiple occasions. He says he no longer has any hope for getting out of prison. While he admits his role in the murder of Detective Herbert Sullivan, he strongly denies involvement in the murder of his wife. Haake has become a Christian, and hopes that he can one day counsel young people
considering a life of violence.
After listening to his interview, what do you think? Is Haake innocent of his wife’s murder? Or do you believe he had something to do with it? Post your comments below.
Tonight at 11pm, watch I-Team investigator Michael George's interview with William Haake about the murder of Detective Herbert Sullivan. It's a story of a hero whose name many have forgotten after 31 years.
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