S2|E3 Serial Somethin’
Jim grew up to be a serial entrepreneur, have serial marriages and engage in a serial pattern of prolific abuse. Often using our courts as a tool to carry out that abuse. Jim's professional, and personal life are part of what makes him interesting and enigmatic for the women who go on to love and then eventually leave him. He's a sort of most interesting man in the world type of character when you first meet him. Or if you look at it from another lens he learned about how to become a serial fraudster from his father, and never looked back.
You can find the court records and sources for this episode at https://panic-button-episode-3.tiiny.co/
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If you are in immediate danger, please call 911 or your local emergency number.
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Transcript:
Speakers - Josh Kidd, Colleen McCarty, Donna, Leslie Briggs, Heather, Jim Luman, Newscaster, Tisha, Christen
Colleen McCarty 00:00
This episode contains graphic accounts of domestic and sexual violence, violence against women in particular, and language that is not suitable for listeners 18 and under. There are also discussions of necrophilia. Please use caution when listening,
Donna 00:16
my energy never vibed with his energy. There was just something about him that was dark, you know, you know how you know, but you don't know how you know why they've done anything at all for that man. I mean, besides just stepping on the risks, why is it hard that the evidence is there if that had been a man, he had done that too. They would have had him on assault and battery when we didn't have What's so hard about that. He's an awful man. Our justice system system is a reason that women are killed every day. Men like him, man like him that get off, repeat offenders that get off. I could walk in a Walmart and take something and then give me more than what they've ever given Jim and I've looked at his record.
Colleen McCarty 01:11
That was Jim's old landlord, Donna. She learned firsthand what an expert manipulator Jim Luman is, particularly when it comes to court proceedings like an eviction. Donna's struggled to get him out of her home in 2014. When Donna leased the property to Jim she had no idea what kind of person she was dealing with. Like so many others who have done business with Jim, she learned the hard way that he is ruthless, maniacal and an expert manipulator.
Leslie Briggs 01:41
Jim's behavior in Donna's home and throughout the eviction proceedings, evidence a person who is willing to use the courts and manipulate their inefficiencies to his advantage in a serial fashion. Jim grew up to be a serial entrepreneur, have serial marriages and engage in a serial pattern of prolific abuse. Often using our courts as a tool to carry out that abuse. Jim's professional, and personal life are part of what makes him interesting and enigmatic for the women who go on to love and then eventually leave him. He's a sort of most interesting man in the world type of character when you first meet him. Or if you look at it from another lens he learned about how to become a serial fraudster from his father, and never looked back. Every narcissistic abuser has one thing in common charisma and charm. To the naked eye. Jim doesn't look like anything more than just a country boy from Oklahoma. Even though everything he does is an attempt to set himself apart from that. With Jim, there's always something else going on a new scheme, a new job, a new woman a new trip. Just join him for a while on this cruise called life. But how long before you get the rug pulled out from under you and find yourself flooding in a park? Not sure who to call? The answer is that horror happens bit by bit, but then also all at once. I'm Leslie Briggs. And I'm Colleen McCarty. And this is Panic Button. Operational Wildfire, episode three, serial something.
Colleen McCarty 03:18
If you're new to this podcast, we recommend you go back and start from Episode One. Knowing everything that we know about Jim's upbringing, it's likely that he was already abusing his intimate partners by the time he got to high school. He was so young when he got married to Don that his mom Patsy had to sign a consent to allow him to marry her. And about seven or eight months later, after they got married, they had their first child and they're both still teenagers. Jim's dad of course wasn't around for the wedding or the childbirth because he was serving his 30 year sentence in Oklahoma DOC--Department of Corrections. Jim and Dawn were high school sweethearts. Jim accompanied Dawn to one of their high school dances at the Cleveland high school where they both went. Dawn was very active in extracurricular activities, including being voted Most Likely to Succeed by her class. Jim and Dawn were married in November of 1991. And like I said their only child was born in June of 1992. So we'll let you do the math on that one. We reached out and like we said Dawn does not want to participate in the podcast. But we do have personal accounts of two of Jim's survivors both Christin and Ember. If you remember from episode one, Ember told us that she distinctly remembers Dawn warning her to hide her birth control because she was worried that Jim might try to tamper with it to get her pregnant, which we know is a common tactic of abusers to put holes in condoms or take birth control pills in order to try to get their partner's pregnant to tie them to them for a longer period of time.
Leslie Briggs 04:54
Right and you remember he was pushing and pushing and pushing him or to marry him back in you know October of 98, and it's just like it's you can see there's a pattern forming.
Colleen McCarty 05:06
So Ember remembered Dawn sharing her own stories of abuse from Jim with her. And she credits Dawn's openness with helping her get away from Jim after just six months together. Ember expressed such gratitude for Dawn, and she wanted to thank her. So Dawn, we don't know if you're listening to this, or if you will listen. But we hope you know that the impact you had on Ember was a lasting one. And she's grateful. Christen, another survivor of Jim went to high school with Don and Jim. And she had only one memory of the time when Jim and Dawn were married,
Christen 05:41
then to a party one time where he was at in high school, it was at him and Don's house. And I think they just got married. So maybe they were like 17, or something like that. And they had this house. And we got word that there was a party, I can't remember who I went there with. But like we were there 10 minutes, and Jim comes out and shoots a gun off into the air and says everybody needs to leave. And so yeah, we left.
Leslie Briggs 06:06
Then there's the setup of Jim's childhood home,
Christen 06:09
the house was the house he grew up in. So spent a lot of time in the little house on the corner. It's you know, probably like 800 square feet. Jim's room was his childhood room was in. It's like a small little room off of the living room. That's got the guests, like half saloon door, things like no privacy.
Leslie Briggs 06:32
So we're just there's just like questions that we have about. I don't know, just you know, he's getting married at 16, his mother's signing of consent. I think we can surmise that that had a lot to do with Dawn being pregnant.
Colleen McCarty 06:48
I mean, we can just surmise from these circumstances that there was sexual activity happening in the home before he was of a quote of age. And that probably his parental figures knew about it, heard it happening, did nothing to intervene. And some parents have that thought of like, I'd rather them do it, where I know what's happening or whatever. But like, that's just indicative of a lack of boundaries and a lack of like, discipline.
Leslie Briggs 07:19
Yeah, I think it just it's so unsettling. And there's a lot I mean, I think prolific and unsettling are gonna be words that I overuse by the time we get to the end of this podcast, but like, it's unsettling, I think. And we do. I mean, we do have confirmed, there was there are some of his romantic partners that confirmed There was sexual activity that happened later on, not in high school that but these are this is later years, while Patsy's in the
Christen 07:45
room, there's a bedroom that is the largest bedroom, and it has a half wall in it. And on one side of that half wall is a bed and on the other side is a bed. And so Jim's on one side patsies on the other. And in the in the bigger room with the Yeah, I can remember being in there with him whenever his his mother was in the same room, like and we were fooling around. It didn't bother him at all. And I was like, she's gonna hear us...
Colleen McCarty 08:22
unusual, very strange, very unusual.
Leslie Briggs 08:27
Ultimately, though, the marriage to Dawn does not last. She filed for divorce in 1995, citing irreconcilable differences, and I guess it just like an interesting note. It's in 1995 that the appearance of Patrick Pickerill an attorney in Pawnee County comes into the story and he represents Don and the divorce. And he actually goes on to become an associate judge and Pawnee County where Cleveland is located. And in later years, he's presides over some cases that involve Jim
Colleen McCarty 08:57
after his divorce from Dawn, Jim moved to Tulsa and opened a mortgage company it was called American family mortgage. Ember remembers that when she saw her protective order and needed help with service from the sheriff, the officer looked her in the eye and told her, "You need to make better choices."
Leslie Briggs 09:15
It's fucked.
Colleen McCarty 09:16
Real victim centered policing out here in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1998. This interaction might remind you of some of the police interactions that April Wilkens had during the same time with the Tulsa police department. She's the subject of our podcast from season one.
Leslie Briggs 09:31
That shit makes me so mad to think about. You need to make better choices.
Colleen McCarty 09:34
I can think of one person in this scenario that needs to make better choices. And it's not her not her. In 2001. Jim married his second wife, Misty in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Eureka Springs is one of his favorite spots.
Leslie Briggs 09:47
It's like one of my favorite spots.
Colleen McCarty 09:48
I know like you can't have it.
Leslie Briggs 09:50
You can't have that, Jim. It doesn't belong to you.
Colleen McCarty 09:55
Misty did not want to participate in the podcast but we have reviewed court filings and give a glimpse into the end of their relationship. Missy and Jim were married for 10 years. During that time they had two children. By 2011. Misty had filed for protective order against Jim. In her application for protective order. Misty describes urgent fear that Jim will harm her to the protective order as evidence of her fear. She attaches text messages between the two of them. And also a picture of Jim holding a pistol in his mouth. She describes a history of mental illness in Jim's family, which we talked about in episode two.
Leslie Briggs 10:33
Yeah, with Cathlyn, the PO that that was entered against Cathlyn, he's like using suicide, his potential suicide as a tool for coercive control. Like going I'm putting it on you to save my life. And if you don't, that's on you.
Colleen McCarty 10:50
Unfortunately, the threat of suicide by an abuser is an extremely common abusive tactic, because abusers know that their victims love them, and they don't want them to die. And it often is used as like a last resort to try to control the person keep them to stay, if you leave, I mean, I'm going to kill myself. And it puts that person in a state of like hyper vigilance worrying that if they are gone, and that person does kill themselves, then it's their fault, which is extremely perverse and horrible way to make somebody feel.
Leslie Briggs 11:32
Yep. Yeah, highly manipulative. We're going to read this text exchange. And I'll just tell you, we don't know all the bit players that are there some names in here, we don't know necessarily who everybody is. We're not going to say the names of the kids for our respect their privacy, but so just ride with us through this because it's kind of it's I mean, it's just gnarly.
Colleen McCarty 11:52
Little bit of a roller coaster. So Leslie is going to be Jim, and I'm going to be Misty.
Leslie Briggs 11:59
Okay. "Kids still up?"
Colleen McCarty 12:03
"Yeah. You don't always have to text me. If you want to talk to the kids then call them."
Leslie Briggs 12:08
"Take my fucking kids around Noah and see what that gets you stupid bitch."
Colleen McCarty 12:13
"What are you talking about? They have never even met or seen him. I don't know what [bleep] was talking about."
Leslie Briggs 12:21
"Bull fucking shit. Plus, [bleep] followed up with she's met him. The guy I talked with about the mamas stuff, who has black hair and met him and went to Big Lots with him. Total deal breaker, you stupid worthless motherfucker. filed court papers say you cannot discuss our stuff in front of the kids. And you ignorant fuckers think my kids can be around your attorney at Big Lots and cherry bear. I'm having Kelly file total contempt charges on your worthless ass on every aspect I have. And you will be scheduled a day for you and your fucking attorney to explain everything from being partners with Zanotti to this and all in between. You will also have to prove exactly why you should not go to jail for a minimum of 30 days on contempt to the judge. I've held off doing that to you before because you're the kid's mom, but I'm not now. I'm sending your ass. You will figure this shit out. Fuck you.
Colleen McCarty 13:21
That's total bullshit. They did not see him at Cherry Berry. We went Cody and her son
Leslie Briggs 13:29
go to hell Misty. You motherfuckers that somehow think you're above shit to explain it to the judge and my new co counsel Bernice Schudrich, you're going to jail period.
Colleen McCarty 13:40
Whatever Jimmy
Leslie Briggs 13:42
I could have put you there two weeks ago and held off on it because it didn't seem right. Fuck that I'm going back to the beginning on all counts, including the attorney being in partners with mine, Fuck you I've done with you and you can fucking rot and Creek County as far as I'm concerned, hide and watch bitch, hide and fucking watch.
Colleen McCarty 13:59
Whatever.
Leslie Briggs 14:00
"Okay, tell the judge how you think you can just blatantly go against what is ordered whenever you're like that'll get you pretty far." I mean that you can just feel him seething because she's not doing what he wants.
Colleen McCarty 14:13
Because she potentially has another male around his children
Leslie Briggs 14:17
Like he's not in control. And he is in a rage
Colleen McCarty 14:20
It's called legal abuse. And it's a part of the post separation abuse cycle. That is like extremely under talked about. I think if you're in a custody hearing and you're going before a judge, the judge is going to pick which parent is the most harmonious the most easy to get along with the most letting everybody get visitation the most. letting everybody stick to their dates and schedules and things like that in any parent that is even seen as going against those pre determined conditions is all of a sudden the least favorite parent in the custody like agreement. And so the fact that he knows Was this the fact that he knows that he can use contempt the fact that somebody can. He knows somebody can go to jail for contempt. And he's threatening this person with these very technical legal terms who probably doesn't know much about the legal process can feel very intimidating and scary. I mean, it's like, well, what do I want to do go to jail for 30 days away from my children? Or do I want to just like do what this guy says?
Leslie Briggs 15:25
Right? It's coercive control to the use of the courts. But we're going to this theme of like, abusing a court process to not in pursuit of any kind of justice, but to like harm his former partners. I mean, that is going to come up again and again and again throughout this podcast. And Jim's savvy enough to understand that courts can jail people who are held in contempt, he's manipulative enough to know how to file those applications to do that very thing, and he's abusive enough to follow through.
Colleen McCarty 15:59
In the chaos of his marriage to Misty Jim seems to be struggling to find a meaningful career or in the alternative embarks on a series of strange get rich quick schemes that all go belly up. Over the course of a decade, Jim opens and operates at least five businesses.
Leslie Briggs 16:15
Jim's businesses range from the clever to the morbid. We found a couple of news clips about two of his failed ventures during this chaotic decade
Newscaster 16:23
over your school T shirts light up. Britwell shows us now a local man has developed a t shirt that does light up and not only responds to music and clapping, but sounds like the hot new thing and fandom Jim Luman was in China on a buying trip for his other business. He owns a casket company saw this technology at a trade show.
Jim Luman 16:41
They have these actually in rugs, you know, like welcome mats. So when you're wiping your feet the things are exactly exactly
Newscaster 16:49
when he bought the US rights to it because he thought he had a better idea than welcome mats.
Jim Luman 16:53
We have about 20 College licenses already put in place. We're waiting on about 25 more.
Newscaster 17:00
The Dallas Mavericks have some soon the Houston Rockets will too. They've contacted local high schools, they're just getting rolling.
Jim Luman 17:08
This just comes off like Velcro. wires go down the shirt or receiver fits in the built in pocket. I think we're onto something.
Newscaster 17:16
Yeah, me too. The only downside is also the upside. They look much better in the dark. So let's see him go hang up some shirts, turn on the Black Eyed Peas and turn out the light another really good idea. I didn't think of Rick was the news on six. Once you have lumen thinks his T shirts might be a good fundraiser. He says anything which can be displayed graphically can become a lumen eight t shirt. We've provided a handy link to his website and the web version of Rick's story.
Leslie Briggs 17:53
In addition to cornering and then failing to launch the lightup t shirt market in the United States. Jim also started a complaint hotline called griping me. It also failed miserably.
Newscaster 18:05
There is a new website out there. It's made for you. It's called gripe@me.com. It's run by a guy out of Cleveland, Oklahoma. Take a listen to one of the calls they got. Why do we keep dumping all this money in education and more and more classes keep getting cut. Okay, their website says we are the first and only service that actually encourages your complaints and arguments. Okay, so here's the deal, you can call and they will quote Listen, affirm and be sympathetic to wherever you have to say, or they'll play devil's advocate and point out the other side, depending on what you want them to do what you want them to do that. Right, exactly. It's not free. You want to get it off your chest. It's 299 a minute minute. They also have gift cards. So if you are tired of listening to someone else. Oh, yes. So they say they hear everything they hear about divorce. They hear about losing jobs, they hear about the government, they hear about football teams, they hear about it all? So
Colleen McCarty 19:05
I bet that you're at all question is though, isn't that what our husbands are for? Jim also has a degree in mortuary science and has had several businesses that are related to the end of life services industry. Like one of them was the Cleveland funeral home that he owned with his sister Kathy before she passed away in 2004. And another one is new standard caskets LLC, which is one where he was importing caskets from China in 2006. And another one is serenity caskets LLC in 2008, which was registered to a gem loom and it could have been his bad, but probably was him. And I'm not sure if those were also caskets coming from China, but it's interesting that it's basically also a casket business that he's still arted again, only two years later with a new business entity. Yeah. And
Leslie Briggs 20:05
when he goes the sites like that illuminate the lightup T shirts. He is like in China on a casket buying trip when he sees this technology. I mean, this is just like, this shit is a little bit chaotic, like gripe at me, like, on first glance, you're like, oh, how clever. But then you're like, I don't know, people are paying 299 to call him and complain about their lives.
Colleen McCarty 20:29
That's more than Miss Cleo. Like, if I'm paying you, $2.99 a minute, I better be getting some (a) phone sex or (B) astrological readings. $2.99 times 60. That is way more than therapy that is so much
Leslie Briggs 20:51
$179 an hour. Yeah, get a therapist.
Colleen McCarty 20:54
I mean, if you're complaining about your life to a stranger, I think you should at least
Leslie Briggs 20:59
be like a licensed person who can give you coping strategies. I mean, that business fails probably for that reason, everybody started to realize that they could get like actual help.
Colleen McCarty 21:10
To me, it's like, it just looks like you're looking for a highway out of your situation. Yeah, that you don't like your life. And you're like, this thing popped into my head one day, it's impulsive, and it is impulsive, chaotic, and like he'd never had any intention of running any of these businesses for any, like, really long period of time. I think it's like, he's going to try something. If it makes him a ton of money in the first month, he's gonna stick with it. If it doesn't make him any money, he's gonna abandon it. You know what I mean? Like, it's just like, it's like fun to imagine and dream and do stuff like that. But same time. Like it takes a lot know how in business acumen and investment capital to actually do anything like that what he's talking about doing. And also it's really easy to pick up women when you say, I'm starting a company. I have angel investors looking at this, I have this going on. Dude,
Leslie Briggs 22:13
I--we need to talk about that. Because he's a self described entrepreneur. And every single time I've met a guy who is a self described entrepreneur, they've turned out to be, well, unpleasant to say the least to be around. They're a fraud. They're deceptive. I mean, are you an entrepreneur? Are you a con artist? Man? It's such a fine line is a fine line. I don't know red flags for me. Somebody says they're an entrepreneur just fucking run, I think.
Colleen McCarty 22:40
Yes, yes, for sure. So interestingly, though, his work at the funeral home led to unsettling conversations with several of his romantic partners. He
Tisha 22:51
used to tell me, he would do stuff with the dead people. Like what? Like, have sex with the dead people?
Leslie Briggs 22:59
He told you he would? He did.
Tisha 23:02
He was just like, he said he was involving a body or doing something with this dead body. And he goes, Oh, I wonder what it would be like to do it at that person. Would you just say it to get a rise out of somebody to see what they would say? Or would you say it because you really did it?
Leslie Briggs 23:18
That was Tisha Tisha is one of Jim's ex girlfriends from Iowa. Interestingly enough, though, Tisha reported the gym never physically abused her. He did, however, share some obviously very scary thoughts, and claimed to have had sex with one of the bodies he was embalming in his funeral home business. Here's Heather on that topic as well.
Heather 23:40
He'd made comments about, like, when he was a mortician, that if he wanted to be super sweet, he would tie a bow to a dead man's penis, before he buried him or it was always so important to him that I understood that he would never have sex with a body. Never have sex with a dead body. But he would do that. And I always thought that was odd, because I'm like, why would you? Why would you even bring that up? And then in talking to Christin and Karrah. I'm like, Uh huh. I see why you would bring that up. Because you've already told people you
Leslie Briggs 24:11
have. I mean, I don't know what to make of that. Do you think you'd like no dead body?
Colleen McCarty 24:15
God, I do not ever want to think about that in my life ever again. So me trying to figure it out. It's just more me thinking about it.
Leslie Briggs 24:24
Or middle I'm just closing the curtains. We're not good. There's no need for further explanation. You guys heard the clips?
Colleen McCarty 24:32
Yeah, make Yeah. Right as your write us and let us know make your own
Leslie Briggs 24:36
judgments. Jesus.
Colleen McCarty 24:38
So 2001 to 2011 is a really wild ride for Jim's professional life as we've seen, but his personal life seems no less chaotic in the years immediately following Misty's Divorce from Jim is finalized in 2013. Anyone who has been through a divorce, especially one with small children, can tell you it's really never over.
Leslie Briggs 24:59
What's wild about on the timeline here is that we're again we're seeing like a serial marriage situation take off because the marriage between Misty and Jim is over as of August of 2013. That's when the decree is entered. And before a full year even passes, he is going to marry and divorce another woman. Her name is Amber. And he's like a family law nightmare, but also a pathway to a vacation home.
Colleen McCarty 25:28
We all have those clients
Leslie Briggs 25:29
and like, yeah, I don't know. So there's like this whirlwind summer, this whirlwind year basically of the summer of 2013, to the summer of 2014. And in that year, Amber's his third wife now, she filed two different protective orders. And she makes two different police reports about Jim's domestic violence. And these are, I mean, let's just like, set the tone here, because we've been joking around. But like, you're about to hear some really horrific stories of domestic violence. Let me just say quickly that we tried very hard to track Amber down. But as of this recording, we have not yet been able to reach her. So we have to rely on her court documents alone in May of 2014. This is what Amber reports in her application for protective order. So
Colleen McCarty 26:15
this protective order was filed on May 19 of 2014. By Amber, Jim's third wife, and it was against Jim Luman. And again, it's very upsetting. So take breaks if you need to, while you're listening.
Leslie Briggs 26:35
I think it is important though, to hear exactly what he did to her because yeah, I mean, this is like, this is psychotic.
Colleen McCarty 26:44
Yeah, these are very scary things. Okay. So remember, when you file a protective order, you the person who is filing have to write out exactly why and what happened to you to require being protected by the law from this person that you're filing against. On the evening of May 13. We got into an argument that led to him pulling my hair throwing a heavy box at me hitting me and throwing it into the floor and on the bed. He held his hand over my face, smashing my mouth and suffocating me putting a split in my lip. After choking me and holding me down. He finally let me up clean the blood from my face and the pillow case in the bed. He then got on the phone and when he disappeared to the other room with the door closed. I grabbed a bag and close and ran to my car leaving for approximately two hours. He and his mom both called my cell phone. I didn't answer his calls. But his mom said I should just stay in a hotel and not go home. I sent him a text message saying I wanted to come home and just go to bed. We haven't argued in a long time and I thought he had time to cool off. When I got home, something was in front of the door so I pushed hard and pulled at the bottom of the hinge to get inside. He came running across the living room, grabbed me by my face and throat calling me names telling me not to come home. He threw me down in the living room floor by my hair kicked me jumped onto me. spit on me.
Leslie Briggs 28:20
The spitting. I fucking hate that.
Colleen McCarty 28:23
I hate that too. Choking me. drugged me by my hair into the kitchen kicked me and told me to go to our room. He threw me across the bed. I slid off the other side into some boxes and furniture. He jumped on top of me crushing air out of me and hitting me in the head several times. He stayed on top of me holding me down with force until I urinated on myself.
Leslie Briggs 28:52
God damn dude. That's fucked.
Colleen McCarty 28:56
He went to the bathroom and was smoking a cigarette and I told him I couldn't breathe and I asked for help. And he told me to lay there and bleed out. Then he pulled me onto the bed where he poked his finger into my right eye choked me and hit me in the head. After he calmed down for a moment, I went to the bathroom. And I came back out and he told me to stop crying and he threw the remote control at me hitting me in the forehead. Then he made me go back to the bathroom. He made me douche and cleaned from under my fingernails. He used bleach to clean the bathroom and proceeded to tell me how he was going to kill me. He lifted my shirt and bra and pulled down my shorts looking for bruises. He told me he was going to shoot me to cover up the bruises and explained how. Explain how he could cover up anything that would be identified in an autopsy. Then he made me lay across our bed and told me he had two guns under his left hip and was waiting for me to go to sleep. He said he had a gun from someone that it wasn't registered to him. And that had a silencer on it. He went to my car and brought in all the things that I had taken out there. And he laid next to me drinking beer and watching TV, he told me to set the alarm on his cell phone so I could go to work the next day. And that if he ever heard me tell anyone about anything, he would kill me. When the alarm went off, I ran to the car and left while he slept.
Leslie Briggs 30:34
Can we talk about how fucking casually he's just drinking beer watching TV at heart bothers lysing her
Colleen McCarty 30:41
the parts that bother me the most She's somebody who hears these stories all the time is the cleaning out from under the fingernails. Yeah. And examining the body for the bruises. The casually going back to whatever he was doing, like watching TV and drinking beer and just talking casually about killing her while she's laying there in complete terror. The part about lay there and bleed out like all those things are so bad.
Leslie Briggs 31:07
And he has this he is like a funeral home director. He knows what a dead body looks like, in certain conditions
Colleen McCarty 31:15
part about verify anything up in an auto I would make it so it would never show and an autopsy. He's talking about shooting her through the bruises Leslie that he's caused, so that it doesn't look like it was a battery. So that it was just a fucking shooting?
Leslie Briggs 31:31
Yes, God, like that's how important it is to him for it to not be a fucking shooting.
Colleen McCarty 31:37
I'm assuming he would make it look like she did it to herself is like the implication.
Leslie Briggs 31:43
And the thing is she makes a police report. She the police report doesn't come unfortunately, until almost a year later. And
Colleen McCarty 31:53
oh, no, a year later?
Leslie Briggs 31:56
Yeah. So she makes the police report in April of 2015 after filing the second protective order, and she reports a violation of that second protective order. But the police tell her we haven't served him yet. So there can't be a violation, even though you have the protective order, he hasn't been served. So no violation. Because he was like texting her and contacting her. And it's like, no criminal charges result from that. I mean, that is a fucking That shit is horrifying. Like to live to survive that. To serve. I mean, to survive that just like, yeah, it takes a lot to survive that
Colleen McCarty 32:35
to go and ask the court for a protective order to have many people at the court in your tiny county read what happened to you and to still have no law enforcement involvement until a year later. Like they should have been going to her house and checking on her.
Leslie Briggs 32:50
And that's my thing is like, okay, that protective order gets entered. And like, is anybody providing this woman with services to say this, we need a police report, we need police action in real time, because she's put up she's filing a protective order in real time. But she doesn't file the police report until later. Right. And of course, that makes it hard. That makes it hard, practical realities of like investigating a crime that's now a year old. You lose evidence.
Colleen McCarty 33:15
And the I mean, you have to say it calls your credibility into question. I mean, I don't I definitely believe what happened to her because of the protective order being filed that week. But when you wait a year and file a police report, it's like okay, well, now you're ready to talk about like charges being brought for what happened to you that just says, like, in a logical person's brain, and we've talked about this ad nauseam, that survivors don't act logically, but in a logical law enforcement person's brain they're like that is problematic.
Leslie Briggs 33:47
Like, we can't trust that. Why are you just reporting it now? Three months after that incident that Colleen just read, she's she's divorced from him. But you know, she's not out of his orbit, because we know survivors leave and we know that they come back. And we know that this is cyclical. And we know that abusers are very adept at drawing people back in, I mean, the emotional connection. They're the best in the world at manipulating that and so she is not done with Jim. And that leads to another protective order the following year. It's a incident that occurs in Bethany, Missouri, and according to the application that was filed by Amber it occurs in front of Jim's daughters. So here's what she has to say, in the March 2015 Protective Order application. I have suffered physical abuse from Jimmy for two years off and on. He is promised to get help and stop abusing. He becomes violent and hostile, repeatedly lashing out on March 14 of 2015. We were in a hotel in Bethany Missouri, with his two young daughters present He began to drag me pull my hair choke me, and bang my head against the door, called me vulgar names, cussed me, ordered me to the bathroom and told me that I was traumatizing the girls, because I wouldn't mind him. Once he had me in the bathroom, he proceeded to hold me by my hair, throw me down on the floor, ripped at my ears and bit my face. He spit on me, and told me that he would gouge my eyes out if he had to tell me twice to do what he says. My foot was injured from him stepping on me. And he pulled out hands full of hair. He told me to clean my face and fix my hair before I left the bathroom and was in front of his daughters. A few minutes later, there were two police officers at the door. Jimmy was confrontational and wouldn't let them in the room. One of them asked me to come out and I did. I told him we had a fight, that everything was okay now. I was afraid to have Jimmy arrested in front of the girls. The officer told me that they received a call that the kids were screaming for help. And someone was being beat up. I said I was okay. And they left. I don't know why this is affecting me so much. I think it's because the kids were there. Two days later, I removed all of his personal belongings to storage building, changed the locks at my house and sent Jimmy a letter of eviction at his mom's asking that he no longer come to my home. I'm afraid that he will come after me or my daughter. He has threatened her and revenge from my previous PO, which he says cost him custody of his daughters in 2014. My children and I are very scared of him. He is scary and violent and seems to have some type of issue with anger and controlling his temper. He is also suicidal, a large portion of the time, I'm terrified he will kill me or possibly my kids. Before he hurts himself. He has said that if he has nothing left to lose, he will take us all with him. I request that he'd be monitored, if possible, and he'd be ordered to get help if possible. I also will call Sapulpa PD and request that an officer check up at my residence daily. Yikes, Jesus. I mean, we don't have to diagnose that.
Colleen McCarty 37:20
God. I'mso disturbed by that. ,
Leslie Briggs 37:22
Yeah I mean, yeah, that's terrifying.
Colleen McCarty 37:25
I didn't know that. I mean, I did vaguely remember, though, that there was an incident in front of the girls of Amber, because I remember someone telling us that they still talked about it even years later,
Leslie Briggs 37:37
Heather? Yeah, yeah.
Heather 37:39
There was one time that I was helping the girls put their clothes away and stuff. And then the oldest daughter. She, we were talking about Amber. And because all I got was that she was just as bitch and stuff. And so I was kind of bad mouthing her. And she's like, Yeah, but Dad was always mean to her.
Leslie Briggs 37:57
So after that protective order. Again, Amber tries to report a violation. But the police told her they hadn't served him yet. And that was several weeks later, the police still had not served him. A few weeks after that, she reports kind of the entire abuse that she suffered over the last two or so years. And it's funny in the report, the only thing that the police the investigation that is conducted, according to this report, is the police call Jim and they're like, did you do this? And he's like, call my lawyer. And they're like, Okay, I'll send it to the DA. And then no charges ever come of it. There's nothing ever filed. That's what I guess I should say. That is what the police officer was asking if Jim would talk to him. Oh, will you
Colleen McCarty 38:45
come and talk to me and he just wired up? Yeah. Okay. I mean, I do believe in the right to the sixth amendment.
Leslie Briggs 38:53
Yeah, like, that's fine. You know what I mean, but like, there's no follow up. Did they go out and take any pictures? Did they try to get medical records from Amber? Did they ask her for evidence, text messages? I mean, did they investigate?
Colleen McCarty 39:06
The PO on its own and the previous PO are more evidence than most domestic violence cases have. They're already there. They don't have to do anything. We have to backup though because in April 2014, about a month before Amber files the first protective order that you heard a little bit ago, Misty files of notice of relocation in her divorce case with Jim she's remarried, and she's moving to Iowa with their children. And this kicks off a new round of legal battles between Jim and Misty. You don't even have to read the pleadings to know it's getting uglier and uglier. Jim loses custody and is only allowed supervised visitation in April 2015. Right as Amber is reporting Jim to the Sapulpa police, as she mentioned in that second PO It does look like the PO was used to terminate his custody.
Leslie Briggs 40:04
She does get called to testify. She gets subpoenaed in the custody custody battle.
Colleen McCarty 40:09
In July of that year, Jim gets unsupervised visits of his kids back, but the court orders him not to bring the children around his romantic partners. Misty is allowed to relocate to Iowa and Jim is allowed unsupervised visits there. So he starts kind of his slow migration from Oklahoma to Iowa.
Leslie Briggs 40:31
Yeah. And then there's like a, there's a final order for the custody in August of 2015. Right?
Colleen McCarty 40:38
Yes, in August 2015. The court grants custody the misty in orders visitation for Jim. In addition to allowing Jim regular visitation schedule, the court makes the following orders one reiterates no girlfriends or romantic partners to be around the children to no alcohol or drug consumption around the children or immediately prior to visitation. Three no texting or videoing while driving with minor children, for Jim is ordered to attend therapy per the recommendation of Dr. Stockley. Specifically, the therapy must include domestic violence issues as it pertains to exposure to children. Five, Misty is ordered to continue counseling for herself six, Jim cannot bring the children around anyone with whom he is involved in other litigation. We'll talk about that in a second. Seven, Jim also had to submit to alcohol assessment and follow the recommendations. Some of the things that come out in the custody battle are disturbing particularly because they are alleged to have happened at least partly in front of Misty engines children. So there's a piece of the pleading here that we have pulled that says
Leslie Briggs 41:49
yeah, this is actually from Misty is affidavit. Oh, really? Her sworn testimony here. Okay. So
Colleen McCarty 41:55
this is sworn under oath. Misty says among the statements made respondent which is Jim said in the presence of the minor children that he quote, would love to point it. The weapon he was holding at mom's head and blow pink mist all over the wall.
Leslie Briggs 42:13
Fucking Christ in front of the kid from memory, you're just like saying that to them? Who else is there? Yeah, he
Colleen McCarty 42:21
says mom's head to them. The fuck? Second thing that says on January 3 2011, Misty claimed that other women had in fact moved into the marital home while she was picking up some personal items. And on the same day, Jim threw a car seat at her in front of the kids. So I just would like to take this moment to point out that there is a totally separate felony for domestic violence in the presence of minor children in Oklahoma.
Leslie Briggs 42:55
That's right. Separate from just domestic, regular domestic domestic violence. Why again, actually, it's
Colleen McCarty 43:02
a misdemeanor Leslie. All the domestic violence first offenses are misdemeanors except for with a deadly weapon or a pattern of prior domestic abuse.
Leslie Briggs 43:11
Oh, oh, only somebody would bring a charge to establish a fucking pattern here. Wow. Like what the fuck?
Colleen McCarty 43:21
Can I also say that prior pattern of domestic abuse, which serves up to 10 years in Oklahoma does not require previous criminal trials to have occurred only previous evidence of abuse like medical records, or I don't know affidavits.
Leslie Briggs 43:38
It's good to know, for any DAs who may or may not listen to this than you do.
Colleen McCarty 43:45
I'm in the fetal position.
Leslie Briggs 43:46
Colleen has gone fetal. I mean, that's that shit is fucking disturbing, dude. And like, we have to also just like, record stop again. So like we pivoted from Amber, to back to Misty and we're gonna pivot a third time in this episode to Christin. You guys remember Christen, we've mentioned her in previous episodes. So Christen and Jim also strike up a romantic relationship in July of 2013. Like a month before the divorce is finalized with Misty. And we also know that he married Amber shortly after, so he's juggling three different women all at once. We don't know exactly what the crossover is, but we do know that there's crossover between Christin and Amber. But if you think about it,
Heather 44:32
he's always probably got three of us he talks about the triangulation. So these are telling me all the time I got a girl in Oklahoma you're my Iowa girl Don't worry about it. There'll be a Missouri girl you know don't worry about it. Well, in my instance, there was me there was Sarah and Amber still in the picture. Amber's always in the picture.
Leslie Briggs 44:50
That was Heather. Here's Karrah describing the first time she ever spoke with Christen when they were both dating Jim Luman
Jim Luman 44:57
first conversation I ever had with him. his girlfriend, Christen, I had been on a first date with him. And we got back from our first date. And his girlfriend at the time, which I did not know he she existed. I just found out that he had a girlfriend while she was saying that she was his girlfriend, and she was asking me about my pumpkins. And she said, Well, my boyfriend, Jimmy likes your pumpkins. And I was like, he's my boyfriend, late lady. And she's like, Well, I'm gonna block you. And then we'd stopped being friends for a while. And then he explained to her away, he said, she wasn't his girlfriend, he she was obsessed with him. You know, like he says, everyone's obsessed with him. But he did say that. You would like Christen, you and Christen would get along, and I'll never I'll never forget him saying that. And I'm like, I'm not gonna get along with her. You know, I'm gonna get along with your girlfriend.
Leslie Briggs 45:56
By the time the court enters the order in 2015. Not to bring the children around anyone involved in litigation with Jim. Christen had sued Jim and his mother for civil battery. And he was involved in litigation with Donna Walkingstick, who was evicting him with
Donna 46:14
a wily to leave. And he basically told me how eff off so I went and got an attorney. And that's when I found the eviction. You couldn't go with him? There was no dealing with him. He did some damage to my home--tore it up--Yeah, I have a real nice, built in oven in the wall. He took a ball bat and busted the glass all out of it. He sold the back patio furniture, I had a birdhouse on a stand, he took the ball bats that put holes in my walls is a smooth talker at first. And, boy, when his ugly comes out, it comes out in full force.
Leslie Briggs 46:59
2014 and 2015 are fully chaotic times. Jim's violence is becoming more prolific and more unhinged, and he's seeing almost no accountability. I mean, you get the court order for custody. But he gets visitation. The only reason custody is I mean, she's getting custody to move them to Iowa. You know what I mean?
Colleen McCarty 47:21
Can we just talk about how honestly chaotic and crazy it is for the court to in the same order? Say yes, you get visitation. And secondly, you also need to go to therapy that specifically addresses domestic violence in front of children. Like it's not like the court doesn't know.
Leslie Briggs 47:39
Right? Like he's still in the visitation is unsupervised. Like it's not even a supervised visitation at that point.
Colleen McCarty 47:45
I guess we all agree that he doesn't beat the kids. Just the women.
Leslie Briggs 47:50
Yeah, me. Yes. Yes.
Colleen McCarty 47:52
Which, which, in the courts mind makes us all fine. Yeah,
Leslie Briggs 47:57
I don't know. I'm just like, why you ordered supervised visitation when this whole thing kicked off? Then you undid that a few months later, and now he's got regular visitation, no supervision, but you have all these other extraneous orders because you know, domestic violence is a problem for this guy.
Colleen McCarty 48:12
But let's go send him off to Iowa State where he has no resources with his children unsupervised. Bye.
Leslie Briggs 48:20
See ya. I don't know. And so like, but Christen is part of the story. And the reason I'm mentioning her in this episode in this moment, is because Jim in the midst of this custody battle is engaging in further violent behavior with not romantic partners. And he leaves this this voicemail for Kristen one night.
Jim Luman 48:43
I'm not ok. I broke it all. [chaotic laughing and crying]. This is how it ends. I am not okay. I broke it all. I beat the hell out of Leroy in the fucking parking lot. And my right hand is fucking mush. This is how it fucking ends. This is how it fucking ends. That bitch wins. She fucking wins.
Colleen McCarty 49:25
So what's he saying? Leslie?
Leslie Briggs 49:26
I mean, when I hear in that voicemail is I fucked it all up. Smashed Leroy is facing in the parking lot. His head is mush. And this is how it fucking ends. That bitch wins. That's what I hear.
Colleen McCarty 49:40
So it sounds like he's doing another suicidal thing. This is how it ends. This is how it ends. Yeah. Or like, I
Leslie Briggs 49:47
mean, what came to my head was that he's like, he got drunk. He beat the shit out of Leroy. And then he's like, now I'm gonna get in trouble for this except he never does. Now I'm gonna get in touble for this. And it's going to affect my custody case and that bitch, what is going to win my kids?
Colleen McCarty 50:05
Because I'm such an idiot that I beat up some guy in the parking lot and people are gonna know I'm violent idiot.
Leslie Briggs 50:11
Yep, it's crying. It's all her fault. Self. You're crying for yourself, you asshole.
Colleen McCarty 50:19
Yeah. Any leaves that voicemail for Kristen? Yeah. Wow, what a winner What a fucking
Leslie Briggs 50:24
winner. I mean this guy.
Colleen McCarty 50:26
Yikes. Okay, so he's bottoming out. I think arguably, this is one of the points and this is another one of the turning points or like focal points in the story. Yeah, that causes his violence to escalate pretty extremely. He's losing his kids. I do think from all the evidence that we have seen, he does care a lot about his children and about being a father. Yeah. Like most people do. It's a very primal connection to your children, and you don't want to lose them. And you don't want to lose the ability to see them. Even if you've done stupid shit and hurt people. And so when he actually does lose the right to visit them, unsupervised, he becomes like this chaotic monster.
Leslie Briggs 51:16
Yeah. And, you know, we're going to talk about the kind of immediate years after this, like, between, so this is like, 2014 2015, he bottoms out, but then he like, kind of finds his footing professionally, in some ways. Yes,
Colleen McCarty 51:30
after a long quest, a long quest to find himself, he finally does find a profession where he can have a soft landing.
Leslie Briggs 51:43
Tell us about it. Colleen. What's the what does he do in 2017? I wonder if
Colleen McCarty 51:47
it's going to surprise any of our listeners that Jim lumen ends up becoming a consultant. in personal injury cases working for lawyers, he
Josh Kidd 51:57
was not an employee, he was an individual contractor, independent contractor. So we did indeed work together.
Colleen McCarty 52:04
That was Josh kid, he worked very closely with Jim and use Jim's consulting businesses in his own practice
Leslie Briggs 52:12
led to your like fault, like do you have a falling out with Jim or did you guys just part ways? Or was it? Was there some incidents? Or how did that work?
Josh Kidd 52:21
I mean, looking back, I remember, I think I just caught him lying. He was lying about stuff, about money flow, about advertising and stuff. He was lying about that, and trying to get more money as an independent contractor, and so when I caught that, I just was like, we're done. It was that simple. I don't know what's, in fact, you surprised me when you say that? It's actually still going on? It's hilarious to me.
Leslie Briggs 52:56
But yeah, they're still running the the PI associates, as far as I can tell. It's still in business.
Josh Kidd 53:02
Yeah, he's, yeah, that's a mess. I don't know. That's for legal authorities to deal with. I'm surprised I haven't really dealt with it yet.
Leslie Briggs 53:11
Yeah, I mean, do you think is, is there a world where Jim is out there representing himself to be an attorney?
Josh Kidd 53:17
No, that never happened.
Leslie Briggs 53:19
It's funny, because his voicemail when I call I tried to call him today, because we were supposed to speak this week. His voicemail says something to the effect of like, I'm with clients, or I'm in court. And it just, I mean, you know, there's lots of things that could, that could mean, but I'd you know, it sounds to me like lawyer.
Josh Kidd 53:37
I think Jim tries to do everything he can technically to represent himself as a legal helper. But he just doesn't, he doesn't fire the gun and say, I'm a lawyer.
Colleen McCarty 53:51
There is a cottage industry of people that work out there that are consultants for legal services, they are not providing legal services themselves, but they are consulting with legal services and other types of
Leslie Briggs 54:05
experts. And it's like, it's a cash, it is a cash cow doing personal injury work. And so he opens this business. I mean, technically, it's registered to his son. But he lists himself as the CEO on LinkedIn says
Colleen McCarty 54:19
This is his sixth venture. I mean try try again, folks, because...
Leslie Briggs 54:26
yeah, he figures it out eventually. I mean, at least by all accounts, they're sort of this like these years of milk and honey that he kind of enters in 2017. And it's through PI associates,
Colleen McCarty 54:39
thought it was 2015.
Leslie Briggs 54:42
Well, I don't know if the business is registered in 2017. Oh, okay. But I'd so I don't know what I really don't know, career wise.
Colleen McCarty 54:50
So essentially, if you're looking at it linearly, somebody gets an injury. They come to a lawyer. They say, I can make some money. I deserve some money for my injury. If the lawyer then takes the case goes to Jim and says, Can you investigate this? And can you go to find the chiropractor that this person can go to?
Leslie Briggs 55:10
I don't know like this. I have qualms about this because when you go to that website, Pei associates and you click, you see the attorneys that are listed, and you like go to contact the attorney it every single one of those contact buttons goes to Jim at PIassistants.com.
Colleen McCarty 55:28
PI associates?
Leslie Briggs 55:30
So the company is a sense, the company's PI associates, but the website is PI assistance gets a little confusing, but like every single one, like you're not able to contact the attorney through that website, you're contacting Jim, but like, I'll say this also, lots of law firms have like non lawyers who navigate the pre litigation stuff. Under the supervision, though, of a licensed attorney like they're not they're sending out letters that an attorney has reviewed and approved. But Jim is He's found his niche in this personal injury firm. And so that is where he like stakes his claim.
Colleen McCarty 56:13
This has been kind of a roving journey through a lot of the different pieces of this story so that you can have the background and the texture as we go into the more up close and personal experiences that happened through the rest of this podcast. But Jim goes on to have two more marriages to Heather and Marci in Iowa, and he was divorced most recently in October 2022. From his last known wife, Marci. Each of these women has their own harrowing tale of escaping his abuse, and we hear their stories in detail throughout this podcast. As Jim has gotten older, his patterns have become more prolific and more harmful. Multiple marriages, numerous businesses, some more forthright than others and more than a dozen victims, almost no jail time. You have to start asking yourself what will it take for our system of district attorneys in the state of Oklahoma who pride themselves in protecting victims to actually pursue an investigation and criminal prosecution of such a prolific abuser. On the next episode of panic button operation, wildfire will begin to pull apart Jim Luman's, abusive tactics, starting with how he was his victims and how he lures so many women into relationships that end in tragedy. You can find links to pictures, documents, and all our sources in the show notes of this episode. These cases serve as a reminder of the devastating consequences of domestic violence and the importance of seeking help if you or someone you know, is a victim. If you are in immediate danger, please call 911 or your local emergency number. For confidential support and resources you can reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. Thank you for listening to Panic Button Operation Wildfire and for joining us and shedding light on the importance of ending domestic violence for good. I'm Colleen McCarty, and I'm Leslie Briggs. Panic Button is a production of Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. We're recorded at Bison and Bean Studios in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our theme music is by GYOM additional editing is provided by the wave podcasting. Our music supervisor is Rusty Rowe. Special thanks to our interns Kat and Allison to learn more about Oklahoma Appleseed or donate to keep our mission of fighting for the rights and opportunities of every Oklahoman reality, go to okappleseed.org.