that. tole tell you what, if you can give us all this information, we ll be straight with you. i just need help, you know, period. our family s large, you know, and we been doin bad because my daddy s been gone. you give a tip. if it leads to a conviction, you get a chunk of money, and it s very enticing. perkins received over $10,000 in reward money immediately after the trial, and told by the police not to mention the payment of the reward to anybody. perkins saying he received $10,000 to receive this. the jury would have thought different about that. they wouldn t even count his testimony. gordon and michael filed their appeal in june of 1989, after 5 years of waiting, the court finally agreed to hear their case.