Americas Most Wanted 7 16 1989 Video

foreign good evening from Central Illinois the heartland of the nation Sunday July 16th I'm John Walsh and this is America's Most Wanted [Music] thank you Richard sturdy was an Illinois grain dealer who gave Farmers a good price for corn and soybeans the FBI says sturdy and his cohorts were cheating rigging grain scales to skim up to 10 million dollars for grain that was never there when the FBI moved in sturdy called it quits was it suicide or is he in your neighborhood tonight Jerome Vargo was eight years old when he committed his first crime but it wasn't his last police in Arkansas call him an expert in breaking into safes and breaking out of jail but when Jerome Vargo was caught he fired on a cop and fled tonight he's still at large this week four of the nation's most dangerous fugitives have been captured with your help we can do it again welcome to America's Most Wanted [Music] we're coming to you tonight from a farm near Jacksonville Illinois about 13 miles west of Springfield the state capitol we're here on the trail of a man accused in a multi-million dollar grain scam but first four of America's Most Wanted have been captured this week two were profiled on last week's broadcast from San Francisco and were in custody within six hours the first was found in Vancouver British Columbia 30 miles north of the Canadian border he was actually in this jail he'd been there since March 23rd under an alias guards and inmates at the Vancouver pre-trial Services Center saw our broadcast and recognized Teddy on terrina wanted by Oakland Police for molesting seven children Teddy underriner is known to me as a prisoner by the name of Maitland he's in our custody as a result of being charged with sexual assault of minors last week we reconstructed police accounts of how unterriener used pony IDs and posed as a social worker to move in on young boys this is a pretty impressive resume here Kai thank you Mr Cardona you know I saw this article in the paper on your bilingual program and I'd really like to work with kids this is President how'd you get that my mother was Thai Oakland Police theorized that Hunter Reiner was in another Asian Community searching for more victims and that's exactly where he was in February Vancouver Police say unto Reiner entered Canada under the name Daniel Alexander Maitland and moved to Vancouver's Chinatown here they say he posed as a settlement worker molested more children until police finally arrested him in March earlier this year our sexual offense Squad charged a man known to us as Daniel Maitland there were three charges of sexual offenses laid against him involving younger members of the Asian community Oakland Police have requested on to Reiner's extradition to the United States Hunter Reiner is an escapee from a Colorado mental institution last week we also profiled Kelly Sunshine Lloyd thanks to your tips she's in a South Carolina jail police call her The high-rolling Madam whose brothel specializing in teenage prostitutes destroyed the career of a prominent San Francisco politician police say she cruised San Francisco in a vintage Bentley recruiting runaways for her prostitution ring but last May Lloyd fled before she could be tried on prostitution and narcotics charges the FBI says this truck stop became Kelly Lloyd's new business address State Highway 15 near Bennettsville South Carolina this is Buddy strucker's Motel Lloyd worked here as a waitress using several aliases at two o'clock Monday morning the FBI arrested Lloyd at this house trailer on a lonely back road you got her cold one of our hotline callers even described in detail a small tattoo of a bear on Lloyd's right buttock the third fugitive arrested this week was Patrick Anthony manillo filed him last September police say manilo is an enforcer for a Florida drug ring and a man responsible for three murders this week Manila was traced in New Hartford New York where he was building a lavish new home for his wife and two children a 12-man team of New York state troopers closed in Tuesday afternoon and arrested Patrick manillo without incident but the most unusual capture of the week came on Thursday afternoon Mark Allen Harris is the convicted killer of a two-year-old boy and last month we showed you actual footage of his daring escape from the kanawa county jail in Charleston West Virginia Harris played a cat and mouse game with deputies for five weeks but on Thursday they got him an undercover detective convinced Harris he was a lawyer who wanted to buy Harris's life story for five thousand dollars Harris fell for the phony book and movie deal and deputies nabbed Harris at his sister's home when deputies closed in Harris ran upstairs and crawled through a second story window he dropped 12 feet to the ground where he was collared by deputies tonight Harris is in the West Virginia state penitentiary at huttonsville beginning a 5 to 18-year sentence when we come back the search for a man accused of parlaying corn and soybeans into a multi-million dollar scam foreign welcome back to Central Illinois the corn is tasseled here this week and there's not much to do but watch the ears fatten and wait for Harvest across Illinois over 9 million acres of corn and soybeans are under cultivation a fortune in Grain worth billions of dollars but the FBI is after a man that says engineered a multi-million dollar crop Swindle in these parts it became known as operation grain Lord the man's name is Richard sturdy [Music] here in Central Illinois Corn counts for a living for the truckers who haul it for the farmers who grow it and for the brokers who sell it Brokers like Richard sturdium I didn't expect you until after lunch grain Brokers are the middlemen in Illinois huge grain industry buying from Farmers and selling to Big grain companies like garnak and Mississippi River grain what are you giving on corn anyway 265 a bushel how you doing Phillips is only given 255. good business I guess come on let's go sign him papers sturdy was highly successful he owned two grain elevators bought corn and soybeans from Farmers all over the state and offered the best price around Richard sturdy was a very charismatic person who could turn on the good old boy charm and and be be a farmer naturally and convincingly further endearing himself to the farmers was the fact that he paid cash on the spot in the transactions rather than with a check is is from what I've been told is the normal procedure sturdy ship the Farmer's Grain to terminals like this one will operated just like a checkout stand at a grocery store truck scales weighed the grain corn in this instance and a computer printed out a ticket each ticket was good for a check from the Grain Company for a 20-ton truck of grain the Grain Company would pay up to six thousand dollars [Music] all that grain traded on trust a system that could be easily abused if a broker chose to cheat [Music] during Harvest Seasons the terminals receive as much as 15 000 tons of corn and soybeans a week from here the grain is shipped by bars to New Orleans it's a big business about 11 billion dollars a year Richard sturdy had it all figured out the FBI says he paid elevator managers like Kevin Burgett to rig the scales all it took was a two by four wedge just so to fool the computer into thinking there was a truck full of grain weighing in the computer would print a ticket that ticket was good as gold Richard sturdy had placed operatives in elevators up and down the Illinois and Mississippi River who were fabricating scale tickets for non-existent grain which would generate sums of money for Mr sturdy's grain elevator [Music] the FBI says sturdy brought those checks here to the Farmer State Bank and Trust Company in Jacksonville morning darling Jason you want to take care of these for me please [Music] sturdy had a friend here a woman he dated for six years you're really racking on in dick as long as they grow corn big sturdy's going to be scooping her in [Music] he had taken the woman on trips to Africa and Greece the FBI says she cashed dirty's checks without endorsement see you later and sturdy paid her twenty five thousand dollars for her health she was later convicted and fined for not paying taxes on the money [Music] but it was an external auditor Ed reitemeyer of the Garnett Grain Company who discovered operation grain Lord [Music] reidemeyer was tipped off when he discovered that two percent of all the grain routed through an elevator managed by Kevin Burgett was missing reidemeyer called the police when we first started the investigation with Ed reidemeyer from Garnett grain is investigating Kevin Burgett forget led to sturdy and from there it led to many other connections and we realized that it was pretty multi-jurisdictional and at that point involved the FBI and the IRS on August 7 1986 the FBI met with Kevin Burgett and asked for his help if he would wear a body wire and talk to the other suspects they could pin Richard sturdy I want to wear a wire for us forget agreed to cooperate yeah okay [Applause] foreign on September 5th 1986 Burgett met with sturdy in a church parking lot in Manito Illinois I got that verse chasing his own tail there was a load on that scale sturdy didn't know the FBI was listening Strong's here [Music] David Strawn was another grain broker who the FBI says profited from sturdy scam how you doing Kevin there ain't no way this guy's gonna write you down only if you tell that's the only way there ain't no use telling cause that means jail you don't tell ain't no way [Music] Dave is strong yes FBI Morgan County Sheriff's Department you're under arrest for attempted fraud fraud obstructing justice on June 23 1988 FBI agents arrested Richard sturdy at strawn's Lakeside Cabin David Strawn and seven other co-defendants were indicted for their parts in operation brain Lord all have pled guilty but in the end everyone has suffered save Dick's 30. sturdy posted 25 000 Bond three days after his arrest and last New Year's Eve in room 306 of the East Peoria Holiday Inn Richard sturdy staged an elaborate Vanishing act the FBI says he was ready over the previous six months he had liquidated assets bought 3.4 million dollars worth of rare coins and gems and stockpiled a year's supply of prescription heart medicine then sturdy wrote his suicide notes dear Mom Deb Sally and Libby I'm not scared just tired goodbye I love you all you will find the car in Hardy's parking lot at the West approach of the Cedar Street Bridge up the bridge in the river please take care of Mom early New Year's Day a hundred feet above the Illinois River at Peoria everything was in place for sturdy's disappearance [Music] but the FBI says Richard sturdy didn't jump he just walked away Millions richer sturdy led a simple life among his neighbors but the FBI says he has traveled all over the world here's his passport covered in visas and stamps of entry from Africa China and South America sturdy has a scar under his right cheekbone take a close look it's a one-inch vertical cut sturdy suffers from hypertension and uses the prescription drug vasotec sturdy also uses a medication called grazactin and his stockpile of these drugs may be running low and a special alert to coin dealers sturdy had almost two million dollars worth of coins when he vanished including krugerrands Canadian maple leaves and rare 19th century gold pieces he may be trying to sell them off for cash if you've seen Richard sturdy call 1-800 crime 89 now FBI agents are standing by in our Washington Studios anxious to hear from you you don't have to tell us your name next up a daring Thief who tried to kill a cop right after this foreign with a history of escapes he was cornered Southwest of here across the Mississippi in Arkansas and that's when he tried to kill a cop we have new Clues after this review of the case of Jerome Vargo [Music] embargo was only eight years old when he committed his first crime as he later recalled in a handwritten autobiography [Music] thank you it wasn't much as robberies go just some old fishing tackle from a neighbor's barn but for Jerome Vargo it marked the beginnings of a life of crime by the time he was 31 years old police say Fargo was a professional safe dealer [Music] Fargo later wrote in his autobiography that he thought going to jail made him cool his prison record spans five states and he's escaped at least twice okay Margo let's go but in 1984 he was finally released on parole only to return police say to a life of crime [Music] with some tapes left September 16 1987 deputies say Bargo used a U-Haul truck to clean out the crown video store in Neosho Missouri then drove South through Bentonville Arkansas with his occasional partner Gary Morris now in prison in Cummins Arkansas [Music] as far as I know he was wanted in another state he was out on Bond and had jump on [Music] stories don't match routine traffic stop by Officer David huff and Sergeant James Dre of the Bentonville police then set off a tragic sequence of events Karen appliances what else you got some furniture or clothes things like that okay we give us permission to search the truck I guess so thank you you better get the serial numbers I'll check the cab [Music] [Music] and round had hit me in the right chest area Mr embargo had made his way over into the field on the west side of the highway and was firing rounds towards my location [Music] Fargo was arrested the next morning by Fayetteville Arkansas police he was tried convicted and sentenced to 140 years [Music] deputies say that on May 10th of last year as easily as he had cut his way into so many safes Fargo used a makeshift saw to cut his way into the air conditioning duct system and out of Arkansas's Pope County Detention Center in an autobiography written in prison Fargo brags about eight escapes from the law maybe tonight we can put him away for the last time this videotape of Jerome Vargo was taken after his 1987 arrest he was born in Kentucky and still has relatives there but he grew up in Indiana and Ohio that's where police say Bargo learned safe feeling he applied that craft throughout Arkansas and Missouri special alert to viewers in those States police say Jerome Vargo is likely to return to familiar turf look carefully at vargo's Arms there's a tattoo of the Grim Reaper on his left arm on his right arm a buzzard with two roses you can't see them here but Bargo also has a three-inch Bluebird tattooed on each side of his chest and a large dragon on his stomach Vargo stands five nine he's muscular and he likes to jog and do push-ups police say Bargo likes to brag about his strength to drive muscle cars on Harley-Davidson motorcycles if you've seen Jerome Vargo call 1-800 crime 89 now Arkansas officials and FBI agents are standing by in our Washington Studios to take your calls we'll be right back with more from down on the farm his Mastermind of a multi-million dollar grain Swindle known as operation grain Lord and Jerome Vargo is a convicted burglar and safe feeler he escaped from an Arkansas jail after trying to kill the cop who caught him red-handed next week America's Most Wanted comes to you from Salt Lake City Utah we'll see you then I'm John Walsh and good night from Illinois thank you [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music]

Channel: Kris Neuman

Views: 48,835

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Id: pkg4vef7OCM

Length: 25min 30sec (1530 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 16 2023