Chicago Cases | QUAD EPISODE | The FBI Files

organized crime tore through the suburbs of Chicago leaving violence and Corruption prominent officials were seduced by greed and Power doing whatever was necessary to protect their interests [Music] everyone was on the ticket [Applause] on the FBI to weed out the production and to find the kill of an innocent woman [Applause] [Music] now Willow Springs Illinois seemed like any other quiet Midwestern community but it was really one of the most corrupt places in the nation this tiny village nestled just outside of Chicago was in The Hip Pocket of organized crime I'm Jim calstrom former head of the FBI's New York office it was only a matter of time before corruption led to assassination and conspiracy to end it required a federal sting operation of astounding complexity [Music] the bank of a sanitary canal in a remote Industrial Area became the site of a gruesome crime [Music] killers were quick and third nearby two police officers were out on night Patrol when they heard the shots fired they became alone [Music] one of the officers drove towards the canal to investigate search the desolate area foreign Illinois police chief Michael I heard it earlier myself and I've already checked the area so he too I gotta come see you later the following day a prominent local attorney called police to report that his wife was missing [Music] Lieutenant Howard Cook County Sheriff's department and his partner responded to the call attorney Alan Masters said that his wife Diane had been out the night before with colleagues and friends from a local College where she worked she never came home there was no sign of her Yellow Cab meet and usually start I believe it he said he made calls trying to locate her until two in the morning but finally gave up for the officers the information offered little innocent excuse me foreign County Sheriff's department and joined the office so we were just asking Mr Masters questions about his wives he asked Masters if he could have a look around the house sure he had nothing to hide the officers continued their questioning anything else you can tell us as far as like as reluctantly Masters offered some new information somebody somebody works for the college he suspected that his wife Diane had been having an affair maybe the two lovers had run off together I don't know who he is or what he looks like I just have my suspicions excuse me guys I think we need to wrap this up Lieutenant Vanek wanted to investigate further and look around the house himself sir I think we need to take another look around in here husbands are always suspects when their wives tell us around here there's nothing nothing so we need to look around it's time to go he's missing her let's go now but Lieutenant Keating intervened two investigators always check out the scene in his mind everything is checked out now let's go now vanic was upset he didn't know why Keating would undermine his investigation [Music] outside Keating confronted Lieutenant Vanna telling him to back off as far as he was concerned Masters was not a suspect [Music] Panic didn't buy it and he let Keating know just as the two men were about to explode Willow Springs police chief Michael Corbett arrived at the scene come on guys [Music] Keating would if you're off the case forget it you're off the case man you got that the questions still remained where was Diane Masters her disappearance grabbed the media's attention I'm very active in the local community Diane had worked hard to help open a shelter for battered women she was also involved in local politics and sat on the board of the Moraine Valley Community College he did not appear to have any enemies and opening opening this crisis center something that is needed needed desperately in his community but investigators began uncovering other details it was reported by Diane's friends that her husband was controlling and abusive and that Diane was planning to file for divorce assistant U.S attorney Tom scorsa followed the case we were pretty certain that what had happened here was that Diane and Alan in a regular had a regular marital dispute sort of ordinary dispute but that it had escalated into something much worse go ahead and send them in scores as investigation soon revealed that Alan Masters was more than just a bad husband it was rumored that Allen Masters had bribed local officials and police officers to secure favorable outcomes for his clients let it go very well very well not in the words production extended right to the top of law enforcement allegedly Masters frequently Enlisted the help of Chief Corbett [Music] [Music] it was also rumored that Masters in Chief corporate were involved in safeguarding some of the Chicago mobs betting and prostitution Rings which were run out of show clubs throughout Suburban Cook County [Music] investigators were focused only on Diane's disappearance with no evidence and few leads that investigation still unaware of Alan Masters or his wife's disappearance the FBI had already begun an independent investigation into the mob controlled rackets of the Chicago area U.S attorney David stetler worked with the FBI to help unravel the prostitution operation there were a number of bottomless joints that one could go to and many of them were undercover fronts for prostitution so you could go in you could watch the naked girls dancing on the stage and for a price you could Retreat to the back either to a booth or a back room and engage in one form of sexual activity or another with the dancers the club Owners knew that their customers would spend more on drinks and prostate if they could use their credit cards patrons were reluctant they did not want bills arriving at their homes or businesses with charges incurred from nightclubs the club Owners found credit card transaction companies that were willing to process the charges using false but respectable business names special agent Ivan Harris of the FBI's Chicago Field office was assigned to help bring down the illegal businesses the scam was using various companies in order to launder credit cards through their business to make it appear that businessmen were actually eating at a restaurant or using limousine service to incur the charges when in fact there were charges for prostitution Larry Wright was one of the credit card transaction company owners Wright would pick up the week's transactions from the clubs and process them through his company National Credit Service or NCS one of his clients was a club owner named Joseph Mara whose Club was a front for a mob-controlled prostitution house Wright wanted to expand his own operations perfect the approached Maron about setting up an illegal betting Club you know she's not a chance to really interview Marin was willing to help out the man who made his money Wright would first need to pay protection money to local police in order not to be exposed and arrested [Music] Maron was the man who could arrange that protection he's more than willing to pay all right okay Marin arranged the meeting at the Willow Springs Police Department [Music] it was to take place with police chief Michael Cortlandt [Music] Corbett had been hand Tech their interests in and around Willow Springs [Music] the word on the street of course was that no one could do anything in Willow Springs without the permission of the chief of police Mike Corbett the message also was from virtually anyone you would talk to that he was so powerful that he was so well connected that nothing could ever be done about him I just want to make sure I don't get any unexpected visits corporate agreed to help Larry Wright set up the new betting operation for a price not quite yet in return Corbett assured it we wouldn't get any hate from his office Larry Wright was well on his way [Music] he returned to his office at National Credit Service operated out of a nondescript Office Park location Wright worked with two other staff members doing great very great but these were not ordinary employees whatever NCS was not just a credit card transaction service for illegal activities [Music] for the FBI Larry Wright was actually undercover special agent Larry Damron corruption in Willow Springs while local investigators struggled to unravel The Disappearance of a prominent attorney's wife the FBI had set up an undercover operation in the town of Willow Springs just outside of Chicago [Music] their target organized crime and the corrupt police who protected them from prosecution the undercover work was often painstaking and frustrating FBI special agent Larry Damron explains the difficulties inherent in undercover work during the course of the undercover operation you try to immerse yourself in what you're doing and you and you try to assume that role because it's necessary for you to do that in order to accomplish anything oftentimes you'll hear people make comments or you'll see people do things that in any other circumstance they would be arrested for immediately and so what you have to remember is you're in a role and you play that rollout Dameron had heard stories about how the mob resolved problems they were Swift and violent and their signature was unmistakable [Music] there was no room for mistakes a player in Chicago's organized crime approached Damron at NCS I shall Victor himself wielded little power his brothers held tremendous influence within the mob's hierarchy Damron was starting to move into the center of the violent Chicago underworld the splatros were one of the best known names uh of mobsters in Chicago the older brother Tony was the boss in Las Vegas he represented the Chicago outfit for their interest in Las Vegas had been a prominent figure and had been widely mentioned in the papers having been involved in murders and extortions and things like that agent Damron quickly developed a reputation as an effective businessman in laundering money for Mob operations sure everything's all right knew of ncs's activities with the local nightclubs they were under his control [Music] good everything's going good with the business yes he told Damron he would have to pay him a cut to stay in business appreciate what we do for you Damron had no objection [Music] the level that we had there is we were paying protection to a fairly important aspect of the mob the cilateral family and so that gave us a little bit of uh status if you will but we had absolutely no Authority or anything like that in the mob we were just workers and our value was we made them money agent Damron traveled to a remote hotel where he met with FBI special agent Gordon Brooks who oversaw the undercover operation to ensure the damron's real identity was not compromised the two met infrequently to exchange information [Music] Brooks vigilantly kept tabs on Damron the investigation was as dangerous as it was complex the agent cautiously moved forward he wanted to continue expanding the FBI's undercover operations he used every opportunity he could to sell the idea of opening more betting and prostitution houses throughout suburban Chicago even with a go-ahead from the spilotros Damron would still need permission and protection from the police [Music] he met with nightclub owner Joseph married to hash out the details of the new clubs and secure police protection by the Willow Springs City Council Under Suspicion of corruption um Marin knew another high-ranking law enforcement official who could provide the same protection as Corbett Lieutenant James Keating cook County's vice squad supervisor tell you what you know he deals with me U.S attorney Tom scores it was not surprised by the development Jim Keating was a lieutenant in the Cook County Sheriff's Police Department but if anything the rank understated his influence he was a very well connected uh officer in a very corrupt Department he had connections with people of higher rank who were also corrupt and so he was a key figure with Corbett out of the picture the FBI shifted their focus to Keating Damron met with him at a restaurant outside of Willow Springs it allows me to really concentrate on my job heating said he'd have no problem helping Damron expand his operations need to understand is if there's a situation that comes up but any move Damron made would have to be approved by him he warned Damron to play it straight with him and his people he told us that the one thing that he wouldn't tolerate was if someone double-crossed him and he said if if that happened that we'd find us with our legs on one of the streets in the area in our head on another Street in the area as instructed by the FBI Damron proposed another operation a club that would be a front for prostitution he gave the lieutenant the first of many payments to ensure police protection before he left Keating said he knew someone who might be able to help him a lawyer named Alan Masters so he had no direct dealings with Alan Masters Damron had heard the name mentioned by Chief Corbett well I knew that Masters was a well-known attorney on the south side of Chicago that he had a tremendous reputation for being able to get things done particularly in the in the local court system and the uh the scuttlebutt was that that he wasn't reluctant to pay bribes or to deal with people however he needed to Damron continued his meetings with his case supervisor special agent Gordon Brooks Damron needed to know everything he could about Alan Masters and his relationship with Keating and Corbett the FBI and U.S attorneys quickly established a hierarchy within this ring of corruption okay you're making your way up to Keating right I want you to Corbett was the king in Willow Springs but anytime he had to do something that involved the broader Cook County he needed to get the permission of Keating and Keating always had to check with the ultimate fixer Alan Masters to make sure everything could be handled at the court level as the extent of Allen Master's criminal activity became clear the FBI began looking closer at his possible role in his wife's disappearance [Music] the two distinct cases were beginning to overlap and damron's objectives were broadening authorities he was a suspect in The Disappearance of his wife he was thought that if we could develop a relationship with him there might be something there that would come come to light and and might be of some benefit to that investigation foreign learned that Alan Masters allegedly made payoffs to several area judges in exchange for favorable decisions now we need to have that hearing on the Sanderson case needs to go our way we have an understanding of that judge agents speculated that Diane might have witnessed her husband's illegal activity and threatened to expose him [Music] with that right this way sir now trying to elicit information about Diane's disappearance Damron continued his efforts to make inroads into the corruption around Willow Springs happy the new show he met with Keating several weeks later to follow up on his plan to open a show club manager lined up again heating mentioned that his friend Alan Westward take care of that he's a real fixer Damron took the opportunity to bring up Ellen's wife Keating said little but then added an unusual comment the same plan we had with the other one probably heard a museum we talked about Master's wife turning up missing and Keating said well she turned up missing like the day before the divorce was going to be filed it was convenient and chuckle about what a what a good circumstance that was Damron was cautious not to prove too far fearing that Keating might grow suspicious you've known this fella for a long time yeah I've worked with them before sure he can do as the meeting ended Keating handed over Alan Masters phone number saying the lawyer is expecting his name [Music] he proceeded to set up the meeting with Alan Masters hello Mr Masters how are you this is Larry Wright speaking the attorney agreed to help push through all the necessary permits and legal documents which meant bribing officials and securing protection we've been working uh pretty hard on it for a while now also I think Master suggested they get together talking about the meeting was set for the following week Monday December 13th okay I'll look forward to meeting you then I think we can maybe do some business okay thanks bye before the meeting would take place however police officer on routine Patrol near the sanitary Canal area in Willow Springs noticed something unusual tire tracks led directly into the canal he immediately called for assistance little did he know that the lid was about to come off the underworld in Willow Springs while the FBI continued their undercover operation in the Chicago suburb of Willow Springs an office went out on routine patrol made an alarming discovery tire tracks leading directly into the sanitary canal police officers and a dive team responded to the site overseeing the investigation was James Ross an honest cop appointed by city council to replace Michael Corbett as the police chief in Willow Springs that had been housed from the Department his legacy of corruption remained below the surface divers found a virtual underwater parking lot 82 cars lined the bottom of a polluted canal U.S attorney Tom scores are believed he knew why the cars were there who could make a profit by allowing them to be dumped without a police investigation [Music] those are known as insurance give UPS people who want to collect money on their car when the car is not worth very much anymore we'll find a way of losing the car and then reporting it stolen and collecting Insurance my belief was that Corbett had been the approver of all of The Dumping of the cars in the Royal Springs canal third car had been dredged up a yellow Cadillac the license plate on the vehicle dgm-19 was well known in Willow Springs [Music] the Federal County Sheriff's Department arrived at the scene Chief Ross was surprised the Keating a Vice Cop had been notified he asked peting why he was there heating had no response examining the cattle [Music] cried open the trunk they discovered a decomposed party [Music] Ross immediately ordered that the car and the body be taken back to a City Garage where they could be thoroughly examined for Clues [Music] the decision not to use the police garage was well reasoned Chief Ross knew this case potentially had far-reaching implications and he couldn't trust his own officers the fewer people nosing around the better [Music] State Police began to scour the car in the body for evidence [Music] they found 22 caliber shell casings in the trunk the keys were still in the ignition eerily the watch on the deceased body and the dashboard clock had stopped at exactly the same time 150. they removed the body for further forensic investigation the forensic team examining the body found the skull had been crushed they also discovered two Bullet Hole entries in the left cheekbone the bullet fragments inside the skull were removed and sent off to the FBI lab for ballistic evaluation [Music] thank you dental records confirmed what everyone believed the body found in the trunk was Diane Masters the nine-month investigation into Diane's disappearance was now a homicide investigation [Music] Chief Ross called in Cook County detective John Reed to work the homicide he was to team up with the FBI who was now taking over the murder investigation detective Reed was not to trust even his closest friends in the department he was told that through the FBI undercover operation run out of NCS Law Enforcement Officers were being investigated for corruption and some had ties to Alan Masters who is now a firm suspect in Diane's murder [Music] as agent Harris and detective Reed initiated their murder investigation agent Damron continued his undercovering information set up a time and place for our meeting called Helen Masters to confirm their meeting to set up the show club I'm sorry well this just was invasive it seemed distracting too if that's okay with you maybe we can maybe we can work something out then just give me some time he canceled the meeting okay thanks Damron immediately called Keating [Music] conversation being recorded by the FBI he Keating would explain why Masters was being invasive I was wondering if you had any information on that as I said he's pretty busy how about if he give me a call in three or four weeks but Keating was cryptic they instructed Damron not to bother Masters he had too many problems to deal with okay bye [Music] new show club would have to wait [Music] met with agent Brooks Masters in Keating both appeared nervous since Diane's body had been discovered but that was hardly enough evidence to prosecute either of them for murder perhaps Damron had overlooked something he handed over his tape recorded conversations with Keating this is gonna nail him we're gonna get him can you play that again please over the next several months the U.S attorney's Office Cook County Sheriff's department and the FBI began the process of merging with various investigations all right well the link between them was Alan Masters tape Cook County Lieutenant James Keating and former Willow Springs police chief Michael Jordan if that's the case if we can put if we could follow on prosecutors to begin constructing a case proving that the three men and all of their activities represented an ongoing organized criminal Enterprise and what we had to do in order to prosecute Masters and Corbett and Keating for a collection of their activities including the homicide we had to show that they made up a criminal organization a mini Mafia appreciate you meeting with us tonight Mrs Camp staff well if you guys detective Reed and agent Harris's First Step was to question Diane's friends who had been with her on the night she disappeared you said that you uh followed her home that night one of Diane's colleagues Genevieve capstaff had actually followed Diane home that evening after a board meeting and so I just wanted to see so I followed her campsterf claimed everyone on the Marine Community College Board who worked with Diane suspected that she was having an affair with an economics professor she admitted that she wanted to see if the two were going to Rendezvous she followed Diane to her Street when Diane turned to go home cap staff continued on is there anything else that you can tell further questioning revealed that all of the community college board members including Diane were given a one hundred thousand dollar life insurance policy as part of their employment benefits hundred thousand dollars right right the policy specifically stated that proceeds would be paid if a board member died while traveling to and from board meeting the policy was void when the board member entered their home Allen Masters claimed Diane never arrived home that night he was therefore eligible to collect the insurance money several months before Diane's body was discovered in the trunk of her car Masters filed a claim with the insurance company after filling out all the paperwork he sent it off though Diane's fate at that time is unclear Masters had a judge declare her legally dead as a result he was about to receive one hundred thousand dollars Alan Masters was fast becoming the FBI's prime suspect in the murder of his wife Diane shortly after her body was discovered investigators learned that he had filed a claim with his wife's Insurance Company within a few months two checks appeared in the amount of fifty thousand dollars each the federal agents and prosecutors could prove Masters was responsible for his wife's death and that he profited from it it would be one more element that showed that he and his accomplices were involved in an ongoing criminal Enterprise homicide in a federal racketeering case carries much more jail time than a state charge as the investigation began to take on a clearer Focus FBI agents working the undercover case received bad news listen we're gonna have to move rather quickly on the Washington Post had gotten word of the operation we got we're almost at the point where we can really make some impact host gave the FBI three weeks to wrap it up before running the store [Music] agents had no choice but to quickly bring their undercover operations here so please do me a favor for U.S attorney David stetler the timing couldn't have been better the project had run its course and the bulk of the information anybody was ever going to get had been retrieved and to make the operation go on go on longer would have resulted in additional evidence but it also would have resulted in the evidence that had been gathered becoming more and more stale agents had meticulously pieced together the web of corruption that extended to the nightclubs under mob control now it was time to shut them down [Music] the FBI hit all the clubs several hundred officers and agents raided over a dozen clubs throughout the Cook County including those in Willow Springs stay right here [Music] all right chance behind your back [Music] inside the club's federal agents were able to collect volumes of incriminating evidence [Applause] thank you 55 people were indicted including club owner Joseph Marin Tony Spilotro and his brother Victor they were prosecuted in both the state and federal courts for extortion prostitution bribery and racketeering several deputies from the Cook County Sheriff's department and officers from the Willow Springs Police Department were also indicted and convicted for protecting these businesses after three years of undercover work the sting operation was now officially closed foreign special agent Larry Damron it was finally time to leave the role of Larry Wright I would say the Finish was Elation and disappointment at the same time disappointment that there were so many opportunities out there to to identify other criminal activity we knew that that it was a good job that we had gathered tremendous amounts of evidence and that we had a real insight into some of the criminal activity that was taking place that we hadn't had before Alan Masters local Authority the FBI and prosecutors could now Focus exclusively on the Diane Masters murder investigation she said oh yeah they continued questioning her friends and Associates including the man with whom she was allegedly having an affair there were other things that happened economics professor Jim casselnian he confirmed that he and Diane had a relationship he also claimed that Masters had abused Diane physically mentally and emotionally she lived in fear of her husband Diane had told him she planned to file for divorce also had reason to fear Alan Masters one night casellniak and Diane had met for drinks at a local bar he recalled that Diane called home to check on her dog instead of getting the babysitter on the phone Allen unexpectedly answered Allen he suspected she was with her lover he was irate I was calling to check on Andrew he vowed to destroy her [Music] said Diane returned from the phone call and was very upset he went to the bar for more drinks there a man suddenly confronted him and began firing off a series of questions uh yes I did the man never identified himself what's your name he asked for silniak's name [Music] though the man said little else the Celiac felt he had just received a threat stay away from Diane [Music] and garciniak would later recognize the man as Lieutenant James Keating he said that on the night of Diane's disappearance she had called him and warned him not to meet her for drinks so this was an unusual move on her part the usual they got together after her college board meetings lately she had been troubled by Alan's Behavior go on to another restaurant took her advice and canceled their plans he never saw Diana again [Music] agent Harrison detective Reed continued to develop Witnesses hey glad you could come by they discovered that Masters had hired a private investigator to keep tasks that his wife Diane we subsequently developed a cooperating individual named Ted nicaza who was a private investigator with Allen Masters Masters had requested Ted nicaza to place a bug on his home telephone number because he suspected his wife Diane was having an affair I got a few tapes okay what do you guys got for me my casa told investigators the bug was successful in exposing Diana and casellniak's effect played back a telephone conversation captioned on tape where Diane was talking in highly sexual way with the boyfriend Jim casselnyak according to nikaza after playing the tape Allen Masters declared his intention to kill Diane and to get Keating to make it look like an accident and he had the resources to get away with it [Music] yeah the FBI and local authorities continue to uncover evidence against Alan Masters and his associates that pointed towards a conspiracy to murder Alan's wife Diane private investigator hired by Alan master Diane's affairs Allen's rage was out of control but investigators had no hard evidence to charge him with murder after an exhaustive five-year investigation that was about to change intended to have Diane killed they uncovered a Cook County Sheriff's deputy who was willing to talk agent Harris Deputy Jack Buckland had startling information he claimed that he had been approached to kill Diane the offer had come through Lieutenant James Keating Bachmann had a series of conversations with Keating and ultimately Keating asked Bachmann if Bachmann would be interested in the job of actually stalking and killing Diane Masters Bachmann said Keating offered him twenty five thousand dollars to carry out the hit Michael Corbett the chief of police had already agreed to dispose of the body [Music] declined the offer no sir I'm sorry I can't get involved in anything like that no sir through Keating Masters it clearly solicitors this meeting we just had in [Music] foreign [Music] scores and needed to bring in indictment he said he wanted to eliminate her I said what do you mean we were able to show is that when Allen masses decided to kill his wife he simply was able to turn to the two police officers that he'd already been working with on corrupt activities and criminal activities and that made the homicide and the planning of it and the solicitation of it it made it an activity of the criminal Enterprise had finally come together investigators put together a likely scenario of Diane Master's murder Allen Masters had found a Hitman to kill Diane and her boyfriend when they met for their usual drinks after her college board meeting however Diane didn't meet with caselniak that evening tonight the meeting ran late foreign took matters into his own hands [Music] Alan masses was at home babysitting their young daughter he was setting up his Alibi by making long-distance calls all night to prove that he was home he never expected his wife to walk in the door she did she began the process of getting undressed and he hit her with a blunt instrument two blows to the Head [Music] Masters then called Chief corporate who came with an unknown accomplice to dispose of the body [Music] they dumped Diane's body in the trunk of her Cadillac Corbett then drove away with the accomplice following him Masters remained at home with his daughter [Music] they drove to the remote sanitary canal his watch was reset to throw investigators off the trail should their body ever be found they then fired Two Shots into her head foreign they also reset the dashboard clock to 150. Allen Masters made sure that he was on the phone with the time was alibi orbit and the economists dumped the Cadillac into the car in June of 1988 six years after Diane's murder investigators brought charges against the three conspirators former police chief Michael Corbett was the first arrested on federal charges of racketeering bribery and conspiracy to solicit and cover up the murder of Diane Masters special agent Ivan Harris tried to elicit a confession Mike Corbett subsequently confessed that he was in fact the person that had put Diane Masters car in the canal he disavowed any knowledge knowing that she was in the trunk of the car at that time Cook County Lieutenant James Keating was arrested next in the same federal charges he too denied involvement in Diane's [Music] FDR and finally Alan Masters in addition to racketeering and bribery the indictment against Allen Masters charged that he planned solicited and aided and abetted the murder of his wife prosecutors would not have enough hard evidence to charge any of the conspirators with the actual murder of Diane prosecutor Tom skorza was able to successfully tie all of their criminal activities together for the jury Masters was convicted on all counts collecting the one hundred thousand dollar insurance money after having his wife murdered also made him guilty of mail fraud he received a total of 40 years effectively to the end of his life former Chief Michael Corbett received 20 years James Keating was convicted and sentenced to over 30 years the masses case was special in my experience because there was no one single piece of evidence proving guilt what there were were a thousand little pieces that made a mosaic that was made the case intriguing it made it very difficult to present it made it a challenge to present to the jury but it made a terrific story because in the end the jury could see how one little plate piece from over here and one little piece from over there made a picture and the picture was a plot among three fellows who had been involved in a lot of criminal activity to do their ultimate criminal act murder Diane Masters watch yourself [Music] the undercover investigation that agent Damron oversaw and the work of several other FBI agents exposed to deeply rooted corruption throughout cookie and brought it to its ultimate demise by weeding out these pockets of corruption the people living in the suburbs of Chicago no longer have to live with the lawlessness that threatened to destroy yeah in the 1990s the disguised serial bank robber terrorizes the Chicago area expert with weapons aware of police procedure and fearless he hits hard and disappears fast [Music] police and the FBI realize the only way to stop him is to catch him in the act but his desperate violence for [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the average bank robbery yields roughly three thousand dollars yet some criminals risk everything for the take in suburban Chicago a disguised gunman began a series of robberies growing more violent with each one I'm Jim calstrum former head of the FBI's New York office tracking the robber's movements agents discovered he wasn't alone and would do anything to avoid capture [Music] March 5th 1990. Chicago Illinois [Music] at a bank on the city's South Side employees began what they thought was a normal work day the neighborhood was quiet until 10 am [Music] don't you touch that alarm the disguised gunman threatened to kill anyone who didn't follow his orders [Music] the tellers knew not to interfere [Music] it was over in seconds when they were safe they called police [Music] the Chicago Police Patrol officers closest to the bank responded first the witnesses reported that the robber was a white male about six feet tall but they didn't see details of his features because of his disguise he wore gloves and carried a police scanner the man was aggressive handling his semi-automatic handgun with confidence he left no fingerprints and security cameras revealed no other immediate Clues police canvassed the area hoping to find other Witnesses a woman who lived near the bank reported that she thought she had seen the robber she said that at about the time of the robbery she saw a man who seemed to be wearing a fake beard get into a small four-door sedan she did not get the place but she did give officers a description of the car checking every similar car in the area they soon found one they believed was the robber's getaway vehicle abandoned a few blocks from the bank the officer approached with caution in case someone was still inside but it was empty except for a paper towel covering the broken ignition a records check revealed the car had been stolen from a mall parking lot four days earlier later processing produced no leads to the robber bank robbery is a federal offense so police contacted the Chicago FBI supervisory senior resident agent Bill Keefe had handled dozens of bank robbery calls at that time we were extremely busy with bank robberies we had had two on one day we were running sometimes as many as three robberies a week most were committed by amateurs who went in without a plan and were caught quickly as I said two minutes but when the bank robbery Squad reviewed the reports on the South Side robbery they noted how clean the assault was obviously well planned they believed it was not the bearded assailant's first robbery and would not be his last two months later the robber with the fake beard hit a bank in the suburb of Libertyville not satisfied with cash drawers this time he ordered a teller to open the vault he said his police scanner would let him know if anyone hit the silent alarm [Music] foreign escaped with thousands of dollars in cash [Music] but this time a teller got the license plate number from his getaway car while Libertyville police looked for the car Chicago FBI agents interviewed the tellers special agent Hank Schmidt learned the gunman was more aggressive this time he controlled people with the weapon he would intimidate them by putting the gun up towards their face he pointed the gun directly at someone when he talked to them which was intimidating to the the tellers and the customers although interviews yielded no clues police did find the getaway car abandoned a few blocks from the bank again the vehicle had been stolen from a mall three days earlier and as before the thief used a towel to hide the broken ignition [Music] FBI special agent Dave childrey was part of the robbery Squad the squad uncovered an earlier robbery in Wilmette Illinois believed to be committed by the same man one surveillance camera photo provided a frightening clue there was a very good picture of the robber taken in which he was using what we call a weaver stance this is a shooting position taught to police officers it was taught to FBI agents and if you have been taught to shoot like that you recognize it this person might have had some Law Enforcement Training so he would know how these investigations work and he could prove very difficult to catch the local press dubbed him the Bearded Bandit investigators took advantage of the coverage to ask citizens for help they published enhanced stills from the robberies hoping someone would recognize him despite the disguise we put his picture on the news did wear a beard a fake beard and mustache and a ball cap so after running those pictures we were not getting any tips from the public in November 1990 The elusive Bandit hit a bank in Wheeling Illinois hit the alarm before he was told not to over his scanner the gunman heard the police responding leave the bank which would be normal reaction of bank robberies they're there to rob the bank they're not there to get involved in the shootout with the police stayed in the bank while the police were responding and held the gun up to the cashier and counted down from 10. 7 six five four three two team knew how long he had before police responded more evidence he might be a cop as the robberies continued it looked like the Bandit purposely chose Targets in different jurisdictions to complicate the investigation no Bank was ever hit the second time the robberies would be on the other end of the suburban area against Lake Michigan and then they would be out in Schaumburg or Elk Grove Village or up north in the Lake County such as Libertyville [Music] as he struck in new suburbs the FBI had to coordinate with a growing number of police departments Palatine Illinois police chief John Kozel a detective Sergeant at the time learned of the case and that the bandits getaway cars belonged to shopping mall employees stolen at the beginning of their shifts he would steal one of the employee cars knowing that it would not be reported stolen for approximately eight hours we knew we had eight hours to get the vehicle to where he needed to put it before anyone would even Discover it missing and it would become hot on the system when dumping the cars the robber did his best to interfere with the ongoing investigation [Music] wiping them clean of fingerprints and leaving no trace of himself behind [Music] foreign it was very apparent that he was aware of evidence Gathering techniques of police methods in the end agents found nothing of evidentiary value in any of the cars once the cars didn't help identify the Bandit investigators followed every conceivable lead that might they visited theatrical shops around the city hoping A salesperson might recognize the man with the fake beard as a customer uh again nothing The Bearded Bandit committed seven armed bank robberies in the Chicago area between January 1990 and February 1991. then the robbery stopped we went over what we had done to that point in time looked for things we might have missed maybe he'd been incarcerated somewhere maybe he'd moved out of state maybe he was dead we just didn't know the Bandit's Trail stayed cold for nine months on November 4th 1991 Palatine Police Officer Kevin Maher was working the day shift a dispatcher in training rode along to learn procedure [Music] I was heading Southbound on Clinton Road when I saw a vehicle heading Northbound and I looked in my side view mirror and I thought what I saw was an expired tag [Music] so I made a u-turn and I was telling my ride along that we were going to go up and see if this vehicle had expired place and if it did I would conduct a traffic stop and show him how we conduct a traffic stop and how we punch all the numbers into the computer it was supposed to be a routine stop foreign [Music] driving the vehicle swerved over to the side of the road and jammed on the brakes [Applause] he's got a gun Maher's first instinct was to protect his passenger The Bearded Bandit was back in November 1991 a routine Chicago area traffic stop erupted in violence when a man shot Palatine Police Officer Kevin Maher [Music] I was in a State of Shock because it was broad daylight it was 11 o'clock and it was a quiet residential street it was a basic ambush and after he fired the first round the first round came through the windshield and struck me in the shoulder and glass from the windshield struck me in the left ear [Applause] it's off or down the officer down call went out on the Illinois State Police emergency radio network for more than a dozen surrounding suburbs police and emergency Personnel rushed to the scene [Music] Mara realized one of the shots that pierced his windshield was aimed dead center and might have hit him in the head had he not moved to protect his passenger and reverse the car [Applause] well paramedics treated Maher officers questioned him as a police officer he was a perfect Witness [Music] trained in recalling details he gave them a description of the gunman the car's license plates the type of gun and the direction in which the attacker escaped you got a male white pounds beard cat lasting to themselves in the scene so once spread out start looking for the car which way [Music] police fanned out to find the shooter more than 100 officers joined the search [Laughter] three blocks from the location of the attack police found the shooter's vehicle it had been reported stolen from a mall parking lot five days earlier Palatine Police Chief John Kozel realized the grave Danger when someone is willing to shoot at a police officer on a routine traffic stop we all realized that he he's willing to shoot at anyone his determination to escape is much greater than his concern for the safety of anyone that would be a law enforcement officer a citizen on the street when you're willing to shoot a policeman you're willing to shoot anyone causal helped coordinate the search for the deadly gunman we immediately set up a perimeter with the assistance of the state county and local officers in the area we had canines on the scene we have Chopper in the air we notified the schools in the area to stay locked down evidence technicians began to process the car the ignition was broken the damage covered by a paper tower [Music] they looked for fingerprints that might help them identify the perpetrator but found none canine handlers brought in their dogs which are trained to remember a scent from a specified place then follow only that scent ignoring others but the trail ended not far from the vehicle despite the massive effort the suspect somehow Slipped Away [Music] [Laughter] [Music] in addition to taking it personal when one of our officers is shot uh we all know that a citizen is much more likely to be injured or killed and we work that much harder to bring him to Justice for more resources they called in the FBI and supervisory special agent Bill Keith I was asked to come over to the Palatine Police Department by the chief of police there had been a composite sketch drawn and everybody was reviewing the circumstances of the shooting for nearly two years Keith and his Squad had been working The Bearded Bandit case [Music] I had asked if we could look at the car that was found and when I looked at the ignition this was our bank robber after being treated officer Maher came to the station to look at surveillance photos of The Bearded Bandit said the bank robber did look like the man who shot him we surmised that he was on his way to do a bank robbery he knew once the officer ran the plate the car would come back stolen he also knew that with the guns he had in his vehicle it's not something he could conceal if the officer walked up to the vehicle beard advantage had made a huge leap in violence this guy wasn't going to go away we were going to have to come up with a very Innovative way to either identify him and charge him or that we were going to have to catch him in the act [Music] Chief Kozel brought the many investigators together after the initial search we set up a multi-jurisdictional task force here at our Police Department we had the FBI the state police Cook County sheriff's police and all the local agencies from our area and those involved in the here bank robber series since their suspects seemed to know police procedure they adjusted it we learned we had a violent bank robber that was using a scanner we were no longer giving out the location of the bank over the air we were giving out a code number for each particular Bank the task force hope Patrol officers in the area could use the codes to respond to robbery calls without the Bandit realizing it especially you want to cover agent confidence that the Bearded Bandit would resume his crime spree eventually police began doing spot checks of banks throughout the region [Music] on November 18th two weeks after the shooting Elk Grove Village Illinois police officers saw nothing suspicious at One Bank on their list [Music] but later that morning a woman leaving a nearby business did two people in obvious disguises entering the bank foreign shooting in the Chicago area that was linked to The Bearded Bandit the gunman reappeared in Elk Grove Village Illinois this time with an accomplice [Music] while a witness outside the bank called police the robbers struck the Bandit demanded money from the Vault his accomplished standing guard 9-1-1 dispatch aware of the Bearded Bandit used a pre-arranged code to alert officers revealing information over the police scanner they also alerted the FBI special agent Hank Schmidt realized the new Danger the big concern is that the robber in some cases discharges the weapon when he's using it to gesture at the employees so the potential for violence is always there the numbers obviously increase if we have two people that are armed in the bank the manager explained they could not get into the time delay vault the dispatcher instructed the witness outside to leave in case there was gun play with the money from the cash drawers the robbers fled unaware the police had been called the teller hit the alarm [Music] Elk Grove Village officers approached with their Sirens off quietly surrounding the bank if the robbers were still inside and heard police they might take hostages officers were in even more danger according to Palatine Chief John Kozel the first time we had two bearded individuals rob a bank that of course increased our sense of urgency even more now we had two armed gunmen to deal with when law enforcement arrives at these Banks 2600 can you call the bank find out through the dispatcher police talked with Bank employees the manager said the robbers had left the officers had to be sure the robbers could be holding a gun on the manager forcing her to lie the dispatcher asked them to send one employee outside to talk to police the manager gave them the description of the woman chosen to go 2600 have the official come out okay I see her coming out the bank around here the employee assured them the assailants were gone and no one was injured inside the officers moved in to clear the bank for certain one of the witnesses told us that she believed that the second person a smaller person was possibly a woman disguised as a man after the Elk Grove Village robbery police recovered two cars with the Bandit's signature ignition covering it was more evidence of his criminal sophistication to cleanse himself after leaving the bank he would drop the one off a block from the bank that he had just gotten into that all the witnesses had seen him leave the bank in and he would go a few blocks away and get into the other vehicle that he had left there previous and since cleansed himself from that first hot vehicle all of the cars were similar according to special agent Dave childrey we were able to kind of key in the Cars by the type the make the size the non-visibility of them they were just everyday cars he was stealing them then letting them sit for several days before using them as getaway cars the task force asked to be notified of similar cars stolen from area shopping malls we were successful in getting information on cars of that type that were stolen in the northwest suburbs and in the city of Chicago we would put that information out on a weekly basis agent Scott back in from the FBI and Sergeant Steve Pearson from Chicago PD actually went to every roll call of approximately 50 to 60 law enforcement agencies and spoke to the individual officers on the need to find these cars those personal visits mean a lot more than just putting something out on a towel type somewhere in the metro area they hope to find a getaway car after the Bandit stole it but before he used it in a robbery Weeks Later officer Tom polinski was checking an apartment building parking lot in Niles Illinois when he spotted a stolen car on their list it did look like the bearded Bandits work the agreement was if they found one of those and it did turn out to be stolen when they ran the license plate that they would back off and notify us that happened we set up a surveillance on that vehicle FBI agents in Niles police officers and detectives watched from An Empty Apartment overlooking the stolen car 24 hours a day on December 13th we found out in the Rolling Meadows Police had located another stolen car there was at all probability one of the bearded banned its cars Chief kozal was sure they were right these two particular vehicles were both stolen out of large Mall areas both were owned by employees of those malls the ammo was perfect they set up surveillance on the second car in Rolling Meadows too Rolling Meadows PD stepped up they shared time detectives intelligence sat with our agents out there 24 hours a day to further ensure the Bandit did not slip away the FBI wanted to install tracking devices in the vehicles [Music] couldn't do so in the parking lots yeah late one night agents removed the two cars and replace them with lookalikes for a few hours it was a risky move but the thief could return at any time and spot the agents or the decoy cars at the FBI garage technicians installed the remote tracking devices in each vehicle they also equipped the cars with remote kill switches that would allow agents to shut down the engines from a distance they put the cars back and waited [Music] days passed there was a nagging doubt in in all of our minds that maybe we had been discovered that perhaps he had seen one of us or a police officer going in and out of this apartment they were using to watch the car and Niles that he had seen somebody near the car in Rolling Meadows and that he was just going to back off these cars and never come back we weren't sure we just didn't know but we we were committed to watching these cars until something told us otherwise after a week the vigil paid off A van pulled up and a man approached one of the cars this was in my mind a Do or Die effort this is this is going to be our only shot if we miss this he's going to know around though they hope they could peacefully end the Bandit's crime spree but no one had forgotten the last time the gunman was cornered in 1991 a Chicago area investigators watched two stolen cars they believed were going to be used in the bearded Bandit's next hold up a man entered one of the cars special agent Hank Schmidt believed it was their suspect he matched the general physical description of the the person we were looking for as the bearded robber man we have a man the man had been dropped off at the vehicle by someone driving a van [Music] a white man putting Southbound on the Alley when he drove away the van followed investigators could not identify either driver they had to be careful if the bearded banded and his accomplice spotted a tail they might start shooting but FBI technicians had installed a tracking device in the car allowing agents to follow at a distance the suspect parked the stolen car near a Suburban Bank hearing the news supervisory special agent Bill Keefe believed they finally found their target when the vehicle showed up in the vicinity of a bank our adrenaline really was pumped up and we really knew that we were going to have it this car was likely the first getaway car for the next day's robbery agents believe that two suspects would next pick up the second stolen car in Rolling Meadows [Music] they were right [Music] foreign that vehicle was also equipped with a tracking device surveillance agents followed that car believed to be a secondary getaway car to a hardware store about 20 miles from the bank where the pair left it okay it looks like he's getting back into the van with both suspects in the van agents no longer had the benefit of a tracking device and had to stay close they followed the van into Hanover Park Illinois and watched as it pulled up to a townhouse [Music] now special agent Dave childrey could identify the people inside we had a license plate and two vague descriptions of people a man and a woman normal record checks on that license plate would tell us that that van belonged to Jeffrey and Jill Erickson the FBI and police worked through the night to learn more done a lot of research calling police departments trying to see who these people were who were looking for a previous arrest record which we didn't find during this process we had received some information that Jeffrey Erickson had been a police officer in 1986 Jeffrey Erickson worked as a patrol officer in a Chicago suburb he distinguished himself as a skilled Marksman but he was uninterested in the everyday requirements of the job traffic stops paperwork he was about to be fired when he resigned records also showed that Jeffrey Erickson opened a used bookstore in early 1991. during the time The Bearded Bandit was on hiatus it appeared he and his wife Jill a University chemistry student led a double life using bank robbery money to build a middle-class existence he might not have seen threatening on the surface but special agent Schmidt knew he was because he's a trained individual he knows how we're going to react he can plan ahead for that and if he's trained with the weapon he's going to be more professional in the way he handles that weapon and he's going to be a bigger threat to us investigators considered waiting until the ericssons approached a bank the next day but decided not to risk a shootout near employees and customers approach would be when he came to the car the stolen car we would arrest him while surveillance units watched the suspect's home SWAT teams set up near the car in the hardware store parking lot [Music] police chief John Kozel the SWAT team set up on the the vehicles were very well aware of his background and knew that he may shoot first and they were taking that into account by the morning they were ready for the ericssons to make their move about mid-morning the surveillance units advised us that the van was in fact moving from the residence with at least two people they were heading in the direction of where we were watching the the stolen car the surveillance team advises that Mr Erickson had got out of the vehicle in an adjoining parking lot might as well foreign the FBI had installed a kill switch in the stolen car which they could use to turn off the engine from a distance we watched him uh come around the corner from that other parking lot you go to the vehicle and enter the vehicle and start that vehicle thank you kill it Erickson was distracted by the car trouble okay let's go in the SWAT team moved in [Music] out of the car put your hands where I can say get back out of that bag out of the car put your hands where I can see them pressure enough to shoot or not shoot is a split second decision law enforcement officers don't want to have to shoot an individual if they don't have to no one wants to take a life that way we felt like we controlled him out of the car after twice reaching for his bag Erickson finally followed orders he come out of the bag with a gun it would have been an entirely different situation I asked him as we were transporting him after the arrest to the federal lock-up you being a former police officer you would know that a gesture like that could get you shot and he looked at me and he said well I figured you'd shoot me in the head and it would be over with quickly in the car agents searched Erickson's bag and found the bearded Bandits tools loaded Gunners a police scanner gloves a beard and a wig his bank robbery kit in that bag it was very helpful to the case without that information or that evidence we just arrested a car thief having Jeffrey Erickson safely in custody was only half the job in the adjoining parking lot the SWAT team approached the van it might be Jill Erickson inside [Applause] agents scrambled to follow the chase barreled through 11 Suburban jurisdictions reaching speeds of 110 miles per hour a roadblock didn't work she had fired multiple rounds out of that van either at the pursuing agent or other people in traffic it was a big concern for the agents that she might hit an innocent civilian [Music] [Music] agents shot out the rear tires of the van but the driver was not giving up [Applause] in 1991 the suspected bank robber LED police and FBI agents on a dangerous Chase through the Chicago suburbs fleeing van turned into an area that investigators knew had no Outlet [Applause] as the van charged them they had to fire yeah they saw a movement inside [Music] then man [Music] an FBI agent cautiously approached the driver was wounded single self-inflicted gunshot [Music] it was Jill Erickson later that night in the hospital she died special agent Hank Schmidt we believed it may have been a pact that they had both come up with that they would not be arrested she that day carried out her part of the pack and that day he decided for whatever reason he didn't important inside the van or spent cartridge casings blood fibers other ammunition other weapons there was a rifle with several hundred rounds of ammunition that whole neighborhood became an evidentiary nightmare there were bullets that Jill had fired stuck in the side of houses and cars on the street the FBI obtained a federal search warrant for the Erickson's home found some loose cash but what impressed me was the amount of Firepower in the house an arrest at that home would have would have evolved into a shootout in that home there was a weapon everywhere that you would find a picture or a statue or a knick-knack in any other home among the weapons found was the 223 caliber semi-automatic assault rifle used in the attack on officer Kevin Maher John Kozo realized his shootout would have been deadly to both sides the weapons in his home were as good as any law enforcement has as far as Firepower goes most of the long guns he had those that type of ammunition would zip right through and officer's bulletproof vest another Discovery in the house spoke to the couple's mindset one of the things that we found quite ironic was that television was on and the VCR was on and there was a Bonnie and Clyde tape in the VCR and it was queued up to the uh the point where the Bonnie and Clyde are being shot to death in the movie and it was obvious that that was something they watched before they went out and did their bank robberies the one Robber was dead and one in custody the violence was not yet over [Music] Jeffrey Erickson's trial began on July 13 1992. the evidence compiled against him was strong in all conversations with the U.S attorney's Office the trial was going very well they were very uh upbeat about it in the evidence was in their mind going to be enough to convict him but then after court adjourned on July 20th 1992 two Deputy U.S Marshals loaded Ericsson and several jail inmates onto an elevator foreign [Music] was still dressed for court [Music] the prisoners were headed for a van that would take them to the Metropolitan Correctional Center by the time the elevator reached the parking garage Erickson had somehow escaped his cups [Music] Erickson shot U.S Marshal Bill Frakes in the back and head killing him ambushed Frakes had not had time to draw his weapon as the gunman ran for the street court security officer and former Chicago police detective Harry belwomani confronted him [Music] Erickson shot the police veteran in the chest but before bellwomani died he got off four rounds fatally wounding Ericsson the gunman was 40 feet from the crowded streets when he died the thing is all these resources were brought to bear on an individual he was captured and was being tried in court you think the case is over but unfortunately the only person that could stop this individual turned out to be a very brave courageous policeman named Harry bellomini who while dying shot and killed Jeff Erickson a newlywed Bill Frakes was a promising young Lawman just nine months into his career Harry Bel woman he was a 31-year veteran two of his children are also Chicago police officers carrying on his legacy [Music] thank you the young man vanishes Without a Trace concern turns to Terror when the ransom calls begin [Music] the FBI Battle of brutal drug cartel uncovering a deadly crime will do anything get what they want [Music] all right [Music] [Applause] [Music] Chicago Street gang thought they had figured out how to kidnap people for ransom again and again and never get caught but the one mistake was they underestimated the Federal Bureau of Investigation I'm Jim calstrom former head of the FBI's New York office agents teamed up with one of the victims Brave relatives to break the Rufus gang who destroyed lives for profit uh June 27 1996 Milwaukee Wisconsin 90 miles north of Chicago on the western shore of Lake Michigan seventeen-year-old High School senior Jaime Estrada his cousin Roberto Alvarez pulled up outside a convenience store on the city's South Side Jaime went in for sodas leaving Roberto in a custom Monte Carlo and his brothers the store was a popular hangout where they often met friends when Jaime came out he spotted a girl he recognized [Music] um Jaime had been wanting to get to know the girl more and went to talk with her star catcher at local baseball leagues Jaime was a popular kid as Roberta was talking with a friend he noticed the van would pull away he figured Jaime had left with the girl and would probably be right back foreign [Music] T returned after more than an hour Roberto began to worry something was wrong so Roberto decided to see if Jaime had gone home brother Paula would had found he had not come home what's going on oh yes I'm missing her now no one had heard from him since he left us it was not like Jaime to run off leaving his cousin and his car his parents tried to figure out what to do and then let's go look pretty good brother right now they decided to split up and look for him in separate cars his mother stayed home in case Jaime called thank you the family searched the area for hours then Jaime's oldest brother Mark received a page the area code was 312 Chicago after the phone number was 187 Jaime's personal code 911 it was an emergency [Music] Mark stopped at the first phone booth he saw he hoped Jaime was all right [Music] A man answered the voice he did not recognize he said they had kidnapped Tommy and wanted seventy thousand dollars for his return the man said they were serious and warned that if the family did not follow instructions they would cut off Jaime's ears skin it and send body parts in the mail and if anyone went to the police they would kill Jaime and the entire Estrada family [Music] Mark was in disbelief he called the number again [Music] maybe it was a prank no one answered thank you if I didn't hear from anybody Jaime's father returned home his wife said no one called they were all getting frantic when Mark came back he told him about the call kidnapping threats Mr Estrada wanted to call the police immediately but Mark told him the kidnappers would torture HyVee they'd kill him at least they said if we go to the police that they're going to cut off his ears they're going to skin him and they're going to mail it to us the family did not know what to do struggled with the decision all night waiting for another phone call but none came [Music] by Dawn Mr Estrada could wait no longer he needed to help his son it had been more than nine hours since Jaime was last seen Mr Estrada decided that he and Mark would go to the police they had to take the chance [Music] at the Milwaukee Police second district station yeah the area Mark and his father explained what happened to a detective on the violent crime Squad I called them and they said that if we went to the police that they would cut off his ears since this was an armed abduction that crossed state lines from Wisconsin to Illinois the police called in the FBI [Music] okay um [Music] at the Milwaukee field office FBI special agent Dan craft had just arrived at work I was sitting at my desk and I received a call that 18 year old kid had been kidnapped Kraft had to act quickly I met with the victim's father and his older brother and tried to take a detailed interview of them based on what had happened when it had happened potentially why I realized that this was going to be back at the Estrada house Tommy's brother Paulo answered the phone who is this brother it was the kidnappers the man on the phone changed the ransom to thirty thousand dollars and also wanted the Monte Carlo what are you talking about he said they could prove their threats were serious they had shot Jaime Jaime confirming he was hurt bad he pleaded with his brother to hurry yeah still the man gave no details for a ransom drop the man said they'd call again on Paulo's cell phone hello hello I'm thinking anything they want thirty thousand dollars Polo told the others the terrifying news [Music] Polo met his father and brother Mark at the FBI office agents immediately tapped Paulo's cell phone since the kidnapper said they would be calling it next [Music] they also attached a recording device and tracing system to the Estrada's home telephone no is that this is [Music] FBI continued to set up they kept interviewing the family not wasting a second at gathering information the first things that we did was set up what we call a rapid start it's a computer database that helps us to manage a major case we utilized a rapid start to put in all the information that we received at this point every little data point that we would come up with even if it was partial the sophisticated database helps track leads and find links in complex quickly moving cases that afternoon Polo's phone rang he knew to try to get as much information as possible hello the caller asked if Polo had the ransom the Vermont Polo said he had about half I needed more time the drop is going to go perfect the phone and told his brother to hurry he was bleeding so you better stop dragging it out brother stop changing plans on us eh don't worry we're coming to get you we're you better have it bro hello they hung up while agents and detectives tried to trace the number the Estrada's moved to an adjacent room to wait for more calls in a kidnapping case the FBI tries to move deliberately but not hastily and we have a tendency to try to slow things down and work at our pace and try to control when a victim is shot now you're dealing with a life and death matter and every minute every moment becomes critical three hours later Polo got another call special agent Kraft was concerned about how Paula would handle it these type of situations are extremely stressful to begin with when you factor in a person who's a relative who loves the victim and cares about the victim they're going to act on emotions every time and they can make bad judgments but despite the threats to his wounded brother Paulo remained calm kidnappers insisted Polo make the ransom drop of the car in cash at a fast food restaurant in Chicago they said they'd call back with more details never wanna introduce a civilian into a high-risk situation but agents had no choice Paula would have to drop the car off himself but since he would need a ride back home an undercover agent could pose as a friend to provide at least some protection from Paula the team left for Chicago [Music] Milwaukee agents called in their counterparts of the Chicago FBI field office special agent Kevin Cassidy would take the lead in that City immediately after that notification from Milwaukee we knew the agents were coming we started to organize our Squad and we knew this was going to be a fast-moving case where we needed to be able to quickly mobilize our resources the drive from Milwaukee would take an hour and a half that gave Chicago agents time to prepare violent crime Squad supervisory special agent Ron hosko set up a command post at a local sports arena where Folks up on the west side of the city by the United Center in a parking lot and uh briefed everybody on what we understood was the situation with the kidnapping demands United Center is centrally located she gave agents greater flexibility for quickly getting almost anywhere in the city perimeters let us know uh as Polo and special agent Kraft traveled to the meeting place craft used the time to prepare polo for how to handle the next call from the kidnappers I would coach him and practice with him I would act as a kidnapper and fire things at him and I could see how he would react and I could you know make suggestions to him or you don't want to do that or you want to stay away from certain areas or Draw them out more by asking specific questions Polo and craft finally arrived at the staging area surveillance agents had already checked the fast food restaurant the site of the ransom drop the place was far from a controlled environment and our concerns were that there was a lot of traffic foot traffic pedestrian traffic not only into the fast food shop but in the area and with the threats that we'd already received we had concerns about our ability to prevent any kind of violent act with respect to the public who might be in that in that area at the wrong time but Paulo and the Agents were ready they had the money and the car V is in position Polo got another call agents had him try to change the drop site to one that would be safer for everyone but it was important it did not appear adamant the longer we in effect negotiate through the victim's brother the more suspicious the subjects become that there's some law enforcement involvement ultimately the discussions between the victim's brother and the kidnappers resulted in their agreeing to have this exchange at the department store parking lot that was a few miles away from the original location the kidnappers ordered Polo to leave the money in the Monte Carlo with the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition once they had the ransom and were safely away they would allow Jaime to call Paulo to tell him where he was [Music] agents left right away to set up at the parking lot it was an ideal location for protecting the public but not Paul agents would need to be hidden at a distance around the perimeter Paul who would have to face the kidnappers up close but getting his little brother back was worth the rest [Music] in 1996 Chicago agents and detectives were trying to rescue kidnapping victim Jaime Estrada but the kidnappers would not bring their victim to the site of the ransom truck according to FBI special agent Dan craft but we generally will try to do is have an exchange and even exchange the victim and the money for an even exchange in this particular case the kidnappers would not do that they was not negotiable uh it was not something I was very comfortable with but sometimes you have to bend a little bit to get your ultimate goal the kidnappers ordered Jaime's brother Paulo to leave thirty thousand dollars in the Estrada Brothers custom Monte Carlo in a deserted parking lot [Music] but the area was not entirely deserted surveillance units were hidden nearby watching nearly 27 hours had passed since Jaime was abducted almost a full day since he was shot all right everyone since Jaime needed medical attention agents could not afford the time it might take to follow subjects or risk losing so they decided to arrest the kidnappers when the ransom drop was made unfortunately the size of the location chosen by the kidnappers would make the arrest difficult to pull off FBI special agent Ron hosko this was a big you know fairly expansive parking lot that was empty our vehicles were from a starting point on the outside of that lot trying to maintain a discrete surveillance so they had a fair amount of open ground that they had across to get in there agents planned to counter this problem by attempting to keep the kidnappers off balance car left the keys in the ignition and the door is unlocked but we were going to screw that up a little bit by having the victim's brother lock the doors to the car because it would end up stunning the kidnappers ever so slightly to where now they will have to regroup reevaluate the situation come up with a different plan [Music] after a few minutes the gray sedan pulled in it looked like there were three men inside one of them got out went over to the car looked in could see that the money was sitting on the front seat so you could almost see him with joy and this is a desire and then he goes to open up the door and he can't get the door open and the keys to the car are in the vehicle because he didn't know what to do so they go from being in control and now they have to react we wanted to throw him off their game and it swings the control back over to us go go down signal was given [Music] all units began to converge but the suspects reacted instantly [Music] they immediately accelerated away from us before the other surveillance units had an opportunity to close the net why not [Applause] the window they were weaving around the responding vehicles who are properly hesitant to Ram that vehicle for any number of good reasons not the least of which is that the victim could have been in the trunk [Music] the suspects got on an expressway and tore off toward downtown despite the late outline there was still civilian traffic in danger speeds of 120 miles an hour and kidnappers were in the stolen vehicle and they were trying to cause an accident by going from one shoulder across four or five Lanes of traffic all the way over to another shoulder cutting cars off [Music] agents used their training to end the pursuit [Music] and they're able to execute what we call the pit maneuver whereby they actually bumped the rear quarter panel and the vehicle did not lose control completely it just swerved slightly but it was enough for the driver to slow down to a much lower speed and our vehicles basically boxed them in at that point they came to a complete stop on the highway agents and detectives surrounded the car they knew the men inside were awesome dangerous they still had great concern about weapons and while we could have a perimeter you cannot prevent a subject from doing something you may not expect like engaging in gunfire D all of the occupants a car of finding three subjects in the car they all claim to know nothing about Jaime Estrada and wouldn't even give agents their names [Music] each had ammunition but no guns [Music] once they had the three men safely in custody investigators check to see if anything or anyone was in the trunk [Music] it was empty Jaime was not with them it was certainly our suspicion that at least one co-conspirator was with like with Jaime Estrada that was still holding him and we needed to identify who that person was and where they were and do that quickly agents ran the license plate number and searched the rest of the car and discovered a knife and a night vision rifle scope [Music] [Music] they also found several Pages a cell phone and a piece of cardboard with Polo's cell phone number written on it call and record on that on the roadside near the start of the pursuit agents located loaded nine millimeter semi-automatic handgun likely the object seemed thrown from the suspect's car go field office agents tried to interview each of the suspects individually is a gang actress they refused to cooperate gang with uh lights and Sirens during the interviews the suspect's pagers went off multiple times someone was desperately trying to get in touch with him you know whose number this is the men swore they did not recognize the numbers what are you trying to hide look at these numbers the investigators were sure it was the rest of the group trying to find out what happened so they tried tracing that number but it was an unpublished number and the phone company would not give us the address we pleaded with the phone company and promised them that we would give them a subpoena but it's logistically impossible on a Friday night at 11 o'clock to try to get a judge to sign a court order what do I have to do to give you these numbers it had been a full day since teenager was shot ages with frustrated that while Jaime was probably dying a subpoena stood in their way I tried to complete you know fan to man father to father I said you know what if it was your child wouldn't you want law enforcement to do everything humanly possible and he's just basically said I don't care we absolutely swore to him that you know trust us with the FBI we will get you the subpoena FBI can I please speak to us they said without a subpoena we're not going to give you the information the night ended with no lead on where Jaime was the next afternoon on the city's west side someone dumped a body [Music] while Chicago investigators struggled to find kidnapping victim Jaime Estrada passers-by discovered a badly wounded man lying in the street on the city's west side Chicago 911 operator took the emergency call and immediately dispatched Patrol units and an ambulance paramedics advised Illinois Masonic Hospital they were bringing in a man with a gunshot wound he identified himself as Jaime Estrada Cook County Sheriff's investigator arrived at the hospital the 17 year old was not only alive he was still conscious an investigator asked the doctor in charge if he could talk with Jaime cooktown Sheriff's Office and uh he said Jaime needed immediate surgery but since the or was still being prepared there was time for a quick interview if Jaime agreed okay he said he could do it can you tell me a little bit about what happened when convenience store drinks [Music] he said two nights before he'd gone to talk to a girl he liked he didn't know her well [Music] while they were talking the driver pulled a gun that happened so quickly [Music] said it felt like they drove for about two hours several armed men beat him could not ID FBI special agent Kevin Cassidy Jaime did not provide any real detail regarding the identifying features of his kidnappers due to the fact he was blindfolded Jaime remembered passing three toll booths he told the investigator that about 15 minutes after the third toll booth the van stopped and the men hustled him into a house or an apartment he wasn't sure which there they roughed him up some more yelling about the money he opened for the drugs how can he'll kill you bro I'll kill you huh he tried to tell them they had the wrong guy that was the wrong thing to say you know what I'm saying man I'll kill you bro I kill you with the number I said run [Music] you'll get this guys I beat him they send the phone numbers to all of his family members what I got the number 414 -55 75-77 got drawn out of here the men carefully avoided speaking their own names but there were others who did not like it during the time he was held there he heard female voices and he also heard one of those voices referred to a subject as Beethoven Jaime believed it was Beto that guarded him most of the time sometime the next Morning Jaime was just getting to sleep suddenly give us all right it took him a minute to realize and even surprised some of the kidnappers he promptly moved timing to a bathroom hey look you're gonna be okay all right here okay you're gonna be okay get the car bro get out of here be all right man he fell in and out of Consciousness so his memory was Fuzzy he remembered a white tile floor a red toilet seat maybe a red shower curtain [Music] that was all [Music] Jaime's gunshot wounded gone untreated for two days and was badly infected he needed so many surgeries that doctors had to put him into a drug-induced coma so he could survive the ordeal [Music] doctors were surprised at the young man's strength that he had survived this long [Music] but their prognosis was not good [Music] several suspects were still at Large [Music] meanwhile on Newland Avenue in Northern Chicago the resident heard a commotion and saw what looked like two armed men forcing two others toward a van the captives broke loose and ran the Jaime Estrada kidnapping case was about to become much more complicated [Music] the same day kidnapping victim Jaime Estrada was found a man in Northern Chicago saw what appeared to be a double kidnapping outside his house on Newland Avenue [Music] the victims managed to escape the resident contacted Chicago Police and emergency operators sent Patrol officers to the scene right off Obama all right stay inside the house just letting you know the police are being dispatch as we speak dispatch asked the officers to transport the two victims to Chicago PD's area 5. to be interviewed by FBI special agent Kevin Cassidy in front door one of us Pedro Montoya explained how he had been abducted earlier he was outside his house when a van pulled up several men jumped out with guns and forced him inside the other man Chavo Rodriguez had the same story Street and forcibly put into a blue and white van special agent Cassidy remembered that Jaime was also kidnapped in a blue and white van he decided to show Montoya and Rodriguez mugshots of the men arrested in connection with Estrada's abduction both victims immediately responded that those were the same individuals that had kidnapped them and there were two others the armed men they escaped from we then started to interview them in Greater detail they said they were held in the basement of a house with a third man put him on the poster they were all bound to metal poles each of their families were called with demands for ransom money and cars for more than a week the kidnappers barely fed the man a diabetic Rodriguez was affected most without his medication his blood sugar Rose which could have rendered him unconscious or even killed him investigators suspected that Jaime was not the third man who said he had been held in a bathroom not a basement so they showed the men his photo [Music] investigators were right it wasn't him he escaped with you at the same time they said the day before the third man managed to escape by breaking through the duct tape that held himself they never saw him again and did not know who he was when the kidnappers realized the third man had escaped they tried moving Rodriguez and Montoya out of the house it was then that the men escaped [Music] when asked why they may have been singled out to be kidnapped and held for ransom I'll be holding back something neither man had an answer but consider yourselves lucky and she made it out agents obtained a federal search warrant for the Newland Avenue house where Rodriguez and Montoya were held they collected duct tape bindings hairs clothing fibers and dozens of fingerprints the bathroom in the house did not match the description given by Jaime Estrada investigators believed he'd been held at a different location [Music] agents also recovered a norenco assault rifle from the house Firearms expert determined that the bullet that was recovered from Jaime was consistent with one that would have been shot through the Norinco rifle in one of the bedrooms agents found an envelope with a Los Angeles address inside were several photographs of a man holding the same norenco rifle we took those photographs and put them into an appropriate photo array we showed that photo array to several of the victims of the kidnappings and they identified that as the subject that was involved in their kidnapping now agents had the face of one of the two fugitives still no names agents then received information from running the kidnappers license plates our investigation led us to find an address in Chicago that was associated with the vehicle we then had agents go to that residence [Music] agents spoke to a Dalia Francisco he reluctantly agreed to be interviewed thank you [Music] [Applause] after persistent questioning Mrs Francisco told agents that her husband Ricardo was in hiding having escaped from a band of kidnappers I don't know what to do I want to kidnap your husband yes they called here and investigators determined he was the third man held in the Newland Avenue home it just won't stop pressed further she explained why her husband and the other men were being held further investigation and intensive interviews led us to determine that there was a Nexus to illegal drug activity in each one of these individual kidnapped friends of Ricardo Francisco revealed that he was a drug Runner he owed a drug cartel one hundred thousand dollars Montoya owed 130 000 to the same drug cartel Rodriguez was not involved in dealing drugs himself it was his son but that did not matter to the cartel his son had oatsamani and they grabbed the Dad we in the case of Jaime Estrada our investigation did not reveal any involvement in legal drug activity and we do not believe he had any it seemed the cartel had been duped by the girl who lured Jaime into the van informants identified her as Juanita Gonzalez true subject in this case was the girl she was the one that had ripped off these guys from a kilo of cocaine and then she tried to save her own hide by laying it off on an innocent person she just blamed it on Jaime who isn't just innocent in all of this all Jaime's family could do was pray he'd make it through surgery seventeen-year-old Jaime Estrada could not hold on infection eventually killed him this has now become a case of murder [Music] after conducting extensive interviews in the Newland Avenue neighborhood agents finally identified the three men already in custody as Salome Varela Jesus Ruiz and Miguel Torres the man in the photograph was identified as Jose De La Paz Sanchez the final suspect was known only as beta they were still at large wanted not only for kidnapping but for murder in 1996 Chicago area investigators captured three alleged members of a kidnapping ring that took the life of seventeen-year-old Jaime Estrada they still had three suspects to find FBI special agent Kevin Cassidy had the name of one of the fugitives Jose Sanchez his photo was discovered in an envelope during a crime scene search the envelope had an address in Los Angeles we then I'm surmised that the subject to flood the area and would be logical to look for him in Los Angeles we obtained an arrest warrant and we forward that information to our Los Angeles office in La FBI special agent Scott Hanley set out to apprehend Sanchez good luck to you we went out to the location which was a house in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles after we'd been on the house for over three hours one of the team observed a a male Hispanic individual walk out of the house but at that time because of the distance away from him we couldn't tell if it was Mr Sanchez or not we were able to follow him for approximately about a half hour on three different freeways in Los Angeles until he finally went to West Los Angeles area the man parked outside a home improvement store even with a photograph of the suspect they still could not tell if it was Sanchez if you've never met the person before and all you have is a photograph you're trying to look at a real person to mash it up with a photograph and who knows how old that can be photo they knew Sanchez had a grim reaper tattoo in his right upper arm one of the officers went in on foot to try to get a closer look of the individual he followed this person in the store I saw this tattoo of the Grim Reaper [Music] it was a positive ID [Music] agents were getting closer to nabbing the fourth suspect in Jaime Estrada's kidnapping and murder [Music] in the end it was surprisingly simple Sanchez had been handcuffed before he realized what was happening he was unarmed and arrested without incident Sanchez confessed to taking part in Jaime Estrada's kidnapping and was present after Jaime had been shot when Mr Sanchez had admitted that he knew that Mr Estrada had been shot I asked him well you know what was the condition of of the boy and he said well you know he was talking to us and I said well what did he ask and he said well he asked that can I take him to the hospital and I said well why didn't you do that he said well I didn't know what to do he also admitted to the other kidnapps and said they had been ordered by a drug cartel as a way to collect money owed to him request that your lawyer to be president before you answer any further questions Chicago investigators then began to intensify their search for the Man known only as Beto they conducted dozens of interviews with Associates of the three men already in custody [Music] they revealed that Beto had a sister Monique Jimenez facing accessory charges she cooperated anybody named beta she said Beto's real name was Luis Corrine have you been back the sister was able to describe some of the circumstances of Jaime's kidnapping particularly the shooting she advised that she was in the apartment at the time and had heard the shot and saw Jaime shot and she advises the person that shot him was in fact her brother no there was blood there so I had to go back she said she had cleaned blood off the bathroom floor with bleach she gave the FBI the address of the apartment an Evidence Response Team processed the apartment collecting samples including the grout between the bathroom floor tiles later discovered traces of blood in the grout DNA testing proved the blood was Jaime's in October 1997 Federal prosecutors in Chicago tied the complex case together for a jury the four suspects in custody Salome Varela Jesus Ruiz Miguel Torres and Jose Sanchez were found guilty of racketeering conspiracy weapons violations assault charges and all four kidnappings they were all sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole the FBI tracked Juanita Gonzalez the girl responsible for Jaime's abduction to Mexico where she completely disappeared they are still looking for fugitive Luis carreno The Man known as Beto he is currently wanted and there's an outstanding arrest warrant for him and we are working with Interpol and our other friends in foreign countries to attempt to locate him to this day and we will continue to do so the Estrada's pray that someday soon the authorities will find kareno the man the FBI suspects killed Jaime for the family and for the investigators who worked so hard to save Jaime the case will never be over until everyone responsible for his death is brought to Justice [Music] in a world where money is everything and life means nothing a drug gang stalks the streets of Chicago they are heavily armed well-funded and have dangerous International contacts it will take every weapon in the FBI's Arsenal to stop a deadly threat known as the l-rookins [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the 1980s the drug trade ravaged Chicago's inner city neighborhoods heroin and cocaine sales sued violent crime threatened to destroy the community I'm Jim calstr from Farm ahead of the FBI's New York office has drug profits grew gangs ruled the streets one of the most dangerous was called el rooken agents teamed up with state and local police to bring them down but in the process uncovered a bizarre and frightening terrorist plot Chicago Illinois in the early 1980s it is one of the deadliest major cities in America powerful drug gangs have transformed the South Side from a neighborhood into a war zone to combat the rising tide of violence the FBI forms the organized crime drug enforcement task force in Chicago their prime target is a vicious gang known as the El rukens [Music] John podliska is an assistant U.S attorney in Chicago the business of the El rukians was to traffic in Narcotics cocaine and heroin and the control of a vast area on the south side of Chicago for purposes of selling and distributing those narcotics they would exact tribute from other people who would want to sell in that area and they had a reputation and a well-deserved reputation for being one of if not the most successful and the most violent and criminal drug dealing organizations in the Chicago area in the spring of 1985 several members split from the Gang they try to move in on El Rogen territory revenge is Swift and [Music] [Music] Chicago's South Side is gripped by a vicious Turf War as the murder rate climbs the FBI seems powerless to stop the violence foreign [Music] gives agents a tip several members of the El rookan gang have left Chicago they are hiding out in a house in Cleveland many of them are wanted for murder [Music] FBI agents in Cleveland police raid the house and arrest several suspects one of them is a man named Anthony Sumner Sumner is a former elrocan general which makes him potentially useful if investigators can turn him they can get Intelligence on the secret of el rukens detectives questions Sumner for hours he implicates himself in a double homicide in Chicago and is facing serious time authorities offer to reduce charges but only if Sumner tells them everything he knows about the El rookens finally the former El rooken General agrees to cooperate as Sumner talks to authorities a terrifying picture emerges the al-rucan Gang has hundreds of members they're heavily armed they're well organized and they're growing the entire organization is run by Jeff fort Kingpin known for his efficiency and his brutality he was at the top controlling the entire organization directly below him were 21 generals and he preserved his power that way if anyone tried to seize power from him from amongst those 21 generals there were 20 other people who would be in a position to let him know that and he could retaliate authorities thought they had taken Ford out of commission in 1983 he was convicted of cocaine trafficking and sentenced to 13 years in a Texas prison wow according to Sumner Jeff Fort continues to run the El rookens [Music] prison pay phones to contact his gang in Chicago Sumner's statement is a major break in the El rooken case according to assistant U.S attorney Patrick Didi he was the first person to actually confirm what the authorities had thought for a long time which was that Jeff Fort who is currently in penitentiary in Texas was regularly talking on the telephone to members of The L ruchens in Chicago and coordinating or directing activities of the organization the arukans run their operation out of a converted movie theater on the south side of Chicago fortified by the El rukens and was essentially a fortified Fortress he had people at the headquarters of the El rupins who were required to sit by that phone 24 hours a day there was always someone at the phone so that when he called he could give his instructions directions and orders as to what he wanted done with his organization for the task force Jeff fort's telephone conversations are an opportunity to learn more about the organization [Music] no one questioned what he said and what he wanted done there was absolutely no debate discussion objections to anything that he was saying and so the FBI over the summer 1985 began to develop evidence to provide a sufficient probable cause to go and to begin to listen to these conversations [Music] agents activated 24-hour wiretap to record the kingpin's phone calls [Music] Tom Corum is a former special agent with the FBI in 1985 he is assigned to the drug task force and the El rooken case the technicians installed the wiretap equipment through the telephone company nothing was actually installed at the prison we did all of our monitoring in fact in Austin Texas which was 40 to 50 miles away from Bastrop Texas where the prison was located we were really stunned when we started hearing the conversation from Fort because he was speaking with with key gang leaders in Chicago and what we were hearing was just strings of words Fort and his gang are talking in code the kinds of of a series of words that we would hear said would be things like in the science of taku Love truth perfect man uh and we had we didn't we had no idea what uh what these words meant and uh we couldn't establish any form of reference to figure out what he was saying during these conversations [Music] agents believe that Fort and the l-rucans are discussing drug deals but until they crack the gang's code they can't prove a thing one the Chicago police officers came up with really a very good idea Chicago Police Department had uniformed officers almost on a daily basis make some sort of contact with the El rook and gang members just to let them know that the Chicago Police Department was in the neighborhood and that they were being watched and so the Chicago detective came up with the idea of having one of the uniform officers go up to the gang headquarters speak to one of the gang leaders while Jeff Fort was on the telephone and see if the gang members would encode what the police officer had said to the gang member and then feed it back to Jeff fort in the coded form and what we heard was the gang member come back up to the telephone where Jeff Fort was on the phone at the time and then encode that statement that had been made to him by the police officer so at that point we we learned we learned the code words for one the word for pound and the word for marijuana and the word for marijuana we found out at that time was perfect man breaking the El rooken code is slow painstaking work after two months agents only know a fraction of the gang's business we realized that we were missing a lot of the calls that were being made from other phones at the El Roofing headquarters in Chicago so we knew that the operation that we're running in Texas uh needs to be concluded and we needed to set operations back up in Chicago and begin monitoring all of the phones inside the gang headquarters in order to to get the whole story thank you in December agent Corum and his team decide to move the wiretap operation to Chicago they establish a new listening post near El rooken headquarters [Music] as authorities activate the new wiretap they encounter a familiar problem when we turn the wire on in Chicago I found that once again I was hearing words that I didn't understand gang is using a new code they may have found out the FBI was listening once again agent Quorum can't understand what they're saying it was like we had to start all over again when I thought we would be able to start to pick up where we left off when we shut the operation down in Texas hour after hour Quorum listens to the recordings slowly pieces together phrases something is different something has changed some of the words I started picking up were words like up up I started hearing words that related to travel and there hadn't been any words that related to travel during the during the the Texas operation I started hearing references to New York and eventually heard a reference to Libya that really caused me to be really really concerned about what changes had occurred during the three or four months that we had not been monitoring the telephones it's a chilling discovery Libya a rogue nation in North Africa is suspected of state-sponsored terrorism a well-armed drug gang combined with foreign terrorists could pose a deadly threat to National Security foreign in Chicago and FBI wiretap reveals that Jeff Fort continues to run the El rooken gang from prison although the gang talks in code authorities learn they are discussing Libya a country suspected of terrorism [Music] investigators of the Chicago drug task force spend hours listening to the recorded conversations special agent Tom Corum it doesn't make sense why is a Chicago drug gang talking about Libya I went back to the beginning and started listening to conversations again and I started piecing the bits and pieces of the conversation together and came to the conclusion that that they were talking about having met with someone in Libya who was going to provide them with money for destroying an airplane here in the United States alerts the U.S attorney's Office the drug investigation is uncovered a potential terrorist plot the FBI calls in the joint terrorism task force special agent Ned hamara is assigned to the terrorism task force in Chicago we took it seriously because uh we had no idea whether it was real or not it was decided that the terrorism task force take over the the wire and continue an investigation and determine what if anything was going on [Music] the drug task force offered their agents to help with overhearing the wire talk and recorded conversations if authorities hope to unravel El ruken's plans they need to decipher the new code quickly and completely [Music] that time we took our surveillance teams and put them to work [Music] Fred wheat is a lieutenant with the Chicago Police Department his specialty is surveillance in 1985 wheat is assigned to the FBI's terrorism task force we were bought in because they knew that they would need surveillance and also that uh a number of the Chicago police officers had worked El ruthless before and would be helpful and in setting up the strategy to work this organization the surveillance team's job is to make physical observations that can be compared to the information agents are hearing on the wiretap we basically had round-the-clock surveillance uh on different members of the group who were involved with the conversations with Jeff fort we were watching those members and just trying to follow their activities on one instance one of the gang members reads a newspaper article to Jeff Fort and substitute the code word for the actual newsprint so I mean we had a Verbatim interpretation of some of those code words because he describes an incident on the south side of Chicago where uh there was a shooting involving a landlord and a neighbor of some sort and so we were able to take those code words and go back to previous conversations insert them into conversations which solved a lot of our deciphering of some coded conversations okay slowly agents crack the new code Ron Reddy is a special agent with the FBI Chicago Field office the calls that are being intercepted at the El rooken headquarters basically concerned two areas they concern the El rooken's normal business of engaging in drug transactions as well as what we are beginning to realize is a plot between the l-rucans and the government of Libya how'd it go knowing the violent history of this particular organization we were afraid that the El rukians were going to come in in Act of terrorism in the United States in order to obtain money from the Libyan government from the wiretap authorities learned that several members of the El rookan gang recently traveled to Libya as agents continue to monitor the gang's conversations the situation with Libya deteriorates on April 2nd 1986 a bomb detonates aboard TWA Flight 840 between Rome and Athens four Americans are killed nine are injured the FBI suspects the government of Libya and president Muammar Gaddafi are responsible for the Carnage [Music] on April 4th of 1986 there was a series of conversations between Jeff Fort and uh General in the al-rucan organization known as Melvin Mays and they discussed this explosion on this flight between Roman Greece and Maize at one point the conversation indicates that their group would be able to do something like that within 30 to 50 days yeah it is a terrifying Prospect via the decoded wiretap the task force listens in on fort's plans the gang leader wants two of his generals Leon mcanderson and Rico Cranshaw to make another trip to Libya four was really concerned about how are we going to convince the libyans you know that we're in an organization that can do something for them one of the things that we were able to determine he talked about getting newspaper clippings to take back over there to show uh the libyans that this is what we've been doing this is what we can do you know violent things that happen in that the arukans are responsible for the whole idea was to convince the libyans that the al-rucians were an organization big enough to commit some significant terrorist activity or acts in the United States on their behalf we believed it was a real threat if mccanderson and Crenshaw returned to Libya federal agents will not be far behind in Chicago FBI agents and police wiretapped the ilrucan Gang two of Jeff Ford's generals are planning a trip overseas to convince Libyan officials that El rooken can perform terrorist acts within the United States travel restrictions to Libya make the trip impossible Ron Reddy is a special agent with the FBI assigned to the Joint terrorism task force United States had just engaged in at least two military actions against the libyans and the El rukians knew that the libyans were under scrutiny from the United States government the al-rucans as well as the libyans felt that the safest place for them to meet would be in Panama which they called the straw hat that was their particular code word for Panama Crenshaw and mcanderson two high-ranking el-rookin generals will make the trip to Panama City the task force needs surveillance on both men from the moment they leave Chicago until they return [Music] on May 3rd Crenshaw and mcanderson leave El rooken headquarters a surveillance team is not far behind [Music] foreign [Music] jet in Chicago Bound for Miami from there they fly to Panama [Music] in Panama Crenshaw and mccanderson are seen entering the Libyan Embassy presumably to meet with government officials and on May 10th the two l-rucans returned to the United States we knew when they were coming back and we worked with our colleagues at U.S customers and asked them to do a search of these individuals as when they arrived in Miami they found a document in Rico crenshaw's luggage which they photographed uh Crenshaw and mccanderson were not aware that this was happening but the document was in crenshaw's handwriting basically they had written a letter that said that they had five men cells in cities throughout the United States and that they were interested in trying to destabilize the government [Music] the next day on May 11th the task force intercepts several telephone conversations between the two l-rucans and their leader Jeff fort John mcanderson tell Fort the libyans have agreed to provide financing they will deposit the money in a Panamanian Bank in the United States an attorney they met in Panama will contact them shortly for the task force it's a terrifying development but agents don't have enough evidence to prosecute the El rookan gang on conspiracy charges in order for the FBI to establish that a crime has been committed we must collect enough evidence to prove Beyond a reasonable doubt that the conspiracy had actually taken place and that there was an intended goal of conspiracy and we had to prove that there was a serious plan to commit an act of terrorism here in the United States agents continue to listen to the wiretap hoping to learn more [Music] during June Fort talks about sending El rookens over to Libya to learn bomb making skills uh he said we can send some of the soldiers or members over there they could learn how to make bombs those individuals can come back to the United States and teach other members how to make bombs [Music] as alarming as this scenario is it's still not enough to prove a conspiracy [Music] weeks go by the money from the libyans never shows up Fort panics he will do anything to make the deal in late June early July Fort became uh well he just saw that the money was not going to be coming from the libyans and that he had to do something where the arukans had to do something to show the libyans you know that they were somebody to respect he talked about damaging a government building he talked about planting bombs he talked about blowing up an airplane and he talked about getting a rocket that one that you can use once and throw away so we figured okay how can we address this issue Fort wants to buy military-grade weapons the task force decides to use it to their advantage by becoming el-rooken's sole supplier so enter special agent Willie ulon Willie was on the drug task force he had already made One Drug by with Alan Knox through an FBI cooperating source Alan Knox is a high-ranking el roofinger agents assume he is aware of Ford's plans so we figured that we'd set up another drug by with Alan Knox and at which point special agent ulon could introduce the idea that he had a weapons contact and so on and that they might be able to supply the arukens or somebody else with weapons or any military equipment he mentions that he has a friend who works at a military base friend who can steal weapons Knox is interested is an amazing individual he's cool calm collected works well under pressure he was ideal for this situation his his knowledge of the street gains is his calmness and operating sources and Willie was perfect for this role [Music] Knox tells yulon about the kind of weapons the gang wants to buy they were interested in grenade launchers and so when he described the grenade launchers he said it's the type that Clint Eastwood move used in the movie which obviously is a law rocket the M72 law rocket is the U.S Army's primary light anti-tank weapon the shoulder launch missile can penetrate a foot of armor at a range of over 200 meters it can destroy a tank building [Music] or even a low-flying airliner [Music] agents cannot allow El rooken to obtain such a deadly weapon on the open market but the development does offer unique opportunities we decided that why not we Supply or the FBI Supply the al-rucans with a rocket [Music] special agent Willie hulon negotiates with Alan Knox on the price tells noxy can get law rockets for eighteen hundred and fifty dollars a piece obviously we weren't going to sell these guys a law rocket that they could use or would even work but that being said we wanted to sell them a device that looked like a real law rocket and on a cursory inspection would appear to them to be a real law rocket the ATF the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms constructs a dummy law rocket although it looks like the real thing it does not contain an explosive charge the ATF also installs a radio transmitter so agents can track the device from a distance [Music] the inert rocket is ready the Trap is set on July 29th the task force launches the operation on July 29 1986 the FBI's joint terrorism task force launches a complex sting operation agents will attempt to sell a dummy law rocket to the l rukens a gang of vicious drug dealers who are willing to sell out their own country to Libyan terrorists gang leader Jeff Fort takes the bait he tells Alan Knox to set up the Buy and we're hearing this on the wiretap after the meeting you know so we know that's going to go forward the arrangements which were basically given to us by the arucans was we were going to meet them or the transaction was going to occur the task force meets to plan the sting operation the sale of the law rocket will go down at a hotel in Lansing Illinois 30 miles from Chicago normally we would have never conducted an undercover investigation like this because of extreme danger to agent hulon but the fact that we knew that the al-rucans were dealing with the libyans we had to weigh those risks and ultimately decided that we could do it safely that we could make the transaction safely and protect the life of our undercover agent surveillance teams will form the Outer Perimeter four blocks from the hotel ultimately SWAT and undercover teams will form an inner perimeter stationed in and around the hotel what's going to happen on our operation at this on July 31st Agents from the FBI the ATF the DEA and the Chicago Police Department deployed to the hotel in Lansing Illinois they cannot fail the lives of hundreds and possibly thousands of people are at stake on the night of the law rocket deal we probably had an assets of 50 individuals spread out through to different areas surveillance teams assigned to the Outer Perimeter get into position [Music] at 6 30 PM the car enters the perimeter there are two men inside agents are unable to identify either one of them detective wheat surveillance team picks up the incoming vehicle he follows it to a gas station nearby [Music] at the gas station wheat is able to make a positive ID Melvin Mays is the driver Alan Knox is in the passenger seat moments after Melbourne had deposited the gas station we saw him go in toward the inner perimeter we passed on the plate number of the vehicle the color of the vehicle to make up the vehicle all pertinent information that would help us keep this this vehicle under surveillance at the hotel task force members get into position we had a compliment of SWAT other surveillance people other case agents in adjacent rooms down hallways uh different floors to control that situation we didn't want people from another Floor coming up we didn't want to have citizens who went a part of this deal uh getting caught in a crossfire if that happened [Music] the other teams were prepared to move in to help secure this area in the event that things went wrong so that it was plenty of uh Firepower there on hand to deal with any situation that might develop [Music] Maze and Knox arrive at the hotel within minutes the sale is about to go down the task force is ready they know the El rookens are willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill Jeff Ford's orders and make the Buy on the night of July 31st 1986 two members of the El rookan gang arrive at a hotel in Lansing Illinois they have arranged to purchase a light anti-tank rocket their goal to prove to the Libyan government that the El rookens can operate as terrorists for hire they have no idea that the man they are dealing with is an undercover FBI agent members of The Joint terrorism task force can hear every word of the transaction detective Fred Wheaton his surveillance team is stationed four blocks from the hotel we heard a knock on the door we could actually hear the physical knock we heard some voices and someone asked who it was Etc he was admitted into the room we could hear them negotiate or talk about the sale of the rocket to Launch a little something extra I threw in I can't see the market launcher where's that fun photo you know I don't do business like that where's cash it's close it's your launcher when I get my cash a few minutes later Melvin Mays leaves the hotel he needs to get final confirmation from gang leader Jeff Fort before the sale can be completed Mays returns to El rooken headquarters to wait for fort's call [Music] Jeff Fort controlled every aspect of the El rooken organization to include this transaction the wiretap picks up the phone call between Maze and Jeff fort seems leery about the Buy he's worried that it's a setup Ford instructs maze to bring a young gang member back with him they should arrive at the hotel in separate cars if the buy is a setup Jeff Fort would rather sacrifice a low-level gang member than risk one of his generals in other words Fort did not want any contact or any trading of money between the undercover agents who he suspected and his generals Ford orders him to deliver the money to the hotel and then pick up the law rocket [Music] the sale goes off without a hitch foreign [Music] [Music] s have no idea that the law rocket is a dummy [Music] thank you the low-level l-rooken takes off in the direction of Chicago foreign units follow him onto the Dan Ryan Expressway [Music] at that point we have surveillance behind them in front of them on the side of them or down the expressway coming on at certain exes getting off of certain exes suddenly the young gang member transporting the law rocket pulls over and stops seconds later another vehicle pulls alongside him It's Melvin Mays [Music] as it turns out the gang member's car has broken down the law rocket is transferred to May's car we would not have known that it changed from one vehicle to the other or one person to the other unless we had a physical eye on that transaction foreign rocket had been equipped with a radio transmitter and we were using electronic equipment and physical surveillance to follow the rocket back to where they eventually stored it maze drives to an apartment building on South Kenwood Avenue a few miles from El rooken headquarters the gang members referred to this building as the armory did our job really began because at that point we were 24 7 on that location because we had to make sure that that law rocket was not moved [Music] special agent Ned hamara continues to monitor the wiretap couple days went by fort's fears were allayed that they weren't police and in subsequent conversations he says okay let's buy five more we want five more and we're going to test one task force members are worried Ford has chosen a Target to prove his terrorist capabilities he intends to kill Chicago police detective a detective who was kind of he he worked for the gang crime Chicago Police Department who's kind of a thorn for many years in the arucan side they hated him and they figured okay we're going to buy some Rockets but we're going to use one and we're going to test it on him the attorneys and the Agents all made a decision okay let's take it down now let's not wait any further because we figured if they tried to test the law rocket they're going to determine that it's the dummy rocket and it's going to blow a lot of people's cover the FBI makes a dangerous call it's time to take down the El rooken gang and put Jeff Fort Behind Bars forever the FBI has the ilrucan gang on the hook have surveillance photos and wiretaps of the gang purchasing a dummy law rocket from his prison in Texas gang leader Jeff Fort instructs the l-rugans to buy five more Rockets he wants to test fire one of them to prove that his gang can perform terrorist Hits For Hire D we had to prevent the aruchans from actually doing something to try to impress the libyans we felt it prudent at that time that we'd gone along far enough we had enough evidence to at least put them behind bars for at least weapon charges if not the terrorist activities we weren't going to take the chances that they were going to law rocket from an outside source and use it a live law rocket in the hands of a violent gang like the El rukians would be catastrophic I think everybody decided it was time to take it down on the morning of August 5th the task force launches simultaneous raids on El rooken headquarters and on the apartment building they call the armory that building at 39th and Drexel was a fortified Fort it had steel doors on both the front and rear and iron gates across the other doors we had to use a burning bar that day to gain entry into the fort to execute our search warrant go go go we went from surveillance offices to search and Control Officers we began systematically arresting across the city of all individuals that were involved in this plot can hit itineraries to Libya for Rico Crenshaw and Leon mccanderson raids the apartment building on South Kenwood Avenue [Music] I was at the location on South Kenwood another level our main objective was to find the law rocket we're walking all through the complex you know behind the ATF agent who's got the beacon and he's gone upstairs and downstairs and all around oh it's getting faded or getting stronger we were in there for you know it seemed like a half hour and we're walking and we're still not getting and finally we go down into the basement and this is a rat infested roach infested location but when we're going down the stairs it gets louder and louder and louder finally we decided it's got to be under the stairwell so we ripped open the stairwell and sure enough the law Rock was there along with about 35 other assortment of automatic weapons that we discovered [Music] a woman we're submachine guns who knows you know how many weapons were used in crimes or murders or what the main thing we got the law rocket back before they were able to determine what that it you know was in a nerd or dummy law rocket foreign are arrested without incident [Music] Alan Knox is also taken into custody Melvin Mays is nowhere to be found [Music] on October 30th 1986 Jeff Fort Alan Knox Rico Crenshaw and Leon mccanderson are indicted on charges of conspiracy possession of weapons and use of Interstate facilities to carry on unlawful activities Melvin Mays who is still a fugitive is placed on the FBI's 10 most wanted list in 1987 the menderson and Crenshaw convicted and sentenced to more than 50 years in prison Melvin Mays eludes authorities for nearly nine years in 1995 he is arrested and convicted and sentenced to three life terms in prison Ford was already incarcerated is sentenced to spend an additional 80 years in prison this was the first in the United States history that American citizens had been convicted for attempting to commit a terrorist Act for a foreign government for Chicago Police the El wooken case is a major victory a dangerous street gang has been destroyed for the FBI the El rooken case is a battle one in the ongoing war against terrorism

Channel: The FBI Files

Views: 2,083,487

Keywords: FBI, FBI Files, FBI Documentary, Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True crime daily, Unsolved, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Full Episode, unsolved true crime, fbi files full episodes, we got him, mystery, solved, investigation, police, criminal, prison, jail

Id: nc4qpDXEc1g

Length: 197min 6sec (11826 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 08 2023