Husbands Who Murdered Their Wife | TRIPLE EPISODE | The FBI Files

in 1989 a female marine Captain disappeared from her quarters Without a Trace known for her exemplary conduct her colleagues found it hard to believe that she'd gone able military authorities suspected she'd Fallen victim to Foul Play the FBI joined the investigation they would find the decorated officer or bring her ass [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Russell was a determined woman determined enough to reach the rank of Captain in the United States Marine Corps when this decorated officer turned up missing her colleagues refused to believe she'd gone AWOL it was unclear whether Captain Shirley Russell was dead or alive I'm Jim calstrom former head of the FBI's New York office when a crime is committed on a military installation it falls under Federal jurisdiction agents would have to rely on their dedication and instinct to solve the mystery of her disappearance the Marine Corps Base at Quantico Virginia is located 35 miles south of Washington DC since 1917 it has been headquarters to one of the nation's most selective branches of the military over 3 000 Marines train work and live on the 100 square mile base [Music] nearly everything in civilian life is mirrored on base from department stores to housing married officers have the option of living on base in married officers quarters which are known as moq for six months moq number 394d was the home of Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell and her husband Robert Russell [Music] by January 1989 Captain Russell decided to end the marriage for the next month she would stay with a friend off base until bachelor's housing was available Shirley packed her civilian clothes her uniforms and her Marine issue firearm Robert begged her to stay but Shirley was determined [Music] perfect [Music] for Robert the separation meant he had to move off base as a former Marine he would be losing his last tie to the Core [Music] Captain Russell continued to advance in her career as the adjutant to the commanding officer of the support Battalion at the Marine Basic School she was in charge of all Personnel matters and administrative needs of the support battalion [Music] she was known as a dedicated marine by her peers by her commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel James Hodges when I first met Shirley Russell I was very impressed with the fact that she was a black female Captain because we just don't have that many in the Marine Corps and that she had come from a poor background and was making something of herself and she seemed so energized and so eager to uh to keep moving up the the rank structure we're talking about Captain Russell while assigned together they build a friendship based on mutual respect I can't talk to you right now [Music] I just knew that Shirley's marriage was in trouble I'll have to talk to you later Shirley Russell was very special and even though that I was a commanding officer and her her ultimate boss if you will I was very close to her as sort of a big brother mentor and we talked sometimes you know after working hours about her situation her marriage her past and so forth on Thursday March 2nd about a month after her split with Robert Shirley requested Lee from work she needed to clean her former quarters and finalize her legal separation [Music] four days later on Monday March 6th Hodges arrived at the office expecting to find Shirley at her desk [Music] he was surprised to find her office empty [Music] Shirley had a perfect work record she had never been late to report and when I walked in the door I asked major Buck Bourgeois right away and I said where's Shirley and he said sir she's not here and instantly I felt like oh no something has happened to her did you find out where she is Lieutenant Colonel Hodges investigated the unauthorized absence Captain Russell had recently moved into Bachelor officers Quarters on base Hodges hoped he would find her at home Captain Russell [Music] cap Russell please sir as the missing Captain's commanding officer Hodges had authorization to search the room Captain Russell there was no sign of her and no indication she had moved out [Music] the Marines returned to the office and contacted the captain's husband who now lived off base [Music] Hodges knew that Robert Russell had helped Shirley clean and paint their vacated quarters over the weekend they arranged to meet at the couple's former moq the Marine officers inspected the residents [Music] Russell told them that he and Shirley had met here around noon on Saturday to do some touch-up painting sorry I know and I know something according to Russell Shirley volunteered to buy some paint from the base exchange at about 1 30. [Music] he claimed that she didn't take her car but walked to the PX instead Russell said he hadn't seen her since Lieutenant Colonel Hodgins didn't believe Robert Russell's story it hit me as just totally a lie because the PX was probably four or five miles away there's no way in the world that she would have walked to the PX from their quarters outside the quarters the officers also inspected Russell's storage shed foreign Colonel Hodgins noticed a rust-colored stain Russell dismissed it as paint Hodges was skeptical he was no expert but to him it looked like blood [Music] Lieutenant Colonel Hodges briefed the naval investigative service the NIS reported the possibility of a crime to the FBI's Washington field office the NIS briefed special agents on the case Captain Russell had been missing for three days with no indication of her whereabouts the agents followed standard procedure special agent Alan malinchak headed the case when you have somebody missing you either have a case of an abduction you have a case of a missing person somebody who's walked away for whatever reason or you have Foul Play so the initial investigation that the FBI was involved in Ran all three of those investigative lines according to standard procedure the missing woman's husband Robert Russell was the first to be questioned thank you very much thank you he told agents that he was talking with a neighbor around 1 30 the afternoon of Shirley's disappearance when a friend of hers stopped by to pick her up for lunch [Music] at 3 30 Robert said he called her Bachelor officers quarters to see if she'd gone home the duty clerk had not seen Captain Russell so Robert left a message around 4 pm Robert borrowed his housemate's car and drove to Pennsylvania to spend the weekend with his parents feel it personally threatened by this during the first interview that I had with Robert Russell he was very calm very business-like wanted to assist the FBI in the investigation and provided me with multiple uh locations of where Shirley might be who she may be associated with what could have happened midnight phone calls Russell thought it was possible someone who abducted or harmed her [Music] though surely had no enemies the couple had experienced some trouble due to their interracial marriage Russell told agents he and his wife frequently visited his hometown near mahanoi City Pennsylvania one afternoon while shopping the Russells were harassed by racists [Music] according to her husband Shirley had been frightened but another incident scared her even more an unidentified man had called their house on base [Music] hello the caller used racial epithets and threatened to harm the couple whoever the caller was knew whether Russell's lived after the threatening phone calls Robert told officials he felt surely might need protection for the times he couldn't be with her foreign picked out a 25 caliber Raven semi-automatic just two days before Shirley disappeared [Music] Russell told agents he surprised Shirley with a gift on the day they met to clean their former quarters images [Music] I want you to be safe according to Russell Shirley was appreciative of the pearl handled weapon thank you agents were suspicious of the story as a marine Captain Shirley already had a personal sidearm if she felt unsafe why would she need another gun surely in the gun nowhere to be found that question would be difficult to Marine Captain Shirley Gibbs wrestling and vanished from base housing on March 4th 1989. her husband was the last person to have seen her agents needed to corroborate his story the FBI interviewed Marine Captain Patrice Gale according to Robert Russell on the day surely disappeared Captain Gail had arrived at Shirley's former residence to pick her up for lunch at about 1 30. Gail confirmed this Robert also told her that Shirley had gone for paint and hadn't returned Captain Gail thought this was odd that's probably a good idea and this one has been especially you know Gail had accompanied Shirley to the base moving office to pick up her separation papers Shirley planned to present them to Robert the day they painted their former quarters this would make their separation official and surely worried about Robert's reaction afterwards she would need a friend to talk to and ask Captain Gail to meet her when Shirley failed to show up Captain Gail worried that Robert had done something to her friend let's see what peace [Music] FBI agents checked Shirley's Bachelor officer's quarters the clerk had not seen her since Saturday March 4th the day she disappeared on that same Saturday Corporal Dan Carraway confirmed that Robert Russell had called looking for his wife the Corporal noted the time in his logbook is 3 30 pm about a half hour after he took the message Caraway thought he saw Captain Russell she was talking on the telephone he recalled that she was wearing jeans and a maroon sweater he wanted to give her the message that her husband had called but he but he distracted [Music] by the time Caraway was free the woman he thought was Captain Shirley Russell was gone his description contradicted Robert Russell's statement that Shirley had been wearing a blue jogging outfit the Corporal also only saw the woman from behind he never got a good look at her face agents doubted if she ever returned to her apartment they found no Trace that surely had changed her clothes or brought back the separation papers [Music] investigators questioned Russell's old neighbors one of them said she saw a blue station wagon backed up to the Russell's shed on the day Shirley had disappeared she noted the time was 5 PM this was an hour later than Russell claimed he left for Pennsylvania investigators wondered if Robert Russell was mistaken or lying [Music] agent Alan malanchek called the FBI in Pennsylvania pinned down Russell's whereabouts the rest of that day special agent Michael Quirk of the Allentown office became co-case agent he contacted Robert's parents Robert Russell had traveled to Saint Claire Pennsylvania on March 4th 1989 and he stayed with his family the the weekend of March 4th March 5th FBI interviews with Russell's family confirmed he had arrived alone none of them had seen Shirley what you said the interview the FBI launched a media campaign seeking The public's help Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell's photo was featured in television and newspaper stories Leeds began to pour in midway between Quantico and Robert Russell's hometown clerk in York Pennsylvania called Federal authorities the clerk reported that a young black woman had been in the store on the afternoon of Saturday March 4th the day Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell disappeared from Quantico according to the clerk the woman bought several items and paid with a check the clerk asked the woman for identification she produced a military ID Card she resembled photos the clerk had seen in the newspaper can you mind if I look at your bank receipt the agent asked to see the checks received on that day he found that none of them were written by Shirley Gibbs Russell assistant U.S attorney Lawrence lizer worked with the FBI on the case he noted another detail that suggested the woman in the store was not Captain Russell the color of the ID and the location of the picture in the ID described as belonging to Shirley Russell was the idea of a dependent military person not of an active duty military person there had been no activity since March 4th in Captain Russell's bank or credit card accounts nor had she called her family or friends considering Shirley's stable character her disappearance didn't make sense to agent Alan malinchuk she was the type of person who was going to do very well in the Marine Corps she would be promoted she had that capability she was sharp she was squared away she easy to make friends everybody that worked with her liked her she had a lot of stability in her life with regard to church and family for her to just disappear of her own accord just didn't make any logical sense thank you with no word from her or a kidnapper agents believed it was likely that Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell was dead they were Now searching for her body dozens of Marines fanned out across the huge base they searched hundreds of Acres of dense Woods the Marines used for training they found no trace of the missing captain perhaps Robert Russell knew more about his wife's disappearance than he was telling the FBI agents asked him to submit to a polygraph examination he agreed that the last time you saw her you were painting your quarters and it was sometime prior to 3 P.M on Saturday March 4th and that's correct as before agents found him to be cool and cooperative for almost three hours Robert Russell answered dozens of questions relating to Shirley's whereabouts he was subjected to three separate exams was this red spot paint Mr Russell yes it was each time Robert Russell was found to be deceptive [Music] when agents told him the results Russell seemed unfazed almost smug [Music] he even consented to be fingerprinted perhaps he was aware that polygraphs were inadmissible in a federal court of law [Music] without a body agents would need something stronger than a hunch to prove that Russell had killed his wife and disposed of her in the spring of 1989 the FBI continued to hunt for the body of marine captains Shirley Gibbs Russell in their search for answers agents delved deeper into the background of their Prime Suspect her husband Robert Russell special agent Michael Quirk learned that Russell was already married before he met Shirley he had two children with his first wife Pam [Music] the marriage only lasted six years in 1986 Russell told his wife that he wanted a divorce he left Pam and their children on Christmas Day six months later Robert married Shirley while they were both stationed at Parris Island South Carolina FBI learned that Shirley was transferred to Quantico a short time later [Music] they also learned that Robert told friends that the distance was hurting his marriage claimed he was leaving the Marine Corps to join Shirley and Quantico in order to stabilize their relationship but agents discovered a different motive for the move [Music] agents believed it was unlikely Robert would voluntarily relinquish his rank as Captain [Music] [Applause] being in the Marine Corps was Robert's whole life and whole world military records showed that in February of 1988 while stationed at Gulfport Mississippi Robert superiors founded his passion for the corps did not seem to apply to its regulations [Music] they issued Robert a less than honorable discharge for dereliction of Duty and defrauding the government he was escorted out of his office and was prohibited from taking anything with him except his own clothing although Robert was no longer a marine he moved into office's borders at Quantico based on Shirley's rank of Captain while Shirley supported him Robert tried to get his life back on track by becoming a teacher at a nearby High School but his drinking started to become excessive he was getting drunk more often staying out later [Music] Shirley was just rejoined Al-Anon a support group for the loved ones of Alcoholics when Robert became physically abusive Shirley finally left him assistant U.S attorney Lawrence lizard believed that Robert's problems left surely few alternatives she realized that marriage was was going nowhere began to get counseling from a local Counseling Center that was made available to members of Marine Corps she also consulted with a navy lawyer to begin the divorce process to investigators Russell's instability in abusive Behavior reinforced their belief that he was capable of killing Shirley his personality could not tolerate the fact that this black woman his wife was a Marine Corps Captain who was successful who was succeeding in her career and to top it all off wanted to divorce him agents learned that during her separation Shirley had sought Refuge off base with her close friend fellow Marine Captain Anne Mack [Music] Captain Mack told agent malanchek that Shirley was afraid of her husband intended to leave him but needed a place to stay she had asked Captain Anne Mack if she could stay with her at her town home in the Springfield Virginia area and Captain Anne Mack agreed and laid out some ground rules about Bob Russell not being there not coming into the house nothing like that whatsoever but it was not enough to keep Robert away from Shirley Mac was worried about her Mack told investigators that Robert was stalking Shirley on several occasions he showed up at the house early in the morning as Shirley was leaving he harassed his wife until she agreed to spend some time with him Max said that Robert Russell was living off base he had moved in with one of his new colleagues an FBI agent checked the address it was the home of Sandy Flint Sandy Flint offered little she said she knew nothing about Robert's missing wife foreign Sandy's father-in-law he was a retired painter who had worked at the base at Quantico for 10 years [Music] Mr Flint told the agent about a conversation he had with Robert Russell two days after Shirley's disappearance Robert Russell asked them how to clean up stains from concrete floors and the father-in-law had told Bob Russell that you could just use chlorine or soap and water and that would pretty much clean it up or dilute it and Bob had asked him what if it's blood and and the father-in-law had said well you could use muriatic acid Mr Flint told the agent something else of Interest Sandy and her husband had recently separated he suspected Sandy was now having an affair with Robert Russell with each new person agents interviewed they found more deception from Robert Russell well if Sandy was indeed involved with Russell she might know if he had killed Shirley agents would inform her it would be unwise to obstruct a federal murder case Sandy agreed to speak with the FBI this time agents found her to be far more cooperative [Music] she described her role in Robert Russ's obsession she had admitted to having a an intimate affair with Bob Russell while Bob Russell was still married she advised us that she at Bob's request she had surveilled Shirley Russell she could report to Bob Shirley's activities and whereabouts he enlisted her as his spy Sandy told the FBI Russell was convinced that Shirley was having an affair he wanted to know where Shirley went and who she met [Music] Sandy followed her everywhere but found nothing to support his delusional fixation are you so compulsive he wanted to catch his wife cheating of course the irony of all of this is she wasn't cheating at all it was he was cheating on her Robert wasn't too far gone for logic he refused to believe the assurances of his mistress in his own mind if he was cheating so was surely and he would go to any length to prove it he told Sandy that he broke into his wife's car and planted a voice-activated recorder failed to record anything incriminating he decided he needed to get closer Robert broke into Anne Mac's house to bug Shirley's bedroom what happened next told Sandy that her Lover's Obsession had completely consumed him Robert called his mistress from his wife's bedroom speaking in a whisper he won't believe where I'm at he told Sandy he was drinking Shirley's wine and reading her journal then he said something she would never forget he had informed her that if surely comes missing it'll be me I'll have taken care of her and she had said we can't do that you know she's still going to look for her says if anybody questions you on this deny it don't even admit to the conversation we're having now Sandy's statements were incriminating but it was her word against his to corroborate her story the FBI needed physical evidence [Music] we requested a consensus of Captain Anne Mac's residence and retrieved several items and and some of those items one was the telephone and one was a wine glass and when we sent those to the FBI laboratory for analysis we were able to develop Robert Russell's fingerprints on those items the FBI now had its first piece of physical evidence to corroborate at Robert Russell obsessively stalked his wife but without Shirley's body it was still not enough to charge him with murder in March of 1989 there was little evidence to link Robert Russell to the murder of his wife Marine Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell early in the investigation agents learned the suspect had been having an affair with Sandy Flint Flint now told the FBI more about the day Shirley Gibbs Russell had disappeared [Music] and Robert Russell had borrowed her car a station wagon to drive to his parents house in Pennsylvania she remembered he left her house sometime after 4 pm Sandy thought this was strange because he could have used his own pickup truck assistant U.S attorney Lawrence lizer believed Russell borrowed her car that day to transport Shirley's body to Pennsylvania reason he asked to use that car was because he had an open bed pickup truck the body was still in the storage shed and he had to dispose of the body and he couldn't do it in open bed pickup truck so he borrowed the closed station wagon of his girlfriend to dispose of the body agents hope to substantiate this Theory they returned to Russell's former residence where his neighbor had seen the same blue station wagon backed up to his shed investigators needed to take a closer look at the floor where Lieutenant Colonel Hodges had seen the rust-colored stay the stain was gone at least on the surface and as they were chiseling the whitewash pieces of the concrete up Bob Russell had asked them what's going on and they told him that they're taking these samples to determine what the substance is on the concrete and Mr Russell had voluntarily told them well I had cleaned that up with some muriatic acid the FBI lab confirmed that muriatic acid was present on the concrete same substance that Mr Flint had suggested Russell used to remove blood from cement technicians found no trace of blood or pain on the chips what could have been a key piece of forensic evidence had been destroyed agents hoped Sandy Flint's car would reveal more FBI examiners scoured the station wagon inside and out [Music] it was unusually clean for an older car that had so recently made a round trip from Virginia to Pennsylvania turned out to be another dead end as the investigation stalled in Virginia Robert Russell split up with Sandy packed his things and moved to Pennsylvania to start a new life [Music] the FBI's investigative Focus turned North as well agents followed Robert's every move they observed that while he relied on his parents for support he was very close to his brothers Mike and Ron agents approached the brothers on several occasions [Music] Mike Russell agreed to meet with agents [Music] he told them that the day after Robert arrived in Pennsylvania following Shirley's disappearance Robert took Sandy Flint's station wagon to a nearby car wash Robert and his brother thoroughly cleaned the inside of the car vacuuming it and spraying it with deodorizers agents believed Robert's actions demonstrated his intent to remove any evidence that Shirley's body had been in the car foreign Russell told agents he never saw a body he did concede that his brother's Behavior had seemed desperate since surely left him two months before she disappeared Mike and his older brother Ron drove to Virginia to take away Robert's guns agent Quirk recalled that his brothers felt this was necessary to prevent Robert from hurting someone he was depressed in the fact that he was no longer in the Marine Corps that he loved the Marine Corps he didn't have money he was a captain in the Marine Corps now he's a special education teacher uh Shirley had removed him from her checking account so he was having problems financially circumstantial evidence was mounting but the FBI lacked one crucial piece of evidence for their case Shirley gives Russell's body the first question was where to look agents learned the answer from Robert Russell's first wife Pam Robert's boyhood home was in school kill County a rural mountainous region in northeastern Pennsylvania thousands of coal mines mostly abandoned are scattered throughout the rugged County [Music] some are hundreds of feet deep and partially filled with water as a Young Man suspect Robert Russell had spent much of his time hiking and hunting in the region his family said he knew the place like the back of his hand a search conducted in this terrain would be daunting but nobody ever questioned whether it should be done 150 people participated in the extensive ground search for Shirley Gibbs Russell in early May volunteers from the FBI the Marines the naval investigative service and the Pennsylvania State Police participated [Music] none of them were more eager to find the missing Marine than her own peers from the United States Marine Corps nine helicopters and since transport trucks filled with Marines were deployed over three days they searched 2 000 acres of land thank you they never found Captain Russell's body agents would soon develop a theory as to why the search was not more fruitful [Music] agent Quirk learned about a strange phone call Ron Russell received from his brother Robert had asked Ron if he could get him some Dynamite and uh Robert had stated that it that he couldn't get dynamite in Quantico because it was too expensive and Ron had asked Robert why do you why do you want Dynamite and Robert's response was I want to blow up surely Ron never bought it Robert Russell had thrown Shirley's body into a mine shaft then sealed her grave with an explosion the search did yield one surprising result an agent found what appeared to be the grip of a gun handle it was sent to the firearms and two marks unit of the FBI's lab in Washington DC for analysis by comparing the samples to hundreds of other guns examiners determined that it was consistent with the grip of a 25 caliber Raven semi-automatic it was the same type of gun Robert Russell had purchased from a pawn shop on March 2nd two days before his wife disappeared unfortunately the tantalizing Discovery would not help with the prosecution agents never found Robert's fingerprints on the gun part to prosecutors it looked as if the ex-marine had covered his tracks well without a murder weapon or a body it would be next to impossible to convict Robert Russell of murder very clear after an investigation spanning two months two states and thousands of man-hours the FBI was no closer to arresting their Prime Suspect Robert Russell for the murder of his wife Marine Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell though agents had gathered a significant amount of circumstantial evidence assistant U.S attorney Lawrence lizer didn't have enough physical evidence to prosecute Russell for the crime we didn't have a body we didn't have eyewitnesses we didn't have weapon and it just took a tremendous amount of investigative skill and effort to put the pieces together to go out and search out the leads tremendous amount of hours and energy that these FBI agents took to gather the evidence authorities didn't even have enough evidence to make an arrest agents were frustrated as were the hundreds of Marines whose lives had been touched by Captain Shirley Russell it was like the loss of a child or a dear friend and there was nothing you could do about it and it would frustrated me so much was she was so close to being extricated from her bad marriage and for her to be killed it still bothers me to this day I mean it just it's just one of those things that you just never really totally get over it looked as if Robert Russell was going to get away with murder but Russell's past in Discretions would come back to haunt him he had been contacted by the naval investigative service at Gulfport Mississippi that there was some evidence in a um uh in a locker there that they had maintained from when Bob was discharged from the Marine Corps and so they sent it to us and it turned out to be a floppy disk it had been confiscated when Russell was relieved of Duty in Mississippi a year before Shirley Russell disappeared [Music] for security reasons no service member who's been relieved of Duty is allowed to go through their documents after dismissal one of Russell's former superiors found the disc and read its menu of contents one of those items that he saw on the menu was the word murder and he pushed the the mouse for that on that word murder and up came 26 steps very detailed and elaborate steps on how Robert Peter Russell was planning the murder of Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell's plan clearly documented his intentions the 26 steps was a very revealing piece of evidence because it showed the man's State of Mind his willingness to to even contemplate murdering another human being let alone his wife Step One is leave Thursday January 18th for Paris Island well who is that Parris Island Shirley Russell make it look as if she left well that's exactly what he tried to do when he did murder his wife and then the last thing he says is uh blame it on her own kind obviously referring to her race this is a man who clearly had the the mental wherewithal and intent and motivation to do this kind of act on February 8 1991 the computer file convinced Federal prosecutors to bring charges against Robert Peter Russell for the murder of his wife Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell ironically Russell was arrested in a prison need your stuff with us he had recently taken a job as a substance abuse counselor at Pennsylvania's greaterford State Correctional Institution New York but prosecution would not be easy let's go make some notes assistant U.S attorney Lawrence lizer would have to assemble all the pieces of circumstantial evidence like a mosaic hopefully the jury would see the portrait of a killer emerge assistant U.S attorney and co-prosecutor Michael Rich would help to prepare the case against Russell it was clear they were going to have to make it on you know circumstantial evidence a lot of that circumstantial evidence was uh as a result of what Bobby Russell had been saying and doing since his wife's Disappearance in 1989 So the plan was to assemble all that into some sort of coherent game and present that never before had the federal government attempted to try someone for first-degree murder based solely on circumstantial evidence trial the prosecution asserted that Robert Russell intended to commit murder when he bought the 25 caliber Raven semi-automatic on March 2nd sweet so much several of his co-workers reported that he had told him a 25 caliber is a perfect weapon [Music] it leaves little evidence behind he said there's virtually no blood spanner and the bullet usually lodges in the body on Saturday March 4th when Shirley gave him the separation papers he refused to sign just after noon that day the prosecution believed Robert Russell snuck up on Shirley in the shed foreign for he could remove the body to establish an alibi he talked with a neighbor and lied to Shirley's friend about his wife walking to the base exchange to buy paint that's probably a good idea around 4pm he went to Sandy Flint's house and borrowed her station wagon [Music] after night fell he wrapped Shirley's body in a tarp and placed it in the back of the car their neighbors saw it backed up to the shed [Applause] he then drove four hours to Saint Claire Pennsylvania with the body in the back of the car [Music] once there he knew exactly where to go there were hundreds of abandoned mines to choose from then Robert Russell who had once sworn to uphold honor as a member of the Marine Corps dumped his wife's body into a mine shaft he threw dynamite in to bury the evidence unto thousands of pounds of Rock the jurors were convinced on May 3rd 1991 Robert Peter Russell was convicted of murdering his wife Shirley Gibbs Russell Robert Russell was sentenced to life there is no parole in the federal system he will never leave prison alive [Music] in 1992 a young mother was gunned down in front of her children police searched for answers but found nothing then family members offered a startling clue [Music] after the architects of a heartbreaking crime [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] two young boys were the only witnesses to their mother's murder the horrible crime appeared unmotivated senseless and random I'm Jim calstring former head of the FBI's New York office the victim the wife of a prominent Atlanta attorney was also a woman burdened with a secret the FBI believed that secret led to her death they hoped its Discovery will also lead to her killer November 29 1992 Atlanta Georgia [Music] Travelers returned home at the end of the Thanksgiving holiday 39 year old Sarah Tokar is under two children had spent the long weekend with her parents in Florida her husband well-known lawyer and judge was away on business after a nine hour drive they arrived safely in their Suburban Atlanta neighborhood of Marietta [Music] the house was dark as they pulled into the driveway [Music] but it was not empty Sarah did not see a man waiting lady Shadows of the girl he branded a weapon the gunman forced Sarah back into the SUV foreign the terrified woman had a six-year-old at her side and a four-year-old still asleep in the car she had no choice right the man put his gun to Sarah's head and told her to drive towards the city she followed instructions thank you as they reached an empty development he told her to turn off she pleaded with him to let her children go grabbed her purse and fled the vehicle kept rolling the children still inside when it came to a stop Sarah's six-year-old son had to reach across his mother's body to turn off the ignition he unbuckled his groggy four-year-old brother from his car seat then ran to the nearest house there a neighbor called 9-1-1 [Music] officers responded to the report of a possible homicide in the vicinity of Powers Road Cobb County Police were dispatched immediately [Music] homicide detectives arrived as officers fanned out to search for the gunman police briefed him on the spot the two young boys who witnessed the shooting identified the victim as their mother Sarah tokars Father Fred tokars was out of town police were already trying to contact him forensic technicians examined the vehicle where it had stopped there might be trace evidence outside as well as inside the car an analysis confirmed that the boys had told police the gunman was sitting directly behind saratogars when he pulled the trigger blood spatter pattern suggested he had used a shotgun detailed information from children so young especially after such a traumatic experience the oldest one six years old would try his best [Music] he said the killer was a black male wearing jeans a sweatshirt and a cap [Music] boy didn't know which way the killer had run after he grabbed his mother's purse but he said the weapon looked like a pirate's gun that you would see on TV detectives were not sure what he meant maybe the autopsy would tell them more detectives track down relatives living in the area to take custody of the boys until their father could be located police learned the family's address by running the plates of the vehicle they continued the investigation of the tokar's home where the abduction had occurred [Music] in the living room they found a security dowel lying next to a sliding glass door [Music] the killer had likely ended the house here the home security system had not been activated no alarm sounded as the Intruder entered [Music] perhaps a burglar had taken advantage of the lack security and Sarah surprised him when she returned home whoever the burglar was he hadn't left any trace evidence at the tokar's home there was little to go on according to Cobb County chief detective Arthur Allred at this point we just really didn't know what happened but this was a in a upper middle class neighborhood this was a a a mother with her two children and this kind this type of crime was just just didn't occur in this area at all uh the most serious crime we had probably vandalism so initially uh we were really baffled as to what had happened and why [Music] Sarah's eldest son worked with a police sketch artist and described the man in the dark who had killed his mother the drawing of a thin black man wearing a knit hat was released to the public but the six-year-old's description was too vague to elicit any viable leads the victim's husband Fred tokars was contacted at his hotel in Montgomery Alabama returned to Atlanta immediately as a criminal defense attorney tokars was aware he would be considered an early suspect in his wife's murder I had his own attorney present when he spoke to authorities [Music] they quickly established his Alibi so police could pursue more promising leads [Music] detectives confirmed that at the time of the murder Fred tokars was in Alabama in the area why did you come back home he had been visiting a client incarcerated in the Montgomery Jail The Grieving husband assured police that he and Sarah had a strong marriage basically you know he would do anything he could to help find her killer [Music] all right guys um tokars agreed to walk detectives through the house [Music] as far as he knew the doors were locked and the security Rod was in place when he left for Montgomery um my wife usually does that he explained that they had intentionally left the alarm off because a plumber was scheduled to fix the hot water heater over the weekend [Music] tokar's LED detectives to the basement where he kept his home office he said he usually had about fifteen hundred dollars locked in the safe now it was open and empty its combination was hidden in a nearby file trip only he and his wife knew it was there perhaps Sarah had taken the money on her trip to Florida it was also possible that the burglar had found the combination and taken the cash ultimately tokars couldn't specify how much money if any was missing to police nothing else in the house seemed Disturbed and no clues pointed to the Killer's identity a lot of people were frightened a lot of people were just couldn't believe that this would happen to a mother in front of her children and especially in the neighborhood where it occurred so there was a lot of uh a lot of pressure on the department to to find who had killed her police hoped the coroner's report would give them more [Music] lab examiners confirmed that saratogas had been killed with a 410 shotgun to a child if that type of weapon had been sawed off it might look like a 17th century flintlock pistol used by pirates on TV only the plastic wadding and Buckshot were recovered from the SUV it might be a 410 or maybe a 20 game because no shell casing had been ejected they would not be able to match anything to a specific weapon if one were later found maybe before the examiner discovered no foreign hairs fibers or fingerprints on the body or clothing the anonymous killer had left nothing that could lead investigators to his identity former assistant United States Attorney buddy Parker like many members of the Atlantic Community was stunned by the news of the murder we had a discussion that morning about the notoriety of the homicide of it being the wife of Fred tokars who was known within the legal Community having been a former assistant district attorney for Fulton County I was familiar with uh Fred tokar's in his role as a criminal defense lawyer in a matter that was then pending in our office a matter regarding um investigation of a particular drug dealer Fred tokar's lucrative criminal defense practice brought him into contact with many men accused of federal drug charges rarely does such a murder have a simple motive [Music] the following day two women came to the Cobb County Police Station [Music] saratogar's sister and her cousin had a file they needed to show detectives Sarah had entrusted her sister with the file three years earlier at the time Sarah made her promise to take it to police if anything ever happened to her contained what appeared to be lists of Fred tokar's bank accounts and their balances women suggested that the papers might be related to Sarah's attempt to divorce Fred her sister's marriage was not as strong as Fred had led police to believe Sarah wanted a divorce but whenever she broached the subject he threatened to use his legal connections to get Soul custody of their children all right guys let me tell you something Sarah was trapped [Music] if she ever hoped to divorce Fred and keep her children she needed Leverage after the incident Sarah had secretly copied some of Fred's files and gave them to her sister for safe keeping quite a long time she suspected they outlined illegal activities he might be involved in if that were so they could be her only leverage against him in court investigators reviewed the files carefully perhaps they would help police determine whether Sarah tokar's death was a botched robbery or a carefully planned conspiracy [Music] Cobb County detectives called the FBI office in Atlanta for help they hoped that special agent Michael twybel could determine if Fred tokar's bank statements Were Somehow linked to the murder we were contacted by the Cobb County authorities concerning the documents they had discovered which were brought to them by Sarah tokar's sister and cousin which revealed that Mr tokar's her husband had been involved in setting up offshore bank accounts and offshore corporations it would take time for agent twibel and his team to unravel the names and finances on those documents to see if they had something or nothing to do with the death of saratogarz on December 3rd 1997 four days after the shooting Sarah tokars was laid to rest her two children were left motherless investigators still had no leads that pointed to the identity of her killer [Music] whoever had killed the young mother was still out on the streets just after Thanksgiving in 1997. the FBI and local investigators continued their search for The Lone Gunman who shot and killed Sarah tokars the wife of a prominent Atlanta attorney in front of her two young children [Music] Sarah's six-year-old child had given a vague description of the suspect of police in Cobb County Georgia but they still had no solid leads copies of her husband's bank statements was sent to the FBI field office in Atlanta for closest scrutiny [Music] special agent Michael twybel hoped to provide insight as to whether the documents might somehow be connected to Sarah tokar's murder foreign [Music] offshore Banks and corporations not only in the Turk and Caicos but in Montserrat and in the Bahamas these documents also showed that he had set up numerous corporations and nominees names in the Atlanta Georgia area nominees are people who in name only head dummy corporations for purposes of money laundering [Music] although Fred tokars had never been accused of money laundering himself he was an expert on the subject buddy Parker a former assistant U.S attorney was aware that tow cars was not only a well-known lawyer he was also a certified public accountant Fred tokars was known within the Atlanta Legal Community as a person who held himself out to be an expert in money laundering and in fact conducted a lectures for law enforcement authorities at the state level on money laundering investigating the finances of a man like Fred tokarz would be a delicate business he was well liked and well connected among Atlanta's power elite [Music] he was well known in Cobb County he was also well known in the political circles and as much as he had been appointed as a assistant municipal court judge and he had been an assistant solicitor for Fulton County he had a a lot of friends in high political places and helped on numerous campaigns of state and local officials I'm wondering if you have any investigators again met with tokars and his attorney they told him they believed his business dealings could be connected to his wife's killing and asked him about his clients has your wife mentioned anything to you about anyone Fred Tokar has admitted several were violent drug dealers who operated in dangerous circles here in Atlanta one in particular was reputed to have been a major cocaine supplier in the Atlanta area the dealer had returned home to Detroit after another one of tokar's clients had allegedly forced him out of the South not long after he was gunned down in front of his mother's home the murder weapon a handgun found later in a nearby alley had been traced back to a gun shop north of Atlanta suggested that the Dealer's remaining crew or even those who murdered him could have had Sarah killed to send a message to the lawyer we can arrange something detectives secured a warrant to search the attorney's office to see if they could find any link to the killer in his papers [Music] that night local investigators and IRS agents conducted a thorough search of the office They confiscated files date books and business calendars dating back several years but found no direct Clues to the murder [Music] in the margins of tokar's date books agents did find notations of offshore accounts posited in music far exceeded the amount tokars claimed on his taxes each year it looked as if Fred tokars had used his expertise in money laundering to his own financial advantage local and federal officials met with representatives of the Atlanta United States attorney's office they suspected Fred tokar's illegal activities went far beyond money laundering well owning some clubs money laundering was already on our radar screen if you will secondly now we have evidence coming out of the tow cars home of offshore bank accounts with those two clear facts we felt that there was a firm basis to open an investigation formally on Fred tow cars Parker learned that in August of 1992 the DEA had arrested one of tokar's clients in a sting operation his name was Anthony Brown had a reputation as a cocaine dealer in Atlanta the day before agents had intercepted one of his couriers in Texas and seized more than 100 kilos of cocaine inside the trunk of Brown's car agents found fifty thousand dollars in cash they also found documents revealing Fred tokar's was more than Brown's defense attorney he had Incorporated an Atlanta nightclub for the drug dealer it was believed by law enforcement that the nightclub was a front to help launder the drug proceeds of the drug trafficking organization that brown was a member of DEA agent Jeff dallman had participated in the sting operation to arrest Brown Parker hope dalman's drug trafficking case would help with the murder investigation what had happened as a result of the homicide of Mrs tokar's was that the light got turned on Fred tow cars pass of what what he had been doing for the past several years in what was illuminated was that he'd been involved with several drug traffickers in the Atlanta area investigators wondered how deep that involvement went police re-interviewed tokar's neighbors to see if they had missed anything close friend confirmed that Sarah wanted to divorce her husband but she was afraid of him [Music] not long before she was murdered Sarah confided that she'd found some of her husband's documents that seemed suspicious according to the neighbor Sarah said these weren't simply lists of offshore accounts they were stronger proof of criminal activities Hey listen I need to give you a call back yeah about a week and a half before Sarah tokar's murder saber tow cars exclaimed to her that she now had the goods on Fred that she had found documents or records that indicated he had engaged in or was engaging in tax evasion and that she she was going to go to the authorities with this information and she could then get a divorce it confronted her husband with the evidence it might have motivated him to harm her any reason in the car investigators additionally found the name of a tokar's private investigator to agents that tow cars had hired him to approach drug dealers about laundering their profits he was listed as one of the owners along with Fred tow cars of another Atlanta nightclub according to special agent Michael twibel determined that he was an owner of a company but through our further investigation we realized that he was a nominee and when I say the word nominee I mean the fact that he was delegated to the person being legally responsible as being an owner of the club but in actuality he was not Fred tokos had constructed the entire scheme according to the private eye tokar's ported reputed drug dealers like Anthony Brown men who had a lot of cash but no place to invest it without raising suspicions of the IRS tow cars a money laundering expert proposed depositing their drug profits and offshore accounts and in businesses like clubs that operated primarily on a cash basis the money could then be filtered through legitimate financial institutions the way you would launder the money is even though it's dealt in cash you would pay entertainers on paper fifteen thousand dollars when actuality you paid them five thousand dollars cash would receive thousands for each transaction he was actively involved knowing that these people were drug traffickers and what they were doing with their money the object was to open corporations mainly nightclubs cash businesses where they can easily hire their assets where they could easily run their drug proceeds through them authorities believe the connection between Fred tokars and Drug traffickers had somehow led to his wife's murder the Tails were elusive now weeks after the murder of Saratoga a man capable of murdering an innocent mother in front of her children remained at Large guys go I've got a shotgun blast at the back by December 1992 several weeks after saratogarz was killed federal and state authorities had still not found the lone gunman and still had no clues to his identity shortly before she was brutally murdered Sarah believed she had discovered papers in her husband's law office that documented his illegal activities former U.S prosecutor buddy Parker believed that Sarah had likely threatened to expose Fred tow cars with those documents unless he agreed to a divorce that began to give us a feeling that Sarah tokarz was murdered to keep her mouth shut about her knowledge or her belief about her husband's role in involvement in laundering drug money for drug traffickers Fred toker is not only represented violent drug dealers he had gone into business with us investigators now had evidence tokar's clients were laundering money through several nightclubs yeah if his wife had threatened to expose him tow cars as well as his clients had a lot to lose [Music] FBI took a hard look at the nightclubs the attorney had Incorporated special agent Michael twybel had to Wade through piles of State records searching for a name that could link tow cars directly to the murder [Music] we started reviewing a company and Corporation records and liquor license and business license that Mr tow cars had Incorporated we started looking at these different clubs to see actually who owned them major drug suppliers like Al Brown contributed the funds a middleman purchased the clubs and Tokar set up the entire deal as DEA agent Jeff dolman discovered they didn't really trust Mr tokar's to launder money in offshore bank accounts it's too elaborate they wanted their money where they could touch it where they could feel it where they could use it every day where they could buy cars with it and so the laundering in essence in this investigation turned towards the laundering of money through nightclubs through incorporation of the nightclubs FBI agents interviewed employees of the nightclubs [Music] and they were able to piece together the structure of the business its owners and its profits to attorney Parker it was like assembling a complex puzzle a picture of how the nightclub money laundering was structured was really developed through Insiders through inside drug traffickers who ultimately decided to cut plea agreements with us and to cooperate and provide evidence but nothing from the nightclubs pointed to saratogar's killer after months of frustration Cobb County Police finally got a break a detective working on the case got a tip from his brother a deputy in nearby Fulton County and he remembered seeing Fred tokar's name in the file for a businessman who had an outstanding arrest warrant y the businessman's name was Eddie Lawrence wanted for writing bad checks on one of tokar's accounts of all tokar's business associates and clients Eddie Lawrence was a name he had never mentioned to police parties quickly learned that Eddie Lawrence and Fred tokars were involved in several businesses together these included construction renovation and mortgage companies cars had also defended Lawrence and several minor brushes with the law [Music] it was a long shot but it was the only lead they had left Eddie Lawrence head through Fred tow car has been granted access to some of the uh some of the most prominent individuals within the City Fred would take Eddie to some of the big political fundraising functions and and all of a sudden Eddie was like I said he's very presentable he could certainly uh mingle and and and not be embarrassed at cocktail functions and things and and engage in conversations and and so he he was living this wonderful life and the way he got there was through Fred tow cars a few days later the young businessman agreed to questioning after police discovered records of calls between he and tokars on the day of the murder [Music] Eddie Lawrence said he had been in business with Fred tokar's for almost a year he claimed the phone calls were all job related but Sarah tokar's murder the detectives had Lawrence arrested on the bad check charge and then released him on bond they wanted to see which one of tokar's Associates got nervous when they heard Lawrence was being investigated this is a shock to me when I heard about her death plan worked the confidential informant contacted police the word on the street was that Eddie Lawrence had been looking for a Hitman prior to saratogar's murder foreign he had pressured one of his employees to help him find someone to kill a woman who he claimed stood in the way of a lot of money the employee gave Lawrence a name Curtis Roar was a drug addict with a long rap sheet including armed robbery he needed money maybe he'd be interested although the informant didn't mention Fred tokar's by name investigators finally had a potential link between the victim's husband Eddie Lawrence and a hitman no detectives interviewed Eddie Lawrence they questioned him about his relationship with tow cars he claimed no involvement in the murder nobody police felt he was lying your name on December 16 1992 police detained Lawrence and revoked his bail because of the Flight Risk they wanted him in custody when they went after Curtis Roar it was immediately secured search and arrest warrants for a house in College Park where rower was staying they proceeded with caution Thriller was capable of killing an innocent woman in Cold Blood there was no telling what he might do when cornered on December 22 1992 three weeks after a mother of two was murdered Cobb County Police circled a home in College Park to arrest suspected Hitman Curtis Roar foreign [Music] the woman who answered the door said she wasn't sure if rower was home [Music] an initial sweep of the house produced nothing still they kept up their guard one officer thought he heard movement in a bedroom foreign [Music] [Music] was booked and charged with murder [Music] Mila man he claimed that Eddie Lawrence Fred tokar's business partner had offered him five thousand dollars to kill Sarah tokars but rower was too scared to go through with it he said Lawrence was the one who had caused Sarah's death rower admitted that he had carjacked the family but when Saratoga stopped he said that he couldn't pull the trigger at that moment Eddie Lawrence ran up to the car screaming for Roar to shoot let's grab the shotgun and it went off killing Sarah tokars both men then fled in Lawrence's car though police believe Roar was downplaying his role Sarah's six-year-old son was the only other witness they had to refute his claim he remembered only one shooter the boy would be forced to identify the man who terrorized his family from a lineup unless Eddie Lawrence corroborated rower's story authorities charged Eddie Lawrence with conspiracy to commit murder but Lawrence refused to confirm or deny roar's statement hello Cobb County Police notified Fred tokars that Eddie Lawrence and Curtis rower had been formally charged with his wife's murder he received the news at Sarah's parents house in Florida where he was vacationing with his sons for the holidays please thank God for that his relatives later said that while the rest of the family expressed relief Fred tokars did not he seemed despondent [Music] the arrests of Lawrence and Roar had made national headlines tokars was caught in that same Spotlight and refused to give any statements to the Press because the suspected hitman's story conflicted with tokar's son's version the six-year-old was asked to view a suspect lineup explained that though he would be able five men staring at him they would not be able to see him the one-way mirror would prevent that the child said he was ready investigators called for the men foreign all of them resembled the boy's description of his mother's killer that he could take as much time as he needed but it was no use the child was either too young or too frightened to remember the Killer's face when relatives tried to reach Fred tokars in Florida to inform him nowhere to be found Fred left the company of his in-laws and returned to his his hotel room where no one heard from him in the following morning they tried to raise him on the telephone they tried to find him and there were no responses [Music] Sarah's father rushed to the hotel where tokars was staying [Music] bread bread [Music] tokars had swallowed a handful of sleeping pills and washed it down with beer [Music] manager of the hotel quickly called an ambulance he had apparently attempted to take his life after hearing that that Eddie Lawrence this this business partner of his had been arrested for the murder of his of his wife Sarah's father found a note written in Fred tokar's handwriting on the table beside the bed in the locked hotel room Fred tokars wrote a long rambling note apologizing for the pain and suffering his lifestyle had inflicted upon his family he wrote that Sarah was a great woman [Music] then on the day before Christmas Eve Fred Tokar swallowed a handful of sleeping pills enough to kill him Fred tokar's lay on the bed barely breathing if he died the truth about his wife's murder might die with him come on Fred yes yes there's been emerging in late December of 1992 Fred tokars the once prominent Atlanta attorney now suspected in his wife's murder lay Motionless in a Florida hotel room from an overdose of sleeping pills [Music] he was rushed to a nearby hospital where they were able to revive him after his release he held a press conference of time for myself and also for my children he told the public that he was very depressed and that the media was not making it easy tokers had gone to the extent of establishing residency in Florida to avoid the attention but he believed that Justice would soon be served Eddie Lawrence the FBI believed Justice would soon be served as well convinced that Fred tokars had used his business associate Eddie Lawrence to hire a hitman to kill Fred's wife Sarah the team of federal and local investigators would use federal racketeering statutes known as Rico to prosecute tow cars building a RICO case to prove saratogars had been killed to protect her husband's illegal activities meant outlining those activities in detail investigation the RICO statute it attacks basically this conspiracy of individuals who are out committing all types of different crimes not necessarily together but they're all for the benefit of this of this criminal group to exist to continue to exist and to make money jury named tokars is an unindicted co-conspirator in the homicide though tokar's partner Eddie Lawrence had remained silent after seven months in prison investigators hope the public indictment might encourage Lawrence to testify against tokars [Music] not long after the Atlanta U.S attorney's Office received a phone call that Eddie Lawrence was ready to cooperate in exchange for sentencing consideration [Music] for Lawrence's long-awaited statement investigators secured a remote location in Georgia that would be monitored by Chopper surveillance after DEA agent Jeff dallman was part of the team that needed to make sure nothing went wrong we were there before Mr Lawrence was brought in his location had been kept a secret from everybody involved the only people that knew of where Mr Lawrence was actually being held at that time were the Cobb County Police Department Mr Lawrence at that time was a key witness in this investigation and his safety was Paramount to everyone inside a fortified house Eddie Lawrence told investigators that he and tokars were not just Partners in the construction business they were also involved in laundering Drug Money [Music] Lawrence told FBI special agent Michael twaible the details a scheme Mr tow cars warned him to try to solicit drug clients in the various nightclubs and bring them to him so he could launder their money an idea and in turn also set up Eddie Lawrence into several businesses yeah we yeah Lawrence owed his success to tow cars he also owed the attorney seventy thousand dollars in business tents Fred tokar's approached Eddie Lawrence indicating that you know that saver now was going to try to divorce him and take everything he had and he wasn't going to let that happen and he couldn't afford to allow her to do that to him and he wanted her kill okay um Lawrence refused initially although he had been involved in drug dealing he had never been involved in murder [Music] Mr Lawrence said we'll just let her have the house and the kids and the cars and Mr Tokar said I'd worked so hard I'm not going to let her have it Lauren said that tow cars planned the murder for several months his first idea was to have Sarah shot in his office but decided the couple's home was a better location was to pay Lawrence twenty five thousand dollars for the hit Mr Lawrence advised that Mr tow cars wanted to be out of town and that for for Mr Lawrence to commit the murder as a burglary it basically uh in front of his children which is very unusual he told Mr Lawrence that the kids would get over it that they're young and it wouldn't bother them saying that their mother was murdered I I found it Lawrence admitted he didn't have the nerve to kill an innocent woman so he hired Curtis Roar [Music] after rower shot saratogars Lawrence drove him away from the scene [Music] [Applause] since he cooperated Lawrence earned 12 and a half years for his part in setting up the murder The Hitman he hired Curtis Roar was sentenced to life without parole [Music] tokars was still a free man the tokars had custody of his two children are concerned during this time and the rest of Mr telkaros was that there could be some harm done to the children and Mr tokars was was aware that he'd been watched the media was still down in Florida at the time he knew that people were watching him daily and we had to develop a plan to get Mr tokars out of the house where there'd be no harm done to the children or to himself and tried to affect the arrest the agents knew tokars hated the Press they posed as reporters lurking around the condo hoping to elicit a response from The Wanted Man the game plan at that time was to have Mr tokars come out and check us out which he had done previously to other people that had been parked in the area the plan worked well he came downstairs he called the police local offices arrived aware of the rules Fred tokars emerged from his condo to file a complaint what you ask where you like this moment Fred tokars pleaded not guilty to the charges against him [Music] separate state and federal juries found him guilty of racketeering money laundering murder for hire and murder he was sentenced to four life terms with no chance of parole for elevating his greed beyond the life of his wife and children he will never be free again [Music] again on the morning of March 3rd 1993 in Silver Spring Maryland Vivian rice stopped by her sister's house on her way to work but this morning something was wrong both garage doors were open and her sister's minivan was missing inside the house Vivian would discover a brutal triple homicide executed by one of the most ruthless and cunning Killers to ever challenge the FBI [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] when three people were found murdered in their home it appeared like a burglary gonna ride but a crime this horrific deserved a closer look the suspect who had the most to gain from the deaths also had the perfect alibi photographic proof that he was three thousand miles away when the crime was committed I'm Jim calstrom former head of the FBI's New York office it's our job to find the holes in even the most bulletproof Alibi in this case we had our work cut out for us a Montgomery County Maryland police officer responded to Vivian Rice's frantic 9-1-1 call [Music] he found a female victim dead just inside the front door he also found a second woman dead and a young boy apparently murdered in his bed because we've got the three victims here need uh detectives and evidence technicians over here through the day and into the nights investigators would scour the scene for evidence thoroughly searching both inside and outside the house they soon identified all the victims Mildred horn was a 43 year old divorced mother employed as an American Airlines flight attendant she had been shot three times in the head her eight-year-old quadriplegic son Trevor who required round-the-clock nursing care appeared to have been suffocated police found him disconnected from his respirator and Trevor's overnight nurse 38-year-old Janice Saunders had been shot twice in the skull and in the eye [Music] evidence technicians began work immediately they were thorough but there was little evidence to collect they dug a single distorted bullet fragment from the wood beside Trevor's window [Music] swabs of blood carefully collecting samples for DNA testing but the blood would match only the victims the enemy with so little to lead investigators to a suspect technicians scrounged harder for Clues collecting anything and everything that seemed promising foreign [Music] ERS found a metal fire [Music] police were thorough but the killer had been meticulous Montgomery County Maryland homicide detective Craig Wittenberg named lead investigator struggled to make sense of a case with three helpless victims no obvious motive and few clue there were some things that struck us as odd I think from the very beginning of the on-scene investigation inside the house the foyer area a closet the contents had been dumped everything been pulled out of the closet dumped onto the floor we found a purse which we would later learn ultimately belong to Millie you had a lot of stereo entertainment equipment TVs a lot of jewelry furs that was untouched and left which again strikes you as odd if this is a if this is a burglary or robbery going bad you're going to take something in fact Mildred's minivan was missing from the garage as her Sisterhood knows but it was found quickly not far from the house them some of Mildred's credit cards were also missing found the next day on a nearby roadside by a jogger investigators now positively eliminated burglary to throw them off his Trail the scene had the earmarks of a planned professional execution as for assessment at the crime scene Vivian told the Mildred's ex-husband Lawrence horn was probably responsible she begged them to investigate he quickly became the prime suspect all the family members were giving us this information that kept pointing to Lawrence horn that would be based on um the very stormy rocky relationship that Millie and Lawrence horn had had for many many years Oh Daddy could you get this drum set up in number five for me please all right thank you investigators learned that in the 1960s and 70s horn had been a top producer and recording engineer from Motown records credited with many hits including Shotgun by Junior Walker and the All-Stars he'd married Mildred and Airline attendant in 1973. then he'd moved with Motown from Detroit to Los Angeles but when the company's fortunes Wane so did his and Mildred divorced in 1987. but their problems continued as Bob Dean Maryland assistant State's Attorney soon discovered we did some research on Lawrence horn in the courthouse that day particularly what the status of his child support payments were and whatever civil aspects of his ongoing uh civil battle with his wife were and he had just been held in contempt several months before for failure to pay eighteen eighteen thousand dollars in child support but in reviewing more court records investigators learned that on March 3rd the day of the murders Horn's Financial Outlook had brightened considerably with his wife and son dead he now stood to inherit 1.7 million dollars the money came from a malpractice settlement awarded to Trevor when a routine operation left him with brain damage should Trevor die the settlement also listed his beneficiaries the beneficiaries of Trevor were obviously his mother and his father and that was Millie and Lawrence if Millie were dead Lawrence got everything at detective wittenberger's request the Los Angeles Police Department contacted Lawrence horn within hours of the murders Lots I think you better come out here that's fun they tracked him to his mother's house police told Warren about the murders and were surprised by his response am I a suspect No Sir Mr Warren's Behavior was very odd it was odd enough that the LAPD officers took note of it from the very very outset not only did he not want to cooperate and want to want an attorney um basically his only questions or inquiries about were whether he was a suspect in this thing just took him to the station for further questions they asked where he was at the time [Music] he told them he was with his live-in girlfriend Shira Bogan and described their activities later they would question her and she'd corroborate his story I was at home [Music] if horn or someone he employed had crossed state lines to commit the crime they would have violated the interstate travel and Aid of racketeering statute federal offense under FBI jurisdiction now the FBI was brought in a heinous crime had shot the quiet community of Silver Spring Maryland a triple murder that brutally ended the lives of a quadriplegic boy his mother and his overnight nurse with the prime suspect three thousand miles away in Los Angeles the prospect of an interstate investigation loomed local detectives called on the FBI okay all right goodbye special agent Ed roaches the case immediately became a coast to coast investigation because the principal suspect uh was living at that time in in Los Angeles so uh we involved the Los Angeles division of the FBI perhaps that we could assist uh later in the investigation either through uh profiling at Quantico or with the assistance of the FBI Laboratory desperate for more clues investigators sent a canine team back to where Mildred Horn's credit cards had been found by a jogger the team soon recovered a rusty piece of metal badly corroded but clearly a gun part wittenberger sent it to the FBI lab for testing FBI examiners determined the part was a trigger mechanism from an ar-7 rifle thank you a gun that's easy to disassemble into small pieces for transport or disposal which seemed exactly what the killer had done he had also taken another step to distance himself from the weapon he'd very carefully drilled out the serial number often a trained examiner can piece these numbers back together but this killer had erased him for good [Music] another Firearms expert would determine how long the gun parted Lane by the side of the road analysis showed the amount of corrosion was consistent with the time elapsed since the killings had occurred so this was likely the murder weapon while the FBI lab processed the gun part investigators in Maryland interviewed Tiffany horn Lawrence and Mildred's eighteen-year-old daughter straight ahead she was a student at Howard University in Washington D.C they gave her a routine polygraph test which he easily passed did you commit those murders no later that day Tiffany would talk with Detective wittenberger revealing three key Clues [Music] the first was something that had happened in the summer of 1992. her father had called asking her to videotape the outside of her mother's house for him along with Trevor's room the idea was so bizarre she'd only taped Trevor and his nurse with Trevor in his bed attached to his respirator Tiffany gave the tape to her father now wittenberger and the FBI wondered if horn wanted someone to know the layout of the house then on March 1st two days before the murders horn had called her again he wanted to know where his younger daughter tamiel would be for the next few days [Music] Tiffany said tamiel would be with Aunt Vivian the night of March 2nd because her mother was flying out on an early flight the morning of March 3rd it made investigators suspect that horn had known when the murders would occur foreign shared one other revealing incident that day at about 2 30 the morning of the murders she had inadvertently called her mother Tiffany had hit the wrong speed dial key on her phone she'd meant to call her boyfriend she apologized and hung up timing of the call helped investigators estimate the timing of the murders along with another observation Trevor's round-the-clock nurses made entries every hour in a log book near his bed based on that the 230 phone call the two o'clock entry in the nurses log and they're not being a three o'clock entry and the autopsy findings I think we pretty much based the time of death as being around to between 2 30 3 o'clock in the morning on March 11th about a week after the murders wittenberger and his partner flew to L.A with the assistance of the Los Angeles Police Department They Carried a probable cause affidavit to search Horn's apartment [Music] they collected hundreds of audio and videotapes police also gathered computers personal papers address books bank statements and telephone laws [Music] back at the station investigators began the time-consuming test of reviewing all they'd recovered they'd printed thousands of pages from the hard drives of Horn's computers they found he'd made handwritten notes on documents regarding Trevor's settlement money the notes confirmed what they already suspected Warren was well aware he could gain a fortune from his son's death and he was well versed in the legalities of the settlement investigators also found a map that was telling it was hand-drawn showing Mildred Horn's neighborhood the streets were outlined and labeled an ex and her initials marked her house had horn been directing a stranger to find her perhaps a contract Killer in the hundreds of hours of videotape that were recovered one home movie stood out horn had videotaped himself standing in front of his television set which was tuned to the cable TV program guide station the station was clearly broadcasting the time and date 11 45 PM March 2nd 1993 California time we have a day 2 45 a.m March 3rd Maryland time exactly the time and date of the murders investigators quickly dubbed it The Alibi tape since it seemed to have been created for that purpose now wittenberger and the FBI seem to have some substantial leads but they were still far from apprehending The Mastermind of this brutal crime [Music] when investigators searched the LA apartment of their prime suspect in a triple murder they discovered a suspicious videotape among themselves they called it The Alibi tape but they would soon find a recording that was even more incriminating [Music] a 22-second exit from horns dozens of audio tapes it was from a conversation between horn and an unknown male [Music] words were cryptic but their meaning was clear [Music] no all right so I mean I'm sitting there can you uh I can take a picture of him you know right you know right the noise you understand what I'm saying I wasn't able to do that again I didn't want to go uh after listening to that we felt Mr horn probably was in Los Angeles at the time we also felt after listening to that conversation that this was probably the individual that committed these homicides making that phone call [Music] with the help of the FBI investigators subpoenaed telephone records from a t for all the calls placed to Lawrence Horn's residence from a week before the murders to a week after [Music] most were useless but four long distance calls stood out two had been made just days before the murders from a Detroit Payphone the other two were made in the early hours of March 3rd from pay phones near Mildred horns house one from outside at Denny's restaurant and the other from a day's in the call from the Denny's was made to the home of Lawrence Horne at 5 12 a.m just a few hours after the murder [Music] was it the current 22 second conversation yeah and who had made the call [Music] investigators spent hours scanning dozens of registration forms from local motels a check of the hotels and the motels in the area a few miles circumference of the murder scene turned up an individual checking in approximately midnight the day these murders were committed to the Days Inn using a Michigan driver's license in the name of James Edward Perry James Edward Perry seemed a promising suspect [Music] with Lawrence Horn's roots in Detroit's music industry and the Detroit call in his telephone records perhaps there was a connection background checks revealed he'd served about 10 years time for shooting a Michigan State Trooper after an attempted bank robbery in the early 1970s now he was a minister [Music] he claimed he would be able to pick lottery numbers for people people could call him for his advice he had business cards and flyers that he would hand out that he was like I say a a minister I believe he called himself on some of these things Apostle James as investigators learn more about Perry wittenberger had picked up another Trail in Lawrence Horn's telephone records he'd noticed some calls have been made on a calling card what do you want he subpoenaed the records the name on the card was Camilla McKenney FBI agents appeared at Camilla's address instead they found Marshall Webb it turned out she was Lawrence Horn's cousin oh no she said horn had asked her to get the card claiming he needed it for business she'd made up the name McKenney she thought her past payment problems might keep her from getting a card yeah the calling card records revealed a complex web of phone calls they began almost a year before the murders and continued for several months after We examined the records for that calling card account and saw that there were numerous calls throughout 1992 and 1993 from pay phones in Los Angeles pay phones that we plotted out on a street grid primarily within walking distance of Lawrence Horne's house it went directly to James Perry's House in Detroit I could do it and likewise there were numerous calls from 1992 to 1993 of pay phones throughout Detroit primarily on the east side of Detroit which is where James Perry lived two Lawrence Horn's house in Hollywood and we figured Perry was looking for the rest of his payment and uh we we surmised that uh that horn was waiting for uh his windfall from his son's estate but if it seemed investigators it finally hit the jackpot the prize remained just out of their grasp connecting suspects to Kohl's required painstaking detective work logging the time and phone number where each call was made and received then attempting to place the suspects accordingly horn and Perry had covered their tracks with many layers of deception investigators were beginning to bog down and their frustration was starting to show it starts out at an extremely extremely fast pace everything's hot and heavy very uh high profile murder murder case everything like I say is rocking and rolling very quickly uh then all of a sudden the skids are put on if the investigation starts to slow down because now we're we've almost shifted gears and now going into a documentation that turns into almost a paper trail case but wittenberger and the FBI stayed on the trail like bloodhounds and in late September of 1993 they closed in one James Perry they began a 24-hour a day seven day a week surveillance the Michigan State Police and the FBI both both agencies agreed to put him under surveillance in a Cooperative effort it was during a week in September that we saw that James Perry hung out with a particular individual we didn't know who he was until we checked the tag of his car this guy named Thomas Turner a background check showed the 52-year-old Turner was a trucker by trade more significantly he was another of Lawrence Horn's cousins he was also fast friends with Perry the two had met in prison 13 years before when Perry was serving time for the state trooper shooting incident and Turner for robbing a bank identifying Turner would prove an important break in the case [Music] foreign but for now investigators were hoping for something more immediate wittenberger and an agent did what investigators call tickling the wires they paid Perry a visit thinking Perry would then contact horn and start talking the investigators only talked briefly with Perry but he admitted he was in Maryland on March 3rd though he claimed it was for business and that he knew nothing about the murders [Music] foreign after weeks of wrangling for a court authorization to tap Lawrence Horn's home phone federal agents finally got the go-ahead special agent roach was key in obtaining the approval we were hoping to get a Smoking Gun the conversation between James Edward Perry and Lawrence horn we were hoping for a conversation that would say uh something like I want the rest of my money you know I did the deed the down payment's not enough you promised me such and such I only got this and now I want the rest of my money or maybe uh you're going to be next something like that would have been terrific but horn and Perry were too Sly to let anything slip and by mid-november with the investigation at Full Tilt they stopped talking to each other all together despite months of slow but steady progress horn and Perry were still one step ahead of the law the FBI's Coast-to-Coast investigation of a triple murder committed in Maryland left agents scrambling to link LA's Lawrence horn and Detroit's James Perry to their case investigators knew the two men were talking but they didn't know how were they using Perry's former jail buddy Thomas Turner is a go-between the FBI secured authorization to tap Turner's phone yep that was the key [Music] both horn and Perry talked to Turner often and Turner relayed messages between her but they were careful not to use language that might incriminate them and once again agents found themselves back in the same old grind monitoring and logging hundreds of calls then trying to make links between the cars all right I'll talk to you later one surveillance would be taking place actively taking place of physical surveillance in Los Angeles on on Lawrence horn while at the same time 24 hours a day the Detroit division was conducting physical electronic surveillance on Thomas Turner and physical surveillance on James Edward Perry as before they made a few connections between calls and callers but mostly the process seemed just a test of their endurance and dedication horn and Perry were giving them a run for their money [Music] then around Thanksgiving after three investigators got a bite Perry Was preparing to move agents secured a federal warrant to search his residence before he left it was a Dangerous Mission Perry had shot a Michigan police officer and he was known to own high-powered weapons an FBI SWAT team made the entry wittenberger and his partner followed they roused Perry and his girlfriend from bed catching them unaware and on off [Music] then they began to search the house police collected videotapes bank statements and other documents [Music] much of what they found seemed strangely out of place in the home of a so-called minister there were Voodoo relics Soldier of Fortune magazines and books on topics like criminal investigations managing gunshot wounds and interpreting bloodstains investigators hope to prove that Perry had bought the books as well they called the Publishers getting only one hit from Paladin press a canceled check proved to be the turning point in the case Perry had ordered two books from Paladin press about a year before the murders two chilling titles Hitman a manual for independent contractors and how to build disposable silencers when you read through those books it was very disturbing to see the number of similarities and parallels from The Hitman book to what transpired inside Millie's home on March 3rd finally the pieces began to form a single picture Mildred's missing minivan was explained Harry had used it to get back to his rental car which he'd parked some distance from the crime scene as the book recommended the credit cards found by a jogger on a Road near the house also fit in neatly it said if you want to make it look like a a burglary do a little bit of messing around the house take some items and throw them along the side of the road it said throw the pieces of the rifle along the side of the road another thing that the book recommended was to take a little narrow file and run it through the barrel of the rifle and a little narrow file was found in the backyard with deposits of chemicals consistent with gunpowder gunshot residue the book also suggested using an AR7 rifle exactly the gun whose trigger mechanism was found earlier likewise examiners determined the single spent bullet found in Trevor's room was 22 caliber popular with assassins [Music] foreign distort when they enter a human body so it's hard to match them to a gun they're also small quiet and inexpensive [Music] in January of 1994 there was another big break in the case after months of pressure from wittenberger a grand jury subpoena finally brought in Thomas Turner he agreed to talk in exchange for immunity 1992 could have in a deposition for a Maryland grand jury Turner said his cousin Lawrence horn had come for a visit in May of 1992. five months before the murder though Turner hadn't seen him in 20 years horn immediately complained of trouble with his ex-wife Mildred Turner gave him the name of James Perry yes I'm sure that's all Turner would say the wittenberger believed he knew much more fortunately he'd said enough at that point because of what we had learned from Thomas Turner and what we had learned from um in the Hitman book and the wiretaps we felt we were in a position to establish a conspiracy to establish that James Perry had in fact carried out the killings that summer wittenberger struck on July 19 1994 he arrested horn at his Los Angeles apartment without incident wittenberger would question him for 45 minutes at the police station but horn refused to talk about the crime foreign on the same day FBI agents in Detroit were waiting for a judge to sign the warrants for the arrest of parity in the meantime they conducted an overt surveillance the tactic is designed to pressure a suspect while making sure he doesn't flee [Music] wasn't supposed to be a covert surveillance so we really didn't care if he saw them or not we just didn't want it to be a confrontational surveillance until the warrants were signed foreign once the warrants were finalized agents could arrest him until then they would follow him in the open knowing he knew they were there they would keep him in sight at all times [Music] Perry grew increasingly annoyed the FBI didn't let up it seemed Perry wondered what the FBI was trying to do though we seemed more irritated than concerned foreign he drove off still in clear view of Agents they didn't know where he was headed but stayed with him anyway [Music] watching he stopped to pick up a friend [Music] we're not familiar find her name [Music] the two drove off in Perry's car with the tail close behind it well let's give him something to play with [Music] then incredulous agents guessed where Perry was going after only about an hour the constant tale had made Perry so angry he decided to file a complaint amazingly he took his gripe straight to the Detroit FBI field office Perry's timing was incredible he and his friend arrived at the office just as FBI agents awaited final word on his arrest warrants I want to see an FBI agent right now Perry demanded to see an agent I'm not going to come and he was quickly accommodated a clerk called special agent Roach bring one in okay while agents checked him for weapons Perry confronted roach wanting to know if agents were going to arrest him or if they were just planning to harass him well first of all I appreciate it we told him in minutes you were going to expect a phone call from Montgomery County Maryland telling us the warrants have been signed and you've been indicted for three counts of first degree murder what you're doing man and the telephone came in a few minutes later and we advised him that he was in fact under arrest but now even with both men in custody one question still remained if Perry was The Hired Gun how had horn paid in for the crime after months of Relentless Pursuit by local investigators in the FBI The elusive horn and Perry were finally in custody thank you but there remained a nagging question how had horn paid Perry for the crime the answer came two months later only as a result of still more dogged detective work as we were reviewing the results of the search on James Perry's house we noticed this Photograph that in essence showed various cassette tapes that James Perry had that was the purpose of the photograph but underneath one of the items here we saw a Western Union card we got a bundle of records from Western Union showing us that there were indeed a number of transactions from Los Angeles to James Perry's living girlfriend Pauline McGee the person sending it was George Bernard Shaw well we now had another area to investigate for a few months [Music] after much digging Dean discovered a man named George Bernard Shaw had died in 1992 in an auto accident in Los Angeles when Dean sleuthed out the LA times for the day of Shaw's death he discovered the man's connection though it wasn't in his obituary we have on the front page Mary Wells dies and for those in our generation she was a big Motown star go to the obituary page big story about Mary Wells dying in Los Angeles in the lower right hand corner was a list of other people who had passed away one is a guy named George Bernard Shaw with no information about him just the cemetery Lawrence horn had used the name of this Anonymous dead man as the front for his payments which were made with the money horn was able to save almost two years after the crime investigators had finally pieced together the whole story it had been a cold and calculated murder for hire took more than a year to plan [Music] James Perry had followed the instructions in the Hitman book almost to a T Erry had bought an ar-7 rifle and drilled out the serial number as the book suggested [Music] and he'd build a disposable silencer using the book's directions he'd carefully cut the parts and assembled it he also packed a bag of supplies a brown mechanic suit so he could walk through Mildred's neighborhood looking like a repairman and latex gloves so he'd leave no fingerprints [Music] Warren had talked often discussing each detail Harry's request horn had sent him a map of Mildred's neighborhood and a video of Trevor's room horn had chosen a date when tamielle would be out of the house his only show of Mercy in this heinous crime on the appointed day Harry had driven a car rented by Turner from Detroit he checked into a motel near Mildred's house in Maryland Perry had paid cash as the book recommended [Music] paying cash without his Xerox driver's license police might never have cracked the case we couldn't believe that he did something that dumb that put him in Silver Spring Maryland on the date and the time of the murders then he'd driven his rental car to a shopping center near Mildred's house and walked from there following Horn's hand-drawn map [Music] in the house unsuspecting nurse Janice Saunders made the 2 am entry on a medical log attached to Trevor's bed [Music] [Music] Harry approached the French doors at the back of the house as planned [Music] the lot the doors were easily opened [Music] and barely making a sound inside he assembled his rifle paid silencer [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign ERS completely by surprise foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] stopped breathing his medical alarm spoke for him upstairs his mother awoke [Music] Mildred horn went downstairs to investigate there she took met the killer Harry shot Mildred three times in the face he roughed up the house a little to make it look like a robbery gone bad has the book instructed he took Mildred's credit cards but it seems the persistent beeping of the medical alarm unnerved even this calculating killer he stuck to the manual instructions on his way out he quickly bored out the gun barrel using the metal file to foil ballistics tests as the book instructed for a quick Escape he took Mildred's minivan back to where his rental car was parked on the way he'd scattered Mildred's credit cards in the gun parts though only the trigger mechanism was found [Music] can you uh you understand I'm saying I wasn't able to do that again I didn't want to go uh it was a case that had to be put together by really an exhaustive search of every clue possible every clue imaginable and we literally spent a year and a half two years doing nothing but working on this case in September of 1995 two and a half years after the murders James Perry was brought to trial in Maryland Bob Dean served as special prosecutor because of his intimate knowledge of the case Perry received life for conspiracy and three death sentences for the murders those death sentences were later commuted to life Perry has no chance for parole [Music] ever admitted to committing the crime Lawrence Horn's trial began that April and impact Maryland courtroom he faced the same charges as Perry so much of the same evidence was used a Dean again served as special prosecutor after a five-week trial the jury found horn guilty on all counts he showed no emotion and like Perry he never confessed to the crime on May 13th horn received three life sentences without he appealed once and was denied I think both Mr horn and Mr Perry did a very good job in planning this and they came very close to getting away with this there would be one more Bittersweet victory for the families of the victors following the murders they filed a federal lawsuit against the Publishers of Hitman a technical manual for independent contractors in late May of 1999 they won the suit including a multi-million dollar settlement and a promise from the publisher to stop selling the book [Music]

Channel: The FBI Files

Views: 7,169,268

Keywords: ColdCases, CrimeEvidence, CrimeLab, CrimeLabExpertise, CrimeLabTechniques, CrimeResearch, CrimeSceneInvestigation, CrimeSceneProcedure, CrimeSeries, CrimeSolvers, CriminalJustice, CriminalJusticeSystem, FBIFiles, FBIJustice, FBIProcedures, ForensicInvestigation, ForensicScience, LawEnforcementWork, The FBI Files, TrueCrimeCases, TrueCrimeDocumentary

Id: NeTYmU6HRIk

Length: 149min 51sec (8991 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 18 2023