Murders In NYC, Alaska and Hawaii | TRIPLE EPISODE | THE FBI FILES

the day began like any other for Cheryl Chapman until the Silence of a peaceful Sunday morning was shattered with a phone call Cheryl's sister Nancy had not shown up for work and several attempts to reach her by phone or unsuccessful the chaplains sensing something must be wrong Nancy rushed to her apartment [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] [Music] some killers are stealthy killing with an almost clinical precision others act on a violent impulse saturating the crime scene with their rage how a murderer behaves tells much about who he is in 1987 the brutality of a triple homicide in Anchorage tested the medal of even the most seasoned investigators I'm Jim calstrom former director of the FBI's New York office when Nancy Newman and her two young daughters were found slain in their apartment local law enforcement needed help they called the FBI at the crime scene Clues were everywhere but seemed to lead nowhere agents knew that to crack this case they need to somehow get inside the Killer's mind [Music] Alaska sits on the edge of the wilderness seemingly isolated from the rest of the world and its troubles its inhabitants are united by the beauty of the landscape and a mutual respect for the self-reliant nature of the community [Music] the villagers it was shortly before 8 A.M on a Sunday March 15 1987. Cheryl and Paul Chapman were awakened by a phone call Cheryl's sister Nancy Newman was hours late for the breakfast shift at the restaurant where she worked Nancy's shift manager told Cheryl that Nancy's car was in the restaurant parking lot but Nancy was nowhere in sight maybe the chaplain should check on her thank you from the moment Paul and Cheryl arrived at Nancy's apartment they sensed something was wrong there was no sign of Nancy her two daughters eight-year-old Melissa and three-year-old Angie were nowhere in sight coffee mugs from Cheryl's Friday night visit with her sister was still in the sink the remains of breakfast had been left on the table a tin where Nancy kept her tip money sat empty and a brown cigarette butt not a brand Nancy smoked was in the ashtray Nancy Nancy in Nancy's bedroom Paul made a gruesome Discovery he found Nancy Lion's beaten and lifeless on her bed all rushed to the other bedrooms to find Nancy's two girls to his horror he found Melissa and Angie brutally murdered [Music] emergency [Music] [Applause] [Music] we came over to find her [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah within minutes the first Anchorage police officers arrived at the Newman's apartment not wanting to disturb the crime scene the officers secured the air and tried to calm the distraught family until the crime scene Processing Unit arrived man what police found was horrific Nancy and Melissa Newman appeared to have been beaten and strangled little Angie Newman's throat was cut so deeply she was almost decapitated nice set Anchorage police officer Bill Gifford was at the scene well the impact of a case like this is quite often it's hard to capture in words we're pretty used to working homicide cases and serious assault cases and overall I think a community becomes oh if not callous somewhat accustomed to these kind of things happening just the a typical murder something of this magnitude however people are never prepared for the murders were so gruesome that even experienced police officers were shaken it is shocking for the for the public and it takes a toll on its on the investigators and the officers work in the case as well because you're just not used to seeing as I mentioned things of this magnitude Nancy Newman's body was lying on her bill her nightgown hiked up around her chest there were abrasions on her nose chin and forehead and a knee seemed to be injured blood stains were at the foot of the bed a pair of olive green gloves were on top of the dresser yeah do a scrape she then gets it down the hall Melissa Newman was found on her back in the middle of her room a bloody Twisted pillowcase under her neck another pillowcase had been used to tie her arms three-year-old Angie Newman lay on her bedroom floor in a pool of blood surrounded by her favorite books a couple shots a couple shots everybody's ready here it is bloodstain pattern analysis often yields Clues the positions of the victims and killer the movements of the victims and the number of blows struck can be reconstructed by an experienced Examiner in this particular case it assisted Us in establishing a sequence of events stains found on Nancy Newman's bed suggested that she and Melissa have been forced down the hall to her mother's womb where they were assaulted and stains on the hallway carpeting indicated that Melissa was then returned to her room and killed there [Music] officers treated each area as a completely separate crime scene first they determined the type of physical evidence that was likely to be found and then the order it should be processed how are we doing given the horrific nature of this crime and the lack of an obvious suspect investigators knew that every possible piece of physical evidence was potentially invaluable [Music] anything else detective Sergeant Michael Grimes was in charge of the Anchorage Police Department's homicide assault and robbery unit I knew that they were going to be in this crime scene for hours and hours and hours this immediately is what we we identify as a forensic case there was very little disturbed by them when they found the body so we were very fortunate in that respect investigators frequently find evidence in common household dirt sometimes hair and fibers buried in carpeting can be traced to a suspect for thorough coverage investigators broke each room into quadrants and vacuumed each section to begin the painstaking task investigators must first cordon off a three foot by four foot area of the room the investigator uses an ordinary vacuum with a special filter attachment as the debris is pulled off the floor it travels down a short tube and then goes into a collection point there it becomes trapped in clean filter paper once a quadrant of the room has been processed the filter is removed and placed into an Evidence container [Music] many minute hairs and fibers are missed by crime scene vacuumings therefore a portable argon laser is used which causes unseen hairs and fibers to fluoresce when exposed to the Laser's light everything a technique called luminal processing was also used to look for traces of blood if presence the luminal spray will cause the proteins in the blood to fluoresce making them visible to examinerators we were processing the scene and looking for invisible traces or invisible blood patterns we found a luminescent impression that we were able to photograph we also knew we had a knife missing out of the kitchen we took one of those Knives Out Of The Knife Set and we found that matched in width and length to the uh to that of the of the luminal impression that we had the crime scene appearance suggested the murderer had taken the victims by surprise clothes before we package it up okay make sure there's nothing inside of it it appeared that Newman's morning routine was suddenly interrupted perhaps indicating that they knew the killer okay excellent good job [Applause] a big question was motive at the scene Cheryl told police that Nancy seemed to have no enemies as a waitress she was popular among her customers and colleagues friends without being flirtatious and what possible motive could explain the rage inflicted upon eight-year-old Melissa and three-year-old Angie [Music] blurry was unlikely was obvious to investigators that the apartment had not been ransacked or otherwise Disturbed investigators struggled to find a solid lead detective Bill reader worked the case from the beginning the initial lead Came From The Scene itself that we could find those signs of forced entry so that kind of leaned us toward looking at people that had access to the apartment or knew the knew the victims immediately the questioning began neighbors family and friends anyone who may have had information what we were looking at was to find someone that had seen anything unusual any strangers in the area had heard anything unusual it's seeing someone carrying things away anything at all that would help us focus on on someone or somebody family members are almost always suspects early in an investigation Paul Chapman was no exception though he had no one to back up his Alibi which was that he was alone most of 70. his reaction to discovering the bodies was clearly one of trump [Music] investigators spoke with everyone close to the family and learned that Nancy Newman was happily married to John Newman the father of their two girls he was a suspect spouses usually are but John Newman was in California training to be a locksmith at the time of the murders another way to eliminate a suspect is to watch and continue to talk to them John never gave us any indication other than he wanted this case solved he was extremely distraught gave all the signs that anybody would give under the circumstances because the Newmans lived in a multi-unit apartment complex detective Grimes knew that interviewing Neighbors in the immediate area would be a daunting task it was an apartment in a multi-unit apartment house which was in a particular area of town that was surrounded by large multi-unit apartment houses and we're looking at literally hundreds of dwellings in that area the close-knit community of Anchorage was shocked by the brutality of the murders police investigators having no experience with crimes this shocking we're asking the most frightening of all possible questions possibility police felt pressured to work quickly or what kind of person would do this kind of crime was there significance in the way the people were murdered that could give us some kind of leads as to who we were looking for at least what type of person and so immediately I'd say within the first day or so we were getting some help from the FBI investigators quickly realized they needed help in determining the type of individual responsible for the murders they turned to the FBI's Behavioral Science unit at Quantico Virginia special agent Judd Ray received the call as a profiler in the unit Ray's job was to assist investigators in hunting down America's worst killers to do that Ray had to understand the workings of the Killer's mind we were looking at deeds and acts of individuals after it happened and trying to predict the kind of personality if you will a composite view of what kind of human being could have done it through detailed evaluations of crime scene photos and police reports Ray provided investigators with a psychological portrait of the Killer this is a disorganized crime scene I mean you know low self-esteem all the kind of things that you would say about uh about this kind of person you know that he's been he's a society has rejected him through the years and now it's his time to reject Society Ray told the Anchorage detectives that they possibly faced a Repeat Performance this particular incident alarmed him so much particularly with the you know three victims at one time two being children that his opinion also he said that you know we need to get something working on this right away because it appears that this person's out of control and there's the potential that uh he's going to be doing it again in the very near future from the autopsy reports investigators learned that Nancy and eight-year-old Melissa Newman had been sexually assaulted based on this information and characteristics of the crime Ray concluded that this violent offender would have a history of sexual assault he would be a white male in his early to mid-20s and underachiever [Music] following Rey's conclusions investigators began to narrow the range of possible suspects among them was a young man who had recently moved in a few doors down from the new ones police also questioned Kirby Anthony the 23 year old nephew of John Newman Anthony had an alibi into the morning hours of Saturday March 14th but the Navy did not [Music] tremendous rage that was inflicted on the almost decapitated the uh the young three-year-old who suggested that they're to me that that that there's nothing in my mind that I had came across that would uh been sufficient on its face to justify this kind of Rage by a stranger Ray's insistence that the killer was known to the victims LED investigators to shift Focus away from the man who lived nearby neighbors and Friends of the humans confirmed the young man's claim that he had never met Nancy Newman or her children because I had talked about familiarity somebody in the close to the family somebody that knows her that has some sort of relationship with her perhaps even been rejected by her uh they said well as a matter of fact there's a nephew that comes to mind [Music] as investigators continued questioning possible suspects the volume of evidence that had been collected from the crime scene was taxing the limits of Alaska's state crime lab once again Anchorage police turned to the FBI the evidence was sent to the FBI's crime lab in Washington D.C [Music] hair and fiber expert Doug Dietrich was given the case Dietrich began by sorting through the evidence searching for any link to assessment pears fibers glass particles soil paint chips anything that may have been transferred during the Killer's violent contact with his victims all together I believe I looked at over 300 close to 400 items of evidence from the crime scene from the victims from elimination samples from different people suspect and relatives and possible acquaintances fibers are unusually difficult to trace and because no one knew what the killer was wearing during the murders there was no basis in which to compare recovered fibers the varieties that are out there are analysts so that when an individual in a case for instance was wearing a particular type of clothing transfers fiber material that evidence will will be considered to be unique even though they may have made a number of garments of the same type by the time it gets out into the public this material is dispersed like a drop of oil in the ocean it just it's there but it's hard to find distinct fibers amounting to less than a thimble full of evidence were recovered from throughout the Newman's apartment dietrich's expertise of fiber transfer however enabled him to reconstruct the suspect's movements during the crime giving investigators a clearer picture of what actually transpired in the apartment [Music] as dietrich's analysis progressed Anchorage police asked Kirby Anthony to come to the police department to give more detailed statements they began to learn more of his story and Rose Anthony and his girlfriend had moved from Twin Falls Idaho to Anchorage 18 months earlier both had stayed at the Newman's for a while but were asked to leave about the time they found jobs on a fishing boat [Music] s he and his girlfriend split up while working on the boat after Kirby accused her of having an affair with his skipper [Music] do you have with me his mates described him as irrational and unstable after the breakup he clashed with a Skipper and was fired [Music] he returned to Anchorage alone on February 14 1987. having nowhere else to go Anthony took a taxi from the airport straight to the Newlands through Cheryl Chapman's continued assistance police learned that John Newman was upset over his nephew's return to the Newman household during his absence at the same time the situation was becoming increasingly uncomfortable for Nancy after a few weeks she asked Anthony to leave he moved in with an acquaintance Dan Grant as the investigation began to focus on Kirby Anthony Sergeant Grimes recalled his first encounter with him the day of the murders detective Grimes took on the task of notifying Anthony about the deaths I told him that we had some bad news for him that his aunt and and her two little girls have been found dead just earlier that morning as I recall curly Kirby grabbed his hair and and started wailing and moaning but it was all dry-eyed there was no tears Anthony's demeanor did not fit that of a grieving family member but Grimes knew that Anthony's odd behavior would never justify an arrest well I know I was the autopsy report however made investigators more suspicious autopsy results helped pinpoint the murders between 7am and noon on Saturday March 14th so we're able to demonstrate is that the murders happened early in the morning after the victims had had gotten up in the morning the one of the victims that had a bowl of cereal the other was in the process of eating Sim cereal the mother was in the process of having a cup of coffee okay establishing the time of the deaths made Anthony's Alibi Irola which was that he was at an all-night party until early that Saturday morning he admitted that he drank smoked some marijuana and did cocaine he said he returned to the house he showed that Dan granted about 7 A.M then left again at about 8 45 AM meanwhile FBI agent diedrich's investigation into fiber and hair evidence was growing more complicated one of the items that had come in consisted of vacuum sweepings at least there were several vacuum sweepings from different rooms those items have to be processed and hairs have to be prepared from that was I think probably the most difficult aspect of this case for me was in trying to account for every hair that was found in that residence and that's something that's not usually done and and seen as there are often too many hairs to deal with but in this case it was it was a Monumental task to do that each hair displays its own peculiar characteristics under a microscope making it possible to trace its likely origin the fact that hairs will differ from person to person is is very evident when you magnify these characteristics upwards of 250 400 times to examine the fibers and hairs collected at the scene Dietrich used two high-powered comparison microscopes connected by an optical Bridge one for known material and the other for material yet to be identified foreign because Anthony had lived within units for a while his hair was likely to be in the apartment that meant it was important to establish whether the trace hairs were old or recent [Music] so Dietrich went through the contents of the vacuum used in the Newland household [Music] because of the vast quantities and errors and other items that were found in the back I had to look at the vacuum bag from a layer standpoint that is what was the most recently deposited or recently vacuumed material since Kirby Anthony had denied being in the Newman's apartment recently it was imperative that Diedrich determined the condition of the hairs the condition of the surface of hairs the condition of the ends the roots will often indicate how long a hair may have been in a particular environment working his way through the layers of the Newman's vacuum bag edric found some of the same types of hairs that did not appear to belong to many of the Newmans these hairs had been recently deposited in addition to the vacuum sweepings unidentified pubic hairs were also found on the victims and inside their bedrooms [Music] to determine the significance of these findings Diedrich now wanted to know how hair is usually are transferred from one room to another so he conducted his own experiment it was a question as to how likely would it be to find somebody's hairs say pubic hairs in different areas of a home so I designed a little experiment where I took a vacuum home crime scene vacuum to my house and vacuumed four bedrooms over a two week period same time every day just to see what types of hairs might be found I was focusing mainly on pubic hairs [Music] Dietrich preserved the material from every sweeping he then compared the hairs from those sweepings with known hairs from himself Egypt was able to conclude that the hares did migrate from room to room mostly by sticking to socks or other clothing the hair is deposited at the beginning of the experiment were deeper in the vacuum debris and therefore more damage the more recently deposited ones were not [Music] the finding was significant to Dietrich since Cheryl told police that Nancy vacuumed her house Friday the unidentified hairs found on the victims would have been deposited in the right at the time of the murders foreign scrutiny an important piece of evidence was revealed a pubic hair with a partial egg casing the kind associated with genital lice was clinging to The Damp washcloth found in the Newman's bathroom Dedrick told investigators of his findings and waited for a sample from a suspect in order to make a comparison [Music] there were at least a half a dozen individuals who were considered Prime suspects investigators received lists from the State Corrections Department of people recently released who had a history of sex crimes or violence some of them were living in the area close to the Newmans to eliminate these individuals as suspects each one was extensively questioned and all of their Alibis were checked out police continued to question Anthony he admitted nothing but with each interview the details of where he was and what he did the morning of the murders changed slightly no no I was still pretty wired that was a kind of a an indicator of what we were going to be dealing with with Kirby from the get-go was these little lies that weren't necessary but were thrown out to us unaware of dedrick's hair analysis Anthony was asked by investigators to submit hair and blood samples wanting to appear Cooperative he voluntarily submitted the samples they were rushed to Dietrich for comparison the next day Diedrich notified investigators that Anthony had pubic lice well that was probably the most significant breakthrough at that point we could start focusing on Kirby as the suspect when confronted with the evidence of the hair and egg casing on the washcloth Anthony admitted that he did have lice he said he had showered at the Newman's a week before the murders so as not to spread the pubic lies at Dan Grant's house for Judd Ray that dirty washcloth left at the crime scene told much about the suspect the killer had cleaned himself at the murder scene why take the risk why not go home it was obvious to me that he had to get that he had to go somewhere where where he couldn't go there all bloody uh which sort of got into this guy's not a loner living living alone somewhere raised behavioral profile also predicted the killer would have been associated with a previous sexual assault this prediction prompted investigators to look deeper into Kirby's past they learned that Kirby Anthony had been the central suspect in an Idaho case that remains open to this day the victim a 12 year old girl suffered brain damage in the attack and was unable to testify he had just previously coming to Alaska been the focus of police attention down there they had a some type of outdoor picnic outing and there was a 12 year old that was found in the woods she had been strangled unconscious near death and she had been sexually assaulted their investigation pointed right at Kirby Anthony Ray also predicted the killer would want to appear Cooperative with police they told us that the suspect would would interject himself into the investigation he would call to find out what the evidence was showing and Kirby started doing that did not share with Anthony was that diedrich's other hair comparisons were also pointing to Anthony the pubic hair found on the washcloth was only one of many positive associations Dietrich was able to make between hairs found at the crime scene and those submitted by Anthony and in this case a number of pubic hairs that were like Kirby Anthony's were found in in the rooms both the victims rooms the two girls and as well as a couple of them that were similar to his on the bed of mother a hair from Anthony's head also was found on the top sheet of Nancy Newman's bed facial hairs that matched Anthony's beard were found on all of the victims and in their rooms foreign [Music] sweepings from Melissa's room contained nine of Anthony's pubic hairs [Music] the sweepings from Angie's room included two pubic hairs one with blood and one with lice casings [Music] investigators felt it was time to keep tax on Anthony's movements from surveillance investigators learned of Anthony's Hangouts and discreetly followed him around town I hope that Anthony would reveal something to his friends they would further implicate him in the murders if he did the investigators would soon find out the effort paid one of Anthony's acquaintances told investigators that he was writing poetry on neck when passing the poems around the table right he told one of the women that Nancy Newman had been forced to watch part of the assault it was my my auntie investigators also learned that at one point after the murders Anthony called his ex-girlfriend's mother in Idaho to tell her about the crime Angie Newman had been stabbed he said and Nancy and Melissa sexually assaulted in both instances the call to Idaho and the scene at the bar Anthony could not yet have known about the details he described the information had not been released by police to the Press nor had investigators mentioned it to Anthony during questioning since the surveillance was not a 24-hour a day tactic they would often drive by his house to see if his vehicle was parked out front if he was home investigators would often ask him to answer some questions [Music] the circumstantial evidence against Anthony was mounting during a visit to his residence investigators noticed a manually operated camera belonging to John Newman that had been reported missing after the murders he told detectives that the Newman's lent it to him but when asked later to demonstrate how it worked he seemed to have no idea how to operate it [Music] another item missing from the Newman house seemed to be traceable to Anthony the tip money missing from the cookie tin consisted only of coins three of Anthony's friends told police they either saw him rolling coins into rappers or saw him pay for items with wrapped coins and then there were the prince Anthony's palm print was found on the wall over the bed where Melissa Newman had been assaulted Prince found on the empty cookie tin on the kitchen table matched Anthony's his prints were also found on the living room closet door and the inside and outside of the apartment another place we located one of Kirby's fingerprints was on the back side of the door to the mother's bedroom and again it's its position was significant in that it uh led us to believe that perhaps someone was trying to escape out of the room and he already had some other trace evidence on his hand he slammed the door shut transferring not only his fingerprint but some of the other trace evidence that was found in the scene the evidence was overwhelming every suspect in the month-long investigation had ultimately been cleared except Kirby Anthony appreciate that when you got home was there anyone there for investigators it was time to obtain an arrest warrant and then you got home Judd Ray had previously cautioned investigators that the killer might try to flee if the pressure became too much it's the increasing intensity of police questioning had made Anthony nervous Judd Ray was right again Anthony confided to his roommate Dan Grant that he was leaving town he asked his friend not to tell police okay cool [Music] Grant was afraid to contact Anchorage police because of Anthony's notorious Temple nonetheless he did finally call seven hours later Anthony was heading to the Canadian border an eight-hour drive away and he had a seven hour Head Start [Music] Anchorage in the Canadian border is separated by hundreds of miles of uninhabited wilderness Anthony could be hiding anywhere [Music] Anchorage police quickly contacted U.S customs at the Alaska Canada Border I just tell me they described Anthony in his vehicle and told the custom official that Anthony was a suspect in a triple homicide they were hoping he was on his way [Music] thank you less than an hour later Anthony arrived at U.S customers having no idea that investigators have been tipped off Anthony Conley pulled up to the Customs gate [Music] could you get out of the car please he was detained and questioned until Alaska's state troopers arrived he was arrested for driving on a suspended license and returned to Anchorage thanks a lot for the hospitality today as he was turned over to the Anchorage police he was read his rights in charge three counts first degree murder two counts sexual assault and one count kidnapping under Alaska law kidnapping can be charged if a victim is restrained during an assault Melissa Newman had been tied up during the attack [Music] he jumps up and screaming what is this kidnapping stuff uh in which struck us as odd because Harry was charged with three counts of murder and two counts of sexual assault and and he's screaming about the kidnapping charge by this time the forensic evidence was complete enough that police believe they Could reconstruct how Angie Melissa and Nancy were brutally murdered the last time Cheryl Chapman saw her sister alive was Friday March 13th Cheryl Paul and Nancy had each arrived separately at the restaurant where Nancy worked to meet for drinks Cheryl's daughter Kelly had taken Nancy's girls swimming so the adults had a night out [Music] Paul Chapman had to leave the restaurant early to pick up his son but plan to meet them later at Nancy's apartment as they were leaving Cheryl suggested that Nancy leave her car at the restaurant and ride home with her Nancy had Saturday off and Paul would gladly give her a ride back to her car tomorrow never pay attention to you're in about 11 30. yeah what time are you coming uh 11 11. okay Cheryl Cole and Nancy all ended up at the Newman's apartment to wait for Kelly and the girls you sat laughing and talking until about 9 45 when the girls came home Kelly had treated them to hamburgers at about 10 pm Cheryl and Paul were ready to leave okay Cheryl helped Nancy clear the table and put the used coffee mugs in the sink Angie was already in her pajamas and Melissa had gone to a room to get ready for bed as they said good night Paul told Nancy to call him the next day if she wanted a ride back to her car sometime between 7 a.m and noon on Saturday March 14th Kirby Anthony arrived at the Newman's apartment foreign [Music] perhaps Nancy refused to lend him money perhaps she refused a sexual Advance perhaps she ordered him out of the apartment [Music] in any case his anger boiled over [Applause] [Music] evidence indicated that part of the assault on Melissa occurred in her mother's room both would have had to have been restrained and their bodies did show signs of having been bound [Music] we are able to show it through serological findings that Melissa the eight-year-old had been assaulted in the mother's bedroom and that she had crossed the bed and was actively bleeding at the time and then she is subdued somehow and held in a position in that room for a period of time Melissa Newman probably witnessed the rape and murder for me she then was taken back to her bedroom where she was assaulted again and killed [Music] [Music] the knife used to kill little Angie was never recovered it was unclear whether she was killed first or last what was certain was that she seemed to be the target of a horrible uncontrolled rage [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] Nancy Newman did not call Paul Chapman the next day for a ride to her car nor did she answer the phone when her sister tried to reach her repeatedly instead she and her two daughters laid dead nearly a full day before their bodies were discovered the particular grudge against Angie may have grown out of the few times that Anthony babysat the girls reportedly he had called her a tyrant but for those close to the victims and for investigators working the case nothing could explain Kirby Anthony's savagery I don't really think that that you could isolate any one thing that would cause a man to fly into the homicidal rage like Kirby Anthony did yeah for the most part uh you know I don't think that Kirby Anthony could even tell you why he would do something like that a grieving John Newman sat in Stony silence throughout his nephew's trial after eight weeks of testimony the jury reached a verdict on June 3rd 1988. a clean shaven Anthony seemed confident as he waited for the verdict as each guilty verdict was read Anthony's composure disintegrated until finally it shattered completely he was sentenced to 357 years for his crimes Kirby Anthony's conviction represented an almost textbook example of Cooperative police work foreign police provided the FBI with evidence collected from a meticulously preserved crime scene oh yeah Doug Dietrich carefully analyzed the hairs and fibers and anticipated Kirby Anthony's excuses conducting his own home experiment to refute Judd Ray helped police stay several steps ahead of Anthony's thoughts and actions and for the first time testimony of an FBI profiler was accepted in court it was a good case to test the waters in terms of whether or not this was going to be accepted in the non-judicial system and for that the implications are probably for each because it opened the door Palmyra a tropical island in the South seasons for most of the year it's uninhabited but by strange coincidence in June of 1974 six sailboats all converged on this tiny Island it should have been Shangri-La but when Bad Blood develops a piracy and the only law was the law [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] a small uninhabited Island almost a thousand miles from nowhere it's hard to believe such a paradise really exists for most Sailors on the South Pacific Palmyra is a stop on the way to somewhere else but for a few is a destination of its own a place to disappear from the world that's just what happened to Mack and muff Graham although it wasn't their intention I'm Jim calstrom former director of the FBI's New York office crime in the high seas falls under the jurisdiction of the FBI The Disappearance of the grams and their yacht suggested trouble in Paradise the problem was there was not a shred of evidence to prove it Palmyra atoll is a series of small islands in the South Pacific formed by a coral reef which surrounds Olivia it is owned by the United States and during World War II it housed a U.S Navy Base the remains of the deserted base are still on the island today it is located approximately one thousand miles from Hawaii and is a stopover point for Sailors and yachtsmen on their way to Samoa oftentimes large beautiful sailboats can be seen at the broken down docks in its Lagoon but on June 26 1974 a small sailboat named the Iowa made its way past the docks and into palmyra's makeshift Harbor she had just completed a difficult 19-day Journey from Hawaii carrying a crew of two the boat was not suitable for the trip and now limped into the Lagoon barely seaworthy the ship's motor had Frozen up about halfway to Palmyra before leaving Hawaii the owners had repaired the Iowa which was a wooden boat by covering it with a coat of fiberglass the fiction created by these two materials caused a crack to form in the hull on the way to Palmyra the Iola had begun to take on water they had little money and very few provisions their plan was to live off the fruits of the island until later in the year they had made a deal with some friends to bring supplies to the island which they would exchange for a crop of marijuana they intended to grow when they arrived at Palmyra they were unhappy to see a handful of visitors at the dock area they had hoped they would have the island to themselves when they came ashore they were greeted by a welcoming committee it wasn't at all what they had expected they introduced themselves as Stephanie Stearns in Royale even though the name Buck was tattooed on his right arm in plain view when one of the yachtsmen commented on it Stephanie claimed that buck was his nickname but something about Roy was different from the other yachters he seemed rougher perhaps even a little dangerous shortly after Roy and Stephanie arrived another boat appeared in the channel a beautiful 38-foot catch called the sea wind it wasn't long before the new arrivals made their way over to the dock [Applause] Matt Graham was 53 years old his wife Eleanor nicknamed muff was a few years younger like Roy they were surprised to find so many people on what was supposed to be an uninhabited Island where they planned to spend the better part of a year hey Mac you got any uh when Roy noticed Mac was a smoker he asked for a cigarette and took most of the pack this gesture would be considered impolite anywhere but on an island it was particularly so a supplies are limited and can't easily be replaced for mac and the others this was their first insight into the kind of person Roy Allen might win Roy also boasted about his plans to raise marijuana and trade it for supplies soon everyone began settling into their New Life in Paradise Matt Graham began to explore the island the ruins of the Navy base in the Sandy Shores CQ CQ cqdx but he also made sure to keep in touch with the outside work by shortwave radio everything's fine out here and regularly scheduled times Mack would contact his friend Kurt Shoemaker in Hawaii and tell him about his latest discoveries kh6ihg Hawaii Island call [Music] he's just like it you know Tom Sawyer out on the Mississippi or something and so um he would explain what he did each day you know he'd go on excursions just him with his machete through the jungle and exploring all the things down there for Roy and Stephanie on the other hand things weren't going quite as well Roy found the island was not well suited for growing marijuana [Music] living aboard the Iola was difficult the boat was small cluttered and cramped their supplies were all but gone and they began to barter their possessions with the owners of the other boats for food and supplies to the grahams and the others Roy and Stephanie were in nuisance they were not properly supplied to be out on the high seas this far from civilization the other Yothers had enough supplies for themselves with some extra for emergencies but not enough to supply Roy and Stephanie [Music] the grams were known for their hospitality they had invited the other visitors to Palmyra aboard the ceiling others warned them not to allow Roy and Stephanie but Mack wanted to make an attempt at being courted on July 5th two weeks after the grandson and long after everyone else on the island had already had the tour of the sea Wade Roy and Stephanie received an invitation to visit they eagerly accepted well the sea one was a real yacht you know it was a that was a beautiful looking boat to begin with and nice lines and and Mac had kept it in just perfect shape world it's gorgeous huh it's the uh the sea wind was everything the Iola was not it had a fully stocked larger and it was equipped with every high-tech navigational device on the market it had plenty of room had sailed around here Stephanie commented on its size and human Comforts she was enchanted by the big bunk in the forward cabinet Roy remains sullen when Roy began to find the cramped quarters and damp bedding of the Iola to confining he decided to move into a makeshift tent on the beach Stephanie would stay aboard the boat by now Roy and Stephanie had Bartered most of their possessions with the other yards for food and supplies other than trading or flat out begging they had little to do with the others the situation was getting worse by the day most of the marijuana seedlings they'd counted on from money had been eaten by insects [Music] although Palmyra has abundant natural resources including fish crabs bird eggs and coconuts Roy had little knowledge of how to survive off the land to catch fish he would shoot them with his 22 caliber revolver [Music] like clockwork Mac continued his weekly radio conversations with Kurt and he kept him informed about Roy and Stephanie okay it had moved way down the end of The Lagoon and would have nothing to do with the other group and bizarre things like they start planting marijuana again to see if they could grow it he he needed the I think they were running low in food so he needed coconuts took a chainsaw and cut a coconut tree down to get to the Coconuts that's kind of stupid it also infuriated Mac right Mac loved the island and had no tolerance for all his destructive problem you don't have to do that to get one of these why don't you just climb up and get it down one day he confronted Roy about it really quickly I became angry and told Mack to mind his own business [Music] on July 13th muff Graham wrote her mother a letter she hadn't been enthusiastic about living first place and having Roy and Stephanie there only added to her misgivings [Music] nearest mother three boats are here now but one is leaving and we'll take this letter with them that leaves us alone with the hippie couple who plan to stay here and live off the land it's just our luck they decided to roost in Palmyra and Stephanie had run out of sugar cigarettes and I don't know what they've Bartered with other boats next they will ask us [Music] muff sent the letter back to civilization with Bernard and Evelyn Lennon who were leaving Palmyra after a brief stay Grahams had previously made arrangements to receive letters over the radio from Kurt Schumacher who read them to Mac during their regular weekly shortwave contacts during that period of time I was receiving mail from both of their mothers his mother and her and um they would then I would read this to them well as one of the boats down there would leave they would take the mail with him and eventually mail it when back in Honolulu or wherever so there was communication going back and forth and an interesting thing about it is one of the letters I read the mother and I think she was in her 80s she says that she was afraid for them she says you should leave that place something will happen to you one day when Mack was talking to Kurt he told him that Roy had sent a message with one of the Yachts back to his friends in Hawaii they were supposed to bring Roy and Stephanie's supplies to Palmyra and he told his friends to reply through Kurt's shortwave radio Mac asked him if he had heard any news from but Kurt had heard nothing and when Mack talked to him about Roy and Stephanie there was something about their description that worried then in between these conversations he had occasionally mentioned the the other boat and I told him I said you know that doesn't sound too good to these people so you know you better be careful and he said well he said no I can take care of myself I'll be all right so I said well I don't know I think you ought to get out of there myself or wanted to ought to leave Roy and Stephanie's temperature during the first weeks of August the sound of angry voices could frequently be heard across the Lagoon the other visitors to the island saw Roy as a violent and quick-tempered man who was dangerous and should be avoided then Midway through August another boat came to Palmyra and spent a few days Norman Sanders and Thomas Wolfe were on their way to Samoa the night before they were set to leave they had cocktails the talk turned to the Iola Sanders was a sailing expert he told him he had offered Roy advice about getting the Iola to Samoa he said he'd suggested Roy and Stephanie should go there but Roy had just become angry and refused the hell Wolff cautioned the grams that it would be easy for an unsuspecting couple to disappear in a place like Palmyra in response Mack opened a drawer and pulled out a 357 Magnum he assured the others that he could take care of himself I'm tougher than he is Max said confidently wolf and Sanders left Palmyra the next day the the group of people that were down at the various boats one by one of course were on their way somewhere and they one after another left visitors had come and grown pretty regularly for the last two months but with a departure of wolf and Sanders on August 17th things changed this was the end of the season when most Sailors would be stopping by Palmyra [Music] were alone in the island with Stephanie and Roy on August 27th Mac talked to Kurt Shoemaker Roy and Stefan aim to Grahams have been alone on Palmyra for 10 days take tension between Mac and muff Graham and Roy and Stephanie had increased muff knew Roy had a gun and a chainsaw and at one point he'd been seen with an acetylene torch this scared her and she wanted off Palmyra but Max stubbornly didn't want to leave the boats had moved to opposite sides of the Lagoon and the couple's pretty much ignored each other but then something unusual happened here is KH IC I was talking to him and while we're talking he hears a female voice yelling saying soon you know calling to him and he says what's this company so he says hang on a minute I'll go up top side and see and he says I'll be done she's coming over and her dinghy and she says she has a cake for him and he says I guess they're going to declare a truce or something huh that was the term the words he used he says I better check this out carefully I said okay so same schedule next week same time Sizer be careful now see you later one week later Shoemaker was at his radio for their regularly scheduled conversation for the first time since Mack and muff had left Hawaii there was no response from the ceiling I was concerned about that and I tried for quite a while about 20 minutes a half an hour trying to make contact so the next contact was a couple of days later and then I tried again nothing and then for the next few weeks I I tried you know intermittently from time to time and then it was at that point that I decided something happened unable to convince the authorities that something had gone wrong on Palmyra Shoemaker had a friend fly over the island the aerial survey seemed to confirm his worst fears Elmira was deserted there were no boats in the harbor no Iowa no seaweed and there was no sign of life well I had a feeling that all that time that something that happened the the boat had been taken over I I was very strong feelings about that simply because of the all of the incidents that they related to me and he related and I mean it just pointed to that one thing but I couldn't convince anyone that that was a problem Shoemaker did have one resource available to him the radio having no idea where they had gone you spread the word to yachtsman in the Pacific to be on the lookout for the Seaway and then months passed with no word about the fate of Mack and muff Graham or the secret [Music] two months after the last communication with the grams Bernard and Evelyn Leonard who had been given the last written message from the grams we're at the Ottawa Yacht Harbor in Hawaii Bernard noticed a 38-foot catch with very distinctive men yes it is been repainted but Bernard was certain it was the sea wind he also recognized a familiar figure on Deck Roy Allen knowing the tensions that had existed between the grams of Roy and Stephanie and also knowing that the grams had not been heard from in some time Leonard immediately called the Coast Guard the Coast Guard had been aware of the missing Secret and Leonard explained that the owners were not on the port the Coast Guard officers felt this might lead to something outside of their jurisdiction they called the FBI the call was answered by special agent Calvin shishido who worked out of the FBI's Hawaii field office my assignment there was just a general mix of General criminal investigations security investigations backgrounds it was such a small office that we couldn't specialize we had to handle everything that came at us shishido agreed to meet the Coast Guard in the Leonards at the marina although what he heard was not inclusive enough to Warrant FBI involvement perhaps the owners were unsure or perhaps they had sold the boat perhaps it wasn't even the seaweed after arriving moments later the Leonard showed him the yacht in question there seemed to be no one aboard so he pointed out the areas where there was an attempt to disguise the boat you know it had been repainted the gunnels had been repainted the uh the name plate was taken off it was removed and painted over and other things that he pointed out to show that it was actually the sea win he knew it was the ceiling although there was still no direct evidence of Foul Play shishido was growing suspicious there was no visible activity on the boat so shishido instructed the Coast Guard officers to post a lookout the lookout spot in Roy and Stephanie the next morning going from the floating dock towards Shore and a little thingy he immediately alerted the Coast Guard who in turn called special agent shishida but another boat owner hailed Stephanie and Roy and told him that the Coast Guard had been looking around their boat the day before Roy noticed a Coast Guard Patrol boat in the marina that seemed to be moving towards them [Music] they changed Direction and headed to the nearest Dot [Music] after letting Roy off Stephanie started to roll back to the Sebring [Music] two plain clothes policemen were approaching Roy when he spotted them without hesitating he turned and Dove off the end of it and began to swim away the officers found a wallet and in it was the identification of this Roy Allen and it had a photograph and uh I believe Mr Leonard found looked at the picture and said that was Roy Allen well the Coast Guard boat had spotted Stephanie in the robot and began to give Chase turned and started to road towards Street hope you reach the dock before they [Music] cry [Music] when she reached the dock she jumped out and began to run but there was nowhere for her to go Patrol boat was right behind it was Bernard Leonard aboard the end of Coast Guardsman follower [Music] foreign [Music] they found her hiding behind a potted pond she immediately recognized Leonard from Palmyra as the Coast Guard officer took her into custody one question was foremost on Leonard's mind what had happened to the grams Stephanie Stearns was taken to the Coast Guard offices for questioning on the way there Bernard Leonard and Stephanie found themselves alone in the robot when he asked if Mac and muff were still alive she shook her head Mack and muff she told him that apparently drowned at least they never found their bodies Leonard was incredulous how could that have happened Stephanie explained that she and Roy had been invited to the Sea win for dinner but the grams never showed up the next morning she and Roy found the grams overturned inflatable Zodiac boat washed up on shore and the shark infested Lagoon after searching fruitlessly for the bodies they decided to take their own boat back to Hawaii but it got hung up on the reef so they went back and took the abandoned seawind Leonard listened to Stephanie but he didn't believe her story in the Coast Guard offices she started telling her story again this time to special agent shishido in the Coast Guard [Music] okay [Music] at one point I remembered speaking to her she kept going on and on and I kept reminding her that she had the right to remain silent and that anything she said could be used against her in a court of law and she would just keep on talking [Music] thank you Stephanie told him she had arrived at the sea wind with Roy just about in time for dinner the boat was strangely quiet they called out but no one answered hello hello [Music] they went below and continued their search but got no reply they know we were coming for dinner they assumed the grounds had gone out fishing for dinner and made themselves at home until they returned according to Stephanie the grams never showed up so they both decided to spend the night on the seawind all right they believe the grams would show up anytime but the next morning when the grams hadn't returned she said they became very worried and went out to look for muffin Mack as soon as it was light but all they found was the Graham's overturned zodiac washed up on shore and a can full of gasoline they turned the inflated boat over and started the motor then she said they spent the next two days searching for the ground or any sign of what might have happened to them but they found nothing Brands had simply vanished shishito found her story implausible together and we went over there when she explained how they had taken possession of the sea wind her story was quite different from the one she just told Leonard no one would have believed us they would have taken this time she said they had left Palmyra aboard the sea wind Towing the Iola which got caught up on a reef and sank and all we found Stephanie was tripping over her first lie but I knew there were at least you know two conflicting stories as to how they got in possession of the boat at this point we became very um worried about the Graham's condition we didn't know what had happened to them and we're certainly what you know was not going to get any real true information from Stephanie Stern the FBI has jurisdiction over crime on the high seas shishido determined he had enough evidence to arrest Stephanie Stearns for Interstate transportation of stolen property then his attention turned to Stephanie's boyfriend Roy Allen who had evaded the police at the marina and was still at Large shishido checked and there was no record of a Roy Allen but he had the wallet with Roy Allen's picture Bernard Leonard also told shashita that Roy had taken marijuana plants to plant and had intended to grow them to sell drugs and a photograph of Roy gave him a starting place but I suspected that people with you know traveling on the Iola which is not really a sea worthy boat going around and planting marijuana on the islands and so on must be involved in drug running hi Cal how are you pretty good shishito took the photograph to the drug enforcement agency and showed it to several of the agents they were surprised when we looked at the picture let me get into it they told him that it was Buck Walker and that they had been looking for him I'll get back to you on that have a good day and so we got all our background data on buckwalker and that's when our search for buck Walker began and and uh that now we're looking for buckwalker instead of Roy Allen Buck Dwayne Walker was a convicted felon and a fugitive he had been awaiting sentencing on a drug conviction and he and Stephanie fled Hawaii on the Iola headed for Palmyra as the search for Walker began with a new agency shashita was also concerned about Big Range he knew Stephanie was lying and changing details about what had happened he didn't trust her story about the fate of the glaze there was always the possibility that the grams were alive and stranded on the island shishito made arrangements for himself and some other agents to travel to Palmyra to see if they could find them we decided to go to Palmyra to see if maybe the grams were were stranded there you know in need of food and or they could have been tied up for you know and you know immobile and their lives were in danger so we decided to go out there to look around and and we did on the island they found the remains of the camp Buck Walker had abandoned they took photographs and examined the site thoroughly a search of the island produced no sign of the grounds however shishido did make a couple of curious discoveries I remember picking up a hatch cover and of course later it was identified as a hatch cover coming off of the Iola the hatch cover was important because no semen would lead for high waters without his hatch cover without it the boat could take on water which would cause it to sink this told shishido that Roy and Stephanie had intended to Scuttle the eye over using these Clues yoshido began to develop his theory as to what happened to the grams my thinking was that they had tied the couple up and put them on the Iola and sank the Iola and that was the only explanation we had because we couldn't find the Iola and there was no way the Iowa could be in Hawaii because there certainly wouldn't be sailing the sea wind and the Iowa by themselves shishido found something at an Old Navy Warehouse that piqued his interest I think one of the things too that I noticed was that in an old Workshop or Warehouse there was an old Air rescue boat or a sea rescue boat and it had a place for three containers where they put provisions and off the three two receptacle areas where you know the cans were missing and the third was still left them and of course now we're looking for two people in my mind you know especially suspiciously thought that these two cans because you know it was large enough that they could have been you know containing the remains of the couple yeah meanwhile the search for buck Walker continued on November 8 1974 after spending 10 days hiding out on the lava flows on the big island of Hawaii buck resurfaced in a tiny Hamlet off the Beaten Track he rented a room and went to a restaurant for a drink [Music] [Music] as they paid the bill they showed their waitress a picture she said he'd just been in the restaurant looking for a drink she'd send him to a bar across the street [Music] the officers spotted him and contacted the FBI Buck was arrested on The Fugitive charge he was read his rights and handcuffed without a struggle FBI you're under arrest under questioning Buck revealed nothing that could help the investigation he answered questions with a Frank yes or no or with stone silence the investigators couldn't find even the slightest piece of information that could help them find the grams now Stephanie was in prison awaiting trial shishido found more proof Stephanie and buck were alignment while she was at prison we found out that she had some photographs developed so when the photographs were developed and brought back to prison we seized the photographs and examined them among the photographs showed that the sea wind or Stephanie Stearns was on the sea win taking a photograph of the Iola on the full sail with buck Walker on board the Iowa so we knew that at one point Stephanie was on the sea win and buck Walker by himself on the Iowa this was different than the stories both buck and Stephanie told officials shishido was convinced that the grams had been murdered but without any bodies and no hard evidence the U.S attorney assigned to prosecute the case did not believe they could make a homicide charge stand up in court we could but it strictly circumstantial and we might not win the case and if we lose the case and later you know years later if the body should pop up and we get some real good evidence as to murder on the part of the the buck Walker and Stephanie's turns he he said we couldn't try them again so I thought well you know that makes a lot of sense Buck Walker and Stephanie Stearns were charged with Interstate transportation of stolen property it was an open and shut case buck and Stephanie had been caught with possession of the sea wind in Hawaii and it made numerous attempts to change its appearance Buck had registered it under his name as a homemade book and Stephanie were both found guilty Buck Walker received 10 years for his previous drug conviction and five years for theft of the season Stephanie Stearns received two years for her role in the boat theft but shishito was still convinced the couple had killed Mack and muff Graham and that somewhere on or around Palmyra was the evidence to prove it he could only hope that someday it might surface and then he could charge buck and Stephanie with murder on January 21st 1981 a young South African couple Robert and Sharon Jordan were visiting Palmyra [Music] almost seven years it passed since Mac and muff Graham disappeared that afternoon Sharon went for a walk down the beach and made a startling discovery [Music] washed up on the shore was an aluminum canister and beside it she found human bones in the skull [Music] around one of the bones was a wristwatch she had heard the story of mac and muff Graham and immediately contacted the Coast Guard Al shashita was catching up on paperwork when he overheard part of a phone conversation first he heard the words human bones and then Palmyra where's Palmyra the agent was new and had never heard of the case shishido was on his feet immediately he was on the phone he asked the agent told him it was the Coast Guard shishido quickly took the phone and told the Coast Guard to ask the couple who have discovered the bones to stay on the island and wait for him when I first heard that of course I was really excited because I thought whoa somebody found some bones on Palmyra and it had to be the grams and I thought this is it shishido and a team of investigators flew to Palmyra to examine the new findings if the bones Sharon Jordan found belonged to either one of the grams the FBI might be able to establish the cause of death shishida was shown the gruesome Discovery a skull human bones a wristwatch and some wire all lying next to an open metal box identical to the kind shishido noticed in the rescue boats on his previous visit to the island he speculated that the wire had been wrapped around the case and had somehow come loose then when the case came ashore it had opened and the bones had Spilled Out since a second container had been missing from the Navy rescue boat shishido felt the other victim might still be inside divers were sent to search the surrounding Waters looking for a container like the one found on the beach but in the shark infested waters the divers found nothing got back to Honolulu he sent the container wire skull and bones to the FBI laboratory in Washington DC for examination the skull belonged to a Caucasian woman in her late 40s or early 50s dental records showed that it was Muth grams the skull also had signs of charring around the left eye socket and a hole in the left temple the FBI concluded that the Contour of the hole was consistent with a gunshot wound but due to the age of the wound could not say conclusively that it was caused by a bullet the aluminum box was examined by the FBI Elemental analysis unit they found evidence of charring on the outside of the box next the FBI needed to determine if the skeleton had been in the Box they cut out a rectangular section and subjected it to a battery of tests the rectangular piece of metal was found to contain traces of human protein conclusive proof that the Box had once held a body the FBI did a tremendous job as far as the container was concerned because they came back with a report that indicated that there were human remains in the container that the remains had been burned and that while it was in flame the container was in about two inches of water and they found traces of human protein human Fabric in the container and everything to indicate that a human body was disposed of in the container by Flame as shishido had suspected enough Graham had not simply drowned she had been murdered the FBI now believed it had enough evidence to prosecute buck and Stephanie for the murder of muff Graham having served her jail term for the theft of the sea wind Stephanie now had a white collar job in California she was arrested and taken into custody Buck Walker was still serving time in prison or so shishido thought when I sent our agents in the state of Washington Ali to put a detainer on buckwalker I found out that he was an escapee and so I thought oh no not again you know are we going to have to do this search all over for him we found that there was only one woman that had visited him and that she had visited him the day before his escape the trace was placed on the woman which led them to her car parked in a motel in Yuma Nevada the FBI was notified and set up a Stakeout [ __ ] another man a man to tell and approached the car the FBI moved in he was considered an armed and dangerous fugitive wandered both for murder and jailbreak foreign seat of the car they found barbiturates and several thousands of dollars dollars in cash [Music] Buck Walker was arrested and charged with the murder of muskraine Stephanie Stearns was also arrested and charged with the same crime though they would be tried separately because of the publicity the story had generated in here the trials were moved to San Francisco both cases were assigned to Federal prosecutor Eliot Enoki the motive for the crime was never in doubt the motive was they were without a seaworthy vessel the only other couple on the island was leaving shortly they were running out of food and they didn't know when any other vessel would get there if at all because this was becoming the end of the so-called season when you could expect people to visit the island so you had people running out of food and Provisions with an inability to get anywhere Enoki knew he could show Buck and Stephanie had opportunity and motive to kill the grams but first he had to prove in court that muff Graham was murdered he also needed to completely discredit buck and Stephanie's story that the grandson drowned as Enoki began constructing his theory of the case shashita was busy putting holes in buck and Stephanie's defense [Music] the FBI had already found evidence of human protein on the sides of the aluminum box but since the bones were found next to it Enoki wanted additional proof that the body had actually been in the Box therefore ruling out the possibility of muff drowning as buck and Stephanie had claimed he contacted San Francisco's chief medical examiner Boyd Stevens finding the skeleton together is supportive that Miss Graham was in that box and therefore held together it's not possible for me to really say that she couldn't have stayed together if she had been out of the box however the problems that would be required is that the skeleton has to stay together even after it's disarticulated and that's an extremely strong argument that that could not have occurred if she had died and just been laying on the Lagoon bottom the second is that the skeleton has to come ashore together and that's just not really possible shishido also decided to test buck and Stephanie's story that the Graham's Denny of the zodiac had been found overturned well of course you know a later investigation showed that if the boat had kept size the way they said they found it the the Outboard model would have been inoperable because of the salt water going into the engine itself and of course we made a test to find out whether the Zodiac could actually tip over accidentally and we tried to force it to turn upside down banging into things with you know with three or four men sitting on one edge of the boat and it just wouldn't tip over Enoki also asked medical examiner Boyd Stevens to examine muff Graham's skull in order to corroborate the FBI's findings that muff had been murdered Enoki knew that having two highly respected sources would strengthen his case Stevens found flat abrasions to the skull consistent with prolonged confinement in a box such as the aluminum container the key issues for us was the flattening of the skull which represents that it had been placed against the hard flat surface primarily across the left side of the face and what I'm pointing to is the nose the eye sockets and what would be the cheek in life and of course the teeth one of the things that was evident about the scholar Miss Graham is that this whole area about the face had been planed down so that it was a flat surface and if you can imagine if I take this skull and put it across a flat surface let's just say this table is coated with sandpaper and I work it back and forth for a period of time eventually I would shave it down until it was a flat surface there was a second plane showing that the skull had changed position and again had been exposed to a flat surface with motion for a long period of time we used that as an argument that the skull had been within the box and moving if the body had been buried in the coral sand then it would not be a change that we would expect to see and coffin wear is not seen if somebody's buried in dirt or in Coral it's seen if they're in a hard surface container there were minimal animal bite marks and insects on the skull which were consistent with remains that had only been exposed to the surface life for a short period of time presumably the time after the Box had surfaced and opened but what about the charring on the skull and the metal box did this show an attempt to destroy the body one of the questions we have been asked is whether we could prove that the skull had been burned within a settling torch people who were at Palmyra and buck and Stephanie were there saw buck with an acetylene torch maybe I believe this is what caused the burns to the scope if Enoki could have Steven's corroborate this he could further implicate water if a person is exposed to a flame there may be burning of the outer portions of the skin but until the water is evaporated the tissue can't burn and it takes a heat period to boil the water off or evaporate it before the tissue can actually burn settling torches of course run fairly hot and they would do that process fairly rapidly the marks on the skull clearly showed the use of an extreme source of heat further evidence that muff had been murdered the forensic evidence overwhelmingly proved that muff Graham had been murdered a trial date was set a trial involving people who live on the high seas presents some unique challenges the FBI had to subpoena about 40 Witnesses and then make sure they were in San Francisco at the time of the trial special agent Hal Marshall was assigned to the case uppers became involved when I transferred to Honolulu in 1981 from Los Angeles Witnesses were flying in from all over the world literally Sharon Jordan and her husband and two children came in twice from South Africa and one of the hard situations was they were a lot of these people were boating people who did not keep in touch unless we heard of some of them they were in a bay in Hawaii in a boat with no fixed address because it was a matter of getting them to San Francisco sometime having to wait two or three days sometimes postponing it uh weather conditions and things like that that required us to be sure they were there when we needed them and luckily everybody showed up that the need to show up and everything went smooth there were only two possible suspects and buck had an extensive criminal record but did Buck commit the murder alone or was Stephanie also involved she was the last person known to have contact with the grams on the day she brought them a cake Elliot Enoki believed Stephanie had one strong advantage on her side well um she had one option she could blame Walker and although she didn't directly do that her attorney certainly did in the way the case was argued and presented um so um that gave her a very big option that Walker simply did not have or if he had was a much more difficult cell because of the circumstances and the personalities involved um he's the one with the prior record uh much bigger than she is um you know the testimony about him shooting fish with his gun I mean he had a lot of things on his side of The Ledger that were not on her side of The Ledger one of the other substantial differences is that Stephanie testified in the case Walker did not and so she directly refuted any claim of knowledge or involvement in in any kind of homicide but certainly um get through her testimony left a large room for her attorney to argue that Mr Walker had the opportunity and the means to commit a murder a jury found Buck Walker guilty after only a few hours of deliberations and he received a sentence of life in prison Stephanie Stearns was defended by famed attorney Vincent bugliosi who was convinced of her innocence she was acquitted of all charges when he convinced a jury that buck not only acted alone but sought to conceal the crime from his girlfriend we may never know what really happened day in late August though the forensic evidence paints a Grizzly picture well empirically I believe that that Miss Graham was killed exactly as the charge was made that is that she was shot that there was an attempt to burn her body that her extremities were probably fractured to get her into the box and that she was cast into the ocean and then eventually came adrift and I think that that probably happened to the husband as well Matt Graham's body has never been found although investigators believe there's a very high likelihood that he's in the other box [Music] for 30 years Vincent gigatti wandered the streets of New York's Greenwich Village dressed in a tatted bathrobe and babbling endlessly to himself to the FBI he was believed to be the boss of New York's most powerful Mafia organization the Genovese crime family was giganti crazy or was his behavior a shrewd attempt to disguise his position as a ruthless monthly boss that question would take years to answer [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] every family has eccentrics even crime families Crime Boss Vincent giganti head of New York's Genovese family was undoubtedly eccentric the question remained was he truly mad Justice rested on the answer hourly he roamed the streets as a doggly old man barely in touch with the reality but in the eyes of the law he was a cunning conspirator and responsible for murder I'm Jim calstrom former director of the FBI's New York office organized crime takes a concerted effort to crack the FBI is devoted to cracking it the case against ugandi hinged on his ability to stand trial was a strange behavior and act of Madness or a stroke of Genius anyone who witnessed again his ravings would have found it hard to believe that he controlled the largest and most profitable family in the New York mafia an organization with a long and bloody history the origins of the mafia can be traced back to 13th century feudal Sicilian Society bands of Sicilian families organize themselves to rebel against the oppressive and ruthless French Invaders Mafia the acronym for the Italian morta a la Francia Italian which translates to death to the French as Italy's cry came the name that these organized families used to refer to themselves it's meaning synonymous with Men of Honor by the 19th century the mafia re-emerged in Sicily as a purely criminal culture mostly hiring themselves out to wealthy landowners to oppress upstart peasants more and more the goal of the mafia became focused on how to generate illegal profits [Music] the tradition continued as waves of Italians emigrated to New York in the 1920s most immigrants lived in Crampton or conditions as a result of growing ethnic tensions Sicilian Americans became the target of growing resentment they needed Mafia protection more and more [Music] a third generation Italian-American is head of the FBI's New York field office a 23-year veteran he is an expert on the mafia and its intricate structure when they first became prevalent in New York City it primarily uh victimized members of The Immigrant Community where in in lower Manhattan they became the victims of extortions and protection rackets and and that's how the the cousin Austria families originally got their start with prohibition influence of the crime families grew out from the isolated neighborhoods and began to spread Nationwide a new form of Underworld cooperation emerged various crime families Across America banded together to supply illegal alcohol to a country willing to pay for it I think that probably more than anything gave the Italian gangs the Italian coza Nostra families a foothold in American society not only from an organizational standpoint but certainly from a financial base since prohibition certainly they then expanded into other areas operating outside the law meant the mafia had to police itself for an organization animated by self-interest and agreement there would always be conflict in opposition an elite group of killers were organized to enforce Mafia rules thereby ensuring it survived this group of mob and forces came to be known as Murder Inc the early 1940s Murder Inc would be responsible for hundreds of mob-related murders Nationwide the powerful New York bosses during the mafia's early years Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello set up a ruling body for the mafia responsible for delegating territories and duties among the various gangs Nationwide yeah home for America's five largest families New York remained the center of the mafia's expanding foothold in America it remained so to this day the five New York families consist currently of the Gambino family the manano the Lucchesi the Columbo and the Genovese family each of those families are also members of the commission and also have their base in New York City the commission composed of the bosses of the five New York families acts as a criminal board of directors settling disputes between families and making major decisions on Mafia business each family is governed by its Administration comprised of the boss the underboss and the consigliere or counselor who are responsible for directing their family's criminal activity below the administration in the family hierarchy are the captains the captains are the leaders of Crews of soldiers the men responsible for carrying out the day-to-day criminal activity to become a soldier properly known as a wise guy or good fella an individual has to First be made or officially inducted into the secret society he must blindly obey the rules of casanostra Italian for this thing of ours he is sworn to put the family ahead of all else if he is asked to kill he must Faithfully do so [Music] it was against this backdrop a bustling immigrant Community with an expanding casanostra influence that Vincent Gigante grew up his parents came from Naples and settled in lower Manhattan Vincent finished eighth grade and started trade school but soon dropped out less than a decade later giganti became a wise guy in the Genovese crime family Vincent gigatti's crime career spanned a turbulent time in American Mafia history [Music] the mob had expanded its reach into legitimate businesses the various families fighting to control them and in the ensuing turf wars violence was often the final arbiter the family the jigati attached himself to was steeped in kosanostra's American Origins the infamous Charles Lucky Luciano responsible for organizing and structuring the American Mafia was the family's first boss until he was imprisoned in 1936. as a result Luciano's family Administration Frank Costello nicknamed the prime minister of the underworld and veto Genovese fought for control of the family Costello won out but Vito Genovese began plotting his takeover Vincent giganti first gained notoriety as a mobster in 1957 when he attempted to murder Frank Costello within the mafia it was widely believed that veto Genovese had ordered the hit to get rid of his rival giganti's bullet only grazed Costello's head but apparently Costello got the message soon after the shooting he put out word that he was retiring veto Genovese was now the boss of the family that would take his name giganti was arrested for attempted murder and brought to trial but the case was dismissed for lack of a witness the location and angle of Costello's wound indicated he probably saw the would-be Assassin but at the trial he failed to identify giganti as the shooter even for an ousted boss the oath of secrecy remains sacred [Music] giganti continued to make money for the Genovese family through illegal Enterprises two years after the failed assassination attempt he was arrested and convicted of Narcotics violations he received a seven year sentence convicted Mobsters are expected to do their time to remain silent if jigadi served his time and kept his mouth shut he would be rewarded after his release it was up to giganti to figure out how to avoid future arrests he was a model prisoner neat polite and willing to take on any job exhale giganti's cooperation was so impressive that some prison officials wrote glowing reports released early from the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg for good behavior when he was 35 years old giganti now devised a secret plan that he hoped would prevent his return to prison forever [Music] he didn't want to leave his Mafia life or give up his shot at becoming the boss of the family after his release in 1964 giganti's public Behavior began to grow bizarre he became a frequent site on the streets of Greenwich Village giganti could be found wandering the neighborhood appearing disoriented and mentally unstable not long after he left prison giganti learned of a police investigation over his association with known mobsters in 1969 he was indicted for attempting to bribe New Jersey police officers allegedly he offered them money in exchange for information about surveillance and ongoing investigations in the Genovese family now at almost 40 years old he returned to his mental disability as a foil and checked himself into a psychiatric hospital for the first time to support his story again his relatives began to revise his medical history while giganti was at Lewisburg his mother had been required to fill out a detailed family history she said Vincent was a healthy happy child she noted only a speech impediment and a slight heart murmur he had been a boxer but never had a serious injury by the time of the 1969 indictment however giganti's lawyers claimed he was not competent to stand trial his family suddenly remembered a host of mental problems he'd been given to severe temper tantrums he had a phobia for the dark he had been truant from school he was at one time obese and had learning problems the incompetency argument worked giganti never stood trial for the 1969 bribery charges that same Year giganti's boss Vito Genovese died of heart failure while serving a prison sentence for Narcotics trafficking in the decade that followed the Genovese family was so secretive that for law enforcement it was difficult to tell exactly who the boss was to identify the Genovese family leadership making a case against them was another story Witnesses were hard to come by Mobsters who violated the sacred oath faced certain death the best the FBI could do was to go after individual crimes there were no laws that focused on bringing down the entire criminal family as Ducati was moving up in the family the federal government was about to make the FBI's job a little easier in 1970 Congress passed the racketeer influences and corrupt organization act better known as the Rico laws what the racketeering law allowed us to do was to look at the family as a criminal Enterprise and to attack the family as a criminal act that became much more effective you if you look back from the mid 70s to the 80s in terms of actually indicting the entire family in the entire hierarchy of that family the Rico laws require that the government prove that mafia families are essentially criminal Enterprises they must show that the crimes committed by the boss and members of his family are committed to either expand the criminal Enterprise or to increase a family member's position within that Enterprise to successfully bring down a family the government has to prove that any one of several criminal acts ranging from racketeering and extortion to murder has been committed By 1979 now armed with Federal legislation aimed directly at organized crime the FBI had devoted teams to exclusively Focus investigations on the five major families the FBI's Genovese Squad finally learned that Vincent giganti was on a fast track with the family special agent Richard Rudolph had been assigned to investigate the Genovese crime family through informants and other law enforcement agencies who are exchanging information we became aware that Mr giganti was a individual which with much respect in the Genovese crime family and operated out of an area in Lowell Manhattan because he was a an up-and-coming person with a lot of respect within the family we began to do some surveillances of Mr giganti with the FBI continuing to build its Arsenal against organized crime giganti's cat and mouse game intensified he stepped up his public show of mental disorder in the late 70s and into the 80s he was admitted five more times for psychiatric treatment the FBI continued to keep tabs on giganti agents learned that he frequented the triangle Social Club A Gathering Place for Genovese crime figures he could be found there almost on a daily basis he lived in it in the neighborhood he was an individual that could be found there in the late afternoons and into the early hours of the morning and people would come to see him as opposed to him going to see other people though giganti's Association in the Genovese family seemed certain to investigators giganti's family and doctors continuously told investigators that he led a very narrow existence they said his whole world was confined to the block where he lived and the church he attended with his mother he was barely functional at home and could not care for himself they said but with every passing day the FBI and New York police were seeing a very different Vincent giganti in the early 1980s the mafia in the Northeast went through a particularly tumultuous time with several killings internal disputes within the family resulted in a string of assassinations the FBI suspected giganti was responsible for these Gangland executions especially those intended as punishment for breaking casinostra rules [Music] giganti was known to be a traditionalist he wanted the rules obeyed and when they were broken retribution is sure to follow [Music] it started with the murder of Philadelphia Crime Boss Angelo Bruno although Bruno's family was well outside New York All Families answered to the members of the commission giganti was upset because Bruno had been assassinated by his own men in a grab for control of the family a Casa Nostra rule had been violated no one can kill a boss unless the commission sanctions it and they seldom do it was rumored that jigadi himself launched an investigation into Bruno's murder retribution was Swift less than a month later Tony bananas caponegro identified as one of Bruno's assassins was found dead he had been shot 15 times and stabbed in the back his body was stuffed in a trunk and twenty dollar bills were littered around his body a clear message that he was killed for his greed on the same day another body was discovered this time it was Fred Salerno dead of gunshot wounds dumped in a vacant lot he too had allegedly participated in Bruno's murder [Music] Phil Testa had taken Angelo Bruno's place as boss his Reign was short [Music] almost a year after Bruno's execution Tessa was blown up entering his own home [Music] another boss killed without the blessing of the commission another avenging act would follow Rocco marinucci was next found dead with fireworks stuffed in his mouth [Music] a gesture designed to show that he was killed for the way in which he had killed testing if the casanoster was to flourish all of its members had to comply with its rules there were no exceptions giganti was believed to have ordered the murder of one of his own crime family members Genovese Soldier Jerry Pappa had murdered two Colombo family members without permission as punishment for his unsanctioned ACT he was brutally shot and killed by members of his own criminal family had giganti become the enforcer for the Northeast casanostra informers within the mob told federal agents that all of these killings had been ordered by giganti but information given by admitted criminals is always a problem for potential juries criminals will say anything if their cooperation can be traded for a reduced prison sentence the FBI needed more than the words of criminals looking for a deal giganti knew this and he protected himself accordingly it seemed the jigadi was now the boss the FBI began a more focused surveillance effort on giganti they learned that the Genovese family had also infiltrated several of New York's major industries the Garmin trade Trucking garbage collection Airport cargo handling and the city's Seafood industry thank you Vincent gigatti was known on the streets as the chin an abbreviation of chinzino little Vincent fearing FBI surveillance and wiretaps family members were not allowed to speak his name they were to refer to him with hand signals touching their chins to communicate his nickname Bringing Down the chin was going to take every bit of know-how that the FBI could muster they were going to have to create their own luck as a surveillance team member watched one day a telling crack in the Chin's ruse appeared the seemingly frail man was being helped across a busy Street when oncoming traffic threatened he became suddenly animated racing to safety his helplessness somehow overtook him again on the other side clearly there were two gigantes the mentally troubled one displayed to the public and the determined boss of the Genovese Administration the FBI would soon learn of a third [Music] giganti's ex-wife and their five children lived in New Jersey while he maintained a relationship with his long-standing companion Olympia Esposito [Music] he usually called on her late at night looking quite Dapper before he was aware of the surveillance we learned that he frequently visited a townhouse which is located up on 77th Street and East Side of Manhattan where we later learned that a common law he was living with his common-law wife and he had been married previously and this was his second family there at this residence soon the FBI knew all of the Chin's Hangouts this gave surveillance teams an opportunity to observe giganti without his knowledge a major break came when NYPD organized crime Task Force member Detective Tom Bruno was able to Snap photos of some of giganti's activities foreign 1984 I was assigned to a joint organized crime task force that task was consisted of FBI agents and New York City police officers Detectives and we were assigned to investigate the Genovese crime family then the next step was to go to Sullivan Street where shinjukanti lived his apartment was above a pet store alleged pet store and he also had a social club on the Block and when you'd go by the social club you'd see numerous people that were in the photos and you'd see them standing in front of going inside and then sometimes crossing the street going to uh the pet store which was where the chin We Believe met people pet store really never had any kind of business that we could see it had a little cat box in the window and basically that was it more and more giganti was seen acting normally when he was unaware he was being watched I see uh shinjukanti and I see Andrew giganti which is his son come out of his residence and I'm just minding my business walking up the block uh Andrew leaves to get in his car and Chin is standing on the corner and he wasn't helped out of his building and he was standing on the corner Andrew gets in his car pulls out as he pulls out there's a car coming up Sullivan Street it blows the Horn uh Ginger ganti yells hey what are you in a rush as he does this I come into the lighted area he looks sees me and all of a sudden his head goes down and he plays uh the sick point [Music] another break followed detective Bruno's surveillance successes the FBI managed to run an apartment close to the townhouse of giganti's companion Ms Esposito an agent would exit through a back door in the rented apartment position himself about 50 feet from his Esposito's townhouse from there miss Esposito and jigati could be seen from time an agent watched the couple for four months between midnight and 2 am assistant U.S attorney Andrew Weissman who later would have to prove Jimmy's competency to stand trial was delighted with the agent's observations and lo and behold when he was inside in a place where he didn't think he was being observed he did all the normal things that any of us would do a matter of fact what was unusual about their surveillances was that there was nothing unusual about him he was normal he was talking to people he was counting money he never wore a shoddy bathroom indeed the only time he was seen in a bathrobe was not surprisingly when he got out of the shower he would wear a nice fluffy Brooks Brothers type bathrobe which was not at all like the bathrobe that he would wear when he was on the street so it became pretty obvious to the people conducting the surveillance that he was engaging in a concerted effort to give an appearance to the public that was false that was not the way he behaved in real life foreign s continued to watch giganti's bizarre public Behavior but photos themselves are only a single link improving criminal activity investigators needed hard evidence to corroborate what the photos were suggesting the giganti was in fact the boss one wiretap conversation between Genovese crew members gave investigators more proof of giganti's position in the family on the tapes known Genovese members were complaining about the chin assistant U.S attorney George stambulitis reviewed these tapes to help prepare a case against gigani he's constantly nitpicking his men trying to always with a million questions drilling them and questioning them on what they're involved in he's always looking to get money from them or or money from some of the schemes and how he earned and how much money he would make from the gambling operations at the triangle social club and things like that while gigetti micromanaged the internal affairs of his family the tabloids began calling him the odd father he would check himself in to a hospital once a year for what his colleagues in the mafia sarcastically referred to as tune-ups so that he would have a paper trail showing that he had some or giving the impression that he had some mental condition and with the assistance of people around him and people in his family he was able to cultivate this paper trail giving the impression to anyone who looked at the cold medical records that here's someone who year in year out was being treated for some form of mental illness she get he knew how to protect himself both publicly and privately Mr giganti was very clever and how he conducted business and he limited his contacts with with members of the family if there were messages or uh or items to be discussed regarding illegal activities conducted by the Genovese family there would be messages passed on to people immediately surrounding him access to him was very limited if the other family wanted to meet with him more than likely they would have to send a message giganti avoided the normal sit-downs or more formal meetings held regularly by other family bosses he would take meetings when businesses demanded his attention he and his visitors would stroll the sidewalks through the neighborhood ensuring that surveillance wiretaps would not pick up any incriminating conversations the always careful giganti also suspected Ms Esposito's phone was tapped and it was he never taught business on the [ __ ] he would simply use a pay phone or make arrangements to talk elsewhere [Music] is the Chin's own words to make a case against him other Mobsters were not as smart sophisticated bugging operations were allowing the FBI to capture a multitude of other mob business on tape in early 1985 the justice department was bearing down hard on a number of high-level organized crime figures most were being charged under the RICO Act though Rico had been around since the early 70s it was only now receiving its first real test two of giganti's men had gotten wind that the bosses of the gambino and lucasi families would soon be arrested they wondered if the chin was vulnerable [Music] one commented that if he gets pinched all those years in the Asylum would be for nothing on February 19th the arrests of several crime family bosses were made the next day Vincent gigetti checked himself into the hospital and stayed a week he had successfully avoided the indictment against the New York bosses among those arrested was Paul castellan head of the gambino crime family prosecutors never brought him to trial he was killed before they had the chance by Casa Nostra standards the unsanctioned murders of Gambino boss Paul Castellano and his underboss Tommy Bellotti were unpardonable although John Gotti a captain in the Gambino family acted shocked at castellano's death it was widely believed that he was responsible within two weeks of the murders Gotti had publicly taken over as boss [Music] Vincent giganti issued a subtle warning to guy without mentioning names he told Gotti that the murderer would have to pay it took two years but in 1987 giganti acted to avenge the murder of his friend and partner in mob business through his counselor Bobby Manna and some lucasi family members giganti plotted to have Gotti killed the planning session at a New Jersey restaurant was bugged and because it was the FBI saved John Gotti's life if agents intercept information of a murder plot they are required by law to try to prevent The Killing So based on the tape agents warned Gotti acting on the FBI warning John Gotti changed his plans on the day the murder was to take place because he was not where he was expected the murder plot failed giganti however did not give up he asked vika Musso acting boss of the Lucchesi family to supervise another hit it was up to amuso and his men to work out the details and that was to have amuso reach out to Al diarko one of his trusted men just as Mana was one of gigante's trusted men and have diarco use his contacts in other parts of the country to acquire a remote controlled bomb but Gotti was arrested and imprisoned before the second plot could be carried out he died of cancer while serving a life sentence for racketeering involving extortion and murder including Castellanos meanwhile the FBI had chinsmen on tape conspiring the murder as the FBI's investigation into Genovese family operations continued information about a corrupt construction scheme was coming to light they learned that for years much of the Genovese family income came from one segment of the construction industry the window business the family had managed to keep its hold on window replacement jobs for all of New York City's public housing projects we learned that at that time there was a an enormous amount of money being put into refurbishing some of the New York City Housing Authority Windows there was a an energy crisis underway and the timing of this was ideal for the organized crime people become more active in it what we learned was that the Genovese family along with two or three other families were becoming involved in companies that were bidding and installing the windows in some of these housing projects from the late 1970s up until the late 1980s there was approximately 190 million dollars worth of contracts given out by the city of New York for the window replacement industry it was classic mob business and a textbook example of racketeering the Mafia took over an industry to the exclusion of legitimate businesses Union officials were corrupted in this case Iron Workers Local 580. bids were rigged and companies or workers trying to play by the rules lost out for years the Lucasian Genovese families operated their construction schemes autonomously by the early 80s they realized that a partnership would be much more profitable by this time the Lucchesi family had a firm hold on local 580 and the Genovese family had corrupted several contractors they cooperated because it meant more business by using the local 580 as a tool they were able to exclude several contractors from coming in and bidding on some of these projects and in essence created a somewhat of a monopoly for themselves on nearly all City Housing Authority work and on much of the new construction for the city the Genovese contractors and installers paid two dollars a window a dollar went to the Lucchesi Family 25 cents to The Collector and 75 cents to the boss for the family's role in handling the Union the other dollar went to the Crooked Union officials who looked the other way as Jobs went to non-union workers foreign to cooperate often carried a penalty of violence in the late 80s a carpenter's union delegate had both of his legs broken by Genevieve's men for refusing to cooperate though he maintained that he was unable to get a good look at his attackers and in 1992 a delegate from local 580 was shot and killed coming out of his house on Long Island over a disagreement with his casanoster contracts [Music] Genovese family Arrangement was working very smoothly that is until Peter Savino was persuaded to wear a wire Savina was a Genovese Soldier and point man for the window racket and we built a case on him a murder case on him and it was sufficiently compelling that he realized like many of these people that he didn't want to die in jail so what'd he do he decided to cooperate and for an 18-month period made tape recordings of people in the Genovese family and people in the Casey family operating this scheme Vincent giganti didn't realize Peter Savino was turning on him he was happy with Savino's work and satisfied with the window scheme's progression Savino kept track of the money he managed the contracts he supervised the bids he arranged the payoffs [Music] the boss was happy but some Genovese family members began to suspect Savino when bodies were found in the basement of a building he owned Genovese members were surprised that he was never seriously investigated by law enforcement as a result of that people speculated well Savino wasn't arrested yet these bodies were found in a building that's tied to him maybe he's cooperating but nobody was really sure Selena was a cash cow for Vincent giganti he was bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Genovese family every month so in giganti was told of Savino's betrayal he chose not to believe it and initially refused to order and killed Savino continued to wear the wire trying to get other family members to acknowledge chin and his position as boss of the family giganti's troops however could never be persuaded to break the boss's rule about not mentioning his name remember uniseal Vincent said when it came time okay elements he he had said to go out and bid the work it was don't mention that name how can you talk like that that was pretty damning proof um even though it didn't give you a specific crime it told you that this was a man to be feared it was hardly somebody who was incompetent thereafter it came to giganti's attention that Savina was in fact cooperating furious at this betrayal giganti ordered the murder of Peter Savino [Music] by that time the FBI had relocated Savino well out of Genovese family reach but not before he supplied agents with thousands of hours of tape conversations Mr Savino was also um in a position to provide us with the historical aspects of how this scheme developed his relationship with the leaders of both the lucasi and Genovese crime family and what their participation was in this thing Mr Savino also was able to tell us how the various members of all of these families interacted with local 580 which was used again as the tool to make the scheme work the FBI was successfully employing the Rico laws to bring down New York's most powerful bosses as a result high-ranking family members saw that their only way to avoid long prison terms was to cooperate among them were Gambino family underboss Salvador Sammy the bull grimano only arrested and charged under the Rico laws with ordering six people murdered conspiring to kill three others and at least 24 counts of racketeering in short giganti was charged with being the boss of the Genovese crime family but giganti still had his mental illness history to fall back on Gigante was indicted in in May of 1990 and his second indictment was filed against him in June of 1993. Mr the case against Mr Gigante was unusual that it spanned uh several years before it actually went to trial he eventually went to trial in June of 1997. during that period of time the issue was that was before the courts was that whether he was competent to stand trial or not that issue was finally resolved in in 1996. seven years after his arrest a federal district judge declared Vincent giganti competent to stand trial [Music] Vincent the chin giganti was 69 years old when a jury convicted him of conspiring to kill three Mafia figures including Guardian Savino he was also found guilty of extortion and Union payoff conspiracies in the window replacement scheme but jurors failed to convict him on charges of directly ordering six murders now that you Gotti was convicted his defense lawyers argued that he was not fit to be sentenced they claimed he was too old too frail and too mentally incompetent to understand the punishment [Music] while awaiting sentencing giganti was confined to a prison hospital and examined by several doctors giganti was given several pet scans a procedure that uses a radioactive tracer to measure brain chemistry [Music] 1991 scan first read as normal was later found to be too flawed to use in diagnosis a 1993 scan did show some abnormalities but at least one expert Dr Jonathan Brody judged these abnormalities as not consistent with dementia Dr Brody is an attending psychiatrist at New York's Bellevue Hospital and the professor at New York University School of Medicine he also conducts research on schizophrenia Mr giganti at the time of the scan was purportedly taking medication that affects the brain and because it affects the brain it affects brain chemistry and brain chemistry is what a pet scan is all about who's taking an antipsychotic medication [Music] sleeping pills so Dr Brody was skeptical about the Pet Scan but had yet to examine the patient when the three of us entered the the observation room the examining room where he was then brought I was struck at first by his appearance which I said made me think oh my God he really is sick that that I've missed about he's really very sick he came in wearing a bathrobe he was shuffling he was mumbling he was making allusions to God but as the examination progressed some of giganti's actions began to raise doubts but one of the things that really struck me was uh that I didn't note at the time but I noted a few seconds later was when I put out my hand for him to shake it he didn't shake it and that's a very automatic Behavior you put your your hand on your worst enemy can put his hand out to you and you tend to take it how about this how about this lady when jigadi was asked the names of his children he didn't know when he was asked where he lived he didn't know and yet these are things that people tend not to forget you know the brain in a dementia tends to work on the process of accounting the last thing first out so recent memory tends to be lost but that's why people who are very demented can often remember very well events from long ago even if they can't remember recent events while he was not consistent on that indeed he was asked the question about who the president of the United States was which is a standard question on a psychiatric mental status evaluation and he scratched his head and he looked perplexed and he said um I should know that I really I should know that answer it's in there somewhere and some more questions were asked someone I really should know that and then finally he said bush George Bush and I sat there and thought Oh he remembered the question what was striking was not that the answer was incorrect what was striking was that the question was remembered despite all of the interfering questions and there were other red flags he seemed to understand abstract Concepts Dr Brody asked giganti if he was proud of his children now pride is really quite an abstract notion and his response was yes they're all working legitimate jobs legitimacy well that wasn't even a question legitimate implies yet something else that he was able to abstract from the question some intent as to what the question was involved with and awareness of a distinction between legitimacy and illegitimacy and here was a man who didn't know what month it was he didn't know if he was in a hospital these and other inconsistencies contributed to Dr Brody's conclusion that giganti did not suffer from Progressive dementia vascular dementia or schizophrenia guards assigned to watch japani during his pre-sentencing hospitalization also found his behavior normal [Music] they testified that he was active around his prison hospital cell and polite to the hospital staff he did not need help to shout to groom himself or to feed himself the lawyers will all put in affidavits that they couldn't communicate with Vincent can'ty at all well when he was in jail he managed to speak with the prison counselors when you sort of talked to the sort of low-level people in jail who have to take care of inmates on a day-to-day basis it turns out he knew exactly that what had happened he knew he had been on trial he knew that gravano had testified against him and didn't have very nice things to say about him he knew that his sentencing was upcoming he knew what the issue was before judge Weinstein as to that he had to decide that he was competent to be sentenced it was completely at odds with what his lawyers were telling judge Weinstein thank you some psychiatrists thought giganti really was incompetent others thought he was faking five months and dozens of tests later the judge ruled the judge said in short the defendant's cognitive and emotional capacity and his communication skills are equivalent to other 69 year old defendants with limited education no hallucinations interfere with his abilities to participate in sentencing [Music] he understands the fundamentals of criminal substantive law and procedure he is deliberately feigning mental illness to avoid punishment which he fears defendant is competent to be sentenced and to serve an appropriate term in prison [Music] chiliro described efforts of the FBI and prosecutors as historic and courageous this has been a battle that that certainly I've been involved with for the last 20 years and certainly I think agents that will continue that on over the next five or six years if the effort could be sustained and the resources maintained you know I think we're on the verge of really reducing the effects and the impact of the cause in Austria to be sure the government's legal victory in the gigantic case was partial the jury after all failed to convict him of the six murder charges he was originally sentenced to 12 years in 2003 he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and earned three more years finally admitting in court that he had been faking Insanity the entire time

Channel: The FBI Files

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

Id: 6h2Hz57CKpE

Length: 155min 7sec (9307 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 16 2024