Snake Sniper | TRIPLE EPISODE | The FBI Files

prominent couple respected in the community are stabbed to death in their own home nothing about the case makes sense not the crime scene the motive or even the forensic evidence stabbing is a personal crime there's often a relationship between the victim and the Killer task force of agents and police quickly learn nothing about this case is usual [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Edna New Hampshire is a small town it's the kind of place where people trust their neighbors and leave their doors unlocked he double murder shattered that trust and left the entire Community terrified I'm Jim calstrom Farm ahead of the FBI's New York office the FBI and local police work day and night trying to find a motive for the brutal crime January 27 2001 Aetna Vermont [Music] at 6 30 pm Carol Johnson stops by the home of a friend Suzanne and half santop Carol's supposed to have dinner with the couple it's not like them to forget a dinner engagement study she makes a gruesome discovery [Music] the room is in shamble the friends are on the floor blood is everywhere seven minutes after receiving the dispatch the Hanover police are on the scene Eric Bates is a detective at the Hanover Police Department and I time I got there some of the information had been relayed as to the nature of what had happened that there were at least two bodies Carol tells police that the victims were both prominent professors at nearby Dartmouth College half Zan top was an earth Sciences Professor his wife Suzanne was the chair of the German studies program Carol's their colleague they had invited her for dinner at 6 30 that evening the xantop house was extremely neat orderly clean nothing was out of place there was a two-level home no basement the house hadn't been secured and so that's when myself and one of the patrol sergeants went through the house and systematically cleared the house to make sure that their Killers weren't still in the house for some reason I can tell you I've never seen anything as horrific as the the scene itself in the study of the zantop home uh even with my military experience then and and even now nothing would compare to the scene that night it was potentially a murder-suicide and if not and it was a double homicide [Music] it appeared to me as though they were preparing A light meal it was my impression that they were actually preparing a lunch and not a dinner although the bodies were discovered at dinner time Bates suspects the Zant tops died early that afternoon before lunch and that the couple has been dead for several hours there were so many valuables in that house that we wouldn't have even been we discovered some blood droppings and a bloody blueprint what appeared to be a blueprint anyway on the floor it was right next to the xantops fireplace and it's a wood fireplace Bates first concern is to preserve the evidence the closest thing that was nearby was some kindling with some small kindling so I basically cordoned off each blood dropping or footprint that I could find in hopes that later they could be analyzed the Hanover police is a small town department they have limited resources they'll need all the help they can get if they're going to solve this terrifying and puzzling crime because of the size of the Hanover PD the major crimes unit of the New Hampshire State Police comes in to investigate the murder we're one of the few departments that have a full-time homicide unit Sergeant Mark mudgett is the lead investigator with a major crimes unit of the New Hampshire State Police we have probably a lot more experience than a lot of the local departments and being able to handle investigations of this magnitude all right guys here's the investigators analyze the study the primary crime scene as you look at the crime scene if you're patient enough and you're willing to to look stop and listen and take in all that information that positioning of the bodies the physical evidence located inside that room if you listen that body will speak to you it will tell you what happened it will give you Clues as to how it happened it will tell you potentially who may have committed this particular crime Suzanne zantop's body was lying near the door of the study her husband's body was further in the room an upturned chair was at his feet and two other chairs were set up near the desk it looked like a conversation had taken place in the room [Music] near the two chairs police make a startling discovery started a process the inside of the study area we immediately came across two black tactical style knife sheets these knife sheaths were approximately 9 to 10 inches in length they both of them were identical police assume the missing knives were used to kill the sand tops they could be the murder weapons and two murder weapons could mean two killers in the living room they followed the blood trail leading from the study to the front door Tom Pfeiffer is the director of the New Hampshire State Police forensic Laboratory he is relieved to see that the blood evidence has been carefully preserved highly unusual and actually some of the best part of preserving the crime scene that could have occurred this eliminated people entering the crime scene from actually stepping and obliterating or contaminating the Footwear impression evidence Sergeant mudgett notes that the front door is unlocked there is no sign of forced entry into the house right now all the investigators have are a few answers in a growing list of questions they invite the perpetrator or perpetrators into this or the questions that continue to go through your mind are is this somebody that's known to the the xanthops near the fireplace pifer finds the bloody boot print I wanted to enhance those impressions for better comparison purposes I processed those with their blood enhancement reagent referred to as leukoc Crystal violet or LCD upon application of the lcv the impression was further enhanced to the point where it was going to be able to use the identification purposes once a suspect is in custody the boot print could be important evidence for prosecutors [Music] in 2001 Mike Delaney was the Assistant Attorney General for the homicide unit of the New Hampshire Attorney General's office death has discovered there's an immediate notification to prosecutors who are immediately dispatched to the scene to help the investigators with the case in this case our victims were loved and esteemed professors from an Ivy League college campus and that made this case very unique it was clear that the level of violence that had been inflicted on the zon tops was over and above anything that was necessary for the purpose of of carrying out a crime including a potential killing in that regard it had the Hallmarks of a crime of passion of somebody that acted out with a level of violence that was personal in nature in addition to the unlocked door the extreme violence of the murders it appears to be what investigators call Overkill is more evidence that the zantops might have known their killers if the killers knew their victims then police are looking for someone who hated the zantops enough to brutally stab them to death [Music] whoever committed this crime is a cold-blooded killer and must be stopped but police must find them first to do that they need a motive something to explain this heinous crime in Aetna Vermont two prominent professors are murdered stabbed to death in their own home investigators suspect whoever killed the zantops will try to leave town as soon as possible they checked the local airport the bus station and finally a local cab company how about that right there according to the dispatcher one of the drivers picked up a local college student the night of January 27th was late after midnight the student was going to Manchester Airport [Music] investigators quickly established the student flew home due to a family emergency there's no other leads they assume the killers either left town by car or are still somewhere in the area by morning the double homicide is Headline News the zantops were prominent citizens according to the medical examiner's office wounds on the zantop's body are consistent with a tactical combat knife Mark mudgett is assistant commander of the major crime unit for the New Hampshire State Police based on the injuries that we found on health and Susanna at the time of autopsy they had both sustained numerous stab wounds Susanna had been stabbed 11 times and health had been stabbed ten times in various portions of their body their throats had been cut stabbing is is a very personal crime it's not something that you can accomplish at a distance of 12 13 14 feet like you can with a firearm a stabbing is something that's a very personal crime you have to get up close to the individual to be able to affect the damage that the offender wants to affect on these people once again the evidence suggests the zantops knew their killers the knife sheaths are now investigators best clue to finding them Tom Pfeiffer is the director of the New Hampshire State Police forensic lab there were fingerprints developed on the back of one of the ninth she's left in the zantob study we then searched those fingerprints through the fingerprint identification system in our Laboratory investigators searched the NCIS database comparing fingerprints found on the knife sheaths to a database containing the Fingerprints of known offenders they can't find a match the fact that we did not receive a match back from the fingerprint search leads us to several different conclusions one the person is not in the database which means they haven't been arrested two the fingerprints were such a quality that was not able to make a match with a computer or three the person could have been arrested however the fingerprints for some reason or another did not make it into the database police turned to their next best clue a bloody boot print found at the scene we had to collect all the Footwear evidence from everyone that entered the scene there were about 14 pairs of Footwear of personnel that had been into the crime scene we collected all those pieces of Footwear from the neighbors to the EMTs to the medical examiner to our own Attorney General's office the forensics lab is able to eliminate all 14 pairs of Footwear Piper suspects the boot print belongs to one of the killers I scanned a photograph of this particular Footwear impression at the crime scene email that image down to the FBI laboratory in their Footwear section ask them to do a search of their database that contains thousands of outsole pattern designs the FBI lab tells pifer that the Footwear impression was made by an upscale brand of hiking boots it's a good clue but until investigators have a suspect it's meaningless there's an awful lot of information that has to be processed once you take part in processing the crime scene and the physical evidence that's just one aspect of this investigation or any investigation and now you have to start seeking out persons for information in this case that was quite a challenge everyone knew huff and Susanna is on top they had extensive faculty connections they had hundreds of students that were in classes with them investigators head to the college where the zantops worked to learn all they can about their victims us today so realistically our investigation just blew up in 360 Degrees you had to just start putting your feelers out you had to start generating leads you had to start interviewing a lot of people on campus off campus relatives neighbors notifications with anyone during the course of the interviews that we were doing on campus we generated A Person of Interest Who was a student of Health Zant tops can you tell me what that was about no according to a student half sand top argued with one of his students just days before he was murdered police question the student was reported to us that he had a extensive knife collection when we conducted the actual interview with the individual we also noted that he had sustained a recent abrasion to his head so we were hoping that we were you know onto something the student voluntarily submits to questioning he tells police he'd been friendly with half Zant top ever since he took the professor's earth science class explains he was just joking around with professor zanton investigators look into the student's background but he has a solid Alibi on the day of the murders he could not have killed the sand tops police also investigate the zantops relationships with their colleagues popular professors on the campus on campus they learned that half zantop had recently been given a position instead of another professor [Music] we had to travel out to where the gentleman lived in the western part of the United States to interview him because he had come and gone from the Hanover area out about the time that the homicide had occurred or shortly thereafter professor's Carr is impounded there appear to be blood stains in the trunk analysis reveals that the stains are not blood according to the owner of the vehicle they were made by stew that spilled in the trunk while investigators follow every lead two detectives work to try and find the murder weapons they visit retail stores in the area that specialize in knives the scabbards that we had the knife sheets that we had were produced for one type of Blade one type of knife the blade itself is is really a paramilitary or a tactical type of tool our Armed Forces use them a lot of police agencies utilize them this is not something that is a tool that's going to be used by the average hiker or the average individual six days after the killings the knife manufacturer supplies New Hampshire authorities with a list of all authorized retailers and distributors in the country broken down by state in addition there are hundreds of dealers Nationwide that sell the knives on the internet based on the research we did with the manufacturer we were able to determine that we were going to have to track down approximately 5 000 blades and knives scabbards that were produced and distributed worldwide we didn't have a considerable amount of manpower to be able to do that it's it's Unique the investigators need help and call in the FBI it seems like these people at the time Brian fitzell was a special agent assigned to the Bedford New Hampshire resident agency of the FBI just give me the FBI off they knew that it would Encompass different states and even International because of the nationality of the Zant tops so they they knew that they'd be reaching well outside of the New Hampshire borders and wanted us to be able to help with those kind of leads along with state and local police the FBI joins the Hanover task force it's news and consistently the state police the Attorney General was asking anyone with information please call and the volume of leads that were coming in were tremendous you know phone calls people calling in with the information the FBI deploys rapid start computer system it is a database designed to track hundreds or even thousands of leads in any type of investigation you need to keep your peripheral vision open you don't want to miss anything if you're too quick to focus in on one area you start to disregard other telltale signs or other signs that you may or may not be on the right track as investigators struggle to make sense of their case all over the country media coverage of the case explodes for law enforcement the pressure is on to find a pair of brutal killers in New Hampshire two ivy league professors have been brutally murdered in their own home [Music] investigators review the evidence again but again it's sloppy they're trying to determine if the zantops were targeted doesn't appear that they were a knife is too clumsy a murder weapon for an assassination also The Killers made amateurish mistakes if the murder had been planned why would they leave behind the knife sheaths a footprint and even a fingerprint ironically despite the evidence found at the scene they're beginning to question whether the zantops had any connection to their killers at all supervisory special agent Brian fitzell it was looking as this progressed more and more that it was not an acquaintance that committed these acts investigators can also rule out robbery according to the initial investigation nothing was taken from the house a murder scene that didn't match a lot of the known or the experience that most of these investigators had worked many homicides it didn't fit into their normal model it wasn't apparent that there was any motive other than the killing itself it was as if these people were killed and the culprits ran right out the door agents contact the FBI's critical incident Response Group in Quantico Virginia investigators want to understand how these killers minds work they turned to the profilers they all actually see hundreds of homicide cases during the year and so they actually develop an expertise and they can see patterns because they see so many cases supervisory special agent Jim Fitzgerald is a criminal investigative analyst a profiler he finds the case unusual we have uh two low-risk victims who are killed in their own house in broad daylight on a Saturday nonetheless when other people ostensibly in the neighborhood are home Fitzgerald notes that the position of the chairs makes it appear as if an impromptu conference was going on prior to the murders who was agreed upon with the investigators in the room and and myself that it looks like there may have been at least several minutes in which there was some sort of conversation between um and one or both of the offenders it seems that the offender or offender as we were leaning towards two offenders at this point were Mission oriented in that when they came into the house their purpose was To Kill Mr Mrs zantov the murder weapon a pair of combat knives is particularly troubling the use of a weapon in a homicide is very significant to the your type of offender cheap Saturday night special as opposed to a a very expensive pistol with a silencer that tells you you have two different sort of offenders there and on the other end of the Continuum one even a lower end of the Continuum if someone's using a knife that tells you a lot about your offender too I've been able to determine what type of knife it actually was it's like a the fact that the killers use knives and left behind crucial evidence tells him they are either sloppy or unsophisticated investigators suspect that the zantops either knew their Killers or allowed them into the house for some unknown reason Fitzgerald is starting to get a picture of The Killers but the extreme level of violence troubles him when we're seeing a case that makes no sense for various reasons from a profiling perspective we automatically hit the default to youthfulness we just may have someone here youthful that the motivation is not about money the motivations not to get back to somebody or or even up a grudge it's they were youthful and our filtering system in our brain hasn't kicked in yet so I know let's go out and just hurt or kill someone fears he may be looking at some kids who killed just for the thrill of it man on February 9th a list of The Killers post-defensive Behavior compiled by the FBI profilers is released to the public [Music] investigators asked the public to recall if they noticed anyone exhibiting odd behavior around the time of the murders or changing their appearance missing work or having unexplained injuries or bruises on the hands or arms [Music] corals pour into the task force none of the leads pan out after two weeks of non-stop work investigators have hit a dead end nothing about this antop murder makes sense seems like a crime with Automotive with each passing day the community becomes more desperate two murderers are at large and law enforcement still has no idea why they chose the zantops and who their next victim might be in New Hampshire a task force of state and local police and FBI agents tried to determine why someone murdered two Dartmouth professors in their own home there was no discernible motive that we could come up with as to why these people would be killed supervisory special agent Jim Fitzgerald is an FBI profiler assigned to the FBI's behavioral analysis unit [Music] we were told initially that there was nothing missing from the house we found out about a week or so later that in fact something was missing from the house agents learn half sand top always carried a wallet and his wallet has never been recovered prior to us learning that the wild was missing it almost appeared like a motiveless crime now that they know one of the victims wallets is missing it changes everything he said this could be a little bit different now and this may have been a quote-unquote simple robbery gone very very bad gentlemen if the motive was indeed robbery investigators have only a handful of Clues found at the scene two unidentified fingerprints an unidentified blueprint and two empty knife sheaths the task force focuses on the knife sheaths and finding the murder weapons with royal point in an investigation where you you provide the behavioral work as much as you can and then you have to sit back and let the gumshoe work take place check this out working with a manufacturer investigators work to track down the sale of 5 000 combat knives all over the country in addition to questioning retail dealers in the area investigators research dealers who sell combat knives over the internet on February 14th they contact an internet retailer in Massachusetts supervisory special agent Brian fitzell two of the knives had been purchased by individual in Vermont within you know twelves of the crime scene Bells started going off and flags were raised that we may have a good break here purchase of two identical combat knives is an extraordinary lead investigate his follow-up immediately [Music] two knives were purchased by a man named James Parker he lives across the state line in Chelsea Vermont Mark mudgett is assistant commander of the major crime unit for the New Hampshire State Police when we made the initial contact with uh the occupants of the home we were somewhat shocked at the fact that it was purchased by a juvenile James Parker is only 16 years old yes we want to talk to you about some nights James Parker indicated that he had bought two knives at that time that he bought one for himself and one for a friend of his a gentleman by the name of Robert tullock that they had purchased the knives so they could use them while they were rock climbing oh well detectives asked Parker where the knives are now so we took him to a local Army and Navy he tells them the knives were big the boys decided they were too heavy for rock climbing and sold them at an army navy store super said that the hair on the back of his neck was standing up because when uh when he started this interview he had the feeling that this was not a legitimate story investigators asked Parker if he'd be willing to answer a few questions at the police station it's okay if I tag along it'll be fine Parker agrees to be interviewed the investigators went to interview his partner and again same story that didn't really measure up what happened to the knives um 17 year old Robert tulla corroborates Parker's story lives are too heavy for us so the knives were too heavy The Boys sold them for sixty dollars a piece to a stranger at the Army Navy store in Burlington Vermont investigators are immediately suspicious tullik's statement is not just close to Parker's it's virtually identical it's as if the two boys memorized their statements beforehand then the detective notices something chilling you noticed that the Footwear was the make a model of the hiking that we were looking at so I mean he knew very early on this was probably someone involved in this crime scene they want to take you down to headquarters he did a very good job of maintaining the interview because this was you know no arrest warrants were in hand he went out there to find out about the knives and then very quickly realized that he was dealing with one of the murderers right there Robert tullock agrees to accompany detectives to the Chelsea Sheriff's Office to be fingerprinted despite investigative suspicions without solid evidence to support an arrest warrant they are unable to detain tullock or Parker Deputy State Attorney General Mike Delaney they had no prior history with criminal activity they cooperated with the police when they arrived they voluntarily provided information and fingerprints and shoes they place a late night call to Tom Pfeiffer the director of the New Hampshire State Police forensic Laboratory I received a telephone call at 12 o'clock midnight requesting my assistance to the laboratory to do a comparison between a pair of boots that were recovered from a suspect in this case to those Impressions that were developed at the crime scene in order to obtain an arrest warrant investigators need proof that Robert tullock's boots match the bloody boot print found at the crime scene was surrounding this particular case was enormous I've never worked in a case uh in our state that had this much amount of pressure if anything it caused us to actually step back and recheck and double and triple check our work before we let anything out of this Laboratory this is your career on the line if you make one misidentification you might as well leave the world of forensics behind because you can never do another case Dr Pfeiffer Compares an impression taken from tullux boots to an impression taken at the zantop house about three o'clock in the morning a colleague in myself made a match between the Impressions left of the crime scene and the boots that were taken from the suspect the fingerprints collected from the scene matched partners we knew we were dealing with our murderers and and and the two murderers knew that as well because after the state troopers left these kids left that night they got together and fled so they gave fingerprints and Footwear and then went into fugitive mode after weeks of searching agents and police finally identify their suspects only to lose them two deadly teenage killers are now on the loose forensic evidence has implicated two teams James Parker and Robert tullock in a brutal double murder detective Eric Bates with Hannah armed with warrants police traveled to the boys homes both of them live with their parents in the small town of Chelsea Vermont when we got into Chelsea that morning and it was early in the morning we'd learned that they had both fled during the night telling each other's parents they were both going to be with the other family [Music] detective Eric Bates questions Robert tullock's parents they have no idea where their son is it was difficult to deal with the parents of these killers knowing the information that we had you learned that the family members were good people and that unfortunately their children had become murdered murder [Music] in Telex bedroom investigators make a crucial discovery inside a cardboard box they find two combat knives oh good in their statements Parker and tulla claimed they sold the knives to a stranger investigators have found the murder weapons Mike Delaney is a deputy attorney general working with the homicide unit once we had the knives in the bedroom it was pretty clear what we were dealing with in at that point I think everyone had solidified the opinions that they in fact were involved directly in committing these crimes this is where we are the problem is the Hanover the case transformed once Parker and telek had fled they had shifted gears basically from an investigative trying to ferret out who had caused this now to an actual Pursuit the momentum increased the intensity increased but it gave us a great deal of satisfaction that we were able to identify who the perpetrators were in this crime Ebola or be on the lookout is issued for two teenage boys driving a silver 1987 Audi they are wanted for questioning in connection with the Zant top murders you never know what's inside the mind of a person what they're actually going to do when confronted but certainly from a law enforcement perspective and for the general Public's sake you have to assume the worst in that regard and we did [Music] Axiom by which we live in the profiling business is that past behavior is the best predictor of future Behavior so by all means these two were considered armed and dangerous and uh all the relevant agencies and states that were contacted uh were told that you know be very careful when confronting these two because they've killed already Parker intellig's pictures appear in newspapers and on television throughout the country [Music] all right the FBI issued the ufap the unlawful flight to avoid prosecution to help us in our fugitive investigation what that allows is the FBI can turn up a lot of resources on a new Fab in Massachusetts a State Trooper finds an abandoned car at a truck stop it is a silver 1987 Audi the trooper calls in the license plates within minutes he knows that the car belongs to James Parker [Music] agents Converge on the truck stop an employee remembers seeing two clean-cut teenage boys asking truckers for a ride to California according to the truckstop employee one of the boys had dark hair he wore its spite the other boy was blonde they call themselves salmon Tyler yeah that's cool we were able to effectively narrow the time of our trail to the original weaving of the vehicle in Sturbridge Massachusetts rest area in Sturbridge the two boys hitched a ride with a husband and wife Trucking team they dropped the boys off at another rest stop let's determine what type of truck they left in from there based on those aggressive application FBI resources immediately sending people to these rest areas the FBI moves fast they notify trucking companies and dispatchers that the two teenage boys are wanted they are believed to be armed and dangerous authorities learn the two teenage boys might have been spotted at a truck stop in Columbia New Jersey according to Witnesses they hitched a ride with another trucker we were narrowing the chase because as our information was getting better it was cleared us where we thought they were heading agents notify police all over the region that the fugitives seem to be heading west February 19th 4 AM three weeks after the double homicide the sheriff in Newcastle Indiana listens to the chatter on his CB radio he hears a trucker ask if somebody can give a ride to two boys from New Jersey they want to go to California [Music] he does not reveal he is a police officer and quickly tells the trucker he'd be happy to give the boys a ride strucks the trucker to drop them off at a nearby truck stop the officer speeds to intercept them according to the bolo the suspects are armed and dangerous along the way he calls for backup he may have found the killers in Indiana a sheriff attempts to trap two teenage fugitives at a truck stop 16-year-old James Parker and seventeen-year-old Robert tullock are both wanted for the brutal slaying of two prominent professors [Music] at the truck stop the officer asks the two boys for their names what's your name Jay Jones Tyler J Jones with the J stand for Jeffrey Tyler Jason Jones Jeffrey Jeffrey where are you from Casino hold on a second to you you heard that [Music] says he takes Parker and telik into custody [Music] cooperation and future testimonial James Parker was brought back to the state of New Hampshire along with Robert tulloch adult certification hearing was commenced against James Parker and he was ultimately deemed to stand trial as an adult for the murders of health and Susanna zantop steal some money once he was certified as an adult James Parker's attorneys approached the state of New Hampshire in wanting him to offer testimony against Robert tulloch James Parker ended up cooperating with law enforcement and was interviewed extensively by the New Hampshire State Police and the Attorney General's office [Music] James Parker pleads guilty to A reduced charge accomplished a second-degree murder [Music] in exchange he agrees to testify against his best friend he tells police the chilling tale of what happened on the day the zantops were murdered materializes the fact that these two guys were bored with their life in Vermont that they envisioned going to Australia or some far-off place they originally decided that they were going to rob somebody and take their ATM card or something to that effect take ten thousand dollars and fly to Australia hey um I've got a question came up with the idea of knocking on somebody's door and saying that they had car trouble can we come in to use your phone and when I don't think so they tried this in Vermont the person felt uh very strongly that these two were up to no good and slammed the door in their face and said get off my property it's very close to being a victim of that well when there are pretext for a broken car didn't meet with good results they changed it to students conducting a survey for their school um so they showed up at the Santa's house totally at random and unfortunately the fact that Hoff and Susanna were College professors LED them to be very open and trusting of students and invite them into their home thank you [Music] and then the office environment and where Hoff was murdered it was clear that he was sitting at his desk conversing with these two students who were writing their pretend notes and interviewing him and you know and then the signal was given to uh to murder on Cold Blood right in his office Suzanne and half Zan top were teachers wife they believed in helping students okay well how long have you been married and what do you do tragically their dedication led to their deaths at the hands of two teenagers who agents suspect may have killed simply for the thrill of it their goal was to commit a violent act and and the xantopsis happen to be in the wrong place in the wrong time in their own home and how unfortunate is that perpetrators were interviewed after the fact one of them made the admission that realize that they had left the sheets and had given thought about coming back to the house to retrieve them and I believe that they said when they went past the house with that in mind the police presence was already there [Music] investigators are searching for some way to explain why tullock and Parker murdered the zantops so brutally [Music] FBI profiler James Fitzgerald sees this type of random violence as part of a terrifying trend we live in a different society today even in our youthful culture they're constantly exposed to violence and I believe Parker and tulloch fit right into that that category the motivations not to get back to somebody or even up a grudge so I know let's go out and just hurt or kill someone and we're seeing more and more on that unfortunately [Music] we spent considerable amount of time within several days as he went through how he and Robert tulloch had concocted and eventually perpetrated this crime he showed no signs of emotion no signs of remorse for what he had done stabbed the Zant tops [Music] they were from more or less a middle class environment low Prime area did not have some of the pitfalls that maybe others may be forced to experience and and in lesser environments but nonetheless there was a dysfunctionality about them and when their chemistry was mixed um a violent outcome was apparently inevitable investigators will never know what it was about the two boys in their chemistry that triggered such rage in April 2002 James Parker is convicted of second-degree murder he is sentenced to 25 years in prison Robert tullock is convicted of first-degree murder he is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole deadly the residents of a small Georgia town police in the FBI begin a desperate search to find the Killer struggle to make sense of the evidence as the body count climbs all in an attempt to stop this murderer before he puts his next victim [Music] [Applause] [Music] in Georgia a series of bizarre shootings terrorize the small town two people were killed two others were critically wounded at first the shooting seemed targeted then they seem random I'm Jim calstrom Farm ahead of the FBI's New York office as the body count climbed the killer taunted law enforcement with mysterious notes agents believe the shooter would continue to kill until I was dead or behind bars East Point Georgia is just seven miles south of Atlanta it's a quiet city with a population of forty thousand East Point averages six to eight homicides a year March 1st 2001 A man is concerned about his mother he arrives at her house to see if she's okay he normally speaks to his mother by phone every day but this day she did not answer his calls then he sees signs of Foul Play that lead to his mother's car he makes a horrific discovery minutes later East Point Police and Lieutenant Russell Popham begin a homicide investigation we discover the victim was a female that had been shot and she was dead of multiple gunshot wounds we did notice that she had been there for about 24 hours police can already rule out one reason why the victim was murdered it's always in any kind of crime you try to figure out the motive but obviously her car was still there as well as her pocketbook so we didn't think at the time that robbery was a motive detectives identify the victim as Pamela Clark they also find a badge the victim was a probation officer with the state of Georgia she worked for the Department of Corrections and she supervised probationers since they have limited investigative resources East Point Police requests the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to assist at the crime scene FBI special agent Pete McFarland is on a task force that assists local police departments with forensic analysis [Music] a lot of local police departments did not have the equipment such as Luma lights we actually process vehicles for latent fingerprints we process items that we pick up for latent fingerprints agent McFarland finds signs Pamela Clark was shot at almost point-blank range as you can see where the person had shot right through the window and glass had actually impaled the victim's face so it was very close I guess you could say it was an execution the killer was both brutal and careful East Point Police detective Bobby gray finds no bullet shell casings at the scene despite multiple shots being fired no showcasings could mean that there was a revolver until we know differently we're going to assume either the person picked him up or he was using the revolver police believe the killer premeditated the murder because of the lack of evidence no fingerprints left at the scene it was a very sterile scene detectives want to know who would want Pamela Clark dead for answers they turned to the victim's son he spoke to his mother every day but she seemed happy and never mentioned trouble with anyone including her probationers to investigate as it seems that the fatal shooting was a random attack that night detectives go door to door throughout the neighborhood they're searching for anyone who saw anything suspicious in the last 24 hours they find only one witness [Music] the previous night she heard noises that could have been gunshots then she saw someone calmly walking away the witness said she saw a black male about six foot tall she's looking at a distance from about 40 yards so she can only tell that he had a low haircut and he was about six foot tall of average build there was not much light that's all she could come up with unfortunately the witness is unsure she'd recognize the man if she saw him again there are three bullet wounds the medical examiner confirms several findings investigators made at the crime scene Pamela Clark was murdered 24 hours before her body was discovered [Music] the medical examiner identifies four bullet wounds three to the left side of the Torso and one near the right armpit area the tight grouping of the three wounds is consistent with police theories that the killer shot the victim at close range [Music] police get their first clues about the murder weapon when the medical examiner removes three 40 caliber bullets from the body although three bullets are recovered the victim had four gunshot wounds investigators recover the fourth Bullet From the passenger seat of the victim's car it's also 40 caliber agents find the vehicle unusually cluttered with junk mail bills and other letters foreign the victim's son said his mother usually sorted her mail in the car after she picked it up from her mailbox agents also note a few other items I thought she may have had some children in the car because there were some rappers also in the vehicle based on the evidence recovered from the car the autopsy and witness interviews detectives put together a murder scenario that paints a picture of a ruthless calculating assailant [Music] investigators suspect the killer was lying in wait as Pamela Clark arrived home on the evening of February 28 2001 at about 7 30 pm it seems he was familiar with his victim's routine as she arrived home from work there he'd have a captive Target as she sorted her mail detectives believe the killer either picked up all the 40 caliber shell casings or had some other way of containing them as he fired then he left Pamela Clark to die police have a theory on how the victim was murdered but they have no suspects and a killer on the loose we have an extreme who done it we have bullets we have a car and we have a body and that's about all we have with so little to go on it will be difficult to find Justice for the murdered probation officer East Point Georgia police and the FBI have a killer on the loose a killer who murdered probation officer Pamela Clark they have no leads and no suspects they only know the killer approached her while she sat in her car then shot her four times at close range with a 40 caliber handgun [Music] investigators like East Point Police Lieutenant Russell Popham try to understand why someone would want Pamela Clark dead there's an old saying that if you can establish the motive you can solve the crime where you immediately went to work on her immediate family her contacts as well as her job as a state probation officer the victim's son said she never mentioned having any enemies [Music] packed his focus on the victim's job as a probation officer where she worked with dangerous criminals on a daily basis the probation officer has the power to send a violent criminal back to jail [Music] police search the victim's office to examine her case files I had a typical caseload of anywhere from 70 to 100 probationers [Music] so we looked to see if there was anybody on her probation list that maybe she was about to try and revoke the probation this took about 15 days to to go through the list detectives question each of Pamela Clark's probationers to find out where they were on the night she was killed I'd like to talk to you how about you for me Miss Clark she's your probation officer yeah you know what happened here most of them are saddened to hear of her murder yes where were you the night she was murdered he's like he's like a mom doing everything I mean what we found on interviewing her probationers is that she was a well-liked person a very fair person almost a mother figure we heard that from several people that had committed some violent crimes and uh they they actually liked her as a probation officer I'm not leaving town but I'm going to be back and talk with you some more okay all right no problem all right but as police scour hundreds of Case Files they discover a probation or who had both a motive to kill Officer Clark and the opportunity to study her habits we were able to find one person that she was potentially going to revoke her or ask for his probation to be revoked because he had failed a drug test and this person actually lived in her neighborhood the probationer's name is Thomas Moulton detectives put a mug shot of molten into a photo lineup they show it to the witness who saw a man walking away from the crime scene on the night of the murder the witness identifies Thomas Moulton as the man she saw with a positive ID it seems investigators may have an open and shut case [Music] March 15 2001. two weeks after Pamela Clark was gunned down police have an arrest and search warrant for Moulton oh what did I do what's wrong what's going on man during their search of Moulton's house investigators uncover a jacket like the one the witness saw in the night of the murder [Music] police also make a disturbing find he had a box of nine millimeter bullets in his room and uh we knew however that the bullets used were 40 caliber but again this showed that this probationer had had bullets when he shouldn't have we were alarmed at this we still had a lot of work to do to prove or disprove that this person did it Thomas Moulton submits to a polygraph test and agrees to be questioned without a lawyer present did you kill Pamela Clark no under questioning Moulton denies any involvement in Pamela Clark's murder he claims to have respected her even though her probation report would send him back to prison did you have anything to do with Oscar Clark's murder no I wouldn't hurt her I liked her she was good to me he explains that the bullets found in his apartment were for a Smith and Wesson nine millimeter pistol the weapon was stolen six months earlier did you ever use the path in officer Clark's backyard yes but everybody used that pad when investigators press Moulton for an alibi he claims he can't remember where he was on the night of Pamela Clark's murder Ed 2001. no have you been truthful in all your responses during this interview yes throughout the interview the polygraph analyst detects no evidence of deception by Multan I tell you police later examined Moulton's telephone records they discover Moulton was on the phone talking to his girlfriend during the time Pamela Clark was murdered detectives clear Moulton is a suspect they've hit a dead end in their investigation the Killer is still on the loose and free to strike again April 8 2001 over a month after Pamela Clark was murdered it's an unusually warm spring evening in East Point was a night in the low 70s at the time so a lot of people were enjoyed really were enjoying the first uh a few days of spring that with their doors open their windows open a few miles from Pamela Clark's Home a retiree named Chuck boiler here's someone approach the bullet shatters the man's arm and rips into his chest he tries to fight back but he's rapidly losing blood the gunman lingers [Music] then disappears Into the Night this point police Lieutenant Russell Popham tries to get a description of the assailant but it's no use [Music] you couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman the race of the person or anything and we asked him well who would have did this to you did they ask for anything did they try to rob you or anything like that and he said no I just went to the door and I was shot through the door detectives find evidence confirming the victim was shot at almost point-blank range we could actually see the gunpowder residue around the screen so we knew again this was up close and personal so it appeared that he was targeted police recover a shell casing we got a shell casing over here it's 40 caliber then detectives find an unusual clue deliberately left behind by the shooter it's an ominous note that reads I was locked up for six weeks someone must pay the reverse side of the note is signed in yellow highlighter the gunman calls himself Jack as East Point Police try to make sense of the note they have no idea that more violence is being Unleashed just a few miles away less than an hour after Chuck boiler was shot Point Police will have a new murder on their hands in the spring of 2001 police in East Point Georgia are investigating the murder of probation officer Pamela Clark they have no suspects over a month later a gunman shoots Chuck boiler Point Blank shattering his arm police find a note left by the shooter in which he calls himself Jack less than an hour after Chuck boiler was shot a man approaches another house in East Point the man isn't a shooter he's a victim East Point Emergency Services raced to their second shooting of the night police learned the victim's name is Andrew Wilson a janitor at a local hospital few hours Wilson will die from gunshot wounds to his back police need to know what happened they find answers down the street [Laughter] a car Idols with no one inside police run the registration and learn the vehicle belongs to the victim investigators find bullet holes in the vehicle that indicate Wilson was shot in his car as he pulled up to the intersection the Fatal bullet likely passed through the driver's side rear window through the back of the driver's side seat and into the victim's back after Wilson was shot detectives believe he got out of his car and desperately searched the neighborhood for help police recover five shell casings from the scene they're all 40 caliber just like the casing recovered an hour earlier in front of Chuck boiler's house but the fact that 40 caliber weapons were used in both crimes does not necessarily link the two shootings Mary murder weapon that's used around here is a nine millimeter and it's the 40 caliber has gotten more popular we see a lot of 40 caliber crime scenes then police find undeniable evidence the two shootings are related the city of East Point has a Serial shooter on the loose he calls himself Jack Point Police canvassed the neighborhood for Witnesses they find a woman who saw a black male loitering in the area before the shooting she saw that this man standing there and he was pacing back and forth and she watched him for 10 or 15 minutes and she said this is not right the witness phoned police to report the man yes I'm not using brown yes um well there's a man out here I've never seen my neighborhood scary and when she went back to the window she saw a car approach the intersection foreign [Music] she never saw the man's face but she got a good look at his vehicle she sees a late model American car she was very adamant in detail about it that was one thing that we really believed her on that she knew what type of car it was the witness was unable to see the car's license plate number you've done good if you think of anything anything else comes to mind okay would you would you please give me a call okay [Music] in a single night Jack has murdered one man and seriously wounded another [Music] police now have two bodies on their hands and every reason to expect there will be more the city of East Point Georgia has a Serial shooter on the loose [Music] single night the gunman wounded one man and killed another investigators found notes left by the shooter at both crime scenes they were signed in yellow highlighter Jack Point Police and detective Bobby gray fear the shooter will strike again the frustrating thing about this investigation is we didn't know who we didn't know why and we didn't know who would be next four days later on April 12 2001 a shadowy figure approaches another house in East Point a woman is unaware she's a Target she doesn't hear the shot the TV is her only clue something is wrong then she spots a bullet hole and calls 9-1-1 [Laughter] East Point Police respond to the latest shooting detectives believe the shooter targeted the woman and hit the TV by mistake she's lucky to be alive [Music] that's all I can remember I'm sure if it wasn't for the TV being in front of the window the person watching the TV would have been dead the bullet went through the window went through the screen went through the back of the TV and fortunately it lodged inside the TV investigators uncover a chilling note that supports their Theory and threatens many more victims it reads better count your body bags we knew that this person wasn't going to stop we're going to have more victims it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when and how many police have no doubt as to who did the shooting the killer who calls himself Jack [Music] hours later crime scene technicians recover a bullet from the woman's TV set it's 40 caliber consistent with Jack's MO East Point detectives need to stop Jack before he makes good on his threat to fill body bags with more victims the appeal to other police agencies and the FBI for help FBI special agent Pete McFarland examines the evidence he recognizes the notes he found one when he processed the car of murdered probation officer Pamela Clark at first he thought the note was just a child scribbling but now it ties Pamela Clark's murder to the shooting spree this is it I knew I'd seen it Eureka if that's the word you want to use Eureka there's a connect here when you started connecting all of them together it's very similar handwriting or block writing all done with a highlighter it was almost like this person was trying to say that well I'm a serial killer I'm out there shooting people just for no reason at all similarities between the notes point to a killer that is methodical calculated and consistent Jack wrote each note on a half a sheet of standard white paper Jack tore each note by hand resulting in ragged edges and Jack signed each note with either an orange or a yellow highlighter detectives believe one note contains a possible motive I was locked up for six weeks for nothing someone must have had it so investigators scour records for anyone recently jailed for that period of time named Jack they find no viable suspects Jack and his true motive remain a mystery we as investigators had four crime scenes and uh but we had nothing we had no suspects we had nobody police examined the victim's backgrounds searching for any link between them that could show a pattern in the shootings we even went us to Forest to the individuals do they have their oil changed at the same place you know their their car their Automotive work was it done at the same place uh things like that I mean we looked into every possible Avenue of to connect them to disprove that it was random the only link police find is that all the victims live within the borders of the same city everything was centered in East Point as opposed to the shooter going to College Park which is right next door to East Point or even back to Atlanta or the hate Phil or some other jurisdiction in close proximity to East Point everything was centered right in East Point detectives know that when the killer strikes again it will be an East Point anyone within City Limits could be a Target police take unprecedented measures to warn the public they use a computer system to dial every phone number in East Point anyone who picks up the phone hears a message warning about a killer on the loose the taped message tells the public to call police if they see anything even slightly suspicious it puts the entire city on edge [Music] East Point Police work around the clock canceling leave and beefing up patrols to catch Jack before he strikes again but they're up against a gunman who kills it a time and place of his choosing we felt helpless we're here to protect the citizens of East Point and we're here to help and unfortunately you don't know when the next shooting is going to happen you don't know who's going to be the victim you don't know why they're going to be a victim investigators fear they're playing a grim waiting game with Jack I can remember a veteran uh FBI agent that had worked on some serial murder cases serial rapist cases and he said I'll never forget this he said you're probably just going to have to sit back and wait for another one to happen and that's not really what you want to hear 12 days later on April 24 2001 the wait is over at 1 30 a.m Rosa Lewis pulls up to her East Point apartment she's Jax fifth victim East Point Georgia April 24 2001 at 1 30 A.M Rosa Lewis has been shot in her car as she pulled up to her apartment is the latest victim in a series of random shootings that have left two people dead fights to avoid becoming the third murder victim despite four bullets that have ripped into the left side of her torso a roommate calls 9-1-1 as Rosa Lewis loses consciousness Point Police the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI speed to the scene East Point Police Lieutenant Russell Popham can't get any answers from the victim not now maybe never what we were told was that she was not going to live we were told that she was that critical her blood pressure was already dropping that she wasn't a lip investigate his turn to the physical evidence left behind once again they find 40 caliber shell casings four of them actives know the killer who calls himself Jack used a 40 caliber weapon in all four of his previous shootings agents find another clue on the roof of a car that the shooter used to study his aim but you could see the uh where he actually reached across the roof and it was laying across the roof of this vehicle shooting into the vehicle you could see the the V shape of the of the muzzle blast on the car itself the connection is this is so close it's so close that this person could not miss it's not like shooting from 25 feet 50 yards away this person got right up into the victim's face and was shooting that person police search for Jack's signature clue we immediately begin to look for a note uh we had the 40 caliber casing so we immediately began to look for a note we could not find a note uh in the darkness we could find a note and it was uh it wasn't a windy night so we didn't think the node had blown away but we couldn't find it although no note is recovered police find similarities between the Rosa Lewis shooting and the murder of probation officer Pamela Clark both women were gunned down in their cars with multiple shots fired through the driver's side window at close range then detectives uncover a shocking clue that changes the entire investigation Rosa Lewis was a probation officer just like Pamela Clark they knew each other they worked in the same office together this is too coincidental detectives no longer believe the shootings are random somehow the Rosa Lewis and Pamela Clark shootings are related police interview Rosa Lewis's roommate and learned Rosa moved into the apartment two months ago after a recent divorce but she described the relationship to us as an amicable divorce she even said that the victim's ex-husband had actually helped her move in there was no reason to believe that he had a motivation to want to kill her agents and detectives go door to door searching for any witnesses to the shooting now we did find one lady who actually lives on a street behind the apartment complex who said she heard the shot um she looked out her window and she saw a car leaving that area and she described it as a blue car and she gave us that it was similar to a particular make of a car so we had now a car the kind of car we're possibly looking for the making model we just weren't certain what the tag that the number was on the vehicle the witness never saw the Killer's face again police are left with only a vehicle description later that morning police notify Rosa Lewis's family about the shooting including her ex-husband William Lewis we knock on the door and nobody answers now we knock a few more times and we're about to leave and as we turn around to walk to our car a car pulls in the first thing that we notice is that this car that pulled in was very similar if not the same kind of car that was described leaving the shooting the man driving the car is William Lewis detectives break the tragic news to him multiple times when we told him that his ex-wife had been shot multiple times and may die and he wasn't shocked he didn't ask how is she doing he didn't say I have to get to her he didn't say what are you doing to get this person it's almost as if we had notified him that uh something that was not really that significant detectives asked to search Lewis's car he consents and says the vehicle is a rental hours after the shooting police could expect to find a weapon bullets or a note signed in yellow highlighter if William Lewis is Jack but they find nothing it's clean investigators then ask Lewis for consent to search his house he agrees the living room is clean but it's only one of many rooms such a bedroom back there yeah in the bedroom police find items that would be common in any home office but in this case they have a chilling significance as I was standing in the bedroom and looked over at his dresser and on his dresser were several highlight markers it was the same colors of the notes that we had had before [Music] I mean just need to go in and ask a few more questions is that okay the discovery prompts detectives to ask Lewis to come downtown for questioning degrees I think he wanted to be as Cooperative as he could he wanted to convince us that he was not the person police have no way of knowing if they just put jack in their car or if it's another dead end probation officer Rosa Lewis lies in a coma after being shot four times in the chest police believe she's the fifth victim of a serial shooter who calls himself Jack detectives find circumstantial evidence that points to the victim's ex-husband William Lewis but they still have no idea why he went by the name Jack or what prompted his shooting spree while Lewis is transported to the police station for questioning other investigators are dispatched to the probation office where his ex-wife Rosa Lewis worked they search her desk for Clues it's the same office in which the first victim of the shooting spree Pamela Clark worked the women were close friends investigators find evidence that Rosa Lewis feared for her life weeks before she was shot she wrote a letter and placed it in her desk said if anything happened to her it was her ex-husband who was responsible from the letter East Point Police detective Bobby gray learns William Lewis made threats to stop Rosa from divorcing him he would tell her things like I know people I know people who can do things to you I know how to get rid of you and he would say things like I will blow your head off in her letter Rosa Lewis also implicates her ex-husband in the murder of Pamela Clark Pamela helped Rosa through the divorce and recommended a divorce lawyer it made William Lewis Furious and in his mind if she had not talked his wife into leaving him his wife would still be with him he was so mad at her that that was going to be the first person that he would lash out at Pamela was murdered the night before Rosa left her husband for good during questioning detectives confront William Lewis with the note found in Rose's desk my ex-husband has been acting extremely irrational many people have cautioned me to be careful and we actually read the letter to him in the interview and asked him about these threats that he was making and he told us that those are just empty so those are empty threats those are empty threats there's nothing to that they're empty that's all empty [Music] just words that's all it was man you ever grabbed your wife no you ever hit her no you ever beat her no they asked William Lewis more about his relationship with his wife they learned the couple's wedding anniversary is April 8th the same day Chuck boiler was shot and Andrew Wilson was murdered what we've theorized is he uh had probably sitting at home all day on Sunday as his wedding anniversary he wanted his wife and we think he became angry and just went out and shot two random victims explain these two detectives review Lewis's credit card records and learn he rented a car on April 8. the same day that the murder took place same car that was seen at the murder scene and tell me about that but that's a coincidence the car matches the description of the vehicle a witness saw leaving the Andrew Wilson murder scene according to him he liked to rent a lot of cars we can link him to two cars that he rented and the two cars that he rented were both seen leaving shootings and that was very important me during the grueling three-hour interrogation Lewis remains deceptive and evasive in his answers he makes up stories about probationers who wanted to kill his ex-wife investigators see through the smoke screen make any statement at all it was about five o'clock that day that we placed him under arrest for for shooting his wife [Music] but Rosa Lewis was only one of five people targeted by the shooter known as Jack if William Lewis is Jack police still have to prove it we had to connect him back to these other these other incidents we had a lot of circumstantial evidence but we didn't feel at that time we had nowhere near enough to convict him the good news is we get one Survivor because he's recovering FBI special agent Pete McFarland believes one way to link Lewis to the other shootings is through shell casings and bullets no showcasing here [Music] the lab said all the bullets from the previous crime scenes came from the same weapon the bullets that shot Miss Louis came from the same weapon East Point Police Lieutenant Russell Popham knows locating the murder weapon will prove their case we have one Survivor to this day we have never found the firearm we executed eight search warrants looking for this firearm and we have never found the firearm coming up it's got to be something on the highlighters at least seized the highlighters found in William Lewis's bedroom he left his on every crime scene come tell us something leads us to the marshes yeah well there's just your everyday ordinary highlighter I found him in Lewis's bedroom it's just but they are a popular brand even if the ink matches the notes the shooter left behind a jury could still have reasonable doubts wait one second here um the notes themselves might however contain forensic evidence [Music] crime scene technicians dust the notes for fingerprints and find only unreadable smudges find some of the smudges along the torn edges were not made by fingers but by human lips we believe what happened was that this person had licked the piece of paper and tore tore it off moistened the paper basically and left his lip prints with the paper moistened it would be easier for the shooter to tear it along the fold the shooter avoided leaving his fingerprints on the notes but technicians find traces of saliva saliva that contains DNA investigators compared DNA taken from the notes with a sample taken from William Lewis the DNA matches William Lewis is Jack even though we didn't have a murder weapon from him we had his DNA the salaba is on these notes and they're at three of the scenes perfect match excellent William Charles Lewis is indicted on 26 counts in connection with the East Point shooting spree the district attorney plans to seek the death penalty [Music] William Lewis's ex-wife Rosa emerges from her coma after months of hospitalization and eventually returns home in September 2001 five months after Rosa Lewis was nearly murdered police respond to her home once again Miss Lewis called me said uh I just got a letter it's here I haven't opened it I want you to come down here and get it and I went down there to where she was living and I picked up the letter and read it basically an apology to his wife from the letter detectives learned the bizarre motives behind the shooting spree they knew that if he killed the first victim which was his wife's friends it would bring a lot of hurt to his one the second victim the third victim the fourth victims were they were just to throw the police off the letter closes all five cases and seals William Lewis's fate not only did we have his DNA at the scene which was enough to convict him but now we had a confession as to why he did it the reason why he did it with his confession written William Lewis pleads guilty to all counts he's sentenced to life in prison plus 191 years with no possibility of parole we all discussed that at one time if he had not been caught would he have gone on and started continued shooting people just to lead us away from the whole purpose is to kill his wife you know throw us off track I suspect he probably would have gone on if he didn't get caught only William Lewis knows how many more random victims he would have killed to cover his tracks the combined efforts of the East Point Police the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI made sure he'd never get the chance to kill again from the Caribbean islands to the east coast of the United States the deadly drug gang makes millions but its leader remains a mystery as the cocaine trafficking business thrives the violence rages out of control [Music] foreign to destroy the gang agents and police know they must identify the leader and take him down [Music] [Music] the United States is one of the most profitable drug markets in the world for ruthless and sophisticated drug traffickers it is truly the land of opportunity I'm Jim cowstrom former head of the FBI's New York office in the 1990s a violent drug organization moved thousands of kilos of Colombian cocaine through the Virgin Islands and into Georgia it would take a task force of dedicated agents and police to shut down this multi-million dollar operation and destroy a cocaine Empire [Music] the U.S Virgin Islands are a tourist's paradise lush tropical islands and miles of sandy beaches all in America's backyard Islands hold a dark secret law enforcement refers to them as the cocaine funnel because they are located halfway between South America and the U.S Mainland drug gangs use the islands to ship large amounts of cocaine into the U.S starting in the early 90s a drug gang called the island boys shipped thousands of kilos of cocaine into the U.S through the Virgin Islands they chose the unlikely city of Augusta Georgia as their main point of entry there they turned the cocaine into crack FBI special agent Tim Cox primarily the population that Drew them in time there were several projects that were right for selling crack cocaine it's also a two-hour City you're you're two hours away from Atlanta you're two hours away from Savannah but the competition between the island boys and local drug gangs is brutal [Music] Eugene Smalls runs the Augusta operation for the island boys business is good in 1991 the gang is raking in millions and Smalls makes a big Target there are rumors he keeps a million dollars in cash in his safety deposit box he wears the key around his neck [Music] [Laughter] [Music] okay by the time Augusta Police arrived Eugene Small's safety deposit box is empty and the powerful drug dealer is fighting for his life he survives but his injuries are severe the rising violence and Augusta concerns police and the island boys are at the center of it the Augusta Police discussed the problem with the FBI they start by explaining what they know about the Gang local authorities threw their contacts with informants and some of the arrests that they made previously knew that there was an increasing number of these gentlemen coming up from the Virgin Islands the informants of given indication that they were moving more and more cocaine into the area in October 1992 the FBI and U.S customs worked to build a federal conspiracy case against the island boys Cox suspects the island boys are working with a major Colombian cocaine cartel one thing is clear they are as mysterious as they are deadly didn't have any inroads into the group so we're having to put together as much Intel as we could by bits and pieces agents assemble photos of suspected gang members taken by the local Drug Squad former U.S customs agent Larry Sapp so no not even who they were we'd put them in there to see if someone would later identify them they also scour every report they can find that has any connection to the island boys one report stands out a month earlier two DEA agents spotted Eugene Smalls at the airport in Atlanta despite his injuries the local drug boss personally picked up a passenger on a flight from the Virgin Islands the DEA decided to follow Smalls agents radioed the Georgia Highway Patrol and asked them to pull the car over for speeding d8 had enough of following them and join the locals there and got them they got them all out of the car searched them took all their money tried to interview them all right almost would barely walk his passenger James springette was carrying a passport from the U.S Virgin Islands agents also searched the car they found nothing no drugs no weapons and surprisingly little cash the DEA photographed the two men as well as their credit cards and IDs and had to let them go all right agents can use the credit card information to track the movements of all four suspects but there's also a downside then they know that they've been watched or being watched and may affect their behavior in the future they may be more careful of surveillances and more careful movements and things of this nature agents wonder about James springette who is he and what role does he play Eugene Smalls picked him up at the airport personally even though Smalls was still recovering from bullet wounds obviously James springette is important special agent Cox contacts the local police to see if they have any information [Music] the Richmond County Sheriff's Department narcotics Squad have been fighting the gang since it first arrived in Augusta but they have never heard of James springette [Music] if law enforcement hopes to take down the island boys they're going to have to do it the hard way from the bottom up we started on a street level doing surveillances when we could getting information from the local authorities and trying to develop some other inroads into the group again they hit a brick wall the island boys have a dangerous reputation even paid informants are afraid to talk about the group it was hard to develop informants because this group was known to be violent and informants were afraid to do anything with them because they had a reputation for hurting and killing people [Music] Federal authorities conduct surveillance they observed that members of the gang frequently use motel rooms to do business after they check out teams of Agents search their rooms surprised that you find phone numbers and photos things this whole case was like somebody that had filled a room with puzzle pieces and were trying to dig our way out and figure out who is who the pressure is constant and intense too intense for Eugene Smalls the head of the Augusta Island Boys we were putting a lot of heat on him oh Eugene Smalls decides to relocate to Virginia I personally think that Therese and Eugene left was things were getting too hot for them around Augusta in Small's absence a man named shakeem Gabriel becomes the new leader of the island boys operation in Augusta Georgia [Music] agent Sapp alerts Virginia authorities Eugene Smalls is heading their way they wrote him as soon as he got up there and worked him in a good case up there [Music] Smalls is arrested in Virginia Beach for drug trafficking and eventually convicted and sentenced to 90 years in prison [Music] in Augusta agents focus on shakeem Gabriel the new leader of the island boys they suspect the gang is bringing drugs in through the Atlanta airport you look at the amount of money that they were running plus the amount of cocaine that we knew they were putting on the street it was obvious they were having to run lots and loads of luggage through and use lots of couriers on June 14 1995 agents in Atlanta find a suitcase containing seven kilos more than 15 pounds of cocaine James who delivered the code to investigators question The Courier he tells agents the drugs were going to shakeem Gabriel in Augusta cooperating information you know through phone tolls and that has to substantiate exactly what the uh Courier was saying based on The Courier statement authorities are able to obtain an arrest warrant and a warrant to search Gabriel's home [Music] on June 15 1995 authorities served both warrants closing they have no idea what Gabriel has waiting for them behind his door [Music] in Augusta Georgia the FBI along with U.S customs and local police worked to take down a violent drug gang [Music] investigators arrest shakeem Gabriel the man they believe is the new head of the island boys in Augusta Gabriel is accused of attempting to receive seven kilos of cocaine from a courier from the Virgin Islands a search of his home turns up documents photos and fifteen thousand dollars in ones special agent Tim Cox apparently shakeem felt it was beneath him to spend dollar bills so he wouldn't spend dollar bills he would stuff him in these jars for law enforcement Gabriel's arrest is a big success but it doesn't stop the island boys as soon as authorities take Gabriel into custody agents suspect that new leaders are already emerging to take over the Gang whenever we take people off from the group make an arrest or anything else other people from the islands would arrive back in the States and take their place in the group Distributing Around Augusta area investigators continue to go after the island boys using the same techniques they used to take down Gabriel but it's not working it seems the island boys have changed tactics they must be using another means of getting their drugs past Customs at the airport agents have to find it Customs expands its searches both in the Virgin Islands and in U.S airports on February 6 1996 agents get a break when a random Customs check finds cocaine in a suitcase arriving in Atlanta the bag belongs to a teenage girl from a housing project in Augusta the Gang has been eluding police by using couriers that don't fit the usual profile former U.S customs agent Larry Sapp they would find young girls that had no money no future and ask them if they like to go to the Virgin Islands for a week free vacation and of course anyone would say yes and the only stipulation was you had to bring back a package for them that just saw an opportunity to make some money granted it was illegal but in a sense they were victims of this group as well they couldn't bring a lot to the table for us but what they could tell us is who offered the deal what the deal was The Courier tells investigators she was hired by the girlfriend of Brian Gustav shortly after Gabriel's arrest Gustav and his girlfriend arrived from the Virgin Islands they've been running the Augusta Island Boys the girl also gives them the names of other women who have worked his couriers it takes more than a year to gather all the evidence against the new local leaders but investigators have enough to arrest Gustav and his girlfriend Brian Gustav is convicted of drug trafficking his girlfriend takes a plea deal agents have taken out the leadership of the island boys in Augusta once again you do take them down in the next week the same group is up and operating again it gets a little frustrating but that's why we work to go up and get to the head of the organization because that's eventually the only way you're going to be able to stop them arresting drug dealers in Augusta is not stopping the flow of drugs into the U.S agents know they must find out who is running the island boys operation their leader must be in the Virgin Islands 1996 the U.S Virgin Islands became designated at Haida which stands for high intensity drug trafficking area Detective Chris Howell is on the DEA task force formed to Target drug traffickers in the U.S Virgin Islands and up until this time frame there hadn't been a lot of targeting of these people with established routes and cocaine trafficking so the traffickers by this this point in the game had become pretty powerful and and they had a lot at their disposal so we had a lot of catching up to do agents begin questioning informants and learned that in Saint Croix a prominent local families involved in the cocaine shipments from Colombia intelligence information that was gained from confidential sources stated that one of the family members was the Saint Croix girlfriend of James springette investigators recognized the name in 1992 DEA agents photographed springette after Eugene Smalls picked him up at the Atlanta airport and that informant also told us that he was the biggest drug trafficker in the islands and so our Focus kind of started to begin to switch Focus from this prominent family over to James springhead investigators discovered that springette's girlfriend has more than half a dozen cell phones in her name these phones May hold the key to cracking this Dangerous Drug gang we began to look at those phones and look at the toll information off those phones other names that came up through informant information began to appear on those tolls it was obvious that this this girl had you know something to do with what was going on while agents pursue the cell phone lead they continue to work the streets from informants agents learned that a small shipment of cocaine is scheduled to leave Saint Thomas via seaplane the surveillance team spots a suspected Courier carrying a cardboard box aboard the seaplane takes off for the largest of the U.S Virgin Islands Saint Croix we let them board the plane and get airborne on their way back to St Croix when we establish surveillance where they were going to dock here in St Croix when the seaplane lands Detective Chris Howell of the DEA are waiting they suspect the Box The Courier is carrying is full of cocaine agents are in place for a routine takedown but the plan changes something has spooked The Courier agents must move in the individual who was carrying the Box ran straight to the ocean jumped off of the dock into the ocean tore into the box kilograms of cocaine began to hand them to the water The Courier is trying to destroy the evidence he knew that if he could get those packages open once that cocaine hit the water it would just dissolve into nothing but I wasn't going to take any chance I wanted to get all seven kilograms I didn't want them to tear into anything detective Howell rescues several kilos of evidence and a cell phone purchased by springette's girlfriend [Music] The Courier is in serious trouble and he knows it still he refuses to tell authorities who he's working for in the islands it's very rare to see people cooperate very rare when we arrest somebody even when they're facing serious jail time they'll just do their time and that's it as a result of the operation the island boys are now on high alert they know the feds are watching them they quickly change their tactics springette made an executive decision that they wouldn't bring cocaine directly into the U.S Virgin Islands instead the gang will use the island of Tortola to Warehouse their drug shipments the British Virgin Islands is literally a five or ten minute boat ride away from St Thomas so you could be in British Waters in a minute later and you're in U.S Waters or or international waters for that matter there's a British possession Tortola is outside the jurisdiction of U.S law enforcement on June 19 1996 the island boys bring 1.5 tons of cocaine on Shore and Tortola you're talking about loads that are worth millions and millions dollars at a time and very rarely does a group run that much dope without having some Firepower behind them heavily armed Columbians are present to verify the delivery those people's job was not only to look after the South American interest but also to protect the load cocaine is loaded into two vehicles a truck and a van this shipment is so important that James springette personally oversees the transfer two vehicles head for a safe house to store the cocaine the drug dealers are unaware the Royal Virgin Island Police are waiting for them officers have been watching the van for over a month every two weeks it travels from the East End of the island to the West End weighted down with something heavy they suspected it could be drug trafficking but they also suspected it might have been involved in some burglaries that had been occurring on the east in the island when a pickup and Van approached the Royal Virgin Island Police move in [Music] the pickup manages to squeeze through the roadblock but the van is stopped in its tracks [Music] [Applause] the suspects opened fire with automatic weapons the police are outgunned most of them had six shot revolvers shotguns with three rounds and Equipment of this nature and they stood up and returned fire against uh automatic M16s firing a Full Burst [Music] one officer is hit the round passed out the side of his head and he was lying in a pool of blood on the street and so they basically at that point began to try to keep him alive the van gets away the wounded officer is rushed to a hospital I just wanted to say just a shock the impact didn't alone didn't kill him but it put his eye out and they got into the hospital he lost his eye but he did live the next day police find the van a mile down the road the tires the radiator and the engine have been shot to pieces in the back of the van police find 1260 kilograms of cocaine they also find night vision goggles GPS devices and lights for signaling aircraft the Royal Virgin Island Police believe the drug Runners will try to escape to a nearby Island they contact police Commissioners in the U.S Virgin Islands and the surrounding area asking for help authorities know they must locate these dangerous men fast if they're willing to shoot a cup No One Is Safe [Music] in the British Virgin Islands a firefighter rubs between heavily armed drug runners in the Royal police the drug Runners make a daring Escape but investigators seize a van full of cocaine the Royal police worn their counterparts on the surrounding Islands to be on the lookout it was almost like a Caribbean all points bulletin Detective Chris Howell put it out to all the police officers that this occurred and you know to be a lookout on the beaches and so forth marinas docks you know boat yards and everything that these individuals may be heading our way police around the islands are on the alert for anything unusual [Music] early the next morning officers stop a suspicious boat there are no drugs or weapon support but there is a large amount of cash they were questioned and then later released by police says there wasn't enough evidence at the time to hold them those individuals were linked through informant information as being springett's boat crew they were the same boat crew that brought in the cocaine that had been recovered by police in Tortola a few days later U.S Virgin Island Police find the body of one of the men from the boat he's been shot in the head twice execution Style to me that all that was was an indication that spring its organization was not going to set failure there had to be a cost to losing that load even if that meant the life of one of his own at the roadblock the gunman may have escaped but the cocaine they lost was worth millions [Music] you don't lose 1260 kilograms of cocaine without someone paying for it springette had to go back to South America and explain this to the people he was getting cocaine from and he didn't want to go back without there being a body attached to the loss for springette it's a temporary setback kilograms of cocaine or during this time frame were almost on every commercial flight head into the U.S Mainland they had dirty baggage handlers that would put cocaine in bags sneak them past Customs put them on the aircraft and then a mule would actually take custody that bag when it arrived in a U.S city and moving on forward in Georgia FBI special agent Tim Cox and Customs agent Larry Sapp are working leads of Their Own they've been watching a man named Ronnie Pemberton they believe he's the latest drug dealer to head the Augusta branch of the island boys three months after the Tortola shootout FBI special agent Tim Cox decides to send a message to Pemberton at the Atlanta airport I had heard through our street sources that Pemberton had called me a punk and said we were never going to catch him and so I thought I would at least introduce myself so I went to the airport when he came back in and went up and introduced myself and said hi Ronnie welcome back to the country I'll I'll be around come see me if you'd ever like to talk but as agents know Island Boys never talk months pass in the Virgin Islands in early 1997 the two agents get the break they've been waiting for a member of the island boys sells cocaine out of a hotel room in Saint Thomas a fellow gang member and a buyer sent to kill the dealer pay him a surprise visit the island boy tries to warn his friend by using a special knock signaling Danger the dealer gets the message escapes out of back window the island is a small place to try and hide gang members are everywhere the terrified dealer secretly turns himself into authorities in exchange for protection he agrees to tell the FBI what he knows about the island boys and their dealings in Georgia both Larry Sapp and I were very excited because we knew that if we actually had someone that could identify more of these people and put us in touch with the routes they use the methods they're using to transport this stuff it could be a huge break in the case former U.S customs agent Larry Sapp he was the first one to give us all the ins and outs who's the leaders how they smuggled how they distributed Hoover distributors and I think this nation is real big break in the case agents are finally starting to get inside this dangerous gang they begin trying to make their case against the suspected leader James springette we would search Customs travel records we would find out when he had gone in and out of different countries we would find out when he would show up on either wire intercepts or show up in conversation with someone else by doing that and by tracking the shipments you can put Jimmy in the same area this all goes to circumstantial evidence and ties Jimmy with it springette is careful to keep his hands clean he does his dirty work through intermediaries and rarely comes in contact with the coke at the same time on the island of Saint Croix the DEA convinces a federal judge to allow them to wiretap the prominent family suspected of drug smuggling and of having ties to Spring end we applied for the first ever title III in Virgin Islands history DEA agents secretly install the wiretap in a switching station and hide the equipment we'd already received information that they had individuals that worked within the phone company that were checking their phones regularly to see if they were tapped and so we had to hide that equipment within the phone company's regular wiring for one month during the summer of 1997 investigators listened to the wiretap and conduct simultaneous surveillance they hear frequent references to Spring Ed's girlfriend but nothing concrete the island boys are careful about what they say on the phone you can tell the conversation was starting to get good and the next thing that we would hear is let me call you back and then surveillance watch him hang up the phone jump in his car and drive down to a pay phone and then finish the call to pay phone almost from the onset they knew we were on that phone certainly when you go up on a wire you don't you expect when the wire goes down there's gonna be a Roundup very shortly thereafter we weren't there with this this wire the wiretap does provide enough evidence to justify search warrants [Music] agents launched launched raids on 22 Island homes and businesses they have enough to go after several members of the island boys gang but they need a lot more to take down James springette and dismantle his entire drug trafficking organization in the Virgin Islands the DEA and police raid 22 locations they need enough evidence to put suspected drug lord James springette out of business forever his girlfriend's house is a prime target in her bedroom agents find a half a million dollars in cash and a business card for an attorney in Panama [Music] they also find springette's U.S passport a passport is stamped with the dates the drug lord visited other Caribbean islands as well as Colombia Venezuela and Europe by comparing those dates to Intelligence on large drug shipments agents can show whether springette was in the same country when the drugs arrived Virgin Islands police detective Chris Howell flies up to Augusta Georgia to meet with FBI special agent Tim Cox and Customs agent Larry Sapp [Music] we hooked up with Chris Howe and it was another one of those breaks in the case Chris had a wealth of information down there about activities in St Thomas we had a wealth of information about activities going on in the states and when we compared the two we found out that his departures were our arrivals we cross matched some of the trips who was going who was coming it was great information that we were able to collaborate on authorities finally have enough circumstantial evidence to nail James springette independently we could have probably put together a case in the islands and likewise they probably had the ability to do that there in Georgia but just combine the two cases together it seems like it's an Unstoppable Force Chris Howell once all the cases tried in Georgia it will be too difficult to convict springette and the Virgin Islands it evolved into a monster by this point I mean he was very well established in South America he had his own routes here he had his own assets available to him so anything you can throw into that on your end is is beneficial it would help the case if they could find a more specific link between springette and the cocaine shipments agents review the evidence one more time when we had done the search warrant at Spring at Saint Croix girlfriend's house we had found business cards for a Panamanian attorney and we also found business cards in the name of Omega C cargo [Music] according to customs records a freighter owned by Omega C cargo was stopped a few months after the Tortola shootout the ship was searched eight tons of Colombian cocaine was found in the cargo working on a hunch agents research Omega C cargo the company is owned by James springette it was huge it was a huge chunk of the case right there I mean now we had six thousand kilograms on Mr springette that was a good feeling Federal authorities develop a plan to dismantle the island boys starting in Augusta Georgia December 15 1997. Ronnie Pemberton the local head of the Augusta gang attempts to buy two kilos of cocaine from a Virgin Island supplier the FBI is watching in the motel room next door Customs agent Larry Sapp and FBI special agents Tim Cox and Mike varically videotaped the buy via hidden camera our ultimate goal was to tie the organization all the way back to a Colombian connection find out where the drugs were being processed and at what point they were being handed over to springette and his organization so we could get to the highest level we possibly could we got all on video with him holding up the keys and hand bouncing away and see which one weighed a little more than the other Pemberton takes his time examining the bags of cocaine finally he picked two he wanted [Music] him all right roll over sit up special agent Tim Cox personally arrests Pemberton I said hello Ronnie remember me from the airport and he nodded and I said well who's the punk now shortly after pemberton's arrest FBI special agent Tim Cox is promoted and transferred it's a Bittersweet pill because I was with this case since this Inception I knew we were headed towards taking Jimmy springette off but also Neil would not be there for the Finish Cox leaves special agent Mike varically in charge of the island boys investigation over the next few months barakalli and his team continue methodically building a case against springette and the island boys the more we looked into it the more we uncovered a 10 000 kilograms turned into twenty thousand which turned into fifty thousand less than a year after pemberton's arrest an Augusta grand jury delivers indictments against springette his girlfriend and five of his closest Associates we had a sealed indictment for quite a long time and we're just building a case we were building a story we're basically building our case for court we identified individuals we identified assets investigators want to arrest all suspects simultaneously so that none of them can run but there's a snag springette has gone into hiding it was a frustrating time period because here we are ready for this party and we can't find our main guy springhead is smart and careful did not use the phone unnecessarily he did not spend a lot of time in one location and he tended to reside in areas where the U.S government didn't have complete access in total reach for two long months authorities can't find him then in Medellin Colombia the case takes a dramatic turn please have a seat a local woman approaches DEA agents how can we help you she tells them she knows a big American drug dealer his name is James springette in Medellin Colombia DEA agents get a big break in the search for drug trafficker James springette an informant claim she knows where springette lives she basically walked into the DEA office there and agreed and cooperate with law enforcement Detective Chris Howell she indicated he had a penthouse apartment in Medellin we knew the apartment existed we just didn't know where it was the apartment had like muraled ceilings you know solid gold faucets very expensive apartment the woman agrees to give the DEA the location of springette's apartment in exchange he wants a fresh start for her family in the witness protection program authorities agree to the deal special agent Mike varicelli springette was pretty well insulated in Medellin Colombia to be a Haven for high-ranking drug organization members so it's traditionally difficult to locate and apprehend an individual for drugs in Medellin the DEA requests an arrest warrant from the FBI and U.S customs in Augusta Georgia former U.S customs agent Larry Sapp the agent there called me and asked me do we actually in fact have a warrant for a James Spring yet of course I enthusiastically told him yes he asked me to facts down fingerprints the pictures and all the stuff you need to get him picked up [Music] the DEA also contacts trusted members of The Colombian police [Music] two Colombian police officers stake out springette's luxury apartment waiting for him to appear to the Colombians it looks like springette is leaving for good they have to move fast they felt like the slings would burn and they better go ahead and arrest him and that's what they did the officers don't have time to wait for backup they move in [Music] those two uh stop the vehicle and arrested and spring at his driver by themselves which we thought was mighty courageous special agent Tim Cox when I first heard that they had him in custody out in Columbia I was elated this was the culmination of the 14-year investigation which started from the lowest level Street dealers all the way up to the main man with the Colombian Mafia who had to direct Colombian connection Supply and cocaine Agents from the FBI customs and the DEA Converge on the Virgin Islands to arrest springetts Associates local drug dealers quickly Retreat into their fortified mansions we probably got dope dealers flushing their dope everywhere on Saint Croix one mansion on Saint Thomas is so remote and well protected that Virgin Island Police have to repel down the cliff above it and approach it from the rear they had walls up around the house electric gates there was there was a real security issue on how we could do these things successfully house by house the task force arrests the leadership of the island boys although they finally have spring it in custody getting him back to the U.S proves to be far more difficult than anyone had ever imagined he's in custody in Colombia yeah and that's the big problem because extradition out of Columbia is a difficult task and what made it more difficult is he had citizenship at that point in Colombia investigators will now have to go through a long bureaucratic process to try to extradite him back to the U.S it's like being in a dead horse I mean there's nothing you can really do to speed the process you put in the request and it goes through the channels and then you just wait I knew that the longer Jimmy was down there the longer we didn't have him on American soil in our custody the greater the chance that he would either Escape or someone would break him out while in prison springette pays to have luxuries brought in to pass the time in Comfort they have them well people that wait on kind of orderlies to go to give them stuff and they can't leave the penitentiary they go outside to pay attention and get it and bring it back to them on March 1st 2000 a few days before his extradition becomes final springette orders a new mattress when the new mattress is delivered to his cell he was able to insert himself in the new mattress is just wide enough to fit his body and the individual that brought the mattress to him aided him in sewing the mattress back up so there was no hole there was no evidence that someone had been inserted into the mattress one of the most dangerous drug dealers in the world is carried out of his cell past unsuspecting guards American Drug trafficker James springette attempts a daring escape from a prison in Colombia sealed inside a mattress [Music] FBI special agent Tim Cox got into the mattress they stitched him back up in there and proceeded to carry him through I think about five checkpoints getting him out of the prison goodbye [Music] an investigation later shows that springette paid more than three million dollars in bribes to set up his incredible Escape foreign investigators take the news hard we put uh 10 years of my investigative career into eventually getting this guy and now he was gone I was completely deflated we had a hard enough time catching him the first time it was my fear that because he'd been caught one time it would never be able to get him again Detective Chris Howell we're back at Ground Zero trying to figure out where do we go from here at that point we have no idea to even you know where to look we have no leads we have no idea he could have been anywhere in the world agents notify FBI legal attaches at U.S embassies throughout Latin America they also notify customs and DEA agents working in those countries FBI special agent Mike varically we basically contacted Interpol we contacted all the countries we know he has ties to and got the word out as far as where he last was what he looks like there was rumors starting to spread that he had had reconstructive surgery you know it changed his appearance and everything and it just kind of became like this urban legend you know this this guy who was out there but no one knew how to how to find him according to rumors springette is living somewhere in Latin America and running his organization by phone Jimmy just like anybody else has to have an income when you're spending five million dollars on an escape and you're living the lifestyle he's accustomed to doing you have to have an income so he had I started generating that income again in April 2002 the FBI ads spring out to their list of top 10 fugitives and to put them on the FBI top most wanted list during this time frame was Major because I mean he was sharing sharing poster space with guys like Osama Bin Laden at that point investigators also play a few long shots they set up surveillance on a drug dealer known to be part of springette's group [Music] agents wait until they have probable cause and then search him custom free [Music] they find a large amount of cocaine take him into custody [Music] investigators pressure the dealer what city is here I don't know he decides to talk he tells them springette now lives in Venezuela he doesn't know which city he only knows the phone number the FBI legal attache in Venezuela gives the phone number to an elite team of trusted local police officers phone number in informants the Venezuelan police locate springett's home and stake it out [Music] let's bring it offered two to three million dollars to let just let him walk away from the scene there are many honest law enforcement officials that there's no amount of money that would entice them to do that thankfully we had some down in Venezuela FBI DEA and Customs agents work to get springette back to the U.S as soon as possible because he's in the country on Fox passport and in order to be removed from the country immediately less than 24 hours after the arrest Venezuelan police hand spring it over to FBI and Customs agents at the airport agents flying back to the United States he knew that he wouldn't stand a chance going to trial in Augusta Georgia with all the evidence that had been you know mounted against him I think he knew the only thing he had available to him and his only chance of of ever having you know the chance to see the light a day again would be to accept deceptively agreement bring out pleads guilty to one count of conspiracy to import cocaine the notorious drug lord is sentenced to 35 years without parole hard to beat the significance of this investigation when you talk about a street level case being worked all the way up to a 10 Most Wanted and an ultimate capture it's kind of hard to beat that it's it's definitely a highlight of my career

Channel: The FBI Files

Views: 899,606

Keywords: Crime podcasts, Crime scene, Crime syndicate, Crime thriller, Criminal profiling, East Point, Federal investigations, Felony, Forensic investigation, Gang violence, Illegal drugs, Illegal firearms, Investigative journalism, Murder case, Police procedural, Police work, Random shootings, South America, The FBI Files, True crime documentary, Unsolved mysteries

Id: 9RnZR4Q6pKk

Length: 147min 33sec (8853 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 28 2023