Sniper at Home | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

a shooter takes deadly aim at the residence of a small georgia town police and the fbi begin a desperate search to find the killer they 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 in his sights [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in georgia a series of bizarre shootings terrorized the small town two people were killed two others were critically wounded at first the shootings seemed targeted then they seemed random i'm jim calstrom former head 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 he 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 1 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 discovered the victim was a female that had been shot when 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 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 request the fbi and the georgia bureau of investigation to assist at the crime scene fbi special agent pete mcfarlane 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 lumalites we actually process vehicles for latent fingerprints we process items that we pick up for latent fingerprints agent mcfarlane finds signs pamela clark was shot at almost point-blank range you could 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 shell casings 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 there was 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 investigators 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 tell me anything or something just give us a call unfortunately the witness is unsure she'd recognize the man if she saw him again [Music] the medical examiner confirmed 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 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 wrappers 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 whodunit 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 we 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] detectives 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 okay here's jail office all right just look around police searched the victim's office to examine her case files she 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 go through the list detectives question each of pamela clark's probationers to find out where they were on the night she was killed yeah deborah like to talk to you about you familiar miss clock she's your probation officer yeah you know what happened to her uh no most of them are saddened to hear of her murder murder yes where were you the night she was murdered and she's like she's like a mom to me and everything i mean what we found 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 out of town i'm not leaving town well i'm gonna be back and talk with you some more okay all right no problem but as police scour hundreds of case files they discover a probationer 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 moulton 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 the 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 what's wrong what did i do what's wrong tell me what's going on man during their search of moulton's house investigators uncover a jacket like the one the witness saw on 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 have a lot of work to do to prove or disprove that this person did it thomas molden 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 officer clark's murder no i wouldn't hurt her i liked her she was good too 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 the night of february 28 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 molten 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 as 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 it was a night in the low 70s at the time so a lot of people were enjoying really we're enjoying the first 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 hears someone approach who's out there 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 east point police lieutenant russell popham tries to get a description of the assailant but it's no [Music] use he couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman uh 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 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 and so it appeared that he was targeted police recover a shell casing we got a shell casing over here [Music] 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 east 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 eastpoint emergency services race to their second shooting of the night police learn the victim's name is andrew wilson a janitor at a local hospital in a 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 idles 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 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 the primary murder weapon that's used around here is a nine millimeter and as the 40 caliber's 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 east 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 out a um car to feather brown yes um well there's a man out here i've never seen my neighborhood it's pretty scary and okay thank you when she went back to the window she saw a car approach the intersection [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 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] in a 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 eastpoint 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 [Music] she doesn't hear the shot the tv is her only clue something is wrong then she spots a bullet hole and calls 911 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 did you hear anything prior to the shot i didn't i was sitting there watching tv and i remember flipping through the magazine and 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 forty 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 mcfarlane 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 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 i'm a serial killer i'm out there shooting people just for no reason at all the 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 pay 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 we had nothing we had no suspects we had nobody police examined the victims backgrounds searching for any link between them that could show a pattern in the shootings so here's what happens we even went as too far as 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 eve back to atlanta or to hateful 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 cancelling leave and beefing up patrols to catch jack before he strikes again but they're up against a gunman who kills at 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 [Music] i can remember a veteran 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 twelve days later on april 24th 2001 the wait is over at 1 30 a.m rosa lewis pulls up to her east point apartment she's jack's 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 she's the latest victim in a series of random shootings that have left two people dead she 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 east 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 going to live investigators turned to the physical evidence left behind once again they find 40 caliber shell casings four of them detectives 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 steady 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 uh 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 searched for jack's signature clue we immediately began to look for a note uh we had the 40 caliber casings so we immediately began to look for a note uh we could not find a note in the darkness we could find a note and it was uh it wasn't a windy night so we didn't think the note 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 and we did find one lady who actually lives on a street behind the apartment complex who said she heard the shot 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 make and model we just weren't certain what the tag number was on the vehicle the witness never saw the killer's face once 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 she's been shot times when we told him that his ex-wife had been shot multiple times and may die 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 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 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 is that such a bedroom back there good man take a look 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 i looked over at his dresser and on his dresser were several highlight markers it was the same colors of the notes that we had before [Music] mr lewis would you mind coming us back downtown for a little while would you i mean just need to go in and ask a few more questions is that okay [Music] yeah the discovery prompts detectives to ask lewis to come downtown for questioning he agrees [Music] 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 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 it 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 you 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 rosa'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 those are empty threats that's it threats yeah empty threat empty enough for her to write a letter to an attorney just words that's all it was man you ever grabbed your wife no you ever hit 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 had probably sitting at home all day on sunday it was his wedding anniversary he wanted his wife and we think he became angry and just went out and shot two random victims can you explain these to us detectives review lewis's credit card records and learn he rented a car on april 8. no big deal on the same day that the murder took place the same car that was seen at the murder scene 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 linked him to two cars that he rented and the two cars that he rented were both seen leaving shootings and that was very important 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 to not 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] i love my wife okay 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 good news is we have one survivor she's recovering fbi special agent pete mcfarland believes one way to link lewis to the other shootings is through shell casings and bullets no shell case [Music] the lab said all the bullets from the previous crime scenes came from the same weapon the bullets that shot miss lewis came from the same weapon east point police lieutenant russell popham knows locating the murder weapon will prove their case to this day we have never found the firearm we executed eight search warrants uh looking for this firearm and we have never found the firearm it keeps coming up there's got to be something on the highlighters police seized the highlighters found in william lewis's bedroom he wrote these he left these on every crime scene he's trying to tell us something it leads us to the markers he used now what about the highlights ordinary highlighter i found them in lewis's uh bedroom and it's just just kind of might not have anything to work with 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 a second wait one second the notes themselves might however contain forensic evidence it's all the same all the same all the tears [Music] crime scene technicians dust the notes for fingerprints and find only unreadable smudges they 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 his saliva is on these notes and they're at three of the scenes 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 yes i did miss lewis called me said 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 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 he knew that if he killed the first victim which was his wife's friends it would bring a lot of hurt to his wife the second victim the third victim and 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 and the reason and 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 you

Channel: The FBI Files

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

Id: qWl7Y24FJwM

Length: 49min 25sec (2965 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 19 2022