The BEST EPISODES of The Entire FBI Files Series | Uninterrupted Compilation | Retold

foreign [Music] watch on mobile devices or the big screen all for free no subscription required download daily now blazing fires raging adrenaline total Anarchy always in the walls of a federal prison FBI tactical teams and negotiators work around the clock trying to avoid a small-scale war nearly 100 hostages [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign in the 1980s the federal penitentiary in Atlanta housed some of the country's most notorious prisoners 1800 Cubans fleeing Castro's regime 400 wahadan criminals 200 were insane I'm Jim calstrom I'm ahead of the FBI's New York office Castro called them undesirables the US government called them detainees in 1987 they staged a bloody revolt now the FBI and Special Operations teams must infiltrate a burning prison to stop the violence before it rages out of control [Music] [Applause] 1980 a plummeting economy and political unrest prompt Fidel Castro to allow Cuban citizens to lead the country for the first time in history the notorious dictator permits American boats to enter Cuba's Mariel Harbor in a five-month period over one hundred and twenty thousand undocumented refugees flee the country heading for Florida 2700 are considered criminals or mentally ill under U.S law the Attorney General instructs the Bureau of Prisons to find space for them in America's already overcrowded prison system one thousand Cuban refugees are sent to the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale Louisiana nearly 1400 are transported to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for seven years the U.S and Cuban governments negotiate to send the criminals a mentally ill refugees back to Cuba on November 20th 1987. the state department strikes a treaty with Cuba 2700 Cuban detainees will be sent back within 24 hours Cuban detainees in both prisons get news of the decision in Hopedale Louisiana a thousand of them riot taking 28 prison guards hostage but at the Atlanta penitentiary Warden Joe petrovsky there was a trust between the detainees and the correctional officers and that trust was basically the treatment that the detainees got from the correctional officers early Monday morning three days after the treaty is signed prison employee Ted Monir arrives at work he notices an eerie silence there were hardly any inmates in the breakfast area and normally it will be full of inmates we're making a lot of noise and talking and there was hardly anybody in there so it was really quiet unusually fun on the first floor of the prison Industries building detainees make mattresses on the surface it looks like business as usual [Music] but in an instance detainees overpower their guards and ignite fires on the third floor of the industries building manier and his supervisor oversee a furniture-making shop [Music] foreign the riot spreads to the rest of the floors it'll sound like a whole and it was coming up the stairwell name and they just came running in and they had these hoods over their head like they were made out of gray t-shirts or gray sweatshirts and they just had holes poked out for their eyes so they could see air tries to report the emergency but he is attacked by one of the rioters and I don't know if he was trying to hit me or just a telephone out of my hand he knocked the phone out of my hand that went across the room Prison employees are facing their worst nightmare although they are well aware of the risks they never thought it would happen to them but we did realize there was a threat but I guess you think you can control it foreign sometimes you forget who they really are origin Factory workers are helpless unarmed and outnumbered they face rioters carrying homemade weapons [Music] staff member notifies Warden petrovsky of the crisis inside the wall nobody carrying weapons the inmates always vastly outnumbered the staff so if we had weapons in there we could lose those weapons the only weapons that we had was weapons in the tower petrovsky alerts the FBI the prison's Regional director I try to give him an assessment of exactly what transpired and brought him up today [Music] this fire spreads throughout the industries building the detainees forced the guards and employees into a tool cage and lock the door we kind of thought that unless there's a miracle that we were probably just burn up because there's no way to get out of one of the cages [Music] the riot spreads throughout the entire Penitentiary complex and rage detainees captured guards taking Keys as they take hostages [Music] they begin to release the regular prison population from themselves the riot is beyond containers the detainees now control most of the central buildings [Applause] but guards lock down the Sally Forth Just in Time [Music] flames and smoke engulfed the massive Prison Complex nearly 100 guards and employees are trapped inside built at the turn of the century the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary is the largest penitentiary in the United States it was a fortress in and that was surrounded by approximately 40 feet and the width on the top of the wall was approximately three yards wide so it was a massive massive wall the penitentiary is built on 300 acres of land with 28 Acres of property inside the walls okay needs to figure out exactly where his people are located inside the complex [Music] very good observation over the entire outside compound who logged those boys that they recognized in those areas we started a list of the officers that we thought were hostages [Music] Ted Monir and his colleagues are trapped inside an equipment cage in the burning Industries building several rioters try to convince the Cuban detainees guarding the cage to unlock the door I'm trying to out the garden opening the door because they want to get us out and kill us or do whatever so the guard had to tell them that they couldn't open the door and occasionally they would push one off for getting a little wrestle but the Raging Fire threatens to destroy the building so the rioters are forced to move their hostages to another part of the prison complex the only route takes them across the yard in a clear view of the towers [Music] a tower garden spots what he believes are detainees threatening Prison employees there was a guy that was up ahead on me and he got hit I remember seeing him he was a Cuban that got hit right behind the ear one of the hostage takers is killed and five others are wounded I was getting worried because the bullets were going to be close around where we were chaos Marines his guards and detainees Run for Cover they ran us across to the corner of the building where they couldn't shoot at us and that time they took us in the chapel he's forced their hostages into a small room and locked them inside less than an hour after the riots began FBI agents from the Atlanta field office arrive at the penitentiary the FBI has jurisdiction over criminal matters in all federal prisons Warden petrovsky briefs Weldon Kennedy a special agent in charge the first thing that I wanted to accomplish accomplished find out taken how many might be injured what was the threat to those people who were in fact taken hostage all these people were like on an emotional High I mean they've been prisoners for literally eight ten years some of them serving life sentences and now they're free to roam around the prison it was like a holiday agent Leon Blakeney heads the Atlanta FBI SWAT team agent Blakeney appears in silhouette to protect his identity nobody really knew what area that the uh that the inmates controlled and they really didn't know how many hostages were taken [Music] two thousand five hundred people housed in that institution here's the administration there were people running around all over the place and and quite frankly it was chaos chaos that had already turned deadly as agents Kennedy and Blakeney developed their plan to retake the prison they received critical intelligence from two sources [Music] FBI agents posted outside the walls of the prison complex and from prisoners inside the walls who don't want any part of the riot we began to learn who the hostages might be where the detainees were holding up how many were there what kind of weapons they might have the detainees have taken the guards radios compromising prison Communications agents and guards switched to a secure frequency situation is grim negotiations will be critical to resolving the standoff Ain't nobody got special agent D Rosario an FBI negotiator opens up a dialogue with the rioters unreasonable demands are being made the hostage takers want things done now and that's why it is so important to try to bring them down to a level where they can be reasonable can you negotiate with people at that very high emotional level generally speaking no so we had we had to give it time the rioters are emotionally charged angry over the shooting death of a detainee the theme came up time and again you killed one of ours you had no reason to and you killed them they wanted me to see so I had the body brought out to where we were I looked at the bodies they wanted me to get emotionally involved with it and these four that originally came out to talk to me we really were only speaking for themselves they were not speaking on behalf with the 1400 that were in there in the command post Warden petrovsky receives a frantic call from 16 employees who have barricaded themselves in cell block e -block is home to the Atlanta Federal penitentiary's most dangerous criminals if the detainees get into cell block e and free the inmates the lives of all 16 employees will be in danger cell block is also home to the prison system's most notorious inmate Thomas Silverstein a number of people in the bureau prisons to to that prisoner they believed that the Bureau of Prisons had ever housed had in their custody he just an absolute and he hated everything to do with the Bureau of Prisons or any of their staff Silverstein was incarcerated in 1975 for a bank robbery years later he was sentenced to multiple life terms for fatally stabbing an inmate and a prison guard he had two things on his mind to escape from jail because his crimes were such were he was going to die in jail uh and and the other objective was to kill people it was as simple as that the guards in cell block e are in grave danger special agent Kennedy works with the FBI SWAT team to come up with a plan to rescue them I want you to go out and the SWAT analysis was that they believed that they could go over the wall out of view of the rioting detainees and retrieve those people out of that building successfully the SWAT team will need ladders to get over the 40-foot high wall special agent Blakeney calls on the Atlanta fire department and a National Guard helicopter crew to help carry out the plan he put a helicopter up uh on the opposite side of the prison to attract their attention and at least have some diversion seven hours after the riot began the FBI SWAT team launches a daring mission to rescue 16 Prison employees without endangering the lives of nearly 100 hostages everybody got it seven hours after a riot breaks out at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary an FBI SWAT team launches a mission to rescue 16 employees barricaded in one of the prison cell blocks FBI special agent Weldon Kennedy knows that if the rescue attempt is seen by rioting Cuban detainees it could spell disaster they would not hesitate to kill hostages if it became apparent to them that we were going to try to retake the prison or retake any part of it after scaling the wall the FBI SWAT team approaches cell block e home to the prison's most dangerous inmates yourself guard come on SWAT rushes The Prison employees out of the building identify yourself when you get down there 27 employees afraid for their safety have barricaded themselves inside the prison hospital frustrated they watch as their colleagues are escorted to safety AI SWAT team leader Leon Blakeney you know they're screaming because frantic you know come and get us come and get us the director of the Bureau of Prisons urges the FBI SWAT team to go back for the hospital employees the SWAT Personnel they informed me that there was a 100 percent probability that they would be detected going over the wall to try to affect the rescue of the hospital people we can't protect the other hostages that are being held in other parts of the prison and my concern was if if in fact we were observed then they would start killing the other employees Blakeney wants to rescue the hospital staff everybody knows it's a risk he cannot afford the detainees break into cell block e and release the inmates [Applause] vicious criminals Run free [Music] including Thomas Silverstein a ruthless killer as Darkness Falls three buildings have been consumed by fire nearly 100 guards and employees have been taken hostage or have barricaded themselves inside the prison prison employee Ted Monir is being held inside a room in the prison's Chapel so man came up to the window and he wasn't Cuban and the guy Wasabi said that's Silverstein and he came inside and he had a flashlight and he started shining his flashlight he shined the light on me said don't I know you and I told no I said I don't I never seen you before and he said you don't know who I am when you look worse than anything I've ever seen in any type of movie or anything and when you look at him you'd know he isn't normal there's something strange about him oh he's really scared detainees finally distract Silverstein and he leaves without harming the hostages on day two of the standoff FBI tactical Commander Danny Colson arrives at the prison huge Roar it was like a million bumblebees you could almost feel the energy of those rioting prisoners Coulson started the FBI's hostage Rescue Team an elite counter-terrorism group in 1982. the HRT is law enforcement's equivalent to the Navy Seals for the Army's Delta Force the only unit in the United States that has a sophisticated explosive or thermal breaching capability is the FBI sausage Rescue Team but the HRT is already tied up handling the riot at Oakdale so I was going to a very difficult tactical assignment without the team I was used to commanding despite not having the hostage Rescue Team available to him Coulson must still develop a full-scale tactical rescue plan he faces several obstacles prisoners built to keep bad guys in you have barred doors you have steel Gates well these same type of things keep a rescue force from getting in I needed help from the military primarily from the Delta Force Delta Force is the Army's Special Operations unit but using them at the prison would be illegal the Posse Comitatus law was passed right after the Civil War and that law prevents the military from being involved actively with their personnel in civil law enforcement barring approval from the White House the FBI must rely solely on civilian law enforcement Weldon Kennedy assembles over 400 SWAT members at the prison had SWAT teams from all around the country Chicago New York as well as of course the immediate uh surrounding area we figured that based on the capability we had we were probably maybe an hour away from getting in to rescue the hostages we were all concerned that that they started killing hostages we were helpless to get in there and that's one of the reasons that that D Rosario and the other negotiators were working so hard to try to get somebody to talk to to calm the situation down but the negotiations are not going well none of the rioters D Rosario has spoken with has enough power to influence the detainees the negotiators need a different approach be here for a very long time unless we come up with a group of people in there among the detainees that can speak basically for if not all of them for the majority Rosario asks Prison employees which detainees command the most respect files of people who have opened to us and we look at Several of them and we decided on five or six men we went to the grading and called them by name and they came to the grading invited them to them to come our side and sit down at a table with us and talk with us the detainees agreed to talk with negotiators [Music] and we begin our first serious conversations in terms of how can we resolve this what is it that you're looking for the number one demand that they had was that ultimately Immigration and Naturalization Service conduct individual hearings for each and every one of them to remain in the United States it's a straightforward request Rosario agrees to pass it on to the Department of Justice as the meeting ends The Negotiator uses a bit of psychology to help solidify the group's standing As Leaders within the prisoner we decided to give these men the mail that had accumulated since before the riot began Century Daily Mail is an important link to the outside world they went back in there and we could literally hear the shouting uh Glee when these guys showed up with two bags full of mail we believe it created in the minds of the others that these guys could get things done forward and that's where it began after that we kept asking for the same men Rosario is beginning to make progress but negotiations go slowly foreign Hospital 27 trapped employees are out of time detainees are trying to break down the door of the hospital with a battery employees call warden petrovsky in the command center Gordon petrovsky relays the information to Weldon Kennedy detainees could break through the hospital doors at any moment we had 27 people in there and there was concern that once the hospital was taken over they might be injured or even killed so the ram is going we can hear it as a matter of fact banging the metal doors of the prison Bureau of Prison officials worry about what could happen if detainees get access to the drugs and narcotics stored in the hospital um what about right here Weldon Kennedy asks HRT Commander Danny Colson for a second assessment I said yeah we get about we can go over the wall we can defend the area with a perimeter and Slot them out over the walls and we're out of there coulson's biggest concern is that the detainees are watching news coverage of the riots inmates are watching TV to see what we were doing as much as they could and they could very well believe that a rescue of the entire prison was underway and then they could start executing hostages Hospital workers are moments away from becoming hostages or worse so here we have a huge dilemma do we go in and take those people out of the hospital and save them or do we let them be taken hostage Kennedy decides a rescue is too risky my decision was based on all the information that I had we will not go for the rescue I will not authorize the rescue and when he went back in and announced that to the Bureau of Prisons I remember one Bureau of Prisons official storming passed me and looking at me and said if those are FBI agents you'd go get them and I said no he wouldn't Weldon Kennedy wonders if he has just signed a death warrant for 27 innocent people [Music] for two days a riot rages at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary dozens of Cuban detainees now control the prison 27 Bureau of Prison employees are trapped in the prison hospital [Music] Kennedy special agent in charge of the FBI's Atlanta field office makes a tough decision if we entered the penalty if we if we tried to retake it there was a threat they were going to immediately Kill Them All Kennedy decides not to launch a rescue mission [Music] two hours after the decision communication is lost with the employees in the prison hospital if I knew that if anything happened to any one of those 27 people that I would forever live with that as being the person responsible guard stationed at the prison Towers gather intelligences detainees move hostages across the prison yard one guard calls the FBI command post with a disturbing development a group of detainees is dragging a settlement tanks into a basement where they can access the prisons utility tunnels Danny Coulson is the FBI's tactical Commander at the same they might be able to bring those tanks and get enough of them underneath our Command Post where the tunnels ran and cause an explosion which would have decimated the command post and maybe allowed them to escape Colson the FBI SWAT team prepared to go down into the tunnels the tunnels were designed for two purposes one is that all the utilities went through the tunnels the steam pipes the electrical pipes and they were big tunnels there were also ventilation tunnels that started big enough for a man to walk in standing up and ended up only inches high Coulson and SWAT team leader Leon Blakeney have no idea what they will encounter once they are inside prison Maps aren't reliable in communication with agents above ground is not possible makes their way through the underground Maze of pipes they encounter a group of detainees [Music] Leon Blake Blake once we got in the tunnels we just that in fact the Cubans were in there and oftentimes we'd come in very close proximity to them but then 10 feet of them there would be a bunch of them and we'd confront them and fortunately uh every time they'd turn around and run the SWAT team is unable to find the acetylene tanks in the fast underground systems but they are convinced the detainees are exploring the tunnels for a possible escapement we decided the tunnel system was was a real threat to the successful uh resolution of the crisis ultimately we were able to station SWAT teams down there the Chicago SWAT team I handled one part of the tunnel system and the Washington field office SWAT team handle another part of the tunnel system on day three of the standoff Danny Coulson receives intelligence from Agents with high-powered binoculars positioned around the prison the detainees have moved nearly all the hostages to a building known as the American dorm Coulson begins to formulate a tactical rescue plan what do you think outside the prison crowds gather families of the hostages the prison guards and even the detainees wait for information about their loved ones the media covers breaking news from the penitentiary there was hundreds of media people there there were networks there was local TV they established a tent city right across the street from the from the prison a single reporter and a simple error threatened to bring the standoff to a violent end special agent D Rosario the New York SWAT team was coming off shift and the Chicago SWAT team was coming on shift and they passed each other right at the steps of the administration building and it looked impressive because there was two very large groups of armed men all dressed in black local reporter in Atlanta is watching this and sees these 40 or 50 men dressed in swat gear going up the front steps and jumps to the conclusion and says so on live TV that well there they go looks like the FBI is going to retake control of the prison [Music] they take immediate action [Music] they brought several hostages out to the yard and for the benefit of our camera so we could see them they brought these hostages out and they poured gasoline over them and then they took their cigarette lighters and began clicking whilst literally screaming at us if you want to assault us go ahead as soon as you do we're setting fire to these men without knowing a young journalist may have just made a mistake that could cost the lives of nearly a hundred innocent people at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary FBI agents negotiate with Cuban detainees who have taken over the prison nearly 100 hostages hang in the balance on day three a journalist's error ignites a crisis FBI tactical Commander Danny Coulson all along our negotiators have been telling the humans that that we weren't coming in that we wanted to negotiate one of them surrender and now a reporter saying we're coming in the erroneous media report makes special agent D Rosario's job even tougher as he negotiates for the lives of the hostages we had brought them down to such a a reasonable level of emotion and when they thought that the FBI was about to be assault they literally lost [Music] we sent everybody to what we call phase line green which is the last position you are in before you do a rescue it was like a spark that was about to ignite this terrible Inferno of of of energy we had built up there I had to convince them that no such assault was going to take place and that you know if things were going so well and so positive why wouldn't we even think about assaulting after three tense hours the rioters agreed to continue negotiations and spare the hostages we're just lucky that our negotiators are able to calm them down and we didn't have any loss of life for Coulson the close call is a warning sign that the standoff could explode into a full-scale riot with very little provocation at the end of day three he obtains presidential approval to deploy Delta Force in a civilian crisis Special Operations team arrives in Atlanta disguised as FBI agents [Music] and all the breaching capability it would be necessary to get back into that prison to do a dynamic rescue they have the ability to use explosives to blow steel doors down or blow blocks out they have the ability to use thermal devices to cut in an instant through steel and cable the second thing I wanted was their sniper capability when we went into that prison if we had to go in I wanted the very best snipers I could find doing cover for my men as they went in the other thing is they have tremendous Medical Kit development they travel with a complete hospital they set up with the doctors nurses uh Emergency Equipment the latest state of the art everything if Delta Force or FBI teams engaged the detainees in combat the military hospital is prepared to treat any injury they can bring their doctors right in with us chest and do surgery right there in the premises if necessary for the next several days Delta Force snipers keep the detainees under constant surveillance there's a working 24 hours a day weapons [Music] but with all kinds of Steel inside the the prison and they're very resourceful with the equipment the ground weapons and the Spears each one of them must have had at least two weapon Delta Force sets up surveillance cameras all over the complex to track the movement of the detainees agents look for ways to get closer to the areas where the hostages are being held Cuban detainees decide to kill the hostages the Tactical Team must be able to launch an assault on a moment's notice guarding the American dorm this is not something where you play a video game and after it's over you hit your reset button and everybody's alive again you're talking about the lives of human beings here and you have a tremendous responsibility to try to get those people out Coulson and Blakeney go back into the tunnels underneath the prison one of the tunnels leads to the prison's electrical water it's located right outside the American dorm where most of the hostages are held we were literally on the other side of the window from inmates that were right across right across the walkway where the houses were being held by doing that we moved our response time from half an hour to 10 seconds it was a tremendous and tremendous leap in our capability at that point but the FBI SWAT teams in Delta Force in place they will be in a better position to protect the hostages if negotiations break down you start harming a hostage there's no reason for us to try to gain forcible entry to save these people we therefore will wait as long as it takes the rioters have enough food to survive for up to a year the day after Thanksgiving they erect a Christmas tree on the roof of the building that was very disheartening to us maybe they didn't intended psychologically to be that way we interpret it as we are going to be here through Christmas on day eight of the crisis prison guards stationed in the tunnel hear the sound of a drill one guard recognizes the voice of Thomas Silverstein the most vicious inmate in the federal prison system they think Silverstein is searching for a way out we knew he would absolutely kill a hostage if it would help him Escape Weldon Kennedy asks Danny Coulson to go back into the tunnels to apprehend Silverstein so he walked down the tunnel and and we did a tactical formation going down the tunnel and we had lights in our weapons suddenly noticed there was water on the floor and then the Water started getting deeper and it was over the tops of our shoes and over our ankles and up to our knees then what we finally realized is that that tunnel was actually flooded the water flooding the tunnels had been dumped by National Guard helicopters to fight the fires looking further into the tunnel he can see water fills it to the ceiling he knows there is no way Thomas Silverstein can be in there and what they were hearing was they were there were tubes ventilation tubes that were above the water line so the guards were actually hearing his voice but we knew he wasn't going to get out still Coulson knows that Silverstein is as dangerous inside the prison as he is on the outside he was a sociopath and he'd already he proven he would commit murder so had he done that had he attempt to harm a guard or or anybody else in there would have caused us to have to go in and launch a rescue we didn't want to have to launch and again we were faced with significant loss of life knowing Thomas Silverstein is such a dangerous Wild Card FBI negotiator D Rosario must convince the detainees to turn him over United States okay I emphasized and kept re-emphasizing the fact that Tommy Silverstein could become a very grave liability to the Cuban detainees and to their cause and to what they were trying to attain I was told that they would think about it Rosario tells the rioters that until Silverstein is back behind bars the hostages are in grave Danger as long as the vicious killer roams free the standoff could come to a sudden and violent end more than a week into the intense standoff with Cuban detainees at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary FBI negotiators worry that a dangerous American prisoner could jeopardize a peaceful end to the conflict what I suggested to them was that at some point or another it would be in your best interests to turn Tommy Silverstein over to us special agent D Rosario tries to convince the rioters that Silverstein is a serious threat to Prison employees who are being held hostage the American inmate is jeopardizing their position in the negotiations a short time later A large group of detainees appears at the sally port gate of the main cell block and there was about a hundred Cubans screaming waving their Sabers in the air [Music] see they can't Silverstein [Applause] [Music] and in the midst of all these screaming humans they threw literally threw Silverstein at us detainees tell agents how they captured Silverstein so they gained access to the pharmacy they took some narcotic they put it in a can of fruit cocktail which he was known to like and fed him fruit cocktail laced liberally with this drug which in effect knocked him out the FBI viewed Silverstein's capture as an act of good faith that pulled the salon they don't want to hurt the hostages show the negotiators that these humans were responsible they were willing to do things to cooperate with us in order to reach a common goal which is a great step in a negotiation process on December 1st a separate riot at Louisiana's Oakdale Penitentiary is resolved persuaded at Oakdale agreed to release their hostages if they review their cases the government of the United States threw the voice of the Attorney General told him you know it's not unreasonable to give you a hearing D Rosario offers the Atlanta detainees the same deal Acres have gotten exactly what they want still negotiations stole [Music] audio surveillance reveals the rioters think the FBI will not use deadly force to remove them from the prison that they would have a fighting chance to overpower Federal forces the humans thought that the FBI and assets would come in with night sticks and batons and just duke it out the next day Coulson decides to send the hostage takers an indelible message [Music] the detainee agrees to talk with Coulson and he said I need to go to the restroom so I said wait right here so I went around the barrier and I got the Marshall's SOG team and the New York City SWAT team I got them all up and I said put on all your gear and line up along the walls and look me and he walked around that barricade and when he walked down that Corridor he literally jumped off the ground I said this is not going to be a nightstick duo with your swords we're going to use deadly force the rioters agree to the terms of the surrender on day 12 of the standoff Cuban detainees their hostages I will never ever forget those guys coming through that Sally point and walking right by me and and the look of relief they were Haggard and they were tired and they were worn out but this great sense of relief and they're all smiling right here when we finally walked out with an osages not one of them having been harmed in any way we regarded that as a huge success after 12 intense days the Atlanta prison riot is over one of the most important things that sort of focused the American public on the plight of the Cubans and I think that was important they did have a story to tell they just told it in the wrong way after the riots all detainees are granted an ins hearing summer released others with criminal records or mental disabilities are repatriated back to Cuba the rest remain in prison [Music] [Applause] [Music] there are seven inmates break out of a high security prison in New Mexico state and local police call in the FBI they begin a desperate search to find these dangerous men the escapees all violent criminals threaten the public and terrify the community investigators must catch these men before they rob rape and kill again [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] in 1987 New Mexico Penitentiary housed hundreds of violent offenders rapists Killers men the juries put behind bars to protect Society on July 4th seven of those men escaped I'm Jim kelstrom from ahead of the FBI's New York office it was one of the worst Prison Breaks police in the FBI had ever faced for the innocent people caught in the prisoners paths it was the most terrifying ordeal of their lives the north unit of the penitentiary of New Mexico outside Santa Fe is a level six facility it houses some of the state's most violent offenders armed robbers rapists and murderers convicted killer William Gilbert is the assigned janitor for his cell block [Music] for Gilbert July 4th 1987 is Independence Day and get Wilson to open the door he forces his way into the control room get away Gilbert releases six other inmates [Applause] they join him in the control room [Applause] the inmates climb a ladder to an emergency hatch that leads to the roof take one of the guards with them as a hostage the inmates walk along the roof searching for an exit [Music] and for a spot with a perimeter fence meets the building entrance so they can jump to the ground once they get down they handcuff the guard to a fence disappear into the night [Music] oh foreign quickly frees himself and goes for help prison officials are stunned when they realize several dangerous inmates are now on the outside somehow Gilbert got a gun inside the prison he managed to get past the unit Security in less than two minutes because a budget cuts there was no guard in the tower overlooking the roof area where the men escaped also the security sensors on the roof were not functioning the prison officials have no idea if the inmates were aware of this or if they just got lucky [Music] the prison goes into lockdown officials begin a search of the immediate area around the prison bees only have a 15-minute lead the warden calls the New Mexico State Police they want the roads sealed off and every officer on the lookout for the escaped convicts not certain how many escaped guards conduct an emergency head count they find seven inmates are missing from the north facility home to the prison's most dangerous inmates next the entire prisoners searched to determine if any of the escapees are still hiding within the Prison Complex seven men are nowhere to be found storage airs clerical in the second location local police and Sheriff's departments are given the inmates descriptions and warned to be on the lookout prison officials brief investigators from the New Mexico State Police former Lieutenant mark radosevic we have to develop an investigative plan a public notification plan and an apprehension plan and they all have to be working simultaneously we fail to do them in an appropriate manner or in a timely manner there was the results could be devastating the prison is 14 miles from the heart of Santa Fe and several residential areas are within a few miles of the complex investigators fear the inmates are desperate enough to resort to violence the prison staff identifies the seven escapees William Gilbert is a four-time killer his death sentence was commuted to life in prison when New Mexico abolished the death penalty in 1986. James kinslow is a serial rapist and killer at the age of 22 he was sentenced to three life terms David Gallegos is serving a sentence for armed robbery [Music] Robert Davis is a former police officer turned Armed robber John Schmidt Hector Torres and Michael Romero are all violent criminals serving lengthy sentences [Music] the New Mexico State Police assigned David as soon as the case agent I can hear the other people from the Department of Corrections things all know it's Jimmy Kim's law oh no it's William Wayne Gilbert David Gallegos probably the most notorious and dangerous individuals at the penitentiary of New Mexico Deputy Warden Keith Norwood there's so many right sentences what do they have to lose if they're outside the perimeter fence and within the community they had nothing to lose the time factor in catching an escapee is critical you have 24 48 hours it catches individuals after that there's a good chance that they've gotten outside of you perimeter as minutes turn to ours state and local police expand the search area to a 10 mile radius around the prison Carlos Maldonado was a criminal investigator with the New Mexico State Police at the time of the Breakout we went into each cell and brought out clothing from each of the escapees and we sent them with the dog handler and they would go out in the perimeter of the facility and start seeing if they could pick up a trail the immediate need was to apprehend and recapture these individuals before they used any sort of violence against our citizens it's a stress level for us in the law enforcement Arena was was considerable this was one of the most intensive searches I've ever participated in we had individuals on three wheelers running around we had people on Horseback I mean if there was a way to search for for these inmates we'd look for it the state police had a chopper flying around and it had a flare with it Fleur forward looking infrared is a special camera mounted underneath the helicopter with that flare they were able to locate body heat off of the ground police helicopters coordinate with search teams on the ground we could provide immediate response to any potential sightings in the absence of sightings we identified areas where we thought individuals could be hiding out conducted searches we'd move tactical teams into those areas to conduct foot searches we had different teams starting a house to house search in near areas of the penitentiary and then there were other teams that were following up on the leads people that were calling in suspicious people what have you near the prison complex K9 units pick up the escapees trail they were able to maintain a scent Trail until they crossed Interstate 25 and then they lost it at the edge of the interstate the trail stops cold for law enforcement it's an ominous sign [Music] if they got a gun into the facility then more than likely they planned on a vehicle to escape off foot here in New Mexico it's kind of difficult because there's not a lot of water there's a lot of cactus there's snakes they're just all kinds of stuff that run around here at night the Corrections Department Mexico State Police the sheriff's department had a series of predetermined roadblock locations that in the event of an escape or an emergency would be manned in in a certain order law enforcement expands the search area and calls in offices from all over New Mexico to man the vast network of roadblocks [Music] not only do we have the state police but the Senate Santa Fe City Police Department Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department we have different tribal officers here we have tusuke uh Samuel defonso Santa Clara uh Santo Domingo I mean these all Encompass Santa Fe County and then I believe that we also also pulled in officers that were currently in class at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy we basically had an inner primitive roadblocks and then an outer perimeter of Roblox just in the event that they somehow got past the first group for law enforcement the pressure is building if these escaped killers are hiding out in the residential areas around the prison No One Is Safe in Santa Fe New Mexico seven men convicted of robbery rape and murder breakout of a Maximum Security Prison investigators suspect The Mastermind is William Gilbert a four-time murderer seven months before the Escape Gilbert had his death sentence commuted by the governor [Music] when an inmate escapes they're looking to get out and never come back former New Mexico State Police investigator David Osuna they may do just about anything to keep from being apprehended again and that includes the possibility of murder authorities need to make the public aware of the danger I've never heard of a correctional officer being shot and even just my opinion that they'll shoot anybody to get away the governor authorizes the use of the National Guard in The Fugitive hunt and gives a shoot to kill order to police searching for the seven men investigators know that the physical search for the escapees is only part of their task they need intelligence authorities pour over the fugitives records we're going to look at the segregation logs we're going to see how many phone calls they've made we're going to see who they've been Associated themselves with Lieutenant mark rodosevic the institutions keep volumes of Records anyone on a visiting list anyone that's come into the institution when individuals removed from cells where they went during the day can all be located in one form or fashion it takes time but you can find those records right now it seems the escaped inmates have every advantage people have a time on their side in terms of planning and strategizing and putting these things together Carlos Maldonado was a criminal investigator with the New Mexico State Police but as we know the best conceivable plans always have something going wrong so we're hoping for that human element to present itself investigators believe at least one other person must have helped the inmates Escape the weapon that the inmate had how did it get into the facility to begin with could there have been another accomplice that maybe was employed through the correctional facility we didn't know but we knew that the weapon gained or entered into the facility somehow they also suspect someone close to the inmates must be helping them now possibly family or friends they're going to need to change the clothes they're going to need food they're going to need Transportation they're going to need a means to communicate we have to know early on if these inmates are going to contact somebody who would it be it doesn't take any sort of sophisticated analysis or evaluation to know that it's probably going to be family members that are going to step out on the limb and risk their own freedom to try to help out a loved one that's kind of the common denominator and one that we're going to look at immediately investigators compile extensive lists of people associated with the escapees we wanted to know exactly who was visiting with who and to find out if maybe if it's another inmate that they showed particular interest in maybe their family members so we try to expand that net as much as we could without depleting resources to the point where you reach the point of diminish in return it's a huge undertaking the FBI joins the search former special agent in charge of the Albuquerque FBI office William bran what we can do is any out-of-state leads that are developed as a result of this investigation no matter where they are in the country we can have an FBI agent on scene within an hour or two to conduct the interviewer to gather the information thank you at the prison State Police investigators questioned the inmates but they have to do it carefully timing was very important when you interview inmates it's a different world everybody's timing everybody else they're watching if you spend more time with one particular inmate than you do with somebody else the first question they're going to ask I wonder why did he divulge any information and their life is on the line we had a timer set up the inmates would come in we'd talk to them for 20 minutes and regardless of where we were in the conversation we'd send them back the inmates of the north unit say they were not aware of the Escape Plan these guys kept that plan pretty confidential and for inmates not to know things what's going on especially in their pot that's pretty unusual investigators also question prison personnel learned the days before the breakout guards confiscated copies of State Police and prison radio codes from Robert Davis's cell hours after the Escape guards made another surprising discovery in Davis's cell [Music] aeronautical charts and maps of Mexico was that truly part of a plan to take a plane to hijack a plane to drive to Mexico or is it to send us off in a direction 180 degrees from where they're really at we sent an officer over to the airport in Santa Fe State Police ask airport security to be on the lookout Bob Davis although he's an inmate at the facilities a very intelligent individual this was not an heap of opportunity it was well planned high-risk individuals they were highly motivated investigators need help and appeal to the public do you want the local people to call in if they see one of these individuals police released the fugitive's mugshots and rap sheets to the Press and more importantly they'd know how dangerous these individuals are so that they don't allow them in their houses don't assist them in any way they were our eyes and ears they started airing footage on the history of each of the inmates thousands of calls overwhelm police hotlines anybody who saw anything unusual in Santa Fe or within 40 miles of Santa Fe we're calling the police departments or the Crime Stoppers hotline reporting suspicious or unusual activity while investigators sort through tips they worked to close off every Avenue for escape Santa Fe was completely locked down I mean everybody from the governor on down was exceedingly concerned about this the whole state of New Mexico was concerned about it the residents of Santa Fe are terrified because they're constantly living in a state of fear that somebody might break into their house somebody might cause harm to their family somebody could be killed it would just my opinion and the opinion of the investigators that these inmates were still in the Santa Fe area we felt very strongly that they had not escaped our perimeters two days after the escape a homeowner in Santa Fe reports a break-in at his house police find a prison jumpsuit the find indicates that some or all of the inmates may still be in the Santa Fe area then on that same day two miles from the penitentiary of New Mexico at a local race track a security guard makes his rounds a security guard who was on his toes saw this individual walking through Missouri come here come here there you go come on over here sir you confronted the individual and after a quick discussion realized this was probably one of our escapees he was able to handcuff the guy called local officials New Mexico State Police identified the trespasser as Hector Torres one of the seven escaped inmates [Music] but one captured there's always the possibility that the other ones are close by one inmate has been found authorities dispatches SWAT team to the racetrack to search for the other six convicts if the other men are hiding at the track police have them cornered but that is when these men are most dangerous outside of Santa Fe New Mexico seven convicts escape from a Maximum Security Prison one man is in custody and SWAT teams search a racetrack complex for the other six escapees there is no sign of the remaining fugitives investigators only lead to their whereabouts as Hector Torres the man they captured where are the rest of the guys Carlos Maldonado was a criminal investigator with the New Mexico State Police when we interviewed him he said he walked for hours didn't know where he was going just continued walking and walking and walking and he said before I knew it and he was so fatigued he was tired he wound up back at the penitentiary Torres claims he knew nothing about the Escape before Gilbert opened his cell he just knew that he was free for the moment and took advantage of that you don't know according to Torres four inmates stuck together Gilbert Davis kinslow and Gallegos but the rest pretty much just scattered in different directions investigators suspect these four prisons planned the Escape Gilbert only released Torres Romero and Schmidt to distract law enforcement former FBI special agent in charge William Brannon it was a pretty good thing to do as far as the ring leaders were concerned because they would put these people loose and out there and who didn't have a plan who didn't know where they were going to go this would certainly occupy law enforcement and running these individuals down [Music] three days after the escape police believe six of the inmates are still somewhere near the Santa Fe area Armed robber Michael Romero and violent offender John Schmidt four-time murderer William Gilbert Armed robber and former cop Robert Davis serial rapist James kinslow and Robert David Gallegos the men pose an incredible threat to the citizens in the area there was no doubt law enforcement mind that that there were going to be home invasions and that these people they had to seek food they had to seek shelter and they had to seek transportation to get out of the area on July 7th Authority's worst fears are realized in a suburb of Santa Fe a teenager babysits her young cousin she looked out the window and saw a man coming to the house so paranoid as everybody was in Santa Fe she was able to call the police to say that somebody suspicious was approaching oh no he's trying to break into [Music] what do you want incredibly the Intruder only steals a bag of bread then fleas [Music] arrived quickly investigators asked the teenager if she can identify her attacker former New Mexico State Police investigator David Osuna this young lady identified David Gallegos as one of the escapees were broken to her house SWAT teams Converge on the area [Music] law enforcement officers searched every home within a mile radius during that time looking for the escapees [Music] Gallegos and the other five fugitives are nowhere to be found I like that and the idea is that these inmates have broken into a home they're taking clothes and food that means they're trying to change their identity as an inmate they're trying to mix in with the general public and maybe go to a restaurant or do whatever some of the local people do but they're looking for a way to get out of the Santa Fe County area hey there's another sighting 85 miles south of Sabbath day the highway patrol officer sees something strange on the back of a flatbed truck when he pulls the truck over yo let me see your hands a man is hiding on the back slowly down slowly come on down hands up get your hands up funny [Music] it is one of the escapees former police officer turned Armed robber Robert Davis all right tell me about New Mexico State Police questions Davis Bob Davis was instrumental in Breaking this case wide open what Bob was able to tell us is how this plan developed from the initial stages all the way to the Escape and were probably the other three important escapees were currently at according to Davis Gilbert kinslow and Gallegos are hiding out together police suspected a relative of David Gallegos is helping them this relative was going to take him to a storage facility here in Santa Fe where they would be housed until the roadblocks were down and then a relative of David Gallegos would once again meet them bring them to Albuquerque and they would make their escape all the way to California former New Mexico State Police Lieutenant mark radosevic I think there was a sense from the investigative team and the management team that the information wasn't exact but it was credible based on Davis's statement the men planned to cross state lines New Mexico State Police contact the FBI ultimately I I think the FBI found that there was enough information that the individuals might have left the state of New Mexico then giving them Federal jurisdiction the FBI decided to file an unlawful flight to avoid confinement complaint this is called a ufac complaint the FBI's ufac casts a Dragnet Across the Nation agents around the country are now on the lookout for the convicts The Manhunt intensifies in New Mexico investigators turned their attention to trying to find the storage unit according to Davis it was rented under a fake name agents and police searched the records of every storage facility near the airport in Santa Fe they checked the names and addresses in the files all of which are valid the fact that we couldn't find Gilbert kinslore Gallegos indicated to us that they probably had some type of help and somebody was hiding them in the Santa Fe area agents and state police trying to find out who is helping the fugitives investigate the people closest to them the FBI tracked them down found their locations determined what type of people they were whether or not they could have been involved in assisting the people in the prison break and we eliminated a lot of these people as probably not having been involved but we came up with a handful who we thought might have been involved and among them was gallegos's brother-in-law the different agents including myself found themselves in Albuquerque a lot interviewing members of the David Gallegos family newspaper according to gallego's brother-in-law he has not been contacted by the fugitives he has no idea where they are investigators suspect he is lying several more days go by the roadblocks stay up hundreds of officers continue to search for the remaining five fugitives even if it's true that three of the escapees are on their way to California two remains somewhere in the Santa Fe area [Music] July 11th seven days since the Breakout a seventeen-year-old girl is house sitting in an exclusive neighborhood she has no idea she is not alone gunman suddenly appeared they demand the teenagers car keys did he hear nothing in Cena she notifies the Santa Fe police [Music] as an officer responds to the scene he spots two of the fugitives coming straight at him 410 vehicles the officer swerves just in time I'm so lucky you would think that both of them would get hurt and injured because it was a good crash it wasn't just like a little fender bender Michael Romero was captured but Schmidt is able to run from the scene [Music] he's hiding somewhere in the neighborhood possibly injured and desperate to do whatever it takes to remain free [Music] in New Mexico three prison escapees have been recaptured pork are still on the Run on the morning of July 11th a Santa Fe resident notices a blood trail leading to his garage he notifies police the house is in the neighborhood where Michael Romero was arrested and John Schmidt disappeared the night before officers follow the trail of blood to the homeowner's garage [Music] there they find John Schmidt this individual was arrested in a garage near the gardens mansion in downtown Santa Fe which caused a little bit of a stir former FBI special agent in charge William Brennan after the first four individuals have been apprehended the only people on the loose were Gilbert kinslow and Gallegos they are the three most dangerous escapees four-time murderer William Gilbert serial rapist James kinslow and Robert David Gallegos [Music] nearly three weeks after the escape the investigators are running out of time and money not only had the main players not being caught but now we were looking at a great expense and keeping these roadblocks up and using the Manpower that were available so finally a Command Decision was made pulled at ROBLOX David Osuna of the New Mexico State Police questions Robert Davis again Davis sticks to his story he was insistent that they're here in Santa Fe and that they're a storage shed you know and and obviously I believe him agents and police continue following the only lead they have so please step behind the vehicle they take another look at all the storage facilities in the Santa Fe area we finally end up at this one storage facility Alpha Airport Road all right ready let's go now nothing at this facility investigators find that several people occupied one of the units for an extended period of time investigators find a tiny hole drilled through the concrete wall of the storage unit could actually see although it was a very small hole traffic going by people going by and talking what have you Lieutenant mark radosevich the agents did check that particular location repeatedly went through the records but there were some cards that had been inadvertently stored in another file cabinet that were not provided to the agents on any of their visits again we were that close the discovery of the storage unit confirms the agent's suspicions that the fugitives are receiving outside help we felt that someone had to have contact with that group investigators Avail the remaining fugitives family members [Music] former New Mexico State Police criminal investigator Carlos Maldonado we use a technique where it's not aggressive but it's obvious obvious surveillance whether they look out the window they know that you're parked out there yeah he's on the move right now and it's to raise the stress level so hopefully mistakes are made Agents set up pin registers a device that enables them to track the numbers of all incoming and outgoing calls on the phone lines of a select number of the fugitives Associates and family members we had a pen register installed on a particular individual and on the 21st day that individual received a call from a motel in Albuquerque New Mexico we send an FBI agent and a state police agent to Motel um they show the desk clerk photos of the remaining fugitives yeah I have seen the desk clerk recognizes the three men she says they checked out of the hotel a few minutes ago police and FBI agents search the area there is no sign of the fugitives we recognize that we win Gilbert and Jimmy kinslow and David Gales had probably left the state didn't get any more tips no phone calls no nothing investigators believe California is a likely destination they know Gallegos has relatives there and recaptured escapee Robert Davis mentioned California authorities contact police agencies and FBI offices in California to be on the lookout for the three men they believe the Three Fugitives are traveling together Authority's most feared Jimmy Kinsler they just knew or felt or believed that because of his background being a stone cold killer and rapist that he was going to do that again the FBI's fears are Justified in Arizona kinslow has already identified a victim seven inmates make a daring escape from prison only three escapees remain free they are heading west and one is taking hostages [Music] convicted murderer and rapist Jimmy kinslow forces his way into an Arizona home he demands to know if there are any guns don't move former FBI special agent in charge William Brannon he obtained several handguns a shotgun and I believe four rifles so now he's very highly armed he forces the entire family into the car inslow orders the father to drive from Flagstaff to Barstow California a 350 mile trip foreign Barstow he holds the family hostage in a motel room three hours later he leaves the motel he takes the couple's 11 year old daughter with him he leaves in their car with the 11 year old and leaves the area mother and father are able to free themselves from their being tied up hurry please they notify the Barstow Police Department everything Barstow police immediately contact the FBI he's got my little girl I responded [Music] to the area and began looking for the car that kinslow was using former special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office Bucky Cox the fact that kinslow now was on the loose with an 11 year old girl notches this up considerably there there is no type of case in law enforcement that gets law enforcement's attention more than the possible harm to a child agents and police searched the streets looking for the abducted family's van two hours late they get an incredible break the 11 year old girl approaches a police car in Garden Grove California 115 miles from Barstow all right hold on a second that tells the police officer she was abducted in Flagstaff Arizona by an escaped convict along with the rest of her family what's happening the kidnapper drove her around for several hours before dropping her off behind a restaurant and says to her you stay here I'm going to come back if you're gone I'll find you well as soon as he left she disobeyed that order and walked out to the street and flagged down a patrol car she gives police an accurate description of Jimmy kinzo according to the girl the kidnapper is still driving her father's car she tells them she overheard him making plans to meet friends at a trailer park somewhere nearby [Music] foreign Grove Police spread out and searched the area looking for the abducted Family's car he spotted Garden Grove didn't approach that vehicle they backed off of it to establish the surveillance to see if they could catch someone coming to that vehicle they backed off in such a manner as not to tip anybody off that they were in the area and had any interest in that vehicle FBI SWAT team sets up a forward Command Post in a strip mall two blocks from the trailer park we didn't want to be in a position where we could be observed by anyone who might be going to that vehicle or have anything to do with that vehicle Garden Grove detectives maintain surveillance on the van all of a sudden an excited voice came across the radio the lights are on in the van and he's and it's fired up meaning somebody started the band turn the lights on in seconds later the van is moving it's rolling let's back it up [Laughter] okay they pull out in Pursuit investigators thought the vehicle was empty apparently Kinsler was inside all along the convicted murderer and rapist is finally in their sights the FBI had to make a decision that they want to follow the car see where it took them to to try to capture Gilbert and Gallegos or should they immediately arrest Kinsel they made the absolute correct decision and decided to immediately take down kinslop FBI agents in Garden Grove Police Converge on all four sides of the vehicle van in front of him he's got FBI behind him I think there's a Garden Grove patrol car behind him [Music] coming the opposite way and turn in towards the side so he has no place to go at this point kinslow is outmanned and outgunned but police fear this ruthless murderer will not go down without a fight [Music] in Garden Grove California agents and police have dangerous fugitive Jimmy kinslow cornered investigators fear they are in for a fight Jimmy kinslow finally gives up all right [Music] you have the right to remain silent anything you say again I will be used against you in a court of law you have the right to have an attorney you can't afford one what would be appointed people investigators search the fugitive's car and make a chilling discovery former special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office Bucky Cox we looked down and there was a 357 Magnum pistol revolver that was laying on the floorboard on the driver's side investigators find additional weapons in the back of the vehicle kinslow is interrogated at the Garden Grove Police Station we need to find agents need to know where the remaining two fugitives are okay the more you help us at least turn up the pressure although kinslow has nothing to lose he starts to talk the fire station former FBI special agent in charge William Brannon [Music] there's no honor among these guys kinslow's told us where Gilbert and Gallegos were according to kinsloo the last two fugitives are staying at a motel in Garden Grove California he doesn't know the room number but he can describe the room's location [Music] to draw a sketch of the motel another room and then he also tells us that another family member is there that it helped Gallegos and Gilbert and actually brought them to the motel Gilbert and Gallegos are on the second floor the family member is in the room directly beneath them from their command post two blocks from the motel the FBI decides whether to raid the rooms fugitives are armed they have nothing to lose and the motel is full of innocent people [Music] based on even information we could get in law enforcement terms burned they'll spot us and now we've got a really a dangerous situation on our hands conversely if we hit the wrong room then it's going to wake up the whole neighborhood and we've got a dangerous situation on our hands so we weighed the options it's a risky operation but losing the fugitives is even riskier [Music] the FBI decides to raid the motel rooms well here we had two separate rooms one where the remaining two escapees from New Mexico are located in the other one where the people who assisted or facilitated the Escape are staying let's do this thing so what we decided is we are going to do a SWAT entry on the room with the two fugitives and we are going to do basically a knock and an ounce on the room down below as soon as the flashbang goes off at 6 30 a.m an FBI SWAT team forcibly enters room 243 at the motel no knock was made device called the flashbang was thrown in it immediately disorients whoever is in the room [Music] William Gilbert and David Gallegos are quickly taken into custody beside the motel room agents find two sawed-off shotguns and a revolver along with a large quantity of ammunition I think once these three individuals got to the motel they probably figured that they had pulled it off and that they were going to get off scot-free but not so because technology and law enforcement caught up with them all seven fugitives are finally back in custody [Music] he was an exhilarating experience when they were caught because the team had done their job it was great on July 31st 27 days after the escape the last of the fugitives are returned to the penitentiary of New Mexico their breakout had been months in planning to this day no one knows how Gilbert got a gun inside the prison to the Escape New Mexico built a new prison with more modern security features thanks to the hard work of the New Mexico law enforcement agencies and the FBI Michael Romero Robert Davis John Schmidt and Hector Torres face additional charges William Gilbert Jimmy kinslow and David Gallegos will spend the rest of their lives in prison [Music] [Music] he starts out cool simply demanding cash but then fiery violence he's fast tough and well protected investigators vowed to catch him and risk their own lives to do it at every turn they face dangerous surprises from a violent felon on the Run [Music] right [Music] in the southwest one cereal bank robber claimed his loot went to the poor but this thief was no folk hero he had a gun and was willing to shoot I'm Jim calstrom farmer head of the FBI's New York office the gunman was desperate to stay free a threat to anyone in his way the FBI and U.S Marshals teamed up to capture a resourceful Criminal who proved he would never stop fighting Albuquerque New Mexico on December 29 1998 in the city's Northeast section for the employees and customers of a local bank the day started much like any other what they did not know was that a man who had already robbed One Bank earlier that morning was about to make another withdrawal sir when the robber approaches the teller he asks her to give him money from the cash drawer trained to always comply with a robber's request and avoid any dangerous confrontation the teller gives the man what he asks for and more eclipse the man a bundle of cash containing an exploding die pack the robber slips out as quietly as he entered the alarm goes out to local police and because bank robbery is a federal offense the FBI special agent Scott Campbell and John tanberg respond from the FBI's Albuquerque resident agency it begins as a routine call for special agent tanberg Albuquerque has had per capita more than its share of bank robberies in the late 90s we were in the neighborhood of 90 to 100 bank robberies per year [Music] this case will be anything but routine agents learned the Bandit was strangely calm most the people in the bank had no idea that it had even been robbed there was no commotion there was no what they would think and had seen previously on TV bank robberies with shots fired or people yelling the tellers remember nothing distinctive about him yeah well this physical description that we received was of a white male possibly Hispanic dark hair average build wearing sunglasses fairly neat haircut wearing a ball cap and not very distinctive clothing despite a thorough examination technicians recover no usable prints from the teller counter or doors appreciate that they find no other physical evidence investigators suspect an electronic witness may have observed the robber the primary security countermeasure that a bank will have would be surveillance cameras sometimes they're high quality sometimes they're not in this case the cameras were not of much help they show the robber but the quality is not good we didn't retrieve any significant information from the surveillance tapes of either those two bank robberies they weren't particularly good images we didn't get a good angle of the face I believe that there may have been a good shot of the top of his ball cap but nothing that gave us any significant facial features the robber simply walked into two banks in one day took their cash and walked out he left no Prince no evidence and beat the bank's surveillance systems he left the FBI nothing that would help them identify him there wasn't a whole lot of information that we had to work with we didn't believe that this was somebody that had uh hit any of the Albuquerque area banks in the past we were not in a position to connect him to anything that had occurred prior to this so in our minds this could potentially be a traveler agents spread out across the area and talk with everyone who lived near the bank they are looking for anyone who may have seen the robber anyone who could give them a positive ID [Music] agents get a break when they find a witness a neighbor who lived behind the bank saw a man running out of the bank and around the corner back behind the bank and then a cloud of Red Mist [Music] agents realize it must have been the die pack [Music] it's their man this witness provided a full license plate number of a vehicle registered in the state of Nevada [Music] this confirms their suspicions the robber does not appear to be from Albuquerque with that license plate we ran through our Dispatch Center registration in Nevada and came up with a registered owner and an address of the vehicle was registered at but the address is to a motel off the Las Vegas Strip perhaps a cover to throw off the cops hit a dead end [Music] they try another attack and run the plate number through a credit bureau okay [Music] the FBI finds the loan is registered to another address in Wyoming agent there interviews the registered owner okay he asks him where he was on the day the robberies occurred the man replies he was in Wyoming interviewing for his job as a postal worker an alibi corroborated by his supervisor he was a law-abiding citizen and did not have any knowledge of any uh criminal activity that was that was associated with his vehicle that uh was in Albuquerque the man explains he no longer has possession of the car his ex-wife Carlita uses it and she lives in Albuquerque [Music] we eventually Tracked Down the ex-wife of the vehicle's owner we made contact with her and spoke to her about her vehicle where it had been who had control of it who has other keys to it and where it was the previous day during the time frame of the bank robberies Carlita says that on the day of the robbery she was at work [Music] explains she has a big family in the area and many people borrow her car she did not know who had her car the previous day and that it should have been parked in its parking spot near her apartment she did however tell us that the vehicle was a little lower on gas than what she had left it at Carlita gives her consent for a search remembering from the previous day that the dye pack had exploded we thought perhaps there would be evidence of the red dye inside the vehicle however we did not find any it's possible that the witness got the license plate number wrong [Music] possible but not likely I had reservations with what she had told us simply because it was too coincidental that this vehicle that was seen as the getaway vehicle at the robbery the previous day and registered in the state Nevada was actually located in Albuquerque no hard evidence links Carlita to the robberies but something about this seems suspicious thank you so much agents suspect there is some connection although should not remain a suspect she remained a person that we wanted to stay in contact with in a person of interest in these investigations foreign police and the FBI have exhausted their leads the robberies go unsolved and then several months later the mysterious Bandit strikes again [Music] banks in a very short period of time his Mo Remains the SE the same he gets in gets the cash and gets out never leaves any evidence behind [Music] beginning around the middle of March of 1999 and continuing up through the end of May of 99 approximately six Banks were robbed from the evidence that we had obtained in the form of video surveillance descriptions by the witnesses and the bank tellers and just general demeanor we came to the conclusion that we had a Serial bankrupt for working in Albuquerque local police and the FBI must identify the lone Bandit and stop him before someone gets hurt a Serial bank robber terrorizes Albuquerque New Mexico sometimes striking multiple banks in one day local police and the FBI worked together to identify him and stop his Rampage as the bandits spree continues he grows more aggressive according to FBI special agent John tanberg to take more money by going behind the teller counters and causing the tellers to take money out of several teller drawers the robber becomes more unpredictable and violent agents begin to fear that the longer he continues robbing banks the more likely someone is going to get hurt there were occasions when it appeared that the offender may be utilizing narcotics because there were occasions when he was quite physical with people that seen very inappropriate it appeared that the offender was becoming more and more desperate in that regard he's now much more willing to use his gun he surprises tellers by announcing the money will go to Starving Children in Mexico after one robbery in June the FBI gets better security camera photos of the gunman [Music] with no physical evidence the photos are agents best lead we like to have public interest as active as possible when we have a Serial offender we'll get to cooperate into place the information into the newspaper columns television people will very often respond to Crime Stoppers and call-in tips suppose the robber tends to hit and sprees and all the robberies took place in the Northeast quadrant of Albuquerque the agents stake out banks in the area they hope they can set a trap the robber will walk into it but because they have so little to go on the agents must rely on blind luck they follow up on every tip but nothing pans out [Music] the robber was getting more and more active it was uh becoming more and more desirable to arrest him and Prosecuting and that becomes a little bit frustrating when you have an offender that that you're not able to identify even though you have done your best efforts to do so the robber never touched anything to produce any fingerprints that we could use as evidence the robber didn't leave anything behind the FBI will need to appeal to the public for help at one point they need a hook to capture the Public's imagination [Music] FBI bank robbery Squad assigns nicknames to serial robbers the media will latch onto the case a little bit better sometimes that way and it gets the public interest up FBI dubs this one robbing the hood for his dubious claims that the stolen cash goes to Starving Children right on and out with each new robbery local media jumps on the story and the Bandit likes the attention but the rubber seemed to Revel in the name that we attached to him he seemed to like the idea of being called Robin the hood there were occasions when he walked in and walked up to the victim teller and said hey you know who I am I'm robbing the hood despite the name agents doubt the thief is giving his money away they suspect that like most bank robbers he uses the cash to finance a drug habit or other criminal activities whoever he is he's good leaving no clues behind agents keep watching and waiting for him to strike again seems they're at the mercy of the bank robber after 14 robberies the only possible lead to Robin the hood is Carlita's car FBI special agent Scott Campbell keeps talking with her spoke to her on the phone probably five or six times throughout the eight months because in the back of my mind I knew that she had something to do with the robberies or she can provide some information or evidence that would lead us to the robber finally in August 1999 the case breaks open when Carlita by now eight months pregnant contacts agent Campbell yes he calls me and says we need to talk I have some information that'll solve the cases she says the robber is her husband Byron Chubbuck she'll explain more in person and so I make a time to meet her the next morning at her apartment agents pulled chubbuck's record and learn he's got a history of violence and gang affiliations Carlita said she can talk now because Chubbuck moved to St Louis agents had offered a more secure location for the interview but she declined she said that she didn't feel that there was any danger that uh she was with him when he had loaded his truck and had departed for St Louis so she felt safe and secure being interviewed at her apartment and she insisted that we interview her there still agents approach with caution wanting to avoid a surprise confrontation with Chubbuck prior to going in the apartment I made a phone call into the apartment to see if he was around and if she had any other information on him since we spoke the evening before once we were comfortable that he was not around I radioed into our dispatch using our car radios to tell them the address we were going to be at [Music] as we entered the apartment agent Hamburg and I just made a quick cursory look around to ensure that no one else was there Carlita positively identifies the man in the bank photos as Byron Chubbuck she confirms he's a member of Albuquerque's notorious brewtown gang and says lately he's been growing more violent she told us that the reason why she was coming forward at this time is that she was scared for her life and that of her unborn son way out of hand Carlita pleads with him to arrest chubbock quickly he had threatened her and other family members that even if he wasn't around if they ever talked to law enforcement that his gang would uh kill them and other members of their family or else create great harm to their family the confrontation agents wanted to avoid his seconds away [Music] when a violent robber hits 14 banks in the Albuquerque area police and the FBI struggle to ID the man [Music] the case stalls until a witness comes forward FBI agents interview the wife of Prime Suspect Byron chubbard [Music] Carlita tells special agent John tanberg that she feels safe to talk because chubbuck's left the area but she's wrong during the course of the interview we heard a vehicle pull up outside she looked out the window and said it's him the agents decide to hide in the bedroom to avoid a confrontation that could make Chubbuck turn violent special agent Scott Campbell we'd already made plans prior to the interview that should he be there or we encounter him we would affect the probable cause arrest or a warrantless arrest when we moved into the bedroom both myself and agent Amber unholstered our weapons to affect this arrest should have come to that I couldn't see him from where I was standing but I could hear his voice also I could see her and I knew that she was telling him that we were in there [Music] the agents have no way out confrontation with his violent Thief is inevitable when you uh undergo this type of activity you time changes its dimension in Split Second seemed like about five minutes foreign [Music] two rounds through the common wall back at Chubbuck or at least where I thought he was he uh paused in his shooting for a period of time and I had become aware that possibly I have a dozen rounds had gone off and it appeared that he was reloading and I was prepared in a position to shoot him if he did come into the room figure appears thinking that was chubbock I began to pull the trigger Ed her and I was able to deflect the shot as the trigger was being squeezed off [Music] stay right here they clear the place he's gone it's amazing that that there weren't any injuries sustained by myself and and Scott Campbell I think we uh both acknowledged that uh the greater power was watching over us that day because we had uh bullets that were coming through the wall at us firing all through the room and uh we didn't didn't sustain any injuries of significance Target house thank you foreign Carlita is unharmed though the bullet was so close it cut off some of her hair the agents stay where they are not knowing where Chubbuck was we made the decision to stay inside the apartment where at least we had a defensive uh firing position set up should he return to the apartment local police are called to the scene they rushed to the aid of the FBI agents and secure the area the Albuquerque Police Department uniformed officers arrive and set up a little perimeter for us we make contact with them verbally and then we get out of the apartment agents send the pregnant woman to a hospital to be checked out police fan out across the neighborhood to find out if anyone saw chubbard leave the area no one reports seeing him go and his car is still there Lieutenant Terry Ward was in charge of the Albuquerque Police Department's special investigations division it wasn't looking good that this was going to end fully given his past his willingness to fight with police officers the fact that he had just engaged in a gunfight with armed Bureau investigators gave us an indication that this might be his you know how to say a Last Stand then an officer spots Chubbuck at the window of another apartment in the same building and a standoff begins Chubbuck is two apartments down from Carlita's completely surrounded but not ready to give up [Music] the Albuquerque Police Department had their hostage negotiator on the scene tried to work with him trying to get him to surrender but there was no response the authorities outside don't know it yet the gunman keeps moving making his way back to the scene of the shootout three tense hours there's no response from Chubbuck but then Chubbuck makes a break from Carlita's apartment down with a bean bag round from a shotgun that's a a round that's not a lethal form but it will stun a person amazingly throughout the entire ordeal no one is injured [Music] investigators arrest chubba can transport him to the FBI office for booking Byron Chubbuck pleads guilty to 14 counts of bank robbery plus assault on federal agents and is sentenced to 40 years in prison agents recover only a few dollars of the cashy store we never believed that money was being used to feed Starving Children in particular in retrospect after getting to know Byron Chubbuck the last thing he would do would be to feed Starving Children his main interest was to feed his narcotics habit but Chubbuck doesn't plan to spend the next 40 years in jail December 21st 2000 he announces he wants to fire his court appointed lawyers and withdraw his guilty plea a calculated move one which requires him to attend a court hearing U.S Marshals senior inspector Eric neighbor after the hearing that day um he was being transported back to the Santa Fe Correctional Facility in Santa Fe County he had obtained in handcuff key and was able to unlock his restraints from his hands and from his ankles and was able to kick the fan window out and Escape through the van window the driver heard a bang and when he looked to see where it was he thought he was in the traffic accident of some sort saw that Byron was halfway out the window the guards tried to stop him but he's moving fast and they can't leave the other prisoners Byron Chubbuck is on the Run on December 21st 2000 convicted bank robber Byron Chubbuck Escapes in Albuquerque New Mexico U.S Marshals senior inspector Eric neighbor shots fired at Bayern chubbock after he escaped by the correctional officers but we don't believe that he was struck by any of those rounds Albuquerque Police helped coordinate a massive Manhunt there was a huge amount of law enforcement activity trying to find him there was dog searching the area and there was helicopters there was door-to-door searches there was a lot of police officers on the ground trying to find him a helicopter systematically searches for Chubbuck by flying in an aerial grid above the area where he escaped it is clear that Chubbuck is dangerous the FBI knows that A desperate Man On The Run is capable of anything they need to find him quickly before innocent people are harmed time passes with no sign of the fugitive they are forced to widen the search area investigators from six agencies tried to lock the area down and set up roadblocks they searched Street by Street house by house despite the massive effort they come up empty soon they learn why a local woman calls police to report she'd been carjacked she says an hour earlier a man fitting chubbuck's description forced her into her car he ordered her to drive him to the outskirts of town where he released her unharmed [Music] she's able to tell us where she dropped them off and what time and gives a description of what he was wearing at that time investigators focused the search there but find nothing and call Off The Manhunt at 9 00 pm by now it's been hours he could be hundreds of miles away [Music] we were not able to locate where he was at that night and we shifted gears a little bit to go from a Manhunt to more of an investigation to try and locate where he might be with interviews of family members and gang members and things like that chubba could not have disappeared without help investigators pressure every known associate of The Fugitive yet all they get is resistance look the Infamous brewtown Gang will not give up one of their own because of chubbuck's desperate violent actions the U.S Marshal Service places him on their 15 most wanted list after chubbock escaped he was highly motivated to keep himself from being captured again I believe that he would use any means at his disposal to keep himself from being put back into jail which made him a dangerous person for days the FBI watches places where the gang is known to hang out they're looking for any suspicious activity and they continue talking to people on the street the FBI also monitors any recent bank robberies to see if Chubbuck has struck again but the robber is strangely silent for more than a week There's no sign of The Fugitive law enforcement knows Chubbuck has a heavy drug habit soon you'll need cash for more methamphetamines a drug that makes the user feel powerful paranoid and super aggressive to get the money authorities believe he will begin robbing banks again which will Aid the effort to locate and apprehend The Fugitive while under the influence of the drug there's no telling what he'll do next we felt that it was he was the highest priority to get back into custody [Music] with some investigators suspect Chubbuck is no longer in the country Albuquerque Police Department Lieutenant Terry Ward he had connections in Mexico he could have easily fled to Mexico and hidden there I didn't really think he would stay in the metropolitan area because his name and face was very familiar to everybody on January 16 2001 a year and five months since his last Heist Chubbuck bursts back onto the scene in his old neighborhood he Robs a stunning six Albuquerque banks in a single day a week later he robs three more over two days come on come on come on special agent John tanberg has chased him from the beginning chubbock was uh very very Brazen robber he robbed banks that had been previously robbed by him he didn't seem to care that the uh employees knew him already it's time he brags to his victims that he's robbing the hood and each time the police and FBI find no evidence nothing that could lead them to their elusive bank robber became more and more successful in his robberies and he was more and more in the position to taunt law enforcement we didn't receive significant physical evidence during the course of these robberies and they occurred very often with each new Heist the fugitives Legend grows the investigation trying to apprehend Bayern chubbock was the biggest case in Albuquerque in recent time he was featured almost every night on the local news with pictures and photographs and Crime Stoppers telephone numbers and things like that to try and help apprehend him and we've got a lot of phone calls about his whereabouts or a possible whereabouts although agents Chase every lead Chubbuck remains elusive respects members of his brewtown gang are protecting him a dangerous band of hardened criminals the Gang has the network to hide a fugitive and the means to fight back Albuquerque investigators are hunting for Byron Chubbuck a violent bank robber on the run after a Brazen escape from jail he's being chased by multiple agencies according to U.S Marshals senior inspector Eric neighbor McCarthy Police Department the FBI and the United States Marshal Service entered into a task force to Aid each other in apprehending Byron javik we pulled our resources together so there wouldn't be three different departments searching for the same person despite a massive Manhunt Chubbuck is continuing to rob banks in Albuquerque Albuquerque Police Department Lieutenant Terry Ward he was robbing banks and getting away with it so as long as he kept getting away with it he would keep doing it and that was one of the reasons we we got together with the other agencies and that he had to be stopped he wasn't going to stop on his own he wasn't going to leave so he was still creating a problem for us curing warrants investigators tapped the phones of several of chubbuck's Associates foreign [Music] conversation suggests the fugitive is fled across the border to Mexico the FBI alerts the border patrol and contacts the Mexican federal police asking them to watch for Chuck [Music] then agents intercept calls that indicate Chubbuck is back in Albuquerque but the conversations are vague with no direct reference to where he's hiding [Music] investigators maintain pressure on the brewtown gang making it clear that no one will have a moment's rest until Chubbuck is back in custody it works early in the morning on February 5th 2001 someone drops off a letter at a local radio station it's from Byron Chubbuck TJ trout is the morning DJ for Albuquerque's 94 Rock it was um intense it I mean there were a lot of emotions going on when we get this it's like holy look at this with this this is from Byron chubbock the note said uh he had um conditions for his surrender that he wanted to get out to the public but he wanted to be interviewed on 94 Rock he wanted us to interview him on the morning show he wanted to uh implicate some law enforcement individuals who he thought treated him badly and tried to kill him and he wanted all this out and if all this was out he would peacefully surrender we didn't know if it was from him we didn't know if it was just from a prankster we didn't know and right after I got the note I went on the air with the note and I said look we just received a note from somebody and if you are who we think you are you have to call me back at this certain number and I'm going to ask you a few questions and that immediately the phone rang ERS yes I can okay he sounded agitated and he sounds like he was nervous you know he's like like any other guy would be this looking over his shoulder here where you go you're saying was that a cop is that a cop if you want me to put this on the air the helicopter dude is that the fit no it's not there's helicopters he complains authorities are out to murder him come on give me a break these guys started to shoot out in my house with my pregnant wife the call ends ominously is there any way that we can contact you concerns and all kinds of cool stuff it's clear the fugitives prepared for another fire fight the station immediately calls the authorities I believe chubbock contacted the radio station to bolster his ego a little bit I think he had a need to be in the public eye with um the publicity that was surrounding his Escape anytime they do things to gain attention helps the police department if they crawl underground and we never hear nor see of them again it makes it much more difficult to catch them but if they're doing things like robbing banks seeking publicity it gives us tabs that we can start from to keep looking for also Scott the fugitive's ego might be his undoing as agents now have a solid lead and physical evidence lab technicians find chubbuck's fingerprint on the letter confirming it's authentic investigators review the security footage from the radio station we could tell first of all the person who delivered the letter was not Byron chubbock we knew what he looked like and this wasn't that individual but we did have a good clear picture of the individual that delivered it this eventually improved the straw that broke the camel's back one police detective recognizes the man is a sometime member of the brewtown Gang his name is Ronald Baker our mindset was that we would follow this individual without his knowledge and he would lead us to Byron Chavez the Albuquerque gang squad sets up surveillance on Baker's mobile home at one point they see a man who resembles Chubbuck but it's too dark for a positive ID somehow they have to get inside that trailer [Music] on the trail of fugitive Byron Chubbuck Albuquerque authorities surveil a mobile home they think he's hiding him at the same time agents learn one of chubbuck's gang Associates has been arrested on state carjacking charges it's a good deal if you agree to wear a wire they use tougher Federal sentencing rules to pressure him to cooperate according to special agent John tanberg we decided that it would be a simple matter to charge him federally so that there would be a penalty of significance that could be utilized as a means by which he would be persuaded to work for us the man doesn't want to do it worried about gang retribution but with no parole in the federal system the man is looking at years of prison time investigators offered a revert to State charges which would make him eligible for parole if he cooperates in the end his fear of prison prevails and he agrees to turn informant as to why are the informant with a recording device and send him into the trailer to see if chubbuck's there don't think about the water we'll give you time to get comfortable with it but please guys it's a dangerous assignment if the gang realizes he's cooperating they'll likely kill him on the spot all right now [Music] over the wire investigators listen as the informant tries to calm down the people inside [Music] tense something's definitely going on the informant asks about chubbock that the men say he's not there nobody back there when the tension grows it's too much it's time for the informant to get out [Music] at the police station investigators debrief the informant [Music] what are you trying to do they're convinced Chubbuck is hiding in the trailer and persuade the informant to go back in standby undercover officers stand by ready to move in if anything goes wrong [Music] it's okay man he's all right eventually everyone calms down and no one gets hurt man I need a place to stay mate can I crash ing man I hope you're all right man I'm sorry about that I'm just gonna go I'm gonna tell my buds man I'll be right back senior inspector Eric neighbor he exited the mobile home and informed police that fire on topic was indeed inside that mobile home Albuquerque Police Department Lieutenant Terry Ward the informant told us that chubbock was very paranoid and very jumpy most career criminals are paranoid they trust very few people they're constantly looking behind their backs they keep very low profiles they move quite often so they are paranoid and sometimes it can even be a drug-induced paranoia [Music] immediately members of Albuquerque PD's specially trained tactical arrest teams respond to the call hoping the takedown will end peacefully but well prepared if it doesn't members of Albuquerque's gang unit and repeat offenders program move in stealthily [Music] the men refuse orders to stop [Applause] [Music] investigators Scrabble to contain chubbock determined to stop the dangerous Fugitive but Byron Chubbuck has never given up easy detective Richard Lewis speeds toward the scene seconds later Lewis spots the car chubbocks in when detective Lewis realizes the vehicle coming at him was indeed Byron job the person we had been looking for he made a decision to stop the vehicle right then and there Lewis decides to force a crash [Applause] okay pull it out oh my God stay on the ground stay on the ground stop moving forward the other officers approach and find chubbock lying motionless a tech 9 semi-automatic handgun beside him a single Bullet to the chest but he's alive officers arrest his accomplice Ronald Baker still dazed from the crash [Music] detectives then trace the rounds that missed several pierced a nearby trailer while residents slept inside but when police check on them everyone's fine there was a great sense of relief because this investigation and the publicity and all the long hours had come to this Crescendo and it had ended as it should the good guys weren't hurt and the bad guy was hurt and he was in custody special agent Scott Campbell in the end Chubbuck showed his true colors he wasn't the robin the hood mythical character that we dubbed him as and he started believing he was actually the violent felon that he is Chubbuck is later convicted of multiple charges including Escape robbery and assault with a weapon a federal judge adds 40 years to his original 40-year sentence [Music] fully recovers from the gunshot wound that stopped his crime spree during the investigation during our research and our background check I had the opportunity to read some of his correspondence it's a very intelligent man he could be a very successful civilian living a very productive life but for some reason he chose to go into robbing banks and he was very good at it for a short while and his greed and his ego is eventually what led to his downfall Byron Chubbuck was quick to fire threatening agents lives but because investigators never gave up he's no longer a risk to anyone outside the prison system [Music] foreign [Music] October 8 1985 marked the beginning of a string of brutal robberies that rocks our food two masked men used military weapons in a violent spree that threatened innocence but no one knew who they were or where they would strike next before the FBI could stop them lives would be lost and law enforcement would be changed forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] in Miami a gang of robbers targeted Banks and armored cars They Carried assault weapons and weren't afraid to use them they struck during the day and sometimes twice a day for a while they seemed Unstoppable I'm Jim calstrom Farm ahead of the FBI's New York office we knew that to stop these criminals would require stealth Ingenuity and perhaps a little luck no one expected to become one of the bloodiest chapters in FBI history Miami Florida 1985. two FBI agents it seemed to city under siege each week there were three to five bank robberies kidnappings major drug deals and shootings were everyday occurrences but just when it seemed things couldn't get any worse a new breed of Outlaws hit the streets and turned the Miami crime wave into a war [Music] on October 8th an armored car Courier made a scheduled pickup at a Steak and Ale Restaurant the driver waited for his partner to return unaware that two heavily armed men were also waiting nearby as the guard approached the rear of the truck the gunman Advanced with military-style precision the driver refused to open his door [Music] he drove away following company policy the subjects retreated to a getaway car and attempted to camouflage their escape with a military-issue smoke grenade [Music] the Metro Dade County I respond robberies of armored cars and Banks fall under FBI jurisdiction the supervisor of the Miami FBI's violent crimes unit was special agent Gordon McNeil there were basically no clues as far as who these individuals were we had absolutely no idea uh no way to go no one had seen them without the uh the black hoods over their faces they wore gloves on both hands one piece of information Witnesses did provide was the license number of the getaway car agents tracked the number and learned the car had been stolen a month before but the lead was a dead end [Music] the robbers had escaped with only twenty eight hundred dollars but their use of military weapons and Commando tactics convinced agent McNeil they would probably strike somewhere in Miami again but where and when [Applause] the answer came just eight days later at a busy Supermarket on South Dixie Highway another armored car arrived to make a scheduled pickup Courier returned to the truck with several money bags filled with cash and receipts he never saw the car that came around the corner [Music] Tempe Metro Dade Police and the FBI quickly responded to the alarm these men were clearly not afraid to use deadly force The Courier would later die from his injury [Music] while he was taken to the hospital agents interviewed his partner as he described the gunman it quickly became obvious they were probably the same men responsible for the previous robbery at the Steak and Ale Restaurant there's no money taken in that particular robbery but there were a number of shots fired so the Annie was still going up here as far as I was concerned because of uh you know the continued use of violence you know by these two individuals ballistics evidence would further confirm the connection between the two robberies investigators found double odd Buckshot from a 12-gauge shotgun 45 caliber bullet casings and 223 shell casings the 223s seemed most significant and the identification division of the Firearms unit of the FBI laboratory compared those two shell casings and said they were fired from the same weapon so we definitely had a link now between the Win Dixie attempt and the Steak and Ale Robert two violent robberies were linked to the same masked gunman but there were no leads to their identities because they had not scored any cash at the Win Dixie robbery and so little at the stake and Ale investigators were certain they would soon strike again two weeks later on Friday November 8th a third robbery occurred this time a bank job at the Florida National Bank as a teller and a guard walk from the main building to the drive-thru two Mass gunmen emerged from a car gunpoint they ordered the teller to open the door to the drive-through now she tried to comply but there was a problem with the key stalled in broad daylight in a busy intersection the gunman aborted the robbery and fled with only the ten thousand dollars the guard had been carrying within minutes local authorities in the FBI violent crimes just a few blocks away from the two previous robberies this pattern was starting to develop that all these crimes were happening in the same general area along the U.S Highway number one FBI interviews with the bank employees confirmed that the robbers were the same pair who'd hit the armored cars maybe they figured a drive-through bank would be less heavily fortified than Armored Cars easier sources of cash there was no higher priority in this case we had to find these guys and we had to get them off the street before they killed more innocent people but just an hour and a half later they hit the professional Savings Bank only 18 blocks away now get out of here now get down get down customers and employees quickly followed their orders with their masks and high-powered weapons no one doubted they meant business [Music] this time they scored big erased off with over 41 thousand dollars delivered early for that day by Wells Fargo [Music] Witnesses had little to tell agents the robbers had entered quickly and forced everyone down on the floor where they couldn't see what was going on um but since the men had actually been inside the bank this time perhaps the security cameras had captured them on tape agents were soon disappointed to learn that the cameras had somehow malfunctioned and nothing had been recorded it was the fourth robbery in six weeks the Heavenly armed robbers were looting Banks and armored cars in broad daylight the Witnesses in these cases indicated that they felt that these people looked like true professionals the way they walked the way they talk The Way They Carried the weapons and I truly believed up until when we finally found out who they were that we could very easily have been dealing with police officers here uh or very recent ex-military [Music] with such violent criminals on the loose agents honed their own skills on the firing range they worked the case relentlessly it's changing whatever slim leads they had but nothing panned out two months went by without another robbery and still there were no leads on Friday January 10 1986 William Roberts prepared to make a transaction at the Barnett Bank just as an armored truck was unloading outside he looked up from his checkbook and watched as two masked robbers shot the guard in the back the guardly on the ground one of the gunmen shot him twice more this was the robber's fifth heist in just three months and an and they fled with fifty four thousand dollars William Roberts trailed the men for blocks [Music] though he maintained his safe distance Roberts worried the thieves knew he was following them still he stayed on their tail and noted their license tag and car model he tracked them to a parking lot where they pulled in next to a white pickup truck across the street and continue to watch them he noted the make and model of the pickup truck but could not see the tag number after driving off Roberts would flag down an officer and tell him the story [Music] the FBI responded to the scene and interviewed Bank employees found several 223 rounds later determined to be fired from the same weapon used in the first two robberies [Music] nearby FBI agents examined the getaway car the robbers had left behind but William Roberts was the star Witness thanks to Roberts the FBI had the first big break in a three-month string of violent robberies a check on the license tag of the getaway car revealed the car was registered to a man named aureliano Briel agents prepared to pay him a visit since the car had never been reported stolen they suspected Brielle was involved in the crimes they dressed for safety [Music] in Miami the FBI had been tracking two Mass gunmen who had been robbing armored cars and Banks already killing one guard now agents had located the registered owner of one of the getaway cars on January 14th special agent Morales and the partner arrived at the home of ireliano Brielle the registered owner of the car the door special agent morelis now works undercover and wears a hood to protect his identity she asked me if I was there about her son and I said yes I was as a matter of fact she said well my son Emilio has been missing Mrs brielle's husband came to the door and they invited the agents to come into the house [Music] Mr Brielle explained that his son Emilio had disappeared three months ago with a family car which he borrowed to go target shooting in the Everglades the brielle's had filed a missing person's report but heard nothing they had hoped the agents brought news of their son [Music] but both the brielle's and the Agents would be disappointed the FBI knew nothing of the young man's whereabouts and as the interview progressed agent Morales grew certain the brielle's knew nothing of the robberies the conclusion at the end of the day was that the Brielle family was not involved they were victims their car had been stolen and their son was missing [Music] the Metro Dade Police Department processed the brielle's car with FBI agents observing but evidence technicians found no fingerprints or anything else to advance the case the next two months were quiet again though the robbers remained on the loose agents worked other cases as they continued to mine every possible resource for Clues then on March 14th special agent Ben Grogan told a skeptical agent Mireles about a newspaper article he believed was related to the case I guarantee it that car right the article reported the attempted murder of a man named Jose Collazo two days early two-minute shot Collazo multiple times then they had stolen his gun in his car a black 1982 Chevy Monte Carlo guarantee I'm right Grogan swore that the vehicle would be the bank robber's next getaway car from Traders uh while it seemed to some agents nothing more than a hunch they respected broke the car and disappeared shot him four times with the arm through the face at 53 he was a career agent with 25 years on the job including time as a SWAT team leader tomorrow and a half and a half store maybe his colleagues called him the doctor because he could do jobs no one else could do [Music] so they took a chance on his hunch the closet tell me what happened Rogan and another Asian visited Collazo in the hospital [Music] was in rough shape with wounds to the side of his head his arm and his back but he managed to tell the story of his nightmarish afternoon in the Everglades my car and Collazo had gone to a recreational trail near a lake where gun owners often practiced target shooting who's 22 when teamin drove up beside him how you doing [Music] the driver pulled a gun on Collazo hold up shut up who somehow had the presence of mind to identify it as a steel blue Magnum revolver he pegged the other man's rifle as a Ruger Mini-14 giving you guys when the assailants demanded collazo's guns car and wallet he complied [Music] back up back up shut up but they shot him several times anyway at close range [Music] foreign Monte Carlo and their own F-150 pickup truck as they drove off they believed Collazo was dead [Music] was just waiting until the shooters were gone then he would rally what little strength he had to survive wow Collazo had to make a decision as to whether he would try to live or just lay down and die and Collazo said he chose to try to live so he picked himself up out of that Lake and walked almost a mile after being shot three times to seek help [Music] finding Collazo was the best break in the case so far he provided the single clue no witness until now could offer a description of the suspect's faces they had not worn masks when they assaulted him using collazo's description a Dade County Police artist drew composite sketches of his assailants the drawings would be made into posters with information about the suspects and their crimes plus the warning that both men were heavily armed and extremely dangerous [Music] retired special agent John Hanlon a 22-year FBI veteran then assigned to the violent crimes unit remembers what Collazo said Collazo was able to give a description of the guys they told us about the white pickup truck he was shot in the same general area as as we thought Emilio Brielle had disappeared in the coming days agents stepped up their efforts [Music] looked at a grid search of the streets Crossing South Dixie Highway in the vicinity of the bank robberies I got the agents together uh uh after I told him what I had on my mind they looked at me like I was crazy but I said I want you to get down between 88th Street on South Dixie Highway and 185th Street and come up with any license numbers on white Ford F-150 pickup trucks something just told me in my gut but perhaps who knows we're trying to make our own luck what is it a million to 110 million to one I don't know but they came back with the license numbers of 10 white Ford F-150 pickup trucks computerized checks of the license numbers would reveal the owner's names agents would then request driver's license photos from the Department of Motor Vehicles perhaps if Collazo saw the photos he could identify the truck's owner but in 1986 technology was slow and before the photos came back from the DMV the robbers struck again on Wednesday March 19th just one week after collazo's assault get out get out get out get down on the floor back up get down come on get out give me the bag it was their sixth hit in five months give me the money your face down be quiet one kept the terrified customers at Bay the other looted money from a teller [Music] damn everybody [Music] the men escaped with over eight thousand dollars in cash [Music] as customers and employees recovered from The Assault can off-duty Customs official who had seen the robbers flee called police he'd noted the make of the getaway car a black Chevy Monte Carlo and the tag number ntj-891 just as agent Grogan had predicted it was Jose collazo's car okay they didn't even change the tag and we're not really sure whether they were well we're pretty sure they weren't that stupid but we speculate that in their minds you know they were these hard hard men and we think that they were probably just saying hey in your face police you know come and get us if you can investigators learned little of value from Witnesses this Bank the security cameras had filmed the entire robbery but the videotape was of little use the camera's lenses had captured little more than unidentifiable masked Bandits there was little doubt these robbers planned each hit carefully it appeared to me that they were doing surveillance of the banks prior to some of the robberies because on most occasions they robbed the bank within 10 minutes of delivery of a cash shipment by an armored car company so they were waiting until the cash was inside from the armored car company and then hit the bank [Music] on April 10th Gordon McNeil and Ben Grogan discussed the case at Firearms practice sifting for any clues they may have overlooked it had been about three weeks since the last robbery there were no clues to the thieves identities but McNeil detected a pattern you're always looking in law enforcement for you know for patterns of crime the things that seem to happen on a consistent basis and the only thing that we had gone in these cases was this significant pattern that developed always on Friday between 9 and 12 hitting the same Banks multiple times always in the same 40 square block area always along South Dixie Highway agents planned a surveillance for the next day they would fan out to patrol the area where the robbers had struck so often you guys got a minute yeah unit supervisor Gordon McNeil personally led the operation everybody will leave from that location we just couldn't wait for them to Rob another bank we had to get out there and we had to make our own luck and maybe we could find them agent Hanlon remembers what happened next Eddie Morales walked over and said hey let's go down there and I thought well what the heck you know as a whim I mean there was no pressure to go or anything of that kind I mean I certainly had left to do and okay I like Daddy and I figure well we'll go on down there we'll ride down and you know rather cavalierly and and spend some good times with Ed and and we'll take it from there many believed it was a long shot but 14 Miami FBI agents met in a parking lot at 8 45 a.m on Friday April 11 1986. it would surveil a 53 block grid along South Dixie Highway where two commando-style gunmen had pulled off three bank robberies and three armored car heists in six months the suspects were described as white men of medium Bill remember one with a handlebar mustache both about 30 years old and extremely dangerous they might be driving a black Monte Carlo license number mtj891 after a robbery spree that had lasted six months Miami FBI agents went on the offensive in search of two killers possibly driving a black Monty car they met the patrol an area where the two armed robbers had used military tactics to hit armored cars and Banks all would be stationed along the major thoroughfare of South Dixie Highway agents Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove were on their way to stake out the Barnett Bank when the impossible happened [Music] the suspect's vehicle pulled directly in front of him in disbelief agent Grogan advised all units of what he saw him [Music] Grogan was not an emotional person nothing could get broken excited and I still remember his voice he said we're behind a black Chevrolet Monte Carlo Dade Florida tag ntj891 he said that's the tag isn't it Gordo I mean he was just incredulous agents Morales and Hanlon were stationed at the professional Savings Bank when they heard grogan's call to search for their colleagues Morel is working the radio Hanlon tried to get a gauge on Grogan and Dove's location and I remember saying to Eddie I mean Carl Ben telling to start calling the cross streets so we'll know how close we're getting before I Eddie had a chance to go on the air Ben starts calling off to cross streets and we're hitting those cross streets you know one after another so we were real close to them after proceeding south of several blocks hanland and Morales closed in behind them [Music] the robbers soon suspected they would be [Music] youth whether they knew their pursuers were FBI or not the suspects wanted to lose them [Music] they took a right turn on 117th Street into a residential neighborhood quiet at this time of day [Music] still following still behind us are coming [Applause] they turned right again trying to lose the tail but the agents hung on playing for time as agent Morales recalls we were just trying to wait for as many FBI units to get to the location as possible and we were also basically responding to what the subjects did they weren't in any hurry when they turned onto 120th Street they they actually slowed down the Caravan continued on with the agents always concerned about endangering innocent bystanders then the suspects made a left onto 82nd it appeared they were heading back to the Busy Highway where civilians would be at risk should a confrontation turn violent [Music] when Grogan saw the silhouette of a long-barreled rifle through the rear window of the subject's vehicle he knew it was time to act it was clear the suspects were preparing to do battles [Applause] Grogan pulled alongside the suspect's car and ordered them to stop the suspects ignored the order and Grogan pulled ahead of him blocking their escape Hanlon and Morales moved up site made an indelible impression on veteran agent John Hadley I'll never forget the the man's face I mean I could have done I could pick him out today I mean he looked like your basic uh Western bad man he looked very very determined it seemed the suspects were as desperate to go there as the agents who pursued them heavily armed fugitives had ignored FBI orders to stop their vehicle special agents now tried to force them to comply catch up to the group was agent Richard manausi as he pulled behind the suspect's car he saw one of the gunmen take aim at Mireles in handland when as he rammed The Fugitive scarf behind slave swung into a U-turn and then manausi was able to hit him again and knocked him over into this parking area up against some cars over there foreign [Music] outgunned agent manausi crawled the cup four seconds later firing it they were surrounded their vehicle could not move but they had Superior Firepower and they refused to surrender [Applause] the driver fired a shotgun blast and broke ah but the semi-automatic kept pumping out the rounds until one final thought McNeil in the hand Morales in Hampton Advanced to cover him hunts 38 held five rounds and one of them shot down agent Morelos it was all one continuous recollection it was like one second I'm looking at Gordon McNeil's back trying to maneuver to his left and the next second is blue sky and I looked at my left arm and my left arm was completely shattered it was like roadkill partner was down but the shooter kept on fire but when he tried to escape out the window [Music] Jerry Dove hit him in the chest with his nine millimeter [Music] but to Dub's horror the man shot McNeil in the neck I couldn't move my upper body I couldn't move my arm and I couldn't move my legs so I assumed that I was totally paralyzed at that particular point I couldn't move two more FBI agents arrived [Music] by now the shooter can hit four times but he continued to advance [Music] he just made up his mind that he was going down he was gone out and he was going to take as many of us with him as he possibly could the agents knew they were outgunned firing six shooters against the suspect's 30-round semi-automatic assault Dove and Grogan were forced to retreat behind their car to reload Hanlon 2 Reloaded thank you but the shooter kept on coming one went right through mine Knuckles on my right hand and through the knuckle in my thumb a bunch of lead and whatever went into the back of my arm and uh I remember my gun going flying I said Ben I've been hit Miss Hamlin tried to retreat under the bumper the gunman shot him in the groin [Applause] the blood geysered from my glowing to my knee I mean the blood just came out like a balloon breaking Grogan was here and then dove before they could reload their weapons I remember Ben saying oh my God and I he fell at my feet and at some point along in here I heard the blood or I heard the breath go out of him he went the subject made his way to agent Dove's car with his left arm nearly blown off agent Morales managed to pull himself up the shooter was trying to flee and Mireles had to stop mortally wounded the second suspect somehow dragged himself out of his car and joined his partner if the car started Morales knew they could only go in reverse back over the Fallen agents eventually I just got angry because I knew internally that I was dying and my one last thought was hey if I'm gonna die I'm gonna take these guys with me I'm going to make sure that they're dead with his shotgun empty Norrell has changed to his revolver and staggered forward firing at the subjects yeah so where was his shots lodged in the men's spines killing them both it was a violent end to the lives of two Violent Men just a few minutes after the game the bloodiest firefight in FBI history ended in tragedy two agents were dead and five wounded two suspects still unidentified had also been killed [Music] Hillary man [Applause] agent Jerry dove lay dead at the age of 30 he earned a law degree and fulfilled his Boyhood dream of joining the FBI he wanted to make a difference and had given his life trying his partner Ben Rogan had also perished in the fire fight he had been just one year away from retirement when his wife could finally have stopped worrying about her husband's dangerous career crime scene technicians arrived at the site Metro Dade County Homicide Bureau Sergeant David Rivers was also there Rivers had the Herculean task of reconstructing five minutes of living Terror that would take weeks well we have to find out what happened and you do that in in various ways you you obviously speak to the agents that were involved and they can tell you what each one of them did individually and then part of that is to take those different statements as to what they did individually and match it up with the physical evidence the wounds on the body the the bullet holes in the cars where the guns are located where the cars are located and to reconstruct it to make sure everything's exactly interpreted properly technicians recovered 143 bullets fired from the fugitive's weapons that had plagued agents for so long were finally being answered the Ruger Mini-14 rifle used to kill agents Grogan and Dove would match the 223 bullets founded some of the armored car and bank robbery scenes in fact the FBI crime lab could Now forensically link The Killers with several of the earlier heists and from fingerprints the agent soon identified the subjects as 32-year-old Michael Lee Platt 34 year old William Russell Maddox but one question remained what kind of men had wreaked this destruction and why agents could not have been more surprised by what they learned from the Killer's friends and Neighbors instead of Outlaws living on the edge prepared for the ultimate confrontation Platt and Maddox were known as quiet family men photos show their families relaxing together Platt had a wife and three children Maddox was a single dad they were Partners in a landscaping business but further investigation gave up the LIE of their double life inside a shed agents found guns and ammunition including the 22 Maddox implanted stolen from Jose Collazo when they tried to kill him in the Everglades agents would also uncover evidence of a bizarre murder pact in which the men may have killed each other's previous wives no one had been charged in the two cases but now they would be reopened within days agents would confirm that Maddox and Platt had killed 25 year old Emilio Brielle in the Everglades a hiker found brielle's skeletal remains in the Everglades not far from where Collazo had been assaulted then another tragic footnote surfaced earlier today special agent Steve Warner received a package from the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles and it was a copy of William Russell maddox's driver's license [Music] he was the owner of one of the white Ford F-150 pickup trucks agents had located a few weeks before [Music] but there had been a delay in sending the licenses if they had arrived April 11th or prior to that Collazo would have been able to positively identify Maddox and we probably would have been able to arrest Medics and also plot and two FBI agents wouldn't have been killed but that's not the way the luck worked out in this particular case the FBI investigation revealed that both of the killers had served in the military plant had been a Ranger a member of the Army's Elite First Strike Force which explained the pair's Commando tactics fundamentally different than training received by law enforcement we don't have an acceptable body count in civilian law enforcement were taught one way and that's defensive type shooting you take cover you do not take casualties and then you look at the way Platt reacted that day he reacted in a military fashion he had the heavier weapon he had the Mini-14 with a 30 round capacity his back was basically against the wall he had no place to go so he Advanced forward on our position laying down suppression fire ambushed Grogan and Dove who were behind the car as agents finally put the pieces together a frightening portrait emerged of two formidable adversaries at the end of the shooting plaid had 11 hits Maddox had six hits plant was literally shot to pieces and he kept fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting until he ran out of breath he fought to the last they were going to die it's just they weren't dying fast enough and they weren't prepared to lay down and die you know they weren't about to give up out of this tragedy came some positive changes that have improved the safety of all in the law enforcement community instant officers now carry more powerful weapons and their training better prepares them for violent confrontations like the one on April 11th 1986. [Music] foreign as hundreds mourn the deaths of two dedicated and selfless FBI agents those in law enforcement have looked for meaning in the tragic events of that April morning over the years Gordon McNeil has found some resolution the story's not platformatics it's not important who they were it's important to recall the the courage that was shown by the agents that day and and the FBI they did their job [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] his trademark is gunfire his goal grabbed the cash no matter who gets in the way in his wake he leaves terrified victims fleeting glimpses and few clues for the FBI agents on his Trail but they are determined to find him and end this Gunman's Reign of Terror oh [Music] [Music] in the late 1980s the FBI match wits with a cunning Bank Robert a lone gunman responsible for the longest string of Unsolved bank robberies in FBI history I'm Jim calstrom I'm ahead of the FBI's New York office the office planning was meticulous he executed his crimes with military precision it would take the combined skills of local police and dozens of agents to catch a criminal mastermind they called The Shootist San Diego California on November 5th 1987 the late morning quiet shatters with a gun blast in a local bank the gunman orders customers to the ground threatening to shoot whoever disobeys [Music] the robber forces the teller to fill his bag with money from all the cash drawers warning against alarms dye packs or marked bills he avoids the vault which would take more time this robber hits hard and gets out fast employees call police immediately but even in the best case scenario it takes several seconds to get through to an operator foreign units to arrive by then the gunman is long gone authorities conduct a full crime scene investigation although the man wore no gloves he was careful enough not to touch any surface and left behind no fingerprints bank robbery is a federal crime the case goes to the FBI bank robbery coordinator special agent Jack Kelly considers this gunman a top priority he's a takeover robber taking command of the entire Bank rather than slipping a teller a note it's a rare style used in less than five percent of bank robberies even on the Takeover style robbers most of them didn't fire weapons in the bank so he was again even a smaller percentage of the small percentage of takeover over robbers that we had at the time so from that aspect he was considered to be much more aggressive and much more dangerous also he doesn't use a partner inside the bank as most takeover robbers do his violence has a profound effect on his victims the victims in a in a takeover style robbery are pretty traumatized by the event especially when there's shots fired in the bank and consequently your uh descriptions can vary dramatically I mean as far as the age the height the weight everything some victims say he was wearing a disguise others disagree the differing descriptions are of no real help so agents turn to the bank's security camera photos we did have some surveillance pictures of mediocre quality at that time and and it was not a great deal of assistance to us and trying to identify who this individual might have been the photos show only that the robber is a white male about six feet tall with a beard mustache agents face a serious challenge no evidence Left Behind no reliable description of the robber special agent Kelly believes it's not the Man's first time robbing a bank reviewing unsolved cases for similarities Kelly suspects the same man robbed another San Diego Bank a year earlier the motorcy was identical with someone coming to the bank firing their gun in the ceiling vaulting the counter similar description the gunman left no evidence behind the fact that there were so few Clues was an indication that this guy was pretty good and he he really probably planned these robberies very well soon agents learned the gunman is not finished in the area that's after he robbed the second time in San Diego he actually came back a month later and robbed a third time in San Diego using the identical Mo and firing the shots into the ceiling the robber's choice to fire his weapon makes him a deadly threat I don't think a robber that does something like this would hesitate to shoot somebody if somebody actually tried to stop him as a rule special agent Kelly attaches code names to serial bank robbers to allow for shorthand communication among agents a catchy nickname increases publicity be more willing to pick up the story and to show pictures in the newspaper on television which would hopefully help us generate some leads Kelly dubs this one The Shootist for his distinctive and dangerous ammo 14 1987 The Shootist Robs a fourth California Bank in Mission Viejo 70 miles north of San Diego it was my responsibility to review all the robberies that would come in from the surrounding region region of bi offices FBI agents respond to the bank when and then robbing her as you do investigation inside the bank itself for any evidence you also do an investigation outside the bank to look for evidence or any possible witnesses that may have seen this individual and we did both on all these robberies yet they get nowhere like they're chasing a ghost so far The Shootist has stolen at least forty four thousand dollars but it's not just about the money agents worry that at some point he'll shoot someone we're dealing with somebody we thought that becomes more and more aggressive during the course of his robberies consequently more and more dangerous and it was something that definitely needed to be identified and stopped after a year-long absence from California The Shootist struck three times in five weeks Kelly suspects The Shootist must have hit somewhere in that year absence he's got to be somewhere else he's got to be Robin Banks somewhere else besides California checking with other FBI field offices Kelly discovers a string of similar unsolved robberies in Texas with dates that fit neatly into the gap between California robberies during one of the unsolved heists the gunman used this sort of violence agents of feared in July 1986 a white male with a beard in sunglasses hit a bank in Abilene Texas after firing his gun into the ceiling he forced the manager to fill his bag as in California he wanted only cash from the teller drawers and warned against alarms dye packs or marked bills the employees followed all instructions to survive but then don't you move what you do me look at me the robber ran off leaving the bank manager writhing in pain from a gunshot to the abdomen Everly Bank Texas Rangers the FBI and EMTs responded immediately the manager was Gravely injured but she survived the other Witnesses couldn't provide a solid description it happened so fast and they were so terrified they didn't get a good look at the gunman the crime scene investigation came up empty and the security cameras provided only more photos of a robber with obscured features special agent Kelly contacts the Texas Rangers who are working the unsolved robberies and investigators in the two states pool their information okay They Know The Shootist targets branches near Highway on-ramps for a quicker Escape the investigators agree The Shootist likely has a getaway driver but no car has been spotted each Heist is as clean as the last and no solid leads emerge [Music] The Shootist pulls off six more heists in Texas and California in 1988. investigators hope the media's attention would continue they need someone who recognizes the gunman to call in a tip because of the danger of this individual hoping to get as much cooperation as we could and we did local newspapers would run pictures of this individual the local television stations ran pictures of this individual with the ongoing media coverage The Shootist Rises to infamy his is an astonishing spree 14 known Bank heists in three years all perfectly planned and executed The Shootist is destined to make FBI record books a cunning adversary like they've never seen before by 1988 a man called The Shootist has robbed at least 14 banks in Texas and California special agent Jack Kelly it was well organized and planned things out well enough for he didn't leave a lot to track him with what he does leave behind are bullets fired into the ceiling forensic examiners can find rifling marks on the Slugs they can run them through their ballistics database and if the gun has been used in other crimes they might get a lead on the gunman's identity but that's a lot of IFS ballistics experts determined the Slugs came from a 38 caliber revolver but there's a problem with finding traceable rifling characteristics balance that we did fine [Music] pretty well well identification as far as the rifling was concerned The Shootist continues his spree his 17th known robbery is in the San Diego suburb of University City [Music] once again no hard evidence remains in the bank but outside investigators find signs of just how meticulous The Shootist is it appears that before the heist he loosened fence boards across his Escape Route so that after the robbery he could reach his getaway car faster special agent Kelly has chased more than a hundred robbers but this one's the most professional he's encountered by far you had to give him some credit he was good but you always had the hope that maybe there was some piece of evidence or some witness some other part of the puzzle that you could put together yet despite a full neighborhood campus Agents come up empty [Music] by the middle of 1989 The Shootist is made off with nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and he struck in at least 10 different cities anytime an individual is mobile and he's able to move from not only City to city but state to state it it really kind of complicates the investigation because there are multiple jurisdictions Kelly brings together law enforcement from around the country California and Texas FBI agents local police and Texas Rangers work together determined to find that one clue that is eluded more eyes and ears you have out there at the time the more likely you are to get a break and catch this individual division because The Shootist acts like a professional agents suspect he has an arrest record for robbery are released from prison and maybe going back to their old ways again investigators asked about bank robbers released from prison in 1986 when the shootist's Spree began but it's a dead end no one recognizes the man in the surveillance photos it's difficult to determine what the man really looks like here the the mustache didn't appear to be real and was extremely dark in color the task force concludes The Shootist likely uses elaborate disguises wigs mustaches even makeup to change his complexion when we first realized that he was probably wearing disguise as we actually uh took a number of the surveillance pictures to different costume shops agents show shop employees the photos asking if they recognize the man or the disguises but it's another dead end investigators analyzed the shootists bank robberies hoping to find a pattern they compare the amounts taken to the frequency of the heists and determine The Shootist spends about three thousand dollars a week when he runs low on money he hits another bank you were able to see not necessarily a pattern but you knew that he was going to need x amount of money after a certain period of time investigators note The Shootist usually strikes on Mondays and Fridays and often robs different branches of the same banking companies there are hundreds of Bank branches in the general area where he hits he was he was just a candy store out there with trying to select where he wanted to Rob next and and it was our job to try to out guess him the team sets up surveillance on branches of the banks the shooter seems to favor they watch on Mondays and Fridays the robber's favorite days it's a long shot the problem we had was we had absolutely no idea where exactly it would hit there were so many branches so many targets Manpower is limited predicting which bank he'll hit next proves impossible bank robbers often use casinos to launder stolen money the task force sends Bank surveillance photos to Casino security offices one California Casino responds with a good lead a regular High Roller there looks a lot like The Shootist they were willing enough to give us the uh their surveillance photos of the individual that they had suspected agents Tracked Down The Man and interview him he does resemble The Shootist but he has solid Alibis for the robbery dates investigators eliminate him as a suspect [Music] another lead crossed off the list on June 23 1989 The elusive Shootist strikes in Arlington Texas his 18th known Heist he has now hit Banks over a 1400 mile area this time a Telus slips an exploding die pack into his bag when it blows it renders the stolen money unusable a few hours later The Shootist robs another bank he's never struck twice in one day it's a reckless move fear he's becoming more desperate [Music] special agent Kelly fears it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt [Music] the more robberies that he did in the more times he shot the weapons including the time he shot the teller down in Texas that's a great concern to law enforcement obviously because this individual we thought would had a lot of potential for possibly killing someone eventually and the way The Shootist operates he could take his next victim anywhere at any time [Music] in the late 80s a team of investigators from Texas and California hunts The Shootist of cunning bank robber who begins each heist with gunfire grabs the cash fast then disappears without a trace [Music] as the robberies pile up The Shootist becomes Infamous in the western U.S police community everyone's on the lookout special agent Jack Kelly anytime in jurisdiction that the shoot and outer Communications to the other offices as quickly as possible providing them with whatever information we have in the way of maybe some new clues or new Witnesses or or any better surveillance photographs from the photos the task force determines The Shootist likely uses a Smith Wesson 38 revolver a handgun popular with police departments investigators also notice he indexes his finger on the side of his weapon just as officers are trained to do it's an ominous possibility The Shootist might be a cop you come here even if he's not an officer he used to know how they operate [Music] investigators suspect he goes as far as surveilling local officers to learn their patrol routes and then chooses targets away from those roots to increase police response time The elusive gunman treats bank robbery like a profession and his planning is paid off in more than 20 robberies [Music] investigators welcome the continuing media coverage they know their best chance of finding The Shootist might be through the Public's help one witness in particular provides an interesting lead after the 1989 heist in Mission Viejo a resident near the rob bank saw a man climb into the trunk of a car which then sped off he described the car as a red four-door with California plates but he didn't see the driver or get the plate number [Music] agents run checks on every car that fits the description in California but there are thousands it would take months to track down each car but the siding does confirm one's suspicion the trunk of a vehicle he obviously had a hit and accomplice in these robberies on March 30th 1990 The Shootist robs the same Texas Bank he hit a year earlier to investigators the repeat job means he's getting even more brash unafraid of being recognized by anyone by the end of 1990 the task force ties The Shootist to 27 robberies that have netted him nearly four hundred thousand dollars all without a single usable print left behind he was very cautious about vaulting the counters not to touch things even going out the doors he would hit the doors with his elbows or his hip to push him open somehow agents need to find a way into The Shootist secretive world they take the case to behavioral profilers at the FBI Academy in Quantico Virginia about the guy's personality studying details of each known robbery the FBI profiler creates a behavioral sketch of The Shootist because most criminals start working in their comfort zone the profiler suspects The Shootist is from Texas where the first robberies occurred the gunman's level of precision indicates possible military training come here since The Shootist has gone so long without anyone turning him in the profiler suggests the robber has only one fiercely loyal accomplice and experience with other takeover robbers makes the profiler Believe The Shootist will grow more violent as his spree continues it's possible the gunman will choose a shootout over surrender this guy's gonna be one to shoot his way out of the bank or even take hostages to make an escape from the bank if he's cornered [Music] 1991. did you actually see a gun The Shootist expands his Turf into Northern California robbing a San Jose Bank of fifteen thousand dollars San Jose detective Sergeant Jack Baxter we never found a witness this as to where he went what kind of car he had did he have accomplices we had no idea this time The Shootist leaves something behind a partial palm print is found on the counter but investigators can't make a match law enforcement agencies don't include palm prints in their files task force is back to square one two months later The Shootist Robs a Bank in Bellevue Washington just outside Seattle he's expanding his territory Seattle was now in the loop now we knew that he was broadening his Horizons and moving on to other states The elusive Bandit is one of the most prolific and widespread robbers in modern FBI history 1991 The Five-Year statute of limitations expires on his earliest robberies so he can't be charged for them agents are racing the clock well he was a violent multi-state bank robber who was very successful been hitting every uh six to eight weeks and no one had a clue as to who he was or where he was from in August The Shootist Robs a Bank in Los Altos California bringing his known total to 474 457 dollars investigators find a solid clue a false mustache first evidence recovered that might be physically linked directly to The Shootist but at the time DNA analysis is expensive and time consuming and they have no suspect profile to compare it to fortunately that wasn't of any evidentiary value to us other than the fact that we confirmed that he was wearing a disguise obviously by the end of 1991 investigators linked The Shootist to 33 armed robberies in 18 cities investigators have nothing they need a break and soon investigating the longest string of Unsolved bank robberies in modern FBI history agents have little but grainy photos of the man they call The Shootist in they see the robber is wearing something beneath his shirt FBI special agent Jack Kelly first we thought it might have been body armor put under closer scrutiny it appeared that this thing was really covering the lower abdomen and back portion of his body it could be a brace meaning The Shootist might have a bad back although he really didn't display that with his ability to to Vault the teller counters but back braces were probably just to support his ability to be able to do that determined to run down every lead investigators contact chiropractors in the areas near the banks but they have only blurry surveillance photos of a disguised man and they can't get to every doctor in three states there's quite a few chiropractors but we did Cover as many as we possibly could and we really didn't have any luck it's another dead end in the years-long search for the mysterious Bandit 1992 brings seven more Shootist heists including the repeat robbery of the bank in Bellevue Washington new Total nearly six hundred thousand dollars Seattle FBI special agent Don Glasser tried to process the bank for fingerprints extensive interviews of the witnesses and and of course our fondant wildest hope would some would say yes I saw them get into a specific car no I uh but no one saw anything right there is this concern that you're not serving the public well that here's a man that's allowed to come in and do a bank robbery and fire a shot and eventually there could be an accident or an intentional shooting and uh you know you feel it's frustration that you didn't do everything you could although you can't think of anything else that to be done they must stop the shoots before he graduates to merge during a heist in San Jose the shootist's luck begins to Wade this time before he vanishes the bank security camera catches the best shots yet of his face the San Jose police forensic artist uses the photos to build a composite sketch of what The Shootist would look like without his disguises recreating features that are obscured requires a thorough knowledge of human physiology and a remarkable artistic eye agents blanket the target areas with the sketch asking crime stopper programs to air it regularly and placing it in dozens of banks [Music] San Jose detective Sergeant Jack Baxter we thought that in order to get this guy we needed to help the community we needed somebody to call in with information something that they had seen or heard on May 11 1994 investigators get the break they need an anonymous caller says he knows The Shootist though it's no slam dunk the information was fairly generic the name that was given was was Johnny Williams or John Williams and then he also supposedly used the name of Robert Hall the caller says Williams is about 40 years old drives a red four-door and has a devoted accomplice his wife he says Williams is always armed has a hair triggered temper and has vowed never to be taken alive in fact he and his wife have a suicide pact if they're ever cornered this is a good tip but the case is far from over those names are so common that there were literally hundreds of Johnny Williams and Robert Halls that we had to go through and we try to narrow the list down to the ones that were approximately the same age as our as the caller had given agents culled through California DMV records and find a Johnny Madison Williams and a Robert Hall that appear in their photos to be the same man they then compare the photos to the composite sketch it was an exact match for the sketch done by our police artist this is if he had done it right off the picture so we knew that we had the right guy California fingerprints drivers DMV fingerprint records confirm Hall and Williams are the same man Johnny Madison Williams is a former Marine from Texas and has a record for robbery theft there [Music] William's wife Carol bought a 38 revolver like the one in Bank security footage and Carol drives a red four-door registered in her maiden name investigators find no legitimate source of income yet the couple lives in a 350 000 house overlooking the ocean in Los Osos California FBI special agent Jim Wilkins the area where he was living was on High Ground overlooking Morro Bay it was an affluent area that actually had one Road in it's an exposed area where agents might stand out as strangers we did not know where Johnny Williams was at the time despite the risk FBI agents have to check the house find a spot they hope is obscured and set up surveillance we knew he carried a weapon we knew he would use it we also had information from the anonymous tipster that he carried that weapon all the time the agents see no sign that anyone's at the house the team watches and waits we had made a contingency plan that if we saw Williams returning in that vehicle we would do a felony car stop before he got into the neighborhood where we had safe fields of fire and where there were no Escape Routes for him in his vehicle agents watch the house for several days but the couple fails to show understands the end of the shift investigators suspect The Shootist is off preparing for another Heist Jack Kelly has a hunch who will be in the Seattle area The Shootist is robbed there in one year intervals and the year is up Kelly contacts Seattle special agent Don Glasser so be on the lookout it's just a hunch but it's all they have Glasser hits the streets looking for the red car I was out of the office and on the street so I could be in the vicinity of the Bellevue area getting very antsy very excited about being prepared to respond to a dispatch saying that there was a 91. a bank robbery July 1st 1994 The Shootist strikes again he Robs a Bank in Kirkland Washington just 10 miles north of where special agent Glasser is on patrol looking for him wow after his trademark gunshot The Shootist orders a teller to load his bag with cash as before he warns against bait bills or die packs and threatens to shoot if she tries anything the teller accidentally drops wooden paperweights in the bag which the shootest mistakes for die packs he's enraged [Music] okay July 1st 1994 The Shootist commits his 48th bank robbery frightened teller angers the robber but she is spared the gunman runs out without firing another shot and disappears before police and the FBI can respond investigators get word of the latest robbery special agent Jack Kelly's hunch about Seattle was right we knew where he was at this point at least what vicinity of the country he was in in the general Seattle area Kelly has already flagged Williams credit cards so he'll be notified if one is used just after the Kirkland robbery the plan works I was fortunate to be able to get some information from one particular credit card company that had a recent transaction up in the state of Washington at a particular Hotel up there Seattle special agent Don Glasser rushes to the hotel they're very excited I know now we've got Stella's in Bothell 10 miles from the latest rob bank Johnny Williams used a credit card in the name of his Alias Robert Hall to check in but there's no guarantee he's still there I drove through the parking lot I saw the red card sitting in a parking lot nose in in the parking space when Glasser calls in the plate number it comes back registered to Carol Williams under her maiden name of Hawkins if Williams is still in the hotel they must be careful not to tip him off or create a barricade or hostage situation what I really need from you is I need you to look at this picture okay the manager recognizes suspect Johnny Williams as Robert Hall and says he and his wife have not checked out to immediately call Jack Kelly back I gave him a news and suggested he'd get an airplane fly north and he was already packing his bags at that point in the investigation I was very excited eye contacted my counterpart Jack Baxter from the San Jose PD told him they had the guy not only we got him identified but also we know where he is so Jack hopped on a plane and I hopped on a plane Glasser also calls for reinforcements from the Seattle police and FBI we made sure that none of our agents were radios Guns rape jackets FBI ball caps any kind of identifying ask them to act normal when they're moving around within minutes more agents and detectives quietly arrive and set up a perimeter we made sure that no FBI four-door as we call them G rides were visible to the sky that we would use surveillance vehicles if we happen to casually look out as a window he wouldn't see anything unusual happening outside we set up locations of completely surrounding the the hotel we rented a couple rooms that would give us a base to operate from so there was no way to even walk out if he detected us then he might try and Escape we made sure we had it really covered called rather than Rush the room the investigators decide to wait until they get a visual ID of Williams yeah made sure we had an eyeball on his door at all times by Nightfall detective Baxter and special agent Kelly arrived from California detective Jack Baxter we didn't want to move too fast we had to have patience and we wanted to make sure we could arrest him in a way that nobody was going to get hurt the agents want to take Williams into custody outside his room in case he has guns inside definitely here as dinner time approach we hope that we'd see him come down and go to eat or something like that and that we were prepared to arrest him if he did that hours pass with no sign of Williams or his wife while they watch investigators have to stay under the shootist's radar and not use Police radios we had been told he had a scanner so we had to be careful what we said on the radio for fear of tipping him off that that we were there it does appear someone is in the room special agent Jack Kelly there's a light on in there you can see the light and all the drapes were drawn we could see the flashing of the television in there after seven years agents and police May finally have The Shootist cornered [Music] after an eight-year search the FBI believes they have traced Johnny Madison Williams The Shootist to a Washington state hotel room a full day and night of surveillance passes with no movement from the room in the morning agents devise a roost to see if their suspect is actually there they recruit a hotel employee to help investigators show the man what their target looks like and ask him to knock on the door to ask a maintenance question and get a good look at whoever's inside despite the danger the employee has to act natural if Williams gets spooked he could turn violent when the door opens the hotel employee asks when would be a good time to change the room's air filters detective Jack Baxter our suspect told him that he was going to leave in an hour so he could come back in an hour and change the filters well he ran back to us and positively identified him as being in the room we had the room secured so there's no way he was going to get out now they know The Shootist is definitely there and in an hour he should emerge an hour passes than two Williams could be on to them then an opportunity presents itself special agent Jack Kelly there was a phone call from that room down to the front desk and he had asked if he could borrow a typewriter because he wanted to write a letter to this and he was asking the people at the front desk if they could bring the typewriter up to the room instructed him not to do that on the FBI's order the manager tells Williams he's welcome to use the typewriter in an office near the front desk which he agreed to say be down shortly the small office is a good place for an arrest away from the public no chance of Escape [Music] special agent Don Glasser quickly go to the room to decide where the typewrite is going to be do a little quick rearranging of furniture so that we can go into that room once he's in there not be obstructed by Furniture we have a nice clean path to get in as a final touch investigators place a sheet listing the Miranda arrest rights in the typewriter then hide in an adjacent room and wait for the word from their men outside after 40 tenths minutes a man leaves the room and heads toward the front desk it's Johnny Williams but we saw him walking across the parking lot absolutely no question our mind that is him we recognized him as if he were our best friend he just left his room he's on his way to the lobby this is it the culmination of an eight-year Chase [Music] he walked into the front desk and they instructed him to go over to this office to walk behind the front desk and went over there [Music] Williams is cornered cut off from Escape agents know he is dangerous they are prepared for the worst [Music] but he is completely caught off guard agents take him into custody without a struggle he is unarmed because of the investigators careful planning it's a perfectly quiet arrest I called him by his true name I said you know Johnny Madison Williams Jr it's over and he his head kind of dropped next agents have to get William's wife Carol we figured there was no reason to charge into the room that we just wait long enough and she would come down in fact she did [Music] right now she came out of the room and she was going to her car stepped out and took her into custody there without incident raise FBI are under arrest him on top of the car in your left hand [Music] once again a safe arrest s now agents go looking for evidence he provided a consent to search Israel and in that room he had a couple scanners he had handy talkies he had disguises he had money they also discovered the shootist's own notes a log of all his robberies there was a great record of the bank robberies very very organized the date the day of the week information on the total the address of the bank the name of the hasbank very very very uh incriminating evidence investigators find more in William's car two pistols they were in the trunk of his car we recognized the four inch 38 revolver from the pictures surveillance pictures we knew we had the right weapon he had a two inch revolver that we hadn't seen before both of them were loaded the investigators separate Williams and his wife while they await transport to an FBI office for booking Williams agrees to talk we linked them to I think a total of 48 robberies you know when I did the interview that he asked me that is how many do you have me for I said well how many do you think we need a fortune he says oh he says you know you wouldn't be here the rest of me and know my name and everything else you probably have all 56. Williams goes on to detail each of the 48 robberies the FBI know about plus eight they don't the entire interview eventually lasted about 12 hours and I was writing constantly I mean I had writer's cramp at the end of the year 12 hours with all the information he was providing Johnny Madison Williams took his work seriously casing banks for weeks outlining intricate escape plans he says he wore the brace after injuring his back in a car accident and frequented chiropractors just not the ones investigators got to knowing the FBI would try to trace his disguises he stocked up in Dallas before he started his robbery spree he tells agents he studied police routes radio dispatch codes all that work brought him close to a million dollars in stolen cash until authorities stopped him it wasn't just the agents and officers working the case who solved it many times it's the assistance of the public that that leads to the capture and a successful resolution of these cases it's very important I think no more so than now with the terrorism threat is that important Carol Williams please building and receives 20 years for her role in The Shootist robberies her husband Johnny Madison Williams The Shootist himself also pleads guilty to the 27 robberies still under the statute of limitations he is sentenced to 92 years in federal prison his unprecedented Reign finally over [Music] foreign [Music] in 1996 a pair of convicted felons escaped across the country when a foreign military officer disappeared along their Trail authorities wondered if the armed fugitives had become killers the FBI raced to find the escapees before more victims crossed their path [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] in Alabama two desperate criminals fled the custody of a local deputy polluting authorities they made their way across the country in a wave of car theft abduction and murder I'm Jim calstrom former head of the FBI's New York office Escape criminals believe they have nothing to lose they'll do anything to avoid capture after the convicts claimed their first victim further Bloodshed was inevitable unless the FBI could find them and bring them to justice [Music] Central Alabama May 21 1996. Cowell County Deputy was assigned to transport three inmates from state prisons to face court dates Michael Thompson was to be sentenced for murder as always the deputy knew Thompson having transported him before Thompson had persuaded the deputy to let him sit in the front seat Thompson had just met another inmate Roger yaden career criminal had 17 burglary convictions and three prison escapes on his record the third inmate was on work release prisoners were not handcuffed for the short drive as the group neared Talladega Alabama Thompson made his move gunpoint Thompson forced the deputy to keep driving keep him quiet he ordered him to drive to a secluded area in the woods near Lincoln Alabama [Music] Thompson and yaden freed themselves blue they marched their hostages Into the Woods off go drip go the men forced the deputy and the other inmate to strip out of their clothes shut up the shoes too the deputy's extra handcuff key fell unnoticed to the ground sit down get out sit down bound to the remote Woods the officer didn't know if he would be executed hurry up let's go all right I'll be riding with you again the two escapees simply ran off man Michael Thompson and Roger yaden took off in the direction of Talladega leaving their prison clothes behind it was yeadon's fourth escape from Alabama authorities the deputy had to contact the Sheriff's Department [Music] with a dropped handcuffed key he freed himself and the other inmate and ran for help [Music] the escaped convicts had the deputy's service weapon and a shotgun stored in the patrol car under the cover of Law Officers the two felons endangered anyone in their path [Music] the deputy and the remaining inmate had flagged down a motorist and reached the local police department police immediately issued an urgent be on the lookout alert for the two escapees in the stolen patrol car Bill Thompson [Music] the law enforcement launched a search but the area contained hundreds of miles of rural roads despite the search no sightings of the fugitives or the deputy's car came in that day [Music] it wasn't until the evening that authorities received their first clue to Thompson's and yaden's actions [Music] Talladega City police and told them about his ordeal [Music] he said that earlier that day he was driving near Talladega when he noticed a sheriff's patrol car following him siren the off-duty paramedic pulled over believed it was a routine stop [Music] the officer asked for his license and wallet paramedic Bob gourtney didn't think he'd been speeding so the reason we pulled you over is your vehicle there's the description of a vehicle that was involved in a hit and run and I told him well I haven't been in any accident you know you can check my truck you can look around it's not a scratch on it and he said well your truck fixed the description that we've gotten so we're going to uh you know check it out and he didn't suspect anything no Flags went off when he first walked up to me because he was in full uniform had the badge and the name tag and I really didn't make contact with the whole uniform I seen the gun when he had his hand on it Courtney gave the deputy his paramedic badge number asking him to call in to verify his identity [Music] but the deputy refused following the deputy's orders the paramedic got into the patrol car [Music] believed it was simply a misunderstanding that he would be released shortly he said well we're going to carry you back over here to the accident soon and I said well that's fine you know my truck doesn't fit the description we'll just get this cleared up we first realized something was wrong when a man in civilian clothes carrying a shotgun ran from the patrol car to his truck from the description police believe the man driving the pickup was Roger Yeti they believed Michael Thompson was the one dressed as the deputy [Music] Thompson followed the pickup with the paramedic locked in the back but the deal is you could have the truck Courtney asked for an explanation keep it quiet he said we're just going to take a truck and I knew right then it was a kidnapping this guy's just kidnapped me so I went into the plead mode you know I told him I said look you know I'm only 30 years old I've got a wife and kids and you have my truck you have my gun there's no sense in killing me Thompson followed behind to an isolated spot Roger yaden had found the paramedics nine millimeter handgun in the truck Bob gourney was helpless and the patrol car's locked back seat [Music] the man forced him inside the Cruiser's trunk the kidnap paramedic believed they were going to kill him I was laying there at the point so if I shot through the trunk I knew they would miss me you know if a bullet was to come through maybe it would graze me and not hear me by the organ so I was trying to protect myself from being shot through the trunk I could hear Vehicles pass by and then I heard my truck crank and then I Heard It sped off and it was hot I felt like I was suffocating I kept thinking to myself you need to slow down because if you don't you can use up all your energy and plus it's hot in here I'm going to dehydrate and I'm probably gonna pass out I was scared I was shaking and I was laying in the truck and I got to thinking okay you're a paramedic you've educated people a thousand times now it's time for you to do what you've learned to get yourself out of this trunk to extricate yourself so you can still be alive using a Jack and found in the trunk Courtney worked for two hours finally he popped the trunk open he ran to the nearest house where a woman called police [Music] an updated bulletin was issued for the pair of fugitives in the black pickup truck they were now driving 232 to all units this is a broadcast for 0.900 suspect they were armed with two nine millimeter handguns and a shotguns it's already spent to the main interstate flee the area with a stolen truck full of gas and interstate highways nearby Law Officers knew that Michael Thompson and Roger yaden had a big lead on them they could be anywhere seven days later and 1200 miles away an abandoned black pickup truck with no license plates turned up in Santa Rosa New Mexico the vehicle identification number on the dash had been destroyed [Music] the police located a second identification number on the truck's chassis a record search showed that it was the paramedics truck stolen in Alabama because of the interstate travel the FBI was notified an immediate search of the area revealed no sign of Michael Thompson or Roger yaden the armed fugitives had dumped the one vehicle investigators could trace on June 7th 1996 the FBI in Birmingham Alabama filed a warrant for unlawful flight to avoid confinement [Music] police agencies across the country were notified to watch for any sign of yaden and Thompson [Music] two weeks later 1200 miles east of where the paramedic stolen truck was recovered in New Mexico a group of diving students spotted a car at the bottom of Fowler lake near Terre Haute Indiana Department of Natural Resources agent Dean Jenkins responded with his team the car was land it was in about 25 30 foot of water it was on its top the windshield been broke out from when it sank it apparently was driven off the ramp Indiana Department of Natural Resources officers dove into the lake to investigate they found a red car with no license plates divers could see items from the view including Travelers checks resting on the bottom there was no body nearby the degree of personal items we found and what they were Travelers checks those kind of things that would ordinarily you would think would be stolen or discarded along the way prior to someone just dumping a stolen car I think that was the key thing that made me wonder what else was involved with this vehicle investigators removed the car to process it on shore [Music] in the trunk technicians recovered a British passport for Army Major David Nichols Travelers checks and airline ticket stubs issued to the major were found in the glove compartment [Music] among the items was an is an Alabama jail booking slip with a local Indiana name and address written on the back checking the car's identification number investigators discovered it was a rental from Colorado reported missing along with the major 16 days after he had rented it the VIN number is 726 jj6 that's because of foreign military officer was the likely victim of a crime supervisory special agent Jack Osborne from the FCI field office in Indianapolis was called in he believed the name on the Alabama jail booking slip was the best lead in major nickel's disappearance [Music] from the booking slip that was found in the car on the backside with several handwritten notes not so much with phone numbers but maybe somebody's first name and an address one of those names and address led us to a relative of Mr yaden who resided in Terre Haute the relative was an aunt of Roger Yates he was one of two escaped convicts whom investigators its search for in New Mexico [Music] he told an agent that she did not know why her name was on the back of the Alabama jail booking slip she also had no knowledge of major Nichols his red rental car or that her nephew had escaped custody she told us that she did have a nephew Roger Dale Yeadon who she believed was in custody in Alabama and had communicated a lot with him in writing as her children had she did say that Yeadon had some old friends in the area but she couldn't recall their names if Roger yaden had made it to Indiana the FBI believed murderer Michael Thompson was with him they knew the pair of escaped convicts had already threatened to kill three others in Alabama and were last seen with two handguns and a shotgun that Roger yaden and Michael Thompson may have used one of those weapons on the missing British major in June of 1996 the FBI and Indiana police searched for armed fugitives Michael Thompson and Roger yaden who had escaped from Alabama they were considered Prime suspects in The Disappearance of British Army Major David Nichols whose rental car was found at the bottom of an Indiana Lake according to FBI supervisory special agent Jack Osborne an Alabama jail booking slip found inside the car linked the fugitives to the missing major the evidence certainly Associated that vehicle with our missing major and that he was not in and around Terre Haute nor was he located in the lake it likewise then identified our two Escape prisoners that we believed were together and did have possession of the British army officers car and that they still possibly could be in the Terre Haute area agents went to the British Embassy in Washington DC to find out more about the majors travel itinerary sent to us prior to his arrival the FBI needed to determine where and when major Nichols may have crossed paths with the armed fugitives also distressing the British government provided us some very basic information that indicated a British army officer of theirs had been in the United States arriving on the 20th of May arrived at Denver and was to travel to uh to New Mexico to attend a language school and then to Texas to attend a second School on travel orders issued by NATO major David Nichols was scheduled to arrive at the first seminar in Albuquerque on May 26th Michaels was a vice commander of the British defense School of languages an expert linguist fluent in five languages he told his wife and three children that he planned to sightsee for a few days before the seminar but school officials in Albuquerque never heard from the major after he failed to arrive the FBI felt it was strange that the British army officer had not attended School the British government likewise through contact they had with the family and friends of the missing major felt that it was strange that he had not been in contact with them which they caused the British government a great concern agent Osborne contacted the FBI field office in Albuquerque New Mexico special agent John shum needed to determine where the major was last seen in the 450 miles between Denver and Albuquerque they gave us his itinerary photos descriptions um potential contacts here in the U.S that he might have contacted once he once we couldn't find him where he was supposed to be so they gave us a complete what we would call a victimology of him his background and personality agents also checked the British Major's credit card purchases the last time he used his car was to buy gas in the small town of Rattan on the Colorado New Mexico border the gas station was just 150 miles from the place Michael Thompson and Roger Yeadon the escaped fugitives from Alabama and abandoned the black pickup truck they had stolen agents wanted to confirm how far the British major had traveled past return they checked at a hotel in Old Town Albuquerque where the major had made Advance reservations he never showed up and his reservation was never canceled the major had disappeared somewhere between the gas station near the Colorado border where his credit card had been used and the hotel in Albuquerque FBI suspected Michael Thompson and Roger yaden had abducted him but they had vanished too agent shum called the Mages wife in England to find out more about how her husband may have reacted if accosted by two desperate criminals she told me he was a very gentleman he was a very good man and that if he was confronted with these by these people that he would not have been confrontational he would have been willing to do what they say give them anything they want just to avoid a confrontation and she said that he would have been very concerned about about his safety and being able to make it back to England to help raise his his boys 1200 miles away in Indiana close to the lake where the majors car was found local police received a call from a junkyard manager who reported seeing two suspicious men on his property when the officer arrived the two men fled from a pickup truck loaded with scrap metal it was unsafe for a loan officer to follow two men into the woods he called in the truck's license plate numbers and learned the vehicle had been stolen crime scene technicians processed the truck they found a tag from a video camera strap that belonged to Major David Nichols they also recovered a letter that was addressed to fugitive Roger yaden's mother in Alabama and it was generally saying that that he was out of prison and was generally going to be staying in the Terre Haute area when agents contacted yaden's mother in Alabama she said she hadn't heard from her son and had no idea where he might be no things things are going fine investigators were sure the fugitives were nearby we've got both your photographs the items that were recovered in that truck were extremely important because it not only Associated Yeadon and Thompson with that vehicle it also Associated the missing major with that vehicle it was more compelling evidence that yaden and Thompson were likely responsible for the Major's disappearance but the armed fugitives were moving fast and the FBI was still one step behind in the summer of 1996 the FBI continued their hunt for escaped Alabama convicts Michael Thompson and Roger yaden agents suspected they had carjacked a British man who was still missing then dumped his Rental Car in a lake near Terre Haute Indiana where Roger Yeadon had relatives [Music] at a nearby High School the FBI and Indiana investigators had established a satellite Command Post they received a court order to examine yaden's local juvenile record they noticed that Yeadon often got into trouble with one particular friend checking the friend's background they learned that he managed a nearby auto salvage yard Indianapolis FBI special agent William Hamilton would chase the lead my partner and I decided that we would drive a unmarked vehicle into this area in an undercover capacity under the ruse of looking for a specific Auto Part the five-acre property was a good hiding place it was filled with a maze of cars surrounded by dense Woods agents staked out the location I just haven't seen anything in a while they needed to confirm that yaden's childhood friend was on duty [Music] in order to assure their identities would not be discovered they left their Badges and weapons in their vehicle after going all the way to the far south end of the salvage yard we noticed a trailer back in the woods and there was two white males there working the men fit the general description of the Armed fugitives but the unarmed agents could not be sure hello they hope to learn more from the manager the undercover agents engaged him in small talk and confirmed that he was a friend of Roger yeadon's the childhood friend he indicated he known Yeadon for several years they had both came to his residence in early June and they showed up there in a red Taurus that car matched the description of the missing Majors vehicle by the time the agents finished their conversation the two men they had glimpsed earlier were gone I believe those two men had been Thompson and yayton [Music] after assembling an arrest team agents and local officers raced back to the salvage yard on the way they noticed a pickup speeding in the opposite direction One agent spotted Roger Yates inside traveling with a salvage yard manager [Applause] they couldn't see if Michael Thompson [Applause] investigators gave Chase a trail of the truck to a dead end yaden jumped out and headed for the woods fugitive's childhood friend was detained for questioning he said Yeadon had forced him to lead police on a chase until he could jump out of the truck assured he had not intentionally harbored the suspects police later released the friend the childhood friend knew nothing of their recent criminal Behavior he had only knew that yaden had been in jail once for burglary Roger Yeadon had eluded pursuing investigators a K-9 unit was called into tracking a trained dog picked up a scent right like on July 2nd 1996 Roger yaden decided he was finished running but his accomplished convicted murderer Michael Thompson was still at Large having Aiden in custody was only a partial Victory according to FBI special agent Jack Osborne after yaden's arrest this is not over at all we know that we're now dealing with another fugitive maybe the worst of the two fugitives we do not know where he's at if he's still on the property if he's in the trailer if he's in the woods if he has a weapon or not suspecting Michael Thompson took refuge in the auto salvage yards trailer law enforcement teams surrounded [Music] agents warned anyone inside that the trailer would be too gassed [Music] up the atmosphere was very tense we did not know if Thompson was inside the trailer with a maybe a long gun or even a handgun you know positioned on some of our people so we had to maintain cover all around the perimeter of the trailer come out with your hands up you will not be home are authorities gave the signal to use the gas [Music] [Music] [Music] storm the trailer no one knew if escaped murderer Michael Thompson was armed and barricaded inside I repeat Thompson you need to come out on July 2nd 1996 after capturing Alabama fugitive Roger yaden in Indiana FBI agent stormed a salvage yard trailer where they believed his partner was hiding but Indiana Department of Natural Resources agent Dean Jenkins and his team did not find convicted killer Michael Thompson inside that was a terrible disappointment because we figured we were on to him we caught one we were looking to get the other one and pretty much make it make it a clean sweep and he wasn't in there agents questioned the salvage yard manager a childhood friend of yeadon's who had unknowingly harbored the fugitives he said he had no idea where Thompson might be hiding but he did show agents where yaden and Thompson kept their belongings [Music] from the trunk of a car agents retrieved a suitcase labeled with the name of missing British major David Nichols the Mages clothes and personal effects were still inside agents believe the fugitives had carjacked the major in New Mexico search team secured a three mile perimeter around the salvage yard and told the man to call immediately if he spotted Thompson if we use canines and broke up into teams of three and four officers with canines and searched the area ran tracks all throughout the lot the salvage yard area and then the surrounding Woods looking for him and that that took an awfully long time that went from the time they inserted the gas in the afternoon uh well past Darkness with a convicted killer on the loose FBI and local law enforcement could not afford to wait Patrol roadways and Fields hoping to flush Thompson from hiding despite hours of searching The Fugitive it eluded them once again Thompson may have somehow slipped past the perimeter they had no way of knowing if he was still in the immediate area then special agent William Hamilton got the call they were hoping for all right good listen Don't Go Near in we're going to be there on July the 3rd the morning following the arrest of Roger yaden the childhood friend of Yeadon telephone me and advised me that the subject Thompson was asleep in the junkyard in the back of one of the cars near his residence the trailer the team was concerned that Thompson would be armed there was no telling what the desperate fugitive would do when cornered exhausted from running gave up without a fight after 43 days six thousand miles and thousands of man hours the last fugitive wanted in major Nichols disappearance was in custody Thompson refused to talk to investigators but Roger Yates apprehended the day before felt differently hoping for leniency from federal authorities yaden agreed to tell investigators what they wanted to know FBI special agent Jack Osborne led the question at about 200 yes all right we only have one he indicated a willingness to give us a statement to provide all of the information that he and Thompson were involved in to include the initial escape to include uh the carjacking in Alabama and this is the first time that we learned that the British Armory officer had been killed [Music] in the black pickup the pair had carjacked from Alabama the fugitives made their way to New Mexico selling tools from the truck for money when their cash ran out they decided to Rob and carjack another victim they staked out a remote rest area 100 miles south of Raton New Mexico the last known town where British major Nichols had traveled convicts figured that tourists would be traveling with a lot of money and waited for someone who was traveling alone [Music] that's when the British major pulled up [Music] [Music] as they had done in Alabama they forced their victim into the trunk of the car Thompson drove the majors rental car while yaden followed in the truck from yeadon's account the British major reacted to the crime as the Major's wife had predicted he would according to special agent John Shum everything she said about him is exactly what yaden told us happened that major Nichols was non-confrontational he did what he could to keep the situation from escalating he talked about his three boys in England about how he needed to to get back there for them and he he asked that he not be hurt because he was concerned about what would happen to his children Hayden said Thompson had planned the whole thing and that he was calling the shots they drove 50 miles until it was dark then pulled into a deserted area off the highway at gunpoint Thompson forced major Nichols out of the trunk good job without warning he shot him in the back of the head Thompson turned the major over and shot again they hid his body at the site then abandoned the pickup truck several miles away yaden said Thompson never explained why he had killed this carjacking victim you didn't the pair of fugitives drove major Nichols car to Indiana where they dumped it in Fowler Lake Roger yaden had confessed his crimes to the FBI but he wanted to deal before he gave up the location of major nickel's body he wanted to hold back until he could get some Assurance from the government that we would not seek the death penalty against him if that occurred then he was willing to help us find the body of the missing major if we had not located the body already all right so let's talk about this deal what are you looking for here agents met with Yeadon and his lawyer The Prisoner said he would tell them where the body was if they also promised he would not serve time in an Alabama State Prison [Music] searches without his help turned up nothing FBI special agent John shum was worried the Major's body would not be found without yeadon's help what what is the deal the most important thing for us to do was find major Nichols body that was going to be important to be successful in any prosecution and it was important for us because it was the right thing to do uh since this man since we couldn't make them safe in this country since we couldn't guarantee his safety at least we could return his body to his family so what are we going to get out of this your things are asking for a federal facility Federal prosecutors agreed to the deal [Music] Jaden LED investigators to a secluded spot in the New Mexico wilderness [Music] The Prisoner was an accomplished escape artist having fled custody more than once well we were very concerned about that because he had escaped four times before in Alabama uh he was obviously very good at that plus we had to be concerned about our own safety so uh not only did we focus on the mission of finding major Nichols body but we had to be very very concerned about making sure Roger yaden was not trying to deceive us and just using this as a roost to set up an escape attempt FBI field agents were wary as a SWAT team secured the location they had no way of knowing if yaden might have friends in the area waiting to strike at agents on September 24 1996 recaptured prisoner Roger yaden led the FBI into the New Mexico desert where he claimed the body of major David Nichols remained hidden after being murdered yaden would be spared the death penalty if he could locate the remains FBI special agent John shum recalls that the likelihood of finding the body without yeadon's help was Slim it was a very desolate area it was off of a very little used two-lane Highway in New Mexico on a very remote area and then off this two-lane Highway we had to go down a gravel road for approximately a mile and then off the gravel road we had to drive into a cattle pasture for several hundred yards so it was incredibly remote agents were concerned that Yeadon had taken them there as a ruse to affect another Escape finally Yeadon pointed out a spot to the agents yes and even yate himself seemed very somber and respectful of of the situation we were in that we'd finally located this man's body and we're going to able to be able to uh to give him a proper resting place now then you say something about exposure to the elements made identification impossible examiners took dental X-rays which were later matched to records sent from England right right major Nichols family in Britain was notified the officer's murderer Michael Thompson avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty in federal court to carjacking and murdering a foreign official he was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for kidnapping robbery and Escape in Alabama Thompson received five additional life sentences in exchange for his cooperation Roger yaden was allowed to plead guilty to only one count of carjacking and was sentenced to 18 years Yeadon was afraid of Alabama State Prison as part of his deal he was to serve his sentence in a federal facility time to get up he was temporarily held at a County Jail in Las Vegas New Mexico until he could be transferred [Music] let's go [Music] hey get up come on get up remarkably Roger yaden had escaped again two other inmates also made the breakout with Yates a search party with a dog team tracked yaden's sent from jail ended at an interstate highway later that day authorities captured one of two other inmates who escaped with yaden go ahead the inmate had injured his leg in the attempt and was unable to get far on foot he explained to authorities how they got out [Music] he said that Yeadon had designed the plan [Music] in the Jail's Black Market he Bartered for an allen wrench into hacksaw [Music] let's go Yeadon unlocked maintenance panels to gain access to air ducts that led to the roof [Music] through ductwork then the roof to get outside the Fourth Man stayed behind to replace the panel [Music] thank you the escapees moved along the roof of the jail then jumped over the wall once on the outside the inmate said they split up that was their last time he saw Yates prison officials called FBI special agent John shum to give him the bad news and once I heard Yang escaped yet again from federal custody my first reaction was I was very angry because here was a guy that had a history of having escaped numerous times in the past the people that were responsible for his custody knew his history and they should have been more careful investigators believed Yeadon would likely head toward family and friends in DeKalb County Alabama have you seen Roger lately agents interviewed anyone yaden might have contacted in the area including an ex-girlfriend have you talked to him on the phone butter no letters like the others she said she hadn't seen or heard from him they left a card and told her to call if Yeadon surfaced yeah I wanted to tell you after the agents left she admitted to her current boyfriend that she had let yaden hide in her house he was upstairs in the Attic the boyfriend was upset and called police nearby officers responded they didn't know if yaden was armed and waiting for them [Music] five weeks after his escape from New Mexico officers finally cornered Roger yaden captured in DeKalb County Alabama Roger yaden's crime spree ended where it began his Escape nullified the deal with Federal prosecutors but check this area he was charged with the crimes he had committed during his last escape from Alabama [Music] Assistant Attorney General David Estes prosecuted yaden in Talladega the jury in this case deliberated for a very short period time at an hour at the most and they came back and they convicted Roger Dale Yeadon of three counts of kidnapping in the first degree two counts of robbery in the first degree and one count of Escape in the first degree Yeadon received five concurrent life sentences without parole [Music] now in maximum lockdown Roger yaden will never leave Alabama prison alive [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] a bank robbery explodes in violence spraying bullets from automatic weapons and anyone in their way the robbers disappear with no reliable Witnesses the police and the FBI have to decipher fragmented evidence to identify the shooters and then bring them to justice [Music] [Applause] [Music] despite what you see in the movies most bank robbers come in quietly pass a note and slip away they want cash not bloodshed but in Richmond Virginia a pair of gunmen entered a bank with their guns blazing I'm Jim calstrom former head of the FBI's New York office the raw violence of the crime shocked even the most seasoned investigators who vowed to catch them before they struck again [Music] throughout the 1990s Richmond Virginia averaged about 10 bank robberies a year prior to 1997 not one of them was fatal on the morning of January 30th 1997 the employees of a small Bank on the East End of the city began the day's business 23 year old Christine Edwards one of the bank's tellers arrived for work [Music] foreign 21-year-old Tracy Freeman was already there Allison Davis a customer service representative and Richard Hartman the bank security guard also began their day Steven Reed a regular customer arrived shortly thereafter he ended the bank as the tellers finished setting up and was greeted by Hartman no one saw the two men slipping in the bank's rear door when the men struck they did so swiftly and without Mercy [Music] 80 yards away Richmond police officers Michael Webb and Dave Martin were at a convenience store getting coffee for their morning shift [Applause] right as the officers responded Richmond dispatch ordered backup units [Music] it's a rear of a bank the officers spotted a security guard lying in the parking lot [Music] yeah officer Martin guarded the front since Webb went to check on the guard still alive barely Webb called for an ambulance then two armed men emerged from the bank stop s emptied his clip foreign they stopped shooting I stopped shooting I just knew these two guys we're gonna come each side of the vehicle after me I changed magazines and sat there and waited for a couple of seconds but the gunman never came for him officer Martin left his position to back up Webb for the assailant surprised him [Music] with only a service weapon Martin was outgunned which allowed the robbers to get away from him [Music] [Music] all the officer could do was report their position as they escaped across the cemetery got a black male running with Blackjack to tour divertown Road two men [Music] the Richmond officer saw a cloud of red dye the sign that the gunman had stolen a bundle of money containing a timed die pack the men leapt over the next wall and the officer lost sight of them the dispatcher forwarded the information to the Henrico County Police Department officer Martin searched the neighborhood knowing two men with automatic weapons could be around any corner but found no sign of the suspect [Music] [Music] and Henrico patroller arrived on the scene [Music] he tended to the wounded guard outside Richmond police added the building looking for any other gunman that might still be inside and to check the condition of the other employees [Music] tellers [Music] come on everything's fine Allison Davis had taken cover is she okay everything's okay she was not injured but paralyzed with fear and taken to the hospital for evaluation [Music] after clearing the bank the officers felt it was safe to let the EMTs [Music] patella Christine Edwards it was too late okay tell me where it hurts Tracy Freeman in severe shock and bleeding heavily were stabilized and rushed to the hospital all right along with Richard Hartman the security guard [Music] at the Richmond Police Homicide division Detective Tom Leonard was disturbed by the robber's brutality this was our most violent bank robbery that we can remember in our history so our fear was they were in the neighborhood we need to get them off the streets Leonard headed to the bank officers collected items dropped by the robbers when they fled including A Larson 380 semi-automatic handgun and the clip to a tech nine another semi-automatic weapon canine Officer with a tracking dog began searching for the suspects the dog followed a scent through the cemetery on Art Avenue the dog lost the trail Henrico and Richmond police canvassed the neighborhood asking the residents if they had seen any strange men fleeing the area but no one saw anything suspicious detective Leonard arrived at the crime scene with an evidence technician so let me check okay we immediately shut down that bank and the only people that were inside the bank was myself and forensic people so as we went through the bank looking for forensic evidence that we could pick up and look at we found a lot of spent shell casings which were firing we had some that were on fired those shells were nine millimeter likely used in the tech nine behind the teller's counter investigators found a backpack apparently left by the robbers inside was a piece of green tablecloth a bottle of charcoal lighter fluid a box of matches [Music] and a note reading please wait five minutes we couldn't figure out what that was all about on the surface of the tellers counter investigators spotted several boot prints foreign they preserved each print with tape which they would later compare with Footwear collected from potential suspects because the bank was federally insured police called in FBI special agent Wayne Waddell from the Richmond field office [Music] at the bank he and detective Leonard checked a videotape that had recorded several surveillance cameras simultaneously but there was a problem something caused the film in our opinion to uh to not be not be working correctly it went one camera to another camera to another camera and you're getting different angles from the from the front door the rear door and from different teller positions they would need to make still photos from the individual frames to get any useful details special agent Eduardo Alford joined the investigation [Music] the FBI would not stop until the gunman were captured [Music] I'm sure if you talked to every person that was involved in this investigation they would tell you the same thing they they wanted to stay on this case uh Around the Clock which essentially is what happened evidence collection at the bank lasted for hours later on in the evening at around 5 30 or 6. we received word that Henrico County had received a report of a break-in I went over to the break-in site it was on Art Avenue across from the cemetery not far from where the K-9 unit had lost the trail of the suspects we didn't know if it had anything to do with the bank robbery or not a young woman that lived there with her father found the front door had been knocked open and went in the house and discovered a lot of items that appeared knocked around or perhaps taken I'm special agent Waddell went inside a Henrico officer pointed out a hole in the ceiling appeared someone had stepped through from above [Music] feared someone might be hiding in the Attic no one was there they searched for evidence investigators found a pair of boots [Music] they also found a backpack and a coat [Music] inside was another note reading please wait five minutes they also found another green tablecloth red dye like that used in Bank dye packs covered many of the items so we absolutely felt that there was a connection between the the house break-in and the bank robbery but they didn't know how the two crimes were related we had no idea why the bank robbers would come to that house was it an opportune moment did they know someone there uh was there something that Drew them there you may have already I was at happenstance we had no idea [Music] reviewed the uh the owner and his daughter and the daughter's boyfriend and you interview these people because what are these bank robbers who are these suspects doing in your house and we're trying to find is there a link or is there not a link the residents were equally confused they reported that whoever broke into the house stole some men's clothing suits and jackets during questioning the boyfriend acted nervous and claimed he had no information to add what time did you get here at the hospital a Richmond detective sought out the wounded victims who could provide eyewitness accounts but he was unable to see anyone the two wounded survivors were still in surgery and could not be interviewed Allison Davis the customer representative who had escaped injury under her desk was so distraught she had to be heavily sedated Stephen Reed customer inside the bank had been grazed by a bullet and had come to the emergency room on his own but he was also of no help he had Alzheimer's disease and could not remember any useful information by the end of that first day we still had nothing more than what we had to begin with so we knew there was going to be a ways to go it was going to be a tough case in Richmond Virginia two armed bank robbers escaped with ten thousand dollars cash leaving two employees wounded and 23 year old teller Christine Edwards dead go the community was stunned as was assistant U.S attorney Nicholas altamare this girl was an angel and these guys they just walked into the bank without a word spoken and shot or dead sick determined to find her Killers Richmond homicide detective Tom Leonard an FBI special agent Wayne Waddell had to pursue the case without the benefit of eyewitness accounts the problem with with the employees and the in the customer that were in the bank is they were all traumatized uh we actually could not talk to any of them for several several days the detectives tried to interview Allison Davis the customer representative who had taken cover under her desk and escaped injury but she was too traumatized by the idea Hospital staff had to sedate her she was unable to speak on these 30 seconds there were no Witnesses available to tell investigators what actually happened inside the bank all they had to understand this events was a flawed videotape of the surveillance cameras according to Detective Tom Leonard that really caused us a problem trying to be together because we're missing more bits and pieces of the so you didn't get to see the whole robbery occur like you normally would working with still photos captured from the surveillance video and records of the physical evidence recovered from the bank the investigators pieced the crime together Moment by moment [Music] there was a complex series of events all taking place in a matter of seconds you could see where the bank had obviously open but the only people were inside were the security guard that the bank representatives and one customer the customer was standing there at the uh the walkway area where you go through your little lines talking to the security guard the lead gunman headed straight for the teller's counter I bypass the security guard with that the front guy was not worried about the security guard he knew that the second guy was going to take him out in the photos investigators saw the second robber pointing the tech nine at the guard the first robber reached the counter and shot both tellers crack that weapon and he walked all the way down here ballistics testing showed both were shot with the Larson 380 recovered outside the bank The Bullet Hole behind the customer Representatives desk showed the gunman turned and fired at her but the shot missed investigators noted the unfired nine millimeter rounds found on the floor this suggested that Tech N9 had likely jammed and the gunman ejected rounds trying to clear it I think I think the photos revealed there was a brief standoff second Robert tried to clear his Tech N9 the first attempted to shoot the guard with a Larson but that gun malfunctioned too the Larson 380 recovered outside the bank was found with a jammed cartridge when the guns jammed the customer Stephen Reed fled followed by Richard Hartman the guard unable to clear the lorcer the lead gunman pulled an AR-15 assault rifle and followed them [Music] spent shell casings and bullet strikes found outside supported witness statements as to what had happened next in the bank's drive-through saw a gunman chasing me [Music] he grazed his arm [Music] the guard tried his best to stop the Cure but was struck by multiple rounds [Music] the gunman returned inside apartment was still alive the witness watched as he entered the rear of the bank foreign [Music] ERS realized Hartman and risked his life trying to draw the robbers out go to backpack with money including one bundle that contained a die pack [Music] the guard approached fired but missed [Music] another witness saw the guard flee the rear of the bank the lead gunman pursued him into the parking lot [Music] the final shot to the temple permanently blinded Richard Hartman [Music] much later officers Webb and Martin found him there foreign agent Waddell and detective Leonard now had a clear account of the crime since the robbers came into the bank's shooting investigators believed their intent was to murder everyone to eliminate all Witnesses at the bank the contents of the robber's backpack revealed a plan to minimize Witnesses on the outside the tablecloths in the note would I think to be put over the doors to ward off anyone coming coming up to the bank give us five minutes we're still cleaning give us five minutes we're not ready to open up yet something like that with the bank to themselves the robbers could take their time the piece of evidence that Disturbed investigators the most was the lighter fluid they believe the robbers were planning to use it to set the bank on fire as they left [Music] investigators knew they were dealing with especially violent criminals who acted with no remorse we need to get him off the streets our fear was these people were going to get out into the community and commit some War murders because they'd already been bold enough to come into the bank and start shooting people and we'd have to gun fight with these people to try to catch them later and the criminals were well armed they still had an AR-15 the civilian version of the military's assault rifle and a tech nine a nine millimeter semi-automatic pistol the one weapon recovered the murder weapon was A Larson 380 semi-automatic the records check revealed it had been stolen weeks earlier investigators released to tales of the guns to the press and asked for the Public's help in tracking down the weapons it worked according to assistant U.S attorney Nicholas altamari we got lucky we got very lucky there was a there was a person who was out there that overheard a woman that she worked with say that she thought that her husband sold those weapons the FBI and the Richmond PD followed up on that lead and in fact did locate a a gentleman who was a legitimate and licensed gun dealer [Music] at first the dealer was reluctant to talk to authorities we want to incriminate himself by admitting that he might have sold weapons used in a murder after agents assured me could not be held liable since the guns were sold legally he admitted he had sold a TEC-9 and an AR-15 a few days before the robbery he located the ATF forms filled out by the purchaser investigators now had a name the gun dealer told us that he had sold the weapons to Jermaine Sims and we got hold of all of our all the units all the guys working the case everybody was out trying to locate him they finally ascertained that Sims was out of town well the search for Sims continued investigators kept following their only other promising lead the art Avenue house that the robbers had broken into we started checking everything we could find out about the owner and his family the girl that lived there had a boyfriend we started checking him out so we started from scratch we just been basically an investigation on every person in the house boyfriend who had acted nervous during interviews consented to a polygraph test the polygraph examiner asked questions about the robbery and murder while special agent Waddell observed after an hour of questioning the polygraph results were inconclusive did you rob that bank the boyfriend could not be eliminated as a suspect special agent Waddell knew he needed to re-examine the house and went back with a search warrant this time he returned with an FBI evidence response team determined that a more thorough search would reveal a connection between the break-ins the ERT technicians scoured the Attic got two guards here behind a wall board they found a tech night semi-automatic pistol and an AR-15 assault rifle precisely the type of guns used in the crime [Music] still loaded but their serial numbers were intact special agent Waddell proceeded to check if these were the same guns purchased by Jermaine Sims we want to verify that they were in fact the weapons that involved from the gun dealer and using the bankrupt so we call back to the office we read off the serial number make and model of these weapons and they were compared to the ATF Firearms form they were the same weapons [Music] a ballistics expert compared slugs recovered from the bank to slugs fired from the recovered AR-15 [Music] they matched connecting that weapon to the Fatal bank robbery seems certain that Jermaine Sims had indeed bought the weapons used in the robbery and murder now the FBI and Richmond police needed to find him in Richmond federal agents determined two weapons used in a deadly bank robbery were purchased by a man named Jermaine Sims but a background check revealed he was receiving government assistance they followed up on that lead the Social Services office an administrator confirmed that Sims regularly came in to pick up food stamps the FBI the next time showed up yes agents went to the address listed on the ATF Form and spoke to Sims mother she hadn't seen her son since she kicked him out the previous week Days Later Richmond agents received a page from the Social Services Agency [Music] the administrator stalled Sims until the agents arrived they hoped he didn't suspect anything when the agents arrived the suspect seemed calm [Music] they asked Sims to come in for questioning [Music] reluctantly he agreed [Music] they took him to a nearby police station where investigators tried to get him to talk about the guns but interviewing the suspect was no easy task according to assistant U.S attorney Nicholas altamari Sims was a difficult person to deal with he was he was a person who was filled with hate and hostility he didn't want to be there he didn't want to certainly cooperate with us we were dragging bits and bits of information out of him and he was really only providing us information that we already knew um we were having a lot of trouble bringing him to the table so to speak Sims denied any involvement in the crime stating he was at his girlfriend's apartment at the time of the robbery who lives there with him over several hours altamari kept pressuring him until finally Sims admitted he had bought the AR-15 in the tech nine with the intent to sell them later for a profit he said he stashed the weapons at a friend's house a man named raw but claimed he couldn't remember the address instead he gave directions the interview continued while special agent Wayne Waddell tried to confirm Sim's story Sims told us where this house was located and described the house to us we went to the locations we could not find the house determined altamari confronted Sims with his deception do you think you deal with a bunch of but Sims maintained his story that he still knew nothing about the bank robbery you've already told me that by then authorities had located Sims girlfriend who supported his Alibi but investigators had strong evidence connecting him to the crime [Music] formed that he was under arrest for bank robbery [Music] there's nothing like the Silence of a of a jail cell to focus somebody on on their problem and he had a huge problem he had his name on the title to these weapons that were used in this in this robbery and we thought that if we gave him a little time to think for himself that he would eventually come to the conclusion that it was in his best interest to cooperate with us after a week of incarceration and repeated interviews Sims decided to talk tell me about the guns he said after he bought the guns he left them with two friends Rashid Jones and lafon Bobbitt still denied having any involvement in the robbery but investigators continued to work on him he admitted that um that of course he knew that they had robbed the bank he still claimed that he was surprised that they had used his guns to do it and expressed his outrage that they would have they would have done this to him and gotten him Sims said that after the robbery bobit and Jones came to his apartment wearing clothes he had never seen them in before they told him about the botched robbery the gunfight and their escape they explained that they had broken into the house on Art Avenue choosing it at random he stole some clothes and stashed their guns behind the wall board in the Attic foreign [Music] as they were leaving Jones accidentally stepped through the ceiling they then slipped out avoiding the patrolling officers [Music] they had the money with them but it was stained red from the die pack police records revealed that lafon bombett had 11 prior convictions and was free on bond from charges related to Grand Theft Auto Rashid Jones had seven prior convictions including grand larceny and was on Parole investigators reduced the charge against Sims from bank robbery to conspiracy [Music] now with the identity of the killers in hand the real Chase could begin after a 1997 bank heist that left one teller dead Richmond Virginia authorities believed they had identified the gunman as lafon Bobbitt and Rasheed Jones they had no idea where to look for Jones but they did set up surveillance at bobbitt's last known address assistant U.S attorney Ken melson was determined to apprehend these men as quickly as possible we had to get these two cold-blooded Killers off the street as soon as we can so we would eliminate the possibility that they could do the same thing again and someone else would get killed and yet we had a lot of work to do collecting the physical evidence getting it analyzed by the lab they needed more time to build the federal case but could not afford to have two killers on the loose a prosecutor's office in Henrico County to charge Bobbitt with the burglary the breaking and entry of the art Avenue address with respect to Jones he was in violation of his parole so we got a warrant for a parole violation special agent Wayne Waddell received the go-ahead to bring in the fugitives on those charges we had two agents watching lafon bobbitt's house the two agents were uh Paul missing and Eddie Alford and we finally get authorization to arrest lafon Bobbitt I get hold of uh missing and Alfred they tell me that Bobbitt has just left his house the agent told the surveillance team to follow Bobbitt then headed off to back them up the agents followed the suspect into town where he boarded a bus [Music] they kept in contact with special agent Waddell updating him on their location they decided to arrest Bobbitt at the next bus stop bus is right in front of me all right then foreign to get into position the other agents pulled in behind [Music] when the bus stopped the agents were ready [Music] to put your hands up [Music] within moments suspect lafon Bobbitt is in custody investigators executed a search warrant on bobbitt's home in his bedroom they discovered a manual for a 380 Larson pistol the same model used in the murder they also found several spent 380 shells for FBI special agent Eduardo Alford this circumstantial evidence suggested it was Bobbitt who fired the Fatal shot those accident weapon that wanted to tell us was killed with finding that CLK suit was very helpful as far as determining which one of the subjects or suspects might have had possession of this weapon on this particular day the FBI lab identified bobbitt's fingerprints on items left at the bank by the robbers the first evidence directly linking him to the crime technicians at the FBI's questioned documents unit compared the boot Impressions found at the bank with boots recovered from the art Avenue house and from bobbitt's home one of the latent Footwear impressions was consistent with a boot that was left at the art Avenue address another Layton was found to be consistent with a boot found at bobbitt's house at a later search and so that circumstantially again not conclusively but circumstantially placed bobbid in his Apparel in that bank [Music] the boots found in the Attic likely belonged to bobbitt's alleged partner in the crime Rashid Jones Federal prosecutors now charged lafon Bobbitt with the bank robbery and murder but investigators still needed to find Rasheed Jones three months after the crime authorities received a tip from a store clerk he reported a customer had attempted to pay with die stained bills the clerk refused to accept them this had been in that particular area in the South End of Richmond trying to exchange some of this money so the future task force piece that information together and they were really able to hone in on that particular area based on the proximity of this particular Merchant store the FBI focused on that neighborhood working all of their contacts the effort paid off the information that came in was from just a reliable source of information somebody that was aware of this crime and new uh Mr Jones and was able to uh pinpoint a location where he was hiding Jones was staying in a run-down apartment building frequented by transients agents were able to obtain the cooperation of a man living there the arrest was planned for 5 a.m when Jones would likely be asleep they called the location and spoke to their contact inside he said Jones was there sleeping he had a gun the contact also warned there were other people in the apartment and most of the lights did not work as the arrest team approached the building they went through a final briefing reviewing photos of their target anticipated a dangerous confrontation Jones was armed desperate and surrounded by innocent bystanders in 1997 the Richmond fugitive task force SWAT unit closed in on Rasheed Jones suspected of bank robbery and murder they'd received a tip that Jones was hiding out in an apartment from their contact inside they learned Jones was armed and most of the lights did not work there were several innocent people in the apartment [Music] the building was dark and foreign complicating an already difficult challenge in which SWAT had to take down an armed fugitive while protecting innocent bystanders the team decided to sneak up on Jones silently they hoped he had not been tipped off when they reached the target department an agent phoned their contact inside the contact was escorted out of the building [Music] [Music] when they made it to the room where Jones was said to be sleeping he was gone so was his gun tension mounted his SWAT began searching the rest of the apartment [Music] come on get up [Music] they found and removed two other residents and every room was cleared except one a bathroom about put your hands up down [Music] that's him let's go to the team's relief Jones was unarmed and surrendered without a fight The Manhunt was over get on too agent searched for his weapon they discovered it in a closet it's firing and broken [Music] had the gun been functional the arrest might not have gone so smoothly Jones was immediately charged with probation violation and later for the bank robbery on February 25th 1998 the trial of Rasheed Jones Fawn Bobbitt began but it would not be an easy case assistant U.S attorney Ken melson and his prosecution team were unable to use any of the people in the bank as Witnesses none of them could really testify for us because the guard was blind as a result of being wounded one teller was dead another one had never had the opportunity to even turn around to see anything and a third tell a third employee was unable to testify because she didn't see anything she was under a desk during most of the robbery Nelson found a way to deal with the lack of witnesses by commissioning a digital Recreation of the crime we had to stand in for them digitally and show the jury what happened inside that bank we were the witnesses voice to the jury during the trial so that they could be involved and experience the agony of the victims experienced the moment of the bank robbery and that would give them not only the true feeling of what went on in the bank but the true Carnage and intent of the defendants after hearing six days of testimony the jury convicted both gunmen on all charges assistant U.S attorney Nicholas altamari in the trial they sat there smug as all get out and it wasn't until after they were convicted that you could really see him start to worry because then it was about them then they were worried Bobby and Jones were each sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Jermaine Sims who purchased two of the weapons used in the robbery was convicted on conspiracy accessory before the fact of murder and several weapons violations he too was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole as the victims and their families continue to heal they in the city of Richmond know that Jones bobbidden Sims will never be a threat to anyone again [Applause] [Music] thank you a ruthless grab for power tears a city apart a crime family splits in two is the young the old fight to the Dead [Applause] the FBI is caught in the middle as they Infiltrate The Syndicate [Music] desperate attempt to end the brutal War raging on the Streets of Philadelphia foreign [Applause] [Music] in the early 1990s Philadelphia became the scene of a bloody Vendetta the streets erupted in mob Warfare authorities feared innocent people would be caught in the crossfire I'm Jim calstrom farmer head of the FBI's New York office agents launched a complex and risky surveillance operation their mission to bring down a notorious crime family and to stop a brutal Turf War before more people were killed 1990 a quiet morning in South Philadelphia Pennsylvania Joanne druzy is being wired by the FBI he's a 20 year old accounting student at LaSalle University and he's in trouble he's been betting on football through a mafia bookmaker he was winning at first but his luck turned sour he owes the mob one thousand dollars [Music] it's a debt he cannot pay I don't think you do something I don't think you got it at all but do you understand what's going on in way over his head and Afraid for his life andrucci contacted the FBI and asked for help make money kid South Philly is a tough place not the kind of place where you want to cross the mob La Casa Nostra the Italian Syndicate of organized crime families runs a profitable and Bloody Business there gambling alone sharking and extortion rackets [Music] for years South Philly was run by Angelo Bruno known as The Gentle Don because of his dislike of violence he took over the city in the 1950s murdered in 1980. the man suspected of being behind the hit was nicodemo scarfa Nikki Scarfo took over Bruno's Empire he was a cold-hearted killer who ruled the City by violence but now Nikki Scarfo is in jail the FBI wants to find out who is running the Philadelphia mob while the boss is behind bars [Music] shark gives the FBI the perfect opportunity to collect new information on the organization the college student meets with a bookmaker he plays his part perfectly and is introduced to Salvatore sparaccio a known member of the Philadelphia Mafia you don't have the money FBI special agent Jim Marr was the case agent on this investigation Salvatore sparaccio didn't make any overt threats but the implied threat I'm the boss of the family you gotta pay 120 a week for 10 weeks the boss offers a repayment plan although the mob is charging little more interest than a credit card company the penalty for defaulting on the loan has a far higher price now [Music] for the next 10 weeks the FBI gives and druzy the money to make his payments and each time he takes the money to the bookmaker the FBI records the conversation building their case against Salvatore sparaccio each payment is evidence of the crime of racketeering but the FBI is not interested in making low-level gambling arrests they have a much bigger Target the ultimate goal is to destroy the Philadelphia family as a crime problem the tactics we use are to attack the hierarchy the the this structure the the structure is the is the Target and we we attack the target through through the hierarchy they need more information so on Christmas Day when they know it will be closed the FBI breaks into the bakery shop we prove to the judge that gambling activity and Loan sharing activity was taking place in an Italian bakery the judge authorized us to put microphones in for the next several months the FBI records the conversations inside the bakery we began listening to conversations of Salvatore sparaccio who was claiming to be the boss of the Philadelphia Coastal Oscar family [Music] although sparaccio claims to be the head of the family the FBI wire soon makes it clear that sparaccio is not one of the big Philadelphia Mafia Bosses he is little more than an employee but the FBI doesn't know who he's working for thinking he can lead them to his boss the FBI surveillance tracks burachio to a law office in Camden New Jersey Larry meets with other members of the Philadelphia Mafia including one man well known to the FBI John stanfa foreign immigrant and a made member of the Sicilian Mafia he worked as a driver for the late Angelo Bruno AKA The Gentle Don former head of the Philadelphia family Stanford was implicated in the murder of the former mafia boss in 1981 and was apprehended in Maryland he was convicted of perjury in his testimony before a grand jury that was probing Bruno's death he went to jail for eight years when he was released the Philadelphia Mafia put out a contract on his life for the killing of Bruno special agent Fred Walsh is a member of the FBI's organized crime Squad lead through the intercession of his Gambino Associates up in New York the contract was taken off him and he was allowed to live after Nikki scarfa went to jail Stanford returned to Philadelphia he went to work in the construction business and laid low for a while is relatively quiet so when he started to come to power and we started to notice he was making a name for himself came as kind of surprised us thanks to the cooperation of the young college student the FBI has now identified the man they believe is running organized crime in Philadelphia you put away the previous boss and most of the hierarchy of family felt if we could put Stanford away that we would go a long way towards the ultimate goal of eliminating the crime the Philadelphia family as a crime problem on the street informants confirmed the FBI suspicion that John Stanford is the new boss of the Philadelphia Mafia once you determined that an individual like staff has taken the family over you want to see how he intends to run it contact your informants see what they can provide Stanford maintains a low profile he runs things like the gentle Don before him he engages in traditional mob activities such as loan sharking gambling and extortion [Applause] the FBI wants to find out where he is conducting business according to FBI informants high-level secret Mafia meetings are being held in the lawyers conference room informants told us that that's where they were meeting that they felt secure there since it was a lawyer's office they felt secure there from FBI eavesdropping we decided that it would be a very very good place to put microphones agents prepare an affidavit to wire the premises recognizing intruding into a lawyer's office was extraordinary the affidavit had to go down to the FBI headquarters the director of the FBI personally signed off on it the federal judge gives the FBI the green light agents installed a hidden video camera outside the law office so they can monitor anyone who enters or leaves the building a special FBI entry unit will install a hidden microphone inside the law offices [Music] agents make a surreptitious entry into the second floor Suite [Music] in terms of the actual entry into the premises it's what I regard to be one of the most dangerous things the FBI does because you're you're you're burglarizing someone else's property although you have authority to be there the person if you if you encounter someone he doesn't know that you have authority to be there inside the agents fear they've been discovered an armed deputy sheriff is inside the building the night before we went in the reelect the sheriff campaign moved into the ground floor the Andrew was surprised by deputy sheriff fortunately they were able to conceal themselves he got in and got out before there was any problem the technicians install a microphone in the conference room [Music] the surveillance agents will first try to identify each suspect and determine their roles in the organization [Music] there's 18 FBI agents who do nothing but physical and photographic and video surveillances most of their work they did for the organized crime Squad so we've got a lot of Manpower out there and we've got people who who know how La causa Nostra works and we can a lot of times figure out hierarchy just by watching the way that they behave towards one another that coupled with information coming from informants can tell us who the hierarchy is agents monitoring the conversations have to match the voice on the wire to the face in the video surveillance John Stanford was very easy he had a very heavy Italian accent so it was very easy to figure out when he was speaking but the agents have a problem conversations we intercepted in the office indicated to us that they were leaving the conference room and going somewhere after going to all the trouble to plant the wire the mob boss moves the meetings this the surveillance agents will have to find out where the meetings are now taking place they will have to place another bug they're gone they're somewhere else a few days later the FBI learns from an informant that a high-level sit-down is about to take place at the law office between John Stanford and several Associates they need to get the new bug in place before the meeting but they don't know where the meeting will be held agents dispatch an undercover detective to follow Stanford into the office [Music] Philadelphia detective Mark Pinero gets the job we try to come up with a reason to actually go into the law firm to get a closer look at what was going on so we come up with a cover story utilizing a name of an attorney that we knew had left that firm but it does not go exactly as planned it's this unknown individual held the door for me to go in first which kind of set me back because I want to go in second I want to see where they they were going before I was attended to but I was relieved when I walked in and the receptionist greeted John staffa and John Stanford told her let him know I'm here and the receptionist immediately keyed her intercom and let the lead attorney of this Law Firm know that John was there and to send him in So Not only was able to get hard to identify John staffa who was able to stand there and watch him go down to the actual office of the sleet Attorney At This law good it's real good okay with this information a federal court approves an affidavit for a second break-in at the office agents install hidden microphones in the attorney's office shortly after the new bugs are placed agents hear some alarming news on The Wire the mob bosses are afraid they are being watched they hire a private counter surveillance contractor to sweep the law offices for bugs he finds a listening device the entire operation could be destroyed [Music] the FBI in Philadelphia is closing in on Mob Boss John Stanford they learn he is conducting mob business in an attorney's office [Music] agents Place listening devices in the office but Stanford calls in a man to sweep for bugs agents watch as the sweeper enters the building their entire case could collapse if he finds their bugs here they come here but after a few tense minutes the private contractor completes his suite without finding anything it sort of brought us on everybody's face because they basically brought in an expert who didn't detect anything so that would bring sort of a feeling of Ease on their part and I guess our expectations were that they would be even more at ease to discuss further criminal activity now with microphones in the conference room in the lawyer's private office the information begins to come in the FBI learns that John Stanford is having problems with a group of young Mobsters born and raised in South Philly their allegiance is still with Nikki Scarfo in the mafia regime before Stanford took over they are known as The Young Turks as far as they're concerned Philadelphia is and always has been their turf and The Young Turks deserve to be running the crime family not newcomer John stanfa the bus down boy Merlino is the boss of The Young Turks Michael changlini is the number two man Joanne Michael have known each other since grade school FBI special agent Gary Langan is the Cold Case agent they didn't like the fact that John Stanford who would they consider an outsider would come in and take over the mob family and so they were trying to organize them all in a group even though they were part of the overall picture and they wanted to be in charge [Music] informants tell the FBI that The Young Turks are not taking orders from John stanfa [Music] he doesn't run the city they bragged about the who they were and who they were aligned with bragged about how they were going to take the city over they were the legitimate successors to the previous mob members under Nikki Scarfo they were going out and shaking down bookmakers drug dealers and even in shaking down legitimate businesses and weren't sharing the profits you know kicking upstairs to Stanford The Young Turks feel they're entitled to run the city and the Philadelphia Mafia Jing John stanfa the old world Sicilian boss presents the ostentatious lifestyle of The Young Turks Young Turks if you will were very very flamboyant they'd go into the clubs on Delaware Avenue throw the weight around push people around trade on the fact that they were connected to the local kozanoster family and in general call attention to themselves which is not a good thing if you're running a kozanoster family you should be located the Young Turk boss Joey Merlino has a different idea of how a kosa Nostra boss should live the life he was the kind of guy who felt that when he went into a restaurant because of who he was he shouldn't have to pay this was easily adopted by his Entourage and they became a problem for everybody there was there were fights there were shootings there were it's just not the way to run a kozanoster family attracting all that attention to yourselves the police begin to know then where you are and who you are and it's just not a good thing John Stanford was particularly angered by The Young Turks involvement in the sale of illegal narcotics that was the wave of the future and it's an easy way to make money um traditionally the mob frowns upon having its members engage in drug dealing now that that's not to say that they don't do it they get around that by uh having an associate or something deal drugs and then they'll tax that individual and take a percentage of it but Stanford you know he thought drugs were a dirty business and it draws a lot of attention again to the family and he didn't want to do that and these guys were just defying him and doing it once we heard that there was friction developing we were looking to see how Stanford was going to handle it okay was he going to be aggressive and uh you know take Extreme Measures or was he going to try and mollify these people and they quiet them down and get them under his uh Wing so to speak [Music] but Joey Merlino isn't going under anyone's Wing The Young Turks strike back at stanfa 73 year old Joseph gattone is one of mafia boss John Stanford's most loyal employees yatone is a bookmaker a collector of Street taxes four gunshots Shadow the daily routine of Joseph good tone the old man's blood marks the beginning of a deadly Civil War on the FBI and the Philadelphia organized crime Task Force surveilled top bosses of the Philadelphia Mafia friction between feuding factions of the crime family increase and a bloody Civil War breaks out Philadelphia police officers arrive at the scene of the shooting the victim's keys are still in the ignition and the engine is still running two bullets penetrated the victim's neck a third bullet entered his Temple a fourth grazed the bridge of his nose and shattered the passenger side window when agent Marr arrives on the scene police have already checked the registration of the car but they don't yet know who the victim is agent Marr recognizes the victim from previous investigations guitarne is a long time member of the Philadelphia crime family currently under the leadership of John Stanford several of gatton's neighbors witnessed the shooting but no one can identify the lone hooded gunman special agent Jim Marr suspects Joey merlino's Young Turks are behind The Killing where he was killed the manner in which he was killed indicated to me that the Molino faction was sending a message to Stanford people we're here and we are to be reckoned with John does Agents monitor their wire taps but no one is talking about the murder special agent Fred walls initially at the time that this bookmaker was murdered we weren't sure who was involved there was nothing definitive on The Wire after the bookmaker had been murdered there was a reference to the fact but nothing that would indicate us that Stanford had a belief someone had done it or someone hadn't done it investigators are certain the murder is Mob related but they have no proof when they speak to Stanford himself he claims to know nothing but Stanford Strikes Back five weeks after the murder of John Stanford's bookie and tax collector Michael changlini The Young Turks number two man is coming home after a basketball game two men armed with shotguns opened fire oh [Music] my God somehow janglini his wife and two children were uninjured in the attack investigators recovered 12-gauge shotgun shells from the front yard and shotgun pellets from the ceiling of the living room and dining room despite the Brazen attack on changlini and his family he won't cooperate with the detectives he wasn't going to say anything they just don't talk to law enforcement they feel they're going to handle it themselves it's business okay and it's none of our business so you're not going to get anything out of them The Young Turks number two boss isn't talking but the FBI suspects the attack is payback for the murder of John Stanford's bookie after the bookmaker's murder and then the attempt on Michael chinglini we believed that we were going to see an increase in violence there was going to be a potential mob War fearing this the FBI petitions a federal court to expand the eavesdropping [Music] in the spring of 1992 they get the court order they need agents Place bugs in seven new locations including lawyers private offices the law library the television room and the lunchroom the new wires in May of 1992. FBI cameras catch Stanford arriving at the law office with his conciliary and Joseph changlini brother of the young Turk's second in command right there inside John Stanford angrily announces that he knows The Young Turks are looking for him they want him dead doesn't want a war he wants to make one last attempt at diplomacy his first move is to make Joseph changlini his new underboss I guess he thought as a concession to them he would be able to control them this is saying keep your friends close keep your enemies even closer this was the way to keep an eye on them they we fully anticipated that we were going to see an increase in violence but we were surprised by what did happen informants tell the FBI that stanfa invites Joseph changlini's younger brother Michael and the Young Turk boss Joey Merlino to a secret meeting here Joey and Michael become made members of La Costa Nostra you have to swear to place the family before anything else in your life God your per you know your your own personal family your mother your father your wife your children if the family calls you you come before them now as made members of La Costa Nostra the two young Turks enjoy special privileges the benefits that come with that are that uh you can conduct your rackets whatever they may be without fear of interference from some is not a member the family in a dispute will always decide in your favor if you are a member and the other person is not a member cannot be killed unless the boss of that family to which he's a member approves for John Stanford promoting The Young Turks is his final Act of diplomacy [Music] the FBI and the organized crime task force will keep a Vigilant watch to see if Stanford's bold move stops the violence but agents still need to collect more information about the crime family to shut them down for good [Music] true and informant they learned the law office is not the only place where Stanford and his associates are congregating we found out that the staff that had opened up a dinette next to another business he owned which would say food distribution business and surprisingly Stanford actually worked at this place every day you know it's a John Q citizen he would go to work and he'd actually worked there you'd see him out there sweeping and cooking and handling stuff but he was also meeting his family members there and discussing my business so the next step logically is to attempt to get a title III bug installed in the dinette so that we can listen to the conversations he's having with these these members and Associates of the family once the microphone is installed inside the dinette the FBI hears that an angry John Stanford is still having problems with The Young Turks he requests a final sit-down with Joey Merlino Joey Merlino and Michael changlini pay a visit to stanfa is there a problem gamblers are complaining that The Young Turks are not honoring their bets [Music] Molino assures the boss he'll fix the problem and make good on the debts pay the bill the meeting ends amicably perhaps there can be peace within the family okay early in March FBI surveillance agents observed Joseph changlini and a waitress opening up the Stanford Dinette it's almost exactly one year after his brother Michael was nearly gunned down at his home his activities were easy to document how he was regular he uh he got up in the morning and he went to work but on this morning Joseph changlini's routine takes a terrifying twist four men pull up and open fire on shanglini and the waitress reigniting the bloody war between the old and the new mafia of South Philadelphia [Music] on March 2nd 1993 in South Philly underboss Joseph changlini and a waitress opened John Stanford's Diner [Music] shortly after 6 30 a.m four gunmen launch an attack changelini is gunned down the surveillance agent alerts FBI HQ and calls 9-1-1 for an ambulance FBI agent on surveillance arrives on the scene Joseph changlini has been shot repeatedly in the head neck and chest the waitress is unharmed changlini has somehow managed to survive the deadly attack though severely wounded he can talk you couldn't get a statement out of him and even if he knew who did it he wasn't going to implicate anybody he was he was part of the mob the omerta the Code of Silence and and they would take care of this on their own they had to know who they were he saw them we suspected that it was a group from The Young Turks and but he basically told us he didn't know anything hoping to identify the shooters FBI agents review the surveillance tapes but in the early morning Darkness the images are too dark to identify anyone the video was very grainy very blurry it was very hard to uh identify with any kind of particularity of features where you would recognize who actually went in but you couldn't see four shapes going in then you go to the audio and you hear uh screaming and you hear shots and then you hear someone yelling move move and then they exit the place and they drive away that's basically all we had you couldn't say with any reasonable certainty who actually went in there and shot Joseph but agents are still surveilling the law office in the listening post wiretaps recorded chilling conversation between stanfa and a mob associate John Stanford suspects Michael changlini was behind the attempt to kill his own brother Joseph at the restaurant hey Michael and Joey were on the opposite sides of internal War within the Stamford family they were half Brothers and that didn't make any difference he wanted to he thought his brother Joey was on the wrong side and he's going to take him out for John Stanford there is only one choice eliminate Joey Merlino and The Young Turks so he starts to recruit the his own muscle to send them out and to start stalking these young Turks and trying to uh kill Joey Merlino Michael chinglini and the people associated with him undercover FBI agents deliver a warning to Merlino and Michael janglini come over here what's going on fellas when we're aware of the fact that uh violence is going to occur or may occur and we think we know who the violence is going to occur against we have an obligation to go out and warn them John Stanford is sending hit teams into the streets with orders to Gun Down Merlino and changlini The Young Turks shrug off the FBI warning even though they know their lives are in danger they refuse to cooperate Turks should have listened to the FBI a Stanford hit team tracks them down and opens fire in broad daylight Michael changlini is shot in the heart and dies on the street Joey Merlino is wounded it is clear to the FBI the John Stanford means business taking up a challenge and he's retaliated with a lot of force so that's where we are right then and there we believe that stanfa is responsible for now we have to prove it [Music] three hours after the shooting South Philadelphia police officers respond to a burning vehicle the car matches the description of one seen by Witnesses at the shooting police run a trace and learned that it was leased to a member of the Stanford crime family that night police questioned Phil colletti and his wife she tells police she reported the car stolen Coletti says he's been home all day [Music] the FBI views the couple's Alibi with skepticism Coletti becomes the first suspect in the shooting murder of Michael shanglini several days later the FBI gets a lead on the second shooter the FBI received a call from a physician who said that he had treated an individual who came in with Burns he felt rather suspicious FBI agents find John vesi at home he too is a known member of the Stanford crime family I was letting my agents ask VC what happened to his hand and he says he had an accident with his barbecue grill his hand was burned when he spilled lighter fluid VC insists the burn was an accident he says he knows nothing about the murder of Michael changlini in the shooting of Joey Merlino but when investigators check out the grill they discover it runs on propane which conflicts with VC's story that he was using lighter fluid when he burned himself that aroused our suspicion and kind of uh pointed us toward VZ more so than anybody else the FBI suspects two members of the John Stanford crime family in the murder of Michael changlini and the shooting of Young Turk boss Joey Merlino [Music] FBI can bring the shooters to Justice Joey Merlino and The Young Turks tried to get their own Revenge John Stanford is riding in a 1976 Cadillac Seville he's headed south on the Schuylkill Expressway with his son Joseph and a trusted driver pulls up next to the Cadillac two guns thrust nine millimeter machine pistols through portholes cut in the side of the van and they opened fire a full-scale mafia Civil War rages on the Streets of Philadelphia violence explodes with a Brazen Rush Hour attack on Sicilian mob boss John Stanford the gunfire misses John Stamford but his son Joseph is hit in the face Stanford's driver Rams the van forcing it off the highway what was really Brazen about it was on a highway like that random shots could have struck and hurt even killed any any innocent people were on there investigators have no doubt the attack on stanfa is Joey merlino's revenge for the murder of Michael changlini showed you the extent of the violence these people were willing to employ and The Grudge they wore against the Stanford police find Stanford at the hospital despite the Brazen attack on him and his innocent young son the kosa Nostra boss claims he has no idea who tried to kill them and of course it's the old I don't know who would have done this to me and we don't get anything out of him it is only a matter of time before innocent civilians get caught on the crossfire [Music] and it's time to turn up the heat of the warring mob any known Stanford or Merlino associate seen driving around South Philadelphia becomes the subject of a routine traffic stop authorities arrest eight Mobsters for carrying weapons they confiscate 380 45 and 38 caliber semi-automatics the FBI has no doubt The Young Turks boss ordered the hit on John Stanford but feds can't prove it Joey Merlino has to be yanked off the streets the FBI arrests him for a parole violation of a 1990 armored truck robbery foreign off the streets it is now time for the FBI to focus its sights on John's Stanford's crew the agents Target murder suspect John Vesey the professional Hitman is one of John Stanford's soldiers but tonight thanks to a New Jersey Firearms violation and the threat of a long jail sentence VC has agreed to wear a wire for the FBI it was a very tough tough individual and he did some construction work as a hired labor for uh John stamford's brother-in-law who was in construction and he caught the eye of Stanford Stanford and realized this kid was a tough kid and he could you know he intimidated people under Stanford VC became a loan collector and enforcer and a killer okay now he claims he feels the weight of the murders he committed all these things plus the fact that his brother who really cared for him was convinced that John was going to go down and never see the light of day his brother convinced him that he should cooperate VC was made into the family by John Stanford and now he wants to get out alive you couldn't measure these significance of it but it was uh it was like a coup force that he came on board VC quickly becomes comfortable wearing the wire he has several meetings but the conversations don't provide any new evidence against John stanfa he's out for a little while he I think he met with one or two people nothing great he was a little he was a little down about the fact that he wasn't getting the conversations you know he wanted to he was really into it we call him look don't worry about it you know we got a lot of time we'll do it again until we get it right you know it's Friday night now you know you've worked long and hard for us go home go home and uh relax don't go out we'll hook up with you again we'll do it again later that night John VC runs out of luck and the FBI's organized crime task force is dealt a crippling blow foreign [Music] South Philadelphia mob War the FBI's number one informant is gunned down by Mafia Hitman and the FBI's best chance at busting up a notorious crime family is shattered [Music] FBI special agent Fred walls is devastated by the news that informant John vesi has been shot well when you hear that someone's been shot in the head you think the worst but Against All Odds after three 22 caliber slugs slammed into his skull John vesi is still alive I'm shocked this guy was shot in the head he's given an interview and he proceeds to tell what happened earlier that night after you removed the wire and the FBI agents went home she ran into John Stanford's underboss and one of his soldiers and they tell him we've been looking for you we want to get you started in your own bookmaking operation we're going to show you how to do it we're going to go over to this location in South Philadelphia above this meat store provisi it was just another late night business meeting he wasn't wearing the wire anymore and he thought he had nothing to fear it says he goes up to the room the main guy is sitting down with him at a table going over figures telling him how to take bets how to write stuff down the underboss excused himself he has to go to the bathroom BC heard the sound of the flushing toilet and the door to the bathroom opening and then he heard the gunshots three 22 caliber slugs impacted John VC's skull but he didn't go down really turns around looks at the guy and says what freak you doing of course look at the shooter now he's he's in shock so he throws the gun down and he pulls out a knife well VZ takes the knife away from him and cuts him and basically incapacitates and throws him on the ground he turns to the other guy the main guy who's an older guy and the guy looks at him and he says John John he said this has all been a mistake it's a misunderstanding we're a gentleman here we can settle this and VZ says get out of the way or I'm going to take you down too and Against All Odds John vesi walks out of the room alive that's just going to show you how tough this kid was I mean he was tough and the bullets went into the back of his head and we later found out they had hit the head and come around okay I guess the Slugs weren't as strong it was 22 caliber cow 22 caliber long rifle slug and he took three in the head and survived two weeks later ex-mafia Hitman John vesi makes his first appearance before the Federal grand jury and testifies against his former crime family the information he provides is invaluable to the FBI VC names names and gives the FBI what they need to move against the Philadelphia mob and the FBI increases the pressure other Mobsters make deals with the prosecutors and become informants for the FBI and The Dominoes Begin to Fall on St Patrick's Day in 1994 24 suspects are arrested on racketeering charges of murder murder conspiracy extortion arson kidnapping gambling and obstruction of justice among those arrested is Frank Martinez he's found guilty of assault and the attempted murder of John Vesey she has our phone Vincent Pagano was also arrested and found guilty of assault in the attempted murder of John Vesey on the same day John Stanford is arrested on racketeering charges of murder murder conspiracy extortion arson kidnapping gambling and obstruction of justice win and we were very satisfied with it ultimately 27 people are charged with conspiracy and racketeering under the RICO Act 24 defendants are either convicted or plead guilty to the charges I felt pretty good that we did make Philadelphia a little bit safer uh my job it was my life's work um I thought we did a good job and I thought the that we served the citizenry very well with what we did we took a very very violent group and sent a lot of them to jail for a long long time and we made Philadelphia a little safer on July 9 1996 John Stanford is sentenced to five consecutive life terms he is serving them at the United States penitentiary in Leavenworth Kansas [Music] [Music] foreign New York City's Mafia an organization of brutal gangs to gain wealth and power members strong-armed businesses and kill anyone in their room [Music] John Gotti was one of organized crime's fiercest members he wanted to Rule New York City stop it thank you [Applause] [Music] [Music] John Gotti was ambitious powerful and ruthless he ruled with flash and conspicuous Style playing celebrity with the media and cat and mouse with the FBI they call John Gotti the Teflon Dawn serious charges just wouldn't stick I'm Jim calstrom former director of the FBI's New York office when John Gotti came to power in 1985 organized crime still had its tentacles spread into many legitimate businesses like a game of chess crime bosses were well insulated by layers of Pawns the FBI's job was to penetrate their defenses and capture the king [Music] New York is the home of organized crime in America through intimidation Terror and murder the five families that make up New York's Mafia have corrupted labor unions run extortion rackets and infiltrated almost every major industry in the city disputes among the crime families often erupt over food controls which Union or what industry or inevitably and violently resolved by the 1970s The Gambino family had emerged as the most violent and the most powerful crime family in the nation as that decade came to an end the FBI decided it was time to stop the mafia's reign of terror the bureau's New York office set up five squads assigned to investigate and bring down each criminal family special agent Bruce Mao was assigned to supervise the squad responsible for bringing down the Gambino family the bureau realized that we really weren't addressing organized crime here in New York and so they formed a squads Target each particular crime family and try to address the organized crime problem here in New York so in 1980 we formed the squad and our Target was to put the Gambino family in jail the main targets of Mao's investigation were the leaders of the Gambino family the boss Paul Castellano and his underboss Neil de la Croce Castellano assumed leadership of the family in 1976 when Carlos Gambino the namesake of the family died of natural causes the FBI were also targeting the most powerful captains in the family like John Gotti the captain's controlled Crews of soldiers who carried out the day-to-day criminal activity for the family castellano's Crews would commit the actual crimes but Castellano himself did not catching him seemed impossible as the FBI soon learned the entire hierarchy of the Gambino family was well insulated the family Army consisted of over 50 captains who controlled over 300 soldiers a large and impenetrable secret society accessible to Outsiders only through the lenses of surveillance cameras but Federal racketeering legislation was passed that made ordering criminal acts as much of a crime as committing the crime itself in order to successfully prosecute the hierarchy of the Gambino family the FBI had to secretly get them on tape discussing their criminal Enterprise Mao and his team would have to patiently methodically work their way into the intricate structure of the Gambino family it would take years to accomplish that good work agents tried to learn more by speaking to Residents in the neighborhoods where mob activity was prevalent he's sure now yeah but take a look you might recognize one of these guys take a look take a good look take your time few people were willing to talk only those on the inside who tell agents who were the real power Brokers in the family cooperating Witnesses and informants had to be developed betraying the mafia meant certain death informants would be difficult to come by but some were willing to take the risk most were low-level criminals cutting deals with the government to avoid prosecution and long prison sentences whatever their motivation they gave agents something they did not have before a back door into the gambino family's criminal operations Castellano ran the family like a major corporation [Music] nicknamed within the mafia as the Pope he used unions to strengthen his grip on various Industries in New York shilera head eyes New York office is an expert on organized crime [Music] one of the most influential things that the Gambino family did was the control of the labor unions in New York City they exerted at one time tremendous influence in terms of the longshoreman's Union in terms of construction industry trade unions and in terms of the teamsters and trucking by controlling the trade unions in New York City The Gambino family was able to control construction and certainly had a great influence in the Garmin Center and that generated tremendous amount of financial base to the family Castellano knew how to keep his interests under control castellan also realized how important it was to uh rule by fear and Terror so we had several enforcement arms of the family he had a crew that was famous for uh killing people dismembering bodies and you know all sorts of Horrid things so even though castellana was known as the businessman's Don he was a tough guy he had a hair trigger and a temper and he killed you at the drop of a hat getting to Castellano directly would be very difficult his home in Staten Island was a fortress under constant supervision by armed guards he had also installed a sophisticated alarm system agents had no solid evidence to suggest that Castellano conducted criminal business in his home [Music] such proof a court would never authorize an FBI bug or a phone wiretap inside the home agents hit the streets they hope to find one weak link to explore one person in the family who made himself vulnerable to electronic surveillance they learn through informants about a Gambino family crew headed by John guy that operated in Queens headquartered in a private social club called the Bergen hunt and fish camp a few of the FBI's well-placed informants were close to one of Gotti's lieutenants a man named Angelo gugerio though known on the streets is the most vicious gang in the Gambino family agents believe they found their weak Link in God is good and the reason we did was he had a lieutenant named Angela jario who ran the day-to-day operations for guiding his crew and Angela was an attractive Target because number one he's very active involve a lot of criminal activity number two he had a big mouth he talked a lot he was a gossip in a blabbermouth Mal quickly quickly established surveillance teams to identify record and log every person who entered the Bergen Club [Music] agents learned that John Gotti and his crew made money for the family primarily through hijacking car thefts extortion and illegal gambling operations [Music] foreign [Music] ERS told agents that rugerio sometimes discussed family business on his daughter's phone he believed the line listed in her name to be free of FBI Brothers [Music] permission to wiretap a private telephone is granted sparingly agents must convince a federal judge that the target is engaged in criminal activities and that the wiretap is likely to produce more evidence conversations are not of a criminal nature the wiretap must be turned off [Music] the informant statements were enough to convince a federal judge in late 1981 that rugerio's daughter's phone should be tapped [Music] Mouse Squad had found a way to Infiltrate The Gambino family foreign [Music] the wiretapping of rugerio's phone proved to be one of the most successful wiretaps in FBI history the conversation is overheard by the FBI were dampered but agents learned that rugerio also held meetings in his home with Gambino members Mao and his Squad had enough evidence to justify placing a microphone in rugerio's home [Music] agents slipped in installed the bugs in his dining room and left Without a Trace [Music] the success of the mafia has always been its ability to stay one step ahead of law enforcement what Mao and his Squad did not know was that a high-ranking police officer was on the gambino payroll though the mole didn't know specific details he leaked information to family members about ongoing investigations and electronic surveillance operations foreign became paranoid that his house was bugged he searched the house himself but found nothing unconvinced he called in a professional to conduct a thorough search or suite for bugs [Music] yeah I need someone to come sweep my house please rugerio ordered the sweep on the tap telephone when the FBI heard the conversation they knew they had a crisis the phone tap inside the home was immediately turned off to avoid detection if discovered it would destroy weeks of diligent work and send the squad back to square one and there were no targets as talkative as rugeria hey yes come right here the sweeper arrived with the most sophisticated electronic detection equipment available after two days of searching the house top to bottom he was ready to report his findings to rugerio two days after rugerio's house was searched for bugs agents arrested the man who conducted The Sweep of his house what they learned was indeed shocking he charged rugerio thousands of dollars for his services but none of his detection equipment worked he had swindled the mob [Music] fortunately he had told rugerio his house was clean it was a lucky break for the FBI not only had their bugs not been discovered but now rugerio felt confident to speak freely in his house and he did so with abandoned right into the FBI microphones slowly the FBI was getting closer to the Gambino family hierarchy two agents the conversations were a gold mine as rugerio met with his mob Partners the FBI learned of a major heroin trafficking operation conducted by rugerio and John Gotti's younger brother Eugene over a six-month period Angelo and Eugene Gotti had distributed over 50 kilos of heroin in New York alone the FBI had every last detail on tape there was a mafia rule in effect that dealing drugs was strictly prohibited the punishment for getting caught was execution no appeal no trial Rosario did not have the boss's permission to deal drugs and he knew the consequences [Music] thank you the government felt it had a strong case against gugerio and Eugene Gotti in September of 1983 they were charged with running a major heroin distribution Network and obstruction of justice though all of those indicted were part of John Gotti's crew his name was not mentioned in the taped conversations but with the indictment Castellano would soon find out that Gotti's men were dealing drugs learning of the heroin operation however was not the only valuable piece of information learned by agents just prior to his heroin indictment gugerio would meet with other soldiers and discuss how he and John Gotti would go to Paul castellano's house every Sunday for a family meeting what happened in Paul's house the pope did this the pope at that he's mad at this guy everything's on the family we found out through Angela's big mouth and the next day other soldiers come over of course Angela to reconstruct what happened again so we found everything was happening again Beetle family thanks to Andrew gerio John Gotti and Paul Castellano based on the rogerio wire agents now had probable cause to bug the house of Gambino boss Paul Castellano getting into castellano's house took detailed planning and methodical execution agents managed to get inside the house and place the bugs soon after they began taping conversations that directly implicated Paul Castellano as the boss of the Gambino family the man who oversaw a multitude of illegal records that cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year Castellano would meet with his most trusted captains to discuss business identified one of those captains as Sammy the bull driven implied the bull was both strong and aggressive he was a boxer and a bodybuilder he was also the family's top Enforcer vano generated his money for the family in the construction industry he was Adept at a number of criminal activities but his most notorious skill was murdered [Music] as the FBI continued to investigate powerful captains in the family like John Gotti and Sammy the bull their sights remained focused on the boss in 1985 two years after rugeria was indicted Paul castellana was arrested and charged along with other New York family bosses with dozens of federal racketeering and conspiracy violations out on bail Castellano continued to run the family though his attention seemed focused on how to beat the government's case against him John Gotti was also facing his own legal troubles an independent investigation led by the U.S attorney's Office ended with Gotti and his mentor under boss Neil de la Croce being charged with several counts of racketeering de la crocean Gotti were released on bail allowing them to continue their criminal operations [Music] months later de la Croce lay dying of cancer the FBI had bugged his bedroom Gotti and Rosario visited and the FBI was listening they recorded Gotti talking about his fears that Castellano might kill him and rugeria for getting caught on tape discussing their drug dealings and for leading the FBI to castellano's house the boss wanted to hear the FBI tapes delicrochi promised Gotti that he would do anything in his power to protect him Della Croce's loyalty to guarding is causing a rift in the family he was stalling the boss reluctant to turn the tapes over to Castellano The Gambino family was splitting in two [Music] then in early December of 1985 Neil de la Croce the gambino family's second in command died of cancer in his home on December 16th two weeks after de la Croce's death Castellano and his new underpost Tommy belong pulled up to a fashionable Steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan to meet some Associates for dinner as they started to exit the car several men approached them and began firing Castellano and belotti never knew what hit them they were killed instantly and the boss of the family is assassinated the FBI believes that the person responsible is usually the one who steps up and assumes leadership of the family it was Mafia tradition to pay tribute to a new boss to show him respect two weeks after the murder agents watched a parade of high-level Gambino family members enter the Bergen hunt and fish Club they were meeting with John guy agent Mao and his Squad would have to restructure their attack on the gambino hierarchy John Gotti was the new boss of the family maybe agents pieced together his criminal history and traced his rise to power John Gotti became a Gambino family associate around 1970. he impressed the boss in 1973 by killing a man who had kidnapped and murdered a relative of Carlos Gambino Gotti served two years for the hit before he was paroled upon his release he quickly gained respect within the family he began to make a great deal of money for the family through loan sharking and gambling operations in his neighborhood he became a hero of sorts throwing huge Fourth of July parties every year complete with fireworks special agent George Gabriel was assigned to Mao's Squad in 1985. quickly became an expert on John Gotti took care of it there were old ladies that were in need if he had money in his pocket he'd give it out he was in in some respects a Robin Hood in his neighborhood and that's how he he carried himself but how did he make that money by killing by robbing by manipulating by bribing by controlling rackets that he didn't have a right to control and that's a side when when he didn't like you when you fell on the wrong side of John you died I mean there was no mercy you died there was no two ways about it Gotti was now the king he found himself in command of a multi-million dollar crime Network made up of scams he did not know existed he had a lot to learn with their bugs and surveillance special agent Gabriel and the rest of the FBI Squad learned right along with him John Gotti took over that family he had to learn what the rackets were and as he's learning them we're learning them Who's got what industries who's collecting from what unions he's asking captains to give him a list of all the soldiers in there and their Crews so he could know who he's got in his family and how many Gotti was the boss but he still had legal trouble six months after becoming the head of the family he was sent to jail to await trial on loan sharking and gambling charges jail didn't slow him down bro from his cell Gotti ordered a murder it was against Robert de Bernardo who had been a close associate of God he bernardo's assassination was set up by Angelo gugerio who was still awaiting trial for his 1983 drug indictment Angela is one of the few guys who's got access to John in jail and tells him that Robert de Bernardo is talking subversive behind John's back the boss is back he's saying that John isn't fit as the boss and we should appoint somebody else's the boss Angela wants this done because Angelo owns Robert debonado a lot of money and he doesn't want to pay him back I was going over some of these uh contracts here public housing contract on Gandhi's behalf Rosario asked Sammy the bull gravano to set up the hit 1986. D Bernardo showed up for a meeting at gravano's Construction office [Music] everyone greeted him as usual [Music] D Bernardo must have suspected nothing you know we've got all those he was shot in the head from behind [Applause] his body was never found the FBI learned of his death through informants agents believed Gotti's crew was responsible for the murder but they needed proof in August of 96 two months after the DI Bernardo hit Gotti went to trial for the gambling and Loan sharking charges filed two years before but Gotti had not been the primary target of that indictment the case was originally designed to bring down underbau's Neil de la Croce the case against Gotti was never that strong but an ambitious U.S attorney saw an opportunity to get a mob boss though the case did not involve Mao's Squad he sent George Gabriel to observe the trial during a break in the proceedings Gabriel came face to face with his adversary I introduced myself I tell them I'm George Gabriel I'm with the FBI I work on Bruce Mouse Squad he says you tell him I'm going to be home in six weeks I'm going to beat this one I said right I'll deliver your message I said and if you do I'll be there to congratulate you because it'll be a good job on your part he says good I hope to say you on March 13 1987 Gotti was acquitted on all counts George Gabriel made good on his promise after the verdict Gabriel went to the Bergen hunt and fish Club in Queens where Gotti was having an acquittal party he congratulated guy to the press the public and to prosecutors John Gunn seemed untouchable out of jail John Gotti resumed his celebrity status around town he was seen at fine restaurants and glitzy nightclubs always immaculately dressed already he was known as the Dapper Don now with his acquittal he earned the title of the Teflon Don charges slid right off him to the media he was glorified as the underdog who took on and beat the government but now it was Mao's turn to make a case against Gotti I get upset when they glorify a guy like that to me he's just a common Thug a criminal he's a terrorist he doesn't believe in our government he doesn't believe in voting doesn't believe in church doesn't believe in family he's a mass murderer how can you glorify this guy or make him a role model for your kids it was very upsetting to me in order to make his case against Gotti Mao had to find out where he was conducting his business the FBI bugs planted at the Bergen hunt and fish Club had dried up since becoming boss Gotti wasn't spending as much time there the squad leaned hard on informants to find out where God he held his high-level meetings it took eight months but in early 1988 they finally found Gotti's new headquarters thought he turned the ravenite social club in Little Italy into his headquarters foreign it was a symbolic gesture on gaudi's part the ravenite was his mentor Neil delacrocci's old Club here Gotti would meet with his captains to conduct family business agents rented an apartment down the street from the ravenite the high-powered cameras installed to record all those who came and went from the club in February of 1988 the FBI earned Court approval to bug the Rhythm with 30 or 40 people in the room deciphering conversations was difficult cassette tape recordings of white noise were always being played in the club hearing conversations through that was impossible but the FBI had to have John Gotti's orders on tape in order to charge him with running the Gambino family insurance so far the bugs in the ravenite had not produced much evidence yeah he always suspected he was being listened to by the FBI and he found clever ways to avoid being overheard John Gotti was Notorious for going on what we described as a walk talk where he and the person he had to discuss something secretive not all my business is open to everybody in the mob there were times where a captain would have to speak with his boss John Gotti would take that person and they'd go outside going outside they're evading the possibility of a bug no matter what agents did it seemed the mob was anticipating their every move at times even taunting them [Music] and outside the ravenite they would bang on every van on the street and Whisper we know you're in there you get made all the time and you try your darndest not to but it happens and you just have to stay with it [Music] John Gotti ordered another hit out of range of the FBI bugs this time it was Louis molito a Gambino Soldier whose loyalty to Gotti was suspect Gotti felt Melita was a threat to the family Administration since molito had been a close business associate of Paul Castellano and Tommy bilani Sammy the bull agreed to oversee that he too had little use for Melita Sammy felt he was trying to move in on the construction industry [Music] Melita was shot dead under gravano supervision his body removed and never found the FBI learned of the hit through informant rumors but again there was not enough hard evidence on Gotti to arrest him Gotti was ordering people killed right under the FBI's nose the cat and mouse game intensified and so did the pressure on the FBI to stop it from ordering more killings how knew he was overlooking something Gotti must be talking about but the FBI didn't know where in December 1988 Bruce Mao decided it was time to shut down the wire and regroup a very frustrating time because we knew we're so close that we had these guys on videotape we could see him coming and going we saw the walk talks around the street we were so close but yet so far away from achieving our goals the bugs were shut down but the FBI's Gambino Squad would not give up they developed a new informant who told them Gotti would sometimes be in deep conversation with one of his men in the ravenite then abruptly they would leave the table and go into a hallway behind the club usually they were gone for 10 or 15 minutes the meetings in the hall were no doubt incriminating ones and in a quiet hallway FBI bugs could pick up more of the conversations the squad quickly took advantage of the opportunity [Music] in October of 1989 agents bugged the hall [Music] they recorded Gotti meeting with several Gambino family members there [Music] the bug produced some evidence against Gotti but not the evidence they needed to put him away for life God he had to be meeting his men in another location within the village somewhere where he felt comfortable and safe in the fall of 1989 agents learned from informants about another location within the building that Gotti frequented Nettie cirelli was a widow her husband Michael had been caretaker of the ravenite club when he died she remained in the apartment they shared just two floors above the club it was believed that gotta used Mrs cirelli's apartment to talk about sensitive family business getting into Mrs cirelli's apartment undetected was going to be a problem she rarely left as the FBI's Special Operations Squad tried to figure a way in agents learned that Mrs cirelli would be leaving town for the Thanksgiving holiday [Music] it was the opportunity they had been waiting for agents went to work they sneaked into the apartment in the middle of the night and placed the books on November 30th 1989 the first conversation taped in Mrs cirelli's apartment came over the wires crisp and clear all participants talked freely they spoke directly using no code wounds or sign language like they often did when a bug for weeks agents listened in on the apartment conversations on December 12 1989 they got the biggest break they could ever have hoped for that day Gotti and his underboss Frank locaccio met at the apartment in a rambling conversation Gotti left a trail of evidence that would later haunt him he explained labor union rackets and other crimes talked about ordering the murders of several people the agents monitoring Gotti that night could barely believe their ears more shocking to agents was what they heard Gotti say about Sammy gravano for over an hour Gotti went on a verbal Rampage about Sammy he said gravana was getting greedy taking too big of a cut from the construction racket profits he was becoming too active in the family not respecting Gotti's Authority Gotti suggested that two murders that he himself had ordered were because Sammy was trying to protect his own interests according to Gotti Sami had suckered him into murdering di Bernardo and Milito it's very important conversation because during this Long diatrib John confessed to two murders the confess to order in the hit on Robert de Bernardo he has to order the hit on Louis malito both he claimed that gravan was urging to have murdered he also talked about a third guy named Louis de Bono who was going to murder another partner of Sammy's uh John detailed also his control of different labor unions he also detailed how much money he's making from different illegal activities it was our Smoking Gun is the best tape of the entire electronic surveillance after recording a few more conversations the wire in the apartment was turned off in May of 1990. for Miles Gambino Squad all the years of patience had finally paid off they had the best evidence they could imagine and it was John Gotti himself over the next few months agents put together their case against Gotti the case against the Gambino family hierarchy which began a decade earlier was ready to come to a close on December 12 1990 exactly a year after Gotti's fateful conversation special agent George Gabriel and two others went to the ravenite Social Club their purpose was to arrest John Gotti Sami gravano and Frank lucasio backup officers were close behind or so Gabriel thought when I went into the club to arrest them they would they had just ordered coffee and myself my partner and one of the police officers kind of accidentally went into the club ahead of the rest of the arrest team we were about a minute ahead of everybody so there we were in the classic you know we've got you surrounded and we're looking behind us and there was nobody there but there wasn't a problem everybody complied with what we asked for and either John or Sammy asked if they can have the cup of coffee and I said yeah go ahead we've got plenty of time before we leave on his way to be booked Gotti asked agent Gabriel what he was charged with Gabriel ran down the list and told Gotti of the taped conversations especially in the hallway in the apartment at that God he fell quiet at a bail hearing a few days later the three defendants heard excerpts from the FBI's tapes they played a segment from the December 12th conversation Sammy gravano heard Gotti bashing his character for the first time in life John Gotti was embarrassed he was turning shades of blue and pink and trying to duck into the table Sammy was turning red you could tell he's hotter than a firecracker and they kept looking at each other like what's going on here but that tape planted the seeds for the first time in gravano's mind that he and God John Gotti can never coexist and one had to kill the other if they ever got out of jail after hearing the tape ravano realized Gotti's defense strategy would be to blame him for the murders ravana was being set up as the Fall Guy on November 8 1991 ravano decided to cooperate with the FBI and tell them everything he knew about the Gambino family he filled in all of the details that were missing from the recordings about how he and Gotti committed crimes on behalf of the Gambino family and managed to stay one step ahead of law enforcement gravano arranged payoffs to jurors and a high-level police officer who had been supplying Gotti with classified information both the jurors and the corrupt officer were indicted and given jail sentences Gabriel finally learned why Gotti had been able to avoid successful prosecutions he's out there in everybody's face I beat the government they've got nothing on me reality was he bought the jury Sammy gravano paid a juror sixty thousand dollars to throw that case and that's that's how he wins his case the question most in need of an answer concerned the Castellano assassination through gravano the FBI finally learned the truth the seeds for castellano's assassination were planted when Angelo ruggerio and Eugene Gotti were indicted in the heroin distribution ring in 1983. the prohibited operation could no longer be kept quiet from the boss Castellano learned that the government's case was based on FBI recordings of rugerio Castellano was Furious he wanted to hear the tapes for himself events began to snowball things in 1984 the tapes were finally turned over the defense and for the first time all the code defendants and defense attorneys had all these taste evangelo blabbing about heroin trafficking these are castlotto's house commissioned meetings Etc et cetera so around 1984 Castellano being the Boston family asked rogerio for a copy of the tapes the tension between Gotti and Castellano was held in check by de la Croce but when Della Croce died the barriers were down it's after Della Croce's death Castellano summoned his captains for a meeting Tommy Bellotti would replace Della Croce as underboss more ominously Castellano declared that Gotti's crew would be disbanded his men absorbed into other Crews Castellano had finally listened to the rugerio tapes they had given the government such a good case that after the trial there probably wouldn't be much of a gaudy crew anyway Gotti was Furious and he knew he was a Target [Music] there was grumbling among the ranks that Castellano was preoccupied with his legal problems and wasn't paying enough attention to the family some members thought he was pocketing too much money for himself not spreading it around among the soldiers and captains began to formulate his takeover he had Angelo Ruggiero approached three of the four other mafia families he wanted to know if they would look the other way if something would have happened to Castellano the family said they would not interfere Gotti carefully picked a few soldiers to help plan the hit in particular there was one Gambino member whose support would be crucial if the hit was going to succeed Rosario was sent to ask Sammy gravano if he would participate in the murder of cast alone gravano agreed he was aware of the growing descent within the family he also knew that John Gotti was powerful enough to pull off the murder of the boss and when the other families agreed to stay out of the way Sammy knew the smart play was to back guy [Music] he put together a team of five Gambino family members to plan castellano's assassination they call themselves The Fist of five hitting the boss of the mafia's largest family was a formidable task the fist would have to find Castellano away from his loyalists and they knew that Castellano was under constant law enforcement scrutiny he must be hit some place where the FBI was not apt to be following him their best opportunity came in mid-December 1985. Castellano had asked five of his captains to meet him for dinner at Sparks Steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan but one of the captains was a member of the Fist the night before the planned hit the fist convened at a Construction office used by ravana [Music] oh four Shooters have been hired two for Castellano and two for his driver and under boss Tommy Bellotti the murders had been meticulously planned on December 16th the team gathered in a park about a mile from Sparks the four Shooters dressed alike in Black Russian hats and light-colored trench coats if seen by Witnesses they were more likely to be remembered for what they wore rather than their faces the primary shooters were to pair off just outside Sparks Angelo Rosario was one of four backups who had blocked all avenues of Escape [Music] Guardian gravana would observe from down the street in that art car ready to shoot if necessary if something went wrong if they missed on the street they were to move into Sparks firing until Castellano and bilotti were killed no matter who got in the way Castellano and belotti had to die it was dusk when God and gravano headed towards spark Steakhouse which took their places got in gravano soon found their vantage point a parking space at an intersection down the street from the restaurant they waited in the car castellana was late perhaps he'd been tipped off about the plot on his life in the middle of a conversation with Gotti gravano suddenly looked to his left and panicked at what he saw it was a black Lincoln with belotti at the wheel and Castellano besides for one moment levano and Gotti thought they would be seen but the light changed and the car moved on [Applause] radio it was time as bilati pulled the car to the curb the Assassins advanced Paul Castellano and Tommy belotti lay outside the car each shot by six points according to gravano Gotti eased the car into the street and passed the body sprawled on the pavement he had to be sure Castellano was dead ravano's detailed account finally put an end to the speculating as part of his plea bargain gravano testified against his former boss he admitted to his role in 19 mob-related murders he served five years in prison and voluntarily ended the witness protection program on April 2nd 1992 John Gotti was convicted of five murders including Paul Castellanos and Tommy Belize he also was found guilty of other crimes Under the Umbrella of obstruction of justice and racketeering they included bribery of a police officer jury 10 gambling bookmaking tax evasion and attempted murder John Gotti lived out his life in federal custody stripped of his audience his expensive suits and his flamboyant style he died in a prison hospital on June 10 2002. the FBI cracked down on organized crime is working Luis chiliro head of the New York office is optimistic about New York's future people today I think can can build a building in New York City without being shaken down by a cousin Oster family I think a restaurant in New York City could have their garbage picked up without fearing that they will be shaken down if they don't pick a particular Carter people today can compete on the Fulton Fish Market without the necessity of paying off one of the particular New York crime families so we've come a long way there is certainly a lot of things that left to be done but but I think people generally in New York City certainly are starting to feel the effects of this effort the battle rages on in New York City mafia families continue to plunder continue to kill but because of the ceaseless efforts of the FBI the people of New York are beginning to feel relief as more and more Mobsters like John Gotti are taken off the streets [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] get on your knees in South Carolina family has taken hostage as part of a Brazen bank robbery [Music] police Tracked Down the suspects seem to keep the leader in jail [Music] FBI and police enforced states are determined to stop him but the armed fugitive is Relentless in his struggle to stay free [Music] [Applause] [Music] when a bank teller arrived at her parents home the gunmen were already there the Rob is held a family hostage and forced her to empty a bank vault if she didn't comply she could lose everyone she loved I'm Jim calstrom Farm ahead of the FBI's New York office even when authorities caught the crime's Mastermind they couldn't hold him soon he was back in action with the FBI once again on his Trail the Savannah River marks the state line separating Augusta Georgia from North Augusta South Carolina on the South Carolina side on a Friday afternoon in October 1995 Parker and Brenda Shaw returned home with their granddaughter Brianna they watched Brianna on Friday afternoons when her mother Amy Shaw worked late as a bank teller 13. Parker tried to open the garage but the remote door opener wasn't working [Music] not knowing someone who's there he went in the house to open the garage from inside [Music] the two Intruders quickly bound Parker with duct tape then forced him into the bedroom outside Brenda got tired of waiting with Brianna she began to walk towards the front door [Music] when the garage finally opened [Music] [Music] the man forced Brenda into the bedroom where her husband was being held by the other two intruders the gunman stole money and credit cards from the frightened couple [Music] but then the one who was clearly the leader announced he had really come for the Shaw's daughter Amy and the money at her bank they would wait for her the armed Intruders held the shores for more than an hour at 7 pm the lead gunman ordered Brenda into the living room leaving one of his men to guard her husband and granddaughter [Music] at the front window they watched for Amy they knew exactly when she was to arrive for Amy Shaw it was an ordinary Friday evening the gunman ordered Brenda to the front door usually it was unlocked so Amy was surprised she couldn't get in you right away something was wrong kill this the leader grabbed Amy he told her he had been watching them for some time schedules when they were vulnerable everything foreign he began interrogating Amy about the security system at the bank [Music] from her training she knew it was best to comply with the demands he said she could get him into the bank but it took two codes to open the vault and she only had one he said they'd deal with that when they got there and warned her if anything went wrong her family could get hurt the leader announced he was taking Amy to the bank and told his men to wait for his call [Music] sorry her parents and little girl could only hope that she would not be harmed [Music] as they left the kidnapper removed his mask to avoid looking suspicious in public foreign at gunpoint Amy drove across the Savannah River from South Carolina into Georgia and to the bank where she worked the gunman ordered her to circle the bank slowly so he could check if a cleaning crew was inside pulling up next to the automated teller machine Amy hoped to catch the kidnapper's image on its security camera deciding it was clear he ordered her to drive to the back door he told her that when they got inside she was to explain all of her actions so he would know she wasn't setting off any alarms and warned her again not to make any mistakes inside she showed him the alarm she could disable d but as she had explained she could not open the main vault door alone she had one combination but a co-worker had the other the kidnapper reminded Amy that her family would remain safe only if he could get inside the vault at the shaw residence The Intruders moved the family to the living room where they could watch the front [Music] the Shaws hoped it would end peacefully but the men seemed to grow agitated their guns at the ready [Music] the handgun had gone off accidentally [Music] The Intruders worried the sound had alerted Neighbors [Music] and their concern mounted as another car pulled up to the house it was Amy's brother-in-law and sister and their young daughter arriving for a visit they were taken as soon as they entered the house [Music] the gunman now had six hostages at the bank the lead assailant ordered Amy to call her co-worker for the second combination hello Booker hesitated not understanding what was happening Amy tried to explain that her family was being held hostage the gunman took over threatening to come get the code himself okay okay just calm down fearing for Amy's safety the co-worker gave her the second combination [Music] the gunman made sure the woman stayed on the line so she couldn't call police Amy nervously punched in the second part of the combination but the Vault remained locked you gave me the wrong combination carefully tried again and the door opened [Music] the robber head Amy make sure the co-workers stayed on the line and he ordered her to point out which bins held bait money that was sequentially numbered or rigged with exploding die packs he left that cash alone okay after the robber loaded up the money he ordered Amy to call her parents home on a second line the leader ordered his men to take care of things at the house then leave and Page him when they were clear and get out foreign [Music] he took off with more than eighty six thousand dollars [Music] once he was gone Amy set off the alarm to bring help frantic with worry she called home [Music] her mother warned her not to call police the armed men were still there but it was too late she already had [Music] the gunman checked the terrified family's bindings [Music] it seemed like they were going to leave [Music] but one hesitated [Music] there were six witnesses to the crime at 8pm Richmond County Sheriff's officers responded to the bank in Georgia and learned the real crime was across the river the lead investigator was Kenneth booze we relayed all the information that we had to the Edgefield County Sheriff's Office and told them that there was a possibility that the family was still being held hostage Edgefield County South Carolina Sheriff's investigator Don Bullock got the call [Music] we had a family hostage situation respond was the cold one that's everything you got fast as you can get there the family had called saying the gunman had left but the deputies had to be sure [Music] step back the deputies checked the house for The Intruders they were gone they were safe nobody was hurt physically they were hurt but mentally they had to be shattered they really went through an ordeal the Shaws described the men as best they could they never saw faces and knew only they were African-American males the men were armed and aggressive [Music] one had held a gun to Parker's head [Music] but the shot never came when the assailants left the family freed themselves and waited for police to arrive Parker explained that the gunman took the keys to his son-in-law's car and described what they were wearing deputies put out an APB as with any bank robbery the Richmond County authorities notified the FBI [Music] special agent Jerry Jones of the Augusta Georgia resident agency arrived to interview Amy she described the leader of the group and the direction in which he fled she said she might have captured an image on him and told special agent Jones about the camera on the ATM foreign she tried to get him into a position where the camera may take a photograph of you as it turns out the camera was activated only when one puts one's card into the machine so that didn't work the cameras inside didn't catch him either at the North Augusta crime scene investigator Bullock arrived and was briefed on the search for evidence technicians from the South Carolina law enforcement division had found oily shoe prints on the garage floor and photographed them for future comparison if suspects were located from inside the house technicians recovered a single cartridge from the bullet fired in the living room it was from a 38 caliber handgun but had no prints on it attempts to recover the assailant's fingerprints elsewhere failed as well since they had worn gloves throughout the crime at the top of the driveway investigators located a vehicle stuck in a ditch the two suspects when they left the house they were going to take a car and they got the key from the victims in the house and their haste to back out of the driveway they backed into a ditch and could not get the car out of the debt so they had they left off foot the technicians recovered foreign fingerprints from the vehicle more evidence to compare to any later suspects nearby they located several items they believed had been dropped by the flea and gunmen [Music] there were several weapons including a shotgun and a 357 Magnum [Music] clothes masks and gloves found in the bushes matched with the assailants reportedly had worn without the clothes police didn't have much of a description of the suspects they updated the already vague APB three African-American males two probably on foot one in a dark blue sedan armed and considered dangerous [Music] in 1995 South Carolina and Georgia authorities sought three masked men who held the shaw family hostage and robbed a bank within an hour of the 9-1-1 call an off-duty Deputy was in route to the shorehouse when he heard the revised APB he spotted two men roughly fitting the description walking away from the neighborhood where the shores lived the deputy questioned repair according to Sheriff's investigator Don Bullock ask him what they were doing there and they said we were up to church playing basketball and they'd had no basketball and no transportation backup soon arrived the deputies knew the church mentioned had no lights on its basketball court and being that time of night it was dark the red flags just flew up they were still he put two and two together [Music] the young men agreed to go to a police staging area near the shaw house for further questioning they were identified as Daniel Evans and lamarco Roscoe [Music] at the bank FBI special agent Jerry Jones received word of the two men in custody I liked it to lead the bank because the victim teller was comfortable and secure so I left the bank in Willow went to South Carolina to interview the two suspects [Music] Jones made it to the police staging area about the same time as the suspects he and sheriffs investigated Kenneth booze knew that with more than one suspect involved it was best to talk to them separately we separated them because most of the time they'll start breaking down but they'll start wondering what the other suspect has told us when they start realizing that does one might be talking then they want to be the first one to get on the bandwagon and start cooperating the men had been unable to give details about the church where they had allegedly been playing basketball and investigators sense they were involved in the crime special agent Jones began with lamarco Roscoe develop a a concept of what their greatest fear is some weakness they may have in their their past or or their their family or something of that sort and in this particular case it was fear of the death penalty the got Roscoe's attention Jones knew Amy Shaw was safe but gambled that Roscoe did not he told him his primary concern was Amy's safety I told him that he needed to know the third robber killed her that he would face the electric chair for his complicity in the robbery so everything I told him was the truth my primary interest was safety and Welfare of the victim teller and it is true that had the third robber killed Amy Shaw they would both have faced the death penalty the suspect soon admitted his involvement in the crime when asked for the name of the leader of the group he said he only knew him by his first name Chris and believed his last name started with a j another law enforcement officer who was familiar with a number of narrative welds and and the Augusta area recognized the name and actually asked if that was in fact Christopher which he replied that it was Jones then interviewed the second suspect Daniel Evans [Music] and he immediately began to tell me the story of what happened that night I wanted him to confirm the name of the third suspect without prompting and he immediately gave up Christopher jaberg by name in talking to Roscoe and Evans investigators realized the two were obviously the followers and jaberk was in charge they weren't the masterminds of this bank robbery they were in my opinion they were Mastermind Stooges they didn't appear to have much knowledge of what was going on except for they had been with Japan several times in the past few days looking at different banks coming up with different plans on how to pull this one up it's finished with the preliminary interviews Jones learned a pager number had been recovered from one of the suspects he asked an officer to call the number when the return call came back the officer identified himself the caller said his name was Chris jaberk when asked he said he was 100 miles away in Mount Vernon Georgia Burke was defensive and asked the officer if he was being accused of something then he hung up [Music] investigators headed for jaberg's house right away turns out law enforcement was very familiar with Christopher jaberg knew where the residence was without any prompting if he was the lead kidnapper he now knew police were looking for him and with a head start and eighty six thousand dollars in cash Christopher jaberk could be anywhere in October 1995 authorities were seeking Christopher jaberk wanted for armed kidnapping and bank robbery at the request of FBI agents in Richmond County deputies jaberg's mother called her son on his cell phone and advised him to come talk to authorities around 1am he arrived with his girlfriend although only 19 years old jaberk was already on a five-year probation for burglary and escaped from a Detention Center the investigators took him in for questioning [Music] his girlfriend agreed to come in too at the sheriff's department FBI special agent Jerry Jones questioned your Burke about the kidnapping of the shaw family and the bank robbery in Georgia admitted knowing the two confessed gunmen Daniel Evans and lamarco Roscoe but denied any involvement in the crime he said he was in Mount Vernon Georgia with his girlfriend and another female friend at the time in question to Burkett first gave the two girls as his Alibi claiming to have gone with one of the girls to pick up the other girl and then come back to Augusta Georgia and stated that he was with the two girls the entire day and even after they arrived back in Augusta Georgia they went to a movie together all three of them temporarily halting the interview Jones went to talk to the girlfriend and the second friend who had come to the station at the request of investigators the two girls when interviewed declined to corroborate that uh at Alibi OT jaberg quickly tried to come up with a new Alibi according to Richmond County Sheriff's investigator Kenneth booze he said that he couldn't tell us his whereabouts at the time of the robbery because he was involved in some other criminal activity it was a drug deal in Atlanta Georgia according to him jaberk's news story didn't convince anyone Federal authorities charged him with six counts including conspiracy carjacking kidnapping and armed bank robbery [Music] after further interviews with jaberk he finally started cooperating and told us that he was involved in this this robbery and kidnapping and that he was actually the one that did it but he wasn't The Mastermind that he was involved and with some large-scale criminal organization and that he couldn't reveal any more information because he was afraid for his family it was another obvious lie by a man desperately trying to protect himself jaberk's Partners Daniel Evans and lamarco Roscoe pleaded guilty to State charges of burglary kidnapping and armed robbery they were sentenced to 30 years in prison [Music] Christopher J Burke was prosecuted by assistant U.S attorney Richard Goolsby the only problem with this case was that there was no scientific evidence it seemed like we hit a dead end every time we got a lab report as to any fingerprints or Footprints none of them matched a Berg but in terms of the quality the evidence we were very fortunate that the teller victim and her family members were just incredibly good Witnesses they helped win the case was convicted on all six counts which made him eligible for a sentence of life in prison without parole while awaiting sentencing jaberk was held at a small County Jail there he met another inmate Jerome Frierson Bay also a bank robber was awaiting trial on three armed robberies at the time the jail was undergoing construction to expand the facility there was plenty of time to plan an escape on March 27 1996 a guard on routine Patrol noticed an Open Door a headcount revealed two inmates were missing Christopher jaberk and Jerome Frierson Bay construction workers had seen two prisoners running toward a wooded area near the prison [Music] search teams combed the woods but no one spotted the men the search moved into the area's denser forest and swamps [Music] and helicopters flew grid patterns overhead still nothing [Music] authorities believe the pair might have had help on the outside police tried to seal the perimeter putting up roadblocks to stop and check vehicles [Music] but the two escapees were nowhere to be found jibirk's Escape posed a danger to the shaw family who had testified at his trial it was family members and let them know about it and ought to take other precautions that you would in a situation like this while the search continued Edgefield County South Carolina deputies began spot checks on the shaw family to make sure they were safe I was convinced that at some point in time he would come back to the mother we established a surveillance 24-hour surveillance of the mother and the girlfriend authorities watched but your Burke never showed [Music] then FBI special agent Doug Fender developed a surprising lead myself and other local law enforcement officials were conducting a separate auto theft investigation in the Augusta Georgia area concerning the theft of a green Mitsubishi Eclipse we were able to identify an individual in jail who indicated that he had transferred this stolen vehicle to one of the female Associates of the Burke agents interviewed the young woman at the hotel where she worked initially she denied any knowledge of the jailbreak but special agent Fender tried to get her to cooperate this job is mainly about talking to people when you put all the fancy forensic techniques and those sorts of things aside probably the success of most agents is based upon their ability to solicit information from individuals and and make them tell them something that they probably don't want to share with you [Music] when she realized she herself could go to jail she admitted helping in the Escape [Music] she said that she and jaberk's girlfriend delivered a stolen car to a parking lot near a wooded area by the prison after he escaped from the jail he just got into the getaway car and made his escape with Ryerson Bay [Music] by pre-arrangement went to a clandestine campsite at which the girls had laid out for jabaric and Frierson Bay with clothes and water and and that type of thing the escapees easily found the stashed clothes food and weapons they were free but they needed money the armed bank robbers knew exactly what to do in 1996 escaped prisoners Christopher jaberk and Jerome Frierson Bay fled a county jail and a stolen car foreign special agent Jerry Jones was after them [Music] he to all surrounding states regarding the description of the vehicle the day after the escape a car matching that description pulled up to a bank in Lumberton North Carolina 220 miles Northeast of the jail two men in hats gloves and sunglasses robbed the bank at gunpoint employees new to cooperate so no one would get hurt Lumberton police and North Carolina FBI agents responded to the scene they determined four thousand five hundred dollars had been taken from the bank's vault security cameras were rolling during the robbery the images were too blurry to make out faces but the descriptions given by employees resembled jaberk and Frierson Bay yeah and the car they left in matched the one the fugitives had I'll be there the car was the best lead for special agent Doug fender in this vehicle we had entered into ncic and we discovered uh or was notified by the Lumberton police officials that that car had in fact been recovered in Lumberton North Carolina an hour after that car was found agents received a report of a home invasion in carjacking in Lumberton and went to interview the victims the couple said they had been working on their car in the garage when two armed men burst in demanding the keys to the car and a change of clothes [Music] then left as quickly as they had arrived when shown a photo lineup the couple positively identified Jim Burke and Frierson Bay and that's the guy that came up on the left side so we have a second vehicle and we had an APB put out on that car it was spotted in Raleigh North Carolina to Burton for Ashton Bay robbed the bank there [Music] the fugitives were heading north fast we knew that Frierson Bay had relatives in the New York New Jersey area so we suspected that to be the ultimate destination tracking the pair became a matter of following a trail of bank robberies what we noticed was a tree end of bank robberies that were occurring up and down the I-95 corridor at the time we were tracking Frierson Bay and to Burke we suspected them in approximately 11 to 14 bank robberies up and down the East Coast in some of the robberies men matching the description of one or both of the fugitives were captured on surveillance video we were able through photographic surveillance and also Witness occasion to establish that the two of them were together at least until they reached the Fredericksburg Virginia area agents focused their search in New Jersey where Frierson Bay had family based upon two tips that were called into a nationally televised program Ferguson babe was tracked to a motel located in the Patterson New Jersey area a surveillance by members of the New Jersey FBI office was established once these agents were able to establish that Ferguson Bay might be staying in the motel room they remained on the premises if he were inside and armed approaching the door would be dangerous it was decided to wait him out soon they would learn The Fugitive would not go down without a struggle [Music] after two escaped prisoners committed a string of armed bank robberies agents believe they attract one of them Jerome Frierson Bay to a New Jersey Motel [Music] after several hours they spotted The Fugitive and to his car as the SWAT team moved in please get out of the car get out of the car get out of the car he locked himself inside but that wasn't going to stop me according to FBI special agent Doug fender after several commands by members of the FBI SWAT team for arson Bay still refused to come out of the vehicle at which time one of the SWAT team members was able to break the glass with the butt of his MP5 submachine gun fire somebody was then forcibly removed from the vehicle [Music] from his car the SWAT team recovered a loaded 40 caliber Glock semi-automatic handgun along with fifteen hundred dollars in stolen cash [Music] in search of the motel revealed no sign of his partner Christopher Burke Jerome Frierson Bay pleaded guilty to 10 bank robberies and was sentenced to 19 years in federal prison without the possibility of parole he claimed he had no idea where jaberg was finding Christopher jaberk remained a priority for Georgia FBI special agent Jerry Jones we believe that jabaric and Frost and Bay partied company and jabark began his journey back to Georgia I always believed that jabert would come back home the FBI announced a ten thousand dollar reward and had begun the process of adding him to their 10 most wanted fugitives list when a media report generated a promising lead just a moment the caller said she believed The Fugitive was staying with her minister in Atlanta though the minister didn't know jaberk was a criminal the caller spotted your Burke when she went to check on The Minister's house after the elderly man entered the hospital with heart trouble an arrest team staked out the residents dressed as yard workers on May 9 1996 a vehicle pulled into The Minister's driveway when the driver emerged agents visually identified him it was diverse the arrest team moved in [Music] surprised and cornered jaberg did not try to run [Music] searched him agents found two thousand dollars in his son [Music] he was returned to jail again to await sentencing for the Augusta kidnapping bank robbery jabart was apprehended in Atlanta we thought the pressure was off and everybody took a big sigh of relief and went home for a short period of time jaberk was not giving up six weeks after his recapture he once again broke out of his cell when jaberg escaped and I received the telephone call I responded to the jail [Music] to try to secure whatever evidence was there we found a partial saw blade when he got through the window of the jail there's a huge double fence around the confinement area covered with constantina wire so he had to get over that fence and over the Constantino wire agents searched the grounds and the fence topped with the razor sharp wire [Music] they recovered shreds of a prison uniform when he was on foot they hoped he hadn't gotten far began to Trail him through this rural wooded area which also leads to a swampy era probably around 10 square miles we immediately brought in tracking dogs which led us directly to the wooded area so we knew the the route of Escape that he was trying to accomplish as old as I was out with the younger people going through the woods and we tracked through there for days for several days without finding him I then decided that we needed some electronic gear to try to trace him so I contacted atomic energy commission site Owen South Carolina and they provided me with a a helicopter equipped with an infrared system that's a heat seeking system they searched dozens of square miles with a highly sensitive equipment [Music] Jim Burton managed to avoid detection and was still on the Run [Music] four days later an off-duty sheriff's deputy in nearby Appling Georgia thought he spotted The Fugitive the man was limping as if injured [Music] the deputy called the station and other officers spread out to search the area he was tracked into a wooded area right behind one of the grammar schools and apprehended [Music] Christopher Jeff Burke was again in custody [Music] two weeks later he was finally sentenced for robbing the Augusta bank and kidnapping Amy Shaw and her family assistant U.S attorney Richard Goolsby fought to keep jaberk off the streets forever to try to protect the community that's one of our important responsibilities so we were concerned and felt like that we should ask for the maximum in joburg's case and fortunately the court imposed the maximum life in prison plus five years jabrick was ordered to serve his term at the federal prison in Leavenworth Kansas without the possibility of parole his only chance to be free again would be to escape several weeks into his sentence jaberk was caught trying to do exactly that by hanging on underneath a prison laundry truck nice and slow come on get out of there he had almost made it to the front gate was transferred to the Maximum Security federal penitentiary in Atlanta Georgia even if Harry Houdini was in the Atlanta Federal pen he wouldn't be able to get out and Christopher jabark is no Harry Houdini no one doubts jaberk will try again he is held in one of the most secure prisons in America [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music]

Channel: Retold - Documentaries & Reconstructions

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Keywords: True crime - topic, Retold channel, history documentaries, documentary movies - topic, crime history documentary, Reenactments, true crime documentaries, best documentaries on youtube, real stories, watch the fbi files online free, best crime documentaries online free, best crime documentaries to watch free, the fbi files full episodes, crime documentary serial killers, crime documentaries full episodes, watch the fbi files, car robberies, gangs in america, James Springette

Id: rI0kaws2we4

Length: 500min 15sec (30015 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 22 2023