The Ghosts of El Segundo | Full Episode

[Music] this case was like no other case going back that much in time it was like out of this world it's like what you see in the movies July 22nd 1957 something has happened and I ask if he uh was hurt is he hurt bad and they said no it's worse than that it was a huge crime it hit Elsa gundo in the South Bay Area hard what do you remember as a child asking mom questions about what happened to our dad she would cry and say that um you you know he was killed the perpetrator of this crime turned on the [Music] officers officers who hadn't even had their weapons drawn shot the first officer in the back three times and then turned his weapon on the second officer who was seated in the police car and savagely shot him three times in the Torso killing both officers to have them killed like that right Cold Blood I was devastated back in 1957 everybody was involved the FBI state agencies local agencies the sheriff's department and Elsa gundo this case has been haunting the people of Elsa gundo and especially those in the police department for almost 50 years now how could a guy come out and commit all these crimes and then disappear all this time guy got away with murder simple as that this guy killed two on duty police officers and some 46 years later he was going to be held accountable for it the ghosts of el [Music] [Music] zundo this is Los Angeles County 10 million people 4,000 square miles and according to statistics the most dangerous place in the country to be a police officer almost every day of the year an officer is shot at while on duty it's a violent World especially in Los Angeles County for peace officers some of them end up dead we begin with breaking news an officer shot officer shot officer Ricardo lisara died today this California highway patrol officer shot down on the steps of this Southland Courthouse it is dangerous out there Darren LaVine knows the key to surviving in a hostile environment is having the right skills to work with I'm the chief instructor of an Israeli hand toand combat system that comes from the Israeli Army about 300 police departments use my system officially now I want it fast you explode here like a bomb but leine is a lot more than just train police officers how to survive on the streets nice Jesse my life has a certain theme to it I guess his full-time job is Deputy district attorney Mr do you have any questions I do with an elite unit set up to prosecute anyone who would dare wound or kill a law enforcement officer and I'm saying that this is weak evidence my unit is called the crimes against police officer section we have to have a unit like this because in any given week we can have 5 6 7 8 eight 10 police officers shot at back then it wasn't like that back then means back in the days when LA County was a much safer Place back then is when this story of a coldblooded cop killing begins but what makes this tale all the more extraordinary is the fact that it would be almost half a century before Darren LaVine and other investigators could finally put this case to rest this case was like no other case this my senior year getting ready to go to college everything was just going great had a girlfriend here and there and swam on the swimming team and had dances in the gymnasium we would dance to Johnny matys and uh you know the Four Tops and you know all those you know great great songs in the past and when rock and roll was really uh Bill Haley and the comments and everything was just great do you look back fondly on those days oh yeah sure [Music] sure Bob Dart was just 17 back in 1957 an innocent kid living in a much more innocent age when just being in a car with a girl was a big deal mustel this is the 49 Ford that uh we drove that night uh out on lovers lane four teenagers driving home from a summer party stopped to watch planes land at a Lover's Lane near a local airport Bob der figured he might get lucky which meant he might get a kiss or two that was the first time I was ever in a car with a girl in that situation and what were you doing just talking talking listening to music and uh we started to kiss one another and I guess it got pretty uh involved and I rolled the window down because it it gets kind of steamy inside when four people are inside and that's when the gun came through the window and said this is a robbery that's what he said yeah this is a robbery and I thought this was a joke I said got to be somebody pulling a prank but the gun was real this gunman was prepared he had surgical tape uh he had a flashlight with them he covered their eyes with with tape and then he stopped and he said I don't know what I'm going to do with you and then he asked us to take our clothes off naked bound and blind der and his buddy and their 15-year-old dates had no choice but to do what they were told he came over to the passenger side of the car and he approached this female teenager teenager he came around from the driver's side to the passenger's side opened the car and raped the girl what had started as a night of innocent fun had now become a horrible dream from which Bob der thought he and his friends might never awaken were you thinking this is it yeah we did yeah he asked us to get out of the car and he said I I think I'm going to kill you and I want you to March out into the field and so we all marched out on the field and girls were crying and I didn't know what to think I mean I couldn't believe this was going to happen but you thought he might kill you sh well he had a gun you know I figured that just takes four bullets and we're all gone we stood in the field and then he turned the car so the headlights shined on us then we heard the car door close and he drove away one girl raped three other teenagers robbed and terrorized but the gunman's night wasn't over yet as he made his getaway in the stolen 49 Ford he made a mistake one simple mistake that would add murder to the list of his crimes at the corner of saula Boulevard and Rose cray the suspect stopped for the red light at [Music] sepula and then for unknown reason proceeded through the red light Lieutenant Craig clear was just 18 months old at the time of the crime but as an investigator for the elag gundo police department clear knows as much about what happened that night as if he had been there there was a marked black and white unit that were parked off the side of the road that obviously suspect didn't see in that patrol car were two young Elsa gundo policemen in their 20s officer Richard Phillips and rookie Milton Curtis who had been with the Department only two and a half months when the two decided to pull over that 49 Ford now while officers Curtis and Phillips were dealing with this situation another black and white Rolls by with two other Elsa gundo police officers in it correct we were Southbound on subul when we heard the call and turned the corner and there they were two other young patrolmen James Gilbert I was 28 and Charlie Porter I was about 37 I believe not knowing what had taken place earlier at The Lover's Lane assumed that Phillips and Curtis were making just a routine traffic stop officer Phillips appeared to be getting ready to start a citation and as we stopped and looked looked the situation over and he waved a paper at us like everything was all right so we we went ahead Porter and Gilbert would be the last people to ever see their fellow officers alive just seconds later A call came on the radio officer Phillips said on the radio that they they needed uh they'd been shot and they needed an ambulance they raced back to the scene but it was too late Officer Curtis was in the center of the police car and officer Phillips was out on the side in the dirt Phillips had been fatally wounded wounded shot three times in the back Curtis was already dead shot three times as well while sitting in the patrol car I reached in and fell of his neck and there was no pulse or anything I hate to say it but in in another circumstance it could have been the two of you that had pulled this guy over that's true it's very difficult to be that close to something like that to the fellas you know so well to have them killed like that right in Cold Blood it was pretty hard to take the call for help came over the radio at 1:28 a.m. and in the short time it took for Gilbert and Porter to respond the killer had simply disappeared where'd he go he went about four or five blocks ditched the car parked it on the opposite side of the street and fled the from the car hundreds of police officers from Elsa gundo and the neighboring communities scoured the area all night they found the stolen 49 Ford but there was no sign of the suspect someone got away with murdering two police officers someone got away with raping a woman the killer might have disappeared but he left something behind something that would trigger one of the longest manhunts in California [Music] history how W St like a Drifter we were high school sweethearts the first time I saw him I thought he was beautiful and I said to myself I'd like to marry that [Music] guy for Jean Curtis it's the memory of her husband Milton Curtis that will always be closest to her heart he was my first love and I never got over the first love I don't think anybody does really they were just teenagers when they were married in 1952 the next 5 years the couple had two children Keith and Tony and Milton had a new career as a police officer a career that would end almost as soon as it [Music] began this is the plaque that they gave me with his original badge on it that's all I have [Music] left tell me what do you remember about sending him off to work that night we had had a little argument and I've always felt bad about that we didn't get to say goodbye just a few hours later Jean Curtis would find out she was no longer a 23-year-old wife she was now a 20 3-year-old Widow they woke me up around 4 in the morning and they told me that he and his partner had been shot and killed and I thought oh the world since I went to sleep the world's gone mad the morning of July 22nd 1957 was a rude awakening for all the residents of elag gundo when they suddenly found themselves at the Center of one of the largest manhunts in California history it was the number one story in Southern California for that time it was rare back then it was a crime that would become one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in LA county a crime that would haunt Deputy da Darren LaVine 46 years later you can imagine the scrutiny and all the resources that were put forth to try and solve this case back in 1957 and everybody was asking the same question why why did a man who had simply run a red light have to murder two police officers in Cold Blood perhaps he figured the cops were looking for the man who had earlier terrorized those teenagers and stolen their car and once they'd run a check on him it would all be over but there was just one problem with that theory there has been no report of that 49 Ford having been stolen there's no report out on the airwaves of this rape and robbery that had just occurred in fact at the time of the murders the teenagers naked and terrified had just been found wandering the streets looking for hell when their story was finally reported investigators were already arriving at the scene of this crime the only thing that was going through my mind was that I had to be sure and do everything right uh Howard speaks was one of the first to arrive as a young crime- scene investigator with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department the first thing that you do any homicide investigation is photograph the area I took some pictures of the back of the car Bullet Hole in the trunk two in the rear windshield that shattered the windshield so we know that the car was hit three times Lieutenant Craig clear and all the members of the elag gundo police department are amazed at how those bullet holes got there officer Phillips happened to be one of the top marksmen on the department at the time after being shot and actually in the process of dying was able to get off six shots at the flame suspect vehicle hitting the vehicle three times Phillips may have marked his killer for Life two rounds were recovered from the interior of the vehicle one was not and that told the investigators what the suspect might be carrying a bullet from officer Phillips's handgun that's pretty remarkable it [Music] is investigators knew the stolen 49 Ford might have one more story to tell did the killer leave something behind something that would leave lead them in the right direction today samples of DNA can point the way to a killer but back in 1957 they would have to rely on the best tool they had at the time this is my fingerprint kit Howard speaks search the car from bumper to bumper for something anything that might lead them to a suspect you've got this car you know that the suspect was in it and driving it are you hopeful that you're going to get some prints off this I was very hopeful knowing that uh that he must have been uh highly nervous and perspiring that he had to leave fingerprints on the steering wheel so tell me exactly what you did I just put the powder on the steering wheel and moved it around and found The Ridges that were showing I found two latent lifts of the left thumb print two partial prints by themselves not much to go on but when a lab technician decid decided to put them together it was the break investigators were counting on they felt pretty confident they had the suspect's fingerprints now you have to find the person investigators needed to put a face on their suspect and luckily there were several witnesses who would never forget the man they had seen that night were you able to provide them with a description of the man well I did the best I could Bob derer and his friends were held at gunpoint by the suspect for almost an hour they tell you don't look at the gun look at the man well I think I looked at the man this is a picture developed as a result of the accounts that we had of the robbery I got a very good look at the suspect Ela gundo patrolman Charlie Porter and his partner saw the man for less than a minute but that was enough he was about 6 tall 200 lb short hair and peculiar way he held his head either he was arrogant or frightened it looked a little bit of [Music] both the face of a killer a clear clue to his identity police now felt it would be only a matter of time until he was brought to justice but no one could ever imagine just how much [Music] time meanwhile the residents of elig gundo frightened and saddened gathered together as a family to late arrest two of their own what this is is a news cast from 1957 city of elund the Douglas Mortuary was the sheriff of LA County at the time Keith Curtis was just five at the time his father was shot his sister Tony only two that's my mother Jane she was very protective of both myself and my sister she realized that times are going to change now and she did everything for us my son kept asking me why doesn't Daddy come home home and uh I would tell him he he can't come home you know he can't he's sleeping with the God and the angels in heaven and he still couldn't understand why he couldn't come home to sleep you feel cheated I feel cheated I feel cheated that we never really got to know my [Music] father it would take authorities nearly half a century to find the man who disappeared in the dark that night over the next 46 years important new Clues would be discovered we were digging up the weeds when I found the gun promising New Leads would be investigated could this be the diamond in the rof we were looking for and thousands of suspects would be checked out all dead ends until a new piece of technology came along that would finally catch up with this old mystery when the killer of two policemen disappeared down those dark alleys that night in 1957 the Kurtis family wondered if and when they would ever catch him when they said that they had no leads they meant they had no leads I think my mom put it the best way over a period of time you had to have people born to figure out the science and technology to put this thing together we had to wait she was right for although time is usually the enemy of a murder investigation this time the passage of time 46 years would be necessary it would be a different world from the ' 50s in which this case could finally be solved two modern-day policemen LA Sheriff's detectives Kevin low we were were the lead investigators and Dan meler it was a fascinating case have inherited the coldest case on the books ice cold ice cold it was colder than cold yeah these cards represent over 3,000 individuals that were looked at as possible suspects and they were all cleared but Lo and meler weren't simply curious about some old files what got them involved was a phone call to the elag gundo police department in September 2002 El the police I may help you it was from a woman who said she had some tantalizing new information on the murders her uncle had been bragged about being responsible for murder murdering two El police officers were you excited to the possibility of cracking this case after all these years absolutely no absolutely their first order of business was simple see if the 1957 fingerprint matched up with their new suspect we gave the uh information to the crime lab they worked it they cleaned up the print the prince were sent here the Los Angeles sheriff's department crime lab easily the busiest in the country handling over 70,000 cases a year this is the actual lat and lift that Howard speaks lifted in 1957 Dale FAL and Don K top fingerprint specialist took one look and knew right away their new suspect was no match to the old print just another dead end those prints uh ultimately did not belong to that individual and homicide was quickly notified once it was verified but now that this old unsolved murder was suddenly on top of the pile again they thought why not give it one more try and and would you say describe that as kind of fragile after all these years it it has literally Fallen apart this time with the advantage of modern science how do you work with something like this well we we literally can't work with that we work with a photograph that fortunately was taken of this using everyday computer technology that wasn't even dreamt of in 1957 the experts were able to digitally reprocess the original photograph this in effect is a is a really paired down version of this that is correct so the computer can read it that is correct but even with a new digital image of this original fingerprint you still have to have some place to search for a match and that's what's really new following the events of 9/11 the FBI finally created a nationwide computer database in it a copy of every single criminal fingerprint from every state in the entire country how big a deal is this it's fantastic they loaded a digital copy of the Killer's prints into the system and just like that a man that had eluded capture for nearly half a century was found in a matter of minutes a hit like this it really makes you feel good they gave us a call and said hey we got really good news for you the guy you're looking for lives in South Carolina and uh that's when everything got exciting read the name for me it comes back to a Mason Gerald F Mason Gerald F Mason after years of searching the face of a killer this was his fingerprint card from his 1956 burglary or felony larsy arrest in Columbia South Carolina were those the only fingerprints from Gerald Mason in the system yes he was only arrested that one time so if he had not been arrested done jail time in 1956 for that crime we we wouldn't be here today some quick police work easily located Mason remarkably still living in his hometown of Columbia South Carolina and not a career criminal but a retiree living comfortably with his family we found that very unusual that a guy could come out here and commit that type of crime in 1957 and he' only been arrested one time we thought we were going to be looking at a guy with a a serious criminal history so why not just going get Mason the answer is lo and meler would need a lot more than just a decades old fingerprint match to prove to a jury that Mason was indeed a cop killer how do you try to prove that Mason is the killer the first thing we did is we we looked through the file we found what we had what they had was the single largest file in the very crowded Sheriff's record Library there were boxes and boxes boxes and boxes of evidence and leads collect over the years which now had to be reexamined to see if any other Clues could be connected to Gerald Mason in 1960 the actual murder weapon was recovered by a man that was doing some yard work we were digging up the weeds when I found the gun Doug Tuli has lived in this house since 1956 less than a mile from the scene of the murders in the same neighborhood police believe the killer used to make his escape this portion we found first the frame the frame without the cylinder without the cylinder and then we found the cylinder and The Spence shells and the live shells this was a year later this was a year later that's when we called the police and said what do we do with it that gun the finding of that gun was huge to this case also the serial number was traced by investigators back then to shreport [Music] Louisiana L and meler followed the trail of evidence to shreport 1600 M and 46 years from El Segundo California the gun was sold here in 1957 they tracked down the salesman at the Sears that sold that gun A Man by the name of Billy Jean Clark I pointed out that this was the least expensive one at $29.95 then that's when he decided that's what he wanted Billy Jean Clark was just an 18-year-old kid in 1957 working his first real job behind the Sporting Goods counter at this local Sears because you sold a lot of guns I assume yes back then we were by far the largest gun dealer in this area what exactly is this document that we're looking at this is a record of firearm sold this is GD Wilson is the name he gave me this is your handwriting that's correct who was GD Wilson that's what they didn't know uh with just the initials they didn't they didn't have much so what' they do they started canvasing the areas around the [Music] sear it's the YMCA this is where they tracked uh George D Wilson too this is the man who bought the gun you know he stayed here yes investigators had checked out nearly every George Wilson in the country this the room that uh Gerald Mason stayed in and none matched the 1957 fingerprint this window you can see the back of the sear obviously the GD Wilson who stayed here had used an alias but it was an alias written in the Killer's own hand they were able to locate the uh register from actual piece of paper where he signed in to the YMCA as George D Wilson the handw running jumped off the page at me and it was something that I'm going you know I gotta Paul edol formerly of the Beverly Hills Police Department and one of the country's leading forensic experts on handwriting was enlisted to examine the evidence this was written out by the person who checked into the YMC in the name of George D Wilson and this was an eye examination from the state of South Carolina in the name of Gerald F Mason this is the Gerald Mason G this is the George Wilson G if you put one over the other here I mean it's almost identical I indicated that I was uh 99.9% sure that this was done by the same person when you told them that you were 99.9% sure what was their reaction they were ready to go out and get a war War for his arrest at that point and so confident their case against Mason was solid detectives made the trip to South Carolina to finally get their man but it wasn't over yet Gerald Mason's comfortable retirement was about to come to an end and no one knew how he'd react there was a lot of anxiety cuz we didn't know what was going to happen what did you say to him Mr Mason uh we're detectives from Los Angeles and uh we're here to talk to you about something happened back in 1957 two police officers were murdered my God you here for that reason yes [Music] sir you say Canon will be used against a court a law you understand that yes when Gerald Mason answered a knock on his front door early on the morning of January 29th 2003 it's clear from these police audio tapes that he never expected it would be his past finally catching up with him we're investigating a crime that occurred back in 1957 two police officers were murdered my God you here for that reason sir when my partner explained to him that we were homicide investigators M County his chin just dropped detectives Kevin low and Dan meler weren't sure who was more surprised when they finally met Mason face to face he was just shocked completely shocked and he just kept saying I don't understand I don't understand why you're here you've come here for me yes sir that's what the arrest Wars for he never denied it he never reacted he just stared off and just shook his head El Segundo police Lieutenant Craig clear had the privilege of taking me Mason into custody step over here you think that he thought after all these years he'd gotten away with it absolutely even though Mason was almost 70 years old police still considered him potentially dangerous in fact a search of his house turned up a collection of loaded Firearms but in the end Mason gave up not with a bang but with a whimper I don't know honey I don't know what this is all about what are you going to do with them going put me in jail they going put me in jail 46 years of searching had turned up a fugitive very different than anyone had expected for example there's no record that Gerald Mason ever committed another Crime After the 1957 police killings he got married raised a family and started his own business to everyone who knew him he was nothing more than an ordinary law-abiding citizen for over 40 years Jerry has been a loving husband father grandfather and a friend of this community this has to be a case of mistaken identity when it happened I I said there was no way I said he just didn't do it Betty Wiggins has lived next door to the Masons for the past 10 years and like many people in this neighborhood could always count on Gerald Mason when help was needed he put these flood lights up here for me he put the grill together for me he would light the pilot light on my jacuzzi when I couldn't get it on the heater how was he thought of here in the neighborhood everyone really did like Jerry I never heard anyone say anything bad about him like many of the older residents of Colombia Mason could often be found at the local bowling alley or at a nearby golf course enjoying his retirement with friends it was an individual who would give you a shirt off his back if you need it Dell Trimble who counts Gerald Mason as one of his best friends played golf with him the day before his arrest he wasn't a Harden criminal I mean he made a mistake he was a kid that went out and and made a couple mistakes but at the same token he changed his life was this retired family man really the coldblooded killer California police had been searching for all these years prosecutor Darren Levine would have to prove that he was I've had my own friends say to me but he's been so good for 45 years he's lived such a good life for 45 years he was a nice grandfather he was a decent husband does that count for anything sure it does we have to overcome that the case against Mason was strong matching fingerprints handwriting but there was one piece of evidence investigators always wondered about one that could eliminate any doubt Forever Three impacts only two projectiles recovered where's the Third projectile question mark did you check Mason to see if he'd been shot or had a scar we did he had a mark it looked like a big Pock mark on his right shoulder blade he was in fact hit by a gunfire when Phillips shot him the last thing that officer did before he died was Mark the man that killed him for life he tried to defend himself the best he could you know try to defend him himself and his partner in another sense the Philips children Carolyn dick and Pat were also scarred for life we lived our lives without dad he wasn't there but gee his murderer was able to have everything that my father wasn't allowed to have it's um it's hard it's hard to live with you know being sent to prison for the rest of his life is not good enough he needs to hear from from the families to see and feel what he has done to us all right now the Phillips and Curtis families would have their chance to do just that after a Judicial Hearing in South Carolina Mason agreed to return to Los Angeles for a trial long overdue officers that hadn't been around for 20 years came in Walking on canes I thought this St would never come officers like Howard speaks who lifted the fingerprint that solved the case I've been waiting for this St a long time but the weight was well worth it new police officers rookie police officers detectives came to see in this extraordinary case would it have an extraordinary ending and to the surprise of everyone it did my understanding is that you want to enter a ple today is that correct that's correct Gerald Mason could have fought the charges yet for some reason this time he did the right thing he pleaded guilty and Darren LaVine was more than happy to accept his ple on July 22nd 1957 do you acknowledge that you murdered officer Phillips and Officer Curtis willfully deliberately and with premedication yes and finally Mason would have to face up to what he had done and face those whose lives he' shattered carted individual left a total of five children fatherless and four teenagers devastated for many years to come your cowardly act shattered our lives forever for all of this we cannot and will not forgive you but that didn't stop Mason from trying to make some kind of amends is it impossible to express to so many people how sorry I am I do not understand why I did this it does not fit in my life it is not the person I know I detest these crimes did you believe what he said in court no no as far as I'm concerned his that apology speech went out for himself and to his family we might say he's sorry now but we didn't even look at that because I don't believe it yes he was remorseful but I think he was more sad and more sorry for having been caught is the Judgment of this court that You' be sentenced to life in prison Gerald Mason will now spend what's left of the rest of his life in prison but one question Still Remains after all these years [Music] why it wasn't too easy no it was a lot of work it was draining physically emot emotionally and now it's [Applause] over detectives Kevin low and Dan meler got what they wanted from Gerald Mason a confession but what they also wanted now were answers after the proceedings he was willing to sit down and talk with us and answer some more questions that we we had for him nagging questions like why did Mason after just getting out of prison for burglary end up in California with a gun I didn't have a family life I didn't have any place to go and things were not going well for me and so I took off California I bought the gun at streetport with the intention of using it simply as a deterrent in so far as I was hitchhiking when asked why he attacked the teenagers and raped that 15-year-old girl amazingly Mason said he didn't really remember but as far as why he killed two cops in Cold Blood Mason's answer was shockingly simple I thought if I don't get them they going to get me so when the officer turned away from me I shocked both officers got back in the car and drove away a simple answer for an incredibly senseless crime an answer that brought little Comfort to his victims I hope he burns in hell it made me really feel angry sick uh to the point where I wish I could reach out and smack him up on the side of the head he's a murderer he's a thief and he's a rapist that's what he is he just got old but there was great comfort in knowing that after 46 years the victims were never forgotten to know that they didn't give up there were people out there of the department that still wanted to solve this case but then to be able to do it it was phenomenal how is solving this case helped you peace of mine that's it peace of mind they presented these to us these pocket watches it says thank you seem so small we carry these with us everywhere we go and uh it's just a reminder of these great families that we feel such a part of now my man how are you good in the end maybe what it took to solve this case wasn't one clue or one break but one family generations of police officers determined to protect their own there's probably a hundred people that was in on this investigation and I love each and every one of them you can't even begin to thank them a lot of people put their hearts and soul into it there's not much more satisfying thing I've ever done in law enforcement it's heartwarming that we were able to do a small part in that I didn't think I'd ever live to see it it'll live with me the rest of my days this is the culmination of my career law enforcement just the thanks and the praise we got from the families is more than any recognition we could get from our department I hope we brought them some measure of comfort knowing that we've got the guy the town of elig gundo hasn't changed much since that fateful night so long ago but one thing has changed the wounds that were suffered almost 50 years ago have finally begun to heal I'm not his victim anymore my son is not his victim anymore I am so grateful I had to wait this long is worth a [Music] [Music] wait [Music]

Channel: 48 Hours

Views: 534,820

Keywords: 48 hours, cbs news, 48 hours full episodes, police officers, los angeles cpounty, el segundo, Richard Phillips, Milton Curtis, murder, police shooting

Id: SIfREW_5HfE

Length: 42min 18sec (2538 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2024