Unsolved True Crime Season 3 Marathon

well we've done it we're in Ripper town now rips rip City this is what the people wanted we're gonna bag us a Ripper today or I'll slap the cuffs on them it's been a 100 years who better to solve it than the boys I mean if we don't I'm hanging my head in shame and I'm never going back to America back to the states well here we go and you've seen a ripper this week on BuzzFeed unsolved in our season premiere we investigate Jack the Ripper perhaps the most infamous serial killer of all time hundreds of suspects have been named for this case and it has baffled investigators and Ripper ologists alike for over a hundred years but it's not gonna baffle the boys yeah and Umrah ripper ologists we run baffle bowl that's not a word I think it's a word I've done so much research on this one I'm very very pleased with the case I'm about to present I think I've done it you think this is your white whale I didn't solve it but I did a good job oh you've just okay let's give it you got me all excited the year is 1888 the stage the shadowy and fog filled streets of the East End of London more specifically the Whitechapel district an area with a proclivity for violence and crime amongst the backdrop of poverty but suddenly a string of murders terrorized the public in a way never seen before the culprit a madman with no clear motive the world's most notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper while most believed the Ripper claimed the lives of only five now referred to as the canonical five others believed the Ripper claimed the lives of up to 11 women all five of the canonical victims were prostitutes as many women in the Whitechapel district had to turn to prostitution as a way to survive the morbid intrigue is not a recent development at the time of the murders literacy was increasing amongst the general population the murders were covered in the newspaper and the public became morbidly fascinated by them in the end the public was so upset at the failed attempts to identify the killer that the police commissioner and Home Secretary eventually resigned what was so was this like one of the first instances of like sort of a media frenzy around something like this because it sounds like OJ or or JonBenet I wonder if they had true crime show is back then I don't think they did Ryan like a little I can see them having a little sock puppets like you know I like them doing Game of Thrones okay I can see that a little puppets yeah well I'm on board with that also touching on the police commissioner I think this is the first time I've actually seen a police commissioner resigned because he was so upset and that makes sense to me because I've said this before when there's a serial killer on the loose you really are just playing cat-and-mouse with the killer yeah and he's just getting outfoxed by him at every corner it's your whole livelihood that could drive you insane I feel like that would drive me insane today we're going to cover the five canonical victims and by the end we'll have examined the most suspects we've ever presented with eight possible killers with that further ado let's jump into the timeline on August 31st 1888 at 3:40 a.m. the body of Mary Ann Nichols was found in Bucks row in Whitechapel the body was discovered by a man named Charles Cross who claims he was walking along Bucks row when he noticed a bundle toward the western end another man named Robert Paul approached the body with cross police would eventually arrive on the scene Mary Ann Nichols was found on her back her throat severely slashed and she was disemboweled he was determined she had only been dead for about a half hour meaning the killer was likely nearby when cross first saw the body now how did they at this point in time I don't know what their forensics are like how do they know what a half-hour is do they just sort of like I mean he just goes over let's see that's uh that's half our blood right there yeah that's 30 minutes and let me get a bloodhound I don't know that's not bloodhounds yeah what has Hughes attract things but I don't feed them blood they don't you don't bags of blood you you feed a bloodhound some blood and it'll arcs for every minute and it goes a positive universal donor right now we're at the side of the first murder this is Mary Ann Nichols they found her at the western end of Bucks row which is now durwood Street you could kind of see where it was like see that building right there with the white windows yeah we can't go over there cuz there's construction now it's a growing city but just below that and a little bit towards us she was found in the gateway of one of the houses that lined this street before kind of similar to these gateways here it's kind of weird to think that they didn't know this was the first of what would be you know the most infamous serial killer of all time one crazy summer on September 8th 1888 the body of Annie Chapman was found at 29 Hanbury Street her body was discovered by a man named John Davis an elderly resident of the 29 Hanbury Street building her throat was cut and this time the violence escalated in that the murderer took her womb so this is the approximate location of the second killing Annie Chapman was killed at 29 Hanbury Street but my sources have told me that Street actually moved 29 Hanbury Street is actually over there but where it approximately happened back in the day was around like the entrance to Truman brewery which is like right there imagine the pandemonium dr. George Baxter Phillips was serving as the divisional police surgeon at the time and proposed the idea that the killer had anatomical knowledge by the manner in which any chapman's womb was removed that's the first clue he's a doctor probably problem or has basic anatomical knowledge later that month on September 27th 1888 the Central News Agency receives a letter from the apparent killer it reads quote dear boss I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they won't fix me just yet I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track that joke about leather apron gave me real fits I am down on [ __ ] and shan't quit ripping them till I do get buckled grand work the last job was I gave the lady no time to squeal how they catch me now I love my work and want to start again you will soon hear of me with my funny little games I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but it went thick like glue and I can't use it ready and get spit enough I hope haha the next job I do I shall clip the lady's ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn't you keep this letter back - I do a bit more work then give it out straight my knifes so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance good luck yours truly Jack the Ripper don't mind giving me the trade name wasn't good enough to post this before I got all the readying off my hands curse it no luck yet they say I'm a doctor now haha end quote who what abusing work yeah I I gotta give it to him though Jack the Ripper is a very catchy name this guy had a knack for naming things he knows his brand if this was happening today or if social media existed during this time oh let's go be a Viner for sure be a Viner he'd be he'd have extensive hashtags on every post instead good in stuff food hash tag ripped this letter wasn't released to the public until october first and many believed that it was fabricated by a journalist but regardless it made its way to the papers once in the eyes of the public the name stuck and the killer from that point on went by the now famous moniker Jack the Ripper three days later on September 30th at 1:00 a.m. the body of Elizabeth stride was found on burner Street by a man named Louis deem shuts only her throat was cut which led police to believe that the murder was interrupted when Dean Shutts approached right now we're walking up on the side of the second murder Elizabeth stride she was found by a man right around here this is now I think a schoolyard well a lot of people actually question whether or not this was the Ripper because she her throat was cut rather hastily none of the other little tricks that he pulled note disembowelment none of that stuff almost as if like he was walked up on and he had to run yeah just let her murder this one quickly I can't do my little can't do the whole fixings here it was determined that she was dead for 30 minutes when examined around 1:15 a.m. shockingly only 45 minutes after the discovery of Elizabeth stride another body was found in mitre square just west of the stride murder a woman named Catherine Eddowes was the second victim in the same night her body was severely mutilated including her face her uterus was removed as well as her left kidney so only 45 minutes after the murder of Elizabeth stride investigator stumbled upon the body of Catherine Eddowes here right look great here in this general area there used to be a flower bed here that was kind of in a way served as a memorial for her but this was just like I said 45 minutes after a murder had just happened about 10 to 15 minutes away walking distance but what's weird is that after he killed Catherine Eddowes here he went back towards the direction of the first murder this guy knows how to zag you know that or he just knew the police routes I think he's just as a group so the body is back there right now we're walking someone near the path that he would have taken away walking east away from the body and then we're about to arrive at a site where he dropped one of the only clues he actually left investigators it's here that police would discover one of the few solid clues in the entire case a piece of Catherine Eddowes apron found near the scene of the crime the apron was found by Alfred long in the doorway of an apartment block near Goulston Street a nearby street east of the Eddowes murder site near this apron a message was written in chalk that read quote the Jews are the men that will not be blamed for nothing end quote a sign of the anti-semitism that was common in the area however the crucial detail of this clue is the fact that it was found east of the Eddowes murder site in the direction of Elizabeth strides murder site the murder that occurred just 45 minutes prior this perplexing decision could mean that the killer willingly entered an area that was swarming with cops aside from demonstrating the killer's evasive abilities this could suggest the killer lived in this East London area as it possibly explains the motive for entering a dangerous situation later a postcard is received by the police department dated October 1st and written by someone also claiming to be the Ripper with similar handwriting quote I was not Codding dear old boss when I gave you the tip you'll hear about saucy Jackie's work tomorrow double event this time number once wheeled a bid couldn't finish straight off had not the time to get ears for police thanks for keeping last letter back til I got to work again Jack the Ripper end quote this isn't confirmed but there is information out there that this postcard was received by the press agency or whoever received it in the morning after the night of the double event the thing being there that strange is none of the public knew about this double event because it had been in papers yet yet this guy was able to describe what happened in detail yeah because they're not running around no no I mean there's not like two people got murdered tonight it's not Twitter it's down and they're not playing a giant game a telephone with Dixie Cups this is there's a Twitter so it's possible and quite likely that if the timing of this is true this is Jack the Ripper on the 13th of October in 1888 the police spent a week searching every house in the East End's were slums but found nothing on October 16th a man named George Lusk received a letter Lusk was the head of the Mile End vigilance committee a group comprised of local business men to assist the police the letter was signed quote from hell and quote and it was delivered in a box with half a human kidney the kidney at the time was believed to be Catherine Eddowes his missing kidney however it was found to be a prank by a medical student wait so the the from Hell letter was a medical student that's disappointing I suppose yeah because I love from hell just that as a sign of oh hell this kind of also demonstrates the climate surrounding this people weren't like this is the worst thing on earth there are people there like well we can have fun with this wouldn't it be funny it's like the ice bucket challenge its everybody get involved in it nearly a month later on November 9th 1888 the body of the fifth and final canonical victim Mary Kelly was found in 13 Miller's Court in her bed by her landlords assistant who was seeking rent this murder was by far the most gruesome as her body was disemboweled and quote virtually skinned down end quote this is the last victim it's a little tricky because where there used to be an apartment building is now as you can see it's a parking lot of our carpark so we can't really know where exactly it was but we know it was near the church we know was near the ten bells pub so we could be actually at the place of residence of Jack himself here's the landlord on the state of the body quote the sight that we saw I cannot drive away from my mind he looked more like the work of a devil than of a man end quote and with that we arrived at the end of the five canonical victims but as stated before some believe there could be up to eleven victims with Jack the Ripper's reign of terror one should wonder if anybody caught a glimpse of this monster and it would seem that people did when aggregated eyewitness testimonies of those who believed they saw the Ripper a rough outline of the killer can be visualized it can be assumed that he was between 25 to 35 years old roughly 5 foot 5 to 5 foot 7 stocky with a fair complexion and a mustache allegedly he was seen wearing a dark overcoat and a dark hat the Scotland Yard's Violent Crime Command team has said that Jack the Ripper who one could call evil incarnated could be described in appearance as quote perfectly sane frightening Lee normal and yet capable of extraordinary cruelty end quote sir Melville McNaughton the Scotland Yard's head of the Criminal Investigation Department in nineteen we had a general suspicion of who the killer was he knew that the Ripper had basic knowledge of anatomy possibly a doctor and a McNaughton's notes he had narrowed his list of suspects down to three names that being said due to the overwhelming amount of compelling suspects and the fact that many feel the official three are not the Ripper we're going to examine eight names starting with McNaughton's three official suspects the first suspect was Montague Johnson druids druid was a barrister who may have had an uncle and cousin who were doctors around the time of his death sure it may have been around the age of 40 and supposedly had an interest in surgery Montague possibly lived with his cousin was practicing medicine close to where the Whitechapel murders occurred it also appears that about a month before the first canonical murder Montague's mother went insane and Montague had written in a note that he feared he was also going insane in his notes McNaughton adds quote from private information I have little doubt but that his own family suspected this man of being the Whitechapel murderer he was alleged that he was sexually insane end quote after the final murder Montague disappeared only to be found dead within four weeks of the last murder his body was found floating in the Thames River on December 3rd 1888 I get this sense this is only the first suspect but I I have a hunch everyone we look at is going to have 10 things that make them sound like they are definitely Jack the Ripper because London at the time sounds like it was full of insane Psychopaths the second suspect was Michael ostrog a Russian doctor and a criminal us drug had been in an asylum previously for homicidal tendencies McNaughton notes that ostrog couldn't provide a strong alibi for his whereabouts during the murders ultimately he was not convicted because there wasn't enough evidence linking him to the crime how does a homicidal tendencies work you just dabble in murdering someone that's tendencies you either murder someone or you don't I can't imagine there's a half-measure he only killed a nanny it was a funny thing when he was 15 the third suspect was Aaron Kosminski a polish and Jewish resident of Whitechapel who spent some time in an asylum in 1889 after the last murder kozminski would actually reside in asylums until his death in 1919 kozminski was known for his hatred towards women particularly prostitutes according to McNaughton his appearance matched descriptions provided by the police of a man in mitre square which if you'll recall was the night of the double murder where the Ripper likely zigzag between the police kozminski might be a name familiar to the public due to the fact that recently his name made headlines due to his being featured in a book entitled quote naming Jack the Ripper end quote in this book Russell Edwards claims that a Shaw purchased at an auction contains DNA evidence proving kozminski is the killer the Shaw was bought under the impression that it reportedly was found at the murder scene on the person of Catherine Eddowes the fourth Ripper victim Edwards enlisted the help of molecular biologist yari loja Lynott of Liverpool John Moores University Edwards in Lowell einen believe the blood-stained Shah is connected to Catherine Eddowes based off of comparison from one of Edo cz's descendants they also claim that semen on the scarf is linked to relatives of kozminski with this discovery many felt that the case was closed including Edwards which is what it was true that's the smoking gun right you got semen you got blood time to drag his name in the mud oh I like that you got the semen got the blood drag his name on through that mud there you go that's not bad it isn't bad but let's find out why we can't do that quote I've got the only piece of forensic evidence in the whole history of the case I've spent 14 years working on it and we definitely solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was only non-believers that want to perpetuate the myth will doubt this is it now we have unmasked him end quote so he's confident he's very confident he's also spent a bunch of money and time on this he's all I could understand why he's confident he thought he had it from the beginning then he goes to a molecular biologist that guy analyzes it and goes yeah I'd be gloating like a fuckload do you imagine that like you just solved one of the greatest mysteries of all time because you and you got confirmation that you wanted to hear but much to the chagrin of mr. Edwards that may not be the case it turns out that the scientist may have made a critical error of nomenclature summed up dr. Llewellyn and identified a mutation in DNA on both the scarf and an e doses relative named Karen Miller this mutation was believed to be named three 14.1 C a mutation only found in one in two hundred and ninety thousand people making it very likely it was a match however this identification was reportedly incorrect and was not 314 point one C but instead three hundred and fifteen point one C which is a mutation shared by more than 99% of people of European descent basically this DNA could be anyone if true so it went from being it's that guy - it's one of those million people basically it was like oh the blood in this scarf and Eddowes descendant had this very very rare mutation oh wait I miss named the mutation it's actually this other one was exactly he hit a wrong keystroke and then oh all of a sudden 99% of European people have this mutation furthermore kozminski x' DNA was linked to the scarf using mitochondrial DNA using a subtype that is far from unique Sir Alec Jeffrey's who's regarded as the godfather of DNA fingerprinting has said that this evidence quote needs to be subjected to peer review no actual evidence has yet been provided further adding fuel to the fire of skeptics is the fact that dr. Lilly Lanen has yet to publish this finding in a peer-reviewed scientist Journal and has refused to answer questions to news outlets thus making it impossible to verify his and Edwards claims and effectively doing quite the opposite how did Edwards react to this could you imagine getting the call like like this doctor having to pick up the phone and be like ah [ __ ] hello remember that scarf I told you was a lie yes it's the most famous piece of evidence in the world yeah about that I think I think my pinkie may have hit the 5 when I was trying to hit the 4 and it turns out it's kind of useless and proves nothing so all that smack you've been talking in the press kind of makes you look like a big fool the fourth suspect is the notion that Jack the Ripper was actually a female a theory that Ripper ologists called Jill the Ripper this theory was allegedly a hunch of famed Inspector abberline as well the idea that all of the police were on the hunt for a man when they should have been searching for a woman would explain the Ripper being able to slip by without suspicion some have pointed out that a midwife would have sufficient anatomical knowledge and blood on her clothing would have raised no eyebrows though it should be pointed out that all eyewitness testimony points to a man I love this theory I think it makes sense that a woman would be able to you know slide through the crowd in a way that uh all these stupid police not stupid police but all these police would be able to you know not pick up on it because they're looking for a man with a mustache far cry from a midwife covered in blood there's a little too joss whedon me for me choice the Ripper was a lady the fifth suspect is Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward aka the Royal conspiracy you know how they say you never trust someone with two first names this guy's got four of them so that either doubles that mistrust or no yeah hmm four names [ __ ] with me that's what he said I'm good double I'm gonna double it I'm gonna cancel it out okay this theory is often scoffed at but is still perpetuated due to its wild popularity Prince Edward was to frequent areas where the victims were found an activity that led to him contracting syphilis which some believe drove him to insanity some posit this also resulted in Albert having a child with a local woman and Queen Victoria demanded that everyone who knew of the child to be taken care of some believed that the insanity spawned by syphilis drove him to commit the murders himself conspiracy theorists believe he was never discovered because royal aides assisted in covering his identity however as mentioned before this theory is mostly regarded as ludicrous as there is no substantial evidence to indicate its credibility looking into this it's pretty clear that the movements of a prince let alone or anybody that the the Queen would hire would be able to be tracked but I also do think they could cover it up I don't know I don't I don't think I don't think it's that strong that theory but it is interesting I feel like if you've got the you've got so many things at your disposal if you're a queen you probably have guards I don't know you get away with a lot just grab people off the street the sixth suspect is famed painter Walter Sickert a theory mainly posed by the successful crime novelist Patricia Cornwell after making millions on her crime novels Cornwall has devoted her time to the pursuit of Sickert as the Ripper in 2001 Cornwall spent two million pounds buying 32 of Sigrid's paintings letters and even Sicard writing-desk in one bizarre stunt that was described by our curator Richard shown as quote monstrous stupidity Cornwell went full national treasure Nicolas Cage by cutting up a painting in search of clues aside from stunts Cornwall rightfully claims that Sicard was obsessed with the Ripper which was true Sicard referenced the Ripper in some of his paintings even titling one quote Jack the Ripper's bedroom quote Cornwall claims one painting mirrors the body position of fifth river victim Mary Kelly she claims another painting mimics the facial wounds of fourth river victim Catherine Eddowes there are also reportedly accounts of Sickert cosplaying as Jack the Ripper you realize this is before cosplay was a thing I don't even know if Halloween was that big of a thing are you kidding me they had like carnival they had venetian masks they hope you don't find it strange that a grown man is dressing up as Jack the Ripper for fun no holiday this just feels like you know when people shame furries and you know just let them live their life if they want to dress up like a pony okay this is the furthest thing from a furry a furry is just dressing up as like a furry creature because you kind of wanna you have a sexual thing why are they so muscular all the time I don't care about that dressing up as a furry animal is a far cry from dressing up as a serial killer because it's like I'm weird like a horse with like pecks right I think you're getting lost in the furry culture strange you just said be war they're not shaming it I'm just I don't understand it Cornwell also shoots down the notion that secrets alibi was that he was in France at the onset of the murders she cites sketches that place him in London in music halls at the time of at least three killings by the way anybody could sketch anybody like I could just that means if I drew a sketch of you murdering somebody back in the day I could show up to the police station because here it is here's evidence a shain Monday in cold blood killed this woman dressed as a furry and I feel like you would do that and they'd be like you're right we had a lot of reports that Shaima days in fact leather cuffs on those hooves however the biggest piece of her case is the analysis of forensic paper expert Peter Bauer Bauer identified three of Secrets letters and two of the rippers letters as coming from a handmade paper run of only 24 possible sheets basically the odds of both the Ripper and Sicard both writing letters on a batch of paper that only had 24 copies in existence is relatively slim and while that is undoubtedly compelling evidence it should be reminded that all of the Jack the Ripper letters are unconfirmed I think he probably didn't do it but he is indeed a weirdo yeah he's a weirdo but I don't think we need to throw him in jail for it the seventh suspect is Joseph Barnett who is particularly suspicious as he actually lived with Mary Kelly the final Ripper victim in fact Barnett may have lived in ten different locations in East London making him well versed in the area and capable of navigating back streets Barnett worked as a fish Porter and it's believed that Barnett was in love with Kelly according to an issue of the Daily Telegraph on November 10th 1888 Barnett referred to Mary Kelly as quote his wife and quote when she was in fact only a roommate Barnett also disagreed with Mary's life as a prostitute and strived to make money to keep her off the streets quote Marie never went on the streets when she lived with me end quote some theorize that Barnett committed the first murders to scare Kelly off the streets which for a time actually worked but when Barnett lost his job Kelly returned to the street to make ends meet their financial struggles often led to fights and Barnett also disliked Kelly's love of gin this culminated in one final fight over Kelly bringing home two different prostitutes an act that Joseph found unacceptable this fight apparently got violent even a window was broken shortly after Barnett moved out and only ten days later Mary Kelly was found dead in her apartment after the murder Barnett was questioned for four hours but eventually set free having lived there Barnett would have intimate knowledge of the household including how to unlock the door from the outside he was also aware of Kelly schedule and tendencies details from the scene suggest Kelly was killed in her sleep not by an outsider she invited in her clothes were folded by the bed quote as though they had been taken off in the ordinary manner and quote and she was wearing a nightgown as a fish Porter Barnett would have crude anatomical knowledge they posit that he had anatomical knowledge because he was a fish Porter as a known associate of Kelly's he would be someone local prostitutes new allowing him to get close enough for a sneak attack reportedly one newspaper of the time stated that Barnett's friends called him jack he also matches the physical description and the psychological profile created of Jack the Ripper by the FBI and finally the murders allegedly stopped after Mary Kelly the last canonical victim after her death Barnett would have no other reason to kill anymore now that his lover who he was trying to keep off the streets was now dead I like it pretty good right I mean also to me most of them frankly are very circumstantial this one to me while also circumstantial seems the closest to actual evidence and that he lived with her they fought ten days before her death he was not a fan of prostitution right he tried to keep her off the streets I could totally see him killing people to try and scare her from doing that right the motive here is certainly the most compelling for sure out of all the suspects and even the access isn't the most compelling mm-hmm we have a note this is the only one where I could I were I feel like there was a very clear tie between the possible killer and the victim the eighth and final suspect is the most popular suspect on casebook org a site devoted to Jack the Ripper and a place for Ripper ologists to work together to solve the case the final suspect is James May brick may bricks death coincided with the stopping of the Ripper killings as he died one year after the murders Maybrick was an upper-class cotton merchant who resided in an estate called the battle crease house in Liverpool someone considered this to be a damning detail as many feel the Ripper was a local man who likely wasn't upper-class however it should be pointed out that all the murders were committed on a week it stands to reason that a wealthy cotton merchant would have the ability to travel on weekends and it is also worth mentioning that he would have the benefit of not killing in his own locale though what makes Maybrick such a popular suspect is what many consider the biggest piece of physical evidence that links him to the crimes that piece of evidence is a diary reportedly discovered under the floorboards of mate bricks estate a diary that is signed quote I give my name that all know of me so history do tell what love can do to a gentleman born yours truly Jack the Ripper end quote also within the diary are reportedly intimate details of the killings backing up the Diaries authenticity or scientific tests that have confirmed the diary seems to roughly match the era of the Ripper killings the diary was apparently discovered by a scrap-metal dealer named Mike Barrett and this is where the story begins to lose its footing Barrett actually admitted that he fabricated the diary only to recant the statement later chalking it up to not wanting the publicity as he was going through a failing marriage also shaky is the definitive details of the discovery of the diary some sources have it falling into Barrett's hands via being handed down by various generations of family while other sources have buried discovering it himself or Barrett's associates discovering it and then giving it to him due to their knowledge of Barrett being an aspiring author however all that aside if the diary was in fact found under the floorboards of may bricks estate it is a very strong possibility that he was in fact Jack the Ripper following this discovery a gold pocket watch was reported as potential Ripper evidence the watch apparently contains the scratched initials of the five canonical victims in addition to the phrase quote I am Jack and also quote Jamie brick and quote the scratches were analyzed via electron microscope by dr. Steven turgoose who studies suggests that the scratches were not done in modern times another doctor named Robert Wilde at Bristol University's interphase analysis Center concluded that the scratches quote could have been very very old and were certainly not new but it is difficult to be precise and quote the watch which was displayed in a Liverpool jewelry shop by a college caretaker named Albert Johnson is dated in 1846 and was purchased for 225 pounds but given the circus around the main piece of evidence and matrix bar location from the crimes it's understandable to have doubts of him as the Ripper uh I like the other guy better Barnett yeah yeah I think I might too from like just looking at circumstance it seems like he'd be the most likely this guy seems like kind of a boring fuddy-duddy like a rich guys like well I guess I'll go to town this weekend people like like he's treating it like playing 18 holes hmm yeah I could see that I think there's a foursome squad I'd I do think these are the two strongest ones yeah and if I had to put money on it I probably say Barnett - all right you don't seem as convinced as I thought you would be I thought this is really cool here diary under floorboards a watch I know you don't like to hear this this is sort of like my approach to a lot of these real old true crime was sort of the gist okay I know what you're going to hear and know don't say it let it be a mystery oh I know we'll never know yeah we'll just never know you'd be a very very bad judge why cuz let it be a mystery Court is adjourned for over 100 years the mystery of Jack the Ripper has continued to fascinate confound and infuriate the public perhaps one day we will have the means to solve the crime or perhaps this famous case will be yet another victim to time but for now the age-old question will continue to persist who was Jack the Ripper the case remains unsolved saucy jack truly saucy saucy guy kind of a douche yeah that's it but I mean you could say that about most murderers right yeah they're all douches you ever think anyone that was someone's last word to a murderer you're a douche bag alright this week on BuzzFeed in softly investigate the Gardner Museum art heist the biggest museum art heist in the world it's also considered America's biggest property crime ever I love it what do you love about I love heists this is fun yeah heists are fun for the most part there I guess victimless you're stealing from largely what the rich I suppose yeah and oil paintings yeah whatever steal from them I don't care in there is like a weird impulse to root for the robbers yeah I don't know what why that is much fun well we'll see who you're rooting for in a second let's get into it oh [ __ ] built in 1901 the Gardner Museum houses over 15,000 pieces of art collected by the late Isabella Stewart Gardner and on March 18th 1990 the museum fell victim to a historic heist though only 13 pieces of art were stolen the combined value is worth over five hundred million dollars ironically at the time of the robbery the museum was in the midst of updating their outdated security I can't imagine if I was upgrading my home security and in the couple days that I was doing it my house got robbed that happens sometimes you lose five hundred million dollars yeah I would lose fifty bucks in cash an Xbox one I have a precious butterfly encased in glass you have a butterfly encased are you like that's um that's weird right that's I'm going to head down that road of having a room that's full of bugs and and butterflies and I wanted to look like like a serial killers dead is that a well-travelled the serial killer on the night of the heist too inexperienced Guardsmen were on duty one security guard named Richard II Abbot was a music school dropout and part of a rock band he was a rock performer by day and a security guard at the Museum by night by his own admission he would sometimes show up for work drunk or stoned after a performance quote I'd be just getting off of the stage somewhere and just wanted to slow down before I went over to the most boring job in the world end quote I really respect this guy I mean he is a knucklehead but he's an honest no he's not trying to say like I tried my best I had this is this was my passion this job I took it very seriously he's very forthcoming with yeah I didn't really like this how often does a heist happen it truly must be the most boring job in the world though Abbot insists he was sober the night of the robbery around 12:54 a.m. a half hour before the thieves had successfully entered the building a fire alarm went off on the third floor of the museum when it was investigated there was no fire whether this was part of the thieves scheme is unknown at 1:24 a.m. dressed as policeman buzzed into the security desk where abbath was stationed the men stated that they were responding to a disturbance call and demanded entry there were st. Patrick's Day parties happening in the neighbourhood so a disturbance call made sense to the security guard Abbott also abbath added that he wanted to avoid getting arrested because he had tickets to a Grateful Dead concert later that day this guy has all the correct motivation I love that he says he's high all the time except for this one day he's like yeah I'm always stoned I wasn't that day and that his priorities I know that he's got a [ __ ] dead show to go to and here's the thing if he was this forthcoming with police officers who may charge him for criminal offences uh-huh I have to imagine he was this forthcoming in the job interview for sure so it's almost on the museum themselves for hiring this man abbath buzz the two policemen through the employee entrance violating museum protocol then one of the men said to Abbott quote you look familiar I think we have a default warrant out of you come out here and show us some identification abbath was tricked to leave his control disk which has the only button that would immediately alert the police he was then instructed to face the wall and stand spread-eagle abbath recalls that as he was being handcuffed he found it odd that he was not frisked before him and it dawned on him that this could be a robbery I don't know if these two robbers were as bright as they seem but it is interesting to point out that they knew that the only button to alert the police was at that desk so they knew they had to get him away from it that's very good it's ticking all the boxes so far because not only are they have they clearly done their research or at least happened upon a very they may have cased the joint yeah they got costumes I'm picturing just a whole crew like a guy up on a telephone pole oh yeah he's always the guy on the telephone like they have a lookout and all that stuff is there a guy on a telephone we'll get into how this gossip there better be a kind of telephone we'll see at this time the second guard arrived and was also arrested the second guard asked why he was being arrested and the men replied you're not being arrested this is a robbery don't give us any problems and you won't get hurt the guard responded quote don't worry they don't pay me enough to get hurt I'm not taking a bullet for some rich person because they wanted to jaunt around the world and have their art shown I'm just realizing now how fun it would be to bond with the robbers I'm I'm kicking back with these guys the heads hands and feet of the guards were tied with duct tape motion detectors in the museum showed that the robbers then went to the second floor and split up removing various pieces of art from the walls during the heist an alarm went off he was meant to alert guards that someone had gotten too close to the artwork the robbers found the alarm and smashed it okay so this is why the security in the in the building was flawed the the alarm just goes to the guards and the only way the police are alerted is because if the guards press out and press the self-destruct button so maybe have more than two guards they had had a security adviser come in and be like you got to change everything you got to have a control room where the guards are sitting in they have access to all this stuff uh-huh and they're like I guess they ignored it for a while yeah and when they finally decided I want to use some kind of security expert at 2:28 a.m. the robbers return to the security counter they made a second check on the guards in the basement they've been removed tapes that captured their movement outside the side door and in other places in the museum after 13 minutes they readied for their leave taking the art to their vehicle in two separate trips there were witnesses who recalled seeing the thieves near the museum sitting in a red hatchback a hatchback yeah like that no I started out with the costumes and I thought we were gonna take all the heist boxes you know like a big rendezvous maybe a helicopter some kind of a point where they ripped their moustaches off getting away with five hundred million dollars is disappointing but still very embarrassed a you just heard here first you get away with five hundred million dollars that's cool but if you don't do what with some pizzazz Shana's disappeared is it to rip off a mustache I mean they also they even had a moment really badass moment where he said we're not arresting you we're robbing you of the 13 items taken noteworthy pieces included three Rembrandt's and bizarrely a gilded filiol Eagle from a Napoleonic banner outside the tapestry room they tried taking a fourth Rembrandt but it was apparently too hard to remove skipping to about four hours later sometime between 6:45 and 816 a.m. the to morning ship guards showed up to work unable to enter the museum prompting the Deputy Security Director to call the police at 8:30 a.m. the police showed up and discovered the two night security guards handcuffed in the basement despite wearing gloves which prevented leaving fingerprints the thieves didn't cover their faces which let the guards get a good look at them however the security guard abbath could not recall what the men look like when asked by the Boston Police Abbott recalls that the police sketch quote was awful and quote though in 2005 Abbott mentioned quote one of them look like Colonel Klink on Hogan's Heroes that's all I can remember end quote heroes yeah he seems like the most over-the-top cinematic security guard ya in history yeah like I couldn't write this man no he's a cartoon some wonder why the thieves left behind pieces that were clearly worth more like a Michelangelo in a Titian and why did they spend so much time trying to take such an obscure object as a filial eagle I always wonder what do you do with it the art itself because it is hard to sell you can't just pop on eBay be like I got a few Rembrandt's lying around buy it now at 1 million yeah that doesn't work you got a what do you sell it to other criminals did Saddam Hussein buy stolen art back in the day I don't know while my knowledge alone do it these days I have no idea man my knowledge of Amazon and eBay is quite extensive but when it comes to the black market I'm pretty not a lot there I don't really know how it works maybe they do have a Buy It Now auction of Hussein was like oh how bid it again damn it Kim one interesting development in April of 1994 when the museum received an anonymous letter claiming to know the location of the art the author seemed to have a great knowledge of the pieces stolen and the art world in general the anonymous tip were stated that the pieces were safe in a controlled environment but the museum had to act quickly because a buyer in another country who was unaware that the pieces were stolen could purchase them and claim legal ownership the writer asked for 2.6 million dollars for facilitating the return of the artwork the museum agreed the museum then received a second letter the author was pleased they were interested in the go sheeting but was discouraged by the local law state and federal authorities intervening the writer openly wondered if they were trying to arrest the middleman on top of recovering the art they wrote in all-caps quote you cannot have both end quote the tipper also added that even if they see no way of following through with the negotiations they would give some clues to the whereabouts of the art they've never heard from the author since I think they probably knew some details that made the museum think okay this is legit mm-hmm so who knows maybe they got cold feet yeah it's nerve-racking being the middleman there that seems like a rendezvous you would have to go to where you're looking over your shoulder the whole time look it up at the windows you gotta expect that they're gonna have that though you're not handing over random [ __ ] you're handing over 500 million dollars worth of goods it's a fair amount so you're gonna expect a couple badges there that being said let's get into the theories the first theory is that a thief named Brian McDevitt was responsible for the crime McDevitt had committed a similar art robbery in the 80s where he hijacked an FedEx truck and dosed the driver with either wearing the uniform and carrying duct tape McDevitt plan to find museum employees at the Hydra collection in Glens Falls New York and cut paintings from their frames hilariously McDevitt and his accomplices got stuck trafficking and arrived after the museum closed dust boiling their plans McDevitt surfed a few months in jail for attempted robbery McDevitt also lived about a 10-minute Drive away from the Gardner Museum at the time of the heist he was questioned by the FBI in 1992 and later in front of a grand jury his lawyer told the globe that his client know nothing about the crime you know this was no this was no small change a robbery attempt he did use a costume he did use a costume he had so he does have a flair for the theatrical proclivity costumes hmm I like that so maybe maybe talk of mustaches in that one I didn't look into that No maybe do a little more research no it's going well I'm a mustache fraud yeah make sure it I'll write that down here me get that pin actually I don't care the second theory is a classic that the heist was an inside job this would explain how the thieves knew where the only alarm button was located and also their knowledge that the artwork did not have anti-theft devices the FBI claimed that security guard Richard II abbath has not been ruled out as a suspect the suspicion goes beyond abbath being poor at his job as mentioned before abbath notably could not recall the faces of the robbers shortly after the heist I don't know how I would describe your face to someone I just say yeah oh you had a nose sort of looks like a cartoon gopher yeah if I had to describe yours I would say first off do you have some paper that could fold out because you're gonna need a lot of real estate to cover this guy's head yeah it's huge probably the size of most barn doors also despite that these failure to destroy motion sensor equipment the motion sensors oddly didn't record the thieves on the first floor where a piece was stolen but that same equipment picked up Abbott's that room before the thieves arrived habit also broke security protocol by granting the disguise policemen entry museum policy prohibits letting an unauthorized personnel even police from entering the museum Abid states he was unaware of this policy yet this wasn't the first time Abbott had broken protocol at one of the museum's New Year's Eve parties haven't snuck in some friends which to be fair seems fairly innocuous but that doesn't apply to his third break of protocol a video released two years ago shows abbath letting in an unauthorized visitor the night before the heist law enforcement officials believe this person may have been scanning the area for a dry run Aven says he does not remember this visitor despite being caught on tape nonetheless in 2015 Abbott stated in an interview that he's still angry about that night yeah it's fishy that's something you would remember even if you're sort of intoxicated or out of your mind I imagine he wasn't on the job and so high or drunk that he's blacked out yeah otherwise what are you why even going into work you also said it yourself to how much activity you have at this job at the night shift at the Museum nothing's happened how many times are you getting up other than they go pee and get water I think you would remember oh yeah I let that dude in right I like that this might be a sort of a Keyser söze situation where he's where he's like this stone hip he was like I don't know man and then he starts walking down the street his posture just straightens oh yeah yeah yeah walks home to all his beautiful art yes their theory comes from Dutch private investigator are at their brand an expert in international art crimes it is impressive endeavors to recover stolen art brand has posed as a Texas oil millionaire a representative for sheiks and princes as well as a general criminal in one instance he negotiated with criminal gangs to recover 25 million dollars of artwork so you get it thank you guys it gets the job done yeah unlike our boy ceci who went to go get the job done and then became a job himself by missing missing this man don't worry CeCe's on the case oops I've been murdered someone come find me now don't worry help has arrived help in 1991 about a year after the heist art their brand acquired images of the stolen artwork in storage somewhere in Holland in 2010 brand heard that the pieces were in possession of a member of the Irish Republican Army after working on the case with the FBI for roughly 12 years brand fear arises that the pieces were originally stolen by small-time thieves who sold the pieces to us gang members who then possibly in the mid-1990s shipped the pieces off to Ireland to some top-ranking irish republican army commanders ran estimates that he can get the pieces back in a matter of months he will not give details as to why but believes that the investigation and leads are quote making the haystack smaller and quote FBI spokeswoman Kristen cetera stated quote the FBI believes with high confidence that we have identified those responsible for the theft even though we still don't know where the art is currently located it's not just that they're you know they made off with a lot of money right yeah but if they stole precious Rembrandt's yeah that's lost for the culture or the culture that's like someone stealing every copy of Forrest Gump yeah you can never watch Forrest Gump again I love it that they got is theatric as they could would have liked some mustache you know obviously in a light and that telephone like a guy on the telephone pole but I like that they got in there they essentially in no victims here yeah aside from the rich people they stole from which hey look steal from the rich do it you're a robber to be Robin Hood what see who do you think did it what's your I think it had to be an inside job yeah mainly because the button knowing that button which I guess is kind of like something you would assume anyway there must be some kind of master control button but knowing exactly where it is I guess he would guess it's on the control desk but knowing that they were in the midst of updating security and that there was someone who was led into the museum unauthorized the red door you're not supposed to go through the night before on tape and the motion detector not really going off very fishy it's it definitely seems like something that would be an inside job and wouldn't even be that that hard because no one seems to be paying attention in this museum well if you've got any tips email them to us and we'll pass them along yeah yeah Anthony amore the director of security at the Museum commented that stolen pieces are either recovered soon after the crime or about a generation later for many years the museum was offering a five million dollar reward for information that could lead to a return of the artwork in good condition and the offer was even doubled to a ten million dollar reward for a short period but expired on December 31st 2017 the statute of limitations for the prosecution of theft passed in the mid 1990s in 2005 Boston's US Attorney said he will not prosecute whoever comes forward with the paintings whether that day comes remains to be seen but for now the identity of the burglars and the location of the stolen Gardner Museum artwork will remain unsolved [Music] this week on BuzzFeed install via investigate the cleveland torso murderer one of the most gruesome serial killers of all time that's a hell of an accomplishment he's not the most definitively but I will say he's one of the most he's in the upper echelon for sure it's not a shiny badge of honor on who sound like you're impressed I'm not impressed the things he did were pretty for lack of better term gross gross okay whatever you say between 1934 and 1938 in Cleveland Ohio near Kingsbury run 13 people comprised of six women and seven men were killed by a serial killer of those 13 only three were identified and almost all of them were vagrants or sex workers all of the victims were decapitated and in some cases the head was never found you just killed anybody you also will see he killed all ages as well like this guy just didn't give a [ __ ] he's just death the killer often dismembered the body through the torso and in no instance was a body found fully intact these gruesome tendencies would earn the killer the name the Cleveland torso killer or the mad butcher of Kings Barry run here's a little background on Kingsbury run in the 1930s Cleveland's Kingsbury run was a bleak dangerous place where many poor lived in terrible conditions sometimes called a quote hobo jungle end quote just east of Kingsbury run was a sketchy area called the roaring third known for its bars gambling dens and brothels I'm into that I like that place the roaring third is that a place you would frequent back under there you'd be dead it's got you'd see you'd see those long limbs need say oh man I got some big ornaments to make here bars gambling dens and brothels yeah now currently nowadays I've said this before but we have a lot of entertainment at our disposal I've got YouTube I've got my PlayStation and pretty much that's it but back then not a lot to amuse yourself with so I would for sure every night of the week be down at up are a gambling den for a brothel so this is part of the recurring theme that you've had throughout the show where if there weren't modern devices you'd be I'd be a monster an insane psychopath yes with the stage set let's jump into the timeline of the killings on September 5th 1934 the first victim an unidentified woman in her 30s was found on the shores of Lake Erie all that was found was part of her torso thighs and other body parts but no head her skin was leathery and red from a chemical preservative on September 23rd 1935 the second victim a 28 year old man named Edward and Rossi was found near Kingsbury run at the base of jackass Hill that's that's actually what that's named I know that was gonna elicit some kind of giggle sucks so just get it sucks just get it out of the way huxter's I like that at the base of jackass Hill yeah where'd they find him Oh Abby's a jackass he'll that's not fun I'm sure they emitted that out of the eulogy why even cuss maybe there were burrows there at some point or a donkey and Rossi was a hospital orderly and a regular around the roaring 3rd the body was drained of blood naked and emasculate with rope burns on the wrists on that same day the third victim was found near by an unidentified 40 year old male and was also decapitated and emasculated the body also had the same chemical preservative from the first killing on January 26th 1936 the fourth victim a woman in Florence Palillo was found wrapped up in newspaper inside half bushel baskets by the heart manufacturing building Polly Lowe was a sex worker barmaid and waitress who lived in the roaring 3rd he's getting bolder with the places he's dumping bodies the first one was the lake the second one was that on the side of a hill the third one was nearby to the hill and now this one in front of an actual workplace yeah in you know a metropolitan area on June 5th 1936 the head of the fifth victim an unidentified man was found wrapped in trousers in Kingsbury run the rest of the body was found the next day in an even more audacious location in front of the nickel plate railroad police building so once again he's asked a leading yeah one of the saddest parts of this to me is that so many of these bodies were unidentified yeah because it's just I'm always of the opinion that once I'm dead you could do anything you want with my body throw it out in the street let the dogs eat it but I want it I would at least want people to look at my body and go yeah that's a shame that was Shane he was being eaten right now that's Shane in that basset hounds mouth give him a send-off whatever say your kind words about him that be Harvey dog it's a big ass bone on July 22nd 1936 the sixth victim an unidentified 40 year old man was found in the woods near Clinton Road the man had been dead for two months one note where the observation was the blood on the ground suggesting he had been killed on site and not dumped there as indicated by the other body sites so this is someone who's just out walking around who gets gets got well the thing that is interesting to me about this is because all the other ones have been dismembered in a way that was medically efficient most likely done after death this is one that seems to be had done in the heat of the moment which either means to me this is not the same guy or since it obviously is the same guy he's he's getting antsy he's losing his grip he doesn't care anymore he's starting to do things that aren't as premeditated on September 10th 1936 the seventh victim an unidentified man was found near the train tracks in Kingsbury run he had been killed by decapitation in a manner that the coroner noticed was confident in one stroke which implied that the killer was both brazen and educated in human anatomy this is gross but I think it's hard to cut off a head it apparently is kind of hard yeah and there was one case where someone had it took them I forget which royal it was it was a British royal yeah it took five strokes also another thing you are slightly alive there I was reading this one recorded case of a guy who watched someone's head get cut off by the guillotine yeah and he said the head rolled around and he saw the guy's eyes he blinked he blinked and he saw recognition in the eyes when he said his name well they're an old tale of someone who for science told the person getting executed to blink as long as they could see that's kind of cool yeah that's pretty cool like if you were a piece of [ __ ] your whole life you're getting executed because you're an awful person at least you could do this thing one solid on the way out give us give us yeah a little something you'd be even better not blink what if they were like won't you give us a oh my god your vocal cords are gone right so you but you could wink you keep a little cheeky wink they I would ask them to chop it just below the vocal cords so I could kind of roll over me like at this point many local papers reported the murder spree on a near daily basis and yet there were no suspects or clues as expected this put a considerable amount of heat on the investigating authorities detectives Peter Murillo and Martin Zalewski interviewed over 1,500 people on their own here's even a picture of detective Murillo undercover as a vagrant that is the most cartoonish is the most Probab oh I've ever seen he looked like he watched a Bugs Bunny cartoon which Bugs Bunny was on the railroad it was like yep that'll do you think he has a couple of PBJs in that little bag their probably maybe this is like accurate to the time I don't think it was so you think that he was just like I bet you this is what vagrants look like and he went out there and he was like walking I was like Jesus Christ I don't look anything like probably probably actual people who looked like real human beings dur and then this guy walking on like he walked off the Warner Brothers set jumping back into timeline on February 23rd 1937 parts of the 8th victim an unidentified woman in her 20s were found on the shore east of Braaten aah on June 5th 1937 the ninth victim determined to be a woman named Rose Wallace was found under the Lorraine Carnegie bridge her remains were merely a skull in a bag of bones on July 6th 1937 the 10th victim an unidentified man in his mid to late thirties was found in the Cuyahoga River his heart was ripped out and the abdominal area was gutted the proximity of the killings are starting to shrink here he got to enjoy fourth of July though which was my favorite holiday I guess he'd I guess he did that's fun it's a good holiday yeah I suppose if I had to choose between getting murdered in July 3rd or July 6th I choose July 6th always a silver lining that's what I'm saying yeah Bella Coola hot dogs and brew yeah in April / May of 1938 parts of the 11th victim an unidentified woman was found in the Cuyahoga River interestingly this was the first time that a victim had drugs in their system this left authorities to wonder whether the drugs were recreational or used to keep her from moving maybe this contributes to why the the strokes were so confident and so absolute because they weren't moving because they weren't moving hmm and the only reason I posit this is because drugs may be involved in one of the cases main suspects later okay a pretty horrifying to imagine that you were drugged and you can only just move your eyes he ever had that is that in a movie if that's in Wolf Creek some serial killer cut someone's spinal cord so that they can't move so they're forced to just watch what's happening to their friend but their eyes can move but their eyes can move that's horrifying it is pretty scary as all of these gruesome murders were ongoing mayor Harold burden increasingly pressured Safety Director Eliot Ness to make headway you may know Eliot Ness as the famed g-man who led his illustrious group of untouchables to bust Al Capone's breweries other credits to necess glowing resume in defeating the mayfield road mob crooked police and labor racketeering to his status as a law enforcement legend as City Safety Director Ness was involved with both the fire and police departments and given his decorated track record Ness was at serious risk of tainting his reputation should he not make headway on the torso case with that in mind let's discuss the last two killings on August 16th 1938 the 12th and 13th victims both unidentified were found in perhaps the most reckless location of all the bodies were found within view of Eliot Ness his office window a taunt that obviously resonated with Ness oh wow this bold you're gonna coast out and you're gonna coast into retirement right you know yeah yeah everything's great and at the last leg this piece of [ __ ] comes in yeah and it just starts messing with you commits some of the most grisly murders of all time yeah in your playground and then he puts it and rubs your nose in it yeah two days later on August 18th 1938 at 12:40 a.m. director ness and a squadron of 35 detectives and police officers raided Kingsbury runs hobo jungle they rounded up 63 men and scoured the shacks for any sign of the killer most noteworthy in a move that has been criticized nest then ordered the shacks to be burnt down the people displaced Werth then charged with being homeless which they pled guilty for neces involvement in this episode of the investigation has been referred to as cruel and draconian okay this I mean he pretty much just said I can't find what's going on in this part of town let's burn it all down it's literally like a scorched earth he literally went scorched earth yeah according to James Bedell the preeminent expert on this case Nessa's raid was intended to protect the transients in a bizarre and backwards way Ness wanted to eliminate the pool of potential victims thinking that the killer targeted transients which to be fair was true he also wanted the transients fingerprints in the event that they were later killed it feels like maybe the fingerprint excuse is exactly that it's just an excuse when people are like hey why you terrorizing a entire population of people and setting their homes on fire and suddenly he needed to come up with a reason but he's coming to his senses yeah finger prick he's just sort of backpedaling now he was just like fingerprints he didn't just look finger.i need to finger princess her either way the killings did stop after the raid whether or not the raid had anything to do with that is debatable certainly Nessa Stein e reputation was damaged by this action and it also brought the investigators no closer to identifying a killer that being said the case is considered by some to be unofficially solved and furthermore the solution was reached partly by Ness himself with that let's get into the suspects the first suspect was 52 year old bricklayer Frank Dolezal in July of 1939 Dolezal was arrested by County Sheriff Martin O'Donnell for the murder of Florence Palillo the fourth victim Dolezal had actually lived with Palillo for a time furthermore Dolezal also new victims Edward and Rossi and Rose Wallace following his arrest Frank Dolezal confessed to murdering Florence Palolo however he later said he had been beaten and recanted his confession in fact Dolezal had suffered six broken ribs while in the custody of the sheriff further casting doubt upon the confession the confession appeared to be coached as it was a mix of pre-pack details and incomprehensible ramblings according to case expert James Bedell the lead detective on the case later said in his memoirs quote this is the first time that I've ever known anyone to confess to a crime that didn't know the details of the crime to which he was kind of fessing end quote they beat the [ __ ] out of him proper 100% yes and it's very very sad yes him knowing numerous people in the camp doesn't seem I mean he knows so a lot were a lot of these people people who lived in that neighborhood or in yes the shanty town kind of I think what happened is they saw he lived with one of the victims yeah then they found out he knew the other two victims who are identified uh-huh and they thought everyone's honest right now a lot of pressure from the mayor the public is starting to get pissed off I think it's time to do the deed nonetheless Dolezal remained incarcerated for the crime which makes the event that followed all the more suspicious one month later in August 1939 Dolezal committed suicide in his jail cell before going to trial hanging himself on a hook that was 5 feet and 7 inches from the ground the problem with that is Frank Dolezal was 5 feet and 8 inches tall logically how could a person hang themselves from an object that they were taller than it seems like it may be logistically impossible for him to hang himself from it he'd have to you couldn't I don't know I think that's possible it's suspicious to me given the things that preceded it they coached his confession out of him they're starting this year saying the police maybe have oh that didn't occur to me that the police would what I'm saying is they're they seem very very set on this being their guy yeah they've beaten him they've gotten a confession out of him they start to think oh this is gonna go to trial soon oh okay I did not put that together in addition James bedell interviewed forensic science experts that looked at Dolezal autopsy the experts concluded that he didn't and his own life the way people were told he did though the experts don't explicitly say he was murdered while imprisoned either way virtually no one believes Frank Dolezal was the killer a marker purchased by James Bedell and his team was laid on de la Salle's grave in August 2010 with Dola shawls family members in attendance that reads quote rest now end quote thus vindicating Dolezal posthumously in these unsolved episodes it's not often that we get nice sentiment and this lets hang on to this one this is Avery it's really as as a business this is actually very lovely rest now that's nice that's nice the second and final suspect we will discuss today is dr. Francis e Sweeney in the 1970s Sweeney was discovered to be safety director Eliot neces secret suspect Sweeney is also thought to have been the killer according to case expert James Bedell who as of 2014 had spent 18 years researching the killings dr. Francis e Sweeney did the profile he was a doctor and would have had the necessary skill and anatomical knowledge to perform the killings Sweeney had also been to probate court multiple times and his wife noted his problems with alcoholism his abuse of her and their two sons his days long disappearances and his neglect of his practice shortly after the final murder Sweeney checked himself into a mental institution after which the killings stopped in 1956 Sweeney was diagnosed as schizophrenic in May 1938 Eliot Ness secretly apprehended Sweeney taking him to the old Cleveland Hotel nests kept Sweeney there for about ten to fourteen days as it took Sweeney three days to even sober up just Ness brewing coffee the whole time know what is just slapping him in the face talking to my paw water in his face tickling his feet with some feathers I don't know Miranda rights were not in place yet though this process was still in conflict with the rules of civil liberties of the time the inventor of the modern polygraph Leonard Keeler administered a lie-detector test to Sweeney which he failed twice he were told Ness quote that's your man I might as well throw my machine out the window if I say anything different end quote this makes me wonder if he in his mind thought he was sort of a vigilante justice type you know cuz Bruce Wayne was a very successful very powerful man are you comparing the torso killer to Batman I'm not it sounds like you're comparing the torso killer to bat I'm just saying I think maybe the torso killer thought that he is Batman was a Batman type except Batman never cut anybody's head off but that would really ruin it yeah Batman didn't kill people he just knocked them out a little bit he's not Batman ness had to proceed carefully because Sweeney was a cousin of congressman Martin L Sweeney I wonder if this affiliation along with the detention violating civil liberties contributed to ness keeping this lie detector test a secret regardless despite this revelation Francis Sweeney was released in less than three months later the final two torso victims were placed within view of neces window seemingly to mock him ness would continue to get mocked well after the killings in the 50s Ness received taunting note cards from someone claiming to be Francis Sweeney and since Sweeney was a secret suspect I would imagine it's likely that the sender was indeed Sweeney what do the note cards say they pretty much say Dan nonsense do they implicate that he is the killer or is it him essentially just it's him thumbing his nose at him knowing that even if these know cards were taking the court they wouldn't mean anything which is even or inferior unfortunately despite feeling he had solved the case nest didn't have enough to take Sweeney to trial though the case against Sweeney doesn't end there in 1938 a vagrant named Emil fro neck told authorities that in 1934 a doctor tried to drug him he remembered the office was somewhere around East 50th and East 55th on Broadway streets unfortunately when authorities grow fro neck of Broadway he couldn't find anything that appeared to be a medical office and from there his story was dismissed as irrelevant however more than 70 years later case expert James Bedell would discover that Francis Sweeney practiced medicine out of a modest looking building at the corner of Broadway and Pershing Avenue this building closely matches were Froning remembered getting drugged it's in this building that Bedell believes Sweeney could have drugged fro neck as well as other victims though the torso killer murders would have resulted in a large amount of blood evidence so how could Sweeney have carried out those murders in these offices without eventually being caught spread out your tarps and just because I imagine it would be pretty hard to explain this I know this looks bad he's got a head cold the answer may lie with David cowls the leader of the scientific identification Bureau who was interviewed by the Cleveland Police Historical Society in 1983 Cal suggests that Sweeney may have had an agreement with an undertaker that he could practice surgery on unclaimed bodies in the Undertaker's funeral home if this is true a funeral home would function nicely as a way to dispose of blood evidence this arrangement however does seem to be possible as directly next door to Sweeney's office what a funeral home in fact the funeral home had a concrete ramp located behind the building that conveniently led to the undertaking facilities both squeezed medical office and the funeral home are a short car ride away from where the September 1935 victims were found which was not far from the roaring third in Battelle's opinion Sweeney could have visited bars near the center of town to lure people back to his office with promises of alcohol or drugs he just made an agreement with them to say yeah you can work on our dead bodies but then he'd bring in some of his own I think that's what it was I see okay snuck in some you know it's not some of his own him so his own his sinful life didn't some of his own critics pics yeah but del with the help of the great nephew of one of Francis Sweeney's colleagues was able to use photos and diagrams to compare the torso killer and Sweeney's movements but Dale calls the results quote creepy as hell end quote all this information allowed bedell to conclude that sweeney was indeed the killer though but dell cautions quote i think i put together a pretty good circumstantial case i realize you couldn't take it to court and ness realized back then he couldn't take it to court end quote it's crazy that all he had to do was follow the rules and it's quite likely he may have gathered some legitimate evidence on the guy or at least the thing is all he had was sweeney fit the profile right yes but that isn't grounds to getting a search warrant for someone or bringing someone in no I don't know what the rules are maybe of when you're allowed to arrest somebody or even submit them to something like a lie-detector test yeah I imagine it wasn't enough for him to do it when he did it yeah or ever Sweeney would have to slip publicly there are however some criticisms of the Sweeney explanation police in crime reporter Doris O Donnell believes that somebody at the funeral home would have noticed something weird was going on yet O'Donnell may be biased since her uncle was the sheriff who arrested the controversial suspect Frank Dolezal in nineteen 39 I think it's like one of those things where you wouldn't even dare to dream that someone would use this as a place to kill people right because you are around death all the time all you see is dead bodies what makes you think that they're gonna be like oh wonder if someone's using this to kill people also even bedell acknowledges that the medical office setup could have only been utilized for the initial murders before colleagues could become suspicious he doesn't know where the murders that followed occurred others including Lee detective Peter Murillo believed the torso murders were committed by the same person that committed murders in New Castle Pennsylvania detective Murillo felt that Sweeney was too overweight to make the rail trip back and forth between Newcastle and Cleveland which consequently led to marilla's discounting of Sweeney as a suspect but to be fair Murillo had also been kept in the dark about Sweeney's secret interrogation and lie-detector test I I for one will go on record by saying I do think it's him I will also go out on that limb great work Ryan that's the best I could give ya so well I guess I shouldn't say great work Ryan didn't salt I didn't do anything Fidel did yeah regardless Francis Sweeney remains for the most part the most popular suspect in the case of Eliot Ness in James Bedell they believe that he is not just a suspect but in fact the killer however we may unfortunately never be able to definitively prove that and for now the case remains officially unsolved this weekend bus students all we cover the case of the East all-woman one of the most mysterious cold cases of all time and I know I say that a lot but not only are the culprits suspicious but the identity of the woman itself is a factor here so the mystery on on a mystery it's a layer two mystery I like a layered mystery it's like a two layer dip that you have at a Super Bowl party you know things about what these beans come from Oh what about that cheese put a little sauce on top three layer dip there may be a third layer here I haven't even I'm not gonna disclose everything I'm getting hungry for mystery on November 29th 1970 in the East Dahlin Valley near Bergen Norway a family on a Sunday hike discovered the body of a woman wedged between large rocks one of the first people on the scene and the last one living police lawyer Carl halvor os-- remembers the first thing they noticed was the very strong scent of burnt flesh the body was severely burned and the arms were in a boxer position in the air common in burned bodies while the front of the body including her face was burned beyond recognition the backside was bizarrely not burned the officers were unable to tell how long she had been there or when she died the woman was believed to be about 5 feet and 4.5 inches tall aged between 25 and 30 years old so the front of her is burned but the back is not yes and she's found on a hiking trail by a family a family who knows what burnt flesh smells like well that was the description from the police lawyer okay it would smell like barbecue probably probably yeah I mean barbecue is not gross no no why'd you get what I'm so we are about animals yeah that's true we are meat items recovered from the body and scene included jewelry a broken umbrella bottles a watch of nylon stockings and rubber boots however oddly the jewelry and watch were not found on the body but rather beside it as if they had been placed there all of the identifying labels on her clothes had been removed even the bottles found what the body had their labels rubbed off with no clues to her identity the police began looking for a witness who might be able to identify her she is referred to as the east doll woman stinks man anytime anyone's got the labels removed on their things that's very fishy very fishy I mean one thing you can infer is it does seem like there was another person that may have been involved it just doesn't strike me as an accident nor does it strike me as something she would that was self-inflicted but why do they even why do they do that with the clothes what if I'm a body somewhere I don't have ID on me maybe but they find my pants and go Levi's huh this must be Shane Maday well I mean if it's fancy clothes they could then go to fancy department stores ask if you've seen this person then go to the next step of identifying them lady fancy I don't know I mean that's just where my mind goes but then again I do have a superior detective mind I don't know about that I I mean I get why you could make that conclusion it just seems like an unnecessary precaution or very thorough an autopsy of the body discovered a large amount of venema a sleeping pill in her stomach around 50 to 70 pills her bloodstream had not fully absorbed them before her death they also found smoke particles in her lungs which denotes that she was still alive while she burned petrol was also found at the scene near her body and it was evident that it was utilized in the burning there was also a high level of carbon monoxide in her system a strange bruise on the right side of her neck was also discovered after the autopsy the death was determined to be a probable suicide due to the sleeping pills and the carbon monoxide from the fire 50 to 70 pills the law is a lot you could see why they may have thought this may be a suicide but they weren't absorbed by the time of burning seems odd to burn yourself if you're 70 sleeping pills why then go burning yourself let's set myself on fire in here if I'm gonna die and you say well you can go to sleep you say that sounds like a good option or alternatively we could set you on fire yeah we could do the thing that's generally considered the worst way to die yeah I think I'd go with falling asleep yeah me too I think that would be a 99% consensus just remember these odd details I've committed them to memory good good lock him in throw the key out okay you could swallow it too in fact the spot where she was found was the scene of many suicides in the Middle Ages and also where some unfortunate hikers fell to their death in the 1960s thus earning the title of Death Valley from locals the site was remote difficult to climb and definitely not a hiking path wait you said this was not a hiking trail what's his family doing out there I I considered that first all right kids let's go for a little hike in Death Valley I guess maybe they want to challenge themselves you know sometimes I go off the beaten path when it comes to hiking do you I'd like to challenge myself mentally and physically you're gonna die not something I would take my young family with it you have a young family well if I had a family I would not take them and be like hey let's go bouldering yeah the people do that in Los Angeles though they had to close one of the mountains around here because people kept fallin off valley people are weird yes they are considering the curious state of the crime scene is understandable to be skeptical of the ruling that it was a suicide but before we dig into that lets first provide some context by attempting to answer one question who was this woman the first major clue came three days after the body was discovered when two suitcases were found at the train station in Bergen inside the suitcases was a pair of non prescription glasses with the fingerprint on the the fingerprint was a match to the ista woman effectively linking the suitcases and all their contents to her which is important since the suitcases contained several mysterious items oh that's fun so she's got some stuff in some suitcases what goes beyond suitcases wait till we crack these bad boys open the plot will thicken as they say I like that you do appreciate a big pile of it okay inside the suitcases were clothes wigs a comb hairbrush makeup money from Germany and Norway as well as coins from Belgium Switzerland and the UK a tube of eczema cream was also found in the suitcase but the prescription label that would indicate the patient and prescribing doctor had been removed the labels of the makeup had also been removed and the efforts to identify the brand's failed beyond these items there was one item that seemed particularly promising if not strange to the police a notepad with a code written in blue ink a code that could not be cracked by the police at first but we'll get to that in a bit no I like codes well obviously one thing to do glean from that is the fact that the labels were also removed here in her personal belongings that to me means the label of her clothes all that stuff that was found at the scene was maybe done by her not by a separate party yeah which then gets you into the question of who she is right the second major clue also came from the suitcase and was a plastic bag from a shoe store about a hundred and thirty miles away in Stavanger Norway Robert fit the store owners son described blue celebrity boots he sold to a woman about three weeks prior the boots matched the ones found at the scene they called celebrity boots because they were popular at the time celebrities were wearing these boots therefore he described the miscellany boots but he was just sort of a sort of a dumb guy who saw something fancy oh no these were just very popular look at you with your celebrity boots word vet gave a well detailed account of her appearance in summary she was well dressed medium height with a round face with dark brown eyes long dark hair and had a strange odor to her that right fit would realize years later was garlic why does it take him years to remember what garlic smells like yeah that's a bit odd I don't know I don't know if that's like I smell garlic I I jump up Kyle of garden yeah it's delicious cuz it always it smells good when you smell it coming from a kitchen when you smell it on someone who's just eating garlic it's a bit funkier so she just went to chow down on some some B's dicks and then decided let me go pick up some boots breadstix boots burning myself alive brought FETs description led police to Saints fiddlin Hotel in Stavanger where the Easton woman stayed under the name vanilla Lorch however when police checked hotels back in Bergen no hotel had admitted a woman named vanilla Lorch which brings us to our third major clue the coded writing on the notepad it turns out vanilla Lorch was not the woman's real name and in fact she had at least eight names that she used at hotels around Norway this meant the woman had multiple passports with differing names police were able to match up the names using handwriting analysis on the hotel check in forms and cross-referencing it with the code found in the suitcase the numbers and letters in the code correspond to the woman stay in all the different cities for example owed 3-0 B and v relates to her stay in Bergen from October 30th to November 5th but do you think that's her way of coding it so someone who reads it doesn't see it or is it just her own shorthand for because you know if that was all that was found in the suitcase that was odd I would maybe think okay it's just shorthand but the fact that the suitcase also included wigs she had multiple passports she used 8 different names it is curious most people only have one passport if that yeah I don't think that contributes to shorthand all those I have one passport and I always I'm always looking for that darn thing after examining all the registrations the police realized she mostly claimed to be from Belgium when she registered all of which were confirmed to be big Belgian identities they also gained insight of the woman's habits by speaking with various hotel staff for instance she often asked to change rooms and she utilized some German and Flemish as well as English additionally they also described her as well-dressed so maybe she's just a spy you just said that like you'd made like a really I mean like that's no I I mean obviously was sitting on the back burner but yeah I'm just moving that pot to the front now yeah and that moved that to the front stared around a bit crank it up watch Boyle yeah different work crawfish in there yeah start looking those lips okay I don't know why we went that direction but the fourth major clue was the East hall woman's teeth and tissue samples for this clue let's get forward to modern times when new scientific developments were applied to the investigation a professor of dentistry named Giselle bang well that's a cool name should sell back just out bang just so bang yeah that's like a good spy name I was gonna say you could say you've been banged but that has different connotations yeah different professor bang examined the east doll woman's teeth covered in fillings and gold crowns and determined the unusual dentistry may have occurred in southern or Central Europe perhaps even Asia however before the location could be locked down professor bang unfortunately passed away in 2011 and the teeth hilariously were rumored to have been thrown away because they smelled ah smelly teeth unsolved classic right there let's take the evidence let's throw it away because I don't like it yeah that's great I love it yet this toothy tale doesn't end here what all right the East all woman's missing teeth were later found at hoechlin Hospital in a remote warehouse also in that hospital were tissue samples that included the Easton woman's heart lungs spleen and liver among others they found the teeth yeah they found everything in a remote warehouse in a hospital next to the Ark of the Covenant yeah Covenant yeah and into the cup of Christ what the hell kind of warehouse is this I don't know yeah the East Hall woman's teeth were subjected to an isotope test which determines where the woman grew up based incredibly on the water she drank whoa that's badass yeah using this test scientists were able to pinpoint an area near the France in Germany border where the east a woman likely grew up DNA testing revealed the East our woman was of European descent possibly from North America though her poor English would suggest otherwise by the way I would I just want to point out her poor English any accent in general if she's in fact a spy that all goes out the window to me uh hotel room me there you go you're straight European now what I was getting at is the fact that the isotope test may have pinpointed her in America she could have very well been American Oh funny test if it says either Germany or America I mean I'm still very impressed by the test but not so much the results well she's either from Europe or America that's you know she's not from China with the East all woman's features and backgrounds starting to materialize out of the darkness new police sketches were drawn of her in 2016 that's pretty good she looks like someone from the Americans yeah in May 2017 a black notice is sent out through Interpol with the ista woman's DNA attached in hopes to find new leads and with that we arrive at the end of the clues yet the question persists who was this woman as some of you might have already wondered many suspect she was a spy let's see if that claim has any weight obviously the case file is quite peculiar but external factors such as the ongoing Cold War also catalyze speculation that East all woman was in fact a spy perhaps connected Norway was revealed to be home to Russian spies and Mossad agents from Israel a mere three years after the East all woman's death in fact four Mossad agents were questioned about the Easter woman however none of the agents claimed to recognize her or any of the East all woman's aliases but also remember their spy what are they gonna do oh yeah I killed her that lady I killed yeah you want to know all the confidential details of my spying okay why don't you ask me in the beginning that's the thing about spies and I think a lot of intelligence deaths like this I would bet that a vast majority of these deaths yeah I'm just unreported I think they're professionals yeah I mean they're made to not exist right so they're ghosts you're trying to catch ghosts which is pretty it's pretty hard around the time of the murder Norwegian intelligence agencies looked into the case of the ista woman due to the odd circumstances surrounding it a week after the discovery ornithopter and Bjorn Lombok a of the police security service began investigating the case on off TAFTA says he was called by the Bergen chief of police to investigate whether there was anything connecting the strange case to spying while their team ultimately decided the death was an accident TAFTA remarks that it doesn't mean the woman was not involved in espionage he claims her false passports point to the possibility of her being a quote illegal agent end quote here's the Bergen police crime commissioners response in an interview a few weeks into the investigation after being asked about the role of espionage in the case quote we have no proof of that no we can safely say I'd go further to say we've completely eliminated that possibility end quote however the Norwegian surveillance agency denied involvement until 2002 no offense to this commissioner but I feel like spies methods or the way they cover their tracks or their DNA their organization may cover their tracks it's probably gonna be a little more thorough to the point where some rinky-dink police officer isn't gonna be able to above his pay grade perhaps then again they did have no region intelligence agencies look into the case so he didn't do the case investigation himself he reached out to them to have them do it but what is the Norwegian surveillance agency gonna say yeah we cooked the lady new topic a crime reporter covering the case says he was given Case Files to write an article about the East all woman in the 1970s in the files he found an envelope containing a cassette tape however the envelope was marked with a warning that said it should not be opened without express permission from the supervisor as such the envelope was never opened and I can find no record of what was on that tape well why didn't they open it that's one of my questions gonna listen to some ink yeah I'm gonna let you listen to a [ __ ] yellow sticky when it comes to that far in the case no come on crack that thing open bust out your walkman it better be padlocked because a yellow sticky and stop in the old Bergmeister we're tearing right into it he's doing an investigative article he's an investigative crime reporter and he just stops it a because someone tells him not to I guess that one would make a real for a real thrilling movie sometimes oh we heard about this thing at Watergate but they told us not to look into it so sometimes you got to play by the rules I guess I don't know finally as further proof that the Easton woman may have been a spy her habits and situation were also suspect just to recap she had multiple passports and used fake names she had wigs wrote in code and all identifying labels and marks on her belongings were scratched off either by her or by somebody else she also seemed to have quite a bit of money to dress so well travelled to each country / City and then afford all the hotels that she stayed in other than that there's nothing concrete it appears the East all woman is as elusive after death as she was when she was living all this considered we now return to the original question how did she die let's get into the theories the first theory is that it was a suicide as originally determined returning to the autopsy 5270 sleeping pills were found in her stomach a fish will see this as a sign of suicide as it would be hard to force someone to consume that many pills in multiple doses though due to the odd detail surrounding the case many including officers involved doubt that suicide is the true answer you could make somebody swallow pills you point a gun at them and you say swallow these pills if you know someone's either gonna shoot you in the head or you could again fall asleep okay sure but logically let's go through that okay I'm gonna have you swallow 50 to 70 pills you know then I'm gonna set you on fire sure how does that make sense yeah it's a little fishing also let's go through it as if it was a suicide okay she goes I'm gonna swallow a shitload of pills a lot of pills now I'm gonna set myself on fire that doesn't make any sense either doesn't make a ton of sense unless the pills were a backup like she thought oh maybe if I set myself on fire it's not gonna work unless she's just not in her right mind she takes the pills she's sure they're gonna work but they haven't worked yet she's concerned they're not gonna work so she goes for the fire I don't know I missed it there's an awl when you consider the fact that the method of death doesn't really coincide with suicide and that she had all these other external factors that maybe suggests she was involved in some weird things doesn't seem to me like a way of committing suicide also a spy' suicide seems like what they have like a few things you'd be better at that yeah cyanide pill I tell you one thing you don't need fifty do those really work as quick as they do in the movies I think so cuz yikes when they bite down I'm in the movies they're like oh are you going to kill me and then there's like foam right away I don't know how that stuff works gotta be honest that's abundantly clear yeah we're not gonna do any kind of light trials till the series finale yet the second theory is that it was an accident on the scene officer suspected she may have been burned by flames which she might have fallen into and responded by jumping backward away from the flames and over the cliff the police security service as mentioned before ultimately decided that the death was an accident one questionnaire uncovered by this service revealed that she had a large can of hairspray which in theory could have been dropped in a bonfire she had built the result would be an explosion causing her burns and ultimately her death though this doesn't seem to explain the Petroff found at the scene that was utilized in her burning furthermore there would also be evidence of an explosion I'd assume I'm already burning I'm already burning a petrol shower and amongst rocks under the me any [ __ ] sense no the third and final theory is that she was murdered her possible life of espionage would undeniably lend itself to a veritable list of enemies so it's not unthinkable that somebody would want her dead returning to the crime scene the jewelry and watch were not found on the body but beside it as if it had been placed there and sure this could have been the last acts of a person committing suicide but if her true plan was to commit suicide why set herself on fire adding to this is nobody seemed to have an explanation of how the fire started other than the wild hairspray theory returning to the autopsy there was a strange bruise on the right side of her neck the crime reporter mentioned before nude harvick also wasn't convinced on the ruling quote personally I'm totally convinced that this was a murder she had various identities she operated with codes she wore wigs she traveled from town to town and switched hotels after a few days this is what the police call conspiratorial and quality yeah she had wigs she had codes she had passports she switched hotels she wanted people not to follow her yeah of course she was murdered yeah that just makes sense idiots I know I felt like it was rather clear yeah I mean the person if they were murdering her could you why not just shoot him I guess then maybe they traced the bullet to your gun I don't know yeah well you're not exactly I would say the pinnacle of espionage I could be I don't think you could be look I'll wear fake mustaches I'll wear a wig people won't know it's me so you're gonna wear the mustache is gonna cover up your eight foot limbs does that house no there's plenty of tall people in the world if I were a mustache and a wig and say hello I'm banjo McClintock nobody will know well they'll think I'm a different person I don't think so I think I'd make a better spy I don't think you would yeah just for my physical requirement No yeah you'd be shaken no this is my real name I promise why would I be so scared at that you're scared of everything I'm scared of the hotel check-in manager yeah sure you are I don't think so unless it's that situation where like normally you're a timid scared man but when you step into the shoes of say Ricky Gold's worth yeah then suddenly you become the most confident man and that's the point of a disguise but can you overcome your the the timidity that is yes yeah hardwired to your I think so I think that's more likely than you shaving off a couple feet from your limbs despite the official ruling being a suicide many officials involved seemed shaky on that prospect to say the least police lawyer Carl Hal Moore os-- claims that no one in the Bergen Police Department really believe that claiming the location and nature of the death seemed to odd to be a suicide a chemist for crit Bose the National Bureau of crime and investigation in Norway who attended the autopsy said quote now as then I'm in doubt when it comes to what really happened on the site and how the fire developed it is difficult to be a hundred percent sure all in all I support the 1970 report but there is a considerable uncertainty and it is impossible to rule out that this was either a homicide or an accident end quote the police chief Espeon Bryn ruled the case a suicide even though just days earlier he made it clear that case would remain unsolved until the woman's true identity was found let me ask you two questions two questions was she a spy yes or no I would say yes was she murdered where she wasn't an accident or was it a suicide I would say she was murdered okay so we could get those two things out of this I would say to me I'd say murdered spy what about you I think so too okay where that takes us not far we don't still we still don't know her name we still don't know who murdered her but such was the nature of spies it's a start she was a damn good spy if we don't even know who killed her in the end the East Hall woman was given a Catholic funeral on February 5th 1971 as the police guess she may have been Catholic based on what information they had tulips and carnations sat atop her zinc coffin a coffin that wouldn't decompose in hopes that one day the coffin could be moved to a more fitting resting place if someone were to claim her that day has yet to come as for now the mystery of the Easton woman remains unsolved [Music] sometimes when your spy yeah you got to die that's like that comes in the Job Description I guess so you don't sign up to be a spy thinking I'm gonna be here gonna be tenured day one you sit down in spy class the professor says look to your left look to your right one of these people is gonna set you on fire someday that's what spies do [Music] this week on Busbee unsolved we investigate the murder of tenrecs McElroy in the small town of Skidmore Missouri this case is odd and that it deals with the question is a murder justified if it's seemingly warranted what do you think No why not I don't trust people to do their homework I mean if you killed everyone you thought was a murderer you'd have a lot of innocent lives on your hands on a general basis I will say I agree with you but a spoiler alert not a lot of homework was needed for this Villa okay let's get into it the year is 1981 the town Skidmore Missouri a town surrounded by corn fields with only 437 residents I've been to Missouri lovely state can I say that the Ozarks is this you yeah that's a positive statement to start this I love Missouri I saw a mosquito there that was almost the size of a bird that doesn't seem like something pleasant it was almost so big that it couldn't really move around too much it's not a burden the beautiful state lot unpacked there yeah I think that like we'll just move forward on July 10th 1981 Ken Rex McElroy would be shot dead in the street in broad daylight amongst as many as 60 witnesses yet to this day the crime remains unsolved how could that be possible let's start from the beginning who was Ken Rex McElroy Ken Rex McIlroy was born June 1st 1934 to a family of poor tenant farmers and moved near the town of Skidmore Missouri by the eighth grade McElroy had left school and it's believed he was largely illiterate at 18 he was said to have been seriously injured when a steel slab fell on him at a construction site the incident left him with chronic pain and some have attributed his bizarre and violent behavior to a head injury suffered in this event they got to do more research on that right on what head injuries don't they say John Wayne Gacy was he fell off a swing when he was a boy like a CTE kind of thing yeah is there something does it do they lack empathy maybe maybe maybe I'll give that a maybe it just seems odd for me to blame everything on a head injury I'm not blaming it all on a head injury I'm just saying there seems to be a large occurrence of those I suppose you might be right in that there's something to look at there McIlroy was reportedly a 270 pound giant of a man a local farmer described McIlroy saying quote I think that can simply wanted to be big and important and have people afraid of him when he walked down the street and he got that they were end quote 270 pounds that's a beefy man that's a beefy guy I would not cross him under under any circumstance you're throwing down how do I say I'm a wimp in spite of all this McElroy made a relatively substantial living off of leasing land near his farm trading and raising dogs as well as allegedly stealing livestock grain alcohol gasoline and antiques McIlroy was in constant trouble with the law his lawyer estimated that he was charged with various crimes at least three times a year and by some counts he was indicted as many as 21 times but escaped conviction all but once McElroy was often known to brag that his Kansas City lawyer Richard gene McFadden also represented the mob and would effectively keep him out of jail so he's walking around town saying I could do whatever I want I got a big fancy-pants lawyer from out of town and he's gonna make sure all you small folk can't touch me I wonder if part of it is because it seems like all of the things he did were relatively small time right at this point oh I mean that 21 is including the bigger ones that we're going to get in that we're going to get into well at least the list that you've named so far it was like a lot of oh I stole smaller that's just an appetizer I just fed you a cracker I'm about to come with the full platter now oh boy and it's it's not a good platter it's a good cracker enjoy it because it's about to turn into a [ __ ] sandwich real quick another tactic to avoid jail that McIlroy would employ is intimidating witnesses to do this he'd followed them or park outside their homes and watch them until they were no longer willing to testify against him his various alleged to crimes include robbery harassing / assaulting women destroying property threatening lives and assault including shooting at least two people one of those two people he shot was local farmer Romain Henry who McIlroy shot in the stomach when Henry tried to chase McElroy off henry's land in the stomach of all places on his own land on his own whim he was probably enjoying a nice glass of sweet tea yeah and then this [ __ ] knucklehead comes on his property and he gets shot in the stomach and the stomach that's the worst place to get shot I'm sure any place is a pretty bad place to get shot but oh yea shoulder I got shoulder make that before we get into McIlroy's relationships I'd like to issue a fair warning that what follows is upsetting and depicts extreme violence towards women but is important for me to tell you in order to paint the full picture McIlroy was accused of raping two young women as young as 12 years old both of which he was said to have married to keep them from testifying against him one of these women was 24 year old Trina McLeod who was his partner and was also present at the time of McElroy's death Trina was McIlroy's third wife though all unions were suspect due to the fact that some of his marriages overlapped as well as the fact that McElroy was known to prefer girls around the age of 13 or 14 [ __ ] this guy that train arrived at the station rather quickly for me as well in fact McElroy actually entered a relationship with Trina when she was only 14 years old having a child with her around that same time soon after having their first child Trina attempted to escape to her parents house Makara responded by allegedly burning down Trina's parents home and shooting their dog first off holy [ __ ] is I guess like the first reaction to that second off it does amaze me that at this point I know I get he's intimidating he's a big force it's a small town maybe he could use that to manipulate his way around the law but at this point I do think law and order should come into play here right yes yet in 1981 Trina told People magazine that the house fire was quote just faulty wiring end quote to make matters worse McIlroy was also accused of abusing his first two wives Sharon and Alice as is often the case in stories of domestic abuse in later interviews with both Alice and Trina they seemed to minimize their abuse and even claimed McElroy treated them well in 1981 shortly after his death Alice told People magazine that quote Ken was totally different from the way they are saying he was now oh he was wild but he wasn't guilty of all those things they say he was honest and generous I never knew him to steal anything ever end quote that's common though that's common it's common in it's sad it makes it even grosser because this guy was maybe dare I say charming in some aspects obviously it sounds like he's an evil evil man but people aren't always shades of black and white it's not this person is a good person this person yeah you guys so as much as he was committing these heinous heinous things there were probably parts of him where people like well he's not that bad of a guy look I'm all for seeing the good in people and finding redeeming qualities for the record I'm not saying well I get what you're saying I just wanted to make it absolutely abundantly clear that I we're were for redeeming qualities and maybe seeing the good in people but in some cases burn it out absolutely Trina said in that same interview quote the officers were always hassling they'd accuse him of anything even things I know he didn't do because I was with him they just hated him because he wouldn't kneel down to them end quote so the guy seems morally bankrupt to begin with mhm he's got these horrible relationships with these miners yes children so that gives you an idea of his character it's more than likely that he just told them oh I didn't do that knows why he's probably believed them and that's the set they're already in his camp in all these instances is he just getting away with it is he going to court for these things he was getting the cops were apprehending he was going to court it's just that his lawyer was actually that good that he would get him out he would get him off every time so he probably was maybe a mob lawyer that was good enough to maneuver around the law through loopholes and whatnot I'm picturing like an Al Pacino type I don't know it's got to be good however it's known that even the county's law enforcement officials were afraid of encountering McIlroy who was known to always be heavily armed and unafraid of shooting cops for over two decades the people of Skidmore often felt abandoned by the justice system that couldn't stop McElroy from further terrorizing them little did they know an incident would occur that would change everything on April 25th 1980 in earnest Bobo and Kemp's general store the store clerk Evelyn Sumi would ask McIlroy's eight-year-old daughter Tanya to return a piece of candy she had not paid for when he learned of the incident McElroy was so incensed he reportedly began stalking the Bowen camp BAM this led to the events of July 8th 1980 when McIlroy would drive into the alley behind the bone camp general store once there he threatened Bobo and camp and shot the grocer in the neck at close range with a shotgun marking at least the second reported time McIlroy had shot somebody yeah I assume that person died uh actually he got shot point-blank but a shotgun with a shotgun then he lived I wouldn't consider myself an overly religious man but I could maybe buy into the concept of a little divine in from intervention luckily Bobo in camp survived and McIlroy was arrested and charged with attempted murder his preliminary trial was set for August 18th 1980 in typical fashion McElroy made attempts to intimidate the bone camp family and supporters to keep them from testifying bowing camp's wife recalled quote you can't know how intimidating it was after that before his trial he'd drive up to our house in his pickup at night and just sit there sometimes he would fire his gun it was frightening end quote that is some over-the-top supervillain [ __ ] that's [ __ ] insane I don't like this man their legal maneuvers McIlroy was able to delay the trial almost five months until June 25th 1981 during this time the acting prosecuting attorney resigned and a young new prosecutor named David Baird was hired to fill his position some have speculated that McIlroy had bullied the previous prosecutor to leave the new prosecutor David Baird was only three years out of law school yet Baird accomplished when no other lawyer had been able to do in all of McIlroy's criminal history he convicted him of a crime granted McIlroy was ultimately only convicted at his trial of second-degree assault the jury set a maximum sentence of two years and the judge freed him on a forty thousand dollar bail bond pending the appeal this was partly because Baird lessened McElroy's charge from quote attempt to kill end quote to quote knowingly caused serious physical injury end quote to ensure that he could secure a conviction you'd try to kill someone and there's eight different labels for it and he chose a label that would make the conviction assured that's nutty that put him in jail this lawyer that they're going up against must be very good for him too the guy shot a guy in the [ __ ] neck with a shotgun I know Ryan and he felt so strongly about this other dude skills that he changed the labeling of that just so he could secure conviction for only two years and he got out this is a case of seeing it go through the justice system and been getting dunked on yeah just completely failing it seemed like a victory almost and then nothing McIlroy reportedly said of the trial quote the jury convicted me and they gave me two years but I'll tell you what I'll never go to jail I'll appeal and get off I've been fighting the law since I was 13 and I'm damn near 50 I've been arrested for over fifty three felonies and this is the first one I ever lost end quote unbelievable I that's the showboating that braggadocio of this man right here is is staggering this is the problem with the man who I guess believes in his own myth yeah and his cape especially when that man is capable of cruelty he's a caress baby he is Icarus and guess what this bad boy is about to fly towards the Sun soon after he was released McIlroy bizarrely was spotted with a rifle and bayonet at the town's local bar DNG tavern where he was allegedly making graphic threats about murdering Bobo in camp so he follows it up then so this isn't Icarus flying too close to the stones flying into the Sun yeah this is Icarus turning 90 degrees looking at the Sun and playing chicken with it as a result he was arrested and quickly released with the only consequence being the postponement of his court hearing to July 20th 1981 for violating his bail provisions for being armed in the wake of these events on the morning of July 10th 1981 there was a meeting at the town's Legion Hall just down the street from the DNG tavern as many as 60 Skidmore residents attended including both the mayor and the sheriff the meetings entire purpose was to discuss what they could legally do to prevent McElroy from harming anyone else County Sheriff Dan SDS suggested the formation of a neighborhood watch you realize how how deep of dire straits this town really is when the sheriff is saying maybe we should form a neighborhood watch that's like someone just raising their hand and saying what if we write a note but the collective mindset of those in attendance seemingly could be summed up by one quote from an attendee quote we simply felt that the system had failed us we all knew what McElroy was like and there he was again and again it seemed like nobody could stop him end quote those at the meeting heard reports that McElroy and Trina were spotted heading to the DNG Tavern in Skidmore to grab drinks it is said that the meeting adjourned and at the crowd of about 60 people then quietly descended upon the DNG tavern flanking McIlroy struck some even went into the bar where they waited for him to finish his drinks upon their return to the truck where Trina was sitting in the passenger seat McElroy lit a cigarette Trina claimed to have turned over her shoulder and seen someone pull a rifle from the back of the truck and take aim at Mackel and then shots were fired shattering the trucks windows Treena reportedly doe from her side of the vehicle onto the street and was picked up by a man named Jack Clement and walked toward the bank for safety you could start a sort of feel the dread building yeah when the meeting adjourned and you know it's going down right down down they've had enough they've been pushed to the limit it's time to take some action I'm not afraid to admit I have felt some joy McIlroy at the age of 47 remained in the car shot dead getting hit twice the shot came from roughly behind him so he would not have seen his shooter bullet casings from two different guns were found notably none of the witnesses called an ambulance do you think there was one guy who was like I'll call oh he just got a firm sterile industry turns our heads for him while there were as many as 60 witnesses reported at the scene no one but Trina would come forward in the investigation that followed to say who had fired the shots Cheryl Huston the daughter of Bobo and Kemp witnessed the shooting from her family's store and said this on the silence that followed the murder quote once the Shroud of silence fell there was going to be no one talking they could have pushed and dug pushed and dug and gotten nothing we were so bitter and so angry at the law letting us down that it came to somebody taking matters in their own hand no one has any idea what a nightmare we lived end quote I would I would kill to know what his dying thoughts were just to know that it was this guy who was so sure of himself so so sure that he had the world in the palm of his hand that he could get away with anything and suddenly the world seemingly collectively turns in on him and says no we're going to shoot you yes dream like a dog and now you know what I hate to say but I think he may have known it was coming and he was one of those context was like whatever I allow this to happen that makes me angry right in the murder investigation that followed there was only one suspect a shooter that Trina identified as Dao Clement who was a part-owner of the DNG tavern however Clement denied the charge and there were no other witnesses to come board and ultimately the DA and the coroner's jury did not order an arrest warrant or pressed charges Harry and MacLean author of a book on the case titled in broad daylight spend some time with Clement during his years researching his book and describes Clement as a quote short man with a chip on his shoulder and a hot temper or a cowboy hat and drank heavily and quote in regards to the shooting MacLean describes Clement saying quote it wasn't hard to imagine him jerking the gun from his pickup in a burst of anger and opening up on the large black head on the other side of the rear window of the pickup and quote MacLean also says that in the years he spent researching he never heard another name seriously mentioned as the shooter besides del Clement in 2009 Clement passed away and up until his death he continued to deny any role in the killing I don't think anyone was after glory in this incident no you know I don't think anyone needed to say the people who were directly affected by it they seemingly were all gathered around they know what happened they know who shot him so you don't have to shout to the world hey no it was me because you walk into that general store they give you the nod you give him the nod it brings the town together yeah it's at in a weird way this horrible event has brought the town together in a very poetic and beautiful moment I can imagine the town was a lot happier after this that being said author Harry n MacLean has also noted quote I personally believe it's a mistake to put too much emphasis on who pulled the trigger and which brings us back to the town-hall meeting that preceded the shooting it's easy to wonder if the murder was a plot that formed there though McLean has posed that he doesn't believe the killing was a planned vigilante action rather he believes that a few people made an impulsive decision to take action but the small town stood by them in solidarity with their complicit silence let me ask you this mm-hmm some people have maybe questioned was this meeting a place where they were like okay we're gonna go out there you two are gonna shoot him and we're not gonna say anything I'm not saying that is what happened but if it is in fact how it happened is that fine does this does that make this worse I don't think it makes it worse I do think it was probably spontaneous though I agree I think maybe the meeting went poorly as well saw that nothing was gonna happen the sheriff was mentioning a neighborhood watch as a solution but I think that maybe fed the idea if they were talking about what we need to keep a keep an eye on this guy we all need to band together then they get news that he's heading to the tavern so they're probably like great let's just go intimidate him maybe all of them you know a group of them decided to go do that which would lead to one of them just yeah I mean I think it was a meeting where obviously everyone was airing out their disdain for this man and if you collectively understand that everyone in this town feels the same way for the first like I don't know we're the first everyone maybe yeah maybe this is the first time they're all airing out their grievances they realize there's nothing they could do to stop this man they know everyone feels this way yeah and then you hear he's outside by the tavern greenlight everyone goes let's just go out there and look and to people they know they're like no it's ending right now I know everybody's got their back once the local Major Case Squad investigated the FBI also investigated ultimately three grand juries heard evidence but no one was ever indicted for the murder Treena filed a six million dollar wrongful death lawsuit against the town of Skidmore Nodaway County the sheriff Denny SDS skidmores Mayor Steve Peters and Dell Clement on July 9th 1984 however the case ultimately settled for $17,600 trina ended up leaving town and remarrying and passed away in 2012 on her 55th birthday as recently as 2006 then Nodaway County Sheriff Ben SB said of the macro case quote they all seem to know who did it but they don't want to get involved I'll do everything in my power to arrest the person end quote though it's noted that he is said to have said this in a tone quote conveying no particular optimism vigilante justice is a slippery slope it is it's an ethical dilemma you don't want a whole town getting carried away maybe that guy doesn't cut his lawn often enough you don't want a whole town murdering him but in this case I think it's abundantly clear I deal some action was needed action was needed to be taken whatever that action ended up being we were just gonna have to live with because they've gone through years and decades literally of oppression from this man mm-hmm I think he would be unfortunate to take away from what this town did together and the fact that they took a stand against something that was truly evil I don't think we've ever really delved into moral dilemmas quite like this we did metaphorically draw the line in the sand where you stand on it is up to you after McIlroy's death the town as a whole saw a significant decrease in the amount of cattle and pig thefts in the county even just in the subsequent month the case garnered national media attention from outlets such as rolling stone and 60 minutes headlines often emphasized the vigilante nature of the killing what remains concrete are the facts a man was killed on account of his actions and will likely never officially know the shooter how you feel about it can be debated both internally and externally but regardless the case of Ken Rex McElroy will officially remain unsolved [Music] this week combusted installed we investigate the murder of William Desmond Taylor a notable film director in 1920s Hollywood let's peek behind the card in it and see a little bit behind the glitz in the glamour well but you know what they say it's not all glitz and glamor what you just said that right yeah no I don't know how else to restate it sometimes people get murdered in Hollywood let's get into it Hollywood February 2nd 1922 the crime murder and what would become one of the biggest scandals to rock early Hollywood the victim film director William Desmond Taylor known by his friends as bill born in Carlo Ireland on April 26th 1872 directing more than 40 films for what is now known as Paramount and working with tinsel town's brightest stars Taylor was well-liked respected and seen as a leading filmmaker Taylor himself even starred in one of the first feature films that would define Hollywood and what later serve as president of the motion picture Directors Association for several years by all accounts William Desmond Taylor was a glimmering beacon in the cinema firmament 40 movies in 1920 equates to two weeks of work yeah cuz they they this movie is called man drops potato yeah and there and there was a shooting like ten movies at the same time in the same room no cigars mouth is operating seven different cameras he also acted in one man that became a Hollywood classic a good after he only acted in one so so many you know he was a big deal back then all right ok leave wdt alone ok Jesus look I'm not calling him to question his talent yeah or his reputation this is coming from the tour of dogs watch television for the first time it's a good video picture if you will the scene of the crime nestled on the corner of Alvarado and Maryland in the posh la neighborhood of West Lake Park sits the luxurious apartment of William Desmond Taylor the time 7:30 a.m. February 2nd Taylor's valet Henry Peavy arrives at his usual time to make breakfast for Taylor upon opening the door Peavy spots the obscured feet of his boss on the ground he calls out to Taylor no response creeping in a bit farther Peavy discovers to his horror the body of William Desmond Taylor bleep dressed lying face up with blood around his mouth no sign of a struggle is immediately apparent it's assumed he died of natural causes Peavey's shouts alert the neighbors many of them Hollywood stars and starlets themselves who gradually shuffle in to Taylor's apartment who's there like Greta Garbo and Charlie Chaplin well you get a load of this bloody man well the thing is he lived in an apartment complex that was very luxurious and there was a lot of people who were already in Hollywood living next door wow that's fun it was a wild scene also the last it was a wild scene it is the last thing you want when there's a crime scene that's fresh is everybody shuffling in their [ __ ] nightmares with cosmopolitan Oh what's going on here look gross it's blood you know I got on my shoot let me rub it off on this carpet that kind of thing yeah you know you don't want that in a crime scene 8:00 a.m. the police arrived on the scene 8:40 a.m. coroner william mcdonald arrives to move and examine the body and it becomes quite obvious this death was not due to natural causes they lift Taylor's body to reveal a pool of blood staining the carpet where Taylor lay it 38 caliber bullet had entered the left side of his back based on the placement of the bullet holes in Taylor's jacket and vest officials conclude that his arms were raised at the time he was shot bizarrely the police would later consider this could mean Taylor was embracing somebody who then shot him in the bed meaning they shot him while they were hugging him then what did you or aren't just from the like nobody got shot in the back and went to be read about in the back that seems awkward right also why don't you shoot yourself would you shoot yourself I don't know bullets do they stay in a body or do they just go there do they stay in a body no well there's exit wounds sometimes and this one had an exit wound so it would it would have shot that first off the person less they planned it so that they were like kind of like an old a situation where he's like ah they move like that Oh like yeah they're like running of the bullet the bullet police also supposedly find a silky garment pinkish in color that quote resembled a nightgown end quote Detective Sergeant Edward came later tells reporters he thinks it belonged to a woman a robbery is ruled out as Taylor's wallet was left behind with $78 cash inside as well as other valuable items in the home shortly after the discovery of the bullet wound the Alvarado Court Apartments are filled with reporters and photographers from every le newspaper as well as several papers outside of amidst the chaos of the crime scene when detail worth mentioning is the fact that before the police and reporters arrived paramount studio manager Charles Eden visited the crime scene upon hearing the news it's believed that Eden removed evidence from Taylor's apartment that morning in an attempt to avoid or at least minimize the scandal some even believe he may have planted false evidence such as pink lingerie perhaps to hide the fact that as one theory hadded Taylor was a homosexual Detective Sergeant Edward Cain who was assigned to the Taylor case is among those who believed paramount was taking measures to keep silent they're stars who may have had useful information on the chance that it would implicate them when considering the roster of stars associated with the case the motive for the studio interfering was quite strong though this only leads to more questions what was aiding cleaning up and whom was he covering for so studio heads back then sort of playing God yeah sort of yeah like a little bit of a god complex anytime a major studio and a person in a position of power starts tampering with with any kind of case like this things aren't what they seem obviously all bets are off I've got those dirty dirty Hollywood fingers all over it this is like a classic dirty Hollywood story that stinks man it stinks yeah all the way up to the top it's making my mouth dry leave that's better poopy let's take a look at the night before the body is discovered the night that Taylor was shot 7:45 p.m. Hollywood comedy star Mabel Normand the last person known to have seeing a tailor alive leaves Taylor's home and is driven off by her chauffeur William Davis 8:00 p.m. a sound that could have been a gunshot is heard by actor and neighbor Douglas McLean and his wife faith this possible gunshot is also heard by apartment manager EC Jessen who writes it off as a misidentification when no other disturbance follows at first I thought that's a bit suspicious but then the more I thought about it I I was I was thinking you write it off last night I was in my apartment and in the hallway I heard what at first I thought was a woman like maybe in pain or in distress at first it was oh and I was like oh no there's someone in my building in trouble yeah and then I just put my ear by the door and it changed - oh it could have been someone in distress but my brain immediately was like mmm I think someone's having sex in the elevator I and then the elevator door closes and I stopped hearing anything so it's a bit much to confront the fact that hey maybe someone's being murdered right now you maybe not consciously you do you take the easy way out much like you take the easy way out when you're confronted with ghosts evidence oh wind Ryan not the season for shoes pivoting thought I'd make that point let's not discuss that this season after hearing this sound faith McLean spots a man outside Taylor's home she does not get a good look at the man's face but sees that he is clean-shaven white of medium build around five foot nine and dressed in dark clothing and a camp she would later say quote he was dressed like my idea of a motion picture burglar end quote sounds like a hunk well it sounds like someone went to Party City was like make me look like a criminal never cape no I didn't have a cape it wasn't as or oh the man seems to notice faith watching him but does not appear to be alarmed or in any hurry faith sees the man looked back into Taylor's home for a moment as if saying goodbye then the man leaves closing Taylor's door behind him at the time faith does not think much of it I don't know how she didn't think much of that you say he's dressed like a cat burglar he's poking around this guy's house you heard something that sounded like a gunshot I think all those things together may make me think a little bit about what if he was just turning around though and he liked it looked like he was saying goodbye but what if he just sort of did a double-take like that's a wrap 8:15 p.m. Howard Fellowes tailors chauffeur at the time of his death moves Taylor's car into the garage when he goes to drop off the keys at Taylor's apartment Taylor does not answer his door despite the lights being on inside it's assumed by police that Taylor was already dead at this time the next day police would find six cigarette butts in the alley behind Taylor's and the McLean's apartments the McLean's maid Christina Jewett heard footsteps in this alley around the time of the supposed gunshot perhaps the killer vited his time until he saw an opportunity to strike why is this unsolved seems like a seems like they're really zeroing in here well we don't know who the man is oh and most importantly we don't know if the man was acting independently mm-hmm looks like you're jumping to conclusions yeah I am yeah maybe that detective mind of yours isn't a strong chief oh no no no it's uh it's pretty strong pretty strong a strong blurring also of note was the testimony of two men who claimed an unknown man inquired where Taylor lived around 6:00 p.m. on the night of the murder at a nearby gas station the man's description was similar to faith Maclean's although this man was wearing a dark suit yeah he's at a gas station he's at a gas station may be buying more smokes there it is it's in there there he's back he's yeah he's he was talking about who's asking where Taylor lived he was at a gas station near where Taylor lived already when he was asking where to he was asking these two men at the gas station at 6:00 p.m. two hours before the gunshot where Taylor live oh I missed that part entirely I guess the detective mind is actually not there at all huh interesting exiting the events of that night let's examine odd events that perhaps foreshadowed Taylor's demise towards the end of 1921 Taylor had received several mysterious and unnerving phone calls seemingly with nobody on the other end of the line when he answered additionally Taylor's home was robbed on December 4th 1921 the thief had taken jewelry and the special imported cigarettes Taylor smoked which had gold tips on December 27th he received a strange package and for more details on that let's get in to our first suspect the first suspect is Edward F sands who had previously served as Taylor's secretary / valet / cook in 1921 sands had forged checks from Taylor for more than five thousand dollars also taking jewelry and clothing before eventually disappearing sands had previously been court-martialed for him bezel mountain and dishonorably discharged from the US Navy according to actress Claire Windsor Taylor had voiced his intention to kill sands if he ever saw him again $5,000 back then it's actually quite a bit of cash yeah so oh so Taylor was going to kill him yeah because he had stolen so much from him that's so straight do you think he meant it I mean it could have been like I'm gonna kill him next time I see him and then you see him hey I yeah right I didn't I can't imagine he'd see him at like the Copacabana and he just just no I think it was he was angry with him is what we'll get from that this is just demonstrating the Bears bad blood between the two of them yes this conversation was several days before Taylor himself was murdered further demonstrating a grudge sands had spent time digging up dirt on Taylor's private life before finally absconding with his money this snooping brings us to one of the weirdest twists in the case the revelation that Taylor wasn't who he said he was and sands perhaps knew it as mentioned before Taylor had received a strange package on December 27th the package was postmarked from Stockton California and contained a pawn slip for the jewelry that was stolen on December 4th the pawns lips had been signed William Deanne Tanner which as Taylor's murder investigation would reveal was Taylor's real name along with the pawn slip was a note that read quote so sorry to inconvenience you even temporarily also observe the lesson of the forced sale of assets a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year and also notable was the name used to sign the note quote alias Jimmy V and quote this could possibly be a reference to the film alias Jimmy Valentine a movie about a thief who frequently eludes the cops more importantly this note suggests the thief possibly says stole the jewelry and then pawned it off using Taylor's real name to taunt him as sans likely knew there was a reason Taylor had changed his name before making the change Taylor had started and deserted a family a past he had hidden to preserve his reputation perhaps knowing this sans sent this note and jewelry pawn slips to mock Taylor it's worth mentioning the handwriting on this note was similar to sans police attempted to lure sands to Los Angeles via a woman he dated a ploy that did not work and police were never able to question their major suspect so he I mean very well likely could be him they just never were able to catch him he's a greasy one they just couldn't find him I mean it's not enough 1920s must be harder to find people yeah I guess he'd just go find a tree to sit under somewhere Yellow Pages I don't know I mean I think you're pretty [ __ ] once he gets past the state border to a new town telling me hi there my name is a Ricky Gold's Worth Ricky Cole it's worth you know if you ever get tired of doing this you can just move to a new town tell them your name is Ricky Goldsworthy had done your set for life yeah I'd tell them that I want the top house well what the top you can't just move into a town without it ya know so yeah yeah you even do a town and take a house I don't think you heard me look I want the best house in your neighborhood and I wanted stocked with food server issues and I want servants as well I want Butler's and you're gonna be one so you can't I'm not the enemy of God I'm the mayor sir no that's not how this is going down oh [ __ ] you outfits in my car I'll expect you at my house later 8 a.m. leave the keys under the mat yes sir mr. Cole's worth good goals right what a story go Gold's worth it's really coming into his own you're talking to me the second suspect is Mabel Normand the queen of comedy Mabel was the last known person to see Taylor alive and it had been long rumored that Mabel and Taylor were intimate a fact that Mabel denied though it's easy to see why this was believed one of the valuables found in Taylor's pocket was a silver locket containing a photo of Mabel Normand engraved with quote to my dearest end quote Mabel also admitted that she and Taylor had exchanged letters which the press dubbed the quote blessed baby letters end quote named after Taylor's pet name for Mabel which she used when signing her letters to him however the letters were not found at Taylor's apartment some believe these letters could have been among the evidence removed from Taylor's apartment by studio manager Charles Eden I think it's pretty certain that they were in his house and they were removed which doesn't look good the studio head removed these love letters between Mabel and yeah so she would sign her letters blessed baby blessed baby weird thing that was well that was his pet name for her would you miss it baby oh yeah it's gross why does the studio head and care that's the question you should be asking why should he care that Mabel Normand is placed inside his apartment several times with these letters possibly why's why does he care about their relationship being public Mabel said she wouldn't have minded if people read them but thought that they might be quote misunderstood and quote Aydin would eventually turn over some of Taylor's personal papers to the police but it's possible that he still retained papers the studio didn't want them to see well also what the [ __ ] why don't they just get a search warrant and go to this dude's house and be like hey man give us everything he owns the law man oh you're you're the you think that like the studio owns the police like get in the pocket yeah of course they are I mean that's not for sure is he Racine only come for Central LA cops back in the day were in the pocket of the powerful men in the city that's a fictional film yeah I know on February 9 the Blessed baby letters were turned over to the chief deputy da WC Doran after causing such a fuss what did these letters say you might ask of what I could find and also of what was actually handed over one read quote sorry I cannot dine with you tomorrow because I have a previous engagement with a Hindu Prince some other time blessed baby end quote not exactly a criminal manifesto no hey we've all been to dinner with a Hindu Prince yeah yeah right that's just something you do what why she's leaving so this could either be a these letters were in fact very suspicious and not all them were handed over or be she was kind of worried that this may make it seem like they're in a relationship overreacted and by her overreacting and saying these that maybe misunderstood it actually made her look more guilty yes at the behest of District Attorney Thomas Lee wool wine Detective Sergeant King had maples home surged in response to a tip that the murder weapon would be found in her house during that search two guns were uncovered but both were 25 caliber and did not match the murder weapon one theory holds that while Mable didn't murder Taylor herself Mabel's addiction to drugs her association with drug dealers and Taylor's known insistence in helping Mabel get off drugs possibly led to someone from Mabel's world doing the job she's on drugs yeah Mabel she had trouble with alcohol and drugs to be fair most of Hollywood had trouble with drugs back then it was like amphetamines or something as an old-timey drug I'm not sure what the drugs were but I know that most of Hollywood at the time was under the influence of drugs and Taylor was a crusader in terms of that he well he was against that he was trying to clean Hollywood up pretty boring for him to be that way well III mean I may be boring now maybe all of Hollywood ganged up on him I mean that's what this guy's a real buzzkill Captain Edward a Salsbury oror and colleague of Taylor's was quoted saying quote Billy Taylor threatened to make an example of the drug peddlers in Hollywood but they evidently got him first and quote the third suspect is Mary miles mentor a 19 year old silent film star who was vocal about her most likely unreciprocated love for Taylor who had directed her in the past a few love letters written by married to Taylor or found amongst Taylor's possessions one of which read quote dearest I love you I love you I love you ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex ex yours always marry and quote not exactly a poet yeah that's a lot you know incriminating perhaps not embarrassing definitely yeah I wouldn't want that I'd kill someone if if they were like I'm gonna make this letter public other letters were bizarrely written in code though when decoded contain nothing but the written affections of a young girl I know that may seem weird it is weird what kind of code like a cipher and when decoded it was pretty much her telling him she wanted to take long drives with him sit by the fire and snog boy I can't imagine why this guy didn't want anything to do with her another item turned over to police on February 9 was a lace in silk handkerchief embroidered with Mary's initials of mmm rumors began that the pink nightgown found in the apartment also had the initials mmm both of these items could possibly place Mary in his apartment at least at some point so where was the handkerchief it was in his apartment in his apartment and so was apparently this might go if there in fact is a pink nightgown in there with her initials on it I mean that looks like maybe they may have been intimate at the very least it places her inside his apartment yes all the investigators are trying to do which to me again is not that suspect I suppose you know I've had people in my apartment who I didn't murder me I don't find it that suspicious that the handkerchief was in the apartment because I don't know she seems to have been after him maybe I guess she's over there for a cup of tea it's really maybe she'd get a mailed it to him yeah just like here's my scent I'm a weirdo remember smell that before you go to sleep at night anything to think of the drives we might take I love you I love you I love you you decoded the letter right yeah I'll get to that though interestingly Mary claimed that she and Taylor had never been intimate Mary also stated that she did not believe that any of the men she had rebuffed would be jealous enough to kill Taylor after hearing that Taylor had been shocked Mary showed up at his apartment in dramatic fashion as reporters took note I love it her showing up in dramatic fashion though that's just her you know going to the hot party of the oh yeah yeah they say if all like you say all the big stars are there to let go oh and here she comes sleeping in a fresh puddle of blood you think they were taking selfies with the body or something well maybe I don't know it's these it was the hot ticket what I loved it that more with the more incriminating lens I thought it was her putting on a show to show that she was remorseful so that in the case of a murder investigation everyone went taken from would have taken note how heartbroken she was aside from a possible motive of killing Taylor due to being rejected there isn't much to implicate Mary it's more likely her relationship with Taylor boiled down as a way to escape from her overbearing stage mother Charlotte Shelby who by the way is our fourth and final suspect Charlotte she'll be the mother of Mary miles mentor pushed her daughter into acting at a young age Mary was actually originally named Juliet and Shelby even went as far as having Mary steal the identity of a dead cousin named Mary mentor to make Juliet older on paper so that Mary slashed Juliet could continue working from on Juliet went by Mary miles mentor classic stage mom that is [ __ ] insane I mean we've talked about stage moms before I think it's a little strange to take your little child dress them up like a little pony put them out on a stage Oh dance for the people dance dance you're three years old dance for them and make sure you refer to yourself by the name of your dead cousin it's very strange it's one thing to have a stage name right it's another thing to steal the identity of a dead family member yeah so that you could go Bridge recite Hamlet yes it's [ __ ] strange I don't think she was reciting to him you get what I'm saying you Shelby was a reported suspect because she'd been angry with Taylor for her belief that he de flowered her daughter once Charlotte shall be learned of this she started several arguments with Taylor for getting too close to her daughter Shelby's relationship with her daughter was already strained to begin with and it's conceivable that there was jealousy that she was losing her daughter to an older man according to some accounts Shelby had even threatened to kill Taylor on more than one occasion if he got too close to marry again both an author of a book on the case as well as a film director who planned to adapt the case into a film believe that Shelby is the most likely culprit if you'll recall police speculated that Taylor was shot during an embrace perhaps that embrace was a faux olive branch extended by Shelby to Taylor to lure him into a trap she's the only one I could see who would have faked hugged him so she could shoot him ya know because maybe it's like bury the hatchet it's okay that you're dating my daughter I approve you're dead that's pretty good I like this lady as a suspect a lot of people like her as a suspect yeah I love the hug murder that's good it is actually if it's her you know I'm picturing like anjelica huston yeah you know just sort of ember it you know just just embracing and they're just eyes and then yeah while the hand is there putting her hand back taking the gun from the back yeah it doesn't even seem very logical or effective I feel like you're more likely to shoot yourself well you know old Hollywood she was a stage mom she liked theatricality there were rumors that Shelby and District Attorney wool wine were friends and perhaps romantically interested in one another opening the door for some to suspect a cover-up she's just sleeping with the detective the District Attorney District Attorney yeah they're just like a dame huh I guess I'll cover up a murder for her long as you smooching me yeah exactly put your bunch of files into the garbage you know that's a cover up cover up what you can make some more pictures yeah she seems the most likely suspect to me on that we agree the only thing that's weird about Charlotte Shelby being the culprit is that the McClean saw a white male leave the apartment around the time of the gunshot I mean there could have been two people there I guess you could have hired someone to do the whacking for her that's true william desmond taylor's high-profile murder continues to baffle an intertwined web of stardom lust jealousy and rage set against the backdrop of the false facade of glitz and glamour in an immoral hollywood in the end all we can do is take a guess as to who was truly responsible but for now the case remains unsolved this week on BuzzFeed install become er the mysterious disappearance of Louie la Prince this is one of my favorite cases we've ever covered it's got pretty much everything you'd want it's got mystery it's got history and it's got a train a big train guy yeah I'm a big fan of train mysteries they're among my favorites well in that case all right I'm not as excited anymore but let's let's get into it any casual cinema fan would likely tell you that Thomas Edison invented the motion picture camera in the late 1800s in 1888 Thomas Edison wrote quote I am experimenting upon an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear which is the recording and reproduction of things in motion and quote being a film student myself I learned about Edison in film school but what if I told you the true father of moving pictures may actually be a brilliant French man named Louie la Prince you might say well if this were true then why have I never heard of him maybe you were never supposed to because on one fateful afternoon on Monday September 16th 1890 Louella Prince would step onto a train and never be seen again a vanishing that would essentially wipe him from the history books let's start from the beginning Louie la Prince was born in the northeastern city of Metz France on August 28th 1841 Louie was a student of art chemistry and physics in 1866 Louis moved to Leeds England to work as an agent at a brass foundry called Whitley partners in 1869 Louis married a fellow artist Elizabeth Lizzie Whitley in 1881 Louie Lizzie and their children moved to New York it's here that Louis would manage artists painting panoramic landscapes these immersive paintings would inspire Louis to create an even more immersive experience pictures that moved interesting that that would be the impetus for that if it was just him feeling immersed in it exact like how can i how can I bring this up a level you know and that's how you know he was a true artist and that's why I respect this man yeah I was gonna say this guy sounds like a real lover of film Lois began working on moving pictures as early as 1885 inventing a camera with 16 lenses that he hoped could create what we now call movies it's thought that Lois began building and testing an early version of his single lens camera soon after according to Lewis daughter Marie who was a teenager at the time she recalled seeing her father project moving images on a wall in their workshop as early as 1886 this was long before Thomas Edison had even begun conceptualizing motion picture designs about two years later in 1886 Louis applied for a United States patent for his 16 lens camera that included brief phrasing allowing for a single lens version this process would take nearly two years in 1887 Louis moved back to Leeds a move that according to a New York Times article was motivated by a desire to hide out from those who might steal his work such as quote industrial spies end quote as his wife Lizzie would describe them can you imagine if you're your dad just invented something completely unknown to the world and you just have a memory like if you had a hazy memory of your father flying around the living room like a like a jet pack yeah if your father if the living father in the living room yeah I had or if he had like hover shoes or something he was flying in uhm I have this vague memory of my father flying around the live he was he was vacuuming the living room and he was doing it while levitating over the garage well because that point movies weren't a thing so she had this memory of this thing that was wholly unknown to the world yeah I mean it's it's pretty amazing yeah and then also add on to that the lair of but no one knows he invented it in 1888 Louie built what would be his true claim to being the father of moving pictures a working version of the single-lens motion picture camera it was wooden mahogany and weighed 40 pounds it had a hand crank that manually moved light-sensitive paper along between the lens and shutter here's tony booth of the National Science and Media Museum in the UK on Lois single lens camera quote if you look at the mechanism that camera is using it's a very similar mechanism to all the subsequent Moving Image cameras that came after that it is a single roll of film moving from one spool to another through a shutter and taking sequential images which then were designed to be projected to reproduce that movement as a piece of moving image recording live action yes I would say he was the first one to do that end quote oh very funny also I feel like we don't often pay enough attention to the fact that we still call them movies it's a funny word it's a funny word it's like calling your teeth Chuy's or shoes step 'yes we're gonna go to the movies pens righties yeah when you think about it that's a kind of a horrible name like if someone was like what should we call this moving picture and if someone went movies we'll go to the movies Louise single-lens camera would produce viewable films in 1888 three of which have survived one of these films which are seeing now was claimed to have been shot on October 14 1888 showing Louise son in-laws and a friend walking around the date of October 14 1888 is backed up by the fact that one of the women's shown in the film died 10 days later on October 24th 1888 keep in mind Edison's earliest film wouldn't even be shot until nearly three years later in 1891 that's a motion picture it's this yes it is see three years earlier he had that and yet lost the time though Louie had a working camera the problem Louie now faced was that he needed a a way to show these films and be a more durable material than his light-sensitive paper in order to plan for repeated projections of his movies he experimented and finally landed on celluloid in 1889 which he had began using for both shooting and projection this eliminated many of the problems he'd been having with his projector such as glass plates that kept breaking Louie made early unofficial demonstrations of his device on March 30th 1890 Louis projected his moving pictures at the National Opera in Paris Ferdinand mobizen Secretary of the National Opera swore in an affidavit that he had witnessed what the projector could do and had even quote made a complete study of this system and quote meanwhile Edison would not publicly show his motion pictures until three and a half years later in the summer of 1890 Louis wrote to Lizzie who was back in New York with the rest of the family in the letter Louis stated his intent to return to New York in September where he would publicly and officially demonstrate his moving pictures to the world it's just it seems to be going so well for him at this point I know he's got the world is his oyster he's on the verge of becoming a millionaire I don't know if there's anything that's more sad than feeling positive momentum and knowing inevitably it's gonna lend it's gonna lead to off a cliff you're you could see the drop-off coming mm-hmm at this point Louis had been granted patents in France and Britain that covered his single-lens motion picture camera however none of the patents were thorough enough to legally proclaim him as the inventor of a working version if Louie were able to publicly demonstrate his moving pictures in New York as plan Louie surely would have secured his spot in history legally as the inventor of the motion picture camera as bad luck would have it this brings us to his disappearance at the time Louis was visiting his brother Albert la Prince in Dijon France on September 16th 1890 at 2:37 p.m. Louie la Prince boarded a train for Paris as part of a trip back to Leeds where he would retrieve his film devices and then travel back to New York to meet his family and show his invention with him Louis only carried a black suitcase according to Christopher Rollins author of a book on the case the suitcase contains some rather important documents inside the suitcase was Louie's latest work on his patents at the time Louie was still tweaking his patents on his single lens camera to further protect himself from the theft of his inventions as Louie's assistant Frederick Mason would remind reporters decades later not only did Louie disappear but the suitcase did as well all efforts to find Louis failed Louie la Prince carrying paperwork meant to protect his creation boarded a train to share his invention with the world and vanished just going missing on this one day is the difference between you and I never hearing of him and everybody in the world knowing his name that's crazy makes his value a day huh shortly after Louie's disappearance a family associate would enter Louie's workshop and discover Louie's machine safe packed for the journey to America untouched unfortunately in a missing-persons case nobody not even a spouse is allowed to use the missing persons patent for seven years meaning Louie's wife Lizzie would be unable to commercialize Louie's invention until 1897 but as mentioned before Edison displayed his Kinetoscope movies in 1894 and projected his films as early as April 1890 as history would tell Edison would often be credited with inventing the motion picture camera and Louie would be forgotten okay now I have a question Jesus Christ I suddenly I suddenly wonder maybe Edison simply heard about this fanciful inventive man mm-hmm with his wonderful machine yeah that was hands off for seven years and it put the idea in his head he's a clearly capable man Edison wasn't inspired by Louie though he was inspired by imagery or what if that's just what he said obviously if you ask Edison would it inspired you he's not gonna be like oh the guy who made it before me the guy I [ __ ] stole it from obviously he wanted a dumb question he twirls his moustache and backs out of the room yeah well I just thought if if he was aware of it I wouldn't put it past him to be able once he realizes oh what'd you just shoot a bunch of pictures back to back yeah rejected a reverse engineer and I reverse engineer he was smart enough of a guy to do that and he had the he had the resources he had probably the know-how so I could see him just essentially stealing the idea and like you said rehearsal dinner with that let's get into the theories the first theory is that Louie was abducted or killed by men working for none other than Thomas Edison this theory was held by Louie's wife Lizzie who believed Edison's motive was to stop Louie's invention from reaching the public the timelines certainly do match up in 1888 Edison began to seriously think about moving pictures well by that time Louis had already successfully shot films with his single lens camera behind the scenes Thomas Edison was said to be an egotistical genius though a good deal of his success was built on taking credit for others ideas such as the ideas of people that he employed Edison had many rivals and he even ruined some of them but he was pretty adept at doing so through legal battles he frequently claimed others were encroaching on his path and often wand these lawsuits and use the leverage to his financial benefit so hmm but cowardly a lot of the litigious approach he meet a lot of his money off of doing this actually I would say a majority of his money he made off just suing people scoundrel piggybacking off that in 1898 Edison sued american mutoscope and Biograph company on the grounds of patent infringement on his Kinetoscope motion picture camera patent this lawsuit would ironically bring Louella prints into the spotlight as mutoscope would call Louise son Adolphe Fela prints as one of its witnesses a dolphin actually took a year off from Columbia to travel and gather evidence to make the case that his father invented the motion picture camera not Edison as Edison was claiming according to Rollins Lizzie and other family members still held onto the possibility that Louie was being held captive having been kidnapped in 1890 and that once it was known in a court of law that he was the true inventor of the motion picture camera his captors would let him go wait wait wait who captured him well they think that Louie the prince was kidnapped by maybe Edison or some other inventor and the only reason why they were holding him captive was because no one knew he existed so what if his name was brought into the spotlight in this legal battle maybe the captors would let him go it's a it's a somewhat I think it's a somewhat logical thought but a very sad thought it's a very sad thought because it sounds like they're just grasping at straws yeah it's it's a kind of a bummer but it's just a big straw desperately hoping that their father is still alive yeah during the trial a dollfie proved the films had been made prior to October 24th 1888 by producing his grandmother's death certificate dated on that day as she appears in one of the films yet this wasn't totally incontrovertible proof that the single lens camera built by Louie was the same one that took the films in 1888 when examining Louie's patents the lawyers in the case focused solely on Louie's US patent and sadly for Louie this particular padded unlike his ones in Britain and France was meant mainly for his previous 16 lens camera and did not include specifications for the single lens camera the camera being focused on in the trial by bad luck the phrase quote one or more lenses end quote which would have covered both of Louie's inventions was removed by the US Patent Office on the grounds that they already had granted a patent for a single lens camera in the past though that particular patent was for a still camera not a motion picture camera like Louie's this omission would prove to be disastrous in trial I can't blame them for that though it's something they've never heard of they're probably like [ __ ] well you want to patent a camera or what he could try patent boots next get out of here I guess but I mean if you just looked at the rest of the patent it was clear that it was for a motion picture camera maybe I'm not saying the US Patent Office was in on this I'm just saying it's bad luck I also feel like maybe he should have discussed it with them he did for two years for two years he said put that phrase back in heat he went he went back and forth with them for two years and they finally settled on it and they were he was like I guess at that point he was warned I was like fine take out the phrase again that's his fault I mean you gotta get a patent dug his own grave the trial would initially go for Edison and over the years the trial would go back and forth starting the famed patent ORS as such a Dolphy's testimony would move out of focus and his father Louie la Prince would once again be forgotten perhaps tangentially related in 1901 three years after a doll Fae testified Adolphe II was found dead in the woods bloody and broken he had apparently been shot dead he had been out shooting and a gun was found by his side it was assumed he died of a hunting accident some believed it was suicide while some and the family believed he'd been murdered everything about that you know this is at a time in in history when when murders were just just that just oh well he just happened to testify in trial and one of the Omegas you had in cases I'm saying it's very likely he was murdered but it doesn't matter because it's what the nineteen nineteen hundred or so nineteen who gives a [ __ ] detector goes out there with the magnifying glass cause he was shot he was shot likely by someone else however in regards to Edison playing any part in foul play regarding Louis or even a Dolph a author's John shockula's and jock fend point out that there is no evidence to support this theory for what it's worth Lori Schneider Louie's great-great granddaughter has also voiced her doubts that Edison a busy and successful man would care enough to send a henchman to kill a man the second theory is that Albert la Prince Louie's brother was responsible for Louie's disappearance Louie's brother Albert an architect was notably the only person who claimed to have seen Louie board the train according to Rollins Albert even spoke to Louie through his train compartment window however the 1890 investigation never turned up a single train passenger who could say they saw Louis on board this is odd considering the fact that Louie was a gargantuan man standing at six foot four probably not a man that could get lost in a crowd I don't know how many six four fellows they were walking around at that time but I will say that when I get on a train I'm not focused on other passengers no you're reading the funnies or uh you know especially in old time trains when you're in compartments you're looking the Harry Potter train you're thinking about the candy cart coming by you're not thinking about oh I wonder if someone here's gonna get murdered maybe it may have to tell details of it later also I think there's some value to the fact that everybody's clothes look the same back like everyone was probably wearing just a black suit or something there's no one walking around in a like a Hornet starter jacket yeah I just think I thought this was a good opportunity for you as a fellow Lord of the Rings tree to provide something called ents whatever perhaps the main reason Summers is of Albert involves the will of Louis Albert's mother who passed away in 1887 Albert was the executor of their mother's will and according to author Christopher Rollins Louis had traveled to Dijon France not just to visit Albert but to receive his share of the inheritance worth over one hundred and forty thousand dollars by today's standards this gets even more interesting when you consider the investigators in 1890 did not seem to know about the inheritance which would give Albert a motive and furthermore they did not seem to question Albert's testimony regarding seeing Louis board the train Lori Schneider Louie's great-great granddaughter once again doubts this theory basing her beliefs on Liz Leela princes memoirs which depict a close loving family authors Ellis and fend also note that there is no evidence to support this theory and emphasize that Albert's family strongly denies it all right I just don't buy it and I'll tell you why okay there's nothing that I looked into that proves Albert Lee Prince was any fine it was in any dire financial stress I was gonna say is there a need for money there there isn't so why would he all of a sudden decide oh I want some extra bucks let's let me kill my brother my brother and ruin his family by taking stripping him of his greatest invention he killed them during life and after death then at that point yeah you know they say man dies twice you know story-wise I could see why some people believe this sure but when you when you really just think about it now it's a little too soap opera I'm not yeah I'm not buying it I'm not buying it okay great I'm not you don't have to I'm good it's not purchased it's on the Shelf it's gonna stay there I'm not selling it I didn't say you were selling it someone is and I'm not buying it I mean this is a this metaphor is where are we in this I don't know the final theory is perhaps the bleakness that Louie the Prince simply didn't want to be found this is the theory of Louie's great nephew who is the grandson of Obert that there he goes that louis was greatly in debt to the tune of eighty four thousand dollars by today's standards during the mid-1870s louie gave a bad loan to Lizzie's family business that didn't pan out toward the end the dual income of louie and Lizzie had to not only provide for the family but also finance Louie's film experiments and according to author Christopher Rollins Louie hadn't worked steadily for an income for about three years leading up to his disappearance in April 1890 Louie wrote to Lizzie of our problems with the projector adding quote I hope to send the word it is in my next and also some cash which unfortunately I have not in hand and it makes me feel very uneasy as I know you do not make much just now and quote it's been suggested that in the end Louie relied on his mother's inheritance in order to continue working on his projector but learned during his trip to France that he didn't have immediate access to the money of Louie's breakout invention some like author Christopher Rollins believed that Louis a noted perfectionist felt his projector was not up to the standards he had envisioned his letters offer evidence that Louis was unhappy with the quality of the projectors picture it was bright and the picture was jumpy according to Rollins it's possible that Louie just got off the train between dijon and paris rather than face his family in defeat for people who believe this people that believe maybe he wasn't pleased with his projector mm-hmm I think they're lacking perspective you got to remember people didn't even know what the phrase moving picture meant so regardless of whether or not the picture was jumpy he shows up to this event he shows a picture that starts moving people are gonna think this guy's a goddamn wizard they're gonna they're gonna they're not gonna be like oh bro the quality's bad it's not 1080p I don't [ __ ] get it I've exhausted back in this time and I saw a moving picture I probably think his camera was bewitched I'd kiss him on the lips I'd say sir you've done it I'm just saying it's stupid for people to think that he was maybe feeling a little uneasy about his projectors so he decided I'm just gonna jump off this train now Frederick Mason Louie's assistant believed that Louie would only stand to gain from his inventions which would thus make it nonsensical for him to intentionally disappear on the cusp of his debut David Wilkinson a producer on a documentary on Louie said quote I am absolutely convinced that he would have raised money from a very distinguished audience so then he could start manufacturing on quite a big scale he would have done what Edison and the Lumiere's did but before them he would have been known and quote after hearing Louis story I can't help but agree had Louis successfully shown his work in New York Louella prints would have been a name that I read in textbooks as a film student but unfortunately that never happened the reason behind that will tragically elude us for the foreseeable future I think it was Edison's goons I think it was either Edison's goons or some version of goons whether they're Edison's or some other creator maybe I don't mean Lumiere brothers seem less likely but there were other creators who were onto the emotion the only the heir brothers were just whimsical they didn't they weren't like let's kill this man I think it's because their name sounds one so yeah they remind me of the candlestick from Beauty and the Beast Oh Lumiere yes yeah good catch on the pen and on the reference anyways yeah I think it was some version of goons my money's on Edison they could have been any goons I think this man was stripped from glory right at the cusp of it but maybe now people will know his name for what it's worth if someone were to ask me who's the true father of moving pictures I'd say Lois lip prints but as for his disappearance I can only offer theories as the case of Louella prints will remain unsolved [Music] this we combust even solved we cover the case of the Jameson family a case that's as odd as it is creepy there's a lot of weird circumstances that surround this one it's the woods there's some images in here that keep you wondering the woods are intriguing last time we were in the woods was the Cadi cabin yeah I didn't like that I didn't care for it well let's get into it on October 8th 2009 the Jameson family comprised of Bobby Dale Jameson age 44 Cheryl Ann Leanne Jameson age 40 and their six-year-old daughter Madison stormy start Jameson were seen for the last time before vanishing the family who lived in Eufaula Oklahoma at the time of their disappearance was last seen by a man who lived in the mountains in southeastern Oklahoma however the man told authorities that he only saw the family and nobody else in the area during that time officially the Jameson's were near this area to view a 40 acre plot of land that they were looking to purchase bizarrely they plan to live on that land in a storage container that they already owned on their current property in Eufaula I I know a lot of people who do that tiny houses you seen the tiny houses movement I don't think they were the tiny house type well a storage container is tiny they're going to live in it but you're taking their house like decked out like with beautiful decor a cool use of the space yeah I think this was like let's throw some sleeping pegs in there kind of situation sit I'm just saying if it's nice enough to say hey we're bringing this container all the way over from our old plot of land clearly there was something about that container that was maybe luxurious or maybe customized er okay sure that's fair that's fair I'll take it thanks on October 16th eight days after the Jameson's were last seen alive the first major discovery in the case occurred hunters interrupt both location in the woods about a quarter-mile away from the Jameson's last-known location discovered that Jameson's truck abandoned and still locked inside the truck investigators found Bobby's wallet Cheryl Lin's purse jackets a GPS Bobby's cell phone 32,000 dollars cash in a bank bank stashed below the driver's seat and finally the Jameson's pet dog Maisy who was malnourished and incredibly still alive Bobby's cell phone found in the truck contained a photo of his daughter Madison which was believed to have been taken the day before they disappeared one key observation was that the truck showed no evidence of any kind of struggle former Latimer County Sheriff Israel Beecham would eventually stayed quote I think they were forced to stop and got out of the truck to meet with someone they recognized and I think they either left willingly or by force and quote signs the point to them maybe leaving on their own accord would be they seem possibly like off-the-grid types they're living in a storage container so if you were leaving willingly why wouldn't you take your dog with you that's what I'm saying is against the willingly which would make me think it was against their will is if someone had them at gunpoint maybe they'd leave the dog because you bring that dog with you I can it's very handy in a survival situation depending on what kind of dog it is also at gunpoint you're not really in the position to make demands you can't be like could I bring my dog though what about Maisie the GPS unit in the truck indicated that the family had been farther up a nearby hill prior to the location where their truck and belongings were found investigators followed the GPS coordinates and it's there that they found footprints one day later on October 17th over 300 people including authorities and volunteers formed a large-scale air and ground search party unfortunately the leads went cold and the search for the jameson's was called off which brings us to the cases second major and unfortunate discovery on November 16th 2013 [Music] Hunter's were out scouting for deer hunting locations in the deep woods when they stumbled upon the partial skeletal remains of three bodies of two adults and one child the remains were discovered less than three miles away from where the Jameson's had disappeared over four years earlier the search by officials that followed would uncover shoes bits of clothing adult teeth an adult arm and leg bones and bone fragments the bones would eventually be confirmed as the missing Jameson family I mean they don't know how long they were out there I guess not because you would think they would have found it in the initial search because it was only you know was less than three miles away from the truck you know though I've said this before the wilderness is big the wilderness is big wilderness this big you miss things mm I guess but not when you have a starting point a radius of five miles anything within that you think maybe they were hiding when when the search was going on Oh people climbed a tree or something why would they do that the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner dr. Joshua Lander reported that a cause and manner of death were unknown possibly due to the fact that the skeletal remains weren't complete Lanter stated that there was no evidence of trauma oh it couldn't be fully ruled out due to the incomplete remains Lanter also could not rule out disease there was also evidence of posthumous damage by animals lanters final report on the case states the deaths occurred under suspicious circumstances this is a morbid thought but I've always thought that it would be nice to be given back Oh to the earth like a recycling kind of thought yeah just have voltar's pick me apart or something that's well that'd have to right dot I don't want to I don't want to be like oh I'm feeling old let me go lay out in the Sun for what I was when you said that I was picturing dying and then my body slowly and beautifully decomposing into the ground I want no I want to injure you tearing it my meat sort of looked up a war what do you want a vulture picking at your eyeballs it's kind of neat their items worth mentioning from the investigation are a missing briefcase and a missing 22 caliber handgun registered to cherylin Jamison both of which were never found let's provide some background on the two Jamison parents Bobby and cherylin both Bobby and cherylin were not working at the time of their disappearance due to disabilities and were receiving disability checks Bobby was on disability due to being in a car accident the one thing worth noting is that Sherrill ins mother Connie Coco tan stated that she did not know of any settlement from the car accident that might explain the $32,000 in cash found in the Jameson's truck neither Coca tan nor anybody else know where this money came from former sheriff is real Beecham while on the investigation stated that their quote doesn't appear to be any signs that the Jameson's were in trouble or looking to start a new life end quote one odd wrinkle to the case was security footage taken outside the Jameson home the footage according to Daily Mail was from the day that they left and showed the couple making several silent trips between the car and their home as they methodically packed to leave they were moving in a manner that Beecham described as quote trance-like on the video sometimes they would just stop and stare if I'm packing all my things and I'm getting ready to leave my life behind go off the grid that's a big commitment yeah yeah see so if I'm loading up my car and you know like oh boy this is it I'm probably gonna be a little trance-like and in the middle of it I might stop have a couple pregnant pauses look at the sunset think what am i doing what am i doing man Beechum also said quote normally you can go through an investigation and one by one start to eliminate certain scenarios we haven't been able to do that in this case with this family everything seems possible end quote and with that let's get into the theories the first theory is that the family simply got lost in the woods and died from hypothermia and exposure in the days following their disappearance the area where the jameson's were last seen experienced heavy rains out be it not rain strong enough to cause their deaths a glance at the Farmers Almanac for weather reports in the area at that time showed temperatures of nearly 40 degrees at the coldest as a reminder the bodies were found only two point seven miles from their truck if you're two miles away from your car and you go oh it was that way I know that if you pick even the slightest wrong direction suddenly you're way off the mark why would they leave their cell phone all their possessions things that you could use to then get back to your car these do seem like people that maybe wilderness savvy well doesn't sell they're looking in that area they're looking at a plot of land it may be that a storage container you but I didn't have anything on right did they have compasses did they have maps no and that's to me that to me means they didn't intend to go on a trip if the little daughter got spooked by something she started running they ran after her because obviously holy [ __ ] our daughter how fast could a daughter run she's gonna run two point seven miles before they catch her no she was trying to get away from him how fast is a six-year-old what is she the [ __ ] flash the second theory is that the Jameson's demise was a murder-suicide scenario the investigation would turn up a suspicious letter that according to one report was 11 pages long and was found in the jameson's abandoned truck the letter is what was called a hate letter written from cherylin to Bobby in which she accused him of being a hermit another letter that was said to mention death was also found in the family home according to former sheriff Beecham quote they were certainly a family obsessed with death end quote however geralyn's mother has repeatedly stated that Bobby and cherylin were good parents quote like I've said from the very beginning I think somebody killed them there's just no way that Bobby and cherylin would ever let anything happen to Madison unless something had been done to them you got you have some marital disputes that seems minor 11 pages is a lot of pages but yeah but it's like the worst thing you're saying it is you're a hermit yeah also if you're gonna murder somebody in the woods why bring your daughter with you yes though if you're murdering someone you're probably not in the right frame of mind to begin with I suppose but the mom doesn't think so also it's noteworthy that the mom limped with them for a certain amount of time she did so she would have reference of how they behaved yeah which brings us to our third theory that the jameson's were murdered by Bobby Jamison 67 year old father Bob Dean Jamison earlier in 2009 approximately six months before the family disappeared Bobby had filed a protective order against his father allegedly Bob had threatened to kill Bobby and his family on two separate occasions in November 2008 in April 2009 in the petition Bobby did not detail how his father had made the threats he did write that Bob had quote hit me with his vehicle end quote on November 1st 2008 Bobby also wrote that bob was a quote very dangerous man who thinks he is above the law end quote and that he'd been involved with quote prostitutes gangs and meth end quote doesn't look good I mean that's how do I mean that definitely gives motive and it does seem like seems like the kind of guy who might do that it also did he threaten the murder yeah it does seem like this wasn't a case like I couldn't see this coming it was many warnings were given furthermore Bobby stated in his petition quote my entire family is severely scared for their lives end quote and quote I am in fear at all times end quote testimonies were given in the case and a judge dismissed the protective order on May 18 2009 Bobby Jameson was also in the process of suing his father at the time of the Jameson family's disappearance the gist of the suit was that Bobby would sometimes work for free at his father's gas station where half the sales had been promised to Bobby but were never paid though Bobby and cherylin had been described as quote scammers end quote by former Sheriff Beechum as they had also previously sued three others in 2005 after a car accident moreover Jack Jamison Bob Dean's brother and Bobby's uncle claimed that while Bob Dean was quote disturbed at the time end quote jack was quote pretty sure he was not capable of being involved in that end quote you wish these stories had a black and white to him Yeah right every time you think this is clear-cut well you got this poor family turns and you know they turn up in the woods you feel for him and now suddenly they're casting doubt upon their characters because they're what they're scammers apparently according to the sheriff that's his opinion and now we can't even trust the sheriff because you're casting doubt on him well I don't know I mean he seems like a legitimate investigator I don't he doesn't have any motive in this to you know have a cover-up I hate these stories right Bob Dean died in December 2009 Jack Jameson like Cheryl ins mother still suspects that foul play played a part in the Jameson family's death this brings us to our press our fourth theory that the Jameson's were murdered by a cult Sheryl Ann's mother Connie coq10 believes that Jameson's were killed by a religious cult in southeastern Oklahoma according to Coca Tannen the cult had a quote hitless end quote that cherylin was on after investigation discovery aired a special on the Jameson family on the show disappeared Sheryl ins close friend nakisha nulled said she received a phone call from an anonymous woman this woman reportedly told ssin old that she'd once been in a white supremacy group that kept a book containing a list of people who'd been problems for them sometimes this woman claimed if she could remember one of the names she had seen she'd go home and look it up on the Internet this had led her to multiple missing-persons cases including cherylin and Bobby Jameson ssin old said she wasn't sure what to make of the caller cults I don't know Colts Colts are out there I wouldn't initially just refute it outright no it just sounds outrageous given like everything else in this seems very much you know par for the course when it comes to cold cases right and then all of a sudden here's this cult a 1993 article in The Oklahoman stated that if Buchholz had sprung up around eastern Oklahoma though a US Marshal named James Webb had added quote there hasn't been any activity in a couple of years and quote it's also been suggested that the Jameson's were into witchcraft a quote which Bible end quote was reportedly found in the Jamison home [Music] though nakisha nolde claims that cherylin jameson bought the witch Bible as a joke that being said their pastor and Eufaula Gary Brandon claims Bobby confessed that he was reading a quote Satanic Bible end quote additionally mysterious graffiti was found on the large storage container kept on the jameson's property one-line read quote three cats killed to date by people in this area witches don't like their black cat killed end quote there was a witch Bible found in their house which was written off as a joke sure but then the honey funny joke but the husband look at this oh it's Bible but then the husband himself has admitted he was reading a Satanic Bible so obviously it was not a joke maybe she brought the witch bible home and was like haha witch bobble with which bible Wacka Wacka and then he was like a pretty good joke honey you read that I want to wait at night what are you sleeping he was like what are you reading haha funny book share lens mother also reported some odd behavior from her daughter quote she became very illogical one day she drove me to Oklahoma City and drop me off on the street she told me get out of my car so I did end quote get out of my car yeah I was like the t1000 right there get out you don't do that to your mother no I mean and that could be other factors but could it also be because she was maybe in a daze you know your head gets kind of lost in the fog when you're involved with some shady business I suppose also I my mom was the kind of mom who if I said that to her first she'd smack me and secondly I'd have to get out so yeah my mom once stopped the car and told me and my brother to get out oh no we're just kidding we're not fighting what did you do to prompt that response I think we were just like just [ __ ] hitting each other in the backseat or something yeah you know classic brother stuff and of course the main evidence of strange behavior was the aforementioned security tape where the two Jameson parents appeared to be in a quote trance-like State end quote the Jameson's also reportedly claimed to have two to four ghosts in their home [Music] father Gary Brandon even told investigators that Bobby Jamison had once called him asking about quote special bullets and quotes that could be used to shoot spirits you look that up no but I thought I don't know if that belongs in the cult theory maybe they're in a religious cult where they believe that sort of thing doesn't matter a devil as you included does contribute to odd behavior and for the record I don't believe in special bullets which brings us to our fifth and final theory that drugs were involved all of the aforementioned strange behavior from the Jamison parents could be explained by the influence of drugs there were actually rumors that the Jamison parents were involved with drugs and some believe that the family was involved in a drug deal gone awry as reported by The Oklahoman in May 2010 geralyn's mother who didn't believe drugs were involved said the couple had been in financial straits pure speculation here but maybe the $32,000 in cash had something to do with the possible deal as it makes no sense how the Jameson's had that money let alone in the car they disappeared from people didn't know where the money came from if they were making money off of some kind of it what drug situation it would be they're not keeping right they're not taking it to the bank and say this is from the meth that I just said they're not reporting that to the IRS right police initially suspected drugs after viewing the stream security footage but former sheriff Beecham said there was no evidence backing up the theory that the Jameson's used or dealt drugs yet he also stated he could not rule out the possibility that drugs could have been somehow involved in the disappearance to be fair many have pointed out that the Jameson's likely would not have taken six-year-old Madison with if some kind of drug-related event was taking place that's fair that's fair I mean why would you take your daughter to a drug deal don't do drugs don't do drug deals don't take your children to any of the drugs or the drug deals every time in this case I think I've come to some kind of logical conclusion I'm sadly mistaken would it be easy though for them to cover up the evidence of their involvement with drugs what if they were going to perhaps buy some drugs in that case someone shows up who's allegedly going to give them drugs they've got the money that they're gonna give to that person though I don't know why that person didn't take the money oh and there's our daughter in the backseat maybe the person was like I'm not doing this not with her around so instead I'm gonna kill all three of you and leave the money you just chased him but I can't wrap my head around the cash being left there and then the daughter being there that doesn't make any sense maybe the person didn't know the cash was there but they're going to a drug deal of course they would know the cash is there maybe they tried giving them the briefcase and they didn't realize they didn't put the cash in it they hand it over the guy opens it up he's like where's the cash and they go Yipes and they run into the woods and then he goes no need to check the car so like I said there's a scary dog in there former sheriff Beecham has said that there were no suspects in the case while investigating the disappearance Beechum was quoted as saying quote a lot of investigators would love to have as many leads as we do the problem is that they point in so many different directions end quote perhaps one day those leads will point in one clear direction but for now the case remains unsolved [Music] [Music]

Channel: BuzzFeed Unsolved Network

Views: 8,717,283

Rating: 4.7764716 out of 5

Keywords: Mystery, PLD8iUdp33PqRKxSEfT7ttvcmODZ3fSh-a, SffZ, boogara or shaniac, boogaras, buzzfeed, buzzfeed ryan, buzzfeed unsolved, buzzfeed unsolved network, buzzfeed unsolved true crime, cold case, conspiracy, creepy, investigate, investigation, investigative, mini doc, mystery, ryan begara, ryan bergara, shane madej, shaniacs, theories, true crime, unsolved, unsolved mysteries, unsolved mystery, unsolved network

Id: irx4Z1ev_pk

Length: 211min 53sec (12713 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 20 2019