[music playing]
NARRATOR: It was one of
the most brazen crimes
of the 20th century.
Adolph Coors, chairman of
the Coors Brewing Company,
was kidnapped and
held for ransom,
prompting one of
the largest manhunts
in United States history.
[theme music]
The name Coors is one of the
most recognized in America.
For over 100 years,
the Coors family
has been making beer in their
Golden, Colorado brewery.
They've been very successful
and grown very wealthy.
KATHERINE RAMSLAND:
The Coors Brewery
is the fifth-largest
brewery in the world.
They have 10 breweries in
three different countries
and employ over 11,000 people,
and they actually make over
a billion gallons
of beer annually.
NARRATOR: In 1960, the
founder's grandson,
Adolph Herman Joseph Coors
III was the company chairman.
On the morning of February
9, 1960, as was his custom,
Adolph Coors got into
his station wagon
and began his
journey from his home
to the brewery 12 miles
away in Golden, Colorado.
But he never arrived.
-He had left home at 8:00.
His wife had said
that he had left
in a good mood, had
appointments at the brewery.
RADIO ANNOUNCER: Can't
believe what you're
seeing on Super K640
AM, Golden, Colorado.
NARRATOR: A milkman found
Coors' abandoned car
on the one-lane
Turkey Creek Bridge
with the engine running
and the radio on.
RON HARDESTY: Well, then they
knew that he was missing.
He was somewhere.
They didn't know where.
NARRATOR: When
investigators arrived,
they found a large
bloodstain in the dirt.
In the creek below,
they found a lens
from Adolph Coors' glasses
and two hats, Adolph Coors'
baseball cap and a brown fedora.
RON HARDESTY: Somebody heard
some noises down there,
which they associated with
maybe a gunshot, because it was
an area where people
hunted quite a bit.
NARRATOR: The
Sheriff's Department
issued an all-points
bulletin for Coors,
but no one reported seeing him.
The next morning,
his wife received
this typed letter in the mail.
MAN (VOICEOVER): Mrs.
Coors, your husband
has been kidnapped.
His car is by Turkey Creek.
Call the police or FBI, he dies.
Cooperate, he lives.
NARRATOR: The
kidnappers demanded
$500,000 for
Adolph's safe return.
MAN (VOICEOVER): We have
no desire to commit murder.
All we want is that money.
NARRATOR: The kidnappers
told me Mrs. Coors
they'd tell her later
where to take the money.
MAN (VOICEOVER):
Deliver immediately
after receiving call.
Any delay will be regarded as
a stall to set up a stakeout.
If you follow the
instructions, he
will be released
unharmed within 48 hours
after the money is received.
NARRATOR: The
letter was unsigned.
The family got
the money together
and waited by the
telephone for instructions
on where to deliver it.
But the kidnappers never called.
After the kidnapping and murder
of Charles Lindbergh's baby,
the United States
government made
kidnapping a federal offense.
So the FBI quickly took
over the investigation
into Adolph Coors' abduction.
KATHERINE RAMSLAND:
It's the second time
one of their members has
had a kidnapping attempt.
27 years earlier, the FBI
had notified the Coors family
of an attempt to kidnap Adolph
Coors, Jr. The attempt was
interrupted so it did not occur.
But the family was
very aware that they
were targets for this.
NARRATOR: The Coors
family told investigators
they were willing to
do anything to get
the 44-year-old father
of four back safely.
Money was not an issue.
The family was worth millions.
JUDGE WILLIAM H.
ERICKSON: His father
said, they have
something I want.
It's my son, and I'm
willing to pay them
whatever is necessary
to get him back.
NARRATOR: The kidnappers
never contacted
the Coors family again.
ROBERT J. NELSON: Well, it
was hoped that he was alive.
But I don't think
anybody questioned
there was a real problem
with that blood and his hat
and his glasses in the water.
NARRATOR: The FBI's document
examiners carefully studied
the typed ransom note for clues.
First, they dusted the
letter for fingerprints
and didn't find any.
But they noticed right away
that the typist was proficient.
PETER TYTELL: The
typist, here, leaves
two spaces after a period.
That's what you were taught
to do in typing class.
There don't appear
to be any typos,
no misstriking of the keys here.
Overall, a very
good job of typing.
NARRATOR: And the
typeface was distinctive.
PETER TYTELL: The type
style we're looking at here
was made by a Swiss
firm named Sea Tag.
NARRATOR: This
proprietary typeface
was used by two typewriter
manufacturers, Hermes
in Switzerland and the Royal
McBee Company in Holland.
The numerals in the ransom
letter told the story.
PETER TYTELL: You
could differentiate
between the Hermes and the
Royalite by the numerals.
They're round numerals.
So the bottom of the 5 or the
bottom of the 3 come back up.
They're even with the
baseline of the other letters,
like the M or N.
NARRATOR: So the
document examiners
concluded that
the kidnapper used
a Royalite Portable typewriter.
Finding it wouldn't be easy.
PETER TYTELL: That factory
was turning out the Royalite
Portable, which was a specific
model sold by Royal as part
of their line of portables in
the late '50s and early '60s,
$49.95 list.
Sold widely in department
stores and various other outlets
throughout the US.
NARRATOR: And the FBI
noticed one more thing.
The kidnapper's typewriter
had a tiny defect.
The letter "S" was lower
than all the others.
PETER TYTELL: So that
letter "S" being low
would be one characteristic
pointing towards the work
product of a particular machine.
NARRATOR: While the typewriter
analysis was going on,
the FBI got a number
of possible leads.
The most promising
was from a man
who saw an automobile parked
near the kidnapping site.
KATHERINE RAMSLAND: There
was a man near the bridge who
was guarding his mines,
and he told the police
that he had seen a
car there that was
an early 1950s model
of a Mercury sedan.
And he even remembered part
of the license plate number,
because he was afraid
it was somebody who's
coming out to disturb his mines.
NARRATOR: The man said he
remembered the sequence,
A-T-6-2 in the license.
Within the greater Denver
area, police found four Mercury
sedans with A-T-6-2
in the license number.
Naturally, the FBI
checked all of them.
But one in particular
caught their attention.
It was registered to a man
named Walter Osborne, who
had bought the car
just one month earlier.
When the FBI went to Osborne's
apartment in downtown Denver,
it was empty.
He had moved out the
day after the kidnapping
and left no forwarding address.
ROBERT J. NELSON: His demeanor
was a very quiet, as I recall,
very unsocial.
He never got close
to anybody, as
far as we knew or we found out.
-The lady that cleaned
the room had indicated
that she had seen
some guns in the room.
NARRATOR: And in the dumpster
behind the apartment,
investigators found
empty boxes for a pair
of handcuffs and leg restraints.
Agents dusted the
room for fingerprints
and made a startling discovery.
The prints in the room
matched those of a convicted
killer, 31-year-old
Joseph Corbett.
KATHERINE RAMSLAND: In 1951,
he had shot another man
and killed him.
He claimed it was
self-defense, but the man
had been shot in the
back of the head,
which is not self-defense.
So he was convicted.
But he was a model prisoner,
so he was eventually
moved from maximum security
to minimum security.
From there, he escaped.
NARRATOR: The landlord
identified Corbett's mugshot
as the man who
rented the apartment.
Using his alias, Corbett
worked as a paint mixer
for the Benjamin Moore Company,
and according to a coworker,
had made several
incriminating comments.
-I remember one comment he made.
He said, kind of
watch the newspapers.
Someday there's going to be
a big thing bust loose here,
and then you won't
see me anymore.
NARRATOR: According to the
Benjamin Moore Company,
Corbett simply stopped coming
to work after the kidnapping,
and they never heard
from him again.
And a resident at
Corbett's rooming house
told the FBI one more thing.
He often heard Corbett
typing late into the night.
Joseph Corbett,
an escaped killer,
was the prime suspect
in the kidnapping
of Adolph Coors the III.
Investigators knew
the ransom letter
was typed using a European-brand
Royalite Portable typewriter.
The FBI identified
only two stores
in Denver that sold
this make and model.
One was the May D&F
Department Store,
and a clerk there
recognized Joseph Corbett.
RON HARDESTY: He
was very positive,
that's the man I sold
the typewriter to.
NARRATOR: Apparently,
Corbett was
one of the few
customers who paid cash.
He bought the typewriter four
months prior to the kidnapping.
Despite these
leads, police still
didn't know where Corbett was
or where Adolph Coors was,
for that matter.
The FBI put out an
all-points bulletin
for Joseph Corbett's
1951 Mercury sedan.
Eight days after the
kidnapping, 1,700 miles away,
New Jersey Police
found the automobile.
JUDGE WILLIAM H. ERICKSON: A
fire chief in Atlantic City,
New Jersey, who
reported that they'd
found a '51 Mercury
in their dump burning.
It had been doused
with gasoline,
and so the interior was
pretty well destroyed.
NARRATOR: There were no
license plates on it,
but the serial number
on its engine block
showed the car belonged
to Walter Osborne,
the alias used by
Joseph Corbett.
On the undercarriage of
the car, investigators
found four layers of soil.
The most recent soil
sample on the outside
contained sand, most likely
from the New Jersey coast.
The second layer was
unremarkable, most likely
from the drive
across the country.
The oldest soil
sample was unusual,
with many different
types of shale,
consistent with the soil
at the kidnapping site.
-That sample matched one
of the control samples,
and that control
sample was collected
near Turkey Creek
near the Coors' ranch.
NARRATOR: So
investigators believed
that soil sample on top of
the shale was from the area
where Corbett took Adolph
Coors after the abduction.
It, too, was distinctive,
because it had large amounts
of granite flecked
with pink feldspar.
For comparison, FBI agents
took hundreds of soil samples
from Denver and
surrounding areas,
hoping to find out
where this came from.
ROBERT J. NELSON: We sent in
612 samples of dirt or soil,
and they said, don't
send us any more soil.
It was all over that lab.
NARRATOR: The soil
sample from the car
was similar to the Pike's
Peak granite, which
gets its pink color from
the potassium feldspar.
Pike's Peak is on the Front
Range of the Rocky Mountains,
about 10 miles west
of Colorado Springs.
But searching the Pike's Peak
area was a huge undertaking.
ROBERT J. NELSON:
We searched mines.
We searched houses.
We searched empty
buildings, stalls,
thinking we might
find something.
NARRATOR: Eight months
after the kidnapping,
in an area frequented
by hunters,
searchers found a human
skull, bones, and the clothing
that Adolph Coors was wearing
on the day he disappeared.
JUDGE WILLIAM H. ERICKSON: They
found a right shoulder blade
that had two holes
in it that were made,
in the opinion of a pathologist,
by a high-speed projectile.
NARRATOR: The holes
in the shoulder blade
corresponded to two
holes in Coors' jacket.
-The projectile went
through his lungs
and would have created
a fatal injury.
-That was similar
in MO to the fact
that Corbett had shot his first
victim in the back of the head.
So that seemed to be
his style, his approach.
NARRATOR: Investigators also
found Coors' pocket knife
engraved with the
initials A. C. III.
ARDELL ARFSTEN: The bones
were in pretty good condition.
The skull was in
fairly good condition,
enough that they could
identify to the dental records
that it was Mr. Coors.
NARRATOR: Investigators
knew that Joseph
Corbett was the killer.
All they had to do
now was find him.
Joseph Corbett was
the prime suspect
in Adolph Coors'
kidnapping and murder.
-Each of the special agents--
NARRATOR: FBI director
J. Edgar Hoover
called Corbett the "most
wanted man in America."
Based on the forensic
evidence, the FBI
believed that Corbett planned
this crime for months.
-We know that Corbett
purchased his typewriter
several months ahead of time.
He's watching Ad
Coors drive to work,
so he now knows the route.
He's looking on this route
to know, where is the best
way to try to apprehend him,
where there won't be witnesses?
Where even Coors won't
have any suspicions
that anything's wrong?
NARRATOR: One month before
the kidnapping, Corbett
purchased a 1951
Mercury automobile
and stored it in
an off-site garage,
so no one in his apartment
building knew he owned it.
The evidence shows that
Corbett typed the ransom note
and mailed it to Mrs. Coors on
the morning of the kidnapping.
He put the handcuffs and
leg restraints in the car.
Then, drove out to the
secluded Turkey Creek Bridge
to wait for Adolph Coors.
Most likely, he backed
his car onto the bridge
to make it look like
it had broken down.
[car radio playing]
Coors got out to investigate.
-Did you get yourself hurt?
NARRATOR: The evidence
suggests there was a flight,
and that Coors ran back
to his car for cover.
[gunshots]
Corbett fired
twice, hitting Coors
in the back killing
him instantly.
With Coors dead, Corbett
may have panicked,
and he abandoned his plans
to collect the ransom.
The geologic evidence shows
that Corbett drove to the Rocky
Mountains, 45 minutes
away, to dump the body.
It was an area he was
familiar with as a hunter.
He left town the next day and
drove to New Jersey, where
he set his car on fire to
destroy potential evidence.
But it didn't eliminate
the serial number
or the geological evidence
underneath the bumper.
KATHERINE RAMSLAND: What I think
happened is-- because I think
Corbett really
wanted the money, he
wasn't really after killing
somebody-- it's clear he's
trying to keep the police
from finding a trail to him,
and yet he does one,
two, three, four,
five things that
lead right to him.
So he's careful, but he's
quite limited in his awareness
of what he's actually
doing that is
making it easier to find him.
NARRATOR: For seven months,
Corbett successfully eluded
one of the largest manhunts
in American criminal history.
Newspapers and magazines
covered the story.
A woman in Vancouver, Canada
saw the press reports and called
the FBI saying that a man
matching Corbett's description
was living in her
apartment building.
JUDGE WILLIAM H.
ERICKSON: When the arrest
was made in Vancouver, the
FBI agent making the arrest
said, Joe Corbett.
And he said, I'm your man.
I'm not armed.
I surrender.
NARRATOR: Investigators didn't
find the Royalite typewriter,
any paper or envelopes
matching the ransom note,
or the murder weapon among
Corbett's possessions.
But they had proof that
Corbett purchased a typewriter
like the one used
for the ransom note
and owned the automobile that
contained geological evidence
from both the abduction
and body dump sites.
Joseph Corbett plead
not guilty at his trial,
but was convicted of
kidnapping and murder,
and sentenced to life in prison.
RON HARDESTY: In Colorado,
the law at that time, and I
think it still is the law, you
can't have a death penalty case
unless there's an
eyewitness or a confession.
And in this case,
we had neither.
NARRATOR: The case
remains one of the most
notorious in Colorado history.
RAYMOND MURRAY: It was, in fact,
the first high-profile case
in this country where
soil evidence was
critical to the
prosecution of the case.
-To pinpoint it to Turkey
Creek Bridge and the area
where the body was found,
that's unique even today.
So for those days, for someone
to, A, have thought of it,
B, to have analyzed
it carefully enough
to prove that the car
was in these two areas
was really quite a feat
for forensic science.
[theme music]
