(siren wailing)
- This week on the season
premiere of Buzzfeed Unsolved,
we take a look at The Watcher,
a stalker who was active
as recently as 2017.
Ugh.
(Shane laughs)
- What do you mean ugh?
- It's just too soon for me.
- Okay, yeah.
- Normally, we're covering cases
that are way back in the day.
This guy's still out and about.
He may watch this show.
I don't know.
And he could take a little--
- He probably will.
- [Ryan] Trip down to sunny California.
- That's his whole thing. (laughs)
- To visit his pals, Ryan
and Shane, in the studio.
- Or maybe he'll just be
outside the studio like ...
- Let's try to bury that
down, put it in a box,
put it aside.
- You know what, I'm lovin'
the energy this season.
Let's hop right in.
Let's do it.
- Let's do it.
Let's get into it.
- Ooh.
- [Narrator] In June 2014, Maria Broaddus,
her husband, Derek, and
their three young children
were getting ready to
move into their new home,
657 Boulevard, in Westfield, New Jersey.
The six-bedroom, $1.3 million house
was their dream home,
located only a few blocks
from Maria's childhood home
in what was then the 30th
safest town in America,
according to the website
NeighborhoodScout.
A mere three days after closing the sale,
before the Broaddus
family had even moved in,
a letter arrived at their new mailbox.
"The new owner" was written
by hand on the envelope
in thick, clunky letters.
The typed letter began, quote,
"Dearest new neighbor at 657 Boulevard,
"allow me to welcome you to
the neighborhood" end quote.
The letter however was
anything but welcoming.
It went on, quote, "How
did you end up here?
"Did 657 Boulevard call to
you with its force within?
"657 Boulevard has been
the subject of my family
"for decades now, and as it
approaches its 110th birthday,
"I have been put in charge
of watching and waiting
"for its second coming.
"My grandfather watched
the house in the 1920s
"and my father watched in the 1960s.
"It is now my time."
- [Shane] So this is like a Batman type?
A silent guardian.
- [Ryan] Yeah. (laughs)
- [Shane] Just sounds
like it's in his blood.
- [Ryan] It's a nice sentiment.
If that sentiment however entails you
doing some weird things,
then maybe it's not a
good family tradition.
- [Narrator] "Who am I?
"There are hundreds and
hundreds of cars that drive by
"657 Boulevard each day.
"Maybe I am in one.
"Look at all the windows you
can see from 657 Boulevard.
"Maybe I am in one.
"Look out any of the many
windows in 657 Boulevard
"at all the people who stroll by each day.
"Maybe I am one" end quote.
(Ryan laughs)
- [Shane] This is 2014
and he's writing like
it's the 1800s here.
Like a little, it's a teaser.
- [Ryan] (laughs) I don't think
that's what they're thinking.
Also, I don't know how many
houses you've moved into.
I've moved into quite a few apartments,
and even then, there's
usually some welcoming gift
from either the property owner,
maybe even the neighbors
will bring you cookies.
If I walked into my new house
and the first thing I saw
was a letter that had this
madness inside of it ...
- [Shane] Nobody brought me cookies.
- [Ryan] Nobody brought you cookies?
- Actually, the first
place I moved to in LA,
somebody took a poop on the doorstep.
- Yeah, that sounds about right.
- It was pink.
- [Narrator] The letter
also mentioned specifics
about the Broaddus family.
Quote, "You have children.
"I have seen them.
"So far, I think there are
three that I have counted.
"Do you need to fill the house
"with the young blood I requested?
"Better for me.
"Was your old house too
small for the growing family?
"Or was it greed to
bring me your children?
"Once I know their names,
I will call to them
"and draw them to me," end quote.
In a cursive font,
the author typed the
signature The Watcher.
- [Ryan] What do you think now?
Do you think your original thought
may be a little bit off base?
- [Shane] Yeah, maybe.
I want to give him creep points for
this very fun, old-timey threat
of "I'm going to steal your children."
- [Ryan] True.
- [Shane] He's like the wicked witch.
- [Ryan] He's making
himself into a caricature
of a villain for sure.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- [Narrator] After receiving the letter,
the Broaddus family
reached out to the couple
that had sold them the
house, John and Andrea Woods.
The previous owners said
they have never received
any letter like that in 23
years of living in the house,
except once, a few days
before they moved out.
The Woods family said
they never felt watched
in the more than two
decades at 657 Boulevard,
and in fact, rarely felt the
need to lock their doors.
While they thought the
note they received was odd,
they threw it out without much concern.
- [Ryan] Well this like
when you buy a house
and they didn't disclose to you before
that either there were
grizzly murders inside of it
or it's maybe haunted.
And now you start having your
chairs stacked up on tables
without you doing it.
- [Shane] This isn't
something that the realtor,
like if there's been a
death, they have to mention.
They're not gonna be like it's beautiful,
it's two and a half
bathrooms, three bedrooms,
there's a watcher, and a
beautiful pool in the back.
- [Ryan] No big deal, have fun with that.
- [Narrator] Still, the Woods family
went with the Broaddus
family to the police
to report the letters.
The police instructed the
couples to not tell anyone
about the intimidating mail,
including their neighbors,
who were all deemed suspects.
Two weeks later,
with the Broaddus family
still not moved in,
a second letter arrived.
Disturbingly, this message
contained more details
about the new owners,
including their name, though misspelled,
and their children's
birth order and nicknames.
The author also referenced
seeing their daughter
painting on an easel in
an enclosed porch space,
asking, quote, "Is she the
artist in the family?" end quote.
- [Ryan] You know what's the
most disturbing about that
to me is the nicknames.
Because it's one thing to
look up people's birth names.
The idea that they would
have nicknames, pet names,
means that it gives you the
idea that they may be listening.
- [Shane] Do you think
he bugged them somehow?
- [Ryan] It's possible.
Who knows what this guy's capable of?
That's I guess the premise
I'm trying to set up.
- Okay.
- Alright.
- [Narrator] Other parts read,
quote, "It has been years and
years since the young blood
"ruled the hallways of the house.
"Have you found all of
the secrets it holds yet?
"Will the young blood
play in the basement?
"Or are they too afraid
to go down there alone?
"I would be very afraid if I were them.
"It is far away from
the rest of the house.
"If you were upstairs, you
would never hear them scream.
"Will they sleep in the attic?
"Or will you all sleep
on the second floor?
"Who has the bedrooms facing the street?
"I'll know as soon as you move in.
"It will help me to know
who is in which bedroom.
"Then I can plan better," end quote.
After receiving this letter,
Maria and Derek stopped bringing
their children to the house
and put a hold on their plans to move in.
Several weeks later, a
third letter arrived.
Quote, "Where have you gone to?
"657 Boulevard is missing you," end quote.
- [Shane] He's not good.
- [Ryan] You don't like the way
he dances around--
- 'Cause here,
we're just calling the
children young blood?
- [Ryan] He calls them young blood,
which in some cases, it's kind of cool,
like an older person comes up,
"Hey, young blood."
- "Hey, young blood."
Yeah, that's fun.
- [Ryan] That's fun.
- [Shane] But not a man who is-
- [Ryan] "Young blood ruled
the hallways of the house."
He's talking about them
as little blood bags.
- Kids running around.
- Little blood bags.
Yeah, it's not good.
- [Narrator] However,
by the end of the year,
the investigation into who
The Watcher was had stalled.
There was no digital
trail, no fingerprints,
and no way to place someone
at the scene of a crime.
Meanwhile, the stress
was taking a mental toll
on the Broaddus family.
Derek said he was experiencing depression.
Maria's therapist said she
was suffering from PTSD.
And both were afflicted
with levels of paranoia
that made much of their
daily life seem threatening.
Only six months after the letters arrived,
they decided to sell the house.
Due to rumors about the property however,
buyers were hesitant.
The Broaddus family sued the Woods's
for failing to disclose
the threatening letter they'd received.
A local reporter found the complaint,
which included excerpts from the letters.
His small story became a viral sensation,
causing a media circus to
swirl around the house.
Now totally unable to find a buyer,
the Broaddus family
considered selling the house
to a developer who could tear it down
and split the property into two homes.
The two plots however would each be less
than three feet too small for the mandated
size of the neighborhood.
The Broaddus family appealed the rule
to the neighborhood planning board,
who unanimously rejected the proposal.
- [Shane] What's the
logic in splitting it up
into two homes?
- [Ryan] It's like when
something really bad happens
at a hotel, and then they just rebrand,
it's what's they're trying to do here.
- [Shane] I see.
- [Ryan] Which is understandable,
I just think it's crazy
that the neighborhood
was like three feet too
small, can't do that.
- [Shane] Hey, regulations
are regulations.
I get that.
- [Ryan] That's baloney.
- [Narrator] Maria was
understandably upset, saying,
quote, "This is my town, I grew up here.
"I came back, I chose
to raise my kids here.
"You know what we've been through.
"You had the ability two and
a half years into a nightmare
"to make it a little better.
"And you have decided that
this house is more important
"than we are," end quote.
It should be noted that in 2018,
the Westfield Planning
Board approved splitting
up a different lot around the
corner from 657 Boulevard.
One that required a larger exception
than the Broaddus family requested.
- [Ryan] This is just a bad neighborhood.
- [Shane] Or do we think perhaps,
is it a Hot Fuzz situation
where everyone in the neighborhood--
- [Ryan] Is in on it?
- [Shane] Yeah, like we
don't want this family here.
- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
- The greater good.
- The greater good.
- The greater good.
- The greater good.
- The greater good.
- The greater good.
- [Narrator] That Christmas, some families
who had vocally protested
the Broaddus's plan
received threatening
hand-delivered letters,
signed "Friends of the Broaddus family".
More on these later.
In spring of 2016,
just short of two years after
the first letter arrived,
the Broaddus family found
someone to rent the home.
The family had two large
dogs, fully grown children,
and a clause in the
lease that let them out
if there was another letter.
Within two weeks, another letter arrived.
Quote, "To the vile and spiteful Derek
"and his wench of a wife, Maria."
- [Shane] Okay, hang on, oh boy.
Before this, he's been very respectful,
despite saying yeah, I'm gonna
steal your blood children.
- [Ryan] Yeah, he was
really holding back before.
"Wench" too.
- Wench.
- [Ryan] He still stuck
with the old English though.
He knows theming.
- [Narrator] "657 Boulevard
survived your attempted assault
"and stood strong with
its army of supporters
"barricading its gates.
"My soldiers of the Boulevard
followed my orders to a T.
"They carried out their
mission and saved the soul
"of 657 Boulevard with my orders.
"All hail The Watcher," end quote.
(Ryan laughs)
- [Shane] All hail The Watcher.
- [Ryan] Oh me and my
minions, we all did it.
- [Shane] I've done it again.
- [Ryan] I've done it again.
- Like my father
and his father before him.
Yeah, one thing I've always said,
I've always gone on record
saying all hail The Watcher.
- (laughs) That's true, he has said that.
He says it every day when
he walks into the office.
- Been my MO since day one.
All hail The Watcher.
I walk into Buzzfeed, "Mornin'
all hail The Watcher."
- All hail The Watcher,
and we do the same thing.
- All hail The Watcher?
- All hail The Watcher.
- I've got my big stomach
tattoo that says that.
- That's true.
- But I don't wanna reveal that right now.
- No, there was HR complaints.
- [Narrator] The letter continued,
quote, "Maybe a car
accident, maybe a fire,
"maybe something as
simple as a mild illness
"that never seems to go away
"but makes you fell sick
day after day after day
"after day after day.
"Maybe the mysterious death of a pet.
"Loved ones suddenly die.
"Planes and cars and bicycles crash.
"Bones break.
"You are despised by the house
"and The Watcher won," end quote.
- [Shane] (laughs) This guy sucks.
- [Ryan] (laughs) He's just really
just shooting them out there.
He's casting a wide net and
hoping one of them sticks.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- [Ryan] So then he could be
like if one of those things
happens, he's gonna be like all me.
- [Shane] Watcher, baby.
- [Ryan] Orchestrated
by The Watcher. (laugh)
- They're like walkin' down the street,
they trip on the sidewalk,
and he's like yes,
all hail The Watcher.
- Ran out of cooking oil?
Watcher.
- Oh mosquito bite?
All hail The Watcher.
- Oh you just took a little
poopie and you don't have
any more toilet paper?
Watcher, sorry.
- [Narrator] Despite the letter,
the renters agreed to
stay after more cameras
were installed around the house.
Now up to current day, it's
time to look at suspects
for who The Watcher could be.
Our first suspect is a
man I'm calling The Gamer.
Around 11 pm one night,
while two detectives
from Westfield Police were
surveilling 657 Boulevard,
a car suspiciously
stopped outside the house.
The car was traced to a young woman
from a town close by.
The home of her boyfriend
was on the same block
as 657 Boulevard.
The woman told investigators
that her boyfriend
was into, quote, "Some really
dark video games," end quote.
Including possibly one where
he played as a character
called The Watcher, according
to an investigator's memory
The Gamer agreed to be
questioned by police
but he never showed up for his interviews.
Detectives didn't have enough
evidence to force him to come,
so he was never questioned.
- [Ryan] They said he
played as a character
called The Watcher, according
to the investigator's memory.
So maybe he didn't say Watcher,
maybe he said The Witcher,
which is a game.
- Knowing how people who
don't know about video games
react to video games,
I'm guessing this is ...
- Yeah, and if people
judged you, for instance,
off of how you play video games,
I'm sure they'd have
behind bars pronto, right?
- I don't know what you're implying here.
- We did murder characters that ...
- That was Sims fun.
Everybody murders people on The Sims.
- They were characters
based off real people,
our co-workers in fact.
- Oh, little Steven Lim?
- Steven Lim, The Try
Guys, we murdered them all.
- (laughs) Yeah, we did.
- It was good.
- Yeah.
- [Narrator] The second
suspect is another neighbor,
Michael Langford.
Derek began to suspect
Langford after attending
a neighborhood barbecue shortly after
receiving the first letter.
Langford lived in the house next door,
which belonged to his 90-year-old mother.
Several of her adult
children, all in their 60s,
lived with her.
And the family was seen
as strange but harmless.
The Langfords had lived in
the house since the 60s,
which was when The
Watcher claimed his father
watched the house.
Michael's father had died about 12 years
before the first letter arrived,
which could've been
why The Watcher claimed
to have done the job
of watching for, quote,
"The better part of two
decades," end quote.
Langford was also known
to spook new neighbors
with his odd behavior, like
walking through their yards
and peeking through windows.
Due to the positioning of the houses,
Langford would have had a perfect view
of the easel they had set on
the porch for their daughter
that the second letter referenced.
- [Shane] So you're telling
me he has a habit of ...
- [Ryan] Walking into people's lawns.
- [Shane] ... invading
people's privacy ...
- [Ryan] Looking in their windows.
- [Shane] ... and watching them?
- [Ryan] Yeah, I guess
it's pretty easy to see why
they suspected him of being The Watcher.
- If I moved in and I was
like wow, this place is great
and I just turned to my window and saw ...
- Well you know me,
my greatest fear is looking at a window
and then just seeing a face
there with two eyes, just ...
- Yeah.
- ... watching you like that.
- Not even a smile.
Just a ...
- I actually think a smile's worse.
I used to have a recurring
nightmare when I was a kid
of an evil version of my dad
looking through my window.
(Shane laughs)
It stemmed from when I watched
Inspector Gadget as a kid
and you remember there was
the evil Inspector Gadget?
- Did he have big, giant teeth?
- He had big, giant, shiny
teeth, and he had big eyes.
So he would just stand outside my window.
- And your father is a dentist
so the big, scary teeth are even ...
- That's true.
And we all know that he may
have cut someone's head off.
- Hey, I didn't say it.
I did not make that claim.
- That's true.
That's canon I guess at this point.
- [Narrator] Police
questioned Michael Langford
after the first letter,
but he denied knowing anything
and there was little
evidence to connect him.
Because the police's interview
was before the second letter,
some believed it would have
been especially reckless
for Langford to continue sending letters.
As well, those who knew him
largely vouched for Langford,
thinking him incapable
of writing the letters.
- [Ryan] I'm pretty done with
neighbors and family members
saying "I can't believe
you could've done this.
"No one could've seen it coming."
- [Shane] "I'll tell you
what, that John Wayne Gacy
"is the sweetest fella I know."
- [Ryan] "Ted Bundy,
"he's got the eyes of
just the kindest man."
- [Shane] "A real dreamboat."
- [Ryan] Yeah, "There's no
way Ted could've done that."
- [Shane] "Charming as all hell."
- [Ryan] You know what
serial killers are good at?
Being charming.
That's how they get you
in so they could kill you.
So I'm just done with
that whole narrative.
- [Narrator] The Broaddus
family, working with the police,
sent a letter to the Langfords,
telling them they were planning
on demolishing the house
in hopes of drawing The
Watcher to write again.
There was no response.
Casting doubt on Langford
is a test later performed
on one of the envelopes,
which found DNA that belonged to a woman.
Thinking Michael's sister,
Abby, may be The Watcher,
an investigator compared the
DNA to that from a water bottle
used by Abby.
No match.
Shortly after this DNA test,
and without explanation,
prosecutors informed Derek and Maria
that they had ruled out any
of the Langfords as suspects,
which brings us to our third suspect.
The Broaddus family themselves.
Locals found it suspicious
that the Broaddus family
was over the years able to
move from a $315,000 home
to a $770,000 home
to a $1.3 million home
with refinanced mortgages.
Some accused the family of
getting in over their heads
with the home,
and turning to a desperate
ploy to get out of it.
Some neighbors wondered
why the Broaddus family
kept renovating the house
after they decided they wouldn't move in.
When major movie studios
began courting the family
for the rights to their story,
a big media deal could've
been more motivation
for concocting The Watcher.
What's more, I mentioned
that some local families
received anonymous threatening letters
after the planning commission
rejected the Broaddus's
proposal to split the lot.
Those letters turned out
to be written by Derek.
- [Ryan] Look, this guy's nicer than me.
I think if people denied my proposal
and I saw that they were
speaking out about it,
I'm confronting them in the parking lot.
I'm not doing it through anonymity.
- Friends of Ryan Bergara aren't gonna be-
- Oh the friends of Ryan Bergara
are right here and right here.
- Hohohoho! (laughs)
- And they're gonna be goin' face to face
in that parking lot.
- He'll get ya.
- You don't need a case for that.
- Yeah, he'll get ya.
- Don't bring the investigator,
bring the ambulance.
- Hohohoho! (laughs)
I love it.
- Yeah, yeah, that's right.
- That's scary.
- [Ryan] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Narrator] Derek claims
those letters were the only
anonymous letters he's ever
sent and were the result
of years of frustration
at his family's plight
and the neighborhood's
seeming ambivalence.
As well, the psychological
trauma from the letters alone
makes the Broaddus family
being The Watcher seem thin.
Casting more doubt on the
theory that the Broaddus family
is The Watcher, a later
investigation found that
another family on the
Boulevard had also received
a note from The Watcher around the time
the Broaddus's received their first.
Just like the previous
owners, the Woods family,
that family had lived
in the house for years
without a problem and
threw the letter away.
But if the Broaddus family was trying
to get out of their home
or make a movie deal,
why send a letter to
another house as well?
- [Shane] Seems a bit
preposterous that someone
would make up a mystery about themselves
and hope to sell movie rights, basically.
- Pretty far fetched.
How do you explain that to your kids?
The psychological trauma
you're going through.
"You know what'd be a really
fun role play exercise
"to bring us together as a family?
"What if we pretended, now picture this,
"that a man was gonna
murder you in your sleep?
"Thoughts?"
Unless of course, the
children were in on it
and they're in a writer's room.
They're walkin' around, a white board.
- The kids are pitchin'.
- [Ryan] And the kids are pitchin'.
- They're puttin' little
index cards up on the wall.
- And they're riffin', snappin' around.
Maybe.
- "I know you've got him
threatening the house.
"What if he goes after us?
"Yeah, the kids."
- And then Dad was like
(click fingers) "Write it,
"write it down."
- The three-year-old pipes up,
"His father was a Watcher
"and so was his father before him."
- Oh my God, legacy,
it's a legacy stalker.
I love it.
- "I know I'm new to this."
"I know."
- I love it.
Print it.
- [Narrator] What makes
the case of The Watcher
so fascinating is the limited
number of potential suspects,
coupled with the complete lack of evidence
that has stymied investigators'
ability to make progress.
This case is very recent,
so there's a chance we
haven't heard the last
from The Watcher.
Perhaps some future note
will provide the key clue
to identifying the person responsible.
But until then, the case remains unsolved.
(suspenseful strings)
(ominous music)
- Overall, a very frustrating case.
This dude could be anybody.
He caused no physical harm but he caused
lots of mental harm, financial harm.
People get away with things
all the time in the past
because forensic technology wasn't there.
This is two years ago.
This is a little bit scarier.
- But at the same time,
we do live in a bit of
a surveillance state.
You go to the store to
buy a bag of chips--
- Apparently not enough.
- They got you
on 10 different cameras.
I'm sayin' maybe
the way of the world has
prevented him from really ...
- Doing something.
- ... doin' worse.
- So he could just write it
out, but he can't act it out.
- Yeah, that's right.
Who watches The Watcher?
(ominous music)
- This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved,
we go down under to examine the wacky
shark arm case that
captivated Australia in 1935.
- Did you say wacky?
- I mean just (laughs).
It's pretty wacky.
Apparently any case that's titled
The Shark Arm Case,
there's gonna be some fun
to be had down the road.
- Yeah, 'cause I'm no marine biologist
but sharks don't have arms.
- They have fins.
- Yeah.
- An astute observation.
- Yeah.
- So why is the arm in the title?
- Curious, curious.
- Why don't we dive
deep and figure it out?
(laughs) okay.
In early 1935, business
at Sydney, Australia's
Coogee Aquarium and Swimming
Baths was floundering.
The world was in the depths
of the Great Depression
and aquarium owner, Bert
Hobson, needed something
to lure customers and
keep his business afloat.
- There's two, already two sea-based puns
in this narration.
- What are you talking about?
I don't know what you're talking about.
- [Shane] Is this gonna
be a running theme?
- [Ryan] I swear it's the last one.
- [Shane] Okay.
- His spirits were buoyed
when on April 18th,
Bert and his son, Ron, caught a 14 foot
one ton tiger shark off the coast
and put it in their pool, there had been
an increasing wave of shark attacks
and this monstrous shark
was just the attraction
Hobson thought needed to turn the tide
on his slumping enterprise.
About a week after catching the shark,
and in front of crowds of families
enjoying the aquarium
during a holiday weekend,
the behemoth suddenly began convulsing
and vomiting, spitting up a rat,
a bird, and finally, a human arm.
- So Great Depression.
- Yeah.
- You scrap together what little you have
to take the family to the water parks
for the holidays.
- Let's form some
great memories as a family.
- And then a shark just
starts vomiting rats
in front of your children.
- I don't think I've
ever seen a shark vomit.
Do you imagine a shark slumped over
a toilet, it's a very
funny image, obviously
this was just in the pool.
I also wanna know if it like, the velocity
of the arm coming out, did it shoot out
into the crowd, did it
hit somebody in the face?
- My God.
- Or was it just like it just
dribbled out, like over its lips.
- Or you know when
you're eating and you do
a half burp but a little bit comes up?
- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like a Chipotle burp.
- Yeah, and just an arm came out.
- Yeah, oh, too much salsa.
Hobson called the police,
who fished the arm
out of the pool and found a large tattoo
of two boxers fighting inside the forearm.
The shark was killed and
its stomach was searched
for additional remains,
but none were found.
- [Shane] Boy, the last thing I would want
after vomiting is to be killed.
- Yeah, I mean really just a bad week
for that shark.
(laughs)
The shark's just got it, his last thought
had to have been like.
- Why?
- [Ryan] Using new
fingerprinting technology,
the police were able to identify the arm's
original operator, as
45 year old Jimmy Smith.
A local paper, Truth, described Smith as,
"a well-known suburban
billiards saloon keeper,
"one-time promising lightweight boxer,
"and a man with seemingly
not an enemy in the world."
- [Shane] Seemingly is
the operative word there.
- [Ryan] Yeah, I think so.
- [Shane] You don't get your arms cut off
and fed to a shark if you're simpatico
with all your pals.
- Yeah, yeah.
I can't say there's a
lot of good relationships
in your life.
- No.
- [Ryan] If this is something
that's happening to you.
In the early 1930s, Smith began working
as a builder for one Reginald Holmes,
a well-respected member of the community
on the surface, but who hid undercurrents
of criminal activity.
In addition to operating a successful
boat-building business, Holmes conducted
insurance scams and organized drug deals
using his speedboats to
collect drugs from ships.
After the first building
job, Smith plunged
into more work for
Holmes and became netted
in his various, illicit schemes.
On Holmes' orders, Smith
would scam builders
out of their supplies,
operate Holmes' speedboat
and was the caretaker of a pleasure boat
called the Pathfinder, more on that later.
- [Shane] I love this guy.
- Which guy, Holmes?
- Holmes.
- Why?
- How, it's 1935,
he's got a fleet of.
- Okay, I do think.
- Speedboats?
- A fleet of speedboats
is something that a
Bond villains would have
and I kind of appreciate that this guy
is taking it to heart, that's kinda cool.
- I'm sure by that era, standards
of speedboat is a boat
that goes 11 miles an hour.
- Yeah, probably not
that fast, but we're not
mapping relatively.
- Yeah, and in my brain
I'm imagining Miami Vice
but with more burlap.
- For the time, it was a bitchin' boat.
- A bit devilish of you to drop
the term pleasure boat and say, well,
we'll get back to that.
- Oh that's a hook you
in there, cliffhanger.
- Because the mind reels.
- Tell your mind to settle down.
- It can't.
Oh, there's no settling this one down now
- Christ almighty.
- A pleasure boat, my word.
- [Ryan] Smith and Holmes also worked
with an old chum of
Smith's, Patrick Brady.
Brady began his life of
crime in World War One
when he realized that
he was good at forging
the signatures of military generals.
The three men began forging checks
for small amounts of money for
well off clients of Holmes'.
Eventually, Holmes and
Smith had a disagreement
over one of the check forgery scams
and it's reported that Smith
began blackmailing Holmes.
- (laughs) I love this whole crew.
I love that these men become friends
over the fact that he's
like, hey, you know what,
you're really good at forging signatures.
(laughs)
Well thank you, it's something
I've been practicing for a whiLe.
- Oh, I love your fleet of speedboats.
These guys are scammers.
- Yeah, but how do you just crack that,
how do you break the ice there?
- Oh, 'cause it's not.
- You're just out to coffee one day
and you're like, just
gonna sound a little wild
but you ever think about
murdering a person?
- You uh, how do you feel about scams?
- Yeah, I mean any sort of illicit thing.
- 'Cause there's no LinkedIn for criminals
where they could read the
resumes of other criminals
and then hire them.
So how do they find each other?
- That's a good app idea.
- They're like yeah,
LinkedIn for criminals,
we should write that down.
We'll write that down under our schemes.
- C, put a little circle around it.
- Yeah.
Fast forward to April 7th, 11 days
before Bert Hobson caught his tiger shark.
Jimmy Smith and Patrick
Brady were out drinking
and playing cards at the Cecil Hotel.
Afterwards, the two went to small cottage
that Brady had in the beach
community of Cronulla.
It's widely thought that this was where
Smith met his fate, a cab driver
reported driving a disheveled Brady
from the cottage to Holmes'
house later that night.
The driver would later
testify, "it was clear
"that he was frightened,"
and that Brady was
obviously hiding something in his jacket.
You know, I can't think
of many other things
that would be as awkward
to hide under a jacket
than a full grown arm.
- Well no, just what you would do
is you would tuck one of your arms behind
and then just put.
- Oh, and then put
the arm in the sleeve itself.
- Yeah.
- What if he was like,
nice to meet ya, man.
And it's like.
- You could be like.
- And it's the wrong hand.
- Yeah, how are ya.
- Smith's wife, who Smith had told
he was going fishing grew nervous
when he didn't return after a few nights.
One night, a man called her and said,
"don't worry, Jimmy will be
home in three days time."
of course, Jimmy Smith never returned.
Days later, the shark at the
Coogee Aquarium vomited his arm.
On May 17th, Brady was arrested
on forgery charges,
which were merely a way
to keep him in custody.
Authorities interrogated him for six hours
but he refused to admit anything.
It was only after the police questioned
his wife that Brady agreed
to make a statement.
Brady implicated Holmes in Smith's murder
and when police questioned Holmes,
he claimed to not know Brady.
A few days later, Holmes took a speedboat
out in Sydney Harbor along with a bottle
of alcohol and a pistol.
The facts of the following
trip are described
in various ways, but with a grain of salt,
the gist of it goes like this,
Holmes got drunk on the
boat and shot himself
in the head with the pistol.
Another man who was out
boating with his children
reported almost being hit by
the erratically moving boat.
When talking to police, the man said,
"You won't mistake him,
he has a bullet hole
"in his forehead," for you see,
Holmes survived the
gunshot, which knocked him
into the water, now with a gunshot wound
in his head, Holmes
climbed back into his boat
and tried to drive back to Sydney Harbor.
Police boats chased him for four hours
until they eventually caught him.
Holmes reportedly told
police that he had been shot
by strangers and was trying to escape.
He apparently claimed
he thought the police
in pursuit were the people who shot him
which is why he didn't stop.
It's hard to know what
Holmes was really thinking
because again, he had a
bullet hole in his head.
This guy, apparently, felt well enough
to go on a four hour boat chase.
- Yeah, I mean he seemed to be doing fine.
I would think maybe it would mess you up
like you'd live but
you're clinging to life.
But this guy is like.
- Yeah, this guy is looking back.
The winds whizzing through
the hole in his forehead.
- Just wiping blood out of his little.
- It's crazy.
Holmes allegedly said to
police, "Jimmy Smith is dead
"and there is only another left.
If you leave me until
tonight, I will finish him."
Holmes claimed that
instead of Brady's story
accusing him of being
the organizer of the plan
to kill Smith, he had
actually been extorted
by Brady, Brady had
surfaced at Holmes' house
with Smith's severed arm and attempted
to blackmail him, claiming
he'd pin the murder
on Holmes' instructions.
Holmes said that Brady had murdered Smith,
cut his body up, put the pieces in a trunk
and threw the trunk into Gunnamatta Bay.
In the 20s and 30s,
this act was apparently
so common that it had a
name, the Sydney send-off.
- The Sydney send off.
- [Ryan] Holmes told police, he paid Brady
the blackmail money who in turn,
left the severed arm
in Holmes' living room.
Holmes claimed he than panicked
and threw the arm into the ocean
where it was presumably eaten by the shark
that was eventually caught
and placed in the aquarium.
Police said they would charge Holmes
with being an accessory to the murder
unless he agreed to testify against Brady
at the inquest into Smith's murder,
set for June 12th.
Holmes agreed and on
the morning of June 12,
Holmes was discovered in
his car with three bullets
in his chest, this time dead.
One thing to gather from this too,
is Brady definitely was
the one who had the arm.
- [Shane] Okay.
- [Ryan] However you wanna talk your way
around that one, that
seems to be the fact.
- Whether he was doing
it for someone else.
- Whether he was doing it on the orders
of Holmes or he was doing it to then say
I'm gonna blackmail Holmes.
- Yeah.
- Is the question I suppose.
Brady's trial still went
on, but without Holmes
to serve as witness, the case fell apart.
Brady's lawyer argued that, according to
a British statute from 1276, a body
was necessary to conduct an inquest
and a limb could not be considered a body.
The defense also argued that sharks
typically digest food within 24 hours.
Yet, in order for the
prosecution's timeline
to be correct, the arm would have had to
been in the shark anywhere from eight
to 17 days, the defense also claimed
it was possible someone had thrown the arm
into the pool where the shark was kept
at Coogee Aquarium and that it was never
in the shark at all.
The prosecution came
back with ichthyologists,
fish scientists, who said the arm
could have upset the shark's digestion
and impeded its function.
They also brought forth 14 witnesses
who said they watched the
shark vomit up the arm.
Did you guys see the
shark vomit up the arm?
- Yes, they all voiced at once.
- After a day and a half, Brady
was acquitted and released.
A Sydney newspaper reported, "Of course
"you are innocent, Mr. Brady, but please
"don't do it again, Mr. Brady."
- Now I've noticed your
Australian character
why does he tighten up like this?
What's that?
- It's a choice I've made.
- Don't do it again.
- Oh god.
- Quieter and quieter.
- Quieter and quieter until I can't even
understand what you're saying.
With that, it's time to look into
some theories about what actually
happened to Jimmy Smith.
The first theory is that Holmes' story
to police was correct and that Brady
murdered Smith and tried to extort Holmes.
This is bolstered by the idea that Brady
could have contracted Holmes' murder
so he couldn't testify, however,
at Brady's trial, defense attorneys
pointed out that Brady
was only five foot four
making it unlikely he could have
killed Smith alone, of course,
his small stature wouldn't
have prevented Brady
from using a gun, but because no body
was ever found, it's impossible to know
how Jimmy was actually killed.
But what do you think about that
because Holmes said he
was going to testify
against Brady, saying that Brady
had done the whole thing, and then the day
of the trial, he gets killed.
So that obviously does
not look good for Brady.
- No.
- So I don't think it's good
to gloss over that fact,
that's a major hurdle
I feel like you need to confront.
- It's very gutsy, very gutsy.
- I mean, he still got off, because
of the whole arm wasn't
attached to a body thing.
- Yeah, no I know that, but very gutsy
to make a move like that when obviously
tends to point back at you.
- Which brings us to a second theory.
No one killed Jimmy Smith.
Because no body was found, we cannot
definitively say Smith was murdered.
It's possible he didn't want to bow
to the pressure of Holmes'
criminal activities
and wanted out, but didn't think
he could do so safely, so
he faked his own death.
Admittedly, this theory seems unlikely,
as Smith could have probably gotten away
with just a severed hand
instead of an entire arm.
- Do you think he would be capable
of cutting off his own arm?
- I mean, he obviously
would have had help.
- Yeah, he would have.
- Probably from his wife.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause if he's faking his
own death, it's obvious
they're in cahoots,
they're gonna go live a
life somewhere together
so he probably had her
do the little tourniquet.
- Very sweet to be in
cahoots with your wife.
- That's part of the bargain, right?
- Yeah, I guess.
You don't hear that come
up in vows very often.
- In sickness and in health.
- In sickness and cahoots.
- I would say that sickness includes
missing an arm, or having to cut one off.
- Yeah, very sweet, okay.
- I don't like this character anymore.
A third theory suggested by Australian
legal historian, Alex Castles,
states that Smith was indeed killed
at Brady's cottage, but that Brady
was not involved, some
years after the case
Brady's wife said she
had gone to the cottage
thinking she would catch her husband
with another woman, instead, she overheard
a group of men playing cards and drinking.
Castles believes Brady was out fishing
and came back to find
Jimmy already murdered.
According to this theory,
Brady never said anything
about his former friend's murder
out of fear of retribution.
Our final theory, the
only one that I can see
has a clear motivation is that Holmes
orchestrated Smith's murder.
Remember how Smith was the caretaker
of a yacht that Holmes
owned, the Pathfinder?
The pleasure boat.
- I forgot about the
pleasure boat, we're back
to the pleasure boat.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Oh, that was good, that's actually good
that you set that up and then I got
so wrapped up in this crazy story
that I forgot about this
wonderful pleasure boat.
- And now I'm reminded why I'm glad
you forgot because you're way too excited
about a pleasure boat.
- I'm excited to hear
about the pleasure boat, tell me
about the pleasure boat.
- It turns out Holmes and his associates
had purchased, insured,
and destroyed the boat
as part of an insurance scam.
Holmes, however, never
received his insurance money.
As Smith had reportedly
become a police informant
telling authorities that
the yacht's destruction
was suspicious, this coupled with Smith's
reportedly blackmailing of Holmes
over their check forging scams,
could have led Holmes
to arrange with Brady
to have Smith killed.
Once Brady murdered
Smith, he brought the arm
to Holmes as proof,
Holmes would have disposed
of the arm in the ocean,
where a particularly
unlucky shark happened upon it.
In this theory, Holmes actually did
get away with one last insurance scam,
police suspected that
Holmes had contracted
hit men to kill himself after buying
a generous life insurance policy.
His wife and children would get the money
and not have to endure
the sinking embarrassment
of his various crimes surfacing.
Holmes' wife reportedly knew what happened
to Smith and was about
to share this information
when she died mysteriously
in a fire in 1952.
It should be noted that
Brady didn't die until 1965.
Do you think he got nervous when he read
in the paper that a shark
had vomited out an arm?
- Yeah, like his wife came to him.
Look at this hilarious headline.
- And he's like (laughs).
I gotta make some calls.
- (laughs) That's real
funny, sweat just dripping.
- Sweat just dripping down his face.
When Bert Hobson and his son fished
a tiger shark out of the ocean,
they were trying to lure attention
to their floundering aquarium.
What they actually hooked was a mystery
that would draw the attention
of the entire country
and end a local criminal's life.
As for how Jimmy Smith's tattooed arm
finally found its way into the shark,
that remains, unsolved.
One thing to mine from all of this
or to fish from all of this
is that, if it wasn't for that pesky
little shark, Holmes would have
got away with all of this.
- Friends murder each other all the time.
You know, it happens.
That's the way of the world.
It happens.
You just gotta.
- I gotta make some calls.
- Okay.
Alright.
- [Ryan] You're still doing it?
- This week on BuzzFeed Unsolved,
we discuss the Reykjavik Confessions,
an Icelandic case in which six people
confessed to murders that police
have no physical evidence ever occurred.
- This is a treat for
me because, as you know,
I went on a trip to Iceland last year.
- Yeah, I've heard about it.
- Loved it.
- It certainly is one of the many
arrows in your anecdote quiver.
- A big one.
- I'm excited to tell you that perhaps
the place you deemed heaven
maybe isn't so heavenly.
- Stunning
vistas.
- Yeah, hot springs, great stuff.
Let's get into it.
On January 26th, 1974,
Gudmundur Einarsson, a
quiet 18-year-old laborer,
went out drinking with some friends.
They ended up in a dance
hall in Hafnarfjorour,
a town just south of Reykjavik.
Gudmundur left the party in
the early hours of the day
and decided to walk home.
Around 2 a.m., two of his friends
saw Gudmundur on the road,
trying to hitch a ride
with another man they did not recognize.
Both men were clearly drunk,
and Gudmundur swayed as he stumbled
his way through the snow.
Gudmundur never made it home.
At the time, the entire country
of Iceland's population
was about 220,000 people.
For context, that's 5,000 fewer people
than lived in Reno, Nevada, in 2010.
Major crimes were very, very uncommon.
They didn't even have government bodies
tasked with finding missing people.
After a few weeks of
searching and coming up empty,
the volunteer search
parties ended their hunt.
- [Shane] Yeah, not a lot of crime.
They're not used to it.
- [Ryan] Still, I mean,
you should have some systems in place.
- [Shane] Let me tell you
something about Iceland.
- Go for it.
- One morning,
we woke up to go on a
beautiful kayak trip.
The woman who drove us to the kayak thing,
we were talkin' about just
the way things go there,
and she said you know,
we don't have a lot of crime here.
About once a year we will do a murder.
And she meant it.
(laughs)
And I was like, okay, I
know you're not implying
that the whole country gets together
and picks one person, like The Lottery,
and decides to sacrifice them
like sort of a Wicker Man situation--
- Was that the verbiage she used?
She used--
- She said we will
do a murder.
- Do a murder.
(laughs)
Around 10 months after
Gudmundur Einarsson disappeared,
on November 19, 1974, a
quiet construction worker,
Geirfinnur Einarsson, with
no relation to Gudmundur,
was watching TV with a friend
at his home in Keflavik
The pair briefly left to
go to the Harbor Cafe,
but Geirfinnur shortly returned.
Back at home, he received a phone call.
His wife, Gufni, said
Geirfinnur told the man
on the other end of the call, quote,
"I've already come," end quote,
followed by, quote,
"I'll come," end quote.
Geirfinnur then drove his car into town,
parked close to a cafe, left
his keys in the ignition,
exited his vehicle, and
was never seen again.
Two guys disappear within
the span of 10 months.
They have the same last name, no relation.
- [Shane] In a place
where this is not common.
- [Ryan] Yes.
- [Shane] So we may have a
bit of a crook on our hands.
- Yeah.
May be time to round up
a task force.
- The usual
suspects, okay.
- To find the missing people.
Another missing person meant
another search party of volunteers,
who found no trace of Geirfinnur.
This being the second
disappearance within the year,
detectives decided it might be time
to do a bit more sleuthing.
The first step for police was to find out
who called Geirfinnur.
Two teenagers and a cafe employee
described a man they had seen place a call
from a phone booth outside the cafe.
From these descriptions, the
police made a clay recreation
of a man's face and
began showing it around.
Keflavik is a small town,
so when no one could identify the man
depicted in the police's model,
they assumed the man was from out of town.
The manager of a nightclub
in nearby Reykjavik
was questioned but released.
By the following summer,
detectives had no witnesses
and, crucially, no bodies.
What they did have were rumors
swirling around one Saevar Ciesielski.
- [Shane] So this is the possible suspect.
- [Ryan] This is the possible suspect
based off description.
So instead of doing a police sketch,
they did arts and crafts.
- [Shane] They got a
little Mr. Potato Head
they're showin' around.
- They got a Mr. Potato Head.
Yeah, exactly.
Saevar Ciesielski was
a local petty criminal
with a penchant for stealing things
like alcohol, candles, and checkbooks.
He sold drugs and would
tell his girlfriend,
Erla Bolladottir, about his desire
to commit the, quote,
perfect crime, end quote.
Together, the two would forge checks
using Erla's job as a telex operator
for Iceland's Post and
Telecommunication Company.
Shortly after Geirfinnur went missing,
Erla and Saevar bought
one-way tickets to Copenhagen
with money they'd
embezzled from Erla's job.
So this is like a Bonnie
and Clyde situation.
- Yeah.
You know what?
Actually, now that you bring this up,
I did go to Copenhagen
right after Iceland,
and it is a stunning city.
Wouldn't mind escaping there.
- [Ryan] In Denmark, Erla
soon became pregnant,
and the couple moved back to Reykjavik
to have their baby in September 1975.
In order to support his new family,
Saevar's plan was to smuggle
cannabis into Iceland.
Perhaps consequently,
Erla decided the two should live apart.
(Shane laughs)
- [Shane] I'm gonna
provide for this family
with some of that sticky,
sticky green stuff.
- [Ryan] With some of that good-good.
- [Shane] Gonna turn Iceland
into Greenland, baby.
(Ryan laughs)
- [Ryan] While police were still stymied
by the previous year's two disappearances,
they had been making progress
on a case of some stolen money
at the Post and Telecommunication Company.
On December 12, 1975, Saevar was arrested
on suspicion of embezzlement.
Two days later, Erla was
also taken into custody.
Erla initially denied everything.
Authorities questioned her
and detained her in solitary confinement.
After seven days of grueling questioning,
she confessed to the Post
and Telecommunication fraud.
As she was preparing to be released,
investigators showed Erla a
photo of Gudmundur Einarsson,
the first man to go missing,
who she recognized from Reykjavik.
They had once shared a car together
and had on another occasion run
into one another at a party.
Erla told investigators
that she vaguely remembered
the night Gudmundur disappeared.
She had been at a
nightclub without Saevar,
who she thought was in
Denmark at the time.
When she got home, she
immediately fell asleep,
though she recalled a nightmare
in which she could hear
Saevar's voice whispering
outside her window.
Sensing the faintest hint of a lead,
police asked her if it was possible
she hadn't been dreaming.
So instead of releasing her,
they then threw Erla back
in solitary confinement.
- [Shane] Good lord.
- [Ryan] She admits to the embezzlement,
and then they throw a Hail Mary.
They say here's a picture of Gudmundur.
- [Shane] Yeah, hey, you do crimes.
- [Ryan] Do you know this guy?
She remembers him.
She has a nightmare that
Saevar, who is unaccounted for,
is whispering outside of her window.
The police then say maybe
it wasn't a nightmare.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- [Ryan] They then throw her
back into solitary confinement.
- Two birds, one stone, as they say.
- That is what they say.
- It's a little something
I heard in Iceland.
- [Ryan] Alone, Erla began
to doubt her memories.
She thought, quote, "Is it possible
"they killed someone in the apartment
"and I saw the whole thing
and I can't remember?"
End quote.
Erla was questioned for
six hours on December 20th,
naming Saevar and their
friend Kristjan Vidar
as possible suspects in
Gudmundur's disappearance.
She also mentioned being perplexed
to come home on January 27th, 1974,
the day after Gudmundur disappeared,
to find her bedsheet missing.
Investigators drew up
a confession that said
she saw Saevar and three
others carry the body
of Gudmundur while wrapped
in the missing bedsheet.
Erla signed it after being kept
in solitary confinement for days
and being threatened to be
kept there indefinitely,
all while she had an
11-week-old baby at home.
Erla herself was only 20 years old.
You put me in a room
for three straight days,
I'm starting to already
question my sense of reality.
I need to talk to people.
The next day, Saevar,
who had been in solitary
confinement this whole time,
was questioned for 10 hours,
then six hours the day after.
Once investigators finally
showed him Erla's confession,
Saevar told investigators he was involved
along with three friends,
Kristjan, who Saevar had seen
that Erla had already named,
Tryggvi Runar, and Albert Klahn.
So he's in solitary,
he's wondering what the hell's going on,
they're grilling him for 16 hours,
and then they show that his
former significant other
has a signed confession
saying this is what he did.
I think that's the last straw, right,
that breaks the camel's back.
- And you may suspect if he's thinking,
well, if I confess to this,
maybe they'll just get me out of solitary,
but if I implicate some other people--
- Maybe.
- Maybe that'll spread it out a bit.
- Exactly.
The police had developed
an unfortunate habit
of throwing their suspects
in solitary confinement
anytime they needed to
solicit a confession
in this criminal case.
They arrested the three men
and threw them into solitary.
Eventually, the men all confessed
to playing roles in Gudmunder's murder.
Now that they had extracted
confessions for one disappearance,
the investigators wondered was it possible
that they could solve the second one too?
- [Shane] Pretty much
everyone I met in Iceland
was so kind and so polite.
I just imagine the most
polite people in the world
doing this and being like,
well, we figured out that
if you put 'em in that room,
you know, they tell you the truth
after, like, a month or two.
- Oh my God.
- [Shane] So I guess maybe
we'll just keep doing that.
- [Ryan] I would like to
not think that's the case.
I would like to think
that maybe the community
is pressuring, like, this
guy's running rampant.
They killed two people.
That's twice the output
of the last 20 years.
We gotta do something.
And this is the answer.
They're doing result-based
investigative techniques.
- [Shane] Of course, of course.
- [Ryan] They're getting the signature,
they did their job in their head.
That's how they're legitimizing it.
Which, like I said, some people,
you could understand that.
Police went back to Erla
and asked if it was
possible the men they'd got
confessions out of for
Gudmundur's disappearance
could have also been involved
in Geirfinnur's as well.
Erla replied, quote, "Maybe," end quote.
The police told her, quote,
"We have a reason to believe
"that you have experienced
something traumatic
"concerning Geirfinnur's disappearance,
"and we are going to help
you remember," end quote.
They were like, do you
think this could maybe
be connected to this other disappearance?
And she said maybe.
And they were like, oh yeah,
that's the green light, baby.
Fire up that room again.
- [Shane] Fire up that room?
- [Ryan] It's ridiculous.
- [Shane] Not great, not great.
- [Ryan] This is the second time
they have taken her out,
she has signed something
and thought I'm free.
- [Shane] Good to go.
- [Ryan] And then they
said uh, uh, uh, in you go.
So you just gotta think about
what that would do to your brain.
Her brain is Play-Doh right now.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- [Ryan] The police
began to question Erla,
Saevar, and Kristjan about
Geirfinnur's disappearance and,
sure enough, received
confessions from all of them.
Their stories, however, kept changing.
At one point, the murder
happened on a boat.
But the final confession
presented in court
said the men had killed him on land.
Eventually, Kristjan mentioned
a foreign-looking man
who helped them murder Geirfinnur.
That foreign-looking man
was eventually identified
as Gudjon Skarphedinsson, a
former teacher of Saevar's.
- If you had a good teacher,
they say write a note to him,
let him know how much you appreciated him.
- Give him an apple or something?
- Yeah, it'd be weird to be
like, hey you did a great,
I really liked the
multiplication tables we did.
You want to kill a guy?
- You did a really good
job molding my mind.
You did such a good job,
I'd like you to come in
with me on this big score.
- How'd you like to make a man disappear?
(laughs)
- Yeah, like the Joker.
Gudjon was arrested on November 12, 1976.
Though he initially claimed
he could not remember
the night in question,
which at this point was
almost two years ago,
17 days of solitary confinement
managed to jog his
memory and he confessed.
By December 1976, Erla, Saevar,
Kristjan, Gudjon, Tryggvi, and Albert
had confessed to
involvement in the murders.
Despite the fact that all suspects
demonstrated foggy memory of the events,
the fact that Erla, Saevar, and Kristjan
all tried to retract their confessions,
which the court rejected,
and the fact that no murdered
bodies had been discovered,
in December 1977 they were
all found guilty by the court
and given various sentences
relating to their involvement.
- [Shane] Oh boy.
It's getting a little, uh--
- [Ryan] Yeah, this is now getting
kinda comical at this point.
They're just ropin' 'em in.
It's worth pausing to go
over what life was like
for the six while they were
detained by the police.
Albert spent a total of 88
days in solitary confinement.
Erla spent 241 days.
Gudjon spent 412 days.
Tryggvi spent 627.
Kristjan spent 682.
And Saevar spent a whopping 741 days,
more than two full years,
in solitary confinement.
They were periodically
prohibited from sleeping
and interrogated hundreds of times.
According to prison guard
Hlynur Thor Magnusson,
Saevar's head would be
dunked in buckets of water
as he was told he'd drown
if he did not confess.
That is ridiculous.
- [Shane] Usually, it
seems like when they try
to force a confession like this,
it's like they maybe may not reveal
they've got someone locked up,
dunkin' their head in a bucket.
(Ryan laughs)
- Yeah, they--
- They seem
pretty proud of themselves.
- [Ryan] You know, I imagine, yeah,
they were pleased with the results.
While in detention, Kristjan
twice attempted suicide.
At times, he was made to pose
in recreated crime scene photos.
In one, Kristjan
strangles a police officer
who was standing in for Geirfinnur.
False memory experts
say that the acting out
of supposed crimes can make
those crimes more concrete
and realistic in the suspect's mind.
On May 3rd, 1976, Erla,
who was not being detained at the time,
was brought in for
questioning as a witness.
She was kept in custody overnight,
and the following day,
seemingly out of nowhere,
gave a statement that
she had shot Geirfinnur.
She was then detained in
solitary until December 22nd.
- Their cruelty seems to know no end.
If you're already doubting
yourself and thinking, like,
maybe my brain is just blocking
off that part of my memory,
suddenly now you've got sensations
to tie to all the things that
you may or may have not done.
- The psychology of it is, like,
maybe if I give them this
or that, they'll let me go.
And that's all it becomes.
On New Year's Eve 1976, Gisli Gudjonsson,
a young detective at the
time of the disappearances,
who has since become one of the world's
foremost false memory syndrome experts,
gave Gudjon a lie-detector test.
That test sparked something in Gudjon,
causing him to suddenly question
whether he had been involved at all.
He couldn't remember any of it happening.
Gisli, author of the book
The Psychology of False Confessions,
40 Years of Science and Practice,
says false memory syndrome,
which can be triggered by interrogations
with false evidence, isolation,
and tense emotional situations,
can lead to false confessions.
Gisli says that a diary kept by Gudjon
while he was detained in solitary
for 14 months was the best example
of false memory syndrome he's ever seen.
Of the whole case, Gisli says that, quote,
"These individuals had absolutely
"no knowledge of what happened.
"They were just trying
to appease the police.
"They were trying to be cooperative,
"because they knew if
they were not cooperative,
"they would be given more
solitary confinement," end quote.
- [Shane] Well, now,
who's this young go-getter
showin' up on the scene?
Because I like the cut of his jib.
(Ryan laughs)
- [Ryan] Yeah.
He's kind of riding in
like the white knight.
- [Shane] I like you've
got this young detective
sittin' there, he's
probably like hey, you know,
that guy's been in that room for 700 days.
- [Ryan] Maybe that's
not the best practice
that we should be engaging in.
- [Shane] Maybe we wanna maybe think about
what we're doin' here, folks?
Oh no, no?
Okay, well, I'm gonna
write a book about this.
- [Ryan] You know, yeah,
with youth comes a changing
of the guard, so to speak,
and it was necessary here.
In September 2018, everyone
was acquitted but Erla,
who is still fighting a
conviction of perjury.
By then, everyone had already
finished serving their sentences,
and Saevar and Kristjan had
already died, both in their 50s.
While much of that was about how horrible
the justice system in
Iceland was in the 1970s,
there's still a mystery
to get to the bottom of.
So with that, here are some
theories about what happened
to Gudmunder Einarsson
and Geirfinnur Einarrson.
The first theory is that the
police got this one right.
Gudmunder was murdered by Erla, Saevar,
Kristjan, Albert, and Tryggvi.
Geirfinnur was murdered by Erla,
Saevar, Kristjan, and Gudjon.
What evidence is there of this?
No bodies were ever found,
though there was Erla's missing bedsheet.
Missing bedsheet doesn't
always equal murder.
- [Shane] You know, my
freshman year of college.
- [Ryan] Mm-hm.
- [Shane] We went to Bed, Bath
& Beyond to get some stuff,
and my mom was like, hey,
you should get these.
Rubber sheets.
And I said why in the hell
would I buy rubber sheets?
And she was like, you
know, in case you spill,
like, a pop on your bed or something.
- [Ryan] Oh, I thought she was gonna say
'cause you're, like, sleeping
in a pool of your own vomit.
- [Shane] No, no, no.
I was like, are you nuts?
(laughs)
Anyway, back to the murder.
- Did you buy the rubber sheets?
I'm actually--
- No, I didn't buy the rubber sheets!
- Okay, I think you're getting--
- [Shane] Who would do that?
- Apparently you,
'cause you're getting
pretty touchy about it,
which makes me feel like--
- I just think it's hilarious.
- You know what?
Why don't you go stand
in that room for 10 days,
and then I'll ask you
about the rubber sheets.
- Okay, yeah, yeah.
- How about that?
- I like it.
This is good, you're
bringing it back around.
- [Ryan] The second theory is
that neither man was murdered.
While crime was very uncommon in Iceland,
disappearances were not.
In fact, disappearances
happen so often in Iceland
that they feature prominently
in the country's folklore.
In the 50 years prior to these cases,
dozens of people had
gone missing in Iceland,
most of them, their cases unsolved.
In the more than 40 years
since the disappearances
of Gudmundur Einarsson
and Geirfinnur Einarsson,
they too have also taken on
a nearly mythical quality
within Icelandic culture.
- [Shane] I'm buyin' that,
because in Iceland, big open fields
where I don't think people
are walkin' on the reg.
So you get a body out there,
decomposes, nobody knows.
- [Ryan] Yeah.
I'm bookin' my--
- 50 years later--
- [Ryan] I'm booking my
ticket to Iceland right now.
You've sold me.
- [Shane] You gotta check it out.
- [Ryan] I wasn't on
board until you got to
the decomposing body in an open field,
but after that--
- [Shane] It's a lot of land.
A lot of land.
- Okay.
- [Shane] A lot of bodies out there, man.
- [Ryan] Yeah.
A third theory is that
the men were murdered,
but by someone else.
New evidence in the case has compelled
investigators to reopen it.
A new witness says they saw two men
carry a third, weakened man onto a boat
the day Geirfinnur went missing.
That man allegedly told
the eyewitness, quote,
"Remember me," end quote.
When the boat that was carrying two men
and the one weakened
man returned to shore,
there were only the two men on board.
Recently, this witness claims to have seen
one of the men in East
Iceland, decades later,
working on electricity lines.
- [Shane] Weird that you wouldn't just,
if you saw someone carrying a weakened man
who looked at you and said
remember me, you wouldn't maybe
call the local authorities.
- Report that.
Report that.
Get the police on the horn,
maybe do a little hey I
saw a guy get carried off.
He looked like he couldn't
walk, he said remember me.
May wanna look into it.
And they'd be like, well,
we don't have a missing task force, so--
- [Shane] See you later!
- [Ryan] See you later!
Hang it up.
And that's that.
While these mysterious disappearances
took place over 40 years ago,
we can draw important lessons for today
in the way the cases were handled.
While it might be tempting
to try and cram facts
to fit a convenient theory,
truth works the other way around.
Had authorities been better equipped
to discover the facts of the case,
perhaps we'd know what happened
to Gudmundur and Geirfinner.
But because of a rush to
find a convenient solution,
these Icelandic disappearances
remain unsolved.
(ominous music)
It's not often that I
have almost zero hope
that a case is going to be solved.
- I feel that way about most cases.
- Really?
- I'm like, nah.
- There's a small glimmer, but this one,
I just don't think so.
- And for the record,
Iceland is breathtaking.
And you should really consider
headin' out there, man.
- Hard sell after this story,
but yeah, I'll check it out.
- I met an Unsolved fan there.
- Oh really?
- Yeah.
So shout out to all our
murderheads in Iceland.
- You were doing so well.
- Is that what we're calling ourselves?
- Dude.
- All right, see you next week, everybody.
(laughs)
Woo!
(ominous music)
- This week on BuzzFeed Unsolved,
we investigate the murder of Bugsy Siegel,
the infamous mobster who helped launch
the mega casinos that we
associate with Las Vegas today.
- That's me rolling the dice.
- Oh, is that you rolling the dice
at the craps table?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Big Vegas guy.
- Speaking of rolling the dice,
we are taking a chance here
by doing another Mob episode.
- Getting gutsy.
- It's probably fine.
- Oh no, yeah.
- They're all old.
They're not gonna be able to do anything.
Granted, it doesn't really
matter how old you are.
Pulling the trigger is just as easy,
but you know what, I don't
need to sleep at night.
- Pop.
- Okay, Jesus.
- See, that easy.
Okay, let's do it.
- Benjamin Siegel was
born on February 28, 1906
in Brooklyn, New York.
There, along with childhood friends,
Meyer Lansky and Morris Moe Sedway,
Siegel began a criminal career
extorting local street vendors
in exchange for protection
from other gangs in the area.
Fellow gang members
started calling him Bugsy,
a slang term for crazy at the time,
due to his violent temper.
Allegedly, Bugsy was not a
nickname that Siegel cared for,
and those who knew him
would never call him that to his face.
Now this is something I find interesting
about most Mob nicknames.
Almost all of them, this
is the rule that applies.
- You don't call them their.
- You don't call them their
nickname to their face.
But when talking about
them, you use the nickname.
- I guess I could see if someone
were calling you Baby Face.
- Or Tiny.
- Or Tiny.
Who else was there?
I'm trying to think of other popular.
- That's embarrassing that
those are the only two
that come to mind.
- Well, look, I'm not embarrassed
to not know much about the Mob.
Put them behind bars.
- [Ryan] Eventually,
Siegel, Sedway, and Lansky
transitioned to other
crimes like car theft,
bootlegging, and gambling,
rising through the ranks
of New York's organized crime world.
It's widely thought that
Bugsy was one of the four men
who in 1931 executed Joe Masseria
at an Italian restaurant in New York,
leading Lucky Luciano to take the throne
as the chairman of the
board of the American mafia.
In 1937, Lansky sent Bugsy
and Moe to Los Angeles
to build up the Mob's
presence on the west coast.
While the Mob had been heavily involved
in bootlegging during the '20s,
by the time Siegel landed in California,
the 21st Amendment had put
a stop to money to be made
on importing illegal hooch.
It feels like the West
Coast is always painted
as this do good coast.
It's always like we gotta
take the crime syndicate
over to the West Coast.
- Put some over there.
- We never started it over here.
- Too much crime here,
let's put some over there.
- It's just we could never start anything
on our own over here.
- Yeah.
- We're too distracted by the sunshine.
- [Ryan] Bugsy decided
to focus on gambling.
He invested in the SS Rex,
a gambling ship that was docked
three miles outside of Santa Monica
to try and avoid California
anti-gambling laws.
While authorities eventually shut it down,
Bugsy set his sights on Las Vegas.
Nevada had legalized gambling,
so there wouldn't be as many headaches
trying to avoid police.
In 1945, with money from
the syndicate back east,
Siegel took over a struggling
construction project
outside of Las Vegas's city limits,
the Flamingo Hotel and Casino.
At the time, Vegas was nothing
like what we think of today.
The Flamingo would be the first
luxury resort on the Strip.
Siegel hosted the grand
opening of the resort
on December 26, 1946 while the
project was still unfinished.
Nevertheless, mega
superstars like Judy Garland
and Clark Gable were at the opening,
foreshadowing Vegas's glamorous future.
After this party, Siegel closed the resort
to finish construction,
and the Mob back east became antsy.
- I will say building
a big, giant, expensive
luxury resort in the middle of a desert--
- You know what, it seems
like a bit of a gamble.
It's good.
- That's really great, it's good stuff.
- Bit of a gamble.
- By this time, the project's cost
had ballooned from Siegel's
originally budgeted
one million to up to six million dollars,
much of the overruns believed to be due
to Siegel skimming from the top.
If there's one thing to
remember about the Mob,
it's that you don't steal from it.
During a meeting of Mob bigwigs in Cuba,
an agreement was reached
on the fate of Bugsy.
If the Flamingo proved to be a success,
he'd be able to make things right.
Luckily for Bugsy, by May of 1947,
the Flamingo had already
made $250,000 in profit.
Unluckily for Bugsy, that
apparently wasn't enough.
$250,000 of profit, that's
like a decent enterprise
right there, I would say.
- Not good enough for me.
- Not enough for you to be stealing.
- I would not be happy with him.
- [Ryan] On June 20th, 1947,
Siegel was sitting on a chintz sofa
in the living room of his
mistress Virginia Hill's home
in Beverly Hills.
At 10:45 PM, from a rose-covered pergola
just 14 feet from Bugsy, a
30-caliber military rifle
fired at least nine shots at the mobster.
Four rounds hit him,
killing him instantly.
Just moments later, three
of Meyer Lansky's henchmen
strolled into the Flamingo Hotel
and declared the casino was now theirs.
Despite his fame, coroners
misspelled Siegel's name
on his toe tag, and his funeral
lasted a mere five minutes
with only about six people in attendance.
- I don't think that's a
testament to how popular he was,
as much as it was a testament
to maybe the Mob's power.
- Get him to the ground.
- Well, it's like.
- Don't show up.
Don't go to that funeral.
- You know the Mob whacked this person.
Maybe don't show up in support of him.
You don't want to add yourself
to an ever growing list.
- If I get murdered,
nobody come to my funeral.
- Don't think you're gonna have
to put that disclaimer out.
It's gonna happen on its own.
- Are you, that's unbelievable.
(Ryan laughs)
Now that I've put the disclaimer out,
that's the reason why.
- There it is.
- I don't want anyone at
my funeral, you hear me?
- [Ryan] According to
Beverly Hills Police Chief
Clinton H. Anderson, quote,
"We spent many man hours
"investigating the Siegel case
"and were convinced that he was
killed by his own associates
"but there was never sufficient evidence
"to pinpoint the identity
of the assassin," end quote.
With that, it's time to
start looking at theories
behind who murdered Bugsy Siegel.
- Theory one, the Mob.
See you next week.
(Ryan laughs)
- [Ryan] Our first theory
is Eddie Cannizzaro,
AKA The Cat Man.
Cannizzaro was a former
errand boy for Jack Dragna,
who was once described in a report
by the State Crime Commission as quote,
"the Al Capone of California," end quote.
Cannizzaro died in 1987 of heart failure,
but before he passed
on, he called a reporter
and federal agents to his deathbed,
where he confessed to seven
murders, including Siegel's.
According to Cannizzaro's
confession, quote,
"It was a clean hit.
"I was picked because I knew Siegel
"and wouldn't make a mistake," end quote.
- I don't know if a murder being personal
necessarily makes you less
likely to make a mistake.
But I guess if he's on his deathbed,
let him have the sentiment.
- You may in the sense
that you know them better,
you know maybe how they react,
you know maybe where they--
- But wouldn't that
also bring into emotion?
What if you remember, like
you're about to do the hit,
I have the scope right at your big head,
and I'm thinking, we did have
some good times on the road.
Maybe I shouldn't do this.
- Yeah.
- You know, that kind of thing.
- But then you're.
- But then I got
a job to do.
- Your professionalism
wins over.
- My professionalism
wins over.
- You pull that trigger.
- And I gallagher your head, yeah.
So you know.
(Ryan laughs)
- Jesus Christ.
- [Ryan] Casting doubt on
Cannizzaro's confession
are a few inconsistencies in his story.
Cannizzaro claimed he was questioned
in connection with the murder at the time,
but there's no record
of an interview with him
in the Bugsy case file.
As well, Cannizzaro claimed
that after the murder,
he drove off in the direction
of Wilshire Boulevard.
A neighbor questioned after
Bugsy was killed, however,
told police that after the gunshots,
a car was heard hurdling
in the opposite direction
toward Sunset Boulevard.
At the time of his death,
Cannizzaro was living with his mother
and over 30 cats in the
Agora Hills neighborhood
of western LA county.
He was hoping to create a
birth control serum for cats
and had asked some of
his old pals in Las Vegas
for funding.
- Very funny that this man has 30 cats
and is trying desperately
to stop them breeding.
- Yeah, maybe.
- I like to think
he had two cats and then
a year later had 30 cats
and was like "I gotta shut this down."
- I just, I don't feel
like that's something
you disclose to your Mob buddies.
Like you're tossing back
beers and you're like,
I got 30 cats, working on a serum.
- Yeah, everyone's probably
telling crazy stories,
like, "Well, you know, I got 30 cats."
And everyone's like.
"I mean, uh, I mean I'm
trying to stop them."
- I'm trying to stop them from boning.
It's controlling my mind.
I got a serum, you want to try it?
- I'm working on a serum.
- Also, I hate that he calls it a serum.
It makes me feel like
he is doing some like
garage science.
- I'm working on a
special little juice that I
inject in their testicles.
- Eddie, get out of the garage.
Stop working on your damn serum.
- Shut up, Mother.
(Ryan laughs)
- [Ryan] The second theory is
a World War II vet, Robert Macdonald.
This theory comes from Warren Hull,
an executive assistant in Nevada
who said Macdonald's
role in Siegel's murder
had been a family secret for decades.
On his deathbed, Hull's
father urged his son
to research the story
and get it out there.
Hull obliged the dying man's request,
going on to create a 400
slide PowerPoint presentation
laying out the points of his case.
- Yowza.
Who's he showing that to?
- Yeah, yeah, who is he showing that?
I guess investigators, perhaps?
- You just inviting friends
over for margaritas?
I got something I want to show you.
It's crazy.
It's gonna take about
four and a half hours.
- Is this your trip to Niagara Falls?
Hope you went to the bathroom
because there's no breaks.
Macdonald was married to
Hull's mother's cousin
and best friend, Betty Ann Macdonald.
Betty Ann's mother, Gaynell Rockwell,
worked at City Hall in Los Angeles.
There, she met Jack Dragna,
the Al Capone of California
from our previous theory.
Gaynell told Dragna her
daughter was having troubles
with her husband Macdonald,
who could be violent at times.
Macdonald also happened
to owe the Mob $30,000.
Dragna went to Macdonald explaining
his debts would be forgiven
if he offed Siegel.
According to Hull, Macdonald's
time in the military
made him an expert marksman,
including with a 30-caliber carbine,
the alleged murder weapon.
Again, however, the neighbor's report
of a speeding car cast
doubt on this theory.
Hull thinks that Macdonald,
who lived just on the
other side of a golf course
from Virginia Hill, would
have escaped on foot,
sneaking back to his home less
than a mile away in the dark.
- He just lived on the
other side of the hill.
He'd sneak through the dark covert,
like on foot.
- Unless.
- He wanted to throw them off?
- Yes.
Why would I drive when I could just walk?
- You really think he
went that deep into it?
- The old double bluff.
- [Ryan] Just three months
after Bugsy's murder,
Macdonald would go on to shoot himself
and his wife Betty Ann.
Hull says there's no evidence
that Beverly Hills Police
ever investigated Macdonald as
a suspect in Siegel's murder
despite the fact that
Macdonald allegedly used
the same type of weapon to
kill himself and his wife
as he did on Siegel less than a mile away
and only three months
after Bugsy's murder.
Hull believes it's even possible
that Howard Hughes may
have pressured police
not to investigate Macdonald,
as he had worked closely
with the man's father.
- Little Howard, yeah, little Howie.
- Little Howie came in here.
And most of these Mob ones,
I feel like it's like,
maybe he did it behind the barn
and buried him in the,
tossed his body in the river,
whereas this one actually has
things that link him to
the crime, I feel like.
- Tricky thing is the Mob is
good at covering their tracks.
- That is true.
That's what they're built on.
A third theory comes from Bee Sedway,
the wife of Moe Sedway,
Bugsy's childhood friend
coming up in the Mob.
According to Bee, Moe had
been sending casino numbers
back to Meyer Lansky on the east coast,
including gambling
winnings and, crucially,
construction costs.
Bugsy conducted a meeting in
March of 1947 without Moe.
There, he reportedly said he
was looking to get rid of Moe,
saying, quote, "I'll have
Moe shot, chop his body up,
"and feed it to the Flamingo Hotel's
"kitchen garbage disposal," end quote.
- I thought you were gonna say
he was gonna feed them to the flamingos,
and that would have been cool as hell.
- [Ryan] One of the attendees told Moe,
who called his wife and asked
her to drive from LA to Vegas.
The two then drove out into the desert
and then walked even further
to ensure a private conversation.
- Walking into the desert to
have a private conversation.
- Well, because that's the
only way you can ensure.
- Oh hey, I get it.
- Also, not gonna lie,
if you do have a death
threat on your head,
maybe not best to walk out
where no one can find you or see you.
- Good point.
- Let's pre-package
ourself for this murderer.
Make it real nice and easy.
- Bring some shovels with him.
- It must be real nice,
they can't hear us at all.
- Let's have a private conversation.
You know what we ought to do?
Dig a hole for ourselves.
- (laughs) They'll
never find us down here.
- Six feet down, I feel
that'll be pretty good.
- It'll be good, it'll be great.
When Moe told his wife of
the threat against him,
Bee immediately called
Mathew Moose Pandza,
a crane operator and Bee's lover.
Moe and Bee, who married when
he was 41 and she just 17,
had a very unconventional
marriage for the time.
They were very honest with one another
and knew about one another's
extramarital companions.
In fact, Moe had insisted
that upon his death,
Moose was to marry Bee.
After their meeting,
Moose arrived in Las Vegas
to protect Moe.
After the Mob boss meeting in Cuba,
where cost overruns on the
Flamingo were discussed, however,
Lansky gave Moe his blessing
to take matters into his own hands.
Moose volunteered to do the job
and spent weeks practicing
his marksmanship.
- I got a question about my boy Moose.
- Yeah?
- Is he a little guy?
- Oh, 'cause you think usually in the Mob
it's kinda like--
- yeah, yeah, yeah,
like a big tall lanky guy
like me would be short stack
or something.
- They are fans
of oxymorons.
- Yeah, I love people
being like "Oh, wait
'til Moose gets here."
Big knock at the door.
They open the door and
a little, "Hey there.
"What's the problem here?" (laughs)
- "Moe's in trouble?
"Let me hop in the Moose-mobile."
Drives down.
According to Bee, after
pulling the trigger,
Moose hurried to the car and
drove straight to Santa Monica,
where he broke down the rifle,
leaving the butt of the gun on a rooftop
and throwing the barrel into the ocean.
As his health was
failing, Bee's son Robbie
reached out to a reporter
to tell his mother's story.
When that reporter reached out to
the Beverly Hills Police
Department to check whether Moose
had been considered a
suspect, they replied, quote,
"It's in the best interest
of the city of Beverly Hills
"not to speak to you," end quote.
- I love the fact that that posh office
could possibly be dirty.
- Yeah, I think that's just
how everything in California
back then was just filthy.
- Really though?
- Oh yeah.
- Oh, I guess, Beverly Hills,
I always saw as a place
that like, I know a lot of
LA was corrupt, but I just.
- All of it, every, all of it.
- So you go by the principle
that the more glamorous,
the more dirty perhaps.
- Oh for sure.
- Yeah, I could get behind that.
Yet another theory
suggests the Chicago Mob
took down Bugsy with the
help of Siegel's mistress
Virginia Hill.
Hill had been considered
a trusted Mob courier,
and according to author Andy Edmonds,
the Chicago Mob used Hill
as a source of information
on Bugsy's dealings.
While Siegel was building the Flamingo,
the Chicago Mob was financing
a competing resort, The Dunes,
on the current site of the Bellagio.
Siegel's murder also took
place at Hill's home.
Hill would have been able
to inform an assassin
about Siegel's habit of reading the paper
in her living room at night,
and Hill had conveniently
skipped town for Paris that day.
Hill eventually moved to Europe
to avoid charges of tax evasion,
where she died at the age of 49.
Her death was deemed an overdose,
but some have their suspicions
that the Mob was involved.
- Chicago Mob.
- Oh boy.
- They're good at what they do, you know?
- Yeah, I knew you were
gonna come to this, shocker!
- Someone who was born under the bean,
let me tell you, Chicago,
we know what we're doing.
It's interesting a lot of Mob movies,
you look at Goodfellas,
stuff like that, sure,
all takes place east coast.
But you really want something done?
Go to those boys in Chicago.
- You know, I gotta say, in
a shocking turn of events,
Shane talked about Chicago
again in an episode.
Frankly, what an upset.
- Oh and the pizza.
- [Ryan] As one expects with Mob killings,
there are plenty of
other theories out there,
mostly unsubstantiated.
To this day, no one has
ever been prosecuted
in the death of Benjamin Bugsy Siegel,
and while what happens
in Vegas stays in Vegas,
what happened to the man who
helped birth modern Vegas
remains unsolved.
- I know I've busted this out before,
but this is very much a case of.
- Oh boy.
- Just gonna have to let it be a mystery.
- There it is.
It took us three episodes to get to that,
and we've arrived.
- Some things you'll just never uncover,
and you just gotta, yeah,
that's the way of the world.
- If there's one where the
evidence seems the most strong,
I would say that it's
the one that involves
Moe, Moose, and Lansky.
- And just love Moose.
- I do love me some Moose.
- Big Moose fan.
- Big Moose fan.
But either that or the Hill
one also makes sense too.
But if I had to go with
one, I would go with Moose.
- All in on Moose.
- Yeah, I'm putting it all
on Moose there.
- All the chips.
- Slide them all in.
- Is that good?
Is that okay to end on?
A nice Vegas reference.
- Yeah, there you go.
- See you next week. (Ryan laughs)
- This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved,
we take a look into the
Texarkana Phantom Killer.
A case that has been
referred to as, quote,
"The number one unsolved
murder case in Texas history"
end quote.
- Number one baby.
- Yeah, it is.
- I love it.
- I don't think they have a big board
in the Texas police station where they...
- What do you think, they vote?
- Well it seems all relative, right?
- Yeah, I guess so.
But they seem pretty
resolute about this guy
bein' at the top of the heap.
- And it's a rowdy town.
You'll see that.
- Is it really?
- It's a rowdy town.
- You've been there?
- No, I haven't been there
but I read it's a rowdy town.
- Fun to read about a rowdy town.
- A rowdy town with two rowdy boys.
Let's get into it.
On February 22nd 1946, in the
Texas-Arkansas border town,
appropriately named
Texarkana, Jimmy Hollis, 25,
and Mary Jeanne Larey, 19,
went on a date to the movies
and began driving back
to Mary Jeanne's home.
On the way, they stopped their
car on a quiet, unpaved road
about 100 yards away
from some houses in a
residential neighborhood.
- That's what I like to hear.
- There you go.
- Yeah.
You know what they're doing.
Here we go, wait.
- So wait, in this scenario--
- Is this still funny?
It's 2019.
When did this bit start?
Like God, this had to
be like caveman times.
- You think like a Neanderthal
looked at its other Neanderthal
pals and went... (laughs)
- Yeah, probably.
It's one of the world's greatest bits.
I feel like people don't
do it enough nowadays
'cause we take it for granted.
Spread that around this year.
If you see your two friends
and you think maybe they've
been smoochin' behind your back,
be like, "I know what you
guys are up to, a little..."
- I actually don't think
your angle's catchin' it.
I think we can still see
your face a little bit,
so you might have to turn.
If I turn.
- It's like we're both makin' out.
- [Ryan] After about 10 minutes,
a man walked up, as Mary
Jeanne would later relate.
Quote, "He wore a white mask over his head
"with cut-out places
for his eyes and mouth.
"He pointed a flashlight and pistol at us.
"He came up on the
driver's side of the car
"and told Jimmy something like this,
"'I don't want you to kill you, fellow,
"'so do what I say'" end quote.
Both Jimmy and Mary
Jeanne got out of the car.
The assailant made
Jimmy take off his pants
then hit him twice over the head,
cracking Jimmy's skull and
knocking him unconsciousness.
The attacker then tried
to sexually assault
and rob Mary Jeanne.
- Oh, okay, it did, it was
good, it got a little rough.
- Yeah, it's a little rough.
- Interesting that he would
go through the theatrics
of wearing a mask.
- Yeah, anytime someone wears a mask
and it's a serial killer situation
you wonder, did they intend
to maybe let them go?
Because the only reason
why you're wearing a mask
is so that they can't
then identify you later.
- Yeah, oh, that's true.
- If a killer approached
me and he had a mask on
I would feel a little bit better
about my chances of surviving.
'Cause if he walks up with a gun
and you could just see his face
like I could see it's your face,
I know that's probably the
last thing I'm gonna see.
And right now, I actually
thought of staring
into those dead, cold eyes,
and if that's the last
thing I see on this earth,
I made some mistakes along the way.
- Yeah, I'd say so.
(Ryan laughs)
- Mary Jeanne pleaded with the attacker,
telling him they didn't have any money.
The attacker hit Mary Jeanne,
knocking her to the ground.
When she got up, the man told her to run.
Mary Jeanne took off down the road,
but was wearing high heels.
The assailant quickly overtook
her and hit her again,
knocking her to the ground,
where he began to abuse her.
At this point, Jimmy struggled to his feet
and managed to stop a passing car.
It's thought the assailant
saw the car lights
and fled from Mary Jeanne.
Both Jimmy and Mary Jeanne
received medical treatment.
Jimmy spent over 12 days
recovering in the hospital.
This guy did literally
get his skull cracked
and still was able to get up
and flag down another car,
which then saved their lives.
- Yeah.
- Good for Jimmy.
- I mean it could just
be a fracture, right?
I don't know how skulls really work.
- From what I read, it was-
- Pretty bad?
- A pretty severe crack.
From the description, she
thought that he had shot him.
That's how loud the cracking noise was.
- Oh.
- Which is not good.
- So oh-for-two.
- Yeah, oh-for-two.
But this, as you'll see,
would be just the first of his attacks.
In the mid-40s,
Texarkana was a relatively violent place.
Killings, robberies and other crimes
were very common.
It might make sense then,
while the attack on Jimmy
and Mary Jeanne was brutal,
the community didn't pay it much attention
until another attack
occurred a month later.
This one fatal.
- Yeah, I mean it must
be an upsetting place
if a masked man trying
to assault two people
is just passing news.
- Yeah.
- It's like, oh, did ya hear
about that masked phantom
who tried to murder two people?
Oh yeah.
Hey, let's go get a soda pop.
- [Ryan] On the morning of March 24th,
authorities found the bodies
of 29-year-old Richard L. Griffin
and 17-year-old Polly Ann
Moore in a 1941 Oldsmobile
on what was then known as a lovers' lane.
Both had been shot in
the back of the head.
Richard was found between the
two front seats on his knees,
with his head in his hands.
His pants pockets were inside out,
thought to be the result of
someone trying to rob him.
Polly Ann was discovered face down
in the back seat of the car,
though there was evidence that suggested
she may have been murdered
on a blanket outside the car
and placed there later.
The couple had last
been seen around 10 p.m.
the night before, eating
dinner with Richard's sister.
They had been shot with what
was thought to have been
a Colt .32 caliber pistol
and any footprints that would
have been around the car
had been washed away throughout the day.
- We gotta give kids places to make out.
- That's unfortunately,
most of these serial killer
cases happen in a lover's lane scenario.
- That's what I'm saying.
We gotta give 'em a well-lit area
that is central to a town's location.
- Maybe some water,
vending machines nearby.
- Oh yeah, some soda.
- Yeah.
- Some Sprees, whatever.
Just a place with a bunch...
Well probably don't wanna bring
hammocks into the equation
'cause the smoochin' might elevate.
- That is true.
Also, a hammock would
be really hard to escape
if a serial killer did come up to you
while you were smooching in a hammock.
- Well for sure.
- It's impossible.
- It's just a murder bag.
- You're trapped in a little net.
You're like in a little spider net.
Though there weren't many
clues for authorities
to go off of, three
days after the killings,
at least 50 people had
been asked about the murder
and over 100 false leads
had been investigated.
While this attack, ending in
the murder of a young couple,
turned more heads than the first assault,
the community still believed these events
to be isolated incidents.
Three weeks later, their
indifference would change
into a frenzy of fear.
On April 14th, authorities
found the bodies
of 15-year-old Betty Jo Booker
and 16-year-old Paul Martin.
The previous night, the
two teens had attended
a band performance at the
Veterans of Foreign Wars Club,
where Betty Jo played alto saxophone.
They were also seen leaving the dance
around 1:30 in the morning.
Paul had been shot four times
and was discovered in a rural
area on North Park Road.
Betty Jo had been raped and shot twice.
Her body was found up in
the woods about a mile away.
- So escalating, getting worse.
- Getting worse, he's
getting a little more bold.
One thing you can note though,
'cause you always see the
trends of these serial killers,
all of these were couples.
- Interesting.
- [Ryan] Both had been shot
with a .32 caliber Colt,
the same weapon thought to be
used in the previous attack.
This being the third attack
in less than two months,
now with four young people dead,
the community was finally paying attention
and they were panicked.
When their husbands and
fathers were away for work,
women and children would
move into the aptly named
Hotel Grim in downtown Texarkana.
- Sorta like a staycation.
- No, it's not like a staycation.
It's more like a people around
us are getting murdered.
Let's all huddle together under the roof
of a place named the Hotel Grim.
- Well clearly, it's a
popular establishment,
and if everybody trusts them,
they're going there as a place of refuge.
- I suppose.
- Maybe stop being so
judgy of these people.
- The thing is, maybe I
just don't have the insight
that you have, because
this town, as I said,
was a rowdy town.
They even called it Little Chicago.
And as we all know, that's
where you hail from.
- I hail from Big Chicago, big, big.
- Murder Town, USA.
- (laughs) There's some big issues there.
(Ryan laughs)
- [Ryan] Others bought guns
and crafted homemade security systems
from kitchenware and
wire around their homes.
Typically bustling streets went quiet.
The Texarkana Gazette named the
attacked the Phantom Killer.
- It doesn't help that the press named him
the Phantom Killer.
They gave him a nickname.
You give someone a
nickname, it's a compliment.
We should never be doing
that for the serial killer.
- Don't puff him up.
- 'Cause he probably read
that in the paper the next day
and was like that's got a ring to it.
I'm gonna get some business cards printed.
Tillman Johnson, one of
the lead investigators,
said, quote, "We were
constantly getting calls,
"mostly at night about prowlers.
"People would called about any noise
"they heard at all," end quote.
Everybody was afraid they
would be the next victim
of the Phantom Killer.
- Seems like a little bit of a stretch
for really any Texan in the 1940s to say
you know what, I think I
might need to buy a gun.
- It is also funny that they're setting
a little Kevin McCallister
booby traps around the house.
- I love that.
I think people perhaps
undervalue booby traps.
- I don't think they're
that practical in real life.
- They could be if you do it well.
- Who are you trying to booby
trap on a regular basis?
Your cat, your sweet Obi?
He's a sweet boy.
- You tryin' to booby trap that cat?
- No, I wanna do the opposite.
I wanna booby hug him.
- Booby hug him.
- I don't know what the term is.
Whatever the opposite of a booby trap is.
- Well it's definitely not that.
- I wanna lay down a path of rose petals.
Come this way, sir.
You're a sweet boy with a fuzzy face.
I'll give you a little hug.
- [Ryan] On May 3rd, 37-year-old
farmer, Virgil Starks,
was listening to the radio
when a .22 caliber round tore
through his front porch window
and hit him.
His wife, Katie, left their
bedroom to find Virgil bleeding
in the living room.
Katie went to call for help
when the attacker shot her twice
in the face.
The bullets knocked some of her teeth out
but she survived.
Ducking to avoid more shots,
she made her way back to the bedroom.
As the attacker tried to break in through
the kitchen window, Katie
escaped out the front door,
with a bullet stuck under her tongue
and trailing blood behind her.
Katie made it to a nearby farmhouse
where she was taken to
the hospital and survived.
Virgil however died.
- I don't like any mouth, teeth stuff.
Don't like it.
- No, like when people get into fights
and you can see the teeth coming like...
- Ugh.
- And they're falling out of their mouth.
- I've got big issues with teeth.
Even if I'm sitting with
someone who is taking a fork
and eating and it scrapes
against their teeth.
- Oh yeah, I don't like either a drill.
- Ooh, I don't like it.
- We're also lightly
glossing over the fact-
- She got shot in the face.
- That she got shot in the face twice.
- Yeah, that's worse than a fork scraping.
- [Ryan] An indication of
the fear the Phantom Killer
had instilled in the community,
20 to 30 police officers converged
on the Starks's farmhouse.
Police tried to gather evidence
and interview possible
suspects and witnesses.
According to Johnson, quote,
"People would stand out near
the front of their homes
"and yell at you to identify yourself
"before you got too close.
"You had to identify yourself
"or you would get shot," end quote.
- Fair.
- Yeah.
I mean, we're on a high alert here.
If this was me, I'd have
a double-barrelled shotgun
pointed directly at the door at all times.
- You'd probably have to have shifts
'cause I'd want someone
out there at night, too.
- I'm staying up day and
night, I don't sleep.
- Well then, now you're
setting yourself up for,
that's vulnerable, 'cause
you're gonna fall asleep.
- That's true, maybe I'll take a nap.
- Yeah, take a nap.
- I'll take a nap.
Let's do shifts, you're right.
Shifts are right, shifts are good.
I wanted to be, I've
never even shot a gun.
- You've never shot a gun?
- No.
- You don't have to.
- I don't think I have to.
Authorities followed bloody footprints
left by the killer that
went from the house
across the highway,
where they eventually lost the trail.
While this incident exacerbated the fear
of the Phantom Killer,
it's possible this killing
was done by someone else.
The other attacks had targeted people
younger than the Starks
and had taken place in cars, not homes.
In addition, Virgil was shot
with a .22 caliber semiautomatic pistol,
a different weapon than the .32 caliber
used in the previous murders
of Betty Jo and Paul.
Still, this incident was included
in the Phantom investigation
as panic swept the area.
Authorities took to
dressing as young couples
in an effort to lure the murderer,
but it appeared the Phantom was done.
Two months later, with
no more Phantom murders,
the community's fear began to decrease
and life started to get back to normal.
No one was ever found
guilty of the murders.
- Backtrack just a bit.
- About the dressing up?
- Yup, exactly right.
- Yeah, thought so.
- I'm imagining an old Texan
man with a large busy mustache.
Just like a chubby Sam Elliott,
a cop hat on, white t-shirt,
pack of cigarettes rolled up in it.
- You're imagining a clearly
adult, burly police officer
trying to look like a 16-year-old boy.
- 100%.
- And it's hilarious.
- Yes, and next to him,
also an adult male.
- With a big old mustache and a wig on.
- Yeah, sort of like
pretending to make out.
Or maybe actually makin' out-
- Or pre-recorded noises
of smoochin' noises.
- Oh, like a Ferris Bueller situation.
(kissing noises)
- That's like cartoon kissing.
No one sounds like that when they kiss.
(cartoon kissing)
- [Ryan] With that,
it's time to look into possible theories
behind the Texarkana Phantom murders,
of which there are basically only two.
The first theory is H.
B. "Doodie" Tennison,
a college student who confessed
to some of the killings
in a note left behind
after he killed himself.
According to a newspaper
from the day of his death,
a sheriff reportedly said
the note read, quote,
"Why did I take my own life?
"Well, when you committed
two double murders,
"you would too.
"Yes, I did kill Betty
Jo Booker and Paul Martin
"in the city park that night,
"and killed Mr. Stark
"and tried to get Mrs. Stark," end quote.
According to Doodie's cousin,
forensic psychiatrist Dr. John Tennison,
Doodie had connections
to all of the victims.
He was allegedly an usher at the theater
where some victims of the
attacks had seen movies
before their deaths,
and had been in the same
high school band as Betty Jo.
According to Dr. Tennison,
one of Doodie's friends
lived under the same roof
as the sister of Katie Starks.
- All right.
- So he had some connections
to some of the victims.
But I will note that the sources
when it came to that note in particular
were shaky, at best.
- It was just him, how do
they save these things?
Why is this hearsay?
- People wanna have--
- Answer me!
- It's like that.
People in the public want answers.
There's this horrible thing
happening in their town,
they look to the authorities for answers
and if they don't have
them, there's outrage.
So you need to have something to say.
- Interesting.
- So, as a result, some shoddy reporting.
- But it is fairly convenient
that he has all these
connections to them and-
- It is.
He's a very interesting suspect for sure.
But for me, because there's that note,
and these connections,
and yet he still wasn't
indicted for the crimes,
there must've been something
that ruled him out outright.
- Yeah.
- [Ryan] Our other theory
is 29-year-old Youell Lee Swinney.
Around the time of the attacks,
Arkansas state trooper Max Tackett
observed that cars were reported stolen
and later found abandoned
whenever the Phantom
Killer made an attack.
Following this lead led
police to stake out a downtown
parking lot on June 28th 1946,
where a stolen car was abandoned.
This led to the arrest of
21-year-old Peggy Swinney,
the new wife of one Youell Lee Swinney.
While in custody, Peggy gave
many detailed statements,
explaining how her husband
committed the murders
of Betty Jo and Paul,
though descriptions of her own involvement
varied from statement to statement.
On July 23rd, Peggy gave a statement
saying that on April 13th,
the day before the
bodies of Betty Jo Booker
and Paul Martin were found,
she and Youell parked at Spring Lake Park
and drank some beers.
According to her statement,
Youell left the car,
saying he had to, quote,
"take a leak" end quote.
Peggy said, quote, "He
was gone from the car
"about one hour when I heard something
"that sounded like two gunshots."
"It was just getting daylight
when he came back to the car
"and started driving out of the park
"at a rapid rate of speed.
"When he came back to the car,
"I saw that his clothes
were wet up to his knees
"and damp on up to his waist," end quote.
- She says that her boyfriend
steps out of the car
to go pee and that he takes a long time,
comes back, and when he
comes back he's very rushed.
- She's heard gunshots.
- He's driving,
she's heard gunshots,
he's driving very fast,
he's wet, not 'cause of the pee,
I imagine because he--
- went through a creek or something?
- It's near a lake, so...
- It's near a lake.
Washing off the blood?
She does seem to have a
fair amount of details.
- She does, and there's
one detail that she has
that is very interesting that she knows,
and we'll get to that in a second.
- Okay.
- [Ryan] On July 24th, Peggy
gave another statement.
In this one, she said
Youell had said, quote,
"He was going out to the park
to rob someone," end quote.
Peggy said she went with
Youell to Paul Martin's car,
where Youell pointed a
gun at the young couple
and told them to get out of the car.
Peggy said that she refused
to search the teenagers,
which angered Youell,
and he shot Martin twice.
Peggy then allegedly
held Betty Jo in place
while Youell got his car.
He drove it back, made both
girls get into the car,
drove west, turned around,
and shot Paul two more times,
as he had apparently been
able to get up and move
after the first two shots.
He took Betty Jo into the woods
while Peggy waited in the car.
When Youell returned, he told
Peggy he had tried to, quote,
"get some" end quote, with the young girl,
and then shot her after she refused.
- Wait, so this is the same
attack but a different story?
- So she gave multiple
statements about this day
that they were at the lake.
One version she says
he left and came back.
This version she says--
- she was well-involved
with all this.
- she was somewhat involved.
She said that he was going
to go rob these people.
- I see.
- [Ryan] While Peggy's story shifted,
she crucially told police
information that only someone
who had been at the scene of
the crime would have known.
For instance, Peggy mentioned
how Paul's date book
was thrown into some bushes.
A fact that only Bowie county
sheriff, W. H. "Bill" Presley
knew at the time,
as he had been the one
who'd found the book.
- So it sounds like she knows
what she's talkin' about.
- Okay, so there's two scenarios, right?
She was then when the
murder happened, or...
- She happened upon it.
- She happened upon it
while they were at the lake,
found these bodies, saw that
there was that in the bush,
and then ran away and then realized later
maybe they'll find out I was there.
- Yeah.
- But I will say that if
scenario two was true,
it does not make a bit of
sense for her to be like
yeah, we decided we were gonna rob them.
- Oh, they might find out I was there.
I know what, I'll tell them we killed 'em.
That doesn't make any sense.
- (laughs) I know what, I'll
tell them he killed them
and I thought about a robbery.
- And I just was there.
- But I wasn't down.
Youell was arrested at the
Arkansas Motor Coach Bus Station
as he arrived back from Atlanta,
where he had attempted
to sell a stolen car.
While his wife was willing
to talk to investigators,
Youell was not.
Critically, while Peggy
did give statements
to investigators, she could
not be forced to testify
against Youell, as they had gotten married
mere hours before police arrested her.
- I'm having a hard time taking
the temperature on these two
do they love each other?
- I don't know.
- Well, clearly not, because she's--
- She's ratting him out,
but that also could be self-preservation.
She could have been involved.
- Do they get off on this?
- that's what I was saying..
Like a weird Bonnie and Clyde?
- But Bonnie and Clyde stuck together.
Bonnie wasn't like hey,
you gotta check out
this Clyde guy.
- [Ryan] Youell was taken to Little Rock
for a truth serum shot,
but he was given too much,
which caused him to pass out.
Investigator Tillman Johnson said, quote,
"I think that if we had just kept him here
"in Texarkana and kept questioning him,
"we would have gotten the truth
"out of him eventually," end quote.
- Well, the truth serum's not real.
- Yeah, I mean we've come across this
very elusive truth serum.
- It's not a real thing.
We've looked it up.
- And in most of these cases,
I mean, whatever it is,
apparently you can overdose on it.
You could take too much
truth serum, too much serum!
- Too much serum, man.
So you're bringing in this quack doctor
who's like "He's not tellin'
the truth, give him more."
- "Let me inject him with
my lemon juice cocktail."
- "He's lookin' pretty woozy, doc."
- [Ryan] Peggy was imprisoned
for her own involvement
in the car theft, but eventually released.
Youell was sentenced
to life in state prison
for being a habitual criminal
after the auto theft charge
but was released on parole in 1973,
when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
decided that he didn't have
adequate representation
on a car theft charge from 1941.
Youell died in a nursing
home in Dallas in 1994.
- Crazy to think you can
kill five people in the 1940s
and then live long enough to
see Jurassic Park in theaters.
- Thank you for that.
- [Shane] Discuss some other things-
- Thank you for that colorful
perspective. (laughs)
- I'm just trying to put into perspective
the fact that this man, so long ago,
committed these crimes and
then, so far into the future-
- And then he saw the rise
of Industrial Light & Magic.
- ILM.
They're wizards.
- Yeah, I don't really know
how to wrap this one up
because it's just upsetting
because I feel like this
man got away with it.
- Or the other guy.
Gotta say that.
- Or the other guy.
- But it does seem like this guy.
(Ryan laughs)
- The Texarkana Phantom murders
stand out as managing to
stoke a frenzy of fear
in a community that had been
numbed to violent crime.
As W. E. Atchison, a resident of the area,
who was 16 at the time of
the attack, said, quote,
"The big wonder for everyone back then
"was whether the killings
were being done by someone
"who lived among us,
"and I still wonder
who did it," end quote.
Across four attacks, five
people were shot to death,
and three others were severely injured.
As for who was responsible,
that remains unsolved.
(suspenseful strings)
(dark music)
I will say that since
the time of the murders,
the town really has leaned into it.
The movie that was made
about this was called
The Town That Dreaded Sundown.
- I've heard of that.
I didn't realize that was about that.
I've never seen it but good title.
- Yeah, that's about the
Texarkana Phantom Killer.
- Dang.
- Well I don't really know
how to wrap this one up
because it's sad.
Here's a positive spin.
- Yeah, let's do it.
What you got?
This made the town rally together.
- And they thought maybe
we gotta stop being
so violent with each other.
- That didn't happen
but they certainly remember the murders.
- Well then they said let's
remember these murders forever.
- There it is.
- And I'm sure it's a lovely town.
- Yeah, I have never been.
- Well we've have to go sometime.
- Okay.
We could watch the movie too.
- Yeah, I'll just watch the movie.
- The Town That Dreaded Sundown, yeah.
- Yeah, we'll just watch the movie.
(dark music)
(light bulb buzzing)
- This week on BuzzFeed Unsolved,
we take a look into the
Florida machete murder
of Athalia Ponsell Lindsley
in our continuing exploration
into why Florida is the way that it is.
- It is a unique place
with some funny stories coming out of it.
- They have the Magical
World of Harry Potter.
Or, is it the Wizarding World?
- What about Miami Beach, baby?
- Yeah, sure, Miami Beach,
right.
- Never been.
- Yeah, you don't seem
like a Miami Beach type.
Anyways, we're here to talk
about a machete murder.
And also, we have talked
about Florida in the past.
We investigated that lady who
exploded in her living room.
- I loved that lady!
- You did?
- I mean, I didn't know her,
it was a good story.
- You did love the fact
that her head was the size
of a tiny little teaspoon
or a teacup.
Anyways, let's get into it.
Born into a life of privilege,
Athalia Ponsell Lindsley was
a former Broadway actress,
model, inventor, real
estate agent, and author.
She was, according to her detractors
in the Orlando Sentinel, a
sharp-tongued, aggressive woman
who "would not have won
any popularity contests."
Indeed, in 1970,
Athalia ran for Florida
Legislature and lost.
- I feel like a mark of true success
is when you have detractors.
That's a wonderful thing.
- Oh, like when you get haters?
- Oh yeah.
- That's like the old way to say that.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I would love some haters.
- Yeah, I'd love some haters too.
- Why don't you take a long
walk down a short pier?
- But that's too general
and too hypothetical.
I like when it gets pointed,
like, "Oh, I hate his
stupid beady eyes and his--"
- Or your little rooster, your
little rooster hair up there.
- Look at that little
surf wave on his head.
(laughing) I'm gonna get
my little boogie board
and surf that in the morning.
In 1973, Athalia married James Lindsley,
a real estate agent
and the former mayor of
St. Augustine, Florida,
where Athalia lived at the time.
While they were married in September,
by the next January, the two
still lived in separate homes.
Athalia was trying to sell
the house she was living in
and didn't want to leave it unoccupied
before moving to her new husband's home.
She never got the opportunity.
Now, it is funny that they
are both real estate agents
and they cannot sell their house.
(Shane laughing)
(Ryan laughing)
- You know.
- You know.
Eh, maybe they're just not
that good at their jobs
or maybe, just maybe, no one
wants to live in Florida.
I'm just imagining a
bunch of people going,
"Do you need to buy a house here?"
He's like, "I'm a real estate agent too.
"Do you wanna buy a house here?"
And there's just a big feedback loop.
Just, "You wanna buy a house here?"
"Oh, no, I'm selling."
- [Shane] It's real estate
agents selling real estate
to other real estate--
- [Ryan] Real estates, and,
"I know you're ripping me off,
"but I already have a house."
On January 23rd, 1974,
between 6 and 6:15 p.m.,
the 56-year-old Athalia went outside
to walk her pet bluejay, Clementine.
(laughing)
- [Shane] That is cool.
- [Ryan] She's taking her bird for a walk.
- [Shane] I love that.
I had a wonderful little
bird, I understand.
- [Ryan] We all know you kept your bird
in a freezer for two years.
- [Shane] The ground was hard!
We couldn't bury him yet!
- [Ryan] For two years?
- [Shane] No, it wasn't two years.
It was just over the harsh Chicago winter.
And when the ground thawed,
we buried him in the garden.
- We all know you ate that bird.
We all know it.
- You can't eat a parrot.
- You did, tell me how you did it.
- I didn't eat a parrot!
I loved him!
I'm done talking about my parrot.
I'm not entertaining this bit.
(Ryan laughing)
It's 'cause I loved that little bird.
- [Ryan] On her porch,
she encountered a man wielding a machete
who proceeded to hack her to death.
By the time police arrived,
Athalia had been nearly decapitated.
Police Chief Virgil Stuart said,
"She was dead when we got there.
"She had been badly butchered.
"Her head was almost cut off."
Clementime, the bluejay,
was never seen again.
- [Shane] Do you think this person
maybe was Clementine's original owner
and just wanted the bird back?
- [Ryan] I did not
consider that possibility.
It's actually not even in my theories.
- Well, it wouldn't be the first time
you've glossed over things.
- Well, I do think it's a bit of a jump
to say, "Hey, that's my parrot.
"I think your head
"doesn't look good on
your shoulders anymore."
- Yeah, so we know you're not
one to jump to conclusions.
- I don't jump to conclusions.
- Or shoddy theories.
- Only if I have some
facts behind it, big boy.
(laughing)
- Take it away.
- [Ryan] A neighbor,
19-year-old Locke McCormick,
said he could Athalia's
screams from his house.
When he went to check on Athalia,
he discovered her butchered body.
He told police he saw
a 40 to 60-year-old man
wearing a white shirt and dark pants
walking away from the house.
A witness reported that
there was blood in the grass,
"Leading all around the
south side of the house."
At one point, a police officer
ordered the ambulance attendants
to hose down the blood.
- [Shane] Does that fly in the face of,
like, crime scene investigation?
Just hose everything down, maybe?
- [Ryan] Let's get this
evidence outta here.
(Shane laughing)
All right, now I can
think clearly. (laughing)
The sheriff offered a $500 reward
to anyone with information on the case.
On February 17th, 1974,
a county mechanic named Dewey Lee
said he'd searched the marshes
one mile from Lindsley's home
and discovered a machete
and a package containing
a bloodied white shirt,
dark pants, a watch, and a pair of shoes.
After Athalia's death, Frances Bemis,
a 70-year-old retired department
store public relations exec
and fashion consultant, told her friends
that she knew something about the murder.
Bemis, who was reportedly
a friend of Athalia's,
was even said to have been
collaborating with a writer
on a book about Athalia after her death.
She did not seem afraid when
Athalia turned up slain,
telling the St. Augustine Record,
"I think St. Augustine is the safest place
"I have ever lived.
"I go out walking at night
and will continue to do so.
"I went out walking
"the same night that
the murder took place."
- [Shane] I don't know
what I make of that.
If this grisly murder had occurred
and a woman just proudly
proclaimed, "Well, I'm not afraid,"
maybe if she knew her well,
it's her way of saying,
"Well, she must've been
into something dirty, baby,
"'cause that kinda stuff
doesn't happen around here.
"And let me show ya."
- [Ryan] I'm gonna go on a walk right now.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- [Ryan] Frances indeed
continued to go walking at night,
including on November 3rd, 1974,
a little over nine months
after Athalia was murdered.
The next day, not far from
where Athalia was murdered,
a man walking his dog found
Frances dead in a vacant lot.
- Oh no!
(Ryan laughing)
What?!
- That's unfortunately
the old picture wrap
on Frances Bemis.
- Oh.
Well...
You know, she died doing what she loved.
- She did die doing what she loved.
- And, look, if you're an old lady
and this killer has
already killed an old lady
with something as simple as a machete,
this is not the Zodiac.
It's not someone who's
pulling a lotta strings
and putting a lotta production
design into their work.
It's just walking up to
someone with a machete
and just being, (screaming).
- On the flip side of that too--
- Don't challenge that.
- Who are you also making
yourself a big man out to be?
Like, oh, you murdered an
old lady with a machete?
That's cra--
Wow, you must be really dangerous, man.
It's not like he murdered Macho
Man Randy Savage out there.
- That'd be a feat.
- It's an old lady.
- Yeah.
- So, good for him, I guess.
She had apparently been
clobbered repeatedly
with a stone block.
She was semi-nude,
with most of her clothes
having been ripped off,
though an autopsy report
found no indication of rape.
An account by the New York Daily News
noted that her body had been burned,
as though a killer had
tried to destroy the corpse.
Another thing about this woman
is the attempt to destroy the evidence,
destroy the body by burning it.
And then him going, "Eh, didn't
work, all right." (laughing)
- [Shane] "Oh, I guess
I'll just leave it here."
- [Ryan] "Guess I'll just leave it."
- [Shane] "I guess it'll just be evidence.
- [Ryan] "Well, we already know
what they do with evidence.
"Hose it off."
- [Shane] (laughing) Yeah.
They didn't give a shit last time, so...
(Ryan laughing)
- [Ryan] Police Chief Virgil Stuart
did not believe there was a connection
between Frances and Athalia's
murders at the time.
With two women violently dead
in St. Augustine, Florida,
in 1974, it's time to
dive into the theories.
The first theory is
that Athalia's husband,
James Lindsley, was
responsible for her murder.
James was an easygoing real estate agent
who had served two terms
as mayor of St. Augustine.
Though they lived in separate homes,
James said they did not
have marital problems.
Athalia, however, had
sent letters to her sister
showing they were having issues.
"Jimmy is a complete
leech, a complete liar,"
she wrote in one letter.
She also said she changed
the locks of her house.
There was also gossip
among community members
that the crime scene was hosed down
to protect James's involvement.
According to Elizabeth Randall,
author of a book detailing
Athalia's murder,
James complained about how many
rumors flew around the town.
- Florida seems like a gossipy state.
- Yeah.
- What else are you gonna do there?
- You're trapped by swamp and gators.
You're essentially just
left to your own devices.
Yeah, why don't you just
spread some funny rumors?
- Whisper storm, baby.
- Maybe rumors that aren't rumors,
like you eating that bird.
- If you don't stop this bit, I'm gonna...
- You're gonna cut my
head off with a machete?
- I didn't say that.
- [Ryan] In testimony at
a Athalia's murder trial,
though, interestingly, not
a trial prosecuting James,
more on that in a bit,
James told the jury
that he owned a machete
resembling the one used to kill his wife.
He usually kept it in
the trunk of his car,
using it to hack at undergrowth
while looking at properties
for his real estate job.
After Athalia's murder,
he turned the machete over to police.
At that time, it was common
for residents in the county
to own one or two machetes,
used to fight back
against the Florida fauna.
At the trial, James was shown the machete
that was used on his wife.
James could not confirm
whether it was his,
telling the judge, "All
machetes look alike to me."
I think it's important to say that
because I imagine people
who are watching this,
they were imagining Jason
Voorhees murdering this lady.
But in reality, everyone had a machete,
so it could've been Jim
from down the street.
- You go to church on Sunday,
the priest is standing
up there with a machete.
- He's using it as a pointer.
- Yeah.
(laughing) Throwing holy water at people.
- (laughing) They're using it to point out
items on PowerPoint presentations.
Everyone has a machete.
- Yeah, it makes sense.
- [Ryan] According to Randall's book,
there was a gap of around 15
to 25 minutes in James's alibi.
It supposedly occurred between
the time James drove home
from the grocery store
where he had been shopping with Athalia
and the time he drove
back to his own home.
Randall posits that James had enough time
to drive to Athalia's
house during that period.
- [Shane] Unfortunate
that if you just have
a 20-minute gap in your
schedule where no one sees you,
suddenly you're open to being a murderer.
- [Ryan] Yeah, that is true.
It takes me about 20 minutes
to cook my dinner, usually.
And because of that, I'm a murderer.
- [Shane] You're a murderer.
- [Ryan] The second theory
is Athalia's neighbor,
Alan Stanford, murdered her
in the culmination of a months-long feud.
According to the New York Daily News,
Athalia loved animals and took many in,
including noisy dogs and
even, at one point, a goat.
The noise from these critters
often disgruntled her neighbors.
According to author Elizabeth Randall,
both of Athalia's neighbors,
the Stanfords and the McCormicks,
filed public complaints
about the noise in 1972,
resulting in a $50 fine
for disturbing the peace.
Randall then describes an
escalating neighborly feud
in which Athalia outraged the Stanfords
by cutting back their trees
that extended over her property line.
According to Randall,
Athalia also planted bamboo
across a city easement
at the corner of the Stanford driveway
which the Stanfords had the city remove.
At the time, Stanford was the
manager of St. John's County,
of which St. Augustine is the county seat.
Athalia had apparently suggested
to the county commission
that Stanford wasn't
qualified for his job,
appearing at least four times
before the commission
to complain about him.
- [Shane] That's a strained relationship.
- [Ryan] That is, yeah, they got--
- [Shane] You don't wanna be
that way to your neighbors.
- [Ryan] Yeah, you don't wanna have
a petting zoo in your house.
- [Shane] The thing about cutting down
their tree on her property, that's fine.
- [Ryan] So, you would do that?
- Legally, you're allowed to.
If there's hangovers, you can lop those.
- I did have a neighbor who
had an overhang of a lime tree,
and it was great because I
could go pick a little lime.
- Did you ever think about
killing your neighbor?
- When he didn't give me limes, yeah.
- Oh, okay, all right.
- [Ryan] Athalia would claim that Stanford
had neglected his duties
of maintaining and building roads,
but her complaints also
verged into the personal.
Randall describes a commission meeting
where Athalia publicly accused Stanford
of putting sugar in her
Cadillac's gas tank.
More saliently, she also
said on October 9th, 1974,
that Stanford threatened her, saying,
"That man threatened my life.
"He threatened to kill me."
- [Shane] Sure, he seems fishy,
but it also seems incredibly
risky to murder your neighbor.
- [Ryan] Especially after
all of this has been public.
She has, in public, four times complained
that he's not good at his job.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- Every human's capable of
murder if you push them enough.
I just don't know if
this is enough of a push.
- Okay.
- It's true!
- Is that so?
- Yeah.
I bet you you would murder
me if I pushed you enough.
- Yeah, probably.
- [Ryan] According to Randall,
mere hours before Athalia's murder,
Stanford had been visited
by the Florida Department of Professional
and Occupational Regulations
at Athalia's request.
Randall says they were
investigating to see
whether Stanford was in violation
of Florida state statutes.
- Yeah, that's a little
fuel to the fire there.
- I don't know if it's enough
to push him over the edge.
- It's certainly not good.
- It's not good, it doesn't look great.
But I still wonder.
- But then, when people start
showing up to evaluate you--
- Yeah, that is true.
- You might lose it.
- Yeah, I guess you can't
really tattle on her,
like, "She's doing this, make her stop."
- Yeah.
- [Ryan] Wen Locke McCormick
first heard Athalia's screams,
he looked to her home
and told his grandmother,
"Mr. Stanford is hitting Ms. Ponsell,"
which was Athalia's maiden name.
McCormick later explained that
he'd assumed it was Stanford
based on his clothing
and the fact that the man was walking back
toward Stanford's house.
But he didn't see the man's face
or really know if it was him.
The police also noted a blood trail
that cut across her
driveway to a concrete wall
that demarcated the divide
between her property and Stanford's.
- [Shane] Well, that's
all not looking great.
- [Ryan] That doesn't look good, okay?
And that's a little bit more
than hearsay at that point.
- [Shane] Yeah.
Actually, this makes me wonder.
Let's say you wanna murder someone.
- [Ryan] Mm-hmm.
- Would it make sense to
study them for a long time,
see who's in their life,
and then sort of try to disguise yourself
or make it look like
you're a different acquaintance of theirs?
So, if I want this lady dead and I'm like,
"Mmm, she's got a feud going
on with her neighbor--"
- "With the Stanford guy."
- "Right over there,
"he tends to wear these kinda things."
- "I'll put those on."
- "I'll just, I'll put those on,
"dress up like him, thwacka-thwack,
run through his yard--"
- Yeah, just roll around in
the grass in his front lawn.
- Get that blood all around there.
- Of course, they're
gonna hose it off, but--
- Eh, it is Florida, so you
know they're gonna hose it.
- Make sure that blood's
really in the grass.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's close to a perfect crime, maybe,
but it's certainly giving
you an edge as a murderer.
- That is true.
The sheriff took McCormick to a hypnotist
in the hopes of unlocking
further memories,
but the results were inconclusive.
That sounds about par for the course
for investigative methods
in Florida. (laughing)
- [Shane] "What do we got?
"How's the evidence looking?"
"Well, we hosed it all down.
"Okay."
- [Ryan] What do you want next?"
- [Shane] A hypnotist?
- [Ryan] Bring me a metronome.
(Shane laughing)
- [Ryan] Recall, Dewey Lee had discovered
a package of evidence,
including a bloody shirt and a watch.
While the shirt had been
sitting in saltwater and mud
for too long to determine conclusively
if the blood on the shirt
was Athalia's blood type,
a forensics expert was able to identify
a laundry mark as Stanford's name.
Ultimately, however,
it was decided the mark
was too faint and
garbled to be conclusive.
- [Shane] It just seems like
this guy murdered this lady.
- It really does.
- [Shane] To me, personally.
- [Ryan] Is it maybe the fact
that the name on the laundry
that was found that was bloodied was his?
Is that what it is?
- [Shane] I just know none of
my laundry's laying out there.
One, I don't have my name on my laundry.
- [Ryan] Yeah, what is this? (laughing)
- [Shane] But this is the '70s,
maybe things were different.
- [Ryan] I don't know, or
he's Andy from Toy Story,
he just writes his name on everything.
- [Shane] And two, I don't think
any articles of my clothing
are covered in blood.
- No matter what crime comes up,
Shane has no bloody clothing at all.
- I don't!
- Not even a nosebleed?
- I was in a church once, it
happened in a church once--
- Oh my--!
- I don't go to church.
I was just with one of my friends
and he was like, "You wanna go to church?"
And I was like, "All right, man."
I was like nine.
- So, you're telling me,
at nine years old, you don't go to church.
The first time you cross the
threshold into holy ground,
blood expels from your nostrils?
- Yeah, yeah.
They ran outta tissues!
Mopping that up.
It was wild.
- It sounds wild.
More damning for Stanford was the watch,
which a jeweler identified as Stanford's.
Stanford claimed that after the murder,
he had discovered his watch was missing.
Stanford was indicted for the murder.
His friends and fellow church members
raised $20,000 for his bail
and an estimated $250,000 defense fund,
which would have the same buying power
of more than $1.3 million today.
As a quick sidenote,
at the time of Frances Bemis's murder,
Stanford was out on bail.
With the money raised by his friends,
Stanford mounted a formidable defense.
Stanford's defense posited
that Sheriff Dudley Garrett,
Dewey Lee, and Athalia's
husband, James Lindsley,
had all worked together to frame Stanford.
"Isn't it strange that all the deputies
"and trained police officers
didn't know what to look for
"or where to look for it?
"And without stopping, Lee
went right to the spot,
"walked up to the bank, and there it was.
"I submit to you that Dewey Lee
"put it out there that morning."
The defense posited
Dewey Lee as a scammer.
While he was on the stand,
a defense attorney asked Dewey,
"Isn't it a fact that you
were looking for a spot
"where nobody could see you
put that stuff in the swamp?"
It does seem like they're
desparately grasping at straws.
- [Shane] Yeah, because if you
were trying to frame someone,
you would want it to look,
I mean, you'd go overboard.
You'd probably try a little too hard
and make it a little too obvious-looking.
- This is confusing.
I got a feeling it's
gonna need up unsolved.
- We'll see.
- [Ryan] Key to the
defense was the testimony
of one Adelle McLaughlin,
a data processing clerk
and neighbor who was riding her bike
past Athalia's home at the time.
Adelle testified that she had
seen Dewey in Athalia's yard
less than two hours before
the murder took place.
After two-and-a-half hours of deliberation
on February 3rd, 1975, the jury
declared Stanford innocent.
Afterward, Sheriff Garrett told reporters,
"Yes, I think Stanford did it.
"I signed the complaint against him
"and I don't concur with the verdict."
There is something weird to be said
about a town believing so much
that this man did not do it
that they literally raised $250,000
and only deliberated in the
jury for two-and-a-half hours
before saying, "Yeah, he didn't do it."
- If I murdered someone and
the entire town was like,
"No, he didn't," I'd
be like, "This rules!"
- He earned enough goodwill tickets
to cash it in for that prize of murder.
- That's like a punchcard.
"I've been a great guy my entire life."
And then you get that 10th punch
and it's like, "All right--"
- "Here's your free murder."
- "Here's your machete."
- (laughing) "Here's your
machete, have fun murdering,
"you get a free one."
In 1974, in a span of less than 10 months,
two women were violently murdered by hand
in the same Florida community.
The person responsible for either
or even both deaths is a mystery.
Could it have been a disgruntled husband,
a fed-up neighbor, a scheming mechanic,
or someone else entirely?
The answer remains unsolved.
(eerie horror music)
- I think it was the neighbor.
Look, I'm a simple man.
I see a trail of blood
going to someone's house.
Even if they didn't do it, come on,
you're going to jail.
- I think it might've
been a random person.
- All right.
- It just seems too obvious.
- Okay.
- There's a paper trail of their feud.
Why the hell would he be that dumb?
- Rage, you know?
Lust, rage.
Rage just building up, bursting out.
- Well, I've never
really gotten that angry.
I don't really have that capacity.
- It's building.
It's building inside you.
Everyone sees it, we all see it.
- That's great.
Oh man, I can't wait for Krakatoa then.
(Shane shuddering)
- I shudder.
- Hope no one's in the way.
- Scary.
(eerie music)
- This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved
we look into the disappearance
of Walter Collins,
a 90 year old case about
a nine year old boy
who vanished on his way to the movies.
- Not the time you wanna vanish.
Wanna vanish on your way
back from the movies,
after having seen a lovely film.
- You'll come to see that there
are lots of twists and turns to this case.
It's a hard one to pin down.
- Ah.
Well, let's pin it.
- It's gonna get weird,
so let's strap in.
On March 10, 1928,
nine year old Walter Collins
donned a lumber jacket,
brown corduroy trousers, black oxfords,
a gray cap, and set off to see a movie
in the Mount Washington
neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Walter never returned home.
His mother, Christine Collins,
a telephone operator,
reported her son missing
five days later on March 15th.
- [Shane] Well, immediately,
there are some red flags here.
Because we gotta do the math,
and the math involves me
hearing you say the words
five days later
and me saying--
- Yeah, that is true.
- [Shane] Five?
- [Ryan] Yeah, that is true.
- [Shane] That's a bit,
a bit of a difference.
It is 1928, I don't know if people--
- [Ryan] Just wander off?
- Maybe?
- I mean, you strike me
as a kid who wandered off,
maybe didn't come back--
- I was a wanderer.
- At curfew.
- A bit of a wanderer.
But I always reported back by,
you know.
- A certain time.
- 10 p.m. or so.
- Yeah.
- You know, it was a cul-de-sac.
Where were we gonna go?
- Also, they'd find you rather quick, too.
Be on the look out for a big head boy.
- Big head boy, that's
what they called me.
My parents, yes.
- Big head boy.
(laughing)
At that time the city was still reeling
from the kidnapping and gruesome murder
of a 12 year old girl, Marion Parker,
that had happened only
three months earlier.
Tips of alleged Walter sightings
started coming in from as
far away as San Francisco
and Oakland.
And one bizarre tip,
someone claimed they saw the boy
at a Glendale gas station,
his body wrapped in newspaper
with only his head visible.
Police searched for months
but still no Walter.
Finally, in August, Illinois police
picked up a runaway boy who
matched Walter's description.
The child told authorities
he was Walter Collins
and gave authorities a quote, hazy story
about his abduction, end quote.
He spoke to Christine over the phone
and Christine paid $70 to bring her son
back to Los Angeles.
For the next three weeks the
boy stayed with Christine
until she realized
this boy was not her son.
(laughing)
- [Shane] See?
Okay, well, now I'm on to something.
Because it took this lady three weeks
to realize that this boy,
who probably--
- [Ryan] Oh, no, okay.
All right, I'm gonna
cut you off right there.
- He's nine years old!
That's a full person!
And she's like,
I'm pretty sure he's my boy,
he's got the same haircut,
he wears the same clothes.
- Yeah, but you gotta
add in the grief factor.
This mom thinks she lost her son
and she is now hoping
for any sign of good news
and they say, this is your boy,
he says he's your boy.
You're gonna naturally want to believe it.
But after a while you
gotta face the facts,
that's not her son.
You're right, he's nine years old,
he clearly has defining
features at that point.
- So, is the idea here that
maybe this was just some
down on his luck boy
who had read the paper
and thought, well, here's a meal ticket?
I look kinda like this boy.
Maybe a little bit like him.
I'll tell them I'm this boy!
- Well, I guess we'll have to find out.
- Okay, detective brain.
- [Ryan] Christine found it suspicious
that the boy was one
inch shorter than Walter
and she used dental records to prove
that this was a different kid.
Christine told police, quote,
yes, he looks like Walter,
and in some ways he acts like my son,
but still, I'm not certain about it.
You see, Walter was
quiet and well-behaved,
he always called me mother,
this child calls me ma and at
times he is hard to handle.
I certainly hope he is my son,
but somehow I can't bring
myself to believe it, end quote.
- I love this new Walter.
I'm a big fan of him.
Waltzin' into the place like he owns it.
Hey, ma, why don't you make
me some apple pie, huh?
(laughing)
- Ma, PB&J, now.
I asked you five minutes ago, what's up?
The police fixated on closing the case
because of public pressure,
insisted it was Walter.
They conducted a series of tests
to prove the boy was Walter.
They had the boy find his
way back home from memory
and brought in Walter's pet dog,
who allegedly recognized
the boy as it's owner.
Still, Christine was not convinced.
- Hmm.
I mean, dogs are dumb.
- I love how she was like,
look at his dental records,
it's not him.
And they're like, hey, does
this doggy recognize you?
(laughing)
- Also, puppies just like little boys.
Puppies are always like,
ooh, it's a little man,
let me wag my dumb tail
and lick him.
- [Ryan] Allegedly,
LAPD Captain J.J. Jones
told Christine, quote,
what are you trying to do,
make fools out of us all?
Are you trying to shirk
your duty as a mother
and have the state provide for your son?
You are the most cruel-hearted
woman I've ever known.
You are a fool.
End quote.
- [Shane] Bit harsh
from J there.
- [Ryan] From J.J. Jones.
(laughing)
- [Shane] From comic book
character J.J. Jones.
- [Ryan] J.J. Jones
does sound like the name
given to a bad cop, like
a comically bad cop.
Like, if he was a character
in a movie I would say,
this man's a caricature,
no one's that evil.
- Why is he calling this woman a fool?
- He called her cruel hearted too.
He also
made it all about him.
This woman is missing
her kid and he was like,
what are you trying to do,
make me look like a fool
and incompetent at my job?
And she's like, no, I'm
just trying to find my son.
- Yeah, this is very rude of him.
- [Ryan] The police then had
Christine forcibly committed
to the Los Angeles County General Hospital
psychiatric ward on September 8th.
While Christine sat in the psych ward,
J.J. Jones again spoke to the boy
police had picked up in Illinois.
During that discussion,
the 12 year old confirmed
to J.J. Jones that
he was not Walter Collins,
but instead Arthur Hutchins.
- [Shane] Well, J.J. Jones, it looks like
you've got egg on your face.
- [Ryan] Do you think when the kid said,
yeah, that's not me,
was he like, man, I really
thought that was you?
Or do you think he was like.
(shushing noises)
- Play along kid.
(chuckling)
- What are you doin'?
- At that point, yeah,
because
now he's a fool.
The fool is him now.
- He has now realized
the folly of his ways.
I kinda love when someone
gets a good dose of karma.
Their instant karma,
their comeuppance.
But yeah, this guy definitely deserved it.
He put her in a psych ward
because she wouldn't agree with him
about who her son was.
Christine had been
correct the entire time.
The kid the police had dumped on her
was not her missing son,
but instead Arthur Hutchins.
After Arthur's mother died,
the boy ran away from his
father and stepmother.
He was hitchhiking around the US
when in a DeKalb, Illinois cafe,
someone told him he
resembled a missing boy
from Los Angeles.
When he was picked up,
juvenile authorities were
skeptical about his story,
but police were so desperate
to close the Collins case
that they insisted on it's veracity.
As for why Arthur lied,
the 12 year old told authorities
he wanted to go to Hollywood
to meet cowboy actor,
Tom Mix.
(laughing)
- I love this boy!
- I mean, there's nothing wrong,
you can't indict this boy
for being an opportunist.
- Well, yeah, and that's what I'm saying.
This is a beautiful story for him,
I really love this kid's MOXY,
because he's sittin' in some rundown cafe
in the middle of the cornfields,
someone walks in and says,
hey, you look like this missing kid.
And he goes, is that so?
- Where is he from?
- From Hollywood you say?
Get the cops in here.
Cops come in and he's
like, yeah, I'm that boy.
Send him out to LA,
he's gonna meet his
favorite cowboy person,
but they're like,
first you have to go hang
out with this crying woman
for a while.
- That's probably why he was so grumpy!
- Of course!
- Because he was like,
I just wanna meet Tom.
- Yeah!
- You got this wailing
woman.
- It's like,
can we please go to the movies?
(laughing)
- [Ryan] Christine was
released from the psych ward
on September 13th and sued the LAPD.
Captain J.J. Jones was suspended from duty
by the LAPD.
Though, he was later reinstated
and ordered to pay Christine $10,800
for the abuse she suffered
under his custody.
However, J.J. Jones never paid.
- [Shane] Unbelievable.
I mean, believable but.
- [Ryan] Like, $10,800
is actually quite a bit
for that time, too.
- [Shane] Yeah, I wonder
what the inflation cost
would be there.
- [Ryan] I mean, it's
definitely not cheap.
- [Shane] No.
- [Ryan] And not a big shocker that J.J.
didn't pony up the dough.
- I'm proud of her for suing him.
- Yeah, dude's a freakin'
set of clown shoes.
He deserves it.
- It seems like there's a lot of,
this is America, you know,
people press charges, people sue a lot.
- But apparently the LAPD
took that very seriously
by reinstating him and not
making him pay the amount
that he owed her.
- Well, we don't need
to get into the practices of the LAPD.
- We do not, we do not.
And as we all know,
we do know that you
believe they are corrupt
from past episodes.
- That's true!
I do believe it.
(laughing)
- [Ryan] Meanwhile,
the real Walter Collins was still missing.
So, with that, let's
get into some theories.
Our first theory was put forth
by Walter's father, Walter J.S. Collins,
who was serving time in Folsom Prison
on robbery charges at the time.
The elder Walter worked
at the prison cafeteria
and his responsibilities
included reporting
the violations of other inmates.
Because of this, he could
have made many enemies,
which is why he believed
his former fellow inmates
may have kidnapped Walter for revenge.
- All right, I guess that is a theory.
- That is
a theory.
Not my leading theory but it is a theory.
- You wouldn't just like,
knock him on the head or somethin'?
A guy writes you up for takin'
too many mashed potatoes
and you're like,
I'll tell you what we're gonna do,
we're gonna disappear his boy.
Once we're out of here.
- I don't think they have the foresight
to plan that out.
And you get angry in prison,
it's happening right there and then.
You're not gonna be like,
I could,
but I'm gonna wait.
- That's what I'm sayin'.
- I'm gonna wait.
- You'll execute your
revenge quite swiftly.
- Exactly.
You're gonna take like a
fork and stab him right now.
- That's the cafeteria,
it's the only place where
there's weapons on hand.
- [Ryan] The second theory,
one with substantial weight behind it
is that Walter was kidnapped
by pathological liar
named Gordon Stewart Northcott
and murdered on Northcott's chicken farm.
Days after Christine was released
from the psychiatric hospital,
and approximately 40 miles
east of Downtown Los Angeles,
immigration officers were closing in
on a three acre chicken farm
in Wineville, California.
They'd received a tip
about an illegal worker
who had been smuggled
across the American border
with Canada.
The chicken farm belonged
to Gordon Stewart Northcott.
After he convinced his
father to buy him the land
in 1926, Gordon claimed he needed help
running the farm.
He drove to Canada to visit
his sister, Winnifred,
in Saskatoon.
He talked Winnifred into letting him take
her 14 year old son, Sanford Clark,
with him to the farm.
- Chicken farms
really scare me.
- Why is that?
- I think it may be sort
of a Texas Chainsaw vibe.
Any sort of super rural area
where there's one guy
and a lot of animals.
- There's some crazy stuff
happening in that farm.
- Probably smells.
- Yeah.
Just a fair warning,
you're gonna wanna buckle up for this one
'cause this is not my favorite story.
There, Gordon began to
physically, emotionally,
and sexually abuse Sanford.
Sandford's story unfortunately
was only the start
of the horrors young men met
at the hands of Gordon Northcott.
Gordon had a pattern of kidnapping
and murdering boys.
Then dissolving their
bodies in quick lime.
In August 1928, Sanford's
19 year old sister,
Jessie Clark, came to visit
her brother on the farm.
Sanford told her everything
that had happened,
Jessie alerted their mother
and they contacted the American consol,
telling them that Gordon
had smuggled Sanford
from Canada.
When investigators got
to the chicken farm,
Gordon, along with his obsessive mother,
Sara Louise Northcott, had fled.
- [Shane] So, this is
just a serial killer,
I don't know, who may have
been involved in all this.
- [Ryan] May have been involved.
And we're gonna get into--
- [Shane] Definitely a serial killer.
- [Ryan] He is a serial
killer, I would say.
And we're going to get into
how he was maybe involved.
- [Shane] Okay.
- [Ryan] Police found blood soaked ground
and bodily remains around the ranch
and Sanford was safely
taken into police custody.
Items belonging to missing young boys
from Southern California were found
about the property.
Including Boy Scout badges, library books,
and letters written to their parents.
Nelson and Lewis Winslow,
10 and 12 year old brothers
missing from Pomona,
as well as a Mexican
boy named Alvin Gothea
were among those victims who's possessions
or remains were found.
On September 15th, Sanford
told investigators his story.
Police showed him 30 photos,
hoping to identify other victims
who met their fate on the farm.
One that Sanford positively identified
was Walter Collins.
So.
- Yep.
- I mean, I don't think you
would forget that, right?
- I don't know.
- And there's no reason for him to lie.
- No, no reason for him to lie.
It's just,
I guess I don't know how many people
he'd come into contact with there.
- While he was there, right.
- Yeah.
- I mean, pretty damning
though I would say.
- Yeah, not great.
- No.
Gordon and his mother were
arrested in Calgary, Canada
on September 20th and extradited
back to the United States to stand trial.
Gordon initially confessed
to the murder of nine young boys,
but was only charged
for the deaths of three.
There wasn't enough evidence
for him to be charged
in the death of Walter Collins,
but Gordon was nevertheless
sentenced to death
by hanging and was executed
on October 2, 1930.
Though Gordon wasn't convicted
for Walter Collins' murder,
his mother spent the rest
of her life in prison
after confessing to having killed Walter
with an ax and burying
him in a chicken coop.
The notoriety from the gruesome murders
was so bad, the town of Wineville decided
to separate itself from
that chapter of it's history
when in 1930 it renamed itself Mira Loma.
- You ever been?
- No, I haven't been to Mira Loma,
but if I had--
- No, you're a Southern California guy.
- Before this story I would
now be a little unnerved.
- Well, they changed the name.
- But just the idea that something so bad
happened in the town that
it changed it's name.
- Bad things happen in every town,
I'm tellin' ya.
- Yeah, that's true.
- We live in Los Angeles.
- I'm sure there's
dozens and dozens of bad things happening
everyday in Los Angeles.
It's a dark town sometimes.
- Some of those things,
no, we don't want to.
(laughing)
- [Ryan] As he awaited execution,
Gordon sent Christine a telegram saying
he would tell the truth about Walter
if she came to talk to him in prison
Christine went to San Quintin
on the eve of Gordon's execution,
but Gordon backpedaled,
saying quote, I don't want to see you.
I don't know anything about it.
I'm innocent.
End quote.
Gordon also left several
notes in his cell,
some saying he never met Walter,
some accusing Gordon's father
of kidnapping and murdering the boy,
a pathological liar
it's impossible to know
what Gordon said was true
and what was fabricated.
It's weird that this case is unsolved
because it seems pretty cut and dry
but he wasn't convicted for the murder.
He's saying that he didn't do it
but then his mom is
saying that she did it?
- He confessed to nine other ones though?
- In some of the letters in his cell
he said he didn't even know the boy.
It goes back to that
death bed confession thing
where he knows he's about to be executed,
why not just come clean?
- Yeah.
I mean, he's already takin' the wrap for--
- Yeah, so might as well just come clean,
but, you know,
we're trying to dissect
the mind of somebody
who is clearly of capable
of very, very evil acts,
so I don't really know if
there's much merit to that.
But this is, I guess,
technically still unsolved
because he wasn't convicted for the murder
and he's saying that he didn't do it
when I think it's safe to say that he did.
- Well, we'll never know.
- [Ryan] Five years after
Gordon was put to death,
one of the young men thought
to have been murdered
on the chicken farm
turned up alive and well.
Opening up the possibility
that Walter, too,
had escaped a fatal encounter in Wineville
on that chicken farm.
For the rest of her
life, Christine Collins
never gave up hope that her son was alive.
While Walter's most likely fate
was at the demented
hands of Gordon Northcott
and his mother,
what actually happened
to the young boy remains
unsolved.
(mysterious music)
Yeah, that was a long windy
uncomfortable road to get
to the conclusion there,
but trust me when I say that
I tried to make that
as palatable as I could
because I would not recommend looking up
this man's history
because he's far more of a monster
than we presented here.
- Well, I will take you
up on that recommendation
and avoid it entirely.
- Yeah, don't look it up.
Yes, I would do the same.
- It's been a treat here today,
thank you for inviting me on another
spooky little
tale.
- Yeah, let's go home, take a shower,
I'll call my mom.
- You call your mom in the shower?
(chuckling)
There you go, endin'
on a funny joke, okay.
See you next week.
- It was a beautiful sentiment.
And you
ruined it.
(light spooky music)
(mysterious music)
- This week on BuzzFeed Unsolved,
we take a look at the
death of Vincent van Gogh,
long thought to be suicide,
but as recent writings may suggest,
may actually be murder.
- Excuse me?
(laughing)
- What?
We're gonna cover a murder on this show?
- No, but of a man who long thought
to have taken his own life.
- I mean, he was a bit eccentric,
and had a history of bodily harm,
so maybe people assumed it was suicide,
but there are some things in here,
that at least for me--
- Yeah.
- Are fairly convincing
that it may be something
a little bit more sinister.
- Well, I'm here for it.
- What you know about Gogh?
- Know about Gogh, you
know, he's a Dutch guy,
you know, painted a lot, very dreamy,
cut off his ear.
He did that self portrait, you know?
- Yeah, he did a selfie.
All right, we're done here then, right?
- Case closed.
- Case closed.
Nah, we got a murder to talk about, bud.
- Okay, all right, okay.
- All right, season finale,
let's do it baby, let's get into it.
Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on
March 30th, 1853, in Zundert, Netherlands.
He was the oldest surviving child
of Theodorious van Gogh,
and Anna Carbentus.
Vincent would eventually
have five younger siblings.
The only he would form the
closest relationship with,
being his brother Theo.
Despite his good grades,
Vincent left secondary
school before graduating.
At age 16, he began his art career
as an apprentice with Goupil & Cie.
An international art
dealer where his uncle
was a partner.
Vincent first worked
for Goupil in the Hague,
then in London, and finally in Paris,
where he was dismissed
from the company in 1876,
two days after his 23rd birthday.
- Kind of a double-edged sword back then
because it's neat that you can just jump
into an apprenticeship at age 16.
You're like yeah, I'm probably gonna be
a legend in the art field, I'll do that.
- You could still do that today though,
I feel like people start
apprenticeships quite young.
- But they don't really, like at 16?
- Yeah.
I remember applying for an apprenticeship
at Warner Bros at 16.
- How'd that turn out?
- I didn't get it.
- Oh.
- So, I hope you're watching this now
and know what you missed out on.
- Jack Warner!
- Jack!
In 1881, after five
years of wandering Europe
and bouncing between dead end jobs
such as lay preacher,
Vincent moved back in with his parents,
who worried about their son's
lack of direction in life.
Theo, who had also gone to work
for the art dealer Goupil & Cie,
but had risen through the ranks
to become a manager,
began sending his older,
jobless brother money.
For the next few years,
Vincent would move out for periods,
but return to his parents home.
- [Shane] It's interesting
because nowadays
people, you know, people
get to age like 24,
and they're like I don't know
what I want to be in life.
- [Ryan] Well, it is kind of funny
that he is this 19th century millennial,
just wandering around.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- [Ryan] Not really sure
what his purpose is.
This is an aspirational tale
for all you out there.
If Vincent van Gogh is going
through this similar struggle,
you know, you could make
something with yourself.
- Just out there with his brush,
saying I'll put this on something.
You put it in front of me,
I'll put it to it.
- I feel like you could word that better.
- No, no, that's probably exactly
what he said to people.
I'll put this on something--
- Get me a job, I'll
put this on something.
- I'll put this on something,
you put it in front of
me, I'll put it to it.
- [Ryan] In 1884, Vincent, now in his 30s,
wanted to start paying Theo back
for all the support he had
given him over the years.
Vincent began sending
his paintings to Theo
in Paris for him to sell.
Unfortunately for all parties,
Vincent's work was not what the people
of Paris were looking for.
I always wondered about this when it comes
to famous artists.
Obviously it took them, usually decades,
to find what made them famous.
Wouldn't you say that the paintings,
like their early drafts
when they really sucked,
wouldn't those be worth more
'cause it's like seeing the journey?
Get your hands on like--
- [Shane] I don't know
if they're worth more,
but they're probably worth a lot.
- [Ryan] Like a year one van Gogh.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- [Ryan] I feel like
when you say it that way,
sounds like it should be expensive.
- [Shane] Yeah, it did
sound like a little, whew.
- [Ryan] I didn't know he had a year one
van Gogh in his house,
I didn't know he was doing that well.
- [Shane] That's pretty good.
- [Ryan] It looks like shit, but you know.
- I think there's a lot of that out there
for old Picasso, he's got a
lot of early stuff out there.
- Old Pablo?
- Yeah, him.
- Oh, you're not talking,
the other Picasso.
(laughing)
- Not Ted Picasso.
(laughing)
- [Ryan] Over the next five years,
Vincent's life would appear to once again
be mired by folly,
as he started a failed art collective,
and continued his nomadic
habitation of Europe.
During this period however,
the style now associated with Vincent
began to take form.
The tones used in his
paintings began to lighten.
He developed his characteristic style
of using short brushstrokes,
and he moved to brighter,
more colorful subjects,
such as portraits, often self portraits,
and city scenes.
Unfortunately for Vincent,
the progress of his art
happened during a time
of declining mental health,
culminating in late 1888,
when Vincent famously severed his own ear,
and wrapped it up as a
present for a sex worker,
the day after this eerie occurrence.
You like that one?
- Mm...
Ah!
- Yeah!
He liked it, I loved it too.
Yeah, cheers.
Vincent was admitted to the hospital
where he stayed until early 1889.
For the next few months,
Vincent struggled with his mental health,
eventually checking himself
into a psychiatric hospital in May.
During his one year stay at the hospital,
Vincent made some of his
most famous masterpieces.
In his first week there,
he started painting the irises
in the asylum's garden.
While Vincent considered the
paintings merely a study,
"Irises" is considered one
of his most iconic pieces.
"The Starry Night", now one of the most
famous paintings in the world,
depicts the view from
a window in the asylum,
enhanced by Vincent's imagination.
In January of 1890, Theo and his wife
welcomed their newborn son,
Vincent Willem van Gogh, into the world.
Named after the infant's uncle.
Vincent sent them his famous painting,
"Almond Blossom", from the hospital,
as a gift for his new nephew.
All told, while in the asylum,
Vincent made about 150 paintings,
and by 1890, his work was
finally being exhibited
and receiving positive reviews.
I don't know if I agree with
this narrative all the time
where art needs to come from this like,
darker place of misery,
or maybe like turmoil.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- [Ryan] Within your head.
- [Shane] You don't need to be troubled
to make good art.
- [Ryan] It happens, sure.
- [Shane] But I think intense
emotion or introspection
can obviously fuel it.
- [Ryan] Yeah, like a break up or a death.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- But it is weird that great art
is often not appreciated
when it comes out.
- [Shane] That's true.
- And I don't know why that is.
- I mean, a lot of it is, you know.
- Well, maybe because
like the artist's mind
is more enhanced at that moment,
and the world is not ready for it yet,
so they're ahead of the time.
- That could be, that could be.
- [Ryan] After being released from the
mental hospital in May,
Vincent moved to Auvers-sur-Oise,
an area with other artists
not far from Paris,
which allowed for him to easily visit
Theo's family in Paris.
On one such visit in July,
Theo told his brother he was considering
starting his own business.
This news greatly unsettled Vincent,
who not only felt like
a burden to his brother
who was still supporting Vincent,
but also worried about the impact
of Theo taking this gamble
on his own finances.
After lunch on July 27th, 1890,
Vincent left the Ravoux Inn
where he was staying in Auvers
with his easel and painting supplies.
It was a warm evening, so
the innkeepers and guests
were enjoying dinner outside after sunset
when Vincent returned.
He shuffled past without
exchanging any words,
he also notedly had none of the belongings
he left with,
and had his jacket buttoned all the way up
despite the heat.
He clutched his abdomen
and limped up the stairs to his room.
Gustave Ravoux, the owner of the inn,
went to check on Vincent.
The artist was curled up in his bed.
And when Gustave asked
him what was the matter,
Vincent replied, quote,
"I wounded myself."
End quote.
He lifted his clothing to reveal
a bullet hole under his ribs.
- [Shane] That's sad.
- [Ryan] It is sad.
One thing to note from this is
it's a bit odd that he would take
all of his painting
supplies and his easel out
only to then kill himself
and then walk back with none of it?
Like why not just leave all that stuff
in your apartment if that
was what your plan was?
- Who knows how these things
creep up on a person?
- That is true.
Well, we're gonna get into
it more in the theories.
- Okay.
- [Ryan] Theo arrived midday on the 28th
to find Vincent in bed, smoking.
Vincent van Gogh died just after midnight,
cradled by his brother
after telling him, quote,
"I want to die like this."
End quote.
At just 37 years old, Vincent's
life and career was over,
leaving behind nearly 1,300
works of art on paper,
and more than 850 paintings,
with no autopsy ever conducted,
the exact location of the
shooting never identified,
and a five hour period between
the time he left the inn
and when he returned unaccounted for,
it's time to dive into some theories.
The first and prevailing theory
is that Vincent was a troubled genius
who shot himself in a wheat field.
According to Adeline Ravoux,
the then 13-year-old daughter
of the inn owner, Gustave,
quote, "Vincent had gone
toward the wheat field
where he had painted before.
During the afternoon, as
my father understood it,
Vincent shot himself and fainted.
The coolness of the night revived him.
On all fours, he looked for the gun
to finish himself off,
but he could not find it.
Then Vincent got up, and
climbed down the hillside
to return to our house."
End quote.
- [Shane] Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm.
Yeah, I could see that.
- [Ryan] Often times when
people commit suicide,
the weapon's right there,
the means is right there,
there's usually a note.
It's very odd to be like, shoot myself,
now let's go hide this gun?
- [Shane] Yeah.
I mean, it's a wheat field, you know?
I don't know how dense those are, but--
- [Ryan] Unless he tossed the gun,
which maybe he did.
- [Shane] At the same time,
how thorough of a search
do you think he's doing
if he is currently bleeding out?
- [Ryan] Well, you'll also come to find
that no one else could
find the gun either.
- [Shane] Interesting.
- Now do you understand why
I think that's so weird?
- Now I understand, Ryan.
(soft patting)
- [Ryan] Perhaps no one was more adamant
about this theory than Vincent himself.
Witnesses recalled Vincent saying, quote,
"I wounded myself in the fields.
I shot myself with a revolver there."
End quote.
He was emphatic saying, quote,
"Do not accuse anyone.
It is I who wanted to kill myself."
End quote.
Witnesses did say, however,
that Vincent appeared
confused as he lay dying,
replying to the police's question of
"Did you intend to commit suicide?"
With, quote, "I think so."
End quote.
Vincent had also in the past
morbidly joked about suicide.
He once told Theo he would, quote,
"Cease to be."
End quote.
If he ever felt that he had begun a burden
or nuisance to his brother.
Could his fear of
complicating his soon-to-be
unemployed brother's life have driven him
to kill himself one hot afternoon?
While this story is the one Vincent
seemingly wanted the world to hear,
there are some glaring issues with it.
For one, Vincent was shot in the abdomen
below his ribs,
which is an odd position to take
if he had been aiming for his heart.
Additionally, the fact that the bullet
did not exit Vincent's body
suggests there was some distance
between Vincent and the gun.
More distance than Vincent
could have achieved on his own.
It's also suspicious
that Vincent allegedly
dropped the gun so far out of reach,
that when he came to,
he couldn't find it to finish the job.
What's more, if he had actually passed out
for hours after shooting himself,
his wound would have been much bloodier
than it was when he returned to the inn.
- [Shane] So if he did shoot himself,
it would have been larger?
- [Ryan] Yeah, because
it had been so much time
'til when he got to the inn.
It suggests that it happened sooner
than he said it did,
or like he watched himself--
- [Shane] Oh, negating his theory that
he fell asleep, woke
back up, came to the inn.
- [Ryan] It would've been so much bigger.
- [Shane] Yeah.
So they're saying like,
he probably got shot right away,
then walked to the inn.
- [Ryan] Which would also explain then why
he carried out his art supplies
because he didn't go, oh yeah,
getting shot's in the plans today.
- [Shane] Right.
- [Ryan] So, you know, it makes sense.
- [Shane] Okay.
- [Ryan] Apart from the
hard to explain ballistics,
no one knows where Vincent
would have obtained the gun.
Revolvers were very rare
in Auvers at the time,
and no one would admit to selling
or lending Vincent a gun.
The next day, no one
was able to find a gun
where Vincent purportedly did the deed.
All of Vincent's painting gear too
seemed to have vanished.
- [Shane] All his painting gear?
- [Ryan] Yes.
From where he left it in the fields.
- [Shane] Hmm.
- [Ryan] So no gun,
none of the paint stuff
that he walked out with...
- [Shane] Yeah.
- [Ryan] All the other
stuff that I just mentioned.
- [Shane] Do you think someone was aware
that this was Vinny's stuff,
and was like, I'll get
a pretty penny for this.
- [Ryan] I feel like we
would've seen it by now.
- [Shane] I mean, frankly,
people at BuzzFeed
steal lunches out of the
fridges all the time.
You don't think someone was just like,
hey, free stuff!
- [Ryan] True, someone did steal
some of the stuff from our set.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- [Ryan] Some of our--
- [Shane] We lose stuff
around here all the time.
- [Ryan] Some of our precious props.
- You think we don't
notice that, co-workers?
- Timmy's ball is gone.
- Yeah, this is fake.
- This is a sham.
This is a fake ball, this isn't Timmy's.
Someone stole Timmy's ball.
- What if Timmy came back and took it?
- I thought about that,
but I don't think so.
- You did think about that.
- [Ryan] In additions to the questions
the physical evidence raises,
Vincent was a religious
man who condemned suicide,
calling it "wicked"
and a demonstration of "moral cowardice".
At one point prior to his death,
he even said, quote,
"I really do not think I am a
man with such inclinations."
End quote.
Any time he did have thoughts of suicide,
it was always by way of
drowning, saying quote,
"I can understand people
drowning themselves."
End quote.
- [Shane] "Suicide is wrong!
I do not understand it!
It'd be pretty baller to drown!"
(laughing)
- [Ryan] It's just a weird thing to just
tack on as a button at the end of that.
- [Shane] Yeah, 'cause drowning arguably
sounds like the maybe worst--
- [Ryan] More painful, but
why is it more morally sound?
- "I've heard that it is agony."
- Oh, God.
Did you really just sneak
a Prestige quote into here?
- I don't know.
- [Ryan] Theo also found no evidence
that Vincent was planning
on killing himself,
finding no suicide note,
but instead drafts of letters on his desk
that he surely didn't want anyone to read.
With so many loose ends
in the suicide theory,
it's time to look at another hypothesis,
this one posited by
biographers Steven Naifeh
and Gregory White Smith.
Naifeh and Smith suggest Vincent
was shot by some local boys,
and that Vincent protected
their identities.
To begin, it's worth going back
to get a better picture
of what life was like
for Vincent in Auvers.
He was known to be quote eccentric,
and when he would approach
people in the street
to ask if they would sit for him,
most people retreated.
His appearance didn't help matters,
with wild hair, ratty clothes,
and you know, a missing ear.
As is often the case, the worst bullies
were the teenage boys.
They would pretend to
be nice to the artist
to gain his trust,
then pull pranks on him,
like throwing salt in his coffee,
rubbing chili paper on a dry paintbrush
Vincent tended to suck,
and putting a snake in his
box of painting supplies.
- [Shane] Why are these
boys the way they are?
- [Ryan] Sick pranks, dude.
- The snake bit the artist!
(laughing)
- We nailed him, bro!
Right, yeah!
Yeah!
What a nerd!
- God, I'd love to just
transport them here
and be like hey, you know that guy
who you put a funny snake in his mailbox?
- You know, you put
some salt in his coffee.
- He's in a museum.
- He's the museum that you're
standing in front of now.
- He's the museum.
I can't believe boys would be that mean
to a funny, old man.
- I could believe it.
Teenage boys are the worst.
- I remember being obnoxious as a teen.
- [Ryan] Yeah.
- It's inevitable.
- If you're pranking a stranger,
I find it not as funny.
- It's just mean.
- [Ryan] That's just mean.
- It's just mean.
- And this is mean.
One of the boys who would tease Vincent
was Rene Secretan, who said quote,
"Our favorite game was making him angry,
which was easy."
End quote.
"My favorite game was making
him angry, which was easy."
(laughing)
- [Shane] What a little stinker!
- What a little piece of shit!
(laughing)
"Oh, look how red his face is getting!"
(laughing)
- "Look at the tears!"
(laughing)
- Oh my God, what a little brat.
I love it.
Rene's older brother, Gaston,
was an aspiring artist who liked to hear
Vincent's tales of the Parisian art world.
Vincent figured Rene was just something
he had to endure in order
to have a friendship
with Gaston.
Rene, unlike his brother,
had no interest in art,
instead enjoying fishing and hunting.
After seeing Buffalo Bill's
Wild West show in Paris,
Rene came back to Auvers
with a full outfit
of western clothes,
complete with fringe coat, cowboy boots,
and added a .380 caliber pistol.
Vincent started calling
Rene "Puffalo Pill",
a mispronunciation of "Buffalo Bill"
due to his accent, which
only angered the boy more.
- I love it!
I love Vincent getting back at him.
Because I'm sure this guy just showed up,
and van Gogh was just
like oh, Puffalo Pill.
And everyone was like oh!
(laughing)
I just said he's Puffalo Pill.
And it's like...
(laughing)
- He did it again!
Vincent does it again!
- And Rene's sitting there like
you shut up, shut up!
- And they're all like blow
off those pistols, Vince!
Oh, what a burn!
- "What?" (laughs)
- I love that kid taking his hat off,
slamming it on the ground, stomping on it.
- So to hear him get a
little win in there--
- Yeah, a little prank war.
- I love it.
It makes me happy.
- [Ryan] In their book,
Van Gogh, The Life,
authors Naifeh and Smith speculate
that the Secretan boys
quarreled with Vincent
around a farmyard on Boucher Road.
They may have accidentally fired the gun,
striking Vincent in his abdomen.
Vincent then stumbled
back towards the inn,
where he covered for the boys.
The boys, in shock at what they had done,
may have collected Vincent's belongings
and fled the scene,
destroying what evidence might remain.
- [Shane] It seems plausible.
One, because he's a sweet man.
- [Ryan] Yes.
- [Shane] And clearly he put up with
this bullying for a long time.
So they're being very cruel to him,
and he's still just kind of like,
hey, that's just how it goes.
Terrible kids--
- [Ryan] Well, he had a relationship
with one of the brothers--
- And that's the other thing.
If he's close with Gaston,
then maybe he doesn't want to
point fingers to Rene.
- Yeah, cause it's gonna ruin their life.
- Yeah, it'll be a devastating thing.
- Yeah, I buy it, I think
I could get behind this.
The theory is supported by the fact
that multiple witnesses
saw Vincent leave the inn
and head towards the hamlet of
(speaks in foreign language),
and not towards the
fields where he claimed
he'd been painting.
That road leads to a spot in Oise
where Rene enjoyed fishing.
It's possible Rene and his brother
met Vincent on their way back from Oise,
went to a nearby farmyard,
and then the boys
accidentally shot the artist.
That would also make it easier for Vincent
to get back to the inn
with a bullet in his stomach,
as opposed to a steep, mile long trek back
from the wheat fields.
This theory would explain a lot of things
the suicide story does not,
such as the odd entry point of the bullet,
the lack of suicide note,
why Vincent took his painting equipment
to kill himself,
why all that gear and the
gun could not be found,
and why he didn't shoot
himself in the head.
- They don't think that Rene
would've been so upset about the cowboy--
- About the Puffalo Pill.
- Yeah, that he would--
- I would hope not.
See, now that makes this story
get a different kind of turn.
- Yeah.
- Still, sweet of him to cover,
but I really, really don't want to
accept the fact that maybe Rene
did shoot him on purpose.
In the wake of the shooting,
Rene, Gaston, and their father left town.
When they returned, Rene,
who rarely traveled
anywhere without his pistol,
no longer had the gun.
When asked about it decades later,
Rene said Vincent stole it from him.
In the 1930s, as Vincent's work
was beginning to gain notoriety,
townspeople told an art historian
that young boys shot Vincent on accident,
and that Vincent
protected their identities
for fear that they'd be accused of murder.
Still, largely due to Irving Stone's
1934 novelization of
Vincent's Life and Death,
and the 1956 movie that followed,
the idea of Vincent van
Gogh being a tortured genius
who took his own life
crystallized in the public consciousness.
In a story that may feel familiar
for those of us in our 20s and 30s,
Vincent spent much of his
life looking for a purpose,
trying to find a path that
could at once fulfill himself
while also bringing joy to others.
What he didn't know at
the time of his death
was that his work would
be beloved by generations,
inspiring countless others
to pursue their life's true purpose.
What he did know at the time of his death
was how that fateful bullet found a home
inside his abdomen,
but as for the rest of us,
that truth will remain unsolved.
- Well, that's a lovely little story,
I gotta be honest,
I didn't think that the alternative
would be a little bit heartwarming.
- Yeah.
I would say so.
It definitely paints a different image
completely of him in my mind,
'cause I, like most of the public,
did think he was a tortured genius
who took his own life.
- Yeah, yeah.
- But this paints him
as a very empathetic,
understanding man.
The underlying theme being human kindness.
- Yeah, not bad.
It's a good thing to
try, take it for a whirl.
- Yeah, it's definitely a
good way to end the season.
- Oh. (laughs)
- See, we don't agree on anything,
but right now we agree.
- Yeah, we hate each other.
- We like this moment.
- Yeah, it's very fun.
- So you all take a cue from this,
and we're all gonna be golden.
(mysterious music)
