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S2E4: Catching the Killer of Neil LaFave · Blood Trails

0:05
Speaker 1: In the marshes of northeastern Wisconsin, a game warden stepped
0:08
Speaker 1: out of his truck one September evening and never came back.
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Speaker 1: What investigators found the next day was a crime scene
0:15
Speaker 1: so brutal it would haunt the state of Wisconsin for
0:19
Speaker 1: decades to come. But catching the killer would require a
0:22
Speaker 1: brand new investigative technique, a hidden rifle, and a manhunt
0:27
Speaker 1: that stretched from the north Woods to the state capitol.
0:31
Speaker 1: That's next on Blood Trails. On September twenty fourth, nineteen
0:43
Speaker 1: seventy one, Wisconsin State game Warden Neila Fave had every
0:46
Speaker 1: reason to be hopeful. The thirty two year old was married,
0:50
Speaker 1: with two kids, a house, a small farm, and a
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Speaker 1: strong community of family and friends. He was also working
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Speaker 1: a job he loved. He'd grown up hunting and fishing,
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Speaker 1: and he wanted to protect the wild places and creatures
1:03
Speaker 1: that make Wisconsin great.
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Speaker 2: But he was there that day to post in the
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Speaker 2: Wet Area's wildlife sanctuary.
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Speaker 1: That's Donald Zeidemulder, who was at the time the district
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Speaker 1: attorney for Brown County, Wisconsin. He told me that Neil
1:19
Speaker 1: was working that day at the Sensible Wildlife Area, about
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Speaker 1: eight miles north of Green Bay. He'd been busy posting
1:26
Speaker 1: no hunting signs, but he was in a hurry to
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Speaker 1: wrap it up.
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Speaker 2: It was his birthday, so he wanted to get home.
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Speaker 2: He came back to his truck, he took his waiters off,
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Speaker 2: he put his hunting boots on, he got in his truck,
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Speaker 2: and he actually lit a cigar, and then he heard something.
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Speaker 1: We don't know exactly what that something was, but we
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Speaker 1: do know that Neil put his cigar in the ashtray
1:52
Speaker 1: and got out of his truck.
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Speaker 2: Because he assumed he would be back to finish it.
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Speaker 1: But Neil never returned to finish that sea. He never
2:01
Speaker 1: got a chance to kiss his wife and hug his kids,
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Speaker 1: or attend the surprise birthday party that was being organized
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Speaker 1: in his honor.
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Speaker 3: As a family, we had all gathered there to have
2:11
Speaker 3: a birthday party for him, and I just kept getting
2:14
Speaker 3: later and later. Nate didn't come home. It was at
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Speaker 3: some point we realized that something wasn't right.
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Speaker 1: The family at first thought Neil might have gone out
2:23
Speaker 1: with friends to celebrate his birthday, but as the minutes
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Speaker 1: ticked by and more guests arrived, they realized that all
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Speaker 1: his friends were already there, Darkness fell, and Peggy lefee,
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Speaker 1: Neil's wife, drove out to the wildlife area, where she
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Speaker 1: found Neil's empty truck, but there was no sign of
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Speaker 1: the game organ. After Peggy called law enforcement and the
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Speaker 1: search began. It didn't take long for reporters to catch
2:47
Speaker 1: wind of what was happening. Here's the Green Bay Press Gazette.
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Speaker 4: Along with police officials, friends and neighbors converged on the
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Speaker 4: scene to search for the missing man. Search planes from
2:57
Speaker 4: the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources enlisted bloodhounds were brought
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Speaker 4: in to comb a wooded marsh area early Saturday.
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Speaker 1: Reporters were struck by how many of Neil's friends had
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Speaker 1: joined the search efforts. Peggy was there too, but it
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Speaker 1: wasn't easy for the young wife to watch and wait.
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Speaker 4: At one time, missus Leffay was standing near a squad
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Speaker 4: car when the message blurted from the plane above that
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Speaker 4: if a man had run into foul play, this would
3:24
Speaker 4: be an ideal place to dump the body. Tears welled
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Speaker 4: in her eyes and I could see how tense she was.
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Speaker 1: She had reason to be. It wasn't like Neil to
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Speaker 1: disappear without telling anyone, and he wouldn't have abandoned his
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Speaker 1: truck without reason. Friends were overheard saying that he knew
3:40
Speaker 1: those woods like a rabbit, and they doubted he'd had
3:43
Speaker 1: some kind of accident. They also said he wasn't the
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Speaker 1: kind of guy to leave a cigar unfinished. The search
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Speaker 1: continued throughout the night until the next morning, when a
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Speaker 1: local hunter stumbled on what they were looking for, but
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Speaker 1: hoping not to.
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Speaker 4: Find Lefav's body was finally discovered by a man who
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Speaker 4: did not know him and had not originally come to
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Speaker 4: the preserve to participate in the search. Bob Doney went
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Speaker 4: to Sensiba Saturday morning bow hunting, but joined the search
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Speaker 4: when police told him of the situation.
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Speaker 1: Bob told reporters that he'd noticed a mount of fresh
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Speaker 1: earth with ferns and a log on top of it.
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Speaker 1: As he walked closer, he spied a belt and an
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Speaker 1: elbow partially hidden by the dirt. He also noticed blood
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Speaker 1: on the ground, as well as a path where it
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Speaker 1: looked like someone had been dragged. Bob called the sheriff's deputies,
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Speaker 1: but they quickly realized the situation was even worse than
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Speaker 1: they had feared.
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Speaker 2: Phone rings I had heard on the radio and TV news.
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Speaker 2: The night before that there was a game warden missing
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Speaker 2: in Sensibon and it was the Sheriff's department. They said
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Speaker 2: to me, you've got to come out to the Sensaba
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Speaker 2: right away. We've found the game warden. He's in the sand.
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Speaker 1: Donald was only twenty eight years old at the time
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Speaker 1: and he'd been elected the year before. He'd been hoping
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Speaker 1: to spend that Saturday with his newborn baby boy, but
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Speaker 1: duty called, so he hopped in the car.
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Speaker 2: So I approached an area that sandy loom, you know,
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Speaker 2: swamp kind of stuff. It was sort of the higher part,
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Speaker 2: and I walked over and here was an area of
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Speaker 2: like of sand that had been pushed aside, and now
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Speaker 2: you can see the hip and a pocket green cacae overalls.
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Speaker 2: So there was his body.
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Speaker 1: Donald called the state crime Lab to help process the scene,
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Speaker 1: but they didn't get there until after the sun had set.
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Speaker 2: So then they start digging with their hands the sand
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Speaker 2: away from from Neal's body. So I grabbed those two
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Speaker 2: big lights and I'm holding them up like this, illuminating
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Speaker 2: the scene, and I'm watching him as they you know,
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Speaker 2: they get his legs and then they start working up
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Speaker 2: to his upper body, and all of a sudd the
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Speaker 2: guy from the crime lad says, oh my god, he
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Speaker 2: doesn't have a head.
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Speaker 1: The details of this gruesome discovery were not made public immediately,
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Speaker 1: but they didn't have to be for Peggy's world to
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Speaker 1: come crashing down.
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Speaker 4: As we walked to my car, another car pulled up.
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Speaker 4: Three youths got out, and I could see that at
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Speaker 4: least two of them had been crying. She asked, what's wrong?
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Speaker 4: Are they coming back here? One of them said her
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Speaker 4: husband had been found and was dead. Her arms and
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Speaker 4: legs went limp, and she said something like I want
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Speaker 4: to go see him. I told the boys to take
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Speaker 4: her home and they left.
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Speaker 1: The murder of Neil a Fav remains one of Wisconsin's
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Speaker 1: darkest moments. The brutality of the crime perpetrated on a
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Speaker 1: well liked young father and husband, devastated Neil's family, friends,
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Speaker 1: and colleagues in the Warden Service. Donald knew that justice
6:51
Speaker 1: must be served, but as he stood beside Neil's shallow
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Speaker 1: grave on that cool September evening, he had no idea
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Speaker 1: where that effort would lead. Catch Neil's killer. The district
7:01
Speaker 1: attorney would have to find a hidden rifle, prosecute a
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Speaker 1: contentious trial, survive a brazen jail break, and employ a
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Speaker 1: new investigative technique that catapulted this case from the swamps
7:13
Speaker 1: of Sensiba to the history books. I'm Jordan Sillers and
7:18
Speaker 1: this is Blood Trails. Catching the Killer of Neil la
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Speaker 1: Fave Part one. Neil Brad Lefay was seventeen years younger
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Speaker 1: than his older brother, so Neil was already out of
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Speaker 1: the house by the time Brad was born. But as
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Speaker 1: he grew up, the younger la Faye found a friend, mentor,
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Speaker 1: and father figure in his adult sibling.
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Speaker 3: We developed a great relationship because as time went on,
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Speaker 3: he kind of ended up almost like my dad, And
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Speaker 3: not to take anything away, my dad was great, but
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Speaker 3: he was always busy at work on and Neil seemed
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Speaker 3: to always take time for me to come to my
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Speaker 3: sporting events and got interested in hunting and all the
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Speaker 3: stuff that he liked.
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Speaker 1: Neil had purchased a hobby farm right across the street
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Speaker 1: from the Sensible Wildlife Area. He and Peggy lived in
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Speaker 1: a house on that property, and they were happy to
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Speaker 1: host Brad whenever he didn't have school.
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Speaker 3: A lot of my summers are a lot of time
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Speaker 3: of the summer. I'd spend there and doing chores on
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Speaker 3: the farm, riding horses, helping bail hay, and do all
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Speaker 3: the fun stuff you did back then. There was a
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Speaker 3: good bond between us.
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Speaker 1: As Brad got older, he joined Neil in the field
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Speaker 1: whenever he could. The older la Fee was often busy
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Speaker 1: catching poachers during hunting season, but he still made time
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Speaker 1: to chase birds with Brad.
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Speaker 3: Well, we hunted there right on the farm, and my
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Speaker 3: geese and ducks, and there were cheasants around then, and
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Speaker 3: he used to reload all his own shelves and he
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Speaker 3: would try and beef him up pretty good. And I
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Speaker 3: remember once accidentally pulling both triggers at the same time
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Speaker 3: on the double barrel and it chipped out two big
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Speaker 3: pieces of wood on both sides of the stock from
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Speaker 3: doing that. But yeah, we would hunt whenever we could.
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Speaker 1: One of their favorite pursuits was hound hunting for raccoons
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Speaker 1: and foxes, and Brad remembers enjoying everything about those trips.
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Speaker 3: He had probably twelve pounds and evenings that I remember,
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Speaker 3: you know, we'd go coon hunting and we didn't have
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Speaker 3: all the modern technology they have now. For tracking your dog,
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Speaker 3: so if you didn't catch up to them, you just
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Speaker 3: leave your jacket in the ditch and in the morning
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Speaker 3: you'd come back and the dogs would be there all
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Speaker 3: around the jacket, laying on the jacket. Some of those
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Speaker 3: late nights we'd end up going to Chili John's in
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Speaker 3: Green Bay and having chili because they were always open
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Speaker 3: for the bar croud and we would just be getting
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Speaker 3: done to coon hunting.
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Speaker 1: Neil obviously had a soft spot for his little brother.
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Speaker 1: Brad said. He used to call him kiddo and they'd
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Speaker 1: hold races up and down the quarter mile driveway to
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Speaker 1: the road. But Neil didn't let him win or get
10:03
Speaker 1: away with doing things the wrong way, especially when it
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Speaker 1: came to the outdoors.
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Speaker 3: I remember once I forgot my license from up in
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Speaker 3: Crivets and got down there and forgot my license. He said, well,
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Speaker 3: I guess you're just out this week, so I didn't
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Speaker 3: get the hut. But yeah, it was he liked the
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Speaker 3: outdoors and he liked wildlife and saw it all kind
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Speaker 3: of fit together.
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Speaker 1: Brad was too young to remember how Neil and Peggy
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Speaker 1: began their relationship, but he thinks it was likely at
10:31
Speaker 1: a dance or neighborhood gathering. Peggy and her family lived
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Speaker 1: across the street from where Neil's parents owned a supper
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Speaker 1: club in Oneida, so the families had known each other
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Speaker 1: for a long time. Peggy declined to speak with me
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Speaker 1: for this episode. I was told the memories are just
10:46
Speaker 1: too painful. But Nikki, one of Neil and Peggy's two children,
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Speaker 1: agreed to tell me more about her father.
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Speaker 5: She was a well respected person. Anybody that knew him
11:00
Speaker 5: just really respected him.
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Speaker 4: He was a down to earth person.
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Speaker 5: I was told that he would take my brother and
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Speaker 5: I to our doctor's appointments. Fifty five years ago, it
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Speaker 5: wasn't common for the father to take their kids to
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Speaker 5: the doctor's office versus nowadays, and he loved to do
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Speaker 5: that because he wanted a family.
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Speaker 1: Nicki was only two years old when her father was killed.
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Speaker 1: She doesn't have any personal memories of him, and you
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Speaker 1: can tell she doesn't want to speak out of turn.
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Speaker 1: But growing up, her mother and other relatives were happy
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Speaker 1: to tell her more about the father she never knew.
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Speaker 5: He just always had a smile on his face. He
11:46
Speaker 5: just was very open with everybody. He was an easygoing guy.
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Speaker 1: That honest, easygoing personality made him a good game warden,
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Speaker 1: and both Nicki and Brad mentioned how much Nei loved
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Speaker 1: his job.
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Speaker 5: He loved making sure that the animals were taken care of.
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Speaker 5: He loved being outdoors and hunting so much that he
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Speaker 5: just enjoyed working as a DNR and taking care of
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Speaker 5: the land for future hunters and for the hunters that
12:19
Speaker 5: were around.
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Speaker 1: When I asked Brad what he hoped his brother would
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Speaker 1: be remembered for, this was one of the things he reiterated.
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Speaker 3: Just as a dedication to the wildlife and to what
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Speaker 3: he loved to do, and having that job was kind
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Speaker 3: of absence of what he really wanted to do.
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Speaker 1: The fact that Neil died doing the thing he loved
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Speaker 1: adds an extra layer of tragedy to this case. Neil's
12:47
Speaker 1: coworkers at the DNR couldn't prove it, but they immediately
12:50
Speaker 1: suspected a well known poacher for this brutal crime. If
12:54
Speaker 1: that was true, Neil's love of wildlife, his passion for conservation,
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Speaker 1: and his no non sense approach to hunting and fishing
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Speaker 1: laws had led indirectly to his death. Neil was the
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Speaker 1: kind of guy you'd want as your local game Warden.
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Speaker 1: But it was exactly these traits that deprived a community
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Speaker 1: of an exemplary public servant and a young family of
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Speaker 1: a father and husband.
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Speaker 5: He was like that with everybody. He was there to
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Speaker 5: help everybody, and everybody that knew him just kind of
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Speaker 5: really respected him and trusted him.
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Speaker 1: Part two the killer. As Peggy and the rest of
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Speaker 1: Neil's family began to grieve, Donald Zeidemalder began his investigation.
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Speaker 1: He wasn't the only one, of course. Conservation Warden Dale
13:51
Speaker 1: Morey and Brown County Sergeant Marvin Gerlikowski were two of
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Speaker 1: the lead investigators. Both men have unfortunately passed away, but Donald,
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Speaker 1: who is now Judge Zidemolder for the Brown County Circuit Court,
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Speaker 1: offered a detailed account of how the investigation unfolded. It
14:07
Speaker 1: was close to midnight by the time they found Neil's body,
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Speaker 1: so they covered the area with plastic, staked it down,
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Speaker 1: and stationed two deputies to make sure no one disturbed
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Speaker 1: the crime scene. It rained overnight, and Donald was back
14:19
Speaker 1: bright and early the next day.
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Speaker 2: And I show up and there's these two deputies there
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Speaker 2: who spent the whole night. And I've never seen two
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Speaker 2: guys happier to be relieved of duty than those two
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Speaker 2: guys were. I said, how did your night go? How
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Speaker 2: did our night go? What the hell are you talking
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Speaker 2: about these and said, we're pectifying the whole damn night.
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Speaker 2: We had our guns out because we didn't know if
14:43
Speaker 2: that guy was going to come back.
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Speaker 1: It's a humorous interaction in the safety of retrospect, but
14:48
Speaker 1: in the moment that fear was real and understandable. Most
14:53
Speaker 1: murderers don't decapitate their victims. Brown County had a seriously
14:58
Speaker 1: evil person on their hands, and fact was made disturbingly
15:01
Speaker 1: real just a few hours later.
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Speaker 2: So I was there like at dawn, and maybe I
15:05
Speaker 2: stayed till like noon or something. I went home to
15:09
Speaker 2: try to get some sleep, and was probably early afternoon
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Speaker 2: I got a phone call saying that they had found
15:15
Speaker 2: the head.
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Speaker 1: Neil's head was found buried in a shallow grave about
15:19
Speaker 1: sixty yards to the north of where his body was discovered.
15:23
Speaker 1: From that horrifying revelation, investigators were able to determine a
15:26
Speaker 1: cause of death.
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Speaker 2: He had been shot multiple times in the face with
15:31
Speaker 2: the twenty two. Then I surmised that while he was
15:38
Speaker 2: on the ground, the thirty odds six was a head
15:42
Speaker 2: shot right next to the skull because it blew the
15:46
Speaker 2: back of his head off.
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Speaker 1: Crime scene investigators had done a meticulous grid search of
15:51
Speaker 1: the area. They found twenty two shellcasings, as well as
15:54
Speaker 1: a thirty odd to six slug buried in the dirt.
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Speaker 1: Donald believed this was the slug that had entered Neil's skull,
16:02
Speaker 1: but whoever had done this wasn't satisfied with shooting an
16:05
Speaker 1: innocent man in the face and then shooting him again
16:07
Speaker 1: in the back of the head. The autopsy suggested that
16:10
Speaker 1: he had then shot Neil an additional six times in
16:13
Speaker 1: the neck and finished the grizzly task with the blade
16:17
Speaker 1: of a shovel stolen from Neil's truck. That conclusion was
16:21
Speaker 1: supported by a blood soaked patch of dirt that had
16:23
Speaker 1: been gouged by what appeared to be high powered rifle bullets.
16:29
Speaker 1: It was hard to believe that someone living in the
16:31
Speaker 1: quiet Green Bay suburb could be capable of something so brutal,
16:36
Speaker 1: but it didn't take long for a primary suspect to emerge.
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Speaker 2: From the very beginning of the warden from Brown County
16:44
Speaker 2: that his name was Norman Hicks, and he told me
16:48
Speaker 2: that night he said, well, I think this Brian Hussan
16:52
Speaker 2: had something to do with this. I think their contact
16:55
Speaker 2: with him, I don't want to say unnerve them, but
16:58
Speaker 2: had to make give so much anxiety. They thought something like, well,
17:02
Speaker 2: this guy is capable of whatever, so we focused on
17:06
Speaker 2: him from almost the very beginning.
17:09
Speaker 1: Brian who Sung was a notorious poacher. The twenty one
17:12
Speaker 1: year old had clashed with Neil several times over the years,
17:16
Speaker 1: including an incident the previous fall in which he was
17:18
Speaker 1: cited for shooting a pheasant out of season. Peggy also
17:22
Speaker 1: told authorities whose Song could have been involved in her
17:24
Speaker 1: husband's murder, which suggests that those confrontations were significant enough
17:29
Speaker 1: that Neil relayed them to his wife. It was as
17:33
Speaker 1: good elite as any. So Donald and the other investigators
17:36
Speaker 1: began finding and interviewing who Sung's friends and associates.
17:40
Speaker 2: We ended up having two or three who were pretty cooperative.
17:44
Speaker 2: So they told us that they remember going with him
17:51
Speaker 2: with a twenty two and shooting. So our deputies then
17:56
Speaker 2: had these kids take them where they had Brian had
18:02
Speaker 2: used this twenty two for pistol shooting. The twenty two
18:05
Speaker 2: casings we recovered fired from Brian's gun matched the twenty
18:09
Speaker 2: two casings at the scene of the crime.
18:12
Speaker 1: This was the first real indication that Husung might be
18:15
Speaker 1: connected to Neil's murder. According to an evident sheet I
18:18
Speaker 1: obtained from the Brown County Attorney's office, investigators were able
18:22
Speaker 1: to match the cases from the two locations because they
18:25
Speaker 1: both contained a distinctive mark, likely from the firing pin
18:29
Speaker 1: of who Song's gun. The problem was they couldn't find
18:33
Speaker 1: a witness who could place their suspect at the scene
18:35
Speaker 1: of the crime, and they still hadn't recovered either the
18:39
Speaker 1: twenty two or the thirty odd six rifle. Without the
18:42
Speaker 1: murder weapons, it would be tough to pin the crime
18:45
Speaker 1: on anyone, and Donald figured that twenty two was long gone.
18:49
Speaker 2: I knew that the key was this thirty odd to
18:53
Speaker 2: six because I'm a hunter myself, and I was pretty
18:58
Speaker 2: damn sure that this kid was He pitched that twenty
19:01
Speaker 2: two in the river or wherever it would be. But
19:05
Speaker 2: I had some hole for confidence that he wasn't going
19:09
Speaker 2: to give up his dear rifle.
19:11
Speaker 1: Twenty two's are a dime a dozen, which was almost
19:13
Speaker 1: literally true in nineteen seventy one. Donald knew that they'd
19:17
Speaker 1: never find whose songs drimmed fire a rifle, but no
19:19
Speaker 1: self respecting hunter or even a poacher would willingly depart
19:23
Speaker 1: with the thirty odd to six. Donald knew that rifle
19:26
Speaker 1: was still around somewhere, and a crime lab analysis of
19:29
Speaker 1: the recovered bullets indicated that they were likely looking for
19:32
Speaker 1: a Remington bolt action. But Husong refused to take a
19:36
Speaker 1: polygraph test, and he certainly wasn't about to reveal the
19:39
Speaker 1: location of his firearms.
19:41
Speaker 2: He never cooperated with the police or I ever said
19:44
Speaker 2: anything about anything.
19:46
Speaker 1: Whu Song's friends were more forthcoming, but the stories they
19:49
Speaker 1: told about the young poacher sent chills down the spines
19:52
Speaker 1: of investigators. In one incident, Hu Song dismembered a doll
19:56
Speaker 1: that belonged to his niece while she screamed in terror.
20:00
Speaker 1: In another, he tore the head off a live kitten
20:03
Speaker 1: while partying with friends. I haven't verified these accounts myself.
20:08
Speaker 1: They appear in a book called The Protectors of the
20:11
Speaker 1: Outdoors by a former Wisconsin game warden named Jim Chiwick.
20:15
Speaker 1: But everything I've read about Who Song indicates he was
20:18
Speaker 1: a deeply disturbed individual.
20:21
Speaker 2: There were violent incidents in the past. There was this
20:24
Speaker 2: story that I was told that when he was like
20:26
Speaker 2: twelve or fourteen, he got in a fight with a
20:28
Speaker 2: neighborhood kid, had him down on the sidewalk and was
20:31
Speaker 2: like pounding his head on the sidewalk, and his dad
20:34
Speaker 2: was standing there saying, you know, kill him, kill him
20:37
Speaker 2: or whatever, if you know what I mean. So they
20:39
Speaker 2: were these stories came out all about how this environment
20:42
Speaker 2: certainly contributed to what he turned out to be.
20:45
Speaker 1: Who Song's mindset seemed to fit the crime, but he
20:48
Speaker 1: also had a motive to target Neil specifically. Warden Hicks
20:52
Speaker 1: testified that whose Song had a quote score to settle
20:55
Speaker 1: with Neil due to past confrontations. We don't know the
20:58
Speaker 1: details of all of these confrontations, but they were significant
21:01
Speaker 1: enough that Hicks recounted them under oath, and his testimony
21:05
Speaker 1: appears in several subsequent court cases. Hu Song had motive
21:09
Speaker 1: and means, but he also had opportunity. Husong's grandmother lived
21:14
Speaker 1: just south of the wildlife area, close enough that her
21:17
Speaker 1: grandson could have seen Neil's truck from that property. Behind
21:21
Speaker 1: her house, investigators found what looked like an empty grave
21:25
Speaker 1: about the same depth as the one used to bury Neil.
21:28
Speaker 1: A soil expert determined that that hole had been dug
21:32
Speaker 1: about six months previously, and detectives wondered if Hu Song
21:35
Speaker 1: had been planning Neil's assassination for months before he carried
21:39
Speaker 1: it out. Everything seemed to be pointing in Wu Song's direction,
21:43
Speaker 1: but Donald was still hesitant to bring charges. The evidence
21:47
Speaker 1: they'd collected was circumstantial, and the prosecutor knew they needed more.
21:51
Speaker 2: It seems probable that he's involved in this some way
21:55
Speaker 2: or the others. But we came to a point where
21:58
Speaker 2: that seemed to be the best as we could do
22:00
Speaker 2: because we had nobody could put him at the scene,
22:04
Speaker 2: you know, that was basically what we had.
22:07
Speaker 1: Search efforts had failed to turn up that thirty odd
22:09
Speaker 1: six rifle, but Donald wasn't about to give up. If
22:13
Speaker 1: Hussan was too smart to leave it somewhere investigators could find,
22:16
Speaker 1: the young prosecutor decided to let their number one suspect
22:20
Speaker 1: lead them to it. To do that, you'd need to
22:23
Speaker 1: employ a brand new investigative tool that had only been
22:26
Speaker 1: legalized a few years before, But it turned out to
22:29
Speaker 1: be exactly what they needed to blow this case wide open.
22:38
Speaker 1: Part three. The tape.
22:41
Speaker 6: I was at the Justice Department and I was in
22:43
Speaker 6: the criminal prosecution unit, and at some point I became
22:48
Speaker 6: head of the criminal prosecution unit, and it probably overlaps
22:52
Speaker 6: with this story.
22:53
Speaker 1: That's Peter Peshick. He's retired now, but he had a
22:56
Speaker 1: long and successful career in Wisconsin state government.
23:00
Speaker 6: Donald z Eibelder, Judge Eyebelder, came down to the Justice
23:04
Speaker 6: Fire headquarters and we sat down and talked about the project.
23:07
Speaker 1: Peter had known Donald for a long time. The two
23:09
Speaker 1: had debated each other in high school and then been
23:11
Speaker 1: a part of the same debate team at the University
23:14
Speaker 1: of Wisconsin Madison. They shared a mutual respect for each other,
23:18
Speaker 1: so Donald knew his friend would be happy to help
23:20
Speaker 1: with his novel idea for prosecuting Brian who sung.
23:24
Speaker 2: So Peter and I then drafted an application that had
23:31
Speaker 2: to be approved by a Senior Circuit Court judge to
23:35
Speaker 2: allow for a wiretap.
23:39
Speaker 1: Wiretapping has been around for as long as people have
23:41
Speaker 1: been talking on the telephone, but before this case, it
23:44
Speaker 1: had never been used to investigate a murder In Wisconsin.
23:48
Speaker 1: Congress made wiretapping a federal crime in nineteen thirty four,
23:51
Speaker 1: and the practice remained an illegal investigative technique until the
23:55
Speaker 1: late nineteen sixties. That's when, in an effort to give
23:59
Speaker 1: law enforcement at up on organized crime, Congress reversed course
24:03
Speaker 1: and passed the Omnibus Crime Control Act of nineteen sixty eight.
24:07
Speaker 1: This law put guardrails around when the FEDS could and
24:10
Speaker 1: could not tap someone's phone, and state legislators quickly passed
24:14
Speaker 1: their own versions of the law that governed state level investigators.
24:19
Speaker 1: Peter and Donald were both part of the team that
24:21
Speaker 1: wrote Wisconsin's wiretapping law, and Peter, who describes himself as
24:25
Speaker 1: a progressive libertarian, was keen to make sure the technique
24:29
Speaker 1: wasn't abused.
24:30
Speaker 6: The whole idea of electronic surveillance laws is to minimize
24:34
Speaker 6: their use and to use it when it is not
24:39
Speaker 6: the tool of last resort, but certainly one that is
24:43
Speaker 6: not used any more frequently than necessary.
24:46
Speaker 1: While Peter agreed that tapping Husong's phone might be the
24:48
Speaker 1: only way to find the location of that thirty six rifle,
24:52
Speaker 1: he knew there were a number of legal hoops they'd
24:54
Speaker 1: have to jump through to execute their plan.
24:57
Speaker 6: Well, he had to demonstrate that the a defendant would
25:02
Speaker 6: in fact use the telephone we were going to wiretap,
25:05
Speaker 6: either the telephone had to be in the name of
25:09
Speaker 6: the target, or you had to demonstrate that the target
25:14
Speaker 6: would use that telephone on some level of frequency.
25:18
Speaker 1: In this case, that was easier said than done. Who
25:21
Speaker 1: Sung was living with his girlfriend and her name was
25:24
Speaker 1: on the lease. The law prohibited them from tapping her
25:27
Speaker 1: phone without solid evidence that Whu Sung lived at that address. Fortunately,
25:32
Speaker 1: Peter had seen this situation before in a previous case
25:35
Speaker 1: targeting organized crime.
25:37
Speaker 6: We had had a similar situation in Milwaukee, and what
25:41
Speaker 6: we did there was we attempted to sell life insurance
25:46
Speaker 6: to the target defendant and in the process he put
25:51
Speaker 6: a phone number down that we could reach him at.
25:54
Speaker 6: Judge Zeiden Milder heard this story as we sat together
25:57
Speaker 6: in Madison at Department of Justice, and over time he said,
26:04
Speaker 6: I have an idea.
26:05
Speaker 2: I was so full of pisson vinegar at that time.
26:08
Speaker 2: So I got a hold of my a friend who
26:09
Speaker 2: was a florist to mine, and I had him borrow
26:14
Speaker 2: his florists truck and his uniform. I put it on
26:17
Speaker 2: a deputy and I sent the deputy with a dozen
26:21
Speaker 2: roses to this address and I had him pound on
26:24
Speaker 2: the door, and when Brian came to the door, he said, oh,
26:28
Speaker 2: I have these roses for missus sellers. And Brian said, well,
26:32
Speaker 2: she doesn't live here, and he said, well who are
26:34
Speaker 2: you And he said why am i? I am Brian Hussan.
26:37
Speaker 1: Well do you live here?
26:38
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I live here. So I had that deputy's
26:41
Speaker 2: affidavit in my search war to say, that's why I
26:44
Speaker 2: should be able to tap this phone, because that's where
26:47
Speaker 2: he lives.
26:48
Speaker 1: The second standard they had to meet was to prove
26:50
Speaker 1: that Hussung would likely use that telephone to discuss the
26:54
Speaker 1: criminal activity they were investigating. No one can predict the future,
26:58
Speaker 1: but they thought they knew how to courage their suspect
27:01
Speaker 1: to pick up the phone and mention that thirty odd six.
27:04
Speaker 6: What we would do is harassed the living daylights out
27:08
Speaker 6: of the target defendant and his family to the point
27:12
Speaker 6: where Brian would be using the telephone in furtherance of
27:17
Speaker 6: his crime. I we said, ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
27:21
Speaker 6: I think that'll work. I think that will constitute probable cause.
27:26
Speaker 1: With the affidavit from the deputy and the rest of
27:28
Speaker 1: the plan in place, they went to the judge and
27:30
Speaker 1: applied for the wiretap warrant.
27:32
Speaker 2: And I was so antsy about this whole thing that.
27:35
Speaker 2: I had the circuit judge come to my home and
27:39
Speaker 2: we had the hearing in the basement of my house
27:41
Speaker 2: because I didn't want to do this in the courthouse,
27:43
Speaker 2: because I didn't it was so sensitive to me that
27:46
Speaker 2: I didn't want anybody to have any idea that something
27:49
Speaker 2: like this was going on.
27:51
Speaker 1: The cloak and dagger routine worked. They got the warrant
27:53
Speaker 1: without tipping off their suspect, and FBI agents climbed the
27:56
Speaker 1: telephone pole outside Husong's house to install there tap device.
28:01
Speaker 1: Then they set their plan into motion.
28:05
Speaker 2: So once I had the warrant, how do I stimulate
28:08
Speaker 2: him to use that phone? Well, I know, I'll start
28:11
Speaker 2: issuing search warrants for every one of the son of
28:14
Speaker 2: a Bitch's relatives places.
28:17
Speaker 1: One of those locations was the home of Husng's grandmother,
28:20
Speaker 1: who lived near the scene of the crime. The warrant
28:22
Speaker 1: said they were looking for a rifle and they hoped
28:25
Speaker 1: she would relay this information to her grandson. Sure enough,
28:29
Speaker 1: she did, so.
28:30
Speaker 2: They called me and said, you got to get over
28:33
Speaker 2: here right away. You gotta get over here right away.
28:35
Speaker 2: So I come over and they got it. Then it
28:38
Speaker 2: was a tape. You had a tape recording. That's how
28:41
Speaker 2: you know. That was the technology then, so they said
28:45
Speaker 2: listen to this, listen, listen, listen this. So it was
28:47
Speaker 2: his phone and he's dialing, and then the phone rings
28:51
Speaker 2: and then these voices. Brian, Grandma is a you yeah, yeah, Brian,
28:56
Speaker 2: that's me, Grandma. That gun if you got that gun, Oh, Brian,
29:02
Speaker 2: don't you worry. I've got that gun where nobody's ever
29:05
Speaker 2: gonna find it. Don't you worry about that. You don't
29:08
Speaker 2: have to worry about that.
29:10
Speaker 1: The gun wasn't exactly smoking, but that's about as close
29:13
Speaker 1: as you can get without watching your prime suspect pull
29:15
Speaker 1: the trigger. Donald got another search warrant for the grandmother's house,
29:19
Speaker 1: but this time he had special instructions for investigators.
29:23
Speaker 2: I get my deputies together and I say, now here's
29:25
Speaker 2: what I want you to do. I want you to
29:28
Speaker 2: get eight pound malls. I want you to get wrecking
29:32
Speaker 2: cool bars. I want you to bring a blowtorch. I
29:35
Speaker 2: want you to go in there like you're going to
29:37
Speaker 2: take that house apart, brick by brick and drop that
29:41
Speaker 2: stuff on this floor so that she hears it all
29:43
Speaker 2: about it.
29:44
Speaker 1: Donald stayed in his office waiting for news from the sheriff.
29:48
Speaker 2: And you can imagine, you know how tense I am.
29:51
Speaker 2: The phone rings and it's the deputy sheriff who had
29:54
Speaker 2: it at the time. Says, well, I'm here, Don, but
29:58
Speaker 2: he's she doesn't have the gun. I said, what the
30:04
Speaker 2: hell are you talking about? I said, put her on
30:07
Speaker 2: the phone. I says this you missus Hassan. Let me
30:11
Speaker 2: tell you right now. This is a district attorney from
30:14
Speaker 2: Brown County, and there are plenty of room in the
30:17
Speaker 2: jail for more than one Hussan. So I'm telling you
30:20
Speaker 2: right now, if you don't turn over that gun, I
30:25
Speaker 2: will tear your house apart, brick by brick and stone
30:31
Speaker 2: by stone. There will be nothing standing. I will destroy it.
30:36
Speaker 2: Do you understand? And then she blurts out, but the
30:40
Speaker 2: gun isn't here. And then, as God is my witness
30:43
Speaker 2: and as great as life is.
30:46
Speaker 1: Well, where the hell is it?
30:47
Speaker 2: I said? And she says it's.
30:49
Speaker 1: Over at Ruth. Ruth was Brian's aunt, but the DA
30:53
Speaker 1: didn't have to apply for another search warrant. Brian's grandmother
30:56
Speaker 1: took the deputies over to Ruth's house and got the
30:59
Speaker 1: gun herself.
31:00
Speaker 2: Sure as shit, you know about half an hour later,
31:04
Speaker 2: my deputies called me, oh god, we got the gun.
31:07
Speaker 2: Well what have you got? This is how close? This
31:10
Speaker 2: was all totally disassembled, the stock, the receiver, the firing pin,
31:18
Speaker 2: the barrel, all in plastic, all in different wrapped in
31:22
Speaker 2: different plastic bags. So if we had got anywhere near that,
31:26
Speaker 2: all those pieces would have flown east river the swamp,
31:30
Speaker 2: if you know what I mean. We had never been
31:32
Speaker 2: able to do it. We rushed it down to this
31:35
Speaker 2: date crime lab. They assembled it, they fired it. Their
31:40
Speaker 2: firearms experts said that the bullet fired from that gun
31:43
Speaker 2: is identical to the bullet found at the scene of
31:46
Speaker 2: the crime, the thirty odd six that killed me, all
31:48
Speaker 2: the same. I had the guy arrested within twelve hours
31:51
Speaker 2: of that report.
31:53
Speaker 1: Brian Hussang was behind bars and with the deer rifle
31:56
Speaker 1: in hand. Donald was confident in a conviction, but questions
32:00
Speaker 1: still remained what happened that night in Sensiba. Was Neil
32:04
Speaker 1: killed because he confronted the wrong poacher on the wrong
32:07
Speaker 1: day or was he the victim of a premeditated assassination.
32:12
Speaker 1: That question still haunted this investigation, not to mention Neil's
32:16
Speaker 1: family and finding the answer proved even more difficult than
32:20
Speaker 1: identifying the man who pulled the trigger. Part four the trial.
32:30
Speaker 1: When Brian Hussong's trial began on April fourth, nineteen seventy two,
32:33
Speaker 1: District Attorney Donald Zeidmulder wasn't leaving anything to chance.
32:38
Speaker 2: Then we went to trial and I had the DNR
32:44
Speaker 2: fly an aerial photograph of Sensiba and I had that
32:49
Speaker 2: enlarge to show the area of the crime.
32:53
Speaker 1: He had a model of the crime scene built so
32:55
Speaker 1: the jury could see exactly where Neil's remains were found,
32:58
Speaker 1: along with where investigators believed he was killed.
33:01
Speaker 2: So part of my trial stuff is I had a big,
33:04
Speaker 2: you know, eight foot by six foot sandbox for lack
33:07
Speaker 2: of a better term. But it was all done just
33:10
Speaker 2: like you see, you know in the movies where it's
33:12
Speaker 2: a total replica of the crime scene. And then I
33:16
Speaker 2: had everybody when they testify, I have him get off
33:18
Speaker 2: of the stand and then point to the jury on
33:22
Speaker 2: this thing where these various things were found.
33:25
Speaker 1: Husong never testified in his own defense, but his mother
33:28
Speaker 1: took the stand to explain what he was doing the
33:30
Speaker 1: dan Neil was killed.
33:32
Speaker 2: His mother testified at the trial. This could not have
33:37
Speaker 2: happened because he was home canning tomatoes with me. That's it.
33:46
Speaker 2: Nobody else saw him there. You know, I said to
33:49
Speaker 2: the jury, I said, well, as far as that testimony,
33:52
Speaker 2: what mother wouldn't say anything for to help their son?
33:55
Speaker 2: That's all I said. And I've tried a lot of cases,
33:58
Speaker 2: and I always try to watch jurors. When I talked
34:02
Speaker 2: about mothers saying anything for their sons, all the women
34:05
Speaker 2: on the jury nodded their heads, are like, well, that
34:08
Speaker 2: should be. I think I got that right.
34:12
Speaker 1: Whose songs alibi was weak, But the most damning piece
34:15
Speaker 1: of evidence was that deer rifle and his frantic attempt
34:18
Speaker 1: to hide it. To drive this point home, Donald called
34:21
Speaker 1: an expert who verified the identities of the voices on
34:24
Speaker 1: that historic telephone call.
34:27
Speaker 2: I had this Michigan State Crime Lab involved, because in
34:31
Speaker 2: those days they are a thing called voice identification. So
34:35
Speaker 2: then this guy flew over here and he said, to
34:38
Speaker 2: his reasonable certainty, the voice is Grandma, and the voice
34:42
Speaker 2: is the defendant, Brian.
34:44
Speaker 1: The final piece Donald wanted to address was how exactly
34:48
Speaker 1: the murder unfolded and why Donald wasn't required to explain
34:53
Speaker 1: who Sung's actions, only that he carried them out, but
34:56
Speaker 1: he still wanted to give the jury some explanation for
34:59
Speaker 1: why the twenty one year old did what he did.
35:02
Speaker 2: Well. I argue to the jury that what happened here
35:07
Speaker 2: was he had built up all this animosity toward law enforcement.
35:13
Speaker 1: Neil left his truck on that day because he heard
35:15
Speaker 1: the poacher shooting ducks with the twenty two.
35:18
Speaker 2: I believe a reasonable scenario was he went out there,
35:22
Speaker 2: he caught him red handed, he reached to begin writing
35:28
Speaker 2: citation or whatever it is, and then Brian just went
35:32
Speaker 2: berserve because I can't explain this other than just uncontrollable rage.
35:37
Speaker 2: Why would you shoot somebody in the face five or
35:40
Speaker 2: six times, they're now down on the ground. Why would
35:44
Speaker 2: you then either have with you or you know, a
35:47
Speaker 2: thirty odd to six and do a contact shot to
35:49
Speaker 2: the back of the head and then cuts the head off.
35:53
Speaker 2: I mean, I just told the jury it just demonstrates
35:58
Speaker 2: uncontrolled rage.
36:00
Speaker 6: Everything he was saying that we were picking up not
36:03
Speaker 6: necessarily on a telephone, but just people he had been
36:06
Speaker 6: talking to, and all that just suggested he was just
36:10
Speaker 6: a volcano to use. I think the judges words.
36:13
Speaker 1: Peter thinks who sung removed the game Warden's head, not
36:16
Speaker 1: as a rational attempt to hide his crime, but as
36:19
Speaker 1: an additional punishment.
36:21
Speaker 6: Hey, you know I'm gonna punish you, and I'm going
36:24
Speaker 6: to cut your head off. It just left me with
36:27
Speaker 6: the feeling that it was spontaneous.
36:30
Speaker 1: Husung never said why he killed Neil. He never admitted
36:33
Speaker 1: to doing it in the first place, so any theory
36:36
Speaker 1: is speculation. But there was also evidence to suggest that
36:40
Speaker 1: it may have been more cold blooded than Donald and
36:42
Speaker 1: Peter believe. As I mentioned earlier, a conservation warden named
36:47
Speaker 1: Dale Mory was one of the lead investigators on this case.
36:50
Speaker 1: He spoke to me Eater's Pat Durkin before he passed
36:53
Speaker 1: away and laid out the scenario he believed was the
36:55
Speaker 1: most plausible. He said, quote he could have gone into
36:59
Speaker 1: the swamp and started shooting with his twenty two, knowing
37:02
Speaker 1: le Fabe was nearby and would investigate. Le Fayv got
37:05
Speaker 1: shot while walking a game trail heading that way. Given
37:08
Speaker 1: the setup and what we found, it looked premeditated. What
37:13
Speaker 1: Maury is referencing is a site close to where Neil
37:16
Speaker 1: was killed, where the vegetation had been compressed. It looked
37:19
Speaker 1: almost as if someone had lain in wait for the
37:22
Speaker 1: game organ to walk past. As you already heard, investigators
37:26
Speaker 1: also found another potential grave that had been dug several
37:29
Speaker 1: months earlier. Maury believed that Hussong had planned to kill
37:32
Speaker 1: Neil after his citation for a pheasant poaching the year before,
37:36
Speaker 1: but just never got the chance. Whether he removed Neil's
37:39
Speaker 1: head in a fit of rage or to throw investigators
37:42
Speaker 1: off his scent, we may never know. But as it
37:45
Speaker 1: turned out, his decision to use the deer rifle to
37:48
Speaker 1: commit that monstrous act is precisely what led to his arrest.
37:52
Speaker 2: And then at the conclusion of the trial, I think
37:55
Speaker 2: they maybe deliberated two three hours, whatever it was, they
37:59
Speaker 2: found him guilty.
38:04
Speaker 1: In those days murders in Wisconsin found guilty of first
38:07
Speaker 1: degree intentional homicide immediately went to prison on a life sentence.
38:11
Speaker 1: The judge accepted the jury's decision sentence who sung to life,
38:15
Speaker 1: and ordered him straight to prison.
38:17
Speaker 2: I had gotten up from my desk where I was
38:20
Speaker 2: a prosecutor, and I was standing by the door, and
38:23
Speaker 2: they walked him right by me, and he got about
38:26
Speaker 2: three feet from me. He turned around and pointed his
38:29
Speaker 2: finger at me and said, I'll kill you. You little son
38:31
Speaker 2: of a bitches if it's the last thing I ever knew.
38:35
Speaker 2: And so the judge, who was a great jurist by
38:40
Speaker 2: the way, said to me, don did you hear what
38:43
Speaker 2: he said? I said, what are you talking about? He
38:46
Speaker 2: said he was gonna kill Oh no, I said, I
38:49
Speaker 2: thought he was pointing to you. And then the judge
38:54
Speaker 2: kind of turned white. I said, no, no, I'm just kidding.
38:57
Speaker 2: I'm just kiddy.
38:58
Speaker 1: It takes a special kind of per to laugh off
39:00
Speaker 1: a death threat from a deranged murderer, but it helps
39:03
Speaker 1: you understand why Judge Sidemulder is still going strong at
39:06
Speaker 1: eighty three years old. It was also easy to joke
39:09
Speaker 1: about it when he knew Whose Song was headed to
39:11
Speaker 1: prison for the rest of his life. At least it
39:15
Speaker 1: would have been if Who Sung had stayed in prison.
39:22
Speaker 1: Part five. Jailbreak. On August twenty ninth, nineteen eighty one,
39:28
Speaker 1: officials at a prison in Dodge County, Wisconsin sent out
39:31
Speaker 1: a troubling warning. According to the newspaper The Daily Citizen.
39:36
Speaker 4: Authorities from the Fox Lake Correctional Institute today issued a
39:39
Speaker 4: statewide alert for a convicted murderer who escaped from the
39:42
Speaker 4: prison Friday night. Authorities are seeking Brian Hassong, thirty one,
39:46
Speaker 4: who was serving time for the decapitation slaying of Brown
39:50
Speaker 4: County Conservation Warden Neil LeFave.
39:52
Speaker 1: The warning told residents to be on the lookout for
39:55
Speaker 1: a brown haired, blue eyed man wearing a blue shirt,
39:58
Speaker 1: blue jacket and jeans who song was no longer the
40:01
Speaker 1: scrawny kid who had angrily threatened Donald as he was
40:04
Speaker 1: marched off to prison. He stood five foot nine inches tall,
40:08
Speaker 1: and his decade behind bars had turned him into a
40:10
Speaker 1: sturdy one hundred and eighty pounds. He'd spent his time
40:14
Speaker 1: working out and reading books on survival, and according to
40:17
Speaker 1: Warden Moury, he'd built himself into a physical specimen. That's
40:21
Speaker 1: partly why the last line of the prison's public service
40:24
Speaker 1: announcement set everyone on edge.
40:26
Speaker 4: The song is extremely dangerous, he threatened witnesses at his trial.
40:31
Speaker 4: Authorities said he may be headed for the Green Bay area.
40:35
Speaker 1: Donald knew that if Usan was headed for Green Bay
40:38
Speaker 1: bent on revenge, the former DA and his family would
40:41
Speaker 1: be first on the list.
40:43
Speaker 2: You know, I'm a pretty self confident person, and he's
40:47
Speaker 2: not the only one that's ever threatened to kill me.
40:50
Speaker 2: In the discharge of my duties. I didn't really have
40:53
Speaker 2: much fear for Tonessy and fear for myself, but I
40:56
Speaker 2: was always just got sick about that anything might happen
41:00
Speaker 2: to my wife and my kids.
41:02
Speaker 1: Donald was out of town when he was told about
41:04
Speaker 1: who Songs escaped, so he immediately sent his wife and
41:07
Speaker 1: kids to another house they owned in Door County, where
41:10
Speaker 1: the local sheriff agreed to station deputies nearby. The DA
41:14
Speaker 1: wasn't the only one who took precautions. Everyone involved in
41:17
Speaker 1: Whu Song's prosecution was in danger, including Peter Peshick and
41:21
Speaker 1: his family.
41:22
Speaker 6: The target got away ten years later from a state prison,
41:26
Speaker 6: and when he did, you know, they're going to.
41:27
Speaker 4: Kill all of us.
41:28
Speaker 6: I'm on the road. Was on the road all the
41:30
Speaker 6: time at the Justice Department, and so you know, we
41:33
Speaker 6: warned my wife that if something goes on, she's called
41:37
Speaker 6: the police department right away. And in fact, there was
41:40
Speaker 6: all kinds of strange noises in the house one evening.
41:44
Speaker 6: She was sold to go into one room with the
41:46
Speaker 6: three kids and close the door and wait for officers
41:50
Speaker 6: to arrive.
41:53
Speaker 1: The noises that night turned out not to be the
41:55
Speaker 1: escaped murderer, but you can imagine how terrifying those days
41:59
Speaker 1: were for the detectives, prosecutors, and their families. Nikki LeFave,
42:03
Speaker 1: who would have been about twelve years old when Who
42:06
Speaker 1: Song escaped, never mentioned fearing that her father's murderer would
42:09
Speaker 1: go after the le Fay family again. She'd had a
42:12
Speaker 1: happy childhood being raised by her mother and stepfather, but
42:15
Speaker 1: Neil's loss remained an absence she couldn't quite articulate.
42:19
Speaker 5: There was times that, yes, I did wish that Danny
42:23
Speaker 5: Neil was arone, because you miss that bond that you
42:30
Speaker 5: have with your mom or your dad that isn't there
42:34
Speaker 5: anymore now.
42:35
Speaker 1: The man responsible for that gap in her heart was
42:38
Speaker 1: on the run, and no one seemed to be able
42:41
Speaker 1: to find him. Police get no answer and hunt for
42:44
Speaker 1: Who Song screamed, a Green Bay Prescazette headline from September third,
42:48
Speaker 1: six days after Who Sung had escaped.
42:51
Speaker 4: Law officers converged Wednesday night on a rural Sawyer County
42:55
Speaker 4: telephone booth, hoping to apprehend convicted murderer Brian Hassong, but
42:59
Speaker 4: the booth was vacant when they arrived, and bloodhounds failed
43:02
Speaker 4: to pick up a cent strong enough to lead searchers.
43:05
Speaker 1: Officials believed who Song had made a phone call to
43:07
Speaker 1: a local jail from that telephone booth. Someone eating at
43:10
Speaker 1: a nearby restaurant had seen a man there matching Who
43:13
Speaker 1: Song's description, but it was the caller's voice and request
43:17
Speaker 1: that tipped off law enforcement.
43:19
Speaker 4: The Sawyer County Sheriff's Department was acting on a phone
43:22
Speaker 4: call received at the jail from a man described as
43:24
Speaker 4: having a deep, tired sounding voice. The man asked to
43:28
Speaker 4: talk to Mary Conrad.
43:31
Speaker 1: It's unclear how Mary Conrad met Brian Who sung. The
43:34
Speaker 1: thirty two year old Sheboygan. Woman didn't have a criminal record,
43:37
Speaker 1: at least none that was reported in the media. She
43:40
Speaker 1: may have known Who Sung from before his time in prison,
43:43
Speaker 1: or became acquainted as part of some kind of prison ministry. However,
43:47
Speaker 1: they became romantically entangled. Conrad was the key to Whose
43:51
Speaker 1: Songs escape. Jim Chiswick reports that the pair had been
43:54
Speaker 1: planning the jail break for ten months, and they ironed
43:57
Speaker 1: out the details during Conrad's last to the prison on
44:01
Speaker 1: August twenty eighth. Here's a report from the Green Bay
44:04
Speaker 1: Press Gazette from September of nineteen eighty one.
44:07
Speaker 4: A Song escaped Friday night from the Fox Lake Correctional
44:10
Speaker 4: Institution by cutting through two chain link fences with a wirecutter.
44:14
Speaker 4: A woman is believed to have helped to Song escape.
44:17
Speaker 1: We don't know exactly how Hu Song got his hands
44:20
Speaker 1: on these wirecutters. Jim Chiswick believes that Conrad tossed them
44:23
Speaker 1: over the fences at a spot that guards couldn't observe,
44:27
Speaker 1: but they were never recovered, and officials at the time
44:30
Speaker 1: speculated that whose Song might have crafted them himself in
44:33
Speaker 1: the prison workshop. However, he acquired the tool, he waited
44:37
Speaker 1: until around eight thirty pm to sneak out into the yard,
44:40
Speaker 1: cut the fences and run. Conrad had parked not far away,
44:45
Speaker 1: and she'd packed food for a few days, along with
44:47
Speaker 1: a suitcase full events clothing and a map showing routes
44:51
Speaker 1: to several northern cities. The pair hit the road for
44:54
Speaker 1: two days until August thirtieth, when an off duty policeman
44:58
Speaker 1: near the town of Hayward observed a car driving erradically
45:01
Speaker 1: around nine pm. Hayward is three hundred and sixty five
45:05
Speaker 1: miles northwest of Fox Lake Prison, so he didn't immediately
45:09
Speaker 1: assume it was the escaped convict. He thought it was
45:12
Speaker 1: a drunk driver, so he radioed the on duty officers,
45:15
Speaker 1: who stopped the suspected drunk. According to local media, the.
45:18
Speaker 4: Man got out of the car and was asked to
45:20
Speaker 4: produce his driver's license. He approached the car, but wheeled
45:24
Speaker 4: around and struck the policeman in the face. The man
45:26
Speaker 4: got back in the car, ran over another officer's foot,
45:29
Speaker 4: and then backed into a Sawyer County squad car before
45:32
Speaker 4: driving away.
45:33
Speaker 1: Mary was still in the passenger seat, and I can
45:35
Speaker 1: only imagine what she was screaming at her would be
45:38
Speaker 1: boyfriend as he pinballed between the squad cars. But whatever
45:42
Speaker 1: she said, Husung didn't wait to hear any more. He
45:45
Speaker 1: slid to a stop in front of a roadblock the
45:47
Speaker 1: state troopers had hastily set up on the east side
45:50
Speaker 1: of town, flung open the door, and ran into the woods.
45:55
Speaker 1: Mary found herself alone in the car, and it didn't
45:57
Speaker 1: take long for officials to figure out what was going on.
46:01
Speaker 4: Mary J. Conrad, thirty two of Sheboygan, pleaded no contest
46:05
Speaker 4: Thursday to a charge of aiding and a betting. A
46:08
Speaker 4: felon Circuit Judge Alvin Kelcey ordered a pre sentence investigation
46:12
Speaker 4: for miss Conrad, accused of providing a getaway car for
46:15
Speaker 4: the Song, who was serving a life term for murder
46:18
Speaker 4: and remains at large.
46:20
Speaker 1: Mary was in custody, but she wasn't cooperative. She lied
46:24
Speaker 1: about her identity, and even if she had known where
46:26
Speaker 1: whose Song was likely to go, she probably wouldn't have said.
46:30
Speaker 1: But I doubt even Brian had much of a plan
46:32
Speaker 1: in mind. He stole a second car the same night
46:35
Speaker 1: he abandoned Mary, but upon being spotted by police, he
46:38
Speaker 1: left that car on the side of the road and
46:40
Speaker 1: fled into the thick brush west of Hayward. Over the
46:44
Speaker 1: next three months, investigators followed up on potential sightings up
46:47
Speaker 1: and down the length of Wisconsin. The Green Bay pres
46:50
Speaker 1: Gazette published a map showing each location along with a description.
46:54
Speaker 1: Here are just a few.
46:56
Speaker 4: September second, a man matching Hassong's description stayed in a
47:00
Speaker 4: Stephens Point motel. Police go to the motel, but the
47:03
Speaker 4: suspect is already gone. September three, a masked gunman robs
47:07
Speaker 4: the Pulaski State Branch in Swamaco. Brown County police say
47:11
Speaker 4: ha Soong is a suspect in the twenty four thousand,
47:13
Speaker 4: six hundred and thirty dollars heist September twelfth, acting on
47:17
Speaker 4: a tip that his song is staying with an ex
47:19
Speaker 4: convict friend in Madison. Police combed the capital city for
47:22
Speaker 4: the killer unsuccessfully. October two. Monoqua Police Chief Terry Beslin
47:28
Speaker 4: says he is quite positive a man seen in a
47:30
Speaker 4: local tavern on September ninth and twentieth who calls himself
47:34
Speaker 4: Brian is Hassong. However, there is no trace of the suspect.
47:39
Speaker 1: Hussong was smart, in good physical condition, and an experienced woodsman.
47:43
Speaker 1: He was able to survive a night or two in
47:45
Speaker 1: the woods if he had to, which gave him more
47:48
Speaker 1: options for evasion than a less outdoorsy fugitive. As time
47:52
Speaker 1: were on, newspapers documented the frustration and concern felt across
47:56
Speaker 1: the state. One report from October twenty eighth claim that
48:00
Speaker 1: jurors in whose Song's trial had started carrying weapons, and
48:03
Speaker 1: a headline from the Green Bay Prescazette said the manhunt
48:07
Speaker 1: was quote fizzling. The Sawyer County sheriff told the same
48:11
Speaker 1: outlet that quote anybody who wants to get shot, they
48:14
Speaker 1: better start running around in the woods. Up here in
48:16
Speaker 1: Sawyer County. We're not playing around. In a shockingly honest moment,
48:21
Speaker 1: the Brown County sheriff told the media, quote where he's
48:24
Speaker 1: at now, I just don't know he could be anywhere
48:27
Speaker 1: by now. The good news was that all that public
48:30
Speaker 1: concern continued to generate leads. The Chaunau County sheriff, whose
48:34
Speaker 1: jurisdiction covered an area northwest of Green Bay, said he'd
48:38
Speaker 1: been getting tips since October that Whose Song might be
48:41
Speaker 1: hiding out on the Stockbridge month See Indian Reservation. Those
48:45
Speaker 1: tips started to sound more credible after a pulpwood dealer
48:48
Speaker 1: in the area reported running into an irate man who
48:51
Speaker 1: fired a handgun round between his feet. One of the
48:54
Speaker 1: gunmen's companions told the pulp dealer, quote, that's the guy
48:58
Speaker 1: who killed the game. Warden investigators began digging into landowners
49:03
Speaker 1: on the reservation, and they soon found a potential connection
49:06
Speaker 1: to Who Sung through a man known in news reports
49:08
Speaker 1: as Felix.
49:10
Speaker 4: Felix has two sons in the wapan Correctional Institution, where
49:14
Speaker 4: his song served part of his sentence. It is possible
49:17
Speaker 4: that this is the connection that led him to the reservation.
49:20
Speaker 1: Felix agreed to rent part of his property to his
49:23
Speaker 1: son's friend from prison. We don't know whether Felix knew
49:26
Speaker 1: who Whose Song was or how the fugitive earned money
49:29
Speaker 1: to pay his rent. What we do know is that
49:31
Speaker 1: Husung built a twelve foot square shack from cardboard and
49:35
Speaker 1: cedar poles, which he filled with supplies such as venison guns, ammunition,
49:40
Speaker 1: and grocery items like soup, bread and detergent. From these supplies,
49:45
Speaker 1: it was clear he'd been living there for several weeks
49:48
Speaker 1: and he planned to wait out the winter, but he
49:51
Speaker 1: didn't get the chance. The officers arrived around five am
49:54
Speaker 1: on Thursday, December tenth and split up into several groups.
49:58
Speaker 1: Some of them searched the nearb cottages to make sure
50:01
Speaker 1: whose Sung wasn't there, while others waited for daylight to
50:04
Speaker 1: approach Who sungs hide out from all angles. When they
50:07
Speaker 1: arrived within one hundred and fifty yards of the shack,
50:10
Speaker 1: one of the officers used a bullhorn to call out
50:12
Speaker 1: for whose Song to surrender, but to their surprise, rather
50:16
Speaker 1: than being met with a hail of gunfire, they were
50:19
Speaker 1: met with silence. The reason for the unexpected calm became
50:24
Speaker 1: apparent to one of the officers. A few minutes later,
50:27
Speaker 1: Don Schoenhoffen was part of the line of officers approaching
50:30
Speaker 1: the shack, but he'd stopped to take a leak. As
50:33
Speaker 1: he relieved himself in the pre dawn light, he saw
50:36
Speaker 1: a man emerge out of the shadows. He was horrified
50:39
Speaker 1: to realize that it was who Song, holding a rifle
50:42
Speaker 1: in one hand and a milk jug in the other.
50:45
Speaker 1: That day could have ended very poorly for Don, but
50:47
Speaker 1: incredibly Whose Sung didn't recognize him as a police officer.
50:51
Speaker 1: Jim Chiswick reports that who Sung mistook Don for someone
50:55
Speaker 1: he knew named Dave and asked how's the hunting. Don
50:59
Speaker 1: said it hadn't been too good and the cold was brutal,
51:01
Speaker 1: and who Sung grunted his ascent and walked away. Peter
51:05
Speaker 1: Peshick told me the fugitive had arisen before dawn to
51:08
Speaker 1: chop wood.
51:09
Speaker 6: When they were after Brian. They expected him to be
51:12
Speaker 6: at the cottage. It was six o'clock in the morning,
51:15
Speaker 6: when that's when you want to arrest people, and he
51:18
Speaker 6: was already out in the back chopping wood when they
51:21
Speaker 6: came across him. They did not expect to find him
51:24
Speaker 6: at that pile of firewood. At six o'clock in the morning, who.
51:28
Speaker 1: Sung made it back inside his hut, but soon realized
51:31
Speaker 1: his mistake. Officers spied the man standing in his doorway
51:35
Speaker 1: and ordered him to come out. Instead, he ducked into
51:38
Speaker 1: the shack and e merged with a thirty six rifle.
51:41
Speaker 1: He ran around the side of the building, spinning and
51:43
Speaker 1: raising the rifle as he fled.
51:49
Speaker 4: The Song was hit in the lower face, neck, and chest,
51:53
Speaker 4: as well as the arms, hands, and right thigh. The
51:56
Speaker 4: latter wound was apparently sustained when he spun from the
51:59
Speaker 4: impact of the bullets to the chest.
52:01
Speaker 1: Authorities said Husong fell but pointed his rifle at an
52:05
Speaker 1: officer holding a shotgun. The fugitive was hit with a
52:08
Speaker 1: load of double up buckshot and died on the way
52:11
Speaker 1: to the hospital. Investigators traced Husong's thirty six to a
52:15
Speaker 1: burglary at a hardware store, and a subsequent investigation revealed
52:19
Speaker 1: that while Husung hadn't fired a shot, his rifle had
52:22
Speaker 1: been loaded with one round in the chamber, four in
52:25
Speaker 1: the magazine, and the safety off as he fell in
52:28
Speaker 1: a hail of bullets. The killer was holding the same
52:31
Speaker 1: kind of rifle he'd used to decapitate Neil A Fae
52:34
Speaker 1: just ten years earlier, Part six, Honoring a Hero. After
52:45
Speaker 1: the media frenzy died down in early nineteen eighty two,
52:48
Speaker 1: Neil A Faye's story fell out of public consciousness. The
52:51
Speaker 1: wardens remembered what happened, as did the residence of Swamiko,
52:55
Speaker 1: the village just to the west of the Sensible Wildlife Area.
52:58
Speaker 1: But Neil's family were that the life and service of
53:01
Speaker 1: their brother, husband, and father would be forgotten, so they
53:05
Speaker 1: set out to honor the fallen game Morden in a
53:07
Speaker 1: way he would love, and so that future generations of
53:10
Speaker 1: hunters and anglers would always know his name.
53:13
Speaker 7: And whereas, it is appropriate that all members of Brown
53:16
Speaker 7: County remember the life of this courageous officer, devoted family man,
53:20
Speaker 7: an exceptional human being who gained his life in the
53:24
Speaker 7: furtherance of public safety and environmental protection. Now therefore viewed
53:29
Speaker 7: resolved that the Brown Coming Board of Supervisors hereby directs
53:33
Speaker 7: that the Swanico Volt launch he reading to the Neil L.
53:37
Speaker 7: Swanico Volt launch.
53:39
Speaker 1: That recording is from a twenty twenty Brown County Board
53:42
Speaker 1: of Supervisors meeting. The year before Nicki had launched a
53:45
Speaker 1: petition campaign to have the Swamico boat landing renamed in
53:49
Speaker 1: Neil's honor, and she worked with the Brown County Board
53:51
Speaker 1: of Supervisors to draft a resolution making it official.
53:55
Speaker 3: Nicki was soli instrumental in getting things going and getting
54:01
Speaker 3: involved to get the boat landing project done, and once
54:05
Speaker 3: she contacted Patty and I about that, then we got
54:08
Speaker 3: involved too. But she really did so much of the
54:12
Speaker 3: homework on that.
54:13
Speaker 1: That resolution was introduced on February nineteenth, twenty twenty, and
54:17
Speaker 1: the DNR sent a member of its Honor Guard to
54:20
Speaker 1: give Neil the recognition he deserved. Here's Swamiko resident Kelly Mauchout,
54:24
Speaker 1: who helped Nicki with the campaign and spoke to Spectrum
54:27
Speaker 1: News after attending the board meeting and.
54:29
Speaker 6: Gave me goosebumps.
54:31
Speaker 2: He walked in with a warden's hat and laid it
54:34
Speaker 2: down on a chair and then performed a salute and
54:37
Speaker 2: then walked out very quiet, and I mean you could
54:39
Speaker 2: have heard a pin drop.
54:41
Speaker 1: In the video, which you can check out. In the
54:43
Speaker 1: YouTube version of this episode, the Honor Guard member stands
54:46
Speaker 1: at attention while the resolution is read. After the members
54:49
Speaker 1: vote unanimously to approve it, he turns around, picks up
54:52
Speaker 1: the empty warden hat and walks out. Nicki said she
54:56
Speaker 1: didn't know the dn R would do that, but she
54:58
Speaker 1: appreciated the gesture.
55:00
Speaker 5: I was shocked.
55:01
Speaker 6: I was happy, but I was shocked.
55:04
Speaker 5: It was very nice that the DNR did that.
55:08
Speaker 1: A few months later, in June of twenty twenty one,
55:11
Speaker 1: the DNR, the county, and Neil's family held a ceremony
55:14
Speaker 1: to unveil the new boat launch sign with Neil's name
55:17
Speaker 1: on it. Judge s Iidemulder was there, and Brad told
55:20
Speaker 1: me he had lunch afterwards at Peggy's house and told
55:22
Speaker 1: them more about the investigation.
55:24
Speaker 2: His wife, Peggy and I were in grade school together,
55:28
Speaker 2: so yeah, that was kind of hard for me. I
55:30
Speaker 2: didn't realize that so I ran into her. But yes,
55:35
Speaker 2: and then we had a big ceremony. You all at
55:38
Speaker 2: sense about dedicating that memorial to him. So she was
55:41
Speaker 2: there and the family was there.
55:43
Speaker 1: Judge Sidemulder explained to reporters afterwards that in nineteen seventy one,
55:47
Speaker 1: parts of the Sensible Wildlife Area had been made off
55:50
Speaker 1: limits to hunting as part of a larger effort to
55:53
Speaker 1: conserve wildlife in the state. That's why Neil was posting
55:56
Speaker 1: those no hunting signs the day he was murdered, and
56:00
Speaker 1: it may also help explain why whose song harbored such
56:03
Speaker 1: animosity towards the warden. While hunters today are on board
56:07
Speaker 1: with most conservation initiatives, it took some convincing to persuade
56:10
Speaker 1: local outdoorsmen that they could no longer hunt in the
56:13
Speaker 1: place they used to. Here's DNR's chief conservation Warden, Casey Krueger,
56:18
Speaker 1: speaking to this point at the ceremony.
56:21
Speaker 8: His last call of duty. He was actively doing what
56:24
Speaker 8: he was supposed to be doing to protect our natural resources.
56:28
Speaker 8: Folks like Neil is why Wisconsin has the resources that
56:32
Speaker 8: it does.
56:33
Speaker 1: Peggy told reporters that the dedication of the boat ramp
56:36
Speaker 1: made her feel like Neil's story had finally come full circle.
56:40
Speaker 9: It is closure, It is closure, it really is. This
56:44
Speaker 9: is just something that will be remembered by everybody, know,
56:49
Speaker 9: which is wonderful, just wonderful.
56:54
Speaker 1: If you ever get the chance to cast off from
56:56
Speaker 1: Neil's boat ramp, you can look across the street and
56:58
Speaker 1: see the sense of a wildlife area there. You can fish, hike, canoe, birdwatch, trap,
57:05
Speaker 1: ski and hunt. The DNR says that though there are
57:08
Speaker 1: still some sections close to hunting, the property is known
57:12
Speaker 1: for its waterfowl and upland opportunities. That's thanks to men
57:16
Speaker 1: like Neil who didn't shy away from doing their duty,
57:18
Speaker 1: so that even fifty five years after his death, his
57:21
Speaker 1: kids and grandkids can still enjoy everything that the Wisconsin
57:25
Speaker 1: Wilderness has to offer. Thanks for listening to this episode
57:33
Speaker 1: of Blood Trails. Before I tell you about the case
57:35
Speaker 1: file for this episode, I have a request. Judge Seidemulder
57:39
Speaker 1: tells me his impression of the phone conversation between Brian
57:42
Speaker 1: Husong and his grandmother is spot on. But I'd love
57:46
Speaker 1: to find a copy of that tape. It's a piece
57:48
Speaker 1: of history and it should be preserved as such. I
57:52
Speaker 1: know that giant reel is sitting in some dusty box somewhere,
57:55
Speaker 1: but the Brown County DA, the Wisconsin Historical Society, and
57:59
Speaker 1: the Michigan State Police weren't able to find it for
58:02
Speaker 1: me despite their best efforts, which I do appreciate. If
58:06
Speaker 1: you know or think you know where that dusty box
58:09
Speaker 1: might be located, send me an email at blood Trails
58:12
Speaker 1: at the meeteater dot com if you'd like to see
58:15
Speaker 1: images from this case, including photos of Neil, Peggy LeFave,
58:19
Speaker 1: Brian Whusng, and Neil's boat launch. Head over to the
58:23
Speaker 1: meeteater dot com slash Blood Trails. Thanks so much to
58:27
Speaker 1: Judge Sidemulder, Peter Peshick, Nikki Degrief, Brad LeFave, Lee Grady,
58:32
Speaker 1: Jacques Brester, and Pat Durkin for their help and willingness
58:36
Speaker 1: to speak to me. Pat's article on this case on
58:39
Speaker 1: the meat Eater website has even more detail than we
58:41
Speaker 1: were able to fit in this episode, so if you
58:44
Speaker 1: want more, that's one place to start. See you next time.
58:49
Speaker 1: Stay safe out there,