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The Robbery That Rewrote How America Decides the Death Penalty · FBI Files

0:06
Speaker 1: An armored car vanished during a routine stop. Carrying nearly
0:11
Speaker 1: a million dollars, it was supposed to be impenetrable. Investigators
0:16
Speaker 1: didn't know if the driver was involved or if he
0:19
Speaker 1: had been ambushed. FBI agents and local detectives began to
0:24
Speaker 1: suspect a group of former law officers in the heist.
0:28
Speaker 1: It would take determination and high technology to track the
0:31
Speaker 1: robbers and make them pay.
0:33
Speaker 2: For their silent strife.
1:06
Speaker 3: Money may not be the root of all evil, but
1:09
Speaker 3: for some men, a million dollars is enough to justify murder.
1:14
Speaker 3: Even men sworn to uphold the law can sometimes be tempted.
1:19
Speaker 3: I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office.
1:24
Speaker 3: When robbery turned to murder, the FBI would discover that
1:28
Speaker 3: a killer might be among them.
1:32
Speaker 1: The Arrowhead Mall, Glendale, Arizona. November 28th, 1994. At 1.30 p.m.,
1:43
Speaker 1: a van pulled up outside a department store at the mall.
1:49
Speaker 1: It was an unmarked, fully armored Wells Fargo vehicle. Several
1:55
Speaker 1: companies use these customized vans since they are less conspicuous
1:59
Speaker 1: targets for robbery. Following company protocol, the driver remained inside
2:09
Speaker 1: the van while the courier went to pick up cash
2:12
Speaker 1: from the store. The van was bulletproof and its doors
2:19
Speaker 1: could not be forced open from the outside. Inside the
2:27
Speaker 1: department store office, the courier exchanged empty bags for those
2:31
Speaker 1: filled with the weekend's receipts. It was the Monday after Thanksgiving.
2:39
Speaker 1: The cash pickup followed the busiest shopping weekend of the year.
2:53
Speaker 1: When the courier returned to the parking lot minutes later,
2:56
Speaker 1: the armored van and the driver were gone. He notified
3:04
Speaker 1: police immediately. The 911 call came to the Glendale, Arizona
3:12
Speaker 1: Police Department. They dispatched units to the scene and sent
3:16
Speaker 1: word to the FBI. The nearest FBI field office is
3:23
Speaker 1: in Phoenix, 20 miles from the mall. Because the money
3:31
Speaker 1: in the van was federally insured, the FBI opened a case.
3:37
Speaker 1: Agents headed out to the scene. Glendale detectives arrived at
3:44
Speaker 1: the mall first. They began interviewing the courier. He said
3:52
Speaker 1: he had been gone only four minutes when he discovered
3:54
Speaker 1: the van and his partner, John McGosh, had disappeared. The
3:59
Speaker 1: courier estimated the amount of cash, checks, and coins in
4:02
Speaker 1: the van to be just over a million dollars. Detectives
4:09
Speaker 1: interviewed others at the mall. None reported seeing or hearing
4:16
Speaker 1: anything unusual. FBI agents soon arrived from Phoenix. Evidence technicians
4:32
Speaker 1: had processed the area. Where the van had been parked,
4:37
Speaker 1: they found a cigarette butt and a pair of broken eyeglasses.
4:43
Speaker 1: The courier confirmed that his partner was a smoker and
4:48
Speaker 1: said the glasses looked like those Magosh needed when he drove.
4:58
Speaker 1: The technicians collected and marked the items as evidence. Detective
5:07
Speaker 1: Tom Clayton is a senior investigator for the Glendale Police Department.
5:14
Speaker 4: I think the first thought when we saw the van
5:16
Speaker 4: missing was the driver took off with the money and
5:20
Speaker 4: was going to leave town. We also considered somebody could
5:23
Speaker 4: have robbed him. With the glasses laying there, we weren't
5:26
Speaker 4: sure if it was a setup or did something really happen.
5:29
Speaker 4: We explored every possibility we could think of.
5:34
Speaker 1: Supervisory Special Agent Steven Chenoweth, now retired, was the lead
5:37
Speaker 1: for the FBI. The investigators organized a search for the
5:44
Speaker 1: van and its driver, believing that whoever took the van
5:48
Speaker 1: would abandon it soon in favor of a getaway car.
5:58
Speaker 1: They dispatched some officers to begin a ground search around
6:00
Speaker 1: the mall. pilots from the Arizona Department of Public Safety
6:14
Speaker 1: conducted an aerial search. The DPS officers began at the mall,
6:29
Speaker 1: then widened their search in concentric circles, looking for the
6:36
Speaker 1: van in the surrounding neighborhoods. Whenever they spotted a white van,
6:46
Speaker 1: they radioed ground units to follow up. Special Agent Chenoweth
6:56
Speaker 1: and the others knew most armored car robberies are inside
6:59
Speaker 1: jobs or armed ambushes. Witnesses hadn't heard shooting. Perhaps the
7:06
Speaker 1: driver had decided to trade his hourly wage for a
7:09
Speaker 1: million dollars.
7:12
Speaker 5: Certainly, The van is supposed to be locked in the
7:16
Speaker 5: driver inside and therefore unaccessible. The fact that the van
7:22
Speaker 5: is missing would lead us to initially at least think
7:25
Speaker 5: about the possibility of the guard driver being involved.
7:31
Speaker 1: Investigators sought more information on the missing driver.
7:37
Speaker 4: We investigated John Magosh. First off, we started running his
7:40
Speaker 4: name in the computer to see if we could find
7:41
Speaker 4: any arrests or if he had a criminal history. We
7:45
Speaker 4: started to the Wells Fargo file, his employment file, looking
7:48
Speaker 4: for relatives, friends, where he lived.
7:53
Speaker 1: After securing a search warrant, investigators traveled to his apartment.
8:00
Speaker 1: His landlady let them in. The investigators were looking for
8:07
Speaker 1: evidence that Magosh had planned the robbery. The apartment appeared undisturbed.
8:17
Speaker 1: Nothing indicated he had planned the robbery or that he
8:20
Speaker 1: was ready to leave town.
8:21
Speaker 2: Do you know who this is?
8:24
Speaker 4: Yes.
8:25
Speaker 5: That's Lisa Johnson.
8:27
Speaker 1: Detectives learned that Magosh had a daughter living nearby in Phoenix.
8:31
Speaker 4: All right.
8:36
Speaker 1: Determining her address through DMV records, they went to interview her.
8:45
Speaker 1: McGosh's daughter described her father as honest and stable.
8:51
Speaker 2: He took his job seriously.
8:53
Speaker 1: Police found others who said the same. McGosh had no
8:59
Speaker 1: criminal record. Detectives began to consider the 61-year-old grandfather not
9:07
Speaker 1: as a suspect, but.
9:09
Speaker 2: As a victim.
9:12
Speaker 4: John Magosh had a good reputation. We talked to family, friends, relatives, co-workers.
9:17
Speaker 4: He was a person that did not have a lot
9:19
Speaker 4: of requirements in life. Money wasn't a big concern. Based
9:23
Speaker 4: on the background we did on him, we didn't believe
9:25
Speaker 4: he was going to be involved in the crime.
9:28
Speaker 1: With Magosh eliminated as a suspect... the investigators were back
9:32
Speaker 1: to square one. They needed the public's help.
9:38
Speaker 5: Certainly when you don't have eyewitnesses, you try and put
9:41
Speaker 5: as much information out in the form of press releases,
9:45
Speaker 5: newspaper articles, things of this nature, in hopes that it
9:49
Speaker 5: would reach somebody that maybe saw something that otherwise had
9:52
Speaker 5: not heard about it.
9:56
Speaker 1: That afternoon, the FBI and Glendale Police held a press conference.
10:00
Speaker 2: Conference.
10:03
Speaker 1: They released photos and descriptions of the missing van and driver.
10:10
Speaker 1: Anyone who had seen John McGosh or the Wells Fargo
10:13
Speaker 1: van was asked to contact the FBI. A reward of $ 60, 000
10:20
Speaker 1: was posted for any tip leading to the recovery of
10:24
Speaker 1: the money and the conviction.
10:25
Speaker 2: Of those involved.
10:32
Speaker 1: Hours later, a 911 call came in from a church
10:35
Speaker 1: in Sun City, Arizona, just outside Glendale. The caller reported
10:44
Speaker 1: a van idling in the church's parking lot. Apparitioners arriving
10:58
Speaker 1: for a Monday night bingo game noticed the van, which
11:01
Speaker 1: fit the description in the news reports. License plates and
11:07
Speaker 1: serial numbers confirmed it was the van missing.
11:10
Speaker 2: From the mall.
11:20
Speaker 1: Investigators approached cautiously, not knowing who or what was inside.
11:32
Speaker 1: No one was in the driver's seat, but investigators could
11:35
Speaker 1: see the outline of a body on the floor. They
11:40
Speaker 1: tried to open the van, but the armored vehicle was impenetrable,
11:46
Speaker 1: even to the agents.
11:49
Speaker 5: The engine was going, it was locked, and a cursory
11:53
Speaker 5: examination initially of the inside disclosed the body lying in
11:57
Speaker 5: the center. In order to gain access to the van,
12:00
Speaker 5: of course, we had to call the armored car company.
12:07
Speaker 1: No one at the church had seen who left the
12:09
Speaker 1: van or what vehicle they used to get away. Checking
12:20
Speaker 1: the body through the window, police could see blood on
12:23
Speaker 1: the chest near a Wells Fargo badge. There was no
12:26
Speaker 1: sign of breathing. Authorities believed John Magosh had been killed
12:36
Speaker 1: during the robbery. There were no bullet marks on the
12:41
Speaker 1: van's exterior, no broken glass, and no sign of forced
12:45
Speaker 1: entry at the doors.
12:48
Speaker 2: Whoever had hit the van knew what they were doing.
12:54
Speaker 5: An armored car robbery is a pretty sophisticated crime, and
12:58
Speaker 5: it takes a lot of detailed planning, And so we
13:02
Speaker 5: knew after finding the van and finding the body that
13:06
Speaker 5: we were up against probably some people who had thought
13:09
Speaker 5: this out very well, planned it extensively, and certainly would
13:14
Speaker 5: not stop at murder in carrying this out.
13:20
Speaker 1: Investigators needed to get inside the van to know what happened.
13:31
Speaker 1: On November 28th, 1994, the FBI and Glendale, Arizona police
13:36
Speaker 1: investigated an armored van hijacked from a mall and abandoned
13:40
Speaker 1: in a church parking lot in nearby Sun City. The driver,
13:50
Speaker 1: 61-year-old John Magosh, lay dead in the cab. He had
13:57
Speaker 1: been shot once in the head, but his death was
13:59
Speaker 1: not instantaneous. Technicians noted aspirated blood spatter, indicating McGosh had
14:07
Speaker 1: continued breathing after being shot. Technicians lifted many latent prints
14:17
Speaker 1: from money cabinets in the van's interior. These would be
14:23
Speaker 1: compared to known prints of employees. No foreign prints were found.
14:37
Speaker 1: No hairs or fibers pointed toward a suspect either. Inside
14:44
Speaker 1: the van, investigators.
14:45
Speaker 2: Found $ 132, 000 in coins.
14:46
Speaker 1: The cash and checks, estimated at $ 920, 000, were gone. The
14:59
Speaker 1: details of the crime suggested that there had been several
15:02
Speaker 1: violent criminals, according to Special Agent Stephen Chenoweth.
15:08
Speaker 5: After looking at the van, we knew that we were
15:13
Speaker 5: probably dealing with certainly more than one person because this
15:17
Speaker 5: would be very difficult for one person to accomplish. So
15:20
Speaker 5: we knew we were looking probably at least two or more,
15:23
Speaker 5: and very vicious and violent people who certainly would not
15:27
Speaker 5: stop at anything in order to obtain their goals, which
15:31
Speaker 5: was the money located inside the van.
15:38
Speaker 1: To Glendale detective Tom Clayton, the placement of the van
15:41
Speaker 1: outside Glendale city limits spoke to the criminal's understanding of
15:44
Speaker 1: police procedure.
15:49
Speaker 4: We believed they dumped the van in Sun City to
15:52
Speaker 4: get it out of our jurisdiction into another one to
15:55
Speaker 4: complicate the investigation and communication of police agency's maybe hoping
16:00
Speaker 4: we would not be able to link the two things
16:03
Speaker 4: together right away.
16:07
Speaker 1: During the autopsy of the armored car driver, the medical
16:11
Speaker 1: examiner retrieved several small bullet fragments from the left side
16:14
Speaker 1: of the victim's head. The fragments were too damaged to
16:19
Speaker 1: determine the make of the murder weapon. It seemed like
16:23
Speaker 1: a small caliber, perhaps a.
16:25
Speaker 2: 22.
16:28
Speaker 1: The medical examiner found no powder burns on the victim's head.
16:34
Speaker 1: This meant he had been shot from a distance. Magosh's
16:42
Speaker 1: partner said the driver often smoked a cigarette while waiting
16:44
Speaker 1: in the van. Though it was against company policy, he
16:49
Speaker 1: usually opened his door to let the smoke out. Investigators
16:56
Speaker 1: believed the killers knew this and shot him when he
16:58
Speaker 1: opened the door. Because of his experience tracking down elusive criminals,
17:07
Speaker 1: now retired FBI Special Agent Ron Myers was transferred from
17:11
Speaker 1: the Fugitive Task Force to work the case. From the beginning,
17:16
Speaker 1: he knew they were not hunting amateurs.
17:20
Speaker 6: One of the things they did that made us think
17:22
Speaker 6: that they were professionals was the manner in which they
17:24
Speaker 6: did the robbery. They picked an isolated part of the
17:27
Speaker 6: shopping center where not many people parked, where there wouldn't
17:30
Speaker 6: be many witnesses. They drove through the type of neighborhoods
17:33
Speaker 6: where there weren't many people out during the day, and
17:35
Speaker 6: they picked an empty parking lot of a church that
17:37
Speaker 6: had no one at it during the day.
17:41
Speaker 1: Investigators received dozens of calls to their tip line. One
17:48
Speaker 1: witness came forward, claiming to have some information that might
17:51
Speaker 1: be helpful. He said he had seen a white van
17:56
Speaker 1: quickly leaving the mall at the time in question. A
18:00
Speaker 1: red pickup truck followed, not far behind. But he wasn't
18:04
Speaker 1: sure if the two vehicles were together. Investigators were frustrated
18:09
Speaker 1: that no one saw the actual ambush.
18:11
Speaker 2: At the mall.
18:14
Speaker 5: We couldn't find any eyewitnesses. And when you don't really
18:18
Speaker 5: know what happened or you don't have somebody that can
18:20
Speaker 5: tell you.
18:23
Speaker 5: What may be transpired with the van, it's a mystery.
18:29
Speaker 1: With no other solid leads, investigators canvassed the neighborhoods between
18:33
Speaker 1: the mall and the church. Perhaps someone there had witnessed something.
18:44
Speaker 1: Edward Morton, a resident of Sun City, recalled that he
18:47
Speaker 1: had seen the van. On the afternoon of November 28th, Mr.
18:56
Speaker 1: Morgan was returning from the post office when.
18:58
Speaker 2: He noticed the van. Mr.
19:03
Speaker 6: Morgan stopped because he thought they weren't going to stop
19:05
Speaker 6: for the stop sign and was afraid he'd be hit.
19:08
Speaker 6: At that time, he noticed the white van with this
19:10
Speaker 6: red truck shortly behind it, both speeding through the intersection
19:14
Speaker 6: and driving off, and he thought that was kind of unusual,
19:17
Speaker 6: not only the way they were driving, but the way
19:19
Speaker 6: that the red truck seemed to be following the white van.
19:22
Speaker 2: I think they were doing Mr.
19:24
Speaker 1: Morgan couldn't recall details of license plates or the face
19:27
Speaker 1: of the van's passenger. Desperate for a break, investigators wanted
19:32
Speaker 1: to place him under hypnosis to jog his memory. Morgan
19:42
Speaker 1: agreed to travel to Texas with the investigators.
19:48
Speaker 5: Mr.
19:48
Speaker 2: Morgan, you should be.
19:50
Speaker 1: There they met with a forensic hypnotist. Perhaps under hypnosis,
19:57
Speaker 1: the witness could remember more details about the incident. Statements
20:02
Speaker 1: made under hypnosis cannot be used in court, but some
20:06
Speaker 1: police agencies find it to be a helpful investigative tool.
20:12
Speaker 1: Under hypnosis, Morgan returned to the events of November 28th.
20:19
Speaker 1: He recalled the white van and the man in the
20:21
Speaker 1: passenger seat. Investigators now believe there were at least three
20:27
Speaker 1: people involved in the heist, two in the van and
20:30
Speaker 1: one in the red truck. When asked about the truck's
20:34
Speaker 1: license plate, Morgan was able to remember a portion.
20:38
Speaker 6: Two, three, seven.
20:41
Speaker 1: It wasn't much, but it gave investigators a start.
20:46
Speaker 6: We had to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles
20:49
Speaker 6: to run all combinations of those license numbers, and that
20:52
Speaker 6: produced several hundred possible vehicles because Arizona does not have
20:56
Speaker 6: color on their motor vehicle registration. So we knew we
21:00
Speaker 6: were looking for a particular type of truck, but from
21:03
Speaker 6: looking at the motor vehicle registrations, we didn't know what
21:05
Speaker 6: color they were on the registration, which meant we had
21:09
Speaker 6: to do interviews of everybody on the list.
21:16
Speaker 1: Investigators eventually tracked down hundreds of truck owners. Each was interviewed,
21:24
Speaker 1: but no suspect emerged. With his refreshed memory of the
21:40
Speaker 1: van's passenger, Morgan worked with a police sketch artist. There
21:47
Speaker 1: was no guarantee that the details recalled through hypnosis were accurate,
21:51
Speaker 1: but authorities were ready to try almost anything. The FBI
21:57
Speaker 1: released the drawing to the media.
21:58
Speaker 3: For nearly a month now, police and FBI.
22:05
Speaker 1: The FBI and Glendale, Arizona police believed three men were
22:09
Speaker 1: involved in the robbery homicide. Yet as the end of
22:13
Speaker 1: 1994 approached.
22:15
Speaker 1: They still didn't have suspects. It began to look like
22:24
Speaker 1: the killers might never be found. But the investigators did
22:30
Speaker 1: not know that the suspect in the composite sketch had
22:34
Speaker 1: been recognized. By December of 1994, A month after the
22:44
Speaker 1: deadly hijacking of an armored car in Glendale, Arizona, the
22:48
Speaker 1: investigation had stalled. Investigators believed at least three people pulled
22:55
Speaker 1: off the heist. They had a composite sketch of one
23:01
Speaker 1: and little else. Then, on December 31st, the investigators received
23:10
Speaker 1: a call A Mesa, Arizona detective had been told that
23:15
Speaker 1: a local woman had information about the crime. The background
23:23
Speaker 1: check showed that the woman had a suspended license. This
23:29
Speaker 1: would make it easy to bring her in for questioning
23:31
Speaker 1: without arousing suspicions.
23:35
Speaker 2: The FBI asked local law.
23:37
Speaker 1: Enforcement to pick her up on the suspended license charge.
23:48
Speaker 1: The investigators asked the woman if she knew anything about
23:50
Speaker 1: the armored car robbery in Glendale. She claimed that she
23:55
Speaker 1: didn't have any real information, but she knew someone who did.
24:03
Speaker 1: She told investigators that her friend, Judy Espinoza.
24:06
Speaker 2: Had talked to her after the news reports of the robbery.
24:09
Speaker 1: I was just like him. Espinoza suspected that her boyfriend
24:14
Speaker 1: might have been involved. The woman told the investigators where
24:22
Speaker 1: Espinoza worked. The investigators spoke with Espinoza. They asked her
24:34
Speaker 1: about the robbery, reminding her that interfering with a federal
24:37
Speaker 1: investigation was itself a crime. She agreed to answer their questions.
24:45
Speaker 1: She explained that her boyfriend, James Greenham, who went by
24:47
Speaker 1: the nickname Yoda, had asked her what she would do
24:51
Speaker 1: if he held up an armored car and suddenly had a.
24:53
Speaker 2: Lot of money. She told FBI Special.
24:57
Speaker 1: Agent Ron Myers that Greenham sometimes worked as a bounty
25:01
Speaker 1: hunter and was usually broke.
25:04
Speaker 6: Jim never had a dime, but the day of the robbery,
25:07
Speaker 6: He came home that night, told her he had to
25:09
Speaker 6: kill somebody, and he had plenty of cash on his person.
25:14
Speaker 6: She told us that Jim did his bounty hunting with
25:17
Speaker 6: a guy named Tim Ring, and that she had been
25:20
Speaker 6: over to Tim Ring's house and noticed several new all-terrain vehicles,
25:24
Speaker 6: jet skis, a new motorcycle, and Tim had made a
25:27
Speaker 6: comment about how she'd never know how much money was
25:29
Speaker 6: in that garage.
25:35
Speaker 1: The information was good. but it was only hearsay. Investigators
25:41
Speaker 1: needed more solid evidence. Espinoza had kept several rolls of
25:48
Speaker 1: coins that Greenham had given her. The wrappers were consistent
25:57
Speaker 1: with those used by merchants on the armored van's route.
26:02
Speaker 1: More than a month after the crime, the investigators finally
26:06
Speaker 1: had names.
26:10
Speaker 2: They looked into the two suspects' backgrounds.
26:14
Speaker 1: FBI Special Agent Stephen Chenoweth was familiar with the name
26:18
Speaker 1: of one of the men. Tim Ring had been used
26:23
Speaker 1: as an informant in other FBI cases.
26:29
Speaker 5: We had paid him for some information that he had
26:30
Speaker 5: furnished to us. And, you know, in order for us
26:33
Speaker 5: to get information from informants, you aren't dealing with priests
26:37
Speaker 5: and with, you know, good people. You're dealing with bad
26:39
Speaker 5: guys out there, and Ring's a bad guy.
26:43
Speaker 2: And when you're ready, focused, squeeze the trigger.
26:47
Speaker 1: Tim Ring and James Greenham had worked as prison guards
26:50
Speaker 1: in Phoenix and now work bounty hunter jobs together. Both
26:56
Speaker 1: had many hours of firearms training.
26:58
Speaker 6: Any questions? Okay, Jones.
27:01
Speaker 2: Ring was an expert marksman.
27:02
Speaker 3: Fire when ready.
27:10
Speaker 2: Pursuing bounty hunters would be dangerous.
27:17
Speaker 6: The fact that the suspects had law enforcement training in
27:20
Speaker 6: their background made the case pretty difficult. For one, they
27:24
Speaker 6: would be schooled in surveillance techniques. If they were looking
27:27
Speaker 6: for somebody following them, they'd know what to look for.
27:30
Speaker 6: They'd know what to expect anybody following them to do.
27:34
Speaker 6: So we had to be very cautious when we were
27:36
Speaker 6: following them around.
27:39
Speaker 1: The FBI and Glendale Police began 24-hour ground and air surveillance.
27:46
Speaker 2: They had to be covert.
27:49
Speaker 5: You know, if they're looking for air surveillance, they're looking up,
27:51
Speaker 5: you know. Well, we're way over here because we can't
27:54
Speaker 5: see anything if we're right up here. So we're way
27:56
Speaker 5: over here, way over here.
28:01
Speaker 1: The agents wanted to see how the pair earned money
28:04
Speaker 1: and how much they spent.
28:07
Speaker 6: At the time that we were following Mr. Greenham and Mr.
28:09
Speaker 6: Ring around, neither one was gainfully employed that we could tell.
28:13
Speaker 6: They had no income coming in from any legitimate sources,
28:17
Speaker 6: yet we observed them spending a lot of money.
28:21
Speaker 2: Ring overhauled his truck and Greenham got a new apartment.
28:27
Speaker 1: Both bought motorcycles. Agents tracked their purchases. It seemed the
28:34
Speaker 1: suspects did not exceed a certain level in order to
28:37
Speaker 1: avoid the attention of the Internal Revenue Service.
28:42
Speaker 6: And they always seemed to be careful whenever they spent
28:44
Speaker 6: their money to stay under the $ 10, 000 limit, knowing that
28:47
Speaker 6: if they spent more than that in cash, the expenditure
28:50
Speaker 6: would be reported by the businesses to the IRS.
28:57
Speaker 1: Investigators continued tailing Ring and Greenham, building a list of associates.
29:06
Speaker 1: They photographed everyone the suspects met. They still didn't know
29:12
Speaker 1: who the third partner was. Glendale detective Tom Clayton hoped
29:18
Speaker 1: surveillance would spot the three meeting somewhere.
29:22
Speaker 4: We would watch them go to restaurants where they would meet.
29:25
Speaker 4: We would see them go to strip clubs where they
29:27
Speaker 4: met a couple dancers that they knew.
29:36
Speaker 1: Everywhere they went, the suspects spent a lot of cash,
29:38
Speaker 1: unaware that they were going to be caught.
29:40
Speaker 2: That investigators were watching.
29:44
Speaker 1: Circumstantial evidence linked them to the robbery and homicide. But
29:51
Speaker 1: the FBI and Glendale police still didn't know exactly what
29:55
Speaker 1: had happened and who else was involved. Somehow, the investigators
30:06
Speaker 1: had to get inside the bounty hunter's shadowy world. As
30:17
Speaker 1: the FBI and Glendale, Arizona police continued to investigate a
30:20
Speaker 1: deadly armored car heist, they got a tip from an
30:24
Speaker 1: associate of their two main suspects. Bounty hunter Michael Sanders
30:31
Speaker 1: said that he had cased armored cars with two other men.
30:36
Speaker 1: He believed those men did the Glendale hit without.
30:40
Speaker 6: Him.
30:41
Speaker 1: Angry at being cut out of the deal, he decided
30:44
Speaker 1: to talk. He gave FBI Special Agent Ron Myers a
30:49
Speaker 1: lead on the third perpetrator.
30:53
Speaker 6: Sanders came forward to tell us that he thought that
30:56
Speaker 6: Tim Rang and Jim Greenham were involved in this armored
30:58
Speaker 6: car robbery and that an ex-Phoenix police officer named Fergie
31:03
Speaker 6: who worked for a camera shop in the Paradise Valley Mall,
31:05
Speaker 6: might be the third man.
31:09
Speaker 1: Investigators needed to identify Fergie. They reviewed their case photos.
31:24
Speaker 1: Surveillance teams had watched Ring and Greenham meeting with a
31:27
Speaker 1: bearded man who drove a Camaro. The car was registered
31:33
Speaker 1: to William Ferguson. Since Sanders said Fergie was an ex-cop,
31:42
Speaker 1: Glendale detective Tom Clayton checked the personnel records of the
31:45
Speaker 1: Phoenix Police Department.
31:49
Speaker 4: As we investigated William Ferguson's background, we found he retired
31:53
Speaker 4: at 20 years from the Phoenix Police Department, and his
31:56
Speaker 4: retirement was precipitated by some disciplinary problems.
32:01
Speaker 1: Investigators began surveillance on Ferguson. They saw that the ex-cop
32:09
Speaker 1: met often with the other suspects and was also spending.
32:12
Speaker 2: A lot of cash.
32:16
Speaker 1: Agents believed they had identified the three men responsible for
32:19
Speaker 1: the robbery and murder.
32:24
Speaker 4: The investigation was affected by the three suspects having law
32:26
Speaker 4: enforcement training because we knew that they were going to
32:29
Speaker 4: cover evidence. And they were also known to have firearms training,
32:34
Speaker 4: which made them dangerous to the surveillance officers.
32:46
Speaker 1: Detectives and agents needed evidence linking the men to the crime.
32:55
Speaker 1: During surveillance, they began trash pulls. confiscating trash bags from
32:59
Speaker 1: the suspects in the hopes that some clues might surface.
33:09
Speaker 1: FBI technicians examined the trash. In rings, they found several
33:18
Speaker 1: three by five index cards. Each card had notes detailing
33:24
Speaker 1: armored car routes. Analysis confirmed the handwriting was rings. But
33:36
Speaker 1: investigators needed more. They wanted tapes of the suspects discussing
33:44
Speaker 1: the crime. All three men had keys to James Greenham's apartment.
33:53
Speaker 1: FBI Special Agent Steven Chenoweth believed they used the apartment
33:56
Speaker 1: as headquarters.
34:00
Speaker 5: Timothy Ring was married, had a wife, children, and I
34:04
Speaker 5: think the likelihood of discussions occurring in regards to this
34:08
Speaker 5: armored car robbery at his house were somewhat remote. But
34:12
Speaker 5: we felt that they were occurring at Greenham's residence, so
34:15
Speaker 5: that was the impetus for which we decided to go
34:18
Speaker 5: ahead and proceed and place a listening device inside the
34:21
Speaker 5: apartment of Greenham.
34:27
Speaker 1: Special Agent Myers was part of the team that entered
34:30
Speaker 1: the apartment to place the bug.
34:36
Speaker 6: When we opened the door to go in, an alarm
34:38
Speaker 6: went off immediately, at which point we shut the door
34:40
Speaker 6: and exited the area. We had to come back at
34:43
Speaker 6: a later time with an expert in alarms. And when
34:47
Speaker 6: we went in the door that time, we learned that
34:49
Speaker 6: it was just a real simple motion detector sitting on
34:52
Speaker 6: top of the refrigerator, and all we had to do
34:54
Speaker 6: was just flip the off switch. wasn't anything sophisticated at all.
35:03
Speaker 1: While the team was inside Greenham's apartment, the detective surveilling
35:06
Speaker 1: Tim Ring saw him leave his house. Ring owned a
35:17
Speaker 1: red truck like the one reportedly seen following the van.
35:25
Speaker 1: The detective trailed behind Ring. After a few turns, he
35:32
Speaker 1: realized where the suspect was headed. Agents were still in
35:43
Speaker 1: the apartment. Tim Ring was headed that way. Ring often
35:53
Speaker 1: went to Greenham's place even when Greenham was out. If
35:58
Speaker 1: he went to the apartment, he would interrupt the planting
36:01
Speaker 1: of the bug. The team inside needed more time. The
36:16
Speaker 1: detective called in a uniformed officer to stop Ring for speeding.
36:23
Speaker 2: Anything to delay.
36:39
Speaker 4: The suspect.
36:42
Speaker 1: The officer lectured Ring on the dangers of speeding.
36:47
Speaker 2: Detectives wanted to keep him busy while the team finished
36:50
Speaker 2: at the apartment. Let's go gang, they're on their way over.
36:55
Speaker 6: Okay, put everything away.
36:57
Speaker 3: Let's get this thing back.
37:00
Speaker 1: They made it out just before Ring arrived. Investigators also
37:11
Speaker 1: tapped the home and cellular phones of the two other suspects.
37:16
Speaker 1: To get them talking, Supervisory Special Agent Steven Chenoweth released
37:20
Speaker 1: false information about the case.
37:24
Speaker 5: We decided to make a press release talking about the investigation,
37:28
Speaker 5: which we thought when they would hear would certainly generate
37:31
Speaker 5: some telephone conversations and other discussions amongst these three suspects.
37:37
Speaker 2: And it did have its desired.
37:39
Speaker 5: Effect in that they did talk about the information that
37:42
Speaker 5: we released and how accurate they thought it was and
37:45
Speaker 5: whether or not we were on the right trail and
37:49
Speaker 5: whether or not they thought we were getting close to them.
37:57
Speaker 1: As the suspects talked, the investigators listened.
38:04
Speaker 6: We didn't get an actual confession where they said, I
38:08
Speaker 6: did the armored car robbery. What we got were several
38:10
Speaker 6: conversations among themselves about different aspects of the case. They
38:16
Speaker 6: would always listen to the news, follow any printed reports
38:19
Speaker 6: or follow any television stories. And as soon as anything
38:22
Speaker 6: would appear on TV, they'd call each other. And they'd
38:25
Speaker 6: make comments like, well, this isn't the way it happened.
38:27
Speaker 6: You know, they'll never find that license plate.
38:32
Speaker 1: The evidence against the suspects was building. But prosecutors wanted
38:37
Speaker 1: more direct statements about the crime before they ordered arrests.
38:49
Speaker 1: Investigators provoked the suspects one more time. A Glendale detective
39:00
Speaker 1: went to James Greenham's apartment when the suspect was out.
39:07
Speaker 1: On the door, he left his business card with the
39:10
Speaker 1: note LEAD 173. Investigators watched Greenham's response to the card
39:23
Speaker 1: He knew what the note meant. The authorities considered him
39:29
Speaker 1: a lead. Greenham became distraught. He sped away from his apartment,
39:37
Speaker 1: calling Tim Ring on his cell phone.
39:43
Speaker 6: The End.
39:48
Speaker 1: Agents kept watch from an airplane and listened in on
39:51
Speaker 1: the phone taps.
39:54
Speaker 3: Tim, man, listen.
39:57
Speaker 2: Greenham drove out into the desert before stopping. Look, man,
40:00
Speaker 2: they ain't got nothing on you.
40:03
Speaker 3: Don't worry about it.
40:05
Speaker 1: Ring tried to calm Greenham down, promising that the authorities
40:08
Speaker 1: had nothing on them.
40:10
Speaker 4: Don't worry about it.
40:12
Speaker 1: But Greenham said he was scared. He even threatened to
40:16
Speaker 1: commit suicide. Finally, Ring talked Greenham down, convincing him the
40:23
Speaker 1: authorities were not on to them. Greenham said that if
40:29
Speaker 1: another cop contacted him, he was going to bury the money.
40:34
Speaker 2: It seemed a direct reference to the crime.
40:40
Speaker 1: The investigators felt they finally had enough evidence.
40:44
Speaker 6: Greenway and 67th Avenue. Continue to search northbound.
40:50
Speaker 1: They sent units to arrest Greenham and Ferguson.
40:55
Speaker 6: Jim Greenham was arrested by one team. William Ferguson was
40:59
Speaker 6: arrested by another and attempted to resist arrest but was
41:02
Speaker 6: quickly subdued. Tim Ring was lured down to the FBI
41:05
Speaker 6: office on the premise of looking at some photographs because
41:08
Speaker 6: Ring had previously offered to help the FBI try to
41:12
Speaker 6: find who these people were, which we believe was an
41:14
Speaker 6: effort on his part to try and find out what
41:17
Speaker 6: we knew.
41:21
Speaker 1: The FBI agent who had previously used Ring as an
41:24
Speaker 1: informant called the suspect. Ring agreed to come in. On
41:33
Speaker 1: February 16, 1995, Tim Ring arrived at the Phoenix FBI
41:38
Speaker 1: field office. Undercover agents were waiting for him in the lobby.
41:46
Speaker 1: They believed he would not be armed at the FBI office,
41:49
Speaker 1: but they couldn't be positive. To ensure their safety, they
41:53
Speaker 1: needed to surprise him.
41:58
Speaker 6: We had two big, burly defensive tactics instructors, one of
42:02
Speaker 6: which was a guy with 25 years of martial arts
42:05
Speaker 6: expertise who came up and blocked him in the head
42:07
Speaker 6: and knocked him down like a sack of potatoes before
42:09
Speaker 6: he knew what he was doing.
42:13
Speaker 2: All three suspects were off the streets.
42:17
Speaker 1: Now investigators needed physical evidence to make sure the prosecution's
42:22
Speaker 1: were successful. On February 16th, 1995, after arresting three men
42:33
Speaker 1: for an armored car robbery and murder, FBI agents and Glendale,
42:37
Speaker 1: Arizona detectives searched the suspects' residences. At the house of
42:47
Speaker 1: Tim Ring, suspected leader of the three, they found important evidence.
42:54
Speaker 1: Investigators recovered a note marked with the initials F, Y,
42:57
Speaker 1: and T.
43:00
Speaker 2: Each initial had a number beneath.
43:02
Speaker 1: The numbers added up to the amount of cash taken
43:05
Speaker 1: from the armored car. Agents believed F stood for Fergie,
43:11
Speaker 1: Y for Greenham's nickname Yoda, and T for Tim. It
43:17
Speaker 1: was the worksheet the three used to divide the money.
43:24
Speaker 1: In the garage, investigators found a red pickup truck that
43:27
Speaker 1: resembled the vehicle seen by witness Edward.
43:29
Speaker 2: Morgan in Sun City.
43:32
Speaker 1: The license plate number, however, did not match the ones
43:35
Speaker 1: Morgan recalled under forensic hypnosis. Ring kept several weapons and
43:42
Speaker 1: plenty of ammunition at his house. In a duffel bag,
43:53
Speaker 1: Agents also recovered $ 270, 000 in cash. Another $ 64, 000 was found
43:55
Speaker 1: in Ferguson's house. Nearly $ 600, 000 in cash had been stolen.
43:58
Speaker 1: Noting the money spent by the suspects, investigators found that
44:03
Speaker 1: about $ 100.
44:03
Speaker 4: 000 was unaccounted for.
44:03
Speaker 2: The case against the three suspects seemed solid.
44:23
Speaker 1: FBI Special Agent Ron Myers hoped the evidence might get
44:26
Speaker 1: one of them to roll.
44:29
Speaker 6: We finally got first-hand information about this crime when Jim
44:32
Speaker 6: Greenham decided to cooperate. Jim Greenham was the only one
44:36
Speaker 6: of the three of them that showed any remorse about
44:38
Speaker 6: what they had done, about how they had killed this driver.
44:41
Speaker 6: Jim decided to cooperate. He told us what happened. He
44:45
Speaker 6: told us all the parts that these individuals played in
44:48
Speaker 6: the robbery.
44:53
Speaker 1: Greenan met with the investigators and explained that the planning
44:56
Speaker 1: started in the fall of 1994. Tim Ring had the
45:02
Speaker 1: idea to hit an armored car. So they began to
45:08
Speaker 1: case Wells Fargo vehicles. They drove around Glendale, following different
45:17
Speaker 1: trucks and vans on their routes. Then they zeroed in
45:22
Speaker 1: on the van driven by John McGosh, tailing it for days.
45:29
Speaker 6: They managed to observe this one particular armored car making
45:32
Speaker 6: several stops, and they noticed that every time the messenger
45:35
Speaker 6: would get out to make a delivery, the driver would
45:38
Speaker 6: open the door about eight inches to smoke and blow
45:40
Speaker 6: the smoke out the side of the door. They observed
45:43
Speaker 6: the driver at several stops, and they noticed this one
45:45
Speaker 6: particular stop on the backside of a shopping center and
45:49
Speaker 6: noticed that he always parked in the same position.
45:53
Speaker 1: On November 28, 1994, the Monday after Thanksgiving, a day
45:58
Speaker 1: they were sure a lot of money would be in
46:00
Speaker 1: the van, they were ready to strike. James Greenham and
46:11
Speaker 1: William Ferguson waited unnoticed by the store. They watched until
46:24
Speaker 1: the courier was out of sight. As if on schedule,
46:30
Speaker 1: McGosh opened the.
46:31
Speaker 2: Door to smoke.
46:36
Speaker 1: Tim Ring was parked 50 feet away, a stolen license
46:40
Speaker 1: plate on his truck. The expert marksman had a silencer
46:46
Speaker 1: on his. 22 caliber rifle so no one would hear
46:48
Speaker 1: the shot. He aimed through the opening and fired once.
46:59
Speaker 1: The force must have knocked Magash's glasses to the ground.
47:04
Speaker 1: With the driver down, the van was unprotected. No one
47:12
Speaker 1: noticed the vehicle's speed away. They drove to the church
47:24
Speaker 1: parking lot. It would be empty at that time of day.
47:37
Speaker 1: They transferred the money and checks to the pickup. They
47:42
Speaker 1: knew authorities would be searching for the van. They left
47:52
Speaker 1: most of the coins and went to destroy the checks
47:55
Speaker 1: and other evidence, according to Detective Tom Clayton.
47:59
Speaker 4: They loaded the money into Tim Ring's truck and drove
48:03
Speaker 4: out in the desert where they separated the money, changed clothes,
48:05
Speaker 4: and burned all the evidence.
48:10
Speaker 1: Greenham said they buried the burned evidence and stolen license
48:13
Speaker 1: plate in the desert.
48:15
Speaker 4: And you can take us to where the plates are buried?
48:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. Special Agent Stephen Chenoweth wondered if it was the
48:22
Speaker 1: plate witnessed.
48:23
Speaker 2: By Edward Morgan.
48:25
Speaker 5: We went out there and actually found the location and
48:28
Speaker 5: then dug it up and found that the three numbers
48:32
Speaker 5: actually on the plate did in fact match those that
48:34
Speaker 5: were given to us by Mr.
48:35
Speaker 2: Morgan.
48:36
Speaker 5: So he was actually right on on his information.
48:40
Speaker 1: James Greenan pled guilty to second-degree murder and armed robbery
48:44
Speaker 1: and is serving 27 1⁄2 years. William Ferguson pled guilty
48:50
Speaker 1: to armed robbery and accessory after the fact and is
48:53
Speaker 1: doing 17 years. On December 6, 1996, Tim Ring was
49:00
Speaker 1: found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and burglary.
49:06
Speaker 5: Any time that you have somebody actually assassinate a driver
49:10
Speaker 5: like this, it's a very heinous crime, and you certainly
49:14
Speaker 5: want to expend all of your resources in an effort
49:17
Speaker 5: to identify the people involved and put them behind bars.
49:24
Speaker 1: For his crimes, Ring received the death penalty. He currently
49:29
Speaker 1: awaits execution at the Arizona State Prison in Florence.