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Five Minutes That Became the Bloodiest Day in FBI History · FBI Files

0:06
Speaker 1: October 8th, 1985 marked the beginning of a string of
0:10
Speaker 1: brutal robberies that rocked South Florida. Two masked men used
0:17
Speaker 1: military weapons in a violent spree that threatened innocence. But
0:22
Speaker 1: no one knew who they were or where they would
0:24
Speaker 1: strike next. Before the FBI could stop them, lives would
0:30
Speaker 1: be lost and law enforcement would be changed forever.
1:06
Speaker 2: In Miami, a gang of robbers targeted banks and armored cars.
1:10
Speaker 2: They carried assault weapons and weren't afraid to use them.
1:13
Speaker 2: They struck during the day and sometimes twice a day.
1:16
Speaker 2: For a while, they seemed unstoppable. I'm Jim Kallstrom, former
1:20
Speaker 2: head of the FBI's New York office. We knew that
1:23
Speaker 2: to stop these criminals would require stealth, ingenuity, and perhaps
1:28
Speaker 2: a little luck. No one expected to become one of
1:31
Speaker 2: the bloodiest chapters in FBI history.
1:37
Speaker 1: Miami, Florida, 1985. To FBI agents, it seemed a city
1:44
Speaker 1: under siege. Each week, there were three to five bank robberies. Kidnappings,
1:51
Speaker 1: major drug deals, and shootings were everyday occurrences. But just
1:58
Speaker 1: when it seemed things couldn't get any worse, a new
2:01
Speaker 1: breed of outlaws hit the streets and turned the Miami
2:04
Speaker 1: crime wave into a war. On October 8th, an armored
2:13
Speaker 1: car courier made a scheduled pickup at a steak and
2:16
Speaker 1: ale restaurant. The driver waited for his partner to return,
2:22
Speaker 1: unaware that two heavily armed men were also waiting nearby.
2:33
Speaker 1: As the guard approached the rear of the truck, the
2:35
Speaker 1: gunman advanced with military-style precision. The driver refused to open
2:42
Speaker 1: his door.
2:43
Speaker 2: He drove away following company policy.
2:46
Speaker 3: The subjects retreated to a getaway car.
3:06
Speaker 1: And attempted to camouflage their escape with a military-issue smoke grenade.
3:14
Speaker 1: The Metro Dade County Police and the FBI responded to
3:17
Speaker 1: the scene. Robberies of armored cars and banks fall under
3:22
Speaker 1: FBI jurisdiction. The supervisor of the Miami FBI's Violent Crimes
3:29
Speaker 1: Unit was Special Agent Gordon McNeil.
3:32
Speaker 4: There were basically no clues as far as who these
3:35
Speaker 4: individuals were. We had absolutely no idea, no way to go.
3:40
Speaker 4: No one had seen them without the black hoods over
3:44
Speaker 4: their faces. They wore gloves on both hands.
3:50
Speaker 1: One piece of information witnesses did provide was the license
3:53
Speaker 1: number of the getaway car. Agents tracked the number and
3:59
Speaker 1: learned the car had been stolen a month before. But
4:02
Speaker 1: the lead was a dead end. The robbers had escaped
4:08
Speaker 1: with only $ 2, 800. But their use of military weapons and
4:14
Speaker 1: commando tactics convinced Agent McNeil they would probably strike somewhere
4:18
Speaker 1: in Miami again. But where and when? The answer came
4:28
Speaker 1: just eight days later. At a busy supermarket on South
4:34
Speaker 1: Dixie Highway, another armored car arrived to make a scheduled pickup.
4:42
Speaker 1: A courier returned to the truck with several money bags
4:45
Speaker 1: filled with cash and receipts. He never saw the car
4:53
Speaker 1: that came around the corner. The robbers escaped empty-handed. Metro
5:33
Speaker 1: Dade police and the FBI quickly responded to the alarm.
5:37
Speaker 1: 6 Adam 31 1097. These men were clearly not afraid
5:44
Speaker 1: to use deadly force. The courier would later die from
5:52
Speaker 1: his injury. While he was taken to the hospital, agents
5:57
Speaker 1: interviewed his partner. As he described the gunman, it quickly
6:02
Speaker 1: became obvious they were probably the same men responsible for
6:05
Speaker 1: the previous robbery at the Steak and Ale restaurant.
6:09
Speaker 4: There was no money taken in that particular robbery, but
6:12
Speaker 4: there were a number of shots fired. So the ante
6:16
Speaker 4: was still going up here as far as I was
6:17
Speaker 4: concerned because of the continued use of violence by these
6:22
Speaker 4: two individuals.
6:24
Speaker 1: Ballistics evidence would further confirm the connection between the two robberies.
6:31
Speaker 1: Investigators found double-aught buckshot from a 12-gauge shotgun,. 45 caliber
6:36
Speaker 1: bullet casings, and two. 23 shell casings. The two. 23s
6:41
Speaker 1: seemed most significant.
6:45
Speaker 4: And the identification division of the firearms unit of the
6:51
Speaker 4: FBI laboratory compared those two shell casings, and said they
6:55
Speaker 4: were fired from the same weapon. So we definitely had
6:59
Speaker 4: a link now between the Winn-Dixie attempt and the Steak
7:02
Speaker 4: and Ale robbery.
7:04
Speaker 1: Two violent robberies were linked to the same masked gunman,
7:09
Speaker 1: but there were no leads to their identities. Because they
7:14
Speaker 1: had not scored any cash at the Winn-Dixie robbery and
7:17
Speaker 1: so little at the Steak and Ale, investigators were certain
7:20
Speaker 1: they would soon strike again. Two weeks later on Friday,
7:26
Speaker 1: November 8th, a third robbery occurred. This time a bank
7:31
Speaker 1: job at the Florida National Bank. As a teller and
7:39
Speaker 1: a guard walked from the main building to the drive-through,
7:42
Speaker 1: two masked gunmen emerged from a car. At gunpoint, they
7:55
Speaker 1: ordered the teller to open the door to the drive-through.
8:04
Speaker 1: She tried to comply, but there was a problem with
8:07
Speaker 1: the key. Stalled in broad daylight at a busy intersection,
8:15
Speaker 1: the gunman aborted the robbery and fled with only the $ 10, 000
8:17
Speaker 1: the guard had been carrying. Within minutes, local authorities and
8:26
Speaker 1: the FBI Violent Crimes Unit responded to the scene of
8:29
Speaker 1: the crime. Just a few blocks away from the two
8:34
Speaker 1: previous robberies.
8:39
Speaker 4: This pattern was starting to develop that all these crimes
8:41
Speaker 4: were happening in the same general area along US Highway
8:47
Speaker 4: number one.
8:50
Speaker 1: FBI interviews with the bank employees confirmed that the robbers
8:53
Speaker 1: were the same pair who'd hit the armored cars. Maybe
8:57
Speaker 1: they figured a drive-through bank would be less heavily fortified
9:00
Speaker 1: than armored cars, easier sources of cash.
9:05
Speaker 4: There was no higher priority in this case. We had
9:07
Speaker 4: to find these guys, and we had to get them
9:09
Speaker 4: off the street before they killed more innocent people.
9:16
Speaker 1: But just an hour and a half later, They hit
9:18
Speaker 1: the Professional Savings Bank only 18 blocks away.
9:21
Speaker 5: Get your hands up! Get your hands up!
9:25
Speaker 1: Get over there!
9:26
Speaker 3: Get out of the way!
9:27
Speaker 5: Get out of the way now! Get out of the
9:28
Speaker 5: way now!
9:29
Speaker 4: Get out! Get out!
9:31
Speaker 1: You!
9:32
Speaker 5: Come on over here!
9:33
Speaker 1: Come on, you! Come over here! The robbers quickly took
9:35
Speaker 1: control of the lobby. At gunpoint, both customers and employees
9:41
Speaker 1: quickly followed their orders. With their masks and high-powered weapons,
9:46
Speaker 1: no one doubted they meant business.
9:48
Speaker 5: Kill him. Face down. Face down. Hit. Okay. Kill him.
9:59
Speaker 6: Face down.
9:59
Speaker 5: Hit.
10:00
Speaker 1: This time, they scored big.
10:02
Speaker 6: They raced off with over $ 41, 000 delivered earlier that day
10:11
Speaker 6: by Wells Fargo.
10:15
Speaker 1: They escaped in yet another getaway car, a Chevy Monte Carlo.
10:23
Speaker 1: Witnesses had little to tell agents. The robbers had entered
10:27
Speaker 1: quickly and forced everyone down on the floor where they
10:29
Speaker 1: couldn't see what was going on. But since the men
10:35
Speaker 1: had actually been inside the bank this time, perhaps the
10:38
Speaker 1: security cameras had captured them on tape. Agents were soon
10:44
Speaker 1: disappointed to learn that the cameras had somehow malfunctioned and
10:47
Speaker 1: nothing had been recorded. It was the fourth robbery in
10:52
Speaker 1: six weeks. The heavily armed robbers were looting banks and
10:57
Speaker 1: armored cars in broad daylight.
11:02
Speaker 4: The witnesses in these cases indicated that they felt that
11:07
Speaker 4: these people looked like true professionals. The way they walked,
11:11
Speaker 4: the way they talked, the way they carried their weapons.
11:14
Speaker 4: And I truly believed up until when we finally found
11:19
Speaker 4: out who they were that we could very easily have
11:23
Speaker 4: been dealing with police officers here or very recent ex-military.
11:37
Speaker 1: With such violent criminals on the loose, agents honed their
11:40
Speaker 1: own skills on the firing range. They worked the case relentlessly,
11:47
Speaker 1: exchanging whatever slim leads they had. But nothing panned out.
11:58
Speaker 1: Two months went by without another robbery, and still there
12:01
Speaker 1: were no leads. On Friday, January 10th, 1986, William Roberts
12:14
Speaker 1: prepared to make a transaction at the Barnett Bank just
12:17
Speaker 1: as an armored truck was unloading outside. He looked up
12:23
Speaker 1: from his checkbook and watched as two masked robbers shot
12:26
Speaker 1: the guard in the back. As the guard lay on
12:31
Speaker 1: the ground, one of the gunmen shot him twice more.
12:43
Speaker 1: This was the robbers fifth heist in just three months
12:45
Speaker 1: and another big hit. They fled with.
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Speaker 5: $ 54, 000.
13:01
Speaker 1: William Roberts trailed the men for blocks. Though he maintained
13:07
Speaker 1: a safe distance, Roberts worried the thieves knew he was
13:10
Speaker 1: following them. Still, he stayed on their tail and noted
13:19
Speaker 1: their license tag and car model. He tracked them to
13:28
Speaker 1: a parking lot where they pulled in next to a
13:30
Speaker 1: white pickup truck. Roberts parked across the street and continued
13:42
Speaker 1: to watch them. He noted the make and model of
13:47
Speaker 1: the pickup truck, but could not see the tag number.
13:53
Speaker 1: After driving off, Roberts would flag down an officer and
13:56
Speaker 1: tell him the story. The FBI responded to the scene
14:04
Speaker 1: and interviewed bank employees. They found several 223 rounds, later
14:10
Speaker 1: determined to be fired from the same weapon used in
14:13
Speaker 1: the first two robberies. Nearby, FBI agents examined the getaway
14:19
Speaker 1: car the robbers had left behind. But William Roberts was
14:24
Speaker 1: the star witness. Thanks to Roberts, the FBI had the
14:28
Speaker 1: first big break in a three month string of violent robberies.
14:33
Speaker 1: A check on the license tag of the getaway car
14:35
Speaker 1: revealed the car was registered to a man named Aureliano Brielle.
14:44
Speaker 1: Agents prepared to pay him a visit. Since the car
14:48
Speaker 1: had never been reported stolen, they suspected Brielle was involved
14:52
Speaker 1: in the crimes. They dressed for safety. In Miami, the
15:09
Speaker 1: FBI had been tracking two masked gunmen who had been
15:12
Speaker 1: robbing armored cars and banks, already killing one guard. Now
15:17
Speaker 1: agents had located the registered owner of one of the
15:19
Speaker 1: getaway cars. On January 14th, Special Agent Morales and a
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Speaker 1: partner arrived at the home of Aureliano Brielle, the registered
15:29
Speaker 1: owner of the car. A woman opened the door. Special
15:36
Speaker 1: Agent Morales now works undercover and wears a hood to
15:38
Speaker 1: protect his identity.
15:40
Speaker 7: She asked me if I was there about her son.
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Speaker 7: And I said, yes, I was, as a matter of fact.
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Speaker 7: She said, well, my son Emilio has been missing.
15:55
Speaker 3: Mrs.
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Speaker 1: Brielle's husband came to the door and they invited the
15:58
Speaker 1: agents to come into the house. Mr. Brielle explained that
16:06
Speaker 1: his son Emilio had disappeared three months ago with a
16:08
Speaker 1: family car, which he borrowed to go target shooting in
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Speaker 1: the Everglades. The Brielles had filed a missing persons report,
16:16
Speaker 1: but heard nothing. They had hoped the agents brought news
16:21
Speaker 1: of their son. But both the Brielles and the agents
16:26
Speaker 1: would be disappointed. The FBI knew nothing of the young
16:31
Speaker 1: man's whereabouts. And as the interview progressed, Agent Morales grew
16:37
Speaker 1: certain the Brielles knew nothing of the robberies.
16:43
Speaker 7: The conclusion at the end of the day was that
16:45
Speaker 7: the Brielle family was not involved.
16:47
Speaker 1: They were victims.
16:49
Speaker 7: Their car had been stolen and their son was missing.
16:57
Speaker 1: The Metro Dade Police Department processed the Brielle's car with
17:00
Speaker 1: FBI agents observing. But evidence technicians found no fingerprints or
17:08
Speaker 1: anything else to advance the case. The next two months
17:12
Speaker 1: were quiet again, though the robbers remained on the loose.
17:16
Speaker 1: Agents worked other cases as they continued to mine every
17:19
Speaker 1: possible resource for clues. Then on March 14th, Special Agent
17:28
Speaker 1: Ben Grogan told a skeptical Agent Morales about a newspaper
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Speaker 1: article he believed was related to the case.
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Speaker 7: The article reported the attempted murder of a man named
17:39
Speaker 7: Jose Collazo two days earlier.
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Speaker 1: Two men had shot Collazo multiple times. Then they had
17:47
Speaker 1: stolen his gun and his car, a black 1982 Chevy
17:51
Speaker 1: Monte Carlo. Guarantee I'm right. Grogan swore that the vehicle
17:58
Speaker 1: would be the bank robber's next getaway car. While it
18:02
Speaker 1: seemed to some agents nothing more than a hunch, they
18:04
Speaker 1: respected Grogan.
18:06
Speaker 4: Shot him four times with the arm, through the face.
18:10
Speaker 1: At 53, he was a career agent with 25 years
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Speaker 1: on the job, including time as a SWAT team leader.
18:16
Speaker 1: He got up, walked a mile and a half to
18:18
Speaker 1: a convenience store. His colleagues called him the doctor because
18:23
Speaker 1: he could do jobs no one else could do. So
18:29
Speaker 1: they took a chance on his hunch.
18:30
Speaker 5: Mr.
18:31
Speaker 1: Collazo, tell.
18:35
Speaker 5: Me what happened.
18:39
Speaker 1: Grogan and another agent visited Collazo in the hospital. Collazo
18:45
Speaker 1: was in rough shape, with wounds to the side of
18:47
Speaker 1: his head, his arm and his back. But he managed
18:53
Speaker 1: to tell the story of his nightmarish afternoon in the Everglades.
18:58
Speaker 1: Collazo had gone to a recreational trail near a lake
19:04
Speaker 1: where gun owners often practice target shooting. He was preparing his.
19:12
Speaker 1: 22 when two men drove up beside him.
19:15
Speaker 3: How you doing?
19:23
Speaker 1: The driver pulled a gun on Collazo, who somehow had
19:27
Speaker 1: the presence of mind to identify it as a steel
19:29
Speaker 1: blue Magnum revolver. He pegged the other man's rifle as
19:34
Speaker 1: a Ruger Mini 14. When the assailants demanded Collazo's guns, car,
19:42
Speaker 1: and wallet, he complied. Now back on up.
19:49
Speaker 4: Back up.
19:52
Speaker 1: Back up. Shut up. But they shot him several times anyway,
19:57
Speaker 1: at close range. Then they left, taking Collazo's Monte Carlo
20:18
Speaker 1: and their own F-150 pickup truck. As they drove off,
20:28
Speaker 1: they believed Collazo was dead. He was just waiting until
20:39
Speaker 1: the shooters were gone. Then he would rally what little
20:44
Speaker 1: strength he had to survive.
20:51
Speaker 7: Collazo had to make a decision as to whether he
20:53
Speaker 7: would try to live or just lay down and die.
20:55
Speaker 7: And Collazo said he chose to try to live. So
21:00
Speaker 7: he picked himself up out of that lake and walked
21:03
Speaker 7: almost a mile after being shot three times to seek help.
21:12
Speaker 1: Finding Collazo was the best break in the case so far.
21:18
Speaker 1: He provided the single clue no witness until now could offer,
21:22
Speaker 1: a description of the suspect's faces. They had not worn
21:26
Speaker 1: masks when they assaulted him. Using Collazo's description, a Dade
21:31
Speaker 1: County police artist drew composite sketches of his assailants. The
21:36
Speaker 1: drawings would be made into posters with information about the
21:39
Speaker 1: suspects and their crimes. plus the warning that both men
21:42
Speaker 1: were heavily armed and extremely dangerous. Retired Special Agent John Hanlon,
21:54
Speaker 1: a 22-year FBI veteran then assigned to the Violent Crimes Unit,
21:58
Speaker 1: remembers what Collazo said.
22:02
Speaker 8: Collazo was able to give a description of the guys.
22:05
Speaker 8: He told us about the white pickup truck, He was
22:09
Speaker 8: shot in the same general area as we thought Emilio
22:13
Speaker 8: Brielle had disappeared.
22:16
Speaker 1: In the coming days, agents stepped up their efforts. They
22:24
Speaker 1: conducted a grid search of the streets crossing South Dixie
22:26
Speaker 1: Highway in the vicinity of the bank robberies.
22:30
Speaker 4: I got the agents together. After I told them what
22:34
Speaker 4: I had on my mind, they looked at me like
22:35
Speaker 4: I was crazy. But I said, I want you to
22:38
Speaker 4: go down between 88th Street on South Dixie Highway and
22:43
Speaker 4: 185th Street and come up with any license numbers on
22:48
Speaker 4: white Ford F-150 pickup trucks. Something just told me in
22:51
Speaker 4: my gut that perhaps, who knows, we're trying to make
22:54
Speaker 4: our own luck. What is it, a million to one,
22:56
Speaker 4: ten million to one?
22:57
Speaker 5: I don't know.
22:57
Speaker 4: But they came back with the license numbers of ten
23:03
Speaker 4: white Ford F-150 pickup trucks.
23:08
Speaker 1: Computerized checks of the license numbers would reveal the owner's names.
23:13
Speaker 1: Agents would then request driver's license photos from the Department
23:16
Speaker 1: of Motor Vehicles. Perhaps if Collazo saw the photos, he
23:20
Speaker 1: could identify the truck's owner. But in 1986, technology was slow,
23:28
Speaker 1: and before the photos came back from the DMV, the
23:31
Speaker 1: robbers struck again. On Wednesday, March 19th, just one week
23:36
Speaker 1: after Collazo's assault, The thieves.
23:40
Speaker 6: Hit another bank on South Dixie Island.
23:44
Speaker 1: It was their sixth hit in five months. One kept
23:46
Speaker 1: the terrified customers at bay. The other looted money from
24:08
Speaker 1: a teller. The man escaped with over $ 8, 000 in cash.
24:26
Speaker 1: As customers and employees recovered from the assault, an off-duty
24:30
Speaker 1: customs official who had seen the robbers flee called police.
24:34
Speaker 1: He'd noted the make of the getaway car, a black
24:38
Speaker 1: Chevy Monte Carlo, and the tag number, NTJ891. Just as
24:44
Speaker 1: Agent Grogan had predicted, it was Jose Collazo's car.
24:57
Speaker 7: They didn't even change the tag, and we're not really
24:59
Speaker 7: sure whether they were, well, we're pretty sure they weren't
25:02
Speaker 7: that stupid, but. We speculate that in their minds, you know,
25:05
Speaker 7: they were these hard, hard men. And we think that
25:10
Speaker 7: they were probably just saying, hey, in your face, police,
25:13
Speaker 7: you know, come and get us if you can.
25:18
Speaker 1: Investigators learned little of value from witnesses. At this bank,
25:26
Speaker 1: the security cameras had filmed the entire robbery, but the
25:30
Speaker 1: videotape was of little use. The camera's lenses had captured
25:34
Speaker 1: little more than unidentifiable masked bandits. There was little doubt
25:39
Speaker 1: these robbers planned each hit carefully.
25:43
Speaker 4: It appeared to me that they were doing surveillance of
25:48
Speaker 4: the banks prior to some of the robberies because on
25:53
Speaker 4: most occasions, they robbed the bank within 10 minutes of
25:59
Speaker 4: delivery of a cash shipment by an armored car company
26:04
Speaker 4: so they were waiting until the cash was inside from
26:06
Speaker 4: the armored car company and then hit the bank.
26:13
Speaker 1: On april 10th gordon mcneil and ben grogan discussed the
26:16
Speaker 1: case at firearms practice sifting for any clues they may
26:20
Speaker 1: have overlooked it had been about three weeks since the
26:25
Speaker 1: last robbery There were no clues to the thieves' identities,
26:30
Speaker 1: but McNeil detected a pattern.
26:33
Speaker 4: You're always looking in law enforcement for patterns of crime,
26:38
Speaker 4: things that seem to happen on a consistent basis. And
26:41
Speaker 4: the only thing that we had gone in these cases
26:44
Speaker 4: was this significant pattern that developed, always on Friday between
26:48
Speaker 4: 9 and 12, hitting the same banks multiple times, always
26:52
Speaker 4: in the same 40-square-block area, always along South Dixie Highway.
26:57
Speaker 1: Agents planned a surveillance for the next day. They would
27:02
Speaker 1: fan out to patrol the area where the robbers had
27:04
Speaker 1: struck so often. Unit Supervisor Gordon McNeil personally led the operation.
27:12
Speaker 4: We just couldn't wait for them to rob another bank.
27:17
Speaker 4: We had to get out there and we had to
27:19
Speaker 4: make our own luck and maybe we could find them.
27:23
Speaker 1: Agent Hanlon remembers what happened next.
27:30
Speaker 8: Eddie Morales walked over and said, hey, let's go down there,
27:32
Speaker 8: and I thought, well, what the heck.
27:34
Speaker 1: You know? So as a whim, I mean, there.
27:37
Speaker 8: Was no pressure to go or anything of that kind.
27:40
Speaker 8: I mean, I certainly had enough to do, and I
27:43
Speaker 8: liked Eddie, and I figured, well, we'll go on down there.
27:45
Speaker 8: We'll ride down and, you know, rather cavalierly and spend
27:51
Speaker 8: some time Good times with Ed, and we'll take it
27:55
Speaker 8: from there.
27:58
Speaker 1: Many believed it was a long shot, but 14 Miami
28:01
Speaker 1: FBI agents met in a parking lot at 8.45 a.m.
28:05
Speaker 1: on Friday, April 11, 1986. They would surveil a 53-block
28:14
Speaker 1: grid along South Dixie Highway, where two commando-style gunmen had
28:18
Speaker 1: pulled off three bank robberies and three armored car heists
28:21
Speaker 1: in six months. The suspects were described as white men
28:25
Speaker 1: of medium build, one with a handlebar mustache, both about
28:30
Speaker 1: 30 years old. They were heavily armed and extremely dangerous.
28:36
Speaker 1: They might be driving a black Monte Carlo, license number NTJ891.
28:46
Speaker 1: After a robbery spree that had lasted six months, Miami
28:50
Speaker 1: FBI agents went on the offensive. in search of two killers,
28:54
Speaker 1: possibly driving a black Monte Carlo. They met to patrol
28:58
Speaker 1: an area where the two armed robbers had used military
29:01
Speaker 1: tactics to hit armored cars and banks. All would be
29:10
Speaker 1: stationed along the major thoroughfare of South Dixie Highway. Agents
29:19
Speaker 1: Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove were on their way to
29:21
Speaker 1: stake out the Barnett Bank when the impossible happened. A
29:28
Speaker 1: car that fit the description of the suspect's vehicle pulled
29:32
Speaker 1: directly in front of him. In disbelief, Agent Grogan advised
29:38
Speaker 1: all units of what he saw. Gordon McNeil remembers the call.
29:50
Speaker 4: Grogan was not an emotional person. Nothing could get Grogan excited.
29:55
Speaker 4: And I still remember his voice. He said, we are
30:01
Speaker 4: behind a black Chevrolet Monte Carlo, a Dade, Florida tag, NTJ891.
30:09
Speaker 1: He said, that's the tag, isn't it, Gordo?
30:13
Speaker 4: I mean, he was just incredulous.
30:16
Speaker 1: Agents Mireles and Hanlon were stationed at the Professional Savings
30:20
Speaker 1: Bank when they heard Grogan's call. They began to search
30:25
Speaker 1: for their colleagues. Hanlon is driving, with Morellis working the radio.
30:31
Speaker 1: Hanlon tried to get a gauge on Grogan and Dove's location.
30:35
Speaker 8: I remember saying to Eddie, I mean, call Ben, tell
30:38
Speaker 8: him to start calling the cross streets so we'll know
30:41
Speaker 8: how close we're getting. Before Eddie had a chance to
30:45
Speaker 8: go on the air, Ben starts calling off the cross streets,
30:48
Speaker 8: and we're hitting those cross streets, you know, one after another,
30:53
Speaker 8: so we were real close to them.
30:56
Speaker 1: After proceeding south for several blocks, Hanlon and Morales closed
31:00
Speaker 1: in behind them. The robbers soon suspected they were being followed.
31:08
Speaker 1: Whether they knew their pursuers were FBI or not, the
31:10
Speaker 1: suspects wanted to lose them. They took a right turn
31:16
Speaker 1: on 117th Street into a residential neighborhood, quiet at this
31:19
Speaker 1: time of day. You still following? Still behind us. They're coming.
31:46
Speaker 1: They turned right again, trying to lose the tail. But
31:54
Speaker 1: the agents hung on, playing for time, as Agent Morales recalls.
32:00
Speaker 7: We were just trying to wait for as many FBI
32:02
Speaker 7: units to get to the location as possible. And we
32:06
Speaker 7: were also basically responding to what the subjects did. They
32:10
Speaker 7: weren't in any hurry. When they turned onto 120th Street, they.
32:15
Speaker 1: Actually slowed down. The caravan continued on. with the agents
32:29
Speaker 1: always concerned about endangering innocent bystanders. Then the suspects made
32:40
Speaker 1: a left onto 82nd. It appeared they were heading back
32:51
Speaker 1: to the busy highway where civilians would be at risk
32:54
Speaker 1: should a confrontation turn violent. When Grogan saw the silhouette
33:08
Speaker 1: of a long-barreled rifle through the rear window of the
33:10
Speaker 1: subject's vehicle, he knew it was time to act. It
33:18
Speaker 1: was clear the suspects were preparing to do battle. Grogan
33:24
Speaker 1: put the light on his car and ordered a felony stop.
33:34
Speaker 1: Grogan pulled alongside the suspect's car and ordered them to stop.
33:41
Speaker 1: The suspects ignored the order, and Grogan pulled ahead of them,
33:45
Speaker 1: blocking their escape. Hanlon and Mireles moved up the rocks
33:56
Speaker 1: in the middle. The sight made an indelible impression on
34:05
Speaker 1: veteran agent John Hanley.
34:07
Speaker 8: And I'll never forget the man's face. I mean, I
34:10
Speaker 8: could pick him out today. I mean, he looked like
34:13
Speaker 8: your basic Western bad man. He looked very, very determined.
34:21
Speaker 1: It seemed the suspects were as desperate to prevail as
34:24
Speaker 1: the agents who pursued them. Two heavily armed fugitives had
34:33
Speaker 1: ignored FBI orders to stop their vehicle. Special agents now
34:39
Speaker 1: tried to force them to comply. The last to catch
34:46
Speaker 1: up to the group was Agent Richard Manozzi. As he
34:52
Speaker 1: pulled behind the suspect's car, he saw one of the
34:55
Speaker 1: gunmen take aim at Morales and Hanlon. Manozzi rammed the
35:01
Speaker 1: fugitive's car from behind.
35:11
Speaker 8: They swung into a U-turn, and then Manozzi was able
35:14
Speaker 8: to hit them again and knocked them over into this
35:17
Speaker 8: parking area up against some cars over there.
35:29
Speaker 1: The passenger opened fire with a MiG-14 assault rifle. Outgunned,
35:36
Speaker 1: Agent Manozzi crawled to cover. Agent McNeil arrived seconds later,
35:42
Speaker 1: firing at point-blank range. They were surrounded by FBI. Their
35:55
Speaker 1: vehicle could not move, but they had superior firepower. And
36:04
Speaker 1: they refused to surrender. The driver fired a shotgun blast
36:13
Speaker 1: at Grover. McNeil hit the driver in the neck. But
36:27
Speaker 1: the semi-automatic kept pumping out the rounds until one finally
36:31
Speaker 1: caught McNeil in the hand. Morellis and Hanlon advanced to
36:37
Speaker 1: cover him. Hanlon's 38 held five rounds. The Mini 14
36:46
Speaker 1: held 30 rounds in each clip. And one of them
36:51
Speaker 1: shot down Agent Morellis.
37:04
Speaker 7: It was all one continuous recollection. It was like one
37:08
Speaker 7: second I'm looking at Gordon McNeil's back, trying to maneuver
37:10
Speaker 7: to his left, and the next second, his blue sky.
37:18
Speaker 7: And I looked at my left arm, and my left
37:20
Speaker 7: arm was completely shattered. It was like roadkill.
37:28
Speaker 1: His partner was down, but the shooter kept on following.
37:37
Speaker 1: But when he tried to escape out the window, Jerry
37:41
Speaker 1: Dove hit him in the chest with his 9mm. But
37:48
Speaker 1: to Dove's horror, the man shot McNeil in the neck.
37:55
Speaker 4: I couldn't move my upper body. I couldn't move my
37:58
Speaker 4: arm and I couldn't move my legs. So I assumed
38:01
Speaker 4: that I was totally paralyzed at that particular point.
38:04
Speaker 1: I couldn't move. Two more FBI agents arrived and joined
38:08
Speaker 1: the gunfight.
38:10
Speaker 5: By now, the shooter.
38:16
Speaker 1: Had been hit four times, but he continued to advance
38:22
Speaker 1: and fire.
38:28
Speaker 4: He just made up his mind that he was gone down,
38:32
Speaker 4: he was gone out. and he was going to take
38:34
Speaker 4: as many of us with him as he possibly could.
38:41
Speaker 1: The agents knew they were outgunned, firing six shooters against
38:44
Speaker 1: the suspect's 30-round semi-automatic assault weapon. Dove and Grogan were
38:54
Speaker 1: forced to retreat behind their car to reload. Hanlon, too, reloaded.
39:02
Speaker 1: but the shooter kept on coming.
39:09
Speaker 8: One went right through my knuckles on my right hand
39:13
Speaker 8: and through the knuckle in my thumb. A bunch of
39:18
Speaker 8: lead and whatever went into the back of my arm,
39:21
Speaker 8: and I remember my gun going flying. I said, Ben,
39:28
Speaker 8: I've been hit.
39:29
Speaker 1: As Hanlon tried to retreat under the bumper, the gunman
39:32
Speaker 1: shot him in the groin.
39:37
Speaker 8: The blood geysered from my groin to my knee. I mean,
39:41
Speaker 8: the blood just came out like a balloon breaking.
39:46
Speaker 1: Grogan was hit. And then Dove. Before they could reload
39:53
Speaker 1: their weapons.
39:59
Speaker 8: I remember Ben saying, oh my God, and he fell
40:04
Speaker 8: at my feet. And at some point along in here,
40:10
Speaker 8: I heard the breath go out of him.
40:12
Speaker 3: He went, ah.
40:14
Speaker 1: The subject made his way to Agent Dove's car. With
40:17
Speaker 1: his left arm nearly blown off, Agent Morales managed to
40:20
Speaker 1: pull himself up. The shooter was trying to flee and
40:28
Speaker 1: Morales had to stop him. Mortally wounded, the second suspect
40:41
Speaker 1: somehow dragged himself out of his car and joined his partner.
40:48
Speaker 1: If the car starts Norellis knew they could only go
40:50
Speaker 1: in reverse and back over the fallen agents.
40:54
Speaker 7: Eventually, I just got angry because I knew internally that
40:57
Speaker 7: I was dying. And my one last thought was, hey,
41:00
Speaker 7: if I'm going to die, I'm going to take these
41:01
Speaker 7: guys with me. I'm going to make sure that they're dead.
41:18
Speaker 1: With his shotgun empty, Morelis changed to his revolver and
41:21
Speaker 1: staggered forward, firing at the subjects. Morelis' shots lodged in
41:32
Speaker 1: the men's spines, killing them both. It was a violent
41:36
Speaker 1: end to the lives of two violent men. Just a
41:42
Speaker 1: few minutes after it began, the bloodiest firefight in FBI
41:45
Speaker 1: history ended in tragedy. Two agents were dead and five wounded.
41:52
Speaker 1: Two suspects still unidentified had.
41:54
Speaker 5: Also been killed.
42:09
Speaker 1: Agent Jerry Dove lay dead. At the age of 30,
42:14
Speaker 1: he'd earned a law degree and fulfilled his boyhood dream
42:17
Speaker 1: of joining the FBI. He wanted to make a difference
42:20
Speaker 1: and had given his life trying. His partner, Ben Grogan,
42:30
Speaker 1: had also perished in the firefight. He had been just
42:35
Speaker 1: one year away from retirement when his wife could finally
42:39
Speaker 1: have stopped worrying about her husband's dangerous career. Crime scene
42:48
Speaker 1: technicians arrived at the site. Metro Dade County Homicide Bureau
42:55
Speaker 1: Sergeant David Rivers was also there. Rivers had the Herculean
43:01
Speaker 1: task of reconstructing five minutes of living terror. That would
43:05
Speaker 1: take weeks. Well, we have to find out what happened.
43:10
Speaker 3: And you do that in various ways. You obviously speak
43:13
Speaker 3: to the agents that were involved, and they can tell
43:15
Speaker 3: you what each one of them did individually. And then
43:18
Speaker 3: part of that is to take those different statements as
43:20
Speaker 3: to what they did individually and match it up with
43:22
Speaker 3: the physical evidence. The wounds on the body, the bullet
43:26
Speaker 3: holes in the cars, where the guns are located, where
43:29
Speaker 3: the cars are located, and to reconstruct it to make
43:31
Speaker 3: sure everything's exactly interpreted properly.
43:36
Speaker 1: Technicians recovered 143 bullets fired from the fugitives' weapons. Questions
43:43
Speaker 1: that had plagued agents for so long were finally being answered.
43:48
Speaker 1: The Ruger Mini-14 rifle used to kill agents Grogan and
43:51
Speaker 1: Dove would match the 223 bullets found at some of
43:54
Speaker 1: the armored car and bank robbery scenes. In fact, the
43:59
Speaker 1: FBI crime lab could now forensically link the killers with
44:02
Speaker 1: several of the earlier heists. And from fingerprints, the agents
44:09
Speaker 1: soon identified the subjects.
44:10
Speaker 5: As 32-year-old Michael Lee.
44:11
Speaker 1: Platt, and 34-year-old William Russell Maddox. But one question remained.
44:26
Speaker 1: What kind of men had wreaked this destruction, and why?
44:31
Speaker 1: Agents could not have been more surprised by what they
44:34
Speaker 1: learned from the killer's friends and neighbors. Instead of outlaws
44:38
Speaker 1: living on the edge, prepared for the ultimate confrontation, Platt
44:43
Speaker 1: and Maddox were known as quiet family men. Photos show
44:48
Speaker 1: their families relaxing together. Platt had a wife and three children.
44:55
Speaker 1: Maddox was a single dad. They were partners in a
44:59
Speaker 1: landscaping business. But further investigation gave up the lie of
45:05
Speaker 1: their double life. Inside a shed, agents found guns and ammunition,
45:11
Speaker 1: including the 22 Maddox and Platt had stolen from Jose
45:14
Speaker 1: Collazo when they tried to kill him in the Everglades.
45:18
Speaker 1: Agents would also uncover evidence of a bizarre murder pact
45:21
Speaker 1: in which the men may have killed each other's previous wives.
45:28
Speaker 1: No one had been charged in the two cases, but
45:31
Speaker 1: now they would be reopened. Within days, agents would confirm
45:37
Speaker 1: that Maddox and Platt had killed 25-year-old Emilio Brielle in
45:41
Speaker 1: the Everglades. A hiker found Brielle's skeletal remains in the Everglades,
45:50
Speaker 1: not far from where Collazo had been assaulted. Then another
45:56
Speaker 1: tragic footnote surfaced. Special Agent Steve Warner received a package
46:03
Speaker 1: from the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles. In it was
46:09
Speaker 1: a copy of William Russell Maddox's driver's license. He was
46:16
Speaker 1: the owner of one of the white Ford F-150 pickup
46:18
Speaker 1: trucks agents had located a few weeks before. But there
46:24
Speaker 1: had been a delay in sending the licenses.
46:29
Speaker 4: If they had arrived April 11th or prior to that,
46:34
Speaker 4: Collazo would have been able to positively identify Maddox, and
46:39
Speaker 4: we probably would have been able to arrest Maddox and
46:42
Speaker 4: also Platt and two fbi agents wouldn't have been killed
46:46
Speaker 4: but that's not the way the luck worked out in
46:49
Speaker 4: this particular case.
46:51
Speaker 1: The fbi investigation revealed that both of the killers had
46:54
Speaker 1: served in the military plant had been a ranger a
46:59
Speaker 1: member of the army's elite first strike force which explained
47:02
Speaker 1: the pair's commando tactics fundamentally different than training received by
47:06
Speaker 1: law enforcement.
47:09
Speaker 4: We don't have an acceptable body count in civilian law enforcement.
47:13
Speaker 4: We're taught one way, and that's defensive-type shooting. You take cover.
47:18
Speaker 4: You do not take casualties. And then you look at
47:22
Speaker 4: the way Platt reacted that day. He reacted in a
47:25
Speaker 4: military fashion. He had the heavier weapon. He had the
47:28
Speaker 4: Mini-14 with a 30-round capacity. His back was basically against
47:33
Speaker 4: the wall. He had no place to go, so he
47:36
Speaker 4: advanced forward on our position, laying down suppression fire, and
47:41
Speaker 4: ambushed Grogan and Dove, who were behind the car.
47:45
Speaker 1: As agents finally put the pieces together, a frightening portrait
47:49
Speaker 1: emerged of two formidable adversaries.
47:56
Speaker 7: At the end of the shooting, Platt had 11 hits,
48:00
Speaker 7: Maddox had 6 hits. Platt was literally shot to pieces,
48:04
Speaker 7: and he kept fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting
48:10
Speaker 7: until he ran out of breath.
48:12
Speaker 1: He fought to the last.
48:16
Speaker 8: They were going to die, it's just they weren't dying
48:18
Speaker 8: fast enough. And they weren't prepared to lay down and die.
48:25
Speaker 8: They weren't about to give up.
48:32
Speaker 1: Out of this tragedy came some positive changes that have
48:35
Speaker 1: improved the safety of all in the law enforcement community.
48:41
Speaker 1: Agents and officers now carry more powerful weapons and their
48:44
Speaker 1: training better prepares them for violent confrontations like the one
48:48
Speaker 1: on April 11th, 1986. As hundreds mourn the deaths of
48:58
Speaker 1: two dedicated and selfless FBI agents, Those in law enforcement
49:02
Speaker 1: have looked for meaning in the tragic events of that
49:05
Speaker 1: April morning. Over the years, Gordon McNeil has found some resolution.
49:16
Speaker 4: The story's not platonmatics. It's not important who they were.
49:24
Speaker 4: It's important to recall the courage that was shown by
49:28
Speaker 4: the agents that day and the FBI.
49:32
Speaker 1: They did their job.