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The Mysterious Death or Disappearance of Texas Oilman Ed Baker Part 2 · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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  Speaker 1: The Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. This is part two of two
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  Speaker 1: of the Death or Disappearance of Texas oilman Ed Baker.
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  Speaker 1: If you haven't listened to part one, we highly suggest
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  Speaker 1: you do so before listening any further. That said, here's
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  Speaker 1: a brief summary of what we've gone over so far.
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  Speaker 1: At around nine am on November eighth, nineteen eighty five,
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  Speaker 1: just north of the small Texas town Katie, rice farmers
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  Speaker 1: out to harvest the day's crops noticed smoke. They drove
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  Speaker 1: to the source, found a smoldering car in one of
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  Speaker 1: the rice fields there, and sped away to alert police.
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  Speaker 1: When Harris County Sheriff's deputies arrived, they found something far
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  Speaker 1: grizzlier than just a burnt vehicle. In the passenger's seat
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  Speaker 1: was a charred human body so disfigured from the blot
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  Speaker 1: that even identifying whether it was male or female was
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  Speaker 1: impossible at the scene. The car, though, was identified as
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  Speaker 1: a nineteen eighty four Jaguar belonging to a familiar name
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  Speaker 1: around Houston. Fifty two year old overnight millionaire oilman Ed
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  Speaker 1: Baker inside the vehicle was Ed's sidearm, a thirty two
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  Speaker 1: caliber revolver in the passenger side floorboard, the remnants of
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  Speaker 1: his shotgun contorted and in pieces from the intense fire,
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  Speaker 1: and the man's wedding ring, which was not melted or contorted.
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  Speaker 1: Three one gallon gasoline cans were found in and around
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  Speaker 1: the jaguar. Ed had been reported missing the previous morning
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  Speaker 1: when he didn't show up at his office at the
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  Speaker 1: company he owned, Vanguard Groups International. The morning he went missing,
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  Speaker 1: In fact, Ed and his wife, Sandy's gardener discovered a
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  Speaker 1: broken window at their northwest Houston home. Inside in the
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: master bedroom, and ashtray and telephone were knocked off a
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  Speaker 1: table onto the floor. Nothing else in the house appeared unusual.
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  Speaker 1: The only thing that appeared to be missing besides Ed
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  Speaker 1: and his car was his shotgun. After the car and
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  Speaker 1: the body were found, an investigation began, which of course,
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  Speaker 1: was being handled as a homicide and Harris County Sheriff's
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  Speaker 1: Office investigators discovered that Ed Baker's company was in trouble.
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  Speaker 1: Once a thriving company featured in inc Magazine's Top five
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  Speaker 1: hundred Fastest Growing US Companies three years in a row,
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  Speaker 1: Ed's newest developed taste for the finer things in life,
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  Speaker 1: along with a gambling habit had Vanguard Groups international in
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  Speaker 1: dire straits. He was borrowing investors money and using subsequent
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  Speaker 1: investors money to pay it back, and his oil well
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  Speaker 1: speculations weren't paying off like they once had ed. Baker
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  Speaker 1: confided in and a few folks that he'd borrowed money millions.
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  Speaker 1: He told some from a source that he later discovered
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  Speaker 1: appeared to be linked to organized crime in Miami, Florida.
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  Speaker 1: For several weeks before he disappeared, he'd also told a
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  Speaker 1: few people close to him that he'd been receiving death threats.
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  Speaker 1: On the same day, his smoldering nineteen eighty four Jaguar
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  Speaker 1: was found with a charred body inside. That evening, at
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  Speaker 1: around five, a record driver sent out to tow the
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  Speaker 1: car stumbled upon another gruesome discovery about one hundred yards
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  Speaker 1: from the scene of the blaze, the half nude and
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  Speaker 1: bound body of a young man who appeared to be
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  Speaker 1: in his twenties, whose skull was crushed in from multiple
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  Speaker 1: bludgeons to the head with the blunt object. The Harris
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  Speaker 1: County Sheriff's office had no idea what to make of it,
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  Speaker 1: no idea if there was a connection. Meanwhile, that very night,
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  Speaker 1: Ed Baker's son Blake, showed up drunk at Ed's Northwest
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  Speaker 1: Houston home to speak with his stepmothers and the conversation
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  Speaker 1: turned heated. Blake got belligerent and was arrested for drunkenness
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  Speaker 1: and disorderly conduct after Sandy threw him out, but not
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  Speaker 1: before the oilman's twenty three year old son demanded she
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  Speaker 1: give him two hundred thousand dollars, presumably the amount of inheritance.
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  Speaker 1: Blake thought he was owed, or perhaps something else entirely,
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  Speaker 1: but the body in the smoldering car hadn't even been
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  Speaker 1: identified as belonging to his father yet. The next day,
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  Speaker 1: when Blake got out of a Harris County jail after
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  Speaker 1: posting bond, he tried to get Sandy to meet with him,
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  Speaker 1: and when she refused, he threatened the lives of her
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  Speaker 1: and her daughter. You're dead, he told her, before abruptly
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  Speaker 1: hanging up. The phone was bugged by Sandy's recently hired
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  Speaker 1: private investigator, and Blake Baker was taken back into custody
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  Speaker 1: and charged for making terroristic threats. Harris County Sheriff's detectives,
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  Speaker 1: as y'all can see, had their hands full. They knew
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  Speaker 1: immediately this case would be anything but cut and dry.
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  Speaker 1: Law enforcement was interested in Ed Baker's supposed loan from
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  Speaker 1: Florida mafia figures, but that in Ed's son's strange behavior
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  Speaker 1: were hardly the only leads that emerged down every path,
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  Speaker 1: it seemed was only more confusion. On Tuesday, November twelfth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, Detective Ronnie Phillips of the Harris County
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  Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office Homicide Unit told a reporter that he at
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  Speaker 1: a lead. We have some information that he possibly wanted
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  Speaker 1: to disappear because he owed so many people, so much money.
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  Speaker 1: The lawman said, we're checking into that angle. This lead
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  Speaker 1: is the starting point of a theory that some still
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  Speaker 1: believe to this day. Lawsuits against Ed and his company
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  Speaker 1: had been filed by investors in recent months. Had owed
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  Speaker 1: some folks big money, and authorities had received a tip
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  Speaker 1: that he'd flown the coup to Brazil in order to
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  Speaker 1: avoid paying it back. Likely he couldn't have paid it
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  Speaker 1: back anyway. The implication here, of course, is that Ed
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Baker had faked his own death before he fled. Detective
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  Speaker 1: Phillips also said that the Federal Bureau of Investigations would
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  Speaker 1: investigate the case. In this announcement, the detective alluded that
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the FBI's course was to look into the organized crime
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  Speaker 1: angle that came from Ed's wife, Sandy, who said mobsters
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  Speaker 1: killed her husband because he owed them a million bucks.
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  Speaker 1: The following day, Wednesday, November thirteenth, nineteen eighty five, Ed
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  Speaker 1: Baker's fourth and current wife, Sandy Baker, was given a
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  Speaker 1: polygraph examination. Sandy was advised by the private investigator she
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  Speaker 1: had hired Clyde Wilson to take the test, a request
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: that seems to have backfired. Sandy Baker was a wreck
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  Speaker 1: when she came in to take the test. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: she fainted just before the test was set to begin.
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  Speaker 1: The examiner tried to talk Sandy out of going through
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  Speaker 1: with it that night, but she insisted. The questions included
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  Speaker 1: things like, do you actually know who arranged the death
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  Speaker 1: of Edward Baker? Did you make any arrangements to cause
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  Speaker 1: the death of Edward Baker? And are you withholding any
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  Speaker 1: information today concerning the death of Edward Baker. Sandy answered
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  Speaker 1: no to each of these and several other purposefully redundant questions.
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  Speaker 1: The twenty year veteran polygraph operator who administered the examination,
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  Speaker 1: Bob Musser, found that Sandy's physiological responses to some questions
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  Speaker 1: showed deception, indicating that she had not been truthful in
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  Speaker 1: some of her answers and that she was withholding information.
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  Speaker 1: Mussard did make clear, though, that because of the situation
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  Speaker 1: concerning her husband, it was possible that at least some
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  Speaker 1: of that response was due to her distress, which was
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  Speaker 1: both emotional and visibly physical. The fact that Sandy was
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  Speaker 1: barely eating and hadn't for quite a while when given
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  Speaker 1: the test also might have had an effect on the results,
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  Speaker 1: but there'd still be a controversy about it later. We'll
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  Speaker 1: get to that. The polygraph examiner, Bob Musser, Sandy's private investmentstigator,
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  Speaker 1: Clyde Wilson, and Sandy all agreed that she'd come back
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  Speaker 1: the following day to take the test. Perhaps Miss Baker's
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  Speaker 1: private investigator thought all along that she was hiding something.
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  Speaker 1: He'd requested she'd take the polygraph examine the first place,
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  Speaker 1: and when she refused to take the retest the next day,
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  Speaker 1: he was no longer working for her. Now Sandy told
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  Speaker 1: the press the split up between her and private investigator
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  Speaker 1: Clyde Wilson was mutual and amicable. Sandy said that she'd
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  Speaker 1: gotten what she wanted out of hiring Clyde Wilson. Her
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  Speaker 1: objectives had been reached. First of all, having hired Wilson
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  Speaker 1: before Ed's burnt carr was found. The primary objective was
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  Speaker 1: finding him or his body. Protection, according to Sandy, was
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  Speaker 1: objective number two. Since the case had garnered so much
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  Speaker 1: media attention, Sandy said, the organized crime figures who'd killed
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  Speaker 1: Ed wouldn't dare come after her. Lastly, Sandy wanted enough
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  Speaker 1: information on her steps on Blake to file criminal charges.
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  Speaker 1: She said. Since those things were accomplished, she and private
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  Speaker 1: investigator Clyde Wilson mutually agreed he would leave the case.
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  Speaker 1: Sources told reporters, however, that Sandy felt the PI was
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: making the whole thing a public spectacle and that was
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  Speaker 1: not the directions she wanted to go. Still, on November fifteenth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, when it was announced that private investigator
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  Speaker 1: Clyde Wilson was no longer on the case, he said
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  Speaker 1: he quit due to Sandy Baker's refusal to retake the
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  Speaker 1: polygraph examination. On Monday, November eighteenth, nineteen eighty five, it
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: was reported on AM radio station kat RH that an
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  Speaker 1: ed Baker checked into a beach resort and casino on
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  Speaker 1: Antigua Island in the Caribbean, two days after he disappeared.
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  Speaker 1: This report was certainly of interest to Harris County Sheriff's
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  Speaker 1: Office investigators, since ed had attempted to purchase a condominium
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  Speaker 1: in Antigua just three months prior. Since the resort also
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  Speaker 1: housed a casino, and Ed was a known gambler, the
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  Speaker 1: lead was especially interesting. Edward Baker, however, isn't necessarily an
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  Speaker 1: obscure name, and the guest at the Caribbean hotel turned
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  Speaker 1: out to be thirty one year old Edward John Baker,
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  Speaker 1: a General Dynamics senior planning advisor from Connecticut. The man
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  Speaker 1: was annoyed at calls to his room from reporters on
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  Speaker 1: his vacation and was later ruled out as being the
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  Speaker 1: Ed Baker by the FBI. Meanwhile, as detectives struggled to
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  Speaker 1: make sense of the Edward Gerald Baker case, the Harris
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  Speaker 1: County Medical Examiner had problems of his own. This was
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  Speaker 1: pre DNA, of course, and he was having trouble identifying
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  Speaker 1: the charred remains found in Ed's nineteen eighty four Jaguar,
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  Speaker 1: as well as the body of the young man found
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  Speaker 1: partially nude, bound and beaten to death about three hundred
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  Speaker 1: feet away later that day. Though finding two bodies in
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  Speaker 1: the same place was certainly out of the ordinary, the
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  Speaker 1: cops didn't think the cases were related. Harris County Sheriff's
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  Speaker 1: Office investigator Ronnie Phillips said the area is secluded and
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  Speaker 1: not an uncommon place to dump bodies. After a search
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  Speaker 1: for his fingerprints in state and national databases turned up nothing,
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  Speaker 1: a sketch of the young man was released via the
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  Speaker 1: November fifteenth, nineteen eighty five, edition of the Houston Chronicle
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  Speaker 1: in hopes that someone would come forward and provide his identity.
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  Speaker 1: The charred remains, however, presented a completely different set of problems.
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  Speaker 1: First of all, the body was so severely burnt that
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  Speaker 1: only thirty two pounds of remains were left. Though the
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  Speaker 1: cause of death was elusive, Harris County Sheriff's Office investigators
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  Speaker 1: theorized that it was a gunshot wound to the head.
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  Speaker 1: Ed's thirty two caliber revolver found on the floorboard of
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  Speaker 1: the Jaguar at the feet of the chart remains had
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  Speaker 1: been fired once, as was evident by the indentation on
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  Speaker 1: one casing the rest investigator said exploded in the high
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  Speaker 1: intensity blaze. An indentation in the roof of Ed's vehicle
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  Speaker 1: also indicated that a bullet might have struck there after
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  Speaker 1: going through the body's head. Still, though, it would be
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  Speaker 1: a while before they figured out that this body had
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  Speaker 1: indeed received a gunshot wound to the head, whether self
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  Speaker 1: inflicted or not. The medical examiner could only provide possible
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  Speaker 1: causes of death, the others being that this parson burned
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  Speaker 1: to death or, though he said it's unlikely, suffered a
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: natural death such as a heart attack. Still though, there
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: was the matter of identification. Signs of arthritis found in
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the burnt remains legbone matched ed Baker's arthritic issues, but that,
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  Speaker 1: of course, was far from enough evidence to decide that
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  Speaker 1: the body was or wasn't Eds. The medical examiner was
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  Speaker 1: able to collect jawbone fragments and loose teeth, along with
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  Speaker 1: crowns and caps in the car, so he requested ed
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  Speaker 1: Baker's dental records. After some miscommunication, the medical examiner obtained
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  Speaker 1: X rays in a plaster model of Ed's teeth. With
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: the help of Ed's dentist, some loose teeth and caps
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  Speaker 1: were compared and matched the oilman's records. In fact, between
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: the jawbone fragments, the teeth, crowns, and caps, the medical
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  Speaker 1: examiner and dentist found eleven points of some hilarity. Ed's
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: dentist two said he recognized the teeth and dental work
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  Speaker 1: as his. The medical examiner remarked that the teeth were
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: found in the burnt car, where they would have logically
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  Speaker 1: fell as the body burned. He was convinced that the
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: charred remains belonged to the financially troubled oilman, so convinced
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  Speaker 1: that he called the evidence conclusive, but in later remarks
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the medical examiner wasn't as confident. Still, whether the death
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: was a homicide or suicide could not be determined. Some
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: investigators agreed with the medical examiner's identification. Other investigators, however,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: did not to fake his own death. Ed Baker would
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: have had to go through the extreme and painful step
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: of pulling out some of his own teeth, It was
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: determined by professionals. Whoever would do that would have to
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: go to a hell of a lot of trouble. Professor
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: of dental pathology at Houston's University of Texas Health and
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Science Center, doctor Paul Stimson, commented, the caps and teeth
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: found would have had to be placed in the exact spot.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: They'd have naturally fallen out of the body as it
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: burned and as the teeth loosened. But since the beginning,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Harris County Sheriff's Office investigators had been working several angles,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: all related to the overnight millionaire oilman's financial turmoil. When
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the investigation began, authorities didn't know what to think, but
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: a little way into it, they started considering suicide the
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: most likely scenario. Ed's wife, Sandy, told detectives that he
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: owed a million dollars to Florida organized crime figures, money
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: he'd borrowed to get his company, Vanguard Groups International, out
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: of the whole. Ed himself had dug to support his
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: lavish lifestyle and gambling habits. A deal that was supposed
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: to go down just days before Ed disappeared went bad,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Sandy Baker's lawyer said, and that deal was supposed to
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  Speaker 1: get Ed out of the hot water he was in
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: with Miami mafioso. The hot water was the over eight
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: hundred investors in Vanguard Group's speculative oil wells and the
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: lawsuits pending against the company. But within weeks, investigators began
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  Speaker 1: discounting the theory that Ed Baker's death was the result
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: of a mob hit. Police insisted they couldn't find a
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: shred of evidence to support it. In fact, Harris County
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office homicide investigator Ronnie Phillips couldn't make sense of
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the mob hit theory at all. Detective Phillips highly doubted
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: that anyone involved an organized crime would send death threat
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: letters like the ones Ed received. That was unheard of
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: with the mob It left a trail. Besides, mob hits,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Phillip's usually leave no ambiguity. They want the identity of
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: who they kill to be known to send a message,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: a clear message. The detective commented, though, that particular assertion
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: neglects to address the possibility that someone did kill Ed
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: on a hit, and figured the car and dental records
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: would be sufficient identifiers. The message, it seems, would have
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: been abundantly clear. Harris County Assistant District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: whose office was also investigating the case, said that it
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be a difficult task to confirm that ed Baker
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: received a mob money, but investigators could find no trace
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: of such a transaction. Detective Phillips said, in seeming contradiction
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: to that statement, that the Harris County Sheriff's Department had
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: received information that suggested Ed Baker's involvement with organized crime
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: players was a good possibility. There were certainly other leads
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: to pursue, or at least work to eliminate. The cops
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: commented that they were looking into anyone who had business
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: dealings with that Baker and Vanguard Group's International, anyone who
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Ed may have burned. After interviewing family, friends and work associates,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: the cops couldn't find any evidence to suggest that a
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: family member killed the man. Though many family members, including
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: his wife, ex wives, and children, stood to gain substantial
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: life insurance payouts, which is motive, it seems unlikely many
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: knew since ed Baker had only recently changed his policies
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: so that his family, not his company, would benefit. Though
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: the medical examiner's ruling pointed to the charred body being
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Ed's Harris County assistant District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said he
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: wasn't totally convinced. Since the beginning, Sheriff's Office investigators had
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: been entertaining the idea that Ed Baker faked his death,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: a theory the Houston Chronicle referred to as the mystery
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: novel theory. Ed and his wife, Sandy had looked at
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: purchasing a condominium out of country not long preceding his disappearance.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Authorities commented, however, that that country did have an extradition
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: treaty with the United States, not a good place to flee.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: The reported sighting of Ed Baker in Brazil only added
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: more speculation in the faked death theory. And then there
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: was the matter of the caps and the crowns see
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: ed Baker's dentist told authorities that Ed had a spare
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: set of crowns and caps he could have. Some have speculated,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: just tossed the extras in the fire so they'd later
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: be identified as his mystery novel theory. Indeed, the authorities
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: didn't like that theory much, and with that and the
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: mob hit theory all but off the mines of investigators,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: at least some investigators. It left the suicide theory, which
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: was seemingly as full of holes. Harris County Arson Investigator
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Terry Bird was charged with providing insight on ed Baker's
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: burnt up nineteen eighty four Jaguar. He identified the accelerant
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: used to start the blaze, though the Harris County Sheriff's
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Office would not disclose precisely what the flammable liquid was,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: other than to say it was a common substance. But
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Arson Investigator Bird pretty much spilled the beans in a
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: comment he gave to a Houston Chronicle reporter, somebody obviously
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: was trying to burn the car. It was a rather
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: crude effort byrd said. We found three one gallon cans
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: of gasoline inside that vehicle and around that vehicle, more
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: than enough to sufficiently burn it up up. A material, too,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: had been shoved into the gas tank of the vehicle,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: presumably to ignite the fire. That material was sent to
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: an FBI laboratory for analysis. It's never been commented on further.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Arson Investigator Bird supplied his thoughts on the fire, saying
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: that he believed it was not possible for an individual
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: to set fire to the car, enter the car, set
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: themselves on fire, and then shoot themselves in the head
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the set themselves on fire comment perhaps another slip of
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the tongue, suggesting that the individual doused himself or was
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: doused by someone else in the same flammable liquid used
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: to set the car ablaze the gasoline. If ed Baker
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: did commit suicide, then he likely had help, which seems
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: almost as insane as the faked death theory, unless, of course,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: he paid them. Ed it seems, did have some help dying, however,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: he died. A witness came forward shortly after the discovery
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: of the smoldering remains of the car and the body,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: saying that they saw a vehicle speeding from the scene
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: of the fire at about six thirty am on November eighth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, a little less than three hours before
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: they were found. Investigators never located the blue pickup truck
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: with chrome rails and mag wheels. Arson investigator Terry Bird
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: also found in ed Baker's car some sort of electronic
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: equipment circuit board. It might have been a piece of
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the car or something Ed had in the car. Bird
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: said it was sent off for testing. Ed's wedding ring
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: was also found embedded in what was referred to as
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: molten metal. The ring, however, was not melted. By the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: end of November, a couple weeks of intense investigation had
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: been performed by Harris County authorities, and they seemed no
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: closer to an answer. Detective Runnie Phillips said that the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: medical examiner still hadn't determined if the death was caused
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: by homicide or suicide, and they were proceeding as if
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: it were a homicide the Harris County Sheriff's office could
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: not rule out. Phillips added the possibility that ed Baker
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: faked his own death and is still alive, However, slim
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: that possibility may be. Apparently, investigators weren't completely satisfied with
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Ed's teeth being the sole identifying evidence. Assistant District Attorney
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Chuck Rosenthal at this point told reporters that evidence was
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: beginning to come together and it all pointed to a
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: particular theory, though he didn't say what that theory was.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Ed Baker's three life insurance policies added up to one
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: point two million dollars. That's just shy of three million
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: dollars in twenty twenty money. Ed's lawyer, Ward Busey got
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: copies of the updated policies in the mail after the
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: oilman's disappearance and possible death, along with a letter for Sandy.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: The ward told authorities he recognized the distinctive handwriting as Eds.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: They lifted fingerprints from the letters to ensure that Ed
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: wrote them. According to his wishes, his wife Sandy was
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: to receive five hundred thousand dollars, his two daughters two
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty five thousand dollars each, his son Blake
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, his stepdaughter fifty thousand dollars,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: and his ex wife, Mary, as an agreement left over
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: from their divorce, would get five hundred thousand dollars from
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: a separate policy. Harris County Sheriff's Office investigators requested that
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: all beneficiaries of Ed's policies come forward to undergo polygraph examinations.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Twenty three year old Blake Baker, who'd been locked up
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: in county jail since his arrest threatening to kill his
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: stepmother Sandy, passed his exam, showing no signs of deception. Blake,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: the test showed, had nothing to do with his father's
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: death or disappearance, and he was withholding no information. As
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: far as the terroristic threat charges previously brought against him,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: those were later dropped. According to Blake's attorney, he was
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: on tranquilizers when he phoned Sandy to apologize for showing
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: up at her house drunk and combative. When Sandy got
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: shitty with him, he got shitty back. He just took
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: it too far, the attorney said. Mary Ed's second wife,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: also passed her polygraph exam. During the course of their investigation,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the Harris County District Attorney's office subpoenaed the results of
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Sandy Baker's first polygraph examination, taken about a week after
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: the discovery of ed smoldering car and the charred body. Then,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: controversy arose. Bob Musser, who gave the exam and interpreted
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: the results, vehemently contested what attorney Ward Bucy alleged that
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the sedative Sandy had taken prior to the test had
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: affected the results. Musser said there was no drug that
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: could fool his test. According to several polygraph examiners today,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: it should be noted Musser is more or less correct
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: in that statement, although, as I'm sure y'all already know,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: there are certainly many issues with the reliability of polygraphs. Anyway,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Musser said that Sandy showed deception on that first test,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: even as he accounted for her distress at the time. Bucy, though,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: did what any good attorney would do and told Sandy
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: not to retake the test at the time, leading to
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: her private investigator Clyde Wilson's exit from the case. On
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Thursday Deceive nineteen eighty five, Ed's wife, Sandy, was back
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: in the hot seat. The three hour test came back
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: with inconclusive results. Sandy Baker attributed this to her irregular heartbeat.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Whatever the reason, Harris County Sheriff's Office investigator Ronnie Phillips
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: said he felt putting Sandy through another test would serve
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: no investigative purpose. Chuck Rosenthal, the Harris County Assistant District Attorney,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: was unconcerned with the entire debacle. He said he didn't
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: put any stock in polygraphs, adding that false negatives and
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: false positives are totally common. The implication he was making
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: here or total lack thereof, isn't clear, though the statement
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: seems like a strange one to make, considering his office
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: subpoenaed the results of Sandy's first test. Bob Musser, who
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: gave that first test, continued to defend the results. He
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: said he would have seen Sandy's claimed irregular heartbeat, and anyway,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't have changed that she showed deception. A couple
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: weeks later, the body found half naked, bound and beaten
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: to death one hundred yards from ed Baker's smoldering nineteen
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: eighty four jaguar was identified. The man was thirty two
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: year old Terry Lee Marshall from Malakoff, a small Texas
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: town in Henderson County about two hundred miles north of Katie,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: where his body was discovered. Terry Lee Marshall's head was
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: crushed in by a blow from a sledge hammer in
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: what police deemed a drug deal gone bad. The culprit
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: was arrested. His death and the death of the charred
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: body within the burnt car were not related. Roughly seventeen
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: million dollars that investigators sank into ed Baker and Vanguard
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Group's international was unaccounted for, and the oilman's selling but
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: not completely. The construction of oil wells had dug a
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: hole so deep there was no climbing out On December second,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, the company filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy protection,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: even after placing in Ink magazine's top five hundred of
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, coming in better than the year before
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: at number one hundred and twenty three. It's unclear why
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: ed Baker didn't just go forward with the well construction.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: The investments and drilling partnerships he sold would have been
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: easy enough to continue to profit from. They were known
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: as conservative investments, where you'd pick a spot right between
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: two oil fields that were already producing, build a well,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: and are practically guaranteed to strike. These types of investments,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: these wells Ink Magazine reported, usually payoff just fine. Many
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: of Vanguard Group's International's oil wells, though, were simply never built.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: The company spent many subsequent years in litigation. Among the
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: defendants was Ed's lawyer, Ward Bucy, who sometimes seemed to
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: disagree with the notion that ed Baker was dead as
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: the result of suicide and other times was sure of it.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Investigator Ronnie Phillips said, while he believes the charred body
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: found on November eighth, nineteen eighty five, in ed Baker's
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Jaguar was indeed ed and that he leans towards suicide.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: He can neither prove nor disprove Sandy Baker's claims of
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Ed's debt to organize crime figures, or if he was
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: killed as a result of that debt. Sandy refused to
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: believe her husband committed suicide, at least in the public eye.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: She said they'd been trying to arrange business deals to
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: pay back the mob borrowed money, the amount of which
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: had lessened substantially in later reports from millions all the
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: way down to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Later
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: it would go back up, but only to five hundred
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Ed, Sandy claimed, had even gone down to
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Miami to try to smooth things over with the mobsters
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: about six weeks before he disappeared, and after that and
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: his failure to secure payback money, was sure he was
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: going to die. An attorney named Dan Cayman agreed that
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: it wasn't suicide at all. Cayman, hired by Ed's second wife, Mary,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: to prove Ed's death was a murder so that she
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: could collect on the insurance policy of which she was beneficiary,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: later said that his investigation uncovered several suspects that were
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: close to Ed Baker. The attorney specifically indicated organized crime
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: suspects and went on to say that he had every
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: reason to believe the trigger man, who was local, was
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: now dead. Convenient Interestingly, Cayman first came to the belief
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: that suicide was a ridiculous notion after he reviewed videotapes
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: of officers attempting to spark accelerants into flames by firing
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: a gun, presumably one of their suicide theories. Attorney Dan
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Kyman said that Ed's death was indeed a contract hit.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Ed's attorney, Ward Bucy, acknowledged that the threats against his
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: longtime client and friend's life were very real, and that
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: he never gave any indication of contemplating suicide. However, Bucy
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: believes Ed did, stating the letters he received from him
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: as proof. Ed Bucy believes committed suicide so he wouldn't
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: go to jail. That Ed Baker killed himself is certainly
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: the position of the Harris County Sheriff's Office, just not officially.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Their theory, of course, is that Ed had help someone
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: to torch the jaguar after he shot himself to make
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: it look like a homicide, even before the smoldering car
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: was found. When ed was missing, detectives discovered that the
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: oilmen had contacted the insurance agents in charge of his policies,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: asking if they'd pay in the event of a suicide.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: On the year anniversary of the discovery of edsburn vehicle
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: and the body inside, the Harris County Medical Examiner finally
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: closed their investigation. The thirty two pounds of remains and
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: the condition of the almost incinerated bones didn't leave enough
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: to make a final determination on the cause of death.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: The big handicap is we don't have enough of him left,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: the medical examiner said. We know there was a gunshot
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: wound to the head, but we don't know whether it
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: was self inflicted. Though the Sheriff's office was still running
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: on the suicide theory, Captain Mike Smith of the department
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: called the death either one of the Cleverest suicides or
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: one of the Cleverest murders. Ever, the investigators were no
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: closer to solving the puzzle three hundred and sixty five
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: days later, but they said they had eliminated mob connected
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: Miamians as suspects. Many, however, continued to believe ed Baker
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: faked his own death and is living on embezzled money
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: somewhere outside the US, possibly in South America or the Caribbean.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: That's certainly what Bob gayl Adds, longtime private investigator, thought
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: until he passed away in twenty nineteen. Apparently Old Line
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Life Insurance Company conveniently believed so too, refusing to pay
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: out on the policy the oilmen had with them, later
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: telling the court during a lawsuit that they were not
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: prepared to take the position that Ed was dead. They
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: believed after their investigation that the charred remains found in
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Ed's burnt car were not sufficient to prove it was
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: him anyway, As far as authorities were concerned, the investigation
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: was officially closed until someone came forward with pertinent information.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: No one apparently ever did, even after the then popular
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: television program Unsolved Mysteries aired a segment on Ed's case
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: on October seventh, nineteen ninety two. Ed Baker messed up
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: big time. The man got greedy, allegedly ripped people off,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: and likely was either murdered as the result or killed
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: himself to escape the consequences of his actions. But neither
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: outcome is the right outcome. Since much of this story
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: is concentrated on ed Baker's mistakes and crimes, I'd like
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: to close out by humanizing the man. Some everybody liked
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: ed He was a genuinely nice guy. Besides the investors
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: he screwed, no one had bad words to say about him.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Perhaps his most humanizing characteristic, at least the one that
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: most people saw, is his love for roses. Ed Baker
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: bought the vacant lot across the street from his northwest
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: to Houston home, though it's since been destroyed to make
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: way for the construction of another home. Ed Baker loved
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: roses so much that he gave a sort of gift
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: to the neighborhood and transformed that entire lot into a
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: gigantic rose garden. The neighbors, even those who barely knew him,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: loved him for it. They were all immensely grateful for
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: this gift. Surrounded by a picturesque white picket fence, the
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: roses there consisted of virtually all varieties, sizes and colors,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: and stone paths guided visitors through, while wooden gazebos allowed
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: them to sit and enjoy the experience. All built by
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Ed himself. Anyone was welcome to stroll through the Rose
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Garden apparently left the immediate areas smelling as pleasant as
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: the colorful site itself was, just a couple months before
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: the discovery of ed Baker's burnt up car. In fact,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: the Rose Garden was the subject of a spread in
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: the magazine Houston Home and Garden, a photo of it
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: to gracing the publications September nineteen eighty five cover. If
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: you have any information about Edward Gerald Baker's case, please
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: contact Crime Stoppers Houston at seven one three two two
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: two eight four seven seven. If you'd like to help
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: find answers for the families of unsolved crime victims from
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: all over, or help identify at Jane or John Doe,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: please visit dnasofts dot com where you can submit your
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: DNA data from a consumer testing company like Ancestry. You're
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: twenty three in meters to their day database. We'll provide
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: a link to dnasolfs dot com in the show notes.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: You can support Gone Cold at Patreon dot com Forward
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: slash Gone Cold podcast donors at all levels there get
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: the show ad free, and for just two and a
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: half bucks you'll have access to episodes featuring stories of
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: mostly solved Texas crimes and the bad actors who perpetrated them,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: such as the Desert Killer and the Odessa Lust murders,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: to name a few. I've got an interesting one coming
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: up soon about a psychopath with a strange connection to
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: a member of the Manson family. Anyway, thanks to everyone
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: who supports us there. It means the world to Eric
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: and I, and we couldn't do this without you. Inc magazine,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: The Miami Herald, the Houston Chronicle, and the television show
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Unsolved Mysteries were used as sources for this episode. Thanks
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: for listening, y'all.