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Disturbing Stories from Investigative Journalists · Stories from the Dark

0:23
Speaker 1: My name is Armen, and I'm writing to you from
0:25
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, but I'm originally from Iran. There are things
0:30
Speaker 1: I miss about my country, but I don't think I'll
0:32
Speaker 1: ever return. Iran is a very painful and upsetting place
0:37
Speaker 1: for me, and I do not need to return there
0:39
Speaker 1: to reopen old wounds. They do a good enough job
0:42
Speaker 1: of bleeding here in America. However, I do think there
0:46
Speaker 1: is one thing worth revisiting, and that is the story
0:49
Speaker 1: of my younger brother, Ahmed. He was the younger of
0:53
Speaker 1: us by just three years, but from the way our
0:55
Speaker 1: mom acted, you'd have thought it was ten. Every time
0:58
Speaker 1: we left our home to go play, she would say
1:00
Speaker 1: to my brother, Be safe, my sweet boy. Don't go
1:03
Speaker 1: too far or do anything dangerous. I love you so much.
1:07
Speaker 1: I won't be able to eat if anything happens to you.
1:10
Speaker 1: Then after kissing him all over his face, she would
1:12
Speaker 1: turn to me and yell, Look after your brother. Obviously,
1:16
Speaker 1: I'm exaggerating. She was a good mother, and she had
1:19
Speaker 1: no favorites, but... Whereas I was very active and could
1:22
Speaker 1: take care of myself, Ahmed wore glasses and was always
1:26
Speaker 1: small for his age. I had to fight to protect
1:29
Speaker 1: him from bullies on more than one occasion. And then
1:32
Speaker 1: after one such incident, in what I consider a very
1:35
Speaker 1: precious memory, he told me, I'll be the strong one, Armen.
1:39
Speaker 1: And when I am, I'll protect you too. But unfortunately...
1:44
Speaker 1: nothing could protect any of us from what was coming.
1:48
Speaker 1: The Islamic Revolution was one thing, but at least there
1:51
Speaker 1: was excitement in the air and the hope for something new.
1:55
Speaker 1: But then in September of 1980, the Iraq army invaded
1:58
Speaker 1: western Iran, and what followed was a pointless war that
2:02
Speaker 1: destroyed tens of thousands of families on both sides of
2:05
Speaker 1: the border, and because it was so long, almost everyone
2:09
Speaker 1: was dragged into it sooner or later. From the beginning,
2:14
Speaker 1: A group called the Basij began drafting children into their ranks,
2:18
Speaker 1: and early on during the war, a 13-year-old boy became
2:21
Speaker 1: famous for strapping explosives to himself, then throwing himself under
2:25
Speaker 1: the treads of an Iraqi tank. But such a waste
2:29
Speaker 1: of young life did nothing to slow down the recruitment
2:32
Speaker 1: of children, and instead, it only accelerated it. At first,
2:37
Speaker 1: lots of kids volunteered. They believed that they'd go directly
2:40
Speaker 1: to heaven if they were killed defending the revolution, and
2:43
Speaker 1: were given necklaces with little plastic keys to paradise attached.
2:48
Speaker 1: It was obscene, but all war is obscene. It's just
2:53
Speaker 1: a shame people only realize that once the bodies of
2:56
Speaker 1: their children start coming back from the front. And soon
2:59
Speaker 1: the number of volunteers started to dwindle and the Basij
3:02
Speaker 1: would conscript children with petty bribes or even coercion, which
3:07
Speaker 1: is how I myself ended up joining their ranks. It
3:11
Speaker 1: was either me or they'd take my brother. and then
3:14
Speaker 1: once that was clear to me, it was an easy choice.
3:17
Speaker 1: I was just 15 years old when in the winter
3:19
Speaker 1: of 1984, I was driven to a Basij training camp
3:23
Speaker 1: on the outskirts of Tehran. And what followed were a
3:26
Speaker 1: few weeks of rushed training, most of which involved desensitizing
3:30
Speaker 1: us to the sights and sounds of combat. Then, once
3:34
Speaker 1: we graduated, they wrapped a headband around each of our heads,
3:37
Speaker 1: daubed with a verse from the Quran, and were sent
3:40
Speaker 1: south to Khuzestan, to fight the Battle of the Marshes.
3:45
Speaker 1: We had to cross shallow, muddy waters in small boats
3:48
Speaker 1: and on foot, which in turn made us easy prey
3:51
Speaker 1: for Iraqi helicopters and artillery. I watched friends I'd shared
3:55
Speaker 1: bread with that same morning disappear in the explosions, or
3:59
Speaker 1: they'd fall down choking in the clouds of gas that
4:02
Speaker 1: sometimes drifted over us. Somehow I survived attack after attack,
4:08
Speaker 1: convinced that my mother's prayers were taking care of me.
4:11
Speaker 1: And then one morning, A piece of shrapnel found my
4:14
Speaker 1: right leg, and I realized that there was no one
4:17
Speaker 1: looking out for me but my comrades. They dragged me
4:20
Speaker 1: back through the water and got me to a field post,
4:23
Speaker 1: but while the doctor saved the leg, the damage was
4:25
Speaker 1: already done. I returned home a hero, but I never
4:29
Speaker 1: walked properly again. People in the mosque and on the
4:32
Speaker 1: street called me a survivor of the sacred defense. I'd
4:36
Speaker 1: just nod in thanks, but I was never truly proud.
4:40
Speaker 1: My mother sometimes told me I should be proud, that
4:43
Speaker 1: she was proud. I told her she wouldn't be if
4:45
Speaker 1: she'd seen the things that I'd seen. It was my
4:49
Speaker 1: warnings that made sure they kept Ahmed safe from the
4:53
Speaker 1: Basij recruitment teams. He had mild asthma, but my father
4:57
Speaker 1: convinced a doctor to make it sound much worse than
5:00
Speaker 1: it was in the medical report. And that's how my
5:02
Speaker 1: parents kept him out of the war, and he never
5:04
Speaker 1: forgave them for it. As he aged into his teens
5:08
Speaker 1: and early 20s, Ahmed became a fanatical supporter of the
5:11
Speaker 1: Ayatollah and his government. The war had radicalized him. He
5:16
Speaker 1: felt guilty for not having fought, and he hated the
5:19
Speaker 1: Iraqis and their American helpers for trying to take his
5:22
Speaker 1: brother from him. Due to his medical history, Ahmed had
5:27
Speaker 1: to find other ways to serve the revolution, and in
5:30
Speaker 1: doing so, adopted his beloved catchphrase of, the pen is
5:35
Speaker 1: mightier than the sword. He went to university to study journalism. Then,
5:41
Speaker 1: by the time he was 22, he was learning his
5:43
Speaker 1: trade at a small district newsletter, whose writers and editors
5:47
Speaker 1: made him fetch tea in exchange for sagely advice. And
5:52
Speaker 1: then six years later, in 1998, he was a staff
5:55
Speaker 1: writer at a much larger publication, a position that he
5:58
Speaker 1: was very proud of and which he did work and
6:01
Speaker 1: he enjoyed very much. But then towards the end of
6:04
Speaker 1: the year, a series of murders shook Tehran, and held
6:08
Speaker 1: the attention of the entire nation. The first two victims
6:12
Speaker 1: were the leader of the opposition along with his wife
6:15
Speaker 1: in November of 98. Their bodies were found in their
6:18
Speaker 1: apartment on the south side of the city and whoever
6:21
Speaker 1: killed them had left behind a huge mess, like he
6:24
Speaker 1: wanted whoever found them to know that they suffered. The
6:29
Speaker 1: murders were particularly shocking because the couple's home was being
6:32
Speaker 1: guarded by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence, meaning whoever
6:36
Speaker 1: had cut the man to pieces had done so right
6:38
Speaker 1: under their noses. This had people suggesting the Americans were involved,
6:44
Speaker 1: and that not only had they had the technology to
6:47
Speaker 1: deploy invisible agents and the like. Now it was all nonsense,
6:51
Speaker 1: of course, just something for people to gossip about while
6:54
Speaker 1: appearing loyal to the state. But I think it was
6:57
Speaker 1: just over a week or so later, another body was found.
7:01
Speaker 1: A prominent Iranian writer was found dead, and then a
7:04
Speaker 1: well-respected translator was murdered... with the cause of death for
7:07
Speaker 1: both men being strangulation. The murder of the writer caused
7:12
Speaker 1: an uproar, and some believe the murders to be linked
7:14
Speaker 1: to the killings of around six or seven others. A
7:18
Speaker 1: lot of people up in arms were fellow writers, and
7:21
Speaker 1: it was around this time that they started talking of
7:23
Speaker 1: a strange incident that occurred in Armenia just two years before.
7:29
Speaker 1: During the summer of 1996, a group of about 20
7:32
Speaker 1: Iranian writers were traveling to a poetry conference taking place
7:36
Speaker 1: in Armenia. Then, in the middle of the night, when
7:39
Speaker 1: most of the writers were asleep, the driver of the
7:42
Speaker 1: bus tried to steer it off a thousand-foot cliff near
7:45
Speaker 1: the Heron Pass. The driver jumped out and saved himself,
7:50
Speaker 1: not realizing that one of the passengers was awake and
7:52
Speaker 1: had seen what he did. If it wasn't for the
7:55
Speaker 1: quick actions of this writer, who steered the bus into
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Speaker 1: a boulder, all 20 people would have been killed. The
8:02
Speaker 1: shaken passengers were then taken to a nearby town, but
8:05
Speaker 1: after being interviewed by Armenian intelligence services, they were warned
8:09
Speaker 1: not to mention the incident to anyone while in the country,
8:12
Speaker 1: or they'd be arrested. As rumors swirled and panic rose,
8:17
Speaker 1: Ahmed's bosses at the newspaper gave him the job of
8:20
Speaker 1: covering the murders. The whole country was whispering that foreign
8:24
Speaker 1: intelligence agencies were behind the murders, Ahmed included, but he
8:29
Speaker 1: seemed excited to get to the bottom of what was happening.
8:32
Speaker 1: Was it the Americans, or had the Iraqis smuggled operatives
8:35
Speaker 1: into the country? Well, no matter who was to blame,
8:39
Speaker 1: Ahmed was going to find out, and he was overjoyed
8:41
Speaker 1: to have the chance to serve the revolution in his
8:44
Speaker 1: own personal way. And so naturally, he threw himself into
8:48
Speaker 1: his work. He interviewed the friends, families, and co-workers of
8:52
Speaker 1: the victims, gathering notes before poring over excerpts of files
8:56
Speaker 1: that the police would leak to him. He walked the
9:00
Speaker 1: neighborhood where the first two victims had lived, pondering over
9:03
Speaker 1: the timing and location as he did. Ahmed was always
9:08
Speaker 1: a hard worker. He had to be, to stand out
9:10
Speaker 1: from the crowd. And this case was no exception. He
9:13
Speaker 1: skipped meals. He skipped sleep. He even skipped family time
9:17
Speaker 1: with his wife Ava and young son Irash. But the
9:21
Speaker 1: more he worked, the more we saw a change in him.
9:25
Speaker 1: A gradual one, like the way a fever builds. Until
9:28
Speaker 1: his work wasn't just occupying his mind anymore, you could
9:31
Speaker 1: hear it in his voice and see it in his face.
9:35
Speaker 1: Now at first, he only sounded tired, and when I
9:37
Speaker 1: asked how he was holding up, he said the hours
9:39
Speaker 1: and the pressure was getting to him. It was the
9:42
Speaker 1: biggest story he'd covered, comprising not just one case, but several.
9:47
Speaker 1: And while he relished the opportunity to expose the dastardly
9:50
Speaker 1: deeds of the nation's enemies, the fear of failure was
9:54
Speaker 1: like a weight pressing down on him. I knew exactly
9:57
Speaker 1: what he meant too, as I'd felt a similar feeling.
10:00
Speaker 1: of failure back in the marshes of Huzistan. I wasn't
10:03
Speaker 1: scared to die so much as I was scared of
10:05
Speaker 1: letting down my friends, and I knew what that kind
10:08
Speaker 1: of fear can do to a man. I hoped Omid
10:11
Speaker 1: would finish his work before the pressure overtook him. but
10:15
Speaker 1: I also believed he was mentally strong enough to cope
10:18
Speaker 1: with all but the most crushing of pressure. But his
10:21
Speaker 1: wife knew better. One afternoon, Ava called me from a
10:25
Speaker 1: public phone and, in the low voice of someone afraid
10:28
Speaker 1: others might overhear, she told me she was scared. She
10:32
Speaker 1: said the Omid, who would come home late but still
10:35
Speaker 1: had the energy to put his son to bed while
10:37
Speaker 1: talking about whatever he was working on, was gone. He
10:40
Speaker 1: was now quiet, bad-tempered, and seemed to have completely lost
10:44
Speaker 1: his appetite. He said he ate at work and that
10:48
Speaker 1: she didn't have to worry, but a sudden loss of
10:50
Speaker 1: weight said otherwise. Eva said Omid appeared almost paranoid and
10:56
Speaker 1: would check the locks on the doors and windows two
10:58
Speaker 1: or three times before bed. Then any sounds in the night,
11:02
Speaker 1: be it a car door slamming or a cat yowling,
11:05
Speaker 1: would have him sitting upright in bed, then have him
11:07
Speaker 1: pacing the apartment, unable to sleep. She knew his work
11:11
Speaker 1: would cause him stress, but this case was getting to
11:14
Speaker 1: him in ways that were different from the ordinary strain
11:17
Speaker 1: of a hard assignment. It was deeper, and sometimes seemed
11:21
Speaker 1: more like fear than anything else. I tried to calm
11:26
Speaker 1: Ava down as she spoke, telling her Omid's work was important,
11:30
Speaker 1: and that Iran needed men like him to defend her
11:33
Speaker 1: in ways that soldiers couldn't. I told her he was
11:36
Speaker 1: a hero in many respects, and while she was worried now,
11:40
Speaker 1: we'd all end up being very proud of him. But
11:43
Speaker 1: in reality... I was merely putting on a brave face
11:46
Speaker 1: and I was just as concerned as she was. I
11:49
Speaker 1: called Omid the next morning and told him that we
11:52
Speaker 1: were a little worried about him. I made sure to
11:55
Speaker 1: tell him how proud I was of him, how we
11:57
Speaker 1: were all very proud of him, but that maybe, just maybe,
12:00
Speaker 1: he should take his foot off the gas a little.
12:04
Speaker 1: The old Omid would have laughed and told me he
12:06
Speaker 1: wasn't a little boy anymore, but the new one simply said,
12:10
Speaker 1: and in a tired, flat voice, that to shirk from
12:14
Speaker 1: his duties would be to shirk from God. I didn't
12:18
Speaker 1: entirely disagree with him at the time. What he was
12:20
Speaker 1: doing was very important work. But towards the end of
12:23
Speaker 1: the call and to try and reassure him, I told
12:26
Speaker 1: my little brother that I would always protect him no
12:28
Speaker 1: matter what. The old Omid used to return heartfelt thanks
12:33
Speaker 1: whenever I said this and would promise the same in
12:35
Speaker 1: return to me. But that night, he didn't say a
12:38
Speaker 1: word in response. There was a silent pause and then
12:42
Speaker 1: he hung up the phone. I remember sitting there with
12:45
Speaker 1: the receiver in my hand and feeling the first real
12:48
Speaker 1: chill of knowing something was deeply wrong. And over the
12:53
Speaker 1: next week or so I prayed for Omid's state of
12:55
Speaker 1: mind and in the exact same way I used to
12:57
Speaker 1: pray for my comrades in the marshes. Ava didn't call
13:01
Speaker 1: again and so I had very naively assumed that there
13:04
Speaker 1: had been an improvement in my brother's work life. But
13:07
Speaker 1: then one night my phone rang at about one o'clock
13:11
Speaker 1: in the morning. When I picked it up I only
13:13
Speaker 1: heard silence at first, then after saying hello, hello a
13:17
Speaker 1: few times, I heard my brother's voice saying, You know
13:21
Speaker 1: I always looked up to you, don't you Armin? I
13:25
Speaker 1: could tell it was him from the first words, so
13:27
Speaker 1: I began asking him why he was saying things like
13:30
Speaker 1: that or if anything happened. He sniffed down the phone
13:33
Speaker 1: and I realized he was crying. But no matter what
13:37
Speaker 1: I said, he stayed quiet until he finally said, Don't
13:41
Speaker 1: look for me, and hung up. I tried calling him back,
13:46
Speaker 1: but only Ava answered, saying that he'd gone out and
13:49
Speaker 1: would be back in the morning. I didn't sleep at
13:52
Speaker 1: all that night. Then I tried calling Omid again in
13:55
Speaker 1: the morning, but he hadn't returned, and I was convinced
13:59
Speaker 1: that he was being stalked or hunted by foreign agents,
14:02
Speaker 1: the same ones responsible for the murders and attempted murders,
14:06
Speaker 1: and so I went straight to the police to tell
14:08
Speaker 1: them what I knew. I insisted Omid was in danger,
14:12
Speaker 1: that he had been investigating the same murders that had
14:15
Speaker 1: already claimed writers and opposition figures, and that he had
14:18
Speaker 1: sounded like a man who knew he was being hunted.
14:22
Speaker 1: They asked me some questions, wrote up a report, and
14:25
Speaker 1: told me that they'd be in touch in a few
14:26
Speaker 1: days to tell me what they'd found. I prayed they'd
14:30
Speaker 1: find Omid, but, as I wasn't completely aware of at
14:34
Speaker 1: the time, it was me who'd find him first. It
14:39
Speaker 1: was very early morning when I stepped out of my
14:41
Speaker 1: apartment and onto the covered walkway outside. We kept a
14:45
Speaker 1: table and chairs there for when the weather was too
14:47
Speaker 1: hot to stay inside. The swivel kind, too, with high backs,
14:51
Speaker 1: so when I stepped outside, the first thing I saw
14:54
Speaker 1: was the top of Omid's head as he sat in
14:57
Speaker 1: one of those chairs. For one stupid, hopeful second, I
15:01
Speaker 1: felt a rush of relief, the kind that moves a
15:04
Speaker 1: man's feet without first engaging his brain. I remember saying,
15:10
Speaker 1: the legitimate child has finally shown up. which is an
15:13
Speaker 1: expression used in the same way as saying speak of
15:15
Speaker 1: the devil. But Omid did not move. I thought he
15:20
Speaker 1: must have been sleeping. After all, it was very early
15:23
Speaker 1: in the morning, but then I turned his chair towards me,
15:27
Speaker 1: and I saw what they'd done to him. He was naked,
15:31
Speaker 1: completely naked, with not even a single stitch of clothing
15:35
Speaker 1: on him. And one of the only recognizable things about
15:38
Speaker 1: him was his hair, because the rest... had been brutally mutilated.
15:46
Speaker 1: Now I'm sure you can understand why I don't want
15:47
Speaker 1: to go into detail about the state that I found
15:49
Speaker 1: my brother in. I could because it's a sight I'll
15:52
Speaker 1: never forget, not long as I live. But I choose
15:56
Speaker 1: not to, as I do not wish you nor myself
15:58
Speaker 1: to remember him that way. And regardless, I remember the
16:02
Speaker 1: sight well because I stood there looking at him for
16:05
Speaker 1: far longer than I should have. And then, when feeling
16:09
Speaker 1: finally returned to me, I fell to my knees, took
16:12
Speaker 1: his cold hand in mine, and began to scream. I
16:18
Speaker 1: drowned in my grief for almost two weeks, barely able
16:21
Speaker 1: to get out of bed, barely able to eat or sleep.
16:24
Speaker 1: I was dead to the world, unable to think or
16:27
Speaker 1: care about anything but Omid. But inside me, a rage
16:33
Speaker 1: began to burn. I began to loathe the United States
16:36
Speaker 1: in a way Omid could only dream of, telling myself
16:40
Speaker 1: the same people who helped Saddam who had watched us
16:42
Speaker 1: die in the marshes, had now reached into Tehran and
16:46
Speaker 1: taken my brother. And they had done so because his
16:49
Speaker 1: weapon of choice, his pen, was far more powerful than
16:54
Speaker 1: any bomb they could ever create. I vowed that one
16:58
Speaker 1: day I would find a way to answer them and
17:00
Speaker 1: avenge my brother's murder. And that vow sat in my
17:03
Speaker 1: chest beside the older wounds, and like a scar, refused
17:07
Speaker 1: to disappear. and for six months I lived in that fiction,
17:13
Speaker 1: telling myself Omid had died a warrior's death, fighting for
17:16
Speaker 1: a worthy cause. But then, in the summer of 1999,
17:22
Speaker 1: that fiction was burned to ash, and the truth was
17:25
Speaker 1: more painful than any burn a fire could inflict. A
17:29
Speaker 1: man named Saeed Imami, the former deputy minister of the
17:33
Speaker 1: intelligence service, was arrested on suspicion of the four primary murders.
17:39
Speaker 1: that of the opposition leader and his wife, and those
17:41
Speaker 1: of the writer and the translator. Many people suggested that
17:45
Speaker 1: there had to be some kind of mistake, that it
17:48
Speaker 1: was foreigners killing our people, not a loyal Iranian and
17:52
Speaker 1: a revolutionary at that. But in the end, the evidence
17:56
Speaker 1: was overwhelming, and Imami later died in custody under circumstances
18:00
Speaker 1: no one fully believed. People knew he could never have
18:04
Speaker 1: acted alone and that a man in his position was
18:06
Speaker 1: would have been able to command quite a sizable network
18:08
Speaker 1: of murderous thugs. What he was the name that they
18:11
Speaker 1: could afford to bury while larger hands remained clean. And
18:16
Speaker 1: for me, it removed the final pillar of my support
18:19
Speaker 1: for my country. I had gone to the front at
18:22
Speaker 1: 15 believing in the Islamic revolution, and watched boys younger
18:26
Speaker 1: than me disappear in the reeds and the smoke. I
18:30
Speaker 1: had come home a hero with a permanent limp. and
18:33
Speaker 1: watched my little brother grow into a man who tried
18:35
Speaker 1: to serve with words instead of a rifle. But the
18:39
Speaker 1: revolution he served, the one we had both so dearly
18:42
Speaker 1: believed in, had rewarded him by cutting him up and
18:46
Speaker 1: leaving him on my doorstep. Whatever faith I had in
18:50
Speaker 1: my country disappeared the moment I found my brother's body,
18:53
Speaker 1: and it left a hole that so far nothing has
18:56
Speaker 1: been able to fill. After the news of Imami's guilt broke,
19:01
Speaker 1: I began the long and mentally exhausting process of emigrating
19:05
Speaker 1: from the country of my birth. I had to be
19:08
Speaker 1: careful about it, reading and signing papers in secret after
19:11
Speaker 1: making quiet arrangements with lawyers and sympathetic civil servants. Those
19:17
Speaker 1: were days when it felt like every wall in Tehran
19:19
Speaker 1: had ears because say the wrong thing to the wrong
19:22
Speaker 1: person and your life was over. But I could afford
19:25
Speaker 1: to take risks as my life was already over. And
19:29
Speaker 1: then once I crossed into Turkey, I did everything I
19:31
Speaker 1: could to get Ava and little Arash out too. And
19:35
Speaker 1: now we live in Los Angeles, not together, but still
19:39
Speaker 1: as family. And when we first arrived, it felt like
19:42
Speaker 1: we could finally breathe again. And then as we talked
19:45
Speaker 1: with other Persians, making new friends and acquaintances, it started
19:49
Speaker 1: to feel like home. These days, a grown-up Arash sometimes
19:53
Speaker 1: asks me about his father, who, if he was alive,
19:56
Speaker 1: would be a grandfather by now. I tell him about
19:59
Speaker 1: the skinny boy and his pen that was mightier than
20:01
Speaker 1: the sword, the one who was determined to protect me
20:04
Speaker 1: just as I had once protected him. I don't tell
20:07
Speaker 1: him about the man who checked all his locks three
20:10
Speaker 1: times a night or the man who sounded so very
20:13
Speaker 1: scared when he made his final call that night, and
20:16
Speaker 1: I certainly don't tell him about what I found in
20:18
Speaker 1: that chair. I only tell him that his father's life
20:22
Speaker 1: was taken away, stolen, by men unfit to lace up
20:27
Speaker 1: his boots. I'm a reporter, but I write under no
20:54
Speaker 1: byline here, because the men I met still live in
20:58
Speaker 1: the same counties, know the same sheriffs, and carry the
21:01
Speaker 1: same guns. And what follows is what happened when I
21:04
Speaker 1: set out to chase a rumor and almost got myself
21:07
Speaker 1: killed in the process. For months, I've been hearing whispers
21:11
Speaker 1: along the southern border. People were talking about a small
21:15
Speaker 1: group of private citizens calling themselves the Border Watch. who
21:19
Speaker 1: were acting like a kind of neighborhood watch for a
21:21
Speaker 1: nearby section of the Rio Grande border. Now, word had
21:25
Speaker 1: it that they'd gotten sick and tired of waiting around
21:28
Speaker 1: for border patrol and had decided to take matters into
21:30
Speaker 1: their own hands by going out at night with rifles
21:33
Speaker 1: and radios. They'd track migrants who crossed on foot. Then
21:38
Speaker 1: any they apprehended would be turned into the local BP
21:41
Speaker 1: or sheriff. But the rumors were that not all these
21:44
Speaker 1: migrants were handed over to the authorities and processed legally.
21:48
Speaker 1: Folks said that sometimes when a migrant was all alone
21:51
Speaker 1: and far from any road, they just disappeared. And it
21:56
Speaker 1: took weeks of patiently working the edges before I finally
21:58
Speaker 1: got a break. I'd drink in local bars, heading out
22:02
Speaker 1: late to catch the looser tongues, and soon I managed
22:06
Speaker 1: to get talking to a guy that I'll just call Ray.
22:09
Speaker 1: He was in his late 40s, ex-military and pretty quiet
22:12
Speaker 1: until the subject of the border came up. And then,
22:15
Speaker 1: while he didn't say all that much, he said enough.
22:19
Speaker 1: and I told him that I was just a regular
22:21
Speaker 1: Joe who had enough of watching the country get walked over.
22:25
Speaker 1: I owned a rifle, I could hike, and I wanted
22:27
Speaker 1: to help. Ray sized me up for a while, asking
22:30
Speaker 1: the odd probing question, and I guess once he was
22:33
Speaker 1: sure I wasn't a cop, he said that he'd put
22:35
Speaker 1: in a word. And the invite came on a Friday night,
22:39
Speaker 1: just before closing. Ray said if I was serious, I'd
22:42
Speaker 1: meet them at dusk the following night on a dirt
22:45
Speaker 1: lot off of a ranch road. I was told to
22:48
Speaker 1: bring a headlamp, a weapon, and as much water as
22:51
Speaker 1: I could carry. But my phone was to stay in
22:54
Speaker 1: the trunk. And when I showed up, there were six
22:57
Speaker 1: of them, Ray included, along with a guy who was
23:00
Speaker 1: very obviously their leader. He was easily the most senior,
23:04
Speaker 1: with all skin very weathered and a rough beard that
23:07
Speaker 1: was more salt than pepper. And he had that air
23:10
Speaker 1: about him too, the kind that made men listen when
23:13
Speaker 1: he barked orders. He shook my hand then asked about
23:17
Speaker 1: my job, where I lived, stuff like that. The questions
23:20
Speaker 1: were friendly but they were thorough and I answered in
23:24
Speaker 1: ways that I'd practiced to keep my cover. And then
23:28
Speaker 1: once he was satisfied I wasn't a cop, the leader
23:30
Speaker 1: nodded and then off we went. We moved into the
23:34
Speaker 1: brush in a single file line and while it was
23:37
Speaker 1: true that I'd done a fair amount of hiking, it
23:40
Speaker 1: proved no walk in the park. The ground was uneven
23:43
Speaker 1: and full of cacti and It had these dry washes
23:47
Speaker 1: that you didn't see till the last second. The leader
23:50
Speaker 1: wanted us to stay tactical so there were no headlamps
23:53
Speaker 1: and the only light came from a thin moon and
23:56
Speaker 1: the occasional glow of someone's phone with the brightness turned low.
24:00
Speaker 1: And then after about an hour we stopped at a
24:02
Speaker 1: shallow depression for a water break. We sat around for
24:06
Speaker 1: a while, talking in low voices and guzzling down water
24:10
Speaker 1: and then me and the leader got to talking. That's
24:12
Speaker 1: exactly why I was there. so I was a happy
24:15
Speaker 1: man to be having a one-on-one with him, and even
24:18
Speaker 1: happier that he actually seemed pretty talkative. I figured I'd
24:21
Speaker 1: been accepted, that I was going to get my scoop, then,
24:24
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, he very casually asked me, let me
24:28
Speaker 1: see that pistol a minute. I didn't just hand it
24:31
Speaker 1: to him, I asked him why and what he was
24:33
Speaker 1: planning on doing with it, but he gave me what
24:36
Speaker 1: I thought was a pretty convincing and genuine answer, so
24:38
Speaker 1: I handed it over. He checked the chamber and took
24:42
Speaker 1: a look at it, and gave it a little nod
24:44
Speaker 1: of approval, then pointed it right at the center of
24:47
Speaker 1: my chest. The whole scene went quiet, and even the
24:51
Speaker 1: desert seemed to stop still and watch. The leader told
24:55
Speaker 1: me that they'd been watching me, and that my story
24:57
Speaker 1: didn't add up. The addresses I'd given didn't match. The
25:01
Speaker 1: people I said I knew turned out not to know
25:03
Speaker 1: me back. All the stuff that I didn't think they'd
25:07
Speaker 1: check came back to bite me in the ass all
25:09
Speaker 1: at once. I tried to speak. but the guy just
25:12
Speaker 1: shook his head and started talking about how the cartel
25:15
Speaker 1: used to send people like me, Hispanic guys with good English,
25:18
Speaker 1: people who could pass, as he put it. I couldn't
25:22
Speaker 1: believe he'd gotten it so wrong. I was literally kind
25:25
Speaker 1: of speechless for a second, and I figured he knew
25:28
Speaker 1: I was a reporter, not a goddamn cartel spy. But
25:32
Speaker 1: before I could say anything in my defense, the leader
25:35
Speaker 1: looked past me to the youngest of the group, a
25:37
Speaker 1: kid who couldn't have been more than 22. And then
25:39
Speaker 1: he said, word for word, Your turn, kid. Time to
25:44
Speaker 1: pop your cherry. And the kid's face changed, and for
25:48
Speaker 1: a second, I saw a terrible kind of excitement flash
25:52
Speaker 1: in his eyes. He stepped forward and took my pistol
25:56
Speaker 1: from the leader. I figured his hands would be shaky
25:59
Speaker 1: like in movies, but they were steady. And I blurted
26:03
Speaker 1: it all out as fast as I could manage, that
26:05
Speaker 1: I was a reporter, an American one at that, and
26:08
Speaker 1: I'd come to write a story about them. If they
26:11
Speaker 1: killed me, Every agency that mattered would be all over
26:15
Speaker 1: them by morning because my editor knew exactly where I
26:17
Speaker 1: was and would call the cops if I didn't call
26:20
Speaker 1: by sunrise. It wasn't a bluff either. Every word was true.
26:25
Speaker 1: And then after the kid froze, the leader stared at
26:27
Speaker 1: me for what felt like a long, long time. And
26:32
Speaker 1: then he took the gun back and handed it off
26:33
Speaker 1: to Ray, who, as you probably can guess, looked like
26:36
Speaker 1: he'd have happily strangled me with his bare hands. And
26:40
Speaker 1: what followed was not a debate. It was more like
26:43
Speaker 1: a calculation. An American citizen with a press credential, even
26:48
Speaker 1: one who had lied his way into their patrol, was
26:50
Speaker 1: a different kind of problem than a cartel infiltrator with
26:53
Speaker 1: no social security number. Lots of people were buried out
26:57
Speaker 1: there in the desert, with no one to come looking
27:00
Speaker 1: for them. But a missing reporter brings cameras, lawyers, and feds.
27:05
Speaker 1: And the leader understood that. They had to let me go.
27:09
Speaker 1: They knew it, and I knew it. but they weren't
27:12
Speaker 1: about to let me get off scot-free. So, they kicked
27:16
Speaker 1: my ass. Not enough to put me in the hospital,
27:19
Speaker 1: but enough to make the point. After calling time on
27:23
Speaker 1: the assault, the leader crouched beside me and said something like,
27:27
Speaker 1: You were never here. You got jumped by illegals after
27:30
Speaker 1: you tried to play cowboy. That's the story. Tell any
27:34
Speaker 1: other version and we'll make sure the first one sticks.
27:38
Speaker 1: Then after telling me, if they saw me again, they'd
27:41
Speaker 1: shoot me, They left me with my truck's keys and
27:44
Speaker 1: one heck of a long walk back to it. The
27:47
Speaker 1: next morning, I drove to the county sheriff's office with
27:50
Speaker 1: swollen eyes and a carefully written statement. And the sheriff
27:54
Speaker 1: seemed like a good guy, and after he listened and
27:56
Speaker 1: took notes, he ordered the leader be brought in for questioning.
28:01
Speaker 1: And I thought that I had it wrapped up, that
28:03
Speaker 1: I was going to get my revenge, albeit by the
28:06
Speaker 1: legal route. But little did I know, the sheriff and
28:09
Speaker 1: the leader of the border watch went way back. The
28:13
Speaker 1: leader's version was airtight. He said I'd insisted on going
28:17
Speaker 1: out with them, then, after ignoring instructions, I'd confronted a
28:20
Speaker 1: group of migrants too aggressively and got myself worked over
28:23
Speaker 1: when the numbers turned against me. Now, since the group
28:27
Speaker 1: had tried to sever ties, I was inventing a story
28:30
Speaker 1: to cover for my own stupidity and smear a decent
28:33
Speaker 1: man who was only trying to help. Now the sheriff
28:37
Speaker 1: looked at my face, looked at the leader, and did
28:40
Speaker 1: the only thing he was ever going to do. He
28:43
Speaker 1: told me I was lucky not to be charged with
28:45
Speaker 1: something myself, be it a false report or something heavier
28:48
Speaker 1: than reckless endangerment. And then after warning me to get
28:51
Speaker 1: the hell out of his county, I did just that
28:54
Speaker 1: and I left. I never published the piece. Hell, I
28:58
Speaker 1: never even wrote it, really. The evidence I had was
29:01
Speaker 1: my word against theirs, and their word came with badges
29:04
Speaker 1: and local loyalties. The bruises faded and my pride slowly
29:09
Speaker 1: healed too, but the knowledge that a group of armed
29:11
Speaker 1: men had decided I was disposable did not. I still
29:16
Speaker 1: write and I still ask questions, but I don't think
29:19
Speaker 1: I'll try any undercover work again. God may have given
29:23
Speaker 1: me the ability to put sentences together, but he did
29:26
Speaker 1: not give me the talent for playing anyone but myself.
29:30
Speaker 1: I learned that the hard way when a loaded pistol
29:32
Speaker 1: was pointed directly at me, and by a kid who
29:35
Speaker 1: looked almost eager to use it. In the summer of 1970,
30:03
Speaker 1: I was an 11-year-old kid living in a little Oklahoma
30:07
Speaker 1: town called Roston. My best friend in the world was
30:11
Speaker 1: a kid named Billy Moorfield, and that summer, we spent
30:14
Speaker 1: most every day together hanging out and riding our bikes
30:17
Speaker 1: around town, including the day his great-aunt died. He went
30:22
Speaker 1: over to my house, and right away I could tell
30:24
Speaker 1: something was off. And then by the time we'd pushed
30:26
Speaker 1: our bikes to the end of the street, he told
30:28
Speaker 1: me all he wanted to. His mom's aunt had died
30:32
Speaker 1: and while he'd only ever met her a handful of times,
30:35
Speaker 1: mostly when he was small, his mom was devastated when
30:38
Speaker 1: she got the news. She was so grief stricken that
30:41
Speaker 1: his dad basically kicked him out of the house and
30:43
Speaker 1: told him to go play at my place for a while.
30:46
Speaker 1: And so as you can imagine, he was pretty bummed
30:48
Speaker 1: about the whole thing. His aunt had lived down in
30:51
Speaker 1: Ellis County and he was gone for a whole day
30:53
Speaker 1: while attending the funeral. Now me and him both figured
30:56
Speaker 1: that she passed as a result of some disease or something.
31:00
Speaker 1: And it was only years later that we found out
31:03
Speaker 1: that she was murdered. Her name was Annie Whitehouse. And
31:09
Speaker 1: from what I heard from Billy, she was this sweet
31:11
Speaker 1: old church-going widow who lived alone after the death of
31:14
Speaker 1: her second husband. She'd host bake sales for charity, organized
31:19
Speaker 1: the yearly Easter egg hunt, and even led a group
31:21
Speaker 1: of carol singers from door to door around the holidays.
31:26
Speaker 1: And by all accounts, she was a very popular lady.
31:28
Speaker 1: which is why everyone was so shocked and heartbroken when
31:32
Speaker 1: they were told someone had broken into her house in
31:34
Speaker 1: the middle of the night and stabbed her to death
31:36
Speaker 1: while she slept. They never caught who did it either,
31:40
Speaker 1: which is why Billy's mom got upset around the anniversary
31:44
Speaker 1: and who could blame her. But over time, the grief
31:47
Speaker 1: faded into the background and people moved on. Cut to
31:51
Speaker 1: 16 years later, and I was a 27-year-old bachelor living
31:55
Speaker 1: in Okie City, working for a small monthly called The
31:58
Speaker 1: Christian Chronicle. And then around autumn of 1986, with all
32:02
Speaker 1: the justified fear-mongering about asbestos, the boss announced that we'd
32:07
Speaker 1: be closing for six weeks while the office was made safe.
32:11
Speaker 1: And that meant a lot of downtime. And while I
32:13
Speaker 1: was wondering what to fill it with, I got to
32:16
Speaker 1: thinking about Billy Moorfield and his poor Aunt Annie. and
32:20
Speaker 1: the case had been cold for more than a decade
32:22
Speaker 1: and a half, and everyone back in the panhandle had
32:24
Speaker 1: since moved on and buried their grief, but it was
32:27
Speaker 1: still unsolved. And if I could even do one little
32:31
Speaker 1: thing to dislodge something or push it along, then it'd
32:35
Speaker 1: be worth working unpaid. I drove out to Ellis County
32:39
Speaker 1: in early October, then after checking into a motel, my
32:43
Speaker 1: first port of call was the sheriff's office down in Arnett. Now,
32:48
Speaker 1: I'd Could have called, I guess, but a face-to-face is
32:51
Speaker 1: always preferable when you're trying to obtain the contact details
32:54
Speaker 1: of someone's old boss. And from there, it was a
32:57
Speaker 1: case of hitting up the old sheriff, the one who'd
33:00
Speaker 1: been in charge at the time of the murders, and
33:02
Speaker 1: asking if I could put a few questions to him
33:05
Speaker 1: regarding an old case. Now, he was a cheerful old-timer
33:08
Speaker 1: named Leland, and he seemed only too happy to talk
33:11
Speaker 1: to me, especially if it might help break open an
33:14
Speaker 1: unsolved murder. And so I drove over to his place
33:17
Speaker 1: in Fargo. Oklahoma, not North Dakota, and we sat down
33:21
Speaker 1: on this porch with some iced tea to talk things over.
33:25
Speaker 1: To start, Leland filled me in on some details about
33:28
Speaker 1: the Annie Whitehouse murder, how she was found the morning
33:32
Speaker 1: after because the mailman noticed her door was ajar, how
33:36
Speaker 1: she had one big stab wound running through her neck
33:39
Speaker 1: so deep that she was practically decapitated, and how whoever
33:43
Speaker 1: did it left them absolutely nothing to go on. No witnesses,
33:48
Speaker 1: no prints, and no forensic fibers whatsoever. Annie was well-liked,
33:54
Speaker 1: so there was obviously no tracing her killer through feuds
33:57
Speaker 1: or grudges. Someone just came along one night, forced open
34:01
Speaker 1: her front door so quietly that she didn't wake up,
34:04
Speaker 1: and then inflicted a single fatal stab wound before walking
34:07
Speaker 1: right back out again. And it was almost professional. Just
34:12
Speaker 1: one deep wound where it mattered most. And so for
34:15
Speaker 1: a while... Leland and his deputies entertained the idea that
34:18
Speaker 1: it was a hit job, ordered by some greedy relative
34:22
Speaker 1: who wanted their inheritance early. But while Annie certainly had
34:26
Speaker 1: a heart of gold and was rich in spirit, she
34:29
Speaker 1: wasn't a wealthy woman, and outside of the keepsakes her
34:32
Speaker 1: relatives took, all she left behind went to the town's goodwill.
34:37
Speaker 1: But despite the murder not representing a clear motive, there
34:40
Speaker 1: was something Leland seemed certain of, and that's why Annie's
34:44
Speaker 1: case ended up going cold. According to Leland, less than
34:47
Speaker 1: 48 hours after they found Annie's body, two others showed
34:51
Speaker 1: up around town. One belonged to the crippled son of
34:54
Speaker 1: a local farmer, an older teen who'd had a few
34:57
Speaker 1: brushes with the law himself. He was discovered shot one
35:01
Speaker 1: morning on a road leading into town. The other belonged
35:05
Speaker 1: to a man named Charles Green, an unemployed former janitor
35:09
Speaker 1: who was found stabbed to death in his home, much
35:11
Speaker 1: in the same manner as Annie Whitehouse. With the sudden
35:15
Speaker 1: spike in crime, the county sheriff's department requested assistance from
35:19
Speaker 1: neighboring counties. Their neighbors did what they could, but it
35:23
Speaker 1: still left the department with a heck of a task
35:25
Speaker 1: and very limited resources with which to complete it. But
35:29
Speaker 1: just when they thought that they were getting somewhere, there
35:31
Speaker 1: was a sudden double murder up in Harper County, just
35:35
Speaker 1: north of them. The department up there had donated the
35:38
Speaker 1: largest contingent of deputies being just four, so when they
35:43
Speaker 1: called them home, It hit the Ellis deputies hard, especially
35:46
Speaker 1: when they learned that one of the victims had been
35:48
Speaker 1: their only potential suspect in the White House and Green murders.
35:53
Speaker 1: Leland couldn't remember the suspect's name, only that he was
35:57
Speaker 1: a suspect due to his history of breaking and entering.
36:01
Speaker 1: He didn't just do it to steal either. Some of
36:03
Speaker 1: his victims were women and woke up to him standing
36:06
Speaker 1: over them while they slept. They'd scream, and each time
36:09
Speaker 1: the guy would just bolt. but whether or not he'd
36:12
Speaker 1: escalated to murder, the deputies would never know. At least
36:15
Speaker 1: there was no chance of a confession, and not since
36:17
Speaker 1: he'd wound up dead in a truck so full of
36:20
Speaker 1: bullet holes that the door looked like Swiss cheese. He
36:24
Speaker 1: was found slumped in the passenger side with his skull
36:27
Speaker 1: carved open and his brains pooling in his lap. But
36:30
Speaker 1: sitting on the driver's side was a man whose name
36:33
Speaker 1: Leland did remember, Raymond Tackett. According to Leland, Ray Tackett
36:40
Speaker 1: was a real piece of work. He went to jail
36:42
Speaker 1: a couple of times for DUIs and forging scripts, but
36:46
Speaker 1: while it was common knowledge that Tackett sold drugs, no
36:49
Speaker 1: one was ever able to pin it on him. Because
36:52
Speaker 1: while he was very dumb in a lot of ways,
36:54
Speaker 1: Ray Tackett had a kind of deviousness about him, like
36:58
Speaker 1: an innate criminal shrewdness that made him far more dangerous
37:01
Speaker 1: than the average pusher. Tackett was actually on parole at
37:05
Speaker 1: the time of his murder, but not for fake scripts
37:08
Speaker 1: or driving drunk. It was for something far worse. Because,
37:13
Speaker 1: after a complaint by one of the teachers at his
37:15
Speaker 1: kid's elementary school, he was arrested on suspicion of child abuse.
37:21
Speaker 1: At his hearing, prosecutors said Tackett heated a knife on
37:25
Speaker 1: the kitchen stove before pinning his young daughter to her
37:28
Speaker 1: bedroom floor and burning an inverted cross into the flesh
37:32
Speaker 1: of her shoulder blade. He pled not guilty, but ended
37:36
Speaker 1: up doing nine years of a 14-stretch sentence. Then less
37:40
Speaker 1: than two months after he got out, bang, bang, bang,
37:44
Speaker 1: someone used a fully automatic to kill him and his
37:47
Speaker 1: unlucky passenger. Tackett might have hurt his own daughter, but
37:52
Speaker 1: his daughter had a mom and that mom had brothers
37:55
Speaker 1: and a father and all kinds of cousins that wouldn't
37:57
Speaker 1: have no problem at all putting a dog like Ray
38:00
Speaker 1: Tackett down. At least, that's how Leland saw it. But
38:04
Speaker 1: just like the murders of Annie Whitehouse, Charles Green, and
38:07
Speaker 1: the poor crippled boy, the son of the local farmer
38:10
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, those of Tackett and his seedy companion were
38:14
Speaker 1: never solved either. But as Leland was quick to assure me,
38:18
Speaker 1: not for lack of trying, I asked him if he
38:21
Speaker 1: thought the murders were connected, and he shook his head.
38:24
Speaker 1: The murders of Green and Whitehouse maybe, but the Tackett
38:27
Speaker 1: murder was a whole other can of worms. That he
38:31
Speaker 1: seemed quite sure of. But as I came to find out,
38:34
Speaker 1: He was wrong. Based on Leland's suspicion, I began looking
38:38
Speaker 1: into the murder of Charles Green, the unemployed janitor who,
38:41
Speaker 1: like Annie Whitehouse, had been stabbed and not shot. Much
38:46
Speaker 1: like Annie, he'd lived alone and his front door had
38:49
Speaker 1: been forced open, but he wasn't killed in his sleep.
38:53
Speaker 1: The location of his body suggested Green met his killer
38:56
Speaker 1: in the hallway, while the coroner's report stated his belief
38:59
Speaker 1: that Green had first been stabbed while on his knees.
39:04
Speaker 1: This suggested some kind of personal dimension, which made sense
39:07
Speaker 1: because Green had made himself a lot of enemies in
39:10
Speaker 1: his recent past, and it all tied into why he
39:13
Speaker 1: was unemployed. Just up the road from Harmon Cemetery, there
39:18
Speaker 1: used to be an orphanage called the Tiptree Children's Home.
39:21
Speaker 1: It housed about 200 kids at any one time and
39:24
Speaker 1: had a permanent staff of around 30 adults, one of
39:27
Speaker 1: which was our janitor, Charles Green. It was a live-in position,
39:33
Speaker 1: so Charles lived on the grounds with the welfare staff,
39:35
Speaker 1: and he'd walk around with a big old ring of
39:37
Speaker 1: keys on his belt, jingling wherever he went. Whenever someone
39:42
Speaker 1: needed him to open something, he'd materialize in minutes to
39:45
Speaker 1: fulfill his duties. Except, of course, on a very humid
39:50
Speaker 1: spring night in late May, when a fire broke out
39:53
Speaker 1: in the orphanage. 32 kids died of smoke inhalation after
39:58
Speaker 1: doors that were supposed to be unlocked were found to
40:00
Speaker 1: be impassable. While the cause and source of the fire
40:04
Speaker 1: was never properly determined, it was so bad that some
40:07
Speaker 1: believed that there had been some kind of arson attack,
40:10
Speaker 1: and that Green's inability to actually explain his absence made
40:13
Speaker 1: him the prime suspect. Green protested his innocence and his
40:18
Speaker 1: record backed him up. He'd served faithfully and dutifully at
40:21
Speaker 1: the orphanage for a long time, all without serious complaint.
40:25
Speaker 1: But that didn't mean that he wasn't liable for those
40:28
Speaker 1: kids' deaths. Yet while the state was still deciding whether
40:32
Speaker 1: he was criminally liable, it seemed someone else had decided
40:35
Speaker 1: a befitting punishment. Death. Part of the investigation into Charles
40:41
Speaker 1: Green's murder involved questioning the adult survivors of the orphanage
40:45
Speaker 1: fire There was a great deal of credence paid to
40:48
Speaker 1: the idea of one of the survivors getting so mad
40:50
Speaker 1: that they'd killed him, but each and every one of
40:53
Speaker 1: them had an airtight alibi for the night in question.
40:57
Speaker 1: I knew Green's murder had to be connected to that
40:59
Speaker 1: of Annie Whitehouse. The M.O. had all but confirmed that
41:02
Speaker 1: for me, but I was still wrestling with the question
41:05
Speaker 1: of how the orphanage fire played into everything when I
41:08
Speaker 1: decided to go see Leland again, the former sheriff. I
41:12
Speaker 1: thought it was strange that he hadn't mentioned the fire.
41:15
Speaker 1: But then again, I hadn't asked about it. I gave
41:18
Speaker 1: him a call in advance to ensure that I was expected,
41:20
Speaker 1: then drove back up to Fargo towards the end of
41:23
Speaker 1: my first week so we could talk again. But before
41:26
Speaker 1: I got to Leland's place, I stopped in this little
41:28
Speaker 1: town called Gage to get a bite to eat. I
41:31
Speaker 1: ended up at this little place staffed by a very
41:33
Speaker 1: charming young lady and her mother. I got talking to
41:37
Speaker 1: the younger of the two after I finished up and
41:39
Speaker 1: told her that I was there to investigate the murder
41:42
Speaker 1: of Annie Whitehouse. Her face lit up when she heard
41:45
Speaker 1: the name, but that wasn't unusual. Lots of people were
41:49
Speaker 1: familiar with Annie's murder, as well as the tragic and
41:51
Speaker 1: frightening circumstances that surrounded it. But unlike many others I
41:56
Speaker 1: spoke to, the girl and her mom had some real
41:59
Speaker 1: insight for me. You see, the girl's mom used to
42:02
Speaker 1: work at the Goodwill over in Shattuck and was there
42:05
Speaker 1: around the time of Annie's murder. She wasn't working the
42:08
Speaker 1: day all the boxes of Annie's stuff came into the store,
42:11
Speaker 1: but she was working when they came to sift through
42:13
Speaker 1: it all. Annie's relatives had already taken their pick of
42:17
Speaker 1: her stuff. Old photos, old pieces of clothing, knickknacks and
42:21
Speaker 1: the like. But there were still a few boxes of
42:24
Speaker 1: stuff to sort through and apparently there was one that
42:27
Speaker 1: hadn't been opened. It was found after Annie's family had
42:31
Speaker 1: been through her stuff and came in the form of
42:33
Speaker 1: a small padlock trunk that had been found beneath an
42:36
Speaker 1: old wardrobe in her garage. The relatives were told it
42:40
Speaker 1: was there but apparently no one had bothered to check
42:42
Speaker 1: it out. because when Diner Girl's mom got to sifting
42:46
Speaker 1: through any stuff, there it was, untouched, with a thick
42:51
Speaker 1: layer of dust having settled on top. And rather than
42:55
Speaker 1: sell it as some mystery box, the Goodwill manager clipped
42:57
Speaker 1: off the padlock holding it shut, but not a single
43:01
Speaker 1: item in that trunk ended up on the store's shelves.
43:04
Speaker 1: At first, the manager found things like incense burners, little
43:08
Speaker 1: crystal pendulums, and a deck of tarot cards, none of
43:11
Speaker 1: which gave him any cause for alarm. But then he
43:15
Speaker 1: found a bunch of astrological charts, bone charms, and notebooks
43:19
Speaker 1: filled with long handwritten tracts of creepy looking gibberish. There
43:24
Speaker 1: was a smaller wooden box filled with glass bottles containing
43:27
Speaker 1: various powders and tinctures, some labeled with words like Mandrake
43:32
Speaker 1: and Dragon's Blood. And then there were things like a
43:35
Speaker 1: spirit board, the jet black oval mirror that someone later
43:38
Speaker 1: said was a scrying mirror. or the double-edged dagger that
43:42
Speaker 1: looked like it had been kept dangerously sharp. Annie Whitehouse
43:47
Speaker 1: had been a good church-going woman, and so to think
43:49
Speaker 1: that she'd been in possession of such things was strange,
43:53
Speaker 1: to say the least. It left the folks of Goodwill
43:56
Speaker 1: in the awkward position of either selling the stuff they
43:59
Speaker 1: found and potentially tarnishing Annie's legacy as the town's most
44:02
Speaker 1: godly woman, or throw it all in the trash and
44:06
Speaker 1: miss out on a few sales. People around town wouldn't
44:10
Speaker 1: be too pleased seeing a bunch of occult-related items in
44:13
Speaker 1: the store window, and so they opted to throw it
44:15
Speaker 1: all out and to never mention a word of what
44:18
Speaker 1: they'd found to anyone. I remember asking the mom, why
44:23
Speaker 1: tell me and why now? She just shrugged and said
44:27
Speaker 1: enough time had passed that it seemed no harm in
44:30
Speaker 1: talking about it, especially with someone who was trying to
44:33
Speaker 1: actually help. But help, it did. I told Leland about
44:38
Speaker 1: the trunk full of occult curios, and he was about
44:41
Speaker 1: as shocked as you can imagine. He echoed my theory
44:44
Speaker 1: that the trunk didn't belong to her, but in the
44:46
Speaker 1: off chance that it did, it was the thread which
44:49
Speaker 1: quite possibly tied Annie Whitehouse's murder to that of Ray Tackett,
44:54
Speaker 1: the man who went to jail for burning an inverted
44:56
Speaker 1: cross into his young daughter's back. Leland disagreed, but admitted
45:01
Speaker 1: that there may well have been more to Annie's murder
45:03
Speaker 1: than met the eye. Yet regardless... That wasn't what I
45:06
Speaker 1: was there to talk about. I was there to talk
45:09
Speaker 1: about the fire. Leland kicked himself for not bringing it
45:13
Speaker 1: up the first time, but said I must have slipped
45:15
Speaker 1: his mind while he was talking about that scumbag Ray
45:18
Speaker 1: Tackett and his buddy. I asked him if he thought
45:21
Speaker 1: the fire was arson, and he said he wasn't sure.
45:26
Speaker 1: He handed the scene off to one of his most
45:28
Speaker 1: senior deputies, a man who'd since retired from the department
45:31
Speaker 1: but still lived around the Arkansas panhandle. and so after
45:35
Speaker 1: looking him up, I gave him a call and paid
45:37
Speaker 1: him a visit. And it was this visit that proved
45:40
Speaker 1: the most fruitful, and the most shocking. The retired deputy
45:44
Speaker 1: was a man named Jerry, and he was like the
45:47
Speaker 1: yin to the former sheriff's yang. Leland had been warm, welcoming,
45:51
Speaker 1: and keen on talking. Jerry was the total opposite. I
45:55
Speaker 1: had to call him twice, and it was only because
45:57
Speaker 1: I rushed to mention the fire and the murders back
45:59
Speaker 1: in 1970 that he gave me the time of day.
46:03
Speaker 1: Even after he agreed to talk to me, He was
46:05
Speaker 1: still slow to warm up, but when he did, it
46:08
Speaker 1: was like the floodgates opened up, and it all came
46:11
Speaker 1: spilling out. Jerry was convinced the fire was a deliberate
46:15
Speaker 1: act of arson, and that whoever was responsible intended as
46:19
Speaker 1: many children to die as possible. The only other time
46:23
Speaker 1: he'd heard of a fire's source being impossible to determine,
46:26
Speaker 1: it turned out to be an insurance job. So whoever
46:30
Speaker 1: set the orphanage on fire was some kind of professional.
46:34
Speaker 1: and one who'd planned it extensively in advance. He made
46:38
Speaker 1: it clear that if it wasn't for the heroics of
46:40
Speaker 1: the on-site caregivers, many more kids would have lost their lives,
46:44
Speaker 1: and that those he'd talked to said it was like
46:46
Speaker 1: a nightmare in there. Every door they needed to be
46:50
Speaker 1: open was locked, and while three fire axes were supposed
46:53
Speaker 1: to be available, one for every floor, all but one
46:56
Speaker 1: were missing. Whether or not Charles Green was directly involved,
47:01
Speaker 1: Jerry said it was impossible to say. The man himself
47:04
Speaker 1: never explained why he was off-site when he should have
47:07
Speaker 1: been on duty, but that didn't mean it was malicious.
47:11
Speaker 1: Maybe someone tricked him, or tempted him away in a
47:14
Speaker 1: manner that he was too ashamed to talk about. But
47:16
Speaker 1: then again, maybe he was dressing malice up his incompetence.
47:21
Speaker 1: If he was, Jerry said it sure as heck worked
47:24
Speaker 1: because the DA was getting ready to charge him with
47:27
Speaker 1: that lesser charge of criminal negligence and not mass murder.
47:32
Speaker 1: But before that could happen, and as we already know,
47:35
Speaker 1: someone else came along to play judge, jury, and executioner.
47:41
Speaker 1: It was then I asked Jer if he thought all
47:43
Speaker 1: five murders were connected, or if he believed that they
47:46
Speaker 1: had something to do with the orphanage fire, and his
47:49
Speaker 1: answer shocked me. He didn't think they were connected. He
47:53
Speaker 1: knew they were, because someone else had gone to the
47:56
Speaker 1: trouble of making sure that the only piece of concrete
47:59
Speaker 1: evidence proving that fact had gone missing. It wasn't just
48:04
Speaker 1: the murders of Whitehouse and Green that were similar. The
48:07
Speaker 1: murders of the criminals and the farmer's crippled son were
48:10
Speaker 1: similar too, just not in the way that was so obvious. See,
48:16
Speaker 1: deputies up in Harper County determined pretty quickly that the
48:19
Speaker 1: criminals had been shot with a Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR,
48:24
Speaker 1: due to the rimless bottlenecked. 30- 06 casings. Not many fully
48:29
Speaker 1: automatic rifles used this cartridge, and the ejector marks reflected
48:33
Speaker 1: the bar's very particular gas-operated long-stroke piston design. Now, while
48:39
Speaker 1: there were no shell casings at the site of the
48:41
Speaker 1: crippled boy's murder, the two bullet wounds he'd sustained were
48:45
Speaker 1: almost certainly a match for a high-powered rifle being fired point-blank. Now,
48:50
Speaker 1: this alone couldn't prove it was the same weapon used
48:53
Speaker 1: in the criminal's murder, but what could was the bullet
48:56
Speaker 1: fragment found lodged in the boy's pelvis. It was pulled
49:01
Speaker 1: out by the coroner during the autopsy that followed, and
49:04
Speaker 1: once it was in the ballistics lab, it wouldn't be
49:07
Speaker 1: long before the guys over there could give a definitive answer.
49:12
Speaker 1: But before that could happen, the fragment disappeared. The chain
49:17
Speaker 1: of custody was solid right up until it came to
49:19
Speaker 1: moving it from the coroner's office to the lab the
49:23
Speaker 1: coroner himself signed off on the transfer but when the
49:26
Speaker 1: truck arrived at the lab and everything was unloaded the
49:28
Speaker 1: bullet fragment from the kid's hip was nowhere to be
49:32
Speaker 1: found the coroner got investigated and so did the delivery
49:36
Speaker 1: guy but no definitive culpability could be identified Jerry said
49:40
Speaker 1: it was like someone had been hiding in the truck's hold,
49:43
Speaker 1: just waiting for the right moment to grab what they
49:45
Speaker 1: needed and slip out while it was stopped at a
49:48
Speaker 1: red light or something. It seemed crazy, but there was
49:52
Speaker 1: no other explanation besides either the coroner or the lab
49:56
Speaker 1: outright losing it somehow. But as Jerry said, stuff like
50:00
Speaker 1: that doesn't happen often, and it seemed like one heck
50:03
Speaker 1: of a coincidence that such a key piece of evidence
50:06
Speaker 1: might just suddenly go missing. But it wasn't a coincidence,
50:11
Speaker 1: not in his mind. To him, that bullet fragment went
50:15
Speaker 1: missing because someone wanted it to go missing. Someone who
50:19
Speaker 1: didn't want the cops drawing too many straight lines between
50:22
Speaker 1: the murders. And if they had the means to make
50:25
Speaker 1: evidence go missing like that, then they were either very
50:28
Speaker 1: smart or very powerful. That was the moment when accounting
50:34
Speaker 1: for the kids at the orphanage, five murders started to
50:37
Speaker 1: feel more like forty. And while I'd already started to
50:41
Speaker 1: realize that all these seemingly separate incidents were connected, it
50:45
Speaker 1: didn't make such a horrible sense until I talked to
50:48
Speaker 1: the former Deputy Jerry. When I ended up asking if
50:53
Speaker 1: he had any theories as to who was responsible, ultimately
50:56
Speaker 1: responsible I mean, Jerry said he had a theory, just
50:59
Speaker 1: one that was too damn crazy to say out loud.
51:03
Speaker 1: He never officially announced his opinions, not to any of
51:06
Speaker 1: his fellow deputies anyways. The only person he ever seriously
51:10
Speaker 1: shared it with was his ex-wife and when he did,
51:13
Speaker 1: she told him he needed some time off. That was
51:17
Speaker 1: all he needed to hear and for years he tried
51:20
Speaker 1: shaking off that feeling of surety he attached to that theory,
51:24
Speaker 1: but he was never able to. I asked him to
51:27
Speaker 1: tell me what that theory was and when I did,
51:30
Speaker 1: he paused and sighed. Then after a few moments of
51:33
Speaker 1: what seemed like silent reflection, this is what he said.
51:37
Speaker 1: It took him a while to put together everything he heard,
51:40
Speaker 1: but just shy of a year after the orphanage fire,
51:43
Speaker 1: a Harper County man named Bob Catesby moved his family
51:47
Speaker 1: down to West Texas. He bought a small piece of land,
51:51
Speaker 1: one that was just all brush, rock, and dust, then
51:55
Speaker 1: parked a beat-up second-hand mobile home on it. It seemed
51:58
Speaker 1: like an odd thing to do, especially for a man
52:01
Speaker 1: who'd given up the gainful employment at the Willard Cemetery.
52:04
Speaker 1: But as folk at the time said, A man can
52:07
Speaker 1: only spend so long around the dead before he starts
52:10
Speaker 1: fixing to live. So Catesby moved down to Texas, with
52:14
Speaker 1: his wife and one-year-old son. Then every day, he'd walk
52:17
Speaker 1: into Saragossa to use the payphone at the USPS building.
52:22
Speaker 1: His wife later said that she had no idea who
52:24
Speaker 1: he was calling, and every day she begged him to
52:26
Speaker 1: just get a job so they didn't keep burning through
52:29
Speaker 1: their savings, but he didn't listen. Instead... Bob would make
52:33
Speaker 1: the same journey into town every morning, then come back
52:36
Speaker 1: mid-afternoon empty-handed every time. And this carried on for a while,
52:41
Speaker 1: with Bob sticking to the same routine day in and
52:44
Speaker 1: day out. Then one day, Bob's wife woke up to
52:47
Speaker 1: a bunch of trucks pulling onto their property with the
52:50
Speaker 1: words HUMBLE OIL written on their sides. Turns out Bob's
52:55
Speaker 1: land was sitting on top of a ginormous oil reserve,
52:58
Speaker 1: and so after a little bit of drilling and a
53:00
Speaker 1: whole lot of negotiation... Bob ended up with a whole
53:03
Speaker 1: bunch of derricks on his land and a passive income
53:06
Speaker 1: of around $ 5, 000 a month. Former Deputy Jerry said he
53:12
Speaker 1: didn't believe a word when he first heard it. But
53:15
Speaker 1: since it was all a matter of public record, he
53:17
Speaker 1: could quite easily fact-check it. But when he did, he
53:21
Speaker 1: found it was all true. And not only had Bob
53:24
Speaker 1: Catesby filed a gigantic oil claim, but the date of
53:27
Speaker 1: the contract he signed with Humble Oil made Jerry's blood
53:31
Speaker 1: run cold. because the day it was signed was the
53:35
Speaker 1: exact same day as the orphanage fire. Having handled the
53:40
Speaker 1: scene himself, the date was then burned into his memory,
53:43
Speaker 1: to the point where when he saw it on the
53:45
Speaker 1: copy of the contract he obtained, he felt himself turn pale.
53:51
Speaker 1: I didn't quite understand what Jerry was implying at first,
53:54
Speaker 1: as lots of folks moved away from Ellis County after
53:56
Speaker 1: the fire and the murders. I'd felt that same thing
54:00
Speaker 1: myself and Roston when I was a kid, like there
54:03
Speaker 1: was a dark cloud hanging over everybody. But that wasn't
54:07
Speaker 1: all there was to Jerry's theory. After he got rich,
54:11
Speaker 1: Bob Catesby became something of a celebrity back in the
54:14
Speaker 1: Oklahoma panhandle. People enjoy success stories, or at least some
54:19
Speaker 1: people do, so word of him raking in piles of
54:22
Speaker 1: cash while building a large, luxurious home out there circled widely.
54:27
Speaker 1: People talked about him for six years. Bob's built this.
54:31
Speaker 1: Bob owns that. but the more negative among them didn't
54:34
Speaker 1: celebrate Bob's successes. They celebrated his failures. Like when he
54:39
Speaker 1: paid a ton of money to have his land irrigated,
54:41
Speaker 1: but all his crops died after some sort of mineral
54:44
Speaker 1: imbalance in the soil. He then tried raising cattle, but
54:48
Speaker 1: when one was found to have some highly infectious bovine disease,
54:52
Speaker 1: all of them had to be culled. It was like
54:55
Speaker 1: Bob got to enjoy one stroke of incredible good luck,
54:58
Speaker 1: but the rest of his life was straight up cursed.
55:01
Speaker 1: But then six years after the orphanage fire, when Bob's
55:04
Speaker 1: own son was just seven years old, tragedy struck. It
55:08
Speaker 1: was a weekend, so rather than being at school, Bob's
55:11
Speaker 1: son was up in his bedroom playing with his action figures.
55:14
Speaker 1: Only he wasn't just playing with his action figures. He
55:18
Speaker 1: had something else, too. Something that made the scenes in
55:20
Speaker 1: his imagination come to life so much better. A box
55:25
Speaker 1: of matches. And I guess he was using them to
55:28
Speaker 1: simulate little explosions. or to make tiny little fires that
55:32
Speaker 1: were the results of G.I. Joe's rocket launcher hitting the target.
55:37
Speaker 1: But regardless of how he was using them, the boy
55:39
Speaker 1: had next to no idea what he was doing. It
55:42
Speaker 1: wasn't long before a real fire had started, but for
55:46
Speaker 1: some reason, Bob's boy didn't go running for help. Some
55:50
Speaker 1: say the kid must have knocked himself out after running
55:52
Speaker 1: into the door frame in a panic, but the fact is,
55:56
Speaker 1: we'll never really know what happened up there that day.
55:58
Speaker 1: only that a fire was started and that, tragically, the
56:01
Speaker 1: Catesby boy never made it out alive. All that grief
56:05
Speaker 1: and blame ended up with Bob's wife leaving him, and
56:08
Speaker 1: then as far as Jerry knew, he moved someplace else
56:11
Speaker 1: and was never heard from again, at least not by
56:14
Speaker 1: anyone up in the panhandle. The fact it was a
56:17
Speaker 1: fire that took his boy and his home was treated
56:20
Speaker 1: as a horrible kind of coincidence. But as Jerry himself said,
56:25
Speaker 1: only so many coincidences can stack up before things start
56:28
Speaker 1: looking like something else. I can't bring myself to believe
56:32
Speaker 1: in Jerry's theory, and for the same reason he himself
56:35
Speaker 1: tried so hard to forget it. Acknowledging it means paying
56:39
Speaker 1: mind to things that I'd rather not think about. Things
56:42
Speaker 1: I'd left behind in Sunday school many years before. I
56:46
Speaker 1: don't think the Catesbury tragedy is connected to the murders.
56:49
Speaker 1: It can't be. But there's just one little detail about
56:52
Speaker 1: the man's life that I can't seem to shake. And
56:55
Speaker 1: that's how his father was a World War II vet
56:57
Speaker 1: from over in the European theater. And the weapon he'd
57:00
Speaker 1: carried during his time fighting the Germans was an old B.A.R.
57:31
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