Latest / FBI Files / The Most Violent Bank Robbery Of The Century The FBI Files

Transcript

The Most Violent Bank Robbery Of The Century The FBI Files · FBI Files

0:01
Speaker 1: October 8, 1985 marked the beginning of a series of
0:04
Speaker 1: brutal assaults that ravaged southern Florida. Two masked men used
0:06
Speaker 1: military weapons in a wave of violence that threatened innocents.
0:13
Speaker 1: But no one knew who they were or where they
0:15
Speaker 1: would attack next. Before the FBI could detain them, lives
0:19
Speaker 1: would be lost and the police would change forever. In Miami,
1:01
Speaker 1: a gang of thieves visited armored cars and banks.
1:05
Speaker 2: They carried assault guns and were not afraid to use them.
1:08
Speaker 1: They attacked during the day and sometimes twice a day.
1:11
Speaker 1: For a while, they seemed unstoppable. I'm Jim Castro, former
1:15
Speaker 1: head of the FBI's office in New York. We knew
1:18
Speaker 1: that to detain these criminals, it would be necessary to
1:20
Speaker 1: be ferocious, jealous, and maybe a little lucky. No one
1:24
Speaker 1: expected this to become one of the greatest chapters in
1:28
Speaker 1: the history of the FBI. Miami, Florida, 1985. Two FBI
1:34
Speaker 1: agents saw the city besieged. Every week, there were three
1:39
Speaker 1: to five bank robberies. Kidnappings, large drug and shooting businesses
1:44
Speaker 1: were everyday occurrences. But when it seemed that things couldn't
1:47
Speaker 1: get any worse, a new generation of outlaws came to
1:54
Speaker 1: the streets and turned the wave of crimes in Miami
1:56
Speaker 1: into a war. On October 8th, a armored delivery car
2:09
Speaker 1: made a collection scheduled at a restaurant in Staken Island.
2:14
Speaker 1: The driver waited for his partner to return, not knowing
2:18
Speaker 1: that two heavily armed men were also waiting nearby. When
2:28
Speaker 1: the guard approached the rear of the truck, the armed
2:30
Speaker 1: men advanced with military precision. Stop!
2:36
Speaker 3: The driver refused to open the door.
2:40
Speaker 1: He left following the company's policy. The individuals retreated to
2:47
Speaker 1: a car and tried to camouflage their escape with a
2:52
Speaker 1: smoke grenade from a military factory. The Metropolitan Police and
3:11
Speaker 1: the FBI responded to the scene. Car thefts, armored cars
3:16
Speaker 1: and banks are FBI jurisdiction. The supervisor of the FBI's
3:22
Speaker 1: violent crime unit in Miami was Special Agent Gordon McNeil.
3:27
Speaker 1: There was basically no clue about who these individuals were.
3:29
Speaker 1: We had no idea. There was no way to escape.
3:32
Speaker 1: No one had seen them without the hoods. Black people
3:38
Speaker 1: covering their faces. They were wearing gloves on both hands.
3:45
Speaker 1: An information that the witnesses provided was the number of
3:48
Speaker 1: the escape car's license.
3:52
Speaker 4: Plate.
3:52
Speaker 1: The agents tracked down the number and discovered that the
3:55
Speaker 1: car had been stolen a month before. But their track
3:58
Speaker 1: was a dead end. The thieves escaped with only US $ 2, 800.
4:07
Speaker 1: But the use of military weapons and command tactics convinced
4:10
Speaker 1: Agent McNeil that they would probably attack her in some
4:12
Speaker 1: place in Miami again. But when? The answer came only
4:24
Speaker 1: eight days later. In a supermarket on South Dixie Highway,
4:30
Speaker 1: another armored car arrived to make a scheduled collection. The
4:37
Speaker 1: delivery man returned the truck with several bags full of
4:39
Speaker 1: money and receipts. He never saw the car that appeared
4:49
Speaker 1: in the corner. They escaped empty-handed. The Metro Dade Police
5:24
Speaker 1: and the FBI quickly responded to the alarm. 6-A-37-7. These
5:30
Speaker 1: men clearly had no fear of using lethal force. Eight.
5:50
Speaker 1: While he was taken to the hospital, the agents interviewed
5:52
Speaker 1: his partner. As he described the shooters, it quickly became
5:58
Speaker 1: obvious that they were probably the same men responsible for
5:59
Speaker 1: the previous robbery at the previous restaurant at the steak
6:01
Speaker 1: and ale restaurant. There was no money in that particular robbery,
6:07
Speaker 1: but there were several shots fired. So, as I was
6:10
Speaker 1: going up here in what you told me about the
6:12
Speaker 1: continuous use of violence by these two individuals, Ballistic evidence
6:20
Speaker 1: would certainly confirm the connection between the two robberies. The
6:26
Speaker 1: investigators found two shotgun cartridges of caliber 12,. 45- caliber bullet capsules, and.
6:31
Speaker 1: 223 cartridge capsules. The. 223s seemed the most significant. And
6:33
Speaker 1: the Identification Division of the Firearms Unit from the FBI laboratory,
6:46
Speaker 1: compared the two cartridges and said that they were fired
6:51
Speaker 1: from the same weapon. So we had a clear connection
6:54
Speaker 1: between the Lindix attempt and the assault on Stake Nellie.
6:57
Speaker 1: Two violent assaults were connected to the same masked shooters,
7:02
Speaker 1: but there was no clue about their identities. As they
7:06
Speaker 1: did not earn money in the Lindix assault, and very
7:12
Speaker 1: little at the steak in Neos, the investigators were certain
7:15
Speaker 1: that they would attack again. Two weeks later, on Friday,
7:21
Speaker 1: November 8th, a third robbery took place. This time, a
7:26
Speaker 1: robbery at the Florida National Bank. While a box and
7:34
Speaker 1: a guard were walking from the main building to the drive-thru,
7:37
Speaker 1: two masked armed men left a car. Under the aim
7:50
Speaker 1: of a gun, they ordered the box to open the
7:52
Speaker 1: drive-thru door. She tried to obey, but there was a
8:01
Speaker 1: problem with the key and... They stopped in broad daylight.
8:09
Speaker 1: In a moving crossing, the shooters aborted the assault and
8:11
Speaker 1: fled with only the US $ 10, 000 that the guard was carrying.
8:20
Speaker 1: In minutes, the local authorities and the violent crime unit
8:22
Speaker 1: of the FBI arrived at the crime scene. Just a
8:24
Speaker 1: few blocks away from the two previous robberies. This pattern
8:29
Speaker 1: was beginning to develop. All these crimes were happening in
8:35
Speaker 1: the same general area along highway US number 1. The
8:45
Speaker 1: FBI's interviews with bank officials confirmed that the thieves were
8:47
Speaker 1: the same pair that had hit the armored cars. Maybe
8:49
Speaker 1: they imagined that a drive-thru bank would be less fortified
8:52
Speaker 1: than armored cars, easier sources of money. There was no
8:54
Speaker 1: greater priority in this case. We had to find these
8:57
Speaker 1: guys and get them out of the streets before they
9:01
Speaker 1: killed more innocent people. But only an hour and a
9:12
Speaker 1: half later, they attacked the Professional Savings Bank, only 18
9:15
Speaker 1: blocks away. The thieves quickly took control of Saguão. Under
9:23
Speaker 1: the aim of weapons, the customers and employees quickly followed
9:30
Speaker 1: their orders. With their masks and high power, no one
9:40
Speaker 1: doubted that they were serious. This time it was a
9:41
Speaker 1: great success. This time, it was a great success. They
10:02
Speaker 1: fled with more than U.E. dollars, 41 million dollars, delivered
10:05
Speaker 1: that same day by Wells Fargo. They escaped in another car.
10:12
Speaker 1: The Chevy Monte Carlo. The witnesses had little to say
10:20
Speaker 1: to the agents. The thieves entered quickly and forced everyone
10:24
Speaker 1: to lie on the floor, where they could not see
10:26
Speaker 1: what was happening. But as the men were really inside
10:33
Speaker 1: the bank this time, maybe the security cameras had filmed them.
10:39
Speaker 1: The agents soon got lost when they found out that
10:41
Speaker 1: the cameras had worked badly and nothing had been recorded.
10:47
Speaker 1: It was the fourth robbery in six weeks. The thieves
10:51
Speaker 1: were heavily armed and were looting banks and armored cars
10:53
Speaker 1: in broad daylight. The witnesses in these cases indicated that
11:01
Speaker 1: they thought these people looked like true professionals. The way
11:07
Speaker 1: they walked, spoke, and carried weapons. And I really believed
11:11
Speaker 1: it until we found out who they were. that we
11:17
Speaker 1: could easily be dealing with policemen or very recent ex-military.
11:33
Speaker 1: With criminals so violent and loose, the agents improved their
11:37
Speaker 1: skills in the shooting range. They worked tirelessly changing the
11:41
Speaker 1: few pistols they had. But nothing worked. Two months went
11:54
Speaker 1: by followed by another robbery and there were still no clues.
12:07
Speaker 1: On Friday, January 10th, 1986, William Roberts was preparing for
12:11
Speaker 1: a transaction at the Barnett Bank while a strong car
12:13
Speaker 1: was unloading outside. He opened his eyes and saw two
12:19
Speaker 1: masked robbers shooting at the guard's back. While the guard
12:22
Speaker 1: was on the ground, one of the snipers shot him
12:27
Speaker 1: twice more. This was the fifth robbery of the robbers
12:29
Speaker 1: in just three months. And another big hit. They fled
12:39
Speaker 1: with US $ 54, 000. William Roberts followed the men through the rooms.
13:03
Speaker 1: Although he kept a safe distance, Roberts feared that the
13:05
Speaker 1: thieves would know that he was following them. Still, he
13:13
Speaker 1: followed them and wrote down the license plate and the
13:16
Speaker 1: model of the car. He dragged them to a parking lot,
13:25
Speaker 1: where they stopped next to a white pickup. Roberts parked
13:36
Speaker 1: on the other side of the street and continued to watch.
13:41
Speaker 4: Them.
13:41
Speaker 1: He wrote down the brand and the model of the pickup,
13:43
Speaker 1: but could not see the number of the plate. No.
13:49
Speaker 1: After leaving, Roberts signed up for a policeman and told
13:52
Speaker 1: the story. The FBI went to the place and interviewed
14:00
Speaker 1: Bump's employees. They found several Mildus-23 cartridges, later confirmed as
14:07
Speaker 1: fired by the same weapon used in the first two robberies.
14:13
Speaker 1: FBI agents examined the escape car left by the thieves.
14:16
Speaker 1: But William Roberts was the main witness. Thanks to Roberts,
14:23
Speaker 1: the FBI had the first major discovery in a series
14:25
Speaker 1: of three months of violent robberies. A check on the
14:30
Speaker 1: escape car plate revealed that the car was registered in
14:33
Speaker 1: the name of a man named Aureliano Briel. Agents prepared
14:41
Speaker 1: to pay. As the car was never given as stolen,
14:45
Speaker 1: they suspected that Briel was involved in the crimes. They
14:52
Speaker 1: dressed to protect themselves. In Miami, the FBI was tracking
15:06
Speaker 1: two armed and masked men who were stealing armored cars
15:09
Speaker 1: and seats, already killing a guard. Now the agents had
15:14
Speaker 1: located the owner registered in one of the escape cars.
15:18
Speaker 1: On January 14, the special agent Morelis and his partner
15:21
Speaker 1: arrived at Aureliano Breal's house with the owner registered in
15:23
Speaker 1: the car. A woman opened the door. A special agent, Morelis,
15:33
Speaker 1: now works disguised and wears a hood to protect his identity.
15:35
Speaker 1: She asked me if I was there for her son.
15:37
Speaker 1: And I said, yes, I was, in fact. She said, well,
15:39
Speaker 1: my son Emílio is missing, I... Arido Dací. Briales came
15:43
Speaker 1: to the door and they invited the agents to enter
15:48
Speaker 1: the house. Mr. Brialis explained that his son Emilio had
16:02
Speaker 1: disappeared three months ago with his family's car, which he
16:05
Speaker 1: borrowed to practice target shooting in the Everglades. The Brialis
16:10
Speaker 1: registered the disappearance, but did not get an answer. They
16:15
Speaker 1: hoped that the agents would bring news of the son,
16:17
Speaker 1: but both the Brialis and the agents would be disappointed.
16:25
Speaker 1: The FBI knew nothing about the young man's whereabouts. And
16:30
Speaker 1: as the interview progressed, agent Morales was sure that the
16:33
Speaker 1: Breals knew nothing about the assaults. The conclusion at the
16:40
Speaker 1: end of the day was that the Breal family was
16:41
Speaker 1: not involved. They were victims. Their car had been stolen
16:46
Speaker 1: and Felicia had disappeared. The Metro Dade Police Department prosecuted
16:56
Speaker 1: the Breals' car, with FBI agents watching. but the experts
17:03
Speaker 1: did not find any digital or any other clue that
17:05
Speaker 1: would make the case move forward. The following two months
17:08
Speaker 1: were quiet again, although the thieves were still on the loose,
17:12
Speaker 1: the agents touched other cases while exploring every possible resource
17:16
Speaker 1: in search of clues. So, on March 14, the special
17:24
Speaker 1: agent Ben Grogan told a sceptical agent Morales about a
17:26
Speaker 1: newspaper article that he believed to be related to the case.
17:32
Speaker 1: The article reported the attempted murder of a man named
17:35
Speaker 1: Josias Antes, two days before. Two men shot Colasso several times.
17:43
Speaker 1: Then they stole his gun and his car, a Chevy
17:46
Speaker 1: Monte Carlo 1982 black. Grogan swore that the vehicle would
17:53
Speaker 1: be the next escape car of bank robbers. Although it
17:54
Speaker 1: seemed to some agents just a hint, they respected Grogan.
18:06
Speaker 1: At 53 years old, he was a career agent, with
18:08
Speaker 1: 25 years on the job, including a time as SWAT
18:11
Speaker 1: team leader. His colleagues called him a doctor. Because he
18:19
Speaker 1: could do jobs that no one else could. Are you
18:23
Speaker 1: crazy with these boards? So, he took a chance on
18:25
Speaker 1: his palpite. Let's go. Good job. Pior Collado, continue what happened.
18:35
Speaker 1: Grugan and another agent visited Collazo at the hospital. Collazo
18:41
Speaker 1: was in terrible condition, with injuries on his head, arm
18:44
Speaker 1: and back. But he managed to tell the story of
18:50
Speaker 1: his nightmare afternoon at the Everglades. Collazo and I went
18:58
Speaker 1: to a recreational trail near a lake where gun owners
19:00
Speaker 1: usually practice target shooting. He was preparing his point 22
19:08
Speaker 1: when two men stopped next to him. How's it going?
19:19
Speaker 1: The driver pointed a gun at the blue one. And
19:23
Speaker 1: who somehow had the presence of spirit to identify that
19:25
Speaker 1: it was a magnum blue revolver. He imagined that the
19:29
Speaker 1: rifle of the other man was a Ruger Mini 14.
19:35
Speaker 1: When the aggressors demanded the weapons, the car and the briefcase,
19:38
Speaker 1: he obeyed. Corp. Recruit. Give me everything. Recruit. But they
19:44
Speaker 1: shot him several times anyway. So they left. taking Monte
20:13
Speaker 1: Carlo de Colaso and his own F-150 pickup. While they
20:16
Speaker 1: were leaving, they.
20:20
Speaker 5: Didn't believe Colaso was dead.
20:34
Speaker 1: He waited until the snipers left. Then he would gather
20:36
Speaker 1: the few forces he had to survive. Collazo had to
20:48
Speaker 1: make a decision about whether he would try to live
20:50
Speaker 1: or just lay down and die. And Collazo said he
20:53
Speaker 1: chose to try to live. So he got up from
20:57
Speaker 1: the lake and walked almost a kilometer after taking three
21:02
Speaker 1: shots to get help. Finding Collazo was the best opportunity
21:11
Speaker 1: in the case so far. He provided the only clue
21:16
Speaker 1: that no witness so far could offer. A description of
21:19
Speaker 1: the faces of the suspects. They did not wear masks
21:24
Speaker 1: when they attacked. Using the description of Collazo, an artist
21:28
Speaker 1: from the County Police of Dade drew portraits of his aggressors.
21:33
Speaker 1: The drawings would be transformed into posters with information about
21:35
Speaker 1: the suspects and their crimes, in addition to the warning
21:38
Speaker 1: that the two men were heavily armed and were extremely dangerous.
21:48
Speaker 1: The retired special agent John Hammond, a veteran of 22
21:52
Speaker 1: years of the FBI, then designated for the Unit of
21:54
Speaker 1: Violent Crimes, remembers what Collazo said. Collazo managed to give
22:00
Speaker 1: a description of the guys. They told us about the
22:03
Speaker 1: white pickup. He was beaten in the same area where
22:08
Speaker 1: we thought that Emilio Brielle had disappeared. The next day,
22:14
Speaker 1: the agents intensified their efforts. They made a search in
22:21
Speaker 1: the streets that crossed the South Dixie Highway, near the
22:24
Speaker 1: bank robberies. They gathered us. After I told them what
22:28
Speaker 1: I was thinking, they looked at me like I was crazy.
22:31
Speaker 1: But I said, I want you to go to.
22:37
Speaker 1: 88th Street, on South Dixie Highway, which is 185th Street,
22:41
Speaker 1: and find the license plate numbers of the white Ford F-150.
22:43
Speaker 1: Ford F-150. Something in my heart tells me that maybe,
22:47
Speaker 1: who knows, a million.
22:48
Speaker 4: But.
22:49
Speaker 1: They return with the license plate numbers of 10 white
22:56
Speaker 1: Ford F-150s. computerized verifications of plate numbers would reveal the
23:07
Speaker 1: owners' names. The agents would then request photos of the
23:12
Speaker 1: drivers' wallets of the traffic department. If Collaso saw the photos,
23:17
Speaker 1: he could identify the owner of the pickup truck. But
23:23
Speaker 1: in 1986, technology was slow, and before the photos arrived
23:25
Speaker 1: at the DMV, the thieves attacked again. On Wednesday, March 19,
23:28
Speaker 1: just a week after Collaso's attack, The thieves jumped another
23:43
Speaker 1: bench at South Dixie High. It was the sixth attack
23:48
Speaker 1: in five months. One of them kept the terrified customers away.
23:57
Speaker 1: The other stole money from a cash register. Stay down, guys.
24:11
Speaker 1: The men escaped with more than US $ 8, 000 in cash.
24:15
Speaker 1: While customers and employees recovered from the attack, an office
24:24
Speaker 1: worker who saw the thieves fleeing called the police. He
24:27
Speaker 1: wrote down the brand of the escape car, a Montecarlo
24:29
Speaker 1: black chevy, and the number plate, NTKJ or something like that.
24:41
Speaker 1: Exactly as Agent Grogan had foreseen, it was José Collazo's.
24:46
Speaker 6: Car.
24:48
Speaker 4: They didn't even change.
24:54
Speaker 1: The license plate. And we're not sure if they were right.
24:57
Speaker 1: We're almost sure they weren't so stupid. But we speculate
25:01
Speaker 1: that in their minds, you know, they were these tough guys.
25:04
Speaker 1: And we thought they were probably just saying, hey, look
25:08
Speaker 1: at your face, police! You know, come to us if
25:14
Speaker 1: you can. Investigators learned some value from the witnesses. In
25:17
Speaker 1: this bench, the security cameras filmed the entire robbery, but
25:27
Speaker 1: the video tape was of little use. The camera lenses
25:30
Speaker 1: captured a little more than unidentifiable masked bandits. There was
25:35
Speaker 1: no doubt that these thieves planned each attack carefully. It
25:40
Speaker 1: seemed to me that they were watching the banks before
25:45
Speaker 1: some of the robberies, because most of the time they
25:48
Speaker 1: rob the bank, and even 10 minutes after the delivery
25:54
Speaker 1: of a money transfer by the armored car company. So
25:58
Speaker 1: they waited until the money from the armored car company
26:02
Speaker 1: was inside, and then they robbed the bank. On April 10th,
26:11
Speaker 1: Gordon McNeil and Ben Brogan discussed the case in the
26:13
Speaker 1: training of firearms, looking for any clues they could have forgotten.
26:16
Speaker 1: It had been about three weeks since the last robbery.
26:21
Speaker 1: There were no clues about the identity of the thieves,
26:25
Speaker 1: but McNeil detected a pattern. You are always looking for
26:27
Speaker 1: crime patterns in the police, things that seem to happen consistently,
26:38
Speaker 1: And the only thing we had in mind in these
26:41
Speaker 1: cases was this significant pattern that developed, always on Friday
26:45
Speaker 1: between 9 and 12 o'clock, attacking the same guys several times,
26:48
Speaker 1: several times. Always in the same area of 40 blocks,
26:50
Speaker 1: always along the South Dixie Highway. The agents planned a
26:55
Speaker 1: surveillance for the next day. They would spread out to
27:00
Speaker 1: patrol the area where the thieves had attacked so frequently.
27:04
Speaker 1: The supervisor of the Gordon McNeil unit personally led the operation.
27:08
Speaker 1: We could have waited for them to steal another bank.
27:13
Speaker 1: We had to go there and try our own luck
27:16
Speaker 1: to maybe find them. Agent Hanley, who remembers what happened later,
27:21
Speaker 1: Ed Morales approached and said, hey, let's go there. And
27:24
Speaker 1: the good, what the hell, you know? So it was
27:28
Speaker 1: a whim, I mean, there was no.
27:35
Speaker 1: Pressure to go, or something like that. I mean, I
27:38
Speaker 1: certainly had a lot to do. And I liked Eddie.
27:42
Speaker 1: I thought, well, let's go there. Let's get off the bike.
27:46
Speaker 1: And you know, in a very displeasing way, and have
27:50
Speaker 1: a good time with Eddie. And from there. Many thought
27:56
Speaker 1: it was a shot in the dark. But 14 FBI
27:59
Speaker 1: agents from Miami gathered in a parking lot at 8.45
28:01
Speaker 1: pm on Friday, April 11, 1986. They would watch 53
28:11
Speaker 1: blocks on South Dixie Highway, where two command-style shooters had
28:15
Speaker 1: committed three bank robberies and three thefts of heavy cars
28:18
Speaker 1: in six months. The suspects were described as white men
28:22
Speaker 1: of average height, one of them with a long mustache,
28:25
Speaker 1: both about 30 years old. They were heavily armed and
28:29
Speaker 1: were extremely dangerous. They could be driving a Monte Carlo
28:30
Speaker 1: Black MD J8891, After a wave of assaults that lasted
28:45
Speaker 1: six months, people from the Miami FBI left for the
28:48
Speaker 1: offensive in search of two assassins who possibly drove a
28:51
Speaker 1: black Monte Carlo. They intended to patrol an area where
28:56
Speaker 1: the two armed robbers used military tactics to rob armored
28:59
Speaker 1: cars and banks. They would all be positioned along the
29:08
Speaker 1: main route of the Salt Dixie Highway. The agents Ben
29:17
Speaker 1: Grogan and Jerry Dove were on their way to watch
29:19
Speaker 1: over the Barnett Bank when the impossible happened. A car
29:25
Speaker 1: that fit in the suspect's vehicle's description stopped right in
29:29
Speaker 1: front of him. Incredibly, the agent Grogan told all the
29:34
Speaker 1: units about what he saw Gordon McNeil remembers the call.
29:46
Speaker 1: Grogan is not an emotional person. Nothing could leave him
29:51
Speaker 1: in a bad mood. I still remember his voice. Ah, him.
29:57
Speaker 1: He said, we are looking for a Chevrolet Monte Carlo
30:00
Speaker 1: Black The Dead Florida, NTJ 801. He said, this plate
30:07
Speaker 1: is not fat. I mean, he was simply incredulous. The
30:14
Speaker 1: Merelles and Hanlon agents were positioned at the Professional Savings
30:17
Speaker 1: Bank when they heard Grogan's call. They began to look
30:22
Speaker 1: for their colleagues. Hanlon was driving and Morelas was on
30:26
Speaker 1: the radio. Hanlon tried to obtain an estimate of the
30:29
Speaker 1: location of Grogan and Dauphine. And I remember saying to Ed,
30:35
Speaker 1: call Ben and tell him to start calling the crossroads
30:38
Speaker 1: to know how close we were getting. Before he had
30:42
Speaker 1: a chance to get into the air, Ben started calling
30:44
Speaker 1: the crossroads and we reached them. One after the other,
30:50
Speaker 1: so we were very close to them. After proceeding south
30:54
Speaker 1: through several quarters, Ram and Morelas surrounded them. The thieves
31:01
Speaker 1: soon suspected that they were being followed. If they knew
31:05
Speaker 1: that their pursuers were FBI or not, the suspects wanted
31:08
Speaker 1: to deprive.
31:11
Speaker 4: Them.
31:12
Speaker 1: They turned right on 17th Street in a quiet residential
31:14
Speaker 1: neighborhood at this time of the day. We're still being followed?
31:31
Speaker 1: They turned right again, trying to tell the suspects. But
31:51
Speaker 1: the agents resisted, trying to gain time, as the agent
31:54
Speaker 1: in the propeller remembers. We were just trying to wait
31:58
Speaker 1: for as many FBI agents as possible to get to
32:00
Speaker 1: the place. And we were also basically answering what the
32:04
Speaker 1: suspects were doing.
32:05
Speaker 4: What?
32:07
Speaker 1: They weren't in a hurry. When they turned to 120th Street,
32:11
Speaker 1: they slowed down. The caravan continued with the agents always
32:25
Speaker 1: worried about not putting innocent transients at risk. So the
32:27
Speaker 1: suspects turned left on 82nd. It seemed that they were
32:37
Speaker 1: returning to the busy highway, where civilians would be at
32:47
Speaker 1: risk if a conflict became violent. When Grogan saw the
33:04
Speaker 1: silhouette of a rifle barrel, long by the rear window
33:08
Speaker 1: of the suspect's vehicle, he knew it was time to act.
33:12
Speaker 1: Let's go. It was clear that the suspects were preparing
33:17
Speaker 1: for the battle. Grogan turned on the car light and
33:23
Speaker 1: ordered the suspect to stop. Grogan stopped next to the
33:33
Speaker 1: suspect's car and ordered them to stop. The suspects ignored
33:39
Speaker 1: the alarm. Grogan overtook them, blocking the escape. Anne and
33:51
Speaker 1: Mireles advanced, blocking their passage. The sight caused an indelible
34:01
Speaker 1: impression on the veteran agent John Hanlon. And I will
34:05
Speaker 1: never forget the face of the man. I mean, I
34:07
Speaker 1: could have done that. I could have recognized him. I mean,
34:09
Speaker 1: he looked like a typical villain from the old west.
34:14
Speaker 1: He looked very, very determined. It seemed that the suspects
34:19
Speaker 1: were so desperate to run away from the agents who
34:22
Speaker 1: were chasing them. Two fugitives, heavily armed, ignored the FBI's
34:30
Speaker 1: orders to stop the vehicle. Special agents now tried to
34:36
Speaker 1: force them to obey. The last.
34:39
Speaker 6: To reach the group was agent Richard Manaus.
34:49
Speaker 1: He parked behind the suspect's car. He saw one of
34:52
Speaker 1: the shooters aiming at Mireles and Handler. in Manaus and
34:58
Speaker 1: hit the fugitive's car from behind. They made a return
35:10
Speaker 1: and then Manaus managed to hit them again and threw
35:12
Speaker 1: them in this parking area against some cars there. The
35:26
Speaker 1: passenger opened fire with a 2014 assault rifle. In disadvantage,
35:30
Speaker 1: Agent Manaus was shot in the head. Agent McNeil arrived
35:34
Speaker 1: seconds later, shooting to burn his clothes. They were surrounded
35:39
Speaker 1: by the FBI. Their vehicle did not move, but they
35:41
Speaker 1: had the power of superior fire. and refused to surrender.
36:08
Speaker 1: The driver shot a shotgun at Grogan.
36:10
Speaker 6: McNeil hit the driver.
36:14
Speaker 1: But the semi-automatic kept shooting until one finally hit McNeil
36:23
Speaker 1: in the hand. Leo and Hanlon advanced to protect him. Hanlon's.
36:35
Speaker 1: 38 had five bullets. The Mini-14 had 30 bullets in
36:39
Speaker 1: each front, and one of them knocked down Agent Arrelamio.
37:01
Speaker 1: It was all a continuous memory. It was as if,
37:04
Speaker 1: in a second, I looked at Gordon MacNeil's back, maneuvering
37:08
Speaker 1: to the left. And in the next, I saw only
37:16
Speaker 1: the blue sky. And I looked at my left arm,
37:18
Speaker 1: and my left arm was completely shattered. By an attack.
37:25
Speaker 1: Your partner was down, but the shooter kept shooting. But
37:34
Speaker 1: when he tried to escape through the window, Jerry Dove
37:38
Speaker 1: hit him in the chest with his 9mm. But for
37:40
Speaker 1: Dove's horror, the man shot him in the neck. I
37:46
Speaker 1: couldn't move the trunk. I couldn't move my arm, I
37:49
Speaker 1: couldn't move my legs. So I presumed that I was
37:55
Speaker 1: totally paralyzed at that moment. Two more FBI agents arrived
38:05
Speaker 1: and joined the shooting. At that time, the good shooter
38:14
Speaker 1: had already been hit four times, but he kept advancing,
38:18
Speaker 1: shooting and shooting. He simply decided he wanted to fall.
38:20
Speaker 1: He was going to leave. and he would take as
38:32
Speaker 1: many of us as possible with him.
38:34
Speaker 3: The agents knew that they had a smaller number of weapons,
38:41
Speaker 3: shooting six shots against the semi-automatic assault weapon of 30
38:44
Speaker 3: shots of the suspect.
38:44
Speaker 6: Dove and Grogan were forced to retreat to the back
38:54
Speaker 6: of the car to reload.
38:57
Speaker 1: Hanlon also reloaded. But the shooter continued. and one of
39:08
Speaker 1: them through my right hand and also the knot of
39:16
Speaker 1: my thumb. A lot of lead and other things entered
39:21
Speaker 1: the back of my arm.
39:23
Speaker 4: I remember my gun flying.
39:26
Speaker 1: I said, well, I was hit. While Renan tried to
39:28
Speaker 1: retreat to under the parachute, at his groin. The blood
39:30
Speaker 1: dripped from my groin to my knee. I mean, the
39:35
Speaker 1: blood came out. With a balloon breaking.
39:37
Speaker 4: Bruggen was hit.
39:39
Speaker 1: And then Dove. before they could reload the weapons.
39:52
Speaker 4: I remember Ben saying, my God, he fell at my feet.
40:05
Speaker 1: At some point here, I heard the blood, I heard
40:07
Speaker 1: the sound, he leaves, and I say, he said, the
40:12
Speaker 1: guy went to the car of Agent Dove. With his
40:16
Speaker 1: left arm almost blown up, Agent Mireles managed to get up,
40:25
Speaker 1: The shooter was trying to escape, and Mireles had to
40:27
Speaker 1: stop him. When he was fully injured, the second suspect
40:39
Speaker 1: managed to get out of the car and joined the partner.
40:44
Speaker 1: If the car hit, Mireles knew that they could only
40:49
Speaker 1: go straight over the fallen agents. I got angry because
40:53
Speaker 1: I knew internally that I was dying, and my last
40:55
Speaker 1: thought was, hey, if I'm going to die, I'm going
40:57
Speaker 1: to take these guys with me. I'll make sure they die.
40:59
Speaker 2: With an empty shotgun, Mireles.
41:09
Speaker 1: Switched to the revolver and rushed forward, shooting at the suspects. So,
41:28
Speaker 1: Mirelle's guns settled on the men's throats, killing them both.
41:33
Speaker 1: It was a violent end to the lives of two
41:36
Speaker 1: violent men. A few minutes after the start, the bloodiest
41:42
Speaker 1: shooting in the history of the FBI ended in tragedy.
41:44
Speaker 1: Two agents were dead and five injured. Two unidentified suspects
41:51
Speaker 1: were also killed. They're killing me, man. Agente Jerry Dove
42:08
Speaker 1: was dead. At the age of 30, he graduated in
42:12
Speaker 1: law and realized his childhood dream of joining the FBI.
42:15
Speaker 1: He wanted to make a difference and gave his life to.
42:26
Speaker 4: Try.
42:26
Speaker 1: His partner, Ben Groban, also died in the shooting. He
42:33
Speaker 1: was only one year out of retirement, when his wife
42:36
Speaker 1: could finally stop worrying about her husband's dangerous career. Crime
42:46
Speaker 1: scene technicians arrived at the scene. Sergeant David Rivers, from
42:53
Speaker 1: the Metro Dade Homicide Division, was also there. Rivers had
42:59
Speaker 1: the task of rebuilding five minutes of live terror This
43:03
Speaker 1: would take weeks. Well, we have to find out what happened.
43:08
Speaker 2: And you do this in many ways, obviously.
43:11
Speaker 1: You talk to the agents involved and they can tell
43:13
Speaker 1: you what each one of them did individually.
43:14
Speaker 2: And part of that is to get these different statements
43:18
Speaker 2: about what they did individually and compare them with the
43:20
Speaker 2: physical evidence. The injuries in the body, the bullet holes,
43:24
Speaker 2: in the cars, where the weapons are located, where the
43:27
Speaker 2: cars are located and rebuild them to ensure that everything.
43:29
Speaker 1: Is interpreted correctly, that everything is interpreted correctly. The technicians
43:35
Speaker 1: recovered 143 bullets fired from the fugitives' weapons. Questions that
43:41
Speaker 1: tormented the agents for so long were finally being answered.
43:46
Speaker 1: The Mini-14 rifle used to kill the agents Grogan and
43:49
Speaker 1: Dovey coincided with the 1,223 bullets found in some scenes
43:52
Speaker 1: of bank robbery and armored cars. In fact, the FBI's
43:53
Speaker 1: criminal lab could now link the assassins to several of
43:57
Speaker 1: the previous robberies, And by the digital prints, the agents
44:07
Speaker 1: immediately identified the suspects, such as Michael Lee Platt, 32
44:11
Speaker 1: years old, and William Russell Maddox, 34 years old. But
44:22
Speaker 1: one question remained. What kind of man caused this destruction
44:26
Speaker 1: and why? The agents couldn't have been more surprised by
44:31
Speaker 1: what they discovered with the murderers' friends and neighbors. Instead
44:35
Speaker 1: of bandits living on the border, prepared for the final confrontation,
44:39
Speaker 1: Platt and Maddox were known as quiet family men. The
44:45
Speaker 1: photos showed their families relaxing together. Platt had a wife
44:50
Speaker 1: and three children. Maddox was a single father. They were
44:57
Speaker 1: partners in a landscaping company. But later investigations revealed the
45:02
Speaker 1: lie of their double lives. Inside a warehouse, the agents
45:07
Speaker 1: found weapons and ammunition, including the. 22 that Maddox and
45:11
Speaker 1: Platt stole from Josie Collazo when they tried to kill
45:14
Speaker 1: him in the Everglades. The agents would also find evidence
45:18
Speaker 1: of a bizarre murder pact, in which the men may
45:19
Speaker 1: have killed the previous wives of each other. No one
45:21
Speaker 1: had been accused in the two cases, but now they
45:22
Speaker 1: would be reopened. In a few days, the agents would
45:35
Speaker 1: confirm that Maddox and Platt had killed 25-year-old Emilio Breal
45:38
Speaker 1: in the Everglades. A passer-by found the remains of Breal
45:47
Speaker 1: in the Everglades, not far from where Collazo had been attacked. Then,
45:54
Speaker 1: another note of tragic wheel came out. Special Agent Steve
45:59
Speaker 1: Warner received a package from the Florida Motor Vehicle Department
46:07
Speaker 1: He had a copy of William Russell Maddox's driver's license.
46:14
Speaker 1: He was the owner of one of the Ford F-150
46:16
Speaker 1: white pickups that the agents had located a few weeks before.
46:19
Speaker 1: But there was a delay in the delivery of the licenses.
46:27
Speaker 1: If they had arrived on April 11th or earlier, Collazo
46:33
Speaker 1: would have been able to identify Maddox and probably we
46:37
Speaker 1: would have managed to arrest Maddox and Platt, and two
46:40
Speaker 1: FBI agents would not have been killed. But that's not
46:44
Speaker 1: how luck worked in this particular case. The FBI investigation
46:49
Speaker 1: revealed that both assassins served in the armed forces. Platt
46:56
Speaker 1: was a ranger, a member of the elite force of
46:58
Speaker 1: the first attack of the army, which explained the double
47:01
Speaker 1: command tactics fundamentally different from the training received by the
47:04
Speaker 1: police authorities. We don't have an acceptable count of bodies
47:09
Speaker 1: in the civil police. We are taught in a way.
47:13
Speaker 1: Defensive shot. You protect yourself. Don't suffer low. So you
47:19
Speaker 1: went for the way Platt reacted that day. He reacted
47:23
Speaker 1: in a military way. He had heavier weapons. He had
47:26
Speaker 1: a Mini-14 with a capacity for 30 Saga cartridges. He
47:28
Speaker 1: was basically against the wall. He had nowhere to go,
47:33
Speaker 1: so he advanced in our position, firing suppression shots and
47:38
Speaker 1: took Grogan and Dove, who were behind the car. Before
47:44
Speaker 1: we finally put the pieces together, a scary portrait of
47:47
Speaker 1: two formidable opponents emerged and... At the end of the shootout,
47:56
Speaker 1: Bat had 11 shots. Maddox had 6 shots. The fight
48:01
Speaker 1: was literally made into pieces and continued fighting, fighting, fighting,
48:06
Speaker 1: until it ran out of breath. He fought to the end.
48:11
Speaker 1: They were going to die, but they weren't dying fast enough.
48:16
Speaker 1: And they weren't ready to lay down and die. Yes,
48:18
Speaker 1: they weren't about to give up. And from this tragedy
48:32
Speaker 1: came some positive changes that improved the safety of everyone
48:35
Speaker 1: in the police community. Officers and agents now carry more
48:41
Speaker 1: powerful weapons, and their training prepares them better for violent
48:43
Speaker 1: confrontations like the 11th of April 1986. While hundreds lamented
48:45
Speaker 1: the death of two dedicated and altruistic FBI agents, The
48:59
Speaker 1: policemen sought meaning in the tragic events of that April morning.
49:10
Speaker 1: Over the years, Gordon McNeil found a solution. The story
49:14
Speaker 1: is not made of trivialities. It doesn't matter who they were.
49:19
Speaker 1: It is important to remember the courage that was demonstrated
49:26
Speaker 1: that day by the agents and also by the FBI itself.
49:30
Speaker 1: There is work like this.
50:00
Speaker 4: Bye.