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He Was Making a Night Deposit. Three Strangers Needed Him Dead. · FBI Files

0:06
Speaker 1: In 1988, motorcycle gang violence comes to a small Ohio town.
0:14
Speaker 2: A shocking murder with no warning.
0:18
Speaker 1: When police realize a biker gang might be involved, they
0:21
Speaker 1: ask FBI organized crime experts for help.
0:26
Speaker 2: The gang appears.
0:27
Speaker 1: Impenetrable, but investigators are determined to get inside and find
0:33
Speaker 1: the killers.
1:05
Speaker 3: When gangs go to war, they don't care who gets
1:08
Speaker 3: in the way. In 1988, an innocent man was gunned
1:11
Speaker 3: down near Cleveland, Ohio, a victim of a deadly initiation.
1:16
Speaker 3: I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office.
1:19
Speaker 3: The FBI needed to infiltrate the gang's secretive and violent world.
1:24
Speaker 3: They hoped groundbreaking forensic science would help them put the
1:28
Speaker 3: killers away.
1:39
Speaker 1: To most riders, motorcycles represent freedom, adventure, and fun. But
1:46
Speaker 1: some bikers come together to form dangerous gangs. As the
1:52
Speaker 1: ranks of these gangs grew in the 1980s, the violent
1:56
Speaker 1: crime attributed to them increased. Like the mafia, their often
2:01
Speaker 1: criminal enterprise drew the attention of FBI-organized crime squads. According
2:06
Speaker 1: to Cleveland FBI Special Agent Stuart Schoaf.
2:10
Speaker 4: The motorcycle gang problem throughout the United States was fairly
2:13
Speaker 4: large at that time. We had a large chapter of
2:17
Speaker 4: motorcycle gang members here in Cleveland.
2:20
Speaker 1: The principal biker gang in Cleveland made their money off
2:23
Speaker 1: drug dealing, theft of interstate shipments, and extortion. Like mob families,
2:30
Speaker 1: they protected their interests and their secrets with violence. Whenever
2:39
Speaker 1: multiple gangs developed in an area, tensions between them inevitably grew.
2:46
Speaker 1: Across the country, battles for control of territory were intense.
2:52
Speaker 1: When one gang struck against another, retributions always followed, an
2:58
Speaker 1: escalating cycle of wild aggression. In an incident that reflected
3:03
Speaker 1: how far the gangs would go, One biker gang blew
3:10
Speaker 1: up the clubhouse of a rival gang with a rocket launcher.
3:16
Speaker 1: These gangs would do anything to continue their criminal enterprise.
3:21
Speaker 1: Organized crime squads needed to stop them. Trying to develop
3:29
Speaker 1: information on the major gang in Cleveland, agents tried surveillance.
3:35
Speaker 1: But it wasn't easy.
3:37
Speaker 4: This group knew that they were being watched by us
3:40
Speaker 4: and local law enforcement. When they had a meeting at
3:43
Speaker 4: their clubhouse, they would post a guard out in front
3:46
Speaker 4: of the chapter clubhouse and watch for any suspicious cars
3:50
Speaker 4: in the neighborhood.
3:53
Speaker 1: The gang protected the people on their street from outside crime,
3:57
Speaker 1: so grateful neighbors would not talk to investigators either. The
4:02
Speaker 1: Cleveland gang might have guarded those in their own neighborhood.
4:06
Speaker 1: But not everyone enjoyed such safety. Around 10 o'clock on
4:11
Speaker 1: the evening of February 27th, 1988, outside Cleveland in Perkins Township,
4:18
Speaker 1: 28-year-old store clerk David Hartlaub and a co-worker had closed
4:22
Speaker 1: the music store where they worked. Hartlaub was headed to
4:30
Speaker 1: a nearby bank to deposit the store's cash receipts. He
4:37
Speaker 1: didn't know he had company inside his van. Or that
4:45
Speaker 1: he was being tailed. For security, his coworker always followed
4:53
Speaker 1: him to the bank, which was less than a mile away.
5:03
Speaker 1: Neither man noticed the dark sedan on Hartlaub's tail. By
5:11
Speaker 1: the time they got to the bank, his coworker had
5:13
Speaker 1: fallen 20 seconds behind. It took less than that to strike.
5:41
Speaker 1: When the co-worker pulled up, he saw the van taking off.
5:46
Speaker 1: He spotted his friend down, but a man with a
5:49
Speaker 1: gun ordered him to leave. Several other customers came to
5:54
Speaker 1: use the ATM and were ordered at gunpoint to stay
5:57
Speaker 1: in their cars. Then the gunman ran off, leaving David
6:04
Speaker 1: Hartlaub lying.
6:05
Speaker 2: On the asphalt.
6:10
Speaker 3: In 1988, Perkins Township was a small town with only
6:11
Speaker 3: 11 police officers on the force.
6:12
Speaker 5: Within minutes, nearly all of the Perkins Township.
6:14
Speaker 6: Officers were on the scene.
6:39
Speaker 2: Including current police chief Tim McClung.
6:42
Speaker 5: The crime scene overall was very chaotic when I arrived.
6:44
Speaker 5: The paramedics were first approaching the victim. He was on
6:48
Speaker 5: the ground. He was struggling to try and right himself. Obviously,
6:52
Speaker 5: seriously injured.
6:54
Speaker 1: Hartlaub was in shock, but alive. The number of entrance
7:04
Speaker 1: and exit wounds and the enormous blood loss struck the paramedics.
7:11
Speaker 1: None of them had worked this degree of gunshot trauma before.
7:19
Speaker 1: The best they could do in the field was keep
7:21
Speaker 1: him breathing and stem the blood flow. David Hartlaub made
7:28
Speaker 1: it to the hospital, but died 20 minutes later. Police
7:37
Speaker 1: interviewed Hartlaub's coworker and the other shocked witnesses.
7:44
Speaker 5: Originally, the information coming from the witnesses was very confusing. Obviously,
7:48
Speaker 5: you had different officers talking to different witnesses. The different
7:50
Speaker 5: witnesses saw different things from their perspective. The stories were conflicting,
7:55
Speaker 5: and it was problematic at first.
7:57
Speaker 1: Investigators concluded there were three suspects, one in the van,
8:03
Speaker 1: one driving the dark sedan, and one who threatened the witnesses.
8:10
Speaker 1: The co-worker described him as an Asian or Hispanic male.
8:14
Speaker 5: A witness saw the victim fall out of the van
8:17
Speaker 5: onto the roadway, and the van drove off. Now, based
8:21
Speaker 5: on that information, we took a dog out into the field,
8:25
Speaker 5: attempted to do an area search.
8:29
Speaker 1: Other officers inventoried and collected the physical evidence at the bank.
8:36
Speaker 1: A set of keys determined to be for Hartlaub's music
8:39
Speaker 1: store would be checked for fingerprints. And they would send
8:44
Speaker 1: ejected shell casings to the ballistics lab. McClung's tracking dog
8:51
Speaker 1: followed a scent from the bank toward a hotel.
8:55
Speaker 5: It led about a quarter of a mile around the
8:57
Speaker 5: hotel and back into another parking area where I discovered
9:00
Speaker 5: the van. As we approached the van, I had my
9:03
Speaker 5: weapon drawn.
9:10
Speaker 1: The dog barked its signal for clear, but McClung and
9:13
Speaker 1: the backup officer had to be sure. There was no
9:25
Speaker 1: one inside. The officers knew not to disrupt any evidence
9:31
Speaker 1: that might be in the van and waited for crime
9:33
Speaker 1: scene technicians to arrive.
9:35
Speaker 5: We'll back off and see if the crime scene.
9:36
Speaker 1: Guys check it.
9:37
Speaker 5: We weren't sure if the suspect could still be in
9:39
Speaker 5: the area. I mean, he could have been in a
9:40
Speaker 5: tree line watching us for all we knew.
9:43
Speaker 1: The technicians began processing the second crime scene to determine
9:46
Speaker 1: what had happened.
9:50
Speaker 5: There were rounds that penetrated through the back of the
9:53
Speaker 5: driver's seat, through the victim, and out through the door
9:56
Speaker 5: of the vehicle. It went along with the theory that
9:58
Speaker 5: he was ambushed inside the vehicle. that the shooter was behind.
10:01
Speaker 1: Technicians noted a great deal of blood spatter, mostly on
10:08
Speaker 1: and around the front seat. They collected samples of the
10:14
Speaker 1: blood from each pool for examination at the serology lab.
10:23
Speaker 1: Between the seats, they found a Mac 11 semi-automatic handgun.
10:29
Speaker 5: The type of weapon we recovered led us to believe
10:32
Speaker 5: that this was not a couple of guys got together
10:34
Speaker 5: and decided to go rob somebody making a night deposit.
10:37
Speaker 5: I mean, this is not a weapon that you typically
10:39
Speaker 5: encounter on a small Midwestern town.
10:43
Speaker 1: Someone had ground off the serial number and attached a
10:46
Speaker 1: plastic bag to catch ejected shells. Police found it odd
10:51
Speaker 1: that such an evidence-conscious killer would leave the gun behind.
10:56
Speaker 1: Perhaps he panicked or was injured. The MAC-11 had also
11:01
Speaker 1: been modified with a homemade silencer.
11:03
Speaker 5: It led us to believe that the people involved were
11:07
Speaker 5: quite possibly, for lack of a better term, professional.
11:12
Speaker 2: But they weren't experts.
11:14
Speaker 1: The silencer was not aligned properly and caused each bullet
11:18
Speaker 1: to split in two, sending shrapnel flying throughout the van.
11:24
Speaker 5: We knew that he was making a bank deposit, so
11:26
Speaker 5: we were feeling that this was along the lines of
11:28
Speaker 5: a robbery.
11:31
Speaker 1: Yet inside the van, they recovered the music store's deposit bag.
11:35
Speaker 5: Once the money bag was found inside the vehicle with
11:41
Speaker 5: over $ 4.
11:41
Speaker 2: 000 inside, that theory quickly was cast to the side.
11:53
Speaker 1: The crime scene technicians retrieved multiple bullet fragments and several
11:57
Speaker 1: complete slugs from the van. They determined 13 rounds had
12:04
Speaker 1: been fired.
12:07
Speaker 2: All from behind. A brutal execution.
12:12
Speaker 5: Somebody wanted him dead. There was a lot of motivation.
12:16
Speaker 5: Maybe this was a contract killing. Could have been a
12:18
Speaker 5: murder for hire, but somebody definitely wanted him dead.
12:23
Speaker 1: McClung and another canine handler had their dogs search for
12:26
Speaker 1: the suspect's trail leading away from the van. But neither
12:31
Speaker 1: dog could key on any scent.
12:34
Speaker 5: As a canine handler, it was my job to interpret
12:36
Speaker 5: what the dog was trying to tell us, and I
12:39
Speaker 5: believed that the dog was telling us that the suspect's
12:41
Speaker 5: left in a car.
12:46
Speaker 1: As some officers wrapped up the crime scene, the others
12:49
Speaker 1: fanned out across the township, looking for three men in
12:52
Speaker 1: a dark sedan. It had been Perkins' first murder in
12:58
Speaker 1: more than 10 years, and police wanted to find the
13:00
Speaker 1: killers fast. Early the next morning, in the adjacent town
13:08
Speaker 1: of Sandusky, two officers returned to the Sandusky police station
13:13
Speaker 1: in the middle of what they thought was a routine shift.
13:18
Speaker 1: When their supervisor briefed them on the murder in Perkins,
13:21
Speaker 1: the mundane suddenly became remarkable. They realized they might have
13:28
Speaker 1: seen the shooting suspects the previous night. Hours earlier, the
13:36
Speaker 1: two officers had pulled over a dark sedan for making
13:38
Speaker 1: an illegal right turn on red. They had identified the
13:50
Speaker 1: driver as Mark Verde. The front passenger, Steven Yee, owned
13:59
Speaker 1: the vehicle.
14:01
Speaker 2: Both men lived in Cleveland's suburbs.
14:06
Speaker 1: The officers noticed Yee wore a belt buckle with the
14:09
Speaker 1: Cleveland biker gang's insignia and a hunting knife, though that
14:12
Speaker 1: was not illegal. The third man was in the back seat,
14:20
Speaker 1: but at the time they had no reason to check
14:23
Speaker 1: his I.D. The officers called in Yee and Verde's information.
14:32
Speaker 1: Everything was in order. Since they were unaware of the shooting,
14:38
Speaker 1: they let the three men go. The traffic stop had
14:47
Speaker 1: been at 9.56 p.m., about five minutes after the murder,
14:51
Speaker 1: and three miles away from.
14:52
Speaker 2: The crime scene.
14:53
Speaker 5: What did he say about them?
14:56
Speaker 1: The officers said the front passenger, Stephen Yee, and the
14:59
Speaker 1: car closely matched the descriptions given by witnesses at the bank.
15:09
Speaker 1: Sandusky police immediately alerted their colleagues in Perkins, frustrated that
15:14
Speaker 1: the killers might have gotten away because of a technology glitch.
15:20
Speaker 1: At the time.
15:21
Speaker 5: The Perkins Police Department and the Sandusky Police Department, which
15:24
Speaker 5: have a bordering jurisdiction, were operating on two separate police frequencies.
15:29
Speaker 5: The officer had no idea that we had just had
15:30
Speaker 5: a shooting.
15:32
Speaker 2: The belt buckle was an important clue.
15:35
Speaker 1: Police knew anyone wearing the gang's insignia was almost certainly
15:39
Speaker 1: a member. The non-member caught wearing the insignia risked violent
15:44
Speaker 1: punishment or death. Investigators now had suspect names, but if
15:52
Speaker 1: the secretive gang was involved, solving the crime might be impossible.
15:58
Speaker 5: Investigating biker gangs is a unique investigation. They are very
16:04
Speaker 5: closed mouth. They actually, one of the gangs has a
16:08
Speaker 5: saying that three people can keep a secret if two
16:11
Speaker 5: of them are dead.
16:17
Speaker 1: After David Hartlaub was gunned down in Perkins Township, Ohio,
16:22
Speaker 1: police developed two suspects whom they believed were connected to
16:25
Speaker 1: a Cleveland biker gang. Aware that federal authorities were investigating
16:33
Speaker 1: this very gang as a suspected organized crime ring, local
16:37
Speaker 1: officers called Special Agent Charles Holloway at the FBI Sandusky
16:41
Speaker 1: Resident Agency.
16:44
Speaker 7: Yes.
16:46
Speaker 8: The Perkins Police Department contacted the FBI to see if
16:49
Speaker 8: we were in a position to provide them with any
16:52
Speaker 8: intelligence information on the two individuals who had been identified
16:57
Speaker 8: at the time of the traffic stop.
17:01
Speaker 1: Holloway knew the best source of information was Special Agent
17:04
Speaker 1: Stuart Shoff in Cleveland, who headed the FBI's criminal biker
17:08
Speaker 1: investigation in the area. Shoaff had been trying to build
17:14
Speaker 1: a file on the Cleveland chapter of the gang.
17:19
Speaker 2: Oh, it's very difficult to investigate a group like that.
17:21
Speaker 2: We worked.
17:23
Speaker 4: A long time trying to get more information about them,
17:27
Speaker 4: develop intelligence information, and put together a case on them
17:32
Speaker 4: that would put these individuals away for a long time.
17:35
Speaker 1: They'd been unable to plant moles inside the secretive gangs.
17:42
Speaker 1: but undercover agents had gotten close enough to learn details
17:45
Speaker 1: about its structure. Prospective members, called prospects, wore banners on
17:53
Speaker 1: their jackets listing the city the gang ran in. Full
17:58
Speaker 1: members wore jackets with complete patches they called their colors.
18:02
Speaker 1: The initiation for prospects to earn their colors had its price.
18:07
Speaker 4: The initiation has to do with some type of violent
18:11
Speaker 4: act towards either a rival motorcycle gang member or an
18:15
Speaker 4: individual that has maybe wronged one of the members.
18:21
Speaker 1: The requirement of violence was designed in part to weed
18:25
Speaker 1: out undercover law enforcement trying to infiltrate, since no law
18:28
Speaker 1: officer could commit such a crime. Through their ongoing investigation,
18:34
Speaker 1: FBI agents were able to identify many of those involved
18:37
Speaker 1: with the gang, including the two men ID'd in the
18:43
Speaker 1: traffic stop in Sandusky on the night of the Hartloff murder.
18:49
Speaker 1: Special Agent Shoaff knew the passenger, Steven Yee, was a
18:53
Speaker 1: full-fledged gang member, and the driver, Mark Verde, was a prospect.
19:02
Speaker 1: The third man was a mystery, but agents were confident
19:06
Speaker 1: he was linked to the Cleveland gang too. Investigators knew
19:12
Speaker 1: about a rival gang that had a clubhouse in Sandusky.
19:20
Speaker 1: The rivalry between the two gangs had been escalating and
19:23
Speaker 1: had recently moved up a notch. Agents had heard of
19:31
Speaker 1: an incident in a bar a few months earlier. The
19:35
Speaker 1: rival gangs found themselves in the same place and each
19:39
Speaker 1: wanted control of the territory. Bikers consider their colors sacred.
19:48
Speaker 1: A member of the rival gang made off with a
19:50
Speaker 1: prize trophy, the jacket of one of the Cleveland bikers.
20:02
Speaker 2: It was a profound insult.
20:05
Speaker 9: They're up.
20:07
Speaker 2: There, they're.
20:09
Speaker 1: Working. Accusations flew and no one would back down.
20:17
Speaker 4: In the brawl, one of the Cleveland bikers was shot.
20:38
Speaker 1: Agents had developed a confidential informant associated with the gang.
20:43
Speaker 1: He told them that after the fight, he was at
20:45
Speaker 1: a party where the Cleveland gang talked about the incident.
20:51
Speaker 2: They were looking to retaliate.
20:57
Speaker 1: And the prospective members saw a perfect opportunity for their
21:00
Speaker 1: initiation as part of the revenge.
21:07
Speaker 2: Hi, gentlemen.
21:08
Speaker 1: Investigators who had begun outlining the two gangs realized that
21:12
Speaker 1: a member of the rival group drove a van exactly
21:15
Speaker 1: like David Hartlob's. They might have gone after that gang
21:20
Speaker 1: member and made a mistake, according to Perkins Police Chief
21:23
Speaker 1: Tim McClung.
21:25
Speaker 5: The victim in the case, Mr. Hartlob, had no criminal record.
21:32
Speaker 5: There was nothing in his background to suggest that he
21:35
Speaker 5: would have been the victim of a murder for hire.
21:38
Speaker 5: And the similarities between the vehicles led investigators to believe
21:41
Speaker 5: that it was a case of mistaken identity, that he
21:47
Speaker 5: was killed because his van matched the rival gang member's van.
21:54
Speaker 1: Soon after the murder, the ranks of the Cleveland gang grew.
21:58
Speaker 1: According to Sandusky FBI Special Agent George Steinbach.
22:03
Speaker 7: We had received information from several sources that a celebration
22:09
Speaker 7: party was conducted in the Cleveland area to celebrate at
22:15
Speaker 7: least two new members of the biker gang. This would
22:19
Speaker 7: be indicative of them being taken in as full-fledged members
22:23
Speaker 7: as a result of committing.
22:25
Speaker 2: A heinous crime.
22:29
Speaker 1: Because of the strong possibility that the gang was involved.
22:33
Speaker 2: Assistant U.S.
22:34
Speaker 1: Attorney Jim Woolley and the Cleveland Area Organized Crime Strike
22:37
Speaker 1: Force came on board.
22:41
Speaker 10: There were things that needed to be done from the
22:43
Speaker 10: lawyering end, including going to judges and seeking search warrants.
22:48
Speaker 10: So as soon as it became apparent that we were
22:51
Speaker 10: looking at possibly a hit by a biker gang, the
22:56
Speaker 10: Organized Crime Strike Force was brought in. to work with
23:00
Speaker 10: the FBI and the police departments to help coordinate the investigation.
23:06
Speaker 1: The strike force had a theory as to motive and
23:08
Speaker 1: the names of two of the three suspects, Steven Yee
23:13
Speaker 1: and Mark Verde. They needed to identify the third and
23:20
Speaker 1: find the evidence to put the killers away. In Ohio,
23:27
Speaker 1: the FBI believed a Cleveland biker gang was behind a brutal,
23:31
Speaker 1: mistaken identity assassination. They identified two suspects as Stephen Yee
23:38
Speaker 1: and Mark Verde. The FBI kept them under loose surveillance
23:42
Speaker 1: while they continued the investigation. Special Agent Charles Holloway was
23:48
Speaker 1: trying to identify the third suspect and looked to gang
23:52
Speaker 1: expert Stuart Schoaf for help.
23:55
Speaker 8: Special Agent Shoaf provided us with background information on Yee
24:00
Speaker 8: and Verity, and he came up with three names of
24:04
Speaker 8: either members or prospects of this motorcycle gang who he
24:08
Speaker 8: felt were most likely to have been the third person
24:11
Speaker 8: in the vehicle.
24:17
Speaker 2: Investigators needed to interview those three men.
24:21
Speaker 1: The two bikers they found first had solid alibis for
24:24
Speaker 1: the night of the murder. Non-gang members corroborated their stories,
24:31
Speaker 1: and the two men were eliminated as suspects.
24:40
Speaker 2: The one on the list they could not find was
24:43
Speaker 2: John Ray Bonds.
24:45
Speaker 1: He matched the description of the man in the back
24:47
Speaker 1: seat during the traffic stop.
24:51
Speaker 8: The FBI agents in Cleveland interviewed various members of his family,
24:56
Speaker 8: and what they were told by family members was that
24:59
Speaker 8: John had gone on a two-week vacation. It was pointed
25:02
Speaker 8: out at that time to us by his grandfather that
25:06
Speaker 8: John also now had his arm in a sling, and
25:09
Speaker 8: that John had told his grandfather and his mother that
25:11
Speaker 8: he had injured his arm at work.
25:15
Speaker 1: None of the family knew exactly where Bonds was vacationing.
25:20
Speaker 1: While the Cleveland FBI continued the search for Bonds, the
25:23
Speaker 1: nearby Eastlake Police Department turned up important information about suspect
25:28
Speaker 1: Mark Verde, the driver during the traffic stop.
25:33
Speaker 2: Detective Bob Jackson developed the lead.
25:36
Speaker 9: A fraud investigator from a local bank contacted us, telling
25:39
Speaker 9: us that, well, I had this fraud case involving Mark Verde,
25:44
Speaker 9: where he had taken out a loan for several.
25:47
Speaker 2: Thousand dollars, landed up, using.
25:52
Speaker 9: A $ 10, 000 collateral to get the loan and then end
25:56
Speaker 9: up stealing the remainder of the money from a good
25:58
Speaker 9: friend of his.
26:00
Speaker 1: Like most other investigators in the area, Jackson was familiar
26:04
Speaker 1: with the Hartlaub murder. He knew that Verdi was a
26:08
Speaker 1: suspect and that the FBI needed more evidence on him.
26:13
Speaker 9: So we're thinking, whoa, you know, we really might have
26:15
Speaker 9: something here. We have a fraud case, a theft case
26:18
Speaker 9: that we can investigate, that we could put together.
26:21
Speaker 2: And just maybe, maybe.
26:22
Speaker 9: We'll luck out and maybe we'll be able to help
26:26
Speaker 9: out these other agencies with this murder case.
26:30
Speaker 1: They would not risk any procedural errors, according to Assistant U.S.
26:34
Speaker 2: Attorney Jim Woolley.
26:36
Speaker 10: When you don't have the defendants or the criminals caught
26:40
Speaker 10: on videotape and people don't confess right away and you're
26:43
Speaker 10: trying to get evidence, you have to get evidence legally.
26:47
Speaker 10: You've got to use search warrants. You've got to use subpoenas.
26:51
Speaker 10: You've got to get evidence in a way that's legal
26:54
Speaker 10: so you can later use it in court.
26:57
Speaker 1: The Superior Court judge signed a warrant that allowed Eastlake
27:01
Speaker 1: police to search Verde's home for evidence in the fraud case.
27:07
Speaker 1: FBI agents accompanied them. Legally, they could only observe.
27:16
Speaker 9: We went there to look for bank documents, and if
27:20
Speaker 9: we saw anything else that we thought might be evidence
27:24
Speaker 9: or have anything to do with this case out in
27:27
Speaker 9: Perkins Township, we would let the FBI know that we
27:30
Speaker 9: saw something that might be pretty interesting.
27:44
Speaker 1: The suspect was not at home, but his wife was
27:48
Speaker 1: fully cooperative. When they explained the warrant and her rights,
27:54
Speaker 1: she let them in. But it was Mark Verde's name
28:00
Speaker 1: that was on the warrant, so they decided to wait.
28:06
Speaker 1: They didn't want to do anything that might jeopardize using
28:09
Speaker 1: evidence in a later trial. After half an hour, Mark
28:17
Speaker 1: Verde came home.
28:20
Speaker 6: Hey, Mark.
28:21
Speaker 4: How you doing, Mark?
28:23
Speaker 8: Mark Verde?
28:24
Speaker 1: Hey, Mark.
28:24
Speaker 4: How you doing?
28:31
Speaker 1: Okay.
28:31
Speaker 9: You let him in. Mark, we've got a search warrant
28:35
Speaker 9: for your residence.
28:36
Speaker 10: We've got some federal agents here.
28:38
Speaker 9: We've got detectives from East Lake.
28:40
Speaker 2: He seemed unfazed by the police presence. Take a look
28:44
Speaker 2: at it.
28:44
Speaker 9: Remember that theft case? Remember?
28:48
Speaker 2: Take a look at it.
28:49
Speaker 9: Remember several years ago you took out that loan from
28:52
Speaker 9: the bank for about $ 7, 000?
28:55
Speaker 6: You had a buddy of yours.
28:58
Speaker 9: He gave you $ 10, 000 as collateral.
28:59
Speaker 1: You wound up cashing it for him. The other guy's name.
29:03
Speaker 2: You remember that?
29:04
Speaker 1: He learned of the fraud case against him and that
29:06
Speaker 1: with the warrant, they could search his entire house. Upstairs,
29:24
Speaker 1: the search quickly paid off when officers found papers relating
29:29
Speaker 1: to the alleged bank fraud. But more importantly, they also
29:37
Speaker 1: discovered several items that might help the FBI with the
29:40
Speaker 1: Hartlaub murder.
29:43
Speaker 9: We found a briefcase, and, you know, you open up
29:45
Speaker 9: the briefcase, and there's a mask in there, there's gloves,
29:49
Speaker 9: and the grinder was in there. And shavings, metal shavings.
29:56
Speaker 1: The grinder and shavings might be related to the serial number,
29:59
Speaker 1: ground off the murder weapon recovered from the van.
30:07
Speaker 9: As we're searching, we see a map, and it's folded
30:10
Speaker 9: up unusually, and we look at it, and you open
30:13
Speaker 9: it up, you look at it, and you see Sandusky,
30:16
Speaker 9: Perkins Township area, kind of highlighted and pointed out.
30:22
Speaker 1: The murder had taken place in Perkins Township, and Verde
30:26
Speaker 1: was pulled over in neighboring Sandusky. It was time for
30:32
Speaker 1: Special Agent Stuart Shoff and the other agents to take
30:35
Speaker 1: on a role beyond that of observers.
30:39
Speaker 4: We decided to get a federal search warrant and we
30:42
Speaker 4: did that waiting some time at the residence while several
30:46
Speaker 4: agents went back to the office and drafted the affidavit
30:48
Speaker 4: and search warrant.
30:53
Speaker 1: With the federal warrant outlining evidence sought in connection with
30:56
Speaker 1: the murder, Agents could conduct an additional search of the
30:59
Speaker 1: Verde home and seize any related items. It did not
31:12
Speaker 1: take long to find more incriminating evidence, including a MAC-11
31:17
Speaker 1: semi-automatic handgun, the same model as the murder weapon. Its
31:23
Speaker 1: serial number was ground off in the same manner as
31:26
Speaker 1: the killer's gun.
31:35
Speaker 4: And we also found a pistol in the wood bin.
31:39
Speaker 4: We found trash bags similar to the trash bag material
31:44
Speaker 4: that was used to make a makeshift cartridge catcher on
31:48
Speaker 4: the Mac 11, which was used for the homicide.
31:52
Speaker 1: With probable cause increasing, agents secured a third warrant to
31:57
Speaker 1: search the vehicle Mark Verde drove on the night of
31:59
Speaker 1: the murder. at the Cleveland Federal Building's garage, FBI technicians
32:08
Speaker 1: processed suspect.
32:09
Speaker 2: Steven Yee's car.
32:15
Speaker 1: Though two weeks had passed since the murder, the car
32:18
Speaker 1: did contain evidence for Special Agent Holloway.
32:26
Speaker 8: During the processing, we located two shell casings, nine millimeter
32:30
Speaker 8: shell casings in the vehicle.
32:33
Speaker 1: The 9mm specification was the right caliber for use in
32:37
Speaker 1: a MAC-11.
32:40
Speaker 2: Agents sent the.
32:41
Speaker 1: Shells to the FBI's ballistics lab for comparison against the
32:44
Speaker 1: murder weapon. The technicians also recovered hair samples from the
32:52
Speaker 1: back seat of the car.
32:55
Speaker 8: And we found spatters of what was determined to be
32:59
Speaker 8: human blood on the rear of the passenger seat.
33:05
Speaker 1: Liquefying the blood with distilled water, the technicians collected samples.
33:12
Speaker 1: Agents wondered if the blood got there on the night
33:14
Speaker 1: of the shooting. Testing would show it was not the
33:19
Speaker 1: same blood.
33:19
Speaker 2: Type as the victims. Perhaps it was the killer's.
33:29
Speaker 1: Investigators recalled that the bullets had been split by the
33:32
Speaker 1: faulty silencer, possibly injuring the shooter. Neither Stephen Yee nor
33:42
Speaker 1: Mark Verde seemed to have a fresh gunshot wound. But
33:47
Speaker 1: the family of the third suspect, John Bonds, reported he
33:50
Speaker 1: had had his arm in a sling the day after
33:52
Speaker 1: the murder, allegedly due to a work injury. To check
34:00
Speaker 1: the story, the FBI interviewed Bonds' employer and asked about
34:04
Speaker 1: the days surrounding the murder.
34:09
Speaker 8: He advises that John was scheduled to be at work
34:12
Speaker 8: on the night of February 27th, the night of the homicide,
34:15
Speaker 8: and had failed to appear for work as scheduled and
34:17
Speaker 8: had not been back since.
34:23
Speaker 1: There was no record of Bonds suffering any injury at work.
34:28
Speaker 1: The pieces were falling into place, but they still had
34:32
Speaker 1: no direct proof.
34:34
Speaker 8: We obtained a search warrant for hair sample, blood sample,
34:39
Speaker 8: and for John to be examined by a physician for
34:44
Speaker 8: signs of him having sustained some type of a gunshot wound.
34:48
Speaker 2: They had the warrant. Now they needed to find the suspect.
34:53
Speaker 8: Just like any other fugitive search, you would interview family, friends,
34:58
Speaker 8: continuously checking back with the employer, spot check his residence,
35:04
Speaker 8: other places that he's known to hang out, such as
35:06
Speaker 8: a clubhouse. friends, bars where he's known to hang out,
35:13
Speaker 8: and all that was done in an effort to locate
35:15
Speaker 8: John Bonds unsuccessfully.
35:21
Speaker 1: In 1988, Ohio authorities sought John Ray Bonds, who had
35:26
Speaker 1: left the area after a murder in Perkins Township. After
35:31
Speaker 1: weeks of searching for Bonds, Special Agent Charles Holloway got
35:35
Speaker 1: an important call.
35:37
Speaker 8: On March 14th, 1988, John's attorney contacted the Cleveland office
35:43
Speaker 8: of the FBI and said that John knew that the
35:46
Speaker 8: FBI was attempting to locate him and that he would
35:49
Speaker 8: present himself at the FBI office in Cleveland on March
35:52
Speaker 8: the 16th of 1988, which he did.
35:55
Speaker 1: Agents served Bonds with a warrant requiring him to give
35:58
Speaker 1: a blood sample.
36:01
Speaker 2: The doctor concluded a fresh tattoo on his arm covered
36:05
Speaker 2: a recent injury.
36:07
Speaker 1: Bonds did not know the FBI was developing innovative DNA
36:11
Speaker 1: profiling technology that might conclusively match a suspect's blood to
36:16
Speaker 1: samples from a crime scene. Agents hoped that if they
36:21
Speaker 1: did find a match, the courts would accept the new
36:23
Speaker 1: science as evidence.
36:27
Speaker 8: We had a very good circumstantial case against him based
36:30
Speaker 8: on all of the interviews that we had done. But
36:32
Speaker 8: we did not have fingerprints from John Bonds, With.
36:37
Speaker 1: Only circumstantial evidence, prosecutors did not want arrests yet, so
36:41
Speaker 1: Bonds was released. Then, on March 22nd, an Ohio Department
36:49
Speaker 1: of Transportation cleanup crew working the highway outside Sandusky discovered
36:54
Speaker 1: the vehicle title.
36:55
Speaker 2: For David Hartlaub's van.
36:59
Speaker 1: Nearby, they found a handgun, a wool hat, and a glove.
37:05
Speaker 1: and a box of 9-millimeter ammunition, the.
37:07
Speaker 2: Caliber used in MAC-11s. Aware of the Hartlov murder, they
37:14
Speaker 2: called authorities.
37:16
Speaker 1: The placement of the items further implicated the Cleveland gang
37:20
Speaker 1: for Prosecutor Jim Woolley.
37:22
Speaker 10: It happens to be a state highway that would connect Sandusky,
37:25
Speaker 10: Ohio to Cleveland, Ohio. It would be a route that
37:28
Speaker 10: someone would travel if they were driving from Sandusky on
37:31
Speaker 10: their way back to Cleveland.
37:34
Speaker 1: The suspects might have thrown the items out the window
37:36
Speaker 1: as they drove away from the crime. FBI technicians collected
37:41
Speaker 1: the evidence for analysis. Examiners at the FBI's hairs and
37:50
Speaker 1: fibers lab compared the evidence from the highway to evidence
37:53
Speaker 1: they already had.
37:56
Speaker 8: Fibers consistent with that glove had been located on the
38:00
Speaker 8: murder weapon. Fibers consistent with that glove had been located
38:04
Speaker 8: on a shirt, which was removed from Mark Verity's house
38:08
Speaker 8: during the March 9th search warrant. And fibers were found
38:13
Speaker 8: on the glove consistent with the carpet in David Hartlaub's van.
38:18
Speaker 1: Additionally, a hair found on the glove matched a hair
38:21
Speaker 1: recovered from the back seat of the car the suspects
38:24
Speaker 1: were in on the night of the murder.
38:29
Speaker 2: At the Firearms and Tool Marks Unit.
38:31
Speaker 1: FBI examiners worked on the murder weapon, trying to find
38:35
Speaker 1: a trail.
38:35
Speaker 2: To its owner.
38:40
Speaker 10: The murderers had gone to great lengths to try to
38:42
Speaker 10: make this gun not traceable, they thought, and they ground
38:46
Speaker 10: down the serial number such that you couldn't see it.
38:48
Speaker 10: But through a chemical restoration process, the FBI was able
38:52
Speaker 10: to raise up the serial number and identify the serial number,
38:55
Speaker 10: even though you couldn't see it with the naked eye,
38:57
Speaker 10: and then you could trace that gun.
39:00
Speaker 1: Checking the records of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms,
39:05
Speaker 1: investigators found the murder weapon's registered owner. He confirmed that
39:11
Speaker 1: he used to own that MAC-11 and the one found
39:14
Speaker 1: at Verdi's house. But several months earlier, both guns had
39:19
Speaker 1: been stolen from his car, which he had parked outside
39:22
Speaker 1: a friend's house. That friend's name was Stephen Yee.
39:30
Speaker 8: Here we have Steve Yee is stopped in a traffic
39:33
Speaker 8: stop minutes after the homicide in Sandusky, Ohio, and we
39:37
Speaker 8: can show that the murder weapon was stolen from a
39:40
Speaker 8: vehicle parked in front of his residence several months before
39:45
Speaker 8: the homicide.
39:47
Speaker 1: The circumstantial evidence against Yee, Verdi, and Bonds was building,
39:52
Speaker 1: but agents wanted something more definite before they made arrests.
39:58
Speaker 1: In April 1987, they learned of a breakthrough regarding the
40:02
Speaker 1: blood evidence in the case. FBI serology experts had determined
40:09
Speaker 1: that the blood in David Hartlaub's van had actually come from.
40:13
Speaker 2: Two individuals, presumably the victims, and an assailant.
40:26
Speaker 1: Examiners compared the blood from the victim's van to that
40:29
Speaker 1: from the suspect's car.
40:33
Speaker 8: The lab came back and told us that the blood
40:36
Speaker 8: which had been recovered in Stevie's vehicle matched the blood
40:41
Speaker 8: that had been recovered in Hartlaub's vehicle.
40:45
Speaker 1: The match was at the blood type level only. Still,
40:49
Speaker 1: it meant that the man in the backseat at the
40:51
Speaker 1: traffic stop was likely the killer in the van. They
40:57
Speaker 1: hoped the revolutionary DNA technology being developed would reveal a
41:01
Speaker 1: more exact molecular match.
41:06
Speaker 8: I had read an article in one of the FBI
41:07
Speaker 8: publications that the FBI was putting together its DNA unit,
41:11
Speaker 8: and they were in the process of doing research. So
41:15
Speaker 8: inasmuch as we had blood in our case, which we
41:18
Speaker 8: felt could possibly be compared with a suspect, I contacted
41:23
Speaker 8: the section chief that was in charge of putting that
41:25
Speaker 8: unit together and spoke to him about the possibility of
41:27
Speaker 8: doing a DNA analysis in this case.
41:31
Speaker 1: At the FBI lab in 1988, examiners like senior scientist Dr.
41:37
Speaker 1: Bruce Bedoli were still testing the groundbreaking forensic science of
41:41
Speaker 1: DNA profiling.
41:45
Speaker 6: DNA is the blueprint for what you are, what I am,
41:49
Speaker 6: for what all living things are. So if we could
41:51
Speaker 6: tap into that blueprint, we could tap into information that
41:54
Speaker 6: would help us identify individuals.
41:57
Speaker 1: Examiners were working to establish a scientifically sound way to
42:01
Speaker 1: profile the DNA from a known source, like a suspect's blood,
42:05
Speaker 1: and compare it to the DNA from an unknown source,
42:08
Speaker 1: like the blood left at a crime scene.
42:11
Speaker 6: And we generate a profile that looks something like a barcode.
42:15
Speaker 6: Then we compare that barcode to another barcode, and the
42:19
Speaker 6: barcodes are in the same kind of pattern. They may
42:22
Speaker 6: have come from the same source.
42:24
Speaker 1: By early 1989, after years of testing quality control, the
42:30
Speaker 1: examiners believed they were ready to use the science in
42:32
Speaker 1: the federal courts.
42:36
Speaker 2: The Hartlaub case would be the first one.
42:41
Speaker 1: Examiners profiled the DNA sequence from the blood in the
42:44
Speaker 1: van and from the blood of John Bonds. Comparing the
42:49
Speaker 1: markers of the two sequences, they made a match. Exactly
42:53
Speaker 1: the evidence Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Woolley needed.
42:56
Speaker 10: The DNA was a critical piece of the puzzle because
43:00
Speaker 10: it provided virtually conclusive evidence that John Ray Bonds, a
43:04
Speaker 10: member of the biker gang, The third man in the
43:08
Speaker 10: backseat of the car was Steve Yee and Mark Verde,
43:11
Speaker 10: stopped five minutes from the homicide, had bled inside the van.
43:16
Speaker 1: March 7th, 1989. More than a year after the murder,
43:22
Speaker 1: it was time to bring in the killers. In the
43:25
Speaker 1: hours before dawn, SWAT teams prepared for a simultaneous takedown
43:30
Speaker 1: of the three suspects.
43:31
Speaker 5: Take the measure watcher.
43:33
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
43:34
Speaker 4: Go ahead.
43:35
Speaker 1: They knew it was safest to catch them while they
43:37
Speaker 1: were still asleep. The teams fanned out to the homes
43:54
Speaker 1: of Yee, Verde, and Bonds.
44:01
Speaker 2: They hoped to strike before the suspects.
44:03
Speaker 1: Could warn one another or flee. One team moved on
44:09
Speaker 1: Verdi's house, while another entered Yee's. Mark Verdi was arrested
44:23
Speaker 1: without a struggle. At the same time, 20 miles away,
44:33
Speaker 1: his fellow gang member, Steven Yee, was taken.
44:36
Speaker 2: Into custody as well.
44:39
Speaker 1: But the third suspect, John Ray Bonds, was not at home.
44:45
Speaker 1: Nor was he with known family members. The man investigators
44:50
Speaker 1: believed was a ruthless assassin was.
44:53
Speaker 2: Again on the run.
45:00
Speaker 1: In the summer of 1989, authorities on the trail of
45:04
Speaker 1: fugitive John Ray Bonds had him profiled on a nationally
45:08
Speaker 1: televised crime show On the program, they described Bonds, his
45:14
Speaker 1: distinctive tattoos and the places he frequented, hoping someone somewhere
45:18
Speaker 1: would recognize the suspected murderer. On the afternoon of November 8th, 1989,
45:25
Speaker 1: a patron at a bar in Paducah, Kentucky spotted Bonds.
45:31
Speaker 2: He remembered the tattoos on the fugitive's.
45:34
Speaker 1: Hands from the TV show and took a chance. He
45:42
Speaker 1: contacted the local sheriff who called the FBI resident agency
45:45
Speaker 1: in Paducah. They were ready to arrest Bonds, but they
45:50
Speaker 1: had to be careful, according to Special Agent Stuart Shove.
45:54
Speaker 4: They felt that going into the bar, there may be
45:57
Speaker 4: some trouble if they entered the bar at that point
45:59
Speaker 4: because there were a lot of biker types in the
46:02
Speaker 4: bar and they did not want to have any type
46:04
Speaker 4: of confrontation. They felt it would be much safer to
46:07
Speaker 4: set up some type of roadblock.
46:11
Speaker 1: The FBI, Kentucky State Police, and local officers staged a
46:15
Speaker 1: fake traffic accident on a road leading from the bar
46:19
Speaker 1: to a known biker clubhouse in the area. When Bonds
46:27
Speaker 1: and another gang member left the bar, agents followed. As
46:36
Speaker 1: they hoped, The pair headed toward the clubhouse and got
46:39
Speaker 1: on the blocked road. The trooper waved them forward. And
46:48
Speaker 1: undercover police pulled in behind them. Though he didn't know it,
46:56
Speaker 1: Bonds was surrounded.
47:00
Speaker 9: Get out of the car!
47:03
Speaker 5: Get out of the car!
47:04
Speaker 9: Right now!
47:05
Speaker 6: Get out of the car!
47:13
Speaker 1: Nearly two years after the murder of David Hartlaub, John
47:17
Speaker 1: Ray Bonds was finally in custody. Now he and the
47:22
Speaker 1: other two suspects, Stephen Yee and Mark Verde, would stand
47:26
Speaker 1: trial for the killing. FBI senior scientist Dr. Bruce Badoli
47:34
Speaker 1: had to help convince federal judges that the DNA evidence
47:38
Speaker 1: should be allowed in the trial.
47:42
Speaker 6: New technologies as they enter the court will be challenged
47:45
Speaker 6: for their admissibility. So I had a role in going
47:47
Speaker 6: in to defend the technology to demonstrate that it met
47:51
Speaker 6: the scientific standards to be admitted into court so that
47:54
Speaker 6: the jury could hear about the evidence in the first place.
47:59
Speaker 2: After months of hearings, Assistant U.S.
48:01
Speaker 1: Attorney Jim Woolley succeeded in getting the DNA evidence ruled admissible.
48:07
Speaker 1: With it and the other evidence, he went into the
48:09
Speaker 1: trial confident.
48:12
Speaker 10: This is a case where just piece after piece after
48:15
Speaker 10: piece of evidence was built through forensic testing, ballistic testing, serology,
48:22
Speaker 10: forensic chemistry, hair and fiber analysis, DNA analysis, serial number restoration.
48:30
Speaker 10: And you start just building those things one on top
48:33
Speaker 10: of the other. And there's really very little that a
48:37
Speaker 10: defense attorney can say when faced with a case like that.
48:42
Speaker 1: Stephen Yee, Mark Verdi, and John Bonds were all convicted
48:48
Speaker 1: of murder and sentenced to life. The unrelenting investigation put
48:54
Speaker 1: three killers behind bars and helped open the door for
48:58
Speaker 1: a forensic technology that has changed criminal investigations forever.