July 18, 2024 • 31 mins
Join host Jay Harris as he unravels the twisted saga of the equestrian insurance scandal, where the glamorous world of horse sports hides a grim reality. Explore a story of horse murders for insurance money, spotlighting the devious players who manipulated the system for massive financial gains, and discover the intense investigation that brought them to justice.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome back to Playing Dirty sports Scandals. I'm Jay Harris,
your host and barista extraordinary if you like dark bruise.
That is, after all, when I serve up, you know
it's going to be a scandalous sports tale that doesn't
shy away from any of the jarring, juicy details. Over
the past twenty years of my career as a journalist
(00:28):
in sportscaster, I've hosted ESPN shows from Sports Center to
Outside the Lines. But I'm playing dirty. I am squeezing
every last drop from the shocking sports tales you crave.
(00:58):
There we go nothing like some dark red beet juice.
To foreshadow this episode, which delves into the bloody horse
murders scandal of the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties, This
is one of the darkest chapters of equestrianism, a period
marked by deceit, cruelty, and the tragic demise of innocent
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animals at the hands of those they trusted most. You see,
in the gilded world of equestrianism, all the money in
the world cannot guarantee champions because, more often than not,
winning comes down to the strength of the bond between
horse and rider. This partnership between man and animal is
a delicate dance of cues and responses, a testament to
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the hours of training in mutual respect foraged between the species.
Over time, riders become attuned to their horses moods and needs,
understanding each flick of the year or shift of weight
as clearly a spoken word. In return, the horses allow
themselves to be guided by their riders. Together they move
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as one entity, a union of strength and grace, captivating
equestrian fans around the world. Equestrianism, while it may not
have the same scale of followers as soccer, cricket or hockey,
does appeal to a wide audience, especially every First Saturday
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in May when the Kentucky Derby is run at the
legendary Churchill Downs in Louisville. In this sport, names like
Man of War and Secretariat are as well known as
Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Jesse Owens and Tom Brady. The
horses are regarded as athletes in their own right, and
their backstories are often just as inspiring as those of
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humans sports champions. For example, Snowman, dubbed the Cinderella Horse,
was famously saved from slaughter by his owner Harry de Layer,
only to leap to stardom as a champion show jumper.
Even forty two years after no Man's passing, Harry Delayer
gave CNN a glimpse into their special relationship. I feel
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happy for every day that Snowman was in my life,
Delayer said. And even though several horse buyers approached Delayer
with offers for Snowman over the years, he refused to
be separated from his equine companion. I couldn't sell him,
Delayer explained. He'd given me everything. He still gives me everything,
even in his memory. But while a relationship like the
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one shared between Harry Delayer and Snowman epitomizes that intangible,
incredible spark between rider and horse that makes equestrianism such
a compelling sport, many players overlooked that essential sentimental component
to focus exclusively on money. The equestrian market is big
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business internationally. The sector is worth about three hundred billion dollars,
and even though it's not a water sport, that level
of financial attraction lends itself to serious sharks. After all,
competing horses represented convergence of passion, athleticism, and economics. The
acquisition of a promising horse is often a multi million
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dollar affair, with breeders, owners and trainers all gambling on
the potential return that a champion can bring. To put
the stakes in perspective, the racing horse Fusaichi Pegasus was
purchased for seventy million dollars, Sharif Dancer was bought for
forty million, and Annihilator was acquired for nineteen million. Not
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to mention the upkeep costs of these exceptional animals. Training,
healthcare and maintenance for a show jumper or racehorse can
run into the thousands of dollars each and every year.
Then you have to take into consideration the logistical costs
of transportation and entry fees for competitions that span the globe.
I mean, I shudder at the costs of international flights
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nowadays for me and my human family members. But flying
a horse just one way tip cost five figures. So yeah,
there are big dollar amounts on the line for equine owners,
and there's a lot of pressure for investment recoupment on
the track. Does it all add up in the end, Well,
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for most people, the gamble on horse showing and racing
doesn't pay off. There's even a joke often told in
racing circles, how do you become a millionaire owner? In
racehorsing start out as a billionaire. But just as gamblers
flock to Las Vegas, Macau and Mighty Carlo, despite stack
do odds, there are always equestrian chancers drawn to the tracks,
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and for the lucky few who have the means to
own a horse and find themselves at the winning end
of a major event, the payoff can be significant. For instance,
the Dubai World Cup offers a staggering twelve million dollars
in prize money, while the pre Della Arcta Triumph boasts
over five million. In the realm of if show jumping,
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the Grand Prix of Achan rewards competitors with prizes worth
over a million dollars. Naturally, the prize money is just
to tip of the iceberg. For winning horses and their owners,
a single victory in a prestigious race or competition can
skyrocket o horses value, increasing the value for breeding rights
given the thrilling long shot upside. Equestrianism is an enticing
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gamble for many, but it's also at times a sickening
one because unfortunately, the commodification of horses necessarily introduces a
dark aspect to the sport. While many fans of the
sport revere horses as athletes, there are always going to
be some who view them merely as assets. A horse's
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worth for owners with this mentality is intricately linked to
its ability to compete and win. This transforms these majestic, living,
breathing creatures into mere entries in an investment portfolio, where
the potential for profit often overshadows the spirit of what's
been called the sport of kings. And when you strip
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all sentimentality from the equation, subordinating the fact that horses
are sentient beings to pushing for bigger and bigger financial returns,
that's when you get people playing dirty. Owners with money
at the top of their minds are motivated to push
unethical practices ranging from overtraining to the use of performance
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enhancing drugs. Stuart Jenny, the chairman of the Jockey Club,
told sixty Minutes, that horse doping is a big problem.
It strikes at the integrity of the sport. It's not
good for the horses. There's just nothing about it that
is acceptable. An FBI agent Sean Richards agreed telling CBS
that it's completely wrong, you know, to pump these horses
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full of stuff that you don't know what's in them
for a potential chance to win at a higher rate.
It's disgusting behavior. And while this disgusting behavior may increase
the likelihood of a win on the track marginally for
unscrupulous owners, it also increases the likelihood of their horse,
their asset, being injured or dying prematurely. So what do
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people do when they want to protect an asset, and
particularly when they want to protect an asset that they
know is at high risk. Think about the homeowners on
Florida's coastline and the concerns around property damage from flooding.
Think about drivers who dare to get behind the wheel
were prior dui convictions. How do they sleep at night? Easy?
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They take out insurance. And that is exactly what happens
in the world of equestrianism. Rudimentary insurance coverage for horses
has been available since eighteen ninety, but by the nineteen
eighties having horse insurance had become common practice for owners.
For the most part, this is just a sound precaution
for horse owners to have, very similar to how we
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take out life insurance policies to protect our families financial
futures when we die. But you know what, every so
often someone tries to knock off their spouse for the
life insurance money. It's happened enough times that a quick
look at think Advisor pulls up a list of famous
cases in under ten seconds, from private Isaac Agigee murdering
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his wife an unborn child for a five hundred thousand
dollars insurance payout, to Nanette Anne Packard conspiring with former
New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colt linebacker Eric Naposki to
murder her boyfriend Newport Beach mogul William McLaughlin for an
insurance check of five hundred thousand dollars. If some people
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are willing to kill other people for insurance money, then
it doesn't take a leap to believe some equine owners
are willing to kill their underperforming or aged out horses
for the insurance money. It all started with the rumors
in the stables at the tracks. People were hearing murmurings
in the early nineteen eighties that it was becoming increasingly
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commonplace for horses to be intentionally harmed or killed for
insurance payouts. But it was so horrible to think about
that most people laughed the gossip off at first, until
it couldn't be ignored. You see, evidence began to stack
up that this evil scam was really going on in
the shadows of some horse barns. Too many horses were
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suddenly dying without explanation, and the equestrian community, which prided
itself on a glean of affluence and decorum, found itself
grappling with the possibility that some of its socially prestigious
members might be orchestrating the murders of innocent animals for
financial gain. Horrible though it was, the temptation was undeniably
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there for morally devoid horse owners. After all, insurance payouts
on horses, particularly those with the potential to win big
on the racetrack or in show jumping competitions, could run
into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars.
A scandal was brewing, bubbling over at an alarming rate,
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as veterinarians and insurance investigators raised alarms about an unusual
pattern of injuries and deaths in valuable horses, making some
boiled lemon water. Here you know it's going to taste
sour with a horse murdered scandal on tap, But this
beverage fits the bill when it comes to feeling the burn,
and you're definitely going to need something to keep you going.
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When I tell you about the ultimate burn, Tommy Burns
that is known in hushed tones among those in the
know as the Sandman. Tommy Burns carved a niche for
himself that was as lucrative as it was macab His moniker,
borrowed from the folklore figure who gently lulls children to sleep,
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belied the grim nature of his newly adopted profession euthanizing
horses for in insurance money. Tommy became the go to
operative for owners seeking to transform their living investments into
lucrative insurance payouts through the most final means possible. How
does any child grow up to become a serial horse murderer,
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you ask, Well, Tommy was born in Manchester, Connecticut. Was
it the easiest city to start life in? Maybe not?
After all, seventy four percent of US cities are safer
than Manchester, which has a D plus crime rating according
to crimegrade dot org. Even so, it's a beautiful part
of the country, and it's hard to imagine that anything
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in Tommy's New England childhood could be used to explain
his ultimate career path. His parents did divorce when he
was young, and Tommy left home when he was about
fifteen years old. Needing to support himself, Tommy took a
job as a horse groomer for Barney Ward, the famous
show jumper and horse trainer who owned Castle Hill Farm
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in Bruceter, New York. Tommy worked hard and aspired to
a more financially secure life. He knew he would likely
never come near the wealth of those whose horses he
cared for, but he was making progress, stepping out in
his off work hours to buy and sell horses independently,
to sell horse grooming and riding supplies, and to operate
his own horse transport services. You had to hand it
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to him, Tommy was an industrious young man. It was
while he was working hard, both for himself and for
Barney Ward on the horse circuit that Tommy Burns cross
paths with a six foot two Harlow Arley, who would
become his assistant in the dark days ahead. At its core,
this scandal is a devastating tale of greed's ugly work.
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You see, Tommy wanted more. Maybe it was being around
so many affluent people day in and day out, seeing
what they had, and hungering for a taste of it.
Who knows, but there's a powerful saying. Never be controlled
by three things, your past, money, and people. And to Tommy,
the Sandman Burns was destined to succumb to all three.
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Like so many criminals, Tommy started making fast money with
smaller scale illicit activities, mostly dealing in stolen saddles and
veterinary equipment. Tommy also collected debts for his wealthy clients,
a task which could and often did get ugly. Michael Parrish,
a Midwest horses show official, remembered Tommy's evolution into a
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tough guy. He carried a pair of brass knuckles, and
he collected debts. Michael remembered of Tommy's early side hustles
on the equestrian circuit. I don't want to use the
word enforcer, but if somebody owed money, Tommy was sent
to go get it. Tommy was a guy who had
no fear from selling stolen goods and collecting debts. Tommy's
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criminal behavior escalated when James Druck approached him in nineteen
eighty one with a proposition. James Druck was a prestigious
attorney and the owner of Equal Nest Farm in a
Call of Florida. His seventeen year old daughter, Lisa Druck,
was a talented young equestrian who had a beloved horse
named Henry the Hawk. Since Lisa was under age and
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had no control over her own finances, her father, James
held the purse strings, and he did not view Henry
the Hawk through a sentimental lens. James Druck turned a
blind eye to his daughter's love for a horse and
instead appraised Henry the Hawk solely as a failed investment
requiring swift recoupment. His first plan of attack was to
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sell the horse for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
When the highest offer he received was only one hundred
and twenty five thousand, James decided to cook up a
new strategy using his very specific know how you see.
James Drug's legal practice often defended insurance companies against claims,
so he knew that if a horse were electrocuted, it
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would be almost impossible for a veterinary pathologist to find
signs of foul play and that the animal's death would
be chalked up to colic And guess what Henry the
Hawk's insurance policy was for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Now,
James Druck was undoubtedly a dirty player with a heartless streak.
What parent plots the demise of their child's beloved animal companion?
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After all, it's not like their family was in dire
financial straits by any means. In fact, Chip Hudson, a
veteran horse trainer who worked with Lisa Druck, told abcnews
dot Com that she was a regular kid with a
family with a lot of money. Her father commuted back
and forth in his own airplane. Does that sound like
a guy who's hurting for an extra twenty five thousand dollars.
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Who knows how James Druck rationalized his dark decision, but
the fact remains he'd come up with a dirty plan.
And can you guess who he called up to do
his dirty work? None other than tough guy hustler Tommy Burns.
Tommy Burns had never killed a living creature before James
Druck approached him with the plot to kill Henry the Hawk.
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Sure he'd swung some punches at people who owed his
client's money, and even broken a nose once on a
collection gig, but murder Tommy had no idea where to begin,
so allegedly James Druck taught Tommy Burns the dark trade
that would come to define his nightmarish activities over the
next decade. According to Tommy, years later, it was James
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who purchased his first set of electrocution tools, and James
who meticulously taught him how to convert an ordinary orange
extension cord into a deadly weapon by splitting the cord
and affixing alligator clips to its ends. James Druck allegedly
demonstrated how to secure the apparatus to the horse, ensuring
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immediate death upon plugging it into an outlet. You better
get out of the way, Tommy Burns recalled James, warning
him and so following the instructions of James Druck to
Earns murdered Henry the Hawk, a horse who so touched
the life of Lisa Drug who has since changed her
name to Reale Hunter, that as recently as October twenty
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twenty one, she was posting tributes to him on Facebook.
My horse, Henry the Hawk was an amazing horse for
everyone who had him, a life changing horse, a blessing,
and a great teacher. Rielle remembered, Henry the Hawk changed lives.
He is still changing lives. He is still teaching. She wrote,
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what a terrible tragedy for Henry the Hawk, for James
Druck's daughter, now called Reelle Hunter, and for people everywhere
who might have benefited from interaction with this beautiful animal.
Reale Hunter must have surely reeled when the truth about
Henry the Hawk's death came out, and her life ever
since has seemingly been dotted with extraordinary events, ranging from
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alleged cocaine field nights in New York causing her to
be the inspiration for the film Bright Lights, Big City,
to getting clean and starting a foundation devoted to achieving
higher consciousness, to having an affair with married presidential hopeful
John Edwards. It seems Rielle was destined for a life
of extremes, and perhaps it was growing up in such
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an affluent but morally confused environment that contributed to some
of her more challenging moments. In any event, losing her
beloved horse, Henry the Hawk had a pivotal moment in
her equestrian journey and personal development could not have been
easy for a girl who one groomer remembered as sad
and troubled and desperately looking for something. Tommy Burns, meanwhile,
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had found a sole sucking solution to the something he'd
been looking for. Money. He walked away from James Druck's
stables with the terrible new knowledge that there was a
market for equine murder and that he could line his
pockets by becoming the go to guy for horse snuffing.
Tommy Burns had evolved into the Sandman, and after his
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first kill in nineteen eighty one, no horse safe from
his fatal business as they slumbered in their stables. The
fatal business is stomach churningly awful to contemplate. If you
ask me, it's even more difficult to swallow than straight
up clamado juice, which, for those of you who don't know,
is a grimy concoction of clam and tomato juice. But
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just because a business is gross doesn't mean it isn't booming.
As Tommy the Sandman Burns learned fast, there was no
lull in his line of work. Not ever, there was
always a horse owner willing to subordinate sentimentality to money
in the equestrian world, where so many dripped class around
the tracks, but harbored, ugly, uncivil secrets were left to
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their own devices. Per The New York Times, Tommy Burns
earned about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars between nineteen
eighty one and nineteen ninety one killing horses. Tommy told
reporter Don Terry that if he had taken all the
offers to kill horses that came his way, the death
toll would have been closer to fifty He also said
that his typical fee was at least five thousand dollars
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a horse, but that he once got forty thousand. Even
Tommy was astonished by the length horse owners or willing
to go to cash out on their equant investments. People
get paid less for killing people, Tommy mused. During his
decade long death spree, Tommy Burns ended the lives of
between thirteen and fifteen horses across the equestrian show circuit,
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stretching from Staples in Florida to Vermont to Illinois and
everywhere in between. Demand peaked in nineteen eighty nine, according
to Tommy, when these millionaires get tired of them, they
throw the horses away like broken toys. I killed three
horses in one week. He later confessed. It's madness right.
Why were so many millionaires opting for such a cold
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hearted end to their horses lives? According to Tommy, owner's
decision to end a horses live stemmed from various actors,
performance issues, health complications, or simply the animal's age. Tommy
also rationalized his own actions to some degree, insisting that
the horses died too fast to feel any pain. Knowing
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this apparently made him feel better. He even went so
far as to insist to the press that his heart
was not made of stone. Whenever he killed the horse,
Tommy explained he had to get drunk first. My motive
for killing horses was to make money, he said. For
the owners, it was just rotten, cheapness at its worst.
Regardless of his rationalization, it's undeniable that Tommy and the
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horse owners were guilty conspirators. But what about everyone else?
According to equestrian insiders, everyone knew or at least strongly suspected,
what was going on. There were whispers whenever Tommy turned
up at a horse show carrying his canvas bag kill kit,
but no one dared to confront Tommy given his reputation
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for violently collecting debts. After all, how would such a
man respond to a horse murder accusation. The elite equestrians
uninvolved in Tommy's dirty circuit shuddered to consider what would
happen if they dared speak up. People knew what was
going on, a prominent West Virginia horseman revealed years later,
when Tommy arrived at a show, they would say the
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Sandman was around. They knew a horse would be put
to sleep. Electrocution as a means of murder worked instantly,
which was something that Tommy could at least rationalize to himself.
But in nineteen ninety one, he was given an assignment
that even he couldn't stomach, so he called upon his
assistant Harlow Arley for help. Now, they say that criminals
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often get caught when they deviate from the norm, and
what transpired on February second, nineteen ninety one, were certainly
not Tommy Burn's norm. It all started when Donna Brown,
the ex wife of renowned horse trainer Paul Valier's former
associate Buddy Brown, hired Tommy to break the leg of
her horse, a chestnut jumper named Streetwise. Her cold hearted
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logic was that Streetwise's insurance policy didn't cover Colic, and
therefore death by electrocution wouldn't work. Since the post mortem
would attribute the horse's death to Colic, she needed a
different kill strategy. Donna Brown figured that a horse with
a broken leg is almost always euthanized since it's almost
impossible to rehabilitate this equin injury, so that is what
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she wanted Tommy to do. Tommy, tempted by the money
Donna offered, took the job and then asked Carlow Arley
to carry out the actual deed for half the feet.
Remembering the hours leading up to their brutal attack on
street Wise, Tommy says he lamented to Harlow in a bar, saying,
I don't want to break his leg. I'm not into that. Allegedly,
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Harlow was less concerned about putting an animal through a painful,
drawn out demise, and so aligned on their unthinkably cruel strategy.
They took a crowbar and headed to Canterbury Farms. It
was a stormy Florida night, and Tommy and Harlowe believed
that the rain worked to their advantage. It would cloak
their actions in plausible deniability. Right After all, it could
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appear that street Wise had simply slipped on a slick
ramp as they were loading him into a transport truck
and broken his leg that way. Yes, it seemed to
the two criminals that they had covered their tracks well,
But this time they underestimated karma and law enforcement. You see,
investigators had received too many tip offs about Tommy Burns
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to ignore him any longer. Florida's authorities were ready and
literally lying in wait in the pouring rain at Canterbury
Farms on February second, nineteen ninety one. From the shadows,
the investigators watched in helpless horror as Tommy Burns restrained
street Wise while Harlow Arley emerged, crowbar in hand to
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crack the horse's leg with a terrible blow. The sound
of the crowbar making contact was heard across the highway.
Street Wise's panic Nazze tore through the silence, a sound
of pure distress that echoed into the night as the
horse in agony attempted to flee, only to fall and
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rise again in a feudal attempt to escape the pain.
Harold Berry, a Florida Department of Agriculture investigator doing surveillance
that night from a nearby horse trailer, says he still
can't forget that sickening crack and then Streetwise's screams as
he staggered into the darkness on three legs. Speaking to
the Tampa Bay Times three years after the tragedy, Harold
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Berry explained, I could not stop it even if I
wanted to. I was too far away. People ask me,
how could you let them do that? But you've got
to know the whole picture. Look at what we brought down.
And Harold Berry was right to point this out, because
while street Wise's terrible maiming and ultimate death was devastating
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and cruel, it was not in vain. The authorities who
had witnessed Tommy Burns and harlow Arley's horrific enterprise descended
on them swiftly with lights, sirens, and handcuffs. Faced with
the heavy legal ramifications of his actions, harlow Arley promptly
turned against Tommy Burns, confirming the entire horse murder plot
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to investigators, and despite a lame attempt to flee the scene,
which was quickly thwarted. It was clear that Tommy Burns's
grim rain as the Sandman was over for good. In
the murky aftermath of his arrest that night, Tommy Burns
became an unlikely lynchpin in unraveling a deep, dark web
of equine insurance fraud that had ensnared the equestrian world.
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The FBI recognized that while Tommy had undeniably been the
executor of the crimes committed, he had not been the
brains and money behind the spate of horse murders. Tommy
Burns turns out to be the tip of the iceberg,
remarked one federal agent, hinting at the scandal's vast scope.
With his back to the wall and all his affluent
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employers suddenly failing to answer his calls, Tommy Burns decided
to save himself with a lighter jail sentence by cooperating
fully with the FBI. The New York Times reported that
the only reason Tommy Burns is cooperating with federal agents
investigating deadly acts of cruelty and fraud and the glittering
showhorse business is that those rich skunks he worked for
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turned their backs on him the second he got busted
doing their dirty work. Harlow Arley confirmed what The New
York Times reported, sharing that Tommy Burns was calling everybody,
and nobody came to his aid. It was this lack
of response from the so called pillars of the equestrian
community that led Tommy to reveal the extent of their
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complicity and the twisted scheme that prioritized profit over the
well being of the magnificent animals they claimed to cherish.
The Sandman felt abandoned by his wealthy, powerful clients. I
did all their dirty work, Tommy told one in a viewer.
Now it's payback time. And so Tommy Burns laid bare
the mechanics of the fraud for the joined investigative efforts
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of the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms. He named prominent individuals in the horse
show industry, from owners and trainers to veterinarians and riders,
who had engaged in or facilitated the nefarious practice of
killing horses for insurance payouts. As details emerged, it seemed
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that up to forty individuals would be ensnared in the
legal net cast by the investigation facing indictments on a
slew of charges related to horse killings for insurance money,
and the words of American author Sarah Rash, how quickly
the mighty fall. Nothing is going to make such a
sickening scandal palatable. But let's try some diluted cranberry juice
(30:05):
to settle our stomachsh down the hatch. Well, I still
feel nauseous and furious, but at least I know that
one of my favorite ingredients is going to be served
up when we delve deeper into the scandalous story. Next week,
Justice join me your host Jay Harris for the next
episode of Playing Dirty Sports Scandals when we find out
(30:26):
how Justice caught up with the equestrian moguls who thought
they were above the law. Playing Dirty Sports Scandals is
a production of Dan Patrick Productions, Never Ever Productions and
(30:47):
Workhouse Media from executive producers Dan Patrick, Paul Anderson, Nick Panela,
Maya Glickman, and Jennifer Claring. Hosted by Jay Harris, Written
and produced by Jen Brown, Francy Haiks, my Eglctment and
Jennifer Claire
Welcome back to Playing Dirty sports Scandals. I'm Jay Harris,
your host and barista extraordinary if you like dark bruise.
That is, after all, when I serve up, you know
it's going to be a scandalous sports tale that doesn't
shy away from any of the jarring, juicy details. Over
the past twenty years of my career as a journalist
(00:28):
in sportscaster, I've hosted ESPN shows from Sports Center to
Outside the Lines. But I'm playing dirty. I am squeezing
every last drop from the shocking sports tales you crave.
(00:58):
There we go nothing like some dark red beet juice.
To foreshadow this episode, which delves into the bloody horse
murders scandal of the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties, This
is one of the darkest chapters of equestrianism, a period
marked by deceit, cruelty, and the tragic demise of innocent
(01:19):
animals at the hands of those they trusted most. You see,
in the gilded world of equestrianism, all the money in
the world cannot guarantee champions because, more often than not,
winning comes down to the strength of the bond between
horse and rider. This partnership between man and animal is
a delicate dance of cues and responses, a testament to
(01:42):
the hours of training in mutual respect foraged between the species.
Over time, riders become attuned to their horses moods and needs,
understanding each flick of the year or shift of weight
as clearly a spoken word. In return, the horses allow
themselves to be guided by their riders. Together they move
(02:02):
as one entity, a union of strength and grace, captivating
equestrian fans around the world. Equestrianism, while it may not
have the same scale of followers as soccer, cricket or hockey,
does appeal to a wide audience, especially every First Saturday
(02:24):
in May when the Kentucky Derby is run at the
legendary Churchill Downs in Louisville. In this sport, names like
Man of War and Secretariat are as well known as
Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Jesse Owens and Tom Brady. The
horses are regarded as athletes in their own right, and
their backstories are often just as inspiring as those of
(02:44):
humans sports champions. For example, Snowman, dubbed the Cinderella Horse,
was famously saved from slaughter by his owner Harry de Layer,
only to leap to stardom as a champion show jumper.
Even forty two years after no Man's passing, Harry Delayer
gave CNN a glimpse into their special relationship. I feel
(03:05):
happy for every day that Snowman was in my life,
Delayer said. And even though several horse buyers approached Delayer
with offers for Snowman over the years, he refused to
be separated from his equine companion. I couldn't sell him,
Delayer explained. He'd given me everything. He still gives me everything,
even in his memory. But while a relationship like the
(03:28):
one shared between Harry Delayer and Snowman epitomizes that intangible,
incredible spark between rider and horse that makes equestrianism such
a compelling sport, many players overlooked that essential sentimental component
to focus exclusively on money. The equestrian market is big
(03:49):
business internationally. The sector is worth about three hundred billion dollars,
and even though it's not a water sport, that level
of financial attraction lends itself to serious sharks. After all,
competing horses represented convergence of passion, athleticism, and economics. The
acquisition of a promising horse is often a multi million
(04:11):
dollar affair, with breeders, owners and trainers all gambling on
the potential return that a champion can bring. To put
the stakes in perspective, the racing horse Fusaichi Pegasus was
purchased for seventy million dollars, Sharif Dancer was bought for
forty million, and Annihilator was acquired for nineteen million. Not
(04:31):
to mention the upkeep costs of these exceptional animals. Training,
healthcare and maintenance for a show jumper or racehorse can
run into the thousands of dollars each and every year.
Then you have to take into consideration the logistical costs
of transportation and entry fees for competitions that span the globe.
I mean, I shudder at the costs of international flights
(04:54):
nowadays for me and my human family members. But flying
a horse just one way tip cost five figures. So yeah,
there are big dollar amounts on the line for equine owners,
and there's a lot of pressure for investment recoupment on
the track. Does it all add up in the end, Well,
(05:16):
for most people, the gamble on horse showing and racing
doesn't pay off. There's even a joke often told in
racing circles, how do you become a millionaire owner? In
racehorsing start out as a billionaire. But just as gamblers
flock to Las Vegas, Macau and Mighty Carlo, despite stack
do odds, there are always equestrian chancers drawn to the tracks,
(05:38):
and for the lucky few who have the means to
own a horse and find themselves at the winning end
of a major event, the payoff can be significant. For instance,
the Dubai World Cup offers a staggering twelve million dollars
in prize money, while the pre Della Arcta Triumph boasts
over five million. In the realm of if show jumping,
(06:01):
the Grand Prix of Achan rewards competitors with prizes worth
over a million dollars. Naturally, the prize money is just
to tip of the iceberg. For winning horses and their owners,
a single victory in a prestigious race or competition can
skyrocket o horses value, increasing the value for breeding rights
given the thrilling long shot upside. Equestrianism is an enticing
(06:25):
gamble for many, but it's also at times a sickening
one because unfortunately, the commodification of horses necessarily introduces a
dark aspect to the sport. While many fans of the
sport revere horses as athletes, there are always going to
be some who view them merely as assets. A horse's
(06:47):
worth for owners with this mentality is intricately linked to
its ability to compete and win. This transforms these majestic, living,
breathing creatures into mere entries in an investment portfolio, where
the potential for profit often overshadows the spirit of what's
been called the sport of kings. And when you strip
(07:08):
all sentimentality from the equation, subordinating the fact that horses
are sentient beings to pushing for bigger and bigger financial returns,
that's when you get people playing dirty. Owners with money
at the top of their minds are motivated to push
unethical practices ranging from overtraining to the use of performance
(07:29):
enhancing drugs. Stuart Jenny, the chairman of the Jockey Club,
told sixty Minutes, that horse doping is a big problem.
It strikes at the integrity of the sport. It's not
good for the horses. There's just nothing about it that
is acceptable. An FBI agent Sean Richards agreed telling CBS
that it's completely wrong, you know, to pump these horses
(07:51):
full of stuff that you don't know what's in them
for a potential chance to win at a higher rate.
It's disgusting behavior. And while this disgusting behavior may increase
the likelihood of a win on the track marginally for
unscrupulous owners, it also increases the likelihood of their horse,
their asset, being injured or dying prematurely. So what do
(08:15):
people do when they want to protect an asset, and
particularly when they want to protect an asset that they
know is at high risk. Think about the homeowners on
Florida's coastline and the concerns around property damage from flooding.
Think about drivers who dare to get behind the wheel
were prior dui convictions. How do they sleep at night? Easy?
(08:37):
They take out insurance. And that is exactly what happens
in the world of equestrianism. Rudimentary insurance coverage for horses
has been available since eighteen ninety, but by the nineteen
eighties having horse insurance had become common practice for owners.
For the most part, this is just a sound precaution
for horse owners to have, very similar to how we
(08:59):
take out life insurance policies to protect our families financial
futures when we die. But you know what, every so
often someone tries to knock off their spouse for the
life insurance money. It's happened enough times that a quick
look at think Advisor pulls up a list of famous
cases in under ten seconds, from private Isaac Agigee murdering
(09:20):
his wife an unborn child for a five hundred thousand
dollars insurance payout, to Nanette Anne Packard conspiring with former
New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colt linebacker Eric Naposki to
murder her boyfriend Newport Beach mogul William McLaughlin for an
insurance check of five hundred thousand dollars. If some people
(09:41):
are willing to kill other people for insurance money, then
it doesn't take a leap to believe some equine owners
are willing to kill their underperforming or aged out horses
for the insurance money. It all started with the rumors
in the stables at the tracks. People were hearing murmurings
in the early nineteen eighties that it was becoming increasingly
(10:04):
commonplace for horses to be intentionally harmed or killed for
insurance payouts. But it was so horrible to think about
that most people laughed the gossip off at first, until
it couldn't be ignored. You see, evidence began to stack
up that this evil scam was really going on in
the shadows of some horse barns. Too many horses were
(10:25):
suddenly dying without explanation, and the equestrian community, which prided
itself on a glean of affluence and decorum, found itself
grappling with the possibility that some of its socially prestigious
members might be orchestrating the murders of innocent animals for
financial gain. Horrible though it was, the temptation was undeniably
(10:47):
there for morally devoid horse owners. After all, insurance payouts
on horses, particularly those with the potential to win big
on the racetrack or in show jumping competitions, could run
into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars.
A scandal was brewing, bubbling over at an alarming rate,
(11:08):
as veterinarians and insurance investigators raised alarms about an unusual
pattern of injuries and deaths in valuable horses, making some
boiled lemon water. Here you know it's going to taste
sour with a horse murdered scandal on tap, But this
beverage fits the bill when it comes to feeling the burn,
and you're definitely going to need something to keep you going.
(11:32):
When I tell you about the ultimate burn, Tommy Burns
that is known in hushed tones among those in the
know as the Sandman. Tommy Burns carved a niche for
himself that was as lucrative as it was macab His moniker,
borrowed from the folklore figure who gently lulls children to sleep,
(11:54):
belied the grim nature of his newly adopted profession euthanizing
horses for in insurance money. Tommy became the go to
operative for owners seeking to transform their living investments into
lucrative insurance payouts through the most final means possible. How
does any child grow up to become a serial horse murderer,
(12:16):
you ask, Well, Tommy was born in Manchester, Connecticut. Was
it the easiest city to start life in? Maybe not?
After all, seventy four percent of US cities are safer
than Manchester, which has a D plus crime rating according
to crimegrade dot org. Even so, it's a beautiful part
of the country, and it's hard to imagine that anything
(12:37):
in Tommy's New England childhood could be used to explain
his ultimate career path. His parents did divorce when he
was young, and Tommy left home when he was about
fifteen years old. Needing to support himself, Tommy took a
job as a horse groomer for Barney Ward, the famous
show jumper and horse trainer who owned Castle Hill Farm
(12:58):
in Bruceter, New York. Tommy worked hard and aspired to
a more financially secure life. He knew he would likely
never come near the wealth of those whose horses he
cared for, but he was making progress, stepping out in
his off work hours to buy and sell horses independently,
to sell horse grooming and riding supplies, and to operate
his own horse transport services. You had to hand it
(13:22):
to him, Tommy was an industrious young man. It was
while he was working hard, both for himself and for
Barney Ward on the horse circuit that Tommy Burns cross
paths with a six foot two Harlow Arley, who would
become his assistant in the dark days ahead. At its core,
this scandal is a devastating tale of greed's ugly work.
(13:43):
You see, Tommy wanted more. Maybe it was being around
so many affluent people day in and day out, seeing
what they had, and hungering for a taste of it.
Who knows, but there's a powerful saying. Never be controlled
by three things, your past, money, and people. And to Tommy,
the Sandman Burns was destined to succumb to all three.
(14:05):
Like so many criminals, Tommy started making fast money with
smaller scale illicit activities, mostly dealing in stolen saddles and
veterinary equipment. Tommy also collected debts for his wealthy clients,
a task which could and often did get ugly. Michael Parrish,
a Midwest horses show official, remembered Tommy's evolution into a
(14:27):
tough guy. He carried a pair of brass knuckles, and
he collected debts. Michael remembered of Tommy's early side hustles
on the equestrian circuit. I don't want to use the
word enforcer, but if somebody owed money, Tommy was sent
to go get it. Tommy was a guy who had
no fear from selling stolen goods and collecting debts. Tommy's
(14:50):
criminal behavior escalated when James Druck approached him in nineteen
eighty one with a proposition. James Druck was a prestigious
attorney and the owner of Equal Nest Farm in a
Call of Florida. His seventeen year old daughter, Lisa Druck,
was a talented young equestrian who had a beloved horse
named Henry the Hawk. Since Lisa was under age and
(15:11):
had no control over her own finances, her father, James
held the purse strings, and he did not view Henry
the Hawk through a sentimental lens. James Druck turned a
blind eye to his daughter's love for a horse and
instead appraised Henry the Hawk solely as a failed investment
requiring swift recoupment. His first plan of attack was to
(15:32):
sell the horse for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
When the highest offer he received was only one hundred
and twenty five thousand, James decided to cook up a
new strategy using his very specific know how you see.
James Drug's legal practice often defended insurance companies against claims,
so he knew that if a horse were electrocuted, it
(15:53):
would be almost impossible for a veterinary pathologist to find
signs of foul play and that the animal's death would
be chalked up to colic And guess what Henry the
Hawk's insurance policy was for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Now,
James Druck was undoubtedly a dirty player with a heartless streak.
What parent plots the demise of their child's beloved animal companion?
(16:17):
After all, it's not like their family was in dire
financial straits by any means. In fact, Chip Hudson, a
veteran horse trainer who worked with Lisa Druck, told abcnews
dot Com that she was a regular kid with a
family with a lot of money. Her father commuted back
and forth in his own airplane. Does that sound like
a guy who's hurting for an extra twenty five thousand dollars.
(16:40):
Who knows how James Druck rationalized his dark decision, but
the fact remains he'd come up with a dirty plan.
And can you guess who he called up to do
his dirty work? None other than tough guy hustler Tommy Burns.
Tommy Burns had never killed a living creature before James
Druck approached him with the plot to kill Henry the Hawk.
(17:03):
Sure he'd swung some punches at people who owed his
client's money, and even broken a nose once on a
collection gig, but murder Tommy had no idea where to begin,
so allegedly James Druck taught Tommy Burns the dark trade
that would come to define his nightmarish activities over the
next decade. According to Tommy, years later, it was James
(17:27):
who purchased his first set of electrocution tools, and James
who meticulously taught him how to convert an ordinary orange
extension cord into a deadly weapon by splitting the cord
and affixing alligator clips to its ends. James Druck allegedly
demonstrated how to secure the apparatus to the horse, ensuring
(17:47):
immediate death upon plugging it into an outlet. You better
get out of the way, Tommy Burns recalled James, warning
him and so following the instructions of James Druck to
Earns murdered Henry the Hawk, a horse who so touched
the life of Lisa Drug who has since changed her
name to Reale Hunter, that as recently as October twenty
(18:09):
twenty one, she was posting tributes to him on Facebook.
My horse, Henry the Hawk was an amazing horse for
everyone who had him, a life changing horse, a blessing,
and a great teacher. Rielle remembered, Henry the Hawk changed lives.
He is still changing lives. He is still teaching. She wrote,
(18:30):
what a terrible tragedy for Henry the Hawk, for James
Druck's daughter, now called Reelle Hunter, and for people everywhere
who might have benefited from interaction with this beautiful animal.
Reale Hunter must have surely reeled when the truth about
Henry the Hawk's death came out, and her life ever
since has seemingly been dotted with extraordinary events, ranging from
(18:52):
alleged cocaine field nights in New York causing her to
be the inspiration for the film Bright Lights, Big City,
to getting clean and starting a foundation devoted to achieving
higher consciousness, to having an affair with married presidential hopeful
John Edwards. It seems Rielle was destined for a life
of extremes, and perhaps it was growing up in such
(19:12):
an affluent but morally confused environment that contributed to some
of her more challenging moments. In any event, losing her
beloved horse, Henry the Hawk had a pivotal moment in
her equestrian journey and personal development could not have been
easy for a girl who one groomer remembered as sad
and troubled and desperately looking for something. Tommy Burns, meanwhile,
(19:36):
had found a sole sucking solution to the something he'd
been looking for. Money. He walked away from James Druck's
stables with the terrible new knowledge that there was a
market for equine murder and that he could line his
pockets by becoming the go to guy for horse snuffing.
Tommy Burns had evolved into the Sandman, and after his
(19:57):
first kill in nineteen eighty one, no horse safe from
his fatal business as they slumbered in their stables. The
fatal business is stomach churningly awful to contemplate. If you
ask me, it's even more difficult to swallow than straight
up clamado juice, which, for those of you who don't know,
is a grimy concoction of clam and tomato juice. But
(20:21):
just because a business is gross doesn't mean it isn't booming.
As Tommy the Sandman Burns learned fast, there was no
lull in his line of work. Not ever, there was
always a horse owner willing to subordinate sentimentality to money
in the equestrian world, where so many dripped class around
the tracks, but harbored, ugly, uncivil secrets were left to
(20:44):
their own devices. Per The New York Times, Tommy Burns
earned about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars between nineteen
eighty one and nineteen ninety one killing horses. Tommy told
reporter Don Terry that if he had taken all the
offers to kill horses that came his way, the death
toll would have been closer to fifty He also said
that his typical fee was at least five thousand dollars
(21:07):
a horse, but that he once got forty thousand. Even
Tommy was astonished by the length horse owners or willing
to go to cash out on their equant investments. People
get paid less for killing people, Tommy mused. During his
decade long death spree, Tommy Burns ended the lives of
between thirteen and fifteen horses across the equestrian show circuit,
(21:30):
stretching from Staples in Florida to Vermont to Illinois and
everywhere in between. Demand peaked in nineteen eighty nine, according
to Tommy, when these millionaires get tired of them, they
throw the horses away like broken toys. I killed three
horses in one week. He later confessed. It's madness right.
Why were so many millionaires opting for such a cold
(21:52):
hearted end to their horses lives? According to Tommy, owner's
decision to end a horses live stemmed from various actors,
performance issues, health complications, or simply the animal's age. Tommy
also rationalized his own actions to some degree, insisting that
the horses died too fast to feel any pain. Knowing
(22:13):
this apparently made him feel better. He even went so
far as to insist to the press that his heart
was not made of stone. Whenever he killed the horse,
Tommy explained he had to get drunk first. My motive
for killing horses was to make money, he said. For
the owners, it was just rotten, cheapness at its worst.
Regardless of his rationalization, it's undeniable that Tommy and the
(22:37):
horse owners were guilty conspirators. But what about everyone else?
According to equestrian insiders, everyone knew or at least strongly suspected,
what was going on. There were whispers whenever Tommy turned
up at a horse show carrying his canvas bag kill kit,
but no one dared to confront Tommy given his reputation
(22:57):
for violently collecting debts. After all, how would such a
man respond to a horse murder accusation. The elite equestrians
uninvolved in Tommy's dirty circuit shuddered to consider what would
happen if they dared speak up. People knew what was
going on, a prominent West Virginia horseman revealed years later,
when Tommy arrived at a show, they would say the
(23:18):
Sandman was around. They knew a horse would be put
to sleep. Electrocution as a means of murder worked instantly,
which was something that Tommy could at least rationalize to himself.
But in nineteen ninety one, he was given an assignment
that even he couldn't stomach, so he called upon his
assistant Harlow Arley for help. Now, they say that criminals
(23:41):
often get caught when they deviate from the norm, and
what transpired on February second, nineteen ninety one, were certainly
not Tommy Burn's norm. It all started when Donna Brown,
the ex wife of renowned horse trainer Paul Valier's former
associate Buddy Brown, hired Tommy to break the leg of
her horse, a chestnut jumper named Streetwise. Her cold hearted
(24:04):
logic was that Streetwise's insurance policy didn't cover Colic, and
therefore death by electrocution wouldn't work. Since the post mortem
would attribute the horse's death to Colic, she needed a
different kill strategy. Donna Brown figured that a horse with
a broken leg is almost always euthanized since it's almost
impossible to rehabilitate this equin injury, so that is what
(24:28):
she wanted Tommy to do. Tommy, tempted by the money
Donna offered, took the job and then asked Carlow Arley
to carry out the actual deed for half the feet.
Remembering the hours leading up to their brutal attack on
street Wise, Tommy says he lamented to Harlow in a bar, saying,
I don't want to break his leg. I'm not into that. Allegedly,
(24:50):
Harlow was less concerned about putting an animal through a painful,
drawn out demise, and so aligned on their unthinkably cruel strategy.
They took a crowbar and headed to Canterbury Farms. It
was a stormy Florida night, and Tommy and Harlowe believed
that the rain worked to their advantage. It would cloak
their actions in plausible deniability. Right After all, it could
(25:15):
appear that street Wise had simply slipped on a slick
ramp as they were loading him into a transport truck
and broken his leg that way. Yes, it seemed to
the two criminals that they had covered their tracks well,
But this time they underestimated karma and law enforcement. You see,
investigators had received too many tip offs about Tommy Burns
(25:37):
to ignore him any longer. Florida's authorities were ready and
literally lying in wait in the pouring rain at Canterbury
Farms on February second, nineteen ninety one. From the shadows,
the investigators watched in helpless horror as Tommy Burns restrained
street Wise while Harlow Arley emerged, crowbar in hand to
(25:58):
crack the horse's leg with a terrible blow. The sound
of the crowbar making contact was heard across the highway.
Street Wise's panic Nazze tore through the silence, a sound
of pure distress that echoed into the night as the
horse in agony attempted to flee, only to fall and
(26:19):
rise again in a feudal attempt to escape the pain.
Harold Berry, a Florida Department of Agriculture investigator doing surveillance
that night from a nearby horse trailer, says he still
can't forget that sickening crack and then Streetwise's screams as
he staggered into the darkness on three legs. Speaking to
the Tampa Bay Times three years after the tragedy, Harold
(26:42):
Berry explained, I could not stop it even if I
wanted to. I was too far away. People ask me,
how could you let them do that? But you've got
to know the whole picture. Look at what we brought down.
And Harold Berry was right to point this out, because
while street Wise's terrible maiming and ultimate death was devastating
(27:04):
and cruel, it was not in vain. The authorities who
had witnessed Tommy Burns and harlow Arley's horrific enterprise descended
on them swiftly with lights, sirens, and handcuffs. Faced with
the heavy legal ramifications of his actions, harlow Arley promptly
turned against Tommy Burns, confirming the entire horse murder plot
(27:26):
to investigators, and despite a lame attempt to flee the scene,
which was quickly thwarted. It was clear that Tommy Burns's
grim rain as the Sandman was over for good. In
the murky aftermath of his arrest that night, Tommy Burns
became an unlikely lynchpin in unraveling a deep, dark web
of equine insurance fraud that had ensnared the equestrian world.
(27:51):
The FBI recognized that while Tommy had undeniably been the
executor of the crimes committed, he had not been the
brains and money behind the spate of horse murders. Tommy
Burns turns out to be the tip of the iceberg,
remarked one federal agent, hinting at the scandal's vast scope.
With his back to the wall and all his affluent
(28:12):
employers suddenly failing to answer his calls, Tommy Burns decided
to save himself with a lighter jail sentence by cooperating
fully with the FBI. The New York Times reported that
the only reason Tommy Burns is cooperating with federal agents
investigating deadly acts of cruelty and fraud and the glittering
showhorse business is that those rich skunks he worked for
(28:35):
turned their backs on him the second he got busted
doing their dirty work. Harlow Arley confirmed what The New
York Times reported, sharing that Tommy Burns was calling everybody,
and nobody came to his aid. It was this lack
of response from the so called pillars of the equestrian
community that led Tommy to reveal the extent of their
(28:56):
complicity and the twisted scheme that prioritized profit over the
well being of the magnificent animals they claimed to cherish.
The Sandman felt abandoned by his wealthy, powerful clients. I
did all their dirty work, Tommy told one in a viewer.
Now it's payback time. And so Tommy Burns laid bare
the mechanics of the fraud for the joined investigative efforts
(29:19):
of the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms. He named prominent individuals in the horse
show industry, from owners and trainers to veterinarians and riders,
who had engaged in or facilitated the nefarious practice of
killing horses for insurance payouts. As details emerged, it seemed
(29:41):
that up to forty individuals would be ensnared in the
legal net cast by the investigation facing indictments on a
slew of charges related to horse killings for insurance money,
and the words of American author Sarah Rash, how quickly
the mighty fall. Nothing is going to make such a
sickening scandal palatable. But let's try some diluted cranberry juice
(30:05):
to settle our stomachsh down the hatch. Well, I still
feel nauseous and furious, but at least I know that
one of my favorite ingredients is going to be served
up when we delve deeper into the scandalous story. Next week,
Justice join me your host Jay Harris for the next
episode of Playing Dirty Sports Scandals when we find out
(30:26):
how Justice caught up with the equestrian moguls who thought
they were above the law. Playing Dirty Sports Scandals is
a production of Dan Patrick Productions, Never Ever Productions and
(30:47):
Workhouse Media from executive producers Dan Patrick, Paul Anderson, Nick Panela,
Maya Glickman, and Jennifer Claring. Hosted by Jay Harris, Written
and produced by Jen Brown, Francy Haiks, my Eglctment and
Jennifer Claire
Host
Jay Harris
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