Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome back to Human Wreckage, the podcast
(00:02):
where we sift through theshattered lives, strange deaths,
and the stories that were nevermeant to be told.
I'm your host, Thomas, and todaywe're diving into one of the
most baffling unsolved cases ofthe 1970s, the mysterious death
of Charles Morgan.
Charles was a 39-year-old escrowagent living in Tucson, Arizona.
A husband, a father of four.
(00:22):
By all outward appearances, hewas just another clean cut,
respectable businessman livingthe American dream.
But in March of 1977, Charlesvanished without a trace, only
to return three days later,shaken, paranoid, and claiming
he'd been abducted and tortured.
He couldn't speak literally.
He pointed to a pad of paper andscribbled notes to his wife,
(00:44):
telling her his throat had beenpainted with a hallucinogenic
drug by his captors.
He said he'd been workingagainst the mob, and that
revealing too much would get hisentire family killed.
He refused to go to the police,and just when his life seemed to
be slipping back into normalcy,he vanished again.
This time he didn't come back.
His body was found in thedesert, wearing a bulletproof
(01:06):
vest shot once in the back ofthe head with his own gun.
In his car, a pair of sunglassesthat didn't belong to him.
In his sock, a map, and on hisbody, a strange coin, a symbol
tied to covert governmentoperations and cryptic religious
messages.
The authorities called it asuicide.
But the evidence told anotherstory, one of double lives,
(01:27):
secret identities, possible tiesto organized crime, and maybe
even the CIA.
And then came the phone call awoman identifying herself only
as Green Eyes called a localtelevision station, claiming she
knew what happened to CharlesMorgan and why.
This is a story about thewreckage that's left behind when
the truth is buried and thehaunting possibility that
(01:48):
Charles Morgan didn't die by hisown hand, but by someone else's
very calculated design.
Stay with us.
(02:50):
On the 22nd of March 1977,Morgan disappeared without a
trace.
His family heard nothing fromhim until a couple of days later
when he burst through the frontdoor of their Tuxin home.
He looked disheveled and hadhandcuffs hanging from each
wrist as well at one set hangingfrom an ankle.
As he silently rummaged throughthe house, he grabbed a pen and
piece of paper and detailed abizarre story.
(03:13):
He wrote down that he was unableto speak because he had been
kidnapped, tortured, and thenhad hallucinogenic drugs poured
down his throat, rendering himunable to speak.
He eventually told Ruth that hehad managed to escape from his
captors, who he referred to asthem near Phoenix's Sky Harbor
Airport.
Ruth urged Morgan to go topolice, but he refused, saying
(03:33):
that would sign the deathwarrant for the entire family.
When she pressed her husband forwho was threatening him, he told
her that the less I knew, theless likelihood there would be
of anyone hurting me or mychildren.
Following this event, Morgan wassteadily on edge.
He grew a beard and refused tolet his daughters go outside
alone.
He arranged for them to bedriven to and picked up from
(03:56):
school each day.
He told his family that ifanything happened to him, he
would leave behind a letterexplaining everything.
Morgan confessed to Ruth that hewas doing work for the Treasury
Department.
It should be noted that at thetime, Arizona was the only state
that allowed blind trustownership of real estate.
This law meant that individualscould buy property without being
(04:17):
traced.
An escrow agent such as Morganwas the only person who knew an
owner's identity in situationssuch as this.
At the time of hisdisappearance, Morgan was doing
escrow work for two allegedorganized crime groups, the Ned
Warren family and the Joe Bonanofamily.
Around two months later, Morgandisappeared once again.
However, this time, he wouldn'tbe returning home despite the
(04:39):
fact that local police told Ruththat her husband was still
alive.
The morning of hisdisappearance, Ruth took the
children to school while Morganwent to work.
He had been planning onattending a Masonic meeting that
evening.
In the late afternoon, he calledhis office from a downtown
payphone and said he would bearriving at the office in half
an hour.
Morgan never showed up, andthose who knew him the best
(05:01):
would never see him again.
On the 18th of June, 1977,Morgan's body was discovered
alongside his car on a dirt roadin Cells, around forty miles
west of his home.
There was a bullet wound to theback of his head.
The bullet traveled all the waythrough and settled in between
his teeth.
Morgan was clad in a bulletproofvest and armed with a knife and
(05:21):
holster.
He had been shot with his own357 caliber magnum, which was
found nearby, completely devoidof any fingerprints.
Inside his car, Pima CountySheriff's investigators found a
cache of ammunition, as well asseveral other weapons and
several sets of handcuffs.
Even more bizarre, one of hisown teeth was discovered wrapped
up in a tissue in his car, aswell as a pair of sunglasses
(05:43):
that didn't belong to him.
Investigators found that his carhad been modified so that it
could be unlocked from thefender.
Pinned to his underwear,investigators found a map and
directions of how to get to themurder site, as well as a two
dollar bill.
The two dollar bill had sevenSpanish names written on the
front as well as a Biblecitation.
Before Morgan's body wasdiscovered, Ruth received an odd
(06:06):
phone call from a woman whoreferred to herself as Green
Eyes.
She said to Ruth, Chuck isalright and everything will be
alright, before referring her tothe same Bible passage that was
scrolled on the two dollar billfound with Morgan.
This mysterious woman madeherself known to police and told
them that she had known Morganand that she had seen him after
he disappeared before his death.
(06:28):
According to the woman, Morganshowed her a briefcase stocked
with money that he said he wasusing to buy off a hit man who
had been hired to kill him.
Morgan had told her that therewas a ninety thousand dollar
contract out on his life thatwas escalating at the rate of
five thousand dollars a day.
Police were able to corroboratethat the woman and Morgan had
met with CCTV footage.
They found out that at some timebetween his disappearance and
(06:50):
his death, Morgan had registeredat a Southside hotel where he
met with this woman severaltimes.
When Ruth was asked if shebelieved her husband had been
having an extramarital affair,she denied it, stating, A woman
knows when her man has strayed,and Chuck hasn't strayed in
nineteen years.
Following Morgan's death, hisattorney, Ronald J.
(07:11):
Newman confirmed that Morgan hadtestified in a secret state
investigation concerningTucson's Banco International de
Arizona and a former director,David Collie, attorney general.
Bruce Babbitt confirmed thatthey had been conducting an
investigation for the bankingdepartment, and confirmed Morgan
had been called to testify aboutinternal dealings at Banco that
he knew of but wasn't involvedin.
(07:33):
Shortly after Morgan's body wasfound, his impounded car was
broken into while in policepossession.
His office was ransacked aswell, and several weeks later,
two men claiming to be membersof the FBI showed up at the
family home and searched it.
Despite the peculiaritiessurrounding his death, Morgan's
death was ruled a suicide, andthe case was closed on the tenth
(07:53):
of august, nineteen seventyseven.
We have found no evidence thatanyone took part in the death
but himself, stated a PimaCounty Sheriff's Department
official.
Ruth Morgan staunchly refutedthis theory and contends he was
murdered.
I don't know if this will everbe solved, she said.
I'd like to know why.
I don't think we'll ever findout who killed him.
(08:14):
Over four decades have passed,and the demise of Charles Morgan
is still as mysterious as ever.
Understandably, the most populartheory is that he was working as
a secret agent, which would makehim a target for many unsavory
characters.
Another theory is that hisescrow business was a ploy for
money laundering which wentsouth.
What's clear to most at least isthat Morgan, fearing for his
(08:36):
life and clad in a bulletproofvest, probably didn't shoot
himself in the back of the headon a lonely desert road.
Charles Morgan died alone in theArizona Desert, wearing a
bulletproof vest, holding astrange coin, and carrying
secrets that may never fullycome to light.
The official story labeled itsuicide, but too many questions
remain unanswered.
(08:57):
Too many pieces don't fit.
Why would a man shoot himself inthe back of the head with his
own weapon while wearing bodyarmor?
Who was the mystery woman knownonly as Green Eyes?
Why did the Treasury Departmenthave a file on him, yet deny
knowing anything when asked?
And what was Charles reallyinvolved in?
Was it escrow fraud, mob moneylaundering, or something even
(09:18):
darker, a tangled web ofgovernment secrets and silent
wars fought on American soil?
After his death, his wife Ruthreceived anonymous threats.
Reporters who dug too deep werewarned off, and then the story
just vanished, buried beneathdecades of dust, red tape, and
silence.
Charles Morgan became one morename in a long list of strange
(09:39):
deaths America never fullyexplained.
It's easy to get lost in theconspiracies to follow every
theory, every breadcrumb.
But at the center of this storyis a man, a father, a husband
who lived in fear, who tried toprotect his family, and who died
violently far from home.
Whether he was a hero, a victim,or someone in over his head, we
may never know.
(09:59):
But what we can say is this thesystem that should have
protected him didn't.
The investigation that shouldhave brought answers didn't.
And the silence that followedwasn't just unsettling, it was
deliberate.
We tell stories like CharlesMorgan's, not just to solve
mysteries, but to remember thepeople swallowed by them.
To shine light where others haveturned their backs.
(10:20):
To remind you that behind everyheadline, every cold case, every
whispered conspiracy, there wasonce a life.
This has been Human Wreckage.
I'm Thomas.
If you found their story asunsettling as we did, share it.
Talk about it.
Keep asking questions.
Because someone somewhere stillknows the truth, and maybe just
maybe they're still listening.
(10:40):
Until next time, stay safe, andstay curious.
Welcome back to Human Wreckage, the podcast
(00:02):
where we sift through theshattered lives, strange deaths,
and the stories that were nevermeant to be told.
I'm your host, Thomas, and todaywe're diving into one of the
most baffling unsolved cases ofthe 1970s, the mysterious death
of Charles Morgan.
Charles was a 39-year-old escrowagent living in Tucson, Arizona.
A husband, a father of four.
(00:22):
By all outward appearances, hewas just another clean cut,
respectable businessman livingthe American dream.
But in March of 1977, Charlesvanished without a trace, only
to return three days later,shaken, paranoid, and claiming
he'd been abducted and tortured.
He couldn't speak literally.
He pointed to a pad of paper andscribbled notes to his wife,
(00:44):
telling her his throat had beenpainted with a hallucinogenic
drug by his captors.
He said he'd been workingagainst the mob, and that
revealing too much would get hisentire family killed.
He refused to go to the police,and just when his life seemed to
be slipping back into normalcy,he vanished again.
This time he didn't come back.
His body was found in thedesert, wearing a bulletproof
(01:06):
vest shot once in the back ofthe head with his own gun.
In his car, a pair of sunglassesthat didn't belong to him.
In his sock, a map, and on hisbody, a strange coin, a symbol
tied to covert governmentoperations and cryptic religious
messages.
The authorities called it asuicide.
But the evidence told anotherstory, one of double lives,
(01:27):
secret identities, possible tiesto organized crime, and maybe
even the CIA.
And then came the phone call awoman identifying herself only
as Green Eyes called a localtelevision station, claiming she
knew what happened to CharlesMorgan and why.
This is a story about thewreckage that's left behind when
the truth is buried and thehaunting possibility that
(01:48):
Charles Morgan didn't die by hisown hand, but by someone else's
very calculated design.
Stay with us.
(02:50):
On the 22nd of March 1977,Morgan disappeared without a
trace.
His family heard nothing fromhim until a couple of days later
when he burst through the frontdoor of their Tuxin home.
He looked disheveled and hadhandcuffs hanging from each
wrist as well at one set hangingfrom an ankle.
As he silently rummaged throughthe house, he grabbed a pen and
piece of paper and detailed abizarre story.
(03:13):
He wrote down that he was unableto speak because he had been
kidnapped, tortured, and thenhad hallucinogenic drugs poured
down his throat, rendering himunable to speak.
He eventually told Ruth that hehad managed to escape from his
captors, who he referred to asthem near Phoenix's Sky Harbor
Airport.
Ruth urged Morgan to go topolice, but he refused, saying
(03:33):
that would sign the deathwarrant for the entire family.
When she pressed her husband forwho was threatening him, he told
her that the less I knew, theless likelihood there would be
of anyone hurting me or mychildren.
Following this event, Morgan wassteadily on edge.
He grew a beard and refused tolet his daughters go outside
alone.
He arranged for them to bedriven to and picked up from
(03:56):
school each day.
He told his family that ifanything happened to him, he
would leave behind a letterexplaining everything.
Morgan confessed to Ruth that hewas doing work for the Treasury
Department.
It should be noted that at thetime, Arizona was the only state
that allowed blind trustownership of real estate.
This law meant that individualscould buy property without being
(04:17):
traced.
An escrow agent such as Morganwas the only person who knew an
owner's identity in situationssuch as this.
At the time of hisdisappearance, Morgan was doing
escrow work for two allegedorganized crime groups, the Ned
Warren family and the Joe Bonanofamily.
Around two months later, Morgandisappeared once again.
However, this time, he wouldn'tbe returning home despite the
(04:39):
fact that local police told Ruththat her husband was still
alive.
The morning of hisdisappearance, Ruth took the
children to school while Morganwent to work.
He had been planning onattending a Masonic meeting that
evening.
In the late afternoon, he calledhis office from a downtown
payphone and said he would bearriving at the office in half
an hour.
Morgan never showed up, andthose who knew him the best
(05:01):
would never see him again.
On the 18th of June, 1977,Morgan's body was discovered
alongside his car on a dirt roadin Cells, around forty miles
west of his home.
There was a bullet wound to theback of his head.
The bullet traveled all the waythrough and settled in between
his teeth.
Morgan was clad in a bulletproofvest and armed with a knife and
(05:21):
holster.
He had been shot with his own357 caliber magnum, which was
found nearby, completely devoidof any fingerprints.
Inside his car, Pima CountySheriff's investigators found a
cache of ammunition, as well asseveral other weapons and
several sets of handcuffs.
Even more bizarre, one of hisown teeth was discovered wrapped
up in a tissue in his car, aswell as a pair of sunglasses
(05:43):
that didn't belong to him.
Investigators found that his carhad been modified so that it
could be unlocked from thefender.
Pinned to his underwear,investigators found a map and
directions of how to get to themurder site, as well as a two
dollar bill.
The two dollar bill had sevenSpanish names written on the
front as well as a Biblecitation.
Before Morgan's body wasdiscovered, Ruth received an odd
(06:06):
phone call from a woman whoreferred to herself as Green
Eyes.
She said to Ruth, Chuck isalright and everything will be
alright, before referring her tothe same Bible passage that was
scrolled on the two dollar billfound with Morgan.
This mysterious woman madeherself known to police and told
them that she had known Morganand that she had seen him after
he disappeared before his death.
(06:28):
According to the woman, Morganshowed her a briefcase stocked
with money that he said he wasusing to buy off a hit man who
had been hired to kill him.
Morgan had told her that therewas a ninety thousand dollar
contract out on his life thatwas escalating at the rate of
five thousand dollars a day.
Police were able to corroboratethat the woman and Morgan had
met with CCTV footage.
They found out that at some timebetween his disappearance and
(06:50):
his death, Morgan had registeredat a Southside hotel where he
met with this woman severaltimes.
When Ruth was asked if shebelieved her husband had been
having an extramarital affair,she denied it, stating, A woman
knows when her man has strayed,and Chuck hasn't strayed in
nineteen years.
Following Morgan's death, hisattorney, Ronald J.
(07:11):
Newman confirmed that Morgan hadtestified in a secret state
investigation concerningTucson's Banco International de
Arizona and a former director,David Collie, attorney general.
Bruce Babbitt confirmed thatthey had been conducting an
investigation for the bankingdepartment, and confirmed Morgan
had been called to testify aboutinternal dealings at Banco that
he knew of but wasn't involvedin.
(07:33):
Shortly after Morgan's body wasfound, his impounded car was
broken into while in policepossession.
His office was ransacked aswell, and several weeks later,
two men claiming to be membersof the FBI showed up at the
family home and searched it.
Despite the peculiaritiessurrounding his death, Morgan's
death was ruled a suicide, andthe case was closed on the tenth
(07:53):
of august, nineteen seventyseven.
We have found no evidence thatanyone took part in the death
but himself, stated a PimaCounty Sheriff's Department
official.
Ruth Morgan staunchly refutedthis theory and contends he was
murdered.
I don't know if this will everbe solved, she said.
I'd like to know why.
I don't think we'll ever findout who killed him.
(08:14):
Over four decades have passed,and the demise of Charles Morgan
is still as mysterious as ever.
Understandably, the most populartheory is that he was working as
a secret agent, which would makehim a target for many unsavory
characters.
Another theory is that hisescrow business was a ploy for
money laundering which wentsouth.
What's clear to most at least isthat Morgan, fearing for his
(08:36):
life and clad in a bulletproofvest, probably didn't shoot
himself in the back of the headon a lonely desert road.
Charles Morgan died alone in theArizona Desert, wearing a
bulletproof vest, holding astrange coin, and carrying
secrets that may never fullycome to light.
The official story labeled itsuicide, but too many questions
remain unanswered.
(08:57):
Too many pieces don't fit.
Why would a man shoot himself inthe back of the head with his
own weapon while wearing bodyarmor?
Who was the mystery woman knownonly as Green Eyes?
Why did the Treasury Departmenthave a file on him, yet deny
knowing anything when asked?
And what was Charles reallyinvolved in?
Was it escrow fraud, mob moneylaundering, or something even
(09:18):
darker, a tangled web ofgovernment secrets and silent
wars fought on American soil?
After his death, his wife Ruthreceived anonymous threats.
Reporters who dug too deep werewarned off, and then the story
just vanished, buried beneathdecades of dust, red tape, and
silence.
Charles Morgan became one morename in a long list of strange
(09:39):
deaths America never fullyexplained.
It's easy to get lost in theconspiracies to follow every
theory, every breadcrumb.
But at the center of this storyis a man, a father, a husband
who lived in fear, who tried toprotect his family, and who died
violently far from home.
Whether he was a hero, a victim,or someone in over his head, we
may never know.
(09:59):
But what we can say is this thesystem that should have
protected him didn't.
The investigation that shouldhave brought answers didn't.
And the silence that followedwasn't just unsettling, it was
deliberate.
We tell stories like CharlesMorgan's, not just to solve
mysteries, but to remember thepeople swallowed by them.
To shine light where others haveturned their backs.
(10:20):
To remind you that behind everyheadline, every cold case, every
whispered conspiracy, there wasonce a life.
This has been Human Wreckage.
I'm Thomas.
If you found their story asunsettling as we did, share it.
Talk about it.
Keep asking questions.
Because someone somewhere stillknows the truth, and maybe just
maybe they're still listening.
(10:40):
Until next time, stay safe, andstay curious.
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