May 24, 2024 • 25 mins
Join me as I share the chilling case of the Salomon family's disappearance. This unsolved mystery has captivated true crime enthusiasts for decades. We'll explore the theories and suspects, including Harvey Rader and Ashley Paulle, in this spine-tingling podcast. Listen now for all the details behind this mysterious case.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome! As I first read the details of this story, I thought, okay, this isn't that mysterious.
(00:06):
It seems like multiple failed attempts to prosecute a guy who many believe committed the crime.
Still, I decided to dive further into this strange story, and as I learned more and more the twists,
the turns, the deceit, and just flat out craziness of what happened, I felt compelled to bring this
story to you. Join me for a ride through strange and mysterious, here at Odd Mysteries Stories.
(00:30):
In 1982, the Salomon family vanished from their quiet neighborhood in Northridge, California,
leaving behind a perplexing mystery that continues to baffle investigators to this day.
For all appearances, the Salomons were a normal suburban family. Immigrants from Israel, 35-year-old
Saul Salomon, his wife Elaine, their 9-year-old son Mitchell, and Elaine's 15-year-old daughter from
(00:55):
a previous marriage, Michelle Hoseman, all lived in a quiet area of Northridge, California, where
Saul worked as a fire extinguisher repairman and refiller. They were, by all accounts, a happy,
perfectly ordinary, and a seemingly well-adjusted family. Elaine and Saul first met at a bar in
Hollywood in 1971. She was a 28-year-old divorcee with a 4-year-old daughter, Michelle. Saul was
(01:20):
24, an Israeli immigrant who had landed in Los Angeles a year earlier, driving a taxi and selling
encyclopedias before setting up a business-refilling fire extinguisher. After they married and had
a son named Mitch, they moved out of their recidate condo and into 19232 Lassen Street in Northridge.
Michelle's biological father had given up his parental rights to her, but Saul never tried to
(01:42):
adopt her, and she never took his last name. Burley and gruff, Saul stood more than 6 feet tall,
wore a dark brown hairpiece, and despite carrying a good 50 extra pounds, often went shirtless,
a lit cigarette dangling from his lips. Elaine had big, wide-set brown eyes and pale skin with
(02:04):
dyed pineapple blonde hair. She was a glamorous woman, and the couple seemed constantly surrounded
by friends and family. The salamans had a taste for the good life. Greek statuaries surrounded
their large swimming pool. There always seemed to be new toys, a large screen TV, VCRs, and clothes
(02:25):
at their home, even a baby grand piano, although nobody in the home could play it. Then there was
the parade of cars, the Canary Yellow Lincoln Continental Mark V, a midnight blue Mercedes Benz,
the Burgundy Rolls Royce. During occasional mother-daughter lunches, Elaine often took Michelle
out in the Rolls Royce to dine on the top floor of the Bonaventure Hotel downtown. Rumors surfaced
(02:51):
that Saul was an Israeli intelligence agent, a drug dealer, or maybe a gun runner. Margaret
Malarowitz, or as she was known to her friends as Marge, was Elaine's mother and Michelle's grandmother.
Marge, later in life, would reveal much of her displeasure with her daughter's husband,
whom she held responsible for her missing daughter and grandchildren. She has been quoted as saying,
(03:14):
I hate Saul. I blame him. She shared her knowledge of their relationship many years after their
disappearance. He, Saul, traveled to Europe without Elaine, slept with prostitutes, had stopped
bathing regularly, and got involved in all sorts of unsavory activities. There were stacks of cash
(03:34):
hidden behind picture frames. And who knows what else, she claimed. The truth, as Marge now shared it,
was that Elaine was miserable. Marge revealed that her daughter had been having an affair and wanted
desperately to leave Saul. Not long before she disappeared, Elaine confessed to her mother,
only to have Marge mark off all the reasons leaving was a bad idea, not least of which was that
(03:58):
Elaine's boyfriend, who she said didn't have two nickels to rub together. So I told her to stay.
You have a beautiful home. You don't have to work. You go out with your friends and have whatever
you want. Stay with Saul, she was quoted as saying, now consumed with guilt. So there you have some
idea of who the Salomon family was that disappeared mysteriously in 1982 from Northrid. Let's explore
(04:25):
the disappearance of this family. On October 12, 1982, Elaine's parents were visiting the Salomon
home. At 6 p.m. Saul told everyone he was going to a car auction with a business associate named
Harvey Rader and left. Elaine's parents went home at around 10, 30 p.m. and one hour later. Elaine
(04:46):
was in the middle of a phone conversation with her friend Barbara Levy when the doorbell rang.
Elaine told her friend Harvey's at the door before ending the call, but this turned out to be the last
time anyone ever heard from the family. It wasn't until October 13th in the evening a day later
that neighbors were alerted to the fact that the Salomon's pool had been overflowing and flooding
(05:08):
another neighbor's yard that someone went to the home to check on the family. Lassen Street at the
time was a quiet little street in a bedroom type community. Saul's burgundy Rolls Royce occupied
the driveway in stark contrast to the beat up white Dodge van with his company name Apollo Fire
extinguishers that was parked in the street out front. The doors were locked and no one answered
(05:32):
when the doorbell was rung. The neighbors proceeded to walk around to the backyard only to find
the family's Cocker Spaniel named Mish Mish barely responding to the neighbors as they entered the
backyard. Something surely wasn't right. The neighbors managed to contact Elaine's cousin Duran
Laffer. Doreen said that she had stopped by the house earlier that day to drop off some borrowed
(05:57):
chairs and took note that no one seemed to be at home. While she thought that to be strange, she
also noted that she hadn't heard from her cousin which was unlike her to go more than a day without
being in contact with each other. Further investigation revealed that Elaine hadn't shown up to her
volunteer counselor work at a nearby clinic along with also learning the children 14 year old
(06:20):
Michelle and nine year old Mitchell hadn't attended school the past day. Elaine's mother Marge was
reached and since spending the evening with them on the 12th she hadn't heard from Elaine also.
It was time to bring in the police. Within minutes a pair of uniformed officers from the LAPD's
Devonshire Division pulled up to the Salomon's Ranch House and Marty Laffer, Doreen's husband,
(06:43):
got there soon after. He'd recently resigned as an investigator with the IRS's criminal division
and was unconvinced when after a cursory look the officers said they'd found nothing unusual.
He urged them to check inside the house. He was quoted as saying when Elaine goes to the bathroom
all her friends and relatives know, he told the police. There's two kids involved and it doesn't
(07:07):
make sense that they would lock up the house and be gone without telling anybody. After a patrol
sergeant arrived with permission to enter Marty showed them how to get inside through a bathroom
window in the back. The doors were locked but the burglar alarm hadn't been activated. Marty phoned
Doreen from the master bedroom. To him everything looked fine surveying the room even the bed was
(07:30):
made. That's when Doreen panicked. Elaine never made the beds she told Marty something was wrong.
On closer inspection the detectives found that Michelle's bed had been broken and that her
pillowcases sheets and bedspread were gone. They also discovered blood droplets on her bedroom wall
and mattress. A small patch of carpet had been cut out as well. In 1982 DNA analysis was largely
(07:56):
unavailable but the evidence suggested foul play to the police who had nonetheless deemed it a
missing persons case. On October 17 a Caltrans worker happened upon a wallet belonging to one of
the Salamans alongside the Antelope Valley freeway some 15 miles away. Additionally the family's
passports, wallets and photos were discovered scattered alongside the Antelope Valley freeway
(08:21):
outside the town of Acton as a result of finding these personal documents belonging to the family.
The case was immediately turned over to major crimes at Parker Center and reclassified as an
active homicide investigation. The investigation subsequently focused on Harvey Rader whom Saul
was planning to see on the night he went missing. Rader was a British citizen with an extensive
(08:44):
criminal history who owned a car dealership in which Saul had invested $20,000. The Salamans
Mercedes was found at Rader's garage. When questioned by police Rader confirmed that he and
Saul attended a car auction on the evening of October 12th and arrived together in Saul's van.
Afterward Saul asked Rader to drop him off at an Israeli restaurant at 10 30 p.m. Rader then
(09:10):
drove Saul's van back to his house and rang the doorbell. When Elaine answered she gave Rader the
keys to the Mercedes and he drove it to his garage for some repair work. Rader denied any
involvement in the family's disappearance and told police that he believed Saul was involved in
transporting guns with the Israeli mafia as Saul's lifestyle seemed to exceed his income from his
(09:31):
fire extinguisher business. However there were inconsistencies with Rader's story. The car auction
he supposedly attended with Saul ended at 5 p.m. even though Elaine's parents confirmed that Saul
did not leave until 6 p.m. It also turned out the restaurant where Rader claimed he dropped Saul off
was closed on that particular night. On October 20th a week after the Salomon family was reported
(09:58):
missing the tensions surrounding their disappearance reached a crescendo with a press conference led
led by Daryl Gates L.A.'s confrontational police chief. He painted a picture of the investigation
as quote difficult and perplexing hinting at its potentially significant implications.
Gates didn't mince words when he described the scene in Michelle's bedroom noting the presence
(10:22):
of blood. When pressed on the quantity Gates's response was chilling more blood than I would
want to lose. The mention of Saul raised eyebrows with Gates acknowledging that the LAPD detectives
had prior awareness of him but they were withholding specific. Rumors swirled about Saul's possible
connections to the Israeli mafia an elusive network implicated in a variety of criminal
(10:47):
activities spanning insurance and credit card fraud drug trafficking and extortion. The U.S.
Justice Department had initiated investigations as early as 1979 assembling a task force to probe
the extent of Israeli organized crime. In a particularly gruesome incident in October of that
(11:07):
year Los Angeles homicide detectives linked the Israeli mafia to the murder and dismemberment
of a married Israeli couple. There remains grotesquely scattered across the San Fernando Valley.
As the investigation delved deeper the shadowy reputation of the Israeli mafia loomed large
with whispers of global ecstasy smuggling emerging centered around Los Angeles as its hub of operation.
(11:32):
Speculations regarding Saul's involvement in clandestine activities only added fuel to the fire.
Talk circulated about him being an Israeli intelligence operative, a drug dealer or even
a gun runner suggesting the family might be on the run for his murky transgression. Yet amidst
the conjecture a neighbor's account lent a chilling reality to the rumors. Recounting an
(11:56):
encounter where Saul had allegedly displayed Uzi's for sale the gravity of the situation became
palpable. The neighbor's father visibly shaken by the encounter initially hesitated to share
details until legal intervention prompted his testimony. Marty Laffer Doreen's husband knew
that Saul was no saint but he thought allegations about ties to any Israeli mafia were quote
(12:18):
bullshit. According to him the extent of Saul's misdeeds didn't go beyond some apartment buildings
he owned in Van Nuys and leveraged in an insurance scam. After the family disappeared Marty kept
Saul's business afloat for a short period and filed his taxes. As he told investigative journalist
Stacy Perman he said quote it was probably the first honest return Saul ever filed. The web of
(12:45):
speculation hearsay and veiled truths surrounding the Salomon family's disappearance only deepened
the mystery leaving the community and law enforcement grappling with a complex puzzle
fraught with uncertainty and danger. Then 13 months later in November 1983 Raiders cousin
Ashley Paul a taxi driver back in his native England Paul worked as Raiders right hand man
(13:10):
came forward with a shocking story. Paul had worked for Raiders dealership but returned to
England after the Salomons went missing. He eventually contacted the authorities after
being pressured by a private investigator hired by Elaine's family. A woman who identified herself
as a relative of Elaine's told Paul that a group of California based Israelis
(13:31):
planned to hurt him and his family in retaliation for the Salomon's murders. The private investigator
recalled the moment Paul broke saying quote the first words out of his mouth so help me god were
Joe you're right Harvey's a psycho. With a private investigator in tow Paul told Scotland Yard
detectives that Raider murdered the Davises and the Salomons. Scotland Yard relayed his
(13:56):
accounts to the LAPD which wanted a formal statement but Paul refused to cooperate further unless he
was granted immunity from prosecution for the murders. After telephone negotiations the Los
Angeles County District Attorney's Office drafted the deal and Paul agreed to come to Los Angeles
under Scotland Yard escort provide statements to the LAPD and help locate the body. Landing in
(14:20):
Los Angeles on November 13th 1983 Paul was placed under armed guard and put up at the new Otani
Hotel downtown. Paul told investigators he witnessed Raider shoot Saul in the head in the office at
his dealership after Saul demanded repayment of the $20,000 he had invested. Paul claimed that
another car dealer named Gerald Baxter and two Italian men were present and that he was instructed
(14:45):
to drive Raider and the Italians to the Salomon home where they subsequently murdered Elaine,
Michelle and Mitchell. Paul then helped Raider bury the family's bodies in the desert in Antelope
Valley. Paul also implicated Raider in the disappearance of a British couple named Peter
and Joan Davis who went missing on March 17th 1982. Paul lived next door to the Davises in
(15:08):
Grenada Hills and was said to have worked for the couple in the past repairing their cars.
When detectives first questioned him in connection with their disappearance he said that he'd driven
Peter Davis home from a car auction the night he went missing. But the police initially viewed Paul
as a non-starter and he returned to London driving cabs again the Davises lived only two miles away
(15:30):
from the Salomons and did business with Raiders dealership. According to Paul Raider murdered
the couple in order to steal valuable artwork from their home and he helped Raider bury the bodies
in the desert near Bakersfield. Paul also claimed that Raider told him he was responsible for the
January 1982 disappearance of a Burbank businessman named Ronald Adeeb who also invested money in
(15:52):
Raiders dealership but Paul had no idea where Adabee's body was. On November 14th 1983 Paul was
supposed to lead investigators to the Salomons remains in Acton near Antelope Valley but all
they found was a tattered green quilt. A detective reportedly said quote we went out to the desert
area and he was trying to show us different areas where he thought the bodies were buried but nothing
(16:16):
worked out he recalled. He was lying or he didn't really want us to find the bodies because he thought
if we'd never find them nobody could be prosecuted. The following day a search for the Davises bodies
off the highway on the way to Bakersfield also yielded nothing. Police administered four polygraph
tests to Paul. He failed them all. Investigators suspected that Raider had dumped the Salomons
(16:40):
bodies into one of the numerous mineshafts dotting the area. If I remember an investigator said
Harvey told somebody he knew about mineshafts being a great place to bury bodies but Paul never
took us to the mineshafts. He only took us to areas where he thought there would be shallow
graves. The same investigator frustrated that this brutal homicide case that got away was quoted
(17:06):
I'm still to this day convinced that Harvey planted that evidence out there off of Highway 14 on
purpose and took the bodies in the opposite direction he said referring to the discovery early on
Saul and Elaine's wallets and papers. I mean it's just something I think happened. He's a smart guy
cunning but I had no evidence to prove that Harvey Raider and Gerald Baxter were subsequently
(17:31):
arrested on suspicion of murdering the Salomons but released due to insufficient evidence. In fact
Baxter was cleared as a suspect and Paul finally admitted that Baxter was not involved and that
the two Italians who supposedly helped with the murders did not exist. By lying Paul had violated
his immunity agreement so he was charged with murdering the Salomons and the Davises. However
(17:56):
since no other evidence could be found to implicate Paul a judge dismissed the charges
and he promptly returned to England. In September 1988 after Harvey Raider served a term for passport
fraud and was facing deportation the authorities decided to charge him with the murders of the
Salomon. Paul refused to return to America to testify against him and without any bodies
(18:19):
or physical evidence the case against Raider was very circumstantial. Raider faced the death penalty
when his trial began May 6th 1989. Mark Lessam a deputy public defender represented Harvey.
Lessam was quoted as saying that Raider wasn't the only suspect in the case indicating to Saul's
circle of associates and that the evidence against Raider wouldn't have sat for six years without
(18:44):
charges being filed unless the case was weak. Lessam reported that his own investigators sprayed
luminol in Raider's Mr. Motor Office and didn't find a trace of blood. The prosecutor presented
evidence that a woman saw Raider's car near Acton at the time of the Salomon's disappearance
but Lessam introduced someone who said Raider was at an auction at the time and nowhere near the
(19:07):
desert. While the DA said the motive for murdering the Salomons was robbery, Lessam maintained that
police found $5,000 in Saul's home office safe. So obviously robbery wasn't a motive, Lessam said.
Further he found a prostitute who'd allegedly been with Saul that night suggesting that Raider
(19:28):
might not have been the last person to see him on October 12th and he insisted that Saul and Raider
were not in business together. It aggravated Lessam that the police didn't explore Saul's
business activities and instead remained focused on Raider. According to him, Saul claimed to make
$15,000 a year which seemed impossibly low for someone living in that house, in that neighborhood
(19:54):
with those cars. He was quoted as saying he was a drug dealer and I don't think there was any
question of that. After three weeks of deliberations, the jury foreman sent a note to the judge on
August 28th, 1989 declaring, it is apparent we cannot come to a total agreement. The judge asked
them to continue after which three more days of deliberations passed but the jury of six men and
(20:19):
six women remained deadlocked 11 to 1 for conviction. The judge declared a mistrial.
Marge burst into tears. Outside Los Angeles County Superior Court in downtown LA,
she told reporters, I don't think justice was done in this case, she added, I'll never stop.
I'm going to see that justice will be done. Harvey Raider's second trial opened in the
(20:45):
same courthouse on January 4th, 1990 and ended one day later in a mistrial due to what the judge
deemed a conflict of interest. It turned out that the public defender's office was also representing
the prosecution's key witness, an auto detailer in a drunk driving case who was to testify that he
saw blood stains in a car Raider had driven after the Salomon's disappearance. So the public defender
(21:10):
was barred from representing Raider. Joel Isaacson and Carl Jones took over the defense for Raider's
third trial. Isaacson was recommended to Raider by accused mass murderer, Fat Fred Knight, with
whom the British expat shared a cell block. Isaacson had successfully defended Knight,
one of three gang members charged in the killing of five teenagers dubbed the 54th Street Massacre.
(21:36):
Raider's new lawyers introduced a bigger question mark during the two month trial.
Investigators working for the legal team tracked down the sole juror who held out during the first
trial and she told them she wasn't convinced the Salomon's were even dead. This became the central
plan of defense in their case, raising the possibility with jurors that the Salomons were
(21:57):
still alive despite a 1985 court ruling that declared them legally dead by homicide based in
large part on the sealed statements made by Ashley Paolo. In addition, a pharmacist, a gas station
attendant, and a Carpentaria police department dispatcher all testified that they'd seen members
of the Salomon family after they had been reported missing. The previous public defender privately
(22:20):
said that he didn't find the witnesses credible. However, during his closing argument, which stretched
more than three hours, Isaacson, the defense attorney produced a map from his daughter's
encyclopedia and put flags all over it, asking the jurors quote, where are the Salomon's? Harvey
Raider never took the stand. The jury deliberated for just two days. Raider was so nervous that
(22:45):
Isaacson, his attorney, had to hold him up when the judge declared not guilty. Raider collapsed,
hitting his head on the table. Isaacson was quoted as saying the reality is everybody was shocked,
including Mr. Raider, who fainted when they said not guilty. That's how much chance he thought he
had. He is a killer. Marge shouted in the courtroom, what kind of system of justice is this? Where is
(23:10):
the justice in the world? They make criminals of victims and victims of criminals. Marty Laffer
was there too, and shared the courthouse elevator with members of the jury before the verdict was
delivered. They couldn't look me in the eye, he was quoted as saying, I knew we lost the case.
It was a terrible feeling. Afterward, he went to the Friars Club in Beverly Hills,
(23:34):
changed into his jogging clothes, and ran all the way to the beach and back.
By the time he was done, his feet were bloody. Doreen couldn't take it after the trial.
Everywhere she looked, reminded her of places she'd been with Elaine. A year after the trial,
she and Marty moved out of the valley. Marge remained haunted for her remaining days. Without
(23:56):
the bodies, she was never able to hold a proper funeral according to Jewish tradition. One detective
was quoted as saying that he believed the talk of Israeli mafia and guns and dope was just a
smokescreen. It's pretty ironic that we have seven dead people and with all seven dead people,
Harvey Rader was the last one to have anything to do with any of them.
(24:17):
Ashley Paul and Harvey Rader have seemingly since disappeared without a trace.
I think the twists and turns in this story leave the door open for many theory.
I want you to know that listeners like you are the most important people to odd mystery stories.
Thank you so much for listening to this story. If you know of a story that is unsolved, strange,
(24:40):
odd and of course mysterious, I invite you to share the known details of that story with me.
You can either go to one of my social media accounts like Facebook or Twitter or you can
simply email me at the following email address with no spaces odd mysteries the number four and
the letter you at gmail.com again. That email address is with no spaces odd mysteries the number
(25:01):
four and the letter you at gmail.com. I do my very best to answer all messages so don't hesitate to
reach out to me. In the next episode, I'll share the odd mysterious story of the infamous Setagaya
family murders, a still unsolved case that has baffled investigators for years. Despite countless
(25:22):
leads and extensive investigation, the killer remains at large, leaving behind a trail of
unanswered questions and unfulfilled justice. You won't believe the shocking details of this
heinous crime and the ongoing quest to bring closure to the victims and their surviving
loved ones. I sincerely hope you enjoyed this story. If you did, please leave me a review,
(25:46):
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Welcome! As I first read the details of this story, I thought, okay, this isn't that mysterious.
(00:06):
It seems like multiple failed attempts to prosecute a guy who many believe committed the crime.
Still, I decided to dive further into this strange story, and as I learned more and more the twists,
the turns, the deceit, and just flat out craziness of what happened, I felt compelled to bring this
story to you. Join me for a ride through strange and mysterious, here at Odd Mysteries Stories.
(00:30):
In 1982, the Salomon family vanished from their quiet neighborhood in Northridge, California,
leaving behind a perplexing mystery that continues to baffle investigators to this day.
For all appearances, the Salomons were a normal suburban family. Immigrants from Israel, 35-year-old
Saul Salomon, his wife Elaine, their 9-year-old son Mitchell, and Elaine's 15-year-old daughter from
(00:55):
a previous marriage, Michelle Hoseman, all lived in a quiet area of Northridge, California, where
Saul worked as a fire extinguisher repairman and refiller. They were, by all accounts, a happy,
perfectly ordinary, and a seemingly well-adjusted family. Elaine and Saul first met at a bar in
Hollywood in 1971. She was a 28-year-old divorcee with a 4-year-old daughter, Michelle. Saul was
(01:20):
24, an Israeli immigrant who had landed in Los Angeles a year earlier, driving a taxi and selling
encyclopedias before setting up a business-refilling fire extinguisher. After they married and had
a son named Mitch, they moved out of their recidate condo and into 19232 Lassen Street in Northridge.
Michelle's biological father had given up his parental rights to her, but Saul never tried to
(01:42):
adopt her, and she never took his last name. Burley and gruff, Saul stood more than 6 feet tall,
wore a dark brown hairpiece, and despite carrying a good 50 extra pounds, often went shirtless,
a lit cigarette dangling from his lips. Elaine had big, wide-set brown eyes and pale skin with
(02:04):
dyed pineapple blonde hair. She was a glamorous woman, and the couple seemed constantly surrounded
by friends and family. The salamans had a taste for the good life. Greek statuaries surrounded
their large swimming pool. There always seemed to be new toys, a large screen TV, VCRs, and clothes
(02:25):
at their home, even a baby grand piano, although nobody in the home could play it. Then there was
the parade of cars, the Canary Yellow Lincoln Continental Mark V, a midnight blue Mercedes Benz,
the Burgundy Rolls Royce. During occasional mother-daughter lunches, Elaine often took Michelle
out in the Rolls Royce to dine on the top floor of the Bonaventure Hotel downtown. Rumors surfaced
(02:51):
that Saul was an Israeli intelligence agent, a drug dealer, or maybe a gun runner. Margaret
Malarowitz, or as she was known to her friends as Marge, was Elaine's mother and Michelle's grandmother.
Marge, later in life, would reveal much of her displeasure with her daughter's husband,
whom she held responsible for her missing daughter and grandchildren. She has been quoted as saying,
(03:14):
I hate Saul. I blame him. She shared her knowledge of their relationship many years after their
disappearance. He, Saul, traveled to Europe without Elaine, slept with prostitutes, had stopped
bathing regularly, and got involved in all sorts of unsavory activities. There were stacks of cash
(03:34):
hidden behind picture frames. And who knows what else, she claimed. The truth, as Marge now shared it,
was that Elaine was miserable. Marge revealed that her daughter had been having an affair and wanted
desperately to leave Saul. Not long before she disappeared, Elaine confessed to her mother,
only to have Marge mark off all the reasons leaving was a bad idea, not least of which was that
(03:58):
Elaine's boyfriend, who she said didn't have two nickels to rub together. So I told her to stay.
You have a beautiful home. You don't have to work. You go out with your friends and have whatever
you want. Stay with Saul, she was quoted as saying, now consumed with guilt. So there you have some
idea of who the Salomon family was that disappeared mysteriously in 1982 from Northrid. Let's explore
(04:25):
the disappearance of this family. On October 12, 1982, Elaine's parents were visiting the Salomon
home. At 6 p.m. Saul told everyone he was going to a car auction with a business associate named
Harvey Rader and left. Elaine's parents went home at around 10, 30 p.m. and one hour later. Elaine
(04:46):
was in the middle of a phone conversation with her friend Barbara Levy when the doorbell rang.
Elaine told her friend Harvey's at the door before ending the call, but this turned out to be the last
time anyone ever heard from the family. It wasn't until October 13th in the evening a day later
that neighbors were alerted to the fact that the Salomon's pool had been overflowing and flooding
(05:08):
another neighbor's yard that someone went to the home to check on the family. Lassen Street at the
time was a quiet little street in a bedroom type community. Saul's burgundy Rolls Royce occupied
the driveway in stark contrast to the beat up white Dodge van with his company name Apollo Fire
extinguishers that was parked in the street out front. The doors were locked and no one answered
(05:32):
when the doorbell was rung. The neighbors proceeded to walk around to the backyard only to find
the family's Cocker Spaniel named Mish Mish barely responding to the neighbors as they entered the
backyard. Something surely wasn't right. The neighbors managed to contact Elaine's cousin Duran
Laffer. Doreen said that she had stopped by the house earlier that day to drop off some borrowed
(05:57):
chairs and took note that no one seemed to be at home. While she thought that to be strange, she
also noted that she hadn't heard from her cousin which was unlike her to go more than a day without
being in contact with each other. Further investigation revealed that Elaine hadn't shown up to her
volunteer counselor work at a nearby clinic along with also learning the children 14 year old
(06:20):
Michelle and nine year old Mitchell hadn't attended school the past day. Elaine's mother Marge was
reached and since spending the evening with them on the 12th she hadn't heard from Elaine also.
It was time to bring in the police. Within minutes a pair of uniformed officers from the LAPD's
Devonshire Division pulled up to the Salomon's Ranch House and Marty Laffer, Doreen's husband,
(06:43):
got there soon after. He'd recently resigned as an investigator with the IRS's criminal division
and was unconvinced when after a cursory look the officers said they'd found nothing unusual.
He urged them to check inside the house. He was quoted as saying when Elaine goes to the bathroom
all her friends and relatives know, he told the police. There's two kids involved and it doesn't
(07:07):
make sense that they would lock up the house and be gone without telling anybody. After a patrol
sergeant arrived with permission to enter Marty showed them how to get inside through a bathroom
window in the back. The doors were locked but the burglar alarm hadn't been activated. Marty phoned
Doreen from the master bedroom. To him everything looked fine surveying the room even the bed was
(07:30):
made. That's when Doreen panicked. Elaine never made the beds she told Marty something was wrong.
On closer inspection the detectives found that Michelle's bed had been broken and that her
pillowcases sheets and bedspread were gone. They also discovered blood droplets on her bedroom wall
and mattress. A small patch of carpet had been cut out as well. In 1982 DNA analysis was largely
(07:56):
unavailable but the evidence suggested foul play to the police who had nonetheless deemed it a
missing persons case. On October 17 a Caltrans worker happened upon a wallet belonging to one of
the Salamans alongside the Antelope Valley freeway some 15 miles away. Additionally the family's
passports, wallets and photos were discovered scattered alongside the Antelope Valley freeway
(08:21):
outside the town of Acton as a result of finding these personal documents belonging to the family.
The case was immediately turned over to major crimes at Parker Center and reclassified as an
active homicide investigation. The investigation subsequently focused on Harvey Rader whom Saul
was planning to see on the night he went missing. Rader was a British citizen with an extensive
(08:44):
criminal history who owned a car dealership in which Saul had invested $20,000. The Salamans
Mercedes was found at Rader's garage. When questioned by police Rader confirmed that he and
Saul attended a car auction on the evening of October 12th and arrived together in Saul's van.
Afterward Saul asked Rader to drop him off at an Israeli restaurant at 10 30 p.m. Rader then
(09:10):
drove Saul's van back to his house and rang the doorbell. When Elaine answered she gave Rader the
keys to the Mercedes and he drove it to his garage for some repair work. Rader denied any
involvement in the family's disappearance and told police that he believed Saul was involved in
transporting guns with the Israeli mafia as Saul's lifestyle seemed to exceed his income from his
(09:31):
fire extinguisher business. However there were inconsistencies with Rader's story. The car auction
he supposedly attended with Saul ended at 5 p.m. even though Elaine's parents confirmed that Saul
did not leave until 6 p.m. It also turned out the restaurant where Rader claimed he dropped Saul off
was closed on that particular night. On October 20th a week after the Salomon family was reported
(09:58):
missing the tensions surrounding their disappearance reached a crescendo with a press conference led
led by Daryl Gates L.A.'s confrontational police chief. He painted a picture of the investigation
as quote difficult and perplexing hinting at its potentially significant implications.
Gates didn't mince words when he described the scene in Michelle's bedroom noting the presence
(10:22):
of blood. When pressed on the quantity Gates's response was chilling more blood than I would
want to lose. The mention of Saul raised eyebrows with Gates acknowledging that the LAPD detectives
had prior awareness of him but they were withholding specific. Rumors swirled about Saul's possible
connections to the Israeli mafia an elusive network implicated in a variety of criminal
(10:47):
activities spanning insurance and credit card fraud drug trafficking and extortion. The U.S.
Justice Department had initiated investigations as early as 1979 assembling a task force to probe
the extent of Israeli organized crime. In a particularly gruesome incident in October of that
(11:07):
year Los Angeles homicide detectives linked the Israeli mafia to the murder and dismemberment
of a married Israeli couple. There remains grotesquely scattered across the San Fernando Valley.
As the investigation delved deeper the shadowy reputation of the Israeli mafia loomed large
with whispers of global ecstasy smuggling emerging centered around Los Angeles as its hub of operation.
(11:32):
Speculations regarding Saul's involvement in clandestine activities only added fuel to the fire.
Talk circulated about him being an Israeli intelligence operative, a drug dealer or even
a gun runner suggesting the family might be on the run for his murky transgression. Yet amidst
the conjecture a neighbor's account lent a chilling reality to the rumors. Recounting an
(11:56):
encounter where Saul had allegedly displayed Uzi's for sale the gravity of the situation became
palpable. The neighbor's father visibly shaken by the encounter initially hesitated to share
details until legal intervention prompted his testimony. Marty Laffer Doreen's husband knew
that Saul was no saint but he thought allegations about ties to any Israeli mafia were quote
(12:18):
bullshit. According to him the extent of Saul's misdeeds didn't go beyond some apartment buildings
he owned in Van Nuys and leveraged in an insurance scam. After the family disappeared Marty kept
Saul's business afloat for a short period and filed his taxes. As he told investigative journalist
Stacy Perman he said quote it was probably the first honest return Saul ever filed. The web of
(12:45):
speculation hearsay and veiled truths surrounding the Salomon family's disappearance only deepened
the mystery leaving the community and law enforcement grappling with a complex puzzle
fraught with uncertainty and danger. Then 13 months later in November 1983 Raiders cousin
Ashley Paul a taxi driver back in his native England Paul worked as Raiders right hand man
(13:10):
came forward with a shocking story. Paul had worked for Raiders dealership but returned to
England after the Salomons went missing. He eventually contacted the authorities after
being pressured by a private investigator hired by Elaine's family. A woman who identified herself
as a relative of Elaine's told Paul that a group of California based Israelis
(13:31):
planned to hurt him and his family in retaliation for the Salomon's murders. The private investigator
recalled the moment Paul broke saying quote the first words out of his mouth so help me god were
Joe you're right Harvey's a psycho. With a private investigator in tow Paul told Scotland Yard
detectives that Raider murdered the Davises and the Salomons. Scotland Yard relayed his
(13:56):
accounts to the LAPD which wanted a formal statement but Paul refused to cooperate further unless he
was granted immunity from prosecution for the murders. After telephone negotiations the Los
Angeles County District Attorney's Office drafted the deal and Paul agreed to come to Los Angeles
under Scotland Yard escort provide statements to the LAPD and help locate the body. Landing in
(14:20):
Los Angeles on November 13th 1983 Paul was placed under armed guard and put up at the new Otani
Hotel downtown. Paul told investigators he witnessed Raider shoot Saul in the head in the office at
his dealership after Saul demanded repayment of the $20,000 he had invested. Paul claimed that
another car dealer named Gerald Baxter and two Italian men were present and that he was instructed
(14:45):
to drive Raider and the Italians to the Salomon home where they subsequently murdered Elaine,
Michelle and Mitchell. Paul then helped Raider bury the family's bodies in the desert in Antelope
Valley. Paul also implicated Raider in the disappearance of a British couple named Peter
and Joan Davis who went missing on March 17th 1982. Paul lived next door to the Davises in
(15:08):
Grenada Hills and was said to have worked for the couple in the past repairing their cars.
When detectives first questioned him in connection with their disappearance he said that he'd driven
Peter Davis home from a car auction the night he went missing. But the police initially viewed Paul
as a non-starter and he returned to London driving cabs again the Davises lived only two miles away
(15:30):
from the Salomons and did business with Raiders dealership. According to Paul Raider murdered
the couple in order to steal valuable artwork from their home and he helped Raider bury the bodies
in the desert near Bakersfield. Paul also claimed that Raider told him he was responsible for the
January 1982 disappearance of a Burbank businessman named Ronald Adeeb who also invested money in
(15:52):
Raiders dealership but Paul had no idea where Adabee's body was. On November 14th 1983 Paul was
supposed to lead investigators to the Salomons remains in Acton near Antelope Valley but all
they found was a tattered green quilt. A detective reportedly said quote we went out to the desert
area and he was trying to show us different areas where he thought the bodies were buried but nothing
(16:16):
worked out he recalled. He was lying or he didn't really want us to find the bodies because he thought
if we'd never find them nobody could be prosecuted. The following day a search for the Davises bodies
off the highway on the way to Bakersfield also yielded nothing. Police administered four polygraph
tests to Paul. He failed them all. Investigators suspected that Raider had dumped the Salomons
(16:40):
bodies into one of the numerous mineshafts dotting the area. If I remember an investigator said
Harvey told somebody he knew about mineshafts being a great place to bury bodies but Paul never
took us to the mineshafts. He only took us to areas where he thought there would be shallow
graves. The same investigator frustrated that this brutal homicide case that got away was quoted
(17:06):
I'm still to this day convinced that Harvey planted that evidence out there off of Highway 14 on
purpose and took the bodies in the opposite direction he said referring to the discovery early on
Saul and Elaine's wallets and papers. I mean it's just something I think happened. He's a smart guy
cunning but I had no evidence to prove that Harvey Raider and Gerald Baxter were subsequently
(17:31):
arrested on suspicion of murdering the Salomons but released due to insufficient evidence. In fact
Baxter was cleared as a suspect and Paul finally admitted that Baxter was not involved and that
the two Italians who supposedly helped with the murders did not exist. By lying Paul had violated
his immunity agreement so he was charged with murdering the Salomons and the Davises. However
(17:56):
since no other evidence could be found to implicate Paul a judge dismissed the charges
and he promptly returned to England. In September 1988 after Harvey Raider served a term for passport
fraud and was facing deportation the authorities decided to charge him with the murders of the
Salomon. Paul refused to return to America to testify against him and without any bodies
(18:19):
or physical evidence the case against Raider was very circumstantial. Raider faced the death penalty
when his trial began May 6th 1989. Mark Lessam a deputy public defender represented Harvey.
Lessam was quoted as saying that Raider wasn't the only suspect in the case indicating to Saul's
circle of associates and that the evidence against Raider wouldn't have sat for six years without
(18:44):
charges being filed unless the case was weak. Lessam reported that his own investigators sprayed
luminol in Raider's Mr. Motor Office and didn't find a trace of blood. The prosecutor presented
evidence that a woman saw Raider's car near Acton at the time of the Salomon's disappearance
but Lessam introduced someone who said Raider was at an auction at the time and nowhere near the
(19:07):
desert. While the DA said the motive for murdering the Salomons was robbery, Lessam maintained that
police found $5,000 in Saul's home office safe. So obviously robbery wasn't a motive, Lessam said.
Further he found a prostitute who'd allegedly been with Saul that night suggesting that Raider
(19:28):
might not have been the last person to see him on October 12th and he insisted that Saul and Raider
were not in business together. It aggravated Lessam that the police didn't explore Saul's
business activities and instead remained focused on Raider. According to him, Saul claimed to make
$15,000 a year which seemed impossibly low for someone living in that house, in that neighborhood
(19:54):
with those cars. He was quoted as saying he was a drug dealer and I don't think there was any
question of that. After three weeks of deliberations, the jury foreman sent a note to the judge on
August 28th, 1989 declaring, it is apparent we cannot come to a total agreement. The judge asked
them to continue after which three more days of deliberations passed but the jury of six men and
(20:19):
six women remained deadlocked 11 to 1 for conviction. The judge declared a mistrial.
Marge burst into tears. Outside Los Angeles County Superior Court in downtown LA,
she told reporters, I don't think justice was done in this case, she added, I'll never stop.
I'm going to see that justice will be done. Harvey Raider's second trial opened in the
(20:45):
same courthouse on January 4th, 1990 and ended one day later in a mistrial due to what the judge
deemed a conflict of interest. It turned out that the public defender's office was also representing
the prosecution's key witness, an auto detailer in a drunk driving case who was to testify that he
saw blood stains in a car Raider had driven after the Salomon's disappearance. So the public defender
(21:10):
was barred from representing Raider. Joel Isaacson and Carl Jones took over the defense for Raider's
third trial. Isaacson was recommended to Raider by accused mass murderer, Fat Fred Knight, with
whom the British expat shared a cell block. Isaacson had successfully defended Knight,
one of three gang members charged in the killing of five teenagers dubbed the 54th Street Massacre.
(21:36):
Raider's new lawyers introduced a bigger question mark during the two month trial.
Investigators working for the legal team tracked down the sole juror who held out during the first
trial and she told them she wasn't convinced the Salomon's were even dead. This became the central
plan of defense in their case, raising the possibility with jurors that the Salomons were
(21:57):
still alive despite a 1985 court ruling that declared them legally dead by homicide based in
large part on the sealed statements made by Ashley Paolo. In addition, a pharmacist, a gas station
attendant, and a Carpentaria police department dispatcher all testified that they'd seen members
of the Salomon family after they had been reported missing. The previous public defender privately
(22:20):
said that he didn't find the witnesses credible. However, during his closing argument, which stretched
more than three hours, Isaacson, the defense attorney produced a map from his daughter's
encyclopedia and put flags all over it, asking the jurors quote, where are the Salomon's? Harvey
Raider never took the stand. The jury deliberated for just two days. Raider was so nervous that
(22:45):
Isaacson, his attorney, had to hold him up when the judge declared not guilty. Raider collapsed,
hitting his head on the table. Isaacson was quoted as saying the reality is everybody was shocked,
including Mr. Raider, who fainted when they said not guilty. That's how much chance he thought he
had. He is a killer. Marge shouted in the courtroom, what kind of system of justice is this? Where is
(23:10):
the justice in the world? They make criminals of victims and victims of criminals. Marty Laffer
was there too, and shared the courthouse elevator with members of the jury before the verdict was
delivered. They couldn't look me in the eye, he was quoted as saying, I knew we lost the case.
It was a terrible feeling. Afterward, he went to the Friars Club in Beverly Hills,
(23:34):
changed into his jogging clothes, and ran all the way to the beach and back.
By the time he was done, his feet were bloody. Doreen couldn't take it after the trial.
Everywhere she looked, reminded her of places she'd been with Elaine. A year after the trial,
she and Marty moved out of the valley. Marge remained haunted for her remaining days. Without
(23:56):
the bodies, she was never able to hold a proper funeral according to Jewish tradition. One detective
was quoted as saying that he believed the talk of Israeli mafia and guns and dope was just a
smokescreen. It's pretty ironic that we have seven dead people and with all seven dead people,
Harvey Rader was the last one to have anything to do with any of them.
(24:17):
Ashley Paul and Harvey Rader have seemingly since disappeared without a trace.
I think the twists and turns in this story leave the door open for many theory.
I want you to know that listeners like you are the most important people to odd mystery stories.
Thank you so much for listening to this story. If you know of a story that is unsolved, strange,
(24:40):
odd and of course mysterious, I invite you to share the known details of that story with me.
You can either go to one of my social media accounts like Facebook or Twitter or you can
simply email me at the following email address with no spaces odd mysteries the number four and
the letter you at gmail.com again. That email address is with no spaces odd mysteries the number
(25:01):
four and the letter you at gmail.com. I do my very best to answer all messages so don't hesitate to
reach out to me. In the next episode, I'll share the odd mysterious story of the infamous Setagaya
family murders, a still unsolved case that has baffled investigators for years. Despite countless
(25:22):
leads and extensive investigation, the killer remains at large, leaving behind a trail of
unanswered questions and unfulfilled justice. You won't believe the shocking details of this
heinous crime and the ongoing quest to bring closure to the victims and their surviving
loved ones. I sincerely hope you enjoyed this story. If you did, please leave me a review,
(25:46):
download and share this story with your friends. Lastly, if you enjoyed this podcast and want to
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