The Most Sadistic Serial Killer the FBI Has Ever Profiled

The Most Sadistic Serial Killer the FBI Has Ever Profiled

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
A sleepy southern town becomes a place of unimaginable heart
as young girls begin disappearing. A cunning serial killers on
the loose, tormenting a family while evading capture. Until investigators

(00:23):
could find a way to stop.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Him, he would continue his hunt for more victims.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
He was a predator, abducting girls and young women from
their own front yards in broad daylight.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
He was a sadist, phoning one.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Victim's family, taunting them, boosting then dashing their hope. And
he wouldn't stop until we stopped him. I'm Jim Calstrom,
former head of the FBI's New York office.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
This serial killer, whoever.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
He was, could pass unnoticed in society, yet he craved
the attention his crimes provided. Somewhere in this contradiction lay
the key to his exposure.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
May thirty first, nineteen eighty five, the afternoon sun over
South Carolina roasted the town of Lexington to a blistering
one hundred degrees. Sherry Fay Smith had found relief in
the heat at a pool party with her boyfriend and
fellow high school seniors. She was looking forward to the

(02:05):
carefree days between her final exams and graduation, and all
of summer and the rest of her life awaited the
ambitious seventeen year old. She lived with her family in
a quiet rural community, a safe place tucked away on

(02:26):
the edge of town. A Smith's home sat on a
generous lot of dense woods. The house was about two
hundred yards from the road. Sherry's dad, Robert Smith, served
as a local pastor. This Friday afternoon, he worked at
home in his second floor office. He looked up from

(02:48):
his studies to see his daughter pulling into the driveway
and stopping to get the mail. In the next few moments,
life in Lexington's, South Carolina changed forever. Expecting Sherry to

(03:08):
walk in the house, mister Smith looked out the window again.
He noticed her car remain near the mailbox, but she
was nowhere in sight. Immediately, he felt something was armed.
He decided to take a look. Cherry suffered from diabetes.

(03:31):
With her blood sugar out of balance, she might become
disoriented or incapacitated. When he arrived at the bottom of
the driveway, mister Smith found Sherry's car still running and
the door swung open it but his daughter was gone.

(03:59):
There was no sparsh to his call. His mind began
to raise as he imagined the possibilities. Could she be
lying in the woods somewhere unconscious or in shock? Cherry,
he yelled loudly as he grew more frantic with work. Cherry,

(04:27):
there was no sign of her anywhere. Sherry was gone.
Mister Smith immediately called for help. The Assistant Sheriff of
Lexington County responded to the call. The distraught father explained
that Sherry was not the type to just run off.

(04:48):
I I'm not sure what knew. She was responsibly warm
and well adjusted, not the sort of teenager to run away.
But the sheriff took nothing for granted. He questioned Smith
about his relationship with his daughter. Today. More than a

(05:13):
decade later, Assistant Sheriff Louis McCarty vividly recalls his impressions
of the Smith family. During his first conversation with Sherry's father.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
We discussed his daughter's grades, what kind of child she was.
It was determined that there was no animosity between mother
and father and daughter. The Smith family was a very
close knit family, a very religious family. You just had

(05:44):
the sixth sense that they were extremely closed that this
child would not have run away on her own.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
The investigator couldn't shake the feeling that something bad it
happened to Sherry Smith, and the same intuition told him
it had nothing to do with her medical. Addition, every
minute had passed increased the likelihood that Sherry might never
be found. Knowing this, the sheriff called for assistance by

(06:15):
passing the twenty four hour waiting period required before officially
classifying an individual as a missing person. While waiting for
the other officers to arrive, the sheriff and Robert Smith
retraced Sherry's steps, careful not to destroy any possible evidence.

(06:38):
But the naked eye search yielded nothing. They had to
wait for more equipment and expertise. Within minutes, officers from
the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division known as SLEDGE arrived
at the Smith home. Investigators combed the looking for tire jacks,

(07:01):
foot impressions, or fingertips. They found nothing. Knowing the next
few hours were critical, the authorities assembled a task force
and organized a massive ground search. The possibility of an
abduction prompted a swift response. Crimes like this simply did

(07:24):
not happen. Surrounding counties sent every available officer to help.
Word of Sherry's disappearance spread quickly through the close knit
community of Lexington. Hundreds of local residents offered to participate

(07:45):
in the search. Still they found no trace of them.
Though there was no direct evidence that a federal crime
had been committed, state investigators called on the expertise of
the FBI. They wanted the bureau to unofficially advise in

(08:10):
the search and to assist in the investigation. Special Agent
John Vohmer from the FBI's Columbia office was dispatched to
the Smith's house the next morning. The disappearance had even
baffled the experts. She was nowhere to be found, and.

Speaker 5 (08:30):
She was not from a type of family background where
that would readily indicate she'd run off with somebody. She
was from a very stable, good family background, and they
immediately thought, obviously something had happened to her, But we
had no idea at that point what.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
The search urgently continued, with hundreds of volunteers and officers
working around the clock. It was a daunting task. The
heat and terrain hindered the haunt.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
When you were talking about looking in a county of
five hundred square miles, it's almost like looking for a
leedland a Haystack. It's extremely difficult because you don't know
where to begin and where to go.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Two long, hot days of searching past and still there
was no sign of sherf It grew more and more
likely that this was an abduction. Horrified that a crime
like this could happen in their town, the residents of
Lexington were gripped by fear. Children were not seen without

(09:46):
their parents, No one went anywhere alone. With every hour
that passed, investigators hoped there was still enough time to
find Sherry unharmed. On June third, three days after Sheryfaye's disappearance,

(10:09):
at about two thirty in the morning, a call disturbed
the smith's restless sleep. Robert answered the phone. A voice
he did not recognize asked for his wife, Hilda.

Speaker 6 (10:22):
Hello.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
The caller claimed to be Sherry's of Dussie Yes. The
captor apologized for taking Sherry and insisted that she would
eventually be returned. He made clear this was not a
ransom call. He told Hilda that she would receive a
letter in the mail later that day.

Speaker 7 (10:43):
Just tell us what you were.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
He promised, he'd call back, and hung up. Though a
phone tap had been set up earlier. The call was
too short to get a trace. SLED officers who were
at the smith home called Agent Vohmer immediately.

Speaker 5 (11:00):
It really was unclear whether she was alive or dad.
The caller was indicating that she was alive, that he
would see that she was returned safely, and I think
at that point everyone was hopeful that he was truthful
and that in fact, she was not dead and would

(11:23):
be returned to her home and family.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
A letter, hopefully containing clues to share his whereabouts, would
be a welcome break. But first they had to find
out if the letter promised by the caller really did exist.
Not wasting any time, they woke the town's postmaster and
ordered him to open the post office before daybreak. Then

(11:49):
they went to work, sifting letter by letter through the
piles of outgoing made long yeah court the summers. After
a half hour, the postmaster found an envelope addressed to
the Smiths. Carefully, they slipped it into an evidence bag

(12:12):
and sent it to the Sled forensic labs for analysis.
Inside the envelope, examiners found a two page letter written
on yellow legal paper. Their excitement melted into horror as
they began reading the letter. It was entitled last Will
and Testament. It began I love you, mommy, Daddy, Robert,

(12:38):
Dawn and Richard and everyone else and all other friends
and relatives. My thoughts will always be with and in
your casket closed. I am sorry if I ever disappointed
you in any way. I only wanted to make you
proud of me, because I have always been proud of
my family. The letter ended with all my love always,

(13:04):
Sharon Sherry Faye Smith. With the help of the Smith family,
investigators confirmed that the handwriting was Sherry's. Lab examiners began
the painstaking task of analyzing the letter. Searching for prints, hairs, fibers,

(13:29):
and other clues would take weeks, while investigators hope the
document might provide other valuable leads. They were alarmed by
the letter's content.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
We were shocked. We were concerned for her well being.
There were several phrases in the letter that she refers to.
One would be casket closed, is you know? Why would
why would a child make a statement? Casket clothed?

Speaker 1 (14:01):
Sherry's fate was unclear. The abductor had all the answers
he had promised to call again. Until he did, the
Smith family clung desperately to hope. Just days after Sherriffay's disappearance,
her abductor had called to taunt the family. Since then,

(14:25):
agents and detectives set up a voice recorder in addition
to the tap already on the Smith phone. Having the
abductor's voice on tape would be invaluable. If the suspect
called again, they would be ready. The weight was excruciating.

(14:50):
At eight o'clock on the evening of June third, the
phone rang.

Speaker 8 (14:55):
Glad answered, try to stay on the phone as long
as possible.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Hello, it was the voice from the night before. He
spoke to Hilda.

Speaker 7 (15:08):
Did you receive a letter today?

Speaker 9 (15:12):
Ah?

Speaker 6 (15:12):
Yes, I did?

Speaker 7 (15:14):
Okay, So you know now that this is not a hoax?

Speaker 9 (15:18):
Called?

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Yes, I know that.

Speaker 7 (15:20):
Listen, listen real carefully. I got to hurry. I know
these calls are band trade.

Speaker 9 (15:27):
Uh you sure?

Speaker 1 (15:28):
We you?

Speaker 7 (15:29):
Cherry is now part of me physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.
Our soldis are one now.

Speaker 9 (15:35):
Your SOLDI are one now with Sherry.

Speaker 7 (15:38):
Yes, and we're trying to work this out, so please
do what we are.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
The trace had been successful. Go ahead us one. The
suspect had called from a phone booth about twenty miles
away from the small A network of sheriff's deputies staking
out the area raced to the sea, hoping to catch
the cars still on the phone. But when they arrived,
all they found was a phone dangling a phone. Any cars,

(16:08):
give me plates? Any cars leaving the immediate area right now?
He had slipped away, leaving nothing behind, not even fingerprints.
They just missed off. Sherry's older sister, Dawned recollects the
agonizing uncertainty.

Speaker 10 (16:25):
I didn't really understand what was going on at the time.
I didn't understand that he was a very sick person.
I'd never dealt with anybody like that in my life.
But I really believed that he was taking care of her,
and that there had to be some reason for the
madness of Sherry being taken.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
On the surface, the abductive's phone conversations revealed nothing about
Sherry's warings. However, for the FBI, the phone calls offered
the first limits inside the mind of this twisted predator.
It would be up to FBI profilers in the Investigative
Support Unit at Quantico, Virginia to penetrate this criminal's mind.

(17:10):
John Douglas pioneered behavioral profiling for the FBI. He and
others developed the investigative tool from over twenty five years
of interviews with convicted killers, arsonists, rapists, and bombers.

Speaker 11 (17:25):
When someone ask your profile, what they're looking for are characteristics,
which includes a gender, includes age, race, sometimes body typing,
educational level, occupational type.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
To determine these characteristics, the profiler attempts to think like
the killer. He tries to uncover his motivations. Examining every
aspect of a crime reveals patterns of behavior. What emerges
is a profile describing the type of person the killer
will most likely be. After scrutinizing every detail of Sherry's abduction,

(18:07):
Douglas generated a twenty two point profile of the suspect.
He painted the abductor as a white male in his
late twenties to early thirties with above average intelligence. He
would most likely work as a blue collar day laborer.
Because it sounded as if the killer had electronically distorted
his voice, he probably worked in electrical contracting. He would

(18:32):
have a prior criminal record. Douglas also suggested he lived locally.
The tone and content of his phone calls indicated he
was an asocial obsessive, compulsive. If the stress of everyday
life became too great, he would break down. He would
then feel compelled to compensate for his own inadequacies through

(18:55):
violent actions.

Speaker 11 (18:57):
He is a type of guy that, like one grain
of sand on a beach where there are billions and
billions of grains of sand, he feels like nothing.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
He feels like a nobody.

Speaker 11 (19:08):
And how can does nobody this personality, this person who's
probably overweight, low self esteem, doesn't unattractive.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
How can he become somebody?

Speaker 11 (19:19):
He'll go after victims that there was no chance that
he would ever come in contact with someone like a
sherry faced Smith, and so for the first time in
their life they can be be powerful.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
On Wednesday, June fifth, the Smith's received another club. This
time he gave the family directions to where they would find.

Speaker 7 (19:42):
Sherif the's too carefully, take Highway three seventy eight to
traffic circle, turn left a white grain building six feet beyond.
We're waiting God KOs.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Us investigators raced to the location murder, hoping they might
still find her alive. Six days after her mysterious disappearance,

(20:22):
investigators found the body of Sherry.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
Facemen When the Smith family received the cow to the
location of the body. We went immediately there and our
worst fears came true.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
Sharry's body had been laid in the woods of Saluta County,
some seventeen miles from the home from which she vanished.
Her abductor was now wanted for first degree murder. A
week of one hundred degree heat had taken its told

(21:05):
the body's advanced state of decay worked in the killer's faith,
the medical examiner could not determine the exact cause and
time of death. To John Douglas, the location and condition
of the crime scene provided further insight into the suspect's mind.

Speaker 11 (21:24):
He has some criminal sophistication because I believe what he
did is he waited. He waited for her to now
go into advanced stage as a decomposition, which would make
it more difficult for law enforcement to determine cause and
method of death in this state of decomposition.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
The confirmation of Sherry's murder devastated the Lexington community. That Saturday,
A crowd of one thousand mourners attended a funeral service
at the town's first Baptist church. That evening following Sherry's funeral,
the killer could not resist inflicting more to him. Wester Smith,

(22:04):
Cherry's and Beverie.

Speaker 7 (22:06):
I want to thak for Don.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
I'm sorry she's not available either, Beverly Stalky, hoping to
gain valnuerable time for the phone trace.

Speaker 7 (22:16):
Yeah, I have to go down if I can't.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
Talk to her, but the suspect threatened to hang up
if he couldn't immediately speak to Don.

Speaker 9 (22:28):
Hello, Okay.

Speaker 7 (22:30):
Every thing got out of hand and all I wanted
to do was make love for Don. I've been watching
her for a couple of niksh I'm sorry to Rry Don.
I hope you and your family could give me for dead.

Speaker 6 (22:43):
When you killed Cherry, was she She wasn't afraid or.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Anything was not.

Speaker 7 (22:46):
She knew that God was with her and she was
going to become an angel.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Overwhelmed with grief, Sherry's mother insisted on talking to her
daughter's murderer.

Speaker 9 (22:58):
Did you tell her you were about to kill her?

Speaker 7 (23:00):
If he had? And I gave her the killer and
he picked upplication, my God, I could.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
It did not escape the attention of the FBI and
local investigators that the killer had mistakenly used Dawn's name
when he spoke of shering. They braced themselves for the
possibility that this killer might be turning his murderous obsession
towards dawn, but the suspect would make only one more

(23:30):
call before falling ominously silent. Though he wasn't talking, they
knew he was still out there terrifying a community, and
the profile predicted that if he killed once, he would
kill again. In June nineteen eighty five, FBI investigators continued

(23:58):
to hunt the kidnap, her and killer of seventeen year
old Sherry Smith. While investigators focused on the Smith murder,
the elusive creditor pursued other plans. On Friday, June fourteenth,
two weeks after Sherry's abduction, a man grabbed Deborah may

(24:23):
Help from her front yard in Whitchland County as she
played with her brother. She was just nine years old.
The child's screaming alerted a neighbor, but the woman was
not fast enough. The abductor managed to slip away and

(24:44):
Broadway line. Helmick's neighbor could only provide vague information. However,
the general description of the suspect and his method appeared

(25:07):
eerily similar to the man the FBI wanted for the
murder of sheriff Richland County Sheriffs immediately contacted the task
force in nearby Lexington.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
Well then moments of that abduction, we were aware of
it and began to focus on that case. Also, we
were pretty much in our minds. I think that everybody
knew these two cases were connected.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
For John Douglas, the case took on an even greater
sense of urgency. Deborah may Helmick's fate seemed almost certain.

Speaker 11 (25:47):
Once they get the urge, they're out looking for the
preferential victim, But if they cannot find the victim of choice,
they will go after whoever is available, and that was
the case here with Deborah may Helman.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
News of the second deduction brought Douglas down from Quantico, Virginia,
to South Carolina. The FBI hoped they could find nine
year old Deborah may Helmet before her young life was
cut short. In the Smith case, the killer's phone calls
had been a critical link for the investigators. It had

(26:21):
been nearly a week since Deborah's disappearance and they hadn't
heard from him. To get him to call, Douglas devised
a plan, with the help of the local media. He
would set a trap, and one key element by the
plan placed Don Smith in jeopardy. Douglas had to ask

(26:44):
the Smiths to put their other daughter at risk to
catch Sherry's killing and hopefully find young Deborah.

Speaker 10 (26:51):
Dawn agreed, a lot of times people thought we were twins.
We looked a lot alike, and so they came up
with this plan that if I were to answer the phone,
maybe he would turn that fascination from Schery to me.
And if I could keep him on the phone, talking
long enough about Cherry, about himself, about anything to keep

(27:12):
him on the phone, then they could trace the call
and catch.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Him allow him. Douglas's strategy centered around a memorial service
for Sherry. Investigators promoted the service in the local press.
The agents hoped the attention to his first victim would
rekindle the killer's fascination with Dawn. Douglas needed something else

(27:38):
to bait the trap, a personal item from Sherry's room.
Based on experience, Douglas knew that sexual predators are often
attracted to personal items of their victims. They want momentums
that they can keep, even display as trophies. He noticed

(27:58):
the Koala bear. It was the mascot of the university
she planned to attend in the fall. This work perfectly.
The day of the memorial service, plainclothed agents swarmed the grounds,
hoping their suspect would visit the cemetery. As the family's

(28:22):
minister delivered a eulogy, Dawn and her parents huddled close.
Though Dawn had willingly volunteered to lure the killer to
the trap, the danger it presented weighed on everyone's mind.
There was no telling what the suspect might do.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
The security around don was was heightened. We were extremely,
extremely concerned about Dawn becoming a victim, waved Joe.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
Then, as planned, Dawn placed some flowers in the Koala
bear on her sister's grave. Now all that was left
to do was wait. Using Douglas's profile, FBI agents coached
Dawn on how to handle the suspect when he called.

Speaker 10 (29:14):
I was told to never be threatening, to never be harsh,
to be real, understanding and sympathetic and compassionate. And I
was with him, and I think he liked that because
he felt like he was very much in charge, which
is something that he thrived on.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
As several calls came to the Smith home following the
memorial service, not knowing if it was Sherry's killer, Dawn
had to answer everyone. Shortly after midnight, the phone at
the smith House rang.

Speaker 9 (29:50):
Again, thought John Man from Cherry Reeves.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
As Douglas had hoped, the culprit took the bait, and
as anticipated, the killer had turned his focus to Don.
You can't be protected all a gime. He made it
clear to her that she was going to be his
next victim.

Speaker 7 (30:20):
You know, God wants you to join Terry Bay.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
It's just a matter of Kime did. Despite the threat,
Don kept him on the line, enduring abuse from the
man who murdered her sister, while officials traced the origin.

Speaker 9 (30:34):
Of the claw Richland County.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, cay go what Lord?

Speaker 4 (30:39):
Then?

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Before hanging on, the killer offered directions.

Speaker 7 (30:45):
Current right, deb Bay is waiting God forgive us all.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
Special Agent John Vohmer feared that the killer would not
stop there once he called about Deborah Helmic.

Speaker 5 (31:04):
Then you're leading into the possibility that you now are
dealing with a possible serial killer who has killed now
at least two suspect, maybe others before, and may continue
to kill others.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Despite Douglas's success at getting the suspected call, no one
had anticipated just how far away the killer would go
to avoid detection, tracing the call from outside the area
to a additional time. Again, suspect left the phone booth
moments before the authorities could reach him.

Speaker 4 (31:44):
We were very, very close to catching him on a
number of occasions, and it's almost as if he sensed
this and began to move further in making his phone Callumn.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Other investigators followed the clone's directions. There, they found nine
year old Deborah may Helmic murdered. The gamble had failed.
With every missed opportunity, the probability of more victims increased,
and now Dawn was the most likely target. Investigators feared

(32:19):
the killer would make an attempt to abduct her. An
elusive serial killer had already killed two girls around Lexington,
South Carolina. The slim amount of evidence frustrated FBI investigators
as well as local law enforcement, but the forensic analysis

(32:40):
was about to generate the biggest break in the investigation.
The last will and testament of Sherry Smith was examined
by Gail Heath, director of the Questioned Document Section of
the South Carolina Law Enforcement Labs. Using an ESDA machine,
Heath hoped to find hard evidence The ESDA, an acronym

(33:05):
for electrostatic detection apparatus, can pick up images that are
invisible to the naked eye. It works on the opposite
principle of a printing press. Instead of coding raised letters
with ink to create an image, the ESDA fills in
the indentations on the document in question with graphite. When

(33:25):
an imaging film similar to saran rap is pulled tight
over the document, a readable image comes through. After hours
of examining the document, Heath found indented writing it appeared
to be a phone number and a name.

Speaker 6 (33:43):
The particular name and phone number in question, we were
able to bring up the entire area code, the first
three numbers of the prefix, the next two numbers, the
third number we were unsure of, and then we had
the fourth number.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
The name on the pad was Joe from the area code.
Investigators determined the number was from Alabama. To fill in
the missing digit, investigators called every combination of the phone
number until they reached a party who had the same
name as the one found on the league. They finally

(34:19):
made a match. The number belonged to a man named
Joe Shepherd. Investigators scrutinized his phone records They found that
he had received a call from an address just outside
of Lexington in Lake Murray, South Carolina. Either of these
addresses could belong to the killer. Armed with the FBI profile,

(34:43):
local police visited the Alabama address. They met Joe Shepherd.
He didn't match the killer's profile. Even though he not assessment,
he could still be an important link to the killer.

(35:05):
Police had to find out the connection between him and
the Lake Murray, South Carolina foam cares. Shephard explained it
came from his parents' homes. South Carolina. Officers verified that
the address belonged to Joe Shepherd's parents, Ellis and Sharon Sheppard.
Investigators went to the Lake Murray address to question the residents.

(35:29):
The house was just two miles from where police found
the body of nine year old Deborah May Helmet. They
learned that Ellis worked as an electrician in home construction.
It was a profession the FBI profile predicted. As the

(35:54):
officers knocked on the door, a cock pull into the driveway.
When investigators saw the Shepherds, they immediately felt they had

(36:14):
hit another dead end. Besides Ellis Shepherd's profession, nothing else
seemed to fit the profile. They questioned them anyway. The
Shepherds told them that they had recently returned from a
six week trip. The officers casually asked if the couple
knew about the Smith and Helmert murders. With every question,

(36:37):
the police noticed missus Shepherd becoming more concerned. The Shepherds
were beginning to suspect their house sitter, Larry Jean Bell.
As they described Bell, elements of the profile fell into place.
He was a white male in his thirties who lived

(37:00):
with his parents. He sometimes assisted Ellis in home construction.
Just days earlier, when the Shepherds returned from the vacation,
Bell had picked them up from the airport. He talked
to the Shepherds at length about the cases. He was
closely following the news of the murders. It was more

(37:22):
evidence of a meticulous mind and behavior consistent with the profile.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
They said that he had saved the newspaper articles, told
them all about the case and great detail. From the
airport back to their residence. Again, it was uncanny how
much this profile was on track.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
The detectives asked if they could see the inside of
the house, suspecting the killer had used a weapon to
force Sherry Smith into the car. They asked Ellis Shepherd
if he owned a gun. Shepherd led them to a
drawer where he kept his revolver. Last time I used this.
To his surprise, the gun was gone. You got a

(38:08):
good idea. The officers asked the couple to accompany them
to the precinct. They wanted the Shepherds to listen to
recordings of the killer's calls to the Smith family. The
investigators needed to know if the voice on the recordings
belonged to their house safety as voice.

Speaker 7 (38:30):
For a couple of months, and then they'd find out.
I'm paying and then I'd get tried and get sent
elected chair, put in prison. Rep I'm not going to
stay in prison Reo.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
The may have electronically altered his voice. To the Shepherds,
it was clear that the man on the tape was
their house sitter, Larry Jean Bell.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
We were all extremely related. We could not show any emotion,
but we we knew that we had the case. At
that point, we had our wed.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
The Shepherds told the police that they expected Bell to
return to their home at seven point thirty the next
morning for work.

Speaker 11 (39:09):
We're going to have a secretary outside.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Investigators staked out Bell's residence. This time there was no
way he could elude capture. Larry Jean Bell headed down
the highway to the Shepherds. He failed to notice the

(39:39):
unmarked police car following behind him. The officers radioed to
another car waiting to cut him off at the approaching intercession.

(40:05):
June twenty sixth, nineteen eighty five, at seven nineteen am,
investigators finally trapped the elusive Larry Jean Bell. This time
it was the investigators who were one step ahead. Bell
was arrested without resistance and taken to the precinct for question.

(40:28):
With Bell now in customer, investigators still needed to build
an air tight case to make sure he would never
be free to kill again. Combining hard forensic evidence with
the FBI profile, South Carolina police arrested Larry Jean Bell
on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering. But now they had

(40:52):
to prove beyond any doubt that he was indeed the
killer of Sherry Smith and Deborah May Helmet. It was
up to Lexington County Solicitor Donald Myers to make the case.
A career prosecutor, Myers was determined to convict the killer
who had so horrifically taunted his victim's family.

Speaker 8 (41:14):
I did not like Larry Jane Bell, even before I
knew him, and I knew that this was probably the
most publicized case that we would ever had, from the
most publicized in South Carolina at that time, and I
pretty much committed myself to go after him with everything
I had.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Though there was powerful evidence against Bell, it was only circumstantial.
Still in the state of South Carolina, a confession could
guarantee the maximum sentence. Myers needed to make sure that
Bell would never be able to take another life. He

(41:56):
wanted a confession again. They called on the FBI to
help them. They recommended setting up the interrogation room that
would elicit a self incriminating statement.

Speaker 5 (42:11):
For instance, a map showing where the phone calls were made,
some pictures of the victim so that he's aware as
he looks about the room, to remind him of the victim.
You might have fingerprint cards on the table. You might
have notebooks or file cabinets that would have his name

(42:34):
on them, all to make him think you obviously have
narrowed in on him, You've got the goods on him.
He might as well go ahead and give it up.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
While the officers prepared to question build, other detectives secured
a search warrant for the Shepherd's house. For the next
twelve hours, the forensic team combed every square inch of
the home, looking for anything that would firmly connect Bell
to the crimes. As the profile predicted, the house was

(43:09):
in perfect order. It was meticulously clean, vacuumed, and dusty,
particularly in the room where Larry Jean Bell had been staying.
But beneath the orderly exterior, the team uncovered evidence of
his devies. The bed's pristine sheets concealed a thin, dirty mattress,

(43:32):
and beneath that lay a porn magazine and a handgun
that matched the description of mister Shepherd's missing thirty eighth.
Despite the freshly vacuumed carpets, an investigator retrieved a blonde
hair in the space where a vacuum cleaner wouldn't reach.

(43:56):
A lab would match the strand to Sherry Smith. While
the investigators continued the search for evidence of the Shepherd's home,
detectives at the interrogation carried out the FBI's strategy. First,

(44:16):
they made sure Belle was comfortable, as advised by Douglas.
They spoke to the suspect in a non threatening way.
They pretended to empathize with him, to understand his pain
in order to pry him or They walked their suspect
through the growing mound of evidence, condemning him at every chance,

(44:42):
they reminded him of the victims. Bell denied everything. However,
he did make a curious request. He wanted to meet
Dawn and Hilda Smith, hoping the mother and sister of
his first victim might stir a confession. The Smiths agreed,

(45:11):
Hilda and Don tried to mentally prepare themselves. Finally, they
stepped into the room and came face to face with
Sherry's killer.

Speaker 10 (45:25):
He began to mumble, and he began to speak about
how he was sorry that the person sitting in that
chair couldn't have been the one that had done this,
but another Larry Bell could have been the one. He
really didn't make a lot of sense, and so I
remember sitting there, I remember looking at him, I remember
listening to him, and I really just felt discussed that

(45:46):
I knew this was the man, and he wasn't even
man enough to say I did it. I'm sorry. I'm
just trying to make excuses, But my mom said the
most incredible thing to him. She said, I know you're
the man that killed my daughter, and I can honestly
say that.

Speaker 9 (46:01):
I don't hate you.

Speaker 10 (46:03):
And he got teary, but.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Belle's emotional break went only to the point of tears.
He never made the confession authorities wanted. After weeks of
compiling evidence, Myers and the investigators began to piece together
the sequence of events of May thirty first, nineteen eighty five.

(46:28):
Bell noticed Cherry Smith after dropping his mother off at
a doctor's appointment. Something about the young woman triggered his
lecherous cravings. As she left the parking lot, Bell followed,

(46:48):
his desire shattered with little restraint, he possessed he never
let her out of his sight. Cherry did not notice
the car followed her down thead. She pulled into the
driveway and stopped at the mail rolfs Bell wasted no time.

(47:19):
He had taken Sherry pertly, and by surprise, come on.
He brought Sherry to the Shepherd's House on Lake Murray.
Bell then canceled dinner with friends. He told them he
wanted to stay at the shepherds and watch a baseball game.
He had already tied Sherry to the bed. The evidence

(47:42):
showed that Sherry had been raped before killing her. Bell
coerced Sherry to write her last will and testament. Twelve
hours after she disappeared, He covered her mouth with duct
tape and suffocated her. Investigators believed that she was dead

(48:11):
by four point fifty eight am, the time Bell claimed
that their souls became life. It took less than one
hour for twelve South Carolinians to find Bell guilty a
first degree murder. Meyers prosecuted Belle in a separate trial

(48:31):
for the murder of nine year old Deborah may Helmet.
He was found guilty a second time. With Bell's conviction,
the Smith family could begin to rebuild their lives.

Speaker 10 (48:45):
There was a sense of relief that Okay, now he
can't do this to me, he can't do this to
anybody else, and he will be put away.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Larry Jean Bell paid the ultimate price for his sadistic
crimes on October fourth, nineteen ninety six. He was put
to death in South Carolina's electric chair. Though the loss
of Sherry Smith and Deborah Mayhelmic will always be felt,
life in Lexington has slowly returned to normal. With skill

(49:18):
and determination, the South Carolina law enforcement community and the
FBI brought closure to a breeving town by ending the
deadly game of cat and mouse. A nightmare stats ripping

(49:41):
a Dallas family of a party. A father makes a
desperate escape while his wife and child are taken by
a drug dealer. FBI agents race against time to find
the hostages and their abducted. A trail of bodies let
us the path the Genie couchet.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
A mother and child are kidnapped, a bystander is murdered.
Violence such as this shadowed a quiet Texas neighborhood and
exposed a drug hotel that flourished where it was least expected.
I'm Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office.
FBI field agents work to penetrate the secret of drug underworld,
expose those involved, and crush the cartel.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
In the spring of nineteen eighty eight, narcotics had infiltrated
the working class communities of Dallas, Texas. A rise in
robberies and break ins followed the drug train. Some families
retreated from the higher crime areas to the neighborhood of
Pleasant Grove, Sam Wright, his three year old son Andre,

(51:29):
and his wife, Evelyn Banks, found refuge among the porch
line streets. Here, residents looked out for one another. Then,
early on May twentieth, nineteen eighty eight, a gunshot shattered
the morning silence. Through the shock of one onlooker, Four

(51:53):
armed men merged from the Right house, dragging the family
to a car. Sam Wright managed to break free from
the abductors and escaped. The neighbor, who witnessed the incident
ran to alert the authorities, while Wright dashed behind houses

(52:16):
to avoid the gang, but help could not arrive before
the gang stuffed Wright's family into the car and disappeared. Strangely,
detectives had still not heard from Right, and the mystery
of the morning's events deepened. As detectives entered inside, the

(52:38):
kidnapping investigation expanded to include a murder investigation as well.
The police found the body of a young man lying
face down in a pool of blood. A driver's license
identified the victim as twenty five year old David Wilburn.
Investigators were thorough and collected anything that seemed promising, but

(53:02):
there was little evidence to collect. They also dusted for fingerprints,
but retrieved none foreign to the residence. The detectives spoke
to the neighbor, who called nine one one, hoping she
could provide some answers. The interview revealed that Wilburn, the
dead man found of the scene, was Sam Wright's nephew,

(53:25):
but she didn't know why anyone would want Wilburn executed.
Detectives also learned that the Latino man who drove the
Lincoln had visited Sam Wright on previous occasions, but no
one recognized the eldens. For investigators, larger questions remained, where

(53:50):
was Sam Wright and why hadn't he contacted authorities about
his family's abduction. Just one disturbing fact was clear. A
mother and her three year old son were in the
hands of killers. Given the urgency, the Dallas police called
in the FBI. A special agent, Jose Figueroa, was assigned

(54:14):
to the case.

Speaker 12 (54:15):
Every time we receive information about kidnappings, that's a priority
case in our standards, especially when when a kid is involved,
and we don't wait twenty four hours to respond to
a kidnapping.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
Figaroa began by searching for Sam Wright, the man who
would escape from the gang. The FBI learned that Wright
was a fugitive on the run for three years after
fleeing a drug conviction. This explained why Wright, the distraught father,
had kept on running and not turned to the police.
But the FBI agents needed it. If they were going

(54:51):
to move forward and help the wife and child, they
had to talk to Wright, suspecting that writers hiding in
the area. Agent's canvas the Pleasant Grove neighborhood, talking to neighbors.

Speaker 12 (55:06):
That's what we did at the beginning. We inundated the
whole area with our business cards and interview everybody, just
asking for somebody to get in touch with Sam Wright
for him to contact the FBI office.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
As hoped. One of Figaroa's business cards found its way
into Right's hands. To panic stricken father risk capture by
calling the FBI, he asked for the only person who
could help his family, Agent Figurine task Bailey worked with
Jose figaro and the FBI Violent crimes a lot in Dallas.

Speaker 13 (55:42):
Sam told Jose that the individual who committed this offense
was a guy named Gino, and that was all that
Sam knew and by was Gino, but that he had
been arrested several months before by the Mesquite Police department
for a murder committed down in the valley, the real
Grand Valley.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
Sam Wright refused to come to the FBI office, but
promised to call again. Until then, the agents had one
league the name Gino.

Speaker 13 (56:13):
We went out to the Mesquite Police Department and met
with Captain Larry Sprague. Larry told us he said, Oh,
I know exactly who you're talking about. You're talking about
Geno Camacho.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
Thirty three year old Gino Camacho was a known drug
runner whose large shipments of marijuana were distributed and protected
by a small gang of thugs. He was also known
to have a girlfriend named Wanda Jackson. On Sunday May
twenty seconds, just two days after the abduction, agents tracked

(56:48):
down Wanda Jackson. They asked her about Geno Kamache's whereabouts,
but she denied having any knowledge of where the suspect was.
She claimed that she hadn't seen Geno in weeks. The
agents left with the suspicion that she was lying. If

(57:11):
the FBI had right in custody, perhaps they could have
negotiated to deal with Wanda as a go between, letting
Camacho believe he would be paid for his hostages. But
the agents lack the leverage that may have encouraged her
to work with him. They needed to bring in Sam Wright.

(57:34):
When Wright called the next day, they were ready with
a tap and thrush in the phone. Yeah, uh huh, okay,
and arrest team had already been dispatched to the downtown area.
What does he look like?

Speaker 12 (57:55):
You know his name?

Speaker 1 (57:56):
When the payphone address came through, it was radio to
the field. The agents found Right still using the phoneticulating
that they did not move in immediately, though desperate to
find his family. Sam Wright was a convicted drug dealer,

(58:17):
a fugitive from the law. The FBI didn't know how
far he might go to avoid catch it. Agents spotted
one man waiting in the car for the fugitive. Wright
could have had others posted nearby. The agents wanted to

(58:40):
reduce the risk of violent resistance by Right and any
of his associates.

Speaker 7 (58:47):
Okay, here we go.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
When they were confident that Wright and his driver had
no other accomplices, the agents struck out of the door.
Wright was arrested without incident on his outstanding warrant and
taken into custody.

Speaker 14 (59:15):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
Agents Bailey and Figueroa began the interrogation of the captured fugitive.
What you're tying with Gino? Wright described the events of
May twentieth, nineteen eighty eight. It was any family's worst nightmare.
On that day, Wright kept his young son Andre entertained.

(59:40):
His wife Evan sat alone downstairs. They were in mournings.
Wright's mother had recently passed away in Louisiana. He was
expecting his nephew, David Wilburn to arrive shortly and drive
the family to the funeral. Wright watched for Wilburn's arrivals.
Since did not have access to the front door as

(01:00:03):
a fugitive, Wright had installed burglar bars around the porch,
thinking it would protect his family both from the law
and from his violent associates. But the bars could not
withstand Geno Camacho's anger. Without warning, four men burst into
the house brandishing automatic weapons. Sam Wright's past had caught

(01:00:25):
up with him. The one he knew was Geno. Screamed
that he wanted money that was owed him. Wright swore
he didn't help completed for mercy. Geno's rage only escalated
at that moment Wright's nephew, David Wilburn arrived. He could

(01:00:51):
not have come at a worse time. Though he was
a large man, Geno's men could be subdued. Wright described
his nephew as a gentle soul who never heard anyone
Gino yeo that he meant business. To prove his point,
he placed the muzzle of a three fifty seven revolver

(01:01:12):
to the back of Wilburn's head. Happened a second later,
a single shot caught instant death. Wright watched helplessly as
the lifeless body of his nephew collapsed a few feet
in the sam Wright destu get wanted to help authorities,
but he swore he didn't have any more information than

(01:01:32):
could assist the investigators in low care of his family.
While Wright remained in custody, the clock continued ticking for
his wife and son to expedite leeds. Dallas police and
the FBI orchestrated a media campaign. Area newspapers and television
stations featured pictures of Camacho's face. The authorities requested that

(01:01:57):
citizens come forward with any information as to the aspects whereabouts.
This campaign yielded a tip from an unsavory source, another
drug dealer, David Munyos, a small time dealer, called the

(01:02:18):
FBI and was connected to Agent Bailey. Munyos claimed that
he recognized the kidnapper in a television news story. He
said he had information that might be useful to the investigation.
Munyos arranged to meet Bailey on his Dallas motel David Knight.

(01:02:44):
He told Bailey that he knew who Kumacho's accomplices were.
He even offered to turn Kmachu onto the FBI's probably
an unorthodox deal.

Speaker 13 (01:02:54):
What Munyos planned on doing was kind of taking over
the collection of Camacho's drug dats and business dealings and
wanted us to kind of turn a blind eye towards this.
We basically told him no deal.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
Because there was only a weak connection to the case.
Bailey did not arrest Munyos. Nevertheless, the FBI agent managed
to extract one key name from the opportunist, Eddie Blaine Cummings.
On the street, Cummings was known as Fast Eddie. A
background check revealed he had a criminal record and had
spent time in jail with Gino Camacho. Cummings was currently

(01:03:34):
on parole for possession of illegal weapons. Special Agent Figueroa
now had two names, Gino Camacho and Fast Eddie. As
he canvassed area nightclubs. Armed with photos of Camacho and
fast Eddie, Figueroa found a bar patron who had recently

(01:03:55):
seen the pair come in. The patron had heard fast
Eddie talk about a lunch appointment the next day up
in Luton, Oklahoma, be a three hour drive northwest of Dallas.
An arrest team assembled in the parking lot of the
Oklahoma restaurant on the morning of August twelfth, nineteen eighty eight.

(01:04:19):
The plan was to wait until fast Eddie exited the
crowded restaurant to isolate him from bystanders. Investigators were poised
to strike fast Eddie was their closest link to Camacho
so far. When the door opened, the arrest team descended,
nabbing fast Eddie before he could flee. One associate of

(01:04:43):
Camacho's gang was now in custody. Agents hoped fast Eddy
could lead them closer to the missing mother and son.
In the summer of nineteen eighty eight, Dallas FBI agent
searched for a missing mother and child abducted at gunpoint
by a drug gang. Fast Eddie, an associate of the gang,

(01:05:06):
was now in custody. Under interrogation, fast Eddie denied having
anything to do with the kidnapping in Dallas, but eventually
he did tell them what he knew of the crime.

Speaker 13 (01:05:23):
This was the first time we had actually learned who
all was involved in the names of the individuals.

Speaker 1 (01:05:28):
The morning of the abduction, fast Eddie fingered Camacho and
two other gang members, Juan Jackson and David Cook. He
and David Cook had grown up together in Stephenville, Texas,
a two hour drive from Dallas. As far as fast
Eddie knew, Cook was probably back in their hometown, Bailey

(01:05:50):
and Figueroa needed to get Cook, Trusting that the lead
might take them one step closer to Camacho and the
missing mom and child. They sought a contact, Stephen Bill
and found the name of Detective Don Miller. On August fifteenth,
nineteen eighty eight, Detective Don Miller called back Agent Bailey.

(01:06:13):
Miller had found the suspect working at his family's convenience store.
The detective would hold him until the agents arrived. Miller
warned Cook that if he knew something, it would be
best to cooperate with the FBI. One member of the
gang that kidnapped Evelyn and Andre Banks was now in customated.

(01:06:39):
The FBI was a step closer to Camacho, and the
misimpair agents rushed to stephen at it, hoping David Cook
may leap into Comachia and his hostages before time ran
out for the mother in side. A couple of months ago,
he had decided to help investigators with the case in

(01:07:00):
the hopes of a lighter sentence. Over two days of interrogation,
Cook detailed his version of the events of May twentieth,
nineteen eighty eight. On the morning of the assaults, Camacho
picked up Cook in two more associates. He said they
were going to collect a debt. Macho had give him

(01:07:20):
Samwright twenty thousand dollars worth of marijuana to deal, but
Wright had claimed it was stolen. Camacho swore he'd get
his money back. Gang member Juan Jackson opened up a
bag and started passing out guns. The arsenal included sudden

(01:07:41):
machine guns and the three P fifty seven pistol. Camacho
sent another gang member, Larry Merrill, around back to cut
the phone line no he was going to call for help.
Juan Jackson cut through the padlock ERBLI bars while David

(01:08:02):
Cook and Camacho kept watch. They burst in the front
door and found Evelyn Vennis in the living room. Camacho
had his men sweep the house, guns on.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
Leave us out loud.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
The gang corral the terrified family to the living room.
As Camacho's fury rules, he said that if the family
didn't cooperate, they would die.

Speaker 13 (01:08:42):
Amacho told him to put the baby on the sofa
next to his mother, and that if the baby moved
or caused any problems to shoot him. Gino started screaming
how they had ripped him off, how they had not
treated him with respect, and he wanted his money.

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
And he wanted it now. Amid all the shouting, there
came a knock at the door. The assailants first thought
was that the neighbors had summoned the police. Camacho and
Jackson moved into position prepared the fire on the police.
They thought they were on the other side of the door.

(01:09:28):
Come here. When David Wilburn walked through the front door,
he was surrounded by the armed gang. The gunman threw
him to the gun and got a struck. Camacho ordered

(01:09:52):
Jackson to shoot him, but when he hesitated, Camacho turned
to Cook, but when Cook refused, Kamacho grabbed the gun
from his hand and showed everyone just how serious he was.

(01:10:13):
Kamacho yelled that no one was going to show him
disrespect anymore, grabbed my gun, clothed the guy away. Under
intense questioning, Cook never wavered on the facts, including that
Kimacho was the shooter. His story matched Sam Wright's version.

(01:10:35):
After they left the house, Kimacho remained furious that Wright
had escaped, but the gang didn't give chase. They knew
the police would soon be summoned in force to the
Pleasant Grove neighborhood. Instead, Kamachu ordered them all to Cook's apartment,
where he could decide their next move. Camacho figured they

(01:10:58):
could lay low there with the hostages. Paul Mcalousa was
the assistant US attorney who tracked the case.

Speaker 14 (01:11:11):
They were concerned about damage control. They had two witnesses
to a murder, to a capital murder, and what to
do about that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:20):
Cook told agents that a new gang member, Spencer Stanley,
was called to the apartment to guard the hostages while
he and Kimacha were away dealing drugs at a nearby hotel.
Wan Jackson didn't stay much longer. Fearing the heat from
the authorities. He cleaned the guns, took some getaway cash
and left the gang for Good Boy in the home.

(01:11:44):
While Stanley kept watch over the hostages, Cook and Camacho
drove to the hotel to make the drug deal.

Speaker 7 (01:11:53):
There.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
Just two days after the induction, Camacho got a call
from his girlfriend, Wanda Jackson. She had a cryptic message
for him.

Speaker 10 (01:12:04):
Hey, your big brother was just here.

Speaker 13 (01:12:06):
Yeah, big brother of course, referring to the federal authorities.
The FBI had been to the house.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
The same girlfriend that had sworn to the FBI that
she had no idea of Camacho's whereabouts reached him moments
after the agents left her in trouble. Her warning gave
the gang a head start on the pursuing agents. Camacho
returned to Cook's apartment. He told Evelyn that he wasn't

(01:12:40):
angry with her, only with her husband over the money.
He said he would release her and Andrea if she
promised not to go to the authorities. She agreed with
that pledge. Camacho said he would take them to a
private airstrip in Oklahoma for a flight to California safety.

(01:13:01):
There they would remain safe until Camacho settled up with right.
At the end of a grueling interrogation session, Cook told
agents that Evelyn and Andrea never made it to California.
There was no plane for them to board. Cook knew
where they were left across the Texas state line near Ardmore, Oklahoma.

(01:13:28):
In August of nineteen eighty eight, special agents from Dallas's
Violent Crimes Unit had arrested one member of a Texas
gang responsible for one murder and the abduction of a
mother and child. While in custody, Cook pointed special agents
Jose Figueroa and Tass Bailey north to Oklahoma. It was
the next stepping stone towards their ultimate goal, finding Evelyn

(01:13:52):
and Andrea Banks and their abductor, Gino Camacho. According to Cook,
Camacho had driven Evelyn and Andrea Banks to a remote
area across state lines. The gang leader had promised to
fly the mother and child to her relatives in California

(01:14:14):
from an airstrip that was concealed behind the trees. They
pulled the car off the side of the road and
together headed into the woods. Spencer Stanley led the way,
carrying three year old Andrea. In a few hours, she
thought she would be on the West Coast, where she
would remain until her husband paid the drug debt. He

(01:14:35):
old Camacho but as they walked deeper into the woods,
Evelyn found no clearing for a plane to land. Then
she saw the hole. In an instant she realized what
it meant. She fainted from the shock. There was no airstrip,

(01:14:56):
no flight to freedom. She and her son had been
brought here to die. Spencer Stanley dropped her child into
the open grave. Camacho fired four times. Then they threw
Evelyn in on top of her son and shot her

(01:15:19):
as well. Evelyn Banks and her three year old son
Andre died on May twenty third, nineteen eighty eight. This
was the grisly scene that David Cook told agents he
was leading them to. The agents had just about reached
their frustration point when Cook had last recognized the area.

(01:15:42):
The search for Camacho's victims began in the punishing heat
of late summer. The federal kidnapping case had escalated into
a homicide case as well. Camacho had now killed three people,
but if the agents wanted to prove their case against
the killer, they had to find the bodies. To pinpoint

(01:16:03):
the burial site, the agents began a line search through
the trees.

Speaker 13 (01:16:08):
And as we walked in behind those cedar trees, you
could see a depression in the ground where someone had
dug all the side had been torn off.

Speaker 1 (01:16:17):
When investigators reached the site, three months had passed since
the murderers. They began the painstaking excavation. They removed small
loads and sifted through the dirt, careful enough to miss
or destroy any evidence. Near the surface, agents found shell
casings from a three eighty caliber weapon. Yeah, that fit

(01:16:40):
with Cook's accounts. At Camacho had fired a small semi
automatic pistol. The digging continued at a painfully slow take.

Speaker 13 (01:16:51):
You got to remember this is the end of August.
It was about ninety five degrees about ninety percent humidity.
We were in that area of the so there was
no air movement. I mean, we were just stuck in it.
We've been digging for about two hours.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
Then one of the agents struck something hard. It sounded hollow.
Another blow broke through the shell like crust. A foul
stench suddenly overwhelmed the agents, and the.

Speaker 13 (01:17:23):
God awful smell of decaying human body came out of
the hole, and we both jumped out of the hole
and went over into bushes and got sick, and then
had to go back into it again.

Speaker 1 (01:17:39):
Before burying Evelyn and Andrea. Kamachu and his men covered
the bodies with cat litter to help hide the odor,
but the clay and the cat litter absorbed moisture from
the bodies, then hardened into an airtight shell, reducing the
rate of decomposition and preserving the bodies for autopsy. The

(01:18:00):
nauseating stench the agents pressed on. They put Vicks vapor
love under their noses to suppress the odor, and continued working.
They were determined to construct an impenetrable case against Camacho
and his gang. Cook then led agents to nearby Lake Texoma,

(01:18:21):
where he said the gang had disposed of the weapons
after the killing. A dive team from the Oklahoma State
Bureau of Investigation combed the lake body. They came up
with more casings from the three eighty, and then they
found the handgun. The physical evidence against Geno Camacho was

(01:18:44):
now solid, corroborating eyewitness testimony. The federal agents were confident
they could secure a conviction on two counts of kidnapping
and three of murder them but Camacho remained at large
and agents murned he had killed again. Cook told the
FBI he could lead them to that body as well.

(01:19:09):
In late August of nineteen eighty eight, the FBI in
Dallas had captured David Cook, a member of a violent
Texas drug gang. The gang's leader, Gino Komachoa, wanted for
kidnapping and three murders, was still at large. Cook was
cooperating with agents in the hunt for Camacho. He had

(01:19:31):
led investigators to the burial side of Camacho's most recent
murder victims. But during the two day trip to recover
the bodies of Evelyn and Andre Banks in Oklahoma, Cook
surprised agents with another tale of Camacho's terror. This time,
Camacho had released his rage on a woman named Pamela Miller.

(01:19:52):
Agents now turned their focus to her whereabouts. Agents learned
that pam Miller worked as an exotic dancer in a
Dallas street club. She met Camacho and started hanging out
with his gang. Cook told agents that he and Miller
joined Camacho one night in June of nineteen eighty eight,

(01:20:14):
and still looking for it. It had been just three
weeks since Camacho had shot and killed three people, but
he had risked a trip to Dallas to arrange another
drug deal. The buyer showed up at a hotel bar
and began negotiating take care of her, but Pam interrupted
the transaction.

Speaker 14 (01:20:31):
The Pam Miller recognized the purchaser as somebody who came
into the club where she had danced, and she recognized
him me and she.

Speaker 1 (01:20:40):
Told him, so, I know you. You came into the club.

Speaker 14 (01:20:43):
Well. Not surprisingly, this had a chilling effect on the transaction.

Speaker 1 (01:20:48):
The buyer skipped out. The deal was dead.

Speaker 14 (01:20:54):
I know from where I did that you.

Speaker 13 (01:20:57):
Camacho became furious at Pam four messing up the drug deal,
and Cook and Pam and Camacho walked out of the hotel.
As soon as they got in the car, Camacho started
beating Pamela. Pamela then made some comments to Camacho, attacking
his manhood, which only infuriated him more.

Speaker 8 (01:21:18):
Yes, yes, you love him.

Speaker 1 (01:21:21):
As they drove, Camacho's rage boiled over. Cook and Stanley
had seen the results of his temper before. They knew
where it could lead, yet they were too intimidated to
speak of. Camacho's brutal beating didn't stop until Miller had
lost consciousness.

Speaker 9 (01:21:43):
Stop car.

Speaker 1 (01:21:44):
Still enraged, Camacho ordered Cook to stop the car. He
dragged Miller onto the river, laid her limp body behind
the right rear tire and yelled for car to back up.

(01:22:05):
The car now Cook obeyed. They drove down to Stephenville.

Speaker 13 (01:22:17):
They went to an apartment that was rented by David Cook,
and they took Pamela's body and put it in a
fifty five gallon drum, stuck it out on the patio,
stuck a bag of trash on top of it so
no one would see there was a body in it.

Speaker 1 (01:22:34):
They stayed there for the weekend. Amato, Stanley Cook that
thing right there. They sat around drinking beer a party
until Camacho decided to dispose of the body.

Speaker 13 (01:22:47):
So we asked David, well, where will we find Pamela's body?
And he said you won't And we said why not?
Said well, we chopped her up and put her in
a tree multerer. While I was driving the car, Jose
was in the front seat. I looked at Jose, he
looked at me. Our mouths dropped open, and I almost

(01:23:09):
ran off the highway. I couldn't believe what I'd just heard.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
Cook led FBI agents to the wooded site on the
ranch where they had pularized the body. It seemed impossible
that they would find any remains. Not only would the
shredder have culked the body, but it was now some
two months after the insidious act. It was likely that
the hot Texas sun had decayed the remains even further.

(01:23:39):
Despite the odds, agents sent out to recover what they could.
From Cook's account, the agents figured out the shredder's discharge path.
They set up a grid system and began meticulously scouring
the scene. The process took hours, but the heart work

(01:24:00):
yielded dividends. From the ground, agents recovered bone shards and tissue.
In the tree branches above, they found more tissue dried
by the sun. Each item was bagged and labeled based
on its location. The agents also recovered teeth. A check
with Pamela Miller's dental records allowed a positive identification of

(01:24:23):
the victim. Twenty three year old Pamela Miller had been
Camacho's fourth murder in as many weeks. Yet her murderer
was still at large, and every day he remained free,
Camacho posed a threat to anyone that crossed his path,
but a major break in the case soon followed when

(01:24:45):
the family of Spencer Stanley, the gang member who had
helped Camacho kill three victims, contacted the FBI. They tipped
the agents off that Stanley was hiding in a trailer
park in Huntsville, Alabama. Stanley told investigators that he had
thrown the three fifty seven Camacho used to kill David
Wilburn into Lake ray Hubbard near Dallas. An FBI dive

(01:25:10):
team searched the bottom of the Texas lake. They never
found a gun, but they did find a casing from
a three fifty seven and several live rounds. The recovered
bullets were taken to the FBI's Materials and Devices Unit

(01:25:33):
in Washington, d C. For neutron activation analysis. Agents hoped
that the bullets from Lake ray Hubbard could be matched
to the bullet that killed Camacho's first victim, David Wilburn.
Neutron activation analysis is based on the fact that lead
bullets are created in badges, and each badget led as unique.

(01:25:55):
The FBI examiners needed to prepare the bullets for the
test by removing the slow from the shelves, readying them
for transportation to a nuclear reactor. Lead samples from each
bullet were lowered into the reactor's cord. The samples absorbed
neutrons became radioactive. The radioactivity was measured and gave a

(01:26:16):
precise reading of the chemical elements found in the lead.
A radioactive signature examiners concluded that the signatures from each
bullet were identical. The bullets from Lake Ray, Hubbard, and
Wilburn's body had come from the same batch of ammunition.
Though the physical evidence against Kimacho continued to build, it

(01:26:40):
didn't put the authorities any closer to locating the fugitive.
Through an informant, the FBI learned that Kimacho had escaped
to Mexico and was hiding in a small town just
south of the Texas border. US authorities sought to have
him arrested and extra dieded, but Mexican authorities were unable

(01:27:01):
to cooperate. They claimed that the town where Camacho stayed
was controlled by drug kingpins who were heavily armed. If
the Mexican police attempted an arrest, there would be heavy casualties.
The FBI would need another plan to bring the gang
leader to justice. After four murders in the US, drug

(01:27:28):
dealer Gino Camacho had escaped to Mexico, out of reach
of the FBI, but without his gang or the drug
trade that had supported them. His money began to run out.
By the spring of nineteen eighty nine, Camacho was in
desperate need of cash. He still had suppliers in Mexico
if he could locate a buyer in the States. Because

(01:27:52):
he feared crossing back into the US, he searched for
a middleman with narcotics distribution contacts north of the border.
The low level go between Camacho stumbled upon worked as
an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Agency. The informant

(01:28:15):
reported to his DEA handler that a man named Gino
wanted to set up a drug deal. DEA agent John Lunt,
was based in Fort Worth, Texas. He was aware that
Geno Camacho was wanted by the FBI. Suspecting that this
Geno was Geno Camacho, Lunt told his informant that he

(01:28:39):
wanted to go ahead with the deal. Lunt then called
FBI agent Tass Bailey with good news.

Speaker 13 (01:28:50):
John told me that it sounded like this was Geno Camacho.
I then provided John with a photograph of Camacho, which
he showed to his informant, and the informant confirmed that that,
in fact was the individual with whom he had met.

Speaker 1 (01:29:07):
To get the fugitive across the border, the FBI offered
Camacho a deal he couldn't refuse. Their informant told Camacho
that an American distributor that wanted to buy a million
dollars was of marijuana, but the distributor needed to finalize
the deal in person. He wasn't comfortable doing such a

(01:29:28):
large deal with someone he'd never met. To come Camacho's
fears about entering the US, the informant told Camacho a
distributor would advance Geno one hundred thousand dollars when they
met in the border town of McCallan, Texas. But there
was one problem with this.

Speaker 15 (01:29:46):
Steam Field agents needed a means of unusually identifying the
future amongst other border prinsts. To make Comacho stand out,
the informant sent police and said would enable the distributor
to identif funny. The arrest team committed the clothing to
memory Hawaiian's shirt, blue shorts, and the green brimmed baseball cap.

(01:30:11):
Camacho got the package of clothes at a friend's apartment
where he often hung out, but no one could be
sure an experienced smuggler like Kamacho would not be too
suspicious to wear the outfit.

Speaker 13 (01:30:25):
We knew that this was going to be our only
shot at him, that once he figured he'd been set up,
that the informant would be burned and he would be
even more cautious than before and doing any type of
transaction that would afford us an opportunity to arrest him.
So we set up very elaborate arrest plans.

Speaker 1 (01:30:49):
On the day of the deal, agents scanned the border
crossing for Kumacho. They hoped they could find him in
the crown by the telltale clothes. If the smuggler had
been sent then the arrest team spotted him in the outfit.
Camacho didn't realize the place was swarming with federal agents
dressed as patrol guards, tourists, and passers by. They all

(01:31:14):
had memorized the outfit and his picture. Calmly, posing as
a tourist, he started across the bridge that spanned the border.
FBI agents dressed as border patrol guards approached Tomacho. The
fugitive plated cool and gave a false name, Tomas Sanchez.
When the agents asked for identification, he claimed he didn't

(01:31:37):
have any. He was simply an American tourist returning from
a day trip to Mexico. The agents coolly told him
to come inside for questioning. He went without a fight,
believing this minor misunderstanding would soon be cleared. The gang
leader was already an FBI custody and he didn't even

(01:31:58):
know it. Kamacha was taken to the Border Patrol office
and fingerprintingt Bailey let him stew in the cell for
over two hours while agents waited for a computer match.
In the Prince Camacho didn't break his silence.

Speaker 13 (01:32:23):
I addressed him as Tomas Sanchez, and he acknowledged that,
and I says, well, we have taken your fingerprints. We
have run him through the computer at the FBI in Washington,
d C. And the computer says that you're not Tomas Sanchez,
you're in fact Gino Camacho. And he said, well, if
that's what the computer says, it must be so.

Speaker 1 (01:32:45):
But Kamacho denied knowing anything about the murders to the end.
He never admitted any involvement in the kidnapping and murders.
He claimed the FBI had framed him for the crimes.
The arrest of Geno Komacho made page one use across
the Southwest from the border. He was moved to a
cell in Dallas County and charged with firearms violations, kidnapping, conspiracy,

(01:33:10):
and capital murder. Camacho and the rest of his gang
were prosecuted by the authorities. David Cook received twenty four
years for his part in the murders and kidnapping. Spencer
Stanley got a life sentence for the three murders he
helped carry out. Juan Jackson earned a life sentence for

(01:33:31):
his involvement, fast Eddie Cummings and Larry Merrill got eight
years each. Sam Wright had to serve his prior drug sentence,
as well as additional time for fugitive flight. But for
Camacho himself, state prosecutors sought the death penalty. For the

(01:33:51):
state of Texas, to put a man to death, the
prosecution must prove more than premeditation. It must show the
accused remains of the three threat to society. For this reason,
Camachu was tried on the state murder charge first. Otherwise,
a conviction on the federal charges would have sent Comacha
to prison, where any threat he posed to society would

(01:34:14):
have been removed. In separate trials, Gino Camacha was found
guilty for murder and kidnapped. The sentence was carried out
ten years after the deaths of Andre and Evelyn Banks
and Pamela Miller. On August twenty sixth, nineteen ninety eight,

(01:34:35):
the state of Texas executed Gino Camacho by lethal injection.