Rotten Mango - #148: The Mysterious Vidocq Society

Episode Date: March 20, 2022

The FBI agent walked into the warehouse. It was exactly what he expected… A concrete fortress, barely any natural light, and then he saw it. The walls. The walls were filled with rows and rows of de...capitated heads, skulls, and bones. Some still had rotting flesh on them - others were completely skeletonized. When the FBI agent made it to the back he came face to face with the man. He was shirtless, barefoot, and stirring a giant pot with a head inside. “I wasn’t expecting you today” - the man said... Do they know each other? What is behind the mysterious Vidocq Society? Book Rec: “Murder Room” - by Michael Capuzzo (One of my fave books this year and brb while I go read all his other books. Do yourself a favor and read this one!) Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier, or pay to description starting at $12.99 per month.
Starting point is 00:00:31 But it being but a boob. Welcome to this week's mini-soda Rod and Mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue, and today we're talking about the SBIA agent. He had hesitantly walked through the warehouse store. I mean, everything looked worse than he thought. He was expecting some grime, some dirt, some coldness, but there were no windows in this big warehouse room. It was essentially a giant concrete block. There was some natural light coming from the skylights, but really nothing.
Starting point is 00:00:59 The walls though. This is the part that would have made anybody, except for this season and FBI agent sh-t their pants. This is the part where you would have gagged, ran out the door, screaming for Jesus and your mom, it would have been bad. On the walls, there were rows, and rows, shelves, upon shelves, of decapitated heads. Some of them, with rotting flesh, still stuck to them, some of them with rotting flesh still stuck to them. Some of them with their eyeball still in. Some of them were completely skeletonized, just displayed for the whole world to see whoever walked in.
Starting point is 00:01:32 It wasn't hidden in a vault or a safe, it's just right there. Lined up on these shelves. Real? Yes. The FBI agent walked cautiously into the kitchen of the warehouse, which was in the back. And he heard the noise. And that's where he saw it. The man barefoot with a giant apron on cooking a skull in a giant pot.
Starting point is 00:01:56 But here's the catch. At least you're like, wow, the FBI agent caught him. We got the bad guys. He's going to get arrested now, right? Right? Well, the agent doesn't arrest him. and caught him, we got the bad guys, he's gonna get arrested now, right? Right? Well the A.A. J. doesn't arrest him. Are they in on it together? The two of them actually know each other, they see each other quite often in what they
Starting point is 00:02:12 call and I quote, the murder room. As always full show notes are available at rottingapodcasts.com. But if you do anything today, please go pick up a copy of the murder room by Michael Capuzzo. Listen, the amount of work that went into this book, I can't even, I can't even begin to describe the other extensively researched this case or should I say multiple cases. He read intense books on this society that we're going to be talking about. Yeah, there's something called the Vidoc society. He read the journals. He read other books that have been written where the society had you know a lot of
Starting point is 00:02:50 A lot of hands involved he went through case files Transcript interviewed hundreds of people including law enforcement victims families. I mean, it's so well written I had to keep checking to make sure it was nonfiction it reads like a thriller and I'm like, okay okay, hold on, hold on, wait a minute. Sure enough, it's true. Literally everything in this is true. It was on a case in a subject matter that I really was not familiar with and it just guided me through it. It was such an amazing experience of a book so I highly recommend it. It's so fascinating and it's definitely very well researched. I'm actually going to be picking up more of his books after reading this one because Wow, what talent this author has so without being said have you heard of the VDOC society?
Starting point is 00:03:37 It's a fascinating name, right? I mean it wasn't born out of thin air. It's V-I-D vid vid O-C-Q. I know that one to you for a loop vidoc vidoc yeah Oh, CQ, I know that one too, you for a loop. Vidak. Vidak, yeah. Vidak, Vidak. I think I'm saying it wrong, but it's actually named after a man named Eugene Vidak.
Starting point is 00:03:51 So this guy is a role model for a lot of people. He was known as the father of modern criminology. But did you know that he was also a thief? So it's really an example of that phrase in order to catch a thief, you must be a thief. So Eugene Vidak, he was the father of criminology. He spent a good part of his life committing crimes all over France.
Starting point is 00:04:10 It said that he was the world's first private eye, private investigator detective in history. So a little bit about Eugene. We're not really talking about him, but he's kind of pertinent to the story. Eugene was born in, we're throwing a real back, 1775. He's born into this huge family, he was the third of seven children, and since his parents were working and they were so busy taking care of all their kids, you had a lot of free time,
Starting point is 00:04:34 which he used to proudly terrorize the other kids in the neighborhood. That was his jam, that was his best extra-curricular activity. When Eugene turns into a teenager, he starts heading down the dark path of crimes. He starts by robbing his own family. Can you imagine? Like, you just start taking money from your own parents, so his parents have this local bakery that does pretty well, and he would just take money from the safe for the cash register.
Starting point is 00:04:58 And he would use it to get drunk after work. So, at these bars, with his stolen money from his parents, he starts meeting other like-minded individuals. They were not above stealing from their own parents, so that's great. They become best friends. And when his dad finds out, he tries to keep the cash box locked.
Starting point is 00:05:14 But Eugene would then start taking random items from the bakery and selling them. Sparants were so stressed they called the police, Eugene was arrested for the first time. And it had the opposite effect of what should be done. They thought that Eugene was gonna come out, get his life together, get a girlfriend, get a job, like really change it up. But in reality, he's like, alright, now I gotta skip town,
Starting point is 00:05:34 but first I need to rob my parents one last time of every dime that they have. So we robbed his parents, then he went to different areas of France, literally a new city, a new crime, a new war in out for his arrest. He would literally be a vading prison every single city that he went to different areas of France literally a new city a new crime a new war in outfair's arrest He would literally be a vading prison every single city that he went to just Committing a life of crime. He would sleep with woman. He was a womanizer He loved committing forgeries and fraud and evading the law his life was like a movie at one point He went into this house filled with women who loved him They just wanted to talk to him and he's like, you know what?
Starting point is 00:06:05 I am charismatic. I am special of course women flock to me But the next day he woke up naked near the ship docs with not a penny to his name So she got he got like He got played by the woman. Yeah, but he thought he thought it was because you know his physique and because of how handsome he was He thought it was because, you know, his physique, because of how handsome he was. So I mean, his life is really, really wild. So after he's constantly on the run, just escaping from prisons, it was this vicious cycle and he's thinking to himself, God, this is not good for my mental health. I mean, considering the fact that he was at this point a notorious killer, a con man,
Starting point is 00:06:42 a highway man, a prison escape artist, a womanizer, and a spy. He's like, I gotta put my foot down, you know? My mental health is suffering a little bit, so he asked the prison guards and the police. In exchange for eventually getting a clean record in my freedom, could you use my experience or something? You know, I'm, I'm committed a lot of frauds. I know the ins and outs, people trust me, other criminals trust me to open up to me. I mean, come on, I can help you lot of frauds. I know the ins and outs. People trust me. Other criminals trust me to open up to me. I mean, come on. I can help you catch these bad guys.
Starting point is 00:07:09 So they took him up on his offer. He was able to catch groups of organized thieves. They just trusted him. They like get away with people. The police were starting to trust him too. They actually wanted him on the outside. So they're like, if you're this good in prison with people we've already convicted, what can you do outside?
Starting point is 00:07:25 Not only did they take him out of prison, they let him have his own little team of detectives, like his own little squad. They were called the security brigade, and it was just a group of reformed criminals that were passionate about solving crimes. So yeah, this is a real thing that happened. The group was a success.
Starting point is 00:07:40 It was officially recognized as a subgroup in the police department, and Eugene was the first chief. The team went on to a rest like over 800 people. So, I mean, it's kind of crazy. I think the way that he did it, though, and the reason that he's called the guy, like the father of criminology, I'm like the guy of criminology, is because his techniques were really profound at that time. He just kept all these accurate, super detailed records of every single criminal that he ever ran into.
Starting point is 00:08:04 People weren't doing that back then. He made flashcards for motives. So imagine you're studying for a criminology degree like this is what you would do. He would even make flashcards for their initorious wanted criminals like their appearances. So cops around the city would just take them around and flip through them while they're studying. And if you happen to see that guy, you're like, oh shoot. Sounds like a better system than the cops today. Yeah, I know. They just need flashcards.
Starting point is 00:08:31 And then they have like a giant binder that they plan. They're like, hold on. You look familiar. They start scrolling through each one. I'm like, can you smile for me? Can you look at the, can you imagine? So he starts making these flashcards, distributing them. Even that flashcards for, you know, people's styles?
Starting point is 00:08:51 Like criminal styles, what they like to wear? He was also very much into psychology. Getting people to trust him, playing mind games to get people to confess. He also was one of the first people to start the trend of footprint casting. What's that? When there's footprints left at the crime scene in mud, he would get plaster so he could
Starting point is 00:09:08 cast the footprints left at the burglary and he would go around just Cinderella-ing the bitch. You know, like, hey, put your foot in here. Oh, it's match. Your guilty come with me, you little rascal. Another instance, this was, he had to fight tooth and nail for this one. He begged the doctor. Hey, you know that murder victim
Starting point is 00:09:26 We ran in you know how she was shot in the head Can you um give me the bullet What got a blast for me like you want me to go into this victim's skull and get you the bullet that's no Nobody would consented as people would think that you're loony tunes You're disgusting. You're a sadist which wrong with you need therapy. If people found out, we could both lose our jobs. But I need that bullet. I need to match it to the proper gun. He was one of the very first people to do that. A very primitive version of ballistic forensics, but I mean, you know, very influential in the crime fighting world, right? He later becomes a private detective. I think he died at like 80-something years old.
Starting point is 00:10:06 But of course, this is all very primitive, this is no longer the 1700s, and he's no longer around to help us solve all the cold cases that other seasoned detectives they just can't get justice for. But, but what if? What if? I mean, wouldn't you want this?
Starting point is 00:10:22 Wouldn't this be your dream if maybe you or a loved one went missing or something happened to you? Wouldn't you want a room full of forensic experts, investigators, some of the top in the field across the globe patiently waiting, intently and passionately working on your case? Yeah. Wouldn't you want that? And if they promised you that more often than not, your case would be solved by them,
Starting point is 00:10:45 a team, a society of some of the best investigators. Of course. You'd want that. Well, welcome to the Vadaq Society. It's true. It sounds like an organization straight out of a mystery novel. And without knowing much about them, I would straight up think that it's fake.
Starting point is 00:11:01 It sounds like something that you would have in a book and not real life. But once you realize that it's fake. It sounds like something that you would have in a book and not real life, but once you realize that it's real and it's still active today, you might think and imagine just a group of unbeatable Sherlock Holmes detectives sitting in a room solving crime. They've got this superior logic
Starting point is 00:11:17 that us mere mortals will never be able to harness, but it's actually quite simpler than that. And honestly, quite boozier. So what is the V-Doc society and how do they even form? The V-Doc society was founded in 1990 in Philadelphia when three forensic experts, they got together for lunch. It sounds like a set up to a joke and I swear it's not. So they start talking about their experience with cold cases. They're like, oh, this one sucks. Have you been able to solve that? Nobody can solve these days.
Starting point is 00:11:43 It's like a movie. Now I'm'm gonna introduce you to the quirky crime fighting trio starts with William L. Flesher with his slicked back hair his snowy beard. He kind of looks like Santa I hope he's not offended by that and his pinstripe suits He is a world-class polygraph examiner and Interrogator he was one of the top FBI agents up and down the East Coast. He had experience working for the Philadelphia Police Department. And one thing to note, you better not lie to William because he will catch you on it with or without a polygraph hooked
Starting point is 00:12:15 up to you. Then there's Richard Walter. He's got this very sharp face cold stare. I mean, it's no wonder that he's spent 20 years treating some of the most violent psychopaths in the state of Michigan. He is a psychologist. Now, he's actually from a small group of criminologists that invented modern criminal profiling. Some people call him a serial killer hunter. Nobody calls him that, actually. I do. They call him the real life Sherlock Holmes. And he hates it. I know. He hates it. They call him the living Sherlock Holmes. And this is what he says he does when someone calls that to him to his face. He says, uh, it's a nickname that horrifies me. Whenever someone says that, I look away and wait for the moment to pass, as if someone had
Starting point is 00:12:56 just farted. Why? Why does he hate it? It's just a lot of pressure. Oh, okay. So we got the seal. I thought you wanted to say, I'm much better than him. He likes Sherlock comes is baby
Starting point is 00:13:07 Baby to me, so we got William the lie detector man We've got Richard the serial killer hunter and last but not least we have Frank Bender with his handsome shiny bald head Oh, yeah so bald so shiny filled the brim with ideas He's got this white mustache that looks like the epitome of class from being honest with you. He was, at the time, the most notorious for forensic sculptors in potentially all of history. So you're like, what does that even mean, right?
Starting point is 00:13:35 Well, forensic sculptors create 3D images of a person to either help ID the victim or track down a criminal on the run. So think of like a composite sketch that you would see in most cases, but 3D, which is gonna be a lot more accurate and a lot more alive, because we always say, Hey, why does that composite sketch look like nobody and everybody at the same time? Like, it looks like my neighbor, but it also doesn't look like my neighbor, it's confusing. So it's not just sharts and arts and crafts, though.
Starting point is 00:14:00 You have to have like extensive skill and knowledge in anatomy. So we have the trio of Ted Bundy catchers, the serial killer slayers, William, the polygraph genius, Richard, the serial killing hunting criminologist, and Frank, the forensic sculptor. How is this not a movie? They even had a comedic friendship, so one time Frank, he considered himself a sex addict, he ran into Richard's office. Now Richard is very sexually conservative, by the way. He is exactly your stereotypical serial killer hunter.
Starting point is 00:14:31 Very clean cut, stone-cold face, poker face, just likes everything type A. Like that's the type of person he is. So Frank runs in and he's like, Richard, Richard, Rich, Rich, let me show you something. And it was an eight-foot, giant painting of one of Frank's many girlfriends at the time full frontal naked view and even like a real brass ring hanging on the left nipple God Richard, she just has the cutest butt, doesn't she?
Starting point is 00:14:58 Jesus Christ Frank, you're almost 60 years old. You're behaving like a 15-year- old. You're using sex as an antidote to depression. This is not healthy, especially at our age. Is this like the equivalent of showing your friend nude? Like, check that out. Yes, essentially. But like, could essentially because she agreed to have this giant painting done of herself, you know? So this is what they were doing.
Starting point is 00:15:22 So these are the three founders. And honestly, kind of love them. They just wanted a huge group together, where like-minded people could get together and discuss debate, rather, crime, mysteries, cold cases that were bothering them, the reasons that they were losing sleep. So they came together, and on a random Thursday lunch, they created the Vadoch Society after Eugene Vidoc. And now since Eugene lived to be 82 years old, they decided that they were only going to accept 82 members, one for each year of Eugene's life. Because, you know, what's a quiet society
Starting point is 00:15:56 without a bunch of random rules? Their logo would be the colors of France, because since Eugene himself was French, and only when a member passed away or retired, do they allow admittance for another member. So they kept the number at a stable 82. Members were also from like all walks of life, including experienced investigators from federal, state,
Starting point is 00:16:15 local law enforcement agencies, even private firms. They also accepted internationally renowned forensic experts in the fields of pathology, criminology. I don't know how to say this, but it's essentially something graphy, internationally renowned forensic experts in the fields of pathology, criminology. I don't know how to say this, but it's essentially something graphy, which is the study of fingerprints. Like, why do they, it sounds like a reptile. It's like dectiligraphy or something for forensic dentistry, psychology,
Starting point is 00:16:36 polygraphy, facial reconstructions, and even federal, state, and local prosecutors from the DA's office. The only, honestly, sounds really, really cool. Exactly. But are they doing anything? Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're doing a lot. The only caveat to all of this is that you have to be the best in your field.
Starting point is 00:16:54 Even after you're chosen to be a member, you have to go through a training course to officially become a member. How about like a renowned international... You podcaster. True crime podcaster. Are you trying to apply? Yes. So here we go. We're gonna people make it into this type of society. Will remember Robert Hesler? Do you guys remember Robert wrestler from Mindhunter? The famous Netflix show, but it's actually a book,
Starting point is 00:17:21 and he's actually an FBI agent who confronted the likes of Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy. He is thought to have coined the term serial killer. He was a member. Really? Yeah, another notable member is Dr. Hal Fillinger, a Philly. He had proven the unicorn killer had murdered his girlfriend. We're actually talking about the unicorn killer. There's a unicorn killer.
Starting point is 00:17:43 Oh, yeah. I'm really reading a book on the unicorn killer. So anyways, he drove a car with plates that said, homicide how? At least it wasn't homicide doll. OK, sorry. The director of the French FBI was also a member. So there are a lot of people.
Starting point is 00:18:01 They all stood behind the Vidox society mission. It was simple, it was straightforward. They were bothered that so many as one out of three murders in the US go insolved. One out of three. Departments are underfunded. Investigators are overworked. The criminal justice system favored
Starting point is 00:18:17 the rights of criminals over victims. That's how they all felt with years of experience in this field. They just wanted more justice. And they would do the work pro bono. Really? They meet on the third Thursday of every single month. The Thursday Club, because that's when the founders had that lunch, that fateful random Thursday.
Starting point is 00:18:36 Everyone typically sits at their tables based on nationality, not as a rule, but rather as like a, you know, familiarity, and they call it the murder room. It's filled with 82 detectives, some investigators, some other guests, police officers and grieving families are able to come and present their case to the society. And afterwards, every single person who presents their case is gifted a wooden magnifying glass, symbolizing the first scientific tool of detection. So if you have a case and you want to present it to the Vedalk society, there's only a couple requirements.
Starting point is 00:19:09 Number one, your case has to be a cold case, at least two years old. Number two, the victim had to not have been involved in any criminal activity. Number three, there must be a body, a crime scene, and at least some kind of physical evidence to go off of. Now, before we get back into the crimes, you know that they help solve, let's talk about the founders because their story is wild. Like each one of them I wish I could just talk on and on about for like two hours each, but first there's William Fleischer, the polygraph king.
Starting point is 00:19:36 The don't lie to him or end up in prison king. He was born to a successful dentist and a very successful grandpa. His grandpa was the largest potato and onion wholesaler in all of Philadelphia. They called him the potato king. Okay. Everybody's a king now. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:19:53 The short kings, the tall kings. The potato kings. The onion kings. You're the onion princess. You're the princess. Everybody gets a title. It's so easy in this world. So he was a huge policeman, the potato king.
Starting point is 00:20:08 He loved being... He loved being around police officers, the potato king. He just loved them. None of them could ever leave his warehouse without a free five pound bag of potatoes. That was his thing. I don't know why. He just loved them. He was like, thank you for serving our city. Here's a bag of potatoes, but anyways, Williams dad was a dentist and also a huge community man He was named Phyllid Delthias best dressed man at one point and everyone always told him you look like a movie star
Starting point is 00:20:36 You really did wow, but William the one that went by Billy when he was younger He just only wanted in life what's to be like his dad But he wasn't you see Billy's what's to be like his dad. But he wasn't. You see, Billy's older brother looked just like his dad. Over six feet tall, but not Billy. He was a little bit shorter, a little bit more awkward, not as that movie star charisma vibe as his dad and his brother.
Starting point is 00:20:58 But Billy loved his dad. He loved going to lunch with his dad and then to a lecture right after it. Like he was just an intellectual from the get-go. And Herbert, his dad, would entertain him for hours, talking about himself mainly, about his friends, his celebrity patients as a dentist, lawyers, politicians that he knew, but it wasn't always nice. Sometimes during lunch, Herbert might whisper to his youngest son, William. You're behaving like a bum.
Starting point is 00:21:22 You're acting like a little loser. Get it together. William's brothers and sister never got those types of remarks. I mean, they were perfect. William was the unwanted child. He was the mistake. His parents had two kids, a daughter and a son, and then she got pregnant with a third kid. And it was kind of this well-known fact that her
Starting point is 00:21:38 but didn't even want any more kids. When people would ask him, hey, I heard your wife that's your pregnant. Oh, third kid. So you have a daughter, you have a son. What do you want next? Are you excited for like another son? You want them two boys, you want two girls running around like what do you want?
Starting point is 00:21:52 And he would just respond so coldly. Look them in the eye, not even a giggle, you'd say. I would prefer a German shepherd. But here we are. You know, in Williams' older siblings, they were really something else. Okay, they just, they did everything that their dad did. They loved going out, socializing, going to football games, doing all those Philadelphia things, They were really something else, okay? They just... They did everything that their dad did.
Starting point is 00:22:05 They loved going out, socializing, going to football games, doing all those Philadelphia things, but all William wanted to do was sit at home and redetective novels. Sometimes his parents threatened him that if he didn't get his life together, Seymour Levin would get to him. What? Yeah, okay, this is... It sounds like not a threat, right?
Starting point is 00:22:22 You're like, who Seymour, it's not even like the Grinch, it's not even who the hell is this kid? Seymour was the neighborhood. I wanna say bully, but it, it's not even a bully, it's worse than that. It's a criminal. He was 16 years old in the neighborhood when he had invited a fellow 12 year old boy to his house.
Starting point is 00:22:39 Let's watch a movie. Now, during this little play date, Seymour excitedly showed Alice the 12 year old. All of his test tubes. He's like, oh, look at my chemistry set. It's the best chemistry set you've ever seen in your life. Ellis is like, well, actually, I have better test tubes at home. These aren't high quality.
Starting point is 00:22:54 They're not like dual layered. They'll probably crash if you put something hot into it. So I'm just saying, I have the better test tubes. Seymour didn't like that. He started beating up Ellis. Then he smashed the test tubes. Glassymour didn't like that. He started beating up Ellis. Then he smashed the test tubes, glass shards scattered everywhere. Seymour gets a kitchen knife, made Ellis undress, sawed him eyes to him, and then stabbed him more than 50 times through the heart, face, back, and everywhere else.
Starting point is 00:23:18 Jeez. He then tied Ellis's hands with a laundry cord, dragged his entire body through the house, into the backyard, and dumped him into the garage. The police said that at that point there was not a drop of blood left in Ellis's body. And Seymour was arrested, he was placed in juvenile detention, and because it was Juve, nobody really knew when he was going to get released. It seemed like at any moment, so his parents would always threaten him and say, Seymour is going to getcha. So William had a bit of fear in his life.
Starting point is 00:23:45 He's always kind of been a little scaredy cat. No offense, William. I love you so much. Please solve my case if I go missing. Anyway, one time he went to his grandpa's store and he saw this poster on the wall and his potato store. And from afar, it kind of looked like a portrait with three heads.
Starting point is 00:23:59 It was kind of strange. He walked up to it and he froze in fear. It was the shrunken face of a little boy staring back at him, completely lifeless. The face was beyond pale as if all the blood had drained from it, the face belonged to a dead boy. There were cuts, bruises, blisters all over his face, and underneath it, it said, Philadelphia Police Department, information wanted. The unknown child has been brutally murdered, found two weeks ago in the woods. Police are looking for the identity of the person murdered, but also the killer.
Starting point is 00:24:28 Please notify the homicide unit in Philadelphia, day or night. It was a crime scene photo? Yes, like a missing police help. But it was like the corpse. Yeah. And little William, he was so shocked. First, at the fact that the police called the little boy a person. He's like, this is the little boy a person. He's like, this is a child not a person.
Starting point is 00:24:48 The boy was maybe four years old. His naked body had been found in a cardboard box, which was ironically marked fragile, handle with care. The box was just thrown into the woods, just 15 feet from a road that was close to an all-girls boarding school. Like, what does that all mean? Why does the boy have so many cuts and bruises from head to toe? How do you cut someone that many times when
Starting point is 00:25:09 you're only like three feet four inches tall? So many cuts on such a tiny body. William didn't know it at the time, but later the boy was brought into the morgue for examination, and the examiners realized that he was very malnourished. He was as tall as a four-year-old, but he had the weight of a two-year-old. So he was obviously starved before he was murdered. He had scarring on his legs that showed that he had halted growth. He had been in pain for at least the past year. Nobody even knew his name and they would never know his name. And if you're like, wow, this is sounding familiar It's because it probably is. He was known as America's unknown child or more familiarly the boy in the box. Oh yeah. So little William is staring at the poster and he felt like this one moment changed his entire life. He was in a trance. He just felt
Starting point is 00:25:59 something inside of him. From that point on he started talking back to his parents. He had decided to change his life. I'm not going to be a stranger, loner in school. He started hanging out with friends. He started smoking and drinking. He would pick fights with bigger kids. He started using his BB gun to shoot younger boys in the butt and he would just burst out laughing. He was a bit of a bully and a smart ass. And as he got older, he just got angry. I think that moment really showed him how harsh the world is, like how cruel it is. So he feels like, if I'm not going to be that boy in the box, I got to be the bigger bully. I got to do something crazier.
Starting point is 00:26:32 His grades were plummeting. I mean, all he wanted to do was skip class, stay in the basement and read detective novels. Which, you know, you might think it's cool. Maybe he's going to be a psychologist or something, but no. At the time, detective novels were like the video games of today. Like if you skipped school to play video games and your basement, a lot of people on the news would be like, oh my gosh, a serial killer in the making violence,
Starting point is 00:26:53 gun violence is all through video games, right? There were always on the news being linked to juvenile delinquency and detective novels. They're like, stop reading books. It's rotting your brain. And I mean, I guess some people were alarmed by the fact that William was obsessed with murder. But not on the like, he, I can't wait to stab someone kind of way,
Starting point is 00:27:13 but more in the sense of he was obsessed with police officers and crime-solving and investigative work. His favorite book was The Great Detectives, which was a nonfiction book that just compiles the best real-life adventures of some of the most famous detectives in history. And while reading, he came across Eugene Vodak of Paris and he thought, wait a minute, that's me. I relate, we are both wild childs, we're both breaking the laws, obviously William's not killing people, but he is a bully, he's doing things that he shouldn't be doing and then he crossed over to the good side
Starting point is 00:27:45 And that's what William wanted to do. He wanted to do some good, but he just didn't know where so that's when 17-year-old William decides He's gonna join the army just like Eugene So after the army he gets a sociology degree from Temple University He goes to become a Philadelphia police officer then he joins FBI, and he made a name for himself. He was the mob investigator for Boston Detroit and Philadelphia and sometimes in New York area. He was one of the most fearless mob investigators which like, mobs are freaking scary. Like, you know I'm scared of something when I don't really talk about it often. Mobs are scary.
Starting point is 00:28:20 He became a renowned polygraph examiner and an interrogator. He had spent his days and nights talking to just all sorts of people, sex workers, pimps, politicians, dormant. He was the type that could get information out of anyone. He just had this skill inside of him. It's not even something he could teach. He could easily transform into good cop. Bad cop. The best friend! The charismatic jokes are FBI agent even. The ruthless FBI agent that won't take no for an answer. I think it really helped that William never looked like an FBI agent, so he had this round baby face almost.
Starting point is 00:28:53 This is one that I call Santa Claus, but when he was younger, it was more like a baby face. It's not that stone cold, all business agent, like I don't really care about you, I just wanna get this conviction. No, he looked approachable. He cried a lot. I love this man.
Starting point is 00:29:08 He would be called out to a crime scene and he would just cry, he would sob. When he sees the crime scene? Yeah, there was a toddler who fell from a second story window and the emergency room almost was unable to revive him and he would cry. He would cry when his colleagues out of themselves as racist.
Starting point is 00:29:23 Which, I mean, he cried because he hated racist, by the way, I know. I know, you just never know these days, it could go either way. William was Jewish, but he read everything, the Bible, the Torah, the Quran, and he insisted that all religions at its core were just the same. We're all the same people. One time he flew all the way to Saudi Arabia to mentor their police force on polygraphs. He's that good. And at the end, he hugged the officers, burst into tears,
Starting point is 00:29:45 and said, I've read the Quran too, and I just want to say there's nothing between us and we share the same God. Just like he bonded that quickly with them, and he just wanted another point of, you know, here, look at us, like we're the same. He did it all at one point. The FBI sent him undercover in a Caribbean cruise
Starting point is 00:30:03 as a stand-up comedian. Oh yeah! And he sent the whole crew laughing. First he told the criminals jokes and then he told them, it's not really funny is it. It's not a joke anymore. You're going to jail. Yeah, I know. Then William switched over to Customs since his wife was pregnant, and this seemed a little bit less intense.
Starting point is 00:30:27 He fought his way up to the ranks to be an assistant special agent in charge of the US Customs in Philadelphia. So he was actually one of the most powerful federal agents in the mid-Atlantic area. He was responsible for criminal and drug law enforcement at ports, airports, coastlines, and inland borders of all three states. He was in charge of an $8 million budget, over 100 people, like 65 agents in the Philly office, plus field agents in New Jersey, so by the time that he's 50, he's got this prosperous, admirable, respectable career, a beautiful wife, and a family. Why would you break into these apartments?
Starting point is 00:31:02 For money, for drugs, whatever was in there? Aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's gonna catch us? What a police It was the height of the crack era and instead of locking up drug dealers some New York City cops had become them I would suit up in my uniform and had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the
Starting point is 00:31:36 investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100% I saved my soul just like everybody else does. So at one point during all of this, he meets a fellow crime stopper, artist Frank Bender. Frank is probably the most interesting of the three, like I feel like if there was a movie it's got to be on Frank, no offense, everybody else. Ever since his first art class, he just, he knew he had a skill for it, and that's not to be cocky. I mean, everybody told him, non-stop.
Starting point is 00:32:20 That his artistic abilities were exceptional. His art teacher, why are you pointing at yourself? I relate. His art teachers didn't just praise him. They were straight up envious of his abilities. Okay, maybe he's a little bit. But Frank wondered, you know, what am I gonna do with art? It's not that he cares about putting food on the table.
Starting point is 00:32:42 Frank was one of those people. He didn't even care to be rich or wealthy or successful. None of that. He just, what am I going to do with this? He didn't necessarily grow up in an area where being artistic was the best way to survive. It was actually the opposite. When little Frank would lie down in bed at night,
Starting point is 00:32:57 he could just hear gunshots booming through the area. One time it hit the brick side of his house. So Frank's dad was a mechanic, and he always came home to drink himself to death and beat up Frank. That was the most time that they ever spent together when Frank was getting beat up by him. So Frank started getting enraged. He was like, you know what?
Starting point is 00:33:14 You want to beat me up? Oh yeah, well, I'll beat you back up. So he starts weightlifting. He starts training. He starts bodybuilding. And what's fascinating is sometimes I share these stories and you really never know which way someone's going to go. I mean, I could easily say this is the childhood of someone who ended up hating the world and killing someone.
Starting point is 00:33:30 It's just fascinating to think about. So now that Frank is 15, he's lifting a 10 of weights, just pump an iron, you know, scooping that pre-work out into his mouth dry. And this time his dad was gearing to beat him up, he's winding up his fist, you know. Ready to go, he's winding winding. And Frank lifts up his arm, blocks his dad was gearing to beat him up. He's winding up his fist, you know Ready to go. He's winding winding and Frank lifts up his arm blocks his dad's punch Cocked his arm and swung a roundhouse uppercut straight into his dad's face His dad was knocked out cold and Frank's just standing over him and when he came to He's like, wow That was amazing. That was so good, Frank. I didn't even know
Starting point is 00:34:07 you had that in you. And from that moment forward, Frank's dad respected him. They got along from that moment forward. His dad never beat him again. I think that there was no moral of this story. Okay, I just want to say no more of this story, but fascinating, fascinating for sure. So that's good, right? Yeah. And Frank just won the Citywide Student Art Exhibit, and it's amazing, not just that, but a notable realist painter had noticed Frank's work. His name was Walter Stempfig, and he encouraged Frank to try and get a scholarship at the Pennsylvania
Starting point is 00:34:40 Academy of the Fine Arts. And he was accepted. But he soon realized the art industry had a little bit of scuminess in it. You know, I mean, he had exhibitions as a student, but his paintings wouldn't be returned to him, but he wasn't getting paid for them, so he's like, did somebody sell my freaking paintings
Starting point is 00:34:56 and just rip me off, which is fine. I don't even want the money, but this is just disgusting. So he quit. He literally quit and joined the army, and in his free time, he would sit in the engine room of the Navy and Just sketch the men After two years of that he did some modeling. He was very handsome I tell you this is the one that gets bald later. I think by choice
Starting point is 00:35:16 Which doesn't really matter, but it's very shiny and very handsome still He had a muscular but a very lean physique and he was quite a ladies man. Frank even said growing up, I was like a kid in a candy shop. I'd meet girls in bars, other play, I had sex constantly. I never really tried at sex to be honest. Single woman married woman, they picked me up as often as I picked them up. I mean it was all chemistry. I had sex in a whole lot of cars. At the young age of 26, my age, Frank claimed he had sex with 165 different women.
Starting point is 00:35:49 Well my number is 164, so right there with each other, I'm just gonna... So at this point, he needs a girl named Jan Proctor, and he ends up marrying her, which by the way, he still had sex with other women while they were married, but in his defense, he said, after I got married, I had sex with way less women. That's what love is, you know? And- — sacrifice. — Exactly. And any affairs that I had were with people who, you know, believed in me, like I believed in them. We supported each other. It wasn't a one-night stand. It was like we were bonding. Bonding with good friends and bonding with sex besides. My wife always encouraged me to have a girlfriend or two.
Starting point is 00:36:26 Jan was the type of woman who liked to spend some time by herself, you know. She said, get out of the house, you're so annoying. I don't want to have sex right now. I'm too busy, I'm kind of tired. So just go, get out of here, it's good at all. So the couple had their rules. Any woman Frank wanted to start dating, he would have to bring over and get Jan's approval. If and only if she approved, he would have to bring over and get Jan's approval. If, and only if she approved,
Starting point is 00:36:46 they would have their blessing to date. So like an open relationship. Yeah. So Frank would explain, Jan, my wife, really liked one of my girlfriends, Joan. She would say, why don't you and Joan go down to the shore for a couple days, go on a little vacation? I just want to be alone.
Starting point is 00:37:00 Jan was relieved that there was someone helping satisfy some of Frank's impossible sexual needs. Besides, Joan was respectful. She knew that Jan was the queen there was someone helping satisfy some of Frank's impossible sexual needs. Besides, Jan was respectful. She knew that Jan was the queen of the house and she was Frank's wife. And Frank respected that Jan was the ultimate mother. She put her heart and soul into raising the kids, taking care of the house, even when he was making no money. So Frank was a freelance photographer at this point and it was just so hard for him to make
Starting point is 00:37:22 money and the family was always financially struggling. So Frank started taking evening classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts that he freaking hated. He studied painting, drawing, and one of his professors said, you know what, I think you need to get into sculpting. It's a great way to get even more familiar with human anatomy. And I think it's smart. So Frank's like, okay, I mean, that makes sense.
Starting point is 00:37:43 But I can't afford to pay the tuition for the sculpting class and the anatomy class, which it's smart. So Frank's like, okay, I mean that makes sense but I can't afford to pay the tuition for the sculpting class and the anatomy class which you're recommending so so why don't I do this? He pays for the sculpting class and he had a convenient friend who worked for the city morgue and he said, hey buddy, can I get a tour of the morgue? I just need a study faces, you know, I just need a study face structures and all of that. And at first you were so excited. He thought it'd be beautiful. Cold silver tables filled with pristine bodies that are all dead calm. Eerie, almost like those movies just lined up in a row. But instead he found cadaver swollen by disease, badly decomposing, lots of bugs, people smashed in accidents eaten by animals. He had saw a body of a man that had been struck by a train and cut in half.
Starting point is 00:38:25 He saw a medical examiner who had a torso, not even the legs, just the torso of a body, standing upright on his table, breastplate removed, ribs cut, and the medical examiner plunged his hand deep into the chest cavity to check something. It was not glamorous and wonderfully medical. It was the cycle of life and he, Frank was disgusted but intrigued. Mainly by one body in particular. It was an unidentified woman in her fifties. She was a jane doe. She had this blonde hair and her body had been found in a field near the airport with three bullets in her head. So Frank is studying her face and her skull was completely shattered on one side by the gunshots and her face was so decomposed that there was no ID that they could give to the victim
Starting point is 00:39:06 None of her fingerprints or missing persons bulletins came up with a match. So his friend walks over Oh, yeah, this is one we'll never solve. I mean who knows what she looks like and Frank stared at her and he just couldn't help it He's like I know I know what she looks like the medical examiner the head medical examiner walked over because they're intrigued like Did you just say you know what she looks like? I do. I mean the faces in the skull in her skull is here. I sure like half of it is collapsed because of the bullet but I know what she looks like. Frank, have you ever tried forensic art? No, I'm a high school graduate, I didn't even graduate college. I don't even know what the word forensic means. Well, you need to find out. You don't know how many cases go insult because nobody can figure out the victim's identity.
Starting point is 00:39:47 How do you even figure out who is the motive to kill that person if you can't help get an identity on the person? We may also find her killer. Would you help us do it? Uh, sure, I can try. Well, we can't pay you anything. I mean, that's okay, I can still try. And with that, Frank got to work.
Starting point is 00:40:03 It took him a total of eight hours across multiple nights since he's still at a full-time job. And he measured the skull to a rough sketch of the face structure. Then he started talking to other artists about sculpting techniques. He started shaping a face out of clay and made a plaster mold of the bust and painted the face and even placed a blonde wig on top. Frank said, as he was doing this, he saw every feature of this woman's face, and how the form of one part of her face flowed into all the other parts.
Starting point is 00:40:29 And that weekend, he went back to the morgue and found the medical examiner. They were so impressed. So was the police. Up until that point, the police had never used a forensic sculpture. They had just turned like composite sketches, but they decided, why not? This was free. Let's distribute photos of Frank's bust, his sculpture of the murder Jane Joe.
Starting point is 00:40:47 And after five months, a detective all the way from New Jersey calls and said, wait a minute. That looks like a woman that we have reported missing by the Chicago Police Department. You should call that. So this went up and down the East Coast and it was a woman named Anna Mary DuVal. She was 62 years old.
Starting point is 00:41:04 She had left Chicago, Elha Ohio Airport on October 15th. Nobody knew where she was headed, but she never came back. Her body was found dumped at the Philadelphia Airport. Her case would still remain unsolved, but at least her family could bring her home. And the police were shocked. They had used tons of other types of forensic arts,
Starting point is 00:41:21 getch artists, you know, with literally no success. And now here's this high school educated kid who didn't even know what forensic's meant, come to completely shake up the forensic's world. Or at least in this Philadelphia area, and he was good! Everyone kept saying Frank was the king of seeing dead people. I don't know if that's a compliment. They said that his ability to see what someone looks like while alive, even when he only saw them dead.
Starting point is 00:41:45 Not even a picture of their dead corpse, but literally a skeletonized hut was eerie. It was almost paranormal at times. Some people were straight up scared of Frank. They thought he was a con artist. Do you get it? A con artist. Someone take my mic away from me. It seems like Frank had found his calling in life.
Starting point is 00:42:04 But it didn't pay like ever. And Frank oddly was not the type of guy to work for the money. Till the end of his life, Frank was never well off, even though he was one of the top professionals in this field. Really? And if you're like, well, none of them are that well off, you would be surprised at how much money people make at forensic experts, like the ones that testify in court, because you get paid by the defense attorneys, you get paid by prosecutors for your time on the stand. So he just was never well off, and thankfully he had a wife that didn't really care, she
Starting point is 00:42:33 was supportive, she wanted to help him with his work by bringing in more money. The two of them really just got the film from seeing cases being solved, which sounds romantic, but it was um, it was more bit at best. Sometimes Frank was allowed to take skeletonized goals to use clay to build a bus on top of the school, so he never really built it from scratch. He would use the school to build the bus. And then take away the school, right? So the early stages of forensic sculptures was interesting.
Starting point is 00:42:58 His wife would come home and see bugs crawling out of her stove. And she's like, what the hell? She'd open it up. And it's a freaking skull inside. What the hell is this, Frank? I'm just trying to dry it out enough so I can apply the clay. Frank, I don't care what you're trying to do.
Starting point is 00:43:12 Come, take the fucking head out of the oven. And go visit your mom. She keeps calling. So this was her life. Wait, wait, where he's baking it? Baking the head. To make it dry. Yeah, so he can put some clay on top.
Starting point is 00:43:24 He's, that's my next excuse. They had two young daughters in the house They can make it dry. Yeah, so you can put some clay on top. That's my next excuse. They had two young daughters in the house and they would just stumble upon boxes, open it up and what do you know, a skull. The whole house smelled like death, but Frank couldn't stop. I mean, he had so many cases that impacted him forever. One of them was a young black woman's skull, or skeleton, was found in a wooded area near a high school football field. She had been raped, murdered, and her skeleton eyes remains were found a year after her death.
Starting point is 00:43:52 So near the skeleton was this really frilly blouse. And Frank was just so torn up about that blouse. It's like this young woman full of life, you know, so full of innocence. And this is how she exits like this is this horrible So he created this bust for her and he he posed her as if she was looking up gazing into the stars gazing into her future And he called her the girl with hope So at first it didn't get any hits for the police because I mean they thought maybe maybe Frank's not Right all the time, maybe
Starting point is 00:44:25 he has some misses because you know he just thought the skeleton eyes remains, maybe this isn't what she looks like because nobody identifies her. And then it was exhibited at the mother museum in Philadelphia. And a young girl was walking through. And she grabbed her mom and said mom, mom, mom, doesn't that look like Aunt Rosela? Oh my gosh. And her family burst into tears in the museum. It was Rosela. It was actually at this presentation that Frank ran into a William Flasher. And they were talking about, you know,
Starting point is 00:44:54 their small talk plans to meet up for lunch and Frank knew William. He was one of the most powerful FBI agents in the area. And William was shamelessly an all of this artist. So skilled. Many thought that he had paranormal activities like they just wanted to pick each other's brains so the first lunch led to a
Starting point is 00:45:08 weekly ritual so they would meet up once a week just going on about cold cases how they're solving what and they had both turned their raging daddy issues into a fiery passion for justice that's what they were bonding on. So one day William decides to stop by Frank's studio and this is not a very nice area. It was a very broken down building in a not so That's what they were bonding on. So one day, William decides to stop by Frank's studio.
Starting point is 00:45:25 And it's just not a very nice area. It was a very broken down building in a not so great area and the warehouse was concrete floors, no windows, only had a few skylights for natural lights. And on the shelves. You got me. You got me. I William didn't know Frank.
Starting point is 00:45:43 He definitely would have arrested him. Okay, look like a serial killer is done. There were also not just schools and schools, but just nudes of women. Concentral, of course, all over the place. Ladders, bricks, erotic provision, provision books, but in the center of all of this was a handgun shaped like a penis. And underneath it, it was artistically written, the sex pistol that won the West. And Frank's assistant says, oh, William, welcome. I don't know if Frank's expecting you,
Starting point is 00:46:11 but he's been all night. When he gets going, there's no stopping him. So William makes it over to the kitchen, and there's Frank shirtless barefoot with an airbren on, on this ment floor, stirring a huge pot. What's cooking? Oh, you don't wanna know. That's it, you're never coming to the pot look.
Starting point is 00:46:28 So a lot of other forensic sculptors, they would use flesh-eating beetles to get rid of the flesh on the skull. So you release the beetles, yeah, and they just eat up all the flesh, I guess that's the best way to do it. Yeah, I know. But Frank hated them.
Starting point is 00:46:41 He hated working with flesh-eating beetles. I mean, I imagine most people didn't like it I would imagine that these beetles would probably try to bite you because what are you full of flesh, right? So instead I know I don't even want to Google it. I don't even want to look at it So instead Frank would not use the beetles and he would put a fleshy skull in boiling water with half a cup of bleach and a dash of borax to prepare them for sculpting, sometimes he would bake them to dry them out.
Starting point is 00:47:08 And Frank would say, well, that's unfortunate for you, William, because I make a mean chicken in this pot. So Frank admitted that he did a lot of the cooking in the same pot that he used to boil heads. So this is... Okay, fine. They don't like potlucks, but they like working on cases together. That's fine. So for example, they were't like potlucks, but they like working on cases together, that's fine. So for example, they were looking for a fugitive named Hans.
Starting point is 00:47:28 Now, Hans is a master of disguise. He was a black market guns dealer, a drug dealer, an armed robber and a hitman for the East Coast gangs. Which is what a resume. I mean, imagine trying to put that all on one page. The guy was intense. Hans was a self-taught chemist, and at one point he had operated one of the largest methamphetamine labs in the entire East Coast. He was also tried for murder. He tried to murder other federal witnesses, some of them being friends of William Flasher. So when he was finally caught he was
Starting point is 00:47:57 convicted of not murder but unfortunately meth possession and armed robbery. So they gave him 20 years in prison, maximum security lockup. But after a few years, he was over it. He was like, I don't really, this is kind of sucks. So he stayed just a spectacular prison escape, spectacular. So at the time, he was working as head of the prison shop. And he was making this wardrobe.
Starting point is 00:48:21 So a prison shop is where prisoners will make stuff and they'll sell it while they pay the prisoners. Like next to nothing, it's literally evil. So he was in charge of making a wardrobe and he decided to add a hollow part inside the wardrobe where he would hide. So the wood that he was using was very, very light. So he stained it to resemble oak,
Starting point is 00:48:42 which if the delivery man didn't know, they'd say, okay, no wonder this is going to be heavy. It's oak. So he got inside. He also had another prison buddy, Robert, that was tucked inside with him and the two of them were carried out by the delivery man in two freedom. That's crazy. You're like, what? Hidden in plain sight. Exactly. In the little wardrobe, the hidden compartment. Now you're like, wow, what a good sight. Exactly. In the little wardrobe, the hidden compartment. Now you're like, wow, what a good friend Robert must have been. Why would Hans want him to escape with him?
Starting point is 00:49:10 Robert was a horrible guy. He's a sadistic gang leader who strangled and carved up his girlfriend. But more on him later. So anyways, the clueless delivery man, load the wardrobe into the truck and the two make a great escape. The police were stressed they knew that both of them were highly dangerous and profilers thought that it was inevitable that both of them would kill again. So this is going to be top priority to get these two back behind bars. But the years went on and on and eventually decade had passed a decade. So the pictures of Hans were no longer useful. I mean,
Starting point is 00:49:40 there was no way that he looked like that after 10 years, Are you kidding? No one knew what now 44-year-old Hans would look like. He would just blend into society. He might have not even skipped town. So that's when they decided to bring Frank into the case. His job was to create sketches of Hans' features as he aged through the decade. And he was stopped. This was Frank's first federal case. And this was the first case of national importance. Not only that, but Frank felt like his life was in danger for the first time ever. He was creeped out. He told William, you know, we were doing stakeouts and we think that this is Hans and I got a close look at him.
Starting point is 00:50:15 I mean, it wasn't that close, but the guy just looks just like me. He's the same size, same age, same body type. He's also an artist and it's spooky. I feel like it's my doppelganger, like an evil twin. And I'm not afraid of anybody, you know that. But I saw him through the telephoto lens when we were doing a stakeout. And his eyes, they were so cold. He knows who I am and the threat that I represent to him to his way of life.
Starting point is 00:50:35 And I can feel that he he wants me dead. I mean if that is him, that is. One time Frank was on the lookout and he saw Hans through the lens wearing a baseball cap sunglasses. And a cigarette as he stood on the sidewalk and he saw Han's through the lens wearing a baseball cap sunglasses and a cigarette as he stood on the sidewalk next to a pharmacy. Han's noticed the telephoto lens directed at him. Frank was alone by the way and he stared straight into it, cracked a smirk and ran off. Frank was the only one that witnessed Han's. Ever.
Starting point is 00:51:01 He was super shaken from this encounter. He said that Han's was cold as ice just cold cold cold I could feel I could feel clearly from his eyes that he wanted me dead But what can I do? I mean I've got to get to work So he started creating a sketch of Hans, but he needed to think like Hans because that shapes what you look like You know, what would I do? What would my habits be because that's gonna affect your appearance? Do I smoke do I do drugs? How would that affect the aging of my skin? Would I have gained weight at this point or do I try to keep in shape?
Starting point is 00:51:29 Because again, that affects the face a lot. But then he was hit with this realization that, oh my god, Hans had seen him. Frank was spying on him at least two occasions and he was caught. So he just had this god feeling that Hans was gonna try and change his appearance. I mean, that made the most sense. Frank was sure the next color he was gonna try out was to dye his hair blonde. He just had this feeling. So he put the blonde hair into his sketch and later to his bust and marched over to the federal agents.
Starting point is 00:51:55 And they said, a blonde really frank, the one thing that we know about him is that he's not a freaking blonde, you idiot. Well, this is what he looks like. And if you catch him within the two weeks, he's gonna be bleached blonde. I promise you that. Some kind of joke you are paranormal forensic sculptor might ask, we like to do it the old school way, where you just bust in bam, bam, bam, you know.
Starting point is 00:52:19 But Frank insisted, and the FBI they really didn't have any better options, so they scanned the sketch and distributed it to other agents and A week later Hans's wife Barbara had slipped up because they'd been tailing her for a while They were following her her home from work as she always did and she ended up taking a route that wasn't her usual and she's making this big effort to throw Anyone off her trail. I mean just chaotic tight turns Random U-turns running red, driving through tight alleyways, she thought that she had lost anybody if they were following her. But she didn't.
Starting point is 00:52:50 Instead they followed her straight into the parking lot of Penrose Diner. She went in, but that was in her final destination. She waited a while until it felt safe, and then she got out, came out, left her car in the parking lot, looked around and crossed the street over to the quality in. It was perfect. The police said, this in, he chose it for a reason. It had views in all directions, which is useful for someone in the run,
Starting point is 00:53:14 because you don't want to be cornered by authorities. So they busted in, got back up, and Hans was surrounded. He raised his hands, and he went without a fight. He was wearing a hat, sunglasses, and you guessed it. Underneath that hat, a new hairstyle. It's cut short and bleached blonde. They didn't started calling Frank a visual detective. I mean, this was perfect. They were going to catch some of the most wanted criminals now. I mean, this is amazing. So at this point Frank's reputation is getting out and he gets a call from Bob Lescorn.
Starting point is 00:53:46 Bob is the head of the US Marshalls Service. This is the intense category. He was a chief inspector at the time and he said, Frank, I need your help. I need your help catching someone, but it's super top secret. You can't even tell your family, your wife, your colleagues, nobody.
Starting point is 00:54:01 The person we need to catch, I can't tell you on the phone, but it's top 10 must wanted. One day a black car pulls up in front of Frank's house with tinted windows. He kisses his wife goodbye, gets in, and they said that the chief inspector of the US Marshall's office was flying from Virginia to meet with Frank.
Starting point is 00:54:17 They met in an undisclosed location. They waited two hours for him to land, because nobody has ever allowed to know the flight schedule of the chief inspector, I guess. I don't know, it's really weird. And when they finally met, Bob told Frank, we're going to be chasing down the mafia. The only person of interest right now, Ali Boy Perseco. He's the under boss of the Colombo Crime Family in New York City.
Starting point is 00:54:39 He was groomed to be the godfather of one of the five major American crime families. He had an even more notorious brother, Carmen the snake persisco, and both the brothers are familiar with law enforcement. So here's the lowdown on Alleyboy. Alleyboy had already served 16 years in prison for murder. Allegedly, he took the rap for his brother. They think that the snake murdered, you know, the victim. Then he was supposed to go to prison for extortion and loan-sharking, but while he was out on bail, he went into hiding for the last seven years.
Starting point is 00:55:08 If he's caught, he's facing another 20 plus years. This case is very high profile, and it's oddly proved to be impossible. The FBI is not even sure that the brothers are still alive. They've gotten tips from all over the place. Honolulu, Japan, Miami, South America, but nothing has ever worked out. Listen Frank, this is a priority for us and we're putting a lot of resources into this. We do have a photo of Allie Boy from 12 years ago. Here you go. What happened to his face? So in the picture, the whole left side of Allie Boy's face was scarred.
Starting point is 00:55:40 The left part of his lower lip was dark blue. He had gotten into a fight with someone in sing-sing and they threw acid in his face. What? But do we know if he's gone work to recover or heal or plastic surgery? We don't know. We know that this isn't much, but are you willing to do it or not? Because we need a bus of what Alie Boy would look like today within the next 10 days. Frank's like, this is incredibly ambitious and this is going to require the utmost dedication,
Starting point is 00:56:06 but absolutely I'll do it! Okay, then you're in. So Frank here's what we know. He's a heavy smoker and a drinker. He's married but he loves to cheat on his wife. He has lots of girlfriends, illegal too. One of them, Mary, she's 15, he was 40 when they met. They're really close. Until the rumors started going around, that Mary was working with the FBI to tell them where Ali boy was hiding. So the family needed to get rid of her. They put three bullets in her head and dumped her on the street. Okay.
Starting point is 00:56:34 So you want me to? Okay. So Frank, for the next 10 days, was working on the bust, but also heading into emergency meetings in New York. The head of the operation was based in New York City. So he's being transported on a high security plane the entire time. Imagine criminal minds, you know what I'm always like that.
Starting point is 00:56:50 He managed to finish the bust in 10 days. And four months later, Allie Boy was caught. Allie Boy was caught. He had been living a low-key life in Connecticut, and he mainly just watched TV and his apartment and red newspapers. The police received a few tips in which apartment building he might have been in when they showed all the other cops
Starting point is 00:57:07 this bust, and when they showed the land lady, the old photos of Allie Boy, the one that they had taken like 10 years ago, she's like, I've never seen this person in my life. But when they showed her the picture of Frank's bust, she said, oh yeah, that's the guy that lives upstairs. His name's John Longo. He just called me to come look up at his stove.
Starting point is 00:57:22 He's making some sauce and his stove went off, and he's pretty pissed. So the police smiled, and they said, don't worry, man. look up at a stove. He's making some sauce and his stove went off and he's pretty pissed. So the police smiled and they said, don't worry man, we'll fix this stove. So Allie Boy, after seven long years, was arrested. Frank was so proud of himself on this one, and now that the case was wrapped up, he was allowed to talk about it. He told William all about it and William was so impressed and he's like, I don't know how you do with Frank.
Starting point is 00:57:42 You're a major asset to law enforcement in this country. Alley boy is what we call in the FBI. Big fish. And you call them. The next was Noss. Lil' Noss X. No, I'm kidding. Okay, Robert Noss, the guy who escaped prison
Starting point is 00:57:59 with Hans and the wardrobe. The one that strangled and carved his girlfriend and was a statistic gang leader. Yeah, that one. Yeah, now Frank needed to work on catching him. And the stakes were even higher now. The police suspected that he was behind several disappearances of young woman in Delaware County
Starting point is 00:58:12 in Pennsylvania. I mean, who is this guy? Would it even go to prison for her? Let's talk about December 11th. Robert had gone on a date with a girl named Elizabeth Landy. And afterwards, at Robert's place that he shared with other bike gang members, Elizabeth which was joking around and she playfully kicked Robert. But this sent him over the edge.
Starting point is 00:58:33 He started to choke her until she passed out and he thought she was dead. He walked away, but 15 minutes later, she woke up and ran into the bathroom, locked herself in there. And he's like, you better get out of there, I'm gonna blow your brains out. She gets out, they have makeup sex, but Elizabeth is still super uneasy, and she tells them, I think I want to break up with you, I think you're too abusive. This would not do in Robert's world. He hit her on the head with a board, bludgeoned her to death with a baseball bat, and even hung her corpse in the garage to show off to
Starting point is 00:59:01 his biker buddies. He would giggle and say, well, he's not gonna bother me anymore. But you guys, I need help to get rid of her body. So they wrapped her her body in a sheet, put her in the trunk of a car, and all of her stuff was burned, and she was thrown into a shallow grave off the main highway near New Jersey. Her body was never found. Her parents reported her missing, but there was never enough evidence to arrest Robert. That is, until one of his friends came out and gave the cops his testimony. Robert would be one of the first people in all of Pennsylvania history to be convicted of first degree murder without a body. But in prison he escaped.
Starting point is 00:59:37 And since his escape, nobody had seen or heard from him in years. And Frank was screwed. There was even less about him than the previous two. All they had were the original munchots of his arrest that we're over 10 years old now. In these photos, Bob was, well, Robert Bobby. Robert was lean, muscular, bearded. His arms were tattooed with a blue parrot, a sculled dagger, and a swastika,
Starting point is 00:59:57 and the words born to lose. Frank completed his bust, and somehow it resembled a young Clark Kent. Like, yeah, Superman. He's like, I feel like Robert's gonna be clean shaven, wearing a button-down shirt Frank completed his bust and somehow it resembled a young Clark Kent. Yeah, Superman. He's like, I feel like Robert's going to be clean shave in wearing a button down shirt with the neat dark hair trimmed over the years. Like that's the feeling that I get. But that's weird.
Starting point is 01:00:14 Who's going to believe me? You know, how is he going to go from a biker gangster to suddenly an all American family man like, no, police, no agent is going to look at this and say, you know what, you're right, Frank. The marshals were doubting him. So he's making like what educated predictions? Yeah, on like how people have habits over time. How would you try to stay gone?
Starting point is 01:00:33 If you were a sadistic gang leader who escaped from prison. So he's doing that and with his expertise in female anatomy, which is true, he was a very, you know, he's very into women, but his expertise in anatomy, he was able to kind of predict how smoking would affect your skin, the way that your face is shaped, how stress would affect lines on your face. Crazy, no?
Starting point is 01:00:54 But also very enlightening to the fact that, I guess your daily habits really do shape the way you look, which is terrifying. And while he's working on this case, and the US marshals are like, yeah, you're an idiot, that's not true, he's getting stressed, and he meets up with a woman named Betty for lunch. Betty, oh, Betty is a pioneer in forensic art.
Starting point is 01:01:14 She did facial reconstructions for big name magazines. She even helped reconstruct the skulls of seven of the unidentified victims of John Wayne Gacy, the clown killer. She was a legendary woman. No, he says, listen, buddy, I need your help. I just don't have enough information about this subject that we're trying to catch.
Starting point is 01:01:31 So, buddy, he's like, you know what, I think I know someone who could help you. His name's Richard, he's a criminologist. So he should be able to better understand the habits and what Robert might be doing now. So I enter into the scene, Richard Walter, the serial killer hunter. So Frank and Richard didn't immediately like each other.
Starting point is 01:01:48 They were literal polar opposites. Frank loved women, he loved dressing casually, talking casually, Richard on the other hand was very reserved, and completely compartmentalized his life. But Frank was too charismatic. Even when Richard was too sarcastic and kind of mean, Frank would laugh genuinely at all of his jokes, and Richard would say, how can you hate anybody that laughs at your jokes? Frank immediately started calling Richard Rich, which Richard hated, and he opened up to Richard about his difficulties with this Robert case. He said, all right, well Frank,
Starting point is 01:02:20 tell me about the murder. The problem is I don't know enough about him to depict how he's going to look now. The photographs are like a decade old, and I don't know his personality, or his habits, like is he married, is he single, is he still slim, or is he spreading with middle aged? Does he exercise? How does he eat?
Starting point is 01:02:37 And Richard was interested. He said, I think I can tell you a bit about him. I've seen hundreds of cases like this involved with bikers. He's macho, aggressive. he's got this exaggerated sense of importance, he's very concerned about his image, but he's probably dispatched his body brutally, like he would toss away trash, and simply for the reasons of power, not sex or fantasy or Satanism or other nonsense, he's just he's tired he wants to move on. So I think your theory is right, I think Robert now would
Starting point is 01:03:04 probably be a clean-cut individual living in the suburbs, he wants to move on. So I think your theory is right. I think Robert now would probably be a clean-cut individual living in the suburbs. He will probably be married to a compliant woman who has no idea about his past, and he presents a wholesome image to the community because it would give him more opportunities that way, which at the end of the day is what he cares about. Wow. So the US Marshals, they were confused because they're like, we always thought once a bikeer always a bikeer, you know what I mean? It's a way of life, it's a lifestyle. You don't choose the biker, life it chooses you.
Starting point is 01:03:31 But Richard came and was like, trust me bro. So they trusted him. They decided to trust Frank and the psychologist Richard. So Frank submitted his bus, he was published everywhere, even on America's most wanted, and a call comes in from someone from Michigan. The picture of Robert? Hello, the picture of Robert, it reminds me of a Richard Farrah.
Starting point is 01:03:51 He's married with two kids. They con him. It was Richard. It was right on. Right on. Frank would just laugh until Richard all the time. Richard, you read criminals' minds the way I read women. And from there, the two became friends. So, a little bit Richard Walter, first, uh, the Walter family, they lived in a small scenic town in Seattle. Richard was raised by strict, no nonsense parents.
Starting point is 01:04:17 They were incredibly tough on their four kids, but they always told them, you got to make something out of yourself. Both of the parents looked at Richard with a bit more contempt than the rest of the siblings because they just felt like he wasn't gonna make anything out of himself. He just never fits in and he's weird. Like he's too much into piano and singing and, like, we like to watch football and why are you watching the opera? Who the, what kind of kid watches the opera? Here's a fascinating detail though.
Starting point is 01:04:42 Richard's mom just has it going on, okay, in that head of hers. From the outside she looks like a sweet little housewife that knits in her living room armchair, but she's incredibly smart, cunning. And if neighbors had any trouble, they called Viola instead of the police. For example, one neighbor called and said, Viola, help! My husband is sitting on the armchair with a loaded gun, shoved to his face, and he won't give me the gun and he's threatening to kill himself. Please come over.
Starting point is 01:05:06 So while a drover there snatched the loaded gun from his hands, sat down and said, what the hell do you think you're doing? For 30 minutes, she lectured him. You're being selfish. You're scaring your wife. Look at how much she loves you. Do you know how beautiful and special life is you idiot?
Starting point is 01:05:21 And you're just trying to throw it away for what? The couple actually went on to have children together and grandchildren who by the way at this man's funeral when he died of old age they thanked Viola for making their family possible. This is just like one of three suicides she was credited with preventing. She's just kind of a balsy bitch, I love her. So this is the type of influence that Richard is growing up under. And he too had an incident that shaped his life.
Starting point is 01:05:50 When he was 10, he was in the car with his mom. They were going home from school and they saw two people standing on the side of the road. There was a big, big man and a small little child that was bleeding. So as she drove closer, she stopped, opened the back door and said, get in, I'll take you to the hospital.
Starting point is 01:06:04 She screamed. They get in, and Vial is rushing and asking the little boy in front of this big man that's like five times her size. And she says, Little boy, tell me the truth. What did he do to you? Did he hurt you? Tell me, I'm not going to let him hurt you ever again. Little boy said, my daddy beat me, and he was sobbing.
Starting point is 01:06:20 When they get to the hospital, the dad jumps out of the car and starts making a run for it. Viala rushes the baby to the hospital entrance, flags down a local sheriff and tells him everything. They catch the dad. Richard and Viola had to ID him in a photo lineup and it came out that the dad was a sadist. He twisted the kid's arms in opposite directions until they snapped and he tried to do it with the boy's legs but he couldn't manage to do it. It's said that he enjoyed every second of it.
Starting point is 01:06:47 And Richard said, of course, this was awful, but it was fascinating. So this event inspired Richard to go on to study psychology at Michigan State University and his first semester. He broke the school record. He completed 11 courses, which is seven times more than the usual course load, and he maintained a nearly perfect GPA. So then he moves to LA where he works for the prestigious Cedar Sinai Medical Center as a clinical psychologist.
Starting point is 01:07:13 And once he felt like he conquered that challenge, he became a medical examiner assistant at the LA County Morgue. His boss, his mentor, was a reputable man who handled the autopsies of Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, and Sharon Tate. Richard was something else. He was almost too good at his job. He was so good at compartmentalizing.
Starting point is 01:07:31 He was truly one of those people where I'm like, thank God that he went down this route because if his life were different, if he chose a different path, he could have easily been a serial killer. For example, one morning he gets a call. His dad just died. And he was so used to having mental discipline and separating his emotions from life that he got up, got dressed for work, went to all of his meetings in time, and during a break out of the blue, a woman asked him, oh, what does your father do for a living?
Starting point is 01:07:56 Oh, he died. Oh, I'm so sorry, when? Oh, this morning, two hours ago. And he went about the rest of his day, and that night he stood there stared into the mirror and he said he was shocked at how cold his eyes were. He felt nothing, he was so scared of himself, and he had learned the lesson that his mentors had taught for ages. Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process you do not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
Starting point is 01:08:27 So he felt the need to reinvent himself and he started obsessively collecting antiques because this was his way of reminding himself that there are still beautiful things in this world. And it really helped. So once he's done with the moron, he wanted to be a psychologist again. So he goes back to Michigan and he worked at a prison, one of the most violent prisons in the entire state. Every single day Richard had six appointments with murders, rapists, pedophiles, sadists, and serial killers. And every single day they tried to intimidate him. Or they tried to convince him that they found Jesus and they should be let out.
Starting point is 01:08:57 Now if that didn't work, they would threaten to strangle him, cut his heart out and piss on it, or even eat his kidneys. him, cut his heart out and piss on it, or even eat his kidneys. One of his patients had stapled his own children's eyelids open and urinated into his kid's eyes. He worked with child molesters that had hundreds of victims and Richard would take all of this with a cold stare. I mean, the only time he would really break the silence was just to make sure there was no miscommunication between him and the patients. He would say things like, okay, let's be clear. I'm looking at your file.
Starting point is 01:09:25 The reason you're in prison is because your neighbors don't want you to break into their house and rape the cat again. It's really wild with a chomp. Well Richard, you see, had the pleasant task of judging whether or not someone was irredeemable or whether or not he might be a danger to himself or others, whether they had the hope at redemption. He had to judge them correctly. If he said yes they're good, and they were let out on parole,
Starting point is 01:09:48 literal lives could be at stake. It was a lot of pressure. So his life from the outside would seem depressing. His office was a small rectangular, concrete block with an old wooden desk and a single picture of a wall on the flower. But Richard Felder was the perfect place. Oh, single picture of flower on the wall.
Starting point is 01:10:04 The wall on the flower. Right, okay. And Richard Felder was the perfect place. Oh, single picture of flower on the wall. The wall on the flower. And Richard felt it was the perfect place to study evil. Then he was promoted to a more intense prison. This one felt like a game, honestly, it was pretty wild. Richard had buttons that he could press and he could turn off inmates' hot showers or put them on prison loaf diets where all their meals would be thrown into a blender
Starting point is 01:10:23 and baked into a hard tasteless brick. So the idea was, either these guys learned to control themselves or else Richard, the psychologist, will control them. Okay, that sounds like a sick experiment. Yeah, but Richard loved it, okay. But then a producer at America's most wanted called and said Richard, we need your help. On a case we've talked about before.
Starting point is 01:10:44 Oh yeah, Richard and Frank helps solve the case of John list The man who killed his entire family and threw them in the ballroom of his 19 room mansion Do you remember that? Okay, so America's most wanted it said that they need to catch the most wanted mass murder in all of America The one that killed his entire family in New Jersey. Yes, he did, he lined them up in the ballroom of his house. They had a ballroom. He literally dragged his children's bodies
Starting point is 01:11:11 around the house, leaving a 40-foot track of blood around the mansion. And after he lined them up one by one, he went back to work in his office, making calls, checking off little things in his planner, writing letters to his pastor, to apologize, I'm not gonna make it to Sunday school class for like a week. And when Richard started working on this case, Johnless had been
Starting point is 01:11:29 gone for 18 years. He'd been missing a fugitive. So Richard sitting there and he's talking to Frank and they start talking about, okay, we should work on the Johnless case together. And Frank immediately chipped in, I mean, this will really show the FBI that we're on to something. So Frank had to get a good idea of what Johnless would look like today. He needed to get an idea of what Johnless was like in general. Who else would know better than Richard? Frank said, okay, well, so he's 64 years old in his early 40s and he's got dark hair in a widow's peak.
Starting point is 01:11:57 I think now he's probably bald, right? With maybe little bits of gray hair on the side of his head. Richard are great. Whatever hair he has, it's very neat. He's a very neat person. He's probably still going to be an accountant and very careful about his appearance almost in a professional way. John was a meet and potatoes man though and he's going to remain one.
Starting point is 01:12:15 He's not from the jogging fitness gym generation. He's got a very rigid personality that's not malleable. So it's to the point that it's pathological. So you think he's going to have saggy skin on the neck? Because that's usually what happens when you have like a meat and potatoes diet. Maybe a slack and jaw? Probably looks a lot older now. Quite. Do you think he's very religious? Does that alter how someone looks or behaves? Hmm, I know some people might think that he's very religious because of you know
Starting point is 01:12:43 He was writing letters to his pastor after the murders But he's not religious. This has nothing to do with religion. It's just a cover Behind this church going façade. He's just a pure psychopath all about power He wanted to dominate his entire family, but they wouldn't listen This was going to be his way of creating a new life and he wanted to do it on his terms That's why he wiped out his whole family including his mom This is the type of personality that a man who destroys his family does. So you think he's crazy? Oh no. Not at all. In fact, he's extremely rational. He's a bit
Starting point is 01:13:14 of a snob, feels superior to other people. He loves to live beyond his means. He has no conscious. He stole money from his mother, never a tinge of guilt. Why? Because he fell like he deserved her money, that's why. So what do you think pushed him over the edge? Well for someone like him, he doesn't face challenges and own up to his failures like a man. All these failures are because of that bitch or this wife or that mom. So he's feeling like he's losing the power, the control, he's becoming more isolated.
Starting point is 01:13:41 So you think there will be anger in his face. Do you think he'll have guilt and anger on his face? Guilt? Are you kidding me? He doesn't know what the word guilt means. He doesn't feel anything at all, but relief and triumph, he's thrilled at what he did. The lack of guilt is what's going to allow him to disappear and adjust to a new life without any awkwardness. I predict, he's probably settled into a reasonably comfortable life. At first, he would have moved far to get distance from the crime and gained a sense of freedom. You're going to feel free when you're far away from the crime scene. His first job would probably be something like a night clerk at a motel.
Starting point is 01:14:13 He's already good with figures, he's an accountant, but he needs a job where he won't be seen or recognized. As he gets more comfortable as more time passes, he's going to move into the accounting profession, maybe even join the church, re-marry, and eventually move back within 300 miles of the murder scene. Why would he move back? Because familiar areas give him a sense of control, and that's what he's all about. Beneath his fake facade, he's still living beyond his means, and he's still having financial problems 18 years later.
Starting point is 01:14:40 He's going to easily fit into a suburban community, he'll be wearing a suit and tie, but he's probably too old-school to be wearing stripes or any modern type of suits. I'm talking the old-fashioned ones. He's going to be wearing thick black glasses, no wired glasses. I'm talking like the plastic ones. Wired trims don't look intelligent and authoritative and fancy enough. Okay, so now I get the Sherlock moment once. Oh, yeah. He'll most exactly. He'll most likely be remarried with a subservient woman who has no clue about his past.
Starting point is 01:15:10 And to her, he's just good old John. This was everything Frank needed to finish his project. And America's most wanted aired the story of John List, and more than 20 million viewers watched the episode. Frank's bust was displayed for all of them, and then you know the story. Good old Wanda felt her former neighbor Bob Clark looked just like John List. She tipped off the police and finally after 18 years, he was arrested. Richard's profiling was spot on. I mean, from what he said, he moved far away, then came everything.
Starting point is 01:15:41 Spot on. This was the case that actually had Richard Walter become known as the Living Sherlock Holmes because this is top 10 most wanted. Wow. In this case, solidified the friendship between Richard and Frank. And through Frank, Richard becomes friendly with William. And in 1990, on a fateful day, they go to lunch on a Thursday. Mainly complaining about the justice system and how victims were further victimized by the system.
Starting point is 01:16:03 However, everyone is just out there looking for their own departments, cared more about the department's reputation and their careers rather than sharing valuable information and solving crimes. For example, when Frank and Richard were working on the John List case, the FBI refused to share their profile with them. They're like, well, you're not working with us. You're working with America's most wanted right now, so we're not going to help you. So they thought, what if there was an organization not on government dime where money wasn't
Starting point is 01:16:28 the motivation, where people could come together to solve cases, cases that the police were lagging behind? I mean, that happens more often than we like. And that was the birth of the Vadox Society. This is awesome. It's literally a movie. I'm obsessed. So William starts getting to work
Starting point is 01:16:45 and he's writing to law enforcement specialists and asking them to join the Vidox Society. Frank and William were so excited, Richard on the other hand, he wasn't that happy. He's just a lone wolf. He's not really into groups. He just, eh, what is this, some sort of Sherlock Holmes club? Like it sounds... It sounds stupid. And he said, but I mean I enjoyed Frank and Bill so I had a nice time and I humored them both. I was just trying to be polite, but to be honest, I thought the whole idea was foolish. He would soon change his mind.
Starting point is 01:17:12 Because I got straight to work. Let's talk about some of their cases. So one of them is fascinating. There was one called the Zoya Assur case, and let's talk about Zoya. So it's Thanksgiving evening evening and Richard is coming home from a long trip to Hong Kong and Sydney where he was assisting on murder investigations. Like, this guy's not good.
Starting point is 01:17:30 So he's getting dressed to go to a friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner and his phone rings. It's a complete stranger. Richard's about to hang up, but it sounded like a sales call, you know? Someone's asking him for a favor, as if, you know, he's getting ready to close the phone. But the guy says, Frank told me,
Starting point is 01:17:43 if I want to solve this case and Exonrate myself. I have to call Richard Walter and you're Richard Walter, right? You're one of the best Profilers in the world and you'll give me good advice, right? So here's what's going on a friend of one of Frank's girlfriends had been begging Frank to take on his case So he that was really confusing, but Frank's girlfriend is like hey, babe like I've got this friend who is really struggling His girlfriend is missing. It's like a weird one. Can you please help? So this guy's name is Kenneth and he was an optimologist whose girlfriend Zoya had gone
Starting point is 01:18:12 missing recently. He had reported her missing and the cops were not helpful. They were just like, oh, she'll show up eventually. Get over it. But Kenny was not convinced. They had been together for five years. I mean, he knew her. She would never do something like this. He was getting ready to propose. Some sources say that he had already proposed and this was his fiance. I don't know, but he was getting serious. She just wouldn't leave.
Starting point is 01:18:33 And for Frank, from the get-go, he just kind of wanted to help his girlfriend. That was his main vibe. He was a helpful person, but the one condition was, since this was like a referral, that you have to pass a polygraph. With one of the best polygraph examiners my buddy William because then I know you're innocent and then I know I should be putting my resources into this.
Starting point is 01:18:52 Would you be willing to do that? Yes, yes of course. Okay, then maybe you can do that and talk to my other buddy Richard, he's gonna try to get you some information on this. Okay, so he calls Richard and tells Richard the whole story. His girlfriend recently moved to Florida to be with him. That's where he is. They were engaged and she vanished without warning.
Starting point is 01:19:11 It's been two months now, but the strange thing is, for Richard, Kenny didn't sound like a grieving boyfriend. He just went on and on about how Zoya's brother is a law enforcement officer, and he was suspecting Kenny of doing something. And he would say things like, which is pissing me off, because why would I want my fiance dead like why would I want her gone that's so stupid.
Starting point is 01:19:28 And Richard was not having any of it. He told Kenny okay I too will help you if you take the polygraph with my buddy well. A week later Zoya's remains were found in New Jersey. Shared already been skeletonized but they could see clearly that her cause of death was that she was shot three times in the chest. One of the bullets had pierced her heart. The chief investigator on the case in Jersey thought that Zoya was committed suicide. Okay, to preface, the place that Zoya was found was significant.
Starting point is 01:19:55 You see, her sister had died there in a horse riding accident a few years ago. And now the police are like, well, and I looked up her record and she's on anti-depressants because she's depressed, which makes sense, so she probably killed herself. But that didn't sit right for the Batman trio, because they're thinking, what? I mean, they even drove to the spot where Zoya was found, and they were in so much shock.
Starting point is 01:20:15 Her body had been taken by the police, yeah. But they found parts of her clothes scattered in the woods, left behind, not taken into police evidence. There was a fingernail that wasn't taken into police evidence. I mean, the police were really half-assing the whole thing. Oh, and if that wasn't already suspicious, get this. First of all, the gun used to put three bullets in her chest was an eight-shot automatic. Which you're like, what does that even mean?
Starting point is 01:20:36 Apparently, it's not common for suicides. Why you ask? Because you have to apply 12.5 pounds of pressure to fire the gun. And on top of that, it was a pretty long gun. And and on top of that it was found in a bag 27 feet away from Zoysbody. So William is saying okay I get it a very petite young woman who's pretty physically weakened sickly fights through her way through this thick brush carrying a gun that she's incapable of firing I mean especially if she turns it around her on herself and is trying to apply 13 pounds of pressure on the gun, facing herself. So to test
Starting point is 01:21:09 this theory, Frank's wife, who is about the same size as Zoya, ran out into the woods with everybody. They emptied the same gun, got rid of all the bullets, like the same time for gun. She's still wore a bulletproof vest just in case, and she tried to pull the trigger. All her strength, she couldn't do it. When it finally did go off, the gun was pointed over her shoulder. That was the only way she could have done it and it wouldn't have shot her in the chest. So we're supposed to believe that Zoya did this not once,
Starting point is 01:21:33 but three times, and then she put the gun in a bag and moved it 30 feet away. Like that's crazy. So Kenny agreed, he's like, no, my fiance's not capable of killing herself. He was gonna take a lie detector test. He was actually on the way. And he's like, no, my fiance is not capable of killing herself. He was going to take a lie detector test. He was actually on the way. And he's like, no, my fiance is not capable of killing herself.
Starting point is 01:21:48 And he started pointing the finger at Zoya's brother-in-law, the police officer. And he's like, I know that they were having an affair. So the Vidoc Society, they stopped in their tracks. Because they were actually able to clear the brother-in-law, but now they found Kenny's motive. So you knew your fiance was cheating on you. And the police refused to cooperate. They still ruled out Kenny, and they still said it was suicide.
Starting point is 01:22:13 So the question is, why would Kenny agree to fly and meet with the Vidox society, even if the police had already essentially closed our case? And Richard said, it's because he thinks he's smarter than everyone, that's why. And it gives him a thrill to beat us. He relives the excitement and the sense of control of the murder itself. He's almost playing a dangerous game of Catch Me If You Can. Kenny even allowed his polygraph exam to be filmed by the Vadox Society, and as well as CBS 48 hours.
Starting point is 01:22:39 No way. William himself administered the polygraph and he said, it's very rare for me to see a man that is this deceptive, clearly. Like it was bad. Kenny seemed to remember clear details of all of his days, except the day that his fiance goes missing, and it's just, like, it's really dumb. The polygraph showed that Kenny was being deceptive about his alibi, too,
Starting point is 01:22:59 which, you know, why would a man who's innocent lie about his alibi? And at one point, Kenny and the polygraphs straight up said We're not allowed to get my story straight Like what but he still did not confess to a crime and no matter what the Vadox society did the police did not want to reopen the case And they they can't do anything about it, you know So in the next couple of months, her case was officially closed. And William disappointingly announced the news to the Vadox Society, and he stated,
Starting point is 01:23:30 there is much truth to the old saying, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink it. That's it? That's it! They wouldn't reopen the case! So, I mean, the Vadox Society does as much as they can, but if one enforcement isn't willing to work with them, that's it. And what's crazy is that the Vadox society does as much as they can, but if law enforcement isn't willing to work with them, that's it.
Starting point is 01:23:46 And what's crazy is that the Vadox society probably has a hand in solving a lot more cases than we think. Now, I wouldn't go as far to say all the cases or a lot of the cases, but a lot more than we know of because any time they help solve a case, they're never featured in the news because police say we were dedicated to this case. I told the mom of the victim that I was going to get answers and I was going to get justice and that's what I did. It's not like I closed the case and then some random secret society came and did my job.
Starting point is 01:24:16 That's not what happened. I did it. Another case was that of Deborah. Deborah was 20 years old at the time and in a math major, in a former model. She was kind of doing it all. Obviously, with this type of ambition, this very busy schedule, she was a very responsible person for just being 20. She wanted to focus on school, never drank, smoked, nothing.
Starting point is 01:24:36 She just worked hard, and stayed up to study. She was amazing at math, but when it came to computer science, she really struggled. So one day, she calls her parents, and lets them know, hey parents, I'm gonna be at the on campus for a really long time today. I mean, I've got this project for computer science too. I'm stressed. I mean, like, I gotta, I gotta put in a couple more hours in the computer lab. So two and a half hours go by and she calls again. At this point, it's 1.30 a.m. and she reassures her parents, hey guys, I just need a little more time for the project, but don't worry! My ex boyfriend Kurt is here in the computer room with me, and he's gonna walk me to my car afterwards.
Starting point is 01:25:10 But the thing is Kurt didn't wait. Shortly after her call to her parents, he was told that he needed to go home. So on his way out, he asks the security guard David Dixon, that Deborah's still in the computer room, and she needs an escort back to her car. A few minutes later, the computer logs show that something interrupted Deborah's work in the computer room. She made her last input and it looked like she had been interrupted in the middle of whatever she was doing.
Starting point is 01:25:34 Around 3 a.m., Deborah's parents started to worry. She's still not home. The next morning, two students are passing by the engineering building and they see someone who seemed to be passed out at the bottom of the stairs but they weren't asleep. Deborah was found severely beaten, strangled. She still had on all her clothes her watch. The motive didn't seem to be robbery or sexual assault. The only thing missing on her body were her white sneakers.
Starting point is 01:25:58 She was beat to death with bricks, they were left at the scene near her body from the computer room. Deborah was dragged through the maze of hallways and outsides near her body from the computer room. Deborah was dragged through the maze of hallways and outsides to the building to the stairwell. The killer left a trail of blood with her body. So obviously the very first suspect was David Dixon, the guard. He was even shaky about where he was at the exact time during his shift, but he had an alibi. He said that he was on the phone with his girlfriend the whole time. He completely forgot to escort Deborah to her car because he was slacking on the job. So no, he wasn't the last one to see her alive. He actually had never even walked past the computer room.
Starting point is 01:26:33 But then he failed the polygraph. But that wasn't admissible in court. And just like that, the detectives were like, well, shoot, the case is going to go cold for seven years. Years later, the Vadox Society were revisiting Debra's case, and in the murder room, they were all presented with Debra's case on the projector and Richard immediately had a theory. He said, if I might offer my opinion, the key to this case is the absence of the victim's shoes and her socks. The crucial question is, what is the value of a killing?
Starting point is 01:26:59 What do they get out of this? Since he didn't sexually assault her, what value was it? He tells us by the absence of the shoes and the socks that he doesn't want money. She's still wearing her wristwatch. He doesn't want to sexually assault her, he wants the shoes, I believe, he's a foot fetishes. He's obsessed with woman shoes, he collects them, he probably masturbates over them, and in all likelihood, he probably can't even sustain an erection around a real woman. This is Richard's belief, not on people who have foot fetish, but this guy, the killer.
Starting point is 01:27:26 So the killer did an assault, Deborah, because he didn't want her. He said, and I quote, he doesn't want the fuck. He wants the shoes. He'll sniff him up at home. Basically, he needs to neutralize her so he can harvest from her what he wants. And he doesn't, and he leaves.
Starting point is 01:27:40 The murder scene also indicates he's a bit of a power assertive guy. He likes to dominate and control. A guy who lifts weights, exhibits macho power and strength with guns. He's probably one of those gun obsessed people. Hobbies, he probably likes things like karate. Again, another very macho on a man's sport. One of the officers who is there presenting the case that Richard,
Starting point is 01:27:59 your profile fits our guide to the tee. Our one suspect for the past seven years, David Dixon and the security guard. So after seven long years, he was working as a US Army sergeant and recruiter, and newspapers started talking about breakthroughs on Debra's case, which by the way, they never even mentioned the Vodox Society. They were like, oh, the police are now working with potential clues. And so David Dixon, he actually was kind of martialed for the theft of women's like break ins on the army in South Korea So he was based in South Korea at one point and while he was on duty, he literally broke into women's rooms and stole their white sneakers
Starting point is 01:28:34 So the police are like, okay, well we should probably search your storage bins at the Philly Navy base and they found hundreds of women's white sneakers All used all stolen presumably he had tapes, sex scenes of women's white sneakers all used all stolen presumably. He had tapes, sex scenes of women in white sneakers, which by the way, Richard was even protecting this. He said that there would be pictures and videos of women fondling other women's feet, which is exactly what they found. There was a vlog of him on vacation in Florida
Starting point is 01:28:58 with his girlfriend and at the time, the whole time he's filming his partner's feet. Like not the Disney World, his partner's feet. He would go to fast food restaurants and literally film random women wearing white sneakers. He had a picture of a naked store mannequin wearing a pair of white kids like he just loved white sneakers.
Starting point is 01:29:16 An ex-girlfriend came out and said, you know, David is obsessed and drew satisfaction from women's feet and sneakers, especially. When I came home from work with sweaty, sweaty sneakers, my husband would remove my shoes, rub them, kiss them, and fondle them. My feet and toes. Just my sweaty feet and toes, you know?
Starting point is 01:29:32 Then I would watch him masturbate while he would watch videos of women exercising in white sneakers. He was just had a thing for white sneakers. Then they found out that David's alibi was fake. So finally, in 2005, with the help of Richard, Richard which by the way he predicted literally all of this like all of the predicting the photos that would be there everything They finally arrested him and David was convicted of Deborah's murder Later in prison David told us sell made everything else about the murder that he approached Deborah and she rejected him. And this enraged him and he started attacking her, grabbing her by the hair, hitting her.
Starting point is 01:30:08 He started to strangle her until she fell unconscious, ripped off her shoes and sneakers, started rubbing her feet. When she woke back up, he choked her to death and rubbed her feet all over his face. And then he dragged her behind the stairwell, beat her more with a bloody brick, and he fled with his prized possessions. And just like Richard had predicted, he kept the shoes for about a year, and he would keep them in separate plastic bags to preserve the smell for his fantasies later. Take them out, and he would masturbate with them from time to time.
Starting point is 01:30:41 This is how good Richard was at like predicting all of this, it means it's crazy. And now this is the last one and it's really fascinating because it feels like you're watching a crime show and it's not real life and how they solve these cases. This case was considered the impossible case. The case was 20 years old and the remains of the skeleton were found in an isolated patch of the woods outside of a farm. I mean at first everybody thought it belonged to an old farmer, but the corpse was much recent, maybe only 20 years old. The skull though was smashed.
Starting point is 01:31:12 So it means clear is a murder. The police asked Frank to do the job pro bono and he took it. He had to reconstruct the face and the skull even though it was smashed. And he's thinking, okay, that's fine, mail me the skull and I'll get to work putting it back together. But he said, okay, Frank, you promise to help, he's thinking, okay, that's fine. Mail me the skull and I'll get to work putting it back together. But he's an okay Frank. You promised to help. There's no takebacks, but I can't believe we didn't even mention this. There's no school. Like there's no nose, no face, no eyes, no mouth, no cheekbones,
Starting point is 01:31:35 just like the outside of the skull. So imagine the school is like a doughnut in all the important parts that you need to reconstruct how somebody looks like the eyebrow bones and stuff. We don't have any of that. So he's like, how the hell do you want me to rebuild a face without the bones? So Frank reaches out to a physical anthropologist at Anthropology, I'm kidding, those are really bad jokes, at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and another expert at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and they all told Frank, don't be dumb, don't be in it yet, That's impossible. So now Frank has a fire under his butt. He consults William and Richard and they thought Frank
Starting point is 01:32:10 was losing his mind and they keep telling him, you're not God. Like, we know you want to help, but we're not God. Like, there's only so much we can do. It's still real life. But Frank knew how to get Richard involved. He said, oh, and Richard, the FBI refused to help because they said there's not even enough information to do a criminal profile on the murder. They said it was impossible, actually. So Richard's like, the FBI said it was impossible. I guess that I better fucking do it. Shit and I. So he meets the police report. Now, the left arm, the hand, and the left pelvic bones, the left foot, and the left leg were all missing.
Starting point is 01:32:46 So he's like, okay, this is a lot. It was the ultimate challenge, and Richard understood how Frank felt. They needed to do it. The remains were almost impossible to ID, but it said that it belonged to a woman who was very petite, maybe in her 20s, 30s, probably a mixed race in about five foot, five,
Starting point is 01:33:03 100 to 110 pounds. She suffered poor nutrition as a kid that was clear, maybe she was a sex worker. That makes sense, maybe a victim of a serial killer or a wealthy farmer because that's kind of the area that they're working with. Now they're taking context clues from the environment. Her clothes were found near the scene, and the manufacturing showed that her clothes were no older than 1988, so that's probably when she died, which coincided with an active serial killer in the area at the time, Arthur Shawcross. He raped and murdered a tenured boy in an eight-year-old girl, and when he got out of prison, he
Starting point is 01:33:35 started raping and killing more people. He would return to the grave sites oftentimes and masturbate over the corpses of his victims. He had already confessed to 11 victims, but maybe this was his 12th. She was dubbed the girl with the missing face. And frustrated, Frank tried to get inspired, right? He was actually working on another project. He was contacted by this museum to actually
Starting point is 01:33:56 exume the skulls of former slaves in America and create a bust of their face to really humanize them. So he was working on that, and while he's working on the skull, he noticed that one of the bones behind the eyes was the same with as the nasal bones, which is very similar to the very few bones he had for the girl with the missing face. So now he's thinking, okay, so she's definitely mixed race
Starting point is 01:34:17 or black, that's what he's thinking. And he gets back to work and he's inspired. And he's like, Richard, I need a profile. I need a profile on the killer and that will tell me what kind of victim he's gonna choose. Richard says, okay, judging by the way that the corpse is buried, I think that she's probably a sex worker. Usually, power hungry killers love to kill sex workers.
Starting point is 01:34:35 They dump the bodies like they're disposing of trash, which is exactly how this body was found. The zipper of her clothes was damaged, which again, results in someone being power hungry, and the clothing of the victim is often forcefully torn off, typically with sex workers. I think the killer at the time is, wild guess, an ex-con victim is 20s,
Starting point is 01:34:54 probably very muscular, again, a very macho man, very primitive, arrogant. I assume that he would drive a pickup truck if I'm just getting context clues from the environment. He's probably obsessed with playboys and porn magazines and he's not afraid to show it. He's almost proud of it. This whole profile matched a farmer at the time that lived in the area named Roland. He had rented a cabin near the side of the grave and he was six foot four, 230 pounds, a high school athlete wrestler. He had even served time for a murder before and it was the murder
Starting point is 01:35:23 of a sex worker. He was enraged when he found out that the sex worker was transgender and he stabbed her in the throat His lawyer even later said this sleazy homosexual insert transphobic slur duped this poor country boy We're laughing because how do you even say that with your whole chest? But what's even crazier is the jurors were sympathetic to this poor country boy and they found him innocent of murder and guilty of manslaughter. He only served four years in prison before being paroled. At the same time, another detective was looking at Frank's bust and he was sure he knew the victim's mother.
Starting point is 01:36:00 So a detective from the area was like, wait a minute, I'm looking at Frank's work and I feel like I know this whole family because it's like one of those small towns. So he shows her the bus and she burst into tears. She said, I think that's my daughter, Lauren Weaver. She was just 26 years old when she went missing. She was a sex worker. She never wanted to be, but she was forced into it when she was 14.
Starting point is 01:36:22 The DNA confirmed the match. Now the police arrest Roland, and he confessed. He said that Lorraine was his ghost. He confessed to picking up Lorraine, paid her $20 in the car with her, and he told her that he was going to break up with his girlfriend, and he wanted more sex from her. But she nicely rejected, and he started to force her.
Starting point is 01:36:39 So she slapped him, and he slapped her back, and then punched her. And then he just kept squeezing her throat until she stopped breathing. He grabbed a hammer, hit her on the head until she stopped, and he engaged in necrophilia before burying her or tossing her into a remote field. Like Richard predicted, Roland was potentially a serial killer.
Starting point is 01:36:59 He was suspected in multiple other murders, and he was given the maximum sentence for Lorraine's murder, which was 24 years to life at the time, in state prison. And all thanks to Frank's bus, they were able to ID the victim. So sadly in 2009, Frank was diagnosed with cancer. This was brought on by his exposure to Abestos, which is a very rare cancer. It's a thousand times rare than lung cancer, and only about one in a million people worldwide develop it.
Starting point is 01:37:26 It's very deadly. The cancer takes about 20 to 50 years to develop, and it spread all into Frank's torso. His doctor told him, the tumor's probably bigger than the baby's head inside your torso. And there's no surgery we can do to remove it, because it's surrounding your heart and your lungs like a spiderweb.
Starting point is 01:37:43 The doctors gave him 8 to 18 months. Frank's wife was also diagnosed with lung cancer at the same time, and the doctors had them estimated to leave at the same exact time. And they tried to find the silver lining, and they felt it was romantic. Near the end of Frank's life, he spent most of his time painting, and in 2009, they celebrated their 39th wedding
Starting point is 01:38:03 anniversary, and in 2011 they celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary and in 2011 Frank passed away. Richard Walter left Vidock society in 2016 and William Fleischer continues to serve the society as its commissioner and they are still working hard to solve crime. This is like one of those, it just brings hope back into, I know, I know there are a lot of cases with stellar, impeccable investigative work,
Starting point is 01:38:34 but just for this sheer amount of cases there are in the world, it's just more often than not, that it's not great. And the fact that there are people out there, it kind of gives you a little bit of hope now. So I hope this kind of brightened up your day a little bit, but I hope you guys enjoyed this week's mini-suit and I'll see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye!

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