True Crime All The Time - The Murder of Angie Samota

Episode Date: March 29, 2021

In 1984, Angela Samota was a 20-year-old college student studying computer science and engineering at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Angela lit up every room she walked into and she was extremely intelligent, hard-working, and driven. But, in October of that year, Angie showed kindness to a stranger and let him inside her apartment to use the phone. Her boyfriend became worried when he couldn't reach her and called the police who found Angie inside. She had been raped and murdered.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the murder of Angie Samota. Angie's good friend at college was a woman named Sheila Wysocki and that's a name that many true crime fans may know. Sheila refused to give up on her friend and the search for her killer. She wouldn't let the police give up either. That hard work and persistence paid off in 2009 when DNA revealed the identity of Angie's killer. The killer turned out to be a man named Donald Bess, not someone closer to Angie as most people suspected.You can support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 226 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in True Crime. Mike Gibson. Gibby, how are you? Hey, man, I'm doing good about you. I'm doing great. Yeah. I know we've got a good lineup this weekend.

We have this episode that you're listening to right now, but we also have a brand new episode out on True Crime All the Time Unsolved. We do. We're talking about the 1977 Easy Street murder. in Australia. Yeah, good time, right. Yeah, very compelling case. Extremely brutal, vicious murders. But it's a fascinating case. Make sure you check that out. We also have a brand new Patreon only episode that dropped on Saturday night. Yeah, it's a good one. It's a good one. It's on the Sonier brothers and Helen Prejean. Elmo Patrick Sonier was part of the basis for the movie Dead

man walking with Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. And I watched that movie a few weeks ago and I decided I wanted to learn more about it. And that led me to the case of the Sonier brothers. It's a good one. It is. And if you're not signed up for Patreon, right now is a great time to sign up. I think this Gibbs was what, our 32nd. Yeah.

Patreon only episode. And then we also have the weekly Minnesota things that we do. We continue to see some great patrons. on support let's give some shoutouts we had test danielson hey tess kelsey barryman what's going on barryman rita goche jumped out at our highest level what's going on rita christopher bischoff jumped out at our highest level the famous bischoff crackers yeah i heard all about that uh kiley bird jumped out at our highest level what's going on bird and so did anthony horn well thank you anthony we also had emily lowry well hey emily bernie did what's going on bernie amber brown thank you

Amber. Dave Mel Young. Hey, Melion. Kelnale. Keln-Vell jumped out at our highest level. Well, Cal Cal-Novell-Macary. Roy McGarry jumped out at our highest level. Thank you, McGarry. Sandy Quav. What's up, Quav? Josh Tumie. Amanda G. What up, Amanda? Lauren Chawcett. Christy Hines jumped out of our highest level. Hey, tell the pretenders. I. William. Hey, William. Carol Perry. What's going on? Carol. Ryan Harris. Hey, thank you, Ryan. Alana Dowd. Llanna. And Donald Bumford.

We got a little Bumford in there. So some great new Patreon support. And then if we go back into the Vault Gibbs, this week, we selected Anna Lee. Good old Anna Lee. Good old Annalie. So we appreciate the long-term support, the new support on Patreon. We had some great PayPal donations as well. Kristen Whitwell wishes Doug Johnson a happy birthday.

Happy birthday, Doug. Rebecca Balser. Hey, Rebecca. Lauren Porter. Hey, Lauren. And Sam Bodkin. What's going on, Sam? So some great support there as well.

We appreciate it. All right, Gibbs. Are you ready to get into this episode of True Crime All the Time? I'm already. We are covering the murder of Angela Samota. Angela died in 1984, but her case went unsolved until 2009 when advancements in DNA testing finally found a match to her killer's DNA,

left at the crime scene. If it wasn't for the persistence of Angie's best friend Sheila Wysaki, her case would probably be unsolved today. But because of Sheila's hard work and dedication for her friend, there is now justice for not only Angie, but several other women as well as men who were wrongfully accused of murder. I think gives Angie's case gives hope to family. who have lost a loved one to violence in that their cases too might one day be solved.

I think it also teaches some valuable lessons to young women about safety and, you know, things that we talk about quite a bit, keeping your head on a swivel, being aware of your surroundings. And Gibbs, you and I have met Sheila Wysaki, I believe at least once at the last crime con. Yeah. She's been on panels, but she also has her own podcast called Without Warning so you might want to check that out. Let's talk about Angela Samota. She was born on September 19th, 1964. Her friends and family called her Angie. Angie was described as having a beautiful smile that lit up her entire face. She was friendly to everyone she met and was called a triple threat. And we've heard this term before. Well, I've heard that term before. You are a triple threat.

Yeah. But she was because she had beauty, brains, and she was an extremely kind person. That was a different. I think you're missing that part of the triple threat. According to her friend Anita Kadala, almost every guy Angie met was pretty much immediately attracted to her. Angie grew up without a father and was raised by her mother in Amarillo, Texas. Her friends have mentioned in various interviews that Angie came from a,

fairly wealthy family. Angie was studying computer science and engineering at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. And I don't know Gibbs how much you know about SMU, but especially about SMU in the 1980s. Don't know a whole lot about SMU. You had a good football team at one point. That's exactly what I was going to say. In the 1980s, SMU was a powerhouse in college football. now later came out that they were paying for all these high profile athletes Eric Dickerson I mean some of the all-time great I say it's probably one of the most famous ones that I recall yeah but they got hit with a big scandal and ultimately I think they lost their football program for a while either way they've they have never you know

since reached those same heights but while Angie was at SMU she was one of the few girls in the entire computer science and engineering department. She took school very seriously and would often stay up late into the night studying. She was also a member and chair of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. So I think it's safe to say she had a lot going off. She did. I mean, she wasn't there taking, you know, the easy classes, right? Computer science and engineering.

You're not going to have a lot. a lot of blow off classes. No, but she's also a social butterfly, too. She was. She loved being involved in her sorority. She loved spending time with her friends. So, I mean, I think in that respect, she was a normal, you know, college girl who was trying to make the most of her time at SMU.

I just think she was very intelligent. And she was very driven is the sense that I got. she was going to make something of herself and it was going to be something memorable it's hard to to have that focus in your first couple years at college you know what sure was for me well frank the tank we know that too many beer bongs and you know bongs in general bongs in general and the next thing you know they're they're saying this might not be the place for you you might want to try your luck somewhere else angie samoda and shila wysaki met on their first day of college and in 1982 when they were randomly assigned as freshman year roommates.

Sheila recalls how they were so different, but they bonded because they both grew up without fathers in their lives. The two quickly became best friends. And I still remember Gibbs, the day that I showed up at college to meet my roommates, I didn't know a soul. I lived with two other guys. I had never met them in my life.

They didn't know each other. Yeah. So the three of us were strangers. I mean, literally within the day. It was like we had known each other for a very long time. Best friends. Yeah, I mean, not best friends, but it got to be that way. Sure.

Pretty quickly. Yeah. It just, it seemed like it was very familiar very quickly. Like I'd known these guys a lot longer than what I really had. Not always a story for everybody else. No. No, because my daughter had a much different experience. Yeah.

For one, she didn't like living. in a dorm. She wasn't partying like some of the other girls were. And so, you know, she was trying to study. These girls were trying to party. She just didn't like it. Now, she's not a social butterfly. She's not what you would think of as a really outgoing person. No, your other daughter seems to be more social. Yeah. My younger is much more sociable. Angie's friend Anita talked to the show betrayed about one of Angie's ex-boyfriends, whose name was Lance. He and Angie dated in high school and during freshman year of college, but Lance dropped out after a short time. She said that he was the type of guy who could be aggressive and unpredictable. And he continued to harass

Angie after they broke up. Apparently, Angie wasn't great at cutting people out of her life. I think in large part gives because she was the type of person that, you know, she was the type of person that just hated hurting people's feelings. I've known quite a few people like that. I've also known people that are the exact opposite and will cut you out with really no feeling whatsoever. I'm probably more of the, I'll keep you in. Even though I don't really want to.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know which one's better. I think they both have their good side and they also have their limitations. I actually think if you can go ahead and make the cut. Move on. best for you, but it's not an easy thing to do. Well, it's not because you are, you're hurting someone that you either still care about in some way or at one time cared about deeply. But you can also

argue that by not cutting it off, stringing it along a little bit. Making the hurt even worse. Right. It's like instead of ripping off the band-aid, you're just slowly peeling it. So I think you can make points for both sides. Angie lived with Lange. for a short time, but after he threatened her with a knife, she broke up with him and moved out. And that'll usually do it. I don't care if you hate to hurt someone's feelings. If they threaten you with a knife, it's time to get out. It's time to pull that bandaid. Yeah, I think the bandaid is ripped off pretty easily at that point. Angie's parents bought her an off-campus condo after her freshman year. And, you know, I mentioned it. She came from a pretty,

well-to-do family. Sure. That's a big deal. That is a big deal. You're not renting an apartment. You're buying a condo. During her sophomore year, she started dating a guy named Ben McCall. Ben was a construction manager. And unlike Angie, he didn't come from a wealthy family.

In Anita's interview for betrayed, she said that Angie was often too busy to go visit Ben. And this became kind of a recurring issue in their relationship. You know, they Gibbs, they were the type of couple that would break up. They would get back together a few days later and then kind of keep doing that off and on. Yeah. Yeah, we all know couples like that. Sure. They get into a fight.

They're quick to break up, but they realize that they don't really want to be apart. So they get back together. I think from everything that that I saw in the research, it seemed as though Angie and Ben seemed to be kind of deeply in love with each other. Yeah. And that's probably. reason why they found it impossible to to stay apart. I mentioned it. You know, Angie was very driven. She was also very career-minded and she liked to network, which is a,

is a good skill to have. It's a good thing to do. It's an excellent skill to have. I don't know how much outside of social media network is going on in today's world, but it's very important. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people do their networking today. through something like LinkedIn. But, you know, back in the 80s when you didn't have anything like that, you went to mixers or you went to functions where other business professionals would be. And you just had to walk up and say, hey, I'm Mike Gibson. I'm looking to do an internship.

I don't have any skills, but can you please help me out? If you only knew how many graduation, college graduations I crashed and how many weddings I crashed. But you know what? You met a lot of people. You did? Yeah. I don't know what kind of networking that was, but other than meeting maybe some bridesmaids along the way.

It was networking. It's all matters. Angie met a man named Russell Buchanan at a happy hour with a group of mutual friends. She and Russell became acquaintances and he invited her to lunch with him, but she wasn't able to go. On October 11, 1984, Angie called Russell Buchanan and invited him to go out. out with her and Anita. The girls met him at Andrew's restaurant on McKinney Avenue and asked if he wanted to dance with them. Now, Angie also invited Ben, but he had to get up early for work the next morning

and he decided not to go. So the three went to Lakewood's boardwalk beach club for a while, then to Shannon Wins Nostromo restaurant. And then after that, they went to a club called Rio Room. They stayed there for a while dancing, they had some drinks. According to the criminal journal, David Skelton, who worked at Rio Room, said, Angie didn't seem intoxicated while they were there. The group left Rio Room at about 1 a.m. Angela and Anita dropped Russell off at his apartment.

Anita had plans to spend the night at Angie's condo, but she decided not to because Angie was getting up early the next morning to attend a football game. So Angie dropped Anita off at her dorm on Angie's way home. She stopped at Ben's place to say goodnight. They talked for a few minutes before Angie left for her own condo. She arrived around 1.45 a.m. and called Ben. When he answered, she immediately told him, talk to me. And he said later that she seemed nervous about something. She was rambling. She was talking strangely. And I think you noticed that Gibbs with people that you spend a lot of time with.

You're used to talking to on a regular basis. You know, you can hear it in their voice a lot of times when they're stressed out. They're scared. Something just doesn't seem right in their demeanor, even over the phone. You just know something is up. Yeah. You may not know what it is. At one point, Ben interrupted Angie because he heard a noise through the phone and he was concerned.

Angie told him that she had led a man inside her apartment after he asked to use her phone and bathroom. She asked Ben if there was a pay phone at the convenience store near her apartment. And he told her, yeah, there was. So she relayed this information to the man inside her apartment and told Ben that she'd call him right back. A few minutes passed without a call from Angie. So, you know, I know Ben had to have been worried, Gibbs. You would be worried. I would be worried. I think anybody would be worried in that situation. Yeah, it's definitely very bothersome. Yeah, just the fact alone that a strange man is

inside the apartment. Okay. That worries me right, right off the back. So Ben called her back. And when she didn't answer, he got in his truck and drove to her apartment. On the way, he called several more times. Still no answer. And this is interesting because, you know, this is 1984. And Ben had a mobile phone installed in his truck for work. So that's something that most people wouldn't have had. No, that's a rarity.

But it really came in handy in this situation. You and I have talked about that before. You know, when did mobile phones, cell phones kind of come into popularity? I know for a fact, it wasn't 1984. They were around. But my understanding is at that point in time, mostly for the rich or for people that needed it for work. It wasn't a luxury kind of everyday item for people just to play around with.

I don't think in 1984. No, no, no. It was up and coming, you know, but it had a long way to go. Yeah. When Ben got to Angie's condo, he knocked on the door. He didn't get a response. He tried to open it, but the door was locked. Again, I think at that point, the worry, the tension, it's got to be building.

So Ben drove to the convenience store to look for Angie. She wasn't there. He drove back to the condo and using, his mobile phone called 911. Police arrived around 2.15 a.m. In just a couple of minutes, they had the keys and they entered Angie's apartment and they found Angie Simoda dead. In the early morning hours of October 13th, in 1984, Angie Samota was raped and murdered, brutally stabbed to death. She was just 20 years old, Gibbs. Yeah, tragic. Janice Crowther was one of the first responders. And she later described to the show betrayed how silent it was when they entered.

She said it was a dead silence. It was too quiet. Ken Bouginska, another first responder, described the condo when they entered. He said they first found one high heel right at the entrance. And I think just from that Gibbs, they were immediately suspicious. Then they saw the brutal crime scene. he gave a quote that describes it so accurately. He said evil had come in and prayed upon an innocent victim. Janice saw what appeared to be Angie's heart laying on top of her chest. Unforgettable. Oh, the stuff of nightmares. Angie was naked and covered in her own blood. Her legs were dangling off the bed and her eyes were open. there was blood in the bathtub showing that someone had cleaned themselves off before leaving. Angie's autopsy revealed that she had been stabbed 18 times.

Ten of those went through her heart and lungs. Her blood alcohol level was 0.09. And I think this figure is kind of interesting and probably warrants a little bit of a discussion. You know, based on the chart that you look at, this goes. anywhere from slightly impaired to legally impaired. Many factors go into that. Yeah, there are a lot of factors that go into it. What I don't think it denotes is someone that is, you know,

really drunk, very drunk, would not probably be dazed and confused or anything like that, but has had X amount of drinks and probably legally shouldn't be driving. that's the way that I understood it from some of the different charts that we looked at. It was determined that Angie was raped prior to being murdered. Now, Janice Crowther said that she saw no reaction from Ben. According to her, he didn't seem very upset and didn't really ask questions about what happened. She also said that she smelled a strong scent of soap on him, as though he had just taken a bat.

Well, that's come to appear somewhat suspicious to people. Yeah, I think both of these first responders were immediately suspicious of Ben. I mean, if this is the person you love and you found out that they'd been murdered in a violently gruesome way, most people are going to have a pretty severe reaction to that news. Oh, sure. Now, you and I have talked a lot about. you know, people handle that type of news in different ways. The reaction that you expect versus a little bit different reaction,

does it necessarily mean that you've done something wrong? I would say no. No. Because we've seen cases where people put on a show, huge reaction. Right. Ultimately, it turns out they're the ones that committed the murder. And we've seen cases where there was a reaction that you would not expect. and it turns out that no they they didn't commit the murder they didn't do anything wrong maybe

they were in shock maybe they hadn't hit them yet yeah maybe they were just emotionalists yeah i mean it's important to point out as far as the story goes but i do think you have to be careful painting every single person you know with the same broad brush because not every single person is going to react the same way in the same situation. It's just not going to happen. No, no. You got to get that out of your head that they should act like this. You also have to get it out of your head that just because they are grieving, they couldn't possibly be a suspect. Exactly. Because it goes the other way as well. But then you add in this, you know, kind of strong soap smell and the fact that they've already figured out that it looks like someone tried to clean up.

clean themselves. Okay, I can see where the suspicion comes in. Sheila Wysaki found out the news when a mutual friend Barbara called her. Barbara was crying hysterically and told Sheila what had happened to Angie. Sheila said that she remembers feeling shock and disbelief, wondering who in the world would ever want to hurt Angie? We talked about it, Gibbs. I mean, this seemed like a young woman who was pretty much universally loved by everyone, everybody liked her. Triple threat. Yeah, triple threat.

I mean, you'd be racking your brain to try to figure out how she would have made an enemy, right, of someone to the extent where they would be willing to do this. As police began their investigation, they turned to Angie's closest friends, Sheila and Anita for information. the detectives showed Sheila pictures from the crime scene, which she has said was very traumatizing to her. Just hearing the description of the crime scene? I get that. And then to have to look at the actual pictures of what happened to your friend. Yeah, I get that as well. They questioned her about Angie's routine, people she might have known.

Sheila suggested that Russell might be a suspect. She brought Russell up because she knew Angie was friends with him. But Russell at one point had made Sheila feel uncomfortable. And that's the reason she believed that he should be investigated. Now, I never did get the details of exactly how he made her feel uncomfortable. But I don't think there's any doubt. She had a bad feeling about this guy at the time. Anita brought up the name Lance Johnson.

But Lance was very cooperative. Oh man, he turned over everything. Yeah, blood, saliva, fingerprint samples. He even signed an affidavit about his alibi. I have to think Gibbs, you feeling pretty comfortable that you didn't have anything to do with this. If, you know, you're willing to go to all of that. Right. And basically say, hey, whatever you need, fluids, fingerprints, take it all.

I just want you know I had nothing to do with this. Well, if you did have something to do with it, you're not real smart then. No. By offering all of that up. The authorities were able to determine the killer's blood type. So, you know, I think in the beginning, Ben and Lance were both suspects, but their blood type didn't match. Russell Buchanan's blood type did match. He also lived just about a five-minute walk away from Angie's condo.

That's making him a little bit more suspicious. Yeah. I think you take those two together, right? Blood type matches, lives very close to the victim. You got to take a hard look at him for sure. Yeah. And you have the one friend saying, you know what? He kind of gave me the creeps.

Not good. Yeah. Said she had a bad feeling about him. Two days after Angie was murdered, around 6 p.m., police knocked on Russell's door. Russell told him he didn't know Angie all that well. They met at Andrew's restaurant with a group of friends, they exchanged information and he invited Angie to lunch, but they never went.

A few weeks later, Angie invited him out with her and Anita. After Angie dropped him off, he went to sleep. So, I mean, it doesn't look great for him because it's not really an alibi, right? He's alone that night. Nobody else can really corroborate that. Nothing solid. Kind of hard for someone else to verify that you're sleeping at the time of a murder. murder when you're by yourself.

He said the next day he got up early to attend a wedding. And then after the wedding, his friends took him to the airport so that he could fly to Houston to visit family. On Sunday evening, he returned and went to work Monday morning. He didn't see any newspapers. And he said he didn't know what happened until the police approached him. Russell was fully cooperative and let police search his apartment. his roommate had apparently just returned from an African safari.

So the apartment was filled with knives and spears. Again, not looking good for Russell. No. It also seems like these people are just jet setting all around the world to me. Well, I mean, didn't you go on an African safari not too long ago?

Never. Never. Really? No, I did. Well, no, I take that back. I went to one at Animal Kingdom.

Yeah. At Disney one time. It's like the real thing. It's just like, the real thing. Yeah, just safer. Police told Russell to come in for further questioning, and he agreed. He later told the Dallas news how the police pointed their guns at him and basically treated him like he was guilty from the beginning. So, you know, we said, okay, these things aren't looking good. This kind of looks suspicious. Well, you're kind of going a little bit beyond that if you're

drawing guns and saying, hey, plus why do you need to draw a gun if you're just asking him to come down to the police department. Or he's going to pick up one of those spears, maybe. Well, maybe. There's a lot of weapons laying around. On October 16th, 1984, the police began to think that there was a potential connection between Angie's murder and the attempted rape of another student. In this other case, a man with a gun and ski mask entered a girl's apartment.

But luckily for this girl, her boyfriend was inside with her. The intruder fled when he spotted the boyfriend. Now investigators thought this man was searching for another victim after his failed attempt. Okay. I see that line of thinking. You have a predator who thinks they found a girl, a woman alone in her apartment. It turns out not to be the case and he has to flee. So he's on the hunt for another victim and finds Angie Samota.

It's a good theory. It's plausible. Sure. You'd have to say that. I mean, this lead really never develops anywhere. No. Sheila Wysaki continued to work with police. And she agreed to go to dinner with Russell to try to get some information from him.

I bet she had to be terrified, man. Yeah, she was. She has said in a number of interviews that she was because I think she believed Gibbs in her heart that she was that she was. Gibbs in her heart that she was having dinner with a murderer. Throughout the entire dinner, Russell never said anything incriminating. He thought they were meeting his friends. He had no idea that he was kind of being investigated. Yeah, but he was willing to take some lie detector test. He was. And to come in for interviews, but at some point, he got a lawyer and he refused to cooperate. He did take the lie detector test.

Russell was under the impression that he passed the lie detector test, but detectives came back to him and said that they thought the results were inconclusive. And they kept on investigating him. They even picked him up at work, sometimes showed up to his house to take him in for interviews. The crime journal reported that in one interview. Detectives held up crime scene photos and told him, she dropped you off. You were mad because you wanted to have sex with her. You went down to her apartment.

She let you in. You had sex with her. She started to scream. You stabbed her. And you stabbed her and stabbed her 18 times. So Gibbs, that leaves little room for doubt, right? The police at that point believed Russell Buchanan killed Angie Samota. And I think, as anyone would Russell eventually grew tired of this right nobody wants to keep hearing the police tell them that they believe they're a killer so I think that's when

he hired a lawyer after he got his lawyer police put him under 24 hour surveillance for six months his lawyer was a guy named Richard Racehorse Haynes talk about a famous attorney yeah he's famous also a great nickname

racehorse I guess the rumor was Gibbs that if you had racehorse as your lawyer, you were guilty. Was attorney like that here in Dayton as well? Kind of known that if you hire him, you're probably guilty. But he'll also probably get you off or get you a very reduced sentence. Well, I do think some attorneys can get that stigma that, okay, you need this person because you are guilty. Sure. But they're also known as a great attorney.

And they're also the ones that will jump on the well-known cases. But I think by hiring racehorse, it didn't help Russell's reputation, right? If you hire an attorney that everyone thinks represents the guilty, okay, by extension, they're going to think you're guilty. But police had no physical evidence besides the fact that his blood type matched to convict Russell. And that on its own gives, that's not enough to do anything. No. On December 13th, 1984, the Fort Worth Star Telegram published an article about how there were still no solid leads in the case.

The rewards were up to $11,000 at that point. But no one came forward. By summer of 1985, the case was cold. No one had come forward to confess. There was no additional evidence. Russell eventually went to grad school and law. London. Police didn't like the fact that he was leaving the country, but they didn't have enough evidence to keep him, to arrest him, or to really do anything to him for that matter. Yeah,

got out of their control at that point. Sheila never returned to college because as she has said, she was just too traumatized by what happened to Angie. And I could definitely see that. If you're at a school with one of your best friends and that friend is murdered, I think it's going to be hard to go back to that place. Yeah. I liken it to if someone in your family is murdered in your house, how easy is it going to be to stay in that house? Oh, couldn't do it. No, most people can, right?

You're putting that house on the market, getting what you can get out of it, and you're moving somewhere else. Yeah. Now, Sheila did keep in touch with the detective about this case. and this detective even went to her wedding in 1988. How many people get the detective in a case to show up at their wedding? Well, not many, but I think it really tells you how much contact they had and how often they talked. They obviously developed a bond for some type of friendship for this detective to attend her wedding.

Russell got married in the 1990s and his wife never doubted his innocence. But Sheila was angry that, you know, she felt Russell was living a good life when Angie was dead. She was frustrated that the police were giving up on her friend. Many years after Angie's murder, Sheila had a strange vision that compelled her to call the police again one night in 2004 when Sheila was reading her Bible. She looked to her right and she saw Angie. In this vision, Angie wasn't speaking. She was just smiling at Sheila. Sheila has said that at first she thought she was dreaming.

Her first thought was, it's time. It's time to take action on Angie's case. She felt an urge to call the Dallas PD. She asked to speak to the cold case division, but the person on the phone told her she had to speak to homicide. She left a message for the detective she spoke with originally. But he never called her back. And for the next two years, it's been reported that Sheila called the Dallas PD 785 times.

785 times. I will say that's the definition of persistence. But in all these calls Gibbs, she got nothing. At some point, someone called her back and said, that she was the only person who had called about this case in the last 20 years. Now, police had completed a rape kit on Angie's body at the time, but they told Sheila that it had been lost in a flood. But Gibbs, I'm telling you, she was not going to drop this case.

She continued to make calls. Sheila told the BBC that she doesn't really know why she kept pushing. She said, I think they thought that I'd eventually go away. Most normal people would drop it and move on with their life, but I didn't. I thought there was something that just didn't feel right. And I just didn't take no for an answer. I think they would have figured that out after 700 and some phone calls. Yeah, maybe after 100 or two.

But definitely after 785. So basically what Sheila did was she started her own investigation. She began researching every reported rape around the time that Angie died, the locations, arrest records. She set up a room in her house to put together all the evidence she had. Yeah, her old son called it the war room. It sounds like that's basically what it was. One day she was speaking about the case to the security guard for her neighborhood.

And he told her, you know what? You'd make a great private investigator. And this is when Sheila decided to change her entire career path and become a PI. She lived in Tennessee at the time. And in that state, a company has to sponsor you to get your PI license. The security company for her neighborhood agreed to sponsor her. Apparently Gibbs Sheila's whole family was on board with this decision. In the evenings, her son would read the state laws to her and help her stuff.

study, Sheila passed her exam and officially became a PI. She started by investigating cheating spouses for her neighbors. I think what she thought was that, and I think she's even said this, you know, once she got her license, okay, that would mean that police would kind of open up more. They would want to work with her and maybe share a little bit more information about Angie's case. But it just didn't happen. Not really the case, was it? But what did happen was Dallas PD got so frustrated with her continuous calls that they decided to reopen the case. In 2006, it was assigned to a detective named Linda Crum.

And Sheila has stated that she believes this assignment to Linda Crum is part of the reason the case finally got solved. This was a detective who cared about Angie. She did her research. In 2008, she told Sheila they found new evidence. They had fingernail scrapings and semen. But even in 2008, Gibbs, DNA testing wasn't what it is today. It really wasn't much of anything in 1984. But in 2008, the police department had to put in a request.

And they did not get the results back until 2009. It's a long time to wait. It is a long time. But you've been waiting for 20 plus years already. Yeah. Yeah. And you and I have talked about this before. Okay, if you could test everything, every piece of evidence sitting in, every evidence room across the country.

Well, how many cases could you solve? Yeah. A lot. Absolutely. But there's time. There's expense. There's all those factors. And that's in 2021.

You know, 2008. and before that, it was even tougher. It was more expensive and it took longer, right? The technology just wasn't what it is today. Now, we said earlier that the rape kit for Angie's case and the evidence had been lost in the flood. Well, now all of a sudden they have evidence. So Sheila wanted to know why she was told that the file got lost. No one really could answer that question for her.

Makes you think that maybe they just didn't want to deal with her? Exactly. Maybe. I mean, she was a civilian. She was technically not family. So is it right? I'm not saying it's right, but especially if somebody lied about it. I don't think it's right.

One night Sheila was at work at one of the businesses she and her husband owned. She was in the staff room when she heard the phone ring. She has said in interviews that she almost never. answered the phone at work. But for some reason, she felt compelled to do so. It was Detective Crumb. And she told Sheila, we got him. Now, Sheila was expecting Linda's next statement to be it's Russell Buchanan. But it wasn't. The man's name was Donald Andrew Bess, a serial rapist who was out on parole at the time of Angie's murder. Sheila told the Dallas News. She'll be, she said, She named this guy Donald Andrew Bess.

I could feel my world turning upside down. For 23 years in my mind, Russell Buchanan was the murderer. And in one split second, everything I thought I knew was no longer correct. Detectives had already gone to interview Donald Bess. He was 59 years old at the time. In 2008, he was serving a life sentence at Huntsville Prison for several rape, assault and kidnapping cases from 1985 forward. Police learned that seven months before Angie's death, he was on parole for another

sexual assault charge. It turned out that Angie's murder was completely random. And on March 6, 2008, he was charged with capital murder and rape. His trial didn't start until 2010. So interesting. Here we are in. 2008 and it's taken two years before the trial even begins and on our uh patron episode uh we talk about how rapid they were um arrest to trial to conviction to execution yeah that was in that case was in

1977 and you know within what six months he was indicted tried and convicted and given a death sentence I do think things have changed dramatically as far as the speed of the judicial system over the years. On June 8, 2010, Best suffered a heart attack that delayed his trial for a few days. Not too long. We got back going. Several women, including his ex-wife, testified about how he abused them over the years. Janice Crowther, one of the first responders. testified as well. She was only 20 years old when she worked Angie's case the same exact age as

Angie. She said, from that day to this one, I could close my eyes and see Angela. She told the Dallas news, from that day to this one, I could close my eyes and see Angela. And Gibbs, that's something that you and I don't often talk about. We talk about the victim's families and, you know, the effects and the trauma and all of that. Right. Okay. We've got a first responder. Yeah. That is traumatized. I mean, I don't know what other words you would use. If you're closing your eyes and seeing this woman for 20 plus years, that hit you very hard. But to see that brutality again and again and again, I don't know. you ever get that out of your head. Well, tough. And this is a person who probably saw how many different murder scenes over the years. I don't know how long she continued to work in that role, but

I'm guessing that was not the only murder scene she ever saw. But this one affected her so greatly. Maybe it was her age being, you know, pretty much the same as the victim's age. It's just something that you and I don't talk about, but it's just another spoke, you know, in the, you know, in the the wheel if you think about the effect that these horrible crimes have a wheel, a spider web, call it whatever you want. It just ripples out. Branches on a tree. Yeah, it just, it hits so many different people. It touches their lives. It changes their lives in many ways. The prosecution had a mountain of evidence against Bess. And really his defense was that there was no real proof. that he killed Angie.

Yeah, but they had his DNA. Yeah, and his defense team was forced to admit that his DNA was found on her body. In closing arguments, the lead prosecutor Pat Curlin told jurors how Angie suffered. And he hoped she didn't have to live through what Best did to her. The defense argued that Angie's death was a tragedy, but Best didn't do it. It would be another tragedy if Bess was wrongfully convicted. Sheila traveled all the way to Texas for the trial to watch her best friend get justice. But she did not stay for the conviction.

On June 14th, 2010, after less than an hour of deliberation, Donald Bess was found guilty of capital murder and rape. And on June 18th, he received the death penalty. Dallas Police Senior Corporal Virgil Sparks, one of the first of, of the lead investigators made a statement in 2010 saying that he believes best was still inside the apartment when ben knocked. Angie heard Ben knocking and tried to either get up or call for help. Best killed her to keep her quiet and cleaned himself up before fleeing the scene. Sparks believes that Best spotted Angie at Rio Room and followed her home. So he targeted her. Saw her out, dancing, having a good time.

time and he decided that night he was going to make her his next victim yeah i think that's what sparks believes for sure now dallas p.d ended up issuing a formal apology to russell buchanan after the trial well rightfully so i think so i think so i don't believe that they treated him uh very well i'll put it that way what you don't normally see though is a lot of of formal apologies from a lot of police department. No. Now, maybe it's because there really was no threat of a civil lawsuit. Right. I think in a lot of cases, that's why you don't see an apology. The police don't want to come out and say, we're sorry, essentially thereby admitting wrongdoing when there's a specter of some huge civil lawsuit hanging over their heads. So you wonder,

if back then it was in the paper that he was a person of interest or whatever. But now they do this apology thing. But you have to wonder, does it get a little blurb in the newspaper back on page 34 instead of the front page? Yeah, it's also, what, 20 plus years later. So I think of it more as, okay, I don't know how public it was, but you have to believe that people knew that this guy was. on police radar. He was being looked at. So, you know, go back over 20 years and how much did that affect his life? I'm sure it had some type of impact. Best filed an appeal, but the Texas court of

criminal appeals rejected it on April 13th, 2016. As of today, Best is 72 years old. And he's serving his sentence at the hospital Galveston unit in Texas. His execution date has not been set. And I think there's a definite chance, Gibbs, that he never sees his execution. He will most likely die in prison before that ever happened. Yeah. But it is Texas. So I don't put anything past Texas. Well, they might get him there. Because they can get up and go pretty quick when they want to. Sheila was going to retire after the case closed. But once the news got out about how she helped solve Angie's murder, she started getting letters from other people asking for her help.

She takes about five cases a year and has had some success in getting justice for families. Sheila told the BBC, she doesn't care whether Donald Best lives or dies. And she doesn't even believe, like we said, he'll live until his execution because his health is so poor. She's just happy that he will never hurt anyone else again. Sheila also founded without warning fight back. The mission of her organization is to educate women about rape prevention and self-defense.

She's gone on record saying that she believes if Angie had known even some basic self-defense, she might still be alive today. And she wants to make sure women have knowledge on how to save themselves. And that's a really good thing. I think it's absolutely outstanding. You and I talk about it all the time, right? Be aware of your surroundings, keep your head on a swivel. But I think this is an excellent point as well.

Okay, all those things are good. But learning how to defend yourself is not a bad idea at all. You know, my youngest has a black belt in Taekwondo. Yeah. Believe me. I know. I know. She's kicked your ass on multiple occasions. There is something about that that gives me some peace of mind. Now, does that mean that she's completely safe? No, I know that. But does she have some tools in her bag that she could use if she were attacked?

And I believe she does. Sure, she does. Much more so than if she had never. ever spent those years and years going through all that training. I'm very proud of her for that. She has your whistle. And she has the TCAT safety whistle, which I believe everyone should have. Gibbs actually got a message from one of our Patreon folks who ordered one of the whistles. She couldn't believe how loud it was. I think she thought we were kidding all these times where we said it's unbelievably loud. You said, hey, make sure you don't blow it inside your car. It'll blow it. It'll blow your eardrums out. It's a very useful tool. Ben McCall doesn't have much of a public presence and doesn't

really talk about Angie. Russell, though, is pretty open about the case and its impact on him. He is now a successful architect in Dallas. He's actually won some awards and his homes have been featured in architectural digest. Impressive. It is impressive. After the trial, Sheila called Russell and asked if she could sit down with him and his wife to talk about the past. She asked for Russell's forgiveness. And the two visited Angie's grade together. Russell thanked her for searching for the truth and saving his reputation. Sounds like a stand-up guy.

It does because I think he could have been very bitter towards Sheila about everything that had gone down. Yeah. Sounds like he wasn't. and I agree with you, Gibbs. Sounds like a stand-up guy and it's a good story. Now, it's born in the wake of a tragedy. Yeah.

A tragic incident, but at least that part of it, I think is a good story. No doubt. Angie's murder was an incredible tragedy. We mentioned it. Extremely kind person. She was loved by so many.

And I think it's thought by, everyone that she was going to be a success. Somehow, some way, she was just that driven. Right. So whether it was in the engineering field, computer design,

whatever she ended up doing with her life, she was probably going to be very successful. She let Donald Best into her apartment, trying to help him out. And he took advantage of that kindness. They did. By raping her. and brutally murdering her.

Gibbs, to me, these cases are very important for our listeners to hear about. I know we keep talking about it, but there's this fine line about being a helpful person and putting yourself in a position that is dangerous. It's a fine line, and I think people have to be very, very careful. It's just not worth the risk of letting a stranger into your place. People want to be nice, but at that time of night, I go back to safety first. I think that's a good saying, okay, I don't want to be mean to people, but I also don't want to compromise my safety or my family safety.

It's just something I'm not willing to do. But that's it for the case of the murder of Angie Samota. Got some voicemails Gibbs. You want to check those out? Yeah, let's check them out. Hi, Mike and Gibby. My name is Tasia from Dallas, Texas. I started listening to you guys' podcast. I want to say maybe a month ago, I can listen to music and stuff at my job, so it really helps me get through the week. I'm in between, like, bingeing them.

So when you guys come out with a new podcast, I listen to that one, and then once that's over, then I go back because I'm trying to play touch up. But I wanted to say I've been listening to the Stephen McDaniel one today. You guys did. It looks like November 2017. So far that's like my favorite just because of you guys is banter on this episode. Hilarious. And it's funny how Mike gets on Givie

about, you know, you need to watch what you say before, you know, because Givie, you can sound a little crazy sometimes. But no, you're my favorite. You guys are awesome. So just the new listeners, just wanted to let you guys know.

You're awesome. And we love you down here in Dallas, too. And yeah, so thanks. Be safe and keep your own time. I'm chicken. Bye, guys. I am crazy. I'm crazy. You can be. Interesting that she's from Dallas. This case took place in Dallas.

Yeah. But, you know, I go back to that Stephen McDaniel case. Man, that was one that you and I just couldn't really get over. There was a lot of opportunity for banter because of the antics of that guy. And the fact that, okay, he wasn't afraid to go on TV and start spouting, you know, off some things that just did not make sense. Yeah. So bizarre.

And the hair, man. Oh, the hair. Talk about hair. Yeah. Can't forget about the hair. No. Mike and Mike. This is truck driver Steve from southeast Oklahoma.

I've been listening to y'all for a couple of years now. Absolutely love the show. Been waiting to see if y'all would do it, and I haven't seen it yet, but I got a suggestion. I'm from southeast Oklahoma. And a couple of months after I graduated from high school in 91, Michael Dale, St. Claire and another fella. He was in, he was in Brian County Jail for murder, and him and a guy named David Reese,

believe it was David, broke out of jail and went on another killing spree, and now Michael is in prison in Kentucky. And his death sentence has been overturned a couple of times. It's been some crazy stuff. But, yeah, I went to school with a couple of his nieces and nephews, and, yeah, just a crazy case. And I'd love to hear y'all's take on it for sure.

Y'all always seem to come up with way more info than I can ever dig up. So anyhow, enjoy the show, guys. Keep it up. Keep your own time ticking. So first of all, we're the same age because I also graduated in 1991. Yeah. Secondly, I want to hear him tell the case because I could listen to that accent all day long.

You could. I love it, man. I'm in a trance over that accent. Just give me your number. Let him call you and talk to you anytime you want. I want him to do the episode. and I will sit and listen to it. There you go.

But we appreciate the suggestion, and we'll definitely look into it. Sure will. Good buddy. 10-4. Hi, this is Samantha Calisse, and it's pronounced Caliste, not Cali-Stae, not Cali-Stah,

it's Calice. I love you guys. I just started listening, y'all, like, five months ago, and I enjoy every minute of it. I like the, um, the, uh, what is it, the blood-sucking one? I forget that, I forget it, but I like all of them.

I have listened to them twice already, and I'm listening to Unsaw, and I took a peek at criminology. I'm not team. Mike or Teen Gibby. I like both of y'all, but Gibby has a nice voice. It actually smooths you in a night because I listen to you a lot in the night when I'm going to bed. I know I spend the end, but I live in New York. So keep up the good work, guys. Have a nice day.

So we really butchered her name badly. Yeah, you did. Was that last week? I know it was in the last couple weeks. She was a patron, new patron supporter. I was way off on her last name. I was spot on, man.

No, you're one. But you have such a soothing voice. I do have a soothing voice. Not as soothing as the Oklahoma truck driver. No. I can tell a story forever. Love that. Love that story. Yeah.

Hi, guys. This is Jen from Wisconsin. I was just calling, because I had a case suggestion, from my hometown. It was recently solved and it is a man John B-A-Y-E-R-L who murdered his wife in 1979

and they just recently in 2019 solved the case of her murder and he was convicted of killing her. Her body hasn't been found But I just thought it was a really interesting case and might be cool to hear a little bit more about it from you guys. Thanks. Bye.

All right. That sounds like one that would be right up our alley. Yeah. I'll take a look at it. Dive into it. All right, Gibbs, we had no mail bag this week. But I did receive an email. You did.

From a listener who has a package on the way. And it sounds like there's some pretty cool stuff in there. Really? Yep. So I think we'll be talking about it next week. So it's on a jet plane. Mm-hmm. That song. Leaving on a jet plane.

There you go. Is that the one you mean? Yeah. All right, man. We got to get out. All right. That is it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.