Boys on the Tracks /// Part 4 /// True Crime Garage | Forensic Files

Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever
you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me as always is a man that is now
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Thanks for telling a friend. And that's enough of the business. >> All right, everybody, gather around,
grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some True Crime. [music] >> [music] >> All right, before we get too deep into
this thing here, Captain, I want to go through a few notes regarding, well, let's call them updates regarding some
of the characters that we have spoke of yesterday and last week. Um, you know, we did cover a lot of ground over the
last three shows. A lot to talk about with the boys on the tracks here. And yesterday, you know, with all those
mysterious deaths and misdealings going on, we kind of a little bit all over the
place, but we had to do them in an order that made sense to us as far as the way
these people were dying and when they were dying off. Um, but yesterday, we did fail to mention that one more of the
eyewitnesses, the night that the boys were on the tracks, uh, is dead as well. Uh, this is Tom Newhouse. Uh, he was the
guy, remember the boy that was in the bushes? He was out with friends, claimed that he was looking for marijuana plants
and happened to see teenagers on the tracks with several men. Uh, one of those men he identified as Dan Harmon.
And he knew Dan Harmon because Dan Harmon at one time had dated his mother. So very obvious that he would be able to
uh identify him. Well, he one thing that we didn't talk about, you know, because
he didn't come forward until 1993. And there there are some questions, you know, how legit is this story? You know,
he comes forward 6 years after the fact. >> Well, when he comes forward with this
story, now at the time, the local investigators didn't put a whole lot of weight into his story. So, the FBI
brings in Tom New House and they so they conduct two lie detector tests with him
and he passes both of them uh to the point where they want to put him in the witness protection program. and they
actually do so. And that's why you find that when you look early back in this case and you're trying to investigate
what's going on, his name is actually not not submitted in a lot of those reports because he was in the witness
protection program. At some point, he decides that he no longer wants to participate in that program, but he
stands by what he saw that night and his account of what he saw that night. Um, unfortunately I He's currently deceased
and I I'm not aware. I couldn't figure out how he died. I'm guessing it might be natural causes because obviously with
all these other mysterious deaths, we have some reporting on those situations. >> Let's discuss some of the key characters
that weren't murdered. >> Uh, well, we have Charlene Wilson. Um, remember we had said she's the
eyewitness to Harmon being at the tracks as well. Remember we said she was locked
up. this was probably a method to hush her up. Uh the details of that are she was convicted of a firsttime drug
offense. And because she was prosecuted by Dan Harmon, she received a 31-year sentence, which absolutely seems very
ridiculous to me for a first time drug offense. But anyway, in 1999, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabe, um, he ended up
reducing her sentence, uh, which did make her el eligible for parole, which she was then granted. So, she's she's
since been out of prison for that extremely long sentence that she received from Dan Harmon.
>> So, they corrected the situation >> as best that they could. As for public enemy number one, Dan Harmon, uh, in
June 1st of 1997, the former prosecuting attorney Dan Harmon was found guilty of
five of 11 federal felony charges, >> including racketeering by he he used his office to get drugs and money. Right.
>> Uh so this is one racketeering conviction as well as a guilt as guilty verdicts on three counts of extortion
and one count of possession with the intent to distribute marijuana. >> And just quickly, I mean, this this is
key evidence to back up everything that most people are speculating about this Boys on the Track case.
>> Yeah. And and to further that thought, uh the Ives family and the Henry family,
they both said that they've kind of reduced themselves to believing that they're never really going to get
justice for their sons. >> Yeah. Which is sad. But but they believe that Dan Harmon being convicted of other
nefarious activity that this kind of it vindicates them a little bit and it it it for them it at least backs up their
beliefs and all their hard work that they've done trying to push their son's cases going forward.
>> Yeah. Cuz he ended up going to jail for a couple years and then he was released
and then he actually went back to jail. Well, so, so on that first charge, on that first bout of charges, he got, I
believe, a 10-year sentence on those charges. Uh, but you're right, he he serves his jail time, he gets released,
and then a few years after that, he does get arrested again. In February 19th, 2010, he is arrested on felony drug
charges. But we do have to be fair here, Captain. The state's case in this situation was pretty weak. This was
really a he said she said type of case looking for a conviction strictly where your only evidence is the testimony of
an admitted drug addict. Uh she claimed that she had bought drugs from Dan Harmon. He was acquitted of those
charges by a jury of his peers. >> Well, it seems like there's a little more to that story.
>> Do you want to hear some of the details regarding those indictments against Dan
Harmon from the first bount of charges? because I don't mind spending a couple minutes to rub his face in the mud a
little bit here. Uh, according to one indictment, uh, Dval and Harmon, uh, Dval was his wife at the time, they had
broke into the task force evidence locker and stole cocaine. Uh, so that was that's one of the details there. Uh,
and another one of the acts, um, listed as retaliation against a witness. This deals
>> Oh, really? >> Yeah. This deals with Harmon's May 1996 assault on Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Benton Bureau Chief Rodney Bowers. >> Right. So Bowowers is basically a reporter and he's reporting all the bad
[ __ ] that Harmon's doing and then it pisses Harmon off. So he attacks him. >> Yeah. Yeah. He he goes up to Harmon
trying to get a comment for an article and Harmon physically attacks the reporter.
>> Right. And we've we've heard this multiple times with these investigators claiming, "Hey, we started digging into
some stuff with, you know, Don Henry's case and uh Kevin Ives case." And right when we started doing that, guess who
starts making threats? >> Mhm. >> I mean, Dan Harmon was a I believe a cokehead and a and a real real
douchebag. Well, in another incident described in the indictment, a woman named Tina Davis traveled to Arkansas
from Indiana to deliver $10,000 to her husband, who had been arrested in Sailing County on marijuana charges.
When she arrived, the indictment says Harmon advised Davis that her husband would not be released unless she went
and got more money. The husband was then later released for $10,000 and the couple was forced to sign a disclaimer
saying that the two had been arrested with the money in hand and they had no claim to it.
>> See, I mean, that that stuff is just so shady. >> Well, in another extortion case, an
indictment alleges that Harmon took money for releasing defendants from custody or reducing the charges that
they faced in state drug cases. Uh, I think I think the Arkansas Times summed it up the best when they they had this
and and quote, "It is hard to imagine how much damage Dan Harmon did during the years he held office as prosecutor.
Cases that should have been prosecuted were not. Cases that should not have been prosecuted, no doubt, were." I
think they summed it up best. >> Well, so we have Harmon, which like I said is a douchebag, but now we have his
partner Garrett. >> Yes. his sidekick, Richard Garrett, the attorney that pushed for Harmon to
become the special appointed prosecutor. Well, some years after the Kevin Ives and Don Henry murders, uh, Garrett sold
his home and he moved away. >> Well, sometime after the new homeowner had been living there for some time, he
discovered a secret room in the basement that contained what he believed to be a
drug lab. The new homeowner reported this to the local sheriff's office and he was told to take the items to the
local dump and just get rid of them. Uh he explains to the sheriff that he didn't want to have these items in his
vehicle and potentially get pulled over with, you know, drugrelated items in his
car. And so the sheriff's office offered to escort him to the the dump to get rid
of these things. Now, at the time, that homeowner was unaware of who the previous homeowner was, right? You know,
he didn't know about the murder case. He wasn't from around there, and he didn't
know Richard Garrett's involvement in this actual case. >> Yeah, I haven't heard from this guy in a
while. I mean, >> I call, I write, he never returns my calls. Uh, what's going on with my good
buddy Fami? >> Well, yeah, Fami Malik, the medical examiner that deserves to have been
locked up in my opinion. Uh >> they should have shot him in the kneecaps, >> but instead in 1991 uh Dr. Malik was
promoted. He he got a new job. Congratulations. >> Good for you. >> And uh he was promoted to become a
consultant for the Arkansas Health Department. So um apparently when you're just horrible at your job and you you
lie and perjure yourself in trials, then I guess you can just uh get promoted time and time again. So, one needs to
start asking themselves a question. How does all this stuff go down in such a small county in Arkansas, right?
>> Mhm. >> Well, this is all connected to an airport. >> Yes. Yeah. So, let's talk about a small
place in western Arkansas called Mina. It's about 160 mi west of Little Rock. It's a tiny town that has been the local
for persistent reports of drug smuggling, gun running, and money laundering. Mhm.
>> There's been a number of allegations that have been made about the use of Mina, which is the Inter Mountain
Municipal Airport, as a CIA drop point in large-scale cocaine trafficking. Uh this beginning in the 1980s, several
local, state, and federal investigations have taken place in relation to these allegations.
>> Yeah. And a lot of people believe that these operations were set up by the Reagan administration.
>> Yeah. The topic has received some press coverage uh and these include allegations of awareness, participation,
or maybe even a cover up involving prominent figures such as Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George HW Bush, and of
course, Saline County prosecutor Dan Harmon. >> This is where another name comes to
light. Barry Seal. >> Yes, Barry Seal was a name that we mentioned yesterday. He was a gun
runner, drug trafficker, and covert CIA operative. Mhm. >> He was murdered in a hail of bullets by
the Medelan cartel hitmen outside of a Salvation Army shelter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Um, a lot of the stuff that
started in Mina started in the 80s. Uh, this was when Seal based his aircraft at
Mina's Inter Mountain Regional Airport. >> Mhm. Seal was employed by the Medelan
cartel as a pilot and drug smuggler. He transported numerous shipments of cocaine from Colombia to the United
States and earned a good deal of coin doing so. After successful runs into his home base in Louisiana, he moved
operations to the infamous airport facility Amina, Arkansas. There he bought, sold, and operated many
airplanes. This included the C123 transport plane supplied to him by the US Drug Enforce Enforcement Agency.
>> Right? So, let's get this straight. He's working for the CIA. >> Mhm. >> He's also working for a drug cartel.
>> Yes. >> So, he's he's playing both sides of the fence. >> Yeah. He's doing double duty. And And I
tell you what, we you know, you can look into this thing. It this is this portion
of of what's going on in Arkansas is very cumbersome. >> It's extremely cumbersome. If you if you
there's things out there that you can watch, you can listen, you can read about. Uh it's pretty well reported even
though a lot of people say, "I've never heard of this." But like we said yesterday, people in Arkansas have known
about this for 30 years, >> right? >> Um it's come up, it came up in the late 80s quite a bit in the national news and
it came up again in the early 90s. This would be when Clinton was taking over, moving into the White House. Um, but
both times it comes up in the national news, it kind of quickly dies down and and attention is diverted elsewhere to
other scandals and other other news that's receiving more attention at the time,
>> which normally happens when our government's involved. >> Yeah. So, you know, I think I think the
thing here is we can we can break down the generalization of what was going on. >> So, so this guy Barry Seal is he's
running drugs. He's flying drugs into the US and making a whole bunch of money doing so,
>> right? >> He gets busted. Okay, they catch on to what he's doing. And he goes to the DEA
and to the CIA and says, "Look, you know, I've been doing this successful for quite some time. How about I turn on
some of these people that I'm working for? I'll testify against them and I could I could go to work for you guys,
>> right?" >> And they're like, "Okay, cool." you know, and they go to the judge and they
basically say, "Look, he's willing to work with us. He's willing to work with the federal government and help us in
some things that we need help with." So, they reduce his sentence and eventually
he does go to work for these people. Um, and now, you know, there are people out
there that are going to say, "No, he never worked for them." Well, I can tell you this, that after he died, the IRS
went after a lot of money they believe he had, right? They wanted, listen to this number, they wanted to charge him
$86 million in back taxes. >> Yes. >> That's a that's a that's a whole that's a whole lot of rolling papers.
>> That's a lot of drugs he was transporting. >> Yeah. Somebody estimated that he may
have moved anywhere between three and five billion dollars of cocaine into this country.
>> Well, basically he was the drug version of Frank Abanale. And for those who don't know how Frank Abanale is, they
might have seen the movie Catch Me If You Can. It was a guy that was doing a bunch of bank fraud and instead of just,
you know, sending him to jail, there said, "Hey, why don't you come work for us,
>> you'll be basically on, I think, lifetime probation, basically, >> right?" So, what happens here is the
>> That's Frank Abanale, not Abanali. >> So, after he's busted, he's now working
for the CIA. And the CIA wants to there's a there's a civil war going on in in Central America at the time. And
basically our government figured out that okay, team A is the good guys and team B is
the bad guys. So we want to help team A win this civil war because it will benefit us. Well, our Congress and the
American >> Right. But hold on. But that doesn't make them the good team. It just makes
the team that we're going to use. >> No, no, no. I'm just saying what the thinking was at the time. It's not
definitive who was the good guy or the bad guy. What I'm saying is that our Congress and the American people said,
"No, we're not going to get involved in this. We're not going to help either side." Well, basically, our government
said, "You know what? We're going to we're going to in the interest of national security, we're going to help
this one side anyway." And so, they are running guns and running parts of guns to this country. and they employ
somebody like Barry Seal to do so because he has this big plane that he's running out of the Mina airport and he's
this is a C123. It basically looks like an army cargo plane, you know, one of those big heavy planes.
>> Now, he had made modifications to the planes that he was running so that he could travel extended distances without
stopping for more fuel. He's basically rigging up these planes, >> right? Um, which is not cheap to do. So,
I'll tell you that. The thing is here, he he I kind of found this funny. He nicknamed his plane the fat lady. Uh, so
he was basically flying guns to or parts of guns to Nicaragua. >> Mhm. >> And well, he has to fly back home,
right? But why would you why waste the whole empty plane? You don't want to have a big empty plane when you're
flying all the way back home on the government's dime, do you? Right. So, so he's taking the free ride back and he's
loading up the plane with drugs and bringing them back into the country and making a whole bunch of money. Barry
Seal was not the only guy doing this. There were other people doing this. There were other people that were
working for the CIA in the MINA area doing different things regarding uh CI CIA operations, right?
>> That were kept on the lowown. Now, it's been reported by by at least one pilot
that he believed that there were multiple pilots that were not bringing back empty planes into the United States
and they were bringing drugs into the states. >> Yeah, it seems like these pilots saw an
opportunity and they took it to make a little extra cash. >> Yeah, you have I mean, you have some
people saying that we we the US government may have been trading guns for drugs. Uh, you know, there's
certainly been investigations that have brought forth some speculation of such. I I can't say that I saw enough evidence
out there to say that that's what was going on. Um, but I what I think here is probably more likely is that you had a
few people taking advantage of a situation and trying to make themselves millionaires out of something that they
were doing for the government. >> Yeah. And oddly enough, this is the time in history where the Reagan
administration is going it's it's a war on drugs. >> Mhm. >> Right. And but but our government is the
one bringing the drugs into the country >> possibly if you believe the speculation.
this whole thing. Of course, you know, anytime you have these controversies or things that are brought to light that's
going on that we may not be aware of or we're told is not happening, >> you know, of course, this does always
create a lot of fingerpointing. So, in this situation, you have the Republicans pointing toward Bill Clinton and saying,
you know what, this happened at a facility in your jurisdiction. Uh, how could you let this happen? and you're a
terrible, terrible person. And then you have the Democrats saying the same about
the Republicans going, you know what? Well, this happened during the Reagan administration, right?
>> And it was the this operation by the CIA CIA was the brainchild of George Bush.
>> And so therefore, the Republicans are horrible people. In the end, you know, that
fingerpointing doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't do anything to solve the actual problem.
Furthermore, you we had investigations going down regarding this situation. The problem was that these investigations
couldn't get anywhere because when they tried to approach it from the federal level, well, the federal government
basically said it's an Arkansas problem. And then when you try to go to the state
level and present it to the governor to to Bill Clinton, then he says, "No, this
is a federal case." you know, so it's not only is there finger pointing both ways as far as uh as far as different
politics goes, but also passing the blame at the end of the day. >> Well, and I called Bill Clinton
yesterday. I called it I don't know if I called him a [ __ ] stain, but there there's a lot look, a lot of my feelings
towards him are based on other information about other cases that I've researched. So that's why I believe he's
a [ __ ] stain. Um, and as far as the Reagan and the war on drugs, it wasn't a war on drugs. This it was a war on inner
city black people is what it was. And that's all I got to say about that. Well, it this sounds like a lot of stuff
that, you know, that we're just kind of throwing out there, but that's not the case at all. Uh, you know, like I said,
there's been investigations done on this. There were several uh newspapers and magazines covering this in the 80s
and the early 90s. It didn't really go anywhere, but we know how these things kind of get swept under the rug. The
situation here though is, you know, we know that Barry Seal was by his own admissions was was bringing drugs into
the country. He he even kind of bragged about how much money he was making doing
this. Now, I'm going to say this is this is going to sound a little weird, but Barry Seal, I don't I don't know if if
many people know who he is, um, but there are you can find interviews and things with him on on the internet. He's
to me, he's one of those guys, you know, when you when you're watching a movie and there's like for some reason there's
a villain that you're kind of like secretly pulling for a little bit. You know what I mean? Like you kind of like
the villain a little bit. Um, I I think Barry Seal was a bad dude. I think he he
took advantage of a lot of people in a lot of situations. Um, I think he did it solely for uh for financial reasons,
>> right? >> Uh, the thing is though, he's one of these kind of charismatic guys. you
know, there's a there's an interview he was doing where he's talking about himself and he says, you know, you know,
I grew up in Baton Rouge and maybe for a lot of people uh an exciting life for them is is working 9 to5, going to the
the LSU football game on Saturday night and then waking up going to church on Sunday. Maybe that works for other
people. He says, you know, that's not exciting to me. He's exciting to me is putting myself in potentially
life-threatening situations over and over again. Well, but we know, Captain, you know, sometimes people go into the
field of being a pilot because they enjoy the adrenaline of it. They're adrenaline junkies,
>> right? But become a firefighter, become a police officer, become a a soldier,
become a Navy Seal and do something productive with your life. But what you were, my friend, was somebody that was
greedy about money and you decided to take advantage of the system on both sides of the fence and then you're
running drugs and how many murders took place because of those drugs, >> right? You're exactly
>> and so Yeah. So you, my friend, are a [ __ ] stain. >> Well, and the thing with Seal here is we
know that this happened and and I can point to why we know that it happened because remember we talked about the CIA
investigation. I'm sorry, the IRS investigation into Barry Seal wanting to charge him after he died for all these
back taxes. >> Well, the CIA and the DEA did come forward to the IRS and said, you know
what? Well, you can't charge him for these blocks of time because he was working for us during that time, right?
>> So, so you can't charge him for back taxes regarding that. >> Okay. So, what does all this mean? Well,
here's what it means. Is that not far from where the boys were, right? Let's get back to the boys. Not far from them
is is this Mena airport where drugs were coming into drugs and guns were coming into. And the reports of planes stopping
short of the airport, landing by the train tracks, making drops. That all happened with Dan Harmon. What happens
with Dan Harmon? Oh, he's caught selling drugs, running drugs. So all that part of the story is true. Mhm.
>> So if you believe So if you didn't believe that part, there's your proof on top of that. So we know why the boys we
we don't know why the boys were out there, whether they were hunting, whether they're trying to spy, maybe
they were trying to intercept the drugs. We're not for sure, but we do know that
they were out there at the same time that a drug drop was happening. >> So we know that is true. And if we
believe that to be true, then we believe that these boys were murdered. They were
put on the tracks. All these eyewitnesses that saw things and talked then were killed to cover this up.
>> That's what we know. That's the right. >> Well, and the thing furthermore on that
point is that you have to have boots on the ground in this type of operation. So
you got Barry Seal bringing drugs into the country. You have another pilot that was working for the CIA saying that he
believed that multiple pilots were doing this. That Barry Seal was the kind of the big fish. He was the fat lady like
he named his airplane. >> Right. And the thing is, you have to have boots on the ground because you can
bring drugs into this country. It doesn't get you anywhere financially unless you can sell them to somebody.
And once you sell them to somebody, then you have to launder that money. So now you have all these little local
corruptive things going on at the same time. All right. So I think we're to the point where we should just really kind
of dive into our thoughts and feelings on this matter. And let's do that right after this quick beer break.
>> [music] [music] >> All right, welcome back to True Crime. Get rich. Okay. Now, Captain, we need to
put our thoughts on what actually happened that night, 1987 in Bryant, Arkansas.
>> Well, I just want to first say, hey, thanks to all the listeners, right? Because this is a, you know, fourparter.
It's a whale of a case, probably the biggest case that we've done. Um, just with the men at airport stuff. We
probably could have just with that whole drug running and gun running conspiracy,
we probably could have went on for 4 hours about that. me and you are not super fascinated by that portion of this
case. >> No, I'm not going to lie. I doing the research on the Mena portion of this and
we would be remiss if we didn't bring it up because it's certainly part of this case at some part, right? But the the
problem here is it it was a cumbersome portion of the investigation in this case. It [clears throat] it's it's huge.
You could spend weeks some people have spent years trying to figure out that whole situation. Uh I found it to be the
research portion of that to be rather boring to to be completely honest with you.
>> And I think our main thing was you know when you have a se you know 16 and 17year-old uh teenage boys uh we can
relate to that and being those age and being males ourselves and to want to kind of explore what the heck's going on
and I think that's the part that we were more fascinated with. >> Yeah. So, now uh garage thoughts with
your host Nick and the captain. >> Yeah. With Jack Handy. Uh how about you start so we get the good intelligent
stuff first because because you know my stuff will probably not make >> Well, that's setting that's setting the
bar a little high. But I think you hit the nail on the head there, Captain. So this this case for us was about Don
Henry and Kevin Ives about those two boys being murdered and then it being called an accident. You know this case I
didn't know anything about the Mena portion of this case to be honest with you until several months ago. Now I knew
about the boys on the tracks case from way back when when we were kids. They they featured this case on Unsolved
Mysteries. I believe it was in the first season, maybe the second, but it was a it was it was ages ago. And that's
streaming now somewhere. A lot of listeners were saying, "You got to check this out." It's like, "Hey, if you
listen to the show, we're big fans of, you know, Unsolved Mysteries." We've seen it.
>> Mhm. Well, and there's some things that they talk about. I went back and watched
that episode, and there's some things that they talked about in there that we didn't really address yet. There was
some leads at the time of a um a man in camouflage fatigues. Actually, well, let
me let me get this right because there's a couple different stories here. There's
one story of a man wearing a camouflage jacket having shot at police. There's another story that's almost identical
with the exception of they say in military fatings, which to me camouflage jacket, military fatigues means a very
different uh uniform or outfit that this person was wearing. Now, the thing here
is I I when looking into this case, you got to follow the leads. That was that might have been a lead back then. It's
not a current lead today because we know of all these other confessions of all these eyewitness statements that have
come out after the fact. >> The thing here is captain I I want to kind of talk about this in a sense that
it is I'm going to use the trickle down effect. Okay? Because what I think really happened here as far as MENA is
concerned is that we we have a situation where yes, our government was probably doing some stuff that wasn't all on the
up and up. Were they trading guns for drugs? I'm not willing to 100% agree with that. I saw more evidence of these
these people doing this on their own. These pilots doing this on their own where they were taking advantage of a
situation. Now, we brought up Barry Seal. Now, the thing here is Barry Seal was he was murdered and dead before
Kevin Ives and Don Henry were killed that night. He was killed about a year beforehand. Why do we bring him up?
because we know he admittedly came forward and said this is what I'm doing. You know, we so we if we believe Barry
Seal, this is absolutely going on and this is absolutely happening. Now, I believe that they were running lots of
drugs into the Arkansas area using these airplanes. And the thing here is, like I
said before, you have to have boots on the ground. You can't turn that drugs into money without somebody on the
ground selling it and distributing that that product for you. The problem here is the trickle down
effect. When you when you have people at a high level maybe doing some things that aren't completely on the up and up,
you know, when you set out to do something that that might not be 100% right, sometimes you find yourself then
doing other things that you never set out to do that are completely wrong, too, to cover up that first misdeed.
Mhm. >> And I [clears throat] think that we see a situation here where that started at
the top and it worked its way into a very bad area. And the thing regarding Reagan, regarding Bush or Clinton, do I
think that they had some involvement in this? Yes. Yes, I do. I think I think that they this was an operation that
they were aware of. I don't believe I want to not believe that they were fully aware of all the drugs that were coming
into the the country as a result of what they were doing. Um the thing here is though you have to have people in
somewhat of power. You can't have a bunch of thugs on the ground moving this product for you. They had to have some
kind of security in doing what they were doing. The these are Barry Seal is not just going to go out and do something
like this. people that are cohorting with him are not just going to go out and do something like this and then put
millions of dollars of drugs into the hands of street thugs. It's just not going to happen. And I think what we had
here, Captain, is that we have Dan Harmon, somebody that that was a person that carried a certain amount of power.
He had a certain amount of leverage on everybody. Some of that was because of positions that he held within the
county. Some of that was because he was dealing drugs at a high level to these other people. And you know, I I once had
a a man tell me that that sometimes in some situations, law enforcement is nothing but a bunch of thugs or a bunch
of gangsters with a badge. And I think in this situation, we see that. We see that with the two officers that we spoke
of, Jay Campbell and Kirk Lane. I think that they were Dan Harmon's bodyguards. They were his muscle because they could
use their toughness as not just their toughness in in brute force, but their toughness because they carry a badge in
their authority. And they misuse their authority the same way that Dan Harmon did.
>> Right. And we support fully support law enforcement that believes in the oath of
serve and protect. >> Yes. And I think what happened here, Captain, I think we have a situation.
Dan Harmon, as I said, I believe he's he's no better than your average street thug. Mhm.
>> He's probably even worse because he has the authority to cover things up and do
unspeakable things and get away with them. >> The thing here is I I I peg him as a
drug user. I peg him as a hardcore drug user that probably used drugs with other
people in power in the area. And at some point he realized, you know what? I can
turn this little this little fun drug thing that I got going on. I can turn this into a business. and I have the
authority to do so. And he recruited these officers to get his back. >> And what happened was we have a we yes I
believe there was a drug drop. I believe that Dan Harmon was there to get that drug drop. Now the thing here is do we
do we have a situation where you know there was rumor maybe Kevin Ives and Don Henry were were you know privy to this
information and that they went out there and had possibly stolen a previous drop.
>> Mhm. and intended to steal an additional drop and that Dan Harmon and his goons
were out there that night to keep an eye on their product and they were going to
use whatever force necessary if they caught who they believed was was stealing their drugs. Now, the thing
here is when you're doing bad things and you're doing shady things, you're working with other shady characters.
There's a good chance I don't believe Kevin Ives and Don Henry went and stole that drug drop. I don't think so. I
don't even think it was their intention to go out that night and steal whatever was being dropped from the sky. I think
you have a situation where you got a bunch of bad people working together doing bad things that are illegal. You
can't report this. All my drugs came up missing. Who you going to go and tell that to? Nobody cares. The thing here is
you could have had a guy You could have had a pilot in the plane that said, "Yeah, dude. Yeah, Harmon, I made that
drop. What? You didn't pick that up? That's your fault." >> Right? He could have just kept the damn
drugs himself. Or you could have Harmon who who got the drugs and said, "You know what? This [ __ ] was stolen from me.
I I can't pay it up. I can't pay up to you because I didn't have the product to sell yet he went out and sold the
product anyway." We know these things happen on a daily basis on a much smaller level. We'd be foolish to think
that they don't happen at a high level. I think that the boys were aware that something was going on. I don't think
they had a full understanding of what it is. I think that they were teenagers being teenagers. I think that they were
curious about what was going on, >> whiskers. >> And I believe Don Henry felt very
comfortable in those woods. I I feel like he often went out at night with his parents' permission out on these night
hunting trips, sometimes by himself, and he probably told his buddy, you know, cuz they're at the age where they're
discovering drugs. We know that they were smoking some marijuana. They didn't smoke 20 joints. They it's it's actually
estimated that they smoked more like one to two, maybe even three at a stretch. They were found with marijuana in their
pockets. So, they were they were open to this whole new scene that they're discovering in their in their hometown.
And I think they were curious as to what was going on. I don't think they were going around the week of looking for
cocaine or looking to become cocaine dealers. I think that that's all kind of just things that coincidence. It's just
happen stance. The there might be rumors. I think they were out looking for marijuana. I think it was a very
innocent thing that they were out doing and they stumbled across the wrong people. I wouldn't be surprised if Dan
Harmon believed that these boys ripped him off or even even pushed that aside. Now, these boys are witness to something
and maybe he thinks they were out there trying to steal his drugs. And I think that his goons, Jay Campbell and Kirk
Lane, I don't think that they ever agreed to help move drugs or or be the bodyguard for Dan Harmon with the
intention that they thought at some point they would be killing people. I think that they chased down these boys.
I think it got out of hand. They used they used brute force on these on these poor kids. And unfortunately, the kids
probably fought back. These guys don't strike me as the type that would not defend themselves. And I think it got
out of hand very fast. And I think one of them died. And I think I think Kevin Ives probably died first. And they may
have killed the other boy simply to cover that up because at some point, >> right?
>> This, you know, when you set out to do something bad and just to make a little
bit of money and you think it's all going to be good. It's this is a victimless crime. It's going to hurt
nobody. I I know people that want drugs. I know how to get drugs. I can make money and make these people happy at the
same time. This isn't going to get out of hand. No. One day you wake up and you realize that you're up to your eyeballs
in this [ __ ] and you freak out and something bad happens. And I think that's what happened that night. Now, to
further this though, they went above and beyond to cover this up. Why? Because there happened to be so many people that
actually knew the truth about what had happened that night. That this thing got out of hand. These boys were killed.
They were thrown on the tracks. There were people that witnessed it. There were people that told other people what
they had seen, what they had heard. There are people involved involved in the drug trade in the local area. I
think this was a thing that started off bad in some misdeings at the very top and it trickled down and the further it
got down, it got darker, deeper, a little more evil to the point where it got out of hand.
So most of this blame lies with Dan Harmon and his goons. In my opinion, these were the truly evil people
involved in this situation. The unfortunate and well, unfortunate is not the right word. The the extremely
disappointing portion of this for me is that I do believe that there are higher members of society at higher levels in
the Arkansas area that probably turned a blind eye to this thing. they kind of looked the other way and they didn't
want to believe that something terrible was going on and and by doing nothing ultimately in my eyes they did something
wrong. Um I think this Fami Malik guy is a terrible dude. I think I think that he
held a very bad >> I think he was a guy that held a high position that that didn't have people
monitoring what he was doing or secondguessing what he was doing. I think he was not qualified for that
position to start off with and that that he made some fumblings and screwed some
things up and he started covering for himself and he woke up one day and he was he was eyeballs deep in this
situation too and then at some point he was either able to be bought off with either money or fear and I think that he
lied about a lot of things which ultimately made investigations go nowhere. We're in a situation here where
it's been it it will be 30 years come this August that those two boys were murdered. And you know what? I don't
think that we're going to see any justice for those two boys. I do like that the families feel somewhat
vindicated because Dan Harmon did serve some time. Um there are some other people that were probably involved in
this that are no longer around. We're not going to see any justice though for those two boys and that's an unfortunate
situation. >> And is that your final thoughts? >> Uh yeah, th those are my final thoughts
on what I think happened. Uh my recommendation to the listeners out there if this is something that they
want to dive more into there. There there's a lot of things like we said this is a huge case.
>> I'd recommend though researching the two incidences separately. You know, I think
there's enough of of things that you could read into regarding the boys on the tracks. I think that there's enough
stuff that you could dive into regarding the Mina airport at the same time. I wouldn't recommend looking into both of
them at the same time because it's just too much. >> Yeah, it's definitely a case that I
looking back on it now, we did four parts, but it would have been amazing series.
>> All right, Captain Garage Thoughts. Your host, the Captain. >> Yeah. I don't know if we should allow me
to speak every episode. Uh let's just You want to start at the top? >> Yes. >> We'll just start at the top.
>> I started at the top. >> Look, and and look, I've said it a million times. It's not a political
show. I'm not left or right. I am normally wrong. >> He always says that right before he gets
political, >> right? Uh start with Reagan. I think there was drug running. I think there
was gun running. I think our government's normally involved in [ __ ] we shouldn't be. We should mind our own
goddamn business sometimes. I think because of the drug smuggling that was coming in, then they started this stupid
thing called war on drugs, which was actually a war on uh inner city black America. And if you think I'm just
talking my ass, do some damn research on it and then get back with me and then tell me I'm wrong. And I actually think
that there's there's actually evidence of Reagan saying, "Hey, you know, we thought the war on drug was going to be
great. We didn't know it was just going to give slaps on the wrist to middle America, you know, white America and
that it was going to screw up black families for generation to generation. So, uh, shameful Reagan for that. But we
all make mistakes. I think a lot of the stuff he did was good. Um, was never a big fan of George Bush. Uh, I thought he
had some weird agendas. Then let's go to Clinton. I think some of the research that I've seen on him and this whole
pedophile stuff, which is a whole separate case, is very shameful. I think he's a [ __ ] stain. Uh I think he's very,
you know, self-centered. How much greed can he have? How much power can he have?
And I think he's done some shady [ __ ] As far as this case goes, I don't think Reagan knew anything about it.
>> No, >> I don't think I don't even think Bill actually knew a bunch about it. Yeah,
>> I think he knew that there was drugs coming in to Mena airport, but but I think he knew that was coming from the
government. >> Mhm. >> So, how much is he supposed to say? And I and I know that the government
probably knew that there was probably some drug running on the side and we just can't do much about that because
we're doing some shady [ __ ] >> So, I believe, like you said, at some point these these uh pilots had this
opportunity. We can make a little extra money. Well, now we got to figure out places to drop. Just so happened that
this airport was close to this town >> and there was some dude there, you know, named Dan Harmon. That's a bad bad
ombre, right? >> Mhm. >> And that's what happened. It got mixed up. And I don't I don't think Look, I
don't know if the boys were going out there to to steal drugs. I mean, I've done some stupid [ __ ] when I was 16 and
17 years old. I had some stupid ideas, right? >> So, I wouldn't put it past them, but
even if they were, you shouldn't end up dead, >> right? >> You know, you're a 16 and 17 year old
kid. Did they fight back? Hopefully, because look, at some point, you know, if a if an officer is using his powers
for bad, at some point defend yourself. And I think that's probably what happened. The other thing that the only
question that I have about that is what if one of those boys was wearing camo? What if one of those boys fired at the
officer? >> Mhm. >> They had a gun. We know that. But either way, I think what it came down to was
those boys were dead before they were on the tracks and they put them on the tracks to cover it up and then anybody
that knew anything about it, they they murdered and because they paid off this guy. And again, I think if you're paying
off Fami, right? >> Well, then Fami, you're a [ __ ] stain. And I hope you get an ulcer, and I hope
your head [ __ ] pops off and goes right up your ass. That's what I hope happens. Uh, and then I hope that your
dog crawls up your ass and eats your head. That's what I hope happens. If you did all this stuff out of fear, then
then my hat goes off to you because I don't know what I'd do in that situation. >> All right. There's people around you
dying left and right, mysterious deaths. He had the ability to do something about
that, though. You know, he he absolutely did have the ability to do something about that. Would it would it have
caused his own own demise? Possibly, >> right? >> Uh maybe even likely, one could say. Um
but >> well, right. But it's hard to sit there and say, you know, well, it's actually
easy to sit there and say, you know what, I'll do the right thing, >> right? You know, I if people were dying
around me, I don't give a [ __ ] I'll do the right thing. And it's like, maybe you would. I'd like to think I
would, but I have never been around a situation where people were dying left and right.
>> Mhm. >> But you know what? If I did die, they would have to bring in another corner
and he might not be able to get paid off >> and they might not be able to do anything about it on that point. But
there was all these checks and balances and I think because Dan Harmon had his hands in everybody's pockets, you know,
playing away game of pocket pole that that's why all this stuff got covered up. And I think because of the
government running drugs and because of I believe Bill Clinton, there's enough evidence that proves that Bill Clinton,
you know, this is the 80s, a lot of people of power were doing cocaine. >> Mhm. And so I think because of the
government running drugs in and out of Mena airport, their hands are almost tied or they can't they can't even go
after the scumbag Dan Harmon because what does that do to you? I mean, yeah, they put him in jail and stuff, but you
you got to go after him for murder. >> Mhm. >> Cuz that's what happened. There's two
boys that are dead, 16 and 17 years old. Not. They never got to the point where they're old enough to vote for, you
know, the left or the right. >> Mhm. >> They don't have that right. They didn't they didn't make it to the age where
they could drink a couple beers in the garage and talk about some crime. >> They they never made it to that point.
>> And their families never got to see them get to that point because of what? Because of some some douchebags that
wanted to make a couple extra bucks. because they got into normally when you get into a political power and a
political system. You're there to serve, right? That's your job. Yeah. But all these people the the paycheck was too
small. I don't want to just serve. It's about me. It's about me. You know, in this country,
>> you know, on a on a side rant, we're all becoming a little too much. Me, me, me,
me. And I think it's [ __ ] It's horit. Well, and it's it like I said, for me it starts off with Dan Harmon and
other people at his level being drug users. I think that's where it starts for me is that they they were already
compromised people because they were drug users. They weren't able to clearly understand or or should have clearly
understood what their power meant and that they are there to serve the people. They're there to protect the
communities. And this drug addiction, this drug habit got in the way, compromised them from the very
beginning. And that's what led to him selling drugs and others in the area selling drugs. And you know, if somebody
asked me, you know, well, Nick, why why the hell would so many people be quiet about this? Well, we're not talking
about, you know, when we say Barry Seal, and they estimate between three and five
billion, that's with a B, not with an M. That's a B. Five. three to five billion
dollars that he brought into this country. Now, he was bringing those in through through multiple states. But the
thing is, it we we believe other pilots were probably doing this as well. >> We're not talking about $50 or $100 here
or there to this guy or Joe at the local so supermarket. Look the other way. We're talking about potentially
hundreds of millions of dollars that's being spread around because of the stuff that's being brought in. And you know
what? Guess what? You know, Tim, down at the grocery store, I'm not asking you to
do anything wrong, but here's here's here's some free drugs. Here's two grand. I'm just asking you to say you
don't know anything about this situation, right? >> I'm just asking you to keep quiet. Just
keep my name out your mouth and we'll be fine. >> It's It's very frustrating. I can tell
by the way you're stomping around the garage here as you gave that that that uh very angry uh speech there. But the
thing is, you know, we set out to we set out the mission was to set out to figure
out who killed these boys. Was it a murder to begin with? Yes, we we can we establish that who who killed him. We
both at the local level, we both agree what we think happened that night. We think Dan Harmon and some other guys,
uh, most likely Jay Campbell and Kirk Lane were all involved in this situation and then they spent almost two years
covering this thing up, you know. So, I think at the local level, we set out to to kind of figure out what happened to
these two boys. We didn't set out to, >> you know, uh, correct 40 years of the US
government's foreign policy. Uh, but regarding the boys on the tracks, I think we we we agree what happened that
night, >> right? And I think at the end of the day that people of power and people of money
get away with a bunch of [ __ ] >> And and I just want to take the moment to say uh you know to to Don Henry, to
Kevin Ives, to their family members, if anybody's listening to this, we we are sorry for your loss and we're sorry that
there wasn't justice, you know, for you and your family and your loved ones. >> All right. Now it's uh it's time for
many beers. >> Yeah. Well, I'm all worked up. It's going to be an angry drive home from the
the garage today. >> We got a recommended reading for the week. >> We do. This week, we're recommending He
Killed Them All, Robert Durst, and My Quest for Justice by Janine Pyro. Janine's a former prosecutor and the
true hero of the hit HBO documentary series, The Jinx. She offers the true story of her 15-year investigation into
the accused murderer, Robert Durst, for the disappearance of his wife. And we all know that Robert Durst, he escaped
police investigation into that crime. Janine always believed that Durst was guilty. And in this book, she makes her
case beyond a shadow of a doubt, revealing previously unknown secrets about his crimes. So, check out this.
You got to check this out because they cover a lot of stuff that was not covered in the documentary. Check out He
Killed Them All, Robert Durst and My Quest for Justice by Janine Pyro. You can do that by going to our website
trueimeg.com. Click on the recommended page and pick up one of our many recommended books
today using that Amazon banner. That's a big case. I want to thank everybody for
tuning in, listening, subscribing, telling a friend. Want to thank the captain for another great week here in
the garage. Until next week, be good, be kind, and don't live. [music] [music]

Boys on the Tracks /// Part 4 /// 96

TrueCrimeGarage.com

By all accounts, the engineer did a masterful job of bringing his train to a stop. It had taken a screaming, screeching half mile. By the time the engine shuddered to a standstill, Conductor Jerry Tomlin was on the radio notifying an approaching train on a parallel track to stop because some boys had been run over. He also called the dispatcher. "Have you got injuries?" The dispatcher asked. "No," Tomlin said. "We've got death." -From "The Boys on the Tracks" by Mara LeverittTonight we discuss the case that many wanted to keep quiet. Two teenagers are run over by a train in the middle of the night. Was it an accident, a double suicide or a double murder? Join us in the garage for the tragic story of the boys on the tracks.

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Brief Summary

Kevin Ives and Don Henry's deaths are linked to Dan Harmon and drug trafficking in Arkansas, revealing a cover-up involving local law enforcement.

Key points

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Hosts Nick and the Captain introduce the show and their drink of choice.
Dan Harmon: Prosecutor or Criminal?. Discussion on Dan Harmon's criminal activities and convictions.
Government Involvement in Drug Trade. Speculation arises about government officials trading guns for drugs during the Reagan administration.
The Mena Airport Connection. Discussion of Barry Seal's drug operations and their implications on local crime.
Teenage Curiosity Leads to Tragedy. The boys' innocent exploration leads them into dangerous territory.
The Tragic Escalation. A discussion on how a simple encounter turned deadly for two boys.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was quickly impeached and run out of town due to Ice Town.

Discussion about the captain's past as mayor.

2:03WatchDec 14, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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