Forensic Files - Season 8, Episode 17 - Brotherhoods - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: Two men were murdered while sleeping in their bed. One night later, an arson fire destroyed
a family planning clinic. Investigators wondered whether some shards of glass, paint
chips, and a chicken feather could link what appeared to be two separate crimes.
[music playing] On the morning of July 1, 1999, Oscar Matson called his son Gary.
No one answered the phone. But there was an unusual message on the answering machine.
Hi everybody, this is Gary. We came down with something pretty bad, pretty suddenly,
and we're going to have to go back to a-- to a specialist friend of ours in the Bay Area.
We'll see you guys in about a week. OK. Bye. -It clearly wasn't Gary's voice. And at that point, I became very concerned.
NARRATOR: Family members drove out to Gary's home. BRIAN MATSON: We came up to the house, and called loudly.
Nobody answered. We walked in and saw a foot sticking up on the bed. And at that point, we realized what had happened.
NARRATOR: Gary and his partner Windfield Mauder had been shot to death in their loft bed
with a 22 caliber pistol. -It was just a tremendous shock when I-- I don't know if I was ever in denial.
It was instant depression. NARRATOR: The trail of empty cartridge cases and the location of the blood spatter
told investigators where the shooter had stood. TOM VASQUEZ: The shooter walked towards the loft.
I think the people in the loft got up to see what was going on. And then they started being shot.
And the shooter got closer to the loft and then basically finished them off. -It was overkill, basically.
Each of them being shot multiple times like that, It was like somebody was trying to send a signal
to us or had something that they wanted to say about how they killed these people.
NARRATOR: The killer then recorded a new message on the telephone answering machine
saying the two men were away on a trip. The autopsy revealed Gary and Winfield were killed between midnight and 4:00 AM.
Winfield's car was missing from their home along with Gary's credit card and driver's license.
Gary's family didn't believe the murder was a random act. BRIAN MATSON: We felt very strongly
early on that it was a hate crime. That they were murdered because they were gay.
Because they both were active in gay rights issues. So we just had a strong feeling.
We just knew it was a hate crime. I did, anyway. -You know, everybody was looking over their shoulder,
you know, wondering what was going on, if they would be next. I think the fact that someone goes into your home
and shoots you to death in your bed disturbed everybody in this community. NARRATOR: Gary Matson and Winfield Mauder
had lived together for 16 years and owned a landscaping and nursery business. They had no known enemies.
Six days after the murders, police found Winfield's car on a deserted road about 100 miles away.
Gary Matson's driver's license and credit card were not inside. Investigators asked the bank when the credit card was
last used, and they got a surprise. The card had been used after Gary's murder to purchase some gun-related equipment.
TOM VASQUEZ: They had purchased almost $2,000 in reloading equipment, amateur reloading equipment.
And the person that had made the purchase had requested that it be sent to a PO box in city.
-That is really dumb. Criminals do dumb things. And you have to wonder whether they have a-- some kind
of subconscious urge to be caught. NARRATOR: Investigators set up surveillance hoping the killer would walk into their trap.
When Winfield Mauder and Gary Matson were murdered, the only items missing from their home
were Matson's driver's license and credit card. Immediately after the murders, Matson's credit card
was in use. MICHAEL BARTRAM: They used the victim's credit cards within hours of the murders.
The murders were probably committed around 3:00 in the morning on July 1. And that same day, in the afternoon,
they spent about $1,000 in a shoe store. And they stopped at several other stores
and used the credit card. NARRATOR: And the credit card was also used to purchase some gun-related equipment.
The person using the card had the items shipped to a post office box in a town about a two-hour drive away.
Police head straight to the address where the items had been shipped. Sure enough, they saw two men carrying
boxes out of their car. They were identified as 32-year-old Matthew Williams and his 29-year-old brother, Tyler.
Inside the car, detectives found Gary Matson's credit card and driver's license.
In the brothers' home, police found several newspaper articles about an arson spree that occurred two weeks
before Gary and Winfield's murder. Three synagogues burned on the same night. All were arson.
And at each one, hate literature littered the crime scenes. CHRISTOPHER HOPKINS: The fliers were
found kind of randomly dispersed. Thrown throughout the synagogue and also on the outside
as well. And it almost in a random fashion. NARRATOR: Police found similar literature
in the boys' apartment. -Thousands of pages of hate literature, anti-Semitic literature, racist literature.
White supremacist-- all kinds of white supremacist stuff. NARRATOR: Gas chromatography identified the chemical makeup
of the accelerant used in the arsons. In the boys' possession was a book on arson
which recommended the same chemical mixture. A second book described the best techniques
for breaking and entering. CHRISTOPHER HOPKINS: It describes the best times to break in, between the hours of 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM.
And all arsons were within that time frame. NARRATOR: And the third book recommended
wearing coveralls to commit crime. Investigators found coveralls in the brothers' closet
similar to the ones the book recommended. Investigators found nothing in the Williams' home
that tied them to the murders of Gary Matson and Winfield Mauder. But they found other forensic evidence.
FAYE SPRINGER: I looked at the suspect's car first. And probably the only thing that I recovered
that was of significance was glass. NARRATOR: The glass appeared to be safety glass,
the type used in windows and doors. FAYE SPRINGER: When it breaks, you actually have hundreds if not thousands of small particles of glass
that will come back towards the-- the pushing, breaking of glass. And it will become embedded in your clothing
even though you can't see it. NARRATOR: In the trunk of the car were two black crow bars.
One had green paint scrape marks. Could forensic scientists make any scientific connection
between the murders, arsons, and the Williams brothers? THOMAS ANZELMO: It's hard to describe.
To see especially the film footage of the [inaudible] Israel and the flames pouring out of the structure.
Initially we looked at the extremist groups in the Sacramento area. There were several groups such as Neo-Nazis, skinhead, hate
groups that had in the past vandalized synagogues and other houses of worship. NARRATOR: As police search for Gary Matson and Winfield
Mauder's killer, they inadvertently found evidence linking their murder suspects to the arson fires set
to three California synagogues in the same night. All of the evidence from Matthew and Tyler Williams' car
and apartment was sent to criminalist Faye Springer, an expert in trace evidence.
She started with the glass shards found in the suspect's car. FAYE SPRINGER: Glass is not an organic material.
So it's just made from silicon dioxide and sand, basically. And melted. So glass varies a lot by refractive index.
And depending on how it's made and what materials go in to making it-- NARRATOR: Three wavelengths of visible light
are passed through the glass. The reflection of that light is measured under the refractive light index.
Springer compared the glass in the suspects' car to the broken glass at the synagogues.
FAYE SPRINGER: Glass at the arson at the synagogue was similar to the glass in the suspect vehicle.
It was the same type of glass and it had the same physical properties and chemical properties.
NARRATOR: Blue coveralls found in the Williams brothers' home also contained glass fragments.
So did two other objects found in the brothers' car. -The crowbars were sent down to my laboratory
because we suspected that the synagogue arsonists either used crowbars or bats. Eventually we found some glass fragments
that were similar to glass that was collected. NARRATOR: Microscopic examination
of the crowbars also revealed green paint. FAYE SPRINGER: When I called and asked them,
you know, where the green paint came from-- because I knew none of the synagogues had green paint on them.
Because I had been all of them. And they said, well, the only thing that we have is this fire
at this medical clinic office building. NARRATOR: The medical office building was actually
an abortion clinic which had burned the day after Gary and Winfield's murder. The abortion clinic had green trim around the doors
where the arsonist entered the building. Springer compared these samples to the paint
on the crowbar using pyrolysis gas chromatography. FAYE SPRINGER: What it does is it allows you to look
at the organic profile of the paint. And with paints, it's not just one chemical
that goes into making a paint. There's lots of chemicals that go into a paint. And they give you kind of a profile
of what that paint looks like. And when we analyze it, we look at the combination
of all of those materials together. NARRATOR: The paint on the crowbar had the same chemical composition as the paint
from the abortion clinic. CHRISTOPHER HOPKINS: So there we had a double transfer
from the medical clinic going to that crowbar, and that crowbar going to that synagogue.
NARRATOR: Forensic proof that the three synagogue arsons and the abortion clinic arson were connected.
And forensic scientists got lucky with some other evidence. Not all of the fire bombs placed inside the synagogues ignited.
-Extremely fortuitous that you would have unburnt material left at a crime scene.
NARRATOR: The surviving fire bombs were plastic containers, a flammable liquid with homemade wicks made of cloth.
But in the cloth were some unusual items, including dog hairs, cat hairs, and even chicken feathers.
When Springer went to the Williams' home, she knew she had something. FAYE SPRINGER: I saw the bird cages, and I thought, oh man,
they're gonna have one bird of every kind that ever walked the Earth. -I got excited very quickly.
They had three dogs. They had a chicken coop in the back. NARRATOR: Taking the chicken samples wasn't easy.
FAYE SPRINGER: We can just scare them so they're flapping all over the place, and then we get the loose feathers.
NARRATOR: The hair from the Williams' dog and cat as well as the chicken feathers were microscopically
consistent with the hair and feather evidence contained in the wick of the fire bomb.
And the chemical makeup of the light blue paint on the Williams family tool shed matched the blue paint found
on one of the synagogue fire bombs. -There was just too many coincidences. The-- the feathers, the dogs, the same kind of paint.
I had a lot of confidence that these materials were going to show that the bottles came from that location.
NARRATOR: With the synagogue and abortion clinic arson solved, there were still two remaining questions.
Did the Williams brothers kill Gary and Winfield, and was there forensic evidence to prove it?
After the two Williams brothers were linked to the four California arson fires, investigators still
needed to solve the murders of Gary Matson and Winfield Mauder. THOMAS ANZELMO: What we wanted to do
was to see if forensically we could get evidence that would, at a later time, lead us and help us prove which
individuals committed the crimes. NARRATOR: Detectives searched a small cottage behind the Williams brothers' parents' home
and found guns and a book on how to make a homemade silencer. A 22-caliber pistol in the brothers' possession
had the same homemade silencer. -This had some gray tape or duct tape on the end of it
that had had a small hole on the end of that. And you could actually visually see light through the hole.
On the end of the tape was a tiny speck of blood, which was sent to the lab for DNA analysis.
One of the victims was within a couple feet of the victim when it was fired to put that small droplet
on the end of that piece of tape. NARRATOR: Mark Fisher processed the Williams' gun.
MARK FISHER: The process was a Mark II 22 caliber pistol which I developed three latent impression-- impressions,
and ultimately identified all three as being made by James Tyler Williams, the younger brother.
NARRATOR: But was this the gun used to kill Winfield and Gary? -When a cartridge is discharged, the cartridge case
itself expands. And it picks up an impression in the chamber of the gun. NARRATOR: Firearms experts test fired the 22 caliber pistol
and compared those spent cartridges with those found in Gary and Winfield's home.
-Based on this comparison, I was able to conclude that the Mark II pistol had-- was, in fact, the one that had been used
to fire the components at the scene. NARRATOR: Finally, the DNA testing of the blood found
on the end of that pistol confirmed the blood was Winfield Mauder's. The Williams brothers lived only a few miles from the home
Gary and Winfield shared. Prosecutors believe the Williams brothers targeted the couple because they were gay.
Matthew Williams knew Winfield Mauder because they had worked together briefly at the local farmer's market.
Investigators also discovered the brothers were heavily influenced by groups that express contempt for gays,
Jews, minorities, and abortion rights. BRIAN MATSON: They are absolutely a part of that extremist Christian movement that
strongly believes that homosexuals are evil and a scourge of the earth. NARRATOR: On September 8, 2001, the Williams
brothers pled guilty to arson. While awaiting trial, Matthew Williams committed suicide.
BRIAN MATSON: It's just fine with me that he killed himself. It's fine with me. Except for the fact that it would have been
nice to have him stand up in court and let the world see what kind of a person he was.
-Although they did kill two individuals and cause millions of dollars worth of destruction,
they failed to ignite this so-called revolution, this uprising against-- against certain institutions.
NARRATOR: His younger brother Tyler pled guilty to arson and first degree murder and was
sentenced to life in prison. Every year, on the anniversary of Winfield and Gary's death,
there's a celebration of life and diversity in Redding, California. -Today, in memory of Gary and Winfield, I ask all of you
to be teaching respect for people's differences. NARRATOR: This was a case where the forensic evidence
identified a trail. Glass from the arsons gets trapped in the perpetrator's clothing, then transferred to his car seat.
Paint from the abortion clinic and glass from the synagogue is transferred onto the two crowbars
found in the suspects' trunk. A chicken feather, dog, and cat hairs cling to a shirt worn by the perpetrator.
A shirt that's later cut into pieces to make the wick in the fire bomb-- all identified by forensic scientists who often see
evidence that to others looks like dirt. -Whether it be the paint chips or the glass fragments
or the dog hairs or the chicken feathers, each one is an independent action. And so then it becomes very significant
when you have multiple independent actions all associated to the same place. -It's great for us, because it-- it gives us the assurance
that we've got the right people and helps us prove the case at the same time. -While it's made my job easier, it's made it harder
for criminals to get away with their acts. Even smart ones. [music playing]

Two men were murdered while sleeping in their beds. The next night, arson destroyed a family planning clinic. Investigators wonder whether some shards of glass, paint chips and a chicken feather could link what appeared to be two separate crimes.

Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

#truecrime #forensicfiles #fullepisodes Click here to watch full episodes from Forensic Files - Season 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gAB0hcY3Z0&list=PLC4mqmKvz1IbdnLKfCt8--pOV0xEpMIP5 Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

Brief Summary

The episode details the murders of Gary Matson and Winfield Mauder and the forensic investigation linking their deaths to arsonists Matthew and Tyler Williams.

Key points

Murder in the Night. Two men were found shot to death in their bed, shocking their community.
A Hate Crime?. Family members believe the murders were motivated by hate due to the victims' sexual orientation.
Forensic Breakthroughs. Investigators connect the Williams brothers to multiple arson fires and the murders through forensic evidence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was instant depression.

A family member's reaction to the shocking news of the murders.

2:04WatchDec 16, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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