Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 2, Episode 12 | Forensic Files

[Music] next on Unsolved Mysteries he was television's first Superman Superman but offc screen actor
George Reeves was a mere mortal no match for a Bullet to the Head how do you become one of North America's most
prolific bank robbers put the money in the bag a good plan a bad disguise and some
luck a team of high-tech go Ghostbusters search a 19th century Mansion they're on
the trail of an elusive female ghost a California couple finds their backyard littered with hundreds of $20
bills where did it come from murder missing persons wanted fugitives and the Paranormal I'm Dennis
finina and this is Unsolved [Music] Mysteries [Music] [Music] early one morning in June of 1959 Los
Angeles police raced to a high-priced Hollywood Hills home upstairs they found the homeowner
naked and sprawled across his bed he was dead from a single gunshot wound to his
right Temple the official ruling suicide unofficially well that's still a mystery
how's this for a movie plot out of work actor in a quirky love triangle turns up
with a bullet in his head actually it was a movie Hollywood land starring Ben Affleck it was based on the real life
and the real death of a television superhero faster than a speeding bullet more powerful than a
locomotive able to LEAP tall buildings at a single bound look up in the sky it's a bird it's a plane it's Superman
yes it's Superman in the 1950s millions of TV viewers knew actor George Reeves as Superman the Man of Steel both
indestructible and Invincible Steel in his hands Superman was a big hit and Reeves
was a big star it was quite a leap for a guy who once dug septic tanks for a living off
camera George Reeves was as much Romeo as he was Superman he had a steady girlfriend named Tony manx a former show
girl 8 years his senior it was a classic younger man older woman Affair but with
a Twist she was rich generous and married her husband Eddie manx a former vice president at MGM was a powerful
force in Hollywood and for his own reason manx actually encouraged his wife's involvement with
Reeves the relationship between George and Tony was a very open relationship she took care of George
very well the car that he drove was bought by Tony and the house that he lived in was Tony's house but something
happened in late 58 that uh broke that relationship off Tony was devastated but George soon hooked up with Lenor lemon a
twice married Cafe Society girl Lenor was a lot younger and a lot wilder than Tony she had a reputation for fights in
clubs in New York I think George like the excitement that he found with her another George although he always
seemed the life of the party Reeves life was actually falling apart Superman was canceled and the
bills were stacking up and then there was Lenor she apparently wanted to get married and
live in high style the perfume I think George Reeves was going through a midlife
crisis there are reports that George was planning to marry Lenor lemon I don't think he was going to do that and that's
that's where I think an argument uh came up by midnight his party guests were gone only re Lenor and writer Robert
Condon were in the house when two of Leno's friends bang on the door looking for a
party this is George Reeves Mrs is William Bliss the bar is closed George I think this made Lenor lemon very angry
that he treated a friend like that she went up and I think an argument started a I think George at that time told her
that he had no plans to marry her and that she became very angry angry and pulled out a gun and I don't think on
purpose but I think accidentally shot George well we were downstairs and we heard a shot uh we went
upstairs the Unseen ruling was suicide a pistol on the floor between ree's legs seemed to confirm it but there were
inconsistencies not a single finger print was found on the gun the Fatal bullet was lodged in the ceiling above
the bed yet the shell Cas casing was found underneath the body if George Reaves had committed
suicide and held the gun to his head the bullet casing would have been expelled away from his body not in the back of
his body where he would have fallen on it there were no Powder Burns in his hands there were no Powder Burns in his
head which means that the gun was held far enough away from his head that there weren't any powder
burs somebody else pulled that trigger but who was that somebody else Lenor was suspect number one suspect number two
according to writer Michael hay was Eddie manx word around time was that manx was
angry at Reeves for dumping his wife I believe that Eddie manx tired of listening to his wife grieve and obsess
over George Reeves decided that it was time to take some action it was my understanding that
George's house was pretty much an open house and I think it was relatively easy for Eddie manx to send someone over to
the house during the course of a party that may have been going on and Eddie mannox had the guy killed hey Georgie
Boy George that Eddie manx by the end of the 50s who was retiring would endanger
his life and the end of his life by having something nefarious done to George is to my mind
ludicrous Reeves biographer Jim Beaver agrees with Larson he says there's a reason for the
inconsistencies the absence of powder burs raises a question in a lot of people's minds because most people have
a misconception about powder burs they believe that powder burns happen when a weapon is placed up against the skin
that's not the case when a weapon is placed against the skin the powder goes into the wound and does not burn the
outside of the skin according to the autopsy the bullet entered ree's head about 1 in above his right ear it exited
an inch and 3/4 above the left a and then lodged in the ceiling the angle of the bullet suggests how ree's head and
the gun might have been positioned if George had held the gun not this way but in this way the more
comfortable and and natural position he would have ejected the shell directly behind him and onto the bed
[Music] he couldn't get a job I couldn't get a job in the United States I was too typed
as Jimmy old absolutely typ nobody wanted me to work at all so I was depressed and I accepted instantly that
he had committed suicide there is evidence to support all three theories about his death I think there is
evidence to support suicide there is evidence to support uh tragic accident and there is evidence to support murder
the only people who know how George Reeves died are no longer with [Music] us next don't let the cheap wig and
baseball hat for you this guy knows how to rob banks and later next time your ship comes in it might just fall into
your backyard put the money in the bag the man in the cheap wig on the other end of the gun is
no ordinary bank robber the police have been chasing him for years his nickname is the Satchel Bandit because he leaves
every hold up with his shoulder bag stuffed with cash your turn dozens of banks always a precise plan
and always that same cheesy disguise so far he had been both good and lucky but now his luck was about to run
[Applause] out for the first time Witnesses got a clear look the Satchel Bandit was
unmasked hey detective Stewart Tut went straight from the robbery scene to the accident
scene what' you find this right here on the ground the first thing I saw was a wig that had been dropped by the suspect
also on the front seat of the vehicle was a loaded magazine for a 380 automatic handgun
that was just the start police found duffel bags full of new clothes road maps of Canada and the
US camping gear and lollipops the Bandit apparently had a sweet tooth 5 Weeks Later 700 M Away in
Portland Oregon Charles Valentine head of security for a local department store arrived at
work right away he noticed the car that seemed out of place the car had out ofate plates on it
there was a gentleman sitting in the vehicle my first thought was uh that there was something definitely unusual
here Valentine was absolutely right 2 hours later a customer complained that a suspicious character was lurking near
the store entrance when the stranger walked away Valentine followed his gun Instinct he checked out the car that he
had seen earlier he found it at the side of the building directly behind the bank next
door his instincts were dead on I wrote down both plate numbers and at this point I also saw him walking
from the store towards the Bank of America so I immediately returned to the store and notified the Clackamus County
Sheriff's Department ma'am before Valentine even hung up the phone the Satchel Bandit
made his move hurry up but an alert teller left him a big surprise the bandage escaped in a cloud of red
dye and tear grass leaving behind a trail of ruined money the FBI traced this Canadian
license plate they got a name and a location Robert Taylor New Westminster British
Columbia we spoke to the land lady and found out that Robert Taylor was a man in his mid-50s and he was living with a
woman who was approximately 40 years of age and had a hearing impairment that's fine thanks a lot no one was home so
police obtained a warrant to search the apartment we checked through the apartment and what struck us was that
all the Furnishings were brand new from the living room furniture the bedroom furniture even down to the last fork in
the kitchen and we found books that would reveal how to beat the criminal system or beat the justice system we
then tried to find the articles that would identify Robert Taylor and show us that he was living there we found
absolutely nothing back in Portland Taylor's getaway car was located inside investigators found the one clue that
would break the case and tie the Portland and Edmonton robberies together lollipops everyone now knew that Robert
Taylor was the Satchel Bandit but Taylor had gone deep underground with a woman a woman we'll call Jane Jane was
born both deaf and mute and she was in the de and mute school till the age of about
12 so there's a lot that she didn't learn about the world a lot of things she don't understand because of that in
time she got a job an apartment and a boyfriend Jane's father will never forget the night he met met Robert
Taylor actually I found the guy to be quite a gentleman although I could sense that there was something out of the
ordinary about the man what Robert what do you do for a living oh I used to work
for the government for a few years and then I hurt my back and I've been living on permanent disability ever since I
found that awfully strange because he was spending a lot of money and the Disability Pension don't pay all that
much money I pull over to say get out of the car a year later Robert and Jane moved to British Columbia for a while
she stayed in touch with her father then nothing her last letter included this Snapshot from Portland Oregon along with
the news that she and Taylor were married I was very worried because I never got a birthday card and that was
the first time that this had ever happened fathers they went through and I never got got no father discard so I
knew there was something wrong indeed something was wrong he soon learned that his daughter had married a bank robber
and not just any bank robber the man who called himself Robert Taylor was truly a
career criminal his real name was Charles Warren Boomer he made his first Heist at
age 17 by the time he was 50 Boomer had hit hundreds of banks for well over a million
good evening with the news tightening Boomer ran he sent his wife to a police station carrying a two-page letter which
he had written you should understand that this woman holds no responsibility for my
actions it would be a shame if undue pressure were applied against her in the mistaken belief that she was somehow at
fault because of our relationship Jane was never charged with a crime but Boomer escaped to Rob again
or so he thought update 8 months after Boomer ran a restaurant manager contacted
police the manager called in that know suspicious person that he believed uh possibly was Charles Boomer that uh that
we responded and arrested him Boomer was in handcuffs just 10 minutes after the call without his trademark disguise a
cheap wig and a baseball hat he looked a lot different when arrested Boomer had a
loaded handgun a few thousand in cash and a police scanner which unfortunately for him was turned
off police soon learned that he had been living in a tent outside of town at the campsite authorities found
lists of Banks survival gear and maps of possible Escape Routes Charles Warren Boomer was
convicted of 33 robberies and was sentenced to 45 years in prison next a high-tech search for a
shadowy woman who's been dead for over a century we take a blueprint as well and
later arson and murder at a desolate Montana arrest [Music] that it's an investigation unlike any
other nothing has been stolen and no one has disappeared but someone is on the loose it's important to look at
thresholds as soon as we walk in the object of the search is this woman or to to be precise her ghost she's been
haunting the lusata hotel in Santa Fe New Mexico for as long as anyone can [Music]
remember it appears to have all the characteristics of what is referred to as a classic
haunt because of the the history because of the variety of different types of witnesses who had these experience at
this point we're not sure exactly what we're going to find or we're going to encounter there's a lot more to
ghostbusting than just cool gizmos and high-tech gadgets you also have to do your homework for Christopher shakon and
his team that meant researching The Life and Times of La posada's resident ghost
Julia stab she was the wife of Abraham stab one of New Mexico's wealthiest men I'm on their wedding day Abraham
promised Julia that one day he would build her a fabulous Victorian [Music] Mansion seven children and 14 years
later Abraham delivered look at the beautiful parlor that Papa has made mama with her
favorite flower in mind when Julia moved into this house she became the queen of
Santa Fe Society all a major Affairs were held here it's perfect but in one instant Julia's
happiness [Music] vanished a seventh child died in infancy and Julia was never the same she was so
disr over the the child's death and it said that she didn't eat uh or sleep for for 2 weeks and when she finally slept
and she awoke and looked in the mirror all of the beautiful black hair on her head had turned completely white all of
the grief went into her [Music] hair Julia died several years later reclusive to the very
end in 1936 the stab man was converted to a hotel the rooms upstairs including Julia's are available for hotel guests
and that's where Julia is most likely to show up I think there's something here there's no doubt I mean too many people
including uh guests who know nothing about the history of the place say there is something whether it's a ghost or
whether it's some sort of energy I I don't know Manion itself was built back in Chuck
Veron was a diard skeptic until he and a desk clerk took several guests for a brief tour of the hotel actually this
was Julia's room herself even though Julia's room was not occupied Hotel policy required the clerk to knock
anyway I'm in here I'm in here thought you said nobody was in there I'm go double
check security went in and the room was empty the windows were locked from the inside nobody come
out the the door and I really have no explanation for it Chuck's son John was also a security
guard he had his own weird encounter when he checked the men's washroom one night at closing
time security locking up for the evening it's time and there was a face like a reflection I felt a cold chill come
through me and someone told me it's it's time to leave and I proceeded out the back door and uh I didn't come back I
feel that it is real there is no doubt in my mind because I saw someone standing there you know looking down at
us when Ross weisen Hoffer and Holly no checked into the La Pasada they stayed in the room across the hall from juliia
my eyes were closed and at that time I felt something steering at [Music] me you know I'm like my gosh you know
this isn't happening to me right now then I looked up again for the second time and at that point it started
to become more defined I put my head back down and you know when I looked up the third time it
definitely was Julia standing there and at that point I jumped up out of bed and I said we're out of here why within
5 minutes we were down at the front desk so this was uh this was your room then yes it was all right just two weeks
later Ross and Holly were back at the La Pasada to speak with Christopher shakon
from The Office of scientific investigation and research and was it getting brighter when you had the image
or was it just getting thicker when you shon's team of Ghostbusters included a physician a psychologist and an
electrical engineer it was getting more defined where would I be in relationship
to where you saw of the 800 investigations Hans and Poltergeist phenomena that I've been on 70% of them
have rational explanations for them we have found uh definitively answers however there's another 30% which
apparently we cannot find a rational explanation for they Define the known laws of nature and physics at least as
we know them [Music] today when we get to the aspect of the case where we're looking into the
environment we begin to take samples of the water samples of the air we take elements that the individual would
actually have physical contact with pieces of carpet with the wall paint on the wall we're looking for toxic
Elements which could somehow affect them after examining the environment if we don't find anything which is obvious we
will then proceed to set up equipment in the environment to do a long-term surveillance the investigation follows a
very strict protocol first the room is sealed Alan go ahead and stand by for that state-of-the-art monitoring
equipment worth more than a half a million dollars is set up in an adjacent area the team then returns to the room
armed with special thermal cameras which measure temperature variations finally the room is plunged into total darkness
the team uses the most advanced equipment to examine the environment we have floors that are are at the end of
every investigation the team sits down together for a case wrap up his physi based on all the results of the
investigations we've conducted here we haven't found any facts to disprove the fact that the lapasa is haunted too
there certainly then is that possibility that there is unusual paranormal phenomena taking place here
reading the presence of the Ghostbusters didn't seem to bother Julia one bit her
spirit has continued to pop up when people least expect it so if you decide to take a room at the La Pasada you
might want to leave a single red rose on the windowsill Legend says it was Julia
stabs favorite flower coming up a vicious killer shoots it out with the police in
Alabama and later an ordinary neighborhood and a pile of unexplained cash the ultimate
[Music] Temptation on a recent broadcast we profiled a fugitive named Jim Burnside he was wanted for the vicious
murder of his wife Anette shop Walker you getting off work now yeah I'm going to go home in a few minutes it
didn't look like trouble at the start they worked together at a grocery store she was a checker and he was a butcher
however she was only 18 years old when she married Jim when the honeymoon ended the abuse
began she became afraid of him almost immediately because he was jealous of her and he started telling her right
from the beginning that he would kill her if she ever tried to leave him it took 5 years but Anette finally worked
up to courage to walk out two months later Jim Burnside struck back it's Jim he found the net alone with one of
her co-workers hey get over here what are you doing [Applause] anette's coworker survived the attack
Annette died at the scene she had been stabbed 15 times with a butcher knife by that afternoon Burnside was on
the run it's bad enough knowing that Annette had to die but to know that he is still
out there it it's horrible we just want him caught update the night this story aired we
receiv received calls from two viewers from Shelby County Alabama they recognized Jim Burnside but they knew
him as Al Wilson When I saw his actual picture I just looked at my husband and I just
started pointing and I'm going you know tell me my eyes aren't to leing me you know that is ow and he goes yes that's
ow the next morning FBI agents and sheriff's deputies converged on a flea market where Burnside worked how you
doing when Burnside saw them he took off FBI FBI hold it The Fugitive pulled out
a gun and took aim Put the gun down Put the gun down [Music] hands up get your hands up burn say was
shot twice he was arrested and then hospitalized from what we've been able to determine talking to his co-workers
that he had made a statement on Thursday morning that he had anticipated having problems that day so apparently he had
viewed the um Unsolved Mysteries himself Wednesday night James Burnside recovered
from his wounds he pleaded no contest of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder he is now serving a
life sentence without the possibility of parole we've all heard the saying money
doesn't grow on trees but every now and then someone does find that mythical pot
of gold not at the end of a rainbow but in their own backyard Matt and Wendy Jameson were hoping for a
normal quiet Sunday afternoon it stayed quiet but it was definitely not normal I
noticed my dog was wet and I was wondering how she C wet cuz it hadn't rained and then I noticed looked like
paper all over the backyard when I walked up there I noticed it was money I I then I took off
running towards it Wendy it was money all right lots of it $6500 in $20 bills origin unknown where
did this come from I don't know just stop picking it up I didn't know where this came from I didn't want a lot of
people seeing me have all this money so I was trying to pick it up as fast as I could keep picking it up I'm going to go
put this inside it took 20 minutes to collect all the bills and another 20 just to count them I never seen this
much money before the Jameson's first instinct was to call the police could be I don't know but then again
$6500 was a lot of money Temptation began to creep in we decided to wait till the next day to decide and then I
was kind of thinking oh well that night I was saying oh it would be nice to have
some some things so I started kind of more leaning towards wanting to keep it well I stayed up the whole night we
found it I I didn't get any sleep any noise I heard I was up looking around you know seeing what's going cuz I
expected somebody to come back after it and you know I have I have a family to protect and I wasn't about to let
anybody come in this house so I I was definitely waiting up one sleepless night was all that Matt
could take yeah hello Sheriff's Department I never seen a case like this in my 27 years of
experience first speculation is somebody may have thrown it out of an airplane we
have a lot of planes flying throughout the county here and there's airports all around us the second speculation is that
it could be drug money and somebody threw it from the street over the house it landed on a roof and subsequently
fell off into the backyards why don't we count this money out and you can verify
that I uh come up with $6500 California law required Matt and Wendy to place an ad in the local newspaper the owner then
had 90 days to make a claim a lot of people you know say why'd you turn it in why' you turn it in you
know I would have kept it but I I I really don't think that you can say that honestly until you've lived having that
money around and then you know I I always thought personally if I found money like that that I I would probably
keep it but now after having that amount of money around I you know I know that I
did the right thing no one came forward to answer the ad and the Jameson now they got to keep the money every penny
of it next a lone traveler a suspicious stranger and a road trip to hell I got to go it was only November
but it already felt like winter Dexter stepanic was about to leave his son's farm near Corbett Oregon for a long road
trip but I really have to get back Dexter was a 67-year-old widower from Wisconsin he had come to stay with his
son a few months earlier after his wife viven died but as the first anniversary of Vivian's death approached Dexter was
ready to go home he came out and we thought that he'd probably spend the winter with us
and then uh it got to be a a difficult time of year for him i' I've got to go back now and I tried to convince him to
not leave then thank you winter was already set in there was really nothing he needed to go back to Wisconsin
for that's the last I saw him Dexter left his son's home early on a Monday morning he told his son that to save
time he would pull into rest areas when he got tired instead of looking for motels Tuesday Morning a bleak stretch
of Montana highway at the bad route rest area the local sheriff is summoned when I arrived at the rest area
and pulled in behind the vehicle uh the inside was completely engulfed and Flames I went over and talked to the
state highway department they for me they didn't see any person inside the vehicle the car belonged to Dexter
stonic a little over a day had passed since he left Oregon better go over there I'll go
check around the other side you check on that the sheriff's department immediately searched the area there was
no trace of Dexter and no obvious signs of Foul Play yeah we're getting some uh good
indications Sheriff Jim gge brought in an arson expert to examine the car the fire had been set deliberately using
gasoline Sheriff George also noticed that the driver's seat was pushed all the way back Dexter stonic being a short
man would have had to have the seat all the way up to the front to drive it so it had to be a larger man driving that
vehicle 6 or larger with no other Clues Sheriff George needed Witnesses and a [Music]
timeline the car was discovered just after 10:00 a.m. nearly 2 hours earlier Fred sigley custodian of the bad route
rest area arrived for work as usual I got to the rest area between 8 and 8:30 there was a pickup park there and
there was nobody around I really didn't pay no attention to it about 50 15 minutes later Clyde
Mitchell a Highway Maintenance supervisor stopped at the rest area Fred pickup was there and a white
Chevy pickup facing Southeast I saw Arizona plates on the back walked around the complete outfit
and noticed it was a four-wheel drive shevy with blue trim and a cow catcher on the front at the time I didn't think
there was anything suspicious about it soon after Clyde Mitchell left to complete his regular
[Music] rounds 15 minutes later Fred sigle saw Dexter stephonic Brown Plymouth Horizon
pull in the driver got out carrying two large plastic containers are you having any
problems no I just run out of gas and I had to go get some yeah he was around 6 ft tall between 35 and 40 years old real
light complected no sign anything wrong with him Fred left the rest stop within 30
minutes Dexter's car was Ablaze the case went nowhere for nearly 4 months that's when Bill and Cindy Shaw
made a routine run to a remote landfill 17 mi from the Bad Route rest area my husband and I came up to dump some
garbage and there was a wallet laying on the ground and it still had the driver's
license in it was current found a wallet so I handed it to Bill and later we just
started looking around and there was a bunch of stuff in the dump that didn't belong there that hadn't been there when
we were there before and we each kind of went our own Direction trying to see if
there's anything else that didn't quite belong in the dump Bo is a shaving kit good C the boot over here is
practically new bill wasn't prepared for what he saw when he picked up that boot a man's foot partially hidden
beneath a mattress the identification of the body came as no surprise it was Dexter he had been beaten and shot twice
in the head there were marks on his hands there was Damage Done to his neck and throat area and he had a bruis or
damaged area on the frontal part of his skull that was probably caused by a beating or some type of injury of that
sort some of the evidence didn't quite add up there was still money in Dexter's suitcase making robbery an unlikely
motive also Dexter's clothing was found scattered around the area but it was in good condition as if it had just only
recently been discarded yet Dexter's body seemed to have been in the landfill for months
the condition of the body would indicate that it had had probably been in the dump site from the time uh that the car
was found burning until the time it was discovered see if we can find anything one week later the authorities found a
final clue in the men's room at the bad route rest area a small line of graffiti
written in pencil it began with the words hot jock police have not released the entire
message but but believe it may be linked to Dexter's murder my own theory is that someone
wanted us to see it hot jock could be a CB handle uh it referred to shot it had the Wisconsin written in the the
graffiti and a date indicating November police have only two clues that might identify Dexter stepanic killer
the description of the suspect's vehicle and the sketchy description of the suspect in
himself the vehicle was a white Chevy 4x4 with a wide blue horizontal stripe it had a white camper shell top and a
cattle Gart on the front bumper it also had Arizona plates with a phoenix license plate
holder the suspect is middle-aged at least 6 ft tall light complected and clean shaven he may use the nickname or
CB handle hot jock if you have any information about the murder of Dexter stefanic or any of the
other cases we profiled please log on to our website at unsolved.com [Music] [Music]

This, Episode includes: Who Killed Superman?, Satchel Bandit, Ghostbusters, Til Death Do Us Part, Money From Heaven and Hot Jock.

Brief Summary

George Reeves' mysterious death, the Satchel Bandit's capture, and a ghost investigation in Santa Fe highlight this episode.

Key points

The Mysterious Death of George Reeves. George Reeves, television's Superman, died under suspicious circumstances. Was it suicide, accident, or murder?
The Satchel Bandit Unmasked. The notorious bank robber known as the Satchel Bandit finally gets identified after years of evasion.
The Haunting of La Posada. A ghost named Julia haunts the La Posada hotel, leaving guests with eerie experiences.
The Haunted La Pasada. The La Pasada hotel is rumored to be haunted by the spirit of Julia.
Fugitive Jim Burnside Captured. Jim Burnside, wanted for murder, was apprehended after a viewer recognized him.
Found Money Mystery. Matt and Wendy Jameson discover $6500 in their backyard, raising questions about its origin.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I think George was going through a midlife crisis.

4:44WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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