Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 3, Episode 3 | Forensic Files

[Music] next on unsolved mysteries in 1947 a strange object crashed in Roswell New
Mexico did the government cover-up an alien landing a Marine is found shot to death in his own bed
police say suicide his parents say murdered she was close to getting the divorce and
then she went missing what really happened to Donna Taylor and NFL legend Reggie White was the minister of a
Tennessee church when someone burned it down can the arsonist still be caught five cases with strange clues bizarre
twists and with secrets you would never expect I'm Dennis Farina and this is unsolved
mysteries [Music] in 1947 a mysterious craft was found on a ranch outside of Roswell New Mexico
the government said that it was a weather balloon but eyewitnesses say that it was a UFO
Roswell New Mexico vocation of the most famous UFO setting of all time in July 1947 a violent electrical storm swept
over the desolate plains of south-central New Mexico at his remote ranch house Mac Brazel
patiently wait about the lightning and thunder Mac was a old-time cowboy I guess you'd say he was pretty pretty
serious if he told you something you could pretty well depend on it the story is that Mac Brazel supposedly heard a
loud crash at some point during the storm and didn't know how it related to the storm or not according to his son
Mac was on the range the next day looking to see which fields may have gotten precipitation the night before so
they could move the livestock to those fields because the grass would be better there and in his process of looking to
see where the rain had come down he found the debris field spread out near his ranch house
something had crashed in one of his fields the night before but it was fragmented beyond identification the
debris field was approximately three-quarters of a mile long maybe as much as two or 300 feet in width
scattered along there were bits and pieces of material we refused to call it metal because from the descriptions we
have it was more of a plastic-like material very strong very lightweight the pieces of it were described as being
three or four feet long but as light as a feather in his newsprint there were metal beams that were slightly flexible
but very strong some of the metal pieces appeared to have strange qualities and unusual tensile properties
[Music] they couldn't be cut and they couldn't be burned the following Monday Brazel reported his
discovery to the sheriff who informed the nearby Roswell army base [Music] that afternoon Mac Brazel led two army
intelligence officers to the crash site one of the officers was major Jesse Marcel senior whose primary duty was to
investigate air accidents stay there mr. Redl even with his experience Marcel was unable to identify
the craft he died in 1982 but before his death he gave the following interview for a documentary film about UFOs they
were just frankly strewn all over the area Mariel but three-quarters of a mile long
and several hundred feet wide so we proceeded to pick up the parts said I tried to bend this stuff says it will
not Bend I even tried to burn that would not burn see stuff weighs nothing it's not in there thicker than tin fall says
we even tried making a dent in it with a 16 pound sledge hammer one thing I was certain of being familiar with all our
dividends that it was not a weather balloon nor an aircraft nor amiss it was something else which we didn't
know what it was major Marcel loaded his car with the unusual debris and drove back to Roswell
on his way he stopped at home to show his family what he had found when he came back to the house he had
had a bunch of wreckage with him and he brought the wreckage end of the house actually awaking my mother and myself
out so we could view this because it's so unusual it's about two o'clock in the morning and spread it out so he could
get some basic idea of what it looked like what it was Jesse Marcel was 11 at the time he is one of the few people
known to have actually handled pieces of the debris plane crashed we're all were
amazed by this debris that was there probably because we didn't know what it was you know just the unknown the most
remarkable fragment was a short piece of I beam which was covered with strange symbols and marquees it's like some kind
of hieroglyphics this writing could be described as Egyptian type of hard looks but not really the symbols that were in
the eye beams were more of a geometric type configuration in various designs it had a violet purple type of color and
it was actually an embossed part of the metal itself years after this instant happened we would talk privately among
ourselves about what the possibilities of this what this thing was and I feel that we well I know that we came to the
conclusion it was not of earthly origin if I had not actually held pieces of it in my hand I would not think that it
would be possible but because I happen to see this that's the only reason I believe it
major Marcel took the wreckage to the Roswell base where he was stationed it's believed that the next morning some of
the pieces were flown to Wright Field near they go back on the way the plane stopped at an air base in Fort Worth
Texas that same morning Colonel William Blanchard the commanding officer in Roswell went public with the story of
Mac Brazel discovery Colonel Blanchard ordered lieutenant Walter Haught to issue a press release telling the
country that the army had found the wreckage of a flying saucer I never questioned it in
1947 when a colonel told the first lieutenant to do something the first lieutenant did that there's a little bit
of difference who he didn't have any democracy from back in 1947 in the military establishment there the press
release read in part the many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence
office of the five-o ninth Bomb Squadron was fortunate enough to gain possession
of a disc through the cooperation of a local rancher the press release was immediately picked up by newspapers
across the country the story created an uproar that same day an engineer for the Soil
Conservation Service made another discovery Barney Barnett of Socorro New Mexico
died in 1969 he may have come across the first positive proof that there is other
life in our universe Barney but just a real straightforward just what you would call a real straight
guy he would wouldn't tell you one story out of color or nothing that's why I was
really surprised when he related this information to me about the crash assessment he told me that he come under
this spaceship it was during the daytime was an oval shape and it had crashed and
it had broken open there was beings laying about four beings laying on the ground not in the
not in the spaceship they were scattered not too far from the object he did describe that the heads were larger than
the bodies by proportioned and they had some type of clothing on that looked a little bit different not exactly like
our spacesuits or that sort of thing Barney told Verne that he reached the crash site at about the same time as
some archaeology students who had seen the wreckage from their nearby dick the military also discovered the second
crash site after an aerial search but they arrived too late to secure the area Barney Barnett and the students had a
clear and detailed look at the craft and its occupants when the army showed up they immediately escorted these people
from the scene and then at that time they give them a warning not to relate any information on it from that time on
Barney never mentioned it to anybody until the time that he told me about the thing the Barnett story has only been
sold secondhand but many believe there is too much supporting evidence to completely dismiss it he first told me I
was sort of flabbergasted I didn't know what to say but I believed it because of
his integrity he would never concoct any story that's why I believed it to be true
[Music] next we'll examine the possibility that the military not only removed the
spacecraft but that they purposely kept the news of this astounding discovery from the American people
on July 8th 1947 newspapers across America reported that a UFO crashed in New Mexico that same day debris and
perhaps alien bodies were flown to an Air Force Base in Fort Worth Texas and that my friends is when the official
story began to change [Music] Brigadier General Roger Ramey was a high-ranking Army Air Force official at
Fort Worth within hours Rama's Office issued a new press release stating that the material recovered in New Mexico was
not a UFO but in reality the wreckage of a US Army weather balloon my dad said obviously it was a cover-up
story it was not a weather poem he was a little disturbed about that but he had his own security classification to
protect he could not really go public with hey this is not a weather balloon so he had to keep that to himself the
UFO incident was still very much live for Mac Brazel at the time a rumors surfaced that Mac was briefly detained
at the Roswell base later a man named Floyd Proctor saw Brazel but Mack seems scared to talk
with its friend Floyd and a neighbor was in Roseville and saw macron surrounded by some of the airforce people and they
walked right by them and Mike wouldn't speak to them and my he wouldn't talk about it after he'd come back home he
did say that he ever found something else he wouldn't report by the time Mack was released all traces of the roswell
crash had been removed from his ranch that debris had been taken to Wright Field in Dayton Ohio everything went to
right field that's where the air technical Intelligence Center was that was where they could make the studies
subsequent to that we think that the material has been sent elsewhere we think one of the bodies has gone to
Langley CIA headquarters we think another has gone to MacDill which is an Air Force Base in Florida where they
have an aerospace medicine facility we don't know where other stuff is gone we think some of it is still left at Wright
Field there was no real proof to dispute the Army's statement that the wreckage was a weather balloon and then more than
30 years later UFO researchers obtained a document containing what they believed
was new evidence the mj-12 memo had been mailed anonymously to a UFO researcher operational majestic 12 for mj-12 as
it's called was a group of 12 people apparently established by the President to deal with the wreckage from Roswell
and the whole problem that that created how do these things work where did they come from how can we get more
information the contents of the report stunned researchers in part it read on 7 july 1947 a secret operation was begun
to assure the recovery of the wreckage for small human-like beings had apparently ejected from the craft all
four were dead effective cover story that the object had been a misguided weather balloon the government has
refused to comment on the mj-12 memo or its origin but if this document and other accounts from 1947 are true then
our government has evidence of alien life other than Barney Barnett only one other
man has ever admitted to having seen the aliens my husband Oliver Henderson otherwise known as
Pappy in the Air Force he was entrusted with many of this country's top secrets and they were safe with him he never
told anything that he wasn't supposed to Captain Pappy Henderson piloted the plane that took the first pieces of the
wreckage out of Roswell in 1981 two years before he died he told his wife that the Roswell incident really
happened my husband told me the bodies were small smaller than human bodies the heads were larger and the eyes were
rather sunken and a little slanted clothing was of material unlike anything he'd seen before they were estranged
they were not not of this earth for more than a half a century the military has stuck by its story of a Down weather
balloon but the people who actually saw and touched wreckage don't buy it they believe that the mysterious craft and
creatures found nearby were nothing less than a visitation from another world next a timid woman who is afraid to
leave her house finally steps out and then vanishes it was a warm summer day in Pleasant
Hill California jewel Kaler drives his wife Dottie to their local BART station she purchases a ticket a simple task
performed each day by millions of commuters but for daddy Kaler it's a test of courage
Dottie suffers from agoraphobia and irrational and overwhelming fear of being in public places no one knows for
sure if she actually boarded the train because since that day there has been no trace of body came after the first few
days I thought that she had left temporarily to well simply make things inconvenient for me I think that Dottie
could have disappeared to get even with her husband who had disappeared on her for half of their married life
at first friends thought daddy left to escape an unhappy marriage and start a new life in another city but months and
now years have gone by with no word for today people who knew daddy wonder if she's
even alive dotty had what doctors have called agoraphobia he would stay inside most of the time she couldn't even apply
for a job much less hold on down it was a real problem [Music] daddy's condition strained her marriage
to jewel to the point of violence she told me that they got in an argument it escalated to the point where he finally
hit her with a board or something and she received a wound in her head and that she did grab some scissors and said
you keep away from me and protected herself and she was standing over top of me with those scissors Jewell says that
daddy started the fight swearing at me and saying I'll kill you you son of AB County you and I grabbed her little
typing stand and hit her with him without ever telling jewel daddy joined a support group called women in
transition as time went on I would notice she's adding a little more color to her outfits she cut her hair in a new
style which was very scary thing for her It was as if a new Dottie were emerging
in addition daddy secretly rented a post-office box to receive her mail without Jewel knowing about it she had a
secret existence that I knew nothing about and she wanted it that way I only began to become aware of it no near the
time that she disappeared I wasn't even aware of it I was just suspicious eventually Dottie and jewel Kaler agreed
to divorced one month before daddy disappeared jewel accepted a job transfer to Salt
Lake City dottie had said in the event that i got transferred that she was not interested
in going with me so I wasn't expecting her to go with me and wouldn't even have wanted her to I guess according to jewel
just a few days before he was to leave for Salt Lake City he drove daddy to the BART station
I took her down to the BART station she had with her a little overnight bag and I dropped her off
and she walked around the corner of the station and disappeared jewel is also sure that Daddy had her purse as well as
her overnight bag when she walked into the station but no one knows if she ever boarded the train the next day jewel
came home early from work in the park parking lot he was surprised to find Donnie's Volkswagen park next to
his car so I walked over and looked inside and then I noticed her purse and that was very very strange she told me
how important it was to her to have her purse with her all the time that's one of the things that made me
feel so terribly upset when I realized that she had not taken her purse with her over the next four days jewel left
notes and daddy's car asking her to contact him he wrote of his love and pleaded with her to come home I spoke to
jewel and jewel told me that he hadn't seen her for three or four days and that her car was was there her purse was
there and he didn't know where she was jool waited five days to file a missing-persons report with a BART
police they in turn notified the Concord Police Department two weeks later jewel moved to Salt Lake
City where he still lives and works it was hell living with Dottie it was hell having her disappear the way
that you did and yet since I've gotten in and gotten settled and into a new job that whole problem is behind me
[Music] things are really pretty good the Concord Police Department is still investigating daddy's disappearance
treating the case as a homicide police do not consider Jewell Taylor a suspect but a person of interest if you have any
information about Dottie Kaler please log on to our website at unsolved our [Music]
next a young Marines that has ruled a suicide his parents are convinced that he was
murdered [Music] San Diego California Jeffery dikmen's life seemed to be on track
he had become a marine captain and was stationed near his hometown he even bought a house with a fellow officer but
only four months after his promotion Jeffery was transferred to Puerto Rico according to his friends Jeffrey was
unhappy about the transfer but by Christmas he was finally settling in and dating lucy garcia an accountant at the
local pace was a very quiet person we were so serious and I like that of him he said he was gonna take two weeks
off to go back home and fix some things after Christmas Jeffery flew home he was
scheduled to return back to Puerto Rico on Super Bowl Sunday that day a neighbor saw Jeffery at his
house several hours later neighbors heard what they thought was a car backfiring
later that night when Geoffrey's roommate arrived home with his girlfriend they were surprised to see
that Geoffrey's car was still there he should have left for Puerto Rico hours before when the roommate returned home
with his girlfriend the lights were on the garage door was open apparently so this caused some concerns some suspicion
as mr. Digman was not supposed to be there the roommate and the girlfriend went across the street to get some
neighbors they found Geoffrey Digman dead with a single bullet wound to his right temple an autopsy revealed that
Geoffrey's blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit traces of gunpowder were found on his right hand
evidence that he had fired a pistol Jeffrey's death was ruled a suicide I had no time ever believed that he
committed suicide I never believed that from when I first got the phone call - when I went down that night I've always
believed that he was murdered and that's what the evidence shows the Naval Investigative Service backup
the coroner's ruling of suicide bill and Donna Dignan were unconvinced they began their
own investigation and they would soon find compelling evidence that their son might have been murdered in Jeffrey's
childhood bedroom the dig man's carefully duplicated the scene of his death in this room we've recreated a
mock-up of the crime scene with a help of private investigator bill Digman demonstrated why he believes that his
son could not have possibly killed himself but the first thing I had to do was determine the trajectory of the
bullet which I did and this is the trajectory of the bullet on that occasion this was the position that my
son was found in and for him to have been able to have shot through the hand he had to be shot somewhere along the
bullet path here which means that I have to get lined up with it and to do that I
have to get in this contorted position the other thing was that he was all left-handed if he'd held the gun in his
hand and in this contorted position over on the side of the bed as soon as he was
shot he would have fallen to the floor Jeffrey's parents were puzzled by a trail of blood that ran down Jeffrey's
left cheek from his ear this indicated that he was in an upright position for at least seven seconds from after the
gunshot above Jeffrey's head and the turn back sheet was an unexplained smear of blood
his parents hired Steve Levy an independent forensic expert to review the case I don't feel that Jeffrey
killed himself I think there was some kind of a struggle that took place and he was shot during that struggle almost
a year after Jeffrey's death his parents requested a second autopsy two contusions were found that had not
previously been reported this discovery may support the theory that Jeffrey had been involved in a struggle before his
death but the medical examiner concluded these injuries were insignificant there
was no medical evidence to support a conclusion of homicide the dig men's remained convinced that their son was
murdered they felt his death was somehow related to his work with the San Diego marine drug testing unit before he'd
been transferred to Puerto Rico Jeffrey served as the drug Youmans commanding officer people were dealing
drugs people were testing positive he would write his reports documenting what the results of his investigation were
those people weren't being disciplined they were not being discharged even very upset over that during the
time Jeffrey ran the drug unit his mother discovered a safe hidden in his room [Music]
I found some military documents in his safe and I asked him what were those documents and that was when he told me
that he was saving those tests from drug abuse test when we came back to move Jeffrey's things we wanted to empty the
desk to make it lighter and we opened the hinged door that the safe was usually behind and the hinged door came
off in our hands and the hinges were not connected and the safe was not there there is another puzzling aspect to this
case when Lucy helped the Marines pack Jeffrey's belongings in Puerto Rico she found a small green diary of
Jeffrey's when she gave it to the Marines all its pages were intact but when they returned it some pages were
missing eventually we unpack things and looking with a little green book that Lucy was
telling us about and when we found it what we found was that the pages were cut out of it
we want to know why our son is dead we want to know why we're not gonna give up until we find out why the Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology reviewed both autopsy reports they change the cause of death to undetermined but both the Naval
Investigative Service and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department stand by the
ruling of suicide if you have any information regarding this case please contact us at unsolved comm next alert
viewers put this con man out of business and later we ask for your help to find the arsonist who burn down the Church of
NFL superstar Reggie White Medford Oregon in an earlier program we told you about a fugitive by the name of
Stephen Cox Cox formed an investment company that offered clients a 25% return on their money many people in
Medford invested their life savings totaling three point five million dollars when the business began to fail
Stephen Cox vanished and so did over $200,000 in valuables update minutes after the story aired six viewers called
to report that Cox was living in Boise Idaho under the assumed name Robert Bradley Davis it turned out that just
hours before the broadcast Cox disappeared again telling his wife he was going to Hawaii but Cox was actually
hiding out in a motel 25 miles southeast of Las Vegas Nevada he was using the name John Strauss he was not the normal
guest he stayed in his room all day long he would only leave at night very seldom
did he leave in the daytime and we noticed that the license plates were not the same as he had put down on his
registration card and that made us a little suspicious but yet nothing we could put a finger on two weeks later
Edna Reed found the key clue while collecting trash from Cox's room and when I went to empty the trash out
of that bend I found the crumpled up letter and like any curious female I read the letter I
saw the part that said something about the unsolved mystery show being a bombshell I showed the letter to my
husband and between the two of us we decided it was time definitely to call the Rangers and tell them about the
guest Blake meet Park Rangers immediately ran a computer check the car belonged to
someone other than John Strauss the next morning Park Rangers spotted Cox's car and they pulled him over in
the parking lot of the Gold Strike casino after we made the traffic stop he produced identification a driver's
license issued to a Robert Davis and we checked that name and date of birth through the NCIC computer we found that
it was an alias used by one Steven Cox and that there was a warrant for mr. Cox at that point we placed him under arrest
when they searched his car the rangers uncovered a small fortune when we looked in the passenger compartment of the
vehicle and in a trunk we found suitcases and other luggage tech bags filled with jewelry rings necklaces
collector type baseball cards some gold coins silver coins Stephen Cox was sentenced to 20 years in
prison for racketeering and fraud he was paroled after serving two years when a church in Knoxville Tennessee was
destroyed by arson it became a major story it was linked to a series of eight crimes its pastor was none other than
football of legend Reggie White an NFL Hall of Fame defensive end Reggie White was credited with sacking more
quarterbacks than any other player in history but this ferocious hitter had a gentle side about 40 years to get him
ready to face fair Reggie White was an ordained minister in football's offseason he could be found saving souls
in his hometown Knoxville Tennessee Reggie White and two longtime friends found that the inner
city church by merging two congregations into one their goal was to create a church that would serve poor people of
all races their motto together we can make a change is very important in this very vital I believe
that our church is doing things in our communities that no other churches are doing like school the black churches
white goes to white churches we wanted to try to have a church to everybody would feel weapon no matter what the
color was it was a noble undertaking that unexpectedly became the target of arsonists
I believe in my heart that it was an attack from the devil himself devil inspired people that he used to fireball
my church agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms began to investigate an immediate visit
to this location indicated to us that it was a very deliberate criminal act the sanctuary portion of the building had
been totally destroyed they found multiple Molotov cocktails they found that both floors of this
structure had been saturated with gasoline and kerosene and they found gasoline cans and kerosene cans
scattered throughout this portion of the building agents also found racial epithets
scrawled on the walls leaving little doubt that the arson was a hate crime [Music]
Reggie White was appalled and then outraged when he learned that his church had not been the first to be torched the
only reason that you hear about my church is because of me but there have been 22 other churches there's been fire
bar that's a problem and this problem needs to be rectified at final count at least 24 black churches were hit by
arsonist the attacks occurred throughout the south I don't believe it was anyone
that would be a what you would call a professional based on the way the field was in the building the way to set up
for in the building I think the thing is without if a little is good a whole lots
better and that's what they tried today he's put enough fuel in there to do the job the inner city church in Knoxville
did not have enough fire insurance to cover all the damages but with hard work from the parishioners and donations from
the community both black and white they hope to rebuild [Music] but the problem is because racism has
alienated itself so that you can't touch it what if Reggie White and his fellow pastors kept the spirit of their
congregations strong with the church services held at a local school auditorium that's why we shootin each
other today this just makes me more determined and I know that all the ways you defeat the devil is that you have to
do it as a group and that's why I will call whites and blacks to come again and find how to work together because what
kills the enemies tactics is if a bunch of people of all ethnic backgrounds 2:11
each other sadly Reggie white died of sudden heart failure eight years after the fire this
church has yet to be rebuilt the arson investigation remains open if you have any information about this case or any
of the others we profile please log on to unsolved com [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Brief Summary

Five cases of mystery: Roswell UFO, missing woman, Marine death, conman arrest, church arson.

Key points

The Roswell Crash. In 1947, a mysterious object crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, sparking conspiracy theories.
Mysterious Debris. Mac Brazel discovers a strange debris field on his ranch, leading to a military investigation.
The Cover-Up Begins. The military quickly changes the narrative from UFO to weather balloon, raising suspicions.
Dottie's Disappearance. Dottie Kaler, struggling with agoraphobia, vanishes after a trip to the BART station.
Jeffrey Digman's Death. Marine Jeffrey Digman's death is ruled a suicide, but his parents suspect foul play.
The Mystery of Jeffrey's Death. Investigators explore the circumstances surrounding Jeffrey's death and the evidence suggesting foul play.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was something else which we didn't know what it was.

Major Jesse Marcel reflects on the unidentified debris.

5:44WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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