Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 4, Episode 1 | Forensic Files

[Music] next on Unsolved Mysteries a young woman is brutally beaten by her ex-husband you shut up
then he targets her new boyfriend a journalist and former stripper writes about the Seedy
nightlife she knows all too well and then she disappears 16 tons of gold may be buried
somewhere in the New Mexico desert will the treasure ever be found and for a female ramp supervisor
in Boston sexual harassment turns to murder join us for five cases with twists and turns that you can hardly
believe I'm Dennis finina and this is Unsolved Mysteries [Music] [Music] King Fisher
Oklahoma 23-year-old Teresa Stamper leaves a small dinner party with her new boyfriend Chris Butler the quiet evening
is a pleasant change for Teresa who had just ended an unhappy and abusive marriage Teresa doesn't know that her
estranged husband Paul Stamper is parked nearby watching her every move through a
high-powered telescope for 6 months Paul Stamper stalk Teresa night and day she was constantly looking
over her shoulder never knowing where or when he would appear Paul Stamper was no
longer the man that Teresa once loved when Teresa met Paul Stamper he was the owner of a thriving oil
equipment operation he had hired Teresa as his secretary was a real charmer and you
know I I worked for him and he took me places and we flew a lot of places and you know I was you know it was different
for me you know hey Teresa honey you been outside yet this morning it was on my birthday he called me about 7:00 in
the morning and said have you been outside and I said no so I looked outside you know and went out there and
there was this 82 Red Corvette that's what he liked to do he liked to spend money and buy nice things and I
liked living like that you know it was fun and and we got married Teresa thought that she was
marrying a successful young businessman in fact Stamper was a convicted felon with a record for theft
assault and fraud she didn't know that his recent business practices were under investigation we had unconfirmed reports
that he went out and destroyed some equipment on locations so that those same people would call him the very next
day and have him come out and repair it within 6 months the marriage began to fall
apart you mind telling me where the hell You' been at the grocery store getting dinner grocery store been gone for 2
hours now who are you with he he started watching me and having people follow me
and he wouldn't let me visit my friends I want to know who you were with and I want to know it now in one moment he'd
be nice in the next moment he would hit me I just I didn't know how to handle him get everything P get your nice place
to live and buy your nice things and you just you're running around this crazy I
don't you shut up he was jealous and you had better be here when I get back I mean I could be sitting we could
be sitting at a red light and I could just turn and look at someone and it could be a guy sitting in this car and
he would just double his fist up and just hit me right in the mouth I mean it was just it was Unreal to the abuse that
he did to me five different times Stamper was arrested and charged with assault and
battery each time the charges against them were mysteriously dropped he bragged to Teresa that he paid off the
authorities we had heard rumors that uh that there was payoff attempts uh whether it's true or not I don't know um
we we looked into a couple incidents we could absolutely find no basis for it U but there was a lot of talk about it the
couple had only been married 2 years when the violence reached a new level one night a man entered the
Stamper home Teresa was out of town and a friend of hers was staying over [Music]
the woman survived the attack and called the police she later identified her attacker as Gary trout a local mechanic
who worked for Paul Stamper Gary trout informed me that Paul Stamper had contacted him and asked and Paul asked
of Gary to kill his wife and was willing to pay $5,000 up front and then $5,000 to
finish it Snapper was arrested and charged as an accessory to attempted murder but at
his trial Gary trout refused to name his boss once again all charges against Stamper were
dropped meanwhile Teresa moved in with her parents but she never felt completely safe the threats
continued I had uh went to the window and looked out the window and there he was just
reving up the engine and he just let me see him and let me know that he did it and then he
just drove off Teresa reported the incident to the sheriff's department but that didn't stop the
harassment then life seemed to improve when she found a new boyfriend Chris Butler we were just driving down the
highway and you know we weren't speeding or anything and all of a sudden these lights come
on we thought it was a highway with trollman Teresa honey you get out of the car put down the gun get out of the car
now Comey Chris what are you doing oh the door I'll shoot you through the window come
on okay finally you know he I was so scared that I just I unlocked the door and he just grabbed me around my neck
and just forced me out of the car Chris had came too and he had yelled don't leave me here you know Teresa
don't leave me here you know and there was there wasn't anything I could do a passing witness called the police
Chris was in critical condition the bullet had punctured his heart pancreas spleen and lung but miraculously he
survived Stamper held Teresa at gunpoint as he headed north 2 days later they stopped at a restaurant in Topeka cansas
C is that it that's it look I got to go to the bathroom I was walking toward the restrooms and I
kind of looked around my shoulder you know to see if he was following me and he wasn't he was just sitting there with
his back toward me and so I just took off run Teresa ran to the manager's office
and begged him to call the police by the time the police arrived Stamper had vanished
police quickly caught up with him as he bordered a bus in Salina Kansas he was brought back to the king
fisher County Jail in Oklahoma to await Trial 6 months later a man who had been offered $10,000 by Stamper broke into
the jail in the middle of the night go turn around open the S shut up Paul Stamper
escaped update just minutes after the story aired the FBI received information from
several of our viewers that Paul Stamper was living in Commerce City a suburb of
Denver Colorado only 3 hours later he was arrested as he left his home he had been
living near Denver under the assumed name Gary wickle for almost four years this is one of the more efficient
uh cost effective Speedy apprehensions that we've ever made for us to uh not have any idea early evening that this
individual is in the Denver area and by 11:30 he is captured he's off the streets and he's on his way to Denver
City Jail that that uh I think may be close to a record for us at his trial Paul staer pleaded
guilty to kidnapping attempted murder and prison escape he was sentenced to 35 years and was released after 10
[Music] years next an ex stripper writes about the world she knows oh so well and then
mysterious serously disappears Nutley New Jersey okay David why you're over here
today don't watch so much television okay read a book or something Susan Walsh is in a hurry she drops off her
son David with her estranged husband she doesn't explain where she's going thanks Mark you'll be back right
oh yeah yeah uh I got to make a couple of phone calls and um run a few errands okay in just a few minutes right but it
wasn't just a few minutes Susan never [Music] returned police believe Susan Walsh
simply chose to disappear others however fear that she was swallowed up by the CD
sex industry but the bottom line is this Susan is missing Susan grew up in a broken home
by most accounts it was a bitter childhood still Susan dreamed of being a poet by the time she turned 20 she was
far from her dream she was instead a substance abuser supporting herself as a stripper still
she kept her hopes alive using her dancing tips to pay her way through college by the time she graduated she
traded strippy for a writing career Susan had been sober for over 4 years she got married and became a
devoted mother looks just like me Susan loved her son very much and she was always there for her son the two things
that meant a lot to her were her son and her career as a journalist eventually she and her husband
separated her writing job didn't pay enough to support her son she went back to stripping unable to resist the Easy
Money Tuan would say she was like an addict and that the whole sex business was kind of like an addiction and she
was trying to break this addiction she will talk endlessly on an intellectual level against dancing and
sometimes cre articulation you know you feel like this is very profound stuff and then you know she's out there doing
it hey now lunch in half an hour okay eventually Susan landed an internship at New York's freewheeling newspaper The
Village Voice because of her background as a stripper she was assigned to research
the sex industry she soon turned up a hot story Russian Mobsters in New Jersey were allegedly forcing young immigrant
women to work like slaves in strip clubs the van guy I think he's going to take me to the head guy the head of the
M when are you supposed to be out there tonight 11:00 Susan was a fantastic researcher she really poured herself
into this she spent hour after hour day after day then she got into the situation where the people were alleged
to be an organized crime the managers in these clubs began to side with the Russian women against the Russian
manager so it was like the two mobs meet and Susan then of course loved this thing and she got right in the middle of
it Susan earned praise for her Russian mob article but she also received serious
threats when it was published but that didn't stop Susan from taking another dark
[Music] assignment this time investigating vampire nightclubs these clubs attracted kids
called Goths they were known for their outrageous black outfits but some took it further even drinking
real blood Susan was attracted to the vampire world she even started dating a man who
claimed to be one of the undead Susan wrote a detailed article but she seemed to lose her journalistic
objectivity she sort of like took it in whole cloth and she believed a lot of the things that these guys were telling
her about how there were secret murders and on and so forth in the vampire world are there a lot of regulars um at
the clubs yeah she would come and say to me I met these two guys and they got this van and it's very scary and I don't
know where I should go in their van and so I said you know hey look um don't go in the van because they might not be
vampires you know to Susan's disappointment The Village Voice never ran her vampire
story she went back to dancing full time [Music] in a documentary made by a friend Susan
talked about the toll stripping had taken on her life draining me and I've been in it 4 and 1/2 years four years
too long I'd say and I'm stuck in this conundrum because I feel so drained and I'm damaged right now I will admit that
very damaged from this business I'm hurting very bad I was with her 2 days before she disappeared and she said she
had bronchitis empyema and an ulcer she said she hadd been in the hospital twice
that week um she talked about her mood swings and being depressed um and about just holding on to
live you'll be back right oh yeah just a few minutes right 48 hours after Jill last saw her Susan
disappeared did she collapse because of her depression and poor health or was she out there waiting for help Susan's
friends had to consider darker theories I think Susan was probably pretty hooked on
drugs and I think she went out and probably called somebody to come and get her and then she went and she uh may
very well have odid and she may very well have odid in the presence of someone who knew her and
was frightened to uh do anything about it the police have a completely different Theory I believe that Susan
Walsh is alive uh for some unknown reason to me at this time she opted to leave her family and home which she has
a perfect right to do a number of people including an old friend Melissa Hines told the police
that they saw Susan after she disappeared Susan Susan I definitely think it was her I'm
positive that I seen Susan a month after she disappeared the license plate number
that Melissa Hines provided to us we did a track down we spoke to the owner and operator of that vehicle he had been
with a woman fitting the description of Susan he did view photographs and felt he was pretty sure that had been but
again we had no positive identification of Susan Walsh at that time Melissa believes that if Susan is
alive she may be deliberately hiding out Susan definitely felt that she was in danger she was scared for her life and I
think she was also scared her son's life could be endanger too Susan actually told me that she
wasn't going to make it in the next year she felt that that she was going to be killed I believe there's a chance that
the mob was after her people in organized crime were concerned that Susan had information that would send
them to jail according to Susan that's was the the case someone was definitely following
Susan I thought at first that it was just her imagination but um I seen it with my own
eyes I would see cars follow her both of us people follow my car she was a my car somebody was uh
stalking her who was it that could have been following Susan no one knows but now
years after she vanished police believe she was murdered and the case remains open if you have any information about
Susan Walsh please log on to our website at unsolved.com [Music] next 16 tons of gold is missing the man
who knew its location is dead but he did leave behind a few intriguing [Music] Clues Farmington New Mexico
1933 In the Heat of the summer a pilot named red moer lands several mysterious flights in the desert there he's met by
a Mexican millionaire named Leon truko these two men have a [Music] secret it's believed that Leon truko and
four other men were quietly buying up much of Mexico's gold reserves and then they plan to resell it in the United
States when the price went up truko was convinced that because of the Great Depression the United States
would soon devalue the dollar and that gold prices would Skyrocket but the chance to make huge
profits carried huge risks the gold had to be smuggled into the United States if the men were caught
they faced long prison ter at a makeshift Mexican Foundry gold coins and jewelry were melted down and
cast into ingots in less than 3 months the partners had collected almost 16 tons of solid
gold so Mr truko this is the property I was telling you about lots of space to store stuff truko searched the US for a
safe place to hide the illegal treasure when he couldn't find a suitable spot he
decided it would be smarter to bury the gold it's too big I need something a little more secluded
secluded Legend has it that truko chose a sparsely populated region of New Mexico near the Ute and Navajo Indian
[Music] reservations red moer allegedly made 16 flights carrying one ton of gold each
time pickup trucks then transported it to a secret burial site truko never revealed the location to his
co-conspirators and he never made a map 6 months after the final shipment was delivered the gold Reserve Act of
1934 became law the the price of gold soared overnight the men's potential profit increased by $7
million the group decided not to sell the gold hoping the price would go even higher but they were not aware of an
executive order related to the gold act it declared that after January 1934 private ownership of gold within
the US was illegal the partners had missed their chance to strike it rich well when FDR put the gold embargo
that takes gold off of the market it's illlegal and so consequently these five men from Finance years from Mexico City
they had 20 ton of junk it was not worth worth a dime because they couldn't sell
it for anything the gold seemed to bring bad luck within 5 years three of the partners had died untimely
[Music] deaths over the next two decades truko was unable to sell the now illegal gold
when he died he apparently took the secret location to his grave for 35 years Ed Foster has
searched for trabuco's treasure in the desert around Farmington New Mexico he's convinced that he found a 1933 Landing
Strip used by Red moer it's on a plateau called Conger Mesa I believe that Conger Mesa is where
the plane would adjust and come in and land I met this Indian lady that uh couldn't speak speak English so I got an
interpreter she said she had watched that plane land there many many times Ed interviewed another Navajo
woman who was 6 years old in 1933 she remembered several Mexican men who lived on the
reservation this would be very unusual for a Mexican to move out here for a Spanish or a white man to move out here
and live would be unheard of 20 mi west of the Mesa near an old Navajo home stands a building unlike any
other on the reservation Ed believes that it was built by men truko hired to guard the
gold this house has Windows a front door and a back door and it had a veranda to
me this house would look good in Tiana Mexico but not on the Navajo reservation Ed also found another
intriguing clue it was etched in the face of a stone outcropping he calls it Shrine Rock and
believes it may be the key to finding tbo's treasure this is 1933 16 t o n it is sure that the gold is buried
somewhere within this triangle formed by Conger Mesa Shrine Rock and the Mexican
style home ed asked renowned treasure hunter Norman Scott to make a detailed survey
of the area I get an awful lot of stories coming to us after 30 years in the business and probably about 80 or
90% of them you have to uh talk up to some fictional writer is writing a book or magazine but this one has a ring of
authenticity to to it I have looked with my eyes and metal detectors for many years and now they
have technology and that's why I think it's going to be found with technology it's
not going to be found with dumb luck cuz I've spent all of that is Ed Foster just chasing a legend
or does the desert of New Mexico hold a secret to Leon tabo's long lost Fortune we may never
know next a dead woman's diary reveals shocking details of sexual harassment and possibly holds the key to her
[Music] murder Boston 's Logan Airport 24-year-old Sue Tasco witz was a Trailblazer she was a woman working in a
man's world on the tarmac of the airport hook up the ground power put the AC on the aircraft Sue loved being on the ramp
she liked doing the job sometimes she'd come home and say I lift a million bags today and they were 200 lb each should
make a joke out of it but she never came complaining about the job she loved it yeah you don't have to do the paperwork
Sue was the second woman to ever work for Northwest Airlines as a ground Service employee she worked her way up
from cleaning the Interiors of jets after 3 years she was promoted to ramp supervisor she was the first woman to
ever hold that position see that I know it's not oil I call you guys the shortly
after beginning her new job Sue's car was discovered at an auto body shop not far from the a airport Jee see if you
can pop that trunk latch will you in the trunk was Sue's body she had been beaten and then
stabbed multiple times there was no sign of robbery or rape so her family assumed
that she was the victim of a random crime for more than a year Sue's family grieved then at Christmas time marleene
terasa witz finally went into her daughter's room room for the first time since the murder what she found there
was shocking I tried many times to go in Sue's room you know you just you've got
to do this it's a year you know you should let me get something that was special to her we'll just put it out and
I started going into her closet and I saw a briefcase there inside Sue's briefcase was a diary
in Vivid detail she described the sexual harassment that she had endured on the job ugly incidents she never mentioned
to her family the journal included examples of the graffiti insulting demeaning and lured that had been etched
in the men's rooms at the airport and even in the cargo holes of jets what I read the filth that somebody would write
about my Susan and I thought is this why she was murdered and we thought this is it we
have solved Susan's murder in page after page Sue described acts of hostility the following is
typical April 12th 1989 Bobby came into the break room hey that's my radio what that's my radio I'll buy you
a new one what'd you do that for the Bruins lost he left the room and one of my my co-workers picked up the radio and
plugged it in to see if it still worked yay thanks Bobby came back into the room Sue's boyfriend who also worked at
the airport spoke to Bobby and demanded that he replace the radio then later that day Sue confronted Bobby come on
Bobby that was the radio that my mother got me for Christmas what are you going to do send your little punk boyfriend
over here again he going to beat me up he's lucky I didn't kill him Sue filed many formal complaints with the
management of Northwest Airlines and her Union but little was done to stop the harassment in fact it increased often in
the form of nasty graffiti it wasn't apparently just one or two pieces of graffiti that made
their way up and then were washed away it was repeated cases of um graffiti of varying
kinds in some cases amounting to death threats against other workers um who were supporting
Sue Sue also talks in her diary about getting Anonymous phone calls um all hours of the night she records some of
the times the phone calls happen who's there get off our backs Su baby who is this she also had instances where her
car was vandalized her boyfriend's car was vandalized friends who were supporting her had their cars
vandalized despite the abuse Sue's career hadn't slowed down she was promoted to ramp supervisor and put in
charge of the employees that she had once worked wither but I need you to take your crew and get the next two
flights initially Sue was passed over for the promotion a man in her Union had illegally bid for the job so sue filed a
grievance and won but the victory made some of her co-workers uncomfortable a lot of them felt that
they didn't want any females being their boss that that should be a man's job didn't stop her from coming to work um
it didn't stop her from standing up to things that she thought was wrong that's some good OT huh Ching you going get to
spend some of your hot ear money yeah right like between this and my supervising shifts went a few months
after Sue's promotion the graffiti became more Sinister maybe take it a break I am so sick of
this I'm going to go on a sandwich run to the roast beef place I'll go all over tonight no these guys are working hard I
want to treat them so how during a graveyard shift Sue volunteered to go pick up sandwiches for her crew she
never returned and no one reported her missing for a day and a half authorities now believe that Sue's
death may have been connected to a federal investigation of Northwest Airlines that took place that
summer some baggage handlers were operating a stolen credit card ring when shipments of new cards were transported
on Northwest Jets a group of workers was stealing them using them and then selling them the scam netted over $7
million eventually 10 Northwest employees were indicted and convicted to marleene some of the names were very
familiar they were names of people that were in Sue's diary that had sexually harassed her from day
one I believe that Susan was set up by her co-workers that for whatever reason they were
afraid that Susan was going to squal on something as far as the airport's concerned a lot of people there knew her
a lot of people knew what was going on around her we've talked to a lot of them they've given us information but I think
we all believe that somebody there has more Northwest Airlines declined our request to be interviewed for this story
but they have settled a sexual discrimination lawsuit brought against them by Sue's family it was one of the
largest discrimination settlements ever granted in the state of Massachusetts authorities still consider
Sue's case open and active her family is offering A4 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Sue
killer if you have any information about this case please log on on to our website at
unsolved.com next one of your tips helps find the killer of a popular Los Angeles
DJ Los Angeles California four friends climbed on their motorcycles to cruise the nearly
deserted streets late at night it had become a regular weekend ritual one of the writers was Lee swin a popular DJ in
LA but this night his experience was different one of the other Riders got into an argument when a passing car
tried to run him down what are you trying to do huh when the driver spit at Le's friend the night turned
ugly the four Riders scattered a Chase began although Lee was an innocent bystander
he became the target the chase went on for nearly 30 City fors Lee swin was thrown 180 ft from his bike
and suffered a massive skull fracture he was rushed to the hospital but died within
hours I received a call from Cedars they said that he was in the intensive care and I knew I just
knew he was such a big part of my life he was my buddy he wasn't just my son he was my
buddy the Los Angeles police began a Citywide Manhunt but Lee sn's killer at skip
town update after the broadcast of Lee's story a viewer called Unsolved Mysteries
he claimed that there was a prisoner in Georgia who had often bragged about running down a biker in
La the Los Angeles police obtained a mug shot at the suspect and these friends picked the man out of a photo lineup his
name Franklin Legrand Perkins just 5 days before Perkins was scheduled for parole he was
arrested one week later he was back in Los Angeles to face murder charges most murder victims know they're attackers
know they're Killers but this is a case that that just wasn't that way this was a random event uh of of a person who was
basically mining his own business and and unfortunately was in the wrong place at the wrong
time Franklin Perkins turned out to be a member of the vagos motorcycle gang he was convicted of first-degree murder and
sentenced to life in prison Danberry Connecticut early one morning the emergency team on a local
Hospital Springs into action one of their patients a man registered as Tom use is in Cardiac
Arrest doctors work to revive him however after 90 minutes Tom used his pronounced
dead when the hospital attempts to contact the man's wife they discover that her name and phone number are bogus
so are his social security number add addess occupation and employer Tom use simply does not
exist it turns out that use was a con man and professional Hospital patient he moved from hospital to hospital living
in each for 3 to 7 days before sneaking out without paying his bills it appears that Tom would check
into a hospital with some sort of small self-inflicted wound and have a complaint of a lower back pain we think
that he was checking himself into the hospitals to obtain the pain pills want going to prescribe something a bit
stronger and I'd like to suggest that you check yourself in for observation whatever you say you're the
doctor we were able to determine that Tom had essentially been traveling across the country and staying in one
hospital after another and taking a bus from uh uh one destination to another we
were able to track him from uh California all the way to Rhode Island and points in between yes my name is
Thomas Hughes I needed to speak with someone about a personal injury case the now unidentified man made 16 calls
before he died I'm a civil engineer investigators traced them hoping to locate family members instead they
discovered that every single call was made to an attorney we think he called the attorneys with a story that he
wanted to have a lawsuit because of his injuries at work but U I think the real reason he called the attorneys was to
again tell a story to someone and uh borrow some money he needed travel money and he would obtain this by borrowing
small amounts from the attorneys update as a result of our broadcast the Man known as Tom use has been identified
as Thomas Patrick white police believe white suffered from Munch Housen syndrome a condition in which a healthy
person seeks constant medical attention unfortunately the disorder may have costed white his life right let's
do it again charge [Music]

Brief Summary

Five cases of abuse, disappearance, murder, and buried treasure are explored in this episode.

Key points

Teresa's Abusive Marriage. Teresa reflects on her tumultuous relationship with Paul Stamper, revealing the cycle of abuse.
Susan Walsh's Mysterious Disappearance. Susan Walsh vanishes after dropping off her son, leading to fears of foul play.
The Search for Lost Gold. A treasure hunter believes he has found clues to a buried fortune in New Mexico.
Sue's Diary Reveals Harassment. Sue's diary details shocking sexual harassment at work, raising questions about her murder.
Murder of Lee Swin. A random act of violence leads to the tragic death of popular DJ Lee Swin.
The Mystery of Tom Use. A con man posing as a patient dies, revealing a life of deception.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just I didn’t know how to handle him.

Teresa reflects on her abusive relationship.

4:13WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.