Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 5, Episode 20 | Forensic Files

[Music] next on Unsolved Mysteries an old freighter set sail for Haiti with a beautiful young journalist
on board she's never seen again history books state that Abraham Lincoln's assassin was killed but some
experts believe John wils Booth cheated death and lived until 1903 a hitch haacker gets a ride from a
kind stranger and then later murders the man's mother and a mysterious substance was
falling from the sky bringing sickness to a small town join us these cases have twists and
turns that you will hardly believe I'm Dennis finina and this is Unsolved Mysteries
[Music] Oakville Washington population 723 clouds fill the sky here daily bringing rain on an average of 149 days
a year so when it began pouring on the morning of August 7th 1994 no one was really concerned until
they realized that it wasn't raining rain it was raining tiny blobs of gelatinous Goo it came down in Torrance
covering 20 square miles and it made people sick I got sick my wife got sick my daughter uh everybody that lived here
got sick everybody in the whole town came down with like a flu only it was a really hard flu it didn't last like 7
days it lasted like 7 weeks to two or 3 months officer David Lacy was on patrol with a civilian friend
at 3:00 a.m. when the downpour began what on the window there I don't know it's kind of building up is that
inside the car we turned our windshield wipers on and it just started smearing to the point where we could almost not
see and we both looked at each other we said you know geez this isn't right I mean we're out in the middle of nowhere
basically and and where did this come from officer Lacy pulled into a gas station to deoo his windshield as an
added precaution he put on a pair of latex gloves the substance was very mushy uh
it's almost like if you'd had Jell-O in your hand and you know you could pretty much squish it through your
fingers so we did have some Bells go off in our heads that basically said that this isn't right this isn't
normal resident Donnie Hearn was equally puzzled by the time she stepped outside
that morning the storm had ended but the blobs were everywhere it looked like hail laying on top of the wood box and
everywhere else so I just went over and I touched it and it wasn't hail it was a
gelatinous like material I have an appointment to see the doctor that afternoon officer Lacy
suddenly became ill I was to the point where I could hardly breathe I started to put together that
possibly whatever the substance was it it made me violently sick you know and Ill like I never had been before to the
point where you know just totally shut me down across town Dy Hearn was also sick
I started feeling dizzy everything started moving around and around and uh it got worse and as it did I became
increasing Rec L nauseated Mom an hour later dad's daughter and son found her sprawled on
the bathroom floor have you been thr that yes Donnie she was cold drenched with perspiration pale my mom had been
vomiting she had extreme vertigo she complained that she had difficulty with her vision her vision was
blurring daddy would spend the next 3 days in the hospital the diagnosis a severe inner ear
infection for some reason as we were going out the door I remembered the substance and I wondered if perhaps it
might have had some sort of an effect on her if it might have made her sick so I opted at that moment to take a
sample of this gelatinous material to the hospital A lab technician found a start
clue the substance contained human white blood cells but exactly what it was or why it fell from the sky could not be
determined the goo was immediately sent to the Washington State Department of Health it was very uniform there was no
structure that we could see visibly or or with a microscope I set it up on various
microbiological media and attempted to isolate bacteria Mike mcdal discovered that the sample
was full of two species of bacteria one of which makes its home in a human digestive system the initial speculation
was that it might have been human waste from an airliner however the FAA ruled that out because under the regulations
human waste is died blue the substance was not blue it was crystal clear in color
the blobs rained down on Oakville six times over a 3- week period dozens of people got sick several dogs and cats
died after coming in contact with the drops of Goo here we have sample number 12876 nearly a year after daddy hearn's
illness she took a sample of the material that she had stored in her freezer to a private research lab I saw
what I think was a eukaryotic cell which was is basically a cell that has a definable nucleus and is found present
in in biolog most animals translation the goo was alive but where did it come from someone uh theorized that since the
Navy had been conducting live bombing runs at Sea they might have blown up a school of
jellyfish and of course this jellyfish would have been thrown up into the air um and floated 50 Mi
Inland and over a period of 3 weeks Fallen six times I find that somewhat Preposterous now if that were
jellyfish floating around up there for that long they would have smelled a high heaven the Air Force confirmed that
practice bombing runs were being conducted over the Pacific however they denied any knowledge of the unknown
substance or any involvement in creating or dispersing it but some of the locals
were not reassured we had a significant amount of military aircraft flying over the home
uh prior to this happening every day almost of slow flying bombers helicopters all black in
color and we kind of thought maybe it might have come from them they let off things in the air all
the time here testing you know there's testing done all over the place there's a lot of places you can't go
into maybe we were a biological experiment of some kind a small one maybe just get people a little bit sick
to find out say if an enemy did come over here with a biological bomb or something and dropped it um um maybe
just a test run to see how to how it would what would happen today it's impossible to say what
the goo was or where the goo came from simply because all of the goo evidence has disappeared the Washington
Department of Health says that it can find no record of what happened to the samples that it
received next a ship carrying a young woman mysteriously vanishes on a voyage to
Haiti the old Bahama Channel Falcon Jets from the United States Coast Guard searched the
Caribbean for an 82t freighter called the freedon the ship was on its way to Haiti
but it was reported missing on board were seven Haitian crew members a young sea captain and a
23-year-old American journalism student named Lisa Bishop on the morning of her departure
Lisa called her parents to say goodbye I could feel something was wrong mother's intuition I guess you could
call it Lisa was to call me when she arrived and it call Ne K Lisa wanted to write an article about
the contrast between the wealth of America and the economic Devastation of Haiti her Voyage on the fredon was the
chance of a lifetime even though it meant leaving behind her boyfriend of 3 years we had a long discussion the night
before she left that uh she had to make her own decision that in life that I couldn't
follow her and take care of her where whever she went somewhere between Miami and Haiti
the freedon simply vanished no one has any idea what happened or why people have suggested everything from Pirates
to Smugglers and even the mysterious Bermuda Triangle Lisa's Voyage began when she met a foreign sea captain in
Atlanta at a nightclub owned by her boyfriend Paul Cornwell Lisa met a 28-year-old
German National named floran Meer bourch Florian was a marine mechanic and sea captain who had sailed throughout
the Caribbean Floren from what I've learned about him is a Drifter and he sponges
off the people free loads Lisa Christmas in the Caribbean think about it I know it sounds Wonder a year after their
first first meeting Florian told Lisa of an upcoming Voyage from Miami to Haiti he invited her to join him Lisa is right
at Europe Lisa's three-year relationship with Paul Cornwell had been a rocky one
however Paul was upset when Lisa told him that she planned to sail to Haiti with
Florian I didn't trust him with Lisa of course I was concerned about Florian you
know being a young guy and she tried to tell me there was nothing to worry about
there was nothing romantic I tried to discourage her as her parents tried to discourage her from
going because they were concerned about it I expressed my feelings about it that
I didn't want her to go or anything and uh Lisa was a very headstrong girl when she made up her mind to do
something at 2:30 in the afternoon tugboats eased the freed Dawn through the Miami River as it headed out towards
Open Sea the freed Dawn's planned route would take the ship 600 Mi past the coast of
Cuba to go naive a small port on the western coast of Haiti there were no storms and no distress calls but the
freed Dawn never arrived when Lisa didn't call on Christmas Day her family became
concerned relatives of the people on board uh kept calling us asking us for information we kept in touch with the
Port Authorities in the various ports in that mid Caribbean area and likewise down in
Haiti we sent several uh search and rescue flights by Falcon jet aircraft in the most commonly traveled area the old
Bahama Channel which is the area between the United States and Haiti still it was
unsuccessful we came to Miami hoping to maybe get some answers from some of foran from friends or just find you know
anything we could we're desperate finally Lisa's parents received a promising lead an underwater
salvager named Bob nberg said that he had seen the ship 2 weeks after it was supposed to have
disappeared I remembered that while I was working in Grand C in January of that year there had been a boat came in
we were working underwater to directly in the harbor area where the ship's pulled up and tied up when I heard the
ship coming in we came up and as I was coming out of the water we looked back and noticed the name was fredon f r e e
d o n and I made a statement to my friend that those guys need their freedom they
can't even spell the word look like they need they were there for some time that afternoon next
morning the boat was gone nberg saw the freed Dawn in Georgetown Harbor on Grand Cayman Island
over 500 mil from Haiti the fact that the ship was spotted and I feel like it did not go down that it brought me hope
that Lisa was alive and had to be held against her will in order for her not to contact
us Lisa's boyfriend Paul Cornwell and Bob nyberg went to gr Cayman to pursue the lead looking for a German captain
here they met a number of witnesses who claimed to have seen Florian around the same time that neber spotted the freedon
yeah sure I've seen him around here what about this girl no honestly I can't for
seeing her but definitely still apparently floran was not alone during his mysterious visit to gr Cayman yeah
he come with a another fellow short fellow with black hair with another guy hi Paul how you doing
hey Paul returned to Atlanta and questioned a woman who had been storing Florian's personal belongings in this
one bag there's some letters and pictures that I thought you might want to look through there he found a picture
of the man seen with Florian in Grand C the woman said his name was Philip last time I spoke to him Paul later found out
that it was actually Philip who had chartered the freedon the girl told me that he
mentioned that he was involved in a large scale smuggling thing which really got me going thinking it was a smuggling
thing and something had gone wrong and you know that they were had gotten involved in something too deep that Lisa
didn't know about and that she couldn't handle I feel that if floran is out there eventually I'll find out about it
and I'll locate him authorities believe that Florian Meer bourch is the key to the freed
Dawn's disappearance borch is 6'2 in with blonde hair and blue eyes he may be working as a
mechanic Lisa Bishop is 5' 2 in in height with brown hair and brown eyes Lisa's family heard rumors that the
freedon with its distinctive leaning Mast continued to roam the Caribbean under a different name these are the
only known pictures of how the freedon looked before it disappeared if you have any information
about The Disappearance of Lisa bishop or the freedon please log on to our website at
unsolved.com next stunning evidence suggests that Union Soldiers hunting Lincoln's
assassin may have killed the wrong man and let John wil's Booth escape to Freedom
Port Royal Virginia April 1865 President Abraham Lincoln has been assassinated and 2,000 Union troops
search for the killer an actor named John wils [Music] Booth on April the 26th at 400 a.m.
soldiers surround a Tobacco Barn on Garrett farm near Port Royal in Virginia they had information that Lincoln's
assassin was inside the barn John wil who you are surrounded you and all with you come out
with Your Hands Held High shoot the man who surrenders is not John wils Booth but 21-year-old David Harold
known to be one of Booth's co-conspirators Lieutenant Edward dhy decides to smoke Booth
out the soldiers are under strict orders to take Ruth alive but one Sergeant has
another idea Two Soldiers dragged the body from the barn but is it really John wils
boof there is tremendous physical evidence which proves Beyond a doubt John wils Booth in reality was not
killed by the federal government officers as they claimed in fact lived until January 13th 1903 when he died in
Enid Oklahoma territory those who challenged the official account believe that in the
confusion following the Civil War at evidence may have been recorded incorrectly or maybe even covered up
even some high-ranking Military Officers question the official story of Booth's death the compy let's move out in the
early 1900s John schacher the Army's general counsel wrote the evidence put forth by the
government to support the conclusion that the body was that of John wil's Booth was so insubstantial that it would
not stand up in a court of law Nate Orek and Dr Arthur chitty spent years independently studying the Lincoln
assassination they arrived at the same conclusion the most persuasive evidence to me at Garrett's Barn that uh that the
man in the barn was not Booth is the fact that his friend David E heral came out of the barn and the first thing he
said was the man in there is not boo historian James Hall disagrees and cites a 40-page statement made by David
Herold to the government investigators just 36 hours after his arrest Harold referred to Booth 10 times
by name when he was discussing what went on in the barn while it was being surrounded by the soldiers to me that's
conclusive I I I can't see where they get the idea that he'd come running out and say it's not Booth by the time David
E Herald changed his testimony uh he was under such enormous uh pressure he was in fear of his life he had been uh
incarcerated with a canvas bag over his head and just a little hole to be fed through he was under terrible emotional
strain and was trying to save his neck and and so therefore when when he thought that he would survive by
changing his story he changed his story are eyewitnesses also refuted the government's identification of the man
killed at Garrett's Farm Colonel this man is not Booth what's that Lieutenant this man is not Booth
this man has red hair Lieutenant Lieutenant William C Allen worked for the United States Secret Service in 1865
and in August of 1937 his widow Mrs Hannah Allen told a journalist that her husband had told her
that he saw the man at Garrett's Farm who had been killed and that the man had red hair and that the government knew
that that man was not Booth but they were determined to for this man on the the nation as
Booth every historical account says that Boo's hair was jet black eyewitness testimony about the red-haired man was
supported by two other Union Soldiers Joseph zgen and Wilson Kenzie the 16 they surrounded Garrett's Barn they
burned the barn down they shot John wil's Booth only it's not Booth how do you know it doesn't look like him no one
will believe me come back Kenzie and his buddy Joseph zyan were friends of booth
in 1862 and 63 in New Orleans keny was a quartermaster and was free to go wherever he wanted basically
you know within the military lines and so he went with zyan to Garrett's Farm because he had an interest in what was
going to happen to booth in 1922 when he was 77 years old Kenzie detailed what he saw at Garrett's Farm in a sworn
affidavit as I wrote up jisin called me here come here Sergeant this ain't John W's booth at all I could see the color
of his hair I knew at once it wasn't he his body was exposed he had no injured leg you men move away from that
body you two are under direct orders to speak to no one of what you've seen here
today do you understand me and he said that the officers there told him everyone has to keep this secret
there'll be dire consequences for anyone who tells the truth the military really meant business
and they were not going to risk their lives just to tell the truth the government autopsy was
performed by a physician who was acquainted with Booth Dr John F May was a Washington
surgeon Who removed a tumor from the back of Booth's neck a few months before the assassination in
1865 his statement is now in the National Archives like all the other government
records on the case it was held secret for 70 years the corpse Bears no resemblance to
the actor John WIS Booth John Frederick May wanted to tell the truth and he recognized that this
was not Booth but it was made pretty clear to him very early on that this better be booth
it's freckled I do not remember Booth as being freckled and so we have the Curious affidavit which starts off
saying I'm sure this is booth and then goes on to say but it doesn't look like Booth but this is certainly Booth signed
John Frederick may now had the government really believed that that body was booths they would have taken pictures of
it they would have had many many hundreds of people to identify it it but the war department didn't do that the
government knew that that man was not [Music] Booth the body was secretly buried in
the basement of the old Naval prison in Washington it seems almost incredible that Union authorities would have
misidentified the Assassin of President Abraham Lincoln but if John wils Booth would not
kill that Garrett barn and 1865 then what happened to him next a deathbed confession has some
historians wondering if John wil's Booth might have literally dodged a board in 1865 the government moved quickly to
close the books on the Lincoln assassination the trial of John wils Boo's co-conspirators resulted in four
hangings and three life sentences the details of the conspiracy were classified as secret and hidden away
today some experts believe that Booth actually escaped and that he lived in the South under assumed nams for another
38 years in 1907 an attorney from Texas named finus Bates published a book called The Escape and suicide of John
wilk's Booth in these Pages Bates claimed that he learned the true story of Booth from a man named John St Helen
of granberry Texas in 1877 when John St Helen was seriously ill and afraid he was about to die he
made a startling confession to finest bait my name is it's not John St Helen it's really John wils
Booth assassin President [Music] Lincoln if I die tell my brother Edwin I'm dead well Bates of course thought this
guy was crazy he had been told as everyone else had that Booth had been killed in
1865 so he thought he was just hallucinating wrot and boo said to him no I really John wils Booth and now that
I've told you my secret I want to give you the whole story so he poured out for Bates a very
long confession detailing in great detail the kidnap conspiracy the murder conspiracy how he got out of Washington
how he escaped all together escaped Washington DC using a password TB rope St Helen explained that all of the
bridges out of Washington were closed after Nightfall and all were heavily guarded
H but I must cross I'm sorry the bridge is closed I have a password password TB TB
Road all right you may pass one of the guards on duty that night Frederick Deon wrote a letter that supports this
account in that letter deand says at about 10: p.m. that night a captain rode up to the bridge and said if anyone
comes up using a certain password let him through and that password was TB TB Road Deon says that was very peculiar
because never before had anyone been allowed to cross the bridge using a password bridge out of Washington is
closed up the dark not everyone who was on the bridge that night agreed sergeant Silas Cobb who was in
charge of the squad at the bridge he didn't say anything about passwords all he said was that I thought
these people were proper people to go across the bridge and I let him cross John wils Booth had broken his leg
while fleeing I'm going to have to take your boot off so I can see your all right after secretly seeing the doctor
he continued his Escape hidden in the back of a wagon though he was a fugitive booth made the dangerous de decision to
take personal papers that could identify him as Lincoln's assassin you down to the river now and at one point he heard
someone shout dar's them soldiers now he thought they were Northern soldiers so hurriedly he was yanked out of the back
of the wagon and hustled into the woods when that happened his papers and and other personal effects fell
out Booth sent a messenger back for the papers but then another messenger arrived with bad news Mr boo Union
soldiers are riding in for Bowling Green you do you be getting out of here how far behind you are they about 2 hours
thank you thank you gent Booth could no longer wait for his papers and left immediately
yeah it was the man who was sent back to retrieve Bo's papers who was in the Garrett Barn when it was surrounded by
Union troops this man carried booths papers so he was identified as the Assassin I believe you John I want you
to rest all right rest as it turned out St Helen didn't die after his deathbed confession
he left town as soon as he recovered finest Bates was convinced however that the story was
true and later on Bates that was the name of the this young lawyer embroidered the story nicely
and wrote a book about it could it be possible that John St Helen was really John wilk's Booth a
comparison of photographs shows a striking resemblance in 1903 while staying at a
boarding house in Enid Oklahoma John St Helen committed suicide by drinking a glass of wine laced with strick
nine B had the body preserved he took many pictures of the body and eventually he
had the body mummified to preserve it for posterity to prove once and for all that the government had fooled us all
and he was going to not allow that cover up to stand in 1931 six Chicago Physicians examined the
mummified body of John St Helen and recorded their findings in this affidavit they specifically noted a
scarred right eyebrow a crushed right thumb and a broken left leg John wils Booth is known to have had all three of
these unusual characteristics did John wils booth actually Escape Union troops only to
kill himself 38 years later in an Oklahoma boarding house those who would know took that secret to their
graves update though the story of John wils Booth's Escape may seem hard to believe
the Smithsonian Institute concluded that it was worth a closer look the Smithsonian even proposed exhuming the
body of the man killed that Garrett's Farm the man officially named as John wils Booth the booth family
agreed however a state court refused permission the mystery surrounding Abraham Lincoln's
assassination Still Remains coming up murder shocks a small town when an unknown hitchhiker turns
violent November 1945 a young woman named Dorothy Johnson and her 11-month-old daughter are on a
CrossCountry train heading to udica New York hey beautiful Dorothy is just 17 single and struggling to make ends meet
on the train she meets a sailor named Donald Caffrey Donald is married and he's returning to his wife in
Omaha when we get to UDA I'm going to have to put her in a foster home Dorothy revealed that she was desperate and she
was out of money she was also being forced to surrender her child to a foster home I'm sorry I as we started
getting closer to Omaha I I asked her if she'd like to have me take the baby home
with me till she got settled and could send for the baby or maybe I could bring it to her and she agreed on
that but Dorothy was never heard from again Donald and his wife adopted the baby and named her Sandra when Sandra
was a teenager she learned the truth about her background and she began to search for her birth mother I think she
got scared I think she wanted me but she I don't think she had any help maybe from her family to help her try to get
back to me [Music] [Applause] update on the night of our broadcast Sandra search came to an end a viewer
called with the news that Sandra's mother Dorothy had passed away but Sandra also learned that she had an
uncle and two aunts who were anxious to meet her a month later Sandra and her husband
arrived in Syracuse New York to meet a house full of relatives for the very first
time I didn't think I'd ever find anyone it just gave me chills it just it just made me feel real warm like oh gee
what a nice family this is D Herold that's Wayne that's Wayne that's it now this is the only picture I have of me
I'm getting little bits and pieces from friends and relatives telling me a little bit about her and which you know
these little things mean a great deal to me I have found a family a wonderful family that I never thought I'd ever
have one more H okay it's best time in my life Sandra learned that her mother eventually married a man named Rogers
Sandra would now like to find her stepfather with a hope of learning more about her mother and perhaps her
father Harrington Delaware C coffee black around midnight a factory worker named Charles Holden stops by a fast
food restaurant at the end of his shift it's a typical night for Charles until he walks back to his
truck and got in my truck and as I proceed to get ready to back up I noticed that was man right right at my
uh pass on the window man I wonder if I could get a ride uh I don't know it's pretty late
hey but I'm like in a big time bind man my sister she's had a baby she's up in Georgetown I got to get there I I live
pretty close by you in the end Charles agrees 3 mil down Highway 14 Charles reaches
the intersection where he normally turns to go home yeah I pulled off off to the side
and uh I said this is as far as as far as we go right here listen I got a problem and I ain't getting out of this
truck I can't help you I I can't you going have to leave I'm sorry no then I'm going to have to take this truck
hey he come after me with a a knife or screwdriver what I'm going to kill you I'm going kill you right here just calm
down I want that truck all right all right I'll take you wherever you want to go man just calm down all right a't
playing with you I want that truck come come on we'll go I'll take you over come
on Charles speeds off in the opposite direction of his house so that the man cannot follow him home I turned around
didn't say out no words site so I VCH down Road and when I come back to my driveway he was at my
trailer somehow The Stranger had found his way to Charles trailer next door was a farmhouse where Charles 70-year-old
mother lived Charles rushed to a pay phone to call the police how you doing I'm Trooper
Williams with the Delaware State Police are you Mr Holden Mr Holden just explained to me that he had been home by
his residents that he needed somebody to go back with him um because this person
was hanging around his mom's residence and his residents well Mr Holden it it looks like your house is secure here all
right could you come take a look at my mom's house we walked across the grass and uh
around to the back door of the residence and that's when uh the two of us discovered that the back window to the
back door was broken Mom I thought something wrong because Mom she was the type of mother that she
would she would be awake until I got in that that night then she go to sleep Mom in an upstairs bedroom Charles found
his mother's body Dorothy Donovan had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest arms and Face 14 following the road
around when investigators heard Charles's story they didn't believe him okay Charles you're going to need to
come down the troop with us we're going to have to talk about this a little further okay just the mere coincidence
of what he said happened was difficult for the investigators to believe that he picks this guy up takes him couple miles
drops him off and next thing you know he's at his mom's house killing Dorothy Donovan it just was uh very hard to
believe and it wasn't until we were able to go back and interview the people at the fast food restaurant were we able to
you know see that yes this guy did exist if I could ask you ladies to do me like
a really big favor I'm trying to get we were able to obtain a bloody palm print and we also have found two sources
of DNA inside the residence neither of this phys physical evidence comes back to Charles Holden so therefore because
of these things we were able to eliminate Charles as a suspect it's it whole story seems like a
big nightmare to me you know it's just like you're in some kind of a dream that don't don't don't think it really really
happened update for 15 years detectives were baffled by this case but finally convicted felon Gilbert Cannon was
arrested for the murder the bloody Hanton on the banister along with DNA evidence link Cannon to
the crime he was convicted and sentenced to life without [Music] parole if you have any information about
any of the other cases that we profiled in this program please log on to our website at unsolved.com
[Music] [Music] [Music]

This, Episode includes: The Blob, Freedon, John Wilkes Booth (Pts. 1 & 2), Update: Smoker Car Baby and Hitchhiking Killer.

Brief Summary

This episode features mysterious goo in Oakville, a missing journalist, Booth's possible survival, and a hitchhiker murder case.

Key points

Mysterious Goo Falls from Sky. In Oakville, Washington, residents experience a bizarre rain of gelatinous blobs that makes them sick.
Lisa Bishop's Disappearance. A young journalist vanishes while sailing to Haiti, leaving her family desperate for answers.
The Truth About Booth's Death. Evidence suggests that John Wilkes Booth may have escaped after Lincoln's assassination, living until 1903.
The Deathbed Confession. John St. Helen claims to be John Wilkes Booth in a shocking confession.
Sandra's Search for Family. After learning the truth about her origins, Sandra seeks her birth mother.
The Murder Mystery. Charles Holden discovers his mother's body after a strange encounter with a hitchhiker.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This isn’t normal!

Officer Lacy's realization about the falling substance.

3:25WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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