Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 6, Episode 11 - Updated Full Episode | Forensic Files

next on unsolved mysteries tulsa boston fort lauderdale three cities three contract killings
what's the connection for decades albert desalvo was believed to be the notorious boston strangler
but new dna evidence suggests that at least one of his victims may have been killed
by someone else a canadian woman has captured these eerie lights on film she believes they are ufos but skeptics
are unconvinced and when a woman is murdered the police suspect her boyfriend now he has
mysteriously disappeared and so has his son [Music] join us for five cases with twists and
turns that you can hardly believe i'm dennis farina and this is unsolved mysteries
[Music] [Music] boston massachusetts today the city is peaceful but decades ago these same streets
exploded in horror the year 1962 the first known serial killer in american history was on the prowl
victim number one anna slicers 55 strangled with her bathrobe and raped with a blunt object
victim number two helen blake 65 sexually mutilated and strangled her bra twisted into an enormous bow under her
chin victim number three nina nichols 68 strangled her nylons tied into yet another gruesome bow
it was only the beginning over the next two years eight more women fell victim to the psychopath
all but one were choked to death in their own homes their bodies posed in hideous positions
the city was gripped by fear and paranoia then albert de sal facing a prison term
for a series of other rapes confessed that he was the boston strangler some believe however that disavow had
reason to falsely confess first i put my arm around backwards right right the first thing that albert hoped to get
out of being known as the boston strangler was the fame of it because he desperately wanted to be
famous even if it were something terrible his second goal was to avoid a prison sentence
he had apparently been convinced that if he confessed to the stranglings he would
be sent not to prison but to a very fancy private institution where doctors would study him
do you remember tying any knots in it yeah many detectives were convinced that he had to be the killer if he was lying
disalvo's confession was incredibly accurate that makes two if you had heard him go into detail
and tell you exactly how the furniture was and what it was adjacent to and so forth
you know nobody could tell you that unless they were there [Applause] after eight years of research on this
case one thing i'm certain of and that is that albert de salvo was not the boston
strangler there are a number of very good suspects none of them happen to be albert de
salvo in november of 1973 albert de salvo called his former psychiatrist from prison
he said that now he was ready to tell the truth about the boston strangler but that same night de salva was murdered
and now dramatic new evidence suggests that the salvo was not the notorious serial killer
[Music] on january 4 1964 mary sullivan was found by her roommate strangled to death and sexually
assaulted in a final morbid gesture placed at her feet was a happy new year card
the police collected semen left on mary's body by the killer but in 1964 there was no way to match it
to a suspect albert desalvo later admitted he killed mary but two families have formed a
surprising alliance to challenge his confession the family of mary sullivan and the family of albert de salva
i never believed my brother was the boss of strangle from day one [Music] i just want the name cleared
that's all albert was not perfect albert did some bad things albert was not a murderer
mary sullivan's sister diane also believes that de salvo was not the killer [Music]
i mainly come here to say hi to mary and i'm gonna try to do my what i can i'm gonna do everything i can
to find her murderer to the disalvo and sullivan families there was a clear solution to the
controversy dna profiling i made several inquiries to the boston police department and they told me flat
out that they did not have any physical evidence left in the boston strangler case to test for dna evidence
so mary sullivan's family turned to the only evidence available to them mary's remains
we had to do the examination of my aunt's body it was a horrible experience we didn't
want to do it but it was our last and only recourse we thought and it was the only chance to find her
killer the sullivan's got help from a team of forensic experts we were obviously looking for any
seminal fluid and we do know that seminal fluid will fluoresce under uv light so we look and
seminal fluid for us and it also was in the right location for cellular fluid it's on pubic hair
so we examined that and went after that as far as could we get any dna from it we had to be extra careful because
obviously her hair is going to have her dna in it so one of the tricky parts becomes isolating dna only from this
material that's stuck in the pubic hair and not from the hair itself dr ferrand successfully isolated a dna
sequence and compared it to albert de salvo's genes by using dna taken from his brother richard
the results were virtually indisputable the seamen was not albert de salvos when he said that there was dna
they believed from mary's killer on her body and that dna didn't match albert de
salvo it was just complete vindication as far as i was concerned for those who say that albert de salvo did do it it
the shoe is on their foot now it's for them to come forward and show the evidence to prove that albert de salvo
did do it but if disalvo did not kill mary sullivan then who did the detectives who first investigated
the killing found a strange piece of evidence in her bathroom and it implicated mary's abusive ex-boyfriend
they found an ascot caught up in the toilet when my sister dated this person that's
all she bought him for presents with he loved ascots so i could see him definitely cutting
that mascot up in the bathroom and i could absolutely see him killing mary another suspect emerged based on an
eyewitness account a neighbor saw a man in mary's apartment at the approximate time of the murder
mary's roommate had a boyfriend who matched the neighbor's description he may have had access to mary's
apartment explaining why there were no signs of forced entry what are these for they're the keys to
the apartment an extra set i'm gonna go pat on my nose her apartment key had gone missing the
day before she was killed now this key hadn't fallen off the key chain it was taken off
you live in vermont the suspect was brought in for a polygraph test according to the police his responses
were deemed untruthful once deselvo had confessed however investigations into the suspect and
mary's ex-boyfriend were closed did you kill mary sullivan no face front please the police also had strong suspects in
several of the other murders [Music] if albert wasn't the boston strangler who was the boston strangler
from what my research indicates there wasn't one there were many on june 14 1962 the strangler claimed
his first victim 56 year old anna schlessers earlier that day a painting crew was
working at her apartment sixteen days later the same painting crew arrived at the apartment building
of helen blake she became victim number two two of the members of the painting crew
their alibis couldn't be corroborated by their boss or by their fellow workers and that's an unusual connection
victim number seven was 23 year old patricia bessette in this case police also had a strong
suspect patricia patricia's boss the man who discovered her body detectives found out that patricia
bessette was having an affair with her happily married boss at the time she was killed
while i found her autopsy report it shows that she was one month pregnant when she was murdered
not only do you have motive but you have a suspect there but investigation of all the other
suspects stopped cold when albert de salvo confessed but many still believed the confession
was bogus there's a possibility that some of the older women died at the hands of the same person
each of the young women who died was murdered by a different individual who had his own motives
if you hated a woman back in the early 1960s you could kill her loosely wrap a stocking around her neck and hope that
the police would think it was the boston strangler all the grizzly details were printed in the papers at the time
[Music] if you wanted to commit a murder here was your diagram the sullivan family continues to hope
that mary's killer will one day be identified and prosecuted i want closure from my mother
my mother has had to live without any answers in this case we want to publicly identify mary's
killer look him in the eye and and tell him what what he stole from us when albert de selva was murdered in
prison the truth about the boston strangler may have died with him he had told his psychiatrist that he
would tell the real story the next day but the families of some of the victims are still searching for the truth
they do not believe that the real story has ever been told update there are new developments in this case
and here's one of our staff with details in 2013 albert de salvo's body was exhumed recent developments in dna
testing have shown an indisputable link of de salvo to the death of mary sullivan believed to be the strangler's
last victim authorities said that the odds that a white male other than desalvo contributed to the crime scene are 220
billion to one and that this is definite proof that albert desalvo was indeed the boston
strangler in the case of mary sullivan coming up a woman claims that she communicated with bizarre lights in the
canadian sky could they be ufos vancouver british columbia for many years this city has had a high
number of ufo sightings the most frequent and well documented have been attributed to one woman
i had a sensation that something was watching me so i went over to the window and here
was this enormous object sitting up in the sky it was so beautiful to look at i wasn't afraid at all you know i was i
felt really privileged to be able to see something like that dorothy's husband and children did not
take her seriously she was determined to prove that what she had seen was not simply a star or an airplane
i said i must find some way of communicating with this thing up there so i picked up a flashlight and flashed
the light three times to the left and this object went three times to the left then i flushed it three times to the
right and the object went three times to the right so i say i'm not imagining this i said
this is really happening so it's intelligent dorothy decided to try to capture the
ufos and film the results were startling what i saw in the sky was just round objects of light
round balls of light but what was on the film you see the balls of light but after a
couple of frames there will be this enormous blast of light dorothy moved the film back and forth
until she isolated a single bright frame but what had first appeared to be a simple flash of light was actually a
maze of colored streaks strangely the light did not spill over onto any other frames
i noticed that while i'm filming these objects they'll suddenly stop and then i'll notice one
object like shooting out a little beam at the other object and and that object was shooting
a little beam back at it and sort of i guess it must be messages or something that they're passing back and forth on
these beams of light dorothy had the single frames of film blown up into photographs
bright kinetic beams shot out in all directions she also blew up frames of the mysterious balls of light
these photographs began to show more and more amazing details sometimes they'll beam the light down at
me and i'll be all lit up with this light i used to ask them to come closer and closer because i wanted better shots
and they did you know like come closer and closer i don't think she's lying about what
she's doing i feel that she's quite sincere on the other hand i'm not able to assess
her her photographs professionally because that's not part of my expertise but her personality makeup would make me
believe that she's not making things up bottom line what is the truth about dorothy's
photographs [Music] like as in most ufo cases dorothy's sightings and her photographs seem to
defy conventional logic she says that she used three different cameras and each one yielded similar results we
asked the photography expert to evaluate dorothy's film i have seen several similar examples of
photography like this light sources in the sky with dark backgrounds are quite easy to manipulate
but these are more extraordinary in the sense that they were done with a eight millimeter camera a motion picture
camera rather than a still camera and they have so many different types of effects
dorothy isaac became well known in the ufo community one day a businessman named jerry mackay
came to visit hoping to learn more about her sightings these are like daytime type shots
try and get some pictures in the daytime as well and that's where i got these i was listening very intently to what she
was saying at which time i noticed that i was hearing some kind of audible sensing thing that was happening only in
my right ear so that they know it's solid and it's not just uh excuse me dorothy i i don't mean to interrupt you
but i'm getting a strange sensation in my ear here you can hear that and i looked at her and i said yes i can
what is it and this brilliant beam of smile went from ear to ear on her face and i remember the look that she gave me
and she said they're here jerry mackay was the first person to say that he actually heard the same thing
that dorthy heard to my complete shock and amazement what appeared to be sitting right out in
front of the window just to our left was a hard metallic object and as soon as it disappeared dorothy
let out a giggle that was like there you go what do you think of that jerry commissioned an artist to draw
what he and dorothy had seen i feel there is some sort of message in there for us
they're trying to tell us something from these pictures my mission is to just keep filming i guess and receiving
these pictures for as long as i am able to and hope that one day someone somewhere
will be able to understand what it's all about next in tulsa oklahoma a wealthy businessman
is gunned down in the parking lot of this country club why are authorities calling it the
highlight hit our next story is about three murders in three different cities thousands of
miles apart most would say they were unrelated but authorities were convinced that the
killings were all connected to gambling on the sport of highline in the early 80s highlight was big
business and big betting now played only in florida it was once legal in four states where 700 million
dollars was bet on the sport each year three years before his death oklahoma businessman roger wheeler purchased
world highlight which operated arenas in florida and connecticut on a spring afternoon two men drove into
the southern hills country club parked near wheeler's cadillac and waited for him to finish his golf game
my father never expressed concern to me that his life might be in danger i've often wondered what he might have
known if anything but no one knows if there was any words said at all one of the men walked up to wheeler's
car and shot him point blank in the face witnesses said the assailant concealed his handgun in a towel and paper bag as
he calmly walked across the parking lot [Applause] at the crime scene detectives found four
unspent bullets from the killer's gun near wheeler's body they may have been left behind as a
signature or a warning from wheeler's killers i feel the people that murdered my
father are obviously very intelligent they're very cunning very calculating the one thing that they cannot stand
is publicity they cannot stand the pressure of people knowing who they are and what they are
and the thought that somebody might talk a year later a second execution-style murder this time in boston
the target was brian halloran a reputed underworld figure before he died halloran told the fbi
that he had been offered the contract on roger wheeler but he had turned it down claimed that a man named john
callahan ordered the hit on wheeler callahan had been the president of world highlight before it was purchased by
wheeler however callahan was forced to resign because of reported links to organized crime
callahan indicated that he was going to lose a lot of money if wheeler wasn't eliminated
implying that he still had some connection to highline one evening brian halloran and a friend
left the boston restaurant for a six o'clock meeting outside three men waited in a
dark-colored sedan [Music] the driver of the car was killed instantly the car rolled across the street and
halloran still alive tried to make it back to the restaurant brian halleran had substantial
information truthful information that was in line with the way mr wheeler was killed
it's too big of a coincidence to lay it off as only a coincidence we feel that the two are definitely
connected south florida three months later john callahan flew to fort lauderdale
though he lived in boston he kept a condominium and at least cadillac in the area
eight hours after he arrived callahan's car was parked at the miami airport three days later a foul odor coming from
the trunk caused the parking attendant to call the police inside the trunk was callahan's body
by no means wasn't an amateur job it was extremely professional it's very easy for these people to
commit murder and get away with it they know every step of the way what they're going to do how they're going to do it
it just becomes second nature to them they do it and they walk away no problems callahan died of multiple gunshot wounds
his car had been washed vacuumed and wiped clean so the only evidence on the scene was the body itself and several
unspent bullets found in the trunk it is our belief that all three homicides are connected the homicide of
mr wheeler in tulsa the homicide of mr howler in boston and the homicide of mr callahan here in miami
there are little bits and pieces of information evidence that linked the three together and it all seems to tie
back to their dealings with world highlight john callahan had been forced to resign
as president the world highlight because of his links to known underworld figures
roger wheeler purchased the company two years later at the time he received a letter warning
him if you knew what was going on behind the scenes you would not be involved if i
were you i would get out quick wheeler ignored that warning when my father was shot one of his
friends said this type of murder is never solved and i just can't accept that i cannot bury my father until his
killers are brought to justice all i would take is just one person to come forward
with a little bit more information and we can break this case [Music] update there have been several important
developments in this case a government informant identified john vincent martirano as a suspect martino
pleaded guilty to being the trigger man in the killing of both roger mueller and
john callahan john martirano ultimately pleaded guilty to ten murders but because he helped the
fbi prosecute other mafia members he was given a reduced sentence he was released from prison after serving only
12 years [Applause] two leaders of boston's winter hill gang james whitey bulger
and stephen the rifleman flemmi were also charged in the wheeler and callahan hits
in addition a former fbi agent named paul rico was linked to the wheeler killing case but died before he could be
put on trial flemmi is in prison for life bulger was also wanted in the murder of
brian halloran and since we broadcast this case after years on the run james whitey bulger has
been captured he was later convicted and sent to prison [Music] next a texas man accused of killing his
girlfriend takes off with his nine-year-old son lockhart texas jack white is worried when he arrives at
his daughter's house [Music] latricia white a 38 year old nurse hasn't been seen or hurt from in almost
24 hours [Music] everyone was concerned about electrician because she just hadn't gone to work monday
and she never never fails to go to work or at least call fresh i just called her and then then i went
over and felt her i knew that she was dead [Music] latricia white had been shot six times
in the head with a 22-caliber weapon her death stunned her friends and neighbors she left behind two children
and a lot of unanswered questions investigators were puzzled despite the violent nature of the crime
there were no signs of a struggle and nothing in her house had been disturbed got some blood here looks like it's
going into the kitchen area paul just as puzzling was the disappearance of latricia's live-in boyfriend lee walker
hogan a local trucker nicknamed dub also missing was dub's nine-year-old son chance who had been visiting for the
holidays the fact that her boyfriend dub walker hagin could not be found led us to
to several different areas to investigate number one uh is he a suspect could he have committed this crime the
other one is or is he a victim has he also been injured three days later dubs pickup truck was
found abandoned in austin texas about 30 miles from the crime scene in the truck investigators found dub's
hunting rifle which had not been fired his checkbook and his wallet in back a toolbox a spare tire and
christmas gifts still unopened but all streaked with blood initially in the investigation we felt
that this blood could have come from our victim that was later ruled out the blood type was not the same as our
victims so we feel like that someone else was injured not seriously but someone else was
injured [Music] could that someone else have been dub or chance the question could not be answered all
of the blood tests were inconclusive [Music] the police and the white family believe
that dub murdered latricia in a jealous rage but dubb's family and friends are convinced that he and chance
also met with foul play it's been going on 11 months now and we haven't heard anything from him at all and that
tells me if if we haven't heard from him then he's got to be dead i don't know who did it
i just know that he that he couldn't have couldn't have done it and then just disappeared off the face
of the earth to the police however dub was the obvious suspect especially after they
began to take a close look at his relationship with latricia hi guys hi trish who the hell were you last night
according to latricia's family double was extremely jealous and suspicious i wish that in the future
if you're gonna be late would you please give me a call let me know or try to be
home on time i saw that he was a good man when i met him and when i left him i was scared to
death of him he had a temper he treated my oldest boy terribly and i was scared dub son chance was often the focus of
their arguments he's only nine years old what do you expect excuse me chance it's
not your fault your father raised you to be a spoiled brat brat he's my son he's
not yours and you have no right you understand me well it's my house dub packed his bags and threatened to
leave i'm tired of your threats you don't have the guts to leave just three nights later dub chance and
latricia were seen enjoying themselves at a local restaurant the incident was apparently forgotten
but late the very next day latricia's father found her shot to death in her bedroom
dub and chance had disappeared three days later dub was formally charged with first-degree murder
four months passed with no sign of dub or chance and then at the house of chance's
maternal grandfather all he said was help me and then the phone was jerked out of his
hand slammed down and i looked over my wife and i said that was chance could the plea for help actually have
been from chance dubb's family is convinced that the answer is no they believed that the phone call was a
hoax and that dub and chance were murdered patricia's family and the police believe
that dub is a killer and that he is still very much alive update there are new developments in this case
and here's one of our staff with details the texas state department of public safety announced recently that
investigators now have evidence that dub walker hogan and his son chance were also victims of foul play
it is now believed that this was a crime of passion by someone closely associated
with the family we will bring you more information as the investigation proceeds
if you have any information about this case please log on to our website at unsolved.com
next when a man dies no one notices for an entire year and no one claims the small fortune that he left behind
mccormick south carolina walter rice lived alone in a modest trailer he was a reclusive man no one
came calling and he liked it that way walter rice was quite a mystery man he kept to himself he didn't he didn't
have anything to do with his neighbors he never ventured out to meet any of his neighbors
walter took a cab home one day after his own car had been wrecked in a traffic accident
[Music] sometime during the next week he suffered a heart attack and died before
he could call for help incredibly a full year passed before walter's body was even discovered
the power company and the cable tv company turned off service to his trailer eventually the post office stamped his
mail returned to sender it was two strangers who finally found walters body two strangers who weren't exactly making
a social call two people attempted to break into the trailer they broke in the front window
and then went around to the back door and his body was laying right at the back door
they were frightened away after finding his body and sometime later this could be a month or two later they got a
girlfriend of one of the people who attempted to break in to call the police department to notify them
that there was a dead body in the trail on oak street walter rice was 73 when he passed away
probate judge ronnie kidd took on the task of sorting through his possessions i started looking through his papers all
of his effects in his trailer initially i didn't expect to find any anything of value but after searching
through walter rice's personal effects papers bank papers i found him to have an estate of
approximately a hundred and forty thousand dollars one hundred and forty thousand dollars
the judge began to piece together the few known facts of walter's life paystubs showed that for 10 years he
worked as a cook at the griswold inn near essex connecticut walter rice also had a passport it
stamped with visas from curacao jamaica belize trinidad and tobago guyana and guatemala but nothing is known about
walter's travels outside of the united states [Music] after three years of searching no errors
were found and walter rice's assets were liquidated the money went to the state of south carolina
if there had been any surviving relatives they waited too long to make a claim but
if any of them is watching at least they'll know what happened to mr walter rice
[Music] on a recent broadcast we profiled a fugitive named jim burnside he was wanted for the vicious murder of
his wife annette shoplocker you getting off work now yeah i'm gonna 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 five years but annette finally worked up the courage to walk out
two months later jim bernstein struck back he found the net alone with one of her co-workers
hey get over here what are you doing [Applause] and that's co-worker 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's horrible we just want him caught update the night this story aired we 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 deceiving me you know that is al
and he goes yes that's al the next morning fbi agents and sheriff's deputies converged on a flea
market where burnside worked when burnside saw them he took off the fugitive pulled out a gun
and took aim down [Music] 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 unsolved mysteries himself wednesday night
james burnside recovered from his wounds he pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder
he is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole if you have any information about other
cases we have profiled please log on to our website at unsolved.com [Music] [Music]
[Music] [Music] you

This episode includes: Boston Strangler II, Vancouver Lights, Jai Alai, Dub's Last Chance and more.

Brief Summary

This episode covers contract killings, the Boston Strangler, UFO sightings, and a mysterious murder case in Texas.

Key points

The Boston Strangler's Confession. Albert De Salvo confessed to being the Boston Strangler, but many believe it was a false confession.
DNA Evidence Exonerates De Salvo. New DNA evidence suggests Albert De Salvo was not the killer of Mary Sullivan.
The Search for Mary Sullivan's Killer. Mary Sullivan's family seeks justice and closure regarding her murder.
The Connection Between Three Murders. Three murders across different cities were believed to be connected to gambling on highline.
The Mysterious Murder of Roger Wheeler. Businessman Roger Wheeler was gunned down in a parking lot, leading to a web of intrigue.
Mysterious Homicides Linked. Three homicides are believed to be connected, involving underworld figures.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Do you remember tying any knots in it?

A detective questioning about the case.

3:50WatchJul 18, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some 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.