Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 7, Episode 4 - Updated Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] next on unsolved mysteries a man on the run ends up dead in a deserted parking lot in tennessee
who was he running from and why legend has it that a fortunate gold bars was hidden deep inside a new mexico
mountain was the treasure removed in a secret government operation he seems like a charismatic ladies man
in reality he's a brutal serial killer who murdered five women and a drug lord awaiting trial is
hospitalized and then he pulls off a daring escape addressed as his own sister five stories they're all strange but
guess what they're all true i'm dennis farina and this is unsolved streets [Music]
[Music] the baja california peninsula 300 miles south of san diego a young american disoriented penniless
and obviously out of place wandered into the mexican village of colonia vicente guerrero
he lingered for months living on handouts depending on the charity of strangers for one california couple
tales of the young stranger were a ray of hope in the search for their 34 year old son
gordon collins had been missing for months i know he's alive i can't get on with my business i can't
get on with nothing until you know we get him home gordon was vacationing with his
girlfriend anastasia seals and another couple near santa rosalia a popular deep sea fishing port near the middle of the
baja peninsula four days after they arrived the group secured a boat at a local hotel
gordon's friend wayne schwartz had fished off the baja coast many times as the group left port a fisherman on
his way in warned them a storm was growing several hours later a fierce storm would
indeed hit the area gordon collins and his friends never returned the next day a hotel employee was sent
out to look for them his search ended 28 miles northeast [Music] gordon's girlfriend anastasia seals
and wayne schwartz were dead but gordon and wayne's wife arlene burlington were nowhere to be found
the bodies and all the paraphernalia out of the boat was all within one square mile of each other because i talked to
the fellow that fished the bodies out and uh and so we say hey where's the other two jackets
where's the other two people for three days the united states coast guard searched a
250-mile area nothing it seemed obvious that gordon and arlene had also perished
in time gordon and arlene's parents were asked to sign death certificates however
reports that gordon was still alive had already begun to filter across the border
some thought that he might be suffering from amnesia his parents went south to mexico
to find and two mexican fishermen come running up to us and kept pointing to the flyer
he said they seen a guy come out of the water and just had shorts he was all cut
up waiting there that they're trying to get on the bus station i was very excited
things started fitting together because this is where the accident happened they
found the bodies just a mile and a half off of this shore it's got to be gorgeous
around the same time gordon was also spotted on a nearby beach by a man named jose peralta
you have your blanket okay you have your blanket i'm cold jose said that gordy said he was waiting for
friends he went fishing with and could he have jose's blanket because he was going to sleep on the beach there
at cabo and wait for his friends [Music] on one trip we headed toward the paws and we stopped at a few of these taco
places and it says yeah seen him an hour ago so we went on down for probably another
three or four miles we stopped again and the guy said yeah we've seen him about 30 minutes ago so we finally got right
into town and this is yeah within five minutes and then they seen us all seeing us
together and i don't know what happened but everybody just clammed up we couldn't get oh we couldn't get no no
more information over the next three months gordon collins was spotted at least 50 times in
seven different locations all in the area of la paz and cabo san lucas at the southern end of the baja peninsula
gordon's parents hired bill garcia a private investigator who alerted newspapers in baja
after the articles ran garcia received several calls from a village 300 miles south of tijuana
it was four or five months here in town he never worked here never work and he only hang around here in town he
was walking all the time and almost in the town everybody knows him we've shown them pictures and everyone
recognizes him and they're positive that it's him the people that have talked to him know
some things about gordon and feel confident that he is there the man identified as gordon was
eventually arrested for stealing food a local sheriff brought in james hatfield an american living in the village to
translate my name's james what's yours hi i'm gordy there's no doubt on my mind it's gordon
because when we met him in jail i introduced myself to him and he gave me his name gordon
and then when the flyer came out it's right there on the flyer gordon and you can't get the two pitchers mixed up it's
the same he moved on shortly before we were able to get to that area and we haven't been
able to find where he's gone from there over the next year sporadic sightings of
gordon continued the u.s consulate has officially reversed its position and no longer
presumes that gordon collins is dead [Music] you just can't up and give up because
it's your son i know it keeps me driving and keeps me going and i want to get him home
gordon collins is six feet two inches tall and has light hair and blue eyes based on eyewitness descriptions a
police artist made this sketch of the man thought to be gordon collins if you have any information that might
help find him please log on to our website at unsolved.com [Music] [Music] knoxville tennessee
bobby what's going on strangers find a dead man beaten and half naked in a parking lot on a great
july morning scattered around the body are a mix of german canadian and u.s currency
totaling about 4 000 the contents of his wallet identify him as 31 year old blair adams of suri
british columbia every aspect of this case is mysterious there's no logical explanation for
anything he did we can't say for a fact that this is why he did that because there's no explanation for it we cannot
come up with a motive for this man to be dead we can't come up for a reasoning for him
to be here we can't come up for a reason for him to leave canada nobody knew he was going to take his trip nobody
this is an actual whodunit no one knows why blair left his home in british columbia or how he ended up over
2 000 miles away in knoxville tennessee his murder is one of the stranger cases we've ever come across
was blair running away from a killer or was blair just running away from himself
before his mysterious death blair adams was a foreman with a construction company in surrey british
columbia those who knew him say blair liked his work and he did it well blair did seem to have a normal life he
had many friends he had a job he traveled on occasion had a history of several different
girlfriends was well liked by virtually everyone that we've had contact with but then something changed
blair started having wild mood swings i asked him numerous times what was wrong and he said i don't think i should
tell you about it and to this day i don't know what it is on friday july 5th blair withdrew all
his savings he emptied his safety deposit box more than six thousand dollars in cash and
thousands in jewelry gold and platinum on sunday claire tried to enter the united states two different times
where you going uh seattle can you step out of the car i see some id but he was refused entry
because he was a young single guy carrying a lot of cash the profile of a drug trafficker just get back in the car
and turn your vehicle around the next day blair showed up at his job but he wasn't there to work
i need to quit my job why need some time can i get my check that afternoon he spent sixteen hundred
dollars on a round-trip airline ticket to frankfort germany just hours after buying the ticket blair
showed up at a friend's home in a panic i need you to take me to the border take
you to the border it's the middle of the night i can't leave my kids okay somebody's trying to kill me
blair seemed terrified but his friend just couldn't help him out okay forget about it sorry to bother you
thanks thanks anyways on tuesday instead of leaving for germany he turned in his tickets rented
a car and headed back to the border this time blair managed to slip through [Music]
he ended up in seattle where he dropped his rental car at the airport and bought
a one-way ticket to washington dc he paid about 770 dollars for a one-way ticket when he could have purchased a
round-trip ticket for approximately 350 or 400 so it would have been half the price for
for a round-trip ticket as he paid for a one-way ticket it just seemed very unusual
blair arrived in dc early wednesday morning and headed to knoxville more than 500 miles southwest
his travel was unlogical in itself i mean why go to dc to turn around to come back to knoxville he had no reason to be
in east tennessee he had no reason to be in knoxville everything we can find out
he knows no one in east tennessee or the eastern united states all right hi can you help me i can't get my car
started what's the problem blair was first seen in knoxville around 5 30 that afternoon
oh this can't be your key yeah that's my key well this is a nissan key yeah well
this is a toyota so well it won't start it well that's the key i've been using do you have another key no
somebody can't say okay empty out your pockets and let's look for it he empties out all his pockets there is no key to
the toyota blair couldn't get a new key from the rental car company until the next
morning he was stranded in knoxville a mechanic drove him to a nearby hotel best way to describe would be paranoid
nervous agitated expecting someone to come in on him even though there wasn't anybody there
i don't know who he was looking for but he was waiting for somebody to walk in for him
maybe blair was being followed or maybe he only thought so the hotel's security camera shows that
in a space of an hour blair went in and out of the lobby five times before finally paying for a room
we can only assume that something was wrong with his thought process he wasn't acting rationally
after checking in he walked out the front door it was 7 37 p.m the last time clara adams was known to
be alive twelve hours later blair's body was found in a parking lot about a half mile
from his hotel he was naked from the waist down blair's death was as strange as the last
few days of his life his pants were removed in a way not like someone would take their own
pants off but in a way that someone else would remove your pants from you his socks were turned inside out his
shoes were off and his shirt was ripped open four thousand dollars in american canadian and german currency was
scattered around blair's body a small pack held another two thousand dollars worth of gold and jewelry
and strangely the key to blair's toyota was laying about 10 feet from his body we start looking at the angle of maybe a
drug deal going bad that didn't pan out robbery was immediately first thought of
you throw it away because all the money's still there we tried to find anything in his
background that would lead us to believe that he frequent with prostitutes or that he even had any homosexual
experiences you know anything to explain how he was found the way he was found we found nothing
the autopsy stated that blair sustained many cuts and abrasions this would indicate that he was trying
to defend himself from attack blair was ultimately killed by a violent blow that ruptured his stomach
okay somebody's trying to kill me although blair believed that his life was in danger authorities have another
theory they think that the threat was imaginary and blair's journey was an escape from
his own delusions either way blair adams wound up dead just as he had feared i want blair back i want him well and
healthy i want him to knock on the front door and come in but obviously that's not going to happen
i don't know you know blair is dead [Music] and it would be nice to to have some
understanding of why he died if you have any information about the murder of blair adams please log on to
our website at unsolved.com nassau county new york on a july night a 20 year old man named
ricardo caputo makes a call to the police how can i help you i want to report something very
important caputo has a girlfriend named natalie brown he tells police to go to the home
of her parents caputo had been dating natalie for over a year and told authorities that they
planned to marry i responded to the scene on middle neck road i went in the front door and immediately
on my left i saw a kitchen and in the kitchen was the body of miss brown she had been stared repeatedly the room
was covered with blood it was really a vicious assault on her it was the worst i ever seen in my she
nice covered a lot of homicides in my life natalie brown's family and friends described her fiance as likable and
attractive but in the case of ricardo caputo appearances were more than deceiving
they were lethal and natalie wasn't his only victim after caputo was arrested for natalie
brown's murder a psychiatric review determined that caputo was not competent to stand trial
so he was sent to new york's matawan state hospital at the maximum security facility he met
a 26 year old psychologist named judith becker my doctor my friend i believe it was a relationship of a
a psychologist and a patient she felt that her patients were also her friends she wanted them to trust her
and i think she felt they had to trust her in order to for her to be able to help them
judith was charmed by caputo and over the next two years he worked to gain her trust
apparently he succeeded and speaking to other inmates of madawan state hospital several of them stated
that ricardo cupero had been bragging that he was going to use judith becky to gain his freedom from madawan state
hospital with her help caputo was transferred to a manhattan psychiatric hospital that
allowed patients to leave during the day this gave judith and caputo more time to
spend together outside the hospital walls she even took him home to meet her family
when we met ricardo she introduced him as a fellow who worked with her at madawan
she continued the relationship as a as a friend and as a psychologist and as somebody he could turn to
and i don't believe that she knew she was in as much danger as she ultimately was
one october day judith didn't show up for a family boating trip concerned her parents went to her
apartment judy when they entered the apartment where she lived there was dinner for two
on the coffee table in the living room judy and when they walked into the bedroom
they found their daughter lying on her back in bed wearing only a half slip she had been brutally beaten about the
head and strangled with one of her stockings caputo had disappeared with judith's car
checkbook and some of her clothing five months later in san francisco ricardo caputo met barbara taylor a book
editor these photos of barbara were taking on the trip to yosemite she was later found beaten to death in
her apartment caputo's fingerprints were at the crime scene but he had vanished again
[Music] el paso texas five days after barbara's body was found a man calling himself ricardo diaz was
held by the u.s immigration officials he was turned over the custody of u.s officials and he was incarcerated
at the alien detention facility which is located here in el paso texas like the other detainees diaz was
fingerprinted he knew that it would not take long for his real identity to be uncovered
because diaz was in reality ricardo caputo three days later caputo and three other
prisoners took a guard hostage using kitchen knives as weapons the men escaped the compound and crossed
the border to mexico in a stolen car all were recaptured except for caputo the escapees told police that he was
headed to mexico city there he moved in with a young 21 year old college student by the name of laura
marie gomez two years later laura was found dead in her mexico city apartment ms gomez was found
brutally beaten stomped to death she had been tortured prior to her death laura was two and a
half months pregnant police believe the father and the killer was ricardo caputo
since he's done this all over the united states and in mexico we have to consider
him a serial killer six years later and two thousand miles away he may have struck again
sixty sixty-year-old jackie bernhard a prominent author and social activist was found murdered in her manhattan
apartment a private investigator hired by jackie's family received the tip identifying
caputo as jackie's killer the caller also said that caputo boasted about killing
several other women and also some men update after nearly two decades on the run
ricardo caputo turned himself into police in new york city he said that he decided to surrender
after his victims began appearing in his nightmares and that he was afraid that he would kill again
while a fugitive he traveled throughout north and south america married twice and fathered six children
ricardo caputo pleaded guilty to two murders and was sentenced to 25 years to life
three years later he died of a heart attack while playing basketball in attica prison he was 48 years old
next a man and his family have searched for a treasure for over 50 years was it stolen
by the u.s military [Music] in 1937 a man named doc nas claimed that he found an incredible treasure deep
inside victoria peak in southern new mexico he reported seeing more than 100 tons of
gold bars stacked like firewood doc and his wife babe filed a mining claim they hired an expert to widen the tunnel
but the blast caused the mine shaft to cave in by the time he died in 1949 dachnas had not gotten any closer to his
treasure for two years babe tried to dig through the rubble and reach the gold but she
too was unsuccessful and then in 1951 the army established a missile range at white sands new mexico
they annexed victoria peak and forced babe to stop her digging during the late 1950s two airmen claimed
that they had actually entered the mountain and seen the gold bars but they said that the military would
not allow them to go back and remove them in 1961 babe accused the military of digging for the gold themselves
the army officially denied her accusations she was protesting vehemently that the
army would be excavating on her claim while they were denying her access to do the same thing
finally the army did allow babe one of the airmen and their team to excavate the peak
but the military placed a two-week time limit on the dig and babe found no gold if the mountain has not been penetrated
and materials removed from this mountain this will be the biggest thing that this
country's ever seen [Music] update after our broadcast two viewers contacted us with new
information about the disputed treasure on victoria's peak the first call came from gene and
juanita irwin a retired couple living in baytown texas juanita irwin's brother captain orby
swaner had been stationed at the white sands missile range in the early 1960s swaner told his family an extraordinary
story he started to tell the story of the treasure that was found at white sands missile range
now captain swaner went out to inspect and confirm and uh sure enough it was true when the
pentagon sent down a special team which included my brother-in-law captain swaner
there were several chambers in the cave and it had immense amount of stuff in it
and they photographed and he said it was in excess of 300 million dollars i asked him what they
did with the goal once they removed it and he said he thought they took it to fort knox
we confirm that captain swaner served as an officer assigned to security at white
sands missile range in 1961 but the u.s army denies any knowledge of the treasure
i know i know nothing i've seen nothing of any such claim in the records that i've seen
russell dunn the second person who called our phone center was a friend of captain swaner
dunn says that swanner told him the same story he further told me that there was a
government agency and as i recall he mentioned secret service did remove the gold
it was in bars and it was taken away in trucks i believe he was honestly telling me the
truth there is still more evidence that the military took gold from victoria peak
[Music] judge h.l morton who knew babe stated in a 1961 affidavit that he and three
friends had actually seen soldiers at work on the peak moreland claimed that he saw military
equipment and beams that could be used to support underground tunnels well it was a military conducted
operation out there and of course they had access to the equipment they had access to the location
and they were out there doing the same thing we were doing they were looking for the gold
moreland testified that his group talked to captain swaner who ordered them to leave the area
when marlin reported the activity to babe nas she called the new mexico state land
office they contacted a colonel jaffe at the missile range from the name of jaffe a colonel jaffe
and i asked him i said is there somebody in there digging i said they shouldn't be doing that
and he said no there is no digging on that peak and he said if there are it's none
of your damn business jordan says that within 24 hours he received the call from major general
john r schenkel the commander at white sands schenkel admitted that there had been digging on the peak but said that
it would stop immediately [Music] the military withdrew soon after moreland and his friends
returned to victoria peak they found roads scaffolds and tunnels but no sign of babe's gold fortune
they exploded her claim and i think maybe have the money has gone away i think it's gone
i think the soldiers may have moved it out there was absolutely no foundation to
the charts that gold was being removed or and there was absolutely no evidence that gold had ever been removed
one of the few eyewitnesses who claimed to have actually seen the gold was captain orby swaner the former head of
security at white sands but is there any physical evidence that swanner was inside victoria peak in
1961. during the 1977 expedition babe noss and the other excavators found orbee swaner's evidence
they went in and found some military debris battery packs and such and they photographed on the wall of one
of the deeper tunnels a name and a date and an army serial number on the wall the name was captain arby swaner the
date was october 1961. i don't feel that the department of the army in the 60s treated my grandmother fairly
they really tried to make a fool out of her and all the time she was telling the
truth they had sent my grandmother on a wild goose chase for decades if that is the fact
i think a great injustice has been done [Music] next a killer who used bombs to murder
innocent civilians is finally brought to justice and later an accused drug lord concocts
a daring escape dressed in a wig women's clothing and makeup previously we profiled the case of eric
robert rudolph known as the infamous olympic park bomber [Music] rudolph's first attack was in atlanta's
centennial park during the 1996 summer olympics let's see that pretty small of yours
one two three forty-four-year-old alice hawthorne was killed and over a hundred more were
injured six months later a similar type of bomb was detonated at an abortion clinic in
suburban atlanta and a month after that a midtown atlanta gay and lesbian nightclub was targeted
we're building a good prosecutable court case based upon the forensic evidence we
had where we could tie the bombs together but we still didn't know the identity of the bomber we didn't know
who it was police began receiving letters from the so-called army of god claiming
responsibility for at least two of the bombings those who participate in any way in the
murder of children may be targeted for attack we will target sodomites their organizations and all those who push
their agenda we will target all facilities and personnel of the federal government
birmingham alabama 11 months after the third atlanta bombing outside a woman's health and abortion
clinic an overturned flower pot caught the eye of robert sanderson an off-duty police officer sanderson was
working that day as a security guard sanderson was killed instantly emily lyons the clinic's head nurse lost
her left eye when she was riddled with shrapnel just after the explosion a witness saw a
man remove a wig and throw it away as he left the scene he was able to give the police the man's
license plate number the truck was traced to eric rudolph when an fbi swat team raided his trailer
in murphy north carolina they missed him by only minutes however authorities weren't sure whether
or not rudolph had actually left the area [Music] update five years after eric rudolph was last
seen a police officer noticed what he thought was a homeless man he was rummaging through the trash
behind a market in murphy north carolina the officer took the man to the police station and noticed the resemblance to
the wanted poster for eric rudolph he made the arrest on the spot during his time on the run rudolph had
survived by eating wildlife in the appalachian wilderness and foraging in dumpsters in the surrounding towns
rudolph agreed to plead guilty to all the bombings in exchange for being spared the death penalty
he was sentenced to four consecutive life terms and will spend the rest of his life
behind bars [Music] from the age of 17 lionel luliano made enough money to enjoy the life of a
wealthy playboy how did he do this by being one of the biggest drug traffickers in the southern us
but when he was just 21 the police brought his lavish lifestyle to a sudden end after a six-month sting operation lionel
luviano only 21 years old was arrested in houston texas despite his young age he was a key
figure in an international drug ring that reportedly moved nearly a quarter of a million dollars in heroin every
month lionel luviano led a very extravagant lifestyle when he was free in the houston area he's 21 years old and had
all the luxuries of of an extremely extravagant individual [Music] before his arrest luviana was involved
in a serious motorcycle accident while he awaited trial authorities had no choice but to allow him to continue
his treatment at a local hospital he was shackled to his bed 24 hours a day in a
room that he shared with a total stranger vasquez martinez a week after luviana was admitted
some visitors arrive unannounced three individuals two women and a man walked into lbj
hospital did not have to go through any security measures as this is not an institution
walked up to the third floor lionel luviano's room we're here to see our friend vasquez
martinez please yes they indicated they were going to visit the individual across the bed from
lionel luviano [Music] the guard was in a position to see them walk over to the other individual's bed
so he felt comfortable in the fact as would anybody that they were just visiting the individual across the bed
who was not a prisoner and he was able to have visitors at any time of the day okay vasquez we got some business to
take care of in reality the visitors were one of luviano's sisters and two other family
members what's going on shut up never mind believing they were armed vasquez watched in disbelief as lionel began a
total makeover a shade a full cup two-piece woman's suit and then a wig and some makeup and the
transformation was complete i think how do i look at that man look okay yeah come
escaped masquerading as his own sister see you the guard outside of the hospital room
was not surprised when he saw two women and a man leave the room that's what he'd observed walk into the room
luviano's sisters stayed behind with a concealed gun she kept vasquez from sounding the alarm she would later
slip away during the confusion following the discovery of ljubljana's escape luliana's accomplices were later
captured but the drug lord is still that large lionel luviano was looking at approximately 20 years
in prison being that it be in a federal prison he would approximately do 19 of those
years there's very little good time given and such like this so i'm sure that this played quite heavily on his
mind his desire to escape lionel luviano stands five feet five inches tall and weighs 120 pounds
authorities believe that he may be living in mexico he should be considered armed and dangerous
if you have any information please log on to our website at dot unsolved.com [Music]
[Music] you

This episode includes: Musician Sings the Blues, Killer Casanova, Update: Victorio's Gold and more.

Brief Summary

Five true crime stories featuring mysterious deaths, a treasure hunt, and a dramatic escape.

Key points

Gordon Collins: The Search Continues. Gordon Collins goes missing during a vacation in Mexico, leading to a desperate search by his family.
The Mysterious Death of Blair Adams. Blair Adams is found dead in Knoxville, Tennessee, under bizarre circumstances. His life leading up to his death raises more questions than answers.
Ricardo Caputo's Dark Path. Ricardo Caputo's violent history unfolds as he is linked to multiple murders, including that of his girlfriend.
The Treasure of Victoria Peak. Doc Nas claims to have found a massive treasure in Mexico, but his search ends in tragedy.
Extraordinary Claims from Retired Airmen. Two airmen claimed they saw gold bars in the mountain but were barred from retrieval.
Babe's Accusation Against the Military. In 1961, Babe accused the military of excavating her claim for gold.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I can't get on with my business until we get him home.

Gordon's mother expresses her desperation to find her son.

2:19WatchJul 18, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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