Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 8, Episode 18 | Forensic Files

[Music] next on Unsolved Mysteries a mysterious woman shows up on an Indian Reservation no one knows she's
wanted for murder according to Legend $30 million in gold and silver is buried in the
Virginia Countryside it's yours if you can decipher a secret code a mother goes undercover in the
world of motorcycle gangs to find the men who murdered her son and are the spirits of artists
Claude Monae and Vincent Bango creating new works through this man cunning deceit and lies maybe you
can figure out who's telling the truth I'm Dennis finina and this is Unsolved Mysteries
[Music] bitter Springs Arizona one November day a mysterious visitor arrives at a housing settlement
of the Navajo Nation she calls herself Sandy and everyone is puzzled by her behavior she has conversations with
herself and walks into several homes Uninvited she's secretive and seems to be hiding from something or someone she
asks can you dye my hair I said what for you to cut my hair blonde so I can change my
identity she asked one family if she can leave a pickup truck behind their house my niece told me that this Sandy
wanted to park her vehicle there for about a week immediately I said well why don't she park it out front but she said
that she wanted to really Park her vehicle where it was hidden from the road I just had a a funny feeling that
things were not all right 2 Days Later Sandy suddenly leaves within a week the people of
bitter Springs learned the truth about their mysterious visitor her real name was Maria Armstrong and her brief visit
to the Navajo settlement marked the end of a doomed relationship that had started near nearly 10 years
earlier Maria Armstrong grew up in a small suburban City in Southern New Jersey she was an attractive girl who
always had her choice of boyfriends one of those boyfriends was Robert areny nicknamed Ron he had graduated high
school at 17 with honors and joined the National Guard he was outgoing and athletic yet he had always been
fascinated by the introverted Maria Maria was innocent and she was beautiful she had long almost black hair um really
gorgeous and I think that's what my brother was attracted to her cuz she was so unusual looking she was sweet she was
kind to people she um she was your friend Ron eventually moved to Mesa Arizona to be near his
family back in New Jersey Maria had begun to behave strangely showing signs of delusion and paranoia her parents
feared that she was using drugs and placed her in a series of metal hospitals finally it was determined that
Maria was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia a physical disease of the brain it most commonly strikes its
victims in their teens and 20s schizophrenics frequently have trouble telling the difference between
the real world and their delusions there there is no known cure for schizophrenia
but the symptoms can be sometimes controlled with medication Ron convinced Maria to move
to Arizona and live with him so that she could start over with a clean slate he seemed to think that she was fine and
that all he wanted to do was get her away from New Jersey and get her away from the drugs and get her away from the
bad influences back there and help her help her to reestablish her life out here that June Maria finally came to
Arizona despite his family's objections Maria moved in with Ron we were concerned because we did hear that she
was in a mental institution and we knew she was on drugs back back East but you know they were holding hands kissing
they were like a couple for the first few weeks Maria seemed happy in Mesa but soon after she arrived Ron
began working the graveyard shift so Maria was often alone at night she began pacing talking to herself and once again
showing symptoms of schizophrenia somebody in the apartment complex where they lived Maria had made
friends with and Ron found out that this person was supplying drugs to Maria she
wasn't going to the psychiatrist she had canceled her appointments she wasn't taking her medication she said that it
kept her up at night well she was already up all the time at night she never slept slept
anyway Maria began to accuse Ron of plotting against her calm down list Cal leave me alone they told me about you
they told all right ran told his sisters that Maria often attacked him physically she once
hit him so hard that she ruptured his eardrum I would talk to Ron on the phone and I would tell him Ronnie you have to
do something you have to get rid of her send her home I don't want to do that I want to help her he would say I says but
you can't help her it's obvious you can't help her she needs more than you to help her she needs psychiatric care
know who are you talking to after 5 months Ron had finally reached the end of his rope who are you talking to roxan
hi roxan yeah I called him and he said the neighbors are complaining the management wants to kick me out and
I want to get her out of here she is she's there in the room listening to all this the next morning Maria slowly drove
into Bitter Springs 260 Mi north of Mesa she was calling herself Sandy and trying
to sell the pickup truck that she was driving first thing she said do you interested in buying a truck and I said
no I'm not you know where I could get a pained I just thought maybe she was hiding from her boyfriend or something
like that cuz she said she left her boyfriend someplace the following morning the
Arizona Highway Patrol responded to a complaint in Bitter Springs Maria had left her pickup truck parked behind the
house and the owner was afraid that it was stolen the officer ran a computer check on the license plate and found the
car was registered to Ron arti he arranged have it towed to a nearby town after searching several locations
the officer found out that the mysterious woman was hiding in a local house come on out I see you behind the
[Music] bed I let her go but I just had the feeling that she had either done something was doing something or was
going to do something 4 days later a maintenance man at Ron aren's apartment complex asked the
manager to come with him to Ron's apartment I noticed a stack of old newspapers in front of Ron's apartment
we went up got the manager and then we entered the apartment hello well I first hit the
door the door just flung right open uh I walked in and I saw a pile of clothes on
the couch didn't see any anybody in there and everything was quiet so I walked through the unit looking yelling
anybody here and didn't get any answer oh my God according to the medical examiner
report on the autopsy the cause of death was uh blunt force trauma to the head region and Mr arti had been dead for
several days looking at this guy is definitely going to be a homicide his body had been covered by bedding pillows
clothing is there someone was trying to hide the discovery of the body we found just left of the body a small can Sledge
Hammer we also found that he had been stabbed in the right rib area with a wooden handled knife but the knife W
came after the trauma to the Head it was our theory that Mr arti had been sleeping in a sitting position on
the couch because he was afraid of uh Maria Armstrong and that sometime when he was asleep
Miss Armstrong came up and inflicted the blows to his head with the sledgehammer
and then subsequently stabbed him then we believe that she uh covered the body in an attempt to hide the crime
she went into the bedroom changed her clothing and then took the keys to Mr argent's truck and then left Mesa and
drove up north to Bitter Springs the last sighting that we had on Maria was on November 11 where she was
seen hitchhiking on the highway next to Bitter Springs back towards the Flagstaff area I would say she's
probably very much alive and very dangerous there's no predicting what she's going to
do update Maria Armstrong has been captured shortly after this story air the FBI
received a call from one of our viewers we received a telephone call that Marie Armstrong had been living in the M
Memphis Tennessee area and that she was going to be at the airport on August 3rd
of this year uh the FBI subsequently went to the airport and were able to identify her and they did Place her
under arrest Armstrong had changed her appearance by dying her hair blonde she pleaded guilty to second degree murder
and was sentenced to 15 years in prison Maria Armstrong has since been released next a mother goes undercover
to solve the mystery of her missing son San Jose California Gus Hoffman was a popular
20-year-old with a reputation as a skilled mechanic he was not a hardcore biker but one of his Hobbies was
restoring vintage motorcycles Gus brought a 1966 Harley-Davidson Sportster and spent 8 months and $4,000 restoring
it to Mint Condition on the 4th of July he was putting the finishing touches on the
motorcycle he showed it off to his brother and told him that he was going to take it off for a short ride
Gus's family never saw him [Applause] again when Gus Hoffman didn't return his mother called the police but they were
required to wait 48 hours before investigating a missing person's report so Rose Hoffman set out on her own it
was the beginning of a 10-year quest to uncover the truth about her son's disappearance I'm Miss Hoffman Rose
Hoffman first searched her neighborhood and questioned one of Gus's friends who worked at a nearby gas station but about
2 days ago I saw him pull up on his motorcycle look were these two other guys that want choppers with
him he said that he saw Gus riding by and he said there was two motorcycles in back of them and a blue Monte Carlo and
he said the reason he recognized it was because these same two motorcycle guys came in to the gas station and they were
like real mean to him and so he remembered them and they had real long hair and they were just real tough guys
guys that you don't fool around with a second witness later said that the two bikers had stopped Gus argued and
threatened him with chains when Gus pulled away they took off in Pursuit the two witnesses identified the
bikers as Michael hajes and Michael Stevenson both members of a motorcycle gang called The Forgotten
F if there was ever a person who you could say was a career criminal the name would be Michael Stevenson he's probably
the most violent person that I've ever investigated the San Jose police didn't have enough evidence to bring Stevenson
and hajes in for questioning so they talked to other gang members who knew the two men with the San Jose police
was willing to talk it seemed that everyone was afraid of Michael Stevenson never heard of him never heard of a gusf
after they found out who they were they told me expect the worst I got very angry my husband got angry we said no
this can't happen I just wanted to go after them after that I mean that's all I thought
about was going after them in order to to turn up leads for the police rose and a friend named Carol
Jensen went undercover to infiltrate motorcycle gang hang ons I tried to dress like a biker person a woman that's
been around in the biker world I wore my hair all wild and and tight pants and tight jeans and heels and bracelets and
uh just I tried to look tough it was scary but I don't think I was as a as I should have been what
about you you seen this guy we just let it be known that I had a loaded gun it was not loaded but we let
him think it was and that I would use it any moment to protect Rose hey guys what's
happening Rose Hoffman spent hundreds of hours going to biker bars different low
class establishments soliciting information from informant buying information when necessary knocking on
doors talking to anybody that whose name they were given so she doesn't like to speak Rose hired a
private investigator with connections to motorcycle gangs he set up a meeting with a woman who claimed that she knew
what happened to Gus I understand you have information about my son yes I do she told me that my son was
dead and she told me that my son was tortured he was tortured for 3 to 5 days and and I begged her I said
please tell me who did it and uh I begged him too and he said I can't he said I don't want to be
responsible for her death although Rose now thought that she knew the horrible truth of what had
happened happened to her son she had no hard evidence that could lead to an arrest I think they enticed
him I think they said come on let me see your bike let me see your bike and then
he was like intimidated and said well you know cuz they were real rough tough looking guys real tough guys and I think
he was more intimidated into everything and I think uh that once that he got off his bike that was it
I think they wheeled the bike into the garage and then walked him into the garage and when that garage door went
down he was never seen again 9 years after Gus vanished Michael Stevenson was killed in a failed
extortion attempt let me show you a picture see if you have ever seen this man before with Stevenson dead police
reined members of biker gangs and impossible Witnesses these sources confirm the story that Rose heard from
the anonymous Witnesses and this time they named names crazy guy it appears that Gus Hoffman was forced through
intimidation to go to Mike Stevenson's residence in San Jose was forced through intimidation to enter the garage there
were certain acts of violence against Gus Hoffman inside that garage which ultimately resulted in his death and The
Disappearance of his motorcycle police arrested Michael hajes one of the men Witnesses had linked to Gus's murder
Richard dollar a friend of hajes was located at San Quenton where he was already serving time for a parole
violation the third remaining suspect John stelle was finally captured in Northern California all three men were
convicted of first-degree murder and given life sentences stelle and hajes died Behind
Bars no trace of Gus Hoffman has ever been found Rose Hoffman wants to give her son
the dignity and death that he was denied at the end of his life if anybody knows where my son
is please I beg you please tell the police or call me I want my son that's the most important thing
if you have any information please log on to our website at UNS solve.com [Music]
next $30 million in gold and silver is buried somewhere in Virginia you just have to find it
Bedford County Virginia in 1821 a man named Thomas J Beal wrote about a vast fortune that he
had buried somewhere in these Rolling Hills the stash of gold and silver would be worth some $30 million
today for over a 100 years treasure Hunters have been searching the countryside looking for Bill's buried
Fortune no one has found it the amount of gold and silver That was supposed to been deposited and two
deposits gave me an idea that you'd have to have two wagons or more to bury it well somebody will get lucky somebody
will get lucky and find it by mistake or they'll find it because theyve really searched it out and know what they're
doing one way or the other I think it'll be found the legend of Beal's treasure begins in the early 1800s in New Mexico
Thomas Beal and a team of 30 miners dug up more than a ton and a half of gold and another 2 and 1/2 tons of
silver they brought the treasure to Virginia where Bill buried it he left written instructions to the location of
his fortune in the form of three secret codes or ciphers then he returned to New
Mexico and was never seen again in 1869 a wealthy Virginia solved one of the three ciphers using the Declaration of
Independence as the key he numbered the first letter of every word in the Declaration and then for
each number in the cipher he substituted the corresponding letter once it was decoded the message read I have
deposited in the county of Bedford in an excavation or vault 6 ft below the surface of the ground
5,100 lb of silver and 2,921 lb of gold securely packed in iron pots with iron covers no difficulty will
be had in find in it for more than 130 years the other two ciphers have remained unsolved one is
said to list Thomas bei's next of kin and the other is said to pinpoint the exact location of the treasure whoever
decodes it may find Beal's secret Fortune two brothers Eddie and Joe Tony and their father-in-law Earl bogs say
they've broken the cipher they claimed the message tells of five geographic locations where beill left
[Music] Clues during our filming the treasure Hunters found this 19th century Carriage
Rod they believe it is the fifth clue to their search and that Beal buried it pointing it in the direction of his
secret vault [Music] when the metal detector went off I got excited and it's hard to explain how
exciting you do get and you imagine a go down in there behind them rocks and my heart felt like it come up
in my throat miles away in a different section of Bedford County Californian Wilbur
Swift is also searching he too believes that he has broken the cipher Wilbur has
spent $20,000 trying to find the beal treasure I'm a computer programmer to start with
so on my own personal computer I decided to try to decipher this in about 8 months time I was able to break the code
and uh it told me about a specific type of rock that I was looking for and I happened to locate that specific type of
rock and there it is right there it has a face on it and it has a head on it this is is what the the deciphered
code told me to look for and then I said okay the treasure has to be underneath it because it said that's where it was
supposed to [Music] be Wilbur hired a local contractor to help him excavate under the
rock I have lived in be count all my life and over the past 25 years I have dug this treasure up here for about 20
25 people most of them knew exactly where it was and when talking to them it' be so uptight it just couldn't
hardly breathe really and when you start digging for there was always just 2 ft away from it I don't care how deep in
the ground you went it's still it was 2 ft deeper than what you uh dug the target was pre-measured at 26 ft
and we're down right now at about 24 ft so we don't have too much further to go now that we found the Rock and we've
done some extensive testing by the way and uh we're sure that we're getting the treasure out of
there some Bedford County residents are not convinced that there really is a treasure it may be here I may be sitting
on it I've got some land in tax no why it it may be on my spread I don't know I hope it is I say I think it's outside
possibility it might be a treasure somewhere yet but I don't think not believe enough in it to go up and start
digging they think they can break that code maybe they can I hope them good luck but personally I just don't believe
it's here how we doing Carl oh we're doing very well I'm down to the 19th line and I'm could the be ciphers be a
hoax Dr Carl hammer has spent 30 years studying Beal's numbers to find out if they contain a coded message as part of
his investigation he attempted to recreate conditions under which Beal wrote the ciphers in his computer
[Music] lab my aim was to find out whether the ciphers are real or whether they are
hoax hoax means these are random numbers they're toodles and so I started to analyze those numbers and I discovered
that there were some very very distinguishable patterns and they were in fact not random numbers they were not
Doodles but they contained information we don't know what the information is but there are a legitimate set of
cryptographic numbers and that is all that is known to the state and that's enough for Wilbur Swift
my wife is back in California and some of the neighbors say Hey where's Wilbur and I I don't think any of let them take
it serious well he who laughs lasts laughs best and I I believe that one of these days I might get the last
laugh the Tony Brothers believe they will have the last laugh the facts that we've got I know
it's not a hoax you know I'm convinced that it's not it's been there 160 some years supposedly and it's going to be
there uh until it's found despite all the computer programs historical research digging and
searching Thomas Beal's secret vault if it exists remains intact next the man searches for the
sister that he hasn't seen in over 50 [Music] years in the late 1920s the United
States began a downward economics viral that lasted just over a decade officially the Great Depression ended in
1942 but for many the cost and personal tragedy continued for a lifetime this was the case for a young
girl and her older brother who lived in Haskell Texas in 1941 Barney dwey was just 12 years old working parttime at at
a gas station and looking after his little sister Angeline their stepfather had been
hospitalized and their mother was gone long hours at her job as a garment [Music]
worker times were rough and we were concerned with living and trying to keep Body and Soul together and so and my
mother was trying real hard she was not a well educated person but she she could
read and write and what have you but uh that was the only job that was available
you want to play game with me okay Barney and his family managed to get by and stay together until the day
when a man who called himself Reverend Nicholas showed up okay sir hello you're Bonnie do aren't you
well I'm I'm rever Nichols most people call me daddy Nichols Oh Daddy Nichols Yeah I'm I'm a good friend of your your
mothers so he told us that uh my mother wanted us to go with them she said it would be all right if I came over the
way he put it and the way he expressed himself well there's nothing wrong how would you like a piece of candy God you
too you know just go with him and and my mother I thought well you know uh that perhaps my mother was sick goad come
along Reverend Nicholas took Bernie and Angela to a nice hotel bought both of them new outfits and fed them a fancy
meal the next day all dressed up in their new clothes the children were professionally
photographed there you go now going over here and we find the bus waiting for her
they said that something had happened to my mother and that we weren't able to see her and so they took us to uh the
bus station and I questioned him asked him well where are we going he said well said we're going to take a little trip
and uh don't worry everything's going to be all right well my sister bed and she
began to uh cry every time we would raise some objection well he would uh smooth our our feelings
down and say well everything's going to be all right you know just we'll we'll go see your mother and it worked out for
Reverend Nicholls just real well we kind of trusted him and when we got to the foster home we just felt like that that
was a place that we was to stay until we met my [Music] mother a few days later Reverend
Nicholas and his adop son Nick crane came to the orphanage to pick up Barney but not Angel time for lunch we go to
our house you can't take him now oh we're just taking him for some food and of course angelene began to cry and sob
and and held on to me and followed me out and she had to be restrained Barney later Barney learned that the
fancy new clothes and the photograph were just an advertisement to be shown to to prospective foster
parents Barney was sent to live on a ranch outside abene Texas his foster parents were Reverend Nicholas's
secretary and her husband who conveniently needed a ranch hand I had the responsibility of driving
the tractor and plowing and doing the chores on the ranch to keep the animals up and everything keep them fed and I
was pretty satisfied i' ready first there you know because I had my own horse and I could do whatever I wanted
to do you know and on the ranch I was kind of in charge really felt good about it Bernie's memories of his foster
parents are good ones even though he lived alone 8 miles from the main ranch house and rarely saw
them I began to get lonely and began to miss my mother and my sister well I just got so upset that I
decided I was going to go to hasal and look for my mother it was 97 mi from the ranch to the town of hasell when Barney
got there he discovered that his mother and stepfather had moved away so Barney set out on a journey that would
crisscross Texas and cover nearly 1,000 [Music] miles Barney found his birthfather in
curn together they traveled to Kilgore Texas and then on to Humble just outside of Houston there Barney's father put him
on a bus to Odessa where he was reunited with his mother and stepfather when I got off the bus in uh
Odessa Texas and I looked over and I saw my mother and I recognized her of course
but she didn't know me it's me ohy oh i' changed in the year that that had passed
and uh had glasses on and uh and of course my dad had bought me some you clo see you you are so brave to go all this
way we had a wonderful time there and then she says where's Angie have you heard from
Angeline no no but she's doing okay though oh we began to talk about the events that had taken place and U I
asked her I says mama I said did you sign any kind of papers or anything to release us to these people and she says
no honey says I'd never do that Barney lived happily with his mother and stepfather until he was 18
years old in 1947 he married but he never stopped thinking about his sister Angeline for the last 50 years I have
been searching for my sister and I haven't been able to contact her and I I have nobody that knows anything about
her and it has been this long 50 years half a century in my search for my sister Angelie
update on the night of our broadcast Neil Smith of Cedar Hills Texas recognized angelene as his adopted
sister Martha Jean Barney discovered that Martha Jean was mentally challenged and living in a group home for the
disabled in Arizona he immediately made plans for a reunion the moment Bernie had waited for
for more than 51 years finally arrived she open the door hello Angie can you get out of there all right
now no well it's good to see oh goodness after all this time yeah goodness look at me I
know look at me oh no goodness it was a real thrill you know I mean it's hard to
describe but you know and there she was and my search is ended I found who I was
looking for all of these years my little sister it's joy that I found B and all his family I'm happy
that I found that I've got two families now instead of one I got two and I am really happy what I did I
sent a letter to Mr Nicholls [Music] next do the spirits of great artists still create masterpieces through the
hands of this man for those who love art it's tempting to wish that the great Masters could
return to paint just one more campus that's impossible right well not a few believe in the extraordinary claims of a
man named Lis gas perto as he Scrolls colors across the page gas perto seems like a man
possessed if his astounding claims are true every movement he makes is directed by the spirits of long dead Masters who
continue to create new work from Beyond the [Music] Grave Luis gas perto grew up in Sal Pao
Brazil's largest city the culture here Embraces the Supernatural and many consider psychic experiences part of
everyday life the gas peretto family is no exception Louis's mother Zia has written
13 books in which she says we're all channeled from the spirit world Luis was just a boy when he first began to
believe that he also possessed psychic abilities at the age of 13 Luis was suffering uffing from stress and
insomnia and was having trouble at school Zia thought that he needed counseling and took him to see Madame
laise one of the city's best known [Music] Clairvoyant I was embarrassed because it
was the first time there and uh but I start to feel all that my body shaking inside and all that energy
and something was holding my throat and I tried to control myself and that gets worse so I I had to
to Let It Go Lis recalls feeling pain and tingling in his arms to Madame liise it was a
sign that he would be able to channel writing just like his mother but instead Luis began to
draw Luis gaspero says that over the past four decades he's channeled more than 20,000 paintings by 50 different
artists we asked if we can film one of the channeling sessions when you invite me for a presentation I asked them if
they want to if they want to come because I cannot do myself so if they say yes I just you know accept the
invitation our invitation was apparently accepted and and we film gas perto in New York
City Gas perto Works with such intensity an assistant holds down the work the sensation of coming in
involving me you know involving my arms and I just let it go and the arm goes by
that force not me it's not coming from inside comes from outside during the session gas perto
complet did six drawings and three paintings most in less than 5 minutes he moved easily between different Artistic
Styles I try not to control anything I try not to put my thoughts or my ideas but you see people think that uh if you
are unconscious there going to be somebody else coming through you are taking your body that's impossible
nobody takes your body you know it's just energetical influence through you so I just learned to be
passive during the 45 minutes we were filming gas perto says he channeled works by seven artists among the
greatest of all time is it proof that the great Masters are still hard at work in the
afterlife this is a painting by Pierre AUST renois completed in 1877 this is renois as channeled through
gaspero in roughly 5 minutes Claude Monae 1880 Claude Monae through gaspero Vincent vano
1890 van go through [Music] gaspero ART experts in the United States are not convinced the notion that any
one of these artists take a van go for example a man of of extraordinary intensity and seriousness of purpose to
think that he would want to come back after his death and produce um third fourth fifth rate
imitations of what he successfully did during his life seems to me incredible gasparo certainly seems to be possessed
by some Force I mean perhaps it's the force of his own subconscious playing back images that he's seen in our
history books or perhaps he's really receiving these images from the afterlife I mean I certainly can't
say the painters are coming through me because they want to show that there is life after death and they want us to
think about eternity they want to help the evolution of our conceptions of Life they want us
to see life in a different way is Luis gaspero a window to the metaphysical side of art can there
possibly be any substance to His stunning claims no matter what you may believe even a skeptic has to admit that
Luis gaspero sure puts on a good show [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

This, Episode includes: Mental Daze, Motorcycle Mom, Beale's Cypher, Looking for Angeline and Gasparetto.

Brief Summary

Maria Armstrong's murder case, a mother's quest for her son, buried treasure, and a man channeling famous artists are featured in this episode.

Key points

The Mysterious Visitor. A woman named Sandy arrives in Bitter Springs, hiding from something.
Maria Armstrong's Dark Past. Maria Armstrong, once a promising young woman, spirals into paranoia and violence.
A Mother's Ten-Year Quest. Rose Hoffman embarks on a decade-long search for her missing son, Gus.
The Shocking Truth About Gus. Witnesses reveal the violent circumstances surrounding Gus Hoffman's disappearance.
The Hunt for Beal's Treasure. Treasure hunters seek a buried fortune worth $30 million in Virginia.
The Search for Beal's Ciphers. Dr. Carl Hammer investigates the legitimacy of Beal's ciphers, finding patterns that suggest they contain information.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just had a funny feeling that things were not all right.

A resident's intuition about Sandy's behavior.

2:35WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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