Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 1, Episode 3 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

this program is about unsolved mysteries whenever possible the actual family members and police officials have
participated in recreating the events what you're about to see is not a news broadcast tonight we'll examine four new
mysteries each one has been recreated in detail wherever possible using the actual participants in the hope that
someone watching may know the truth join them you may be able to help solve a mystery
[Music] February 19th 1982 a quiet residential community in a small city of Woonsocket
Rhode Island on this day six years ago this peaceful New England town of 46,000 was stunned by the most savage murder in
his history at approximately 3:30 p.m. Doug Heath returned from work to his apartment on Providence Street as he
walked through the door he found his neighbor's three-year-old child locked out of her mother's apartment when I saw
a Nicole standing on the stairs I knew immediately something was wrong where's mommy I asked her where her
mother was and she told me that she was downstairs lying down I tried the door into the first-floor apartment their
apartment it was locked I knew something was was wrong right there Doug went down to the laundry room to
check on her mother Susan Lafferty [Music] I saw a body leaned up against the dryer
in the same instant I turned to my left and I saw a sue lying face down in a puddle of blood it hit me right then and
there that the murderer something really bad had happened [Music] [Applause] when rescue arrived at the scene alone
at the first offices they found that two women had been brutally assaulted in a basement area of the kravan Street home
and for all intents and purposes had been left for dead one woman expired at the scene and the
other one was in a very very critical condition rescue stabilized her the best that they could and transported her from
the scene to the hospital emergency room the two victims both lived in the apartment building on providence street
22 year old Doreen Picard was pronounced dead at the scene the other woman 27 year-old Susan
Lafferty was barely alive she was immediately rushed to the hospital Susan was in surgery for two and a half hours
while she clung to life her husband Ernie waited and prayed the way they described it she was hanging by a thread
her injuries were so severe it was touch-and-go at the time miraculously Susan survived but she remained in a
deep coma fearful for her safety the police guarded her room around the clock it was obvious to us that the
perpetrator in his mind had left both girls for dead we immediately became worried that he
would realize that it was a witness to the attack and that he would come back and try to eliminate that witness by
killing her we were hopeful that when she came out of the coma she would be able to tell us who it was that had done
this thirty days later Susan finally and worse will her coma but she had no memory of her attack or her attacker she
developed total amnesia about what happened during the brutal assault in the basement she'd also sustained
injuries that have left her physically disabled Susan's amnesia sent the investigation
of the seemingly motorist crime back to square one [Music] everyone expected me to wake up and tell
her who attacked me and killed Doreen I don't know who attacked us I have no idea even now Susan's family is
concerned for her safety and she has requested that she not be identified on camera the coma I would be able to tell
them it's five years later and I'm no closer at this period of time then I was five years ago I don't know what he
looked like or anything else about him I have no memory whatsoever of the attack
six years later the police are still searching for a motive Susan Lafferty was a housewife with two
young children and was an active member of her neighborhood watch Doreen Picard was studying for a career in childhood
development she lived upstairs in the apartment building to the l'affaire tazed owned
ironically she was packing to move to a new building on the very day of the attack like Susan
Doreen's parents desperately want to find an answer as to who kill their daughter
go to bed thinking about her and we wake up thinking about her you know we have to keep pushing and knocking on doors
because I feel like there's somebody out there that has the missing piece to that
puzzle I have no recollection whatsoever of basically from New Year's Eve to the
19th of February the 19th totally is a blackout on February 19th the day of the attack Susan had lunch with her sister
Carol rivetti at 1:30 two friends came to the door hi my sister came back from the doorway in
stuck her head in the parlor and said Carol I'm going downstairs I'll be right back she came back
upstairs and I could hear her talking to somebody in the doorway so I got up to go see who she was talking to
I knew one of the guys with the other guy I didn't know when she introduced me to him the two men then went to the
basement to look at some puppies that susan was selling Susan talked to the men for five minutes and they left 10
minutes later at 1:45 Carol went home that was the last time anyone saw Susan before the attack no one can be sure of
what happened that day between 145 and 320 when Doug Feith discovered Susan and Doreen's bodies
[Music] [Music] you know alright I have to admit that I was shocked by the initial scene the
brutality of the assault it was not just a murder it was not just an assault it was a frenzied attack it was an overkill
okay 15 wounds okay only one person apart from Susan saw the killer Nicole Susan's three year old
daughter was in the apartment that afternoon her grandmother Florence Lafferty tried
to coax the details of the attackers identity out of Nicole's memory as I came in the house Nicole was there and
from the very beginning she told me that she let him Ian she thought that was her
mother's friend she saw the man she says he was probably a little bigger than her father he had a
mustache she even told me that he wore a cap with the visor towards the back he had sneakers and he also had jeans
when she heard a mother crying she went downstairs and as she was going down he was coming up he had a a a rack in his
back pocket it was red and white she called it polka-dots and that she was locked out in the hallway while the man
escaped to defect the killer left his murder weapon a pipe in the house as he left it was not found
for four days after the assault Nicole was questioned extensively by the police department as much as the police
would like to have a person who definitely saw the perpetrator that day her story has changed too much to be of
real value to us the stress and confusion as she was under at that point in time really made it very difficult to
get a real solid sure story it's a complex case because of the different factors involved first we have two
victims and those victims all bring their individual traits with them they have their own friends they were
involved in different things there was also two newspaper ads that had been running one was fair puppies for sale
any other was for an apartment for rent the perpetrator might have responded to one of the ads was a friend of either
one of the victims or their family or was just a total stranger since the murder
Doreen's family has conducted their own informal investigation which they believe has led to a series of anonymous
phone calls a few months after Doreen was killed I received a phone call about 2:00 a.m. he said that I should be
concerned with my family my children and not pursue the matter so hard and that for openers they might burn my garage
down my repair shop every time we pursue the matter we get phone calls obviously we're putting somebody uneasy
we're keeping somebody off-guard you know it's like a nightmare because I'm watching over my shoulder all the
time and I'm very fearful for Susan because maybe some day this person's gonna realize that hey maybe she can
remember I still hope every morning when I get off that maybe today something will snap and he'll come back but it's
been five years and it's still not I'm no closer now than I was five years ago I'm current I don't look over my
shoulder one when I do things but I've always got this back thought is he still there
[Music] next the story of a man who makes his living by getting married over and over
he is known as the heart attack and so far he has fleeced as many wives and over a million dollars
[Music] New York City 1981 Luis Carlucci arrived in the suburb of Forest Hills carrying
nothing but a garment bag is one good suit in this affluent community he was a stranger a man without a past he found
work as a short-order cook in a diner but no one knew where he came from [Music]
in September 1981 Lewis Carlucci met a 41 year old woman who we will call Barbara at a neighborhood bar seven
weeks later he married but Barbara did not is at least Carlucci is a con man he makes his living by stealing women's
hearts and then their money Carlucci is suspected of marrying at least nine different wives and fathering over 30
children around the country he is said to have swindled his victims out of more than 1 million dollars Lewis Carlucci is
known as con Juan or the heart attacker when you try to explain to someone what happened they look at you and say well
how could you get taken like that and then you find out there were 500 other people that were taken the same way it
was supposed to be as brilliant as Barbra was the only one or carlucci's victims who had talked to us she asked
her she not be identified on camera and at one time she feared reprisals from carlucci but the fact that he's still
roaming someplace in the United States and getting away with this it's terrible Phillip barbers telling
her story tonight because she wants to warn other women about Lewis Carlucci the police are convinced that Carlucci
is perpetrating a same con game on some unsuspecting woman at this very moment tonight we'll see exactly how Carlucci
perpetrated his schemes which a police call marriage swindles Carlucci usually finds his victims and
restaurants and friendship clubs excuse me I was out with friend I'm loosening and having a drink and he sent over
drinks and got to talking that's how a [Music] first impression when I first saw him no
style no class however he was warm very friendly we had a good sense of humor so I started dating him I thought that's
pretty nice bye he told me he grew up in the Bronx that he traveled a lot that he was in the
restaurant business and he wants to settle down and then he could give me everything that anybody could really
want and I said okay the guy he's pretty nice I like him I like this company [Music]
and I thought well why not the power vested in me by the state of New York I now pronounce you man and wife
you may now kiss the bride after a whirlwind courtship lasting only seven weeks Barbara married Lois Carlucci in a small
ceremony at the bar where they'd first met immediately after the wedding the relationship began to deteriorate kind
of jumped on me for talking to other people at the wedding and he got very angry about the idea
possibly that we even got married after the honeymoon they moved into an unfurnished apartment in New York where
they lived out of suitcases Carlucci would not let Barbour out of his sight and paid for the living expenses with
Barbara's credit cards the change in his attitude and his personality shocked me because there
were times when he was real nice and then all of a sudden he flipped and it would be like black and white
jquan hi Donna and then I got scared I really liked it because I realized there's our compact in it you know I
didn't have what he thought I had which was money the man was very physical ever
pull that again I couldn't turn my head he'd pull my hair if I look the wrong way I'd get smacked of course I couldn't
talk to anyone at all if we were in the restaurant I couldn't even order anything from the
waitress because he felt like I was looking at the person to signal or whatever can I get you some dessert
Thank You Man just the check Carlucci continued to put the bite on Barbara he used her credit cards up to
their limit emptied her bank account and when they went out together he always used Barbara's money Carlucci bled
Barbara dry I was just held captive let's put it that way for about six months did never let me
out of his sight not one time I couldn't go to the bathroom without them being there so I had no way of trying to
contact anyone or telling anyone about anything [Music] he caught me with the razor I was going
to come over because that was the only I could get out he knew that I was going to die whether I did it myself or I
would just waste away and die so his reaction was well I may as well let you go cuz you're gonna die on May 13th 1982
almost six months after their wedding Lois Carlucci left Barbara having squandered all of her savings a total of
twenty thousand dollars encouraged by her friends Barbara filed charges with the police when Barbara face came to us
and gave us information about Colucci we started our investigation and began to talking to quite a few people to speak
to these women was an eye-opener for me Colucci doesn't just leave physical and financial wreckage behind it's kind of a
psychological scarring that you see and how long was it between the time they feel embarrassed and ashamed and they
don't want their relatives and friends and co-workers to know about it I would like to see this man get caught he
doesn't belong out in society and whether he'll hurt anybody very physically I don't know but he
definitely has to be taken off the streets he travels all over we have had him in
California Las Vegas New Orleans in Florida New Jersey New York State he moves around quite a bit
he's wanted for bigamy grand larceny and fraud I'd be very surprised if at this moment that she was not with a woman I'm
sure he's been dealing with maybe 10 or 15 women a year at the very least because he's not going to stop what he's
doing this is the way he makes his living [Music] luis Carlucci has a dubious distinction
of being captured twice thanks to viewers tips after we first broadcast carlucci's story he was arrested in
Nashville Tennessee he was extradited back to New York and later released on $1,000 bail pending trial
once again Carlucci disappeared and once again after we featured him on a second
broadcast a viewers tip led to his arrest this time in Los Angeles [Music] in a moment the story of a quiet
church-going house is accused of helping a convicted murderer escape from prison
[Music] Oh in 1986 Diane brought back the 43 year old housewife lived in a small
Pennsylvania town of Roseburg she was a devout Christian and had been active in her local church for almost 20 years
on April 5th 1986 ion brought back disappeared a month later Dianne's abandoned car was
found in a motel parking lot 30 minutes from home in the trunk the police found Diane's overnight bag
the same day Diane banished John young our own remember the local prison escaped the aunt was serving a life
sentence for the brutal murder of an 18-year old school girl at the exact time that he escaped
Diane brought Beck was seen just one half mile from the prison driving along the same country road for Johnny out
vanished I don't know if Diane's life I hope she's alive I really do I believe personally that she is alive and I think
she is with John neither John Yahoo Diane brought back had been seen for almost two years the authorities
believed Diane may have been yonce accomplice and her family is mystified as to why this apparently respectable
and happily married woman should have vanished without a word was Diane kidnapped by a desperate prisoner was
she a willing accomplice who helped a convicted murderer escape I know my daughter she would not deliberately help
a convicted murderer escape from prison my daughter would not do this yes I think good my wife probably did help
John y'all get out of jail under pressure for what reason I don't know it's hard to say she could have been
threatened by John you out I don't know what happened I really don't Dyanne brought back and her husband
Chester had two daughters and had just celebrated their silver wedding anniversary
Diane led a busy life she had worked as a bank manager avidly pursued an interest in psychology and as one of her
many community activities wrote letters to prisoners who had no family or friends
[Music] in 1966 John Yount was a popular math teacher at the high school and Dubois
Pennsylvania when April 28 1966 the out offered a ride to Pamela sue Ryman one of his pupils as she was walking home
from [Music] later that afternoon pamela school books were discovered beside the country road
in the nearby woods searchers found her body she had been beaten with a wrench raped and her throat had been cut
the next day John Yount confessed to the murder of Pamela sue rhymer he was convicted of first-degree murder and
sentenced to life in prison sixteen years later John began writing to Diane brought back
by my precious lady I wanted you to be close to me so much today I hope my enjoyment and adoration of you
is an incentive to be the best you can you are a classy lady I miss you Dyan met John through a friend of hers
who had been visiting John and she was no longer able to do it and Diane had been corresponding with prisoners in
other states and she thought this would be like a continuation of what she had been doing and it would be a very
fulfilling thing for her to do she was just always thinking of other people she really was a people person after 20
years behind bars John yout had become a model prisoner he played Oregon for the choir mastered
computer programming and taught in the prison school around here it was very easy for him with to be liked and he had
a real good manner about him in terms of us getting involved with people okay class if you would open your books to
page 69 the bottom of the page John is a strong-willed person and very persuasive
I believe that he could probably persuade almost anybody given the right opportunity and given the right time he
has a lot of skill in being able to manipulate people Diane began visiting out at the local
jail and continued to see him even when he was transferred to Rockview prison over two hours away Diane came to see
John the aunts every week she never missed it was regular is this week after week she was his girlfriend definitely
they were it was not a casual visit like a brother and sister visiting when they
started her visit they were embrace and kiss and the same when they left which is really all it's permitted during a
visit I'm always fine when I see Diane brought back fell in love with John Yount I had
no idea that they were romantically involved it appeared to me that they were simply very good friends she never
confided in me if they were romantically involved Diane talked it's about John you out I know she was writing him I
know she visited him which that's about all it was just a little bit as far as I
knew [Music] John yow tried repeatedly to appeal his conviction finally the United States
Supreme Court denied yonce request for a retrial in February 1985 John Yao wrote Diane
again be my Valentine love forever [Music] I hope more than anything that this is
the last Valentine Day that we will spend apart [Music] on April 5th 1986 journey out escaped
[Music] yawns excellent behavior had earned him the right to work unsupervised outside
the prison fence the morning of the escape John was to go out and cut some hay he was told specifically by the
supervisor what he was supposed to do look the other men to their particular areas and then made his rounds that was
the last time John Yount was ever seen I was on the way up over Rishel Hill they're headed for the bowling alley and
I've seen his car come door I just casually looked over and I thought that girl looks familiar
looks like John yawns his girlfriend so I thought to myself what is she doing on
this road that was the last time Diane broad Beck was ever seen a chair project yes sir sergeant dagger from the
Pennsylvania State Police mr. Robert Scott oh yes sir like to talking about John Young and your wife are you
familiar with John Young when a troopers came to my door on Sunday wanting to know where my wife was saying that route
had been broken out of prison by someone or thinking it was her as far as I was concerned they were completely wrong she
had nothing to do with it I thought that she had going to Williamsburg Virginia and I believe that until Monday or
Tuesday when she did not return the police discovered that Diane had a secret bank account and had withdrawn
$7,500 in the weeks just before she disappeared we discovered that she also placed a car
into a u storage facility and that car was placed in there within two weeks prior to the escape and we discovered
that there was telephone contact with John yonder between she and he at the prison the night before the escape there
was a 14 minute conversation which occurred at that point in time we decided to file charges against her in
assisting John yon I do not believe that Diane deliberately helped a convicted murderer escape from prison
she was a very moral person and you just did not do certain things she had a very
strong code of ethics and certainly helping a prisoner escape was not among them a month after the escape Diane's
car was found abandoned at a motel just 20 miles from her home a bag was found in the trunk containing Diane's personal
items Julie cosmetics and over a dozen pairs of underwear there is a theory that John
used Diane as an instrument of his escape he discovers that he is not gonna get out of the prison system he has a woman
on the outside who can do things for you she does them he then kills her he departs from the scene he would be gone
free and clear the other theory is that she really loved him and he really loved
her that theory is one on I hold I believe she is with him well my wife has run off with another man or that for
sure I do not like it that's for sure you know we were married for 25 years and I thought they were fairly good
years you know and I told many people she didn't believe just me she left the whole family I don't think she's alive
because I think she is she would contact somebody in the family I will never even
think that she is dead I know she's alive I think of nothing else but my missing
daughter and I want her back John Yount murdered a high-school girl at one time he flew off the handle at that time and
could do it again I think she should fear for her life I think at some point in time John can kill again update John
Yount and Diane brought Beck had been captured two of our viewers in Boise Idaho recognized brought Beck as a
former coworker Cathy Herrmann when they showed the picture it was Cathy's face obviously and once they said she was a
bank manager and was from Massachusetts and they said that John's a background was in computers there was a dead
giveaway the Humphries called the FBI and after a month-long investigation the fugitive couple was arrested at
their home he seemed a little surprised for a minute and he put his hands up in the
area he didn't look around or anything really deserve it I think he had his eyes on the guy with the gun next the
mystery of 21 million dollars in gold and silver buried somewhere in Virginia it has eluded treasure hunters for over
a century [Music] I have deposited in the county of Bedford 5,100 pounds of silver and 2921
pounds of gold securely packed in iron pots with iron covers no difficulty will be had and find in it in 1821 Thomas J
Beale wrote of an enormous fortune he buried in the hills of Bedford County Virginia
according to legend 21 million dollars in gold silver and jewels for over 100 years treasure hunters have been combing
the countryside looking for Beals buried hoard no one has found it the amount of
gold and silver that was supposed to be in the pasta there's two deposits gave me an idea that you'd have to have two
wagons are more than two to bury it his pots on pot with silver and gold in in Cohen's and I'm excited about getting
down to work set well some wetter will get lucky somebody will get lucky and find it by mistake or they'll find it
because they've really searched it out and know what they're doing when weather I think it'll be found the legend of
Beals fortune begins in the early 1800s in New Mexico Thomas beam and a team of 30 miners dug up gold and silver worth
over 21 million dollars of today's prices they brought the treasure to Virginia for Biel buried it
he left written instructions to the location of his fortune in the form of three secret codes or siphons
then he went back to New Mexico and disappeared in 1869 a wealthy Virginian Psalm one of
the three ciphers using the Declaration of Independence as the key he numbered the first letter of every word in the
Declaration of Independence then for each number in the cypher he substituted the corresponding letter decoded the
message read I have deposited in the county of Bedford and excavation or vault six feet below the surface of the
ground five thousand one hundred pounds of silver in two thousand nine bills then
describes the treasure in detail securely packed for over 100 years the other two ciphers have remained unsolved
one list Thomas Beals associates and heirs and this one pinpoints the exact location of the treasure
whoever decodes it may find deals fortunes stowed in the secret vault roughly the size of two rolls-royce's in
this next mystery no join several treasure hunters some of whom say they have broken the cipher they are
convinced that sooner or later someone will strike it rich two brothers Eddie and Joe Tony and
their father-in-law Earl Boggs have spent nine years searching for the treasure they say the ax broken the cipher and
that the message tells of five geographical points for a hundred and sixty-seven years ago Thomas Beale left
the clues which one-by-one will lead to his fortune but Tony brothers are currently looking for the fifth and
final point which is the clue that will lead them to the vault we only have one more point to go and we've verified each
place we found something that he layout and degrees and the footage and paces came out exactly if we can't find this
field point after finding four there's something bad wrong I'm confident that we'll find it
[Music] the Tony brothers believe this 19th century carriage rod is the fifth clue
in our search they think that it was purposefully buried by Beal pointing in the direction of his secret vault we
know what the last degree is to go I'm a little shaky right now on account of it
because I could I know there's not enough time today to go do it well when the middle of dictor went off
I got excited and it's hard to explain how exciting you do get and you imagine a goal down
in there behind them rocks and my heart felt like it come up in my throat meanwhile miles away in a completely
different section of Bedford County Wilbur Swift from Garden Grove California is also searching he believes
that he too is broken a cipher and has spent the last year and 20,000 dollars trying to find the Beale treasure I'm a
computer programmer to start with so on my own personal computer I decided to try to decipher this in about eight
months time I was able to break the code and 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 what the deciphered code told me looked for and then I said okay the
treasure has to be underneath it because it said that's where it was supposed to
be Wilbur hired a local contractor Ken Dooley to help him excavate under the rock I have lived in Biff account all of
my life and over the past 25 years I held Douglas Tracy up here for about 20 25 people most of them knew exactly
where it was and when talking to him if he's so uptight I just couldn't hardly breathe really
and when you start digging fall there was always just two feet away from it I don't care how deep in a grind you went
and still it was two feet deeper than what you dug the target was pre measured at 26 feet and we're down right now at
about 24 feet so we don't have too much farther to go now that we found the rock
and we've done some extensive testing by the way and we're sure that we're getting the treasure out of there
I've been lady yep Oh 50 years born raised here they've searched and searched and I haven't seen anybody come
up with anything yet Bedford counties local residents have seen diggers commonly diggers go empty-handed they're
not convinced there really is a traveler it may be here only be sitting on it I've got some land in taxes know where
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 you can not believe enough in it to go up and start digging they think they can break
that code maybe they can I hope I'm good luck but personally I just don't believe
it you could the Beale ciphers be a hoax a computer pioneer dr. Carl hammer has spent 30 years studying Veals numbers to
determine if there truly is a coded message as part of his investigation he attempted to recreate the conditions
under which bill wrote the cipher in his computer lab my aim was to find out whether the ciphers are real or whether
hoax hoax means these are random numbers doodles and so I start to analyze those
numbers there and I discovered that there were some very distinguishable patterns and they were in fact not
random numbers there 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 even though he has lost his
job now living in a nearby motel room Wilber Swift is still digging at the bottom of his 25-foot shaft so far it
was found nothing my wife is back in California and some of the neighbors say a word Wilbur and I I don't think any
other take it serious well he who laughs last last best and I believe that that one of these days I
might get the last laugh the Tony brothers believe they will have the last laugh they still haven't found the
treasure but they do believe they have located the final clue while we were filming they had to return home after
running out of money but they will be back the fact that we've got I know it's not hope you know I'm convinced that
it's not it's Ben's are a hundred and sixty some years supposedly and it's gonna be there until it's found in spite
of all the computer programs historical research digging and searching Thomas Beals secret ball if it exists remains
intact the residents of Bedford County have played host to treasure seekers for nearly a century and I've asked us to
remind everyone that unauthorized digging is against the law tonight we've examined four mysteries
and at the heart of each is a secret the secret kept hidden by amnesia by a con game by a prison escape and by a code
perhaps someone somewhere can unlock these secrets perhaps as someone was watching perhaps it's you
[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Brief Summary

Four unsolved mysteries include a brutal murder, a con artist, a prison escape, and buried treasure.

Key points

The Savage Murder in Woonsocket. In 1982, Woonsocket, Rhode Island, was rocked by a brutal double assault that left one woman dead and another in a coma. Doug Heath's discovery of the scene marked the beginning of a chilling investigation.
Susan's Amnesia. After surviving a brutal attack, Susan Lafferty woke from a coma with no memory of the incident, leaving investigators at square one. Her family's concern for her safety grew as they feared the attacker might return.
The Heart Attack Con Man. Luis Carlucci, known as the 'heart attacker,' has swindled women out of millions through deceitful marriages. His story reveals the psychological scars left on his victims.
The Disappearance of Diane Broadbeck. Diane Broadbeck vanishes after a visit with John Yount, raising suspicions.
The Treasure Hunt for Beale's Fortune. Treasure hunters search for a legendary fortune buried in Virginia, with many believing they have cracked the code.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I have no memory whatsoever of the attack.

Susan Lafferty's shocking revelation about her amnesia.

5:18WatchMay 16, 2019

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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