Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 2, Episode 18 - Full Episodes | 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 are about to see is not a news broadcast tonight on unsolved mysteries
this peaceful suburban neighborhood in New Jersey concealed a violent the secretive Colombian cocaine gang a
vicious ringleader of this gang vanished in 1986 the FBI wants your help tracking
him down the sweetheart swindler is a charming but ruthless con man who preys on unsuspecting women by stealing their
hearts and their money in an 11 hour period March of 1988 a sadistic spree of violence left four people dead in two
different states and shockingly the suspects are two teenage boys also we will present a most unusual and poignant
case of kidnapping in 1944 two teenage girls told ten-week-old Lars Harding jr. in front of his mother Chicago apartment
for over 45 years as brother Jeffrey has been trying to solve this case he is convinced that Lawrence is still alive
and may even be watching tonight join me you may be able to help solve a mystery
[Music] [Applause] [Music] imagine watching television and suddenly learning you've been kidnapped as an
infant and had a brother and two parents that you never thought existed well somewhere in the United States there is
a man who in the next few minutes may make the shocking discovery it all began 37 years ago in 1953 when an 8 year old
boy named Jeffrey Harding was tottered by schoolmates about a brother he never knew
that same day Jeffrey's mother showed him some scrapbook stored in the Attic she explained that he did indeed have a
brother but the boy was kidnapped before Jeffrey had been born I really didn't know see I didn't need
to spend a lot of time like I spent with you I just didn't know what to do I felt
so empty inside and I felt so so sad for my parents I could just look in my mother's eyes and see the pain his two
girls came he took him they ran and I also wanted to know what it was like to have a brother and I always felt cheated
that I couldn't communicate with him I couldn't play with him couldn't wrestle with him couldn't go to a ball game with
him I couldn't do anything like everybody else did with their own brother and sister this is the article
FBI reported in search for kidnapped baby the Federal Bureau of Investigation yes Jeffrey's mother brought on a baby
book and read him clippings she had saved about the events of June 30th 1944 the baby was kidnapped eight days ago by
two Negro girls Spencer Dayton of the Chicago FBI Department declined comment according to
federal law [Music] that morning with ten-week-old Lars jr. in his carriage Jeffrey's mother made
her customary trip to the corner market and while she was in the store there were two girls there that teenage girls
that didn't look like they were up to anything bad thank you it's my first Margaret didn't recognize the two girls
from the neighborhood there [ __ ] their attention was innocent as my mother was
coming home from the market the two girls were following her but she had to think a whole lot of it she just thought
that the two girls were walking down the street as she was going home and when she pulled into the yard with
the baby carriage she saw a neighbor who lived upstairs you mind lawrence for me sure I will I'm
just gonna run these inside okay the lady who was supposed to be watching my brother didn't keep an eye on him
long enough she watched him for a little while and then she kind of turned away [Music]
[Music] by the time my mother who was running as fast as she could got to the alley and
could couldn't run after the girls could give chase to the girls the girls were gone
[Music] [Music] [Music] hello after three agonizing days Nadi's received a phone call you have the baby
the girl on the other end of the line identified herself as one of the people that took the baby and the girl said
we're going to bring the baby to you and my mother said when will you please bring him home and as she was waiting
for an answer the girl hung up on her when she was never asked for ransom and that was the last contact my mother had
with the kidnappers the FBI the Chicago police searched for Lawrence Junior to no avail finally after four weeks the
investigation was called off Lawrence Harding jr. had vanished into thin air forty five years ago because
the authorities couldn't help my parents and because everyone was advising them that they should try to adjust to the
fact that they would never see their son again for the last 45 years they've had
to do just that they've had to try to live in a life a full life knowing that they would never see their son again
when one mother told me what had happened and I think it was then that a seed was kind of planted inside of me
that because I love my parents I wanted to make this right for them geoffery search for his missing brother
ran into one stonewall after another until August of 1986 thanks to the Freedom of Information Act he was able
to secure the original FBI records pertaining to the case of his brother's disappearance in these files Jeffrey
found a startling new lead and he hired private investigator Paul Rigsby together the two men learned that in
1944 the FBI had interviewed two railroad porters who told a curious tale July 4th 1944 Chicago's main train
station four days after Lawrence Harding juniors disappearance the FBI file from
Washington that we were able to get a copy of indicated one of the teenage girls showed up at the train station
where the baby meeting the descriptions of Lawrence excuse me ma'am are you going to say
goes yes I am I just have to run to the washroom and that's really nowhere for me to put him
down in there well I've got to get that train [Music] okay I'll be back in just a moment
[Music] more than likely the woman was on the platform with the baby the Train is
fixing to pull off and she's not sure if the teenage girl is on the train or not
on the train and realized that it was her time to get on the train and was believing the teenage girl when she had
told her not to worry and more than like that she got on the train with the child waiting for the
teenage girl to find her however after the train took off it became obvious that the teenage girl didn't make the
Train track three right when the older woman with the baby arrived at Union Station in st. Louis
she approached to porters George Hill and a Charlie McCall and explained to them how she came by the baby can you
help me yes ma'am I was in the Chicago train station and this teenage girl left this child friend alone she said just
one for the washroom but she never came back out have you seen anybody around here looking for a child no ma'am what
was she wearing she also told him that she was going to Magnolia Arkansas but told them that if that mother decided
she wanted the child she'd be in Magnolia and she could find her there I know one more I'll hurt me well I'll
keep an eye out for a man thank you yes ma'am when Paul first told me about the lady taking my brother all the way
to make Miller your Arkansas made me really feel good I was really kind of hoping against hope that that he would
that the lady had taken in Magnolia Arkansas which is a very small town everybody knows each other and it would
be easy to locate my brother [Music] armed with this promising information Rigsby immediately went to Magnolia he
conducted interviews and combed through the town's records but unfortunately turned up no trace of the woman or her
family when Paul returned from Magnolia Arkansas and he basically came back empty-handed
it was a blow but it wasn't one that I couldn't overcome or the Paul and I couldn't overcome then Paul theorized
and I do believe this is true that more than likely because it was July 4th weekend that this lady returned from
Magnolia Arkansas either to Chicago or maybe even to Detroit and that may be where my brother is today the woman at
the train station probably thought that the girl didn't want this child I believe that this woman was a good
Samaritan she took care of the child she did everything she could to let the porters know where she was going and in
in no way shape or form did she have anything to do with the abduction Jeffrey Hardy will not give up his
search until he finds out what happened to his brother he is certain that he is alive and probably unaware of his
strange past if there's anything that I dream about as being the happy ending it
would be finding my brother finding out that he was raised in a loving environment finding out that he would be
willing to accept me and accept my family and that we could spend our lives together as friends next the story of
how FBI surveillance on a quiet New Jersey suburb revealed a vast money laundering and cocaine distribution
crime [Music] in the summer of 1986 a cat-and-mouse game between the FBI the notorious drug
dealer played out in an unusual setting an affluent suburb of Cliffside Park New
Jersey the FBI had managed to trace a money-laundering ring to its lair and they wanted to track these illegal
millions to their source cocaine this quiet wealthy neighborhood would seem to be an unlikely place to find a criminal
gang but its isolation and security was exactly what the mastermind of this money-laundering ring was looking for
[Music] pedro Uribe was a 38 year old Colombian direct ties with the infamous medellin
cartel ran his criminal organization with a ruthless hand just saw you hit Becky
Pedro Uribe ran this organization by fear informant information tells us that one of his couriers lost 75 kilos of
cocaine Uribe on hearing this had this individual as well as his family members murdered it later turned out that the
man was innocent this only added to Yuri Bay's reputation for viciousness surveillance i-4 is ready in May of 1986
the FBI decided to set up round-the-clock surveillance of several of Yuri base properties
they soon learned that in order to keep the outward appearance of normalcy people posing as families were trucked
in on weekends ironically the surveillance showed that these MOC families changed from week to week in
the evenings in order to make these homes look less suspicious each was occupied by a live-in babysitter Uribe
was also careful in selecting a style of house he occupied one of the primary features that they look for when renting
these houses was an attached garage with an automatic garage door opener and if it didn't have it they did install one
this was done so they could get in and out with different individuals and less chance of being seen by the neighbors
using these houses as a base Uribe had developed a simple and seemingly foolproof money-laundering scheme
low-level operative nicknamed Smurfs by the FBI were dispatched from the houses to banks throughout the New York
metropolitan area yes could I please have a money order there for 1980 dollars these Smurfs would then use
small amounts of the illicit cash to buy legitimate money orders from many different banks at the height of the
operation there were seven Smurfs identified that were money laundering $50,000 a day and during five working
days they could money launderer up to two million dollars a week though the FBI knew Uribe was a money launderer
they had yet to prove that he dumped cocaine but one day they got lucky on September 3rd 1986 outside of one of
uribe safe houses agents observed a surreptitious delivery of some mysterious boxes gambling that there was
cocaine hidden inside those boxes the FBI decided to try and catch Uribe red-handed
the following night made their move bang we got 20 keys in there search of the house the FBI found 307 kilos of 95%
pure cocaine wrapped in plastic bags the total amount of cocaine seized that night would have been worth seven
million dollars on the street FBI agents searched Uribe's other safe houses one home a specially trained dog led the FBI
directly to a large potted plant when the plant was examined the agents got a surprise they found eight hundred
thousand dollars in cash covered with enough traces of cocaine to have attracted the dog's attention but
unfortunately Uribe and his henchmen had been tipped off and managed to escape and today he and his associates are
wanted men Pedro Uribe is believed to be regularly commuting between the United States and
Colombia he was last spotted 1989 in New Jersey at a christening ceremony for a relative three of Yuri based partners in
crime are also Colombian nationals they have been identified as Hugo bulb beam and two brothers Luis Nirvana Rango the
three fled to Colombia but the FBI have reason to believe the Arango brothers are back in the New York area
another Uribe henchman Miguel Villegas is believed to be in the Los Angeles area
[Music] recently law enforcement officials in Utah contacted us with an urgent request
police believe they are very close to solving one of the most appalling crimes in the state's history they hope that
someone watching tonight may be able to supply the final piece of evidence they are offering a $20,000 reward for
information leading to a conviction in this case on August 26 1982 three year old Rachel
Runyon is abducted from a playground near her home in Sunset Utah 24 days later Rachel's body was found partially
submerged in small creek about 20 miles from the playground eyewitnesses described rachel's abductor
as a black male in his 20s or 30s approximately six feet tall two and a half years later police discovered a
gruesome message scrawled across a bathroom all of the local all night read beware I'm still at large
I killed a little Runyan a memory beware message was signed with an upside-down crucifix number six six six with the
upside-down cross and the triple six it indicates to us that there could very well be a satanic cult involved in the
kidnapping of Rachel Runyon in recent months investigators have uncovered even more disturbing information Rachael's
case the new information that we have received through an informant leads us to believe that the motive behind the
kidnapping of Rachel Runyon was done for making a movie of her being tortured and
her being sexually molested and exploited by these people that had kidnapped her and being murdered
on what is commonly known as a snuff movie in this photo rachel is wearing the same dress that
she had on the day she was abducted police speculate that she may also be wearing it in the film
next the story of a cunning Casanova who is used at least 15 different aliases to
book lonely women of their savings our next story profiles a particularly devious con man police have nicknamed
him the sweetheart swindler he victimizes women vulnerable divorces and widows in their middle years one of his
victims a woman from Missouri whom we will call sara has agreed to describe her five-day ill-fated romance with a
sweetheart swindler it all began last August with a phone call no miss gentleman called me and he said that he
had met me look I've got and that he was calling to see if I would go out and have dinner with him how would that be I
was divorced at this time and I wasn't in the habit of dating so it sounded kind of pleasant to be able to go out
and have dinner at this particular time and this is one reason why I agreed to go have brunch the next morning I've
been divorced for a long time and I raised my children myself so I work very hard at brunch Sara quickly gave up her
effort to remember where she had met Jerry before and simply enjoy the conversation soon he had completely won
her think you understood at all I'm glad we were finally able to get together well I didn't know anything about you or
who you were but I enjoyed the brunch it was pleasant and we decided to kind of spend the day together
Jerry told Sarah he was in the jewelry business on the road constantly with a company Car and Driver he said he had
sent his driver to make a delivery in another town was temporarily without a car he told Sarah he was a widowed woman
very lonely he needed someone to share his life traveling from one luxury hotel to another dining at the best
restaurants he confessed to Sarah that she was just the type of woman he had been looking
for I wanted to believe him and all these bright beautiful pictures that he painted life really hasn't been easy for
me you know is really nice to think that I'm maybe would be able to relax to travel to have all these nice things and
I wouldn't have to work to me this was appealing very appealing one of the goals I made for myself before I died is
to visit all different states that same evening Jeremy took Sarah and her daughter Ellen out to dinner
Ellen was sketchily Jerry soon ingratiated himself he impressed both women when he brought out samples of the
jeweler and said he sold city to city look at those rings stones are those gorgeous Ellen here just trying that
little cocktail ring little head say well compared to some of the other stones I have it is may I try
one sure that's what two ways for us to be warned look at it that's a real diamond Frankie okay
I can't hurt its destructive was a diamond Jerry did not make any sexual advances the day after he and Sarah met
he began to plan their wedding he asked her to go with him on a road trip which would culminate in their marriage he was
the type of a man they took control this was something that I liked I liked someone to kind of take over take charge
I've got some checks coming from the east coast Jerry to Sarah that he would soon be
receiving several checks and that one would be made out to her he wanted her to deposit it in her account so that she
could pay her bill before they left but Sarah had no way of knowing was that Jerry had stolen the check from one of
his former girlfriends and made it out to Sarah himself late the next afternoon Gerry rush Sara
to the bank telling her the check had just arrived at the last moment he asked her to take out cash for him yes I'd
like to deposit this and I'd like to withdraw $3,000 ma'am this is an out-of-state check yes I'm
going to have to get my supervisors approval coming in at that time these Coast banks are closed I looked at
the check solid it was made of Sarah she was a good customer and she was insistent the check was good so I went
ahead and okay to check for her you have a good day thank you thanks Mike I appreciate it okay we were immediately
gonna start traveling we were going to Nashville greenie he was going to get my engagement ring there and then we were
going to go on further east and when we met up with his daughter and son then we
were gonna get married he told me he was gonna buy me a five carat diamond engagement ring that was quite a large
engagement ring that same afternoon just four days after they had met Jerry and Sarah are on the road to Tennessee and
Sara's car Jerry had invited Sarah's daughter Ellen to go with five minutes early don't worry about
okay now this is the picture it's exactly where he said to be in Memphis Jerry said he had a business meeting and
asked Sara and Alan to meet him in the hotel lobby afterwards he never showed up
wonderful I guess he should be coming we waited around the hotel and after her a
couple hours I knew they wasn't coming and as time went along I realized that we had been taken I realized we were
being made fools right there I was angry truly I was angry I really didn't know what to do back in Missouri Sara found
out that the check Jerry had given her was no good she had been count out a three thousand dollars Sara finally went
to the local police to file a report they discovered that Jerry had been practicing the same scam all over the
country for at least two years since I started my case I believe he's a suspect in at least 22 or the cases and as many
as 15 different states unfortunately probably only a third of the cases get reported due to the to the victims being
embarrassed we think he locates victims primarily through newspaper articles or advertisements we've known that on
occasion he has access Lonely Hearts clubs or mailers you have to understand that that is all he does I can be very
very good at it that's how he makes his living and one shouldn't particularly be
embarrassed by being pulled in by this type of scam I mean a lot of women in my line of work but I never know whether
they're interested in me or they're just after my jewelry well I'm an attorney and I'd like to see him stopped I'd like
to see him pay for it I mean I know how I feel from all this it's a very devastating feeling yeah
well well I can understand that well maybe we can get together some other time then
the sweethearts winter is still active he has recently surfaced in Nevada Colorado California and Washington State
using the aliases jerry roberto gamble Robert Jake Oakland and 15 others he left his latest victim in the lurch
after she had invited 60 guests to their engagement party police believe he is almost certainly involved in another
whirlwind romance at this very moment and that the object of his affection should watch her chequebook very
carefully these are bank surveillance photos of the sweetheart swindler he is between five five and five eight and
height weighs 150 to 160 pounds and is around 48 years old he has a New York accent his known own a 22 revolver today
Diaz made off with a total of 125 thousand dollars all in relatively small amounts update the sweetheart swindler
has been captured on March 28th 1991 police in Kenosha Wisconsin arrested a man calling himself Robert cook after he
allegedly romanced a woman and then swindled her out of ten thousand dollars at the time of kooks arrest police
recovered a dozen false identification cards all issued in different aliases from various states
they also found blank checks apparently stolen from previous victims [Music] [Music]
flex the shocking story of a brutal crimes that left four people dead in less than 24 hours last March the FBI
asked unsolved mystery to help them unravel one of the bloodiest and cruelest crime sprees in the history of
Texas and Arkansas perhaps the most frightening thing is if the FBI believes that killers are two teenage boys who on
the surface appear innocent and harmless Gainesville Texas a small bedroom community 30 miles north of Dallas close
to the Arkansas Oklahoma border 10:00 a.m. March 7th 1988 just outside Gainesville Tomi Mathews and Kenny Davis
local electricians see two teenagers poking around their father-in-law's Lincoln Continental when we first seen
him one the blonde suspect was looking into the white Lincoln like he was looking for a set of
keys or something we made a u-turn and come back out the drive and we stopped them in the
driveway in front of his house is there a problem yeah there's a problem I don't
know what you're doing here well we we needed to use the phone and well there's not a phone in that color and there's
not anyone home so I think y'all need to get out of here okay no problem we'll just use the phone down by the store
they didn't act violent or look violent you know they just look like two kids running around getting into mischief you
know 10:15 the two boys walked toward the intersection of County Road 131 and Route six around 11:00 a.m. just 200
feet away from the intersection 23 year old Dina Woodard and her one-year-old son Cory returned home to their trailer
[Music] somebody here hello [Music] 1:10 p.m. Dina Woodard is found dead brutally stabbed and nearly decapitated
with an axe miraculously her baby is unharmed from the appearance of everything out
there there was a struggle inside the residence and they killed her and then stole her two guns and left in her 1981
paper Dina wouldn't kill errs head towards state highway 82 they drive 60 miles southeast to the small rural
community of farmersville texas when you have a situation start developing like this where the first victim is killed
then it's panic time they run to get away and then it doesn't get any better farther down the highway they go the
more involved they become and the more killings that take place mid-afternoon the killers approached the farmhouse of
85 year old Cecil Morrison and a 62 year old son Cecil Leonard Morris howdy can I use your telephone
[Music] The Killers stay in the house between one and three hours savagely torturing
and beating the two old men with a weapon stolen from Deena Woodards car they kill both men with a 22 rifle then
leave 5:00 p.m. a neighbor sees two teenagers getting into the Morrisons beige 1984 Chevrolet pickup truck
shortly after the boys drive off mysteriously Deena waters blue Thunderbird seems to have disappeared it
was not just a quick murder it was over some period of time quite a battle going
on in that house and why they felt it necessary to beat the old man and torch them like I did we do not know 9 p.m.
Saratoga Arkansas 200 miles away from the Morrisons farm the boys drive the stolen pickup truck into the shallow
water of a lake then throw in Deena woods guns 9:45 p.m. an eyewitness clearly sees a
teenager's three different times as he drives his own truck back and forth through Saratoga
[Music] 10 p.m. the boys walked to the trailer of their 4th victim 29 year old Kenneth
old he is inside with his girlfriend Brenda Gipson yeah my truck broke down do you think you could give us a hand
yeah come on oh great thank Ken I didn't think they was dangerous he thought they
was really sincere else he would have never attempted to help them and when they went out through the kitchen door I
looked at the window and that was the last I saw him alive 10:15 p.m. the two teenagers drive away
with Kenneth's older in his 1983 Mustang unfortunately Brenda Gibson does not get
a look at the boys faces sometime later they arrive at Millwood Dam five miles Moulton's trailer the truck should be
run over there I think the cables are in the back okay a man ain't no truck around here what's going
on the two teenagers make their getaway in Kenneth old ins Mustang leaving him dead 9 a.m. the next day 200 miles west
of the spot where Kenneth old and lies dead Oklahoma farmer bud Sprouse finds old ins Mustang he also notices two sets
of footprints had done a lot of walking by the side of the road there one of them had 11 or 12
Timmy shoes other than were to be about it a eight and a half penny shoe in less
than 24 hours the killer's had come full circle starting in Gainesville Texas going southeast to Farmersville then
northeast to Saratoga Arkansas finally they returned West to Brown Springs Oklahoma less than five miles
from where their bloody path started it be questios why would they have returned
to within five miles of where they commit the first murder we felt like we were dealing with something here in our
own neighborhood after the two killers completed their deadly circle by dumping Holden's Mustang in the lake they seemed
to disappear without a trace four months into the investigation another important clue turned up Cecil
Morrison's grandson found an earring that the FBI believes the killer's left behind in his grandfather's pickup truck
this ear ring picked the skull being carried by a bat and that was another key break in this case the finding of
that earring in that truck we later ran a photograph of that earring in the Gainesville local paper and a young man
came forward and identified that ear ring as belonging to him where did you get the ear ring
a couple years ago okay you still have their ring no sir I don't what's happened to it I'll lend it to a friend
of mine a couple of months ago the boy Lee Renfro has a 16 year old from Gainesville he later told police he had
given the earring to another boy named Caldwell who at the time lived in a house less than 200 yards from Deena
Woodards trailer the callwell family had moved out of state one month before Deena Woodard was murdered they had
given me a lot of earrings and I would borrow or take some from every once in a while like whenever I didn't have one
but as far as that earring in particular I have no idea I just can't remember on
the morning of the murder spree witnesses had seen two teenage boys who match the description of the killers
walking away from the call well house this case has got to be solved as long as the Sun goes unsolved there's still
that concern that we in the citizens community have that there's still some killers out there walking the streets
and who's to say when they might decide to strike again and go on another crime spree
[Music] [Music] last season we profiled a bank robber was clumsy behavior during holdup
surname an unusual nickname authorities call the robber fumbles and believe that
he may be responsible for as many as 33 bank robberies throughout Florida since 1984 they estimate that fumbles is
stolen an excess of $100,000 in the past five years alone update the fumbles robber has been captured within minutes
of our broadcast a clearwater florida police department received a call from one of our viewers recognized fumbles as
ross James Preston a 23 year old student living in Clearwater on May 24th 1989 FBI agents clearwater police officers
and Pinellas County sheriff's deputies arrested Preston body was test driving a pickup truck
his search by warrant was made of the vehicle mr. Preston was driving when he was arrested inside the vehicle were
found the ball cap would be letters cap on the cap also found for a pair of gardening gloves and a pair of
sunglasses and a jacket these were very similar to items which were observed being worn by the bank robber we called
fumbles on August 2nd Ross James pressed admitted to committing 33 armed bank robberies but as part of a plea bargain
is charged with only seven of the holdups he has since been sentenced to 25 years
in prison [Music] join me next week for another edition of unsolved mysteries [Music]
[Applause] [Music]

Brief Summary

This episode covers a Colombian drug lord's disappearance, a teenage crime spree, and a decades-long search for a kidnapped infant.

Key points

The Sweetheart Swindler. A charming con man preys on unsuspecting women, stealing their hearts and money.
The Kidnapping of Lars Harding Jr.. In 1944, two teenage girls kidnapped a baby, leaving a family shattered.
Rachel Runyon's Abduction. The chilling case of a three-year-old girl abducted and later found dead.
The Sweetheart Swindler. Jerry, the con artist, has been scamming women across multiple states for years.
Teenage Killers on the Loose. Two seemingly innocent teenage boys commit a brutal crime spree across Texas and Arkansas.
Fumbles the Bank Robber. A clumsy bank robber known as Fumbles is captured after a viewer recognizes him on TV.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I always felt cheated that I couldn't communicate with him.

Jeffrey's longing for a brother he never knew.

3:18WatchMay 21, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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