# 5 Chilling Cold Cases You've NEVER Heard Of | 188

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 16 Mar 2026, 1 h 04 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO2525974841.mp3

Join me for 5 chilling cold cases. Episode 188 of the true crime podcast btw. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 unsolved mysteries, true crime, cold cases, unsolved mysteries, missing persons, murder investigation, forensic evidence, serial killers, crime scene analysis, dark history, criminal psychology, real life horror, police investigations, DNA breakthroughs, forensic genealogy, crime documentaries, criminal profiling, mysterious disappearances, solved cases, justice system, law enforcement stories, cold case files, creepy mysteries, true crime storytelling, crime reconstruction, chilling cases, investigative reporting, modern forensics, victim advocacy, unidentified remains, crime scene forensics, disturbing cases, true crime analysis, hidden clues, infamous crimes, real crime stories, forensic evidence, heists, art theft, mob violence, mafia cold case

## Transcript

[0:00] On May 26th, 2927, year old Tracy Ocasio left her parents
[0:06] home in Oco, Florida headed for a local bar.
[0:10] Her destination was the Florida Tap Room, a bar on Raleigh St.
[0:14] in Orlando's Metro West neighborhood.
[0:17] The Orlando Magic were playing against a young LeBron James and
[0:21] the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
[0:25] Tracy was a devoted Magic fan, the kind that was fully tapped
[0:29] in and planned her nights around the games.
[0:32] Before tip off, she spoke with her mother, Elizabeth, and said
[0:36] she'd be home later that night. Surveillance footage captured
[0:40] her leaving the bar around 1:30 in the morning on May 27th,
[0:44] accompanied by a man. Investigators identified him as
[0:48] 28 year old James Virgil Hattaway, an OCO resident with a
[0:52] lengthy and troubling criminal record.
[0:56] That record included robbery, burglary, theft, and drug
[0:59] charges, amongst other offenses. When Tracy didn't return by
[1:04] morning, Elizabeth called her daughter's friends trying to
[1:08] track her down. That evening, around 7, an OCO
[1:13] resident called police to report an abandoned car sitting on a
[1:17] vacant lot on Franklin St. It was Tracy's yellow 2002
[1:21] Chevrolet Cobalt, and upon investigation, both front seats
[1:26] were pushed all the way forward. Her keys, cell phone and wallet
[1:30] were all missing, though there didn't appear to be any other
[1:34] signs of a disturbance. Notably, the car sat roughly 150
[1:38] yards from Haddaway's home on Lyle St. which immediately
[1:42] caused even more heat to come down on him.
[1:45] OCO police detectives quickly brought Haddaway in for
[1:48] questioning, and surprisingly, given his previous encounters
[1:52] with law enforcement, he didn't lawyer up.
[1:56] He said he'd met Tracy at the Tap Room a couple of weeks
[1:59] earlier and that she'd offered him a ride home.
[2:02] According to his account, they arrived at his house around 2:00
[2:05] in the morning. He suggested they smoke pot
[2:07] together, but she didn't like the harder stuff he had around,
[2:11] got a bad feeling, and left shortly after on her own.
[2:16] It was a tidy story and, on its face, entirely plausible.
[2:21] But the problem was that Tracy's cell phone records told a very
[2:25] different tale. When Elizabeth called her
[2:28] daughter's phone around 7 that morning, it pinged near
[2:31] Hattaway's property. Tracy's phone had been near his
[2:35] home for hours after he claimed she'd already driven away.
[2:40] His story also failed to account for how close her vehicle was
[2:43] found to his house. On May 29th, detectives brought
[2:48] Hattaway back in, keeping him for 12 hours of questioning.
[2:53] He took a polygraph test during the session, which, according to
[2:56] detectives, he failed. When pressed further, Hattaway
[3:01] asked for a lawyer and the interrogation ended.
[3:05] Police executed a search warrant on Hattaway's home on June 1st,
[3:09] 2009. They found drug paraphernalia,
[3:13] enough to arrest him on unrelated charges, but nothing
[3:16] that directly linked him to Tracy's case.
[3:19] There were no keys, no phone, no wallet, nothing belonging to
[3:24] Tracy at all on his property. Bloodhounds were deployed to
[3:29] track her scent from the abandoned car, but the dogs
[3:32] didn't pick up a trail. Handlers believed she'd never
[3:36] exited the vehicle there on her own, suggesting someone else had
[3:40] driven and parked it. On June 3rd, a massive search
[3:44] was launched involving canine units, horses, 4 Wheelers, and
[3:48] the Sheriff's Office dive team. The dense Florida vegetation and
[3:53] swampland made the operation brutal, and at the end of the
[3:57] day, they found absolutely no trace of Tracy.
[4:02] Within minutes of Hattaway's arrest being broadcast on the
[4:05] local news, something happened that would sharply reshape the
[4:08] investigation. A woman named Rachel Clark
[4:12] called the detective assigned to the case, saying she recognized
[4:16] Hadaway. Clark told police that in August
[4:19] 2008, Hadaway had attacked her after she gave him a ride home
[4:24] from a party. Her account was chilling, and
[4:27] it's similarity to Tracy's disappearance.
[4:30] She said that as they arrived at an apartment complex, Hadaway
[4:33] grabbed her and began choking her inside the car.
[4:37] Clark managed to break free, but he chased her down, tackled her
[4:40] to the pavement and slammed her head against a curb.
[4:44] She'd filed a police report at the time, but Seminole County
[4:47] officers hadn't been able to locate Hadaway.
[4:51] Now, with his face on the news in connection to Tracy's case,
[4:55] Clark finally had a chance to pursue justice.
[5:00] Seminole County immediately reopened the case against
[5:03] Hadaway. Hattaway was extradited from OCO
[5:07] and the substance charges were eventually dropped in favor of
[5:10] putting all resources into the far more serious ones.
[5:15] He was charged with the attempted slaying, burglary,
[5:19] robbery and false imprisonment of Clark.
[5:22] At trial, a jailhouse informant named Thomas Malloy testified
[5:27] against Hattaway from behind a curtain.
[5:30] Malloy, A convicted bank robber in the Federal Witness
[5:33] Protection Program, said Hattaway had confessed to
[5:36] strangling Clark in April 2011. A jury deliberated less than
[5:41] three hours before finding Hattaway guilty on all counts,
[5:45] and in May he was sentenced to life in prison.
[5:50] Hattaway's ties to violence and bizarre behavior didn't end with
[5:54] Tracy or Rachel. Acquaintances had told police he
[5:57] was fascinated by what they called the dark arts and the
[6:01] occult, and vampires in particular.
[6:05] For instance, around 1997, he'd either posed or attempted to
[6:10] pose for his driver's license photo wearing porcelain fangs, a
[6:15] goofy fact made sinister by the person wearing them.
[6:19] Police seized 2 computers and some hard drives from his home
[6:22] after learning about these interests.
[6:25] Notably, he'd use the cringy alias Vader Mcgurth on his
[6:30] Myspace page, styling himself as someone who wanted to be seen as
[6:34] a dangerous outlaw. But there was more.
[6:39] Three months before Tracy went missing, a 29 year old Apopka
[6:43] man named Christopher George had also vanished.
[6:47] He'd been spending time with Hattaway and an associate named
[6:50] Tyler Waters near a wooded area off Oco Apopka Rd.
[6:56] The next day, officers found Hattaway and Waters emerging
[7:00] from woods near Lake Carter. They claimed George had been on
[7:03] hallucinogens, crashed his truck and wandered into the
[7:07] vegetation. Both men later admitted to
[7:11] moving and cleaning George's truck from the scene and staging
[7:14] it to look like an accident. According to them, this was done
[7:19] to avoid any connection between the two of them and the
[7:22] substances that were in the truck.
[7:25] In February 2011, a drought caused water levels in Lake
[7:30] Carter to drop, exposing human bones.
[7:34] Those remains were positively identified as belonging to Chris
[7:37] George. In July 2011, the medical
[7:41] examiner couldn't determine A cause of death due to the
[7:44] advanced state of decomposition. He speculated George may have
[7:49] drowned while incapacitated by drugs, though this couldn't be
[7:53] proven. Hattaway was never charged in
[7:57] George's death, though police named him a person of interest.
[8:03] Detectives also uncovered another thread during the
[8:05] investigation. The authorities learned that
[8:08] Tracy had filed misdemeanor battery charges against a man
[8:12] named Paul Hutto. The information came through a
[8:15] letter from the State Attorney's Office that arrived days after
[8:19] Tracy disappeared. The two had gotten into an
[8:22] altercation outside the Florida Tap room, and he'd pushed her to
[8:26] the ground. Police brought Hutto in for
[8:29] questioning, and his story and whereabouts during the
[8:32] disappearance were verified. Interestingly, investigators
[8:37] found a link between Paul and Hattaway, with Paul's family
[8:40] running a shoreline cleaning business where Hattaway had once
[8:43] worked. Phone records showed no recent
[8:46] contact, and Hutto was never considered a suspect, though
[8:51] they found this loose connection to be unusual.
[8:55] Hattaway remains in Blackwater River Correctional Facility in
[8:58] Milton, FL, serving life for the attack on Clark.
[9:02] He's never been formally charged with any crime related to Tracy
[9:05] Ocasio and continues to maintain that he wasn't involved.
[9:10] Detectives, for their part, have confirmed that he remains the
[9:14] only suspect in the case. In the late 1970s, Howard Beach
[9:23] was a tight knit middle class neighborhood in Queens, NY.
[9:26] Modest homes, tree lined streets and the kind of place where kids
[9:31] played outside until their parents called them in for
[9:34] dinner. On the surface it looked like
[9:37] any other working class corner of the city, but Howard Beach
[9:41] had a resident who made it something else entirely.
[9:45] John Gotti, a rising captain in the Gambino crime family, lived
[9:50] on 85th St. with his wife Victoria and their five
[9:53] children. His backyard neighbor on 86th
[9:56] St. was a 51 year old furniture factory manager named John
[10:00] Favarra. Favarra worked at the Castro
[10:03] Convertibles plant in New Hyde Park, Long Island.
[10:07] He and his wife Janet had two adopted sons, and his boy Scott
[10:11] was close friends with John Gotti Junior.
[10:14] The two families existed in an uneasy proximity that seemed to
[10:18] work just fine most of the time. Favara was well aware of Gotti's
[10:23] reputation, but kept his head down and lived his life.
[10:27] That fragile piece shattered on a single Tuesday afternoon in
[10:31] March 1980, and what followed was one of the most chilling and
[10:35] disturbing disappearances in the history of organized crime.
[10:42] On March 18th, 1980, twelve year old Frank Gotti had just made
[10:46] his school football team. He was excited and restless, and
[10:51] he spent the afternoon playing outside.
[10:53] A neighborhood kid named Kevin McMahon owned a motorized mini
[10:57] bike and was letting friends take turns, and Frank was eager
[11:00] to take a spin. When Frank's turn came, he
[11:04] hopped on before McMahon could give him instructions on how to
[11:07] handle it. Frank took off down the street
[11:10] without a care in the world, as 12 year old kids generally do,
[11:14] mob boss son or not. Around the same time John Favaro
[11:19] was finishing his shift and driving home from work.
[11:22] He turned onto the street and was allegedly hit by the glare
[11:24] of the setting sun. And he apparently wasn't wearing
[11:27] sunglasses. To compound matters, a large
[11:32] construction dumpster sat near the road, creating a blind spot.
[11:37] Frank Gotti on the mini bike darted out from behind the
[11:40] obstruction and directly into the path of Favara's car.
[11:44] The impact was devastating. Neighbors screamed and banged on
[11:50] Favara's windows, some even climbing onto the hood of his
[11:53] car. Frank had been pinned beneath
[11:55] the vehicle and dragged A considerable distance before
[11:58] Favara finally stopped. The boy was rushed to the
[12:01] hospital, but tragically he was pronounced dead shortly after
[12:05] arrival. Police investigated thoroughly,
[12:09] and officers conducted sobriety tests on Favara at the scene,
[12:13] including a breathalyzer, and confirmed he wasn't intoxicated.
[12:18] Investigators examined skid Marks and found no evidence of
[12:21] excessive speed or reckless driving.
[12:24] Multiple eyewitnesses confirmed that Frank had entered the
[12:27] roadway suddenly from a blind spot.
[12:30] The cops ruled the death an accident, and no criminal
[12:33] charges were filed. But the Gotti family would tell
[12:37] a very different version. For decades.
[12:40] Victoria Gotti, John's daughter, later wrote in her memoir that
[12:45] Favara had been drunk and speeding and that he'd shown no
[12:49] remorse. Notably, some have theorized
[12:53] that given who the victim was, the police may have attempted to
[12:57] cover up any wrongdoing on the part of Favara.
[13:00] After all, if he had been drunk or speeding or impaired in any
[13:04] way, his life would have been over.
[13:09] In the days and weeks after Frank's death, John Gotti was
[13:12] visibly devastated. Victoria De Giorgio, Frank's
[13:16] mother, dressed in black for weeks and reportedly walked to
[13:21] local baseball fields late at night as though she might
[13:24] somehow find her son alive. A shrine of candles and
[13:28] photographs was erected in the gaudy living room, and the
[13:32] family's pain was real and profound.
[13:36] But alongside the grief, A darker current was allegedly
[13:40] building. 2 days after the accident, a woman called the
[13:44] local police precinct and announced that Favara would be
[13:48] eliminated. Officers relayed the warning to
[13:51] Favara, who dismissed it, telling the cop that kind of
[13:55] thing only happened in the movies.
[13:58] Little did Favara know that he was going to be going through a
[14:01] very cinematic period in his life.
[14:05] Anonymous threats began arriving by phone and mail, and a
[14:09] photograph of Frank Gotti and a mask card from his funeral were
[14:12] placed in Favara's mailbox. The community had turned against
[14:17] him and the message was clear. On May 28th, Favara went to the
[14:23] Gotti home to apologize, but Victoria Di Giorgio met him with
[14:27] a baseball bat. Then, on May 28th, she attacked
[14:32] him in his own driveway, beating him with the bat in a rage that
[14:36] underscored just how far beyond reconciliation this situation
[14:40] had gone. Favara sought advice from a
[14:43] childhood friend whose father at Torres Zappi was a Gambino crime
[14:48] family captain. Zappi's message was blunt and
[14:52] urgent. Get rid of the car immediately
[14:54] and leave Howard Beach, never to return.
[14:58] Favara took the advice seriously, and he put his house
[15:01] up for sale. With a buyer rapidly being found
[15:04] at a fire sale rate, the legal paperwork was expedited and a
[15:09] closing date was set for the last day of July.
[15:12] He and his family were preparing to leave the neighborhood for
[15:15] good, but perhaps they didn't move fast enough.
[15:20] On July 25th, 1980, John Gotti and his wife flew to Florida,
[15:25] ostensibly to grieve in sunnier surroundings and get away from
[15:28] the place where their son had died.
[15:31] The trip also happened to provide Gotti with a convenient
[15:34] alibi for what came next. Three days later, on July 28th,
[15:39] John Favarra left his job at the Castro Convertibles factory on
[15:43] Long Island. He never made it home and
[15:46] according to the authorities, multiple witnesses saw what
[15:49] happened. Several men confronted Favara
[15:52] near his workplace. He was beaten, possibly with a
[15:56] baseball bat, and shoved into a dark colored van.
[16:01] Some witnesses reported hearing what sounded like a shot,
[16:04] possibly from a silenced weapon. The van speed away and perhaps
[16:10] unsurprisingly, that was the last time anyone saw John Favara
[16:14] alive. His wife Janet reported him
[16:19] missing the following day, on July 29th.
[16:23] The Gotti family returned from Florida on August 4th and were
[16:27] immediately questioned by investigators.
[16:30] Victoria De Giorgio told detectives she didn't know what
[16:33] had happened to Favara, but wasn't sorry if something did.
[16:37] She added that he'd never sent a sympathy card, never apologized,
[16:42] and never even got in his car, repaired or cleaned up, simply
[16:46] leaving it as a cruel reminder to them.
[16:49] John Gotti, when informed that Favara was missing, reportedly
[16:53] shrugged and said that he wouldn't be helping at all given
[16:56] the circumstances. Favara's disappearance triggered
[17:01] a law enforcement investigation that would stretch across
[17:04] decades. The FBI took an early interest
[17:08] due to the cases ties to ongoing surveillance of the Gambino
[17:11] crime family, but without a body, a vehicle, or cooperative
[17:16] witnesses, the case stalled. Notably, despite this very
[17:21] extensive ongoing surveillance of made men and associates,
[17:25] nobody was ever caught on camera doing anything related to
[17:28] Favara. The dark colored Ford Econoline
[17:32] van described by witnesses was never located and no arrests
[17:36] were made. In 1983, John Favara was
[17:40] declared legally dead. His wife Janet and their two
[17:43] sons left Howard Beach and kept a low profile for the rest of
[17:47] their lives. Janet Favara died in 2000
[17:51] without ever learning what had happened to her husband.
[17:56] For years, the prevailing theory was that Favara had been knocked
[18:00] off by Gambino operatives while Gotti was out of town.
[18:03] Law enforcement and mob informants believed his body had
[18:06] been stuffed into a barrel of concrete and dumped at sea.
[18:10] Others speculated that he'd been dismembered and buried on the
[18:13] grounds of a chop shop. In November 2004, acting on tips
[18:19] from informants, the authorities excavated a parking lot in a
[18:23] desolate area of Queens known as the Whole.
[18:27] It was a low lying stretch of land on the Brooklyn, Queens
[18:30] border that had long served as an informal mob graveyard.
[18:35] Investigators were looking for Favara's remains, along with
[18:38] those of other suspected Gotti victims.
[18:41] They found two bodies of prominent mobsters, but Favara's
[18:45] remains were not among them. The most significant break came
[18:50] in January 2009 during the racketeering trial of Charles
[18:54] Carneglia. Carneglia was a Gambino soldier
[18:58] and a member of John Gotti's inner circle of enforcers.
[19:03] Federal prosecutors filed a 44 page evidence motion in Brooklyn
[19:07] federal court. The court documents contained
[19:10] allegations from 2 cooperating witnesses who claimed Carneglia
[19:14] had told them he'd eliminated Favara and disposed of the body
[19:18] in a barrel of acid. Carneglia had allegedly told one
[19:22] of the informants that acid was the most effective method for
[19:25] avoiding detection. In a deeply ironic twist, one of
[19:30] those cooperating witnesses was identified as Kevin McMahon, the
[19:34] same neighborhood kid who'd owned the mini bike Frank Gotti
[19:37] was riding the day he died. McMahon had grown up under the
[19:41] wing of the Carneglia brothers, becoming a Gambino associate
[19:45] before eventually flipping and entering witness protection.
[19:49] The jury in Carneglia's trial failed to reach a verdict on the
[19:53] Favara charge specifically. He was, however, convicted of
[19:57] racketeering and conspiracy involving four other hits and
[20:01] sentenced to life in prison. So yeah, perhaps not a great
[20:05] guy, to say the least. No one has ever been formally
[20:09] convicted in relation to the presumed hit on John Favarra,
[20:13] and his body's never been recovered.
[20:15] The case remains officially unsolved, though almost everyone
[20:19] connected to it, from law enforcement to mob insiders.
[20:23] Believes John Gotti's hand was involved in the act to some
[20:26] extent. Gotti himself went on to become
[20:29] the boss of the Gambino family in 1985.
[20:33] After ruthlessly climbing his way to the top, he was finally
[20:37] convicted in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison, dying of
[20:41] cancer in federal prison in 2002.
[20:46] Notably, some have theorized that Gotti himself may not have
[20:49] actually ordered that Favara be taken out.
[20:52] It remains a possibility that someone working under him saw
[20:56] the opportunity to take action and win favor with his boss.
[21:01] After all, it was very clear that Gotti was personally
[21:04] distraught by the matter and clearly wouldn't be shedding any
[21:07] tears for Favara. Regardless of what actually
[21:11] happened, Favara's disappearance remains one of the most
[21:15] disturbing unsolved cases tied to the Mafia.
[21:19] It's a stark reminder that in the world of organized crime, an
[21:23] innocent accident, if that's what it was, was never going to
[21:27] be a defense. On the evening of October 24th,
[21:32] 1953, the city of Lacrosse, Wisconsin was wrapped up in one
[21:37] of those picture perfect autumn Saturdays that small town
[21:41] America does so well. The local college football team
[21:45] had just taken on River Falls in their annual homecoming game,
[21:49] and nearly everyone in town seemed to be at the stadium or
[21:52] celebrating somewhere nearby. It was the kind of night where
[21:56] nothing bad was supposed to happen, not in a place or time
[21:59] like this. But while lacrosse cheered and
[22:02] socialized, something terrible was unfolding in a quiet
[22:06] neighborhood on Hoschler Drive. Evelyn Hartley was 15 years old,
[22:12] a junior at Central High School and by all accounts, the kind of
[22:15] teenager any parent would have been proud to raise.
[22:19] She carried a straight A average, participated in drama
[22:22] club and numerous school activities, sang in the choir at
[22:26] the First Presbyterian Church, and played piano.
[22:31] Like many teenagers of the time, she occasionally worked as a
[22:34] babysitter to provide a bit of money to go out with her
[22:37] friends. Her father, Richard Hartley, was
[22:42] a biology professor at Wisconsin State College, and the family
[22:46] had relocated from Charleston, IL to lacrosse in 1949.
[22:52] Evelyn was the youngest of four children, though the family had
[22:55] already endured tragedy when one of her older brothers died of
[22:58] polio in 1946. That Saturday night, Evelyn had
[23:03] taken a babysitting job at the home of Vigo Rasmussen, a
[23:07] colleague of her father at the college.
[23:10] The Rasmussen's regular babysitter had plans to attend
[23:13] the homecoming game, so Evelyn was brought in as a replacement,
[23:18] a decision that would prove fateful.
[23:21] She arrived to look after the couple's 20 month old daughter,
[23:24] Janice, bringing along school books with the plan to study
[23:27] while she slept. The arrangement included a
[23:30] routine check in call to her parents around 8:30 that
[23:33] evening. It was the sort of simple,
[23:36] trusting agreement families made without a second thought in the
[23:39] 50s. When 830 came and went without a
[23:44] phone call, Evelyn's parents grew uneasy and her father tried
[23:48] calling the Rasmussen house multiple times and got no
[23:51] answer. By around 9:00, Richard Hartley
[23:55] drove over to check on his daughter.
[23:58] The lights inside were on and the radio was still playing, but
[24:02] the doors were locked and Evelyn wasn't answering, which sparked
[24:05] this professor to drastic action.
[24:08] Richard entered through a basement window and found the
[24:10] living room in disarray. Furniture had been toppled over,
[24:15] Evelyn's school books were scattered, and her broken
[24:18] glasses and one shoe lay on the floor, with her other shoe later
[24:23] found in the basement. The baby was sleeping peacefully
[24:27] in her crib, completely unharmed, but Evelyn was gone
[24:33] when police arrived. The scene told a grim story.
[24:37] All the windows were locked except one in the basement at
[24:40] the back. The screen had been removed and
[24:42] was leaning against the exterior wall and a short step ladder
[24:47] belonging to the Rasmussen's was positioned beneath it.
[24:51] Primarks were found on several other windows.
[24:54] Sneaker footprints were discovered in the basement
[24:56] window box and inside the living room.
[24:59] Initially, it was unclear what had been caused by Richard's
[25:02] attempts to gain entry and what had been caused by the intruder.
[25:07] Unfortunately, since Richard wasn't yet ruled out as a
[25:10] suspect, this likely caused investigative delays.
[25:16] Blood matching Evelyn's type was found near the basement window
[25:19] and outside in the yard, quickly establishing what direction the
[25:22] perpetrator likely fled in about 100 feet from the house.
[25:27] Handprints were found on a neighbor's garage, providing
[25:30] further evidence and a more accurate starting point for
[25:33] further investigations. Tracking dogs picked up Evelyn's
[25:38] scent and followed it for two blocks where the trail abruptly
[25:42] ended. Investigators concluded she'd
[25:45] likely been placed into a vehicle and driven away by her
[25:48] abductor. One neighbor reported hearing
[25:53] screams around 7:00 but had assumed that this was just some
[25:57] kind of horseplay that was getting out of hand.
[26:00] Unfortunately, due to this incorrect assumption, she didn't
[26:05] alert the authorities at the time, unintentionally giving as
[26:08] much as an hour and a half lead to the abductor. 2 days after
[26:13] the disappearance, a local man named Ed Hofer came forward with
[26:17] a crucial account. Around 7:15 that evening, he'd
[26:21] nearly been struck by a speeding dark green 2 tone Buick sedan
[26:26] heading West. Inside, he'd seen two men and a
[26:29] girl, with one man driving while the other sat in the back seat
[26:33] with the girl who was slumped forward against the front seat.
[26:37] Hofer had assumed they were headed to the homecoming game
[26:41] and didn't realize what he'd witnessed until news broke.
[26:46] What followed was one of the largest missing person searches
[26:48] in Wisconsin history. Over 2000 volunteers joined the
[26:53] effort, including law enforcement officers, National
[26:56] Guard members, Boy Scouts, and students and faculty from
[27:00] Lacrosse State College. Hunters were told to remain on
[27:04] alert for anything suspicious, and local farmers were urged to
[27:08] search their properties. The Air Force was brought in to
[27:12] provide aerial support, supported by civilian operators
[27:16] who volunteered their time and their planes to the effort.
[27:21] Investigators also launched a wide-ranging vehicle inspection
[27:24] program aimed at checking every car in Lacrosse County, though
[27:28] this would be controversial. Recent graves were even reopened
[27:33] to determine whether Evelyn's remains had been concealed
[27:35] within them. A reward fund was established
[27:39] and community members quickly contributed over $6000,
[27:43] equivalent to roughly 80,000 today.
[27:46] In terms of evidence, a pair of undergarments which may have
[27:49] belonged to Evelyn were found during the search, though this
[27:52] connection could never be definitively proven.
[27:55] Perhaps the most significant physical evidence was a pair of
[27:58] size 11 blood stained Goodrich sneakers.
[28:02] The suction cup pattern on the soles closely matched the
[28:05] footprints at the crime scene, and the blood matched Evelyn's
[28:09] type. The Goodrich Company identified
[28:12] the shoe model as the hood mogul sold across 5 Midwestern states.
[28:17] A denim jacket was also recovered nearby, and both items
[28:21] were displayed to an estimated 10,000 people across the region,
[28:26] but nobody could identify them. In May 1954, authorities took
[28:32] the extremely controversial step of administering mass lie
[28:36] detector tests to male students and faculty at Central High
[28:40] School. They'd plan to test over 1700
[28:44] individuals but halted after roughly 300.
[28:47] Facing significant backlash and threats of lawsuits, Evelyn's
[28:52] father and Vigo Rasmussen both took polygraphs and passed, and
[28:56] they were both eventually completely ruled out as
[28:58] suspects. In a cruel twist, the Hartley
[29:02] family became the targets of an extortion attempt when a young
[29:06] man tried to sell them fabricated information.
[29:10] He was subsequently arrested for this and convicted for a variety
[29:13] of offenses as a result of this disturbing attempt to enrich
[29:17] himself from the tragedy. The most famous suspect emerged
[29:23] in 1957 when Ed Gein was arrested in Plainfield, WI,
[29:28] roughly 100 miles away. And I should make it clear here
[29:32] right from the start that he's often been depicted as
[29:34] definitively being responsible for Evelyn's disappearance, but
[29:39] more on that shortly. In fact, as you'll see, I
[29:43] personally believe that there's absolutely nothing to suggest
[29:46] that he was involved in this crime in any way whatsoever.
[29:51] That said, after police discovered human remains and
[29:55] horrifying artifacts in his home, a connection to Evelyn's
[29:59] disappearance seemed plausible at 1st Ed.
[30:02] Gein had been born in Lacrosse, reportedly had family nearby,
[30:07] and some residents claimed to have seen him in the city on the
[30:10] day Evelyn vanished. However, detectives determined
[30:13] he wasn't in Lacrosse that night, and Evelyn didn't match
[30:17] his known victim profile. His 2 confirmed victims were
[30:21] women in their 50s, and most of his other confirmed crimes
[30:25] primarily revolved around grave robbery.
[30:28] Notably, even the graves he robbed were from women who
[30:31] resembled his mother, not from anyone around Evelyn's age.
[30:37] Investigators found no physical evidence linking him to Evelyn,
[30:41] and he passed a polygraph test. Further, Guine wasn't known for
[30:45] working with others, and if Hofer's witness statement is
[30:48] accurate, two men were involved in this crime.
[30:52] He was officially cleared in November 1957, but despite this,
[30:57] speculation has persisted for decades, most recently through a
[31:01] fictionalized portrayal in the 2025 Netflix series.
[31:06] In this story, Ed Gein is depicted as the perpetrator,
[31:09] despite no solid evidence supporting that narrative.
[31:14] And honestly, I really have to question that decision by
[31:16] Netflix since they clearly used a real case to enhance this
[31:20] narrative, which is somewhat morally questionable to say the
[31:24] least. On the other hand, I do have to
[31:28] acknowledge that this is how I found out about her case, and as
[31:32] with any cold case, more attention is generally a good
[31:36] thing. However, that effect may be
[31:39] somewhat mitigated by the fact that Evelyn's case isn't
[31:42] portrayed as a cold case in the Netflix series.
[31:47] Over the years, investigators questioned more than 3500 people
[31:51] and dealt with dozens of false confessions.
[31:54] The cases most tantalizing lead didn't surface until 2004, when
[31:59] a man named Mel Williams came forward with something
[32:02] extraordinary. In 1969, Williams had been
[32:07] recording a band performing at a local bar, as was the style at
[32:11] the time. He'd left his reel to reel tape
[32:14] running long after the music stopped, and it inadvertently
[32:18] captured a roughly 7 minute conversation.
[32:22] On this tape, there was a man identifying himself as Clyde
[32:25] Peterson, a man named Jack Golfair, and an unnamed third
[32:30] party, all implicated in Evelyn's slaying.
[32:35] Another man at the bar pressed Peterson on the details, and the
[32:39] conversation claimed Evelyn had been buried in Lafarge,
[32:42] Wisconsin. In a very odd move, Mel Williams
[32:47] had tossed the tape in a box and forgotten about it for decades,
[32:51] until the 50th anniversary of the disappearance made
[32:54] headlines. Authorities described it as the
[32:58] best lead they'd ever received. But there was a serious problem.
[33:03] Peterson, Golfair and the unnamed third man, we're all
[33:07] dead. By the time the recording
[33:09] actually surfaced, Golfair had actually pulled the curtains on
[33:13] himself in Christmas Day 1967, which some believe may be
[33:18] related to the crime he allegedly committed.
[33:22] Despite the passage of time, the Lacrosse Police Department
[33:26] maintains that the investigation is still open.
[33:29] Some original physical evidence, including the sneakers and
[33:33] jacket, has reportedly been misplaced over the decades.
[33:38] However, other materials have been preserved and Evelyn's
[33:41] dental records remain available should her remains ever be
[33:44] located. In what may be the only thing
[33:48] approaching a silver lining in this tragic case, the
[33:51] Rasmussen's daughter Janice later came to believe that
[33:55] Evelyn had saved her life. While this is of course
[33:58] unconfirmed, all evidence suggests that Evelyn fought back
[34:02] and likely forced the home invader or invaders to flee
[34:05] immediately. Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here.
[34:11] Just jumping in with a quick reminder to hit the like and
[34:14] subscribe buttons and the notification bell if you're
[34:16] enjoying my content. Also, don't forget that you can
[34:20] help out my channel further by supporting through the YouTube
[34:23] membership or the Patreon. Gary Driscoll was born on April
[34:31] 18th, 1946, and he'd go on to carve out a place in rock
[34:35] history that most musicians can only dream about, even if he
[34:39] never became a star himself. His journey began in 1965 when
[34:44] he joined Ronnie Dio and the Prophets, a band fronted by a
[34:48] young Ronnie James Dio, who'd later become one of heavy metals
[34:52] most iconic voices. The group cycled through a
[34:56] series of name changes, the Electric Elves, The Elves,
[35:00] before settling on Elf in 1969. Through every transformation,
[35:06] Driscoll remained behind the kit, anchoring the music with a
[35:10] rhythm and Blues influence style that set him apart from harder
[35:14] edged drummers of the era. Elf caught the attention of Deep
[35:18] Purple bassist Rodger Glover, who produced all three of the
[35:22] band's studio albums. They weren't arena filling
[35:25] superstars by any stretch, but they'd built a solid following
[35:29] and a respectable touring circuit across the Northeast.
[35:34] Everything changed in 1975 when Deep Purple's legendary
[35:38] guitarist Richie Blackmore came calling.
[35:41] Blackmore had grown restless and disillusioned with Deep Purple,
[35:45] and he saw in Dio the perfect front man for his next venture.
[35:50] He recruited the entire core of Elf to form what would become
[35:53] Rainbow. The resulting debut album,
[35:57] Richie Blackmore's Rainbow, was a critical success that still
[36:01] holds up decades later, and Driscoll's drumming was a key
[36:04] part of its foundation. But here's the cruel twist.
[36:09] The album never led to a tour, and Blackmore fired everyone
[36:13] except Dio almost immediately after the recording sessions
[36:17] wrapped. The widely accepted explanation
[36:20] is that Driscoll's more relaxed style didn't mesh with the
[36:23] harder direction Blackmore envisioned.
[36:26] He was replaced by Cozy Powell, a thunderous British rock
[36:30] drummer who fit Blackmore's vision more neatly.
[36:34] Former band members were furious, feeling they've been
[36:37] used as leverage to secure their legendary front man services and
[36:41] then discarded. Unfortunately, that first
[36:45] Rainbow album would prove to be the high watermark of Gary
[36:48] Driscoll's career. The years following his
[36:53] dismissal from Rainbow weren't kind to Driscoll professionally.
[36:57] He played with a number of regionally acclaimed bands in
[37:00] the Northeastern United States throughout the late 70s and
[37:03] early 80s, but none of these efforts LED anywhere
[37:06] significant. Regardless of his lack of
[37:09] mainstream success, he was still highly respected and was, in
[37:12] essence, still able to live his dream, at least to a degree.
[37:17] By the mid 80s, though, it became clear that he was never
[37:20] going to get another shot at rock immortality.
[37:24] He settled into a modest life in Newfield, NY, a rural community
[37:28] about 9 miles South of Ithaca in the Finger Lakes region.
[37:33] He took up tile installation and supplemented his income with
[37:37] occasional session drumming. People who knew him in Ithaca
[37:41] remembered him as easygoing and friendly, a regular at local
[37:45] bars where he was still able to bask in his star power.
[37:49] He wasn't bitter about how things had gone by any means.
[37:52] He was just a guy who'd had his shot at the big time, came close
[37:57] and was now getting by. But as the years dragged on,
[38:02] Driscoll was lured by the appeal of quick money, a turn that
[38:06] would eventually cost him his life.
[38:09] The circumstances surrounding Gary Driscoll's slaying are
[38:12] rooted in the local drug trade operating out of downtown
[38:15] Ithaca. In the mid 1980s, Driscoll's
[38:19] close friend Robert Galinas ran a coke operation from his
[38:23] basement apartment on East State Street.
[38:27] Galenus had known Driscoll for roughly 35 years, and according
[38:31] to trial testimony, Driscoll was involved in Galenus operation as
[38:35] a buyer and seller. This was a far cry from the
[38:39] Rock'n'roll stage, but it was the world Driscoll inhabited
[38:42] during the final stretch of his life.
[38:45] Galenus operation attracted a volatile cast of characters, and
[38:50] one of them was John Joseph Schillingford.
[38:53] He was a 37 year old local man who'd become a persistent and
[38:57] aggressive customer. On May 26th, 1987, which
[39:02] happened to be Schillingford's birthday, he'd come to Galenas's
[39:06] apartment looking to get his fix.
[39:09] An argument erupted when Schillingford wanted to be
[39:11] fronted the goods without paying, citing that he needed to
[39:15] party on his birthday. Galenas refused, and the
[39:19] confrontation was heated enough that Galinus essentially banned
[39:23] Schillingford from the apartment forever.
[39:27] Schillingford was known to be locked and loaded, which he
[39:31] claimed was for protection against other dealers he had
[39:33] slighted in the past. By early June, the tension
[39:38] around Galinus's apartment had become so severe that Galinus
[39:42] and his girlfriend, Lynette Tome, had to take drastic
[39:45] measures. They started sleeping at a local
[39:48] motel to avoid being disturbed by junkies showing up at all
[39:52] hours. Which, hey, if you're not into
[39:55] that, don't operate a trap house.
[39:58] On the evening of June 7th, 1987, Driscoll stopped by the
[40:03] apartment as the couple were heading out to their hideout for
[40:06] the night. They told him he was welcome to
[40:08] stay if he wanted to, and Driscoll remained behind in the
[40:12] basement apartment. It's unknown why he stayed at
[40:15] the apartment given the clear and present danger, and this
[40:18] would be the last confirmed time anyone saw him alive.
[40:23] Around midday on June 8th, 1987, Galinas returned to his
[40:28] apartment and found Gary Driscoll's body.
[40:30] He immediately called the authorities.
[40:34] The scene that greeted investigators was horrific.
[40:37] Driscoll, aged 41, had been severely beaten, cut with a
[40:42] knife and then shot multiple times in the head.
[40:46] An autopsy confirmed the injuries were consistent with a
[40:49] prolonged and violent struggle, suggesting that he had been
[40:53] deliberately kept alive as long as possible.
[40:57] Items appeared to have been taken from the scene, suggesting
[41:00] robbery may have played a role in the attack.
[41:04] However, given the nature of the business Galenas was operating
[41:07] out of his apartment, it may not come as a surprise that the
[41:10] nature and quantity of what was taken was never ascertained.
[41:15] The sheer brutality of the event sent shock waves through the
[41:19] local community, and when news eventually spread through the
[41:25] rock music world as well, Police quickly focused their attention
[41:31] on John Shillingford and there was physical evidence tying him
[41:34] to the crime. Driscoll's car was found
[41:37] abandoned several miles north of the apartment at the Cayuga
[41:41] Shopping Center, and Shillingford's fingerprints were
[41:44] identified on the vehicle. A gun that matched the weapon
[41:47] used in the shooting was recovered on a roadway near the
[41:50] scene, its grip broken, and it matched the Roscoe Schillingford
[41:55] was known to carry. Schillingford was arrested and
[41:58] charged with the slaying, as well as robbery and weapons
[42:01] offenses. But what happened next would be
[42:04] disastrous. But keep that weapon in mind,
[42:08] because let's just say it was going to be a bit of a problem
[42:10] for the prosecution, to put it very mildly.
[42:15] The trial of John Chillingford took place in the summer of 1988
[42:19] at the Tompkins County Courthouse, and it was troubled
[42:22] from the start, to put it mildly.
[42:25] The prosecution's key witness, Robert Galinas, proved deeply
[42:29] problematic on the stand, as one might expect.
[42:34] Facing his own pending drug charges, Galinas repeatedly
[42:38] invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination
[42:41] during nearly two hours of testimony.
[42:45] This actually ended up frustrating both the prosecution
[42:48] and the defense, since Galena's completely shut down cross
[42:52] examination by taking the 5th The Ithaca Journal, the local
[42:57] paper, reported that the defense attorney expressed open
[43:01] exasperation with the witnesses refusal to answer questions,
[43:05] calling the proceedings A charade.
[43:09] But the defense attorney really didn't need any testimony
[43:11] whatsoever from this alleged local kingpin, since he had a
[43:15] much better defense in mind. But it was the physical evidence
[43:20] that ultimately doomed the prosecution's case, and
[43:23] Schillingford's defense attorney mounted A forceful challenge to
[43:27] the weapons evidence. The weapon had been found on a
[43:30] roadway with its grip shattered, and grip fragments were also
[43:34] discovered in a field. The defense alleged that police
[43:37] investigators had planted pieces of the broken grip at the crime
[43:41] scene. Specifically, the police file
[43:44] indicated fragments of the grip were reportedly found on the
[43:47] carpet of the apartment days after the initial search.
[43:51] This was problematic because there was an extremely thorough
[43:54] search immediately after the crime was reported, and the grip
[43:58] fragments weren't there then. This was a devastating blow to
[44:03] the prosecution's credibility, so much so that it eventually
[44:06] resulted in a special prosecutor launching an investigation into
[44:10] the conduct of the police. The defense lawyer was
[44:13] ultimately successful in having all the physical evidence
[44:16] related to the weapon discarded. That meant that the jury had a
[44:20] star witness who took the 5th at every possible occasion and no
[44:25] weapon. By way of reminder, the
[44:29] prosecution has to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt,
[44:33] and with the foundations of the case gone, they were essentially
[44:37] working on vibes alone. Because of this, the jury ended
[44:41] up acquitting Schillingford on all offenses, potentially
[44:44] setting a guilty person free. In the decades since the
[44:50] acquittal, the slaying of Gary Driscoll has taken on a life of
[44:53] its own. In certain corners of the
[44:55] Internet and in the rock community.
[44:58] Some accounts have suggested that Driscoll was flayed alive,
[45:02] though there's no credible evidence to support these
[45:04] extreme claims. One particularly persistent
[45:08] theory involves A ritualistic satanic sacrifice, a rumor that
[45:12] appears to trace back largely to statements made by Jeff Fenholt.
[45:17] He was Driscoll's former Bible black bandmate who later became
[45:21] a born again Christian and an evangelist.
[45:24] He repudiated all his previous affiliations with the metal
[45:28] scene and claimed that the music was the work of the devil, at
[45:32] least in the way it was generally played.
[45:35] But he theorized that this weapon that was released on the
[45:38] world could be repurposed into Christian heavy metal,
[45:42] transforming this allegedly satanic music into something
[45:46] godly. Fenholt claimed Driscoll was to
[45:49] be his drummer on an upcoming album, and that the forces of
[45:53] the Dark Prince decided to take him out to stop him from
[45:57] spreading the good word. Under this theory, the
[46:01] perpetrators were actually cultists who were into heavy
[46:04] metal music. Unsurprisingly, contemporaneous
[46:08] newspaper reports from Ithaca, however, describe nothing of the
[46:12] sort, and there's no indication that law enforcement ever
[46:16] investigated A cult angle. More grounded theories focus on
[46:21] the slaying being connected to the business operating out of
[46:24] Gelinas's apartment. Some accounts indicate that a
[46:27] second suspect, described as a person of interest, fled the
[46:32] United States before charges could be brought.
[46:35] This individual has never been publicly identified by
[46:38] authorities and no further arrests have ever been made.
[46:43] Others believe that the police had, in essence, framed the
[46:47] perpetrator, though I do need to stress that Shackleford was
[46:52] found not guilty in a court of law.
[46:56] At the end of the day, Gary Driscoll's case is in essence,
[47:01] not only an unsolved mystery, but an unsolvable mystery.
[47:06] Given the evidence tampering that took place, any potential
[47:09] future trial would be tainted by the investigative misconduct.
[47:14] Further, if Schillingford was actually the one who committed
[47:17] the crime, double jeopardy is in play and he couldn't be brought
[47:21] to trial again regardless. That said, I don't necessarily
[47:26] think the evidence supports the fact that he actually committed
[47:29] the crime at all. Gary was staying in a trap house
[47:33] that was so dangerous that Galenas and Tome had decided
[47:37] that it wasn't safe to stay there overnight.
[47:40] Schillingford was just one of many distraught addicts who
[47:43] attended the apartment and apparently caused serious
[47:46] problems. There's also the fact that an
[47:49] unknown quantity of substances were taken as well, which may
[47:53] indicate that a business rival may have hit the apartment.
[47:57] It's also possible that Gallinas may have tried to double cross
[48:01] his supplier, and that he was actually the intended target of
[48:04] the attack. In January 1985, A 43 year old
[48:10] mathematics professor from Pennsylvania State University
[48:14] set out on a solo hiking trip through the remote wilderness of
[48:17] southern Chile. His name was Boris Weisfeiler,
[48:22] and he was an avid outdoorsman who'd made similar treks before.
[48:26] What should have been a routine missing persons case became one
[48:29] of the most haunting unsolved disappearances of the era.
[48:33] Surprisingly, it entangled a brilliant academics fate with a
[48:37] military dictatorship, A shadowy German cult compound, and
[48:41] decades of obstruction by multiple governments.
[48:45] To this day, nobody knows with certainty what happened to Boris
[48:49] Weisfeiler. Boris Weisfeiler was born in
[48:54] 1941 in the Soviet Union, where he grew up to become a
[48:58] remarkably talented and deeply dedicated mathematician.
[49:02] He earned his doctorate in 1970 from the Leningrad branch of the
[49:07] prestigious Stecklauve Institute of Mathematics, studying under
[49:11] some of the world's leading minds in math.
[49:14] His broader specialty was algebraic groups, a demanding
[49:18] and abstract area of pure mathematics that deals with the
[49:22] intersection of algebra and geometry.
[49:25] Life in the Soviet Union, however, proved untenable for
[49:29] vice Filer. In the early 1970s, he was asked
[49:34] to sign a letter denouncing A colleague, and when he refused,
[49:38] Soviet authorities branded him as an anti Soviet.
[49:42] He left the USSR in 1975 and arrived in the United States,
[49:47] where he quickly found a place among the country's top
[49:49] mathematical minds. He worked initially at the
[49:52] Institute for Advanced Study near Princeton, one of the
[49:56] world's most elite research institutions.
[49:59] By 1976, he joined the faculty at Penn State, and in 1981 he
[50:06] became a naturalized American citizen.
[50:11] Weisfeiler flew to Chile during the Christmas break of 1984,
[50:15] planning a backpacking trip through the remote and rugged
[50:18] terrain of the Andes. Chile was, at that time still
[50:22] under the iron grip of Pinochet's military
[50:24] dictatorship, A regime notorious for widespread systematic
[50:29] disappearances of political opponents.
[50:32] However, despite this, the country was, somewhat
[50:36] paradoxically, still known as a highly safe location for Western
[50:40] tourists. Or so it seemed.
[50:43] On or around January 4th, 1985, Weisfeiler vanished in a remote
[50:48] area near the Nubel River in the Biobio region of South Central
[50:52] Chile. When he failed to return, a
[50:56] search was conducted and Chilean authorities eventually concluded
[51:00] that he'd attempted to Ford a fast moving river and drowned.
[51:05] They determined that his body was likely swept away and never
[51:08] recovered. The case was effectively closed,
[51:12] but from the very beginning there were problems with this
[51:15] explanation. Local fishermen reported that
[51:19] they'd camped with Weisfeiler and given him directions
[51:21] northward toward a bridge near a large, fenced off compound.
[51:27] This was no ordinary compound, though, and it was harboring an
[51:30] extremely sinister secret, but I'll get to that in a moment.
[51:34] Critically, there was a cable car crossing near the spot where
[51:38] authorities claimed he'd tried to wade across the river, making
[51:41] the drowning narrative hard to accept.
[51:45] The compound near where Vice Filer was last seen was Colonia
[51:48] Dignidad, one of the most sinister and deeply disturbing
[51:52] places in modern Latin American history.
[51:55] Founded in 1961 by Paul Shaffer, a German fugitive who'd fled
[52:00] abuse charges in his home country, the colony presented
[52:04] itself to the outside world as a charitable community.
[52:07] It was supposedly a hard working and friendly community of German
[52:11] expatriates in Chile, but in reality it was something far
[52:16] more disturbing. Schaefer ran the settlement as a
[52:20] cult, subjecting residents to forced labor, psychological
[52:24] manipulation, and much, much worse.
[52:29] The compound was surrounded by barbed wire, watchtowers, and
[52:33] armed guards, and the people who had immigrated there were
[52:37] trapped by the leadership. When Pinochet seized power in
[52:41] 1973, Colonia Dignidad became something even worse than it was
[52:46] already. Schaefer forged an alliance with
[52:50] the regime, and the compound became a secret detention and
[52:54] execution Center for Pinochet secret police, known as the
[52:58] Dina. Political prisoners were brought
[53:00] there, subjected to brutal interrogation, and in many cases
[53:05] eliminated or, quote UN quote, disappeared.
[53:08] It was into the orbit of this nightmare that Boris Weisfeiler
[53:12] apparently stumbled, though for the first decade and a half the
[53:16] only evidence was that Fisherman had said he was near the
[53:19] compound. Declassified US State Department
[53:23] documents released beginning in 2000 painted a picture
[53:27] dramatically different from the official drowning story.
[53:30] These documents suggested that Weisfeiler had been detained by
[53:34] a Chilean military patrol operating near the colonies
[53:37] perimeter. According to the declassified
[53:40] records, he was then handed over to Colonia Dignidad under
[53:44] suspicion of being a foreign spy.
[53:47] According to the documents, this was possibly because of his
[53:50] Soviet Jewish background. Tragically, if this is where
[53:55] Boris ended up, many high-ranking members of the cult
[53:59] had ties to the ideology of the Third Reich.
[54:02] The declassified documents indicated that he was subjected
[54:05] to brutal interrogation and may have been executed.
[54:09] An unidentified source within the US Embassy even reported
[54:13] having seen Weissfeiler alive inside the colony at least two
[54:17] years after his disappearance, living in appalling conditions.
[54:22] Weissfeiler's sister Olga, now a retired microbiologist living in
[54:27] Massachusetts, has spent the better part of four decades
[54:30] fighting for answers. She's travelled to Chile
[54:33] multiple times, including a visit to Colonia Dignidad
[54:37] itself, where mid level leaders received her reluctantly and
[54:41] neither confirmed nor denied her brother's presence there.
[54:45] Sadly, this is where this case remains today, though there does
[54:49] seem to be hoped that this mystery may one day be solved so
[54:53] that his family may have closure.
[54:56] Notably, in my research, I ended up finding that Colonia Dignidad
[55:00] has been turned into a tourist attraction of all things, which
[55:04] seems highly bizarre to me. And I'm not talking about a
[55:07] tourist attraction where you learn about the horrors that
[55:10] unfolded there, but rather a fun, quaint place where you can
[55:14] enjoy a beer and some Bratwurst. There are people in this world
[55:22] who can't sit still when they see injustice, and Bruno
[55:25] Monsieur was one of them. Born in Basel, Switzerland on
[55:29] August 25th, 1954, Monsieur grew up in a family of five children
[55:35] and showed an independent streak from a very young age.
[55:39] His parents hoped he'd become a doctor, but conventional life
[55:43] never quite fit him, and he was drawn to the natural world in a
[55:47] way that couldn't be satisfied by textbooks.
[55:51] After completing his secondary education, he spent years
[55:54] working as a shepherd on Swiss Alpine pastures, developing
[55:59] interests in handicrafts, natural healing and caving.
[56:04] His refusal to serve in Switzerland's mandatory military
[56:08] led to a four month prison sentence, a consequence he
[56:11] accepted on principle. This would perhaps foreshadow
[56:15] the sort of thorn in the side of authority he was going to be
[56:18] throughout his life. In 1984, everything changed and
[56:23] Mancer travelled to the Malaysian state of Sarawak on
[56:26] the island of Borneo, initially joining a caving expedition to
[56:30] Gunungmulu National Park. There he encountered the Penan
[56:36] people, one of the last nomadic hunter gatherer groups on Earth,
[56:40] and something clicked. He separated from his caving
[56:44] team and walked into the rainforest.
[56:47] What was supposed to be a visit became a six year immersion into
[56:51] every aspect of their life and culture.
[56:54] He learned their language, adopted their customs, mastered
[56:58] jungle survival skills, adopted their traditional dress, and
[57:03] became fully integrated into their society.
[57:07] The pennon gave him the name Laki Pennon, meaning Pennon man,
[57:13] and the community's leader treated Bruno like his own
[57:16] adoptive son. During those years, Manser
[57:20] meticulously documented Pennon culture through detailed
[57:23] illustrations, written observations, and over 10,000
[57:28] photographs. These records would later be
[57:31] recognized as invaluable ethnographic and historical
[57:34] documents. But the paradise Mancer had
[57:38] found was under siege. During the 1980s, logging
[57:43] companies, backed by powerful political interests, began
[57:46] systematically clearing the region's rainforests.
[57:49] The destruction was devastating for the Penan.
[57:53] Their hunting grounds shrank, their drinking water was
[57:56] contaminated, and the animals they depended on fled.
[58:01] At the center of this machinery of deforestation, according to
[58:05] Mansare, was Abdul Taib Mahmoud. He served as Sarawak's Chief
[58:11] Minister from 1981 and simultaneously held the
[58:15] portfolios of Finance Minister and Minister for Natural
[58:18] Resources. This concentration of power
[58:21] meant that Mahmoud had absolute control over the issuance of
[58:25] logging concessions across the entire state.
[58:29] Bruno Monsieur would later allege that he used this
[58:32] authority to enrich himself, his family and his allies, allegedly
[58:37] building a massive fortune. In 1987, the Pinon launched a
[58:43] series of peaceful Rd. blockades along logging routes in the
[58:46] Upper Baram region. These protests drew
[58:49] international media attention and infuriated the logging
[58:53] companies and the Sarawak government alike.
[58:56] Mahmoud declared Mansur an enemy of the state and sent a commando
[59:00] unit into the jungle to capture him.
[59:03] Mancer evaded arrest and, concluding that he could do more
[59:06] good for the Penin from abroad, managed to slip out of Sarawak
[59:09] in 1990 without being identified.
[59:14] Back in Basel, Mancer threw himself into activism with the
[59:18] same intensity he'd brought to jungle life.
[59:21] In 1991, he founded a nonprofit organization dedicated to
[59:26] rainforest conservation and the defense of indigenous rights in
[59:30] Sarawak. He published a book about his
[59:33] experiences and launched A relentless series of protest
[59:36] actions designed to draw global attention to the crisis
[59:40] unfolding in Borneo. The stunts were audacious.
[59:45] In 1992, he parachuted into a packed stadium during the Earth
[59:49] Summit in Rio de Janeiro. That same year, he led a 20 day
[59:54] hunger strike outside the Marabini Corporation
[59:56] headquarters in Tokyo targeting a major buyer of Sarawak timber.
[1:00:02] In 1993 he undertook a 60 day hunger strike in front of the
[1:00:06] Swiss Federal Parliament in Bern, demanding an import ban on
[1:00:11] tropical timber and mandatory labeling for wood products.
[1:00:15] Despite all this attention, the logging didn't stop and he
[1:00:19] figured the only chance he had was to negotiate directly with
[1:00:23] Taib Mahmoud himself. So he did the natural thing and
[1:00:28] flew a small plane onto the road outside his residence and
[1:00:31] attempted to negotiate directly. Unsurprisingly, this act ended
[1:00:36] up with him being taken into custody and promptly deported
[1:00:39] back to Switzerland without a meeting.
[1:00:43] By the year 2000, Mansor was a man running out of hope, and he
[1:00:47] admitted openly that his efforts had achieved less than nothing.
[1:00:50] In Sarawak, the logging continued unabated and more
[1:00:54] Pennant families were being pressured into selling their
[1:00:57] land. Yet he couldn't walk away.
[1:01:00] On February 15th, 2000, Mansur left Switzerland for what would
[1:01:05] be his final trip. He entered Borneo through the
[1:01:08] Indonesian province of Kalamantan, accompanied by a
[1:01:12] film crew. After a period of trekking, the
[1:01:16] film crew departed, leaving Mansur to continue with a Penin
[1:01:19] companion named Nari. The two traveled for roughly 2
[1:01:24] weeks, crossing mountains and rivers on foot and by boat, with
[1:01:28] Monsieur still writing postcards to friends during this stretch.
[1:01:33] On May 25th, 2000, in the mountains near the isolated
[1:01:38] village of Barrio Manser, separated from his companion.
[1:01:43] He told Nari he wanted to attempt to climb of Bukit
[1:01:45] Batulawi, a steep limestone pinnacle sacred to the Pennan.
[1:01:51] Manser had tried and failed to summit the mountain years
[1:01:53] earlier, and he apparently saw this as perhaps his last chance.
[1:02:00] Between May and October 2000, multiple groups of Penin tribes
[1:02:04] people searched the surrounding jungle without success.
[1:02:08] In November, through circumstances that remain
[1:02:10] unclear, his foundation was notified of the disappearance
[1:02:15] and they alerted the authorities in the media.
[1:02:18] A formal search was undertaken over the following months, but
[1:02:22] ultimately no signs of Bruno were found.
[1:02:27] Several theories have circulated about what happened.
[1:02:30] The most straightforward is that Mansur fell while attempting to
[1:02:34] climb Bukit Batulawi. The mountain is treacherously
[1:02:37] steep and a fall from its upper reaches would almost certainly
[1:02:41] be fatal in tropical Borneo. A body would decompose rapidly
[1:02:46] and scavengers would remove whatever remained.
[1:02:50] Another possibility is a snake bite or some other medical
[1:02:54] emergency in one of the most remote places on Earth, far from
[1:02:58] any help. He wasn't carrying a satellite
[1:03:01] phone, and he had absolutely no meaningful protective equipment,
[1:03:05] so if something went wrong, that was it for him.
[1:03:10] A darker theory, however, has never been fully dismissed.
[1:03:14] For years, there had been persistent rumors of a bounty on
[1:03:17] Mancer's head, said to be around $50,000.
[1:03:21] Some have theorized that it wasn't beyond the realm of
[1:03:24] possibility that individuals connected to timber interests
[1:03:28] had played a role. However, those who have argued
[1:03:31] against this theory note that Mancer had been captured and
[1:03:35] detained by the authorities before and simply been deported.
[1:03:40] Despite all these hostile encounters with government
[1:03:42] officials, Mansor himself never publicly recorded that his life
[1:03:46] was in danger. Ultimately, unless new evidence
[1:03:50] comes out, Bruno's disappearance is likely to remain forever an
[1:03:54] unsolved mystery. Hey everyone, it's Jimmy, with
[1:04:01] my usual quick reminder to hit that subscription button if you
[1:04:04] haven't done so already. Also, don't forget that you can
[1:04:07] help out my channel further by supporting through the YouTube
[1:04:10] membership or the Patreon.

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