# Florida True Crime Mysteries Compilation (Part 2)

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 5 Dec 2025, 55 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO5711944882.mp3

Join me as we discuss the top unsolved Florida true crime cases I covered on my youtube channels and my podcast this year. Also, don't forget to follow the podcast and leave a rating :) This is part 2 of a 2 part compilation. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ 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 florida crimes, florida serial killer, florida true crime, 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

## Transcript

[0:01] On March 5th, 1974, seventeen year old Amy Billig left her
[0:06] home in Coconut Grove, FL to meet her father at his art
[0:10] gallery about a mile away. She often hitchhiked around the
[0:14] neighborhood, as was the style at the time, and that afternoon
[0:18] she stood by the roadside with her thumb.
[0:20] Out on the highway, witnesses saw Amy getting into a vehicle,
[0:25] but she never arrived at her father's gallery and never met
[0:28] her friends for lunch. As planned, the high school
[0:32] seniors simply vanished without a trace, turning an ordinary day
[0:36] into one of Florida's most haunting unsolved mysteries.
[0:41] When Amy failed to return home that evening, her mother, Susan
[0:45] Bilig, immediately knew something was wrong.
[0:48] Amy had phoned earlier to say she'd be back after meeting her
[0:51] dad, so the family quickly reported her missing.
[0:55] At first, police hesitated to act, suggesting the teenager
[0:59] might turn up by morning. But by March 6th, a full
[1:03] investigation was launched with no sign of Amy.
[1:06] Locally, a surprising clue surfaced On March 18th.
[1:11] Her camera was found near a highway exit 250 miles north of
[1:16] Miami. The film inside yielded only one
[1:20] hazy photo, a light colored pickup truck by a vine covered
[1:23] wall, and no clear evidence. Investigators couldn't trace the
[1:28] truck or the location in the picture.
[1:31] Desperate for leads, her parents blanketed South Florida with
[1:35] missing person Flyers, hired a private investigator, and held
[1:39] press conferences to keep Amy's story in the public eye.
[1:43] Despite extensive media coverage and community fundraisers to aid
[1:47] the search, weeks passed with no breakthrough.
[1:52] Early in the investigation, a disturbing theory took shape.
[1:56] Amy may have been abducted by an outlaw biker gang passing
[2:00] through the area. On the very day Amy disappeared.
[2:04] 2 notorious biker clubs, the Outlaws and the Pagans, had been
[2:09] traveling through Coconut Grove on route to a bike rally in
[2:12] Daytona Beach. Multiple tips and sightings soon
[2:16] tied Amy's fate to these gangs. A woman calling herself Susan
[2:20] Johnson phoned to claim Amy was taken by the Outlaws and had
[2:24] been seen with bikers in Daytona.
[2:27] Indeed, the Outlaws had ridden through Miami that day.
[2:31] Susan Bilig even met with a couple of bikers who initially
[2:34] vowed to help. However, as she kept digging,
[2:38] these same bikers later told her to stop looking, further fueling
[2:42] fears of a cover up within the biker world.
[2:45] Also, yeah, telling a grieving mother looking for her daughter
[2:49] to stop looking at the bikers clearly just raised more
[2:52] suspicion. As they say, you only take Flack
[2:56] when you're flying over the target.
[3:00] Credible sightings of Amy with bikers continued to emerge as
[3:03] time went on. In Orlando, a convenience store
[3:07] manager insisted he saw Amy come in with a biker group to buy
[3:10] vegetarian soup. This was a detail that gave
[3:14] Susan hope, since Amy was a vegetarian and that fact wasn't
[3:19] public knowledge. The strongest lead came from
[3:22] within another gang. In late 1975, Paul Branch, a
[3:28] member of the Pagans, contacted Susan after seeing Amy's photo
[3:32] in a newspaper. Branch claimed he had kept Amy
[3:36] for a time after obtaining her from another biker, and he even
[3:39] described a hidden 2 inch scar on her abdomen from an
[3:42] appendectomy. This private detail convinced
[3:46] Susan that Branch had truly encountered her daughter.
[3:49] Disturbingly, the details suggest that she was trafficked
[3:53] between the bikers for reasons that are unclear.
[3:56] Branch promised to help get Amy back, but his leads only sent
[4:00] Susan on wild goose chases. At 1 arranged rendezvous in
[4:05] Tulsa, Branch promised to bring Amy back to her family.
[4:09] However, he was never able to produce her, and he later
[4:13] claimed other bikers attacked him for cooperating.
[4:16] Branch subsequently cut off all communications with the family.
[4:20] But keep him in the back of your mind because he's going to play
[4:23] another major role decades later.
[4:27] Despite these frustrations, both the family and police saw a
[4:31] biker gang abduction as the most plausible explanation for Amy's
[4:35] disappearance. Over the years, Amy's loved ones
[4:39] endured numerous hoaxes and false leads that compounded
[4:43] their ordeal. 16 days after Amy vanished, the Billings received
[4:49] a phone call from someone claiming to have kidnapped her,
[4:52] demanding $30,000 ransom. The caller even let a girl
[4:57] scream in the background, making Susan believe for a moment that
[5:00] her daughter was alive. A drop off was arranged at a
[5:04] Miami Beach hotel, but it turned out to be an extortion scam by
[5:08] 16 year old twin boys with no connection to Amy.
[5:12] Unfortunately, this incident would be a harmless prank in
[5:16] comparison to the sinister activities of the next
[5:18] individual. For 21 years, Susan Billig was
[5:23] tormented by a man who repeatedly phoned her, claiming
[5:27] he had Amy and graphically describing supposed acts he did
[5:31] to her. Disturbingly, he would be
[5:34] actively engaging with himself while tormenting Susan while she
[5:38] would try to record every detail he gave.
[5:41] This caller, who gave the name Johnson, would taunt Susan for
[5:46] years, often calling from untraceable payphones and
[5:50] keeping her in constant anguish. The family couldn't change their
[5:54] phone number because they wanted Amy to be able to call home if
[5:57] she escaped from her captors. Further, just to show how
[6:02] psychologically manipulative this caller was, he would claim
[6:06] that Amy was still alive and captive.
[6:09] In essence, on the off chance he was telling the truth, she
[6:13] needed to sit through his sick games in hopes he slipped up.
[6:19] In 1995, the FBI finally traced one of these calls and unmasked
[6:24] the culprit, Henry Johnson Blair, AUS Customs Service
[6:29] agent. Blair was arrested and admitted
[6:32] he had derived physical pleasure from cruelly tormenting Amy's
[6:35] family, though he insisted he knew nothing about her actual
[6:39] fate. He was convicted of stalking and
[6:42] served two years in prison. Later, an eerie coincidence
[6:46] emerged. Amy's diary, written weeks
[6:49] before she vanished, mentioned a man named Hank who'd invited her
[6:54] to South America. Notably, Blair went by the
[6:58] nickname Hank and lived in the area at the time of her
[7:01] disappearance. He also drove a van that was
[7:04] similar to one that Amy had pictures of in some undeveloped
[7:08] film in her room. However, no direct evidence ever
[7:12] linked Blair to the disappearance beyond his decades
[7:15] of cruel phone harassment. A major break in the case
[7:19] finally came 24 years later, though it brought more horror
[7:23] than relief. In 1998, Miami police announced
[7:28] they had received a confession from a dying man Paul Branch,
[7:33] the Pagan's biker, who had reached out to Susan years
[7:35] before, was on his deathbed in late 1997 and allegedly
[7:40] confessed to his wife that Amy had been abducted.
[7:44] But this time the story was much different, and he said that she
[7:48] had been slain the very day she was taken.
[7:52] According to Branch's confession, members of the
[7:55] Pagans Motorcycle Club picked up Amy as she hitchhiked and took
[8:00] her to a party at their clubhouse in the Florida
[8:03] Everglades. There, the gang assaulted her.
[8:08] Branch claimed that roughly two dozen bikers engaged in horrific
[8:11] acts against Amy. When she resisted the advances
[8:15] of this group, they injected her with a substance to make her
[8:19] docile. When she kept fighting back,
[8:22] they kept administering doses of this unknown substance until she
[8:26] ultimately perished. Afterwards, the bikers disposed
[8:30] of her body in an alligator infested swamp where Branch
[8:34] believes that her body was consumed by the animals.
[8:39] One detective on the case, said Branch's wife provided numerous
[8:42] details that matched confidential aspects of the
[8:45] investigation, lending credibility to the gruesome
[8:48] story. However, without physical
[8:51] evidence or identified perpetrators to charge, the
[8:55] authorities couldn't confirm the allegations and close out the
[8:59] case definitively. This story does have some
[9:03] problems, however, given the number of credible and verified
[9:06] sightings of Amy in the weeks following the abduction, The
[9:11] fact that she was seen months later purchasing vegetarian food
[9:15] while in the company of a biker gang makes it seem that Branch
[9:18] may not have been telling the truth in his confession.
[9:22] However, that said, since the confession was filtered through
[9:26] his wife and Branch was no longer alive, this may explain
[9:31] the discrepancies. She may have simply
[9:34] misunderstood the timeline he was trying to convey, or he may
[9:38] have been unclear on the timeline himself.
[9:41] Personally, though, I still have to wonder about the connection
[9:44] with Hank, the man who called and harassed the family for 20
[9:47] years. He claimed not to know who Amy
[9:51] was, but by the time 20 years had passed, there would have
[9:55] been no paper trail on his end to prove it.
[9:59] Amy's mention of an individual called Hank who wanted to take
[10:02] her away just weeks prior suggests something more to me.
[10:07] Further, I find it highly suspicious that this Hank from
[10:10] the diary never came forward to help the investigation if he
[10:14] wasn't involved. Still, this doesn't provide an
[10:18] explanation for why Amy was seen in the company of the bikers.
[10:24] Unfortunately for Amy's remaining family members, the
[10:28] authorities are no closer to cracking her case today than the
[10:31] day she disappeared. I personally think that nothing
[10:35] out of Branch can be trusted. After all, he's a confirmed liar
[10:39] who led on Amy's parents with promises of returning her.
[10:44] He was either lying about the initial story or lying about the
[10:47] disturbing story at the clubhouse.
[10:54] On a chilly day in February 1971, two hitchhikers traveling
[10:58] along Interstate 75 in Central Florida made a gruesome
[11:02] discovery beneath the Lake Panasovski overpass in the
[11:06] shallow waters of Shady Brook Creek.
[11:08] Beneath that bridge lay the body of a young woman, badly
[11:11] decomposed after roughly a month in the water.
[11:15] A man's leather belt was still wrapped around her neck, and it
[11:19] appeared her body had been bundled up and dropped from the
[11:21] overpass into the marsh below. With no identification on the
[11:26] victim, authorities dubbed her Little Miss Lake Panisofki after
[11:32] the nearby lake. For more than half a century,
[11:35] that nickname was all anyone knew her by as law enforcement
[11:39] struggled to uncover her identity until now.
[11:43] Local law enforcement in Sumter County started investigating
[11:46] immediately, but identifying the victim proved difficult with
[11:50] 1971's limited forensic tools. The woman appeared to be in her
[11:54] late teens or early 20s, small in stature with dark hair and
[11:58] brown eyes. She was found wearing
[12:01] distinctive green clothing, Plaid pants, a matching shirt
[12:05] and a floral patterned shawl, along with a gold necklace, a
[12:09] ring and a Baylor wristwatch. These details were carefully
[12:14] recorded and police circulated descriptions nationwide, yet no
[12:19] missing person report matched the victim.
[12:22] An autopsy confirmed she had been strangled with the belt,
[12:26] likely weeks before her discovery.
[12:29] Heartbreakingly, Examiner's also determined that the young woman
[12:32] had given birth to children in the past.
[12:35] Somewhere, it seemed she had family who didn't know what had
[12:39] become of her. Despite extensive effort, the
[12:43] early investigation yielded no leads.
[12:46] The unknown woman was laid to rest in a local cemetery as a
[12:50] Jane Doe, her grave marker bearing the placeholder name
[12:54] that the community had given her.
[12:58] Over the next several decades, investigators refused to let the
[13:01] Little Miss Lake Panisofsky case be forgotten.
[13:05] In 1986, her remains were exhumed to take advantage of
[13:09] improved forensic techniques. Specialist re examined her bones
[13:14] and teeth, confirming the victim's general profile and
[13:18] noting signs of prior medical care such as dental work and a
[13:22] heeled ankle surgery. Critically, they reaffirmed that
[13:27] she had given birth to at least two children, a clue that could
[13:30] have narrowed searches, yet still no identity was found.
[13:35] In 1992, the case was featured on the show Unsolved Mysteries,
[13:41] bringing national attention to the story.
[13:44] For those of you who are unaware of what a cultural phenomenon
[13:47] this show was at the time, the first run of an episode would be
[13:51] watched by 10 million households in North America.
[13:56] Tips came in and police compared countless missing persons cases,
[14:00] but no match emerged. Incredibly, at least one family
[14:05] member watched the Unsolved Mysteries episode without
[14:08] realizing it was about their missing relative.
[14:12] In 2006, they submitted the victims fingerprints to the FB
[14:16] is national database, hoping she might have a record, but no hits
[14:20] turned up at the time. By the late 2000's, the team
[14:24] turned to advanced DNA testing and genetic genealogy.
[14:28] Unfortunately, her DNA was in poor condition and produced no
[14:32] useful matches. One scientific analysis even
[14:36] suggested the victim may have spent her childhood in Greece
[14:40] based on isotope clues in her remains.
[14:43] This LED investigators down a frustrating false trail,
[14:47] theorizing she could have been a recent immigrant.
[14:50] Despite all these efforts, the young woman's name remained
[14:53] unknown as the case approached its 55th year.
[14:58] Then the breakthrough finally came in 2025, not from genetic
[15:03] genealogy, but from fingerprints.
[15:06] The Sumter County Sheriff's Office had acquired a cutting
[15:09] edge fingerprint matching system that uses artificial
[15:12] intelligence to compare degraded fingerprints to complete copies.
[15:17] In October 2025, the system returned a stunning result, a
[15:22] match to fingerprints from a 1970 arrest in Hillsborough
[15:25] County, Florida. After 54 years, Little Miss Lake
[15:30] Panasovsky suddenly had a name. The arrest record identified her
[15:35] as Cookie Rowan, who had been booked in 1970 on a minor charge
[15:39] involving a bad check. Investigators quickly confirmed
[15:43] that the fingerprints and all other details match the long
[15:47] unidentified victim. In late October 2025, Sheriff
[15:52] Patrick Breeden announced that the mystery of her identity was
[15:55] solved. At a press conference, Sheriff
[15:58] Breeden declared that Little Miss Lake Panasovsky finally had
[16:02] a name as he revealed Cookies identity to the world.
[16:07] It was a triumphant and emotional moment for the cold
[16:10] case team in the community. Cookie Rowan turned out to be a
[16:14] 21 year old local woman and mother and hadn't grown up in
[16:17] Greece. Tellingly, she had never even
[16:21] been reported missing back in 1971, a fact that helps explain
[16:25] why identification was so difficult.
[16:28] Ironically, the key to identifying her had been in law
[16:32] enforcement files for years. Her fingerprints were uploaded
[16:36] to the FBI database in 2013, long after the initial search.
[16:42] However, until this new cutting edge technology could compare
[16:45] the degraded fingerprint from her body to the perfect print
[16:49] taken by the cops, the connection couldn't be made.
[16:53] And honestly, it's kind of interesting to see ultra high
[16:56] tech forensic solutions that don't involve forensic genetic
[17:00] genealogy once in a while. Once her identity was confirmed,
[17:05] a fuller picture of Cookie Rowan emerged.
[17:08] She was born and raised in the United States and had never even
[17:12] been to Greece, proving that isotope analysis can be
[17:15] problematic. By age 21, Cookie was the mother
[17:20] of two young children. She lived in the Tampa area and
[17:24] had married Charles Emery Rowan. However, Cookie's personal life
[17:29] was troubled. Her marriage was reportedly
[17:32] tumultuous and she had separated from her husband shortly before
[17:35] she disappeared. The exact circumstances around
[17:40] her disappearance are still hazy.
[17:42] Those close to her may not have realized she was truly missing,
[17:46] and some have speculated that a narrative may have been spun by
[17:50] the perpetrator that she abandoned her children.
[17:54] Her now grown children and other relatives finally learned what
[17:58] happened to their long lost mother.
[18:01] In a public statement, the family expressed deep gratitude
[18:04] to the investigators and the community, who never gave up
[18:09] identifying. Cookie answered the biggest
[18:11] question in the Lake Panasovsky case.
[18:14] But the mystery isn't entirely over.
[18:17] Investigators also identified a person of interest in her
[18:20] slaying her estranged husband, Charles Emery Rowan.
[18:27] Emery Rowan would have been 85 years old in 2025, and he died
[18:32] in 2015, taking any secrets he had to the grave.
[18:37] While he can never be formally charged or interrogated,
[18:40] detectives suspect he may have been involved in Cookie's death
[18:43] given the circumstances and their history together.
[18:47] The case remains open as an active investigation, with
[18:52] authorities continuing to gather information about Cookie's final
[18:55] days and anyone who might have been responsible.
[19:00] Personally, I hope the authorities keep digging on this
[19:03] one, since while there is an incredibly obvious suspect, the
[19:08] details of her disappearance are presently unknown.
[19:12] For instance, it's always possible that Cookie had entered
[19:14] into a new relationship after the separation, and this
[19:18] completely unknown person may be responsible.
[19:21] That said, though, I think the most obvious explanation is
[19:26] likely that her former spouse did it and then claimed she left
[19:30] the state and abandoned her children.
[19:33] This may be why her own family members never ended up bringing
[19:36] her case to the authorities. In the early 1980s, a small
[19:43] Colorado publisher released a book that read like a how to
[19:47] guide for Aspiring professionals.
[19:50] It was called Hitman, A Technical Manual for Independent
[19:53] Contractors, a slim volume promising to craft the reader
[19:57] into a true pro. Hitman was published in 1983 by
[20:03] Paladin Press, a niche publisher based in Boulder known for its
[20:07] edgy catalog of survival guides, combat manuals, and other
[20:11] forbidden knowledge. The book is presented entirely
[20:15] straight faced as an instructional manual for less
[20:17] than legal aspiring contract workers.
[20:21] Across its 130 pages, it lays out step by step advice on how
[20:26] to enter the business of slaying for hire and get away with it.
[20:31] The author, writing with an authoritative tone, covers
[20:34] everything from selecting A suitable weapon to stalking a
[20:38] target's daily routine. The manual explains how to deal
[20:42] with potential complications, how to avoid leaving evidence,
[20:47] and even how to mislead investigators.
[20:52] The name on the cover, Rex Ferrell, was clearly a
[20:56] pseudonym. Translated loosely from Latin,
[21:00] it means Savage King, an appropriately menacing moniker
[21:04] for a purported professional assassin.
[21:07] But the true identity behind that name remained a mystery for
[21:10] many years. The book offered no author
[21:13] biography or credentials beyond the implication that the writer
[21:17] was an experienced hitman sharing hard earned secrets from
[21:21] the field. This mystique LED some readers
[21:25] to believe they were learning from a genuine pro or someone
[21:28] with special forces training, while others suspected it was
[21:32] all an elaborate hoax to sell books.
[21:37] In time, details about the real author began to surface, adding
[21:41] a surprising twist to the story. According to later media
[21:45] investigations, the author was a woman with no record of violence
[21:49] or military background. She was described as a divorced
[21:53] mom living in Florida who had simply done her research and
[21:56] exercised a dark imagination. Rather than drawing on personal
[22:01] criminal experience, she had built the book's instructions by
[22:04] piercing together information from crime novels, movies and
[22:08] interviews. In other words, Hitman was
[22:11] essentially a work of fiction packaged as fact.
[22:15] Or at least, that's what the official story has been.
[22:18] But digging a bit below the surface, no one has actually
[22:22] shown the receipts on this issue.
[22:27] Notably, the author's identity was kept anonymous, as Paladin
[22:30] Press refused to reveal her name or provide any details beyond
[22:35] her being a true crime mom with an active imagination.
[22:40] However, some speculate that Paladin's claim was actually a
[22:43] cover story, attempting to pass the work off as fiction to avoid
[22:47] liability. The line of reasoning is simple.
[22:51] This would have transformed the book from a literal how to
[22:54] manual into a dark crime novel. The entire thing, including the
[22:59] marketing, would be a form of literary and artistic expression
[23:05] rather than a literal guide for quote UN quote independent
[23:09] contractors. It would make the publishing of
[23:12] the book essentially the equivalent to producing and
[23:15] broadcasting an episode of Dexter.
[23:18] Unfortunately, whatever the truth about the author, the book
[23:22] would go on to have dire physical consequences.
[23:28] For years, Hitman existed in a sort of Twilight Zone, widely
[23:32] considered tasteless and extreme, but seemingly harmless
[23:36] in the sense that no known crimes had been directly linked
[23:39] to it. That changed on March 3rd, 1993,
[23:44] when a brutal triple slaying in Maryland suddenly cast a harsh
[23:47] spotlight on the book. On that day, a man named James
[23:52] Perry entered a home in Silver Spring, MD, and carried out an
[23:56] act that was as methodical as it was horrifying.
[24:00] Perry had been hired by Lawrence Horne, a disturbed father locked
[24:04] in a bitter dispute over money with his ex-wife.
[24:09] Horn stood to gain a large trust fund inheritance of his disabled
[24:13] son and the boy's mother were dead, a motive straight out of a
[24:17] crime novel. Except it was all too real.
[24:21] Under Horn's direction, James Perry drove from out of state
[24:24] and invaded the Horn family's home.
[24:27] Inside, Perry ended three people with chilling precision, with
[24:32] Mildred, Trevor and Janice Saunders, Trevor's full time
[24:35] nurse, all perishing that night. In the aftermath, investigators
[24:41] found the scene curiously professional in its approach,
[24:44] the kind of meticulous, detached work that seemed uncommon for an
[24:49] ordinary criminal. Given the significant wealth
[24:52] associated with the Horne family and the bitter dispute, the
[24:56] authorities suspected the husband may have had a guy on
[24:59] retainer. It wasn't long before detectives
[25:05] uncovered a trail leading back to James Perry.
[25:08] What truly stunned them was the discovery that Perry owned a
[25:11] copy of Hitman and had apparently used it as his
[25:15] blueprint. Phone records and receipts
[25:18] showed Perry had ordered the book, along with a guide to
[25:22] building silencers from Paladin Press prior to the slayings.
[25:27] As the case developed, evidence mounted that Perry followed the
[25:31] manuals advice in exacting detail.
[25:34] Perry had essentially acted out the pages of Hitman, turning
[25:38] theory into reality. Both James Perry and Lawrence
[25:42] Horn were eventually caught and convicted, and Horn was
[25:45] identified as the mastermind and Perry as the triggerman who
[25:50] committed them. In 1995, relatives of Mildred
[25:57] Horne, Trevor Horne, and Janice Saunders filed A wrongful death
[26:01] lawsuit against Paladin Press. They argued that Hitman was not
[26:06] protected speech, but rather a form of criminal facilitation.
[26:11] Their claim was essentially that Paladin Press, by publishing the
[26:15] manual and knowingly selling it to customers like Perry, shared
[26:19] responsibility for the slayings. This legal argument was
[26:23] virtually unheard of in American courts.
[26:26] Never before had a book publisher been sued for
[26:28] providing instructions that a reader used it to commit such an
[26:32] offense. Paladin Press's defense leaned
[26:37] heavily on the 1st Amendment. Their lawyers contended that
[26:41] however distasteful Hitman might be, it was a published work of
[26:45] information and was thus safeguarded by free speech
[26:49] precedent. Initially, this argument found
[26:52] traction, and they were successful at getting the case
[26:55] summarily dismissed without a trial.
[26:58] In 1996, a federal judge acknowledged that the book was
[27:02] disturbing and improper, but nevertheless dismissed the
[27:06] lawsuit on 1st Amendment grounds.
[27:09] He reasoned that written instructions in and of
[27:11] themselves didn't constitute a direct incitement to imminent
[27:15] violence under established legal standards.
[27:18] Paladin's victory at that stage seemed to affirm the traditional
[27:22] stance that even the most objectionable speech is
[27:24] protected unless it very explicitly incites a crime.
[27:31] However, the story didn't end there.
[27:33] The victims families appealed, and in 1997 the case reached the
[27:38] 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. In a landmark decision, the
[27:42] appellate judges reversed the earlier ruling.
[27:46] They concluded that Hitman went beyond abstract advocacy of
[27:49] violence. It was effectively aiding and
[27:52] abetting crime by providing detailed, practical instructions
[27:55] specifically intended for criminals.
[27:58] The court noted that Paladin Press had even stipulated that
[28:02] they marketed the book to people contemplating crimes.
[28:06] Further, they marketed complementary materials which an
[28:10] aspiring troublemaker could utilize in concert with the
[28:13] instructions given by the author of Hitman.
[28:17] This was a crucial point. Unlike a political manifesto or
[28:21] a violent movie, Hitman was part of an entire apparatus set up by
[28:25] Paladin Press to facilitate the establishment of these services.
[28:31] To go back to the Dexter analogy, imperfect as it is,
[28:35] imagine you're watching the show and all the advertising is
[28:38] intentionally for items which Dexter uses on the show, and not
[28:42] only that, the ads explicitly state that you should buy the
[28:45] items to do what you see being done on screen.
[28:51] With the appellate decision, the matter was kicked back to the
[28:54] lower courts for a trial which would ultimately never occur.
[28:59] Facing the prospect of a trial by jury and potentially enormous
[29:03] damages, Paladin Press's insurance company chose to
[29:07] settle the case. In 1999, Paladin Press agreed to
[29:11] cease publication of Hitman permanently and to destroy any
[29:15] remaining copies in its inventory.
[29:18] Notably, since the matter never went to trial and was settled
[29:21] out of court, Paladin Press was never actually compelled to
[29:25] produce who the author was. Whether Rex Ferrell was a true
[29:29] crime mom with a vivid imagination or an actual pro
[29:33] with real know how will likely remain an unsolved mystery.
[29:38] Tammy Lynn Leopard was a promising young actress and
[29:41] model best known for a small but very memorable role in one of
[29:46] the most iconic scenes in Scarface.
[29:49] Born on February 5th, 1965 in Rockledge, FL, Tammy began her
[29:55] journey into the limelight at the age of 4, participating in
[29:59] beauty pageants. As she transitioned into her
[30:02] teenage years, Tammy expanded her horizons into modeling and
[30:07] acting. She graced the cover of Cover
[30:10] Girl magazine in October 1978 and landed minor roles in films
[30:15] such as Little Darlings in 1980 and Spring Break in 1983.
[30:20] Her most notable appearance was in the 1983 classic Scarface,
[30:25] where she played the girl who distracts the lookout during the
[30:28] infamous chainsaw scene. However, in early 1983, those
[30:34] close to Tammy noticed a stark change in her behavior.
[30:38] After attending a weekend party following the spring break
[30:41] shoot, she returned home noticeably different.
[30:45] Her close friend Wing Flanagan observed that she came back a
[30:50] different person. This shift became more evident
[30:53] during the filming of Scarface, where she abruptly left after
[30:57] the 4th day. Her mother, Linda Curtis,
[31:02] believed Tammy was overtaken by a delusion that someone intended
[31:05] to harm her. Concerned, Linda had Tammy
[31:09] undergo a 72 hour observation at a Medical Center, but doctors
[31:14] reportedly found no signs of any mental health concerns or of
[31:18] substance use. On July 6th, 1983, Tammy left
[31:24] her home in Rockledge, FL with a male friend, informing her
[31:28] mother that she was heading to the beach and would return
[31:31] shortly. Her friend later told
[31:33] authorities that they had an argument while driving, leading
[31:37] him to leave her in a parking lot near the Glass Bank in Cocoa
[31:40] Beach. Despite being the last known
[31:43] person to see her, he wasn't considered a suspect, though
[31:46] Tammy's mother maintained that he ought to have been.
[31:50] In the aftermath of her disappearance, investigators
[31:54] explored various leads. One theory involved Christopher
[31:58] Wilder, an Australian born serial perpetrator linked to the
[32:02] slayings of several women across the United States.
[32:06] Wilder's modus operandi included luring women with promises of
[32:10] modeling opportunities, which aligned with Tammy's background.
[32:14] Tammy's family even filed A lawsuit against Wilder, but it
[32:18] was eventually dropped due to doubts about his involvement.
[32:22] Moreover, Wilder's known spree began a year after Tammy
[32:26] vanished, making his connection to her case tenuous.
[32:31] Another potential suspect was John Brennan Crutchley,
[32:34] infamously known as The Vampire. Crutchley was convicted of
[32:39] kidnapping a woman in Orlando, FL, during which he drained and
[32:43] consumed her life essence. While he was considered a
[32:47] possible suspect in Tammy's case, authorities found no
[32:50] concrete evidence linking him to her disappearance.
[32:54] Crutchley had the good sense to take out the trash while serving
[32:57] life in prison. In 2002, Linda Curtis had her
[33:02] own theory, believing that Tammy was abducted and slain due to
[33:06] her knowledge of a large scale criminal operation in Brevard
[33:09] County, Florida. According to Linda, this
[33:13] operation involved many prominent local citizens, and
[33:17] Tammy's paranoia stemmed from her awareness of these illicit
[33:20] activities. However, investigators found no
[33:24] records to support this claim and didn't endorse this theory.
[33:29] Others have speculated that Tammy witnessed something
[33:32] horrific at a Hollywood party, which caused her to have a
[33:35] mental break. Under this theory, this mental
[33:38] break and her subsequent behavior made her a liability to
[33:42] powerful people, and they had her eliminated.
[33:47] In 1985, two years after Tammy's disappearance, Cocoa Beach
[33:51] Detective Harold Lewis received 2 anonymous phone calls from a
[33:55] woman claiming that Tammy was alive.
[33:57] The caller also mentioned that Tammy was pursuing her dream of
[34:00] becoming a nurse. Despite these calls, no further
[34:05] evidence surfaced to confirm Tammy's whereabouts and there's
[34:08] nothing to indicate that these calls were based in reality.
[34:13] Personally, I don't put too much stock in this call because
[34:16] there's always been deranged people out there who like to try
[34:19] to insert themselves into high profile cases.
[34:24] On January 24th, 1984, nineteen year old Timothy Michael Molnar
[34:29] vanished under circumstances that continue to baffle
[34:32] investigators and his family. A dedicated student at Embry
[34:36] Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL, Tim was
[34:41] known for his punctuality and commitment to his family and
[34:44] education. That morning, he dropped off his
[34:47] 14 year old brother Frank at school and was expected to
[34:51] attend his classes thereafter. However, instead of heading to
[34:56] the university, Tim returned home, loaded his bicycle into
[35:00] his 1969 Dodge Dart, and drove away, never to be seen alive
[35:05] again. When Tim didn't return home that
[35:09] evening, his parents immediately sensed something was amiss.
[35:13] He was known for adhering to his routines and any deviation was
[35:18] unusual. Concerned, they contacted his
[35:21] friends and the local authorities, but no one had any
[35:25] information about his whereabouts.
[35:28] That night, the family received 2 unsettling phone calls with
[35:32] only silence on the other end, leading them to wonder if Tim
[35:36] was trying to reach out but was unable to speak.
[35:41] Weeks later, a clue emerged when the Molnar family received a
[35:45] credit card bill indicating a purchase at a gas station in
[35:49] Lake City, FL made on the day of Tim's disappearance.
[35:54] The gas station attendant recalled Tim refueling alone,
[35:58] which intensified speculations about his intentions.
[36:02] Further investigation revealed that Tim had withdrawn nearly
[36:05] all his savings, leaving just $10 in his account.
[36:10] The fact that he left $10 in the account has been theorized by
[36:14] some to indicate that he intended to keep this account
[36:18] open and active. According to this theory, Tim
[36:23] may have been planning on returning to his regular life,
[36:27] otherwise he would have just withdrawn it all.
[36:31] Four months after his disappearance, another lead
[36:33] surfaced. The family received a letter
[36:36] from a car repossession company in Atlanta, GA.
[36:40] The letter stated that Tim's Dodge Dart had been found
[36:43] abandoned in a parking lot just a block away from the Greyhound
[36:47] bus station six days after he vanished.
[36:51] Inside the car, his driver's license, wallet, credit card,
[36:56] and other personal items were discovered, but his bicycle
[37:00] stereo system and an expensive tool kit were missing.
[37:04] Despite these developments, years passed without any
[37:07] significant breakthroughs. In 1996 / A decade after Tim's
[37:13] disappearance, a viewer named Stephen Cull was watching an
[37:17] episode of Unsolved Mysteries that featured Tim's case.
[37:22] Kull recognized the clothing shown in the episode as matching
[37:26] those found on a body he had discovered frozen in ice in a
[37:30] remote wood lot near Neosha, Wisconsin, 10 years earlier.
[37:36] He contacted the medical examiner, who still had a set of
[37:39] keys found with the deceased. When the Molnar family provided
[37:43] a copy of their house key, it matched one of the keys and
[37:46] evidence. DNA testing ultimately confirmed
[37:50] the remains were indeed Tim's, putting to rest any doubts.
[37:55] The discovery of Tim's body in Wisconsin, nearly 1500 miles
[38:00] from his home, raised more questions than answers.
[38:05] The cause of death couldn't be determined due to the condition
[38:07] of the remains, but there were no signs of trauma.
[38:11] How and why Tim ended up in such a remote location remains a
[38:15] mystery. Friends and family found it
[38:17] particularly perplexing that he had left his cherished car
[38:21] behind, as he was known to be very proud of it.
[38:25] Tim's story is as tragic as it is baffling.
[38:28] At 19, he was right on the cusp of adulthood, a time when
[38:33] responsibilities grow heavier and new pressures can emerge.
[38:38] It's during this late adolescent or early adult period that
[38:42] mental health crises can strike, and at times without much
[38:46] warning. Could Tim have experienced some
[38:50] type of psychological breakdown that prompted his sudden exit?
[38:55] The abrupt decision to abandon his routine, withdraw nearly all
[38:59] his savings and leave his cherished car behind might point
[39:04] to a severe internal struggle. All evidence seems to suggest
[39:09] that he was a high achieving student, and often times the
[39:12] transition from high school to college can be a real mental
[39:15] shock. This could have been the
[39:17] catalyst for some sort of mental break which ultimately led to
[39:21] his demise. Yet foul play clearly can't be
[39:25] dismissed either. In this case, Tim's Unexpected
[39:28] Journey all the way to Wisconsin, where his remains
[39:31] were eventually discovered, leaves a serious sense of
[39:34] foreboding. Did someone manipulate him into
[39:38] traveling so far from home? Could he have encountered danger
[39:42] after voluntarily leaving? There's simply not enough
[39:47] evidence to say. The missing bicycle and tools
[39:50] add a layer of suspicion hinting that someone else might have
[39:54] been involved. While researching the case, I
[39:57] saw it mentioned on an old forum that he may have been hitch
[39:59] hiking after abandoning his vehicle.
[40:02] One theory is that he may have been picked up by the wrong
[40:05] person who eliminated him. Another angle is the possibility
[40:09] of a secret life. Sometimes people, especially
[40:13] young adults, feeling boxed in by expectations, contemplate
[40:17] escape. Perhaps Tim had aspirations or
[40:21] connections that he kept hidden, leading him to venture off on
[40:25] his own. Unfortunately, given that this
[40:28] occurred in the days before the mass adoption of computer
[40:30] technology and before the Internet, we have no insight
[40:35] into any potential hidden motives.
[40:38] The fact he left $10 in his bank account suggests he might have
[40:42] intended to return to his regular life, indicating at
[40:45] least some thoughtfulness to his departure.
[40:49] Ultimately, we may never fully understand Tim's last days.
[40:54] His case is an enduring mystery, one that reflects how a single
[40:58] choice or a single tragedy can alter a life's course forever.
[41:05] On a warm August evening in 2010, thirty year old Ben
[41:09] McDaniel slipped into the clear waters of Vortex Spring in
[41:12] Florida for a solo cave dive. As dusk fell, he swam toward a
[41:17] submerged passage blocked by a metal grate.
[41:20] Passing a grim Reaper sign that cautioned divers nothing beyond
[41:24] was worth dying for. Despite lacking cave diving
[41:28] certification, Ben pushed past the gate into the cave's depths.
[41:33] He never returned to the surface.
[41:36] Extensive searches of the underwater labyrinth found no
[41:39] trace of him, and even 15 years later, his fate remains unknown.
[41:46] Ben McDaniel loved scuba diving from a young age, but by his
[41:50] late 20s, a string of personal setbacks had upended his life.
[41:55] Ben grew up in Tennessee, where he started diving as a teenager
[42:00] and even ran a successful construction business for a
[42:02] time. But in the late 2000s, he
[42:05] endured a painful divorce and the collapse of that business,
[42:10] which left him with 10s of thousands of dollars in debt to
[42:13] the IRS. Worse, in 2008, his younger
[42:17] brother died suddenly at age 22, a tragedy that devastated Ben
[42:22] and left him grief stricken. In 2010, hoping to help him
[42:27] heal, Ben's parents invited him to take an extended break at
[42:32] their beach house on the Florida Panhandle.
[42:35] Ben relocated to Santa Rosa Beach with his dog and soon
[42:39] became a regular at Vortex Spring, a popular freshwater
[42:43] dive site about an hour away. Immersing himself in daily
[42:47] dives, he told friends he was mapping the springs underwater
[42:51] cave system and working toward becoming a certified dive
[42:54] instructor. Although he didn't have the
[42:58] required certification to go into the caves, Ben reportedly
[43:01] pushed the limits by exploring the Vortex Spring Cave whenever
[43:05] he could. On August 18th, 2010, Ben spent
[43:11] much of the day scuba diving at Vortex Spring and updating his
[43:15] dive log with observations. That evening, he spoke by phone
[43:19] with his mom, then geared up for one last dive just before
[43:23] sunset. As Ben descended into the
[43:27] spring, 2 employees noticed him heading toward The Cave
[43:30] entrance. They knew Ben as an avid visitor
[43:34] and suspected he was intent on venturing into the off limits
[43:37] section of The Cave. In fact, one of the employees
[43:42] later admitted he thought Ben had been trying to bypass the
[43:44] locked gate inside The Cave, so he used his own key to unlock it
[43:48] for Ben. With the gate open, Ben swam
[43:52] into the winding tunnels beyond the warning signs, undeterred by
[43:56] the danger. When Ben failed to resurface
[44:01] later that night, no one on shore immediately realized
[44:04] something was wrong. Vortex Spring is a busy spot,
[44:09] and his pickup truck remained parked unnoticed for two days,
[44:12] with no one apparently noticing it.
[44:15] On August 20th, employees finally grew alarmed that Ben's
[44:19] truck hadn't moved and called the Holmes County Sheriff's
[44:22] Office. Deputies arrived and treated the
[44:25] area as a potential accident scene, even roping it off with
[44:28] police tape while rescue divers were called in.
[44:32] Ben's wallet, cell phone, and detailed dive logs were found in
[44:37] his truck, along with a hand drawn map of The Cave system
[44:40] he'd been exploring. An intensive search and recovery
[44:45] effort began. Veteran cave divers from across
[44:48] the region converged on Vortex Spring, fully aware of its
[44:51] reputation. Notably, over a dozen divers had
[44:55] lost their lives in this cave in prior years.
[44:59] The caves layout is complex and perilous.
[45:03] The entrance is 50 feet underwater, and beyond the
[45:06] unlocked gate, the passages narrow to squeezes as small as
[45:09] 10 inches high. Despite those challenges, teams
[45:14] of experts methodically scoured all accessible areas.
[45:19] Early in the search, they found two of Ben's decompression tanks
[45:22] just inside The Cave entrance. He had left them there for his
[45:26] return trip, a normal practice. But oddly, the tanks were filled
[45:30] only with regular air instead of a specialized gas mix.
[45:35] Apart from those tanks, divers discovered nothing else that
[45:38] belonged to Ben. They pushed into every crevice
[45:41] they could reach, but came up empty.
[45:44] No body, no additional gear, not even a scrape mark on The Cave
[45:48] walls or any disturbed silt. Searchers also pointed out that
[45:53] it's 6 feet one inch tall and around 210 lbs.
[45:57] Ben's build would have made it nearly impossible for him to
[45:59] navigate portions of The Cave. The McDaniel family even funded
[46:04] advanced search measures. A remotely operated submarine
[46:08] was sent into passages too narrow for humans, and the water
[46:12] was tested for any evidence of human decomposition.
[46:16] Interestingly, all these signs came up negative, suggesting the
[46:20] possibility that Ben hadn't perished in The Cave at all.
[46:26] As months and years passed with no answers, several theories
[46:30] emerged to explain Ben Mcdaniel's fate.
[46:33] His parents put up a large financial reward for anyone who
[46:36] was able to recover his body, but unfortunately this led to
[46:40] another tragedy. A diver who had come from
[46:43] Mississippi to claim the bounty perished while he was searching
[46:47] for Ben's remains. This led to Ben's parents to
[46:51] withdraw the reward money and urged that no further attempts
[46:55] be undertaken. Ben's parents and many divers
[46:59] believe he drowned in an unmapped, unreachable section of
[47:02] The Cave, effectively hiding his remains.
[47:06] Some even suggest his body could be slowly entombed by sand and
[47:11] silt, further concealing Ben's body, though this doesn't
[47:15] explain why no evidence of decomposition was found.
[47:19] Others speculate that he staged his own disappearance to escape
[47:22] financial, marital and personal troubles, or may have fallen
[47:26] victim to foul play. By 2013, with no breakthroughs,
[47:32] Florida issued a death certificate declaring Ben
[47:34] McDaniel legally dead. On a warm Sunday evening in July
[47:42] 2015, 28 year old tech visionary Josh Greenberg was discovered
[47:47] lifeless in his Gainesville, FL home.
[47:50] Greenberg was the Co founder of the once popular music streaming
[47:53] service Grooveshark, a pioneer of online music sharing that had
[47:57] just shut down amid legal battles.
[48:02] Josh Greenberg was a driven innovator and a beloved figure
[48:05] in his hometown. Born in 1987, Greenberg grew up
[48:09] in Florida and attended the University of Florida in
[48:12] Gainesville. It was there as an undergraduate
[48:16] in 2006, that he teamed up with two classmates to create
[48:20] Grooveshark. Greenberg served as chief
[48:23] technology officer, shaping the platform's technical vision.
[48:28] He also engaged in other ventures Co, founding a software
[48:32] startup and helping launch a local coding Academy to train
[48:35] aspiring programmers. Energetic and passionate,
[48:39] Greenberg aimed to transform Gainesville into a place where
[48:43] startups could thrive. He was known for mentoring
[48:46] younger entrepreneurs and giving back generously.
[48:51] Grooveshark began as a scrappy student project but quickly grew
[48:55] into a massive online music platform.
[48:58] Launched in the mid 2000s, it allowed users to upload and
[49:01] stream music for free, putting virtually any song at their
[49:05] fingertips. This YouTube for music approach
[49:08] filled a niche in the pre Spotify era.
[49:12] Before long, Grooveshark amassed over 35,000,000 users worldwide.
[49:17] At its peak, the startup punched above its weight, even
[49:21] attracting major advertisers and reportedly generating 10s of
[49:24] millions in revenue despite minimal funding.
[49:28] For a time, Greenberg and his team rode high as music
[49:31] streaming pioneers, turning their college experiment into a
[49:35] global service. Grooveshark became a popular
[49:38] name among tech savvy music lovers, and its success put
[49:42] Gainesville on the map as an unlikely tech hub.
[49:46] Yet the very feature that made Grooveshark popular, letting
[49:49] users upload any music, also made it controversial.
[49:54] Unlike licensed platforms, Grooveshark didn't initially pay
[49:58] royalties for much of its vast song library.
[50:02] The young founders insisted they operated within the law, citing
[50:06] that they were just a hosting platform.
[50:08] But many in the music industry vehemently disagreed.
[50:13] Critics accused Grooveshark of building a business on pirated
[50:16] content and cheating artists out of earnings.
[50:19] Despite warnings, the platform managed to attract millions of
[50:23] users and high profile sponsors, even as record labels grew
[50:26] increasingly alarmed. By the early 2000s, Grooveshark
[50:33] was embroiled in a protracted legal battle with the major
[50:36] record companies. Universal Music Group, Sony
[50:40] Music and Warner Music joined forces to sue the start up for
[50:45] massive copyright infringement damages.
[50:49] The litigation dragged on for four years, casting a shadow
[50:53] over Grooveshark's future. In April 2015, facing the risk
[50:59] of crippling penalties, Greenberg and his Co founders
[51:02] agreed to an out of court settlement.
[51:05] This deal allowed Grooveshark to avoid potentially hundreds of
[51:08] millions of dollars in fines had the case gone to trial.
[51:12] They shut down Grooveshark's website and in a public letter
[51:16] to users, apologized for the mistakes of not securing proper
[51:21] music licenses. A court order soon followed in
[51:25] May 2015, forcing the service to stay closed and its parent
[51:30] company to pay $50,000,000 to rights holders.
[51:34] It was the end of Grooveshark's eight-year run.
[51:39] The closure of Grooveshark was a bitter moment, but those closest
[51:42] to Josh Greenberg say he made peace with it, having finally
[51:47] resolved the lawsuit that had loomed over him for years.
[51:50] Greenberg was surprisingly upbeat.
[51:53] According to his mother, he felt more relieved than defeated.
[51:57] After shutting down the company, he had already begun turning his
[52:00] attention to new opportunities, carrying on with the positive
[52:04] attitude he was known for in Gainesville's startup scene.
[52:10] Less than three months after Groove Shark's demise, tragedy
[52:14] struck. On July 19th, 2015, Josh
[52:19] Greenberg's girlfriend returned from a weekend trip and found
[52:22] him unresponsive in their bed. A day earlier, he had seemed
[52:27] perfectly healthy, so this loss came without any warning.
[52:31] Police investigators were baffled.
[52:34] There were no signs of foul play whatsoever, but nor did the
[52:38] evidence suggest he did it to himself.
[52:41] It appeared that Greenberg simply died in his sleep, making
[52:45] his death all the more perplexing.
[52:48] An autopsy was performed, but the initial results found
[52:51] nothing conclusive. Greenberg had been physically
[52:55] healthy and Examiner saw no injuries or obvious medical
[52:59] conditions. Toxicology tests later revealed
[53:02] only trace amounts of common substances, with nothing that
[53:06] could explain his death. In the official report, the
[53:10] cause of death remained unknown. The promising life of Josh
[53:15] Greenberg had ended as suddenly and mysteriously as a light
[53:19] switched off. News of Greenberg's untimely
[53:24] death sent shock waves through his family, friends, and
[53:27] colleagues. Those closest to Josh were
[53:31] adamant on one point. This wasn't something he did
[53:34] himself. Despite the heartbreaking end of
[53:38] Grooveshark, everyone around him attested that he had been in
[53:41] good spirits throughout the summer of 2015.
[53:46] He was optimistic, excited about future projects, and finally
[53:51] free from the burden of litigation.
[53:54] His mother, Lori, stressed that she saw no signs of depression
[53:57] or despair in her son, reinforcing that he was looking
[54:01] forward to the next stage of his life.
[54:04] Investigators agreed. They found no evidence that
[54:07] Greenberg had intentionally hurt himself, just as they found no
[54:11] hint of any intruder or foul play in his home.
[54:17] Years later, the exact cause of Josh Greenberg's death remains
[54:20] an unsolved mystery. It's a haunting reminder that
[54:23] life can be unpredictable and fragile, even for someone
[54:27] seemingly young and healthy.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.