Under Fire | DOUBLE EPISODE | The FBI Files

An hour north of New York City, a gang of deadly gunmen attacked a peaceful suburban community, attacking quickly and savagely. Agents discovered that the gang leader had been living underground for more than two decades. The FBI's counterterrorism task force in New York hoped to do so. Find this most wanted fugitive before he kills again A series of armored car robberies and bloody shootouts shocked law enforcement The brutal violence of the crimes suggested a motive more complex than greed when robbers began attacking police the FBI took over I'm Jim Calstrom former The FBI's New York office chief's agents would spend thousands of man-hours stopping an armed gang that terrorized New York in Rockland County, New York, 1981.

The burgeoning suburb just 20 miles north of New York City had become a refuge for most of those who left their urban surroundings. Households seeking safer, more affordable neighborhoods for their families enjoyed more open space and lower crime rates. The town of Nanuet was typical and attracted many people to its new 340 shopping center October 20, 1981. A Brinks armored truck made its regularly scheduled pickup from a retailer. One guard remained in the truck while another watched The Doors. The third returned with cash and receipts without warning a gang of masked men ran out of a red van one guard was wounded in the throat another was wounded in the arm the gunman then aimed his weapons at the dropper, he responded, but the assailant's shots were overwhelming.

A guard managed to climb onto the back of the truck to protect himself. The Grandview Police Department was five miles away when they received the call. They also called officers from other nearby towns since Nanuet was too small. to support their own police force in October of 1981, when the Brinks case occurred, it was an extremely shocking event for the entire Rockland County area, for the Nia community, for the Clarkston community, this was something they had never expected to see. Clarkstown police and paramedics arrived first and placed a guard on life support in hopes he would survive the trip to the hospital.

Brinks guard Peter Page would never get that chance. One shot to the severed major arteries in his right shoulder and neck. He died before help arrived. The uninjured drivers said that although the The gunman had worn masks, he believed they were black men, they sped away in a red van from a deposit loan. Police learned that $1.6 million was missing. 1.3 million remained in the trunk because he received updates while rushing to the crime scene. The first information arrived. At the scene of The Nanny White, the suspects were seen escaping in a red van. They were heading east on Route 59.

This would take them along a route adjacent to the New York State Thruway that leads directly to New York City over Tappan Zee. Months later, a local resident near the shopping center reported seeing the Mass gunman in a parking lot transferring bags and weapons to a small moving truck. The witness told Clarkstown police the vehicles left eastbound. Detective Arthur Keenan and two other police cruisers were near Route 59. At the entrance to the Thruway, when they received the update, we headed to Route 59 near the New York State Thruway to see if we could save the vehicle. of escape.

We went to that area thinking it would be a getaway route when officers arrived at the intersection of Mountain View Road and Interstate 87. They noticed a moving truck waiting to turn left onto the Thruway. Keenan ordered a patrol unit to block the entrance ramp and then Detective Keenan received a call about a second moving truck at which time there was a radio transmission from Orange City Police that they had a U-Haul truck. which was heading south on Route 304 near the New Jersey line, which was approximately the same distance from Nanuet Mall, as we were unsure if the truck on Route 59 was the suspected Sergeant Edward O' Grady. and Detective Keenan blocked the truck.

Officers Brian Lennon and Waverly Chip Brown approached the drivers. The suspects were described as black men. At the intersection we observed that the driver and passenger were white people. The woman objected to the shotgun. Sergeant O'Grady waved Lennon back. the gun to the patrol who believed they had stopped the wrong truck on westbound boulevard they seized the gun the detective inspected the back of the moving truck although it did not appear closed the back door would not open he told the couple he wanted to see what was inside He couldn't understand why it wouldn't open. I wanted to know what was in the back of the truck and then instantly when they told me there was a noise coming from the truck, I turned around.

The suspects were leaving. Shots in the back from the officer's six-shot revolvers ricocheted off the bulletproof discs on his arm again. Officer Lennon hurried back to his patrol car for his shotgun. Officer Brown was shot in the neck and shoulder and fell to the ground. Even though we officers were using their vex, we were at a disadvantage, plus the ammunition that was being used in the M16 was capable of passing through the vests when the gunman en masse approached an executed Officer Brown at point blank range, Detective Keenan was wounded in the leg and Ranford they were still shooting at me, uh even after I took cover, they shot me between the legs, the tree I was behind was shot on the chest.

Senior Officer Lennon had unlocked his shotgun but was receiving heavy

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, the gunman charged at the police trying to clear him so their getaway cars arrived at the scene the suspects collected the bags of money and piled them into the cars one suspect never made it to a getaway car a passing motorist grabbed the woman who had been a passenger in the truck and prevented her from escaping he watched Officers Keenan and Lennon rushed to help their injured colleagues as the suspects escaped. I went to Waverly Brown and Eddie O'Grady to see if there was anything I could do for them.

Waverly Brown and Eddie were beyond any medical care they could manage still on the road. Roadmaster Alan Coulson's main objective now was to find the fleeing vehicles, but the reports were scattered and difficult to decipher, it was very, very difficult at this particular time to get open and clear communication from anyone who was in the area. Field returned to a desk area due to the amount of communications literally stepping on each other. When the chief approached the area, he determined that the crime scene did not need further personnel reviews and set out to find those responsible.

I didn't want to interfere with the emergency response in that area, the road was completely blocked, so knowing that this particular Escape Route would take them in a particular direction, I made a U-turn on Mountain View at 59 and continued my steps toward Back in the day, I thought the suspects would travel toward New York City, where there was potential for further loss of life. I believed their route would take them along Mountain View Avenue to a T-intersection. I figured there was a 50/50 chance they would go east or west. and that I could cover at least one of those avenues of escape and uh, and I immediately went to that area as fast as I could, in fact, on the way to that particular intersection I observed the suspicious vehicles, two of them speeding eastward. on Christian Harold Road he followed the cars which he radioed into position and called for reinforcements.

It was clear to me, based on the events that had occurred up to that point, that these were extremely dangerous individuals who had no coercion or regard for human life and no hesitation in taking maximum violent action against anyone who stood in their way. his way it would be up to him to stop two vehicles, they were the six heavily armed police officers who murdered the following, for a few minutes, the chief noticed the two passengers in the Honda. He had ducked out of sight perhaps to load weapons when we reached the corner of Sixth and Broadway, the Oldsmobile turns right onto Broadway heading south toward downtown and the tan Honda tries to do the same but stops. slide and skate down the street.

On the way, the boss placed his car between him and the fugitives, needing to call for reinforcements in the hope that his voice could be heard over the clamorous calls. I continually order the suspects out of the vehicle, there is a period of a few seconds where nothing really happens and then the door opens and I see a woman put her feet on the road and remain sitting in the front seat of the car the chief repeated his orders to get out of the vehicle with his hands in the air the woman then began reaching behind the seat perhaps for a gun then a second occupant walked towards the officer who was wearing a bulletproof vest my repeated orders to the contrary one of the suspects walking towards me the woman was reaching for something I immediately assumed was a gun The boss was outnumbered and none of the suspects obeyed his orders.

He made a more desperate call for backup. He stopped one of two getaway cars filled with suspects in an armored car robbery that had left three dead and two women. A suspect reached behind his seat. Another approached. The boss was wearing a bulletproof vest, he was outnumbered, and none of the suspects obeyed his orders when the boss made one last desperate radio call. Backup arrived, secured the scene and removed a third suspect from the back seat and police believe he had been an armed lookout. for the other two, but he was injured and dropped his gun when his escape got out of control.

Six police officers searched the trunk of the car, recovered bags containing more than a million dollars under the front seat and found a loaded nine-millimeter pistol. The woman had likely been contacting thousands of people attending the funeral for the officers killed in the Oct. 20 shooting. The entire community shared the pain that Detective Arthur Keenan felt at the loss of his colleagues. The death of my two friends, Chipper Brown and Eddie O'Grady. It definitely affected my life from that point on when you're in a small community like that in a small Police Department like that, you go to each other's weddings, baptisms, barbecues and things of that nature and it becomes a secondary family. of some kind, so it was very devastating to lose two of you good friends, the four murder suspects, including the woman captured at the roadblock, maintained their silence while being arraigned at Nyack Village Hall.

Police had no way of knowing how many more were still at large. The law enforcement community in Rockland County was very surprised by the sequence and magnitude of the events. It was actually a small robbery team that came to Rockland County to steal this Brinks truck and it was a magnitude and seriousness. and

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power that had never been seen anywhere in the law enforcement community here if Nyack police were not accustomed to such violence. 30 miles south in New York City, the FBI and New York City police were certainly the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force had already been investigating a series of armored car robberies throughout the region. who had been executed in a similar manner, now retired special agent Lou Vici was a member of that team, he believed that the Nyack robbery was related to the others, the people who had committed niag had to have some involvement in all these other crimes I mean, because the crime was absolutely identical, the whites were driving the vehicles, the blacks had committed the robberies, the weapons that were used were identical to the weapons that were used in the others and in the other robberies we looked to make sure that There was no doubt that this was at least part of the same group the suspects were processed into the Rockland County Jail when asked their names they all gave aliases except Judy Clark arrested in the getaway car it was not a stranger. to the FBI two agents she was known as a member of The Weather Underground a radical group involved in many violent robberies and bombings in the 1960s and 1970s for the Brinks robbery she would be sentenced to 75 years in prison Special Agent Lou Vici was An expert In the Weather Underground, a woman I immediately recognized is Judy Clark, who had been someone who had previously been investigated by us as a possible terrorist.

There was another woman there who I thought looked very familiar. The VC officer was suspicious of the woman arrested at the roadblock. Kathy Boudin was another member of The Weather Underground, a verification offingerprints confirmed it. Houdin pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for acting as a decoy passenger in the moving truck. They discovered that one of the men was the common-law husband of David Gilbert Boudin. who was also a member of The Weather Underground received 75 years for his role Sam Brown, who had been injured in the getaway car, was an associate of the Black Liberation Army, another militant group like Gilbert and Clark Brown was sentenced to 75 years in prison. prison four The gang members were behind bars based on the statements of the survivors.

Officers estimated at least seven more were on the streets. Special Agent Ken Maxwell joined the investigation to help determine who and where the remaining fugitives might be. A new lead promised that the second getaway car had been found a few miles away. The Oldsmobile was found in Westchester County dumped or abandoned inside. There was a large amount of blood indicating that whoever had abandoned the vehicle had been injured during the shooting. Officers checked local hospitals for gunshot victims. They found no patients whose whereabouts The Oldsmobile was registered to a woman in an apartment on Prospect Street in East Orange, New Jersey, they suspected that armed fugitives had taken refuge there.

Officers obtained a search warrant and found no one inside. and began processing the apartment the location in East Orange New Jersey was a treasure trove of evidence it is what we commonly call a safe house within that safe house the New Jersey State Police and the FBI located an enormous amount of documentary evidence that indicated other safe houses other vehicles used by these subjects and also photographs and other forms of identification that began to unravel the mystery about who was involved. One code name investigators discovered on the rent receipts was tenant Marilyn Gene's legal name. The FBI knew her name in the story.

She was a well-known Black Liberation Army agent. and its only white member, well, Mal and Buck had a long history of being involved in radical politics, so to speak, at the time of the robbery, she was a fugitive who had gone underground and was wanted on weapons charges . Agents also found diagrams from a bomb-making manual. of six police stations and a hit list naming civic and business leaders thanks, more false IDs appeared disguises shotgun two nine-millimeter pistols and Amu ammunition a ledger with detailed notes made in Maryland's handwriting Buck revealed the activities While investigators examined the evidence, they began to find a problem that would affect them throughout this complex case, according to Agent Lou Vici.

I think the real difficulty is simply the sheer amount of information and evidence, numerous pieces of evidence. from numerous crime scenes, the individuals who constantly used the false identification of aliases had safe houses, I had to discover who was who was that person identical to a person with a different name but with the same physical description in another safe house, it was a gigantic puzzle and sometimes you didn't think you had all the pieces. Agents still didn't know who was involved, where they were and why they did it to get answers. The FBI needed to develop a cooperating Witness.

They turned to Sam Brown in the Otisville prison, the gunman later arrested. in the car chase was a low-level associate of the Black Liberation Army Brown cooperated in hopes that his sentence would be lightened Sam Brown was the only one who decided to talk to investigators he actually helped us get started he was the one who appointed a few names and with those few names that is where the investigation began to expand to the rest of them, so he was very important. The most valuable name Brown provided was The Mastermind Behind the Armed Robbery. matulu Shakur Shakur was a known militant, the leader of the Black Liberation Army and one of the highest ranking members of the gang who called themselves the family, the family was a group of about a dozen terrorists composed mainly of members of The Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army, their formal association was news to Agent Maxwell.

It was known from previous investigations in the past that these groups had communicated that they had some common goals and objectives, but never before had that communication or association evolved into this type of criminal activity. Alright, listen up. Sammy Brown told officers the family got together on many occasions. occasions to plan the niacc robbery Shakur's tool assigned jobs to each member of the group Edward Joseph and Donald Weems were assigned as gunmen in the armored vehicle assault the FBI knew that Weems was a member of the Black Panthers and the Liberation Army Black man who had escaped from prison in 1978.

Investigators knew little about Joseph. Another man named Chewie Ferguson would wield the M16 assault rifle. You all are ready. Samuel Lee Smith would be armed with a shotgun. I don't want anyone shooting these guns. Chewie says that Chewie is a weapon. man, okay, Brown didn't know the others' names, but he provided the agents with physical descriptions. Agents pulled APBS for all five names given, which included Samuel Lee Smith in Queens. Homicide detectives were en route to Smith's last known address. He had been found at a safe house while a detective driving down Smith Street passed a driver matching the suspect's description, he did indeed call a marked unit to stop and the man saw the lights he took off.

The police followed him into an alley. Did you hear that? through the window of the vehicle, the family had opened fire on the uniformed officers Samuel Lee Smith The fugitive wanted for his role in the shooting deaths of two police officers in an armored vehicle guard and hope and obese, his attack did not last long, he was killed after the fire According to the officer's response, Smith was the fifth member of a terrorist group called The Family to be taken off the streets, seven others were still at large and nearly a million dollars in stolen cash was still missing thanks to a tip from Sam Brown, a member of the gang already in Custody police scoured a Bronx neighborhood looking for another suspect named Donald Weems.

Special Agent Ken Maxwell remembers that Brown knew very little about Wings. Brown had given us a general description of a Bronx neighborhood where he had met this individual who fit the description of Weems, my partner. and I, after a process of elimination and a lot of legwork, located a building that could possibly be the place Brown was talking about. It's a neighborhood hoping someone knew Weems and revealed his address. The neighbor directed the police to his apartment. He told them that Weems was upstairs. At this point they called for reinforcements as all other encounters with these terrorists had resulted in gunshots.

They prepared for the worst and soon entered the building with a warrant and a SWAT team. They had no idea if Weems was alone or if he was armed there. There were some anxious moments in terms of waiting, but he finally came out and gave up in the hallway of his apartment. However, we found several firearms, a gas mask, a bulletproof vest, and enough ammunition to fight a small army. Weems was the only member of the group. family inside was tried on federal charges and found guilty of robbery and second-degree murder was sentenced to 75 years in prison those six family members were now in custody the leader of the matulu group Shakur remained on the streets once again cooperating in the Former Sam Brown provided agents with a lead who believed Matula Shakur could likely be found in Harlem, at the Acupuncture Clinic that Shakur had founded.

We used officers and detectives of various ethnic backgrounds to do our best to integrate into certain neighborhoods that we knew both by experience and recognition. the intelligence and versatility of this group we had to be particularly discreet when monitoring these individuals, the agents watched and listened for months, although Shakur never showed himself, they noticed several others coming and going quite frequently, the agents hope to eventually lead them to Shakur, oh, one night. Officers followed a man from the clinic to a home at 85 Barrel Street in Greenwich Village. They learned that houses rented to Edward Joseph, one of the suspects named by informant Sam Brown, they suspected Shakur of hiding there.

They were right, they had had months of perseverance. It paid off the last time a federal judge authorized a Title III, its agents allowed wiretaps and microphones to be established. Shakur and Joseph must have suspected the presence of the FBI, as they often turned on the television when they spoke, despite this, the agents were able to pick up fragments of incriminating information. Conversations that included a discussion about the murder of informant Sam Brown After several weeks, agents had enough evidence for a warrant to raid the Greenwich Village hideout on the night of March 25, 1982, six months since the murders at the robbery in Nyack, the agents prepared for the assault they would attack.

Early the next morning, hoping to catch the fugitives asleep and unconscious, as officers watched and waited, they saw Shakur enter the house at dawn, two SWAT teams arrived, one team headed to the front door, the another covered the fire escape and upon returning they arrested two men, Chewie. Ferguson and Edward Joseph, both named as participants in the nyagonist they are leading, matulu Shakur was nowhere to be found, having somehow escaped during the night escaping surveillance. Ferguson and Joseph were convicted on federal charges as accessories to harboring a fugitive, although they were acquitted of murder charges stemming from the Nyx.

Both were sentenced to 12 years in prison on July 23, 1982, nearly a year after two officers of a guard were killed in the Brinks robbery, Matulu Shakur was included in the FBI's 10 most wanted list after finding the The leader of the gang responsible for three cold-blooded murders would now become a priority for all offices of the FBI across the country, almost a year after Brink's robbery in the shootout with police. FBI agents across the country will continue to hunt down the mastermind behind the million-dollar heist. Matulu Shakur, a leader of the terrorist group called the Family, had been included on the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives list.

Shakur and at least three others remained at large. In the summer of 1982, a New York City agent traveled to Georgia to interview a member of the family who had been arrested for another bank robbery, Tyrone Ryzen, and offered his cooperation. hoping for a lighter sentence from the state of Georgia, although he claimed he was not present when the armored car was robbed in Nyack, New York, and confessed to doing so. he helped plan the job that left a Brinks guard and two police officers dead. Ryzen provided crucial information about other family members. Not only was Ryson a member of the family, he was a very important member of the family and had been involved in all the robberies.

He knew who the family members were, he knew the names and he knew how the family operated, so he was able to describe the moment, the robberies they did, the weapons they used, who did what he looked at, more or less, Ryzen told him. to the agent what the members of the group were like. The group was able to get so many aliases. The Prisoner explained that a manager at a children's clothing store in Manhattan was key in obtaining fake IDs. The manager collected license information each time a customer paid by check, since New York State did not require a photo license.

In the early 1980s, an imposter would take information to the Department of Motor Vehicles claiming he had lost his license and then the DMV would immediately issue a duplicate. Verizon also described to Special Agent Maxwell, the group's motives, they called these thefts, expropriations, near acts of war and as one of its members eloquently commented when not so eloquently once in war people get hurt, so if you can Understanding that philosophy, you can understand the mentality or motivation behind Gang Ryzen's information helped the agents understand more about the inner workings of the group, but in the fall of 1984, three years after the Brinks heist and the triple murder, Three fugitives were still eluding the FBI, including Matulu Shakur gang leader Marilyn Buck and Susan Rosenberg, although this time was on the FBI's side, the longer the fugitives were on the run, the more likely it was. was that they would make a mistake.

On November 29, 1984, the local police received acalled from a manager at a storage facility in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and reported that there was a customer in the store who had been paying his bill with a credit card and who was determined to arrive and found the woman ready After leaving inside the back of the van, they noticed containers that appeared to contain explosives, the police asked her for identification when she reached for her purse under the driver's seat, the cautious officers stopped her and wanted her to take his hands off her. she remained visible inside her purse, they found a gun and arrested her when she was processed.

Police learned she was Susan Rosenberg, a family member wanted in connection with the Brinks robbery and shooting. Investigators obtained a search warrant for the van inside. In the boxes they found 640 pounds of explosives and 14 weapons. The truck was registered in New York state to a woman named Louise Hart. Agents discovered that her name and address had been falsified. While forensic technicians were processing Rosenberg's vehicle, they noticed a sticker on the door of a repair shop in Connecticut located the New Haven repair shop where the vehicle had been repaired. They hoped the owner would remember the people who had brought the truck.

They showed the owner several photographs of women who were known associates of the family. The woman he identified. Marilyn Gene Buck was one of the two remaining fugitives in the Brinks robbery and shooting, while Buck had not used her real name on the vehicle paperwork. On the repair bill, agents followed up on the lead and determined that Buck had an address in Dobbs Ferry, New York. She was not Dobbs Ferry and she set up surveillance, but she eluded them for months and then on May 11, 1985, they finally cornered her outside a restaurant and arrested her. She knew Matulu Shakur or she had some connection to the Brinks robbery and shooting four years earlier, but a federal trial would prove otherwise.

Buck was sentenced to 50 years in prison without the possibility of parole. She was extremely important in planning the robberies and acquiring the weapons, as it turns out, many of the weapons the family had. obtained at gun shows in Texas buying them under their fake names now only one known suspect in the niacc robbery and shooting remained terrorist leader Matulu Shakur, do you happen to see someone with him, an agent searched an apartment in Baltimore rented by Buck hoping to find the whereabouts of the elite Shakur abroad. They discovered paraphernalia for making false identification documents, wigs likely used for disguise, plans to bomb federal offices, and ten thousand dollars in cash.

Searchers also found weapons and ammunition hidden in various places in the apartment. It looks like another gun and then, scribbled on a piece of paper, the officers arrived. Through what they had been waiting for evidence of Matulu Shakur's whereabouts, there was a phone number in Los Angeles. Special Agent David Mitchell led the search for Shakur. He contacted the FBI's Los Angeles field office to have agents shadow Senior Special Agent Dana Ingalls in the Los Angeles office and informed me that he had interviewed an individual who had established that Shakur had in fact been residing in The Angels.

Shakur had eluded authorities in a nationwide manhunt of more than 5 agents in the hopes that this time they could corner him and take down the leader. From the terrorist gang responsible for killing an armored car guard and two police officers, the FBI and the NYPD were closing in on Matulu Shakur, the elusive criminal believed to have planned a deadly murder. Special Agent Brink's robbery and shooting suspect, David Mitchell, had followed Shakur to Los Angeles, where the terrorist leader stayed one step ahead. There were a number of challenges. Shakur was working with a group of people who were closely aligned with each other.

They had a support network. All researchers. Those assigned to this investigation were having a hard time getting people to cooperate. Informant Vincent told what he knew about the fugitive's whereabouts. He said he did not know where Shakur was hiding, but identified a man named Chapman who is known to be close to Shakur's foreign agents conducted ground and aerial surveillance on Chapman and other associates of Shakur, but Shakur continued to elude authorities. authorities. Shakur lived a very low profile life in Los Angeles, at least as far as our investigation could determine, he didn't frequent any um places or areas. where he could be identified and we practically knew very little about his activity at that time as the surveillance continued Mitchell and the other investigators tried to find a patent for the movement that Shakur's associates made to hide him around the city, they reviewed apartment rental records and other documents, but he learned little then, on February 11, 1986, his confidential informant called.

Hi, thanks, he told them that Chapman was meeting Shakur that night after Chapman left a Lakers basketball game. Thank you. Investigators located his car and waited for him to leave the fort. Chapman tried what officers called dry-cleaning counter-surveillance tactics designed to lose a tail, sliding down the streets turning and changing direction and staying with him, not knowing if Chapman had seen him when Chapman arrived at his destination. Mitchell's team stopped nearby and Chapman approached a man they believed to be Shakur. Two officers headed towards where the men were talking, being careful not to attract attention, who of course saw them.

He left on foot. They found out on the Internet that the arrest of this violent revolutionary closed a five-year tenure at Nationwide when Shakur was arrested. It was evident to the officers and agents involved in the arrest that he was tired and it was late at night when they transported him to the FBI office in Los Angeles, where Agent Ingalls and I attempted to interview him. Shakur declined to provide any statements to the US during this interview. and was subsequently transferred back to New York City to face charges in the spring of 1986. Shakur was tried on federal charges related to the Brinks robbery and shooting.

He was sentenced to 60 years in prison without the possibility of parole. The police officers who survived. frightening day in Nyack New York were relieved that Shakur had been brought to justice, but for South Nyack Police Chief Alan Culsey, the memory of their loss would always be with them, videogrady and Officer Brown Chip Brown, as we call them, we are the local community of Nyack, uh. members had come through the niacc school district they had been on the job before me and had actually more or less brought me in and introduced me to the community they were very, very close to the community and a lot of us who were police officers here They were great people, they were great police officers and we miss them dearly to this day we commemorate the slain officers a memorial was erected in Nyack, New York, surviving colleagues have found some comfort in knowing that the Lessons learned from the Nyack shooting They have made life safer for citizens as well as officers on the street today.

Let it not be said that they died in vain, but rather that their ultimate sacrifice led to the identification of a national problem. I believe that their final sacrifice and the tragic deaths of all involved certainly uncovered a national network of previously unknown domestic terrorists and essentially prevented the loss of other people's lives in California. Detectives investigated a gruesome murder, went on the run, and were eventually caught in Arizona. His confinement did not. The last one escaped and disappeared in the Grand Canyon, robbing and kidnapping tourists while he went to arrest the elusive murderer. FBI agents and local officers joined forces in a dangerous manhunt.

Thanks, the foreigner was on the loose in one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States armed. and desperate, he evaded law enforcement at every turn as the Fourth of July weekend quickly approached. Thousands of people became potential targets. I'm Jim Calstrin, former head of the FBI's New York office. Agents would use any means necessary to track down a killer before he could strike. Again in the early morning hours of September 20, 1990, a fisherman cast into a burned river near Stockton, California, felt a tug and picked up something heavy, it was a large plastic bag inside, he found a human leg.

The fishermen called the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office. Officers responded to the scene immediately, confirmed the report of human remains and were unable to find any clues to the victim's identity. The agents called homicide detective Sergeant Armando Mayoya, who would lead the investigation, the search of the river for other evidence and the body. The parties continued through the night and then into the next morning we were able to get a boat unit out onto the river along with a search of the banks by detectives. What's happening? At first glance, officers were dragging the river while detectives checked the deeper waters.

They walked along the river bank, it wasn't long before they discovered another plastic bag inside there were two arms, the wrists were tied with duct tape near the boat, the agents soon took out another object, it was a human torso wrapped in a sheet Strangely, they would find a right leg, the victim's head and some clothing, all in separate plastic bags. After several hours of searching, investigators had recovered a complete male body. It was a pretty brutal murder case for someone to take the time to dismember a person and, you know, transport that person. different bags and dispose of the body without caring he knows it's just very callous and cold in the morgue the coroner examined the remains and determined that the victim had been dismembered with a serrated knife, it would take longer to determine the actual cause of death o If the man was alive when he was dismembered, detectives searched his clothing and found a wallet containing a California driver's license.

It belonged to Sam Lee McCullough, 40, of Stockton. Police records showed McCullough had a minor arrest history. Fingerprint verification confirmed his identity after reporting. McCullough's family from the detectives in his death got permission to search his home for evidence once the victim was identified and we had a name and a place where he lived. We responded to the victim's address. He lived in the 5200 block of East Mariposa Road in South Stockton. They agreed to meet Sam McCullough's girlfriend at his house. They reported McCullough missing that same day, as he had not called her in several days. She checked McCullough's house and saw that the place was in disarray.

Many items were missing, including his white Jeep Cherokee. two shotguns, a revolver and a nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol. Detectives and agents examined McCullough's home. They performed an electrostatic search to reveal details of the prince that appeared to have been made with boots. Investigators also recovered latent fingerprints, but none were foreign to the home. The murder occurred in the house, the murderer had removed any obvious evidence of a homicide of this nature, one would expect to find blood everywhere, stains, the person who was involved in this case took a long time to clean up and hide their uh.

Horrible footprints in this case in the bathroom the officer made an important discovery we were about to leave when we shined a flashlight over the bathtub area and saw a reflection coming from the drain area like the glitter of a sequin. The researchers knew it was collagen, a substance in bones that has a particularly reflective quality. Looking a little deeper into the drain, we found blood tissue and bone and a large amount of hair and based on that, there was a high probability at that point that the victim had been dismembered in the bathtub of the residence.

Laboratory tests would later match Sam McCulloch's blood and hair. Ultimately, the coroner determined that McCullough had been dead before he was dismembered. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the forehead. What do you think it is? Powder Burns stated that he had been shot at point-blank range, and the coroner removed the bullet fragments and sent them to the state ballistics laboratory. There the examiners studied the size, weight and composition of the fragments, determining that the murder weapon was a 22 caliber rifle by comparing the fragments. Bullets fired test-fired from sample guns can identify specific models.

California Department of Justice examiners believed the gun used was probably a Western Field brand rifle. Detectives found documents listing the serial numbers of theMcCullough's Jeep and his weapons and the numbers ended in the National Crime information. The ncic center is a national database used by law enforcement agencies to track criminals who missing people in stolen property if the items appear anywhere. San Joaquin detectives would be notified within days. The Stockton police officer discovered the victim's Jeep abandoned several miles from McCullough's home, but an examination was conducted. No additional clues were given Investigators still had no leads on the killer McCullough's neighborhood was hoping to find a witness No one reported seeing or hearing anything unusual, but one neighbor recalled that McCullough had been robbed two years earlier Police records confirmed the story by make a name Upon searching we discovered a report that listed the suspect as Stephen Horning.

In that case, Stephen apparently, according to the victim, robbed him at gunpoint. It was the first solid clue. Stephen Horning was not at his last known address, so detectives located his eldest. brother who was a campus police officer at a nearby university, he told detectives that Stephen was one of five brothers and that he was especially close to one brother, Danny Ray Horning. Stephen and Danny spent a lot of time together fishing along the Burns Cut River, the same river where McCullough's body had been dumped, he told the detectives about a particular hunting trip that Steven and Danny had taken, they had shot a deer, they brought it home and butchered it in the bathtub of the residence and that was important to us since the victim had been dismembered.

Likewise, okay, the older brother added another detail familiar to the detectives after killing the deer. Danny had placed the animal's limbs in black plastic garbage bags. Detectives thought the story bore an uncanny resemblance to the Sam McCullough homicide and asked the brother to identify. Some clothing found in a bag containing body parts in the burns cut River. He said the black shorts and t-shirt looked like the ones his brother Danny often wore. It is noted that no one in the Horning family had seen Stephen or Danny since September 19. On the day Sam McCullough was likely killed, the investigation progressed to the point where there was enough probable cause to present the case to a judge and a search warrant was issued for Stephen and Danny along with an arrest warrant on November 20, 1990, two months after the murder.

San Joaquin Sheriff's deputies returned to the brothers' trailer located behind their parents' house. No one was inside, so detectives searched the surrounding area behind the trailer and found important evidence: a severed stock and a sawed-off rifle barrel. Laboratory examiners had reported that the weapon used to kill McCullough was likely a Western Field brand .22-caliber rifle. The cannon found in the field next to the suspect's house was a Western Field .22 caliber cannon. Oh, the next day, the agents went back to the trail, one of the Stephen Horning brothers was there. He was arrested and charged with murder, the second suspect, Steven's brother Danny Ray Horning, was nowhere to be found.

Sit here at the San Joaquin County Jail, California, in December 1990, detectives arrested a suspect in the murder and dismemberment of Sam McCullough. Stephen Horning had been arrested. After a month-long investigation, but detectives needed more evidence to arrest him, Danny Ray Horning's brother was also wanted but had fled the area. Stephen swore he had nothing to do with the murder and said he didn't know where Danny was. To help them locate Danny, investigators turned to Horning's father for answers. Mr Horning offered valuable information about the possible murder weapon to Detective Sergeant Armando Mayoya after speaking with suspect Danny's father.

I found out that Danny had been seen with a sawed-off gun. rifle, his father said Danny and Stephen had been behind the trailer when Danny shot a dog with the .22. Stephen then shot him with a crossbow. Mr. Horning believed that his sons had buried the dog in the field behind the trailer. Investigators searched Horning's yard. I noticed an area appeared to be covered with freshly dug dirt and began digging, they found the dog and, um, a search of the dog by another detective found a bullet in the brain, the bullet was processed at the state ballistics lab.

Examiners determined that the dog was killed with a Western Field .22 caliber rifle the same model had been used to murder Sam McCullough. The technician compared the dog's bullet to the one that had killed McCullough. Tests indicated that it was likely that both bullets were shot with the same gun the detectives returned to the county jail and confronted Stephen Horning, described the damaging ballistic evidence and explained that the dog bullet was consistent with a bullet that killed Sam McCullough and that his brother Danny had been seen with a Western Field 22. Realizing that the case against him was Fort Stephen decided to cooperate and claimed that Danny had been involved in the first McCullough robbery two years earlier.

Danny had promised to kill McCullough to press charges, but then went to prison for child abuse when he got out a few months before McCullough's death. Danny had mentioned getting back together with Rob McCullough again. The physical evidence implicated Stephen and the death of Sam McCullough. Investigators dropped the murder charge against him. They needed to find his brother, but Danny Ray Horning had been missing for six. For months, Detective Sergeant Armando Mayoya worked on the case but found no new leads. Then, on March 22, 1991, authorities in Winslow, Arizona, contacted him about the hornet. I received a phone call from the Winslow Police Department and was informed that he had been arrested at a bank.

That day, Horning had walked into the Valley National Bank in Winslow, more than 800 miles east of Stockton, California, and pointed his nine-millimeter pistol at the bank manager while a teller was filling a bag with twenty-five thousand dollars when she I was in the other room. The teller had triggered a silent alarm. Detective Elmer Hassey answered the call hidden in the unmarked car. It had a lot of coverage. I positioned myself where I could try to see what was going on at the bank. He couldn't see from the vehicle. He went to take a closer look when the detective looked through the window and saw a single gunman backing toward the door with a hostage.

I walked in the door, stuck the gun in his ribcage and pushed him against the wall and took the bench. purse from his hand the suspect was carrying a nine millimeter handgun detective hassie determined the suspect's name was Danny Ray Horning an ncic check revealed the murder warrant in California hassie described the recovered gun to detective mayoya they informed me they had in their power a nine millimeter semi-automatic pistol they gave me the serial number and I confirmed that that number was the gun that was taken from the victim's residence McCullough Arizona Horning was found guilty of armed robbery, kidnapping and assault.

Dare to judge to give him the harshest sentence. possible promise to escape within a year the judge accepted the challenge and gave Horning four life sentences. California authorities decided not to extradite Horning, who would serve his sentence at the Arizona State Prison in Florence on May 12, 1992. Prison officials making the four o'clock head. The recount found that prisoner number 85897 was not in his cell, the prison was locked down and thoroughly searched, but Danny Ray Horning was nowhere to be found. The convicted felon and suspected murderer was on the run on May 12, 1992, outside the Arizona State Prison in Florence, a massive search began for fugitive Danny Ray Horning, who had been serving four life sentences.

Corning was also a suspect in a gruesome dismemberment in California. Arizona Department of Corrections fugitive investigator Doug Schuster helped organize the search. We have many expert sniffer dogs. Vehicles. Equipment. The plan was. To track and arrest him we were planning to summon him, follow a trail, follow him with dogs, horses, men and locate him. Law enforcement teams from local state and federal agencies responded outside the prison, but the antlers had disappeared from the immediate area as teams expanded. His Schuster Circle returned to the prison to try to discover how the accused murderer managed to escape. Foreign officials contacted the FBI to assist in the investigation.

Authorities first checked Horning's records. The convicted felon had been housed in the central unit, the most secure area in the prison. There is no evidence that he tunneled or breached the walls of the facility; correctional officers and inmates were interviewed to determine Horning's last actions inside. Doug Schuster first determined why Horning was not in his locked cell at any given time, not all inmates are locked in a cell. some are outside at the work sites some are working in the kitchen some are working here and there, so you have a part of your inmates who are supposed to be in their cells, another part would be accounted for through a count sheet of departures, the staff would visually see someone. and they say that these four inmates are in the kitchen working so as not to be in their cell during the count.

The measurers learned that Horning had been assigned a cleaning job that included cleaning the infirmary, this gave him access to scrubs and he was able to obtain them. white lab coat from the medical unit located inside the prison here was able to obtain a pair of white pants from workers in the kitchen investigators believed Horning traded in his prison uniform for the lab coat, white pants and a falsified prison employee ID and simply A few miles outside the city of Florence, investigators reviewed Horning's history to try to determine where he might go. One possible destination was California, where Horning had family and connections.

The Zone where Horning had vowed to take revenge on the police and FBI agents he had sent. him to prison Special Agent Keith Tolhurst of the FBI's Phoenix field office joined the investigation. Are you going there with him? You will take dog teams there. He would work closely with the Department of Corrections to stop blowing horns before he gave the information again. The people at the prison told us that they thought he was going to rob more banks and then go to Winslow and try to kill the people at Valley National Bank that he robbed the bank from or kill the agents, so they thought he was going to lead.

At that address, the agent examined the items left in Horning's cell, which would be sent to profilers at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. He also started getting involved with our Behavioral Science unit to see if they could profile this guy and find out if he's the guy. of individual who would carry out the threats against him and basically it was learned later that it seemed like he would be capable or at least able to carry out those types of threats. The morning he was ready to kill FBI agents. Nobody was safe. The first solid lead in the search for horns came three days after his escape on May 15.

Pinal County sheriff's deputies responded to a ranch 15 miles west of the prison. The owner said the house had been burglarized. He said they took clothes, a pair of binoculars and food from his house. Also missing were several loaded guns that the FBI and local agents believed he was stocking for his attempt to seek revenge and they found a fingerprint of his in the house to confirm that he was the one who had done that, so now we, uh, we . We're a little more concerned even that he was heading in the direction he had said because he was starting to try to carry out his plan.

Good afternoon, we are going to hold this press conference. The fugitive was now armed. The FBI turned to the media to warn. to the public and to solicit his help at a press conference, agents released Horning's photo and information about his escape. Anyone who saw Horning was asked to call the FBI immediately, although they were ordered not to approach the suspected killer. Media coverage generated many leads. The campers' FBI claimed that Horning was stealing food maps and camping equipment near Mormon Lake, about 170 miles north of the prison. Although Horning knew how to hunt and fish, the thefts were essential to his survival in the woods.

Local officers tracked him down. he would steal food and then move on and what we ended up trying to do was a house-to-house search of all the cabins in the area, something that was going to be done by the local County Sheriff. Offices andThey were looking for as many houses as they could. Corning was approaching Grand Canyon National Park. The summer tourist season was beginning, which meant thousands of people would be in danger. They had to find him before anyone was hurt according to Horning's Trail North. Fugitive response teams from the Arizona Department of Corrections and Sheriff's departments focused their search on Coconino County.

It was a huge task. The county consists of more than 18 thousand acres of forests in difficult terrain. Perfect cover for a fugitive. We are in the mountains. It was an area of ​​Lake Mormon it was uh trees mountains rocks hills helicopters massive amount of mobilization radios dogs horses trailers it's just huge on June 3, 1992 a National Forest Service officer was patrolling a campground in Coconino County leaving an area wooded area, it was too dangerous for a loan officer to follow the armed killer into the woods when reinforcements arrived in Florence Danny Ray Horning was missing once again a deadly fugitive was still on the loose in the summer of 1992 Danny Ray Horning escaped from prison in Florence Arizona, after serving only nine months in prison and four life sentences, the FBI believed the alleged killer was heading north toward Winslow, Arizona, to get revenge on the agents who had locked him up.

On June 11, deputies responded to a report of a burglary at a cabin near the town of Pine, halfway between the prison and Winston, this time antlers were stolen. truck and tried to establish himself as an outlaw celebrity according to FBI Special Agent Keith Tolhurst, the more guns were stolen there and that's where he left a note that said, "You know, thanks for the articles, Danny Ray and, uh, trying to get their folk hero called a gnome. I guess when the story hit the news, investigators were worried that the public wouldn't realize how deadly the horn was, they knew it had probably dismembered a man in California.

Now the horn had an armed vehicle and was approaching the Grand Canyon National Park Park as tens of thousands of tourists began their vacation for 10 days, no new sightings came with the truck. miles away, then on June 21, a Department of Public Safety officer spotted the stolen truck 50 miles north of Pine and Ray Horning was driving, the officer called for him to return before other officers could respond. Horning jumped from the truck and then fled on foot toward the now-known forest shelter. The really cool FBI agents immediately responded in the truck and found another note signed by Horning Pine Arizona. it's again in the wooded area in northern Arizona and it's along the road if you go from Florence to Pine it's almost a Winslow so it's getting a lot closer to the area that we were worried about and again we knew we had guns we knew that we had the vehicle got into that area and made us believe even more that he was going to try to carry out his threats the Winslow authorities were not the only ones in danger a field command post inside the Grand Canyon National Park where the horns were a threat to thousands of tourists tracked confirmed sightings that charted Horning's movements basically officers coordinated the response to each sighting and relayed information between the many law enforcement agencies involved, the territory being searched was vast and the horns were moving rapidly on the 23rd of June.

Two tourists informed the agents that Horning had kidnapped them inside the National Park. The couple said they were in a parking lot the day before when Horning seized their car at gunpoint and demanded a ride to the edge of the Canyon. He checked into a hotel room there and forced his captives inside hey YouTube his gun prevented them from calling for help the couple feared he could shoot them at any moment I need my brother free Corning recorded a message for the authorities demanded that the Search for him also ordered the release of one of his brothers from prison and a ransom of one million dollars for the release of a family he planned to kidnap in exchange for the childless couple the next day.

Corning forced the couple to take him to a store where he bought new camping equipment. clothes and food, but before finding a family with children to kidnap a Forest Service officer recognized him and began to follow the car, he shot at the officer, causing him to slow down, forcing the driver to speed up when he had won Some distance away, a horn ordered the car to stop. He jumped out and fled on foot since he shot a law enforcement officer. It was clear that Horning was becoming desperate and more dangerous. We had information that he was involved in not being captured alive.

He was in this vendetta against the FBI and Valley National Bank. he had already been in a shootout with the forest service, so we were very cautious going into the woods, as we couldn't just run after him as fast as he could have been running, which is one of the ways he got some . Later in time, a couple provided information about Horning's new clothes and once again planned to have an armed search party scour the area where Horning was last seen, but found no trace of him. Horning was again on foot and hidden somewhere in the immense Grand Canyon.

National Park had promised to kidnap a family with children to stop him, the FBI brought in their elite hostage rescue team known as HRT. HRT agents covered the area by rappelling into the canyon, checking caves and conducting aerial surges as they had to find the suspect. killer before he had a chance to kill again Search teams from the FBI, Arizona Department of Corrections and local sheriff's departments tracked fugitive Danny Ray Horning through Grand Canyon National Park, mobilized dozens of officers tracking dogs and helicopters in an effort to find Horning before he kidnapped more hostages, but the accused killer could have been anywhere in the immense park's 1.2 million acres because of the danger he posed to tourists.

The FBI decided to close Grand Canyon National Park over the Fourth of July weekend. It was an important task. the park's busiest weekend of the year and was also the first time in the park's 73-year history that it was closed due to a criminal threat, but honking was dangerous enough to warrant the extreme action according to the FBI Special Agent Keith Tolhurst. Inside the canyon we couldn't control that because there were too many people in the canyon, so we were going to try to get everyone through the roadblocks and try to find it. New visitors were turned away and those already in the park were questioned.

To get out, police set up roadblocks at entry and exit points around the Grand Canyon and searched vehicles and informed motorists of Horning but did not stop him in time on July 4, two British tourists were preparing to leave the park. When an armed man approached them they knew it was a horny Danny Ray although he no longer looked like the photos on the news. reports that he was much thinner, had blonde hair and was clean once they closed the park, the women were Horning's only way out at a roadblock, the Rangers stopped the car and spoke to the three inside, warning that They had threatened to kill the women if they tipped.

Out of anyone, I know all of you, you know each other, the kidnapped women had to act calmly while Horning sat with a gun pointed at the officer he didn't recognize the blonde Horning and let them pass once they were out of the park, he forced them. drive 60 miles south to Williams Arizona when they were far from the police at the Grand Canyon, the horn ordered them to stop the foreign car brandishing their gun, he marched the terrified women towards the shelter of the forest, the women believed that the horn He would take them there to execute them, for their relief, he left them there fleeing in his car.

The women managed to free themselves and ran to a store. An employee called the authorities and was told that there was an officer nearby. The women were severely shaken, but the unharmed ladies informed the police. information about the horns, including their new look and their getaway vehicle, we had posted a description of the car the women had stolen from them and the DPS officer saw that car going from the Grand Canyon towards Phoenix. All right, Highway Patrolman Stephen Costello works for Arizona. Security Department when he passed the horn, he began to follow me into the future, it wasn't long before he became more than a conscience.

I heard a big bang and thought there was something wrong with the car. I looked at all the indicators too. At that particular moment I realized I had been shot and I notified my dispatcher at the time that I had been shot, that I was okay, and that I was going to follow up. The gunshots forced the patrolman to keep his distance, but he knew you couldn't miss one, you would have tried to escape by turning near the city of Sedona. He takes the ramp and I could see he brakes hard and skids and has a minor accident, that's what he does.

Hit a sign I yelled You know you better stop The shot missed The officer was under orders not to continue Sounding Into the Woods when backup arrived Agents and officers began a web search of the area again Horn could not be found After dark A tip was called to the command post a resident said he saw Horning drinking from a garden hose in a neighborhood near Sedona a border patrol agent responded to the call to where someone warned he was still armed this time there was no shooting after being pursued relentlessly for 54 days and for hundreds of miles, an exhausted horn simply gave up, I have no doubt that due to the efforts of the teams that had been chasing him, they had basically run him to the ground, he was lying there like a tired dog with its tongue hanging out. and for a man who still had his gun and swore not to be taken alive, all he wanted was a glass of water.

Danny Ray Horning gained six more years for his actions during his violent flight. California authorities decided to extradite Horning and press charges. with the murder of Sam McCullough, his trial began on May 12, 1994. Prosecutors showed that in September 1990 Danny Horning broke into Sam McCullough's home to rob him. Horning was angry that McCullough had pressed charges after a previous robbery, he tied up McCullough and left him. The helpless Corning was using his sawed-off .22 caliber Western Field rifle, the same one witnesses had seen him kill a dog at point-blank range before. Winning fired a shot, my new blood spatter and human tissue found in the drain indicated that Horning had probably dismembered the victim in his bathtub and threw the body parts into the burned river on July 15, 1994 about four years after the death of Sam McCullough a California jury found Horning guilty of murder he was sentenced to death Danny Ray Horning was sent to San Quentin Prison remains locked up on maximum security death row