(upbeat music) - Just gonna take a quick break from the show, everybody, to tell you a little bit more about one of my favorite things in the world, Audible. Audible lets you enjoy all of your audio entertainment in one app. You'll always find the best of what you love, or there's new stuff to discover all the time in Audible. The incredible selection of audio books across every genre, from bestsellers to new releases, to celebrity memoirs, mysteries, thrillers, motivation, wellness, business, they got it all here in Audible, and you can have it all too. Audible is the destination for thrilling audio entertainment, including small town murder, crime and sports, and your stupid opinions, with highly anticipated new releases, and next listen recommendations to habituate every type of thriller listener. And you can keep your heart rate up month after month with this pulse pounding collection. You can't hear anywhere else. The true crime stuff they have is amazing. Right now, what I'm listening to is "The Family" by Ed Sanders, and it is a full, complete retrospective on the Manson Family, kind of all of what they were doing to set their weird stuff up. It is amazing and incredibly detailed, great stuff, and there's so much more on there. And as an Audible member, you can choose one title a month to keep from the entire catalog, including bestsellers, new releases, latest stuff you got if it's all there. New members can try Audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.com/smalltownmurder or text small town murder to 500, 500. That's audible.com/smalltownmurder or text small town murder to 500, 500. Now back to the show. VR training platforms, like the one developed by Fundamental VR and Orbitz International, are helping surgeons train over and over before operating on real patients. As you practice each skill, the muscle memory starts to develop. Learn more at meta.com/metiverseimpact. Looking for a fun and relaxing way to unwind? Download Two Dots, the free puzzle game with over 5,000 unique levels. Connect dots to solve colorful puzzles and collect rewards. With different gameplay modes like Scavenger Hunt and Arcade, there's always a new adventure. Don't want a game alone? Connect and engage with the larger Two Dots community to match up your skills. If you're looking for the perfect game to help you relax but also keep you engaged, download Two Dots for free on Android and iOS. (upbeat music) - Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. - Yeah, and cho-choo. - Oh, yeah, indeed, Jimmy. Yeah, indeed. My name is James Petrogallo. I'm here with my co-host. - I'm Jimmy Wissman. - Thank you, folks, so much for joining us. All aboard the murder train pulling away from the station. We have a very wild one today. Bit of a famous case, actually, today. And we're gonna try to tell it in our way. So that's how we do this. It's honestly crazy stuff. It spawned movie idea. The Cohen brothers saw this and went, now that's something. - That's a thing. - This is something we can do that's pretty weird. We'll get through the top very quickly here. Definitely shut up and give me murder.com. - Tickets for live shows, April 5th, April 6th. We are Sacramento, San Francisco. It's here. - What are you doing? Let's go. - If you're listening to this right when it comes out, get, go to the theater. What are you doing? Get there. - We're about ready to go. - There right now, we're backstage. There's music playing, let's go. So do that, rest of the year. Tickets all on sale. Tickets are selling out for some shows already. So get there. Even the ones at the end of the year, New York and Boston get there. April-- - Thank you. - Thank you, yeah, for doing that. April the 20th, the four 20 virtual live shows is Saturday, night, April 20th, just like a regular live show, except you're in your living room. Drinks are on you. Whatever you wanna do, your own food, your own comfy chair, do whatever you want. Anywhere in the world with internet, you can see the virtual live show. It's available for two weeks after that too. So you can buy it or watch it 100 times. Do whatever you wanna do with it there. Shut up and give me murder.com is where you find all that. Patreon.com/crimeinsports, bonus stuff. All you gotta be $5 a month or above, and it's a cup of coffee, really. Or hundreds of bonus episodes, including new ones every other week. This week is no different. What you're gonna get this week for crime and sports, we're gonna talk about Hans Neiman, who is a chess player who everybody thinks had a vibrator up his ass to cheat at chess. It's a wild story, and we'll go into some other board game cheating scandals as well. And then for small town murder, everybody's heard of this, and I've been wanting to talk about it for a long time. We're gonna talk about D.B. Cooper, and what our opinions are, and see if we can solve this bad boy. We can't, spoiler alert, we can't. But it'll be very interesting to talk about, very interesting, he jumped out of the plane. We all know what it is. Patreon.com/crimeinsports is where you get all that. That said, I think it's time everybody. Let's do this, let's all clear the lungs here. Arms to the sky, and let's all shout. ♪ Shut up and give me murder ♪ Let's do this everybody, let's go on a trip, shall we? Okay. Let's go, Jimmy. We are going to Connecticut this week. Yeah, it's a lovely place. Very far from here, this is, we're going to Newtown, Connecticut, which we've all heard of. Yeah, it's not that one. Don't worry. It's not that famous case. No, no, no, no. Not that, that, that, that, yeah, no. We're not doing that. No, never, I don't know. I don't even want to talk about it. I don't even want to know what exists. It's bad. Yeah. Population. But it does, God damn it, it does. Oh, it's so 100% it does. It does. Population here, 19,521. Is that right? So, yeah, it's a pretty small place. It started out, as we'll talk about, as a suburb of Danbury, so it's not, it's a pretty small place. Median income here is high. Median household income, 133,991 dollars. Crushing it. Connecticut's an expensive place, it really is, it's okay. And it's nice, things are nice there. When you drive on the highway, I've said, you cross into Connecticut, the road gets smoother immediately. Yeah, that 130 does not go far. No, it doesn't. Median home price here in this town, 531,100 dollars. So, pricey. It's about two hours to New York City, about 20 minutes to Danbury, and an hour and 15 minutes to our last Connecticut episode. Episode 433, that was in Willington. That was a ghost with a samurai sword. That was a crazy-ass episode. Connecticut, for a bunch of rich people, they have some weird-ass murders, man. That money will drive you nuts. It'll drive you to murder with a samurai sword. So, let's talk about a little bit of history here, just for a second. The low of people here was in 1930. They had 2,635 people here, 1930, so that was their low. And at that time, they had local industry. They started to grow a little bit more. They made tea bags and furniture and combs, fire hoses, boxes, pre-folded boxes, buttons and hats. That's what they were making here. The game of Scrabble was developed here in the south. Swear to God by James Brunot. So, there you go. And then they started after World War II. There was all the highway development. And then it became a suburb of Danbury, and so we know that so far. Here we are. Number 14th, 2012, of course, was the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. That happened here as well. That's why everybody's, if you go to Newtown, that sounds familiar, this is why. Reviews of this town will go through them quickly here. And they range. Five stars, quintessential, they call it the quintessential Connecticut small town. It not only has fun local events and parades year round, but also stunning historical buildings and amazing shops. - Yeah. - Okay. More importantly, those fucking woods are gorgeous. - Oh, it's pretty there. Yeah, you dry. - Holy shit. - The North East, the woods are everywhere. The woods are pretty. It goes down south, northeast. Anywhere you dry wood. - They're pretty. - They're so thick. - They're thick. - So thick. - Yeah, they're very pretty. Three stars here. Living in Newtown as a young adult has been hard. There are very little nightlife. Jesus, and entertainment options. - Maybe you should be in school instead. - That's maybe, yeah. They should go back to English class. But he says, and entertainment options. So I guess it's technically correct. It is a beautiful location surrounded by lush woods. There you go. Farms and filled with a great community. Chock full of a great community. - Fantastic. - Here's three stars. Very short. One very bad incident ruined it. Well, let 'em leave a bit of a stain is the problem. Yeah, that's tough. - Have you heard of Amityville? I mean, things happen. - There you go. Amityville is a very nice place in Long Island until the '70s. There was two stars. Other than the sandy hook onlookers, there is none. I don't know, none what. They don't say people. There's 19,000 people. Are they all just looky-loos? I don't know. Two stars, finally. It's a typical New England town. - Yeah. - So, there you go. People like it. Some people hate it. That's what it is. Things to do here. Not a lot going on in terms of stuff. It really is kind of a quiet. It's a place to live. - Just sleepy joint, yeah. - It's a place to live well. It's not a place to really hang out and party, but they have the New Town Arts Festival, of course. - Really? - Oh yeah, the New Town Arts Festival is the art event of the year. It's a three-day art event focusing on bringing the community together to enjoy local talent and art, dance, music, and food. Sounds like I would hang myself if I had to. No offense. I'm just not a big art guy. I don't know enough about it. If there's art and then dancing, I'm like, I don't know what the fuck people are talking about. - And if somebody's standing outdoors saying, this is my art, I tend to go very dismissive on it. - I just don't know. - It was good to be in a building. - It could rain, you know that? It could rain. I'm all over your stuff. - And you're not really bad for art. Fucking water. - That, yeah, like normally great works of art are you normally housed indoors. - Under fucking glass. - I get it. Here's somebody has this to say about it. The festival was organized and conducted beautifully. And ranks in the top three shows overall that we have participated in over the last 11 years. That's very specific. Top three in 11 years. - I don't know. So they're in the 11th year of the festival, there it is. They say the magic that results from this festival is truly inspiring. - Well, what is that? - Let's get inspired. You know what inspires us though? - What is that? - Talking about a murder. - Let's talk about a murder. Never mind this art stuff. Okay, let's get into this. Let's talk about a murder. This is a weird one here. Okay, let's talk about hell-lorch Nielsen, first off. - Hell-lorch. - H-E-L-L-E. - Oh, that's the first name. - Yes, she is born in Denmark, this woman. - Okay, that makes sense. - Born in 1947 in Denmark. She was born in Copenhagen, I guess, and grew up in a small village in Denmark, which is, that's a snow globe, right? She just grew up in a snow globe. You feel like you can't, right? That's all it could be. - It's Leo's mom from Catch Me If You Can't. - Yeah, maybe something like that. She's known as a very outgoing kid, and she liked going to school more than the other kids. She was real happy. She's very good at learning languages. When she was a teenager, she learned French and English, and in addition to being able to understand German, Norwegian, and Swedish as well. - Fluent in all five? - That's a lot, that's a lot. Yeah, and that'll come in handy, 'cause she's gonna be like an international flight attendant, so it helps to speak multiple languages here. She attended college in England. She worked as an au pair in France. They compare care people's kids. She's very pretty, too. She's blonde, the whole high cheekbone. She's a Danish, tall, blonde, hot Danish girl. - Flight attendant. - Flight attendant from back then, in the '60s. - She's not a nanny, James. She's an au pair. - An au pair. - An au pair is a woman you worry that your husband's gonna cheat on you with. - Yeah. - It's an au pair. Ananny is like a hunchy, yeah. Ananny goes at least like 220, you know what I mean? - Ananny has thigh high stockings. - Yeah. - thigh high stockings, hair coming down off of them. - Thigh high tight. - Yeah. - An au pair has thigh high stockings. - At least one large hairy mole as well. The au pair dresses like Alicia Silverstone and Clueless. That's the difference. - Yes. - That's different, it's a very different. - An au pair. - I'm gonna give you a quote here. Her high cheekbones, long blonde hair, trim figure, and a warm and engaging smile turn the heads of men whenever she entered a room. - She's hot as shit. - She's hot as shit is what that says. While she's in France, she gets a job as a stewardess at the time with capital airways. And she flew all over the place. Africa, Germany, Belgium, you know, flying everywhere. That's when she heard that Pan Am was looking for stewardesses in the Copenhagen area. - Yeah. - Now Pan Am at that time in the '60s was the airline to work for. That was like, in terms of like the cache, like that had handsome pilots in these, you know, hot stewardesses at the time. And yeah, that was the way to go here. She was one of eight candidates selected out of a group of 200. - Wow. - They used to have huge like tryouts for like week long tryouts. - Yeah. - Turned away 192 of those checks. - Jesus. - Yeah. And they had made it through the initial screening. - Right. - So these are all 200 smart, attractive young women. And they said 192 are good. - Not hot enough. - Not hot enough to serve coffee in a metal tube. (laughing) - Yeah, they really sold that job as something great. - Glamour, go all over the world, meet exciting people. And back then I read the book, what is it? Fly girl, is it called, I think, the book. It's a book about a woman who was a flight attendant back then. And she went through all the process. And she said, all the girls back then were just talking about, I want to get in first class like I meet a husband. That's it. That's in the 60s, that's what women were, a lot of these women were being flight attendants. Some of them were interested in careers and stuff, but they said like 90% of them were married and retired by 27. They would marry. - Now I always cross my fingers to get bumped up to first class because that's where the nice flight attendant is. - That's where the one who grudgingly, yeah. They'll grudgingly, yeah, fuck that. I use the card to get the miles. I'm doing what I can because. - I want everything up front. Yeah, they will grudgingly be nice to you. - The people in the bag, that lady cannot give a fuck about you. - There's so many of you. She just throws handfuls of packaged fucking pretzels and nuts in there, just handfuls. You guys fight over it like we're a pack of monkeys. So she's taken to Miami with the airline for her training. So she had prior experience. She's already a flight attendant. So it was very easy for her. She was finished first in her class. She was top of the heap here. She stayed in a small motel in Miami near the airport, which was all the airline employees live there. Pilots, pilots and stewardesses. It was like an Olympic village, basically. And they said it was just pilots and stewardesses just fucking banging away. - Carnal fucking craziness. Just, I'm-- - You can smell it, yeah. - In the morning, the pool would probably have a film on top of just a jizz film I think back then too. We're talking late '60s. - Oh, forget it, yeah. - Oh my God. One friend said she didn't tell you the intimate things about men she saw. She was far too cautious to have been promiscuous, but she had a few lovers. - That's a lady. - That's, yeah, she was-- - What a wonderful person. - Yeah, she's also like European. And well, I mean, shit, it's the '60s. Fuck your way through all of them, who cares? - Yes, my business, not yours. - So they said that they liked airline pilots. The stewardesses really wanted to get also hooked up with the pilots. They liked them a lot too. And on May 24th, 1969, she meets a young man here. She's 22, he's 31 at the time, and he is a pilot. - Yeah. - His name is Richard Crafts. So Dick Crafts here. - Yeah. - Old Dickey Crafts. They said he was kind of like, he had like the '60s. He was a pilot, so you're kind of clean cup, but he had like, you know, his hair a little messy. - Quaff, yeah. - A little unkemptness, like a little-- - Uh-huh. - Just a little rocket, too. - A little, I don't give a fuck. - Yeah, a little that '60s like, ooh, I bet in his off time, he goes and like sees like a Grateful Dead show probably or something. - Yeah. He might wear a leather bracelet when he takes it off. - Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. When he unbuttons his pilot dress shirt sleeve, he pulls it up, there's a leather bracelet on there with a roach clip in it. - Fuck, yeah. - Yeah. - I'm putting it on the other side. - Built-in roach clip, definitely for sure. - For him, bro, ankle it, this guy. - Yeah. (laughs) - And he wears Birkenstocks while he flies. - Fuck, yeah. (laughs) - So they said he was a little rough around the edges, not the stereotypical pilot. He's about five foot eight, kind of a medium-frame guy, nothing-- - Fuck, kinda guy. - Doesn't like stand out as like a giant guy or a tiny guy or just-- - Yeah, I know, yeah. - You know, average cat. He was, said he's kind of attractive, though. He's always got a woman near him, which he's a '60s pilot, so it's easy to attract. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah. He would date exclusively flight attendants. That's what he was into, pretty much. - That's it? - Yeah. And he would tell all of these extravagant tales, these long stories about his CIA involvement. Apparently, from what we understand here, he worked as a part of the Air America program, quote unquote, that would do the illegal bombings of Laos and Vietnam War. He was part of that. - Wow. - So, yeah, he tells stories about that being CIA. - And all that kinda thing. - He used to, too. - He was born in New York in 1937. He's got a couple brothers. He's got two older sisters, I'm sorry. His father was a very successful businessman in Manhattan. So he grew up kind of a rich kid. His dad had bought a giant house in Connecticut, in a very affluent community, and his dad was a former World War I pilot and a college football player. - Oh. - So, I mean-- - Even with a crop. - He's just the coolest guy ever, you know? Yeah, you know, when I was corner backing my college team after I got back from flying a bunch of sorties and bombing the Kaiser, you know, then I... Jesus Christ. - You got-- - Finish up the National Championship at Pitt. - Yeah, oh, imagine having to live up to that. You're the only son, too. - Oh, my God. - Holy shit, that'd be brutal. So he went to private school, Richard did, but he wasn't very good at it. He graduated, ended up going to the regular high school to graduate 'cause they were like, "Well, if you're not even gonna get A's in private school, "there's no point in having you in here." - Why am I spending this? - Yeah. He went to college for a little while, but then dropped out and just joined the Marines in 1956. He dropped out. - He really quit it. - Quit it. He wanted, he liked aviation, which I assume, growing up with a dad who was a World War I pilot. - Very easy, yeah. - You know, World War I pilot, that's ballsy, too. That's like dog fighting, the Red Baron, you know what I mean? - James, the gun was in time. Yeah. - That's what they're at. - That's a fucking-- - It's a biplane for quite sake, yeah. - Yeah, what Snoopy's pretending to be is what he was. - The gun is in time with the rotor or the power. So the bullet goes, it shoots only when the propeller's clear of it. - Yeah, it's insane. - Frightening. Frightening, if that gets out of time, then what? - Oh, you're screwed, yeah, you're f***ing crashing. - They're apart, you're f***ing propeller. - Also, people are shooting at you while you're up there. - Yeah, right. - It's the other problem. It's not just you're gunning you have to worry about. There's a bunch of Sherman guys trying to kill you. So, that's not good. So he got into aviation and became good at flying helicopters. And then he trained on fixed-wing aircraft and then became certified as a pilot in the late '50s. He was transferred to Korea and Japan while he was in the Marines. He flew planes for Air America, which was a branch of the CIA at that point, basically. And that included the Laos, Vietnam bombings and things like that. He, I guess, they say he was wounded during a mission over Laos, but we don't know if this is sure or not. So, he turned, he ended up returning to the United States in 1966. And he gets a job as a pilot very quickly and easily. - I'm sure, yeah. - 'Cause he knows how to fly. And yeah, so he gets a pilot's job with Eastern Airlines in 1968, which is an airline that went out of business, probably '91, '92, like when I was a little kid, we went to Florida once and it was on Eastern Airlines. I remember-- - So he said probably just right up and down the East Coast. - It was mainly New York, Florida. New York, Florida and New York, Atlanta, like that kind of shit. That's where it went, that was Eastern. But it was very, a big airline at the time and very busy. It was, you know, the East Coast airline. So he's making a comfortable living, he's doing, he's a pilot, he's doing great for himself. So he meets Hell here in 1969. He was already engaged when he met her. - Well. - But he meets this, you know, smoke show Danish broad and he's like, "Hold on a minute." Maybe I've-- - Look at her. - Maybe I've been hasty, you know what I mean? - I may have, I may have jumped the gun. - Yeah, and she didn't mind though that he was already engaged. She started seeing him and she had a very casual attitude about the whole thing and she knew that he had relationships with other women, she's not jealous. That's one thing about her. It's just confident maybe, maybe that's it. - Yeah, she's like, "I'll throw you away and get another." - You're coming home to this probably I would assume. You're not gonna please, I know what the, okay. First in my class, yeah. First in my class of hot chicks. So I know what I'm doing here. Her friends didn't really understand what she was, why she was so into this guy. They're like, she could have any guy she wants basically. Why is she like this guy? They, her friends didn't like him at all either. But in 1975, after they've been kind of seeing each other for years now, like six years, she becomes pregnant with his child. - Oh. - And so they get married in November after she finds out. Yeah, that's well, I guess, narrowed down now. So then they bought a one level ranch home in Newtown, Connecticut and she had her child and they end up having three children overall here. - Yeah. - Yeah, their marriage, she returned to her job as a stewardess and hired an au pair, which back in the '70s, a married stewardess with children was very rare. - Really? - Very rare, yeah. It used to be a rule. In the '70s is when they changed the rule where you could still be married and get hired. Before that, that was part of, if you were married, they wouldn't hire you. - Oh, that makes sense, yeah. They don't want you. - They want you. - You're not getable. - That's what they want. - They need you to be getable. - Yeah, they wanna sell this fantasy of not only are you going somewhere to an exotic place in the air and you'll be served up. It's gonna be a hot chick serving you, who's single. Maybe you can take her home in the next city. - They're Hooters, yeah. - Very, yeah, exactly. - Yeah, that's why they've been selling chicken wings for 30 years. - That's, yeah. What was it, lukewarm? What is that? I know that's Hooters, as it's not on Hooters, but it's an old joke that someone said, lukewarm cheese sticks served by prostitutes. That's Hooters. (laughing) Now, I know they're not prostitutes, but I'm just saying that was the joke. - That's the idea, yeah. - That's what the general thought of it was. - Right, that's the market. And if you don't believe it, then go look at their clothes. - Yeah, otherwise they'd let them put clothes on. - Yeah. (laughing) - Jesus Christ. So she hires an au pair as well. And he's a pilot, she's doing that. They hire a 19-year-old au pair. - Oh boy. - And together, at the time in the mid-80s, early 80s, they were making together about 125 grand a year. Which, that's a lot of money in the 80. It's good now, but back then, that was a lot of fucking money. It was really crushing it. - My family was dreaming about it in '92, and I was like, how much? - Yeah, back then, this was their top five percent of people in the country. So, Richard does all the finances, and he loves collecting guns. He spends a lot of money on guns. - Really? - Yeah, he's got a collection. He likes to collect them. He had several shotguns, dozens of handguns, a lot of nine millimeters, 44, 357s. That kind of shit, high-powered rifles. All sorts of sta hand grenades, crossbows. - What? - He's been in war for Christ's sake. - Yeah, but I think those are still illegal. - I don't think you can have live hand grenades, probably. You shouldn't be able to anyway. - Pretty sure, that's what started the Waco thing. - Yeah, shit. But he would spend, they said that was his hobby, was cleaning and polishing his guns. And, you know, 'cause when you have tons like that, you have to keep, it's like painting the building gate bridge. You gotta start, you're done. You start back over, get to the beginning again. It's a day too, just keep going. So, yeah, he was doing all of that, trying to spending a lot of money on that here, a lot. Now, she, during this time, started appearing in public with bruises on her face from time to time. - What? - Yeah, and she told one of her friends that she was, Richard was physically abusing her. - Oh, boy. - And they also said that she was mean to her, he was mean to her during her pregnancies. She told a friend that she would never forgive Richard for what he put her through when she was pregnant. She said after the children were born, Richard would just disappear for days at a time and then just come back, but never say where he was. He's like Don Draper from Mad Men. - Yeah, who's he think he is? - He comes back like four days later. He's like, I was working, don't worry about it. - What's busy? - Yeah. - We're not now. I've got time here. - Crazy. - I just went to California and came back and met another woman in all this, but don't worry about it, I'm home now, it's good. So they said he would just pack his bags and leave and then he would come back. She never knew if it was business, a gun show, hanging out with some broad, who knows? He'd do all that shit. Yeah, he controlled all the money. He made her pay for all the house expenses and he just spent his money on guns and shit, yeah. - What the fuck? - Yeah, he bought all sorts of landscaping equipment and tractors and mowers for some reason. He bought a $25,000 backhoe, which he never used. It was still like having tags on it, sitting in the yard, just. He just bought it, he was like, look at it, pretty. - There it is. - Mm-hmm. - That's a cat 3'10, enjoy it. - What he was like, yeah. His neighbors would complain about all the shit he always had in the yard, 'cause he always had all his equipment. - Yeah, 'cause it's trash. - He wasn't even using it. So he starts, he becomes an auxiliary police officer in the new town police department in 1982. And he's one of these guys who acts like he is, you know, Joe Friday when he's an auxiliary police officer, but he's like, Mr. Cop, yeah. Like all the other cops roll their eyes at him, like this fucking guy. - Take a easy tackle, Barry, you've got a backhoe. - That's who, yeah, dude. - Your lawn is just littered with fucking landscaping equipment, suck a dick, bro. They said he was always at the police station, even when he was off duty and sometimes responded to police calls without authorization. He just show up 'cause he heard it on the scanner. So he just got in his car and drove over there. - What a fascinating man. - He's a weird guy. Yeah, we'll talk about this. In '86, he was hired as a police officer in the nearby town of Southbury, and he made $7 an hour doing that. - What? - Yeah, he was an unpaid auxiliary officer for a new town. He paid his own way for all these expensive training seminars on police procedures that he didn't have to do. Use of lethal force and all this stuff. And he paid like all these, it's normally expensive 'cause departments pay for it if you need it, but it's a small town police force. Generally, it's not that, you know, in the '80s, it wasn't that big of a deal. So they said that he had a weird, he's just so into his police duties that it creeped all the other cops out. He even bought his own 1985 Ford Crown Victoria, the same cars that the Connecticut take on his own car. His own one and outfitted it as a police car at his own cost. And multiple radios and Tenna's police delights and a siren all at his own cost. Hey everybody, just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit about the safest sponsor that's ever been Simply Safe. - Oh, simply safe.com, S-I-M-P-L-I-Safe.com. - Spring times come in here, so you got the spring, you got fresh air, fresh starts, and you clean your house, that's all fresh. It's also the perfect time to give a fresh look and Simply Safe Home Security. Make sure your newly cleaned nice house is secure. That's important. - Well protected, yeah. - It's the only security system that Jimmy and I will use, and we recommend it highly. We both have it on not only our studios, our houses, anything we have that needs protection, Simply Safe is the way to go. It's so easy to install that even we can do it. You guys will love it 'cause you'll feel secure. You will not be small town murdered in your own home is what it is. 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Find your social sweet spot with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/smalltownmurder today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhglp.com/smalltownmurder. - And now back to the show. I mean, if you're a cop, you're allowed to do that, right? - Yes, but normally if you're a cop and they need you, they give you a police car. That's how it works, usually. They don't say, when you apply as a job as a policeman, they don't go, "Where's your car?" They usually assign you one, I would imagine, right? - They'd like to be on the SWAT team. Where's your battering ram? - Yeah, do you have a ram? Well, we're looking for a guy with a tank, if you know anybody, that's 'cause we need one of those. So he continued to see other women too during this time, and she was aware of the infidelity, his wife is aware of it, and tolerates it. And kind of just ignores it, basically. We'll complain to a friend once in a while, but that's it. But by 1986, she starts openly speaking about divorce with a bunch of her friends. At some point in the, I think it was about '84, he had a cancer diagnosis to the end of the day, coming out of okay, I guess, he was treated, and that seemed to bring them closer together for a minute. One of her friends said, "I got the impression that Richard was a private person. "I did not get the impression that he was strange." So... - What was that? - The man bought his own cop car. He's not a strange-- - He's strange, yeah. - He's got a backhoe with tags on him. - For no reason. - Never even started it. - No fucking reason. Yeah, he's still got the plastic thing on the key from the dealership there. - That plays the average to you? What are we doing? - That's normal. - Yeah. - He's not strange. And it's dot, dot, dot, strange. So she was like, "I never got the impression "that he was strange." He has a caterpillar with a New England caterpillar still on it. Yeah, what is this? - Jesus. - What's happening? - So by 86, they have three kids, 10-year-old Andrew, 70-year-old Thomas, five-year-old Christina. And all three of the kids, by the way, were christened in Denmark. And everybody, including Richard's parents, went over for the christenings, like it was a big deal. So in summer of 86, Hel retains a divorce attorney. She's done here. She hired also a private detective named Keith Mayo, who sounds like a made-up cartoon character, but he's a great private detective, as we'll find out. The guy's fucking amazing. He's a former cop, and she hired him to gather evidence of cheating against Richard. November 18th, 1986 comes around. Okay. - There we go. - Really bad winter storm, which, if you know, in the northeast, is uncommon before Christmas time. - Christmas, yeah. - Yeah, or Easter around Thanksgiving? That's insane. It's January, February, it'll snow, but usually November, December, it's snow's once in a while, but it's not really that common. - Floury's and it's cold. - It's cold, yeah, sometimes. Sometimes it's warm. So they had a really bad winter storm hit Connecticut this time, and driving conditions are terrible, and the storm is, it's a mess. Snow and sleet, and then snow again. - Oh, god damn it. - It's a triple bogey there. - There's ice everywhere. - It's everything's frozen, gusty winds, there's utility lines down everywhere from the way to the snow. 'Cause usually when that happens too, it's at the temperature where the snow is heavy, trees get heavy when the snow falls on, and they fall down, and they fall into power lines, and your power goes down. So electricity went out in this area for several hours during this night. - Jesus. - Real bad. Now Southbury, where he's a police officer, or Richard's a police officer, they called the plow guys in to lay salt and plow and do all this shit. So for the next few days and nights, these guys were working nonstop plowing, 'cause first you do all the main roads and they gotta get the side roads and all that kind of shit. One of the guys, Joseph Hine, he November 20th, he goes at 11.30 PM on November 20th. He goes to plow. He goes and picks up his plow to plow during the night. He's a sander, I'm sorry. He takes a sander out and starts to sand Route 172, which is one of the main roads there. At about 12.30 AM, he returned to the garage and picked up a snow plow. So he sanded and now he's gonna plow. He begins his route along Southbury's main street here and goes for several hours plowing and also trying going around all these trees that are both falling in the road and all that kind of shit. At 3.30 AM, he's plowing along the length of River Road until he came to an intersection of South Flat Hill Road. It's still snowing and sleeting at this point. And it looked, you know, it's that storm, that dark-- - That dark gray winter, but it's also kind of bright 'cause it reflects off the snow. Even at night, it's a little bit brighter 'cause of the snow. So he's plowing here. He sees, as he passes the intersection, he sees a truck parked off on the side of the road. - Yeah. - That's somebody that's maybe they've slid off the road or something. He said, "I would describe the vehicle as a U-Haul box van. "One to one and a half ton with dual wheels." He said, so-- - Dually in the back. - Dually in the back. He said, "The box of the van was an off-white "or dirty white square type. "The cab was orange colored." It's a small U-Haul truck. So he said, "The lights were off and it was rolled up "and the roll up back was closed." So the big sliding door. As he got closer, he saw the truck had a large wood chipper attached to its back. - Okay, so it's dragging a wood chipper. - This is on the banks of a river. - Okay. - Okay, now the chipper, he said, looked old and well used and as he passed the U-Haul, he saw a man standing near the driver's door who suddenly began to walk near the back of the truck when he saw the snow plow back. - Truck coming, yeah. - Yeah, the man motioned for the plow to go around him. Like go ahead, go around him. Yeah, don't worry about it, I don't need help. So the guy continued to plow down the road. Two hours later, he plowed river road from the opposite direction. 'Cause he plowed one way and then he plowed the other lane. As he passed this area, the Glen Road area, he saw the same U-Haul with the attached wood chipper once again. And he said, "I didn't see anyone in "or around the truck or the chipper." But as he passed it, he noticed something different. He said, "The back of the box was open this time." - Okay. - And he said, "I could see some wood chips inside." - Yeah. - He also saw wood chips on the shoulder of the road. He continued to plow, he watched the U-Haul drive away. And he said, "That was strange that a person "would be out so early in the morning "in the middle of a storm chipping wood." - Throwing it into the back of the truck, yeah. - This is not a time to chip wood. It's just, you wouldn't do this in the middle of the night during a storm, who the fuck does that? That's weird. - Right. - So now, three days later here, this is the nanny, Dawn Thomas, she's our au pair. She says that this is November 21st. So November 18th was the storm, originally now we're up to 21st. She said in the house, she hadn't seen Hell in a while in three days, she said she noticed a black spot the size of a soccer ball on the carpet in the couple's bedroom and offered to clean it. And Richard said, "No, don't clean it." And he said, "I just spilled kerosene there, "so don't worry about it, I'll take care of it." - Black kerosene. - Black kerosene, it's the best guy. - It burns so much longer, it's so good. - Yeah, generally, yeah, it's thick. - The next day, the au pair said she walked into the bedroom and Richard had removed all the carpets, except for a narrow strip around the edge of the room. He also had taken the bed apart and removed the carpet from the bedroom used by the youngest daughter as well. That carpet was gone too. He said that his wife wanted the carpets changed, but she recalled that she had told her that she liked the carpets in both rooms. So since when does she wanna change? So no one has seen hell in a few days here. We get to November 30th, 1986. It's been 12 days now. And yeah, there's people are looking for her here. One is a friend of hers named Jett Rump. That's a great name for a flight attendant, J-E-T-T-E. - Jett Rump? - Jett Rump, yeah. - That is a, like, did you change your name to that? Think I'm a rump in the Jett with me? - That is certainly, that's the name you want for a flight attendant. - Jett Rump, holy fuck. - She's my Jett Rump. - So she called looking for her friend and said that, you know, it was weird. Richard said that she took off and he doesn't know where she was. And just one's like, she's not gonna take off from her job and her kids, that's crazy. So the friend said that, you know, that Richard said, oh, relax, you've been watching too many movies. And the friend said, well, why don't you report her missing? And he said, well, she'd be mad at me if I called the police and reported her missing. I'm sure she's just doing something. - You know, she turns up, she's gonna be pissed. - So her friend said the last time she spoke with her, was on November 15th, 1986, when they had a conversation about her plans to divorce Richard. Oh, yeah, her friend Rump said, Jett Rump said, she was very angry. She had found receipts from charge cards that showed Richard had been buying Christmas gifts with a girlfriend in New Jersey. Uh-oh. - Oh, my God. - Yep, but they had a conversation. She told Richard, I wanted to divorce you. And Richard had told her that marriage was for life. - You have it, all right. - Jesus Christ, I guess so. - What the fuck, man? - You're not penguins, relax. - Yeah. (laughs) Credit card receipts are for life, too. - Yeah, that shit does not go away. Another friend of hers, a flight attendant named Lee Fisher-Ole, said that she telephoned the house, too, and talked to Richard on November 24th. And he told her that hell had gone to Copenhagen to visit her mother, who was ill. - Okay. - So, and then she called again the 28th, and Richard told her he was, in fact, getting a little worried, too, 'cause he hasn't heard from her. So they, the friend said, well, can I have the phone number of-- - Her mom. - Of her mom here, and a friend. And I guess, 'cause I know her friend who can speak Danish, and we'll call. And so, the mother told the friend that the daughter wasn't there, and she wasn't expected to be there 'til April. - Months. - That's when she's gonna come to visit, yeah, so, okay? And she said she didn't know where she could be. - Yeah, you sound impressively well for somebody who's sick. - Yeah, so she called back to tell Richard the news about that, and she said-- - Good news. - She said he was very abrupt with me. She said he was leaving on a trip, and that was that. So, yep. December 1st comes around here. Okay. She, December 1st. Now, Keith Mayo, who is the guy that she had hired, he calls the cops, and he said, listen, client of mine, who's recently, I can't get a hold of her for two weeks. She's not around. She, I'm afraid her husband killed her, because she's been wanting to get away from this guy, and he's been violent with her before, and she said she's afraid of him, and now she's gone for two weeks, and I can't find her. So-- - Best person she ever hired. - She was adamant, please investigate this thing now. - Right, yeah. - She left her home, allegedly, according to the husband, on November 19th to drive to Richard's sister's house, but she never showed up at the sister's home, and hadn't been heard from since. Her car was later found in an employee parking lot of Pan Am Airlines at Kennedy Airport, but there's no record of her going anywhere. So Richard is saying, well, she must have taken off if she wanted to get away from me so bad. She has means, she has passport, she can go on a flight to anywhere in the world she wants. - Yeah, fly standby any time she wants. Also, she told me she was going somewhere on a plane, and that's where her car is, so what the fuck? - That's it, so they talked to Richard the next day, and he says, quote, "She was happy and showed no signs "of being different or upset," when she left. He said that he and his wife slept at home, they woke up that morning on the 19th. The plan was for her to go to my sister's house in Westport because we had no power due to the storm, and I haven't seen her heard from her since, that's it. The police aren't very concerned, they're just not. No, they said it's marital problems, and they said, you know, a lot of times when a spouse leaves another spouse, when there's a lot of problems, they just want some time alone. And they said she has the means and the ways to do this, and so yeah, she'd be the perfect candidate for somebody to do that, so they don't prioritize the case. At all. - Just put it in the folder somewhere. - Yeah, all of her friends though say she's a devoted mother who wouldn't have left her small children out of nowhere. - Right, she's got three kids, nobody does that. - She says she's a good mom, and they said that Richard had a series of affairs, which were well known. She discovered this recently, she told him that she wanted a divorce, so I mean, you know, they're worried, the friends, so yeah, he's telling people different stories. Do he told the au pair, she's in Denmark, he told another friend that she was in Denmark, and then she wasn't in Denmark, and so yeah, some more time goes by, and Mayo starts complaining. Mayo's like, you're not looking into this, you talk to three people, and they said they're worried, and you went, all right, fuck it, and didn't do anything. - And I got somebody that's willing to pay me to do shit for her, and she's not here, I need to pay my mortgage. - So he sent a letter to the police calling for an investigation, and what he described as their failure to investigate. He said, as you are aware, I attempted to report Mrs. Kraft's missing to the Newtown Police Department on December 1st. At that time, I was aware of certain details of her disappearance, which would lead any detective to believe she did not voluntarily disappear. For unknown reasons, the Newtown Police Department, particularly the Detective Division, refused to treat this matter seriously. Without going into further detail, I strongly recommend that your commission undertaken independent investigation to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the obvious irresponsibility of the Newtown Police Department's Detective Division. - Oh, he is calling him on the carpet. - Yeah, the police said, hold the Mayo, let's talk about this, we got problems. Then they said, okay, maybe we are concerned, 'cause they talked to the au pair, and get the story there, and they said, well, that sounds, that sounds fishy. - Fishy, yeah. - Yeah, that morning he woke all three of his children up at 6.30 AM, loaded them into the family car with the au pair, and drove over to his sister's house, and then she was supposed to follow. Richard dropped the kids and Don off, and left almost immediately, and Hell wasn't there, even though she was supposedly had left before Richard. - What the fuck? - She said that Don, the Don woman, the au pair, told the cops that Richard didn't return to pick them up until later that day at 7 p.m., and still no mom here. So later that night, Don asked where she was, asked Richard, and he said, I don't know. Then the next day, she said, she must be in Denmark with her sick mother, and then there's also the stain on the carpet, which they don't like, and the carpet's being gone. So they say, hey, Richard, we just need to get to the bottom of everything, so would you mind just clearing yourself with a lie detector test quick, quick-polygraph? - Let's talk about it real fast. - He said, sure, he passes the test, he passes the test, but for some reason, even though he passed the test, he was just in the CIA, basically. So he knows how to pass a lie detector test. - Sure, I mean, he's aware of drugs, he's aware of all kinds of strategy, I'm sure. - He's aware of breathing, they tell you different, there's a lot of strategies here. One investigator wrote in his report, and this is not a computerized one, it's a guy with a piece of paper that he's looking at, it's different. One investigator wrote in his report that based on the polygraph examination and my numerous conversations with Mr. Crafts, he does not know where his wife is. So they said, yeah, but some detective believe, some detective said, no, this is weird, and I don't like it. They really don't like the fact that he goes around in his own little, you know. - Police car? - His own little fashioned police car, yeah. - It's bizarre. - His own little weird cosplay of police car, and they didn't like that, and also they're getting calls from her friends saying, what's going on here, what the fuck, this is crazy. So there's a few detectives that are a little curious of what's going on, so they decide to call Richard in for another interview. - Let's talk, Rich. - December 11th, they sit him down, and they talk to him, this is 9.20 PM, and they say, Richard, did you know that your wife hired a private investigator? He said, no, did you know that the PI documented your relationship with a New Jersey woman? And he said, no, uh-oh. They said, why would your wife tell her friends that she was afraid for herself regarding serving you divorce papers and tell them to check on her if something happened? And he said, I cannot imagine her saying this. It is completely out of character for her to say this. - She did it, bud. - Yep, they said, well, on November 18th, when Hell came home, why, when and why did she leave? And he said, quote, those answers are in my statement. They know that. - Do you remember? - It's a homicide, or a missing person. They ask you the same thing five times to see if their story is the same five fucking times. Do that with your 10-year-old, they'll always crack. - They'll change. - They'll change. So they said, what is the story with your bedroom rug? Apparently, you removed it or cut some pieces out? Can you explain this to me? And he said, all of the rugs in the house are being removed and replaced. Why? - Yeah. - Why now? - That's not an explanation. - What are, well, yeah, when my wife's been missing for a couple of weeks and my kids are really, it's almost the holidays too. And my kids are really worried about where's mom and all that. I like to do major renovation projects. - You know, we leave off, if I leave for a couple of days, I come back and she's done something nice for me. Like God, it's just the way it is. - Yeah, you know how it goes. So he said, what was spilled on the rug in your bedroom? And he said, kerosene, Richard did. They asked him, did you cut pieces out of the rug? Richard said, yes, two feet at the time. It's easier to remove it that way. It is? - Is it? - He's easier to cut chunks out of it than just to rip it up from the corner. - She's gonna roll that motherfucker and carry it out. - I've torn carpet up. You start at the corner, you rip a piece out, then you get the whole end and then you fucking roll it. That's what you do. - So you get the whole thing at once, rather than several trips trimming it out? - Cutting two feet of a time out? - It's not a fucking hedge, you don't trim it. - He said, what did you do with the rug you took out of the bedroom? And Richard said, dump the bedroom rug in the new town landfill a week ago, it was blue in color. They said, why have you been telling everyone different things about your wife being missing, like her mother being sick? And he said, I didn't wanna say my wife was gone and I didn't know where she was. Like it was embarrassment. - Yeah. - So they said-- - I'm being rejected. - Yeah, they said if she's received any mail since she's been missing, and he said no, she's gotten no letters since she left. She usually gets about two letters a week. So they just, they asked him that. His demeanor was very, you know, plain spoken. And they didn't like it, but they really don't have anything. - What else are you gonna do? - So they let him go. - Yeah. - Christmas day, they found out that he had taken his kids to Florida for the holidays. So they execute a search warrant on the house. Well, he's not there. - Oh. - So they don't wanna deal with him. - Yeah. - They bring in Dr. Henry Lee to be present. Now, Dr. Henry Lee at the time was a world famous, the best. Now he's been completely disgraced as a total hack at this point. Well, no, he lied to people for 40 fucking years. How many people went to jail or didn't go to jail because this guy went up and went, ah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and it was bullshit. So yeah, yeah, god damn it. So they bring him there. They come in, they look around everything. They found that the, it was completely fucking in disarray. They said furniture was strewn about dirty clothes or everywhere dishes and kitchen shit was unwashed and the sink and countertops. It looks like a frat party happened the night before. - Why would you live like that? - Said mattresses were on the bare floor in the living room along with boxes of toys and other items. The carpets were all pulled up. A freezer was located and searched. There was no body in there, maybe she's in there. They said though, yeah, they look through that. This is a new freezer though, by the way, that we don't know about. Yeah. During the search, they had tons of weapons that were found and tagged and cataloged and everything like that. So that's what they do. Several Smith and Wesson 357s, a few 38s, a cult Python 38 revolver, Ruger carbine rifles, Finnish semi-automatic weapons, 12 gauge pump shotguns, Winchester rifles, Beretta handguns with clips, 380 automatic handgun, two hand grenades, Beretta crossbow, Walther PPK handgun, 29 millimeter semi-automatic handguns, Hechler coke, 45 caliber, over and under style universal shotgun numerous clips, an assortment of ammunition. - Carmax is putting peace of mind back in car shopping by putting you in the driver's seat to find a ride that's right for you. Because at Carmax, we believe you shouldn't just settle for a car, you should love your car. That's why every car we sell is Carmax certified quality so you can be sure with upfront pricing that's the same for every customer. So don't settle, find Love at First Drive and start shopping now at Carmax.com. Carmax, the way car buying should be. - Welcome to your next true crime obsession. Don't miss new Britbox original drama, The Sixth Commandment, which the Guardian calls as immaculate a piece of TV as you will ever see. You will hear evidence of extreme gaslighting. Help me, please. - I am gonna be waiting on you hand in foot. - Stream this plus the best selection of British true crime series anywhere only on Britbox. Once you start investigating, you won't be able to turn away. Start streaming today with a free trial at Britbox.com. - Whether you're working out, walking or running errands, Audible can help you keep your heart rate up month after month with their pulse pounding collection of thrilling audio books that you can't hear anywhere else. As an Audible member, you can choose one title a month to keep from their entire catalog, which includes thousands of titles. This month, check out the Audible Original, the space within. It's a chilling eight part story about a psychiatrist, Dr. Mattie Weil, voiced by Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain, who is tasked with unlocking the memories of a child who went missing for seven hours. Mattie soon discovers that there are more who have faced similar experiences and the truth of what is happening to them may impact the fate of humankind. New members can try Audible free for 30 days. Visit Audible.com/Thrill or text Thrill to 500-500. That's Audible.com/Thrill or text Thrill to 500-500. - So he is armed to the teeth, man. Dr. Lee did luminol tests in various locations and found positive fork blood. They said, "Of course, we were looking for any evidence "of someone attempting to dispose of a corpse." That's what he wrote. "The blood was on some seized towels. "They tested positive here. "The blood was O positive, which was the same as hell." So, but people bleed on towels in their house. - Sure, yeah. - I mean, you could have a pimple or cut yourself or something. - I've seen one of my toes. - She shaves her legs and got it, you know, whatever. So, investigator Keith Mayo's had enough here. He's had enough of this bullshit. Once he learned about the rugs being cut out and everything, he goes, "Okay, fun stuff." - He swears himself in and takes over. - He figured out where the garbage from his house gets deposited. - Which grid? - Which dump it, it's in. The Canterbury dump, which is about two hours away, he recruited some helpers, some garbage guys that he knew. And for the next several days, he went to the dump and sifted through mountains of fucking trash. - Wow. - Yes, and he threw everything. They ended up finding a portion of rug that was identical to the rug at the residence. He was sure it was the missing piece. It also had stains that appeared to be human blood. He took that to the laboratory and said, "Here, idiots, I did it for you." - I found it. - Found it December 30th, then they talked to the plow driver. That's when the plow driver tells them about the U-Haul and the wood chipper and all that kind of shit. And then they do some research and they find out that Richard Krafts rented a wood chipper from Darien Rental Service on November 18th. - What? - At a cost of $967.50. Wow. Yep, he's trying to slip. - No fucking way. - Yep, another receipt indicated that he owned a chainsaw that he purchased in 1981, which they're gonna talk about. And he bought a new freezer a couple days later. Okay, detectives head to the wood chipping site now. It's on a river known as Lake Zoar. It's a river known as Lake Zoar. Okay. They saw piles of wood chips along the banks of the river, which is weird. Never seen that before. I've seen a lot of rivers, never seen that. They seem to be, there also seem to be small pieces of green plastic shit strewn about in there. So a detective got down on his hands and knees and sifted through it and all of this. He's looking for everything. He noticed some scraps of shredded paper partially covered up by debris as well. And he also found a few pieces of mail. He looked on the mail, one envelope you could read, miss hell, a hell L crafts, five Newfield Lane, New Town, Connecticut. - No fucking way or address withstood. - Holy shit. - And her name too. - Yahtzee. - So then all the cops come here. - Yeah. - And every inch of the ground has gone over, photographed everything. They found numerous strands of blonde hair that will talk about bone fragments, fabrics, cloth, plastic items, wood chips and other shit. They bring everything into the lab here. They also find out, by the way, November 17th, Richard purchased a freezer. Freezer one day, wood chipper the next. - Wow. - They led to the discovery of 2660 strands of blonde hair. - They found that many. - 69 slivers of human bone, five droplets of human blood, two teeth, a truncated piece of human skull, three ounces of, quote, human tissue, just flash. - Oh my God. - A portion of a human finger, one fingernail and one portion of a toenail. Now there's also-- - He's rented, he blasted his wife through a wood chipper of somebody else's. - Yup. Oh, by the way, they also went to the bottom of the Housatonic River during the search and they find a steel chainsaw. The brand, the steel chainsaw. - Yeah, that's T-I-H-L, yeah. - With its serial number filed off, which normally like-- - That is terrifying. - That's what a Baltimore drug dealer does before he shoots up a fucking corner and throws it in a sewer crate. That's not-- - There's a scariest chainsaw on the planet. - Ever. - Don't touch it. - In the chainsaw and the teeth of the blade, they were able to find remnants of human tissue, blonde hair, and a number of blue fibers in the teeth of the blade. - What? - The blue fibers matched the rug inside the home. - Did he roll her up in the carpet and cut her up in the carpet? - They were able to restore the serial number even below the scratching. They were able to-- - Oh, use some of that-- - Infrared shit or whatever. - And it matched a receipt belonging to Richard Crafts indicating he purchased that chainsaw on January 9th, 1981 for $644 at 95 cents. The man used $1,500 worth of power tools. - Yep, and it's his chain, he threw it in there. - Holy. - Yep, Keith Mayo ended up finding the receipt for it and bringing it to the cops as well. He's been helping out a lot. That is insane. - Unbelievable. - Forensic odontology analysis was able to prove conclusively that the remains, those were her teeth. Those were her teeth, it's probably her blonde hair and everything else here. One specimen was a tiny piece of a fragment of tooth with a piece of jawbone still attached. A forensic odontologist tested the tooth. Testified later that the tooth was removed from the mouth with traumatic force that shattered it off and shook the bone with it. He said if a dentist had removed the tooth, the base of the tooth would be clean and absent of jawbone residue. He said in my opinion, the fracture occurred by blunt force that fractured it to the center line and took the jaw with it. So. - Jeez. - Since there's blood in the bedroom, the cops assume that he bludgeoned her off at the foot of the bed during the early morning hours of November 19th. Maybe when she was making her bed or changing the sheets, they speculate that he carried his wife's body to the basement where he just hooked up a new freezer that he got two days earlier. He placed her in the freezer, then woke up the au pair, told them you should go to my sister's house. - What? - And yeah, then picked the kids up and they believed sometime during the next day, he took the frozen body, or that day, took the body, then frozen solid, to a secluded piece of property that he owned in Newtown, just a property. That's where he used the chainsaw to chop up her body and returned them to the freezer. Then the next day, when it got dark, he took those packages wrapped in plastic garbage bags to Lake Tsar where he ran them through the wood shipper. - Oh my God. - This is horrific as it gets. They said what he didn't realize, 'cause it was dark out, probably, and it was snow and everything else, that he was shooting her into the river, not all the parts made it into the water and all this shit landed on the side and didn't quite get to the water. And she had mail in her pocket and that's what happened. - And he didn't know. - Didn't realize it, yeah. - She saved her, she solved her own case with junk mail. - Her and Keith fucking miracle whip over there, did it up. - Unbelievable. - So January 11th, 1987, an arrest warrant is issued for him. This is fucking hilarious, by the way. That night, 9 p.m., a dozen Connecticut state troopers and detectives go to his house, five Newfield Lane to arrest him. They surround his house and they call him on the phone. And they said, "Come outside to surrender, we gotta warrant." He said, "I'm tired, I'll take care of it in the morning." (laughing) There's 15 cops in your yard, bro. - We're not-- - You're not, we're not-- - We've already put Dave up around here. They said, "No, no, you really need to come out now." He got pissy with him. - What? - He got a little twatty with him. He said, "Don't call me back and hung up on them." - Not tonight. - Not tonight I said, "I'll be there in the morning." So they're like, "Shit." And they don't really wanna rush the house 'cause they know he's got an arsenal in there. - Right. - So they're like, "Fuck, we don't wanna have to, "get shot and shoot this guy." So they wait and there's, finally, they said his children were still inside the house asleep, he said, "At 12, 30 a.m., he told the cops over the phone, "I'll be out in five minutes." - Uh-huh. - And then a few, little while later, he came out and surrendered. - What? - He was taken to the jail and his bell was set at $750,000. So-- (laughing) - They can't believe he came out peaceful. - He came out, the kids are inside. I guess he didn't wanna have a shootout with the kids there. That was the bad. - I'm shocked. I'm shocked. A man that can puff his wife into, yeah, or his kids, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - He shot his wife into a river slash lake. - It's cold, man. Cold fucking water. - Whoa. - The neighbor said, "It's like something out "of Edgar Allan Poe. "That's what they can next to our neighbor." - I'd say worse than that. - It's worse than that. I was gonna say, it's more like fucking Friday the 13th or something, yeah, this is unbelievable. - Another one said, "I'm kind of shocked "it happened in Newtown of all places." Of course. - Wait a few years. Wait a few years, yeah, you won't be so shocked. - Since his arrest, in the two days, since he was arrested, a major movie studio already took interest in the case, a representative of Warner Brothers visited Keith Mayo two days after Richard Krafts was arrested to discuss a possible deal for the dramasitization of the case. - So you're telling me Hollywood's been devoid of ideas for 40 years? - Wow. - Yeah, they showed up two days after his arrest. - Here's a new idea. - Mayo said he would do it if the proceeds could go to the kids. - That's nice. - 'Cause they're gonna need it 'cause dad's gonna be in prison, we hope. So during the trial here, the state's attorney says that she feared for her life 'cause she should have feared for her life, her husband and police training and connections stemming from his service in the CIA, all this type of shit. They said that, you know, it's obvious she was afraid and for good reason. The defense attorney said though, that the body fragments found in that area here, they don't even, we don't think they even belong to her and they said, we think she's probably still alive. That's a defense. - Okay, yes, that's some balls, man. - That is fucking wild. Meanwhile, all her friends are gonna testify. She would never leave her three small children for Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's insane. - That's not happening. - Yeah, that is wild. So Dr. Henry Lee testifies. - Yeah. - About all the thousands of pieces of everything. They said they were able to determine about 65 pieces of bone were cut with a heavy type cutting edge that produced a crushing and cutting force. He said, the human bone, the tissue, human fibers and hair were all mixed together with wood chips and vegetative debris, but most importantly, the same machine cut at all. Also the teeth here, the way they did it, they said they took several hundred X-rays of the recovered tooth from all possible angles. Using a series of five sets of X-rays that were taken of her teeth between 80 and 86, the guy performed a comparison between the evidence and the images of her teeth and said the recovered tooth matched the lower left bicuspid on the X-ray charts. And he said he was 100% medically absolutely certain of the positive comparison. - That is that tooth. - That's that tooth. Her friend Gertrude Horvath testifies here. They said did, this is the defense said, did she have any, did Hell have any indicate any hesitancy about going into her house? And she said, no, that was that. So when Richard was home at one time and she dropped her off, the nanny testifies as well, Dawn Marie Thomas. And she testifies about the stuff we already told you about. And she said, as they left the house after the snowstorm with the kids, the youngest kid realized she left her gloves inside, but Richard refused to let her go back in the house and get them. He just, get the fuck out. - It's the snowstorm, yeah. - Mom's dead, get out, that's it. So that is very, very interesting. So also the carpet spot, the prosecutor, there's that they testify about the kerosene stain that the au pair does. The prosecutor asked the au pair about a freezer that the couple kept in the basement, and they said the freezer was gone after Hell disappeared and that it was replaced by a new freezer. - That's not great. Wow, Dawn said she asked Richard Crafts about the freezer and he told her the old one was broken, but Dawn Thomas said it wasn't broken. I abused it, it's not broken. - Put shit in it every week. - Yeah, Richard Craft's sister testifies that Richard has never expressed any emotion about his wife's disappearance. She describes Hell as her sister-in-law. She said she was good friends with her too. She said they had planned to take their family skiing in February of '87. They made reservations at Okemo for a long weekend. I think President's Week in February, she said, she said that Hell had sent a deposit. - Oh? - Now, she also testifies that her brother, Richard, told her he knew that all of his wife's friends think that he killed her. He said, "They think I've chopped off her head." That's very specific, yeah, that's interesting here. So they were, they took more testifying about the money things who controlled the money and that sort of thing. They said, "From November 17th on, "have you seen him demonstrate any emotions, "any concern, any sorrow about her disappearance?" - Yeah. - No, is her answer. None. - Oh, even if you were in the middle of a divorce and were a part, you'd be like, "Hey, the kids want to know where mom is." - Yeah, that's fucked, man. - Even if you hated her, you'd be like, "Hey, you know, kind of want the kids to have a mom here." - Have a half day today because the kids would need to see you. - Yeah. So this, by the way, their whole defense is, ♪ Nobody, no crime, hey ♪ - Again? - That's the whole fucking defense. Nobody, that's not her. Nobody, no crime. Sorry, I don't know what to tell you, that's life. - We've got 2,000 pieces of hair and her address on the river bank. - If they were attached to a body, then you'd have a crime. But nobody, no crime, hey. - So the barber emptied his bag there, not my problem. - It's not my fault. - The, okay. They have, there's three, this is a three month trial. - What? - So much evidence, so many pieces of evidence. They had to go over all these little pieces of evidence, so much, so many witnesses. The jury deliberates for 17 days. About what? I have no fucking idea. - Yeah, what are they talking about? - 17 days in, they come back and say, hopelessly deadlocked. - Get out of here. - Yup, one person would not crack. Everyone else said guilty from the start. 17 days, one person held out. - Oh my God. - The one juror said it was like reasoning with a child. He had a real difficulty retaining. (laughing) I think he has an ex-wife he hates, is what it is. I hate, yeah. That's what it's about. - If I need to make her disappear, I don't want to go to jail for it, that's all. - Wow. Another juror said that, quote, "It wasn't chaos, it was hell in there." - Uh-huh. - They said they tried to convince the loan holdout, but in the end, that he simply refused to participate any further, just crossed his arms and said, "I'm done." - Really? - So, 100 witnesses, 650 exhibits, 53 days, a mistrial. - That's a man that definitely hates his wife. There's no other way to, there's no other way to explain that, yeah. - So, they retry him, though, in 1990. This was '88, it was the trial. - There's the benefit of the high fucking taxes of that place. - Yeah, we got plenty of money to retry this. - We could retry these over and over again, I don't give a shit. - It's an exact replay of the first trial, exact same witness list, exact same evidence. It's just a replay of the second trial. The prosecution in closing said, "It's difficult to imagine a more sadistic "and surreptitious disposal of human remains. "Whoever did this would have had to have nerves of steel, "ice in their veins, disciplined. "He'd be sick otherwise, "trained and obviously totally free of emotion." You know, like a CIA guy that's been in war. - Yeah, that's true, like illegal bombing. - Yeah, no other human being could do that. Most of us couldn't even do it to a rat. The person who came within three quarters of an ounce of committing the perfect crime, pointing to Richard, there he is. The defense said, "Nobody to prove the death means no murder." That's literally what he said. He said, "All they have is a handful of hair, "a few clots of blood and a fingernail "with traces of red nail polish, "part of a tooth, a dental cap, "mangle bits of bone, a thumb and a toe." - Sing it a lot. - That's a lie. - That's it. ♪ Nobody, a dog crime ♪ - They said the toe. - I'm gonna heal. - The toe and thumb could only be determined to be human. Some of the blood and hair in the nail polish were similar to the alleged victim, but only the tooth and the dental cap were conclusively hers. And the identification was immediately challenged by an expert for the defense. He said, "We have less than 3% of the hair "on the human body, less than 2/3 of an ounce "or less than 1% of bones in the human body, "and with respect to the blood, "less than a quarter of 1% of that." But they say to you that this is hell crafts. There's no evidence of a murder. - Jesus Christ. - He said, "If she wanted to disappear to say the heck "with all this, nobody would be in more "of a position to do it than her." Wouldn't she show up during the murder trial to go, "Hey, me, surprise witness, dead lady." - They explained exactly what happens to a body when you throw it through a fucking wood chip. - It's yeah, horrible shit. So this verdict comes in way quicker than 17 days and he is guilty as fuck this time. They find him guilty. They said one of the jurors said that he could only recall one vote that wasn't unanimous that they took. They said in the beginning, nine jurors voted guilty and three were undecided. And once they were talked to and showed, "Oh yeah, that's that." And the dental evidence said, "Yeah, you're right." And they did it. Second, the second vote was unanimous guilty. - Why else would her teeth be out there? - Yeah, who just sprays their teeth through a wood shipper, then goes out of town. So. - Yeah, I imagine she'd take both of those teeth with her. - Yeah, I imagine. - During the sentencing, Richard says, "A great deal has been said about my apparent lack of emotion. He has ice water in his veins. I have feelings like everyone else." - That's all. - And the judge says, "I'm about to hurt them." - You, sir. - They fuck off 50 years in prison. How's that? - Connecticut is very, very kind. - Yeah, well, he's late 40s right now. - He shot a woman through a wood shipper. - It's a lot. - Yeah. - In '93, he loses his appeal for a new trial, okay? So not gonna get that. In 2020, he is released from prison. He's out. - He was 82 at the time, and they housed him at a transitional housing program for veterans in Bridgeport, Connecticut. - Connecticut, what? - Yep, they said he served a dramatically shorter sentence for different reasons, mostly because of an old sentencing law known as statutory good time. That law, 'cause he was convicted in 1990, which has since been changed, allowed for large amounts of time to be taken off your sentence as a reward for good behavior and jailhouse jobs. So-- - Wow. - Yes, so they said had he been sentenced after the new law had passed, he wouldn't have been eligible for any time office sentence. - Got it. - And he would have been in there. - So every day's like a day and a half or some shit like that. - Yeah, basically. - They said he's set to finish his sentence in June completely. - Oh my God, this man is a free man. - Oh, he's free, based on his sentence and without this period of supervision, craft would not have had any assistance transitioning back into the community. So for us, it's our job to prepare even someone of extreme violence because they're going to go home. Now, in 1989, a film called "The Woodshipper Massacre" was made where children killed their aunt, freezer, corpse, dismemberate them, put it in a woodshipper, exact replica. Also, this is the inspiration for Fargo's woodshipper. - Is it really? - It absolutely is, yeah, Joel and Ethan Cohen said that. The pilot episode of Forensic Files was about this. - No shit. - For a very first one in '96. - The one that set up A&E's contract with them, wow. - '97, "New Detectives" outlined it in an episode 98. It was on the history channel's television series, crime stories, and in July, 2012, Investigation Discovery did it again and checked it out. - This is the first man to actually do it. - Yeah, this is, he's the first one that we know about. Yeah, that actually cut his woman, cut his wife up with a fucking chainsaw and then put her through a woodshipper. That's why. - Unbelievable. A woodshipper. - That, everybody, is Newtown, Connecticut. Holy shit. If you like that show, tell the world about it. Get on whatever app you're listening on. Give a nice review for us. It really, really helps us out a lot. 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(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hey, Prime members. You can listen to small town murder early and ad-free on Amazon music. Download the Amazon music app today. Or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com/survey. - It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. Where are your hosts? I'm Alina Erkart and I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky and part comedy. The stories we cover are well researched. - He claimed and confessed to officially killing up to 28 people. - With a touch of humor. - I'd just like to- - Sure, go ahead and say that if there's no band called malevolent deity. - That is pretty great. - A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. - This motherfucker lied like a liar. - Like a liar. - And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the way back machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crime. - You should tune in to our podcast, Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus and the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. (gentle music)
