WEBVTT - The Crash - E9 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:07.280 Murder in Miami is a production of iHeartRadio, previously on 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:11.640 Murder in Miami. Having been told by Chester that her 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:15.240 life was in danger, not knowing who was behind that threat, 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:17.520 Bickerton's fears are left to fester. 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.599 I have a contract all my life, so I did 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:25.799 reach out to the military guys and we kind of 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:29.840 figured out a game plan. I would marry one because 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:33.479 that would then they could legitimately bring me over to 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:36.280 the camp so that Lamar couldn't get near me. 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:41.120 After the rushed and staged wedding, Bickerton would land in Houston, 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.080 the location of the Lone Star investigation. 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.280 The FEDS went to her soldier friends in Georgia said 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:50.760 where is she and they said she's in Houston, and 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:51.680 then they tracked her down. 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:54.640 She said her knowledge of what the government agents and 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:57.840 prosecutors were willing to do made her fear them. 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:01.920 If Chester started to sound baranoid about perceived threats to 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.039 his life, It's hard to know where they'd be coming from. 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:08.600 I'm back in DC for about a year, and I 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.760 get a call from Bob Adams down in Miami and 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:13.920 he says Lamar just died. 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.040 On June twentieth of nineteen eighty five, drug smuggler Lamar 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.960 Chester was killed in a plane crash on his property 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.920 in rural northern Georgia. C. B. Hackworth, who was a 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.880 young newspaper reporter for the Gainesville Times at the time, 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:35.959 recalls how and when he heard the news. 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.880 I was at the airport in Atlanta, about to get 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:40.959 on a plane to go to an IRI. 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:46.040 Conference For those not familiar, IRI stands for investigative Reporters 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:47.560 and editors, where. 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:52.360 I was going to see other reporters covering different aspects 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:59.040 of the smuggling ring in which Lamar Chester had been implicated. 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:04.040 And my name was announced on the loud speakers, which 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:09.080 was somewhat unusual in those days. So I went to 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:12.120 the gate and took a phone call. It was from 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:16.600 my city editor, and he said that Lamar Chester had 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.679 been killed on a plane crash and I should come 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:24.480 back and write my story. Of course, it came as 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:30.080 a surprise, but I pretty quickly decided that the story 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:34.240 I could write just as well at the IRI conference, 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:38.519 I could write on the plane. So I said, no, 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:39.720 what was. 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.359 The wash of emotions that went over you? 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:47.359 There were two things, one is and meaning no disrespect 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:51.920 whatsoever to anyone. But a weight was lifted off of 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:55.840 my chest that I didn't even realize was on it. 0:02:56.560 --> 0:03:01.640 Because a year and a half of dealing with Lamar 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:07.480 and keeping him at arm's length, I knew that there 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.280 were so many dangerous aspects and so much that I 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:12.880 didn't know. I knew there was more I didn't know 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.840 than what I did know. What I did know was 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:20.960 dangerous enough that I didn't have to worry anymore about 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:22.080 who was out there. 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:27.840 But Chester's death and the way he died, remains less resolved. 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:33.520 That really wasn't the ending that anybody had, anybody had expected. 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:40.680 He always always said that he would not be allowed 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:48.080 to testify, that something would intervene. I always took that 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:53.600 to mean one of two things. Either he would be killed, 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:57.360 and he implied that he was more scared of the 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:02.600 government than he was a drug smugglers. In fact, I 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:04.840 think he did more than imply it. I think that's 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:09.200 the flat out what he said. But the other was 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:13.280 that he thought that there would be some kind of 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:17.480 deal cut at the last minute to prevent him from testifying, 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:27.240 and Lamar Chester died in a very strange plane crash. 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:42.800 I'm Lauren bred Pacheco and this is murder in Miami. 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.440 Indicted drug smuggler Tilt and Lamar Chester crashed near his 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:50.320 five hundred acre Georgia farm Thursday, killing him and seriously injured. 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.440 He charged with drug smuggling, was killed and his five 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.120 year old daughter seriously injured in a plane crash. 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:58.680 Crash has not been determined, but an investigator with the 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:01.680 Georgia Bureau of Investigegation said it was being handled as 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:06.680 a routine accident. I requested a copy of the report 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:11.400 from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. The summary reads quote 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.960 On Thursday, June twentieth, nineteen eighty five, Tilton Lamar Chester Junior, 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.839 along with his daughter, Artist Jewel Chester, five years of age, 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:24.080 apparently crashed a Piper Cub aircraft near the Chester residence. 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.160 Chester was dead at the scene. Chester was a primary 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:32.760 target in Operation Loan Star US Customs and Irs investigation 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:36.120 and has been under indictment for the last two years 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.800 for drug related offenses and was rumored to be cooperating 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:44.200 with authorities. Chester also alleged that he worked for the CIA. 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:51.200 Investigation continues. The report concludes a complete and thorough investigation 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:55.240 was conducted, no evidence of foul play. There will be 0:05:55.320 --> 0:06:02.960 no coroner's inquest held. This investigation is closed. It's interesting 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:06.560 to note that the report was filed the day after 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:10.720 the crash, Friday, June twenty first, nineteen eighty five. Here's 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:11.440 Phil Stamford. 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.919 Their report was filed the day after, which is hardly 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.279 time to have had any sort of investigation. They did 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.880 not want to investigate this, and one of the reasons, 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:27.520 undoubtedly was that one of their agents, Frank Baker Junior, 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:30.919 was on the scene almost immediately. He had to be 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:32.720 there when the plane went down. 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.200 The report was indeed filed by Officer Baker. 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.480 When you look back at a nonsensical really that they 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:43.280 could have come to any sort of conclusions about the 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.000 cause of the crash in less than twenty four hours. 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:50.640 And also, I mean, why wouldn't you have a coroner's inquest, 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:54.520 particularly given the circumstances of what he was involved in. 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.000 Important thing to remember here is that his trial was 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:02.080 coming up, and he'd threatened to go public with a 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:06.720 laundry list of CIA misdeeds that he knew about and 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.479 he said would shake the nation to its core. 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:14.080 Frank Baker Junior's presence immediately at the crash, and the 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.720 fact that they turned around that report so quickly that 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:21.200 probably gave credence to a lot of people who doubted 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:27.640 the original version of the crash and considered it to 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:34.840 have been suspicious at best, but possibly murder. Were there 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:40.880 people at the time immediately who considered the crash suspicious? 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.680 Certainly among those who considered it more than just suspicious 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.880 was Lamar's best friend, Ron Elliott, who was at the 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:52.520 ranch at the Chicken Farm in North Georgia the night 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:54.320 before the crash. 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:59.240 Years later, Phil and Ron Elliott would communicate extensively about 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:03.000 Elliot's close friendship with Lamar Chester and the time period 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:05.760 leading up to and after the crash. 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:08.640 I've been trying to make sense of this for some time, 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:12.880 and a few years ago decided to track down Ron Elliott, 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:19.240 who had found finally tracked down in Shanghai. Very energetic guy, 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:22.760 a real hard charger, and he was in Shanghai trying 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.840 to set up a seafood importation business with the cooperation 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.280 of the Chinese government. He didn't want to just make 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.400 his first million, He wanted to make his first ten million. 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:32.960 I told him what I wanted to talk about, you know, 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:36.080 thinking that he might shy away from me, but it 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.680 was just the opposite. He'd been holding this in for 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.640 so long, he'd suffered for it, really, and it all 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:43.880 came out in a rush. 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:45.200 I never met him in person. 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.840 We exchanged many emails over a period of several months, 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:53.520 and he told me about the night before the crash 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.880 and his business dealings with Lamar, how they had been 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.760 involved in what later became known as the Iran contru affair. 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:08.120 Unfortunately, Ron Elliott passed recently, but Phil has saved Elliott's 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:12.200 version of events, as depicted through their correspondence, which he shares. 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:12.520 Now. 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:18.240 Okay, it's the night before the crash and I was 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:22.760 staying at Lamar's house outside Cleveland, big magnificent place built 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:25.439 over a large hangar that houses several airplanes. 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:27.079 After dinner, I. 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:29.600 Played with the baby aj she's four or five at 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:33.200 the time, played a little fust ball with Lamar. Had 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.160 a good time, and after that I went to my room, 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:40.600 which opened up onto the tennis courts facing ease. It 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.040 was raining, My door to the tennis courts was opening. 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.800 I turned in about eleven PM. Was lying there, I 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.680 realized I could hear a motor running. But Lamar and 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:56.000 I had locked the gate at about ten, so. 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:57.040 What was going on. 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:00.800 I don't want to backlight myself, so I go down 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.920 towards the front of the house into the living room, 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.520 where there's a staircase going down to the hangar. 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:08.200 The house was dark. 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:11.720 Across the front of the house there's about one hundred 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:15.559 feet of sliding glass doors opening onto a stone patio 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:18.920 with wide steps going down. I slide one door open. 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:23.319 There's no moon, but I can clearly see two cars 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.599 park next to my twin engine about one hundred and 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:29.000 fifty feet away. It's parked tail end to the house 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:29.880 on a hill. 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:30.880 I did that so I. 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.680 Could leave early the next morning with only start up power. 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:36.840 Glide down the hill, go to the other end for 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.560 take off. I hear the door to the kitchen stairwell open. 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:44.360 I'm trapped standing there in my skivites. Whoever they are, 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:48.240 they're between me and my room and my gun. Lamar 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.240 slept with a gun, insisted I did too. He said 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:53.880 it was because the locals were bad and they'd rob you. 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.320 Sort Of instinctively, I yelled down to the hangar, freeze, motherfucker. 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:03.240 I'll blow your head off, Lamar answered from downstairs inside 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:06.360 the hangar. He'd heard something too and was already down here. 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:08.840 Hey boy, that's you, he said. I yelled to him, 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.120 be careful the two cars out there. The cars tore 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:16.439 off towards the gate. Lamar yelled at me to get 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:21.000 in the pickup. He was coming with a shotgun. The 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:23.560 cars easily beat us to the gate. I could see 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.800 them sliding one side to the other on the wet clay. 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.679 One car turned toward Cleveland, the other went west. The 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.360 car that turned west went off the road and down 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.760 into a swale. Lamar yelled at me to go for 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:38.960 that one. We were maybe one hundred feet behind it. 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:44.080 Lamar leaned out the window and fired two shots. 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:44.000 Into the back window. 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:46.760 I slammed onto the brakes, just stopped on the road, 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:51.600 got out my skivvies and told him go ahead. He's 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.600 screaming at me, calling me chicken shit. I say, you 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.000 think you can murder people just because they come on 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:00.679 your property, and he says, what the you think they 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:09.640 were there for? In our underwear. We drive into town. 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:13.000 It's deserted. As I approached the circle with the station 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:16.280 in the middle, there's a very loud whistle. It's the 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:20.200 chief of police whistling at us. He waves us to 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:23.920 come over. Lamar just smiles says, you gotta do what 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:30.280 you gotta do. It was like a fucking dream being 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:34.200 naked out there on the street. I put my arm 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.200 over the door and pull myself as close as I can. 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:40.920 At first, the chief says something like you boys just 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.440 out cruising. Then he could see that Lamar was in 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.480 his jockey shorts, and he looked at me as well 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:48.080 and just started laughing. 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:49.160 Lamar knew him. Well. 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:53.800 Lamar just got this fake, sheepish grin and said we 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:55.800 sort of had to leave in a hurry. 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.679 Lamar was a known womanizer everywhere. 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.800 Chief said, with a big smile, don't suppose you want 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.200 to give me a name? I didn't think so. Is 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:07.840 there maybe going to be a little bit of trouble 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:11.520 out of this? Lamar said, guy didn't know a thing. 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:13.840 We were just too far from our clothes. 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.880 We go back to the house and spend until daylight 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:27.680 going over every inch of my plane, removed every inspection plate, checked, 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:29.880 gas tanks, fuel lines, everything. 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:31.960 Lamar was a master mechanic. 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:34.480 Then we went into the hangar and went over his 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:38.480 twin and his Cessina two oh six. The only plane 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:40.920 we didn't look at was the piper Cub, the one 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:41.520 he died in. 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:43.200 I took off. 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:45.679 Early that morning, and when I arrived at my hotel 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.000 that night in Fort Myers, there was an urgent message 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:48.560 from my brother. 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:51.160 I called him and he. 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:55.040 Said, your buddy's dead and AJ is probably not going 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:58.200 to make it either. It took me a year to 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.760 realize that we almost certainly had left the purp and 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.600 that goddamn hangars. Think about it, If he'd finished his job, 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:06.480 the cars would not have been sitting out there on 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:06.880 the lawn. 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:08.839 They would have driven away. 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.880 At the time. The initial explanation for the crash was 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.760 that the plane, a small Piper Cub, had run out 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.080 of fuel. Happy Miles was living in Oregon when he 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:20.600 got the news of Chester's death. 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:24.680 It was Ron Elliott who called me. 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.880 After you got the call and you heard that Chester 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:33.040 was dead, what was running through your head when you 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:33.840 hung up the phone. 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:39.520 Well, I was really shut back by it because of 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:45.160 the way he died. I just couldn't fathom that he 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:50.240 had wrecked the airplane. He would never have run out 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:54.280 of fuel. He knew that airplane in and out, he 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.520 would have got in it. And that airplane, I think 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.320 had a float tank right in front of a with 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.720 a float on it. It showed how much fuel was 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.200 in it, so you couldn't miss the fact that it 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:08.400 didn't have fuel. 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:13.160 Happy Miles was further unsettled by Lamar Chester's funeral service. 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.200 I went to the funeral. It was a solemn time. 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:23.920 It was in a mortuary. Ron Elliott was there, I 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:29.320 was there, artists. The baby had a broken back and 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:33.880 was in the hospital, and the kids were there. 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:36.000 His grown kids from his first marriage. 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:41.480 Yeah, they wanted to see the body before it was cremated. 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:47.440 And when they opened the casket, the body had already 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:48.760 been cremated. 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:52.200 That's kind of bizarre. 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:57.440 Very bizarre. The body had been cremated already. I mean, 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:02.120 that was totally totally, totally wrong. 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.720 Back to Phil reading ron Elliott's version of events. 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:13.640 Okay, after the funeral, I spent a considerable amount of 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.560 time talking to people trying to figure out what happened. 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.200 Miss Lily and her neighbor were sitting on the front 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:22.880 porch of an old ramshackle house across the road from 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:26.400 the farm, shilling Peas they saw the plane take off, 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:29.080 they could see that little five year old AJ was 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:31.960 on board. One of them said, there goes the little 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:36.880 princess taking flying lessons from her daddy. Then boom, they 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:41.520 looked up and the plane was falling. Lily threw down 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.880 her piece and started running towards the plane, almost ran 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.000 into an eighteen wheeler crossing the road, ran into a ditch, 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:51.800 hit a barbed wire fence, she couldn't see, lost her glasses, 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.440 wound up crawling to the airplane. She was bandaged from 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.160 her toes to way up under her dress. When I 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:03.480 talked to her, artist's father, who lived in a house 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.000 on the farm, was already there. She remembers him saying, 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:09.840 come on, man, come on, help me get the baby down. 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.200 The little baby AJ was hanging by her safety harness. 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.000 I thought he was talking to me, Miss Lilly said, 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.600 but he wasn't. There was another man there, Bobby, the 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.520 local Georgia Bureau of Investigations agent. But Bobby wasn't there 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:25.439 to help with the baby at all. He was running 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:27.520 towards his car with a piece of something he'd taken 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:28.240 from the plane. 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:32.000 And then he came back and they took the baby down. 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:39.320 Just to clarify, So Bobby would be Frank Baker Junior, 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.159 the GBI agent who was the first on the scene, 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:44.200 first responder on the scene. 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:49.720 Yeah, for some reason, Ron called him Bobby, And maybe 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:51.679 that was a nickname that other people used, but it's 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.840 certainly the name Ron used for him, Bobby. His real 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:58.920 name was Frank Baker Junior. He was the GBI agent 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:04.320 in White County. His father, Frank Baker Sr. Was the sheriff, 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:07.480 had been for years, so the two of them had 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.520 the place pretty well wrapped up. I certainly don't have 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.800 any proof that there was more than just the ordinary 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.600 you wash my hands, I'll wash your hands corruption in 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:22.119 White County, but if there was, the CIA would have 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:28.359 had ample leverage on Bobby Frank Jr. To get him 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.760 involved in this plot to kill Lamar, which is what 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:33.040 I think actually happened. 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:36.200 Well, I do have to point out that C. B. 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:41.840 Hackworth does dispute that Bobby, you know, Frank Baker Junior, 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:46.199 would be capable of something like that, that they were friends, 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:48.200 and that he viewed him as a stand up guy. 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:52.359 How he ended up at the Chrish. 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.679 Almost as the plane was going down Yeah, I'd like 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:01.040 to hear that one, and Ron is certainly entitled. 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:01.400 To his opinion. 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:04.480 This was Ron Elliott's remembrance. 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:09.359 Artist's father, mister Lawrence, was there within thirty seconds of 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:12.160 the crash, and Bobby was driving up just as her 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:16.119 father arrived. The third person was Miss Lily from across 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:18.840 the highway. He told me he was on the front 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.159 porch of the house Lamar built for him and his wife, 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:24.200 reading the paper when he heard the plane take off. 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:26.679 He heard the boom and looked up and it was 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.960 coming down. He jumped into his car raced to the site. 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.119 The other guy who helped him was already there, I 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:35.800 have to say. Mister Lawrence told me later he didn't 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.520 see Bobby put anything in his car. However, it was 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:41.880 because he'd already crawled into the plane and was trying 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:42.880 to get aj down. 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:44.920 It was miss Lily who saw that. 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:48.880 Happy Miles says Ron Elliott had also spoken to him 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:51.080 about Baker well. 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:55.040 He told me that Baker had been bragging the night 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:59.040 before that he was going to get Lamar in the 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:02.960 bar the night before, saying how he was going to 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:06.960 get the son of a bitch, and then the next 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:09.120 day Lamar was dead. 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.040 And he was the guy who was the first on 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:12.800 the scene. 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:26.520 Yeah yeah. 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.080 I requested a copy of the accident report from the 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:33.879 National Transportation Safety Board. The final report finding reads that 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:38.440 quote virtually no fuel was found in the tanks, lines, 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:43.200 and carburetor. No pre impact part failure or malfunction was found. 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.080 So the official reason for the crash was basically that 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:51.080 the Piper cub ran out of fuel, something that Happy Miles, 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:54.639 also a seasoned pilot, still finds preposterous. 0:20:55.320 --> 0:21:00.840 First off, he would have never crashed an airplane, you know. 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:02.400 I mean, he was too good a. 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:06.119 Pilot even if it were out of fuel. Could a 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:11.399 pilot of Chester's stature have landed that in the fields 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:12.280 without crashing? 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:16.320 Oh yeah, I mean in the field and the trees. 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:21.600 She could have put it anywhere and walked away. It 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:26.880 just it didn't add up. That airplane landed so slow, 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:34.160 probably down around thirty miles an hour. It wasn't heavily loaded, 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:38.639 just Seim and his daughter, and there were fields all 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:42.000 over the place. There were a lot of trees and 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:47.359 hills and stuff. But he would have landed it, no problem, 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:52.119 no problem. I'm one hundred percent share of that. 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:57.040 The ran out of fuel theory also clashes with an 0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:02.040 eyewitness account shared with Phil Stanford eight years ago or so. 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:06.640 When I started my own investigation into this, I went 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:09.920 down to northern Georgia. One of the places I stopped 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:14.480 was Cleveland. Ended up talking to a manager at the 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:18.080 local hardware store. He told me he'd been on the 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:20.800 volunteer fire department at that time, what we now called it, 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:24.280 a first responder. He was out there shortly after the 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:28.400 plane went down, and he said the plane was upside down. 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:31.840 And he said, no, the plane wasn't out of fuel, 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:34.520 it was dripping fuel from the wings. 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:38.679 I've obtained multiple photos of the crashed plane. It is 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:42.520 indeed lying upside down. The nose of the piper cub 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:46.520 appears severely damaged, crumpled and torn by what one would 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:50.960 imagine was extreme force or speed. So, if the official 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:55.800 explanation was false and the plane was sabotaged, what exactly 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:59.760 did Ron Elliott think cause the crash? 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:02.200 Asked Gron about that. Here's what he said. 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:04.840 He said that it had to be a spring loaded 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:09.520 cable cutter electronically activated by a ground signal that would 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:13.199 have disconnected the plane's elevator control, causing the plane to 0:23:13.280 --> 0:23:17.360 pitch nose down, which is what it did. But whatever 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:22.040 it was, he said, three people heard a loud boom. 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:26.200 Miss Lilly, her friend sellin Peas with her across the road. 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:30.320 An artist's father. Ron said he was convinced that there 0:23:30.320 --> 0:23:34.080 would have been evidence of some explosive device in the plane. 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:39.720 That's interesting, Phil because Ron mentions Miss Lily, saying that 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:43.840 Baker ran to the crash and then ran back to 0:23:43.880 --> 0:23:45.040 put something in his car. 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:48.240 Yeah, Ron takes that, and I do too. 0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:53.120 It was evidence that this explosive device was being removed 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:54.960 from the wreckage of the plane. 0:23:55.400 --> 0:23:59.000 So what happened to the plane the wreckage? 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:02.639 Ron learned that the airplane had been taken to a 0:24:02.680 --> 0:24:07.120 small town called Tacoa, It's about thirty miles east of 0:24:07.400 --> 0:24:10.480 Cleveland and put in a locked and sealed hangar there 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:13.119 and he agreed to buy it, made a deal to 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:16.200 buy it from the insurance company, but first, he said 0:24:16.240 --> 0:24:18.000 he wanted to see it, So he went over there, 0:24:18.880 --> 0:24:24.080 cut the lock, walked inside, and the plane was gone 0:24:24.800 --> 0:24:26.800 and all that was left was an oil spot on 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:27.320 the floor. 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:33.840 How did the crash ultimately impact the Lone Star investigation. 0:24:34.560 --> 0:24:38.600 Well, it pretty much ended Lamar's gray mail defense in 0:24:38.640 --> 0:24:41.320 any case, and that's what everyone else was relying on. 0:24:41.359 --> 0:24:46.000 There were about ten other defendants besides Lamar and Ron, 0:24:46.119 --> 0:24:49.800