1 00:00:01,720 --> 00:00:08,240 Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media. I'm so glad you decided to come 2 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:10,760 Speaker 1: back for part two of the story of Frank Sweeney. 3 00:00:11,680 --> 00:00:14,240 Speaker 1: If you didn't hear part one, you really need to. 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:16,799 Speaker 1: This isn't the kind of story you can pick up 5 00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:20,360 Speaker 1: midway through. You missed a cop getting shot with a 6 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:23,840 Speaker 1: machine gun in a New Jersey suburb, the Rhodesian bush War, 7 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:28,560 Speaker 1: possible CIA involvement in an Australian political crisis, and we're 8 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:31,960 Speaker 1: just about to pick up with our escaped spy. The 9 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:34,920 Speaker 1: second forty years of Frank's life are just as weird 10 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:38,400 Speaker 1: as the first forty. There's a serial killer, a mafia trial, 11 00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 1: two different secret wives, and a lot of misuse of 12 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:48,480 Speaker 1: the postal service. I'm Molly Conger, and this is weird, 13 00:00:48,520 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: little guys. 14 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:04,760 Speaker 2: Now. 15 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: When we left off last week, Frank was making friends 16 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: in prison. His new friend in nineteen seventy eight was 17 00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:13,160 Speaker 1: Christopher Boyce, who had just been convicted of espionage for 18 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:15,400 Speaker 1: selling documents he stole from his job as a CIA 19 00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:19,199 Speaker 1: contractor to the Soviets, and then he escaped from prison. 20 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:22,560 Speaker 1: Whether or not Frank was still in custody on the 21 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:26,039 Speaker 1: day Christopher boyce escape from prison is surprisingly hard to 22 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:29,560 Speaker 1: pin down. Several newspaper articles about Frank's role in the 23 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:31,959 Speaker 1: ensuing manhunt for the missing spy put his release a 24 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,440 Speaker 1: month before the escape, but others put it a month after. 25 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:39,560 Speaker 1: Seems like this detail would really matter, but no one 26 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:43,400 Speaker 1: seemed very concerned about it. In nineteen eighty, newspapers that 27 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:45,720 Speaker 1: appeared to be quoting the same unnamed source from the 28 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:49,120 Speaker 1: US Marshalls published conflicting stories, with some saying Frank flew 29 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: to South Africa shortly before Boyce's escape, and others putting 30 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:56,560 Speaker 1: that trip slightly after the escape, although both of these 31 00:01:56,640 --> 00:02:01,920 Speaker 1: articles say it was exactly twenty three days after. But 32 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:04,640 Speaker 1: in my frustrated search through forty year old newspapers trying 33 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 1: to figure out which prison Frank was calling home that year, 34 00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:13,079 Speaker 1: I found another surprise, another stabbing. Shortly after Frank was 35 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:15,679 Speaker 1: transferred to a state prison in Maine in nineteen seventy eight, 36 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:18,000 Speaker 1: he stabbed another inmate in the chest during an argument 37 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,440 Speaker 1: in the prison library. And again we have this problem 38 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:24,200 Speaker 1: that keeps coming up in Frank's life. He loves to 39 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 1: talk to reporters, and he loves to lie. It's the seventies. 40 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:31,240 Speaker 1: These reporters don't have the Internet. They don't have access 41 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:34,160 Speaker 1: to electronic court records, so a lot of Frank's lies 42 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:37,160 Speaker 1: get published. When he files a lawsuit against the prison 43 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:40,720 Speaker 1: warden in Maine about the conditions in solitary confinement, newspapers 44 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:42,880 Speaker 1: publish his claim that he was placed in solitary for 45 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 1: a stabbing he'd been suspected of, but he says the 46 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:50,840 Speaker 1: investigation cleared him. A local newspaper in bang Or Main, however, 47 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:53,280 Speaker 1: had a reporter in the courtroom when he entered a 48 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: guilty plea to that stabbing. But regardless of whether he 49 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: got out in December of seventy nine or February of 50 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:03,880 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, we know Frank flew to South Africa soon 51 00:03:03,919 --> 00:03:06,640 Speaker 1: after he got out, and that he stayed there for 52 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:11,160 Speaker 1: a couple of months. The story of Christopher Boyce's nineteen 53 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:15,360 Speaker 1: months on the Lamb is long and strange. Sean Penn 54 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:18,359 Speaker 1: plays Boyce's friend, the cocaine dealer Dalton Lee in the 55 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:20,760 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five film adaptation of the book The Falcon 56 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:24,320 Speaker 1: and the Snowman about the entire affair, I didn't watch it. 57 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:27,400 Speaker 1: There's only so much I can do. But remember this 58 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:30,440 Speaker 1: is the Cold War. A missing Soviet spy is a 59 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: pretty big pr problem for the United States government. There 60 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: was speculation that the KGB had helped him escape. Boyce 61 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: himself called a reporter from a payphone a few months 62 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 1: after the escape and laughed about the idea that he'd 63 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:45,400 Speaker 1: had foreign assistance. He says, he just climbed the fence 64 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:49,320 Speaker 1: and walked out. The task force focused on finding boys 65 00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:53,200 Speaker 1: believed all along that he'd never actually left California, and 66 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:55,800 Speaker 1: they weren't too far off. He was in Idaho the 67 00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:59,080 Speaker 1: whole time, But a lot of resources ended up getting 68 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 1: expended pursuing a false lead planted by our friend Frank. 69 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:07,320 Speaker 1: Now I can't prove Frank sent all of these letters himself. 70 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,720 Speaker 1: I can't even find contemporane his reporting where anyone ever 71 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 1: outright said that they believed Frank sent these letters. And 72 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:17,360 Speaker 1: he was never charged in connection with his meddling in 73 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:21,080 Speaker 1: this investigation. But just a few weeks after Boyce went missing, 74 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: the United States ambassador in South Africa got a letter. 75 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:29,040 Speaker 1: The postmark indicated that had been mailed from within South Africa, 76 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:32,800 Speaker 1: and the letter said a known mercenary named shell Hammer 77 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:36,680 Speaker 1: had assisted the convicted American spy, Christopher Boyce in entering 78 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:41,840 Speaker 1: South Africa by way of a fake passport. Now, who 79 00:04:41,839 --> 00:04:44,520 Speaker 1: do we know with a history of forging passports, of 80 00:04:44,720 --> 00:04:48,839 Speaker 1: mailing anonymous letters to officials in Southern Africa implicating himself 81 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:53,560 Speaker 1: in crimes and using the pseudonym shell Hammer. And he 82 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:55,679 Speaker 1: absolutely knew the FEDS would tie him to that alias 83 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:57,080 Speaker 1: because it was the one he had used in those 84 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:59,360 Speaker 1: classified ads in nineteen seventy six that put him in 85 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:03,359 Speaker 1: prison for mail fraud. And Frank was in South Africa 86 00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:05,599 Speaker 1: in February of nineteen eighty when that letter was mailed. 87 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:09,760 Speaker 1: It seems he wanted the authorities to know he was involved. 88 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:12,680 Speaker 1: Why else would he write his own pseudonym into the story. 89 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:17,119 Speaker 1: So FEDS quickly turned their attention to Frank. They placed 90 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:21,040 Speaker 1: a tracking beacon on his car. They followed him for months, 91 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:25,320 Speaker 1: and he probably knew he was being followed. They followed 92 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:26,880 Speaker 1: him from his home in New Jersey all the way 93 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:30,039 Speaker 1: out to California, and from a California motel, he made 94 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:33,640 Speaker 1: several phone calls to an apartment in Hermosa Beach and 95 00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:36,279 Speaker 1: when they searched that apartment they found it abandoned, but 96 00:05:36,360 --> 00:05:39,159 Speaker 1: they found several letters that Frank had sent to a 97 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:42,360 Speaker 1: third man, another friend of theirs, from prison, one of 98 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:45,600 Speaker 1: which read somehow they discovered that I helped him get 99 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:49,240 Speaker 1: into South Africa. I suspect an informer has been at work, 100 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:54,320 Speaker 1: but there was no informer. Frank wanted them to find 101 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:57,120 Speaker 1: those letters, and Boyce was never in South Africa. The 102 00:05:57,160 --> 00:05:59,560 Speaker 1: only reason anyone thought Boyce might be in South Africa 103 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:02,159 Speaker 1: is because Frank was planting false clues all over the 104 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:05,800 Speaker 1: world to point them as far away as possible from 105 00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:10,479 Speaker 1: a little hunting cabin in the mountains of Idaho, US 106 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 1: Marshalls eventually got frustrated following Frank around. A federal prosecutor 107 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:17,280 Speaker 1: would actually say an open court that Frank's arrest in 108 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:20,040 Speaker 1: July of nineteen eighty one was specifically intended to give 109 00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:22,719 Speaker 1: them leverage to make him cooperate in the boy's case. 110 00:06:23,279 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: It seemed like he knew something and they wanted to 111 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:29,279 Speaker 1: know what it was. As a felon, Frank wasn't allowed 112 00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:33,799 Speaker 1: to have any guns, and of course Frank had guns. 113 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:37,159 Speaker 1: Did find one newspaper article that wrapped a sort of 114 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:40,960 Speaker 1: suspicious sounding hint that they only picked Frank up for 115 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:44,840 Speaker 1: that gun charge because of an anonymous tip, so maybe 116 00:06:44,839 --> 00:06:47,320 Speaker 1: that was him too. But they picked him up in 117 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:50,200 Speaker 1: New Jersey at the end of July, and he pretended 118 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:53,280 Speaker 1: to be very cooperative, telling them that he actually had 119 00:06:53,279 --> 00:06:55,440 Speaker 1: some documents that would leave them straight to boys and 120 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:59,160 Speaker 1: he would happily show them to them. He voluntarily turned 121 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:01,080 Speaker 1: over the key to the bank deposit box he was 122 00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:04,280 Speaker 1: keeping them in, and inside they found several letters to 123 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:08,279 Speaker 1: Frank that had been mailed from South Africa. Sounds like 124 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:11,600 Speaker 1: more red herrings planted by Frank. He'd flown to South 125 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:13,480 Speaker 1: Africa several times in the year and a half since 126 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:17,120 Speaker 1: his release and was probably mailing himself these letters on 127 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:20,760 Speaker 1: those visits. So now in August of nineteen eighty one, 128 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:23,760 Speaker 1: it seems like there could be some evidence that Boyce 129 00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:27,800 Speaker 1: really was in South Africa. Frank says he was promised 130 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:30,680 Speaker 1: placement in the Witness Protection program for his help, and 131 00:07:31,120 --> 00:07:33,840 Speaker 1: maybe they did make that promise if he really could 132 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:37,240 Speaker 1: help them recover their missing spy, that's a reasonable enough deal. 133 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:41,280 Speaker 1: And just a few weeks after all of Frank's help, 134 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:45,760 Speaker 1: Boyce was recaptured, but it wasn't due in any part 135 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,120 Speaker 1: to Frank's information during his year and a half on 136 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:52,440 Speaker 1: the run. Boyce obviously couldn't get a job, so he 137 00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:56,680 Speaker 1: made money the old fashioned way bank robbery. He kept 138 00:07:56,680 --> 00:07:59,080 Speaker 1: it pretty small time, nothing flashy where you get into 139 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:01,520 Speaker 1: the vault, just little stick ups a few thousand at 140 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,400 Speaker 1: a time from the teller. He's tied to at least 141 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:07,360 Speaker 1: seventeen bank robberies in Idaho and Washington State during that time, 142 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:10,320 Speaker 1: eventually teaming up with a couple of brothers from Idaho. 143 00:08:10,640 --> 00:08:13,320 Speaker 1: And it was one of those men who turned boys 144 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:17,239 Speaker 1: in for the reward money, no honor among thieves, I guess. 145 00:08:18,160 --> 00:08:20,880 Speaker 1: Boyce was taken back into custody on August twenty first, 146 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:25,720 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, and he wasn't in South Africa. 147 00:08:25,920 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 3: Nationwide flight ended for Christopher Boyce here at the pit 148 00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:31,760 Speaker 3: stop drive in at Port Angelus, Washington. He was eating 149 00:08:31,760 --> 00:08:35,160 Speaker 3: a cheeseburger and onion rings when eight federal agents jumped him. 150 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:37,520 Speaker 3: Boyce was apparently living a triple. 151 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:47,559 Speaker 1: Life, so franklyed obviously he lied pretty egregiously. He falsified documents, 152 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:50,239 Speaker 1: He led US Marshalls and the CIA on an international 153 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:54,160 Speaker 1: goose chase, and maybe that's why he never got charged 154 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:57,520 Speaker 1: for it. That's pretty embarrassing to put on the record, 155 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:01,080 Speaker 1: but they did still have that uncharged they'd picked him 156 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:03,800 Speaker 1: up on to use his leverage, so they said a 157 00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:07,560 Speaker 1: sentencing date, but Frank didn't show up. He was trying 158 00:09:07,559 --> 00:09:11,240 Speaker 1: to skip the country again. Remember back in nineteen seventy 159 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:12,920 Speaker 1: six he got all the way to South Africa after 160 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:16,439 Speaker 1: skipping his sentencing date for mail fraud. But this time 161 00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: he was picked up just a few days after he 162 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:20,720 Speaker 1: missed court when a motel clerk in Montvale, New Jersey 163 00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:24,319 Speaker 1: recognized him. When he was finally dragged in for sentencing, 164 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:26,520 Speaker 1: the government said they hoped Frank was going to be 165 00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:29,080 Speaker 1: able to help them in the boy's case, but nothing 166 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:32,000 Speaker 1: he said was of any use. Frank said he had 167 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:33,760 Speaker 1: no choice but to flee the country and start a 168 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:35,800 Speaker 1: new life on a cattle ranch in Australia with his 169 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:38,280 Speaker 1: wife because the government had renegged on their deal to 170 00:09:38,280 --> 00:09:41,480 Speaker 1: put him in witness protection. I have to imagine there 171 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:44,199 Speaker 1: was some bickering back and forth between an indignant Frank 172 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:47,480 Speaker 1: and an exasperated federal prosecutor, because in the end, Judge H. 173 00:09:47,559 --> 00:09:50,680 Speaker 1: Curtis Mener said, I have neither the time nor the 174 00:09:50,679 --> 00:09:54,760 Speaker 1: inclination to unravel all of the mysteries. In this case, however, 175 00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:56,360 Speaker 1: they'd all ended up in his court room. Whatever the 176 00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:59,520 Speaker 1: convoluted backstory is here, this is a sentencing or illegal 177 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:02,240 Speaker 1: possession a firearm, and that's really all the judge can 178 00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:05,480 Speaker 1: do that day, so he sentenced Frank to four years. 179 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:10,840 Speaker 1: Judge Meaner said Frank was an explosive type of individual 180 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:14,720 Speaker 1: and that he was dangerous and mentally sick, and he 181 00:10:14,840 --> 00:10:17,040 Speaker 1: urged Frank to take advantage of the opportunity to get 182 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:21,040 Speaker 1: psychiatric help while he was in prison this time. And yes, 183 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:25,720 Speaker 1: I did say wife. When I first started poking around 184 00:10:25,760 --> 00:10:29,040 Speaker 1: trying to build my biographical backstory, to sort of sketch 185 00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:32,440 Speaker 1: out a skeleton of this man's life, I found a 186 00:10:32,440 --> 00:10:35,120 Speaker 1: new Jersey state record for a marriage in August nineteen 187 00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:38,600 Speaker 1: eighty one between a Frank A. Sweeney and aDNA M. 188 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:43,920 Speaker 1: Madison in Bergen County. There are other men named Frank Sweeney, obviously, 189 00:10:44,640 --> 00:10:47,000 Speaker 1: but it was a middle initial match and it's the 190 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:49,240 Speaker 1: right county, and it was one of the rare months 191 00:10:49,280 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 1: that Frank wasn't in prison. But it didn't seem right, 192 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:57,080 Speaker 1: so I set it aside. But this offhand mention at 193 00:10:57,080 --> 00:11:00,439 Speaker 1: his sentencing hearing about a wife sent me back to it. 194 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:03,600 Speaker 1: It is him. After the FEDS picked him up at 195 00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:05,800 Speaker 1: the end of July nineteen eighty one on that gun charge, 196 00:11:05,800 --> 00:11:08,640 Speaker 1: he was released from custody. He was cooperating. He took 197 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:10,240 Speaker 1: them to the bank to look at his fake evidence. 198 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:15,960 Speaker 1: All that, and sometime that month he got married. I 199 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:18,880 Speaker 1: have no idea how they met, or where she came from, 200 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:20,520 Speaker 1: or what she thought she was going to get out 201 00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:22,559 Speaker 1: of any of this, or if she knew Frank was 202 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:25,800 Speaker 1: planning on entering witness protection that month, or what on 203 00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:29,520 Speaker 1: earth she saw in this man. But I do know 204 00:11:29,559 --> 00:11:33,040 Speaker 1: how the marriage ended. Frank went back to prison that 205 00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:35,400 Speaker 1: very same year, so they didn't have much time together. 206 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:39,160 Speaker 1: I don't know where Diana was while Frank was away, 207 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:42,200 Speaker 1: But by nineteen eighty five, according to a decision by 208 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:45,120 Speaker 1: the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Dana was living in 209 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:48,880 Speaker 1: Texas with her new boyfriend, Danny Lee Strong. They couldn't 210 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:50,839 Speaker 1: have known each other very long before moving in together 211 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:53,560 Speaker 1: because Strong had only just gotten out of prison again 212 00:11:53,679 --> 00:11:55,640 Speaker 1: for another and a string of pretty run of the 213 00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:59,720 Speaker 1: mill robbery and fraud charges, and they didn't stay together 214 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:02,480 Speaker 1: long before they were arrested for murdering a man Strong 215 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:06,199 Speaker 1: said made a pass at Deanna. She was ultimately only 216 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:08,560 Speaker 1: convicted of stealing the victim's car, which they fled the 217 00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:10,959 Speaker 1: scene in, but Strong got ninety nine years for the 218 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:15,560 Speaker 1: brutal beating and asphyxiation of Robert Eugene Thomas. Frank doesn't 219 00:12:15,679 --> 00:12:18,240 Speaker 1: really factor into this story. He's in prison in another 220 00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:20,840 Speaker 1: state this whole time, but his name appears in a 221 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:25,560 Speaker 1: footnote of an appeals court decision upholding Strong's conviction. Strong 222 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:27,960 Speaker 1: had sent Frank a letter after finding out that Deanna 223 00:12:28,040 --> 00:12:31,120 Speaker 1: was planning to testify against him for the murder. I 224 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:33,600 Speaker 1: can't imagine what you write in a letter to your 225 00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:36,920 Speaker 1: girlfriend's husband about a situation like this. But all that 226 00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:40,080 Speaker 1: to say, Frank really did have a wife that he 227 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:42,120 Speaker 1: planned to start a new life with in Australia, but 228 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:45,000 Speaker 1: she ended up watching her boyfriend choke a man to 229 00:12:45,040 --> 00:13:02,280 Speaker 1: death in an apartment in Fort Worth instead. On January ninth, 230 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:05,760 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two, the UVA men's basketball team lost to 231 00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:08,280 Speaker 1: the tar Heels in a close game, sixty to sixty 232 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:12,960 Speaker 1: five at UNC's Carmichael Arena. I'm not a basketball fan, 233 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:16,120 Speaker 1: and I wasn't born then, but I guess it was 234 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:19,120 Speaker 1: an exciting game. Unc had knocked Uva out of the 235 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:22,480 Speaker 1: Final four the year before. But Joseph Paul Franklin, an 236 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:25,000 Speaker 1: avowed neo Nazi who'd recently been handed his first couple 237 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:28,720 Speaker 1: of life sentences for two of his many murders, didn't 238 00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:31,960 Speaker 1: care much for basketball. He was in the wreck room 239 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:34,840 Speaker 1: at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, 240 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:38,760 Speaker 1: and he was trying to watch American bandstand. According to 241 00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:41,480 Speaker 1: frank whose time at the Springfield prison overlapped with Franklins 242 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:43,880 Speaker 1: for a few weeks in nineteen eighty one until Franklin's 243 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:46,880 Speaker 1: transfer at the end of January nineteen eighty two, the 244 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:50,640 Speaker 1: serial killer became enraged when a black prison guard changed 245 00:13:50,679 --> 00:13:54,719 Speaker 1: the channel. Later that year, Joseph Paul Franklin was back 246 00:13:54,720 --> 00:13:58,520 Speaker 1: in court. He'd spent years traveling the country, robbing banks 247 00:13:58,520 --> 00:14:00,840 Speaker 1: and murdering young black men in in racial couples, so 248 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:02,880 Speaker 1: it would take years to sort out what to do 249 00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:05,720 Speaker 1: with him. This time, he was on trial for the 250 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:10,440 Speaker 1: unsuccessful assassination attempt on civil rights activists Vernon Jordan on 251 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:13,120 Speaker 1: May twenty ninth, nineteen eighty The Fort Wayne, Indiana chapter 252 00:14:13,160 --> 00:14:15,400 Speaker 1: of the National Urban League was hosting a banquet in 253 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,079 Speaker 1: honor of a visit from National Urban League President Vernin Jordan, 254 00:14:19,080 --> 00:14:21,240 Speaker 1: when a volunteer dropped him off at his hotel. Later 255 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:24,280 Speaker 1: that evening, a single bullet from a thirty six rifle 256 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:29,000 Speaker 1: tore through his back. He survived, but it's hard to 257 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:32,240 Speaker 1: build a case against a drifter sniper. Nobody saw him. 258 00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:38,040 Speaker 1: The investigators had some handwriting analysis on a motel registration card, 259 00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:41,280 Speaker 1: testimony from a grocery store clerk who identified Franklin as 260 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:43,840 Speaker 1: a man he'd had a strange conversation with, and a 261 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:47,000 Speaker 1: general idea that the crime fit Franklin's pattern, but it 262 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:51,440 Speaker 1: was a bit thin. And then came frank Oh, frank 263 00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:54,840 Speaker 1: loves to talk, he loves to be helpful. He's still 264 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:57,480 Speaker 1: in prison on that gun charge, but he told federal 265 00:14:57,480 --> 00:14:59,560 Speaker 1: authorities that in the brief couple of weeks he'd been 266 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:01,960 Speaker 1: on the same s cell block as Franklin. They chatted 267 00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:04,360 Speaker 1: a few times, and Franklin had confessed to him on 268 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:10,000 Speaker 1: several occasions about shooting Vernon Jordan. On the stand, frank 269 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:12,520 Speaker 1: testified about that evening in January when the guard changed 270 00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:15,560 Speaker 1: the channel to the basketball game and it's a pretty 271 00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:18,120 Speaker 1: good detail. Frank was very specific that it was a 272 00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:21,920 Speaker 1: Uva UNC game that we couldn't recall the date. They 273 00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:24,200 Speaker 1: were only on that cell block together for a few weeks, 274 00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:27,400 Speaker 1: and there was in fact a Uva UNC basketball game 275 00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:30,119 Speaker 1: during that time period that would have been on television. 276 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:33,760 Speaker 1: He testified that Franklin was furious about the incident and 277 00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:37,120 Speaker 1: spent days fuming about it. The two inmates were walking 278 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:39,320 Speaker 1: together in the exercise area a few days later when 279 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:42,360 Speaker 1: Franklin spotted that same guard again and turned to frank 280 00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:44,880 Speaker 1: and said, I'd like to blow him away, like I 281 00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:49,720 Speaker 1: shot that and were big wig in Indiana. Frank says. 282 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:53,320 Speaker 1: He also lamented that Jordan just wouldn't die after being shot, 283 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:56,000 Speaker 1: and that he was sorry I didn't shoot that white 284 00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:59,080 Speaker 1: slut first, referring to the white woman who'd given Jordan 285 00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:02,800 Speaker 1: a ride that night. Frank was one of three jail 286 00:16:02,840 --> 00:16:05,640 Speaker 1: house informants the government put on during that trial, all 287 00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:07,760 Speaker 1: men who'd been in jail with Franklin, and all of 288 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:10,160 Speaker 1: whom said Franklin had admitted to various aspects of the 289 00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:15,240 Speaker 1: crime and casual conversation. Josephaul Franklin was actually acquitted at 290 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:19,080 Speaker 1: that federal trial, jurors said they believed Franklin shot Jordan, 291 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:21,520 Speaker 1: but they were hung up on the wording of the indictment, 292 00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:24,080 Speaker 1: which specifically charged him with the shooting as a violation 293 00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:27,760 Speaker 1: of Jordan's civil rights. Years later, on death row for 294 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:30,920 Speaker 1: a variety of other murders, Franklin did confess to shooting 295 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:34,640 Speaker 1: Vernon Jordan when the trial was over, though jurors who 296 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:37,200 Speaker 1: spoke to the press said they'd only believed one of 297 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:43,120 Speaker 1: the three jail house informants who testified frank On cross examination, 298 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:45,520 Speaker 1: frank Sweeney seemed surprised to learn that the other two 299 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:48,160 Speaker 1: men had been paid thousands of dollars for their cooperation. 300 00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:52,720 Speaker 1: He wasn't getting paid, but he wasn't upset. He didn't 301 00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:55,720 Speaker 1: need the money. He'd inherited a quarter of million dollars, 302 00:16:55,920 --> 00:16:58,400 Speaker 1: which would be about a million dollars today. When his 303 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:04,000 Speaker 1: parents died. All he wanted was witness protection, then a 304 00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:08,040 Speaker 1: positive letter to the New Jersey Parole Board. Just like 305 00:17:08,040 --> 00:17:10,960 Speaker 1: in the boy's case, he very conveniently had some information 306 00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:13,679 Speaker 1: the government wanted, and all he wanted in return was 307 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:20,520 Speaker 1: witness protection. And this time it got it. But he 308 00:17:20,520 --> 00:17:23,800 Speaker 1: didn't get to keep it. In nineteen eighty four, Frank 309 00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:26,200 Speaker 1: filed a lawsuit against the warden of the Alabama prison 310 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,439 Speaker 1: where he was still serving his sentence on that gun charge. 311 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:31,680 Speaker 1: He said he was not receiving the protection afforded to 312 00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:35,359 Speaker 1: him as a protected witness. The warden's response to the 313 00:17:35,359 --> 00:17:38,879 Speaker 1: suit was that Frank would not stop telling people that 314 00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:41,240 Speaker 1: he was a protected witness, which was causing a lot 315 00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:46,000 Speaker 1: of problems. You're not supposed to do that in court. 316 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:48,880 Speaker 1: The warden's executive assistant said that the prison was considering 317 00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:52,119 Speaker 1: contacting in the Office of Enforcement Operations, the division of 318 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:55,840 Speaker 1: the DOJ that administers the Witness Security program, to recommend 319 00:17:55,880 --> 00:17:58,520 Speaker 1: his removal from the program because they believed he was 320 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:02,879 Speaker 1: intentionally causing problem by talking about this constantly. And it 321 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:05,640 Speaker 1: seems he was ultimately removed from the Witness Security program 322 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:09,360 Speaker 1: around this time, and maybe that had something to do 323 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:12,639 Speaker 1: with his decision to testify on behalf of Anthony Spalotro, 324 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:16,240 Speaker 1: the hot headed Chicago mobster who handled the family's business 325 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:19,720 Speaker 1: in Las Vegas. It couldn't have been an attempt to 326 00:18:19,760 --> 00:18:22,680 Speaker 1: get back in the program. He was testifying for the defense, 327 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:26,240 Speaker 1: but maybe he was just spiite. He wanted to get 328 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:32,280 Speaker 1: somebody else kicked out of the program. In nineteen eighty three, 329 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:34,520 Speaker 1: when he was still in prison and still considered a 330 00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:37,560 Speaker 1: protected witness, he briefly shared a cell with another guy 331 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:42,639 Speaker 1: in the program. Frank Kulatta was a mobster. He was 332 00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:45,000 Speaker 1: a member of Tony Spilotro's Hole in the Wall gang. 333 00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:48,880 Speaker 1: If you've seen the nineteen ninety five Scorsese movie Casino, 334 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:53,640 Speaker 1: it's that quite literally. Frank Marino, the character played by 335 00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:56,440 Speaker 1: the guy who played Phil Leotardo on The Sopranos, is 336 00:18:56,480 --> 00:19:00,320 Speaker 1: supposed to be Frank Kulatta. Joe Peshi's character, Nikison Toro 337 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:03,800 Speaker 1: is based on Tony Spilotrow. Just watch the movie. It's 338 00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:06,840 Speaker 1: all very complicated, and our friend Frank Sweeney had nothing 339 00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:10,119 Speaker 1: to do with it. But in nineteen eighty three, the 340 00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:12,720 Speaker 1: real life Frank Kulata was sharing a cell with Frank 341 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:15,760 Speaker 1: Sweeney because they had both turned state's witness against very 342 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:19,320 Speaker 1: dangerous men. Frank Sweeney had just testified against a serial 343 00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:22,399 Speaker 1: killer and Frank Kulatta had turned on Spilotro after the 344 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:25,080 Speaker 1: FBI played him a recording of his friend talking about 345 00:19:25,119 --> 00:19:29,560 Speaker 1: having him killed. When Anthony Spilotro went on trial, in 346 00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:32,359 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, Frank Kulatta was out of prison and 347 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:35,800 Speaker 1: in the program, and he was the government's star witness 348 00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:40,000 Speaker 1: against Spilotroe. Frank Sweeney was finally out of prison again 349 00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:41,600 Speaker 1: in home in New Jersey when he read in the 350 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:45,840 Speaker 1: paper that Kulata was going to be testifying. According to Frank, 351 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:49,280 Speaker 1: he felt compelled to contact Spilotro's defense attorney because when 352 00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:54,240 Speaker 1: they were cell mates, Culata would often brag about committing perjury, 353 00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:57,280 Speaker 1: So the defense flew Frank out to Las Vegas and 354 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:00,879 Speaker 1: put him on the stand. He claimed that after one 355 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:03,480 Speaker 1: of Coulada's appearances in court back in nineteen eighty three, 356 00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:06,360 Speaker 1: he came back to their shared cell and bragged, Frankie, 357 00:20:06,359 --> 00:20:08,560 Speaker 1: I'd just put another one away. You've heard of the 358 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:15,080 Speaker 1: traveling circus. I'm the original traveling perjurer. On cross examination, 359 00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:17,480 Speaker 1: Frank Sweeney admitted that when he'd been in the witness 360 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:21,560 Speaker 1: protection program, he had on several occasions threatened and even 361 00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:24,960 Speaker 1: faked suicide attempts to get what he wanted out of 362 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:29,000 Speaker 1: federal prosecutors. I wish I had more information on that. 363 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:32,600 Speaker 1: That is incredibly strange behavior, and it does actually happen again. 364 00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:36,680 Speaker 1: Later in the end, though his testimony in that mob 365 00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:40,119 Speaker 1: trial is just a strange little footnote his third brush 366 00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:43,760 Speaker 1: with the witness protection program, his testimony didn't matter much. 367 00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:47,400 Speaker 1: I don't think anyone believed it, and the case ended 368 00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:50,800 Speaker 1: in a mistrial over allegations of jury tampering, and Anthony 369 00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:54,760 Speaker 1: Spilotro went missing before they could retry the case. The 370 00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:56,840 Speaker 1: mobster and his brother were later found buried in a 371 00:20:56,880 --> 00:21:01,159 Speaker 1: cornfield in Indiana. Frank Kula stayed in the witness Protection 372 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:03,919 Speaker 1: program for years, and Scorsese hired him as an onset 373 00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:07,439 Speaker 1: adviser when he shot Casino. Klada died of COVID in 374 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:12,240 Speaker 1: twenty twenty, and in nineteen eighty nine, Frank went back 375 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:17,080 Speaker 1: to prison for mail fraud. Again. The court record is 376 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:19,960 Speaker 1: too old to get any documents without haggling with an archivist, 377 00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:22,679 Speaker 1: but the docket sheet does say that, in addition to 378 00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:25,879 Speaker 1: another fifty seven months in prison, the judge also banned 379 00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:30,240 Speaker 1: Frank from ever offering anything for sale by mail. So 380 00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:32,800 Speaker 1: at first I assumed he was pulling the same scam 381 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:35,560 Speaker 1: he ran in nineteen seventy six, where he placed ads 382 00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:38,000 Speaker 1: for guns he didn't actually have and then ghosted would 383 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:41,119 Speaker 1: be buyers after they sent him the money. But it's 384 00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:44,560 Speaker 1: much weirder than that. I wish it was guns. It 385 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:48,360 Speaker 1: wasn't guns. This time. He was running what one journalist 386 00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:53,480 Speaker 1: called a cat scam. He'd cut the tails off regular 387 00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:58,159 Speaker 1: housecats and then run ads offering them as exotic purebred 388 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:02,359 Speaker 1: cats for three hundred dollars. If he really was as 389 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:05,679 Speaker 1: independently wealthy of his inheritance as he claimed, did he 390 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:09,720 Speaker 1: really need three hundred dollars for a mutilated cat? Maybe 391 00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:13,720 Speaker 1: he's just addicted to mail fraud. As for the cats, 392 00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:16,879 Speaker 1: one of the earliest mentions I could find of Frank 393 00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:20,119 Speaker 1: in the newspaper archives was a nineteen fifty eight article 394 00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:24,520 Speaker 1: about the embalmed cat he got for his fifteenth birthday. 395 00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:27,919 Speaker 1: He was looking forward to dissecting it and adding it 396 00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:31,000 Speaker 1: to his collection of oddities that already included a cat skeleton. 397 00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:35,800 Speaker 1: So I hope all his fraudulent cats found happy homes, 398 00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:38,760 Speaker 1: even if their buyers were unhappy about losing three hundred dollars. 399 00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:42,320 Speaker 1: But it's in an appeals court decision related to a 400 00:22:42,359 --> 00:22:45,000 Speaker 1: parole violation in this second mail fraud case, where we 401 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:48,119 Speaker 1: find the details of a campaign of terror against his 402 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:51,680 Speaker 1: neighbors that foreshadows the events at the end of this long, 403 00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:56,040 Speaker 1: strange tale. He was paroled in nineteen ninety two after 404 00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:58,399 Speaker 1: serving about half of this sentence, and he was on 405 00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:02,800 Speaker 1: probation for three years. Just days before that three year 406 00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:05,760 Speaker 1: period ran out, he was charged with a probation violation. 407 00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:10,240 Speaker 1: He'd been convicted in New Jersey of sending obscene materials 408 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:13,480 Speaker 1: through the mail to a minor. I know, I know, 409 00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:15,240 Speaker 1: this show is starting to feel like a tour of 410 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:19,280 Speaker 1: America's weirdest sex crime guys. But to be honest, I 411 00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:23,199 Speaker 1: don't think there was anything sexual in his motivation for 412 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:26,480 Speaker 1: sending pornomags to a nine year old. I know that 413 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,520 Speaker 1: doesn't sound possible. Bear with me. But after he got 414 00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:32,359 Speaker 1: out of prison, he's living in an apartment back in 415 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:35,800 Speaker 1: his hometown of Tenafly, New Jersey. A family of Russian 416 00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:39,520 Speaker 1: immigrants moves into the apartment next door. They have children. 417 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:43,600 Speaker 1: Children are noisy. Frank says he asked them to keep 418 00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:47,520 Speaker 1: it down, but the noise continued. In what these Second 419 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,640 Speaker 1: Circuit Court of Appeals would later call a rather bizarre 420 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:54,040 Speaker 1: set of circumstances, he decided to get back at these 421 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:57,440 Speaker 1: noisy children by engaging in a lengthy harassment campaign against 422 00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:02,160 Speaker 1: the entire family. At least twice, he shut off their electricity. 423 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:05,960 Speaker 1: On multiple occasions, he filled the lock on their front 424 00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:09,880 Speaker 1: door with staples, making it impossible to open. He had 425 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:14,280 Speaker 1: the family's mail forwarded to des Moines, Iowa. The father 426 00:24:14,359 --> 00:24:17,119 Speaker 1: of these noisy children was a doctor. One of his 427 00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:19,639 Speaker 1: colleagues received a letter purporting to be from an aid's 428 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:22,720 Speaker 1: charity informing the recipient that the doctor, the father of 429 00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:27,000 Speaker 1: those noisy children, had tested positive for HIV. And along 430 00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:29,160 Speaker 1: that same line of thinking, he also sent a letter 431 00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:31,280 Speaker 1: to the children's school informing them that the nine year 432 00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:34,040 Speaker 1: old boy had been exposed to HIV by his father. 433 00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:36,920 Speaker 1: And he sent letters to the Jewish community center where 434 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:40,000 Speaker 1: the family remembers, informing them that the entire family had 435 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:44,320 Speaker 1: been exposed to the virus. Remember this is nineteen ninety three. 436 00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:48,040 Speaker 1: Telling people that this doctor has HIV could ruin his career. 437 00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:52,000 Speaker 1: The school could call social services, and they probably wouldn't 438 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:54,120 Speaker 1: be welcome in the sauna at the community center if 439 00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:59,200 Speaker 1: people believed this. And in what would be his ultimate downfall, 440 00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:02,359 Speaker 1: here signed their nine year old son up for catalogs 441 00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:07,320 Speaker 1: that sold pornographic materials. It seems like he believed that 442 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:10,440 Speaker 1: the child's father would get the mail, which apparently wasn't 443 00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:14,360 Speaker 1: going to Iowa anymore see the catalog, believe his son 444 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,160 Speaker 1: had signed up for it and would punish the boy, 445 00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:21,320 Speaker 1: and if the boy was grounded, he wouldn't be so noisy. 446 00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:25,280 Speaker 1: But it backfired and Frank was discovered as the culprit. 447 00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:28,520 Speaker 1: Police searched his apartment and found the typewriter he'd used 448 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:31,560 Speaker 1: to write all the letters, and he quickly confessed. He 449 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:33,680 Speaker 1: got four months in jail in New Jersey for sending 450 00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,640 Speaker 1: him scene materials to a child, but the parole violation 451 00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:40,480 Speaker 1: landed him back in federal prison for another year. And 452 00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:42,440 Speaker 1: maybe this trip back to prison gave him a chance 453 00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:46,200 Speaker 1: to test out his own advice. You see, between getting 454 00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:48,200 Speaker 1: out in nineteen ninety two and going back in nineteen 455 00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:51,399 Speaker 1: ninety five, Frank was profiled in The New York Times. 456 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:55,119 Speaker 1: The journalist Charles Strumm actually used to write for The 457 00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:57,600 Speaker 1: Bergen Record, the local paper Frank used to end up 458 00:25:57,600 --> 00:25:59,359 Speaker 1: in every time he got arrested in the sixties, but 459 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,119 Speaker 1: Strum didn't come home from college and started the Record 460 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:05,160 Speaker 1: until after Frank's arms stand off in the front yard 461 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:09,400 Speaker 1: and they weren't talking about their shared hometown. They were 462 00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:14,440 Speaker 1: talking about Frank's new consulting business. In nineteen ninety four, 463 00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:17,240 Speaker 1: Frank put a classified ad in USA Today that read. 464 00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:21,320 Speaker 2: Go into federal prison for the first time, we will 465 00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:24,000 Speaker 2: tell you what to expect and how to survive. All 466 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:28,680 Speaker 2: consultants are graduates of the federal prison system. Frank aysweeneyan Associates, 467 00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:32,879 Speaker 2: Box fifteen Demarest, New Jersey zero seven six two seven. 468 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:37,560 Speaker 1: Frank told Strum that the idea came to him while 469 00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:39,680 Speaker 1: he was reading the paper one morning in September nineteen 470 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:43,120 Speaker 1: ninety three. Lawrence Powell, one of the LA police officers 471 00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:45,240 Speaker 1: convicted for his role in the beating of Rodney King, 472 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,119 Speaker 1: was quoted in the paper as being terrified at the 473 00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:55,400 Speaker 1: prospect of going to prison. Strum rights that Frank told him. 474 00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,920 Speaker 2: I thought to myself, my god, there's probably a lot 475 00:26:56,920 --> 00:26:58,600 Speaker 2: of people go into prison who has never been in 476 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:03,080 Speaker 2: jail before, only white collic criminals, and they're probably terrified too, 477 00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:06,000 Speaker 2: that just as frightened as he is. So I thought 478 00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:09,000 Speaker 2: maybe I could use my misfortune to help people and 479 00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:10,399 Speaker 2: maybe make a profit doing it. 480 00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:14,800 Speaker 1: The article says Frank claims to have twenty seven clients 481 00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:17,240 Speaker 1: after just a few months of running his new consulting business, 482 00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:20,480 Speaker 1: though the author also prints without question Frank's claim that 483 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:22,479 Speaker 1: he left high school in the eleventh grade because he 484 00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:25,639 Speaker 1: was bored with it, not because he was in a 485 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:29,680 Speaker 1: youth correctional facility for bank robbery. In the article, Strum 486 00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:32,320 Speaker 1: writes out all of Frank's crimes and convictions, but that 487 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:36,080 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two bank robbery is missing. But again, they 488 00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:40,160 Speaker 1: didn't have the Internet then. Of his criminal record, Frank 489 00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:43,520 Speaker 1: told the reporter, I remember it was Nietzsche who wrote 490 00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:45,159 Speaker 1: the crime is not in the act, but in the 491 00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:50,360 Speaker 1: stupidity of being caught. I was caught and stupid, and 492 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:52,919 Speaker 1: he'd get caught a few more times in the coming years, 493 00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:56,439 Speaker 1: but he stays humble. That Nietzsche quote is still his 494 00:27:56,440 --> 00:28:00,720 Speaker 1: favorite to this day. According to his Facebook profile, he 495 00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:02,760 Speaker 1: had to take a break from his new consulting career 496 00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:04,720 Speaker 1: when he went away for a year in nineteen ninety five, 497 00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:06,720 Speaker 1: but he picked right back up when he got out. 498 00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:10,000 Speaker 1: A nineteen ninety seven Newsweek article about his business claims 499 00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:12,359 Speaker 1: he was up to eighty seven clients now, with white 500 00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:15,240 Speaker 1: collar criminals paying Frank one thousand dollars for assistance and 501 00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:18,840 Speaker 1: getting favorable placement. So not only did Frank promise that 502 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:22,200 Speaker 1: he could advise you about the differences in food facilities 503 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:25,520 Speaker 1: and culture at different federal prisons, he claimed he had 504 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:30,639 Speaker 1: connections and could influence your placement. A Bureau of Prison 505 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,840 Speaker 1: spokesman denied Frank had any ability to arrange transfers or 506 00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:37,560 Speaker 1: promise placements at specific facilities, but at least one client 507 00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,360 Speaker 1: told the reporter that prison officials had denied his request 508 00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:42,960 Speaker 1: for a transfer during a five year sentence for embezzlement, 509 00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:46,360 Speaker 1: but after he wrote Frank and included a check for 510 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:52,080 Speaker 1: one thousand dollars, his transfer came through. Now, promising these 511 00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,320 Speaker 1: transfers seems like it would put Frank back in mail 512 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,840 Speaker 1: fraud territory. But if he had stopped short of fraud, 513 00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:01,600 Speaker 1: this isn't actually a terrible way for a guy like 514 00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:04,800 Speaker 1: Frank to make a living. He really had been in 515 00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:07,920 Speaker 1: a significant number of our nation's federal prisons. He'd been 516 00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:11,480 Speaker 1: in facilities all over the country spanning decades. He's in 517 00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:13,720 Speaker 1: a great position to offer advice about how to get 518 00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,960 Speaker 1: through your sentence as smoothly as possible. So if he'd 519 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:21,120 Speaker 1: stuck to lifestyle advice for the incarcerated. I might say 520 00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:23,280 Speaker 1: that this could have been a success story for Frank. 521 00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:28,240 Speaker 1: There was another article about his consulting business in nineteen 522 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:31,760 Speaker 1: ninety eight, but then he kind of disappears. I'm not 523 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:34,959 Speaker 1: sure what he was up to. He pops up briefly 524 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:36,680 Speaker 1: in a couple of articles in two thousand and two 525 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:39,520 Speaker 1: thousand and one, an old prison friend of his called 526 00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:41,560 Speaker 1: him from a jail in Reno to ask for help 527 00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:43,920 Speaker 1: exposing an alleged smuggling ring run by one of the 528 00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:47,680 Speaker 1: guards out there in Nevada, David Wayne is described as 529 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:50,320 Speaker 1: one of the most dangerous inmates in a state prison 530 00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:53,480 Speaker 1: system after a variety of escape attempts and prison riots 531 00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:57,480 Speaker 1: involving Wayne holding hostages, and in two thousand he wanted 532 00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:01,000 Speaker 1: Frank's help leveraging this information about a corrupt guard to 533 00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:05,120 Speaker 1: get a better placement. So friend or client hard to say, 534 00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:07,920 Speaker 1: but the guard did end up charged with smuggling a 535 00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:10,760 Speaker 1: handcuff key to an inmate, and Frank spent about a 536 00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:15,120 Speaker 1: year advocating for Wayne's transfer, considering he had once held 537 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,400 Speaker 1: two prison nurses hostage for twelve hours by rigging up 538 00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:22,400 Speaker 1: a rube Goldberg style contraption that would stab the women's 539 00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:25,400 Speaker 1: eyes out with scalpels if anyone opened the door and 540 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:29,360 Speaker 1: had successfully escaped. At least once, a low security placement 541 00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:33,920 Speaker 1: for David Wayne was out of the question. But then 542 00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:39,040 Speaker 1: quiet Frank moved out to Idaho and stayed out of 543 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:43,000 Speaker 1: the paper. He's not a very good driver, so I 544 00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:45,960 Speaker 1: know he moved to Ada County, Idaho around two thousand 545 00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:47,600 Speaker 1: and one, because that's when he started getting a lot 546 00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:50,880 Speaker 1: of traffic tickets there. In two thousand and eight, he 547 00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:53,320 Speaker 1: was charged with battery and convicted, but he only served 548 00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:56,160 Speaker 1: five days in jail and successfully completed his court ordered 549 00:30:56,160 --> 00:31:00,320 Speaker 1: anger management class. The docket indicates the victim, woman who 550 00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:02,520 Speaker 1: appears to be a nursing assistant in the Boise area, 551 00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:06,760 Speaker 1: got a restraining order. But the Frank Sweeney, who tried 552 00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:08,720 Speaker 1: to drop a bank and fought in the Bush War 553 00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:10,719 Speaker 1: and had a mob boss fly him to Vegas and 554 00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:14,920 Speaker 1: bragged about being able to influence prison officials, that Frank 555 00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:18,240 Speaker 1: seems to be gone. He's just an old man living 556 00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:37,800 Speaker 1: in Boise until twenty fifteen. In December of twenty fifteen, 557 00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:40,040 Speaker 1: Frank went to the post office near his home in 558 00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:43,240 Speaker 1: Garden City, Idaho. He parked his truck in one of 559 00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:46,560 Speaker 1: the accessible parking spots out front. A woman saw him 560 00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:48,160 Speaker 1: get out of his car, which did not have a 561 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:51,239 Speaker 1: placard indicating he was supposed to be parked there, and 562 00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:56,000 Speaker 1: said something to him. We don't know exactly what she said. Now, 563 00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:59,280 Speaker 1: me personally, I probably wouldn't have said anything. For the 564 00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:01,800 Speaker 1: most part, it's not worth it. It's not your business. 565 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,160 Speaker 1: There are plenty of people who are not visibly disabled 566 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:07,080 Speaker 1: who really do need those parking spots. And Frank was 567 00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:09,120 Speaker 1: in his seventies at this point, so even if he 568 00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:13,040 Speaker 1: didn't have a state issued parking placard, he's old. Just 569 00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:16,719 Speaker 1: leave him alone. But she made a comment about it, 570 00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:22,880 Speaker 1: and the situation escalated pretty seriously. Court documents only say 571 00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:25,880 Speaker 1: that they had a verbal altercation, so at least she 572 00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:28,480 Speaker 1: didn't get stabbed, which he's done at least twice to 573 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:32,640 Speaker 1: people who offended him. But whatever she said, and for 574 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:35,880 Speaker 1: whatever reasons she chose to say it, she didn't deserve 575 00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:39,960 Speaker 1: what happened next. The victims in this case are referred 576 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:42,440 Speaker 1: to only by their initials in the court record for 577 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,480 Speaker 1: obvious reasons, but it can be tricky to keep track 578 00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:47,239 Speaker 1: of people with just a letter. So I've given them 579 00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:49,360 Speaker 1: all fake names just to make this a little easier. 580 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,880 Speaker 1: We'll call the women from the parking lot Ellen, her 581 00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:55,920 Speaker 1: husband will be Sam, and their adult daughters will be 582 00:32:56,080 --> 00:33:00,440 Speaker 1: Kayla and Lucy. Again, it is possible to figure out 583 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:04,040 Speaker 1: who these people are, but please don't. They've been through enough. 584 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:08,120 Speaker 1: Two weeks after that heated exchange in the post office 585 00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:13,240 Speaker 1: parking lot, the postcard started. The probation office in Boise 586 00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:16,600 Speaker 1: got the first one. Ellen's adult daughter, Kayla, was at 587 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:20,560 Speaker 1: the time on probation for a misdemeanor dui charge. The 588 00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:22,800 Speaker 1: letter writer claimed that he had just the night before 589 00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:24,600 Speaker 1: been in the car with Kayla and she was so 590 00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:26,680 Speaker 1: drunk that he had to jump out at a red 591 00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:30,680 Speaker 1: light for his own safety. Ellen's husband, Sam, received a 592 00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:33,320 Speaker 1: postcard at his dental office the same day informing him 593 00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:34,920 Speaker 1: that his wife had been in the post office the 594 00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:36,840 Speaker 1: week before and she was so drunk that she was 595 00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:41,560 Speaker 1: falling down. The letter, though very brief, contained a lot 596 00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:46,240 Speaker 1: of really specific personal information, the fact that the couple 597 00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:48,920 Speaker 1: had very recently purchased a new home, including the name 598 00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:51,960 Speaker 1: of the suburb where they now lived, the city where 599 00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:54,560 Speaker 1: their other adult daughter lived, the names of both of 600 00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:59,040 Speaker 1: their daughters, and information about Kayla's arrest that year. Ellen 601 00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:01,480 Speaker 1: received a third postcard that week, addressed to her at home. 602 00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:05,640 Speaker 1: This one contained her social Security number and an allegation 603 00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,840 Speaker 1: that her daughter Lucy, was engaged in acts of prostitution 604 00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:13,279 Speaker 1: at her place of work, which was named after the 605 00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:16,120 Speaker 1: family received the first postcards. In December of twenty fifteen, 606 00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:18,480 Speaker 1: they met with detectives at the Aida County Sheriff's office 607 00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:23,000 Speaker 1: in Boise, and despite investigator's best efforts, the family would 608 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:27,880 Speaker 1: continue to receive increasingly bizarre and frightening postcards for three 609 00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:33,759 Speaker 1: full years. Their neighbors and nearby schools received postcards that 610 00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:36,560 Speaker 1: appeared to be from the State Sex Offender Registry, informing 611 00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:39,640 Speaker 1: them that Sam was a sex offender, specifically that he 612 00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:42,879 Speaker 1: had sodomized a nine year old boy in nineteen seventy eight. 613 00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:46,600 Speaker 1: It probably goes without saying, but I will say it anyway. 614 00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:50,880 Speaker 1: That is not true. But it does kind of remind 615 00:34:50,920 --> 00:34:53,120 Speaker 1: you of what Frank did to that doctor in nineteen 616 00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:57,839 Speaker 1: ninety three, doesn't it, adding to the victim's distress. Sam 617 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:00,640 Speaker 1: passed away unexpectedly in January of twenty seve sixteen, just 618 00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:04,480 Speaker 1: a few weeks after all this started, and obviously Frank 619 00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:07,160 Speaker 1: knew one of his victims was dead. Some of the 620 00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:09,839 Speaker 1: letters sent to the man's daughters taunted and blamed them 621 00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:13,080 Speaker 1: for driving their father into an early grave, but oddly 622 00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:16,880 Speaker 1: some of the letters pretended otherwise. While most of the 623 00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:20,440 Speaker 1: postcards were signed Carson Wells, the name of Woody Harrelson's 624 00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,359 Speaker 1: character in the movie No Country for Old Men, some 625 00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:26,920 Speaker 1: were signed with the names of her own children. Ellen 626 00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:29,600 Speaker 1: received one of those just two months after her husband's death, 627 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:32,359 Speaker 1: purporting to be from her daughter Lucy, who lived out 628 00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:35,880 Speaker 1: of state. It said, dear Mommy, my blood test just 629 00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:38,959 Speaker 1: came back and yes I am HIV positive. I'm sure 630 00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:41,000 Speaker 1: I was infected by one of the two crips with 631 00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:44,080 Speaker 1: whom I was having an affair with. Regrettably, I will 632 00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:46,120 Speaker 1: never be able to give you and Daddy the grandchildren 633 00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:49,279 Speaker 1: you so desired. But we know now that Daddy is 634 00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:52,440 Speaker 1: a pedophile. He may have harmed the grandkids. Has he 635 00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,960 Speaker 1: been released from jail. And again, this is a woman 636 00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,799 Speaker 1: who just lost her husband. She knows this postcard isn't 637 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:03,000 Speaker 1: from her adult daughter, even if she hadn't already gotten 638 00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:06,759 Speaker 1: a dozen other bizarre postcards. She would know that no 639 00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:09,239 Speaker 1: one's writing their mother a postcard on a typewriter. It's 640 00:36:09,239 --> 00:36:13,840 Speaker 1: not nineteen thirty two. And again, the recently deceased man 641 00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:18,640 Speaker 1: was not a pedophile, nor was he in jail. He 642 00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:23,239 Speaker 1: had just been buried by his family. Ellen and both 643 00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:27,040 Speaker 1: of her daughters continued getting postcards even after Ellen moved, 644 00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:30,120 Speaker 1: and Frank was also sending the postcards to other people 645 00:36:30,200 --> 00:36:33,560 Speaker 1: pretending to be members of the family. The Idaho Black 646 00:36:33,600 --> 00:36:36,360 Speaker 1: History Museum received one signed with Ellen's name, address, and 647 00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:39,600 Speaker 1: phone number that was so laden with racial slurs that 648 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,160 Speaker 1: you can barely tell what it's supposed to be trying 649 00:36:42,160 --> 00:36:46,319 Speaker 1: to say. Lucy's boss received one advising him that his 650 00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:51,480 Speaker 1: employee was having rectal intercourse with black men, although Frank 651 00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:57,240 Speaker 1: described that in more vivid terms. Now, for as strange 652 00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:59,600 Speaker 1: as this man's life has been, you'd be forgiven if 653 00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:03,480 Speaker 1: you forgot where we started. Frank is a Nazi. He 654 00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:05,600 Speaker 1: was a member of the American Nazi Party, and he 655 00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:08,960 Speaker 1: fought as a Rhodesian mercenary. He's not just a guy 656 00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:11,359 Speaker 1: who loves doing mail fraud and hates his neighbors. He's 657 00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:15,640 Speaker 1: very racist and a lot of these postcards fixated on 658 00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:19,400 Speaker 1: the idea that Ellen's daughters were engaged in interracial relationships, 659 00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:24,400 Speaker 1: very graphically and racistly describing specific sex acts that they were, 660 00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:28,840 Speaker 1: in his mind having with black partners. And he was 661 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,080 Speaker 1: particularly upset that Ellen, a Latina, had married a white man. 662 00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:35,840 Speaker 1: He called her racial slurs and wrote to her daughters 663 00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:40,239 Speaker 1: calling them mongrels. It seems the only time he wasn't 664 00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:42,280 Speaker 1: sending postcards was when he was out of the country. 665 00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:47,680 Speaker 1: You see, he might have another wife. It's not entirely clear, 666 00:37:48,719 --> 00:37:51,160 Speaker 1: but several times a year Frank would travel to Effert, 667 00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:54,040 Speaker 1: the capital of the German state of Turingia and Central Germany, 668 00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:56,880 Speaker 1: to visit a woman he's known for a very long time, 669 00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:01,719 Speaker 1: Uta Schernig, who performs professionally as a belly dancer under 670 00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:05,440 Speaker 1: the name Madame Chamila, has on several occasions referred to 671 00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:09,279 Speaker 1: Frank as her husband. This may be literal, it may 672 00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:13,160 Speaker 1: be a cheeky little joke. My German is not good 673 00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:17,040 Speaker 1: enough to really read tone, and it may just be 674 00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:18,920 Speaker 1: that they've been in a relationship for so long that 675 00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:22,560 Speaker 1: they think of each other this way. My research game 676 00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:26,360 Speaker 1: is strong, but a potentially non existent German marriage certificate 677 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:30,520 Speaker 1: evades my grasp. Nevertheless, he does own a home in effort, 678 00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:34,000 Speaker 1: and she lives in it. She refers to him occasionally 679 00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:38,000 Speaker 1: as her house Positzer, which you could translate as landlord, 680 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:41,080 Speaker 1: but you wouldn't really, you'd call the person you rent 681 00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:45,239 Speaker 1: your home from, your permeter house Positzer just means he 682 00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:49,919 Speaker 1: owns her house. And he occasionally calls her Liebchen my love, 683 00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:54,359 Speaker 1: and she calls him Frankie when he visited in twenty 684 00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:56,080 Speaker 1: fifteen and they went to see her mother in the 685 00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:59,439 Speaker 1: nursing home together. Her photo captions are about Frank's visit 686 00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:02,759 Speaker 1: to his mother in law. As with so much in 687 00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:06,080 Speaker 1: Frank's life, it's hard to pin this down. I have 688 00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:07,960 Speaker 1: a handful of photos of Frank with this woman that 689 00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:10,439 Speaker 1: appeared to be from the eighties or early nineties based 690 00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:14,280 Speaker 1: on the photo quality, Frank's apparent age and to be honest, 691 00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:19,359 Speaker 1: per hair. But we're talking about Germany, so dating by 692 00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,439 Speaker 1: the fashion could put us off by a decade or more. 693 00:39:23,120 --> 00:39:26,600 Speaker 1: No offense, you know, it's true, But at least in 694 00:39:26,719 --> 00:39:29,920 Speaker 1: the present era of his life, he's visiting Germany every 695 00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:34,239 Speaker 1: now and again. She breeds and shows Mexican and Peruvian 696 00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:37,239 Speaker 1: hairless dog, some of which have been quite successful internationally. 697 00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:40,319 Speaker 1: Some of her show dogs list Frank Sweeney as a 698 00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:44,440 Speaker 1: co owner. In September of twenty sixteen, his victims had 699 00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:47,319 Speaker 1: a brief reprieve from his letters because he was in 700 00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:51,880 Speaker 1: Germany attending a seminar on dog genetics with Ute. These 701 00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:54,880 Speaker 1: rare breed dogs are very prone to genetic problems and 702 00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:57,480 Speaker 1: in breeding, so I'm glad they're staying on top of 703 00:39:57,480 --> 00:40:00,799 Speaker 1: best practices, I guess. But when he was at home 704 00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:05,680 Speaker 1: in Idaho, the campaign of harassment was relentless. He even 705 00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:09,320 Speaker 1: found a way to outsource the terror. Frank sent postcards 706 00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:12,960 Speaker 1: to inmates in prisons all over the country. He signed 707 00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:16,080 Speaker 1: them with Ellen's name and address, and requested that the 708 00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:21,120 Speaker 1: men write her back. She received at least seventy five letters, 709 00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:25,200 Speaker 1: all addressed to her at home from murderers and as 710 00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:27,839 Speaker 1: if she might not get it, like maybe she didn't 711 00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:29,719 Speaker 1: put two and two together here, Like maybe she thought 712 00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:33,799 Speaker 1: this was some totally separate, unrelated new problem she just 713 00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:36,960 Speaker 1: happens to be having. Frank made sure she understood that 714 00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:41,520 Speaker 1: he did this. He sent her numerous postcards explaining the situation. 715 00:40:43,840 --> 00:40:47,440 Speaker 2: Every creep every social degenerate who has written to you 716 00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:51,360 Speaker 2: has your address, social Security number, and date of birth. 717 00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:54,760 Speaker 2: Likewise for Lucy two. Some of these freaks have already 718 00:40:54,800 --> 00:40:58,360 Speaker 2: passed this information on to their criminal friends outside of prison. 719 00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:01,279 Speaker 2: Last month, I've I did to your house twice in 720 00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:04,920 Speaker 2: the early morning hours while you slept. Naturally, I've removed 721 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:08,000 Speaker 2: my license plates so that street cameras could not identify 722 00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:11,320 Speaker 2: my car, and I still patrol the post office daily 723 00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:14,000 Speaker 2: in an effort to spot you. You only have your 724 00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:15,719 Speaker 2: big mouth to blame for all of this. 725 00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:21,040 Speaker 1: In December of twenty sixteen, after the first full year, 726 00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:25,080 Speaker 1: he wrote to her, saying it was their anniversary, telling 727 00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:29,200 Speaker 1: her I intend to be with you her life. The 728 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:31,319 Speaker 1: letter has just kept coming, reminding her that he was 729 00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:33,880 Speaker 1: watching her outside her home, that he waited for her 730 00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:36,560 Speaker 1: at the post office almost every day, and sending her 731 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:40,279 Speaker 1: postcards containing her own personal information like her license plate 732 00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:44,319 Speaker 1: number and information about her family, just so she knew 733 00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:47,560 Speaker 1: he had it too. He continued writing to Ellen and 734 00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:50,680 Speaker 1: both of her daughters, calling them racial slurs, slots whores, 735 00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:54,160 Speaker 1: threatening to report them for I sorted imaginary crimes like 736 00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:57,560 Speaker 1: tax fraud and drug dealing, and always remembering to write 737 00:41:57,560 --> 00:42:03,040 Speaker 1: them on their birthdays. Investigators were stumped. They knew the 738 00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:05,440 Speaker 1: letter writer was the man from the post office parking lot. 739 00:42:05,640 --> 00:42:08,399 Speaker 1: He said as much in his letters, but Ellen didn't 740 00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:12,000 Speaker 1: recognize him. She had only a vague description of his vehicle, 741 00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:15,160 Speaker 1: and she didn't get the license plate. Why would she 742 00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:19,360 Speaker 1: have thought she needed to? Postcards were always wiped clean 743 00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:23,040 Speaker 1: of prints. They were perfectly generic United States Postal Service 744 00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:26,200 Speaker 1: issued materials that he always bought in small quantities and 745 00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:30,479 Speaker 1: paid cash. He may truly have tormented this woman until 746 00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:33,239 Speaker 1: one of them died if he hadn't done what he's 747 00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:39,440 Speaker 1: always done, more crime. And here's that beginning of the end. 748 00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:42,320 Speaker 1: It's not the end. But I told you this story 749 00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:44,200 Speaker 1: that began outside of a bank in New Jersey in 750 00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:47,440 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two, would start its final chapter outside of 751 00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:52,680 Speaker 1: a bank in Idaho fifty six years later. On October thirteenth, 752 00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:56,799 Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, Frank got into another argument in a parking lot. 753 00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:00,400 Speaker 1: These victims, too, are only identified by their inn in 754 00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:02,800 Speaker 1: the court records, So I'm going to call them Liam 755 00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:05,960 Speaker 1: and Denise. They were in their car outside the Wells 756 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:10,839 Speaker 1: Fargo in Garden City, Idaho. Frank conked at them. There 757 00:43:10,920 --> 00:43:14,239 Speaker 1: was again some kind of verbal altercation. Maybe they gave 758 00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:16,640 Speaker 1: him the finger or shouted, who knows. You know, this 759 00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:18,840 Speaker 1: is the kind of thing that happens every day. You know, 760 00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:21,600 Speaker 1: you don't pull forward fast enough, the guy behind you honks, 761 00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:24,719 Speaker 1: You tell him to fuck off. Nobody's being their best selves. 762 00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:29,959 Speaker 1: But life goes on, but not for Frank. Frank can't 763 00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:32,400 Speaker 1: take it. He stabbed a guy in the guts for 764 00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:36,919 Speaker 1: splashing him in nineteen seventy five. So two weeks after 765 00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:39,800 Speaker 1: Liam and Denise experienced this angry driver at the bank, 766 00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:46,359 Speaker 1: they start getting postcards. Like Ellen and her family, this family, too, 767 00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:49,920 Speaker 1: starts hearing that their neighbors and nearby schools are getting 768 00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:52,759 Speaker 1: postcards that pretend to be from the state Sex Offender Registry, 769 00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:58,960 Speaker 1: alerting people that Liam is a pedophile. He's not, and specifically, 770 00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:03,120 Speaker 1: the postcards say that he sodomized a nine year old boy. 771 00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:07,759 Speaker 1: That is a very specific and very gross detail to 772 00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:10,760 Speaker 1: recycle from one victim to the next, right like that, 773 00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,759 Speaker 1: that has to mean something, but I can't figure it out, 774 00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:18,680 Speaker 1: and maybe that's for the best. These postcards, too, are 775 00:44:18,800 --> 00:44:22,080 Speaker 1: generic ones from the post office, typed on a manual typewriter. 776 00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:25,560 Speaker 1: And again some of the postcards are signed Carson Wells, 777 00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:30,000 Speaker 1: and sometimes they're signed with the name of Liam's adult son. 778 00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:33,400 Speaker 1: And again there were letters to the family from murderers 779 00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:38,279 Speaker 1: answering requests for pen pals. But you know what, the 780 00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:43,880 Speaker 1: bank has a lot of security cameras, and unbeknowns to Frank, 781 00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:47,760 Speaker 1: shortly before he started terrorizing his second set of victims, 782 00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:52,600 Speaker 1: his case wasn't just a local matter anymore. In September 783 00:44:52,640 --> 00:44:56,920 Speaker 1: of twenty eighteen, the United States Postal Inspector Service started 784 00:44:56,920 --> 00:45:02,080 Speaker 1: looking into the postcards. That's right, the Mail Police. That 785 00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:05,680 Speaker 1: is a very real federal law enforcement agency with jurisdiction 786 00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:10,120 Speaker 1: over mail crimes. According to their most recent annual report, 787 00:45:10,200 --> 00:45:14,319 Speaker 1: the USPIS initiated more than fifty six hundred investigations in 788 00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:17,760 Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, and during that year, forty one hundred 789 00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:21,719 Speaker 1: cases related to their investigations ended in convictions. Most of 790 00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:27,120 Speaker 1: those numbers are things like mail theft and people mailing drugs. Also, 791 00:45:27,239 --> 00:45:30,840 Speaker 1: though a couple hundred people a year are assaulting postal employees, 792 00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:34,160 Speaker 1: knock that off. Don't do that. Be nice to your 793 00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:37,960 Speaker 1: mail carrier. So now we have the Mail Police on 794 00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:40,640 Speaker 1: the case. And as soon as they start trying to 795 00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:43,319 Speaker 1: figure out what's going on here. Again, this is September 796 00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:45,759 Speaker 1: of twenty eighteen, they're just looking at the postcards to 797 00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:48,360 Speaker 1: Ellen and her family. But within a few weeks of 798 00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:51,399 Speaker 1: them opening the investigation, the Idaho State Police let them 799 00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:55,000 Speaker 1: know that someone is sending postcards pretending to be from 800 00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:59,080 Speaker 1: their office. And these are these postcards about how Liam 801 00:45:59,239 --> 00:46:01,800 Speaker 1: is a pedophile that are being sent to schools and neighbors. 802 00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:05,359 Speaker 1: And because these postcards are made to look as though 803 00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:08,239 Speaker 1: they are coming from the State Sex Offender Registry, which 804 00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:11,600 Speaker 1: is run by the state Police, people are contacting the 805 00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:14,239 Speaker 1: state police about them. And now the state police are 806 00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:17,440 Speaker 1: talking to the mail police, and now the mail cops 807 00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:20,719 Speaker 1: see that there are more victims, and all of these 808 00:46:20,719 --> 00:46:24,840 Speaker 1: postcards seem to be from the same person. When postal 809 00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:27,919 Speaker 1: investigators speak to both families and compare the letters, it's 810 00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:31,279 Speaker 1: clear they're all from the same person. All of the 811 00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:34,400 Speaker 1: victims say they know who is sending them these postcards, 812 00:46:35,080 --> 00:46:38,120 Speaker 1: they just don't know who he is. Ellen knows it's 813 00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:40,279 Speaker 1: the guy from the post office. Liam knows it's the 814 00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:43,399 Speaker 1: guy from the bank. And they both describe some kind 815 00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:46,719 Speaker 1: of older truck and an older man who's thin with 816 00:46:46,760 --> 00:46:52,080 Speaker 1: a stiff gait and a very terrible distinctive scar on 817 00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:57,120 Speaker 1: his face. They're describing the same man, and surely a 818 00:46:57,200 --> 00:47:00,600 Speaker 1: bank teller or a postal service clerk would recognize description 819 00:47:00,760 --> 00:47:05,200 Speaker 1: like that. Local cops had shown Ellen photo lineups on 820 00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:08,440 Speaker 1: multiple occasions over the last three years as they're investigating this, 821 00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:11,520 Speaker 1: But Frank was never a suspect, so he was never 822 00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:14,360 Speaker 1: in any of the photo arrays. So each time they 823 00:47:14,400 --> 00:47:17,799 Speaker 1: showed her photos of potential suspects, she said, he's not 824 00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:21,680 Speaker 1: here because he wasn't and so she never picked out 825 00:47:21,719 --> 00:47:26,120 Speaker 1: any other possible suspect. But once the postal investigator zeroed 826 00:47:26,160 --> 00:47:28,399 Speaker 1: in on the man in the bank security footage, both 827 00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:32,719 Speaker 1: Ellen and Liam separately identified him in photo lineups, and 828 00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:36,720 Speaker 1: bank employees did know who he was, so by Christmas 829 00:47:36,719 --> 00:47:39,760 Speaker 1: of twenty eighteen, the male police have Frank's bank records. 830 00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:44,719 Speaker 1: He's been paying a private investigator. That's how he knew 831 00:47:44,719 --> 00:47:48,240 Speaker 1: so much personal information about all of his victims, information 832 00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:51,359 Speaker 1: about their real estate transactions, what kinds of cars they drove, 833 00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:53,719 Speaker 1: where they worked, where their adult children lived in different 834 00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:59,319 Speaker 1: cities and states. He's paying a PI Idaho is one 835 00:47:59,360 --> 00:48:01,719 Speaker 1: of several states where you don't actually have to have 836 00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:04,520 Speaker 1: a license of any kind to offer your services as 837 00:48:04,560 --> 00:48:07,440 Speaker 1: a PI, so she doesn't have one that can be 838 00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:12,360 Speaker 1: taken away, and she hasn't been charged with anything. Maybe 839 00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:15,800 Speaker 1: she only helped Frank with information that didn't cross a line, 840 00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:18,920 Speaker 1: and maybe she didn't ask enough questions about what he 841 00:48:18,960 --> 00:48:22,799 Speaker 1: was doing with it. It remains unclear how he got 842 00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:27,239 Speaker 1: everyone's Social Security numbers, though, but the PI he was 843 00:48:27,280 --> 00:48:29,640 Speaker 1: paying is a woman in her eighties who seems to 844 00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:31,279 Speaker 1: still be in the business just for the love of 845 00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:35,040 Speaker 1: the game. Barbara Jacobson describes herself on her website as 846 00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:38,160 Speaker 1: a cross between Nancy Drew and Jessica Fletcher with the 847 00:48:38,160 --> 00:48:41,880 Speaker 1: tenacity of Colombo, and credits her success to her Christian 848 00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:46,320 Speaker 1: faith and divine intervention. An article in a twenty seventeen 849 00:48:46,400 --> 00:48:50,720 Speaker 1: issue of Christian Living magazine quotes her as saying, God 850 00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:55,000 Speaker 1: is my business partner now again. This woman has not 851 00:48:55,239 --> 00:48:58,319 Speaker 1: been charged with a crime, but it seems like a 852 00:48:58,560 --> 00:49:02,400 Speaker 1: bad sign that she either didn't know or didn't care 853 00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:05,280 Speaker 1: that the client asking her for a lot of personal 854 00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:09,080 Speaker 1: information on people had a five decade long rap sheet 855 00:49:09,400 --> 00:49:14,479 Speaker 1: that included convictions related to harassment by mail. You're either 856 00:49:14,560 --> 00:49:18,080 Speaker 1: deeply unscrupulous or very bad at your job, and I'm 857 00:49:18,080 --> 00:49:23,359 Speaker 1: not sure which is worse either way. This investigation is 858 00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:27,360 Speaker 1: rapidly coming together. The postal investigator has Frank's bank records, 859 00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:30,399 Speaker 1: He's been identified by the victims. They're closing in on him, 860 00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:34,719 Speaker 1: and maybe he knows, maybe he doesn't. He did move 861 00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:37,719 Speaker 1: very suddenly in February twenty nineteen, leaving the house he'd 862 00:49:37,760 --> 00:49:40,399 Speaker 1: been renting for over a decade right as they got 863 00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:43,800 Speaker 1: the warrant to search it, and renting a different house nearby. 864 00:49:45,040 --> 00:49:47,960 Speaker 1: But he's still sending the letters. So if he knows 865 00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:50,160 Speaker 1: they're onto him, why is he still sending the letters. 866 00:49:51,320 --> 00:49:55,160 Speaker 1: On February thirteenth, twenty nineteen, six weeks after they know 867 00:49:55,320 --> 00:49:58,160 Speaker 1: Frank's their guy, right around the time that he's moving 868 00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:01,319 Speaker 1: to his new house, clerk at the post office calls 869 00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:03,880 Speaker 1: the investigator to say that an old man with a 870 00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:07,080 Speaker 1: terrible scar on his face just bought a stack of 871 00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:12,319 Speaker 1: postcards with cash, and the last postcard arrived on February nineteenth, 872 00:50:12,680 --> 00:50:16,840 Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. It signed Carson Wells, but the writer identifies 873 00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:18,799 Speaker 1: himself as the man who blew his horn at them 874 00:50:18,800 --> 00:50:21,320 Speaker 1: in the parking lot, and then he reminds Liam and 875 00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:23,440 Speaker 1: Denise that all the murderers who'd been writing to them 876 00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:27,480 Speaker 1: had already forwarded their personal information to criminals on the outside, 877 00:50:27,640 --> 00:50:30,760 Speaker 1: but it was already over. Two weeks later, they searched 878 00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:34,040 Speaker 1: Frank's home. They took his typewriter and his list of 879 00:50:34,080 --> 00:50:36,720 Speaker 1: federal inmates, the ones he'd been writing to as his victims, 880 00:50:37,640 --> 00:50:41,040 Speaker 1: and they found portraits of Hitler and Nazi memorabilia and 881 00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:49,120 Speaker 1: white supremacist literature, and two live rattlesnakes. Rattlesnakes don't live 882 00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:52,279 Speaker 1: in Idaho. These aren't snakes that he got outside. These 883 00:50:52,280 --> 00:50:58,000 Speaker 1: are snakes that he is breeding. Frank has a lifelong 884 00:50:58,080 --> 00:51:00,160 Speaker 1: interest in reptile breeding. I think he's a member of 885 00:51:00,200 --> 00:51:03,520 Speaker 1: the Idaho Herpetological Society, or at least he was before 886 00:51:03,520 --> 00:51:06,360 Speaker 1: he went to prison, And shortly before his arrest, he 887 00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:09,440 Speaker 1: commented on an online obituary for an old high school classmate, 888 00:51:09,880 --> 00:51:12,920 Speaker 1: reminiscing fondly about how they used to collect snakes in 889 00:51:12,960 --> 00:51:17,800 Speaker 1: the woods together in the fifties. Once he's in custody, 890 00:51:18,320 --> 00:51:22,360 Speaker 1: Frank confessed immediately, telling investigators on the day of his 891 00:51:22,440 --> 00:51:24,840 Speaker 1: arrest that he'd sent the postcards because he felt like 892 00:51:24,880 --> 00:51:27,479 Speaker 1: these people had embarrassed him and it made him feel 893 00:51:27,520 --> 00:51:31,680 Speaker 1: better to know he was causing them emotional distress. Shortly 894 00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:33,440 Speaker 1: after his arrest, he wrote to the judge to ask 895 00:51:33,480 --> 00:51:35,560 Speaker 1: the court to intervene in what he felt was an 896 00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:38,759 Speaker 1: inadequate response by the jail to what he called many 897 00:51:38,840 --> 00:51:42,120 Speaker 1: of the infirmities that affect the elderly, and says he 898 00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:44,600 Speaker 1: has the urge to commit suicide if his demands aren't met. 899 00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:48,000 Speaker 1: And I don't want to sound like I'm brushing this off. 900 00:51:48,280 --> 00:51:51,200 Speaker 1: I'm not saying that this couldn't possibly be a valid concern. 901 00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:55,279 Speaker 1: People die in jails and prisons every day because employees 902 00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:58,799 Speaker 1: don't care or don't have the resources to provide adequate care. 903 00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:01,960 Speaker 1: This is a very real problem, and the urge to 904 00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:06,920 Speaker 1: harm yourself is always very serious. But this isn't Frank's 905 00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:10,520 Speaker 1: first rodeo. Remember, in the eighties he used to threaten 906 00:52:10,800 --> 00:52:14,680 Speaker 1: suicide and would even fake suicide attempts in order to 907 00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:19,799 Speaker 1: manipulate employees of the witness Protection program. So this may 908 00:52:19,840 --> 00:52:23,399 Speaker 1: not be a brand new issue for Frank at any rate. 909 00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:27,120 Speaker 1: Within months of his arrest, he entered into a plea agreement. 910 00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:30,799 Speaker 1: So once the mail cops got on the case, they 911 00:52:30,880 --> 00:52:33,360 Speaker 1: actually sorted it out pretty quickly. 912 00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:33,600 Speaker 2: Right. 913 00:52:33,640 --> 00:52:36,600 Speaker 1: The USPIS got on the case in September of twenty eighteen, 914 00:52:36,640 --> 00:52:41,080 Speaker 1: and within three months they knew it was Frank. Maybe 915 00:52:41,080 --> 00:52:44,480 Speaker 1: they should have called the guys who solved mail crimes earlier. 916 00:52:45,320 --> 00:52:48,440 Speaker 1: I don't know, but if there had been more communication 917 00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:51,520 Speaker 1: between different law enforcement agencies, the whole situation could have 918 00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:56,480 Speaker 1: been resolved. When he sent a single letter a third victim, 919 00:52:56,600 --> 00:53:00,600 Speaker 1: which he signed with his own name. When a US 920 00:53:00,640 --> 00:53:03,840 Speaker 1: marshall searched Frank's house two years before his eventual arrest, 921 00:53:04,719 --> 00:53:06,560 Speaker 1: I guess they didn't bother to check in with the 922 00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:10,960 Speaker 1: local police, because in April of twenty seventeen, Frank sent 923 00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:15,120 Speaker 1: a single letter to Gerald Shrr, the man who found 924 00:53:15,160 --> 00:53:19,000 Speaker 1: it and for many years ran the witness protection program. 925 00:53:19,760 --> 00:53:22,200 Speaker 1: I can't think of a worse guy to pick if 926 00:53:22,239 --> 00:53:25,319 Speaker 1: you're going to send a threatening letter. Sure was long 927 00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:28,240 Speaker 1: since retired by twenty seventeen. He passed away in twenty 928 00:53:28,280 --> 00:53:30,759 Speaker 1: twenty at the age of eighty six. But is there 929 00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:33,319 Speaker 1: anyone on earth who had more chips to call in 930 00:53:33,360 --> 00:53:36,000 Speaker 1: with the US Marshals? You think a US marshal isn't 931 00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:37,480 Speaker 1: going to come to your house. If you sign your 932 00:53:37,520 --> 00:53:39,600 Speaker 1: full legal name to a threatening letter to the guy 933 00:53:39,600 --> 00:53:43,600 Speaker 1: who invented witness protection, you think you're going to scare 934 00:53:43,840 --> 00:53:47,400 Speaker 1: the guy whose job was protecting mobsters from other mobsters. 935 00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:50,360 Speaker 1: Truly a stupid move, even for Frank. 936 00:53:53,080 --> 00:53:57,439 Speaker 2: You poisonous, licensious, so true. I thought that you would 937 00:53:57,440 --> 00:54:00,839 Speaker 2: have been long dead from cardiovascular disease do to obesity. 938 00:54:01,320 --> 00:54:03,400 Speaker 2: I was very much hoping to sit shiva for you, 939 00:54:03,719 --> 00:54:07,480 Speaker 2: to pray cottage over your fat corpse. You loasome. I 940 00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:10,919 Speaker 2: will remember you, although it's doubtful you will remember from 941 00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:14,200 Speaker 2: WITSEC units in Otisville of San Diego, paraid in with 942 00:54:14,280 --> 00:54:18,560 Speaker 2: your entourage to pray women from the Office of Enforcement Operations. 943 00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:21,840 Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty four, you expelled me from the program, 944 00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:24,640 Speaker 2: leaving me to fend for myself as a known inform 945 00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:30,000 Speaker 2: a rat in the general populations of very dangerous prisons. 946 00:54:31,520 --> 00:54:35,000 Speaker 1: It had been more than thirty years, but Frank never 947 00:54:35,040 --> 00:54:38,600 Speaker 1: got over getting kicked out of the program. He flew 948 00:54:38,640 --> 00:54:41,080 Speaker 1: all over the world helping a spy in nineteen eighty 949 00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:44,320 Speaker 1: trying to leverage information on Christopher Boyce to get placement 950 00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:47,319 Speaker 1: in the program, and it didn't work. The information it 951 00:54:47,360 --> 00:54:50,560 Speaker 1: gave was not only not helpful, but by fabricating unhelpful 952 00:54:50,600 --> 00:54:53,520 Speaker 1: information in order to get something from the government, he 953 00:54:53,600 --> 00:54:56,719 Speaker 1: made things worse. And when he finally got what he 954 00:54:56,800 --> 00:54:59,720 Speaker 1: wanted by testifying against a serial killer in nineteen eighty two, 955 00:55:00,200 --> 00:55:02,000 Speaker 1: he couldn't keep his mouth shut about it, and so 956 00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:04,640 Speaker 1: he was removed from the program in nineteen eighty four. 957 00:55:06,120 --> 00:55:07,920 Speaker 1: In his letter to shir he claims that as a 958 00:55:07,960 --> 00:55:10,759 Speaker 1: result of losing his protected status in eighty four, he 959 00:55:10,840 --> 00:55:14,920 Speaker 1: was attacked by another inmate the following year, and he does, 960 00:55:15,040 --> 00:55:18,520 Speaker 1: without a doubt, bear a huge scar all down one 961 00:55:18,600 --> 00:55:23,360 Speaker 1: cheek to this day. Somebody cut Frank's face open pretty bad. 962 00:55:24,520 --> 00:55:26,400 Speaker 1: He takes care to mention in his letter that the 963 00:55:26,440 --> 00:55:29,759 Speaker 1: assailant was black, though he chooses different words to say that, 964 00:55:30,440 --> 00:55:34,000 Speaker 1: and who knows why Frank got cut. I'm not making 965 00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:36,760 Speaker 1: light of the violence that happens inside jails and prisons, 966 00:55:37,360 --> 00:55:40,759 Speaker 1: but you'd have to do some real mental gymnastics here 967 00:55:40,840 --> 00:55:43,319 Speaker 1: to come up with a satisfying explanation for why a 968 00:55:43,480 --> 00:55:48,560 Speaker 1: black man would cut Frank up in retaliation for Frank's 969 00:55:48,600 --> 00:55:52,280 Speaker 1: testimony against a Nazi serial killer who traveled the country 970 00:55:52,440 --> 00:55:56,520 Speaker 1: shooting black men. I just don't think that they would 971 00:55:56,520 --> 00:56:00,360 Speaker 1: be mad about that. But I can think think of 972 00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:04,320 Speaker 1: a variety of reasons why a black man who encountered 973 00:56:04,320 --> 00:56:07,680 Speaker 1: Frank in prison might get into it with him. I 974 00:56:07,719 --> 00:56:10,759 Speaker 1: mean racist hide. Frank's just kind of a hothead, not 975 00:56:10,800 --> 00:56:12,799 Speaker 1: a great guy to hang out with, always getting into 976 00:56:12,880 --> 00:56:15,960 Speaker 1: it with people. But also he loves saying racial slurs. 977 00:56:16,040 --> 00:56:18,200 Speaker 1: So I can think of a variety of reasons why 978 00:56:18,239 --> 00:56:20,279 Speaker 1: this might have happened that had nothing to do with 979 00:56:20,400 --> 00:56:24,719 Speaker 1: him testifying against a serial killer. We can't take Frank 980 00:56:24,760 --> 00:56:26,920 Speaker 1: at his word, and I couldn't find any reporting from 981 00:56:26,960 --> 00:56:29,480 Speaker 1: the time about a prison knife fight in nineteen eighty five, 982 00:56:29,640 --> 00:56:34,760 Speaker 1: So who else? After Shre received the letter, which Frank 983 00:56:34,840 --> 00:56:40,040 Speaker 1: had signed venomously Yours, Frank Abbott Sweeney, a US marshal 984 00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:43,760 Speaker 1: was sent out to Idaho to speak with Frank, and 985 00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:46,640 Speaker 1: Frank admitted that he sent the letter, but he said 986 00:56:46,640 --> 00:56:48,520 Speaker 1: he meant no harm by it, and he allowed the 987 00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:52,240 Speaker 1: marshal to search his home. It seems like if anyone 988 00:56:52,280 --> 00:56:54,960 Speaker 1: had compared notes, Frank could have been identified as the 989 00:56:54,960 --> 00:56:58,640 Speaker 1: Garden City postcard writer far sooner The language in this 990 00:56:58,800 --> 00:57:01,359 Speaker 1: letter was very similar to some of the postcards. If 991 00:57:01,360 --> 00:57:04,319 Speaker 1: they had just showed this letter to the sheriff, maybe 992 00:57:04,320 --> 00:57:08,800 Speaker 1: they would have recognized it, But yes, they didn't because 993 00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:12,560 Speaker 1: he wasn't. The local police in Pennsylvania where the letter 994 00:57:12,640 --> 00:57:16,640 Speaker 1: was received charged Frank with terroristic threats, but that's a 995 00:57:16,720 --> 00:57:21,200 Speaker 1: non extraditable misdemeanor in Pennsylvania, so they couldn't bring him 996 00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:23,240 Speaker 1: back to face the charge. So he's got an open 997 00:57:23,280 --> 00:57:26,160 Speaker 1: warrant in Pennsylvania. If he ever goes there, willingly, but 998 00:57:26,360 --> 00:57:30,280 Speaker 1: he probably won't and was sure now deceased. It doesn't 999 00:57:30,320 --> 00:57:35,120 Speaker 1: seem like that's likely to amount to anything. On December sixteenth, 1000 00:57:35,160 --> 00:57:38,960 Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, Frank Sweeney was sentenced to fifty one months 1001 00:57:39,080 --> 00:57:42,400 Speaker 1: for six counts of stalking. A few days later, his 1002 00:57:42,560 --> 00:57:45,080 Speaker 1: German wife posted a photo of her Christmas Eve dinner. 1003 00:57:45,920 --> 00:57:48,040 Speaker 1: A friend asked her if Frank would be celebrating with 1004 00:57:48,080 --> 00:57:51,800 Speaker 1: her that year. She replied that no, Frank has been 1005 00:57:51,800 --> 00:57:55,400 Speaker 1: ill for several months and can't fly right now. She 1006 00:57:55,440 --> 00:57:57,560 Speaker 1: didn't say that he was back in federal prison for 1007 00:57:57,920 --> 00:58:02,160 Speaker 1: at least the fifth time. Frank Sweeney was released from 1008 00:58:02,200 --> 00:58:05,560 Speaker 1: prison in December of twenty twenty two. I just noticed, 1009 00:58:05,560 --> 00:58:08,000 Speaker 1: as I'm writing this that it's his eighty first birthday today, 1010 00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:10,400 Speaker 1: but it won't be by the time you hear this. 1011 00:58:11,840 --> 00:58:15,960 Speaker 1: He's still in Idaho, he's still playing the violin, and 1012 00:58:16,080 --> 00:58:18,720 Speaker 1: he still co owns a few Mexican hairless dogs on 1013 00:58:18,760 --> 00:58:22,600 Speaker 1: the show circuit in Germany. In that nineteen ninety four 1014 00:58:22,680 --> 00:58:25,479 Speaker 1: New York Times article about his prison consulting business, Frank 1015 00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:28,720 Speaker 1: quipped that his favorite quote was the crime is not 1016 00:58:28,760 --> 00:58:31,600 Speaker 1: in the act, but in the stupidity of being caught, 1017 00:58:32,360 --> 00:58:36,200 Speaker 1: which he attributes to Nietzsche. I think, regardless of your 1018 00:58:36,240 --> 00:58:39,439 Speaker 1: stance on the philosophical nature of crime and punishment, though 1019 00:58:39,880 --> 00:58:42,520 Speaker 1: there are better quotes from Frank's thousands of appearances in 1020 00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:46,760 Speaker 1: the newspaper over his six decades of crime. Maybe Judge H. 1021 00:58:46,880 --> 00:58:49,240 Speaker 1: Curtis Meaner had it write in nineteen eighty one when 1022 00:58:49,240 --> 00:58:51,360 Speaker 1: he cut off the bickering in the courtroom over exactly 1023 00:58:51,440 --> 00:58:54,200 Speaker 1: what the hell happened with Frank's mysterious South African letters 1024 00:58:54,200 --> 00:58:57,680 Speaker 1: about the missing spy, saying, I have neither the time 1025 00:58:57,760 --> 00:59:00,960 Speaker 1: nor inclination to unravel all the monies in this case, 1026 00:59:02,040 --> 00:59:04,840 Speaker 1: because we never really will unravel all the mysteries of 1027 00:59:04,880 --> 00:59:08,600 Speaker 1: Frank's past. He played a bit part in so many 1028 00:59:08,800 --> 00:59:12,960 Speaker 1: much bigger stories. They've made whole Hollywood films out of 1029 00:59:13,040 --> 00:59:16,320 Speaker 1: so many of these little slices of history that Frank 1030 00:59:16,480 --> 00:59:21,200 Speaker 1: passed through, from Cold War spy thrillers to Scorsese dramas 1031 00:59:21,240 --> 00:59:25,760 Speaker 1: about organized crime. Frank's there, He's not in the movie. 1032 00:59:26,240 --> 00:59:31,600 Speaker 1: He's just out of frame while history happens doing something 1033 00:59:32,400 --> 00:59:40,360 Speaker 1: really goddamn weird. Weird little guys sit production of cool 1034 00:59:40,440 --> 00:59:43,360 Speaker 1: Zone Media. For more from cool Zone Media, visit our 1035 00:59:43,360 --> 00:59:46,600 Speaker 1: website toolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the 1036 00:59:46,600 --> 00:59:49,880 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.