WEBVTT - S05 Episode 12: Prophet and Loss (Pt.2 of 2) 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.360 Please be advised the following episode contains distressing scenes of 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:19.400 murder involving children. Parental discretion is advised. You're listening to Unexplained, 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:24.000 Season five, episode twelve, Profit and Loss, Part two of two. 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:33.920 With the local neighborhood still reeling from the shock of 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:37.840 the brutal evangelist and murders, down at Detroit's Grand River 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:42.560 Avenue Police station, Detective Lieutenant John Whitman and detectives Charles 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:46.000 Searle and Earl Switzer were joined by Detective Fred from 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.960 as they trawled through the various correspondents taken from Benny's office, 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.720 having found a number of letters from the extortionist group 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.480 the Black Hand, and one in particular, sent six months 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.520 prior to the murders, ending with the line this is 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:04.000 your last chance. Police were beginning to suspect that they 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:07.280 were responsible for the deaths, but there was one other 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:10.720 letter that gave them even more pause for thought. It 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:15.600 was addressed to A Lewis Evangelista of Coreopolis, Pennsylvania, a 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:20.240 name the detectives knew well. Back in nineteen twenty six, 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:24.039 a man was found dead outside thirty five thirty two 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:28.920 Saint Auban Avenue, not far from Santina and Benny Evangelista's home, 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:34.240 having been shot multiple times. The man was later identified 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:38.280 as thirty three year old Felis Argento, a known enforcer 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.959 of the Black Hand. Argento had been ambushed to just 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:45.440 outside the property by Angelo Paperot and his son in 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:50.280 law Louis Evangelista. It seemed more than a little coincidental 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:54.320 that Lewis was also named Evangelista, leading the police to 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:58.440 speculate that perhaps he and Benny were related, or, more tragically, 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:01.160 that Benny and his family had been murdered in a 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:05.520 case of mistaken identity. The police interviewed Lewis at his 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:08.560 home in Coreopolis two days later, where he gave his 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:13.239 version of events. As he explained, he and his stepfather 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.640 police had shot Argento out of self defense when he 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.880 came to collect five thousand dollars of so called protection 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:23.320 money from his stepfather. The pair had warned police of 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:26.120 the impending danger, but were forced to take matters into 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:29.000 their own hands when the detectives assigned to protect them 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:33.760 failed to show up. After fleeing to Pontiac, twenty miles 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.120 north of Detroit, the pair were picked up by local police, 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.960 but eventually let go After Detroit police informed them of 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:45.160 their circumstances, the officers in Pontiac agreed not to book 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.080 them because they were essentially running for their lives from 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.079 a criminal organization, and to do so would have put 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:55.359 them in mortal danger. In short, Lewis knew only too 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:59.400 well how seriously the black Hands should be taken. But 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:01.880 as for Benny had a letter with his name and 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.360 address on it. He claimed to have no idea. The 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.240 pair were distant relations, he said, but hadn't spoken in years. 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.360 Then about the same time, another letter arrived at the 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:18.200 Grand River Avenue station, simply written on a folded up 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:22.360 piece of paper. It read, my conscience bothers me since 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.840 I killed that family of six. So we'll confess and 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.240 say I am sorry. I live on Lincoln Avenue in 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.880 the fifty four hundred block, but I won't give the 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.960 house number because I want thinking time. Searched the houses 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.640 and you will find the bloody hatchet in a suitcase. 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.080 I am ready for the worst punishment I can get. 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:46.920 Two officers were promptly dispatched to search the location, but 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:51.560 were unable to find any suitcase. In the end, investigating 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.240 officers determined the letter to be nothing but a hoax, 0:03:54.720 --> 0:04:06.040 and Detroit's Finest were once again left empty handed. Having 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:10.080 reached something of a dead end, investigators turned to Benny's Bible, 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:14.320 the Oldest History of the World, for clues. The book 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.920 was republished online by Jarrett Koebec in two thousand and one, 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:21.880 painstakingly typing it up from one of only three original 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:26.000 copies thought to remain in existence. Jarrett describes the book 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:29.200 as a prime example of outsider art, but one that 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:33.480 was also gut wrenchingly awful, while at the same time offering, 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.920 as he says, a sidelong glance into all the weirdness 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.240 that makes up the basic fabric of the American experience. 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.200 The book, which had in fact been ghost written owing 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:48.280 either to Benny's lack of English or typewriting abilities, centered 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.840 largely around the wanderings of a prophet called Meal, as 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:56.080 presented to Benny through his apparent communications with God. It 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.160 was effectively a rewriting of the world as laid out 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.280 in the first section of the Torah, known as Basheet 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.680 or Genesis as it's known in the Old Testament of 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:09.279 the Bible. Though the press and police were quick to 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.160 hold up the oldest history as evidence that Benny was 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.520 attempting to establish a cult through his teachings. There's little 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:18.360 evidence to suggest he'd amassed any followers by the time 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.840 of his death. However, a sign that Benny had hung 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.200 up in his basement window reading Great Celestial Planet exhibition 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.960 suggests he'd been intending to entice people in to visit 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:34.479 his peculiar religious sanctum, though for what purpose exactly is 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:40.280 not entirely clear. For the family's priest father, Beccherini, even 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.400 if Benny had only concocted it all as an elaborate 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:48.239 money making scheme, it was still tantamount to blasphemy. Having 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:52.320 watched from afar, Beccherini had long been concerned that Benny's 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.680 dabblings in the occult might unwittingly awaken something dark that 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:00.560 he was not able to control. For those unfortunate to 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.320 have witnessed the horrific crime scene, especially considering the lack 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.839 of evidence and witnesses, they could certainly be forgiven for 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:12.480 thinking Benny had succeeded in summoning something unspeakable from the 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.680 very darkest depths of Hell, only for it to then 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.680 vanish silently back into the night, and if indeed a 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:24.720 disgruntled or deranged client was ultimately responsible, perhaps in some 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:33.680 ways this is exactly what he did. Dealing with stress 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.240 is a daily struggle. 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The letter, which being dated 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:03.040 July sixth, was written only three days after the murders, 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:07.200 read as follows, Sir, just a few lines to introduce 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.520 to you a name of a good man of which 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:11.800 I believe he will lead the road to discover the 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:15.080 brutal slaughter of the evangelists if you only give him 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:19.080 the power to act the investigation. This man lives at 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:23.520 fourteen eighty five East Grand River in lansinc. His name 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:28.240 is George Prico. Later that day, two detectives made their 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.720 way to Lansing to interview Prico, a tailor who worked 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:36.720 at a vocational school for boys. Unfortunately, Prico claimed to 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.280 have no idea who might have sent the letter, but 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:43.480 he did confess to know something about Benny. According to Prico, 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.640 a friend of his from Detroit at once visited Benny 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:51.040 for treatment. During the appointment, Benny confided to the friend 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.320 that he feared a former patient was going to kill him. 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.720 In fact, as some have pointed out, in the preface 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.400 of his book, Ben, he appeared to have a prophetic 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.880 sense that he was going to die, writing that only 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:07.440 if I live shall I tell of the Third World, 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.400 a reference to one of the later volumes he planned 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:15.400 to write. As for helping the investigation, however, Prico's information 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:19.240 was far too vague to be of any use. Police 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.240 then turned their attention again to the idea that Benny 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:26.040 and his family were murdered for money. The theory was 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.160 given greater credibility when it was revealed that the night 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.400 before their death, Benny had made arrangements to have a 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.920 truckload of scrap timber delivered to his property early the 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.720 next morning, having offered two hundred dollars for the material 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:43.439 about three thousand dollars in today's money. The delivery was 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.959 arranged for seven am, and yet, despite the family's bodies 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.640 not being found until ten thirty am, no delivery of 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:55.720 timber was made to their home. Since Benny was thought 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.280 to have agreed to pay cash on arrival. The fact 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:00.520 that no money was found at the property during the 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:04.199 police investigation led some to believe that whoever knew about 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.120 the delivery might also have known the money would be 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.720 in the house. Neither the driver or the person who 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:20.920 Benny arranged the delivery with was traced, although it would 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:24.560 by no means have been unheard of. Most simply couldn't 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.800 believe that a crime of such deliberate brutality would be 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:31.440 perpetrated for such a relatively small sum of money. But 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.800 what the police ultimately couldn't shake was the suspicion that 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.840 all of it was somehow linked to Benny's strange and 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:42.199 unusual religion, and so they began to dig a little 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:46.360 further into his past, in particular to his time spent 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:51.080 in York County, Pennsylvania, a place located in the heart 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:55.679 of pow wow country. The practice of pow wow is 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:58.559 thought to have arrived in America with Dutch and German 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:02.920 mainly Amish as in the eighteenth century, with many heading 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.400 to Pennsylvania. The states soon became a focal point for 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:10.240 what would eventually become the Pennsylvania Dutch pow wow tradition. 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:15.640 Though taking many forms, the practice essentially involves the utilizing 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.439 of spells and charms in an effort to cure illness 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:22.200 and disease. The term pow wow is thought to derive 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:26.040 from the Algonquin word for healer or dreaming, for divination 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:30.280 and healing purposes. However, it wasn't until the publication of 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.920 the book pow Wow's or Long Lost Friend by Johann 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:37.800 George Hohman that it became synonymous with the growing folk 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:43.240 magic movement. Homan and his family emigrated to Pennsylvania from 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:47.280 Germany in eighteen o two. Practically penniless when they arrived, 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.480 Homan and his wife, Anna Catherine were forced to sell 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:54.600 themselves as indentured servants to raise money to live. Though 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.560 separated at first, the family were eventually reunited once their 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.760 debt was paid off, with Homan by then making a 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:05.720 living writing ballads and hymns to sell at market. Then, 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.960 in eighteen twenty, he published Long Lost Friend, a peculiar 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:14.319 mix of prayers and healing recipes. Though Homan never intended 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.320 it to be used for magical purposes, it soon gained 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.600 a glowing reputation among many of the local faith healers 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:25.079 and pow wow practitioners. Even mere ownership of the book 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.959 was said to bring protective powers to any one who 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:32.280 possessed it. It is thought Benny's own attempted religion and 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:36.120 self proclamation as a prophet and healer was heavily influenced 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:39.640 by the pow Wow movement, all of which led police 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.680 to wander if his death was linked to an equally 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:53.680 bizarre murder that occurred in Pennsylvania the previous year. It 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.000 was during Thanksgiving of nineteen twenty eight that thirty two 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.560 year old John Blymeer arrived at the Marietta use of 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:04.800 Nellie Knoll, also known as the River, which in Pennsylvania's 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:08.920 Lancaster County. Blymir had been struggling with his mental health 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:12.680 over the loss of two children and his wife leaving him. 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.120 Over time, he came to suspect his misfortune was due 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:18.440 to the fact that some one had put a curse 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:22.280 on him. Over the course of six sessions at a home, 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:27.160 employing all manner of spells, charms, and herbal remedies, Noel 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:31.360 attempted to determine the source of Blymier's misery. At the 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.880 end of the final session, Noel asked Blymeyer to hold 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:38.240 out his palm, into which she placed a single dollar coin, 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.640 telling him that the moment he removed it, he would 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:46.120 see the cause of all his pain. Blymier promptly removed 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:49.240 the coin, whereby he later claimed to see a vision 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:54.240 of Nelson Raymier, another local witch doctor and acquaintance of Blymier's, 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.200 who lived at a place known coincidentally as Heck Hollow 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:03.920 roughly twenty miles away with the malignant agent identified Noel 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.160 informed Blymyer that in order to break the curse, he 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.400 needed to collect a lock of Raymier's hair and bury 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:14.559 it six feet underground. But more crucially, he must also 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.679 locate Raymier's copy of The Long Lost Friend and burn it. 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:23.840 And so on November twenty seventh, Blymyer and two accomplices 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:28.000 arrived at Raymier's home and assaulted him. It isn't clear 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:30.720 if the men had only intended to subdue Raymeyer to 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.760 collect some hair and steal his book, but after a 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:37.680 quick struggle that lasted less than a minute, Raymeyer was dead, 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:42.360 unable to even find the book. Afterwards, Blymyer decided to 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:44.840 set fire to the entire house to be sure it 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:49.560 was destroyed. He and his accomplices were captured soon after, 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:54.160 with Blymyer sentenced to life for his crime. Though ultimately 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:58.840 he regretted his actions, he remained convinced, nonetheless, that Raymier's 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:06.520 death had success fully broken the curse. This year, I'm 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.160 refocusing on what it means to take care of myself, 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:12.240 and it couldn't be easier than with Daily Harvest. 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That's promo code unexplained 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.600 for twenty five dollars off your first box at daily 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:23.600 Harvest dot com. That's Daily Harvest dot com. Though the 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.640 police couldn't find any obvious connection between Benny and the 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.880 Ramayer murder, it did lead them to something else. Having 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:34.240 looked further into Benny's time in New York County, police 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:37.240 became interested in a man he met there shortly after 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:42.240 he arrived in nineteen o six. Aurelius Angelino, also known 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.160 as Leon, was twenty years older than Benny and had 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:49.480 also emigrated to the US from Napoli, with Benny only 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:52.920 twenty two, when he was effectively banished to Pennsylvania by 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:56.880 his older brother. Some have speculated that Leon quickly became 0:16:57.000 --> 0:16:59.680 something of a father figure to him. But more than 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:03.320 any think what drew them together was their mutual fascination 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:08.040 of occult philosophies, and in particular, the mystical teachings of theosophy. 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:13.800 In May nineteen nineteen, for reasons unknown, Angelino was jailed 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.200 and committed to a psychiatric unit, only to be released 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.480 soon after due to the please of his distraught wife, 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.400 who'd been left alone to look after their four children. 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:28.159 The day after he returned home, however, Angelino attacked his 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.760 wife with a club while she made dinner. After fighting 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.040 him off, she somehow managed to escape the house, taking 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:37.280 two of their children with her into the garden to 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:41.840 get away from him. Back inside the house, however, Angelina 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:45.520 quickly located the other two children, who he then battered 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:50.200 to death. After stripping naked, Angelino picked up his blood 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:53.560 soaked children and carried them into the yard, where he 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.960 proceeded to chop one of them up, stuffing their remains 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:01.960 into a garbage can before police eventually arrived to subdue him. 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:05.320 Leon was consequently committed to what used to be Fairview 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.800 State Hospital in Pennsylvania. Believing they might have a lead, 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:14.520 detectives working the Evangelista murder went to Fairview to interview Leon, 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.240 only to discover, much to their alarm, that he'd escaped 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:22.040 from the hospital the year after he was committed. In 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:26.200 nineteen twenty seven, two years before the Evangelista murders, a 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:29.119 body was discovered on a train track in Baltimore that 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:34.200 was later identified as Aurelius Angelino by his wife. Though 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:37.280 Detroit police were satisfied this meant he couldn't possibly be 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:40.640 their man, some have speculated that, due to the mangled 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.760 state of his body, it is entirely possible his wife 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:49.840 was mistaken in her positive identification. Nonetheless, the evangelistic case 0:18:50.119 --> 0:19:00.360 remained open, with the investigation beginning to pete are out 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.560 once more. Detective Fred Frown, who was now leading the investigation, 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:07.760 was surprised to read one morning in the Border City 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.960 Star that one of his detectives, Michael Larco, had cracked 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:17.320 the case. Larco, a member of Detroit's Italian Squad specializing 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:20.800 in crimes relating to the Italian American community, was duly 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:24.159 brought in for questioning to give his side of the story. 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:27.000 It was a few weeks earlier, he said, when he 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:30.440 received a call from US Immigration asking him to take 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.040 custody of an Italian man who'd been picked up in 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:38.000 the town of Windsor, having illegally crossed the Canadian border. Strangely, 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:40.560 when the man was asked to empty his pockets on 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.359 arrival at the station in Detroit, he was found to 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.120 have a piece of paper with the address thirty five 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.480 eighty seven Saint Auban Street written on it, the home 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:53.040 of the Evangelista family. He also happened to have a 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:57.000 copy of the oldest History on him too. Then, over 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:01.399 the next few days, according to Larco, man slowly began 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:05.200 to open up. Not only did he know Benny, he'd 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.600 also once been a client of his. On his first 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.480 visit to Benny's home, the man, who had gone to 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:13.960 treat a minor ailment, was given a copy of his 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:19.240 book before being led down into the bizarre basement altar space. There, 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:23.320 the man watched a little unnerved as Benny fell into 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.520 a trance and proceeded to minister a cure for him. 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:31.400 Having felt better, he continued to visit Benny until eventually 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:35.320 he was broke. Only when his ailment returned did he 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:39.320 realize that he'd been duped. In the evening of July second, 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:43.040 the man slipped into Benny's home and found him sitting 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.200 in a trance at his desk. Taking the meat cleaver 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:49.200 he'd brought with him, he chopped Benny's head clean off, 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:52.560 then turned to find Benny's daughter staring up at him 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:56.439 in stunned disbelief. Believing he had no other choice, the 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.239 man proceeded to murder the rest of the family, and 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:03.760 when it was fled to Canada, Detective Larco claimed to 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:07.359 have traveled to Windsor himself to verify bank withdrawals made 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:09.920 by the man to Benny for the sum of ten dollars, 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:14.199 the amount he routinely charged his clients. Only none of 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:17.280 it was true. Larco had made the whole thing up, 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:20.399 attempting to pin the crime on the unknown Italian man 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:23.320 in the hope of receiving the states by then four 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:27.520 thousand dollars reward for the killer's capture. The man's prince 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:30.600 were taken nonetheless, and after they were found not to 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.879 match those at the evangelist of property, he was quietly 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:37.360 released the following day. In what appears to have been 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:41.200 a recurring theme in his career, Detective Larco was eventually 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:52.760 reprimanded and convicted of soliciting a bribe. Over the next year, 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:57.160 attention in the evangelistic case inevitably began to wane. With 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:00.920 no further evidence coming to light. To fill the vacuum, 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:04.960 police began increasingly to turn to more bizarre theories. One 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:07.800 detective suggested the killings were part of a series of 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:12.160 forty disparate murders or perpetrated by the same serial killer, 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:15.880 who he'd given the name the Holiday Ripper, but the 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:20.880 theory was never seriously investigated, and so the case went dormant. 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:27.120 Two years later, on Sunday, November twentieth, roughly ten blocks 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:30.640 from the former evangelist of property, a man walked into 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:33.800 the home of Robert Harris, a member of the Allah 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:36.840 Temple of Islam soon to be Nation of Islam that 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:41.520 had been established by Wallace Fard two years previously. As 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.560 the man searched for Harris, he stepped into a crude 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:47.080 oldar room at the back of the property and found 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:50.080 the body of a man named James Smith spread out 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:53.520 limply on top of it, an eight inch knife thrust 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:56.840 into his heart all the way to the hilt. His 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:01.480 head had also been bashed in Harris, who was arrested 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:05.080 along with his wife Bertha. Later that afternoon, having gone 0:23:05.119 --> 0:23:08.760 to a friend's house for lunch, immediately confessed to the murder. 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:12.840 As he explained to police, he murdered Smith as a 0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:16.880 sacrifice to Allah, claiming that the man had voluntarily climbed 0:23:16.880 --> 0:23:20.600 on to the altar after Harris promised him his sacrifice 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:24.440 would make him the savior of the world. Though Harris 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:27.080 had no real standing in the Alla Temple of Islam 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:30.119 and his history of mental illness was well known to 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:33.399 his family and other members, it didn't stop the media 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:37.000 proclaiming him as the temple's high priest and describing the 0:23:37.080 --> 0:23:40.640 movement as nothing but a voodoo cult obsessed with ritual 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:46.119 and human sacrifice. As such, investigators looking into the evangelistic 0:23:46.119 --> 0:23:49.280 case couldn't help but wonder if Robert Harris was the 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:53.040 man that had been looking for all this time. Despite 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:56.119 only the most tenuous of links with both Benny's apparent 0:23:56.160 --> 0:23:59.840 religion and the Alla Temple of Islam being described lazily 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:04.879 as colts, Harris was investigated for the crime. However, not 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:07.800 only did his prince not match those found at the scene, 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:10.399 but he was also in ten A c At the 0:24:10.440 --> 0:24:17.480 time of the murders. Is there something interfering with your 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:21.120 happiness or preventing you from achieving your goals? Better help 0:24:21.200 --> 0:24:23.320 will assess your needs and match you with your own 0:24:23.400 --> 0:24:27.199 licensed professional therapist. Sign up today and start communicating in 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:31.400 less than forty eight hours. You'll get timely and thoughtful responses. Plus, 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:34.159 you can schedule weekly video or phone sessions so you 0:24:34.160 --> 0:24:36.960 won't ever have to sit in an uncomfortable waiting room. 0:24:37.080 --> 0:24:39.560 You can also log into your account any time to 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:42.560 send a message to your counselor. Better Help is not 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:46.320 a crisis line nor self help. It is professional counseling 0:24:46.480 --> 0:24:50.159 done securely online, with a broad range of expertise available, 0:24:50.600 --> 0:24:54.400 and with better helps commitment to facilitating great therapeutic matches, 0:24:54.600 --> 0:24:57.840 they make it especially easy and free to change counselors 0:24:57.960 --> 0:25:00.720 to help you find the right fit. This podcast is 0:25:00.760 --> 0:25:04.040 sponsored by better Help and Unexplained. Listeners get ten percent 0:25:04.080 --> 0:25:08.240 off their first month at betterhelp dot com. Forward slash Unexplained, 0:25:08.600 --> 0:25:13.600 that's better h elp dot com. Forward slash Unexplained joined 0:25:13.600 --> 0:25:16.159 the over one million people taking charge of their mental 0:25:16.200 --> 0:25:19.880 health with the help of an experienced professional. Better Help 0:25:20.119 --> 0:25:28.600 wants you to start living a happier life today. Six 0:25:28.680 --> 0:25:32.200 years had passed since the evangelist of family were brutally 0:25:32.240 --> 0:25:35.200 butchered in their home at thirty five eighty seven Saint 0:25:35.240 --> 0:25:39.400 Auban Street, when a woman, Teresa my Couci, walked into 0:25:39.480 --> 0:25:43.040 Hunt Street police station claiming to have some vital information 0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:47.560 pertaining to the murders, though the original investigators had long 0:25:47.640 --> 0:25:50.800 moved on to other cases. Teresa was taken to see 0:25:50.840 --> 0:25:54.600 Detective Charles Snyder, who duie set about taking her statement. 0:25:56.040 --> 0:26:00.359 The information was regarding her ex husband and Berto Ecchio, 0:26:00.960 --> 0:26:03.600