WEBVTT - CLASSIC: Who killed John Parsons Wheeler? 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.760 Fellow conspiracy realist. Here's his story. The Jedi may not 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:07.440 tell you. It's about a guy named John Parsons Wheeler 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:09.720 the Third, or Jack to his palace. 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:15.880 Aw, now this guy Jack Wheeler, As you said. 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:20.479 Who is he? Oh? Yeah, yeah, that's a question that 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:24.880 everybody asked themselves the Bureau. This is a question Jack 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:29.840 probably asked himself because before his untimely demise, he was 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:35.400 a silent kingmaker in the defense world of the United States. 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:39.520 He worked with three different presidential administrations. He was also 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:44.880 very well known for philanthropy. But then a strange series 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.680 of events led to his passing. 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:52.080 Oh my god, I'm an old political article from twenty 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:57.600 eleven about how he died from blunt force trauma and 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:01.680 how that was Like what how did he die like that? 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:04.720 How did such an important guy get found in a landfill? 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:06.400 Yeah? 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:08.240 Oh, I can't wait for this one. Let's revisit. 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:17.360 Yes, from UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, history 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:21.160 is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:24.000 or learn this stuff. They don't want you to know. 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:26.760 A production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.800 Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Max, 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:40.839 My name is Nola. 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.080 They called me Ben. We were joined as always with 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:47.520 our super producer Paul Mission Control decandt here in spirit. 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.880 Most importantly, you are you. You are here, and that 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.960 makes this stuff. They don't want you to know. We 0:01:55.160 --> 0:02:01.800 are delving into a true unsolved mystery today. If you're 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.760 a younger person, you might not have heard of John 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:09.119 Parsons Wheeler, the Third unless you saw the recent Netflix 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:14.920 reboot of Unsolved Mysteries. It's a story that largely disappeared 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:19.839 from mass media headlines in a very weird way. I mean, 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:23.600 you've heard of Elisa Lamb, but have you heard of 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:28.320 John Parsons Wheeler. Here are the facts. First things first, 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:30.760 whether or not you have ever heard of this man. 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.800 If you live in the US, his career has probably 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:39.360 impacted you in some way. He's one of those guys who, 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:44.520 it seems like since his early days, he was destined 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:47.440 for the heights of the military political class. 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:51.360 Oh yeah, an absolute heavyweight and a sharp guy to boot. 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.760 John Parsons Wheeler, the Third Jack to his Pals, was 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:58.679 born on December fourteenth, nineteen forty four, in Laredo, Texas, 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.000 and he was to some degree kind of destined to 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.480 follow in the footsteps of those that came before him 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:10.560 in his family line, and was in fact groomed for the. 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:14.320 Type of illustrious political. 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.440 And military career many would only ever dream of. He 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:20.520 came from a long line of these career military men, 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:23.800 including one relative who served in both the Confederate Army 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:26.000 and then later the United States Army. 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.320 Yeah, he ended up going to the US Military Academy, 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.280 which you may know as West Point. That's the way 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.920 it's generally referred to. Very prestigious place if you were 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.280 going to go that route. And then he was a 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:43.040 fire control platoon leader in New Jersey back in the 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.880 mid to late sixties, and he ended up getting a 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:48.520 Bachelor of Science degree from that institution. 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:54.080 Yeah. Important note about his classmates, his cohort at West Point. 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:58.320 Many of these men would go on to lose their 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:04.040 lives in Vietnam, and his experiences with the war had 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:09.240 a tremendous influence on his career, his personal beliefs, and 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:15.840 possibly debatably, the end of his life. This class at 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.440 West Point is documented in a book written by a 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.240 former Washington Post journalist named Rick Atkinson. The name of 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:28.520 the book is The Long Gray Line. This book spends 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.200 a lot of time on Wheeler himself. If you read it, 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.640 and Wheeler had a copy of it at his home. 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.920 He served as a staff officer in Vietnam. He served 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:42.000 with the Office of the Secretary Defense. He served with 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:46.920 the Joint Staff before he left service in nineteen seventy one. 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:54.280 His schooling is particularly interesting because it was his gateway 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:57.800 to the upper echelons of American society. He enrolled in 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.280 Harvard Business School in sixty nin got a master's in 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:06.120 Business admin. He got a degree in law from Yale 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:10.960 in seventy five, and he worked with fancy law firms 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.040 in DC, the ones that kind of blur the line 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:18.479 between private and public power. They're often called white shoe 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:20.799 law firms. You may hear them referred to as such. 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.479 He served as a clerk for George E. McKinnon. He 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.200 was a high level official for the SEC Securities and 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.719 Exchange Commission. This guy had his finger in a lot 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:35.920 of pies. He was during this time at the SEC 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:42.520 side note he was investigating major cases of insider trading. 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:49.080 So long story short. He was accepted by the often 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:53.599 invisible ruling class of this country, and he moved extensively 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:55.080 in this circle. 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.880 Well, and he's also if anyone knew of his work, 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:01.200 if you're imagining the people on the other side of 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:05.320 those investigations, he was already potentially making enemies just putting 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:05.839 it out there. 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:10.280 Yeah, great point, Matt. Let's talk a little bit about 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:17.919 his career, because the space he occupies is a bit alien. 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:20.400 I think to a lot of the general public. You 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:24.520 could describe him as a defense consultant, but that is 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:26.120 a very vague term. 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:28.960 Yeah, it seems almost like a gray area kind of 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.920 where I could encompass a whole lot of things that 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.000 maybe aren't public knowledge. 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:38.400 Yeah, exactly, Noel, So he was known for working in 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:43.520 that often unexamined, liminal space between the FEDS and private 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.960 companies and then charities and nonprofits, and of course, as 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:52.800 longtime listeners know some of those organizations, not all, but 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.400 some of them are much more closely related than they 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.320 would have you believe, according to you their FAQs on 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.960 their website for most of the people in the US. 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.640 Wheeler's most notable, well known work is his assistance in 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.800 the construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in DC in 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:16.600 nineteen eighty four. He's instrumental in making that happen. He 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:22.120 worked for a cavalcade of different institutions and organizations, Amtrak, 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:28.920 Mothers Against Drunk Driving, three different three different Republican administrations, 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:33.160 Reagan and then Bush, and then Bush again when that 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:37.680 guy put his son into office. And he also worked 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.080 for the Miner Corporation. Remember that last one. It's going 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:45.240 to be important later. His career was not without controversy, 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:50.960 especially moving in and out of so many institutions. Maybe 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:53.880 we can talk a little bit about his roles with 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:57.720 charities and with businesses as well. 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:03.080 He was extremely active in various nonprofits. I think that's 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.000 probably the way to put it, very specialized nonprofits. And 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.480 he was the founder and CEO of this thing called 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:12.880 Vietnam Children's Fund. By many accounts, at least if you 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:17.360 look online, appears to be a great organization, at least 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:21.160 the forward facing things about it. He worked with President Bush, 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:23.920 like we said, the father to create this thing called 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:27.240 the Earth Conservation Corps. He also served as president and 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:31.080 CEO of the Deafness Research Foundation. I mean, just listen 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.600 to what we're saying here. This man was non stop 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.880 working with organizations that appear to be for the greater 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:42.320 or the greater good. At least that that's the way. 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:44.720 That's the way it seems. He also had a really 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:46.679 solid rep for, oh yeah, this is great, a solid 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:51.640 rep for turning failing businesses around. Now that sounds sounds 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.640 great right on paper, But when you turn a failing 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:56.960 business around, like, what does that really mean? 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:58.280 Right? Like? 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:00.359 What do you have to do to. 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.600 Turn a failing business around? It's when you start hearing 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.480 like corporate buzzwords like pivot, you know. 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:08.080 Yeah, and it could be you know, and it could 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:12.360 be everything from specializing in you know, making a company 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.680 specialize in one small thing that is a profit center, 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:17.480 and then getting rid of a whole bunch of other 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.760 things that a company does, such as the case with Macy's. 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.240 Macy's you'll remember from the mall when you were a kid, 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.960 and some places now I think they're Macy's unless they're 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:32.360 all gone, I can't remember. But he turned that business around. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:34.960 He got him out of bankruptcy, right, which may have 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:36.920 entailed layoffs. 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.480 That's the elephant in the room, the badger in the bag. 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:44.960 There under euphemisms like streamlining, pivoting, or focusing. But he 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:48.680 did manage to write this ship a small note about 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:53.040 Vietnam Children's Fund. By the way, they build elementary schools 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.000 in Vietnam, and they do a pretty great job at it. 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:59.920 They're still around. If you want to learn more, you can. 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.760 You can just find them online. But perhaps the most 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:09.880 unpredictable aspect of Wheeler's post military career was this late 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:14.800 stage professional plot twist. He was well into his sixties 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:19.560 when he developed an intense interest in cybersecurity, and that's 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:23.880 what led him to the Miter Corporation. It also it 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:26.320 also turned him into one of those guys who always 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:30.679 has a briefcase inexplicability, always has a briefcase. 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:33.040 This was in there. 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:37.240 Huh huh? Who is no telling? No, literally we don't know. 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:41.000 But behind the scenes, you know, we have to realize 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:45.839 that this person was a human being and he struggled 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:51.120 with his own demons. He suffered from depression and bipolar disorder. 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:55.280 That's not speculation. He received diagnosis in this regard, and 0:10:55.360 --> 0:11:00.760 this resulted in these bouts of frenetic action and then 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:07.520 unpredictable at times drastic mood swings. But you know who's perfect. 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.959 Well, he's he's clearly a workaholic, right and I'm sure 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:15.280 in many ways that helped him, at least if you 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.040 watched the I think we mentioned it the Unsolved Mysteries episode, 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.280 as well as you read online stuff that has been 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:26.760 written by his wife. He thrived quite a bit from 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.600 that energy that he got, not necessarily from bipolar disorder, 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:33.280 but just that existed within him inherently. 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:38.719 Right, Right, someone defining themselves by their continual actions, right, 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:41.880 there must always be a goal to pursue. He's not 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.400 really a kickback and smell the morning dew with a 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:47.960 nice hot cup of coffee kind of guy. He's got 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:51.360 stuff to do. But given his track record, and given 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:56.840 the success and the benefits of the work he does, 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:02.280 his legacy seems assured until one strange day in November, 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:06.920 very last day of twenty ten, December thirty. First, there 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:13.000 are some workers at the Cherry Island landfill near Wilmington, Virginia. 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:17.679 They see the body of an elderly man plummet from 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.400 the back of a garbage truck onto a heap of trash. 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:25.080 This turns out to be the body of John Parsons 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:30.200 Wheeler the Third. He was sixty six years old. Today's episode, 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.800 what happened? We'll tell you after a word from our sponsor. 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:46.280 Here's where it gets crazy. Officially, this death has been 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:51.160 ruled a homicide. However, it is a homicide that comes 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:56.240 with a lot of unanswered questions. And the further you 0:12:56.280 --> 0:13:00.000 dig into this story, the stranger it becomes. So maybe 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.760 we start with the relevant details. Should we start with 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:03.960 the landfill? What do you think? 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.920 I think that's a perfect place to start. When these 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:11.800 workers found Wheeler's body, he had the look of having 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:16.199 been severely beaten. He was wearing a white shirt, black pants, 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.520 and a black jacket, and an important detail, he was 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:23.000 wearing a class of nineteen sixty six ring from the 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:28.680 West Point Military Academy. And the thing that was unusual 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:32.439 about it is that he still had things like that 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:38.079 clearly very valuable ring that any average street mugger would 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:41.280 have taken. Not to mention the absolute lack of care 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:44.719 that went into quote disposing of this body. I mean, 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:48.000 it was really just dumped in plain view. 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.600 We're going to talk about this later on, but just 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.480 to end up where his body ended up, it was 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:58.240 either someone taking great care to put a body in 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.120 a dumpster and hope that it never be discovered again, 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.360 because it's actually quite unlikely that they would have discovered 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.880 him amongst all the trash that was dumped that day 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.280 from the truck. The other side of the coin is 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.640 if his body was dumped by somebody or just put 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.840 into a dumpster like that. You're right that there's a 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:21.240 lack of care in that. I don't know, it's weird. 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:23.240 It's both sides, right, it's a lack of care, but 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:28.360 it's also it appears to show intent. I guess if 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:30.280 someone actually did put him in there to try and 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:31.440 hide a body. 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:38.600 Yeah, that's the thing. It's alarmingly easy to dispose of 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:43.080 an organism in a landfill, especially a large one. You 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.880 just you have to work out the timing and you 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:47.760 have to you know, like the day of the week 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:50.840 when a lot of dumps come in. Things like that. 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:56.120 This should not be confused or mistaken as confused for 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:58.920 mistaken as advice on where to put bodies. We are 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:02.280 not giving you that. We are saying that the average 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:08.080 I would say, not pre planned or orchestrated mugging or 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:12.640 murder doesn't usually resultant in the perpetrator having the presence 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:15.880 of mind to dispose of the body. You know what, 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.600 I mean, if if you are robbing someone, the robbery 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:24.320 goes wrong and you stab them, wound them, maim them, 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.160 or shoot them, your first instinct is going to be 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:32.280 to leave the scene immediately rather than sit around and think, hey, 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:36.640 should I stash this in some bushes Assassin's creed style 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.120 or something like that. It just it doesn't often happen 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:44.280 that way. So Wilmington is on the case. Authorities contact 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.800 the police in Newcastle, Delaware, where the Wheeler family has 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:54.680 a second home, and the Virginia Police informed the Delaware 0:15:54.680 --> 0:16:01.040 police of this a few days earlier, just after Christmas, 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:04.480 around December twenty eighth, Wheeler had told his wife he 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:07.280 had to spend a few days working on an important 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.600 project at the miner corporation. He told her he'd be 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:14.560 staying at the Metropolitan Club in downtown Washington, and they 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:18.200 argued about this. We know they argued, this is not speculation, 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:23.160 because we can see the email and text records, and 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.640 he was emphasizing this was important. He even talked to 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.400 his therapist about the argument. He was trying to trying 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:34.280 to smooth things out diplomatically until the point that he 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:38.280 fell completely out of contact with her, and then police 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:43.160 found a series of phone calls that made this seem 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.560 like more than an accidental death or a mugging. 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:50.600 That's right, but more than offering any real solution to 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:54.920 just raised a significant number of new questions to the 0:16:54.960 --> 0:17:00.000 circumstances surrounding Wheeler's death. One call from December twenty eighth, 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.800 the day Wheeler traveled to Washington, d C. Came from 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:09.000 a resident of Newcastle named Scott Morris, who saw at 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:11.920 eleven thirty pm what he described as quote, the darkened 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.240 silhouette of a man standing in the frame of the 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:21.000 house under construction across the street, methodically lighting what looked 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:25.240 like small balls of fire and tossing them onto the floor. 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:27.640 Huh. 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:32.240 Really descriptive and kind of eerie. The police called to 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:37.840 the scene didn't find any damage of note, but Morris 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:42.600 remained disturbed by what he saw. The sense of desperation 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:47.040 and the purpose of what was going on in this 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.680 scene really stuck with him. He described it as creepy. 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.360 He says, the figure appeared very calm, and when he finished, 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.840 he turned very deliberately and walked away toward the path 0:17:57.960 --> 0:17:59.440 along the Delaware River. 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:04.359 Yeah, so we know the thing about eyewitness accounts is 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:09.720 that they they're essentially combo meals, right. The main entree 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:13.080 in these combo meals is going to be the factual 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:17.159 description of what happened. But the side order, you know, 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:22.520 the fries and the drink are the person's own perspective 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:27.720 and opinion put on put upon what they saw. So yes, 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:35.480 for Morris, this appears to be purposeful. He somehow, from 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:37.840 body language, because he didn't speak to this person, he 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:44.760 somehow believed or got the sense that they were quite deliberate. 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.359 But that doesn't necessarily mean they are because he didn't 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:49.879 talk to them, right, and he didn't see who it was. 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:54.440 That's a hugely important detail here. But another hugely important detail. 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:59.760 That construction site was something Wheeler was involved in an 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:03.040 anti shagonistic way. It was an on He was part 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:07.160 of an ongoing legal dispute over the construction of this 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.240 particular house, and he was going hard on the paint too. 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:14.120 He hated the idea of it being built Partially, yes, 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:18.280 it would block his home's view of the land and 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:22.880 the water, but from his perspective, at least the way 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:27.280 he explained it, the area was historic because back in 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:32.479 the day early colonists and then later revolutionaries built a 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:36.480 defense battery on that land. So to him, building anything 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.400 on that land other than perhaps a monument to those 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:44.280 earlier forces was profoundly offensive. It was a kind of sacrilege. 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:48.800 But then we have to ask ourselves, was that sincere 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.720 or was that just like his rationalization for this construction 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.520 that he hated, you know what I mean? Anyway, he 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:56.560 was involved. 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.080 Well, he was involved, and he was trying to stop it. 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:01.840 His wife says that he was essentially on a mission 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:04.960 to stop this thing. And we know from just from 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:09.600 his past life and in his actions everything that he's done, 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.239 he sees something as a goal and he goes for it, 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:15.840 and that's again like his mission, right, so you can 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:19.000 imagine that he was very feeling, very very strongly about this. 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:24.520 And from what I've read, this incident appears to have 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:28.000 been like smoke bombs that weren't gonna didn't seem to 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.159 cause any damage really to the house, didn't seem to 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:36.359 cause anything else besides this disturbance. But the weird thing 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:41.119 is that John Wheeler's cellular phone was recovered in that house, 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:45.200 the house that was under construction where the silhouetted man 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:49.680 or person lighting, smoke bombs, was found or was seen 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.160 let's say, very strange. 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:59.280 Yeah, leaving the accusations of his involvement or his guilt 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:03.280 in this instance, leaving those all to the side. The 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.840 timeline becomes really weird when we think about when he 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:08.920 had the phone and when he didn't, how the phone 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.080 got from him to that place in place on the 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.600 banks there. And then there is another call police discover 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:19.399 on December thirtieth, the day before Wheeler's body is found. 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:23.879 There's a guy named Rob Dill DLLL. He is one 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:27.960 of the Wheeler's neighbors there in Newcastle, and he reports 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:32.359 that someone has broken into the Wheeler's home. I believe 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:36.199 he's the same neighbor also who said they had a 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:39.159 TV on very loud when he knew there was no 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:41.200 one home. He was just doing any thing neighbors do, 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:44.320 keeping an eye on the house. He had noticed a 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:51.680 window a jar in the Wheeler house and the exterior door, 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:56.760 the storm door was closed, but the interior door was 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:01.959 also a jar. And then he found he found some weird, 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:05.800 weird stuff when he went into the interior. There was 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:09.560 a disarray in the kitchen, you know, like somebody had 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:13.600 been rooting through things in a hurried manner. John had 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:18.800 a ceremonial sword and shield. They were covered with powder 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:23.359 by the sink. Rob Dill notices a footprint in powder 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:26.920 in front of the sink, and when the police show up. 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:30.680 The weird thing is that nothing seems to have been stolen. 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:36.000 Stuff was messed with, but no one took expensive electronics. 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:38.080 No one took, you know, some of the art that 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:41.040 the Wheelers had, the kind of stuff you would normally 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.879 steal if you were just a garden variety B and 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:49.040 E dude. But there was one detail that caught their attention. 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:54.399 Amid all this disarray, investigators found a book on the 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:58.399 kitchen counter. The book was open, as if someone had 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:01.720 been reading it before they left. Can you guess what 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:05.919 the book is? If you guessed the long gray line, 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:08.280 you are correct. Yeah, man. 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:12.960 And just the fact that his ceremonial sword and shield 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:18.000 we're hanging out down there. I mean, that's a it's weird. Spices, 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:22.600 some comment maybe, or whatever the white substance was, and 0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:27.719 those things. I don't know. It's weird. It's tough because 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:32.760 initially what that sounds like to me is frantically searching 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:36.919 for something in your own house and then maybe finding 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:38.919 it or not finding it and getting upset and leaving. 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:46.560 That's where forget or you know there's something I've hidden something, 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:49.320 or I know I've hidden something, but I'm not sure 0:23:49.359 --> 0:23:52.280 where it is. I think it might be under the sink, 0:23:52.320 --> 0:23:55.320 and like just pulling everything frantically out from drawers and 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:56.160 from under the sink. 0:23:56.560 --> 0:23:56.919 I don't know. 0:23:56.960 --> 0:23:59.480 That's what it sounds like to me. Rather like, as 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:01.199 you said, for all the reason you've already stated been 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:05.080 rather than someone going into the house and robbing it, 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:07.840 unless they were just trying to leave a message of some. 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:13.800 Sort, right, unless there was possibly someone from his past. Right, 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:17.760 this is the thing. We don't know what page the 0:24:17.800 --> 0:24:20.439 book was on, you know, when it was open. Was 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:27.159 it indicating a specific somehow significant passage unknown at this time. 0:24:27.200 --> 0:24:31.240 But then also we see an alternate possibility that maybe 0:24:31.440 --> 0:24:35.199 Wheeler himself is panicked or he's hurried for some reason, 0:24:35.640 --> 0:24:39.439 because when people are hurrying from their own house, they 0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:42.840 don't always close the windows or the doors, right, because 0:24:43.400 --> 0:24:45.720 the logic is, it's my house, I'll just come back 0:24:45.760 --> 0:24:51.800 into it. Right. So the initial investigations tell us increasingly 0:24:52.880 --> 0:24:58.040 strange things on January third, just a few days after 0:24:58.080 --> 0:25:02.160 the discovery of his body, you p reported Wheeler's death 0:25:02.400 --> 0:25:06.240 was ruled a homicide, but a friend of his that 0:25:06.320 --> 0:25:10.199 he knew through the legal circles he moved in noted, 0:25:10.760 --> 0:25:13.320 this is just not the kind of guy who gets murdered. 0:25:13.560 --> 0:25:16.280 This is not the kind of guy you find in 0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:21.800 a landfill. But the official cause of death again, his homicide, 0:25:22.040 --> 0:25:25.200 and that was specified in several obituaries that came out 0:25:25.200 --> 0:25:25.879 shortly after. 0:25:26.200 --> 0:25:30.320 So according to his obituary in the Washington Posts, well, 0:25:30.320 --> 0:25:33.000 I'll just read you a quote quote, the cause of 0:25:33.080 --> 0:25:38.560 death was blunt force trauma inflicted by unknown assailants in Wilmington, Delaware, 0:25:39.000 --> 0:25:43.480 not far from his home in Newcastle, Delaware. But as 0:25:43.480 --> 0:25:48.480 these investigations continued, many more troubling details started to rise 0:25:48.520 --> 0:25:52.600 to the surface. Wheelers seemed to not only have been beaten, 0:25:53.200 --> 0:25:56.959 but beaten to the point of like the beating inducing 0:25:57.000 --> 0:26:02.040 a heart attack I can only imagine, and several eyewitnesses 0:26:02.080 --> 0:26:06.160 would report that Wheeler had been seen in really rough 0:26:06.200 --> 0:26:11.760 shape holding a shoe his shoe, stumbling around under duress 0:26:11.760 --> 0:26:17.199 in Wilmington, Delaware. He was telling people in this unsolved 0:26:17.200 --> 0:26:18.640 Mysteries that we talked about. The top of the show, 0:26:18.880 --> 0:26:22.080 they interview some of the folks that saw him, and 0:26:22.560 --> 0:26:27.200 he claimed to have lost his briefcase, or rather even 0:26:27.240 --> 0:26:29.120 even more so, had it stolen. 0:26:29.800 --> 0:26:32.760