WEBVTT - 7. Don't Knock Arizona 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:08.200 From My Heart Media. This is Missing in Alaska, the 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:11.600 story of two congressmen who vanished in nineteen two, and 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:14.160 my quest to figure out what happened to them. I'm 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:29.360 your host, John Wallzac. On a hot September day last year, 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:31.880 I flew from New Orleans to Phoenix, where I met 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.600 up with our supervising producer, Paul Deckant. Paul, who flew 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.640 in from Atlanta, got there before me. When I landed. 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:41.280 He scooped me up in a rental car. We immediately 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:45.120 drove toward our first interview with Jerry Paisley's daughter. To 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:50.879 protect her privacy, let's call her Amy. My phone buzzed. 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.560 It was Amy. Her son had just injured himself. She 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:59.880 said she was at an urgent care. Could we reschedule you? 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:04.280 Of course I was disappointed, but the unexpected free time 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:06.319 was nice. Paul and I went to dinner at a 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:10.399 Mexican place and plotted out the coming days. The next morning, 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.040 we met up with Tom Davis, the Arizona Department of 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:17.840 Public Safety investigator who helped interview Jerry Paisley in nineteen 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:22.080 seventy four. While working undercover. Davis had also secretly observed 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.880 Paisley's wedding to Peggy Baggatte. One of the key questions 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.920 I had for Davis, for everyone really, was whether or 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:35.160 not Paisley told the truth truth. As a society, who 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.760 do we choose to believe? Who do we instantly right off? 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:44.959 Should we believe the politician discard the inmate? Why? What 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:50.280 about Jerry Paisley? Specifically? I asked Tom Davis, would you 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:52.600 be able to tell if he was lying? What were 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:58.040 you looking for in terms of markers of deception for 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:06.880 each and every story? Uh, consistency number one, and Davis 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:12.080 said Paisley's story remained consistent. More importantly, everything Paisley said 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:16.600 that could be verified, Davis in fact verified, including specific 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:20.280 details about unsolved murders. I said, tell me something I 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.840 can check out, and he says, well, you remember a 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:31.040 supposed suicide in the Sahara. The Sahara was a Tucson motel. 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.480 He says, well, during that period of time my life, 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:39.320 me and Louis Marconi were running dope. Marconi, Paisley's friend 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:43.679 was an ex cop. And I said, okay, I said 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:47.399 what kind of dope? And he says cocaine. He said, 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:51.960 we dabbled in, dabbled in marijuana, but moved over to 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:56.600 cocaine because there was more money involved. So he goes 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.800 and tells me that they're doing cocaine, and this end 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:07.519 of edile that they had entrusted the cocaine to or gone. 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:11.520 He had gone out and picked up the cocaine was 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.600 back at the Saharah tried to rip him off. So 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:19.560 the opening of the story was that was supposed to 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:24.040 be a suicide. But he says, if you check with 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:29.519 TPD in the coroner's office, he was shot twice and 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:35.040 I said, okay, I said, now here's the flip side 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.160 of that. Did you shoot him? Yes, I shot him 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:41.800 twice in them out and Louis and I fought with 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:45.160 him in the room. Um, we got him on the bed, 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:52.120 I straddled him and shot him twice. Them out. Because 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:58.440 of this confession, Paisley was convicted again in murder. In court, 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.640 he was cocking and sarcastick. He thanked the jury for 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:06.720 stopping by and called himself quote an honest liar. Obviously 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:11.480 Paisley is not the most trustworthy person. Obviously he lied often, 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.680 but he also told the truth at least part of 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.600 the time. In fact, telling the truth is what earned 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:22.480 him a second murder conviction. So if Paisley lied about 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:25.760 Peggy Baggette meeting with Joe Banano, if he lied about 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:29.039 Banano Lieutenant Joe I. Tarola giving him a locked briefcase 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:32.120 to carry to Alaska, if he lied about Danny z 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.880 Ivenach telling him the briefcase contained high tech explosives and 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.080 that the missing congressman had been assassinated. Why why would 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:43.799 he lie? What did he have to gain? The most 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.800 obvious answer typically would be that he wanted some kind 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:50.159 of leniency, time taken off his sentence, something like that. 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.480 But he was already serving a long sentence for murder. 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.680 He had no chance of getting out. And not only 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:00.159 did he not receive leniency, but because he spoke, he 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.240 was also convicted of a second murder, which earned him 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:08.040 an even longer sentence. What then about money? Paisley made 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:12.560 no money from this fame. Paisley made no concerted effort 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:16.000 to talk to the media. What then about Peggy Beggatt. 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:18.880 Did Paisley just hate her? Did he want to get 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:23.200 revenge again? There's no evidence of this. Paisley and Peggy 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.960 were long divorced, and in the interview, Paisley was ambiguous 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.080 about Peggy's role in the alleged plot. He questioned whether 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:32.800 or not she even understood what she had gotten herself into. 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:37.840 What about notoriety or some kind of legacy. It's true 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.320 that Paisley wanted to be remembered for his mob ties. 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.159 It was undoubtedly a better look than his prison affiliation 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:47.760 with the Aran Brotherhood. But what notoriety did he gain? 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:52.360 So Paisley got no time taken off his sentence, he 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.279 was convicted of a second murder, He made no money 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.680 from his claims, he got no media, he didn't seem 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.599 to have some boiling atrid to peggy baggage, And he 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:07.680 gained no notoriety and told this show, And for that, 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.000 I'm truly sorry. I don't cherish the idea of giving 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.960 Paisley what he wanted at all, but I don't really 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.240 care what he wanted. I care about the truth, And 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.160 to that end, all three of the investigators who interviewed 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:24.560 Paisley think there's at least a strong possibility that he 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.400 did tell the truth. Furthermore, Paisley later offered to take 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:32.320 a polygraph or lie detector test. It is, of course 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:36.320 possible that Paisley just lied. Maybe there's no reason why, 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:41.240 maybe he just did. Beyond scrutinizing his possible motivations, I 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:43.480 wanted to see which parts of his story I could 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:47.479 definitively prove. It was tough, but during my research I 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.800 found evidence to corroborate much of what Paisley said, the 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.159 parts that could be corroborated. But maybe he was just 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:59.080 a good liar, mixing in truths and falsehoods. That's certainly possible. However, 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.560 what I improve mob ties the marriage the business dealings 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.920 has left me with an uneasy feeling and a hunger 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:11.880 to find the truth. Late in the evening on the 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.600 day I interviewed Tom Davis, I sat down in my 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:18.119 hotel room in Phoenix and kept digging through databases trying 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:21.080 to track down sources. One of the key players I 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.320 was looking for was Gene Fowler. Fowler and his brother 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.840 Larry were two of the six people Paisley named as 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.560 having played a part in whereas having knowledge of the 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:33.640 alleged bomb plot. Three of the six were dead. Joe Banano, 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:38.000 Joeya Tarola, and Larry Fowler to refuse to talk with me. 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:42.200 Peggy Beggett and Danny z Ivanitch so that left one person, 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.640 Gene Fowler. I had looked for Jean for a long 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:49.120 time without success. I can't tell you how many dead 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.800 end numbers and emails I tried again and again. Maybe 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.320 this Gene Fowler is the right one, Maybe this number 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:59.800 will work. Be completed as did the number and dial again. 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.040 So that night I shot off some emails, then fell asleep. 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:34.640 Around two or three am September two, nineteen, I awoke 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:38.840 to a surprise email. I found Jean Fowler, but it 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.040 wasn't Jeane who emailed me back. It was his son, Steve. 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.240 Steve was cautious, but he agreed to meet with us 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.679 later that day at his house near Tucson. Excited, I 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.880 texted Paul, our producer, and we agreed to meet downstairs 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.160 for breakfast around eight am. We had a busy day planned. 0:08:55.400 --> 0:09:01.000 We were supposed to interview Amy, Paisley's daughter, and damn it, 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:05.960 Amy canceled on us again. She apologized, saying her family 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:09.520 wasn't comfortable with her doing the interview. I was disappointed, 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:11.920 but I told her that I understood and that if 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.960 she changed her mind to call me. I walked to 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:18.640 the hotel breakfast area spotted Paul and said hello, thinking 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.480 of Gene Fowler and are just canceled interview with Amy. 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.600 I told him I had some important news. I got 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:27.400 an omelet set it down on our table. But before 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:31.240 I could sit down, my phone buzzed again and again 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:40.760 and again. Today is September two thousand nineteen. Uh, Paul, 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.520 one of our producers, and I are at a hotel 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:48.559 in Phoenix, and we just went in to have breakfast. Uh. 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:53.760 But wow, it's but a crazy A few hours Um, 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:58.320 it was literally texting with Jerry Paisley's daughter, who I 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:02.160 was supposed to interview on Sunday, and she backed out, 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.720 um because she said her son was hurt. And then 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:08.880 I was supposed to interview today at ten am. It's 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:13.320 almost eight in Arizona where we are, and I was 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.280 literally texting with her and setting food down on a 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:23.040 table um when I got a text from Bob Martinson. 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:27.880 Bob Martinson, remember that name. He's going to be very 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.760 important to this story later on. You also told me 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:36.760 something I hadn't heard, which is very kind of overwhelming 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:39.480 and upsetting to hear at this very moment, which is 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:46.079 that Cokie Roberts just died. Um. Also last night, U 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:58.080 I U finally figured out where uh Gene Fowler lives. 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:06.599 Fowler is the man who Jerry Paisley alleged. Um it 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:10.000 was at the airport in nine two when Paisley says 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:16.040 he carried a package for the bananas to Alaska. So 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.840 I have all this swirling. I just walked out on Paul. 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:23.800 He's sitting there eating and my my foods getting cold. Um. 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.480 Really a kind of upset to hear that about COKEI 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.800 Uh family seems to be very nice family, and you 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:33.000 know they they lost Tommy a few years ago and 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:37.840 Lindy too so and and to to hear that in 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.480 the middle of all this, I mean, while I'm texting 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:46.439 with very multiple people related to this story, is it's 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:51.599 just weird. So I just sitting in a chair outside 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:56.600 in a courtyard in a hotel and Phoenix. But um, 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:58.720 I haven't had time to look too much to see 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:01.080 what happened. But I believe Coke he died from breast cancer, 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:07.040 which I didn't know she had. And I mean, I 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:12.600 would like to express my adults start her family. Okay, 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:21.240 it was overwhelming all at once. Cokey Bob, Paisley's daughter 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:25.040 Geane Fowler. I sat outside for a while and just 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:29.880 stared at the sky. Cokey was the last surviving child 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:33.680 of Hale and Lindy Boggs. I had spoken briefly to 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:37.720 her brother, Tommy. He agreed to do an interview, but 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.400 several days later, before we could speak, he died of 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:44.080 a heart attack. Coke and Tommy's sister, Barbara, the former 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.160 mayor of Princeton, New Jersey, was also dead. She died 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:53.080 of cancer, and now cancer had taken Coketo. Coke's death 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.600 hit me hard. Only ten days earlier, the day before 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.920 my birthday, my mom had gotten confirmation that she too 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.240 had breast cancer, stage four inflammatory breast cancer, a rare 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:08.040 and aggressive cancer. On top of lupus, which he's battled 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.480 for thirty years. It seemed like a death sentence. Days 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:13.680 before I flew to Arizona, I had flown home to 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:17.480 North Carolina to see her. My mom's diagnosis weighed on 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.440 me heavily. As we produced this show. I mostly kept 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:22.640 it quiet, but there were times I wanted to share 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.240 it with certain people, like the Baggage kids, so they 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.280 could see that truly, at this moment, I could, in 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:31.480 some way at least empathize with their loss, that I 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:35.960 was human too, and not just some parasitic reporter. As 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.200 of this recording, my mom has undergone chemo surgery and 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:44.600 physical therapy up next radiation. Also, as of this recording, 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:46.400 we as a world are in the middle of a 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:51.720 devastating pandemic COVID nineteen or the novel coronavirus. I always 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.760 planned to discuss loss or looming loss, or the possibility 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.439 of looming loss, but I never imagined it would be 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:02.400 under these circumstances. What I want to say most is 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.280 that I've felt loss or the threat of it, nearly 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:08.800 the entire time we've produced this show. It's been difficult 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:13.280 to work, hard to focus, but given the circumstances, given 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:17.280 our current global situation, I want to say this, We're 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:21.240 all going through collective trauma right now. It hurts. Some 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.960 of us have lost loved ones, some of us are 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:27.680 terrified of losing loved ones. I just want you to 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:31.400 know that I feel what you feel that fear, but 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.840 we're in this together. And for anyone out there who's scared, 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:39.480 who's afraid, who's depressed, who's anxious, I get it. This 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:43.240 is horrible, but we will get through it. Be there 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:46.760 for each other, love each other. We'll get through this. 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:59.320 In Arizona, Paul and I still had a very long 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.040 list of people to find, doors the knock on and 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.960 places to visit. We were about to drive to Tucson, 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.720 but before we left Phoenix, we made one final stop. 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.800 I'm standing in the parking lot of the Clarendon Hotel. 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:17.560 It's a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, And on this very 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:22.040 spot on June two, x Don Bowles, who was an 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:26.200 investigative reporter who looked into the mafia and uh corruption 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:29.400 around the state of Arizona, was killed by a car bomb. 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:33.000 He said a few things before he died, John Adamson, 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:38.480 emprize and mafia, And with those clues, investigators found a 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:42.480 man named John Harvey Adamson, who was convicted of putting 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:47.320 a remote control bomb under bowls car. It's abnormal for 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.760 a journalist to be killed in the United States. It's 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:53.160 extremely abnormal for a journalist to be killed by a 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:57.760 car bomb. Um but car bombings happened. They happened in Arizona, 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:02.640 they happened in Alaska in the and I mean I've 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:04.920 read about this killing for a long time. And as 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:08.040 weird to stand here because it's just an average parking 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:13.120 lot in Phoenix, and a man was blown up here 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:18.520 in the seventies. In old news footage of the Bulls bombing, 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.480 you can see the exact spot where I stood, The 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:24.240 exact spot in the parking lot of the Clarendon Hotel 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:27.840 where Bowls was blown up. The pavement is soaked in blood. 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:32.720 The assassination of Bowls in ninety six enraged his colleagues. 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:36.680 Journalists from around the nation descended on Arizona to continue 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.680 his work, to show that if you take out one 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:43.600 of us, good luck, we'll dig deeper. These journalists launched 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.920 the far reaching investigation into crime and corruption that became 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:51.400 known as the Arizona Project. Good Evening, a group of newspaper, 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:55.240 radio and television reporters charged today that the state of 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:58.400 Arizona is now the major card or for narcotics into 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.120 the United States, that the state has been invaded by 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:05.520 organized crime, and that some of Arizona's major political figures, 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:10.159 including Senator Barry Goldwater, have condoned organized crimes invasion of 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:14.080 the state. The reporters took on their Arizona investigation to 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:17.439 finish a job started by Don Bowles, a reporter for 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:21.439 the Arizona Republic who was murdered nine months ago. The 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:26.360 investigative work was painstaking. For six months, the team probe 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:30.960 through public records, doing the slow, tedious, methodical work of 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:35.200 the investigative journalist. What they found in records of land 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:39.480 transactions and corporation documents and court documents would not have 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:43.200 attracted the attention of most people. What they found were 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:48.520 records of loans and canceled checks and request to politicians 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:52.679 for help on certain projects. The reporters conducted hundreds of 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:56.879 interviews and recorded many of them. They exchanged information with 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:00.560 law enforcement agencies. They traced the geniale g. Of the 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:05.000 mob families and located some of them in Arizona. At 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.360 this point, as the reporter speaks, the camera pans over 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:12.320 several books, including Honor Thy Father, the best seller on 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.720 the Banano Family, the same book that tied Jerry Paisley 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:19.879 to the Bananas. As the Arizona Project reporters dug deeper, 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:24.080 they found pervasive rot They say in their reports that 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:28.720 Arizona is now the major corrator for narcotics, that the 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:32.840 state has been invaded by organized crime, that major political 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.080 figures of the state have made an easy and profitable 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:40.919 accommodation with the underworld. The major bank in Arizona, a 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:46.000 large restaurant chain, the nation's foremost land swindler, corrupt law 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:53.360 enforcement officials all find places in their stories. If you're 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.080 curious at this point as to why I'm discussing Don 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.240 Bowles and the Arizona Project at all, how they tied 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:03.919 directly into the story of the missing congressman, let me explain. First, 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.760 both Bowls and reporters for the Arizona Project dug into 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:11.000 the two mob families. Jerry Paisley worked for the Bananas 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:13.000 and the Lick of Olie's, who were not just in 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:17.240 Arizona for some son. Both families were active and wielded 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:21.600 powerful influence in the state. Second, Bowls was killed by 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:25.400 a remote control bomb in Arizona less than four years 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:29.520 after the missing congressman disappeared. Less than four years after, 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:33.080 Jerry Paisley said he transported a bomb from Arizona to 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:38.280 Alaska that was allegedly used to assassinate the missing congressman. Finally, 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:41.159 I want to emphasize that it was a different time. 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:44.440 Back then, bombings were much more commonplace in the six 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:47.920 seas and seventies, and they weren't just concentrated in big cities. 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:51.320 They were scattered around the nation. In fact, only four 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.240 months after Bowls was killed by a car bomb in Phoenix, 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:57.080 a woman named Muriel File was killed by a car 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:01.199 bomb in Anchorage. So here in night Seen in the 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.199 span of four months are two examples of bombings that 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:09.000 killed people, one in Arizona and one in Alaska. Neither 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.040 were directly tied to Paisley. But all this to say 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:14.920 the idea of a small plane being bombed in Alaska 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:18.280 four years earlier is not as outlandish as it seems. 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:47.480 After we left Phoenix, Paul and I drove to Tucson. 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:50.720 I was quiet for most of the ride, staring out 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:54.280 the window, eyeing the desert. I texted Steve Fowler a 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:57.000 few times. He sent me his address and a code 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.040 to get into his gated neighborhood. Remember, Steve is a 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.080 son of Gene Fowler, one of six people Jerry Paisley 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.840 named as having taken part in or having knowledge of 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.280 the alleged bombing of the missing congressman's plane. So Paul 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:11.600 and I didn't really know what to expect. We figured 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:14.680 Steve would be piste here. We were digging into his dad. 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.040 When we pulled up to Steve's house, we just sat 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:21.080 there for a minute. There was no car in the driveway, 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:27.040 no movement. Then slowly the front door swung open, but 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:30.440 we couldn't see anyone, just an open door leading into 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:35.359 a darkened house. I got out of the car, Paul 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:39.200 grabbed the recording equipment. We eyed each other like this 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:44.720 is creepy. And then there was Steve. He smiled and 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:47.919 welcomed us in. We sat at his kitchen table. He 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:52.040 offered us water. He was friendly, which surprised me and 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:56.600 made me suspicious. When name is Stephen Fowler. I am 0:21:56.760 --> 0:22:00.320 a native to s who spent about how of his 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:03.760 life in Anchorage, Alaska, and from a very large family, 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:07.520 and most of them are now gone. My father came 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:11.600 from a family of three girls and eight sons, and 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:15.400 my father is the only one that remains alive. At 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:18.920 this point, I knew that Gene Fowler, Steve's dad, was alive, 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:22.080 but I didn't know where he was. Half of me 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:24.360 thought maybe that he was standing in a room down 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:27.840 the hall, pushed up against the door, listening to our conversation, 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:30.679 Steve said that when he was a kid, his family 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:34.600 split their time between Arizona and Alaska. Jean his dad 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:37.840 worked construction and mining jobs and found other ways to 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:40.560 cash in on the Alaska oil boom too. There was 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:42.920 a lot of opportunity to make a lot of money 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:45.639 in a lot of different ways, and members of my 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:48.200 family one of the things they did was they got 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:52.359 into after hours gambling. They would open a place with 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:54.480 a couple of black check tables at a poker table, 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:57.840 and they didn't sell alcohol or anything like that. But 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:01.800 when people had their paycheck, they cash it and now 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:04.359 they wanted to have fun with it. So it was 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:08.640 it was a big, a big period where nightlife was 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:11.280 was huge. It was tough time for law enforcement. There 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:13.159 was a lot going on. There was a lot of crime. 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:17.679 Cocaine was everywhere um and it all stems back to 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:20.560 the fact that there was a lot of money. The 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:23.720 free flow of money brought in the cremble element, the drugs, 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:28.480 the prostitution, the illegal gambling, and there was always somebody 0:23:28.480 --> 0:23:31.320 there to take advantage of the guy that just cast 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:35.480 his paycheck. And probably from the time I was fifteen on, 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:39.680 I started learning very quickly that there are two sides 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:42.679 to Anchorage and the one side I never really saw, 0:23:43.119 --> 0:23:45.400 but as a teenager I learned there was a very 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:50.639 seemi side to Anchorage. There were lots of bars that 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:54.479 had a lot of crime involved with with those bars. 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:58.560 There were shootings, there were there was prostitution, there were 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:02.080 people were being beat I remember stories about the bars 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:06.280 being firebombed, switching gears. I asked Steve what he knew 0:24:06.320 --> 0:24:09.920 about this story, what he remembered of the planes disappearance, 0:24:10.040 --> 0:24:13.400 which names he recognized, etcetera. So I'm gonna throw names 0:24:13.400 --> 0:24:16.280 at you, and you tell me what you know of 0:24:16.320 --> 0:24:22.000 these people. Jerry Paisley, Jerry Paisley, Jerry Paisley was a 0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:25.800 bar operator that, as I understand it, had ties to 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:32.040 organized crime UM. Jerry Paisley, I believe he went to 0:24:33.160 --> 0:24:38.200 prison in Florence, Arizona, UH for more than a life 0:24:38.320 --> 0:24:42.199 term for killing someone in Tucson. I also believe I 0:24:42.240 --> 0:24:44.840 heard many years ago that while he was in prison 0:24:45.359 --> 0:24:49.680 he started confessing to taking six, seven or eight lives 0:24:50.400 --> 0:24:53.440 up in Alaska, and I think some of them were 0:24:53.960 --> 0:24:58.720 allegedly through bombings UM. Back when he was in Alaska, 0:24:59.119 --> 0:25:03.120 when Steve said this, it blew me away. Before our interview, 0:25:03.160 --> 0:25:05.360 I had, of course been honest with him about who 0:25:05.400 --> 0:25:08.480 I was and in general terms, what I was investigating. 0:25:09.200 --> 0:25:12.840 But with every source who might have important primary information, 0:25:13.160 --> 0:25:16.520 I'm also extremely careful not to taint their memory, so 0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:19.720 I hadn't gone into too much detail. I had not, 0:25:19.840 --> 0:25:23.720 for example, discussed the specifics of Paisley's claims or even 0:25:23.720 --> 0:25:27.159 told Steve Paisley's name ahead of our interview. So it 0:25:27.280 --> 0:25:31.000 really surprised me that not only was Steve familiar with Paisley, 0:25:31.040 --> 0:25:33.800 but he also knew to some degree what Paisley said 0:25:33.840 --> 0:25:38.560 in I asked him where he heard it the details 0:25:38.560 --> 0:25:41.479 of Paisley's claims. Steve said he probably picked it up 0:25:41.480 --> 0:25:45.159 from the Anchorage Daily News, but he definitely didn't. The 0:25:45.280 --> 0:25:51.280 Daily News never published Paisley's allegations, trust me. So. Jerry Paisley, 0:25:51.480 --> 0:25:56.240 originally from Detroit, lives in Tucson, was also in Alaska. 0:25:56.880 --> 0:25:59.320 Did your father and your uncle Larry, did they know 0:25:59.400 --> 0:26:02.760 Paisley in Tucson or just an Anchorage. I believe they 0:26:03.200 --> 0:26:08.720 knew him in Tucson. My uncle had a closer relationship 0:26:08.760 --> 0:26:11.040 with him. And and and when I say that I 0:26:11.119 --> 0:26:13.000 don't mean to say that they were close. They knew 0:26:13.000 --> 0:26:16.760 each other better than my father and Paisley and in Alaska, 0:26:16.840 --> 0:26:19.720 probably because my brother, my uncle was a bar fly. 0:26:19.920 --> 0:26:23.920 Dad's brother. Uh he Larry probably knew Jerry a lot 0:26:23.920 --> 0:26:28.159 better than my father. Larry Fowler, Steve's uncle, was again 0:26:28.400 --> 0:26:31.800 the man Jerry Paisley said he Geane Fowler and Danny's 0:26:31.800 --> 0:26:35.160 Ivanitch met up with on the day Paisley allegedly transported 0:26:35.160 --> 0:26:38.159 a bomb to Alaska. Larry is the guy who was 0:26:38.160 --> 0:26:42.160 shot to death in Anchorage only twenty seven days after 0:26:42.160 --> 0:26:45.720 Paisley did a follow up interview with an investigator. Steve 0:26:45.840 --> 0:26:49.280 was close to Larry. You know, Larry was was one 0:26:49.280 --> 0:26:54.360 of the biggest hearted guys I've ever met. Uh. He 0:26:54.480 --> 0:26:59.159 was a very nice man. He wasn't well educated, but 0:26:59.280 --> 0:27:01.920 he read a lot when he got older, and so 0:27:02.560 --> 0:27:06.439 he was a good guy. Um. I think he was 0:27:06.640 --> 0:27:09.520 like that junkyard dog that didn't have any teeth. He 0:27:09.640 --> 0:27:12.480 liked to be tough and gruff and tell people I 0:27:12.520 --> 0:27:14.840 know Jerry Paisley, and I know this guy, and I 0:27:14.880 --> 0:27:19.199