WEBVTT - S05 Episode 12: Prophet and Loss (Pt.1 of 2) 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.600 Please note the following episode contains graphic and disturbing murder 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:20.200 scenes involving children. Parental discretion as advised. It was July third, 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.759 nineteen twenty nine, and shaping up to be another hot 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.440 one in the US city of Detroit, Michigan, when Vincent 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:33.000 Elias arrived at thirty five eighty seven Saint Auban Street. Vincent, 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:37.080 a real estate dealer, had arranged to meet Benny evangelist, 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:39.960 who lived at the property with his wife and four children, 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.040 for a ten thirty business meeting to discuss a farm 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:47.080 he was looking to buy from Benny. Vincent knocked on 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:50.400 the door and stepped back onto the porch, checking his 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:54.320 watch just to make sure he wasn't too early. Looking 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.520 about the street, he couldn't help but notice how quiet 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:01.160 it was for the usually bustling neighborhood, comprised largely of 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:04.679 Italian and Polish immigrants lured to the New World on 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:09.360 the promise of the American dream. Vincent checked his watch 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:13.320 again and knocked for a second time, turning his ear 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:15.720 to the door to listen out for any sign of 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:20.959 movement from inside, but heard nothing. It was certainly a 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.720 little odd, he thought, since though the kids would be 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.919 at school, the youngest, and Benny's wife, Santina, would be home, 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:33.920 even if Benny had forgotten their appointment. Growing impatient, Vincent 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:38.560 pulled open the front door and stepped inside. Taking his 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:42.360 hat in his hands, he called through apologetically as he 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.200 looked about the entrance hall, expecting Benny or Santina to 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:52.160 appear any moment, but the house remained completely still. Moving 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:58.400 further inside, Vincent spied Benny sitting at his desk, albeit strangely. Still. 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:05.440 Didn't you hear me knocking? He asked, but Benny didn't reply. Benny, 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:10.280 he said, stepping closer, the word barely audible as it 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:14.280 caught in his throat. For a moment, it looked as 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:17.120 though he was leaning so far forward his head was 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.680 being obscured by his back. But as Vincent drew nearer, 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:24.680 he realized with a thumping horror his head wasn't visible 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:30.560 because it wasn't on his shoulders. Then Vincent looked down 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:34.320 to the floor. There, lying in a thick pool of 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:39.440 blood was Benny's head, his eyes staring lifelessly up to 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:44.320 the ceiling. Seconds later, Vincent was back in the street, 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:55.800 heaving and gasping for air. Having flagged down two police officers, 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.840 Patrol and Lawrence, and Costage, Vincent returned with them to 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.720 the property, more than happy to be asked to wait 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.959 for them outside. As they conducted a search of the house, 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:11.040 they found Benny, just as Vincent had described, dressed in 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.240 a dark suit, with his body leant forward against the 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.520 desk with his hands pressed together in front of him 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.440 as though conducting a silent prayer. The head seemed to 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:25.160 have been taken off in one clean swoop, but there 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:29.239 were some other things that Vincent hadn't noticed. Three photos 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:31.840 that seemed to have been deliberately placed around the head, 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.400 each showing the image of a young boy lying dead 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:39.480 in a coffin. Then the officers noticed the set of 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:43.000 bloody footprints leading away from the head and out of 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:48.040 the room. Patrol and Lawrence stepped into the front hall 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.520 and asked Vincent again who else lived at the property. 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.280 As he eyed the bloody prints that trailed off towards 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:59.000 the back of the house, his wife and four children, 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:04.840 replied Vincent, with a concerned look toward his partner. Lawrence 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:10.200 unclipped his gun and pressed on, cautiously, tracking the prince 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.200 through the kitchen to the stairs. They took note of 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.760 the pile of dishes, presumably from the night before, that 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:21.039 had been washed but not yet put away. Pulling out 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:25.479 their revolvers, the officers crept slowly up the stairs, the 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.960 creak of each step echoing loudly as they made their 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:34.440 way to the second floor and on into the master bedroom. 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:39.599 Dear God, muttered Lawrence under his breath. The blood soaked 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.159 body of a woman lay strewn across the bed, cradling 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:47.880 a dead baby in her arms. The woman's head, which 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:51.039 had been all but severed, was hanging limply over the 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:55.880 side by a single sinuous thread. The baby's head, too, 0:04:56.000 --> 0:05:00.960 had been almost completely obliterated. The wall and bedsheets were 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:04.839 splattered with blood, with the rest pulling out onto the floor. 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:08.680 A huge gash on the woman's upper arm seemed to 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.960 suggest the killer had tried to sever that too, and 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:17.839 still the bloody footsteps continued through the bedroom and beyond 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:24.120 into another smaller bedroom. Officer Lawrence turned away at the 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.360 sight of a small child sprawled out on the floor, 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:32.440 their skull cleaved right through the middle and lying one 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:35.560 in each of the two beds. Two more young children, 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:40.640 both killed in the exact same way. One child's arm 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:45.560 had also been severed at the shoulder. It was a 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:50.680 horror beyond comprehension, and it was about to get even stranger. 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:56.800 You're listening to unexplained, and I am Richard mc lane Smith. 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:07.720 Having secured the main house, Lawrence and Costage continued their 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:12.159 search of the property, heading first into the attic. All 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:15.080 about the room bunches of herbs had been left out 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:19.280 to dry in a way that seemed almost ritualistic. Then, 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:23.240 amid the boxes of surplus household items, they found a 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.599 large collection of underwear, which they judged to have belonged 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.680 to various women, with a different name tag tied to 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.919 each item. But even more peculiar was what they found 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:38.640 in the basement. Heading down into the darkness, Patrom and 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.800 Lawrence stopped suddenly at the sight of what appeared to 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:47.080 be bodies dangling from the ceiling, scrambling hastily for the lights, 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:50.400 which the officer flicked it on to reveal nine or 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:55.000 ten life sized papier mache figurines strung up to the 0:06:55.040 --> 0:07:00.400 ceiling with wire. Each figure, carefully crafted and deck rated, 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:04.640 was different from the next, with strange and in some cases, 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:10.200 grotesque features. One had a pair of wings, another an 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:14.800 unusually long nose, and one was holding a baby covered 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.680 in hair. The walls had been draped with green cloth, 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.960 and in the middle of it all, a gigantic eye, 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.520 lit up from the inside, had been positioned to shine 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.880 down on everything. All in all, it was fair to 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:34.200 say the officers had never seen anything like it. In 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:37.160 a side room, they also found a stash of wine 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.920 and kegs of beer, a not unusual find during the 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:46.160 era of prohibition. After reporting their strange and horrific find 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:49.840 back to police headquarters, the patrolman was soon joined by 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.360 a swathe of colleagues intrigue to see it all for themselves. 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:58.560 In total, more than twenty detectives representing almost every department 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.560 arrived to take a look, from representatives of homicide to 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:06.679 the bomb squat while outside. As word began to spread 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:10.440 around the neighborhood, soon as many as two hundred people 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:13.720 had descended on the property, keen to see it all too. 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.040 Here's something you don't know about me. I often have 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.240 troubles sleeping. 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With Detective Lieutenant John Whitman and 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:46.040 detectives Charles Searle and Earl Switzer leading the investigation, the 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.640 police set about trying to disentangle just what an earth 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:53.400 was going on. With the help of neighbors and Vincent 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.000 Elias who had been detained at the scene, they ascertained 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:00.800 the victims to be thirty six year old Santeen evangelist 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:04.440 and her husband, the forty three year old Benny, along 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.000 with their daughters eight year old Angelina and six year 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:12.600 old Jenny, and their sons five year old Matthew and Mario, 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:17.160 who was only eighteen months old. Business cards found on 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.320 Benny's desk declared him to be a real estate developer 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:24.880 and building contractor. But more pertinent to the officers were 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:27.880 the other set of business cards they found scattered about 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:33.480 the attic, on which was written mister Benny Evangelist, divine prophet, 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:39.560 author and private history writer. As police continue to search 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:44.160 the evangelist's house, things only got more bizarre. A wig 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:47.720 and fake beard was found alongside what appeared to be 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:52.440 two ceremonial sorts, all of which clashed somewhat with the 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:56.320 various crucifixes dotted about the walls and the large painting 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:00.840 of the Last Supper in Benny's study. There was a 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:05.040 little more to Penny Evangelist than met the eye. As 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:07.880 for clues to who the killer might be, police found 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.079 only the bloody footprints, as well as a bloody finger 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.920 and a thumb print on the front door latch. Unluckily 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.720 for Vincent, since he was the last known person to 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.600 enter the house and his feet were a similar size 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:25.440 to the bloody prints, he was promptly taken in for questioning. However, 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.760 an alibi was quickly established and he was soon released 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:34.120 from custody. Then, detectives received word of a man seen 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.480 brandishing a bloody knife only six blocks from the scene 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.400 of the crime in the early hours of the previous morning. 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:51.760 It seemed they might have their killer. Later in the afternoon, 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.080 not long after, the victim's bodies were removed from the 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:59.480 house as the crowd of hundreds watched on, detectives arrived 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:03.480 at twenty eight thirty Pierce Street, located roughly five minutes 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:08.600 walk from the evangelist's residence, there police discovered a razor 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.600 edged banana knife, a short handle axe, and a freshly 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:16.280 washed pair of shoes, all said to belong to thirty 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.960 four year old Angelo Dapoli, who was lodging at the property. 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:24.480 On closer inspection, the axe appeared to be covered in 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:28.480 blood stains, and as detectives soon found out, it just 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:32.320 so happened that Dapoli, along with his fellow lodger, forty 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:36.160 two year old and Berto Pecchio, had visited the evangelists 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:39.840 property the night before the murders, making them the last 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:44.319 known people to see the family alive. With the axe 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.720 being sent off for testing, the men were immediately brought 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.520 in for questioning, and though Dapoli claimed to struggle to 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:57.320 understand them, he denied all knowledge of the potentially incriminating objects. Tecchio, 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.280 on the other hand, was a little more fourth coming. 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:04.280 As it transpired, it was to Poli who had in 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:08.440 fact accompanied him to the evangelist's property, having gone there 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.880 to make a final payment on a property he was 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:15.760 buying from Benny. As Techio explained, the pair arrived at 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:19.400 the house around eight pm, then, after swiftly making the payment, 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.480 headed on to a speakeasy where they spent the next 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:26.320 few hours drinking together. They both returned to the boarding 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:30.640 house around eleven PM and promptly went to bed, a 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.040 fact that was attested to by a number of their 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.720 fellow boarders. With the murders said to have occurred some 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:40.680 time after midnight, this put Techio and to Poli away 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.000 from the scene of the crime at the crucial time. 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.880 After analysis, the marks on the axe were found to 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:52.040 be simply rushed, and since neither Techio or Dapol's prince 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.720 matched those found on the door, the pair were released 0:13:55.840 --> 0:14:07.320 the following day, Suddenly left without their anticipated suspect, The 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.800 police began to dig a little further into Benny's life. 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:15.920 After speaking to Benny's brother Antonio, things began steadily to 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:22.120 become a little clearer. Benjamino of Angelista was born in Napoli, Italy, 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:26.400 in eighteen eighty five, and in nineteen oh three emigrated 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.360 to the USA at the age of seventeen to join 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:33.040 his brother, who'd moved there two years earlier, living together 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.360 while picking up odd jobs in construction and on the 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:40.480 ever expanding railroads. Though the pair had once been close, 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.520 things had become strained between them when one morning Benny 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:50.000 claimed he'd started receiving visions from God at midnight for 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:54.040 three hours every night since February the second, nineteen o six. 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:57.720 He explained he'd been falling into a trance during which 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.200 he was given visions of the true history of the 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:04.200 world and how it had been created, dating back fifteen 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:08.120 four hundred years to the time before Adam, all the 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:12.080 way to the birth of Christ. Benny had also begun 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:16.440 recording each and every vision he'd experienced for inclusion in 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:21.120 a book he was planning to write. In response, Antonio, 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.760 who like Benny, had been brought up a strict Roman Catholic, 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:28.600 tried at first to ignore his brother's strange and growing obsession, 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:32.800 until eventually he couldn't bear it any longer. By nineteen 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:36.200 oh eight, he'd become so unsettled by it he disowned 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:38.800 Benny and sent him away to the town of York 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.960 in Pennsylvania, where he was able to find more work 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:47.320 in railroad construction. Antonio knew little about his brother's time 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:50.760 spent in York, but by nineteen twenty the pair had 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:55.000 been reconciled, with Benny joining Antonio in Detroit, where he'd 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:59.880 since moved with his family. Like thousands of others, Antonio 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.600 had been drawn to the city by the extraordinary boom 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:06.480 of the automobile industry, led by the Ford Motor Company 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:19.560 and General Motors. Benny, however, had other ideas. Benny's time 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.880 in York had done nothing to dampen his apparent fascination 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.080 with mysticism, and by the time he moved to Detroit, 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.800 he'd even established himself as something of a prophet and 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:34.720 faith healer, and soon rumors of his unusual talent began 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:39.000 to spread around the neighborhood. Working as a carpenter by day, 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:43.800 at night, Benny moonlighted as a healer and prophet for higher, 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.760 offering spells and healing rituals for up to ten dollars 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:51.120 a pop. Though some might come for the novelty of 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.320 a fortune read or the purchase of a love potion, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.960 ten dollars or one hundred and forty dollars in today's 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:02.360 money wasn't cheap, and while others derided him as nothing 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:06.359 but a circus fraud, many sincerely believed that what Benny 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:10.639 was offering would cure them of their ills. It was 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:14.560 during one such appointment that Benny met his wife, Santina, 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:17.800 and before long, the pair had moved in together and 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:22.720 were expecting their first child. Over time, Benny made so 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.040 much money he was able to do away with the 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:29.480 carpentry altogether and instead turned his attention to real estate 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:33.200 while continuing to moonlight as a faith healer. And as 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:37.040 the real estate business grew, so too did Benny's commitment 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:41.480 to his more unusual profession. After moving into the large, 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:45.359 four bedroom house at thirty five eighty seven Saint Auban Street, 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.280 he immediately set about converting the basement into an altar 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.480 that would become the center point of his healing rituals. 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.600 The strange folk models he'd had constructed and hung up 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.399 in their were depictions of various celestial planets, which he 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:02.760 would then use to help read the signs that he 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:07.000 claimed to receive from God. And on February second, nineteen 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:11.320 twenty six, twenty years after he started, he finally finished 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.520 his book, which was published that year under the title 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:18.880 The Oldest History of the World Discovered by a Cult Science, 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.120 many copies of which were found by police piled up 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:27.600 in his home. In it, Benny laid out the history 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:30.280 of the world as it had apparently been dictated to 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:34.880 him by God, in effect constituting a new Earth, which 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:40.480 he named the Great Union Federation of America. In spite 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:43.679 of this all, however, Benny continued to attend the local 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:47.639 Catholic church, San Francesco's, which had become a haven for 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:52.399 much of the local Italian population. Located on Brewster Street, 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.000 only a few blocks from Saint Auban's, it was presided 0:18:56.000 --> 0:19:01.000 over by Father Francis Beccarini. Each of Any and Santina's 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:05.560 four children were baptized there, leading Father Beccherini to suspect 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.720 as he later told the police that Benny's interest in 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.479 the occult was purely for financial gain, as opposed to 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:17.640 any genuine spiritual interest. And yet, even at the time 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:22.080 of his death, every night from midnight to three am, 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.280 Benny continued to sit at his desk in his office 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:34.040 and wait for the visions from God. Are you a 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:36.960 proud cat person? 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A checkout at a loss 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:48.720 to establish a motive, the police began to wonder if 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:51.680 Benny and his family had been murdered by a disgruntled 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:55.560 customer who he'd been unable to heal, or perhaps the 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:58.280 partner of one of the women whose underwear he'd been 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:02.719 keeping in the attic. Another theory was that, if Benny 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.119 had been working to build up a cult following for 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.119 his new religion, perhaps one of the followers, in a 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:11.040 fit of religious mania, had been driven mad by the 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:14.840 grotesque figurines during one of his rituals and had later 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.879 returned to the house to murder the family. Things weren't 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:21.440 helped by the fact that many in the local neighborhood, 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.159 some because of how they'd been treated in the past 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:28.080 and others due to their not entirely legal status, had 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:31.359 grown suspicious of the police, and so they were reluctant 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:35.600 to come forward with any pertinent information. Of the few 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:39.160 neighbors and friends that did speak, however, despite Benny's own 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.680 doctor describing him as insane on account of his dealings 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:46.000 in the occult, most had only warm things to say 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:49.600 about him and his family. Though they thought it ought 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:52.399 whenever they saw him in the street, gazing toward the 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:56.440 sky and gesticulating wildly, he appeared to be well respected 0:21:56.480 --> 0:22:00.000 among the local community. He'd even been granted a life 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:03.680 since by the state of Michigan to practice his unusual medicine, 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:07.359 and as for his visions of the real Earth history 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:10.480 that he hoped to spread through his own Bible, it 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:14.440 was no more speculative or unquantifiable as the very book 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:19.439 under which much of the nation labored. For the police investigators, however, 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:24.680 it was all a little too peculiar that no money, jewelry, 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:27.479 or anything else of monetary value appeared to have been 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:30.800 taken in the attack only seemed to strengthen their theory 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:34.399 that his dabblings in the occult were to blame. A 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:37.360 brief attempt to connect the crime with a similarly horrific 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:40.040 and brutal murder of a woman and her two children 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:45.199 in nearby River Rouge was quickly dismissed. Despite offering a 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:49.320 thousand dollars or fourteen thousand in today's money for any 0:22:49.320 --> 0:23:00.920 substantial information, no one came forward. On Saturday j six, 0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:05.000 as a crowd of three thousand gathered to watch six 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:09.320 opal colored caskets were wheeled out of fl Calcatira funeral 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:13.280 home by sixteen girls dressed all in white and pushed 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:18.320 across the road to San Francesco's church. Emotions were high 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:22.400 amongst the close knit community, shocked by the senseless brutality 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:27.159 of it all, as many, including Antonio Evangelista along with 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:30.359 his brother Joseph, who'd made the long and arduous journey 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:35.560 from Italy to be there, wept openly inside. With the 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:38.679 church having been filled up long before the service began. 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:42.720 The mourners stood as the six caskets were wheeled inside 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:46.240 and placed in single file, running all the way down 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:51.920 to the transept. As Father Beccarini led the solemn requiem mass, 0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:55.560 many had to be helped from the building, having become 0:23:55.640 --> 0:24:01.119 so overwhelmed with grief. Meanwhile, throughout the out a number 0:24:01.119 --> 0:24:04.240 of plainclothed police officers kept a watchful eye on the 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:08.880 proceedings for any hint that the murderer might be among them. 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:12.480 One man immediately caught their attention, who was seen arriving 0:24:12.520 --> 0:24:15.680 alone at the church by bike, wearing a battered hat 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:20.359 and a well worn suit. After deciding the man, John Ryan, 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:25.960 had been acting strangely, officers took him in for questioning. However, 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:28.880 the man, who was later judged to have been suffering 0:24:28.920 --> 0:24:33.359 from psychiatric problems and who weighed barely ninety pounds, was 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:38.280 quickly released. Later that afternoon, the six bodies of the 0:24:38.280 --> 0:24:42.840 evangelist family were taken to Mount Olivet Cemetery and laid 0:24:42.880 --> 0:24:52.920 to rest. After the funeral, Detroit Police held a press 0:24:52.960 --> 0:24:56.800 conference to appeal for witnesses, in particular anyone who might 0:24:56.840 --> 0:24:58.760 have been walking by the house at the time of 0:24:58.760 --> 0:25:03.200 the murders to and forward. With no further tangible clues 0:25:03.520 --> 0:25:07.040 aside from the bloody Prince, the police began the arduous 0:25:07.080 --> 0:25:10.199 task of pouring through the family's possessions in search of 0:25:10.240 --> 0:25:14.120 a lead, having also at first been looking for an 0:25:14.119 --> 0:25:18.040 axe as the murder weapon. Doctor Paul Clever, the Wayne 0:25:18.040 --> 0:25:21.919 County coroner, who examined the bodies, concluded it was in 0:25:21.960 --> 0:25:24.640 fact a sharp knife and not an axe, that they 0:25:24.640 --> 0:25:29.880 should be looking for. Self styled human engineer and astrologer 0:25:29.960 --> 0:25:34.640 Clark Robson, having consulted his astrological charts, gave his opinion 0:25:34.640 --> 0:25:39.000 to the press, stating that the police needn't worry too much, since, 0:25:39.000 --> 0:25:43.000 with mercury and uranus being fifty degrees apart, the killer, 0:25:43.400 --> 0:25:45.400 who he judged to be a man of less than 0:25:45.440 --> 0:25:49.119 medium height with a dark complexion, was also a show 0:25:49.119 --> 0:25:52.840 off and would shortly confess to the crime to gain notoriety. 0:25:53.960 --> 0:25:57.960 Robson also suggested that Benny, evangelist, who he claimed on 0:25:58.000 --> 0:26:01.320 looking at his horoscope, was large driven by his desire 0:26:01.400 --> 0:26:04.679 for money, had known his death was coming, and that 0:26:04.760 --> 0:26:07.639 despite what the police had said, it was in fact 0:26:07.680 --> 0:26:10.240 a dispute over money that led to his and his 0:26:10.320 --> 0:26:19.879 family's murder. It was some point around the time of 0:26:19.920 --> 0:26:24.560 the funeral, with investigators trawling through Benny's personal letters, that 0:26:24.680 --> 0:26:29.159 they uncovered something unusual, a series of letters sent to 0:26:29.200 --> 0:26:34.399 Benny demanding money, and though no threat was explicitly made, 0:26:35.000 --> 0:26:38.440 it was more than implicit, not least because the letters 0:26:38.440 --> 0:26:43.600 had been signed simply the Black Hand. Though not much 0:26:43.720 --> 0:26:46.080 was known about the exact nature of the Black Hand 0:26:46.119 --> 0:26:49.800 at the time, the organization is thought to have originated 0:26:49.840 --> 0:26:54.399 in Napoli sometime in the eighteenth century. In nineteen oh seven, 0:26:54.720 --> 0:26:58.800 a black Hand training camp was discovered in Hillsville, Pennsylvania. 0:26:59.000 --> 0:27:02.720 While many proponents of the organization appeared to be active 0:27:02.800 --> 0:27:06.600 in most Italian communities of major cities on both sides 0:27:06.640 --> 0:27:11.120 of the country, many police departments within the corresponding cities 0:27:11.240 --> 0:27:15.879 had even established special Blackhand units to combat them, and 0:27:16.040 --> 0:27:19.280 so it seemed finally the police had the lead they've 0:27:19.280 --> 0:27:24.760 been looking for. Surely, now solving the murders would only 0:27:24.800 --> 0:27:32.280 be a matter of time. You're listening to Unexplained, Season five, 0:27:32.359 --> 0:27:36.840 Episode twelve, Profit and Loss, Part one of two. Part 0:27:36.880 --> 0:27:43.439