- 4 minutes ago
Some criminals just can’t help themselves. From undercover stings and wiretaps to careless phone calls and offhand remarks, these suspects practically handed investigators the evidence they needed.
Transcript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we'll be looking at criminals who mistakenly confessed to their crimes
00:04or accidentally gave prosecutors legal grounds that led to charges or convictions.
00:08Thank you very much.
00:10Well, thank you very much.
00:13Robert Pickton.
00:14Around the time Robert Pickton was hosting huge parties at his farm's Piggy's Palace,
00:18women began disappearing from Vancouver's downtown Eastside.
00:21This led to speculations that a serial killer was at work.
00:24Any effort to explain that cluster had to account for the following.
00:28Why was this occurring now and hadn't occurred before?
00:32Why was it occurring in Vancouver, but not in other Western Canadian cities?
00:36Then in February 2002, when police raided the property over illegal firearms,
00:40they finally discovered personal belongings of Pickton's victims.
00:43He was arrested, released, and placed under surveillance.
00:46Weeks later, he was rearrested and charged with two murders.
00:49While imprisoned, he made one disastrous mistake.
00:51In a police cell, he reportedly told an undercover officer that he'd killed 49 women
00:55and wanted one more to make it an even 50.
01:01He also described disposing of the remains.
01:03That secretly recorded conversation was later used as evidence in court.
01:07This is a man who deserves nothing but contempt.
01:09Frank Calabrese Sr.
01:11From loan sharking to murder, Frank Calabrese Sr. ruled Chicago's streets with violence.
01:15If somebody asked, what does your husband do for a living, what would you say?
01:18He worked for the city.
01:20Which he did.
01:26His downfall began with a 1990 recording made by an FBI informant.
01:30In 1995, Calabrese was indicted for using threats, violence, and intimidation to enforce his loan sharking operation.
01:37He pleaded guilty and was sent to prison alongside his sons.
01:40Then in July 1998, his son Frank Jr. contacted the FBI with a plan to keep his father behind bars.
01:45I call myself a lot of things, but I don't call myself a rat.
01:49And I'll tell you why, rats run and hide.
01:50I don't run and hide.
01:51From February to June 1999, he wore a wire during conversations with Calabrese in prison.
01:56Apparently unaware he was being recorded, Calabrese openly discussed mob business and past crimes.
02:01I think about when he was in the cafeteria with Rocky, talking about killing guys and how Rocky used to
02:08kill guys.
02:09The recordings became important evidence in Operation Family Secrets, an FBI investigation that targeted organized crime.
02:15Calabrese was one of its biggest fish, ending up with a life sentence.
02:18The hardest thing I ever did to this day is go against my own father.
02:24Alex Murdoch
02:24After his wife Maggie and son Paul were found murdered at the family's property in 2021,
02:29Alex Murdoch initially played the grieving father and husband.
02:32I knew it was really bad.
02:33But his story wasn't completely straight and investigators soon noticed.
02:37Murdoch had told authorities he wasn't at the property shortly before the killings,
02:40until a video from Paul's phone placed his voice there minutes before the murders.
02:43Paul is heard laughing in the background.
02:47Better than it was.
02:48Then during an interview days later, Murdoch broke down while discussing Paul's death.
02:52A state agent testified that he said, I did him so bad.
02:55The defense insisted he actually said they did him so bad.
02:58Either way, the interview drew scrutiny.
03:00Murdoch was eventually convicted of murdering both Maggie and Paul and sentenced to two consecutive life terms,
03:05though those convictions have been since overturned due to a court clerk's jury interference.
03:09Murdoch remains in prison on other convictions waiting to be retried.
03:13The court isn't saying he's now innocent nor guilty,
03:15just that this case must be retried because the jury was tampered by this clerk.
03:20Donald Damascio
03:21In April 1982, Scott Campbell disappeared after boarding a small plane with Lawrence Cowell.
03:26Though his body was never found, his parents refused to let the case go.
03:30We weren't even able to have a funeral because we couldn't find his body.
03:34Their search uncovered Campbell's involvement in a drug deal and led police to suspect Cowell.
03:38A breakthrough came when an undercover federal informant posing as someone connected
03:42to Campbell's drug dealing secretly recorded Cowell.
03:45He eventually implicated co-conspirator Donald Damascio,
03:48who confessed separately to undercover agents.
03:50Damascio said he had strangled Campbell while Cowell pivoted the plane before they dumped
03:54his body into the Pacific.
03:56Both men later claimed they had invented the story to impress people they believed were mafia-connected.
04:01It didn't work.
04:01Their recorded conversations ended up helping to put Damascio away for life.
04:05He was 27.
04:06Brett Peter Cohen
04:07When Daniel Morecambe disappeared from a Queensland roadside in 2003,
04:11there wasn't much evidence pointing to Brett Peter Cohen.
04:13His criminal history and proximity to where Daniel was last seen eventually made him a person of interest.
04:17He knew the area incredibly well.
04:20But when questioned, Cohen denied involvement.
04:22Years later, investigators decided to try an unusual tactic.
04:25Undercover officers posed as members of a criminal organization and slowly gained Cohen's trust.
04:30Believing he was dealing with a crime boss, Cohen began talking about Daniel.
04:33He described the abduction and what happened afterward,
04:35unaware that the conversation was being recorded.
04:38So what do I need to fix?
04:40Yeah, okay.
04:43No.
04:44Then came the biggest mistake.
04:45Cohen led the undercover team to the area where he said he'd left the body.
04:48He was arrested at the site in August 2011.
04:51Can you rest easier now?
04:53Probably not.
04:55No.
04:56I mean, we're public figures and people know what we're doing and where we are and who we are.
05:03Yoran Vandersloot
05:04When Natalie Holloway disappeared in Aruba in 2005,
05:07Yoran Vandersloot was among the last people seen with her.
05:10Yoran Vandersloot was a headstrong, free-willed young man who was accustomed to getting what he wanted.
05:16Yet when questioned, he denied even knowing her name and maintained he had nothing to do with her disappearance.
05:20Did you kill Natalie Holloway?
05:22No.
05:23Did you harm Natalie Holloway?
05:25No.
05:25And why should you be believed after all the lying that you've done in this situation?
05:31There's absolutely no reason to believe me.
05:33Then in 2007, a Dutch crime reporter set a trap using an associate who gained Vandersloot's trust
05:38and secretly recorded their conversations.
05:40Believing he had found a confidant, Vandersloot described Natalie's last moments and how her body was dumped at sea.
05:45She tells me no sense of kneeing me in the crotch.
05:48I get up and I kick her extremely hard in the face.
05:53He soon claimed he had made the entire story up and no arrest followed.
05:56In 2023, he finally admitted killing Natalie as part of a U.S. plea deal.
06:00He remains in prison in Peru for the murder of Stephanie Flores.
06:03James Fayette
06:04Fearful that his estranged wife Pamela would expose him and their bitter divorce would cost him financially,
06:09James Fayette plotted her death.
06:10Prosecutors said he paid an employee $25,000 to arrange the hit.
06:14On July 28, 2008, shortly after meeting with Fayette and their attorneys,
06:18Pamela was ambushed in a Sentry City parking garage and stabbed 13 times.
06:22Someone was waiting for her to come out so that person knew what car she was in.
06:27Days later, Fayette was jailed on unrelated federal charges and maintained his innocence in Pamela's killing.
06:32But while in federal custody, he began talking to a cellmate who was secretly wearing a wire.
06:36Fayette admitted paying for Pamela's murder and discussed killing his accomplices to clean up the mess.
06:40Who's my first name?
06:42Yeah, you told me.
06:43I don't think you remember that.
06:45The secret recording was played at trial, helping secure his 2011 death sentence.
06:49Gary Allen
06:50It took more than 20 years to finally convict Gary Allen of a murder he committed in 1997.
06:55After killing Samantha Klass, Allen was acquitted in 2000 despite evidence linking him to her.
06:59Soon after, he attacked two sex workers and later told a probation officer he liked hurting women.
07:04The police and the investigators were so sure that he was the perpetrator and they said to him, you need
07:12to just get out of town.
07:13You need to get out of town.
07:14So when Allen returned to the Humberside area in 2010, police feared he could be a danger again.
07:19They launched a two-year undercover operation building a fake criminal world around him.
07:23One officer posing as a criminal became his friend and Allen eventually confessed to Klass's murder, which he repeated months
07:29later.
07:29He made it seem like it was her fault basically, but he did admit to doing it.
07:34The evidence helped overturn his acquittal and in 2021, Allen was convicted of her murder and that of another woman
07:39in 2018.
07:40Arthur Hilliard
07:41When Diamond Turner disappeared in Chicago in 2017, Arthur Hilliard, the man she had been dating, claimed she had left
07:47his apartment in the night.
07:48Days later, her body was found in a trash can, beaten and asphyxiated.
07:52Hilliard tried to distance himself and even blamed his roommate for the murder.
07:55But witnesses remembered seeing a blood trail from his bedroom, a mattress being dumped and Hilliard cleaning a hammer.
08:01Then he made things worse by discussing the murder while secretly being recorded.
08:04I'm gonna give you the whole story.
08:06I ain't never seen nothing like this in my life except on TV.
08:09Hilliard described the killing in extraordinary detail, even revealing where the sledgehammer was hidden.
08:14Just open that basement door.
08:15You're gonna go to that corner.
08:16Right behind that is the murder weapon.
08:18A big sledgehammer.
08:19Still, investigators needed forensic evidence to strengthen the case.
08:22Nearly three years later, testing matched Turner's blood to Hilliard's apartment.
08:26By then, Hilliard had been linked to other murders.
08:28When the time comes, he's gonna be penalized for it.
08:31I'm just praying that I'm still alive.
08:34Stephen McDaniel.
08:35He played the concerned neighbor, but one question made police wonder what he knew.
08:39We're just trying to find out where she is at this point.
08:42When Lauren Giddings disappeared in 2011, Stephen McDaniel spoke to reporters outside their apartment complex.
08:47He initially came across as a worried neighbor, then appeared shaken when told that a body had been found.
08:52Body?
08:53Had you heard, had you seen anything there?
08:57Had you seen anything there?
08:58At that point, police hadn't publicly revealed that Giddings' torso had been discovered.
09:02That unusual reaction drew suspicion and made investigators focus on McDaniel.
09:06Are you okay, sir?
09:08I think I need to sit down.
09:10They later discovered a master key to Giddings' apartment and packaging for a hacksaw later found with her blood on
09:15it.
09:15The camera also contained footage of him spying on Giddings' apartment.
09:18In 2014, McDaniel pleaded guilty to strangling Giddings and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 30
09:24years.
09:25David Youngerman.
09:26In Kansas City tonight, an arrest and the mysterious murder of personal injury attorney Tom Pickert.
09:32Kansas City, Missouri attorney Tom Pickert was fatally shot in front of his home on October 25, 2017.
09:37Pickert had recently helped his client win a $5.75 million civil settlement against millionaire businessman David Youngerman.
09:43While Youngerman's van was spotted by witnesses at the scene, he denied any involvement in Pickert's murder.
09:48However, when police searched his house, they found some incriminating evidence, including a digital audio tape containing what appeared to
09:54be a confession.
09:55Apparently unaware that he was being recorded, Youngerman allegedly admitted to being responsible for Pickert's death.
10:00Saying in part, people know that I murdered that son of a expletive.
10:04This recording helped prosecutors secure a conviction of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
10:09As to count one, we the jury find the defendant, David Youngerman, guilty of murder in the first degree.
10:14William Corzon.
10:15Police surrounded the home at the end of this lane off Barcroft Road in Lower Windsor Township this morning, taking
10:21into custody a 76-year-old man.
10:24For nearly 40 years, the whereabouts of Gloria Corzon remained unknown.
10:27Gloria had been married to William Corzon since 1967 and suffered domestic violence for years.
10:33In 1981, she mysteriously disappeared.
10:35She was just 37 at the time. Her body was never found, but she was formally declared dead in 1997.
10:41Although her family believed that Corzon had a hand in Gloria's disappearance, there was simply no way of proving it.
10:46Until 2019, after police reopened the case, they reached out to Corzon, who immediately inquired if they'd found her body.
10:52The only problem was that police didn't even know there was a body to find.
10:55By all indications, Gloria was still presumed missing.
10:57As a result, Corzon was charged with criminal homicide.
11:00They eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 7 and a half to 15 years in prison.
11:04Unfortunately, as lives have been lost along the way, victims like Gloria helped pave the way for abusers to be
11:10punished properly and saved countless other lives.
11:13Aaron Burrell
11:13It could be a scene from a movie. Criminals calling the cops on themselves by accident.
11:20It's rather unusual for a 911 call to be made not by the victim of a crime, but by the
11:24perpetrator.
11:25That was the case for a burglary that occurred in New Mexico in September of 2014.
11:28One of the suspects in the case, Aaron Burrell, mistakenly butt-dialed 911 after making his getaway from the crime
11:34scene.
11:34For nearly 45 minutes, dispatchers listened in as Burrell and his accomplice, Yvonne Thyberg, gloated about their alleged actions and
11:40how they successfully made their getaway.
11:42I was like, all we gotta do is hit the highway, you know, hit on the other side of McGaffney
11:45and we're f***ing gone.
11:46F***ing, you know, sure enough, we lost that mother-
11:49It didn't take long for police to trace the call down to Burrell, who was arrested alongside Thyberg on multiple
11:54criminal charges related to the burglary.
11:56Officer was sent to the address that they mentioned to check on the house, found that it was indeed, had
12:02been burglarized.
12:03A third suspect, Marvin Myers, was also arrested but later released.
12:07Guy Saleo
12:08When 31-year-old chef Jim Webb was found dead at his restaurant, police suspected his business partner, Guy Saleo.
12:14In the beginning of their business partnership, they got along well.
12:18However, the pressures of the financial responsibilities they had caused a lot of tension between the two of them.
12:24They, however, discovered that Saleo seemingly had an alibi for the night of the murder.
12:28Webb had been shot in the back of his head, but the manner of his death was withheld from the
12:32public.
12:32So it made police all the more suspicious when Saleo, while consoling Webb's wife, asked her,
12:36Who would want to shoot Jim?
12:38Upon further investigation, Saleo's alibi quickly fell through, and authorities found out that he and Webb had both taken out
12:44$650,000 life insurance policies on each other.
12:47Those policies had one purpose, which is that if one partner died, that the other one would be able to
12:52meet the debt load of the restaurant.
12:54In 2001, Saleo was charged with Webb's murder and received a life sentence upon conviction.
12:58When they read that verdict, it was the best thing I ever heard.
13:02Ivan Milat
13:03The most feared predator in Australian criminal history.
13:06Regarded as one of the worst serial killers in Australia's history, Ivan Milat was responsible for the deaths of at
13:11least seven people between 1989 and 1992.
13:14During his trial in 1996, Milat was said to have exuded an air of confidence unusual for a criminal with
13:20a mountain of damning evidence against him.
13:21That confidence seems to have contributed to his downfall.
13:24While being questioned about a glove used to commit the crimes, Milat first responded with,
13:28I wore no, before realizing his mistake in stopping.
13:30From my point of view, it was an admission, and quite frankly, the way he said it and expressed it
13:37aggressively, it was an accurate admission.
13:41He then proceeded to deny ever seeing the glut.
13:43Prosecutors took advantage of Milat's slip-up and were eventually able to convince the jury that he was, in fact,
13:48the backpacker murderer.
13:49You're saying the happiest day of your life would be when your brother dies?
13:52I think his demise would be greatly appreciated by me, yeah.
13:56For the damage he's done.
13:58Not to me.
13:59To all those people out there.
14:01Arian Circle Members
14:02On July 1st, 2016, Clifton Hallmark, an Arian Circle member, was shot and killed by one of his associates, Jeremy
14:08Jordan, at a pre-Independence Day party.
14:10Instead of reporting the crime, the group recruited Hallmark's wife and another woman to take his body to a local
14:15gas station and stage his death as the result of a robbery.
14:18But when the women called 911, they discussed the details of their intended cover-up, while dispatchers listened.
14:23In addition, surveillance footage from the gas station showed that no robbery had taken place.
14:27That was all police needed to arrest Jordan on charges related to the murder.
14:30Seven other Circle members, including the two bumbling women, were charged with accessory after the fact.
14:36Merle Mackey
14:37Reality shows often get a bad rep for their exploitative and sometimes unpleasant nature.
14:41But in this case, one reality show helped crack a decades-old murder case.
14:45Back in 1981, Evelyn Laverne Mackey vanished from the Florida home she shared with her daughter and her husband, Merle
14:50Mackey.
14:51Hey, when is mom coming home? Have you heard from her?
14:54And Merle asked me, what would you say if I told you your mom wasn't coming home?
15:00The mystery behind her disappearance remained unsolved until 2015.
15:03When the reality show Cold Justice took investigators to interview Merle Mackey one more time,
15:08after being grilled for hours, Mackey initially claimed that Laverne's death was an accident.
15:11But when he began going into detail, he inadvertently revealed that the incident had been premeditated.
15:16It's colossal. It's an explosion in my brain that he's talking.
15:21He's taking ownership to be in there at the time of her death, something he's never done.
15:25Mackey eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a 10-year prison sentence.
15:29I believe that Merle Mackey killed Laverne just for the money in a bank account.
15:35He could care less about her being a person, a human being.
15:40Anthony Garcia.
15:41Thought that it would be a great idea to tattoo a crime scene on his chest.
15:44While some fictional criminals get tattoos of prison blueprints to help them escape,
15:48some of their real-life counterparts, Inkwork, have landed them behind bars.
15:51In 2008, Anthony Garcia had his mugshot taken after he was arrested at a routine traffic stop.
15:56When police took a second look at the picture, they were struck by the distinctive tattoo across his chest.
16:01Turns out the elaborate design was actually a vivid recreation of a 2004 murder carried out by Garcia.
16:06He looked at this gentleman's tattoo and realized,
16:08oh my god, this is the crime scene from that liquor store sling.
16:13Several details from the crime scene were depicted in the tattoo,
16:15including the liquor store where it occurred and the direction the victim's body fell.
16:19An undercover policeman was able to extract a further confession from Garcia,
16:22which led to his eventual conviction.
16:25Nancy Crampton Brophy.
16:26I think your case is held together with, real frankly, band-aids.
16:30If you plan to get away with killing your husband,
16:32it might help to not publish an essay and title it How to Murder Your Husband.
16:36The murderous wife in this case is Nancy Crampton Brophy,
16:38a writer whose husband, Daniel Brophy, was shot and killed at his workplace.
16:42Dan Brophy was dead at age 63.
16:45Somebody just wanted to execute this person.
16:48His wife's infamous essay had raised suspicions among the police,
16:51who arrested and charged her three months later.
16:53While in jail, Crampton Brophy allegedly let it slip to one of her cellmates
16:56that she was close by when the shooting happened,
16:58before quickly correcting her mistake.
17:00The cellmate in question took the stand during her trial and testified against her.
17:04Because I said, wow, that must have been close up, you know,
17:08and she used her arm span and said, well, it was about this far.
17:13In the end, Crampton Brophy was found guilty of second-degree murder and locked up for life.
17:19Want more true crime on WatchMojo?
17:21Check out our dedicated 24-hour livestream.
17:24True crime all the time.
17:26We're going to have a great time together, Cheryl.
17:29Robert Durst
17:30In January 2022, real estate heir Robert Durst died in prison
17:34after being convicted of the murder of his longtime friend, Susan Berman.
17:37This is an interesting picture of you and Susan.
17:40Yes, I'd like to get a copy of this.
17:42Durst had gained international recognition
17:44after his involvement in the HBO miniseries The Jinx.
17:47The critically acclaimed documentary revolved around Durst
17:50and the three murders he was suspected of carrying out.
17:52During the final episode, Durst was presented
17:54with damning handwriting evidence implicating him in Berman's murder.
17:57In a shocking turn, he walked into the bathroom
17:59and muttered what seemed to be a confession.
18:01What the hell are you doing?
18:09Mmm-mm.
18:12Killed him all.
18:14Of course.
18:15Although it was later revealed that the clip was edited by the filmmakers,
18:17Durst was arrested and charged with the crime,
18:19in part due to the evidence presented in the series.
18:22Durst, under arrest in that orange jumpsuit,
18:24entering court, about to be extradited, charged with murder.
18:27Which killer's confession shocked you the most?
18:29Drop a line in the comments section.
18:31Until next time.
18:32The phone .
18:33The Brown Withよ
18:35You
18:35The brown Withky
18:36You
18:36The Brown Withky
18:37You