Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: This program is about unsolved mysteries.

Whenever possible, the actual family members

and police officials have participated

in recreating the events.

What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.

NARRATOR: Tonight on "Unsolved Mysteries,"

the story of an undercover cop who allegedly went wrong.

On the day of his trial, he fled into the Louisiana swamps.

And his fellow officers believe he is playing

a lethal game of hide-and-seek.

According to history and Hollywood legend,

notorious outlaw Billy the Kid was gunned down by his friend,

Sheriff Pat Garrett late 1881.

Reese [inaudible] suggests that Garrett killed the wrong man.

In 1987, Donald Smith, accompanied

by a mysterious hitchhiker, had a tearful reunion

with his long-lost daughter.

The next day, both men vanished.

These intriguing stories all need

one vital clue, one final piece of information

before they can be solved.

Perhaps someone watching tonight can help.

Perhaps it's you.

[theme music]

NARRATOR: May the 16th, 1987, Denver,

Colorado-- at 2:00 in the morning,

two vehicles collided on a downtown street.

One driver fled the scene, abandoning his pickup truck.

A few minutes later, when police arrived to investigate

the scene of the accident, they did a thorough search

of the abandoned pickup truck.

Inside, they found a bloody jack handle, and a room

key from a local motel.

Police went to the motel and discovered

that the driver of the abandoned vehicle

was registered there under the name of Larry Monroe.

I think we might have what we're looking for, guys.

NARRATOR: In his room, they found

a pair of pants and a sweatshirt,

both covered with blood.

Still fresh.

Denver police tracked the abandoned pickup

truck to a white man named Donald

Smith from Hemet, California.

Yet, the driver who ran from the collision in Denver was black.

Police could get no information at all

about the man who registered at the motel

under the name of Larry Monroe.

But they were able to check out Don Smith.

They found that Smith's wife had not heard from him for 12 days,

ever since he left home to begin a cross-country trip.

What started out as a simple traffic

accident would soon turn into a bizarre murder--

a murder that police are still trying to solve.

Don Smith, the owner of the abandoned vehicle,

lived with his second wife in Hemet, a small town

in southern California.

He'd been feeling despondent because he

was not well enough to work.

So he decided to drive cross-country to visit

relatives.

Smith left Hemet on May the 11th,

1987, driving the pickup truck and towing a trailer.

He was accompanied only by his two Labrador retrievers.

Don was anxious to visit his daughter Brenda in Idaho.

Brenda was the only child from Don's first marriage.

For most of her life, she and her father had been kept apart.

BRENDA WALKER: My mother kept me away from my father.

They didn't get along real well after the divorce.

And I think I only saw him like once up until the time

my mother died, and then I started searching for him.

He was searching for me, as well.

NARRATOR: When Brenda was 26 years old,

herself a divorced mother of two, she and her father

were finally-- and joyfully-- reunited.

BRENDA WALKER: Oh, it was a really good relationship.

It was almost like we had always known each other.

It was more close.

I could tell him anything.

He was very protective of me.

And if I ever had a problem, he said, just let me know.

I'll take care of it for you.

He was kind of a macho man, I guess.

Basically, it was a real good relationship.

With the exception of my father drank-- which he didn't

do very often, thank god.

He turned into kind of a different person

when he was drunk.

NARRATOR: The day after Don Smith

left Hemet, he and another man pulled up

in front of the hospital where Brenda

worked as a psychiatric nurse.

Smith stayed in the truck, but his companion got out

and walked into the hospital.

Hi.

I'm looking for Brenda Walker.

She's not working today.

I can probably connect you with his supervisor.

NARRATOR: The receptionist referred the matter to Brenda's

supervisor, John Slane.

Yeah, this is John.

Yeah, I'm looking for Brenda Walker.

She's not here today.

Who is this, please?

A friend of her father's, and I need

to get in contact with her.

I can't give you that information over the phone.

I'll tell you what, why don't I meet

you out in the parkling lot?

OK, great.

NARRATOR: Slane went outside to talk to Don Smith.

Hi.

You're Brenda's dad?

Yeah.

Where's my baby girl, Brenda?

JOHN SLANE: Yeah, he was obviously been drinking.

And he said, you know, where's Brenda at?

And I said, well, she's fishing with her girlfriends.

The guy that was driving, he leaned

over to get the directions.

Once I explained to him how to get up to the one intersection,

he seemed to know where that was.

NARRATOR: Just 15 miles away, Brenda and her friends

had given up fishing and stopped by a saloon near the lake.

The three of them were having a drink at the bar.

BRENDA WALKER: We're sitting there

at the bar near the window by the front door.

The door opened, and everyone in the bar turned around.

There was a black man that had come in.

And he closed the door.

He had sunglasses on.

Took the sunglasses off and looked

around for a few minutes.

I think he was probably allowing his eyes

to adjust to the darkness.

Then he walked into the restroom,

and about probably a minute later,

this man came in with wild hair, and his shirt was untucked.

Hi, is there a Brenda Walker in here?

Hi, Dad.

BRENDA WALKER: It took me a minute

to really realize who he was.

It was my father.

I missed you so much.

He looked so different from the last time I saw him.

And he hugged me and sat at the bar with me for a minute,

and I realized that he was drunk.

And I went into the restroom.

I was a little upset because he had showed up drunk,

and it kind of embarrassed me in front of my friends.

She's such a sweetheart.

I sure missed her.

BRENDA WALKER: I went into the restroom.

I came back out.

Are you OK?

Uh-huh, how 'bout you?

I want to be with you so much.

BRENDA WALKER: Then he starts crying immediately.

And he's babbling, and he's talking about how he doesn't

want to be alive anymore and how he's got cancer,

and he was going to be with my mother in heaven.

And then his companion came out of the restroom.

Hey.

They don't serve whiskey in here.

BRENDA WALKER: The black man just kept on walking.

He kind of looked over at my father

and then just kept walking like he didn't really

know who he was, kind of ignored him a little bit and went out

and got into the truck and got into the driver's

seat of my father's truck.

I kept looking out the window at him.

He'd sit there, and he had his head leaning on the steering

wheel staring out at the lake.

And I don't know, he looked real impatient, looked

disgusted with being there.

I'm just sorry.

Oh, god.

I've fouled your life up for all these years.

I don't want to hear you cry.

I don't want to hear this.

Why don't you just go get a motel room,

sober up, and then come back and talk to me tomorrow about it?

Anyone wanna fight in here?

Let's go.

I can flip anyone in here.

NARRATOR: When her father became belligerent,

Brenda walked out of the saloon.

After a few minutes, Brenda's father followed her outside.

But she left without speaking to him.

BRENDA WALKER: I wish that I would have

had more patience with him.

I wish I would have understood his situation.

I wish I would have tried to be more compassionate with him.

It was the last time I saw him.

He opened up the camper and let the dogs out,

let them run around.

And I just drove away.

NARRATOR: Two weeks later, in the high desert outside Twin

Falls, Idaho, a couple out for their morning walk

made a horrible discovery.

Police were called in to remove and identify the dead body.

BILL TILSON: We observed a body that

appeared to have been thrown over the guardrail,

laying down.

The body was decaying for approximately two weeks.

We could not recognize him at that point.

There was no identification found around him or on him.

At this time, we had no idea who we had.

We just had another John Doe.

An autopsy was done, and we found bludgeon marks

on the back of the head, indicating cause of death

was by bludgeon.

Also outside of the guardrail, where possibly the victim

was thrown from, we found a sack with a bottle of wine in it.

It was just taken as evidence.

It wasn't until we had the body identified that it all started

fitting in to the crime scene.

NARRATOR: The Twin Falls Sheriff's Department

have no idea who the body was until they heard

about the two-car collision in Denver,

where the driver of the pickup truck had fled the scene.

Hey!

Hey!

NARRATOR: The Denver police discovered the abandoned

vehicle belonged to Don Smith.

They issued a possible homicide bulletin.

BILL TILSON: Denver police had sent out a teletype indicating

that they had a vehicle involved in an accident that possibly

was involved in a homicide.

So I called the Denver Police Department,

and they gave me the name of a subject, Donald Smith.

NARRATOR: Fingerprints from the dead man

in Twin Falls positively identified

the body as Donald Smith.

Police began to piece together the events that

led up to Don Smith's murder.

On May 11, the very day Smith left home,

he ran into trouble with a trailer he was towing.

Just outside Las Vegas, he arranged to leave

his trailer with a local man.

One theory is that soon after Smith left Las Vegas,

he picked up a hitchhiker.

At some point along the way, Smith started drinking.

The day after he saw his daughter Brenda,

Don Smith turned up in Park City, Utah.

I need you to send me some money.

NARRATOR: He called his sister in Vancouver

asking her to wire him money.

That same day, Smith picked up $200.

He was accompanied by a man who looked

exactly like the one Brenda had seen

with her father in the bar.

Police theorized that the hitchhiker Smith had picked up

murdered him when Smith stopped to let his dogs out for a run.

The murder weapon was probably a jack

handle, grabbed from the rear of Smith's pickup truck.

Police suspect that the man dumped

Smith's body in the high desert, where it

was found over two weeks later.

I want to know why he killed my father.

I want to know why he took my father away from me and away

from my children.

My father was the only family I had.

NARRATOR: This composite of Don Smith's mysterious companion

was compiled from various eyewitness accounts.

He is black, but with relatively light skin,

and probably in his 30s.

He stands around six feet tall and weighs about 180 pounds.

He may use the name Larry Monroe,

and may once have lived in the area of Blackfoot, Idaho.

Next, the story of Billy the Kid, notorious outlaw

and a legend of the West.

Was he really killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett,

or did he live to the ripe old age of 91?

[theme music]

NARRATOR: The legendary Billy the Kid,

easily the most notorious desperado of a Wild,

Wild West-- he killed 21 men, one for every year of his life.

Recognize that man over there?

The one without the whiskers is Billy the Kid.

Billy the Kid?

NARRATOR: In 1941, Buster Crabbe played

the role in one of over 250 movies

made about the famous outlaw.

Hollywood had started a legend.

Traditional wisdom tells us that Billy

the Kid was born William Bonnet in New York City in 1859.

He fought against the rich ranchers

in the Lincoln County cattle war,

and was given a death sentence for killing

Sheriff William Brady.

According to history-- and the movies-- in 1881,

Billy the Kid was hunted down by Sheriff

Pat Garrett, who tracked him to Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

Billy was hiding in the home of a friend, Pete Maxwell.

Unaware of Garrett's arrival, he went out back to wash up.

Garrett crept into Maxwell's house to ambush Billy.

He was eager to collect the $500 reward that have been offered

for Billy the Kid's death.

Who is it?

Who is it?

NARRATOR: History tells us that Billy

was buried the following day in a simple grave.

But history may be wrong.

WILLIAM A. TUNSTALL: This whole legend of Billy the Kid

was absolutely no truth.

90% of what we've heard and been taught as students in schools

is not true.

NARRATOR: 68 years later, the Hollywood legend

was turned upside down when, in 1950,

a 91-year-old man from Hico, Texas

named Brushy Bill Roberts came out of obscurity

and alleged that he was Billy the Kid.

Despite a massive controversy, his claim still stands.

There is no doubt whatever in my mind

about Brushy Bill and Billy the Kid

was one and the same person.

NARRATOR: Historian Donald Lavash disagrees.

There is absolutely no comparison whatsoever

between Brushy Bill Roberts, known

as Ollie Partridge Roberts, and William Bonnet,

alias Billy the Kid.

NARRATOR: While the rest of America

believes the Hollywood legend of Billy the Kid, in Hico, Texas,

the tiny community of 1,300 is absolutely

certain the famous outlaw was really Brushy Bill Roberts.

Many historians scoff at Brushy Bill's story.

But William Tunstall's belief that

Brushy really was Billy the Kid cannot

be dismissed out of hand.

There is evidence that supports this claim.

And if that claim is true, then this chapter

in the history of the American West may have to be rewritten.

In 1948, Florida attorney William Morrison

first uncovered evidence that Billy

the Kid did not die in 1881.

A client told him that years ago, he had actually

fought Billy the Kid in the Lincoln County Wars,

and that the kid was still alive.

BARBARA KUCHLER: And as my father was talking to the man,

he referred to Lincoln County.

My father said, oh, that's where Billy the Kid was killed up

there at Pete Maxwell's house.

And the man said, oh, no, no.

He wasn't killed.

He's still around.

NARRATOR: Fascinated, Morrison crossed

the West talking to the other old timers about Billy the Kid.

He discovered that many thought that Billy

was indeed still alive, quietly living

under the name Brushy Bill.

Finally, in 1949, Morrison made the trip to Hico, Texas

to confront Brushy in person and ask

him if the rumors were true.

Brushy Bill here.

Nice to meet you in person.

I am Billy the Kid.

Come on in.

We'll talk about this a little further.

WILLIAM A. TUNSTALL: We must keep in mind that this man

did not seek publicity.

He did not seek to come out from seclusion.

He was drawn out.

Come on in.

NARRATOR: Brushy Bill wanted Morrison's help

in finally getting the pardon that was promised

to him in 1879 by the governor of New Mexico

for turning state's evidence.

I expect a full pardon out of this, so when I die my slate

will be clean.

I'll help you if I can.

But you have to be able to prove to me

you are who you say you are.

I can do that.

I've still got the scars.

And I didn't get these sitting around and no rocking chair.

NARRATOR: The scars seemed to match the reported

wounds received by the Kid during his short-lived outlaw

career.

This one here on my shoulder is from a knife

wound down south of the border.

I'm really not too proud of that.

There were 17 points of identification

of similarity between the two.

Both men had small hands and large wrists, protruding teeth,

protruding ears, same head size, same boot size, and the weight.

There's no record anywhere where there's anything having

to do with a boot size of Billy the Kid,

a waist size of Billy the Kid, or a hat size

of Billy the Kid-- nothing.

But it does tell us something about his eyes.

This reporter states unequivocally,

without question, that they were clear blue eyes.

Brushy Bill had speckled eyes.

Some of these spots is still fresh in my memory.

Right over that hill there, we used to camp out.

NARRATOR: In 1950, Brushy Bill took Morrison

on a guided tour of the Kid's former haunts

in Lincoln County.

Morrison died in 1976, but he told

his daughter about the trip.

Brushy Bill would give incidents

that only someone that was actually

involved in the Lincoln County War would have known.

My father became convinced that this man

was-- Brushy Bill Roberts was actually Billy the Kid.

NARRATOR: Morrison then contacted

five people who had known Billy the Kid

during the Lincoln County War.

Each of them separately met Brushy Bill in person.

All five witnesses signed sworn affidavits

stating that Brushy Bill Roberts was indeed Billy the Kid.

If Brushy Bill really was Billy the Kid,

one nagging question remains.

What really happened on July 14, 1881 in Fort Sumner?

According to Brushy Bill, on the night of the shooting

he was with his girlfriend Celsa and his partner

Billy Barlow at Jesus Silva's house.

These are the precise words Brushy Bill used

in his testimony to William Morrison

to describe the events of that fateful night.

BILLY THE KID (VOICEOVER): Silva said if one of us

would go next door and get beef, he would cook it for us.

I sensed a trap.

He started out after I refused to leave the house.

I thought that Garrett might still be in town,

and I wanted to meet him in the daytime

so I could beat him to it.

NARRATOR: Unknown to the Kid, Garrett and his posse

had taken cover across the yard.

BILLY THE KID (VOICEOVER): One of their first shots

had killed my partner.

I ran out into the yard.

I ran through the gate and started shooting

at shadows along the house.

The first shot struck me in the lower jaw.

The other struck me in the shoulder,

and then another struck me across the top of my head.

When I woke up, a Mexican woman was putting beef tallow

on my head to stop the blood.

I told her to reload my 44.

Then Celsa came running in said they'd killed Barlow

and were passing off his body as mine.

She begged me to leave town.

NARRATOR: Brushy claims that the next day, Billy Barlow

was buried in his place.

WILLIAM A. TUNSTALL: In a normal procedure,

the Sheriff would have brought the corpse to a place

for anyone to witness.

He would have demonstrated his gun, his clothing,

his boots, his rifle.

Pat Garrett not follow that procedure.

He took every precaution to conceal

the identity of the corpse.

He realized he had killed the wrong man.

Pat Garrett enlisted some 21 people that purportedly

knew William Bonnet.

And they assembled, passed by the casket,

and said, yes, that's William Bonnet--

Billy the Kid-- in that casket.

NARRATOR: By 1950, Morrison felt he had gathered

enough evidence to request a pardon from Governor

Mabry of New Mexico.

He agreed to meet them in person.

BARBARA KUCHLER: Brushy Bill was very nervous.

He saw some deputy standing there,

and they had guns in their holsters.

How do we know you're not an imposter?

BARBARA KUCHLER: This a man 91 years old,

did not want to hang, and they were all saying, if he is

Billy the Kid, he's an outlaw.

He's a criminal.

You don't pardon him.

You hang him.

NARRATOR: The interview turned into a press circus.

90-year-old Brushy was confused and scared

by the reporters, historians, and even

Pat Garret's relatives.

Brushy, who's buried in that grave

if Pat Garret didn't kill Billy the Kid?

How many aliases have you had all these years?

Governor Mabry, do you really intend

to give this man a pardon?

I am taking no action now or ever

on this application for a pardon for Billy the Kid,

because I do not believe this man to be Billy the Kid.

The governor never even gave him

a chance to present the evidence by just

flat out telling him he wasn't even going to consider it.

NARRATOR: Morrison's legal arguments and affidavits were

not even entered into evidence.

Brushy Bill felt he had been humiliated,

his claims ridiculed.

His pardon was not granted.

Shortly after the meeting with Governor Maybury,

Brushy Bill suffered a heart attack and died on a street

in Hico, Texas.

BARBARA KUCHLER: All he wanted was to have his name cleared.

That's all he was trying to do, getting back his dignity.

I have no doubts in my mind at all.

And the more I get into my father's papers,

the more I get into his records, the more I read,

no one would ever convince me Brushy

Bill was not Billy the Kid.

NARRATOR: Brushy Bill's friends and neighbors

have erected a memorial to Brushy Bill Roberts which

reads, "He spent the last days of his life trying to prove

to the world his true identity.

We believe his story, and pray to God for the forgiveness

he solemnly asked for."

[theme music]

NARRATOR: In a previous broadcast,

we examined the strange disappearance

of Angelo Desideri, a 58-year-old businessman who

lived in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.

On the morning of Monday, June 6, 1998,

Angelo failed to open his gift shop.

Concerned, his friends called the police.

They arrived at Angelo's house and discovered it undisturbed.

It appeared that Angelo had been interrupted while preparing

a mid-afternoon meal.

A neighbor fueled police suspicion

when he said he had seen Angelo's Cadillac speed

off the Sunday he disappeared.

LEW DEAN: It was very difficult to see-- of course,

I couldn't see any facial characteristics--

and it just appeared to be a person taller than Angelo.

It wasn't like Angelo to pull out without acknowledging me.

NARRATOR: At 6:32 on Monday evening,

30 hours after Angelo disappeared

and 400 miles away from Phoenix, a 1985 Cadillac

was found ablaze in the San Diego parking lot.

Gasoline had been used to set the fire.

Investigators traced the owner of the car.

It belonged to Angelo Desideri.

We looked in the trunk and found absolutely nothing

in that trunk that would have been

there other than the jack-- no carpet,

no padding, no spare time.

Basically, this tells us that there could have been something

in the vehicle that was transported in that vehicle,

and when it was taken out they took the carpet and the padding

and wrapped it all in one unit and took

everything out of the vehicle, including the spare tire.

NARRATOR: For over eight months, investigators and friends

were baffled as to the motive for Angelo's disappearance.

Update-- on March 16, Phoenix police

charged a local resident, Joe Calo, with conspiracy

to commit armed robbery and burglary on Angelo Desideri.

They learned that Calo was a friend and business associative

of Angelo, and had detailed information

concerning his disappearance.

Joe Calo told us that all the information he had

was told to him by James Majors.

NARRATOR: James Majors had worked

with Calo in construction.

He is currently in a California jail facing

several counts of murder.

TIM AHUMADA: During the interview of Joe Calo,

he stated that Majors went to the house, got into the house

by ringing the doorbell and asking for a glass of water,

then took Angelo at gunpoint and robbed the house.

He was taken out of the house at that time by Majors

and driven out into the desert.

NARRATOR: Calo's claims that somewhere between Phoenix

and San Diego, Majors murdered Angelo and then

placed the body in the trunk of the Cadillac

and continued on toward San Diego.

The following morning, Majors goes to a hardware store--

we're not sure where; we believe it's in some small town

between here and California-- where he

purchased a pick and a shovel.

NARRATOR: Calo's claims that after buying the tools,

Majors told him that he had driven

down a desert backroad to an area

adjacent to a rundown house.

He then buried Angelo near a large tree.

According to Calo, Majors did a really unique thing.

And that is, as he's leaving the gravesite,

he stopped and gave the shovel and the pick

to the poor people that lived in that shack.

And then he exited onto the highway

and drove into California.

NARRATOR: Joe Calo also told investigators that Majors

had a storage locker.

Police searched the locker and recovered

property belonging to Angelo.

These items were traced back to the Desideri home.

Next, the story of Charles Mule a model policeman--

or so his partners thought.

In reality, Charles Mule is an accused child molester

and wanted fugitive.

[theme music]

NARRATOR: Surrounded by swamps and bayous,

Slidell, Louisiana lies on the outskirts of New Orleans.

Slidell is a conservative community, an unlikely setting

for a shocking series of crimes that ended in a local motel

room over four years ago.

The evening of March 1 of 1985, 36-year-old Charles Mule

escorted a 12-year-old girl to his rented room.

Moments later, police arrested Mule.

They charged him with the sexual molestation of a minor.

The authorities knew the suspect well.

Charles Mule was a fellow police officer.

In fact, he was a sergeant in charge

of sexual offenses at the Slidell Police Department.

The young girl was a child he was counseling.

One of the most wrenching things that

can face law enforcement officers

is when one of their own goes bad.

Charles Mule's arrest outraged his former partners.

They found it hard to believe that one of their own

could have betrayed the public trust

in such a shocking fashion.

But the evidence was all too convincing.

Because of the nature of these offenses,

we've used actors to portray the 12-year-old victim

and her family.

We've also changed their names.

Hey, man.

Yeah, what can I do for you?

Yeah, I'm looking for some smoking dope.

NARRATOR: Sergeant Mule was a highly

regarded undercover officer in Slidell's Police Department.

In 1983, he was chosen as Slidell's

police officer of the year.

Mule was so adept in his undercover disguise

that he once arrested the same felon three different times

without being recognized.

Sheriff's office.

You're under arrest.

Up against the truck.

NARRATOR: After his transfer to the sexual molestation detail

in 1981, he was assigned to the case

of a 12-year-old girl who'd been upset by the advances

of an older boy.

My daughter and a friend of hers in the neighborhood

had come to me complaining about a boy

who had been harassing them very badly in the neighborhood.

And I talked to the other girl's mother,

and we both decided it might be a good idea to call the police

station to report this boy.

So all you're really going to be doing

is talking to Sergeant Mule.

He's probably going to ask you a few questions.

We finally did appear at the police station.

That was the first encounter we had with Sergeant Mule.

We're the Joseph's.

Sargeant Mule.

How you doin', fokls?

You must be Claire.

Well, come on in.

VICTIM'S MOTHER: I had no reason not to trust him.

I never regarded him as anything but a policeman.

Sergeant Mule, a policeman.

If you folks don't mind, you can sit out here.

NARRATOR: Mule not only deceived the parents,

but his fellow officers had no idea of his activities.

He and I worked most of the sex crime cases

that were reported to the Slidell Police Department

at that time, adult and juvenile.

We saw each other, of course, every day.

We worked cases together.

I thought he handled himself very professionally.

When I worked with him, I thought Charlie

was pretty good policeman.

Well, folks, I think I've got this figured out.

And we may have a problem.

I don't want you to be too concerned.

I'm going to have to interview your daughter.

I'm going to have to interview the boy again.

VICTIM'S MOTHER: Later on, when he

would call the house about her, he would say, why

don't you bring her down here?

And you don't need to wait.

It's ridiculous for you to sit there and wait.

And I said, OK.

No sooner had I turned the block,

he was leaving the police station

with her, walking past other policemen, put her in the car,

and they would leave.

NARRATOR: Mule took the young girl to a motel room

that he had reserved for undercover work.

Our daughter started changing.

I knew that something was bothering my daughter,

because she would say, Daddy, don't look at me.

NARRATOR: The girl stated that Mule had been

seeing her for four months.

She could no longer take the emotional strain.

She told her parents what had been occurring.

And all I could keep saying over and over in my mind was,

I can't believe that he did this.

I remember her telling me how relieved

she was to get it all out.

NARRATOR: In order to gather more incriminating evidence,

police, in consultation with a reluctant Joseph family,

asked the 12-year-old girl to make

one more rendezvous with Mule.

This time, the motel room would be

used as a trap with a hidden video camera

to secure just enough evidence for prosecution.

Sheriff's office.

Freeze.

You're under arrest.

NARRATOR: Before the girl could be compromised,

Mule was arrested by his fellow officers

and booked for child molestation.

Bend over a little bit.

CATHY PORTER: I received a phone call

that Charlie had been arrested and charged

with molestation of a juvenile.

And I was flabbergasted.

I didn't know how to act.

I really didn't.

I was sick on my stomach.

I thought it was some mistake, because I'd known him

for a long time and this was nothing in his personality

that I ever saw.

Having to investigate another policeman,

especially one that I had been partners with,

was the hardest thing I've ever done.

I don't know what else to say.

It was the hardest thing that I've ever done.

OK, Mommy's going to be here in a little while.

We're going to go to my office up here, OK?

CATHY PORTER: I was mad.

I was unhappy.

I'm mad now.

We're gonna go right up here to the office on the corner,

OK?

OK.

We're going to record our conversation,

and then I'm going to ask you some questions

about Charlie Mule.

One of those questions will be, how did you come to meet him?

Mom and Dad brought me to the police station,

and that was how.

CATHY PORTER: It was probably the hardest

statement I ever took.

It was hard for me to sit there and listen to

that child say some of the things she said.

Yes.

CATHY PORTER: Would he talk to you or to your mom?

To me.

CATHY PORTER: And what would he say when he called?

He would say to make up a day to tell my mom or dad,

and he would meet me somewhere.

NARRATOR: Officer Porter began to go

through Mule's personal files.

She was hoping that the alleged molestation of the girl

was an isolated incident.

Apparently, it was not.

If your honor, please, considering the serious gravity

of these offenses--

NARRATOR: On September 27, 1985, Charles Mule

was indicted on over 25 counts relating to the molestation

and rape of six young girls.

JUDGE: The fact that the defendant has no prior record

and has serviced the community in the past--

NARRATOR: Mule was released on $150,000 bail.

He adamantly denied all of the charges.

Eight months later, on May 11, 1986,

Mule was reported missing.

It was the morning of his trial.

Two days later, his pickup truck was found abandoned

on the Pass Manchac Bridge.

The initial assumption was that he had taken his life

rather than face the ordeal of a public trial.

I was one of the first officers

to show up at the scene of it when the truck was located.

It with my gut feeling at that time

that no, he had not jumped, had not committed suicide.

Of course, you have to go on more than gut feeling.

So we had to drag the lake.

NARRATOR: The Sheriff's department spent several days

searching the Bayou Manchac Lake in the hopes

of finding Mule's body.

Tributaries and backwaters were also

searched, as there was a chance the body

might have washed ashore.

Nothing was found.

Two days later, an anonymous phone call was made

to the sheriff's department.

A person told them that a suicide note signed by Mule

had been left in a service station restroom

five miles away from where the pickup had been found.

The letter read in part, "I was not

guilty of any of these charges.

They have persecuted me for no reason.

Please forgive me for what I have done."

There's no way you can convince me that Charlie

Mule committed suicide.

I do not believe that at all.

I did not believe it the day the note was found.

I did not believe the note at all.

I believe that the note was part of the game

that Charlie was playing, and he's

been playing since he left here, whatever the rest of it is.

NARRATOR: The day after the discovery of the suicide note,

a fishermen believed he saw Mule emerging from the swamp.

This was closely followed by another sighting.

In this case, the witness was fired upon

by a man dressed in hospital clothes,

a favorite outfit of Mule's.

Let

Later, when he made his report to the police,

he picked out Charles Mule as the person who shot him.

That's him right there.

Number five?

We were convinced more than ever that Charles was alive,

that he was in this area and he had

not moved far from this area.

NARRATOR: Almost two years after his disappearance,

another anonymous tip led police to a trailer

near a local swamp.

They had been told that Mule was inside.

Clear.

Clear on this end.

NARRATOR: Authorities believed that Mule

was tipped off by some of his former police associates.

I think somebody told him we were coming in the law

enforcement community.

I think they notified him that we were looking at him,

that we were close to him, and then he ran.

Of course, Charlie was a policeman too.

So he is aware of the way policemen

handle a case, surveillance, and so forth and so on.

Charlie did a lot of surveillance.

Looking back at it now, I think

that he enjoyed working undercover

so much that right now, he's just

playing the undercover game.

But now it's real for him.

Before, he was playing the police

officer working underover.

But now he has to go undercover.

So I think he's enjoying it.

NARRATOR: Almost three years have

passed since Mule disappeared.

Police believe he may be hiding in the swampland near Slidell,

living a solitary, Rambo-like existence.

I think Charlie enjoys the thrill of the chase.

He enjoys the game.

And Charlie always needs to win the game.

I don't want him to win this time.

He doesn't have the right to win this time.

NARRATOR: Charles Mule has been captured.

Within minutes of our July broadcast,

the FBI received several calls from viewers who reported

that Mule was living in Ocala, Florida, 30 miles south

of Gainesville, under the assumed name

Joseph John [inaudible].

Mule had seen our broadcast, and left the Ocala area

for approximately three weeks.

When he returned on August 3, he was

arrested by FBI agents and Marion County,

Florida Sheriff's deputies.

For every mystery, there is someone

somewhere who knows the truth.

Perhaps that someone is watching.

Perhaps it's you.

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