Original subtitles

[d

[dra

[drama

[dramati

[dramatic

[dramatic mu

[dramatic musi

[dramatic music]

- The Metropolitan Opera House

is one of New York City's cultural crown jewels.

Inside this sparkling edifice

lives a community of world-class performers

and crew members who've made it a second home.

- They bring in the best.

What a wonderful pool of talent.

- [Alan] So, when 31-year-old violinist Helen Mintiks

disappears during a performance,

it becomes a dire emergency.

- It was a very tense moment when Helen didn't show up.

- The only reason that Helen would not come back

is if she was incapacitated.

- [Alan] Investigation leads detectives

deep into the Met's hazardous backstage.

- You can make a wrong turn and be lost for weeks.

- The detective said, "Hey, I got something here."

She's tied in the nude.

What happened that day?

- [Alan] And what police uncover in the theater's storied wings

stuns everyone to the core.

- He goes into a rage.

He takes out his hammer.

- Whoever did this was very familiar

with the opera house.

- And that person could be here right now.

- [Alan] The killer must be someone in the building.

A real-life Phantom of the Opera.

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music ends]

[pensive music]

- Lincoln Center is just wonderful.

And the Metropolitan right there in the middle,

like the biggest jewel.

- The opera has always been the pivot

around which society twirled.

Without things like the Metropolitan Opera,

New York is just another big city.

- This is vast.

This is really high-class.

The Metropolitan Opera House, the mecca of grand opera.

[pensive music]

- [Laura] This being the Metropolitan Opera House,

we all did, I think, feel safe, until after this happened.

- Nothing like this had ever happened in our world.

- [Alan] On July 23rd, 1980,

the Berlin Ballet is the visiting company at the Met.

- The night of the performance,

it was a traditional program of ballet,

standard repertoire, and some unusual repertoire,

which we weren't involved in.

- [Laura] The orchestra members could leave the orchestra pit

because the next ballet was to recorded music,

and after that, there was an intermission.

So they had a relatively long period of time not performing.

- [Alan] But after intermission,

when the orchestra files back into the pit,

there's something amiss.

- [Clay] The only thing that stood out

was that Helen didn't come back.

But her violin was there.

- [Alan] 31-year-old Helen Mintiks,

a beloved violinist in the orchestra,

would never miss a cue.

- [Clay] It was a very tense moment when Helen didn't show up

because she was a very reliable person.

My wife, who was also a violinist,

moved up into that chair

so there would not be an open seat in the violin section.

The show must go on.

[audience clapping]

When the performance ended and the audience left,

the orchestra moved out of the pit

and towards the locker room.

We expected to see Helen,

but she wasn't there.

- The only reason that Helen would not come back

to pick up her violin is if she was incapacitated.

It was worth, I think, 20,000 or something.

That violin was so precious.

- [Clay] And so there was a certain amount of

natural anxiety because we're a group of friends.

We look out for each other.

You really feel like there is a family of musicians.

And we discussed for some time

what was the procedure here when somebody disappeared.

In all my years of playing,

it's the only time it ever happened.

- [Alan] Helen's colleagues wonder if she went home

to the apartment she shares with her husband Janis nearby.

- [Clay] There was communication with the stage manager,

and they tried calling her home

to see if she was at home.

[phone ringing]

But nobody picked up.

- [Alan] Unbeknownst to the stage manager,

Helen's husband Janis was already on route to the theater,

as he routinely picks her up at the stage door

after her performances.

But Helen never emerges from the theater

and Janis goes home.

However, he doesn't find her there either.

As his worries grow, he receives a surprise visitor.

[doorbell buzzes]

- [Judith] One of the musicians in the orchestra

returned her violin to her apartment.

By that time, he was in total panic,

and he called the police.

[police car blaring]

- [Det. Bruno] The call came in sometime before midnight.

Woman is missing.

Where is Ms. Mintiks?

- [Alan] Night watch officers arrive at the opera house

and speak to the concerned Met house manager

to get a description of the missing Helen.

- She has striking blonde hair,

so that helps you, and she's young.

What happened to Helen Mintiks?

We don't know if she left the building.

We don't know if she's somewhere inside.

So there's a lot of unknowns here.

- [Alan] Detectives ask Helen's remaining colleagues

a few more questions to get a better understanding

of the woman they're searching for.

- [Clay] I got to know Helen as a freelancer.

She was a beautiful woman and a very fine violinist,

and a very kind and friendly person.

Much beloved in our company of musicians.

- [Judith] I met Helen when we were students at Julliard.

We just struck up a conversation,

and we found out that we both were Scandinavian

and that we both were from a farm.

She was from a poultry farm in Aldergrove, British Columbia.

And we sort of stared at each other

and, you know, it was like seeing myself.

- [Alan] But in New York City, Helen was far from the farm,

tending to a blossoming music career.

- [Judith] Helen was really, really good at her job.

She could play whatever they put in front of her.

But she also brought people cookies and cheesecakes,

and was just a dream to work with. Very friendly.

So who wouldn't want to hire her?

She wanted to play solo concerts.

Her goal was to be a really serious concert violinist.

- [Alan] Helen's fellow musicians

explained to law enforcement

that departing mid-show would damage

her professional reputation.

She wouldn't have left unless something was really wrong.

And detectives discover it's not the only thing

that's really off key.

- [Laura] The orchestra, they have lockers

because you don't necessarily want to be going

all around town in your formal black outfit.

- [Det. Bruno] In the locker room where the orchestra

put their belongings, they found her street clothing.

- [Det. Boyce] We come to the realization

she's dressed in her performance attire.

So that changes a lot.

She never left the building.

She's still here. Let's go find her.

So you have 10 floors you got to search.

- [Alan] With a space as vast as the Met,

the night patrol is in over its head.

As Helen's colleagues from the orchestra

depart the opera house, the police call in back up.

- [Det. Bruno] I got a call, I was at home,

and they said, "John, go over to the opera house",

the main theater, can hold up to 4,000 people.

And behind the stage is a very big area.

- I've seen the statistics of how many stairwells there are,

like 40 or something like that,

and I don't know how many elevators.

But you can make a wrong turn and be lost for weeks.

- [Alan] The team of detectives inspects

all the nooks and crannies of the massive building.

They get their first lead on Helen's whereabouts

as day breaks.

[birds chirping]

- [David] The cops have been working all night.

Maintenance workers come the next morning on the roof,

and they find a pair of women's shoes.

- [Alan] The black shoes match the color

of the orchestra's dress code.

With Helen thought to be still in the building,

detectives believe the shoes must be hers.

- [Det. Boyce] Those shoes changed the game.

She's on that roof.

- [David] That is the first sign that they're convinced

something terrible has happened.

- [Alan] Finally, police are able to narrow down the search

and concentrate their efforts on the roof.

But this plan of action brings a daunting challenge.

- [Det. Boyce] The roof of the Met is massive.

It's rambling. It's different layers,

alleyways, shafts.

As the detectives fan out,

searching each little crevice, these shafts,

a detective looks into a shaft 30 to 40 feet down

and says, "Oh my God."

Laying on a steel girder,

he sees a woman's body.

She has no clothes on, she's nude.

And this woman has blonde hair,

that distinctive blonde hair.

- [Det. Bruno] And the body is not moving.

We got something here.

It was obvious that that body was Helen Hagnes Mintiks.

She was hung up on a couple of the beams

up around the third floor.

We wanted to see the body a little closer up.

She's tied, in the nude, hands tied behind her back.

That could not have happened on her own volition.

- [Alan] The investigation immediately switches gears

from a missing person case to something much darker.

- [Det. Bruno] This person did not jump.

It's not a suicide.

The first thing we know is this a homicide.

[tense music]

- [Alan] Coming up.

- [Clay] There's a certainty

that whoever did this horrible thing,

it had to be somebody among us.

- [Laura] Someone who had been working with us.

And that was really scary.

- [Clay] We just said, "Don't ever go any place

alone in the building."

[tense music]

- [Alan] NYPD detectives [dhave just discovered

violinist Helen Mintiks murdered in a roof shaft

at New York's Metropolitan Opera House.

They began to process the crime scene,

logging all evidence that may lead them

to who committed this horrible crime.

[alarm blaring]

- [Det. Bruno] She was tied up with a cord.

The hands were tied behind the back,

and the feet were tied at the ankles.

- [Det. Boyce] She was thrown naked off the rooftop.

Everything you're seeing,

you're seeing sexual assault.

- [Det. Bruno] There was blood on the face.

The legs apparently seemed to be broken

as a result of a fall

of approximately 30, 35 feet onto steel.

And there was probably blunt force trauma of the head.

It was a very terrible thing.

What happened that day?

- [Alan] Now detectives have the challenging job

of breaking the news to Helen's husband.

- [Det. Bruno] Later on in the morning,

we got to speak to Mr. Mintiks

and tell him that we found the body

we believe is your wife.

And the circumstances of it,

certainly is homicidal.

To have her life taken away in such a way,

it's a terrible, horrible thing.

- [Alan] Then, CSI hurries to the roof of the Met

and begins pouring over the crime scene.

They discover something that may be a huge break.

- [Det. Boyce] We're able to obtain a palm print

on the ledge, on the pipe.

- [Det. Bruno] It's very important

because it's the only print

and it is a place where it is unusual

for a person to go to sit on a pipe.

But we don't even know if it's connected

with the body at all.

- [Det. Boyce] There's no scientific evidence

that will show us exactly how long it's been there.

- [Alan] Police send Helen's body out for autopsy

and collect the rope for a forensic examination.

Taking stock of the crime scene layout,

detectives come to a conclusion

based on where Helen was found.

- [Det. Bruno] This is a big place.

It was quite obvious that whoever committed this crime

was very familiar with the opera house

and where to go and how to go.

No person from the audience

or outside of the opera house

could have known where to be.

- [Alan] By late morning,

the horrific event becomes headline news.

- [David] This is tabloid fodder.

Everyone is calling it the Phantom of the Opera case.

Juicy case for the news,

dangerous case for the powers that be,

because this was such an important case,

maybe one of a dozen or half a dozen

most significant murders in New York City history.

[pensive music]

- [Clay] Everybody was extremely upset.

I think one of the hardest things after Helen's murder

was that there's a certainty

that whoever did this horrible thing,

it couldn't been an outsider.

It had to be somebody among us.

- [Laura] The idea that a murder had taken place

right there where we were working,

and that person could be here right now.

- [Alan] With a case this high-profile,

the NYPD brings in their top gun to lead it.

- [David] Detective Jerry Giorgio was famous

in the department for being able

to get a confession from anybody calmly.

He taught generations of homicide detectives.

- [Alan] Detective Giorgio and other detectives

immediately speak with Janis again.

- [Det. Boyce] Detectives always look at the husband.

Is there strife? Is there any kind of issues?

We need to speak to find out what's going on in their lives.

- [Alan] Janis and Helen had been married

for about four years.

- [Judith] Janis was a sculptor, and he made all kinds of art.

They met at a summer music camp.

They just fell head over heels right away.

And it was sad when she had to come back to New York.

She never stopped talking about him.

But as Christmas came around,

she called him up and invited him

to come to New York for Christmas.

So, from then on, I don't think they were ever apart.

- [Alan] Detectives have a clear idea

of the window of time the murder occurred

and need to see where Janis fits in that timeline.

- [Det. Boyce] So Helen gets a break at 9:30.

This is about 45 minutes.

She needs to be back and ready to go.

So it probably happens in that time.

- [Alan] Janis claims he spent much of his day

miles away from the Met in lower Manhattan.

- [Judith] One thing that a sculptor needs is space.

So he and a group of other artists

had purchased a loft downtown.

He was very handy, I mean, he could just build

whatever needed to be built.

So he was working on the loft

at the time that she was doing this job at the Met.

- [Det. Boyce] He was with a friend doing a project.

Janis told Detective Giorgio

that when it was time to pick up Helen, walk her home,

he left his friend and went to the Met and waited outside.

Detective Giorgio went to the friend

and took a statement from him.

- [Alan] This friend confirms that Janis was at the loft

working during Helen's performance.

- Detective Giorgio called the DA and said,

"We have a strong alibi here.

He could not have gone and done this."

- [Alan] With time of the essence

and hundreds of opera workers to interview,

the NYPD sets up a makeshift command center

in the Met's lobby.

- [Det. Boyce] Detectives are interviewing people

who were there, working that night.

Did you see anybody?

Did you see this woman with this blonde hair?

- [Clay] I was interviewed two or three times

by the detectives.

Everybody was really anxious, upset, concerned.

- [Alan] While the investigation continues,

inside the Met, no performances are canceled,

despite its status as an active crime scene

haunted by the murder of a colleague.

- [Clay] After Helen's murder, it felt strange.

It's definitely like an eerie feeling

to be sitting in the last place that Helen sat.

[audience clapping]

But we still had jobs to do.

[audience clapping]

- [Laura] I was dancing as a member of the Berlin Ballet.

The night on 23rd, I was performing.

Coming into the theater that late afternoon the next day,

it felt very strange knowing that someone had been murdered.

- [Clay] The security was increased,

the police were there all the time.

We had an informal kind of buddy system

that we talked about.

Don't ever go any place alone in the building.

- [Laura] Backstage was filled with detectives,

and one thing I recall,

so they had a picture of Helen

and they were showing this,

you know, "Did you see this woman?

Did you see this woman?"

And I sort of was like, "What? No, no, I don't."

But I mean it was really sad.

- [Alan] In spite of Helen's murder less than a day prior,

nearly 4,000 patrons show up on July 24th, 1980,

similar to the previous evening's attendance.

[audience clapping]

As all eyes are on her dancing,

Laura Cutler comes to a sudden realization.

- As we're doing a wild gypsy dance,

and I had a wonderful partner,

and I remember he had me at one moment almost upside down,

and it suddenly clicked at that moment,

in my head, I went,

[tense music]

I had seen this woman.

It probably was around 9:45 the night before.

[tense music]

[a

[aud

[audie

[audienc

[audience

[audience cl

[audience clap

[audience clappi

[audience clapping

[audience clapping]

- [Alan] Investigators at the Metropolitan Opera House

inquired if anyone in the dance company saw Helen

during intermission the night prior.

During the performance the day that Helen's body is found,

ballerina Laura Cutler has a stunning realization

under the spotlight.

- [Laura] Something clicked.

And so as soon as we got off stage,

I found someone and said,

"I don't know all the orchestra people,

but I thought I had seen that woman the night before."

And then that all started a whole different chapter.

- [Alan] Ms. Cutler rushes to tell investigators

that the night Helen disappeared,

she was watching the stars

of the Berlin Ballet from the wings.

- [Laura] I was backstage, and I loved being able to watch

Valery and Galina perform the Don Quixote pas de deux.

I was feeling very inspired.

So I decided I was going to go down to the studio

and work by myself.

- [Alan] Laura explains that she went to go

to one of the freight elevators backstage to go practice

and encountered some colleagues she didn't know.

- [Laura] So, as I was waiting for the elevator to go down,

there was a woman and a man, and they came to the elevator.

It probably was around 9:45.

- [Det. Boyce] It's 9:30, break,

9:45, they're walking to the elevators.

Boom. It's that timeframe you're looking for.

- [Laura] The man was dressed kind of like

he was a technician of some kind.

And then the woman started speaking to me.

She explained that she was from the orchestra.

She had a portfolio with some examples

of her husband's work.

He was an artist and a sculptor.

- Helen tells Laura Cutler

that she's looking to speak to Valery Panov,

a famous dancer.

- [Judith] Helen told me she wanted to see Panov

about the possibility of getting work for Janis

in stage sets, because he could build anything.

And he knew the top people in all the ballet companies.

Helen was really on a mission to get to Valery Panov,

and I think there was just nothing

that was going to stop her from that.

- [Laura] She really got my attention

because she had something that she really wanted.

We got on the elevator.

And then she asked me, "Oh, what floor do I need to go

to find Mr. Panov?"

- [Alan] Before Laura could chime in,

the man on the elevator interjects

that Panov's dressing room was on the fourth floor.

- And so I thought, "Well, that's good.

He clearly knows where he's going,

so he'll be able to help her."

I said, "Well, good luck. I think it'll go well," you know?

She said, "Thank you so much."

And that was it.

I said goodbye, and the doors closed, and I went off.

- [Alan] Thanks to Laura's realization,

investigators finally have two people to speak with,

the unknown man in the elevator

and the high-profile Valery Panov.

- [Det. Boyce] We need to speak to Mr. Panov

in regards to if this woman ever came to see him.

"Did this person ever come and talk to you?

And what did they say?"

Immediately, Mr. Panov says,

"I don't know what you're talking about.

No one's come to me. I don't even know what you mean."

Did she make it to Mr. Panov's dressing room?

He's saying no.

So you have to do some investigation.

- [Alan] Panov was so high-profile,

it gave detectives a chance to ask everyone

if they had seen him during the timeframe of Helen's murder.

- [Det. Boyce] Detective Giorgio found out

Mr. Panov went downstairs into the audience

while this performance went on.

Many, many witnesses saw him there.

And this woman is murdered during the performance.

Therefore, he really took him out of the picture.

He's not the person you're looking for.

- [Alan] Then, Giorgio and his men

turned their attention to identifying

the unnamed man in the elevator.

- [Laura] So the detectives wanted me to

be able to really describe him

so that they could have their artists make a sketch.

I knew there was a young man,

just sort of average height and weight.

His hair was kind of brown.

- We're looking for somebody who matches that.

But the face is like a hundred other faces

in the opera house.

- [Alan] As investigators begin to circulate the sketch,

they receive the autopsy report.

- [Det. Bruno[ The cause of death was

blunt force trauma of the head.

The blunt force trauma occurred

when she fell down and hit her head on the steel beam.

She was alive for the 30 feet

that she was falling through the air.

It was a very tragic, tragic thing.

- [Clay] Those last minutes must have been terrifying.

- The sexual assault kit that was done prove inconclusive.

- She was not raped.

- [Det. Boyce] But is that because Mrs. Mintiks

put up a fight

that he was unable to continue with sexual assault?

Now, that happens quite often

with murders driven by sexual assault,

but she's nude, so the attempt was there.

- [Alan] But the most important forensic finding

was related to the rope that was used to bind Helen.

- [Det. Boyce] Detectives see and they analyze the knots.

It's a clove hitch knot.

It's a tradesman knot

that only tradesman use for the most part.

Laura describes a man in the elevator as the utility man.

So now you narrowed it down.

It's a stagehand.

That's a game-changer right there.

It's probably one of them.

- [Alan] Stagehands know the backstage

like the backs of their hands.

Detectives feel this lead puts them hot on the trail

of the last person to see Helen alive,

and they pursue it with full force.

- [Det. Boyce] You go back to that individual in the elevator.

Who is this person?

[tense music]

- [Alan] Investigators narrow in on the mystery stagehand

who rode the elevator with Helen and Laura,

who appears to be their number one suspect.

And they soon discover that the stagehands

are a complex group of roughly 150 men

who may be tough to crack.

- [Clay] So these are real professionals.

They work very long hours,

and they do hard physical labor

moving huge pieces of scenery.

- [David] The stagehands were their own community.

It's similar to many other subcultures.

It was a father, son, uncle, nephew, tribal situation.

So when they realized the cops

were focusing in on the stagehands,

the stagehands were not happy about that.

- [Laura] I had been admiring how these stagehands work.

If the murderer turned out to be one of these people

who worked here at this really special place,

that would've been horrifying.

[dramatic music]

- [Alan] Investigators begin engaging all of the stagehands

for interviews, questionnaires,

and copies of their palm prints.

[dramatic music]

The line of potential suspects is unaware

that police are already monitoring them.

- They're looking at them before they come in the room.

Observing their conduct, observing their body language.

[tense music]

Looking to see if anybody's acting untoward.

[tense music]

They quickly notice a young man

who fits the profile of the sketch,

and they see him acting nervous.

- [Det. Bruno] Craig Crimmins is a stagehand.

His father worked as a stagehand,

and his stepfather worked in the opera house.

Now there's the nepotism.

- [David] He was part of the tribe of backstage workers.

- [Alan] Every performance at the Met

is highly orchestrated,

and stagehands must execute each task with precision.

Detectives want to know if Crimmins hit all his marks

on the night of Helen Mintiks' murder.

[tense music]

- [Det. Boyce] So when further pushed where he was that night,

Craig Crimmins tells you, "I made all my cues. I was there."

- [Alan] The next step is for investigators

to verify Craig's statement.

- [Det. Boyce] So we go back to his shop foreman, his boss,

and say, "Sir, we have something with this kid, Crimmins."

And he tells detectives that Craig Crimmins,

he acts very immature, he drinks on duty,

and things of that nature,

but outside of that, there's no red flag

to him being violent to anybody or starting trouble.

He's actually just a 21-year-old working in a man's world.

So he's told, "Listen, was he there at your cue?

You have to tell us this

because it's a big part of the investigation,

and it'll go bad for you if you don't,

if you lie for him."

And then you see it change in the shop steward.

"Well, he missed a couple cues. He wasn't around.

We had to send out a search party for this guy."

Well, that changes things.

All of a sudden now, he didn't hit that cue.

He's lying.

- [Alan] Having busted his lie,

detectives returned to Crimmins and press him

on his true whereabouts that fateful evening.

- [Det. Bruno] He said he was with

a guy by the name of Tommy Gravina.

And they said that after the matinee performance,

they went out and had lunch, had a couple of beers.

Craig then, for the evening performance,

fell asleep in the back.

That's his story.

- [Det. Boyce] And now you have something to go check.

Could someone back that up?

- [Alan] Investigators seek out Tommy Gravina,

Craig's stagehand friend,

and ask him about the new alibi.

- [David] He confirms Craig's alibi,

and says, "Yes, he was asleep on the couch

in the break room."

- [Det. Bruno] We feel like we may have our guy,

but we don't have a case.

It is frustrating.

- [Alan] As the latest lead seems to fade away,

law enforcement get a call that changes everything.

- [David] Three weeks after the murder,

they do get a match to the palm print.

- [Det. Boyce] And I will tell you, this is a feeling

of happiness and screaming in the detective squad

when you get this information.

- When I hear that, I thought, "We got our guy."

[dramatic music]

[d

[dra

[drama

[dramati

[dramatic

[dramatic mu

[dramatic musi

[dramatic music]

- [Alan] For weeks,

NYPD's finest have been trying to narrow down

the suspect pool from thousands.

Finally, with a hit on forensics,

they have a serious break on finding Helen Mintiks killer.

- [David] There's a match on one of the palm prints.

It belonged to Craig Crimmins,

the stagehand they thought was in the elevator.

- [Det. Boyce] It's huge. And you sit, and now you strategy

exactly how you're going to handle this.

You have someone who was at the crime scene,

don't know when he was there.

People may go up there to smoke cigarettes,

but he was there at one point,

and he didn't tell you that.

And you look at this,

and you look for a profile of a killer.

This guy's a dopey kid walking around

who has no sense of things.

And why would he do this?

- [Alan] And there's also the question of his confirmed alibi.

Detectives turned back to the man who verified it,

Crimmins' friend, Tommy Gravina.

- [Det. Boyce] And now you have to go hard at him

and make sure he knows

that he's going to be held accountable for his actions.

"Do you really want to go to jail for Mr. Crimmins?

You have to tell us the truth now."

[tense music]

At that point, he stops,

and he says, "Wait a second. Here's what happened."

- [Det. Bruno] And he goes on to tell the story

about he and Craig Crimmins

after the matinee had gone out,

had been drinking and smoking marijuana.

When they came back, he lost track of Craig Crimmins,

but he was covering for him.

- [Alan] It's an extraordinary admission.

Detectives sense they have Gravina on the ropes

and push him even further.

Why did he lie to the police?

- [Det. Boyce] At this point, he breaks down

and tells the detectives why he's lying,

Because Crimmins asked him to do so.

Craig Crimmins alibi is falling apart.

[tense music]

Everything is coming down now.

- [Alan] Craig Crimmins

is now the investigation's top suspect.

Detective Giorgio locates Crimmins

and convinces him to return for one more questioning.

[tense music]

- [Det. Boyce] So Detective Giorgio,

he goes in with him and starts talking to him.

"What were you doing on the roof?

Why didn't you tell us before you were on the roof?"

So Crimmins then admits to Giorgio

that he was on the roof sunbathing.

You go right back at him.

"Why don't you stop the lies?"

There comes a climatic time in the interview

where Craig Crimmins admits to Detective Jerry Giorgio

that he's the person in the elevator that he's asking about.

He's the last person to see Helen Mintiks alive.

[tense music]

That's a big deal.

But he does not admit that he's the murderer.

He just says, "I was there."

But you need a smoking gun.

They have him there for several hours,

and they're pressing him the whole time.

But he released him about eight o'clock in the morning.

- [Alan] Despite Crimmins matching the sketch,

missing his cues, seeing Helen on the elevators,

and matching the palm print,

police still think they need more to make an arrest.

- [David] They want to have it locked down cold.

They want to get a confession.

They want to make sure they had him dead to rights.

[tense music]

- [Alan] As detectives strategize the best way

to extract an admission from Crimmins,

they discovered a big problem they may not be able to solve.

- [Det. Bruno] You have some individuals

within the police department

who have friends in the media

who leak the information to them.

- [Det. Boyce] So word gets out,

and they're going to name him in the paper.

Problem, big problem.

- [David] The minute the media announces his name as a suspect,

he's going to walk.

They won't get a confession.

He gets a high-priced lawyer,

and it's on the radio.

The clock is ticking.

- You know, we have to sit down together.

Let's make a decision. Pick the guy up.

Let's bring him to a precinct.

- [Det. Boyce] Speak to him one more time. Bring him in.

Let's start the process and go at him as fast as we can.

You are under the gun.

[tense music]

-

- [A

- [Ala

- [Alan]

- [Alan] W

- [Alan] Wit

- [Alan] With

- [Alan] With pr

- [Alan] With pres

- [Alan] With press

- [Alan] With press th

- [Alan] With press thre

- [Alan] With press threat

- [Alan] With press threaten

- [Alan] With press threatenin

- [Alan] With press threatening

- [Alan] With press threatening to

- [Alan] With press threatening to s

- [Alan] With press threatening to spo

- [Alan] With press threatening to spoil

- [Alan] With press threatening to spoil t

- [Alan] With press threatening to spoil the

- [Alan] With press threatening to spoil the e

- [Alan] With press threatening to spoil the ent

- [Alan] With press threatening to spoil the entir

- [Alan] With press threatening to spoil the entire

- [Alan] With press threatening to spoil the entire ca

- [Alan] With press threatening to spoil the entire case

- [Alan] With press threatening to spoil the entire case,

the NYPD A-team takes matters into their own hands.

Jerry Giorgio and his men stake out Crimmins apartment.

- [Det. Boyce] It's in the Bronx,

and they're going to wait for him to come out of his house.

- [David] By this point, the news was already on the radio

that he was the suspect.

- [Det. Bruno] We got him when he was

coming out of the building,

and he was asked, "We have a couple of questions for you,

want to come to down to the precinct?"

[tense music]

"Oh yeah, sure, I'll come down."

[police car blaring]

- [David] Luckily, Craig didn't hear it on the radio.

Craig thinks this is just another round of questioning.

- [Det. Boyce] They take him to the 13th precinct

in lower Manhattan,

away from the area where he was on the Upper West Side.

And this way they can talk to him

undisturbed by any outside influences at all.

- [Alan] But law enforcement knows

this is their final chance to secure a confession.

- [Det. Boyce] So Detective Giorgio realizes,

this is the breaking point.

You have him missing his cues when he told you he hit him.

He lied about where he went all this time.

And he presses on and on and on, probing,

and he sees the defenses breakdown.

"What are you doing, Craig?"

Craig Crimmins then tells him exactly what happened.

- I went down to my locker room, drank some beers,

and on the way down there, I met that lady.

- [Det. Bruno] He encountered Helen Mintiks in the elevator.

Laura got off the elevator.

Now, he turns to Ms. Mintiks and says to her,

"How would you like to get laid?"

She turned around and slaps him in the face.

The suspect draws his hammer and menaces her.

[tense music]

- [David] He walks her around the Met, up above, down below,

down into the subbasements, into the corridors.

Any number of times, she's one closed doorway away

from hundreds of people who are in the audience

who could have save her.

- [Det. Bruno] She attempts to break away on the third floor.

He subdues her.

- [David] And he tries to rape her, and he can't.

But this increases his humiliation and his rage.

- [Det. Bruno] Then he takes her up to the roof.

- [David] He had no intention of killing her,

but he ties her up on the roof.

- [David] He realizes she could identify him,

and he could go to jail.

- [Det. Bruno] And Jerry tells him, "Craig, what did you do?"

- And that's how she met her death.

Jerry came out, looked around to the guys,

we were all sitting outside, and he says,

"We've got the confession."

Craig Crimmins was arrested right at that spot.

- [Det. Boyce] Craig Crimmins is charged with murder

and attempted rape.

- [Laura] It was someone who had been working with us.

And that was really scary.

And I think it really freaked people out.

- [Alan] In spite of the confession,

Crimmins doesn't plead guilty

and still takes his chances at trial.

But his gambit fares poorly.

- [Det. Boyce] On September 2nd, 1981,

he's convicted of both counts,

and he is sentenced to prison, 20 years to life.

This poor woman was brutally murdered.

We got some measure of justice.

- [Alan] Craig Crimmins goes to prison,

putting an end to the mystery of the murder at the Met.

But for friends and family of Helen Mintiks,

it's not just about a life cut short,

it's about a talent lost before she could peak.

- [Clay] Helen was a very fine musician,

and she had a life of achievement ahead of her

that was never fulfilled.

[somber music]

- I would think she'd want to be remembered

as a very serious artist.

She would want to be remembered as a very loving wife

and a very generous friend.

- [Alan] In 2021, Craig Crimmins was released on parole,

but the legacy of his crime lives on.

No one could have anticipated

that the world's most famous opera house

would be the site of one of the most disturbing murders

in New York history.

But the most shocking part,

it was one of the Met's own.

No matter the veneer of glitz and glamour,

evil may lurk just behind the curtain.

[suspenseful music ends]