Original subtitles

VOICEOVER: Tonight on "Unsolved Mysteries."

ROBERT STACK: The legend of Bugsy Siegel, handsome,

sexy, a cold-blooded killer.

But one night in Beverly Hills, the mafia's hunter

became the hunted.

In Southern California, rain slicked roads

lead to a brush with death.

In New Jersey, another accident, terrifying and nearly fatal.

Soon after, both drivers claimed they could predict the future.

Can a car crash make you suddenly psychic?

For Marlys Thomas it should have been

the happiest day of her life.

The doctors dropped a bombshell--

her seemingly healthy baby had died.

Today, a series of baffling contradictions that led

Marlys to believe the impossible--

her daughter may still be alive.

For generations, the streets of Queens, New York,

have seen aspiring gangsters come and go.

But according to the FBI, Paulie Ragusa is one of a kind.

A would be wise guy intent on making a name for himself

by whatever means possible.

Join me as we try to help authorities

and the families of crime victims

bring closure to unsolved mysteries.

[theme music playing]

For mobsters in the 1940s, live in New York, Chicago,

and Los Angeles was brutal.

Mafia bosses took pride in killing

and getting away with it.

But there is one famous hit for which

no one has ever taken credit, the murder of Bugsy Siegel.

In the late evening of June 20, 1947,

Siegel relaxed in the Beverly Hills home of his girlfriend.

The mob's top assassin had no idea that he was a target.

Nine shots were fired into the room, four found their mark.

Bugsy Siegel died instantly.

The list of suspects read like a classic whodunnit,

business associates, a girlfriend, even a bodyguard.

But police investigating Siegel's murder

hit the wall of the mafia's code of silence,

a wall that still exists today.

The main frustration that I have in the case

is all my witnesses are either gone or still won't talk.

So the frustration is is that I'm running out of time, if I

haven't lost that time already, and I'm just still

not getting any information.

For Beverly Hills Police, the murder of Bugsy Siegel

is still an open case.

But with each passing year, the chances

of solving the glamorous city's most notorious crime

become slimmer.

Tonight, the suspect list is in your hands.

Can you figure out who killed Bugsy Siegel?

His real name was Benjamin Siegel.

He was the mob's most feared hit man.

Beneath the smile of the handsome

New Yorker was the heart of a cold-blooded killer.

Siegel's violent temper was legendary.

Underworld figures talked for years

about how he took revenge after being injured in a bomb blast.

He sneaked out of the hospital at 2 AM, got into a car

with his associates, drove to the home of the suspect

in Brooklyn.

When the door was answered, bang, bang, bang,

they shot him.

And back in the car, sneaked him back into the hospital.

He had a perfect alibi.

ROBERT STACK: Siegel formed a partnership with Meyer Lansky

in New York, an organized crime syndicate that

sold liquor during prohibition then

worked its way into gambling, prostitution,

and murder for hire.

Ben Siegel and Meyer Lansky were a great combination,

they complimented each other.

Lansky did the dicking, it was Bugsy who did the whacking.

ROBERT STACK: In the early '40s, Siegel and Lansky

teamed up with another east coast

mafia boss, Lucky Luciano.

When the team of Siegel, Lansky, and Luciano

decided to expand their territory,

it was the beginning of the end for Bugsy.

He was set to take control of gambling in California.

There, he faced a major problem.

Suspect number one, Jack Dragna.

And there ain't no one going to stand in my way.

Right, Jack?

They'd be stupid.

ROBERT STACK: Dragna controlled a lucrative wire service used

by bookies across the country.

Bugsy made a simple proposal--

give up the wire or give up your life.

Dragna chose to live which gave him two motives to kill Bugsy

Siegel, jealousy and revenge.

After Bugsy died, Jack Dragna got his wires service back.

Bugsy ran the mob's business in Tinseltown with the showmanship

of a Hollywood superstar.

He began an affair with suspect number two--

Virginia Hill, an alleged cash courier for the mob.

But Hill may have had her own reasons for wanting Bugsy dead.

She was leading a double life.

Virginia Hill was definitely connected

someway with Chicago mob.

She was out there keeping an eye on Bugsy

and feeding the Chicago Mob information

on Bugsy's activities.

ROBERT STACK: On the night Bugsy was killed in Virginia's home,

she was out of town by coincidence or not.

In Hollywood, only one man seemed to hold his ground

against Bugsy Siegel.

Suspect number three--

Mickey Cohen was a Cleveland gangster newly transplanted

to LA.

Siegel could have killed him but instead, he

put him on his payroll.

Ben liked that, that this guy stood up to him.

He liked it so much that he made him his personal body

guard, really.

ROBERT STACK: After Siegel's death,

Cohen was given control of west coast gambling,

a promotion he would never have seen with Bugsy alive.

When gambling became legal in Nevada,

Siegel saw the opportunity of a lifetime.

He envisioned a luxurious casino like the world had never seen.

Bugsy figured the Flamingo would cost a million dollars.

Lansky and Luciano gave him the money but one million

became two, two became four, and four became six.

Lansky and Luciano became the final suspects.

They needed to plug a loose cannon that

was financially out of control.

It has to stop and stop now.

Lansky did go out and visit Siegel in Nevada.

And I think he cautioned him and he warned

him, pay attention to the business,

don't let the costs get too high.

Your investors are not happy.

ROBERT STACK: There were also rumors

that Siegel was pocketing some of his investor's

money to support Virginia Hill.

She was a very, very expensive playmate.

They probably had a feeling that he was spending some

of their money on Virginia.

ROBERT STACK: 20 minutes after Siegel's death,

two members of the Lansky/Luciano mob

took control of the Flamingo Casino.

I'm your new boss.

Mr. Siegels no longer in the picture.

If you have any questions, you can

call our friends in New York.

ROBERT STACK: No one believed the timing of the takeover

was coincidental.

Investigators have little doubt that Siegel's hit

was a professional job.

But which of the suspects could have

been involved in Bugsy's death?

Some feel the most likely scenario involves them all.

Virginia Hill provided the location for the murder

and possibly was given a reward.

She had $2, $3 million in a Swiss bank account.

ROBERT STACK: Siegel's bodyguard, Mickey Cohen,

knew his boss's schedule for the evening

but at the time of the killing, he was not doing his job.

Mickey Cohen even came into the station and said,

what happened, what happened?

I was supposed to be watching him.

ROBERT STACK: And Jack Dragna?

He may have ordered the hit with the approval

of Lansky and Luciano.

He would not have dared to do it on his own.

He would have asked permission from people he

regarded in the New York area.

It's a possibility, because they were thinking

of killing Siegel anyway so, all right,

let Jack Dragna handle it.

ROBERT STACK: Today, none of the key suspects in the Siegel

murder are still alive but Beverly Hills Police

still hope that the mafia code of silence

may one day be broken.

Murder has no statute of limitations.

So until the case is solved, the case remains open.

I'm sure there's people out there that are descendants

of people in the mafia or people in the know that have

information.

I would love to have a phone call from them.

Perhaps there is someone, just one person who might have

that vital clue that can crack this

intriguing 50-year-old case.

Perhaps it's you.

Next, one police officer dead and two wounded and the

suspects are still on the run.

MAN: (RADIO) 11 11, Cortez.

That truck is 10-99 out of Durango.

ROBERT STACK: May 29, 1998, 45-year-old police officer Dale

Claxton followed a stolen water truck out of the small town

of Cortez, Colorado.

Claxton was a relative newcomer to the force,

having become an officer just three years earlier.

I'll lay in behind him, send me some backup.

MAN: (RADIO) 10-4.

ROBERT STACK: Suddenly the water truck pulled over.

Dale Claxton had no idea what he was about to encounter.

Dale never had a chance to unbutton his seat belt,

even go for the door.

It was terrible.

It was-- in 33 years of being in this business,

this is the most violent thing I've ever seen.

ROBERT STACK: Dale Claxton left behind a wife, four

children, and a grandchild.

Look at me.

Taking a picture for your mother.

Smile.

[inaudible]

There is no sense to this.

The man who killed Dale were armed for war

and they were ready to kill whoever

and whatever got in the way.

An assault, a sudden attack in the foothills

of the Rocky Mountains, done with

brutal military-like precision.

Who were these people wielding AK-47's and assault rifles?

Police had no idea and the killing of Dale Claxton

was only the beginning.

An APB was quickly put out on the water truck.

Deputy Jason Bishop was told to search for it.

What he didn't know was the suspects

had abandoned the water truck and had stolen a pickup.

I just happened to look in my rear view mirror

and I see this yellow Ford pickup

following me really close.

That's when the shots started coming in.

I lost consciousness and fell over into the passenger seat

and wrecked my patrol car.

MAN: (RADIO) Shots fired, shots fired, officer down.

25--

ROBERT STACK: For the next five minutes,

law enforcement was under siege.

State troopers and local police were

moving targets in the rampage.

[inaudible]

When they came around the corner at me,

it took me by surprise.

They went off the road to go by me.

They are doing at least 60, 70.

ROBERT STACK: Then the yellow pickup

was bearing down on Detective Sergeant Todd Martin.

I was just overwhelmed with automatic gunfire.

My left arm exploded.

ROBERT STACK: Martin was hit twice, once in the arm,

once in the leg.

Officer Jim Bob Paunce saw him go down.

I lost so much blood.

They said I lost the maximum amount

anybody could lose without getting a transfusion

and keeping alive.

So I think if it wasn't for Jim Bob,

I would have died out there.

ROBERT STACK: Nine law enforcement

vehicles had been riddled with 300

high caliber assault rounds.

Police and troopers never had a chance

to get off a single shot.

One officer was dead and two were hospitalized.

It was as if they were fighting a military battle.

They were dressed in military fatigues, full military gear,

as if they were going to war.

ROBERT STACK: An hour later, the stolen pickup truck was found

in a ravine 41 miles northwest of Cortez

on the Colorado, Utah border.

It sparked the largest manhunt in Colorado history.

62 police agencies participated.

Where we found two vehicles is some of the rugged-est

country in the state of Utah.

Lots of Indian runs in it, lots of mines,

some deep canyons, and just lots of places to hide.

ROBERT STACK: Police identified the suspects in the shooting.

30-year-old Alan Monty Pilon from nearby Dove

Creek and Durango residents Robert Mason and Jason McVean,

both 26.

Three were known to have anti-government views.

Pilon was also battling the IRS over back taxes.

Though they had no criminal records,

the men once tried to join a militia group

in the Four Corners area but were thrown

out for being too violent.

More importantly, they all were well trained

in wilderness survival tactics.

They had supplies stored throughout the area.

The same hills and canyons used as a hideout

a century ago by Butch Cassidy's Hole in the Wall gang.

MAN: They had been going to that area for the last four

or five years, had done a lot of survivalist training

in that area, had done a lot of backpacking and living

off the land in that area.

It was like them going to their backyard.

ROBERT STACK: A week later, the fugitives struck again.

This time they shot and wounded a deputy Sheriff

in Bluff, Utah.

SWAT teams quickly surrounded the area.

Few hours later, a body of suspect Robert Mason

was discovered dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Coming up, two separate car crashes

seemed to give the accident victims

astonishing psychic powers.

An evening rain storm in Southern California.

Driver John Holland's life was about to change forever.

Holland was dazed but not seriously injured.

But the following day he started to feel strange.

I started noticing kind of like electricity building

up in my body, like a--

I don't want to say a power--

but it was more like a surge of energy was building.

I just felt that my body had too much energy in it.

That's the only way I could describe it.

And then I started talking to people

on the phone, some friends, and as I was talking to them,

I was realizing I started to know things in their lives

what was going to happen.

ROBERT STACK: As a child, Holland had been interested

in psychic phenomena but it wasn't until after his accident

that he says he became aware of his gift.

It became obvious at his job at a local hotel bar.

He knew when it was a stranger's birthday,

he knew that a coworker would have

complications in childbirth.

Holland says he was never wrong.

JOHN HOLLAND: It would just come out of my mouth, straight out,

and I had to learn how to stop that.

So it was almost like my customers was my practice.

So I'm seeing three years for the two of you, am I right?

I'm picking up the number three.

OK.

[chatter]

ROBERT STACK: Holland became a sensation of the hotel.

Business executives would come to see him to ask if a big deal

was going to happen.

I see the merger as being something

that's going to be a success.

ROBERT STACK: He said his predictions

were so uncanny that coworkers became wary of him.

Others felt his predictions were simply clever manipulations.

I know this is different but, ma'am, wait.

ROBERT STACK: Holland's boss eventually

asked him to stop telling the future

because he was frightening the customers.

I'm not out to prove anything, OK?

This is what happened to me, this is what comes out of me,

and this is people come back and confirm.

Car accidents and other sudden events

that shake up a person's body and, of course,

the inner body called the aura, have, on occasion, caused

that person to become psychic.

There are a number of cases on record.

There's also a case of a man who fell off a ladder

and, as a result, became a well-known psychic.

Something happens to the inner body of the person, as it were,

and what was before an ordinary human being, now

becomes a psychic.

It's perfectly natural.

ROBERT STACK: For two years after his accident,

John Holland honed his psychic skills.

He began seeing clients, people who wanted to know

what the future held for them.

Holland claims his powers intensified and quickly

reached a more profound level.

He could communicate with the dead.

--he wants you to know that he's fine.

A client named Adriane who came to see me

and her dad passed away, sadly, and basically

she wanted to know where is he?

What is he doing right now?

So what happened, her dad came and told me to tell her to look

in a book on the bookshelf.

He wants you to be at peace.

He described the bookcase, he described the location

of a book, he said and there's going

to be something, a message from your father in this book.

And I was unclear if he meant the book.

It's-- he said, no, there's a message in it,

a piece of paper, a message from your father that

will let you know that he's OK.

ROBERT STACK: It took two weeks before Adriane got

the courage to open the book.

Inside was a poem written by her father 28 years ago.

It was called "Soar into the Cosmic Blue",

and it talks about finding that there

is a whole other world to explore

when you leave this world.

And all that's out there is open to you then.

And it ends, "soar into the universe of light and peace

and fly to the rim of heaven."

It's a baffling mystery.

Can trauma spark unseen forces that allow

us to see things others cannot?

Do we all possess the ability to see the future?

Could we, too, someday become suddenly psychic?

In [inaudible] New Jersey, a mother and her son

were badly injured in a devastating car accident

caused by a drunk driver.

Elizabeth Joyce had shielded her son Jeff from the impact.

She suffered massive injuries in the wreck.

On the way to the hospital, her heart had

to be restarted three times.

During the blackouts, she was reunited with relatives

who had died a year earlier.

ELIZABETH JOYCE: On the left with my stepson, on the right

was my husband.

They talked to me with their mind.

You have to go back, you have to go back.

OK, mom? Mom.

- Keep talking to her, man. - Mom.

Let her know where she is.

ROBERT STACK: Elizabeth survived the accident

without any permanent physical disabilities

but she feared neurological damage.

I started having a tingling sensation across my shoulders

and up my neck and I started having blackouts.

ROBERT STACK: Elizabeth began having

a frightening recurring dream.

ELIZABETH JOYCE: There was an explosion.

I a house, I saw a body, I saw it go out the roof,

I was aware of oil wells, I was aware of a trailer

park and a fence.

It was so real to me.

And in my head I would hear, your aunt died.

She's in Houston, Texas.

ROBERT STACK: But Elizabeth's aunt lived in Concord,

New Hampshire, not Houston.

After having the dream every night for three weeks,

she confided to a social worker Brenda Hayes.

Brenda was amazed.

The home Elizabeth was describing

was her aunt's and her aunt had died

in an explosion a week earlier.

There was a pipeline explosion on her property

and they haven't been able to find her body

or find any remains to identify what happened to her.

I started to explain to her what the setup was.

And she said, no, wait, I'll draw you a picture.

ROBERT STACK: Elizabeth drew an exact rendition of the house.

She then pointed to a section of tall grass near an oil

well and said Brenda's aunt was there.

Brenda called the authorities in Houston.

Within an hour, police had found the body of her aunt.

It would not be the last time Elizabeth's newly-discovered

powers would solve a mystery.

In 1992, Sidney J Reso, the president

of the Exxon Corporation, was kidnapped

from in front of his home.

Police had few clues in the baffling crime.

But Elizabeth Joyce had a vision about the abduction

and called police.

I really don't give much credence to psychics.

I'm not a fan of psychics and I've come

across many, many psychics.

But, in this particular case with Elizabeth Joyce,

I did find her to be very, very accurate.

ELIZABETH JOYCE: In black and white

I saw a blond haired woman in a jogging suit

running behind the car, falling and screaming for help.

I saw the man get out of the car to go over and help this woman.

I saw a man come around in the bushes.

I saw him grab this man that had gotten out of the Cadillac

and put a gun to his head and force him into a white van.

I knew that it was Reso.

ROBERT STACK: Elizabeth said she was in contact with the FBI

on a daily basis for six weeks giving them

information about the case.

ELIZABETH JOYCE: I said, they're putting him in a trunk

and they're taking him off a main road

and they're going to dig a shallow grave.

And he said, describe it to me.

Oh, I said, it's between two pine trees.

It's in a narrow space between two pine trees

and it's off a main road.

Either the Garden State Parkway or the New Jersey Turnpike.

ROBERT STACK: Though the FBI will not talk about Elizabeth's

involvement, a body of Sidney Reso

was found exactly where she said it would be.

Sidney Reso's remains were in a three foot

deep sandy grave in the depths of the pine barrens.

ROBERT STACK: She says her information

also helped catch the killers.

For Elizabeth, the proof is in her results.

I don't try to ever convince anyone that there is such

a thing as psychic sensitivity.

I let them find it for themselves.

I'm there to help others if they are open to being helped.

If I can reach one person that it helps them change their life

for the better and they know things about themselves more

or if they know that we all go on, then I've done my job.

John Holland and Elizabeth Joyce

say they are continuing to use their powers to help others.

Both have day jobs and say they do psychic work on the side,

charging nominal fees for their services.

Can John and Elizabeth really see the future?

Many believe they can.

But in the unexplained world of psychic phenomena,

their stories remain an unsolved mystery.

Next, it was Marlys Thomas's worst nightmare.

Now the tragic loss of her newborn infant

has become an intriguing unsolved mystery.

This is Marlys Thomas.

She's 55 years old and in failing health.

More than 30 years ago, Marlys thought she buried her infant

daughter in this graveyard.

Now she believes that daughter is still alive.

June 12, 1962, Worthington, Minnesota.

Marlys was just 20 years old and separated from her husband.

She had moved to Minnesota to be near her mother

when the baby was born.

Marlys was heavily sedated during her difficult labor.

The next thing Marlys remembers is seeing her daughter Mary

Agnes Grose for the first time.

MARLYS THOMAS: I couldn't take my eyes off of her little feet.

They were moving and I felt so happy

and I just kept watching her little feet

and then I drifted back to sleep.

When I woke up, I looked to see where my baby was

and I didn't see her and I asked the nurse, where's my baby?

And she said, the doctor will be in to talk to you.

Can I see my baby now?

I'm sorry, Marlys, but your baby died.

How long did my baby live?

One hour.

I want to see my mother now.

Oh no no, relax.

We'll I'll take it to your mother soon enough.

Now, just-- just try to--

Oh no.

And that was just such a shock to me, you know?

It hurt so bad.

And I could hardly believe that, you know,

because I had seen her little feet move.

Is that my baby?

Please.

I have to see my baby.

Please, no.

ROBERT STACK: When Marlys left the delivery room

she passed a bassinet that was on his way to the morgue.

And I must have only seen my daughter maybe 10 seconds,

15 at the most, and my baby didn't look dead.

My baby looked like she was just sleeping.

She wasn't purple.

And she had dark hair.

She had lots of hair.

ROBERT STACK: Marlys also noticed that Mary Agnes

had marks on her forehead.

Marks left by the doctor's forceps during the delivery.

Marlys asked for an autopsy but was told it was too late.

While Marlys was still in the hospital,

her friend Judy Voges visited the funeral home

along with Marlys' mother.

Judy claims that the baby she saw

looked different from the infant that Marlys had described.

I didn't see any marks on her forehead.

Her hair was light brown, not dark brown.

It was light brown.

And not a whole lot of it.

It looked kind of downy like, I suppose.

I'm sorry, I can't allow you to photograph.

ROBERT STACK: Stranger still, when Marlys' mother tried

to take a picture of the baby, the funeral director

would not allow it.

This is for my daughter.

I know.

You can take one at the cemetery after the casket been closed.

ROBERT STACK: Later that day, Marlys' mother

did take these pictures of the casket just before the burial.

The day was marked by an additional bizarre occurrence.

Marlys' mother told her that another family

was at the grave site mourning the death of a child.

And they took it so hard.

And they prayed and prayed and they had tears.

I could never figure out who those people were,

and my mother never could figure out who those people were.

ROBERT STACK: A week after the funeral,

Marlys was well enough to visit Mary Agnes' grave site.

There was only one grave there at that time

and I took it so hard, just so bad.

And from that day on, I was out to that cemetery

three, four times a week.

ROBERT STACK: Marlys accepted her baby's

death as a natural occurrence.

But just three months later, another unsettling development.

Marlys received a mysterious photograph in the mail.

There was no letter, no return address.

Just a picture of a husband, a wife and three children,

one of them a baby girl.

The baby looked like my husband.

And I didn't know these people.

I've never seen these people in my life.

And I showed it to my family and my family didn't know

who those people were either.

But they also thought the baby looked a lot like my husband.

ROBERT STACK: Strange indeed.

But it be nearly three decades before Marlys

would come to realize the significance of the picture.

A year passed before Marlys saved enough money

to buy a headstone.

But inexplicably, cemetery workers did not place a stone

atop Mary Agnes' burial plot.

Instead, it was positioned a few feet off to the side.

Though she moved away, Marlys periodically

visited her daughter's grave.

On one visit, she got the shock of her life.

In 1989, a headstone for a different baby

had been placed on Mary Agnes' burial plot.

That baby's name was Pamela Rae Dickey.

Marlys immediately question the funeral director.

I says, well, this can't be.

I says, I even bought a stone and laid it out there.

And then he said, right away, he said,

I often wondered what that stone was

doing out there because there never was a grave.

And I said, well, I know they laid it on the wrong spot

at that time.

Well, he says, no, he says, your daughter's not buried out here.

ROBERT STACK: Not buried here.

Marlys was deeply disturbed.

The old doubts and questions came flooding back.

She began researching the details

of her baby's supposed death and burial

and discovered an odd coincidence.

Pamela Dickey had died only a few hours

before Marlys' daughter on the same day in the same hospital.

And even more startling, Mary Agnes and Pamela Dickey were

also buried on the same day.

There was not two funerals out there that day,

there was only one funeral, one grave.

And after the funeral, there was only one heap of dirt.

That's all there was out there.

ROBERT STACK: There was more.

Marlys found Mary Agnes' last name, Grose,

written in the upper corner of one of Pamela

Dickey's funeral papers.

Even more puzzling, hospital records

said Mary Agnes was healthy at birth,

but the death certificate said she had never drawn a breath.

The birth certificate said she was born as 6:23 PM.

Incredibly, the death certificate

said she died three minutes before she was born at 6:20.

Every place that I go and check this out the papers

just--

just like my daughter had never died, you know?

There's nothing that shows me that my daughter died.

ROBERT STACK: Marlys asked Pamela Dickey's mother

for help.

But understandably, Margaret Dickey

preferred not to disturb her daughter's grave.

Nonetheless, Marlys had to make certain Mary

Agnes' body had not been moved without her knowledge.

She had the grave that lay beneath her daughter's

tombstone exhumed.

The remains were old and difficult to identify

but Marlys was right, DNA testing revealed that the child

buried there was not Mary Agnes Grose,

nor was it Pamela Rae Dickey.

Marlys then showed the pictures her mother had

taken of Mary Agnes' casket to Pamela's mother,

Margaret Dickey.

She looks at the picture, she says, that's my baby.

My husband bought that casket.

And then I asked her, I said, did anyone

go to your baby's funeral?

She said yes, my in-laws, and my husband.

I believe that my mother now went

to Pamela Rae Dickey's funeral.

That there's only one baby there and that's Pamela Rae Dickey.

ROBERT STACK: If Marlys is right and Pamela Dickey is buried

where she thought her own daughter was laid to rest,

what happened to Mary Agnes?

Today Marlys has only one possible explanation.

She is convinced Mary Agnes is still alive

and that the baby in the picture she

received more than 30 years ago was her first born daughter.

What I think today that picture was,

was a family that adopted my baby and they wanted to show me

that my baby was in a family, and that's

why they sent me that picture.

I was 20 years old, I lived by myself

and maybe they thought that I couldn't take care of the baby,

so they had another family raise my baby.

ROBERT STACK: Marlys still suffers

the agony of not knowing what happened to her daughter.

If Mary Agnes is indeed alive, she was born in 1962

and would today be 35 years old.

The birth took place at Worthington Regional Hospital

in Worthington, Minnesota.

I want so bad to find where my daughter is.

I really got to know where she is and I'll never give up.

Never give up until I find where she's at.

ROBERT STACK: Next, the FBI says Paulie Ragusa did it all,

racketeering, robbery, attempted murder.

Is it any wonder they want your help to track

down this fugitive wise guy?

New York City, the Big Apple, money, media, and fashion.

But in the shadows of the skyscrapers,

another world, the underworld.

Across the river from Manhattan lies the borough of Queens.

For generations, these streets have

been home turf for powerful mobsters

and a fertile breeding ground for young wannabe wise guys,

like Paulie Ragusa of Ridgewood, Queens.

By all accounts, Paulie was on the outside looking in.

To get the attention of the important crime families,

Ragusa apparently felt he had to make a statement.

He made it guns and violence.

Paul Ragusa was the leader I think based on his propensity

to engage in violence.

Ragusa is known as a fighter, as somebody

that is not adverse to using his hands and to using firearms.

ROBERT STACK: Paulie Ragusa allegedly did it all, robbery,

assault, racketeering, arson.

And he got away with it because his victims

refused to press charges.

For Paulie winding up on the FBI'S 10 Most Wanted

list was probably inevitable.

Some say he was literally born into a life of crime.

His father, Filipo, was a major heroin

trafficker who smuggled in many kilos of heroin from Sicily.

His older sister Francesca was a member

of his father's heroin ring.

Her husband was also a member of the ring

and so was another of Paulie's brother in laws.

ROBERT STACK: With his father behind bars,

Paulie set his sights on being a big time

crime boss with his own family.

He organized the Giannini crew, gang of aspiring mobsters

who reportedly had their headquarters in the heart

of Queens at the Cafe Giannini.

It's a place that the young wannabes aspire

to go to just to be closer to the real tough guys, the made

guys.

ROBERT STACK: According to police, Ragusa and his gang

spent countless hours sipping espresso

and plotting the crimes that they hoped

would put them on the map.

Paul and his gang were extremely dangerous.

They just didn't have any regard for life.

If you got in their way, they were going to shoot you.

You know, it's not a birthright.

You have to be Italian to get into the mob

but you have to earn your way into it.

You have to show that you're a tough guy and willing

to do just about anything that's required

to make money for the family.

These guys, however, went too far.

ROBERT STACK: A perfect example, Ragusa and his Giannini crew

robbed the same bank in their own neighborhood

three times in a row, netting more than $200,000.

But for sheer audacity, nothing much the events

that took place in Maspeth, Queens.

Two security officers carrying $20,000 in cash

arrived at a bank to make a night deposit.

The driver get out of the van, proceeded

over the night deposit box.

As he walked over to the night deposit box,

he realized there was a van across the street.

He turned and at that time, three suspects exiting a van

approached him and fired at him in rapid succession.

He returned fire, emptying his revolver.

He then fell to the ground and crawled to safety.

His partner, taking cover behind a wall, also returned fire.

A wild shootout ensued.

You can still see some of the results from that shootout.

ROBERT STACK: The shootout left one security

guard seriously injured.

Authorities later linked Ragusa and the Giannini crew

to the robbery.

Investigators believe the guards might

have been executed if the gunmen had not run out of ammunition.

The main factor that makes these types of individuals so

dangerous is, one, their youth and, two, their total disregard

for human life.

ROBERT STACK: By early 1986, a joint investigation

by the FBI and the New York City Police

led to a 32 count indictment against Ragusa

and 13 members of his gang.

Ragusa did not wait around to be arrested.

If you want to be a tough guy, you have to show

you're not afraid of anything.

But deep down , all of these guys

have some kind of a fear that they're going to be caught.

It was this knowledge that Paulie was going to get caught

that forced him to run away.

ROBERT STACK: Paulie Ragusa has been on the run

since June of 1996.

He reportedly speaks fluent Italian,

frequents high-priced prostitutes

and is a heavy gambler.

Ragusa is 27 years old, stands five feet, 10 inches tall

and weighs 170 pounds.

Some mysteries may never be explained

but others may be solved with a single phone call from you.

Join me for our next edition of "Unsolved Mysteries."

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