0:00

Ever heard of test driving a phone network?

0:02

Well, US Cellular is letting you test drive

0:04

their Nationwide 5G. Free! Try out US Cellular

0:06

wherever you have spotty service. Your commute to

0:08

work. Or that one spot in your house

0:11

where your service dips. It's as easy as

0:13

doing a little boopie-pop-boop on your phone. That

0:15

was me getting the app to try it

0:17

out. I know, I'm pretty good with sound

0:19

effects. Test drive US Cellular's Nationwide 5G coverage

0:21

free for 30 days. Just

0:23

download the Try Us app.

0:26

US Cellular. Built for us.

0:28

Terms apply. Visit uscellular.com/Try Us. Lemon,

0:34

lime, and a drop of cherry make a

0:36

simple surely. But

0:39

what happens when Tito's handmade vodka

0:42

reveals this sweet sippers

0:45

dirty secret? Stir

0:48

up a Tito's dirty sherline and

0:50

crack the case with Tito's at

0:53

titosvodka.com. 40%

0:55

alcohol by volume, namely 80 proof crafted to be

0:57

savored responsibly. So,

1:29

let's get started. Welcome

1:42

to True Crime Garage, wherever you are,

1:44

whatever you're doing. Thanks for listening.

1:46

I'm your host Nick and with me as always is

1:49

a man who 30 years later would

1:51

still like to know, what's the frequency Kenneth?

1:53

Here is the captain. I thought at one

1:55

point I knew but I I now know

1:57

I have no clue. It's good to be

1:59

seen. Good to see you. Thanks for

2:01

listening. Thanks for talking to me. I

2:08

just fact checked it, Captain, and nobody

2:10

knows. Still nobody knows. All right. Cheers

2:12

to the great folks over at Highland

2:14

Brewing for producing some of the very

2:17

best beers available today. We are sipping

2:19

Wishing Star Cold IPA from

2:22

Highland. Wishing Star features four

2:24

varieties of hops. Apollo, Centennial,

2:27

Strat, and Mosaic hops. This cold

2:29

IPA is clean and crisp with

2:32

a bright hoppy flavor that you're

2:34

going to love. Garage grade four

2:36

and a half bottle caps out

2:38

of five. And here's some

2:40

cheers to our friends near

2:43

and far that helped us out with this week's

2:45

show. First up, a shout out to Adrian

2:47

from Madawan, Michigan. And a big

2:50

we like your jibs to Morgan

2:52

and Opie and Portland, Oregon. Next

2:54

up, here's a cheers to Rebecca

2:56

Ruth from Topson, Maine. And last

2:58

but certainly not least, we have

3:01

a shout out to a great

3:03

dude, Larry Collins, who made a

3:05

beer fund donation in honor of

3:07

Tim Watkins. Tim was killed

3:09

in Colorado seven years ago by some

3:11

unknown park predator. We covered his case

3:13

on True Crime Garage, and I talked

3:16

about it in my book, The Delphi

3:18

Murders, as well. That case

3:20

is still unsolved. So we pour

3:22

a little out for Tim and

3:24

thank you to everyone who contributed

3:27

to the beer fund. Yeah, B-W-E-W-R-U-N,

3:29

Beer Run. If you need

3:31

more True Crime Garage for your ear balls, you

3:34

can go over to YouTube because I've been

3:37

releasing old episodes of Off the Record, and

3:40

they're fun to listen to. Colonel, that's enough

3:42

of the beer, isn't it? All right, everybody,

3:44

gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer.

3:46

Let's talk some True Crime. The

4:05

investigation into Susan Reinhardt's murder

4:07

was unraveling for detectives. They

4:10

weren't having much luck here,

4:12

Captain. They talked to the

4:14

ex-husband, interviewed him, interviewed everybody

4:16

that they could find

4:18

that would be willing to tell them anything.

4:20

We talked a little bit about

4:23

a potential relationship. Remember, there were

4:25

some people that said, no, Susan was

4:27

not in a relationship that I was

4:29

aware of, others saying she was very

4:31

deep into a relationship. And

4:34

that was with a one

4:36

Bill Bradfield. The

4:38

two were teachers together at the

4:41

high school. We also mentioned a

4:43

principal. Now we should be clear

4:45

here, the principal that we mentioned

4:47

yesterday, Dr. Jay Smith, he

4:50

was a principal at that school for 12 years,

4:52

but he was not a principal at the time

4:55

of the disappearance of the kids and

4:57

Susan's murder. In fact, he

4:59

had left the school about a

5:01

year prior. He got

5:04

into some trouble. His life really went

5:06

off of the rails about

5:08

a year or two before he lost

5:10

his job as a principal. Part

5:13

of that likely had to do with

5:15

the death of his wife, who

5:18

was suffering for several

5:20

years with a

5:23

very tough bout of leukemia.

5:25

The way that it's described

5:27

is horrific. And

5:30

what he and she went

5:32

through during, from the time

5:34

of diagnosis to the time that she passed sounds

5:37

incredibly tragic and stressful and

5:40

horrible to have to deal

5:42

with the, the heartache with him

5:44

had to be palpable. But we'll get

5:46

into Dr. Jay Smith here in a

5:48

bit. What we

5:50

need to focus on right now though, is

5:52

this Bill Bradfield. He is

5:55

as complicated of an individual as

5:57

they come. He

5:59

was. a man who had

6:01

been married twice before, he

6:04

had been a bachelor for quite some time,

6:07

and he's in

6:09

this relationship with

6:11

Suzanne. Many people that

6:13

they talked to that were aware of

6:15

this relationship said that they

6:17

were going to be getting married. And there

6:20

was further detail on that. Some

6:22

people were even telling police, well, they were going

6:24

to get married and they were going to move

6:26

to Europe at

6:28

some point or move to England. The

6:31

other version that they're getting is Bill

6:33

Bradfield, who's saying, yeah, we

6:35

were kind of seeing each other. Not

6:38

really. I was more of a friend. There

6:41

were some people that backed up those statements by

6:43

saying, well, Susan thought it was one thing and

6:46

it wasn't, you know, Bill

6:49

had a whole different opinion of it. It

6:51

wasn't really a relationship. But then it's

6:54

when they dive into Susan's

6:58

financial records, detectives are

7:00

starting to see some things that they're

7:02

concerned with. So

7:04

unfortunately, Susan's mother

7:06

had passed away about

7:09

a year or so before Susan

7:11

was murdered. She's left with a

7:14

pretty handsome inheritance from

7:16

her mother. The reports that

7:18

I've seen are $200,000 in real estate and about $30,000 in

7:20

cash. Now

7:30

we're going back to 1978 and 1979 with these figures. $25,000 back then would

7:32

be equal to about $100,000

7:41

today. Yeah, it's a

7:43

life changing situation. She's

7:45

not going to be able to not work or

7:47

anything, but this is going to give her

7:50

a huge boost, like you said, not with

7:52

just the real estate, but also the money

7:55

aspect. Just the cash alone would

7:57

be over $100,000 in cash. today's

8:00

money and then the $200,000 in real estate would be about

8:02

$800,000 in today's money.

8:07

So a good amount of money here. And

8:09

what they are seeing is that for

8:13

some strange reason, shortly before

8:15

her murder, she

8:18

opens up several life insurance policies

8:21

on herself. And she already had

8:23

at least one preexisting life insurance

8:25

policy where her kids, her two

8:27

children were to be the beneficiaries

8:30

of that. However,

8:32

she changed the beneficiary to

8:34

her boyfriend who when

8:36

she sits down to make

8:39

this change to the life insurance, she

8:42

doesn't describe him as boyfriend,

8:45

William Bradfield. She

8:47

describes him as fiance soon

8:49

to be husband. And

8:52

in fact, that those words make it

8:54

onto the paperwork. So

8:56

she switches one from kids to

8:59

future husband, as she put it, and

9:01

then two other life insurance policies that

9:04

she takes out on herself. Again,

9:07

beneficiary is Bill

9:09

Bradfield, future husband.

9:12

I've seen some varying descriptions

9:14

of how much money

9:17

this was, but some

9:20

say as little as half a

9:22

million dollars when you total up

9:24

all of the life insurance policies,

9:26

others saying that was closer

9:28

to $1 million back then. Again

9:32

to give a little bit of background here,

9:34

we're talking, I mean, this

9:36

would be equal to millions of dollars

9:38

today. And that doesn't include

9:41

the inheritance that she had of the $30,000

9:43

cash and the real estate that

9:48

she had inherited from her mother.

9:50

Well, and if you're law enforcement,

9:52

this is fishy, right? You have

9:54

people saying, well, they're

9:57

boyfriend, girlfriend. Some people say, nope,

9:59

Bill. was her friend Bill saying, Hey,

10:01

it wasn't that serious. Well,

10:03

if it wasn't that serious, then why

10:05

is she calling you her fiance on

10:07

these legal documents? And why is

10:09

she giving you, or you'd

10:12

be the beneficiary to three

10:15

insurance policies, and you'd

10:17

be the beneficiary to real

10:20

estate? And like you said,

10:22

what does that total in today's money? It

10:24

could be up to three, $4

10:27

million. And one person that was

10:29

aware of this prior

10:31

to Susan's death was her

10:34

brother and her ex-husband.

10:37

So what takes place here, in

10:39

fact, they are the reason why

10:41

this ends

10:43

up on the detective's radar in

10:47

the first place. So the

10:49

ex-husband and brother come forward and they

10:51

say, they file what I

10:53

believe is called a caveat. And

10:56

what that is, is they're challenging the

10:59

insurance companies saying, Wait a second. Yeah,

11:01

we know she's been killed. And you're

11:04

probably going to pay this out. Now,

11:06

keep in mind, a lot of these

11:08

life insurance policies are not going

11:10

to pay out with

11:12

a pending investigation, right?

11:14

It would pay out once the investigation

11:17

runs its course and everything, if everything's

11:19

on the up and up, then it

11:21

will pay out. But prior

11:23

to that, while this investigation is

11:26

ongoing, brother and ex-husband come forward

11:28

and they say, Wait

11:30

a second, you guys might want to not

11:32

pay this guy. Because

11:36

he's one of many suspects. I mean,

11:38

as said, even the brother and ex-husband

11:40

were at some point on the suspect

11:43

list, because until you're ruled out, you're

11:45

ruled out, you're still a suspect. This

11:48

goes on to police radar. Now police through

11:50

this, they start figuring out, well, wait a

11:52

second, leading up to

11:54

her murder. Now we're going

11:56

back a couple months before she was

11:58

killed. Remember that $30,000

12:00

cash is she inherited? Well, that was

12:03

in a, in savings. She

12:06

was making large withdrawals from

12:08

that $30,000 multiple

12:11

times leading up to her

12:13

death and

12:17

taking out money, multiple occasions,

12:19

mainly because of daily limits.

12:22

But they figured that it was about

12:24

$25,000 that she had taken

12:27

out of savings. Jesus.

12:29

They're looking through her financials. They're looking

12:32

through her home. They're, they're going through

12:34

her life and they're like going, well,

12:36

there's nothing obvious that she spent that

12:38

money on. So where did it go?

12:40

Once again, bring in

12:42

Bill Bradfield. Bill

12:46

Bradfield was according

12:48

to him, her friend, her

12:50

very close friend that was helping her. And

12:52

he even said that she seemed troubled and

12:54

seemed to make decisions that didn't make any

12:57

sense. He, he

12:59

didn't know why she would name him

13:01

as the beneficiary of these

13:04

life insurance policies. But maybe

13:06

it was because she was

13:08

looking at him as some kind of

13:10

financial advisor. As he puts it, he

13:12

was telling her,

13:15

and this is going from her

13:17

brother's statements and other

13:20

people that tell police, well,

13:22

we know where the $25,000 went. She

13:24

was giving it to Bill and he was

13:26

investing it for her, or at least that's

13:28

what she told us. And of

13:30

course, Bill's telling police, I don't know what you're talking about. $25,000.

13:32

I've never seen $25,000. This

13:36

guy seems a little bit like a Scott Pearson.

13:39

Well nowadays things are all done

13:41

online, but back then when you

13:43

buy stocks or bonds, you would

13:45

typically get a decorated

13:48

paper receipt, let's call it for a

13:50

lack of better term, right? A certificate.

13:52

Right. And so when police go to

13:54

her home, they are finding things that

13:57

are, that are certificates of stocks that

13:59

we're purchased or bonds that were purchased.

14:01

But what they quickly realize is a

14:04

lot of these companies that

14:06

she seemed to own stock or thought she

14:09

owned stock for didn't exist. And

14:11

now they're starting to say, well, she's

14:14

telling people that he's investing this money

14:17

for her. She

14:19

must've believed it, but

14:21

we think he's doing something else with

14:23

this money because these stocks are for

14:25

companies that don't exist. So

14:27

now, right? He becomes obvious

14:30

suspect, prime suspect.

14:33

Number one, the problem with

14:35

him being a suspect though, is the

14:37

time of death. And that's why

14:39

I said earlier, captain, I don't love, when

14:41

you, when you tell me cause

14:44

of death is this, we've narrowed it down to

14:46

three things. I'm not so

14:48

confident when you tell me that you've narrowed down

14:51

the time of death, because

14:55

it's her time of death that takes him off

14:57

of the radar that removes him

15:02

and seems like it makes it so

15:04

the likelihood of him being a good

15:06

suspect is not

15:08

so likely. So he

15:10

was with three other people at

15:12

a place called Cape May, New

15:14

Jersey. And he is there.

15:18

The original reports that police get is

15:20

he's there the entire weekend. Now

15:23

to complicate things, he lives

15:25

in the greater Philadelphia area. Remember

15:27

he works at the same school as

15:29

Susan to complicate things. When he comes

15:31

back from this Cape May, New Jersey,

15:34

he, he's, he's returning home on the

15:36

same Monday that she is found dead

15:38

in the hatchback. He

15:41

goes home and then he immediately leaves.

15:44

So within a few hours of

15:46

getting back to his house, he's

15:48

now on an airplane heading out

15:50

to New Mexico. All

15:54

of these travels

15:56

of his were pre-arranged. Okay.

15:58

So that's one thing. that's it doesn't look

16:00

like he's on the run from anything. It's

16:03

suspicious, but it's not highly suspicious

16:06

because these are all pre-arranged travels

16:08

that he has set up. So

16:10

the, the travel to Cape May,

16:12

New Jersey, he's traveling with three

16:14

friends. These are three people that

16:16

he worked with that worked at

16:18

the high school. So

16:20

all three of these people know him and they know

16:22

Susan, of course, the

16:25

plane trip out to New Mexico is because

16:27

he is taking a course. He's

16:32

going to be attending classes there that he

16:35

signed up for. Remember the, these people were

16:37

all teachers and it's

16:39

now summertime. So it's

16:41

the summer and they have the

16:43

summer to go work other jobs to further

16:47

their education. Well, that's what he's doing. He's

16:49

on a plane with one of these other

16:52

teachers out to New Mexico to take classes

16:54

for the summer. Well, this is quite convenient

16:56

because every time the police want to talk

16:58

to him about Susan's murder, he's

17:01

busy. He can't take the phone call. It's easy

17:03

for him to duck them because he's on the

17:05

other side of the country. This

17:07

is what leads police to Bill Bradfield

17:10

as a possible or very good suspect

17:15

in this case. The problem though, is

17:18

once again, the timeline if

17:20

he is in Cape May the entire weekend

17:22

with three other people, that

17:24

makes it very difficult for him

17:26

to have committed the murder, especially

17:28

when the coroner is saying

17:31

that she had only died about 24 hours or

17:36

so before being found 27 hours

17:38

approximately after leaving her home on

17:40

that Friday night. I

17:43

agree with you on the sense of

17:45

he's not a good suspect if

17:47

they're, timeline of

17:49

death is correct.

17:52

Exactly. And what

17:55

will move, what

17:57

will help to move police off of.

18:01

Bill Bradfield is this. They

18:03

start talking to the three people that he's

18:05

at Cape may with. And

18:08

these people, they're all teachers. All three

18:10

of them are teachers at the same

18:12

high school. They start telling detectives

18:16

that, Oh, well, we

18:18

were hearing through the grapevine that

18:20

Dr. Jay Smith

18:23

was going to murder Susan. Who

18:26

are they hearing this from? Uh,

18:29

well, that's, that's interesting. It's

18:32

very amazing guys. Well,

18:34

this, this case is very incestuous.

18:36

So they're hearing some

18:38

of this and they're saying, well, okay, well, who's telling you

18:41

that? Or where did you hear this? Well, they're hearing it

18:43

from each other. You know, again,

18:45

a game of telephone, one of them said

18:47

something to somebody and then it's kind of

18:49

getting regurgitated around and around in a circle.

18:52

But what it looks like

18:54

here, captain, is it may be that rumor

18:56

started with Bill Bradfield

19:00

that he started saying it. And somehow

19:02

this became regular conversation over

19:04

the course of weeks, maybe

19:07

even months leading up to

19:09

her murder. I don't

19:11

like this bill. Well, and police want to know

19:14

like, well, what would be, why would

19:16

Dr. Jay

19:19

Smith, who was her one-time principal or one-time

19:21

boss, why would he have any motive at

19:24

all to kill this person? She's

19:26

not worked for him for a year,

19:28

approximately. Well, this dude, they start

19:30

looking at him and he's, he's already

19:32

been in trouble with the law quite

19:34

a bit and that's why he'd lost his job as

19:37

a principal. I'm telling you

19:39

guys, if you don't know this case, there's

19:42

this case. Put

19:44

on your raincoat. Yeah. Put on

19:46

your raincoat. Cause there's going to be some

19:48

shit. You can not make this stuff up.

19:50

Okay. Not too much shit, but quite a

19:52

bit of shit. All right. So let's take

19:54

a look at this Dr. Jay Smith. Yeah.

19:56

He grew up during the great

19:58

depression. He. enlisted in

20:00

the US Army. He became

20:03

a Colonel, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, and

20:05

then he transferred to- So we know he's full

20:07

of shit. The United

20:09

States Army Reserves. Okay,

20:12

well, remember the comb that was

20:14

found underneath our victim in the

20:17

hatchback? Yes. Well, that was

20:19

part of his... That

20:21

was his unit that

20:23

was inscribed on the comb. That

20:26

was his unit that he was

20:28

enlisted for with the Army Reserves. So

20:31

most likely his comb. Yes. Now, before

20:34

we go too far, because I know

20:36

I'll forget to say it later, Captain,

20:40

they made a

20:42

whole bunch of these combs at one point.

20:44

We're talking thousands. They made thousands of them.

20:47

And it was not just

20:49

to give to the people that served

20:51

or that were in that unit, but

20:53

they were also handed out as a

20:56

potential recruiting tool. So

20:59

it stands to reason that he would have that

21:01

comb in his possession,

21:04

but it also stands to reason that maybe

21:06

dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of other

21:08

people would have had

21:10

a comb like that at one time in their life. Well,

21:13

it's also possible that maybe he gave

21:16

them out to his teachers

21:18

when he was a principal. This

21:21

part of it though is interesting because here

21:23

we have a comb that he would have

21:25

had in a unit that he served in,

21:28

and he has a direct connection, dot A

21:31

to dot B to our victim. And

21:33

then it also makes you wonder,

21:36

was there some type of relationship

21:38

between Susan,

21:42

our victim, and Dr. J. Smith? Well,

21:45

and depending on who you talk to, there

21:47

either was or there wasn't. So there are

21:49

some people that say that there was no,

21:52

never any relationship. When

21:54

Dr. J. Smith is asked about it,

21:56

he says, I've never met her children.

21:58

I never spoke to her once. outside

22:00

of the workplace. I didn't really know

22:02

her other than she, her

22:04

and I worked at the same school. There are

22:06

people out there that say they

22:09

had a one-time affair. There

22:11

are other people that say he tried, he

22:15

made advances toward her and she

22:17

rejected him. And then

22:19

there are other people that say what he was saying.

22:21

They had no relationship outside of work at all. Again,

22:25

very difficult for detectives to

22:28

piece through this information when

22:30

you're getting conflicting information from

22:33

really the same pool of people. Well,

22:36

it's also tough because look

22:38

at our victim, Susan, she

22:41

doesn't seem to be an individual

22:44

that she's telling

22:47

every detail of her life to

22:49

multiple people. So

22:52

it's not like we have a bunch of people in

22:54

her life. Like you said, there are

22:56

some people going, well, this, this

22:58

relationship with Bill was nothing. And other

23:00

people say it was everything. And then

23:03

you have people in her life

23:05

saying, well, there was no relationship with

23:07

Dr. J Smith. And some people saying

23:09

there was a relationship. I mean, and

23:11

we don't have an individual

23:13

that we feel like she's giving every

23:16

detail of her life to. Well,

23:19

in Dr. J Smith, depending

23:24

on how you want to cut it, it's

23:28

either good for your investigation or bad luck

23:30

for him. He's, he's a weird dude. There's

23:32

no way to put it. Uh,

23:34

so being a weird dude when you fall

23:37

into a suspect pool is not helpful to

23:39

you. If you're innocent, if

23:42

you're an investigator, you're looking for the

23:44

weird dude in the suspect pool. And

23:47

this weird dude has a police

23:49

record. This is where I

23:51

said you can't make this stuff up. He, this dude

23:53

is a respected

23:56

army reserve commander. like

24:00

a ranking officer and

24:03

he's a principal of good upstanding for 12

24:06

years at this one school in particular. That's until

24:08

August of 1978. So this is 13, sorry, this

24:10

is a

24:12

little short of one year before

24:20

Susan's murder. This

24:23

is when police go

24:26

and they arrest a man. So they,

24:28

all right, there's this guy wearing a

24:30

hood and carrying two pistols

24:33

and he's trying to break into a car in

24:36

a shopping mall parking lot. They, the

24:38

police get on the scene and

24:41

they arrest this dude without

24:43

incident. And

24:46

the guy in the hood with the two pistols turns out

24:48

to be principal

24:50

Smith. He's

24:53

in the parking lot of the gateway

24:55

shopping center, trying to

24:57

break into a vehicle. Now, police

25:00

search his vehicle after they arrest

25:02

him. They find four handguns, one

25:06

that is fitted with an

25:08

homemade silencer. They

25:10

don't know if he purchased the thing or if he

25:12

made the silencer himself. And

25:15

in a suit coat that is

25:18

in a pocket of a suit coat

25:20

that's found in his car, they find

25:22

a syringe that is loaded with prescription

25:24

medicine of some sort. Now

25:29

this is going to inspire the police

25:31

to get a search warrant to search

25:33

his home. When

25:36

they get to his home, they

25:40

find some things of interest. They

25:42

find a large stash of marijuana.

25:46

And the thing that's of the greatest

25:48

interest to them is

25:50

they find security guard uniforms

25:52

and fake badges. Okay.

25:55

So the reports are here, captain, that

25:58

they found like three pounds of marijuana.

26:00

So he think about the charges already

26:02

that this guy's facing, right? Like this

26:04

homemade silencer is illegal as they come.

26:06

That's a charge. The three

26:09

pounds of marijuana, that's drug possession charge.

26:11

And when you have that quantity, that's

26:13

with the intent to sell to, uh,

26:16

or intent to distribute. And

26:18

then he's trying to break into a vehicle. One thing

26:20

that I've, I've

26:23

searched high and I've searched low, my friends

26:25

for two weeks. I've been trying to figure

26:27

out whose vehicle was he trying to break

26:29

into and why. And that information ceased to

26:31

exist as far as I'm aware. So if

26:33

anybody knows that information, that's what we, that's

26:35

one of the things that we want to

26:37

hear in this case amongst some others. Police

26:40

are very interested in the security

26:42

guard uniforms and the fake badges

26:44

that they find in the basement

26:46

of Jay Smith. This

27:00

show is sponsored by better help. We

27:02

have all probably experienced a time when

27:04

we don't feel like ourselves or feel

27:06

like that we can be our full

27:08

self. Like we're hiding behind a mask.

27:10

October is the season for wearing masks

27:12

and costumes, but for some of

27:14

us, we feel like we're wearing a mask

27:16

and we have to hide more often than

27:19

we want to maybe at work and social

27:21

settings and even around our own families. Therapy

27:24

can help you learn to accept all

27:26

parts of yourself so you can take

27:28

off the mask because mask should be

27:30

for Halloween fun, not for our emotions.

27:32

If you are thinking of starting therapy,

27:34

give better help a try. It's entirely

27:37

online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and

27:39

suited to your schedule. Just fill out

27:41

a brief questionnaire to get matched with

27:43

a licensed therapist and switch therapist at

27:45

any time for no additional charge. Visit

27:48

betterhelp.com/garage today to get 10%

27:51

off your first month. That's

27:54

betterhelp.com/garage. phone

28:00

network? Well, US Cellular is letting you test

28:02

drive their Nationwide 5G free. Try

28:05

out US Cellular wherever you have spotty

28:07

service. Your commute to work. Or that

28:09

one spot in your house where your

28:11

service dips. It's as easy as doing

28:13

a little boopie-pop-boop on your phone. That

28:15

was me getting the app to try

28:17

it out. I know, I'm pretty good

28:20

with sound effects. Test drive US Cellular's

28:22

Nationwide 5G coverage free for 30 days.

28:24

Just download the Try US app. US

28:26

Cellular. Built for us. Terms apply. Visit

28:28

uscellular.com/tryus. Think

28:30

about the subjects that your children

28:32

struggle with in school. I know

28:34

for me it was always science.

28:37

I just couldn't get it. Couldn't

28:39

wrap my head around some of

28:41

the aspects of science. IXL is

28:43

an online learning program for kids

28:45

covering math, language arts, science, and

28:47

social studies. IXL has

28:50

interactive practice problems for topics

28:52

from pre-K to 12th grade.

28:55

And everything is organized by grade

28:57

and subject. If you're a parent

28:59

and your child needs some homework

29:01

help, then IXL is right for

29:04

your family. As kids practice, they

29:06

get positive feedback, awards, and explanations

29:08

for wrong answers. IXL figures

29:10

out what your kids need more help

29:12

with and recommends more topics to practice.

29:15

There are videos, lessons, sample

29:17

problems, and learning games too.

29:20

IXL even has skill plans

29:22

for specific textbooks. One

29:24

subscription to IXL gets you all

29:26

subjects and all grade levels. Memberships

29:29

start at just $9.95 a month. It's no wonder IXL is used in 95 of the

29:31

top 100 school

29:37

districts. My nieces and nephews love

29:39

IXL. They love the positive feedback,

29:41

they love the awards, and they

29:44

love the learning games too. Whether

29:46

your child is struggling with a

29:48

subject or just needs a little

29:50

extra help, I'd highly recommend IXL

29:53

Learning. It's going to save you time and

29:55

it's going to save you many headaches. Make

29:57

an impact on your child's learning. IXL

30:00

now. In true crime garage listeners get

30:02

an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when

30:07

they sign up today

30:09

at ixl.com/garage. Visit ixl.com/garage

30:11

to get the most

30:13

effective learning program out

30:15

there at the best

30:17

price. All

30:29

right, we are back.

30:31

Cheers, mates. We found

30:33

that three bags of

30:35

marriage awana. So the

30:38

rest of the episode is going to be very

30:40

interesting. We're going to

30:42

be high on old marriage awana. It's

30:44

been confiscated and now we

30:46

will pursue what is often

30:49

referred to as a controlled burn. Yeah,

30:51

like when you said, I've

30:53

searched high. Well, how high

30:56

were you? All right.

30:59

Cheers. Let's talk about these security guard

31:01

uniforms, captain, because this, this is one

31:03

part of the story that I find

31:05

to be very intriguing. This is a

31:07

very, um, point break

31:09

ish to me. Okay. So this

31:12

area had experienced some pretty

31:14

big thefts recently.

31:17

Okay. So in August of 77, there was a

31:19

theft of $53,000 from a Sears department

31:25

store in a neighboring community.

31:28

And then there was the theft

31:30

or attempted theft of $158,000 at another

31:33

steer Sears department store

31:35

and another neighboring community.

31:38

What they figured out was Dr.

31:41

J. Smith with these security

31:43

guard uniforms in the fake badges had

31:46

fashioned himself a

31:49

Brinks armed car security guard

31:51

uniforms. He made these

31:54

things even giving himself an ID,

31:56

like a lanyard with an ID

31:58

identification badge. and a silver

32:02

badge. What they believe he

32:04

was doing is watching these stores,

32:06

these large box stores, and

32:09

he would figure out the routines and

32:11

know what day and at approximately what

32:13

time Brinks was showing up to collect

32:15

cash and checks from these stores. What

32:17

he would do is he would dress

32:20

up like the Brinks security guard and

32:23

go into the store shortly before

32:25

the scheduled pickup. It'd show him

32:27

identification, chat with him, and

32:30

no one's the wiser, and they would fill up the

32:32

bag and he would walk out the bag, and then

32:34

what would happen is the actual Brinks security guard would

32:36

show up minutes later, and

32:38

now the manager's wondering, well,

32:41

if you're the real guard, who the

32:43

hell did I just hand thousands of

32:45

dollars to? Yeah, officer, your cash. It's

32:47

actually, hashtag don't try this at home.

32:49

I'm not saying go out and do

32:51

this, but it's actually a rather brilliant

32:53

plan when you think about it. And

32:56

not to diverge from the

32:58

story completely, but when

33:01

I was reading this, to me, it almost

33:03

reminded me a little bit of Breaking

33:05

Bad, in a sense, because

33:07

we do have this criminal history

33:09

of Jay Smith, but it doesn't

33:12

seem like the criminal history goes

33:14

back like that far, and so

33:16

I wonder, like you were saying,

33:19

his wife was suffering from leukemia,

33:22

and he was under all

33:24

this pressure, and he's a

33:27

principal, and you just wonder if he was

33:29

just one of these guys that was like,

33:31

hey, life didn't work out for me the

33:33

way I planned, and I've

33:35

been doing good things. I mean,

33:37

he had a lot of- He

33:40

had accomplishments as far as career, and I

33:42

mean, he had a doctorate, and

33:46

he had a life in the Army Reserve,

33:48

so he was working toward a good retirement.

33:51

And here's the thing, somebody

33:53

out there is gonna get mad at me. I

33:56

don't want anybody to think that I'm rushing to

33:58

defend. Doctors. Jay Smith.

34:03

But I was reading something

34:05

the other night that was absolutely heartbreaking. And

34:07

this is stuff that is not unknown

34:10

to others out there, but I

34:12

had never seen the actual number

34:14

numbers they were talking

34:16

about. So this month is breast cancer

34:18

awareness month. And

34:21

the article I was reading reading was

34:23

how much does it cost for a

34:25

year of care for somebody who is

34:27

diagnosed with breast cancer. They did a

34:29

cost breakdown between stage one, two, three,

34:31

four. Stage one, look,

34:34

nobody wants to get any kind of cancer

34:36

or any stage of cancer, but stage one,

34:38

not very expensive. Stage two, 17 times

34:41

the cost of stage one. And

34:43

then you can imagine where it goes from there. Stage

34:45

four, you're lucky

34:47

to live, but if you live,

34:49

you're bankrupt. So I'm

34:52

not rushing to defend Smith.

34:55

I'm just examining what's going on in

34:57

his life and his timeline. His wife

34:59

has not died of leukemia yet and

35:01

was diagnosed with leukemia. And it was

35:03

not ever considered to be a situation

35:06

that she was going to beat. So

35:08

I don't know if he just lost

35:10

his mind or if he was

35:12

trying to collect funds to try to save his

35:14

wife's life. I don't know. And

35:17

this, and yeah, and that's, it's

35:19

like, like I said,

35:21

breaking bad situation. Like

35:23

you said, this guy had

35:25

accomplishments, not just in military,

35:27

but as a civilian also.

35:30

And so then these

35:32

crimes took place,

35:35

but I couldn't find anything

35:37

that he was charged with. And that doesn't

35:39

mean he wasn't committing crimes before this that

35:42

he just wasn't calm for, but I couldn't

35:44

find any. One thing that's always been of

35:47

heightened suspicion for Dr. J. Smith

35:49

is his daughter

35:52

and son-in-law have been missing

35:54

for a very long time.

35:56

They've been missing and they've

35:59

never been found. Now, did they run

36:01

off because Jay

36:03

Smith would tell everyone that

36:05

they ran off others based off

36:07

of these events that we just

36:09

discussed and later events

36:11

that he suspected of people

36:13

think that he is the reason that they

36:16

vanished. His statements have

36:18

always been, and some of these

36:20

statements are absolute fact. His

36:22

daughter, he had two daughters. Okay. So

36:25

let's be clear here. Nothing ever happened to

36:27

his other daughter, but the one daughter that disappeared,

36:29

his name, her name is Stephanie. And I believe

36:31

she was named after her mother. She

36:34

fell into drugs pretty bad. She

36:36

was a heroin addict and

36:38

her husband who was a couple of years older than

36:40

her, he was a heroin

36:42

addict as well. Their last name was Hunsberger.

36:45

They go missing. And this

36:47

is early 1978, like February of 1978. Which

36:53

again, you got this criminal activity

36:55

plus the family members going missing.

36:58

This is setting him up to be equally

37:00

as good of a suspect, if

37:03

not better than Bradfield because

37:05

Bradfield has what seems to be

37:07

a pretty solid alibi. Not only

37:09

that, if Jay

37:12

Smith made two people disappear before, never

37:14

to be found, it's reasonable that he

37:16

could do it again. Yeah.

37:20

And so Smith's daughter and

37:22

her husband to

37:24

this day, captain, have never been found. Their

37:27

reported missing early 78. As

37:31

the story goes, she had been

37:33

arrested on a couple of occasions

37:35

for prostitution. Son-in-law was up

37:37

to no good. I think he had got picked

37:39

up for theft or something on occasion.

37:42

They were living in his home at this

37:46

time. The last time that they're seen,

37:48

they're seen by his parents, the

37:51

son-in-law's parents, and they went to visit them

37:53

for a get together evening,

37:55

get together for dinner one night. Everyone

37:57

suspicious of Jay Smith because they were living

37:59

at his home with his wife at

38:01

the time, right? He says they were

38:03

in trouble with some drug dealers, some

38:05

local drug dealers, and they hit the

38:07

road. And the best they told

38:10

him was they were heading out to the West coast to

38:13

start all over and to hide from these people that

38:15

they owed a bunch of money to. I don't,

38:19

I've reviewed it, Captain. I don't have a

38:21

strong opinion either way as to what happened

38:23

to these two individuals. If they took off

38:25

on their own, if those drug dealers caught

38:27

up to him or if Jay Smith is

38:30

responsible for their disappearance. What

38:32

I will say is this. What we do know, the

38:34

way that this all plays out is Jay Smith is

38:36

now facing a whole hell

38:38

of a lot of charges. And

38:42

Jay Smith wasn't known to be the most social guy.

38:44

He didn't have a whole bunch of friends. Well,

38:47

when he's in trouble and

38:49

he's facing all these criminal charges,

38:51

the only person that comes to

38:53

his defense is a one-bill Bradfield,

38:56

who many people say they

38:59

weren't aware that the two were close. And

39:02

Bradfield even tells police that they weren't close.

39:04

He says, but he went to police and

39:06

says, I know on of a

39:08

couple of these charges that

39:10

he absolutely could not have committed these

39:12

crimes because he was with me. And

39:16

not only that, he was hundreds of miles away

39:18

at this, and I think he referenced Cape May

39:21

one more time. So this is

39:23

the only person that comes to his

39:25

defense and testifies in court as

39:27

an alibi for Dr. Jay

39:29

Smith, that he couldn't have committed some

39:31

of these offenses because he

39:34

was with me the whole

39:36

time and we were out of town. He was

39:38

nowhere near. I know you found those security

39:41

guard uniforms in his basement, but he

39:44

couldn't have done it. Yeah,

39:46

but then it makes you wonder if they

39:48

are close and Bill

39:51

Bradford was able to establish a

39:54

solid alibi. For

40:00

when Susan and her kids go missing and

40:02

then her body is found and

40:05

somebody that Bill Bradford is

40:07

close to Jay Smith

40:09

needs money for some

40:11

reason. And

40:13

you're set to inherit again, let's just

40:15

go over this again, three

40:19

life insurance policies, real estate,

40:22

plus this money that she was giving

40:24

you that was

40:26

obviously some kind of scam. More

40:29

than his, the cash that

40:31

she gave him to air quotes, invest

40:33

for her, as she told other

40:35

people, remember that's what she told her brother. That's

40:38

what she told several people. And

40:40

she also told people that she gave him her

40:43

grandmother's diamond ring, her grandmother's wedding ring

40:45

that she inherited so that he, he

40:47

would go and get it reset to

40:49

give her an engagement ring so they

40:51

could make it official and then

40:54

go and get married soon. She, according

40:56

to everybody that knew her intimately,

40:58

and this includes a therapist

41:01

that she spoke to on a couple of occasions. They

41:04

all said the same thing. She was

41:06

telling them she's getting married to this guy. Now

41:10

you go digging a little bit deeper and here's

41:12

what you find out. There

41:14

are three other women that thought they were getting married

41:16

to this element, this English

41:19

teacher as well. Con artist. Three

41:22

other women that thought they were getting married. One

41:25

woman was 20 years younger than him. Used

41:27

to be one of his students. They, they

41:29

started hooking up after she turned 18 and

41:31

graduated. And

41:36

he was living on and off again with another

41:38

woman that went by the name Sue. Jesus.

41:41

One woman was so infatuated with him that

41:44

even though she knew about the other relationships,

41:46

when he ends up getting arrested, and we'll

41:48

get into that in a minute, she pays

41:50

thousands of dollars to bail him out. There's,

41:54

I can't place it, captain. There's an old rock

41:56

song where one of the lines is the world's

41:58

greatest lover. This dude must. have been that they

42:00

must have been singing about him or something. Because

42:03

hold on. I'm, I'm looking to

42:05

convince four smart women that he was going

42:07

to marry all four of them. Well, I'm

42:09

looking this up on Wikipedia and you know,

42:11

we keep calling him Bill Brad, Bradfield,

42:14

but, uh, his real name

42:16

was William Golden cock Bradfield.

42:20

So true story here

42:22

with captain is this is what the

42:25

way that this starts to play out police

42:27

were under huge pressure to solve this thing. And

42:30

I'll tell you what, I think they got close

42:32

to getting it right. Bill Bradfield

42:34

is not a great suspect because of

42:36

the timeline. They can't put him and

42:38

Susan together at the same time when

42:40

they believe that she was murdered. In

42:42

fact, he's miles away in

42:44

another city, another town, Cape may with

42:47

three different people that are that swear

42:49

up and down, he was with us

42:51

the whole weekend. We, in fact, we

42:53

stayed together. They had, they

42:55

had two rooms for four people. He

42:58

and one person stayed in one room and the

43:00

other two people stayed in the room next to

43:02

it, they had lunch and dinner and breakfast together.

43:05

They went to church together on two occasions during

43:07

that weekend. But here's the

43:09

problem. He made prior

43:11

arrangements for this group to stay at

43:13

Cape may, New Jersey. He did this

43:15

about a week or two before the

43:17

weekend in question. When

43:20

he made these arrangements, he told

43:22

the proprietor of the business, Hey,

43:24

we are going to arrive late

43:26

Friday night. So just leave the

43:28

doors unlocked with the keys inside.

43:30

We'll let ourselves in. So he,

43:32

they pay for Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

43:35

Well, Cape may, it's not close to where they live.

43:37

So it stands a reason that they would arrive there

43:39

late. You do a little

43:41

bit of checking here, the longest

43:43

drive that it would have taken

43:45

them even back then, and I'm

43:47

figuring this up conservatively, giving them

43:49

the benefit of the doubt, adding

43:51

additional time here, conservatively, Captain, we're

43:53

talking two and a half hours.

43:56

They, according to the three people.

44:00

that he traveled with, they arrived there

44:02

at three in the morning. Well,

44:04

that means that they didn't leave till midnight

44:06

or a little after midnight on

44:08

that Friday. And what do we

44:10

know is happening that Friday at some point,

44:13

Susan and her kids are rushing around to

44:15

go where we don't know, but

44:17

that was at nine 20 PM. That

44:20

leaves about a three hour window on

44:22

Friday night, where

44:26

Bradfield is unaccounted for. Let's go through

44:28

his day real quick. Remember we said he's the world's

44:31

greatest lover. Well, he

44:33

spent half the day with one of those other three women that we

44:36

talked about briefly, and

44:38

he spent part of that day too, with a gentleman by

44:40

the last name of, I shouldn't say

44:42

gentleman, because I don't know exactly his involvement in this, he seems to

44:44

have some involvement. He might be a

44:46

piece of shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. His

44:49

last name is, uh, Pappas. Pappas. He

44:51

was one of the people that went out to

44:53

Cape may with Bradfield.

44:57

They spent a part of the day

44:59

together too. So when these two people

45:02

talk to detectives, basically their story is.

45:05

Bill Bradfield is accounted for up till

45:07

about 8 PM that night, Susan

45:09

and the kids take off at nine 20. And

45:12

they, him and friends don't arrive

45:15

in Cape may till three AM. Again,

45:18

there's, there's enough window of time

45:20

there. If she

45:22

was in fact killed or abducted and

45:25

bound, he could

45:27

have had some direct involvement in

45:29

what happened to her and

45:32

still made it out there to Cape may now,

45:35

how does Dr. Jay Smith fall into all of

45:38

this? Well, remember there were some

45:40

of those rumors, but police and

45:42

detectives needed a little more of

45:44

a motive. Well,

45:48

the motive at some point became,

45:50

well, Bill Bradfield came forward and

45:53

testified and likely perjured

45:55

himself providing an alibi

45:57

for Jay Smith for some of his more

46:01

serious offenses. So

46:03

Dr. J. Smith owed him one. The

46:06

thing that even points out more

46:08

that J. Smith was involved is, oh by

46:10

the way, her body's found in Harrisburg. Where

46:13

was J. Smith supposed to be the same

46:16

morning that Monday morning when her body was

46:18

found in that parking lot in the hatchback?

46:22

He was supposed to be in Harrisburg, checking

46:25

in with police because he's going to

46:27

have to start serving his sentence on

46:29

all of those crimes that he was

46:32

convicted of that we just discussed.

46:34

And it's noted that he

46:37

shows up an hour later

46:39

than scheduled. So

46:41

now detectives are saying, well he was probably

46:43

late because he's busy tidying

46:46

up the crime scene. The

46:48

other thing we should point out too, and I

46:50

know a lot of the listeners are circling around

46:53

this detail like vultures. Remember one

46:55

of the details about him breaking into

46:57

that car? Remember they found a syringe

46:59

in his pocket and

47:02

we know that our victim was doped 10 times

47:04

level on morphine at

47:07

some point. So that's

47:09

a little, that's connective

47:11

tissue there. And even if

47:13

she would recognize J. Smith

47:17

as he got closer, he could have used

47:20

some kind of disguise, like

47:22

a security guard or law

47:25

enforcement or something to get close to her.

47:28

Well, and they weren't going to let Bill off the

47:30

hook either. They think

47:32

that Bill needed

47:35

to get rid of Susan one to,

47:37

to collect life insurance money. Two,

47:41

that some of the

47:43

investments he claimed he made for her,

47:45

it's believed that they were coming due

47:48

to pay. So she

47:50

was going to get her money back plus

47:52

a return. And in one case it was

47:54

like 12% interest that he was claiming. So

47:57

at some point she's would be notif,

47:59

you know, she would likely become aware

48:01

that he's scamming her. And

48:04

at some point she'd become aware, like he's not

48:06

really going to marry me. And we're not really

48:08

moving off to England. So

48:11

this is a con artist, right? And,

48:13

and so he's conning her. And the

48:15

only way out of it is

48:18

to kill her, but why the

48:20

children? So the way that the

48:22

theory goes is that the children

48:24

were not supposed to be there.

48:26

This whole murder of, of

48:29

Susan was very premeditated, very

48:32

planned out. But

48:34

the, the wrench that got thrown into

48:36

the whole situation was wherever she showed

48:39

up to, wherever the trap

48:41

was that had been set, she showed up

48:43

there with two

48:45

kids that, that no one had expected that it was

48:48

going to go that way. I don't know why. Maybe

48:50

they thought that the kids were going to be with

48:54

their father that way. Yeah.

48:56

Or, or whatever, but she shows

48:59

up. We know she won

49:01

for all we know that she changed

49:03

plans and said, okay, well yeah, you're

49:08

supposed to go with your dad, but come with me anyways.

49:10

It's going to be fun. One theory

49:12

is that Jay Smith

49:15

calls in a, an

49:18

emergency to her saying, Oh, your

49:21

fiance, Bill's been in

49:23

a horrible accident. Uh,

49:26

I'm driving off to the hospital, come and meet

49:28

me at this location and I'll take you with

49:30

me to go see him. That was

49:32

one of the theories that was out there. The

49:34

problem with a lot of these theories is the

49:37

way that some theories work out that we've

49:39

not even discussed is that Jay

49:41

could be responsible for killing Susan

49:43

without Bill having any information, no

49:47

involvement at all. And you could also work it

49:49

out that Bill did this or had other people

49:51

involved with him and Jay had

49:53

no involvement. Okay. So

49:56

we do have a lot to get through here because what

49:58

ends up happening is. Bill,

50:00

who will not talk to police about

50:03

Susan and what's going on.

50:06

He's able to, he's able to dodge them

50:08

because he's in New Mexico and

50:10

he's conveniently busy every time that they want to

50:12

talk about it. Well, what they

50:14

end up doing is they end up charging him with,

50:17

with fraud for

50:19

all of his involvement in the

50:21

financial affairs of, of

50:25

Susan's. Well, that's smart by

50:27

law enforcement, because that's going to give them time

50:29

to build cases against him,

50:33

but that's no just whatever

50:35

he gets charged with that. That's no justification

50:38

for him to get away with murder. And

50:40

then his story gets even stranger. His story

50:42

starts to become, well, I knew that Jay

50:44

was going to kill Susan

50:48

and I tried to protect her when

50:50

we were at Cape May. I was so

50:52

worried that something was going to happen to

50:54

her that I insisted that

50:57

that the group go to the church

50:59

and let's light a candle for Susan

51:01

and say a prayer. Can you imagine

51:03

you're a detective and you're talking to

51:05

three people that provide an alibi for

51:07

Bill Bradfield and they're saying that they

51:09

spent a portion of their weekend

51:11

getaway lighting a candle and saying a prayer

51:13

for someone who this guy said, I think

51:15

she's going to be murdered soon. And

51:18

then Monday morning, she turns up dead in

51:20

a vehicle in Harrisburg. Who are these bags

51:23

of trash that aren't just

51:25

turning on him? But again, we don't

51:28

know who these individuals are, like everything

51:30

about him, obviously. And then it's like if

51:33

he's scamming people, is he teaching other people

51:35

to scam or or are these

51:38

friends of his that are in on the

51:40

scams? And it seems far fetched

51:42

to say that a lot of people would be

51:44

involved in this. But here's

51:46

the thing. Police have a hard

51:48

time nailing down Bill because of

51:50

the timeline. There's just not

51:52

enough time for him to have murdered her

51:54

place or where she was found and

51:57

the vehicle place where it was found and then make

51:59

two kids disappear. appear. They're just, I

52:01

don't care how you shake it. There's not really

52:03

enough time for him to do that. And

52:06

I really want him to be good

52:09

for this because he looks damn good for it.

52:12

The thing is, I think he is good for it. I

52:14

just think he had help. I

52:16

think you did a good job of pointing out

52:18

that there is a gap in his timeline, but

52:21

there's a lot of things he would have

52:23

had to accomplish within that timeline. But

52:27

if this is true, that these bags

52:29

of shit on their vacation are

52:31

going down to the church to light the

52:33

candle and pray for this lady. And then

52:35

she ends up, she's

52:37

found nude and dead

52:40

in the trunk of her car. You'd

52:42

think one of these shit bags would

52:44

come forward and say, you

52:47

know, you know, Bill is an

52:49

awful human

52:51

and, or maybe

52:53

that's not even true. Maybe that's just what he's

52:55

telling law enforcement. And then law enforcement could talk

52:58

to these guys and they go, we never said

53:00

a prayer for her. We don't know what you're

53:02

talking about. You know? Yeah. Well,

53:05

I mean, there were, there's more than one

53:07

person that confirms the prayer and candle lighting

53:10

story. One of the people on the trip

53:12

with them that weekend was the woman who

53:15

he had lived with on and off again,

53:17

who was also under the

53:19

belief at one time that they were going to

53:21

get married or they had some serious, very serious

53:23

relationship to the point that they lived together. Old

53:26

golden cock strikes again. Well,

53:29

here's, there's a few problems with

53:31

this theory. Remember, the theory is

53:33

that Bradfield

53:36

needs her to go

53:38

away. So the life insurance pays and

53:40

he could absorb the

53:42

inheritance right. That

53:44

she came into recently and that

53:46

he got his old buddy who's

53:48

already crooked as they come in

53:51

a hardcore criminal. And maybe he's,

53:53

he doesn't have murder in his

53:55

past. We don't know. His, his

53:57

daughter disappeared, but

53:59

he. certainly was caught with a

54:02

lot of guns and implements of murder. And

54:06

so he looks like,

54:10

and Bill comes to his defense, right?

54:12

That's something that can't be argued. We

54:14

know that he sat and testified in

54:16

court on behalf

54:18

of Dr. J. Smith. That's

54:21

a fact. But

54:23

let me, let's examine it this

54:25

way. Some people say Dr.

54:27

J. Smith has got to be guilty because, oh,

54:30

it's obvious he was in Harrisburg, the same place

54:32

where her body's found, and he shows up late,

54:35

an hour late. Okay.

54:39

But doesn't that also mean that even

54:41

though Bill came

54:45

and testified on his behalf, that he was

54:47

still found guilty on all of those charges.

54:50

So it really doesn't mean a damn

54:52

thing. I don't owe you

54:55

anything, Bill. You may

54:57

have come and testified for me, but what am I

54:59

going to do? Go kill a woman and her two

55:01

kids hours before I'm

55:03

supposed to go and start

55:05

serving my sentence? That

55:08

just doesn't make any sense. Yeah.

55:11

I know there's a lot of dumb people out there,

55:13

but this guy was a Colonel at one time and

55:15

yeah, maybe his life went completely off the rails and

55:17

he totally lost his mind. I can't say whether

55:20

or not that happened, but he was a Colonel

55:22

at one point and he was a doctor. He

55:26

was an educated man. Again, what

55:29

we do know is it seems

55:34

that J. Smith took a turn and

55:37

it didn't seem like it was a murderous turn.

55:40

It seems

55:42

like it was a financial turn.

55:45

I need money quick

55:48

and gobs of money quick.

55:50

Like I said, it's like

55:53

a Breaking Bad situation. Maybe

55:55

J. Smith

55:57

doesn't owe Bill anything, but maybe

56:00

Bill said, Hey, if you do this

56:02

for me, there'll be a payday and

56:04

there'll be a large one. But when's he going to get

56:06

it? He's going to prison. So I

56:10

think you're barking up the right

56:13

tree here, so to speak.

56:16

Yeah, I think you're onto it. You've found the

56:18

scent. Maybe it's the wrong tree because this is

56:20

where I go. We talked

56:22

about the equivalent of what that money

56:25

compared to yesteryear was

56:27

to today. Well, that means

56:29

there's a lot of money to go around. You

56:32

could pay somebody to help you commit these murders.

56:36

It doesn't have to be Dr. J. Smith. And

56:39

a wise

56:41

person once said that

56:44

getting away with the perfect murder, the perfect

56:46

murder isn't just getting away with it. Getting

56:50

away with the perfect murder is getting somebody else

56:52

to take the fall for it. Dr.

56:54

J. Smith was somebody that

56:57

the victim and this

56:59

other suspect worked for for

57:01

years. It was no secret

57:03

that Dr. J. Smith was facing all these

57:05

charges. In fact, it was big time news

57:07

and headlines in the area because all these

57:09

parents are going, what the hell? This guy

57:11

was the principal of our high school. So

57:15

you're thinking Bill Bradfield was like,

57:17

Hey, he's going to prison anyways.

57:21

Pin it on him and none

57:23

the wiser. Well,

57:27

I think that if you wanted

57:29

to look for somebody and find

57:31

somebody that might look like they're capable

57:33

of such an act, he

57:36

seems like an easy scapegoat. I'm not saying

57:38

that Dr. J. Smith had nothing to do

57:40

with this. I'm just saying that if

57:43

there's hundreds of those combs or

57:45

if somebody had been to J.

57:47

Smith's home or in his car

57:49

or in his office dozens of times,

57:51

as it's been reported that Bill

57:54

had, how difficult

57:56

would it be to snatch one of those combs and

57:59

place it under underneath the body of this victim.

58:02

And again,

58:05

he flies to New Mexico that same day.

58:07

He just happens to be coming and going.

58:09

And if

58:12

he's staying in regular contact with Jay Smith,

58:14

he's going to know that Jay Smith is

58:16

going to be starting his sentence in Harrisburg,

58:18

Pennsylvania that morning. Because

58:21

here's the thing, captain, I don't think for a second

58:23

had Jay Smith showed up on time, remember, everybody makes

58:25

a big deal that he was an hour late. You

58:27

mean to tell me that if he showed up on

58:29

time, that everybody's going to go, well, he's innocent. He

58:31

couldn't have done it. Bullshit. It's one hour's difference. They,

58:34

everybody would still think he's guilty. I

58:38

just think when you got, he's

58:40

got three different women, one

58:43

who, oh, by the way, was staying

58:45

in a seedy motel in Philadelphia for

58:47

at least three weeks prior to Susan's

58:49

murder and she drives

58:52

his car on that Monday

58:54

from Philadelphia to New

58:57

Mexico where Bill is flying.

58:59

Why wouldn't he take his own damn car?

59:02

He's going to fly. She takes a car and they meet up

59:05

at the same place. And, and now

59:08

you have some woman that was staying in a

59:10

motel in Philadelphia, leading up to the murder who

59:12

won't talk to police. She, by the way, is

59:14

the one that ends up bailing him out when

59:16

he gets charged with this

59:18

fraud count. So we kind of got to

59:21

investigate this because the way that this whole

59:23

story plays out is now

59:26

we have Dr. Jay Smith, who's serving his time

59:28

in prison and it's not going to be a

59:30

short sentence at all. We're talking years. Bill

59:34

is facing fraud charges, which

59:37

should land him in prison for about two

59:39

years, I believe two or so years. And

59:41

he's going to have to repay a whole

59:43

bunch of money. He ends up being found

59:45

guilty on the fraud charges.

59:49

So the life insurance never gets paid out.

59:52

In fact, I think what they ended up doing

59:54

was that it got paid out, but it went

59:56

to next of kin, which ended up being her

59:58

older brother, older brother. brother's a standup guy, you

1:00:00

know what he does? He puts it in a

1:00:03

trust for the two missing kids and says that

1:00:05

when they come home, they'll get the money. It

1:00:11

wasn't until he's charged with fraud and

1:00:13

on the stand for those charges that

1:00:15

he has to start answering some actual

1:00:18

questions about Susan's murder. He

1:00:20

can't duck and dodge it anymore. Yeah.

1:00:23

And once he gets out of prison,

1:00:26

he gets convicted on the fraud charges.

1:00:28

Once he gets out of prison for

1:00:30

that, that is when they charge him

1:00:32

with murder, but it's not your standard

1:00:34

murder charges. He gets charged with three

1:00:36

counts of conspiracy to murder. And

1:00:40

it's with the, uh, with

1:00:43

the assistance of a person

1:00:45

who is known or unknown, but the

1:00:48

person's never named in those charges. And

1:00:51

to try to make a long story short

1:00:53

here through a

1:00:56

lengthy trial, he gets convicted of

1:00:59

three counts of conspiracy to murder. Now,

1:01:01

according to, according to the state, if

1:01:05

you read it the way that those charges

1:01:07

are laid out, he, they are saying, look,

1:01:10

we don't think that you

1:01:12

actually, that

1:01:14

you were the one that actually murdered

1:01:17

these people, but you arranged for it

1:01:19

to happen. You made efforts to get

1:01:21

away with it. You conspired to murder

1:01:23

at least Susan, and

1:01:25

then maybe had to premeditate the other two.

1:01:27

Once you've, you know, you should, they

1:01:29

show up, right? He

1:01:33

gets convicted of three counts of conspiracy to murder.

1:01:35

He gets three life sentences,

1:01:38

consecutive life sentences, which means

1:01:41

homeboy, you never want to get out unless

1:01:43

you live to be about 600 years old.

1:01:45

I don't think you're ever going to get out. You're

1:01:48

not, you're not a ladies man no

1:01:50

more yet. You're a prison

1:01:52

man and that's nasty. But

1:01:56

think about that charge. They've convicted this

1:01:58

guy on that. Now. got to go

1:02:00

find who, who, who did he conspire

1:02:03

with to commit these murders? Right.

1:02:06

They do the same thing. They wait till

1:02:08

Dr. J. Smith gets out of prison for

1:02:11

his lengthy sentence. And now they're

1:02:13

coming after him. And remember that

1:02:15

narrative is that favors

1:02:17

for favors. He

1:02:20

helped you. Now you helped him. That

1:02:22

is what they bring to court.

1:02:24

The problem is Dr.

1:02:27

J. Smith had a good defense team who

1:02:29

said that the only evidence that they had

1:02:31

against J. Smith was

1:02:33

these police

1:02:36

had all these rumors that Dr. J. Smith was

1:02:38

going to kill Susan, but they

1:02:41

admitted in court that all those rumors

1:02:43

were stemming from Bill. So

1:02:46

that's not really evidence at all. Now,

1:02:49

but you got the blue comb and then you

1:02:51

got the foam. You have the

1:02:53

fibers, the fibers, but you

1:02:55

also have, like you said, the syringe

1:02:57

and you have the location

1:03:00

of the death scene, which would

1:03:02

have been in Harrisburg. Well, the

1:03:04

fibers, uh, what was determined was

1:03:06

that they were, they

1:03:08

were believed, they were presented as fibers

1:03:10

that were found on her that came

1:03:12

from J. Smith's

1:03:15

home. The

1:03:17

defense rightfully

1:03:20

so points out, well, that

1:03:23

could have come from any

1:03:26

number of like thousands and thousands

1:03:28

of different sources would have matched

1:03:30

those fibers. So

1:03:32

it's not unique to our defendant.

1:03:35

They also proved that how many hundreds

1:03:37

or thousands of those combs

1:03:39

that were made. And again,

1:03:41

it makes it so it's not unique

1:03:44

to our defendant. The

1:03:46

prosecution then presents

1:03:49

a jailhouse snitch who

1:03:52

at no time they, they, they

1:03:55

set them up with a wire. They tried

1:03:57

their damnedest to get Smith to confess to

1:03:59

this jailhouse. house snitch. He

1:04:01

never says that he murdered Susan. He never says

1:04:03

that he murdered the kids. The

1:04:06

only thing that he, that they can

1:04:08

get him talking about is, is

1:04:12

an attempt to escape from

1:04:14

jail or from prison. Now,

1:04:18

remember, they started setting this up while

1:04:20

he was in prison for these other

1:04:22

charges. This

1:04:25

was, this was what led them to even

1:04:28

charging him with this to begin

1:04:31

with, was this jail house snitch. So the jail

1:04:33

house snitch testifies

1:04:36

at trial saying that

1:04:40

not only did Jay Smith want to escape

1:04:43

from prison, but he had said on

1:04:49

recording that he would

1:04:51

be willing to, if at some point the escape, if they

1:04:53

had gone so far in the

1:04:55

escape, at some point he would be willing

1:04:58

to kill a guard if they

1:05:00

got far enough in their escape. So

1:05:02

the jury's going to look at that as, okay, well,

1:05:05

this guy has the, possesses the

1:05:07

ability to dream

1:05:10

up premeditated murder. They

1:05:12

never have him on record saying that he

1:05:14

killed any of the three victims or

1:05:17

even abducted the two kids and made them disappear,

1:05:20

but they have the word

1:05:22

of the jail house snitch saying, well, he did

1:05:25

tell me that he did say that he killed

1:05:27

her. He told me

1:05:29

that multiple times, but, but anytime that

1:05:31

you wire me up, I can't seem to get him to

1:05:33

say it. He

1:05:36

gets convicted of three

1:05:39

deaths. He gets sentenced to three

1:05:41

death sentences because

1:05:44

by this point, the two

1:05:46

kids have

1:05:49

been presumed to be dead. But

1:05:52

that's not the end of the story, my friend, because

1:05:55

what we're going to get is a few years is going

1:05:57

to go by. This man is

1:05:59

sitting on death row and

1:06:01

his defense team starts uncovering

1:06:04

evidence, prosecutorial and

1:06:07

judicial misconduct in his trial

1:06:10

and in the investigation

1:06:12

against Dr. J Smith. Right.

1:06:16

And it's kind of sad too, because

1:06:18

he's on death row and they prove

1:06:20

their point several times over and yet

1:06:24

they allowed him to remain on death row

1:06:26

while they dragged their feet on getting

1:06:29

a new trial or getting this one

1:06:31

tossed out. But you know, there

1:06:33

was like shady shit going on when once

1:06:36

they start going a jail house snitch

1:06:39

and once the jail house snitch can't really

1:06:41

provide anything, it

1:06:43

really kind of shows how much

1:06:45

they're grasping at straws. And

1:06:48

so what other areas of the

1:06:50

investigation or during the prosecution did,

1:06:54

did they grasp at straws and

1:06:56

work outside the lines of legal,

1:07:01

legal actions? Well, one part of it

1:07:03

that was, that

1:07:06

would help to their cause is you

1:07:08

have to disclose, the

1:07:13

prosecution has to disclose to the defense

1:07:15

team. If you are offering a deal

1:07:17

to the jail house

1:07:20

snitch, right? Like we're going

1:07:22

to give him leniency. We're going to take some

1:07:24

time off of his sentence. If you

1:07:26

come forward and help us with this, right?

1:07:28

That didn't happen in this case. In

1:07:31

fact, the, the, the snitch is on

1:07:33

the stand saying that he wasn't offered

1:07:35

any kind of deal, that he's not

1:07:37

getting any kind of leniency or getting

1:07:40

any type of reward for coming

1:07:42

forward. That's testimony

1:07:44

at a state trial. Right.

1:07:48

That becomes fact as far as the

1:07:50

state's concerned, his word. What turns out

1:07:52

is he perjured himself because later it's

1:07:54

easily determined that

1:07:57

he, he got out. Like they, they put,

1:08:00

pushed him to parole because

1:08:02

they needed, they knew that the defense,

1:08:04

the defense could tear apart some of

1:08:06

their evidence that they had. And

1:08:09

so they needed to build a better case against

1:08:12

Smith. And that

1:08:14

snitch was going to be part of that. And

1:08:16

he got a lenient deal. He got out. He

1:08:19

didn't have to pull any more time, as they say.

1:08:22

And once that was revealed, well,

1:08:26

that's misconduct. And

1:08:28

then there's another angle to this. We've

1:08:32

talked about this a little bit on off

1:08:35

the record where a lot of the

1:08:37

publishers, especially the big ones, they,

1:08:41

true crime is isn't, isn't

1:08:43

the bestselling genre out there as far as

1:08:45

books go. So

1:08:48

publishers are taking a risk on true

1:08:50

crime to start with, but

1:08:52

when they do the overwhelming

1:08:54

majority of the time, they want a

1:08:57

case that is, that is

1:08:59

solved, that is done. It is

1:09:01

an open and closed case.

1:09:06

And as we said, there

1:09:08

were three books written about at least three books that

1:09:10

were written about this case. One was turned into a

1:09:12

TV movie. And Joseph Wambaugh was

1:09:14

one of the authors. He

1:09:18

wrote a book called Echoes in the Darkness,

1:09:20

which is a fantastic read. Unfortunately,

1:09:24

when he showed up on the scene, he

1:09:27

was interviewing police and interviewing detectives. And he said

1:09:29

his next book, he was already a bestselling author.

1:09:31

He was, he's, I mean, he's written a whole

1:09:35

bunch, a whole catalog of fantastic books.

1:09:37

And he's a retired cop too. So

1:09:40

these cops and detectives like talking to

1:09:42

him. He's one of their own. But

1:09:45

when he showed up on the scene, he said, this

1:09:47

is my next book, but it's gotta be solved first.

1:09:50

It's gotta be solved. Well,

1:09:53

it was later, one of the

1:09:56

officers came forward years later.

1:10:00

after Jay Smith had been in prison on death row

1:10:02

for quite a bit of time saying, I

1:10:05

was paid $50,000 to make sure that

1:10:07

there was an arrest on Dr. Jay

1:10:09

Smith by

1:10:11

the author. Jesus Christ. And

1:10:16

so that doesn't look good for your case

1:10:19

either. So eventually what happens is Dr. Jay

1:10:22

Smith gets

1:10:25

released after years on death

1:10:27

row. Eventually he would pass

1:10:29

away in 2009 and under, of

1:10:34

course, a cloud of suspicion that he

1:10:36

was still involved in this case and

1:10:38

involved in the disappearance of his daughter

1:10:40

and son-in-law. So nobody really

1:10:42

knows the truth all of these years

1:10:44

later. Unfortunately, the kids have

1:10:46

never been found. Now

1:10:49

the other person who

1:10:51

we, we the state still deemed to

1:10:53

be guilty is Bill Bradfield,

1:10:57

who remained in prison serving three

1:10:59

life sentences until the day he

1:11:02

died. After

1:11:04

he's convicted, do we get any

1:11:06

acknowledgement of Smith's involvement with Bill

1:11:08

or does Bill just

1:11:14

continue to claim

1:11:16

he's innocent? Bill maintained he was

1:11:18

innocent until the day that he

1:11:20

passed away. But

1:11:24

look, police have never forgotten about

1:11:26

this case and anybody from Pennsylvania,

1:11:28

specifically the Philadelphia Harrisburg area will,

1:11:30

will back me up on this.

1:11:33

Nobody's ever forgotten about this case and

1:11:35

nobody's forgotten about those missing

1:11:38

kids. And I wanted to make sure

1:11:40

that we include this here in our

1:11:42

coverage. After he passes away police, they

1:11:46

honed in on a photograph that they found

1:11:48

in his cell. So

1:11:50

William Bradfield passed away in

1:11:52

1998. He

1:11:55

died of a heart attack while serving the life

1:11:57

sentences. They found a

1:11:59

photograph. which they

1:12:02

think may have been developed in

1:12:04

1986. We'll get into that in

1:12:06

a minute. They find this

1:12:08

in his cell, but they find it among

1:12:10

dozens of other

1:12:12

photographs and letters and writings and things

1:12:15

of that nature and a couple boxes

1:12:17

that he had in his cell with

1:12:19

him. Now, this photograph, it's a Polaroid

1:12:24

photo that depicts a stone marker

1:12:26

that some say resembles a hooded

1:12:28

figure rather

1:12:31

than trying to describe it, the scenario. Put

1:12:33

it on our social media. Well, let me

1:12:35

read this. This is from the Philadelphia Daily

1:12:37

News. And

1:12:39

the headline is, is photo an

1:12:42

eerie clue to Reiner graves? And

1:12:45

it says, it is a photograph

1:12:47

of what looks like a monument, possibly

1:12:49

a grave marker. Dead brown

1:12:52

leaves clutter the foreground, but the growth

1:12:54

above the stone is fresh and green.

1:12:56

Nothing very remarkable about the Polaroid,

1:12:59

except it was found among the

1:13:01

possessions of the late William

1:13:04

Bradfield, the man convicted of killing two

1:13:07

children whose bodies have never been found.

1:13:09

Could this crude stone mark their

1:13:12

final resting place? The discovery of

1:13:14

the photo has added another puzzling

1:13:16

ingredient to a case that already

1:13:18

abounds in

1:13:21

mystery. And then it goes

1:13:23

on to describe the crimes a little bit, which we've done

1:13:25

at length here, so we don't need to go

1:13:28

into that. But what's

1:13:30

interesting is, we know that the kids disappear

1:13:32

in 1979. On the back of the... This

1:13:39

marker. On the

1:13:41

back of the Polaroid, somebody wrote a date on

1:13:43

there, which was 1986. And

1:13:46

we know that Polaroid

1:13:48

film, especially

1:13:51

ones that old, do not

1:13:53

automatically date themselves. So

1:13:56

nobody really knows what this December

1:13:58

1986... date

1:14:00

means, which in fact sheds little light on

1:14:02

the mystery at all because that has, that

1:14:05

date seems to have no relevance to the

1:14:08

missing kids. Right. And it

1:14:10

could just be simply this

1:14:12

picture, this item in

1:14:15

the picture has nothing to do with the murders.

1:14:17

And it's just simply that's the date

1:14:20

that the person took the picture. Correct.

1:14:22

And what, what, what I like about

1:14:24

this story, uh,

1:14:27

with the photograph and finding it in the cell,

1:14:29

even though it's damn

1:14:31

near 20 years after the homicides is that it does show

1:14:33

a level

1:14:36

of effort by law enforcement

1:14:38

to never give up on finding those

1:14:40

kids. Just like that passionate call

1:14:43

to action rally, the troops that we

1:14:45

talked about in part one where he

1:14:47

just said, just find them, you know,

1:14:49

search everything who cares about the citizens

1:14:51

rights. We're looking for two kids here

1:14:53

in the end, captain, this case came

1:14:55

to be known as the mainline murders.

1:14:58

It ended up being the largest and

1:15:00

longest running investigation ever conducted by the

1:15:02

Pennsylvania state police. As

1:15:04

said, it's been the subject of at least

1:15:06

three books, including echoes in the darkness by

1:15:08

Joseph Wamba and a TV movie, which

1:15:12

I did watch the TV movie. Again,

1:15:15

parts of it are likely fictional.

1:15:18

Yeah. Um, because I think

1:15:20

Wamba was filling in some of the blanks and

1:15:23

while he's a great author, we

1:15:25

do have the accusation that he paid somebody $50,000

1:15:27

to speed up the case, if

1:15:30

you will, or steer it in a certain direction. So he

1:15:33

could write the book. So

1:15:35

I don't put a whole lot of weight

1:15:37

into his version of the events, but

1:15:42

it was, it was a good movie. Robert Loja

1:15:44

is in the book or in the movie. I'm sorry. He's

1:15:46

a, he's a great actor. You might know

1:15:48

him from big, but as we

1:15:51

know, there are no signs of

1:15:53

Michael and Karen, and

1:15:55

there haven't been. And in fact, all

1:15:57

of these massive and extensive searches.

1:16:00

have turned up nothing as far as the

1:16:02

kids go and never turned up any sign

1:16:04

of their mother's clothing and some of her

1:16:06

missing belongings as well. So this mystery is

1:16:09

far from over. Now we do

1:16:12

have one law enforcement

1:16:14

officer amongst many who has been

1:16:16

active and vocal to

1:16:18

the media talking about this case

1:16:20

decades later who said

1:16:23

that he

1:16:25

considers the investigation open

1:16:27

but quite inactive. But

1:16:30

he did say that at least one

1:16:32

person who has never been charged in

1:16:34

the case may have intimate knowledge about

1:16:37

these slayings. That person may know what

1:16:39

happened to the children. That's

1:16:41

possibly the female that helped

1:16:45

build out. He said that

1:16:47

he would certainly say that there's a possibility

1:16:49

of a third person out there, a

1:16:52

high probability, he said. And

1:16:55

with a reminder to everybody out there, if

1:16:58

anybody has any information about what may have

1:17:00

happened to Karen and Michael Reiner, to

1:17:03

call the state police at 717-671-7537. I

1:17:22

want to thank everybody for joining us here

1:17:24

in the garage, sharing these cases on social

1:17:26

media, and telling your mother and your father

1:17:28

about the show. Colonel, do we

1:17:31

have any recommended reading? Yes, we do.

1:17:33

And this one is a great read.

1:17:35

I would recommend this this week, next

1:17:37

week, and the following. This

1:17:40

one's called Principal Suspect, the

1:17:42

True Story of Dr. J.

1:17:44

Smith and the Mainline Murders

1:17:46

by William Constopoulos. Joseph Wambaugh's

1:17:49

Echoes in the Darkness and

1:17:51

its subsequent TV dramatization have

1:17:53

made household words of

1:17:56

both of the names Susan Reinhart

1:17:58

and Dr. J.

1:18:00

Smith, who was the

1:18:02

high school principal where Susan worked. The

1:18:05

naked body of Susan Reiner was

1:18:07

discovered, jammed into a hatchback of

1:18:09

a car. Her two young children

1:18:11

were missing and never found. This

1:18:13

is one of three, there's at

1:18:15

least three books about this case,

1:18:17

but this was the one that

1:18:19

I chose to read. And it's

1:18:22

a fantastic read. And I say

1:18:24

that because this is a very

1:18:26

complicated and difficult story to tell.

1:18:28

And William Kostopoulos told it as

1:18:30

well as anyone. In fact, he's

1:18:32

an attorney who worked very close

1:18:34

on this case for many, many

1:18:36

years. So check out principal suspect.

1:18:38

You'll find that recommendation and many

1:18:40

more on our recommended

1:18:42

page on our website, truecrimegarage.com. And until

1:18:44

next week, be good, be kind, and

1:18:46

don't forget

1:18:54

to subscribe. Ever

1:19:24

heard of test driving a phone network?

1:19:26

Well, US Cellular is letting you test

1:19:28

drive their nationwide 5G free try out

1:19:30

US Cellular wherever you have spotty service,

1:19:32

your commute to work or that one

1:19:34

spot in your house where your service

1:19:36

dips. It's as easy as doing a

1:19:38

little boopy pop boop on your phone.

1:19:40

That was me getting the app to

1:19:42

try it out. I know I'm pretty

1:19:44

good with sound effects. Test drive US

1:19:46

Cellular's nationwide 5G coverage free for 30

1:19:48

days. Just download the Try Us app,

1:19:51

US Cellular built for us. Terms apply.

1:19:53

Visit uscellular.com/Try Us.