00:00:06
NARRATOR: It was one of
the most brazen crimes of the 20th century. Adolph Coors, chairman of
the Coors Brewing Company,
00:00:14
was kidnapped and
held for ransom, prompting one of
the largest manhunts in United States history.
00:00:23
[theme music] The name Coors is one of the
most recognized in America. For over 100 years,
the Coors family
00:00:58
has been making beer in their
Golden, Colorado brewery. They've been very successful
and grown very wealthy.
00:01:06
KATHERINE RAMSLAND:
The Coors Brewery is the fifth-largest
brewery in the world.
00:01:10
They have 10 breweries in
three different countries and employ over 11,000 people,
and they actually make over
00:01:17
a billion gallons
of beer annually. NARRATOR: In 1960, the
founder's grandson, Adolph Herman Joseph Coors
III was the company chairman.
00:01:29
On the morning of February
9, 1960, as was his custom, Adolph Coors got into
his station wagon
00:01:36
and began his
journey from his home to the brewery 12 miles
away in Golden, Colorado.
00:01:43
But he never arrived. -He had left home at 8:00. His wife had said
that he had left
00:01:50
in a good mood, had
appointments at the brewery. RADIO ANNOUNCER: Can't
believe what you're
00:01:56
seeing on Super K640
AM, Golden, Colorado. NARRATOR: A milkman found
Coors' abandoned car
00:02:03
on the one-lane
Turkey Creek Bridge with the engine running
and the radio on. RON HARDESTY: Well, then they
knew that he was missing.
00:02:12
He was somewhere. They didn't know where. NARRATOR: When
investigators arrived, they found a large
bloodstain in the dirt.
00:02:23
In the creek below,
they found a lens from Adolph Coors' glasses
and two hats, Adolph Coors'
00:02:30
baseball cap and a brown fedora. RON HARDESTY: Somebody heard
some noises down there,
00:02:37
which they associated with
maybe a gunshot, because it was an area where people
hunted quite a bit.
00:02:45
NARRATOR: The
Sheriff's Department issued an all-points
bulletin for Coors, but no one reported seeing him.
00:02:52
The next morning,
his wife received this typed letter in the mail. MAN (VOICEOVER): Mrs.
Coors, your husband
00:03:00
has been kidnapped. His car is by Turkey Creek. Call the police or FBI, he dies.
00:03:07
Cooperate, he lives. NARRATOR: The
kidnappers demanded $500,000 for
Adolph's safe return.
00:03:17
MAN (VOICEOVER): We have
no desire to commit murder. All we want is that money. NARRATOR: The kidnappers
told me Mrs. Coors
00:03:25
they'd tell her later
where to take the money. MAN (VOICEOVER):
Deliver immediately
00:03:31
after receiving call. Any delay will be regarded as
a stall to set up a stakeout.
00:03:37
If you follow the
instructions, he will be released
unharmed within 48 hours after the money is received.
00:03:44
NARRATOR: The
letter was unsigned. The family got
the money together and waited by the
telephone for instructions
00:03:51
on where to deliver it. But the kidnappers never called. After the kidnapping and murder
of Charles Lindbergh's baby,
00:04:06
the United States
government made kidnapping a federal offense. So the FBI quickly took
over the investigation
00:04:13
into Adolph Coors' abduction. KATHERINE RAMSLAND:
It's the second time one of their members has
had a kidnapping attempt.
00:04:21
27 years earlier, the FBI
had notified the Coors family of an attempt to kidnap Adolph
Coors, Jr. The attempt was
00:04:32
interrupted so it did not occur. But the family was
very aware that they were targets for this.
00:04:39
NARRATOR: The Coors
family told investigators they were willing to
do anything to get
00:04:44
the 44-year-old father
of four back safely. Money was not an issue. The family was worth millions.
00:04:52
JUDGE WILLIAM H.
ERICKSON: His father said, they have
something I want. It's my son, and I'm
willing to pay them
00:04:57
whatever is necessary
to get him back. NARRATOR: The kidnappers
never contacted the Coors family again.
00:05:06
ROBERT J. NELSON: Well, it
was hoped that he was alive. But I don't think
anybody questioned
00:05:10
there was a real problem
with that blood and his hat and his glasses in the water.
00:05:18
NARRATOR: The FBI's document
examiners carefully studied the typed ransom note for clues.
00:05:24
First, they dusted the
letter for fingerprints and didn't find any. But they noticed right away
that the typist was proficient.
00:05:35
PETER TYTELL: The
typist, here, leaves two spaces after a period. That's what you were taught
to do in typing class.
00:05:43
There don't appear
to be any typos, no misstriking of the keys here. Overall, a very
good job of typing.
00:05:52
NARRATOR: And the
typeface was distinctive. PETER TYTELL: The type
style we're looking at here
00:05:57
was made by a Swiss
firm named Sea Tag. NARRATOR: This
proprietary typeface was used by two typewriter
manufacturers, Hermes
00:06:06
in Switzerland and the Royal
McBee Company in Holland. The numerals in the ransom
letter told the story.
00:06:15
PETER TYTELL: You
could differentiate between the Hermes and the
Royalite by the numerals.
00:06:20
They're round numerals. So the bottom of the 5 or the
bottom of the 3 come back up.
00:06:26
They're even with the
baseline of the other letters, like the M or N. NARRATOR: So the
document examiners
00:06:33
concluded that
the kidnapper used a Royalite Portable typewriter. Finding it wouldn't be easy.
00:06:42
PETER TYTELL: That factory
was turning out the Royalite Portable, which was a specific
model sold by Royal as part
00:06:49
of their line of portables in
the late '50s and early '60s, $49.95 list. Sold widely in department
stores and various other outlets
00:07:02
throughout the US. NARRATOR: And the FBI
noticed one more thing. The kidnapper's typewriter
had a tiny defect.
00:07:11
The letter "S" was lower
than all the others. PETER TYTELL: So that
letter "S" being low
00:07:17
would be one characteristic
pointing towards the work product of a particular machine.
00:07:23
NARRATOR: While the typewriter
analysis was going on, the FBI got a number
of possible leads.
00:07:30
The most promising
was from a man who saw an automobile parked
near the kidnapping site.
00:07:37
KATHERINE RAMSLAND: There
was a man near the bridge who was guarding his mines,
and he told the police
00:07:42
that he had seen a
car there that was an early 1950s model
of a Mercury sedan. And he even remembered part
of the license plate number,
00:07:54
because he was afraid
it was somebody who's coming out to disturb his mines. NARRATOR: The man said he
remembered the sequence,
00:08:03
A-T-6-2 in the license. Within the greater Denver
area, police found four Mercury
00:08:12
sedans with A-T-6-2
in the license number. Naturally, the FBI
checked all of them.
00:08:19
But one in particular
caught their attention. It was registered to a man
named Walter Osborne, who
00:08:28
had bought the car
just one month earlier. When the FBI went to Osborne's
apartment in downtown Denver,
00:08:36
it was empty. He had moved out the
day after the kidnapping and left no forwarding address.
00:08:44
ROBERT J. NELSON: His demeanor
was a very quiet, as I recall, very unsocial. He never got close
to anybody, as
00:08:50
far as we knew or we found out. -The lady that cleaned
the room had indicated that she had seen
some guns in the room.
00:09:01
NARRATOR: And in the dumpster
behind the apartment, investigators found
empty boxes for a pair
00:09:08
of handcuffs and leg restraints. Agents dusted the
room for fingerprints and made a startling discovery.
00:09:18
The prints in the room
matched those of a convicted killer, 31-year-old
Joseph Corbett.
00:09:28
KATHERINE RAMSLAND: In 1951,
he had shot another man and killed him. He claimed it was
self-defense, but the man
00:09:36
had been shot in the
back of the head, which is not self-defense. So he was convicted.
00:09:40
But he was a model prisoner,
so he was eventually moved from maximum security
to minimum security.
00:09:46
From there, he escaped. NARRATOR: The landlord
identified Corbett's mugshot as the man who
rented the apartment.
00:09:55
Using his alias, Corbett
worked as a paint mixer for the Benjamin Moore Company,
and according to a coworker,
00:10:02
had made several
incriminating comments. -I remember one comment he made. He said, kind of
watch the newspapers.
00:10:10
Someday there's going to be
a big thing bust loose here, and then you won't
see me anymore.
00:10:17
NARRATOR: According to the
Benjamin Moore Company, Corbett simply stopped coming
to work after the kidnapping,
00:10:23
and they never heard
from him again. And a resident at
Corbett's rooming house told the FBI one more thing.
00:10:33
He often heard Corbett
typing late into the night. Joseph Corbett,
an escaped killer,
00:10:46
was the prime suspect
in the kidnapping of Adolph Coors the III. Investigators knew
the ransom letter
00:10:54
was typed using a European-brand
Royalite Portable typewriter. The FBI identified
only two stores
00:11:01
in Denver that sold
this make and model. One was the May D&F
Department Store,
00:11:09
and a clerk there
recognized Joseph Corbett. RON HARDESTY: He
was very positive,
00:11:14
that's the man I sold
the typewriter to. NARRATOR: Apparently,
Corbett was one of the few
customers who paid cash.
00:11:22
He bought the typewriter four
months prior to the kidnapping. Despite these
leads, police still
00:11:29
didn't know where Corbett was
or where Adolph Coors was, for that matter. The FBI put out an
all-points bulletin
00:11:38
for Joseph Corbett's
1951 Mercury sedan. Eight days after the
kidnapping, 1,700 miles away,
00:11:47
New Jersey Police
found the automobile. JUDGE WILLIAM H. ERICKSON: A
fire chief in Atlantic City,
00:11:53
New Jersey, who
reported that they'd found a '51 Mercury
in their dump burning. It had been doused
with gasoline,
00:12:03
and so the interior was
pretty well destroyed. NARRATOR: There were no
license plates on it,
00:12:10
but the serial number
on its engine block showed the car belonged
to Walter Osborne,
00:12:16
the alias used by
Joseph Corbett. On the undercarriage of
the car, investigators
00:12:24
found four layers of soil. The most recent soil
sample on the outside contained sand, most likely
from the New Jersey coast.
00:12:36
The second layer was
unremarkable, most likely from the drive
across the country.
00:12:41
The oldest soil
sample was unusual, with many different
types of shale, consistent with the soil
at the kidnapping site.
00:12:52
-That sample matched one
of the control samples, and that control
sample was collected
00:12:59
near Turkey Creek
near the Coors' ranch. NARRATOR: So
investigators believed that soil sample on top of
the shale was from the area
00:13:09
where Corbett took Adolph
Coors after the abduction. It, too, was distinctive,
because it had large amounts
00:13:18
of granite flecked
with pink feldspar. For comparison, FBI agents
took hundreds of soil samples
00:13:27
from Denver and
surrounding areas, hoping to find out
where this came from. ROBERT J. NELSON: We sent in
612 samples of dirt or soil,
00:13:38
and they said, don't
send us any more soil. It was all over that lab. NARRATOR: The soil
sample from the car
00:13:46
was similar to the Pike's
Peak granite, which gets its pink color from
the potassium feldspar.
00:13:52
Pike's Peak is on the Front
Range of the Rocky Mountains, about 10 miles west
of Colorado Springs.
00:14:00
But searching the Pike's Peak
area was a huge undertaking. ROBERT J. NELSON:
We searched mines.
00:14:06
We searched houses. We searched empty
buildings, stalls, thinking we might
find something.
00:14:14
NARRATOR: Eight months
after the kidnapping, in an area frequented
by hunters, searchers found a human
skull, bones, and the clothing
00:14:26
that Adolph Coors was wearing
on the day he disappeared. JUDGE WILLIAM H. ERICKSON: They
found a right shoulder blade
00:14:33
that had two holes
in it that were made, in the opinion of a pathologist,
by a high-speed projectile.
00:14:44
NARRATOR: The holes
in the shoulder blade corresponded to two
holes in Coors' jacket.
00:14:50
-The projectile went
through his lungs and would have created
a fatal injury. -That was similar
in MO to the fact
00:15:01
that Corbett had shot his first
victim in the back of the head. So that seemed to be
his style, his approach.
00:15:10
NARRATOR: Investigators also
found Coors' pocket knife engraved with the
initials A. C. III.
00:15:17
ARDELL ARFSTEN: The bones
were in pretty good condition. The skull was in
fairly good condition,
00:15:22
enough that they could
identify to the dental records that it was Mr. Coors. NARRATOR: Investigators
knew that Joseph
00:15:32
Corbett was the killer. All they had to do
now was find him. Joseph Corbett was
the prime suspect
00:15:46
in Adolph Coors'
kidnapping and murder. -Each of the special agents-- NARRATOR: FBI director
J. Edgar Hoover
00:15:53
called Corbett the "most
wanted man in America." Based on the forensic
evidence, the FBI
00:16:01
believed that Corbett planned
this crime for months. -We know that Corbett
purchased his typewriter
00:16:09
several months ahead of time. He's watching Ad
Coors drive to work, so he now knows the route.
00:16:16
He's looking on this route
to know, where is the best way to try to apprehend him,
where there won't be witnesses?
00:16:23
Where even Coors won't
have any suspicions that anything's wrong? NARRATOR: One month before
the kidnapping, Corbett
00:16:31
purchased a 1951
Mercury automobile and stored it in
an off-site garage, so no one in his apartment
building knew he owned it.
00:16:43
The evidence shows that
Corbett typed the ransom note and mailed it to Mrs. Coors on
the morning of the kidnapping.
00:16:52
He put the handcuffs and
leg restraints in the car. Then, drove out to the
secluded Turkey Creek Bridge
00:17:02
to wait for Adolph Coors. Most likely, he backed
his car onto the bridge to make it look like
it had broken down.
00:17:11
[car radio playing] Coors got out to investigate. -Did you get yourself hurt? NARRATOR: The evidence
suggests there was a flight,
00:17:39
and that Coors ran back
to his car for cover. [gunshots] Corbett fired
twice, hitting Coors
00:17:46
in the back killing
him instantly. With Coors dead, Corbett
may have panicked, and he abandoned his plans
to collect the ransom.
00:17:59
The geologic evidence shows
that Corbett drove to the Rocky Mountains, 45 minutes
away, to dump the body.
00:18:07
It was an area he was
familiar with as a hunter. He left town the next day and
drove to New Jersey, where
00:18:17
he set his car on fire to
destroy potential evidence. But it didn't eliminate
the serial number
00:18:25
or the geological evidence
underneath the bumper. KATHERINE RAMSLAND: What I think
happened is-- because I think
00:18:35
Corbett really
wanted the money, he wasn't really after killing
somebody-- it's clear he's
00:18:40
trying to keep the police
from finding a trail to him, and yet he does one,
two, three, four,
00:18:46
five things that
lead right to him. So he's careful, but he's
quite limited in his awareness
00:18:53
of what he's actually
doing that is making it easier to find him. NARRATOR: For seven months,
Corbett successfully eluded
00:19:02
one of the largest manhunts
in American criminal history. Newspapers and magazines
covered the story.
00:19:10
A woman in Vancouver, Canada
saw the press reports and called the FBI saying that a man
matching Corbett's description
00:19:19
was living in her
apartment building. JUDGE WILLIAM H.
ERICKSON: When the arrest
00:19:23
was made in Vancouver, the
FBI agent making the arrest said, Joe Corbett. And he said, I'm your man.
00:19:30
I'm not armed. I surrender. NARRATOR: Investigators didn't
find the Royalite typewriter,
00:19:37
any paper or envelopes
matching the ransom note, or the murder weapon among
Corbett's possessions.
00:19:44
But they had proof that
Corbett purchased a typewriter like the one used
for the ransom note
00:19:50
and owned the automobile that
contained geological evidence from both the abduction
and body dump sites.
00:20:00
Joseph Corbett plead
not guilty at his trial, but was convicted of
kidnapping and murder,
00:20:07
and sentenced to life in prison. RON HARDESTY: In Colorado,
the law at that time, and I
00:20:13
think it still is the law, you
can't have a death penalty case unless there's an
eyewitness or a confession.
00:20:21
And in this case,
we had neither. NARRATOR: The case
remains one of the most notorious in Colorado history.
00:20:30
RAYMOND MURRAY: It was, in fact,
the first high-profile case in this country where
soil evidence was
00:20:38
critical to the
prosecution of the case. -To pinpoint it to Turkey
Creek Bridge and the area
00:20:46
where the body was found,
that's unique even today. So for those days, for someone
to, A, have thought of it,
00:20:54
B, to have analyzed
it carefully enough to prove that the car
was in these two areas
00:21:00
was really quite a feat
for forensic science. [theme music]