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Goodbye. Hello and welcome to My Favorite Murder. After six years, we are back out on the road.
00:02:20
And because of that, we're putting some quilt episodes together for you. And so this episode features two of our favorite stories from the state of Washington, just in time for our Seattle tour stop.
00:02:30
First, Georgia is going to tell the story of Stella Nickel and the Seattle cyanide poisonings.
00:02:35
And then Karen will cover Colton Harris Moore, better known as the Barefoot Bandit.
00:02:41
And just so you guys know, we'll be in Seattle on October 21st and 22nd. A few tickets are still available, so go to myfavoritemurder.com slash live to get yours.
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And until then, please enjoy this Washington Quilt episode. Goodbye. While the world watches the stars at the FIFA World Cup this summer,
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Quince.com slash MFM. Goodbye. Okay. Well, speaking of Seattle. Oh. I'm not going to tell you too much about this because I want you to kind of guess some shit.
00:06:25
But this is basically the Seattle cyanide poisonings. My first guess was going to be Bigfoot.
00:06:31
But I guess that now that I hear the word cyanide, I'm going to take I'm going to retract it.
00:06:35
OK. OK. It's not Bigfoot. OK. OK. June 11th, 1986. Right after my sixth birthday in Auburn, Washington.
00:06:43
Right after my 16th birthday. We had a surprise party. It was fun. Cute. So Auburn, Washington, it's a suburb about 25 miles outside of Seattle.
00:06:52
40-year-old Susan Snow. She's a mother of two teenage girls. She works as a bank manager.
00:06:59
She woke up at 6 a.m. and started her normal morning routine. She kissed her husband, Paul,
00:07:04
who was a long-haul trucker, goodbye as he left for work and wished her 15-year-old daughter,
00:07:10
Haley, a good morning, goes into her bathroom, plugs in her curling iron, starts to get ready
00:07:14
for work. But another one of her normal routines in the morning, which she did all the time because
00:07:21
she suffered from really painful headaches. She took her pretty much daily dose of two extra strength Excedrin capsules from the
00:07:32
bottle in her kitchen. Oh, shit. That's right. About 40 minutes after she went into her bathroom to get ready, her daughter Haley went into
00:07:39
the bathroom to see what was taking her mom so long. No. I know. And found Sue collapsed on the floor of the bathroom.
00:07:47
Sue was unresponsive, but had a faint pulse. and when Haley called 911 she told them that it seemed like her mother was asleep but with her
00:07:54
eyes open oh no I know that's so awful it's so sad um gasping for breath and her pulse fading
00:08:02
Sue's flown by helicopter to the hospital where doctors work to determine what is even wrong with
00:08:07
her they don't know how to help her because they can't figure out what's wrong maybe she slipped
00:08:11
while getting ready and hit her head but she didn't have any bruises um had she been electrocuted by
00:08:15
the curling iron no and uh nothing seemed to add up and so doctors were baffled and just a few hours
00:08:22
later sue snow had died shit yeah during the autopsy on sue snow this chick assistant she's
00:08:30
the assistant medical examiner janet miller she's like yo i fucking smell a very faint scent of
00:08:37
bitter almonds yeah which i am i know from experience means cyanide now you were pointing
00:08:43
at yourself, Georgia, but you, you were playing the part. Janet is like, yeah, you were in the
00:08:48
role of Janet. Yes. Janet knows from experience that like, that's the scent that bitter almonds
00:08:53
historically, historically, like the book that was written about this is named bitter almonds.
00:08:57
Is it really? Yeah. Um, because also it's kind of a play on words, as you'll see soon. Um,
00:09:07
the main medical examiner person was like, shut up, you assistant, be quiet. I don't smell anything.
00:09:13
and and they're like well and also doesn't show any of the telltale signs of cyanide poisoning like
00:09:18
her skin wasn't bright pink that sort of thing so she was like blew her off she was gonna just put
00:09:22
down that she died of natural causes had an undiagnosed heart issue and janet uh then later
00:09:29
this doctor comes in to say to the main person so what happened and she starts to tell her like oh
00:09:37
it's just a heart issue and janet's like yo motherfuckers you should probably listen to me
00:09:41
and like told another doctor was like good this bitch is not listening to me you should listen to
00:09:46
me awesome amazing and her fucking politeness and saying and not staying in her lane might have
00:09:53
saved a bunch of other lives i bet it did i bet it did because so uh when they sent janet's uh you
00:10:00
know tissue blood things sure information information when it was tested it was verified
00:10:06
that snow had died of an acute cyanide poisoning and then i wrote and jan janet was like booyah
00:10:11
bitches and toasted her badassness with her friends that night probably don't you think they
00:10:15
all had like champagne and was like i fucking told this bitch it was it was fucking cyanide
00:10:19
also why resist if you're looking into someone's death a 40 year old woman dies unexpectedly there's
00:10:27
no explanation and someone smells the faintest bit of fucking bitter almonds yeah and also just
00:10:33
like it's that thing of how many years of uh coroners being like i guess it's a it was a heart
00:10:38
embolism or like some weird made-up thing where it's like or look into it right or if one person
00:10:43
smells almonds yeah and the thing about cyanide too is that uh the ability to smell it is uh
00:10:50
genetic and 20 to 40 percent of the population don't carry the gene to detect it oh then you
00:10:56
shouldn't be allowed to be the coroner that's right or you should have someone who can yes i
00:10:59
I don't know. These are the things we're going to get solved in the next midterm election.
00:11:04
That's right. We're going to have a ballot measure and it's going to be great. Smell that.
00:11:09
Smell that cyanide. Hey, does it smell like cyanide to you? Then get the fuck out of this department.
00:11:15
Yeah. So investigators go and examine the contents of Sue's house and they discover that the source of the cyanide is the bottle of extra strength Excedrin capsules that both Snow and her husband have.
00:11:29
Paul had used the morning of Snow's death. Three capsules out of those that remain in the 60 capsule bottle were found to be laced
00:11:37
with cyanide and toxic quantities. So the husband fucking took some. She took some and she died.
00:11:42
And there was three more in there. Whoa. That were cyanide laced. Right. Suspicious.
00:11:48
And so this murder by cyanide is a fucking huge sensational news, of course, across the
00:11:54
nation. and everyone loses their shit especially because just four years earlier was the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders that I covered in episode 43 where yes I looked that up That one of my
00:12:07
still one of my favorites. I covered an episode for you. I covered, all I'm saying is I'm not
00:12:11
going to get into it because you know what I mean? I like that you're referencing your own
00:12:17
story. Yeah. I just don't want to talk too much about it, but it is still like, I love that case
00:12:21
so much, I still fucking think that Ted Kaczynski did it. I think it's just like, it's so crazy.
00:12:27
It's such a fascinating story. It really is. It's a good lesson. And then, so of course, the Chicago Tylenol murders scared the shit out of everyone.
00:12:35
Seven people died when Tylenol capsules had been laced with cyanide and put back on store shelves.
00:12:40
And those murders four years later and to this fucking day have yet to be solved.
00:12:44
I remember all of this. This was all my teen years. Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy. Do you remember this story?
00:12:51
I do because, because it happened after and it had that thing of like, this was before.
00:12:57
Is this a thing now that's happening all the time? Right. It's the, it's, um, because it was before the silver tabs that used to go on top of everything.
00:13:04
Right. There used to, you used to just open stuff and there would just be cotton stuff to the
00:13:08
top. And that was the way that they kept things safe for everybody. There wasn't even childproofing back then.
00:13:13
No, there was kind of nothing. So it was that thing of like, yeah, it doesn't make sense that anyone could have access.
00:13:19
Right. It's, it's good that. Anyone with a glue stick who can glue the paper box back together can put it back on the shelves.
00:13:26
Any weirdo they hire at the weirdo grocery store down the street can get into your business.
00:13:31
That's right. It's the thing you don't know. You don't realize it until something terrible happens like this.
00:13:37
Right. So this happens. And of course, suspicion immediately falls on Sue's husband, Paul.
00:13:42
Especially when he started wearing Hawaiian shirts and shorts after the funeral.
00:13:47
No, Paul. Like he was on fucking vacay. No. Right? And he got angry when investigators started questioning him.
00:13:53
So, of course, everyone's like, dude, it's Paul. And he was Sue was his fourth wife.
00:13:58
Oh, the two daughters weren't from her previous marriages. They'd only been married about seven months before Susan's death.
00:14:04
And Susan had found out that Paul had cheated on her with an ex. Jesus. But had decided to stay with him.
00:14:10
Right. So everyone's suspicious of him. Sorry. They'd only been married seven months and he'd already cheated on her.
00:14:16
Yeah. Maybe they I don't know when he cheated. But yeah, I mean, he might have cheated before they got married but they had only been married for seven months
00:14:22
just don't get married just don't cheat i know just don't i know just don't please but
00:14:30
but then they do they do okay um so everyone's like it's totally him right it's hawaiian shirt
00:14:38
joe hawaiian shirt dude yeah okay but then everything gets crazy and mixed up when another
00:14:45
tainted bottle from the same lot, the same manufacturer lot was found in a grocery store
00:14:50
in nearby Kent, Washington. Fuck. The manufacturers of Excedrin, Bristol Myers lost their shit,
00:14:56
recalled all extra strength Excedrin products in the Seattle, Washington area. And a group
00:15:00
of drug companies came together to offer a $300,000 reward for the capture of the person
00:15:05
responsible. That's pretty cool. Right. The last cool thing any drug company ever did.
00:15:10
That's right. Before they started trying to murder all of us. I have proof of something
00:15:14
shitty they did in just a second. That's pretty great. Um, that's when, okay. So then this money
00:15:20
comes forward and like, we need help finding this. And then this woman, bless her heart,
00:15:25
comes forward. Oh, this woman's name is Stella Nickel. She tells authorities that on June 5th,
00:15:31
so it's about a week before Susan had died, uh, about a week before, uh, her husband,
00:15:38
Stella's husband, Bruce had come home with a headache from work, took in a bunch of,
00:15:42
took him to take in a bunch of excedrins he fucking strolled out to onto the deck to watch
00:15:47
the birds and then suddenly collapsed oh god he was taken by a helicopter to a seattle hospital
00:15:52
and he died as well but the doctor said that the cause was emphysema at the time and stella
00:15:57
said that doesn't make any fucking sense he didn't have x eczema did i say emphysema did i say eczema you said emphysema great
00:16:06
she she was like he didn't have maybe he had eczema but he didn't have emphysema you can't
00:16:13
drop dead from emphysema if you don't got it if you don't have it right so she was like fuck this
00:16:18
shit you need to change that's not true right okay so here's here's all right in what was supposed
00:16:23
to be the 1991 usa network made for tv movie about this case oh called who killed susan snow
00:16:31
right this chick Stella our friend Stella over here 44 year old Stella was to be played by
00:16:37
Peggy fucking Bundy yes Katie Segal Katie Segal who is if you see this woman it looks so much like
00:16:45
her I don't want to show you a photo but it looks so much like her it's like they they basically
00:16:50
wanted her to be Peggy Bundy but with like roots and like kind of look a little worn and like she
00:16:55
had lived a hard life yes you know what i mean yeah and it looks exactly like her um according
00:17:01
to a 1988 people article stella was into quote bar hopping and skin-tight dresses she was just
00:17:07
like a 40 something year old who just liked to go to the fucking local watering hole smoke her
00:17:10
capris with her skinny lighter in there and fucking drink and live drink and live and finally
00:17:16
live her life live like a fish drink like a person yes um and so she had married bruce and
00:17:23
he was into that shit too so they were like partying all the time awesome bruce was match
00:17:27
made in heaven exactly bruce was stella's second husband and their life together in a wash and
00:17:31
they lived in a washington straight state trailer park and apparently it was kind of a bummer of a
00:17:37
life though okay as you couldn't imagine okay but unfortunately uh the the plug got pulled on this
00:17:43
film this made for tv movie oh because the drug company's big pharma was like no no no you're not
00:17:50
making us possibly look bad and they fucking pulled the plug so because that who actually controls entertainment that right so that means I don know who play anyone else but we can speculate So when Stella who was like you need to keep looking he didn die of emphysema
00:18:06
When she heard about Sue's death, she was like, oh shit, and checked her lot number on her Excedrin.
00:18:13
It was the same lot number as Susan's bottle. Whoa. Okay. Yeah. So test confirmed the presence of cyanide in the bottle that she had.
00:18:23
And in Bruce Nichols remains. So he had died from the same thing. So both Paul, Susan Susan Susan Paul and our friend Stella filed wrongful lawsuits against Bristol Myers.
00:18:35
But the FDA inspected the plant where the Excedrin lot had been packaged and found no traces of cyanide.
00:18:40
Still, Bristol Myers recalled all Excedrin capsules in the United States, pulled them from the shelves and warned consumers not to use any they already had.
00:18:49
So it's like a million dollar loss. yeah i i don't think i've because if i remember correctly they were the white pills right i think
00:18:59
extra strength etc i think they're still at the time the ones that you can pull apart and put
00:19:02
shit in them really i don't know uh well from what i remember they were it was looked like hard
00:19:08
aspirin yeah where i was like how do you do anything to that pill yeah but i could just be
00:19:13
remembering it that one way who knows who knows not me so on june 24th just a couple weeks after
00:19:19
Sue's death a cyanide contaminated bottle of extra strength uh anicin three which doesn't
00:19:26
anicin three was the shit no tell us Karen anicin wasn't that one that was like like marketed toward
00:19:35
back pain oh yeah I feel like it was also dones remember dones back pills no dones were like
00:19:42
strictly back pills they were just cocaine it was it just numb you out from like your c4 down
00:19:48
That's right. Yeah. So a bottle of those were found at the same store where Susan had bought her contaminated Excedrin. And those were contaminated as well. So on June 27th, Washington state put into effect a 90 day ban on the sale of non prescription medication and capsules. I think a capsule capsule. Yeah. So I think that it's the kind that you can tamper makes that would make much more sense. Sure. But who knows? So investigators then at that point, they started to get suspicious of someone specific.
00:20:17
who are from Stella because she turned over two bottles of Excedrin that she had bought.
00:20:25
And she was like, these are the bottles that he might have taken them from. But then she was like, I bought them at two different locations at two different times.
00:20:31
So and they had both ended up being contaminated with cyanide. So a total of five bottles had been found to be contaminated in the entire fucking country.
00:20:39
And they thought it was really weird that Stella had bought two of those at two different places.
00:20:44
Quite a coincidence. Quite a weird coincidence. then okay examinations of the contaminated bottles by the fbi crime lab they they opened up these
00:20:52
capsules and they found that not there wasn't just cyanide in them they also contain this weird
00:20:57
thing of little flecks of these green crystals throughout the cyanide and they were like what
00:21:04
the fuck is this this is really weird no okay algae destroyer uh-oh from a fish tank from a home
00:21:13
fish tank hey okay guess who has a fucking home fish tank hobby our girl stella stella the mermaid
00:21:21
stella's a mermaid stella has a fucking home fish tank habit girl so wait they were breaking down
00:21:27
like every chemical compound yeah like what touched these pills they probably would have never fucking
00:21:33
found her if this hadn't been the case yeah because what they think happened is that maybe
00:21:37
she had a mortar and pestle or whatever the fuck crunched that shit her fucking that was her algae
00:21:42
cruncher and she never cleaned it out crunched that fucking cyanide up in the same thing and so
00:21:47
it's just cross-contamination girl not even on purpose she did it to herself she did it to her
00:21:52
fucking like so simple so guess what else our good friend life insurance policy oh comes into play
00:21:59
sure it does it always does it always does it's not just for fun no so stella had taken out a
00:22:04
total of about 76 000 in life insurance coverage on her husband which in today that's 1988 in
00:22:10
Today's money is it. That's easily $852,000. That's right. To the fucking penny.
00:22:16
To the penny. However, if his death was accidental, she got an additional $100,000.
00:22:24
Okay. Aside from the fact that this is such a fucked every time we tell stories like this, and it's basically just people being like, I'm going to cash in on the person I'm married to.
00:22:34
Right. Which in and of itself is disgusting. I'm done with this life. I'm going to cash in on this person.
00:22:39
I'm going to cash in on a human being. Yeah. But then she kills someone's mom also.
00:22:45
Right. Okay. So, so here's the thing. Okay. So, uh, that's why I remember she was fighting with the doc, with emphysema doctor.
00:22:53
It's not emphysema. I know it's not emphysema. It's because she needed him to say it was a fucking accident.
00:22:58
Accidental death. Right. So she could get that extra $76,000 or 826 million in today's money was not enough for
00:23:06
her. She needed an extra hundred thousand. Shit. Um, so then, uh, they were able to investigate what I'm sorry.
00:23:14
I just thought of what if it was all so that she could buy more and more tropical fish.
00:23:19
She needed more algae destroyer. She, she loved those fish. She had these huge angel fish, but they live in a trailer too.
00:23:27
Yeah. But sometimes you just eat that. She funneled all the money into that fish tank so that they were like, we don't need
00:23:32
a house. Yeah. What we need is a great house for these fish. I just think of how like how like humid and smelly it was in that trailer.
00:23:40
With that huge fish tank? Uh huh. With that 9 by 25 tropical fish tank that was like everyone you see in a rapper's house
00:23:49
in Cribs? Yeah. Or what about that TV show where they make fish tanks called Tank?
00:23:54
I think that would too. Is it? I think it's called Tank. Is it? I'm getting a nod from Steven.
00:23:59
Steven, do you watch Tank? Steven's so excited. No, but I did watch one episode specifically, but I think it was like Kevin Smith or something.
00:24:06
It's on when you're like in the hotel room or like a bar or like the hotel bar more like
00:24:11
and it just happens to be on. You're like, what the fuck? They made a whole show of this and it's actually kind of good.
00:24:16
I have to say in any action movie, if they come in and shoot up the bad guys like Shark
00:24:22
Tank that he has and then you see the wave that comes out, that's probably the most excited
00:24:26
I get. that's got to be a really expensive budget yeah because you shoot that once and then you have to
00:24:32
take it again which means you have to roll in a brand new fish tank and also because of the
00:24:36
fucking pita you can't kill those fish no those are all just rubber fish with little motors no
00:24:41
i was like wow how do you know that karen did you guys do that in baskets once yep on baskets
00:24:47
we like to fake kill fake fish all the time it's like a thing um okay so tank it's called tanks
00:24:54
Oh, look at these two tank toasts. They're they love fish. It's real fun. This is all in Spanish, Stephen.
00:25:02
Is this a Spanish show? No. Oh, it's on Animal Planet. Yeah. Please watch Tanked, everybody.
00:25:08
Our new favorite show. It's from 2012. So Stella takes a polygraph test in November of 1986.
00:25:14
Fails it. But unfortunately, there's no concrete evidence proving that she ever purchased cyanide.
00:25:20
And authorities aren't able to build a strong enough case to support her. There's no prints on any of the bottles, anything like that.
00:25:26
There's no video evidence of her putting the bottles back on the shelves. Right.
00:25:30
So, like, we fucking have nothing. And it's possible that this case would have even gone cold and no one would have been arrested except for her daughter who fucking hated her.
00:25:41
Oh, shit, girl. Okay. So, 27-year-old Cynthia Hamilton, who would have been played by a fucking hard-lifed Molly Ringwald.
00:25:51
Oh, shit. Yeah. Okay. But in a good way, but like pretty, but like chain smoke. Everyone chain smokes.
00:25:57
Yeah. It's like, is it Northern or Central Washington? Yes. Yeah. And they, and she was in and out of her mother's life for years.
00:26:06
When, when Cindy, the daughter was nine years old, Stella had hit her with a curtain rod
00:26:11
so hard it had bruised Cindy's legs. So Stella was pretty abusive. Oh shit. And Stella had been charged in order to go to counseling and said that, but Stella denied
00:26:20
never hitting her daughter and said that her daughter made the whole thing up because she was
00:26:23
jealous of her a nine-year-old girl was jealous of her no so she basically cindy that's the
00:26:31
daughter's name cindy has a total sociopath of a mother yeah okay cindy cindy's got cindy from
00:26:38
an early age is like oh shit my mom is capital a crazy right but cindy has a conscious conscience
00:26:45
that's right where are we number two cindy has a conscience yes and is like this is something this
00:26:51
isn't right i need to talk to the fucking authorities about this um and even though uh
00:26:55
it was her stepdad so in january of 1987 cynthia cindy approaches the police with information
00:27:00
she said that her mother had spoken to her many times about wanting her husband dead oh cindy's
00:27:06
stepdad stella had told cindy that after that ever since bruce had quit drinking he was a bore
00:27:12
now listen as someone who's quit drinking i know that that's a fact things get way less dramatic
00:27:20
when you're not shit-faced every day she said he preferred to stay home and watch television
00:27:24
which i'm like i drink and that sounds great to me it's the best you can be a boar and drink
00:27:30
you know how fucking hard it is to go out into the world sober and just like just get that white
00:27:35
hot light of reality shown on you at everywhere you go no i don't try it oh you gotta try it it's
00:27:42
hilarious, but it's much easier to stay home. Yeah. So they, they, they had stopped going out
00:27:46
to bars together. So she was like, this guy's a bore. I'm Peggy Bundy. Um, also bars when you're
00:27:52
sober, like about 35 minutes, you can have fun, but you have to know when to go home because people
00:27:59
start repeating themselves and it is a disaster area. I got it. I support you a hundred percent.
00:28:04
Thank you. This is why I never beg you to come out to like bars and shit. I'm like,
00:28:08
Why would I? You have to come here. There's like really bad nachos. There's nothing to offer you.
00:28:13
There's really hard to follow conversation about things you don't care about. That's right.
00:28:17
Yeah. So Cindy also claimed that her mother had spoken to her about what the two of them could do with the life insurance money if Bruce were dead.
00:28:24
Oh, no. But Cindy said that her mother even told her that she had tried to poison Bruce previously with the plant foxglove.
00:28:32
Oh. Which I guess is a poisonous plant. Very witchy of her. Yeah. But it didn't work.
00:28:36
but still there's no smoking gun Cindy hadn't seen Stella put the poison into the pills and
00:28:40
Stella had never confessed anything to her daughter and then Cindy told authorities that
00:28:44
after the then Cindy was like you know oh shit just threw a pen at the microphone oh I want to
00:28:50
also say okay but that okay hold on boop let me think okay but then Cindy was like you know what
00:28:56
might work my mom started after the foxglove thing my mom started to check out books on poison at the
00:29:01
fucking library. Girl, this is like that part of seven where they just go and they look up all the
00:29:06
books the person looked. That's right. And they did that. They got a fucking search warrant or
00:29:10
whatever. They got all the books. They found the books that she had checked out at the Auburn Public
00:29:17
Library and showed that she had checked out numerous books about poisons, including a book
00:29:22
called Human Poisoning. Oh, girl, a little more subtle and cover it up. Native and cultivated
00:29:27
plants and deadly harvest. So they fucking fingerprint that shit. Yeah. The FBI fingerprints that shit.
00:29:36
It only has roughly 1500 fingerprints. That's right. But they also subpoenaed her.
00:29:41
I don't know. You know, card. Sure. Her information. Yeah. And saw that she had checked it out.
00:29:47
They found her fingerprints on it, including the page that belonged to cyanide. And they have their what they can do.
00:29:53
And also so what they think happened was that she poisoned her husband He died The doctor wouldn would only say it was emphysema So to get it back to the fucking poison
00:30:06
she went out after that and put poison fucking bottles on the shelf. Oh my God. The reason Sue died a week later is because those bottles hadn't been on the shelf yet.
00:30:15
So if the doctor had been like, he got poisoned and it was accidental poisoning.
00:30:19
She would have gotten her money and left it alone. Right. But she went out and basically.
00:30:23
Not saying it's the doctor's fault at all. But she went out to garner more attention to get that accidental death and killed Sue and killed Susan Snow.
00:30:32
Wow. Isn't that fucking awful? Yeah, really. So it is. So on December 9th, 1987, Stella Nichols indicted by a federal grand jury on five counts of product tampering, including two which resulted in the deaths of Susan Snow and Bruce Nichols.
00:30:46
So she's not. So it's it's federal because after the Tylenol murders, they the FBI did a strict new federal anti tampering act.
00:30:57
And it was like super strict. You can't tamper with drugs. So that's why it was federal.
00:31:01
But so she wasn't tried for their murders. It was tampering that led to the deaths of these two people.
00:31:08
Why? Because that sentence would be longer or something like it was a bigger deal.
00:31:11
I don't know. So you said that just like my cousin, Eileen. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. So she goes to trial in April of 1988. Cindy agrees to fucking testify against her mother as long as her mother doesn't get the fucking death penalty. And they're like, great, that won't happen.
00:31:27
Talk about, wow, what a complex relationship that is. Stella's found guilty on all charges.
00:31:36
She becomes the first person charged and convicted under this federal anti-tampering act.
00:31:40
She's sentenced to two 90-year terms for the charges relating to the deaths of Susan Snow and Bruce Nichol
00:31:47
and three 10-year terms for the other product tampering. She'll be eligible for parole in this fucking year at 73 years old.
00:31:54
Jesus. So I think they're trying to also get those figure out a way to charge her with murder as well.
00:32:00
Yeah. But she fucking is like, I am innocent. This is some bullshit. She's doing all these like appeals and shit because she said there's a bunch of evidence that was never turned over to the defense.
00:32:09
She also claims that her daughter lied in order to get that. Remember that three hundred thousand dollars that was offered to people who could help by the drug companies?
00:32:17
Yeah. The daughter got two hundred and fifty thousand of that money. so it's almost like she said she said like she's doing it for money she's doing it yeah
00:32:26
wow yeah so uh but since but uh fucking stella nickel continues to maintain her innocence
00:32:32
you have a girl i know girl doesn't look good for you it does there's too many coincidences
00:32:38
there's too many and that's just uh seattle cyanide poisonings that's amazing because i
00:32:44
I remember the Excedrin one coming after Tylenol. Yeah. I did not know it was that involved and crazy.
00:32:51
Isn't that crazy? Yeah. How did I? I didn't really know about it either. So nuts.
00:32:55
Yeah. While the world watches the stars at the FIFA World Cup this summer, Hyundai has its eyes
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00:34:00
Goodbye. When you're young, you don't really buy furniture. you either inherit something from your parents or you just drag something in from the street like
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00:35:07
Goodbye. This episode is brought to you in part by Vital Farms. Their hens have outdoor access year-round with fresh air and sunshine,
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Vital Farms, good eggs, no shortcuts. Goodbye. Well, then the story I'm going to follow that one up with is basically Hannah suggested this to me because it's basically kind of her hometown.
00:35:53
It a story she remembers happening She from basically Washington State Mm And she remembers this kicking off And it was basically one of those things that took over Everybody knew about it
00:36:07
People were following it in the news. It's this crazy story. So thanks, Hannah, for the suggestion.
00:36:12
So the sources for this story today, there's a bunch of articles from heraldnet.com,
00:36:18
one by Jackson Holtz, one by Eric Stevick, one by Noah Haglund. Then there's an article by Ryan
00:36:27
Owens and Sarah Netter for ABC News, an article by Patrick Oppmann, CNN. There's a New York Times
00:36:33
article by William Yardley. There's a KOMO TV staff article. And there's a C.R. Douglas article
00:36:43
for Fox 13 Seattle. There was an episode of 48 Hours about this case, CBS News article written
00:36:50
by Paula Rosa, Sarah Pryor. And there's an article from the Seattle Times by a writer named Evan Bush.
00:36:58
And if you, and there's more sources you can check the show notes for. This is the story of Colton Harris Moore,
00:37:06
also known as the Barefoot Bandit. Okay. Colton Moore is born March 22nd, 1991 in Mount Vernon, Washington.
00:37:14
He grows up in a trailer in the woods on Southern Camano Island, which is about an hour north of Seattle on Puget Sound.
00:37:22
So his home life's chaotic. His mother, Pam, drinks while she's pregnant with Colt.
00:37:28
This impacts his neurocognitive development. His father, Gordon, is a drug user who gets sent to prison when Colt is still a toddler.
00:37:37
Then when Colt is four, his mom remarries to a man named William Kohler, who, according to Pam herself, had a criminal history and a heroin addiction.
00:37:48
So not great stuff happening in that trailer in The Forest. So all of that would be hard enough to deal with.
00:37:54
But then Pam is said to be verbally, physically, and emotionally abusive all throughout Colt's childhood.
00:38:02
According to his aunt, Sandra, who is Pam's sister, when Pam drinks, she gets belligerent and violent
00:38:08
and is known to break her son's toys as a punishment. to him. So not great stuff. Yeah. Their neighbors hear Pam screaming at Colt all hours of the day
00:38:18
and night. She's also a neglectful parent. Colt as a child often asked the adults in his life,
00:38:25
like teachers and his friends' parents, if he could have food. And court records indicate that
00:38:30
Pam basically did not make sure that Colt went to school. So he missed a ton of school.
00:38:36
All this has a negative effect on him growing up. When he does go to school, He bullies other students.
00:38:41
He defies his teachers. A psychological evaluation years later states that Colton has a long-term history of psychiatric and behavioral difficulties.
00:38:51
He's also been prescribed a wide range of psychiatric medications, including antidepressants, stimulant medications, mood stabilizers, and even antipsychotic medication.
00:39:01
And he was also at different points diagnosed with depression, attention deficit disorder, and intermittent explosive disorder.
00:39:08
Wow. So when CPS gets called in, which they did, they were multiple times throughout Colt's childhood,
00:39:18
the caseworkers would recommend that Pam seek counseling for her son. She would decline.
00:39:23
When he's 10 years old, he's removed from the home for three days, but CPS has to close the investigation due to lack of cooperation from Pam.
00:39:34
Yeah, that seems against. Like, yeah, we get that she's not cooperating. That's why CPS got called in the first place.
00:39:42
Right. Like lack of cooperation by the abuser isn't a reason to cancel the case.
00:39:48
So that second husband, William, dies when Colt is 11. And then Pam soon enters another relationship with a man who moves into the house,
00:39:58
who Pam would later describe as not playing with a full deck. He was an alcoholic.
00:40:03
And ultimately, Pam ends the relationship. At some point, Colt's biological father, Gordon,
00:40:09
returns to the home after he's released from prison. And in May 2003, when Colt is 12,
00:40:16
he calls 911 reporting Gordon pushed him to the ground and grabbed him by the throat.
00:40:21
And when police arrive, Gordon flees to the woods nearby, but the police end up arresting him and taking him to jail.
00:40:28
And after that, Gordon cuts off contact with Pam and Colt and he moves to Las Vegas.
00:40:33
and Pam basically blames Colt for that happening. So by the time Colt is 15 years old,
00:40:40
CPS has responded to 12 separate incidents at the Moore home. So really rough childhood.
00:40:48
Later that same year, in November of 2003, 12-year-old Colt is accused of breaking into a business
00:40:54
in the city of Stanwood and then breaking into Stanwood Middle School, stealing a laptop and CDs and defacing a bulletin board.
00:41:03
Which, sorry, it just sounds funny. You know he wrote fuck you on like some kind of a bulletin board
00:41:10
in a way that they couldn't get off. Pretty sure I did something like that as a kid too, you know?
00:41:17
You know, if you can't stay home and everything really sucks there and people are really shitty there,
00:41:21
you're going to go fuck some stuff up as a kid as a way of saying, will someone please step in?
00:41:26
Totally, totally. So he pleads guilty to possession of a stolen property. He's sentenced to six months supervision.
00:41:33
and 56 hours of community service. A social worker's report notes, Colton wants mom to stop drinking and smoking,
00:41:42
get a job and have food in the house. Mom refuses. So that's a rough encapsulation
00:41:48
of what life is like for a 12-year-old Colt. Jesus. In 2004 so it a year later Colt probation officer writes Colton and his mother share a tumultuous relationship Colton mother reported to me that he is violent at home on a near daily basis
00:42:05
He recently broke the telephone in order to prevent her from calling the police.
00:42:08
She then showed me a mark on her forearm of how he had bit her and went after her with a boat oar.
00:42:15
My God. His mother reported how Colton is now medicated and complying with taking his medications
00:42:21
and his behavior has not been hostile toward her. He's 13 years old. So basically, he's giving what he's gotten.
00:42:28
Right. And then he's in trouble for it. Right. He's reacting. In December 2005, a police report is made
00:42:35
alleging that 14-year-old Colt assaulted his mother. In the summer of 2006, Colt's due to appear in court
00:42:42
at Denny Juvenile Justice Center in Everett, but he's so scared of going back into detention
00:42:47
that he runs away the day before his hearing. He starts breaking into homes on Kameno Island
00:42:52
and watching internet porn on the resident's home computer. Yeah, that sounds great.
00:42:58
Right? He's like, I'm not going to get in trouble for this. All right. Yeah. He breaks into unoccupied vacation homes through skylights
00:43:08
and then squats in the homes for several days before moving on and taking food and portable electronic devices with him.
00:43:15
When he's not vacation home squatting, he camps out in the woods. And by this point, he's dropped out of school.
00:43:21
he's only in the ninth grade. Oh my God, he's a child still. Yeah, he's a baby. In January 2007, after six local burglaries,
00:43:31
the Island County Sheriff's Office puts up wanted posters with Colt's picture and his information.
00:43:36
Basically, there's 15,000 people on this island and that's usually when the vacation people are there.
00:43:42
Yeah. There's 5,000 households. So it's a tiny place. Like, you know, everyone knows that this is Colt doing it.
00:43:50
Right, right. So stories about his exploits start appearing in the media. And within a matter of weeks, a local resident notices that there are lights on inside what should have been an empty vacation home.
00:44:02
The police are alerted. And when they arrive, they tell Colt that the house is surrounded.
00:44:07
Even though it's actually not, they had just set up flashlights to make it look like there was cops all around the house.
00:44:14
Oh, my God. But there weren't. So Colt falls for it. And he comes out and gives himself up.
00:44:19
In court, he pleads guilty to three of the 23 felony charges against him. His aunt Sandra writes to the court in support of her nephew saying, quote,
00:44:29
I love that boy like one of my own kids. I think he got mixed in with the wrong crowd and he got himself in too far.
00:44:36
Colt is sentenced to three years confinement and ordered to stay in a group home in Renton, Washington.
00:44:41
So on April 22nd, 2008, 17-year-old Colt like basically breaks out of this group home.
00:44:48
He sneaks out a window and he goes on the run. And soon, South Kameno Island residents are reporting break-ins to the police.
00:44:56
So a couple months later, he allegedly steals his neighbor's Mercedes and crashes it into a propane tank behind a cafe.
00:45:05
This is, what's the, can you think of the word for it where it's like, when you're doing bad, but it doesn't hurt anybody.
00:45:13
They have that word for it. It's like reckless. Yeah, like there's no direct victim.
00:45:19
But it's like... Exploits. It's not hijinks or exploits. What did you say, Stia?
00:45:24
Shenanigans. Yeah, but no, but yes. Official police shenanigans. There's a term for it that's essentially like you're behaving badly and...
00:45:38
Right, there's no... Like knock it off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just think it's funny to be like, I'm just gonna...
00:45:43
There's all these rich people everywhere. I'm just going to steal their shit and fuck it up and like just do what I want because fuck everything.
00:45:50
He flees the scene, but he leaves behind his backpack containing his journal, stolen credit cards, a GPS, his cell phone, and a digital camera that he used to take selfies with.
00:46:01
Dude. They kind of know it's him. So a couple months later, he steals money from an, but they still haven't caught him.
00:46:07
They just know. They find his stuff there basically. In September of the same year,
00:46:12
he steals money from an ATM on Orcas Island and in the process cuts himself and leaves blood on the machine
00:46:18
so they're able to take DNA basically to later compare it with other crimes because he is breaking the law.
00:46:27
It isn't hijinks or shenanigans. On November 12th of the same year, he breaks into a locked airplane hanger on Orcas Island
00:46:35
and he steals a Cessna 182 airplane worth about $150,000. He has never had a flying lesson.
00:46:43
He doesn't even have his driver's license. And the plane belongs to Seattle radio personality
00:46:50
Bob Rivers at 102.5 KZOK. So he somehow figures out a way to fly it over the Cascade mountain range.
00:47:01
What? Yes. He's through a whiteout at 13,000 feet and all these wind gusts. It was not ideal.
00:47:11
Okay, how do you even get a plane off of the fucking runway? They think that he taught himself
00:47:17
how to fly using simulation software on laptops and studying plane manuals for hours.
00:47:24
For hours. So what usually takes people fucking months and months, probably. Yeah, I bet you this kid was very smart.
00:47:31
It's one of those annoying things where it's like if you had had a shot in life,
00:47:33
you would have made something of yourself. Right. or been a way better burglar. But either way, once I got to this part,
00:47:43
I was just like, a 17-year-old steals a Cessna and is able to fly it somewhere. Oh my God.
00:47:49
Like, what 17-year-old do you know that could like steal a car and drive it down the street,
00:47:54
much less an airplane he's never flown before? Okay, so he ends up crashing the plane
00:48:00
300 miles away on the Yakima Indian Reservation. When police get to the scene where the plane crashes,
00:48:08
they don't find Colt, but there is vomit inside the plane. And they take a sample, compare it to the DNA,
00:48:15
and now they know that the ATM crime and this airplane ceiling is Colt. Okay, this police department is too well-funded
00:48:24
if they're doing DNA tests on what is clearly fucking 17-year-old. Like it's clearly him.
00:48:30
You don't need to DNA test shit. But they get that proof. They've got that locked in proof.
00:48:35
But here's what I love more than that. He stole the plane. He's flying the plane.
00:48:39
And then he gets like basically so nervous he barfs while he's flying in like bad weather.
00:48:47
Or he just had actual seasickness. What's it called in the air? Motion sickness.
00:48:51
Thank you. Yeah. I mean, if it was bad weather, turbulence could have made him throw up.
00:48:57
It's pretty amazing. So the investigators look into more unsolved cases of burglaries and associated offenses that Colt could have been responsible for.
00:49:08
And there are over 70 cases throughout the Pacific Northwest. And that includes Washington State, Idaho, Oregon, and several locations in Canada.
00:49:18
It's basically residential and commercial burglaries, bank burglaries, vehicle thefts, boat theft, aircraft theft, and assault to police officers.
00:49:28
Colt is alleged to have stolen or destroyed around $3 million worth of property.
00:49:34
Wow. Yeah, but rich people have insurance. I don't feel bad. That's right. There was probably a couple of like the whatever boats he stole
00:49:41
that the people were like, oh, thank God. Yeah. We're like, oh, I had my laptop on there.
00:49:46
And like, then they get an extra thousand bucks or whatever. My Krugerrands. Right.
00:49:50
They're also missing. We're on there. So finally, on March 12th, 2009, a felony warrant is issued for his arrest.
00:49:58
So now it's big time. But before they can exercise that warrant, they have to find him first.
00:50:05
On September 11th, 2009, Colt steals a Cirrus SR-22 plane worth about a half a million dollars
00:50:13
from a town called Friday Harbor, also in Washington State. Oh my God. And he crash lands the plane back on Orcas Island.
00:50:22
So he's kind of doing it all around in the same area. My God. You know, I'm just picturing Bart Simpson this entire fucking time.
00:50:30
Yes. Yes. Completely. He's just like, how else can I show that I don't give a fuck?
00:50:37
Right. Like, yeah, I'm just going to do what I want. Okay, so after the crash, Colt is seen walking away from the wreckage by a police officer.
00:50:46
But for some inexplicable reason, the cop fails to detain Colt. He like fist pumps him as he walks away.
00:50:53
Yeah, he's kind of like, you walked away from that? Amazing. The same month, Colt makes his way to Canada in a stolen boat,
00:51:01
subsequently making his way back to the U.S. through British Columbia. And so obviously undetected.
00:51:09
Like, how did he do that? Yeah. A couple weeks later on September 29th, Colt steals a Cessna T-182T from a hangar in Bonners Ferry, Idaho,
00:51:20
and he leaves bare footprints on the ground. He takes off in the plane in Idaho,
00:51:26
and he again flies back over the Cascades, but he crash lands 60 miles away near Snohomish, Washington,
00:51:34
because he runs out of fuel while he's flying. On October 1st, 2009, a logger near Granite Falls finds that plane wreck.
00:51:44
The police trace bare footprints from the crash site to a camp in the woods, but there's no sign of Colt.
00:51:49
The next day, a second local felony arrest warrant is issued for Colt, and he's charged with forced entry burglary in the second degree.
00:52:00
A few days later, SWAT officers searching the area for Colt are fired up by an unknown assailant.
00:52:06
Okay, that's bad. So now, Colt, this is going on and building to such a degree that now in the media, Colt is being called the barefoot bandit.
00:52:16
Okay. I can't imagine, like, being from one of these small towns and like, no, I meant this person is.
00:52:22
Yeah, he's just gonna, he's gonna steal your shit and he's gonna do what he wants with it.
00:52:27
Yeah. Kind of exciting for like if Hannah is young and reading about this being like.
00:52:31
Oh my God. So exciting. She said they tracked it, like they paid attention to it
00:52:35
and watched it on the news and it's crazy. Even though he usually wears shoes, the moniker sticks.
00:52:42
So the barefoot thing only happened a couple of times. When Colt's mother, Pam, hears about the latest theft,
00:52:48
She says, I'm proud of him. I was going to send him to flight school, but I guess I don't have to.
00:52:53
But next time, I want him to wear a parachute. Colt's popularity as a pseudo-modern folk hero gains support
00:52:59
when a member of the public starts a Facebook page for him, of course, because remember, it's 2009.
00:53:05
The page eventually gets more than 100,000 followers. And it has posts that say things like,
00:53:11
let's hope that he remains healthy, free, and at large for a long time. Fly, Colton, fly.
00:53:17
That sounds like Pam to me. It gets so popular, they actually start making T-shirts,
00:53:23
tote bags, and mugs, and they have Colt's picture on them with the caption, Mama tried.
00:53:30
But Kameno Island locals who've had their belongings stolen or damaged are not amused.
00:53:36
They actually end up launching their own counter blog in an attempt to raise money
00:53:40
so they can hire a bounty hunter to track Colt down. Man, he's giving them life.
00:53:49
Like he's making these people who just sit at home watching fucking Everybody Loves Raymond every night.
00:53:53
He like making their lives exciting You welcome Yes that right You know Now it becoming international news Reporters from all over the globe travel to Camino Island to report on the search for the barefoot bandit
00:54:07
And they all want to talk to his mother, Pam. Pam publicly encourages Colt to escape to a country that doesn't extradite to the U.S.
00:54:16
So the entire time Colt's on the run, he calls his aunt Sandra once a month to let her know he's okay.
00:54:22
Aunts. Anties. We're the best. Anties, what's up? You can always count on us not to turn you in.
00:54:28
We would never, I'll never turn Nora in for any crime sheet. Anties don't snitch.
00:54:34
That's their new saying. You can stay at our house. Yeah. Sandra pleads with her nephew to please turn himself in.
00:54:41
But just to him privately. Yeah, right. Just to him. Yeah. But he tells her every time that he's not ready to stop just yet.
00:54:48
Okay. On December 11th, 2009, the U.S. District Court in Seattle issues a federal warrant for Colt's arrest because of the aircraft theft from Idaho in September.
00:55:01
So everything's kind of stacking up. By February 2010, 18-year-old Colt has been eluding police for nearly two years at this point.
00:55:12
Wow. I mean, Jesus. Two years on the run. It's like a reality show. Colton on the run, you know?
00:55:17
Yep. Whatever. He allegedly steals a plane from a town called Anacortes, and he flies it over to Orcas Island, somehow escaping the attention of Vancouver air traffic control.
00:55:29
He's like going out and stealing stuff and bringing it back to Orcas Island. Yeah.
00:55:34
Now, everyone is on the hunt for Colt. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,
00:55:40
the FBI, the U.S. Coast Guard, officers from six different Washington counties with tracker dogs,
00:55:48
SWAT teams, and police helicopters with infrared heat sensors. Oh, dear. And yet, they cannot find him.
00:55:55
Damn. So soon after this, Colt breaks into an Orcas Island deli and eats an entire cheesecake.
00:56:03
What? Wait, was it called the cheese box? Oh, if only. Oh, he eats an entire sheet.
00:56:10
What a weird detail. He's truly living. He also vandalizes this security system and causes $6,500 worth of damage.
00:56:18
He then draws 39 bare feet on the floor with chalk, with prints leading out the door,
00:56:24
and then the letters CYA, see ya, scrawled next to the footprints. Oh my, that's a little intense.
00:56:34
39 footprints. Yeah. He spends months hiding out on Orcas Island. He commits more than 20 break-ins and burglaries, allegedly, while he's there. Police release surveillance camera photos from Island Market in the hope that somebody will recognize him. And word spreads that Colt is hiding out somewhere in the woods.
00:56:55
So on May 31st, 2010, Colt leaves, you're gonna like this one. He leaves $100 at Vedder's Animal Hospital in Raymond, Washington,
00:57:03
with a note that says, drove by, had some extra cash. Please use this money for the care of animals.
00:57:11
Signed, Colton Harris-Moore, aka the Barefoot Bandit. Okay, well now we just love him.
00:57:17
Now we love him. He's a modern day Robin Hood, kind of. Yeah. On June 1st, 2010, he steals a $450,000 fishing boat from Ilwako, not far from Raymond, to cross the Columbia River.
00:57:32
And that boat ends up being recovered in Warrington, Oregon. From there, Colt steals a series of cars and heads east across Oregon and Idaho.
00:57:42
11 days later, on June 12th, authorities in Spearfish, South Dakota, find an abandoned vehicle with Washington plates.
00:57:51
Then on the night of June 18th, Colt pries open the doors at the airport in Norfolk, Nebraska.
00:57:57
He uses a broom handle to try to force open a cockpit window, hoping to unlock the plane, but it doesn't work.
00:58:04
So instead, he steals an Escalade from the airport and he drives it to Iowa and dumps it when he gets there.
00:58:12
He then steals another car, drives that to the airport in Ottumwa, Iowa, where he again tries to break into a plane,
00:58:19
but again, the barefoot bandit fails. So he steals yet another car and he drives to Dallas City, Illinois.
00:58:27
But from there, the authorities lose track of him. And then in late June of 2010,
00:58:33
another arrest warrant is issued for him, this time from Madison County, Nebraska,
00:58:39
with counts of break-ins, vehicle theft, and an attempted airplane theft. So basically, as he's going through and breaking,
00:58:46
you know, doing all his little crimes and his break-ins and things just behind him.
00:58:51
The warrants are piling up. Yeah. State by state. On July 3rd, 2010, in Bloomington, Indiana,
00:58:58
Colt steals a four-seater Cessna 400 airplane worth $650,000, Monroe County Airport.
00:59:06
During this flight, he takes videos of his journey from inside the conference. Oh my God.
00:59:11
Was he live streaming? I don't know, 2010? It might have been too early for that.
00:59:17
But he does have him on his phone. This time, he flies himself to the Bahamas. And then he crashes the plane in shallow waters off the coast of Great Abaco Island.
00:59:29
All right. Now we're talking. Finally, he's going somewhere exciting. Yeah. Soon after that, break-ins are reported all across the island.
00:59:38
So the FBI now is involved, and they're offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Colton.
00:59:47
Harris more. Special agent Stephen Dean says, quote, we want to get him. He's turned from a
00:59:53
regional nuisance into an international problem end quote So U law enforcement traveled to the Bahamas where they launch a full search and put up wanted posters There CCTV footage that
01:00:07
captures brief images of Colt visiting bars and restaurants in the area. So he's on vacation.
01:00:12
Living his life. He's on vacation. He's on bandit vacation. Oh my God. Pam hires an entertainment lawyer named Yegel Lewis to field inquiries from parties offering
01:00:24
to buy the rights to Colt's story for book and movie deals. But she's not interested in speaking to reporters.
01:00:31
She puts up a sign at the end of the road, like her driveway to the trailer, that says, if you go past this sign, you'll be shot.
01:00:39
Shit. But Pam has changed her attitude about her son being on the run. Now she says that she wants him to turn himself in
01:00:46
before anyone gets hurt. By this point, Colt's image has been broadcast throughout the Bahamas.
01:00:52
So people there actually know who he is and what's going on. Because again, he's gone to a small island community.
01:01:00
And gotten away with it. Yeah. Got in public. Yeah. On July 7th, 2010, Bahamian ferry boat captain Freddie Grant sees somebody matching Colt's description
01:01:11
swimming on the northern end of Eleuthera Island. So Freddie's noticed also that the ignitions to a bunch of the ferries have been messed with and damaged.
01:01:22
And he can put two and two together. So three days later on July 11th, around three in the morning,
01:01:28
Kenny Strahan, the security director of Remora Bay Marina on Harbor Island, sees somebody running away from the boat docks toward the marina's exit.
01:01:39
And he's sure that it's Colt. So he pursues this person on foot. And when he catches up to him, he realizes it really is the barefoot bandit himself.
01:01:48
And he realizes the barefoot bandit now has a gun. Mm-hmm. So Kenny backs off. He calls the Bahamian police. And meanwhile, Colt runs back toward the docks, climbs into a boat that had the keys left in the ignition, and takes off.
01:02:07
All right. When police arrive, they also commandeer a boat and they take off after him. They fire at the boat's engines that Colt is driving. Some of them actually have Uzis.
01:02:18
So this becomes like a real pursuit. They basically force Colt to surrender. As the police scream at Golt to put his gun down,
01:02:28
he puts it to his head, threatening to kill himself because he says he cannot go back to jail.
01:02:33
The police move closer. Colt then throws his gun and his laptop overboard. And basically, the wild ride is finally over for the barefoot bandit.
01:02:44
When 19-year-old Colton Harris Moore is arrested, He's photographed walking barefoot with his ankles shackled.
01:02:51
Authorities fly him to Nassau for processing. Colt is not showing any signs of fear or distress at this point.
01:02:58
And they actually go back and find both his gun and his laptop. His backpack is seized upon arrest.
01:03:05
And inside, the police find a Boy Scouts of America certificate, two fifth grade class photos, some airplane sketches,
01:03:13
and a Waffler PPK, which is the same gun that James Bond uses. So this is a little boy.
01:03:21
On July 13th, 2010, Colt pleads guilty to entering the Bahamas illegally. So you can't just fly to the Bahamas.
01:03:28
Oh, I got it. You can't just fly there, crush, and then go swimming the way he did.
01:03:33
I didn't know that. Now we know. It's good to know everyone. Now we know. He's sentenced to three months in jail
01:03:39
or a $300 fine. Pam wires him the money and pays the fine. Colt's deported by the U.S. attorney's office
01:03:46
and flown back to Miami where he is taken to federal jail. Following Colt's arrest,
01:03:52
Pam issues a statement saying she's relieved her son is safe and that no one's hurt.
01:03:56
She also says she's looking forward to seeing him soon, having not seen him for two years.
01:04:02
Colt's followers on social media get behind his defense and they donate money for his legal costs.
01:04:08
Pam joins the plea for assistance saying, quote, Now there's not a break-in or a theft in the entire Northwest that the media or law enforcement doesn't rush to pin on Colt.
01:04:17
We have no way of knowing what charges will be filed against him. The media has already convicted him as the barefoot bandit and created widespread accusations and perception of guilt.
01:04:28
Eventually, though, Colt will have to fight for his freedom against the full force of the legal system.
01:04:33
End quote. Doesn't sound like our Pam. That sounds like through a lawyer. Well, that also sounds like the most insane rationalization of a public series of crimes that this person very gleefully committed.
01:04:44
It's like, you don't get to go back now and be like, can you believe they're pinning all these crimes on him?
01:04:49
It's like, yes, he did like 50 crimes in a row. So yes, I do believe it. Pam is pulling what we call my family being a day late and a dollar short.
01:04:59
so on july 21st 2010 colt's transferred to the federal detention center in seattle
01:05:06
and he appears in court the next day where he waives his right to a preliminary hearing
01:05:10
and a speedy trial so on november 18th he pleads not guilty in federal court to charges of
01:05:16
interstate transportation of a stolen plane so specific yeah a plane boat and gun stolen
01:05:23
of being a fugitive in possession of a firearm and flying without a pilot's license.
01:05:28
And that same month, 48 Hours, did an episode about Colt's exploits. So you can watch that in streaming services everywhere.
01:05:37
Both Pam and her sister, Sondra, write letters to the court in an attempt to explain
01:05:41
what has led to Colt's antisocial behavior. Here's what Pam writes, quote, This boy has had many disappointments all his life.
01:05:49
His stepfather died and our dog. And this has had severe effects on Colt and I. He does things without thinking of the end results End quote Court proceedings continued throughout 2011 In March the FBI confirms that the reward money
01:06:05
is split among the officers who arrested Colt as well as Kenny Strahan. And on June 17th, 2011,
01:06:14
Colt pleads guilty to all seven counts on the federal indictment. Under his plea deal, he agrees to forfeit any profits
01:06:20
from selling publishing rights to his story. In August 2011, 20th Century Fox pays more than a million dollars in exchange for the rights to Colt's story.
01:06:30
The studio sends the money directly to the U.S. Marshals to distribute it amongst Colt's victims.
01:06:37
Interesting. That September, a psychological evaluation finds that Colt's delinquent behavior is driven by depression, PTSD, and, you know, basically suicidal tendencies.
01:06:49
Right. He was risking his life every time he flew one of those planes that he did not fly.
01:06:54
And he's crazy. The psychologist notes that Colt has a low risk of reoffending favorable prognosis with appropriate intervention.
01:07:03
On December 16th, 2011, Colt is sentenced by the state of Washington to seven years in jail, plus three years of supervised probation.
01:07:11
Judge Vicki Churchill says, quote, This case is a tragedy in many ways, but it's a triumph of the human spirit in other ways.
01:07:21
The judge notes that Colt has genuine remorse for his crimes. As a high-profile convict, Colt's initially placed in solitary confinement for his own protection, which must be horrifying.
01:07:32
On January 27th, 2012, the Federal District Court of Seattle sentences Colt to six and a half years in prison.
01:07:39
He'll serve both state and federal sentences concurrently, and it's determined that he owes his victims $1.3 million in restitution.
01:07:48
Two months after Colt goes to prison, author Bob Friel publishes a book called The Barefoot Bandit, The True Tale of Colton Harris Moore, New American Outlaw.
01:07:59
In 2010, two documentaries are released about his experiences. In May 2016, his mom, Pam Kohler, dies of lung cancer.
01:08:09
In 2016, Colt pleads to get out of prison early to work at his lawyer's law firm during the summer.
01:08:16
According to Colt's attorney, the two had agreed years before that Colt could work part-time at his law firm doing clerical work.
01:08:24
At the same time, Colt would be looking for a full-time job and eventually go to college.
01:08:30
His attorney says Colt's criminality grew out of poverty, not a desire to harm people or cause trouble.
01:08:37
In September 2016, Colt's transferred from Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen to a work release facility in Seattle.
01:08:45
He starts working for his lawyer, but he hopes one day to study aeronautical engineering.
01:08:51
In December 2016, 25-year-old Colt is released from his work release program, remains under supervision.
01:08:59
He starts a GoFundMe to raise $125,000 for private and commercial pilot license training.
01:09:07
and helicopter certification. Holy shit. But the federal probation office shuts that down.
01:09:13
Yeah, yeah. And he's saying that the $1,600 that was raised so far goes directly to his victims.
01:09:20
Colt responds publicly on Twitter saying that his stream is crushed and his lawyer states that Colt didn't consult with him
01:09:27
before starting the GoFundMe. So in April 2019, Colt asks the court for his supervised release period
01:09:33
to be shortened. He wants to be allowed to visit friends overseas and accept work outside of Washington State
01:09:39
to attend engagements as a motivational speaker. Colt claims the work will help him pay off
01:09:44
the restitution he still owes his victims, telling the court, quote, I've learned from my past.
01:09:50
I do not run from it, but instead try to embrace it for the better. I hope to serve as a model for people
01:09:55
who have hard lives and who feel hopeless. I saw it every day when I was confined
01:09:59
and I've seen it in the world upon release, end quote. In May 2019, his request was denied.
01:10:06
and he was ordered to complete his probation. Not much is known about him today,
01:10:13
although on his LinkedIn profile, he describes himself as, quote, former international fugitive turned entrepreneur,
01:10:21
focused on education, progress, and success. Life is what you make it. My intention is to build connections with people
01:10:29
who are both clearly motivated and with whom may lead to a mutually beneficial outcome
01:10:34
along the lines of problem solving, productivity and accomplishing goals. This is what it's all about.
01:10:41
Yeah. Can we get a TED talk, please? I mean, and that's the unbelievable story of the barefoot bandit Colton Harris Moore.
01:10:50
Yeah. Holy shit. He went on what we call in the business a spree. He really did it.
01:10:57
Wow. I have literally never heard a single piece of that before. Same. And it was like happening,
01:11:05
like by at that point, like it was happening on social media. That's the craziest part.
01:11:10
It's like that modern. Yeah. And I had never, ever seen a thing. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
01:11:17
Good job. Thank you. Good job, Colton. Yeah. I mean, listen, you know, breaking the law isn't the way,
01:11:28
but sometimes, you know, sometimes you're 17 and you're fucking depressed and like...
01:11:34
But like stealing airplanes and flying them when you don't know how to is kind of the way.
01:11:41
The bandit part. Yeah, he's like a... Yeah, he's like a... He's just kind of doing it.
01:11:46
Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. It's just like he's doing something at least. Yeah. Yeah.
01:11:52
It's like impressive. You don't want to like... You don't want to support it. You don't want to celebrate it.
01:11:59
Yeah, but it's... It's also like, wow, you know. He didn't hurt. He didn't hurt anybody.
01:12:04
He didn't hurt anybody. I mean, he could have killed people. He could have killed people crashing those planes.
01:12:09
Absolutely could have killed people. And he had guns on him, which is not great.
01:12:13
It isn't great. But then the second he got called on it, he threw it in the ocean.
01:12:17
Yeah, that's true. So, wow. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. Wow, that was a really fun story.
01:12:26
Thank you for staying sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie?
01:12:33
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