00:00:16
Well, when Mr. Beasley
sets up this Craigslist ad, he puts himself in
a position of power.
00:00:30
EVERETTE PENN: It's an
aspect of unfair play, using technology like
Craigslist to lure men and then
00:00:37
find themselves in
horrific situations. TINA BEASLEY: I knew there was a
dark side, but not to the extent
00:01:00
that it turned out to be. JONI HOHNSTON: It occurs
to Richard Beasley, what if I do this as my next career?
00:01:16
It hit me really hard. TINA BEASLEY: He was a
wolf in sheep's clothing. I thought it.
00:01:23
Guess what? I was right. [theme music] EMMA DONALDSON: Akron,
Ohio, was once the buckle
00:02:05
on America's industrial belt. Akron used to be a
really booming city. It was the rubber capital.
00:02:12
ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: The
turn of the century, 1900s, you couldn't have found a
more bustling and important
00:02:17
area to the world economy. EMMA DONALDSON:
But times changed. And certainly,
as a lot of jobs
00:02:24
have been automated
and left, you know, we felt it harder than most. And it's hard to remember
what a different world
00:02:31
we were in in the end of 2011. And Ohio was harder hit
than many other states, so there was a lot of people
feeling a lot of pain,
00:02:38
a lot of employment
pain, and a lot of people looking
for opportunities wherever they could.
00:02:45
EMMA DONALDSON: Craigslist
is booming as a website where people can find
anything, even a job.
00:02:51
In the fall of 2011,
more than 100 people responded to an ad posted on
the site by Richard Beasley.
00:02:58
It's $300 a week. They have a trailer
they can live on. You know, the only drawbacks
are, hey, you know,
00:03:06
your cell phone probably
isn't going to work, and you got to want
to be by yourself,
00:03:10
because you're kind of going
to be, you know, off the grid. This is a difficult
time financially.
00:03:16
We have the 2008
kind of home prices, and there were a lot of
people who were really in very
00:03:23
difficult financial straits. EMMA DONALDSON: 56-year-old
Ralph Geiger is one example.
00:03:29
He's living in a
homeless shelter, having lost the construction
company he used to run.
00:03:34
He applies for
Richard Beasley's job on the farm in Caldwell, Ohio. JONI HOHNSTON: This is
somebody who's down on his luck
00:03:41
for the past few years. This guy had a good
history of working, but now he's in
a bad, bad place.
00:03:46
He's desperate for work. He's going to look for a job
in the library every day. This is someone who says,
wow, I'm looking on Craigslist.
00:03:55
This opportunity exists for me
to have a new life, perfect job. I'm going to drive and
take my possessions there.
00:04:03
I'm going to get
interviewed, and then I'm going to find this
wonderful outcome that's
00:04:08
going to give me a fresh start. EMMA DONALDSON: Countless
other men like Ralph are also interested in
the job and the chance
00:04:14
to start a new life. David Pauley, Scott
Davis, and Tim Kern are all unemployed and
hope Beasley's advert could
00:04:23
be just the break they need. Richard Beasley will arrange to
meet and interview all of them.
00:04:32
Most of them will end up dead. They never really knew
the man who posted the ad.
00:04:43
JONI HOHNSTON: Sir
Richard Beasley, reportedly, was physically
abused by his stepfather.
00:04:48
It came out later that
he had been sexually abused by some neighbors. And so he really
did start out, I
00:04:52
think, with some pretty
significant trauma. He was interested in
school, to some extent.
00:04:58
He had said at one
point that it was important to have Christians
as friends because they
00:05:02
would always vouch for you. And so I think,
from an early age, we see a little bit of Richard
Beasley kind of realizing
00:05:10
that who you're around
and how you pretend to be can really get you places. EMMA DONALDSON: Richard
graduates from high school
00:05:18
in 1976 and trains to
become a machinist, but he quickly loses interest. JONI HOHNSTON: So
he moved to Texas,
00:05:26
has a job or two that
are legitimate and then quickly kind of gives
that up, and really
00:05:31
becomes a prolific burglar. He is arrested for that,
and, you know, the judge throws the book at him.
00:05:37
And he receives like
40 years in prison. He only, though,
does about four. So he is released, and
he goes back to Ohio.
00:05:45
He meets his wife. They're both avid
motorcycle enthusiasts. TINA BEASLEY: My
name is Tina Beasley.
00:05:53
I'm 62 years old, and I was
married to Richard Beasley. It was an instant
attraction for both of us.
00:06:03
Me, I fell for them
gorgeous blue eyes. Oh. And him, I'm not sure why he
fell for me, but it was instant.
00:06:15
I mean, we clicked instantly. And then it wasn't too long
after dating, I became pregnant,
00:06:22
so we decided to get married. We had a biker
wedding, basically. My family was there.
00:06:32
His family was there. But everybody else was from
our mutual biker friends. Three days later,
Tonya was born.
00:06:43
TONYA BEASLEY: My
name is Tonya Beasley. I'm 30 years old, and
Richard Beasley is my father.
00:06:52
My dad was a really goofy dad. He liked to have fun. He would actually
get down and kind of
00:06:57
use his imagination with me. When we were drawing,
it was storytelling and dragons and monsters and
all that kind of cool stuff.
00:07:05
Like, I actually
felt like he was a kid like me just having fun. EMMA DONALDSON:
With a new family,
00:07:12
Tina wants to leave
the biker gang that she and Richard are members
of, but Richard wants to stay.
00:07:19
ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: You may think
the lifestyle of a motorcycle gang is a close-knit community.
00:07:22
You know, they are
very tight-knit. They don't let in outsiders,
even if it becomes violent.
00:07:26
Often involved in drugs. At that time, we were
seeing a lot of meth moving through motorcycle gangs.
00:07:32
TINA BEASLEY: He
was a good father. He was good to me. He had a paycheck every week.
00:07:40
Bills were paid, but I had
no clue what he was doing. And then I found out
he wasn't working.
00:07:50
The pay paychecks wasn't real. And then I knew what he
was doing for a living. EMMA DONALDSON:
In the mid 1990s,
00:08:00
with Tonya a little
girl, Richard becomes involved in illegal firearms. TONYA BEASLEY: While my dad
was being this ideal father
00:08:08
from the outside, he
actually, at the time, was breaking and entering. He was illegally
selling weapons.
00:08:15
So it looks like he was
doing the right thing, but he kind of had a
double life in a sense too.
00:08:21
He was a father but also
a really good con man, even just from the start. TINA BEASLEY: Everything
was doing good
00:08:28
until they come to arrest him. At that time, I had to
have a hysterectomy. I got out of the surgery,
and there was no Rich.
00:08:41
No page from him,
no call from him. He just disappeared. They had raided our house, and
they even ripped up my couches,
00:09:01
looking for weapons. Oh, I was mad. TONYA BEASLEY: I do remember
being all dressed up
00:09:16
for the court date and having
to hug him and say bye, but I didn't realize what for.
00:09:24
It was more and more
real as I got older. TINA BEASLEY: I knew there was a
dark side, but not to the extent
00:09:37
that it turned out to be. EMMA DONALDSON: Richard Beasley
is behind bars for dealing drugs
00:09:51
and carrying illegal weapons. In 2003, he's released early,
and 12-year-old Tonya is unaware
00:09:59
her mother filed for divorce. TINA BEASLEY: We had a perfect
family life, for her sake.
00:10:05
We stayed together,
but we separated. He was very upset about it. Even to this day, Rich
still has not come
00:10:14
to terms that I divorced him. We still tried to be friends. It wasn't like it was before.
00:10:23
I just didn't trust him. EMMA DONALDSON: But
after his release, Richard Beasley swears
he's now a changed man.
00:10:30
JONI HOHNSTON: While
he is in prison during the seven-year stint,
Richard Beasley finds God.
00:10:36
He reads the Bible. He memorizes Bible verses. And when he gets out, he tells
his daughter and other people
00:10:45
that his life has changed
and he is going to spend, you know, the rest of his
life helping other people.
00:10:52
EMMA DONALDSON: Beasley
puts his newfound faith into action on Akron's streets. He becomes a self-styled
pastor and even earns
00:10:59
the nickname Chaplain Rich. TONYA BEASLEY: There
were all these people who had been down on their
luck their whole lives.
00:11:07
They'd been in and out of
prison their whole lives. And so he kind of was a
role model in the sense
00:11:12
that no matter how
many times you do fall, you can get back up. Not just the first
time you fall, not
00:11:18
just the second time you fall. It's almost like
an ebb and flow. And he showed people that.
00:11:24
JONI HOHNSTON: He
does, for a while, go out and minister
to other people. He goes to soup kitchens.
00:11:31
He volunteers his time. And the question I think
becomes, is this genuine? And so we don't know completely
with Richard Beasley.
00:11:40
EVERETTE PENN:
Opportunities still exist. When one is around vulnerable
people who are looking for help,
00:11:47
it can be very easy to hurt
them as they look for that help. So what comes first?
00:11:54
Trying to rehabilitate and
trying to be a different person? Or seeing that as an
opportunity to see people
00:12:01
who will need your help and then
you can take advantage of them? TINA BEASLEY: They were
driving, and I believe
00:12:14
he was hit by a dump truck. His truck rolled. It severed his Achilles
tendon, broke his sternum.
00:12:22
TONYA BEASLEY: Not only did
it affect his ability to work, but he also was
prescribed painkillers.
00:12:29
Ultimately, his accident led to
him being addicted to OxyContin. At the time, he was getting
into street ministry
00:12:37
with individuals who
were addicts, so I think there was that struggle. At one point, I don't think he
realized he was addicted to it.
00:12:54
After his accident, he
used part of his settlement to buy a house in Akron,
and it was in kind
00:12:59
of a rough neighborhood. So he helped the people
in the neighborhood, and through his ministry,
get back on their feet.
00:13:06
And he converted the
bottom into his apartment so he could monitor what
was going on in the rooms
00:13:10
and the housing upstairs. JONI HOHNSTON: And he
began to go to the courts, and he was vouching for people.
00:13:18
He is going on the streets. He's recruiting people. And people in town are thinking,
man, you know, Chaplain Rich
00:13:24
is a great, great guy. TONYA BEASLEY: When my dad
first got his halfway house, a lot of people were
donating furniture.
00:13:31
When he first got out of prison,
a lot of people donated stuff. So by the time he
finished setting up,
00:13:36
he had all this extra stuff. So he asked me to
make the Craigslist account so he could sell all of
these extra things that he had.
00:13:49
And of course, at the time,
Craigslist was the place to go to sell and buy stuff.
00:13:53
Also, at the time, that
was a leading technology, was a computer or a laptop. And so he had no idea of
how to use that stuff.
00:14:00
In the beginning, I
had to help him a lot. But then after that, he
learned and did it all himself.
00:14:16
So at first, it was just
men that lived in the house, and then it started
becoming here
00:14:21
and there, oh, well, there's
a woman that needs help. And when you start
mixing things like that,
00:14:26
it gets messy real quick. And that's when things
really started going south. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: He had
manipulated the system enough
00:14:39
to get some defendants sent to
him as part of their probation. So what he's doing here
is two different things.
00:14:45
He's trying to scam money from
the courts for this, you know, make-work halfway house.
00:14:51
But we also found out
is that, in doing so, he's trying to get
women who are drug
00:14:55
addicts into his
halfway house and trying to turn them into prostitutes. And around that time, he
started getting a little snappy.
00:15:04
Like, he would snap at me over
random things and not the kind person I know, which I know--
00:15:11
I knew at the time, when you're
on drugs, that's what happens. It affects your personality.
00:15:15
It almost felt like,
overnight, there was this great,
awesome dad, and then there was this hateful kind of
shell of the guy that I knew.
00:15:24
But to everybody
else, he was great. JONI HOHNSTON: There was some
psychological payoff for him,
00:15:30
this idea of, you know, kind
of getting off on other people, fooling other people.
00:15:36
There's a term called
duping delight. It's people who get
psychological satisfaction
00:15:43
from fooling other people. You know, Richard Beasley
was showing up at court and pretending to be
this wonderful person
00:15:50
and having this facade
in the community. It's hard not to believe,
as elaborate as it was,
00:15:55
that he wasn't getting
some kind of thrill or some kind of satisfaction
out of that part of it as well.
00:16:02
TINA BEASLEY: He pretended
to be a Christian. Going to burn in hell for that. Excuse me saying that.
00:16:09
But yeah, God
forgives, but I don't think that you can
be a man of God and run a prostitution and drug
ring out of your house either.
00:16:21
TONYA BEASLEY: At the time, I
was dating someone who was older than me, and I found out
that my dad had been using
00:16:28
him to sell pills and marijuana
in my hometown to people I know. That's when I completely
cut off contact.
00:16:41
EMMA DONALDSON: By
2011, Richard Beasley is under scrutiny by Akron
Police for sex trafficking.
00:16:48
His behavior is
deteriorating, and he's now a wanted man following
a probation violation.
00:16:55
Richard Beasley really
does feel like, I think, his back is up against the wall.
00:16:59
And one of the things he had
said on several occasions is he did not want
to go back to prison.
00:17:05
And so he began scheming. You know, OK, how am
I going to avoid this? I can't go on the run.
00:17:12
With my name and with
all my history, I can't-- I mean, that's
not going to work.
00:17:16
And so he comes up with
this horrendous scheme. I'm going to find somebody
who looks like me, who's
00:17:25
about the same age that I
am, somebody who is older, somebody who's
vulnerable, somebody
00:17:32
who isn't going to be missed. They don't have a
lot of family ties. If I can find that
person, I can just kill
00:17:40
them and assume their identity. EMMA DONALDSON: In
the summer of 2011, Beasley plans to lure potential
victims to him with an ad he's
00:17:50
placed on Craigslist,
and then he's going to kill them and steal
their identities to avoid
00:17:56
being captured by police. EVERETTE PENN: Look at the
situation and the desperateness
00:18:01
that some people may have. Here's a person that says,
there are people without work.
00:18:07
There are people
without opportunity. There are people addicted. There are people
involved in prostitution.
00:18:12
This is now starting
to come my way. Well, when Mr. Beasley
sets up this Craigslist ad,
00:18:17
he puts himself in
the position of power. He's the one who has the job,
so he can ask any questions
00:18:24
of any applicants. And so he can find out who's
local, who's not local, who has strong family ties, who
doesn't have strong family ties.
00:18:32
You know, it's not going to be
a coincidence that he winds up with several victims who don't
have a lot of close family ties.
00:18:39
TONYA BEASLEY: And he knew that
if these people had no one that would miss them and they brought
all their belongings for this
00:18:45
job, he'd be able to sell their
belongings-- there's the money-- steal their identities
because they had long hair
00:18:51
and looked like him--
there's the drugs. And then he had this huge plot
of land, wherever he was saying,
00:18:56
that provided him
a place to live. So at that point, in his
head, he was just trying
00:19:02
to survive and get his drugs. EMMA DONALDSON: Estranged from
his daughter and physically
00:19:07
unable to carry
out his plan alone, Richard Beasley
develops a closer bond with Brogan
Rafferty, the 16-year-old
00:19:14
son of a close friend. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH:
Our investigation showed that Brogan Rafferty's
dad was pretty high up
00:19:20
in a local club,
and we kind of think that's how those two, Mr.
Beasley and Mr. Rafferty
00:19:25
started to meet. I think that he
certainly, probably enjoyed the attention and the
love and the admiration
00:19:34
he got from this young child. TINA BEASLEY: He would
teach Brogan things. At first, it was about Christ
and church and everything
00:19:45
like that. Then it turned into mafia. And Brogan copied
Richard's dress. You know, wore the same leather
jacket, identical leather jacket
00:19:58
and jeans, same brand of jeans. And he just became
obsessed with Rich. EVERETTE PENN: 16-year-olds,
please don't be fooled, are
00:20:07
still in the formative stage. The brain is still forming. We call it the teen brain.
00:20:13
So perhaps that
16-year-old is looking for a definition
of life, looking for those materialistic goods.
00:20:20
The 50-year-old is
able to provide it. The 50-year-old is looking for a
person that has the youthfulness
00:20:26
to allow for some
of these criminal activities to take place. EMMA DONALDSON:
56-year-old Ralph Geiger,
00:20:32
who's now homeless
after losing his job running a construction
company, is the first
00:20:37
to answer Beasley's ad. I'm out of work. Here's an opportunity
for me to work. Here's an opportunity
for me to be on a farm.
00:20:44
And all I have to do
is answer this call, meet with this person. It's an aspect of
almost unfair play
00:20:53
that this would be
set up in this way, using technology like Craigslist
to lure men to find these jobs
00:21:00
and then find themselves
in horrific situations. JONI HOHNSTON: Ralph
becomes Richard
00:21:06
Beasley's avenue, in his mind,
to escape going back to prison. So he and Ralph
and Brogan meet up.
00:21:27
And they basically
get into the car, and they go out in the woods,
allegedly to this farm.
00:21:36
Richard makes up some ruse
to get Ralph out of the car, and they go through the woods.
00:21:45
Somehow Richard gets
behind Ralph Geiger, and Richard Beasley
just pulls out a gun
00:21:53
and shoots him in
the back of the head. TONYA BEASLEY: My dad was so
far into drug usage at the time.
00:22:06
He knew it was wrong, but
I don't think he could emotionally connect to it. When you're on drugs,
it's all about self gain.
00:22:13
What benefits you, what
helps you get your next high. And that's all he
was thinking about.
00:22:21
JONI HOHNSTON: Richard
now becomes Ralph Geiger. He asked people who knew
him to start calling
00:22:27
him Ralph, which
I can only imagine what they thought about that. He rents a room under
the name Ralph Geiger,
00:22:33
and it occurs to
Richard Beasley, a.k.a. Ralph Geiger at this point,
that, man, that was so easy.
00:22:42
Nobody's looking
for Ralph Geiger. I need money. My back hurts. I don't want to work.
00:22:47
So what if I do this
as my next career? I mean, this is really the
beginning of Richard Beasley,
00:22:55
the serial killer. EMMA DONALDSON: For two
months, Richard Beasley has been living under the
identity of Ralph Geiger,
00:23:09
a homeless man who Beasley
killed after responding to a Craigslist ad. Now he's looking for another
victim from the applicants
00:23:17
to his ad. JONI HOHNSTON: He is
looking for very, very specific, vulnerable victims--
00:23:23
lack of family
ties, middle aged, willing to go off the grid. And so he gets over 100
replies for this position.
00:23:38
EMMA DONALDSON:
Beasley agrees to meet 51-year-old David Pauley. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: So Mr.
Pauley is coming from Norfolk,
00:23:44
Virginia, which is almost a
10-hour drive from Akron, Ohio. He's not coming here just
to find out about a job.
00:23:50
He packed up his U-Haul and
moved all of his possessions here, so he was coming here
with the intention to stay
00:23:54
here and make a new life here. And I think that Mr. Pauley
being willing and able to leave
00:24:00
Norfolk, Virginia, and drive
10 hours for a promise of a job or the possibility of a job
shows how desperate Mr. Pauley
00:24:07
was at the time and,
frankly, how a lot of people were at the time. EVERETTE PENN: Can you
imagine the helplessness
00:24:13
and the hopelessness
that exists in someone responding to that, thinking
that this is a new start?
00:24:19
Again, the
vulnerabilities of people lending them to take down
their guard a step or two.
00:24:26
ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: He starts
hearing from these victims and luring them to Ohio.
00:24:30
Some of the questions he's
asking are, do you have meds? Clearly, drugs is a through
line through all of this.
00:24:35
So the motive was
him stealing identities and trying to get money
and drugs while not
00:24:42
getting caught by the police. He was so numb to
what he was doing, he didn't grasp the concept
of another human life.
00:24:55
JONI HOHNSTON: So David
Pauley is beside himself. He packs all of his stuff up. He drives all the way to Ohio.
00:25:04
He meets with the person
who he thinks is named Jack. Jack's "nephew," Brogan,
is also with him.
00:25:15
And once again, he
does the same ruse. He convinces David to
go out into the woods.
00:25:23
They go for a walk. Richard Beasley gets
behind him and shoots him in the back of the head.
00:25:31
What struck me was how much
psychological payoff there seemed to be for Richard
Beasley in running the schemes
00:25:39
and duping the
people around him. And I think that motive was
extremely powerful to him
00:25:45
and probably more
powerful to him than he even realized
or would acknowledge. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: We
see a lot of time pass
00:25:51
between that first victim, Mr.
Geiger, and that second victim, Mr. Pauley. But given that the
time had passed
00:25:57
and still nothing happened,
they're even more emboldened. They're not going
to wait this time.
00:26:00
They're going to move
faster this time. And that's exactly
what they did. EMMA DONALDSON: Less
than three weeks later,
00:26:05
50-year-old Scott Davis is on
his way to meet Richard Beasley. Scott Davis was
from South Carolina,
00:26:11
but he was living locally with
his mom in Massillon, Ohio. So that's about 40
minutes from Akron.
00:26:15
But like everyone else,
he was also kind of down on his luck at this time. So this is how he comes
into Mr. Beasley's orbit.
00:26:21
Mr. Beasley is still relying
on that same Craigslist ad. He's still getting people
interested in that job,
00:26:26
and he's still going
back to that same ad and going to the same pool
of victims to pick from.
00:26:36
So what we find is, Mr. Beasley
lures Mr. Davis to a restaurant, just like he did Mr. Pauley.
00:26:41
They have their meal
there, and he takes him to the same secluded wooded
area with every intention
00:26:47
of killing Mr. Davis, just
like he killed Mr. Pauley. And so, once again, Richard
Beasley pulls out the gun,
00:26:57
points it at Scott's head,
and it doesn't go off. There's a click. And Scott turns around
and sees this gun.
00:27:09
Now, Richard
Beasley fires again, and this time he doesn't miss. And he hits Scott
in the elbow, which
00:27:15
is a pretty serious injury. But Scott absolutely takes off,
and he is running for his life.
00:27:22
And Richard Beasley
is looking everywhere, and so is Brogan Rafferty. And Scott Davis is running,
just losing blood as he goes.
00:27:31
He ends up hiding in this creek
bed for, like, seven hours, losing blood this entire time.
00:27:42
After seven hours, it's freezing
outside and he's losing blood, this man gets up
and walks 7 miles
00:27:52
to a house, where he knocks on
the door, and people open it. And there's this
man covered in blood
00:28:00
who tells them this horrendous
story, and they call 911. MAN (ON PHONE): We
just had a gentleman
00:28:06
come up to our front door. He claims he's been shot. He's got some blood on him.
00:28:11
What's your name, sir? SCOTT DAVIS: Scott Davis. MAN (ON PHONE): Scott Davis. EMMA DONALDSON: Scott Davis is
rescued, treated for his wounds
00:28:19
and questioned by police. JONI HOHNSTON: At this point,
Richard Beasley has become not
00:29:18
only desperate but reckless. He's realizing that the
gig is about to be up. EMMA DONALDSON: Before
authorities begin
00:29:26
to track down
Beasley and Rafferty, they're luring another victim. This time, they
picked Timothy Kern,
00:29:35
an unemployed father
of a teenage son from Massillon, Ohio. Timothy's son drives him to
an interview with Beasley
00:29:42
and Rafferty at a Waffle House. A few days later, Beasley
confirms Tim has got the job,
00:29:48
so he heads back. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: They lure
Mr. Kern through the same thing. They sit down.
00:29:54
They have a meal, and
they're going to go take him to this advertised wooded area.
00:29:57
They have to go to
a different place after what happened
to Mr Davis, but they find another wooded
area to do this in.
00:30:02
They start taking him
to this wooded area, and they shoot him four times. Mr Kern didn't die at the
first shot to the head,
00:30:11
and he kept breathing. And it was a cold-blooded,
calculated murder-- four times shot.
00:30:17
JONI HOHNSTON: He literally
has $5 in his pocket. To me, again, it's an
indication that while money
00:30:27
may have been part of
that entire scheme, it wasn't everything. I think Richard was
angry as a person.
00:30:36
I think he was desperate. I think he saw what
was going to happen, and I think he was
just-- he didn't care.
00:30:42
I don't think he cared
at all about his victim. And maybe he never did. But he chose, at that moment,
to go ahead and kill him.
00:30:50
EVERETTE PENN: This
is the question that occurs right
about this time is, after you've committed two,
three of these heinous acts,
00:30:57
is it something that you're
doing to fulfill a need? Or is it something that
you've gotten very good at?
00:31:02
Whatever is the
answer there, we still have to deal with
there are people who will do these heinous crimes.
00:31:08
And it takes outstanding police
work and also the general public being out there, willing
to be the persons
00:31:16
to report activities that may
be suspicious or in question. EMMA DONALDSON: The
sister of David Pauley,
00:31:23
Beasley's second victim,
is one such person. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH:
Mr. Pauley actually
00:31:28
had a sister who
lived up in Maine, and he told his sister
what he was doing. He told her that he had
found an ad on Craigslist.
00:31:34
He'd found a job in Ohio and
that's where he was going to go. So fortunately, in
this case, his sister
00:31:39
is aware and can contact
authorities and alert people that his
brother's gone missing.
00:32:18
EMMA DONALDSON: At the
same time, as police start investigating the
disappearance of David Pauley,
00:32:23
authorities are getting
closer to Beasley, thanks to details from Scott Davis. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: Now we
have Mr. Davis also saying
00:32:31
that he responded
to a Craigslist ad, and once you kind
of compare that with what Mr. Pauley's sister
is telling authorities,
00:32:37
that's when the pieces
start to fall in place. So once they have that
Craigslist ad that's been up,
00:32:44
they're starting to be able to
investigate where that ad came from, what IP address was used.
00:32:51
It's finding out that the
computer and IP address was in Akron, Ohio, in the
basement of a gentleman's home
00:32:58
where Mr. Beasley
was renting a room. So now we are on to Mr. Beasley
as a suspect in this case.
00:33:05
EMMA DONALDSON: Investigators
visit the restaurant where Beasley met Scott Davis.
00:33:10
We were able to look at
the video at the restaurant where they had,
and that's where we
00:33:15
get the picture of Brogan
Rafferty and Richard Beasley coming to meet Mr. Davis.
00:33:20
That's the video that ultimately
leads the case to break open. And initially, Brogan
Rafferty says, I don't
00:33:54
know what you're talking about. I don't have anything
to do with this. But he's 16 years old,
and so he confesses.
00:34:24
And in talking to him, they're
able to get a lot more details, not only of the murders, but
where all the bodies are buried.
00:34:57
We get a full account of
everything that happened and where every body was buried.
00:35:01
EMMA DONALDSON: Police also
find what they call a killing kit at Rafferty's home.
00:35:06
They now hope to find Beasley
before he can kill again. 16-year-old Brogan Rafferty
has confessed to taking part
00:35:22
in the murder of Ralph Geiger. But police are yet
to find suspected serial killer, Richard
Beasley, or establish
00:35:29
any alias he's using. TONYA BEASLEY: I was
working at fast food, and this guy comes
up to the counter.
00:35:35
And I'm thinking
he's going to order food per usual, normal day. And he flashes his badge,
says he's with the FBI
00:35:41
and wants to talk
to me about my dad. Definitely red flags
going off in my brain.
00:35:45
But at the same time, I knew
he would get caught eventually. But I thought it was weird
that it was by the FBI and not,
00:35:51
you know, Akron
Police Department. So he pulled me aside. We started talking. He asked me if my dad had land
anywhere, if there's anywhere
00:36:01
he could be hiding out. So then I'm like, oh,
they didn't catch him. That's weird.
00:36:06
I guess they're still
trying to find him. Why are they talking to me? I haven't talked
to him in forever.
00:36:10
I did know there were a couple
of places he had talked about, about his friend having land.
00:36:15
And then he had me
identify pictures of him, but also Brogan,
which was weird. I'm like, where does Brogan
come into play of all of this?
00:36:24
So I identified the pictures,
and then he got a call and was discussing with someone
that they found another body.
00:36:32
And I'm like, this probably
pertains to my dad. So he came back, and I
asked him, I was like,
00:36:39
was that call about my dad? I know you aren't
supposed to give details, but, like, what's going on.
00:36:44
Because I heard it, now I know. And that's when he
confirmed that they were looking for bodies of
people my dad had killed.
00:36:59
In that moment, I kind of froze,
and I didn't feel anything. My heart dropped,
and I felt this hole.
00:37:06
But at the time, I don't
think my teenage mind could really process it. It was almost like my
whole dream and idea of him
00:37:15
came crashing down at once, and
I was feeling so many emotions, I couldn't even decipher them.
00:37:22
Basically this black
hole of despair sucked in all my emotions,
and it was like time froze.
00:37:29
And it-- I just was broken and-- It wasn't just open-ended. Like, he killed people.
00:37:50
This was it. Like, he's done. You know, it's something major. And it hit me really hard.
00:37:59
I was just
totally taken aback. Anything they could
have told me Rich done, I would have never
have thought that.
00:38:08
EMMA DONALDSON: Richard Beasley
is charged on multiple counts of aggravated murder,
attempted murder, kidnapping,
00:38:15
and aggravated robbery. It's rough. It is. Knowing I married a
man that became that.
00:38:24
I never would have
thought that of Rich. I still can't believe when
they call him a serial killer--
00:38:32
that I have so
many good memories, and my daughter has
so many good memories, and that he can just
throw it all away.
00:38:47
ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: When we
looked into Brogan at the time, because we're trying to find out
how does this 16-year-old, 15-,
00:38:53
16-year-old kid get involved
with this, you know, our Bureau of
Criminal Investigation
00:38:57
investigators looked into
his computer history. And what we find
is someone who is
00:39:02
obsessed with mafia lifestyle. He's obsessed with crime. And you can see
someone who is clearly
00:39:07
trying to emulate that
lifestyle, be a heavy, be a tough guy. And so we find that
these two people meet,
00:39:14
and they wind up being
a perfect match to carry out these awful, awful crimes. JONI HOHNSTON: I don't think
that Richard knew when he first
00:39:21
met Brogan Rafferty that he
was going to use him to commit murders down the road.
00:39:27
Rich was involved
in taking Brogan to church on many,
many occasions, and he became like
a substitute father.
00:39:34
I also would imagine that
part of that grooming process was exposing him a little at
a time to criminal activity
00:39:43
so that Brogan becomes
desensitized to that. And I think it's very easy
to underestimate the power
00:39:52
an adult can have over a child. When you look at his age and you
look at his life circumstances,
00:40:01
he was somebody who was
absolutely ripe for the picking in terms of Richard Beasley.
00:40:08
EMMA DONALDSON: Brogan
agrees to lead police to the burial sites
of Ralph Geiger,
00:40:12
David Pauley, and Timothy Kern. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: We found
the first two victims in Noble
00:40:17
County in Caldwell, Ohio. That was the field
and wooded area where Mr. Beasley
and Mr. Rafferty were
00:40:22
taking their victims to start. We found the first two victims
there in shallow graves.
00:40:27
But because Mr. Davis
got away and they had to switch up their method
and went to a new place here,
00:40:32
we found Mr. Kern near
Rolling Acres Mall. Mr. Davis getting away is
probably the only reason
00:40:40
we broke this case. If Mr. Davis
doesn't get away, we don't know how many more
victims Mr. Beasley and Mr.
00:40:45
Rafferty would have killed. EMMA DONALDSON: Brogan
Rafferty is offered a deal that
00:40:50
will allow him parole after
a significant jail term, but he refuses to
turn on Beasley
00:40:56
and is sentenced to life without
the possibility of parole. This relationship
was so strong
00:41:03
that Brogan sacrifices his
freedom for the sake of Beasley. JONI HOHNSTON: I do think that
Richard Beasley, and maybe
00:41:34
to a lesser extent,
Brogan Rafferty, got a thrill out of these
fantasies of their schemes
00:41:42
that they're putting on and how
they were these kind of master criminals in this elaborate
plot and, you know,
00:41:50
they're the ones who are
deciding who lives and dies. And so when you look at that, I
think it isn't that surprising
00:41:59
that he would be interested in
the mafia, who does kind of pick and choose who's
going to live and die.
00:42:04
So I think this kind of
anti-hero thing he's got built up in his head is really
consistent with all
00:42:11
the time he takes concocting
this scheme and carrying it out. EMMA DONALDSON: In March
2013, Richard Beasley
00:42:20
is sentenced to death. To this day, he
maintains his innocence. TINA BEASLEY: In Rich's eyes,
he'd done nothing wrong.
00:42:28
He feels no remorse. He's a typical sociopath. He has never taken
responsibility for anything
00:42:36
in his life. There's no question
Richard Beasley was looking to take advantage of people,
and there's no question too,
00:42:42
given the viciousness and
calculation in these crimes, he had been plotting for
a while how he was going
00:42:48
to take advantage of people. So it's not a surprise
to see that he had tried several different ways to
put himself around people who
00:42:56
were vulnerable and
could be taken advantage of by his manipulation. TONYA BEASLEY: It's
that victim mentality.
00:43:03
He blames it on everyone else. He constantly writes notes to
the newspapers and everything,
00:43:09
stating that the
system is corrupt and this is what
really happened. And I've tried to confront
him about it, even in person.
00:43:21
But then I got to
the point where I was able to separate myself
from it, but not as a trauma
00:43:28
response, but because
finally I had, all this time period,
had finally healed and I was able to move forward.
00:43:36
And the first time I
went public with my story was when that happened. Because I realized, I'm my own
person who can tell this story.
00:43:44
This happened to me,
but I am not this. My dad happens to
be a serial killer, and despite whether he says
he's innocent or he does this,
00:43:56
it just doesn't
affect me anymore. [theme music]