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Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever
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you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me as always is a man that is now
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known for kicking clowns in the junk. He is the captain. It's good to be seen and it's good to
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see you. Ah, today captain, we are drinking Kesler Trail Ale by the fine folks at
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Apple [music] Blossom Brewing Company in Fagetville, Arkansas. Garage Grade 3 and
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3/4 bottle caps out of five. Check out this Belgian blonde ale. It is crisp and refreshing. The imported Belgian Pzner
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and American pale malt create a delightful fusion of crisp light malt flavors. Get yourself some malt liquor.
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And Kesler Trail Ae was brought to us by these fine folks. First up, we have a big thank you to go out to Nicole and
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beautiful Parts Unknown. >> Like your jam. >> Also in Parts Unknown, possible neighbors of Nicole's, we have [music]
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Stephanie, Christy, and Miston. >> Yeah, but I think they're just in lot number 42, which are [music] tents. And
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I think uh Nicole is in actual garage and it's covered in canoes. Next up, we have Tony in Crown Point, Indiana. We've
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been getting a lot of love from the Crown Point area lately. That's because the captain used to be the mayor of
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Crown Point, but he was quickly impeached and run out of town due to Ice Town. Disgraced his whole family.
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And a big we like your jib to Laura in Atlanta, Georgia. >> Next up, we have Shannon and Pacin,
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Utah. And last but not least, a thank you to [music] Amy in Grand Junction, Colorado. So, thank you to everybody for
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Thanks for telling a friend. And that's enough of the business. >> All right, everybody, gather around,
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grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some True Crime. [music] >> [music] >> All right, before we get too deep into
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this thing here, Captain, I want to go through a few notes regarding, well, let's call them updates regarding some
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of the characters that we have spoke of yesterday and last week. Um, you know, we did cover a lot of ground over the
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last three shows. A lot to talk about with the boys on the tracks here. And yesterday, you know, with all those
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mysterious deaths and misdealings going on, we kind of a little bit all over the
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place, but we had to do them in an order that made sense to us as far as the way
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these people were dying and when they were dying off. Um, but yesterday, we did fail to mention that one more of the
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eyewitnesses, the night that the boys were on the tracks, uh, is dead as well. Uh, this is Tom Newhouse. Uh, he was the
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guy, remember the boy that was in the bushes? He was out with friends, claimed that he was looking for marijuana plants
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and happened to see teenagers on the tracks with several men. Uh, one of those men he identified as Dan Harmon.
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And he knew Dan Harmon because Dan Harmon at one time had dated his mother. So very obvious that he would be able to
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uh identify him. Well, he one thing that we didn't talk about, you know, because
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he didn't come forward until 1993. And there there are some questions, you know, how legit is this story? You know,
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he comes forward 6 years after the fact. >> Well, when he comes forward with this
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story, now at the time, the local investigators didn't put a whole lot of weight into his story. So, the FBI
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brings in Tom New House and they so they conduct two lie detector tests with him
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and he passes both of them uh to the point where they want to put him in the witness protection program. and they
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actually do so. And that's why you find that when you look early back in this case and you're trying to investigate
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what's going on, his name is actually not not submitted in a lot of those reports because he was in the witness
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protection program. At some point, he decides that he no longer wants to participate in that program, but he
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stands by what he saw that night and his account of what he saw that night. Um, unfortunately I He's currently deceased
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and I I'm not aware. I couldn't figure out how he died. I'm guessing it might be natural causes because obviously with
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all these other mysterious deaths, we have some reporting on those situations. >> Let's discuss some of the key characters
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that weren't murdered. >> Uh, well, we have Charlene Wilson. Um, remember we had said she's the
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eyewitness to Harmon being at the tracks as well. Remember we said she was locked
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up. this was probably a method to hush her up. Uh the details of that are she was convicted of a firsttime drug
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offense. And because she was prosecuted by Dan Harmon, she received a 31-year sentence, which absolutely seems very
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ridiculous to me for a first time drug offense. But anyway, in 1999, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabe, um, he ended up
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reducing her sentence, uh, which did make her el eligible for parole, which she was then granted. So, she's she's
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since been out of prison for that extremely long sentence that she received from Dan Harmon.
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>> So, they corrected the situation >> as best that they could. As for public enemy number one, Dan Harmon, uh, in
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June 1st of 1997, the former prosecuting attorney Dan Harmon was found guilty of
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five of 11 federal felony charges, >> including racketeering by he he used his office to get drugs and money. Right.
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>> Uh so this is one racketeering conviction as well as a guilt as guilty verdicts on three counts of extortion
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and one count of possession with the intent to distribute marijuana. >> And just quickly, I mean, this this is
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key evidence to back up everything that most people are speculating about this Boys on the Track case.
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>> Yeah. And and to further that thought, uh the Ives family and the Henry family,
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they both said that they've kind of reduced themselves to believing that they're never really going to get
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justice for their sons. >> Yeah. Which is sad. But but they believe that Dan Harmon being convicted of other
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nefarious activity that this kind of it vindicates them a little bit and it it it for them it at least backs up their
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beliefs and all their hard work that they've done trying to push their son's cases going forward.
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>> Yeah. Cuz he ended up going to jail for a couple years and then he was released
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and then he actually went back to jail. Well, so, so on that first charge, on that first bout of charges, he got, I
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believe, a 10-year sentence on those charges. Uh, but you're right, he he serves his jail time, he gets released,
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and then a few years after that, he does get arrested again. In February 19th, 2010, he is arrested on felony drug
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charges. But we do have to be fair here, Captain. The state's case in this situation was pretty weak. This was
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really a he said she said type of case looking for a conviction strictly where your only evidence is the testimony of
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an admitted drug addict. Uh she claimed that she had bought drugs from Dan Harmon. He was acquitted of those
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charges by a jury of his peers. >> Well, it seems like there's a little more to that story.
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>> Do you want to hear some of the details regarding those indictments against Dan
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Harmon from the first bount of charges? because I don't mind spending a couple minutes to rub his face in the mud a
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little bit here. Uh, according to one indictment, uh, Dval and Harmon, uh, Dval was his wife at the time, they had
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broke into the task force evidence locker and stole cocaine. Uh, so that was that's one of the details there. Uh,
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and another one of the acts, um, listed as retaliation against a witness. This deals
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>> Oh, really? >> Yeah. This deals with Harmon's May 1996 assault on Arkansas Democrat Gazette
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Benton Bureau Chief Rodney Bowers. >> Right. So Bowowers is basically a reporter and he's reporting all the bad
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[ __ ] that Harmon's doing and then it pisses Harmon off. So he attacks him. >> Yeah. Yeah. He he goes up to Harmon
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trying to get a comment for an article and Harmon physically attacks the reporter.
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>> Right. And we've we've heard this multiple times with these investigators claiming, "Hey, we started digging into
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some stuff with, you know, Don Henry's case and uh Kevin Ives case." And right when we started doing that, guess who
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starts making threats? >> Mhm. >> I mean, Dan Harmon was a I believe a cokehead and a and a real real
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douchebag. Well, in another incident described in the indictment, a woman named Tina Davis traveled to Arkansas
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from Indiana to deliver $10,000 to her husband, who had been arrested in Sailing County on marijuana charges.
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When she arrived, the indictment says Harmon advised Davis that her husband would not be released unless she went
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and got more money. The husband was then later released for $10,000 and the couple was forced to sign a disclaimer
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saying that the two had been arrested with the money in hand and they had no claim to it.
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>> See, I mean, that that stuff is just so shady. >> Well, in another extortion case, an
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indictment alleges that Harmon took money for releasing defendants from custody or reducing the charges that
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they faced in state drug cases. Uh, I think I think the Arkansas Times summed it up the best when they they had this
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and and quote, "It is hard to imagine how much damage Dan Harmon did during the years he held office as prosecutor.
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Cases that should have been prosecuted were not. Cases that should not have been prosecuted, no doubt, were." I
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think they summed it up best. >> Well, so we have Harmon, which like I said is a douchebag, but now we have his
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partner Garrett. >> Yes. his sidekick, Richard Garrett, the attorney that pushed for Harmon to
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become the special appointed prosecutor. Well, some years after the Kevin Ives and Don Henry murders, uh, Garrett sold
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his home and he moved away. >> Well, sometime after the new homeowner had been living there for some time, he
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discovered a secret room in the basement that contained what he believed to be a
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drug lab. The new homeowner reported this to the local sheriff's office and he was told to take the items to the
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local dump and just get rid of them. Uh he explains to the sheriff that he didn't want to have these items in his
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vehicle and potentially get pulled over with, you know, drugrelated items in his
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car. And so the sheriff's office offered to escort him to the the dump to get rid
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of these things. Now, at the time, that homeowner was unaware of who the previous homeowner was, right? You know,
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he didn't know about the murder case. He wasn't from around there, and he didn't
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know Richard Garrett's involvement in this actual case. >> Yeah, I haven't heard from this guy in a
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while. I mean, >> I call, I write, he never returns my calls. Uh, what's going on with my good
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buddy Fami? >> Well, yeah, Fami Malik, the medical examiner that deserves to have been
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locked up in my opinion. Uh >> they should have shot him in the kneecaps, >> but instead in 1991 uh Dr. Malik was
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promoted. He he got a new job. Congratulations. >> Good for you. >> And uh he was promoted to become a
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consultant for the Arkansas Health Department. So um apparently when you're just horrible at your job and you you
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lie and perjure yourself in trials, then I guess you can just uh get promoted time and time again. So, one needs to
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start asking themselves a question. How does all this stuff go down in such a small county in Arkansas, right?
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>> Mhm. >> Well, this is all connected to an airport. >> Yes. Yeah. So, let's talk about a small
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place in western Arkansas called Mina. It's about 160 mi west of Little Rock. It's a tiny town that has been the local
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for persistent reports of drug smuggling, gun running, and money laundering. Mhm.
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>> There's been a number of allegations that have been made about the use of Mina, which is the Inter Mountain
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Municipal Airport, as a CIA drop point in large-scale cocaine trafficking. Uh this beginning in the 1980s, several
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local, state, and federal investigations have taken place in relation to these allegations.
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>> Yeah. And a lot of people believe that these operations were set up by the Reagan administration.
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>> Yeah. The topic has received some press coverage uh and these include allegations of awareness, participation,
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or maybe even a cover up involving prominent figures such as Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George HW Bush, and of
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course, Saline County prosecutor Dan Harmon. >> This is where another name comes to
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light. Barry Seal. >> Yes, Barry Seal was a name that we mentioned yesterday. He was a gun
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runner, drug trafficker, and covert CIA operative. Mhm. >> He was murdered in a hail of bullets by
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the Medelan cartel hitmen outside of a Salvation Army shelter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Um, a lot of the stuff that
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started in Mina started in the 80s. Uh, this was when Seal based his aircraft at
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Mina's Inter Mountain Regional Airport. >> Mhm. Seal was employed by the Medelan
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cartel as a pilot and drug smuggler. He transported numerous shipments of cocaine from Colombia to the United
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States and earned a good deal of coin doing so. After successful runs into his home base in Louisiana, he moved
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operations to the infamous airport facility Amina, Arkansas. There he bought, sold, and operated many
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airplanes. This included the C123 transport plane supplied to him by the US Drug Enforce Enforcement Agency.
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>> Right? So, let's get this straight. He's working for the CIA. >> Mhm. >> He's also working for a drug cartel.
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>> Yes. >> So, he's he's playing both sides of the fence. >> Yeah. He's doing double duty. And And I
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tell you what, we you know, you can look into this thing. It this is this portion
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of of what's going on in Arkansas is very cumbersome. >> It's extremely cumbersome. If you if you
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there's things out there that you can watch, you can listen, you can read about. Uh it's pretty well reported even
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though a lot of people say, "I've never heard of this." But like we said yesterday, people in Arkansas have known
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about this for 30 years, >> right? >> Um it's come up, it came up in the late 80s quite a bit in the national news and
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it came up again in the early 90s. This would be when Clinton was taking over, moving into the White House. Um, but
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both times it comes up in the national news, it kind of quickly dies down and and attention is diverted elsewhere to
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other scandals and other other news that's receiving more attention at the time,
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>> which normally happens when our government's involved. >> Yeah. So, you know, I think I think the
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thing here is we can we can break down the generalization of what was going on. >> So, so this guy Barry Seal is he's
00:16:30
running drugs. He's flying drugs into the US and making a whole bunch of money doing so,
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>> right? >> He gets busted. Okay, they catch on to what he's doing. And he goes to the DEA
00:16:43
and to the CIA and says, "Look, you know, I've been doing this successful for quite some time. How about I turn on
00:16:49
some of these people that I'm working for? I'll testify against them and I could I could go to work for you guys,
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>> right?" >> And they're like, "Okay, cool." you know, and they go to the judge and they
00:17:00
basically say, "Look, he's willing to work with us. He's willing to work with the federal government and help us in
00:17:05
some things that we need help with." So, they reduce his sentence and eventually
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he does go to work for these people. Um, and now, you know, there are people out
00:17:14
there that are going to say, "No, he never worked for them." Well, I can tell you this, that after he died, the IRS
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went after a lot of money they believe he had, right? They wanted, listen to this number, they wanted to charge him
00:17:27
$86 million in back taxes. >> Yes. >> That's a that's a that's a whole that's a whole lot of rolling papers.
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>> That's a lot of drugs he was transporting. >> Yeah. Somebody estimated that he may
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have moved anywhere between three and five billion dollars of cocaine into this country.
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>> Well, basically he was the drug version of Frank Abanale. And for those who don't know how Frank Abanale is, they
00:17:51
might have seen the movie Catch Me If You Can. It was a guy that was doing a bunch of bank fraud and instead of just,
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you know, sending him to jail, there said, "Hey, why don't you come work for us,
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>> you'll be basically on, I think, lifetime probation, basically, >> right?" So, what happens here is the
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>> That's Frank Abanale, not Abanali. >> So, after he's busted, he's now working
00:18:13
for the CIA. And the CIA wants to there's a there's a civil war going on in in Central America at the time. And
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basically our government figured out that okay, team A is the good guys and team B is
00:18:29
the bad guys. So we want to help team A win this civil war because it will benefit us. Well, our Congress and the
00:18:37
American >> Right. But hold on. But that doesn't make them the good team. It just makes
00:18:41
the team that we're going to use. >> No, no, no. I'm just saying what the thinking was at the time. It's not
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definitive who was the good guy or the bad guy. What I'm saying is that our Congress and the American people said,
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"No, we're not going to get involved in this. We're not going to help either side." Well, basically, our government
00:18:56
said, "You know what? We're going to we're going to in the interest of national security, we're going to help
00:19:02
this one side anyway." And so, they are running guns and running parts of guns to this country. and they employ
00:19:10
somebody like Barry Seal to do so because he has this big plane that he's running out of the Mina airport and he's
00:19:18
this is a C123. It basically looks like an army cargo plane, you know, one of those big heavy planes.
00:19:26
>> Now, he had made modifications to the planes that he was running so that he could travel extended distances without
00:19:33
stopping for more fuel. He's basically rigging up these planes, >> right? Um, which is not cheap to do. So,
00:19:39
I'll tell you that. The thing is here, he he I kind of found this funny. He nicknamed his plane the fat lady. Uh, so
00:19:47
he was basically flying guns to or parts of guns to Nicaragua. >> Mhm. >> And well, he has to fly back home,
00:19:56
right? But why would you why waste the whole empty plane? You don't want to have a big empty plane when you're
00:20:01
flying all the way back home on the government's dime, do you? Right. So, so he's taking the free ride back and he's
00:20:06
loading up the plane with drugs and bringing them back into the country and making a whole bunch of money. Barry
00:20:11
Seal was not the only guy doing this. There were other people doing this. There were other people that were
00:20:18
working for the CIA in the MINA area doing different things regarding uh CI CIA operations, right?
00:20:26
>> That were kept on the lowown. Now, it's been reported by by at least one pilot
00:20:33
that he believed that there were multiple pilots that were not bringing back empty planes into the United States
00:20:39
and they were bringing drugs into the states. >> Yeah, it seems like these pilots saw an
00:20:44
opportunity and they took it to make a little extra cash. >> Yeah, you have I mean, you have some
00:20:48
people saying that we we the US government may have been trading guns for drugs. Uh, you know, there's
00:20:57
certainly been investigations that have brought forth some speculation of such. I I can't say that I saw enough evidence
00:21:04
out there to say that that's what was going on. Um, but I what I think here is probably more likely is that you had a
00:21:12
few people taking advantage of a situation and trying to make themselves millionaires out of something that they
00:21:17
were doing for the government. >> Yeah. And oddly enough, this is the time in history where the Reagan
00:21:23
administration is going it's it's a war on drugs. >> Mhm. >> Right. And but but our government is the
00:21:30
one bringing the drugs into the country >> possibly if you believe the speculation.
00:21:34
this whole thing. Of course, you know, anytime you have these controversies or things that are brought to light that's
00:21:40
going on that we may not be aware of or we're told is not happening, >> you know, of course, this does always
00:21:47
create a lot of fingerpointing. So, in this situation, you have the Republicans pointing toward Bill Clinton and saying,
00:21:55
you know what, this happened at a facility in your jurisdiction. Uh, how could you let this happen? and you're a
00:22:02
terrible, terrible person. And then you have the Democrats saying the same about
00:22:06
the Republicans going, you know what? Well, this happened during the Reagan administration, right?
00:22:11
>> And it was the this operation by the CIA CIA was the brainchild of George Bush.
00:22:18
>> And so therefore, the Republicans are horrible people. In the end, you know, that
00:22:23
fingerpointing doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't do anything to solve the actual problem.
00:22:29
Furthermore, you we had investigations going down regarding this situation. The problem was that these investigations
00:22:37
couldn't get anywhere because when they tried to approach it from the federal level, well, the federal government
00:22:42
basically said it's an Arkansas problem. And then when you try to go to the state
00:22:46
level and present it to the governor to to Bill Clinton, then he says, "No, this
00:22:51
is a federal case." you know, so it's not only is there finger pointing both ways as far as uh as far as different
00:22:58
politics goes, but also passing the blame at the end of the day. >> Well, and I called Bill Clinton
00:23:04
yesterday. I called it I don't know if I called him a [ __ ] stain, but there there's a lot look, a lot of my feelings
00:23:11
towards him are based on other information about other cases that I've researched. So that's why I believe he's
00:23:18
a [ __ ] stain. Um, and as far as the Reagan and the war on drugs, it wasn't a war on drugs. This it was a war on inner
00:23:26
city black people is what it was. And that's all I got to say about that. Well, it this sounds like a lot of stuff
00:23:33
that, you know, that we're just kind of throwing out there, but that's not the case at all. Uh, you know, like I said,
00:23:39
there's been investigations done on this. There were several uh newspapers and magazines covering this in the 80s
00:23:45
and the early 90s. It didn't really go anywhere, but we know how these things kind of get swept under the rug. The
00:23:51
situation here though is, you know, we know that Barry Seal was by his own admissions was was bringing drugs into
00:24:01
the country. He he even kind of bragged about how much money he was making doing
00:24:06
this. Now, I'm going to say this is this is going to sound a little weird, but Barry Seal, I don't I don't know if if
00:24:13
many people know who he is, um, but there are you can find interviews and things with him on on the internet. He's
00:24:21
to me, he's one of those guys, you know, when you when you're watching a movie and there's like for some reason there's
00:24:27
a villain that you're kind of like secretly pulling for a little bit. You know what I mean? Like you kind of like
00:24:33
the villain a little bit. Um, I I think Barry Seal was a bad dude. I think he he
00:24:39
took advantage of a lot of people in a lot of situations. Um, I think he did it solely for uh for financial reasons,
00:24:47
>> right? >> Uh, the thing is though, he's one of these kind of charismatic guys. you
00:24:52
know, there's a there's an interview he was doing where he's talking about himself and he says, you know, you know,
00:24:58
I grew up in Baton Rouge and maybe for a lot of people uh an exciting life for them is is working 9 to5, going to the
00:25:06
the LSU football game on Saturday night and then waking up going to church on Sunday. Maybe that works for other
00:25:13
people. He says, you know, that's not exciting to me. He's exciting to me is putting myself in potentially
00:25:20
life-threatening situations over and over again. Well, but we know, Captain, you know, sometimes people go into the
00:25:26
field of being a pilot because they enjoy the adrenaline of it. They're adrenaline junkies,
00:25:32
>> right? But become a firefighter, become a police officer, become a a soldier,
00:25:36
become a Navy Seal and do something productive with your life. But what you were, my friend, was somebody that was
00:25:42
greedy about money and you decided to take advantage of the system on both sides of the fence and then you're
00:25:48
running drugs and how many murders took place because of those drugs, >> right? You're exactly
00:25:54
>> and so Yeah. So you, my friend, are a [ __ ] stain. >> Well, and the thing with Seal here is we
00:26:00
know that this happened and and I can point to why we know that it happened because remember we talked about the CIA
00:26:07
investigation. I'm sorry, the IRS investigation into Barry Seal wanting to charge him after he died for all these
00:26:14
back taxes. >> Well, the CIA and the DEA did come forward to the IRS and said, you know
00:26:20
what? Well, you can't charge him for these blocks of time because he was working for us during that time, right?
00:26:26
>> So, so you can't charge him for back taxes regarding that. >> Okay. So, what does all this mean? Well,
00:26:32
here's what it means. Is that not far from where the boys were, right? Let's get back to the boys. Not far from them
00:26:40
is is this Mena airport where drugs were coming into drugs and guns were coming into. And the reports of planes stopping
00:26:48
short of the airport, landing by the train tracks, making drops. That all happened with Dan Harmon. What happens
00:26:56
with Dan Harmon? Oh, he's caught selling drugs, running drugs. So all that part of the story is true. Mhm.
00:27:05
>> So if you believe So if you didn't believe that part, there's your proof on top of that. So we know why the boys we
00:27:13
we don't know why the boys were out there, whether they were hunting, whether they're trying to spy, maybe
00:27:18
they were trying to intercept the drugs. We're not for sure, but we do know that
00:27:22
they were out there at the same time that a drug drop was happening. >> So we know that is true. And if we
00:27:29
believe that to be true, then we believe that these boys were murdered. They were
00:27:32
put on the tracks. All these eyewitnesses that saw things and talked then were killed to cover this up.
00:27:40
>> That's what we know. That's the right. >> Well, and the thing furthermore on that
00:27:44
point is that you have to have boots on the ground in this type of operation. So
00:27:49
you got Barry Seal bringing drugs into the country. You have another pilot that was working for the CIA saying that he
00:27:55
believed that multiple pilots were doing this. That Barry Seal was the kind of the big fish. He was the fat lady like
00:28:00
he named his airplane. >> Right. And the thing is, you have to have boots on the ground because you can
00:28:06
bring drugs into this country. It doesn't get you anywhere financially unless you can sell them to somebody.
00:28:11
And once you sell them to somebody, then you have to launder that money. So now you have all these little local
00:28:18
corruptive things going on at the same time. All right. So I think we're to the point where we should just really kind
00:28:24
of dive into our thoughts and feelings on this matter. And let's do that right after this quick beer break.
00:28:33
>> [music] [music] >> All right, welcome back to True Crime. Get rich. Okay. Now, Captain, we need to
00:28:58
put our thoughts on what actually happened that night, 1987 in Bryant, Arkansas.
00:29:06
>> Well, I just want to first say, hey, thanks to all the listeners, right? Because this is a, you know, fourparter.
00:29:11
It's a whale of a case, probably the biggest case that we've done. Um, just with the men at airport stuff. We
00:29:18
probably could have just with that whole drug running and gun running conspiracy,
00:29:23
we probably could have went on for 4 hours about that. me and you are not super fascinated by that portion of this
00:29:30
case. >> No, I'm not going to lie. I doing the research on the Mena portion of this and
00:29:35
we would be remiss if we didn't bring it up because it's certainly part of this case at some part, right? But the the
00:29:41
problem here is it it was a cumbersome portion of the investigation in this case. It [clears throat] it's it's huge.
00:29:48
You could spend weeks some people have spent years trying to figure out that whole situation. Uh I found it to be the
00:29:55
research portion of that to be rather boring to to be completely honest with you.
00:29:59
>> And I think our main thing was you know when you have a se you know 16 and 17year-old uh teenage boys uh we can
00:30:07
relate to that and being those age and being males ourselves and to want to kind of explore what the heck's going on
00:30:14
and I think that's the part that we were more fascinated with. >> Yeah. So, now uh garage thoughts with
00:30:21
your host Nick and the captain. >> Yeah. With Jack Handy. Uh how about you start so we get the good intelligent
00:30:29
stuff first because because you know my stuff will probably not make >> Well, that's setting that's setting the
00:30:34
bar a little high. But I think you hit the nail on the head there, Captain. So this this case for us was about Don
00:30:41
Henry and Kevin Ives about those two boys being murdered and then it being called an accident. You know this case I
00:30:49
didn't know anything about the Mena portion of this case to be honest with you until several months ago. Now I knew
00:30:56
about the boys on the tracks case from way back when when we were kids. They they featured this case on Unsolved
00:31:02
Mysteries. I believe it was in the first season, maybe the second, but it was a it was it was ages ago. And that's
00:31:08
streaming now somewhere. A lot of listeners were saying, "You got to check this out." It's like, "Hey, if you
00:31:13
listen to the show, we're big fans of, you know, Unsolved Mysteries." We've seen it.
00:31:18
>> Mhm. Well, and there's some things that they talk about. I went back and watched
00:31:21
that episode, and there's some things that they talked about in there that we didn't really address yet. There was
00:31:28
some leads at the time of a um a man in camouflage fatigues. Actually, well, let
00:31:33
me let me get this right because there's a couple different stories here. There's
00:31:37
one story of a man wearing a camouflage jacket having shot at police. There's another story that's almost identical
00:31:44
with the exception of they say in military fatings, which to me camouflage jacket, military fatigues means a very
00:31:51
different uh uniform or outfit that this person was wearing. Now, the thing here
00:31:57
is I I when looking into this case, you got to follow the leads. That was that might have been a lead back then. It's
00:32:05
not a current lead today because we know of all these other confessions of all these eyewitness statements that have
00:32:10
come out after the fact. >> The thing here is captain I I want to kind of talk about this in a sense that
00:32:17
it is I'm going to use the trickle down effect. Okay? Because what I think really happened here as far as MENA is
00:32:24
concerned is that we we have a situation where yes, our government was probably doing some stuff that wasn't all on the
00:32:32
up and up. Were they trading guns for drugs? I'm not willing to 100% agree with that. I saw more evidence of these
00:32:41
these people doing this on their own. These pilots doing this on their own where they were taking advantage of a
00:32:46
situation. Now, we brought up Barry Seal. Now, the thing here is Barry Seal was he was murdered and dead before
00:32:54
Kevin Ives and Don Henry were killed that night. He was killed about a year beforehand. Why do we bring him up?
00:32:59
because we know he admittedly came forward and said this is what I'm doing. You know, we so we if we believe Barry
00:33:06
Seal, this is absolutely going on and this is absolutely happening. Now, I believe that they were running lots of
00:33:13
drugs into the Arkansas area using these airplanes. And the thing here is, like I
00:33:18
said before, you have to have boots on the ground. You can't turn that drugs into money without somebody on the
00:33:23
ground selling it and distributing that that product for you. The problem here is the trickle down
00:33:30
effect. When you when you have people at a high level maybe doing some things that aren't completely on the up and up,
00:33:37
you know, when you set out to do something that that might not be 100% right, sometimes you find yourself then
00:33:44
doing other things that you never set out to do that are completely wrong, too, to cover up that first misdeed.
00:33:50
Mhm. >> And I [clears throat] think that we see a situation here where that started at
00:33:54
the top and it worked its way into a very bad area. And the thing regarding Reagan, regarding Bush or Clinton, do I
00:34:03
think that they had some involvement in this? Yes. Yes, I do. I think I think that they this was an operation that
00:34:09
they were aware of. I don't believe I want to not believe that they were fully aware of all the drugs that were coming
00:34:18
into the the country as a result of what they were doing. Um the thing here is though you have to have people in
00:34:26
somewhat of power. You can't have a bunch of thugs on the ground moving this product for you. They had to have some
00:34:32
kind of security in doing what they were doing. The these are Barry Seal is not just going to go out and do something
00:34:39
like this. people that are cohorting with him are not just going to go out and do something like this and then put
00:34:45
millions of dollars of drugs into the hands of street thugs. It's just not going to happen. And I think what we had
00:34:51
here, Captain, is that we have Dan Harmon, somebody that that was a person that carried a certain amount of power.
00:34:58
He had a certain amount of leverage on everybody. Some of that was because of positions that he held within the
00:35:04
county. Some of that was because he was dealing drugs at a high level to these other people. And you know, I I once had
00:35:12
a a man tell me that that sometimes in some situations, law enforcement is nothing but a bunch of thugs or a bunch
00:35:20
of gangsters with a badge. And I think in this situation, we see that. We see that with the two officers that we spoke
00:35:27
of, Jay Campbell and Kirk Lane. I think that they were Dan Harmon's bodyguards. They were his muscle because they could
00:35:36
use their toughness as not just their toughness in in brute force, but their toughness because they carry a badge in
00:35:42
their authority. And they misuse their authority the same way that Dan Harmon did.
00:35:46
>> Right. And we support fully support law enforcement that believes in the oath of
00:35:51
serve and protect. >> Yes. And I think what happened here, Captain, I think we have a situation.
00:35:56
Dan Harmon, as I said, I believe he's he's no better than your average street thug. Mhm.
00:36:03
>> He's probably even worse because he has the authority to cover things up and do
00:36:08
unspeakable things and get away with them. >> The thing here is I I I peg him as a
00:36:14
drug user. I peg him as a hardcore drug user that probably used drugs with other
00:36:20
people in power in the area. And at some point he realized, you know what? I can
00:36:24
turn this little this little fun drug thing that I got going on. I can turn this into a business. and I have the
00:36:31
authority to do so. And he recruited these officers to get his back. >> And what happened was we have a we yes I
00:36:39
believe there was a drug drop. I believe that Dan Harmon was there to get that drug drop. Now the thing here is do we
00:36:46
do we have a situation where you know there was rumor maybe Kevin Ives and Don Henry were were you know privy to this
00:36:53
information and that they went out there and had possibly stolen a previous drop.
00:36:59
>> Mhm. and intended to steal an additional drop and that Dan Harmon and his goons
00:37:05
were out there that night to keep an eye on their product and they were going to
00:37:09
use whatever force necessary if they caught who they believed was was stealing their drugs. Now, the thing
00:37:15
here is when you're doing bad things and you're doing shady things, you're working with other shady characters.
00:37:21
There's a good chance I don't believe Kevin Ives and Don Henry went and stole that drug drop. I don't think so. I
00:37:29
don't even think it was their intention to go out that night and steal whatever was being dropped from the sky. I think
00:37:35
you have a situation where you got a bunch of bad people working together doing bad things that are illegal. You
00:37:41
can't report this. All my drugs came up missing. Who you going to go and tell that to? Nobody cares. The thing here is
00:37:47
you could have had a guy You could have had a pilot in the plane that said, "Yeah, dude. Yeah, Harmon, I made that
00:37:53
drop. What? You didn't pick that up? That's your fault." >> Right? He could have just kept the damn
00:37:57
drugs himself. Or you could have Harmon who who got the drugs and said, "You know what? This [ __ ] was stolen from me.
00:38:03
I I can't pay it up. I can't pay up to you because I didn't have the product to sell yet he went out and sold the
00:38:10
product anyway." We know these things happen on a daily basis on a much smaller level. We'd be foolish to think
00:38:15
that they don't happen at a high level. I think that the boys were aware that something was going on. I don't think
00:38:21
they had a full understanding of what it is. I think that they were teenagers being teenagers. I think that they were
00:38:27
curious about what was going on, >> whiskers. >> And I believe Don Henry felt very
00:38:32
comfortable in those woods. I I feel like he often went out at night with his parents' permission out on these night
00:38:38
hunting trips, sometimes by himself, and he probably told his buddy, you know, cuz they're at the age where they're
00:38:44
discovering drugs. We know that they were smoking some marijuana. They didn't smoke 20 joints. They it's it's actually
00:38:51
estimated that they smoked more like one to two, maybe even three at a stretch. They were found with marijuana in their
00:38:58
pockets. So, they were they were open to this whole new scene that they're discovering in their in their hometown.
00:39:04
And I think they were curious as to what was going on. I don't think they were going around the week of looking for
00:39:09
cocaine or looking to become cocaine dealers. I think that that's all kind of just things that coincidence. It's just
00:39:17
happen stance. The there might be rumors. I think they were out looking for marijuana. I think it was a very
00:39:22
innocent thing that they were out doing and they stumbled across the wrong people. I wouldn't be surprised if Dan
00:39:31
Harmon believed that these boys ripped him off or even even pushed that aside. Now, these boys are witness to something
00:39:40
and maybe he thinks they were out there trying to steal his drugs. And I think that his goons, Jay Campbell and Kirk
00:39:48
Lane, I don't think that they ever agreed to help move drugs or or be the bodyguard for Dan Harmon with the
00:39:54
intention that they thought at some point they would be killing people. I think that they chased down these boys.
00:40:00
I think it got out of hand. They used they used brute force on these on these poor kids. And unfortunately, the kids
00:40:09
probably fought back. These guys don't strike me as the type that would not defend themselves. And I think it got
00:40:15
out of hand very fast. And I think one of them died. And I think I think Kevin Ives probably died first. And they may
00:40:24
have killed the other boy simply to cover that up because at some point, >> right?
00:40:28
>> This, you know, when you set out to do something bad and just to make a little
00:40:33
bit of money and you think it's all going to be good. It's this is a victimless crime. It's going to hurt
00:40:37
nobody. I I know people that want drugs. I know how to get drugs. I can make money and make these people happy at the
00:40:43
same time. This isn't going to get out of hand. No. One day you wake up and you realize that you're up to your eyeballs
00:40:49
in this [ __ ] and you freak out and something bad happens. And I think that's what happened that night. Now, to
00:40:56
further this though, they went above and beyond to cover this up. Why? Because there happened to be so many people that
00:41:02
actually knew the truth about what had happened that night. That this thing got out of hand. These boys were killed.
00:41:08
They were thrown on the tracks. There were people that witnessed it. There were people that told other people what
00:41:13
they had seen, what they had heard. There are people involved involved in the drug trade in the local area. I
00:41:19
think this was a thing that started off bad in some misdeings at the very top and it trickled down and the further it
00:41:27
got down, it got darker, deeper, a little more evil to the point where it got out of hand.
00:41:34
So most of this blame lies with Dan Harmon and his goons. In my opinion, these were the truly evil people
00:41:40
involved in this situation. The unfortunate and well, unfortunate is not the right word. The the extremely
00:41:47
disappointing portion of this for me is that I do believe that there are higher members of society at higher levels in
00:41:56
the Arkansas area that probably turned a blind eye to this thing. they kind of looked the other way and they didn't
00:42:04
want to believe that something terrible was going on and and by doing nothing ultimately in my eyes they did something
00:42:11
wrong. Um I think this Fami Malik guy is a terrible dude. I think I think that he
00:42:17
held a very bad >> I think he was a guy that held a high position that that didn't have people
00:42:23
monitoring what he was doing or secondguessing what he was doing. I think he was not qualified for that
00:42:29
position to start off with and that that he made some fumblings and screwed some
00:42:34
things up and he started covering for himself and he woke up one day and he was he was eyeballs deep in this
00:42:40
situation too and then at some point he was either able to be bought off with either money or fear and I think that he
00:42:47
lied about a lot of things which ultimately made investigations go nowhere. We're in a situation here where
00:42:54
it's been it it will be 30 years come this August that those two boys were murdered. And you know what? I don't
00:43:02
think that we're going to see any justice for those two boys. I do like that the families feel somewhat
00:43:08
vindicated because Dan Harmon did serve some time. Um there are some other people that were probably involved in
00:43:15
this that are no longer around. We're not going to see any justice though for those two boys and that's an unfortunate
00:43:22
situation. >> And is that your final thoughts? >> Uh yeah, th those are my final thoughts
00:43:27
on what I think happened. Uh my recommendation to the listeners out there if this is something that they
00:43:32
want to dive more into there. There there's a lot of things like we said this is a huge case.
00:43:38
>> I'd recommend though researching the two incidences separately. You know, I think
00:43:43
there's enough of of things that you could read into regarding the boys on the tracks. I think that there's enough
00:43:50
stuff that you could dive into regarding the Mina airport at the same time. I wouldn't recommend looking into both of
00:43:56
them at the same time because it's just too much. >> Yeah, it's definitely a case that I
00:44:00
looking back on it now, we did four parts, but it would have been amazing series.
00:44:05
>> All right, Captain Garage Thoughts. Your host, the Captain. >> Yeah. I don't know if we should allow me
00:44:12
to speak every episode. Uh let's just You want to start at the top? >> Yes. >> We'll just start at the top.
00:44:17
>> I started at the top. >> Look, and and look, I've said it a million times. It's not a political
00:44:23
show. I'm not left or right. I am normally wrong. >> He always says that right before he gets
00:44:28
political, >> right? Uh start with Reagan. I think there was drug running. I think there
00:44:32
was gun running. I think our government's normally involved in [ __ ] we shouldn't be. We should mind our own
00:44:37
goddamn business sometimes. I think because of the drug smuggling that was coming in, then they started this stupid
00:44:44
thing called war on drugs, which was actually a war on uh inner city black America. And if you think I'm just
00:44:52
talking my ass, do some damn research on it and then get back with me and then tell me I'm wrong. And I actually think
00:44:58
that there's there's actually evidence of Reagan saying, "Hey, you know, we thought the war on drug was going to be
00:45:04
great. We didn't know it was just going to give slaps on the wrist to middle America, you know, white America and
00:45:10
that it was going to screw up black families for generation to generation. So, uh, shameful Reagan for that. But we
00:45:18
all make mistakes. I think a lot of the stuff he did was good. Um, was never a big fan of George Bush. Uh, I thought he
00:45:26
had some weird agendas. Then let's go to Clinton. I think some of the research that I've seen on him and this whole
00:45:33
pedophile stuff, which is a whole separate case, is very shameful. I think he's a [ __ ] stain. Uh I think he's very,
00:45:40
you know, self-centered. How much greed can he have? How much power can he have?
00:45:46
And I think he's done some shady [ __ ] As far as this case goes, I don't think Reagan knew anything about it.
00:45:52
>> No, >> I don't think I don't even think Bill actually knew a bunch about it. Yeah,
00:45:57
>> I think he knew that there was drugs coming in to Mena airport, but but I think he knew that was coming from the
00:46:06
government. >> Mhm. >> So, how much is he supposed to say? And I and I know that the government
00:46:11
probably knew that there was probably some drug running on the side and we just can't do much about that because
00:46:17
we're doing some shady [ __ ] >> So, I believe, like you said, at some point these these uh pilots had this
00:46:24
opportunity. We can make a little extra money. Well, now we got to figure out places to drop. Just so happened that
00:46:31
this airport was close to this town >> and there was some dude there, you know, named Dan Harmon. That's a bad bad
00:46:39
ombre, right? >> Mhm. >> And that's what happened. It got mixed up. And I don't I don't think Look, I
00:46:46
don't know if the boys were going out there to to steal drugs. I mean, I've done some stupid [ __ ] when I was 16 and
00:46:53
17 years old. I had some stupid ideas, right? >> So, I wouldn't put it past them, but
00:46:58
even if they were, you shouldn't end up dead, >> right? >> You know, you're a 16 and 17 year old
00:47:04
kid. Did they fight back? Hopefully, because look, at some point, you know, if a if an officer is using his powers
00:47:13
for bad, at some point defend yourself. And I think that's probably what happened. The other thing that the only
00:47:21
question that I have about that is what if one of those boys was wearing camo? What if one of those boys fired at the
00:47:28
officer? >> Mhm. >> They had a gun. We know that. But either way, I think what it came down to was
00:47:35
those boys were dead before they were on the tracks and they put them on the tracks to cover it up and then anybody
00:47:41
that knew anything about it, they they murdered and because they paid off this guy. And again, I think if you're paying
00:47:49
off Fami, right? >> Well, then Fami, you're a [ __ ] stain. And I hope you get an ulcer, and I hope
00:47:56
your head [ __ ] pops off and goes right up your ass. That's what I hope happens. Uh, and then I hope that your
00:48:03
dog crawls up your ass and eats your head. That's what I hope happens. If you did all this stuff out of fear, then
00:48:12
then my hat goes off to you because I don't know what I'd do in that situation. >> All right. There's people around you
00:48:17
dying left and right, mysterious deaths. He had the ability to do something about
00:48:22
that, though. You know, he he absolutely did have the ability to do something about that. Would it would it have
00:48:29
caused his own own demise? Possibly, >> right? >> Uh maybe even likely, one could say. Um
00:48:36
but >> well, right. But it's hard to sit there and say, you know, well, it's actually
00:48:40
easy to sit there and say, you know what, I'll do the right thing, >> right? You know, I if people were dying
00:48:47
around me, I don't give a [ __ ] I'll do the right thing. And it's like, maybe you would. I'd like to think I
00:48:54
would, but I have never been around a situation where people were dying left and right.
00:49:00
>> Mhm. >> But you know what? If I did die, they would have to bring in another corner
00:49:06
and he might not be able to get paid off >> and they might not be able to do anything about it on that point. But
00:49:12
there was all these checks and balances and I think because Dan Harmon had his hands in everybody's pockets, you know,
00:49:18
playing away game of pocket pole that that's why all this stuff got covered up. And I think because of the
00:49:25
government running drugs and because of I believe Bill Clinton, there's enough evidence that proves that Bill Clinton,
00:49:32
you know, this is the 80s, a lot of people of power were doing cocaine. >> Mhm. And so I think because of the
00:49:39
government running drugs in and out of Mena airport, their hands are almost tied or they can't they can't even go
00:49:46
after the scumbag Dan Harmon because what does that do to you? I mean, yeah, they put him in jail and stuff, but you
00:49:52
you got to go after him for murder. >> Mhm. >> Cuz that's what happened. There's two
00:49:57
boys that are dead, 16 and 17 years old. Not. They never got to the point where they're old enough to vote for, you
00:50:05
know, the left or the right. >> Mhm. >> They don't have that right. They didn't they didn't make it to the age where
00:50:11
they could drink a couple beers in the garage and talk about some crime. >> They they never made it to that point.
00:50:19
>> And their families never got to see them get to that point because of what? Because of some some douchebags that
00:50:28
wanted to make a couple extra bucks. because they got into normally when you get into a political power and a
00:50:35
political system. You're there to serve, right? That's your job. Yeah. But all these people the the paycheck was too
00:50:43
small. I don't want to just serve. It's about me. It's about me. You know, in this country,
00:50:49
>> you know, on a on a side rant, we're all becoming a little too much. Me, me, me,
00:50:54
me. And I think it's [ __ ] It's horit. Well, and it's it like I said, for me it starts off with Dan Harmon and
00:51:02
other people at his level being drug users. I think that's where it starts for me is that they they were already
00:51:09
compromised people because they were drug users. They weren't able to clearly understand or or should have clearly
00:51:17
understood what their power meant and that they are there to serve the people. They're there to protect the
00:51:23
communities. And this drug addiction, this drug habit got in the way, compromised them from the very
00:51:30
beginning. And that's what led to him selling drugs and others in the area selling drugs. And you know, if somebody
00:51:37
asked me, you know, well, Nick, why why the hell would so many people be quiet about this? Well, we're not talking
00:51:43
about, you know, when we say Barry Seal, and they estimate between three and five
00:51:49
billion, that's with a B, not with an M. That's a B. Five. three to five billion
00:51:54
dollars that he brought into this country. Now, he was bringing those in through through multiple states. But the
00:52:01
thing is, it we we believe other pilots were probably doing this as well. >> We're not talking about $50 or $100 here
00:52:09
or there to this guy or Joe at the local so supermarket. Look the other way. We're talking about potentially
00:52:17
hundreds of millions of dollars that's being spread around because of the stuff that's being brought in. And you know
00:52:23
what? Guess what? You know, Tim, down at the grocery store, I'm not asking you to
00:52:29
do anything wrong, but here's here's here's some free drugs. Here's two grand. I'm just asking you to say you
00:52:36
don't know anything about this situation, right? >> I'm just asking you to keep quiet. Just
00:52:41
keep my name out your mouth and we'll be fine. >> It's It's very frustrating. I can tell
00:52:46
by the way you're stomping around the garage here as you gave that that that uh very angry uh speech there. But the
00:52:53
thing is, you know, we set out to we set out the mission was to set out to figure
00:52:57
out who killed these boys. Was it a murder to begin with? Yes, we we can we establish that who who killed him. We
00:53:04
both at the local level, we both agree what we think happened that night. We think Dan Harmon and some other guys,
00:53:10
uh, most likely Jay Campbell and Kirk Lane were all involved in this situation and then they spent almost two years
00:53:18
covering this thing up, you know. So, I think at the local level, we set out to to kind of figure out what happened to
00:53:23
these two boys. We didn't set out to, >> you know, uh, correct 40 years of the US
00:53:30
government's foreign policy. Uh, but regarding the boys on the tracks, I think we we we agree what happened that
00:53:36
night, >> right? And I think at the end of the day that people of power and people of money
00:53:42
get away with a bunch of [ __ ] >> And and I just want to take the moment to say uh you know to to Don Henry, to
00:53:52
Kevin Ives, to their family members, if anybody's listening to this, we we are sorry for your loss and we're sorry that
00:54:00
there wasn't justice, you know, for you and your family and your loved ones. >> All right. Now it's uh it's time for
00:54:08
many beers. >> Yeah. Well, I'm all worked up. It's going to be an angry drive home from the
00:54:12
the garage today. >> We got a recommended reading for the week. >> We do. This week, we're recommending He
00:54:17
Killed Them All, Robert Durst, and My Quest for Justice by Janine Pyro. Janine's a former prosecutor and the
00:54:25
true hero of the hit HBO documentary series, The Jinx. She offers the true story of her 15-year investigation into
00:54:34
the accused murderer, Robert Durst, for the disappearance of his wife. And we all know that Robert Durst, he escaped
00:54:40
police investigation into that crime. Janine always believed that Durst was guilty. And in this book, she makes her
00:54:47
case beyond a shadow of a doubt, revealing previously unknown secrets about his crimes. So, check out this.
00:54:54
You got to check this out because they cover a lot of stuff that was not covered in the documentary. Check out He
00:54:59
Killed Them All, Robert Durst and My Quest for Justice by Janine Pyro. You can do that by going to our website
00:55:05
trueimeg.com. Click on the recommended page and pick up one of our many recommended books
00:55:11
today using that Amazon banner. That's a big case. I want to thank everybody for
00:55:15
tuning in, listening, subscribing, telling a friend. Want to thank the captain for another great week here in
00:55:20
the garage. Until next week, be good, be kind, and don't live. [music] [music]