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[music] [music] [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
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for listening. I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who's been let loose from his noose that's kept him
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hanging around. Here [music] is the Captain. >> And it's good to be seen and good to see
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you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend. >> Today we are still sipping on this hazy
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IPA called Boneface Killer >> [music] >> from Tactical Brewing. Very fittingly featuring a Skeletor type character
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business. Pour this one in a glass cuz she got good body. Garage grade four and three quarter bottle caps out of five
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and let's give some thanks and praise to our good garage friends. First up and cheers to Amy Birch in Louisville,
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Texas. >> And a big tall cans in there to Sophie in Minnesota. >> Next up we have Jen Daily in Osceola,
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Indiana and last but certainly not least we have a triple cheers to Dave, Nikki and Randy in northern Utah. Everyone we
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[music] subscription and we will tickle your ear balls and that's enough of the bee's [music] knees.
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>> All right, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some
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true crime. >> [music] >> When we left off here, Captain, [music] we have two unsolved murders and in my
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humble garage opinion they are eerily similar in nature and in the details and it seems like the
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detectives agreed as well back in 1992 when they were conducting their investigations. Regarding the
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investigation to the second murder of in this series here is Mary Ellen Wise and we talked at length about her
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abduction and then being moved to two different banks to make transactions and then later her body being found, but
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one thing that we will read in the papers and see on the news when the detectives are asking for help or being
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probed themselves and being asked about the the case and the investigation is detectives explain why the lack of
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forced entry mattered in the Mary Ellen Wise case. And they stated clearly that if Mary Ellen did not know her abductor,
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it would mean that she opened her door to a stranger. This would be in complete contrast to something that her family
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said to investigators. They're saying she would not. This was not her nature. She was very very cautious, a very
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cautious person. She would not open her door to a stranger. So, that either means A,
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like we talked about in episode 1, perhaps the assailant approached her while she was in the garage, garage door
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open, she's doing laundry. We know that there are certainly had to have been a lot of activity in that garage based off
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of blood evidence, clear signs of a struggle. And again, we talked about her dog. So, either this
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was somebody that she knew and she did let in, the dogs didn't perceive any kind of threat. They
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perhaps went out to the garage together and then the attack happened or the assailant had to approach the victim
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inside of that garage on that morning. >> Well, like I said, if they left the door
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open, maybe it's a sneak attack. Or maybe there's some ruse. And in the first murder, because of the
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some of the items left behind, the duct tape, the gloves, and then the eyewitnesses seeing this small truck
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with possibly possibly a a toolbox in the back, it makes me wonder if there's some kind of connection to a handyman or
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handyman service. >> About a week after the murder of Mary Ellen Wise, an anonymous letter was sent
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to the Indian River County Sheriff's Office. Now, we don't have the complete contents of this letter.
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And to my knowledge, I don't think it's ever been made public. Now, we don't know what was discussed in the letter,
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what was mentioned, or how or the length of the letter, other than what law enforcement has chose to make public.
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And what they've made public is that in one portion of this letter, the writer offered an opinion about the killer's
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identity and mentioned a young man who was a boxer and a dog owner. And what I am here to
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tell you all of these years later is while very interesting, the letter did not solve the case. It just simply
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became part of the long uneasy paper trail. Uh just another fragment of this story.
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As investigators reviewed the pattern in Mary Ellen's case, abduction, forced bank withdrawals, a body left in a rural
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area, they increasingly considered whether her murder could be connected to other crimes possibly committed by the
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same person who had killed Ruth Hout just 8 months prior. >> But these are different locations, so
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and I understand that there's similarities, but there's similarities in a lot of crimes.
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What what do you think sparks the interest or the speculation that it's the same
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perpetrator? >> Well, these are different areas, but if I'm reading my notes correctly here, you
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do have one agency that is involved in So, you have multiple agencies that are involved in these investigations, but
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one agency that's involved in both. And so, I think it's easier to draw a line from A to B when you have investigators
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working crimes that not only appear to be similar in nature, but also they're they're similar in victimology.
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They're also similar in the fact that they took place within just an 8-or-9-month
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span of time. >> And do these victims have similar looks? >> I think it might be a stretch to say
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yes, but I also would I would say that they don't look crazy dissimilar from one another, but
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keep in mind when you have two cases with no rape or sign of sexual assault, I don't think that the the the
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appearance of the victim is what the perpetrator was honing in on. And and look, the bank activity
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in both is very interesting. It's it's not completely off the radar, right? That somebody's
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abducted and they take into a bank, but it doesn't happen that often. And in this case it happened in both of these
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cases. And so where I say the victimology is very similar, it's similar in the nature
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that these individuals had access to funds and clearly that's what the perpetrator wanted. If you want me to go
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into full profiler mode here, what I what I see is somebody who changed and adapted to the situation.
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Okay, so we both agreed that the first crime has indicators that suggest that it's
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well thought out and it's well planned. However, what was the outcome? Well, there was a security camera at the ATM.
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There was someone who may have spotted the suspect's vehicle. And so what do I if if I'm that guy or the perpetrators
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and I want to do a repeat, but I what am I going to want to do? I'm going to want
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to eliminate all of the things that could have got me caught in the first one. And I'm going to want to exploit all of
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the things that I did that that people have no witness of. So, I don't want to drive my if if if I'm
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sitting here going, "Oh yeah, I killed that lady and [ __ ] my red truck was spotted at the orange grove." Right.
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Guess what I don't want to do this time is use my vehicle. I Mary Ellen abducted eight, nine months later, was
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abducted using her vehicle. >> Mhm. >> What else do I not want to do? I I mean, you did
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The report is that the an ATM was accessed in Mary Ann Wise's case, but did the perpetrator make Mary Ann Wise
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do that because what I think is a difference here and I couldn't find verification of it. I think that the
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drive I think that the ATM withdrawal in Mary Ann Wise's case was a drive-up ATM.
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>> Mhm. >> And what what else is different in this the second case that that didn't go well
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for the perpetrator in the first one? He actually got money from the withdrawals
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in the second case. The first case, he didn't. What did police tell us about the first
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case? They think that it was actually the perpetrator, the abductor, who was attempting to access that ATM.
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>> Mhm. >> Who accesses the ATM and who who completes the withdrawal at the drive-thru
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was the victim. So, to me, the all the similarities tell me it's the same person.
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The things that are different tell me that they're different for a reason, that he is evolving. He's trying
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to get better. >> So, because there's no sexual assault, that's probably not the motivation.
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So, is it just simply the motivation is monetary? >> Yeah. Cash box stolen at the first one.
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Uh bank card used at the first one. This one we have We have a withdrawal and a bank card used again in the second one.
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Now, keep in mind, this is Mary Ann Wise is killed, abducted and killed on November
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2nd, 1992. And her body was found what, eight days later? So, let's go on our timeline here to November 21st,
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1992. So we're now in the state same month, same general area of Florida when a discount ticket salesman, his name
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Antonio Zucco, was beaten to death at a location on West US Highway 192. So tourist stopping
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to ask for directions and to do some shopping. So they stop. They find this Antonio Zucco, the
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victim, age 50 at the time, in the bathroom of his ticket shop in tourist information center. An
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undisclosed amount of cash and a number of tickets to area attractions were taken along with Zucco's wallet.
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Deputies think that the murder weapon may have been a hammer. The Osceola Sheriff's Office
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was the lead investigating agency on this one. So in different parts of the country,
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especially in the '90s and especially in Florida, you would have these places that they would sell tickets to area
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attractions. And Florida being a huge tourist destination, you're going to have a lot
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of these people that they're they're basically vendors that sell the tickets. They make a little bit of money for
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selling the tickets. And um this is what Antonio's business was. And it appears to detectives that
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somebody came in there with the intent of robbing him, but he's not abducted. >> Right.
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>> But also keep in mind if the intent was robbery that >> Cash is on hand. >> I'm not going to argue that. Right. But
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what I would argue is I'm looking for the part of in the piece of this story that tells me that the killer didn't
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think that he had to kill Antonio Zucco. I'm looking for the part of of where Antonio Zucco fights back
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or puts the puts the robber in a position where he thinks he has to kill to get out of there or severely injure
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the individual. That part of the story we don't have any good witnesses so we don't have that part of the story.
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>> But is it also something very simple just the size and weight of the victim? Or like you said the aggression back.
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It's more risky to try to abduct this individual. >> One of the the major reasons for murder
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would be to cover up an another crime and then how many It's always you see it in the movies all the time but it's all
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it's a sad fact of life with these evil people that commit crimes. They don't think the way that you and I
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think. They don't see the victim as a human being that has a family and is probably and is a great guy and all
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these good things. They don't see that. They don't care. That's it's leave no witnesses. Who knows what Antonio could
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have told us about the person who robbed him and attacked him if he would have been around to tell us.
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>> Well, there's a there's a possibility there was no disguise. If this uh killer could have just saw this
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as opportunity but would I be correct in saying that if you're law enforcement you're looking for individual more like
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the I-70 killer than a Ted Bundy? >> Yes. Um the brutality of these attacks especially with the
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type of instrument used on Mary Ann Wise and now Antonio Zucco. >> Right. >> Yeah, I mean it's it's Ted Bundy without
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the rape portion of it. >> The motivation seems to be simply money. >> Yes. But I also think that there there
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there's a reason for the killing and it's either the the if if these are connected. We need to we need to be very
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clear about that. If these are connected, there needs to be a reason for the killing. Could it just simply be
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leave no witness? Very likely. Could it be that the individual thinks that they could be identified later or that they
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know any of these victims or I believe in very rare occasions, the killer just can't stop themselves. It's
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part of it's part of it. And I can't tell you without more information if I feel
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strongly about that here, but it could just be part of it. And now we have to introduce to everyone another individual
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named Bonnie Goodson. And she lived a life that took her across several corners of this great country before it
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ended in a way that no family should ever have to imagine. Bonnie Goodson was born in Endicott, New York and over time
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her life carried her far from her hometown. Eventually, she made her way to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. From there,
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she relocated again this time to Central Florida moving to Kissimmee, Florida in
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1975. She built a working life that placed her in a position of trust and familiarity
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in the community. She became a manager at a Kissimmee truck accessory store. Also referred to as the truck accessory
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superstore. Now by the early 1990s, Bonnie was not only working but pushing herself forward in a very personable
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personal way. She had recently returned to school through adult education classes.
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And after doing that while working her job, continuing her work responsibilities and
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her home life responsibilities, she managed to graduate and received a degree in June of 1992.
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Our timeline, we are now in November of 1992. This was the kind of milestone, this degree was supposed to be the kind
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of milestone that tends to mark a new chapter in someone's life. This was certainly
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proof that she was still building something for herself. She was also a wife and a mother, but then in late
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1992, her life was broken by violence. On Monday, November 30th, Bonnie Goodson was at the truck accessory store located
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at 205 South Bermuda Avenue. We've heard that that road name before. >> Right. >> This in Kissimmee. It was an afternoon.
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It's daylight. An ordinary time of day when people would be out shopping, working, running
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errands as such and such. At some point between 1:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., a robbery occurred inside the
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store. During that robbery, Bonnie was attacked. Police said she had been beaten
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unconscious, struck with a blunt instrument. Two city employees entered the store and found
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her there, and she was airlifted to the hospital at about 3:00 p.m. that afternoon. An undetermined amount of
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cash was missing from the store, and an early description of the scene and the investigation from police made
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it clear that they were trying to piece together what happened and who was responsible. Their words were, "We're at
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the scene and we are scraping for clues." This is as they put it to the press. >> Right. Do we have any eyewitness that
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sees any vehicle? >> Here we have very little in the way of any type of witnesses, and same it's
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very similar in that regard to the Antonio Zucco murder that took place really just days prior to this, where it
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appears somebody entered a building, entered a business, a store and attacked, robbed, and killed the solo individual
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inside that business. Body was taken to the Orlando Regional Medical Center, listed in critical
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condition. The injuries, of course, were severe. She underwent multiple surgeries. She spent hours in the
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intensive care unit as doctors fought to save her, and despite those efforts, she
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died that night around 9:45 p.m. after several hours of of what they were hoping would be
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life-saving surgeries. >> And that'd be tough, too, cuz as as a doctor, you're going, "Okay, I can save
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this life, but also we might be able to get justice for her if we're able to save her and she's able to tell us what
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happened." >> Absolutely. In the aftermath of this, the Kissimmee police asked the public for help,
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emphasizing this little narrow window of when the attack occurred, right? They were asking anyone who had been in or
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near the Truck Accessory Superstore at 205 South Bermuda Avenue between 1:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on November 30th,
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1992. What remains clearest in this telling is not only the brutality of this specific
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crime, a senseless homicide committed during an afternoon robbery, but also the shape of
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the life it cut short, a mother with two daughters, a woman who had just celebrated the achievement of finishing
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her education in June of '92 only to be taken before she could fully step into whatever would come next for her. We
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only have small amounts of information, but I don't think that I need to point them out here
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that we have strong similarities to the Zuco murder that took place just days prior. And speaking of similarities, the
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grim symmetry between Ruth Hauts' still unsolved case from February of '92 and Mary Ellen
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Wises' case continued to stand out to police even clearer, in fact, much, much clearer
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as their investigations would drag on. And those [clears throat] there would be both women were
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kidnapped, both were connected to bank withdrawals, and both were ultimately found dead in an outdoor rural location
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in Florida. But as we know, Captain, similarities do not by themselves deliver a conviction. They do, however,
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shape how people, family members, detectives, journalists understand what might have happened and who might be
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responsible. >> Right. >> The year of 1992 would cast a long, dark shadow over central and southern Florida linking a
00:22:08
series potentially linking a series of brutal, unsolved crimes with an unnerving thread
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of similarity. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> All right, we are back. Thanks for
00:22:46
telling your mother, thanks for telling your brother. Talk gains in the air, truths to the
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people in the back. >> You know, thanks for telling your uncle. That would be your mother's brother.
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>> Yeah, if if she has one. But this these crimes to me it makes you wonder is [clears throat]
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just the killing the motivation and the money is an afterthought? Well, I abducted her, I should take the money.
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I have her. I'm not I haven't killed her yet, but >> I I'm glad you bring that up because
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that's hard for a lot of people to comprehend that idea because murder is obviously such a much more consequential
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heinous crime than robbery. But, we are not criminals. We do not think like criminals. So, when this hits your ear
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balls, remind yourself that you're not a criminal and that they call it psycho for a reason.
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>> Right. >> That it's not easily understood. So, where where this sort of thinking would
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work out is into a different type of crime. And this is something that we were educated by the FBI on.
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So, what we were told by an FBI agent, retired now, Jeffrey Reinick, who investigated a lot of
00:24:05
crimes, uh child murders, sexual crimes, crimes that were sexual in nature, rape
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and things of that, serial rapist. >> Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> One thing he taught us was that often
00:24:18
times when you're looking for a serial rapist, you may only have one actual rape or at least only one in your file
00:24:27
that's made it to your file because we do know unfortunately due to the the the shame and the embarrassment and and
00:24:35
how the person is victimized, that some assault victims will not even come forward. But, what he said is that often
00:24:43
times what he would find is that his perpetrator would be locked up or have been charged with other crimes that are
00:24:52
not rape. And so, that would be things of burglary or robbery where the offender
00:25:00
broke into a home or an apartment with the intent of sexually assaulting or raping the female individual that's
00:25:08
inside that dwelling. >> Right. >> But because the person woke up, startled the burglar or the break-in or the
00:25:17
would-be rapist, fought him off, managed to call police, police show up, any number of reasons, the person doesn't
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get charged with rape because they didn't commit the sexual assault or the rape even though that was their intent
00:25:28
when they broke into the home. They get charged with breaking and entering or robbery or burglary because they got
00:25:35
caught inside the home or caught fleeing the home. >> Right. >> And so that goes along to with what
00:25:40
you're thinking and it where again rape, sexual assault much more heinous than just breaking in and hoping to steal
00:25:47
some valuables. But it goes to intent. Now, intent is very hard to prove. Intent is also very difficult to get a
00:25:56
direct line of insight on for these individuals. Again, they call it psycho for a reason.
00:26:04
We finished up 1992 before the break, talk ends in the air. But 1993 in Central and South Florida is going to
00:26:13
start off very differently, thank God. We're now at January 22nd, 1993 on our timeline. This was a day that did not go
00:26:22
as planned for one individual. And that individual is a one Curtis Huff Jr. So the story I'll summarize, but as printed
00:26:32
in the Orlando Sentinel under the headline "Motel Owner Shoots Robber." Again, this is in Kissimmee, Florida.
00:26:42
And we are at the Maple Leaf Motel on West US Highway 192. Oh, also another road that we have mentioned
00:26:51
in previous cases thus far in the telling of this true crime story. So, this is a framed This is framed as an
00:26:59
account of a robbery attempt that didn't go the way the attacker expected because
00:27:05
the motel owner Hamid Jabali, this is my dude. This guy is a dude. He refused to stop fighting even after
00:27:14
he had been badly injured by the robber, by his attacker. Deputies said the incident happened on a
00:27:21
Friday afternoon inside the motel office. Jabali was confronted by Curtis Huff Jr.
00:27:28
a 24-year-old from Kissimmee, Florida. According to Jabali and what he told police Huff came in acting like a normal
00:27:37
customer asking about buying discount tickets to local attractions. Hmm. Where have we heard that before?
00:27:46
Ticket sales. For a moment but Jabali said it looked like an ordinary interaction until Huff abruptly
00:27:53
escalated the situation by throwing coffee into Jabali's face. So, the store owner is blinded by this
00:28:02
hot coffee and shocked and he says that is when Huff Jr. attacked him with a tire iron
00:28:10
and Huff beat him in the head with it hard enough to leave him with multiple head injuries and cuts. The assault was
00:28:18
so severe that later witnesses would describe Jabali as drenched in blood and unrecognizable.
00:28:25
But even so, deputies said the beating wasn't the end of it. In the chaos Curtis Huff Jr. produced a gun. What
00:28:33
followed, investigators believed, was a violent struggle in close quarters for control of that weapon. What ends up
00:28:41
happening here is Curtis Huff Jr. fires three shots during the course of this time that the
00:28:50
two men are grappling. None of these shots, thankfully, hit Hamid Jaberli. Our dude, Jaberli,
00:28:56
manages to wrench the gun away from Curtis Huff Jr. And now the balance of power has changed, my friends.
00:29:04
Two more shots were fired, but this is not while the gun is in the hands of Curtis Huff Jr. Jaberli's got control of
00:29:13
this firearm. So, by the time the struggle broke apart, Curtis Huff Jr. had been hit. Detectives said that he
00:29:19
was struck in the right calf, but the scene did not end neatly. So, after he's hit, the robber, later identified as
00:29:27
Curtis Huff Jr., attempts to flee. Now, our victim, even though he's he's shot Huff Jr., he's very badly injured.
00:29:36
So, he collapses briefly, and I think this gives Huff the opportunity to try to get out of there. Jaberli, soaked in
00:29:43
his own blood, keeps fighting. He gets up with sheer willpower, and he goes outside after Huff Jr. And
00:29:53
so, it there's a lot going on right here right now, but you have two people that
00:29:57
know Hamid Jaberli. They pull up. This is Eric and Jane Aubrey. They pulled up for what they would typically do. They
00:30:06
They would do this often. They would drop in for a quick visit to say hello to their friend. But, instead, they pull
00:30:11
up in their vehicle, and they see their friend, who they don't recognize because
00:30:14
he's drenched in blood, coming out of his own business, and he's holding a gun. So, they're freaking out. Hamid is
00:30:22
yelling at the guy who's attempting to flee on foot through the parking lot, but he's hobbling cuz he's been shot in
00:30:28
the leg. And he's trying Jaberli's trying to shoot him again, but because there's so much blood on the gun
00:30:35
and on his hands, he couldn't quite get the hammer pulled back. So, this is called in. This is the um
00:30:45
It was a .38 caliber gun. And as said, Jabaily's thumb thumb kept slipping off the hammer because it was
00:30:51
too slick with blood from from him to [ __ ] it. And the gun had already been fired five times by this
00:30:58
point. So, it seems like he was attempting for a sixth and maybe final shot on this dude, but the blood coating
00:31:06
his hands defeated him in the moment. So, police pull up. They they end up getting a
00:31:13
life flight helicopter for Curtis Huff Jr. And he is flown to the same medical facility where
00:31:25
one of our victims, Goodson, had passed away prior that Orlando Medical Center. Now, Huff's injuries are far less severe
00:31:35
than what Goodson's were and he survives being shot. But now he's being arrested
00:31:41
for his robbery and assault on Hamid Jabaily at the Maple Leaf Motel. The Osceola Sentinel
00:31:51
wrote about Curtis Huff Jr. and described him as a ticket salesman with a reputation for two things
00:31:58
that did not seem to belong together, charm and sudden violence. >> Mhm. >> He was identified as a habitual violent
00:32:08
felony offender. And of course, this means he has a history and a pattern of violence that is recognized by our legal
00:32:18
system and he's been caught for these actions. Now, the short of this here, Captain, is that Curtis Huff Jr. would
00:32:27
plea no contest to the charges brought against him in his robbery attempt at the Maple Leaf Motel. They linked him to
00:32:38
another robbery. This was in the summer of 1992 when a ticket seller, again a an
00:32:45
occupation we've already mentioned before, was attacked inside their business and left hog-tied.
00:32:52
Now, I wish we had further details on that. Why this person was left alive? And it appears that that was not the
00:33:02
intent here. I don't believe he After striking Hamid in the head with a tire iron and
00:33:09
then pulling a gun, I don't I can't imagine that he his intent was to leave Hamid alive. But regardless, what takes
00:33:17
place here is he pleads no contest to the crimes that we know he's absolutely guilty of, the Mapleleaf
00:33:25
Motel attack >> Mhm. >> and attempted robbery to the one he suspected of that they
00:33:31
were going to charge him with, but they don't charge him with that robbery from the summer of '92
00:33:37
in sort of a plea agreement. >> So, he's going to be locked up. >> He's going to be locked up, but but
00:33:42
what's interesting here is we get we have two witnesses now. >> Mhm. >> Right? The hog-tied victim and and our
00:33:51
dude Jabali. So, these two cases both victims tell a story that starts off very similar of
00:33:58
Curtis Huff Jr. doing something that it's he it's routine business, right? The victims say that he approached them,
00:34:06
simply wanted to buy tickets to an attraction. They both describe described his demeanor
00:34:12
as calm, friendly, and chatty. They say he's the type of person that's easy to talk
00:34:17
to and the type of person that you can talk up and very quickly become familiar with
00:34:23
just simply within minutes. But both both of them said the the same thing. That that comfortable
00:34:30
moment didn't last. and they said that the shift in this individual is not gradual.
00:34:37
It was abrupt. They both of them said the same words. He snapped. It was like he snapped. So, Patricia Bennett was the
00:34:45
victim who was hog-tied in the summer robbery. She said that like his physical description changed, too.
00:34:54
>> Well, we we've heard this from other detectives. >> She said that when she she was looking
00:34:59
at him when she believes it was that he snapped. She says, this is her words, "It was like his nose spread and his
00:35:08
eyes [clears throat] seemed to turn hard, very violent. It wasn't only what he did, it was how quickly the person in
00:35:16
front of me no longer matched the man who had been chatting with me moments earlier." So, both of them simply say
00:35:23
that he seemed to snap at the same time that he demanded money and he became very violent right away.
00:35:31
And Bennett, she says that the situation became almost as non-negotiable. She says, "He's putting on rubber gloves
00:35:42
and now I'm begging for my life." >> Well, we have gloves in other cases as well.
00:35:48
>> So, this Chris this Curtis Huff Jr. was designated as a habitual offender and
00:35:55
this was tied to he's still fairly young. He's 24. But, this is tied to an earlier chapter in his life. He had
00:36:05
served time in prison in Indiana for a string of Midwest robberies that took place in the late 1980s.
00:36:11
Again, a pattern reportedly looking somewhat familiar to what's going on here in Florida, well, at least the two
00:36:18
we know he's guilty of. He was allowed to serve out his paroled once he's paroled for those crimes, he
00:36:26
was allowed to serve that out in uh the city of Florida. He is originally from Vero Beach, as I understand it.
00:36:34
He's a graduate of Vero Beach High School. >> So, going back to his hometown to commit
00:36:39
crimes. >> Well, I imagine that's probably why he was allowed to serve his parole in that
00:36:45
state cuz that's not typically the way these things go down. They don't They don't really love you moving out of
00:36:51
state in most cases. Once he's back in Florida, he found work as a ticket salesman for area attractions. Again,
00:36:59
this is a job that itself mirrors some of these robberies. >> Right. So, he would
00:37:05
have an understanding of the layout, possibly understanding of how the business works, how they collect money.
00:37:11
>> And also, you know, while he's So, this is May of 1993. He attempted to rob the motel in January.
00:37:21
And after his arrest and they pulled the bullet from his leg, he's Of course, he's he's a great guy,
00:37:29
Captain. He He was leading He's at the Osceola County Jail leading a Bible study group.
00:37:38
>> Oh. >> Oh, yeah. We probably shouldn't give him the maximum penalty, should we? He's a man
00:37:44
of God and he's trying to educate the other individuals and lead them to the light.
00:37:49
>> Well, in fairness, the Bible is a very violent book. >> It's It's Yes. The violence in the Bible is
00:37:58
>> They crucified a guy. >> They did. >> Yeah. >> That was part of it. >> That That's a little part of it. Yeah.
00:38:04
>> It's a little bit of a part of it. But So, the judge, thankfully, sees through this
00:38:13
BS of him being a Bible study leader at the jail. And he gets He receives 20 years, a 20-year sentence, and he will
00:38:23
not be eligible for parole for 10 years [clears throat] of that. And look, this punishment was structured to ensure
00:38:30
ensure a long stretch of confinement for this individual. And I'm looking to see
00:38:37
if I have in my notes here what the judge said at the sentencing because it >> He said, "Listen here, you little piece
00:38:46
of shit." >> I don't have it the direct quote in my notes here, but basically he's saying
00:38:52
like, "When I look at you and I see you and I review what you are here being charged with and the details of these
00:39:00
crimes, that there's something psychologically wrong and violent with you." So, while
00:39:08
Curtis Huff Jr. is locked up, in 1995, Osceola County investigators officially named Curtis J. Huff Jr. as a primary
00:39:19
suspect in the murder of Ruth Houpt, the chiropractor. They say that the circumstantial evidence against him was
00:39:27
substantial and damning. And then they also say that there are similarities in that crime
00:39:34
that mirror other crimes, unsolved crimes that they have in that area at about that same time period. Those being
00:39:43
the ones that we just got went through. So, let's go through this evidence here,
00:39:48
Captain. First, the truck. Curtis Huff Jr. owned a red 1991 GMC Sonoma pickup truck, matching the description of the
00:39:55
vehicle seen near the orange grove where Ruth's body was found. Another witness says that they saw a pickup truck near
00:40:02
Antonio Zucco's business. Now, we don't get a great description of that pickup truck other than a small pickup
00:40:09
truck. We do know that tire tracks at the Houpt crime scene where her body was found matched
00:40:15
for the BFGoodrich tires that were found to be on Curtis Huff's truck. A Children
00:40:22
of the Sun cassette tape with no case was found inside of Curtis Huff's truck. Mhm. Remember the empty case for that
00:40:31
exact tape were Well, maybe not that exact tape, but >> Right. But, a tape >> matching that was found near Ruth's
00:40:38
body. ATM footage. Remember the physical description provided by police after further analysis of that footage, a
00:40:46
smaller man. Curtis Huff Jr. is 5' 4" tall. >> [laughter] >> There you go. >> And this seems like a like a
00:40:56
kind of not so important thing, but they're saying he was known to wear hooded sweatshirts
00:41:02
a lot. He grew up in Vero Beach. He lived a short distance from the very bank where Ruth's ATM card was used. His
00:41:13
girlfriend at the time told police that he traveled there often to that bank. Footprints from Reebok sneakers were
00:41:21
found at the crime scene where Hults' body was found matched a pair of Reeboks that were seized from
00:41:29
Curtis Huff's father's home in St. Cloud where he was living at the time of his arrest.
00:41:35
>> Well, well, well. >> The Mike Greenwell appointment, the name used for the final appointment at Ruth's
00:41:41
office, Mike Greenwell was the name of a Boston Red Sox left fielder, as we said
00:41:47
earlier. Curtis Huff was an avid baseball fan who also played left field for a local
00:41:52
softball team. Huff's girlfriend in 1992 lived near Ruth Hults' chiropractic office. Furthermore, detectives verified
00:42:01
that a cover, a truck bed cover, the one on the bed of Huff's truck, had been purchased from the very store where
00:42:10
Bonnie Goodson worked and was murdered. >> Mhm. >> And we know that Curtis Huff was also in the
00:42:17
ticket business. And what did they find on him when he was arrested? He had Antonio Zucco's business card in his
00:42:26
wallet when he was arrested. >> And [clears throat] you wonder if they're able to get any DNA off the
00:42:32
glove that was found. >> It doesn't stop there. Huff's parents knew Mary Ellen Wise.
00:42:38
>> Can't stop, won't stop. >> They had lived across the street from her. Now, not at the time of her murder, but
00:42:44
she she lived in that house for a long period of time. They knew her and they said that Curtis Huff knew her as well.
00:42:52
And it goes beyond that. His stepfather, his name's John Heron, said that they were close, fairly close friends with
00:42:59
Mary Ellen Wise. >> Mhm. >> And later told investigators that Curtis Huff knew Mary Ellen
00:43:08
knew Mary Ellen had been hurt in an auto accident and received a large settlement. So, remember we talked about
00:43:15
her being severely injured in a car accident. >> Right. >> She from a lawsuit of that injury from that
00:43:23
car accident, they settled. The settlement was for, I believe, a million or a little more than a million dollars.
00:43:31
It took her 10 years to recover, physically recover. She had damn near teach herself to walk again.
00:43:38
>> Right. >> She spent a lot of time in hospitals, a lot of surgeries to put her back
00:43:42
together again. And she gets a settlement, but the settlement was a stipend. They paid it out in
00:43:50
monthly payments. And from my understanding, she received $1,500 a month. Oh, well, that pretty much
00:43:58
matches up with what's reported on how much was withdrawn from her bank account on the day that she was
00:44:06
abducted, 500 bucks from an ATM, $1,000 for a check written for the drive-thru. >> Mhm.
00:44:14
>> And [clears throat] his stepfather, when John Herron was shown the ATM photo from
00:44:20
the Ruth homicide, the stepfather says, "Look, although the suspect's face isn't visible, the
00:44:27
posture suggested to him that the person could very possibly be his stepson." His
00:44:32
exact words, "Very possibly could be my stepson." In regard to the Mary Ellen Wise case,
00:44:40
now see now the detectives are starting to open up, but they need they collected
00:44:45
Keep in mind, they're getting a lot of this information, a lot of this evidence after the fact that he's arrested. And
00:44:50
then they get a search warrant for Curtis Huff's father's home where he was living, and they find some additional
00:44:57
evidence there. This is all building and building with this Curtis Huff thing. I
00:45:01
think they had some suspicions that some of these cases were connected, but now they have a lot of suspicions, and
00:45:11
they're being a little more vocal about what their suspicions were early on in some of these investigations, stating
00:45:18
that, "Look, when we were looking into the Mary Ellen Wise case, the lead investigator stated very quickly that I
00:45:26
don't think it's this the first time this killer's acted." Two of the autopsy reports, okay, so you have those of Mary
00:45:34
Ellen Wise and Bonnie Goodson were described by the lead investigator as eerily similar. Both victims had 11
00:45:42
fractures to the skull and defensive breaks to the arms. Homicide by blunt force trauma to the head is relatively
00:45:50
uncommon, making a pattern like this stand out. Despite the mountain of circumstantial evidence, Curtis J. Huff
00:45:59
Jr. was never charged with the murders of Ruth Houts, Mary Ellen Wise, Bonnie Goodson, or Antonio Zucco. In
00:46:08
Bonnie Goodson's case, a witness saw a man walking away from the crime scene, but was unable to pick Curtis Huff out
00:46:15
of a lineup. Ultimately, prosecutors could not indict Huff for the Goodson murder,
00:46:21
and the evidence across the other three cases wasn't strong enough to charge him.
00:46:27
>> But how much time is he going to spend? >> Well, remember he he received a 20-year
00:46:33
sentence. In the end, he served 12 years. So, using our highly sophisticated garage math, that means
00:46:42
that this guy gets out in 2005. And because law enforcement simply could not get him for any of these murders,
00:46:49
this 5-ft 4-in [ __ ] stack built like a fire plug is free to roam and kill again.
00:46:55
>> Right. And will. I mean, like you said, charming with a very short fuse. Seems to be very a unique
00:47:05
characteristic. >> Well, and you know, and you hear in all fairness, we have to be clear. As
00:47:11
we were just very clear, he's not been charged in any of these murders, not been convicted of any of them, but you
00:47:18
we heard this in John Wayne Gacy. We heard it with Ted Bundy. He didn't look like a killer. I would tell you that he
00:47:25
Curtis Huff Jr. does in pictures does not look like a killer to me, either. >> Right.
00:47:31
>> Doesn't mean that he isn't. These guys are not so easily spotted. So, the years passed since the 1992 murders,
00:47:39
a new brutality shocked Vero Beach, Florida. This is in July of 2006 when 87-year-old
00:47:46
Helen McPherson was murdered in her home. >> Mhm. >> Helen lived in Vero Beach for 60 years.
00:47:53
She was a homemaker and a member of the First Baptist Church. She was widowed in 2000 and so she spent
00:48:02
her days at her home and in her neighborhood. On the evening of Friday, July 14th, 2006, Helen's son, Doug, and
00:48:11
her daughter-in-law took Helen to dinner at Swensen's restaurant. I love Swensen's. If you have one near
00:48:18
you, go to it immediately. >> Hashtag not sponsored, but we would love for them to sponsor the show.
00:48:25
>> I love the I love the sloppy Joe. All right. So, this Swensen's is on US Highway 1 in
00:48:33
Vero Beach. After dinner, what a good son, taking mom out to dinner, brings her back home, returns her to her
00:48:39
home. They're watching TV for a little bit and then they leave. They say between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m.
00:48:46
>> Uh-huh. >> When they leave, good son reminds mom, "Lock your door." The next day,
00:48:52
Saturday, July 15th, a neighbor noticed a screen missing from Helen's door. So, she's got
00:49:00
the screen door and then you have the actual door. The screen is missing from that screen door. So, the neighbor calls
00:49:06
the son. Says, "Hey, your the screen door is popped out or you might want to go check on your mom." He tries calling
00:49:13
her. We're now at 5:30, 5:45 p.m. the following day. Can't get her on the phone, so they decide they're
00:49:22
going to drive out there and check on mom. So, around 6:00 p.m., unfortunately, they found Helen's
00:49:27
lifeless body in her bedroom lying against the wall with blood on her face. The home and her bedroom had been
00:49:37
ransacked, things turned upside down. They called 911 immediately. The medical examiner revealed multiple injuries from
00:49:46
both strangulation and blunt force trauma inflicted with a sharp-edged object. And the investigators on the
00:49:55
scene described the killing as among the most vicious they had ever seen. There were no gunshots, no stab wounds. Helen
00:50:03
had been beaten with an unknown object or instrument, they said. She was not sexually assaulted. There were signs of
00:50:10
forced entry through the carport door. And they also noted in the report that there had been, or according to the son
00:50:18
and the neighbor, an attempted break-in 10 days prior that Helen did not report.
00:50:24
>> Mhm. >> So, Curtis Huff Jr. gets out in 2005 after serving 12 years of his 20-year
00:50:33
sentence. Upon release, he moved to 5825 20th Street in Vero Beach, about a mile from Helen's residence.
00:50:43
He's living just north of a Target store and across from the Ryan Wood Shopping Center.
00:50:50
>> This guy's a real douchebag. >> These are places that Helen's son would tell police that that she went
00:50:57
frequently. And so, he is suspected of involvement in prior cases that have similarities, and some of this
00:51:08
is a lot of this really is the blunt force trauma along with the robberies. To his defense, here, Captain,
00:51:15
investigators compared his fingerprints, which obviously are going They are going
00:51:19
to have on file, to partial prints that were recovered from Helen's crime scene.
00:51:23
They did not match. What do we know about If If Curtis Huff committed these prior murders, what do we know about
00:51:30
that killer? He wear He wore gloves. So, it's logical to assume that maybe he did, if he was in fact the person that
00:51:39
broke into Helen McPherson's home. The case, just like the others, had been in and out of the the
00:51:46
over the years. >> Well, and hold on for a second because we have a handful of crimes that we see
00:51:53
the similarities, we see the connections, but those are just the ones we know of. This guy could be
00:51:59
responsible for so many crimes. >> You're exactly right, and keep in mind he lived in a couple of different states
00:52:06
and so he has >> did this start? I mean, and yes, he's pretty young when he first gets locked
00:52:13
up, but this could have started >> late teens. >> Well, you can track his footprints to
00:52:19
areas like Michigan, Indiana, and then regarding the charges that he gets convicted of and we know he's later on
00:52:27
parole for in Florida were for robberies in what's simply stated as Midwest states. So, how far did he travel during
00:52:39
that time? And like you said, >> Yeah. >> I think it's Look, I I don't know that
00:52:45
he did all five of these. I feel very confident that he did two or four of them. And if he did any of them at all
00:52:53
and he's got other priors, like you said, I I it's it's very it would be dumb not to
00:53:01
question how many other cases could this guy be involved with. And if he is of the type that the violence and the
00:53:09
murder is part of it for him or that it's simply leave no witnesses, >> Mhm. >> does he have other homicides?
00:53:17
In and out of the state of Florida. This case, they have openly said, they have openly said in some of these cases that
00:53:25
Curtis Huff Jr. is a suspect. They've also openly named him as a person of interest.
00:53:30
So, this is nothing new here with this guy. It's just a name that most of us have never heard.
00:53:36
And crimes that need more awareness, a string of crimes that need more awareness outside of this
00:53:44
area. This case, just like just like so many that we've covered, has been in and
00:53:48
out of the news since 2006 and the earlier crimes of 1992. >> Mhm. >> But there's been real not not any real
00:54:00
movement on the cases, even though they've been in and out of the news since. We are told that the cases are not cold
00:54:07
and that law enforcement agencies continue to work the cases. I would put together a task force on these five
00:54:13
homicides led by a cold case expert. Underline the word expert about 10 times. I believe that there are reasons
00:54:22
to work some of these cases together and others on the periphery. So these unsolved five homicides remain for the
00:54:30
families more than cold case files. These are ongoing stories without endings, without answers, stories marked
00:54:38
by very specific dates, specific specific places, and a reoccurring name that investigators had pointed to, but never
00:54:48
successfully carried through to a prosecution. As of June of 2026, 34 years have passed since the terrible
00:54:57
string of murders in 1992 and 20 years since Helen McPherson was killed in her home.
00:55:03
The murders of Ruth Hought, Mary Ellen Wise, Bonnie Goodson, Antonio Zucco, and Helen McPherson
00:55:12
remain officially unsolved. Investigators continue to ask the public for help, hoping that one tip will
00:55:21
finally break the silence. The families are still suffering, trapped in the torment of not knowing, while a prime
00:55:29
suspect in at least four of the cases was never brought to trial for them. For the Indian River County Sheriff's
00:55:37
Office, the promise to Helen's family remains firm. {quote} We're confident that we're going to get
00:55:45
there. {end quote} So, in the quiet seaside community of Vero Beach, Florida, a shadow from the past looms
00:55:52
large. A chilling narrative of violence that has haunted families in this community for decades. This story begins
00:56:00
and ends with a man named Curtis Huff Jr. whose name is linked to a string of brutal, unsolved murders that terrorized
00:56:09
Central and South Florida. With a criminal history that already included an attempted murder conviction, Curtis
00:56:16
Huff Jr. is a central figure in a dark chapter of Florida's history. >> [music] [music]
00:56:32
>> Want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast and check out
00:56:38
true crime garage.com. Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners?
00:56:43
>> Yes, Captain. Let's go way back. This title is from 1983. I love these old back pocket true crime
00:56:51
paperbacks. >> Yeah. >> This one is titled Mass Murderers, Human Time Bombs, They Exploded Violence to
00:57:00
Kill by the Dozen. This is way back when they still sold True Detective Magazine.
00:57:06
And this is from the files of True Detective Magazine Mass Murderers from True Detective Magazine edited by Rose
00:57:16
Manslinburg. You don't have to write down that title now. We will have it listed on our website, on our
00:57:21
recommended page. Just go to truecrimegarage.com. >> And until next week. >> Be good, be kind, and don't litter.
00:57:30
>> [music] [music] [music] >> Mhm.