0:02

Happy Holidays everyone! As we wrap up

0:04

the year, we're taking a short break

0:07

to rest and reflect this year as

0:09

brought a lot of changes for the

0:11

team. Here at Serial Killers, we've covered

0:13

stories of killers who have yet to

0:15

be caught and we tried new angles

0:17

like our specials on man hunts and

0:19

hitman. Thanks for sticking with us through

0:21

it all and letting us bring you

0:23

the stories we find the most fascinating

0:26

every week. For the next two weeks

0:28

we're highlighting a favorite episode from this

0:30

year, the story of the buried bodies.

0:32

Killer! Thank you so much for tuning

0:34

in during Twenty Twenty Three and will

0:36

see you and Twenty Twenty Four! Stay.

0:39

Safe out there. Due

0:49

to the nature of this

0:51

killers crimes list or discretion

0:53

is advised. This episode includes

0:55

discussions of murder, sexual assault,

0:57

child abuse, bestiality, gun violence,

0:59

and kidnapping. Consider this when

1:01

deciding how and when you'll

1:03

listen. To. Get help

1:05

on mental health and

1:08

sexual abuse. Visit spotify.com/resources.

1:17

The chris like mornings and the Adirondack Mountains

1:20

often make the forest feel idyllic, but it

1:22

only seemed bomb it has to for men

1:24

walking along it's dirt roads back in the

1:26

summer of Nineteen Seventy three. Though

1:29

they looked like an ordinary group

1:31

of hikers, they were actually on

1:33

a grim mission. Their friends Damion

1:35

Susan had been missing for days.

1:38

The. Crew remain silent as they moved. Each

1:40

try to hide their fears as they searched

1:43

for their friends. Gym King walked

1:45

a few paces ahead of the others,

1:47

his eyes scanning over the landscape, looking

1:49

for clues. Finally he

1:51

saw it at the bottom of

1:54

a steep and bank meant beside

1:56

the road a sliver of white

1:58

without hesitating. gym clambered. It's

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an extremely experimental procedure. Based

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4:53

In the summer of 1973, 37

4:56

year old Robert Garo left behind the idyllic

4:58

suburban life he'd worked so hard to build.

5:01

For years he'd kept up appearances with

5:03

his neighbors, children and parole officer. He'd

5:06

concealed his true monstrosity from everyone

5:09

but his victims. But

5:11

now that was all over. He'd

5:13

just killed a teenage girl,

5:15

Alicia Hauck. He knew the

5:18

cops already had him on their radar. He had

5:20

to get out of town. And

5:22

fast. So that July he

5:24

packed up a few belongings and drove north, more

5:26

than 150 miles to the vast

5:29

expanse of Adirondack Park. A

5:31

sprawling six million acre stretch of forested

5:33

mountains, it was a popular spot for

5:36

tourists and hikers. It was

5:38

also an ideal place to get lost

5:40

and never be found. As

5:44

he'd picked a secluded place to set up camp, Garo

5:46

tried to unwind. But out

5:48

in the wilderness, with only birdsong and his

5:50

own thoughts for company, he became

5:52

more agitated. His head

5:55

was pounding, a white hot pain

5:57

that worsened every hour. Vanessa

6:00

is going to take over on the psychology here and

6:02

throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa

6:04

is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but

6:06

we have done a lot of research for

6:08

this show. Thanks

6:10

Greg. These headaches date back to

6:13

the car accident Garo had the previous

6:15

year. Persistent headaches are the

6:17

most common symptom of a traumatic brain

6:19

injury and the risk may be increased

6:21

if a person experiences recurrent head trauma.

6:24

You'll remember from our previous episode that

6:26

according to Garo's sister, their mother knocked

6:29

him unconscious at least once when he was

6:31

a boy. We already discussed

6:33

the well-established risks of childhood brain

6:35

injuries. It's possible

6:38

that the car crash aggravated

6:40

existing damage causing Garo's debilitating

6:42

headaches. Several studies indicate a

6:44

link between severe headaches and

6:46

hostility. A 2021 case

6:49

report published by researchers at a

6:51

Turkish university described a patient whose

6:53

headaches triggered what seemed to

6:55

be dissociative aggression. While

6:57

headaches aren't enough to make someone a murderer,

6:59

they could have made Garo's violent impulses worse.

7:02

Over the next two days the pain persisted,

7:05

making it hard to sleep or even think

7:07

straight. By July 14th, Garo

7:09

had become a powder keg. That

7:13

same morning, 23-year-old Danny Porter

7:15

and his girlfriend, 21-year-old Susan

7:17

Petz, set off on a

7:19

camping trip in the Adirondacks.

7:22

Danny was working hard as a political pollster

7:24

for a local election at the time while

7:26

Susan was about to begin her final year

7:28

at Boston University. They were both

7:30

looking forward to a well-deserved break out in the

7:32

wilderness. By mid-afternoon, the couple

7:35

reached a pretty stretch of woodland on the

7:37

southern side of the mountain range. There

7:39

was no formal campground in this area of the

7:42

park and as far as they

7:44

could tell, there was nobody else around

7:46

for miles. But they

7:48

were wrong. The details of

7:50

what happened next are sketchy. The

7:53

only account we have is from Garo himself

7:55

and by his own admission, his memory

7:58

is vague. Here's what he told

8:00

his lawyers. lawyers, according to Jim Tracy's book,

8:02

Sworn to Silence. Garro had pulled

8:04

over to the side of a narrow forest road because

8:06

his head was killing him. He sat

8:09

there in agony as Danny and Susan pulled

8:11

up behind him. They

8:13

didn't have enough room to pass, so Danny

8:15

got out and walked towards the driver's

8:17

side of Garro's car, perhaps to see

8:19

if he needed help. The

8:21

exchange quickly took an ugly turn. It's

8:24

unclear who said what, but good

8:26

intentions devolved into conflict. During

8:29

Garro's hair trigger temper, it likely didn't take much

8:31

to push him over the edge. At

8:34

some point, Garro exited his car and

8:36

started scuffling with Danny. The

8:39

pair ended up falling into a steep embankment

8:41

that ran alongside the road. In

8:44

a moment of pure fury, Garro reached

8:46

for the knife he'd concealed inside his

8:48

jacket and stabbed Danny repeatedly. When

8:51

he was sure Danny was dead, Garro

8:53

calmly walked back up the slope towards

8:55

the road. Susan was

8:57

still sitting in the car, completely

9:00

terrified. Garro told her that

9:02

he was taking her hostage, but

9:04

he had no intention of letting

9:06

Susan go. He drove

9:08

her about an hour north towards Mineville,

9:10

a tiny hamlet close to the Vermont

9:12

border. They camped there for

9:15

two days, during which Garro repeatedly coerced

9:17

Susan into having sex with him. On

9:20

July 16th, he said that Susan asked if

9:22

she could go home. When he

9:25

said no, he claimed she grabbed his

9:27

knife and tried attacking him. Garro

9:29

wrestled the knife away and then

9:31

killed her. After his

9:34

rage subsided, he hid her body inside

9:36

the air vent of an abandoned mine

9:38

shaft, where he hoped it would go

9:40

unnoticed. Meanwhile,

9:43

200 miles away in

9:45

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Danny's friend Pat Caddell

9:47

was already worrying. It was

9:49

Monday morning and Danny hadn't shown up for work.

9:53

Pat wasn't like him. He was reliable, the

9:55

kind of guy who always called if he

9:57

was running late. The

10:00

police and report it as friends missing.

10:02

Soon afterward, state troopers found the couple's

10:04

abandoned car on the same narrow forest

10:06

road where they'd left it. Nothing.

10:09

About the scene seem suspicious. The

10:11

car was parked and lot and there were

10:13

no signs of a struggle nearby. The

10:16

police dismiss path concerns. They knew a

10:18

big group of Boston University students run

10:20

a white water rafting trip in the

10:22

area that week. They figured Danny and

10:24

Susan had decided to join the others.

10:27

But. Part had an uneasy feeling, he

10:29

just knew something was wrong. So he

10:31

gathered a group of friends and

10:33

together. They drove out to the spot where

10:36

Danny and Susan's car had been Sound. Trying.

10:38

To keep their anxiety at bay, the group

10:41

found out and started searching the wilderness. Eventually

10:43

a young man. Named Jim King

10:46

Notice Danny's body lying in the

10:48

ditch. He picked Danny's remains up,

10:50

carried them to the road. And

10:53

yelled to the others for help but he

10:55

knew there. Was nothing to be done.

10:57

Danny had been dead for days.

11:00

In a cruel twist. A seat when

11:02

the friends called the police Day initially.

11:04

Became suspects d Authorities were suspicious

11:06

because gym had disrupted the crime

11:09

scene by moving the body, but

11:11

the group was well connected gym

11:13

work to Sen Ted Kennedy's and

11:15

so authorities turned their attention elsewhere.

11:18

With. Susan still missing. Investigators launched

11:20

a state wide search. At

11:22

the time, Garrow was still lurking

11:24

around the vast Adirondack park, blending

11:26

in amongst the day hikers and

11:28

backpackers. He must have been an

11:30

odd feeling. Between. Stints

11:33

in prisons, his various jobs, and his

11:35

family he'd gotten used to having constant

11:37

company about in the two weeks after

11:39

he killed Danny of Susan Garros spent

11:41

more time alone that he had in

11:43

years. He was reminded

11:45

of his childhood, the total isolation

11:48

he felt on the farm where

11:50

he'd been left with little supervision.

11:52

It wasn't a happy memory, in

11:55

fact it fan the flames of

11:57

his rage even further. Listen

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13:10

On July Twenty Eighth, Nineteen

13:12

Seventy. Three a group of four friends

13:14

said out from the outskirts of Albany

13:16

for the Adirondack Mountains. They were all

13:18

in their late teens and early twenties.

13:20

Looking forward to a long weekend camping

13:23

together, but the site where they plan

13:25

on staying was full. Undeterred, they found

13:27

a secluded clearing off of Route Thirty

13:29

and set up camp there for the

13:31

night. Twenty three year old Carol no

13:33

one else does. The oldest of the

13:35

group shared a tent with her fiance,

13:37

nineteen year old Day Freeman in another

13:39

tent where Daves. Friends: eighteen year

13:42

old still down blue states and

13:44

twenty year old Nick Fiorello. The

13:47

next morning, fill in Nyc woke up before

13:49

sunrise to go fishing while Dave and Carol

13:51

slept in. When

13:53

the couple awoke around. Nine Am. they

13:56

heard footsteps outside. Their tent. They

13:58

call their friends' names. assuming they'd returned

14:00

from the fishing trip. But

14:02

there was no reply. Instead,

14:05

Dave and Carol watched in

14:07

horror as the zipper to

14:09

their tent slowly opened. Still

14:12

half asleep, they wondered if it was a dream.

14:15

Garo on the other side was wide

14:17

awake. He hadn't slept all

14:19

night. He'd been parked nearby just out

14:22

of sight watching the group, waiting

14:24

for this moment. At

14:26

first, the couple thought Garo looked like a

14:29

park ranger. He was wearing a fedora and

14:31

had a pair of binoculars around his neck.

14:34

But then they saw the rifle. Garo

14:37

calmly told them to leave the tent,

14:39

and they obeyed. He claimed he'd

14:41

run out of gas and needed a fight and some

14:43

from their cars. Just

14:46

then, Nick and Phil returned from their

14:48

fishing trip to find this

14:50

strange scene. Dave and Carol's

14:52

paralyzing fear briefly turned to

14:54

relief. Now it was

14:56

four against one. But

14:58

it seems they were too disoriented and scared

15:00

to try to overpower Garo, who didn't seem

15:03

phased at all. He told the

15:05

group he just wanted their gas, but he had

15:07

a criminal record and couldn't risk getting caught. So

15:10

he was going to tie them all to trees to

15:12

make sure they didn't rat him out. He

15:15

marched the foursome into the woods at

15:17

gunpoint. Along the way, the group tried

15:19

to defuse the situation, telling Garo he

15:21

was welcome to just take the gas.

15:24

They promised they wouldn't tell anyone. Garo

15:26

wouldn't hear it. He snapped, Don't

15:29

try anything or I'll blow a hole in you. I've

15:32

killed before and I'll kill again. One

15:35

by one, Garo had the four friends

15:38

tie one another to trees while he

15:40

watched. He made sure to leave

15:42

several feet of distance between the trees so

15:44

that none of the captives could see each

15:46

other. The end

15:48

methodically, Garo walked back through the

15:50

woods surveying his hostages. Eventually he

15:52

reached the first tree where 18

15:54

year old Phil was tied up.

15:57

He lowered his gun and pulled out

15:59

a buck-knife. Garro

16:02

stabbed Phil repeatedly in the chest.

16:04

Though the others couldn't see what

16:06

was happening, they heard Phil's anguished

16:09

cries and then a terrible silence.

16:12

Panicking, the others began struggling against their

16:14

ropes. Since Garro had forced

16:16

them to tie themselves up, it wasn't too

16:19

difficult to break loose. Soon

16:21

Nick, Dave, and Carol were all free. They

16:24

all fled in separate directions. Momentarily

16:27

stunned, Garro looked around frantically and spotted

16:29

a set of footprints in the mud.

16:33

He started running after the tracks and caught

16:35

up with Dave in the woods. Pressing

16:37

his rifle into the back of the young

16:39

man's head, Garro forced him to return to

16:41

the campsite. He ordered Dave to

16:43

lie next to him in a ditch and help keep

16:45

watch. It's not clear exactly why.

16:48

It might have made more sense to flee, but

16:50

as far as we can tell, Garro simply froze.

16:54

Everybody's likely familiar with fight

16:56

or flight, but there are

16:58

actually three typical responses to

17:00

danger. Fight, flight, and freeze.

17:03

It's believed that the third response arises when

17:05

the other two are unlikely to be

17:07

effective. In those situations, the

17:09

human body stays put to wait for

17:11

the danger to pass. Consciously

17:13

or not, it seems Garro decided

17:16

that fighting and fleeing weren't his

17:18

best options. He was acting on

17:20

pure instinct. Regardless of what

17:22

was going on in his mind, the two

17:24

escapees weren't dwelling on it. Carol

17:26

sprinted through several acres of dense woods

17:29

and onto a nearby road where she

17:31

luckily managed to flag down a passerby.

17:34

Almost hyperventilating, she told the driver what

17:36

had happened and he agreed to take

17:38

her to the nearby village of Speculator

17:40

for help. Meanwhile, Nick ran

17:43

to his car and gunned it, still

17:45

half blind with panic as he drove

17:47

away. When he reached the

17:49

nearby village of Wells, he pulled into the

17:51

parking lot of a diner and began screaming

17:53

for help. According to author: Jim

17:55

Tracy, the locals were wary. Nick was covered

17:58

in dirt and, to them, a. Peer

18:00

to be having some kind of psychotic

18:02

episode History about being attacked by lunatic

18:04

in the woods. Sounded like a bad

18:06

acid trip. Eventually though,

18:09

he persuaded. A group of residents to

18:11

come with him to the campsite. Where

18:13

they came across Dave and Garrow still lying

18:15

under still makes in the ditch. When.

18:18

Daves. Ah, the. Locals. Coming to lead to

18:20

his seat and ran towards some screaming.

18:23

He's got a gun and he's going to

18:25

suit. But. Garrow didn't suit. Instead,

18:27

he com we got to his feet

18:29

and walked away into the forest. Once.

18:32

Again, it's hard to make sense of

18:35

Garros thought process here. but retreating. Turned

18:37

out to be a smart call.

18:39

His com attitude surprised and confused.

18:41

To locals. So much so that

18:43

no one bothered pursuing him. Meanwhile,

18:46

the man who picked up Carol call the

18:48

sheriff in the town of Like Pleasance about

18:50

fifty miles away. Once. The

18:52

authorities in both towns got involved.

18:55

Is soon became clear that Carol

18:57

Days and Nick Stories. Matched perfectly.

18:59

State Troopers sound silly Body still

19:01

tied to a tree near the

19:04

camp site. This. Wasn't some

19:06

acid trip gone wrong? This was

19:08

merely a mass murder. Within

19:11

forty eight hours, a sprawling manhunt

19:13

was underway for the two hundred

19:15

police officers com the woods and

19:18

mountains around the crime scene. Helicopters

19:20

buzzed overhead and bloodhounds blazed a

19:22

trail on the ground and news

19:24

the chaos Garrow Abandon. His car and

19:26

fled into the. Woods on Foot. That

19:28

turned out to be a fatal mistake.

19:31

Before long, the authorities found his

19:33

car and trace the license plate. Thirty.

19:35

Seven year old Robert Giro was now the

19:37

most Wanted man and a State of New

19:40

York. Looking. Into his record,

19:42

the police discovered he was on

19:44

bail for sexually assaulting to minors.

19:46

In Syracuse, he'd recently missed

19:48

his court date. At

19:50

some point, they also identified Garrow as

19:53

a suspect in Danny's murder based on

19:55

the similarities between the killings and the

19:57

location and Adirondack Park. Susan Pets mean.

20:00

While was ill considered missing. The

20:03

possibility that she might still be

20:05

alive, maybe even a captive, added

20:07

new urgency to the investigation. Rumors.

20:10

That a serial killer was on

20:12

the loose spread terror throughout the

20:14

area. After hearing the news from

20:16

panic campers abandon their tents and

20:18

campsite, leaving their supplies behind. To

20:21

catch Garo, the police set up

20:23

a sprawling network of road blocks

20:25

around Adirondack Park. They were

20:27

confident they were closing. In on the

20:29

killer, but girl was crafty,

20:31

evaded the police roadblocks and without

20:34

anyone noticing, stole a car

20:36

from a lodge and escaped. He'd.

20:38

Gotten away again by the skin

20:40

of his teeth. but he had

20:43

no intention. Of ever

20:45

getting costs. However,

20:52

you celebrate the holiday season

20:54

can be a lot for

20:56

mean the flights. Camp with

20:58

your sister between travel ma'am

21:00

we shopping since and more

21:03

when you're feeling overwhelmed. Moved.

21:09

To try to do Christians focus

21:12

on one small thing at a

21:14

time. For. More to

21:16

for dealing with stress.

21:18

Visit an Ha.ohio.com/checked. Your

21:22

home with times.com or none

21:24

of my last. See

21:28

I lie or let us install

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none of those last. Three

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Dance. Resembles

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and free. Speech

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and to blinds.com and see

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Mine rules and restrictions may have.

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my early august nineteen seventy three

21:59

37-year-old Robert Garro had been on

22:01

the run for about a week.

22:04

After somehow slipping out of Adirondack

22:06

Park, he made his way east

22:09

towards Lake Champlain. His

22:11

younger sister Agnes lived nearby and he knew

22:13

she wouldn't turn him away. The

22:15

cops already had her house under surveillance, but

22:18

as it turned out, Garro happened to arrive

22:20

shortly after the police left to follow up

22:22

on another lead. He

22:24

stayed briefly, just long enough to watch

22:26

himself on the 11 o'clock news. Thanks

22:29

to that report, he realized the

22:31

police had already identified his stolen

22:33

car. Garro told his

22:35

sister and her family that the whole thing was

22:38

a misunderstanding. According to journalist

22:40

Jim Tracy, Agnes believed him, so she

22:42

didn't alert the police to his presence.

22:45

After an hour or so, he slipped out of

22:47

the back door and disappeared into the night, leaving

22:50

the stolen car behind. The

22:52

next day, the authorities found the vehicle on

22:54

a dirt road near Agnes' home. Now,

22:57

in its second week, the manhunt

22:59

widened to cover the entire county.

23:02

Garro traveled by foot through nearby wooded

23:04

areas, stealing food and drinks from homes

23:06

and campsites when he could. Maybe

23:09

he figured he had better odds of surviving in the

23:11

woods. He

23:13

was wrong. On August 9th, a

23:15

game warden spotted Garro and recognized

23:17

him immediately. He tried to

23:19

place Garro under arrest, but the killer

23:22

fled. Until then, running

23:24

had always worked well for him. This

23:26

time, though, the game warden gave chase.

23:29

When Garro refused to stop, he pulled out

23:31

his gun and shot him four times. Somehow,

23:34

despite bullet wounds to his back,

23:37

arms, and legs, Garro kept moving,

23:39

but only for a few moments.

23:42

Finally, he collapsed into the undergrowth.

23:45

Authorities rushed him to the hospital. As

23:47

soon as he awoke, they bombarded him

23:49

with questions, desperate to determine Susan's whereabouts.

23:52

But Garro refused to say a word,

23:54

except to ask for his lawyer,

23:57

Frank Armani. Armani had

23:59

been affected. and ruthless in defending Garo

24:01

against the assault charges in the path. He'd

24:04

even persuaded some victims to drop their cases.

24:06

Garo was confident his old attorney would come

24:08

through for him again. Armani

24:11

took the case and enlisted a

24:13

criminal defense lawyer, Francis Belgee,

24:15

as co-counsel. The

24:17

defense had an uphill battle, and both lawyers

24:19

knew it. There was a

24:22

lot of evidence against Garo. Most importantly,

24:24

there were three eyewitnesses who could testify

24:26

against him. So,

24:28

Garo admitted everything. He told

24:30

his team he'd killed not

24:32

only Phil Domblouski, but also

24:34

Susan Petz and Alicia Hough,

24:37

the high schooler in Syracuse.

24:40

By that point, Alicia's body had not been

24:42

found. The police had her pegged as

24:44

a teenage runaway. But Garo told

24:46

them exactly where he'd left her remains,

24:48

in a cemetery near Syracuse University. He

24:52

also revealed that he disposed of Susan's

24:54

body inside the air vent of a

24:56

mine shaft. This

25:07

passive phrasing might simply indicate

25:10

Garo's unwillingness to take responsibility

25:12

for his crimes. Or it

25:14

could point to something deeper, a

25:16

type of dissociation. In psychology,

25:18

this word is a blanket term that refers

25:20

to a break in a person's mental functioning.

25:23

Generally, a disconnect between their

25:26

thoughts, actions, feelings, or

25:28

sense of self. Research shows

25:30

that some level of dissociation during

25:32

a violent crime is relatively common.

25:34

So it's possible Garo knew he'd

25:36

killed Susan, but felt no real-life

25:39

attachment to the act. Armani

25:41

and Belgee didn't have time to dwell on the

25:44

nuances of Garo's phrasing. They had to make sure

25:46

he was telling the truth. So

25:48

they followed the directions he'd given them, eventually

25:50

coming to a steep hill in a stretch

25:52

of woodland. Peering

26:00

into the darkness with a flashlight,

26:02

the men recoiled. Susan's body was

26:05

exactly where Garo said it would

26:07

be. On a separate

26:09

trip, Belji confirmed that Garo hit Alicia

26:12

Hauck's body at a cemetery in Syracuse.

26:14

The attorneys knew the police were searching

26:16

for Susan and Alicia. Their families

26:19

had been in agonizing limbo for

26:21

weeks. Now they alone

26:23

knew the truth. But

26:26

under the attorney-client privilege rules, they couldn't

26:28

disclose anything Garo had told them. There

26:30

are some exceptions to this rule. In

26:33

most states, lawyers can break attorney-client privilege if

26:35

someone is in danger, for example. But

26:37

that didn't help here. In

26:40

a 2016 episode of the podcast

26:43

Radio Lab, Armani discusses how morally

26:45

conflicted he felt during this time.

26:48

Both families were still clinging to the

26:50

hope that their daughters might be alive,

26:53

and he couldn't say anything. During

26:56

the Radio Lab episode, he said, You

26:58

wake up at two-thirty in the morning with sweat

27:00

running down your back. You're questioning

27:02

yourself. You're hurting people. So

27:04

you begin to wonder, am I

27:06

in the right profession? He

27:09

searched desperately for ways to get

27:11

the information out without directly betraying

27:13

his client. He tried brokering a

27:15

deal with the prosecution, offering up the

27:17

location of the bodies in exchange for

27:19

a more lenient sentence. But

27:22

the DA refused on moral grounds, finding it

27:24

unethical for the defense to use the bodies

27:26

as a bargaining chip. Ultimately,

27:29

the bodies were uncovered without

27:31

Armani's help. In

27:34

the final weeks of 1973,

27:36

two kids stumbled onto Susan's

27:38

remains while they were playing in the

27:40

mineshaft. Coincidentally, a Syracuse

27:43

University student found Alicia's body in

27:45

the cemetery around the same time.

27:48

After months of agony, both families were,

27:50

at last, able to bury their loved

27:52

ones. Garo's six secrets were

27:54

all unveiled. Because

30:00

somehow Robert jr. Smuggled a pistol

30:02

inside of all things a box

30:04

of KFC chicken It's

30:07

been suggested by some that for Robert

30:09

jr. It was an act of love

30:11

for the distant father He craved validation

30:13

from for Garo the gun was an

30:15

insurance policy. He wouldn't use it unless

30:17

he absolutely had to That

30:20

night after lights out Garo made a

30:22

dummy out of pillows Stuffed

30:24

it inside his prison clothes and left it

30:27

under his sheets According to

30:29

Jim Tracy Garo then exited his

30:31

cell in his wheelchair and used a

30:33

table leg to pop off two railings from

30:35

his wards porch Leaving a

30:37

gap just wide enough for him to wiggle

30:40

through Armed with the

30:42

pistol. He was ready to use it if anybody

30:44

confronted him, but once again Security

30:46

was lax and it seemed nobody noticed

30:49

to Garo go Nor

30:51

did they see him head outside

30:53

scale the prison fence and disappear

30:56

into the darkness beyond Garo

30:58

must have been elated as he jumped down

31:00

from the fence onto free soil Yet

31:03

again, he defied extraordinary odds to

31:06

evade justice breathing in the night

31:08

air. He felt invincible The

31:11

morning after a guard saw what appeared to

31:14

be Garo still asleep in his cell after

31:16

the wake-up call and yelled at him When

31:19

there was no response he realized what was

31:21

going on and raised the alarm Within

31:24

an hour officers had combed every square foot

31:26

of the prison and its crowns in Beacon

31:29

the closest town to the prison residents were

31:31

warned that an inmate had escaped as Guards

31:34

police and state troopers scoured

31:36

the surrounding area. They must have

31:38

felt hopeless After all

31:40

Garo had a huge head start his

31:43

escape had gone unnoticed for an entire

31:45

night He might already be

31:47

out of the state maybe even out of

31:49

the country But he hadn't

31:52

for reasons that remain unclear Garo

31:54

didn't even run once he was free. He

31:56

didn't take off into the dense woods or steal a

31:59

car from the lodge Once again,

32:01

he just froze. Three

32:04

days after his escape, corrections

32:06

officers found him running through the

32:08

woods just beyond the prison fence.

32:11

Astonished, they yelled at him to stop and

32:13

began chasing him. In response, Garro

32:15

shot one of the officers. With

32:18

that, the officials opened fire, shooting

32:20

him 39 times in all. On

32:24

September 11, 1978, Robert Garro died at the age of 42. Three

32:32

weeks later, his son pleaded guilty to

32:34

a charge of promoting prison contraband. He

32:36

claimed he hadn't known the details of

32:38

his father's escape plan and thought the

32:40

pistol was to defend himself from a

32:42

fellow inmate. Though he was 18, Robert

32:46

Jr. was tried as a juvenile and

32:48

ultimately released on parole after serving three

32:50

months in a youth facility. Garro's

32:53

escape and demise are so absurd that

32:56

it can be easy to overlook how

32:58

the killer bent the system to his

33:00

advantage. He served less than five

33:02

years behind bars, during which he focused

33:04

on nothing but his long con. Ultimately,

33:07

he died without fully bearing the

33:09

weight of what he'd done. Thanks

33:22

again for tuning in to Serial Killers. We'll

33:24

be back soon with another episode. For

33:27

more information on Robert Garro, amongst

33:29

the many sources we used, we

33:31

found Jim Tracy's book, sworn to

33:33

silence, the truth behind Robert Garro

33:35

and the Missing Bodies case,

33:38

on Radiolab's 2016 episode,

33:40

The Buried Bodies Case. Extremely

33:42

helpful in our research. You

33:45

can find all episodes of Serial Killers

33:47

and all other Spotify originals from Parcast

33:49

for free on Spotify. We'll

33:51

see you next time. Stay

33:53

safe out there. Serial Killers

33:55

is a Spotify original from Parcast. Our

33:58

head of programming is Jim Tracy. Julian

34:00

Boiro, our supervising sound designer

34:02

is Russell Nash, with Nick Johnson as

34:05

our head of production, and Spencer Howard

34:07

as our post-production supervisor. Stacy

34:10

Nemick is our supervising editor, and Derek

34:12

Jennings is our writing lead. This

34:15

episode of Serial Killers was written by

34:17

Emma Dibdin, edited by Robert

34:19

Tyler Walker and Terrell Wells,

34:21

fact-checked by Cheyenne Lopez, researched

34:24

by Brian Petrus and Chelsea

34:26

Wood, produced by Bruce Kitovich,

34:28

and sound design by Anthony

34:30

Valsic. Our hosts are Greg

34:33

Polson and me, Vanessa Richardson.