Episode Transcript
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0:00
Cults are everywhere. They don't just live
0:02
in the walls of Nexium and Scientology.
0:04
There are sex cults. Self-help cults. Workout
0:06
cults. Political cults. Even legging cults. And
0:08
on the podcast Was I in a
0:10
Cult, we focus on the brave individuals
0:12
who have lived through them. I'm Liz
0:14
Aikuzzi. And I'm Tyler Meesom. Your host
0:16
of Was I in a Cult? Join us
0:18
each week as we take you through a
0:20
heroic roller coaster of someone's journey in and
0:22
out of a cult. With a little levity
0:25
thrown in because humor is healing and cults
0:27
are funny. Listen to and follow Was
0:29
I in a Cult at Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
0:31
or wherever you get your podcasts. Which for
0:33
Tyler is that right, Aidan? On tape. Hello
1:10
everyone and welcome to episode 369 of the
1:13
True Crime All the Time Unsolved podcast. I'm
1:15
Mike Ferguson and with me as always is
1:17
my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Give
1:19
me how are you? Hey, I'm doing good.
1:22
How about you? I am doing great. Got
1:24
a new puppy. Yeah. Little
1:27
Maltese named Ivy that
1:29
I showed off on the Patreon
1:31
video. Very cute. Yeah, she's a
1:33
cutie. We already had one Maltese
1:35
and we lost our
1:38
lab last year. And
1:40
we've just been thinking that we need
1:42
another doll. I just really kind of thought
1:44
you were going to name her Gibby, but
1:47
you know. Yeah, I floated the idea of
1:49
if it was a boy and no,
1:51
my wife shot that down very, very
1:53
quickly. Like did you even get it out all
1:55
the way? I got like gear
1:58
and she was like, nope. Not
2:01
happening. Let's go ahead and
2:03
give our Patreon shout outs. We had Hayden
2:05
Bushnell. Hey Bushnell, hey I see you, get
2:07
it? I do, from
2:09
the famous Bushnell binocular optic
2:12
family. Mountain. What's going
2:14
on mountain? James Edinger. Hey
2:16
Edinger. Ruby Perez. What's
2:19
up Ruby? Miguel Salas. Ah
2:21
Salas. Dana Allison. Well thanks
2:24
Allison. Jesse Dunavant. Well look
2:26
at that Dunavant. KMCC.
2:29
I wonder what that stands for but I just can't
2:31
put my finger on it. Or
2:34
think of the word finger. Yes. We
2:38
had Melissa Mitchell. What up MM? And
2:40
last but not least, Sarah Thrasher. Hey thanks Sarah.
2:42
And then if we go back into the vault,
2:46
this week we selected Amy. Good
2:48
old Amy. Yeah, so we appreciate the
2:51
new support, the continued support. We also
2:53
had a great PayPal donation from Elizabeth
2:55
Horn. Hey thanks Horn. Yeah, thank you
2:57
to everyone. So Gibbs right now on
2:59
True Crime All The Time, we
3:01
have our second and
3:03
last part on Jodi
3:06
Arias and we really do
3:09
a deep dive into the trial
3:12
and also the penalty phase of
3:14
the trial as well and then
3:16
kind of talk about her making
3:19
headlines over the years and all
3:21
of that. So it's out now. Make sure you
3:23
check it out. All right buddy, are you
3:25
ready to get into this episode of True Crime All The
3:28
Time on the Vault? I'm
3:30
ready. We are talking about James Barrie,
3:32
better known as Buffalo
3:35
Jim. He was a
3:37
celebrity in Las Vegas. Jim
3:39
was liked and respected by the
3:41
majority of people in the city,
3:43
but he made some powerful enemies
3:45
when he refused to relocate his
3:47
business to allow for the expansion
3:49
of a local strip club which
3:52
had alleged ties to the
3:54
mafia. Jim was involved in
3:56
a years long feud with the owner who
3:59
was jailed for... tax fraud. And
4:01
then Jim died under mysterious
4:03
circumstances. The day after his
4:05
enemy was released from house
4:07
arrest based on the evidence at the
4:09
scene and the circumstances leading
4:11
up to his death, his family
4:14
believes he was murdered. How strange
4:16
is that for a strip club to
4:18
have mafia ties? Yeah, especially in Las
4:20
Vegas. It's very strange.
4:22
But then, you know, you, you kind
4:24
of go through this scenario and you
4:26
hear that, you know, his family believes
4:29
he was murdered. I think pretty hard
4:31
not to when you have this kind
4:33
of enemy who just happens to be
4:37
released right before
4:39
your family member dies under mysterious circumstances.
4:43
Definitely going to be thinking
4:45
about it. Yeah. James barrier was born
4:48
on March 22nd, 1953. He
4:51
grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Jim's
4:54
parents took him to Las Vegas for
4:56
a vacation when he was nine years
4:58
old. He knew he wanted
5:00
to come back someday. He loved Vegas
5:02
because of all the lights, shows, and
5:05
restaurants. And you know, Vegas
5:07
is a cool place, but I was
5:09
wondering how much can you really do in
5:11
Vegas as a nine year old? Maybe
5:14
he was a big kid. I don't know. He
5:16
was a tall nine year old. Maybe he had
5:18
a fake ID like the one kid in a
5:21
Vegas vacation. Jim
5:23
stopped attending school after the fifth
5:25
grade and instead learned as much
5:27
as he could about carbs. According
5:30
to Las Vegas weekly, he
5:32
started doing mechanic work at age 13.
5:35
He and his older brother did oil changes
5:37
and Jim often slept at the garages and
5:39
gas stations where he worked. That's definitely a
5:42
way to become a garage monkey, huh? Oh,
5:44
there's no doubt about it. Now we've talked
5:46
about a lot of people not finishing high
5:48
school. I don't know how many people
5:51
we've talked about who dropped
5:53
out of school after the fifth grade
5:56
pretty early. It is early, but
5:58
clearly he knew what he wanted to do. Yeah,
6:00
it was something to do with cars Jim
6:02
moved to Las Vegas in 1971
6:06
he was determined to stay but according to him
6:08
the city tried to get rid of him when
6:11
he was settling into his new life He
6:13
received 13 traffic tickets
6:16
and by the end of the 70s He had
6:18
so many infractions that his lawyer said he
6:20
should be called jailhouse Jim Kind
6:23
of similar to you and all those tickets that
6:25
you had remember I would sit in
6:27
your your vehicle and we would have to go somewhere
6:29
and That one
6:31
time I opened up your your little
6:33
vehicle that thing glove compartment Apartment
6:36
and it was like things sprung out. I just
6:38
tickets after ticket Yeah, and I was like what
6:41
the heck you're like, hey put them back none
6:43
of your business It never got me
6:45
Jim started off by doing mechanic
6:47
work out of his van But
6:49
he was able to purchase his
6:51
own auto repair shop in the
6:53
late 70s called all-state auto and
6:55
marine electric Las Vegas Weekly
6:58
told the story of how Jim got
7:00
his iconic nickname After
7:02
he arrived in Vegas Jim started
7:04
working with D Egbert who
7:07
owned a local car lot by this
7:09
point Jim's hair was long and thick
7:11
and made him stand out in a
7:13
crowd And you know Gibbs. I'm
7:15
always jealous of people with
7:17
long locks. It's something both you
7:19
and I do not
7:22
have one day
7:24
in 1975 Jim
7:26
and D went to a casino and were
7:28
stopped by a drunk tourist from Texas who
7:30
said to both men One
7:33
time when I was a young man, I
7:35
got drunk and I had sexual
7:37
relations with a buffalo First
7:42
of all, that is Never
7:44
something you should attempt or want
7:46
to even think about but
7:49
second of all Why would you
7:51
tell this to two complete strangers? Why
7:53
would you even say it out loud
7:55
at all to anybody? He
7:57
then looked at Jim and said, you know
8:00
You just might be my son. And
8:04
I guess from then on, Jim was
8:06
known as Buffalo. Jim. Now,
8:10
a lot of people have nicknames
8:13
and you always wonder, okay, where do they get them?
8:15
Some of them are easy, right? There's
8:17
a big guy named tiny or, you know,
8:20
whatever Buffalo gym.
8:23
If you gave somebody a hundred guesses,
8:26
they would never come close to to
8:29
guessing how he got that nickname.
8:31
Never. Jim owned his mechanic
8:33
shop for 31 years. His
8:35
shop was known for being able
8:37
to fix cars, trucks, RVs and
8:40
boats. No other mechanic could fix.
8:42
He had a celebrity clients
8:44
like Muhammad Ali, Mike
8:47
Tyson, the undertaker.
8:49
I know who is one of
8:51
your favorite or was one of your
8:53
favorite WWE wrestlers. Well, yeah, until he
8:56
cheated. And many more. And beat me.
8:58
Yeah. Fairly undertaker. People
9:01
out of state came to have Jim
9:03
fix their vehicle. So his
9:06
mechanic skills is outgoing personality
9:09
and his unique style made
9:11
him a local celebrity and
9:13
those are some big names. You
9:15
got Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson coming
9:18
to have you work on their
9:20
car. It says something. Jim used
9:22
to say, there's only two cities in
9:24
this great country where I can
9:26
be me. Those cities were
9:28
Vegas and San Francisco. He
9:30
planned to move to San
9:32
Francisco when he was old.
9:35
Jim liked to party in late
9:37
seventies and early eighties. He went out
9:39
to bars, use drugs and
9:42
met a lot of women. Well,
9:44
that's what you kind of did in the seventies and eighties.
9:47
I know that's what you did in the
9:50
seventies in particular, bars,
9:53
drugs, women, you
9:56
and your Husky jeans. They
9:59
look good on me. While pursuing
10:01
dates, he met several influential
10:03
business owners in Vegas and
10:06
maintained those connections for the rest of
10:08
his life. In 1979, he met his
10:10
partner Roxanne Pollock. They
10:13
had three daughters together. They never
10:16
married, but they were together for 22 years. I
10:19
think it's the first time I've heard you say the
10:21
name Roxanne without singing Roxanne. Roxanne!
10:24
22 years. That's some
10:26
long time. Yeah. You
10:29
would think at a certain point,
10:32
there would be some pressure there to get
10:34
married, but you know, there
10:36
are some folks that are just
10:38
totally fine. And I think
10:41
also there are some folks who believe
10:44
if we do get married, it's not going to
10:46
be as good. So let's just leave
10:48
it where it sits. Let's just leave
10:50
it. Yeah. Let it lie. You don't need
10:52
to put a ring on it. In
10:54
total, Jim had four daughters. Jessica, Elise,
10:57
Jericho, and Jennifer. Wonder
11:00
if her Elise felt special because she didn't get the J.
11:03
Well, as a guy who has
11:05
two kids that are both daughters,
11:09
four daughters is a
11:11
handful has to be. Cause I
11:13
can tell you right now, two daughters that's
11:16
expensive. And
11:19
we haven't even got to weddings yet. You
11:21
know, we're still working through college and all
11:23
of that. Jim continued
11:25
partying heavily until his daughter Jessica
11:28
was born in 1982. He
11:31
decided he needed to change his life
11:33
to be a good father. And his
11:35
main priority in life was providing for
11:37
his family. Jim's daughters loved him
11:39
very much and spoken about what a good dad
11:41
he was. I think there's a lot of guys
11:44
like this, you know, partying
11:46
a little Frank, the tankish, Oh
11:49
yeah. And I would put myself in this category
11:51
for me. Not that I
11:54
ever drank a ton, but I, you know, I
11:56
drank and, but it was like
11:58
once I had my daughter. There
12:00
was something that hit me where
12:03
I felt like I should not be
12:05
out of control. Well, your priorities will change.
12:07
Yes. Kids will do that. It's,
12:10
you know, it's what additional responsibilities
12:12
do to you. Yeah. Now,
12:14
although Jim did decrease his drug
12:16
use, he experimented with drugs in
12:19
the eighties and dabbled in drugs
12:21
with his friends in the
12:23
pro wrestling industry until 2000, according
12:26
to Las Vegas weekly. Well, those guys
12:28
could party because I worked at a hotel when
12:31
they would come in to back then the old era
12:33
arena to do the
12:35
big matches. Later that night,
12:38
they'd be at the Holiday Inn
12:40
where I worked and they'd be
12:42
down in the restaurant bar till
12:44
like four o'clock in the morning and
12:47
they would, were very open on what they were
12:49
doing. Well, they were big guys too.
12:51
I assume they could put some
12:53
away. Yeah. Some close friends said
12:55
he would partake in a night of heavy partying
12:58
all the way up to 2005. So
13:01
he slowed down, but he didn't stop. When
13:03
his daughter, Jennifer was older, Jim told
13:06
her he used cocaine in the eighties.
13:08
The fact that he was not proud of his
13:11
daughters told unsolved mysteries. They never
13:13
saw him use drugs. Now
13:15
let's face it. Cocaine in the
13:17
eighties was pretty ubiquitous. Yeah.
13:20
Yeah. I mean, it was like a, almost
13:22
like a fashion statement. Like it went
13:24
with what you wore. People
13:26
were like, it was a designer drug. People
13:30
were clamoring. I remember
13:32
the big movie, less than
13:34
zero came out around that.
13:36
And then, of course, I mean, can you
13:38
not remember Scarface? Was that in the
13:40
eighties or nineties? I can't remember. Scarface was in the
13:42
eighties, but I think it was set in the seventies
13:44
for some reason. I don't know. And
13:47
we talked about professional wrestling. And
13:49
that was one of
13:51
Jim's other interests. In
13:54
1996, he started the vocational school
13:56
for pro wrestlers called the
13:58
Buffalo Wrestling Federation. He
14:01
taught people how to wrestle and how
14:03
to create a persona to appeal to
14:05
audiences. Jim also put on
14:07
a live show that appeared on Lighten
14:10
on late night cable TV called
14:12
Buffalo Jim's wrestling show. Well, you know,
14:15
you know, you know, that wrestling goes, it's
14:17
all about your persona. Yes.
14:22
I mean, there are people who are really good wrestlers. Yeah. And,
14:25
but they don't have the charisma and
14:28
so they don't take off. Now, if you got
14:30
both, you're going to get a chance you're
14:32
going to take off. Yeah, you're going to climb the
14:34
ladder as long as you play the game, right? And
14:36
I did watch a show on wrestling.
14:38
I can't remember what it was called, but it
14:41
kind of went through the background
14:43
of some of these now famous wrestlers.
14:45
You know, they start out in these
14:47
underground shows, then they get into some
14:50
type of school. And then
14:52
the next thing you know, they get, they
14:54
get called up to the, I guess the
14:56
big leagues. Yeah. Yeah. Jim's
14:59
hard work paid off. He grew his wealth.
15:01
And in 1998, he purchased
15:03
his dream home on
15:05
Sunrise Mountain. Jim's fame
15:08
increased and he became a beloved figure
15:10
in Las Vegas. One way
15:12
he gave back to his community was
15:14
by doing reading tours in local elementary
15:16
schools. I thought about
15:18
doing that, but you have discouraged me
15:20
from doing it. Yeah. It's, it's not
15:23
something that I think you should undertake.
15:26
Let's just say that. Yeah. You
15:28
said draw some picture books.
15:32
If you want to teach a kindergarten
15:35
art class or say, you know,
15:37
little macaroni gluing, I'm fine with
15:39
that. The Las
15:41
Vegas Review Journal voted Jim
15:43
the city's most colorful character
15:46
in 2005. That's saying a lot for
15:48
Las Vegas. It is because there's a lot
15:50
of colorful characters. You think
15:53
about cities like San Francisco,
15:55
New Orleans, Las Vegas,
15:58
New York. people go there
16:01
because they will fit in.
16:04
I remember walking down
16:06
Bourbon Street, just seeing
16:08
some of the strangest people I've ever seen. I
16:11
probably talked about it before. There was one guy
16:13
in a Darth Vader costume
16:16
who just stood and flipped people off. And
16:18
people will give him money for being flipped
16:20
off by Darth Vader. If
16:24
that's your thing, that's a great place
16:26
for you. Absolutely. In the late 90s
16:28
and early 2000s, while
16:30
Jim was at the height of his fame, he
16:32
was involved in a feud with another
16:34
local business that caused his family to
16:37
split, ended his wrestling federation,
16:39
and almost caused him to lose
16:41
his business. So next door to
16:43
his wrestling school and his auto
16:46
and marine shop was this
16:48
strip club called the Crazy Horse
16:50
2, T-O-O,
16:52
not T-W-O, which
16:55
opened in 1984. The
16:57
club was owned by Rick Rizzolo,
16:59
who reportedly has ties to
17:02
mafia figures, something that
17:04
a lot of people
17:06
allege about you. I
17:09
can neither confirm nor deny.
17:12
As your counsel, I would say
17:14
that's a good tactic. Now,
17:16
why you've made me your counsel, I don't know. I
17:18
don't have a law degree, so that
17:20
seems- You printed that thing off the internet.
17:22
Like a bad decision on your part. I
17:24
thought it was real. The Crazy Horse was
17:26
one of the most successful clubs in the
17:28
city. According to Unsolved Mysteries, there
17:31
were rumors. The mob was involved in
17:33
the club. As the years
17:35
passed, the club developed a reputation
17:37
for violence, and there was talk
17:39
that bouncers were beating up patrons.
17:41
That's not gonna help your business.
17:44
Well, I saw that movie Roadhouse, I thought that's
17:46
what a bouncer's job was, was
17:48
to beat up patrons. What's that
17:50
saying in the Roadhouse? Be nice until
17:52
you- Until it's time to
17:54
not be nice. Now, I'm
17:57
assuming that most-
18:00
Bouncers need a reason, you
18:02
know, to, to throw a patron
18:04
out. It sounds to me like here
18:07
in this situation, they were
18:09
just beating people up. I don't know. And
18:11
maybe the thing is a bouncer is not
18:13
supposed to beat people up. They're
18:16
supposed to deescalate and get
18:18
the person out without having to beat
18:20
them. Yeah. I always thought the job
18:22
was to protect the other
18:24
patrons and the property
18:27
from damage. So everybody else
18:29
can still enjoy the festivities. Jim
18:32
tried to stay out of it and he
18:34
occasionally went to the club after work. So
18:37
this feud between Jim and Rick
18:39
started around 1998 when Jim
18:43
wouldn't give up his space so that
18:45
the club could expand. Jim invited
18:47
Rick and his chief associate who was allegedly
18:49
a mob member to his office for a
18:52
drink so they could work out a deal.
18:55
Zolo declined his terms, walked
18:57
out and started an
18:59
intimidation campaign to get
19:01
Jim to move. Okay. If
19:03
this is how it went down, this is a
19:05
tough spot for Jim. He's got, you
19:08
know, two businesses. He's just
19:10
going to what, give up one of
19:13
them or part of one of them. So
19:15
this club can expand or both of them.
19:17
Yeah. I mean, you're going to want to be compensated, right? If
19:19
you're going to do something like this,
19:22
it's gotta be fair. And
19:24
apparently he didn't think it was right. He
19:27
refused whatever offer
19:29
that they made to him saying it wasn't
19:31
high enough. Jim's attorney
19:33
Gus flingus told Las Vegas
19:36
weekly, but the most outstanding
19:38
thing about Buffalo was
19:40
that he hated corruption and
19:42
he was passionate in that hate. And
19:45
he had not only hated it, he fought it.
19:47
We all know he did. Okay. I
19:49
mentioned being in a tough spot. I get
19:51
it. You don't want to do what
19:54
they want you to do, but if
19:56
this is really the mob, you
19:58
might be putting yourself in a little bit of. jeopardy there.
20:01
Yeah. Yeah. Cause they're going to try to
20:03
make you do what they want you to do.
20:05
Well, and let's face it, the
20:08
mob has always been willing to
20:10
go to links that legitimate
20:13
business people won't go to
20:15
customers. Cars were destroyed or towed
20:18
away. Jim shop was broken into
20:20
and set on fire. Sometimes
20:22
drunk or injured customers from the club
20:24
were found lying in front of the
20:27
shop. Used condoms were
20:29
left in plain sight. And
20:31
Jim's daughter once came upon used needles.
20:34
Jim also felt like he was being
20:37
harassed by police and fire code inspectors.
20:40
Okay. Is it possible that, you know, if it's
20:43
the mob, they got some of these people
20:45
in their pocket. Absolutely. It's
20:47
happened. Yeah. But what all
20:49
of this did was it caused Jim
20:51
to lose business. I mean, I get
20:53
it. You're a great mechanic, but I
20:55
really don't want to pull up and
20:57
see a bunch of used condoms and
20:59
needles and yeah,
21:02
or that my car is going to be stolen
21:04
while it's at your facility or set on fire.
21:06
Yeah. In addition to all
21:08
this, Jim received threatening letters and phone
21:10
calls according to unsolved mysteries. A
21:13
man screamed on the other end of the line.
21:15
I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill
21:17
you. I could see how somebody would
21:19
take that as a little threatening. It's
21:21
not going to sit well. Okay.
21:25
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on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever
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you get your podcasts. Jim
23:43
went on the local news to complain
23:46
publicly about the Crazy Horse 2, saying
23:48
that they put in fake fire
23:50
lanes and used city parking enforcement
23:53
to ticket his customers. Behind
23:55
the scenes, Jim started speaking to
23:57
journalists and giving them information about
23:59
the club. He also
24:01
gave federal investigators photos, the
24:03
names of witnesses and other
24:05
information. Well, there's two
24:07
ways to play the game. The strip
24:09
club is going to do it their way and now Jim's going
24:11
to do it his way. But as
24:14
we said, right, if the mob
24:16
is really involved, going to federal
24:18
investigators is not going to ingratiate
24:20
you with them. No. If
24:23
anything, it's going to put a big old target
24:26
on your back. Jim always said he wasn't
24:28
worried, but he knew he had to be
24:30
careful and watch his back.
24:32
He said, I will not back down
24:34
and let anyone take anything from me.
24:37
In July 2000, Jim filed
24:39
a lawsuit against Rick Rizzolo,
24:41
alleging that he and his
24:44
company were promoting prostitution, pandering
24:46
drug sales and arranging to
24:49
bribe public officials. He's really
24:51
not backing down. No. And
24:54
he's going on the offensive. Those are some pretty big
24:57
claims. According to Jim's
24:59
attorney, he'd suffered hundreds of
25:01
thousands in damages, loss of
25:03
business and emotional distress. He
25:06
sued the crazy horse for $1 million.
25:09
Jim hired a PI to prepare for
25:11
the lawsuit and claimed he had proof
25:13
to back up his allegations. Rizzolo's
25:16
attorney threatened to sue Jim for libel.
25:19
Rizzolo and the attorney for
25:21
shift properties. Jim's landlord said
25:23
the suit was a preemptive
25:25
strike before an evidentiary hearing
25:28
in their landlord tenant dispute. Shift
25:31
properties accused Jim of failing to
25:33
properly care for his space, which
25:35
is tough to do if you
25:37
have somebody setting things on fire.
25:39
Yeah. If you have the person
25:41
wanting your space, setting you
25:44
up and also sounds like
25:46
maybe in cahoots with
25:48
the landlord. It does sound like that.
25:51
During the lawsuit, news came out
25:53
that the FBI began looking into
25:55
the crazy horse to back in
25:57
1995. Robert
25:59
Klein. former FBI agent told Unsolved Mysteries
26:01
that in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s,
26:03
the mafia ran
26:07
strip clubs around town. Strip
26:09
clubs are primarily a cash business
26:12
which makes it easier to
26:14
commit fraud. There is a lot of
26:16
cash allegedly flying
26:18
around in a strip club. I've
26:21
never been personally, but I hear.
26:23
I've heard that too. I've never been.
26:26
But you see on TV, you
26:28
know, nail salons,
26:30
laundromats, you know, these at certain
26:34
times have been pretty
26:37
popular as kind of
26:39
businesses to buy in order to launder money. I
26:42
think you'd have to throw strip clubs in there
26:44
as well. Oh yeah, I think it'd be an
26:46
easy place to launder some money. Climber
26:48
told Unsolved Mysteries, one of the
26:50
places in Las Vegas where you
26:53
could find representation of
26:55
every single mafia family in the
26:57
United States was in the crazy
26:59
horse too. Okay, that's
27:01
really scary. I mean, you're
27:04
talking about mafia from
27:06
all over New York, Chicago,
27:09
people at the club were
27:11
involved in tax evasion, extortion,
27:13
and other illegal activities. During
27:16
the investigation, Rizzolo admitted to
27:18
hiring people with criminal backgrounds,
27:20
but denied committing any crimes.
27:23
And we mentioned it, right? Jim was supplying
27:25
the FBI with information about
27:27
activities at this place. According
27:29
to former agent Robert Clymer,
27:32
he sent them boxes of evidence on
27:34
a weekly basis for about two years.
27:37
And his information was helpful to
27:39
their investigation. In 2000, Jim's
27:42
partner, Roxanne, took the girls
27:44
to Seattle, Washington because of
27:46
this feud with Rizzolo. However,
27:49
she allowed Jim's daughter, Jerika,
27:51
to move back in with
27:53
him in January, 2001. They
27:55
were extremely close and lived together for
27:57
six years. 2003,
28:00
the FBI executed a search warrant
28:03
on the crazy horse to 16 employees
28:06
were indicted for various crimes. It's a
28:08
big hit. Yeah. I
28:10
mean, I don't know how many people are employed
28:12
at a normal strip club, but 16 of
28:15
them to be indicted
28:17
seems like a lot. Again, I wouldn't know
28:19
because I've never been. I thought you were going
28:21
to say you never worked there because you have worked
28:23
at one. What's different than going
28:25
as a patron? Right. Okay.
28:28
That Rex West
28:31
in 2006, Rick Rizzolo pleaded guilty
28:33
to income tax evasion in early
28:35
2007. He was sentenced
28:38
to a year and one day in prison,
28:40
not just not a year, a year and one
28:42
day. You sir, are being sentenced
28:44
to one year in a day.
28:47
The crazy horse to closed in September
28:49
2006 after its
28:51
liquor license was revoked by August
28:55
The building was condemned because
28:57
of damages. Now Rick
29:00
Rizzolo was in prison, but
29:03
apparently this feud continued on.
29:06
Jim was granted a restraining
29:08
order against Bart Rizzolo, Rick's
29:10
father in November 2007 after
29:13
he claimed Bart tried to run him over
29:15
in their shared parking lot. He talked
29:17
about watching his back. I mean, you'd have to
29:19
have your head on a swivel at all times.
29:21
Yeah. A shared parking lot and
29:24
you got to worry about being ran over. Las
29:26
Vegas Weekly reported on the club in 2007,
29:29
a journalist interviewed a
29:31
cocktail waitress who said Bart
29:33
and Rick were obsessed with Buffalo.
29:36
Every single morning Bart talked about him.
29:38
I think in all the time I
29:40
worked there, there were maybe five mornings
29:42
Bart wasn't talking about how to get
29:44
rid of Buffalo. This
29:47
guy was really like a thorn in their side. Sure. Yeah.
29:51
Definitely obsessed though. Rizzolo only served
29:53
10 months in prison. He was released
29:55
in March 2008 and was put on
29:57
house arrest. His house arrest ended on
30:00
April 4th, 2008, Jim barrier died on April 5th.
30:06
And I think when you look at it, you know,
30:09
on the surface, that's either
30:11
the biggest coincidence or
30:14
bad luck for this Rizzolo
30:16
guy, or he had something
30:18
to do with it. Seems a little strange for
30:20
sure. According to Jim's daughter,
30:22
Jerica, earlier that day, her father's motorcycle
30:25
was repaired by his chief mechanic at
30:27
the shop. Jim wasn't happy because he
30:29
hadn't been able to use it for
30:31
more than a year. And
30:34
he took it out for a ride. Jim
30:36
had a lot to look forward to at
30:38
the time. He was going to sign
30:40
a contract for an NBC reality series
30:42
about his life. And his auto repair
30:45
shop was doing better than it
30:47
ever had before. He had plans to move
30:49
to a new location. So, you
30:51
know, I think just looking at, at some
30:53
of those things is important
30:56
because this is a guy that's
30:58
got a lot going for him. Yeah. It
31:01
doesn't seem like a
31:03
person down on his luck that is
31:06
maybe thinking about ending his life.
31:08
No, sounds like things are going
31:11
in a great direction. Maybe as
31:13
well as they ever have at
31:15
two 12 PM, Jim
31:17
called Joshua Longo Barty from
31:20
Las Vegas weekly to tell him
31:22
about the latest threatening letter he'd
31:24
received. This letter was concerned. Because
31:28
it contained detailed information that
31:30
was accurate, including his home
31:32
address, Jim called at least
31:35
two other local journalists that day.
31:37
The newest letter read per Las Vegas
31:39
weekly, Mr. barrier meetings
31:42
have been taking place at
31:44
various locations around town by
31:47
Rick Rizzolo, Rick was
31:49
one of the persons driving around your
31:51
property last week. Be careful. He's
31:53
up to no good. He's using
31:55
people to get close to you. He's
31:58
discussed using. female
32:00
to get access to your business.
32:03
Jim had received a similar letter on
32:05
February 1st. It said, Bart
32:07
Rizzolo has been overheard telling some
32:10
of his close contacts that there
32:12
will be violent attacks against you.
32:15
He's let it be known that you will
32:17
suffer in the near future. I
32:19
mean, at a certain point Gibbs, you got to
32:21
start getting a little worried, don't you? Yeah.
32:23
I mean, if this person
32:25
is going around talking about you as if
32:29
some really bad things are going to happen to you,
32:31
you have to take it serious. I get
32:33
it. He's been fighting these people
32:35
for many years. Yeah. And
32:38
it seems like he's winning
32:40
or has pretty much won.
32:43
Well, and if they feel like the reason
32:45
Rick's in prison is because
32:48
of Jim, which
32:50
they probably did. Yeah, because
32:52
he did help put him in prison.
32:55
So now they're probably looking at a way
32:57
to retaliate. Is that similar to
32:59
retaliate? Yes.
33:02
Retalulation. Retalulation.
33:06
Jim's daughter, Jennifer spoke to him on
33:08
Thursday, April 3rd. Jim mentioned
33:10
that Rick was out of
33:12
prison and said, if the crazy
33:14
horse, two people were to get him, they
33:17
wouldn't make it look like I died
33:19
of a drug overdose with women. So
33:21
I think at the very least this
33:24
was on his mind. He had been thinking
33:26
about it to the point where, you know,
33:28
he tells his daughter, Hey, if something happens
33:30
to me, this is probably
33:32
how they'll make it look. So
33:34
it sounds like he has some concerns. Yes. Joshua
33:37
Longo Barty also wrote that Jim contacted
33:40
him on April 4th. Earlier
33:43
that day, Jim received a
33:45
phone call from an alleged hitman. Longo
33:47
Barty told him to be aware of
33:50
potential ambushes. Jim told the journalist
33:52
the same thing he told his daughter. They're going to
33:54
try to do it through a woman or
33:56
they're going to try to drug. They
33:59
agreed. Jim. should be careful who he
34:01
socialized with that weekend or
34:03
watched what he ate or drank. I
34:06
think I'd be locked in a room. So
34:09
nobody could get to me like, like
34:11
a panic room or something. So
34:14
you're kind of locked in your room anyway. Well
34:16
at the very least I wouldn't be going
34:18
out to the bars. Probably I wouldn't be
34:20
trying to meet new people. The
34:23
only people I'd have around me is people I had
34:25
known for a very long time. But Jim
34:27
left home around 7 15 PM on the night of
34:29
April 5th, 2008. Jerika
34:34
didn't want him to go, but Jim told her
34:36
if he wasn't back by 12 30, he
34:39
would give her $50. She
34:41
asked for a hundred dollars and they shook on
34:43
him. He left with a large amount
34:45
of cash in his pocket as was his
34:47
habit and drove his 1979 Rolls Royce. So
34:52
he might've had some concern, but
34:55
it wasn't to the level where he was
34:58
going to change his lifestyle. He
35:01
was still going out. Wasn't going to
35:03
stay locked up. Jerika texted
35:05
her dad around 9 30
35:08
and didn't receive a response. She called him
35:10
at 9 41 and 9 50 PM. According
35:14
to Las Vegas weekly, Jim
35:16
did not reply. He asked her sister
35:18
Elise to pick her up. Jerika
35:20
called him again on the morning of April
35:22
6th and sent a text around 12 PM
35:26
around 2 30 PM. She
35:28
received a call from a police officer.
35:30
The officer said she had to speak to
35:33
an adult. Jerika was just 15. So
35:36
she passed the phone to Elise who was 20. The
35:39
officer informed her that her father was dead and
35:42
they needed to come to motel six on
35:44
Boulder highway to identify the body.
35:47
That's a strange thing to do coming
35:49
to the actual motel. When
35:51
I come downtown to the
35:53
coroner's office or something. That's what I
35:55
was thinking as well. Don't you normally
35:58
go to like the coroner's office? What
36:00
are they just, you're just going to walk into the motel
36:02
room and look at this person's
36:04
body there. Say yay or nay. Huh.
36:07
At 11 30 AM, a housekeeper
36:09
knocked on the door of room one oh
36:12
five to see if she could start cleaning,
36:15
she opened the door and saw a man asleep
36:17
on the bed. She returned to
36:19
12 30 and saw the man still in
36:21
bed. She returned again at one 10
36:24
PM and found him in the
36:26
same position. Another housekeeper shook
36:28
the man to see if he would
36:30
wake up and they realized he
36:32
was dead. So first of all, this
36:35
woman really needed to get into that room to clean
36:37
it. She's like, Hey, sir, you
36:39
didn't pay for the extended stay. Cause
36:41
she was coming back like every hour.
36:44
But as we often talk about what's
36:47
this going to be like, I mean, you're
36:49
just doing your daily routine. Now
36:51
this might happen a little more often to
36:55
house cleaners or, you know, people who
36:57
work at hotels, then maybe
37:00
some other occupations where,
37:02
you know, you knock on the door, you go
37:05
in and there's somebody dead. The man
37:07
was soon identified as James
37:09
barrier. Jim was found lying
37:11
face up with a pillow behind his head,
37:14
his shirt opened in his pants,
37:16
down around his ankle. A white
37:18
powdery substance was found on his beard
37:20
and shirt. And when I saw
37:23
this Gibbs, it made, it really made
37:25
me question, you know, this hotel
37:28
made cause it was saying, you know, it
37:30
had said that she kind of looked
37:32
in on him what two or three times
37:35
and thought he was sleeping. And
37:37
this picture that's being painted
37:39
doesn't really scream out.
37:42
Hey, I'm sleeping. Right. Sounds like
37:44
something else. Yeah. Pants around
37:47
the ankles, uh, shirt
37:49
open. No, I know that's
37:51
just a Tuesday for you, but for
37:54
most people, that's not
37:56
normal sleepy time. No, but
37:59
it is Vegas. So, you know, that's true. And
38:01
it is motel six. His
38:03
cause of death was not immediately
38:06
obvious. When Elise and Jerika arrived
38:08
at the motel six, they
38:10
didn't see their dad's rolls Royce in the
38:12
parking lot. They hoped the police had the
38:15
wrong man, but when they entered
38:17
the room and saw the body, they
38:19
knew immediately he was their father.
38:22
They claimed they were not given information
38:24
or details about how he was found,
38:26
but they were given his belongings that
38:28
were found in the room with the
38:30
body. According to Jerika, the
38:32
police gave her an empty prescription pill
38:35
bottle. It was found in Jim's
38:37
pocket and there were originally
38:39
three pills inside. Jerika asked if
38:41
the pills were green and was
38:43
told that they were. She said it was
38:45
her dad's value. However, the
38:48
label on the bottle was for
38:50
Norvask, a prescription heart
38:53
medication. The prescription expired in
38:55
2003. The
38:57
girls were given an envelope
38:59
that contained Jim's car keys, cell
39:01
phone, garage door opener,
39:04
wallet, and his motel receipt.
39:06
Because you know, you got to have the receipt for
39:08
the hotel room. It's important. Well,
39:10
the one thing that really stood out to
39:13
me was the garage door opener. Who
39:15
in the world takes their garage door opener
39:17
inside a hotel room with them?
39:20
I mean, most of us never take it off
39:22
the visor. I had mine clipped on my
39:24
belt right now. I know. And I always
39:26
thought that was strange. Jim's ID
39:29
was missing and his wallet only
39:31
contained a folded dollar bill. If
39:33
that was his lucky dollar bill.
39:36
Could have been, but it was said that
39:38
Jim never folded the money in his wallet.
39:41
And he was known for always carrying large
39:43
amounts of cash. Jerika said
39:45
her dad left the house with cash, but
39:47
it appeared to be missing. It makes
39:49
you wonder. It makes me wonder why
39:51
somebody would leave the $1. Yeah.
39:54
If you're going to take it, you just take it all. Or
39:56
is it some type of sign? That's a
39:58
great question. And according. to
40:00
unsolved mysteries, a $1 bill
40:03
is a sign of a mob hit. I
40:06
did not know that. Wonder why a $1 bill, not a
40:08
$2 bill, not a 50, not a 100. We're
40:14
not gonna go crazy and give away money. Yeah,
40:17
but a $1 bill is so common, seems
40:20
like a strange sign. What's
40:22
that old mob hit
40:24
thing they used to do, the black hand?
40:27
Black hand. In other words, tied to black
40:29
hand stuff. I don't think they gave
40:32
you a dollar. I thought they gave you an envelope
40:35
with a black hand on a card or something. Maybe
40:37
they got tired of doing the black hand. So let's
40:39
take it to a different level. Something
40:41
more simple. Anybody got a dollar bill on
40:43
them? Jerika thought the fact
40:45
that volume was found in the room was
40:47
strange. Jim normally took half a
40:49
pill to sleep at night and he had
40:52
a new, almost full bottle at the time
40:54
of his death. Jerika normally prepared
40:56
his medication every night. She knew
40:58
her dad didn't plan on sleeping
41:00
at the motel. The girls
41:03
noticed other details they thought were strange.
41:05
There were two cups of water on
41:08
the nightstand, but Jim hated tap
41:10
water. The room was clean, but
41:12
Jim was a messy person and
41:14
shed hair everywhere he went. Which
41:17
I thought was a strange statement, makes him
41:19
sound like he was a lab or something.
41:22
I don't know if his hair was falling out or he
41:24
had a lot of body hair. Again,
41:26
it's something mean you don't know because we
41:28
don't have thick long hair. And
41:31
this garage door opener that
41:33
was found in his room, which
41:35
I thought was strange, they said
41:37
he had never taken it off his
41:39
son, Beiser, before. And
41:41
that was my thought as well. People rarely
41:44
take it off once it's on there. Additionally,
41:46
Jim's daughter, Jennifer, noted
41:49
that two phones were listed on
41:51
the police report, which were not
41:53
Jim's phone. The girls never
41:55
received a silver phone described in the
41:57
report. They did not know of Jim's phone.
42:00
Jim having a second phone and they
42:02
wondered who's at what. And we,
42:04
we have to talk about these two daughters. I mean,
42:06
how terrible to have to, you
42:08
know, drive to a
42:11
motel six to identify
42:13
your father's body. Now
42:16
did they leave him in the exact state he
42:18
was in? Because that's going
42:20
to, you know, make matters
42:22
even worse. You walk in, your dad's
42:25
laying there, shirt, open pants down around
42:27
his ankles. Hopefully they put a sheet
42:29
over top of them. I would hope
42:31
so. But either way, it's,
42:33
it's going to be a very traumatic experience,
42:35
but it sounds like they
42:38
then go into almost like detective mode,
42:40
right? Because they are pointing out a lot
42:42
of things that are strange. Well, and they
42:45
also had that conversation. Well, one
42:47
daughter did, you know, prior to her dad
42:49
going out, which included
42:51
two facets, right? One was about
42:53
drugs and the other was about
42:56
possibly a woman. Yeah. So
43:00
if you're found with your pants down
43:02
around your ankles, it does
43:04
denote that, you know, some
43:07
type of rumpus room activity
43:09
was possibly going on. And
43:12
then obviously, you know, this
43:14
prescription pill bottle plays into
43:16
it as well. Yeah. And the
43:18
fact that you're at a motel six. Well,
43:21
they always leave the light on for you. They
43:23
do unless you're renting it by the hour and
43:25
then they don't turn it on. The police
43:27
asked the girls about their father's missing
43:29
car. Jerika and her sister
43:31
drove around the building looking for it.
43:34
They knew they wouldn't miss a Rolls Royce if
43:36
it was in the parking lot, but they didn't see
43:38
it. So the police filed
43:40
a missing car report. And
43:42
that is true. You know, if you're looking
43:45
for a 1995 Toyota Celica, right,
43:48
you might miss that. You are not going to miss
43:50
a Rolls Royce. No, I don't think
43:52
so. And I don't understand why the police aren't
43:54
assisting them. I
43:56
try to locate this car. It
44:00
did seem strange that they were kind of Nancy
44:02
drewing it like on their
44:04
own. I'm going to use that as a
44:06
verb. The police released room one
44:09
Oh five back to management later that
44:11
day. Didn't waste any time. No,
44:13
I mean, I'm assuming they did everything
44:16
they needed to do, but one thing that did
44:18
kind of go through my mind was, you know,
44:21
they were giving the girls a lot
44:23
of item. Was that were
44:26
any of those not potential
44:28
evidence? Maybe they thought there
44:31
was no evidentiary value.
44:34
Maybe it appeared to them that there was no foul
44:36
play involved. Yeah, it's possible. But
44:38
yeah, I always worry when you're
44:40
making that determination so early on,
44:43
we've seen in how many cases
44:45
police think it was a suicide or they
44:47
think this or they think that, so they
44:49
don't collect certain pieces of
44:52
evidence. And you
44:54
know, once they give it back to the
44:56
girls, then, you know, obviously you're going
44:58
to lose the ability to
45:00
do certain things. Right. At 5 30 PM, the
45:04
Rolls Royce was found behind the office
45:06
in the parking lot of the motel.
45:08
Six. The police searched the car
45:11
and did not find prints or hair. That's
45:14
strange though. If the girls looked
45:16
for it and couldn't find it, but then
45:18
they finally find it. The police do. At
45:21
five 30 a family friend
45:23
retrieved the car from the parking lot
45:25
and took photos of it. It
45:28
was very clean. And whoever
45:30
returned the vehicle parked it in a
45:32
spot visible from the street.
45:34
So it almost makes it sound
45:37
as though it probably wasn't
45:39
there, right? When
45:41
the girls drove around looking for it. And
45:44
then at some point later, after
45:47
it was cleaned and all of that, somebody
45:49
dropped it back off, but that
45:51
would be very risky. It would be
45:53
unless it's an inside knowledge.
45:56
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45:58
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one place. homes.com, we've done
46:47
your homework. Jerrica
46:49
decided to look through Jim's call log to
46:51
see who he last spoke to. He
46:53
had a message on his voicemail. The
46:56
message was left by a woman who said, Hey
46:58
Buffalo, this is Lisa. Is
47:01
everything okay? Jim talked on
47:03
the phone with Lisa at 7.40pm. Their
47:06
conversation lasted 7 minutes and
47:08
47 seconds. Her
47:10
number was not saved in his phone. Lisa
47:12
left messages at 7.30 and 9pm. She
47:16
asked him to call her back, then asked
47:19
if he was alright. Jerrica decided
47:21
to call Lisa because she sounded
47:23
concerned in her voicemail. A
47:25
woman answered. Jerrica asked, Are
47:27
you Lisa? The woman didn't reply.
47:30
Jerrica said, Do you know Buffalo Jim?
47:33
The woman responded, I don't know
47:35
Buffalo Jim and hung up. Okay,
47:37
two things for me. Again, Jerrica's
47:40
15 years old, doing
47:42
a damn good job at playing
47:44
amateur detective. But also,
47:47
then I think number two, how are
47:50
you going to leave voicemails
47:53
and then when confronted say, you
47:56
don't know who Buffalo Jim is and then you
47:58
don't even answer the question of. whether or not
48:00
you're Lisa. And for me, why
48:02
aren't the police doing some of this work? Well,
48:05
I think it's a good question, right?
48:07
Because they don't have
48:09
the cell phones anymore or cell phone.
48:12
They handed it to the girls along
48:14
with some other things. So what
48:17
type of investigation are they
48:19
really doing? And maybe some of
48:21
that does go back to the fact
48:24
that they determined early
48:26
on that there was
48:28
no investigation needed, possibly
48:31
incorrectly. Yeah. Maybe they
48:33
were told, Hey, don't look
48:35
into this. Investigators checked
48:37
security footage and saw the gym walked
48:39
into the lobby of the motel six
48:42
at eight 22 PM to check in.
48:44
However, key card data indicated that
48:47
Jim's room was accessed by
48:49
a key card. Seven minutes earlier,
48:52
the key card report identified which type
48:54
of key was being used in
48:56
each room. It was a guest key
48:58
that accessed the room. So somebody
49:01
went to the room, did
49:03
something or was in the room.
49:06
Jim entered the room. And then I think you
49:08
have to ask how'd they get this guest key when
49:10
he hadn't even checked in yet. Yeah. But
49:12
if they knew he was going there, maybe
49:15
somebody set something up, Lisa
49:17
or whatever her name
49:19
was to meet him there. And
49:21
then she let Rick or
49:23
Bart know that the meetup
49:25
was set. Maybe they got somebody into
49:27
that room or her. Yeah.
49:29
No, I see where you're going with it. But
49:32
wouldn't that mean that that whoever was working
49:34
the desk that night would have had to
49:36
have been in on it too. Is
49:39
it that hard to pay somebody at a motel six?
49:42
Uh, here's a couple
49:44
hundred. No. You know
49:46
what I mean? Yeah. Give me a guest
49:48
key for room, whatever, and
49:50
then make sure when this guy comes in, you
49:52
put him in that room. Yeah. But that
49:54
would have to have happened. Yeah.
49:57
In that scenario, Jim's daughters
49:59
believe some. Someone was already in the
50:01
room waiting for him when he arrived. And
50:04
that seems like a very valid theory
50:06
based on what we just talked about.
50:08
If a guest keycard accessed
50:11
his room, what, six, seven
50:13
minutes before he even
50:15
checked in, then yeah,
50:18
I could say there was probably somebody in there
50:20
waiting for him. Yeah. Additionally,
50:22
per unsolved mysteries, a short
50:24
female silhouette was
50:26
captured following Jim outside. This
50:29
was picked up on camera because of the
50:31
large windows in the lobby on
50:33
April 7th, 2005. An
50:35
officer told the public that the Vegas
50:38
Metro police found no evidence of foul
50:40
play. So homicide detectives
50:42
were not called to the scene.
50:45
A coroner's investigator came to the
50:47
scene and found nothing suspicious and
50:50
wrote that the death was a possible overdose.
50:53
So I do think that helps
50:55
explain some of the
50:58
questions that we posed. Why
51:00
did they just give all of this
51:02
stuff back to Jim's daughters? Well,
51:05
first of all, homicide detectors weren't even out
51:07
there because the police just
51:10
thought, you know, there's no evidence of foul
51:12
play. Looks like he took
51:14
too many drugs. Sorry about your loss.
51:17
Here's his, uh, personal items. The report
51:19
stated that Jim was once addicted to
51:21
cocaine. However, no illegal drugs
51:23
were found at the scene. The
51:26
report did make note of the three
51:28
volume pills found in the pill bottle.
51:31
The room was photographed, but the
51:33
police didn't get fingerprints or interview
51:35
family and friends. And like
51:37
we often talk about, you know, if
51:40
you don't do that stuff up front right
51:42
away, you know, seal
51:44
off the scene, make sure nobody's
51:46
traipsing in and out. That shouldn't
51:49
be, you know, dusting
51:51
for fingerprints, bagging
51:53
up evidence, all of that stuff.
51:55
You can't go back and redo it.
51:58
No, you get one opportunity. And
52:00
once it's gone, it's gone. The
52:03
initial conclusion was that Jim died
52:05
of natural causes. The
52:07
Metro police said there would be
52:09
no formal investigation unless the autopsy
52:12
found something unusual. The
52:14
Las Vegas review journal reported that the clerk
52:17
who was on duty when Jim
52:19
checked in said his Rolls Royce was parked
52:21
around the side of the building. The
52:24
motel clerk also confirmed Jim
52:27
rented a room for two.
52:29
The hotel security guard reported nothing
52:31
unusual that night. The
52:34
review journal noted that there is
52:36
no surveillance footage of the parking lot.
52:38
And to me, that's huge. You
52:41
know, when you think about somebody
52:43
potentially driving off in
52:46
Jim's Rolls Royce,
52:48
getting it cleaned and then, you
52:50
know, parking it back in the location where
52:53
they did well without surveillance
52:55
footage, how would you ever know? Who
52:58
that was. Jim's
53:00
autopsy was conducted on April 7th, 2008 by
53:02
Dr. Larry Sims. Jim
53:05
had no significant external trauma. He
53:08
was not shot, stabbed, beaten or strangled.
53:12
He had an unknown white powdery substance on
53:14
his nose and beard. Dr. Sims
53:18
ran a standard drug test and
53:20
tested for several other drugs. Jim
53:22
tested positive for cocaine. According to Dr. Sims,
53:26
the minimum lethal level
53:28
of cocaine is 100
53:30
to 200 nanograms per milliliter. Jim's blood had
53:33
around 250 nanograms per milliliter. Well,
53:38
remember Jim said to his
53:40
daughter, if they're going to take me out, there's
53:43
going to be a woman and drugs involved. When
53:46
it sounds like there was both. Now I
53:48
think we said by this point in his life, it was
53:50
a very, very, very, very in
53:53
his life, it was not thought
53:55
that he was using cocaine, but he
53:57
had used cocaine off and
53:59
on. for many, many years, I think
54:01
back in the seventies and eighties. That
54:04
leads me to believe that, you know, this
54:06
was a guy who knew how much cocaine
54:09
you could use at one time. Sure.
54:13
Yeah. And how much was enough
54:15
to kill you. Unlike somebody who
54:17
had never taken cocaine in their
54:20
life, they'd have no idea other
54:23
than what you see in movies, you know, making
54:26
up a little line and snoring
54:29
it through a bill. That's the only thing I know
54:31
about cocaine is what I've seen from movies. Always like
54:33
to use a credit card. Or
54:35
one of those straight razor razors or
54:38
the safety razor inserts. Yeah.
54:43
You see that a lot too. Yeah, you do. That's true. But
54:45
to me, his knowledge of the drug
54:48
and his usage of the drug in the past kind of
54:52
goes against this thought
54:54
that he would overdose.
54:56
I think we said he used it in the seventies,
54:59
the eighties, the nineties, all the way up into the
55:01
somewhere in the two thousands. He
55:04
was no novice to cocaine. No, but you
55:06
could also make the case
55:08
that because he used it so often,
55:11
maybe he felt like he needed more or
55:14
maybe he had built up a tolerance and
55:16
that tolerance was
55:18
gone by this time. Or
55:20
that he was just overconfident with
55:22
it. Maybe he could handle more. I'm
55:25
leaning towards my theory. Dr. Sims
55:27
estimated the time of death between seven
55:29
and nine PM on April 5th, 2008.
55:33
Jim's friend, Lisa was interviewed on April
55:36
15th. Lisa claimed that
55:38
she and Jim had a long relationship
55:40
and she was with him on the night
55:43
he died. She called him and told him
55:45
a male friend of hers wanting to
55:47
discuss selling a motorcycle to
55:49
Jim. She and Jim agreed to
55:51
meet at the Chevron gas station on
55:54
Charleston Boulevard and then drove to
55:56
the motel six on Boulder highway in
55:59
Jim's Rolls-Royce. Roy's, which he parked around
56:01
back. Lisa said that once they
56:03
got inside the room, they played
56:05
what she called a sexual
56:08
fantasy game. Okay. That
56:11
phrase leaves a lot to
56:13
interpretation. It really does. I
56:16
mean, you can go through a lot of
56:18
different things in your mind as to what
56:20
that might have been. And I
56:22
know, you know, you saying that, that means
56:24
a lot because you have written
56:26
a book or two on that
56:29
subject. So, you know, I
56:31
mean, we're not talking about chips,
56:33
dips, chains, whips, kennel wax on the
56:35
nipples or anything like that. But again,
56:37
that's all in your book. We don't
56:39
know exactly what this was. Lisa
56:42
said that Jim used a lot
56:44
of cocaine that night and was
56:46
acting paranoid. She told him to
56:48
drink some water. Jim laid on
56:50
the bed and started convulsing. He
56:53
clutched his chest with both hands. Lisa
56:55
left him in the motel room and took
56:58
a taxi back to the Chevron gas station
57:00
to get her car. She left
57:02
Jim a message at nine 30 asking
57:04
if he was okay. He never
57:07
responded. Well, you know what? When
57:09
he started to convulse, maybe instead
57:11
of leaving the room, you pick up the phone and call
57:13
nine one one. But doesn't
57:15
that seem very strange
57:18
that she uses the word
57:20
convulsing. And then
57:23
she just leaves him. And then just
57:26
texts later and says, Hey, are you
57:28
okay? I know you were
57:30
convulsing. And putting both your hands on
57:32
your chest, like something was wrong. I
57:34
wanted to make sure that you're okay.
57:37
You also wonder, you know, where did he
57:39
get the coke? If that's, if that
57:41
was from him or from her or from
57:43
this third person that they met. And
57:46
I also want to know what was in the water. Was
57:49
it water or was it something
57:51
with something laced or whatever? And
57:54
was the coke laced? Cause
57:56
he might've done what he thought
57:58
was a normal amount of. cocaine.
58:01
But if it was laced with something, then
58:04
it might have been much more potent than he
58:09
thought it would have been. According
58:11
to Unsolved Mysteries, Lisa was a
58:13
stripper and previously worked at the
58:16
Crazy Horse 2. So
58:18
she had a connection with Bart or Rick, but
58:21
did she have that type of connection that she would do
58:23
something to Jim? On
58:26
their behalf. Yeah. Yeah, it's a
58:28
question. I also want to know
58:30
what type of sexual fantasy game involves
58:33
only pulling your pants down to
58:36
your ankles, because I'm still
58:38
stuck on that as it's
58:40
seeming very staged. Right?
58:43
Because if you're later going to say
58:45
we were fooling around or we were
58:48
whatever, okay, you're going to
58:50
leave this guy with his shirt open and his
58:52
pants around his ankles. But most
58:54
people don't leave their pants around their
58:56
ankles when they're hot and
58:59
heavy into a sexual fantasy game.
59:01
So that seems strange to me. A little bit. Additionally,
59:04
the police did not interview Lisa's
59:06
friend who wanted to sell the
59:08
motorcycle to Jim. So for me,
59:11
that seems strange too, right? I mean, why not take
59:13
the questioning, the investigation all the
59:15
way through on that? She
59:18
told you why they met there
59:20
and what the purpose was and what happened
59:22
prior to that. Why wouldn't you want to go
59:24
ahead and just confirm all that? Yeah,
59:26
I would say you would. But again,
59:29
it doesn't sound like
59:31
this was a full blown
59:33
investigation. I'm kind of surprised
59:35
they even interviewed Lisa. Yeah,
59:38
me too. But if you're going to go to that
59:40
extent, why not go ahead and finish
59:42
it up? Yeah, no, I'm right with you. Jim's
59:44
family suspected that Lisa was part of
59:46
a plan to set Jim up and
59:48
kill him at the motel. Jim's
59:51
cause of death was made public on May
59:53
27th, 2008.
59:56
His cause of death was
59:58
dilated cardiomyopathy. inflammation of
1:00:00
the heart muscle with
1:00:02
cocaine intoxication as
1:00:04
a contributing condition. And
1:00:07
Jim did have a history of health issues. He
1:00:10
was diagnosed with diabetes in the 80s,
1:00:13
but in recent years he had stopped eating
1:00:15
sugar and increased his exercise.
1:00:17
According to Las Vegas Weekly, Jim's
1:00:19
physician said he was healthy the
1:00:21
week before he died. Additionally,
1:00:23
20 milligrams of GHB
1:00:26
were found in Jim's system,
1:00:28
but this was not seen as a
1:00:31
contributing factor to his death. And
1:00:33
I don't know how much 20
1:00:35
milligrams of GHB is. What
1:00:38
I do know is that GHB
1:00:40
is that one that they commonly
1:00:42
refer to as the day rate
1:00:45
drug. And is that something that
1:00:47
people would know if they took? Well,
1:00:49
you know, you mentioned the water
1:00:52
and from my understanding, GHB
1:00:54
is odorless. It's colorless.
1:00:57
I think it would be fairly
1:01:00
easy to put even in
1:01:02
tap water. So if he drinks that,
1:01:04
he doesn't know, but then all of a sudden, I
1:01:07
think it puts you out. Yeah. And
1:01:09
then from there, you're still breathing.
1:01:12
Right. Could you then get
1:01:15
somebody to ingest
1:01:17
cocaine and as
1:01:19
much cocaine as you wanted? Sure. I
1:01:22
mean, for me, you can
1:01:24
see a very plausible
1:01:27
scenario where this is
1:01:29
exactly how this thing went down. And
1:01:31
I don't know, like you said, I don't know what 20
1:01:33
milligrams mean. No, I mean, they
1:01:35
said it wasn't a contributing factor in
1:01:38
his death. So maybe it's
1:01:41
not enough to kill
1:01:43
someone, but it is enough
1:01:45
to knock someone out. To allow something else
1:01:47
to be the source that kills him. Yes.
1:01:51
I think that's a real possibility.
1:01:53
But his death was considered an
1:01:56
accident. And I don't know how you
1:01:58
get accident. And like, you're
1:02:00
calling the ingestion of too
1:02:02
much cocaine an accident, which I
1:02:05
guess you'd have to. As mentioned
1:02:07
earlier, Jim's associates told Las Vegas
1:02:09
weekly that he continued partying into
1:02:12
his early 2000s, but his daughters
1:02:14
did not see him use drugs.
1:02:17
Jim's attorney, Gus said it was
1:02:20
uncharacteristic of him because Jim
1:02:22
had a cocaine problem in his early years,
1:02:25
and he was very proud of himself for
1:02:27
overcoming it. Now, does that
1:02:29
mean he couldn't have slipped up? No,
1:02:32
obviously people do, but could
1:02:34
it also be Gibbs that
1:02:36
this was knowledge that other
1:02:38
people had as well. He had
1:02:40
a cocaine problem at one point, so
1:02:43
we'll make it look like
1:02:45
he fell off the wagon and he
1:02:47
took a bunch of cocaine. He took
1:02:49
too much and he died. Yeah. Jerika
1:02:52
told Unsolved Mysteries. There was no
1:02:54
evidence of cocaine use in the
1:02:57
motel room, and the doctor who
1:02:59
performed the autopsy said no one
1:03:01
tested the cocaine found on Jim's
1:03:03
body to see what level it
1:03:06
was. There was no formal
1:03:08
police investigation into the death
1:03:10
of Jim Berry. Jim's
1:03:12
lawsuit against Rick Rizzolo failed
1:03:14
because he was no longer
1:03:16
alive to be a witness
1:03:19
against him. So, you know, when
1:03:21
we look at motive, there are
1:03:23
a couple of different motives here.
1:03:25
I think, you know, if you're looking
1:03:28
at Rick as a possible suspect,
1:03:31
number one, revenge. Sure. For
1:03:35
probably for what Jim
1:03:37
had done and for what
1:03:39
Rick most likely perceived
1:03:41
as what sent him to prison.
1:03:43
Right. And then secondly, you have
1:03:45
this lawsuit. Well, getting
1:03:48
rid of Jim gets rid of the
1:03:50
lawsuit. Yeah. And not only did
1:03:52
Rick have a problem with Jim
1:03:54
being the main contributor
1:03:56
to sending him to prison, but
1:03:58
I'm sure all those. mob ties
1:04:01
at an issue as well, because
1:04:03
after Rick went to prison, shortly
1:04:06
afterwards, the club closed. All
1:04:08
those mob individuals lost income.
1:04:11
Yeah, obviously we're speculating on a lot of
1:04:13
things here, but it's kind of hard
1:04:16
not to think that, you know,
1:04:18
these are real possibilities. Jim's
1:04:21
lawyer, Goss Flangus theorized that people
1:04:23
might have forced cocaine on Jim.
1:04:26
The medical examiner echoed his suspicion
1:04:28
saying Jim might've been forced
1:04:30
to use excessive cocaine or
1:04:33
was tricked into taking especially
1:04:35
potent cocaine. Okay. So I
1:04:37
think two things that we've already talked
1:04:39
about his lawyer thought
1:04:42
that even the medical examiner
1:04:44
said it was a possibility
1:04:47
in late 2022. Jim's
1:04:49
daughter, Jennifer publicly appealed for his
1:04:51
case to be reopened. She
1:04:53
said per eight news. Now I personally
1:04:56
think he was poisoned. Jim's
1:04:58
former attorney, Goss sent a letter to
1:05:00
the attorney general and the
1:05:02
Clark County DA requesting an
1:05:04
investigation. He highlighted inconsistencies
1:05:06
in the case and
1:05:09
the feud between Jim and Rick
1:05:11
Rizzolo Flangus also pointed out
1:05:13
that Jim had GHB in a system
1:05:16
and this was not investigated
1:05:18
to me. And to me, that
1:05:20
was huge. Now I
1:05:23
did see some stuff online
1:05:25
about GHB being
1:05:27
used as a recreational drug.
1:05:29
Apparently I don't know
1:05:31
how, but maybe there
1:05:34
was something that it gives you
1:05:36
possibly like ecstasy, like euphoria.
1:05:39
Yeah. But it's
1:05:41
also well known that in
1:05:43
whatever, I'm sure it's different amounts do different
1:05:45
things maybe, but in a certain amount, it
1:05:47
will knock you out. And we will
1:05:50
not be experimenting at the next
1:05:52
time we record this podcast on myself. Yeah.
1:05:55
I don't, I don't know how to get GHB. I'm
1:05:57
assuming that would be illegal. So it's no, it's not
1:05:59
something we. I should try. That's good. Makes
1:06:01
me a little worried sometimes. But you
1:06:03
know, as we wrap this one up, there
1:06:06
are some unsolved cases that we do
1:06:08
where, you know, just at the end of the
1:06:10
day, you really have no idea. And
1:06:13
it's really hard to even lean in a
1:06:15
certain direction because there's very
1:06:17
little evidence or, or whatever. This
1:06:19
case for me was very different.
1:06:22
Now I'm not saying I know
1:06:24
what happened, but if I had
1:06:26
to put money on it, I
1:06:28
would lean towards this
1:06:32
idea that we've been discussing
1:06:34
because it seems to me
1:06:36
as though kind of everything leads in
1:06:38
that direction. Doesn't mean it happened
1:06:40
that way, but everything that we've
1:06:43
talked about and that I've read makes
1:06:46
me believe that there's something
1:06:48
to it. Well, Jim
1:06:50
told his daughter, if I die, this
1:06:52
is going to, it's going to happen of one
1:06:55
of two ways. And how it happened
1:06:57
is how he described it to his daughter. And
1:06:59
I wonder why that was maybe he had
1:07:02
some knowledge of how people within this group,
1:07:07
you know, like to do things, or
1:07:10
how they took care of their problems.
1:07:13
Jim's family still believes he was killed and
1:07:16
that his death was most likely related
1:07:18
to his feud with the owners of
1:07:20
the crazy horse too. And I
1:07:23
don't know how they couldn't believe it. It's
1:07:25
again, that's the way I'm leaning as
1:07:27
well. It's too coincidental
1:07:30
to me. The timing of it,
1:07:32
you know, one day after
1:07:34
Rick gets out, he's
1:07:36
on house arrest, right at the
1:07:38
time. Sure. So maybe he
1:07:41
gets somebody else to
1:07:43
do it for him. Pretty common. The
1:07:45
pants around the ankles, the open shirt
1:07:48
screams to me to be some type
1:07:50
of staging, but maybe the
1:07:52
biggest thing is this GHB. Right.
1:07:55
And the fact that they didn't investigate
1:07:58
it after learning. of that
1:08:01
really kind of blows me away. I get it. Local
1:08:04
police show up and they say, I
1:08:06
don't think we need to call detectives.
1:08:08
This really appears to be, you know,
1:08:11
an accident or something like that. But
1:08:14
once the autopsy is done and
1:08:17
the level of cocaine is
1:08:19
known and the fact that this
1:08:21
GHB was in a system comes
1:08:23
out, somebody's got to reevaluate
1:08:25
that. Now, like I said, if
1:08:28
you didn't do it upfront, how much can you do?
1:08:30
But you can still interview people and you can do
1:08:32
things like that. And think about Lisa, right?
1:08:34
Why, why did she not
1:08:37
be more forward when Jim's
1:08:39
daughter called that number and act like,
1:08:42
Oh, I don't know, Buffalo Jim. But
1:08:44
when she got interviewed by the police, she all
1:08:47
of a sudden, you know, she knew Jim, she
1:08:49
was with Jim that night. But
1:08:51
strangely, when he was grasping
1:08:54
his heart and convulsing, she
1:08:56
decided to just go ahead and leave
1:08:58
the room and then what, make several
1:09:00
calls to check in on him. Hey, are you
1:09:02
doing okay? I know I left you in the
1:09:05
middle of what appeared to be a massive heart
1:09:07
attack, but I want to see if you made
1:09:09
it through it. I'm just texting to see if
1:09:11
you're still okay. Yeah. Again,
1:09:14
you can lie to someone's daughter.
1:09:16
You can't, or you shouldn't lie
1:09:18
to the police. Obviously that might be the
1:09:20
difference there. We haven't had one
1:09:22
like this in a while where I've felt
1:09:26
so positive that something, you know,
1:09:28
more than likely happened a certain
1:09:30
way than, than this
1:09:32
one. But that's it for our
1:09:34
episode on the death of Buffalo Jim.
1:09:37
We've got some voicemails. You want to check that out? Let's hear them.
1:09:39
Hey, my thing of the day. This is Beth from
1:09:42
Savannah's WordPress. I've called in once before back in
1:09:44
2020 or 2021 about this internet and how you
1:09:47
guys helped me get through that. So I thought
1:09:49
I'd give you a little bit of updates. As you have
1:09:51
now helped me through a second major life changing event. I
1:09:54
listened to you guys for about 18 hours straight during
1:09:56
the birth of my daughter. My
1:09:58
husband and my husband thought I was. absolutely insane
1:10:00
with me to true crime unsolved. And
1:10:02
of course, Patreon, little shout out there.
1:10:06
You guys got me calm, have me laughing through it.
1:10:08
And now we've got another little
1:10:10
true crime lover out here. I just thought
1:10:12
I'd keep you guys updated on that. Hope
1:10:14
you guys are doing well. As always, team
1:10:16
Mike, and then stay safe. Keep your own
1:10:18
10 second guys, bye. Well,
1:10:21
that is very cool. It is awesome.
1:10:23
And I know you heard her say team Gibby
1:10:25
somehow, but. Well, team Mike,
1:10:28
AKA Gibby. Yeah,
1:10:31
very cool. Now 18 hours. It's a
1:10:34
long time. It's a long time. I love it. You
1:10:36
love the fact that it was a long time? Well,
1:10:38
that she was in pain for 18 hours. No,
1:10:41
no, no, no, no. No. No
1:10:44
wonder she's team Mike. How
1:10:46
mean of you? No, I think in the very
1:10:49
last time she was listening to T-cat. I
1:10:53
love that she was listening to us. Yeah, no, it's.
1:10:55
I thought she was in pain. It just came out
1:10:57
that way. 18 hours, awesome.
1:11:00
That's great that you had to go through all that pain.
1:11:04
Now that is cool. Anytime that we can help
1:11:07
and especially be a part of,
1:11:11
you know, help bringing somebody into the
1:11:13
world. Now we didn't do much obviously, but so.
1:11:16
We were. You tried to. I had
1:11:18
to keep you out of the room. Well,
1:11:20
the parents didn't want you in there. I
1:11:22
just wanted to see if I can get
1:11:24
my name, you know, the birth certificate somehow.
1:11:26
I mean, like middle name, you know, or
1:11:28
something like that. Gibby. Yeah. Hi,
1:11:31
this is Heather up in Vermont.
1:11:33
And I just finished your podcast
1:11:35
on Susan Howell. And you know,
1:11:37
every episode of Gibby gets obviously
1:11:39
upset because you guys talk about aesthetic things.
1:11:41
But I have listened to probably 500
1:11:44
of your episodes at
1:11:46
this time. And you're right. I am like
1:11:48
actually so enraged I had to call in
1:11:51
and just tell you I was enraged. Most
1:11:54
of my friends don't listen to your crime and
1:11:56
they would find it very strange if I called
1:11:58
them and explained how enraged I was. Anyway, have
1:12:01
a great night and thanks
1:12:03
for everything. Yeah.
1:12:05
Sometimes, you know, I think
1:12:07
obviously there is some
1:12:10
sort of, even at
1:12:12
a small level of desensitization,
1:12:15
when you do as much research
1:12:17
and watch as much true crime, and I'm
1:12:20
sure people listen to so much true crime
1:12:22
that they're, everybody's going
1:12:24
to get desensitized to a certain
1:12:26
degree. Sure. But some of
1:12:28
these cases are so horrible, like that
1:12:31
one was, that no
1:12:33
matter how much true crime you've listened
1:12:35
to, you've watched, that's going
1:12:37
to be upsetting. Yeah.
1:12:40
It's going to shake you. Yeah. There's just no way
1:12:42
around it, but we appreciate all the
1:12:44
voicemails. We do. All right, buddy. That is
1:12:46
it for another episode of True Crime All
1:12:49
the Time Unsolved. So for Mike and Gabby,
1:12:51
stay safe and keep your own time ticking.
1:13:29
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