All language subtitles for The.Thief.Collector.2022.720p.WEB.h264-OPUS

[peaceful music playing]

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] Georges and Suzie
were almost breathless
with anticipation

as they approached
the expansive entryway
to the museum.

At home in Paris,
Georges and Suzie lived
a conservative life,

ostensibly.

But they had a double life.

Highly acquisitive by nature,

both were thrill seekers
of a particular variety.

Rather than seeking
stimulation from activities

such as sky-diving,
hang-gliding
or Russian roulette,

they satisfied
their psychological need

by jeopardizing their freedom
in a succession of larcenies.

They saw themselves as masters
of victimless crimes.

This was not
their first undertaking,

but it was
their most ambitious, by far.

My God, this is like
a confession.

[woman] Yeah, if it
speaks to you, read it.

What?

It's a con--
It's unbelievable.

It is a confession.

[woman giggles]

"Thrill Seekers."

Mild little thrill seekers.

[woman]

"They saw themselves as masters
of victimless crimes."

[intense music playing]

♪ I came to last ♪

♪ I came to heal it all ♪

♪ And swindle the best ♪

♪ On my call they all fall ♪

♪ Then spring to confess ♪

♪ Round here
it's all for the taking ♪

♪ Light up my face ♪

♪ Straighten my tie ♪

♪ Jump off the page ♪

♪ See your hope whizzing by ♪

♪ But they all like ♪

♪ That I fed a lie ♪

♪ They all just sit there
without a care ♪

♪ And kiss
that wealth goodbye ♪

All right, so where
should we start?

The big room.

Got a pretty nice collection
of some "Playboy" memorabilia.

-This is, um, Dansk Mesa.
-And this is all American West.

-Yeah, this
is a brochure for it.
-Ooh.

Some great hand-signed prints.

-Is it signed?
-No.

-No?
-Might be under
the frame, though.

Okay.

That one's kind of cool, too.

I didn't like it at first,
but...

almost has that...

[man 2] Feels like
a hotel piece.

[man 1] Yeah, hotel art,
exactly.

[man 3] Some pretty decent stuff
so far.

-[man 1] It's a much cleaner...
-[man 2] It is much cleaner.

...much cleaner estate
than the Alter house.

And the art is better.
[chuckles]

[man 1] Yeah.
Well, for the most part.

-For the most part.
-Except for one.
-[men laugh]

I think you're only
allowed one...

one find like that
in a lifetime.

-[man 2] That's enough.
-Yeah.

[Buck Burns] When we do estates,
walking into a home,

you do realize you're walking
into somebody's personal life,

so you go in there
with that energy.

Walking into
the Alters' estate, uh...

it was kind of like
a time capsule.

[Dave Van Auker]
The house was strange.

The yard was strange.

There were tiled pyramids
and obelisks in the yard.

There were
these very strange pillars

that formed a circle

that had busts on top of them,

and it was Shakespeare,
it was Moliere,

it was Beethoven,
it was different philosophers,

different musicians,
artists, composers.

It was a very creepy feeling.

In the house, there weren't
a lot of pictures of the kids.

There were a lot of pictures
of the couple, Jerry and Rita.

It was just Jerry and Rita,
Jerry and Rita, Jerry and Rita.

You definitely got the sense
that these were kind of

really cool, hip, beatniky
people who are really with it.

You know, he was a sax player.

It looked like she modeled.

These people
were world travelers.

[Buck] One room was full
of just the African stuff.

There was a lot,
you know, shelves of it.

[Dave] And there
were some spears

and nice sharp, pointy objects.

And then, in the hallways
and bedrooms

were the most hideous paintings
you've ever seen,

and there were,
I believe, 75 of them.

[Buck] Yeah, all the paintings

that, I guess, Mr. Alter did.

So strange.

And they were everywhere,
including the bathroom.

It was very just surreal.

[Dave] Handling their objects...

like some of the stuff
that Jerry had written,

some really strange poetry...

you had this real sense that
they were each other's world.

[camera shutter clicks]

We all three were
walking down the hallway

and Rick went
into the first bedroom,

Buck went into
the second bedroom,

and I turned and went
into the master bedroom.

And there was
a mid-century dresser

that a door was off of
and setting on the floor,

and so I got down
on my knees

and I, you know,
kind of shut the door

and reached to pick up
the dresser door.

And when I did that,
I kind of glanced up

and I saw the painting
that was behind the door.

And it caught my eye because
it was very mid-century.

It was kind of, you know, cool.

I called across the hall

to my partner Buck and I said,

"Hey, come over
and take a look at this,
see if you like it."

And... because
we own a guesthouse,
and we thought, you know,

this would be a cool piece
to hang in there.

Horrible frame. [chuckles]

I called it a Walmart frame.

Truthfully,
probably the ugliest painting

I've ever seen in my life.

I would have left it behind
the bedroom door in the house.

[chuckles]

Said, "Oh, okay,
then we'll take that."

I brought it down
in the back seat
of my pickup truck.

Then it went on top

of all of the spears
and jaggedy, you know, items.

And, um, we drove it

back here into town.

We took it off and we
brought it into the store.

It had probably been
in the store maybe ten minutes

and a gentleman walked
in the door

and I heard him say to Buck,

"Is this real?"

I just saw it
standing on the floor there.

I noticed that it said
"de Kooning" at the bottom,

and I was familiar
with de Kooning.

James said, "I'm pretty sure
this is real,

and I'm interested
in buying it if it is."

And I offered Dave
$200,000 for it.

And, of course,
I'm thinking he's kidding,
so I go, "Sold!"

And he walks around
the corner to the desk
and he says, "I'm serious."

I had some... some money
in the bank at the time.

Could have afforded that,
let's put it that way.

He said it could be
worth $200,000,

it could be worth $2 million.

He said, "But you need
to find out, but I
definitely want it."

Since I live in my van,

I keep most of my stuff
in my storage unit.

Probably would have gone
in my storage unit.

We all just kind of look
at each other and say,

you know,
"This is just too weird.
Something's up here."

I kept looking on Google for it,
and four pages deep in Google,

I came across
the "Arizona Republic" article.

It wasn't a heist you'd see
in a Hollywood movie,

but it certainly gained
some notoriety as one of
Tucson's biggest mysteries.

It's been 30 years
since two thieves made off
with a priceless piece of art

from the University of Arizona's
Museum of Art.

This is where
William de Kooning's

"Woman-Ochre" sat 30 years ago,

before it was
cut out of its frame

and simply walked
out the front door.

[peaceful music playing]

[woman] De Kooning is
a towering presence

and he has
a wonderful story.

He stowed away,
came to America,

suffered for decades,

lived on the edge,

and then had
this almost surreal success.

He has a beautiful, forceful,
but elusive brush stroke,

that always has
a sort of kink in it,

as if it's scooting off
in some new direction,

like it's saying goodbye.

He had made one of the best
fancy-pants styles,

his black-and-whites
of the late '40s,

abstract paintings.

So then he moved from there

to this rude, squawky
women series.

[Annalyn Swan]
"Beauty is petulant," he said.

"I like the grotesque,
it's more joyous."

[Annalyn]
De Kooning's 1953 show
with the six big women,

major, major breakthrough.

People woke up.

"Life" magazine realized

we have this homegrown
American art scene,

and it just took off from there.

He became one of the first rock
stars of the American scene.

Then he did another cycle
of paintings,

and that's
where "Woman-Ochre" is.

"Woman-Ochre" was donated

to the University of Arizona
Museum of Art in the early '60s.

The University of Arizona
Museum of Art

was off to one corner
in the campus.

It was not
a gigantic collection,

but it was a really good one.

It was a really great
snapshot in time

of postwar American art.

The "Woman-Ochre"
was sort of the soul

of the museum, that painting.

To have a woman painting here
is very, very special.

These are my working notes

that I've had over the years.

Uh, and...

things that I will refer
back to every once in a while.

Police reports, articles,
handwritten notes, et cetera.

Just things that help me
with the investigation

over the years.

There are specific cases
that each officer

in their career just...

is there for
all of their career,

you know, that they think about.

"What could we have
done better that day?"

"Is there anything
we could have done more of?"

It was the day
after Thanksgiving,

and the campus is pretty much
closed on those days,

however the art museum
is open.

Now, remember,
this was 36 years ago.

[chuckles]

So my memory may be
a little bit rusty.

But I got there
and I was surprised

because there were two people
sitting on the concrete bench

as I approached.

Good morning, John.

What about them?

Sure. We can open up.

[straining]

[door closes]

Go, go, go!

Hi, miss,
I just wanted to ask you

about this painting here.

[water flushing]

Oh.

[cutter rattles]

Excuse me.

Ah, actually, I'm going
to bring you this way...

Okay.

Well, thank you so much.
[laughs]

Did you see that?

Come on, honey!

What are you doing?

Holy shit.

It's a mystery,
an unsolved case,

that has
the folks working here asking,
"Where is the 'Woman-Ochre'"?

Authorities still don't know
who took it.

[reporter] The mystery:
who stole the painting?

After 30 years of doing
these investigations,

I've discovered that there's
basically three types
of thieves.

The first type is
the theft of opportunity.

That's a person
who basically shoplifts.

He goes in,
sees something he likes,

sees an opportunity to steal it,
he takes it.

Most of the collection couldn't
be stolen, it was too big.

This was something you could
cut out and you could roll up

and you could abscond with.

The second is the individuals
who are doing it for money.

That's the largest grouping,
by the way.

They see these crazy numbers
coming out of auction houses.

You know, they think,
"Well, if I can make $5 million
on doing an art theft,

I would do that."

Then there's
the third kind of art thief,

and that's the art thief
who steals for themselves.

They're very rare.

You have somebody that might
fixate on a particular piece,

and they just have to have it.

They feel like,
since they care about it,

they're entitled to have
these pieces.

And those are
the most dangerous,

and they're
the hardest to capture.

And the reason for that is
they don't steal for money,

nor do they steal because
it just happens to be there.

They think about it,
they steal these materials,

they hide them, they keep them
for their eyes only,

and those things go away
for many years

before they come back.

[Bob Cauthorn] "Woman-Ochre"
was a striking painting.

It was more provocative
than most of them.
It really was in your face.

That's what got everybody
so worked up about
the women series to begin with,

that de Kooning punches you.

If you got the right psychology,
you go after that painting,

you take it, you make it yours,
you know?

Uh, those are absolutely
things that could have happened.

But a dominant theory was,
is that it was a contract job,

and that it was a collector
who needed a de Kooning
specifically.

This was your chance to get it
if you wanted a de Kooning.

[clicks tongue] Go for it
right now, really fast.

Day after Thanksgiving.

Slow day.

Sleepy southwest.

I was out doing
Christmas shopping.

What else do you do
the day after Thanksgiving?

And, uh,
back then there were pagers,

so I got this page to call

and, uh, talk to the chief.

From there,
the investigation began.

We immediately brought
the FBI in,

along with Interpol.

We worked hand in hand with
the university police department
at the very beginning.

[Olivia Miller]
The director at the time,
Peter Birmingham,

was simultaneously,
you know, horrified, but also

held out a shred of optimism,
you know.

He said, "We have a 50/50 chance
of recovering it,

and I'm hopeful
that it will be found."

[Bob] First, the FBI said,
"We're gonna get it back,
we're gonna get it back,

we're gonna get it back,"
'cause they assumed it was
gonna hit the market.

You know, the FBI's
got its way.

I mean, people are monitoring,
you know, underground
art markets,

and they do find artwork
that's recovered that way,

but the painting never hit
the market, which continued
that dominant theory, right?

This was a contract job.
Somebody wanted that de Kooning
and wanted it very specifically.

[Brian Seastone] We knew
this was gonna be tough.

There weren't fingerprints.
There just wasn't anything.

We were relying
on the community,

if anybody had seen anything.

We had a psychic call
one day and said that,

uh, they thought they knew
where it was.

I've always said, you always
keep an open mind.

[Bob] I called the FBI.

I would check in on it
to find out what the status was.

There was nothing
to investigate.

[Brian] The leads dried up
very quickly.

[Bob] Basically, a dome of
silence dropped over this thing.

Case was closed in 1987
for lack of leads.

[Bob] They hung the empty frame
for the de Kooning on the wall.

But when we close
an investigation,

that just doesn't mean
we're done,

you know, we're never
gonna look at this again.

It just means, think of it as,

"well, we're gonna put it
on the shelf for a while."

"Woman-Ochre" was, in fact,

on the FBI's top 10
art crimes list.

[Brian] At the time
of the theft, it was valued

at between $300,000
and $400,000.

Now it's valued
somewhere over $160 million.

It's an unsolved case
that still haunts

the University of Arizona
Museum of Art,

but with the upcoming
anniversary,

the museum remains hopeful.

[ringing]

I'll never forget that moment.

I was sitting in my office
and the phone rings,

and it's David
on the other line.

And I'm trying to tell her,

I said, "Look, I'm not crazy,
you know.

I purchased this estate

and this painting was in it,"

and I said,
"It's an exact match."

Me and my coworker
just look at each other,

and our eyes get really big,

and she lunges forward
and says,

"Are we gonna remember
this moment for the rest
of our lives?"

And they asked him to email me
photos of the painting,

details of the signature.

Every time we opened a photo,
we just...

would think, "How do we get
to Silver City?"

You know, this is,
this is "Woman-Ochre."

We contacted the police
department here on campus,

and the police officer said,

"No, you know,
we prefer that there's no
side conversations happening"

and told me
to not contact David anymore,

you know, that they were going
to take over from there.

[Dave] And then that was
the last we heard from them.

It went crickets.

In the meantime,
word has kind of gotten around

to a few people in town,
so people are coming in saying,

"We wanna see the de Kooning."

And so, you know,
we said something like,

"Oh, we took it away."

Then it comes closing time,
and I took it home

and I put it behind my sofa.

I actually went and I got
a couple of guns

out of the gun safe,

because we thought, you know,

a meth head, you know,
has heard that we have this.

I mean, people are killed
for less

than a $100 million painting,
so...

It was terrifying.
Very terrifying.

[Dave] Nobody was calling us.
Why hasn't anyone called us?

Meanwhile,
we're losing our minds,

because we're very nervous,

uh, that he sounded genuine

but we had no idea
who he was,

and we were fearful that

the longer he had
to sit with the painting...

perhaps the more likely
he would be to change his mind

or to try to figure out, uh...
how to keep the painting

or maybe hide it again.

I get a phone call
and I answer it,

and it's somebody
identifying themselves

as "an intellectual
properties attorney,"

and basically is kind of
telling me I'm stupid

and, you know, that I really
need to rethink this.

There's a lot of money
on the table,

millions of dollars
on the table, uh...

So after I, you know,
screamed at him for a minute

and I hung up on him,
I dialed Olivia back.

Hi, Olivia.

This is Dave Van Auker
in Silver City, New Mexico.

I'm the one with
the de Kooning painting.

Now, all of the sudden,
I have vulture attorneys

wanting me to do things,

and I don't wanna do it.

I don't wanna do this.

All I want is that painting
to go back where it belongs,

and I'm just freaking out

because I'm not hearing
from you guys,

and somebody
might cut my throat
for this de Kooning painting.

Keep this on record.

I don't wanna hold it hostage,
I don't wanna hold it ransom,

I want you to have
the painting back.

[Olivia] I'll never
forget that call.

Just the sense of relief,
'cause at that point we thought

we were so close and maybe
we wouldn't get it.

On Friday night,
we had the go-ahead

to go to Silver City
to go and pick up the painting.

[pensive music playing]

[laughter]

[Dave] People ask us
all the time how...

how you could
just do it so easily,
and it's like...

-how could you not?
-How could you not?

And that should be
the question,

"How could you not
do it so easily?"

Many thought
a $160 million masterpiece

stolen from a museum in 1985
was gone forever,

until it turned up
in Silver City.

After the painting
was back at the U of A,

the museum sent it off
to the Getty Museum
in Los Angeles

for its conservation process

to restore the painting
to its original glory

as much as possible,

fixing tears and paint loss.

[reporter] But who took it
and where it went
between Tucson and Silver City

is the next mystery to solve.

[narrator] Ken and Judy
built their fine home,

complete with swimming pool
and extensive gardens,

in rural New Mexico,

and it was now
the showplace of the county.

After Ken's heart attack
at age 65, he thought...

The first chance I get
to hire a good pair of hands

to take over the outside tasks,

I'll do it.

He didn't have to wait long.

-[phone rings]
-He received a phone call
from one of his neighbors.

Hello.

Yes.

A rancher who had hired
a Mexican laborer

to rebuild some fences.

Wonderful.

All right, we'll talk soon.

José was a very good worker,
honest, never complained,

and was worth several times
the amount generally paid

to illegal immigrant
itinerant workers.

Ken couldn't have wished
for a better worker.

The food and few dollars
this would cost

would be the best bargain
he ever made.

He was now free
to do some writing,

a secret ambition he always had
but never had the time to try,

until now.

[typewriter keys clacking]

[wind whistling]

[Ron Roseman]
Rita and Jerry Alter
were my aunt and uncle.

Rita Alter was
my mother's sister.

She was just very sweet.

I became a teacher
because of my aunt and uncle.

I just admired them.

My aunt had a bachelor's
in education,

a master's in speech pathology.

I actually had Rita

as one of my teachers

or a specialist
when I was little.

I had a hard time
pronouncing words,

so I had her
when I was in grade school.

She was a nice lady.

She was real nice.

Uncle Jerry,
he was a music teacher

for the New York City
public schools.

When they moved to New Mexico,

my uncle retired.

Here's some pictures of him
playing his clarinet.

I don't know who took this,
but it's kind of neat.

I met Jerry Alter in 1965,

when I entered fifth grade.

And I had him
for an orchestra class.

Jerry Alter went around
like an itinerant teacher

to different classes
and would teach music.

Mr. Alter was very, um, vibrant.

Music has just been
so important in my life,

and he was the first person
to give me music.

He was very empowering,
very motivating.

He made me feel
like I mattered.

Mr. Alter was just
a genuinely nice,

uplifting person.

[Carole Sklar] My mother and I
walk into a store,

and who do we see but Jerry,
my brother,

and out walks Rita

in a one-piece
white bathing suit,

looking very beautiful.

That was how we met Rita.

I thought that was kind of cute.

Especially since
they lasted forever.

[Ron] Oh, they were
definitely soulmates,

and you could just
see it in their eyes

that they adored
one another.

He would do anything for her.

We would see them
every summer growing up.

Always looked forward
to visiting them.

They were exciting.

They always had
interesting stories to tell,

uh, about their travels.

You know, I just admired
their... their lifestyle.

Here is their list
of, uh...

all the places they visited

from 1957,

so they got married
in June of '57.

That was their honeymoon trip.

And their last trip was 2010.

Their travels were
their life accomplishment.

Rita and I worked together,

and one evening she said,

"Would you and Rick and
the girls have dinner with us?"

We saw pictures
of some of their travels,

and, oh my God,
every trip was like

truly an adventure.

[Rick Miller] Yeah, very unique.

[Christy Miller] It wasn't just,
"Let's get on a plane

and go see
a few monuments and..."

-[Rick M.] Yeah, they didn't
travel in luxury.
-[Christy] No.

[Rick M.] They were much more
adventurous, you know.

If they would go to Tahiti,

they would go to Tahiti
for a month

and live in a hut
on the beach.

[Christy] Right.

[Rick M.] Um, or they would go
on a safari in Africa.

They would go to Alaska.

Um, they just went
to very exotic places.

And that was all
very exciting to hear about.

[Carole] In my studio,
there are several things

that Jerry and Rita gave us
from their travels.

These two figures,

male and female,

they look war-like.

They wrote from their trips.

Who wrote this one?
Jerry and Rita. Okay.

"Carib dancers."

In this Anguilla place.

"Hi, Carole and Martin.

This is the best beach
in Anguilla

where we spend
most of our days swimming

and in the sparkling water
and snorkeling

on the fish-filled reefs."

[Ron] My aunt was a recorder,

she recorded everything,

particularly about her trips.

And she had a journal

that she took on her trips.

The itineraries she would
make out would be very precise.

That was always part
of a trip,

you'd sit down and see
the slides

of their latest adventure.

Sometimes the slide shows
were a little much.

Their life revolved
around that.

-It did.
-Planning the next trip.

[Rick M.] I think
that's what they lived for.

[Ron] On some level,
I, you know,

I wished they were my parents.

They were just cool.

Well, my uncle passed away
when he was 81.

He was five years older
than my aunt.

When we discovered my aunt
had Alzheimer's disease,

uh, we came out to visit her
within a month or so

and she named me as executor,

building the estate to divide
between her two children.

The kids both had some issues.

[Rick M.] Her son, I don't
believe he was able to work,

and I think Rita would go
to check on him,

to make sure he was okay.

She had asked me
to make sure particularly

her son was taken care of.

She passed away
from a stroke

not too many months later.

It felt like
a great responsibility

to make sure that, uh,

I wasn't throwing away
anything important.

Their house was full
of souvenirs

from their travels
around the world.

It just had this real sense
of mystery to it.

It's almost like going
into a little museum.

It was just this big mess of,
"who are we gonna find,

who's even gonna want
any of this stuff?"

You know, "is any of this
worth anything?"

Uh, that's... [laughs]

That's really funny.

"Is any of this worth anything?"

[Ron] I called, you know,

a couple dozen universities
and art museums

and sent them pictures
of, you know, what I had,

which included the de Kooning.

I sent it to the Met, MoMA,
the Smithsonian,

universities in New Mexico.

I got no offers,

either, you know,
for payment or for donation.

[Isaac Roseman] My dad's role
is to, uh...

either auction or sell off
the contents of the estate

for the trust of Joey
and Barbara Alter, the kids.

[Ron] Silver City seemed
to be the most practical place

to look to sell the things
that my cousins didn't want

and hopefully build up
part of the estate.

I called Manzanita Ridge,
and I sold them furniture,

paintings, bedding
and any of those knickknacks

that the museums
weren't interested in.

One thing did belong
in a museum.

[laughs]

And we found that out, um...

[laughs]

...in a very awkward way.

[Ron] There was a call,
and she said, "This is the FBI,"

and she said, "You're not
in trouble in any way.

We just need some information."

And then she proceeded
to explain what was found

in my aunt and uncle's
possessions.

I'm not sure I'd ever been
this shocked.

[Carole] My God, you know.

I didn't know.

I had no idea

that this painting
was in their house.

[woman]

Yeah, we were very surprised,
very surprised.

In Cliff, you know.

Nothing had ever happened
in Cliff.

[western music playing]

[Mike Burns]
Cliff is more than 50 miles
from the nearest interstate.

Cliff is your destination.

It's not what I would call
a pass-through community.

If it's news that's fit
to print or be discussed,

it's gonna be discussed
at this convenience store,

sells a little bit of liquor.

[man] Movie company's here
and they're making a movie.

No, really.

Yeah, you need to get up here
so you can get in it.

[man 2]
Be sure and get a picture
of my gun up there on the wall.

And then they found
that painting behind the door.

[man] Yeah.

Wasn't it worth about 300,000?

160-- Yeah.

My God.

Wow, you know,
that just was crazy to me

that it was just hanging up
on their wall all those years.

But I would have never figured
that that painting

was worth anything
just by glancing at it.

[Ron] When I first saw it,
I...

I'm not a terribly big fan,
personally, of modern art.

It didn't impress me
a whole lot.

On the esthetically beautiful,
I would say no.

Well, my personal opinion,

I wouldn't give you $5 for it.

And when I look at it,
it doesn't...

make any sense to me.

I could make a lot of people mad
if I say this,

um, but if you've ever seen
pictures of bonobo apes

and the stuff that they paint,

it's kind of similar.

[laughing]

Growing up in this area,
you know,

we're into western-type scenery
and cattle or horses or deer.

Tim Cox to me,
he's the artist, you know.

Yeah.

No offense to this, whoever
painted this and all that.

Tim Cox, and if I was to find
one of his paintings

on somebody's wall or door
or something like that,

I would pay attention to it,
you know,

and if I found one
that was hidden, it would
be suspicious all right.

But to see something
like that...

it wouldn't have made me
suspicious at all.

I'd have thought they probably
put it back there

'cause it was so ugly
or something.

Yeah. [laughing]

When we first heard
about the painting,

I think, deep down,
I didn't want to believe it,

because I really liked Rita.

If they took
this valuable painting

worth $150 million,
$160 million,

what was the point if they
were just going to hang it

on the wall
behind their bedroom door?

It's not like they sold it.

[Marvin Strange]
School teacher at the school

stealing paintings, I mean...

[chuckles]

But we did wonder how
they funded their travel.

[Christy] It would be like
two or three

trips a year, maybe.

And I know how much
teachers make,

so where did the money come from
to live this lifestyle?

I think they took it.
I think it was them.

[Dave] The very first time
I saw it,

it was like, "How odd."

Nobody would hang
a painting here.

[Buck] There was even
a screw in the doorjamb

that prevented the door
from being opened all the way,

I'm assuming to preserve,
maybe, the doorknob

from hitting the painting.

It was definitely hidden.

-It was solely for them.
-Yeah.

It was purely for their benefit,
for their enjoyment.

It was not
for anybody else to see.

[Rick M.] There certainly are
unanswered questions.

And they were in Tucson.

[Ron] Probably
once every three years

they'd come to my parents' house
for Thanksgiving,

and, uh, at the time, in 1985,

we were living
in the Tucson area.

And this is the photo in, uh...

November '85.

Thanksgiving, with my aunt
and uncle visiting us.

They were very active people,

and when they would come
on Thanksgiving,

they'd stay the night

and take off
in the morning to hike.

And that's the date
the theft happened.

As we were going through stuff,
we found these travel journals

that the Alters kept,

and what was kind
of interesting about them is

they noted, every time
they left Cliff,

every time they went anywhere
for more than a day,

they wrote it down.

Thanksgiving 1985
was left completely blank,

which we found fascinating.

And then, you know,
then we're right back
into taking notes again,

right after.

[Ron] The thing I remember
most is,

my uncle was showing off
his car.

His... You know, they drove
there in their sports car.

They drove their red
Toyota Supra that day.

The small description
that we had of the vehicle--

rust-colored car.

[Dave] This is
what few little bits

of photographs and stuff we had.

And, you know,
some of the things

that we found fascinating
were the red sports car.

And then we found it
fascinating that,

in the description
of the woman leaving,

she was wearing a red coat,

and the drawing is
exactly this red coat.

And these pictures are 1985.

The envelope that they
came out of said 1985.

There's snow
on the mountain behind,

so this either happened
right before the theft

or right after.

Probably within a month.

[Brian] We were able

to get some composites

of the two people.

Wow, that sure looks
like he did.

And it looks like her.

It looked pretty similar
to my great aunt and uncle.

I see a resemblance.

Yeah, it looks like them.

The same hair.

Maybe he had a fake mustache

the day he did the actual theft.

The mustache looked like
a theatrical mustache.

It did not look real.

But it does look like
both of them.

There's a saying that there
are no coincidences,

but there's
so many coincidences

that it's hard to dismiss that

as a very strong possibility.

Man, I, uh...

You know, if they really
came and smiled

and had a great time with us,
all the time planning,

it's just weird that, uh,

they could go through

and have
just another Thanksgiving

with my aunt and uncle
and cousin.

Uh, it's compelling, right?
But it's not definitive.

I still would like to think that
this isn't my aunt and uncle.

I don't believe it,

but then I think...

I... yeah, I do believe it.

Well, I mean, you know,

I don't know.

[typewriter bell dings]

[typewriter keys clacking]

[Carole] Rita was sweet
and good and lovely,

and I couldn't see that
as my brother,

my sister-in-law,

my family,

doing something like that.

These books are...

the three that Jerry wrote.

And in this one,

it's called
"The Cup and the Lip."

These photos are his photos,

of course, on the cover.

And it's a book

of short stories

of travels

and other invent--

Well, some are...

Well, I think that all artists

have a right to invent

anything they want to.

It's your freedom, you know.

-Here it is.
-Guess what I found.

Yep, there it is.

Manuscript

for "The Cup and the Lip."

When he published the book,

he contacted me and asked
if I'd like a copy.

And he was very excited
about it.

So I read
the first couple stories.

There's just so much writing.

I personally didn't find them
very interesting.

So, yeah, this is
"Thrill Seekers,"

part of the manuscript
from Jerry.

Uh, "Georges and Suzie
were almost breathless
with anticipation

as they approached
the expansive entryway
to the museum."

"At home in Paris,
Georges and Suzie lived
a conservative life,"

comma, "ostensibly."

"But they had a double life."

"Highly acquisitive by nature...

both were thrill seekers
of a particular variety."

"They saw themselves as masters
of victimless crimes."

Wow.

Yeah, it's... [chuckles]

I mean, yeah,
so you look at these.

"This is not
their first undertaking,

but it was their most
ambitious, by far."

It... it describes them.

They were talking
about themselves.

[Dave] One of the travel agents

that used to book
their things said,

"I'm sure they did it."

And we're like,
"Why are you sure?"

And she said, "'Cause they
were adrenaline junkies."

They would book a flight
into a country

and they would make
arrangements

for somebody to smuggle them

into a country that they
weren't allowed to go into.

This little old man
and his little old lady

were adrenaline junkies.

This is one I thought
was kind of, um...

interesting
because I don't think

"The Eye of the Jaguar"

is in the table of contents.

But I think the story made it.

[narrator]
One afternoon at 4 p.m.,

a well-dressed woman
in her late middle age,

accompanied by
her 14-year-old granddaughter,

entered the museum.

After making a one-hour tour
through all the rooms,

they stopped
to more closely examine

the museum's prized exhibit,

enclosed in a glass case
without a pedestal.

It was one
of the world's largest

and most perfect emeralds,

the Eye of the Jaguar.

Go.

[suspenseful music playing]

The guard thought,
"Wow, those two seem
to be in a hurry.

Most unusual for visitors
to a place such as this."

"My God!"
he screamed inwardly,

"They stole
the Eye of the Jaguar!

Our priceless jewel is gone!"

In a room several miles away

from the place
this incident transpired,

a plush couch
is centered against one wall.

Above the couch,
a single beam of light

is focused on a panel
in the center
of the opposite wall.

At the press of a button
on the arm of the couch,

the panel flies to one side,

revealing a stunning
120-carat emerald,

unique in the entire world,

and two pairs of eyes
exclusively are...

-"...there to see."
-"...there to see."

Jerry, how do you meet
so many couples

that happen to steal

certain valuable objects
in very similar ways?

That's very odd. [chuckles]

Reading this,
in the context of this book,

and my own take on this case,

is about as consistent

as a New York hot dog
on a hot summer day.

We didn't know
the real Jerry and Rita.

They did a good job
of hiding whatever they were.

[Ron] I just wonder a lot.

People who you think
are upstanding citizens,

what motivates them
all of a sudden

to do something like this?

It seems like this couple
is really the story here.

They're the mystery.

[woman] So, where were you
working last week?

So, I've been working
in the lower right area.

-Uh, you see that brown patch?
-Down here?

Yeah, that looks beautiful.

And, um, it's actually quite
amazing how much it relaxes

once we get it under the heat.

I'm Ulrich Birkmaier.

I'm the senior conservator
of paintings

here at the Getty Museum.

My name is Laura Rivers.
I'm one of the painting
conservators

working on the painting.

[Ulrich] We're currently
in the midst

of the treatment
of the painting.

[Laura] It's a very fractured
paint surface

that was damaged
during the theft.

And this is the moment
at which we are,

carefully and very slowly,
under the microscope,

putting that back together.

So essentially through
the microscope,

I am looking at

sort of canyons
formed by the missing paint

that probably flaked off
during the rolling.

I am moving pieces
back into place

with this hot-air needle

and then pressing very lightly

to sort of set them down.

Because of the rolling,

flakes are scattered
over the surface.

So right now I've actually found

a flake that
doesn't belong here.

And I'm going to very carefully

put it in box 21.

After the theft,
a strainer was made for it

and the strainer
is quite crude.

Uh, it would have been
available in an art store.

The painting was then
stapled to that strainer

and the staples went through

what should have been
the front of the painting.

And that's one of the most
difficult issues that we face.

And once that was done,

someone chose
to varnish the painting.

[Ulrich] You can definitely
tell that the thieves

had some art background.

[Laura] It feels like
a faint echo

of what would have been done
in a professional context.

They also made the choice
to do some minor retouching,

so touching in some of
the areas of loss with paint.

[Josh Goldberg]
That's a sacrilege.

It's just, it's such hubris.

I mean, to think that
you could even do that.

Putting your own stupid
paint on it?

I mean, if you're untrained?
I mean, my God.

Really, uh...

What would lead anybody

to think that they
should do such a thing?

[Jamie Strange] Jerry has
more grandiose ideas, I guess.

To me, he was a person
that was more book smart

than, than common sense smart.

[Jamie] Like he built
lots of stuff at the property.

Stuff in the house isn't square.

This structure that we're
sitting under isn't level,

so we have a joke now

that stuff in the house
is "Jerry-rigged"

'cause it was all done by Jerry.

[Ron] He always seemed
to know a lot about

just about anything
that came up.

I could picture him speaking
with a brain surgeon

and arguing with him about
something about brain surgery.

He knew better.

But I think, if you're
confident in yourself,

there's no need
to impress anybody.

My uncle was a jazz musician,
a good one,

and maybe he imagined

that he should have
gone on to better things,

but circumstances didn't put him
in the right place

at the right time.

He was teaching in Manhattan,

and he felt the schools were
getting rougher and rougher

and the administration
was insensitive

to the plights of the teachers.

He felt he deserved a promotion
he didn't get,

and he had enough,

so he moved to Cliff
when he was 47.

[narrator] Quentin Carlyle
had spent 35 years

as an accountant
in a large company.

He never received a promotion.

And his status
had remained identical

to what it was
the day he was hired.

As the years passed,
he found himself

taking direction from younger
and younger coworkers.

To hell with them all!

His 35-year retirement would be
effective in a month's time.

[Ron] He had ambitions
with some of his artwork

and his writing.

[Buck]
Well, even being in the house,
the house was set up

more so as an alter
to what I consider

the crazy bright vibrant artwork
that just lined the walls.

He liked to do
a lot of painting.

It's not great painting.

Like, it was a hobby
and it was fun,

but his artistic ability
was not great.

But I think it was all done,
we heard, for therapy.

-Yeah, for therapy.
-After he had
a stroke or something.

[Ron] His father passed away
from a heart attack

at a young age,

and my uncle had suffered
a major heart attack himself.

His heart was much weakened.

So he became very afraid
of getting ill.

Deep down, Sam knew
he was having a heart attack,

but at 39, he was far short
of the age for most men

when this occurs.

If you want to live,
you must give up

all excessive physical activity

and find sedentary work
of a calming nature.

I'll be a painter.

What do you know about art?

You never went to art school

to be properly trained
to be an artist.

In painting, formal education
is not essential.

During the month-long
exhibition,

all paintings sold
for 50K each.

Sam realized with all modesty,

he might have been blessed
with a spark of genius.

I hate to say it,

but I think he thought
more of himself

than he actually was.

Probably his writing this,
he'd thought,

you know, he was maybe
gonna make it big.

[Buck] Yeah.

Ken was quite
a talented writer.

To further hone his skills,
he registered
in a creative writing class

given at the university
in town.

This left Judy with
a lot of free time alone.

The picture became
clear in Ken's mind.

Ken had José load some tools
into Ken's wheelbarrow.

These were brought to the area
of the magnificent
front garden,

where the septic tank lay
buried under 2 feet of soil,

plastic sheeting,
and crushed red lava rock.

Ken reached
for his 8-pound sledgehammer.

[Dave] You wonder,
were they fantasies,

and in his mind, you know,
this is what he wanted?

I think Jerry Alter

might have been living
in a bit of a fantasy world.

But I think his outlet
was his book.

[Isaac]
"Harry felt a black hatred
for man and all his works.

Certainly in his adult life,

he had already left
a swath of destruction

in his wake.

Ruined property
and devastated lives

caused not the slightest upset
or pang of conscience in him.

Of course,
Squire would never commit

the sort of overt illegal act

sure to bring the police
down on him.

No, he was too smart for that.

He would have to live freely
for a very long time

in order to exact his revenge
on God and mankind

for slighting him,
for disrespecting him,

and for depriving him
of his opportunities."

[Bob] "The Thief Collector"

is the darkest of them all.

And it also speaks
of a kind of self-victimhood,

you know,
that "I must have this,
I must have this,

nobody else can have this."

That's not healthy.

[Mark Stevens] Everything
about the case suggests that

the person who stole
the painting

had some kind of obsession.

Why would you risk
going to jail

if you didn't?

Why would you not sell it

if you were just interested
in making money?

Why would you keep it
in your bedroom for decades

and hide it there if it was not
some personal obsession?

[Bob] It may well be the case

that they experienced
de Kooning's paintings directly,

you know, because he was hitting
right when they were there.

The chances of them bumping
into de Kooning are very high.

You know, the chances of anybody
bumping into-- these guys
are just drinking in bars.

Everybody and his brother
showed up

at one time or another
at the galleries

or at the Cedar Bar
who was interested in painting.

So it's not far-fetched at all.

They could have been,
you know, I don't know,

but they could have been
disappointed that

their life didn't work out

in the way
they might have wanted.

You can imagine it was a symbol
of all his disappointment,

all his aspiration,
all his anger.

And then to... to razor it
out of the frame,

um, that's saying that,
"Well, secretly, actually,

I'm as good as any of you.

I can kill you, I can steal you,
I can dominate you."

[Ron] I could see my uncle
thinking,

"If I can't be famous,

at least I could be infamous."

I wonder if they felt
like the painting personally,
that it belonged to them.

[Dave] We have some
early pictures of Rita,

and she was a stunning woman,
absolutely beautiful woman.

And then, of course,
then you start hearing

about how de Kooning
was a womanizer

and slept with his models
and things like that.

And so then we thought, well,
maybe that was part of this.

Maybe Rita was the model for it.

[Bob] "Woman-Ochre"
was painted in 1955.

[Ron] My aunt and uncle met

somewhere in 1955.

[Christy] Somehow that made...

that made it easier
for me to believe...

[Rick M.] Yeah,
if that were true.

[Christy] ...if she
was the model, like, okay.

Well, and if he told you
that it was yours
because you were the model,

then, and you didn't get it,
well then, by golly,
then just steal it.

I mean, it's...

I guess it makes it
a little easier to swallow.

Makes it a little bit
more romantic,

like a movie or something.

Uh, no, he didn't use...

He wouldn't have used her
as a model.

He had women in mind,
you know,

including particular women,

but no, he never put
a model on the stand

and carefully painted her
in his studio.

But she could well have been,

uh, you know,
one of the many women

who were hanging out
at the Cedar Tavern,

or he might have
met her at an opening.

[Ron] Carole lived near
the Martha Jackson gallery,

where "Woman-Ochre"
was on display.

And it makes sense to me

that they saw that painting
on at least one occasion.

I mean, um,
there's all kinds of ways

that they probably did
know each other a little bit.

Which might be part
of the resentment, right?

I mean, he was
a sort of sleep-around, too.

I guess it's not
beyond the pale

to think that they might
have had something like that.

In the theft, you can see
aspects of both revenge

and awe

and worship.

I don't want to blame
any of it on Rita.

It's okay
to blame it on Jerry.

[Rick M.] The vibe you got

was that Rita went along

with whatever Jerry
wanted to do.

"Rita, we're going
to the end of the world."

"Okay, Jerry, I'll go to
the end of the world with you."

So that's the feeling I got.

Jerry made the decisions.

[Dave] A woman
came into our store

and she said
she had always loved Rita,

and Rita had come back
from one of her trips.

They had gone into...

somewhere deep into the country,
into the jungle,

or wherever it was
they were going.

And apparently
it was two tribes.

And they stood on a hillside,
and these two tribes

were battling.

And I don't know
if it was a ritual

or if it was, you know,
a real whatever it was.

But they actually
killed each other.

You know, it was
that kind of a battle.

And she said, "Rita is sitting
here telling me this story

of watching people being killed

like they'd gone to Disneyland."

And she said, "That quick,
my opinion of Rita had changed."

And she said,
"I went from thinking

what a wonderful,
lovely person she was

to what a horrible
human being she was."

Seriously?

[Buck] So I really should
read this manuscript.

-Wow!
-So...

Okay, that's pretty cool.

"Rita and Jerry had
their driver rush to the field

so they could witness the scene
from a time in pre-history.

Within a half-hour, both clans
were standing in the fields
face to face.

All warriors
were in tight formation

while the respective chiefs
argued their points
as loudly as they could.

While Rita and Peter
remained in the parked jeep

on the roadway
adjacent to the field,

Jerry with his camera in hand
found a way to cross
the deep trench

which separated the field
from the roadway.

He ventured very close
to the center of the action

while taking a set
of remarkable photos."

-All right, that is...
-It's awesome.

Okay.

-[Buck] What do you believe
at this point?
-[Dave] Yeah.

[Buck]
There's a great possibility

that these are actually
not made up.

These are true stories.

That's horrifying.

[Dave] I hoped that this

would start the FBI

into digging deeper and deeper

and deeper into...

-But we don't know
that it hasn't.
-Right.

[Mike Burns]
With an organization
like the FBI,

I would bank on the fact
that that book was reviewed

by people who have
degrees in psychology

or human behavior,

because there's
a wealth of information

between the lines.

I did read through
three-quarters of it

that I was able
to manage through, so...

It's a hard read, right?

I don't think anyone else--

I know I had recommended it

and had asked a couple
of them to do that.

I don't think that ever
made it on their list, though.

We really need to read these.

I think these are just
like true stories.

What he told me was that
all of these stories

"come from
my personal experiences."

He... His statement to me
was all inclusive.

The title of this book,
"The Cup and the Lip,"

probably for
any English speaker,

it's probably an odd title.

But in Yiddish,

which is the Jewish language
of the Old Country,

uh, cup refers to the head,

but also refers to your mind.

And then the lip
refers to your mouth.

It refers to what you say,
what you speak.

"Oh, you've got some lip."

What comes to mind for me

is that

whenever we tell a story,

we have to choose what to say

and what to leave out.

When I hear
"The Cup and the Lip,"

you've got the story
in your cup

and then you've got the story
that you can tell with lip.

"The Cup and the Lip"
was his outlet.

That was his way

of communicating

the stories

that he experienced himself

but couldn't tell anyone about.

I wonder what else they did.

[chuckles]

[intense music playing]

They were living
this lavish lifestyle

and traveling
around the world,

and where did they get
their money for that, you know?

Did they steal other paintings,
you know?

Were they career art thieves?

If they did it once,
I bet they'd do it again.

You can't just do it once.

When we got all of the photo
albums from the estate,

we went through them before
the FBI went here, of course.
We were being nosy.

But they had gone to museums
and they had taken

a lot of pictures
of paintings in museums.

Lots and lots and lots.

Sounds almost like
casing the joint.

It's the simplest explanation.

It wasn't just one theft,
it was many.

The FBI came in
and X-rayed the walls

to see if there was any other
type of stolen artwork.

Actually I was there for that,
and so I led the team
that went out and did that.

[Buck] Rita had told caregivers
that in the attic

they had stored
some precious stuff,

and I think she actually
said paintings.

We took an FBI
bomb technician with us,

because they had the X-ray
machine that we could use

to quickly X-ray the walls.

Nothing in the walls,
so, I don't think there's
anything in the house.

[Dave] But before
we were contacted,

apparently Ron donated

tons of stuff to charity,

and really good stuff.

Well... [chuckles]

Um, these people said,
"My aunt just died

and we're dealing with
all the stuff in her house

and we'd like to donate
to the Garden Club

because we found out
that you give all your profits

to worthwhile
community projects."

So I made an appointment
for them to come
and donate their stuff,

and they arrived
the following Tuesday

with a pickup truck
full of stuff.

One of the teenagers
came in carrying

a very familiar work of art,

a bronze Remington,
Frederic Remington bronze,

and Frederic Remington
is one of the most famous

art sculptors
of the western schools.

So I said, "Wait a minute,
wait a minute, we can't
take stuff like that.

We're a thrift store.

We sell things for $2 and $5,

and if we're very rich,
it's $10."

Oh, yeah, I remember that, yeah.

I was there, yeah, 'cause I
remember seeing the statue.

[Ron] I mean, I looked at,
it was, you know,
a reproduction.

I had made what I thought

was a reasonable attempt
to sell them,

and no one seemed interested.

We were also pressed for time
for me getting back to work,

so we were trying
to get it wrapped up.

I mean, this was
an amazing deal.

And my son is loading
stuff into the car,

and all of the sudden, he said,

"Can I look at that painting
there of the Indian's head?"

And he picked it up
and he turned it over,

and he said, "Oh, my Lord,
this is a JH Sharp."

JH Sharp is one of the most
famous western artists.

So that caused him to look
at other stuff that was here.

He looked at the bronzes.

There were two R.C. Gormans.

He's a famous sculptor.

My son called Sotheby's

and they were interested.

I mean, this stuff
was good enough for Sotheby's.

Sotheby's was one
of the places I thought...

I contacted Sotheby's with...
I emailed them and asked them.

[Isaac]
And they weren't interested
at the time, but then...

Yeah, they said, "We don't deal
with this type of thing,

we deal with higher-end things."

Oh, wow. The Remington?

So, they had
authentic materials,

but they told everybody
they were reproductions.

-Like, uh...
-Yeah.

Maybe they, um, were shy

about telling people that
they had authentic art

because they didn't want people
to start thinking,

"Well, what else do they have
that's authentic?"

They want people to think,

"Everything in our house
is a reproduction."

-[Buck] I think it was
a safety thing, you know.
-[Dave] Yeah.

Their not wanting to draw
attention to art, I guess.

You know, living in Cliff,

if anybody knew
that you had a Remington,

everybody would know
you had a Remington.

What was she,
a speech pathologist

for a local school,

to have a real Remington?

You know, none of this stuff
was insured.

And it's not very expensive.
I mean...

Maybe they were all stolen.

At one point,
the FBI was involved,

and they came out
and took pictures,

and they ran it
by their database,

and we were clean,
stuff wasn't stolen.

But I will tell you
that one of the agents said,

"Just because we cleared it

doesn't mean
that it's not stolen."

"It could have just
not been reported,"

or, you know,
it's not on their radar.

[Harriet Rogers]
To make a long story short,

they sold them at their auction.

The Higgins
was the most val--

It made $80,000.

The total intake for the gallery
was about 160,000,

of which we took in
something like 129,000.

We got a check for $129,000.

Yeah, I mean,
we were a thrift shop.

It would have been nice
if my aunt or uncle

would have documented this

for their poor executor.

[chuckles] There was nothing
about any of their items

or what they were worth,
so what am I supposed to think?

And we actually purchased
some of it from the Garden Club.

We have several
of the Navajo rugs

and they're really fine
Navajo rugs.

Well, then we find out

that there
is the Amerind Museum.

In 1989, they had

like a million-dollar
chief's blanket

stolen from them.

And it was
the exact same M.O.

[intense music playing]

A woman distracted the guard

and a man took it and ran,
and then the woman left.

Thank you so much.

The Amerind called us,

and then the very next day,
the FBI called us.

The agent sent us
a picture of the blanket.

[Tim Carpenter]
Uh, that's a bit foggy.

I seem to have some recollection
of a mention of that,

but I don't know-- I personally
didn't follow up on that.

I'd have to talk
to the case agent about that.

[Dave] Looks like August 27
of '89.

And...

what we happen to have...

another journal here,

a few days before

they...

flew into Tucson.

"Arrived in Tucson
at 2 p.m. on a Delta flight."

And then that's it.
Then nothing else.

The first thing that
made me kind of go "hmm"

is when they would fly
into Tucson,

they would visit family
for a few days.

I don't know if they ever
just flew into Tucson

and drove straight to Cliff.

But not one thing written down.

And they usually wrote

about their trip back to Cliff,

which isn't here.

On the 27th...

they're blank again.

Buck, come here,
I wanna show you this.

The Alters,
after they flew into Tucson,

would have driven
right past Dragoon,

where the Amerind Museum
heist happened.

Right on the path.

[Ron] Carole mentioned that
there might be an expensive rug

in their home,

but I had sent photographs
of things on the wall

that none of them were what
she thought that they had.

If there was
an expensive rug there,

I wouldn't know
what happened to it.

It looks somewhat familiar,
but no.

-Yeah, but if we had, it would
have gone to the Garden Club.
-Yeah.

[Dave] You know you have
those things that you're like,

oh, I know it.

Like, that blanket was there.

They probably took it
to another country, you know,

on one of their trips.

[Isaac] What if they went
on their trips

to sell the stuff that
they stole in the U.S.?

[Ron] Yeah, nobody would think
any different of it.

[Isaac] There was no,
uh, TSA back then.

You know, it would make
a lot of sense.

It would kind of tie up
those loose ends very neatly.

He wasn't sloppy.

I mean, everything he did
was meticulous, clearly,

'cause he got away with it,
and that's the craziest part,
you know.

[Ron] It makes sense to me,

if they were stealing
a lot of art,

that they wouldn't want
to exhibit that wealth

to friends and family,
wouldn't want the questions.

They wanted to give
a air of frugalness

that might fit a couple
who only had one income

throughout their marriage.

They kept their home simple.

They had furniture there
from 40 or 50 years ago.

I'd say nothing is extravagant.

There's not...
like you would expect thieves

to have some kind of
extravagant lifestyle,

stealing multi-million-dollar
paintings, but...

I mean, it's just a humble,
simple little house.

[Ron] They didn't even
replace their septic tank

after 40 years of living there.

When I would visit there,

they didn't want anything
other than liquids

going down their toilet.

Number two's, they just said,

"Don't flush,
we'll take care of it."

I think they would wrap it up,
probably put it outside,

and then they would take
the trash to the city dump.

And, uh... odd as that was, um,

I found out, years later,
they didn't want

to spend the money to replace
their septic tank.

"He pulled the body to the hole
and forced it down,
head first, into the tank.

He watched it sink
to the bottom.

Using all the strength
in his body,

he lifted the lid,
centered it above the opening,

and, bending over
as far as he could,

he dropped it.

It fell into place
with a hollow thud.

He raked back the sand,
tamped it down with his feet,

and replaced the plastic."

Well...

So he's definitely had
a history of...

you know, hiring
itinerant workers.

Well, I certainly hope he didn't
do anything like this.

Um...

But I don't think
that was his character, right?

[Ron] I don't think so.

When I became
my aunt's conservator,

the caretakers were complaining,

so I brought out
some septic engineers

and they put in
a new septic tank.

These notes were from
one of our technicians,

and it says that,
"date last pumped:
never, 40 years."

So they just put the note
that it had never been pumped

since it was installed.

Right away they noticed
heavy deterioration

because it's double
over the replacement age.

And gasses and just time
will erode the concrete.

And this one almost had
solid waste top to bottom.

When we serviced it,
we pumped the liquids out.

That way there's a void there.

And they get a backhoe
or an excavator

and they'll just
put the heavy bucket on there

and it will collapse it in.

I would say that there
was nothing in there.

Um, it's very unlikely that
there was anything in there.

Okay.

"He lifted out the lid

and maneuvered it
alongside the hole.

Yes, there was the water level
in the 8-foot-diameter tank.

It was a foot below the opening,
exactly where it should be."

I hadn't read this story before.

Um, so that definitely
opened my mind.

The detail of that was,

well, it's surprising 'cause
95% of the customers I talk to

think that the tank is full,

but he described
that the tank level

was where it should be,

which most people
don't understand that.

That was surprising.

That's the diameter of lid,

and what he would have
been looking at

when he was describing
putting the body in the tank...

that's what it would
have looked like.

It's very feasible, yeah.

Maybe that actually happened.

[Tim] We did not look
into the septic tank.

We've reviewed this book
down to some extent, right?

And some of it can seem
to be pretty compelling,

but again it's an effort
of what can be corroborated,

right, what can you
establish as fact

versus fiction, right, something
that was just written down,

and so frankly, that's also
really more of a matter
for the local police

than it would be for the FBI.

Uh, all I can say with this is,

is it possible? Sure.

Is it consistent with
details on that property? Yes.

The yard is completely
full of lava rock.

Full of lava rock, yeah.

[Mike] Were the gardens
manicured at one time? Yes.

And is it possible
to put somebody,

a dead body, into a septic tank?

The way he's describing it,
that would be consistent

with a ferro-concrete
septic tank,

which was commonly used,

and the access to the tanks
are well large enough

to dispose of a body.

A whole body would be easier,
in that particular tank,

to fit in there.

[Dave] In the late '70s,

craftsmen would come up
from Mexico, and still do,

to help in the building
of the house.

You know, because Jerry
certainly couldn't have built
that house on his own.

In '77,
he showed us his blueprints

and he bragged
that he was gonna hire

undocumented workers to do it.

And what's sad is,

unfortunately, especially then,

if somebody came up missing,

you know, who was
gonna investigate it?

Who was gonna track 'em down?

[Mike] Our society tends to
turn a blind eye in many ways

to people who are living
in the shadows, in the cracks.

And for those people
to disappear,

if you don't recognize their
presence in the first place,

how would you notice
their departure?

I've actually had inquiries

from Mexican authorities
over the years,

from families in Mexico,
wondering where people are.

[Ron] Hi, this is Ron.

Uh, I was thinking
about everything

after our interview,

and, uh, what struck me was,

when I talked to my aunt
about the septic tank,

she was dead set
against having it done.

She got very upset about it,

started making some excuses.

And her agitation
grew and grew

till the day she died
of a brain hemorrhage

less than a week later.

So what I'm thinking,

I'll probably get the GPR
and bring it around here,

around over here.

At some point, you're gonna
end up seeing the in-flow...

-Mm-hmm.
-...from the house,

and then whether it's
an infiltrator or a leach...

-Right.
-...field below it.

-Okay.
-Just ask Bach, right?

[chuckles] He probably knows
where it is.

[Mike] Law enforcement
does tend to use this equipment

for things that are
a little bit less mundane

than finding a buried
water line, electrical line.

Ground penetrating radar
can indicate

an old gravesite,
a murder victim.

But it takes the trained eye,
like yours,

doing what we're doing
right now.

Yeah. Yeah, I have a few
spikes on the screen.

One is pretty significant
right here.

There's a clear solid image
of an indication

of there's something
disrupting the signal.

[Mike] Common sense would tend
to think it's a leach line.

Yeah, yeah, I would say
without a...

Almost 100% sure, that's more
than likely what it is.

-Makes sense.
-Like I said,

the indication happens
right between the tires, so...

I would say that's the best...
the best guess right there.

Got a small indication
right there.

Might it be the edge
of the tank itself?

It could be the edge.

It could be, um, see that dip
in the floor right there?

-Okay.
-It could have been the GPR

going down
and coming up real quick.

I want to go across the house.

-[Mike] Like the lawn area?
-Mm-hmm.

I'm getting the same reading
that I was over here.

-See, right here?
-Mm-hmm.

How it jumps up like that.

That's a pretty solid
return there.

Yeah. So, how she said,

I think she was right how,
sort of rectangle right here.

-Mm-hmm.
-And it splits.

So that would make sense
from what I'm getting.

I'm gonna do
one more on the other side,

and then I think...

that'll be pretty much

all I can pick up with this.

At my point in my career,
I'm quite resigned to the fact

that I may not have
all of the blanks filled in

when cases are closed.

Law enforcement cases
rarely end the way they start.

And many times,
what you start with

has to be completely rewritten
two or three times,

and you go
where the evidence takes you.

Nothing?

-No.
-At least nothing unusual?

Nothing unusual.

If the evidence
doesn't lead you

to a certain place
or conclusion,

then you really can't
defend that conclusion.

You know what, I may have to go.

I may have to go.

Okay, units there yet?

[woman] Yes, uh-huh.

Okay, I'm gonna be
headed that way shortly.

Okay, thank you.
Mm-hmm, bye.

[woman] If you need
to get going...

I do. We have a homicide.

[woman] Okay.

I don't have any, any issues

with there still being
unanswered questions.

[Ron] Most people who
commit crimes, I would assume,

think they could
get away with it.

So that wasn't anything
for my uncle to aspire to.

He thought he was
better than most people.

He could confess to it
and still get away with it.

In a sense, his book
was his confession.

But you're just left to wonder,

which parts are reality
and which parts are fiction?

[Isaac] Maybe that was
his plan all along,

to keep himself within
the realm of consciousness.

You know, the mystery
is very exciting,

just knowing that,
that I'll never know

what parts are true
and what aren't.

His intention perhaps was

to turn himself into a legend.

[Buck] I think in death
he got what he wanted.

-Yeah. He's well-known.
-I really do.

[Mark] But the final line
of the book is,

"To own wealth
is to be possessed by it."

"Stolen assets
are not safe anywhere."

"It can bring only
disquietude to their possessor,

for such is the nature
of man..."

"...they spin an endless web
of deceit..."

"...forever imprisoning
their owner

in an insidious embrace."

[Isaac]
It was probably very hard
for him to keep this a secret.

Must have been torture.

[Dave] Maybe at the very end,
by giving the painting back,

we outsmarted Jerry.

People will walk in
and they'll say,

"Is this the place that
found the de Kooning?"

[Rick Johnson] We've had people
from the Netherlands,

from everywhere, that have
come over to see the store

where the painting was found.

-We've gotten
phone calls from...
-Spain...

-...all over the world.
-Yep, all over the world.

Just calling to say thank you,
you know.

And those still choke us up.

We just received gifts yesterday
from one of our customers

who brought us this fantastic
book on de Kooning

and this absolutely
fabulous letter.

"In this day and age,
when greed, dishonesty...

and lack of integrity
are commonplace...

you three wonderful people
are a beacon of hope
for this world

and you put Silver City
on the world map

in the most fantastic light
possible.

Sincerely, Nancy."

That's... sorry.

I mean, who thinks you're gonna
ever get that proclamation

that a good deed you did...

has that much pull

that it makes the world pause
even for a second

to say "Wow"?

[Brian] August 6th will be
the day that I retire.

It will be a big day
and a new chapter.

When I saw our cars
come up with the painting

and then when I actually
got to see it again

here in the art museum, uh...

I got a little choked up,
I'll admit that.

The warmth came back,
if that makes any sense.

There was a sense of closure.

Only the Alters know
the circumstances

of how they came into possession
of that painting,

and unfortunately they've taken
that information to the grave,

and so we close
that investigation.

[Buck] One of the most prized
possessions from this whole
experience is that empty frame.

It held that painting
for 30-plus years,

and everybody that has been
a part of this story

has signed the back of it.

"Thank you for everything.

So glad it was you all
who found it."

"Our heroes, love you guys."

"We could never
possibly thank you enough.

We love our heroes."

Why does that
make me wanna cry?

I know.

I don't know, I think we got
the better end of the deal.

All right, let's see
how it looks.

[upbeat music playing]