[evocative music plays]
[man] The horse world
is a very exclusive place.
Many of the owners are millionaires,
and the horses are worth
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
On the surface,
it's a very pristine world.
But as an FBI agent
when I looked at it closely
[horse snorts]
I uncovered fraud,
corruption, and killings
on a scale I've never encountered before.
[reporter 1] A gruesome conspiracy
has shaken the horse show industry.
Federal investigators say those named
were motivated by greed and money.
It was like turning a rock over
and seeing everything underneath.
Horse shows is not where you might expect
to hear talk of fraud and hit men.
Prominent equestrians across the country
needed someone to do their dirty business.
[reporter 2] The hitman was paid up
to $35,000 per k*lling.
He got the nickname "the Sandman."
You wanted something done,
see the Sandman.
It's so dark and disgusting.
[rock music builds]
We knew if we can get to him,
it would blow the case wide open.
[music stops]
[dramatic music plays]
[crowd cheers]
[music crescendos]
[suspenseful music plays]
[man] In 1990, I was working
as an FBI agent in Chicago, Illinois.
And I was assigned an investigation
into the equestrian world.
There had been rumors for some time
that this industry had been corrupt,
but no one would come forward.
[Cullen] So it was very difficult
to penetrate a very closed system.
[phone ringing]
Then in 1991, I received a phone call from
a Florida Department of Agriculture agent.
[sirens wail]
[Cullen] They had arrested a man fleeing
the scene of a crime at a horse show.
His name was Tommy Burns.
The agent described Tommy Burns
as the Sandman.
A violent enforcer hired by rich horse
owners who didn't want their hands dirty.
[drums roll]
[Cullen] I flew down to Florida
to interview Tommy.
I knew if we could get Tommy to talk,
it would open the doors
to this investigation.
[Cullen] The prison contained
a lot of murderers and drug dealers,
and some of the worst criminals
were housed in this location.
And that's where Tommy Burns was.
- [cell door unlocks]
- [suspenseful music plays]
[Cullen] The first time I met with him
my first thought was
wise guy,
tough guy,
arrogant.
[music crescendos]
[Tommy] I didn't say anything at all.
I wasn't stupid by any means to think
that they came down here just for fun.
I had been questioned by cops.
This isn't the first go-around
with these people.
[grim music plays]
[Cullen] I told Tommy,
"If you say nothing,
you're going to stay
in this prison for a long time.
But if you cooperate with us,
we can talk to the judge
and try to get you out."
I never wanted to rat on anybody.
I don't believe in ratting on anybody.
I believe you get paid by a job,
you do a job, you shut your mouth.
You know, they get you a lawyer,
they bail you out.
Everything would be okay.
[cell door slides shut]
Tommy's bail was coming up the next day,
and it was set at $100,000.
A $100,000 was a lot of money.
But I thought with my millionaire friends,
there was no doubt I would get out.
[dramatic music plays]
I made several attempts
to get a hold of people
to see if I could get some bail money.
[Tommy] People I'd known for years.
I called a lot of millionaires
implicated that were not more than
a couple hundred miles away, and nobody,
and I mean nobody,
came up and did nothing.
I couldn't believe how these rat-f*ck
really could just leave you in there.
I was mad. I really believed my whole life
in that stand-up guy bullshit,
that you shut your mouth
and everything would be all right.
All that stuff I believed in up till then
turned into all bullshit.
He was very angry
and he was very desperate.
He said he'd be willing to tell us
everything we wanted to know
about dirty secrets
in the show horse industry
if we got him out.
[tense music plays]
I decided to sign a deal with the feds.
[Tommy] It was a sweet deal,
but it was a tough deal.
I had to tell them about
every crime I ever committed.
Thousands of crimes, but I was
only going to be charged on one.
But if I got caught lying to them,
I would be charged on everything
I had told them about.
[dramatic music plays]
[Tommy] For every felony I had ever done,
I could get life.
[Cullen] It was imperative
that he tell us the complete truth.
If he held back information,
his value as a witness would be nullified.
[grim music plays]
[Tommy] As much as I signed a deal
with them and I didn't like it,
I didn't tell on everybody. [sighs]
[woman] He was known as a "flipper,"
that's what we would call Tommy,
a guy who flipped
and was working with the government.
I knew he was a difficult witness.
I had heard that,
but I didn't know a whole lot.
[Cox] My primary responsibility
was to find corroboration
for the things that Tommy would say.
If you're going to put somebody
on the stand like Tommy,
you need to know what made him tick,
why did he end up doing what he did
as opposed to doing something else?
[grim music playing]
[Cox] So it was really important
to understand where Tommy came from.
Because if you
don't understand the beginning,
you can't understand
the middle or the end either.
You know,
I don't like talking about this much.
I haven't talked to anybody about
this in 30 years. It's an awful story.
["Jet Airliner"
by Steve Miller Band playing]
[Tommy] I was born in
the Manchester, Connecticut area.
We really had a nice little life,
had a nice house.
My father was a great guy. He worked hard.
He made a nice living for us.
But then, 1969,
they decided to get a divorce.
And my father for a while kept in touch,
but eventually
we didn't see that much of him.
[Tommy] It took a toll.
We went from middle class to living
in a two-bedroom apartment and struggling.
And it was hard. I hated being poor.
I had a lot of anger.
I liked to fight a lot,
pissed off at the world.
Took my frustrations out
on other people, I guess.
One day, the principal called my mother,
says, "We don't want him back here."
My mother told me,
"I just can't take any more."
I just said,
"Well, good. I'll just leave then."
I remember she looked at me, said,
"Well, goodbye and good riddance."
["Jet Airliner" continues]
[Tommy] I was 16. I had about 80 bucks
on me, my baseball mitt, and I was off.
Never turned back.
Riding along
On this big old jet plane ♪
[Tommy] And I headed to Florida.
Even though I was young, I figured
I could probably find a good job.
seems so far away ♪
[Tommy] We were going down
the interstate near the fairgrounds,
and you could see the big tents
that look like big circus tents.
I remember telling the driver,
this is all right, drop me off here.
[applause and cheering]
[Tommy] I jumped the fence,
and I walked in.
[dramatic music plays]
[Tommy] It was a whole new world.
[horse neighing]
[announcer 1] Oh, my. That'll be it.
A lot of glamour, a lot of jewelry,
the place really popped.
[cheering and applause]
Welcome to Florida
and beautiful winter sunshine.
I'm Ken Wilson along
with Lysa Burke and Brian Flynn.
Show jumping is a world on its own
and it is populated by some
of America's richest families.
[Tommy] The people involved,
I mean, when you start hearing their
last names like Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser.
These people are the one percent
wealthiest people in the country.
[Wilson] Lysa, opening day
has to mean some firsts.
A lot of firsts, Ken.
We're gonna see a lot of new horses
in their first Grand Prix today.
[Burke] In the mid-to-late '80s,
horses started selling for up to
three quarters of a million dollars.
And the cost for the horse shows
and the training and all that
would be at least $10,000 a month.
[crowd cheers]
[man] You wouldn't be human
if you weren't impressed by this display
of wealth and privilege.
I'll never forget going into the tent
of one of the participants,
I believe it was a rider,
and the ground was covered
with Persian carpets.
And it had a big leather easy chair,
and next to it an end table
you know, that looked like an antique.
[applause and cheering]
[Tommy] It was outstanding
the amount of money and the wealth.
But I only had 20 bucks in my pocket.
So I needed to get work,
and basically the first guy
who offered me a job as a groom,
I took it.
[Burke]
A lot of what happens in the Grand Prix
happens behind the scenes
here at the stable.
And most of that job belongs
to the grooms.
[Ordine] The show horse world,
it's a culture with its own hierarchy.
At the very top are the owners.
Then, of course, there are the riders.
Riders are the most high profile.
But certainly the people
who make the least amount of money
and who are least visible are the grooms.
[lively music plays]
[man] When you decide to be a groom,
you're pretty much beneath them.
And what I mean by that
is they'll let you know. You know?
"I'm above you. You're nothing.
You do what I tell you to do."
[Arlie] You're like
a second-class citizen.
[Tommy] These horses get treated
better than the people.
You'd saddle up a horse for some kid.
They'd stick their riding boots out
and you took a towel and toweled
their boots off so they'd look shiny.
When they were done,
they'd jump off their horses
and someone would throw the reins
in your face and say, "Wash my horse."
It's hard. You gotta remember,
six days a week, give or take seven.
Fifteen hours a day,
that's a lot and you're on your feet.
It ain't sitting down now. You know,
instead of getting a cup of coffee,
you'd say, "I'll go snort
a couple of lines of coke."
For a pick-me-up. And it worked.
I used to laugh, I'd say,
"I don't like cocaine,
I just like the way it smelled."
[Tommy laughs]
Hello again, everybody,
Jay Randolph along with Lysa Burke.
We're very happy to have you with us.
This is always a special event,
and historically the competition
always very tight.
It is, Jay, and tonight again we'll see
so many of the top
horse and rider combinations.
[announcer 1] Our first competitor is
the defending champion here, Barney Ward.
[crowd murmurs]
[applause and cheers]
[PA announcer] Barney Ward
and Pico return victorious!
[Tommy] That's when I first saw him.
I was just astonished
how big and strong he was.
He just didn't look like
your normal horse rider.
Kind of reminded me
of somewhere between a
Clint Eastwood
and a Charles Bronson-type character.
When I walk in the ring,
I think it's quite apparent.
I mean, every time I walk in,
I want to win. I hate second.
I hate third. I am not a good loser.
[indistinct crowd noise]
[Tommy] He was absolutely fearless.
[applause and cheers]
He would just come up to these fences
like this and just go straight up.
[indistinct chatter]
[cheering and applause]
[sweeping orchestral music plays]
[Tommy] I was just in awe.
[Tommy] I approached him
and asked him if he needed any help.
He looked at me and said,
"How old are you?"
And he asked me if I could drive
and I don't even know if I had
I'm trying to think
if I had my driver's license or not.
I said, "Yeah, I can drive."
He said, "Would you like to work for me?"
And, uh,
I was tickled to death.
To me, it was like hitting the lottery
when he offered me a job.
I was like, "Yep, absolutely."
[gentle music plays]
[Tommy] So we went back
to Bedford, New York.
And I worked and I worked and I worked.
Oh, this guy worked me hard.
[Tommy] Barney had me driving
18-wheelers when I was 17 years old,
but I enjoyed it there.
He trained horses
and he sold a lot of horses.
[Tommy] What was impressive about Barney
was that he wasn't privileged.
A lot of these riders
were doctors' kids in this and that.
Barney grew up hard.
[applause and cheers]
[crowd groans]
[Ward] You got a horse
that weighs 1,200 pounds
and if that horse falls on you,
he breaks things.
I've broke my leg. I've broke my neck. Um
I've never got hurt
like I've been hurt in riding.
[indistinct chatter]
[Tommy] As a young guy,
I needed somebody like Barney.
He was good. He'd put his foot down on me.
He knew I was scared of him,
and I think I needed that.
Barney was the father I always wanted.
I looked up at him like he was
He Like he was a god or something.
I adored the guy.
I'd have done anything to impress him.
[playful music]
[Tommy] That summer,
Barney had a body cast on him
because he got thrown off
a horse and broke his neck.
[ball rolling, pins knocking]
[Tommy] One night we were
at a bowling alley, and, uh,
one guy came up
and tapped him on the back of his cast
and said, "Trick or treat."
Barney was kinda pissed.
I thought, "Here's my opportunity."
I wanted to show him I was on his side.
[Tommy]
I picked up a bowling ball and threw it.
And I hit the guy in the ribs.
Knocked him on the ground.
Barney and I, we ran out the side door,
made our way to the car.
I got in the back seat
and he turned around,
told me I was the craziest
son of a b*tch he ever met.
[playful music]
[Tommy] But then about a month later,
I saw a car I wanted.
And Barney bought it for me.
I couldn't believe it.
The nicest thing anybody ever done for me.
There was no attachments.
He just wanted me to have a nice car.
[Tommy] That day I felt like
I became part of the family.
And having that bond
really meant everything to me with him.
[deck humming, squeaking]
[somber instrumental music plays]
[Cullen] During the interview,
Tommy spoke very highly of Barney.
Someone who he had strong loyalties to.
That gave me great insight
into the type of person
I'm dealing with here as a cooperator.
Through Barney,
we knew he was closely connected
to a number of individuals
in the horse industry.
We'd ask Tommy questions like,
"Who else were you working for?"
[Cullen] But Tommy was very guarded.
It was just It was hard
to extract information from him.
I was asking Tommy,
"How did you get involved
in this criminal activity?"
Like, how did it all begin?
It started when I went
to work for Jim Druck.
[dramatic music plays]
[metal squeaking]
[Tommy] A friend put me in touch
with a rich lawyer in Florida
who was looking for somebody
to take care of his horses.
It was three times
what Barney was paying me.
I didn't have to work as hard.
[insects chirping]
[Tommy] So I told Barney,
but he wouldn't have it.
[horse neighs]
Didn't want to hear about it,
wasn't gonna let me.
[music builds]
I realized I was never
gonna get out of there in a civil manner.
So I got up about three in the morning.
[music builds]
I had to just get on the road and go.
[Tommy sighs]
[somber music plays]
[Tommy] I really felt bad.
It was like leaving your family.
But I wanted to go on with my life.
It was time to make a move.
[gentle orchestral music playing]
[brakes squealing]
[Tommy] When I arrived
at Eagle's Nest Farm,
it was huge and it was beautiful. [sighs]
[gentle music rising]
[Tommy] It was something I had never seen.
It looked like a movie or something.
[music builds]
[Tommy] I pulled up to his house,
Jim came out and I talked to him,
his wife came out
and a couple of the kids,
and he had four daughters.
They were all pretty.
To me, it was a picture-perfect family.
[woman] Our family was financially stable,
but emotionally unstable.
It was filled with, um,
emotional turmoil underneath the surface.
[Rielle] My father was a defense attorney,
he represented insurance companies,
and he was not emotionally attentive.
My mother,
bless her heart, was very sweet
when she wasn't drinking,
and a little crazy.
So every kind of peace and fulfillment
that I had as a child came from horses.
[moody music playing]
[Rielle] It put me into a zone
of just being present
and of being in peace.
For people who have that connection,
how much money they cost,
it doesn't matter.
Because they are a part of you.
Horses enabled me to survive
amongst people.
[laughs]
Rielle was a very talented rider,
and her dad kept buying her
better and better horses.
In 1981, he purchased
his most expensive horse.
A show hunter by the name of
Henry the Hawk.
I think it was $150,000,
which was a lot of money for a horse,
but he was one of the top hunters
in the country at the time.
[bridle jingling]
I got on him, and I think I might
have jumped about four jumps
and it was a match made in heaven.
[gentle music rises]
He was the b*mb.
The b*mb dot com that Henry the Hawk.
[laughs]
[cheers and applause]
[Burke] I remember him
competing against my horse.
The minute he walked into the ring,
he caught your attention
'cause he had such a presence.
- He was very competitive.
- [crowd cheers]
[Rielle] He was all about showing off.
You know, turning to the last jump,
his whole posture would change,
he was like, "I won this, I got this."
I'd be, "Easy, dude,
we got one more jump to go." [laughs]
[bright music plays]
[exclamations, cheers, applause]
[Tommy] I liked Rielle, we were friends.
We were close, you know what I mean?
You know, she was a cute girl,
and I think she kind of liked me a little.
Tommy was someone who worked for my father
and was around my house a lot, you know?
He inserted himself into the family.
I wouldn't consider him a friend.
[Tommy] Jim Druck, he was a good man
to work for, he treated me well.
And Jim says, "Look, my family's
going on the road this summer
with their horses. I'm staying here.
I need you to keep an eye on them."
Basically keep them away
from guys like me.
[h*nky-tonk music plays]
[Tommy] So we traveled around the country,
Ohio, Virginia, New York,
Tennessee, Georgia, Wisconsin.
My job was to take care of the horses,
drive the truck,
and to keep an eye on his girls.
[Tommy] I was 19.
and, uh, you know how 19-year-olds can be.
[h*nky-tonk music rises]
[Tommy] Jim's wife was very attractive.
She'd tended to drink
a little bit too much at night.
She kind of one day put the moves on me
and just one thing led to another.
And I thought it was gonna turn
into a one-night deal.
It kind of didn't.
[guitar wails]
[h*nky-tonk music plays]
[Tommy] I was making almost 100,000 a year
and I couldn't spend it fast enough.
I, uh
I blew it on cars, a lot of liquor.
But I got very c*ck with that money too.
I bought a Rolex, started wearing
Ralph Lauren stuff like everybody else,
and all of a sudden when you had
the same stuff as these people
you've kind of blended and you fit in.
It was strange, but deep down
I was still Tommy Burns.
[h*nky-tonk plays]
[Rielle] When he had a couple drinks,
he was scary.
He carried brass knuckles.
[indistinct chatter]
I was notorious for going into the bars
and letting somebody pick a fight with me.
I was kind of entertainment
for horse people.
One time at the Lake Placid Horse Show,
I was in a bar, the bouncer had
knocked out one of my friends.
- I said, "You m*therf*cker, I'll fix you."
- [bar chatter]
I pulled out a billy club and I went
to hit him and he took it away from me.
I go back to my car and I grab a p*stol.
[tense music plays]
[Tommy] I went to approach him
with the p*stol.
Suddenly the police pulled up
and told me to drop the g*n.
- Then toted me off to the police station.
- [gate clanks shut]
They'd read my rights
and he told me that I was going to be
charged on as*ault with a deadly weapon.
[birds chirping]
The next morning, Jim Druck came down
and talked to the sergeant.
Suddenly, the g*n charge was dropped.
Whatever he did was magic,
because when I left there just paying
like a $50 fine for an as*ault.
And that was it. I was released.
[gate buzzing, clanking]
[somber music plays]
[Tommy] When we got back to the farm,
I said, "How the hell did you do that?"
He looked at me, he smiled.
He goes, "You owe me."
[tense music rises]
[crickets chirping]
Angel eyes ♪
Shine so bright ♪
Hope they're shining for me tonight ♪
Caught in the magic ♪
I'm caught in those angel eyes ♪
[Tommy] One night,
Jim called me up to the house.
Angel eyes ♪
- [car stereo stops]
- [engine cuts off]
[crickets chirp]
[Tommy] And there was nobody
in the house but him and I.
He told me he was getting a divorce.
[sighs] And I went, "Oh."
And he said,
"Are you messing around with my wife?"
And of course I lied and said, "No."
And he didn't really seem to care.
He just was like more or less keep it
discreet and don't let his kids know.
[clock ticking]
[Tommy] He explained to me that
he needed money for divorce settlement.
He said, "I got an offer on the horse
Henry the Hawk for 125,000,"
but the horse was insured for 150
and he needed all the money he could get.
And he, uh, pulled out a piece of paper.
[eerie music plays]
[Tommy] It had an electrical device
printed on it.
And then he looked at me and he said,
"Henry's gotta go."
And he told me that during
a court case he had run across
a way to electrocute horses without
the insurance company detecting it.
I was really kind of surprised.
I looked at Jim as a lawyer,
not a criminal.
And he said that he wanted me to do it.
[grim music plays]
[Tommy] I guess I could've
told him to f*ck himself
and I probably should have, but I didn't.
[horse neighs, snorts]
[Tommy] I just remember
walking in the barn and
I couldn't look at the horse at all.
You know?
It was kind of a
a real miserable thing to do.
[grim music rises]
[Tommy] It was an extension cord
split down the middle.
Take the negative wire out,
hook the other two wires
to big alligator clips,
attach one to their ear,
the other to his rectum,
and then plug it
into an electrical socket.
[horse snorts]
[electrical buzzing]
[somber music playing]
Pretty Pretty simple.
[sighs]
I
[sighs] It was just so sick
on so many levels.
[sighs, clears throat]
[Rielle] It devastated me.
How could a person come into your family
and, um
have this relationship with your mother?
And k*ll your horse?
I mean, it was like
the most disturbing thing.
[grim music playing]
[Cox] Electrocuting a horse mimics colic,
which is a natural cause of death
in otherwise healthy horses.
It's the twisting of the horse's gut
that comes on very suddenly,
often with no symptoms ahead of time.
[music rises]
[Cox] Tommy said unless
the veterinarian doing the horse autopsy
knew to look for a very small burn
by the horse's an*s
there was no way to really distinguish
that death from a natural one.
[Cullen] It was the perfect crime.
It was undetectable and profitable.
I was disgusted, sickened that somebody
would take advantage of a helpless animal.
But it became clear that Jim Druck
manipulated Tommy for his own benefit.
And he was the one that profited,
using Tommy as his facilitator.
[Ordine]
Horses are frequently seen as an asset
in the world of show jumping.
And a horse's value
can be far more subjective
than other things that we insure.
If you buy a truck for $30,000,
the insurance company isn't going
to insure it for a million dollars.
But with a horse,
those things are much more nebulous.
And if you can inflate
the value of the horse, unfortunately,
in some cases, the horse is worth
more to the owner dead than alive.
[Cullen] I wondered if this
was the tip of the iceberg.
And I pushed Tommy to tell us more.
[bugle plays]
[dramatic music plays]
[applause]
[announcer 2] A beautiful evening.
The power and glory
of Grand Prix horse jumping
[Tommy]
Around the horse shows there was rumors
about what happened to Henry the Hawk.
I was starting
to get treated like a criminal.
At this horse show, somebody was missing
a few saddles and were saying it was me.
- I didn't take them.
- [cheers]
But because I was starting
to get a reputation,
I was kind of getting pegged
more of a thug.
A friend said, "There's an old saying.
'If the shoe fits, wear it.'"
I said, "What's that mean?"
"Go start stealing saddles."
[female announcer] Anne has a specialty
that not many know about.
Like taking candy from a baby.
You could back up to somebody's barn,
throw 15 saddles in there,
run them to Chicago,
cash them out for five or six thousand.
I stole a lot of credit cards.
Beat up somebody,
burned stuff for people,
collected money for horse trainers.
[crowd groans]
[announcer 2] My, oh, my.
I just didn't care. I was out of control.
- [snorting]
- Basically, I was a piece of sh*t.
[dramatic music plays]
[female announcer] Misjudged that.
Big part of my problem in life
was acceptance.
I was getting accepted for doing
dirty deeds around the horse shows.
[announcer 2] Disaster at the last.
- And then things got real bad.
- [announcer 3] Whoa!
[horse neighs]
[Tommy] Jim Druck called me up
and said the cops were suspicious.
He said, "You gotta leave town right now."
I said, "Why?"
He said, "Don't go back to your house."
[suspenseful music plays]
[horn blares]
[Tommy] So I drove to Chicago.
I stayed with a friend of mine
and I stayed in his basement for a while.
It was not a healthy thing to do,
and you're on the lam.
You just had nothing.
[Tommy] I mean, it was terrible.
I think I just wanted to blow my head off.
[grim music plays]
[phone rings]
[Tommy] Then out of the blue,
I got a phone call.
[sighs]
And I just I couldn't believe it.
[somber music plays]
[Tommy] And it was Barney.
I hadn't heard from him for a while.
Somebody had told him I was very depressed
and he was really upset.
He said, "What can we do
to get you back on your feet?"
He says, "Whatever you want"
[sniffles] He says, "We'll do."
[quavers] And I could drive good,
you know?
So he helped me get a tractor trailer
to haul horses.
He actually sent me some horses to sell.
I got back on my feet.
He really pulled through.
That was a big turnaround in my life.
Because after that, I quit stealing.
You know what I mean?
I really was trying
to make an honest living.
[priest] Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come
[Tommy] It was a good turnaround.
It looked like, you know,
things were gonna
go in the right direction.
[priest] And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil
[Tommy] For Barney to give me
another chance
He didn't have to.
[somber melodic music plays]
And, uh
[sighs] You know, I thanked him for that.
He put me out of a bad hole.
- [woman] Barney, you wanna say something?
- Not really.
[woman laughs] Yes, you do.
Hooray, hooray!
I brought him to this point and the rest
is his own problem. I mean [laughs]
[woman] You're on your own.
Unless he wants me to fill in
on some nights for him. [laughs]
[woman] Oh, boy.
Remember the father
is always better than the son. [laughs]
[somber music plays]
[phone rings]
[Tommy] One day, I got a call
from a well-known horse trainer
named Paul Valliere.
He was probably
one of the best horsemen in the country.
He really was at the top of his game.
He was very slick, very charming,
always seemed to me
to have a card up his sleeve.
[eerie music plays]
[Burke]
Many people would fall for his act.
That's what it was, it was an act,
and he was not one of the good guys.
[music rises]
[Tommy] Paul said he had heard
rumors about Henry the Hawk.
And asked me if I could
take care of his horse for him.
I was kind of uncomfortable
talking to him about it.
So I said, "No."
The trucking business
didn't make as much money as I hoped.
And I really felt like
I needed more money.
And then he offered me $5,000.
And, uh
I said, "Where and when?"
O say can you see ♪
By the dawn's early light ♪
What so proudly we hailed ♪
He needed that horse ASAP dead
because his insurance policy
was about to lapse.
[grim music plays]
And the rockets' red glare ♪
The bombs bursting ♪
[Tommy] So I went to the horse show,
and there was lots of people
all over the place.
Gave proof through the night ♪
That our flag was still there ♪
O say does that star-spangle d ♪
Banner yet wave ♪
[Tommy] Doing stuff like this
for the elite, like Paul Valliere,
you know, there was something that
kind of cleansed it in its own sick way.
O'er the land of the free ♪
And the home ♪
[electrical buzzing]
Of the brave ♪
[cheers and applause]
[crickets chirping]
[moody guitar music plays]
[Tommy] I don't know what it was
about that year
but business was booming.
[rock music plays]
It's not like I went and told anybody.
He must have, because more people
kept calling and calling weekly.
You know, wanting to know how much.
[insects chirping]
As much as I was trying
to clean my life up,
I had a hard time saying no.
The next one was a horse
called Rub the Lamp.
[electrical buzzing]
- [cash register dings]
- A horse called Belgium Waffle.
- [electrical buzzing]
- [cash register dings]
[Tommy] A horse called Rainman.
I remember calling him up
after it was done and I said,
"It ain't raining no more."
- [buzzing]
- [register dinging]
[Tommy] Now you were starting to get
more of the elite business people, CEOs.
One guy who owns a bank,
and he's giving me, you know, a check.
[electrical buzzing]
- [register dinging]
- [snorting]
One wealthy woman came up to me
with a big friendly smile
at the horse show and said,
"Could you k*ll my horse?"
Just like, you know, like you're
gonna cut her grass or something.
[electrical buzzing]
- [register dinging]
- [snorting]
[Tommy] I was beginning to believe
it wasn't against the law.
- [buzzing]
- [register dinging]
[applause]
[announcer 3] Right now he is faster
than Lisa Jacquin.
[Tommy] And then I was asked to k*ll
George Lindemann, Jr.'s horse, Charisma.
And I was really like, "What?"
[announcer 4] Easy in. Easy over B.
[cheers and applause]
[Tommy] This was the elite elite.
One of the most well-known,
one of the wealthiest families
in the horse industry.
The government projected
they were worth a billion dollars.
The horse was insured for 250,000.
And I would get 35, plus expenses.
[announcer 4]
Gallop at the water jump and over.
Marvelous performance!
If I couldn't ride tomorrow, I'll always
have a place in the show jumping books
for having won this class.
It's the most exciting class of the year.
- [buzzing]
- [register dinging]
[Ordine] The question was
why would really rich people
who have more money
than any of us could ever imagine
or ever spend in our lifetimes,
why would these people k*ll a horse?
[crowd murmurs]
[Cox] To George Lindemann, Jr.,
Charisma was
a tremendous disappointment.
The horse was bought for a lot of money,
top of the market,
quarter of a million dollars.
It was inconsistent in performance.
[crowd groans]
[Cox] And it became a symbol
of sort of failure.
And so, if the horse goes away,
you collect your insurance money.
It's done, and you're past it
and you go on to something else.
You can have the horse eliminated,
you can have this embarrassment removed,
and at the same time
make yourself financially whole.
[somber music playing]
[Cullen] Tommy Burns, the Sandman.
He puts the horses to sleep.
[grim music plays]
- [hay rustling]
- [hooves clopping]
[Cullen] What Tommy didn't know
was that by January of 1991,
authorities had put him
under surveillance.
[suspenseful music plays]
[cell phone ringing]
[Tommy] In 1991,
a friend of mine put me in touch
with another millionaire
that had money, Donna Brown.
She was the owner
of a horse named Streetwise.
She didn't like the m*therf*cker.
And she was like,
"Well, how are you going to do it?"
Because this horse
has had a colic operation before
and the insurance company
is not gonna cover the colic.
She said,
"Why don't you break its f*cking leg?"
[Tommy] In my mind,
electrocution was painless.
This was something different.
She was really absolutely
a f*cking b*tch about it.
You know, I thought I was heartless.
I said I'd think about it.
[tense music plays]
[Arlie] I was working
as a groom in Chicago,
and at the time, Tommy had came around.
Um
And I was
You know, I saw him, but didn't know him.
And I'd inquired about him.
I was like, "Who is that?"
"That's Tommy Burns."
I said, "Tommy Burns?"
He said, "That's, you know, Sandman."
[Arlie] My next encounter with him,
I said, "I heard about you."
He said, "What you heard about me?"
I said, I heard, "You are not nice."
At that time, my drug problem
was getting out of hand.
And that addiction costs.
I told him, "If you ever need some help,
let me know. I'm a hustler too."
He mentioned to me about
would I be interested in going to Florida.
I was like, "Sounds good."
He said, "Look, we're gonna bring
this horse down there."
"Horse gotta have an accident."
I'm like, "What you mean?"
He said, "You know, we gotta make it look
like he broke his leg in the trailer."
So I told him, "Look, I want a half
of whatever you're getting."
Yeah, I told him that. Yeah.
I mean, if we're gonna do it, let's do it.
[insects chirp]
[dramatic music plays]
[Arlie] Sixty, 70 degrees,
a nice summer night with a breeze,
wasn't too hot.
And, uh, man
We deciding on who's gonna do it.
[grim music plays]
[Arlie] He told me, he said,
"Well, you gonna do it?"
"Do it? Do what?" I said,
"Man, I ain't never done this before."
- [horse snorts]
- He said, "You're stronger than me."
[music rises]
I'm like, "Oh, man."
I had some drinks.
I said, "Just hold it."
"Just hold the horse."
[horse neighing]
That horse knew
something was about to happen.
[horse snorts]
And all I remember is just
one swing.
Bow!
You heard the crack, loud crack.
I'll never forget
that sound long as I live.
Awful, man. [sighs]
We drew a lot of attention.
People coming out,
I don't know where from.
The doctor was there
pretty daggone fast, I must say.
[sighs] So they injected him,
put him to sleep.
We jumped in the truck and trailer.
It had to have been midnight
with a full moon.
Harlow was pretty quiet and feeling
pretty miserable what happened.
The kind of person I am, that wasn't me.
[quavers] And, uh
[Arlie sighs]
I feel more like a coward.
You know, to hurt an innocent animal.
You know what I mean?
For $5,000.
[tense music plays]
[Tommy] We got about two miles
down the road
and suddenly police cars came at us.
[sirens wail]
They brought us to a stop.
All you heard was g*ns cranking up.
[g*ns c*ck]
I jumped out of the truck and ran.
I knew I was in a sh*t pile of trouble.
[indistinct police radio chatter]
[suspenseful music plays]
A state policeman
c*ck a shotgun to my head.
"Tommy Burns, you're under arrest."
[gate clanks shut]
[Cullen] That's when we finished
Tommy's interview.
I just remember looking at
20-some-odd pages of handwritten notes.
[somber music plays]
[Cullen] I felt that there was
a connection missing.
So the first thing was to make sure that
the information which Tommy
had shared with us was true and correct.
I'd submitted requests
to the National Insurance Crime Bureau,
primarily for the insurance records
and documentation
Henry the Hawk, Rub the Lamp,
Belgium Waffle, Rainman,
Rousseau Platiere, Charisma, Streetwise.
And in all of these cases,
the cause of death on these horses
were all colic.
[Cullen] Colic.
Colic.
Colic.
And that was consistent
with what he was telling us.
[grim music plays]
[Cullen] But something about it
didn't make sense.
Some of the biggest names
in the industry were approaching him.
It just didn't connect how Tommy was able
to get together with these people
without some middleman involved.
He couldn't have acted alone on this.
[insects chirping]
[tense music plays]
[Cullen] What I decided to do
at that point
was to talk to trainers, riders.
So I contacted Paul Valliere.
One of the most famous trainers
in the United States.
Tommy k*lled a horse for Paul
named Rousseau Platiere.
We met with Paul Valliere,
explained the evidence we had.
We knew that Paul
was guilty of this crime.
He readily admitted it
because he was not a hardened criminal,
and he told us why
he actually set up the fraud.
[music builds]
[Cullen] He owed money to a trainer
on another transaction.
Paul told us that this trainer suggested
that he contact Tommy Burns,
and that Tommy could have the horse k*lled
and then Paul could obtain
the insurance proceeds.
[eerie music plays]
[Cullen] We asked him,
"Who was this trainer?"
Paul said,
"Barney Ward."
[ominous string music plays]
[Barney laughs]
[Cullen] Barney was that middleman.
He facilitated these horse killings.
If there was a specific horse
that an owner was having trouble with,
Barney Ward would contact Tommy
and said, "I've got one for you to drop."
- [electrical buzzing]
- [music crescendos]
[Tommy] Every time the feds
asked me about the killings,
I always made a point
of leaving Barney's name out of it.
I wouldn't implicate him on anything.
I would've done time for Barney.
[Cullen] We had a real dilemma.
We knew that Barney was the key ringleader
of this fraud scheme.
However, Tommy would not name him.
So we decided to put a recording device
on Paul's home phone
to record conversations
between Paul and Barney.
[Cullen] When I had the recording
and heard the tape, I was shocked.
At that point
we decided to play it for Tommy.
[grim music playing]
[Tommy] And there was
Barney's voice on a tape
telling Paul that
I would never make the stand.
And that
he arranged to have me k*lled.
And, uh, it broke my heart.
It absolutely
Oh
[sniffles]
[Tommy] I was always led to believe that
this was about
Barney always told me, it's about us.
"Don't worry about these other people,
the horse people."
"They're just tokens of making money,
but there's always us."
And I think that that was the first time
I realized there wasn't us anymore.
[somber music plays]
[Tommy] I said, you know what?
I'm not going to jail
for any of these people,
especially Barney.
[Cullen] Tommy towards the end
I think became very transparent.
Just a little more endearing.
You could just tell
he was starting to slowly move over
from the dark side to the light side.
He was starting to understand that
he's gonna have to leave this old life
behind and start something new.
- [dramatic music plays]
- [cheering]
[reporter 3] From outside,
the show-jumping world seems as regal
and relaxed as ever.
But the sport has been reeling
since reports that a hitman
had been k*lling horses so owners
could collect insurance money.
I remember somebody just telling me,
did you hear what happened?
It was, I think,
the dirty little secret of the industry,
and it's now come out of the closet.
[Burke] I was shocked
that somebody would actually
even have the idea to do that
and to actually pull it off.
[reporter 4]
How many horses you think you k*lled?
Somewhere between 15 and 20.
I didn't count, to tell you the truth.
[Ordine] The federal indictment
lands on my desk
with names attached of people
doing just horrendous things
to their horses,
and they were famous names.
[reporter 5] The prime target
of the federal probe, sources say,
is George Lindemann Jr.,
a champion rider whose family made
millions in the cellular phone business.
[reporter 6] It's expected the grand jury
will rely on the testimony of Tommy Burns,
a self-confessed horse k*ller,
whose prison sentence has been postponed
while he helps federal investigators.
[Tommy] Nobody, including myself,
needed to do this, nor needed the money.
It boiled down to greed and cheapness,
but I'd have to say on the owners' behalf
a lot more cheapness than anything.
At the trial, they beat up on me
and slammed on me all they wanted,
called me all kinds of names
and everything else.
I kept telling them, "These people
hired me because I was a bad guy."
They didn't hire me because I was
a good guy. So take your best shot,
throw all your bullshit at me,
and call me everything you want.
And you know what?
You're right, most of it.
I am pleased to announce
the charges have been returned
against 19 additional people.
Eighteen of them were charged
with revolting fraud schemes
involving the k*lling of horses
for the insurance proceeds.
Among those charged
are a virtual who's who
of the nation's equestrian industry,
such as Barney Ward,
George Lindemann Jr.,
Paul Valliere.
Today's wide-ranging charges
should serve as a wake-up call
to the equestrian industry
to get its house in order.
[gavel banging]
[dramatic music playing]
[Arlie] When I was locked up
doing time for this crime,
I fell out the bed one morning
and I fell on the same leg
that I hurt for that horse.
And I've been suffering.
These bad boys, they every hurt every day.
They say,
"You're gonna pay for what you do."
Trust me.
["Mr. Sandman" by The Chordettes plays]
Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum ♪
Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum ♪
Mr. Sandman ♪
[Cullen] Tommy's cooperation led
to 30 individuals being charged
with federal crimes,
and we were able
to kind of clean up the industry
and ensure that no more
innocent horses were to die.
that his lonesome nights are over ♪
[Tommy] Pete drove me to jail
and he was there to pick me up
when I was released. It meant a lot.
He didn't have
to give me a ride either way.
I felt that it was
not an obligation,
but I felt it was the correct thing to do.
Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream ♪
- Tommy.
- How are you, buddy?
- [Cullen laughs] You look great.
- Aw, look at you now.
- What's happening?
- [Cullen] Come on, come sit.
- How you doing? Good?
- Well. Good to see you again.
Good to see you.
I talk to him.
You know, I run into everybody.
- He's down here too? [laughs]
- They all live within five miles.
There's something about Tommy Burns
that's extremely likable.
He doesn't try
to put on pretense of who he is.
He will tell you directly
he was a bad criminal.
He's a very transparent guy, and I think
there's something refreshing about that.
♪ Please turn on your magic beam ♪
♪ Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream ♪
♪ Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum ♪
♪ Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum ♪
♪ Mr. Sandman ♪
♪ Yes? ♪
♪ Bring us a dream ♪
Give him a pair of eyes
♪ With a come hither gleam ♪
♪ Give him a lonely heart like Pagliacci ♪
♪ And lots of wavy hair like Liberace ♪
♪ Mr. Sandman ♪
♪ Someone to hold ♪
Someone to hold
♪ Would be so peachy before we're too old ♪
♪ So please turn on your magic beam ♪
♪ Mr. Sandman, bring us ♪
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01x05 - Horse Hitman
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The series features six different stories about sports and crime, which are told through first-hand interviews.
The series features six different stories about sports and crime, which are told through first-hand interviews.