10x36 - m*rder on the Menu

[bunniefuu]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: A restaurant owner was
found m*rder*d in his office.

Then his assistant
chef committed su1c1de.

Were these two
incidents related?

Scientists had to look deep
in the shadows for the answer.

[theme music]

NARRATOR: The General Wayne
Inn, a Philadelphia landmark.

It was already


Washington first dined there.

WALT HUNTER: A
fascinating old place.

Everybody where the
General Wayne Inn is.

You could probably
go to the population

lower Marion, which
is some 60,000,

and probably not find anybody
that didn't at least know where

it was, if not hadn't
eaten there at some point.

NARRATOR: In 1995, chef Jim
Webb and a business partner

took over the
restaurant with an eye

towards restoring it
to its former luster.

WALT HUNTER: They were really
bringing back a Main Line

landmark that had fallen on hard
times, in terms of clientele,

and was at risk of closing.

[thunder]

NARRATOR: The one unusual
thing about the place

was the rumor that the


was haunted.

ROBIN WEBB: I was
afraid to be by myself

in one area of the restaurant.

I would consider it creepy,
um, maybe even somewhat evil.

NARRATOR: Two days
after Christmas in 1996,

employees opened the
restaurant to prepare

for the day's business.

Upstairs, in the
third floor office,

they found Jim Webb
dead on the floor.


What's your emergency?

[sirens]

NARRATOR: Paramedics confirmed
that Jim had been dead

for quite some time, possibly
from the night before.

-She initially told
us, and initially felt

that he had hit his
head, because he had

a knot on his
forehead, you know?

Like you had been
hit on the head,

or you had fallen and
struck the edge of a desk.

NARRATOR: There was a
spent .25 caliber shell

casing in the cash
tray on Jim's desk.

On closer inspection,
investigators

discovered he had a g*n shot
in the back of his head.

-That knot on Jim's
forehead, in fact,

was the projectile having
entered the back of his head

and failing exit the skin.

NARRATOR: Jim Webb
was just 31 years old.

He left behind a wife and
two very young children.

ROBIN WEBB: It was bad.
It was bad.

At that point in time, I
was pretty much hysterical.

BRUCE CASTOR: Robbery was pretty
quickly dismissed as a motive.

Jim wore a thick gold
chain around his neck,

and he had several hundred
dollars in his wallet

in his pocket.

And nothing else was taken or
disturbed within the building,

that we could see.

RICHARD NILSEN: Just where
Webb's body was located,

was in a very remote location.

And that suggested to us that
whoever k*lled Webb was someone

familiar with the inn's layout.

NARRATOR: Police asked Jim's
family if any of his employees

wanted him dead.

-He was extremely
difficult to work with.

Just about everybody that ever
worked for him did not like

is his management skills
or his supervisory skills.

Very hard on
employees, and demanded

perfection from everybody.

NARRATOR: Hoping to trap the
k*ller, police decided not

to tell anyone,
including Jim's family,

about the g*nsh*t wound.

-We wanted to know what happened
and what-- what went on.

And they wouldn't tell us.

-If you keep it to
yourself, then I

suspect might slip up and
indicate that they know

of this particular fact, when
there's no way they could know

unless they were
involved with the crime.

NARRATOR: In a search
for Jim Webb's k*ller,

investigators first
looked for clues

inside the 300-year-old
restaurant.

Webb's body was found in an
obscure third floor office.

BRUCE CASTOR: Among
the things in this

place were these 300-year-old
wooden staircases with planks

that would creak and groan
and make all these noises.

So there is no way anybody could
sneak upstairs and surprise

anybody, because you can
hear them coming a mile away.

NARRATOR: Investigators first
questioned Jim's wife, Robin.

She said she was home all
night with her two children,

and wasn't aware that
Jim didn't come home.

ROBIN WEBB: And
they said, what time

did Jim get home last night?

And I said, I don't know.

And they were like, well, what
time did he leave this morning?

And I said, I don't know.

And I kind of felt
foolish for not knowing.

NARRATOR: Jim's
business partner,


was also a suspect.

They both had $650,000
life insurance policies

on each other-- not an
uncommon business arrangement,

but it sure provided
Sileo with a motive.

And Sileo also knew that Jim was
unhappy with their partnership.

-Jim began to see that
he was doing all the work

and Sileo was drinking
a lot and running

around with the waitresses.

ROBIN WEBB: And
he was, basically,

cheating on his wife.

He was drinking on the job.

And drinking, you know,
like, hard, heavy stuff,

that it was affecting
his performance.

NARRATOR: Investigators
discovered that Sileo bought

a Phoenix arms .25 caliber
p*stol just three weeks

before Jim's m*rder.

Sileo willingly turned it
over to police for testing.

The lands and grooves
on the test firings,

which are marks
made on the b*llet

as it passes through
the barrel, were

not the same as
the fatal b*llet.

RICHARD NILSEN: We had the hopes
that, here's a .25 caliber g*n.

Maybe this is it.

And if nothing else,
we have to rule it out,

which is exactly what we did.

It was not the m*rder w*apon.

NARRATOR: And
Sileo had an alibi.

He said he was with his lover,
Felicia Moyse the entire night.

He said they had a drink
with Jim Webb after work.

Then they left together to
go to a Christmas party,

while Jim stayed behind
to do some paperwork.

-All right.
Have a good night.

-You too.

-See you tomorrow.

NARRATOR: Felicia was
the assistant chef

at the restaurant.

And not only
confirmed Guy's alibi,

she also passed a
lie detector test.

So investigators moved on
to other possible suspects.

RICHARD NILSEN: One
of the first things

that we do in any m*rder
investigation is to,

in the business setting, is
to check a list of employees

for anyone who
might have a motive.

NARRATOR: Several
months earlier,

Jim Webb fired a waiter
at the restaurant,

Ken Norcutt, for
using customers credit

cards to buy personal items.

JOHN STILLWAGON:
One of their waiters

had been running credit
cards through two

times whenever
somebody ate there.

And he would pocket the money
from one of the transactions.

NARRATOR: But
Norcutt had an alibi

for the night of Jim's m*rder.

Ironically, he was in police
custody on a forgery charge.

[sirens]

Then two months after
Jim Webb's m*rder,

there was another tragedy.

Guy Sileo's lover,
Felicia Moyse,

was found dead in her home of
a self-inflicted g*nsh*t wound

to her head.

She used her father's
service revolver.

WALT HUNTER: She obviously
was a key witness.

Now she was dead.

And her death set off
all kinds of alarm bells.

NARRATOR: She left no note.

So the reason for her
su1c1de remains a mystery.

-I like to think of him as a
hard worker, a good family man,

a good son, very
talented, passionate chef.

NARRATOR: Jim Webb's funeral
service took place six days

after his m*rder,
at Saint Timothy's

church outside of Philadelphia.

Hundreds of friends,
family, colleagues,

and former customers
paid their last respects.

At the same time, police
got their first break.

A worker found a .25 caliber
b*llet in the parking lot

across the street from
the General Wayne Inn.

It was the same brand as the
shell that k*lled Jim Webb.

Police wondered whether
the k*ller through the g*n

in the dumpster,
but it was empty.

The trash had been picked
up a few days earlier.

Miraculously, police
found the truck

and went through all
of the trash inside.

All 12 tons of it.

JOHN STILLWAGON: Pretty
much, in overalls, digging

through garbage
and trash all day.

Some of the worse
smells I've ever

smelled in my life and filthy.

But we went through every
square inch of the contents

of the truck, and didn't
come up with the g*n.

NARRATOR: Another dead end.

Until the victim's wife, Robin
Webb, remembered something.

She said she was standing
outside the restaurant

when Jim's body was
taken to the morgue.

And his business
partner, Guy Sileo,

walked over to offer
his condolences.

ROBIN WEBB: Guy came
out of the building,

and the first thing I noticed
was that he had sunglasses on.

And then he said, who would
have want to sh**t Jim?

NARRATOR: Inadvertently
revealing information

known only to police
and the k*ller.

BRUCE CASTOR: Only
those of us who

are very close to the
investigation knew that fact.

That immediately
puts your eye on him.

How could he possibly know that
when even the medically trained

nurse thought that he'd fallen?

NARRATOR: And police
discovered something else.

Several restaurant
employees said

Sileo owned a second
or .25 caliber

handgun that he didn't
admit to police.

BRUCE CASTOR: And
one of the witnesses

told us was, an older
model w*apon that's Sileo

said that was unregistered
that he'd gotten

from his grandfather who brought
over from Italy after the w*r.

NARRATOR: Ken Norcutt, a
former suspect and ex-employee

told police he
remembered it distinctly.

RICHARD NILSEN: Norcutt
gave us a very good

description of the
g*n that Sileo had.

He described it as a Beretta
with a tip-up barrel.

And in particular, Norcutt,
who had military experience,

told us that he remembers what
he called the Trident seal.

NARRATOR: But Sileo denied
ever owning a Beretta handgun.

RICHARD NILSEN: He's
a smooth customer.

And I knew he was lying, but
he did it with a bold face,

and very good at it.

NARRATOR: In Sileo's
office, police

found a box of .25
caliber amm*nit*on,

the same caliber
used in Jim's m*rder.

Analyst Gene Krebs
compared Sileo's amm*nit*on

to the spent cartridge
found at the m*rder scene.

He was looking for
marks made by a bunter.

-A bunter mark is made by a tool
at the point of manufacturer.

The manufacturer's name, or
abbreviation, or initials

will be stamped on the
head of the cartridge case,

as well as the caliber
of the amm*nit*on

that's being created.

NARRATOR: The tool marks
on the two were similar.

Meaning, the amm*nit*on
was manufactured

in the same factory
on the same day.

But there are, on
average, 100,000 cartridge

cases struck by the same bunter.

-So it's conceivable that
many boxes of amm*nit*on

could have cartridges
struck by the bunter.

NARRATOR: Without the m*rder
w*apon, the trail turned cold.

Two years pass
without any new leads.

JOHN STILLWAGON: We
always try to keep

a positive attitude on it.

The progress in this
case was very slow.

Everybody that was
involved in the case

stuck with it,
through the years.

NARRATOR: But Chief Investigator
Rich Nilsen wouldn't give up.

He was intent on
solving the case,

and found inspiration
in a most unusual place.

-There comes a point in every
investigation that remains

unsolved where you
just step back and take

another fresh look
at your evidence.

And one night I was watching
an episode "Forensic Files"

and saw a show where they used
diatoms to solve the case.

And I thought that's
just pretty remarkable.

And I said, if they can
do that to solve a case,

there must be something that
we have in our evidence room

that we can make
the same use of.

NARRATOR: Diatoms, which
are microscopic organisms,

couldn't help this case.

But Nilsen wondered about
Guy Sileo's holster.

What if there had been
another g*n in the holster,

different from the
one Sileo gave police?

-If the m*rder
w*apon was, in fact,

in there at some
point in time, there's

got to be some sort of
transfer of evidence.

NARRATOR: With nothing to
lose, and everything to gain,

Nilsen sent the holster
to the forensic lab

for testing-- with
surprising results.

Three weeks before
Jim Webb's m*rder,

his business partner,
Guy Sileo, purchased

a Phoenix Arms .25
caliber handgun.

Forensic testing proved it
wasn't the m*rder w*apon.

But a year earlier, several
restaurant employees

saw Sileo with a different .25
caliber handgun-- a Beretta.

Sileo denied it.

So police asked one
of his employees

to wear a hidden
microphone and ask

him about the Beretta p*stol.

-You still got that Beretta?

--No, I got rid of it.

It didn't work, anyway.

BRUCE CASTOR: Well, bingo.

No you have him
admitting on a wiretap

that he lied to the
police when he said

he never own another
.25 caliber g*n.

NARRATOR: Police decided to
analyze Sileo's leather g*n

holster to see if it
showed any evidence

that had once held a Beretta.

RICHARD NILSEN: The main
thing that stuck in my head

was, if it was in there, it
might have left an impression.

And that impression
might be good enough

to tell us what kind of
g*n was in there before.

NARRATOR: Forensic
analysts removed

the stitching to see inside.

GENE KREBS: The highest
part of the firearm, that's

the area that will be in
contact with the inside

of the the leather
of the holster.

NARRATOR: Investigators saw the
impressions from the Phoenix

arms p*stol, but they
found something else.

-There were two different
brands of firearms

that had been stored
in the holster.

NARRATOR: A second g*n left deep
impressions stained with dirt.

One corresponding to a
release lever and a hinge

for a tip-up barrel, a
rare feature on g*ns.

Another showed a raised slide
and a larger than usual trigger

guard.

Only one type of
handgun could have

made all these impressions,
a Beretta Model 20,

the same g*n witnesses
saw Sileo carrying.

-When we looked at that g*n
and looked at the impressions

on the inside of the
holster, it appeared

that a logo on the g*n, as
well as a safety switch on g*n,

it appeared there were matching
impressions inside the holster.

RICHARD NILSEN: That was
wonderful information for us,

because it confirmed all
of the witness statements

that we had that
put a .25 caliber

Beretta in Sileo's hands
prior to the m*rder.

NARRATOR: Guy Sileo was
arrested and charged

with first-degree m*rder.

WALT HUNTER: It was clear
the train was rolling

towards Sileo from
the beginning.

He was on the tracks
and the light just

kept getting closer and closer.

And eventually it got to him.

NARRATOR: Prosecutors believed
the motive was financial.

The General Wayne
Inn was losing money,

and Jim Webb planned to close
it, dissolve his business

partnership with
Sileo and move on.

-Jim had actually discussed
with the restaurant lawyer

that after the
first of the year we

were just going to walk away.

NARRATOR: Prosecutors
say Sileo decided

to k*ll Webb for the $650,000
of life insurance money

before Webb could
end the partnership.

WALT HUNTER: From what I
have learned about Mr. Sileo,

he is the last
person in the world

you would want for a
friend or a partner.

And tragically,
that mis-estimation,

I suppose, by Mr. Webb, given
the events, cost him his life.

NARRATOR: Sileo knew employees
would remember his .25 caliber

Beretta, and that police
would come the ballistics.

So he bought a second
g*n as an alibi w*apon,

and waited for his chance.

It came the night
after Christmas.

Sileo used the assistant chef,
Felicia Moyse, as his alibi.

After work, they
made plans to attend

a friend's Christmas party.

Felicia confirmed that
Jim Webb was alive

when they left the restaurant.

But Sileo and Felicia took
separate cars to the party.

And Felicia said, she was going
to run a quick errand first.

This gave Sileo
enough time to turn

around and return
to the restaurant.

The evidence
suggests Sileo parked

his car across the street.

There, he checked his
Beretta, accidentally ejecting

the live round that was later
found near the dumpster.

[floor creaking]

-Hello?

SILEO: Hey, Jim,
it's, uh, just me.

I forgot something.

[g*nsh*t]

NARRATOR: The indentations
on Sileo's holster

proved it held a Beretta.

But where he's disposed of
the g*n remains a mystery.

Sileo got to the Christmas
party before Felicia,

further establishing his alibi.

Prosecutors don't
believe that Felicia

had anything to do
with the m*rder.

But they think she
realized she had been used.

And that this led
to her su1c1de.

BRUCE CASTOR: Well, I
think that she probably

believed that Guy m*rder*d
Jim, and that she wasn't

able to live with that
horrible knowledge.

ROBIN WEBB: Was at worth it?

I think he thought
he was invincible

and that he would
never get caught.

And do I think he regrets it?

Probably no.

I would probably say he's,
like, denying it in his head.

Because that's kind
of the way he is.

I hate him.

I hate him.

NARRATOR: Five years
after Jim Webb's death,

Guy Sileo was
tried and convicted

of first-degree m*rder and
sentenced to life in prison.

He still maintains
his innocence.

But the jury
understood the story

told by the forensic evidence.

BRUCE CASTOR: The fact that the
Beretta fits into that holster,

fits in with the theory that
other witnesses had told us

that the m*rder
w*apon was a Beretta.

The ballistics expert tells us
that the cartridge casing that

was found next Jim's
body could have

been ejected from a Beretta.

That the projectile that was
found under the skin in James

forehead could have been
fired through a Beretta.

-We had a lot of interviews
with people they've confirmed

the existence of Sileo's
g*n, the Beretta.

But when you have forensic
evidence to back it up,

that's extremely key, because
that doesn't lie in court.