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The Murder of Dean Milo
63 Plays9 months ago
A family business in Ohio is catapulted into mega-millions by one of the sons. Every family member has an equal share in the profits. If not money, what then is the motive for a family member to kill the goose that lays the golden egg for everyone?
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:18
bclawson
After I say I'm Bridget, you say I'm Andy.
00:00:28
bclawson
Hello listeners, I'm Bridget. And I'm Andy. That's right. Andy is joining me today because Caroline is on vacation with her family. You are listening to Hearth Home and Homicide, a family production about family murders.
00:00:47
bclawson
carolyn Caroline and I usually narrate each story and son Andy is our producer and you probably already know that drill but today Andy is going to take the place of Caroline and you know I'm not going to fire you Caroline I don't think but anyway as Andy and I talk about this family murder we're not only keen on watching justice unfold for the killer whatever that may look like but we're especially sensitive for victims and their families. And we keep that on top of mind. Our podcasts do include violence and trauma. So listener discretion is advised.
Setting the Scene: The Akron Murder
00:01:31
bclawson
So Andy, please don't try to talk in Caroline's voice. Okay. I want to thank you for taking Caroline's place today.
00:01:42
bclawson
My pleasure. She's not having as much fun as we are, but close because she's on vacation. Today, we're going to visit Akron, Ohio, with a story of the quintessential archetype American dream, whatever you want to call it. We all know what that is. It's ordinary people of modest means or even impoverished people using freedom that America offers to rise through hard work and tenacity.
00:02:12
bclawson
to the upper echelons of society. Maybe even go to the top. Now, when I say top, I mean like president, or maybe Colonel Sanders of KFC. I mean, it kind of depends on what you're aiming for. Or the Wendy's guy. Remember the Wendy's guy? damn Dave. Dave. Dave. This is Dave from Wednesday. That's my daughter. yeah His daughter was Wendy. That's right. That's right. So now that you know all about our dietary habits, KFC and Wendy's,
Crime Scene Details and Speculations
00:02:43
bclawson
Today's murder victim is Dean Milo. Now his long name is Constantine Dean Milo, but everybody calls him Dean, called him Dean. On August 11th, 1980, his housekeeper, Georgia, parked her station wagon in the driveway of millionaire cosmetic mogul, Constantine Dean Milo's home in Bath, Ohio.
00:03:08
bclawson
No one answered the door, so she opened the door using the key given to her by Milo's wife prior to her departure with the couple's children to visit florida to visit her family in Florida. So Dean's family's gone to Florida and he's there alone. She doesn't trust him to open the door, I guess. So she gave the key to the housekeeper, Georgia. Opening the door, Georgia made a horrific discovery.
00:03:36
bclawson
sprawled out before her on the floor of the foyer was the body of a man lying face down in a pool of blood. And it was Milo wearing a pair of white jockey shorts that were on backwards and a yellow foam cushion on top of his head pierced by a single bullet hole. And I just want to make the observation that in all these articles and records that I pulled up to Learn about Milo's murder. Every one of them said his underwear was on backwards. Well, that's weird. yeah Thank you, because I thought that was weird. I don't believe Milo would wear his underwear backwards, but somebody maybe put it on backwards because he was naked when he was murdered. It's going to sound like a weird you know non-sequitur, but there's a Colombo episode where Colombo solves the case ultimately. Spoiler alert.
00:04:34
bclawson
Um, because the, the killer had put the woman's underwear on backwards. Well, I'm, I hope that when I hope I'm wearing enough clothes that nobody says anything about my butt being too big or anything like that. And a yellow foam cushion on top. That kind of is more related to the crime because there, you're talking about perhaps.
00:05:02
bclawson
somebody they know so they don't want to see the face of the person that he has killed. That's a thing. And the other thing is that, you know, maybe a pillow was used as a silencer. That's what I thought of when you put it. Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right. Georgia went to the kitchen and called her husband, George, not 9-1-1. None of our killers ever call 9-1-1, but that are the people who find the body. But Georgia went to the kitchen, called her husband, George. But there's a reason for that.
00:05:30
bclawson
George is Dean's attorney and his wife is Georgia, of the housekeeper. So it's a family affair. George and Georgia. Yes. Yeah. And told him of her gruesome discovery. George told Georgia to immediately call the bath township police department, which she did. And following the call, she gathered her composure and went outside to the car full of waiting children. So she brought her children in her car with her and she went to unlock the house and then come and get the kids. But, or maybe they were just going to have to stay in the car while she did her housework. In any event, there's a carload of kids
Complex Investigation and Family Dynamics
00:06:12
bclawson
waiting. And so Georgia has to get back to real life, uh, instead of this crime scene, a police investigation revealed that Dean had numerous enemies who might have wanted him dead.
00:06:26
bclawson
But what surprised them is that several of these enemies were murdered, members of his own family. That's how you wind up on home, our home and our side. Yeah. That checks all of our boxes. That's right. A lengthy and complicated investigation would eventually lead to the killers and the person behind the murder for hire. Before we talk about the brother who killed his brother,
00:06:55
bclawson
Uh, and I, you know, I don't like that to be like, we're not talking about a mystery. What's a mystery is what the hell happened here? yeah So anyway, I'll tell you, it was the brother though. Who are the Milo's though? All right. So let's get going on. Who are the Milo's? So tier and kind of Tina Milo were Albanian immigrants who moved to Akron, Ohio and built up a cosmetic business beginning in the basement of their home. I love these people. I mean, that's the American dream.
00:07:25
bclawson
right there. The couple's three children, Fred, Sophie and Dean, also worked in the family business and contributed to its expansion as they grew older. So in other words, they started the but the beauty supply company in the basement. And, you know, it grew so much that they had to get more beauty supplies and more and more and more and more. And the family was helping them show up all these boxes and all that kind of stuff.
00:07:53
bclawson
It did not take the family long to realize the American dream building wealth in return for years of very hard work of the three children. Dean exhibited the most business talent. Now I'm not sure what that means. I mean, what could that mean? It could mean he was just more savvy. Yeah. He was just more in tune to the fluctuations of the market.
00:08:20
bclawson
You know, he knew when to diversify and how to diversify now remember he gets murdered So I'm wondering was he just a little too bossy with his two siblings. I don't know. Yeah Yeah Anyway, I'm sure my siblings would like to kill me every now and then So they've got three children he exhibited the most business talent which you know couldn't mean anything but I do wonder in 1969 his mother offered him the chance to head the family business following his graduation from the University of Akron. I find it very interesting that the mother is the one that is deciding who is going to be the inheritor of this ah fortune. But as president of the company, have Milo Barber and Beauty Shop, they called it Milo B and&B.
00:09:20
bclawson
But it's it's the name of it is Milo Barber and Beauty. Dean immediately said about making his dream of turning the family business into a multi-million dollar corporation come true by eliminating middle men and middle women and the company's sales force and selling direct to clients at discounted prices.
00:09:48
bclawson
So he's got, so there's that, you know, business savvy, but it comes with the price of cutting people loose. ahh You know, you got it. And, uh, his radical plan to expand the business was a huge success. And by the seventies, the Milos had become one of Ohio's wealthiest families. Now with Ohio being in the Midwest and many of the factories,
00:10:17
bclawson
the big businesses. I always think of candy manufacturers in Hershey, Pennsylvania. um You know, that's saying something when you say that they've built it into a multimillion dollar competitor and so forth and so on. Yet the my whole family success was not welcomed by everyone. Dean's money making ideas infuriated the competition.
00:10:45
bclawson
who struggled to compete against the company's low pricing. oh Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There were a lot of people in the cosmetic industry who wanted Dean out of business. And you know, that might mean burn down all of his, you know, inventory, or it might mean put a bullet through his heart. I don't know. Well, I wonder if like, they,
00:11:11
bclawson
ah Yeah, I get it like they want the competition out of the way, especially the top dog But also, you know, he got to be the top dog by cutting out, you know the working-class middle folk Right. He might have some enemies in terms of people you let go. Yeah so um they They looked at that when I say they I mean the police department there and first burglary had to be discounted During the investigation into Dean's murder, the police discovered several pieces of evidence that led them to believe that Dean's death was not part of an attempted burglary.
Evidential Challenges and Family Conflicts
00:11:50
bclawson
Examination of the house revealed that nothing of any significant value had been taken, neither money nor jewelry. Moreover, police found that Dean had been shot not once, but twice in the head and the back of the neck.
00:12:07
bclawson
Oh God, I want to be just shot in the head. but Okay, I'll write that down. Thank you. Mom's wishes. Shoot me in the head. Just get it over with. There were some weird aspects to this crime scene. Now, how would you find the weird aspects to a crime scene? Well, you know, investigators, they kind of know weird crime scene versus pretty ordinary crime scene, I guess. But in addition to the fact that Dean's underwear were on backwards. That's weird. He was also found to have had small pieces of cotton in his mouth and more of that cotton scattered on the floor around him. Okay. So maybe he's a cotton eater, you know, cotton picking eater. I mean, he's just a,
00:13:04
bclawson
I don't know. Other strange clues were found as well, including a a blank telegram found near Dean's body and a piece of tissue paper with traces of semen on it that had been crumpled up and tossed among clothes on the floor of Dean's upstairs bedroom. Okay. Well, in his bedroom closet, investigators found a stash of pornography believed to be deans, some of which was edited for a gale, not a gale, a gay male readership. Um, and I would hear, I was thinking, sorry, no, that's okay. I feel like this is a setup. Like this is like someone's putting together a stage there. It's a staged,
00:13:58
bclawson
crime scene is what it feels like. So the gay male readership? Not just because this is a gay male readership, whatever. That's fine. But what I'm saying is like putting the underwear on backwards and bits of cotton and all this other stuff. It seems like a hastily staged like, oh, he's enjoying his pornography. And we'll add elements to it that will shake and rattle and distract the Midwest sensibilities.
00:14:28
bclawson
Um, and at the Washington state, the sensibility, but just like, you know, this is the, you know, the eighties. Yeah. So, you know, it's, I don't know, it's just still be shocking. It would be, yeah. This, this strikes me as a stage set up, especially the backwards underwear in the grander context of the pornography and, you know, semen. And I think it's the gay, I mean, Dean was married So the community was probably thinking, yeah, instead of focusing on like, huh, he's dead. He's dead. Yeah, that's not the big event. Big event is Dean is bisexual. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, despite the available evidence, there was just not enough of it to point to any one suspect. Investigators work diligently and pursued the tips that came in. And as time passed, the case began to grow cold. Now, you know, I just recently watched a
00:15:28
bclawson
cop on tv a real this real thing that they hate it when you say it went cold cold just means no tips are coming in it's not like they put it in a deep freeze somewhere or they don't put it you know it's not like they take it off their desk and put it in a cabinet although some probably do but just no tips are coming in and new murders are happening so anyway but his the case went cold investigators wondered if they would ever find the person or persons who murdered deans So, there's frustration. Frustrated by the pace of the investigation into Dean's murder, Dean's wife did something very interesting, if you ask me. She hired a Texas private investigator named William Bill Dear. Bill's in quotes. I guess I saw his business card like that.
00:16:22
bclawson
because all the news articles said William, beer, Bill, deer to get to the bottom of the case. So we're going to let deer find almost almost immediately that Dean had far more enemies than most people. And again, shockingly, he learned that some of them were in the Milo family. Once again, it's confirmed that this guy's got a lot of enemies in the house and outside the house. Dean had gained full control of Milo Bargain and Beauty having sole voting power on the company's operations. Although, and this is the part that just doesn't, I don't, I don't understand this part. Other family members, such as fat Brother Fred, his sister Sophie, her husband Lonnie, owned equal shares and profited greatly from all the work that Dean was doing.
00:17:21
bclawson
to bring in multi-millions of dollars. So why, when I say I find that very interesting, it's because sometimes when a sibling, possibly the oldest sibling or the most talented sibling or whatever, takes over the case, like in our story of Moose Head Down, up in Canada, the family anoints one person as the head of everything and everybody else gets a smaller share, all the kids and, and so forth and so on. So in this one,
00:17:51
bclawson
Dean's going to do all the work and they're going to get as much money as he is. That's the way it was set up. So oh despite the large sums of money that the family was making from Dean's effort, some of these family members were not happy. Well, I mean, there's only four or five of them. So that, I mean, you know, must be the kids, even Dean's own mother.
00:18:13
bclawson
was among the least thrilled and often criticized his actions. That's interesting because didn't she appoint him the CEO? Yes, she did. And this is where I want to say that when I read this story and I looked for everything that I could to get some insight, yeah I finally figured out maybe that the mother wanted him to take over what they already had and keep doing it.
00:18:43
bclawson
So now she didn't like the change. No, she was, she was an immigrant to the United States and the children were born in the United States and they were raised in the United States. And so the United States way is find a way to make more money, more, more, more, more, bigger, better, faster, more. That's the American problem slash, uh, you know, secret power. So in any way,
00:19:10
bclawson
um Even even her his mother did not like all these changes and she criticized him a lot And all I can say is heavy Is the head that wears the crown that's true when you become the boss of bosses It's true when you start running the business for your family and trying to make enough money that all the ancestors can have something When you pass on can't explain that to your mom, you're in big trouble. Mm-hmm So Dean's mom, Katina, believed that Dean was pushing family members out of the business, which upset her greatly, especially when he hired advisors to assist in operations. Okay. So there's somebody's pride is getting hurt. Why don't you go ask your brother? Cause a brother don't know, you know, about, you know, how to cut throat business. And he was, you know, he didn't, she, I don't think the mom liked it that
00:20:08
bclawson
their friends in the beauty business were now losing money because of something her family was doing. Maybe there was that. I don't know. Yeah. that Well, I wonder if there was like a community that he was, um, not just, you know, turning his back on, but negatively affecting by putting members of that community out of work. Exactly. Exactly. She didn't like that. Maybe outside involvement,
00:20:35
bclawson
was clearly very frowned upon by this family. This is a family, probably with friends from the old country, cousins that were born in America talking about their parents from the old country, and you've got a sort of a clan. And I think that when you have a somewhat of a clan, and I'm just speculating, and you shun outside involvement,
00:21:05
bclawson
you are going to become stagnant. And Dean knew that. So he brought people from the outside and he kept making money hand over fist. So according to William Deere and Carlton Stowers book, Please Don't Kill Me, the true story of the Milo murder, Dean's wife Maggie suggested that his relationship with his mother had further deteriorated because he spent more time with his wife and kids than with her, okay? That's not all that uncommon. I know some women who have grandchildren and even great-grandchildren and they're still all up in their children's business. And I kind of try to go by the old saying,
00:21:59
bclawson
Bite your lip and put the welcome mat out when it comes to your children being grown up Responsible for their own decisions and that kind of thing. So I mean somewhere along that spectrum ah You know Somebody was doing what they didn't want them to do Dean was in charge of changing the paradigm on a whole lot of people and they didn't like it and she didn't even want her grandchildren and to look upon their mother and as the, you know, everything wanted these kids to, you know, don't own the grandmother. And in some countries, that's how it is. No, I know. That's what's interesting about it. It's like, that's not, yeah. The idea that the the family doesn't expand and grow with the times it stays in its egg, but you know? And I shouldn't say countries. What I mean to say community communities, yeah communities, communities,
00:22:57
bclawson
ah So anyway So it was suggested in this book the true story of Milo murder ah It was suggested that her resentment and her jealousy greatly interfered with family business and even pitted sibling against sibling And all I could say to that is well, yeah, I mean we all know it's gonna be the mother's fault. Yeah, so I agree
00:23:27
bclawson
No. Hey, don't walk it back. It's already out there. How come this bike doesn't pedal backwards? No, no. Dear, now remember I just, I'm not calling Andy dear, believe me. but Especially not after that. no ah Dear, dear, remember is the private eye vet, the investigator. So dear and stover quoted Dean's wife Maggie.
00:23:56
bclawson
as saying that Lonnie and Fred loved, and Lonnie is the sister, right historya loved ganging up on Dean because it made them feel that they were important in Katina's eyes. So they were the suck-ups. Dean was the powerhouse who's going to, number one, give his loyalty to his own family.
00:24:22
bclawson
And also he's going to turn this business into a international business and everybody is going to join in the riches. But so this murder is not going to be about money. If you ask me, this murder is going to be about jealousy, resentment, pride, wounded ego, wounded ego. yeah I feel at this point that this family feud is about love and not money. This love of the mother.
00:24:52
bclawson
the the mother mother, the Queen's mother, as they would say in Britain. Yeah, Katina. But then this happened.
Money, Betrayal, and Escalation
00:25:00
bclawson
Dean fired Dean fired Fred, Sophie, and Lonnie for allegedly siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars from the business account and pouring that money into another family owned business. I suspected something like that might come up. Yeah, they named it.
00:25:22
bclawson
Uh, they named, they named their company, uh, Michael, like not Milo, but Michael. And you know, a minute ago, my company, a minute ago, I said, Lonnie, I'm a Stuckhurst for soap. Sophie is the daughter of Fred and Dean. Lonnie is Sophie's husband. And, and he had throat. Listen, you know,
00:25:49
bclawson
one for all, all for one. They put him, he was making a cut as big as anybody else. So anyway, they decided they're gonna steal from their brother and start their own company. Maggie was further quoted in the book as saying, by firing them, he in effect gave them a lifetime pass to run and play while never having to worry about money ever again. So they're- Yeah, they still killed him. They still, I know, I know they still killed him.
00:26:19
bclawson
Like I think you're right. this This has nothing to do with the money. No. Even the stealing of the money underneath that was the like, Oh yeah, you're going to go against the family. Well, this is what we're going to do. Yeah. We're going to force you to come back to our way. And that didn't work. No, no, you have to put it there. His underwear on him backwards for that. So push play on his porn.
00:26:44
bclawson
i know
00:26:47
bclawson
So nobody's happy. And one of Deere's goals was to find out whether either of them was unhappy enough to kill. I've never hired a private investigator. Have you ever private hired a private investigator in your private life, Andy? No. so i don't know I've met private investigators in my working life. Yeah, I bet. They're cool. They're very little like what you see on TV. Okay. like hard boiled, you know, wearing the duster and the fedora down over their eyes and meet me in the park and garage at midnight. Um, they're very just like fact finders, fact finders. One guy like I met, he's just like, you know, he's got a family and normal dude. Yeah. Just like fact finders. Right. You know? Yeah. They're very cool line of work.
00:27:39
bclawson
I would think so until you step in on somebody famous having an affair with somebody else not so famous from the local strip club. And then the wife comes after you, the private investigator, or the husband does. I mean, yeah that's what I would be scared of. Yeah. I wouldn't want to do domestic work, let's put it that way. See, and that's what sucks is I think that it's a lot of domestic work. should I don't think not a lot of it is like, we stumbled on something big here. It's going to blow the lid off LA. You know, that kind of thing. You know, nothing movie worthy. No.
00:28:10
bclawson
ah That's for the feds. Anyway, during the investigation into Dean's murder, detectives initially focused on Fred Milo, one of several leading suspects in the murder case, remembering that Fred is the brother to Dean. At the time of the murder, Fred was out of state on a business trip, an alibi that could be proven. Furthermore, the two brothers had made plans to meet the weekend of the murder, hoping to mend their broken relationship.
00:28:37
bclawson
Fred seemed to be in the clear, at least for the time being. Deer aligned himself with detectives and proposed to tighten the ring around the killer by increasing the reward money from 25,000 to 50,000.
Breakthrough: Tipsters and Investigations
00:28:51
bclawson
Yeah, money does talk. um He hoped that the move would flush out more information that would lead to the identity of the killer. Amazingly, that very day, detectives received a tip from a caller who claimed to know who was involved in Dean's murder.
00:29:07
bclawson
Money is just. Yeah. You know, it's funny what a $25,000 memory retains versus a $50,000 memory. You know, all of a sudden, you know, synapses start firing and. Right. You know, right. Especially in the underworld. Yeah. Um, I made that, that word, I use that word to mean basically any, everybody, but me and you, Andy. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Everybody that succeeded in business.
00:29:38
bclawson
ah So anyway, um but na so just to catch up on what's really actually happening in this murder, the detectives received a tip but after doubling their their reward for tips from a caller who claimed to know who was involved. Six weeks after Dean's murder, Deere arranged a meeting with the tipster at a local Greyhound bus station to discuss what he knew about the murder.
00:30:08
bclawson
I had just said that I was like, real private detectives don't meet in like parking garages at midnight or anything like that, but here he is meeting in a bus station. But remember now, this is a tipster that chose the location. He's probably, you know, living there. I don't know. The tipster said that several weeks earlier, he had met with a woman named Terry Lee King who had offered him money and a gun to kill a man and offer he had declined. No, thank you.
00:30:36
bclawson
I know. I mean, you know, the tipster agreed to lead detectives to Terry. Here's a spoiler alert. She's a drug addict addict and a party girl. Now that appeared in several newspaper articles. She was a drug addict and a party girl. Now, does that mean she's so Tupperware to her friends? I don't think so. I think it means... Well, she worked at a strip club. Oh, thank you, Eddie. She worked in a strip club.
00:31:06
bclawson
Despite countless efforts to get Terry to talk about her alleged involvement in the murder, she revealed she refused to reveal. That's kind of interesting, given her line of work. Yeah, she's refusing to reveal any information, forcing detectives to look elsewhere for clutes. They eventually made an, she's not gonna get that money then. thats yeah He's not gonna, the tips are in the Greyhound bus station. Well, that's how it works in stripping in elsewhere. If you don't reveal, you don't get the money.
00:31:35
bclawson
I wouldn't worry. As I said, i i just bite your lip. They eventually made another break in the case when a link was made between Terry, the non-talking strip gal, and a good friend of Fred Milo's. Akron attorney Barry M. Boyd is this friend of Fred Milo's. Barry had represented some of Terry's friends in legal cases, in other words, drug use cases.
00:32:05
bclawson
But detectives quickly learned that he had some legal troublele troubles of his own. Very boy did? Yeah, the attorney. Mostly by tampering with evidence. Okay, that's bad. That's really bad. I don't think they're allowed to do that. Hiring a lawyer who's tampering with evidence, but okay. and He was also a good friend of Dean's brother Fred. Oh, that makes sense.
00:32:33
bclawson
During questioning Boyd revealed to all the detectives reporting that in spring of 1979, at a time he was struggling with depression and alcohol, he was approached by Fred Milo. You know, why is it that these people with good, legitimate livings when they do something bad, they so I was struggling with the president depression and alcohol.
00:33:01
bclawson
I guess it's true, but I don't know. I'm just, you know, people get targeted like that. Doctors get targeted because they have a gambling problem that's caused them issues that they've had to hide. And when you develop a lifestyle where you have to hide all these different things from your family and friends and colleagues, that's when like cartels come in and be like, Oh, you've got a lot of problems. We're going to reveal all those problems and we're going to ruin your life. If you don't, you know,
00:33:30
bclawson
do eggs, bring in, you know, ah pills from Mexico, or shoot somebody, you know, or write prescriptions that we will, you know, they'll they'll target professionals for whatever their profession is, like they target doctors for like, okay, we want you to write scripts for addings. If you don't do it, we're gonna wreck your life, kill your family. Lord have mercy. Yeah.
00:33:52
bclawson
I don't want to know about that because, you know, I'm doing, I'm doing family murder. I don't know if that's going to hurt me later. So anyway, Fred and this, uh, Boyd attorney who, you know, has got some problems. He was, they were friends.
00:34:12
bclawson
And uh, Fred told him look I need you to do something. I need you to murder my brother I was 79 too. Yeah, this was like a couple years before. Yeah, so he's been no way it was a year before a year before Yeah, no, you're right. Yeah, but he was still like he was a year before asking if he was like, would you murder my brother? Would you murder my brother? Right? It's probably spent a year doing something He was told by Fred boy was told by Fred. I'm just so uncomfortable doing that myself Oh gosh, that sounds really really uncomfortable. but Yeah, can you get someone else to do the murder? Yeah instead what happened was this attorney named Boyd tried to enlist this drug addict addict stripper named King to hire someone else to do the killing and She too was able she was unable to find anyone to carry out the plot. So now okay
00:35:11
bclawson
But now you've got Fred, the attorney who's depressed and on alcohol. You've got Terry, who is Terry King, who's on drugs and also is in a stripper thing. She's got a day job. She's got a day job. Not a job or whatever that job is. She won't reveal anything to the police, but that's where she draws the line. So there's all these people that are starting to know about this murder. Frustrated by Boyd's failed attempts to have his brother Murr, Fred turned to a former disgruntled employee named Tony. Jesus, ah stop asking people. Stop asking different people.
00:35:55
bclawson
Yeah, that would be pro-social. A former disgruntled employee named Tony Riddle, who had it out for Dean Milo and was known to have ties to the criminal underworld.
00:36:10
bclawson
Nobody in this story has ever heard of something called a background. Which, as you know, my mom said earlier, the criminal underworld consists of all of you and everyone else except me and my mom. Yeah. Well, the listeners, not the listeners. No, I'm sorry, not you. I should have said that. Sorry, Caroline, for saying that in your stead. You would have never said that. Caroline has a dark mind, not quite as dark as you do. She does.
00:36:35
bclawson
During questioning Riddle over her detectives talking about a man named Harry. Listers, please don't try to remember all these names. There's so many people. Tony Riddle, come on. This is a Harry Potter book. like I'm gonna i'm go stop laughing about this because poor Dean is dead. But I have to say, when you're uncovering a murder that begins with underwear being on backwards,
00:37:03
bclawson
And then you find out that the brother did it, but hired basically the entire yearbook of his high school, um, interviewed, he couldn't hire him. yeah Like they didn't have enough of a benefits badke package. I have to really put a shout out for the detective, the, uh, investigator. de Um, no, not Dean. It was the, um, the private detective last name, Deere. Not Dean Deere. Because not all private investigators oh get together with the police. And I think it was really a good idea because now detectives are getting tips and they're finding out they're pulling on that yarn string. So I really appreciate that. That's a good point. I like that. During questioning
00:38:00
bclawson
Riddle overheard detectives talking about a man named Harry. So Riddle didn't realize that they were discussing a fellow cop. Instead, he assumed that they were talking about the gangster associate, Harry Knott.
Trial and Testimonies
00:38:16
bclawson
I'm sorry, I don't believe any of these names.
00:38:21
bclawson
listen I can't wait for this movie to come out. It's ah it's a cast of characters. We have, I'm not even going to go over it because this takes up too much time. pretty much like vending machine operators with criminal watch as He was
00:38:41
bclawson
He had led Riddle to the trigger man in the murder for hired plot. Fearing exposure, Riddle confessed his involvement in Dean's murder, naming Fred as the main culprit, the contractor. yeah He also implicated a man named Ray Sizzick.
00:38:58
bclawson
and employee at Capital Beauty Supply, who he claimed served as a go-between between him and Fred. Now, Capital Beauty Supply, that sounds like a competitor. It is. And of course, Fred would know the competitors because he was telling all of them, you're going to let my brother undercut you like this. That's back-staffing family rivalry. Yeah. Oh, steroids. Well, and it's just ah a fundamental lack of understanding of how business works.
00:39:28
bclawson
I know. It's the opposite. I know. I agree. Sizzick was arrested in connection with the murder, as was Fred Milo, in December of 1980. According to Deere, that's the investigator, Fred was so panicked at having been caught that he urinated in his pants. Sorry. He peed his pants. He peed his pants. A lot of people do that when they get caught for murder. This is like a cartoon.
00:39:59
bclawson
This is like an adult cartoon. I, you know, when I read this murder, I thought I have got to get the Colan brothers to Caroline. You're missing now. this is the juicy Caroline, that's what you get for taking a vacation. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So he peed in his pants, but that's okay, Fred, because from now on you'll be doing all your peeing in public in the prison. Yeah. Big old metal toilet right in the middle of yourself. Yeah.
00:40:26
bclawson
Yet, even though detectives had a mountain of evidence implicating Fred, most of it was circumstantial, they realized that the only way to get a conviction was to find the trigger man, a task that they immediately set upon conquering. During the spring of 1981, Fred Milo's murder was already in full swing while murder investigate trial, excuse me, I'm gonna start that over. During the spring of 1981, Fred Milo's murder trial was already in full swing while detectives were still searching for the gunman. So they were taking him to trial and circumstantial. They didn't want to you know let him go and ahead and free flee the country or something like that. But they continued to search for the gunman until jury went out for deliberations and they found the gunman when that was happening. So when it looked as if Fred would walk free, detectives were alerted to a new suspect named David Harden,
00:41:23
bclawson
from Kentucky, a small time thug who had bragged about murdering a Northern businessman. So Hardin was arrested and during his police interview, he learned that he had received a minute nude fraction of the $22,000 paid out to all these people involved in the murder. shop So now he's going to be pissed off.
00:41:43
bclawson
So here's another person that... Telling you Fred is bad at business. He's very bad. Both the murder business and the cosmetics business. All of the above. All of the above. So basically I want to boil this down that what has happened here is that a trial for Fred, a circumstantial evidence only trial, was stopped by the state in the middle of jury deliberations. Just charges were dropped.
00:42:12
bclawson
because they want to be able to incorporate all this new information about the trigger man, and so forth. So you can do that. Yes, you can do that. I've never heard of that. Well, if they find him innocent, which they thought that they were, then it's going to be double jeopardy. And even if they find him. And then he can't be tried again. So in order to interrupt that possibility,
00:42:40
bclawson
and knock it off the table, they, and I'm just trying to get an understanding of this, so they canceled the trial. Well, they didn't withdraw the trial, they went they dropped the charges. They withdrew their charges. And then, so you can do that, you can withdraw the charges and that doesn't count as double jeopardy. Oh no, you have to be found innocent by a jury for the double jeopardy. Okay, I didn't know that that was, I thought just if you went to trial, even if there was like a mistrial or there was whatever. oh No, only when a jury finds you guilty of these charges. And that's why so many multiple charges are levied against killers, such as but murder one, murder two, manslaughter, if if they are found. Well, I knew the whole double jeopardy. we but but yeah I don't want to get too far off track. But yeah but this doesn't happen as much as what normally happens but when these things get
00:43:38
bclawson
stopped in the middle of jury deliberations, the jury goes out, the accused loses his or her nerve and asks for a deal. So that happens. yeah So they plead guilty, but they want to a lesser charge rather than have the jury come back with, oh if it looks, you know, the state will make a deal like that if it looks like the case could go either way.
00:44:04
bclawson
And, uh, but now they know that they had a circumstantial case that now has got primo evidence. They, they stopped the trial or they dropped the charges. So this killer, this, uh, hardened guy, um, he's from Kentucky. He was very pissed off for being financially duped. And so hardened decided to bring down all all of those involved in the murder plot by revealing everything he knew about the crime.
00:44:34
bclawson
So he will put the prosecution and pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, a charge prompting a new trial for Fred Milo. So the the shooter is going to plead guilty to aggravated murder and the same charge is going to be brought to he's going to drag Fred Milo. And then the the shooter is going to come in and testify and and and spill everything. During the new trial in August, 1982,
00:45:02
bclawson
Harden reported that he was approached by a petty crook named John Harris. Please don't write all these names down, you'll just run out of paper. Who offered him $600 to murder Dean Milo and offer he accept it. Harris has allegedly been hired by Harry Knott.
00:45:23
bclawson
god so I'm telling you, you could put all these people in a yearbook. and it This really is a Coen brothers movie it waiting to happen. I'm going to get Ethan on the phone. Hardin testified that on August 11th, 1980, he and Harris called Dean from a bowling alley and confirmed he was home before setting out to his house. When they got to the house, Hardin rang the doorbell rousing Dean from his bed and to the window where he called out to ask, who is it?
00:45:54
bclawson
probably because he was in there with his pornography, with the tissue paper filled with, you know what? Oh, so I was wrong about the setup. Probably. So anyway, hard and claim to have a telegram for him. Now we know why there was a blank telegram. I have a telegram for you, sir. I'm with Western Union, or as they say in ah Saturday Night Live, Candy Graham.
00:46:21
bclawson
But it was so, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Hardin, you know, hollered up to the window, I have a telegram for you, which prompted Dean to answer the door. He was probably thinking, oh my God, something's happening to my family in Florida. That's what I would think. When he did come to the door, Hardin pushed him down and aimed his gun at him. The weapon had a crude silencer attached to it, comprised of a lead pipe stuffed with cotton.
00:46:51
bclawson
which was only good enough for the first shot. That's only good. I don't know enough about guns. Well, maybe I had to get all the way to this part in the story. yeah You did all the research. yeah but I'm coming in cold listeners. Yeah. I mean, you know, I had to really dig for the research because I had to go to court records about the trial because this just came out. Yeah.
00:47:18
bclawson
So anyway, Harden then resorted to using a nearby cushion to reduce the sound of the second fatal shot. So this explains everything. It was, it was, uh, Milo's porn stash. He probably was aroused by pornography by all accounts. He was also, you know, a woman chaser. So he was probably just a bisexual or who knows. Yeah. But the pillow over his face had to do with the silencer. Only being effective for the first shot. Right. Now now we know that the first shot was to the head and his mouth was agape and in goes the cotton. And um the blank telegram was because it was a ruse to arouse him in my pond to rouse him from there.
00:48:11
bclawson
from his bedroom. Well, and then that's, I guess that would also explain why it's a shot to the head and a shot to the neck. Because when you put the pillow on, you know, it's roughly going to go in this area. Yeah. You know, so i just ended up going in the neck. Right. So Hardin's testimony changed the course of Fred Milo's life. Fred was found guilty in the sentence to life in prison. He would die during his incarceration.
00:48:39
bclawson
some 20 years later from a heart attack. You know, I want to point out that Milo was only 41 when he was murdered. Wow. And the brother was 52 when he croaked. So this was a much younger, this was a younger brother. Killed his little brother. He killed his older brother. Or no. So I thought he said Milo was 40. I probably did. Oh, I can't buy these names,
Motivations and Cultural Reflections
00:49:04
bclawson
Andy. I know. I'm sorry.
00:49:06
bclawson
Uh, you're doing what Caroline always at least once an episode, i'm but anyway, yeah, these were young man, but he died at a 52 of a heart attack in all 11, 11 conspirators were found guilty and sentenced to prison. 11 of them. The number of convictions related to the crime marked a record for bath township police department. And at the end of the town's biggest murder investigation in murder.
00:49:36
bclawson
So our sources today for this murder include the book, Please Don't Kill Me, the true story of the Milo murder. And Dominic Dunn, one of my favorite guys who's passed away now, he used to do power, privilege and justice on the TV. And he did best death of a beauty king. And I remember watching that episode years ago and, uh,
00:50:03
bclawson
you know, started digging around because I knew it was a brother. And there was another guy named Dean, pardon me, Dan Moldea, who wrote The Hunting of Cane, A True Story of Money, Green and Fetracyde, which I have not read. But I know there's been a lot about this, ah especially in Ohio, a lot of ah lot of news articles and so forth. But what do we think happened here, Andy?
00:50:32
bclawson
Well, I, I think that there's, it's this sort of cultural anomaly. ah Like there's within America, in, you know, late 70s, early 80s, there's this cultural bubble that that Milo popped and got on the outside of. And he's like, Wait a minute, the way they do it here in America, is I don't care if you're my brother or my sister or my mother. What I care about is money. And I know how to make a lot more of it. All I gotta to do is get rid of these people, cut out this portion of this community we have and bring in this portion of this community we have. And that's that. Now, I don't know if something was going on with the whole, um ah you know, around his sexuality and all that stuff, because in my mind,
00:51:32
bclawson
the way I was raised, that's almost like a non-starter. Like that doesn't really, who cares? You know, that doesn't make a difference, except for earlier on when the underwear was on backwards, which still baffles me. Well, Milo was in a hurry to get down before the war. Yeah, and I guess, yeah.
00:51:56
bclawson
yeah Yeah, that's right. Yeah, he had his pants off. he was like Oh crap, I gotta to go down here and take this telegram. That's why the tissue tissue up there with sperm. It no longer baffles me. Yeah, no, the the tissue made sense and the porn the porn made sense and the all that stuff and even the fact that it was gay porn. um All of that really probably did not come into the trial.
00:52:18
bclawson
I doubt i love it. chi yeah It's more interesting for the people in that community because they're going to have a community-based, a culture-based bias ah for or against that. And then there's the community at large, the American community, the business community, the all the communities that we're familiar with. They're going to have their own opinion of that. But it's you know it's hard it seems hard for Americans, by and large,
00:52:48
bclawson
to wade through that and to understand that, no, this is just our own cultural biases and opinions. What really happened here is Fred um leading the charge from this family against Milo simply because he went against the family. you know It's like a Godfather thing, you know like you would against the family ah he went against the family. family's pattern. ah Yeah.
00:53:18
bclawson
their business philosophy. And I think you're right on the money money when you say that in some cultures, and with these parents, it was probably shameful to let people go.
00:53:41
bclawson
and the shame of letting your brother and sister and the husband of the sister go, that is blood. That is, I'm gonna kill you. Absolutely. And it didn't even matter that, because it because it was a cultural thing, I suspect, and not a financial thing, because when he cut them loose, it's just like you said earlier,
00:54:11
bclawson
They were set up for life. They still had an equal share in the profits of the company. And the profits were higher than they ever would have been. Yeah. Working out of somebody's base. That tells me this has nothing to do with money. Right. This has everything to do with shame and community. Well, before we say goodbye to our listeners, I just want to mention that i did sometimes when I'm trying to figure out what's going on, I See if I can find the obituaries of people and I see if I can find the the the write-up about how wonderful they were when they died and that kind of thing and ah When I did that on this case, I found that um The person who took over the family business at that point was Sophie Now which one is Sophie? She's the daughter of the original makers of this business the Milo family. She's the one I
00:55:04
bclawson
The sister of Milo. Milo's sister, yeah. Okay. And she... Because she conspired, she didn't conspire in the murder. No, she didn't have anything to do with it. But she did conspire with Fred in siphoning the money. Because it was, wasn't it her and her husband Lonnie? Yeah, they wrote checks on an account they weren't supposed to write checks on to get money. But I don't think that was for money. I think that was in order to to rip the hold out of Milo's hands. Well, ah yes, I think it was ah it was a bold statement of whose side they were on. yeah They were on their mother's side. yeah The mother wanted to keep things the way that it was. Milo, you can read you can she forgot to say, went Milo, I'm giving you this business to run. Run it my way. She didn't say, it yeah meaning the business as it is right now, do not make a single change.
00:56:02
bclawson
Do you think it's probably because she assumed that that's what he would do? I don't think she had it in her brain that there was any other way that to honor your employees, honor your family, honor your neighbors, honor your community. yeah Absolutely. So, um, so that's the end of our episode today, Andy. Thank you so much for taking over for Caroline. It was a lot of fun. I'm no Caroline, but you know,
00:56:31
bclawson
And she's no Andy. Take that, Caroline.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:56:36
bclawson
Now I've got two victims. I mean, excuse me, co-readers, co-narrators. Today's episode was researched, written, and narrated by Bridget, Caroline, and Andy. We still worked as a team on this. Caroline was here in spirit. and she's We ripped her spirit from her vacation home. I doubt it. And it here.
00:57:01
bclawson
Oh my God, produce nor Andy produces it. So he's the one who decided that we were going to share a microphone rather than be in one. Did you know that when you're recording in different rooms of the house, it messes up your recording? I just i wonder how many of you listeners care. Yeah. Okay. I'll speak faster. Our research is solely based on public domain documents.
00:57:27
bclawson
Including legal documents, articles, and books about our subject. Episodes are aired every other week. In case you just tuned in and this is your first recording, we do, we do. I'm not normally here.
00:57:40
bclawson
but
00:57:42
bclawson
If you like us, please subscribe and give us a five-star review. Tell your friends about us in person and with social media. All of these actions help new listeners find us. Especially, apparently, I found out recently that giving five stars on Apple and a review that's really great. um They are they they put you top closer to the top of the list. So please do that. All these actions help us find new listeners. Thank you. We appreciate you. And I want to say one more thing. Don't forget to live and let live. And now I'm going to say goodbye to Andy.
00:58:25
bclawson
Bye, Mom.