Police Identify Body Found In A Barrel In Lake Mead, 40 Years After Murder

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, October 16th, and a mystery has been solved. The mystery of the body found in a barrel. Four years ago, it was found. Part of the mystery, only part, I should say, has been solved now. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, a story that you know I am so intrigued by because... It's connected to mafia lore in some way. We should argue here, Robes, but this was a fascinating story of a body found four years ago in a barrel, but it had been there decades.

00:00:36
Speaker 2: 40 years. Damn. That's wild. Yes, so here's what we know. We know who was in the barrel. We know how he died, but we don't know who killed him and why. So we got half the mystery solved.

00:00:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we also don't know why my fellow Arkansan was out there in this area in the first place. This story was a complete mystery, Robes, before we got answers yesterday, and now it just adds to the mystery, kind of, doesn't it?

00:01:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have more questions now. So here's what we found out finally. Yes, police were able, and it's pretty fascinating. We'll go through how they figured out. It took them four years to figure out whose body was inside a barrel that was found, yes, In 2022 in Lake Mead, we know his name now, Edward Buddy Jackson. So he went by Buddy. And they believe he was in his mid to late 50s at the time of his death. His manner of death, a bullet to the head.

00:01:37
Speaker 1: Who killed this guy? A bullet to the head. Y'all want to tell me that's not mob related? Forgive me. I'm sorry. I am so fascinated by mob history in this country. And this is one of those stories, Robes. What was this man doing out there? that someone put enough effort into putting his body in a barrel and making sure they put it in a lake where it wouldn't or was not supposed to be found. And it was only found, Rose, because of pretty much some historic weather conditions.

00:02:03
Speaker 2: I was going to say global warming. Who would have thought? And yes, if the lake hadn't receded, that body would probably still be in that barrel for another 40 years, at least.

00:02:15
Speaker 1: The mobs know how to get rid of a body. Robes. 40 years. I'm putting it on the mob. Why am I apologizing to the mob right now? I'm sorry guys for putting it on you. No, I just, we'll get into some of this and why this many people, not just me, think there's a connection. Yes. Okay.

00:02:29
Speaker 2: So here's what we know about Buddy Jackson. He was last seen visiting his family in Arkansas in the early 1980s. They know that at one point he lived in California in the LA area with a wife, That was in the early 70s. He doesn't have any known children, but you'll appreciate this. And I've been wanting to go here, but his last known residence before he moved to California was in Hot Springs, Arkansas. You know, I've been dying to go there.

00:03:01
Speaker 1: It is a lovely town. They do have natural hot. springs there and people get, it's just one of those charming little towns. Robes, you would absolutely love it.

00:03:10
Speaker 2: Can we please go next time? Now we've got like a, like maybe even a news peg to go kind of visit the town.

00:03:16
Speaker 1: This is what you want to do. Yeah.

00:03:17
Speaker 2: You're into this story. So let's go retrace his steps and we'll get to hot springs finally. Um, but they also know that there's no known, as you pointed out, no known connection to the Las Vegas area. The closest they can put him to Las Vegas is Salt Lake City. He lived there briefly, Salt Lake City, Utah. He had a brief criminal history in the early 80s as well. You know, that's part of the thing. He was known for, his family said he traveled widely, I guess is the way they put it. And they say he would just frequently travel everywhere. far distances, not tell his family, and so he did it so often, and he'd been doing it for so long. Again, he was in his late 50s, they believe, when he passed. No one even reported him missing. That's kind of the saddest thing of it all.

00:04:01
Speaker 1: Well, we do see, and correct me if I'm not hearing this right, but we do see a lot of stories where people are missing, and often they're missing for a while because nobody loves them or is looking for them. It sounds like his case is This is just what he does. There was no reason to be alarmed because we hadn't heard from Buddy in a while. Is that?

00:04:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I guess he probably, I guess he didn't have a close connection with anybody. If he and his wife were divorced, if he didn't have kids, if his parents had passed, I don't know if he has siblings. There just might not be that direct human connection who would say, wait, where is Buddy? Haven't heard from him in a while.

00:04:34
Speaker 1: And he's moving around. He doesn't have a good enough friend group established in one place. Kind of a, wow, this is.

00:04:38
Speaker 2: Sounds like a little bit of a drifter, but his brief criminal history. Don't know if this sheds any light into what ultimately led to his demise. But in the early 80s, he had one charge of aggravated arson and a conspiracy of fraud case against him in the 80s. And that's what we know right now about Buddy Jackson.

00:05:01
Speaker 1: Other than he was in a barrel.

00:05:03
Speaker 2: Roams in.

00:05:10
Speaker 1: A barrel. the effort that it takes to get rid of a body that hasn't been found? It was in there how long?

00:05:21
Speaker 2: Forty years. They believe his death. Now that they have his body and they know that he was last seen visiting his family in Arkansas in the early 1980s, so they believe this crime happened in the early 1980s. So, yeah, 40 years. That is incredible.

00:05:40
Speaker 1: I mean, is there any chance? Wait, when did he see his family last?

00:05:43
Speaker 2: They said early 80s. That's it. It was very vague. But think about how many people are probably even still around at this point. If he was in his late 50s and the early 80s, anyone who was his age would be in their... what 90s now so yeah there probably aren't a lot of people around who can help fill in the gaps of his story because it's taken so long for them to find the body they weren't even looking for it obviously and then to identify him so anyone who would really know him well probably has already passed.

00:06:16
Speaker 1: Robes so now what do they do What is the next step? Are you still trying to trace and put this together?

00:06:23
Speaker 2: They have a tip line.

00:06:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, really, somebody might remember the guy or see me might recognize it. Is there a kid running around out there? Who knows? But Rose, no matter what and what he was involved in, you hate for a life to end like this. Yes, violently, but then after the fact, not that just be a mystery. Like, who was he? Who cared about him? Who did he love? Who did this to him? What did he do to offend someone so much? Like, all that stuff is just.

00:06:50
Speaker 2: And to your point, to take that much care to hide the body speaks volumes. Because if he was this drifter who nobody even reported missing, what would have been the harm if his body just showed up in the desert sometime somewhere? But instead, this barrel washes ashore. Bound by boaters. Can you imagine? And they say, initially, the only thing they had to go on was like his clothing, right? They said it was fashionable in the late 70s and 80s. I think they even traced it back to a Kmart that they believe it was purchased from in the late 70s. They put pictures out of his shoes and all that stuff. Because they were trying to figure out. And just, it's remarkable. I'm impressed. Yes, it took four years, but I'm impressed that a barrel that washed up from 40 years ago, they finally at least solved part of this mystery. But they had to go through genealogy sites. They had to go through, they found known relatives in Arkansas. I mean, it was remarkable what they had to do. They had a whole university working on this. And it just took that long to piece it all together.

00:07:56
Speaker 1: I appreciate hearing that. Like there was a whole community trying to, I don't know, in some way, maybe even bring justice, maybe closure to a family. Maybe none of that stuff will happen. But just to think that People that didn't know this guy, he's being cared for in his death in a way that didn't sound like a lot of people gave a shit in his life.

00:08:13
Speaker 2: That's a good way to put it. I hadn't thought about it like that. But yes, people have taken a lot of time, a lot of care. and spent a lot of hours trying to piece this together. And look, I would hope that it just was so much time having passed. It would be so hard to actually figure out who did the killing, who was responsible, but you're still going with the mob. And the mob history in this area is, it runs deep. You've been watching documentaries all morning long just to refresh your, or I guess maybe to just reignite your curiosity.

00:08:43
Speaker 1: I was trying to get you on board. I was trying to get you excited. Bro, this is fascinating stuff. vegas if people don't realize was built founded by monsters by the mafia out in the middle of the desert in particular bugsy siegel everybody knows that name but he was the guy started the flamingo right he determined or decided that the mob is going to just make money out here by building this place americans love to gamble it's just going to be what it became that was the idea But Robes, in all of that mafia coming up and all that mafia battle, all that mafia trying to fight for space in Vegas, a lot of people got killed. Robes, just famously, the desert has countless holes dug in it. They say this. It's just a part of it. So to hear that a body is found in the desert or a body is found in Lake Mead, and this ain't the only one, is not a surprise to people. And so when you add, Robe, this is not just, it's a little, it's commonplace for the mob, but not necessarily for a run-of-the-mill murder, right? Bullet to the head, that's an execution. Body in a barrel, that is planning an effort. Putting it in Lake Mead, gonna get away with this, and this is done. Robes, it has all the markings of. And for folks like me, who are mafia historians and love this mafia lore, I am so fascinated about what happened to this man and his possible connection to whatever was going on in it.

00:10:19
Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow, it is fascinating. And when we come back, yes, as you alluded to, Buddy is not the only body that has been found in this area. We'll talk about some of the other skeletal remains that have been found in recent years. Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ. Part of a 40 plus year mystery has been solved. There's still some more to uncover, but we now know a big press conference yesterday out of Vegas that Edward Buddy Jackson was the man that was found in a barrel that washed ashore from Lake Mead in 2022. They believe his body had been in that barrel since the early 80s and they're still trying to figure out we know that he died from a bullet to the back of the head but we don't know anything else about why he was in vegas who might have wanted him dead and certainly who was responsible this dude was executed he was executed he was executed and he's not alone uh in may of 2022 so 2022 was a big year for finding bodies in the outskirts of Vegas.

00:11:35
Speaker 1: Is that still, was this one, no, this is all around Lake Mead, right? Yes. But this is water level, right?

00:11:39
Speaker 2: Yes, May 7th. Yes, that's what it was. Yes, and did we even fully explain that there was a record low water levels? There was a big, big drought in the area, and that's why... authorities started just finding skeletal remains because yes, they were exposed because the water receded. And so in May of 2022, they found skeletal remains of, and they were able to figure out who these people are. Thomas Ernt, 42 years old. And this was from 20 years ago, they believe. And they say he drowned.

00:12:11
Speaker 1: They believe. Some of these are kind of undetermined.

00:12:13
Speaker 2: Right.

00:12:13
Speaker 1: I mean, look, drowned. I mean, okay.

00:12:15
Speaker 2: So there wasn't a bullet hole. There wasn't, I mean, can they tell 20 years later? That the manner of death is drowning?

00:12:22
Speaker 1: Maybe they do it by process of elimination.

00:12:24
Speaker 2: So there was no outward signs of trauma. And so they figured, okay, well, I mean, they could have been poisoned. They could have been strangled. They could have been a lot of things if you're a skeletal remains.

00:12:34
Speaker 1: Mob's not big into poisoning though.

00:12:38
Speaker 2: What do they do? You think they just like put his head in the water and just drowned him or weighed him down and drowned him?

00:12:44
Speaker 1: There's been that. But usually the mob isn't, they don't, They're not dumping you where they kill you, right? There's effort to drive someone out to a wooded area, to a desert, to the lake, and whatever else. And again, we have no idea. The rest of these, nobody's making a connection to the mob. But it is bizarre. The bodies start showing up when the lake goes down.

00:13:06
Speaker 2: Yeah. And it's an area where, yes, it's highly suspicious that that was basically, for a lack of a better term, wasn't it considered the mob's dumping ground, so to speak?

00:13:17
Speaker 1: Like the Hudson.

00:13:19
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:13:20
Speaker 1: I'm kidding. That's just a part of Mafia lore as well.

00:13:22
Speaker 2: Of course it is. People always talk about the Meadowlands. That's like, you know, they just, there's a lot of, there's a lot of water, a lot of marshy water where bodies could stay hidden for quite some time in the New York, New Jersey area. Oh, that is filled with Mafia lore as well. Then they found, so also they found remains that belonged to the same person. So they were in different. Oh, yeah. pieces like really drowning and your body's in different areas. I don't know how it works, but, uh, then they had, they found Claude Russell Pessinger. He disappeared in 1998. They don't know how he died, but they found his remains as well. And then they found skeletal remains of a 39 year old Donald Smith who disappeared in 1974. So that's wild. That's 50 years ago. Um, not sure. Skeletal remains found. Donald Smith, 39 years old, disappeared in 1974. They don't know how he died either. So, I mean, look, that's just in one year with some water receding. How many bodies is that? One, two, three, and then four at least? That's wild.

00:14:27
Speaker 1: All in the same year, right? Yes.

00:14:29
Speaker 2: All in the same short period of time where the water, yes, receded a bit.

00:14:33
Speaker 1: Wonder what else is in Lake Mead.

00:14:35
Speaker 2: Should they do, like, sonars? They shouldn't. No?

00:14:37
Speaker 1: Some things should remain hidden. I don't know what you're going to find down there. I don't know what you're going to find. But this is, look, give them credit. I applaud the police department out there and authorities for making sure they got some answers to this, Robes. And what they do next, it's going to fall into a cold case somewhere. We'll see this on a true crime documentary in a few years that they piece this together. And who wanted Buddy dead? Yes.

00:15:02
Speaker 2: And I wonder, I mean, I guess all of these other bodies weren't necessarily, they were found at the same time, but they weren't necessarily put into Lake Mead at the same time because their dates of disappearance are actually very different. 1998, 1974, 2002. And then we think this guy, our buddy, was in the 1980s. So it's just a mystery. I kind of want them to drain the damn lake to see what's in there.

00:15:31
Speaker 1: They wouldn't have anything else to do probably for the next several years but figure out who all these bodies were.

00:15:37
Speaker 2: All right. So if anyone has information about Buddy Jackson, you are asked to contact the Las Vegas Police Department. They would like to hear from you. And they say that this is not a cold case now. It's an open, active investigation. Now that they know who this man is, they are going to be pursuing any sort of leads that could lead to closing this case once and for all.

00:16:00
Speaker 1: Looking forward to that update.

00:16:01
Speaker 2: We can only hope. All right. And with that, everyone, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside DJ Holmes.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: We'll talk soon.