Number 7 Charly Lewis
On June the 7th of 2020, 32-year-old Charly Lewis was found dead in an alley, in Denver,
Colorado.
She had been shot to death, and her body was discovered at 5 am, by a cyclist.
Days earlier, on June the 1st, a homicide had taken place in nearby Aurora.
On that day, at around 12 pm, a gunshot was reported, and a 41-year-old man was found
in serious condition.
His name was John Cyprian, and he later succumbed to his gunshot wound in the hospital.
A man named Steven Young was a suspect in the homicide case.
According to an Aurora detective, at one point during the night of the homicide, Charly had
been in a car with Steven, as they were reportedly dating at the time.
She had been the sole witness to the homicide.
Aurora police put out a call for Charly, believing her life to be in danger.
Unfortunately, investigators suspect that Steven got to her first.
CCTV footage from June the 7th showed him and Charly walking together, shortly before
the gunshot was reported.
Steven was then seen leaving the alley, without Charly.
He was sentenced to life in prison, having been found guilty of John Cyprian’s murder,
as well as the murder of Charly Lewis.
Number 6 Patrick Frazee
Patrick Frazee, a former investment banker, was accused of killing his fiancée, Kelsey
Berreth, in 2018.
Kelsey had last been seen shopping with their daughter in a Safeway store.
Patrick reportedly killed Kelsey with a baseball bat, whilst their infant daughter played in
another room.
After the killing, Patrick recruited the help of his then-girlfriend, Krystal Lee, to clean
up the scene.
Krystal had been called multiple times by Patrick, as he previously wanted her to take
part in the killing itself.
Patrick then allegedly burned Kelsey’s body on his property.
Krystal’s involvement made her a key witness in the case.
Patrick was arrested on suspicion of the murder and taken to county jail.
Whilst awaiting trial, he met another inmate housed nearby.
The inmate had tattoos affiliated with a prison gang, and Patrick showed great interest in
them.
Patrick eventually asked the inmate if he could use his connections to eliminate witnesses
in his case.
In exchange, Patrick said he would financially look after the inmate after his release.
On paper napkins, which he passed to the inmate, Patrick wrote the names of the witnesses in
the case, and where they could be found.
He asked that Krystal, her ex-husband and her parents be made to disappear.
Patrick then asked the inmate that he flush the napkins down the toilet, after the information
had been passed on.
The would-be conspirator, however, was not willing to get involved.
Instead of fulfilling Patrick’s requests, he kept the notes and presented them to investigators.
The inmate was questioned in court on why he’d come forward with evidence against
Patrick.
He replied that he felt it was the right thing to do, and that he was hoping to have his
sentence lightened.
Krystal Lee, amongst the others on Patrick’s hit list, had narrowly avoided a grisly death.
She was, nevertheless, sentenced to 3 years in prison for helping Patrick, and tampering
with evidence at the scene.
Patrick was eventually convicted for murder, solicitation to commit murder, and tampering
with a deceased human body.
He was sentenced to life in prison, plus an additional 156 years.
Number 5 Joshua Brown
Joshua Brown was a witness who had testified against Amber Guyger, a female Dallas police
officer accused of the murder of Botham Jean, in 2018.
Just 2 days after Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder, Brown was
found dead, only a few miles from where Jean had been killed.
Brown, Jean and Guyger all shared an apartment complex.
According to Guyger, she mistakenly accessed what she’d thought to be her apartment.
Inside, she found Jean sitting in a darkened room eating ice cream, unarmed.
Guyger testified that she believed Jean had broken into her apartment, and she was afraid
for her life when she drew her gun and fatally shot him.
The apartment Guyger had entered was, in fact, Jean’s apartment, one floor below Guyger’s
own.
Immediately after the shooting, and presumably after realizing her alleged mistake, Guyger
called 911.
During Guyger’s trial, Joshua Brown provided crucial evidence in the case.
He stated that he’d heard what sounded like surprise between Guyger and Jean, prior to
hearing the gunshots.
According to Brown, no police commands had been uttered, such as “put your hands up”.
After the shooting, Brown fled from the apartment complex.
He later returned to find Guyger pacing the hallway, crying on the phone that she’d
made a mistake.
Brown also testified that, previously, he’d accessed the wrong floor of the complex himself,
by mistake, believing it to be his own.
This became part of Guyger’s defense.
Brown was able to massively aid the investigation through his eyewitness account.
So, when he was found dead, shot in a parking lot two days after Guyger’s conviction,
suspicions arose in the community.
To date, however, there’s no evidence that Brown’s murder and Guyger’s conviction
are connected.
Prior to the events, Brown had been caught up in a shooting at a club, where he was shot
in the foot and his friend had died.
Brown reportedly knew the person who had shot him, and was worried they might come back
for him.
His family stated that, during the trial, he was afraid of the publicity that it generated
and that his cooperation with law enforcement might paint him as an informant and make him
a target.
An investigation revealed that, at the time of his death, Brown may have been involved
in a drug deal gone wrong.
3 men were later announced as suspects and indicted on capital murder charges.
Number 4 Mario Nero
In the early 1990s, Mario Nero was walking his dog in Foggia, Italy, when he witnessed
the aftermath of a murder.
He saw a man dropping a gun and fleeing from a dead body, which lay in a pool of blood.
The dead body was that of Giovanni Panunzio, a businessman who had refused to pay protection
money to the Italian Mafia.
Due to the fear of reprisals from the Mafia, many who witness their activity do not report
it to the authorities.
Mario returned home, and didn’t say anything for 3 days.
That was until Giovanni’s son made an appearance on television, pleading for witnesses to come
forward.
Mario felt compelled to act.
He went to the local police station, and described what he had seen.
He was able to identify the hitman through photographs provided to him by investigators.
The hitman was named as Donato Delli Carri.
Weeks later, police officers arrived at Mario’s door, to warn him and his family that they
needed to leave and enter witness protection.
They would be given a new house, a new identity and financial support, but they wouldn’t
be able to contact their relatives or friends.
Fearing for their lives, they agreed.
They were moved to Tuscany, where they were housed in an apartment with no documents or
identity.
Being new to the local community and not having any identification documents caused great
suspicion.
Mario and his family were chastised.
He was believed to be a pentito, which is the name given to former mafia gangsters who
are placed into protection after cooperation with law enforcement.
On one occasion, when his daughter was ill, Mario was stopped from entering the local
hospital because of this rumor.
Doctors would also not come to his house.
After over a year, Mario and his family were finally provided a false name, and given documents.
They moved cities three times, but the pentito rumor followed them.
By 1997, the evidence provided by Mario had helped convict 46 mafia criminals.
He was no longer deemed useful, so the government cut off his stipend and evicted him and his
family.
Mario enlisted the help of a magistrate, and was eventually readmitted into the protection
program with a doubled stipend.
However, he remained angry at the government for uprooting his family’s life, and causing
them years of difficulty and worry.
Number 3 Maldonando Rodriguez
Maldonando Rodriguez was attacked, in October of 2018, by nine members of the MS-13 gang
in Long Island, New York.
He had intervened as the gang was threatening two teenagers.
During the attack he suffered multiple stab wounds, and was hit in the head with a bat,
but he survived.
Because of his intervention, the gang members were arrested.
Rodriguez was set to testify against them, but was brutally murdered before the trial.
It was reported that the gang members in jail had ordered the killing which was carried
out by fellow MS-13 members who weren’t incarcerated.
The prosecution had allegedly obtained a protective order for Rodriguez’s identity, in December
of 2018.
But one year later, in December 2019, a judge's order had disclosed his identity leaving him
vulnerable.
Number 2 Guy Coffey
Guy Coffey had been working as a police informant, tipping investigators off to crimes committed
by a Baltimore street gang known as Trained To Go.
The gang was dangerous, mostly made up of drug dealers and guns-for-hire.
At least 10 members of the gang were already in jail, awaiting trial.
Guy Coffey’s testimony was to be invaluable in putting them away.
One of the gang members in jail was Taurus Tillman, also known as Tash.
In a letter written to him by his defense attorney, Coffey’s name was mentioned.
This was because Coffey had directly named Tillman as having been responsible for a murder
committed years earlier.
With the gang aware of Coffey’s identity, a $20,000 bounty was placed on his head.
Tragically, he was hunted down within months, and shot dead.
Richard Bardos, Tillman’s defense attorney, refused to comment on the letter mentioning
Coffey’s name.
Number 1 Whitey Bulger
One of the most infamous gangsters in United States history, Whitey Bulger, was the leader
of Boston’s feared Winter Hill Gang.
Responsible for nearly 20 killings, between 1973 and 1985, he was finally brought to justice
in 2013.
In October of 2018, however, Bulger once again made the headlines after it emerged that he’d
been killed inside of prison by fellow inmates.
Bulger had just been transferred from a federal prison in Florida to the high-security US
Penitentiary Hazelton.
Within hours, he was reported dead, after he’d been severely beaten by more than one
inmate.
Witnesses close to the case say he was made unrecognizable.
Over the years, Bulger had worked as an FBI informant, which may have led to him becoming
a target.
A mafia hitman, Fotios “Freddy” Geas, was a prime suspect in Bulger’s killing.
At the time of Bulger’s death, Freddy was also incarcerated inside of USP Hazelton,
and reportedly hated informers, as well as men who abused women.
Whitey had done both.
According to sources, Freddy has not disputed his involvement in the killing.
Thanks for watching!
Would you testify against someone you knew killed your friend, if it meant you may be
endangered?
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