St. Patricks Day 1985, 5 teenage boys were exploring the woods around historic Stoney Point Battlefield. They spotted what looked like a man made cave, and turned out to be a 18th-century smoke house. Standing outside of it, it was dark, and so the younger boys dared one of the older ones to go check it out and see what was inside.
But just ask quickly as he went in, the boy ran you yelling he had just seen a human skeleton. Authorities were called and when they responded they saw human remains, which appeared to have been in a fire. As they cleared away the debris and processed the scene, the then noticed that the victim had on a black mask...the kind that is often used within BDSM.
If you don't want any spoilers stop here and go listen to the episode.
Eventually, the victim would be identified as 26-year old Norwegian born Eigil Dag Vesti.
Eigil had set his sites on working in the fashion industry and left home to pursue his dream of attending
New York's Fashion Institute of Technology. As an openly gay man, he entered the underground world of consensual BDSM, a bit more Taboo back in the 1980's. And there he would cross paths with Andrew Crispo, a famous and successful art dealer and gallery owner, and his henchman Bernard LeGeros.
Bernard LeGeros
Andrew Crispo
For more on this case, check out our most recent episode, available wherever you listen to podcasts.
Sources:
Murder Along the way: A Prosecutor's personal account of fighting violent crime in the Suburbs - D.A. Kenneth Gribetz and H. Paul Jeffers
Dissecting death - Dr. Frederick Zugibe
Bag of Toys - Book by David France
Cow Tunnels: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/cow-tunnels/
Episode Transcript
KatieHost00:00
It was St Patrick's Day in 1985, a group of young teenage boys living in Rockland County, just north of New York City, had set out seeking adventure in the nearby woods. Their sights set on the ruins of the historic Stony Point battlefield, where George Washington's Continental Army won the famous Revolutionary War Battle. The historical grounds had long since been cut and parceled into private properties and estates, but in certain places 18th century ruins were still standing that included an old man-made smokehouse built right into the side of a hill.
EmHost00:37
Now, the five boys likely didn't realize they were trespassing when they stumbled across the smokehouse, and their curiosity got the better of them as they dared one of the older boys to go take a peek inside. The smokehouse, which was really more like a cave, was dark. As the older boy crept inside, it took him a minute for his eyes to adjust when he realized he was looking down at the remains of a fire and among the debris he saw what looked to be a skeletal figure. Horrified, the boys ran to call the authorities.
KatieHost01:06
It wasn't long before every law enforcement agency in the area responded and the painstaking task of uncovering the bones began. First they took pictures of the smokehouse and the discovery as it was found. Then they started lifting the debris First a green screen door and then a tree trunk. Each step included a new round of photographs until everything was cleared. By this point there was no question they were looking at human remains. Forensic pathologist Dr Frederick Zuckaby was called to the scene. He noticed the skin in some areas had hardened and calcified a normal effect of fire on human flesh. Other parts had been gnawed on and stripped away by animals, although as he looked a bit closer Dr Zuckaby realized that something was odd. The areas that had been picked at by animals should have been clean and off-white in color, but as he looked closer he found they were all covered in black set.
EmHost02:05
And the oddities didn't end there, because where the face should have been was something else. It was a leather mask adorned with metal grommets and laces that, when cinched together, tightened the mask onto a face, further concealing the wearer's identity. There was a small slit in the nostril eye cutouts and a metal zipper that sealed the mouth shut. It was instantly clear to the investigators that they were looking at a bondage mask. This mask, however, sat slightly askew on the victim's face. It seemed to have worked its way upwards so that the lower portion of the mouth and jaw were exposed below the mask, revealing a jawbone and a set of perfect teeth a stark contrast against the black mask.
KatieHost02:48
This was no ordinary homicide. This would lead investigators through the labyrinth that was then the underground sex scene of New York City, a subculture of life in the 1980s Big Apple, rife with BDSM, heavy drug use and well-connected people. I'm Katie Kaplan, an investigative journalist.
EmHost03:08
And I'm M a former special agent and you're listening to Two Sleuths.
KatieHost03:49
NYC in the 1980s was quite different from the urban cosmopolitan playground as we see it today. Back in the early 80s, it was gritty, riddled with crime, and cocaine had busted into the drug scene. Labeled the rich man's drug, it was working its way off the streets and up the noses of those in high society and New York's elite. Beyond that liberation was the vibe Liberation from war, segregation and oppression and a lot of attention, especially in New York City, was being paid to activism surrounding gay rights. In fact, new York's mayor at the time, ed Koch, was rumored to be in the closet himself. One activist even tried to out him during his campaign, but Koch denied it his entire life. It wasn't until after he died in 2013 that the New York Times confirmed the rumor through interviews with close friends. Koch was at the helm of the city during the AIDS epidemic and he's been widely criticized among the community for his lack of support and resources provided during the height of the crisis.
EmHost04:53
Today's case takes place around Greenwich Village and specifically the meatpacking district located on the east side of Manhattan, and it's full of upscale restaurants and bars, as there's really very few neighborhoods left in Manhattan that gentrification just hasn't touched, and the meatpacking district is no exception. But, as its namesake suggests, the area has a bloody history. In the late 1800s, cattle were actually ferried into the district, where they would then enter into the many slaughterhouses that littered the neighborhood. It eventually became illegal to walk cattle down the Manhattan streets, and so underground tunnels were dug and rumored to still be in existence today. These tunnels have kind of created an urban legend around the city, and we'll link a really interesting article we found that shows blueprints as they attempt to prove that these tunnels really are still there.
KatieHost05:43
So, as the generations have passed by, the way business is done in the meatpacking district changed. Cattle went from being herded alive in masses to delivered frozen. Their carcasses would arrive by refrigerator truck. They'd be offloaded and packaged in the cuts of meat. By the time the 1980s rolled around, the district was full of industrial buildings, with the streets filled with trucks and employees coming and going all day long. But as nighttime fell and the working hours ended, those streets would empty and the industrial neighborhood would become dark and desolate, making it the perfect place for the sexually liberated city to create what some people at the time might have considered un-savory establishments.
EmHost06:25
Among these establishments were the Hellfire Club and the Mine Shaft. Now, the Hellfire Club was first opened up in 1978. Previously it had been named the Catacombs, and before that the Sewer, and, as these previous names suggest, the club was quite literally underground rare for a city built upon bedrock and as such, the club had a dirt floor, but to prevent patrons from standing around in the mud, they took to laying down cardboard boxes. Now the Hellfire Club was open to gay, transgendered and straight individuals who were looking to engage in a night of BDSM. They had a bar area and also infamous back rooms where anything went, and this is where the Hellfire Club patrons could engage in bondage, dominant submissive relationships, as well as sadomasochism. There are also rooms that had glory holes if its patrons were looking for anonymity. The dress code was mostly leather, but patrons were often fully naked.
KatieHost07:19
Now. The Mine Shaft was another one of the literal underground clubs that was widely popular and it's probably more well known today. However, this club didn't allow all sexual orientations inside, as it only catered to the gay community. The club was also equipped with back rooms, glory holes and at the bar sat a large tub of Crisco sold by the Fistful. The Mine Shaft was actually the backdrop for Al Pacino's movie Cruising, where he played an NYPD officer looking for a killer who was targeting gay men at nightclubs. When his character begins questioning his own sexuality and he becomes a killer himself.
EmHost07:56
As it became more well known, so did the people who popped by to check it out. Mick Jagger was notoriously turned away for not honoring the dress code which was posted by the door, freddie Mercury was seen wearing a Mine Shaft t-shirt in Queen's music video Don't Stop Me Now, and Madonna had just released her sex book which heavily featured BDSM scenes. And this skyrocketed attendance at clubs like these and began the subculture's path into more mainstream channels. Soon big-name celebrities could be seen among New York City's underground sex clubs, including the Hellfire Club, celebrities like Harrison Ford, sharon Stone, david Copperfield and Eve Plum, who played Jan on the Brady Bunch. The clubs remained opened and thriving until 1985 when the AIDS epidemic hit and the mineshaft was the first one of these clubs to be closed. But the Hellfire Club found loopholes to stay open. They closed the back rooms, but they still allowed sexual activity minus the actual intercourse, and they changed their name to the vault kind of a rebrand, and that stayed open until 2002.
KatieHost08:58
Let's keep in mind, bdsm today Isn't as taboo as it was back then, especially with 50 shades of gray hitting the scene and shows like how to build a sex room appearing on Netflix. But the cornerstone for any of these sexual relationships that fall under the BDSM umbrella is that they are consensual, specifically Sadomasochism, which is defined as someone who receives sexual gratification by inflicting pain on another. And, of course, there are Individuals who derive pleasure from engaging in sadomasochism where their partner is not a willing participant. And while most of the activity which occurred at the Hellfire Club and mineshaft were likely consensual, there are stories of how some encounters were not, and one of these individuals is at the center of today's case Andrew Crispo.
EmHost09:45
Andrew Crispo was born in Philadelphia in 1945, but by the age of three he was abandoned by his mother, leaving him to be raised in an orphanage. He knew he was gay from a young age, and he spent his early teen years on the streets of Philly. Eventually, he decided he wanted to find a job in the art world, and so he moved to New York City where he took random jobs in art galleries, trying to learn as he went. He ended up developing a keen eye for fine art pieces. In the late 1970s he crossed paths with the Baron onzeinrich von Tess and Borna Messa. He was the German heir to an industrial fortune and the world's leading fine art collector. Shirley, whomever was employed as his art dealer, was a very successful and wealthy man.
KatieHost10:29
Crispo was looking for a way to make a name for himself in the world, but it was a tough scene to break into without any formal education. Given his upbringing, crispo didn't have anyone around that was going to give him a leg up in the world. So when he met the Baron, he saw dollar signs and he began trying to sell expensive art pieces to the Baron's art dealer, franco Rapetti, hoping to earn that large commission. As the years passed by, crispo's path continued to cross with Franco and the Baron. But one particular encounter would change everything.
EmHost11:01
While Franco was the Baron's official art dealer, he was also very publicly having an affair with the Baron's fourth wife, denise. It was said that the Baron was aware and he allowed it because it saved him from yet another messy divorce. But then one night in 1978, denise said she was done with Franco and she flew to New York to escape him. Franco followed her and pleaded with her to change her mind, but she refused him, and then his body was found a few hours later. As it appeared, he had leapt from a window and landed on the street below.
KatieHost11:34
Police were called to the scene and they ruled it a likely suicide. However, there was not a note left behind which left a few lingering questions. The Baron was notified and he quickly boarded a plane to New York, but as soon as he arrived he learned that Crispo had already taken care of everything regarding the funeral home and had even footed the bill for a private jet that would return Franco's body to Italy.
EmHost11:58
That cost a pretty penny at $150,000 and Just like that, crispo was hired to take Franco's place as the Baron's exclusive art dealer and, quite literally overnight, 35 year old Crispo became not only a very wealthy man, but one of the most successful and well-known art dealers in New York City. He was, in turn, invited to many social events where he found himself rubbing shoulders with New York's elite. However, the rumors about Franco's death corresponding to Crispo's overnight success, circulated around New York's high society for years to come.
KatieHost12:34
Crispo opened an art gallery that bore his own name in the very prestigious location of Madison Avenue and 57th Street. Above the gallery he had an apartment, which is where he brought back many a young man for sexual rendezvous. And what's a New York socialite without a Southampton estate? Crispo bought his on the highly coveted gin lane where one of his neighbors was Gloria Vanderbilt. But just as quickly as he became successful, his financial situation started to take a nosedive. His spending was left unchecked and he began diving deeper into a cocaine addiction. By the early 80s he was working hard to evade the IRS by falsely reporting his income. By 1984, rumors were flying that the Baron had completely severed his ties with Crispo, claiming that he was owed millions by Crispo as he had not delivered several artworks he was paid for over the years, crispo had made some enemies, but not just among those in the art world and other powerful New Yorkers, but ones that emerged from his romantic entanglements.
EmHost13:37
And this is where Bernard Legueros enters the picture. Legueros was in his early 20s and he had been working in Crispo's gallery as a messenger in errand boy. But as Crispo got to know Bernard, he realized he had a penchant for violence in a fascination with death, and so Crispo promoted him and gave him the title of bodyguard and executioner. Bernard's role was to insulate him from those who were trying to extract revenge or cause harm to Crispo in his career.
KatieHost14:05
Bernard was the son of very prestigious parents. His father worked for the United Nations as the director of international development projects and his mother was a highly respected biophysicist at NYU. Now they both traveled out of the country frequently and young Bernard was set up with his own apartment in Manhattan. But in his early childhood disturbing signs started to emerge. He was fascinated with death and was often seen wearing military fatigues and carrying a rifle as he walked up and down the streets of his parents upstate home. And then he attempted to take his own life by jumping from the top of a building but was pulled down before he was able to jump. Shortly after that he took cyanide, but his life was saved as he was rushed to the hospital.
EmHost14:49
Bernard seemed to be seeking a father type figure and Crispo, recognizing this, stepped into that role. Besides a generous salary and supplying Bernard with more cocaine than anyone could need, crispo also extended him friendship and brought him in as a confidant Soon. Bernard was seen accompanying Crispo to the Hellfire Club, the mine shaft and the limelight, which was another widely popular bar back in the 1980s and it plays a role in this case. It was actually set in an old gothic style Episcopal church of the Holy Communion which had been abandoned back then, and so it was turned into a disco club which became quite a controversial move. The limelight was more mainstream than some of the others we've talked about, because it was more inclusive to everybody and it just had An undertone of BDSM. It was also an notorious spot to buy drugs.
KatieHost15:40
Bernard's sexuality was somewhat mysterious. He maintained that he was straight others have said otherwise and that he participated in some of the events that took place in the back rooms of these underground clubs. Either way, crispo's appetite for sadomasochistic encounters only seemed to grow. He began inviting men back to his gallery for more rough and tumble sex, using the promise of cocaine to get some less than willing participants to join him. Aside from men in the clubs, crispo had another unique way of getting men to meet him at his gallery.
EmHost16:13
Crispo had a telescope aimed at the street below his gallery and apartment and he would watch for attractive young men to walk by Spotting one. He would then call the payphone and watch them pick up. He'd go on to tell him about a hot party he was having in his apartment and promising them cocaine if they came up and joined. He also had the number of the payphones that set outside the Hellfire Club in mine shaft. Crispo began calling these men his victims. He would tell Bernard that he had a victim on their way over, and Bernard would then dress as a police officer and wait for them to arrive.
KatieHost16:47
Once they entered Crispo's apartment, they were greeted by Bernard, who was dressed in a police uniform. He would then slap handcuffs on them and start violently attacking them. He called them names and would use degrading slurs, and then Crispo would emerge bondage equipment in hand, and each of his victims would be tortured and raped. Bernard wasn't the only one present for these acts of violence either. He often brought along his high school friend, billy Myers, who would dress up in a nazi uniform.
EmHost17:15
For one such incident. The victim was 25 year old paul jeffreys. Paul had just left the nightclub when a nearby payphone started ringing. Paul picked it up and on the other line was Crispo asking him if he'd like to come over party do some coke. Paul accepted and he went up to Crispo's apartment. Once there it started off with the two just talking, doing a few lines of cocaine, but then Crispo asked paul if he'd ever seen a snuff film. Crispo went on to say that he wanted to film one, and he asked paul if he knew anybody who they could use as the victim. Paul laughed it off, saying sure he knew people he wouldn't mind seeing dead. But then Bernard burst into the room and he was dressed in a police uniform and had a gun that he was pointing at paul's head. He handcuffed paul and started beating him. Crispo then told paul that they promised him a victim and if they couldn't give him one they were going to kill him instead.
KatieHost18:13
Kenny Morales was also involved in this incident. He was someone that Crispo had found on the streets and had offered money and cocaine to to take part in beating Paul Jeffries. As things progressed in the apartment, crispo then allegedly sexually assaulted Paul, who told him that if he wanted to live, he needed to do one more thing. All three men took Paul into the bathroom and shoved his head in the toilet, where they then proceeded to pee on him while he sang Happy Birthday. After enduring six hours of physical and psychological abuse, paul was let go. He considered himself lucky that he escaped with his life, and he was afraid to come forward, because not only did Crispo threaten to kill him, but Crispo also had ties to the mafia and Crispo was connected In a roundabout way.
EmHost19:00
His attorney was the infamous Roy Cohen, who rose to fame during the Cold War for his prosecution during the famous Rosenberg trials. Roy then found his way onto the mafia payroll and Crispo had a portrait of Roy Cohen in his apartment. He showed this to Paul as just another way to threaten him. Paul was just one of the many stories that came forward in the years to come about what happened in Crispo's apartment, but Bernard was always present. Sometimes Billy was there and other times Crispo was known to pay other young men he found on the street, such as Kenny Morales. He paid them in cash or coke to help participate in holding a victim hostage while he enacted his non-consensual sadomasticistic rituals.
KatieHost19:43
Crispo was becoming insatiable and his talk of murder didn't die down either, which brings us to the events of February 22, 1985. Crispo, bernard and Billy were at the limelight doing line after line. When Crispo decided it was time to kill someone, the three discussed their target and settled on Freddie Rothbell, who was the limelight manager of the very VIP room they were sitting in. Freddie had apparently insulted one of their friends in the past and it was a grudge that Crispo felt obligated to uphold. So they discussed their plan to lure Freddie to a hot party that he just couldn't miss. But their actual plan was to drive him upstate to Bernard's family's house and shoot him in the head With the plan in place.
EmHost20:28
They set it in motion as they all began telling Freddie about this party that was happening and that he should come join them. Freddie declined, saying he couldn't leave work, but they continued persisting. Eventually, crispo told Bernard and Billy to just leave and that he would find a way to get Freddie to come with him. Their plan was to meet up at the Hellfire Club 45 minutes later. So when Bernard and Billy arrived at the Hellfire Club and didn't find Crispo anywhere, they decided to head to Crispo's apartment look for him there. When they walked in, they saw a young man sitting naked on Crispo's couch. But it wasn't Freddie. It was 26-year-old Egle Dag Vesti.
KatieHost21:07
Egle was born in Norway and spent his formative years in the outskirts of Oslo. He was in his early teens when he felt comfortable sharing that he was gay and his ambitions led to the world of fashion. He went on to take fashion courses in Denmark and Norway, but soon his sights were set on moving to New York City with dreams of attending New York's Fashion Institute of Technology. When he first applied, he was rejected because he failed a portion of the application that tested for understanding of the English language. His father, who was a fisherman, helped him get a job aboard a luxury Norwegian cruise line that catered to English-speaking passengers. After a summer abroad, he reapplied and was accepted. He then jetted off to live his dream in New York City as he started his first term in September of 1982.
EmHost21:57
When Egle arrived in New York City, he was instantly the talk of not only his school but the town. Not only was he an exotic foreigner, but to say he was strikingly handsome was an understatement. He was tall and broad, blonde hair, blue eyes and had perfect teeth. All of this made him physically stand out, but he was also very charmingly shy and known to be an absolute sweetheart. The effect he had on people never grew old. Any time he walked in a room, everyone would stop what they were doing and just stare at the unforgettably handsome Scandinavian who had just walked in.
KatieHost22:34
By February 1985, Egle was getting ready to graduate. He had started working on his resume, filling it with odd jobs like modeling and working for fashion designers. His visa was about to expire as his education was coming to an end and he was desperately trying to land a job that would extend his visa. But Eigil's parents wanted him to return to Norway. They were worried. They had started picking up on signs that perhaps he had started to fall in with the wrong crowd. But Egle did not want to leave. He had come to New York, a fashion hub, to pursue his dreams, which he felt were just within reach.
EmHost23:11
On the night of February 22nd, Eigil, his roommate Stephen and a friend named Dallas went out to dinner at Rick's Lounge around 8pm. Also in attendance was Mia Burton, Elizabeth Taylor's daughter, and a few other people. After dinner, maria invited Egil, stephen and Dallas back to her place for a night cab. After they said their goodbyes, Gigil and Dallas shared a cab ride. Dallas later recalled how Eigil wanted to keep the night going, and he tried to convince Dallas to join him, but Dallas was tired and he declined, and so he watched Eigil get out of the cab and enter his apartment and this was just shortly after midnight and then Dallas headed back to his own place.
KatieHost23:52
But the next day his roommates Stephen and Dallas both hadn't seen or heard from Eigil. As the day turned into night they became more concerned. Dallas contacted the NYPD and filed a missing persons report. He also had flyers made with a picture and description of Eigil with words across the top that said foul play suspected. It seemed like these flyers made their way onto every single phone poll and pay phone box in Manhattan. They left an impression and soon everyone was talking about the handsome man in the flyers around town.
EmHost24:26
It would be almost a month later, on St Patrick's Day, when those five boys, out seeking adventure, stumbled across the traumatizing scene in the smokehouse. Detective Sergeant William Franks ran lead on the investigation. After the startling discovery of the mostly skeletonized remains in the bondage mask, the body was transported to the morgue where Dr Frederick Zuckaby could begin the autopsy. He realized identification was going to be near impossible, especially given that DNA wasn't used as a way to ID people back then and obtaining fingerprints wasn't a possibility either, he said about removing the bondage mask and he wasn't prepared for what he found underneath. The mask had perfectly preserved the face underneath, which was a complete contrast to the state of the skeletonized remains.
KatieHost25:16
But before the victim was identified, investigators had to start their investigation from ground zero. They turned their focus to finding the property owners, and this led them to the Leguerros family. They learned that John Leguerros and his wife had just flown back from France the night before the body was discovered. When they questioned about who might have been at the house before they returned, they said no one and that they had a son, Bernard, who lived in Manhattan, and their other son, David, was in the military. Investigators wondered if there could have been a break-in at their home while they were away, and the couple handed over their keys to the house, telling law enforcement. They could not only search the residence, but use it as they wished for their command center. They helped the officers to take inventory of their property to determine if anything was missing and, as it turned out, a rifle was missing A.22 caliber AR-7, but the remainder of the firearms from the gun collection were all there.
EmHost26:13
Now, the Legareses weren't overly concerned because this gun happened to be one that their son, bernard, was very fond of and it was possible he had it in his possession. So investigators contacted Bernard and asked him if he was willing to come by the station just for a chat. When he got there, they asked him about the gun and he suggested it might have been stolen and used to kill a person that was found on his parents' property. But then in that same conversation he also said there was a chance it was back at his apartment. So he left, promising to look for it and that he'd let them know if he found it. The next day investigators reached out to him and Bernard informed them that he hadn't found the rifle, and then he suggested that maybe the killers threw it out in the woods. He called back a few hours later suggesting something different. He said well, maybe it's in the duffel bag that his brother kept in the room at his parents' house.
KatieHost27:05
But police searches turned up no sign of the firearm. They met with Bernard again two days later and he was not short on theories about what might have happened on his parents' property. Detectives sat back and let him share all the theories he had, and one of them included that maybe the victim was killed because he was gay and the killer was some psycho who hung around gay bars. He even brought up the film Cruising and suggested they do an undercover stink like Al Pacino had in the movie.
EmHost27:34
The bondage mask had been splashed across newspapers by this point, and so it wasn't a secret. When police asked Bernard if the mask was relevant to the murder, Bernard said yes, and that those masks were either worn by masters or slaves during an S&M sex scenario, and that the mask is there to turn someone into just a sex object, something to take away their humanity.
KatieHost27:57
At this point in the investigation, police had been working hard to ID the victim. As we know, most of his face had been preserved and they started calling around local police departments with a description. Nypd told them they had a possible match, Eigil Dag Vesti, a man who had been reported missing in February. They had his photo from all of those flyers that were posted around town and it was forwarded to the Stony Point Police. The likelihood that Eigil was the victim found in the smokehouse was strengthened when they spoke to his roommate, stephen, who confirmed a gold ring they had found on the body matched, one Eigil was known to wear. It had belonged to his grandfather.
EmHost28:35
In the time since Eigil had gone missing, his family in Norway had been in extreme distress, fearing the worst. When they received a call from New York City and learned that the detectives believed they may have found Eigil, his older sister jumped on a plane From a separate room in the morgue. She viewed the CCTV footage where Eigil lay in the next room with a sheet covering everything but the part of his face that remained. She confirmed it was her older brother and she handed over the dental records she brought with her from Oslo. With the dental records it was now confirmed that the body that was found in the old, abandoned smokehouse belonged to Eigil Dag Vesti, and the autopsy had revealed the cause of death. Two small caliber bullet holes were found in the back of his head. However, this cause of death would go on to be debated at trial.
KatieHost29:26
Investigators now knew the time frame they were working with was back in February. Bernard, who couldn't stop calling the police with new theories about what might have happened, had certainly peaked their interest. So they called him in again, and this time they focused on his activities between February 22nd and February 24th, and Bernard took them through step by step, hour by hour, over what he did over those days. Quite a good memory, they thought. So. They asked him what he had done on another random set of days, and he was nowhere near as detailed.
EmHost30:02
And thus began almost 24 hours of Bernard's interview, which turned into an interrogation. They noticed that Bernard's alibi had him spending all of his time between the 22nd and 24th with Andrew Crispo. Eventually, investigators confronted Bernard. They said they knew he was lying to them, and so Bernard changed his story. He told them that he did know what happened and that it was his friend Billy Myers who had shot and killed Eigil Vesti.
KatieHost30:31
Bernard ran them through how he was at the limelight with Billy and Crispo and how they were discussing killing Freddie Rothbell. But that hadn't panned out. So Bernard left the VIP room and went dancing in the main part of the club. He didn't see Billy again, he says, until he was walking down the street and saw Billy in a parked car, bernard says when he approached him and asked him where he had been, billy had said he found some guy and, quote, blew him away. Bernard took this to mean that Billy had killed someone, and Billy then told him that he had left the guy he killed up at his parents' house.
EmHost31:06
The detectives still weren't buying any of this. But one technique we are taught to implore is let them tell their story and then lock them into it. So they had Bernard write down this version of events and sign each page. Then they spent several hours picking apart his story line by line and eventually realizing he had been caught. He said he was finally ready to tell them what actually happened that night.
KatieHost31:32
It all started at the limelight when they tried to lure Freddie out of the club with plans to kill him, and when that didn't work, they split up. Eventually. Bernard and Billy had returned to Crispo's apartment to find him there with Eigil. Crispo told him that Eigil didn't believe Crispo was gay and they needed to punish him for it. So Crispo handed Billy a whip and he struck Eigil. Bernard then grabbed the whip and drove his knee into Eigil's back and hit him over the head with a handle. Now it was at this point that Billy said he was done and he wanted to go home. So Bernard drove him back to his place and then returned to Crispo's apartment.
EmHost32:09
When he got back, crispo told Bernard that they were all going to go for a drive and that Bernard needed to grab his bag of toys, which consisted of Bernard's rifle, the bondage mask, handcuffs and various other bondage paraphernalia. They got into the car and drove up to Bernard's parents' estate, and it's here that Bernard said inside the house, crispo tortured and raped Eigil while Bernard was upstairs blasting music so he couldn't hear anything. Eventually, crispo came up and told Bernard to come back down. When he did, he saw that Eigil was wearing the bondage mask and he was handcuffed.
KatieHost32:44
Bernard then told police that they walked down to the smokehouse, pulling Eigil by a rope around his neck. Outside the smokehouse, Bernard watched as Crispo continued to torture Eigil, after which Crispo then said it was time to kill him. Bernard said that Crispo had a knife and stabbed him twice in the chest, at which point he collected the blood in a cup and both he and Crispo drank it.
EmHost33:07
Crispo then told Bernard to shoot Eigil, and he obliged. He told detectives that he shot him twice, once for the body and once for the soul. They then removed the handcuffs and put Eigil in the smokehouse Gathering branches. They covered the body and began making several trips up to the house and bringing down cans of gasoline, after which they set the fire.
KatieHost33:29
There was another part of Bernard's story that answered some of the questions that pathologist Suckabee had been left with in regards to the state of Eigil's remains. Bernard had gone back to the smokehouse a few weeks after Eigil had been killed and he was surprised to see how much of the body remained. So he set a second fire and this explained why the bones had been found covered in black soot covering up some of the animal activity.
EmHost33:54
Bernard finished his confession by telling detectives that on the way back to Manhattan they threw the items from the bag of toys and clothing Eigil had been wearing that night out along the Palisades Drive. Later detectives were actually able to recover these items, and when they had asked Bernard where the gun was, he told them it was in the air ducts at Crispo's Art Gallery. So they got a warrant for Crispo's Gallery and sure enough, they found the missing AR7 up in his air ducts. The following day, Rockland County DA Kenneth Gribitz announced to the press that Bernard Legueros had been arrested for the murder of Eigil Dag Vesti, and he also mentioned that they strongly suspected a second person was involved, but that that part of the investigation was still ongoing.
KatieHost34:38
For Crispo there was no denying. The walls were closing in, he was dealing with the increased pursuit of the IRS, as well as being sued by landlords for back rent and customers for failed delivery of art pieces. He shut down his gallery and boarded up his apartment and the Southampton estate News articles were coming out with headlines reading Crispo the artful dodger. His social circle started turning against him and by this point news of the search at Crispo's gallery and finding the murder weapon had made headlines in the paper. Crispo's name was growing synonymous with the death mask sexed murder case, and it was this media attention that compelled Paul Jeffries, the victim we told you about earlier, to come forward, as Paul's assault had occurred in Crispo's apartment. The case was handled by the Manhattan DA, linda Fairstein.
EmHost35:29
DA Fairstein started looking into Paul Jeffries' case and gathering evidence and as a courtesy before she brought the case to grand jury she informed DA Gribbets, who was handling Agel's case. She wanted to let him know that she was moving forward with charges. She knew that Crispo was a suspect in Agel's murder and so she asked DA Gribbets if he was going to be bringing charges. As she didn't want to interfere with the homicide case, da Gribbets told her that he just didn't have enough evidence to charge Crispo. According to the book Bag of Toys by David France, he writes about how DA Fairstein actually told DA Gribbets in her opinion she saw plenty of evidence to charge Crispo. She thought there was enough there to charge him with possession of the murder weapon, destruction of the body and obstruction of justice. She even believed there was enough to charge him with the actual murder.
KatieHost36:21
There was some circumstantial evidence that had been recovered. When the forensics teams had gone through the Leguero's house they had found pubic hair that ended up being consistent with samples taken from Crispo. And when Detective Franks followed up on the events Bernard told them about, on the night of the 22nd he went down to the mineshaft and Hellfire Club with Agel's photo At the mineshaft. He got some vague yeah he looks familiar statements from patrons and employees at the club.
EmHost36:49
But when he made his way to the Hellfire Club, he actually found a witness. The doorman for the Hellfire Club was named PJ and he personally knew Crispo, having been to some of his drug-fueled parties at his apartment. According to PJ, the night of the 22nd Crispo was there and he left with the guy in the photo. He went on to say that after Crispo left, bernard and Billy came by looking for him and PJ told them that Crispo left with the guy and told them that they were going to head back to his apartment. It was then that, according to PJ, bernard started just chit-chatting and telling them about their night, and then he just volunteered the information that he was planning on killing Freddie that night. This was all pretty big information that Detective Franks had gathered. It was independent cooperation of the statements that Bernard had made to the police, the ones about how Crispo had picked up Eigil and brought him to the apartment that night.
KatieHost37:43
Then Billy Meyer was tracked down and he also confirmed the events of the night leading up to when he left Crispo's apartment. According to Billy, in the days that followed Bernard told him he had killed the guy from that night. But Billy says that Bernard always talked about killing. It wasn't until he saw Eigil's missing poster that he started to believe Bernard.
EmHost38:05
Aside from Crispo's less than sparkling social reputation, he also had a criminal history. There were charges filed in Philadelphia for solicitation to commit sodomy and a separate charge for blackmail, and a New York charge for sodomy and possession of a weapon. As the investigation wore on, crispo's attorney reached out to the DA. He was no longer being represented by Roy Cohen, who was battling AIDS, an illness he would succumb to later that year. Crispo's new attorney said that Crispo would be willing to testify against Bernard in exchange for immunity in the case. He said that, hypothetically, if his client had been present for the murder of Eigil, that Crispo would have had no way of knowing whether or not the gun Bernard was holding was real and he offered to testify as a witness. The DA flat-out rejected this offer.
KatieHost38:58
But whispers kept getting louder and they were making their way into the detective's ears. Many of Crispo's social circle were recalling how often he mentioned that he was responsible for lots of bodies in the Hudson. He was also often known to say that he had several bodies buried out at his Southampton estate. Detectives were able to secure a warrant and soon began excavating Crispo's property in the Hamptons. After digging up the entire grounds, they found nothing to show for it and they gave up.
EmHost39:29
Two months after Eigil's body was found, manhattan DA Ferris-Teen moved forward with Paul Jeffery's case and Crispo was indicted on kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, assault with the intent to cause physical injury by means of a dangerous instrument, coercion and sodomy. Andrew turned himself in once the warrant was issued, but he bonded out pending trial. However, before Paul's case would enter the courtroom, up first was Bernard in the trial of Eigil Vesti's murder.
KatieHost39:57
September of 1985, the state presented their case against Bernard. To defend him, the family hired their longtime family lawyer, Murray Sprung, who hadn't been in court since 1940s when he was prosecuting war criminals. Sprung was now 82 years old and not as sharp as he once was, but the family insisted that they would have no one else represent their son. So defense attorney Sprung brought about the insanity defense in this case, arguing that Bernard was innocent due to mental defect.
EmHost40:28
The cornerstone of his defense was that Crispo was a modern-day Svengali who had cast an evil spell over Bernard, as he was ployed with cocaine and money and brainwashed into doing Crispo's bidding. He presented the jury with a fact that Crispo provided Bernard with 3.5 to 7 grams of cocaine every day, which is wild. That's 1 to 2, 8 balls, in case you know that reference, and that is more than what leads to most fatal overdoses. The defense went on to explain how, because Bernard had been troubled and disturbed in his youth, and that Crispo stepped in as the perfect father figure, one who actually approved of Bernard's violence, he told the jury that, yes, bernard had engaged in brutalizing victims in Crispo's apartment. He even told the jury that Bernard did in fact shoot Eagle twice in the head, and this is where the second prong to his defense came in, with that, while Bernard did pull the trigger, eagle was already dead, because Crispo had already been stabbed twice in the chest.
KatieHost41:32
But the prosecution was ready to rebuff this claim. They called Dr Zuckabee to the stand and remember he had performed Agel's autopsy. He said that while there wasn't any soft tissue left to examine for evidence of a stab wound, it likely would have been that the knife had left nicks or chips on the bone and he had found no evidence to support that. But there was something in the doctor's testimony that was a bit more damning. It was during the examination of Agel's skull Around the entry wounds that were made by each bullet. He had found hemorrhaging on the brain and pools of blood. If Agel's heart had stopped before he was shot then he wouldn't have found blood at the site of those bullet wounds.
EmHost42:14
Bernard's attorney had subpoenaed Crispo to take the stand during the trial. Crispo's attorney informed the court that Crispo would be pleading the fifth to any question that he was asked while he sat in the witness box, and so the judge asked the jury to leave the room before Crispo took the stand Under oath. Crispo was asked multiple questions when were you the night of February 22nd? Have you been to the Leguero's property? Do you know Agel Vesti? To every single question, crispo recited I claim my rights under the fifth and 14th amendments of the Constitution of the United States of America and under Article I of the Constitution of New York not to be compelled to be a witness against myself. Over and over. He recited this his only response to each question, before the judge had had enough and just outright dismissed him.
KatieHost43:04
Outside of Crispo Sprung didn't call a single witness. He didn't present any experts on BDSM or any psychiatrist to speak to Bernard's mental state. The prosecution had called psychiatrists, however, and three of them testified that Bernard had tried to intentionally mislead their evaluation of him. It was during their cross-examination that the defense attempted to get them to tell the jury Bernard was insane, but none of them had formed that opinion. After closing arguments, the jury deliberated and after two and a half hours returned the verdict of guilty for the murder of Agel Vesti. Bernard was sentenced to prison for a term of 25 years to life.
EmHost43:46
During Bernard's appeal, he went on to argue that he had an effective counsel, but the court denied this appeal and upheld the trial court's original ruling. Now the attention shifted to Crispo, but before the trial proceeded in the Paul Jeffries case, the IRS had finally caught up to him and he was charged federally for not declaring $10 million of income for which he owed about $4 million in unpaid taxes. Choosing to forgo a trial, Crispo pled guilty and he was sentenced to seven years in federal prison. However, upon his appeal, his sentence was dropped to five years.
KatieHost44:21
While Crispo was serving out this sentence, the trial for Paul Jeffries moved forward. The prosecution told the jury that Crispo was a master manipulator who dealt art by day and torture by night. Jeffries took the stand and, led by the prosecution, he walked the jury through what he endured over six hours at the hands of Crispo. The defense meanwhile took the tactic that Jeffries, who admitted to enjoying BDSM, was a willing participant of the activities that took place in Crispo's apartment that day. Bernard was called to testify to corroborate the account of what happened while he was present. Afterwards the jury was sent off to deliberate on the five counts Crispo was facing.
EmHost45:04
After the first full day of deliberation, the foreman passed a note to the judge saying that they were having issues with jury number five, stating that he was behaving quote unquote un-gentlemanly. During their deliberations, the judge directed the jury that they all needed to just deliberate in a rational and civilized manner and return a verdict. But jury number five had already made quite the scene during the trial. He was frequently seen waving at Crispo as he sat at the defense table. He would often wink at the defendant and maintain eye contact. It was quite noticeable to everyone in the courtroom. On day two of the deliberation the forewoman sent out a note requesting that something be done about jury number five. He was having outbursts. Other jurors felt threatened by him and, in light of these events, the rest of the jury questioned his ability to be impartial. The judge again just sent the jury back, imploring them to stay rational.
KatieHost46:03
At the end of the fifth day of deliberations the jury returned their verdict. They found Crispo not guilty on four of the five counts against him. They said they were hopelessly deadlocked on the fifth charge of unlawful imprisonment. The DA responded by saying they would drop the charge and not pursue a new trial. Paul Jeffries was outraged and quoted as saying my purpose in bringing this charge was to prevent Andrew Crispo from beating, torturing or killing other young men. The judge's rulings throughout the trial and the subtle bias of his charge to the jury make a profoundly disturbing statement. In our society it is acceptable to brutalize and even murder gay men.
EmHost46:45
After the trial, Andrew was returned to federal prison where he had to serve the remainder of his IRS sentence. He was released in 1989 after serving three and a half years Now. Bernard and Kenny Morales were also charged as co-conspirators in Paul's case, and they both decided to take guilty plea. Kenny was only sentenced to five weeks and Bernard had an extra four years tacked onto his sentence that he was currently serving for.
KatieHost47:11
Agel's murder. But shortly after Crispo was released, there was an explosion at a Southampton home. The rumor mill went wild, with many thinking it was one of Crispo's growing list of enemies who were seeking revenge. The utility company, however, chalked it up to a gas leak and rewarded the broke Crispo with a whopping $5 million.
EmHost47:34
And for a period of time Crispo seemed to fade into the background. But in a quote that came out in the New Yorker, crispo would go on to be considered the boogeyman of New York's gay community for years to come. However, it wasn't long before he was flooding the headlines again, as he faced new charges in 1999. This time he was facing federal charges for threatening to kidnap the four year old daughter of his former lawyer, and this was the lawyer who handled Crispo's bankruptcy after his troubles with the IRS. In the complaint filed by the government, they said Crispo was working on opening up a new art gallery in Greenwich Village, and one night he became belligerent when his law firm told him that a check he was owed wasn't ready for pickup. And so Crispo told his lawyer that he had a photo of her daughter and he would kidnap her if the check wasn't released immediately.
KatieHost48:25
His lawyer reported this to authorities and elaborated, saying that while she was at the playground with her daughter, two men ran up, grabbed her daughter and took a photo before running off. Crispo had also repeatedly told his lawyer that he would kill her over disputes they had regarding his financial matters. A warrant was issued for Crispo and when he was arrested, he was found in possession of just under five grams of cocaine.
EmHost48:51
And so Crispo took the case to trial. The jury found him guilty on one count of attempted extortion and violation of the Hobbs Act and one count for drug possession. He was sentenced to seven years for the Hobbs Act violation and one year for drug possession.
KatieHost49:07
In Crispo's appeal, however, he had another stroke of luck. His lawyers argued that the victim, in this case his former lawyer, was not actually a government employee, which was stipulated in some of the elements of the charge that he faced. Luckily, they upheld the conviction, but they did vacate his original sentence. He was then resentenced to five years for the extortion charge.
EmHost49:30
Crispo went on to serve his sentence and since then he's been a ghost. He would be nearing 80 years old today and is rumored to still be in New York. Bernard, on the other hand, was paroled at the beginning of 2019, after serving nearly 34 years.
KatieHost49:48
And to wrap up the case, we wanna point out the justice that was served against at least one of the alleged culprits. It's something that the gay community didn't really see much of back in the 1980s and it's amazing that it really came down to a stroke of luck. Firstly, that Eigil was even found at all, since his body had been hit on such a rural, expansive abandoned area, and second, because if he had been found really any later, his face would have suffered further decomposition, making his identity nearly impossible to discern. Eigil Dag Vesti did not deserve to die.
EmHost50:26
But he deserves to be remembered. We'll see you back here next week and until then, stay vigilant.
KatieHost50:33
And stay curious. Fellow Sleuths
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