Short Stuff: The Death of Charles Morgan | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the podcast I'm Josh. and there's Chuck he's older than 50 it. turns out and there's Jerry and this is. short stuff uh and let's go that's right. uh this is the the case of a uh sort of. a lesser known unsolved True Crime uh. murder in fact yeah I hope that didn't. spoil anything uh I don't think so in. this thing you put together uh called it.

bizarre I I take issue with that I don't. think it's bizarre at all but it is. unsolved and interesting okay I think. when you yes you're right no it's not. bizarre but sounds like any episode of. The Sopranos to me it is unsung uh in. that it doesn't even have a Wikipedia. page no mention of this whatsoever on. all of Wikipedia which is very. surprising but we're talking about the. death of a man named Charles C. Morgan who died in uh May of. 1977 in the desert outside of tu.

Arizona and his death was like you said. almost certainly a murder um but it it. was pronounced uh suicide by the local. sheriff even though the coroner was like. I don't know what this was everyone else. on the planet will tell you it's a. murder especially once you know the. details which we're going to get into. right now yeah uh well let's just. describe the crime scene uh this guy was. found um deceased at the scene wearing a. bulletproof vest uh from a gunshot wound.

from his own handgun to the back of his. head M uh and it did not have his. fingerprints on his own gun and it was. laid beside his body yeah so the the. sheriff was like looks like a suicide to. me you know the guy uh put on uh. surgical gloves and you know shot. himself in the back of the head as one. does and then um managed somehow to take. those gloves off and then hide them. exactly before he said let's go get. lunch uh yeah his wife um said no. there's no way that this was uh a.

suicide that's impossible uh and now. we're going to tell you a little bit. about Charles Morgan and things will. become pretty clear as we do yeah so he. was an escro agent um and the escro. agent as anyone who's ever bought a. house knows is the person who holds the. money yeah there this impartial third. party who follows a set of rules about. um keeping and dispersing money and. basically once the sale of some high. value thing almost always real estate. but some times things like if you're.

buying a bunch of gold or you're buying. a private jet or something like that. there's going to be an escro agent. involved because you don't just hand. over the money and hope for the best uh. and then once everybody's um signed and. all the stuff is legal and set then the. money gets sent out but they hold it in. escrow and by being an escrow agent not. just Charles Morgan but any escrow agent. I think even still today is in a really. good position to help organize crime. launder money yeah like just putting.

money in escrow all of a sudden it's got. a little bit more legitimacy to it yeah. uh it's not the most regulated industry. so it's a little easier to get away with. something like that probably as an. escrow agent or at least certainly it. was in 1977 yeah um and that's what he. was doing it seems like it you know from. all accounts it didn't seem like he was. a bad dude uh it seems like somebody. maybe like in a Soprano's episode where. he got in a little over his head maybe. ended up feeling like he had to do.

certain things uh once the the mafia got. their um you know uh their finger in his. pie what good one man I love that that's. the best one since sniff them off the. case oh man that's wonderful as it was. coming out of my mouth I knew that it. was not right 17 years in and you're. still you're still doing it man I. appreciate that but he was doing this. for the mafia and um there's a uh a.

journalist for Unsolved Mysteries at the. time named Don Deo who uh basically was. like this guy was helping the mafia. launder money through Arizona as an. escro agent like by um buying and. selling platinum and gold is how they. were doing it yeah because again like. you said just taking tainted money money. made from selling drugs you put it in an. escro account it gives it legitimacy if. the escrow agent isn't asking where it. came from from that point forward once. it's in the escro account that's when.

the paper trail really kind of starts so. if they use that money to buy. legitimately buy legal gold and platinum. and then turn around and sell that that. illicit drug money just became. legitimate in the eyes of everybody. thanks again in part uh with the help of. Charles C Morgan and did you say he he. oversaw a billion dollars worth of. transactions in the few years he was. doing this I did not a billion dollars. that's what Don Deo um ated that.

journalist for Unsolved Mysteries and. like you said he um he was a good guy. that's the sad part of all of this he. wasn't some scumbag he wasn't a skell he. seems to have gotten in over his head he. was definitely helping the mafia launder. their money or organized crime but he. was also a dedicated family man who. cared very much about the safety of his. family and um I say we take a break and. come back and really kind of get into. the sad story of Charles Morgan's death. let's do it.

[Laughter]. [Music]. okay so um surely there's other people. out there who know much more about this. and the chain of events that led to this. but if you take it from from the story.

of Ruth Morgan Charles Morgan's wife um. the whole thing starts in March of. 1977 when all of a sudden one day. Charles Morgan goes missing and he's. missing for three days and he finally. turns back up but when he turns back up. he's not carrying like flowers and. chocolate to apologize he shows up. missing a shoe among other things yeah. he's missing a shoe uh his hands are zip. tied together uh there are another set. of zip ties that uh I guess he got out. of but on uh one of his ankles and she.

immediately is like oh my God the mafia. has their fingers in your. pie that's right I know what this means. he was refusing to speak and wrote down. on a piece of paper and this is the part. that I just find interesting and I don't. take issue with it but I I'll tell you. what I mean uh he wrote down that his. throat had been painted with a. hallucinogen hallucinogenic drug that. could either drive him insane or his. words or destroy his nervous system and.

kill him uh so don't call the cops uh. and don't say anything out loud and move. my car go hide my car because I don't. want them to know I'm. back yeah so I get the impression that. he wasn't just telling his wife that. because he didn't feel like talking to. her I think he was naive enough that. somebody told him that they did that. yeah he was really worried it was true. all right we're in agreement then. because I I don't think that's a thing. is it uh no I mean you would still.

absorb whatever drug through the mucous. membranes of your mouth yeah what I. really tried to dig up and again there's. just not a lot is like did he experience. any uh you know drug effects I don't. know but I did see that Ruth nursed him. back to health um from different sources. so I don't know what the deal was he. also was handcuffed so it could have. been you know Trauma from that who knows. but he didn't want her to call the cops. because like I said he was dedicated to.

his family and he did not he he was so. up against the wall that he could not. involve the cops he had to figure out. how to do this himself I mean like. people write entire books about this. this few week segment of Charles C. Morgan's life that was the kind of. trouble he found himself in yeah for. sure uh super scary stuff obviously um. after about a week uh like you said his. Ruth had nursed him back to health and. things sort of returned to normal in his. life except that he started wearing a.

bulletproof vest uh he started he grew a. beard out to try and kind of Disguise. himself uh he started driving his. daughters to and from school every day. where when they used to walk because he. was worried for their safety and he. wouldn't tell his wife what was going on. he's just like business as usual and the. excuse was like Hey I I can't tell you. what's going on uh because I have to. keep you safe uh he might he might have. hinted that he was a government agent. but basically uh Ruth don't ask.

yeah pretty much so things kind of like. you said get back to normal a little bit. but um that was March of 1977 in May few. weeks later he suddenly went missing. again and this time I mean I can't. imagine the dread Ruth experience like. the first time I'm sure she was like. where is that Charles and she had like a. rolling pin in her hand or something. like that waiting for him to come home. this time after he uh showed up the way. that he did after he started wearing a. bulletproof vest as scared as he was and.

then also not letting her in on anything. him him disappearing a second time had. to be torture for her um I think it was. gone nine full days before she got a. phone call from an anonymous woman and. it was a bizarre phone call so let's say. that if the whole case wasn't bizarre. Chuck there's bizarre elements and this. is definitely one of them no no for sure. I mean this this stuff is. uh a little weird um she got the call. from a woman who said uh he's okay uh.

Char or I think she called him Chuck. even Chuck is okay he's all right uh she. also mentioned Ecclesiastes from the. Bible uh chap 12 veres. 1-8 um this would pop up again in a. second but I'm I'm sure you went and. read Ecclesiastes 12 1-8 as I did weird. uh the only thing I can sum up is that. it it sounded like some some Sam Jackson. kind of stuff in Pulp Fiction yeah kind. of like just sort of a a scary om.

biblical passage is is how I interpreted. that yeah I mean yeah but it was also. really odd I mean I'm sure if I had read. much more around it it would have made a. little more sense but the the end of it. being just the way that it did I think. somebody said like lies these are all. lies at the end yeah which is not you. know it was just really. strange um so yes I find that bizarre. that that was even mentioned and it also. comes again after that right so this.

Ecclesiastes 12. col uh verses 1-8 yeah is also mentioned. on a $2 bill that was found on Charles's. body Chuck's body not you Chuck I hate. to even say that out loud just the. thought this happening to you yeah um. appreciate it was on this $2 bill he had. written Ecclesiastes 12 and then he. circled a one and eight that were in the.

serial number of this $2 bill to to. reference that this was in verses 1-8. that's right did you say that was in his. underwear I didn't I was leaving that. for you it was clipped to the inside of. his underwear the bill also had seven um. Hispanic last names written on it there. was a map showing a known drug smuggling. route between Mexico and Tucson yeah uh. and then the founders on that bill the. founders are signing the Declaration of. Independence they numbered them 1. through seven and then the biblical.

stuff uh they also found one of his. teeth wrapped up in a handkerchief in. the car so there was uh piece of paper. with directions of where he was buried. and hand you know handwritten. handwriting and someone else's. sunglasses were in the car I've never. seen any explanation for what his tooth. was doing wrapped up in a. handkerchief uh I don't know maybe they. intended to send it as like you would. have a loed finger as a warning and they. have never got around to it that'd be. what I would say but why did he have.

it well that's what I'm saying I I mean. clear someone clearly was out there in. the desert with them in that car yeah I. guess but I mean left there's not really. any bigger message that you could send. rather than leaving his dead murdered. body right by the car why would you put. his tooth in a handkerchief in the car. it's just strange to me you know what I. would even go so far as to call it. bizarre here's here's the. scene uh the two the two Mafia guys um. are driving away and they were like hey. nobody's ever going to find this body.

right hey not out here they're not and. you got the tooth to mail to the broad. right oh Vinnie I left the tooth you. left the tooth right he said I thought. you said leave the tooth grab the. [Laughter]. canoli so that's what I think happened. uh but yeah that that doesn't make a lot. of sense um a couple of days after the. body was discovered a woman called the. sheriff's department said I am the. person who called Ruth Morgan a few days. earlier uh my name is green eyes and. they said how pretty and she said thank.

you uh and they said are your eyes green. she said they're actually a shade of. blue she said maybe she said but that's. not important she said I met with Chuck. at a local Motel uh recently he had been. hiding out there for about a week and he. was on the Run um he had a briefcase. like had a ton of money he said that. someone put a hit out on him and he was. getting in touch with it the Hitman to. buy back that contract um obviously that. did not. happen no um and it's it that's really.

just such a sad twist too because he. seems to have spent the last week of his. life on the run under the idea that he. had some hope he had hope that maybe. just maybe he could get out of this by. buying that contract back and maybe this. would all go away but um it does seem. that he did have a contract out on his. life for Real uh that it was because he. was informing on the mafia to the feds. the treasury Department specifically so.

that does seem to have been true and. then that journalist for Unsolved. Mysteries Don dero he posits and this. makes a lot of sense that the Hitman did. get in touch with Chuck Morgan and said. I'm I'm afraid to tell you this but I'm. coming to kill you but you can get out. of this if you buy the contract so you. pay me what the the mob's paying me to. kill you you pay me to not kill you and. we'll just call it even and Not only was. that a way for this scumbag of a um kill. killer to make double the amount on the.

contract by basically duping Charles. Morgan into thinking he could buy his. way out of it it also was a great excuse. to get him to an isolated spot to hand. over the money as it were but really to. murder him out there in the desert like. that's if you look at it like that this. guy was so in over his head and he was. trying so hard to save himself it's so. sad this this is just for some reason. this one really gets me I don't know if. it's because it was recent enough or.

what but there's there's just a lot to. it that really makes me sad for him and. his family yeah and also like I feel so. bad that that he had that hope that he. thought like oh wait a minute so you'll. you'll betray the mafia if I just buy. you out of this thing and the guy like. yeah totally that's no big deal right. and then he actually belied that I mean. what a what a awful way to die desperate. and also hopeful at the same time agreed. there's some other weird stuff to this.

case so I would suggest that anybody who. uh is interested go go check it out um. you can read a lot about it and in the. meantime rip Chuck Morgan and uh short. stuff is. that stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts from iHeart Radio visit the. iHeart Radio app Apple podcasts or. wherever you listen to your favorite. shows. [Music].