Murder Mysteries | 60 Minutes Full Episodes
In a Nutshell
Three major murder mysteries remain unsolved decades later: Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found shot the day before exposing alleged government-Iran collusion over the 1994 AMIA bombing; Canadian weapons designer Gerald Bull was professionally executed in Belgium while building a "supergun" for Iraq; and journalist Henry Louu was assassinated in California by Taiwan's Bamboo Gang on orders from their military intelligence. Each case involves powerful governments, professional hits, and conflicting official narratives that prevented justice for victims.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
In the late hours of a January night in Buenos Aires, Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead in his apartment with a bullet to the head. The death occurred the day before he was to publicly present evidence that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had secretly conspired with Iran to cover up Iran's involvement in Argentina's worst terrorist attack 20 years prior.
The case immediately became an international mystery due to the key players: a high-profile prosecutor and a populist president known for high drama. Questions arose whether it was murder, government involvement, or suicide.
Forensic teams found only the victim's DNA at the crime scene. Alberto Nisman was 51 years old, a father of two, and a prosecutor with 10 bodyguards and numerous enemies. In the days before his death, Nisman expressed concern for his and his family's safety. Hours before dying, he borrowed a gun from Diego Lagomarsino, a tech worker in his office.
"Do you know how it feels that your daughters don't want to be with you because they're afraid that something will happen to them by being next to you?"
When asked why he needed the weapon given his bodyguards, Nisman replied, "Because I don't trust my bodyguards."
On Sunday morning, January 18th, Nisman was in his 13th-floor apartment. He did not respond to repeated phone calls from bodyguards. The coroner determined he died around 3:00 p.m. in his bathroom, slumped against the door, struck by a bullet at point-blank range above his right ear.
Lagomarsino stated he never sensed Nisman would use the weapon on himself. There was no suicide note and no gunpowder residue on Nisman's hands. A forensics team hired by his ex-wife ruled it a murder.
The mystery traces back 20 years to the suicide bombing of AMIA, the Buenos Aires Jewish community center that killed 85 people. It was Argentina's worst terrorist attack in history. After 10 years without answers, Alberto Nisman was appointed special prosecutor in 2004.
Nisman charged Iran with ordering and financing the attack. Interpol issued red alerts (equivalent to arrest warrants) for several high-ranking Iranians, including the defense minister. Nisman spent the rest of his life trying unsuccessfully to bring them to an Argentine court.
Two years before his death, Argentina's foreign minister signed a memorandum with Iran in which both countries agreed to interrogate the accused officials together. Nisman viewed this as negotiating with terrorists responsible for the attack and saw it as part of the government's tilt toward anti-Western regimes.
Foreign Minister Hector Timerman defended Argentina's independent foreign policy, rejecting claims of shifting away from the United States. He denied that Nisman was a "puppet" of the United States and CIA, stating Nisman was not going to lose his job and that the government never discussed removing him from his position.
The AMIA bombing case remains unadjudicated, with evidence stored in a giant warehouse containing over half a million documents, folders, and audio cassettes. Two months before his death, Nisman appeared on television accusing President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Foreign Minister Timerman of negotiating a secret deal with Iran to improve trade in exchange for dropping the red alerts.
"This time he said, 'I'm going to put them in jail. I'm gonna put them in jail.'"
Nisman was scheduled to appear before Congress four days later to present a 300-page report backing his charges.
Timerman denied Nisman's accusations, stating he never met in Syria with his Iranian counterpart and never said Argentina was no longer interested in solving the attack. He emphasized that only a judge can cancel red notices, not the foreign minister.
The Argentine judge who originally issued the red alert arrest warrants confirmed that no government, person, or entity ever asked him to request Interpol to lift the red alerts. Interpol never received any request to lift the warrants. Two days after Nisman's accusation, the former head of Interpol sent a letter affirming the government was 100% committed to keeping the red alerts in effect.
President Kirchner named Diego Lagomarsino as suspicious, calling him an agent of the opposition. Lagomarsino denied being a spy or agent for any foreign government including Iran or Israel.
A more credible target was Jaime Stiuso, a powerful spy master who was Nisman's main source for years. The theory suggests Stiuso concocted the accusation against the president in revenge after she fired him.
Those believing suicide think Nisman realized he had been duped and snapped before having to testify publicly. Timerman refused to speculate on Nisman's state of mind, stating he would not speculate on what happened because Nisman cannot defend himself.
At the Jewish cemetery in Buenos Aires, Luis Czykanski visits his daughter Paola's grave. Alberto Nisman's fresh grave is located just steps away. Families of AMIA bombing victims fear they will never have justice now that Nisman is gone.
Gerald Bull, acclaimed as the world's most accomplished designer of long-range artillery, was gunned down in Belgium in March. His murder was linked to his work for Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
Chuck Bernard, an artillery expert and Bull's associate, believes Israeli hit teams killed Bull to send a message to other scientists working with Iraq.
Bull was killed at dusk in his suburban Brussels apartment. He lived under a pseudonym, telling neighbors he was in the computer business. After leaving the elevator on the sixth floor, someone fired two bullets into the back of his neck and three more into his body. The murder had professional hallmarks: a silencer was used, and $20,000 remained untouched in his wallet.
Ron Ben-Yishai, an Israeli military correspondent, stated Bull's murder served as a deterrent to European scientists helping Saddam Hussein develop chemical, biological, and other weapons. Amatzia Baram, Israel's foremost authority on Saddam Hussein, noted that with one bullet, the assassin eliminated an entire threatening project.
Two weeks after Bull's murder, British Customs seized eight huge steel tubes one meter in diameter, already loaded on a freighter bound for Iraq. When joined together, they would form part of a gun barrel 500 feet in length—the largest cannon ever built. Other components of the so-called "super gun" were seized in several European countries.
Gerald Bull was a Canadian-born prodigy who earned his PhD by age 22. In 1961, on the border between Canada and Vermont, he built the largest cannon ever constructed—a 172-foot-long barrel that launched a shell almost 120 miles straight up.
After US and Canadian governments lost interest in 1967, Bull developed long-range artillery for armies worldwide. However, sales to South Africa violated the US embargo, leading to his conviction and six months in prison.
Bull remained obsessed with developing the super gun. Israel tested the concept in 1983 but concluded it wouldn't work. Saddam Hussein, however, was interested and offered to fund the project after Iraq bought $16 billion worth of military equipment in 1988 alone.
When British customs revealed the super gun project, media called it a "doomsday weapon" capable of hurling chemical or nuclear warheads hundreds of miles. Israeli intelligence had discovered the project early but struggled to get other countries to help stop it.
During the 1980s, US concern was preventing Saddam Hussein from being overwhelmed by Khomeini's Iran. The US turned a blind eye to military sales by other countries to Iraq and provided vital military intelligence despite Saddam's use of poison gas.
Several people working on the super gun program, including Bull, received threats not to return to Iraq weeks before his murder. Speculation centers on Israeli involvement due to the professional execution style.
Israeli reporter Yossi Melman suggested Bull was a double agent feeding information to Israelis while on Iraq's payroll, making his killing by Iraqis a possibility. However, Ron Ben-Yishai maintained it was the Israelis who carried out the assassination.
Police found no explanation for why Officer Gregory Newert's gun remained in its holster when he died. Evidence of narcotics and a syringe were discovered near his body. The police claim two black men named James Billy and Regginal Miles were responsible, based on sworn affidavits from two other black men. Neither Billy nor Miles had prior convictions or served time.
Five days after the murder, at 2:45 in the morning, New Orleans police broke into James Billy's house with what they claimed was a proper warrant. Billy was in bed with his common law wife Kim Landry and their two-month-old child Tori. His widow maintains that Billy had no gun and was spread-eagled against the wall when she left the house with the baby, hearing shots as she reached the car.
At the same time, other police officers raided Regginal Miles' home. Miles and his wife Sheree Singleton were both killed. Miles died on the floor next to the bed, and Singleton died in the bathtub. Their four-year-old son Cornell witnessed the shootings. Neighbor Gwen Hills heard Singleton plead "Please don't shoot me" before hearing gunshots.
A total of 32 rounds were fired during both raids. Attorney Mary Howell, representing the victims' relatives, stated that the police department "went berserk" after an officer was killed, and that a decision was made that "someone somewhere was going to pay for it."
District Attorney Harry Kik stated that while the police knew Billy and Miles were the perpetrators, he could not disclose grand jury evidence under Louisiana law. Former detective Raymond Reed questioned whether the gun found in Billy's hand actually belonged to him, noting that a police officer who was shot was near Billy's body.
Two men who provided sworn identifications to police later recanted, claiming they were beaten during questioning. Robert Davis stated police punched him, put a plastic bag over his head, and questioned him under a bridge with a shotgun to his head. Johnny Brownley also claimed he was beaten into signing false statements. Black police officer Orus Buckner confirmed he witnessed and participated in the beatings to gain acceptance from white officers.
Seven New Orleans policemen were indicted in federal court for beating four people, including Davis and Brownley. A Department of Justice study showed New Orleans police killed more people per capita than any other city in the country.
On October 15, 1984, at approximately 9:10-9:15 AM, journalist Henry Louu, a 51-year-old American of Chinese descent, was murdered in Daly City, California. He was shot three times at close range—twice in the abdomen and once between the eyes—while loading boxes into his car. Louu was known as a critic of the Taiwan government and had written a critical biography of President Chiang Ching-kuo.
Louu's family reported that the Taiwan government had attempted to influence his writings. A year before his death, he agreed to receive $20,000 in payments ($8,000 wired initially, then $3,000 at a time) from the Taiwan government, but the final payment never arrived.
Investigators learned about the Bamboo Gang, a Taiwan-based crime syndicate with approximately 40,000-50,000 members in Taiwan and about 100 members in the United States. The gang leader in Taiwan, Cheni Lee (known as "the duck"), was identified as having come to the United States with a hit squad to murder Louu.
Changan Lo ("White Wolf"), identified as the Bamboo Gang leader in the United States, described the gang's initiation ritual where members prick their fingers and drink blood mixed with alcohol. He claimed the gang operates with a moral code prohibiting disrespect of elders and disloyalty, though he confirmed there is no rule against killing.
Cheni Lee recorded a tape after the murder as an insurance policy. On the tape, he stated that two months before the murder, he received orders to kill Henry Louu from Admiral Wong, Taiwan's director of military intelligence. The tape detailed a 10-day training session for the murder and specifics on how it was carried out.
Following the tape's revelation, Taiwan authorities arrested two high-level intelligence officers and dismissed Admiral Wong from his position. U.S. officials confirmed that Henry Louu had been in contact with the communist government in Beijing and was also an informant for the FBI.
Congressman Stephen Solarz, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, stated that the murder was "commissioned, instructed and dispatched to the United States by the Bureau of Military Intelligence" for the purpose of silencing Henry Louu. He concluded that "the government of Taiwan was involved in the affair."
Taiwan government spokesman Dr. Chiang Ching-kuo maintained that Henry Louu had the freedom to write whatever he wished, but his book was not permitted to enter Taiwan.
The interviewer notes that right after the murder of Henry Louu, the government stated emphatically it was not involved and threatened to sue people who claimed otherwise, yet later admitted involvement. The government official responds that the government is not involved, asking who says the government is involved. The interviewer states that the man who planned the murder of Henry Lou says the government is involved.
The government official claims the government detained the head of the defense intelligence office, insisting this is not the government. When asked about the exact status of Vice Admiral Wong, the Admiral in Defense Intelligence, the official states he is not a suspect despite being named on the tape by the duck. The official argues that being named on a tape does not automatically make someone a suspect, and states that Admiral Wong is a free man pending investigation.
The official clarifies that three suspects or three persons involved in the case are being detained pending investigation. When asked what detained means, the official explains it means they have temporarily lost their freedom, but insists they are not in jail. The official distinguishes between jail and house arrest, stating they have lost their freedom in that sense because they are not in jail.
The interviewer suggests it is an odd coincidence that the government only seemed to find out things after they were going to be revealed someplace else. The government official denies this, stating that is not the case and that they provided the information to United States authorities, which is where the breakthrough in the case occurred.
The interviewer counters that US authorities say something quite different, with the State Department claiming they had to put intense pressure on the Taiwan government to get them to move on this case. The government official insists their story is different and that the sequence needs to be corrected. The interviewer mentions that the Daily City Police would tell a different sequence of events. The official responds that they can have their version and he has his.
The interviewer notes that it remains a puzzle, with various theories about why Henry Lou was shot circulating: because he was a communist agent, because he was a Taiwan agent, because he was an FBI agent, because he was writing a book, or because he had information he was going to write in yet another unpublished book. When asked what the government really knows about who shot Henry Lou and why, the official states they know who shot Henry Lou, but as to why, he still does not know and does not know if he will ever know.
Diane Sawyer is noted as being on assignment. After she left, the Taiwan government indicted the duck and the two gunmen for murder and will try them in Taiwan. Taiwan also admitted that the duck was an agent of Taiwan's military intelligence bureau, but insisted he was not ordered by Admiral Wong or anyone else to kill Henry Louu.
It has been learned that the duck intimated to US authorities that at the trial he will name even more prominent people than Admiral Wong as being involved. The FBI and the State Department still will not talk on the record about the murder or the allegations that Henry Louu was an informant for the FBI or anyone else. The US government states that the murder of Henry Louu will not change plans to sell Taiwan $750 million in military equipment this year.
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