0:00

Cults are everywhere. They don't just live

0:02

in the walls of Nexium and Scientology.

0:04

There are sex cults. Self-help cults. Workout

0:06

cults. Political cults. Even legging cults. And

0:08

on the podcast Was I in a

0:10

Cult, we focus on the brave individuals

0:12

who have lived through them. I'm Liz

0:14

Aikuzzi. And I'm Tyler Meesom. Your host

0:16

of Was I in a Cult? Join us

0:18

each week as we take you through a

0:20

heroic roller coaster of someone's journey in and

0:22

out of a cult. With a little levity

0:25

thrown in because humor is healing and cults

0:27

are funny. Listen to and follow Was

0:29

I in a Cult at Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

0:31

or wherever you get your podcasts. Which for

0:33

Tyler is that right, Aidan? On tape. Hello

1:10

everyone and welcome to episode 369 of the

1:13

True Crime All the Time Unsolved podcast. I'm

1:15

Mike Ferguson and with me as always is

1:17

my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Give

1:19

me how are you? Hey, I'm doing good.

1:22

How about you? I am doing great. Got

1:24

a new puppy. Yeah. Little

1:27

Maltese named Ivy that

1:29

I showed off on the Patreon

1:31

video. Very cute. Yeah, she's a

1:33

cutie. We already had one Maltese

1:35

and we lost our

1:38

lab last year. And

1:40

we've just been thinking that we need

1:42

another doll. I just really kind of thought

1:44

you were going to name her Gibby, but

1:47

you know. Yeah, I floated the idea of

1:49

if it was a boy and no,

1:51

my wife shot that down very, very

1:53

quickly. Like did you even get it out all

1:55

the way? I got like gear

1:58

and she was like, nope. Not

2:01

happening. Let's go ahead and

2:03

give our Patreon shout outs. We had Hayden

2:05

Bushnell. Hey Bushnell, hey I see you, get

2:07

it? I do, from

2:09

the famous Bushnell binocular optic

2:12

family. Mountain. What's going

2:14

on mountain? James Edinger. Hey

2:16

Edinger. Ruby Perez. What's

2:19

up Ruby? Miguel Salas. Ah

2:21

Salas. Dana Allison. Well thanks

2:24

Allison. Jesse Dunavant. Well look

2:26

at that Dunavant. KMCC.

2:29

I wonder what that stands for but I just can't

2:31

put my finger on it. Or

2:34

think of the word finger. Yes. We

2:38

had Melissa Mitchell. What up MM? And

2:40

last but not least, Sarah Thrasher. Hey thanks Sarah.

2:42

And then if we go back into the vault,

2:46

this week we selected Amy. Good

2:48

old Amy. Yeah, so we appreciate the

2:51

new support, the continued support. We also

2:53

had a great PayPal donation from Elizabeth

2:55

Horn. Hey thanks Horn. Yeah, thank you

2:57

to everyone. So Gibbs right now on

2:59

True Crime All The Time, we

3:01

have our second and

3:03

last part on Jodi

3:06

Arias and we really do

3:09

a deep dive into the trial

3:12

and also the penalty phase of

3:14

the trial as well and then

3:16

kind of talk about her making

3:19

headlines over the years and all

3:21

of that. So it's out now. Make sure you

3:23

check it out. All right buddy, are you

3:25

ready to get into this episode of True Crime All The

3:28

Time on the Vault? I'm

3:30

ready. We are talking about James Barrie,

3:32

better known as Buffalo

3:35

Jim. He was a

3:37

celebrity in Las Vegas. Jim

3:39

was liked and respected by the

3:41

majority of people in the city,

3:43

but he made some powerful enemies

3:45

when he refused to relocate his

3:47

business to allow for the expansion

3:49

of a local strip club which

3:52

had alleged ties to the

3:54

mafia. Jim was involved in

3:56

a years long feud with the owner who

3:59

was jailed for... tax fraud. And

4:01

then Jim died under mysterious

4:03

circumstances. The day after his

4:05

enemy was released from house

4:07

arrest based on the evidence at the

4:09

scene and the circumstances leading

4:11

up to his death, his family

4:14

believes he was murdered. How strange

4:16

is that for a strip club to

4:18

have mafia ties? Yeah, especially in Las

4:20

Vegas. It's very strange.

4:22

But then, you know, you, you kind

4:24

of go through this scenario and you

4:26

hear that, you know, his family believes

4:29

he was murdered. I think pretty hard

4:31

not to when you have this kind

4:33

of enemy who just happens to be

4:37

released right before

4:39

your family member dies under mysterious circumstances.

4:43

Definitely going to be thinking

4:45

about it. Yeah. James barrier was born

4:48

on March 22nd, 1953. He

4:51

grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Jim's

4:54

parents took him to Las Vegas for

4:56

a vacation when he was nine years

4:58

old. He knew he wanted

5:00

to come back someday. He loved Vegas

5:02

because of all the lights, shows, and

5:05

restaurants. And you know, Vegas

5:07

is a cool place, but I was

5:09

wondering how much can you really do in

5:11

Vegas as a nine year old? Maybe

5:14

he was a big kid. I don't know. He

5:16

was a tall nine year old. Maybe he had

5:18

a fake ID like the one kid in a

5:21

Vegas vacation. Jim

5:23

stopped attending school after the fifth

5:25

grade and instead learned as much

5:27

as he could about carbs. According

5:30

to Las Vegas weekly, he

5:32

started doing mechanic work at age 13.

5:35

He and his older brother did oil changes

5:37

and Jim often slept at the garages and

5:39

gas stations where he worked. That's definitely a

5:42

way to become a garage monkey, huh? Oh,

5:44

there's no doubt about it. Now we've talked

5:46

about a lot of people not finishing high

5:48

school. I don't know how many people

5:51

we've talked about who dropped

5:53

out of school after the fifth grade

5:56

pretty early. It is early, but

5:58

clearly he knew what he wanted to do. Yeah,

6:00

it was something to do with cars Jim

6:02

moved to Las Vegas in 1971

6:06

he was determined to stay but according to him

6:08

the city tried to get rid of him when

6:11

he was settling into his new life He

6:13

received 13 traffic tickets

6:16

and by the end of the 70s He had

6:18

so many infractions that his lawyer said he

6:20

should be called jailhouse Jim Kind

6:23

of similar to you and all those tickets that

6:25

you had remember I would sit in

6:27

your your vehicle and we would have to go somewhere

6:29

and That one

6:31

time I opened up your your little

6:33

vehicle that thing glove compartment Apartment

6:36

and it was like things sprung out. I just

6:38

tickets after ticket Yeah, and I was like what

6:41

the heck you're like, hey put them back none

6:43

of your business It never got me

6:45

Jim started off by doing mechanic

6:47

work out of his van But

6:49

he was able to purchase his

6:51

own auto repair shop in the

6:53

late 70s called all-state auto and

6:55

marine electric Las Vegas Weekly

6:58

told the story of how Jim got

7:00

his iconic nickname After

7:02

he arrived in Vegas Jim started

7:04

working with D Egbert who

7:07

owned a local car lot by this

7:09

point Jim's hair was long and thick

7:11

and made him stand out in a

7:13

crowd And you know Gibbs. I'm

7:15

always jealous of people with

7:17

long locks. It's something both you

7:19

and I do not

7:22

have one day

7:24

in 1975 Jim

7:26

and D went to a casino and were

7:28

stopped by a drunk tourist from Texas who

7:30

said to both men One

7:33

time when I was a young man, I

7:35

got drunk and I had sexual

7:37

relations with a buffalo First

7:42

of all, that is Never

7:44

something you should attempt or want

7:46

to even think about but

7:49

second of all Why would you

7:51

tell this to two complete strangers? Why

7:53

would you even say it out loud

7:55

at all to anybody? He

7:57

then looked at Jim and said, you know

8:00

You just might be my son. And

8:04

I guess from then on, Jim was

8:06

known as Buffalo. Jim. Now,

8:10

a lot of people have nicknames

8:13

and you always wonder, okay, where do they get them?

8:15

Some of them are easy, right? There's

8:17

a big guy named tiny or, you know,

8:20

whatever Buffalo gym.

8:23

If you gave somebody a hundred guesses,

8:26

they would never come close to to

8:29

guessing how he got that nickname.

8:31

Never. Jim owned his mechanic

8:33

shop for 31 years. His

8:35

shop was known for being able

8:37

to fix cars, trucks, RVs and

8:40

boats. No other mechanic could fix.

8:42

He had a celebrity clients

8:44

like Muhammad Ali, Mike

8:47

Tyson, the undertaker.

8:49

I know who is one of

8:51

your favorite or was one of your

8:53

favorite WWE wrestlers. Well, yeah, until he

8:56

cheated. And many more. And beat me.

8:58

Yeah. Fairly undertaker. People

9:01

out of state came to have Jim

9:03

fix their vehicle. So his

9:06

mechanic skills is outgoing personality

9:09

and his unique style made

9:11

him a local celebrity and

9:13

those are some big names. You

9:15

got Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson coming

9:18

to have you work on their

9:20

car. It says something. Jim used

9:22

to say, there's only two cities in

9:24

this great country where I can

9:26

be me. Those cities were

9:28

Vegas and San Francisco. He

9:30

planned to move to San

9:32

Francisco when he was old.

9:35

Jim liked to party in late

9:37

seventies and early eighties. He went out

9:39

to bars, use drugs and

9:42

met a lot of women. Well,

9:44

that's what you kind of did in the seventies and eighties.

9:47

I know that's what you did in the

9:50

seventies in particular, bars,

9:53

drugs, women, you

9:56

and your Husky jeans. They

9:59

look good on me. While pursuing

10:01

dates, he met several influential

10:03

business owners in Vegas and

10:06

maintained those connections for the rest of

10:08

his life. In 1979, he met his

10:10

partner Roxanne Pollock. They

10:13

had three daughters together. They never

10:16

married, but they were together for 22 years. I

10:19

think it's the first time I've heard you say the

10:21

name Roxanne without singing Roxanne. Roxanne!

10:24

22 years. That's some

10:26

long time. Yeah. You

10:29

would think at a certain point,

10:32

there would be some pressure there to get

10:34

married, but you know, there

10:36

are some folks that are just

10:38

totally fine. And I think

10:41

also there are some folks who believe

10:44

if we do get married, it's not going to

10:46

be as good. So let's just leave

10:48

it where it sits. Let's just leave

10:50

it. Yeah. Let it lie. You don't need

10:52

to put a ring on it. In

10:54

total, Jim had four daughters. Jessica, Elise,

10:57

Jericho, and Jennifer. Wonder

11:00

if her Elise felt special because she didn't get the J.

11:03

Well, as a guy who has

11:05

two kids that are both daughters,

11:09

four daughters is a

11:11

handful has to be. Cause I

11:13

can tell you right now, two daughters that's

11:16

expensive. And

11:19

we haven't even got to weddings yet. You

11:21

know, we're still working through college and all

11:23

of that. Jim continued

11:25

partying heavily until his daughter Jessica

11:28

was born in 1982. He

11:31

decided he needed to change his life

11:33

to be a good father. And his

11:35

main priority in life was providing for

11:37

his family. Jim's daughters loved him

11:39

very much and spoken about what a good dad

11:41

he was. I think there's a lot of guys

11:44

like this, you know, partying

11:46

a little Frank, the tankish, Oh

11:49

yeah. And I would put myself in this category

11:51

for me. Not that I

11:54

ever drank a ton, but I, you know, I

11:56

drank and, but it was like

11:58

once I had my daughter. There

12:00

was something that hit me where

12:03

I felt like I should not be

12:05

out of control. Well, your priorities will change.

12:07

Yes. Kids will do that. It's,

12:10

you know, it's what additional responsibilities

12:12

do to you. Yeah. Now,

12:14

although Jim did decrease his drug

12:16

use, he experimented with drugs in

12:19

the eighties and dabbled in drugs

12:21

with his friends in the

12:23

pro wrestling industry until 2000, according

12:26

to Las Vegas weekly. Well, those guys

12:28

could party because I worked at a hotel when

12:31

they would come in to back then the old era

12:33

arena to do the

12:35

big matches. Later that night,

12:38

they'd be at the Holiday Inn

12:40

where I worked and they'd be

12:42

down in the restaurant bar till

12:44

like four o'clock in the morning and

12:47

they would, were very open on what they were

12:49

doing. Well, they were big guys too.

12:51

I assume they could put some

12:53

away. Yeah. Some close friends said

12:55

he would partake in a night of heavy partying

12:58

all the way up to 2005. So

13:01

he slowed down, but he didn't stop. When

13:03

his daughter, Jennifer was older, Jim told

13:06

her he used cocaine in the eighties.

13:08

The fact that he was not proud of his

13:11

daughters told unsolved mysteries. They never

13:13

saw him use drugs. Now

13:15

let's face it. Cocaine in the

13:17

eighties was pretty ubiquitous. Yeah.

13:20

Yeah. I mean, it was like a, almost

13:22

like a fashion statement. Like it went

13:24

with what you wore. People

13:26

were like, it was a designer drug. People

13:30

were clamoring. I remember

13:32

the big movie, less than

13:34

zero came out around that.

13:36

And then, of course, I mean, can you

13:38

not remember Scarface? Was that in the

13:40

eighties or nineties? I can't remember. Scarface was in the

13:42

eighties, but I think it was set in the seventies

13:44

for some reason. I don't know. And

13:47

we talked about professional wrestling. And

13:49

that was one of

13:51

Jim's other interests. In

13:54

1996, he started the vocational school

13:56

for pro wrestlers called the

13:58

Buffalo Wrestling Federation. He

14:01

taught people how to wrestle and how

14:03

to create a persona to appeal to

14:05

audiences. Jim also put on

14:07

a live show that appeared on Lighten

14:10

on late night cable TV called

14:12

Buffalo Jim's wrestling show. Well, you know,

14:15

you know, you know, that wrestling goes, it's

14:17

all about your persona. Yes.

14:22

I mean, there are people who are really good wrestlers. Yeah. And,

14:25

but they don't have the charisma and

14:28

so they don't take off. Now, if you got

14:30

both, you're going to get a chance you're

14:32

going to take off. Yeah, you're going to climb the

14:34

ladder as long as you play the game, right? And

14:36

I did watch a show on wrestling.

14:38

I can't remember what it was called, but it

14:41

kind of went through the background

14:43

of some of these now famous wrestlers.

14:45

You know, they start out in these

14:47

underground shows, then they get into some

14:50

type of school. And then

14:52

the next thing you know, they get, they

14:54

get called up to the, I guess the

14:56

big leagues. Yeah. Yeah. Jim's

14:59

hard work paid off. He grew his wealth.

15:01

And in 1998, he purchased

15:03

his dream home on

15:05

Sunrise Mountain. Jim's fame

15:08

increased and he became a beloved figure

15:10

in Las Vegas. One way

15:12

he gave back to his community was

15:14

by doing reading tours in local elementary

15:16

schools. I thought about

15:18

doing that, but you have discouraged me

15:20

from doing it. Yeah. It's, it's not

15:23

something that I think you should undertake.

15:26

Let's just say that. Yeah. You

15:28

said draw some picture books.

15:32

If you want to teach a kindergarten

15:35

art class or say, you know,

15:37

little macaroni gluing, I'm fine with

15:39

that. The Las

15:41

Vegas Review Journal voted Jim

15:43

the city's most colorful character

15:46

in 2005. That's saying a lot for

15:48

Las Vegas. It is because there's a lot

15:50

of colorful characters. You think

15:53

about cities like San Francisco,

15:55

New Orleans, Las Vegas,

15:58

New York. people go there

16:01

because they will fit in.

16:04

I remember walking down

16:06

Bourbon Street, just seeing

16:08

some of the strangest people I've ever seen. I

16:11

probably talked about it before. There was one guy

16:13

in a Darth Vader costume

16:16

who just stood and flipped people off. And

16:18

people will give him money for being flipped

16:20

off by Darth Vader. If

16:24

that's your thing, that's a great place

16:26

for you. Absolutely. In the late 90s

16:28

and early 2000s, while

16:30

Jim was at the height of his fame, he

16:32

was involved in a feud with another

16:34

local business that caused his family to

16:37

split, ended his wrestling federation,

16:39

and almost caused him to lose

16:41

his business. So next door to

16:43

his wrestling school and his auto

16:46

and marine shop was this

16:48

strip club called the Crazy Horse

16:50

2, T-O-O,

16:52

not T-W-O, which

16:55

opened in 1984. The

16:57

club was owned by Rick Rizzolo,

16:59

who reportedly has ties to

17:02

mafia figures, something that

17:04

a lot of people

17:06

allege about you. I

17:09

can neither confirm nor deny.

17:12

As your counsel, I would say

17:14

that's a good tactic. Now,

17:16

why you've made me your counsel, I don't know. I

17:18

don't have a law degree, so that

17:20

seems- You printed that thing off the internet.

17:22

Like a bad decision on your part. I

17:24

thought it was real. The Crazy Horse was

17:26

one of the most successful clubs in the

17:28

city. According to Unsolved Mysteries, there

17:31

were rumors. The mob was involved in

17:33

the club. As the years

17:35

passed, the club developed a reputation

17:37

for violence, and there was talk

17:39

that bouncers were beating up patrons.

17:41

That's not gonna help your business.

17:44

Well, I saw that movie Roadhouse, I thought that's

17:46

what a bouncer's job was, was

17:48

to beat up patrons. What's that

17:50

saying in the Roadhouse? Be nice until

17:52

you- Until it's time to

17:54

not be nice. Now, I'm

17:57

assuming that most-

18:00

Bouncers need a reason, you

18:02

know, to, to throw a patron

18:04

out. It sounds to me like here

18:07

in this situation, they were

18:09

just beating people up. I don't know. And

18:11

maybe the thing is a bouncer is not

18:13

supposed to beat people up. They're

18:16

supposed to deescalate and get

18:18

the person out without having to beat

18:20

them. Yeah. I always thought the job

18:22

was to protect the other

18:24

patrons and the property

18:27

from damage. So everybody else

18:29

can still enjoy the festivities. Jim

18:32

tried to stay out of it and he

18:34

occasionally went to the club after work. So

18:37

this feud between Jim and Rick

18:39

started around 1998 when Jim

18:43

wouldn't give up his space so that

18:45

the club could expand. Jim invited

18:47

Rick and his chief associate who was allegedly

18:49

a mob member to his office for a

18:52

drink so they could work out a deal.

18:55

Zolo declined his terms, walked

18:57

out and started an

18:59

intimidation campaign to get

19:01

Jim to move. Okay. If

19:03

this is how it went down, this is a

19:05

tough spot for Jim. He's got, you

19:08

know, two businesses. He's just

19:10

going to what, give up one of

19:13

them or part of one of them. So

19:15

this club can expand or both of them.

19:17

Yeah. I mean, you're going to want to be compensated, right? If

19:19

you're going to do something like this,

19:22

it's gotta be fair. And

19:24

apparently he didn't think it was right. He

19:27

refused whatever offer

19:29

that they made to him saying it wasn't

19:31

high enough. Jim's attorney

19:33

Gus flingus told Las Vegas

19:36

weekly, but the most outstanding

19:38

thing about Buffalo was

19:40

that he hated corruption and

19:42

he was passionate in that hate. And

19:45

he had not only hated it, he fought it.

19:47

We all know he did. Okay. I

19:49

mentioned being in a tough spot. I get

19:51

it. You don't want to do what

19:54

they want you to do, but if

19:56

this is really the mob, you

19:58

might be putting yourself in a little bit of. jeopardy there.

20:01

Yeah. Yeah. Cause they're going to try to

20:03

make you do what they want you to do.

20:05

Well, and let's face it, the

20:08

mob has always been willing to

20:10

go to links that legitimate

20:13

business people won't go to

20:15

customers. Cars were destroyed or towed

20:18

away. Jim shop was broken into

20:20

and set on fire. Sometimes

20:22

drunk or injured customers from the club

20:24

were found lying in front of the

20:27

shop. Used condoms were

20:29

left in plain sight. And

20:31

Jim's daughter once came upon used needles.

20:34

Jim also felt like he was being

20:37

harassed by police and fire code inspectors.

20:40

Okay. Is it possible that, you know, if it's

20:43

the mob, they got some of these people

20:45

in their pocket. Absolutely. It's

20:47

happened. Yeah. But what all

20:49

of this did was it caused Jim

20:51

to lose business. I mean, I get

20:53

it. You're a great mechanic, but I

20:55

really don't want to pull up and

20:57

see a bunch of used condoms and

20:59

needles and yeah,

21:02

or that my car is going to be stolen

21:04

while it's at your facility or set on fire.

21:06

Yeah. In addition to all

21:08

this, Jim received threatening letters and phone

21:10

calls according to unsolved mysteries. A

21:13

man screamed on the other end of the line.

21:15

I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill

21:17

you. I could see how somebody would

21:19

take that as a little threatening. It's

21:21

not going to sit well. Okay.

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you get your podcasts. Jim

23:43

went on the local news to complain

23:46

publicly about the Crazy Horse 2, saying

23:48

that they put in fake fire

23:50

lanes and used city parking enforcement

23:53

to ticket his customers. Behind

23:55

the scenes, Jim started speaking to

23:57

journalists and giving them information about

23:59

the club. He also

24:01

gave federal investigators photos, the

24:03

names of witnesses and other

24:05

information. Well, there's two

24:07

ways to play the game. The strip

24:09

club is going to do it their way and now Jim's going

24:11

to do it his way. But as

24:14

we said, right, if the mob

24:16

is really involved, going to federal

24:18

investigators is not going to ingratiate

24:20

you with them. No. If

24:23

anything, it's going to put a big old target

24:26

on your back. Jim always said he wasn't

24:28

worried, but he knew he had to be

24:30

careful and watch his back.

24:32

He said, I will not back down

24:34

and let anyone take anything from me.

24:37

In July 2000, Jim filed

24:39

a lawsuit against Rick Rizzolo,

24:41

alleging that he and his

24:44

company were promoting prostitution, pandering

24:46

drug sales and arranging to

24:49

bribe public officials. He's really

24:51

not backing down. No. And

24:54

he's going on the offensive. Those are some pretty big

24:57

claims. According to Jim's

24:59

attorney, he'd suffered hundreds of

25:01

thousands in damages, loss of

25:03

business and emotional distress. He

25:06

sued the crazy horse for $1 million.

25:09

Jim hired a PI to prepare for

25:11

the lawsuit and claimed he had proof

25:13

to back up his allegations. Rizzolo's

25:16

attorney threatened to sue Jim for libel.

25:19

Rizzolo and the attorney for

25:21

shift properties. Jim's landlord said

25:23

the suit was a preemptive

25:25

strike before an evidentiary hearing

25:28

in their landlord tenant dispute. Shift

25:31

properties accused Jim of failing to

25:33

properly care for his space, which

25:35

is tough to do if you

25:37

have somebody setting things on fire.

25:39

Yeah. If you have the person

25:41

wanting your space, setting you

25:44

up and also sounds like

25:46

maybe in cahoots with

25:48

the landlord. It does sound like that.

25:51

During the lawsuit, news came out

25:53

that the FBI began looking into

25:55

the crazy horse to back in

25:57

1995. Robert

25:59

Klein. former FBI agent told Unsolved Mysteries

26:01

that in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s,

26:03

the mafia ran

26:07

strip clubs around town. Strip

26:09

clubs are primarily a cash business

26:12

which makes it easier to

26:14

commit fraud. There is a lot of

26:16

cash allegedly flying

26:18

around in a strip club. I've

26:21

never been personally, but I hear.

26:23

I've heard that too. I've never been.

26:26

But you see on TV, you

26:28

know, nail salons,

26:30

laundromats, you know, these at certain

26:34

times have been pretty

26:37

popular as kind of

26:39

businesses to buy in order to launder money. I

26:42

think you'd have to throw strip clubs in there

26:44

as well. Oh yeah, I think it'd be an

26:46

easy place to launder some money. Climber

26:48

told Unsolved Mysteries, one of the

26:50

places in Las Vegas where you

26:53

could find representation of

26:55

every single mafia family in the

26:57

United States was in the crazy

26:59

horse too. Okay, that's

27:01

really scary. I mean, you're

27:04

talking about mafia from

27:06

all over New York, Chicago,

27:09

people at the club were

27:11

involved in tax evasion, extortion,

27:13

and other illegal activities. During

27:16

the investigation, Rizzolo admitted to

27:18

hiring people with criminal backgrounds,

27:20

but denied committing any crimes.

27:23

And we mentioned it, right? Jim was supplying

27:25

the FBI with information about

27:27

activities at this place. According

27:29

to former agent Robert Clymer,

27:32

he sent them boxes of evidence on

27:34

a weekly basis for about two years.

27:37

And his information was helpful to

27:39

their investigation. In 2000, Jim's

27:42

partner, Roxanne, took the girls

27:44

to Seattle, Washington because of

27:46

this feud with Rizzolo. However,

27:49

she allowed Jim's daughter, Jerika,

27:51

to move back in with

27:53

him in January, 2001. They

27:55

were extremely close and lived together for

27:57

six years. 2003,

28:00

the FBI executed a search warrant

28:03

on the crazy horse to 16 employees

28:06

were indicted for various crimes. It's a

28:08

big hit. Yeah. I

28:10

mean, I don't know how many people are employed

28:12

at a normal strip club, but 16 of

28:15

them to be indicted

28:17

seems like a lot. Again, I wouldn't know

28:19

because I've never been. I thought you were going

28:21

to say you never worked there because you have worked

28:23

at one. What's different than going

28:25

as a patron? Right. Okay.

28:28

That Rex West

28:31

in 2006, Rick Rizzolo pleaded guilty

28:33

to income tax evasion in early

28:35

2007. He was sentenced

28:38

to a year and one day in prison,

28:40

not just not a year, a year and one

28:42

day. You sir, are being sentenced

28:44

to one year in a day.

28:47

The crazy horse to closed in September

28:49

2006 after its

28:51

liquor license was revoked by August

28:55

The building was condemned because

28:57

of damages. Now Rick

29:00

Rizzolo was in prison, but

29:03

apparently this feud continued on.

29:06

Jim was granted a restraining

29:08

order against Bart Rizzolo, Rick's

29:10

father in November 2007 after

29:13

he claimed Bart tried to run him over

29:15

in their shared parking lot. He talked

29:17

about watching his back. I mean, you'd have to

29:19

have your head on a swivel at all times.

29:21

Yeah. A shared parking lot and

29:24

you got to worry about being ran over. Las

29:26

Vegas Weekly reported on the club in 2007,

29:29

a journalist interviewed a

29:31

cocktail waitress who said Bart

29:33

and Rick were obsessed with Buffalo.

29:36

Every single morning Bart talked about him.

29:38

I think in all the time I

29:40

worked there, there were maybe five mornings

29:42

Bart wasn't talking about how to get

29:44

rid of Buffalo. This

29:47

guy was really like a thorn in their side. Sure. Yeah.

29:51

Definitely obsessed though. Rizzolo only served

29:53

10 months in prison. He was released

29:55

in March 2008 and was put on

29:57

house arrest. His house arrest ended on

30:00

April 4th, 2008, Jim barrier died on April 5th.

30:06

And I think when you look at it, you know,

30:09

on the surface, that's either

30:11

the biggest coincidence or

30:14

bad luck for this Rizzolo

30:16

guy, or he had something

30:18

to do with it. Seems a little strange for

30:20

sure. According to Jim's daughter,

30:22

Jerica, earlier that day, her father's motorcycle

30:25

was repaired by his chief mechanic at

30:27

the shop. Jim wasn't happy because he

30:29

hadn't been able to use it for

30:31

more than a year. And

30:34

he took it out for a ride. Jim

30:36

had a lot to look forward to at

30:38

the time. He was going to sign

30:40

a contract for an NBC reality series

30:42

about his life. And his auto repair

30:45

shop was doing better than it

30:47

ever had before. He had plans to move

30:49

to a new location. So, you

30:51

know, I think just looking at, at some

30:53

of those things is important

30:56

because this is a guy that's

30:58

got a lot going for him. Yeah. It

31:01

doesn't seem like a

31:03

person down on his luck that is

31:06

maybe thinking about ending his life.

31:08

No, sounds like things are going

31:11

in a great direction. Maybe as

31:13

well as they ever have at

31:15

two 12 PM, Jim

31:17

called Joshua Longo Barty from

31:20

Las Vegas weekly to tell him

31:22

about the latest threatening letter he'd

31:24

received. This letter was concerned. Because

31:28

it contained detailed information that

31:30

was accurate, including his home

31:32

address, Jim called at least

31:35

two other local journalists that day.

31:37

The newest letter read per Las Vegas

31:39

weekly, Mr. barrier meetings

31:42

have been taking place at

31:44

various locations around town by

31:47

Rick Rizzolo, Rick was

31:49

one of the persons driving around your

31:51

property last week. Be careful. He's

31:53

up to no good. He's using

31:55

people to get close to you. He's

31:58

discussed using. female

32:00

to get access to your business.

32:03

Jim had received a similar letter on

32:05

February 1st. It said, Bart

32:07

Rizzolo has been overheard telling some

32:10

of his close contacts that there

32:12

will be violent attacks against you.

32:15

He's let it be known that you will

32:17

suffer in the near future. I

32:19

mean, at a certain point Gibbs, you got to

32:21

start getting a little worried, don't you? Yeah.

32:23

I mean, if this person

32:25

is going around talking about you as if

32:29

some really bad things are going to happen to you,

32:31

you have to take it serious. I get

32:33

it. He's been fighting these people

32:35

for many years. Yeah. And

32:38

it seems like he's winning

32:40

or has pretty much won.

32:43

Well, and if they feel like the reason

32:45

Rick's in prison is because

32:48

of Jim, which

32:50

they probably did. Yeah, because

32:52

he did help put him in prison.

32:55

So now they're probably looking at a way

32:57

to retaliate. Is that similar to

32:59

retaliate? Yes.

33:02

Retalulation. Retalulation.

33:06

Jim's daughter, Jennifer spoke to him on

33:08

Thursday, April 3rd. Jim mentioned

33:10

that Rick was out of

33:12

prison and said, if the crazy

33:14

horse, two people were to get him, they

33:17

wouldn't make it look like I died

33:19

of a drug overdose with women. So

33:21

I think at the very least this

33:24

was on his mind. He had been thinking

33:26

about it to the point where, you know,

33:28

he tells his daughter, Hey, if something happens

33:30

to me, this is probably

33:32

how they'll make it look. So

33:34

it sounds like he has some concerns. Yes. Joshua

33:37

Longo Barty also wrote that Jim contacted

33:40

him on April 4th. Earlier

33:43

that day, Jim received a

33:45

phone call from an alleged hitman. Longo

33:47

Barty told him to be aware of

33:50

potential ambushes. Jim told the journalist

33:52

the same thing he told his daughter. They're going to

33:54

try to do it through a woman or

33:56

they're going to try to drug. They

33:59

agreed. Jim. should be careful who he

34:01

socialized with that weekend or

34:03

watched what he ate or drank. I

34:06

think I'd be locked in a room. So

34:09

nobody could get to me like, like

34:11

a panic room or something. So

34:14

you're kind of locked in your room anyway. Well

34:16

at the very least I wouldn't be going

34:18

out to the bars. Probably I wouldn't be

34:20

trying to meet new people. The

34:23

only people I'd have around me is people I had

34:25

known for a very long time. But Jim

34:27

left home around 7 15 PM on the night of

34:29

April 5th, 2008. Jerika

34:34

didn't want him to go, but Jim told her

34:36

if he wasn't back by 12 30, he

34:39

would give her $50. She

34:41

asked for a hundred dollars and they shook on

34:43

him. He left with a large amount

34:45

of cash in his pocket as was his

34:47

habit and drove his 1979 Rolls Royce. So

34:52

he might've had some concern, but

34:55

it wasn't to the level where he was

34:58

going to change his lifestyle. He

35:01

was still going out. Wasn't going to

35:03

stay locked up. Jerika texted

35:05

her dad around 9 30

35:08

and didn't receive a response. She called him

35:10

at 9 41 and 9 50 PM. According

35:14

to Las Vegas weekly, Jim

35:16

did not reply. He asked her sister

35:18

Elise to pick her up. Jerika

35:20

called him again on the morning of April

35:22

6th and sent a text around 12 PM

35:26

around 2 30 PM. She

35:28

received a call from a police officer.

35:30

The officer said she had to speak to

35:33

an adult. Jerika was just 15. So

35:36

she passed the phone to Elise who was 20. The

35:39

officer informed her that her father was dead and

35:42

they needed to come to motel six on

35:44

Boulder highway to identify the body.

35:47

That's a strange thing to do coming

35:49

to the actual motel. When

35:51

I come downtown to the

35:53

coroner's office or something. That's what I

35:55

was thinking as well. Don't you normally

35:58

go to like the coroner's office? What

36:00

are they just, you're just going to walk into the motel

36:02

room and look at this person's

36:04

body there. Say yay or nay. Huh.

36:07

At 11 30 AM, a housekeeper

36:09

knocked on the door of room one oh

36:12

five to see if she could start cleaning,

36:15

she opened the door and saw a man asleep

36:17

on the bed. She returned to

36:19

12 30 and saw the man still in

36:21

bed. She returned again at one 10

36:24

PM and found him in the

36:26

same position. Another housekeeper shook

36:28

the man to see if he would

36:30

wake up and they realized he

36:32

was dead. So first of all, this

36:35

woman really needed to get into that room to clean

36:37

it. She's like, Hey, sir, you

36:39

didn't pay for the extended stay. Cause

36:41

she was coming back like every hour.

36:44

But as we often talk about what's

36:47

this going to be like, I mean, you're

36:49

just doing your daily routine. Now

36:51

this might happen a little more often to

36:55

house cleaners or, you know, people who

36:57

work at hotels, then maybe

37:00

some other occupations where,

37:02

you know, you knock on the door, you go

37:05

in and there's somebody dead. The man

37:07

was soon identified as James

37:09

barrier. Jim was found lying

37:11

face up with a pillow behind his head,

37:14

his shirt opened in his pants,

37:16

down around his ankle. A white

37:18

powdery substance was found on his beard

37:20

and shirt. And when I saw

37:23

this Gibbs, it made, it really made

37:25

me question, you know, this hotel

37:28

made cause it was saying, you know, it

37:30

had said that she kind of looked

37:32

in on him what two or three times

37:35

and thought he was sleeping. And

37:37

this picture that's being painted

37:39

doesn't really scream out.

37:42

Hey, I'm sleeping. Right. Sounds like

37:44

something else. Yeah. Pants around

37:47

the ankles, uh, shirt

37:49

open. No, I know that's

37:51

just a Tuesday for you, but for

37:54

most people, that's not

37:56

normal sleepy time. No, but

37:59

it is Vegas. So, you know, that's true. And

38:01

it is motel six. His

38:03

cause of death was not immediately

38:06

obvious. When Elise and Jerika arrived

38:08

at the motel six, they

38:10

didn't see their dad's rolls Royce in the

38:12

parking lot. They hoped the police had the

38:15

wrong man, but when they entered

38:17

the room and saw the body, they

38:19

knew immediately he was their father.

38:22

They claimed they were not given information

38:24

or details about how he was found,

38:26

but they were given his belongings that

38:28

were found in the room with the

38:30

body. According to Jerika, the

38:32

police gave her an empty prescription pill

38:35

bottle. It was found in Jim's

38:37

pocket and there were originally

38:39

three pills inside. Jerika asked if

38:41

the pills were green and was

38:43

told that they were. She said it was

38:45

her dad's value. However, the

38:48

label on the bottle was for

38:50

Norvask, a prescription heart

38:53

medication. The prescription expired in

38:55

2003. The

38:57

girls were given an envelope

38:59

that contained Jim's car keys, cell

39:01

phone, garage door opener,

39:04

wallet, and his motel receipt.

39:06

Because you know, you got to have the receipt for

39:08

the hotel room. It's important. Well,

39:10

the one thing that really stood out to

39:13

me was the garage door opener. Who

39:15

in the world takes their garage door opener

39:17

inside a hotel room with them?

39:20

I mean, most of us never take it off

39:22

the visor. I had mine clipped on my

39:24

belt right now. I know. And I always

39:26

thought that was strange. Jim's ID

39:29

was missing and his wallet only

39:31

contained a folded dollar bill. If

39:33

that was his lucky dollar bill.

39:36

Could have been, but it was said that

39:38

Jim never folded the money in his wallet.

39:41

And he was known for always carrying large

39:43

amounts of cash. Jerika said

39:45

her dad left the house with cash, but

39:47

it appeared to be missing. It makes

39:49

you wonder. It makes me wonder why

39:51

somebody would leave the $1. Yeah.

39:54

If you're going to take it, you just take it all. Or

39:56

is it some type of sign? That's a

39:58

great question. And according. to

40:00

unsolved mysteries, a $1 bill

40:03

is a sign of a mob hit. I

40:06

did not know that. Wonder why a $1 bill, not a

40:08

$2 bill, not a 50, not a 100. We're

40:14

not gonna go crazy and give away money. Yeah,

40:17

but a $1 bill is so common, seems

40:20

like a strange sign. What's

40:22

that old mob hit

40:24

thing they used to do, the black hand?

40:27

Black hand. In other words, tied to black

40:29

hand stuff. I don't think they gave

40:32

you a dollar. I thought they gave you an envelope

40:35

with a black hand on a card or something. Maybe

40:37

they got tired of doing the black hand. So let's

40:39

take it to a different level. Something

40:41

more simple. Anybody got a dollar bill on

40:43

them? Jerika thought the fact

40:45

that volume was found in the room was

40:47

strange. Jim normally took half a

40:49

pill to sleep at night and he had

40:52

a new, almost full bottle at the time

40:54

of his death. Jerika normally prepared

40:56

his medication every night. She knew

40:58

her dad didn't plan on sleeping

41:00

at the motel. The girls

41:03

noticed other details they thought were strange.

41:05

There were two cups of water on

41:08

the nightstand, but Jim hated tap

41:10

water. The room was clean, but

41:12

Jim was a messy person and

41:14

shed hair everywhere he went. Which

41:17

I thought was a strange statement, makes him

41:19

sound like he was a lab or something.

41:22

I don't know if his hair was falling out or he

41:24

had a lot of body hair. Again,

41:26

it's something mean you don't know because we

41:28

don't have thick long hair. And

41:31

this garage door opener that

41:33

was found in his room, which

41:35

I thought was strange, they said

41:37

he had never taken it off his

41:39

son, Beiser, before. And

41:41

that was my thought as well. People rarely

41:44

take it off once it's on there. Additionally,

41:46

Jim's daughter, Jennifer, noted

41:49

that two phones were listed on

41:51

the police report, which were not

41:53

Jim's phone. The girls never

41:55

received a silver phone described in the

41:57

report. They did not know of Jim's phone.

42:00

Jim having a second phone and they

42:02

wondered who's at what. And we,

42:04

we have to talk about these two daughters. I mean,

42:06

how terrible to have to, you

42:08

know, drive to a

42:11

motel six to identify

42:13

your father's body. Now

42:16

did they leave him in the exact state he

42:18

was in? Because that's going

42:20

to, you know, make matters

42:22

even worse. You walk in, your dad's

42:25

laying there, shirt, open pants down around

42:27

his ankles. Hopefully they put a sheet

42:29

over top of them. I would hope

42:31

so. But either way, it's,

42:33

it's going to be a very traumatic experience,

42:35

but it sounds like they

42:38

then go into almost like detective mode,

42:40

right? Because they are pointing out a lot

42:42

of things that are strange. Well, and they

42:45

also had that conversation. Well, one

42:47

daughter did, you know, prior to her dad

42:49

going out, which included

42:51

two facets, right? One was about

42:53

drugs and the other was about

42:56

possibly a woman. Yeah. So

43:00

if you're found with your pants down

43:02

around your ankles, it does

43:04

denote that, you know, some

43:07

type of rumpus room activity

43:09

was possibly going on. And

43:12

then obviously, you know, this

43:14

prescription pill bottle plays into

43:16

it as well. Yeah. And the

43:18

fact that you're at a motel six. Well,

43:21

they always leave the light on for you. They

43:23

do unless you're renting it by the hour and

43:25

then they don't turn it on. The police

43:27

asked the girls about their father's missing

43:29

car. Jerika and her sister

43:31

drove around the building looking for it.

43:34

They knew they wouldn't miss a Rolls Royce if

43:36

it was in the parking lot, but they didn't see

43:38

it. So the police filed

43:40

a missing car report. And

43:42

that is true. You know, if you're looking

43:45

for a 1995 Toyota Celica, right,

43:48

you might miss that. You are not going to miss

43:50

a Rolls Royce. No, I don't think

43:52

so. And I don't understand why the police aren't

43:54

assisting them. I

43:56

try to locate this car. It

44:00

did seem strange that they were kind of Nancy

44:02

drewing it like on their

44:04

own. I'm going to use that as a

44:06

verb. The police released room one

44:09

Oh five back to management later that

44:11

day. Didn't waste any time. No,

44:13

I mean, I'm assuming they did everything

44:16

they needed to do, but one thing that did

44:18

kind of go through my mind was, you know,

44:21

they were giving the girls a lot

44:23

of item. Was that were

44:26

any of those not potential

44:28

evidence? Maybe they thought there

44:31

was no evidentiary value.

44:34

Maybe it appeared to them that there was no foul

44:36

play involved. Yeah, it's possible. But

44:38

yeah, I always worry when you're

44:40

making that determination so early on,

44:43

we've seen in how many cases

44:45

police think it was a suicide or they

44:47

think this or they think that, so they

44:49

don't collect certain pieces of

44:52

evidence. And you

44:54

know, once they give it back to the

44:56

girls, then, you know, obviously you're going

44:58

to lose the ability to

45:00

do certain things. Right. At 5 30 PM, the

45:04

Rolls Royce was found behind the office

45:06

in the parking lot of the motel.

45:08

Six. The police searched the car

45:11

and did not find prints or hair. That's

45:14

strange though. If the girls looked

45:16

for it and couldn't find it, but then

45:18

they finally find it. The police do. At

45:21

five 30 a family friend

45:23

retrieved the car from the parking lot

45:25

and took photos of it. It

45:28

was very clean. And whoever

45:30

returned the vehicle parked it in a

45:32

spot visible from the street.

45:34

So it almost makes it sound

45:37

as though it probably wasn't

45:39

there, right? When

45:41

the girls drove around looking for it. And

45:44

then at some point later, after

45:47

it was cleaned and all of that, somebody

45:49

dropped it back off, but that

45:51

would be very risky. It would be

45:53

unless it's an inside knowledge.

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your homework. Jerrica

46:49

decided to look through Jim's call log to

46:51

see who he last spoke to. He

46:53

had a message on his voicemail. The

46:56

message was left by a woman who said, Hey

46:58

Buffalo, this is Lisa. Is

47:01

everything okay? Jim talked on

47:03

the phone with Lisa at 7.40pm. Their

47:06

conversation lasted 7 minutes and

47:08

47 seconds. Her

47:10

number was not saved in his phone. Lisa

47:12

left messages at 7.30 and 9pm. She

47:16

asked him to call her back, then asked

47:19

if he was alright. Jerrica decided

47:21

to call Lisa because she sounded

47:23

concerned in her voicemail. A

47:25

woman answered. Jerrica asked, Are

47:27

you Lisa? The woman didn't reply.

47:30

Jerrica said, Do you know Buffalo Jim?

47:33

The woman responded, I don't know

47:35

Buffalo Jim and hung up. Okay,

47:37

two things for me. Again, Jerrica's

47:40

15 years old, doing

47:42

a damn good job at playing

47:44

amateur detective. But also,

47:47

then I think number two, how are

47:50

you going to leave voicemails

47:53

and then when confronted say, you

47:56

don't know who Buffalo Jim is and then you

47:58

don't even answer the question of. whether or not

48:00

you're Lisa. And for me, why

48:02

aren't the police doing some of this work? Well,

48:05

I think it's a good question, right?

48:07

Because they don't have

48:09

the cell phones anymore or cell phone.

48:12

They handed it to the girls along

48:14

with some other things. So what

48:17

type of investigation are they

48:19

really doing? And maybe some of

48:21

that does go back to the fact

48:24

that they determined early

48:26

on that there was

48:28

no investigation needed, possibly

48:31

incorrectly. Yeah. Maybe they

48:33

were told, Hey, don't look

48:35

into this. Investigators checked

48:37

security footage and saw the gym walked

48:39

into the lobby of the motel six

48:42

at eight 22 PM to check in.

48:44

However, key card data indicated that

48:47

Jim's room was accessed by

48:49

a key card. Seven minutes earlier,

48:52

the key card report identified which type

48:54

of key was being used in

48:56

each room. It was a guest key

48:58

that accessed the room. So somebody

49:01

went to the room, did

49:03

something or was in the room.

49:06

Jim entered the room. And then I think you

49:08

have to ask how'd they get this guest key when

49:10

he hadn't even checked in yet. Yeah. But

49:12

if they knew he was going there, maybe

49:15

somebody set something up, Lisa

49:17

or whatever her name

49:19

was to meet him there. And

49:21

then she let Rick or

49:23

Bart know that the meetup

49:25

was set. Maybe they got somebody into

49:27

that room or her. Yeah.

49:29

No, I see where you're going with it. But

49:32

wouldn't that mean that that whoever was working

49:34

the desk that night would have had to

49:36

have been in on it too. Is

49:39

it that hard to pay somebody at a motel six?

49:42

Uh, here's a couple

49:44

hundred. No. You know

49:46

what I mean? Yeah. Give me a guest

49:48

key for room, whatever, and

49:50

then make sure when this guy comes in, you

49:52

put him in that room. Yeah. But that

49:54

would have to have happened. Yeah.

49:57

In that scenario, Jim's daughters

49:59

believe some. Someone was already in the

50:01

room waiting for him when he arrived. And

50:04

that seems like a very valid theory

50:06

based on what we just talked about.

50:08

If a guest keycard accessed

50:11

his room, what, six, seven

50:13

minutes before he even

50:15

checked in, then yeah,

50:18

I could say there was probably somebody in there

50:20

waiting for him. Yeah. Additionally,

50:22

per unsolved mysteries, a short

50:24

female silhouette was

50:26

captured following Jim outside. This

50:29

was picked up on camera because of the

50:31

large windows in the lobby on

50:33

April 7th, 2005. An

50:35

officer told the public that the Vegas

50:38

Metro police found no evidence of foul

50:40

play. So homicide detectives

50:42

were not called to the scene.

50:45

A coroner's investigator came to the

50:47

scene and found nothing suspicious and

50:50

wrote that the death was a possible overdose.

50:53

So I do think that helps

50:55

explain some of the

50:58

questions that we posed. Why

51:00

did they just give all of this

51:02

stuff back to Jim's daughters? Well,

51:05

first of all, homicide detectors weren't even out

51:07

there because the police just

51:10

thought, you know, there's no evidence of foul

51:12

play. Looks like he took

51:14

too many drugs. Sorry about your loss.

51:17

Here's his, uh, personal items. The report

51:19

stated that Jim was once addicted to

51:21

cocaine. However, no illegal drugs

51:23

were found at the scene. The

51:26

report did make note of the three

51:28

volume pills found in the pill bottle.

51:31

The room was photographed, but the

51:33

police didn't get fingerprints or interview

51:35

family and friends. And like

51:37

we often talk about, you know, if

51:40

you don't do that stuff up front right

51:42

away, you know, seal

51:44

off the scene, make sure nobody's

51:46

traipsing in and out. That shouldn't

51:49

be, you know, dusting

51:51

for fingerprints, bagging

51:53

up evidence, all of that stuff.

51:55

You can't go back and redo it.

51:58

No, you get one opportunity. And

52:00

once it's gone, it's gone. The

52:03

initial conclusion was that Jim died

52:05

of natural causes. The

52:07

Metro police said there would be

52:09

no formal investigation unless the autopsy

52:12

found something unusual. The

52:14

Las Vegas review journal reported that the clerk

52:17

who was on duty when Jim

52:19

checked in said his Rolls Royce was parked

52:21

around the side of the building. The

52:24

motel clerk also confirmed Jim

52:27

rented a room for two.

52:29

The hotel security guard reported nothing

52:31

unusual that night. The

52:34

review journal noted that there is

52:36

no surveillance footage of the parking lot.

52:38

And to me, that's huge. You

52:41

know, when you think about somebody

52:43

potentially driving off in

52:46

Jim's Rolls Royce,

52:48

getting it cleaned and then, you

52:50

know, parking it back in the location where

52:53

they did well without surveillance

52:55

footage, how would you ever know? Who

52:58

that was. Jim's

53:00

autopsy was conducted on April 7th, 2008 by

53:02

Dr. Larry Sims. Jim

53:05

had no significant external trauma. He

53:08

was not shot, stabbed, beaten or strangled.

53:12

He had an unknown white powdery substance on

53:14

his nose and beard. Dr. Sims

53:18

ran a standard drug test and

53:20

tested for several other drugs. Jim

53:22

tested positive for cocaine. According to Dr. Sims,

53:26

the minimum lethal level

53:28

of cocaine is 100

53:30

to 200 nanograms per milliliter. Jim's blood had

53:33

around 250 nanograms per milliliter. Well,

53:38

remember Jim said to his

53:40

daughter, if they're going to take me out, there's

53:43

going to be a woman and drugs involved. When

53:46

it sounds like there was both. Now I

53:48

think we said by this point in his life, it was

53:50

a very, very, very, very in

53:53

his life, it was not thought

53:55

that he was using cocaine, but he

53:57

had used cocaine off and

53:59

on. for many, many years, I think

54:01

back in the seventies and eighties. That

54:04

leads me to believe that, you know, this

54:06

was a guy who knew how much cocaine

54:09

you could use at one time. Sure.

54:13

Yeah. And how much was enough

54:15

to kill you. Unlike somebody who

54:17

had never taken cocaine in their

54:20

life, they'd have no idea other

54:23

than what you see in movies, you know, making

54:26

up a little line and snoring

54:29

it through a bill. That's the only thing I know

54:31

about cocaine is what I've seen from movies. Always like

54:33

to use a credit card. Or

54:35

one of those straight razor razors or

54:38

the safety razor inserts. Yeah.

54:43

You see that a lot too. Yeah, you do. That's true. But

54:45

to me, his knowledge of the drug

54:48

and his usage of the drug in the past kind of

54:52

goes against this thought

54:54

that he would overdose.

54:56

I think we said he used it in the seventies,

54:59

the eighties, the nineties, all the way up into the

55:01

somewhere in the two thousands. He

55:04

was no novice to cocaine. No, but you

55:06

could also make the case

55:08

that because he used it so often,

55:11

maybe he felt like he needed more or

55:14

maybe he had built up a tolerance and

55:16

that tolerance was

55:18

gone by this time. Or

55:20

that he was just overconfident with

55:22

it. Maybe he could handle more. I'm

55:25

leaning towards my theory. Dr. Sims

55:27

estimated the time of death between seven

55:29

and nine PM on April 5th, 2008.

55:33

Jim's friend, Lisa was interviewed on April

55:36

15th. Lisa claimed that

55:38

she and Jim had a long relationship

55:40

and she was with him on the night

55:43

he died. She called him and told him

55:45

a male friend of hers wanting to

55:47

discuss selling a motorcycle to

55:49

Jim. She and Jim agreed to

55:51

meet at the Chevron gas station on

55:54

Charleston Boulevard and then drove to

55:56

the motel six on Boulder highway in

55:59

Jim's Rolls-Royce. Roy's, which he parked around

56:01

back. Lisa said that once they

56:03

got inside the room, they played

56:05

what she called a sexual

56:08

fantasy game. Okay. That

56:11

phrase leaves a lot to

56:13

interpretation. It really does. I

56:16

mean, you can go through a lot of

56:18

different things in your mind as to what

56:20

that might have been. And I

56:22

know, you know, you saying that, that means

56:24

a lot because you have written

56:26

a book or two on that

56:29

subject. So, you know, I

56:31

mean, we're not talking about chips,

56:33

dips, chains, whips, kennel wax on the

56:35

nipples or anything like that. But again,

56:37

that's all in your book. We don't

56:39

know exactly what this was. Lisa

56:42

said that Jim used a lot

56:44

of cocaine that night and was

56:46

acting paranoid. She told him to

56:48

drink some water. Jim laid on

56:50

the bed and started convulsing. He

56:53

clutched his chest with both hands. Lisa

56:55

left him in the motel room and took

56:58

a taxi back to the Chevron gas station

57:00

to get her car. She left

57:02

Jim a message at nine 30 asking

57:04

if he was okay. He never

57:07

responded. Well, you know what? When

57:09

he started to convulse, maybe instead

57:11

of leaving the room, you pick up the phone and call

57:13

nine one one. But doesn't

57:15

that seem very strange

57:18

that she uses the word

57:20

convulsing. And then

57:23

she just leaves him. And then just

57:26

texts later and says, Hey, are you

57:28

okay? I know you were

57:30

convulsing. And putting both your hands on

57:32

your chest, like something was wrong. I

57:34

wanted to make sure that you're okay.

57:37

You also wonder, you know, where did he

57:39

get the coke? If that's, if that

57:41

was from him or from her or from

57:43

this third person that they met. And

57:46

I also want to know what was in the water. Was

57:49

it water or was it something

57:51

with something laced or whatever? And

57:54

was the coke laced? Cause

57:56

he might've done what he thought

57:58

was a normal amount of. cocaine.

58:01

But if it was laced with something, then

58:04

it might have been much more potent than he

58:09

thought it would have been. According

58:11

to Unsolved Mysteries, Lisa was a

58:13

stripper and previously worked at the

58:16

Crazy Horse 2. So

58:18

she had a connection with Bart or Rick, but

58:21

did she have that type of connection that she would do

58:23

something to Jim? On

58:26

their behalf. Yeah. Yeah, it's a

58:28

question. I also want to know

58:30

what type of sexual fantasy game involves

58:33

only pulling your pants down to

58:36

your ankles, because I'm still

58:38

stuck on that as it's

58:40

seeming very staged. Right?

58:43

Because if you're later going to say

58:45

we were fooling around or we were

58:48

whatever, okay, you're going to

58:50

leave this guy with his shirt open and his

58:52

pants around his ankles. But most

58:54

people don't leave their pants around their

58:56

ankles when they're hot and

58:59

heavy into a sexual fantasy game.

59:01

So that seems strange to me. A little bit. Additionally,

59:04

the police did not interview Lisa's

59:06

friend who wanted to sell the

59:08

motorcycle to Jim. So for me,

59:11

that seems strange too, right? I mean, why not take

59:13

the questioning, the investigation all the

59:15

way through on that? She

59:18

told you why they met there

59:20

and what the purpose was and what happened

59:22

prior to that. Why wouldn't you want to go

59:24

ahead and just confirm all that? Yeah,

59:26

I would say you would. But again,

59:29

it doesn't sound like

59:31

this was a full blown

59:33

investigation. I'm kind of surprised

59:35

they even interviewed Lisa. Yeah,

59:38

me too. But if you're going to go to that

59:40

extent, why not go ahead and finish

59:42

it up? Yeah, no, I'm right with you. Jim's

59:44

family suspected that Lisa was part of

59:46

a plan to set Jim up and

59:48

kill him at the motel. Jim's

59:51

cause of death was made public on May

59:53

27th, 2008.

59:56

His cause of death was

59:58

dilated cardiomyopathy. inflammation of

1:00:00

the heart muscle with

1:00:02

cocaine intoxication as

1:00:04

a contributing condition. And

1:00:07

Jim did have a history of health issues. He

1:00:10

was diagnosed with diabetes in the 80s,

1:00:13

but in recent years he had stopped eating

1:00:15

sugar and increased his exercise.

1:00:17

According to Las Vegas Weekly, Jim's

1:00:19

physician said he was healthy the

1:00:21

week before he died. Additionally,

1:00:23

20 milligrams of GHB

1:00:26

were found in Jim's system,

1:00:28

but this was not seen as a

1:00:31

contributing factor to his death. And

1:00:33

I don't know how much 20

1:00:35

milligrams of GHB is. What

1:00:38

I do know is that GHB

1:00:40

is that one that they commonly

1:00:42

refer to as the day rate

1:00:45

drug. And is that something that

1:00:47

people would know if they took? Well,

1:00:49

you know, you mentioned the water

1:00:52

and from my understanding, GHB

1:00:54

is odorless. It's colorless.

1:00:57

I think it would be fairly

1:01:00

easy to put even in

1:01:02

tap water. So if he drinks that,

1:01:04

he doesn't know, but then all of a sudden, I

1:01:07

think it puts you out. Yeah. And

1:01:09

then from there, you're still breathing.

1:01:12

Right. Could you then get

1:01:15

somebody to ingest

1:01:17

cocaine and as

1:01:19

much cocaine as you wanted? Sure. I

1:01:22

mean, for me, you can

1:01:24

see a very plausible

1:01:27

scenario where this is

1:01:29

exactly how this thing went down. And

1:01:31

I don't know, like you said, I don't know what 20

1:01:33

milligrams mean. No, I mean, they

1:01:35

said it wasn't a contributing factor in

1:01:38

his death. So maybe it's

1:01:41

not enough to kill

1:01:43

someone, but it is enough

1:01:45

to knock someone out. To allow something else

1:01:47

to be the source that kills him. Yes.

1:01:51

I think that's a real possibility.

1:01:53

But his death was considered an

1:01:56

accident. And I don't know how you

1:01:58

get accident. And like, you're

1:02:00

calling the ingestion of too

1:02:02

much cocaine an accident, which I

1:02:05

guess you'd have to. As mentioned

1:02:07

earlier, Jim's associates told Las Vegas

1:02:09

weekly that he continued partying into

1:02:12

his early 2000s, but his daughters

1:02:14

did not see him use drugs.

1:02:17

Jim's attorney, Gus said it was

1:02:20

uncharacteristic of him because Jim

1:02:22

had a cocaine problem in his early years,

1:02:25

and he was very proud of himself for

1:02:27

overcoming it. Now, does that

1:02:29

mean he couldn't have slipped up? No,

1:02:32

obviously people do, but could

1:02:34

it also be Gibbs that

1:02:36

this was knowledge that other

1:02:38

people had as well. He had

1:02:40

a cocaine problem at one point, so

1:02:43

we'll make it look like

1:02:45

he fell off the wagon and he

1:02:47

took a bunch of cocaine. He took

1:02:49

too much and he died. Yeah. Jerika

1:02:52

told Unsolved Mysteries. There was no

1:02:54

evidence of cocaine use in the

1:02:57

motel room, and the doctor who

1:02:59

performed the autopsy said no one

1:03:01

tested the cocaine found on Jim's

1:03:03

body to see what level it

1:03:06

was. There was no formal

1:03:08

police investigation into the death

1:03:10

of Jim Berry. Jim's

1:03:12

lawsuit against Rick Rizzolo failed

1:03:14

because he was no longer

1:03:16

alive to be a witness

1:03:19

against him. So, you know, when

1:03:21

we look at motive, there are

1:03:23

a couple of different motives here.

1:03:25

I think, you know, if you're looking

1:03:28

at Rick as a possible suspect,

1:03:31

number one, revenge. Sure. For

1:03:35

probably for what Jim

1:03:37

had done and for what

1:03:39

Rick most likely perceived

1:03:41

as what sent him to prison.

1:03:43

Right. And then secondly, you have

1:03:45

this lawsuit. Well, getting

1:03:48

rid of Jim gets rid of the

1:03:50

lawsuit. Yeah. And not only did

1:03:52

Rick have a problem with Jim

1:03:54

being the main contributor

1:03:56

to sending him to prison, but

1:03:58

I'm sure all those. mob ties

1:04:01

at an issue as well, because

1:04:03

after Rick went to prison, shortly

1:04:06

afterwards, the club closed. All

1:04:08

those mob individuals lost income.

1:04:11

Yeah, obviously we're speculating on a lot of

1:04:13

things here, but it's kind of hard

1:04:16

not to think that, you know,

1:04:18

these are real possibilities. Jim's

1:04:21

lawyer, Goss Flangus theorized that people

1:04:23

might have forced cocaine on Jim.

1:04:26

The medical examiner echoed his suspicion

1:04:28

saying Jim might've been forced

1:04:30

to use excessive cocaine or

1:04:33

was tricked into taking especially

1:04:35

potent cocaine. Okay. So I

1:04:37

think two things that we've already talked

1:04:39

about his lawyer thought

1:04:42

that even the medical examiner

1:04:44

said it was a possibility

1:04:47

in late 2022. Jim's

1:04:49

daughter, Jennifer publicly appealed for his

1:04:51

case to be reopened. She

1:04:53

said per eight news. Now I personally

1:04:56

think he was poisoned. Jim's

1:04:58

former attorney, Goss sent a letter to

1:05:00

the attorney general and the

1:05:02

Clark County DA requesting an

1:05:04

investigation. He highlighted inconsistencies

1:05:06

in the case and

1:05:09

the feud between Jim and Rick

1:05:11

Rizzolo Flangus also pointed out

1:05:13

that Jim had GHB in a system

1:05:16

and this was not investigated

1:05:18

to me. And to me, that

1:05:20

was huge. Now I

1:05:23

did see some stuff online

1:05:25

about GHB being

1:05:27

used as a recreational drug.

1:05:29

Apparently I don't know

1:05:31

how, but maybe there

1:05:34

was something that it gives you

1:05:36

possibly like ecstasy, like euphoria.

1:05:39

Yeah. But it's

1:05:41

also well known that in

1:05:43

whatever, I'm sure it's different amounts do different

1:05:45

things maybe, but in a certain amount, it

1:05:47

will knock you out. And we will

1:05:50

not be experimenting at the next

1:05:52

time we record this podcast on myself. Yeah.

1:05:55

I don't, I don't know how to get GHB. I'm

1:05:57

assuming that would be illegal. So it's no, it's not

1:05:59

something we. I should try. That's good. Makes

1:06:01

me a little worried sometimes. But you

1:06:03

know, as we wrap this one up, there

1:06:06

are some unsolved cases that we do

1:06:08

where, you know, just at the end of the

1:06:10

day, you really have no idea. And

1:06:13

it's really hard to even lean in a

1:06:15

certain direction because there's very

1:06:17

little evidence or, or whatever. This

1:06:19

case for me was very different.

1:06:22

Now I'm not saying I know

1:06:24

what happened, but if I had

1:06:26

to put money on it, I

1:06:28

would lean towards this

1:06:32

idea that we've been discussing

1:06:34

because it seems to me

1:06:36

as though kind of everything leads in

1:06:38

that direction. Doesn't mean it happened

1:06:40

that way, but everything that we've

1:06:43

talked about and that I've read makes

1:06:46

me believe that there's something

1:06:48

to it. Well, Jim

1:06:50

told his daughter, if I die, this

1:06:52

is going to, it's going to happen of one

1:06:55

of two ways. And how it happened

1:06:57

is how he described it to his daughter. And

1:06:59

I wonder why that was maybe he had

1:07:02

some knowledge of how people within this group,

1:07:07

you know, like to do things, or

1:07:10

how they took care of their problems.

1:07:13

Jim's family still believes he was killed and

1:07:16

that his death was most likely related

1:07:18

to his feud with the owners of

1:07:20

the crazy horse too. And I

1:07:23

don't know how they couldn't believe it. It's

1:07:25

again, that's the way I'm leaning as

1:07:27

well. It's too coincidental

1:07:30

to me. The timing of it,

1:07:32

you know, one day after

1:07:34

Rick gets out, he's

1:07:36

on house arrest, right at the

1:07:38

time. Sure. So maybe he

1:07:41

gets somebody else to

1:07:43

do it for him. Pretty common. The

1:07:45

pants around the ankles, the open shirt

1:07:48

screams to me to be some type

1:07:50

of staging, but maybe the

1:07:52

biggest thing is this GHB. Right.

1:07:55

And the fact that they didn't investigate

1:07:58

it after learning. of that

1:08:01

really kind of blows me away. I get it. Local

1:08:04

police show up and they say, I

1:08:06

don't think we need to call detectives.

1:08:08

This really appears to be, you know,

1:08:11

an accident or something like that. But

1:08:14

once the autopsy is done and

1:08:17

the level of cocaine is

1:08:19

known and the fact that this

1:08:21

GHB was in a system comes

1:08:23

out, somebody's got to reevaluate

1:08:25

that. Now, like I said, if

1:08:28

you didn't do it upfront, how much can you do?

1:08:30

But you can still interview people and you can do

1:08:32

things like that. And think about Lisa, right?

1:08:34

Why, why did she not

1:08:37

be more forward when Jim's

1:08:39

daughter called that number and act like,

1:08:42

Oh, I don't know, Buffalo Jim. But

1:08:44

when she got interviewed by the police, she all

1:08:47

of a sudden, you know, she knew Jim, she

1:08:49

was with Jim that night. But

1:08:51

strangely, when he was grasping

1:08:54

his heart and convulsing, she

1:08:56

decided to just go ahead and leave

1:08:58

the room and then what, make several

1:09:00

calls to check in on him. Hey, are you

1:09:02

doing okay? I know I left you in the

1:09:05

middle of what appeared to be a massive heart

1:09:07

attack, but I want to see if you made

1:09:09

it through it. I'm just texting to see if

1:09:11

you're still okay. Yeah. Again,

1:09:14

you can lie to someone's daughter.

1:09:16

You can't, or you shouldn't lie

1:09:18

to the police. Obviously that might be the

1:09:20

difference there. We haven't had one

1:09:22

like this in a while where I've felt

1:09:26

so positive that something, you know,

1:09:28

more than likely happened a certain

1:09:30

way than, than this

1:09:32

one. But that's it for our

1:09:34

episode on the death of Buffalo Jim.

1:09:37

We've got some voicemails. You want to check that out? Let's hear them.

1:09:39

Hey, my thing of the day. This is Beth from

1:09:42

Savannah's WordPress. I've called in once before back in

1:09:44

2020 or 2021 about this internet and how you

1:09:47

guys helped me get through that. So I thought

1:09:49

I'd give you a little bit of updates. As you have

1:09:51

now helped me through a second major life changing event. I

1:09:54

listened to you guys for about 18 hours straight during

1:09:56

the birth of my daughter. My

1:09:58

husband and my husband thought I was. absolutely insane

1:10:00

with me to true crime unsolved. And

1:10:02

of course, Patreon, little shout out there.

1:10:06

You guys got me calm, have me laughing through it.

1:10:08

And now we've got another little

1:10:10

true crime lover out here. I just thought

1:10:12

I'd keep you guys updated on that. Hope

1:10:14

you guys are doing well. As always, team

1:10:16

Mike, and then stay safe. Keep your own

1:10:18

10 second guys, bye. Well,

1:10:21

that is very cool. It is awesome.

1:10:23

And I know you heard her say team Gibby

1:10:25

somehow, but. Well, team Mike,

1:10:28

AKA Gibby. Yeah,

1:10:31

very cool. Now 18 hours. It's a

1:10:34

long time. It's a long time. I love it. You

1:10:36

love the fact that it was a long time? Well,

1:10:38

that she was in pain for 18 hours. No,

1:10:41

no, no, no, no. No. No

1:10:44

wonder she's team Mike. How

1:10:46

mean of you? No, I think in the very

1:10:49

last time she was listening to T-cat. I

1:10:53

love that she was listening to us. Yeah, no, it's.

1:10:55

I thought she was in pain. It just came out

1:10:57

that way. 18 hours, awesome.

1:11:00

That's great that you had to go through all that pain.

1:11:04

Now that is cool. Anytime that we can help

1:11:07

and especially be a part of,

1:11:11

you know, help bringing somebody into the

1:11:13

world. Now we didn't do much obviously, but so.

1:11:16

We were. You tried to. I had

1:11:18

to keep you out of the room. Well,

1:11:20

the parents didn't want you in there. I

1:11:22

just wanted to see if I can get

1:11:24

my name, you know, the birth certificate somehow.

1:11:26

I mean, like middle name, you know, or

1:11:28

something like that. Gibby. Yeah. Hi,

1:11:31

this is Heather up in Vermont.

1:11:33

And I just finished your podcast

1:11:35

on Susan Howell. And you know,

1:11:37

every episode of Gibby gets obviously

1:11:39

upset because you guys talk about aesthetic things.

1:11:41

But I have listened to probably 500

1:11:44

of your episodes at

1:11:46

this time. And you're right. I am like

1:11:48

actually so enraged I had to call in

1:11:51

and just tell you I was enraged. Most

1:11:54

of my friends don't listen to your crime and

1:11:56

they would find it very strange if I called

1:11:58

them and explained how enraged I was. Anyway, have

1:12:01

a great night and thanks

1:12:03

for everything. Yeah.

1:12:05

Sometimes, you know, I think

1:12:07

obviously there is some

1:12:10

sort of, even at

1:12:12

a small level of desensitization,

1:12:15

when you do as much research

1:12:17

and watch as much true crime, and I'm

1:12:20

sure people listen to so much true crime

1:12:22

that they're, everybody's going

1:12:24

to get desensitized to a certain

1:12:26

degree. Sure. But some of

1:12:28

these cases are so horrible, like that

1:12:31

one was, that no

1:12:33

matter how much true crime you've listened

1:12:35

to, you've watched, that's going

1:12:37

to be upsetting. Yeah.

1:12:40

It's going to shake you. Yeah. There's just no way

1:12:42

around it, but we appreciate all the

1:12:44

voicemails. We do. All right, buddy. That is

1:12:46

it for another episode of True Crime All

1:12:49

the Time Unsolved. So for Mike and Gabby,

1:12:51

stay safe and keep your own time ticking.

1:13:29

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