Short Stuff: The Death of Charles Morgan

One of the lesser-known cases of American true crime is also a very sad one. Meet Charles Morgan, a man who got in over his head with organized crime. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 0:39Josh Clark?

  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.

• 0:50Josh Clark?

  And let's go.

• 0:51Speaker 02

  That's right. This is the, the case of a sort of a lesser known unsolved true crime murder, in fact.

• 0:59Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:00Speaker 02

  I hope that didn't spoil anything.

• 1:03Speaker 02

  In this thing you put together, called it bizarre. I take issue with that. I don't think it's bizarre at all, but it is unsolved and interesting.

• 1:11Josh Clark?

  Okay. I think when you, yes, you're right. No, it's not bizarre, but regardless.

• 1:16Speaker 02

  It sounds like any episode of The Sopranos to me.

• 1:17Josh Clark?

  It is unsung 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 May of 1977 in the desert outside of Tucson, Arizona. And his death was, like you said, almost certainly a murder. But it was pronounced 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.

• 1:56Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, let's just describe the crime scene. This guy was found deceased at the scene, wearing a bulletproof vest. From a gunshot wound from his own handgun to the back of his head. And it did not have his fingerprints on his own gun.

• 2:11Josh Clark?

  And it was laid beside his body.

• 2:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, so the sheriff was like, well, it looks like a suicide to me, you know. The guy put on surgical gloves and, you know, shot himself in the back of the head, as one does, and then managed to somehow to take those gloves off and hide them.

• 2:28Josh Clark?

  Exactly.

• 2:28Speaker 02

  Before he died.

• 2:29Josh Clark?

  And then he said, let's go get lunch.

• 2:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, his wife said, no, there's no way that this was a suicide. That's impossible. And now we're going to tell you a little bit about Charles Morgan and things will become pretty clear as we do.

• 2:44Josh Clark?

  Yeah, so he was an escrow agent. And the escrow agent, as anyone who's ever bought a house knows, is the person who holds the money.

• 2:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:52Josh Clark?

  There's this impartial third party who follows a set of rules about keeping and dispersing money. And basically, once the sale of some high value thing, almost always real estate, but sometimes 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 escrow agent involved because you don't just hand over the money and hope for the best. And then, once everybody's signed and all this 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.

• 3:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, like, just putting money in escrow, all of a sudden, it's got a little bit more legitimacy to it.

• 3:41Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 3:42Speaker 02

  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.

• 3:50Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 3:52Speaker 02

  And that's what he was doing, it seems like. You know, from all accounts, it didn't seem like he was a bad dude. It seems like somebody, maybe like in a Sopranos episode where he got in a little over his head, maybe ended up feeling like he had to do certain things, once the mafia got their, you know, their finger in his pie.

• 4:13Speaker 02

  What?

• 4:14Josh Clark?

  Good one, man. I love that. That's the best one since sniff them off the case.

• 4:19Speaker 02

  Oh, man.

• 4:21Josh Clark?

  That's wonderful.

• 4:22Speaker 02

  As it was coming out of my mouth, I knew that it was not right.

• 4:25Josh Clark?

  Seventeen years in and you're still, you're still doing it, man.

• 4:29Speaker 02

  I appreciate that.

• 4:30Josh Clark?

  I love it.

• 4:30Speaker 02

  But he was doing this for the mafia and there's a journalist for Unsolved Mysteries at the time named Don Deveraux, who basically was like, this guy was helping the mafia launder money through Arizona as an escrow agent, like by buying and selling platinum and gold is how they were doing it.

• 4:52Josh Clark?

  Yeah, because again, like you said, just taking tainted money, money made from selling drugs, you put it in an escrow 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 escrow 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 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?

• 5:30Speaker 02

  I did not.

• 5:31Josh Clark?

  A billion dollars. That's what Don Deveraux estimated, that journalist for Unsolved Mysteries. And like you said, he, 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 organize crime, but he was also a dedicated family man who cared very much about the safety of his family. And I say we take a break and come back and really kind of get into the sad story of Charles Morgan's death.

• 6:03Speaker 02

  Let's do it.

• 6:16Speaker 02

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• 7:09Josh Clark?

  Okay, so 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 the story of Ruth Morgan, Charles Morgan's wife, 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.

• 7:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's missing a shoe. His hands are zip-tied together. There are another set of zip ties that I guess he got out of, but on one of his ankles. And she immediately is like, oh, my God, the mafia has their fingers in your pie.

• 7:56Josh Clark?

  That's right.

• 7:56Speaker 02

  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'll tell you what I mean. He wrote down that his throat had been painted with a hallucinogenic drug that could either drive him insane, or his words, or destroy his nervous system and kill him.

• 8:21Speaker 02

  So don't call the cops.

• 8:24Speaker 02

  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.

• 8:30Josh Clark?

  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.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:40Josh Clark?

  And that he was really worried it was true.

• 8:42Speaker 02

  All right, we're in agreement then, because I don't think that's a thing, is it?

• 8:46Josh Clark?

  Uh, no. I mean, you would still absorb whatever drug through the mucous membranes of your mouth.

• 8:52Speaker 02

  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?

• 9:01Josh Clark?

  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.

• 9:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure. Uh, super scary stuff, obviously. Um, after about a week, uh, like you said, his, uh, 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 was 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.

• 10:17Josh Clark?

  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, a few weeks later, he suddenly went missing again. And this time, I mean, I can't imagine the dread Ruth experienced. 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.

• 10:56Josh Clark?

  I think he 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.

• 11:09Speaker 02

  No, no, for sure. I mean, this, this stuff is a little weird. She got the call from a woman who said, he's okay. Charles, or I think she called him Chuck even. Chuck is okay. He's all right. She also mentioned Ecclesiastes from the Bible, chapter 12, verses one through eight. This would pop up again in a second, but I'm, I'm sure you went and read Ecclesiastes 12, one through eight, as I did.

• 11:36Josh Clark?

  It's weird.

• 11:37Speaker 02

  The only thing I can sum up is that it, it sounded like some, some Sam Jackson kind of stuff in Pulp Fiction.

• 11:43Josh Clark?

  Yeah, kind of.

• 11:44Speaker 02

  Like, just sort of a scary, ominous biblical passage is, is how I interpreted that.

• 11:51Josh Clark?

  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.

• 12:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:07Josh Clark?

  Which is not, you know, it was just really strange. So yes, I find that bizarre that that was even mentioned. And it also comes up again after that, right? So this Ecclesiastes 12, colon. Colon. Verses one through eight.

• 12:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:27Josh Clark?

  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 of this happening to you.

• 12:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, I appreciate it.

• 12:39Josh Clark?

  It was on this $2 bill. He had written Ecclesiastes 12, and then he circled a one and an eight that were in the serial number of this $2 bill to, to reference that this was in verses one through eight.

• 12:53Speaker 02

  That's right. Did you say that was in his underwear?

• 12:56Josh Clark?

  I didn't. I was leaving that for you.

• 12:59Speaker 02

  It was clipped to the inside of his underwear. The bill also had seven Hispanic last names written on it. There was a map showing a known drug smuggling route between Mexico and Tucson.

• 13:11Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 13:11Speaker 02

  And then the founders, on that bill, the founders were signing the Declaration of Independence. They numbered them one through seven. And then the biblical stuff. They also found one of his teeth wrapped up in a handkerchief in the car.

• 13:23Josh Clark?

  So weird.

• 13:23Speaker 02

  There was a piece of paper with directions of where he was buried and handwritten handwriting. And someone else's sunglasses were in the car.

• 13:31Josh Clark?

  I've never seen any explanation for what his tooth was doing wrapped up in a handkerchief.

• 13:37Speaker 02

  I don't know. Maybe they intended to send it as like you would a lopped finger as a warning and they have never got around to it. That'd be what I would say.

• 13:45Josh Clark?

  But why did he have it?

• 13:48Speaker 02

  Well, that's what I'm saying. I mean, someone clearly was out there in the desert with them in that car.

• 13:53Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I guess, but I mean-

• 13:54Speaker 02

  And then left.

• 13:55Josh Clark?

  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.

• 14:09Speaker 02

  Here's the scene. The two mafia guys are driving away and they were like, hey, nobody's ever gonna find this body, right? Hey, not out here they're not. And you got the tooth to mail to the broad, right? Oh, Vinny, I left the tooth. You left the tooth?

• 14:27Josh Clark?

  Right. He said, I thought you said leave the tooth, grab the cannoli.

• 14:32Speaker 02

  So that's what I think happened. But yeah, that doesn't make a lot of sense. 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. My name is Green Eyes. And they said, how pretty. And she said, thank you. And they said, are your eyes green? She said, they're actually a shade of blue.

• 14:54Josh Clark?

  She said, maybe.

• 14:56Speaker 02

  She said, but that's not important. She said, I met with Chuck at a local motel recently. He had been hiding out there for about a week and he was on the run. 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 the hitman to buy back that contract. Obviously, that did not happen.

• 15:15Josh Clark?

  No, 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 hoped that maybe, just maybe, he could get out of this by buying that contract back, and maybe this would all go away. But it does seem that he did have a contract out in his life for real, 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 Deveraux, he posits, and this makes a lot of sense, that the hitman did get in touch with Chuck Morgan, and said, "I'm afraid

• 15:59Josh Clark?

  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 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 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.

• 16:42Josh Clark?

  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.

• 16:53Speaker 02

  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 betray the mafia if I just buy you out of this thing?" Like, I was like, "Yeah, totally, that's no big deal."

• 17:06Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 17:07Speaker 02

  And that he actually believed that, I mean, what a, what an awful way to die, desperate and also hopeful at the same time.

• 17:14Josh Clark?

  Agreed. There's some other weird stuff to this case, so I would suggest that anybody who is interested, go, go check it out, you can read a lot about it. And in the meantime, R.I.P. Chuck Morgan, and short stuff is out.

• 17:32Speaker 00

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