- 4 days ago
Murder She Solved S01E06
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00:002001, North Vancouver, on Canada's west coast.
00:07Do you know how to feel for a pulse?
00:10It's hard to see if you can feel for a pulse. Do you know how?
00:13We've got the ambulance on the way. I've got several police cars on the way.
00:17A man is shot at point-blank range.
00:21I can see a river of blood coming from him down the pathway.
00:26The victim is Wally Deconich, a 41-year-old father of two, murdered in cold blood.
00:34Seven years earlier, the parking lot of a downtown Vancouver apartment building,
00:3943-year-old heroin dealer Joseph Geyser is dead.
00:44Shot in the back of the head by someone he knew.
00:49Two gruesome shootings, years apart.
00:53The circumstances and victims, very different.
00:57Together, they'll lead a rookie cold-case cop on a high-stakes journey
01:02into a deadly criminal underworld.
01:05He was cold and not ruthless.
01:08Ripping open one of the biggest murder cases in Canadian history.
01:12I'm the one that had to take responsibility for this, whether it went good or it went bad.
01:18The
01:47father of two, Wally Deconich. Like many North Vancouver residents, Wally was
01:53raised here and he will die here a lot sooner than anyone expects.
02:00Tom Cattermull was Wally's best friend. I've met Wally originally back in
02:06I'm guessing about 72 or 73 we played some minor hockey together. But it wasn't
02:12until Tom transferred to Wally's high school that he found out what Wally was
02:16really made of. He kind of took me around the next few days and introduced me to
02:20everybody he could think of in school and from there we just became really close
02:25really good friends. And Wally Deconich was an easy guy to like. If there was a GQ
02:30magazine for juniors Wally would have been on the cover. He was athletic, he was
02:34handsome, he had a pretty good sense of humor. He was just the kind of guy that
02:38always wanted to be part of that inner circle with him and I was lucky for a few
02:41years that the inner circle was me and Wally. So it was a terrific time and a terrific guy.
02:48After high school Wally worked as a fisherman. Then with a young family to
02:54support he turned his talents to the more lucrative stock market.
02:58Wally got involved in the stock promotions in a smaller level in the mid to late 1990s and by 2000-2001
03:08he was promoting a couple of different Vancouver companies. And not all were wise investments.
03:16A lot of stocks in Vancouver including those that Wally was promoting were highly speculative.
03:22Most of them end up in oblivion. Taking a lot of people's money with them including Wally's.
03:29It is known that he had run up substantial personal debts including a quarter million dollar debt to
03:38a Canadian bank. Bottom line, Wally's broke. Then one of his big investments goes belly up and he and
03:47a friend lose a lot of money. Now Wally's desperate. That's when he discovers something that he hopes will
03:54help them both recoup some of their losses. He'd inadvertently come across some information.
04:03There was some money missing that wasn't being reported. When he found this out he tried to
04:12get money out of the people that were responsible. And so he was saying you should pay us some money back
04:20or I'll report this. But Wally's associates don't like being threatened. And now they've sent trouble
04:29to his front door. When these people approached Wally at his house there was a brief meeting where they
04:40wanted him to stop what he was doing. And he said he wasn't going to. So they've decided to shut
04:49him up for good. A neighbor discovers Wally and calls 911.
05:00Do you know how to feel for a pulse? I have to see if you can feel for a pulse. Do you know how?
05:06Okay, feel carefully for like 10 seconds. See if you can feel for a pulse.
05:09I do not know. I do not know. We've got the ambulance on the way. I've got several police cars on.
05:15Okay.
05:18The killer makes his getaway.
05:20You heard footsteps running away. Yeah, but you don't know what direction.
05:24You did not hear a car taking off. Is that correct? That's why they didn't.
05:2941 year old Wally Deconich is dead. The father of two was shot at point blank range on the doorstep
05:36of his North Vancouver townhouse. Police don't know it yet, but the man who killed him will be the
05:43focus of another investigation. A seven year old unsolved homicide reopened by rookie cold case cop
05:51Lee Bergerman. Getting on to the unsolved homicide unit was a huge goal for me. Now after 14 years as a
06:00police officer and undercover agent, Bergerman has just been promoted to this elite squad.
06:06The man who hired her is Doug Henderson. With Lee, I was quite impressed with her past record. I'd done
06:13sort of my due diligence on on her and looked like she would be a good prospect for the unsolved
06:21homicide unit. I was excited about it, but I was apprehensive because you're working with all these
06:27really experienced and significant homicide investigators and you're kind of the new kid on
06:32the block. So it was it was nerve wracking. Even though it was the year 2000, she was still a woman
06:40police officer coming into a very male dominated area. So she certainly was going to be under the
06:47scrutiny and the microscope of people. And Bergerman's first cold case is a doozy. The unsettling and
06:56unsolved murder of Vancouver drug dealer Joseph Gaja. Started reading and just really wrapping my head
07:03around about what happened seven years ago. A residential street in Vancouver's West End.
07:19A passerby makes a grisly discovery. Original investigating officer Dave Aiken was one of the
07:26first on the scene. A long weekend of 93, my partner Steve Pranzel and I were called out. We found a small
07:37car parked nose in. It turned out to be a stolen car and there was a white male in the passenger,
07:45front passenger seat slumped over. Belted in, obviously dead. When we searched through the car we found
07:54lots of interesting things. There was a couple of shell casings in the back, obviously a small caliber
08:02handgun. It's a caliber of bullet that typically doesn't exit the body and especially with a headshot
08:10will bounce around in skull cavity and causing damage and is going to be fatal.
08:16There was a small amount of blood on the outside of the driver's door. But no one to whom they could
08:25match it. And little chance that was going to change. We seemed to have no witnesses who were going to
08:31talk to us. Joe Gaja's side of this scenario, his girlfriend and all of his associates, none of them
08:41were willing to give us anything that we could conceivably take to court. You've done everything
08:48you think you can. You've gathered the physical evidence. You've analyzed that. You have to look at
08:54what your chances of success by carrying on. And the new ones keep coming.
09:01Aiken and Pranzel moved on to other cases and the Joseph Gaja murder got shelved in the cold case unit of
09:08British Columbia's RCMP. Now, seven years later, it's Lee Bergerman's job to drag it out of hibernation.
09:17By reading the timeline and the daily log and witness statements and I went over and over and over it
09:23again. It was just one of a rash of Vancouver murders, all with the same MO. The quick hit,
09:31the stolen car, the lack of fingerprints and not a single witness. I thought it was professional like
09:41a contract killing. They do surveillance on their targets. They hire a driver. They have the car
09:49stolen. So it's it's it's an organized process for them. It's only when Lee Bergerman turns her
09:57attention to the crime scene photos that she begins to think it may not have been the work of
10:02pros after all. A package of cigarettes on the floor, a lighter. He was shot sitting slumped over in the
10:11passenger seat. So to me, and it looked like he was just about to light a cigarette because it was all
10:18on the floor. Whoever he got into the car with, he was somewhat comfortable. He knew them or was business
10:26associates with them. Bergerman pours through the evidence yet again. In addition to the victim's
10:32blood in the car, remember that small amount of blood on the outside of the driver's door?
10:38It belonged to someone else and contains DNA that might well lead police to the killer,
10:45but only if they have a suspect to whom they can compare it. Now, Lee Bergerman may have found one.
10:51Buried in the witness statements, the passing mention of a man who may have had reason to rub
10:56out Joseph Gaggia, Mickey Smith. Word had it. Gaggia knew Smith and knew Smith's wife even better.
11:06One of the witnesses had explained to us that Mickey Smith was upset at Joe Gaggia because of something that
11:14Joe Gaggia had done or said about Mickey Smith's wife.
11:22Though Lee Bergerman doesn't know it yet, she's on the cusp of cracking open one of the biggest and
11:28most shocking murder cases in Canadian history. What she does know is that her first cold case as lead
11:36investigator is turning out to be a brain teaser. Seven years earlier, drug dealer Joseph Gaggia was shot
11:43in the back of the head, his body left in a stolen car in a downtown Vancouver garage. Though it looked
11:50like a contract killing, Bergerman believes Gaggia knew his killer. Whoever he got into the car with,
11:56he was somewhat comfortable. And suspect Mickey Smith fits that bill. Not only did Smith know Joseph
12:06Gaggia, he may even have had a reason to kill him since Gaggia was rumored to have had an affair with
12:12Mickey's wife. Bergerman hopes DNA results from blood at the scene of the crime will link Mickey to the murder.
12:20In the meantime, she wants to talk to Smith, but first she has to find him.
12:25We started checking every single previous address that we knew for him to see if we could find him.
12:35Once that came up short, we started looking for his ex-wife, places where she had lived over the years.
12:44We set up surveillance on a residence that we knew Mickey Smith's ex-wife lived there, hoping that
12:54eventually that would see Mickey Smith either coming or going from the residence. It's a long shot lead
13:02in a case going nowhere fast, but it's Bergerman's only option. The first to keep watch, Vancouver police
13:11officer Alan Catley, armed with an up-to-date picture of Mickey Smith.
13:15And it was a static surveillance where, you know, you just turn up,
13:19sit there for 20 minutes. If there's action, if there's not, there's not.
13:25Was parked in an unmarked unit
13:30at Lakewood and Hastings.
13:31And as I was looking out the front of the windshield, he walked past.
13:41They had found their prime suspect within the first 20 minutes of their first day of surveillance.
13:47When I told Lee, it was ecstatic.
13:50Nobody can pin him to an address. It was luck.
13:53And it may well be a major turning point in Bergerman's investigation, since Smith is their
14:00only suspect in the Joseph Gaja murder.
14:02I was so excited because I have been looking for this guy in every conceivable way and getting
14:11discouraged. And then right away, it's making plans to set up extensive surveillance so that we can learn
14:20what kind of guy he is, what he does with his life.
14:26Police observe Smith as he hops on a bus and makes his way to Vancouver's North Shore.
14:33Little wonder it took so long to locate him. Mickey Smith had found the perfect hideout.
14:41The last place I would have looked for him was in a trailer park under the Lionsgate Bridge.
14:46For the next few weeks, police don't take their eyes off Mickey Smith.
14:52He sleeps little and drinks a lot, hopping from one bar to another.
14:57That was the style of life he enjoyed. He was dysfunctional in lots of ways.
15:04Just kind of going from day to day, picking up money wherever he could.
15:08It is hardly the profile of a murderer. Perhaps Mickey Smith is nothing more than advertised,
15:14an unassuming former insurance salesman with the unfortunate nickname Bozo the Clown.
15:21Bergerman needs to loosen his lips.
15:24The goal is to make him feel comfortable so he will talk about his crimes. Specifically,
15:33the murder of Joe Gaja.
15:35Her plan? To have an undercover operator befriend Smith and draw out his secrets.
15:42And she happens to know just the guy, undercover agent Rod Lazenby.
15:46Once you leave home in the morning to come to work, you are a criminal. Think like a criminal,
15:52be a criminal, dress like a criminal, talk like a criminal.
15:54Lazenby will play the part of a mob boss from a fictional Toronto crime family.
16:00Dressed in an organized crime uniform, which would be a leather jacket, sports type like,
16:05high collar shirt, nice pants, nice shoes, hairs combed back with bro cream.
16:13Bergerman has Lazenby spend time at Mickey's favorite haunts, chatting up the locals, becoming a familiar face.
16:22Now, everything hinges on their first meeting.
16:25We call it a cold approach. It's the most difficult part of an undercover operation at the very beginning
16:31of the operation, for you to be introduced by yourself to the target.
16:36If Smith smells a setup, it'll derail Bergerman's investigation and put her cold case career on ice.
16:45It's nerve-wracking and it's a risky process because you've done all this work.
16:50And if you get shut down or there's no encagement, it's difficult to go back.
17:04So I walk up to him and say, hey, listen, do you know where this place is?
17:08He says, yeah, I know where it is. I said, well, can you take me there?
17:11I'll give you some money. I'll give you 50 bucks. Take me to this place.
17:14He said, no, I'm not going to get involved.
17:16Well, their worst fear seems to be coming true. Mickey isn't taking the bait.
17:23That's when his buddy stepped in and said, listen, take it. It's 50 bucks. This guy's a good guy.
17:29I said, okay, I'll go. He gets up.
17:33We go out to the Cadillac.
17:35And as soon as he saw that, he was intrigued.
17:47He was starting to talk about his criminal past before we even got to the other bar.
17:51He mentions to our undercover operator that he was in a book called The Canadian Connection.
18:00It was his connection to Fats Robertson, who was a significant criminal figure in Vancouver.
18:06That was to impress me, because I should know who Fats Robertson is if I'm an organized crime from Toronto.
18:13Lazenby passes the test and will spend the next few weeks building a bond with Mickey Smith.
18:20The bar is also the perfect place to get a DNA sample from Smith,
18:25one police hope will match the blood found on the car door at Joseph Gaja's murder scene.
18:31He was a drinker of beer and he was a smoker of cigarettes. He'd smoked a lot of cigarettes.
18:37Whether he was in a bar or in the car, whenever he left that area, when I was by myself,
18:42I could take one or two or three of those cigarette butts and put them in an envelope, stick in my pocket.
18:49While they wait for the DNA results,
18:52Bergerman has Lazenby offer Smith some supposed mob work,
18:56including smurfing, depositing crime money in amounts of less than $10,000 to avoid unwelcome questions from the authorities.
19:05I'd be driving the Cadillac. He'd be sitting beside me. I'd be giving him big wads of money and say,
19:11go into that Royal bank, go into that bank, go into that bank and deposit. Here's a deposit slip for you.
19:16That's going to one of our accounts. That's going to one of our companies. So that's what he did.
19:20And he thought he was laundering money.
19:22And they hope they're gaining Smith's trust.
19:25That was the thing with Mickey. He never told any lies. He never fabricated anything.
19:30And the only thing I never really got at him at any time was he always talked about his boots.
19:35And I said to him, yeah, wear some shoes, man. Get rid of the boots.
19:38No, I've done a lot of things in these boots and these boots have got history with me.
19:42I'm keeping with the boots.
19:45But Smith did seem prepared to clean up his act in other ways.
19:49His self-esteem had gone up. You could tell a big difference in him and the way he dressed and the
19:56way he carried himself. Cleaned himself up. Hands were clean. Nails were clean. Hair was combed.
20:02He even got a few haircuts with him. So his demeanor was better because he was somebody.
20:07We could tell that he was believing what we were doing. And it was very exciting.
20:17Lee Bergman went to a store or to a warehouse. She would buy big boxes full of cigarettes and
20:23a bunch of cases of booze. And that's what we put in the back of a rented truck. And that's what we
20:26moved around. So it was all legally purchased and legally taken back. We would just put it across
20:33as being stolen property props for this scenario. Their ultimate goal is to get Mickey to feel
20:42comfortable enough to talk about the killing of Joseph Geisha. But to do that, undercover operatives
20:49can't afford to relax. Not even for a moment. We couldn't make a mistake and all of a sudden start
20:55talking to him like policemen or that kind of authority. He would pick up on that. Any kind of activity
21:01that would look like a straight shooter, straight John as they say on the street, he would pick up
21:06on that. If we're criminals, we better be criminal organization because he knows what a criminal
21:10organization is. He lived it. So that's what we had to portray. They even went as far as to stage
21:18a murder of their own. An execution of a woman who supposedly ratted the crime family out.
21:26The way it was going to work, I was sitting in the back seat of the Mercedes and I had the gun.
21:31And I was going to go do this scenario. And he was in the front seat. Say, no, no, boss.
21:37I should be doing that. That's below you to do. I should be doing that. And I said to him, no.
21:44I brought her into the organization. I take her out.
21:47Lazenby has Mickey stand guard while he heads into an abandoned building.
22:02He was a pretty cool cucumber. While we were supposedly in whacking this girl, he was picking
22:08the fluff off his jacket. Then he'd get out in the car and I was checking my face if there was any
22:13blood spots in my face. He said, no, boss, you're okay. But Mickey still doesn't admit to the seven
22:21year old killing of Joseph Gasha. And to make matters worse, the comparison of Smith's DNA to
22:27that found at the crime scene is a bust.
22:30The blood doesn't match. I mean, we'll figure out, you know, it has to be explained, but sometimes
22:37it just can't be. Um, so yeah, that was a bit of a disappointment.
22:42Perhaps Bergerman has had it wrong about Mickey all along.
22:51Lead investigator Lee Bergerman and her team have been working Mickey Smith, trying to tie him to the
22:571993 murder of Joseph Gasha. But after months of bonding with Smith and paying him for fake mob work,
23:06undercover cop Rod Lazenby has been unable to squeeze a confession from their only suspect.
23:13Even a staged murder of a supposed crime family snitch didn't loosen Mickey Smith's lips.
23:20Worse still, DNA found at the scene of Joe Gasha's death seven years earlier doesn't match Mickey's.
23:27Which raises the question, are police chasing the wrong guy?
23:32And now, just when they can least afford to let up on their investigation,
23:37Lee Bergerman learns that Rod Lazenby has to go out of town to testify in a whole other case.
23:43We had to make arrangements for, you know, days off where there wasn't going to be any interaction with the
23:50undercover operator and, and the target Mickey.
23:55Which brings us back to the beginning of our story and Vancouver's tranquil North Shore.
24:01Father of two Wally Deconich is settling in for an evening at home alone.
24:07The small-time stock promoter is under a lot of pressure. He thinks he's uncovered a fraud,
24:13missing money that's found its way into the pockets of his business associates. Now Deconich is
24:19threatening to expose them unless they cough up some cash. It is a calculation that will cost him dearly.
24:26Across town, a killer sets out by car for North Vancouver. His destination, Wally Deconich's home.
24:39His mission, to shut the stock promoter up forever.
24:46It is late afternoon when he arrives at the entrance to the townhouse complex.
24:53He cruises by repeatedly, waiting for it to get dark.
24:59Just after 6 pm, the assassin pulls on a pair of woolen gloves and walks to Deconich's door.
25:07In his hand, a .22 caliber pistol equipped with a silencer.
25:22While the killer makes his getaway, a neighbor discovers Wally and calls 9-1-1.
25:38You heard footsteps running away.
25:41Yeah, but you don't know what direction. You did not hear a car taking off. Is that correct?
25:44That's right, I didn't.
25:46Do you know how to feel for a pulse?
25:47I had to see if you can feel for a pulse. Do you know how?
25:51Okay, feel carefully for like 10 seconds. See if you can feel for a pulse.
25:55I do not know. I do not know.
25:58We've got the ambulance on the way. I've got several police cars on the way.
26:01Okay.
26:03The attending cop is an RCMP trainee who's been on the job just a month.
26:09As we pulled up to the unit, I could see a male lying in the doorway.
26:15Seemed to be half in the door, half out.
26:17I could also see what I described as a river of blood coming from him down the pathway.
26:30He wasn't moving. There was a lot of blood, but it was coming out from underneath him.
26:36So I was sort of kneeling down beside him and had him turn over onto my lap.
26:43I couldn't tell if he was breathing. I don't think he was breathing at the time,
26:48but I could feel a faint pulse. And so I began to talk to him and say, you know, help is coming.
26:56Try and hang in there.
26:57But shot four times in the chest and head, Wally Dekinich doesn't stand a chance.
27:06I clearly remember that when I was holding him,
27:09that his heart did stop beating because I couldn't feel a heartbeat anymore.
27:13It was very upsetting for everybody that lived there. It was very unusual.
27:27It's a beautiful place to live. It's a safe neighborhood.
27:32Someone deliberately planned and deliberately killed Wally.
27:36Just, you're Wally. Yes. Anyone home? No. Boom. Kills him.
27:42They were serious criminals.
27:45While North Vancouver police search for Dekinich's killer,
27:49RCMP cold case investigators resume their sting operation into the 1993 murder of drug dealer
27:57Joseph Gatchett. And Rod Lazenby back in his role as a mob boss meets up again with suspect Mickey Smith.
28:05I pick him up. We get in the car. We're driving away. And he says, I took care of business while you're away, boss.
28:10And I said, what do you mean you took care of business? Well, I took care of business.
28:16And he goes like this in the car. I said, you shoot somebody? He said, yeah.
28:24I'm a little taken aback when we're talking about this. Really?
28:27Mickey Smith has proof. He showed me his thumb. Well, through his thumbnail was a hole.
28:37Lazenby has heard about the Dekinich murder. Now, Mickey is bragging about having committed it
28:42and giving Lazenby a play-by-play of the killing. First, he pumped a shot into Wally's chest.
28:51But Mickey tells Lazenby his victim fought back.
28:54He come at me. I grabbed the hole of him. They shoot him again. And I said, I was so excited.
28:58I shot myself through my thumb. Pissed me off so bad when I shot myself through my thumb.
29:03I shot him twice more and he was on the floor.
29:06They are details only the killer would know. And Lazenby is gobsmacked.
29:12They wanted Mickey to admit to a previous murder, not commit a fresh one.
29:16Lazenby breaks away at the first opportunity and gets word out to the RCMP.
29:24That's huge. That's massive to get information like that coming in. It was right spot on.
29:31I knew that without a shadow of doubt in my mind, that was the guy.
29:34I felt bad. I felt terrible. What signs were there that we should have known this?
29:44Did he ever say anything, you know, that would give us an idea? But he never said a word. We had no idea
29:52that he was up to anything of any sort. There was nothing.
29:58Mickey Smith has become a serious liability.
30:01Maybe he's got more contracts. Maybe he won't ask us and more people are going to die.
30:06So we had to bring it to an end. Lee Bergerman would have been under some
30:09pressure there at that point. The pace of this investigation
30:15became very, very quick. Unable to arrest Mickey based on a casual confession,
30:23Bergerman arranges for him to travel to Toronto, where he'll meet what he thinks is the head of the
30:28crime family. But it is in fact an elaborate Mr. Big sting operation.
30:35What we want to do is set him up in an environment where he's talking to our undercover operator's boss.
30:42And we want details of the murder in North Van and the Joe Gage murder.
30:50On a chilly winter afternoon, Rod Lazenby takes Mickey to the outskirts of Toronto and an empty warehouse.
31:02For the sting to be a success, Smith must not only provide more detail on the recent murder of family
31:08man, Wally Deckenich, but he must also confess to the 1993 Gage killing.
31:22Bergerman and her partner watched from above.
31:25It was like an addict watching this from kind of a bird's eye view. We can't make a peep.
31:31We can't move. We can't sneeze. Nothing. And we were right above it watching this all unfold.
31:37I introduce him to them. Shake hands with the boss. He shakes hands with the boss.
31:43And we had it all wired up so that we could intercept the conversation.
31:48Mr. Big tells Mickey he's got big plans for him.
31:52Maybe he got a job for you. Can you do this? This is how much we're going to pay you.
31:56Yeah, I can do that for you.
31:57He was told by the undercover operators that this contract killing may involve women and there might
32:06be a couple of kids around. He said that he had no problems with that. So that's pretty cold.
32:13But the crime boss, who's really a police officer, tells Mickey that in order to bring him into the
32:20organization, he needs Mickey to provide details on all his crimes.
32:24If he had anything to do with the Gaggia homicide, this was going to be the time that he's going to
32:29talk about it. Smith delivers. He tells Mr. Big that he killed cold case victim Joseph Gaggia
32:38because he was rumored to be cooperating with police. He reveals that he drove the car because
32:44his accomplice couldn't drive a standard. And then Smith inadvertently called the fatal shot.
32:50He said, geez, you better watch out. Those cigarettes are going to kill you.
32:58And this was right before he was going to light a cigarette. And the, who was supposed to be the
33:02driver, who's now in the back seat, thought that was the sign to shoot him. So he did.
33:07And though it was the driver that pulled the trigger, Mickey makes it clear that he was the main
33:13man behind the killing and the cleanup. And he says, we wiped off the steering wheel and the handles and
33:20we took off. And that was the Joe Gaggia homicide. Then Mickey Smith admits to the murder of Wally
33:27Deconich. Smith had heard through his criminal contact about a stock promoter with a mouth that
33:33was too big and a contract to kill him that paid too little. He said, $10,000 just isn't enough
33:40anymore. And, um, I just told, I just told him I need $30,000 because you got to hire a driver.
33:48You got to do this. You got, so it was, you know, he was talking about it. Like it was a contract for
33:55painting an apartment. Mickey's callous confessions are everything police had hoped for.
34:01We had them for, you know, the Gaggia homicide and now we've got them for this fresh one.
34:10Suspect Mickey Smith has been fooled by an undercover operation, confessing not only to
34:16the seven year old murder of drug dealer Joseph Gaggia, but also the recent killing of Vancouver
34:22stock promoter Wally Deconich. Watching the sting from the attic of the Toronto warehouse is cold
34:29case lead investigator, Lee Bergerman. It was incredible. It was pretty exciting.
34:36But Mickey has more to say and the undercover operatives who are posing as big time criminals
34:42can hardly believe their ears. The man they've been shadowing for months is no common criminal,
34:48but a ruthless and pathological killer. A guy who murders without hesitation or remorse. Mickey Smith is a
34:57hitman. He was 19 when he committed his first killing. The year was 1969 and he'd been hired by
35:05a criminal bigwig. The target was 58 year old mobster Lucien Mayer. Mickey attacked him in a restaurant
35:13parking lot, beat him and slashed his throat. Five months later, he killed Jack Tadic in a Burnaby hotel room.
35:21Tadic was rumored to be a stool pigeon. Mickey stabbed him more than 40 times. Then in 1999,
35:29Paul Solek, who is alleged to be ripping off a biker gang, goes missing. Mickey boasts about how he made him
35:37disappear. He shot him and then he dismembered him, cut him up and he gave graphic details about how he
35:45dismembered this guy. Five brutal executions over a span of 32 years. Who'd ever thought when when we opened
35:56up the Gaza homicide seven years after that we would end up you know five months later a guy confessing to
36:05five. If what Smith is saying is true, these murders will set in motion one of the biggest criminal
36:11prosecutions in Canadian history. But for the moment his words are practically worthless.
36:19The confession alone from Mickey Smith about all these murders that he talked about mean nothing unless
36:27you can corroborate it. Because a confession in an undercover scenario, the judges will tell a jury
36:36that they're inherently unreliable because of this whole bragging and bravado thing that these guys will do.
36:46To convict Smith, police will need the murder weapon he used to kill Wally Deaconate. Mr. Big
36:53instructs him to return to Vancouver to get it. Mickey knew he was flying back to go and retrieve the gun that
37:02he used in the Decanage homicide and give them to our undercover operators so that we could dispose of them
37:09properly. After landing at the Vancouver airport, Lazenby and Smith head out by car.
37:19Unbeknownst to Mickey, they're being trailed by an arrest team. After five nerve-wracking months,
37:28the success of the entire operation hangs on what happens next.
37:35It's nightfall when the two reach their destination.
37:41They drove out to exactly where Mickey said he had the gun hidden.
37:45It was a yard wrecking area of Langley.
37:53He went out of the car.
37:58And he walked in.
38:07He dug it up.
38:07They were wrapped in a big towel that was full of blood.
38:15Brought the gun to the car and gave it to me to get rid of. So there was the gun and the silencer.
38:20The weapon that killed Wally. The most important piece of evidence handed over to the police by the
38:27killer himself.
38:28Well, then we went from there. We're just having some conversation. Hey, let's go have a few drinks.
38:33Celebrate.
38:35You're with the family now. Let's go have a few drinks. I'll buy.
38:40But this would be Mickey Smith's last taste of freedom.
38:43It's always like a big take down.
38:53Just like you'd see in the movies. The guns and all that stuff. Hit the ground, hit the ground.
38:58And it looked like they arrested all of us.
39:00And the way we went. I go my way and Mickey goes his way.
39:03Mickey was very surprised when he got arrested. He actually thought he was embarking on this
39:16incredible new criminal life. The guns he turned over tested positive as the murder weapon. And the
39:26towel wrapped around the guns was full of his blood, which is consistent with the story about shooting
39:34himself when he did the hit. It will be enough to convict Smith of one count of murder. But
39:42Bergerman's biggest satisfaction is still to come. The first time I ever saw Mickey after he was arrested
39:49was when I went and saw him when he was in remand in Vancouver. And we got to advise him of the
40:00other four murder charges that were being laid against him. But it would be two and a half years
40:05before the investigation team would come face to face with their suspect in one of the biggest
40:12criminal cases the Canadian courts have ever seen. The first time I got in the witness box there was
40:19there was eye contact and you know he's just smug and ornery is how I would describe him.
40:25When I get up and say I'm my name is Rodney Francis Lazyny a regular member of the Royal Canadian
40:29Monaco Police, he knows. And we looked at each other and he smiled and I smiled and that was
40:35it we never had any conversation at all. Nor is he likely to ever. On October 10 2003 Mickey Smith is
40:45found guilty of five counts of murder. He is sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
40:54It consumed three years of my life that investigation. So it's pretty rewarding to have a guy like that
41:04in jail and never getting out. Mickey Smith's killing spree is over and lead investigator Lee Bergerman has
41:14finally solved one of the biggest murder cases in Canadian history. Not bad for a rookie cold case cop.
41:22Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think when you got this box that had gadget and the file number on it
41:32that three years later you'd have a contract killer who's been doing it for 32 years
41:39in jail for five murders. Never. Lee Bergerman was promoted to sergeant in October 2003 and became an
41:50inspector in June 2007. As for Mickey Smith, he won't become eligible for parole until the age of 78.
42:06it was about 5-7 million years ago. However, since the last day, they were in the
42:20second quarter of the year they were in the in-person sense of the military, they were in the
42:21special place where they were in the school, they would have to be across the country, a
42:24they were in the state and they were in the first quarter of the year they were in the
42:28corner of the day. They were in the science departmental that they were in the field of
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