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When criminals turn on each other, justice often follows. Join us as we examine notorious cases where killers were exposed by their own accomplices! From mob bosses betrayed by their underbosses to serial killers identified by their partners, these chilling tales show how the criminal underworld's own code of silence was broken to solve horrific crimes.
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00:00Well, from what I understand, his lawyer took basically everything.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're delving into chilling crimes that were solved with the help of other criminals.
00:11Your attorney advised you not to testify.
00:13Yeah.
00:14Conviction of John Gotti
00:16In 1985, John Gotti orchestrated the murder of Paul Castellano, which cleared his path to becoming the boss of the
00:22Gambino crime family.
00:24Like most mafia bosses, he thrived on loan sharking, racketeering, extortion, approving and ordering multiple murders.
00:30When he didn't like you, when you fell on the wrong side of John, you died.
00:34I mean, there was no mercy.
00:36You died.
00:37Yet for years, Gotti managed to beat major cases, earning him the nickname the Teflon Don.
00:42That changed in 1991, when his underboss, Salvador Gravano, flipped and testified against him.
00:48Get this.
00:49Gravano wasn't just any soldier.
00:51He was a prominent hitman for the Gambino family.
00:53After hearing FBI wiretaps of Gotti blaming him for murders and positioning him as responsible, Gravano broke his oath.
01:01He filled in all of the details that were missing from the recordings about how he and Gotti committed crimes
01:06on behalf of the Gambino family and managed to stay one step ahead of law enforcement.
01:11Thanks to his help, Gotti was convicted in 1992 and sentenced to life without parole.
01:16He died in a prison hospital on June 10, 2002.
01:20Frank Calabresi's senior murders.
01:22It's one thing to be betrayed by a business associate, and another to be undone by your own son.
01:27That's how the downfall of Frank Calabresi Sr. unfolded.
01:30Frankie's a great liar.
01:32He has a way of making you believe what he says.
01:36That's your dad talking about you.
01:38Yeah.
01:38Yeah.
01:39His relationship with Frank Calabresi Jr. was violent and deeply fractured.
01:43While serving time in prison, Calabresi Jr. secretly wrote letters to the FBI, outlining his father's crimes and his willingness
01:50to cooperate.
01:51These letters became the spark of what became known as Operation Family Secrets.
01:55I thought it out very thoroughly and very carefully before I did it, and the danger level was off the
02:01charts.
02:01The warden didn't even want to okay.
02:03Wearing a wire, Calabresi Jr. captured his father boasting about his past crimes.
02:07To make the betrayal worse, Calabresi Sr.'s brother, Nick, also testified against him.
02:12As a result, long-unsolved Chicago murders of 1970 to 80 were closed, many were indicted, and Calabresi Sr. was
02:20locked up for life.
02:21He made a mess out of his life. He destroyed a lot of other people's life. It's that umbrella effect
02:27around everybody.
02:28Lucchese crime family's shady dealings.
02:30Remember Ray Liotta's character in Goodfellas, who flips after realizing he was marked for death?
02:35Jimmy had never asked me to whack somebody before, but now he's asking me to go down to Florida and
02:41do a hit with Anthony.
02:49That's when I knew I would never have come back from Florida alive.
02:53Yep, that closely mirrors Henry Hill's real-life story.
02:56Though Hill wasn't a made man, he ran with powerful and dangerous figures in the Lucchese crime family.
03:02These men were responsible for drug trafficking, extortion, hijackings, and multiple violent murders.
03:07Hill was far from a bystander.
03:09In 1980, after Hill was arrested on drug charges, he made the critical decision to cooperate.
03:15Henry had no option but to break the most important mafia rule of all.
03:19Never rat on your friends.
03:21By then, Jimmy Burke had started killing off associates, and Hill believed he was next.
03:26Acting out of survival, he testified against Paul Vario and Burke.
03:29I said, Jimmy, you didn't get me, mother-f***er. I got you.
03:33The same survivalist instinct surfaced in Frank Luca's case, whose cooperation exposed not only organized crime, but deeply corrupt law
03:41enforcement.
03:41All right.
03:46What do you want to do?
03:47The Winter Hill Gang Murders
03:49When we say the Winter Hill Gang was dangerous, we mean every word.
03:53Its undisputed leader, Whitey Bulger, led a crew where murder was routine, strategic, and relentless.
03:58We were supposed to live by a certain code, and this was his teaching, too.
04:03You know, you never rat on your friends, never rat on your family, you never give everyone up.
04:07You have a problem, you take it to the street.
04:09When Bulger was to be indicted in 1994, his FBI handler, John Conley, tipped him off.
04:15That warning allowed him to disappear, and for years, he remained one of America's most wanted fugitives.
04:20Last week, the task force released this 26-year-old surveillance tape of Whitey Bulger in hopes that someone might
04:27recognize his walk or mannerism.
04:30After his capture in 2011, former gang members helped ensure he faced justice.
04:35John Martirano personally testified that he carried out multiple murders on the orders of Bulger,
04:40while Kevin Weeks and other former allies also cooperated.
04:43The result? Bulger was convicted in 2013 of 11 murders and sentenced to life in prison, where he was later
04:50killed in 2018.
04:51I did ask him, I said, hey, Whitey, aren't you relieved that you don't have to look over your shoulder
04:57anymore and it's come to an end?
04:59And he said, are you f***ing nuts?
05:01Australia's Snowtown Murders
05:03For very sick reasons, John Bunting and his accomplices murdered at least 11 people between 1992 and 1999.
05:11Shockingly, some victims were relatives of these killers.
05:14Snowtown had a level of planning by the perpetrators that I've never seen before in a major Australian crime.
05:21They were sometimes tortured and murdered, with what remained stored in barrels in a disused bank vault in Snowtown.
05:28Investigators stumbled upon the first bodies while investigating the disappearance of Elizabeth Hayden,
05:32which eventually led them to Bunting and his gang.
05:35The stench was overpowering.
05:37He was quickly arrested and, all thanks to Bunting's accomplice, James Vlasakis, it was easy to earn a conviction against
05:44him.
05:44Vlasakis provided details about the inner workings of the murders and exposed Bunting as the ringleader.
05:49He received a reduced sentence as a result and became eligible for parole in 2025.
05:53I would be perfectly happy for the memory of the bodies in the barrel to fade into the past, but
06:01I accept that we will never be rid of the stigma of it.
06:05The Green River Murders
06:06While on death row, Ted Bundy provided insights that helped investigators understand the inner workings of serial killers.
06:13One case in particular, the Green River Killings, had long haunted the police.
06:18Gary Ridgeway would later be convicted of murdering almost 50 women, crimes he committed for years without detection.
06:24Like all serial killers, he seemed to have the ability to sense vulnerability in potential victims.
06:34With no substantial leads, investigators interviewed Bundy, who described the type of killer they were dealing with and how he
06:41operated.
06:41I think he profiled Bridgeway pretty well. His personality type of guy he was. Kind of takes one to know
06:51one.
06:51While DNA was the decisive factor in capturing Ridway, Bundy's insight helped investigators focus on someone familiar with the Washington
06:59area.
06:59Well, several years later, Ridway was eventually caught and made to answer for his horrific crimes.
07:05You've made it difficult to live up to what I believe, and that is what God says to do, and
07:17that's to forgive.
07:18Murder of Shelly Baggio
07:20This one's really tricky. In 1985, Shelly Baggio was murdered. Two men, James Daly and Jack Percy, were convicted.
07:27While Percy received a life sentence, Daly has been on death row for over 30 years.
07:32So you were drinking buddies?
07:34Yeah. And we got to know each other pretty well, I thought.
07:38The thing is, there was no physical evidence tying him to the crime, and investigators relied on three jailhouse informants,
07:45like Paul Skolnig, to convict him.
07:47According to them, Daly had shared graphic details of the murder.
07:51That was actually the only information that we ever got that supposedly came from James Daly, because he never took
08:00the witness stand.
08:00Percy himself confessed that Daly committed the crime, though he sometimes said he acted alone.
08:05Over the years, these inconsistent statements and unreliable testimonies have left the truth unclear.
08:11I wouldn't believe him as far as I could throw him.
08:13Daly has repeatedly maintained his innocence, but courts have consistently ruled against his claims.
08:18Ken and Barbie murders
08:20Between the late 1980s and 1990s, Paul Bernardo committed some of the most heinous crimes in Ontario.
08:26His accomplice and fiancé-turned-spouse, Carla Homolka, ultimately became his undoing.
08:31They were attractive-looking, they were intelligent, they were in love.
08:35The idea that these were the bad guys, that they were capable of doing anything so vile, is something that's
08:41hard for us to comprehend.
08:42After a domestic assault, Homolka confided in her aunt and uncle that Bernardo was the infamous schoolgirl killer.
08:48She then began working secretly with a lawyer to connect Bernardo to the murders of her sister and two other
08:53victims.
08:54If I didn't turn the water tap off completely, he'd hit me. If I didn't say the right thing, he'd
09:02hit me.
09:03Homolka also helped prosecutors uncover videotapes of Bernardo's assaults, which became crucial evidence.
09:09With her cooperation, investigators reopened the case, re-examined DNA, and were able to tie Bernardo to his string of
09:15crimes.
09:16After striking a plea bargain, Homolka also testified against Bernardo, ensuring he finally answered for his crimes.
09:22On July 4th, 2005, 35-year-old Carla is released from prison after serving 12 years behind bars.
09:30The Hillside Stranglers' Murders
09:31Kenneth Bianchi and his cousin Angelo Buono Jr. were truly horrific, and the way they operated made them especially terrifying.
09:39These two were not going to stop until they were caught.
09:42They posed as police officers, using badges and authority to lure women to Bianchi's car before assaulting and strangling them.
09:49Their crimes became known as the Hillside Stranglers' Murders in late 1970s Los Angeles.
09:55Bianchi was eventually arrested in January 1979, and rather than go down alone, he named Buono as his accomplice.
10:02Kenneth Bianchi was on the witness stand for about six months.
10:06Buono was arguably worse, never admitting his crimes and showing no remorse.
10:10For a reduced sentence, Bianchi testified against his awful cousin.
10:14Even though his statements were often self-serving and contradictory, it was enough to help put Buono where he truly
10:19belonged.
10:20Someone said, so how come you're not celebrating?
10:23And I said, you have all these dead girls.
10:27They had family and friends who are forever scarred by all this.
10:32This is tragedy.
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10:50Dean Corll Murders
10:51Elmer Wayne Henley spent years helping Dean Corll lure, restrain, and kill minors in Houston, until he reached his breaking
10:59point.
10:59There's still people like this out there, and teenagers need to know.
11:03In August 1973, during a heated argument, that was when Henley realized Corll had planned to kill him next.
11:09After convincing Corll to back down, Henley shot him, ending his murders on the spot.
11:14Corll turns around to leave, Henley followed him, and pumped three into his back, and that killed him.
11:20He then immediately called the police, confessed everything, and even led them to the mass burial sites.
11:25Without that confession, many victims were likely never to have been found, and Corll's crimes might have largely remained unknown.
11:32Corll's other accomplice, David Brooks, also later admitted to the full extent of his own role.
11:37Despite their cooperation, both criminals were convicted of their crimes.
11:41I have a motto. You either enjoy what you do, or you go crazy.
11:46It's when I did something. Whatever it was, I tried to enjoy it. I didn't dwell on it lately.
11:52Which of these crimes horrified you the most? Let us know in the comments.
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