The Rumor from Deep Cover: The Nameless Man

Pushkin.

I've been a journalist for 25 years and there's this little ritual that I do at the end of every interview. When it works, it shakes everything up, creates a bit of chaos. I call it the hail Mary of questions. It's like a last-ditch effort to find something, anything that I might have missed. I just say, Hey, what's a question I should have asked you?

One of the things that I will routinely do is, is there anything that we should be looking at that could be investigated that we're not looking at?

Back in 2004, Scott posed this very question to a woman named Patricia Miller. At the time, Scott was visiting Patricia at her home in Delaware to learn more about her ex-boyfriend, a guy named Tom Guybison. There had been some rumors that Tom, her ex, was plotting to go after a local cop. And the FBI had asked Scott to look into this to do a so-called threat assessment. Scott didn't get that much out of this interview with Patricia.

She mentions Well, there is this alleged murder to have taken place that when he was in high school, that he had committed a murder of a Black man. In order to gain access into this white supremacy group within Delaware.

Patricia goes on to say that Tom, her ex, was proud of this murder. It happened back when he was younger, a teenager. But even years later, he bragged about what he'd done, how he'd driven into Philadelphia late at night and shot a pedestrian. A random black man, all allegedly so he could earn some street cred as a racist skinhead.

If there's no evidence and there's no witnesses, no cameras, let's move on. And that's what Tom would be banking on and just be a drug deal gone bad. That bothered me, that bothered me.

Scott may have been upset about all this, but he was also at a loss. How do you investigate a murder when you don't even know who the victim is? Eventually, Scott and his partner paid a visit to the Free Public Library of Philadelphia. They wanted to find that newspaper article covering the victim's death. Scott recalled Patricia saying it was in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In other words, would this give us a name, would this give us a location? would this give us a date because we still didn't have a date?

But there's got to be countless articles of people that were just randomly killed in Philadelphia.

Not only countless articles, but then you realize there are other newspapers. What if she's wrong? It's not the Philadelphia Inquirer?

It sounds like a fool's errand.

I'm glad we did it, I'm glad we made the trip, but I don't think we found anything.

Nothing, so game over, right? I mean, this murder, if it even happened, would have occurred approximately 15 years prior. It was a cold case. And yet Scott and his partner, a guy named Terry Mortimer, they had this feeling that if they persisted,....

We might uncover something we're destined to uncover. That may sound corny, but I felt something, I think Terry felt something, and we didn't know quite what. And it could have been absolutely taken us down another rabbit hole of something that just never could be proven.

So what do you do with that?

Exactly what do you do with that? what do you do with something that?...?

Yeah, and not to be cute. But you can't exactly go back to your boss and say that me and Terry feel a sense of destiny here, right?

No.

So this was Mission Creek big time. Plus, it's not like there was anyone that they knew of anyhow demanding justice for the victim.

Terry and I could have easily said, we're done and let's walk away. Nobody's going to be calling us to say, Hey, Terry and Scott. Do you have any updates for us? You know, we're waiting, we haven't heard back from you.

But is somewhere in the back of your head, are you imagining that? Like, there is a mother or brother who's trying to understand or figure out what may have happened to their loved one that was left for dead?

I think that that aspect was the driving factor, we couldn't just leave it alone. Somehow, it was making sense that Terry and I were put together for this very reason of solving this hate crime, this murder that took place on the streets of Philadelphia. Because somebody was Black, that we felt like we had a duty to this person, that somehow this person was drawing us.

And that's it. You can almost hear it, the door creaking open.

And this is the thing about gangs is there are gangs and there's like, you know, not real gangs. People say they're part of a gang, but they aren't kind of thing.

Terry was a special agent with the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He worked in intelligence, and he focused heavily on guns and gangs. So Terry wanted to know what was Tom's deal.

I knew he, of course, was imprisoned, obviously, for gun charges, you know, spent a good stint in prison federally. He had, I guess, prior contact with the law.

Terry learned that Tom was first arrested at the age of 14 on a deadly weapons charge a few years later, when he was 19. He was convicted of reckless endangerment after he shot a gun at a moving car full of people.

I know enough about gang members that sometimes things aren't what they say they are. That they might get a tattoo purported to be something that really isn't true. Or just kind of build their rep a little bit.

Terry was skeptical that Tom had killed someone just to join this skinhead gang. Maybe Tom was just posing, building up his rep as a really violent dude. I mean, honestly, maybe this whole thing was bullshit, right?

I couldn't really establish, you know, intelligence-wise, if Tommy was part of a skinhead gang. I didn't think he was. I think he was kind of more of a self-described skinhead.

And this raised the question, would a self-described skinhead, acting on his own, really murder someone for what? So he could give himself a tattoo? And all of this while he was still in high school, seemed like a stretch.

We found out he's in Vermont, like a remote part of Vermont. And I remember, I said, This dude's hiding, man, he's hiding. I said, that cat from Wilmington, Delaware, living in Vermont, man. I said, Dude, it gets cold up there, man.

So they put on their winter coats and headed north.

At this point we're like, man, whatever he's got, he's got to give us something, man, because we're again we're spinning our wheels. It felt like, man, if this doesn't come through, I think, honestly, I think we're done.

Terry recalls On that drive up to Vermont, they talked a lot about why they couldn't or shouldn't give up on the case.

So we had great discussions and that's when I, really, we both realized, Wow, wait a minute. This is not an accident that he and I are a team together. This is like, literally we didn't do this, we couldn't have planned this.

And there was a reason for this feeling. Turns out, there was a strange symmetry to their lives that dated back to before they ever met. So we're going to leave Scott and Terry in the car heading up to Vermont and turn back the clock.

I would be sitting in a pew, maybe praying in a church, somebody would come by and start confessing, and people just started pouring their souls out to me.

In these moments, Scott was learning how to listen, how to suspend judgment, how to be patient. As people grappled with some burdensome secret inching their way towards the precipice of truth. He spent five years training to become a priest, but dreams are stubborn things, and his didn't go away. He left the seminary to become a cop and then an FBI agent.

It is harder to leave than it is to go in. And that's ultimately because I think now you've entered this relationship with God and now you're afraid of pissing him off.

For Scott, this shift in career seemed like a natural progression for him. The seminary prepared him for this work, prepared him to listen and see his way through a messy world fraught with moral dilemmas. But when he'd tell people about his past, how he'd almost become a priest, they're.

Like, Oh my gosh, I can never imagine the two are totally opposed to each other, and I never understood that.

But there was at least one person who got it completely terry.

I went to college at a very small Bible college and was preparing for ministry.

From a young age, Terry felt destined for the ministry, but later on, when he was in Bible College, he had second thoughts. As graduation approached. A friend asked him, You ever consider becoming a cop? The short answer was no, but on a whim, Terry applied and met with a recruiter.

And this guy was a he was a hardcore dude, I mean, he. He looked at me. I was back then, I was skinny. He looked at me and said, You're from where and you want to do what? Like you're from Bible college, man.

Terry was undeterred, He became a cop and then an agent with the ATF, and this was not a consolation job for Terry. He's very clear about this, he feels that God had a purpose for him in law enforcement.

That's when we started realizing, Wait a minute, we're on a mission from God.

But yep, just like the Blues Brothers.

We didn't really say that I'm just making it up, but that was the feeling. We'll say, hey, no, but it was like, no joke, this is the real deal. It's almost like we're walking through, almost like a dream, like, what is going on here?

So yeah, even though all they had was a rumor of a long forgotten crime that might not have even happened. These two, almost ministers, the God squad, as it were, still felt certain that they were here in this car heading north into Vermont. For a reason. And they were convinced that something important was waiting for them. That's when we get back.

It was late, I feel like we were closing in on midnight and we didn't want to put it off. We were just so full of energy.

It was late for a doorknock, very late. But their excitement eclipsed their caution, so instead of waiting until morning, they drove right to his house. Their plan was to say hello, introduce themselves and arrange to have a formal sit-down the following day.

And when we finally found where he lives, he lives literally on top of. Like, if it's on a mountain, it's a very, very tall hill, it's very tall and very steep.

I remember it being very, very dark.

I mean, it was like, bright as day. He had hooked up these spotlights and trees illuminating the whole area, and we could see his house dimly up the top of the hill. I think I may have made a comment to Scott. I said, man, if he had any ill intent, we'd be dead men right now.

That told me a lot that wow.

I'm thinking, man, he does not want to, he doesn't want to be found.

Scott and Terry start trudging up the icy, snow-covered hill. They can hear dogs barking from within the house. Eventually, they get up to the front porch and Craig walks out. He's medium height and stocky, with a closely cropped haircut. Scott calls out to him.

CRAIG PETERSon You don't know us, but we're here. I want to talk to you. Federal agents. Can we approach you? Can we come up to your house?

Is this a sigh of relief at that?

But definitely a sigh of relief. First and foremost, we've achieved our first goal is finding him, achieved our second goal of being able to be face to face with him. Our third goal was to get him to come and speak with us at a different location, we weren't going to talk to him at his house.

Craig invites them inside, He introduces them to his fiance. It's all very normal, and Craig, he seems unfazed.

He was very relaxed, very gracious, I mean, just almost opposite of what I was expecting.

Scott and Terry explain that they just have a few questions for him about an old matter from the past. They keep it deliberately vague, and they ask if he'd be willing to meet with them the following day. Down at the barracks where the Vermont State Police are stationed, Craig's like, Sure, I'll meet you tomorrow after I'm done with work. All the while, Terry is studying both Craig and his fiance, trying to get a read on them.

His fiance was way more concerned than he was. Like, She was like, what's going on? Like, what, what's this about? He's not stressed at all, like there's no stress with this guy.

The next day, Scott and Terry are down at the barracks of the Vermont State Police, and they're just hoping Craig actually shows up.

He ain't gonna, he ain't gonna show up, like, what's the odds? he's gonna show up? Like, you know, I was like 50-50, eh?

But he shows up, in fact, he's here early, and after a little chit chat, they all sit down and get to business. Scott explains that they're here about Tom Guybison.

CRAIG We've made a long trip and we've been investigating Tom for a possible threat, and during the course of that investigation, we've learned that a story was told.

This is the story they'd heard from Patricia, Tom's ex-girlfriend. That some 15 years prior, Craig and Tom had been skinheads. That they'd killed a Black man in Philadelphia and then gotten tattoos to commemorate what they'd done.

And Craig just looked at us.

Scott keeps pressing gently, very much playing the role of the new England priest that he almost was concealing any signs of judgment, just patiently probing.

Well, at the very least, would you admit you have the tattoo? Why would they lie about the story? Would they also lie about the tattoo?

A gothic-looking spider web in black ink, with the elbow directly at the center, similar to what Patricia had described. Craig admitted that he and Tom both had tattoos like this, that they'd gotten them together back in high school. And Craig admitted that back in his youth, yeah, he'd been a skinhead, but it had just been a phase.

He said Man, that was a long time ago. I was a young knucklehead and I don't believe that stuff anymore. You know, man, I'm up here. I'm working hard, man, guys, I work every day, hourly wage, I work as an electrician. I've got a new life. I don't want any part of this.

At this point, despite the fact that Craig had this tattoo, which offered some corroboration, Scott and Terry basically have to let him go. They say, Hey, let's keep in touch. If you ever come down to Delaware, please let us know, we'd like to keep talking.

He was like, Yeah, if I come down there, like Jake, no one's ever gonna say, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll look you guys up. If I'm ever down in Delaware, sure, like, we're gonna have a dinner together. I'm thinking, nobody does that. Nobody wants to talk to their least favorite FBI and ATF agent in the world about a homicide they didn't commit.

In Terry's mind, it was weird how friendly he was, and it also seemed difficult to imagine that this guy right here. This laid back electrician living in Vermont, could be capable of orchestrating a murder.

If the dude was in the car and they did a homicide, however, it went down. Whoever pulled the trigger, I'm thinking, I'm not seeing it, I mean, if it did happen and he was in the very car. I see nothing nonverbal in this guy, there's no stress, there's no deception, I'm looking at his eyes.

Vermont State troopers. They walk out of the barracks, get in their car and head home, all the while trying to make sense of what they've just learned.

And I said, Scott, I don't think it happened, man, he goes, What do you mean? I said, There's no way that dude, there's no way. I said, maybe Tommy did something.

This happened and we're definitely not stopping.

I said, Scott, I'm not seeing it, man. I said, Dude, I said, I think we're toast, bro.

After this, time passes about a year and a half, and during this stretch, very little happens in this case. Craig keeps living his quiet life up in the Vermont mountains. Occasionally, the God Squad gives him a call just to check in, but Craig never tells him anything new.

Craig says Hey, basically, I'm coming down to see my mom. Do you guys wanna still talk to me? I'm incredulous the dude is volunteering. You know, nothing's happened in the year or whatever months it's been.

Are you pretty surprised to get this phone call?

Yeah, I mean, again, I'm like, this is unbelievable. It doesn't make any sense to me, but honestly, I literally felt like, Does he want friends? does he need friends?

Terry and Scott are determined to make the most of this meeting and they go for a new strategy. They've tried the whole Good cop routine and it hasn't worked. Not really, so time to apply a little pressure. They get a subpoena requiring Craig to testify before a grand jury about the murder that allegedly took place. This is no joke.

Our mindset is this.

So Craig shows up at the FBI's offices in Wilmington, Delaware. He's got no idea that there's a subpoena waiting for him. What happens next? We piece together from talking to the agents and reading their report from that day initially. It's all smiles. Terry keeps the whole thing really upbeat.

Hey, we thank you for coming down. This is awesome, you know? We really appreciate it.

They asked Craig again about the rumor of the murder down in Philadelphia. They tell him, We don't think you're telling us the truth. And this time, instead of denying the whole thing outright, Craig concedes that maybe back at the time, there'd been some chatter about this.

I think he said something like, Yeah, we heard rumors about that, that someone said, we did a homicide, man, No, that's nothing to it. We didn't do any homicides. It's a bunch of junk, didn't happen.

In other words, a bit of bragging, but nothing more than that. The agents push Craig, tell him we believe a homicide occurred and that you participated in it. Eventually, when the meeting is almost over, they hand Craig the subpoena and kind of hold their breath.

And again, we're shooting blanks, we have nothing right? Well, his whole demeanor changed when he got the subpoena. He's like, what the stress, right?

That meeting ends without a breakthrough. Craig didn't admit to anything. But a few days later, he calls them back, says he wants to meet again, have another sit down so they reconvene. And at this meeting, right off the bat, the mood is tense.

When he arrived, I could tell he was depleted.

It was like, completely, completely 180 degree change. And he, literally, it's hard to describe. It was literally like an invisible hand was pushing him down in a chair. He physically got smaller, I saw him shrink, like he was like getting deflated.

You could feel the tension, but you can also feel like.

I'll tell you everything. And at this moment, it seemed like maybe just maybe they'd been right all along not to give up on this and that the truth was finally at hand.

We have to do our job and we have to find out who did they kill.

Not that any murder isn't disturbing, but.

This particular murder, and the reason for it, the hate. This was a hate crime. I believe Tom Gibson is innocent. They had no physical evidence, they had no gun.

We didn't like the speculation, the family and I thought that this would be good if we found at least what happened to him. Can't do nothing about it, can't bring him back, but at least we'll find out the truth.