OPERATION JACKNAP-Jack Teich

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bandage wrapped around his head to cover his eyes. His captors demanded his wife Janet, drop a bag with seven hundred and fifty thousand the equivalent of four million dollars in today's currency, in a locker at Penn Station, making the Jack tesh ransom one of the highest in US history at that time. FBI and Nassau County Police detectives spent over a year before finally uncovering the meticulously planned

kidnapping ploy hatched by radical mastermind Richard Warren Williams. The FBI internally dubbed the Jack Tesh kidnapping Operation jack Nap.

The real life crime drama that followed proved stranger than fiction, involving a tense across the country manhunt, a trailer in California, stuff with tens of thousands of ransom dollars hidden inside, a contentious jury trial that dominated New York City headlines for months, a guilty verdict that was overturned twenty one years later on a controversial technicality, a retrial stymied by a mysterious fire that incinerated court records, and a civil

verdict ruling that the kidnapper paid Jack Tesh back the ransom money plus interest. Operation Jacknapp tells the incredible true crime story that continues even now. Indeed, as of this writing, no one knows where the majority of the ransom money is located inside. Tesh also details his offer of a reward to anyone helping track down the still missing money and kidnappers. The book that we're featuring this evening is Operation Jacknap, a True Story of Kidnapping, extortion, ransom and

Rescue with my special guest author Jack Teesh. Welcome to the program, and thank you very much for a Green Innis interview. Jack Tesh. Thank you, Dan, good evening. Thank you very much for joining me and joining our audience. Let's go right to November twelfth, nineteen seventy four. Tell us a little bit about where you're living at this time in Long Island. Just tell us a little bit about your background just before we talk about November twelfth, nineteen seventy four.

In the family business. I worked in a family business manufacturing steel construction materials, and it was we had a nice life, raise a modest life, very modest, raising our two children.

five to fifty minute drive home from my office. I pulled into the driveway up to my garage. It was closed, and I normally left the car outside facing the garage, and I pulled into the I pulled up to the garage, shut my lights off, and I looked up at the garage and it was pulled it up, and I said, what is that? I just shut my lights off, and I just checked my lights again they were off. I looked behind me. There's a car right behind me, and

I looked in the rear view mirror. I get out of the car, and on my left, on the driver's side, there's an individual with a ski masks, ski mask and a silver colored pistol pointing at my head. On the right hand side was another individual, taller with a ski mask and with a sort of shotgun pointed at me at that moment, and they said basically, you're coming with us and or we're gonna blow your head off. For

the moment, I thought, well, what do I do? Do I run which I could have, which I could have to the back of my house where there's a woods which I knew very well and felt I could do that. And then I in a split second, I said, well, if I do that, will I go in my house, which was twenty five feet away. So I didn't. I didn't run. They led me with the gun to my head to their car, which was a small little Ford Mustang, and they pushed me in the backseat of the car.

a small Ford Mustang. Tight in the back seat. They pushed me down, put handcuffs on, and they said we're gonna drive you uh to our area, uh rob you and let you go. And I just uh tried to think about every little thing the ride. There was a went over a bridge, there was a toll machine. The sounds that we went over some hills. I just tried to remember to see if I could possibly remember the

route they were taking. And I thought, as much as we excuse me, I thought I remembered as much as I possibly could under the circumstances.

the driveway and I was nowhere to be found. So a couple of our friends came over and searched around the house, searched in the garage, searched in them as much of the wooded area as they could, just to think if I wanted off, or was bleeding somewhere, or laying down and still nowhere to be found. She then called the local police. We lived in an area that had a small local police department, and she called the local police. They came over and they really were no

help at all to her. Unfortunately, they they kind of brushed it off as well, you know, maybe he's out drinking, or maybe he went off with the next to a neighbor. They they kind of laughed the whole thing off. So she then called my family, my brother. I had two brothers, and in a panic, she didn't know what to do. She finally called. It was either late that night or

very early the next morning. She finally called. We had a very close friend of the family who was an assistant district attorney in the in the Nasakhani and called him and said, look, my husband cars in the driveway. He didn't come home, he never called, and there's something terribly wrong. And the individual that she called, who ultimately became a Supreme Court judge, he was an Ada and sisted district attorney at the time, knew me from when I was a child, knew me when I since I

was four years old. So he picked up a phone and called the chief of detectives of Nasakhani and said, look, I know this. I know Jackson's he's four years old. I know the family all my life. This is totally out of character fan not to come home, not to call, and nowhere to be found. There's something terribly wrong. And that started the ball rolling, the the the UH. All the higher ups, the chief of detectives, the deputy inspector, and a staff of people came over to the house.

They set up tape recorders on the phones, on all on all our phones, the in the old days that they were the what do you call it, big tapes, tape tape recorders. UH. They called the FBI in and that was the point where the the the investigation really started. Thank goodness, my wife called then because the first ransom call there were three. The first ransom call came in that evening from the kidnappers, and luckily the it was all recorded and they attempted to trace it, but they

didn't stay on long enough to trace the call. From that point on until I was released seven days later. The fb there was three two FBI agents, a male and a female, and a Nasser County detective sergeant that moved into the house and slept there. They were there twenty four to seven with my wife.

into a building. What happens you talk about the search and the conversation you have with the keeper. Tell us about that.

into a room. I was standing straight up and they the first thing they did was methodically search and take everything out of every pocket. I was wearing a suit and a raincoat. They went through every every pocket in the raincoat, every pocket in the suit, took everything out, went through my wallet, went through all my identification, and that started questioning me and they said, you know, we think we're we're not going to let you go so fast. We think we're going to keep you for a while.

They then guided me over to a closet and pushed me into the closet onto the floor. It was probably two feet by five feet, and all of a sudden, I heard the sounds of chains, and I said, what the heck could that be? They had chains which they looped through eyelets that they apparently had screwed into the wall on each side. On one side was where my

head and shoulders were. I couldn't lay down flat. I had to sort of half lay down, and they took that chain, put it around my neck with a lock, and then the other chain they looped around my feet with a lock to an eyelid on the other end. Of the closet with a little bit of slack on each side, so I could barely sort of sit up and kneel if I had to. And the then they

put a gag on my mouth, which I couldn't understand. Uh. They they eventually took that off, you know, w you know, later that evening or the next morning, I don't remember, but they Uh, I did have a gag and that when they started questioning me, they had to take the

gag off. And then the questioning started. The s the sessions. Uh. They spent hours questioning every possible thing they could possibly ask me about my my life, my parents, my father, my mother wasn't alive, then my wife, my wife's family, my brother, my brother's two brothers. UH, bank accounts, uh, the the uh, the ant, the artwork uh uh any possible thing of value. They wanted to know everything about that, everything about the company, people that worked for the company.

And apparently they knew more than they let on. As the interrogations went on during the week, it was obvious they they knew more and they were making sure I was telling them the truth. They they had answers to the many of the questions before they asked the question, and that came out very obvious. So in the closet was a bucket to relieve myself, and that's where I was for of the total of seven days, about half the time I was chained in the closet with handcuffs.

They never did take those handcuffs off. And after about half the time they took me out of the closet and put me in the same room a bed, and they took the same chains and chained the chained the bed around the frame. So I was still chained, but I was in a bed.

vice president of and your father had founded the company. Yes, he wanted to know those particulars, and he was asking you questions like if Janet was excitable and basically trying to find out and determine which person would be better to deal with in what you realized soon enough is

a ransom and a kidnapping. So how do they prepare you and what are some of the questions that they try to get from you, and then how do they prepare you for this ransom and to communicate with your wife in the chance of getting this ransom.

get that money together and and meet their demands. The what I didn't mention is that these individuals were radicalized and blatantly anti Semitic. From the minute I came came

into that room till the men and I left. They they they preached, they raved, they ranted, They they didn't stop with their rhetoric, radicalized rhetoric of they they they're the were the haves and they're the have nots, and they're going to take what they want to take and get what they want to get and they're going to do it.

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Who should get the money together. They never told me the amount, who should get the money together, who should make the payoff? What should they be wearing? They shouldn't tell anybody, especially the police. And by the way, very very important. The newspapers knew about it, knew about the abduction shortly after it happened, and the and the FBI and the police went to see them and said, please don't publicize this until we get the victim back. And

in those days they listened and they did it. And I could tell you that that saved my life because they had that radio blasting in the other room listening and they I'm sure they just couldn't figure out why it wasn't on the radio. They the newspapers honored, honored the request.

The they and by the way, only one. There were at least four involved, it could be more, but a minimum before two in my driveway, and there were others in the other room I heard walking and talking, but only one of them ever spoke to me, or one other spoke, but only like one or two sentences. But only one was the one that talked to me. Came in three, four, five times a day into the room I was in, and he was the on the keeper.

We called him the keeper. He was the only one that spoke to me of anything of any significance.

return for a long time. When he came back, what information did he have and what was your explanation for something that made him very irate?

I said, I'm one of the signatories on those checks. He says, so you do have access to the money. I says, I said, yes, but it's not mine to take. And then he didn't question me any further on that because he knew the answers to that question before I before he asked the question, so I couldn't I told him what it was.

that time. And when Janet got the first call, you describe in the book this incredible exchange because your wife is again a very very strong, strong person in your corner, but also she is shocked and no one is prepared for this kind of pressure and tension. So after that phone call, what was said in that call and then what was created after as a result of that phone call.

and they then they couldn't couldn't trace the call. But that's when they knew I was alive, they knew it was a kidnapping, and the that's when the all the police and the rest of the authorities got involved.

And uh so who did who did they decide?

Having said that my wife, there was a female agent at the house, and if my wife wasn't up to making the payoff, the female agent was going to go in her place. And they tested my wife to make sure that she was up to that challenge. And she It was a pretty rough, pretty rough evening of testing, and she did. She passed all the tests, and she insisted that she had to make the payoffs. She didn't

want anybody else to do it. They may know that it wasn't her, and she didn't want to take a chance on losing me on doing something that they told her to do.

a crime. And everyone is totally different every kidnapping. This is what they told me later, They said, we don't have a protocol because each one is different, and it's as the as it evolves, as the kidnapping evolves, is that's the we we we decide what the next step should be. So in our in my case, it was my my brother who got the money together, and my wife and they they were wearing too a you know

what do you call that? FBI equipment, radios in their ears and all that, but the radio it didn't work underground. None of these, none of the police radios, none of the FBI radios, and none of their equipment actually worked under in Penn Station, the busiest train station in the world. The technology wasn't advanced. Today the radios do work underground. In nineteen seventy four, they did not work underground. So there was no communication unfortunately, between my wife, my brother

and the the police and the FBI. And by the way, there were four hundred and fifty FBI and police scattered throughout all of Penn Station and all the surrounding streets all around that evening, and nobody can not only could they not communicate with them, but the police couldn't communicate between each other. It was under on the ground between the concrete and the steel. So there was that was something that was and possibly they knew about it that

I wouldn't. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they If they knew, the radios wouldn't work, and that's why they chose that location to do it.

is a ludicrous, crazy summer money. And the answer from the professionals were, if you can gather the money and pay it, don't negotiate. We done in the case, In everything we know so far about this case, we would not if you can't. Obviously, if you can't come up with the money, that's another story. But if you can, don't negotiate, we'll get the kidnappers back. Well, we'll catch them and we'll and we'll get your money back well.

But so there was no negotiation. The amount that they asked for was the amount that was ultimately paid them. They were very specific of where they should make the phone call, which was a outside of p u S on the street, outside of the initial phone call outside of Penn Station in New York City and told them where to go from there what locker track seventeen There would be a bank of lockers and go into a certain locker and take out a black bag. And I'm sorry,

the the the bag, the the initial bag. What was one of the backtrack The one of the calls that came to the house was that take take the money, go to the Exxon station around the corner from my brother's house he lived in another town, and go into the large garbage pill that's there, and there's a black bag in there. That black bag is the big you're to use to put the money in. So that was either the second or the probably the third call. And

they did. They took the bag, they took it TOPI headquarters. Then they took it to the bank and they gathered all the money together and put the money in the bag. Now, the other thing, they were very specific the money should not be new money, it should be old money. Well, the bank on a one day's notice, where are they going to find seven hundred fifty of old money? So it ended up being new money and in consecutive numbered

bills the less. So what they had to do. What I'm told is they laid out the money around the table and a dozen FBI agents took each each each dollar, each one hundred dollar bill, each bill, and crumpled it up to look like old money, and then of course mixed up all the numbers. They recorded all the numbers. They knew exactly what the numbers were, but they mixed it up and mixed in the smaller bills and crumpled up the other bills and then put it in the black bag to the payoff.

the key with the locker. They went to go find them pick up the money, and they couldn't get into the locker, and the there were calls back and forth, you know, landline calls back and forth with the kidnappers, and said yelling at my brother that he's deceiving them and they're gonna kill me, and what did he do, and there's no money and all this stuff. So then my wife went back and said, this was on the street by the way the payphone. They went back up

to the street to make these phone calls. Then they went back into the penn station at the track seventeen. My wife and my brother and my wife realized Number One, he put the money in the wrong locker, not in the locker that he was supposed to put it in, put it in the locker above the one that he was supposed to put it in, and then took the key of the locker that he was supposed to put

it in. So lo and behold, the money was sitting in an unlocked locker above the locker that he was supposed to put it in while they are outside calling. So my wife realized all this, and they then took the money out of the locker that it wasn't supposed to be in, put it in the locker that was supposed to be in, and left the key the way they were supposed to leave the key. And there was a duplicate of that bla same black bag that they brought the money in. There was a duplicate of it

that they were to walk away with. Now they so they they they ultimately did the right thing and they walked away. The police then the the the kidnapper, probably the keeper, went and collected the collected the money. He was wearing a hat and glasses and a mustache and all that to disguise himself. Police have a schematic, you know, sketches,

plenty of sketches of them. They tried to follow him, no remember the radios didn't work under ground, so they followed him as much as they could until he got on one.

I was released, Thank goodness, you were released. But the danger wasn't over. You described the incredible elation for you and your family and seeing Janet again for the first time. You filthy. After a week, you have to be debriefed. It wasn't a process where you just went home and then when you went home there was this actual danger. What was the danger and how did you and your family and the police and FBI respond. You know, The danger was the constant threats. The police didn't know who

these people were. I they were, they were? Were they part of a bigger group? Where they from this country? From not this country? Where were they? They didn't know. And the amount of threats and knowledge that they knew frightened certainly frightened me, and to the extent, to the extent that when they drew when I went. It was picked up that evening and I was driven to uh FBI headquarters in Manhattan on sixteen ninth Street. I didn't talk. I wasn't talking. I said, look, if I talk, my

family isn't safe anymore. And I had no idea of the money, the amount the payoff, I had no idea. But I just wasn't talking. And until they until they brought my family in, and I talked to my family, and I saw that they were safe and found out a few of the particulars. And I spoke to the chief of detectives. I said, look, his name was Ed Curran, I said, Ed, or did mister Curran? I said, are you? I'm not really going to talk unless I know that

my family has full uh protection. Until these people are caught, I don't we don't know who they are. The threats were to the extent they were gonna eliminate the entire family. And I can't live like that. So they then huddled and they came back to me and they said, Jack, we assure you you will get full protection your family and yourself until this case has resolved. And by the way, they lived up to it. They they live. They lived

up to that. The police they they didn't know who these they were part of a radical group or individuals, or they didn't know anything. It came, you know, during the investigation the way down, they they were able to piece things together. But the the police did give us. They they gave us the first month, we had the FBI and detectives around the clock at our house if

I left the house. And after the month, the FBI didn't supply anybody anymore, and the police came in and the police assigned five permanent police in shifts twenty four to seven shifts for about a year until things calmed down. So they were with us for a year.

and anybody that had worked for the company. There were hundreds. The company I think at that time had about two hundred people, and I think they from my recollection, they interviewed four or five hundre going back ten years, anybody that ever worked for the company or had a close affiliation with the company. And they tracked these people down

and interviewed them. And actually one individual that had worked for the company for fifteen years in our engineering department, had worked for us for fifteen years, had left the company and had gone to work it went on his own into some kind of a business. He didn't. He didn't make it in that business, and he ended up working for a similar competitor. I was a similar company located in New York also, and they went they called

them and interviewed him the plea. And the way they did it was when an FBI agent went County police went out as a team. They went interviewed him the first time, and they just didn't like all of his answers, and they called them up and they said his name was Charlie, Charles Berkeley, and they said, Charlie, we'd like

to come interview you again with some unanswered questions. So they went back a second time, interviewed him a second time, and they analyzed all his questions and his answers, and they called him again and said, Charlie, you know we need to talk to you again. Do you mind, And they set up an appointment with him, and he never showed up, and he disappeared and left his family four children, and they lived in co Op City, wife and four children,

and disappeared for I believe it was at least two years. Yeah.

took off. They went to school together, elementary school together. They even went to they were both in the in Korea. By the way, Charlie Charles Berkeley was a paratrooper during the Korean War and they and they went into the army together. These were very close friends. And they were both extremely intelligent, very well educated, very well spoken, and that was the connection. They were childhood friends.

while out in California. Although he wasn't a full college graduate, he was able to. He got a job teaching teaching

higher education. So he had he was very very intelligent, had many many jobs and by the way, the him being a pilot and owning a plane one time was actually the one piece that did him in that they were able to try to start tracking him down through that, and they did even although he lived in New York, he was living in California, and he was ultimately caught in California and brought back to New York for trial and sentencing.

a lot of that when you were in captivity. A lot of that same sentiment that I am the boss, you won't tell me, and that kind of attitude was the information that they got that sent his career into a downspin earlier on.

the least motions as many motions as possible. Delays and combative nature in court was characterized by his behavior in court. Talked about lengthy pre trial proceedings and then jury selection, and then finally, almost three years later, there becomes there is the trial, and you are to testify at that trial. Tell us about just a little bit about the trial itself and the hoopla surrounding it.

the case. The the It was very very contentious. Now me as the victim, I was only allowed in the courtroom when I testified and out of those seventeen weeks, I only was brought brought into testify I believe three or four occasions. And I was questioned by this Donald Caine, questioned by the prosecuting attorney, and cross examined by Caine. It was not a very pleasant experience, to say the least.

The it was. It was nerve wracking to having to face him at that time, sitting sitting in the courtroom. But the trial lasted all this time because of the contemptuousness of both Williams, who carried on a lot himself, he was a jailhouse lawyer himself, and and Kane. And it's amazing that the judge, the judge lived, you know, accepted a lot of it. There were things he much that he wouldn't accept, but he accepted a lot more than I thought, uh he would have or should have accepted.

But the judge was very cool headed. The witnesses were were great. They brought witnesses in from California, They brought brought witnesses and for all over the place. And how can you, how can you dispute when you when you have ten thousand dollars in a money belt on your on your person, which Williams had when he was caught of the serial numbers of the money that was part of the ransom money. How could you get out of that?

my family. And he did turn himself in, and they reporter walked him into h E the FBI or police headquarters, and they he was already indicted. So he was uh F the for the for the same crime that Williams was. So the district attorney that handled the case called him in.

I guess he was out on bail called him in and said, look, Charlie, we are we are prepared to offer you full immunity if you tell us you're you came back, you missed your family, You're going to go through a trial like like like your friend Williams went through. We're going to offer you full immunally if you tell us everything, everything from the beginning. What did Berkeley do? He's sitting in in uh in the district attorney's office. He gets up, he said, I don't know what you're

talking about, and he walked out. This is the arrogance of these individuals. And by the way, Williams was also offered during the course of a lenient leniency and all of that, if he would tell the whole story, same thing, he wouldn't wouldn't say a word. Now having said that with Berkeley, and he was ready to, he was indicted for the same similar crime, you know, indictment that Williams said, and he hired a lawyer and the it was over.

The indictment was overturned. It was overturned, and he walked out of Freeman.

were allowed X number of preemptory challenges. In other words, if a juror, they brought a jura up there and the either the prosecuting attorney or the or the defense attorney didn't like that jura for any reason whatsoever, black, he had purple hair, he had whatever, and they said, look, we don't want them. You didn't have to give a reason, and you could knock the jura out. They got each

side got X number federal law. The federal government changed the law in the nineties where it where it said if you want to challenge, if you want to knock out a juror, you had to have number one a very good valid reason. You had to tell the reason to the judge, and the judge ruled on whether it was a valid reason or not so, and it was retroactive. And retroactive mean that that that prisoners not only Richard Richard Williams, there were dozens, many, many others that were

entitled to a new trial because of the law. And the were black jurors that were knocked out of the jury pool. And the district attorney that as much many notes twenty one years later that he that he salvaged and they accepted most of what he said that apparently there was one one juror that his notes were not that clear on and why he was knocked out, and that led to the reversal of the trial, of the indict of the sentence.

thousand dollars plus interest for all those years. So the award ended up to two point two million dollars or some number similar to that. And I went knowing Williams and the authorities always felt that Williams got the bulk of the money number one, and that with his real estate successful real estate background, that he invested the money. And so we tried to search as much as we can, and I spent money trying to find to search records,

and we ultimately we couldn't find anything. Now that doesn't mean it's not out there. It means that he was smart enough. He had a brother living in the Virgin Islands, he had a couple of he had four children, he had wives. I mean, who knows where the where the money was invested, under whose name, and where it is. We just couldn't find it and the authorities. The authorities believe it's out there, and that's one of the reasons

I offered in the book. I offered a reward for information the return of some of the money, plus or information on the kidnappers that were not brought to justice. I offered the fifty thousand dollars reward in the book, and not only that, if any of the money is collected, I'm not even keeping it. I'm donating it to the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation, which is a very fine organization taking care of federal and local police and time of need.

I think they did a superb job. They were compassionate, they were smart, they were tenacious, and they did what they could. And I hold no re or regrets to them. But it's out there. We strongly feel it's out there. We just have that. I still have this judgment, an act of judgment.

You terrorized me for those days. You you and I am going to go after you, you every member of your family, your children, your wives, and we're going to find that money and we're gonna and Williams, if you die, I'm going to go after your estate and we're gonna find it and we're gonna get it. You're not gonna

get away with this. So basically that's what I told him, And I mean, obviously it was a lot longer than that, but that was the gist was I got my payback and there's nothing that he can do now to me. And he terrorized myself and my family enough, and if the money's out there, we will find it. And by the way, the reason, the reason we decided to offer

the reward now and it's in the book. We offered a reward in the book early on for information leading to we didn't know it was Williams and Lo and behold who noted the police that they think they have some information Williams's brother, Rudy Williams. Rudy Williams comes notifies the police that he has some information that the police may be interested in. And he was this Rudy Williams was a thief in his own right, and he did

meet with the police a few times. He did give them some information, not a whole lot, but enough that it probably helped. And then he came after the reward money. So this is his own brother the what was I going to say? And Lo and behold, Rudy Williams and his fourteen year old son shortly after were shot executions in the basement of their house, also in Westchester County. So that's what happened to Rudy Williams, and the crime has never never really been solved, one hundred percent solved.

He was into gambling and it could very well have been part of his thievery over the years, not connected to the k kidnapping, but anyway, he was killed.

they're just gonna kill me. They're gonna kill me. You talk about in this book throughout how you survived, how your family survived, and you give credit to those people. Tell us, as you write in the book, who you give great credit to in this for your survival and how things turned out favorably.

to talk to that. But they tried to get him twice on two separate occasions, not knowing what the kid not knowing that it was a prelude to a kidnapping, but two separate about three months, three four months before they got me, they tried to get him and both of them were both instances were foiled. He he suspected

something he didn't know was a kidnapping. He suspected they tried to lure him to on two different occasions, to lure him to to once to come to the Westchester County Airport and once to go back to our factory in Brooklyn on a Sunday night the rain, and he he just thought there was something didn't sit right, the story that just didn't the lower story just didn't sit right with him, and he didn't fall for it, luckily, And about three months after that they came after me.

taken off and there was nobody there. Obviously. That was one time and he realized didn't know it was a kidnapping. He said, this whole thing smells bid. I don't know what it is, but it just doesn't sit right.

it might endanger your family. You in this book Operation jack Nap capture every excruciating moment that you are in captivity, held in the dark, a bucket to relieve yourself, and just horrible, horrible conditions that you endured, not knowing what would happen to you, what would you be your fate? And meanwhile, your brave wife and your two sons didn't

know either. So it's an incredible tale as you segue back and forth between your captivity and a captivity of sorts with your family, with FBI and police handlers in the home. I want to thank you very much, Jack Tesh for coming on and talking about Operation jack Knapp, A true story of kidnapping, extortion, ransom and rescue. Thank you very much. I know this book is available on Amazon everywhere. I urge people am.