http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20141111/ARTICLE/141119937/2416/NEWS?p=all&tc=pgallBy Chris Anderson
Published: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 at 3:52 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 at 3:52 p.m.
BRADENTON - Divers say the old trawler is listed starboard now, the hull is rusting and the nets draped across the rigging are frayed. Even more haunting is the dark story she holds.
It is a modern-day pirate's tale of drug smuggling, murder and an alleged FBI cover up that all began on a night so cold it snowed — January 23, 1977.
That's when a shrimper named Gunsmoke — which was owned by a Bradenton man — dropped anchor in Sandy Creek Bay near Panama City. The vessel was carrying 20 tons of marijuana from Colombia and jon boats began transporting the drugs to three refrigerated trucks onshore.
That same night, two ex-cons took two underage girls in a 1965 Chevy camper to the same secluded beach to be alone, only to have the misfortune of stumbling upon that evening's smuggling activities.
One of the ex-cons was killed on the spot by a drug smuggler who was standing guard. The other three people were driven to a hunting lodge over 100 miles away near Perry, ordered to get on their knees and were killed execution-style. They were tied to cement blocks and dumped in a sinkhole 55-feet-deep, never to be seen again. Or so the killers thought.
The first murder at Sandy Creek Bay likely startled the smugglers aboard the Gunsmoke, and the boat took off and headed south. The smugglers intentionally sunk the vessel in 80 feet of water about 20 miles off Egmont Key, where divers can find her today.
However, the name on the boat was sticking out of the water at the time, and about 15 tons of unloaded pot was floating nearby. Some shrimpers saw the boat's name and told authorities. They soon discovered the boat's owner — Peter Van Estrup of Bradenton — and it wasn't long before they had the identities of everyone involved.
But even with the information the authorities had, no one was charged in the smuggling case. Then everything changed on August 7, 1977. That's when two divers accidentally found the three bodies in the sinkhole and the murders were tied to the Gunsmoke.
Nine people were indicted on state murder charges, including four from the area: Van Estrup, Raymond Parker, Thomas Byerly, all from Bradenton, and David Capo of Cortez. They were charged with third-degree murder. Floyd “Bubba” Capo of Cortez was charged federally with conspiracy.
Van Estrup's attorney at the time was Bradenton's Eddie Mulock, who has the rare distinction of living with a transplanted heart, liver and kidney. He turned 71 on Friday and retold the complex story of the Gunsmoke between bites of birthday cake in his office.
According to Mulock, an FBI agent named Don Baldwin became connected with a Tallahassee bartender named Bobby Joe Vines, who agreed to become an FBI informant. It was Vines who would initiate the smuggling deal and the FBI's target was “Bubba” Capo of Cortez. Vines approached Capo, but he said he was out of the smuggling business and pointed him to his son. David Capo put the smuggling operation in place and it was off and running.
Van Estrup, now deceased, purchased the Gunsmoke in Galveston, Texas, solely for the smuggling operation. The boat was taken to Colombia, where members of the national army stood guard as she was loaded with 20 tons of pot. Once the pot was moved up the Gulf, unloaded and secured in the trucks near Panama City, Vines was supposed to light a fire on the beach, a signal to the FBI to move in. A fire was not lit.
“Within 10 days they knew everybody involved,” Mulock says. “Then they all met in Tallahassee. The FBI, Sheriff's Department, U.S Attorney's office, everybody, and they decide they are not going to prosecute the case? It was the largest importation of marijuana in the history of Florida, 20 tons. Why didn't they prosecute? Because the FBI was up to their eyeballs in this deal.
“Almost a year later they find the bodies. So now what are they going to do? They've got a murder case. They can't hide it anymore.
“The FBI created the smuggling deal and now they find out it caused the deaths of four people? They went crazy.”
If Van Estrup was aboard the vessel that night it was never proven in court. One of Mulock's most memorable defense maneuvers happened at Van Estrup's trial.
Van Estrup was a burly, handsome man with a beard. Mulock hired an investigator to find people from the street who looked just like him and planted them in the courtroom.
There were so many attorneys in the courtroom that most of the defendants couldn't sit where they normally would. Mulock had Van Estrup sit next to him at a table in a blue suit and placed several Van Estrup look-alikes behind him.
Prosecutors hoped a man named Steve Long could identify Van Estrup, but Long became so confused by the look-alikes that he couldn't identify Van Estrup, and he was acquitted.
“It was fabulous,” Mulock says.
The Gunsmoke is a popular dive site today. It is said to be great for underwater photography and the chances of encountering a shark are high.
What adds to the allure are the secrets the old trawler holds, and what really happened on the night it snowed in Sandy Creek Bay.
Chris Anderson can be contacted at chris.anderson@heraldtribune.com.
