Murder in Rivercrest Pt. 1 | Signal 51 Chronicles

This is the Signal 51 Chronicles, murder and river crest, the Coslow case.
I'm John Henry.
I'm joined here by my compadre, Jake White.
Welcome back at long last to the Signal 51 Chronicles, and in the parlance of the day,
it's been a minute, but here we are.
It seems like every week, Jake, I know you had the same experience as we talked about
it for the past year and a half or two years or however long it's been, I don't know.
However long the hiatus has been, yes.
We've been asked about this podcast.
What clamoring, what do you bring this podcast back?
Well here you go.
We are on a new platform.
New platform?
Yep.
And this time we're on the platform, the Sunset Lounge DFW platform.
Yep.
Excited.
You'll find the famed Mike Reiner there.
The legendary Norm Hitchkiss is there.
I was listening to Norm Hitchkiss when I was 12 years old and that was not just yesterday.
More details.
It was over like 30 years ago, 40 years ago, I think that's probably closer to right there.
Mack Engle, sports columnist extraordinaire, has a show there.
For those of you who have been with us in the beginning, you know what Signal 51 means.
Signal 51 is police code for investigation.
I didn't know this until Jake told me three years ago or so.
And on this podcast we dig into stories, real cases, real people, and the kind of twists
that you think are fiction, of course.
And all of these things reshape communities and change lives.
The cases we're going to work on are mostly, they'll predominantly be Dallas, Fort Worth.
Jake is a retired police sergeant in the Fort Worth PD.
So we will do a lot of cases that emanated in Fort Worth.
But we'll do Dallas, of course, and some others will be from around the state.
And a select few will be from somewhere in the lower 48.
Like crime itself, who knows where that will lead us?
So where do this all start?
For our newbies, our regular viewers here, we welcome back.
They know where this started, but for our new viewers, where do this start?
We're many good things.
No good stories start with a salad, as they say.
We just started it at a tavern that, that over drinks is where this started at a tavern,
our beloved tavern on the west side, Oscars, you call it the birthplace of the signal 51.
It is.
I mean, that's where all this storytelling began.
That's correct.
So as I mentioned, Jake's retired police sergeant, I am, and I'm the editor for Inc.
It's a business lifestyle magazine.
Our base of operations are positioned off the Campouille, just a short walk from Oscars
Pub.
And we have two titles under that roof, actually.
One is the other is Fort magazine, and I work at both, I work at that one as well.
So Jake and I, over a few vodka's probably, six at the most, figured that there was
no better way to blow time other than vodka than to combine our expertise in law enforcement
and investigation and research and storytelling.
If you're just turning in for the first time, you picked a good one to start.
You picked a good time to start, because we've got a good case, tragic case at that.
So let's start this episode by going through a few cases of the police water.
This is something new we're rolling out.
This is new.
We're rolling out.
Yeah.
We haven't done this in the past.
I'm just reading these for the first time.
So.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's amazing what you'll find in a police report.
Yeah.
So Jake, let's go to North Carolina.
Okay.
A man there was arrested after leading the prestigious Boone Police Department on a
chase while driving a stolen John Deere tractor.
According to the report, the driver, excuse me, hit several vehicles, a dumpster, and
then a house of the Lord, a church, during a mile's long pursuit.
You certainly have some good chase stories, I'm sure.
Yeah, I've got a number, definitely none involving a tractor, couple moving trucks.
Just some pretty wheels off, ones as a whole, but a tractor, no.
I don't know how you stop that.
Yeah, I mean, do you pull out the things that pop the tires?
I don't think they would work on it.
I don't think they would.
I don't think it would.
No.
How fast can a tractor go?
I'm the absolute wrong guy.
I'm 40, 45 says Ashley, so okay, you and I have definitely never been behind the wheel
of a tractor.
I can't believe that.
You're from Kansas.
Kansas is agriculture.
Missouri, pardon me.
Missouri is agriculture.
You grew up in agricultural country.
Yeah, but I've never once got on a tractor ever.
Baseball was your future.
That was my future till I retired at 10.
The only thing I can think of is, of course, I'm not a police officer, I've never chased
or been chased, knock on wood by the law, but I wasn't the wee lounge one night on the
circle.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
All 4th people know.
All 4th people of a certain age know the wee lounge.
Yeah, of course.
For all the cool ones.
For generations.
You're not aware.
We have a TCU graduate here.
She just told us once you graduated high school.
That was.
So no.
Well, anyway, I was at the wee lounge one night and they said that they had to send home
an extremely, I think I used to work extremely, and it toxicated person.
They got him a ride, sent him home, and they set about an hour later.
They hear this, pulling up outside, and he's back on his riding lawnmower.
Did he drive home backwards?
Have you ever heard that?
I have.
I don't know if you've ever heard that saying or not.
I have heard that saying before, yes.
Somebody very close to me says that.
I've heard that.
Okay.
We'll let's go back to Boone.
Yeah, let's go back to Boone.
Back to Boone.
A herd of cows assisted a police unit in the apprehension of a suspect on the run.
A man fled from officers of the Boone PD into a fenced area, where they lost side of
the suspect until some heady bovines, no doubt annoyed by the intrusion, led officers
to the suspect.
Now should a pardon be an order for our good citizen cows?
Perhaps so.
I guess what's the point of dog, I mean, it looks like those, they can sniff them out,
too.
That's interesting.
There's no way, there's no way that they're getting a pardon on the Chisholm Trail, not in
Texas.
No, definitely not.
At least what you do is eat more chicken, Jake.
And naturally, we may know if that's to the beef industry.
Good reference there.
In fact, in fact, we have a great platform for the beef industry to sell your wares right
here on signal 51.
And chicken too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Coke zero.
Yeah, we love a good hamburger.
You and I have enjoyed a good hamburger over the years.
There's a few good ones around here.
What's your favorite hamburger?
Yeah, one.
I'd probably go with locally, probably going to go for heads.
It's pretty good.
Hookers up in the north side is pretty good too.
Yeah, that one.
I've not been there.
But every time I go to Freds, and we've told this story before, at the now closed steak
and ale, the takeover, in our previous iteration, we had a case out of the location of the
Freds on Can't Doey, the old steak and ale.
That's right.
Which they, I don't think they've changed it all on the inside.
I don't think so.
No, they might have, no.
Still, all the fireplaces are still there.
We might have to bring that case back.
Yeah, we actually hadn't, we know somebody who was there.
If we can get into talk, we tried last time that didn't work out so well.
Spectacular drummer for the world's, or no, America's favorite cover band.
America's, oh, they may be the worlds.
Let's go to Springfield, Colorado.
We're police believed that a suspected drunk driver switched places with his dog.
Moving Fido into the driver's seat, as John Law approached the vehicle.
Now don't worry, police said the dog escaped charges with just a warning.
Now Jake, you have some great dogs, police dog stories, and I'm not going to make you
tell these things.
We have to protect our sources.
Yeah, we've got to protect our sources on them, some of them are legendary in my world
and my mind.
Yeah.
Yeah, funny.
So I heard a great police dog story one time out of this jurisdiction, not in this
jurisdiction.
Okay.
Okay.
A NARC police unit came up across a menacing beast in the form of a dog.
And that dog stood between this police unit and them busting into this house and breaking
up this.
Yep.
I've heard this story.
I've heard this story.
Yeah, you were there when I heard it.
Oh, okay.
Now the remedy to clear this beast almost, it involved a high powered weapon to take
care of the dog, which had to happen unfortunately, we don't celebrate that round at all.
But the remedy to clear the beast from their intrusion sent the operation sideways when
one of the police officers had an emotional breakdown.
Yes.
That's a very accurate description.
Screaming at the executioner at the top of his or her lungs, why did this have to happen?
You know what they really need on these police teams.
They need Christy Nomes on these teams.
Do you remember who she is?
Right?
She's on the secretary of Homeland Security, I think, who had presidential ambitions until
she came out that she shot her ill behaving, having dog or whatever it was.
Just cold blood.
Okay.
I didn't know that part of the reference because you didn't know that part of the reference.
This is news to me.
Yes.
Yeah.
I mean, she had this hunting dog that was not, I guess you would say, behind developmentally.
Could you keep it as a pet?
Well, that's what everybody said.
You can't keep it as a pet.
I don't know.
I know a lot of homes that would have taken that dog in.
A little lab of sorts, I'm sure.
I think it was supposed to boost her credibility as a hunter and gather,
an outdoors person to her red meat, Republican constituency.
Sure.
And instead, it sank her hopes.
I have never heard that.
Yeah.
You didn't know that?
No.
What did you think that reference was?
Why didn't know for sure?
I had some ideas in my mind what the reference was because they always show the videos with
her riding out now with the ice units, with those ice units, and lecturing, I suppose.
Over the radio.
Yeah.
I mean, lecturing some of those that are arrested.
Oh, is that right?
I haven't seen that.
Yeah.
Really?
So I didn't know if there was some kind of reference there, perhaps, but.
No.
She pulled out a some sort of, okay.
Jack Ruby Pistol and shot this damn dog right on the spot.
The Jack Ruby Pistol.
Yeah.
I think that was a 38 caliber, something.
Okay.
Yeah.
What's a midnight special?
That's a 38.
All right.
Let's get to this.
Okay.
Let's get.
Today, we have Tyler, our first episode, The House on Clark Avenue.
And it's in Rivercrest.
That's an exclusive, as all the fourth people know, a quite exclusive neighborhood and
not-for-worth consisting of the tree line streets, the country club views, and homes that
seemed impenetrable.
Yeah.
Yeah.
To put it lightly, crime isn't a thing in Rivercrest.
It's not a ramp, but it's, you know, how many cases do you think the police go over there
to handle each year?
I would say, I mean, honestly, it's probably zero.
I mean, you might have your little petty stuff.
Yeah.
Alarm goes off.
Yeah.
Somebody makes stuff now.
Somebody blows up a pumpkin or something on Halloween, that type of thing.
Yeah.
Something of the sort, but nothing stripping lights off at Christmas.
Yeah.
Nothing like what we're going to talk about.
And I don't know that there has been one since then, to be honest with you.
Probably not.
I don't think so.
Well, this case goes back to March, a March morning, the earliest, or earliest hours
in the morning, in 1992.
And the illusion that no one could penetrate Rivercrest with violent crime was put to bed
that night.
It was here that 40-year-old Karen Coslow, beloved fourth philanthropist, was murdered.
Her body beaten beyond recognition.
Her husband, Jack Coslow, seemingly left for dead, survived the assault.
And what unfolded would expose the trail, the worst kind of entitled privilege, and a plan
that would shock not only Fort Worth's high society, but the city, the city itself.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we'll get into the neighborhood a little bit more, but let's kind of start with the,
the facts.
So like you mentioned, on March 12, 1992, 341 AM, fourth police received a 911 call.
A bloodied Jack Coslow was able to stumble to the nearby residents of Kevin Levy.
Levy, you would know, there's a owned business off of Camp Bowie, not far from home, walking
distance, relatively close.
So when Coslow stumbles to the house, Levy opens the door, like I said, sees the bloodied
Jack Coslow at a 911 call.
What doesn't happen there, sir?
What happened?
Can I speak to that person, sir?
Can you get in there, huh?
Can you get in there, huh?
Can you get in there, huh?
Can you get in there, huh?
Oh, they were beaten.
They're robbed in their homes.
Okay.
There's lots of staff.
Okay.
Life's in staff.
Okay.
What you say on the line?
I'm connected.
We met, sir.
So there's a brief part of the 911 call, but in more detail, when Jack Coslow goes to
the house, Levy hears a voice, you know, banging on the door, frantic, says it's Jack.
You've got to help me.
We've been beaten and robbed.
When Levy opened the door, he saw a bloody Jack Coslow on the porch.
Jack came in the house and fell on the floor.
According to Levy, he said Jack was obviously extremely distraught.
He kept saying my wife, my wife's over there, somebody get to my wife.
Jack also mentioned that there were multiple attackers, but because it was dark, he could
not see them clearly.
Several minutes later, when police arrived, they found a gruesome crime scene and Karen
deceased in the upstairs bedroom of the Coslow home.
She was the victim of multiple cuts and beaten to death with an unknown object at the time.
The crime scene was secured and the investigation began.
Before we get into the details, though, it's important to know about the Rivercress neighborhood.
We've talked about it a little bit, but I think it's important for listeners to know
what kind of neighborhood we're referring to.
I know you've got a lot of the Fort Worth history, and if you will, so I think you can shed
some light on what we're dealing with.
I've never owned a house there, but Rivercress began as this vision of a close-knit,
circle of fourth early builders, cattlemen, attorneys, cotton merchants, was certainly
the only thing in those days, railway executives, developers, and that type of people.
In 1910, early 1910s, they joined forces to build this kind of social and recreational
haven on the west side.
In that spring, in 1910, the group had to reorganize, and they brought in new partners,
but raise additional capital to serve and acquire the land.
That land turned out to be 629 and a half acres, and it overlooks Attorney River.
The club itself opened in 1911, spring in 1911, and as the, what I understand to be,
the eighth country club in the state.
In the very first to actually include a residential development, and of course that innovative
model, combining golf and home ownership, provided the essential funding for the club's
long-term success.
It is, it is the oldest such club in fourth, still thriving, still around, so let me play
a clip real quick of one of the neighbors that kind of describes the scene, if you will,
what the neighborhood was like in 92.
Oh, that's why it was so surprising, I was coming back home, and the message that the
road has blocked out with the police car has stopped, I mean, nothing ever happens
over here.
It's real, peaceful.
It's a pretty good summary, I'm still pretty accurate.
So that's, so the morning after the attack, like probably hours after the attack, the
resident's of Rivercrest, woke up to the absolute unthinkable.
Police cars crowded around Clark Avenue, yellow tape fluttered in the breeze.
Neighbors came out of their house and gathering and disbelief.
One told a star telegram, this neighborhood is crawling with personal security systems,
guard dogs, electronic beams, and none of it could stop that.
Like that lady said, and another one, one of the other people that were interviewed said,
everyone thought we were safe here, we had alarms, cameras, dogs, everything, and yet the
murder still happened.
So Karen Coslow was described as gracious and energetic and, quote, a woman who brought
beauty to every room she entered, that was from a star telegram article.
Yeah.
The one thing on this was kind of, that I thought was kind of interesting was, you know, just
the initial coverage from it, right?
I mean, as far as the amount of media that was out there, again, it highlights, you know,
it's, it was no ordinary place for a murder, no ordinary crime scene.
You know, like, so the house is sealed off outside the reporter's broadcast live from
the corner of Clark and Washington, while Neighbors watched and shocked.
One was Jackson daughter Christie.
Christie was one of the onlookers.
She told reporters, quote, he really did care for Karen.
I don't see any reason why anyone would want to hurt them.
Christie in fact said she, she had a great relationship with her stepmother.
She was quoted as saying, we were as close as a stepdaughter, stepmother could be.
Yep.
I think, you know, in a community defined by a fluency and appearance, it was definitely
a tear in that fabric for sure.
So we're going to cover details of the crime.
So if you remember, when Jack Coslow went to the neighbor's house, he had mentioned
there was multiple assailants in the house.
Police knew that multiple assailants had broken into the home via the back door.
Karen was fatally beaten, she had numerous cut wounds.
Jack was also severely beaten, but obviously lived.
The crime happened in the primary bedroom of the large home.
We always hear, I mean, there's a show called 48 hours, where, you know, detect police
detectives are trying to solve this, because after 48 hours, it gets that much harder to
solve a crime.
So we're at hour, probably five right now, four, five, six, somewhere in that ballpark.
So talk about that theory though, about 48 hours.
I think maybe the relevance of that, I mean, don't give me wrong, obviously you'd want
to solve it.
Not, I'm not saying this as somebody who ever investigated murders, full disclaimer
there, but the reality is with like any crime, I mean, you want to solve it as quick as
you can.
However, I think that there are some things, you know, as technology evolves and things
like that.
That may be changing something, right?
I mean, you know, we live in a time now where you solve them 50 years from the fact like
that, and you're always, I mean, you're always tracked, right?
For the most part, I mean, I suppose there's some work around to that, but the reality
is, you know, they, you know, the police may not be able to access certain data immediately,
and it may even be a little bit beyond 48 hours, but I think some of the, the investigative
clues and details they can get an hour, irrefutable to say the least.
So, but like I said, I mean, obviously, solving it as quickly as possible, getting
that done as quickly as possible, that's clear, you know, obviously important.
So, so back to the case, Karen was, Karen was, was, was dead and Jack was severely injured,
but, but he clung, he managed to cling, cling to life and able to give police a fragmented
and a fragmented account of, of the nightmare that quickly had unfolded while they slept.
But investigators immediately suspected a targeted attack, right?
There was nothing missing from the house, nothing that was obviously stolen.
We'll get into that in a little bit.
The home, the home alarm had been disarmed, not disabled, you know, it wasn't ripped off
the wall or anything like that.
There was, I think with this, so to, to the detectives, it suggested someone was familiar
with the house, they're familiar with the, the layout, the system, the victims, right?
This is not one where, you know, like I mentioned, you know, in, in regards to, and we're
talking 1992, right, even alarm systems and things like that were far more rudimentary
compared to what they are now, clearly somebody knew had the inside track to get into this
house, bottom line.
And that was the first thing that, uh, does the first conclusion investigators came to
is that, that this was not merely a two or three or gang of burglars who had broken
into this house seeking some sort of ill-gotten gain and, you know, one of four's most exclusive
neighborhoods.
Detectives immediately thought this was an inside job and whoever had done it had broken
in, had it hadn't broken in, actually.
In fact, they might have even been welcomed in, possibly, or certainly at least trusted
enough to get through the door.
So as we mentioned, the case didn't have any clear and obvious signs of a burglary, but
perhaps robbery was the motive.
Hold on a second.
Also, detectors immediately in these things, they go in thinking if these things are usually
somebody that knows the victim, right, typically, yeah, always, I mean, you gotta, you gotta
cover all your bases, but, you know, yeah, I think the one thing, and I will say this,
the good ones are very good about remaining neutral quickly.
They see everything in gray, everything in gray.
Like a guy like me, I would be so quick to jump to conclude and I'll believe that for
a second.
With some of the wagers that, come on.
You know how I am.
The good ones, they, um, like this tech wager, by the way, yeah, how I don't see what happens
with that.
The good ones are like I said, they're very good at what I would describe as being neutral.
Like, let's see where all of the facts lead us.
We're not just going to jump to a conclusion and assume, you know, this or that.
But of course, you know, taking the topic of analytics, you know, nine times out of 10,
that's the case, right?
This is somebody that's often, and then definitely, you know, with these circumstances,
like spouse or whatever, you know, the Scott Peterson's of the world.
We all know him, yeah, somebody killing their kid, whatever, yeah, you know, well, like
said, I mean, this one, not, you know, probably not a burglary.
The place wasn't ransacked.
So, right?
Right.
The whole house wasn't ransacked.
So, they, so they turned to robbery briefly.
Well, I mean, you got, yeah, I think you've got to look at that as a motive.
So, but I think what's important though is understanding the difference between the two,
right?
The difference between a burglary and between a robbery.
Every state has different definitions, if you will, and what they are.
But I think, you know, if you're here, if you're going to look, a burglary is basically
a theft, right?
You're for the most part, right?
And breaking it into the house to a window or a door, whatever, and stealing jewelry,
and stuff.
Right?
There's a few other caveats to it, but as a whole, you know, a burglary breaks in through
a window or door, steals the belongings in a house, and they leave, right?
A robbery, on the other hand, that typically has an element of force.
It could be a threat of violence or actual violence itself.
But in this case though, we would be looking at a home invasion robbery, which are rare.
You know, they happen more than what they're reported and we'll get into that.
But like I said, on this one, the investigator, or one of the quotes that we got, the alarm
wasn't disabled with tools.
It was turned off with a code.
They knew that.
They had the alarm company actually come out and check the system.
New the code, clearly knew the code, right?
So it's got to be somebody, I mean, you know, I think with those facts, you're going
to assume pretty quickly that somebody on the inside, I mean, now as you're going to
get the code.
Who else knows it?
Well, it could be, you know, it could be somebody.
Again, we're not talking about, you know, what we could probably, what society would describe
as a normal house, right?
I mean, they probably have more people doing work in the house coming in and out.
There's an element where that could have been the case.
We've seen that in another case.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In fact, we have.
So, like I said, I mean, so this house had a monitor to alarm system, even had a panic
button, warning signs all over.
You know, those little signs that are posted in the yard.
Yeah, you're being monitored.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, and also, when the part of the investigation, obviously they're going to photograph the crime scene,
the house was meticulous.
I mean, wine glass is still on the counter, stuff like that, recycling bin, full of parier
and chardonnay bottles, again, nothing obvious was stolen.
The only thing that was out of place was an incredibly violent crime that happened.
One of the, another source involved in the investigation said, quote, we found blood
splatter patterns, I'm sorry, we found blood splatter patterns that told us the attack
happened fast less than three minutes.
We'll get into that too.
It was definitely a, how do you know that?
Well, I mean, I think the good question, I mean, again, not coming from speaking as
of somebody who's investigated murders, but I mean, they do have certain parts of this
investigation stuff down to a science, quite literally.
So I was on a, I was on a jury one, a murder trial once on a, as a juror, and I learned
about blood splatter and how they can tell where the, kind of the ballistics, how the,
how the shot was fired, where it's fired from, that stuff like that.
So, so you talk about this home invasion robbery is a rare thing.
How rare, you know, well, like I said, there's, they happen more than what gets reported
and here's why.
So there's usually something else, like on the home invasion style robberies, the vast
majority of the time, there's something else going on in the house.
For example, a dope house, drugs, I was about to say, yeah, drugs, drugs, drugs house.
So you've worked at the imagined dozens of those, yeah, those, those were relatively
calm.
We would hear about them and we would hear about the ones that weren't reported.
The ones that do get reported are obviously where there's violence, right, a shooting
or something.
Right.
That effect.
Because because the, the ones that aren't reported, they don't want the police to know
what's going on.
Who are you going to call?
Yeah.
Right.
I mean, what are you going to say?
So that, you know, like I said, that they, they happen, but typically not in your peaceful,
well-to-do, high society neighborhoods.
Right.
And they're not in, again, this house, I mean, we've driven by it.
We've seen it.
We'll show pictures of it.
I mean, it's a big house.
I mean, you know, you've got, I don't call it a fortress, but I mean, it's a definitely
not one that's easy to, you know, you're not going to walk up to the front door of this
house, kick the door in.
It's not a spec home.
It's definitely not a spec home.
Definitely not that.
You know, that's one case we need to dig into at some point was the tank, the, the Tango
would case where there was some sort of drug issue going on there at the, oh, yeah.
Anyway, yeah, that was an interesting one.
All right.
So, so, so where, so we're about probably six hours in here.
Where, where is the investigation going from here?
So it pretty much immediately went to the husband, Jack.
So we've highlighted some of the odd issues, if you will.
And that's clearly because he's, the husband, he has access to the alarm code, the alarm
code.
Jack's probably told him who, what, you know, they, they're the detectives know.
If there's work being done there, if there's people coming in and out of the house,
somebody, he's alive and he's, and he, and he survived, right?
He survived.
Right.
He said some, some oddities, I suppose early in the investigation, the lead detective testified
that within hours of the attack, he suspected Jack.
I think there was some things that were perceived as deceitful, but definitely what was also
described as quote, crucial discrepancies in Jack's first interview.
Jack said the room was dark and later light.
He first said he woke to the alarm, then said it was the sound of the door crashing in.
Those contradictions made the detective suspect Jack.
The alarm, the alarm system puzzle pointed to inside knowledge like we've talked about.
Early reporting highlighted that no full alarm was recorded.
The siren didn't sound when officers arrived and the monitoring station had no record,
but a green light on the keypad indicated the system was off, consistent with somebody
using the code to silence it before it was, before it was fully triggered.
That kind of entry can look like a stage scene or an inside job, which naturally puts the
spouse in the frame, I think, in this particular case, at least on day one, police floated both
narratives, forced entry, back gate door, primarks, kicked bedroom door, and a deactivated
alarm.
That tension, signs of a break in, but an alarm that looked to be turned off using the
code.
These are exactly the kind of mixed signals that keeps the spouse high on the suspect list.
Again, you have to look at where it's at, who are the victims, all of these little pieces,
where I'm what's not else do you go?
So, so, so, the pressure begins to mount a fourth, please.
The case seemed poised to convict Jack Coslow.
But then on March 24, 1992, phone call changed everything, a frightened young man called
police saying he had evidence, and that evidence included a bloody tire tool, clothing, and
he knew how those items were disposed of, so who was on that phone call, and where did
it take the case?
Tune in next week, on episode two of the Signal 51 Chronicles, murder and re-request.
This is a stolen water media production.