Confession of Murder; Exposing the False Confessions Created from the Mr. Big Stings

By Alan R. Warren

It started with a frantic call for help from Sebastian Burns and Atif Rafay, when the two boys arrived home at just after 2 a.m. on July 13, 1994, and found Rafay's family brutally beaten to death in their Bellevue, Washington, home. Who would kill this well-liked family

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alan R Warren
• Release date: Jun 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781989980019

Alan R. Warren

ALAN R. WARREN is the Host of the Popular True Crime History Radio show 'House of Mystery' Heard on the 106.5 F.M. Los Angeles/102.3 F.M. Riverside/ 1050 A.M. Palm Springs/ 540 A.M. KYAH Salt Lake City/ 1150 A.M. KKNW Seattle/Tacoma part of the NBC news talk radio network or listen to on our website at http://www.houseofmysteryradio.com/ or most major podcast platforms.Al Warren has his Masters Degree ( MM) in Music from the University of Washington in Seattle, Bachelor of Arts (BA ) Criminology from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C. Canada and Recording & Sound Engineering Diploma from the Juno Award Winning Bullfrog Studios in Vancouver B.C. Canada.Al Started Writing for Articles in True Case Files Magazine and is still a Contributor and Serial Killer magazine. Since then he has completed 16 true crime books for two different publishers ( RJ Parker/Vronksy Publishing in Toronto, Canada & WildBlue Press in America)His bestsellers include 'Beyond Suspicion' The True Story of Colonel Russell Williams, 'Blood Thirst' the true story of the Vampire Killer of Canada, 'Deadly Betrayal' the true story of Jennifer Pan , 'Last Man Standing' the true story of Jack McCullough, the man that was put away for the oldest unsolved murder case in America, and has since then been released as he did not do the crime. You can read more about him on his website. www.alanrwarren.com

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Preface

Beverly Smith was a 22-year-old new mother who was shot to death in her kitchen while her infant daughter watched on a chilly winter night in 1974. Her neighbor at the time, Alan Smith, confessed to the crime and was convicted of first-degree murder and sent to prison for life.

On August 4, 2002, Nelson Hart took his 3-year-old twin daughters to a quiet beach near Gander, Newfoundland, where both girls drowned. Hart, being unable to swim, couldn’t save them. Three years later, Hart confessed to murdering his daughters, and on March 28, 2007, Hart was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life.

These cases seem cut and dry, right? Wrong!

In both of the previous cases the police used an undercover operation that has become known as the Mr. Big Sting. This is a covert investigation procedure used by undercover detectives to get a confession from a suspect in a case where they don’t have enough evidence to convict.

The plan is to create a fictitious gang that enlist the help of the suspect in a succession of criminal acts to a point where they have a friendship, and soon the suspect openly talks about previous criminal accomplishments. So, when the suspect confesses a crime, it is videotaped; they are arrested and charged with the crime. There have been over 500 current convictions by using this method.

In 2012, the Supreme Court of Newfoundland overturned Hart’s conviction, questioning the reliability of his confession to undercover officers posing as members of the mob. The Crown then appealed this to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Then in 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Hart’s confession during the sting operation cannot be used against him and should be excluded. Following this, the Alan Smith case was also reversed on the same grounds. So, it would appear that Canada now has over 500 cases where the person charged has been tried, convicted and sentenced by using this police technique.

Now before us will be the steady stream of appeals on all cases that have used any evidence that was obtained by the Mr. Big Sting operation, and even with this obstacle ahead of the justice system, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) are still planning on using this method to gather evidence on all open cases that they deem necessary.

This type of policing is not legally allowed in the United States or the United Kingdom as both countries have deemed it entrapment. In this book, I plan to detail the Mr. Big operation, as well as what it looks like from the people that it gets used on, as well as some of the unanswered questions that we are left with.

Introduction

The Mr. Big, or also known as the Canadian Technique, is a covert investigation procedure that is used by the RCMP in Canada. This is where undercover police try to get a confession from suspects in murder cases, usually cold cases.

It all starts with the police creating a fictitious criminal organization and trying to get the suspects of a murder case to join their group. Over a period, they build a relationship and gain trust with the suspects by using them in a series of criminal acts such as credit card scams, stealing cars or improperly selling guns.

It was in 1901 when Donald Todd was convicted for a murder in Winnipeg after a Mr. Big operation. Even though the court noted that the means employed to obtain the confession were contemptible, they convicted him.

The Mr. Big technique then was developed by the RCMP in the early 1990s and has been used in more than 350 cases across Canada. The RCMP claimed that they have a 75 percent cleared rate on the cases that they have taken on in this technique, and have a 95 percent conviction rate.

In more detail, in a typical Mr. Big sting, the first thing that the undercover police usually do is place the suspect under 24-hour surveillance for weeks or even months, looking to find out the habits and things that they did daily. With this information, police would create a scenario where they could meet the suspect by accident. In these meetings, the undercover officer would ask for help in some way or perhaps a small favor from the suspect. The operative would then offer to buy the suspect's dinner or even offer employment.

From there it begins; the suspect would now be asked to do small jobs for the undercover police, such as count money or make some deliveries, and would be paid exceptionally well for doing the job. The tasks then start to be more challenging and often to where they start to feel more important to the Mr. Big group.

This now leads the suspects to be introduced to the leader of the Mr. Big group, or criminal group’s boss. It is there that the pressure is applied to try and get the suspects to confess or brag about the crimes that they have committed previously to joining the Mr. Big gang.

The undercover operation usually employs up to fifty operatives as to help make the Mr. Big group look legitimate as well as apply pressures to the suspect to feel safe to talk about crimes of their past.

Shortly after the undercover police learn of crimes committed by the suspects, their operative, posing as the gang leader, would approach the suspect and tell them of some information they had learned. It would be information pertaining to the suspect's previous crimes, such as he heard that the police were about to make an arrest for the crime.

Mr. Big would then offer to help with this problem by perhaps helping to fix the criminal situation in which the suspect had been involved by several different methods. One such method could be that Mr. Big has an insider working for the police that could get rid of the evidence that’s on file for the crime.

Another way that the Mr. Big sting could be used is telling the suspect that for them to go further into the gang, they would need to give up some incriminating evidence about themselves. This would act as collateral or some sort of insurance that shows the Mr. Big gang loyalty.

These meetings are always recorded so