1 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:31,000 We will do that. 2 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:32,000 Thank you. 3 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:33,000 From the heart. 4 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:34,000 Thank you very much. 5 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:35,000 From the heart, my friend. 6 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:39,880 This weekend, outspoken enemy of the mob, Buffalo Jim Barrier, was found dead in a local 7 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:40,880 motel room. 8 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:44,600 There were no obvious signs of foul play, but tonight, Barrier's friends and relatives 9 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:47,560 are voicing their strong suspicions. 10 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:49,640 My family, we all believe he was murdered. 11 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:55,200 Despite what he thought were ongoing threats to his safety, Jim Barrier refused to back 12 00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:56,200 down. 13 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:59,880 We thought it was like a setup. 14 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:03,680 It didn't feel right. 15 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:08,400 I know that there's people out there that want the truth as bad as I do. 16 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:09,800 We deserve justice for our father. 17 00:01:59,880 --> 00:02:05,720 2008 at 11.30 AM, at a motel six on Boulder Highway. 18 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:10,560 Housekeeper knocks on the door to room 105 to check to see if it's okay to clean the 19 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:15,000 room. 20 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:23,560 When she opens the door, she notices a gentleman asleep on the bed. 21 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:30,880 She comes back at 12.30 and notices that he's still asleep. 22 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:36,920 At 1.10 PM, the housekeeper returns and finds him in the same position. 23 00:02:36,920 --> 00:02:45,240 Another housekeeper shakes him to see if he's awake, at which time they believe he's dead. 24 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:51,080 The violent crimes detectives responded out to the scene in the early afternoon. 25 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:57,240 The body was found lying face up on the bed with his shirt open, with a pillow behind 26 00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:01,800 his head and his pants down around his ankles. 27 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:07,520 There was a white powdery substance found on his beard and on his shirt. 28 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:13,600 The nature in which the body was found was a little suspicious because there wasn't a 29 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:18,040 clear sign as to why he was deceased. 30 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:24,440 At some point they identified him as being James Barrier, went by the name of Buffalo 31 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:25,440 Jim. 32 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:31,120 I'm Buffalo Jim and it's another Friday night brother here in Vegas town. 33 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:36,560 Barrier was a true Las Vegas character, a pro wrestler, auto mechanic, political candidate. 34 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:39,040 Here you go sir, Buffalo Jim Barrier. 35 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:43,520 Barrier built a gigantic animated smoke belching paper mache buffalo. 36 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:46,080 I thought the people of Las Vegas would like it brother. 37 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:53,520 My father, Buffalo Jim Barrier, loved Las Vegas, the bright lights, and the excitement 38 00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:58,240 that shows the restaurants. 39 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:02,800 And he was someone who was larger than life. 40 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:10,920 He was someone who just lit up a room when he walked in, just a character. 41 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:13,920 His dad was a Cherokee Indian. 42 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:21,920 He would educate us on our background and always would remind us, you know, that remember 43 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:29,040 your ancestors and remember your bloodline lineage, it's important. 44 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:33,160 His childhood wasn't very easy. 45 00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:41,560 He began working at a gas station at the age of 15 with his older brother doing oil changes. 46 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:45,840 He slept in the gas station floors, you know, and his older brother was teaching him the 47 00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:48,560 ropes. 48 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:57,120 He started off doing mechanics out of his van. 49 00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:01,840 And he eventually made his way up to the level he was at with owning his own auto repair 50 00:05:01,840 --> 00:05:08,160 shop that he started in the late 70s. 51 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:10,120 He fixed a lot of incredible cars. 52 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:15,880 I know that he fixed a car once for Wayne Newton on Robert Goulet. 53 00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:18,640 And I know there's celebrities even in other states that would bring their cars to his 54 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:23,240 shop as well. 55 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:26,440 He was a very caring and hardworking person. 56 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:29,840 He always made sure to provide for our family. 57 00:05:29,840 --> 00:05:33,480 There were four of us growing up. 58 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:36,640 I have an older sister named Jessica. 59 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:42,880 And I have a sister named Elise and then our baby sister, Jerica. 60 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:45,080 My mother was in love with my father. 61 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:48,200 She still loves him. 62 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:54,280 But in the year 2000, my mother left my father and we moved to Seattle, Washington because 63 00:05:54,280 --> 00:05:57,560 my mom has a sister up there. 64 00:05:57,560 --> 00:06:03,080 But they eventually, Jerica went to live with my father and he treated Jerica like a queen. 65 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:04,960 They went everywhere together. 66 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:09,120 They were just inseparable. 67 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:10,640 Every day was an exciting day. 68 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:13,800 Something new. 69 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:15,720 He was so much fun. 70 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:25,200 He would always bring the excitement. 71 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:28,080 And he always loved wrestling. 72 00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:30,240 Fireman's carry. 73 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:32,320 Oh, man. 74 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:36,840 New every weight champion in the world. 75 00:06:36,840 --> 00:06:38,840 Got it. 76 00:06:38,840 --> 00:06:39,840 Got it. 77 00:06:39,840 --> 00:06:40,840 Got it. 78 00:06:40,840 --> 00:06:44,080 Buffalo wanted to run his own school and wrestling company. 79 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:49,280 I'm here tonight at the Buffalo Jams Pro Wrestling School, brother. 80 00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:52,080 So he called it Buffalo Wrestling Federation. 81 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:53,080 Whoa! 82 00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:56,880 There goes out the tall that's where it's at! 83 00:06:56,880 --> 00:06:59,280 His style was badass. 84 00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:03,360 Ring on every finger. 85 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:04,640 It's Friday night. 86 00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:08,720 He would wear this bulletproof vest that was literally made with bullets. 87 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:11,400 It's Buffalo Jams! 88 00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:12,720 Everybody wanted to be up around Buffalo. 89 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:15,400 We're going to the top, Buffalo! 90 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:18,360 Buffalo, he was just cool to be with and we clicked. 91 00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:20,600 We became very good friends right off the bat. 92 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:23,600 He's got him on funny slams! 93 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:26,560 His television show was on late night cable TV. 94 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:28,840 I mean, he had a tremendous following. 95 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:30,400 It was so camp. 96 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:33,280 It's another Friday night, Buffalo Jams Wrestling Show. 97 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:34,920 I'm here with Little Buffalo. 98 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:40,080 I decided that I'd participate in his wrestling show for an episode. 99 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:43,000 Get him, buffalo! 100 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:46,760 The name Little Buff came about because I was like his sidekick. 101 00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:47,760 I like it! 102 00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:48,760 I like it! 103 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:49,760 You know? 104 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:50,760 Oh, it's fun. 105 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:52,200 I mean, he knew how to put on a show. 106 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:54,200 You never know what's going to happen. 107 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:01,960 It was for about six years. 108 00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:05,640 It was just him and I. 109 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:09,560 So we're standing in front of my family's home. 110 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:11,480 This is a home that we lived at. 111 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:18,000 This was my father's dream home. 112 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:20,760 He loved it up here. 113 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:26,200 He looked up at the mountain and to him, he saw an Indian chief in the mountain and he 114 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:31,320 was like, this is going to be my mountain. 115 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:34,120 And being back here now, it just doesn't feel the same. 116 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:49,120 It's not the same without him. 117 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:55,720 That night, my father mentioned that he was going to go meet with a friend for dinner. 118 00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:19,720 He said, I'll be home by 12. 119 00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:26,520 Around 9.30pm, I texted him, but he didn't reply. 120 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:34,920 I gave him another call later in the evening and he didn't answer. 121 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:39,720 I tried calling my father in the morning again and he didn't answer. 122 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:42,720 And that really was alarming for me. 123 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:45,200 Like, dad's not answering his phone. 124 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:47,720 Like, what's going on? 125 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:50,720 It was around like 2pm. 126 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:58,720 I was with my sister, Elise, and I get a phone call from a police officer saying that she's 127 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:00,720 calling about my father. 128 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:03,720 And she said I need to speak to an adult. 129 00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:05,720 I was only 15. 130 00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:09,720 Elise was 20 years old at the time. 131 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:13,720 So then I frantically went to go get Elise. 132 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:17,720 I turned the volume of my phone up so I can hear the conversation. 133 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:23,720 And Elise took the call and I heard the police officer on the phone say, your father is dead. 134 00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:32,720 And we need you to come to Motel 6 on Boulder Highway to come and identify the body. 135 00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:40,720 During the whole car ride there to the Motel 6, we were just crying uncontrollably. 136 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:47,720 Elise was driving like 100 on the highway and we were trying to make it there as fast as we possibly can. 137 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:58,720 When we pulled up to the front of the Motel, we both were approached by a police officer from Metro 138 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:05,720 and invited into the Motel room to identify my father's body. 139 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:18,720 This is the room that my father was found dead in. 140 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:24,720 He was right here on the stretcher when we walked in the room. 141 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:31,720 He was in a body bag and the bag was unzipped. 142 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:42,720 That moment is so painful to remember and think about. 143 00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:46,720 They found him lying on the bed here. 144 00:11:46,720 --> 00:12:02,720 We were in a state of disbelief that our father was lying dead in front of us at a Motel. 145 00:12:03,720 --> 00:12:11,720 It's really difficult to see this room. 146 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:21,720 It's the last place I saw him before the funeral and I gave him a hug the last time I touched him was in this room. 147 00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:28,720 And he was so cold and I just remember that the police actually had to tell me to let go 148 00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:32,720 because they needed to take his body away. 149 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:38,720 I didn't want to let him go. 150 00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:48,720 The police, they didn't give us any information and details of how he was found or what happened to my father. 151 00:12:48,720 --> 00:13:01,720 The police handed my sister, Elise and I, an envelope with his car keys, his wallet, his cell phone and the receipt to the Motel. 152 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:13,720 I immediately took out the phone and thought that I should look through the call log to see who the last person was that he had spoken to. 153 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:23,720 There was a message so I went ahead and I listened to his voicemails to find out who had left that message. 154 00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:28,720 This person may be the last person that he spoke to. 155 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:35,720 In her message she had said, hey Buffalo, this is Lisa, is everything okay? 156 00:13:35,720 --> 00:13:46,720 And she had said it with a tone of concern and so I called the number and the woman picked up and I said, are you Lisa? 157 00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:51,720 And she didn't reply. I said, do you know Buffalo Jim? 158 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:56,720 And she goes, I don't know Buffalo Jim and she hung up. 159 00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:02,720 The woman that spoke on the voicemail was the same woman that answered my phone call. 160 00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:07,720 Why would she leave a voicemail voicing concern for my father? 161 00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:14,720 I was telling Elise, no she knows something. She knows something. She's lying. How could she not know her father? 162 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:17,720 There's a lot of call logs here. She left a voicemail. 163 00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:34,720 I was in California on a vacation and I received a phone call from my sister Elise and she said, Jennifer, dad was found dead. 164 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:41,720 I just signed off on the body. I was shocked. I just didn't know what to say. 165 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:52,720 It was weird because Buffalo hadn't called me for a couple days. 166 00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:56,720 And then phone rings, it says Buffalo Jim. 167 00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:09,720 And when I picked it up, it was his daughter. She goes, Johnny, dad's gone. 168 00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:25,720 To go from that presence in your life all the time, it was different when everything just shut down. Boom, right there. 169 00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:33,720 On the morning of April 7th, 2008, I was assigned Mr. Bear's Autops. 170 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:39,720 Anytime anybody is found dead in a hotel room, it's out of their normal environment. 171 00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:47,720 If you're going to be conservative, which I was, you would want to consider that a homicide until proven otherwise. 172 00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:52,720 Mr. Bear had no significant external trauma. 173 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:57,720 He wasn't shot. He wasn't stabbed. He wasn't beaten. He wasn't strangled. 174 00:15:57,720 --> 00:16:02,720 He had a white powdery substance on his nose and on his beard. 175 00:16:02,720 --> 00:16:11,720 There was a number of drugs that I tested for. In addition to the standard drugs, the only positive was cocaine. 176 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:20,720 The minimum lethal levels for cocaine is kind of in the 100 to 200 nanograms per milliliter range. 177 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:25,720 Mr. Bear's blood level was right around 250. 178 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:33,720 Mr. Bear had significant heart disease and his cause of death was a combination of the heart disease and the cocaine. 179 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:40,720 I put his death between 7 and 9 p.m. on April 5th, 2008. 180 00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:51,720 Once we got the information back from a toxicology report, I was in so much shock and we couldn't believe it. 181 00:16:51,720 --> 00:17:03,720 Because I never saw him once use any drug or drink any alcohol or party. 182 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:09,720 Buffalo loved to go out and have a great time. 183 00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:20,720 But he never did any drugs around me. I have this memory in my mind of Buffalo saying, I'm eating clean and I'm in the best shape of my life. 184 00:17:20,720 --> 00:17:27,720 My dad told me that in the 80s, he used to take some cocaine every once in a while. 185 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:38,720 He was not proud of that, but in my entire 24 years of knowing my father, I've never seen him ever do any drugs of any kind. 186 00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:46,720 If it was true that he had cocaine in him and that he had done it himself, I would be shocked. 187 00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:52,720 That would have been completely uncharacteristic of the Buffalo that I knew. 188 00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:59,720 Because Buffalo had a cocaine problem in his early years and was proud of the fact that he had beaten it. 189 00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:08,720 When we went to identify his body, there was no evidence of cocaine in the motel room at all. 190 00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:13,720 Where did this cocaine come from and why wasn't it at the scene? 191 00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:21,720 The white powder substance that was found on his beard and on his mustache, we don't even know if it was really cocaine or not. 192 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:26,720 They don't know if it was straight cocaine or they don't know if it was cut cocaine. They don't know what it was. 193 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:28,720 All they said was it was white powder. 194 00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:35,720 Did anybody ever test the cocaine that was on his nose or on his shirt or on his beard to see what the level of it was? No. 195 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:41,720 We were sitting around in the dining room table and my sister looked at me and said, Jennifer, he was set up. 196 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:44,720 What are we going to do? Is anything going to be done? 197 00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:46,720 Something was not right. 198 00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:51,720 Foul play was involved. 199 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:58,720 The night my dad died, we know he received a voice message from a woman named Lisa. 200 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:06,720 And I told the police. I said, please look into this woman. 201 00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:16,720 The detectives at some point had tracked down a young lady who was in the room with Mr. Barrier on the night of his passing. 202 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:24,720 And she had told them that she had had a long relationship with Mr. Barrier. 203 00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:35,720 She stated she called Mr. Barrier and put a friend on the phone, another male, who wanted to discuss selling him a motorcycle. 204 00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:47,720 According to her statement, she said that the reason why she called him was because she had a friend with her in town from Arizona and he needed money and wanted to sell the motorcycle. 205 00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:51,720 However, that person was never brought up ever again. 206 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:57,720 My dad somehow left the house, decided to leave and go meet her. 207 00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:04,720 Lisa said she and Buffalo Jim, they agreed to meet at the gas station on Charleston Blower. 208 00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:11,720 And then they drove to the Motel 6 on Boulder Highway. 209 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:23,720 The young lady said that Mr. Barrier parked the Rolls Royce around back of the Motel 6. 210 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:37,720 At 8.22, Buffalo Jim is seen in the lobby of Motel 6 getting a key card for Room 105. 211 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:48,720 And about 30 seconds later, Buffalo comes shuffling in front of the Motel office very slowly and behind him is a short female in silhouette. 212 00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:56,720 And she's following him three or four steps behind. That was Lisa. 213 00:20:56,720 --> 00:21:07,720 Lisa says, once inside the Room 105, they were playing a sexual fantasy game. 214 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:13,720 The young lady stated that Mr. Barrier was using a lot of cocaine and acting paranoid. 215 00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:17,720 She tried to calm him down by telling him he needs to drink some water. 216 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:22,720 She says that Mr. Barrier lays down on the bed and he starts convulsing. 217 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:31,720 He's clutching his chest with both hands, she says, a little like a mild seizure. 218 00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:41,720 She leaves Buffalo Jim in the Motel room. 219 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:49,720 Lisa said she took a taxi back to the Chevron where she left her car. 220 00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:56,720 At 9.30, she leaves a message on Buffalo Jim's cell phone asking if he's okay. 221 00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:59,720 But he never answered her back. 222 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:03,720 She mentioned that she had known him for years. 223 00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:13,720 So if you had known someone for many years, why wouldn't you call the police if they have a seizure? 224 00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:19,720 And also, I still wonder about the guy that she was with who wanted to sell the motorcycle. 225 00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:27,720 Where was this guy? He was never interviewed. Where is the motorcycle? 226 00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:32,720 Another thing, my father checks in at the Motel at 8.22 p.m. 227 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:37,720 However, his room was accessed seven minutes before he got there by a guest room key. 228 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:44,720 There was a keys swipe, meaning the room had been entered shortly prior to Buffalo going in. 229 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:48,720 It was late in the evening, could it have been a maid? 230 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:54,720 Highly unlikely. Maids usually work in the afternoon. 231 00:22:55,720 --> 00:23:02,720 Also on the key access report, it identifies which key is being used. 232 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:08,720 Like if it's a manager's key, a housekeeping key, it said it was a guest key. 233 00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:13,720 That tells me that someone was in the room waiting for him to check in. 234 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:20,720 We just are in shock that that wasn't really investigated or looked into as possible foul play. 235 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:24,720 And that is alarming to us. 236 00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:34,720 When my father was found dead on the Motel 6 bed, he had a $1 bill in his wallet folded. 237 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,720 He never folded money in his wallet. 238 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:40,720 My father was known to carry large amounts of cash. 239 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:44,720 Why was my father left with a $1 bill? 240 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:48,720 I had heard that that's a very notorious mob hit sign. 241 00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:54,720 The message behind having a dollar left in his wallet was a message of, hey, we got you. 242 00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:58,720 Hey, this is a hit. Jokes on you. 243 00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:03,720 Barrier's longtime friend, former councilman Steve Miller, suspects foul play 244 00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:08,720 and says Barrier had received death threats in recent days. 245 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:14,720 Before he died, there were numerous death threats my father had received. 246 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:18,720 They came in various forms. 247 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:25,720 The first time I noticed that my father was getting threat letters and threat calls 248 00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:35,720 was two years before he passed on. He'd get phone calls at his office from unknown numbers 249 00:24:35,720 --> 00:24:42,720 with a mail screaming in the phone, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. 250 00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:49,720 I used to tell him, dad, oh my gosh, you're getting threats. Are you worried? 251 00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:53,720 He's like, no, no, no, I'm just, you know, I just laughed it off. 252 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:57,720 I just have to be careful. Watch my back. 253 00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:02,720 He said I will not back down and let anyone take anything away from me. 254 00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:07,720 The death threats that my father received were believed to come from the long-standing feud 255 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:13,720 between a neighboring business, the crazy horse too, and my father. 256 00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:17,720 The crazy horse too was a gentleman's club. 257 00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:22,720 It was right next door to Buffalo's garage. 258 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:29,720 And it was ultimately the most successful club the city could ever have imagined. 259 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:33,720 It was owned by a man named Rick Rizzolo. 260 00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:39,720 Rick Rizzolo had a reputation around Las Vegas. 261 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:44,720 He says not a nice person to folks that were adverse to him. 262 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:49,720 There was some rumors of mob involvement with the crazy horse. 263 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:53,720 Some of it had been substantiated. Yes. 264 00:25:54,720 --> 00:26:00,720 The feud started about maybe 1998 when Buffalo wouldn't relinquish his space 265 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:04,720 for the expansion of the crazy horse too, and it's just got worse. 266 00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:09,720 They want to move me out, and I've got four children in the feed, and I don't think so. 267 00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:14,720 It was probably worth a million and a half to move him out of there correctly, 268 00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:19,720 but they were offering him zip. Buffalo says, why should I move? 269 00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:24,720 If you're not going to pay me, I'm staying, and that's when the problems arose from that moment forward. 270 00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:32,720 He's got an auto marine store, and so like any other mechanic, 271 00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:35,720 people leave their car overnight. 272 00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:41,720 There was a lot of vandalism that occurred at the shop. 273 00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:47,720 My father would leave for the night. The next day he would come and, you know, show up at the shop, 274 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:49,720 and cars were damaged. 275 00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:54,720 Tires were flattened. 276 00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:59,720 My father would lose business. It was an ongoing battle. 277 00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:03,720 My father had to come out of his pocket to repair any damages that had been done. 278 00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:09,720 Auto mechanic Jim Barrier says the topless club has brought nothing but trouble to the neighborhood. 279 00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:16,720 They put in phony fire lanes, used city parking enforcement to come by and take it only my customers. 280 00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:25,720 Over the years, the club had begun to really develop this reputation for violence. 281 00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:33,720 There was a lot of talk about bouncers were beating up some of the patrons. 282 00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:40,720 One of the alleged victims is this man, Kirk Henry, a Kansas tourist who said he had his neck broken 283 00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:44,720 after a night of lap dances and drinking at the crazy horse. 284 00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:51,720 There was a host of things that were alleged. A lot of them documented that were occurring in there. 285 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:56,720 And they got to the point where now, Buffalo's got a tremendous amount of damage. 286 00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:01,720 And it was getting up there in the hundreds of thousands of dollars over time here. 287 00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:11,720 And so with all this lost income and the interference with his business and intentional infliction of emotional distress on Buffalo, 288 00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:18,720 I did file a lawsuit on Buffalo's behalf for a million dollars on this matter to try to get him some relief. 289 00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:27,720 While this lawsuit went forward, it came out that sometime about 1995, 290 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:36,720 the feds had actually been taking a look at the crazy horse before Buffalo was even having his battle with them. 291 00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:52,720 I was assigned to work the organized crime program with the FBI. 292 00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:04,720 And back in the 80s and 90s and 2000s, the mafia was involved in running these various strip clubs around town. 293 00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:12,720 Strip clubs make more money per square foot than a casino. 294 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:19,720 For the most part, it's cash. Nobody paid taxes on any of this money. 295 00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:32,720 One of the places in Las Vegas where you could find representation of every single mafia family in the United States was in the Crazy Horse 2. 296 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:37,720 And Buffalo Jim's Auto Garage was next door. 297 00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:53,720 So we had an ongoing investigation because they at the club were involved in tax evasion, extortion, and various other types of illegal activities. 298 00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:58,720 Numerous employees of the Crazy Horse have come under FBI scrutiny. 299 00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:03,720 The club's owner, Rick Rizzolo, freely admits hiring people with criminal backgrounds, 300 00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:09,720 but he has denied engaging in any criminal wrongdoing at the club. 301 00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:20,720 During that time frame, Buffalo was supplying the FBI information about what was going on at the Crazy Horse. 302 00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:31,720 Buffalo Jim was sending us boxes of evidence, usually on a weekly basis for, I would say, approximately two years. 303 00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:38,720 He would write down what people told him and send it in to us. It was very helpful. 304 00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:48,720 On February 20th, 2003, we executed the search warrant on the Crazy Horse 2. 305 00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:58,720 We had two SWAT teams and like 80 or 100 agents. 306 00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:05,720 It's been a long time coming. There's been a lot of problems here since the day the Crazy Horse 2 moved in. 307 00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:10,720 After all these years, they're finally getting this guy. 308 00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:21,720 Sometime in about 2006, there was a plea deal reached where Rick Rizzolo would plea to income tax evasion. 309 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:28,720 And then in early 2007, Rick Rizzolo was sentenced to a year and a day. 310 00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:38,720 My father felt relief that Rizzolo had gone to prison, knowing that Rizzolo had caused him and my family much turmoil. 311 00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:45,720 He always reassured me that everything would be okay and that I'd always be protected and that I would always be safe. 312 00:31:47,720 --> 00:32:00,720 Unfortunately, Rick Rizzolo only served 10 months for good behavior, so he got out in March of 2008 and went into house arrest. 313 00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:10,720 Days before Buffalo Jim's mysterious death in a motel room, his longtime nemesis, crooked club owner Rick Rizzolo was released from federal prison. 314 00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:17,720 Rick Rizzolo's house arrest only lasted a week until April 4th, 2008. 315 00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:21,720 Buffalo died on April 5th. 316 00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:26,720 You know, Rizzolo gets out of prison and Buffalo's dead. 317 00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:30,720 Next day, you know, what the F here? 318 00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:31,720 It sums up. 319 00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:35,720 I know they're really strange coincidences. 320 00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:44,720 I was told that Lisa, the woman in the motel room, she was the stripper and she worked at the Crazy Horse 2 and had for many years. 321 00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:48,720 If she worked at the Crazy Horse, she had to know Rick Rizzolo. 322 00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:56,720 And Buffalo ends up dead that night with Lisa in the motel. 323 00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:02,720 This leads me to believe she was part of the plan to set my father up. 324 00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:11,720 There was another thing that alarmed me and made me feel that something was not right. 325 00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:20,720 After we got the call from the police that our father was found dead, my sister and I drove around this entire building here. 326 00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:25,720 We were looking for our father's vehicle and we didn't see it anywhere. 327 00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:30,720 His Rolls Royce was his favorite prize possession. 328 00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:35,720 And so we asked the police officer, where's the car? 329 00:33:37,720 --> 00:33:41,720 And the police officer said, well, we don't know where the car is. 330 00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:46,720 You can see it's a very small parking lot. 331 00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:50,720 You can't miss a Rolls Royce anywhere in this parking lot. 332 00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:52,720 There's no hidden spots anywhere. 333 00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:55,720 Where is it? 334 00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:06,720 On April 6th of 2008, the day the body was found, police released room 105 back to Motel 6 management. 335 00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:17,720 Then at 5.30, Mr. Barrier's Rolls Royce is located in the parking lot of Motel 6 after officers previously could not find it. 336 00:34:19,720 --> 00:34:25,720 Elise received a call from a Sergeant at Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and they said the car is there. 337 00:34:26,720 --> 00:34:29,720 She's like, what do you mean the car is there? Wasn't there? Well, the car is there. 338 00:34:30,720 --> 00:34:40,720 There was so much confusion about it. The police have started a missing car report and then the car just shows up in a few hours. 339 00:34:41,720 --> 00:34:48,720 I don't know what happened to the vehicle. Maybe they, you know, didn't see it earlier in the day. 340 00:34:49,720 --> 00:34:52,720 Maybe somebody had access to the vehicle. 341 00:34:52,720 --> 00:34:59,720 Barrier's car was searched by Metro. That search did not turn up any suspicious evidence. 342 00:35:00,720 --> 00:35:05,720 No prints, no hairs, nothing. It's just very strange. 343 00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:13,720 There's quite a few things that just think maybe there should have been a deeper and harder look at this. 344 00:35:13,720 --> 00:35:26,720 Something else that is a huge inconsistency in the case is that there are two phones that are listed on the police report and they were not my father's phone. 345 00:35:27,720 --> 00:35:33,720 This was my father's phone. This phone is not listed on the police report at all. 346 00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:38,720 There's a phone that's shown. It's a silver phone. 347 00:35:38,720 --> 00:35:47,720 They haven't listed on the report, but we never received it, nor do we know our dad even having this phone. So whose phone is this? 348 00:35:48,720 --> 00:35:50,720 And why was it in his room? 349 00:35:51,720 --> 00:36:03,720 And this is the front entrance to the infamous Crazy Horse 2 nightclub. Jim Barrier's relatives are convinced that the former club owner here may have somehow played a role in what happened to Barrier. 350 00:36:04,720 --> 00:36:11,720 I talked to my father that Thursday before he passed away and he goes, Rick Rizzlow just got out of prison. 351 00:36:12,720 --> 00:36:22,720 My father told me that if they were to get him, specifically the Crazy Horse 2 people, they would make it look like I died of a drug overdose with women. 352 00:36:23,720 --> 00:36:25,720 That was my last conversation with my father. 353 00:36:28,720 --> 00:36:31,720 And also my father received a letter the day he died. 354 00:36:32,720 --> 00:36:39,720 And it says, Mr. Barrier, meetings have been taken place at various locations around town by Rick Rizzlow. 355 00:36:40,720 --> 00:36:48,720 Be careful he's up to no good. He's using people to get close to you. He discussed using a female to get access to your business. 356 00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:58,720 Over the weekend, the body of the 55-year-old Barrier was found in a motel room on the Boulder Highway. Metro says there will be no formal investigation. 357 00:36:58,720 --> 00:37:02,720 You're always supposed to look at any possible suspects. 358 00:37:05,720 --> 00:37:17,720 If it is true that he had anonymous threats and that there were a number of negative things done to his business and then they wind up dead, there's enough there to investigate. 359 00:37:18,720 --> 00:37:24,720 When Buffalo died, the lawsuit against Rick Rizzlow died with him. 360 00:37:25,720 --> 00:37:32,720 You just can't lose your star witness and, you know, the case was strong with him alive. With him not alive, it wasn't a very strong case. 361 00:37:34,720 --> 00:37:40,720 My father made enemies with some very powerful people and I do believe he was murdered for that. 362 00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:53,720 My theory would be that they got him into a vulnerable situation. Maybe they forced cocaine into him. 363 00:37:54,720 --> 00:38:00,720 In Mr. Barrier's case, there's no doubt that there could be something in his system that we didn't detect. 364 00:38:01,720 --> 00:38:19,720 The possibilities would be that somehow he was either forced in some way to take cocaine at a level that he was not used to or he was tricked, you know, because definitely cocaine can come in different concentrations when you buy it on the street. 365 00:38:20,720 --> 00:38:22,720 You don't exactly know how strong it is. 366 00:38:23,720 --> 00:38:26,720 I think my father did get lured out by that woman, Lisa. 367 00:38:27,720 --> 00:38:32,720 We don't know what really happened. What was that trajectory and how he ended up at the motel? We don't know. 368 00:38:33,720 --> 00:38:36,720 It was an investigative property for us to be able to tell. 369 00:38:39,720 --> 00:38:46,720 So many people tell me that as a get out of jail gift, somebody's decided to get rid of Buffalo. 370 00:38:47,720 --> 00:38:53,720 That would have been the biggest favor anybody could have done for Rick Rizzlow. Who knows if it happened. 371 00:38:53,720 --> 00:39:05,720 The whole thing has got a bad smell to it. He died under highly, highly suspicious circumstances. This needs to be looked at as a murder. 372 00:39:08,720 --> 00:39:18,720 I think that timing is very suspicious. I don't know if Buffalo Jim ingested that cocaine willingly or not. 373 00:39:19,720 --> 00:39:24,720 But I am left with more questions than answers. 374 00:39:38,720 --> 00:39:45,720 In September of 2006, the crazy horse finally closed after its liquor license was revoked. 375 00:39:46,720 --> 00:39:52,720 And by August of 2019, the building had fallen into a state of very serious disrepair. 376 00:39:53,720 --> 00:39:56,720 It had been broken into by vagrants and it was finally condemned. 377 00:40:00,720 --> 00:40:07,720 After Buffalo's death, Jennifer Barrier took it upon herself to run Buffalo shop. 378 00:40:08,720 --> 00:40:12,720 You know, to finish those ongoing projects, those vehicles. 379 00:40:12,720 --> 00:40:17,720 Then the auto shop closed eventually. 380 00:40:21,720 --> 00:40:25,720 Here in Las Vegas, we lost our most colorful character. 381 00:40:26,720 --> 00:40:32,720 It's just a big lug that everybody loved and funny. 382 00:40:33,720 --> 00:40:38,720 And it just made a hole in our city when he died that we'll never be able to fill. 383 00:40:42,720 --> 00:40:45,720 Hi, baby Bob. 384 00:40:46,720 --> 00:40:52,720 Buffalo had a way about him. When he was there, people followed him. 385 00:40:53,720 --> 00:40:57,720 He loved to be Buffalo Jim and that made him happy. 386 00:40:58,720 --> 00:41:00,720 I miss him a lot. 387 00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:09,720 I hope his daughters know that they meant so much to him and he would be very proud of them. 388 00:41:09,720 --> 00:41:12,720 He really loved the girls. 389 00:41:17,720 --> 00:41:23,720 The past 13 years has been very difficult. 390 00:41:24,720 --> 00:41:28,720 I lost my best friend, I lost my father. 391 00:41:29,720 --> 00:41:32,720 I felt alone for many years after he passed. 392 00:41:32,720 --> 00:41:36,720 In 1999, my father and I drove up to Mount Charleston. 393 00:41:37,720 --> 00:41:39,720 It's a place we went up to every couple of months. 394 00:41:40,720 --> 00:41:43,720 And we were sitting at the lodge drinking hot chocolate together. 395 00:41:44,720 --> 00:41:48,720 And my father said to me, if anything were to ever happen to me, would you stand up? 396 00:41:49,720 --> 00:41:53,720 And I said, yeah, yeah, but what does that mean? 397 00:41:53,720 --> 00:41:56,720 I now know what that meant. 398 00:41:57,720 --> 00:42:01,720 There are people out there that know the truth. 399 00:42:02,720 --> 00:42:05,720 I hope they come forward and talk to us. 400 00:42:06,720 --> 00:42:10,720 We just want to know what happened to our father. 401 00:43:02,720 --> 00:43:04,720 I'm sorry. 402 00:43:05,720 --> 00:43:07,720 I'm sorry. 403 00:43:08,720 --> 00:43:10,720 I'm sorry. 404 00:43:11,720 --> 00:43:13,720 I'm sorry. 405 00:43:14,720 --> 00:43:16,720 I'm sorry. 406 00:43:17,720 --> 00:43:19,720 I'm sorry. 407 00:43:20,720 --> 00:43:22,720 I'm sorry. 408 00:43:23,720 --> 00:43:25,720 I'm sorry. 409 00:43:26,720 --> 00:43:28,720 I'm sorry. 410 00:43:29,720 --> 00:43:31,720 I'm sorry. 411 00:43:32,720 --> 00:43:34,720 I'm sorry. 412 00:44:02,720 --> 00:44:04,720 I'm sorry.