 It is 9.30 in the morning on the 11th of April 1986 and the relative peace inquire to Pinecrest, Miami-Dade is broken with gunfire. Proceeding this was an attempted FBI forced stop of two suspected serial violent criminals. What would ensue in the erupting gunfire would become the most bloody day in FBI history. The equipment to hand for the FBI proved ineffective in stopping the criminals and sadly two agents would be fatally wounded. The shootout would cause law enforcement to re-evaluate the weapons they use and their firearms training. Today I'm looking at the Miami-Dade's shootout of 1986. Welcome to True Crime with John. Background. Now you don't have the FBI after you usually for no reason and today's subject's reason is a spree of violent crimes. But before the crimes we must discuss the meeting of two men. Enter Michael E. Platt and William Russell Mattix. The two men had met in 1973 while serving in the US Army at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Platt enlisted into the Army on the 27th of June 1972 as an infantryman. Soon after he applied for the Army Airborne Rangers this required him to attend the Air Assault School at Fort Campbell. Upon completion of the course Platt was assigned the role of a military policeman. William Mattix was a more experienced soldier having previously served with the Marines between 1969 and 1972. Upon his honourable discharge and having nowhere else to go he went on to enlist in the US Army. Here he was posted to Fort Campbell as a military police officer. And this would be where he would meet his future partner in crime. Platt married his wife Regina Lien in October 1975 who he met whilst at Fort Campbell. Shortly after the marriage he was transferred to Camp Kitty Hawk now Camp Boniface in South Korea. Mattix would be honourably discharged in 1976 followed by Platt in 1979. Platt and his wife after his discharge eventually settled in Monterey California and had a son. The Platt family would move again to Regina's home state of Florida where Michael Lee Platt worked for his father-in-law's company. Mattix met his wife Patricia Buchanick post discharge whilst at the Walter Reed Army Hospital receiving treatment for a stutter. The couple settled in Columbus Ohio where Patricia worked at the Riverside Methodist Hospital as a lab assistant whilst Mattix went to meat cutting school and aviation mechanics training. Now I know this is a lot of preamble but both men although living in different parts of the country would be drawn back together after a horrific murder. Mysterious deaths. It is the afternoon of the 30th of December 1983 and Joyce McFadden and Patricia Mattix are working in the laboratory at the Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus Ohio. An unknown assailant broke into the lab bound the two women and cut their throats. Mattix was the prime suspect but no evidence linked him to the slayings. He was able to cash in the $350,000 life insurance policy and encouraged by Platt moved down to Florida. By now Platt had just quit a landscaping company he had created with his brother and now Employment Free sought to form a new tree cutting company with Mattix and this was called Yankee Tree Cutting. But it wouldn't be just Mattix's wife that met a grisly end. On the 21st of December 1984 Platt's wife of nine years Regina was found dead from a single gunshot blast to the mouth. Again like his friend Platt was the prime suspect but lack of evidence led the coroner to rule her death as self-inflicted. Stranger still Platt remarried just one month later in January 1985 followed by Mattix remarrying in May 1985 as well. An oh boy 1985 would be a roller coaster year for pretty much anyone the two came into contact with. The crime spree. Bizarrely both men before 1985 had no criminal record apart from the cases of wife death. They weren't on the police's radar at least before what was to come. They did have an odd running with the law in early 1985 over a broken vending machine. The two had bought one via mail order and got into a dispute with a seller. Death threats and the like were made but no criminal charges came from it. Mattix and Platt aged 34 and 32 respectively undertook the first part of their spree. This would involve stealing a getaway car. On the 5th of October 1985 they found a car perfect for the job parked up at a rock pit in the Everglades. It was a gold coloured 1977 Chevrolet Monte Carlo but there was a problem. Emilio Braille its owner. Braille was shot dead. Mattix and Platt hid his body and drove off with his car. Braille's remains wouldn't be found until March 1986. On the 9th of October Platt and Mattix undertook their first robbery. This was an attack on a Loomis armour car. Both men were wearing what was described as paramilitary gear and carried either AR-15s or M16 type weapons. The duo got away with $2,800 although they failed to get the total of $400,000 on board due to the armour car's driver getting away. A day later the duo struck again. This time a Wells Fargo truck. One legards was shot in the leg. A small gunfight ensued and both men got away empty handed. The injured guard later died in hospital. On the 17th of October the men struck again. Another Loomis armoured car. Shots from the guard erupted straight away. A couple of weeks would go by before another robbery would take place. On the 8th of November two bank robberies took place on South Dixie Highway letting Mattix and Platt the best part of $50,000. The next glut of robberies hit in 1986 beginning with the 10th of January attack on a Brinks armoured car at Barnett Bank in Miami. One guard was shot in the back first by a shotgun then twice more with an AR type weapon. But amazingly he survived. The two made off with $54,000 and were seen dumping Emilio Braille's Chevrolet and switching to a white Ford. Needing a new getaway car they shot and robbed Jose Colasso on the 12th of March as he was shooting targets at a rock pit in the Florida Everglades. They drove off in his black Chevrolet Monte Carlo. This is definitely feeling a bit deja vu at least to make a new cartoon I only need to do this. Again in a case of amazing luck Colasso survived reporting the crime after walking for three miles with a gunshot wound. Their final robbery involved hitting up the same bank as a January heist and this happened on the 19th of March 1986. This robbery got them just over $8,000. The suspects fled in Colasso's vehicle. This string of robberies and murder unsurprisingly garnered the interest from the FBI. They didn't know who the assailants were but they knew they had to stop them and this would come on the 11th of April 1986. The shootout. A team of 14 FBI agents in 11 cars sought to capture the offenders and stop the month's long spree that had left death in its wake. Clearly the two men were a menace to the public. Colasso's survival was instrumental to identifying the potential vehicle the robbers would be using. As such the FBI team led by Special Agent Gordon McNeill were conducting a rolling stakeout to find the black 1979 Monte Carlo. At 9.30 a.m. two agents Grogan and Dove spotted what they thought to be the suspect's car. They followed and two other FBI vehicles joined. With a three to one car advantage and five agents with more on route, a traffic stop was planned. Maticks and Plats were forced off the road and a number of collisions occurred between the cars resulting in a 1979 Chevrolet impacting head on with a tree on 12201 SW 82nd Avenue. Their car was wedged in front and pinned between a parked car and FBI officer Maneuze's vehicle. The force of the collision threw Maneuze's weapon off the passenger seat. The eight agents' armory to hand were two Remington 870 shotguns, three Smith & Wesson Model 459 9mm semi-automatic pistols and the rest of the six were armed with Smith & Wesson revolvers. Now don't get me wrong I would not like to be shot at with these but it would soon become apparent that they had brought spoons to a knife fight. Maticks and Plats had a Smith & Wesson Model 3012 gauge pump shotgun, a Ruger Mini 14 Remington semi-automatic rifle with folding stock, a Smith & Wesson Model 586 357 Magnum revolver and a Dan Wesson 357 Magnum revolver. Maneuze unarmed was hit with a shotgun blast from Maticks and exchanging gunfire between the agents and Maticks and Plats ensued. The first agent to land a hit was Grogan as Maticks leaned out of the Monte Carlo to fire a shotgun shell at Grogan and Dove. The two agents were behind the assailants vehicle. Agent Maneuze ran down the road and was shot in the arm by Plats with his Ruger rifle. Another shotgun blast hit Grogan and Dove's car. McNeil, who was now there, returned fire with six shots from his revolver, hitting Maticks in the head and neck twice. Maticks was knocked out by this, a shot back from Plats hit McNeil in the hand. Plats climbed out of the wrecked Chevrolet only to be hit by one of Dove's 9mm rounds in the arm. The bullet penetrated his chest and lung. Out of the car, Plats now made his way across the parked car he had been wedged between, catching another two bullets. Now behind the parked car, Plats returned fire hitting McNeil in the neck. In the gunfire, Dove's pistol became inoperable and both Grogan and Dove, now needing behind the car, were attempting to get the weapon operational again. During this time, Plats managed to flank the men and shot both of them dead. He entered Dove's and Grogan's car and attempted to start it. Miraculously, at the same point, Maticks had regained consciousness and joined his accomplice in an attempt to get away. Miles drew his 357 magnum revolver, moving along the street next to the car firing six rounds at the suspects, two in the face for Maticks and one in the chest for Plats. The gunfight was over. Out of the eight agents, only one had escaped injury. Four were dead, Grogan and Dove and the two assailants. In only 5 minutes, 145 shots between the two groups were fired. Aftermath. Both of the culprit's wives were shocked to find out what their husbands had been up to. They apparently hadn't seen any money and without them at least admitting to know a motive was hard to find. Okay, of course they wanted the money, but why in 1985 after many years in the forces and in civilian life? In the culprit's autopsies, it was found Plats wound to his chest had caused a collapsed lung, allowing 1.3 litres of blood to fill his chest. This meant, even if he had got away, he likely would have died soon after. A toxicology report on both men came back clear, meaning they were running on just adrenaline, which is pretty scary. The FBI placed partial blame on the weapons issued to the agents for the shootout's deadly result. They lacked the stopping power. Of the two long guns, with the eight agents, only one was deployed. The rest of the gunfight was slug out with service revolvers and a handful of 9mm pistols. The shootout would change the gun's FBI agents would be supplied with to harder hitting weapons. Some of the wider team did have MP5 submachine guns and M16 rifles, but they hadn't reached the shootout in time. The event would push for wider adoption of larger guns for all agents involved in apprehending violent criminals. Only two of the agents had ballistic vests, which were rated for pistol caliber rounds, hardly a match for Plats Remington, but definitely better than nothing. In memorial to the two slain agents, the village of Pinecrest, Florida, named the road that the gunfight took place on Agent Benjamin Grogan Avenue and Agent Jerry Dove Avenue. If you're enjoying this outro song, you can check it out on my second channel made by John, and if you fancy looking up my other social medias, I have Twitter and Instagram. All that's left to say is thank you for watching and Mr Music, play us out please.