John and Nancy Bosco // Montana // 36

SUMMARY

On August 12th 1993, John and Nancy Bosco were murdered in their home in Ferndale, Montana. The crime scene was bloody and confusing. John appeared to be more decomposed than Nancy and police initially thought this could be a murder suicide. When the murder weapon wasn't found, the police realized this was actually a double homicide, but there weren't any leads. Shortly after the murders, John's mother contacted a psychic, Danion Brinkley. She learned details about the suspect and was even told when the murder would be solved. This sounds crazy right? Well, everything that Danion predicted turned out to be true.

BACKGROUND

Nancy Bosco wanted to be a model and was outgoing, charming, and fun loving. She loved to be outdoors, hiking, and exploring. After Nancy graduated from college, she got a job in sales. She would call people and discuss what she was selling and set up a time to show it to them. One day, she calls up a man named John and gave her sales pitch. At this time, he was living alone and had been going through a brutal breakup with the mother of his children. John and Nancy hit it off right away. Everyone said that their love was electrifying and they were made for each other. John and Nancy ended up getting married and two years later, they moved to Montana. John loved the wide open spaces that Montana offered and they were setting up a woodworking business. The plan was to move to Montana, get settled in, and then they would go back and get the kids and move them to Montana. Unfortunately, they never made it to pick up the kids.

On August 19th, 1993, police were sent to the Bosco's home because no one had heard from them in awhile and a welfare check was requested. When the officer arrived to the home, he had a very uneasy feeling. There were flies everywhere and the smell was overwhelming. The officer discovered John and Nancy Bosco's bodies in their bed. John's body was black and he had a gunshot wound in his head. Nancy was lying next to him and there was a pillow over her face. Flies and maggots were covering John and Nancy's bodies. The initial thought was that this could be a murder, suicide. It was very hard to tell what could have happened or when this happened. John's body was significantly more decomposed than Nancy's.

CRIME SCENE
During the investigation, the police were not able to find a gun anywhere near John and Nancy. This of course, blows the initial theory out of the water. This couldn't have been a murder suicide if there wasn't a gun near them and they had both been shot. They did discover an empty box in the room which had information that John's 357 Magnum was missing. Nancy Bosko had been shot in the back and in the cheek. The scene was very bloody and the telephone was lying on the floor. There was also glass on the floor, near the bed, but the police weren't able to determine where the glass came from. The doors were all locked, but there were a few windows that were open, including one in the basement. The phone line was cut and the power had been shut off. During the inspection of the home, everything was pretty much intact and there wasn't anything missing. It didn't appear to be a burglary, it was just a double homicide. This looked personal.

John and Nancy's family had no idea who could have murdered them and they really had no clue about what actually happened. They had only been in Montana for 6 months. 

AUTOPSY

The autopsy revealed that the couple had been killed a week before their bodies were discovered. It was also revealed that they were killed around the same time. Now, this was odd because the bodies were at different stages of decomposition. It turns out, that Nancy's body was less decomposed because her wounds had been covered with a pillow. The maggots didn't attack her as much. It looked like John was shot first, while he was sleeping. It's believed that Nancy abruptly woke up and tried to put her glasses on. The glass discovered on the floor, was from Nancy's glasses, when she was shot in the back.

The gun that was stolen from the home was not the gun that killed John and Nancy. There was one person in John's life that caused him a lot of problems. John had been in a custody battle for six years with his ex-wife. He enrolled his two kids in a school in Montana and his ex-wife came and took them back to Colorado. John never had permission to keep the kids in Montana, so his ex-wife had to get a court order and went to Montana and they took the kids out of school and she took them back. John was pursuing full custody and they were supposed to leave the day after the murder to head to Colorado. Could John's ex-wife have something to do with this? Maybe. Another tip came in that Nancy had been concerned about someone spying on her. There were young boys that would drive by and honk at her and there was speculation that the boys had even watched Nancy sunbathe before John's mom told investigators that there was a legal dispute with the guy the couple bought the house from. They purchased the home with the intent of starting their woodworking business, but discovered that they weren't allowed to have their business in this location. The home had zoning restrictions and the person that sold the house to the Bosco's claimed that they knew about everything upfront. Maybe this was a real estate deal gone wrong?

A few people did tell investigators that John had concerns that he was going to be murdered soon. He had trouble with Boulder, Colorado attorneys and judges and believed there was a conspiracy going on. John and Nancy were planning to out the corruption happening in the court. 

ANTOINETTE BOSCO

John's mother, Antoinette Bosco, was left with many struggles after the murders. She had actually spoken against the death penalty to audiences at high schools, colleges, human rights groups and prisons. Suddenly, she felt conflicted about this though. She said quote “When I got the news of the brutal murders, I wanted the killer dead. I wanted to kill him with my own hands. But that feeling also tormented me, for I had always been opposed to the death penalty. I felt now I was being tested on whether my values were permanent, or primarily based on human feelings and expediency. When it hits you personally, the anger and pain of your loss makes you want to tear apart that person who stole your loved one and your happiness. But does this do any good in the long run? And should we be in the business of killing people? In time, in spite of my grieving, which will always be a permanent state of life for me, I was able to grasp again that the state is no more justified in taking a life than is an individual.” End quote.

WHO IS DANNION BRINKLEY

John's mother needed answers. She decided to contact Dannion Brinkley, a spiritual advisor. Dannion says he can see the event. He told John's mother that he sees someone crawling through a window and heading to the Bosco's room. He said it was a skinny, 19-20 year old boy with dark hair and in-set eyes. The kid had been in the house many times before. He goes to a school out West. He said the killer would be captured in December.

Let's talk about Dannion Brinkley and where he got his psychic abilities from. On September 17th, 1975, when Dannion was 25-years-old, he was on the phone with a friend and was struck by lightning, which threw him across the room. Over 180k volts of electricity was shot through his body. His wife Sandy was trying to resuscitate him within seconds of the incident. The friend he was on the phone with, Tom, had also rushed over to help. Dannion says he felt that he was floating above himself, watching all of these events and during this time, he was clinically dead. He walked down a tunnel and saw a from come out of a misty blue cloud. Then, he began experiencing everything he had ever gone through in his life. He was also put in the place of everyone he had ever encountered. Dannion says he was a self-centered, mean, bully when he was younger. So, during this time where he was dead, he was confronted by all of the people he had victimized over the years and he had to feel everything they went through due to his actions.

Dannion was rushed to the hospital by ambulance and in the emergency room, his breathing faltered, then stopped. Just minutes later, his friend Tom was told he was dead. Tom went to the room where Dannion's body was placed. How could this be? He was talking to his friend on the phone right before all of this and now he's dead? Suddenly, the sheet over Dannion's body began moving. Dannion explains that at this point, he was rushed from a spiritual place, back to the physical world and he returned to life after being declared dead for twenty eight minutes. 

He was in the hospital for a week and was eventually released, but he wasn't the same anymore. He was unable to walk or talk. His eyes were so light-sensitive that he had to wear welder's glasses at all times. He was paralyzed for seven months. It took him two years to relearn how to walk or eat. 

Finally, Dannion was able to describe his near-death experience and he recalls being in a cathedral with thirteen beings. They approached him one at a time and would show him a box. Inside each box was an image of an event that would happen in the future. He said he witnessed 113 future occurrences, including the election of Ronald Reagan, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Gulf War in 1991. He told several friends about these visions and they have verified that he made the predictions before these events ever took place and he says 95 of the occurrences have come true so far. Dannion believed that his near-death experience gave him psychic abilities. About a year after the accident, he attended a lecture with Dr. Raymond Moody who studied near-death experiences. Moody says that in 1976, Dannion told him that the Soviet Union would fall in 1990. The doctor worked with him for several years and soon Dannion decided to use his abilities to solve crimes. A Doctor named William Roll observed Dannion in a series of tests and he gave readings to eight people that he had never met before. He picked out details that he couldn't have ever known and convinced the doctor that he was legit. Do you buy the story?

Investigators weren't overjoyed about the information from Dannion when John's mother presented it to them. In December, they got a call from Oregon. A student, called Shadow, had been telling some strange stories at school. Shadow was telling people that he killed some people in Montana, near his home. The police had actually charged Shadow before. He had spray painted graffiti around town. Ut turns out that he was having dreams about murder and rape and had told some of the kids at school. One night, he showed off a 9 millimeter Smith and Wesson and told kids about how he killed two people. Investigators went to talk to him and his full name is Joseph Shadow Clark, he is one of the teens accused of spying on Nancy and he is the son of the man that sold the home to John and Nancy.

During the police interview, he said he had been having dreams about murder and having sexual relations with a faceless woman. He said he had a dream in August and the dreams were calling out to him. A voice told him to get up and go. He felt overpowered and ended up at the Bosco's home. He turned the power off and cut the phone line. He knew the home well, because this was his childhood home. He murdered the couple and claims he doesn't know why he did this. Police found out that Shadow had a sick obsession with Nancy and they believe he performed a sexual act after murdering her. John's missing gun was found in a trumpet case, under his bed in his parent's home. 

Shadow was arrested in December. He was a 19 year-old, skinny college kid, who knew the house well because he grew up there. This all lined up with the information Dannion Brinkley provided. To avoid the death penalty, Shadow plead guilty to two counts of deliberate murder and one count aggravated burglary. Shadow continued to claim that he didn't know why he murdered John and Nancy and wouldn't provide a motive. He was sentenced to 220 years in prison (later reduced to 150 years), eligible for parole when he is 60 years old.

Also, on a side note, if you're wondering what Dannion Brinkley is up to, he currently does hospice work. He completely turned his life around. Instead of bullying others, he does hospice work so that he can help others that are nearing death and perhaps fear it.

RESOURCES

John and Nancy Bosco
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/John_and_Nancy_Bosco

Watched Motives and Murder: Cracking the Case: No Reason to Die on VUDU

John and Nancy Bosco

https://billingsgazette.com/john-and-nancy-bosco/article_1c1fcd64-2dcf-5e33-8fdb-1dc0cf94ce72.html

Dannion Brinkley

https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Dannion_Brinkley

The Prophecies of Dannion Brinkley

https://www.qsl.net/w5www/brinkley.html

Antoinette Bosco, Connecticut Mother of John Bosco, murdered in Montana in 1993

http://www.willsworld.com/~mvfhr/gallery-Bosco.pdf