The Clark County coroner’s office has identified the body found in a barrel at Lake Mead in May 2022 as Edward “Buddy” Jackson. This identification was announced Wednesday, with additional details expected at a news conference on Thursday. County and police officials are scheduled to discuss the identity at 3 p.m. at the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, located at 400 S. Martin Luther King Blvd. Speakers will include Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse, Metro homicide Lt. Robert Price, Dr. Jason Beaman of the School of Forensic Sciences at Oklahoma State University, and Clark County Commission Chairman Michael Naft.
Las Vegas police officers discovered the body on May 1, 2022, at Hemenway Harbor. At the time of the discovery, police believed the victim was a man who died from a gunshot wound.
Officers noted that the shoes the man was wearing were sold at Kmart and manufactured during the middle and late 1970s. NamUs, a federal program and website dedicated to solving missing persons cases, had previously indicated the man might have been between 27 and 61 years old, and between 5 feet 6 inches and 6 feet 1 inch tall. Authorities stated it was not possible to estimate his weight.
For years, speculation has lingered that the death may be mob-related. At one point, experts had opined that the deceased person could be slot cheat George “Jay” Vandemark, William Crespo—a drug smuggler who turned state witness—or Johnny Pappas. The mob theory even speculated that the body could have been the work of noted mob enforcer Tony Spilotro.
However, details released two years ago about the victim's clothing and the possibility that the body may have been dumped in the 1980s complicated the Spilotro theory. Geoff Schumacher, the Mob Museum’s vice president of exhibits and programs, previously stated that the clothing reflected the late 1970s era, a time when the mob was active in Las Vegas and law enforcement was working to eliminate it. Schumacher noted that some individuals became informants or witnesses during this period, and those people would have been targets for elimination by mob leaders. He said this "definitely suggests this person could’ve been a victim of the mob."
There is even a similar, mob-related case from the 1970s. In 1976, mobster Johnny Roselli was found in a barrel in Florida’s Dumfounding Bay after testifying to the Senate about his involvement in CIA plots to kill Fidel Castro.
Despite these connections, Schumacher also highlighted some issues with the theory that the homicide victim was a mobster. He said that because police had speculated the clothing was not expensive, it suggests someone without means or that the clothing was put on the body by the killers. The size of the clothing, such as pants with a 46-inch waist, also suggested a large person, which Schumacher said "somewhat narrows the options."
While at least some of the clothing may be from the 1970s, police have previously said the body may have been dumped in the 1980s. If that is true, Schumacher explained, it changes the story. By the 1980s, the mob was starting to move on. If the killing occurred as late as 1984, it might not be related to the mob at all. Schumacher stated it was "equally possible," compared with the mob theory, that the victim could have been involved in a "drug deal gone bad or a love triangle gone bad."
