Charles C Morgan, known as ‘Chuck’, was a prominent escrow agent in Tuscon, Arizona. On March 22nd, 1977, he disappeared only to return three days later. Then, a few months later in June, he went missing again. However this time he never came home…

On March 22nd, 1977, 39 year old Charles C Morgan went missing for the first time on his way to work. Three days later he returned home in the middle of the night. He had a set of plastic handcuffs on his hands and one on his ankle. He was also missing a shoe. When he got home he couldn’t talk, but wrote a note to his wife telling her that he had been kidnapped and given a hallucinogenic drug that could kill him. He hinted to his wife that he had been working as a Treasury agent for a couple of years. She wanted to call a doctor and the police but Charles was adamant that she didn’t as it would endanger the entire family. Charles’ wife Ruth spent the next week nursing him back to health. Charles never really gave Ruth any more information.

After that Charles started wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a gun wherever he went. He also made sure that his daughters didn’t leave the house by themselves and drove them to school everyday.

On 7th June, 1977, two months after he first disappeared, Charles vanished again. Nine days later, Ruth received a phone call from an unidentified woman who said:

“Chuck is alright. Ecclesiastes 12:1-8.”

This is in reference to a Bible passage that reads in part:

“Men are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road. Remember him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to God who gave it.”

Two days later, the body of Charles C. Morgan was found in the desert. He had been shot in the back of the head. He was wearing a bulletproof vest and was armed with a knife and holster. Charles had been shot with his own gun, a .357-caliber magnum, which was found next to his body without any fingerprints on it. In his car investigators found several weapons and ammunition, and some sunglasses that weren’t his. They also found his tooth wrapped up in a white handkerchief. There was also a piece of paper with directions to the site where his body was found which had seemingly been written by Charles. A $2 bill had been clipped to his underwear, with seven spanish names beginning with the letters A-G, with “Ecclesiastes 12” written above and arrows pointing to the numbers 1 and 8, the same Bible verse quote to Ruth by the mystery caller. On the back of the $2 bill, there was a map of an area between Tucson and Mexico. 

Charles C. Morgan’s death was ruled a suicide. Although there were no fingerprints on the gun, he did have gunshot residue on his hands. 

Charles had only been dead 12 hours before he was found. The woman who called Ruth came forward two days after his death, calling herself ‘Green Eyes’. She said she met Charles at a motel just before he died, where he showed her a briefcase full of cash. Apparently there was a hit out on him and he planned to use the money to buy him out of the contract put on his life by the mob.

Shortly after his death, Charles’ car was broken into whilst in police possession, and his office was also ransacked. Two men claiming to be FBI agents visited Ruth and searched the home for a prolonged period of time. It is not clear what they were looking for or if they found anything, or if they were even real FBI agents.

After his death, it came to light that Charles may have been involved in money laundering activities through his escrow business, and it is believed that he kept detailed records of all the illicit transactions.

Ruth did not believe that her husband would commit suicide, but no suspects have ever been identified in Charles’ death. The Pima County Sheriff’s department closed the case in 1977, stating that:

“We have found no evidence that anyone took part in the death but himself.”

Sources:

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

https://unsolved.com/gallery/chuck-morgan/

https://www.truecrimezone.com/charles-chuck-morgan

https://www.grunge.com/675172/the-odd-mystery-behind-charles-c-morgans-death

https://allthatsinteresting.com/unsolved-murder-cases/4

https://www.trace-evidence.com/chuck-morgan

https://www.theywillkill.com/blog/episode-107-the-mysterious-death-of-charles-c-morgan

https://buzzfeed-unsolved.fandom.com/wiki/The_Odd_Death_of_Charles_C._Morgan

https://morbidology.com/the-bizarre-death-of-charles-morgan/