Todd Hackett, a classically trained actor but credited mostly for his many roles in numerous reality crime shows such as American Justice and True Crime, was arrested over the weekend and then inexplicably released for a record 45th time this year.
Within minutes after dozens of calls were made to police identifying Hackett from an episode of Cold Case Files that had aired the previous night, Los Angeles Police apprehended him without incident on Sunday afternoon.
Witnesses report that police swarmed on the crime show reenactor as he was walking his dog near Glendale Central Park. Police tackled him to the ground, repeatedly addressed him as Cliff McElroy, and arrested him for the 2001 murder of his wife Tanya McElroy of Topeka, Kansas.
Reginald Taylor, one of the nearly two dozen people who had alerted police that afternoon, had just come out of the Glendale Public Library when he saw the criminal fugitive.
“I just saw that dude on on TV last night,” Taylor said. “The host Bill Kurtis said that this McElroy fellow apparently killed his wife in cold blood.”
Taylor admited that he was perplexed as to how a Kansas farmer was so far away from home and why he was just “wandering around Los Angeles”.
“I wasn’t sure at first because he was just sitting there on a park bench,” Taylor said. “He didn’t look very suspicious or like he was on the run or nothin’, but it looked just like him, so I called it in.”
With Hackett (aka McElroy) face down in the grass and a police officer’s knee in the back of his neck, he could be heard pleading, “Not again…look, that’s not me, that’s not. . .I just play. . .”. Police tased Hackett to subdue him and then forced him into the squad car.
Hackett’s agent and lawyer both arrived at the police station later that afternoon and set out to free their client for what they revealed was the second second arrest in as many weeks. Police records show he was apprehended last Monday following the truTV network airing of Forensic Files in which he was accused, under another alias apparently, for the 2004 aggravated murder of his gay lover. Police would not reveal why he was free to roam the streets of Glendale, only saying that they had made a mistake.
After several hours in a holding cell and after his representation apparently cleared things up with the police, Hackett was released with an apology by the Los Angeles Police Department for reasons not yet made clear to the press.
But not long after Hackett left the station Sunday evening, police soon regretted letting him go and sent out an all points bulletin for his arrest. For within only hours of being freed, nearly a dozen calls came into 9-1-1 marking Hackett as “gunman number three” in the 1992 Sun City Bank heist, as depicted on a rerun of America’s Most Wanted aired earlier that day.
The LAPD immediately launched a manhunt for the suspect matching Hackett’s description –now known as “the Sun City gunman”– and after analyzing the dramatized footage, warned that he should be considered to be armed and dangerous. They further advised that Hackett may be wearing acid wash jeans and a Black Crowes T-shirt and is driving a 1988 Ford Tempo.
Hackett was last seen in the produce section of a Glendale area Albertsons grocery store, presumably stocking up on supplies for his flight from justice.
JB Goodbody frequently has thoughts in his head that makes him smile. Were they made public at the moment they poofed into existence, without some form of structured outlet such as satire, these thoughts would cause significant distress among his friends, family and coworkers. This is why he is here. 
