Satanic DJs Allegedly Robbed Communication Towers

APBnews.com, Dec. 16, 1999
By Richard Zitrin

HAMMOND, Ind. (APBnews.com) -- Two men who operated a pirate satanic radio station known as The Goat are believed to have been responsible for at least $1 million in thefts and damages at 37 communications towers throughout northern Indiana, police said today.

One of the suspects, 20-year-old Cory M. Gallo, is in jail, and police are looking for his accomplice, 30-year-old James M. Fox, who may be trying to leave the country, according to state police Sgt. Shana Kennedy. They allegedly stole equipment from radio and TV transmission towers and other communications facilities in 21 counties to operate their illegal radio station, Kennedy said. They also face charges of breaking into four churches and three businesses.

Much of the stolen merchandise -- including computers and radio equipment -- was recovered during a search of their Missouri Avenue home here Nov. 18, she said.

'They'd literally just trash the tower'

"If they didn't find what they needed, they'd literally just trash the tower sites," Kennedy told APBnews.com today. "They hit a tower a month ago at Ball State in Muncie and the station's still not up." Gallo and Fox broke into a state police communications tower but did not steal anything because the equipment is so old, she said. The pair apparently operated their pirate radio station from their home for about two years, Kennedy said.

"They'd play anything licensed radio stations would not play -- satanic, heavy-metal-type music," she said. "They'd make a lot of satanic statements and a lot of statements against the government. They'd just ramble, almost incoherently sometimes. They just feel like the government shouldn't have control over licensing stations. They're very anti-government." The station was named The Goat because the animal represents the devil in satanic lore.

Police suspicious after car accident

Kennedy said that Gallo and Fox first attracted investigators' attention during the summer when their car was involved in an accident in Newton County. A suspicious sheriff's deputy asked permission to search, and found tools and other items.

The deputy passed along the information to a state police and FBI task force investigating the communication tower burglaries and vandalism, Kennedy said.

State police Sgt. Timothy Collins said the burglaries continued into mid-November, shortly before the two men's house was searched. Gallo was arrested Monday and charged with burglary, theft and criminal mischief on a warrant from Benton County, she said. He is being held in the Benton County Jail on $2,100 cash bond or $20,000 surety, a jail spokesman said. Prosecutors in 20 other northern Indiana counties also are considering filing charges, police said.