'Radioactive' - Ep. 4: The Investigators
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What happened during the road trip to Albuquerque?
I am hoping that we actually find some of the keys we need to begin to put a close on this case. I mean, you and I have been chasing this thing for years. And it took a lot to dig out this information that's in New Mexico that we're hoping is what we think it is. And I'm just really anxious to get there and start looking.
We decided to drive all this way.
I mean, we could have flown, but I do hate flying.
Yeah, I was tempted to say, meet you there. But eight hours in a car? That's nothing when you think about the thousands of hours we put into investigating Karen Silkwood's story.
At the end of this road trip, there was a crucial piece of evidence we wanted to see. Evidence that had been passed down in a family from one generation to the next. Our journey to uncover that piece of evidence had finally brought us here.
Hi. Nice to see you.
Here we met another Karen in this story. Karen Pipkin Guerrero greeted us at the front door.
Welcome to Albuquerque.
It's really good to be here. Come on in, guys. Thank you.
Go ahead, Mom.
She has long flowing dark hair and was wearing brown knee-high leather boots. She's retired and lives in this split-level home with her husband and two rescue dogs. It's a beautiful spot surrounded by mountains with lush greenery all around.
I first talked to Karen Pipkin Guerrero on the phone about a year ago when I heard that she might have this piece of evidence. It took some convincing, but she agreed to let us come see it. Go ahead. You go first. Oh, you want me to go first? Okay.
Karen led us through a door and into her garage. Oh my, that's it right there? Yeah.
What crucial piece of evidence was found in Albuquerque?
I feel like it should have gloves on to touch it. What we were looking for was perched on top of a refrigerator underneath some fishing rods next to a jug of windshield wiper fluid. Can I take it down? Sure. Oh, yes. Please take it down.
Okay. And just like that, we were holding the bumper from Karen Silkwood's 1973 Honda, the car she was driving the night she died on that Oklahoma highway 50 years ago. I had this vision that it was going to be in some hermetically sealed glass case. You know, here was this key artifact of the Silkwood story. And there it was, more than 500 miles from the crash site, gathering dust in a garage in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Wow. My God.
Holy mackerel, there's black stuff in it still.
Yeah.
Is that good? Yes.
Yeah, it's good. That's exactly what they were talking about.
The reason Karen Pipkin Guerrero has this bumper is because her dad was an accident investigator. And Karen Silkwood's union, the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union, hired him to look into what caused the fatal crash.
His name was A.O. Pipkin. He ran an accident reconstruction business out of Dallas, Texas. Pipkin was a big guy who wore bright orange jumpsuits no matter the occasion, even when he was eating in a five-star restaurant. A reporter once described him as looking a little like an orange balloon.
And this bumper? He thought it was important enough that he held on to it for the rest of his life. And just before he died in 2011, he asked his daughter Karen to hang on to it too.
So what did he think was going to happen to this when he asked me to bring it home with me? That's my thing is, did he think something was going to come up and it might be important?
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What happened during the road trip to Albuquerque?
0:57–2:56
2
What crucial piece of evidence was found in Albuquerque?
2:56–8:34
3
What did A.O. Pipkin conclude about Karen Silkwood's accident?
8:34–10:57
4
What were the findings of the Oklahoma State Highway Patrol?
10:57–13:20
5
What did the FBI conclude about Karen Silkwood's death?
13:20–18:23
6
How did Karen Pipkin Guerrero reflect on her father's investigation?
18:23–19:51
7
What new evidence emerged in the investigation of Karen Silkwood?
19:51–1:00:10