He Swindled a Senior Citizen, Then Sold Pizza
(“Past Lives,” Forensic Files)
If Yelp existed back in the 1990s, maybe Brigitte Beck would have enjoyed the retirement she deserved.
Unfortunately, she had no way of knowing that Connecticut financial adviser Madison Rutherford was a con man born John Sankey.
Forgot to mention. He probably didn’t tell his clients about the six months he spent in prison for larceny in 1993, shortly before he persuaded Beck to let him take charge of her six-figure nest egg.
Rutherford ruined Beck’s finances as well as his own, then tried to fake his own death for $7 million in insurance payouts.
Like other Forensic Files fraudsters (Ari Squire, Molly Daniels) who thought they were smarter than the insurance companies and police, Rutherford was done in by the forensics.
“Past Lives,” the Forensic Files episode about Rutherford, first aired in 2004 while he was serving his second term in prison, so I looked around to find out what happened to him after he exited the federal lockup in 2006.
I also searched for an epilogue on Brigitte Beck, the mild-mannered German immigrant whose Forensic Files appearance always makes me teary.
So let’s get started on the recap of “Past Lives,” along with additional information from internet research:
Going for snob appeal. John Patrick Sankey was born circa 1964, the son of a New York City police officer, according to the Hartford Courant. He started to use the last name Rutherford at some point during his adulthood and filed for bankruptcy under that name in 1990.
After his first stretch in prison in 1993, John Sankey legally changed his name to Madison Rutherford and worked as a financial adviser in Connecticut.
He had a talent for making good investments for his clients, according to Forensic Files. His friend and neighbor Beck, in her late 60s and with no family in the U.S., named him as her executor and gave him power of attorney over all that she owned.
Rubbed the right way. Beck had moved to the U.S. at age 24 and worked as a nanny, then as a massage therapist at Graf Studio, a Stamford business owned by an older German couple who had taken a liking to her. When they died, they left her everything and she took over the business.
She got to know Rutherford through his wife, an attractive older woman named L. Rhynie Jefferson who was a client at Beck’s massage studio. The three became trusting friends.
Beck was also a neighbor of the couple, who reportedly delighted in spending their newfound riches on cars, travel, and their huge colonial farmhouse on five acres in Bethel, Connecticut.
Magic recedes. Multiple media sources list Rhynie Jefferson’s occupation as fortune teller.
If she had any premonitions about the stock market, she stopped sharing them with her husband.
His luck at picking winning stocks ran out in the late 1990s, and he eventually lost more of his own and his clients’ money than he could ever hope to recoup on Wall Street.
The 34-year-old Rutherford had also spent all of Beck’s savings and taken out a mortgage on her house.
South of the border. Instead of telling his clients the truth and starting over, he decided to chase after $7 million in payouts from CNA Insurance and Kemper Corp.
In 1998, police discovered his rental SUV ravaged by fire in a ditch near Monterrey, Mexico, where he traveled to either buy or sell (sources vary) an exotic dog.
At first, it looked as though the car had ignited after skidding off the road.
Inside the vehicle, first responders found a body reduced to charred bones. An inscribed wristwatch and a medical alert necklace enabled investigators to tentatively ID the victim as Madison Rutherford.
Pry before paying. Rhynie Jefferson gave police one of Madison’s teeth that she said was removed during a dental procedure. Its DNA matched that of the teeth from the burned-out Suburban.
Mexican authorities signed off on the case as an accidental death even though their forensic specialists had doubts.
One of Rutherford’s U.S. insurers decided to do some of its own sleuthing before forking over $4 million to the widow.
Kemper Corp. hired private detective Frank Rudewicz to search for an alive Madison Rutherford and engaged forensics expert William M. Bass to study the bones. Bass found that the teeth weren’t consistent with those of a caucasian person and the skull fragments came from someone older than 34.
Mess gets messier. Before authorities blew the lid off the fraud, Rhynie confided in Brigitte Beck that Rutherford was still alive. Soon after, he even showed up at Beck’s house with an outrageous story — that the FBI had staged his death because organized crime figures wanted to kill him.
The kind-hearted Beck allowed him to hide at her house for a couple of weeks. She had recently had a windfall of nearly $100,000, and handed it over to Rutherford to manage.
Then he disappeared again.
When the FBI showed up at her house, Beck at first denied seeing Rutherford. He and Jefferson had manipulated her into opening a checking account in the name B. Beck & Associates, which the con man used to launder money.
Lair discovered. The authorities soon found Rutherford by tracing a car he owned to a “Thomas Bey Hamilton” who worked as a comptroller for Double Decker Studios in Boston.
Management liked his work and was considering elevating him to CEO.
FBI agents ambushed him in his apartment in Boston on Nov. 7, 2000, and arrested him.
His fingerprints matched Rutherford’s. Thomas Bey Hamilton — who had books about how to change one’s identity in his Boston pad — was Madison Rutherford. The court kept him in jail pending legal action.
Plot revealed. When authorities showed Rhynie Jefferson evidence that Rutherford was cheating on her with other women, she spilled the whole story: On July 11, 1998, he staged the accident with a body stolen from a tomb in Mexico and then pedaled away on a bike. He sneaked her a tooth from the pilfered corpse after returning from Mexico.
A year later, Rutherford had planted a bag of clothes stained with his own blood in Mexico as a back-up explanation for his “death.”
Finger-pointing. Once Rutherford was formally charged, Brigitte Beck revealed that, between spending her cash and mortgaging her house, he swindled her out of $782,000. She had virtually nothing left.
Meanwhile, Rutherford tried to blame everything on his wife.
Rhynie Jefferson, he claimed, had seduced him when he was a 16-year-old lifeguard and later “manipulated and pressured him to maintain a lavish lifestyle that included providing for all manner of pets and livestock, including scores of free-range chickens,” according to a Hartford Courant story from July 21, 2001. (A neighbor, who called the couple weird, said that Rutherford considered the birds to be his children.)
‘Pain and loss.‘ In a Bridgeport courtroom, Rutherford’s father, John Sankey Sr., pinned his son’s problems on Rhynie as well, according to a Connecticut Post story. The elder Sankey also mentioned that his other son had recently died of leukemia.
In the end, Rutherford pleaded guilty to fraud. Without going into detail, he apologized for his crimes and said his eight months in jail so far were “hell” and that he promised to make the rest of his life “worthwhile,” according to the Hartford Courant.
U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill gave him five years in a federal prison for fraud and “leaving a lot of pain and loss in his wake.” The authorities couldn’t charge him with embezzling Beck’s money because she’d given him power of attorney.
Rhynie Jefferson got 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release for her part in the scheme.
Epilogue for the cast. So what contribution to society has Madison Rutherford made since exiting the penitentiary?
Well, he’s not incinerating skeletons anymore, but he’s left a trail of disgruntled diners thanks to his foray into the restaurant business.
Rutherford, who now goes by the first name “Bey,” owned a restaurant called Pop’s NY Pizza that opened in Columbia, South Carolina, in 2006. By 2011, the place had a Yelp rating of one star and scathing reviews:
“If you care about your health PLEASE DO NOT GO,” Sam V. urged in 2011. Julie R. offered, “There was a hole in the door of the restroom, the toilet looked like it had never been cleaned and the toilet paper was on the floor with flies buzzing around it.” And Richard C. demystifies that the “god awful place…survives on drunken college students.”
Rutherford also allegedly neglected to pay his bills from local ad agencies, according to a post by writer Paul Blake in a blog dedicated to the now-defunct Columbia City Paper.
Not on the ball. Pop’s closed in shame, but Rutherford bounced back with Bey’s Sports Bar, also in Columbia. His Yelp rating rose to 1.5 stars, but customers scorched him and the place:
“Picture yourself in the worst bar of your life X 10,” writes Michelle M. “No mixers or straws, just liquor and beer.” Keith K. concurs, “There are really only 3 types of bars in Columbia: decent, crappy, and Bey’s.” And Keith S. confirms that the man with a fondness for the names of founding fathers took his standards of hygiene from their era. “Bathrooms are disgusting. There’s never been soap in the guy’s when I’m there.”
DirecTV sued Rutherford for allegedly pirating its services in order to broadcast games at Bey’s Sports Bar, according to the Columbia City Paper blog. Even worse, Rutherford routinely stole his waiters’ tips, according to a reader comment imported from the newspaper’s archives.
According to Lex, a ForensicFilesNow.com reader who was a bartender at Bey’s, the establishment closed in 2013 amid tax woes.
The shuttering of the business didn’t stop the Yelp reviews — people who watched the episode wrote in:
“What a piece of garbage this guy is,” writes Andy C., “stealing $500,000 from a trusting old woman.“
More Epilogues. Regarding what happened to Rhynie Jefferson, the most interesting intelligence that came up was one of the reader comments also from Blake’s blog post (it’s a gold mine) from 2009. As of 2019, she lived in Oakville, Connecticut, was single and 75 years old. She died in May 2020, according to a reader who wrote in with a tip.
Finally, on to the emotional centerpiece of the story, Brigitte Beck. Once swindled out of everything and having had Chase Manhattan Bank foreclose on her house, she received some financial help from friends and continued to live in Connecticut, according to the Hartford Courant.
Beck died on January 18, 2008, at the age of 78. Two brothers and a sister, all living in Germany, survived her, according to her obituary. She’s buried in the East Norwalk Historical Cemetery.
At least she can rest in peace and be remembered. No one ever identified the deceased man whose grave Madison Rutherford desecrated.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
Also read a Q&A with a former Bey’s Sports Bar bartender
Thanks, Rebecca. Like you, I was touched by Beck’s plight and looked her up last time I saw this ep, learning friends had assisted her, and she’d died. Good to learn the ghastly Rutherford’s biography. In UK, as a convicted fraudster, he wouldn’t be allowed (legally) to run a business, though I think he could own one. That appears not to be the case in at least the states he’s worked in – but the problem is he goes from failed business to failed business, seemingly defrauding, or at least stealing and in being debt. He simply shouldn’t be allowed to run any business… He’s reckless, thieving, incompetent and clearly without conscience as to the loss and suffering he causes by his scheming.
Another dose of prison seems to be in order; it’s inevitable… Sights such as this, as well as the FF ep, help to ensure that the current venture fails, as this man shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a business.
He changed his game but not his ways. Once a con man…
I’m little short this decade, so if it’s okay, can you spot me the names and addresses Brigitte’s siblings? Might start a hedge fund. I’m honest. No ex-presidents in my name.
Something tells me they already learned their lesson.
I’m sorry but I feel only so much remorse for someone who just handed her entire bank account to her next door neighbor.
She should have kept at least 100k. She was very naive for a woman her age.
Giving someone PoA is a big step and typically only done in old age (she was c mid-60s – not old) or infirmity. It’s unclear why she did it when neither obviously applied. However, perhaps it’s only the seeming prematurity that’s odd, seeing as she had no family in US and would therefore be looking to a friend to take on the role should anything befall her. The question then is how well she knew, or thought she knew, them; for how long? Indeed, was she targeted by them as a single older woman of some means with no proximate family?
PoA IS abused – typically by family members, and if they’ll cheat you, perhaps it’s not so surprising that ‘friends’ would. It’s one thing to make them executor and/or let them invest WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE; another to hand over authority over everything. What we don’t know is how willingly she did this. Did she ask for it; did they press her. What role, if any, did Rutherford’s wife play? I don’t consider it entirely credible that the big-spending wife had no knowledge where his money was coming from when the regular income ceased, which may make her as almost as immoral as him.
My theory is that the older German couple treated Birgette like a daughter after she came to the U.S., so she tended to trust that other people in her life here were as kind and caring as they appeared on the surface.
Sure. What a shame this creature wasn’t made to pay to her estate any money he made until full repayment (and as I’ve said before, that he was allowed to run any business) – though it seems like he has the dysfunctional Midas touch: everything turns to dross…
Wow. What’s up with your blaming the victim? She was an older woman who trusted a perfidious con artist. I hope when you get to her age, your judgment won’t be as harsh!
Former Bey’s employee bartender here. I know this article is from earlier this year, but Bey’s closed in 2013. Last I heard he was arrested for tax evasion. I can also confirm Bey’s was the gateway to hell. The “dishwashing” room was called the VIP room. PS: We had mixers and straws, along with the crappiest liquor and beer choices.
Lex, thanks so much for writing in. I guess the more recent Yelp comments about Bey’s were from people who watched the Forensic Files episode but didn’t have a chance to go to the bar — which was already closed. I’m updating the post accordingly. Glad you survived your tenure as a bartender. Thanks again for your comment. I love hearing from readers who have labored at the front lines.
I hope he paid you!
I worked at Pops for a little while after I graduated high school. Being able to go into Bey’s at 18 was not the best start to being an adult. Many many bad times happened there. I was so happy they both closed.
Wow, so you were right there making history with Pop’s and Bey’s — thanks so much for writing in to confirm the places were as dismal as they sounded. I hope Mr. Rutherford paid you and didn’t steal your tips.
I see Rutherford declared backruptcy aged c 26 – at that young age a sign of things to come. I assume the US has tightened-up on the issue of those allowed to describe themselves as ‘financial advisers’ (as a bankrupt and previously jailed!) and work as traders (ditto). No-one who knew his past would possibly have entrusted him with their money, and it should be obligatory to be cleared periodically for these purposes.
I wonder if he ever paid Beck anything back before she died?
The inscribed wristwatch and a medical alert necklace helped id the man. But did it also raise any suspicion how these 2 items could survive the fire ?
I think it WAS noted, regarding the watch, anyway, that it was surprisingly intact. As it was important to Rutherford that these items were ID-able, he may have placed them when the fire was dying-down. Or perhaps he researched the likely temp of the fire, establishing that these metal items would not melt, preserving ID.
Exactly. If he left them on the wrist of the corpse when the fire started there’s no way they would have survived — everything would have burnt evenly to ash just like it did. He apparently put them in probably when the fire was almost out just to show a little damage but still make sure he could be identified. Thank you for pointing that out.
You give wonderful research on news from the old FF cases. Any update on Madison Rutherford or Bey Alexander or whatever he calls himself today? I hope he’s locked up now. God help anyone he meets to see him for what he is – a cruel fraud and heartless user.
Tubi channel runs FF episodes On Demand from Seasons 1-14, nearly commercial free, playing one after another. The narrator has such a soothing voice that they’re a kind of lullaby at night. One or two stories and I’m fast asleep. Now that HLN has started FF-2, there’ll be lots of new investigations to pursue. We’ll all be looking forward to your posts.
Thanks so much for the kind words about the site!
I did an update on Madison Rutherford a year ago (https://forensicfilesnow.com/index.php/2019/02/15/madison-rutherford-con-man-walking/). I’m sure he’s been up to nothing good since then.
I’m excited about FF II — but still missing Peter Thomas’ soothing voice.
Yep. I feel the same. Love this, found this trying to learn what happened with the scum bag. Sorry to hear that the ladies are gone and this disgusting pos is left to see another day! I’m going to keep up with you as I’ve seen most of these over the years. Love and peace.
Thank you so much for an update on that worthless waste of skin! I had recently watched the FF episode and was so upset that he had done that to that poor woman that I planned on making sure those who went into those businesses knew exactly what he had done. I wanted everyone to know what kind of trash they had in their town! That’s how I ran into your site. I’m so glad that I did. You have made my day so much better knowing that those businesses went under. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much hatred towards someone I’ve never met before like I do that parasite! He’ll never succeed at running a business if I can help it! Although from the looks of things he does a fine job of destroying his businesses on his own. That my dear friend is what I call karma! Again thank you so much for the info. I’m going to enjoy reading more of your stories!
Thanks, April — so glad you’re enjoying the site. I agree about Madison Rutherford. A leopard doesn’t change its spots.
April: As a perennial fraudster he should simply not be able legally to run a business. If or that he legally can is a real loophole in the law, since he has previously demonstrated extreme financial abuse of others’ money. Directing your concern to state/federal authorities may be the most effective way keeping these people out of business and defrauding others.
Happy Easter!
The only person in this story who deserves sympathy is the man whose corpse was defiled the cover up the crimes of these greedy pigs, including the gullible Ms. Beck.
Anyone who has their life savings etc stolen deserves sympathy – even if they were foolish. In the absence of family particularly, we need to be able to trust people we believed were friends when we’re older and more vulnerable, as Beck was and did.
I hope if you’ve ever seriously been cheated, you experience sympathy – not ‘it’s your own fault’.
I tried your link and the quote about Bey [Rutherford] was pretty short. Here’s a lot longer article where Rhynie complains that “I AM A SPIRITUAL ASTROLOGER and not a fortuneteller.”
https://colacitypaper.blogspot.com/2009/08/shady-business.html
It’s hard to find much about her but I briefly caught that she got out of prison in 2003 at the end of the FF episode. I’m going to record it so I can watch it all again!
Thanks for the updates! I can’t find anything about Rhynie’s death but I’m still searching.
Nice link — thanks!
I’m sceptical of female partners who disclaim knowledge and/or party to men who provided them with monied lifestyles – and I don’t believe Jefferson’s. When the money was rolling in via his frauds she was there. And what’s this about a state trooper being party to his criminality?
Perhaps she’s just dumb: ‘spiritual astrologer’ indeed!
“ the establishment closed in 2013 amid tax woes.”
Any knowledge on what he’s been up to since 2013?
I haven’t heard anything — not sure what name he uses these days.
I hope the initials are P.O.S.
That sounds about right!
Hi Rebecca,
First, I love your website and your writing style. I laugh out loud at least once per entry. This one about Madison Rutherford Hamilton Lincoln Roosevelt is the best. I’m so happy that this site exists as I’m a new-to-Forensic-Files junkie thanks to the pandemic.
I have so many questions that I want to ask you, such as: do you look at everyday life differently with all of your knowledge of the forensics technology that exists nowadays? (I do.) And, also, who are the actors who play scientists during the show’s title sequence, and what are they doing now?
Keep up the great work, RR. You have a new fan.
Many thanks for the kind words — so glad you’re enjoying the blog! The scientists on the show…I believe that the producers recruit real law officers to play police, so probably the same for the scientists. The episode I’m blogging about next distinguished itself by having a detective play the victim.
I can’t wait.
P.S. Forgot to say, the forensics make me all the more sure crime doesn’t pay and we’ll get caught.
Man this comment section is lit! So many of the other FFN’s were blank or lacking.. though that could be due to the fact the I read them right away and this one I clicked on the link from the Bey’s employee tells all article. Also it’s great that she wrote in too:) Have you ever considered writing a book on FF? Guess I should look you up and see if you have any books. If you do have any I’d love to read them. I read all these and I’m a huge FF fan. My mom, both my younger sisters and my gf and I all fall asleep to FF. I never knew so many others did too. Especially when you consider how the first few sessions would straight up show the dead bodies!! Faces and all!! Wild. I watch it all on YouTube… sometimes when the FilmRise logo flashes across the screen though it’s little sound clip is so ungodly loud that I burst awake like the Crypt Keeper for tales from the crypt… but that won’t dissuade me:) Love to know what you think of FF2. Obvious without our venerated Saint Peter Thomas it holds no chance of the heights the OG did but what follow up does? Anyway just wanted to say hi and show my appreciation for what you are doing here.. though I can’t figure out how anyone makes a living or even a dime off writing blogs? What’s the scoop on that? Ok I’m out. See you next time
P.S. if you are gonna write a comment do it in notepad if you are doing it from your phone cause it erased mine when I was half way through and I have to go at it again… and I’m no writer
Thanks much — so glad you’re enjoying the blog! As far as income, I’m pretty sure anyone can run ads via Google AdSense.
Lol, about waking up like the crypt keeper when the FilmRise sound comes on. A couple of people have said the regular music is too loud on FF II.
No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are always possible in recovery. — George Chakiris
“Mongoloid” can’t possibly be the official term for such a wide range of people, can it? When that old forensics expert guy said that, I cringed a little.