The 1986 FBI Miami shootout left two bank robbers and two agents dead and wounded five others, leading to a wave of changes in FBI training and weaponry that would contribute to the widespread militarization of American law enforcement.
FBIThe stolen Monte Carlo used by serial bank robbers William Matix and Michael Platt, riddled with bullet holes.
On April 11, 1986, a small group of FBI agents tracked down the murderous bank robbers Michael Lee Platt and William Russell Matix and cornered them on a Miami side street, sparking a bloody shootout that would leave both perpetrators dead.
Just before 10 a.m., three FBI vehicles crashed into the bandits’ car and forced them off the road. Almost immediately, Platt and Russell began to fire at the agents using automatic and semi-automatic weapons. Most of the agents, meanwhile, were equipped with revolvers, and only two had shotguns. They were, quite literally, outgunned.
It’s estimated that about 145 shots were fired in a matter of just a few minutes. In the end, the FBI managed to take out both Matix and Platt. But the 1986 FBI Miami shootout also left two agents dead and injured five others in what is considered one of the bloodiest days in FBI history.
The incident remains an embarrassing stain on the history of the Bureau — one that is still studied in law enforcement training to this day.
Who Were Michael Platt And William Matix?
For months leading up to the 1986 FBI Miami shootout, a pair of heavily armed bandits had been robbing banks and armored cars all around the Miami-Dade region. It wasn’t initially clear who was behind the crimes, only that they were incredibly skilled with their weapons — and they didn’t hesitate to use them.
As the FBI eventually discovered, the bandits were a pair of former-military landscapers named Michael Lee Platt and William Russell Matix.
Matix had served in the Marine Corps from 1969 until 1972, when he was honorably discharged. He then served with the Military Police Unit until his honorable discharge in August 1976. Platt, meanwhile, had been assigned to the Military Police Unit after completing U.S. Army Airborne Ranger Training. The duo met and became friends while serving in the Military Police together.
Shortly after both men returned to civilian life, tragedy struck. According to FBI reports, Matix’s wife, Patricia, and her co-worker, Joyce McFadden, were brutally stabbed to death on Dec. 30, 1983 in the laboratory of Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. The women, both cancer researchers at the hospital, had been found bound and gagged with their throats slit. Matix was a suspect in the case, but was never charged.
FBIThe FBI agents’ cars at the scene of the 1986 FBI Miami shootout.
Matix eventually married his second wife, Christy Lou Horne. The marriage was short-lived, however; they split after just a couple of weeks, during which time Christy allegedly discovered that her new husband was a “monster,” according to Local 10 News.
In 1984, Matix moved to Florida to live closer to Platt. There, the duo started a landscaping business called Yankee Clipper. But that December, tragedy struck once again when Platt’s wife, Regina, was found dead from a shotgun blast to her mouth. Her death was initially ruled a suicide.
Just a few weeks after Regina’s death, Platt married his second wife, Brenda, settling back into the role of a typical, all-American family man.
In fact, despite the strange circumstances surrounding their wives’ deaths, both Platt and Matix were by all accounts model citizens with no known history of crime.
So it was all the more shocking when word of their criminal exploits finally broke.
Matix And Platt’s Violent Crime Spree
Everything changed for Platt and Matix on Oct. 5, 1985. According to an excerpt from Dan Marcou’s Law Dogs: Great Cops In American History, that day, Matix and Platt shot and killed a 25-year-old man named Emelio Briel while he was target shooting in a rock pit.
The duo stole his car, which they’d soon use as a getaway vehicle in their robberies, and dumped his body in the Florida Everglades. His remains would not be found until March 1986.
From there, Matix and Platt embarked on a months-long crime spree, robbing a number of banks and armored cars throughout the Miami area and shooting any guard who stood in their way.
Then, on March 12, 1986, they decided to murder yet another innocent hobby shooter in order to steal his car. This time, it was a man named Jose Collazo. But unlike Briel, Collazo managed to escape with his life.
The bandits forced Collazo into a ditch, then shot him four times. Collazo played dead as Platt and Matix sped off in Collazo’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Once he was certain they were gone, he stood up and walked three miles to the nearest police station, where he was able to provide a detailed report of what had just happened to him.
The FBI quickly made the connection between Collazo’s assailants and the series of bank robberies that had plagued the Miami-Dade region in the past few months. Now, they had composite sketches of the suspects, as well as a description of the vehicle they would likely be driving.
In April 1986, the FBI finally closed in on their suspects.
Unfortunately, their plan would quickly fall apart.
The 1986 FBI Miami Shootout: The Bloodiest Shootout In FBI History
FBIAn FBI car, covered in blood from the 1986 FBI Miami shootout.
On April 11, 1986, a group of 14 Special Agents was dispatched to search along the South Dixie Highway for two men driving Collazo’s black Monte Carlo.
According to the FBI, it was Special Agents Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove who first spotted the stolen car at around 9:30 a.m. They began to pursue the suspects, while Special Agent Richard Manauzzi, riding alone, joined in the pursuit. Before long, a total of eight agents were closing in on Matix and Platt from all directions.
Finally, Manauzzi, seeing the bandits aiming guns at the pursuing vehicles, tried to steer the Monte Carlo into a tree. Three separate FBI vehicles collided with Matix and Platt’s stolen car. Then, chaos erupted.
The bandits opened fire, shooting dozens of rounds at the agents in a matter of minutes. Manauzzi was badly wounded in the firefight and took cover while another wounded solo rider, Special Agent Gordon McNeill, returned fire and managed to strike Matix, injuring him.
Across the street, Special Agents Gilbert Orrantia and Ronald Risner were pinned beneath their vehicle. Nearby, agents Edmundo Mireles and John Hanlon stopped their car and struggled to approach Matix and Platt as the suspects fired at them with their high-powered rifles. Both agents were seriously injured in the firefight.
Meanwhile, Platt took aim at Dove and Grogan, who were trapped in their car, and shot them both at close range, brutally killing them.
At this point, all but one of the agents was wounded or dead. But despite their injuries, the surviving agents continued to fire at the men. Finally, agent Mireles, though barely conscious, shot at the perpetrators with his one remaining good hand and took them out as they tried to flee in Dove and Grogan’s car.
And with that, the deadliest shootout in FBI history came to a close. Two agents had been killed, three were seriously wounded, and two more on top of that were injured. The only agent to make it out unscathed was Ronald Risner.
FBIBenjamin Grogan, one of the agents killed during the 1986 FBI Miami shootout.
The Aftermath Of The 1986 FBI Miami Shootout
The 1986 FBI Miami shootout had a lasting impact on United States law enforcement.
In the wake of the incident, an investigation determined that part of the reason the shootout was so deadly was that the robbers’ automatic and semi-automatic guns had far out-powered the agents’ own revolvers and handguns. What’s more, only two of the agents had been wearing bulletproof vests, which were not strong enough to hold against the assailants’ high-powered weapons.
Afterward, the FBI made significant changes to its incident response training, as well as the armor agents were expected to wear. It was also decided that FBI agents would be armed with box magazine-fed semi-automatic pistols.
These changes reportedly trickled down into other areas of law enforcement over the years, contributing to the widespread militarization of the American police as officers began to equip themselves with heavier body armor and higher powered weapons.
FBIJerry Dove, one of the FBI agents killed during the shootout.
Shocking Revelations About The Bandits
In the aftermath of the 1986 FBI Miami shootout, agents reopened investigations into Michael Lee Platt and William Russell Matix’s pasts — and made some startling new revelations.
Per a report from The Washington Post, Matix had been suspiciously eager to find a new wife shortly after the murder of his first wife, treating the local church like a “singles bar.”
His second wife, Christy, who had left him before he was outed as a violent criminal, expressed little sadness over her ex-husband’s death.
“I don’t grieve for Bill,” she said. “In fact, I guess the FBI did me a favor by taking him out. I grieve for the families of the agents who were slain.”
And an investigation into Platt cast some doubt on his wife’s supposed suicide.
Regina Platt had reportedly once tried to end her life by taking an overdose of pills, so police had initially believed the story that she had shot herself. However, after the truth of her husband’s violent history was revealed, homicide detective William Saladrigas noted that “statistically and psychologically, it would be highly uncommon” for a woman to take her own life with a shotgun.
What’s more, Saladrigas revealed that Michael Platt had claimed during initial investigations that he had been “aware of a short affair between his wife and William Mattix” before her sudden death. However, Platt strangely “didn’t appear to be upset about it… In fact, he said he was seeking a divorce at the time.” Platt married his second wife just weeks after Regina’s death.
While police were never able to prove that the men had killed their first wives, given what eventually became of them, it wouldn’t be altogether shocking.
At best, Bill Matix and Michael Platt were violent bank robbers; at worst, they were far more cold-blooded.
After reading about the 1986 FBI Miami shootout, the deadliest shootout in FBI history, read the story of Tupac’s 1993 shootout with off-duty police officers. Then, read the story of the 1997 North Hollywood shootout.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or use their 24/7 Lifeline Crisis Chat.
