Michael Lee Platt

Michael Lee Platt (February 3, 1954 – April 11, 1986) and William Russell Matix (June 25, 1951 – April 11, 1986) met while serving in the U.S. Army at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Matix first served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1969 to 1972, working as a cook (MOS 3371) in the officers' mess, serving in Hawaii and Okinawa from April 1970 to March 1971 and April 1971 to March 1972 respectively.

He was honorably discharged July 7, 1972, achieving the rank of Sergeant.

Platt enlisted in the Army 27 June 1972 as an infantryman.

While in basic training, Platt applied for Army Airborne Ranger Training and subsequently entered Air Assault School at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

On completion of air assault school, Platt was assigned to the Military Police Unit.

It was in this unit that he met and served with Matix.

This is also where he met his first wife, Regina Lylen.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army on August 10, 1973, serving with the military police under the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

He served as a Military Police Officer and Squad Leader; Guard Supervisor for the Post Stockade and finally Patrol Supervisor before his honorable discharge August 9, 1976.

He was honorably discharged in 1979.

Both men's former wives had died under violent circumstances.

Matix's wife, Patricia Mary ( Buchanich) Matix, and a female co-worker, Joyce McFadden, both cancer researchers, were found stabbed to death on December 30, 1983, at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where both women worked.

Both were found murdered in the hospital laboratory.

They had been bound and gagged with their throats slashed.

Matix reportedly told investigators he suspected Platt had carried on an affair with his wife.

Matix was a suspect in the murders but was never charged.

After his wife's death, Matix moved to Florida at Platt's urging, and the two founded Yankee Clipper Tree Trimming Service, a landscaping and tree removal business.

On December 21, 1984, Platt's wife, Regina, whom he had married nine years earlier in 1975, was found dead from a single shotgun blast to the mouth.

Her death was ruled a suicide.

In May 1985, Matix married Christy Lou Horne, who moved out of the house two months later when Matix became enraged after learning she was pregnant.

She would give birth to their son after Matix's death.

He married his second wife, Brenda Horne, in January 1985.

Before embarking on their crime spree, neither Platt nor Matix had a criminal record.

At the time of Platt's killing, his second wife, Brenda, claimed to have had no idea that her husband and his friend were armed robbers.

On October 5, 1985, Platt and Matix murdered 25-year-old Emilio Briel while he was target shooting at a rock pit.

The pair stole Briel's car and used it to commit several robberies.

On October 10, 1985, five days after killing Briel, Platt and Matix attempted to rob a Wells Fargo armored truck that was servicing a Winn-Dixie supermarket.

After ordering him to freeze, one of the pair shot a guard in the leg with a shotgun while the other fired a handgun and shoulder weapons from the getaway vehicle.

Two other guards returned fire, but neither Platt nor Matix was wounded.

No money was taken in the botched robbery, but the injured guard later died from his wound.

A few weeks later, on November 8, 1985, the two robbed the Professional Savings Bank in Miami, taking $41,469 in three Wells Fargo Armored Car Company money bags that had been delivered that morning.

The 1986 FBI Miami shootout occurred on April 11, 1986, in Miami-Dade County, Florida, U.S. (the specific area was incorporated as Pinecrest in 1996), when a small group of field agents for the FBI attempted to apprehend William Russell Matix and Michael Lee Platt, who were suspected of committing a series of violent crimes in and around the Miami metropolitan area.

Although they had partially surrounded the suspects after maneuvering them off a local road, the agents involved quickly found their firepower was outmatched by the weapons which Matix and Platt had in their vehicle.

During the gun battle which ensued, Platt in particular was able to repeatedly return fire despite sustaining multiple hits.

Two Special Agents died from their wounds, while five other agents were injured by gunfire.

The shootout ended when both Matix and Platt were killed.

The incident is infamous as one of the most violent episodes in the history of the FBI and is often studied in law enforcement training.

The scale of the shootout led to the introduction of more effective handguns, primarily switching from revolvers to semi-automatics, in the FBI and many police departments around the United States.

Briel's remains were found in March 1986 but not identified until May.