VIDEO VAULT | How payphones helped solve the kidnapping of Steve Wynn's daughter

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A new podcast series from retired federal prosecutor Tom O'Connell takes an in-depth look at the 1993 kidnapping of Kevin* Wynn, daughter of casino mogul Steve Wynn.

Last week's Video Vault looked at how the crime was carried out. Once the ransom was paid and Kevin was freed, an FBI investigator thought it would be worth a shot to look at the call records from payphones in the vicinity of Sonny's Saloon, where the money had been exchanged.

"You have to admit these pay phones are in a very public place," said News 3's Denise Rosch while standing at the 7-Eleven next door to Sonny's after the criminals had been caught.

"Not exactly ideal when you're trying to extort millions of dollars from one of the city's most well-known citizens. Common sense would tell you to pick a more private location. Fortunately, that's not how these kidnappers operated. And while they stood here on the payphones, a taxi driver watched them and was later able to identify Ray Cuddy to the FBI."

Investigators also looked at any payphones near Spanish Trail, where the abduction took place.

"And there was a Carl's Jr. on the corner," says O'Connell. "And they pulled those [phone records], and there were calls to the same number in Sacramento. Now, what are the odds of that? Which turned out to be the girlfriends of Jake Sherwood and Anthony Watkins."

Conspiracy members Sherwood and Watkins had been calling not just their girlfriends, but also the man who would later be identified as the ringleader of the plot.

"The calls that were in common from Sonny's and Carl's Junior to Sacramento also had a cell phone, which nobody had them back then," explains O'Connell. "The cell phone came back to a Ray Cuddy."

With the names Sherwood, Watkins and Cuddy now in play, an FBI agent was sent to gather records from the area of McCarran Airport where Kevin Wynn had been held in the trunk of her own car.

"Checking all the plates," says O'Connell. "Running the names of all the plates, of all the plates at relevant times. And he's reading off the names, a list of all the people whose cars are out there: Ray Cuddy. It's like, Boom! We got Ray Cuddy!"

An interview with Cuddy's son led investigators to Southern California, where Ray Cuddy had been making cash payments on a new Ferarri.

"They find out about the car dealer, and they're waiting for him when he comes to pick it up," says O'Connell. "He's running around Newport Beach ‘smurfing’ money. Money laundering. Putting deposits less than $10,000, so the IRS doesn't get reported."

Years later, a sly reference to the arrest would be made in the 2001 movie "Ocean's 11," where Andy Garcia plays a character based on Steve Wynn, and tells the people robbing him, "If you should be picked up buying a $100,000 sports car in Newport Beach, I'm going to be extremely disappointed."

The trial began as evidence was still being gathered.

"Well, the investigation is a continuing investigation," O'Connell told News 3 in spring of 1994. "And not all the information that we have today was available several months ago."

The prosecution zeroed in on Watkins, the youngest of the three with the smallest role in the kidnapping.

"He's a slight kid, he's kind of soft-spoken," remembers O'Connell today. "Like, he would play to the jury a hell of a lot better than the other two would. If somebody was going to flip, he was the guy to flip."

Watkins took a reduced sentence for testimony that helped seal the fate of the other two.

"Ray Cuddy and Jacob Sherwood, guilty of extortion," reported Rosch on May 13, 1994. "Guilty of conspiracy. Guilty of use of a weapon in commission of a crime. Cuddy, guilty of money laundering. And Sherwood, guilty of conspiracy to launder money."

O'Connel's opinion of the ringleader today is the same as it was 26 years ago.

"Cuddy is a malicious bully," said O'Connell in 1994. "Greedy. A sociopath, I would say."

"He's probably a sociopath," describes O'Connell today. "He has no conscience."

Watkins, Sherwood and Cuddy all served their time and were released. Cuddy was the last to go free, in 2015. Tom O'Connell's podcast, "Vegas Fed," tells the story in much greater detail.

*She later had the spelling of her first name legally changed from Kevin to Kevyn.