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Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. On

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Speaker 1: the afternoon of Monday, June thirteenth, nineteen ninety four, I

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Speaker 1: was seated at my desk at ESPN in our SportsCenter computer.

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Speaker 1: I read something that made my blood run cold. It

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Speaker 1: was one line in the preliminary script for the six

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Speaker 1: thirty PM Sports Center, which I did not appear on.

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Speaker 1: OJ Simpson's wife and a man who had been with

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Speaker 1: her had been murdered overnight our time. It had happened

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Speaker 1: since I had last anchored Sports Center the previous night,

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Speaker 1: and the script for the Monday night show noted, OJ

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Speaker 1: Simpson is not a suspect. The word not was in

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Speaker 1: capital letters. Made my blood run cold was not the

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Speaker 1: news of the murders. It was that phrase. That phrase

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Speaker 1: might as well have been written, of course, OJ Simpson

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Speaker 1: is not a suspect. The problem was I knew Simpson

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Speaker 1: was a suspect because I had not a doubt in

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Speaker 1: my mind that Simpson had butchered his wife and the man,

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Speaker 1: Ron Goldman. Because I knew what all of us who

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Speaker 1: worked or had worked in Los Angeles media knew that

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Speaker 1: the OJ Simpson known to the public of nineteen ninety four,

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Speaker 1: to TV audiences of nineteen ninety four, to movie audiences

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Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety four, to sports audiences of nineteen ninety four,

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Speaker 1: he was an utter fabrication. He might as well have

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Speaker 1: been performance art. I knew he had hit his wife repeatedly.

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Speaker 1: I knew the authorities in Los Angeles had done virtually

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Speaker 1: nothing about it. I knew the sportscasters in Los Angeles,

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Speaker 1: including me, we had done nothing about it. Though I

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Speaker 1: wondered then and have come to accept since that there

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Speaker 1: was almost nothing we could have done about it, not legally,

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Speaker 1: but because of all that, when I read OJ Simpson

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Speaker 1: is not a suspect, I went cold, because the lie

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Speaker 1: was going to continue. The cover up of who Oj

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Speaker 1: Simpson really was was going to continue, because he was

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Speaker 1: going to get away with it. Wasn't he and ESPN's

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Speaker 1: role in that was not intentional any more than NBC's

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Speaker 1: role had been, nor that of the producers of The

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Speaker 1: Naked Gun, nor that of those of us who had

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Speaker 1: been in Los Angeles media. And it didn't matter whether

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Speaker 1: it was intentional or not, because your goddamn Wright Simpson

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Speaker 1: was a suspect. Of course, he was a suspect. He

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Speaker 1: was the murderer. Over the nausea, and with some concern

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Speaker 1: for the reputation of ESPN in the days and weeks

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Speaker 1: to come, I made a few phone calls on my

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Speaker 1: own initiative to ex media colleagues and a police source

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Speaker 1: in LA and my police source had been emphatic, whatever

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Speaker 1: you do, don't say he's a suspect. If you say that,

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Speaker 1: I'll come there and I'll kill you. We are terrified

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Speaker 1: he is going to run. This guy has make for

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Speaker 1: the Border written all over him, or or off himself. Maybe,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, maybe, And he had had to stop himself

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Speaker 1: from laughing at this point. Maybe you want to drop

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Speaker 1: that part about not a suspect. Jesus Christ, not a suspect.

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Speaker 1: He's our only suspect. I can still feel what it

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Speaker 1: felt like to put the phone back in the cradle,

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Speaker 1: and I remember getting up from my desk to go

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Speaker 1: slowly walk over to talk to the news editors, to

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Speaker 1: go tell people, some of whom were still saying out loud,

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Speaker 1: poor OJ. To tell them that all they thought they

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Speaker 1: knew about OJ Simpson was a lie, and to tell

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Speaker 1: them that I was one of the hundreds of people

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Speaker 1: who had inadvertently helped to protect that lie who had

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Speaker 1: to that point helped him get away with it, and

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Speaker 1: to tell them that they had better edit that script

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Speaker 1: because I had just been told not a suspect. He's

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Speaker 1: our only suspect. I convinced them. Sports Center just dropped

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Speaker 1: the line. It did not report that he was not

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Speaker 1: a suspect. But to be fair, the news editors and

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Speaker 1: some of the on air people and a couple of

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Speaker 1: the executives spent that week until he made a run

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Speaker 1: for it, convinced that I was nuts and that when

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Speaker 1: they found whoever had done this awful thing to OJ's

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Speaker 1: wife and of course to OJ, ESPN was going to

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Speaker 1: look ridiculous. And then he made the run for it.

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Speaker 1: And even after that, there were people at NBC when

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Speaker 1: I first worked there in nineteen ninety seven who had

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Speaker 1: come finally to accept the fact that he had done it,

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Speaker 1: but who could never quite shape the belief that maybe

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Speaker 1: maybe there was some other explanation that hadn't come to

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Speaker 1: light yet, because that wasn't the Oh Jay they knew,

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Speaker 1: and that was the catch. Oh J. Simpson was a

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Speaker 1: better actor than anybody will ever realize. This creature was

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Speaker 1: as popular and as well known in three different fields

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Speaker 1: in this country simultaneously as almost anybody else who is

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Speaker 1: in only one of those fields. And then he murdered

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Speaker 1: two people brutally, hands on, face to face, and got

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Speaker 1: away with it, and then somehow managed to do something

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Speaker 1: in some contexts even worse. I don't like to joke

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Speaker 1: about death, even the death of OJ goddamned Simpson. But

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Speaker 1: the something worse was summarized in a joke by the

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Speaker 1: Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur after Simpson's death yesterday. Right now,

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Speaker 1: Bruce Arthur tweeted, cancer is writing a book called If

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Speaker 1: I Did It. Even at the time, I don't think

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Speaker 1: the audacity, the indescribable gall for a man to get

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Speaker 1: away with murder and then try to write a book,

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Speaker 1: nominally a novel, in which he speculated about how he

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Speaker 1: had committed the murder he'd just been acquitted of, how

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Speaker 1: he had killed his wife and Ron Goldman, how he

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Speaker 1: would have done it if he had killed her. He

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Speaker 1: really wrote it, or a ghostwriter wrote it for him

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Speaker 1: and with him. He really tried to work both the angles.

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Speaker 1: Commit the crime, get acquitted, write a book, make some money.

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Speaker 1: It's one of the most deeply morally bankrupt things I

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Speaker 1: have ever heard of anybody doing, short of serial killing.

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Speaker 1: Since the news of OJ Simpson's death, I've been thinking

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Speaker 1: a lot about him and who he really was, and

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Speaker 1: what we knew about him in the years I worked

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Speaker 1: in local news in Los Angeles from nineteen eighty five

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Speaker 1: till the very end of nineteen ninety one. And the

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Speaker 1: immutable fact that if you did not know the public

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Speaker 1: OJ Simpson, who killed his ex wife and Ronald Goldman

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Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety one, I can never explain, I can

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Speaker 1: never convey, I can never describe just how popular he was.

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Speaker 1: Maybe I can just give you a glimpse. In the

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Speaker 1: sad and in many quarters still startled commemorations of the

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Speaker 1: various anniversaries of the White Bronco car Chase, the beginning

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Speaker 1: of the OJ Simpson most people today think of the

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Speaker 1: birth of the Monster seemed to be only passing reference

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Speaker 1: to one of the most amazing transformations in American history,

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Speaker 1: let alone American sports history American entertainment history. On June seventeenth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, when the Los Angeles Police Department, including

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Speaker 1: my friend whose premonitions that Simpson would bolt proved all

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Speaker 1: too accurate when the LAPD finally that day admitted that

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Speaker 1: OJ Simpson was a suspect in the murder of his

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Speaker 1: ex wife and Ronald Goldman. And then they said, oh,

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Speaker 1: he's going to be turning himself in, and then came

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Speaker 1: back and said, well, no, he has not shown up,

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Speaker 1: and he is in fact now a fugitive from justice.

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Speaker 1: And then his attorney implied that OJ Simpson had not

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Speaker 1: turned himself in and had fled so he could go

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Speaker 1: kill himself. And then the car chase played out in

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Speaker 1: front of ninety five million TV witnesses, and all this

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Speaker 1: happened in one day. One of the most popular people

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Speaker 1: in American history instantly became came its greatest living villain.

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Speaker 1: There is no hypothetical comparison in the America of today,

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Speaker 1: with the Internet, with the paparazzi, with the maxed out

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Speaker 1: cynicism about sports and TV and celebrity. There is nobody

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Speaker 1: who was as teflon as the OJ Simpson of pre

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Speaker 1: June nineteen ninety four. I mean not even Trump. Trump

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Speaker 1: had fans, but nobody ever liked Trump, and Trump was

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Speaker 1: never for a second one of the top one hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand most popular people in the country, let alone top ten,

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Speaker 1: like OJ Simpson was maybe top five. There is a

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Speaker 1: touch of the Simpson story in the story of Trump,

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Speaker 1: that Freudian slip in the Los Angeles Times, Oh bit

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Speaker 1: yesterday wasn't really that funny, was it? Writing Trump had

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Speaker 1: gotten out of prison when it was supposed to read

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Speaker 1: Simpson had gotten out of prison. Too close to home,

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Speaker 1: as they say, maybe, maybe, maybe, And I apologize to

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Speaker 1: her in advance for even dragging her name into this

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Speaker 1: in this craziest of hypotheticals. Maybe it would be as

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Speaker 1: if Taylor Swift became a murder suspect today and fled

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Speaker 1: and the police chase was being shown live on every

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Speaker 1: television channel out of nowhere, seemingly. But that absurd hypothetical

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Speaker 1: is not even good enough. Simpson was not just a

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Speaker 1: star entertainer, not just a star athlete, Virtually uncriticized, instantly

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Speaker 1: recognizable nationwide. He had become one of the most prominent

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Speaker 1: sportscasters and one of the most prominent actors, and one

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Speaker 1: of the most prominent advertising spokesman. O J. Simpson the

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Speaker 1: football player was one thing. O J. Simpson was also

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Speaker 1: O J. Simpson the rental car pitch Man, go Oh go.

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Speaker 1: OJ Simpson was also O J. Simpson from NBC Sports.

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Speaker 1: O J. Simpson was also O J. Simpson as nord

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Speaker 1: Bergen the Naked Gun movies. O J. Simpson was just OJ,

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Speaker 1: so popular, so ubiquitous that he was known by two letters.

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Speaker 1: And O J. Simpson was about getting away with it

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Speaker 1: because he was also O. J. Simpson, the wife batterer.

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Speaker 1: But he lived in the era, at the end of

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Speaker 1: the era where the public persona was not only all

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Speaker 1: that people knew about him, it was all that people

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Speaker 1: wanted to know about him. In nineteen ninety four, we

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Speaker 1: thought we were living in the middle of the tabloid era.

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Speaker 1: In fact, we were just nine years removed from actor

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Speaker 1: Rock Hudson shocking untold Americans when he died of AIDS

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Speaker 1: because for thirty years he had been the heart throb

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Speaker 1: of millions of women, a staggering percentage of boom on

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Speaker 1: the day he died, had no earthly clue that he

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Speaker 1: had been gay. I loathe the tabloid era and lament

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Speaker 1: what it has done to American sports, to American entertainment,

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Speaker 1: to America, But there is one thing to be said

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Speaker 1: for today's America where has been ex Fox Newsy with

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Speaker 1: an unlistened to podcast could be rate the cover art

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Speaker 1: on the new Beyonce album and within an hour there's

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Speaker 1: a story on it in the New York Post. And

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Speaker 1: OJ Simpson in twenty twenty four would not have been

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Speaker 1: able to hide his true self for a month. Whatever

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Speaker 1: the full stories are, whatever miscarriages of justice there may

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Speaker 1: be in either direction. You know about Kanye West and

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Speaker 1: Johnny Depp and Sean Diddy Combs, and you would have

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Speaker 1: known about OJ Simpson. Early on New Year's morning, January first,

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, police went to the infamous home on

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Speaker 1: North Rockingham in Brentwood and arrested OJ Simpson on spousal

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Speaker 1: battery charges. He had punched and kicked his wife. She

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Speaker 1: said he had screamed, I'll kill you. He had slapped

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Speaker 1: her so hard that his hand print was still visible

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Speaker 1: on her neck when police arrived and took him away

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Speaker 1: and took her to the hospital. And OJ Simpson's reaction

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Speaker 1: on New Year's Day. Officers on the scene quoted him

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Speaker 1: in their official reporters saying, the police have been out

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Speaker 1: here eight times before, and now you're going to arrest me.

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Speaker 1: For this. This is a family matter. Why do you

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Speaker 1: want to make a big deal out of it when

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Speaker 1: we can handle it today? That mindless, murderous statement would

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Speaker 1: have been videotaped or leaked or in some way it

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Speaker 1: would have made its way around the world fast enough

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Speaker 1: that it would have been on Twitter x within minutes.

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Speaker 1: But then in nineteen eighty nine in Los Angeles. In

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles media, we didn't know about the assault until

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Speaker 1: months later when OJ Simpson pleaded out the charges. We

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Speaker 1: certainly didn't know about the nine police trips to what

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Speaker 1: would become the murder scene on North Rockingham, but we

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Speaker 1: did know who OJ Simpson was. We had heard the

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Speaker 1: stories hidden behind the big smile, that he hit women,

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Speaker 1: that police had been to his house, that while married,

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Speaker 1: whenever he spoke to a group of students, he would

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Speaker 1: bring his creepy friend Al Cowlings with him, and he'd

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Speaker 1: have Cowlings approach the girls that he OJ was interested

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Speaker 1: in to provide himself deniability. One of my producers said

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Speaker 1: he'd seen Simpson and Cowlings do that at a lecture

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Speaker 1: at USC. Another friend said he'd been producing an ESPN

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Speaker 1: show with Simpson at a charity golf tournament somewhere, and

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Speaker 1: during the commercial breaks, Simpson stood up and asked the

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Speaker 1: producer how long the break was. Ian Cowings went on

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Speaker 1: to the golf course to go look for women during

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Speaker 1: the two minutes and thirty seconds we knew, and between

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Speaker 1: the laws and customs that still protected the man in

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Speaker 1: domestic cases ninety five percent of the way, and the

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Speaker 1: laws and customs of a one industry town like Los

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Speaker 1: Angeles that still protected the celebrity ninety five percent of

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Speaker 1: the way, we could say nothing about his character in

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Speaker 1: a way we still can't. I mean, read the obituaries.

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Speaker 1: Cleared of murder charges, found not guilty, murder trial was

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Speaker 1: a sensation, even the onion joke about the coffin not fitting.

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Speaker 1: So Ojay's not really dead. We still can't say it.

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Speaker 1: He's dead now, And it is times like these that

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Speaker 1: I hope that there really is a hell. But for

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Speaker 1: all the existence, we can confirm, all the punishments, we

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Speaker 1: can comprehend. The bastard is still getting away with it,

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Speaker 1: isn't he. As I sat down to record this, oj

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Speaker 1: Simpson was beginning to sync in the sports headlines, at

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Speaker 1: least below that of the show. Hey Otani related gambling story,

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Speaker 1: which I will present shortly in full, but the headline

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Speaker 1: of which is his interpreter allegedly stole enough money and

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Speaker 1: confessed to stealing enough money from Otani that his total

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Speaker 1: of winning and losing bets on sporting events over three

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Speaker 1: years was three hundred and twenty five million dollars. Simpson,

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Speaker 1: not a victim, and Otani definitely a victim, had the

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Speaker 1: field to themselves. News Wise, because this is the stage

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Speaker 1: of American governance, thanks to the Republican Party, it has

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Speaker 1: introduced six bills into the House of Representatives for debate

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Speaker 1: and deliberation next week. HR sixty one to ninety two,

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Speaker 1: The Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act HR seventy six

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Speaker 1: seventy three, The Liberty and Laundry Act HR seventy six

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Speaker 1: forty five, The Clothes Dryers Reliability Act HR seventy six

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Speaker 1: thirty seven, the Refrigerator Freedom Act HR seventy six twenty six,

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Speaker 1: the Affordable Air Conditioning Act, and HR seventy seven hundred,

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Speaker 1: the Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act, Your Tax Dollars in Action.

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Speaker 1: What I truly do not understand here is how the

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Speaker 1: vital components contained in the Liberty and Laundry Act and

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Speaker 1: the Affordable Air Conditioning Act are not already covered by

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Speaker 1: the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act. If the Republicans

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Speaker 1: in the House under the leadership of Speaker Mike Johnson

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Speaker 1: actually pass any of this stuff in the face of

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Speaker 1: climate disaster, I just have this mental picture of some

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Speaker 1: future set of Republican leaders being swept away when a

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Speaker 1: title wave and a hurricane hit Washington, DC simultaneously, and

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Speaker 1: them screaming forgive us and we repent, like Zod and

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Speaker 1: the other insurrectionists do just before they're sucked up into

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Speaker 1: the phantom zone mirror prison device in the first Superman movie.

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Speaker 1: And yes, I had to google all the names and terms.

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Speaker 1: But don't worry, Republicans, none of that will happen with

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Speaker 1: climate disaster for another eighteen months at least. Turns out,

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Speaker 1: the King Zod of the Republicans is meeting with my

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Speaker 1: refrigerator Freedom at Johnson today for a joint news conference

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Speaker 1: at Mary Lago about election integrity. At Johnson's suggestion, as

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Speaker 1: one would suggest co hosting a bullies or great news

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Speaker 1: conferencens to your school bully, it's easy to propose such

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Speaker 1: a thing, since all you and Trump have to do

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Speaker 1: is decide which lies to stick to the idea that

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Speaker 1: Johnson is being made to kiss the ring here seems

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Speaker 1: to be something of an exaggeration. Politico and a couple

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Speaker 1: of other news orgs quoted a lot of Trump people

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Speaker 1: yesterday are saying they have no interest in seeing another

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Speaker 1: new Speaker of the House. They don't want the distraction.

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Speaker 1: It would be a distraction from Trump holding center stage

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Speaker 1: twenty four to seven until the election and twirling that

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Speaker 1: big arrow sign he has with look at me written

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Speaker 1: on it. Also, it turns out that when Trump insisted

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Speaker 1: Republicans kill the new FISA Act because he thinks it

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Speaker 1: was used against him, he didn't know that was a

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Speaker 1: different part of FAISA legislation, because why would he know

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Speaker 1: that his brain does not function like a human's among

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Speaker 1: humans and human adults in politics. The President late yesterday

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Speaker 1: did have the DOJ finalize the regulation change at the

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Speaker 1: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that redefines twenty three

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Speaker 1: thousand vendors in this country who sell guns not in

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Speaker 1: gun stores but at gun shows as gun dealers, effectively

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Speaker 1: closing the gun show loophole. That has allowed tens of

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Speaker 1: thousands of guns a year to be sold without licenses,

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Speaker 1: or background checks or much of anything. The NRA will

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Speaker 1: challenge in court, which is a neat trick considering it

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Speaker 1: supposedly had filed for bankruptcy. Speaking of bankrupt there's Robert F.

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Speaker 1: Kennedy Junior. He has finally gotten around to firing his

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Speaker 1: New York campaign director, the one who said the quiet

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Speaker 1: part out loud about how getting Trump elected, not him elected,

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Speaker 1: was her number one priority, among other things. The campaign

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Speaker 1: says that when this Rita Palmer identified herself as his

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Speaker 1: New York campaign director, she wasn't. She was just a

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Speaker 1: staffer still still with the New York campaign. Per the

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Speaker 1: Investigative Reporter, Jacqueline's suite is Jillian, co host of an

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Speaker 1: upcoming Kennedy fundraiser on Long Island this month, who seemed

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Speaker 1: to also reveal that the whole point of the Kennedy

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Speaker 1: campaign is, as the rest of us already know, to

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Speaker 1: get Trump elected. There hasn't been a path to victory

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Speaker 1: for Republicans in New York States since Reagan in eighty

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Speaker 1: and eighty four. She tweeted Monday of this week. RFK

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Speaker 1: Junior is coming for New York States twenty eight electoral votes,

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Speaker 1: and the moron misspelled Reagan. Also, after months of this

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Speaker 1: stuff that would make his father or any of his

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Speaker 1: uncles hit Bob Junior in the head with a baseball backed,

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Speaker 1: it has finally dawned on me that Robert F. Kennedy

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Speaker 1: Junior looks exactly as if he is a character being

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Speaker 1: played by an aged by makeup Fred Armison, formerly of

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Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live. Also of interest here the Otani story

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Speaker 1: isn't was a kind of genius until he got caught.

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Speaker 1: But he not only stole millions from the baseball Star,

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Speaker 1: but he turned the process that allowed him to do

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Speaker 1: that into a kind of secret machine that enabled him

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Speaker 1: to average one seventeen thousand dollars or so bet on

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Speaker 1: one sporting event every hour for three years, just to

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Speaker 1: prove there's nothing new under the sun. On this all

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Speaker 1: new edition of the podcast, this week's Thurber story about

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Speaker 1: how from nineteen thirty five to nineteen forty one, the

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Speaker 1: founder of the New Yorker magazine had a million and

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Speaker 1: a half stolen from him by his assistant because his

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Speaker 1: assistant needed all the money so he could spend all

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Speaker 1: the money gambling on sporting events. That's next. This is Countdown.

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Speaker 2: This is Countdown with Keith Alberman. This is Sports Center. Wait,

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Speaker 2: check that not anymore. This is Countdown with Keith Ulberman.

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Speaker 2: Still ahead on this all new edition of Countdown Fridays

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Speaker 2: with Thurber and a story he wrote in the nineteen

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Speaker 2: forties that seems literally ripped from today's headlines because it's

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Speaker 2: about a trusted assistant and employee of a famous rich

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Speaker 2: person embezzling money, a lot of money, the equivalent of

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Speaker 2: a million and a half dollars, and the celebrity never

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Speaker 2: knew about it until it was too late. Because in

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Speaker 2: sports dateline someplace where I can't believe I'm actually reading

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Speaker 2: these numbers, even though I'm reading these numbers for like

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Speaker 2: the seventeenth time, California. Okay, So my money managers demand

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Speaker 2: that I give them receipts for like everything more than

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Speaker 2: five hundred dollars, And once they asked for one for

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Speaker 2: a receipt for something I bought on eBay for two

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Speaker 2: hundred and twenty bucks. And somehow the folks who handle

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Speaker 2: Shohei Otani were unable to find out that his interpreter

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Speaker 2: had stolen sixteen million dollars from him. If they, Misuhara

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Speaker 2: somehow sneaked an entire structure, passed Otani, passed, Otani's agents,

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Speaker 2: passed Otani's bankers, passed Otani's tax experts in two different countries.

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Speaker 2: All of it apparently predicated on the idea that none

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Speaker 2: of them spoke Japanese and none of them were permitted

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Speaker 2: to talk to Otani himself. They had to go through

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Speaker 2: the interpreter, who convinced the bank that he was Otani,

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Speaker 2: who convinced the agents that Otani did not want them

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Speaker 2: to have access to nor knowledge of this one bank account,

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Speaker 2: who convinced the bookie that Otani was knowingly covering the

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Speaker 2: translator's debts. Less than a month ago, March twentieth, if

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Speaker 2: A Misihara texted the bookie about the first media attention

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Speaker 2: to his crimes. Have you seen the reports, he asked

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Speaker 2: the book He wrote back, Obviously it didn't steal from him.

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Speaker 2: I understand it's a cover job. I totally get it.

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Speaker 2: Misihara replied, Technically I did steal from him. It's all

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Speaker 2: over for me. Lots of people have stolen lots of

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Speaker 2: money by abusing the trust of friends, spouses, relatives, employees, employers,

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Speaker 2: any combination you can think of. As I mentioned, this

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Speaker 2: week's Thurber story coming up is the Secret Life of

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Speaker 2: Harold Winnie. And he was the assistant to the founder

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Speaker 2: of the New Yorker magazine, Harold Ross, who hated financial details,

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Speaker 2: and so he had this Winny guy handled them for him.

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Speaker 2: And before he knew what happened when he had stolen

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Speaker 2: seventy thousand dollars in nineteen forty money about one and

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Speaker 2: a half million dollars today from Harold Ross. But that

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Speaker 2: was a million and a half. This was sixteen million

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Speaker 2: dollars in three years. And the sixteen million stolen is

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Speaker 2: figuratively speaking, the smallest number in the bunch, and that's

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Speaker 2: what is staggering about the show. Heo Tani story. For

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Speaker 2: three years, Ife Mizuhara placed approximately twenty five bets on

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Speaker 2: sporting events per day, for a total of nineteen thousand bets.

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Speaker 2: The money he won added to the money he lost,

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Speaker 2: totaled three hundred and twenty five million dollars, and he

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Speaker 2: lost forty million dollars more than he won. He won

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Speaker 2: one hundred and forty two million dollars gambling on sports

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Speaker 2: in three years. He lost one hundred and eighty three million.

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Speaker 2: That does not mean he bet three hundred and twenty

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Speaker 2: five million. Most gambling addicts are just taking their winnings

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Speaker 2: and rolling them over into new bets. Still, this meant

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Speaker 2: that those twenty five sports bets a day had an

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Speaker 2: effective value of seventeen thousand dollars each. Miserhara could go

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Speaker 2: to jail for thirty years. He is apparently cooperating and

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Speaker 2: trying to make a plea deal. Otani is the victim

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Speaker 2: of the crime here, and for if I did infer

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Speaker 2: that there was something wrong here and imply that to you,

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Speaker 2: I apologize to Otani. But he's also the victim of

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00:27:28,875 --> 00:27:34,915
Speaker 2: some really really lax financial self protection. They say he

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00:27:35,035 --> 00:27:38,955
Speaker 2: has cooperated fully two better late than never on this,

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00:27:39,155 --> 00:27:42,355
Speaker 2: giving his devices over so that people can find out

404
00:27:42,355 --> 00:27:47,715
Speaker 2: what really happened, and if you needed a laugh line

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Speaker 2: to help you put your jaw back on.

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Speaker 1: Three hundred and twenty five million dollars wagered effectively. Authorities

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00:27:57,635 --> 00:28:00,355
Speaker 1: say Misihara also managed to spend three hundred and twenty

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Speaker 1: five thousand dollars on sports memorabilia, most of it on eBay.

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00:28:07,355 --> 00:28:14,275
Speaker 1: They say they found one thousand baseball cards in his car. Wow,

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Speaker 1: I'm not casting any stones on That's part of it.

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Speaker 1: The Indiana Fever, it was announced yesterday, will play forty

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Speaker 1: games in the twenty twenty four season. Thirty five of

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Speaker 1: those forty games will be televised or streamed nationally, some

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Speaker 1: on ESPN, CBSABC Prime Video. Who the hell are the

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Speaker 1: Indiana Fever. The Indiana Fever are or is the worst

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Speaker 1: team in the WNBA. Let me say that correctly, WNBA.

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00:28:47,235 --> 00:28:50,715
Speaker 1: The thirteen games they won last year were as many

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Speaker 1: as the franchise had won in a single season since

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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. In four of the last seven seasons, they

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Speaker 1: have won either five or six games for the whole year.

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Speaker 1: So why would all butt five of their games be

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Speaker 1: nationally broadcast next year? Because the Indiana Fever hold or

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Speaker 1: holds the number one pick in the w NBA draft

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Speaker 1: next Monday, and the number one pick in the WNBA

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00:29:18,315 --> 00:29:21,315
Speaker 1: draft next Monday is going to be Caitlin Clark from Iowa.

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Speaker 1: Her team did not win the women's collegiate basketball Championship

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Speaker 1: last weekend, but she is still the centerpiece in a

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Speaker 1: new era of women's sports in this country. The men's

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Speaker 1: college basketball Championship game Monday night drew a television audience

430
00:29:36,115 --> 00:29:39,555
Speaker 1: of fourteen million, eight hundred and twenty thousand viewers. It

431
00:29:39,635 --> 00:29:44,275
Speaker 1: was shown on the TBSTNT, and True TV networks. The

432
00:29:44,315 --> 00:29:49,915
Speaker 1: Women's College Basketball Championship game Sunday afternoon drew eighteen million,

433
00:29:50,355 --> 00:29:55,715
Speaker 1: eight hundred and seventy thousand viewers on ABC and ESPN.

434
00:29:56,275 --> 00:30:00,275
Speaker 1: That would be four million, fifty thousand more than the

435
00:30:00,315 --> 00:30:05,515
Speaker 1: men got. Obviously, it is a gender first, an extraordinary miles.

436
00:30:05,835 --> 00:30:09,075
Speaker 1: I am confident, however, in my credentials in this area

437
00:30:09,155 --> 00:30:13,355
Speaker 1: to point out one caveat my credentials. First, on Martin

438
00:30:13,435 --> 00:30:16,635
Speaker 1: Luther King Day in nineteen ninety five January sixteenth, we

439
00:30:16,635 --> 00:30:20,995
Speaker 1: were sitting in the conference room at ESPN. The conference

440
00:30:21,075 --> 00:30:25,235
Speaker 1: room we only had the one debating what to lead

441
00:30:25,355 --> 00:30:28,915
Speaker 1: with on that night's eleven PM Sports Center. The NBA

442
00:30:28,995 --> 00:30:32,155
Speaker 1: schedule was pretty much mismatches. Looking back on it now,

443
00:30:32,195 --> 00:30:34,715
Speaker 1: you'll see the LA Lakers were playing the LA Clippers

444
00:30:34,715 --> 00:30:37,195
Speaker 1: that day. That could have been good. Nah, The Lakers

445
00:30:37,235 --> 00:30:40,755
Speaker 1: were twenty one and eleven, the Clippers were five and thirty.

446
00:30:41,235 --> 00:30:44,875
Speaker 1: The NHL games were met. The non game sports news

447
00:30:44,955 --> 00:30:48,275
Speaker 1: was not that interesting. So I pointed up at a

448
00:30:48,395 --> 00:30:51,355
Speaker 1: monitor of what was being shown on our network that

449
00:30:51,435 --> 00:30:56,275
Speaker 1: holiday afternoon. Our network, we only had the one, and

450
00:30:56,355 --> 00:30:59,195
Speaker 1: I said, why not lead with that? Lead with that

451
00:30:59,355 --> 00:31:02,595
Speaker 1: game between the number one college basketball team in the country,

452
00:31:02,875 --> 00:31:05,435
Speaker 1: since they're sixteen and oh and on beaten and they're

453
00:31:05,435 --> 00:31:07,635
Speaker 1: playing the number two college basketball team in the country,

454
00:31:07,915 --> 00:31:10,755
Speaker 1: since they're twelve and oh and it is on our

455
00:31:10,875 --> 00:31:13,915
Speaker 1: air and the number two team is winning, It's going

456
00:31:13,955 --> 00:31:16,355
Speaker 1: to be an upset, a signal moment in the sport.

457
00:31:16,995 --> 00:31:22,395
Speaker 1: And somebody at the table said, lead with women's basketball,

458
00:31:23,595 --> 00:31:26,795
Speaker 1: and I said, I don't care who's playing. It's undefeated,

459
00:31:27,315 --> 00:31:30,835
Speaker 1: top two teams facing each other and number two is winning.

460
00:31:32,275 --> 00:31:35,195
Speaker 1: We led Sports Center with that game that night, Yukon

461
00:31:35,355 --> 00:31:40,035
Speaker 1: beating Tennessee on the way to Yukon's undefeated national championship season.

462
00:31:40,555 --> 00:31:43,675
Speaker 1: We did not change the history of women's college basketball.

463
00:31:43,715 --> 00:31:47,875
Speaker 1: I did not change their history, but making them the

464
00:31:47,955 --> 00:31:50,795
Speaker 1: lead on Sports Center that night polished the credentials just

465
00:31:50,875 --> 00:31:55,155
Speaker 1: a little bit. So my caveat comes from that point

466
00:31:55,155 --> 00:31:58,875
Speaker 1: of view, that pro women's basketball point of view that

467
00:31:58,995 --> 00:32:03,955
Speaker 1: is now twenty nine years old, that the two ratings

468
00:32:03,995 --> 00:32:07,995
Speaker 1: from TV broadcast of the championship games are close is

469
00:32:08,035 --> 00:32:11,235
Speaker 1: a phenomenal achievement. Finally it's happened. But the women's game

470
00:32:11,995 --> 00:32:15,235
Speaker 1: was on a broadcast network, ABC and the men's was

471
00:32:15,275 --> 00:32:18,435
Speaker 1: only on cable. And the women's game was on Sunday

472
00:32:18,475 --> 00:32:20,555
Speaker 1: afternoon when kids could watch, and the men's game was

473
00:32:20,595 --> 00:32:23,715
Speaker 1: at nine to twenty Eastern time at night when they couldn't.

474
00:32:24,075 --> 00:32:26,355
Speaker 1: But I guess the ultimate point here isn't whether or

475
00:32:26,435 --> 00:32:29,715
Speaker 1: not the comparison between the ratings of the men's and

476
00:32:29,755 --> 00:32:34,595
Speaker 1: women's Championships games is fair or has to be caveat

477
00:32:34,675 --> 00:32:38,955
Speaker 1: the point is we now have to find caveats and

478
00:32:39,115 --> 00:32:45,955
Speaker 1: reasons and excuses to make the men's second place TV

479
00:32:46,155 --> 00:32:49,635
Speaker 1: ratings look a little bit better when we compare them

480
00:32:49,635 --> 00:33:17,435
Speaker 1: to the women's. Congratulations women, Thank you Nancy Faust, dateline

481
00:33:17,515 --> 00:33:23,995
Speaker 1: an MRI machine near you. If you are wondering if

482
00:33:23,995 --> 00:33:27,035
Speaker 1: it's just your imagination or if more baseball pitchers than

483
00:33:27,035 --> 00:33:30,235
Speaker 1: ever before are getting injured and having career threatening surgery

484
00:33:30,275 --> 00:33:34,515
Speaker 1: early in the twenty twenty four Major League Baseball season, No, actually,

485
00:33:34,555 --> 00:33:38,595
Speaker 1: it is your imagination. While the percentage of big name

486
00:33:38,755 --> 00:33:42,515
Speaker 1: pitchers who faced Tommy John surgery on the elbow may

487
00:33:42,515 --> 00:33:45,035
Speaker 1: be way up. Spencer Strider of the Braves at Your

488
00:33:45,115 --> 00:33:49,235
Speaker 1: Reperez of Miami, Josiah Gray of Washington, Travis Sauchik of

489
00:33:49,235 --> 00:33:52,675
Speaker 1: the White Website. The Score says the numbers don't lie.

490
00:33:52,915 --> 00:33:55,875
Speaker 1: Through the first one hundred days of the year, there

491
00:33:55,915 --> 00:33:58,515
Speaker 1: have been nine major league pitchers who are getting or

492
00:33:58,555 --> 00:34:01,355
Speaker 1: gotten Tommy John surgery. That's a lot. It's a lot

493
00:34:01,395 --> 00:34:03,955
Speaker 1: more than last year's total of two in the first

494
00:34:03,995 --> 00:34:06,555
Speaker 1: one hundred count under days of twenty twenty three, but

495
00:34:06,635 --> 00:34:10,515
Speaker 1: in the preceding ten years there had been nine or

496
00:34:10,555 --> 00:34:16,035
Speaker 1: more Tommy John surgeries in three different years. Nine is

497
00:34:16,075 --> 00:34:21,835
Speaker 1: a lot, but it's not the most. It's tied for second.

498
00:34:22,395 --> 00:34:25,235
Speaker 1: More importantly, the total number in all of professional baseball

499
00:34:25,235 --> 00:34:29,235
Speaker 1: this year is sixteen surgeries. By this date in twenty eighteen,

500
00:34:29,235 --> 00:34:31,715
Speaker 1: there had been forty of these surgeries. By this date

501
00:34:31,715 --> 00:34:34,155
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one, there had been forty seven of them.

502
00:34:34,555 --> 00:34:38,835
Speaker 1: The number is actually way down overall throughout baseball. But

503
00:34:38,915 --> 00:34:42,235
Speaker 1: as to why these surgeries are happening, the Players Association

504
00:34:42,315 --> 00:34:45,075
Speaker 1: has recently posited it might be because of the pitch clock.

505
00:34:45,755 --> 00:34:49,155
Speaker 1: There's no evidence that's the cause. The explanation is, in

506
00:34:49,195 --> 00:34:53,235
Speaker 1: fact what it always has been facing fastballs measuring between

507
00:34:53,355 --> 00:34:56,275
Speaker 1: ninety and ninety three miles an hour. Big League hitters

508
00:34:56,315 --> 00:35:00,235
Speaker 1: batted two seventy five last year facing fastballs measured at

509
00:35:00,315 --> 00:35:04,355
Speaker 1: ninety six miles an hour, or faster they hit two

510
00:35:04,395 --> 00:35:09,395
Speaker 1: thirty last year. Pitchers are throwing harder, more often, and

511
00:35:09,475 --> 00:35:13,235
Speaker 1: doing it younger, and the human arm is not built

512
00:35:13,235 --> 00:35:16,835
Speaker 1: for what they're trying to do. One thing is definitely

513
00:35:16,915 --> 00:35:21,955
Speaker 1: not true. Some old time pitchers will still insist today's

514
00:35:21,995 --> 00:35:25,835
Speaker 1: pitchers are being babied. In fact, they are not throwing enough.

515
00:35:26,795 --> 00:35:29,035
Speaker 1: I once had this conversation with the Hall of Famer

516
00:35:29,115 --> 00:35:31,555
Speaker 1: Tom sever of the New York Mets, who pointed out

517
00:35:31,555 --> 00:35:33,515
Speaker 1: that only once in his first twelve seasons did he

518
00:35:33,595 --> 00:35:36,715
Speaker 1: not pitch at least two hundred and fifty innings in

519
00:35:36,835 --> 00:35:40,155
Speaker 1: each season, and he lasted until he was forty one

520
00:35:40,235 --> 00:35:42,915
Speaker 1: before he had a significant injury. And my answer to

521
00:35:42,995 --> 00:35:46,155
Speaker 1: him was, how did it all turn out for Gary Gentry,

522
00:35:47,115 --> 00:35:49,995
Speaker 1: referring to his Met teammate whose pitching career essentially ended

523
00:35:50,115 --> 00:35:53,595
Speaker 1: when he was twenty six, Gary Gentry, who probably needed

524
00:35:53,595 --> 00:35:58,355
Speaker 1: Tommy John surgery. Sorry, there isn't Tommy John surgery yet.

525
00:35:58,795 --> 00:36:00,315
Speaker 1: Then I added, and how did it turn out for

526
00:36:00,435 --> 00:36:06,475
Speaker 1: Less roar and Dennis Musgraves, Brent Strom, Dick Russteck, Al Schmels,

527
00:36:06,555 --> 00:36:10,395
Speaker 1: Jerry Hinsley, Bill Denhey, Rob Gardner, Tommy Moore, every other

528
00:36:10,515 --> 00:36:12,955
Speaker 1: met pitcher who got injured who I can't name off

529
00:36:12,995 --> 00:36:17,395
Speaker 1: the top of my head. Pitchers used to get just

530
00:36:17,635 --> 00:36:22,235
Speaker 1: as injured or nearly so as they do now. You

531
00:36:22,395 --> 00:36:26,635
Speaker 1: just didn't hear about it because the surgery to resuscitate

532
00:36:26,715 --> 00:36:33,515
Speaker 1: their careers did not exist yet. And also, cruelly, they

533
00:36:33,515 --> 00:36:35,635
Speaker 1: were paid so little in those days that it was

534
00:36:35,795 --> 00:36:39,115
Speaker 1: easier for teams to just drop them when they got hurt,

535
00:36:39,915 --> 00:36:48,075
Speaker 1: rather than spend the money to try to repair them.

536
00:36:48,235 --> 00:36:51,315
Speaker 1: Fridays with Thurber now and from his book The Years

537
00:36:51,355 --> 00:36:55,235
Speaker 1: with Ross, which is a now criticized recollection of the

538
00:36:55,275 --> 00:37:00,515
Speaker 1: founding of the New Yorker magazine by its original creator,

539
00:37:01,155 --> 00:37:05,275
Speaker 1: Harold Ross, with the help of James Thurber at every

540
00:37:05,355 --> 00:37:09,595
Speaker 1: turn for the first forty years of the magazine's history.

541
00:37:10,075 --> 00:37:12,555
Speaker 1: As I said, it has been criticized in many respects

542
00:37:12,555 --> 00:37:15,515
Speaker 1: as being a little tough on mister Ross. On the

543
00:37:15,595 --> 00:37:19,115
Speaker 1: other hand, I have yet to read any criticism of

544
00:37:19,155 --> 00:37:23,915
Speaker 1: the story that Thurber tells, except perhaps that maybe he

545
00:37:23,915 --> 00:37:25,795
Speaker 1: should have been a little bit more blunt about what

546
00:37:25,875 --> 00:37:28,475
Speaker 1: he's talking about here, But it was written in the

547
00:37:28,555 --> 00:37:33,395
Speaker 1: late nineteen forties and early nineteen fifties. One part of

548
00:37:33,435 --> 00:37:36,755
Speaker 1: this subject was not discussed in public, and certainly not

549
00:37:36,795 --> 00:37:40,875
Speaker 1: in print. But the rest of it will sound probably

550
00:37:40,915 --> 00:37:43,595
Speaker 1: fairly familiar to you, even though you've never heard about

551
00:37:43,635 --> 00:37:47,155
Speaker 1: the man or the man. He did this too. But

552
00:37:48,075 --> 00:37:52,475
Speaker 1: what he did was timeless. Only the names and the

553
00:37:52,475 --> 00:37:58,195
Speaker 1: cities and the actual amounts vary from century to century.

554
00:37:58,995 --> 00:38:03,795
Speaker 1: From the Years with Ross The Secret Life of Harold

555
00:38:03,875 --> 00:38:10,555
Speaker 1: Winnie by James Thurber. Harold Winnie, who seemed to me

556
00:38:10,635 --> 00:38:14,155
Speaker 1: and still does, as unreal as the look and sound

557
00:38:14,275 --> 00:38:18,715
Speaker 1: of his name, was Harold Ross's private secretary from nineteen

558
00:38:18,795 --> 00:38:22,195
Speaker 1: thirty five until the middle of August nineteen forty one.

559
00:38:23,355 --> 00:38:27,275
Speaker 1: In his years with Ross, the pallid, silent young man

560
00:38:27,755 --> 00:38:30,875
Speaker 1: steadily swindled the editor out of a total of seventy

561
00:38:31,115 --> 00:38:38,115
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars. Readers note that is the equivalent in

562
00:38:38,235 --> 00:38:41,675
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four terms of one point five million dollars.

563
00:38:43,515 --> 00:38:48,595
Speaker 1: His multiple forgeries, his raids and inroads upon Ross's bank account,

564
00:38:48,675 --> 00:38:54,475
Speaker 1: expense account, salary, and securities belong in Saint Clair Mcelway's

565
00:38:54,515 --> 00:38:59,915
Speaker 1: of crime and rascality. Somewhere between the magnificently complicated defalcations

566
00:38:59,955 --> 00:39:03,795
Speaker 1: of the Wiley will Be and the fantastic dollar bill

567
00:39:03,875 --> 00:39:09,275
Speaker 1: counterfeiting of Old eight eight zero banker's, tax men and

568
00:39:09,355 --> 00:39:12,115
Speaker 1: accountants still shake their heads in wonder and disbelief over

569
00:39:12,155 --> 00:39:15,475
Speaker 1: the case history of Harold Winnie, which has become a

570
00:39:15,515 --> 00:39:21,875
Speaker 1: part of the folklore and curiosa of American capitalism. Nobody

571
00:39:21,995 --> 00:39:24,595
Speaker 1: at the New Yorker offices knew or cared very much

572
00:39:24,595 --> 00:39:27,795
Speaker 1: about Harold Winnie, who had been born about nineteen ten

573
00:39:28,035 --> 00:39:30,715
Speaker 1: in or near Albany, New York, the only child of

574
00:39:30,755 --> 00:39:33,195
Speaker 1: a man who died when his son was very young,

575
00:39:33,955 --> 00:39:36,355
Speaker 1: and of a mother who fortunately did not live long

576
00:39:36,435 --> 00:39:40,675
Speaker 1: enough to know about her son's crimes. I remember Winnie

577
00:39:40,715 --> 00:39:45,475
Speaker 1: mainly for his cold, small voice, his pale, nimble fingers,

578
00:39:45,755 --> 00:39:48,875
Speaker 1: and his way of moving about the corridors and offices

579
00:39:48,915 --> 00:39:53,275
Speaker 1: like a shadow. I do not believe that Harold Ross

580
00:39:53,355 --> 00:39:55,475
Speaker 1: ever looked at the man closely enough to have been

581
00:39:55,515 --> 00:39:59,955
Speaker 1: able to describe him accurately. He was what Ross once

582
00:40:00,115 --> 00:40:05,875
Speaker 1: irritably described as a worm. That is, an unimportant cog

583
00:40:05,995 --> 00:40:10,955
Speaker 1: in the New Yorker wheel a non creative person. As

584
00:40:10,955 --> 00:40:14,955
Speaker 1: a secretary, Winnie was competent and quiet. He took dictation

585
00:40:15,195 --> 00:40:19,555
Speaker 1: speedily and transcribed his notes the same way. I would

586
00:40:19,595 --> 00:40:21,995
Speaker 1: be sitting in my office and suddenly his voice would

587
00:40:22,035 --> 00:40:24,315
Speaker 1: surprise me, for I never heard him enter the room.

588
00:40:25,515 --> 00:40:28,315
Speaker 1: Mister Ross would like your opinion on this, he would say,

589
00:40:28,675 --> 00:40:32,235
Speaker 1: and hand me a typewritten query about something or other.

590
00:40:33,315 --> 00:40:35,275
Speaker 1: This was in the days when I could still see

591
00:40:35,315 --> 00:40:40,155
Speaker 1: to read. He would stand there, absolutely motionless, without a word,

592
00:40:40,715 --> 00:40:42,795
Speaker 1: and wait for me to tell him what I thought,

593
00:40:43,195 --> 00:40:45,155
Speaker 1: or to type my reply on a piece of paper.

594
00:40:45,515 --> 00:40:49,795
Speaker 1: Then he would silently vanish. He was a master of

595
00:40:49,875 --> 00:40:55,875
Speaker 1: the art of protective immobility. I remember that he was

596
00:40:55,955 --> 00:40:59,115
Speaker 1: neat to the point of being immaculate. But the clothes

597
00:40:59,155 --> 00:41:04,115
Speaker 1: he wore were as unobtrusive as his manner. When investigators

598
00:41:04,155 --> 00:41:07,235
Speaker 1: examined his apartment, they found, among other things, one hundred

599
00:41:07,315 --> 00:41:11,355
Speaker 1: and three suits of clothes, which he had bought with

600
00:41:11,395 --> 00:41:15,195
Speaker 1: the money stolen from Ross. They also found in a

601
00:41:15,195 --> 00:41:18,995
Speaker 1: private correspondence file a long exchange of letters with a

602
00:41:19,035 --> 00:41:25,515
Speaker 1: real estate firm in Tahiti. Winnie had planned a little

603
00:41:25,595 --> 00:41:28,835
Speaker 1: vaguely to flee when he had piled up enough of

604
00:41:28,835 --> 00:41:31,995
Speaker 1: his employer's money, but the embezzler never does get enough,

605
00:41:32,275 --> 00:41:34,635
Speaker 1: and when in the summer of nineteen forty one his

606
00:41:34,755 --> 00:41:38,195
Speaker 1: crimes were discovered, the war was on and he could

607
00:41:38,235 --> 00:41:46,515
Speaker 1: not obtain a passport. Discovery, in the end was inevitable.

608
00:41:47,155 --> 00:41:49,755
Speaker 1: The miracle is that it didn't come some years sooner.

609
00:41:50,835 --> 00:41:54,515
Speaker 1: If Winnie drank or smoked, it was usually in moderation,

610
00:41:56,315 --> 00:41:58,315
Speaker 1: and there was only one subject in the world that

611
00:41:58,315 --> 00:42:02,195
Speaker 1: could light up his cold eyes at his impassive face.

612
00:42:02,635 --> 00:42:09,675
Speaker 1: That was horse racing. He was a horse player, completely

613
00:42:09,715 --> 00:42:13,475
Speaker 1: addicted to it, and a steady loser. Nobody will ever

614
00:42:13,555 --> 00:42:15,915
Speaker 1: know how much he lost in gambling on the horses,

615
00:42:16,035 --> 00:42:19,835
Speaker 1: or what exactly became of the seventy one thousand dollars

616
00:42:19,875 --> 00:42:24,075
Speaker 1: he stole. Copies of his private letters to men friends

617
00:42:24,115 --> 00:42:26,795
Speaker 1: revealed that he spent his money lavishly upon some of them,

618
00:42:27,195 --> 00:42:31,315
Speaker 1: buying one an expensive sports car, outfitting another with complete

619
00:42:31,355 --> 00:42:34,715
Speaker 1: skiing equipment, and giving them money for their vacations and holidays.

620
00:42:36,315 --> 00:42:39,315
Speaker 1: Investigators were baffled at every turn in trying to trace

621
00:42:39,315 --> 00:42:43,355
Speaker 1: what happened to Ross's money. There was, however, a record

622
00:42:43,355 --> 00:42:46,155
Speaker 1: of a big champagne party when he gave in a

623
00:42:46,195 --> 00:42:49,395
Speaker 1: suite at the Astor Hotel. On the night in November

624
00:42:49,475 --> 00:42:52,435
Speaker 1: nineteen forty when Roosevelt was elected president for the third time.

625
00:42:53,955 --> 00:42:57,195
Speaker 1: I walked past the aster several times that night with friends.

626
00:42:57,875 --> 00:43:00,715
Speaker 1: Ross told me gloomily, and I guess I was hit

627
00:43:00,755 --> 00:43:05,235
Speaker 1: on the head by my own champagne. Corks stewed toward

628
00:43:05,275 --> 00:43:07,795
Speaker 1: the room just outside his own office, where Winnie had

629
00:43:07,795 --> 00:43:11,355
Speaker 1: had his desk and typewriter. He sat out there and

630
00:43:11,395 --> 00:43:18,155
Speaker 1: fed me cake. Ross moaned when he was by a

631
00:43:18,195 --> 00:43:22,195
Speaker 1: familiar caprice of nature, incapable of emotional interest in females.

632
00:43:22,235 --> 00:43:25,435
Speaker 1: And this was as apparent to all of us except

633
00:43:25,515 --> 00:43:29,795
Speaker 1: Ross as the simple fact that Mary Pickford is a woman.

634
00:43:31,075 --> 00:43:34,435
Speaker 1: To Ross, however, who never scrutinized his secretary or gave

635
00:43:34,475 --> 00:43:36,635
Speaker 1: him any real thought, he was nothing more than a

636
00:43:36,755 --> 00:43:40,115
Speaker 1: chair in his office or the ashtray on his desk.

637
00:43:40,795 --> 00:43:42,635
Speaker 1: Did you know he was that kind of a man,

638
00:43:43,395 --> 00:43:45,435
Speaker 1: Ross asked me and the rest of us, and we

639
00:43:45,475 --> 00:43:51,915
Speaker 1: all just stared at him and said, yes, didn't you.

640
00:43:52,035 --> 00:43:54,915
Speaker 1: Ross would brush this aside and say I don't It

641
00:43:54,915 --> 00:43:57,475
Speaker 1: explains the whole business. That kind of guy always wants

642
00:43:57,515 --> 00:44:03,235
Speaker 1: to ruin the normal man. Ross was by no means,

643
00:44:03,235 --> 00:44:06,275
Speaker 1: of course, financially ruined by Winnie, for he still had

644
00:44:06,315 --> 00:44:08,315
Speaker 1: plenty of money of his own after the loss of

645
00:44:08,355 --> 00:44:12,915
Speaker 1: the seventy one thousand dollars. During the almost seven years

646
00:44:12,915 --> 00:44:17,155
Speaker 1: that Winnie robbed Ross, day after day, the editor was

647
00:44:17,235 --> 00:44:19,475
Speaker 1: at the peak of his work and his worries in

648
00:44:19,555 --> 00:44:22,595
Speaker 1: every field. In nineteen thirty five, the year Winnie came

649
00:44:22,635 --> 00:44:25,595
Speaker 1: to work for him, Ross's daughter was born, and the

650
00:44:25,635 --> 00:44:30,435
Speaker 1: magazine was developing rapidly in every way. In the midst

651
00:44:30,475 --> 00:44:34,475
Speaker 1: of all this, Ross recognized the necessity of quote delegating

652
00:44:34,635 --> 00:44:37,675
Speaker 1: unquote some of his duties in some of his worries,

653
00:44:38,795 --> 00:44:42,835
Speaker 1: he made the mistake of delegating to Harold Winnie complete control,

654
00:44:42,955 --> 00:44:48,275
Speaker 1: without any safeguard whatever, of his bank accounts and securities.

655
00:44:48,995 --> 00:44:53,035
Speaker 1: He had two separate accounts in one bank. The bank

656
00:44:53,075 --> 00:44:56,835
Speaker 1: tellers and vice presidents became familiar with the quiet, well behaved,

657
00:44:56,875 --> 00:45:00,355
Speaker 1: efficient young man who was Ross's private secretary and whom

658
00:45:00,795 --> 00:45:07,755
Speaker 1: the editor had made it clear he reposed every trust. Thus,

659
00:45:07,795 --> 00:45:09,795
Speaker 1: when Winnie showed up at a teller's cage where the

660
00:45:09,875 --> 00:45:12,755
Speaker 1: check made out to cash, signed with the unmistakable signature

661
00:45:12,755 --> 00:45:15,675
Speaker 1: of H. W Ross. The check was not subjected to

662
00:45:15,755 --> 00:45:20,515
Speaker 1: more than casual scrutiny, even if it had been. Winnie's

663
00:45:20,635 --> 00:45:23,475
Speaker 1: forgery of Ross's name was so perfect that after the

664
00:45:23,515 --> 00:45:26,755
Speaker 1: Secretary's death, the few canceled checks that could be found

665
00:45:26,955 --> 00:45:31,155
Speaker 1: baffled not only handwriting experts but even Ross himself, who

666
00:45:31,195 --> 00:45:34,035
Speaker 1: could not swear whether a given signature was his own

667
00:45:34,315 --> 00:45:41,555
Speaker 1: or Winny's. Winnie's own initials were HW, and all he

668
00:45:41,635 --> 00:45:46,475
Speaker 1: had to imitate were the six letters of H. W. Ross.

669
00:45:47,515 --> 00:45:52,355
Speaker 1: He became an expert at it. As the years went on,

670
00:45:52,475 --> 00:45:54,435
Speaker 1: he grew bolder and bolder, and in one week, the

671
00:45:54,475 --> 00:45:57,115
Speaker 1: record shows, cashed three separate checks for a total of

672
00:45:57,155 --> 00:46:01,515
Speaker 1: six thousand dollars. At that period, Ross's main financial interest

673
00:46:01,675 --> 00:46:05,955
Speaker 1: was in his friend Dave Chasin's restaurant in Hollywood. About

674
00:46:05,955 --> 00:46:08,675
Speaker 1: the time that Harold Winnie began robbing Ross, the restaurant

675
00:46:08,715 --> 00:46:12,595
Speaker 1: began to make money. Ross had originally lent Chasing three

676
00:46:12,675 --> 00:46:16,235
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, a generous personal loan of the kind for

677
00:46:16,235 --> 00:46:19,675
Speaker 1: which he was well known to his intimates. Sums of

678
00:46:19,675 --> 00:46:22,035
Speaker 1: money like that did not bother Ross when it came

679
00:46:22,115 --> 00:46:24,395
Speaker 1: to helping out one of the men to whom he

680
00:46:24,515 --> 00:46:28,915
Speaker 1: was most devoted. Later he began investing in the restaurant

681
00:46:29,275 --> 00:46:31,955
Speaker 1: that his profits increased, but he could never quite accommodate

682
00:46:32,035 --> 00:46:35,635
Speaker 1: himself to the idea that he deserved the profits, which

683
00:46:35,635 --> 00:46:39,355
Speaker 1: amounted finally to more than two hundred thousand dollars. God

684
00:46:39,435 --> 00:46:40,995
Speaker 1: damn it. I never intended to make a lot of

685
00:46:41,035 --> 00:46:44,195
Speaker 1: money out of Dave's place, he once told a lawyer,

686
00:46:45,595 --> 00:46:47,875
Speaker 1: hard for me to think he owes me anything except

687
00:46:47,915 --> 00:46:51,915
Speaker 1: on the basis of personal loans. The difference between a

688
00:46:51,995 --> 00:46:55,595
Speaker 1: loan and an investment had to be explained to him patiently.

689
00:46:55,955 --> 00:46:59,795
Speaker 1: I know, I know all that, he would say, putting

690
00:46:59,795 --> 00:47:04,795
Speaker 1: on his well known expression of worry and wonder when

691
00:47:04,875 --> 00:47:08,955
Speaker 1: he began cautiously by forging six checks in nineteen thirty

692
00:47:08,955 --> 00:47:12,835
Speaker 1: five for a total of about fourteen hundred dollars. The

693
00:47:12,875 --> 00:47:15,795
Speaker 1: next year he forged seven checks for a total of

694
00:47:15,915 --> 00:47:18,675
Speaker 1: nineteen hundred dollars. In nineteen thirty seven, there were nine

695
00:47:18,755 --> 00:47:21,635
Speaker 1: checks and the amount was twenty nine hundred dollars. And

696
00:47:21,675 --> 00:47:23,795
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty eight, the year before he threw caution

697
00:47:23,915 --> 00:47:27,875
Speaker 1: to the winds, he forged seven checks for twenty seven

698
00:47:27,995 --> 00:47:31,875
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty dollars. During all this time, he was

699
00:47:31,875 --> 00:47:34,955
Speaker 1: careful to fill out check book stubs and reconcile them

700
00:47:34,995 --> 00:47:39,515
Speaker 1: precisely with Ross's monthly bank statements. He had soon discovered,

701
00:47:39,795 --> 00:47:43,475
Speaker 1: but probably couldn't believe it that Ross did not want

702
00:47:43,515 --> 00:47:46,875
Speaker 1: to be bothered by studying his check books or monthly statements,

703
00:47:47,715 --> 00:47:52,595
Speaker 1: so Winnie summarized them as he explained it to Ross.

704
00:47:52,795 --> 00:47:55,195
Speaker 1: It would simply lay a typed sheet of paper on

705
00:47:55,275 --> 00:47:58,035
Speaker 1: Ross's desk when he was asked about the state of

706
00:47:58,035 --> 00:48:03,115
Speaker 1: his account. If Ross spotted some familiar amount, such as

707
00:48:03,235 --> 00:48:05,715
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirteen dollars in thirteen cents and said,

708
00:48:06,475 --> 00:48:09,275
Speaker 1: I thought that check went through last month, Winnie would

709
00:48:09,315 --> 00:48:13,075
Speaker 1: simply tell him quietly that he was wrong. The cake

710
00:48:13,875 --> 00:48:16,915
Speaker 1: became easier and easier to feed to Ross, and when

711
00:48:16,995 --> 00:48:20,755
Speaker 1: he finally abandoned entirely the unnecessary work of justification, he

712
00:48:20,755 --> 00:48:22,795
Speaker 1: would simply tear a check out of a check book,

713
00:48:23,075 --> 00:48:26,035
Speaker 1: fill it out for whatever amount he wanted, signed Ross's name,

714
00:48:26,075 --> 00:48:29,315
Speaker 1: and cash it at the bank. When he really began

715
00:48:29,355 --> 00:48:32,275
Speaker 1: to splurge with Ross's money and visit the bank several

716
00:48:32,315 --> 00:48:34,555
Speaker 1: times a week, he would hand in the check and

717
00:48:34,635 --> 00:48:37,075
Speaker 1: wink slyly at the teller as if to say, the

718
00:48:37,115 --> 00:48:41,275
Speaker 1: old boys at it again. I don't know how many

719
00:48:41,355 --> 00:48:44,355
Speaker 1: persons outside the New Yorker and Ross's circle of friends

720
00:48:44,555 --> 00:48:48,555
Speaker 1: knew how often Ross gambled and how often he lost,

721
00:48:49,315 --> 00:48:52,435
Speaker 1: but it was scarcely a state secret. Dozens of checks

722
00:48:52,475 --> 00:48:57,155
Speaker 1: for gambling losses averaging around five hundred dollars, were duplicated

723
00:48:57,195 --> 00:49:01,355
Speaker 1: by Winnie before he sent them with Ross's genuine signature

724
00:49:01,395 --> 00:49:05,355
Speaker 1: on them to the lucky winners. During nineteen thirty nine

725
00:49:05,355 --> 00:49:07,435
Speaker 1: and nineteen forty and up until the end of July

726
00:49:07,595 --> 00:49:11,355
Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, Winnie forged one hundred and sixty checks

727
00:49:11,635 --> 00:49:15,915
Speaker 1: for a total of about sixty two thousand dollars. By

728
00:49:15,915 --> 00:49:18,515
Speaker 1: the end of July nineteen forty one, he had withdrawn

729
00:49:18,595 --> 00:49:23,355
Speaker 1: all of his employer's salary through December, and along with

730
00:49:23,395 --> 00:49:30,955
Speaker 1: it several thousand dollars of Ross's expense account money. Winnie

731
00:49:31,075 --> 00:49:36,115
Speaker 1: was a well implemented student of his employer. He was, however,

732
00:49:36,195 --> 00:49:39,555
Speaker 1: at all times, skating on ice that grew thinner and thinner,

733
00:49:39,595 --> 00:49:42,275
Speaker 1: and he must have known that sooner or later it

734
00:49:42,355 --> 00:49:45,635
Speaker 1: would break under him. It may be that he hoped

735
00:49:45,635 --> 00:49:47,635
Speaker 1: to restore the money he had taken if he could

736
00:49:47,675 --> 00:49:50,715
Speaker 1: only win a large amount on the horses, or make

737
00:49:50,795 --> 00:49:54,875
Speaker 1: some quick and profitable investment, but nobody knows about that,

738
00:49:55,155 --> 00:49:59,195
Speaker 1: or if anybody does, nothing has ever been revealed. Winnie's friends,

739
00:49:59,755 --> 00:50:01,675
Speaker 1: or such of them as were found and talked to,

740
00:50:02,035 --> 00:50:05,155
Speaker 1: claimed they knew nothing about his secret life. This may

741
00:50:05,195 --> 00:50:09,795
Speaker 1: well have been true. He was as tight mouthed as

742
00:50:09,835 --> 00:50:15,755
Speaker 1: he was thin lipped. The withdrawal in advance of Ross's

743
00:50:15,795 --> 00:50:19,035
Speaker 1: salary and expense account money had to be accomplished through

744
00:50:19,155 --> 00:50:21,915
Speaker 1: the New Yorker's own business department, and in spite of

745
00:50:21,955 --> 00:50:24,795
Speaker 1: the tension between the editor and that department, it remained

746
00:50:24,835 --> 00:50:27,755
Speaker 1: something of a miracle that nothing was said to Ross

747
00:50:27,795 --> 00:50:33,955
Speaker 1: about this thing until the middle of August nineteen forty one.

748
00:50:34,155 --> 00:50:36,995
Speaker 1: One man in the business department, who has been there

749
00:50:37,035 --> 00:50:39,315
Speaker 1: for more than thirty years, told me what I already knew,

750
00:50:39,315 --> 00:50:41,955
Speaker 1: that if the business department ever mentioned money to Ross,

751
00:50:42,035 --> 00:50:45,115
Speaker 1: he yelled them down, or said they were crazy, or

752
00:50:45,115 --> 00:50:46,835
Speaker 1: announced that he didn't want to talk about it and

753
00:50:46,875 --> 00:50:51,635
Speaker 1: hung up the phone. There were years during which he

754
00:50:51,635 --> 00:50:54,195
Speaker 1: would refuse to discuss anything at all with his partner,

755
00:50:54,275 --> 00:50:58,675
Speaker 1: El Fleischmann, and such communications as passed between them were

756
00:50:58,715 --> 00:51:02,835
Speaker 1: carried on circuitously. Winnie was also a close student of

757
00:51:02,875 --> 00:51:07,475
Speaker 1: this situation. In nineteen thirty eight, Ross and his second

758
00:51:07,475 --> 00:51:10,435
Speaker 1: wife spent several months in France and England, and before

759
00:51:10,475 --> 00:51:13,955
Speaker 1: he left, he put his securities in Winnie's hands, giving

760
00:51:14,035 --> 00:51:19,235
Speaker 1: him power of attorney over them. In order to replenish

761
00:51:19,235 --> 00:51:21,995
Speaker 1: this or that account. In a crisis, the secretary would

762
00:51:22,075 --> 00:51:26,315
Speaker 1: sell some of Ross's securities. Ross both played into Winnie's

763
00:51:26,315 --> 00:51:28,835
Speaker 1: hands and made things a bit difficult for him by

764
00:51:28,875 --> 00:51:31,915
Speaker 1: carrying loose checks in his pocket and making them out

765
00:51:31,955 --> 00:51:34,515
Speaker 1: to this person or that, or to this firm or that,

766
00:51:34,795 --> 00:51:37,355
Speaker 1: sometimes remembering to tell Winnie about them the next day,

767
00:51:37,355 --> 00:51:41,715
Speaker 1: but often forgetting it. In this way, Winnie could never

768
00:51:41,755 --> 00:51:44,995
Speaker 1: be sure what situation would confront him at the end

769
00:51:45,035 --> 00:51:50,995
Speaker 1: of any given month. During the last year of Winnie's peculations,

770
00:51:51,395 --> 00:51:54,875
Speaker 1: he caused Ross to be overdrawn multiple times at the bank.

771
00:51:55,595 --> 00:51:58,915
Speaker 1: When this situation occurred, Winnie would either transfer some funds

772
00:51:58,915 --> 00:52:03,395
Speaker 1: from the account in Jane Grant's name, his wife, Ross's wife,

773
00:52:03,795 --> 00:52:06,315
Speaker 1: to Ross's own account, or cover up by selling some

774
00:52:06,355 --> 00:52:11,635
Speaker 1: more of Ross's securities. The mad intelligent Ross, as Janet

775
00:52:11,635 --> 00:52:14,755
Speaker 1: Flanner once called him, had simply forgotten to cancel when

776
00:52:14,795 --> 00:52:18,035
Speaker 1: he's power of attorney after the editor got back from France.

777
00:52:19,755 --> 00:52:22,195
Speaker 1: Ross expected to get loyalty from those around him the

778
00:52:22,195 --> 00:52:25,115
Speaker 1: way he expected to get his mail. But he didn't

779
00:52:25,115 --> 00:52:27,955
Speaker 1: get that always either. All communications from the bank, and

780
00:52:27,995 --> 00:52:30,835
Speaker 1: several letters from a firm of tax experts suggesting that

781
00:52:30,915 --> 00:52:34,915
Speaker 1: they supervised Ross's financial interests were simply torn up and

782
00:52:35,075 --> 00:52:41,835
Speaker 1: thrown away by Ross's secretary. When it comes to money,

783
00:52:42,275 --> 00:52:45,715
Speaker 1: bank accounts, and everything else fiscal or financial, I am

784
00:52:45,795 --> 00:52:50,515
Speaker 1: not one to throw stones, but a pot as black

785
00:52:50,675 --> 00:52:53,715
Speaker 1: as the kettle. I once had a checking account in

786
00:52:53,755 --> 00:52:56,795
Speaker 1: a famous old Fifth Avenue bank through the recommendation of

787
00:52:56,875 --> 00:53:00,395
Speaker 1: Ralph Ingersoll. But after I had been overdrawn three times,

788
00:53:00,435 --> 00:53:02,915
Speaker 1: I was invited to talk it over with a vice

789
00:53:02,955 --> 00:53:06,875
Speaker 1: president of the bank. He was shocked, almost beyond words

790
00:53:06,955 --> 00:53:09,515
Speaker 1: when he discovered that I did not fill out my

791
00:53:09,635 --> 00:53:14,835
Speaker 1: checkbook stubbs. Then how do you know how much money

792
00:53:15,275 --> 00:53:18,275
Speaker 1: you have in the bank, he asked me, and I

793
00:53:18,355 --> 00:53:24,435
Speaker 1: told him I estimated. He turned a little white and

794
00:53:24,515 --> 00:53:33,955
Speaker 1: his hand trembled. You estimated, he croaked. That bank was

795
00:53:33,995 --> 00:53:37,075
Speaker 1: glad to get rid of me. I have always had

796
00:53:37,075 --> 00:53:39,435
Speaker 1: the good sense to let my wife handle my finances,

797
00:53:39,475 --> 00:53:42,795
Speaker 1: but Ross would have just goggled it anyone who suggested

798
00:53:42,795 --> 00:53:45,555
Speaker 1: that he put such a responsibility upon his own spouse.

799
00:53:46,875 --> 00:53:50,115
Speaker 1: It was not only his strangeness about Doe, but his

800
00:53:50,235 --> 00:53:53,275
Speaker 1: erratic judgments of men that put such a powerful temptation

801
00:53:53,395 --> 00:53:56,795
Speaker 1: in the way of Harold Winnie. One of those around

802
00:53:56,835 --> 00:53:59,035
Speaker 1: him in the early years, a man he both liked

803
00:53:59,035 --> 00:54:02,395
Speaker 1: and trusted, and rightly so, was Ralph Palladino. When he

804
00:54:02,435 --> 00:54:04,635
Speaker 1: was young and single, Ralph took a course in public

805
00:54:04,835 --> 00:54:09,915
Speaker 1: accounting at a night school, and Ross attended his graduation exercises. Ralph,

806
00:54:10,075 --> 00:54:12,035
Speaker 1: it seemed to us in those days, kept track of

807
00:54:12,115 --> 00:54:15,275
Speaker 1: everything for Ross. He was an expert on order organization,

808
00:54:15,715 --> 00:54:20,035
Speaker 1: doe records, and everything else that Ross worried about. Then

809
00:54:20,195 --> 00:54:23,475
Speaker 1: Ralph was married and after a while had children and

810
00:54:23,515 --> 00:54:27,035
Speaker 1: needed an increase of salary, and Ross would not okay this.

811
00:54:28,115 --> 00:54:30,235
Speaker 1: I still get mad at him when I think about it,

812
00:54:30,235 --> 00:54:32,435
Speaker 1: and I once bawled him out for it. After Ralph

813
00:54:32,515 --> 00:54:35,795
Speaker 1: quit and took a better paying job. I haven't got

814
00:54:35,835 --> 00:54:39,595
Speaker 1: time for little people, Ross snarled, and I told him

815
00:54:39,595 --> 00:54:41,915
Speaker 1: that was a hell of a thing to say. He

816
00:54:41,995 --> 00:54:45,235
Speaker 1: later apologized for it, murmured something about all the physical

817
00:54:45,315 --> 00:54:47,555
Speaker 1: troubles that he had at the time, a jaw infection,

818
00:54:47,835 --> 00:54:52,795
Speaker 1: his ulcers, and the spreading of the metatarsal bones of

819
00:54:52,915 --> 00:54:56,715
Speaker 1: one foot. Ralph Palladino, by the way, is now head

820
00:54:56,715 --> 00:54:59,755
Speaker 1: of the makeup department at Newsweek last year. A man

821
00:54:59,755 --> 00:55:02,195
Speaker 1: who works over there told me he is our one

822
00:55:02,275 --> 00:55:07,795
Speaker 1: most indispensable man. Harold Ross had a lot of things

823
00:55:07,835 --> 00:55:10,435
Speaker 1: to think about in nineteen forty one, including his approaching

824
00:55:10,475 --> 00:55:14,475
Speaker 1: third marriage, three of my five I operations, the war

825
00:55:14,595 --> 00:55:18,555
Speaker 1: and all that did to him, and one hundred other concerns.

826
00:55:19,195 --> 00:55:21,715
Speaker 1: He himself had withdrawn some of his salary and expense

827
00:55:21,755 --> 00:55:24,635
Speaker 1: account that year, and this gave Winnie the idea of

828
00:55:24,675 --> 00:55:29,355
Speaker 1: withdrawing the rest of it. Such transactions as this had

829
00:55:29,355 --> 00:55:32,395
Speaker 1: to be okayed by the miracle Man. During most of

830
00:55:32,435 --> 00:55:36,075
Speaker 1: this period, it was Ick Schumann, the miracle Man being

831
00:55:36,595 --> 00:55:39,835
Speaker 1: Thurber's term for Ross's term for editor in chief of

832
00:55:39,875 --> 00:55:44,955
Speaker 1: the magazine. One day after Winnie had withdrawn Ross's salary

833
00:55:44,955 --> 00:55:48,315
Speaker 1: and expense money for October, November and December, Raoul Fleischmann

834
00:55:48,435 --> 00:55:51,355
Speaker 1: sent for Schumann and said, did you know that Ross's

835
00:55:51,395 --> 00:55:54,275
Speaker 1: hard up. They discussed the matter and Ick said he

836
00:55:54,275 --> 00:55:58,235
Speaker 1: would look into it for a while Ross simply did

837
00:55:58,275 --> 00:56:00,595
Speaker 1: not believe or even listen to what Schumann had to

838
00:56:00,595 --> 00:56:05,115
Speaker 1: tell him about his withdrawn salary. Then he sent for Winnie.

839
00:56:06,155 --> 00:56:08,475
Speaker 1: That doomed young man knew that he had come to

840
00:56:08,515 --> 00:56:11,275
Speaker 1: the end of the line. But he didn't turn white,

841
00:56:11,635 --> 00:56:15,235
Speaker 1: or begins shaking, or break down and confess. He simply

842
00:56:15,315 --> 00:56:18,595
Speaker 1: double talked Ross into deeper and deeper confusion until the

843
00:56:18,675 --> 00:56:21,315
Speaker 1: editor said, Ah, the hell with it, I'll stop in

844
00:56:21,355 --> 00:56:24,515
Speaker 1: at the bank tomorrow and find out all about it myself.

845
00:56:26,075 --> 00:56:30,675
Speaker 1: That sentence was Harold Winnie's death sentence. After work, he

846
00:56:30,755 --> 00:56:34,675
Speaker 1: went home to his expensive and tidally furnished apartment in Brooklyn,

847
00:56:34,715 --> 00:56:36,275
Speaker 1: turned on the gas in the kitchen, and took his

848
00:56:36,315 --> 00:56:41,035
Speaker 1: own life. When the body of Harold Winnie was discovered

849
00:56:41,075 --> 00:56:44,835
Speaker 1: the next day in his Brooklyn apartment, Ross was greatly upset,

850
00:56:45,515 --> 00:56:48,115
Speaker 1: and when the first batch of his manifold forgeries came

851
00:56:48,155 --> 00:56:51,715
Speaker 1: to light, he expressed pity for him and even compassion.

852
00:56:52,675 --> 00:56:57,315
Speaker 1: According to Schumann and Jin King Kaid, Ross's great gum shoe.

853
00:56:58,795 --> 00:57:00,915
Speaker 1: King Kaid had been assigned to find out as much

854
00:57:00,915 --> 00:57:03,715
Speaker 1: as he could about what Winnie had done to Ross,

855
00:57:03,875 --> 00:57:05,995
Speaker 1: and when the stag during total of the quiet young

856
00:57:06,035 --> 00:57:09,275
Speaker 1: man's thefts became clear. Ross no longer said at as

857
00:57:09,315 --> 00:57:13,795
Speaker 1: he had been saying, the poor little guy. What mainly

858
00:57:13,875 --> 00:57:16,715
Speaker 1: bothered Ross, however, was not the amount of his losses,

859
00:57:16,715 --> 00:57:20,315
Speaker 1: but the feeling that his friends at the twenty one Club,

860
00:57:20,435 --> 00:57:23,755
Speaker 1: as Schumann put it, would never get over kidding him

861
00:57:23,915 --> 00:57:28,555
Speaker 1: about it all. So the actual total of the forgeries

862
00:57:28,635 --> 00:57:30,355
Speaker 1: was not given out to the papers. They were told

863
00:57:30,355 --> 00:57:34,395
Speaker 1: that it was somewhere between seventeen thousand and twenty thousand dollars.

864
00:57:35,275 --> 00:57:38,795
Speaker 1: That's what Ross told me too. I think that he

865
00:57:38,915 --> 00:57:41,235
Speaker 1: was wrong about this. Any American could be taken for

866
00:57:41,355 --> 00:57:45,275
Speaker 1: seventeen thousand or twenty thousand dollars, but it takes a

867
00:57:45,315 --> 00:57:49,395
Speaker 1: really great eccentric to be robbed of seventy one thousand

868
00:57:49,435 --> 00:57:55,915
Speaker 1: dollars right under his own busy nose. I am told

869
00:57:55,955 --> 00:57:58,435
Speaker 1: that Ross could not be reimbursed by the bank for

870
00:57:58,515 --> 00:58:01,435
Speaker 1: his losses because he had made this legally impossible by

871
00:58:01,435 --> 00:58:05,115
Speaker 1: the way he ignored his monthly statements, and by having

872
00:58:05,155 --> 00:58:08,115
Speaker 1: given power of attorney to Winnie, which he never withdrew.

873
00:58:09,595 --> 00:58:12,835
Speaker 1: It seems that Ross did get five thousand dollars of

874
00:58:12,915 --> 00:58:16,675
Speaker 1: Harold Winnie's insurance money. What I remember mainly about the

875
00:58:16,715 --> 00:58:21,115
Speaker 1: wreckage of that tragic August was a strange threat Ross made.

876
00:58:21,355 --> 00:58:24,635
Speaker 1: He was going to get even with the bank, he said,

877
00:58:24,955 --> 00:58:30,795
Speaker 1: by hiring Steve Hannigan. Just what he expected that late

878
00:58:30,915 --> 00:58:35,035
Speaker 1: famous public relations man, sometimes known as the Discoverer of

879
00:58:35,115 --> 00:58:39,635
Speaker 1: Florida to do. I have no way of knowing. Ross

880
00:58:39,755 --> 00:58:43,755
Speaker 1: soon realized, of course, that publicity was precisely what he

881
00:58:43,875 --> 00:58:49,635
Speaker 1: did not want. Among those to whom Ross occasionally lost

882
00:58:49,675 --> 00:58:52,275
Speaker 1: money at backgammon, where Jin Rummy was a well known

883
00:58:52,315 --> 00:58:55,075
Speaker 1: New York publisher, and whenever he won from two hundred

884
00:58:55,075 --> 00:58:58,475
Speaker 1: dollars to five hundred dollars from Ross, Winnie would duplicate

885
00:58:58,555 --> 00:59:03,035
Speaker 1: the check, so that Ross really always lost twice as

886
00:59:03,115 --> 00:59:07,555
Speaker 1: much as he believed he had. Losing anything to a

887
00:59:07,755 --> 00:59:11,275
Speaker 1: publisher was to h w Ross something that there could

888
00:59:11,315 --> 00:59:15,915
Speaker 1: be nothing more deplorable than He fought publishers on behalf

889
00:59:15,995 --> 00:59:20,915
Speaker 1: of writers all his life and wrote literally hundreds of

890
00:59:20,995 --> 00:59:24,795
Speaker 1: letters bawling them out. One of these, to Marshal Best,

891
00:59:25,315 --> 00:59:29,395
Speaker 1: runs to two thousand words. In a letter to Ross,

892
00:59:29,515 --> 00:59:33,835
Speaker 1: the publisher had accused him of obscurantism, and Ross ended

893
00:59:33,875 --> 00:59:41,715
Speaker 1: his reply, we let's have oceans of obscurantism. Ross and

894
00:59:41,755 --> 00:59:44,235
Speaker 1: The New Yorker never took any subsidiary rights at all

895
00:59:44,275 --> 00:59:47,715
Speaker 1: from writers and artists, but were satisfied with first serial rights.

896
00:59:47,955 --> 00:59:51,155
Speaker 1: When Ross found out that publishers often got a percentage

897
00:59:51,195 --> 00:59:54,155
Speaker 1: of their author's sales of movie or theater rights, he

898
00:59:54,315 --> 00:59:56,875
Speaker 1: banged away at them with his trustee typewriter, and you

899
00:59:56,875 --> 00:59:59,595
Speaker 1: could hear it all the way down the hall. He

900
00:59:59,675 --> 01:00:02,235
Speaker 1: also fought them for better royalties for writers and for

901
01:00:02,315 --> 01:00:06,635
Speaker 1: a more equitable arrangement on anthoughogies. He once got a

902
01:00:06,715 --> 01:00:10,395
Speaker 1: letter from Christopher LeFarge, then president of the Author's League,

903
01:00:10,675 --> 01:00:13,235
Speaker 1: thanking him on behalf of the authors of the country

904
01:00:13,635 --> 01:00:15,435
Speaker 1: for what he had been doing and was still doing.

905
01:00:18,475 --> 01:00:21,115
Speaker 1: I don't know how to end this count of the short,

906
01:00:21,235 --> 01:00:23,795
Speaker 1: unhappy life of Harold Winnie, but I guess I'll just

907
01:00:23,915 --> 01:00:28,195
Speaker 1: put down what two different admirers of Ross, who did

908
01:00:28,195 --> 01:00:33,155
Speaker 1: not know the Winny story said in the same voice

909
01:00:33,475 --> 01:00:37,795
Speaker 1: after I had told them the tale. What a wonderful

910
01:00:37,875 --> 01:00:43,555
Speaker 1: man said one of them, what a crazy guy said

911
01:00:43,555 --> 01:01:02,515
Speaker 1: the other. The Secret Life of Harold Winnie sounds vaguely familiar.

912
01:01:03,835 --> 01:01:12,515
Speaker 1: Gambling on horror, gambling on sports. Assistant translator twentieth century,

913
01:01:12,955 --> 01:01:17,035
Speaker 1: twenty first century. If there's a twenty second century, they'll

914
01:01:17,035 --> 01:01:20,315
Speaker 1: be a translator or an assistant doing the same thing

915
01:01:20,355 --> 01:01:23,635
Speaker 1: to somebody else. I've done all the damage I can

916
01:01:23,675 --> 01:01:26,235
Speaker 1: do here for yet another week. Thank you for listening. Countdown.

917
01:01:26,315 --> 01:01:29,675
Speaker 1: Musical directors Brian Ray and John Phillip Shaneil arranged, produced,

918
01:01:29,715 --> 01:01:32,995
Speaker 1: and performed most of our music. Mister Ray was on guitars,

919
01:01:33,035 --> 01:01:36,115
Speaker 1: bass and drums, and mister Shanelle handled orchestration and keyboards

920
01:01:36,435 --> 01:01:39,435
Speaker 1: produced by Tko Brothers. Other music, including some of the

921
01:01:39,475 --> 01:01:42,795
Speaker 1: Beethoven compositions, were arranged and performed by the group No

922
01:01:42,915 --> 01:01:46,075
Speaker 1: Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Olderman theme from

923
01:01:46,275 --> 01:01:49,875
Speaker 1: ESPN two, written by Mitch Warren Davis, courtesy of ESPN Inc.

924
01:01:50,395 --> 01:01:53,555
Speaker 1: Our satirical and pithy musical comments are by Nancy Faust,

925
01:01:53,715 --> 01:01:57,355
Speaker 1: the best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today, fitting

926
01:01:57,355 --> 01:02:01,235
Speaker 1: with the sports themes, my friend Kenny Maine. Everything else

927
01:02:01,275 --> 01:02:03,755
Speaker 1: pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this the

928
01:02:03,755 --> 01:02:06,755
Speaker 1: two hundred and eighth day until the twenty twenty four

929
01:02:06,795 --> 01:02:11,475
Speaker 1: presidential election and the one ninety third day since dementia.

930
01:02:11,555 --> 01:02:15,035
Speaker 1: Jay Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically elected government

931
01:02:15,035 --> 01:02:17,875
Speaker 1: of the United States. Use the Fourteenth Amendment and the

932
01:02:17,955 --> 01:02:21,995
Speaker 1: not regularly given elector objection option, use the Insurrection Act,

933
01:02:22,075 --> 01:02:24,795
Speaker 1: use the justice system, use the mental health system to

934
01:02:24,955 --> 01:02:29,995
Speaker 1: stop him from doing it again while we still can.

935
01:02:31,475 --> 01:02:34,675
Speaker 1: The next scheduled countdown is Tuesday. Bulletins as the news

936
01:02:34,675 --> 01:02:37,875
Speaker 1: warrants till then, I'm Keith Ulriman, Good morning, good afternoon,

937
01:02:37,915 --> 01:02:55,115
Speaker 1: good night, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Oulreman is

938
01:02:55,155 --> 01:02:59,955
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit

939
01:02:59,995 --> 01:03:04,635
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.