WEBVTT - Episode 4: The Gentleman Smuggler 0:00:15.316 --> 0:00:27.516 Pushkin. Previously on deep cover, Ned Timmins was finally getting somewhere. 0:00:28.036 --> 0:00:30.836 His big breakthrough came in the spring of nineteen eighty five, 0:00:31.156 --> 0:00:34.956 when Clinton shined Anderson flipped. Shine was in charge of 0:00:35.036 --> 0:00:38.876 vetting everyone in this smuggling network. I know it was 0:00:38.916 --> 0:00:43.276 a massive operation, and I knew that we had the 0:00:43.356 --> 0:00:46.556 key to the safety deposit box to open it all up. 0:00:48.316 --> 0:00:51.116 Shine pointed Ned to a spot on the North Carolina 0:00:51.196 --> 0:00:54.596 coast where he said his bosses had smuggled marijuana into 0:00:54.636 --> 0:00:57.716 the country. So Ned picked up the phone and called 0:00:57.756 --> 0:01:01.356 the FBI down in Wilmington, North Carolina, asked them if 0:01:01.356 --> 0:01:03.916 they have any intel on drug smugglers who were using 0:01:03.956 --> 0:01:07.756 shrimp boats. They tell them, yeah, actually we had this 0:01:07.836 --> 0:01:11.756 one case in particular involving an abandoned drug boat, a 0:01:11.836 --> 0:01:18.236 ghost ship. Ned quickly begins to realize that so many 0:01:18.276 --> 0:01:21.836 of the answers he's seeking about the ghost ship, the smugglers, 0:01:21.876 --> 0:01:26.676 their system are right in Beaufort, North Carolina, perfectly camouflaged 0:01:26.996 --> 0:01:30.716 in the underbrush. Well, we're heading out of Beaufort right now. 0:01:31.276 --> 0:01:35.156 We're actually going Highway seventy east. It's about a twenty 0:01:35.156 --> 0:01:39.636 minute ride to Back Creek, twenty minute ride, so yeah, 0:01:39.716 --> 0:01:41.396 you'll get to see a little bit of the country. 0:01:41.916 --> 0:01:45.716 That's Carl Cannon Jr. He's a big, strapping guy with 0:01:45.756 --> 0:01:51.316 this epic beard. The word swashbuckling suits him well. Carl's 0:01:51.356 --> 0:01:54.236 a local guy, born in Bred and Beaufort. He's showing 0:01:54.276 --> 0:01:56.796 me around the area. Now, if you can picture a 0:01:56.876 --> 0:02:00.116 map in the United States, We're on this little marshy 0:02:00.276 --> 0:02:03.276 spit of land that sticks out from North Carolina into 0:02:03.316 --> 0:02:06.796 the Atlantic Ocean. This whole area is just a tangle 0:02:06.836 --> 0:02:11.636 of overlapping inlets and waterways, a giant aquatic maze. Really, 0:02:12.596 --> 0:02:14.676 this is where Ned and Shine came back in the 0:02:14.756 --> 0:02:17.476 nineteen eighties. It was just one of many trips they 0:02:17.516 --> 0:02:21.356 took together across the country to gather evidence. I went 0:02:21.396 --> 0:02:25.196 down to Beaufort to retrace their steps. So as you 0:02:25.196 --> 0:02:28.516 can tell, like I say, the stuff's getting dense. You 0:02:28.556 --> 0:02:30.876 see all these little canals that come up in these 0:02:30.916 --> 0:02:35.276 little areas. This is North River to our right. We're 0:02:35.276 --> 0:02:38.396 headed to Back Creek, to the very spot where the 0:02:38.436 --> 0:02:41.556 ghost ship was supposed to unload its cargo if everything 0:02:41.596 --> 0:02:44.076 had gone according to plan. You know, as you can 0:02:44.116 --> 0:02:46.876 see now, the trees are starting to thick end, which 0:02:46.916 --> 0:02:49.276 is pretty typical for most of our country roads and areas, 0:02:49.436 --> 0:02:52.156 you know, in land and coastal. You're basically going to 0:02:52.236 --> 0:02:56.316 cross several places that are basically wide open either swamps 0:02:56.476 --> 0:03:00.836 or wooded swamps, much like you have in Everglades. The 0:03:00.956 --> 0:03:04.436 little road that we're driving on, it eventually ends at 0:03:04.436 --> 0:03:15.516 the water's edge. I take this a baby eagle. It 0:03:15.596 --> 0:03:18.276 sounds like it. Carl and I get out and walk 0:03:18.316 --> 0:03:21.316 along the shore for a bit. The vegetation is dense, 0:03:21.716 --> 0:03:25.356 insanely thick. Carl starts pointing down the shore at what 0:03:25.436 --> 0:03:29.156 looks like just another clump of overgrown bushes. They would 0:03:29.156 --> 0:03:32.236 have come up through the canal, which is the darker 0:03:32.276 --> 0:03:34.356 set of trees. You can't see the entrance because it 0:03:34.476 --> 0:03:36.836 kind of disappears. I can't. I can't see it at 0:03:36.876 --> 0:03:39.036 all from here. No, it's just I can tell by 0:03:39.076 --> 0:03:41.196 the line of the woods where it's at, where the 0:03:41.276 --> 0:03:43.196 opening is. But you can if you kind of see 0:03:43.196 --> 0:03:46.036 a drop and then another drop, that drop is where 0:03:46.036 --> 0:03:49.916 that creak is. As they looked out on this vast, 0:03:50.116 --> 0:03:55.076 watery expanse, I started to get it, started to see it. Here. 0:03:55.116 --> 0:03:57.476 You had a spot with enough boat traffic that a 0:03:57.516 --> 0:04:00.916 decent sized ship would not attract attention. But then you 0:04:00.996 --> 0:04:03.916 also had a maze of coves and inlets where that 0:04:03.996 --> 0:04:09.076 same boat could suddenly disappear. It was perfectly concealed, invisible. 0:04:09.196 --> 0:04:18.436 Really clearly someone knew what they were doing. I'm Jake 0:04:18.476 --> 0:04:25.636 Albert and this is Deep Cover, Episode four, The Gentleman Smuggler. 0:04:52.596 --> 0:04:54.796 There are a few things to know about my local 0:04:54.836 --> 0:04:59.316 guide Carl. First off, he has a not so secret identity. 0:04:59.716 --> 0:05:04.916 We name be Captain Carl Cannon Junior, I portrayed Blackbeard. Yep, 0:05:05.436 --> 0:05:09.396 Carl is a pirate reinactor. Fiddler's Green is a please 0:05:09.476 --> 0:05:13.316 I've heard too well. Pirus good when they don't go 0:05:13.476 --> 0:05:16.556 to hell with the girls who are all pretty, and 0:05:16.596 --> 0:05:20.316 the beer is all free and there's bottles over him 0:05:20.516 --> 0:05:28.196 hanging from every tree. Wrap me up in the Carl 0:05:28.276 --> 0:05:32.196 volunteers at the local museum. He became Blackbeard because he 0:05:32.316 --> 0:05:36.836 had the one major job requirement. His beard he was 0:05:36.996 --> 0:05:40.036 born kind of dangling down his chest. He was already 0:05:40.036 --> 0:05:42.836 braiding it too. People would tell him, hey, you look 0:05:42.876 --> 0:05:48.956 like Blackbeard. And then came the job opening. Because the 0:05:48.996 --> 0:05:53.996 former black Beard kind of might have a fall from grace, 0:05:54.036 --> 0:05:56.596 so to speak, and he was dismissed by the museum 0:05:57.036 --> 0:05:59.516 fall from grace. What do you mean he was doing 0:05:59.556 --> 0:06:04.876 some things that wasn't thought to be quite family friendly appropriate. 0:06:05.316 --> 0:06:07.436 You might say that he was had a side job 0:06:07.476 --> 0:06:12.796 that he was performing as Blackbeard and a funny kind 0:06:12.796 --> 0:06:22.276 of you adult manner. He was doing adult parties. Carl 0:06:22.396 --> 0:06:25.276 is kind of the mascot at Beaufort, North Carolina, because 0:06:25.356 --> 0:06:28.996 the place now sells itself as Pirate Town, USA, and 0:06:29.156 --> 0:06:31.876 every other storefront you'll see a skull and crossbones the 0:06:31.956 --> 0:06:35.996 Jolly Roger flag. But Carl is not just some random reenactor. 0:06:36.476 --> 0:06:39.476 His family has lived here for generations, and he says 0:06:39.476 --> 0:06:42.916 that the ghost ship wound up here precisely because of 0:06:42.956 --> 0:06:46.476 this pirate legacy, and these pirates they tended to come 0:06:46.476 --> 0:06:49.156 and go depending on the boom and bus cycle of 0:06:49.196 --> 0:06:53.916 a local fishing economy. Carl remembers how after a few 0:06:53.956 --> 0:06:57.436 bad shrimp seasons, some fresh faces showed up in town. 0:06:58.436 --> 0:07:03.676 Some of the drug cartel folks came in and just 0:07:03.796 --> 0:07:06.436 gently started asking questions around some of the fish market 0:07:06.436 --> 0:07:09.596 and boat owners, and then encouraged them to get their 0:07:09.596 --> 0:07:12.876 friends to come together and basically they'd presented to them 0:07:12.996 --> 0:07:16.716 around town. They had secret meetings. It was all word 0:07:16.716 --> 0:07:21.076 of mouth. My dad was made an offer the same way. 0:07:21.596 --> 0:07:23.196 One of his friends came to him and he said, 0:07:23.196 --> 0:07:25.556 I've got a deal for you. Dad had bought a 0:07:25.596 --> 0:07:29.276 boat in seventy four, had mostly paid it off, but 0:07:29.876 --> 0:07:32.276 as all commercial fishermen find out, hards a couple of 0:07:32.316 --> 0:07:35.316 hard seasons, you need a new engine, or something happens. 0:07:35.836 --> 0:07:37.796 They offered my dad if he would come make a 0:07:37.836 --> 0:07:40.436 certain amount of runs for him, run out and meet 0:07:40.436 --> 0:07:42.876 a mothership, come back and go up into the base 0:07:42.916 --> 0:07:47.916 and unload away from pride and eyes. Carl says his dad. 0:07:48.156 --> 0:07:50.476 He never went to any of these meetings, never took 0:07:50.516 --> 0:07:54.876 the offer, but a lot of people that Carl knew, did, So, 0:07:54.996 --> 0:07:57.156 you know, the temptation was there, and they knew, and 0:07:57.316 --> 0:07:59.276 they knew the temptation was there that they could offer 0:07:59.316 --> 0:08:02.636 to pay someone's boat off. You know, when three much 0:08:02.716 --> 0:08:05.196 your boats paid for and you'll never see us again. 0:08:06.076 --> 0:08:09.716 So this is pirate Town, USA, a place where pirates 0:08:09.716 --> 0:08:13.476 and smugglers had been plying their trade for well centuries. 0:08:13.996 --> 0:08:16.916 And this only made me wonder more what exactly went 0:08:16.996 --> 0:08:20.076 wrong with the ghost ship if these smugglers were such 0:08:20.196 --> 0:08:24.356 probs and this setting was so perfect, what the hell happened? 0:08:24.996 --> 0:08:27.876 Why was the ship abandoned the twenty nine thousand pounds 0:08:27.876 --> 0:08:35.316 of drugs in the hold? To find out, I visited 0:08:35.396 --> 0:08:38.276 Doug McCullough, who at the time was the first assistant 0:08:38.396 --> 0:08:41.636 US Attorney in the Eastern District of North Carolina. He 0:08:41.716 --> 0:08:44.196 still lives in Beaufort. We met down at the harbor 0:08:44.396 --> 0:08:47.316 just as the storm was coming in. Some wind up here. 0:08:47.316 --> 0:08:49.236 It looks like there's some weather coming in here. So 0:08:49.476 --> 0:08:53.756 where are we? We're standing in Beaufort, downtown Beaufort. Doug 0:08:53.796 --> 0:08:56.516 points out to the spot where the ghost ship first 0:08:56.516 --> 0:08:59.556 appeared on the horizon as it was coming in from sea, 0:09:00.196 --> 0:09:03.596 and there was another boat with it too, a small skiff, 0:09:03.676 --> 0:09:06.556 almost like a guide boat, leading it in. They came 0:09:06.596 --> 0:09:10.116 through this narrow passageway known as Beaufort Inlet, and Doug 0:09:10.196 --> 0:09:12.076 kind of points it out to me in the distance. 0:09:12.836 --> 0:09:15.316 And there's something else that Doug wants to show me. 0:09:15.796 --> 0:09:19.356 As you and I look out, there's an island right 0:09:19.356 --> 0:09:21.116 in front of us. And then over the top of 0:09:21.116 --> 0:09:22.956 that island you can see a big flagpole with the 0:09:22.956 --> 0:09:27.276 American flag and that's at the US Coastguard station. That 0:09:27.436 --> 0:09:30.396 station was here back in eighty two. In fact, that night, 0:09:30.676 --> 0:09:34.596 two coastguardmen known as coasts noticed the shrimper and the 0:09:34.636 --> 0:09:38.276 little guideboat coming in through the inlet, and both vessels 0:09:38.276 --> 0:09:40.996 appeared to be drifting out of the channel. They were 0:09:41.036 --> 0:09:43.956 just a bit off course, so the coasts went out 0:09:43.996 --> 0:09:47.196 to investigate. First, they pull up alongside the little guide 0:09:47.236 --> 0:09:50.076 boat and in it they see someone who is clearly 0:09:50.436 --> 0:09:57.196 not a fisherman. He was dressed for a disco. This 0:09:57.316 --> 0:10:00.916 is the eighties member Saturday Night fever, flared pants. He 0:10:00.996 --> 0:10:02.916 had a shirt that was a silk and it was 0:10:02.956 --> 0:10:07.036 open to his sternham. He had gold chains, he had 0:10:07.036 --> 0:10:11.156 the stacked heel shoes, and all these items you don't 0:10:11.156 --> 0:10:14.436 wear on an open boat in carter At County. The 0:10:14.516 --> 0:10:18.396 coasties knew something wasn't right. Eventually they decided they want 0:10:18.396 --> 0:10:20.996 to check out the shrimp boat too. It had since 0:10:21.036 --> 0:10:24.476 pulled up alongside and nearby fuel dock. So one of 0:10:24.516 --> 0:10:27.236 the coast's boards of the shrimp boat and makes a 0:10:27.356 --> 0:10:29.996 move to go down below deck. He said he was 0:10:30.036 --> 0:10:32.316 going to inspect the hold, and that's when heard a 0:10:32.316 --> 0:10:36.196 shotgun rack around makes a very distinctive chunk sound, and 0:10:36.236 --> 0:10:38.956 anybody's ever been around a gun has heard that sound 0:10:38.996 --> 0:10:42.076 would recognize it immediately the coast. He's back away and 0:10:42.116 --> 0:10:44.716 go to get help. A short while later, the police 0:10:44.716 --> 0:10:47.996 show up. The shrimp boat's still there, but its crew 0:10:48.076 --> 0:10:52.876 has fled. From the outside it was it had its nets, 0:10:52.916 --> 0:10:56.596 and it had the boom and the other accouterments that 0:10:56.636 --> 0:10:59.356 you would expect on a shrimper. It's only when you 0:10:59.396 --> 0:11:03.156 got inside that you saw things that didn't match. All 0:11:03.156 --> 0:11:07.156 that remained was the cargo twenty nine thousand pounds of pot. 0:11:11.116 --> 0:11:13.996 They had a few early leads names that turned out 0:11:13.996 --> 0:11:17.516 to be bogus, all dead ends. The story made headlines 0:11:17.796 --> 0:11:20.796 in part because the FEDS had almost nothing on the 0:11:20.836 --> 0:11:25.396 ship except that it was there. What was like a 0:11:25.476 --> 0:11:28.156 ghost was the fact that we didn't get any people 0:11:28.356 --> 0:11:31.116 at that time. You know, everybody got away. It was 0:11:31.156 --> 0:11:34.276 a very frustrating investigation because case just sat on the 0:11:34.316 --> 0:11:38.316 shelf for almost three years. All the law enforcement agencies 0:11:38.356 --> 0:11:40.596 just kind of moved on, and we were all just 0:11:41.036 --> 0:11:45.276 in a state of waiting until Ned Timmans contacted the 0:11:45.356 --> 0:11:48.796 nearest FBI office to Wilmington, and he says, I've got 0:11:48.796 --> 0:11:53.556 the witness you're going to need, and that witness was Shine. 0:11:55.516 --> 0:11:57.196 If we had to turn one person, this is the 0:11:57.196 --> 0:12:00.796 guy we wanted. So after Ned calls down to the 0:12:00.836 --> 0:12:04.156 Wilmington office, Ned and Shine make their trip down to 0:12:04.196 --> 0:12:07.916 North Carolina. They meet with Doug McCullough. But that's not all. 0:12:08.316 --> 0:12:11.316 Shine also take Ned on a little swamp tour to 0:12:11.396 --> 0:12:14.876 a hidden cabin that the smugglers used. They just laughed 0:12:14.876 --> 0:12:18.196 at They all still mattresses all over and coffee and 0:12:18.916 --> 0:12:22.076 stale food, and they just got the hell out of there. 0:12:22.076 --> 0:12:25.116 And whoever owned the cabin never came back either. So 0:12:25.156 --> 0:12:29.116 far Shine's story was checking out, and Ned was slowly 0:12:29.196 --> 0:12:32.276 building his case. We're out in the swamp, were identifying 0:12:32.276 --> 0:12:35.316 where they stayed, where they rented cars, the hotels, they 0:12:35.316 --> 0:12:40.956 stayed in, motels, any tracks that we can establish evidence 0:12:41.116 --> 0:12:46.236 that these specific people were there. Shine explains that everything, 0:12:46.756 --> 0:12:51.276 every last detail was orchestrated by the syndicates. Master smuggler, 0:12:51.596 --> 0:12:59.716 a guy who went by the name Skip. He says, 0:12:59.756 --> 0:13:03.236 this Skip character, he was so sure of himself that 0:13:03.356 --> 0:13:06.636 just six months after the ghost ship was captured, he 0:13:06.796 --> 0:13:11.876 tried it again. Dare to pull off the exact same operation, 0:13:12.396 --> 0:13:16.836 same route, same offloading site, used another shrimp boat, only 0:13:16.916 --> 0:13:22.076 bigger this time, and it worked basically. Shine explains, while 0:13:22.116 --> 0:13:24.556 you guys were scratching your heads over the mystery of 0:13:24.556 --> 0:13:27.836 the ghost ship, we doubled down and slipped another shipment 0:13:28.076 --> 0:13:32.956 right under your noses. Skip was so confident of his system, 0:13:32.996 --> 0:13:35.556 of the camouflage that he had created, that he was 0:13:35.716 --> 0:13:38.956 unfazed by the loss of a single ship. So not 0:13:38.996 --> 0:13:42.756 a fiasco, but a tiny glitch in the system. They'd 0:13:42.756 --> 0:13:44.996 steered a bad course into the harbor and had led 0:13:44.996 --> 0:13:47.356 a guy on board who shouldn't have been there. Remember 0:13:47.356 --> 0:13:50.556 the guy in the disco outfit. Yeah, him. It's a 0:13:50.596 --> 0:13:55.076 mistake they wouldn't make again, because Skip, he was a perfectionist. 0:13:56.236 --> 0:14:00.156 Coming up after the break, I tracked down the legendary's Skip. 0:14:00.596 --> 0:14:04.236 Turns out his real name is Stephen Kalish, and he 0:14:04.316 --> 0:14:21.956 lives in a beautiful mansion in Hawaii. So I'm in 0:14:21.996 --> 0:14:25.596 my rental car heading out to the house of Stephen Kaylish, who, 0:14:25.676 --> 0:14:28.836 back in the eighties was a master smuggler, the guy 0:14:28.916 --> 0:14:31.876 sneaking in tons and tons of marijuana into the US. 0:14:33.276 --> 0:14:39.956 Looking for a big house with a red roof. Oh wow, 0:14:40.876 --> 0:14:43.716 that's gotta be it. That's beautiful. That is a big 0:14:43.756 --> 0:14:48.076 house with a red roof. Eventually, I pull into this 0:14:48.276 --> 0:14:50.876 big gate, you know, one of those imposing things with 0:14:50.996 --> 0:14:53.876 a keypad on the side. So I punch in the 0:14:53.916 --> 0:15:05.276 code that Stephen texted me and there goes Kate is opening. Okay, 0:15:05.356 --> 0:15:09.636 the Kingdom has opened. I pull up to the house. 0:15:09.996 --> 0:15:12.956 It's this mansion with a perfect view of the Pacific. 0:15:13.436 --> 0:15:16.196 I mean, imagine the last scene in the Hollywood movie 0:15:16.236 --> 0:15:20.316 where the hero lands. Well, very well, this is the place. 0:15:20.876 --> 0:15:23.356 So get out of the car and I see him 0:15:23.676 --> 0:15:32.596 skip aka Stephen kaylish him to see you, and I 0:15:32.676 --> 0:15:36.156 gotta tell you at sixty seven, he's this really handsome 0:15:36.196 --> 0:15:39.196 guy with a perfect tan and a ponytail and a 0:15:39.196 --> 0:15:42.636 trim muscular physique. And almost right away he takes me 0:15:42.676 --> 0:15:45.356 to the stables on his estate because well he's got 0:15:45.356 --> 0:15:53.236 to feed his horses. RB nice. Stephen starts preparing their meal, 0:15:53.436 --> 0:15:58.996 which starts off simply enough, so let's just facene for 0:15:59.116 --> 0:16:04.796 their coach. Now. I don't know if you've ever seen 0:16:04.876 --> 0:16:07.836 someone feed horses, but I can promise you that's not 0:16:07.916 --> 0:16:11.196 what's going on here. I see Stephen mix at least 0:16:11.236 --> 0:16:15.636 half a dozen different pretty obscure seeming ingredients with such precision. 0:16:15.836 --> 0:16:18.476 It's like I'm watching a world class pharmacist prepare a 0:16:18.556 --> 0:16:23.036 highly complicated drug. And then this is organic sea kelp, 0:16:24.316 --> 0:16:32.476 which has minerals in it. This is bokashi. It's organic, 0:16:33.396 --> 0:16:36.716 it's made here on the island. It's like a probiotic. 0:16:38.316 --> 0:16:41.036 They get this in the morning, in the evening. I 0:16:41.156 --> 0:16:45.076 feed them about seven fifteen in the morning, in about 0:16:45.076 --> 0:16:48.076 four thirty and one alfternoon. And just watching you feed 0:16:48.116 --> 0:16:49.756 your horses gives me a little bit of sense of 0:16:49.836 --> 0:16:54.876 your organizational nature. I like things to be in their place. 0:16:55.276 --> 0:16:58.316 It makes life easier. Did you have some version of 0:16:58.316 --> 0:17:02.316 that philosophy when you're running your your smuggling business hundred percent? 0:17:02.756 --> 0:17:06.676 And it's all about being organized and having plants in 0:17:06.756 --> 0:17:12.516 place and backup plans in got plans always, always, always. 0:17:15.276 --> 0:17:17.956 As we walk through the stables, Stephen explains to me 0:17:18.116 --> 0:17:22.156 that there is a very deliberate feeding sequence based on 0:17:22.356 --> 0:17:27.756 where the horses are in the pecking order Archie's number one, 0:17:29.476 --> 0:17:37.156 Danish number two, Sonoma's number three, Sky Guy our quarter 0:17:37.276 --> 0:17:40.956 horses number four. How do you see that pecking order 0:17:41.116 --> 0:17:44.716 like they figure it out. Do you think that's true 0:17:44.716 --> 0:17:49.116 of people too to some extent er, Well, yeah, there is. 0:17:49.316 --> 0:17:53.076 I mean some people are natural born leaders and some 0:17:53.156 --> 0:17:57.236 people are or not. By was a natural By was 0:17:57.276 --> 0:18:01.996 a born leader. Growing up. By was always the leader, 0:18:02.556 --> 0:18:05.836 but the neighborhood kids. I had a paper out from 0:18:05.836 --> 0:18:08.836 the time I was twelve years old to about fifteen, 0:18:09.636 --> 0:18:15.356 and I had the neighborhood kids working for me. Later, 0:18:15.396 --> 0:18:17.516 when he was in high school, he made headlines when 0:18:17.516 --> 0:18:20.036 he organized a protest in front of the state capitol 0:18:20.116 --> 0:18:24.636 in Austin his cause marijuana. In a newspaper article that 0:18:24.676 --> 0:18:27.716 I found, Stephen is identified as the leader of the 0:18:27.796 --> 0:18:31.636 quote beautiful People's Republic, and he makes the case for 0:18:31.676 --> 0:18:37.596 a decriminalization. Meanwhile, back at home, his father, an arch conservative, 0:18:38.316 --> 0:18:41.596 wasn't too happy. His dad was a heavy drinker who 0:18:41.676 --> 0:18:45.636 sometimes beat him. Stephen ran away to California for a time, 0:18:46.036 --> 0:18:49.436 taking and selling LSD, but he eventually came back to 0:18:49.516 --> 0:18:52.316 Texas and re enrolled in high school. He lived with 0:18:52.316 --> 0:18:56.156 some friends to support himself. He started selling pot and 0:18:56.236 --> 0:18:58.436 found out he was good at it, and he was 0:18:58.476 --> 0:19:02.316 even better at teaching others how to follow his lead. Basically, 0:19:02.356 --> 0:19:05.356 I started buying a few pounds a pot and breaking 0:19:05.436 --> 0:19:08.116 it up and then letting my friends sell it to 0:19:08.156 --> 0:19:11.676 their friends. So, while still in high school, he created 0:19:11.716 --> 0:19:15.836 his own multi level marketing scheme the way Avon sells perfume, 0:19:16.156 --> 0:19:21.076 only it's weed. Eventually, the market grew and Harve's buying 0:19:21.116 --> 0:19:26.276 more pot, Dan shoving more pot. I finished my junior 0:19:26.396 --> 0:19:28.596 year at Beller High School, and by that time I 0:19:28.756 --> 0:19:32.916 was making a couple of thousand dollars a month. Stephen 0:19:32.956 --> 0:19:37.236 eventually expands his efforts begins smuggling larger quantities of weed 0:19:37.316 --> 0:19:40.836 in from Mexico across the Rio Grande, and then he 0:19:40.956 --> 0:19:44.356 ups his game again. He teams up with some Columbians 0:19:44.396 --> 0:19:47.396 and starts using shrimp boats to bring in even bigger 0:19:47.396 --> 0:19:50.476 loads to a small marina in Texas. At this point, 0:19:50.516 --> 0:19:53.996 he's in his late twenties, and then in nineteen seventy nine, 0:19:54.276 --> 0:19:56.796 a guy at the marina they were using turned out 0:19:56.836 --> 0:20:00.436 to be an informant, so Stephen gets indicted and is 0:20:00.436 --> 0:20:03.316 facing a four year sentence. He was out on a 0:20:03.356 --> 0:20:06.996 federal appeal bond when he made the biggest decision of 0:20:07.076 --> 0:20:14.116 his life. Bye got them fake ID together. I got 0:20:14.116 --> 0:20:19.276 a birth certificate of a deceased person, got a passport 0:20:19.316 --> 0:20:24.276 in the name of Thomas Franklin, and flew Downder the 0:20:24.276 --> 0:20:31.036 Cayman Islets, and he just pretty much vanished, making himself 0:20:31.036 --> 0:20:34.836 a fugitive. In the coming years, law enforcement occasionally got 0:20:34.876 --> 0:20:37.996 wind of this guy who went by so many different names, 0:20:38.596 --> 0:20:45.116 mister Franklin, Frank William Brown, Stephen Sloane, and simply Skip. 0:20:45.676 --> 0:20:48.916 And this Skip character. He flickered on and off the 0:20:48.996 --> 0:20:53.436 radar of law enforcement like a UFO, and with time 0:20:53.476 --> 0:20:56.636 he became kind of a legend. People called him the 0:20:56.796 --> 0:21:04.236 gentleman smuggler. Roy Fuget, the detective down in Louisiana who 0:21:04.236 --> 0:21:07.556 had investigated one of Skip ships. He heard about him. 0:21:07.756 --> 0:21:10.196 They said he never wore gone, that he was not violent, 0:21:10.316 --> 0:21:14.636 that he was really smart, really organized, very intelligent, good 0:21:14.636 --> 0:21:16.996 with the ladies. If he had been in the military, 0:21:17.116 --> 0:21:19.636 he'd probably be a general, I mean good organizer. He 0:21:19.716 --> 0:21:23.196 had a really professional army of drug smugglers that he 0:21:23.276 --> 0:21:26.676 was supervising. And as it turns out, around this time 0:21:26.716 --> 0:21:30.236 the FBI was also getting interested in this Skip character. 0:21:31.196 --> 0:21:34.436 We heard this name Skip, and apparently we realized that 0:21:34.556 --> 0:21:36.796 Skip was a pretty pretty much a shaker and a 0:21:36.836 --> 0:21:41.156 mover in the organization. That's Stan Jacobson, an FBI agent 0:21:41.276 --> 0:21:44.236 down in Tampa who'd been on Skip's trail for some time. 0:21:44.876 --> 0:21:48.356 Skip's name kept coming up in various drug investigations, but 0:21:48.796 --> 0:21:52.036 he was a master at eluding the authorities, beginning with 0:21:52.076 --> 0:21:55.876 that nickname. It's very frustrating because you know, you go 0:21:55.956 --> 0:21:58.356 to have a major player, and I'm sure there are 0:21:58.356 --> 0:22:00.956 a lot of people named Skip in the country, so 0:22:01.676 --> 0:22:04.796 you know, trying to find out who that was. Because 0:22:04.836 --> 0:22:07.836 he maintained a pretty low profile. I mean, this guy, 0:22:08.476 --> 0:22:10.796 he wasn't out there like, you know, like a mafia 0:22:10.876 --> 0:22:13.996 done who sometimes liked to like the sound of their 0:22:14.036 --> 0:22:18.876 own press. He may have kept a low profile, been anonymous, 0:22:18.996 --> 0:22:22.516 but they knew that he was no ordinary smuggler. We 0:22:22.516 --> 0:22:24.756 weren't dealing with someone that robbed the bank and you know, 0:22:24.796 --> 0:22:27.596 with a note, we were dealing with a major operator. 0:22:28.596 --> 0:22:32.356 If he had been in a major US corporation, he'd 0:22:32.356 --> 0:22:40.796 have probably been a CEO. Stephen Keelis should become almost invisible, 0:22:41.116 --> 0:22:45.076 which was basically his entire business model, staying under the radar, 0:22:45.196 --> 0:22:49.756 making sure everything was unseen. He didn't hire speedboats to 0:22:49.796 --> 0:22:53.156 make deliveries or get planes to drop bails from the sky. 0:22:53.796 --> 0:22:56.876 For a fishing village like Beaufort, North Carolina, he leased 0:22:56.916 --> 0:23:00.396 shrip trawlers and just motored right up to the offload site. 0:23:00.956 --> 0:23:03.756 He had his own crew, but he also used locals, 0:23:04.076 --> 0:23:06.436 the folks that felt most at home there and had 0:23:06.476 --> 0:23:10.076 the right vibe. Guys like Bobby Webb, a local Vietnam 0:23:10.156 --> 0:23:15.196 vat who was looking for work Vietnam did something to me. 0:23:15.316 --> 0:23:19.236 You know, we got adrenaline, and you know, you live 0:23:19.276 --> 0:23:23.996 one adrenaline and it kind of chad changes you. It 0:23:23.996 --> 0:23:27.596 makes you take chances that you wouldn't take before. Bobby 0:23:27.716 --> 0:23:30.836 was a gunner in Vietnam on a small fifty foot 0:23:30.876 --> 0:23:35.716 aluminum vessel known as a swift boat. We're in at 0:23:35.756 --> 0:23:39.276 twenty four hours a day, twelve hours on, twelve hours off, 0:23:40.076 --> 0:23:42.716 and by the time that skipped met him, he was 0:23:42.756 --> 0:23:46.916 still jones in for that adrenaline. Oh yet excitement, because 0:23:46.956 --> 0:23:49.036 you know you're on that boat. We had two fifty 0:23:49.076 --> 0:23:51.876 calibra machine guns, a fifty calibual on this side, at 0:23:51.876 --> 0:23:55.156 fifty calor on this side, and sometimes at M sixty 0:23:55.196 --> 0:23:58.116 in the wheelhouse, and we always had two in fourteens 0:23:58.836 --> 0:24:01.436 shooting news guns, you know, and one of us had 0:24:01.476 --> 0:24:04.556 to run the boat or the others shoot the damn guns. 0:24:04.556 --> 0:24:08.036 Shooting this side and run of that side. What's that 0:24:08.156 --> 0:24:13.476 feel like? Oh? Doesn't like it when you're doing it? 0:24:13.476 --> 0:24:19.796 Doesn't like it. Bobby was the perfect guy for the job, 0:24:20.076 --> 0:24:22.996 a gutsy dude with the resume of a modern day pirate. 0:24:23.436 --> 0:24:25.756 It makes sense why Steven would want guys like this. 0:24:25.996 --> 0:24:27.836 I mean, why not go right to the folks who'd 0:24:27.876 --> 0:24:31.476 hunted and fish this land for generations, the guys who 0:24:31.516 --> 0:24:34.236 may have been the very descendants of Blackbeard's own men. 0:24:35.076 --> 0:24:38.196 Bobby remembers being approached by a guy who worked for Skip. 0:24:38.916 --> 0:24:41.836 Skip had an army of advanced men. He used them 0:24:41.956 --> 0:24:44.636 kind of like a movie director would use a location scout. 0:24:44.996 --> 0:24:48.236 They traveled the country looking for possible sights. One of 0:24:48.236 --> 0:24:51.636 them reached out to Bobby. He called me up, just 0:24:52.236 --> 0:24:58.076 to shoot the boom, he said. Bobby united place. Some 0:24:58.156 --> 0:25:02.716 of us boards unled some pop, I says, oh yeah. 0:25:03.236 --> 0:25:06.916 Once Stephen committed to a given location, he began managing 0:25:07.116 --> 0:25:10.996 every aspect of the operation and Beaufort. He began by 0:25:10.996 --> 0:25:14.876 studying road maps and topographical maps. His guys measured the 0:25:14.956 --> 0:25:17.556 depths of the water along the inlet. He moved his 0:25:17.636 --> 0:25:20.636 security team down to the area months before a load 0:25:20.676 --> 0:25:23.796 would come in just to do reconnaissance. He set up 0:25:23.796 --> 0:25:25.996 a safe house just for him in the top brass 0:25:26.036 --> 0:25:29.396 in the organization. He had his guy's tail. The local 0:25:29.436 --> 0:25:32.596 police study the patterns of where they patrolled and when 0:25:33.196 --> 0:25:36.276 they monitored parking lots which might serve as staging grounds 0:25:36.276 --> 0:25:40.556 for large scale police raids, and he listened to everything. 0:25:41.116 --> 0:25:45.556 We would monitor all the police frequencies, coach guard frequencies. 0:25:46.596 --> 0:25:50.316 We would by a variety of speedboats depending on the 0:25:50.356 --> 0:25:53.076 area we were operating in. We would have boats that 0:25:53.156 --> 0:25:57.196 we could use to evacuate crew members or off float 0:25:57.236 --> 0:26:01.276 personnel in case of an emergency. Over the next couple 0:26:01.276 --> 0:26:04.796 of years, it got to be very precision and very 0:26:04.836 --> 0:26:10.596 military four innit. Eventually Stephens started using airplanes. He had 0:26:10.596 --> 0:26:13.876 Assessna two ten lookout plane, which he used to make 0:26:13.916 --> 0:26:16.556 sure that his boats weren't being tailed by a coastguard 0:26:16.596 --> 0:26:19.556 cutter or a navy boat. And as for his own 0:26:19.596 --> 0:26:23.556 smuggling ship, he customized it. I mean I outfitted the 0:26:23.596 --> 0:26:29.596 boat so it wouldn't be detected from there Coastguard over 0:26:29.676 --> 0:26:31.836 flights that they were making at this point using it 0:26:31.876 --> 0:26:35.836 for red technology to detect heat signatures in the holds 0:26:36.316 --> 0:26:41.396 of shrimp boats. So to avoid that, we installed refrigeration 0:26:41.556 --> 0:26:44.556 units on our shrimp boat. One thing that Stephen says 0:26:44.596 --> 0:26:48.476 he didn't do is arm himself. Said he was a 0:26:48.516 --> 0:26:51.836