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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the best of Coast to Coast

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Speaker 1: to coastam dot com and sign up for Coast and

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Speaker 1: Cider to hear these programs and many more truly thought

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Speaker 1: provoking shows from Coast to Coast. Now here's a highlight

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Speaker 1: from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio. I remember Tom McShane.

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Speaker 1: He was the author of Stolen Masterpiece Tracker, and I

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Speaker 1: remember doing that show on Coast to Coast AM. Didn't

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Speaker 1: we did it together? Right? Tom? You were on with me?

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Speaker 1: Weren't you? What a memory? Professor? May I call you professor? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: You can, but nobody else does. But that's neat so

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Speaker 1: great to hear you again. I try. I could get

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Speaker 1: on a few months ago, and oh I was almost

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Speaker 1: on and the show went off the air. I'm sorry

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Speaker 1: your your work of art, I mean you did Was

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Speaker 1: that your thesis for your your PhD? You mentioned a

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Speaker 1: work of art. You did well a magnum opus about crime. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I write about true crime narratives, So I'm interested in

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Speaker 1: a nonfiction storytelling, most specifically the role that murder stories

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Speaker 1: play in our society and what constitutes true crime. There's

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Speaker 1: no real until until the Until my thesis, anyway, there

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Speaker 1: was no known definition of how one defines what has

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Speaker 1: become true crime. There is now. People can google it

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Speaker 1: if they want to. It's it's kind of understood it.

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Speaker 1: But we're that was like, that was like over a

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Speaker 1: decade ago or something, wasn't it when you were on? Oh? Yes,

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Speaker 1: we don't want to mention how long ago. But you

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Speaker 1: know they made a movie out of my book, Stole

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Speaker 1: a Messy Track American Hustle. That was your book. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm Bradley Cooper. Shut. Yeah. I arrested that bum, Christian Bell. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I love that movie. He just passed away. He was

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Speaker 1: worse than Bernie made off. Uh. He tried to put

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Speaker 1: me in jail after I saved his butt and ruined

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Speaker 1: my life tried to ruin my family. But anyway, you know,

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Speaker 1: God bless him. He lasted till ninety one. But that

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Speaker 1: when when Christian Belle, when I saw the movie, I

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Speaker 1: want to get up there and strangle Christian Bale because

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Speaker 1: what Mels did to me, you know, it was mel Weinberg.

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Speaker 1: And poor Jennifer Laurence, she played Marie in the movie,

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Speaker 1: was all wrong at the end because Marie, uh, I

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Speaker 1: don't know if you know, she hung herself for he

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Speaker 1: was She was found dead in Mells. We put them

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Speaker 1: down in Florida after the case broken, Allard said it

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Speaker 1: was okay, well let's stop for a second. So everybody again,

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Speaker 1: So Tom wrote a book about because you were undercover

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Speaker 1: for the FBI, right and you were tracking stolen masterpieces?

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Speaker 1: Did I get that right? Yes, sir? Wow, what a memory.

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Speaker 1: Well I just remember that because and I didn't make

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Speaker 1: the connection with American Hustle, which is so interesting because

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Speaker 1: I really liked that movie and and I thought the

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Speaker 1: in particular, I thought that all of the performances were great,

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Speaker 1: and I loved the soundtrack too. So I mean, gosh, Darnett,

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Speaker 1: that's so interesting that they that was your book. Now,

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Speaker 1: So is America? Sorry, is U stolen masterpieces? Masterpiece? Tracker Is?

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Speaker 1: It's still in print? Can people still buy it? What

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Speaker 1: a memory? You are amazing. I love your show. I

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Speaker 1: love George. You guys are geniuses. Yeah, it's been reprinted

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Speaker 1: a few times. Good, you know with the American hustle mail.

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Speaker 1: I you know, I was sitting in the FBI and

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Speaker 1: I couldn't write. So Mel wrote his book first, and

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Speaker 1: loan behold. He autographed it to me. He said, Tom,

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Speaker 1: I am yours because what I did for him money

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Speaker 1: wise Monteroli was unbelievable. Well, we got two painties back

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Speaker 1: to started abscam a Ruben right right right, right right right.

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Speaker 1: But Ian, I'm gonna where can I get your masterpiece? Oh?

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Speaker 1: I'm master. You'll be the first to buy it, I think, no,

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Speaker 1: if you, just if you. The the book I wrote

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Speaker 1: is an academic book on that, So that was but

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Speaker 1: it's all you can buy it, but I'm just it's

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Speaker 1: like sixty bucks to buy. It's called Toward a Theory

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Speaker 1: of True Crime Narratives, and so it explains where the

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Speaker 1: line is between regular great crime reporting and true crime.

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Speaker 1: But then I also wrote this, I wrote a true

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Speaker 1: crime book too, called called a Black Knight for the

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Speaker 1: blue Grass Bell about a murder that happened in my family.

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Speaker 1: So I both wrote about true crime narratives and then

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Speaker 1: I wrote one at the same time. So those they're

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Speaker 1: sort of companion books, although I don't really refer to

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Speaker 1: them that way. But well, this is really neat. Now.

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Speaker 1: You know, my greatest takeaway from American Hustle is the

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Speaker 1: science oven thing? Right? Was it what they referred to

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Speaker 1: the microwave? Wasn't it a science oven? Oh? Oh, the microwave. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: They had a lawsuit afterwards that they bad mouth microwave

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Speaker 1: was sued the Paramount. I was paramount too, but you

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Speaker 1: know they have so many lawyers. But I decided the

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Speaker 1: fella in Wolf was it the Wolf of Wall Street? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: with the two pay was going to sue Jordan Belford

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Speaker 1: or Paramount. But I followed the case he lost, So

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Speaker 1: I said, I'm not going to bother, you know, because

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Speaker 1: they took me and Bradley Cooper did a wonderful job.

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Speaker 1: But you know that lawsuits is such a pain in

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Speaker 1: the neck. Yeah, sure, no, igret you, but hold on,

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Speaker 1: Thomas before you move on from that subject. So I

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Speaker 1: sort of got to this day, I refer to microwave

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Speaker 1: ovens as science ovens because I thought that was so funny.

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Speaker 1: I thought that was so funny in the movie that

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Speaker 1: you know, don't don't touch the science oven and the

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Speaker 1: whole bit. So, but did that really happen? I did

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Speaker 1: the character that that No, oh no, that wasn't Russell. Okay, Noll,

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Speaker 1: you know what happened though? He is really you know, uh.

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Speaker 1: Mel got into Hollywood before I did. I was still

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Speaker 1: in the bureau. And they loved him because you know

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Speaker 1: why they loved them, because he said, listen, I'm the

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Speaker 1: smartest guy in the world, and all those FBI agents

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Speaker 1: they are a bunch of jerks, and that movie makes

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Speaker 1: us look like a bunch of church That's true today

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Speaker 1: and Mel To his dying day, would not admit that

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Speaker 1: we got him. We got him good, and we got

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Speaker 1: him bad, and we could have put him in jail,

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Speaker 1: but we did him a favor. And what thanks did

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Speaker 1: we get after the case was over. He tried to

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Speaker 1: put me in jail. A wonderful agent, a female agent

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Speaker 1: who was like she was, you know, more more holier

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Speaker 1: than a nun. He made such such vile actusations against

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Speaker 1: her and me, I don't know what well these these

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Speaker 1: are psychopaths. Okay, we should have been prepared for it,

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Speaker 1: but I let my guard down and I'll never forget

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Speaker 1: when I brought him to the house one night, four

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Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning. We had an undercover case with

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Speaker 1: London Scotland Yard. And anyway, he's sitting in the dark

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Speaker 1: in my living room and my wife, my ex wife,

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Speaker 1: gets up, she walks through and just look peeks in.

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Speaker 1: And the next morning she gets up and she says,

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Speaker 1: come here. She says, listen, if you ever bring that

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Speaker 1: guy into this house again, I am leaving and I'm

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Speaker 1: taking the children. The evil vibrations were emanating from this

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Speaker 1: man sitting in the dark, and she picked it up.

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Speaker 1: God bless her, and I have to give her credit

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Speaker 1: for that. But isn't that amazing? Yeah, well it's amazing.

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Speaker 1: It's also amazing that you called, and thank you for

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Speaker 1: jumping in. It's good to hear your voice. And I

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Speaker 1: refer people again to Masterpiece Tracker, Hidden Masterpiece Stolen, Masterpiece

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Speaker 1: Tracker because that was a really great read, and so

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Speaker 1: thank you for jumping in on open lines. It didn't

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Speaker 1: that prove that's so interesting. They just never know what's

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Speaker 1: going to happen on open lines, and there you go.

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Speaker 1: And I really loved the movie American Hustle. I thought

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Speaker 1: it was great, and that whole science oven thing was

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Speaker 1: so funny, and it's so funny that it stuck, but

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Speaker 1: it was all made up. Listen to more Coast to

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Speaker 1: Coast AM every weeknight at one am Eastern, and go

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Speaker 1: to Coast to Coast am dot com for more