Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Saren, Hey, Elizabeth, what's something my girl? Much?
Speaker 1: Listen? You know it's ridiculous I do all right.
Speaker 2: You like gambling, okay, the lottery?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: So imagine if you took your love of gambling and
Speaker 2: you said like, hey, I'm going to start gambling like
Speaker 2: Iheart's money, right, okay, right, yeah exactly. I thought you'd
Speaker 2: like this, and then you like lost a bunch of it,
Speaker 2: like twenty million of it, and then you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: and did I say, You've been betting on FanDuel right,
Speaker 2: like a bunch of Ihearts money on Fandel because you
Speaker 2: love the sports. And then you're like, you know, betting,
Speaker 2: and you lose twenty million cause you're not good at betting. No,
Speaker 2: And then Iheart's like, yo, man, we noticed you spent
Speaker 2: twenty million of our money and you're like, no, no, no, Fandel.
Speaker 2: I gave it to Fandel. So then iHeart goes to
Speaker 2: Fandel and goes, all right, give us back our money. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Fandal's like, no, it's a gambling site. What are you
Speaker 2: talking about. This happened to the Jacksonville Jaguars one of
Speaker 2: their employees a Jacksonville Jaguar employee started gambling on like
Speaker 2: company time, their money, and basically a mid level finance
Speaker 2: manager managed to steal twenty two million dollars through a
Speaker 2: virtual credit card system that the Jaguars used for their expenses.
Speaker 2: So this is like you know, payroll and like expenses
Speaker 2: and like vendors and stuff. So he's taking their money
Speaker 2: and being like, ah, we need to pay out to
Speaker 2: a FanDuel for one hundred thousand dollars. I haven't had
Speaker 2: a bad weekend, right, does this over and over again,
Speaker 2: and then you know, the Jaguars tried to sue FanDuel
Speaker 2: and get their money back. On the Jaguars, no, it's
Speaker 2: just it's their money. They're like, he doesn't have the
Speaker 2: right to spend our money.
Speaker 1: Understand that.
Speaker 2: They're like, well, that's the talk to the cops. You know,
Speaker 2: we're a gambling SciTE. If someone comes into a casino
Speaker 2: with all their money, yeah, that's on y'all. That's casino
Speaker 2: money now. So as as a source said, and they
Speaker 2: were talking about whether or not the Jacksonville Jaguars could
Speaker 2: likely get their money back, yeah, the source said, and
Speaker 2: I quote the way they see it, we got this money,
Speaker 2: fair and clear. It's not our problem that we have
Speaker 2: to forfeit it back to you. So and they said
Speaker 2: I would be godsmacked if it happened, So I'm with them.
Speaker 2: I'll be surprised. But how amazing is that? The Jacksonville
Speaker 2: Jaguars are like, can we have please?
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, it's like a lot. I can't sue, dude.
Speaker 2: Because they got ridiculous.
Speaker 1: That is so ridiculous. Do you want to know what
Speaker 1: else is ridiculous? Oh my god, please hair helmets?
Speaker 2: What now?
Speaker 1: This is ridiculous crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous
Speaker 1: CAPERSU cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and
Speaker 1: one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I know you heard that same aman, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Crook and politicians, yes, maddening, completely right, unless unless they're entertaining. Yes, So,
Speaker 1: like we had Buddy Cianci.
Speaker 2: Up and that was a good one.
Speaker 1: And then there's the Big Dog, a personal favorite of mine, Bumfardo.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, that guy classics both of um.
Speaker 1: Let's take a moment of silence for that character and
Speaker 1: his rose colored glasses. Not too long ago. I just
Speaker 1: didn't give him a big moment.
Speaker 2: That was not much of a moment of silence. Do
Speaker 2: you know how moment of silence work. There's a moment
Speaker 2: of silence. Really, I take it out, you try it something?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: There?
Speaker 2: Just like that.
Speaker 1: So not too long ago, September twenty fourteen, we lost
Speaker 1: another crooked politician. No, this was a real character.
Speaker 2: Who was he?
Speaker 1: James, A trafficant junior. Oh yeah. Some people called him Jim,
Speaker 1: others called him Jimbo, and still others called him Crooked
Speaker 1: as a barrel of snakes.
Speaker 2: It's a weird nickname.
Speaker 1: Crooked as an old dog's hind leg.
Speaker 2: That's an even weirder nickname.
Speaker 1: So crooked that if he swallowed a nail, he'd spit
Speaker 1: up a corkscrew Slicker than a slop jar, Crooked to
Speaker 1: unscrew his bridges at night, more slippery than a pocket
Speaker 1: full of pudding. That's my favorite. Slickered and a boiled onion.
Speaker 2: You know these are good. I'm just waiting for more traffic.
Speaker 1: He was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in nineteen forty one.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to cut to the chase.
Speaker 2: That's a problem town.
Speaker 1: When it all started, Yeah, son of a truck.
Speaker 2: Drive good mafia there when.
Speaker 1: I stubbed my toe, I yell, son of a truck driver.
Speaker 1: He went to college, got himself a bachelor's in education
Speaker 1: from the University of Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2: Congratulations, you know, good for him, pit.
Speaker 1: Do you know who else was at the University of
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh at that same time, Damn Marina, Mike Ditka and
Speaker 1: Marty Schottenheimer. Oh interesting, Yeah, traffic can't new them really
Speaker 1: because he just happened to be the quarterback a team
Speaker 1: with them. Damn. So we got like an all American
Speaker 1: story brewing. Seriously, Like this hard working class guy comes up,
Speaker 1: he's a quarterback. He was. I I live in the
Speaker 1: dream Ka, but it wasn't a dream that he liked
Speaker 1: too much. During his senior season, he told a reporter quote,
Speaker 1: pitt has the worst coaching staff in the country. I've
Speaker 1: made two big mistakes in my life. The first one
Speaker 1: was coming here. The second one was staying like ouch,
Speaker 1: just leave why.
Speaker 2: Panthers.
Speaker 1: After he graduated, he tried out for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Oh,
Speaker 1: and he didn't make the cut. And then he also
Speaker 1: tried out for the bad boys in the NFL, the
Speaker 1: Oakland Raiders. Oh, didn't make it there totally their loss.
Speaker 1: So he headed over to Youngstown State University and he
Speaker 1: got himself not one, but two master's degrees, one in
Speaker 1: administration and another in counseling. And those are good and
Speaker 1: the good degrees for someone who wants to go into government,
Speaker 1: like make a difference. So he got a gig as
Speaker 1: executive director at the local county Drug program, and then
Speaker 1: he dipped his toe into the sometimes muddy waters of
Speaker 1: local politics. He started as the chair of the campaign
Speaker 1: for the Mahoning County Recorder, okay, and then he worked
Speaker 1: on the nineteen seventy eight campaign for the Youngstown mayoral
Speaker 1: Democratic candidate. Both of those won. Who was it zing,
Speaker 1: I don't know, So this was Youngstown, Ohio, because it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what their names were.
Speaker 2: I don't know about the mafia and your well we're
Speaker 2: getting there. Oh really nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Youngstown, Ohio a steel town that had seen better days.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a good way.
Speaker 1: Factories were closing, companies were, you know, moving their operations overseas,
Speaker 1: and you know, good working class folks are starting to suffer.
Speaker 1: And as you were saying, it's not just a factory town,
Speaker 1: it was mob territory, like big time Biggins. An IRS
Speaker 1: report once said quote certain factions of the Cleveland and
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh organized crime families of Lakosa Nostra. Oh they right there,
Speaker 1: campaigned for control of certain illegal activities conducted in the
Speaker 1: Mahoning Valley during nighttime. Teen seventy nine and nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1: The competing factions wage day quote war primarily during the
Speaker 1: first half of nineteen seventy nine, in which a number
Speaker 1: of individuals associated with both factions were killed. However, the
Speaker 1: factions operating in the Mahoning Valley were also known to
Speaker 1: negotiate and to cooperate with each other. Here's a struggling,
Speaker 1: hard working area sitting in the center of a mob war. Yes,
Speaker 1: Trafficant's time to shine. So nineteen seventy nine, Trafficant runs
Speaker 1: for sheriff of Mahoning County. And I'm hoping I'm saying
Speaker 1: the name of the county right, but you know, odds
Speaker 1: are now he runs for sheriff as a Democrat. The
Speaker 1: post of sheriff basically under the thumb of the mob
Speaker 1: at the time, and so they installed their guide generally
Speaker 1: in order for things to you know, move smoothly for them.
Speaker 1: And inside guy, as we say, sure, Trafficant ran on
Speaker 1: an anti corruption campaign, and so he's like, nope, I
Speaker 1: am not owned by the mob. I am going to
Speaker 1: bust their butts.
Speaker 2: Yes, of course, and actually I hate that what they're doing.
Speaker 2: It's bad, bad, bad.
Speaker 1: And he won Sarin. He won, He beat the Democratic
Speaker 1: incumbent in the primary, and then he went on to
Speaker 1: win the general election November nineteen eighty. So, in early
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, an FBI investigation into some mob hits
Speaker 1: uncovered cassette tapes hidden in a bread box bigger than
Speaker 1: a bread box, No, hidden in a hidden in a
Speaker 1: bread box. The tapes were made during Trafficant's campaign, and
Speaker 1: they featured him just yapping, chatting it up with local mobsters,
Speaker 1: the Karabia brothers.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, he's supposed to be anti corruption, so
Speaker 2: he was. He was telling them, I'm going to anti corrupt.
Speaker 1: Guess what, guys, I'm anti yu exactly, brothers. What are
Speaker 1: they talking about? In truth? Exchanges of money between themselves
Speaker 1: and traffic Can't, but also the money that Trafficant was
Speaker 1: taking from the rival Pittsburgh faction. You'll find both shots.
Speaker 1: So the mobsters they made the tapes because they were
Speaker 1: worried that traff Can was loyal to them.
Speaker 2: Oh, of course.
Speaker 1: On the tapes, traffic Cant and the Carabia brothers, they
Speaker 1: talked about the amount of money that each faction had given, like, well,
Speaker 1: how much should they give you, because like, we gave.
Speaker 2: You this on what dates? Do you remember?
Speaker 1: He tells them, Look like, this is how I washed
Speaker 1: in quotes, ten thousand dollars in cash through a local
Speaker 1: law firm to cover money that the mob figures had
Speaker 1: put into my sheriff's campaign. He's like, let me lay
Speaker 1: it out here, don't worry about it. And then he jokes,
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, once I'm sheriff, Like I might just
Speaker 1: take down the Pittsburgh faction for obstruction of political justice.
Speaker 1: He's like, I'll do you a favor.
Speaker 2: I've made a lun sheet, a careful lunch sheet. Here
Speaker 2: is that all done well?
Speaker 1: And one of the Carabbias tells him like, if you
Speaker 1: do that, if you take down the Pittsburgh guys, you'll
Speaker 1: you will be a hero. In fact, you could run
Speaker 1: for Congress and win if you did.
Speaker 2: It's like, let me update my flow charte.
Speaker 1: So remember, the FBI has those tapes, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: just like novelty listening for them, they weren't using them
Speaker 1: like they're outgoing answering machine message. As a goof June
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty one, they haul Trafficant into their Youngstown office.
Speaker 1: Get in here, come here. He's all dressed as sheriff,
Speaker 1: and in my mind that's like a party city coffee car.
Speaker 1: So they wanted to know, like, tell us about this
Speaker 1: whole taking money from the mob thing, just tell us
Speaker 1: about it. He's like, I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: And then they click hit play, so Trafficant's like, yep,
Speaker 1: that's my voice, that's me talking. FBI is like, great, here,
Speaker 1: sign this paper that says that's you on the tape,
Speaker 1: and traffic Ant does. He's like, that is me on
Speaker 1: the tape. But the whole time he's signing it, he's
Speaker 1: like it's not true though, like none of it's true,
Speaker 1: like he's entering into Pelicano territory. So the FBI was like,
Speaker 1: all right, how about this, like we will fix any
Speaker 1: inaccuracies to this statement, and he's like, well, I don't
Speaker 1: have there aren't any on the paper, and yet it's
Speaker 1: supposed to all be lies. Like I don't get it.
Speaker 1: So traffican't. He tells the fbis that he already used
Speaker 1: up most of the MOB money, so he couldn't return it,
Speaker 1: can't get it back like FanDuel that. So the FBI like,
Speaker 1: they're probably completely flummixed by this guy. They ask him
Speaker 1: where a wire? Please, I'm begging of you, you know,
Speaker 1: help us take down the mob and like the FBI
Speaker 1: though they weren't promising immunity in exchange for his cooperation,
Speaker 1: but he still agrees to.
Speaker 2: It for free.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but he never wore the wire, Like have you
Speaker 1: worn it? He's like, yeah, I just got really busy
Speaker 1: and like a chance, so I'll get I'll take care
Speaker 1: of it. He said he only wanted to cooperate if
Speaker 1: quote it was not made public that his cooperation was
Speaker 1: a result of the FBI's discovery of the bread box tape,
Speaker 1: if he himself had some control over direction of the
Speaker 1: investigation so that he could protect certain individuals, if he
Speaker 1: remained as sheriff. He's like, I just want to do
Speaker 1: a little bit of illegal stuff and just let me
Speaker 1: just get a smidge in there.
Speaker 2: Come on.
Speaker 1: FBI is totally over it. They charge him with accepting
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty three thousand dollars in bribes quote
Speaker 1: from reputed organized crime figures during his election campaign. Then
Speaker 1: they hit him with the Rico Act violations failing to
Speaker 1: report the bribes on a federal income tax return.
Speaker 2: Oh, they just rico him on his own. Oh, they
Speaker 2: don't bring him in like anything else.
Speaker 1: You are your own conspiracy. In eighty two, he gets
Speaker 1: indicted by a grand jury. Okay, and then he goes
Speaker 1: on the offensive, like you know, he became the quarterback.
Speaker 1: He took a charge yea, And by that, I mean
Speaker 1: he really starts working the press. Oh. So the trial
Speaker 1: had not even started yet, and he turned around and
Speaker 1: he charged twenty FBI agents with dereliction of duty. He
Speaker 1: said that the FBI knew in advance that three mobsters
Speaker 1: were going to be robbing this Youngstown greenhouse owner guy
Speaker 1: named pop Oh, and that they didn't do anything, like
Speaker 1: you knew.
Speaker 2: He was going to have to let crime happen.
Speaker 1: The guy he gets robbed at home, tied up, shot
Speaker 1: at with a taser or damn, and I mean he lives.
Speaker 1: And then the judge is like, you cannot arrest the
Speaker 1: FBI agents for not stepping in. No, I will not
Speaker 1: allow it.
Speaker 2: All right, but do you know how the f GI works.
Speaker 2: They need a crime to prosecute.
Speaker 1: As long as the press. So Trafficant then he makes
Speaker 1: news because there were thirteen houses under foreclosure in Youngstown
Speaker 1: and he's supposed to sign the notices and send the
Speaker 1: deputies out.
Speaker 2: Oh, because he's right.
Speaker 1: He refuses. He's like, I am not. Times are tough,
Speaker 1: no more suffering. Yeah, I deny these So by denying
Speaker 1: the orders, by the fact that he won't go through
Speaker 1: with the foreclosures, he gets arrested and charged with contempt
Speaker 1: and sentenced to one hundred days in jail. Now he
Speaker 1: lasts three days. He lasts three days, and then he
Speaker 1: agrees to sign the paper and then he's released. But like,
Speaker 1: even though he signs the eviction papers, this like self
Speaker 1: sacrifice turns him into a hero in that time. Oh
Speaker 1: completely yeah. So as the trial is about to start,
Speaker 1: Trafficant fires his lawyer. His lawyer told the press that
Speaker 1: since the judge wouldn't let Trafficant cross examine witnesses when
Speaker 1: he was just the defendant, Like, Trafficant's got to be
Speaker 1: his own lawyer. You can't as the defendant, you can't
Speaker 1: get up and cross examine.
Speaker 2: He wants to be the one asking.
Speaker 1: Only the lawyer can do that. So he's like, well,
Speaker 1: guess what, I'm lawyer.
Speaker 2: Guess there's a lawyer now, and the lawyer's talk.
Speaker 1: The lawyer wanted to stay on, and then the FEDS
Speaker 1: were like, yeah, you need to be the legal advisor.
Speaker 1: But Trafficant said that he fired his lawyer because quote,
Speaker 1: nobody could know when another person did. Nobody can grasp
Speaker 1: the complexity of the case, which is like basically what
Speaker 1: Anthony Pelicano said. Sure, so Trafficant ends up defending himself
Speaker 1: in court.
Speaker 2: Always a good move.
Speaker 1: The trial began in Cleveland in May of nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 1: He was able to convince the judge that part of
Speaker 1: the jury pool should come from Youngstown to his hometown,
Speaker 1: and about half the jury winds up being his constituents. Okay,
Speaker 1: so here's his argument. He said, yes, I took the
Speaker 1: money evidence. I'm building a case against the mob. I'm
Speaker 1: planning a sting. The FBI won't do it, I'll do it,
Speaker 1: he said. Quote the FBI made a statement that in
Speaker 1: fifty years they were not able to penetrate this corrupt
Speaker 1: mafia controlled town. You want to hear something. Do you
Speaker 1: know how long it took me? I filed nominating petitions
Speaker 1: for sheriff, and I met every mafia figure in the valley. Look,
Speaker 1: if you want to stamp out organized crime and they
Speaker 1: offer you money, what are you gonna say? I don't
Speaker 1: want anything to do with it. That's his quote.
Speaker 2: He's got a fair point. And if in the how
Speaker 2: he's buddying the waters as the part that I really
Speaker 2: like is the whole like, oh, they couldn't do it.
Speaker 2: I did it, And then the people are like, oh,
Speaker 2: look at that, our anti corruption guy. Back at it.
Speaker 1: Right? He said he never promised or like, gave the
Speaker 1: mob anything in return for this money. And in court
Speaker 1: he said that the FBI agents like they forged his
Speaker 1: signature on that paper and then it was also full
Speaker 1: of lies.
Speaker 2: Did they hit play again? He's like, okay, I'll sign this.
Speaker 1: He busts the Pelicano. He says the tapes. Of course,
Speaker 1: the jury loved him.
Speaker 2: It's Ai. It's Ai before Ai.
Speaker 1: Four days of deliberation, jury returns and not guilty.
Speaker 2: Of course he only needed one of them, so and
Speaker 2: he got fifty percent of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, So the FBI lawyer said quote. It was
Speaker 1: a frustrating trial. I bet there is no case harder
Speaker 1: to prosecute than one in which an intelligent, articulate, and
Speaker 1: aggressive defendant decides to represent himself. In our view, the
Speaker 1: evidence of guilt was overwhelming, but Traffican't, a skilled politician,
Speaker 1: was able to effectively divert the jury's attention from the
Speaker 1: essential issues of basic guilt and innocence.
Speaker 2: Taking notes though, wait a minute, so aggressive smart to
Speaker 2: be your own lawyer makes it difficult for the facts.
Speaker 1: Okay, to the day after he's yeah, he gets acquitted.
Speaker 1: Next day he tells the press that he's going to
Speaker 1: go after the mob. Sure, and that never real.
Speaker 2: Of course, anti corruption guy, Right, we all.
Speaker 1: Know, let's take a break. When we come back, we'll
Speaker 1: keep track this man as he weasels his way into
Speaker 1: the halls of power. Welcome he Jazon listens, Aaron.
Speaker 2: When we left off, we were talking about our thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jimbo, we're talking about our thing, this thing of ours,
Speaker 1: Jimbo Traffican'. He was sheriff and he'd beaten federal rico charges.
Speaker 2: This is impressively rarely do you beat the thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So nineteen eighty four, Fresh off the courtroom victory.
Speaker 1: He ran for a Democratic seat in Congress.
Speaker 2: Okay, he won.
Speaker 1: He won. The mob was right, Zara, They were totally right, like.
Speaker 2: You're a congressional material exactly.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't the end of the legal woes attached
Speaker 1: to those original bribes, because like traffic can't. He got
Speaker 1: with not reporting the mob money that he took his income,
Speaker 1: and which I always love when they're like, all right,
Speaker 1: so you broke the law, but still you got to
Speaker 1: report the illegal income. In eighty six, the IRS started
Speaker 1: garnishing his wages.
Speaker 2: For not paying taxes on criminal funds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was forced to pay taxes on one hundred
Speaker 1: and eight thousand dollars that he took from the mob,
Speaker 1: which you know, okay, fair enough. Since he was in
Speaker 1: Congress at the time and like to get ahead of
Speaker 1: the messaging, he used his allotted one minute on the
Speaker 1: House floor to respond. He said, quote, I'm sick and
Speaker 1: tired and I've had enough. I'm saying on the floor
Speaker 1: of Congress today, if they scare my daughter and my
Speaker 1: family again, I'm going to go over to the IRS
Speaker 1: office myself and punch their lights out. I embarrassed the
Speaker 1: IRS and they targeted me. I led the ninety ninth
Speaker 1: Congress in opposing President Reagan and his policies, and he,
Speaker 1: just like President Nixon, sent the irs after me.
Speaker 2: Oh, Reagan, like Nixon. I like that he's gonna go
Speaker 2: to the irs and punts their lights out. Like he's
Speaker 2: just walking down the hallway ute. He's going down just
Speaker 2: like one thing.
Speaker 1: It's like I like ten forty standing on the sidewalk outside,
Speaker 1: I like going.
Speaker 2: Like full of grand theft auto inside hire has just
Speaker 2: knock his reckons all these people on the ground.
Speaker 1: That's how he saw it in his head. I think
Speaker 1: Congress though not enough for him. No, nineteen eighty seven,
Speaker 1: he announced that he was running for president.
Speaker 2: What I thought's gonna be like governor traffic, No, senator traffic.
Speaker 1: Obviously obviously it didn't go anywhere. Okay, Yeah, but he
Speaker 1: was easily re elected to Congress for nine terms in total.
Speaker 2: Yes, they say that the religion is the last the
Speaker 2: refuge of the scoundrel. I'm fairly starting as Congress is
Speaker 2: he gets the house right there, Yeah, the House is
Speaker 2: like okay, well, yeah, you don't like religion, come over
Speaker 2: here totally.
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty six, he ran unopposed and he received
Speaker 1: the largest vote of any House member in the country,
Speaker 1: with more than two hundred and eighteen thousand votes. In
Speaker 1: two thousand, he was reelected, did fifty percent of the
Speaker 1: vote in a three way race. Wow, it's amazing. So
Speaker 1: his favorite issues were illegal immigration, so it's like a
Speaker 1: like illegal free trade and foreign steel imports. He's like
Speaker 1: playing the greatest hits here. He was all about fighting
Speaker 1: to get language into legislation that made it so that
Speaker 1: products that the federal government would buy should have like
Speaker 1: a maide in the USA label on it.
Speaker 2: Oh dude, this would play huge in the oh Man.
Speaker 2: He knows his arnt money.
Speaker 1: He got federal grants for hometown projects like highways, a
Speaker 1: sports arena, and then yeah, money for the Youngstown Airport.
Speaker 1: His other big calling card was those one minute speeches
Speaker 1: on the House floor. He made hundreds of them, and
Speaker 1: the best part is that he would end them by
Speaker 1: saying beam me up, like beat me up on it.
Speaker 1: And he delivered them like basically almost every day that
Speaker 1: the House was in session. Let me read you a
Speaker 1: couple of quote, mister speaker. A new report says only
Speaker 1: seven percent of scientists believe in God that is right.
Speaker 1: And the reason they gave was that the scientists are
Speaker 1: quote super smart, unbelievable. Most of these absent minded professors
Speaker 1: cannot find the toilet. I have one question for these
Speaker 1: wise guys to constipate over, how can something come from nothing?
Speaker 1: And while they digest that, mister speaker, let us tell
Speaker 1: it like it is. Put these super cerebral master debaters
Speaker 1: in some foxhole with bombs bursting all around them, and
Speaker 1: I guarantee they will not be praying to Frankenstein beam
Speaker 1: me up.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, no atheist and a foxhole. I love it
Speaker 2: saying be me up, me am. I sorry using that
Speaker 2: when I walk into places totally.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you put it at the beginning, but the best
Speaker 1: ones are at the end. Quote mister speaker, The Lord's
Speaker 1: Prayer is sixty six words. The Gettysburg addresses two hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty six words. The Declaration of Independence is one
Speaker 1: three hundred and twenty two words. US regulations on the
Speaker 1: sale of cabbage, that is right, cabbage is twenty seven
Speaker 1: thousand words. Regulatory red tape in America cost taxpayers four
Speaker 1: hundred billion dollars every year, over four thousand each year
Speaker 1: every year year in year out for every family, beam
Speaker 1: me up.
Speaker 2: One is just a speech, the other one's regulation. They
Speaker 2: should be the same thing.
Speaker 1: How I love that he felt the like the need
Speaker 1: to get up and complain about people being atheists. What
Speaker 1: does that have to do with anything? And then he
Speaker 1: then he goes on to talk about wasting taxpayer money
Speaker 1: after just spending. Okay, so his website was amazing. It
Speaker 1: had a picture of him holding a two by four
Speaker 1: with the phrase underneath banging away in DC.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's like Hacksaw Jim Duggan, the WWE wrestler. Oh,
Speaker 2: he's just beam.
Speaker 1: Up well and like much like Bumfardo. He was known
Speaker 1: for his unique look. Oh yeah, he bell bottoms and
Speaker 1: Dunham suits in the eighties, in the nineties, in the.
Speaker 2: Nineties, it's a boss moved.
Speaker 1: He also had like a viciously bad haircut to pay combo.
Speaker 2: He became he became so bad in fashion, became pre fashion. Yes,
Speaker 2: he came back around.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, so his hair.
Speaker 2: Can you describe it?
Speaker 1: Well? Let me let me let me tell you how
Speaker 1: the Washington Post tried to Okay, quote reporters outdid themselves
Speaker 1: in trying to describe mister Traffickant's pompadour and to determine
Speaker 1: whether it was real. In the words of the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Times, it was a quote planet of the apes
Speaker 1: sort of hair helmet, or as Washingtonian Magazine put it,
Speaker 1: quote a creature from Lake Erie before it was cleaned up.
Speaker 1: So his policy stances, he leaned more Republicans Democrats, so
Speaker 1: much so that he was invited to attend and like
Speaker 1: maybe address they put it out there, you might want
Speaker 1: to talk at the two thousand Republican National Convention.
Speaker 2: M by bartisanship and all that well.
Speaker 1: And in two thousand he also voted to re elect
Speaker 1: Republican Dennis Hastard as speaker. Oh wow, Dennis Hastard, the
Speaker 1: disgusting pig. He would later be charged and convicted of
Speaker 1: sexual abuse and hush money payments. That does as so
Speaker 1: traffick Hand's vote for Hastart was too far for the Dems. Yes,
Speaker 1: they kicked him out of the caucus, took away committee assignments. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's persona on Grada. And like most high profile politicians today,
Speaker 1: he had a Ukraine issue. Oh yeah, interesting see there
Speaker 1: was this guy named John Demjanjuk. He was a Ukrainian
Speaker 1: immigrant living in Cleveland, and he was accused of being
Speaker 1: the Nazi war criminal that people called Ivan the Terribleez. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So he was supposed to be a really really brutal
Speaker 1: prison guard at the Treblinka concentration camp. Oh god, and
Speaker 1: the US Justice Department took away his citizenship in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty one, and he got deported to Israel for trial there.
Speaker 1: He gets convicted in Israel in nineteen eighty eight, sentenced
Speaker 1: to death. But through it all he and his family
Speaker 1: were swearing the whole thing was a case of mistaken identity,
Speaker 1: and his family begged for help, but their own congress
Speaker 1: members they wouldn't touch it. They're like, I want nothing
Speaker 1: to do with this. So Trafficant's like, I'll do it, nay. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And he just like milked the press for his, you know,
Speaker 1: supposedly brave stance to like stand up and help this
Speaker 1: guy in a case of standing corruption. Yeah. So, using
Speaker 1: Freedom of Information Act requests, Trafficant was able to get documents,
Speaker 1: including an alleged photo of the actual Ivan, and then
Speaker 1: testimony from other Nazis at Treblinka who didn't recognize the
Speaker 1: guy that proved he was not Ivan the Terrible in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the conviction
Speaker 1: and trafficant brought the dude back to the United States.
Speaker 1: So like, he may not have been Ivan the Terrible,
Speaker 1: but he was still terrible. Oh really Yeah, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of evidence that he had been in SS
Speaker 1: prison guard at a different Polish concentration camp. He later
Speaker 1: he like, so he gets extradited to Germany.
Speaker 2: Extradited, yes, So they're like, he's not terrible, He's a different, different.
Speaker 1: Terrible guy. And Germany's just like, hand him over, we'll
Speaker 1: take him. And so they charge him and they convict
Speaker 1: him with more than twenty eight thousand counts of accessory
Speaker 1: to murder. He gets sentenced to prison. So he dies
Speaker 1: in a nursing home in Germany at the age of
Speaker 1: ninety one, awaiting his appeal, which is like too kind
Speaker 1: even though like traffic can't defends him until the end
Speaker 1: it is like, well, I don't think that's true. I
Speaker 1: don't think any of this is true.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: So you can't spell traffic, can't without the word bribery
Speaker 1: if you don't know how to spell. And in May
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, traffic can't he gets indicted by
Speaker 1: a grand jury on four counts of bribery, two counts
Speaker 1: of tax evasion, two counts of racketeering, and one count
Speaker 1: each of obstructing justice and accepting illegal gifts.
Speaker 2: That's an Ohio full house.
Speaker 1: He faced up is sixty three years in prison and
Speaker 1: a two million dollar fine if convicted. Like, how can
Speaker 1: that be your ass?
Speaker 2: How can that be Elizabeth?
Speaker 1: Exactly? Thank you for asking well. Prosecutors said that Trafficant
Speaker 1: started taking bribes right after he got into office in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five. Like just immediately puts the box on
Speaker 1: the desk, puts his hand out, starts taking it. But
Speaker 1: they were more interested in recent stuff. This is what
Speaker 1: the Washington Post had to say. It was alleged that
Speaker 1: quote local contractors did work on Trafficant's boat and family
Speaker 1: farm and gave him money in exchange for political favors.
Speaker 1: The indictment also alleges that he accepted monthly twenty five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars payments from a staff member in exchange for
Speaker 1: hiring the aid and renting office base from him at
Speaker 1: total more than one hundred thousand dollars, and that Trafficant
Speaker 1: ordered aids to perform manual labor on the boat and
Speaker 1: farm during regular work hours.
Speaker 2: He's got a congressional aids gone out their buffons.
Speaker 1: Ye, they show up in their like you know, dockers,
Speaker 1: and he's like no, no, no, go ch change because
Speaker 1: you're going out to the boat.
Speaker 2: Do you know about.
Speaker 1: Well? How did what did they do down on the farm? Right?
Speaker 2: What did they do down on the farm, Elizabeth?
Speaker 1: A really good thing? I sightful question.
Speaker 2: It's a profound question.
Speaker 1: They bailed hay on the farm. Really, they maintained horse
Speaker 1: stalls and they did a little light construction work.
Speaker 2: It's like a prison farm pretty much.
Speaker 1: And then what about the boat?
Speaker 2: What about the boat, Elizabeth?
Speaker 1: It wasn't just any boat. It was a houseboat that
Speaker 1: he lived on when he was in DC. He lived
Speaker 1: on a houseboat, which is just shady in general, of course.
Speaker 1: But also he apparently bought the thing from old toe
Speaker 1: tapper Larry Craig. Oh lord, ye, this is.
Speaker 2: Part of my rule. The only person I've ever trusted
Speaker 2: as a houseboat is Travis Spaghee and he's fictional. Yes, So.
Speaker 1: Traffagan had his minions scraping barnacles off the houseboat, which
Speaker 1: was a total wreck apparently. No, it's not an euphemism.
Speaker 1: And like for all the free labor, the place was.
Speaker 2: Just disrepair, I imagine.
Speaker 1: But it was a community builder, a male bonding experience.
Speaker 1: That's how he described it. It's not hard labor. This
Speaker 1: is a mail bonding.
Speaker 2: This is a place to spill whiskey.
Speaker 1: April two thousand and one, an Ohio businessman named John Kafaro.
Speaker 1: He admitted that he quote arranged nearly twenty seven thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in repairs on mister Trafficant's houseboat in Washington and
Speaker 1: then bought the boat for twenty six thousand dollars. Prosecutors,
Speaker 1: I love that boat. Well, mister Trafficant was lobbying federal
Speaker 1: agencies on behalf of a laser guidance system sold by
Speaker 1: mister Kafaro's company, the US Aerospace Group.
Speaker 2: It's a coincidence.
Speaker 1: I'll sink twenty seven grand into the boat, and I'll
Speaker 1: buy it from you for twenty six.
Speaker 2: We were talking about business. He took me to his
Speaker 2: boat and I said I'd like to buy this too,
Speaker 2: and we.
Speaker 1: Really turned around and let me donate it back you.
Speaker 1: So this is also from the Washington Post. Quote Trafficant
Speaker 1: is also accused of accepting more than ten thousand dollars
Speaker 1: worth of paving at the family farm in return for
Speaker 1: pressuring federal and state highway officials on behalf of a
Speaker 1: contractor who'd been convicted of felonies from another contractor. Traffic
Speaker 1: Can't allegedly accepted labor and materials in return for intervening
Speaker 1: with a local government agency about a building demolition contract. Heyway, everyone,
Speaker 1: everyone has talents and skills. What are yours and what
Speaker 1: are they worthing?
Speaker 2: Have you been to my house? Point out what you
Speaker 2: can fix.
Speaker 1: So the government's evidence included, you know, among a bunch
Speaker 1: of other things, quote, a briefcase full of cash, letters for.
Speaker 2: You get one of those, a briefcase.
Speaker 1: Can you put that on the order list from iHeart
Speaker 1: letters from trafficant to government officials, and then a delicatess
Speaker 1: in place that upon which he wrote a list of
Speaker 1: tasks that he wanted a contractor to perform. And he's
Speaker 1: probably like paving plus framing this building equals you'll get
Speaker 1: the contract.
Speaker 2: He's the kind of guy who would like get a
Speaker 2: video camera record his meeting for the thing and then
Speaker 2: give it to him. Here's what we said, here's these
Speaker 2: you just go back and look at the case.
Speaker 1: Let's just circle back around. It's like when you have
Speaker 1: a meeting and then you send the email afterwards because
Speaker 1: you're like, these people aren't going to do it. We
Speaker 1: just talked about like, okay, so here are action points
Speaker 1: for this. Traffic can't denies everything.
Speaker 2: None of that's not old paper. Trail traffic can't.
Speaker 1: So the trial starts February two thousand and two at
Speaker 1: the Federal Courthouse in Cleveland, Great Court House. Once again.
Speaker 1: Traffic Cant's going to represent himself. Strategy last time to know,
Speaker 1: he said that he chose to be his own lawyer because,
Speaker 1: like you know, he'd been a government target since nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty three, and he knew there's absolutely no attorney who
Speaker 1: can win this case.
Speaker 2: Keeps costs down.
Speaker 1: He's thinking about the voter cost. He said. Well here,
Speaker 1: he said that, like, I don't have the money to
Speaker 1: spend on a lawyer for this huge trial course. So
Speaker 1: this one goes a little bit differently than the nineteen.
Speaker 2: No, you don't get that lucky twice.
Speaker 1: This time they wouldn't let him bring in jurors from Youngstown,
Speaker 1: all from Cleveland, and then he also wanted to know
Speaker 1: the religious and ethnic backgrounds of all potential jurors.
Speaker 2: That's fair, right, well, he said.
Speaker 1: Quote As a defender of John Demjanik, a controversial Ukrainian
Speaker 1: immigrant acquitted of being a World War two holocross torturer
Speaker 1: known as Ivan the Terrible, mister Traffickan has complained that
Speaker 1: some jurors with Jewish sympathies could prove biased. Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, the parsing of that language that like the
Speaker 1: guy gets acquitted of being Ivan the Terrible, Yes, but
Speaker 1: not his real terrible. So the request is denied. No,
Speaker 1: you cannot interrogate these people as to their religious beliefs.
Speaker 1: The judge was not having it with all his antics.
Speaker 1: The judge warns him, this trial is not going to
Speaker 1: be a Donnybrook. You will behave yourself in this courthouse
Speaker 1: and you will behave yourself outside because like Traffickant told
Speaker 1: the press, like while proclaiming his innocence, that he predicted
Speaker 1: and promised a Donnybrook and the whole inside outside the
Speaker 1: courthouse thing. According to the AP quote, during the two
Speaker 1: month trial, he did a curbside interview on live network
Speaker 1: television outside the courthouse each morning, and then went inside
Speaker 1: to challenge the U. S. District Judge Leslie Brooks Wells,
Speaker 1: who tried to dissuade traffic Camp from representing himself, wearing.
Speaker 2: A shirt that said, who's here for the Donnybrook? I
Speaker 2: love this guys. I mean I'm not like a fan
Speaker 2: of him, but his spirit so mad. It's big.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, big spirit. Let's take a break. Okay, we
Speaker 1: come back. We'll get a glimpse of the trial, if
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Hello, Hello, Saren, get back here, Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: James trafficking.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh right, go on.
Speaker 1: So he's on trial once again. He's representing himself once again.
Speaker 1: Smart it was a zoo and that's the way he
Speaker 1: liked it. Of course, yeah, he's a zoo paper So
Speaker 1: Zaren close your eyes. Yes, I want you to picture it.
Speaker 1: You are dur number five in the trial of James
Speaker 1: Traffic Cant. You can't believe your good fortune. This is
Speaker 1: a total show and you are loving it. Best entertainment ever.
Speaker 1: It's been a good month so far. You've made a
Speaker 1: ton of money on your Super Bowl bet for the
Speaker 1: Patriots to take the Saint Louis Rams by three points.
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City Winter Olympics have kicked off, and you
Speaker 1: know you're hoping that Alicia Keys wins a bunch of Grammys,
Speaker 1: which she will. But for now, you're in the courtroom
Speaker 1: and you're excited for another day at the circus. I'm
Speaker 1: here this morning much like other mornings. James traffic caan't
Speaker 1: arrives at the courtroom in style. His style. Today he's
Speaker 1: wearing a three piece denim suit. The pants are bell bottoms,
Speaker 1: and over this he's wearing a canvas jacket with leather
Speaker 1: trim on the cuffs and pockets. Sharp. It's two thousand
Speaker 1: and two PS. So the trial gets underway for the day,
Speaker 1: the usual droning from the prosecution and the usual interruptions
Speaker 1: and objections from Trafficant. Trafficant's trying to cross examine a
Speaker 1: witness and keeps asking the most random questions, and each
Speaker 1: time he gets murmurs or chuckles from the gallery. He's
Speaker 1: asking a guy on the stand about how many times
Speaker 1: they may have dined together, in the context that his
Speaker 1: former friend had many opportunities to wear a wire and
Speaker 1: tape their interactions. You drank zinfandel, Trafficant says, yes, and
Speaker 1: you drank merlow Man replies, I ask the questions. Trafficant
Speaker 1: sharply retorts, then turns towards the jury and gives you
Speaker 1: a smirk and a raised eyebrow. What the He continues
Speaker 1: with some weird side quest question about restaurants. This time
Speaker 1: the prosecution stands objection relevance sustained. You're all traffic camt
Speaker 1: pipes up. I object to that objection. I'm up against
Speaker 1: a lawyer here with the testicles of an ant. Folks
Speaker 1: in the gallery laugh. I don't know what that means,
Speaker 1: mister trafficamp, but knock it off enough. One worry of
Speaker 1: your outbursts and I'll find you in contempt. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's fun, but it's going to be a long day
Speaker 1: and this is going to wear thin on you soon.
Speaker 1: So scene, let me tell you who testified, please, an
Speaker 1: Ohio personal injury attorney Alan Sinclair. He said that he
Speaker 1: paid traffic Cant twenty five hundred dollars each month in
Speaker 1: exchange for being on his staff.
Speaker 2: A personal injury lawyer. Yeah, paid a twenty five hundred
Speaker 2: dollars bill or bribe brother every month to stay on
Speaker 2: the staff.
Speaker 1: He paid for a job, Yeah, and he made sixty
Speaker 1: K a year as a joh, he kickbacked half his job,
Speaker 1: half his salary whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as a personal injury lawyer who wants to be
Speaker 2: on this staff.
Speaker 1: Well, he was still working full time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Would be kind of busy.
Speaker 1: While he was quote working yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, according to The New York Times, Sinclair testified that
Speaker 1: once traffic caan't found out, Sinclair would be testifying against him. Quote.
Speaker 1: The congressman sent notes to him asserting that there had
Speaker 1: been loans, not kickbacks, he said. Mister trafficant eventually handed
Speaker 1: back twenty four five hundred dollars in cash to him.
Speaker 1: To him, he's like, oh, I.
Speaker 2: Thought that they were basically nobody was doing the work
Speaker 2: and they were just splitting this salary they were. So
Speaker 2: that's so that's what it was.
Speaker 1: It was like a no show job basically.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But then he's like, ho ho ho ho, those
Speaker 1: weren't No, we weren't splitting the job. I was loaning
Speaker 1: new money.
Speaker 2: Here's the other part. Yeah, he's trying to get out
Speaker 2: of it by saying, like, if I give you back, exactly, queen, exactly,
Speaker 2: there's no crime now, right, Officer He said.
Speaker 1: That traffic Caant tried to coach him for his conversations
Speaker 1: with the FBI and the grand jury, and then like
Speaker 1: on a bunch of different times that they had gotten
Speaker 1: together and burned evidence, like the envelopes that held the cash.
Speaker 1: They're like, let's have an evidence burning.
Speaker 2: How did you coach someone for that?
Speaker 1: It's fun mail bondings.
Speaker 2: This was like in the Iron John era of the seventies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they got to bang drums and yell forests and
Speaker 1: burn evidence, burn evidence place mats. In one of their
Speaker 1: like encounter sessions, Sinclair had doubts about burning the envelope.
Speaker 1: He's like, I don't know if this is a good idea.
Speaker 1: Trafficant gets up and leaves, and then Sinclair puts the
Speaker 1: fire out and then takes the envelope, Oh that's like
Speaker 1: maybe just a charred inside, and hands it over to
Speaker 1: the FBI as evidence. So remember that Trafficant one hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy acre farm outside of Youngstown. I do of
Speaker 1: those where men bailed Hey, where men were men and
Speaker 1: they bailed hay and they learned about masculinity. So around
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, Trafficant paid a local contractor named Henry
Speaker 1: Nemmits twenty five thousand dollars to build a pole barn
Speaker 1: and a riding area. Okay, Nemts also owned a small
Speaker 1: grocery chain. So Nemits said that traffic Can't asked for
Speaker 1: what amounted to like triple the work that he agreed
Speaker 1: to do, and instead of paying the bills, traffic Can't
Speaker 1: offered a quote inner seed in a labor dispute Nemman's
Speaker 1: hat at the time with the local Food and Commercial
Speaker 1: Workers Union. Oh so he's like, here's what I'm going
Speaker 1: to pay you. He builds it. He's like, I'm actually
Speaker 1: not going to pay you that. I'm going to make
Speaker 1: your union troubles go away.
Speaker 2: So it wasn't even the arrangement going in. It was
Speaker 2: the arrangement when the bills going out. Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 1: So, according to the Youngstown Vindicator, which is an amazing
Speaker 1: name for a newspaper, to quote, Traffic Cant, who would
Speaker 1: occasionally fill in as host on various radio stations, did
Speaker 1: a remote broadcast from one of Nemets's stores and urged
Speaker 1: his constituents to cross the picket line and shop at
Speaker 1: the store. That's one way to lose the union boats.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So the trial lasted eight weeks, and after a ninety
Speaker 1: minute closing argument, traffic Can't apologized to the judge and
Speaker 1: the jury, saying, quote, I've been a real pain in
Speaker 1: the ascot. If you were in the room when I
Speaker 1: threw boxes, I apologize a pain in the ascot. Oh.
Speaker 1: Closing argument also apparently included the use of a roll
Speaker 1: of toilet paper.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, he had props well, quote.
Speaker 1: To demonstrate the government's case didn't hold water.
Speaker 3: That was it.
Speaker 1: That was it. I thought.
Speaker 2: I thought he said stuff like written on and he'd
Speaker 2: rolled it up, and it's just.
Speaker 1: Something even more.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: April eleventh, after four days of deliberations, Trafficant was convicted
Speaker 1: by a jury of all ten counts against him. So
Speaker 1: that's like conspiracy, bribery, travel and interstate commerce to carry
Speaker 1: on the unlawful act of bribery because he's going back
Speaker 1: and forth between DC.
Speaker 2: So he got busted on the full everything.
Speaker 1: You know exactly. He got sentenced to only eight years
Speaker 1: in prison, though, and he had to pay eighteen hundred,
Speaker 1: like on thousand and eight forty a month for his
Speaker 1: own imprisonment. Oh wow, that's cold blooded. It's kind of
Speaker 1: a great punishment to pay for it, and then he
Speaker 1: also had to pay like another ninety six thousand in restitution.
Speaker 1: So he said he was still planning on running for
Speaker 1: Congress again.
Speaker 2: Of course he was.
Speaker 1: His time is an independence, and he didn't just plan,
Speaker 1: he filed to run. I'm ready, he said, quote, I
Speaker 1: may be the first person in America to win a
Speaker 1: seat while incarcerated.
Speaker 2: Would he be? I think?
Speaker 1: Well he wasn't. Oh yeah, he didn't. Even he got
Speaker 1: fifteen percent of the vote though.
Speaker 2: Fifteen yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the two pey Oh yes, that came
Speaker 1: off for the booking photo. No. Yeah, and he couldn't
Speaker 1: wear it inside.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: And I like to think that he crafted his own
Speaker 1: out of like loose threads and pieces of shredded wheat
Speaker 1: and sticks and fruit leather. Instead he grew a thin,
Speaker 1: scraggly ponytail. Oh yeah, he just made it worse. Just
Speaker 1: shave your head. After his conviction, the House asked him
Speaker 1: to step down. Absolutely yeah, and he refused.
Speaker 2: Come in and get me.
Speaker 1: July two thousand and two, his fellow reps they voted
Speaker 1: on whether to expel him from the house. At the hearing,
Speaker 1: here's what he said quote, I understand the political dynamics.
Speaker 1: I am prepared to be expelled. I'm prepared to go
Speaker 1: to jail because I didn't do this. But I'm telling
Speaker 1: you you have allowed Rico to degenerate to the point
Speaker 1: where mothers are going to be convicted of colluding to
Speaker 1: buy Kellogg's breakfast cereal. Beat me up, Me me up, everybody.
Speaker 1: He also said, quote, Am I different? Yeah? Do I
Speaker 1: change my pants?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Deep down you know you want to wear wid er bottoms.
Speaker 1: You're just not secure enough to do it. Do I
Speaker 1: do my hair with a weed whacker? I admit I've
Speaker 1: helped everybody in my district. Yeah, I didn't even like
Speaker 1: some of them. But when they had a twenty two
Speaker 1: percent unemployment rate, did I go to bat for them? Yes?
Speaker 1: I'm prepared to lose everything. I'm prepared to go to jail.
Speaker 1: You go ahead and expel me, but I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you what. You didn't elect me. My people don't
Speaker 1: want me out, and I don't think you should take
Speaker 1: their representative away. And with that, thank you for listening
Speaker 1: to me and vote your conscience. Nothing personal. But he
Speaker 1: didn't give a be meal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like though the whole traffic. Can't traffic, can't
Speaker 2: you different? Your bottom's too wide.
Speaker 1: You're just not brave enough, too hard, You're just not
Speaker 1: brave enough for pill bottom.
Speaker 2: Basically, the fashion police on him is just oh god,
Speaker 2: I would love to say some of those opening lines.
Speaker 2: I won't even lie totally.
Speaker 1: He was expelled now by a vote of four twenty
Speaker 1: to one, which is just a chef's kiss for.
Speaker 2: Quote, the only vote to keep himself Congress.
Speaker 1: He was expelled for quote illegal gratuity, conspiracy, obstruction of justice,
Speaker 1: defrauding the government, racketeering, and tax evation violations. And then
Speaker 1: he turned around later and he called his colleagues political prostitutes,
Speaker 1: and he said, quote, I want to apologize to all
Speaker 1: the hookers of America for associating them with the United States.
Speaker 2: Congress, giving them a bad name.
Speaker 1: So travagant. He wanted to do his time in this
Speaker 1: Native ohen He's like a.
Speaker 2: Less creative George Santas.
Speaker 1: This is interesting basically, whereas like he goes wide in
Speaker 1: the legs, Santos goes tight, yes, exactly, squeeze on in there. Traffic, can't.
Speaker 1: He wanted to do time in Ohio. He didn't want
Speaker 1: to go anywhere else, mainly because he still wanted to
Speaker 1: be able to campaign there and so instead, though, he
Speaker 1: gets sent to a low security prison in Pennsylvania, and
Speaker 1: then he's later transferred to the Federal Medical Center in Minnesota, Minnesota.
Speaker 2: That was my guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he didn't have a lot of contact with his
Speaker 1: family or his friends when he was in prison, but
Speaker 1: that was by choice. Yeah, he told Fox News that quote,
Speaker 1: I did not want any visitors. I did not want
Speaker 1: my family to go see me in prison. If I died,
Speaker 1: they'd remember me the way I was. If I got out,
Speaker 1: I'd be.
Speaker 2: Back actually kind of profound.
Speaker 1: So he would like he would briefly in these very
Speaker 1: short calls. He'd call his wife two or three times
Speaker 1: a week, like.
Speaker 2: One minute, Like he just take his one minute and
Speaker 2: give it to her.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, well no, he took he kept them short
Speaker 1: because they're expensive.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that's why. Of course it is expensive.
Speaker 2: But yeah, he's got the corruption, the corruption.
Speaker 1: For He also took up painting while in prison.
Speaker 2: Oh and then after he was fine art painting, not
Speaker 2: just like painting other guys.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he got when he got out. He would
Speaker 1: sometimes like say that his time in prison he would
Speaker 1: call it art school, and like his first his first twelve.
Speaker 2: You call it being overseas at art school.
Speaker 1: His first twelve paintings, which were sold through a website
Speaker 1: that a supporter set up, beammeupart dot com. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: that they sold out. This is what the website said. Quote.
Speaker 1: He has produced original paintings, mostly from memory, showing his
Speaker 1: beloved saddlebred horses on canvas, paper, prison, cardboard, and for mica.
Speaker 1: The paints and materials used were those that were available
Speaker 1: to him on a limited budget, often in short supply
Speaker 1: and difficult to obtain.
Speaker 2: Some of them are toothpas.
Speaker 1: See one. That's what it looks like.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's like ten or eleven year old, like learned art.
Speaker 2: Like they got a little bit, they got some swoop.
Speaker 1: It's got so bad.
Speaker 2: No, it's not bad, I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But it's just very weirdly French and also very like
Speaker 1: it's the.
Speaker 2: You can see the kid is talented. It feels like
Speaker 2: a talented kid is learning to do shape and stuff
Speaker 2: exact and motion in the field of But whatever, it's
Speaker 2: not bad. I'm not criticizing.
Speaker 1: It looks like a lot of prison arts.
Speaker 2: And it doesn't look like an adult.
Speaker 1: Noo, that's better than I could do.
Speaker 2: Totally. I'm not suggesting that I could do what he did.
Speaker 1: I'm just I think you could. In two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: the local Ohio art gallery they held a show of
Speaker 1: his works, and then the Prison Medical Center revoked his
Speaker 1: art privileges, saying that he was using him to make money.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because he can't make money of his crime. Crime. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He was released from prison September two thousand and nine.
Speaker 1: He did seven years, twelve hundreds.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of art school.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is so, that's like they're bachelor's masters. Twelve
Speaker 1: hundred supporters attended his release party, twelve hundred and in
Speaker 1: there an Elvis impersonator.
Speaker 2: Of course I expected that, And.
Speaker 1: Then they had a traffic can't look alike contest? Oh
Speaker 1: my god, this is this is what he said to
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Plane Dealer. Yea paper, I was a quarterback,
Speaker 1: I was a congressman. Now I'm a convict. And then
Speaker 1: like he put his two payback on for this quote.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't change one single thing. And to the powerful
Speaker 1: enemies that I have, I'll just say this to you.
Speaker 1: You had to cheat to convict me. Yeah. So about
Speaker 1: a week after he gets out, he gives his first
Speaker 1: interview to Fox News on the Record, and he said
Speaker 1: he was considering running again for congreourse. And then right
Speaker 1: after that he was a featured speaker at a tea
Speaker 1: party rally in Ohio. So he's like pendulum swing. So
Speaker 1: he's planning his campaign. He ran as an independent and
Speaker 1: he lost. He got sixteen percent of the vote. In
Speaker 1: twenty ten, he signed a three month contract to host
Speaker 1: a three hour Saturday afternoon talk show on a Cleveland
Speaker 1: AM radio station WTAM. And at this point, he's like
Speaker 1: living full time on the farm totally.
Speaker 2: He drove he's got a three hour am radio show.
Speaker 2: I figured that's pretty much I live on a farm.
Speaker 2: If I heard he.
Speaker 1: Would like, he'd just like tootle around the farm on
Speaker 1: his nineteen forty three Ford tractor. Yes, spreading manure, you know,
Speaker 1: man stuff.
Speaker 2: Give me one of those red beauties.
Speaker 1: He's like, I'm just doing man stuff out here. On
Speaker 1: the evening of September twenty September twenty third, twenty.
Speaker 2: Fourteen, Course twenty fourteen, the tractor.
Speaker 1: Rolled over as he was trying to take it back
Speaker 1: to that pole barn that he had the guy built
Speaker 1: for him.
Speaker 2: Oh that's super dangerous.
Speaker 1: Huh. He fell under. He was pinned for eight minutes
Speaker 1: before someone saw what happened and called for help. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: he was very badly injured. They took him to the
Speaker 1: nearest hospital and then they airlifted him to a bigger
Speaker 1: hospital and he passed away from his injuries, you know,
Speaker 1: four days later September twenty seventh, twenty fourteen. Yeah, very sad.
Speaker 1: A forensic pathologist said that his death was from positional
Speaker 1: and compressional asphyxiation from the tractor being on him.
Speaker 2: So ad way to spell tractor.
Speaker 1: But others say there was foul play hand.
Speaker 2: The mob put a tractor on him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they said that he was a very careful driver
Speaker 1: who never would have rolled a tractor.
Speaker 2: Come on, I come from farm people. That ain't true.
Speaker 1: Folks like him just to like attract conspiracy mindy.
Speaker 2: Of course, but there's no way to safe way to
Speaker 2: drive a tractor now.
Speaker 1: He was buried in private service. Thousands of people went
Speaker 1: to his public memorial in October of twenty three. His
Speaker 1: old farmhouse was demolished as part of the Mill Creek
Speaker 1: Metro Parks plan to build a bicycle trail.
Speaker 2: Oh, his house is now a bicycle trail, and like his.
Speaker 1: Daughter, his daughter owned it at that point it was
Speaker 1: see it was seized under eminent domain.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1: So Zaren, what's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 2: I should get into politics, clearly. I mean, it's just
Speaker 2: like a giant magnet drawing this iron filing to it.
Speaker 1: Uh huh No.
Speaker 2: But in all honesty, as I said, I know about
Speaker 2: the Youngstown mafia before, but I didn't realize how corrupt
Speaker 2: Cleveland was coming out of the week. Look, we got
Speaker 2: no more money for steel, you know. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: an obvious thing, but I just hadn't thought about it
Speaker 2: and walked it all the way through. So now I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be very curious to go read about what happened
Speaker 2: in Cleveland in the late seventies. What's yours, Elizabeth? I
Speaker 2: did that all like. I just Hey, I want to
Speaker 2: know what you have. Yeah, I want to know what
Speaker 2: you find.
Speaker 1: I think you should start wearing bell bottoms and denim suits.
Speaker 2: Wide bottoms.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go, call them.
Speaker 2: Hey, I'm wearing my wide body.
Speaker 1: Hey, Captain D give me a talk back.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I went.
Speaker 3: Hi, Elizabeth, So, a few episodes ago you mentioned that
Speaker 3: you wish someone would say, wow, look at the ovaries
Speaker 3: on this girl. And I just found out that there's
Speaker 3: a very common saying in Spanish that goes in bar
Speaker 3: de ovarios, which translated is she's got a pair of ovaries.
Speaker 1: So I thought you might like that, thought I might
Speaker 1: like it. I love it, I love it, I love it.
Speaker 1: That's it for today. You can find us on the computer.
Speaker 2: My computer d find us there.
Speaker 1: Do you want to know where?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I guess Ridiculouscrime dot com at Ridiculous Crime on the
Speaker 1: various social well just Twitter and Instagram. You can email
Speaker 1: us at an email address. You can leave a talk back,
Speaker 1: just like that awesome one. iHeart app. Go ahead and
Speaker 1: reach out.
Speaker 2: I had two languages.
Speaker 3: It did.
Speaker 1: It's good counting. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton
Speaker 1: and Zaren Burnette, produced and edited by convicted Senator Dave Kusten.
Speaker 1: Research is by FBI tape rewinder Marisa Brown and congressional
Speaker 1: staffer with a negative forty thousand dollars a year salary,
Speaker 1: Andrea Song Sharpen Tear. The theme song is by Thomas Bellbottom.
Speaker 1: Blues Lee and Travis Don't touch the hair Dutton. Most
Speaker 1: Sport Probe is provided by Botany five hundred. Executive producers
Speaker 1: are Hey Baylor, Ben Bollen and exhausted prosecutor Noel Brown.
Speaker 3: Ridicous Crime, Say It one More Time Piquious Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts.
Speaker 2: My heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 2: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.