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Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Zaren Elizabeth Saren. Do you know I am going to

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Speaker 2: start being early everywhere? Yeah. I got here twenty minutes early.

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Speaker 3: Life changing idly. So you actually showed up somewhere early.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, for the rest of my life early everywhere.

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Speaker 3: Oh nice. You know I was raised by Navy people

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Speaker 3: and they beat that into me. So yeah, like you do.

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Speaker 4: The goal is you don't try to show up at

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Speaker 4: the time. You try to show up like five minutes,

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Speaker 4: ten minutes before. Can you make that the goal to

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Speaker 4: aim at? Because if you try to show up at

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Speaker 4: the time, like you s have to be somewhere too.

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Speaker 4: You try to show up at two? No, you miss

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Speaker 4: your I.

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Speaker 2: Went to Catholic school, man, I usually show up everywhere.

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Speaker 3: I know you're usually very tame minutes early. Yeah, you're

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Speaker 3: just very very busy these days.

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Speaker 2: Things, you know, you start to think like what does

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Speaker 2: anything matter?

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Speaker 4: Well, also you have your your succulent fan club meetings.

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Speaker 4: There's that You're British tea cozy mystery meetings.

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Speaker 2: Oh man, yeah, those two.

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Speaker 3: Your social life is getting busy.

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Speaker 2: I have a busy on the go lifestyle.

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Speaker 3: I know it.

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Speaker 2: And you know it's ridiculous.

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Speaker 5: I do.

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Speaker 4: I saw this story and I thought of you minor

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Speaker 4: league baseball. Yeah, because your your team is now playing

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Speaker 4: in a minor league ballpark.

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Speaker 2: I don't have a team.

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Speaker 4: Your former team, the A's, are playing in Sacramento's minor

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Speaker 4: league ballparks. So I was thinking about minor league baseball

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Speaker 4: and you and you see these two guys here.

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Speaker 2: That's two different guys.

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Speaker 3: Their names are Brad Figel. They're both named Brad Figel.

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Speaker 2: Brad Figel f E I g L Okay.

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Speaker 3: Maybe I'm pressing that wrong.

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Speaker 2: Whatever.

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Speaker 4: So, yeah, one is a minor league ball player for

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Speaker 4: the Long Island Ducks. Another one is a ballplayer for

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Speaker 4: the Las Vegas Aviators. Oh okay, yeah right. So they're both,

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Speaker 4: as they said, ball players in minor league. But they're

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Speaker 4: both pitchers. They play the same position, and they.

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Speaker 2: Were and they're both named Brad Figels.

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Speaker 3: And they look they look exactly the same, identical. So

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Speaker 3: they have the same doctor.

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Speaker 4: They both got Tommy John surgery, and their doctor confused

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Speaker 4: them and thought like, oh, because they had the same name's.

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Speaker 3: Like, what are you talking about? Man? They did this?

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Speaker 3: How did you undo the surgery? And then that's when

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Speaker 3: they realized, wait, there's another Brad Figel.

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Speaker 2: How does that work?

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: So then when they find out about each other, they

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Speaker 4: went and actually took DNA test to see if they

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Speaker 4: were related, like maybe dad was.

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Speaker 3: A traveling man.

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Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, right, so yeah, it was like a kind

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Speaker 4: of a hard to explain, uh mystery. But it turns

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Speaker 4: out that they were not and uh they're not related.

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Speaker 4: They were not separated at birth. The DNA showed no

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Speaker 4: biological connection. They just happened to have a really strong

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Speaker 4: gene expression for the Figyl genes, the.

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Speaker 2: Name exactly, and they have the same First I want

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Speaker 2: to I want to retest.

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Speaker 3: That is very so ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: That's weird, ridiculous. Do you want to know what else

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Speaker 2: is ridiculous? Oh my god, I'd love to bunco. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 2: this is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists,

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Speaker 2: and cons. It is always ninety nine percent murder free

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Speaker 2: and one hundred percent ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: Oh you damn right.

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Speaker 2: Now. I am in my family, I'm known as the fixer.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, the wolf.

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Speaker 2: That too, Like someone has an issue, like I'm called

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Speaker 2: into repair things, solve everything and it's a lot of pressure.

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Speaker 2: But like hot diggity dog, I'm good at it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, you really are.

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Speaker 2: It can be something like mundane like travel stuff, or

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Speaker 2: maybe like someone's having a meltdown and they're stuck in

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Speaker 2: an unfamiliar city, or yeah, negotiations need to happen and

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Speaker 2: I can get everyone to agree.

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Speaker 3: That is true. Yeah, you always ask the central question,

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Speaker 3: what do you want?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? What what remedy.

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Speaker 3: Do you see? Say it?

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Speaker 2: But from what you've told me, you play that role

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Speaker 2: in your family too.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. I was a much more of a blunt approach,

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Speaker 3: much more of like, look, this is what's happening. I'll

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Speaker 3: pay for you to shut up, you know, like that

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Speaker 3: kind of stuff that's fixing it.

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Speaker 2: I got a fixer for you today. This one takes

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Speaker 2: place in the wild West.

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Speaker 3: Sort of like a lot of the Old West.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of like we like wild West.

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Speaker 3: I love him.

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Speaker 2: I have one for you today is full of characters,

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Speaker 2: and I'm going to dive right into it. Bro getting

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Speaker 2: right in. I'm talking today about lou.

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Speaker 6: Blander lou Blannger, lou Blanger rhymes lou Blanger.

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Speaker 3: Did get lost.

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Speaker 2: It sounds it sounds like a name. I'd make it.

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Speaker 3: To my friend Lou Blancher.

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Speaker 2: It's a real name. He was born in Vermont in

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Speaker 2: eighteen forty nine. He was the eighth of thirteen children.

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Speaker 3: Oh, the blonders. They liked.

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Speaker 2: His dad French Canadian Stonemason.

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Speaker 3: Oh, I called the French Canadian named.

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Speaker 2: Simon peter be.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: His mom was from Ireland. When Lou was five, the

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Speaker 2: family moved from Vermont to Wisconsin. They went to a

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Speaker 2: place called Sholsburg.

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Speaker 3: Like to keep it wooded.

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Speaker 2: Well, no, they're out in them parts. They mind lead.

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Speaker 2: Oh and they made cheese.

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Speaker 3: Oh the Rocky mountain area.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the rocky Mountains of wiscons.

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Speaker 3: Well, not the actual rock the rocky in the mountainous area.

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Speaker 2: The village that they moved to, this Sholsburg, that had

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Speaker 2: only been around for like thirty years when they moved there.

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Speaker 2: You know, opportunity, I suppose.

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Speaker 3: So Lou's mom, Well, aren't all the towns new back?

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Speaker 3: And then really at.

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Speaker 2: Some point every town is new.

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Speaker 4: But I mean really, then it's like all the times,

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Speaker 4: like way were celebrating our twenty the anniversary.

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Speaker 3: Enjoy the lead.

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Speaker 2: Lou's mom passed when he was ten, Okay, and don't

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Speaker 2: forget he had five younger siblings. Oh man, Yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: tough times, right, what a life she had popped out

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Speaker 2: thirteen kids, Lou he moved in with his older sister

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Speaker 2: and her family, and then he changed his name, and

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Speaker 2: his brothers had already done this. They anglicized and like

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Speaker 2: simplified their last names from Belange Tolinger.

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Speaker 3: Try again, guys.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm guessing that they just made the spelling match

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Speaker 2: the way that people were already saying.

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Speaker 4: Blinger okay, yeah, because they look at it and they're like, oh, yeah, correct.

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Speaker 2: Pronunciation was probably more common when they were in Vermont,

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, not so in Wisconsin. So since things seemed

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Speaker 2: to happen every five years for Lou at this point,

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Speaker 2: when he was a hair short of fifteen, he and

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Speaker 2: his brothers joined up with the Union Army to fight

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Speaker 2: in the Civil War, and so he put in for

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Speaker 2: a one hundred day enlistment, which was I don't know,

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Speaker 2: common for younger boys.

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Speaker 3: Then I don't know, yeah, and then extended.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So they assigned him to play the fife keep

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Speaker 2: everyone in time while they battled the traders. Eight days

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Speaker 2: in he fell down and hurt his leg. Eight days,

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Speaker 2: eight days, and he spent the rest of the tour

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Speaker 2: in an army hospital.

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Speaker 3: Seriously pothole.

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Speaker 2: Yeah no, or maybe he did, and he just milked

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Speaker 2: it like it was like this fify. Yeah right, so

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Speaker 2: you know, okay, all well, war ends. He meets up

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Speaker 2: with his twenty five year old brother Sam. Sam hadn't

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Speaker 2: served in the war. He was out west. He was

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Speaker 2: just out there being rugged. So he did like minor

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Speaker 2: forty nine er stuff in Colorado. He drove wagons through

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Speaker 2: the Sierra Nevada.

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Speaker 3: Reco the mid eighteen sixties.

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Speaker 2: Now yeah, okay, yeah, just after the so he was

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Speaker 2: there for the war totally. Sam had come back to

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Speaker 2: Wisconsin to visit the family. Lou was living with a

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Speaker 2: pal of his. Sam sweeps into town, he wooed and

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Speaker 2: then married Lou's pal's sister. Okay, and then he also

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Speaker 2: sent Lou off to go to college in Chicago at

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Speaker 2: a business college, and then off he goes. So he

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Speaker 2: just likes wow, cezes through. Five years later, Sam and

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Speaker 2: Lou and then lose pal and his family. They all

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Speaker 2: headed west. The railroad's hum and now so that sort

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Speaker 2: of like travel was easier.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't have to take your life in your hands. Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 2: So they made their way to Utah and they hit

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Speaker 2: up a bunch of mining towns. In each of them

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Speaker 2: they would either like set up or buy a saloon.

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Speaker 3: And they're from a mining town, so they know mining

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Speaker 3: town call, they.

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Speaker 2: Know mining people.

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Speaker 3: Yeah we should sell drinks.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we need to have a saloon. We're going to

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Speaker 2: have to establish some sort of vice trade here.

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Speaker 3: Ah, I hate a cover.

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Speaker 2: They do a little mining themselves.

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Speaker 3: A little prospect might get lucky.

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Speaker 2: They might get deputized.

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Speaker 3: Oh, you know the usual.

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Speaker 2: They did this all over the West.

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Speaker 3: Really, we run the vice out here.

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Speaker 2: Uh huh, Utah to Nevada, to California and back. In

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Speaker 2: eighteen seventy nine, Lou moved to Colorado. And when you

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Speaker 2: think about that time in the US and the Western States,

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Speaker 2: everything seems so transient, so like so many people made

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Speaker 2: their way out there, and they were often running from

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Speaker 2: something or running too and imagined no one was really tethered,

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Speaker 2: and like everything must have seemed really temporary.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 2: It's so common to read about people who bounced around,

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Speaker 2: chasing opportunities or like looking for good fits until finally

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Speaker 2: finding a place. But then you look at places like

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Speaker 2: the South, and that's just not the case.

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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, completely, even a lot of the Midwest that's

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Speaker 4: considered the South, but West the same thing exactly.

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Speaker 2: And so I feel like the subsequent crimes of those

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Speaker 2: times reflected, oh good points, Like there's a much much

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Speaker 2: more of like an embedded nefarious storytelling in southern cons

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Speaker 2: of the era. It's more subtle and paste and not

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Speaker 2: like as brazen and audacious fraudsters and scammers and con

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Speaker 2: artists in the West. They were dealing with people who

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Speaker 2: almost had this sense of mania, right, and like they

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Speaker 2: could be looser and grander with their claims and their stories.

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Speaker 4: You're a lot more suckers if you're just running out

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Speaker 4: to get gold on the West. You know, you're somebody

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Speaker 4: who's already shown people that you will be happy to

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Speaker 4: cross and do arduous task, simple.

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Speaker 2: Gain and magical thinking.

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Speaker 3: I'm going to go out there.

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Speaker 2: And just pull, you know, gold from the roofs. I

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Speaker 2: may be off of, but you know, if I am

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Speaker 2: keeping to yourself, Yeah, anyway, thank you. Eighteen seventy nine,

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Speaker 2: Lou found himself in Georgetown, Colorado, that's just west of Denver,

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Speaker 2: and when he was there, he ran a theater that

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Speaker 2: put on vaudeville shows, and pretty soon the other Blonder

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Speaker 2: brothers started descending on the town. Simon, the oldest of

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Speaker 2: the kids. He got a gig, is superintendent at the

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Speaker 2: Robert E. Lee Mine, which is curious naming Marvin the youngest.

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Speaker 2: He worked there too, So this is a big spread.

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Speaker 2: No sooner had this gang of blonders reunited than Lou

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Speaker 2: and Sam hit the road like we're out of here.

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Speaker 2: They're scratching that itch. Maybe they're running from something.

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Speaker 3: Who's run tight.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, those two are best buds. There's ten years between

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Speaker 2: them that they're very close, so.

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Speaker 3: They would have been similar or at least, you know, very.

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Speaker 2: Very similar in personalities. They went off to New Albuquerque,

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Speaker 2: New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Albuquerque. It was a little railroad

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Speaker 2: junction that would eventually merge with regular It's called out

242
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Speaker 2: so it would it becomes today, like what's downtown Albuquerque

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Speaker 2: different than old town. Back then it was like the

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Speaker 2: up and comer. It's the railroad spot, all these new businesses.

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Speaker 3: We should have settled here.

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Speaker 2: Yes, So Lou and Sam they get there and they

247
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Speaker 2: like really quickly ensconced themselves. In eighteen eighty two, Sam

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Speaker 2: was appointed Marshal of New Albuquerque. He turned around and

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Speaker 2: then immediately deputized Lou.

250
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Speaker 3: Good call.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the two of them, they fought crime. They

252
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Speaker 2: took down bad guys. That's well. They also dipped into

253
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Speaker 2: the vices, well, apparently opening a brothel, you know, cop stuff.

254
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Speaker 2: In April of eighteen eighty two, Sam had to head

255
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Speaker 2: out of town to Denver for a bit. He's like

256
00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:07,160
Speaker 2: doing some sort of mining deal. So yeah, so he

257
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Speaker 2: left Low in charge. Zarin, close your eyes. Oh wow,

258
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Speaker 2: I want you to picture it. Hell yeah, It's April fifteenth,

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Speaker 2: eighteen eighty two. You are on a train from Tucson

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Speaker 2: headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Things got hot for you

261
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Speaker 2: in Tucson a few days back. You and your associates

262
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Speaker 2: got into a little trouble, caused a little trouble. You

263
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Speaker 2: were seeking revenge, but that doesn't matter. Crime is a crime.

264
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Speaker 2: A murder's a murder. It's morning and you can see

265
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Speaker 2: the New Albuquerque station in the distance. You sit across

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Speaker 2: from your closest friend, your brother at your side, four

267
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Speaker 2: others in the seats behind you. You're hoping to outrun

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Speaker 2: a state police posse that's after you. If you can

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Speaker 2: get somewhere quiet with some cover, there may be time

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Speaker 2: for the governor to negotiate a pardon for you and

271
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Speaker 2: your boys, or, more likely, you can regroup and try

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Speaker 2: and make it to Colorado. Your friend slowly, repeatedly flips

273
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Speaker 2: a silver dollar coin into the air with his thumb

274
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Speaker 2: as he stares out the window. The sound dances back

275
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Speaker 2: and forth with the chug of the car on the

276
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Speaker 2: rails and the occasional baleful whistle of the train. Oh

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Speaker 2: I should mention you're wyat er you and you're a

278
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Speaker 2: vendetta posse as you've been dubbed. Are on the run

279
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Speaker 2: after avenging your brother Morgan's murder and the naming of

280
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Speaker 2: your brother Virgil too. Oh yeah, you're on what they're

281
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Speaker 2: calling the IRP vendetta ride. You're trying to get to

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Speaker 2: Albuquerque because you understand that if you give interviews to

283
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Speaker 2: the paper there, they'll keep it quiet that you're in

284
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Speaker 2: town and they won't publish until after you're gone. It's

285
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Speaker 2: a deal, you'll take. The train has reached the depot.

286
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Speaker 2: The brakes let out a mighty squeal. The sound of

287
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Speaker 2: steam hisses alongside the cars and onto the platform at

288
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Speaker 2: the station. What's the Walt Whitman column, You think, the

289
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Speaker 2: one where he's totally describing a train as a man's

290
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Speaker 2: dingus is shaf as Pecker. That's right to a locomotive

291
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Speaker 2: in winter, type of the modern emblem of motion and

292
00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:11,640
Speaker 2: power pulse of the continent. He wrote that that's the train,

293
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Speaker 2: all right. When the engine has finally halted, you and

294
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Speaker 2: your posse stand and make your way to the doors.

295
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Speaker 2: The station's empty, not many people on this early train.

296
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Speaker 2: You walk through the platform and into the station building. There,

297
00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:29,000
Speaker 2: just inside it stands a man. He's got a full nose,

298
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Speaker 2: powerful like a potato, and a big bushy mustache turned

299
00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:36,280
Speaker 2: up at the edges like your pile. Doc. He stands

300
00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:39,720
Speaker 2: beside you, still flipping that silver piece. The man in

301
00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:42,440
Speaker 2: front of you is also wearing a uniform and the

302
00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:46,920
Speaker 2: gold star of a Marshal's deputy, lou Blander. He says,

303
00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:52,400
Speaker 2: Acting Marshal of New Albuquerque, Your men slowly lift their

304
00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:55,560
Speaker 2: right hands from their sides to the holsters concealed under

305
00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:58,400
Speaker 2: their coats on their belts. You lift a hands, stop them.

306
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Speaker 2: You recognize this man. You played poker with him some

307
00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:05,400
Speaker 2: ten years ago in Dodge City. So you remember me,

308
00:15:05,560 --> 00:15:08,880
Speaker 2: he says to you. You nod? You boys, Come with me,

309
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Speaker 2: he says, as he turns and heads for the exit.

310
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Speaker 2: I've got a place for you to bunk down, he

311
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Speaker 2: says over his shoulder. You'll be taken care of the

312
00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:18,080
Speaker 2: editor of the paper, he said, he'd like to see

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Speaker 2: you this afternoon. My brother Sam, he's the marshall and

314
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Speaker 2: he'll be back next week. We know what it is

315
00:15:23,160 --> 00:15:25,520
Speaker 2: to take care of family. You shoot a look at

316
00:15:25,520 --> 00:15:29,160
Speaker 2: your brother. Warren gives you a slight nod. Lou turns

317
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Speaker 2: and faces you out on the street in the glowing

318
00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:34,680
Speaker 2: light of the morning. Don't you boys worry, he says,

319
00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:37,400
Speaker 2: tipping his head towards your group. Like I said, we'll

320
00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:40,120
Speaker 2: take care of you here. People keep their traps shut

321
00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:42,520
Speaker 2: here in New Albuquerque if and we tells them to.

322
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Speaker 2: You follow him down the raised wooden sidewalk. You look

323
00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:49,720
Speaker 2: over at Doc and he raises an eyebrow to you. This,

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Speaker 2: Lou is all.

325
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Speaker 5: Right, yeah, oh man, I know you enjoy that does

326
00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:02,239
Speaker 5: better in tombstone indible.

327
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Speaker 2: So the IRB posse. They left about a week later,

328
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Speaker 2: and it wasn't long before Sam lost his job as

329
00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:11,080
Speaker 2: Marshall well off on another land deal. But it didn't

330
00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:13,520
Speaker 2: matter because Lou and Sam they went their separate ways

331
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Speaker 2: and kept driving in that way that people did in

332
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Speaker 2: the old way, you know, like lose. Lou's drifting wouldn't

333
00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:23,840
Speaker 2: last long. He would meet up with Sam again. Of course,

334
00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:27,480
Speaker 2: they would start a whole new venture. Let's take a break.

335
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Speaker 3: How hard it is to run into your brother.

336
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Speaker 2: Back in like the middle of nowhere.

337
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Speaker 4: There's not that many towns you're going around. You're like, oh,

338
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Speaker 4: I'll just go over this town, over the hill.

339
00:16:36,920 --> 00:16:38,800
Speaker 2: How do you reach each other if you don't know

340
00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:40,800
Speaker 2: where you've got. It's not like oh, I can send

341
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Speaker 2: a telegram and like, yeah, let's take a break and

342
00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:46,600
Speaker 2: think about that. When we get back, we're going to

343
00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:49,480
Speaker 2: hit the next stop on the Blonder Tour and get

344
00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:53,040
Speaker 2: into some actual crime aside from harboring a fugitive.

345
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Speaker 3: Zaren Elizabeth.

346
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Speaker 2: How about them ads?

347
00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:18,160
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, so good. I gotta put my wallet away.

348
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Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but I'm really glad that

349
00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:21,359
Speaker 2: I listened to him. I feel like I'm a better

350
00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:22,240
Speaker 2: person for it.

351
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Speaker 6: Probably doesn't take munch, but yeah, it's now inflamed Lou Blanger,

352
00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:34,800
Speaker 6: he was drifting around the Southwest.

353
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Speaker 2: He even headed out to San Bernardino Old Burdou eighteen

354
00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:43,439
Speaker 2: eighty eight. He arrived in Denver and so did his

355
00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:50,000
Speaker 2: brother Sam. Reunited and it felt so good. They got

356
00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:52,920
Speaker 2: to work setting up enterprises on both sides of the law.

357
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Speaker 2: So they opened saloons and they opened gambling parlors. Do

358
00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:01,679
Speaker 2: you remember who else had gambling halls and saloons in

359
00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:04,399
Speaker 2: Denver at this smith? Soapy Smith.

360
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Speaker 3: That's right.

361
00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:09,119
Speaker 2: They were swindling the good folks of Denver at the

362
00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:14,240
Speaker 2: same time. Yes, so Soapy he ran the Tivoli saloon

363
00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:15,520
Speaker 2: and gambling hall.

364
00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:17,199
Speaker 3: And he was from the South, so that maybe that

365
00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:19,840
Speaker 3: Robert E. Lee Mine suggests there's a lot more people

366
00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:21,959
Speaker 3: from the South who thought, oh, we can all make

367
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:23,679
Speaker 3: a ride in Colorado.

368
00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:26,880
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, and they should have left that behind, so

369
00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:31,640
Speaker 2: you don't name things, okay. Anyway, Lou and Sam they

370
00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:35,919
Speaker 2: owned the Elite Saloon on Stout Street, and the place

371
00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:40,400
Speaker 2: was over the top, like super rich, dark wood frescoes

372
00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:44,560
Speaker 2: on the Elite so luxurious, and.

373
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Speaker 4: We're talking like Art Nouveau style picture, yes, very yeah,

374
00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:51,440
Speaker 4: and also ornate and so.

375
00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:54,040
Speaker 2: This saloon they had all manner of like poker and

376
00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:58,879
Speaker 2: farrow tables, and they also really fell I don't know,

377
00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:03,119
Speaker 2: let's open a parlor. Why not. They also ran something

378
00:19:03,119 --> 00:19:05,680
Speaker 2: that we've talked about a number of times on this show.

379
00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:08,480
Speaker 2: Numbers games illegal lotteries.

380
00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:09,240
Speaker 3: Yeah.

381
00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:12,240
Speaker 2: So in some of our tales that racket was just

382
00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:17,560
Speaker 2: for neighborhood folks or for like Rube prospectors in Denver

383
00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:20,360
Speaker 2: in the late eighteen hundreds, it was aimed at tourists.

384
00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:23,640
Speaker 2: So like, just like Soapy and his scambars are Soap

385
00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:28,040
Speaker 2: filled with supposed cash. So the Blonders their policy racket,

386
00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:31,400
Speaker 2: the numbers game played into people's gambling addictions. They made

387
00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:36,879
Speaker 2: it way too irresistible. But make no mistake, well they

388
00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:40,800
Speaker 2: would just juice numbers and like tease people in. When

389
00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:43,760
Speaker 2: Lou and Sam got to town, Soapi was the one

390
00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:47,400
Speaker 2: running the joint. He ran the town. Denver had become

391
00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:50,879
Speaker 2: known as a place conducive to running scams with like

392
00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:55,240
Speaker 2: little or no interference from the funds, and Soapy made

393
00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:57,600
Speaker 2: sure of that. So on top of the gambling and

394
00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:00,479
Speaker 2: the vice, Soapy and the city fathers they had this

395
00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:03,919
Speaker 2: whole protection racket going keeping the other crimers in line,

396
00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:08,320
Speaker 2: So the Planders and Soapi they had somewhat of like

397
00:20:08,359 --> 00:20:09,080
Speaker 2: an agreement.

398
00:20:10,119 --> 00:20:10,879
Speaker 3: Of course they have to.

399
00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:13,679
Speaker 2: They tussle over territory or like the share of the

400
00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:16,280
Speaker 2: roobs on the street, but generally they kept a good time.

401
00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:18,440
Speaker 4: Like when deliveries came into town, they'd be like, I'm

402
00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:19,879
Speaker 4: gonna get my portion that kind of stuff.

403
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:21,840
Speaker 2: Right, You're like, you know, you're pulling too many of

404
00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:24,920
Speaker 2: these people off the street, you know, two blocks over, Oh,

405
00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:30,240
Speaker 2: into your parlor. Your cut them off before they get here, right.

406
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:32,800
Speaker 2: So I didn't really get into it in the Soapie

407
00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:35,920
Speaker 2: Smith episode, but about a year after that failed takeover

408
00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:39,879
Speaker 2: of city Hall that he had, Soapy absolutely wrecked shop

409
00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:43,320
Speaker 2: on all the other saloons in the entertainment district. It

410
00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:47,000
Speaker 2: was like eighteen ninety five. He's drunk as a skunk

411
00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:51,919
Speaker 2: and he's like just tearing through he realizes like physical,

412
00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:56,720
Speaker 2: physically damaging these He's in the middle of smashing up

413
00:20:56,760 --> 00:21:00,480
Speaker 2: the elite saloon Lew and Sam's play. It's when the

414
00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:02,920
Speaker 2: cops finally caught up to him and hauled him away,

415
00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:05,919
Speaker 2: and like, Soapy is lucky that the cops showed up

416
00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:08,920
Speaker 2: because Lou was behind the bar with a shotgun trained

417
00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:13,560
Speaker 2: on Soapi and like about to unload. So it was

418
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:16,480
Speaker 2: actually this drunken rampage that was the wake up call

419
00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:20,359
Speaker 2: for Soapy and imagine for Denver, well not really so

420
00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:24,119
Speaker 2: like Soapi's his rebellion had been squashed. He was like,

421
00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:27,160
Speaker 2: no longer really running the Denver streets the way you can,

422
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:30,439
Speaker 2: and so he that's when he pulled up stakes and

423
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:31,320
Speaker 2: went to Alaska.

424
00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:31,680
Speaker 3: Yeah.

425
00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:35,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, He's like, I want to be epic there instead.

426
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,800
Speaker 2: So Lou was like, I see a void, I shall

427
00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:42,720
Speaker 2: fill it. Lou Blonder now running Denver, he took over.

428
00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:45,880
Speaker 2: So with Denver on lock, Lou and Sam they decided

429
00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:49,320
Speaker 2: to diversify their interests and go back into mining. Okay,

430
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:53,400
Speaker 2: so it's the ultimate Yeah, it's like the ultimate draw

431
00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:56,439
Speaker 2: for a gambler, I'd imagine, because there's the possibility of

432
00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:59,439
Speaker 2: striking at mega rich. Yeah, and you can look like

433
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:01,080
Speaker 2: a hero, a wise man.

434
00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:03,199
Speaker 4: You know when you find it, and is luck somewhat,

435
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:04,480
Speaker 4: But it's also a little bit of work, A.

436
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:07,040
Speaker 2: Little bit of work. Yeah maybe track.

437
00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:10,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're also God's favorite. It's all like, hey too,

438
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:11,359
Speaker 3: there's that too.

439
00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:15,159
Speaker 2: Eighteen ninety two, Sam and Lou. They found the Forest Queen.

440
00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:17,600
Speaker 3: It's not some queen, not some.

441
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:19,000
Speaker 2: Byroness, mythical creek.

442
00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:20,920
Speaker 3: I just ask that sounds It was a.

443
00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 2: Gold mine, a right by Cripple Creek, not Robbie Robertson's

444
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:28,679
Speaker 2: fictional Cripple Creek chronicled in the eponymous song by the

445
00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:31,480
Speaker 2: band Oh Okay. Now this was a real place, and

446
00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:33,200
Speaker 2: maybe the one from the song too, but in the

447
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:34,920
Speaker 2: song it's near the Gulf of Mexico.

448
00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:36,560
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's what I was wondering.

449
00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:40,520
Speaker 2: Anyway, Cripple Creek, Colorado. The brothers found this gold mine.

450
00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:43,480
Speaker 2: They named it the Forest Queen. They put it to work,

451
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:46,880
Speaker 2: and the one of the work though, is like reeling

452
00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:48,439
Speaker 2: an investors, That's what I imagine.

453
00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:48,680
Speaker 3: Yeah.

454
00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:53,360
Speaker 2: So they got like judges, das certificates. Yeah. J W.

455
00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:57,439
Speaker 2: McCullough he owned Green River Whiskey. He put up twenty

456
00:22:57,480 --> 00:22:59,600
Speaker 2: barrels of the good stuff in exchange for a stake

457
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,360
Speaker 2: in the mind. So now that you've got the saloon.

458
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:03,280
Speaker 3: Stock, it's like booze equity.

459
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:07,479
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the mine it really did produce, though, It

460
00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:10,560
Speaker 2: turned out serious loads and they were like serious profits.

461
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:14,760
Speaker 2: So you take the money they're making and their influential

462
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:18,800
Speaker 2: and straight arrow business partners and the blonders, they're getting

463
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:21,520
Speaker 2: like serious power in the area.

464
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:23,159
Speaker 3: They're basically early bootleggers.

465
00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:27,080
Speaker 2: Yes, but yeah, so they're doing this is completely on

466
00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:29,760
Speaker 2: the up and up, and they're making all these influential

467
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:30,960
Speaker 2: people a lot of money.

468
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 3: Empire is a great way to get rich. Yeah.

469
00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, Lou moved his center of operations from the Elite

470
00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:40,800
Speaker 2: saloon to the American National Bank building, so he's like,

471
00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:44,159
Speaker 2: in an actual offer, he wanted to look less like

472
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:47,359
Speaker 2: a gambling hall proprietor more like someone interested in the

473
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:51,119
Speaker 2: mineral rights in places. This is a new era, though,

474
00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:55,280
Speaker 2: it's the era of the Bunco ring. For let's talk

475
00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:58,159
Speaker 2: Bunco for a second. You mentioned it recently when you

476
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:01,800
Speaker 2: were talking about Bob Nygard and the National Association.

477
00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:02,800
Speaker 3: Of Bunco Investigations.

478
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:06,159
Speaker 2: So Bunko is technically a dice game, but when we

479
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:08,280
Speaker 2: talk about it here, we're talking about a type of

480
00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:12,040
Speaker 2: criminal swindle or confidence game. A Bunco schemes like a

481
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:16,080
Speaker 2: street game basically. Yeah, and the dedicated detectives who investigate

482
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:19,000
Speaker 2: these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known

483
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,399
Speaker 2: as the Bunco squad. Why do we call it bunco?

484
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:28,320
Speaker 2: It comes from the Spanish word banco oh, meaning bank.

485
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:33,720
Speaker 2: Basically schemes where con artists exploit a person's trust, their

486
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:40,840
Speaker 2: greed fake. We talk a lot of bunco around these parties.

487
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:44,080
Speaker 2: Nineteen o four, we're sick in the Buncos, the bunk bunks.

488
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:47,480
Speaker 2: Lou and his gang they joined forces with this other

489
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 2: con artist ring leader named Adolph Duff of Duff Beer.

490
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:54,080
Speaker 3: I was just about saying, the founder of not Beer

491
00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:54,880
Speaker 3: in the Simpsons.

492
00:24:55,320 --> 00:25:02,359
Speaker 2: Yes, so Lou picks up Adolph Duff. Lou had Adolph

493
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 2: run the street level bunko stuff. Okay, so like staffing

494
00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:09,560
Speaker 2: the cons, setting up the fake gambling dens and such,

495
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:12,840
Speaker 2: and like maybe buying and approving all the costumes and wigs.

496
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:14,359
Speaker 3: Got a big.

497
00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:18,960
Speaker 2: One the Bunco though, the Bunco strang.

498
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:21,080
Speaker 4: So we're thinking like like the staying where they're doing

499
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:23,560
Speaker 4: like the big store type of scam.

500
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 2: Yes, and that's what that's This one is like their

501
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:30,199
Speaker 2: greatest hits. One is called the Rag and it's a

502
00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:34,400
Speaker 2: fake stock exchange. So Lilda's crew they pulled this in

503
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,240
Speaker 2: Denver in the summertime, but then in the winter they

504
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:39,960
Speaker 2: moved it to like Florida, California, Cuba.

505
00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:43,720
Speaker 3: What's where the money would be in the winter wintering

506
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:44,040
Speaker 3: in the.

507
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,359
Speaker 2: So you start with the store and that's the fake

508
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:51,560
Speaker 2: stock exchange or in some cases a betting parlor. It's

509
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:54,240
Speaker 2: kitted out like some sort of movie sets. So there

510
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:58,880
Speaker 2: are connected rooms, props like a desk, phone like boards

511
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:02,320
Speaker 2: with stock prices on tick or tape, guys yelling by

512
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:06,080
Speaker 2: so sell buy. It's basically the same as you said

513
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 2: as the Sting, the movie Sting, except instead of off

514
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:13,199
Speaker 2: track betting, it's a stock exchange. And the Sting was

515
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:16,719
Speaker 2: actually based on another set of real life brothers Fred

516
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:18,639
Speaker 2: and Charlie Gondorf.

517
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:21,639
Speaker 3: Look into that we do. So they were doing a

518
00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:24,760
Speaker 3: fake stock with I imagine telegraph reporting.

519
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, yes. So you have the store and then

520
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:30,520
Speaker 2: you have the look out upstairs. That's like the business office.

521
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:34,240
Speaker 2: The manager works up there coordinating the guys on the street,

522
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:36,720
Speaker 2: and then the guys on the street who pulled people

523
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 2: in are called the ropers, and they would bring in

524
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:42,639
Speaker 2: the marks, the suckers, and those were tourists because like

525
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:44,240
Speaker 2: you don't want to hit locals.

526
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 3: It's too risky. They know where you can live, but

527
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 3: they can find out where you are.

528
00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly, and they spread the word. The roper

529
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:52,920
Speaker 2: befriends the mark, steers them toward the operation, and the

530
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:56,200
Speaker 2: mark is told, okay, I've got this like can't miss

531
00:26:56,320 --> 00:27:00,840
Speaker 2: investment opportunity, and someone gave me in side info on

532
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:02,840
Speaker 2: stocks is about the skyrocket, right.

533
00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:08,879
Speaker 3: So the also all the mining stocks would suddenly break.

534
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 4: People would see like, oh this load hit or you

535
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:12,760
Speaker 4: know whatever, the comstock load.

536
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:14,880
Speaker 3: All people who held stock in that were suddenly.

537
00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:16,359
Speaker 2: Millionaires and you're in the epicenter.

538
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:18,639
Speaker 4: So it was very much like their dot com boom

539
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:21,160
Speaker 4: or their whatever in terms of an equivalent overnight billionaires,

540
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:22,720
Speaker 4: millionaireffs and such.

541
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:26,680
Speaker 2: So the roper is like, look, come check it out

542
00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 2: with me, like I'm your new pal. Let's let let's

543
00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:32,719
Speaker 2: get in MS. Let's see if it's legit totally and

544
00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:35,639
Speaker 2: so sometimes the roper would pretend to be totally skeptical

545
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:38,879
Speaker 2: at first and then be convinced by the legitimacy of

546
00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:41,120
Speaker 2: the operations. So first things.

547
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 4: First, the market, and also he can kind of erode

548
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:47,199
Speaker 4: the the skepticism of the mark by being basically in

549
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 4: front of them by being like, oh yeah, asking tougher questions,

550
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 4: and then when they eventually you're convinced, it's like, well,

551
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:52,440
Speaker 4: why am I.

552
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 3: Still being resistant? I was less resistant than him before.

553
00:27:55,720 --> 00:28:00,640
Speaker 2: Right, right. So they get the mark to invest in

554
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:04,119
Speaker 2: a hot stock and they show them the trades that

555
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,160
Speaker 2: are happening in real time, and when they buy, they're

556
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:11,240
Speaker 2: shown immediate returns, like the prices rise, the ticker suddenly

557
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:16,440
Speaker 2: shows a profit. The clerks are confirming it maximum stokage

558
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:20,360
Speaker 2: in the air. People love making money, and then when

559
00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:23,679
Speaker 2: they're greed pops in, it overrides any doubts they may

560
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:27,480
Speaker 2: have had, you know, suddenly, oh this is totally yeah,

561
00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:30,080
Speaker 2: this is worth it. So they're encouraged by their early

562
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:33,440
Speaker 2: gains they want to invest more. Sometimes they get fake

563
00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 2: dividends or like partial payouts to further hook them in

564
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:39,240
Speaker 2: and like, but you know what, you know what that

565
00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:43,200
Speaker 2: smell is a turn? A turn is coming. So once

566
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:47,800
Speaker 2: the Mark's in deep serious investments, the stock suddenly quote

567
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 2: crashes or the office is just empty, like they have

568
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:55,040
Speaker 2: r u n n o ft they're gone and places

569
00:28:55,160 --> 00:29:01,640
Speaker 2: Places was so lou so, like he went all out

570
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:05,480
Speaker 2: on the scam. He had actors posing his brokers, Bunko

571
00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:10,760
Speaker 2: ring members posing his fellow investors. Yes, super realistic fake

572
00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:16,520
Speaker 2: stock tickers, telegraphs supposedly sending real time data. Remember Soapy's

573
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:21,680
Speaker 2: fake telegraph offices. Scot a town with no telegraph was

574
00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:25,080
Speaker 2: one of those units. My first telegraph from play school.

575
00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:27,960
Speaker 2: So if they're going to pull this off, they had

576
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:33,600
Speaker 2: to go all in, like the best SNL hosts, all in,

577
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 2: no holding back. So the environment was like super realistic,

578
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:42,480
Speaker 2: super convincing. Absolutely, everyone from the receptionist to the stockbrokers

579
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:45,920
Speaker 2: is in on the scam. Sweaty stress, and it's like

580
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 2: a little cottage industry of its own.

581
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:49,320
Speaker 3: It's like total economy.

582
00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 2: It's a theme park basically that they create. Every single

583
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 2: outcome has to be controlled, so they have to have

584
00:29:56,640 --> 00:30:00,240
Speaker 2: total handle on prices, and of course because it's all theater,

585
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:04,000
Speaker 2: that's easy. But the most important thing is timing. Timing

586
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 2: is everything, So like you need to make sure that

587
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,520
Speaker 2: you're that when these reports are coming in, or you

588
00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:13,360
Speaker 2: you've fully isolated this mark that you're getting them at

589
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:13,960
Speaker 2: the right time.

590
00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 4: Yeah, and the tickers going off and the people know

591
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 4: you'd be excited or to do the buy or the

592
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:18,320
Speaker 4: sell or whatever.

593
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 2: You can't let anyone else get in their ear. Yeah,

594
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:23,800
Speaker 2: so they have to be totally like pulled aside, isolated.

595
00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:27,000
Speaker 2: Uh that you have to be the only source of

596
00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:31,520
Speaker 2: information or opinions. Yes, so like no contact with legit

597
00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 2: brokers or voices of reason.

598
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 4: And back then it was a much easier because they're

599
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:38,200
Speaker 4: out there in the middle of the West. Essentially the

600
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:39,600
Speaker 4: telegram is the only connection to.

601
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 2: Back east, well and the SEC.

602
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:42,600
Speaker 3: And then you got the.

603
00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 4: Bank people in town telling them like, oh, yes, we're

604
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:46,040
Speaker 4: doing this blah blah blah.

605
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 2: But there wasn't the regulation, like you didn't get the

606
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:49,760
Speaker 2: SEC to like the thirties.

607
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:50,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, totally.

608
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:52,680
Speaker 4: And some guy with basically a suit in some sideburns

609
00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 4: is going to be believable, especially he's got like, you know,

610
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:55,560
Speaker 4: a three pieces.

611
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:59,760
Speaker 2: Well yeah, and the scene and yeah, yeah so there

612
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 2: are and people weren't investors, weren't educated like you know.

613
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 2: So this said is the core techniques, this illusion of legitimacy,

614
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:14,040
Speaker 2: the fake platform, social engineering. Those still exist in online

615
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:17,920
Speaker 2: investment scams, pump and dumps, fraudulent crypto schemes.

616
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:19,600
Speaker 3: Crypto is a huge area for this.

617
00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:22,000
Speaker 2: So Bey and Lou would have loved crypto.

618
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:24,320
Speaker 3: Oh my god, they'd lose their minds over crypto.

619
00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:26,720
Speaker 2: I still don't totally understand.

620
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:31,320
Speaker 4: Unregulated like money, you got all these suckers trying.

621
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:33,280
Speaker 3: To buy on the idea worth more tomorrow.

622
00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 2: I don't quite get it. And so but if someone

623
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:37,840
Speaker 2: were to try and explain it to me, I would

624
00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 2: be like, yeah, sure, it's like like the scam Milonia

625
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:44,320
Speaker 2: trump coin, yes and all those like what are a

626
00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:46,880
Speaker 2: conse con exactly? I don't I don't get it.

627
00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:48,760
Speaker 3: But whatever, can I tell you? Give me your money.

628
00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 3: It's gonna be worth more tomorrow, no matter what that is. Okay, Yeah,

629
00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 3: so that's a scam.

630
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 2: Over over a decade, Lou and the Bunko ring, they

631
00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 2: swindled millions from wealthy businessman, tourist, speculators like anyone coming

632
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:08,280
Speaker 2: through town. Only twice in nearly two decades did Blonder

633
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:09,480
Speaker 2: almost get arrested?

634
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 3: Really almost? Do you not pay off the right people?

635
00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 2: I know? Nineteen ten they tried to get him in

636
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:15,160
Speaker 2: connection with the scammering in.

637
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 3: Iowa nineteen ten.

638
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:18,880
Speaker 4: Things start changing because you have like enough you go

639
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:21,080
Speaker 4: through the eighteen nineties and people just kept getting ripped off,

640
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 4: and then you get into the you basically flip over

641
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,800
Speaker 4: to the next century. Before right before World War One,

642
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:28,600
Speaker 4: you have this push for like we need to do

643
00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 4: banking regulations, we cannot have this and that, and also

644
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 4: does all the patent medicine. The two were kind of

645
00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:35,239
Speaker 4: running neck and neck. People were dying and losing all

646
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:35,760
Speaker 4: their money.

647
00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 2: He was able to though, because it was in Iowa,

648
00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:39,640
Speaker 2: he was able to be like, that has nothing to do.

649
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:43,760
Speaker 2: Nineteen fifteen, he had workers in his office doing a

650
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:47,640
Speaker 2: remodel and they figured out what was going on in there,

651
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:50,000
Speaker 2: and they tried to rat them out, but he got

652
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,360
Speaker 2: out unscathed because he owns everybody.

653
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 4: So wait, he hired a bunch of like basically like

654
00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 4: house counters to get carpenters to come in and like

655
00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:57,960
Speaker 4: build him a Bunco lab.

656
00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:01,080
Speaker 2: No, like, we're like redo his but then they like

657
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:05,400
Speaker 2: stuff and they saw things, and they're like, we're going

658
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:07,760
Speaker 2: to the cops, and the cops are like, no, you're not.

659
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 2: So he's a friend of the family exactly so Sam.

660
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:15,840
Speaker 2: He passed away in nineteen fourteen, but the Bunko Ring

661
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:20,320
Speaker 2: only continued to grow, lose power and fortune just swelled

662
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:24,600
Speaker 2: he started wintering in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He hung out

663
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:26,640
Speaker 2: there with an old pal of his, none other than

664
00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:30,680
Speaker 2: Alan Pinkerton, what president of the Pinkerton Detective.

665
00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 3: The founder of the Pinkerton.

666
00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:34,120
Speaker 2: And they were like BFFs that Hot Spring.

667
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:35,920
Speaker 3: Not a nice person, No, not at all.

668
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:37,000
Speaker 2: So things are going.

669
00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 4: Swimming like ankles deep in water with Alan Pinkerton talking

670
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:41,400
Speaker 4: about like all the people you've.

671
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:46,000
Speaker 2: Con bus Yeah, things things were going swimmingly at the

672
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:50,360
Speaker 2: Hot Springs, but then they weren't. Let's take a break,

673
00:33:50,480 --> 00:34:15,960
Speaker 2: well we return more bunco zaren great ads ten out

674
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:19,600
Speaker 2: of ten, no notes unless there were some problematic ones

675
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:20,280
Speaker 2: in there, And then.

676
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:23,080
Speaker 3: I say, boom, I just had post it notes of

677
00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:24,640
Speaker 3: like more ads.

678
00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 2: More more Bye bye Blue rhymes with conjure. I have

679
00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:36,040
Speaker 2: to keep telling myself that longer blonder. There are a

680
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:40,280
Speaker 2: lot there's as an aside, there's this whole website about

681
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:41,760
Speaker 2: the Blonder Brothers.

682
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:46,000
Speaker 6: Really yeah, and it's called dot com.

683
00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,960
Speaker 2: Lauder Brothers dot com. And they have a like thing

684
00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:54,920
Speaker 2: about the pronunciation that's not really helpful. Well, they're like

685
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:56,880
Speaker 2: you could say like this, you could say, But then

686
00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,240
Speaker 2: I found a lot of places where they said blonder

687
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:08,480
Speaker 2: like conjure. So I'm going with that multiple places blonder. Okay,

688
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:11,840
Speaker 2: So these dudes, they were fleecing so many people. Dude,

689
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:13,640
Speaker 2: are good going away with it.

690
00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:15,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, they don't see to piss people off. I haven't

691
00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:16,840
Speaker 3: heard like it. And then so and so tried to

692
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 3: kill them.

693
00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:17,640
Speaker 6: Right.

694
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:20,600
Speaker 2: No, No, Lou's running things. He's turning into quite the

695
00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:21,240
Speaker 2: power player.

696
00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:22,080
Speaker 3: I bet so.

697
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 2: It made sense that in nineteen twenty, during the primary

698
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,480
Speaker 2: election for the Denver District Attorney, Lou reached out to

699
00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:33,919
Speaker 2: Phillip van Seiss, the Republican candidate. He was like, look,

700
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,240
Speaker 2: I want to kick some money to your campaign, maybe

701
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:39,799
Speaker 2: send some votes your way. Wink wink, nudge nudge. Van

702
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:43,759
Speaker 2: Seiss said absolutely not. Yeah, I want nothing from you.

703
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 2: No one ever said this to Lou, and he's lose.

704
00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:48,360
Speaker 3: Shocked is the reform candidate.

705
00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:50,359
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but like whatever he moves on.

706
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:52,520
Speaker 3: It was like, because I guess I can't buy him.

707
00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:55,960
Speaker 2: Van Seiss did not move on. Oh he won the election,

708
00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:58,360
Speaker 2: and then he put Lou on notice He's going to

709
00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:01,399
Speaker 2: go after the Bunko ring like number one, Yes, within

710
00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:03,520
Speaker 2: the first one hundred days and all that. Oh yeah,

711
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:05,560
Speaker 2: so this isn't going to be easy, though, because by

712
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:08,000
Speaker 2: this point Lou pretty much owns everybody.

713
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:09,600
Speaker 3: That's what I'm thinking, all the judges, all the people.

714
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:12,680
Speaker 2: Yes, and everyone had a good thing going.

715
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:14,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, everyone's making everyone's wet their beak.

716
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:18,279
Speaker 2: The whole clash feels very nucky. Thompson versus Agent van

717
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:19,560
Speaker 2: Alden on.

718
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:20,560
Speaker 3: A Boardwine Empire.

719
00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:23,600
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, TV is my only point of reference. I

720
00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:27,600
Speaker 2: never learned to read. Keep that in mind.

721
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:29,200
Speaker 3: Getting an English degree really hard.

722
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:30,319
Speaker 2: It was really really hard.

723
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:31,920
Speaker 3: Is there a TV show of this book?

724
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,400
Speaker 2: Because otherwise we are so.

725
00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:36,520
Speaker 3: Did the Brits make one? They make a lot of

726
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 3: It makes.

727
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 2: So many good ones. Thank you so much, Britz. So

728
00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:43,280
Speaker 2: Van size he knew from criminals because he was born

729
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:47,279
Speaker 2: in eighteen eighty four in Deadwood Territory. Oh, he was

730
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:50,719
Speaker 2: just speaking crime non of Deadwood. He came out of

731
00:36:50,719 --> 00:36:51,080
Speaker 2: the earth.

732
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:51,960
Speaker 3: I was born in the mud.

733
00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:54,799
Speaker 2: It's badass to be like, Oh, I'm gonna start telling

734
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:57,319
Speaker 2: people I was born you should in eighteen eighty four.

735
00:36:57,400 --> 00:36:59,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally. People will love that.

736
00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:03,760
Speaker 2: Don't believe me, so Van sise right, he's a lawyer obviously,

737
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 2: is running for DA served as a World War One

738
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:13,720
Speaker 2: military intelligence officer. Oh man, big, big crusading reformer. Yes,

739
00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:18,839
Speaker 2: everyone knows. And he's principled, he's incorrect, he's fiercely independent.

740
00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:21,839
Speaker 2: When he got back from World War One with all

741
00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 2: like the counterintelligence, oh yeah, he put it to work, right.

742
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:29,560
Speaker 2: He's determined to take down the Blonder Gang.

743
00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:33,440
Speaker 3: Oh man, he goes to war against.

744
00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:35,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he knew. He knew the police were compromised,

745
00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:38,680
Speaker 2: he knew that the courts could be bought. He knew

746
00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:41,840
Speaker 2: he couldn't trust City Hall, so he had no choice

747
00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:42,920
Speaker 2: but to go rogue.

748
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:44,000
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.

749
00:37:44,239 --> 00:37:46,360
Speaker 2: Van Size knew that if he's going to go after

750
00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 2: lou he needs to have resources, so he created a

751
00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:56,160
Speaker 2: private intelligence unit that was financed by wealthy, reform minded businessmen.

752
00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:57,560
Speaker 3: Okay, the other good.

753
00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:03,320
Speaker 2: Yeah. So these men they're all part of Verus economic elite, okay, right, bankers,

754
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:08,160
Speaker 2: industrialist lawyers, property developers, tco. Yeah, and they're all just

755
00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:10,960
Speaker 2: like they can't take the corruption anymore. Everything's you know,

756
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:12,759
Speaker 2: we're a national joke.

757
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:14,560
Speaker 3: It's a new century. We're a national joke.

758
00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, And there's just too much criminality. They're not like

759
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:20,960
Speaker 2: completely altruistic though, like some of them are just like

760
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:24,840
Speaker 2: look this crime is bad for investment, Like we're losing tourists.

761
00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:26,280
Speaker 3: I'm trying to make other suckers.

762
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:30,680
Speaker 2: I get embarrassed I go places. I'm like, I'm from Denver.

763
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:34,080
Speaker 2: So here's some of the men who got in on this.

764
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:39,280
Speaker 2: JJ Jake Benedict. He was like this big banker investor.

765
00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:42,120
Speaker 2: He thought the crime ring was a blight on the

766
00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:44,799
Speaker 2: city image in the economy. And he's the one who

767
00:38:44,880 --> 00:38:48,880
Speaker 2: helped organize the financial trust that supported Van Seiss and

768
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 2: was likely he played the part of the financial go

769
00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:55,319
Speaker 2: between and the fixer for the group. So Lou was

770
00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:58,200
Speaker 2: seen at the time everyone called him the ultimate fixer.

771
00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:00,800
Speaker 2: See him coming back around to be look at that.

772
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:05,560
Speaker 2: So now we got JJ Jake Benedict. He's the fixer

773
00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:06,280
Speaker 2: for the good guys.

774
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:08,880
Speaker 3: So it's fixer versus fixerspy versus spot yes.

775
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:11,399
Speaker 2: And there and their little outfits in their pointy faith

776
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:15,160
Speaker 2: wigs of course Jiggs costumes wigs. Another dude in the

777
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:19,000
Speaker 2: rich guy anti Bunco club was Gerald Hughes. So he's

778
00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:22,480
Speaker 2: another lawyer, he's a mining investor. He's super well connected.

779
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:24,200
Speaker 2: How is he well connected?

780
00:39:24,239 --> 00:39:24,560
Speaker 3: You ask?

781
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:33,359
Speaker 2: No? His brother was Charles Evans Hughes former Chief Justice

782
00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:34,680
Speaker 2: of the United States Supreme Court.

783
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:35,960
Speaker 3: Oh, snap, he ain't connected.

784
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:39,160
Speaker 2: He's a true believer, right. He wanted clean government, he

785
00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:42,200
Speaker 2: wanted civic reform, and to get that, he funneled money

786
00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:47,040
Speaker 2: to support the operations, logistics safe houses and surveillance safe houses,

787
00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:49,560
Speaker 2: extra judicial stuff like you'd find in clean government.

788
00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:50,080
Speaker 3: Wow.

789
00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:55,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, so running a coupe and money funds and like

790
00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:57,720
Speaker 4: dead drops everything.

791
00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:01,120
Speaker 2: So then there's Frederick. I'm just imagine them doing like

792
00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:02,680
Speaker 2: the dancing dead drop.

793
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:06,279
Speaker 3: Where they they did that too, the other dead drop.

794
00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:10,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's just in my head, like the guy with

795
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:16,560
Speaker 2: the big bushy mountain and high heels. There's a scene

796
00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:22,719
Speaker 2: I gagged serving Frederick Bamfield's fee. He was the co

797
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:27,200
Speaker 2: owner of the Denver Post. He was known for backing

798
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:31,839
Speaker 2: moral crusades, pushing for civic reform and nineteen twenty you're

799
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:33,080
Speaker 2: brimming with moral cruise.

800
00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:34,880
Speaker 3: I say that was the time. Then, Yeah, they were

801
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:37,719
Speaker 3: all about that. We got the racism. Those were the

802
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:38,239
Speaker 3: two things.

803
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:42,839
Speaker 2: Stick with it. There's also the John Evans family, and

804
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:45,960
Speaker 2: they were the descendants of John Evans, who was Colorado's

805
00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:54,560
Speaker 2: second territorial governor. Ah, they're just like super powerful Presbyterian Reformers, philanthropist.

806
00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 3: Son of the founding founder, all.

807
00:40:55,440 --> 00:41:00,839
Speaker 2: About cleaning up the city morally, socially. William Evans people

808
00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:05,200
Speaker 2: very much, so so much Starch Williams, son of John.

809
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:10,640
Speaker 2: He was the president of Denver Tramway Company Railroad Railroad.

810
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:14,799
Speaker 2: So he's like deeply involved in civic development. He's got

811
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:17,920
Speaker 2: he's like, he has to have the city become respectable

812
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:19,640
Speaker 2: for investors and visitors.

813
00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:21,240
Speaker 3: On the trams.

814
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:25,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, all the trams everywhere, traming it up. The rest

815
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:29,319
Speaker 2: of the group of rich guys, they stayed anonymous. They're like,

816
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:31,640
Speaker 2: leave my name out of it. Here's some cash, I

817
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:37,640
Speaker 2: get it. Yeah, that extra digital go together though. They

818
00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:40,680
Speaker 2: created a secret fund that was like had like twenty

819
00:41:40,719 --> 00:41:43,280
Speaker 2: five grand in it. That's more than three hundred thousand dollars.

820
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 3: That's plenty of money.

821
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:47,399
Speaker 2: Now. So with that cash, they rented a private headquarters

822
00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:49,960
Speaker 2: away from the DA's office. Okay, so they had their

823
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:54,560
Speaker 2: own store and look out. They paid undercover agents and informants,

824
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:59,719
Speaker 2: you know, the ropers. They purchased equipment like cameras, typewriters,

825
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:04,760
Speaker 2: why tap devices, costumes and wigs like now we're cooking.

826
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:09,960
Speaker 2: We got costumes and wigs. So the funds they paid

827
00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:13,239
Speaker 2: they paid for out of town's surveillance because remember the

828
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:15,560
Speaker 2: ring was operating all the way to Cuba, so like,

829
00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 2: I guess one of us has to go to Cuba.

830
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:21,759
Speaker 2: Sorry Van Seiss He's like, we have to be have

831
00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:23,360
Speaker 2: total secrecy for this.

832
00:42:23,320 --> 00:42:24,920
Speaker 3: And they're not working with the FEDS on this. This

833
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 3: is the local money.

834
00:42:26,960 --> 00:42:34,319
Speaker 2: Local, yes, just plus but the chapstick and the dance boat.

835
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:39,360
Speaker 2: So that they're thinking, okay, since the Denver police are corrupt,

836
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:43,280
Speaker 2: you know, most of them are on lose payroll, leaks

837
00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:46,879
Speaker 2: could lead to murder, witness intimidation, sabotage, so everything has

838
00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:50,560
Speaker 2: to be super secret. Plus like the businessmen, they feared

839
00:42:50,719 --> 00:42:54,919
Speaker 2: for their lives, as they should, and the financial retaliation,

840
00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:58,800
Speaker 2: you know, not just that. So to hide their involvement,

841
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:03,160
Speaker 2: they used sheldone. They met in private homes in public

842
00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:06,359
Speaker 2: Van Seiss just referred to them as my backers, and

843
00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:09,600
Speaker 2: all records were kept off the books and stored personally.

844
00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:12,640
Speaker 4: They had a couple of weekly Bible reading meetings. Yeah,

845
00:43:12,719 --> 00:43:14,440
Speaker 4: you're gonna be at the Bible reading, Like.

846
00:43:14,480 --> 00:43:17,399
Speaker 2: Let's go read the Bible again. So the strike team

847
00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:20,560
Speaker 2: was staffed with undercover operatives. Most of them were like

848
00:43:20,680 --> 00:43:21,880
Speaker 2: World War one vets.

849
00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:25,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, and this dude's friends with Pinkerton.

850
00:43:25,280 --> 00:43:28,319
Speaker 2: Lewis what I'm saying.

851
00:43:27,239 --> 00:43:32,759
Speaker 4: Again, the best like private detective on the continent and

852
00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:36,080
Speaker 4: everybody they know, they know all of the black market.

853
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:38,719
Speaker 3: People, and so he has hard to find people they

854
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:41,400
Speaker 3: don't know, right, who were good at this kind of business.

855
00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:44,000
Speaker 2: That's van siss world War One. He's got to go

856
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:45,320
Speaker 2: to the intelligence guy.

857
00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:47,200
Speaker 3: And go to like the ones he knew.

858
00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:49,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's got to go personally people. I mean he's

859
00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:52,440
Speaker 4: got a vet. Basically, he can't trust any that's not

860
00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:53,880
Speaker 4: put that together.

861
00:43:54,080 --> 00:43:54,680
Speaker 2: That's so good.

862
00:43:54,719 --> 00:43:57,160
Speaker 3: Well, no, the Pinkertons was like, he should hire Painker.

863
00:43:57,200 --> 00:43:58,160
Speaker 2: Oh he can't.

864
00:43:58,520 --> 00:43:58,759
Speaker 3: Yeah.

865
00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:03,400
Speaker 2: So they monitored the known bunkomen for months and like

866
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:06,320
Speaker 2: along the way, they're just gathering all this airtight evidence.

867
00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:10,600
Speaker 2: They filmed and documented like real scams as they happened.

868
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:13,279
Speaker 2: They didn't want lou to be able to weasel out

869
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:16,440
Speaker 2: of any and like you know, he'd have due process

870
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:20,200
Speaker 2: as afforded to anyone on your soil. So they needed

871
00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:23,759
Speaker 2: to come correct though, with like actual solid evidence. So

872
00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:26,520
Speaker 2: they tracked how the victims were roped in, lured to

873
00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:31,520
Speaker 2: fake exchanges, conned and then dumped operatives posed as would

874
00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 2: be victims. And yeah, at one point Van Seiss's backers

875
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:42,560
Speaker 2: helped him tail and surveil the mayor, Dewey Bailey, because

876
00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:46,360
Speaker 2: everyone was like, he's got to be protected. Bailey didn't

877
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:50,040
Speaker 2: ever get charged, but the surveillance helped prove like how

878
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:54,560
Speaker 2: far the rot had spread, totally reinforced that need for

879
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:58,480
Speaker 2: secrecy to so over the course of a year, they

880
00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:03,759
Speaker 2: collected all this evidence against the blogger gang. They tailed,

881
00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:08,279
Speaker 2: wire tapped, Van Seiss went through lose garbage on a

882
00:45:08,360 --> 00:45:13,919
Speaker 2: regular personally. Yeah, they had a dictaphone installed in Lo's

883
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:18,120
Speaker 2: office secretly, which didn't require search warrant at the time.

884
00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:22,600
Speaker 3: Wow, yeah, crazy, I would voice active talking he clicks over.

885
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:24,920
Speaker 2: I guess yeah, just two early early days.

886
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:27,680
Speaker 3: So Van size was premoranda, right, that kind of stuff.

887
00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:29,839
Speaker 2: But it's like it's new technology.

888
00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:32,200
Speaker 4: Yeah, but if I'm saying that, they don't even have

889
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:34,680
Speaker 4: the thought to make it like, oh, yeah, you're gonna.

890
00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:37,320
Speaker 3: Need you're gonna need this some legal protections.

891
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:42,200
Speaker 2: So Van Seiss found that there was a police detective

892
00:45:42,800 --> 00:45:46,040
Speaker 2: in the DA's office who was on lose payroll, and

893
00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:48,239
Speaker 2: he's like, you know what, don't worry about it. Van

894
00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:51,279
Speaker 2: Siss just let him continue on his merry way. But

895
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:54,440
Speaker 2: fed him all this bad intel to mess with the

896
00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:55,120
Speaker 2: Bunco ring.

897
00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:55,840
Speaker 3: Oh smart.

898
00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:58,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Van Sis he's ready to launch a raid

899
00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:01,960
Speaker 2: on the gang. He prepares everything in advance, like down

900
00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:03,560
Speaker 2: to the most minute detail.

901
00:46:04,080 --> 00:46:07,120
Speaker 4: I don't normally root for the cops, but I'm lovings. Yeah,

902
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:08,200
Speaker 4: his operations great.

903
00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:11,600
Speaker 2: He the whole thing was carried out using private cars.

904
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:17,160
Speaker 2: Trusted volunteers carried out the arrest, so not police. He

905
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:20,200
Speaker 2: pre rented jail space in the city jail.

906
00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:21,920
Speaker 3: This apparent.

907
00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:25,279
Speaker 2: I guess he's like, I just want to book it out.

908
00:46:25,360 --> 00:46:27,600
Speaker 4: I'm having a party the Sea Block for the weekend,

909
00:46:27,719 --> 00:46:30,000
Speaker 4: having a batch. I got some musicians coming into town.

910
00:46:30,040 --> 00:46:30,800
Speaker 4: They need housing.

911
00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:35,239
Speaker 2: It's like his backers paid for all the deputizing of

912
00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:38,960
Speaker 2: like all the military vets, and you know those are

913
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:41,480
Speaker 2: the ones, like you said, he personally vented all of them.

914
00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:45,440
Speaker 2: The takedown was almost surgical. So Van Seiss, he had

915
00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:48,319
Speaker 2: a list of sixty seven names, and these were like

916
00:46:48,520 --> 00:46:50,239
Speaker 2: every single key player.

917
00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 3: In the buckle.

918
00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:57,799
Speaker 2: Yeah for Blue himself, down to like the Ropers Hills and.

919
00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:00,919
Speaker 3: Like the lowest debts. You know, some guy had.

920
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:02,799
Speaker 2: A crooked wig being like how can I help you

921
00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:07,800
Speaker 2: sitting at a desk. So, like any good cinematic takedown,

922
00:47:08,239 --> 00:47:10,400
Speaker 2: they had to bust them all at the same time

923
00:47:10,480 --> 00:47:11,839
Speaker 2: so they wouldn't tip each other off.

924
00:47:11,840 --> 00:47:13,719
Speaker 3: He got sixty seconds to coordinate that.

925
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:16,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, so can I call a time out really quickly

926
00:47:16,120 --> 00:47:18,279
Speaker 2: here and point out that it didn't look to me

927
00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:21,439
Speaker 2: like there have been any movies about Lou Blanger. Yeah,

928
00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:23,240
Speaker 2: so you need to call DIBs on the screenplay.

929
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:25,600
Speaker 3: I want that on site. Man, this guy is like

930
00:47:25,640 --> 00:47:26,319
Speaker 3: an Elliott n.

931
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:29,520
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, okay. So the sting they needed to get

932
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 2: them all at once. They put in so much work

933
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,400
Speaker 2: they could not risk this falling apart. And like the

934
00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:37,840
Speaker 2: worst would be if Lou gets away, because like he

935
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:40,080
Speaker 2: has connections everywhere, he can just disappear.

936
00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:41,759
Speaker 3: You really want to get him.

937
00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:44,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's the he's the key. August twenty fourth, nineteen

938
00:47:44,920 --> 00:47:47,560
Speaker 2: twenty two. So it's early in the morning. Van Seiss's

939
00:47:47,600 --> 00:47:51,400
Speaker 2: team fans out across Denver in private vehicles.

940
00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:52,960
Speaker 3: Sixty seven people they got to pick up.

941
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:56,040
Speaker 2: Arrest teams there were like two to three agents per target.

942
00:47:56,440 --> 00:47:58,960
Speaker 3: That's at eighty people.

943
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:01,080
Speaker 2: Sure if you say so. Came to math. I don't

944
00:48:01,080 --> 00:48:01,919
Speaker 2: even know how to read.

945
00:48:02,560 --> 00:48:02,719
Speaker 3: Uh.

946
00:48:02,760 --> 00:48:07,200
Speaker 2: These teams they hit homes, hotels, saloons, the fake investment offices.

947
00:48:07,280 --> 00:48:09,320
Speaker 2: People are like, well, I open up my fake stock

948
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:13,400
Speaker 2: exchange this morning. Remember, no police are used, so only

949
00:48:13,560 --> 00:48:19,880
Speaker 2: the trust exactly exactly. Some agents pretended to be clients

950
00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:23,719
Speaker 2: and then arrested the con then dam like they would

951
00:48:23,800 --> 00:48:24,800
Speaker 2: one last undercover.

952
00:48:25,120 --> 00:48:26,600
Speaker 3: They know where they're going to be like nine am.

953
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:29,640
Speaker 3: Others I want.

954
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:34,360
Speaker 2: To They pulled them from like street corners. All the

955
00:48:34,480 --> 00:48:38,759
Speaker 2: arrestees were transported immediately to the county jail, where they

956
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:43,759
Speaker 2: had like the pre reserved VIP cells. All of the

957
00:48:43,960 --> 00:48:46,680
Speaker 2: arrests happened within a window of one to two hours,

958
00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:51,279
Speaker 2: and so by mid morning, you know, everyone's in custody,

959
00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:53,840
Speaker 2: including Lou. They picked him up as he was like

960
00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 2: walking down the street puffing on a cigar. He owned

961
00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:58,359
Speaker 2: a cigar shop. He just gone in and picked one up,

962
00:48:58,719 --> 00:49:02,120
Speaker 2: smoking a stogy. He and Duff were the first to

963
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:05,840
Speaker 2: be arrested. So thirty three of the rest of the

964
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:09,000
Speaker 2: ring were caught and they got held on fraud and

965
00:49:09,040 --> 00:49:12,239
Speaker 2: conspiracy charges. The rest of the guys they escaped because

966
00:49:12,239 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 2: they were like further down the ladder, further out on

967
00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:18,640
Speaker 2: the arrest schedule in the morning. Van Seiss had everything

968
00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:22,400
Speaker 2: on these guys. So they had the conscripts, the props,

969
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:27,040
Speaker 2: the fake telegrams, the stock ticker paper, testimony from out

970
00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:31,320
Speaker 2: of state victims who'd been defrauded in Denver. Despite all

971
00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:36,000
Speaker 2: of the pressure and all the threats, Van Seiss prosecuted.

972
00:49:35,320 --> 00:49:37,880
Speaker 3: The case himself as the prosecuting.

973
00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:43,600
Speaker 2: As the prosecution, he Van sised for the people. He

974
00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:47,400
Speaker 2: did not trust anyone else to do it. Yeah, los

975
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:51,640
Speaker 2: lawyers filed motions, they bribed, they bullied, but like Van

976
00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:52,799
Speaker 2: Size is like what you're gonna do?

977
00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:53,680
Speaker 3: Like, my.

978
00:49:55,320 --> 00:49:59,480
Speaker 2: Stuff is airtight. So the bust was huge, news splashed

979
00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:03,320
Speaker 2: in paper coast to coast. Oh wow, it's amazing entertainment.

980
00:50:03,400 --> 00:50:06,160
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, but it's like a boss tweed kind of.

981
00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:10,759
Speaker 2: But the Denver Post wouldn't print Lose name. What one

982
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:14,759
Speaker 2: of the co owners, Harry Tammin, He was a good

983
00:50:14,760 --> 00:50:17,760
Speaker 2: buddy of Lose. But then remember the other guy, Fred

984
00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:21,560
Speaker 2: Bomfield's the other co owner. He was helping fund the takedown. Yeah,

985
00:50:21,680 --> 00:50:25,200
Speaker 2: so it was a house divided so uh, Fred though

986
00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:28,480
Speaker 2: he made the papers editors and that embargo print lose

987
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:31,560
Speaker 2: names and then support the prosecution of what they were

988
00:50:31,600 --> 00:50:34,439
Speaker 2: calling the quote million dollar Bunko ring.

989
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:36,960
Speaker 3: Once the music stops playing and the lights go on,

990
00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:39,080
Speaker 3: well the dances got to do.

991
00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:41,640
Speaker 2: It then that the million dollar bunko ring. That's like

992
00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:46,479
Speaker 2: the press nickname right and coverages like reaching a fever pitch.

993
00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:49,399
Speaker 2: Heading into trial, the guys they were pulling in way

994
00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:51,560
Speaker 2: more than a million dollars a year, though it missed

995
00:50:51,600 --> 00:50:54,880
Speaker 2: mind boggling amounts of money. So during the trial, everyone's

996
00:50:54,920 --> 00:50:57,719
Speaker 2: pretty sure the jury had been tampered with. I'm guessing yeah,

997
00:50:57,800 --> 00:51:01,160
Speaker 2: lose guys had approached four of the jurors and then

998
00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:02,920
Speaker 2: they get to the fifth one that they're going to

999
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:09,240
Speaker 2: try and influence herman Oculi. Okay, he's crafty, right, he's

1000
00:51:09,280 --> 00:51:11,960
Speaker 2: he's acting like he's all in on fixing the trial.

1001
00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:14,600
Speaker 2: He took the money they offered and then he went

1002
00:51:14,680 --> 00:51:16,960
Speaker 2: right to his boss, who went right to Van Seiss.

1003
00:51:17,719 --> 00:51:20,680
Speaker 2: So the jury like they're deliberating, right, and it looks

1004
00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:23,000
Speaker 2: like they're going to almost be deadlocked, because like after

1005
00:51:23,120 --> 00:51:27,000
Speaker 2: four days, three jurors still wanted to acquit even though

1006
00:51:27,040 --> 00:51:31,000
Speaker 2: they have all this evidence, zero reasonable doubt. So then

1007
00:51:31,280 --> 00:51:34,399
Speaker 2: then herman he steps up right in front of all

1008
00:51:34,400 --> 00:51:38,160
Speaker 2: the other jurors. He told the three who wanted to acquit, quote,

1009
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:41,239
Speaker 2: the difference between me and you is that I got

1010
00:51:41,280 --> 00:51:43,400
Speaker 2: my five hundred dollars, but I turned it over to

1011
00:51:43,440 --> 00:51:46,799
Speaker 2: the judge and you've still got yours. Oh and that

1012
00:51:47,040 --> 00:51:49,600
Speaker 2: freaked them out, like they didn't want to go down too,

1013
00:51:50,480 --> 00:51:53,920
Speaker 2: so they all flipped over to guilty immediately, immediately.

1014
00:51:54,120 --> 00:51:54,760
Speaker 3: That's amazing.

1015
00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:57,520
Speaker 2: So March twenty eighth, nineteen twenty three, the jury comes

1016
00:51:57,560 --> 00:52:01,040
Speaker 2: back guilty against Lou all the other defendants who are

1017
00:52:01,040 --> 00:52:03,719
Speaker 2: still on trial. In the end, Lou gets convicted and

1018
00:52:03,800 --> 00:52:07,120
Speaker 2: sentenced to seven to ten years. He was seventy five

1019
00:52:07,160 --> 00:52:07,520
Speaker 2: years old.

1020
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:08,960
Speaker 3: Say he's got to be up there.

1021
00:52:09,040 --> 00:52:11,480
Speaker 2: Health wasn't the best. The trial really took it out

1022
00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:13,480
Speaker 2: of him. But what tipped him over the edge was

1023
00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:17,080
Speaker 2: the Denver Post because they ran an article after like

1024
00:52:17,320 --> 00:52:20,480
Speaker 2: you know, fair game, they ran an article that revealed

1025
00:52:20,520 --> 00:52:23,600
Speaker 2: that Lou had been leading this double life for twenty years.

1026
00:52:24,480 --> 00:52:27,719
Speaker 2: He lived with his wife Nola on the weekends, but

1027
00:52:27,840 --> 00:52:31,360
Speaker 2: during the week he lived with his mistress Iola Redon

1028
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:35,360
Speaker 2: and the wife didn't know about the arrangement. What she

1029
00:52:35,480 --> 00:52:37,280
Speaker 2: thought he Maly just works in the city.

1030
00:52:37,640 --> 00:52:39,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, he stays so busy.

1031
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:43,479
Speaker 2: He makes me so much money as so I get.

1032
00:52:43,760 --> 00:52:46,719
Speaker 2: How do you think the revelation destroyed him?

1033
00:52:47,120 --> 00:52:47,520
Speaker 3: Really?

1034
00:52:47,680 --> 00:52:51,160
Speaker 2: Yeah? All he wanted at that point was his wife's forgiveness.

1035
00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:52,400
Speaker 2: That's all he cared about.

1036
00:52:52,840 --> 00:52:54,799
Speaker 3: Why did he I don't know, I don't know.

1037
00:52:54,800 --> 00:52:57,200
Speaker 2: They patched things up. They patch things up?

1038
00:52:57,239 --> 00:52:58,000
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me?

1039
00:52:58,120 --> 00:53:02,000
Speaker 2: And he transferred everything he owned, money, property, investments, everything

1040
00:53:02,040 --> 00:53:03,520
Speaker 2: to her before he went into the clink.

1041
00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:05,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, which, like you know, he wants to keep it.

1042
00:53:06,280 --> 00:53:10,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, lou he lost trust. Yeah, he lost a bunch

1043
00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:13,200
Speaker 2: of appeals, and in a last ditch effort, he wrote

1044
00:53:13,239 --> 00:53:17,120
Speaker 2: to Van Seiss and begged for leniency. This is what

1045
00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:21,440
Speaker 2: van Seiss wrote back, What leniency have you shown to others?

1046
00:53:21,840 --> 00:53:25,480
Speaker 2: What God have you worshiped except the almighty dollar? When

1047
00:53:25,520 --> 00:53:29,200
Speaker 2: you stole Preacher Mena's trust funds? Did you hesitate when

1048
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:32,160
Speaker 2: overwhelmed with shame he committed suicide? Did you give any

1049
00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:35,000
Speaker 2: aid to his family when you took the life earnings

1050
00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:37,880
Speaker 2: of an old man Donovan of New Orleans and reduced

1051
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:40,719
Speaker 2: him from comfort to penury. What did you do to

1052
00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:43,440
Speaker 2: ease the last months of his life? You have been

1053
00:53:43,480 --> 00:53:46,279
Speaker 2: a criminal from the time of your youth. You've been

1054
00:53:46,400 --> 00:53:50,279
Speaker 2: the fixer of the town. You have prostituted justice. You've

1055
00:53:50,320 --> 00:53:54,160
Speaker 2: bribed judges and jurors, state, city and police officials. You

1056
00:53:54,239 --> 00:53:57,920
Speaker 2: have ruined hundreds of men with that record. Tell me

1057
00:53:58,160 --> 00:54:02,759
Speaker 2: why a death sentence is not your day? With his

1058
00:54:02,960 --> 00:54:04,880
Speaker 2: l seven to ten years might have Well.

1059
00:54:04,840 --> 00:54:06,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we're all kind of just saying the

1060
00:54:06,520 --> 00:54:06,960
Speaker 3: same thing.

1061
00:54:07,000 --> 00:54:09,200
Speaker 2: And he did. He died in prison in nineteen twenty

1062
00:54:09,200 --> 00:54:12,600
Speaker 2: four after only being there a few months. The Blonder

1063
00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:17,360
Speaker 2: bust that cleaned out Denver's criminal elite, like basically overnight.

1064
00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:20,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, clan it the whole town. I imagine Van siss.

1065
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:22,520
Speaker 2: He didn't run for reelection.

1066
00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:23,360
Speaker 3: That's all he wanted to do.

1067
00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:26,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, he returned to private law instead of like, you know,

1068
00:54:26,600 --> 00:54:28,839
Speaker 2: being tempted to be corrupted by politics.

1069
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:29,480
Speaker 3: Wow.

1070
00:54:29,520 --> 00:54:31,640
Speaker 2: Like he didn't want anything. He did his job. He

1071
00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:35,440
Speaker 2: wrote a book called Fighting the Underworld in nineteen thirty

1072
00:54:35,480 --> 00:54:38,759
Speaker 2: six tells his side of the story, and then his

1073
00:54:38,760 --> 00:54:42,400
Speaker 2: his like methods became a blueprint for fighting organized crime.

1074
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:44,640
Speaker 3: Sounds like it, I mean, basically get Rico out of it.

1075
00:54:44,640 --> 00:54:46,799
Speaker 2: It's like pre FBI right, That's what I'm saying.

1076
00:54:46,840 --> 00:54:48,840
Speaker 3: When you build a case over and show all the connections.

1077
00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:53,799
Speaker 2: Hey Edgar Hoover right from his playbook. Oh yeah, so

1078
00:54:53,960 --> 00:54:59,640
Speaker 2: because he used private funding, undercover infiltration, surprise prosecution like that.

1079
00:54:59,520 --> 00:55:01,360
Speaker 2: That you that's how you bust racket.

1080
00:55:01,239 --> 00:55:03,280
Speaker 3: Totally, the surprise raid, all on the same day.

1081
00:55:03,320 --> 00:55:05,240
Speaker 2: Saren, what's your ridiculous tickaway.

1082
00:55:05,239 --> 00:55:07,760
Speaker 3: That I've never heard of this cat van siss.

1083
00:55:07,800 --> 00:55:09,719
Speaker 4: I mean, like, you know, I listened to a lot

1084
00:55:09,719 --> 00:55:11,480
Speaker 4: of the old radio shows and they'll reference a lot

1085
00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:13,360
Speaker 4: of the stuff from the nineteenth century, a lot of

1086
00:55:13,360 --> 00:55:15,279
Speaker 4: the great outlaws, a lot of the great law men,

1087
00:55:15,680 --> 00:55:17,239
Speaker 4: and this one's never come up. And I've listened to

1088
00:55:17,280 --> 00:55:20,160
Speaker 4: stories about Denver. I've heard Soapie Smith mentioned in certain

1089
00:55:20,200 --> 00:55:24,080
Speaker 4: shows as like a outlaw figure, and they fictionalize them like, well,

1090
00:55:24,120 --> 00:55:26,160
Speaker 4: you know, Soapie Smith's got the so and So's saloon

1091
00:55:26,239 --> 00:55:28,160
Speaker 4: or whatever, and I'm like, oh, Lisciber told me about

1092
00:55:28,200 --> 00:55:31,239
Speaker 4: that guy. Never have I heard about this guy. But

1093
00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:35,360
Speaker 4: it's just fascinating what gets lost in American history. I

1094
00:55:35,480 --> 00:55:37,919
Speaker 4: think about the day about Smedley Butler, the guy who

1095
00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:41,520
Speaker 4: like stopped. You reminded me of this with with the juror,

1096
00:55:41,640 --> 00:55:43,719
Speaker 4: where you act like you're in on the scam. Yeah,

1097
00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:46,680
Speaker 4: you get enough evidence and then you flip right. As

1098
00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:49,000
Speaker 4: long as you're legitimately doing that, that's a great pull.

1099
00:55:49,080 --> 00:55:50,840
Speaker 4: And so I was thinking about that with him or

1100
00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:53,520
Speaker 4: he did that where he basically showed FDR that there

1101
00:55:53,560 --> 00:55:56,200
Speaker 4: was a coup against him. My point being that the

1102
00:55:56,320 --> 00:56:00,800
Speaker 4: ridiculousness is actually this not like it's not prosaic like sublime.

1103
00:56:00,880 --> 00:56:03,279
Speaker 4: Like the ridiculous is the juror doing the right thing.

1104
00:56:03,320 --> 00:56:06,000
Speaker 4: And I didn't anticipate that for Van Seiss not running

1105
00:56:06,040 --> 00:56:07,839
Speaker 4: for a reelection or trying to turn this into power

1106
00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:10,440
Speaker 4: and basically pulling a Cincinnatus in a George Washington and

1107
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:11,919
Speaker 4: just walking away and.

1108
00:56:11,840 --> 00:56:18,759
Speaker 3: Being remaining Yeah, so ridiculous, this one is that exactly.

1109
00:56:19,120 --> 00:56:19,799
Speaker 3: We never we don't.

1110
00:56:20,000 --> 00:56:22,360
Speaker 4: We so rarely hear about good men doing things like

1111
00:56:22,400 --> 00:56:23,560
Speaker 4: this and ridiculous.

1112
00:56:23,560 --> 00:56:25,200
Speaker 2: And that's why you have to say, like, I can't

1113
00:56:25,800 --> 00:56:26,640
Speaker 2: like this guy is.

1114
00:56:26,640 --> 00:56:27,799
Speaker 3: Clean, totally, he's great.

1115
00:56:27,840 --> 00:56:29,680
Speaker 2: I love he's doing it for just.

1116
00:56:29,760 --> 00:56:32,480
Speaker 3: You want to protect people from penry. Exactly, you can't.

1117
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:34,920
Speaker 4: Be taking all that the money from the old Yeah, So, Elizabeth,

1118
00:56:34,920 --> 00:56:36,080
Speaker 4: what's your ridiculous takeaway?

1119
00:56:36,160 --> 00:56:39,680
Speaker 2: I just the characters. I'm just enamored of every character

1120
00:56:39,760 --> 00:56:42,760
Speaker 2: in this that like Leu and his family are terrible

1121
00:56:42,800 --> 00:56:46,719
Speaker 2: but fascinating totally, and then Van Seiss coming through at

1122
00:56:46,719 --> 00:56:49,840
Speaker 2: the end. Oh yeah, I just I love good characters.

1123
00:56:50,080 --> 00:56:51,479
Speaker 3: Thank you. Oh by the way, thank you for letting

1124
00:56:51,520 --> 00:56:53,040
Speaker 3: me be whiter. That was fun.

1125
00:56:53,160 --> 00:56:56,480
Speaker 2: That was my gift to you. If to you, I

1126
00:56:56,560 --> 00:56:57,439
Speaker 2: need to talk back.

1127
00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:08,399
Speaker 3: Oh oh my god, I went.

1128
00:57:12,880 --> 00:57:17,240
Speaker 7: Thank you Ridiculous Crime. Before I started listening to you,

1129
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:23,640
Speaker 7: I used to park illegally and sometimes even on the sidewalk.

1130
00:57:24,760 --> 00:57:28,760
Speaker 7: Now I have started a soup kitchen since I've started

1131
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:33,280
Speaker 7: listening to you because you inspired me so much. That

1132
00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:39,000
Speaker 7: and I have stopped my Tamagachi and BMX Triple X

1133
00:57:39,120 --> 00:57:43,680
Speaker 7: obsession and change it to you.

1134
00:57:45,240 --> 00:57:46,400
Speaker 2: We do the Lord's word.

1135
00:57:46,760 --> 00:57:48,840
Speaker 3: Tell you. I love to have an effect in the world.

1136
00:57:49,120 --> 00:57:49,600
Speaker 4: You know what.

1137
00:57:49,720 --> 00:57:52,920
Speaker 2: That's that's that's I feel like.

1138
00:57:53,520 --> 00:57:58,000
Speaker 3: Right now for real perform That was so good.

1139
00:57:58,520 --> 00:58:01,200
Speaker 2: That's it for today. You can find us online at

1140
00:58:01,280 --> 00:58:05,920
Speaker 2: ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also a Ridiculous Crime on

1141
00:58:06,000 --> 00:58:10,480
Speaker 2: Blue Sky Instagram. We're on YouTube. There's animation on the

1142
00:58:10,480 --> 00:58:12,840
Speaker 2: screen while the episodes play. It's great for keeping on

1143
00:58:12,880 --> 00:58:17,120
Speaker 2: in the background. It's Ridiculous Crime Pod. Over there, there's

1144
00:58:17,160 --> 00:58:20,680
Speaker 2: another Ridiculous Crime that's trash. You want Ridiculous Crime Pod,

1145
00:58:21,360 --> 00:58:23,720
Speaker 2: and we may put out little special bits on there

1146
00:58:24,400 --> 00:58:26,720
Speaker 2: at some point. So it's a good idea to subscribe

1147
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:29,400
Speaker 2: to the channel even if you listen somewhere else on

1148
00:58:29,560 --> 00:58:32,560
Speaker 2: the regular. You can email us at Ridiculous Crime at

1149
00:58:32,600 --> 00:58:36,360
Speaker 2: gmail dot com, leave a talk back on the iHeart app,

1150
00:58:36,480 --> 00:58:45,760
Speaker 2: like that gem, and make my day reach out. Ridiculous

1151
00:58:45,760 --> 00:58:48,960
Speaker 2: Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced

1152
00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:52,120
Speaker 2: and edited by King of the Bunco Rings Dave Cousten.

1153
00:58:52,800 --> 00:58:54,680
Speaker 3: Starring an Alice rutger Is.

1154
00:58:54,760 --> 00:58:59,200
Speaker 2: Judith Research is by Denver's most terrifying enforcer, Marissa Brown.

1155
00:59:00,200 --> 00:59:03,440
Speaker 2: Song is by Phony Day Traders Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton.

1156
00:59:03,800 --> 00:59:07,800
Speaker 2: Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred guest Haron,

1157
00:59:07,880 --> 00:59:12,480
Speaker 2: makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers are Duped

1158
00:59:12,560 --> 00:59:15,160
Speaker 2: tourists Ben Bollen and Noel Brown.

1159
00:59:20,160 --> 00:59:25,960
Speaker 5: Redous Crime Say It One More Times Crime.

1160
00:59:26,960 --> 00:59:30,320
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Four More Podcasts

1161
00:59:30,440 --> 00:59:33,600
Speaker 1: My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or

1162
00:59:33,640 --> 00:59:35,440
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.