WEBVTT - The Day the Dalí Escaped From Prison 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:16.200 partnership with I Heart Radio. The one thing that could 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:19.880 be weirder than an original Salvador Dolli painting being stolen 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:21.840 from the walls of the New York City Department of 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:26.640 Corrections is the fact that an original Salvador Dali painting 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.920 hung for nearly forty years in the Rikers Island Jail 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:34.280 complex in the first place. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm ranch 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:38.640 Market and I'm Holly Fry. So first, let's get to 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:41.600 know a little about the man behind this stolen work. 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:46.640 He was worn Salvador Domingo Felippe Jacinto Dalis dominic on 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:52.240 Man four in the Catalonian town of Figueris in northeastern Spain, 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:56.800 to Salvador Dali Kusi and Felipa Dominic Feris. He had 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:59.800 an older brother who passed away in infancy, and a sister, 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.920 on A Maria, who was born when Dali was aged four. 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:08.000 According to Dolli biographer Ian Gibson, his mother was so 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:12.040 proud of her son's childhood drawings and reportedly would boast 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:15.400 quote when he says he'll draw a swan, he draws 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:17.880 a swan, and when he says he'll do a duck, 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.480 it's a duck. Dali was in his teens when his 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:25.160 mother died of cancer. In his autobiography, he wrote of her, quote, 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.959 this was the greatest blow I had experienced in my life. 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:31.960 I worshiped her. I saw to myself that I would 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:34.760 snatch my mother from death and destiny with swords of light, 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:39.440 that someday would savagely gleam around my glorious name. Several 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.040 years after her death, he sketched an outline of Christ 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.640 and scrawl the cross at the words about spitting on 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:48.160 his mother's portrait, and some reports suggest that even though 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:51.400 he didn't mean this to slander his mother, his father 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:56.600 offended threw him out. He is described as having been 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:01.160 an imaginative and dreamy child who was also self centered 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:05.800 and spoiled. In his ninety two autobiography The Secret Life 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.720 of savon Or Dali, he wrote, quote, at the age 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.560 of six, I wanted to be a cook. At seven, 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.639 I wanted to be Napoleon, and my ambition has been 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:19.240 growing steadily ever since. He spoke about being proud of 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.480 his delicate sensitivity, and he prided himself on being different 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.280 from his peers. There's actually an anecdote about Dolly that 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:32.440 when his fellow school children learned that grasshoppers frightened him, 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:35.480 they would throw them at him, and in his telling 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.480 of the story, it was just so that they could 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:41.840 delight in his terror. Dalia received his formal education in 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:46.079 fine arts in Madrid, and his artistic creations spanned multiple mediums, 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:50.200 including not only painting and illustration, but photography and film. 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:52.920 He was an artist and author, a critic, and he 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:58.240 was most definitely a provocateur. Dolly was very young, just fourteen, 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.000 when he first exhibited work as part of a show 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.600 in Figari's. Three years later, he was admitted to the 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:07.240 Royal Academy of Fine Arts in San Fernando in Madrid, 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:12.120 and once there he reportedly believed his teachers were He 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:15.080 believed he were just out of touch, and in one anecdote, 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:17.800 he said while at school that he could learn more 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:21.960 from French magazines than his classes, and he wasn't quiet 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.480 about it. When it was time for his year end 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.359 exam in art history at the Academy, Dolly said of 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.600 his examiners, quote, I am very sorry, but I am 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:35.560 infinitely more intelligent than these three professors, and I therefore 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:39.080 refused to be examined by them. I know this subject 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:44.200 much too well. Academy officials expelled him without a diploma. 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.160 Smithsonian magazine would say it best decades later when they 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:52.400 printed quote, after all, Dolly without the antics is not Dolly. 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:57.040 It's when he moved to Paris in n and he 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.840 was twenty two at that time that he began painting 0:03:59.880 --> 0:04:04.800 his first Surrealist pieces. The artistic and intellectual movement of 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.760 Surrealism was begun by writer Andre Breton just two years 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:13.560 earlier in four and it gained popularity primarily between the 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:18.880 First and Second World Wars. Inspired by Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theories, 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:23.599 it championed artistic expression through the exploration of the unconscious mind. 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.880 Dali was also known for his methods of free association 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.839 to approach his art. He's credited with expanding on the 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:37.200 movement's dreamy imagery with his own erotically charged hallucinations. Dolly 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.320 quickly became part of the center of the surrealist movement, 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.800 along with other artists including Renema Greet and Johan Mereaux. 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:48.240 Breta wrote that Dali's name was quote synonymous with revelation 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.719 in the most resplendent sense of the word. It's his 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:55.039 painting The Persistence of Memory, that's the one that features 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.279 the melting clocks. That might be his most iconic and 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.080 his most recognized work. He painted that in nineteen thirty one, 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:06.840 and many years later Dolly famously recounted its origins, explaining 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:10.520 that the quote soft watches were the remains of a 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:15.520 very strong Camembert cheese. He hit the art scene when 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:17.480 he moved to Paris, and he remained in the public 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.160 eye for many decades, right up until his death at 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:23.880 a j D. Four in nineteen thirty six. At thirty two, 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:27.679 DOLLI was on the cover of Time magazine quote, compared 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.640 to Velasquez, I am nothing, but compared to contemporary painters, 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:36.359 I am the most big genius of modern time. Salvador 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:41.440 Dolly said this of himself. He wasn't wrong about his largesse. 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.480 His paintings would later command more than twenty one million 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:48.119 dollars at auction. So now that we know about Dolly, 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:49.600 we're going to take a break for a word from 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:53.120 our sponsor. When we return, we should probably talk about 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.080 how an original work of his ended up in the 0:05:56.160 --> 0:06:13.720 mess hall at an American prison. Welcome back to Criminalia. 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:18.919 Let's talk first about Rikers, the correctional compound where this 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:23.599 whole thing took place. So we know the artist, so 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:29.120 we'll explore the scene of the heist. Rikers Island, known 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.800 as Rikers. The Rikers Island Complex is the main correctional 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.000 compound of New York City, and it's located on which 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:40.080 you could probably guess, Rikers Island, and that sits in 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.800 the East River between the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx. 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:47.479 It's one of the country's most notorious correctional facilities, with 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:51.920 a reputation for both violence and neglect. During its history, 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:56.240 it has held between four thousand and two detainees and prisoners, 0:06:56.320 --> 0:07:00.440 some famous, some not. In more recent decades, the island 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:05.000 saw rapper Tupac Shakur. John Lennon's assassin Mark David Chapman 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.600 was sentenced there, as was former New York Giants wide 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.520 receiver and Super Bowl champion Plexico Buris. The island is 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.760 named after Abraham Reichn, a Dutch colonist who purchased it 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.360 in sixteen sixty four. The City of New York bought 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.400 the Island from that family in eighteen eighty four, and 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:24.840 it has housed correctional and mental health institutions pretty much 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:31.040 ever since. The complex has ten different facilities. The Otis 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:35.200 Bantam Correctional Center, the Anna M. Cross Center, the George 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:39.119 Matchen Detention Center, and the George R. Virno Center hold 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:44.360 detained adult males. Robert and Devoran Complex houses males between 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:48.480 sixteen and eighteen years of age. The Eric M. Taylor 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:53.480 Center holds sentenced male adolescence and adults. The Rose M. 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:58.640 Singer Center houses sentenced adolescent and adult female detainees, and 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:02.320 the Vernon See Bains Center is a floating eight hundred 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:06.960 bed jail capable of holding medium to maximum security inmates. 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:11.440 The island maintains a barge dock to accommodate it. The 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:15.360 North Infirmary Command houses prisoners in need of medical attention, 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:20.200 and the West Facility houses inmates with contagious diseases. These 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:24.240 things are changing, though. In October, the city passed into 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.960 law a plan to shutter all prison facilities on Rikers 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:32.560 Island by the year. Instead of the jails of Rikers, 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:35.240 there will be a network of four modern jail sites 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:39.760 in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, and according to 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:44.280 city and Corrections officials, this smaller Borow based jail system 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.920 will house a population of no more than three thousand, 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:51.360 three hundred people, so it is much smaller and the 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:55.240 jails will be located within communities and not sequestered on 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.280 an island. This is the very short telling of the 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.000 story of Rikers, but it's not really the jail that 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:04.640 we're interested in, to be honest, this could have been 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:10.199 any incarceration facility like Alcatraz or Sing Sing for that matter. 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:15.520 What we're really talking about is the heist. In February 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.640 of Salvador Dolli was invited to visit a Rikers Island 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:23.520 inmate art program by long time Department of Correction commissioner 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:27.640 and Across Cross had met Dolly's business associate, Nico Eperi 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.320 Fanos at a dinner party where the two laid the 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:34.880 groundwork for Dollie's Island visit. Anna believed in rehabilitating prisoners 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:38.480 through the arts, including painting, as well as through theater productions. 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:42.160 The famous painter's visit would be conducted under the marketing 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:46.840 banner of Salvador Dolly Goes to Prison. Dolly it said, 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:51.800 was known to twitch his waxed, upturned mustache and endorsed 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:53.640 pretty much any product you put in front of him, 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.640 and usually for French and American television commercials. So here's 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:02.240 one example for an am Erican television commercial in seven, 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.520 he sat in an airplane seat alongside Whitey Ford, who 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:07.440 was the star pitcher for the New York Yankees at 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:11.440 the time, and he proclaimed in heavily accented English. The 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:15.960 advertising campaign slogan of now defunct brand of airlines said, 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:19.679 Dolly quote, if you got it, flaunt it, said Ford 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:23.520 in reply. That's telling him, Dolly baby. So when Nico 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:27.560 mentioned the event and its potential press coverage to Dolly, naturally, 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:33.600 Dolly was down for Rikers. On February, Dolly woke up 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:38.040 with a fever of one degrees fahrenheit thirty eight degrees celsius. 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.719 He was scheduled to visit Riker's Island that day to 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.880 meet with inmates and his wife Gala, his pet Acelot Babu, 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:48.520 and a whole lot of press was going to be 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:53.040 there along with him. Dolly never missed a good pr opportunity, 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:56.280 except he did miss this one. He was just too 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:58.560 sick and it was too cold out and he couldn't 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:01.319 make the scheduled ferry ride to the island, and that 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.079 was the only way to access the facility at the time. 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:07.760 But to make up for this cancelation, he decided to 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.800 send the prisoners accustomed Dolly as a means of an apology. 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:14.520 It's said that in about an hour or two, Dolly 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:18.240 whipped up a surrealist crucifixion scene with pencil and India 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.080 inc on a five by three ft piece of paper 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:25.200 so quite large. The painting depicts Christ on the cross 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:29.400 from the Christian Crucifixion story. Dolly signed and dated it 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.360 in the lower corner and included a note saying quote 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:37.319 for the inmates dining room on Riker's Island Belly. Nico 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.880 e very Fanos hand delivered the artwork to the prison, 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:43.920 sending word from Dully to the inmates that quote, you 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.839 are artists. Don't think your life is finished for you 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.640 with art, you have to always feel free. News photos 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:53.839 from that day show Nico presenting Anna with the untitled work. 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:56.120 It hung in the mess hall of what was then 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.920 known as the Correctional Institution for Men for sixteen years 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.560 until an inmate threw a coffee cup at it, but 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.880 the danger it phase actually wasn't from the inmates or 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:10.120 from caffe aated beverages. Really, it was from prison guards. 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:16.640 After the coffee mug incident of the untitled Dolly was 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.000 removed from the wall of the cafeteria. When a warden 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:23.840 named Alexander Jenkins arrived at Riker's that same year, he 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.559 was actually skeptical about whether the Dolly was truly a Dolly, 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.080 and he stated that to one media outlet, saying, quote, 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:33.960 there weren't any records on the painting, and for all 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.120 I know, it could have been an inmates copy of 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:39.680 a Dolly. It was sent to a dealer for authentication 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:42.960 and appraisal, and depending on what report you read, it 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.760 was valued at around a hundred thousand dollars, give or 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.640 take a few thousand either way. After its authentication, it 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.920 was then shipped to a Virginia gallery for temporary display 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.360 in a prison art exhibit, and then it was returned 0:12:56.360 --> 0:13:00.079 to Rikers and the Dolly was placed into storage and 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:04.720 kind of forgotten about by that point. As Robert Tanner 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.240 wrote in the Los Angeles Times, it wasn't forgotten just 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:10.720 at Riker's it was quote a forgotten footnote in the 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:14.320 art world. It sustained some water damage during that time 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:17.840 in storage, and it doesn't seem to resurface again until 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.800 sometime in the nineteen nineties, when reportedly the drawing was 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:25.280 found in the trash and saved by a corrections officer. 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:29.679 It had eventually found its way to the wall of 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.040 a warden's office and then eventually to the lobby of 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.960 the Eric M. Taylor Center that was the facility that 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.679 held sentenced mail adolescents and adults. As Holly said earlier, 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:43.679 most employees of the Department of Corrections and its visitors 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.080 may not have even noticed it on the wall of 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.400 the lobby or the framed note from a warden explaining 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.280 that the image was a genuine ali that was worth 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.120 a lot of money. It hung in its original gold 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.200 frame in a glass case next to a soda ending 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:03.000 machine until Mark first, two thousand and three. On March first, 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:06.400 two thousand and three, the untitled Dolly went missing and 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:10.079 it hasn't been seen since. So we're going to take 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.240 a break here for a word from our sponsor, and 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:14.959 when we're back we will tell the story of the 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:31.600 night A Dolly was stolen from prison. Welcome back to 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.160 criminal Eat. Let's talk about the night of the heist 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:36.640 and the four men who tried to pull it off. 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:42.320 Four men stole the dolly from inside the Riker's complex, 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.920 but the suspects were not who you might initially think. This, 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.720 it turns out, is the story of how to prison 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:54.320 wardens and two corrections officers conspired and carried out the 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:58.520 theft of the Rikers Island Dolly. Just after one am 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:02.040 on March one, two tho three and unplanned fire drill 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:05.680 was staged by four prison officials inside the Eric M. 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:11.280 Taylor Center. All two thousand incarcerated people housed there at 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:15.400 the time were put on lockdown. Guards on duty rushed 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:18.720 from their posts and convened in a remote wing. This 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.320 was all what they had been trained to do, and 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:25.840 this left the lobby where the dolly hung completely empty. 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:29.360 The theft was as basic as this. One person manned 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.360 the fire alarm, two people worked as lookouts, and a 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:36.400 fourth person was responsible for switching the real dolly with 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:42.120 a forgery. But this was not exactly a well planned 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:46.440 out caper. It was not carried out with a great 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.840 deal of efficiency or grace. It was just a few 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:53.040 hours later, after the guard shifts had changed and the 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.800 heightened drama of having that unplanned drill had all quieted down, 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.600 when another corrections officer stated that there was something odd 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.440 about the dolly. It was because it happened that this 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:08.920 particular guard had this habit of quietly praying to the 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.560 drawing every time he started his shift. But that day 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.520 when he arrived, he noticed right away that something was 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.800 very different, and he reported to the warden that the 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.840 drawing appeared to be a fake. It was a fake, 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:27.120 and it was so obviously a fake. In fact, some 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:29.840 of the scene that morning compared what was left behind 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.880 the drawing of a young child. It was a noticeably 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.000 smaller and sloppy copy of what had been hanging in 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.600 that spot for years. There was something else, too, The 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.520 art no longer had that special quirkiness of having been 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.480 at Rikers for so long. The painting had hung in 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:51.280 a cafeteria originally for sixteen years, and it had developed 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:55.640 some reddish food stains ketchup, it's assumed, as it hung 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.760 near the trash bins where inmates dumped their leftovers. The 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:02.520 splotches on the counter fit though they were brown, but 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.639 actually before you even noticed the counterfeit details of the 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:09.439 replacement itself. The most obvious difference may have been that 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.280 the gold leaf mahogany frame that had held the original 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:16.560 piece was also missing. Instead, there was no frame at all, 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.480 and the thieves had hung the forgery with staples to 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:25.240 the back of the inside of the glass case. Thomas Attendant, 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.359 a spokesperson for the New York Department of Corrections, told 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:31.480 The New York Times at the time, quote, it looks 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:35.000 like the painting has been replaced by a copy that 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:37.439 appears to be the case, based on a consensus of 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.720 non expert opinion people who work near the painting and 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:45.959 see it day in and day out. Investigators quickly concluded 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:48.840 that the only people who had access to the artwork 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.480 were not the inmates, but the guards. Inmates did not 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:56.840 have access to that lobby. Investigations were marred by the 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:00.760 surveillance footage, though just so happened that a camera that 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:03.640 pointed directly at the Dolly was linked to a recording 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.120 device in the warden's office, but it had mysteriously stopped 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:13.560 working overnight. No way. Other reports suggest the footage was lost, 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:18.240 but despite the faulty security footage. Four suspects were uncovered 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:22.679 within days, and those included Benny Nutzo and Mitchell Hawkhouser, 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.960 both assistant deputy wardens and Greg's so called and Timothy Pena, 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.240 both corrections officers. It was only a few days after 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:35.119 the heist on March fourth, that Timothy Peena, racked with guilt, 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.480 was the first to turn himself in, and it's Pena 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:42.840 who implicated the other three men. According to court documents, 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:46.840 he confessed to then Department of Corrections Inspector General Mike 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.440 Caruso that Neutzo and Hawkhauser came up with the idea 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:54.440 inside the Riker's commissary known as the Bodega. The men 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:56.920 believed they could sell the painting for a good sum 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.960 on the black market and planned to split the proceeds. 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.000 Pena stated that they had first approached him in November 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:07.200 of two thousand two about helping to steal the Dolly 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:11.880 looking into Our Crystal Ball. This totally jibs with Hawkhouser's 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.440 court testimony when he explained to Don Levin, the prosecutor, 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.280 how the heightst developed from a joke between him and 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.680 Nutso in late two thousand two into a serious plan. 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:25.439 Just a few months later, Peina agreed to wear a 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.160 wire for Caruso and agreed to meet with and record 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.640 his co conspirators. The first meeting was with Sokol, who 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:34.280 met with Peana at a local coffee shop. So Cool, 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.879 unaware his conversation with Pina had been recorded, was taken 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:41.720 into custody as he left the shop. Caruso then also 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:44.680 convinced Socol to agree to wear a wire and record 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:48.399 conversations with hawk Houser and Nutso at work at Rikers 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:52.800 on March five, and he did. By June, all four 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:57.520 men were arrested. Also that June, Pina, Sokol, Hawkhauser, and 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:02.320 Nutso were each charged with second degree and larceny. If convicted, 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:05.040 anyone facing that charge could be sentenced to up to 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:09.719 fifteen years in prison. Pena, Sokol, and hawk Houser pleaded 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:14.399 guilty to the charge, while Nutso denied everything. Hawk Houser's lawyer, 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:17.320 Martin b. Edelman said of the whole affair quote, it 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:23.200 was incredibly stupid. It's interesting because their sentences differed. Pena 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:27.000 was sentenced to five years probation. Sokol was sentenced to 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:31.159 three years probation and find one thousand dollars. Hawk Houser 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.720 was given one to three years in prison, but Benny Nutzo, 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.120 who was often considered the alleged ring leader of this heist, 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:44.920 was acquitted in his jury trial. Yes, acquitted, and some 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.920 people think this may be because Nutso had a high profile, 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:54.199 high powered attorney, Joe Tacopina, representing him, and if you 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.520 don't recognize his name, you'll recognize names of some of 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.400 his clients, who have included Jay z and Alex Rodriguez. 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.560 Tacopina has since described his method in the courtroom, and 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.920 it focused on using Socle's wire taps against the prosecution. 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.800 He presented the recordings to the jury, pointing out that 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.199 you can't clearly hear what was being said during the 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:21.280 parts of the admission of theft. He said, quote on 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:25.200 the vital parts, the part where Benny's allegedly making an admission. 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:27.600 I did this. I took the painting. I knew what 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:30.199 the plan was. Don't worry about it. I destroyed it. 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:34.960 On those vital parts, the word do and don't were interchangeable. 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:37.520 I do know where it is and I don't know 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:41.800 where it is. We're not distinguishable in other clips he 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:45.960 used from under cover recordings. Takapina pointed out, Neotso is 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.040 heard saying of the work, I never had it. Takapina 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:54.040 also read back the official transcript of the recordings to Soco, 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:59.040 intentionally replacing dues with domes and vice versa throughout the text, 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:04.080 effectively changing the meanings of sentences completely. Socle stated he 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.119 too could not tell when Tacopina had swapped out words, 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:09.960 making the point that the wire taps may not have 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:15.000 been accurately transcribed. Said Tacopina, that was the watershed moment 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:18.760 of that trial, the death knell to the prosecution's case 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:21.840 of the trial. He continued, quote, this ranks in the 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:25.080 top five of the most challenging cases I've ever tried. 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:29.800 From an evidentiary standpoint, for sure, this definitely ranks is 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:32.159 my favorite case I've ever tried because it wasn't just 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:35.240 a criminal trial. It was a criminal trial with the 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:40.880 focal point being Salvador Dolly. Nutso was offered a deal 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:44.920 plead guilty in exchange for just four years behind bars, 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:50.480 but Nutso, maintaining his innocence, refused. Tacopina maintained his client 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:53.920 had nothing to do with the heist, and ultimately Nutso 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:56.680 was found not guilty and was acquitted of the charge. 0:22:57.680 --> 0:23:02.159 Nutso wasn't totally free to go, though. When investigators searched 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:06.480 Nutzo's home, they found items that were stolen from Rikers, 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:10.399 although the Dolly drawing was not among them. In a 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:14.480 subsequent and unrelated charge, Nutzo was found guilty of stealing 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:17.359 more than one thousand dollars worth of items from Rikers, 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.720 and he was fired from his job. And of the 0:23:21.800 --> 0:23:25.719 missing untitled Dolly, it continues to be lost. We have 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:28.520 high hopes, just as everyone else, but we do also 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:32.320 know that, according to those court records, Hawkhauser stated, Newtso 0:23:32.480 --> 0:23:35.479 destroyed the piece in a panic shortly after stealing it. 0:23:36.680 --> 0:23:39.920 Of the entire situation, those new dollies seemed to overwhelmingly 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:42.320 agree on one thing and laugh about it, and that 0:23:42.560 --> 0:23:44.560 is that this would be a big joke to him 0:23:44.760 --> 0:23:47.879 and that he would have loved it. So there's this 0:23:48.000 --> 0:23:50.640 quote that I came across during research, and it's from 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:55.680 the St. Regis magazine Beyond, and it says of the 0:23:55.800 --> 0:23:58.480 artist who lived at the St. Regis Hotel for quite 0:23:58.520 --> 0:24:02.159 some time. Quote he would announce his entrance on the 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:05.439 premises with a loud shout of Dolly is here, and 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:08.520 he would rule the place from that moment until his departure. 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:11.560 And I couldn't help but think, in that one moment, 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:14.480 that would have been the version of the story about 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:16.720 the Dolly at Rikers that I would really like to hear. 0:24:17.400 --> 0:24:19.960 So let's go to our mess hall and pour out 0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:24.200 some high spooch. I'm just picturing a bunch of incarcerated 0:24:24.240 --> 0:24:28.479 men looking at him. It's a story I want to know, 0:24:29.320 --> 0:24:41.000 col cool dude. I wanted with this cocktail to make 0:24:41.119 --> 0:24:47.160 reference to Dully's Spanish origin, and so there's a liqueur 0:24:47.240 --> 0:24:50.840 in here that I really really love. That's a very 0:24:50.920 --> 0:24:53.879 unique Spanish liqueur. It's called Liquor l I c O R. 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:56.879 Forty three, and if you've never had it and you 0:24:57.000 --> 0:24:59.439 have access to it, I highly recommend trying it because 0:24:59.520 --> 0:25:02.280 it is very interesting. It's like some other liqueurs we've 0:25:02.280 --> 0:25:05.680 talked about, where it's made with forty three different ingredients. 0:25:05.680 --> 0:25:08.719 That's where the number comes from. But the flavor of 0:25:08.760 --> 0:25:12.320 it I have heard describe different ways. Some people really 0:25:12.359 --> 0:25:15.440 taste the vanilla note in it, which is it's prominent 0:25:15.480 --> 0:25:18.160 and it's there, but it tastes like something more than vanilla. 0:25:18.480 --> 0:25:22.400 It also has this sort of citrusy situation going on, 0:25:22.480 --> 0:25:24.880 and there's like a whole other spiciness to it. It's 0:25:24.920 --> 0:25:27.560 just a really unique thing. So I wanted to take 0:25:27.600 --> 0:25:31.640 advantage of doing a Dolly centered episode to bring out 0:25:31.680 --> 0:25:34.480 the liquor forty three because I love it. If you 0:25:34.520 --> 0:25:36.639 are in a pinch, if for some reason you cannot 0:25:36.640 --> 0:25:39.320 get ahold of that, you could look for another vanilla 0:25:39.359 --> 0:25:43.720 liqure and maybe add a little citrus to it. But boy, 0:25:43.760 --> 0:25:47.000