Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime. It's a production of Iheartradiod Elizabeth Burnett.
Speaker 2: We meet again, So good to see, so good to see.
Speaker 3: Bring you to headquarters today.
Speaker 2: Uh, you know, I just want to hang out here.
Speaker 3: A story that's great. You know what's ridiculous I do.
Speaker 2: Listen. Listen here bub a couple of things you need
Speaker 2: to know about me.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I got a pen paper, go on, tell
Speaker 3: me one.
Speaker 2: I like tooled leather. Two, I like tacos. Three I
Speaker 2: like gardening.
Speaker 3: I'm so afraid these things are going to be matching.
Speaker 2: One of those is just a fun fact, but the
Speaker 2: other two, yes, or what I'm going to talk to
Speaker 2: you about today. And let me let me also just
Speaker 2: say that I found out about this before all of
Speaker 2: the rude dudes started sending messages look at you. This
Speaker 2: came into my Instagram feed and it was like chill
Speaker 2: ran down my spine. Yeah, and my pupils dilated, and
Speaker 2: I was like, oh God, because one it's awesome too.
Speaker 2: I knew I was about to be inundated and everyone's
Speaker 2: going to forward me forward before and that's what happened.
Speaker 2: Because I can always depend on the root like that
Speaker 2: they deliver it.
Speaker 3: I hadn't seemed to hate me.
Speaker 2: I had maybe like a twenty four hour lead on it.
Speaker 3: Oh good you yeah wow girl.
Speaker 2: In the rhythm algorithm.
Speaker 3: So anyway, there's lifestyle instagrams like we're gonna hit you
Speaker 3: up early girl exactly.
Speaker 2: You gotta you gotta be in it to win it.
Speaker 2: So there's this dude, Guillermo Quivas of Done Right Leather Works. Sure,
Speaker 2: he's a master craftsman. I believe he's built one of
Speaker 2: a kind pieces, one of one for people like Kendrick Lamar.
Speaker 3: I like him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, me too. Uh And Glenn Powell. Is he one
Speaker 2: of those uh top Gun guys?
Speaker 3: Yes, he was in the new Top Gun the Maverick.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you this. All the time, I'll
Speaker 2: see some white guy with like dirty brown, dirty blonde
Speaker 2: hair top Gun. I was like, is that the hop
Speaker 2: Gun guy? And you're like yes every time?
Speaker 3: And man, the new running Man does the running Man
Speaker 3: is the running man? It's not Tom Cruise. Surprisingly, he's
Speaker 3: known for his run.
Speaker 2: His alarms and run his legs. Anyway, so this Done
Speaker 2: Right Leather Works. They they got together with two companies, Venmo.
Speaker 2: And that's not the cool part.
Speaker 3: Really, you got to tell me that sister.
Speaker 2: The cool part. The third in this triad is Taco
Speaker 2: Bell and they created I'm Losing count Taco Holster and
Speaker 2: it's a blue tooled leather and I'm gonna show you
Speaker 2: a picture, which is really obnoxious for those who are
Speaker 2: simply listening. But if you go on to our Instagram
Speaker 2: feed on the day this episode comes out, you go
Speaker 2: into the stories, there'll be a picture, or you can
Speaker 2: just google taco holster and really generous. Well it has
Speaker 2: to do with this, like canteena chicken taco thing I
Speaker 2: got going on now here. I was like, oh snap,
Speaker 2: this came into my feet. I'm about to get taco Holster.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited, and I had to keep it to myself.
Speaker 2: I told I told my dogs. I was like, you guys,
Speaker 2: you're never gonna believe this.
Speaker 3: Mama's getting a taco taco holster.
Speaker 2: And then I looked it up and I found out that,
Speaker 2: uh it, you only had one shot to.
Speaker 3: Do it, oh one day, just one shot at one.
Speaker 2: Time, two to three pm Pacific time, which I love
Speaker 2: that they're doing it Pacific times. Show some love.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: November eighteen. November eighteenth, I missed it it's past. Yes,
Speaker 2: I slipping missed it.
Speaker 3: Where and you got the twenty four hour head start?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I didn't get the blue taco holster to
Speaker 2: old leathers erin Where is the justice? Because the thing
Speaker 2: I mentioned gardening, because like you can eat your taco
Speaker 2: while you're gardening, and then when you're done, you put
Speaker 2: your your pruning clippers in there.
Speaker 3: Why, I mean.
Speaker 2: It's that times. It's coming into winter, it's time to
Speaker 2: do some pruning.
Speaker 3: Pruning. Yeah, all the gardening. I understand to know how
Speaker 3: it goes.
Speaker 2: It's ridiculous. A taco ridiculous.
Speaker 3: A leather tools brought to you by Venmo somehow?
Speaker 2: I mean, do they do this on purpose for me
Speaker 2: and then not give me one?
Speaker 3: I feel like the world's conspiring against me when you
Speaker 3: do these things.
Speaker 2: I feel like they're just teasing me. They're showing me
Speaker 2: cool stuff, and then uh, never materializes.
Speaker 3: You do seem to miss out except for a couple
Speaker 3: of times where the rude dudes have come through for
Speaker 3: you and like sent you things like but it seems
Speaker 3: like off and you miss out on the timelines like
Speaker 3: they let you know to like who's winning these things?
Speaker 3: How do you stay up. It seems like it's insider
Speaker 3: trading Taco Taco Bell connect. Yes, who's your plug at Venmo?
Speaker 2: Yes, in the marketing department at Venmo.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, do you know what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: Okay, Let's say you are like overextended financially right, and so,
Speaker 3: in your desperation to get back on firm financial footing,
Speaker 3: you make a plan with these two shady dudes from Miami,
Speaker 3: Oh to blow up a bridge in Africa. The question
Speaker 3: is is will that work?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I don't know.
Speaker 3: This is ridiculous crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.
Speaker 3: Heis and cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free
Speaker 3: and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I'm at the edge of my seat.
Speaker 3: I know right came in hot libit. This one, I
Speaker 3: want to tell you today is a wild one. It
Speaker 3: sounds like it like when the stories of this first
Speaker 3: hit the headlines. The FBI agent who released the announcement
Speaker 3: of the related arrest you hear you well, he says,
Speaker 3: and I quote when I first heard it, I thought
Speaker 3: it was fantastic. It was almost like a dime novel fantastic.
Speaker 2: But it happened he's using fantastic and the proper.
Speaker 3: Use of that is true.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: And you know another word that we've lost that used
Speaker 3: to be used in a similar circumstance was terrific. Correct, Yeah,
Speaker 3: like it was like you know, anyway, this is awesome.
Speaker 3: That's another one. This description, his description rather is accurate.
Speaker 3: This is one like the plot of a dime novel
Speaker 3: or like some knockoff American James Bond story.
Speaker 2: I love this.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Now, Elizabeth, before we get into today's show, I
Speaker 3: need to ask you to count them two.
Speaker 2: Questions, tacos and gardening.
Speaker 3: I'm skipping past that one. Have you ever seen the
Speaker 3: movie The Bridge on the River Qui long ago?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Okay, cool? That helps.
Speaker 2: I was an extra.
Speaker 3: What's your third favorite.
Speaker 2: Scene the Quhi?
Speaker 3: As you know, the whistling, the whistling? Yes? Can you
Speaker 3: can you favorite for the piece?
Speaker 2: I can't hit the high note there it is. This
Speaker 2: is going to be really obnoxious, totally.
Speaker 3: As you know.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry to everyone with dogs.
Speaker 3: Or driving in a car, or just has headphones in
Speaker 3: or airbuds.
Speaker 2: Or who you know. They they've triggered because of previous
Speaker 2: cat calling.
Speaker 3: True.
Speaker 2: Have I ever walked down the street and you had
Speaker 2: a construction worker whistle the theme song to the bridge
Speaker 2: on the.
Speaker 3: River as you No, I have not really damage to
Speaker 3: the construction worker who whistled the bridge on the river.
Speaker 2: Kwai.
Speaker 3: It's cool at various male people postal carriers anyway. I
Speaker 3: often quote this movie Elizabeth Well one line in particular,
Speaker 3: after the star William Holden, he manages to escape a
Speaker 3: Japanese prisoner of war camp that's located near the border
Speaker 3: of Thailand and Burma, and after he braves the endless
Speaker 3: jungle to make it back to rejoin the Allies, he's
Speaker 3: nursed to health at this British hospital camp, right, and
Speaker 3: while he's convalescing there, he's approached by this British commando
Speaker 3: who's putting together a crack team to blow up a bridge,
Speaker 3: the very same bridge that the prisoners of war were building.
Speaker 3: So the British commando he wants William Holden, who's the star,
Speaker 3: to show the team the weight to the bridge. But
Speaker 3: having escaped, William Holden is not at all interested in
Speaker 3: going back. He's like, are you kidding me? Do you
Speaker 3: know how hard it was for me to get out
Speaker 3: of there? But the British commando doesn't care about any
Speaker 3: of this, because he informs William Holden that the US
Speaker 3: military has loaned about to the British. These are orders.
Speaker 3: It doesn't even matter what his opinions are.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: At that point, William Holden horrified by this development and
Speaker 3: the plot of his life. He's like, you know, trying
Speaker 3: to argue his way out of it, and the British
Speaker 3: commando Major Warden, played by the strapping British actor Jack Hawkins,
Speaker 3: says my favorite quote, which is, ah, I know how
Speaker 3: you feel, but there's always the unexpected, isn't there. I
Speaker 3: tell myself that all the time. There's always the unexpected,
Speaker 3: isn't there. Yeah, So it's a very helpful quote, at
Speaker 3: least for me. So keep that quote in mind as
Speaker 3: I tell you this story. Okay, question two, what do
Speaker 3: you know about the nation of Zambia.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm going to confess, not a whole lot.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well that's fair. Zambia is a landlocked nation in
Speaker 3: the basically southeastern Africa. Its name comes from the Zambizi River.
Speaker 3: The nation is you know, you can say, south central
Speaker 3: southeastern Africa. It's bordered by Angola to the west. It
Speaker 3: has the Democratic Republic of the Congo to its north.
Speaker 3: It's got Tanzania to the northeast, Malawi to the east,
Speaker 3: Mozambique to the southeast, Botswana and Zimbabwe to the south,
Speaker 3: and Namibia to the southwest. It's essentially ringed by other countries.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, just like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia
Speaker 3: is also a resource rich region, especially the north, and
Speaker 3: its leading export is copper. But since Zambia is landlocked,
Speaker 3: in order to get the copper out of the country
Speaker 3: and onto the world markets, the copper producers rely on railroads,
Speaker 3: or at least they did at the time of this story. Sure,
Speaker 3: which brings us to the story I want to tell
Speaker 3: you today. Nice, Let's start with the man at the
Speaker 3: center of this story of saboteurs and copper price manipulation.
Speaker 3: His name is j. Aubrey Elliott. Totally No, I mean,
Speaker 3: the FBI will tell you a different name, but that's
Speaker 3: only because really, Yeah, if you look at the FBI's
Speaker 3: reports on this, they have like doubling all these names.
Speaker 3: You're like, why would you do that to us? FBI?
Speaker 2: What they like they had like a code name, like
Speaker 2: a fake.
Speaker 3: Name basically, Yeah, and so you had to go to
Speaker 3: like the New York Times and a bunch of other
Speaker 3: contemporaneous reporting to find out all the real names Marissa
Speaker 3: and I had our research on Marissa, and I had
Speaker 3: a hell of a time trying to like compare the names.
Speaker 3: And but she did a fantastic bang up job.
Speaker 2: Is she not like one of the most incredible human beings?
Speaker 3: The best? Absolutely the best? So j Aubrey Elliott. He's
Speaker 3: originally from Scarsdale, New York, and, as the New York
Speaker 3: Times reports at the time, his father, quote well said
Speaker 3: to be a member of the United States Consular Service,
Speaker 3: so that means he's basically an embassy type and internationally
Speaker 3: minded anyway, Elliott, much like his father, bit of an
Speaker 3: adventurer as a young man. He leaves America in the
Speaker 3: early sixties and he finds work as a boat captain
Speaker 3: and as a professional diver.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I guess exotic.
Speaker 3: Right, with a lot of fun. I guess you're getting
Speaker 3: weird jobs that way, you know, like, oh, I need
Speaker 3: you to do professional diving or captain my boat to
Speaker 3: the Antilles.
Speaker 2: I feel it is that those days are over. But
Speaker 2: doesn't that Is that a long gone time or can
Speaker 2: you still.
Speaker 3: Still totally you can still be like a frog man,
Speaker 3: you know. And it's also very international. The most interesting
Speaker 3: man in the world, you know. It's like, oh, what
Speaker 3: are you? I'm a skin diver, I'm a licensed boat master.
Speaker 3: I mean it's anyway. So I guess this guy Elliott,
Speaker 3: he could captain yachts, charter boats, whatever you got right.
Speaker 3: So by the mid sixties he's working in ports and
Speaker 3: harbors and carousel. And in April sixty six, Elliott is
Speaker 3: thirty two years old and at the moment he happens
Speaker 3: to be in nearby Aruba, which is where he meets
Speaker 3: an older man named Rolf Dunbier. And I mean older,
Speaker 3: just by a few years older than him. As his
Speaker 3: name suggests. Rolf Dunbier is a German national, but he's
Speaker 3: been naturalized as an American citizen. For a living. Rolf
Speaker 3: works as a vice president of the Friedrich Zolner Corporation,
Speaker 3: which is a German medals company. So the two men
Speaker 3: they meet in Aruba, they're like, oh.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, Ruba, Jamaica. I want to take it.
Speaker 3: Exactly, like, let's have some drinks and talk about the
Speaker 3: beach boys man. So they get to talking. Apparently they
Speaker 3: hit it off because Rolf offers j. Aubrey Elliott a
Speaker 3: new job. According to a story from the Guam Daily News.
Speaker 2: Can we also talk about how great Guam is? Yes,
Speaker 2: I've never been there, but wonderful.
Speaker 3: So Rolf hires Elliott to quote locate underwater wrecks from
Speaker 3: which brass and copper could be salvaged. So he offers
Speaker 3: Elliot five hundred dollars a month plus expenses to dive
Speaker 3: for these salvageable medals. Nice, pretty cool, great, nice pay
Speaker 3: for some hard work. So he's basically, you know, the
Speaker 3: Caribbean looking for sunken boats, and the people have like
Speaker 3: you know, either crash while they're drunk or like old
Speaker 3: Span not like old Spanish main kind of crash it
Speaker 3: a little bit younger than that.
Speaker 2: He is the forebearer to the like early aughts speed
Speaker 2: freaks who pulled copper wire out of church HVAC systems.
Speaker 3: Pretty much yeah, just wretty much for scuba gear. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so things work out well for their partnership. A few
Speaker 3: months later, Dumba asked Elliott to fly to Europe to
Speaker 3: help him purchase a boat they can use to salvage
Speaker 3: Rex and harvest medals. Elliott agrees, he flies over to
Speaker 3: Europe to help the dude buy a boat. However, when
Speaker 3: the two men meet up in Amsterdam, his boss Rolf,
Speaker 3: it's got bad news. He's like, man, I don't have
Speaker 3: the funds to buy a new boat, and the boat
Speaker 3: deal it's off. And so Elliot it's like, well, why
Speaker 3: did you fly me over here? Yeah? He's like, I
Speaker 3: got a new deal for you, Elliott. I want you
Speaker 3: to go to Africa.
Speaker 2: That sounds like a bait and switch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want you to help me buy a boat.
Speaker 3: I want you to Africa by a boat. So Elliott is like, Africa, huh,
Speaker 3: what's in Africa? And so his boss, Rolf explains that
Speaker 3: the price of copper has recently plummeted and he's screwed,
Speaker 3: like personally screwed, financially screwed. He's looking at a lost
Speaker 3: fortune unless he can do something to get the copper
Speaker 3: prices back up. And since the copper price is down,
Speaker 3: that also means it's no longer economically feasible to pay
Speaker 3: Elliott to go on salvage copper. Ellie, it's like, are
Speaker 3: you firing me? Like, I don't understand it you're sending
Speaker 3: me to Africa, because I was like, I don't know
Speaker 3: what's going on. His boss, Rolf is like, no, I
Speaker 3: have a plan of what to do, but it's also
Speaker 3: the only work he has for him, so he's like,
Speaker 3: this is the plan. So Ralph says he needs Ellie
Speaker 3: to go to Zambia and help him influence the price
Speaker 3: of copper, and Elie's like to do that. At this point,
Speaker 3: his boss, Ralph tells Elliott his big plan. He informs
Speaker 3: the professional diver and boat captain, and he wants him
Speaker 3: to go and blow up a bridge in Zambia.
Speaker 2: I thought he was going to have to stand there
Speaker 2: and like raise his eyebrows over and over again at
Speaker 2: the copper, like influences man more expensive.
Speaker 3: So, like, you know, Elliott's like why because, as Rolf
Speaker 3: explains after the US, Zombia is the world's second largest
Speaker 3: producer of copper.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 3: And as Elliott remembers it, Ralph Dunbier said that the
Speaker 3: quote world's copper comes out of Zombia, and there's only
Speaker 3: one railroad that comes out of Zambia. I'd like to
Speaker 3: blow up that railroad, is like okay, And then his
Speaker 3: boss Rolph Dunbia is like, so, do you know any
Speaker 3: sabatua who can help you blow up a bridge in Zambia?
Speaker 3: And Elizabeth, when you're a globe tritting adventure like my
Speaker 3: man Elliott, yeah, you meet interesting people.
Speaker 2: Sure do so.
Speaker 3: Eli thinks it over and he's like, I know a guy.
Speaker 2: He's like, this will make a great story later years
Speaker 2: from now.
Speaker 3: This is going to buy me so many drinks in
Speaker 3: a bar.
Speaker 2: Exactly. I'm taking this to the sechelles.
Speaker 3: When he says I know a guy, he says, there's
Speaker 3: this Israeli. He knows who'd be the perfect saboteur to
Speaker 3: help blow up a bridge in rural Africa.
Speaker 2: Now, do you know any perfect saboteurs to blow up
Speaker 2: a bridge in rural Africa?
Speaker 3: I will say I actually helped a person blow up
Speaker 3: something once. He was a farmer marine and he needed
Speaker 3: me to help him, and I did help him.
Speaker 2: Well, you're the guy.
Speaker 3: I do understand how these stories turn out.
Speaker 2: No, I have no idea who I would even begin
Speaker 2: to you. I would call you.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'd be like, I know a guy. We got
Speaker 3: a problem, guy, I can't believe you brought that up? Yes?
Speaker 3: Or that I brought it up, but I think this
Speaker 3: is the statute of limitations is long gone, so we're
Speaker 3: good anyway. The bridge ro Off has in mind to
Speaker 3: sabotage spans the Kafue River, which is this tributary of
Speaker 3: the Zambizi River. The bridge was constructed in the early
Speaker 3: twentieth century, back when the British were running things, and
Speaker 3: it gets completed in like nineteen oh six. It's this
Speaker 3: steel cantilever bridge, or as engineers would describe it, a
Speaker 3: steel girder truss bridge. Oh okay, which just means that
Speaker 3: there's all these steel beams kind of been creating triangles
Speaker 3: that hold the bridge rigid since it needs to support
Speaker 3: all those train cars loaded down with copper. Right, So
Speaker 3: think like you know, local bridges, it'd be like the
Speaker 3: Richmond Bridge or like the railroad bridge that crosses the Karkeness.
Speaker 2: Straight sandrafel Bridge is like on its last legs. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: I used to have to drive over it often then.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why I picked that one crossed the whole time.
Speaker 3: You know it, well, yeah, it's terrible. So this bridge
Speaker 3: over the Kafue is about fourteen hundred feet long or
Speaker 3: about four hundred and twenty seven meters, so it's like,
Speaker 3: you know, a third of a mile. The bridge was
Speaker 3: built back in the colonial period and was owned and
Speaker 3: operated by the Rhodesian Railways from nineteen twenty seven to
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 2: We're talking Rhodesia.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, because the Rhodesia is right. Basically there is
Speaker 3: Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia and that was part of
Speaker 3: this was part of Northern Rhdesia.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But up until the sixties when you have the wave
Speaker 3: of independence go over Africa and all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: these former British, French and colonies are now independent. Well,
Speaker 3: this also happens for Zambia. So this newly independent Zambia
Speaker 3: takes control of the bridge and they make a part
Speaker 3: of their new Zambia Railways. Now the bridge becomes this
Speaker 3: vital part of the newly independent nations copper industry. Since
Speaker 3: copper is Zambia's leading export, it's key to their economy
Speaker 3: on their own now and the bridge quote forms the
Speaker 3: vital link over which two thirds of Zambia's copper production travels,
Speaker 3: which amounts to some fifty eight thousand tons a month.
Speaker 2: Fifty whoa, Yeah.
Speaker 3: This massive amount of copper is then shipped to East
Speaker 3: African ports and into the world market. So Ralph Dunbia
Speaker 3: tells his salvage man Elliott, Yeah, we need to blow
Speaker 3: it top right, So obviously this will deal a catastrophic
Speaker 3: blow to the Zambian economy. Is their primary export. It
Speaker 3: is like they're a new country on their own. Yes,
Speaker 3: forget this. Ralf doesn't give a feather or a fig
Speaker 3: about that because he just needs the copper prices to
Speaker 3: go back up before he loses a fortune. That's all
Speaker 3: he cares about.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You see, Elizabeth Rolth Dunbier has been playing the copper
Speaker 3: futures market and he's heavily invested his corporation's money. And
Speaker 3: so in the summer sixty six copper prices plummet. They
Speaker 3: fall by about fifty percent. Whoa, I'm talking real plummeting. Yeah, so,
Speaker 3: which means the German metals company Friedrich Zalner is looking
Speaker 3: at losses of a million dollars on the London Metal
Speaker 3: Exchange sure, which would be about ten million in today's dollars.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, in case you recently forgot how the futures
Speaker 3: market works, Elizabeth. Spectators buy futures contracts that then stipulate
Speaker 3: a contract wherein they will buy a commodity in the
Speaker 3: future at a set price. But let's say at the
Speaker 3: copper price plummets, this means that the speculators paid way
Speaker 3: too much for their futures copper contracts and when the
Speaker 3: contract comes due, they will lose a bundle when they
Speaker 3: then try to sell the copper on the market. So
Speaker 3: Rolf Dunbier and his German corporate partners, they need the
Speaker 3: copper price to come back up quickly, like before their
Speaker 3: futures contracts come due. Plus, there's also a secondary benefit,
Speaker 3: which is if you manipulate the market, you can also
Speaker 3: buy futures contracts at the lower price. And then let's
Speaker 3: say you blow up a bridge at Zambia that drives
Speaker 3: the price up. Now you make a fortune when the
Speaker 3: price of copper gets jacked up. So Ralph Dunbie is
Speaker 3: now looking to make money, coming and going oh okay,
Speaker 3: He's going to protect the fortune he may lose and
Speaker 3: then make a fortune off of this insider trade that
Speaker 3: he knows about what the blown up bridge agreed. So
Speaker 3: if he goes full on the bridge on the River Kuai.
Speaker 3: He can avoid losing a fortune and also gaining one.
Speaker 3: So back to Elliott, his boss Roth offers him fifty
Speaker 3: grand to blow up this key bridge.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of money.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what's there?
Speaker 2: A lot of money?
Speaker 3: Now totally with their agreements, said, Elliott gets to planning
Speaker 3: the demolition. But as my man Major Warden said, in
Speaker 3: the bridge on the River Kwai, there's always the unexpected,
Speaker 3: isn't there. So let's take a little break, chill out
Speaker 3: with some ads, and after these messages we'll get into
Speaker 3: the unexpected. Yes we're back, Elizabeth, Yes we are. You
Speaker 3: ready to dive into the unexpected? Thorno good okay? So
Speaker 3: September nineteen sixty six, j Aubrey Elliott and Ralph Dunbier
Speaker 3: they take a trip together to Zambia to do some scouting.
Speaker 3: They want to do some recon so they also want
Speaker 3: to make some connections. So apparently, according to contemporaneous news reports,
Speaker 3: Ralph Dunbier speaks with somebody he knows and he asked
Speaker 3: his contact to quote report conditions affecting Kappa production and
Speaker 3: also dumba Quote was especially interested in interruptions in transportation.
Speaker 2: Now, why was the price plummeting. Again, I do not.
Speaker 3: Know the market fluctuations because America is the leading producer
Speaker 3: and then Zambia is the second one, and for whatever reason,
Speaker 3: the market plummets the market.
Speaker 2: She's fickle, Yes, she.
Speaker 3: Is so, As Dumbier reported.
Speaker 2: I honestly thought maybe you said it. I forgotten.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, I never said it. It was honestly,
Speaker 3: it wasn't really important to be in the research because
Speaker 3: I'm like, I know, market's.
Speaker 2: Gown by myself.
Speaker 3: All buy it plummeted. There, there you go.
Speaker 2: That's all I know.
Speaker 3: Dumbier reportedly quote left some items stored in this individual's home.
Speaker 3: One I wasn't at shay case containing six sticks of
Speaker 3: dynamite and some detonator caps. Also left right, German made
Speaker 3: short wave radio and a pair of shoes. I love
Speaker 3: the pair of shoes, right, I love this sabotage materials
Speaker 3: list with a pair of shoes.
Speaker 2: That's a pair of kids.
Speaker 3: Like were they special shoes? Like you know, like how
Speaker 3: moonshiners used to wear those shoes that would like weird
Speaker 3: prints like a cow walked here.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm just wondering where they, like, you know how,
Speaker 2: mister Rogers you know he's out in his city shoes. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's got to put on his tennis.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Is that what these are for? Is this?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 2: Those are your your bombing shoes?
Speaker 3: Oh? I was also wondering if they were like expensive
Speaker 3: designer shoes like the old Popeio used to wear.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah yeah, slippers.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly. I was like, he's German.
Speaker 2: It'd be like, I want to feel special when I'm
Speaker 2: putting the dynamite out, So I'm going to put them
Speaker 2: a fancy slippers, my high heels, sneacret or they want
Speaker 2: to get into like some comfy shoes or like maybe
Speaker 2: dance shoes, you know, light on their lights.
Speaker 3: He's like, I've got your little dan skins legs.
Speaker 2: Diamond over here is going to plant some months.
Speaker 3: I wish I had answers, but all the reporting says
Speaker 3: is a pair of shoes.
Speaker 2: So the mystery, my mind, it races.
Speaker 3: Anyway. After their recon trip to Zambia later that same month,
Speaker 3: September of sixty six, j Aubrey Elliott and his wife
Speaker 3: Violet Elliott, they take a trip to Israel. Okay, why Israel?
Speaker 3: Great question, Elizabeth. They visit Israel to see what's what
Speaker 3: with saboteurs.
Speaker 2: You see, there's like a booth at the airport.
Speaker 3: You have to understand Israel, like in the sixties, they're
Speaker 3: going through it, right, Yeah, so they got a lot
Speaker 3: of experienced people when it comes to like blowing things
Speaker 3: up and like you know, like building a gun out
Speaker 3: of the stuff in your house, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So you see, Violate was a former Israeli citizen who'd
Speaker 3: become an Austrian citizen, but apparently from her time in Israel,
Speaker 3: she knew experts and demolitions. Okay, So, as it turns out,
Speaker 3: Elliott when he said he knew a guy, he really
Speaker 3: meant my wife knows a guy. She knows, you know, saboteurs,
Speaker 3: experienced Israeli saboteurs. It's cool, it's cool. Sure it is
Speaker 3: going to do this job. He's going to need a
Speaker 3: team of them, at least like two three of them.
Speaker 3: So his wife's like, okay, I possibly that has been
Speaker 3: number three to five. Really, if you're going to do
Speaker 3: it right, you know.
Speaker 2: You're like a litter of saboturies.
Speaker 3: So he's like, my wife can help me get this
Speaker 3: litter of experienced Disraeli saboteurs. So they're bouncing around. When
Speaker 3: the couple hits Israel in September sixty six, they pose
Speaker 3: as tourists. They take in the sites, they enjoy the food.
Speaker 2: That's a crazy time to be in Israel, ps.
Speaker 3: For real, and they're over there enjoying the culture of
Speaker 3: the food whatnot. Meanwhile, they spend their time trying to
Speaker 3: recruit a team of demolition experts and so as they're
Speaker 3: asking people, do you know any experienced saboteurs to help
Speaker 3: me pull up a bridge? And they're bouncing around Israel
Speaker 3: while they're on the slide, they're you know, they're trying
Speaker 3: to like ask contacts. She knows, you know, have you
Speaker 3: been to Africa? Do you do you want to go
Speaker 3: to Africa?
Speaker 2: Like just the people at the next table.
Speaker 3: And I don't know if you know this, Elizabeth, but
Speaker 3: if you're bouncing around Israel asking people if you people
Speaker 3: you barely know, if they will help you blow up
Speaker 3: a bridge in Africa to influence copper Is, eventually you
Speaker 3: will come to the attention of the Israeli security forces. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I would think so, which is exactly what happens.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those I heard, they don't mess around.
Speaker 3: Oh no, they're really good about like you want to
Speaker 3: blow up what? Where? When? And they think they're they're
Speaker 3: they're really known for it. Yeah, well no, just like
Speaker 3: they're known for. Like they don't want people like causing
Speaker 3: international incidents. They also don't want people like, you know,
Speaker 3: getting out of pocket, so to speak. So, according to
Speaker 3: the Jacob Raider Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives,
Speaker 3: Box fifty four fold er three, after quote learning that
Speaker 3: Elliott was trying to recruit former experts and explosives among
Speaker 3: friends of his wife, Israel started clocking everything they're doing.
Speaker 3: So now as they're bouncing around Israel looking to hire
Speaker 3: a team of saboteurs, they're also getting followed by the
Speaker 3: Israeli security forces. I guess the Israeli security forces were
Speaker 3: not subtle, or perhaps someone let the couple know they're
Speaker 3: being watched. I don't know how it went either way.
Speaker 3: Elie decides it's time for him to dip out before
Speaker 3: the Israeli security forces have a chance to arrest him. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but get this, he leaves his wife behind in his
Speaker 3: real Oh you're kiddings like, honey, you're on your own.
Speaker 2: You speak the language that sounds like she can take
Speaker 2: care of herself.
Speaker 3: I'm guessing he's assuming they want to rest one of
Speaker 3: their own. Elizabeth Boy, is he wrong? Oh, Israeli security
Speaker 3: forces quote moved in and arrested for Israelis and missus Elliott.
Speaker 3: All five are released on bail after being charged. Huh
Speaker 3: So yeah, now we're into October. So at this point
Speaker 3: his wife's arrested, the Israeli saboteurs are out of the picture.
Speaker 3: So Elliott reports back to Ralph Dunbier that the Israeli
Speaker 3: demolition experts that he was approaching for the bridge job
Speaker 3: had quote passport troubles. He buys himself a little time.
Speaker 3: He'll need to find some new guys to blow up
Speaker 3: the bridge.
Speaker 2: I want to use that as my excuse for like
Speaker 2: everything in my life.
Speaker 3: Soon, passport trouble, Like, you know, why didn't you.
Speaker 2: Do that project? I don't passport. I've been having passport troubles.
Speaker 3: I know a guy he's having passage.
Speaker 2: Finished your outline for this week's episode, back off man,
Speaker 2: I got passport problems.
Speaker 3: Dealing with the State Department. So the good news is,
Speaker 3: he tells Ralph Dunbier, I know some other guys. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: they're Americans. So you see, he tells his boss Rolf,
Speaker 3: I know these guys who are a boat captains their
Speaker 3: skin divers in the Miami area. I'll go talk to
Speaker 3: them about blowing up the bridge. I'm sure they'll be interested.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: And I love how he doesn't give up on the
Speaker 3: bridge demolition job even after his wife is now arrested
Speaker 3: and he's going full on like wannabe CIA guy trying
Speaker 3: to hire random dudes in the Miami area to help
Speaker 3: him with his international intrigues.
Speaker 2: He needed to go get himself an abaloney diver.
Speaker 3: See that, then he would have gotten it done. He
Speaker 3: would have been on this shows less he got the
Speaker 3: wrong one like Frank Sinatra Junior time, and then he
Speaker 3: would be on the show either way. The American guys
Speaker 3: he knows are these two licensed shipmasters and skin divers
Speaker 3: from Miami. Their names are Philip Armstrong and Paul Woodburn Cuddel.
Speaker 3: He offers them half the money twenty five grand to
Speaker 3: help him pull off this demolition job. The two men
Speaker 3: they're sensible about it, and Elliott says to him, no,
Speaker 3: don't worry about it. He'll even allow them to quote
Speaker 3: abort the entire project if it appeared that there was
Speaker 3: a possibility of the loss of life.
Speaker 2: So they got to split twenty five k Yeah, it's like.
Speaker 3: Twelve five each. But they're like, don't worry, we're not
Speaker 3: killing anybody. We'll do it early in the morning. We
Speaker 3: don't need to have the train fall in. We just
Speaker 3: need to have the train not be able to cross
Speaker 3: the road.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: They're like, okay, okay, but we just don't really want
Speaker 3: to kill anybody. We're not murderers. Man, I'm a skin diver.
Speaker 2: Have we done an environmental impact report on this?
Speaker 3: Where's the steel going to wildlife? Are we going to
Speaker 3: be ruining the Zambizi? Yes, so one of Africa's great rivers.
Speaker 2: Think about it, guys.
Speaker 3: So his plan to get into Zambia, or for them
Speaker 3: to get into Zambia is simple. The two Miami skin
Speaker 3: divers are to quote, obtain visas to enter Zambia under
Speaker 3: the guys of being freelance photographers, and to visit several
Speaker 3: other places before and after Zambia to firmly establish their alibi. Huh,
Speaker 3: just like definitely some CIA stuff. Did you tell me
Speaker 3: you're a freelance photographer? You work for Life magazine?
Speaker 2: Like I just am suspicious of skin divers.
Speaker 3: It's from the Miami area freelanceographers.
Speaker 2: This is smart, you know, adventurous boatman.
Speaker 3: You're a savvy woman in that regard. I really really
Speaker 3: now to make these dudes believe the job is legit,
Speaker 3: Elliott offers Armstrong twenty five hundred as an advance on
Speaker 3: the job, and he offers Caudel a thousand as an advance.
Speaker 3: So the two Miami skin divers they go for it.
Speaker 3: So Eli goes back to Ralph Dunba and he's like,
Speaker 3: I need the money. So Rolf takes him to a bank.
Speaker 3: He pulls the advanced money out of his personal account.
Speaker 3: Rolf gives Elliott an envelope of forty five hundred dollars.
Speaker 3: Is like, give this to the Miami skin Divers.
Speaker 2: It's on the envelope.
Speaker 3: So now the Zambia plot is in full motion. All
Speaker 3: they need to do now is get together their bomb
Speaker 3: making materials and ship them to Africa. So the team is.
Speaker 2: Saboteurs from like DHL.
Speaker 3: Right, they work out the details of their plan to
Speaker 3: blow up the steel bridge, which I can't imagine is
Speaker 3: an easy structure to bring down. Oh so in the
Speaker 3: bridge on the river quiet. They wring the supports with
Speaker 3: a bunch of dynamite and they wire it to a detonator.
Speaker 3: That's like I got a pushbar box, god right, like
Speaker 3: the chin in the old cartoons or the miners. I
Speaker 3: love that. So these guys, I want one of those.
Speaker 3: They're gonnasas lights old pushbar detonator. These guys they aren't
Speaker 3: going to use the old pushbar detonator. Instead, they plan
Speaker 3: to use a quote twenty four hour non electrical timing device.
Speaker 2: What like a like an alarm clock, a bedroom clock.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what we were referred to as a twenty four
Speaker 3: hour non electrical timing device would be a clock that
Speaker 3: would totally meet the description.
Speaker 2: So there's one of the ones with the bells on
Speaker 2: the top.
Speaker 3: So the steam and sabotages. They want to set up
Speaker 3: the dynamite and then they can travel and be hopefully
Speaker 3: hundreds of miles away when the dynamite goes off, either
Speaker 3: or they can be out of the country, or they
Speaker 3: can at least be doing their freelance photography thing.
Speaker 2: They don't want to hide in the bushes with like
Speaker 2: a little walkie talkie thing that just has a green
Speaker 2: light and a right and then you cut to on
Speaker 2: the bridge, like the time going down like all quickly,
Speaker 2: and it goes back and forth between them. I'm just
Speaker 2: making the movie in my head.
Speaker 3: I like it.
Speaker 2: Actually, I'm making it like an eighties TV show.
Speaker 3: Bro It's yeah, it is very like mcguiver, but I
Speaker 3: like it like eighteen or eighteen yeah, really more a teen.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So in order to get the dynamite into Zambia, that's
Speaker 3: going to be tricky, right, because people kind of monitoring
Speaker 3: sent them plane. So the team of Sabaturs come up
Speaker 3: with a rather simple plan to ship it. They're all
Speaker 3: about simple, these guys. They decide to buy the dynamite
Speaker 3: in the US and then ship it to Zambia. Their
Speaker 3: idea is they can hide the dynamite in wait for it,
Speaker 3: the cabinet of an air conditioner. That's a really big
Speaker 3: thing to send over.
Speaker 2: It's a huge thing. I would just send crates of
Speaker 2: quote unquote fireworks.
Speaker 3: Or like candles. These are candles.
Speaker 2: Included candles fireworks. So they say, I heard you guys
Speaker 2: wanted to have like I.
Speaker 3: Think it's a special paperwork for that. It raises questions, right,
Speaker 3: So they don't want any pain in the net customs
Speaker 3: officials to take an interest in what they're shipping to Zambia.
Speaker 3: An air conditioner that seems reasonable, right and shouldn't ressume
Speaker 3: me with questions. And so the Abatur is like, we
Speaker 3: don't need one air conditioner, We're gonna need two air conditions,
Speaker 3: I think. So, as the New York Times reported quote,
Speaker 3: they plan to purchase two identical air conditioners of sufficient size.
Speaker 3: One would be sent without modification as a dry run.
Speaker 3: Now to make sure it all goes off with out
Speaker 3: of get that idea back to the New York Times,
Speaker 3: Elliott would be in Zambia to receive it and observe
Speaker 3: its handling by customs officials. If it passed without close examination,
Speaker 3: the two Florida men were to go to Zambia and
Speaker 3: the other air conditioner with the dynamite packed inside, would
Speaker 3: be shipped. Now, as we've already noted for their timer,
Speaker 3: they're going to use essentially a clock. Well, Elliot's like, okay,
Speaker 3: I need to find something like a clock. So he
Speaker 3: goes looking for a twenty four hour non electrical timer.
Speaker 3: He goes to like a local hardware store. He comes
Speaker 3: up empty, right, So he's like, well, what about a clock.
Speaker 3: So he goes and that's what he uses. He uses
Speaker 3: quote two old wind up clocks which could be modified.
Speaker 3: Boom done, deal, bomb making done.
Speaker 2: Sho check that off the list.
Speaker 3: So since the question of the timer and the detonator
Speaker 3: and the bomb is now sorted, all he's up to
Speaker 3: do is to source the dynamite and ship it to Zambia. Yeah,
Speaker 3: back to the air conditioner units. On October twenty ninth,
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty six, the two Miami skin divers turned saboteurs,
Speaker 3: Armstrong and Caudel, quote, purchase two large air conditioners. One
Speaker 3: unit was shipped to Elliott in New York. The other
Speaker 3: unit was to be delivered by car to New York
Speaker 3: by one of the men after the dynamite had been
Speaker 3: packed inside the cabinet. That's a fun drive, I was
Speaker 3: just gonna say, from Miami to New York with her.
Speaker 2: The beads of sweat coming down.
Speaker 3: Air conditioner staff put life explosive. Now, once they get
Speaker 3: paid their advance money, Armstrong and Caudel, they go out
Speaker 3: and they buy fifteen dollars worth of dynamite. But not
Speaker 3: just any old dynamite, Elizabeth, they buy special waterproof dynamite.
Speaker 3: XL the kind of dynamite used commercially to blow up
Speaker 3: underwater rex.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well there's skin divers.
Speaker 3: Yeah they know about this, right, But if you like me,
Speaker 3: get hung up on the part of fifteen dollars for dynamite. Yeah,
Speaker 3: even in nineteen sixties prices, that still seems like that's
Speaker 3: not enough to take down a steel bridge. Yeah. Admittedly
Speaker 3: I don't know about the prices of special waterproof dynamite,
Speaker 3: but it just doesn't sound like enough.
Speaker 2: But no, not at all, And I do feel like
Speaker 2: I would accidentally buy road I don't know why that
Speaker 2: just came into my head. But let's go back to
Speaker 2: fifteen dollars.
Speaker 3: She was going to rip you off with fake dynamite.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, that's what would happen to me. We had
Speaker 2: road flares in the car and I met when I
Speaker 2: first saw the crap, Oh crap, Grandma's got dynamite in
Speaker 2: my car, Like, be careful.
Speaker 3: Everybody moviesse caps they blow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's you know, she may have to sabotage then.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't ask questions.
Speaker 3: There was an international woman of mystery.
Speaker 2: She really was fifteen dollars.
Speaker 3: Yes, of special dynamite too, not just any.
Speaker 2: Do you do any calculations how much that is today?
Speaker 3: No? I did not do five million dollars. No, I
Speaker 3: did not. Do you want to to.
Speaker 2: Really quick in my head? No, okay, fifteen that's not enough.
Speaker 3: No, it was just so little. I was like, that
Speaker 3: can't be much. It can't be much more than few hundred.
Speaker 2: Dollars, like a stick and a half.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So with their plan set, the materials procured. Now
Speaker 3: the detonator and dynamite all worked out. They got the
Speaker 3: alarm clocks, they've got their fifteen dollars of dynamite, got
Speaker 3: the air conditioning, and it's all that's to do. This
Speaker 3: is ship at all to Zambia and blow up this bridge.
Speaker 2: Is this why we're talking about that?
Speaker 3: But when you know, Elizabeth, this is exactly when fake
Speaker 3: with a capital F steps into the picture. And speaking
Speaker 3: of pictures, I'd like to close your eyes as a clue,
Speaker 3: and I'd like you to picture it. It's November two,
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty six, a Wednesday, and you, Elizabeth, are currently
Speaker 3: busy at your day job. At night, you spend your
Speaker 3: time working on your one woman play about the disappearance
Speaker 3: of Amelia Earhart. You've struggled with the title, but right
Speaker 3: now you're calling it linn Berg who. Meanwhile, at your
Speaker 3: day job, you don't often display that same sort of
Speaker 3: irreverent sense of humor. Why not because you work for
Speaker 3: Jag or Hoover. That's right. You're a G man, or
Speaker 3: rather you're a G woman, and you are a special
Speaker 3: agent of the FBI. At the moment, you're at the
Speaker 3: Department of Justice building in Washington, DC, where the FBI
Speaker 3: is currently headquartered, which means you're currently listening to the
Speaker 3: familiar background sound of an army of typewriters as you
Speaker 3: dream of the day when you'll have your own office.
Speaker 3: And that's when you hear it, the sound of an
Speaker 3: incoming message on the telex machine connected to the secure
Speaker 3: phone lines of the FBI. The telex machine is essentially
Speaker 3: the precursor to a fax machine, begins printing out a
Speaker 3: confidential message. Since you're the closest agent, you push back
Speaker 3: from your desk. Your desk chair tweaks against the floor,
Speaker 3: then your heels count out the rhythm of your walk
Speaker 3: at the telex machine. You have to wait for it
Speaker 3: to finish printing. Then you tear off this most recent message.
Speaker 3: Since you have clearance for this particular telex machine, you
Speaker 3: read who it's from as well as the body of
Speaker 3: the message in order to ascertain who you should take
Speaker 3: it to. Your eyes widen as you read the message.
Speaker 3: Is this a joke. It can't be. It's a cable
Speaker 3: from the US Embassy in Israel. The State Department boys
Speaker 3: aren't known for their sense of humor. This must be real.
Speaker 3: You hastily walk down the hallway to a corner office.
Speaker 3: Your heels once again tap out the rhythm of your walk.
Speaker 3: At the corner office switch belongs to this superintendent of
Speaker 3: your section. You knock on the door with a firm,
Speaker 3: yet insistent hand. The gruff voice of your boss says,
Speaker 3: come in. You do as instructed. As the door swings open,
Speaker 3: he looks up from the file he's perusing to meet
Speaker 3: your eyes. You pause in the doorway again, he instructs
Speaker 3: you come in. Come in. You approach his desk, but
Speaker 3: do not take a seat. In an all business tone,
Speaker 3: you tell your section chief, this cable just came in
Speaker 3: over the telex machine from the US Embassy in Israel,
Speaker 3: but it's not about Israel or the Arabs. Per se
Speaker 3: that's good, he says, relieved. You tell him it is dire,
Speaker 3: though you hand him the printed out message. Your boss
Speaker 3: has a habit of humming to himself as he reads,
Speaker 3: which he does now. It doesn't take him long to
Speaker 3: read the message. As soon as he's done, his improvised
Speaker 3: humming stops. He looks up to you and ask is
Speaker 3: this real? You not in the affirmative and say I
Speaker 3: believe so. He sighs, then asks loud, why would the
Speaker 3: Israeli security forces send us this? You replied, Well, as
Speaker 3: far as security services go, shin Beth isn't known to
Speaker 3: play practical jokes. Star, nor do our embassy boys in
Speaker 3: israel I think it's the real deal. Your Section Chief's
Speaker 3: eyes returned to the printed out telex message. He begins
Speaker 3: to read it aloud. Contacted by friends from shin Beth,
Speaker 3: the US Embassy was handed credible evidence. So there's a
Speaker 3: plot to blow up a railroad bridge in the Republic
Speaker 3: of Zambia in Africa. The data planned demolition is November
Speaker 3: eighteenth of this year. Please inform Director Hoover there are
Speaker 3: multiple Americans suspected to be involved in the plot. At present,
Speaker 3: the American conspirators are believed to be stateside. As soon
Speaker 3: as he's done reading the message aloud, he sighs again
Speaker 3: and then asks, why would the Israelis know about this?
Speaker 3: You're a quick to answer, I don't know, sir, but
Speaker 3: they're good. Your section chief looks up and asks, a
Speaker 3: bridge in Zambia. What in God's name is there in Zambia?
Speaker 3: Now you've read a lot, you keep up on current events,
Speaker 3: and thus you're somewhat familiar with the newly independent nation
Speaker 3: of Zambia and are aware of its main export. So
Speaker 3: you rather confidently suggest, sir, it may have something to
Speaker 3: do with copper production. Copper. Your boss replies, as if
Speaker 3: this is the first time he's ever heard of the medal. Yes, sir,
Speaker 3: you answer, it's their chief export as well. Zambia is landlocked,
Speaker 3: so they use train cars to shift the copper. Recently,
Speaker 3: copper prices have plummeted on the commodities market. How do
Speaker 3: you know all of this? Your section chief asks, do
Speaker 3: you follow the copper market, Agent Dunton, It's been in
Speaker 3: the NEU, Sir. Your tone is respectful of your boss's ignorance. Okay,
Speaker 3: then I guess this might make sense. Take this over
Speaker 3: to the Africa desk and see if they've heard anything
Speaker 3: about blowing up a railroad bridge in Zambia. Yes, sir,
Speaker 3: so there you go, Elizabeth. This is how the FBI
Speaker 3: learns of this CIA style plot to destabilize an African nation,
Speaker 3: but the FBI doesn't immediately act on it. They're not
Speaker 3: even sure if the Israeli supplied info is accurate. The
Speaker 3: Bureau determines that they need to do some digging of
Speaker 3: their own. Luckily they have time at least a couple
Speaker 3: of weeks. But turns out they don't need that much
Speaker 3: time because the very next day, on November three, two
Speaker 3: Miami skin divers Armstrong and Caudel fly north to New York.
Speaker 3: They visit the Big Apple looking to meet up with
Speaker 3: Rof Dunbia to get the visas to travel to Zambia.
Speaker 3: The two men they meet Roff Dunbia in the lobby
Speaker 3: of the building that houses the Zambian Mission to the
Speaker 3: United Nations. Rolf shows up with his like to the
Speaker 3: two round trip tickets to Zambia, and then also he's
Speaker 3: got some more advanced money for the job, and the
Speaker 3: two men are just suppot to hand that over to
Speaker 3: Elliott and at the building that houses the Zambian Mission
Speaker 3: to the United Nations, Dunba and the two Miami skin
Speaker 3: divers they apply for the Zambian visas. The men show
Speaker 3: their round trip tickets and in order to process the paperwork,
Speaker 3: they leave their US passports. Then the two men say
Speaker 3: goodbye to Rof Dunbia and they head back to the
Speaker 3: airport to fly back home to Miami that same day
Speaker 3: round trip. Boom boom boom. When they land, the two
Speaker 3: Miami skin divers they call the Zambian embassy to check
Speaker 3: on the status of their visas and to coordinate their travel.
Speaker 3: The two men are informed, your visas have been denied.
Speaker 3: Oh you see, the Zambient officials were also briefed by
Speaker 3: the Israelis about the plot to blow up a bridge
Speaker 3: in Zambia. And I don't know if the Zambian officials
Speaker 3: were like they kind of led it on to the
Speaker 3: two Miami skin divers how much they knew. Maybe their
Speaker 3: tone was just cold or whatnot. But either way, the
Speaker 3: two Miami skin divers they recognized something ate, right, So
Speaker 3: they decide, rather than wait for some g men to
Speaker 3: come around asking questions, they'll go to the FBI themselves
Speaker 3: and tell the bureau what all they know. So they go,
Speaker 3: they tell them all about the plot to blow up
Speaker 3: a bridge in Zambia to raise the international price of copper.
Speaker 3: And when the two Miami skin divers show up at
Speaker 3: the Miami Field office, the f guy is like, go.
Speaker 2: On, They're like, show up in there like pukashell, necklaces
Speaker 2: in a loin.
Speaker 3: Cloth, totally just like leaving sand on their carpet everywhere.
Speaker 3: So yes to the Miami agents when they report to
Speaker 3: headquarters in DC what they've heard, which confirms what the
Speaker 3: Israelis told the bureau just the day before. So now
Speaker 3: the FBI springs into action. Okay, Elizabeth, let's pause this
Speaker 3: at yes, and I'll take another little break for some ads,
Speaker 3: and after these messages, we'll dive back into this tale
Speaker 3: of international mystery and see if there's more of the
Speaker 3: unexpected to come. So where were we diving right, Zambia.
Speaker 3: So the FBI has stepped into the picture just days
Speaker 3: before the planned operation to blow up a key bridge
Speaker 3: and Zambia to artificially raise the price of copper around
Speaker 3: the world. Now, since our two Miami skin divers, Armstrong
Speaker 3: and Caudel not only tell the g men all about
Speaker 3: the Zambian plot, they also tell the FBI where they
Speaker 3: can find Elliott in Miami. So the FBI agents take
Speaker 3: a drive over to where Elliott is staying at the time.
Speaker 3: He's laying low to motel, and the FBI shows up
Speaker 3: at the motel. Knock, knock, knock. When the door opens, boom,
Speaker 3: Just like that, Elliott's worst fears have come to fruition. Hi,
Speaker 3: we're at the FBI. Sure so now, Elizabeth. This all
Speaker 3: happens on November third, just one day after the Israeli
Speaker 3: has informed the FBI about this plot.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Elliott doesn't know about any of that part of it,
Speaker 3: so he tries to play it cool, act innocent at naive. Elizabeth,
Speaker 3: what do we always say about what to do when
Speaker 3: the FBI is asking you questions?
Speaker 2: Never ever ever lie.
Speaker 3: Yes, Never lie to the FBI, never because most likely
Speaker 3: they already know the answer. Yes, just stacking felonies at
Speaker 3: that point exactly. So anyway, Ellie decides to press his luck, Elizabeth.
Speaker 3: He lies to the FBI. He says he doesn't know
Speaker 3: anything about any plot to blow up a bridge and
Speaker 3: where Africa? You say, he instants he's never heard of
Speaker 3: a bridge in Zambia. He doesn't even know about copper production,
Speaker 3: none of it. Then the FBI agents, they ask him
Speaker 3: about his recent travels to Israel, to England to Ambia.
Speaker 3: Oh you heard about that? Huh okay, I've been there. Yeah, sure, right,
Speaker 3: He says his recent travels are just part of the
Speaker 3: work he's been doing for a New York affiliate of
Speaker 3: a German metals firm. They're like, and you don't know
Speaker 3: about copper, sir. He's like, I know, little man, I
Speaker 3: mean it is a medal. So the FPI is like, okay,
Speaker 3: well it was a different division. I don't I know
Speaker 3: about accounting and bookkeeping. And so the FBI is like, well, sir,
Speaker 3: what brings you to the Miami area more not metals work.
Speaker 3: And meanwhile, the FBI knows he's in regular contact with
Speaker 3: the two Miami skin divers Armstrong in Caddell, and the
Speaker 3: FBI knows he's in regular contact with another suspect, Ralph Dunba,
Speaker 3: the VP for the German metals firm. Right, Elliott though
Speaker 3: doesn't know it, but his goose is well and fully cooked. Apparently,
Speaker 3: FBI agents go over to interview Armstrong and Caddell on
Speaker 3: November fourth, the next day, and this is like one
Speaker 3: day after the men first contacted the bureau and after
Speaker 3: the field agents have approached Elliott his at his motel room.
Speaker 3: They're like, okay, give up this with a full story.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So November fourth, in their interview, the two Miami skin
Speaker 3: divers informed the FBI that they want out of this
Speaker 3: international intrigue, like this is not for us. They were
Speaker 3: weighing way over our heads. We wanted to stop full stop.
Speaker 3: And they confess that after their Zambian visas were denied,
Speaker 3: they just assumed that all their activities had been known
Speaker 3: and that they quickly decided we're going to fully cooperate.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it as like smart moves exactly. So The New
Speaker 3: York Times reported that the two want to be saboteurs
Speaker 3: then tell the FBI that quote, they returned the tickets
Speaker 3: to Zambia and expense money given them by Dunba to
Speaker 3: Elliott and advised Sham that the bargain was off, that
Speaker 3: they intended to cooperate with the FBI.
Speaker 2: Oh so they really washed their hands, like money minus
Speaker 2: ten dollars that we spent on the hot dis and.
Speaker 3: Gas money, and they tell their co conspirator, we're going
Speaker 3: to the FBI, and he still tries to.
Speaker 2: Play like, I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3: So meanwhile, other FBI agents are busy speaking with Ralph
Speaker 3: Dunbier up in New York and back to the New
Speaker 3: York Times reporting, he gave a similar explanation of Elliot's
Speaker 3: connection with the firm and stated Elliott was in Florida
Speaker 3: on business. He denied any knowledge of the alleged plan
Speaker 3: to sabotage the railroad bridge in Zambia. Zombia. What is Zambia?
Speaker 3: So when he's pressed on his lies, Dunba decides to
Speaker 3: go full on fabulous. He explains the FBI Field office
Speaker 3: that his and Elliot's travels to that country in August
Speaker 3: in September of sixty six is being related to establishing
Speaker 3: representation for the corporation with industry and government officials. Dunba
Speaker 3: explained that the chief business of the firm was trading
Speaker 3: in copper, and Zambia was one of the world's foremost
Speaker 3: producers of copper. They're like, so you do know what
Speaker 3: copper is all about?
Speaker 2: This?
Speaker 3: No, it's not hard to imagine how this scene's playing out.
Speaker 3: He's like trying to be all innocent, but it's like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm often traveling to Africa since the region is resource rich.
Speaker 3: I mean, you Americans us know about how that goes.
Speaker 3: Fully aware that the FBI is now onto him and
Speaker 3: his two amateur saboteurs have returned the money and now
Speaker 3: want nothing to do with the planned demolition job, Elliott
Speaker 3: doesn't stick around the Miami area. Instead, he flies up
Speaker 3: to New York to meet with Rol Dunbie, Like, what
Speaker 3: are we gonna do? How are we gonna get this
Speaker 3: job done? He's still fixated on his wife has gone,
Speaker 3: his co conspirators are arrested, doesn't matter how many people
Speaker 3: get arrested around him. He is about it right. But
Speaker 3: he's also meanwhile being followed by undercover FBI agents who
Speaker 3: tail him to his meeting at Donbia's house. Of course,
Speaker 3: so this closes the circle for the FBI. They decide
Speaker 3: it's time to act before these two desperate idiots are
Speaker 3: able to draft any new amateur saboteurs into their Zambian plot.
Speaker 2: Yea.
Speaker 3: The very next day, November fifth, Elliott Dumba, they get
Speaker 3: arrested by the FBI agents. The two men are charged
Speaker 3: with conspiring within the US to destroy a railroad bridge
Speaker 3: in Zambia. After their charge, both men are freed on
Speaker 3: bail as it goes. So now we have a full
Speaker 3: on international plot of intrigue involving a German medals firm,
Speaker 3: Israeli security forces, the Zambian copper industry, a pair of
Speaker 3: Miami skin divers turned amateur saboteurs, and of course Elliott
Speaker 3: and Dumba. This story hits the headlines like a hammer
Speaker 3: dropped on your foot. Right number six, The New York
Speaker 3: Times publishes a front page story with the headline FBI
Speaker 3: sees is two and charges plot on Zambia copper two
Speaker 3: held in plot on Zambia copper all caps right. Two
Speaker 3: days later, they run another story with the headline new
Speaker 3: arrests tied to copper plot. US attorney says Israel has
Speaker 3: seized four persons That would be Elliot's wife and her
Speaker 3: band of.
Speaker 2: Sabote yeahs her guys, who know guys?
Speaker 3: So at this point the Israeli security forces are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, Hey,
Speaker 3: leave us out, man, Why are you dragging us into
Speaker 3: the spotlight? So back to the Jacob Raider Marcus Center
Speaker 3: of the American Jewish Archives, Box fifty four fold or
Speaker 3: three according to the Archives. Israeli officials have intended to
Speaker 3: keep the story secret, but after the United States authorities
Speaker 3: revealed contacts between Israelis and Americans in the plot, the
Speaker 3: Israeli police revealed Israel's detective work against the alleged plotters.
Speaker 3: So they're like, look, man, we're going to have to
Speaker 3: embarrass y'all if you're going to embarrass us, yeah, yeah, So,
Speaker 3: as the story continues to unfold and claim victims, Elliott
Speaker 3: then asked for the charges against him to be dismissed.
Speaker 3: Way do you hear what his grounds are for? Why
Speaker 3: to dismiss the charges? Elizabeth, his lawyer argues that according
Speaker 3: to the Neutrality Act, what he did isn't technically a crime.
Speaker 3: To make his case, the lawyer tries to essentially embarrass
Speaker 3: the FEDS by citing the fact that the commandos from
Speaker 3: the Bay of Pigs fiasco stopped were never charged and
Speaker 3: this also is the same for a nineteen sixties Ara
Speaker 3: plot to invade Haiti, and thus his clients should also
Speaker 3: walk for you don't charge them, can't charge.
Speaker 2: Him, right, amazing.
Speaker 3: So the lawyer argues in court that his client's charges
Speaker 3: should be dismissed since quote, no similar action had been
Speaker 3: taken by this country against participants in the Bay of
Speaker 3: Pigs attack on Cuba and the recent Haitian invasion plot.
Speaker 3: He added that his indictment was the first time in
Speaker 3: the fifty year history of the Neutrality Act that anyone
Speaker 3: had been charged with violating the pertinent section. He contended
Speaker 3: that the law was void because of its disuse. The
Speaker 3: judge in this case was like, yeah, no, that's not
Speaker 3: how that works. So in March's sixty seven he then
Speaker 3: appeals that into March sixty seven. In the case United
Speaker 3: States versus Elliot, the Southern District of New York rules
Speaker 3: that quote, defendant has requested this court to take judicial
Speaker 3: notice of various crises and acts in furtherance of international relations.
Speaker 3: The Court cannot help being aware of the delicacy of
Speaker 3: American foreign relations, particularly in such areas as Africa. The
Speaker 3: offense charged, if consummated, clearly would have disrupted the economy
Speaker 3: of a nation. It is inconceivable that such an act
Speaker 3: conceived in America and perpetrated by Americans would not have
Speaker 3: seriously affected American relations with Zambia. The prevention of the
Speaker 3: deed and the prosecution of the culprits, if only to
Speaker 3: show the complete lack of any official complicity, makes such
Speaker 3: proceedings imperative, and it is well within the legitimate interests
Speaker 3: of the United States government. Oh yeah, so read that
Speaker 3: as we need to show Zambia we ain't down with this.
Speaker 2: Nothing to do with it is.
Speaker 3: These amateur saboteurs, ain't CIA people. Because we're looking bad
Speaker 3: these days after the pigs, Like, we can't have everyone thinking,
Speaker 3: like anytime somebody's who's an American who claims to be
Speaker 3: a freelance photographer, that the CIA is involved. So they're like,
Speaker 3: we have to throw the book at your guy. Sorry,
Speaker 3: we were so bad at this stuff. We need to
Speaker 3: punish this guy who's worse than us. So the next month,
Speaker 3: in April, his wife, Violet Elliott gets sentenced in Israel
Speaker 3: to quote a year in prison on a charge of
Speaker 3: failing to inform police of an alleged plot to blow
Speaker 3: up a railway bridge in Zambia. That same month, April
Speaker 3: sixty seven, Ralph Dunbia pleads guilty as charge. He's like,
Speaker 3: look I'm done, sure, gentleman, I'm going to be reasonable
Speaker 3: about this. But the next year, in May of sixty eight,
Speaker 3: before he's sentenced, Dunba dies in a car crash in
Speaker 3: New York. The thirty seven year old Dunbia was driving
Speaker 3: at five point thirty in the morning when he allegedly
Speaker 3: lost control of his car on the Palisade Interstate Parkway
Speaker 3: and crashed into an abutment a single car accident. Now,
Speaker 3: while his death may be suspicious, it was ruled a
Speaker 3: single car accident, and thus our one percent guarantee doesn't
Speaker 3: come into play.
Speaker 2: True, that is true.
Speaker 3: It was determined that Dunbia fell asleep at the wheel. Now,
Speaker 3: our researcher, Marissa noted that in a local newspaper there's
Speaker 3: this image of the wrecked car and there's neighborhood kids
Speaker 3: are like playing around the wreck car, and the caption
Speaker 3: of the photo states that the wrecked road runner is
Speaker 3: that Bill's sitko in non New yet New York. Bill
Speaker 3: always puts major Rex out in front of the shop.
Speaker 2: Wait so you can just go take a look.
Speaker 3: See Yeah, it's Marissa noted, Bill, can you please explain?
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, the kids are playing totally like,
Speaker 3: what's up with Bill displaying grizzly car wrecks out in
Speaker 3: front of his shop?
Speaker 2: Bill is honest about human nature?
Speaker 3: Was he trying to get free advertising in the local paper?
Speaker 3: Or is he like a vehicle safety nut and he
Speaker 3: just wanted to remind people to drive more safely. I
Speaker 3: don't know your guys as good as mine, but Bill
Speaker 3: was about about it. Anyway. Back to Elliott, who's yet
Speaker 3: to be tried in sentenced after his appeal to have
Speaker 3: his charges dropped is thrown out. Eventually justice does get served.
Speaker 3: On June seventeen, nineteen sixty eight, Elliott pleads guilty. He
Speaker 3: offers to testify against the German medals firm if that
Speaker 3: will help him out. And it's like they conceived of
Speaker 3: and paid for the Zambian plot. Sure, So this fella
Speaker 3: named Paul Lazarus who works with Friedrich Zohner. He was
Speaker 3: also like tangentially involved in the planning and the machinations
Speaker 3: of the early phases. He works at the German metals firm.
Speaker 3: So he gets indicted and tried, and since Rolf Dunbia
Speaker 3: is dead, they're like, we let's move on to Paul Lazarus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so po Lazarus.
Speaker 3: In November sixty eight, Lazarus stands trial. One week later,
Speaker 3: he's found guilty and he's sentenced to nothing. Oh instead,
Speaker 3: he's fined thirty five hundred dollars. Okay, the German Medals.
Speaker 2: You know how much dynamite you can find?
Speaker 3: My boatloads exactly, So the German Medals firm, they received
Speaker 3: the sort of justice that we might expect from a
Speaker 3: modern corporation. The firm gets acquitted of any responsibility in
Speaker 3: the Zambian plot, because how could they know what's our
Speaker 3: employees are doing.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: So meanwhile, as thanks for his cooperation with the Feds,
Speaker 3: Elliott gets sentenced to one year in jail, but he's
Speaker 3: also given us this spended sentence and he's placed on
Speaker 3: probation for a term of three years. So he never
Speaker 3: really is other than being held while waiting for trial.
Speaker 3: That's it, sure, And that Elizabeth is the end of
Speaker 3: the Zampian plot. So I got to ask you, what's
Speaker 3: our ridiculous takeaway here?
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. You know, I like to think that
Speaker 2: when opportunities come my way, I'll take them, you know,
Speaker 2: just like hey like be open, take the blinders off. Sure,
Speaker 2: but I think that we need to be selective when
Speaker 2: those opportunities come our way. And so just because something
Speaker 2: cool like hey, you want to go to Zambia, all.
Speaker 3: Right, yes, something up in Zambia?
Speaker 2: You don't. I got nothing hold me here yet, No,
Speaker 2: no to think, think a little bit more about it, Saren,
Speaker 2: what's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 3: I would have been a mess in the sixties if
Speaker 3: I was around these guys like hanging out these people
Speaker 3: like E. Howard Hunt types.
Speaker 2: Or like sixties and seventies, you would have been I
Speaker 2: would be telling stories about you, yes, podcast, if I
Speaker 2: had one of.
Speaker 3: Those like heart attack guns that they held up in
Speaker 3: the church hearings, or like the ability to get on
Speaker 3: flights and go to like former colonial Africa as like
Speaker 3: a CIA plant, I mean, working against my people.
Speaker 2: I would have just been a oh, we know you're
Speaker 2: not a CIA plant.
Speaker 3: Now, good point, a point persuading young minds and influencing
Speaker 3: the nations. Well you in the mood for a talkback
Speaker 3: to Washes.
Speaker 2: I am always in a mood for.
Speaker 3: Oh oh my god.
Speaker 4: I went Regina Gentleman host Dizzy. The Pizza Connection episode
Speaker 4: reminded me that back in the nineteen eighties. My step
Speaker 4: mother's brother was the big family success with all of
Speaker 4: his coin operated car washes, and in fact I almost
Speaker 4: went to work for him, managing several locations. Turned out
Speaker 4: the real success was as a drug traffickers throughout southern California,
Speaker 4: and those not for washing cars, but for washing money.
Speaker 4: That's how I almost joined the cartel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, cartel member, that's incredible.
Speaker 2: You missed out, dudeud Always.
Speaker 3: Be suspicious of a family member who runs car washes
Speaker 3: coin operated laundromats. These are just money laundering operations, no
Speaker 3: matter what anyone tells you. I know so, dude, that's
Speaker 3: a great story. Thank you for sharing with it. That
Speaker 3: is straight up ridiculous crime averted.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, as always, you can find us online Ridiculous Crime.
Speaker 3: We got the social media's was it blue Sky Instagram?
Speaker 3: I think it's what the interns told me last. We
Speaker 3: also have our account Ridiculous Crime Pod on YouTube. Do
Speaker 3: you go check it out? We got videos, Please leave comments,
Speaker 3: we love those, like subscribe, do all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: We have our website, Ridiculous Crime dot com, which was
Speaker 3: recently nominated for the Dolly Parton Impersonator of the Year Award. Really,
Speaker 3: I didn't even know we were.
Speaker 2: Up for, but you know it's stiff competition.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now just for the makeup alone. I didn't know
Speaker 3: we had that kind of budget. We were given to
Speaker 3: the makeup.
Speaker 2: You know Sparkleshop, mister Andre, they work hard.
Speaker 3: They really really did, and we don't ask much of them,
Speaker 3: so they have time on their hands. Also, you know,
Speaker 3: we love your talkbacks obviously, so go to the iHeart
Speaker 3: app download it, leave a talkback. We'd love to hear
Speaker 3: your voice here. Maybe you would enjoy it as well,
Speaker 3: and I'll email us if you like Ridiculous Crime at
Speaker 3: gmail dot com. We'd love your emails too. They're often
Speaker 3: very fun and we're meaning to get into the mailbag.
Speaker 3: We may do like a mailbag episode. Who knows. So
Speaker 3: there you go. That's all I got for you this time.
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening, and we will catch you next crime.
Speaker 3: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton that's her and
Speaker 3: Zarah Burnette That's me. They're produced and edited by our
Speaker 3: man in Zambia, Dave Kusten, and starring Analys Rucker as Judith.
Speaker 3: Research is by vehicular safety enthusiast Marissa Brown and Davis.
Speaker 3: Our theme song is by our house band who Will
Speaker 3: Bless the Rains Down in Africa aka Thomas Lee and
Speaker 3: Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Body five hundred,
Speaker 3: guest hair and makeup by Sparkle Shots and Mistood On Today.
Speaker 3: Executive produces are mid Century International Men of Mystery and
Speaker 3: part time amateur saboteurs Ben Bowlen and No Wow.
Speaker 2: Why Say It One more Time?
Speaker 4: We Cry?
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
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