Speaker 1: They take me then it blacked out suv to this
Speaker 1: location where they had already dug out this shallow grave.
Speaker 1: When I get there, they tell me, O care, I
Speaker 1: need you to strip down to your underwear. They showed
Speaker 1: me how to pose on my hands bown beyond my back,
Speaker 1: and I looked like I was a little bit swollen.
Speaker 1: They put more blood on me, and they've been threw
Speaker 1: dirt on me, which I thought it was so degrading
Speaker 1: and close my eyes. The only thing that I could
Speaker 1: remember was the sound of the thirty five millimeter as
Speaker 1: it went around me, just clicking taking pictures of me.
Speaker 2: I'm Andrea Gunning And this is Betrayal, A show about
Speaker 2: the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
Speaker 2: change everything. Ramone's Sosa's story is one of those stranger
Speaker 2: than fiction kind of tales. It's a betrayal that threatens everything,
Speaker 2: including Ramone's life. Ramone grew up in Puerto Rico, the
Speaker 2: only son in a traditional and tight knit family. Ramone
Speaker 2: idolized his father, who was a professional wrestler like the.
Speaker 1: Kind you see on W and WWF, and I used
Speaker 1: to see him on TV all the time in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1: He was big, muscular and had this or about him.
Speaker 1: When he walked into the road.
Speaker 2: As a kid, Ramone tagged along with his dad to
Speaker 2: the gym, and it was there where he fell in
Speaker 2: love with what he calls the real thing boxing.
Speaker 1: I started boxing about seven years old Puerto Rico. That
Speaker 1: was my life. School boxing home, school boxing home. That
Speaker 1: was It takes a lot of discipline in boxing if
Speaker 1: you want to do it right, and that's what it
Speaker 1: taught me.
Speaker 2: And all of that discipline started to pay off for Ramone.
Speaker 2: He fought in hundreds of amateur matches as a teenager
Speaker 2: and he was winning a lot.
Speaker 1: A lot of the trainers that worked with me, they
Speaker 1: said that I had a lot of natural talent and
Speaker 1: people started saying, man, you'll be good when you grow up.
Speaker 1: For my size, I hit very hard.
Speaker 2: He's careful to point out that even though he was
Speaker 2: a champion in the ring, he never fought outside of it.
Speaker 2: He felt like it was his responsibility as an athlete
Speaker 2: to maintain a strong sense of right and wrong.
Speaker 1: I don't fight in the street. Boxing is a skill,
Speaker 1: and when you get in that ring, it's like a
Speaker 1: chess match.
Speaker 2: He dreamed of going pro and taking care of his family.
Speaker 2: The Sosis moved from Puerto Rico to Houston, Texas when
Speaker 2: Ramone was a teenager. After sweeping the amateur leagues, Ramone
Speaker 2: went pro.
Speaker 1: My father actually had to sign my contract to turn
Speaker 1: pro because I was under age.
Speaker 2: He was a professional boxer for a few years before
Speaker 2: he eventually settled into a new career coaching and training
Speaker 2: young boxers in the US.
Speaker 1: But when it turned into a business, and you see,
Speaker 1: like everybody wants to make money from you, everybody wants
Speaker 1: a piece of the pie, it was tough. When they
Speaker 1: started getting to me.
Speaker 2: In his early twenties, he fell in love and got married.
Speaker 2: He and his first wife had three kids.
Speaker 1: I mean praise to all the mothers that stay at
Speaker 1: home with their kids, because you know what, that is
Speaker 1: a tough, tough job. It's a full time job.
Speaker 2: Raising three kids together strained their relationship. They moved to
Speaker 2: Houston to be closer to Ramone's parents. That's where he
Speaker 2: still lives today. But even with his parents' help, Ramone
Speaker 2: and his first wife knew that they weren't a match.
Speaker 2: They needed to separate.
Speaker 1: It did not work out. Even though we couldn't work
Speaker 1: it out, we did the best that we could for
Speaker 1: our kids. And to this day, you know, we have
Speaker 1: grandkids together, so I respect her, she respects me.
Speaker 2: Ramone missed being a full time dad. With more free
Speaker 2: time on his hands, he decided to start a nonprofit,
Speaker 2: an after school boxing program. We're at risk.
Speaker 1: Youth and I will pick him up after school, taking
Speaker 1: him to the gym. They would get a snack or
Speaker 1: work held in the box, and then we also talked
Speaker 1: about life situations.
Speaker 2: He loved being involved with the community and helping kids
Speaker 2: who needed a positive influence in their lives. That's how
Speaker 2: he met a close friend.
Speaker 1: His name is Mundo's your own name. That's the name
Speaker 1: that he went by.
Speaker 2: As a teenager. Mundo had been involved with a gang
Speaker 2: and went to prison. Now that he was out, he
Speaker 2: was turning his life around, looking for a purpose, and
Speaker 2: he always loved boxing. He saw a sign about the
Speaker 2: after school program and he asked Ramon if he could volunteer,
Speaker 2: and he.
Speaker 1: Said, ah, can I start today? I said start today,
Speaker 1: he said right off the bat, He said, yeah, I
Speaker 1: want to start today. So he went to his truck,
Speaker 1: got some workout clothes and he went running with my kids.
Speaker 2: Mundo kept coming back after day, and Ramone liked how
Speaker 2: he related to the kids. He was honest with them
Speaker 2: about the bad choices he'd made.
Speaker 1: He had all these tattoos with his gang name on
Speaker 1: his back. He never hardly ever took off his shirt
Speaker 1: because he didn't want people to see that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff and the kids to see that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And that's what I liked about him, that he mentored
Speaker 1: so many kids in the gym to not go through
Speaker 1: the same thing that he went through.
Speaker 2: Ramone and Mundo became close friends. They ran the after
Speaker 2: school program together, and Mundo even started working alongside Ramon
Speaker 2: at his day job training professional boxers.
Speaker 1: He became kind of like my right hand man, and
Speaker 1: I would tell people when he went to the boxing
Speaker 1: tournament and saying shows with me. They had this is
Speaker 1: my other son, you know. It was my third son.
Speaker 1: He became really really close to me. He called me Pops,
Speaker 1: as I was like a father figure to him.
Speaker 2: Ramone and Mundo worked side by side training professionals and
Speaker 2: then running the after school program. It went on like
Speaker 2: this for years. That was until Mundo got married and
Speaker 2: had a kid of his own, and Ramone moved to
Speaker 2: the other side of the city. Eventually, the two slowly
Speaker 2: fell out of touch. Ramone was now seven years out
Speaker 2: from his divorce and he wanted to find someone to
Speaker 2: share his life with. That's when her friend told him
Speaker 2: about a new dance club in Houston.
Speaker 1: He goes, you know, he played that SASA with regular
Speaker 1: you know that kind of stuff that you like. I
Speaker 1: want to go check it out, and I hear there's
Speaker 1: a lot of beautiful ladies there too.
Speaker 2: It was a Saturday night and a weekend where Ramone
Speaker 2: didn't have his kids, so he decided to go check
Speaker 2: it out.
Speaker 1: I mean it was packed, it was going on, you know,
Speaker 1: and music was kind of music that I liked, and
Speaker 1: the dance floor was pegged. There she was.
Speaker 2: He was mesmerized by this one woman on the dance floor.
Speaker 1: So I kept looking at this leader on the other
Speaker 1: dance way. She danced very very well, and I might
Speaker 1: thinking like, well, she looks Colombian or from the Caribbean
Speaker 1: the way she's dancing. She was wearing a tight meani
Speaker 1: black dress. It looked like it was painted on her.
Speaker 1: Beautiful all this kind she had wall black hair. Next
Speaker 1: thing I know, I see her walking towards me and
Speaker 1: I said okay, I'm trying to be cool about it,
Speaker 1: and she steps on my toe. She had high heels
Speaker 1: on it, and there must have been three inch skills
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh my godness, I just went down.
Speaker 1: I had a beer. I just went down. And she
Speaker 1: starts telling me in Spanish, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry, but you okay, And then we tell you.
Speaker 1: All I could do was just look up, stand at
Speaker 1: hand and say we should dance with me, and she said,
Speaker 1: of course, I danced with you, and that's where it
Speaker 1: all started.
Speaker 2: Her name was Lulu.
Speaker 1: Her real name is Mariah. They moved this she went
Speaker 1: by Lulu.
Speaker 2: They had an instant connection. After that night on the
Speaker 2: dance floor, Ramon and Lulu started going on dates, and
Speaker 2: she admitted she hadn't stepped on Ramon's by accident.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, I did that on purpose.
Speaker 2: I wanted to get to know you, and that's exactly
Speaker 2: what they did.
Speaker 1: We had a lot in common. She told me that
Speaker 1: she was a divorced mother too, had recently moved to
Speaker 1: Texas or Mexico City for a better life for herself
Speaker 1: at her kids.
Speaker 2: After a few dates, Ramone explained to Lulu that his
Speaker 2: career as a boxing coach was very demanding. It meant
Speaker 2: working late nights and traveling to tournaments on the weekends.
Speaker 2: He knew it was the kind of schedule that could
Speaker 2: make dating difficult, if not impossible, But it didn't scare
Speaker 2: Lulu off. She was supportive of his career and she
Speaker 2: wanted to help him succeed.
Speaker 1: She started going to those tournaments with me, sit there
Speaker 1: the whole time, supporting me, helping me with the kids.
Speaker 1: And I liked that about her.
Speaker 2: Just like Ramon, Lulu was a hard worker.
Speaker 1: The way she was making ends meet to try to
Speaker 1: take care of her family was working underground. She would
Speaker 1: clean houses.
Speaker 2: Lulu was determined to become a US citizen. In addition
Speaker 2: to cleaning houses and raising her kids, she went to
Speaker 2: night school to improve her English.
Speaker 1: And I would help her too, you know, talking to
Speaker 1: her in English when I could. She was to just
Speaker 1: talk to more in englishcause I wanted to learn English.
Speaker 2: Ramone was impressed. They both had young kids from their
Speaker 2: previous marriages. After about six months of dating, they started
Speaker 2: getting to know each other's families.
Speaker 1: There was family gatherings on her side. In my side,
Speaker 1: Loudy was always there helping out, cleaning, helping, you know,
Speaker 1: with the food. She was always very helpful with everybody,
Speaker 1: and my mother in family, they liked her. They saw
Speaker 1: how she treated me, and they saw that I had
Speaker 1: been a lull for seven years now, and they kind
Speaker 1: of saw something in her that, you know, she might
Speaker 1: be the one.
Speaker 2: Having his mother's approval sealed the deal for Ramone one
Speaker 2: night in two thousand and nine, after a year and
Speaker 2: a half together.
Speaker 1: I went on one knee and I proposed to her.
Speaker 1: She said yes, of course, and then she started crying
Speaker 1: and crying, and they said, what's going on with you?
Speaker 1: Are you okay? And all she kept saying was that
Speaker 1: after all she went through with her ex husband, she
Speaker 1: thought it would ever happen again. And she saw it
Speaker 1: in me that I was a good man, and she
Speaker 1: just couldn't believe that I asked marry her.
Speaker 2: During their engagement, Lulu doated on him.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. There was times where I would have
Speaker 1: a drink and I wasn't even halfway done and she
Speaker 1: would go give me another one. Guys were like, man,
Speaker 1: how do you find a woman like that? She's beautiful
Speaker 1: and she treats you like a king. You know, kind
Speaker 1: of like make you stick your chest out a little
Speaker 1: bit too, like, wow, that's my lady, you know that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: The couple had a quick engagement. It was a second
Speaker 2: marriage for both of them, so they opted for a
Speaker 2: simple courthouse ceremony with a backyard reception.
Speaker 1: It was at my sister's house. Whattter of fact. She
Speaker 1: wanted to give me that as a present. She had
Speaker 1: a big celebration from my Maryorg. A lot of family
Speaker 1: and friends were there, her family, her mother, and her
Speaker 1: sister and brother in love. They were all there.
Speaker 2: In the middle of the reception, surrounded by family, music
Speaker 2: and food. Something strange happened that Ramone will never forget.
Speaker 2: Lulu's mother approached him and she had a stern look
Speaker 2: on her face.
Speaker 1: Her mother walks up to me, and then she just
Speaker 1: whispers in my ear, Now she's your trouble. He walks away.
Speaker 1: I mean, wow, that's the first red flag was out
Speaker 1: there right at our wedding night.
Speaker 2: In two thousand and nine, Ramone Sosa was newly married
Speaker 2: to his second wife, Lulu. She was hard working, portive
Speaker 2: of his career, and she went above and beyond to
Speaker 2: make him happy. Instead of a honeymoon. Lulu wanted to
Speaker 2: take a more practical approach. She wanted to invest in
Speaker 2: becoming a citizen.
Speaker 1: That's what she wanted, and it's also okay, well that's
Speaker 1: what you wanted. I was happy for her because she
Speaker 1: was just tired of cleaning houses and you want to
Speaker 1: get a regular job and be here legally.
Speaker 2: It was a mountain of paperwork, the first big hurdle
Speaker 2: the couple faced together.
Speaker 1: And is that cheap? And we did it. We went
Speaker 1: over there to the immigration attorney and I signed all
Speaker 1: the papers. Seemed like it was like about three hundred pages.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of responsibility that you take when you
Speaker 1: sponsor a person to be in this country legally.
Speaker 2: With Lulu's immigration paperwork underway, they started their new life together.
Speaker 1: The first years of our marriage, what you call the
Speaker 1: honeymoon years, were wonderful. I was still very involved in boxing.
Speaker 1: I had my nonprofit. She supported that also. She cared
Speaker 1: a lot about me. She cared that I was a
Speaker 1: father figure to her son and her daughter.
Speaker 2: Early on in their marriage, Ramone told Lulu about his
Speaker 2: career dreams. He wanted to open his own boxing gym
Speaker 2: in Houston, a place where he could coach and train
Speaker 2: the city's best boxers. But he knew this dream was
Speaker 2: a few years away. He didn't have the money for
Speaker 2: all the upfront costs.
Speaker 1: I told her how much he was going to cost,
Speaker 1: and she goes, I can get that for you, and
Speaker 1: I said, what are you talking about.
Speaker 2: Lulu was determined to help Ramone's dream come true.
Speaker 1: She was borrowing money for family and also she maxed
Speaker 1: out all these credit cards as she had, and that's
Speaker 1: what we were able to open up our first gym
Speaker 1: and buy all the equipment.
Speaker 2: The plan was dubious, but it worked and he was
Speaker 2: grateful for it. The Jim quickly became a full time
Speaker 2: job for both Ramone and Lulu. He did the head
Speaker 2: coaching and training and she handled the business side of things.
Speaker 1: She told me that back in Mexico City, she used
Speaker 1: to work for Ford and she was an executive secretary
Speaker 1: and she knew how to keep the books and she
Speaker 1: was good at it. So I was very happy that
Speaker 1: I had somebody that because I mean, I'm not good
Speaker 1: at that part. I'm good at training people. I'm good
Speaker 1: at teaching.
Speaker 2: Him how to fight a box Andy was his gym,
Speaker 2: became d plays for leap boxers to sharpen their skills,
Speaker 2: and it was growing quickly.
Speaker 1: The business took off. It took off, and it took
Speaker 1: off quick. My day started at four in the morning.
Speaker 1: I was till night in the evening, working Saturdays too,
Speaker 1: and I mean I was literally exhausted every day. But
Speaker 1: that surprised. You pay when you own a business.
Speaker 2: Within a year, he had already paid Lulu back and
Speaker 2: they were starting to make real money.
Speaker 1: I just kept saying to myself, like, wow, this is
Speaker 1: what I wanted. I mean, I didn't become a world champion,
Speaker 1: I didn't go to the Olympics, but still doing something
Speaker 1: with boxing. And at the same time, I'm making money
Speaker 1: and we were financially doing very very well. We were
Speaker 1: to the point where we under the buy a big house, cars, vacations,
Speaker 1: so everything was good and to me, life was good.
Speaker 2: One day, Ramone got an unexpected visitor at the gym,
Speaker 2: his old friend.
Speaker 1: Mundo, and I was like Undo, and it was like
Speaker 1: we picked up right where we had left off.
Speaker 2: Mundo asked to come work with Ramon again, but Lulu
Speaker 2: wasn't so sure about him. She didn't like his luck
Speaker 2: or his criminal background.
Speaker 1: She told me I don't know about having somebody like
Speaker 1: that around our business. You know, she saw the tattoos.
Speaker 1: I've had to be honest with her that, you know,
Speaker 1: told his background home, everything that happened to him. And
Speaker 1: you know, he had been released from prison back in
Speaker 1: the day being shot at gang member. But he cleaned
Speaker 1: his life. He wanted to live with different life. But
Speaker 1: then when Munda started coming around helping me and helping
Speaker 1: with the gym and helping the weekends so we could
Speaker 1: have days off. When she saw the benefits in him,
Speaker 1: then she said, okay, well we can use them.
Speaker 2: So Mundo started working nights and weekends at the gym.
Speaker 2: It was a relief. The Sosos really needed the help.
Speaker 2: They were beginning to struggle at home with the pressure
Speaker 2: of parenting and managing their business.
Speaker 1: So at home, racing the family was getting difficult, and
Speaker 1: Lulu would take the issues that she had with her
Speaker 1: kids out on me. So, yeah, the family dynamic we
Speaker 1: were seeing cracks.
Speaker 2: After the first three years of marriage, Ramone started noticing
Speaker 2: that Lulu was changing too. She was becoming more demanding.
Speaker 1: She didn't want my kids to come around, she didn't
Speaker 1: want my family. Even my family started coming to my
Speaker 1: house because they saw how she changed, how she was
Speaker 1: in the same person, the very nice lady that they
Speaker 1: had met when I first met her.
Speaker 2: Lulu was getting controlling about how Ramone spent money, while
Speaker 2: she was spending more than ever.
Speaker 1: She would go shopping and come back from the ball
Speaker 1: with all these bags. I said, what are you doing.
Speaker 2: Ramone's concern was amplified when he discovered.
Speaker 1: I started noticing that the books were not adding up
Speaker 1: to the number of people members we had in the gym.
Speaker 1: And every time I will bring up that situation, I said, hey,
Speaker 1: what's going on here? This is not adding up the
Speaker 1: bottom line, and she would always say, I don't worry
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: And I was upsetting, so we hired someone else to
Speaker 2: take over the books. One night, Ramone came home from
Speaker 2: the gym to find that Lulu was hosting a party
Speaker 2: at the house, a party he hadn't heard about. There
Speaker 2: were balloons and a cake. Lulu's entire family.
Speaker 1: Was there, and I can tell that she had been
Speaker 1: drinking because she was just learned a little bit. And
Speaker 1: she had a bottle of wine in one hand and
Speaker 1: a cup of the other and she said, say hello
Speaker 1: to your new American wife, and I'm like, what are
Speaker 1: you talking about.
Speaker 2: Lulu had applied for citizenship and she was approved. Earlier
Speaker 2: that day, she'd gone to her naturalization ceremony and officially
Speaker 2: became a US citizen, but she hadn't mentioned it to Ramone,
Speaker 2: her husband and the sponsor of her visa.
Speaker 1: And I said, wait a second. You're here legally in
Speaker 1: this country because of me. Your kids are here legally
Speaker 1: because of me, and you don't have the respect to
Speaker 1: ask me like you want to go to the celebration.
Speaker 1: It got to the poor where I asked her, point black,
Speaker 1: did you marry me just to be here legally with
Speaker 1: your family, the money, the American lifestyle. She came back with,
Speaker 1: look at me, I'm beautiful, look at my up body.
Speaker 1: I can get anybody I want, and men that have
Speaker 1: a lot more money than you, But no, I chose you.
Speaker 1: I want to be with Pele, and I love you.
Speaker 2: He wanted to believe her, but he was still disturbed
Speaker 2: by her choices, not to mention her controlling behavior, not
Speaker 2: wanting his kids around her, spending, the discrepancies in the books,
Speaker 2: and now she hadn't even invited him to her citizenship ceremony.
Speaker 1: And I said, now this is that cool? All right?
Speaker 2: The way his marriage is going, Ramon pulled away emotionally
Speaker 2: and physically. He knew something was wrong, but he was
Speaker 2: too busy with his gym to take immediate action and
Speaker 2: file for divorce. In the meantime, the couple started sleeping
Speaker 2: in separate bedrooms.
Speaker 1: We're still married but living separate lives, basically in the
Speaker 1: same house.
Speaker 2: He didn't expect Blue Lu to be the one to
Speaker 2: file for divorce, but one day she came to him
Speaker 2: with the papers and she had a bold request. She
Speaker 2: wanted to keep the house and the business.
Speaker 1: I said, no, no, I don't think so, I said,
Speaker 1: we're going to go half. Everything is gonna split down
Speaker 1: the middle. You go your way, I go my way.
Speaker 1: But all the money and time that I have invested
Speaker 1: in this marriage and everything that we have, no, I said, no,
Speaker 1: this is my house. So I told her we can
Speaker 1: work it out, or we can go to court. And
Speaker 1: that's when I got my attorney and we'll fight it out.
Speaker 2: He had been through a divorce before, and although the
Speaker 2: first one was difficult, it had been fair and respectful.
Speaker 2: But this divorce was about to take a devastating turn.
Speaker 1: I remember I was driving, Mundo calls me.
Speaker 2: Mundo explained that the night before he'd been closing the
Speaker 2: gym when he overheard Lulu talking about hiring a hit man.
Speaker 1: And you know, Mundo being funny and when we joke
Speaker 1: around before all the time. I said, Mundo, you know
Speaker 1: we're joking around. Man, you know what we're going through.
Speaker 1: This is not cool to be joking like that. He said, nah, nah, no, Pops.
Speaker 1: I've seen that look in people's eyes when they want
Speaker 1: to kill somebody, and she has that look.
Speaker 2: Munjo approached Lulu to ask about what he overheard.
Speaker 1: And he walked up to her and I said, you
Speaker 1: guys used to be careful what you're saying because you
Speaker 1: never know who's listening. And he said, are you guys
Speaker 1: talking about remote and said yeah. Mingo said, do you
Speaker 1: want him gone? And you want to disappear? And Mundo
Speaker 1: did the pistol sign with his hand and he said,
Speaker 1: you want him gone like this like you know when
Speaker 1: she said yeah, I'm tired of him. I wish she
Speaker 1: was going to disappear. Yeah like that. I just want
Speaker 1: him going out of my life. And Mungo said, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what you know, I got some people that
Speaker 1: can do the job for you.
Speaker 2: Mundo told Lulu he could help, that he knew someone
Speaker 2: who could do the hit. Instead of calling up a connection,
Speaker 2: he went straight to his good friend Ramone.
Speaker 1: I was upset. I was so upset. I mean I
Speaker 1: had to pull over. I had so much rage. I
Speaker 1: didn't know what to do. That was like, man, what
Speaker 1: I do? So I called the police? So he said, no,
Speaker 1: he is to do. I talked to her and I'm
Speaker 1: going to start meeting with her and I'm going to
Speaker 1: record everything or a foe and see how far she's
Speaker 1: willing to go. And then I want I want you
Speaker 1: to do is take all these recordings to the police
Speaker 1: and see what they wanted to do.
Speaker 2: Ramone was skeptical that this plan would work, and taking
Speaker 2: Mundo at his word meant Lulu was dangerous. So right
Speaker 2: after that phone call, he decided to go to the police.
Speaker 1: And I told him the situation, what happened, and he
Speaker 1: responded with, you know what, you guys are going through
Speaker 1: a divorce. Women and men sometimes say things when they're upset,
Speaker 1: even that they want to kill their wives or their husbands.
Speaker 1: But it's just just saying it out of anger. There's
Speaker 1: really not a lot of evidence to do anything with that.
Speaker 2: He wasn't sure if Mundo's plan to use secret recordings
Speaker 2: would be admissible or even legal. It sounded kind of
Speaker 2: like entrapment, so he asked the detectives about it.
Speaker 1: I told Black Woo, does say look, And he said,
Speaker 1: you guys keep getting more evidence, and I said, okay,
Speaker 1: apparently that is legal. So that's what we did.
Speaker 2: So they moved forward with the plan. Mundo would meet
Speaker 2: with Lulu in private places like cars to see if
Speaker 2: she was actually serious about hiring a hitman, and all
Speaker 2: the while he was secretly recording on his phone. For
Speaker 2: this to work, she'd have to believe that Mundo was
Speaker 2: in one hundred percent. But why would she trust Mundo,
Speaker 2: one of Ramone's best friends. Ramone has a simple answer.
Speaker 1: Lulu's so desperate in everything that's going on the voice
Speaker 1: I going her way. Her life is slowly crumbling.
Speaker 2: The most difficult part of their plan was that Ramon
Speaker 2: would have to play dumb and spend a few more
Speaker 2: days sleeping under the same roof as Lulu, pretending that
Speaker 2: he didn't know what she was planning. Ramone remembers turning
Speaker 2: into his driveway that day, something he'd done a thousand
Speaker 2: times before, and he always felt comfort and relief when
Speaker 2: he got home, But now it was all so eerie.
Speaker 2: His house a would be crime scene and him an
Speaker 2: unsuspecting murder victim.
Speaker 1: Even though we're sleeping in separate rules. I had to
Speaker 1: go home and see this lady and look at this lady,
Speaker 1: knowing that she wanted to have me kill.
Speaker 2: He barely said a word to her that night. He
Speaker 2: locked his bedroom door. He tried to sleep, but he
Speaker 2: was wide awake with thoughts racing. People say things they
Speaker 2: don't mean during a divorce all the time. Could she
Speaker 2: just be fuming or could she actually go through with it?
Speaker 2: The next day, Ramon got his answer. It turns out
Speaker 2: Lulu was in a hurry. She wanted to take Mundo
Speaker 2: up on his offer right away.
Speaker 1: Lulu wanted me dead before divorce was finalized, because she
Speaker 1: said to Mundo, look, if he dies after our divorce
Speaker 1: is finalized, my kids get everything. But if he died
Speaker 1: before that the vorce is finalized, she gets everything. And
Speaker 1: the wars was going to be finalized about a what
Speaker 1: so she wanted me dead as soon as possible.
Speaker 2: Ramone had spent seven years with Lulu. For most of
Speaker 2: that time, he genuinely adored her. He wanted to give
Speaker 2: her that second chance at a loving partnership, and he
Speaker 2: dreamed of seeing her succeed alongside of him. Instead, she
Speaker 2: was throwing it all away, and Ramone heard everything captured
Speaker 2: on tape.
Speaker 1: I could believe what I was hearing from Lulu. She's
Speaker 1: telling Woundo how she's practicing, how she's going to cry
Speaker 1: when the police calls her after they kill me, and
Speaker 1: she's literally making cry and sounds, and she starts laughing
Speaker 1: after that.
Speaker 2: In one of the first recorded conversations, Lulu dropped a bull.
Speaker 1: Lulu was planning to have me kill two years prior
Speaker 1: to our divorce. I was like what, and Wundo said, yeah,
Speaker 1: have it on one of the recordings, and I listened
Speaker 1: to it, and I said, I can't believe what I'm
Speaker 1: listening to.
Speaker 2: Two years earlier, they'd taken a family vacation to Mexico City.
Speaker 2: Ramone thought their relationship was in a good place, and
Speaker 2: she was so.
Speaker 1: Happy to show me Mexico City and go to the Pyramids.
Speaker 1: She had a whole tenerary for everything, we were supposed
Speaker 1: to do in Mexico City.
Speaker 2: She told Mundo that she was planning to kill Ramon
Speaker 2: on that trip. Lulu wanted his savings, his business, and
Speaker 2: his life insurance. She was conspiring to commit the crime
Speaker 2: with a friend back in Mexico and the plan.
Speaker 1: Was, Yeah, bring him over here. We'll disappear. People disappear
Speaker 1: here all the time. What we can do is have
Speaker 1: you guys held for ransom and then they're going to
Speaker 1: let you go, and then we're going to disappear him.
Speaker 1: And then Mundo asked Lulu, and so how come you
Speaker 1: didn't go through with it? And Lulu said, well, I
Speaker 1: didn't have the heart to do it. Then, well, now
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: This chilled him to the bone. He didn't recognize this woman.
Speaker 2: He never heard his wife speak like this before, the
Speaker 2: coldness in her voice, her laughter.
Speaker 1: It never crossed my mind that lou had this whole
Speaker 1: blooded heart through our good times in our marriage. I
Speaker 1: never would have ever thought in a million years this
Speaker 1: person had that kind of mind to do this kind
Speaker 1: of stuff.
Speaker 2: He became genuinely terrified for his life. Ramon left the
Speaker 2: house and stayed with his parents, who lived across town.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, Mundo asked Lulu if she wanted him
Speaker 2: to reach out to one of his guys if she
Speaker 2: was ready, and she said she was, so Mundo called
Speaker 2: his contacts.
Speaker 1: He called one of them John Boy in the other
Speaker 1: one Paco.
Speaker 2: If those sound like characters from a crummy action movie,
Speaker 2: it's because they are.
Speaker 1: Told me that he saw blood and blood out and
Speaker 1: those are those two characters right from that movie.
Speaker 2: But Lulu bought it. So Mundo texted Paco, who was
Speaker 2: actually Ramone using a burner phone.
Speaker 1: Then I said, well, Mundo, I'm not a street guy,
Speaker 1: so he's already teaching me how to talk or text
Speaker 1: in that gang Lingo to pass as the criminal. Basically,
Speaker 1: he's meeting with Lulu and the person that do I
Speaker 1: text Moonlet's say, hey, the boss lead ready to do this.
Speaker 1: We need two hundred dollars for the toy.
Speaker 2: Mundo explained that the hit would cost twelve thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: but the guys would need two hundred dollars up front
Speaker 2: for the gun.
Speaker 1: She went to our bank. We still had count together.
Speaker 1: She went to our account, got the two hundred dollars
Speaker 1: out of our sables, which is basically my money too
Speaker 1: and gives Mundo two hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: As soon as the money changed hands, they had enough
Speaker 2: to go to the police. The moment was both a
Speaker 2: relief and a horrible betrayal, and with this evidence, the
Speaker 2: police were finally ready to move on Ramon's case. They
Speaker 2: took it very seriously.
Speaker 1: They had to get all these different agencies together and
Speaker 1: come up with the plant Safe Troopers they share with
Speaker 1: the part with FBI. They got real quick.
Speaker 2: Law enforcement wanted to collect evidence of their own. They
Speaker 2: decided to see if Lulu would make a down payment
Speaker 2: for the hit and if she would exchange the money
Speaker 2: with one of these fictitions, hitman in person.
Speaker 1: The state police brought their undercover police officer to play
Speaker 1: it as one of the hitman's to start meeting with
Speaker 1: Lulu in person. I mean, this guy, if he saw
Speaker 1: her in the street, he thought that he was really
Speaker 1: a gang member hit man. You know. He pit everything
Speaker 1: to the tee. He had all the tags, he knew
Speaker 1: how to talk, He had a mean look like that.
Speaker 1: You will be scared of him.
Speaker 2: Lulu met him in a car, which of course was
Speaker 2: an undercover police car full of cameras. She said she
Speaker 2: didn't have the cash to pay him just yet.
Speaker 1: But she brought my own jewelry as a down payment
Speaker 1: for my own murder bracelets, watches just so stiff that
Speaker 1: I had left behind at the house, and she gave
Speaker 1: that to him as a down payment. And then she
Speaker 1: also had the nerve to tell look and he also
Speaker 1: wears this really nice watch and if he has it on,
Speaker 1: you can keep that too, because it's worth something. And
Speaker 1: then after he dies, I'll give you the rest of
Speaker 1: the money. And he said, okay, we're going to take
Speaker 1: care of business now.
Speaker 2: That night, the police asked Ramon to come to the
Speaker 2: station right away.
Speaker 1: And I said, what about mungdo he's not coming? Said no,
Speaker 1: we just need to talk to you. When I arrived
Speaker 1: at the station, go to a special room that we
Speaker 1: always met. And when I get in and I started noticing, like,
Speaker 1: wait a second, there's a lot more people in this
Speaker 1: room than before. The FBI guy was there, at the
Speaker 1: state Police detective, the DA or assistant DA was there,
Speaker 1: so it was a packed room. And they start telling me.
Speaker 1: You say, okay, Ramonea, we feel that we have enough
Speaker 1: evidence to rest Lulu right now. But here's the deal.
Speaker 1: You guys own a business here locally, she's a mother,
Speaker 1: she's never been in trouble, and we need to make
Speaker 1: this slammed on the case. And I'm afraid that if
Speaker 1: we go to a jury trial, we might have one
Speaker 1: of the jurists true slight for her. And you just
Speaker 1: want to make sure it's a slam dunk case. So
Speaker 1: we have decided to stage your death and show her
Speaker 1: your picture and then recorded.
Speaker 2: It sounded over the top. He'd never heard anything like it,
Speaker 2: and to be honest, neither have I. The police told
Speaker 2: Ramon that they need him for three days, so he
Speaker 2: quickly went home and packed a bag. He was advised
Speaker 2: not to tell anyone where he was going that Mundo,
Speaker 2: not his parents, not his kids. He returned to the
Speaker 2: police station the next morning and was surprised when the
Speaker 2: police started doing special effects makeup to make it look
Speaker 2: like he'd been shot in the head. The police even
Speaker 2: had a reference image, a photo of a real murder
Speaker 2: victim whose body had been dumped in the desert.
Speaker 1: They take me in a blacked out SUV to this
Speaker 1: location where they had already dug out this shallow grave.
Speaker 1: And when I get there, the detective tells me, okay,
Speaker 1: meet you to strip down to your underwear. They showed
Speaker 1: me how to pose on my hands bound behind my back,
Speaker 1: and it looked like I was a little bit swollen.
Speaker 1: They put more blood on me, and they even threw
Speaker 1: dirt on me, which I thought it was so degrading,
Speaker 1: and closed my eyes and the only thing that I
Speaker 1: could remember the most from that scene was the sound
Speaker 1: of the thirty five millimeter as it went around me,
Speaker 1: just clicking taking pictures of me. And then the detectives
Speaker 1: health give me the shows oun we're done here to
Speaker 1: close on and they took me away to a hotel.
Speaker 2: He sat in the hotel room for two days, not
Speaker 2: able to contact anyone, just waiting for the to arrest Lulu.
Speaker 1: I couldn't sleep. All I did was paced back and forth,
Speaker 1: thinking about all the different situations. What if it doesn't happen,
Speaker 1: whether she doesn't fall for it, What are my kids
Speaker 1: gonna think when they see my parents? Everybody, I mean all,
Speaker 1: I mean, so many things going through my head.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, back in Houston, the.
Speaker 1: Undercover police officer was in the car with Lulu and
Speaker 1: he shows Lulu the picture of me in the shallow grave.
Speaker 1: So next thing she does, she starts racing up her
Speaker 1: hands up like racing the roof, like she's laughing, like yeah,
Speaker 1: about to get paid. I hit the battle and then
Speaker 1: walks out of the car, closes the door, no idea whatsoever.
Speaker 1: The whole time she was starting to an undercover police officer.
Speaker 2: Lulu was arrested right there for soliciaation a first degree
Speaker 2: capital murder. After the arrest was made, the police called
Speaker 2: Ramone's hotel room to let him know.
Speaker 1: I literally sat on the edge of that bed and
Speaker 1: tears started coming down. Tears of anger, tears of sadness.
Speaker 1: Not because I was still in love with this person,
Speaker 1: but she didn't think about me being a son, me
Speaker 1: being a father, you know, a friend, a brother, all
Speaker 1: those she didn't think of. I know of that, and
Speaker 1: you're taking me away from my kids, my mother, and
Speaker 1: my father. That hurt me a lot.
Speaker 2: Ramone says the worst part of this entire betrayal was
Speaker 2: what happened next. He hadn't been able to talk to
Speaker 2: his family for three days and explain where he was
Speaker 2: going or what was going on. He's the kind of
Speaker 2: son who called his mom nearly every day. He knew
Speaker 2: she'd be panicked, so as soon as he could, he
Speaker 2: dialed his parents' house.
Speaker 1: My father asks the phone, and my dad never asks,
Speaker 1: is a phone? My dad is not a phone person.
Speaker 1: It's just we'll stroll yet. And I can hear the
Speaker 1: cracking in his voice. In the background, I hear my
Speaker 1: mother screaming and cry and kind of cry. You hear
Speaker 1: funerals when somebody passes.
Speaker 2: His parents had just heard the news of Lulu's arrest,
Speaker 2: but they didn't know it was a setup. The only
Speaker 2: thing they knew was that they hadn't heard from Ramone
Speaker 2: and that his wife had just been arrested for soliciting
Speaker 2: his murder.
Speaker 1: And I try to drive as fast as possible, trying
Speaker 1: to get to her. And when I get there, my
Speaker 1: dad opens the door. In my dad's eyes were bloodshot.
Speaker 1: I've never seen my dad cry ever. He just hugged
Speaker 1: me and I went straight to my mother. She was
Speaker 1: there on the couches. She can't catch your bread then,
Speaker 1: and she's crying. I said, mom, come fam okay. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm okay, you know. I tried to explain to her
Speaker 1: that was gonna be okay, but she still couldn't catch
Speaker 1: a bread. She was basically hyper ventilating, you know, because
Speaker 1: she was so anxious.
Speaker 2: This is the moment that still haunts Ramone seeing his
Speaker 2: own mom grieve his death. It's something few people ever
Speaker 2: see and it's extremely difficult to process.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm their only son, and never forget that
Speaker 1: it's gonna be the picture that always be able. My
Speaker 1: was my dad hold Mama's hand, telling her it's gonna
Speaker 1: be okay.
Speaker 2: Even though Lulu was being held on a million dollar bail,
Speaker 2: Ramon couldn't shake this fear that she'd somehow find him.
Speaker 1: I didn't know Flulu had a plan B or C.
Speaker 1: So I was sleeping with a loaded shotgun next to
Speaker 1: my bed. Then I had another loaded gun on the
Speaker 1: counter of my kitchen, which was a forty milimeter that
Speaker 1: I had a nine millimeter loaded in my vehicle at
Speaker 1: all times, ready to go.
Speaker 2: In the year following Lulu's arrest, he didn't leave the
Speaker 2: house unless he had to. Over time, all of that
Speaker 2: fear turned to anger.
Speaker 1: I had so much bottled up anger inside of me,
Speaker 1: my family, my kids, and my mother. All that anger
Speaker 1: I had it bottled up inside of me. Anybody that
Speaker 1: has gone through something so traumatic like I went through,
Speaker 1: you can't live with that much anger. I couldn't continue
Speaker 1: to live the way I was living with that anger
Speaker 1: with loaded guns around me all the time. I was
Speaker 1: a ticking bomb Britaus. I was afraid of myself.
Speaker 2: After fifteen months in jail, Lulu pleaded down to second
Speaker 2: degree solicitation of capital murder. Ramon channeled his anger into
Speaker 2: writing a victim impact statement to deliver at her sentencing hearing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was going to let her have it
Speaker 1: verbally of all the pain and anger that she had
Speaker 1: cost me in my family. When they let me talk,
Speaker 1: it was packed. A lot of people were there from
Speaker 1: the press. I get up. I took a deep breath.
Speaker 1: I forgave this lady.
Speaker 2: This was about him. It wasn't about making Lulu feel
Speaker 2: better or letting her off the hook. It was about
Speaker 2: making this moment into a ceremony for himself, a ceremony
Speaker 2: to release all the anger he'd been carrying.
Speaker 1: And once I did that, it was as if all
Speaker 1: that anger was gone, really like all that air out
Speaker 1: of the bulow and I was able to breathe, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's just life was beginning to be more normal. Now.
Speaker 2: Lulu was sentenced to twenty years, but ended up serving
Speaker 2: eight and a half. She was released in November of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, and she'll serve another twelve years on parole.
Speaker 1: She's on the very very street rules with the Texas
Speaker 1: State Parole Board. She misses up, she's going right back in.
Speaker 2: Ramon decided to move on from the spaces they shared,
Speaker 2: which meant selling the house and the gym.
Speaker 1: It was just way too many memories. I just need
Speaker 1: to move on.
Speaker 2: As for Mundo, they're still friends today. He doesn't think
Speaker 2: about Lulu every day like he used to. It's in
Speaker 2: part because I.
Speaker 1: Mean love again. Yes, yes, it's just been wonderful to me.
Speaker 1: Just Puerto Rican too. I say that because we have
Speaker 1: a lot of common because of our cultures.
Speaker 2: Ramon is determined to turn his betrayal into a positive force.
Speaker 2: He wrote a memoir about his experience. It's called I
Speaker 2: Walked on my Own Grave, and he wants to tell
Speaker 2: his story on stage as a one man play.
Speaker 1: I'm not an actor, I'm not a professional speaker. But
Speaker 1: when you speak from the heart, it means something, and
Speaker 1: I think I'd like to do that. Tell my story
Speaker 1: on stage, the real deal. Everything that haven't.
Speaker 2: Part of his healing process has been understanding that there's
Speaker 2: a term for what Lulu did to him, the terror
Speaker 2: he lived with for years afterwards. It's domestic abuse. Even
Speaker 2: though his story has so many twists and turns, that's
Speaker 2: what it boils down to. His own spouse tried to
Speaker 2: have him killed. As you know, we end all of
Speaker 2: our weekly episodes with the same question, why did you
Speaker 2: want to tell your story?
Speaker 1: My hope is that my story helps men and women
Speaker 1: that are caught in difficult situations in their marriage. And
Speaker 1: I go through what I went through because I was
Speaker 1: a victim of the Messican bees, and it's hard for
Speaker 1: people to understand that what I say. And you're a
Speaker 1: boxer and you're this, and you're that. So I ad advocate,
Speaker 1: you know, for men that are victims of the Messican
Speaker 1: bees to never give up get help. I mean, just
Speaker 1: like women, men should be getting the same type of help.
Speaker 2: On the next episode of Betrayal.
Speaker 3: Who wants to file a police report against their father?
Speaker 3: You know, I didn't want to put my dad in jail.
Speaker 3: I really didn't like I didn't want to be the
Speaker 3: kind of person who did that.
Speaker 2: If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team,
Speaker 2: or want to tell us your betrayal story, email us
Speaker 2: at Betrayal Pod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. Also, please be sure to follow
Speaker 2: us at Glass Podcasts on Instagram for all betrayal content,
Speaker 2: news and updates. We're grateful for your support. One way
Speaker 2: to show support is by subscribing to our show on
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Speaker 2: Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank
Speaker 2: you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production
Speaker 2: of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in
Speaker 2: partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show was executive produced by
Speaker 2: Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me
Speaker 2: Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard, also produced
Speaker 2: by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Kristin Mercury and Caitlin Golden.
Speaker 2: Our ihearteam is Ali Perry and Jessica Krincheck. Audio editing
Speaker 2: and mixing by Matt Delvecchio and Nico Uruka. Betrayal's theme
Speaker 2: composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by my Music
Speaker 2: and for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.