WEBVTT - “Release the Onions!”: the Vincent Kosuga story 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.800 Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio. Yo, 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:07.320 Elizabeth Dutton, what's up? I got a question for you girls. 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:10.840 Do you know what's ridiculous? I do? Actually, you spread 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:12.640 it up, spread some work. Let me give you a 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:16.640 little background though. Okay, so you know that I'm going 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:18.880 to talk about some things that I like and that's 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.279 not ridiculous. No, not at all. I like candles, but 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:27.800 I'm snobby about candles. I only like expensive candles because 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.080 they smell good. Like right now, I'm a little bit 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:37.120 obsessed with these candles from this company. Oddis V I V? No, 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:42.800 it's like V I V. Anyway, They're amazing. I'm not 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:45.839 even getting paid for this. They should pay me, but seriously, 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:48.320 like they're the most incredible candles. I'll write it down. 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:50.760 I love them. So I like that. You know what 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:55.360 else I like? Um, polka music, onion, soup, onion soup. 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:58.760 Oh no, these things go together, and I like I 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.880 like chips. Odd. Yeah, you back ended on this one totally. 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:08.360 You slipped it in. Like. So are you familiar? Okay, 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.320 first of all, are you familiar with the Super Bowl? Uh? 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:14.240 With the football? We just had one? Yes, Yeah, it 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:18.040 was a huge bowl. Super Bowl for the whole globe. 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.960 Everybody was yeah, okay, so people have super Bowl parties. 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:24.600 I've talked about this. Yes, I went to length and 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:27.240 you went to one. Did you have dips and chip? 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:33.319 I had chips? No dip, chip and dips? Wait what? Okay, 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:35.560 so have you ever heard of is it hell of 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.520 a good dip? Let's just say it is and keep moving. 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.200 It's a brand in the store. I don't see l 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.959 u V a hell of a you know, they got ranch, 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:50.000 they got uh onion, they got them all ranch on 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:52.320 they so they had this special thing for this is 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:54.200 taking way too long. They had this special thing for 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.680 the super Bowl. They were giving away super Bowl snack 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:01.880 scented campbells. Why so they eate a French onion candle. 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:04.200 And they also had like a recipe for French onion 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:09.200 soup bites, which okay, aside from that, buttermilk ranch and 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:17.880 then just potato chips in here, baby, lighten it up. Onion, 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:22.480 French onion candle. Just go cook some onions. I know 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:24.800 what you're getting for your birthday. I know I wreak 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:28.799 of onions all the time. So that that that that 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:33.639 that that is ridiculous. That is ridiculous. Now it's coincidental, though, 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:35.800 because I've got something for you that should be right 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:39.480 up your alley. Okay, yeah, my shooter alley. Yeah, you 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:45.040 know exactly alley. Yeah. The thing I was thinking, that's 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:50.440 ridiculous capitalism gonna get me right in the shooter alley. Capitalism, Yeah, 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:55.520 that's ridiculous. I just slide past that. Capitalism is ridiculous, Elizabeth, 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:57.640 But not like in the good fun way. You know, 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.520 it's ridiculous, like in that Picasso of face way. And 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:03.880 by that I mean it's it's recognizable, you know, but 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:07.400 it's still distarted and exploited, and it's probably overvalued by 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.440 market speculators. Right. So anyway, I'm not gonna get on 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:12.960 a soapbox about capitalism. You know my feelings about it. 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:18.600 All economic models are ridiculous. Young felt that way. Well, 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.400 leaving aside my college freshman opinions about capitalism, I would 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.040 like to tell you about a crime of capitalism, one 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:29.920 that is ridiculous and one that involves onions. Yeah, yeah, 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.680 it's about onions. You like onions, You like onions. You 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:38.520 like onions. What's your third favorite onion? Okay, good choice. Well, 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.320 I like onions too. So now imagine if onions were 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:45.800 suddenly like ninety dollars a bag for onions. That'd be ridiculous, right, 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.120 that would be very right. That's essentially what happened in 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:53.160 when one man conspired to create an onion cartel so 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:55.720 that he could have control over all of the onions 0:03:55.720 --> 0:04:20.200 in America. Yes, this is ridiculous Crime A podcast about 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:24.159 absurd and outrageous capers, ices and cons It's always murder 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:30.920 free and ridiculous, Elizabeth Zaren. Before we get into the 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:33.559 onion cartel and the man with the bond villain dreams 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:36.040 to control all the onions in America, I'd like to 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:37.800 talk to you about a subject that's very near and 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.320 dear to my heart. No, I want to talk to 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:44.200 you about pork belly futures. Okay, yeah, Now let me 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:46.039 back up. Do you know what a pork belly future is? 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:48.840 Kind of I mean, I'm not gonna lie and be like, oh, yeah, totally. 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:51.680 And then you ask me something about like let's keep 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:53.320 it simpler, it's like all you know what it is, 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:55.320 it's all by cell cell by because I yell it 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.040 into a phone. Yeah. And then I had another guy 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.600 who's like yelling by by sell that yeah, with like 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:01.840 a bunch of little slips of paper and perfect Yes, 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:03.960 I know. Okay, Well, do you know what a pork 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:06.880 belly is? Okay? Now what is a pork belly? It's 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:11.400 the belly of pork. Fig Yes, it's a butcher's cut 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.560 of park. It's like a big layer of fat on it. Yes. 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.360 Is where we get bacon? Yeah, so I figured you're 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:19.680 familiar with like how we get bacon. You you've lived 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:23.640 in the South exactly. Now, hogs are a huge market. 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:25.839 Everyone around the world loves pork. We talked about chicken, 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:29.039 but everybody loves park. Did you know how much pork 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:31.200 we produce in a year as just as a globe? 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.200 And I'm going to tell you in millions of metric 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:39.760 tons of so China's number one, and they produced five 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:43.279 point four seven million metric tons of hog every year. 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:47.359 The European unit two point three million metric tons of hog. 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.680 Now US re number three, number three, number three, so 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:54.320 we re number three one point to one million metric tons. 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:56.920 And rounding out the top four is Brazil with three 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.640 point seven million tons. I'm sorry, we are yeah point three. 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:02.480 Something is this when they're weighing him. Is that rude 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:04.760 or to tutor? Is that like the bones and everything 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.920 that weight? Yeah, that's like sale price. Wait, they use 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:10.960 all of it. Let's be frank. Yeah, everything but the 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:21.040 frank joke. That's good. No, the demand for pig has 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.479 been so high and so just outsized for so long, 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:26.719 and we were talking to centuries that eventually when we 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.159 get into like capitalism era, the pork belly market was 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:33.600 always super volatile. It just was like the prices are fluctuating, 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.799 made rise and falls. Hog farmers would make a fortune 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.599 and then they lose everything. So something had to be 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.600 done there, like how do we stabilize this pork belly market. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:47.080 Starting in nineteen sixty one, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, that's 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.920 the Dow Jones for raw materials like pork bellies and 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.560 frozen orange juice and wheat futures, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:56.039 it began trading pork belly futures and that was meant 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.359 to stabilize pork prices, right, But it did bring some 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:01.280 calm to the pork market and also led to one 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:05.920 of my favorite films, Trading Places. You like trading Places. 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:09.520 Did you and your brother trap you guys grow watch 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:13.320 that growing up? I think, Yeah, what's your third favorite scene? Oh? Goodness, 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:15.360 I don't know. You know that, like I don't really 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:18.200 remember anything more than an hour. I know, like like 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.560 an eight year all to keep asking you your third favorite? 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:23.800 Do like that this was your third favorite hero? No? 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:25.600 The problem that I have is that I'll know that 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.000 I watched something, and then if I watch it, it 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.120 like refreshes my memory. Yes, I honestly I couldn't tell you. 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:33.880 I mean, I know it's like Dana Roydon and Edine Murphy. 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:36.680 Jimmie Lee Curtis. I don't even remember her. Do you 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:40.720 remember the gorilla like where they remember the blackface scene 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:44.080 or blackface? Yes, okay, I don't remember some part of it. 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:46.320 For those who have never seen the film, Trading Places, 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.320 about these dudes, the Duke brothers, Randolph and Mortimer Duke. 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:51.400 Their super old money. They have like seats on the 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:53.840 down jone exchange, and the Duke brothers they have a 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.360 commodities brokerage firm, which is what we're talking about now, 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.720 may bide cell raw materials that become the products we 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:01.520 all by. Now, the two brothers getting a spirit of 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:04.320 debate about nature versus nurture. So they decide they will 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:06.120 test their theory with a bet, and so they pick 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.520 rich person Dana Right a poor person Eddie Murphy and 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:12.200 they have them switch places and then see what will happen. Right, 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:14.120 So they do this. They decided to ruin these two 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.880 bands live and they make Eddie Murphy rich. They make 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.040 dannack Royd poor and he's just like he hits the 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.640 skids hard. And they just they determined that wealth is 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.880 not about merit. It really is about rather who you know, 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:29.160 wealth is about access as it he doesn't. It's nurture 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.439 not nature. Right anyway, Dana Chary, Eddie Murphy, they decided 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:34.920 to get revenge on the Duke brothers for ruining their lives. 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:38.120 So what do they do. They use frozen orange juice futures. 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:42.400 Okay yeah, yeah, remember okay, So they're active subterfuge. They 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:44.839 have this agent, guy Meeks, who has he has the 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:46.960 crop YOUELD reports. So they get the crop UELD report, 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:48.559 they switch it out, they give it to the Duke brothers. 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:50.480 The Duke brothers going, they tell their agents on the 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.240 stock market, Bye bye bye Cell Cell Cell right. So 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:55.040 they go in there and they have their marching orders 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:56.920 and they're going to try to drive up orange juice 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.319 to a fixed price. Right, So the Duke Brothers attempt 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:01.600 to corner them our market. Now, being super wealthy, they 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:03.960 can do this, and they do it all on margin. Though, 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:05.320 this is where they make a mistake. You know what 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:07.440 margin is. It's where you use someone else's money to 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:09.680 buy a stock and then when the price, when the 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:12.760 when the time to actually purchase it comes, do you 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:14.760 have to pay for whatever the price is set at 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:16.079 that time, so you can say a little bit of 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:18.520 a fluctuation. You do not know necessarily what the price 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:20.960 will be. So they buy this on margin. They got 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:24.040 all these orange juice futures, contracts, markets open, Duke Brothers 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.160 buying a ton and then trading pauses crop, your report 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:29.520 comes out. Everybody's like, oh no, the Duke brothers, what 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:32.480 they were told is the opposite. So now everybody's trying 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:35.640 to drop their orange juice prices. The market response orange 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.400 usee prices drop at great and Murphy. They have bought 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.080 futures on the short so now they can because they 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:44.280 have promised to buy orange juice, they have to start 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:47.160 buying to fulfill their orders. And they do this, and 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.280 that that they do is they buy everybody who wants 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:51.280 to sell oranges except from the Duke brothers. So now 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:55.160 they have these prices they are contractually obligated to buy. 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:58.520 It bankrupts them. This is the power of the futures 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.760 market because you're basically saying tomorrow, I will buy this 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.440 these orange juices from this orange juice from you, but 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.520 whatever the prices tomorrow today, and you lock it in, 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.120 and that's supposed to stabilize the market. Some people make 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:13.560 these bets. Well that's what the Duke brothers ended up. 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:15.720 How they end up going belly up, much like say 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.160 a pork belly. Now, to bring it all back around 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:22.400 to park belly, futures farming has gone industrial, right, we 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:24.800 all know this. It's agri business is big business. But 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:27.439 that means they can lower the prices of the cost 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:29.520 to bring a hog to market. That's been really helpful 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:33.360 to also stabilize the pork product market. Right. This also 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.440 means hog farmers can leverage their size to control prices, 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:40.120 and this is pretty much how you get price stability. Right. 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:43.640 This killed off the pork belly futures market. So two 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.720 thousand eleven, Chicago mercantile exchanss like, forget this, We're not 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.679 doing it anymore. The agri business basically made it no 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:53.600 longer necessary. Right. This also happened to be coincidentally one 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.840 year after Congress looked into the fixing of pork billy futures. 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:58.920 So you know, it was that a little bit of 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:02.600 congressional testimony. And by the way, trading places was cited 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.880 in congressional testimony to help the sound help the cores 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:12.320 men and women understand futures. It's not just us good 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:14.640 teaching tools. It is I'm telling you, Eddie Murphy, if 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:16.360 you want to get people's attention and hold it, Eddie 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:18.600 Murphy exactly, throwing some dan A right if you really 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:21.320 just like, you know, it got some Canadians anyway. It 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:23.560 turns out this whole thing I'm telling you this all 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.480 applies to the onion futures market. Have you ever heard 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:28.840 of onion futures? No, I've not. Well, turns out you 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:31.480 can get onion futures. You can buy onions before they 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.640 come to market, which are also now no longer traded 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.440 on the Chicago mercantilers. They get rid of those two 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.160 Oh yeah, and uh there this case. So there isn't 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:42.160 a classic eighties movie to explain it, so we'll have 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.280 to rely on me, you know, just good. Yeah, but 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.000 it's the great Onion Scam of nineteen fifty five and 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.960 just imagine trading places like stuff happening. Right You ready 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:54.560 for the story of Vincent Cassuga and the Onion Cartel. 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:56.960 Never been more ready. Okay, this story takes place in 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:00.600 one of my favorite places, Chicago. Chicago's amazing, dude, it 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:02.720 really is, like I legit love Chicago. I love it. 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.160 There's so much green space for a big city. Oh yeah, 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:07.840 it's a lot of the Midwestern cities because they're built 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.360 in the nineteenth century before cars. They have a much 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:13.319 better layout, plan, gener structure. Everything is just a lot cool. 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:15.400 I've been finding that it was Indianapolis recently. I was like, 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.080 this is a damn cooling. I mean, not like popping off, 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.959 but I mean like I like the building anyway. Chicago's dope. 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.600 In her book The Futures, author Emily Lambert was writing 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:26.920 all about the economics, and she was explaining the Chicago 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.360 Mercantile Exchange and so forth. She shared why Chicago and 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:34.439 onions are so naturally intertwined. Do you know anything about this? No? 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.680 I didn't either, So Lambert writes, and I quote, onions 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.040 were faded to trade in Chicago. The name of the 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.559 city was derived from chicaqua, the Native American word for 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.480 a stinky wild leak plant that grew around the river. 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.160 Chicago is basically a swamp. Before people got there and 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:52.160 the conditions, people were like, oh, we don't camp there, 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.400 Like that's it's right by the lake. It's just rats 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:58.640 and onions. Nobody goes there, right. So now this chicaqua, 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:01.560 this is one. This was the Miami or the Miami 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.480 tribes word for the area. But other people, other indigenous 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:06.040 tribes in the area, they had their own term for it. 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.200 But yet all of them seem to basically want to 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:13.160 point out that this place is stinky as hell. Returning 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:16.240 to a Lambert, she says, quote Chicaqua is the Miami 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:18.160 Tribes name for the region on which the city and 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.360 campus sits, and is said to be associated in the 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.240 naming of Chicago. It refers to the marshy environment where 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:26.560 wild leaks, garlic, and onions grow, giving the area a 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.000 strong and pungent fragrance. Other tribes of the region referred 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.840 to the area as the place of onions, and legends 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.400 of a great skunk who devoured humans and covered the 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:38.360 land and its pungent spray. So it's like if you 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:42.679 had a hell of a good candle yes, and it 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:44.600 smelled like skunk. But you know what, though, I'm not 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.079 gonna I'm not gonna get on onions. Onions are amazing. 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.800 I love onions. I'm all about like the album Family, 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.520 This fertile ground. Where is where our onion conspiracy takes place? 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:56.839 Now in this land where the great skunk devours people 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:01.400 and leaves the land shrouded in skunky aroma, Chicago is 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:03.480 where we're gonna meet our anti hero. You're ready to 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.600 meet Vincent Cassuga. He was a farmer from New York. 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.160 He was in place called Pine Island. It's a small 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:11.599 town down by the New Jersey border. Kasuga had a 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.880 big spread, about five thousand acres of a black dirt farm. 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:17.360 And black dirt is like really fertile, rich earth. So 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:21.400 he was growing celery, carrots and onions and lots of 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.800 onions and so so that you can picture him because 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:25.800 Suga was not a big man. He stood about five 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:29.640 feet four. He comes from Eastern European roots and he 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:32.240 was born in America the nineteen fifteen. He started farming 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.160 in the US and the thirties. His farm was productive, profitable. 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:37.200 He's very good at it. Two of his biggest clients 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.400 the U. S. Army and Campbell Suit. So everybody was 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.000 eating his onions now. Because Suga had a scrappy side 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:44.640 to him. He was a little bit of a totjof 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.480 spark plug of a man. Dude was driven by will. 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.200 He was just like about it. And he always kept 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:52.840 a revolver on him and a billy club making case 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:55.960 got the revolver away from him, make a billy club. 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:58.760 I think he would like the billy clubs. The intro. Yeah, 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:05.120 that's like a this off. I just I didn't have 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:09.400 a Chile. Those things will not okay. Now, my dude, Cossuga, 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:11.800 Now you know, he's the kind of guy who shoots 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.920 first and asked for forgiveness later, just like all good Catholics, 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.280 you know. But and all truth he did contain multitudes. 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:20.680 He was a devout Catholic. The dude, I might say 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:24.840 devout Catholic. He donated millions to the Catholic Church, so 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:27.880 much that the Vatican invited him out to Rome to 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:30.520 have private audiences with the Pope. He got the whole 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.040 v I p pass. Yeah, not one pope, three popes. 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:35.680 He had private on three popes. Not only that, he 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.000 got a ride up and down in the Pope's private 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:40.480 paper elevator, which I didn't even know that was a thing. 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:44.640 Apparently they got this like little cart that you shoved 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.920 up and down anything. It's all gold, oh you know it. 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:52.440 You know, a deep red carpet, gold everything. No, perhaps 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.480 it was his resolute faith. I don't know, but something 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:56.880 gave Cossuga the strength to go on when others would 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:58.720 turn back. You know, it's like that. There was one 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.640 time he crashed his plane, so he owned his own plane. Yeah, 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:03.720 he was flying a friend home to us. We go 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:05.880 in New York, somewhere up in there among the clouds. 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:07.280 He's like, you know, how to change my mind, I'm 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.040 gonna go to Pine Island. So he starts to go 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:12.640 on two extra miles. That's really testing. Your fuel tank 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:16.080 did not pass the test. Plane runs out of gas 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:18.480 in the air. He has to ditch it, he crashes 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:21.440 and totally walks away from the crash. So he's and 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.320 he's hospitalized for weeks. He had to wear a full 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:26.800 body cast, and then when he was like done, he 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:28.600 just checked himself out of the hospital and went back 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.400 to farming. Because that's amazing because usually you're here, Oh 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:35.080 he crashed his plane. Yeah, not this area. So in 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:37.560 the nineteen thirties, he gets involved in the stock market, 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.160 and that's what will bring us to all of the criminality. 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.640 But first a little break for some commercials and some capitalism, 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.440 and then we'll be back with the commercial involving onion. 0:16:47.600 --> 0:17:12.919 Oh yeah, alright, Elizabeth, Okay, Elizabeth. So we're in the 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.600 nineteen thirties. Vincent Kasuga has just gotten involved in the 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:18.679 stock market. He's like, I'm doing well as a farmer. 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.679 I'm going to invest now. Admittedly, this was not the 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:23.600 thinking of most people at the time, because there was 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.880 a little thing called Black Tuesday that wiped out most 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:28.560 of the stock market. Everyone else is like, to hell 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.840 with the stock market. That is legalized gambling. Not Kissuga. 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:35.480 He's like, that's legalized gambling exactly. So he decides to 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:37.159 get involved, and he's like, I think I can make 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.040 a fortune there, and he was wrong. He goes into 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:43.359 the thirties, he loses everything. His first pray about he 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.679 and his wife nearly had to like hawk the farm 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:49.480 that he was betting on wheat futures, and then the 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.199 prices shifted as a telling you boom. He lost it 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:54.520 all on margin calls. He goes to tell his wife, 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:57.359 and his wife's like, that's it, You're out, and he's like, okay, okay, baby, 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:01.000 I promise no more trade and wheat futures, wheat futures. Yeah, 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:05.120 you have to open all the other but not ever again, babe. 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:07.680 So that she should have like made him be a 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.000 little more specific, because, like I said, a few years later, 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:12.879 he's out there and he's deep in the futures market. 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.080 He was flying to Chicago every week so he could 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:17.760 go trade. He lives in New York, He's got his 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:21.880 bone pilots. On Monday morning, why is Chicago hangs out 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.680 trade for like three or four days. Thursday flies back 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:26.800 and does she think he's out like plowing the field. 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.439 I don't know. She didn't tell me all if you 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:32.600 need me, yeah, I don't know. Then she hears the 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:36.000 places like called dirt it. I'll tell you that. Vance No, 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:37.720 I think that. I think she had to be aware 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:41.560 of it. Yeah, so you know, anyway gets back. Isn't 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:43.960 it worth fun to imagine she had no idea? Oh yeah, 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:46.480 she's just in there, like you know, making let's have 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:49.600 peanut butter brittle and just on her own, just having 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:54.200 some me time, listening to her stories, living your best life. 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:59.639 So dope to the guild, all of mom happy, mother's 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:04.280 little helpers. He's got a fistful helpers. Okay. Anyway, so dude, 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:07.120 he gets good at trading. Cassuga starts not losing out 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.520 everything and his wife's money and all of everything on 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.399 the futures market. So he starts making bank. He starts 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.879 getting really good at He starts buying Cadillacs for his brokers. 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.960 That's how good he's getting at it. Multiple brokers, multiple Cadillacs. 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.240 Not just like Steve got your catalect, more like Steve, 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:28.480 Gary Lionel and Anton gil got y'all got covered you two, Joaquin, 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.760 But there's one there's this one story about him. But 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.240 it's like I was reading and I'm like, what a jerk. 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:36.639 So anyway, I think, guy, he's he's giving cars to 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:39.560 his broker's right, there's supposed to be gifts. He's riding 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:42.480 around one time and uh, well, I'll just put it 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:45.119 to this way quote from a book he said. He 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:47.960 presented a broker name Nate Wertheimer, who was at one 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.720 point a chairman of the Murk that's the Mercantile Exchange, 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:53.959 with a big, fancy Cadillac. Fifteen minutes later, they were 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:57.120 driving down Michigan Avenue when Kassuga, in the backseat, put 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:59.880 his dirty feet on the ceiling of the car. We're 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.240 finmer told him to take his feet off the ceiling 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.959 of his car. Your car, Kassuga asked, and then stuck 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:10.520 his feet through the canvas ceiling. That's like the Charlie 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.239 Murphy story about Rick James and the white couch is. 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:16.400 But at the same time, it's like, he just gave 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.119 you your couch, Nie Murphy, but he just he just 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:21.520 gave you a car. But you want to get it 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:24.639 detailed afterwards. Yeah, I think they're both jerks. I mean, 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:27.440 I don't know what everyone everyone's jerk in the start 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.600 in life. Everyone life, you're going to broaden it just 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:33.920 going all throwing the net wide, all right, you leave 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:37.080 my sister out of here. Sorry. Anyway, back to kiss 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:42.360 the dude. He like, as I'm trying to convey, he's willful, 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.119 he's controlling, and he's gonna do what he's gonna do. 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:47.840 Be it his you know, it doesn't matter you're his 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.560 wife or his broker. To hell with you. So if 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:55.080 you just keeping things, you know, like modern, have you 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:58.600 bought eggs lately? I have? Have you seen the prices? Yeah, yikes, 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.800 they're coming back down, but bikes, So, like you may 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:04.080 be wondering what the hell egg producers, like, why did 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.840 eggs suddenly go up in price? Right? They jumped up 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:10.399 by six over the course of the last year. A 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:12.639 dozen of grade at large Grade E eggs was a 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.640