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