Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime is a production of My Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Dutton, saren you know what's ridiculous I do? Do
Speaker 1: you want to share? All right? You convinced me what
Speaker 1: do aphids, anacondas, and zebra sharks have in common? They
Speaker 1: all have a's in their names. Done, that's ridiculous. Um,
Speaker 1: you know that some of them are born pregnant. Wait
Speaker 1: what Yeah, some are born pregnant. Yes, some a fids
Speaker 1: are born pregnant, but individual adults. Right, they can give
Speaker 1: birth to up to nine offspring a day. I'm just looking.
Speaker 1: They reproduce a sexually. Okay, So it wasn't like dad
Speaker 1: got mom and pregnant part in a genesis. Well, it
Speaker 1: did remind me of my favorite Yahoo answers of all time.
Speaker 1: The question was can your baby get pregnant if you
Speaker 1: have sex while pregnant? And then that was the title,
Speaker 1: and then the question the question underneath says like, if
Speaker 1: you are pregnant with a baby, girl and you have
Speaker 1: sex while you are pregnant, can the sperm go up
Speaker 1: in there and impregnate the baby in there? And then
Speaker 1: someone calling themselves Hennessy the best answer chosen by voters
Speaker 1: and said the baby can get pregnant only if it's female.
Speaker 1: If you suspect that your baby is pregnant, try not
Speaker 1: to have sex again. You run the risk of getting
Speaker 1: your baby's baby pregnant, and that can lead to complications
Speaker 1: like an infinite loop. So that's kind of what goes
Speaker 1: on with its like a Russian Yeah, so that was
Speaker 1: all ridiculous. Oh that is uncut ridiculous and Hennessy, thank
Speaker 1: you for clarifying. Thank you. That's a damn good one. Um,
Speaker 1: if you have a moment, I got a wild one
Speaker 1: for you. Yes, please, Are you got a second? I
Speaker 1: can make time nice for you. I can. Then I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna ask you. Imagine that you're twenty years old, okay.
Speaker 1: Now you live in Florida, okay, and you decide it
Speaker 1: would be a good idea for you to fake your
Speaker 1: own kidnapping and extort two million dollars in ransom from
Speaker 1: a Colombian cartel connected gangster. Right, and this man is
Speaker 1: also your father. Oh wow, this is ridiculous. Crime A
Speaker 1: podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's
Speaker 1: always murder free and Elizabeth ridiculous. Okay, I promised you
Speaker 1: story Florida. You made that promise three. This is one
Speaker 1: year before the year that or Well made famous, right right? Okay,
Speaker 1: remembright here. So to put you back in time, I
Speaker 1: want you to just go over some major cultural touch
Speaker 1: zones of nineteen eight three. You're ready, ready, Okay, way
Speaker 1: back machine starting now? Okay, RayBan sunglasses, Michael Jackson Thriller
Speaker 1: dominates the charts. The McDonald's chicken McNugget debuts, Jane Fondes
Speaker 1: Jazzer Size is selling bookoo vhs and Beta Max tapes
Speaker 1: on Yeah Becausette tapes and their return of the Jedi.
Speaker 1: It's dominating at the box office right nineteen Can you
Speaker 1: feel the surging through you? I have straight up there?
Speaker 1: And when someone says nineteen three, does anything jump to mind?
Speaker 1: Anything leap to mind? Anything that you just have, like
Speaker 1: oh when I think three, boom um, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It all sort of blurs together for me. That it's
Speaker 1: a hard one to separate out, to be quite honest,
Speaker 1: because it's not an election year, not an Olympic, hadn't
Speaker 1: hit Olympic fever happening around the culture. I feel like
Speaker 1: I was listening to a lot of Duran Duran. Okay,
Speaker 1: that could see that. Yeah, they I think the Smiths
Speaker 1: had their first album three right. Yeah, so there's some
Speaker 1: cultural touchdowns that were coming up for you personally. I
Speaker 1: mean that, yeah, but you were just a young six
Speaker 1: still eyeing the culture, going what's going to come next?
Speaker 1: Exactly now, Elizabeth, this also was the birth ye or
Speaker 1: some of your favorite people. I looked it up. I
Speaker 1: checked to see the list. I pulled out a couple
Speaker 1: of my favorites. You know, we're going to skip past
Speaker 1: the Azas and sories of the world. Who was born
Speaker 1: in three but we're also going to stick to the
Speaker 1: summer babies because that's when this story takes place, all right.
Speaker 1: So June maclemore was brought into the world as Baby Macklemore.
Speaker 1: I know, not one of your favorites, the rapper Macilmore. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you feel like a scooter video. I'm doing this is
Speaker 1: good now. A month later after Baby Mackamore entered the world,
Speaker 1: funny hammer guy Chris hams Work was born. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: one of your favorite time He's funny, he's got a hammer.
Speaker 1: So there was let's see. Also at the end of
Speaker 1: the summer, Donald Glover was born, who you actually do
Speaker 1: like much like Funny Hammer Guy's say, Malcolmore. Now September
Speaker 1: was Donald Glover's birthday. Just putting that out there because
Speaker 1: you wanted to send a birthday card. Coming up fast now,
Speaker 1: two weeks before Donald Glover inches the world. That's where
Speaker 1: our story takes place. Okay, you into this. Okay, Florida
Speaker 1: late summer, Yeah, hot, humid, sticky, eats everything you don't
Speaker 1: want to be Now. It's the kind of place where
Speaker 1: it feels like it may start raining anytime soon, or
Speaker 1: it's just gotten done rainy. There was an old joke
Speaker 1: I used to hear when I was a kid about Florida,
Speaker 1: which is like, if you don't like the weather in Florida,
Speaker 1: just stick around an hour, it'll change. Now this is
Speaker 1: what you're experiencing as you are in South Florida, the
Speaker 1: Miami Dade area. And the star of our tale that
Speaker 1: I would like to tell you about today is a
Speaker 1: man named David Hampton Butler Senior. David Hampton Butler Senior
Speaker 1: will be a test latter, so please write that time
Speaker 1: writing it right now, the four years before our story begins.
Speaker 1: David Hampton Butler Senior. He is a you know drug
Speaker 1: smuggler and he's hanging out gets busted in Alabama and
Speaker 1: that becomes like who he is. But when we meet
Speaker 1: him in nine, he's a vice president of a small
Speaker 1: charter airline called trans Air. And this is, you know,
Speaker 1: a step up for an x con. You don't expect
Speaker 1: him to be the VP of a private airline, right right.
Speaker 1: He's living well, not like you know, high on the hog.
Speaker 1: But the guy has a three thousand dollar home in
Speaker 1: three which is you know, that's sizeable and expensive, and
Speaker 1: he's doing well in life. Has also got a garage
Speaker 1: full of several luxury cars, and he likes to keep
Speaker 1: a low profile. Does he have an embroidered pillow in
Speaker 1: his home that says living well is the best revenge?
Speaker 1: Nobody needs one? He does with like the gold tassels
Speaker 1: and stuff. So this guy, David Hampton Butler Senior, who
Speaker 1: appears to have gone legit, he is doing what psychiatries
Speaker 1: like to call a lie. He is living a lie.
Speaker 1: He has not gone leg yet. Clinical, Yes, keep up
Speaker 1: with me. I'll try not to use too much of
Speaker 1: the Yeah, this one. He's also what criminologists would be
Speaker 1: referred to as an active drug smuggler. Yeah, so he's
Speaker 1: also has one other secret. He is a high level
Speaker 1: informant for the FBI. Oh yeah, he's hit. He's pouncing around. Now.
Speaker 1: His family doesn't know this. In particular, his twenty year
Speaker 1: old son doesn't know this. Dave Hampton Butler Jr. Twenty
Speaker 1: year old son. Now, this one little secret will go
Speaker 1: on to shape both of their futures because I believe
Speaker 1: if his son did know that his father was a
Speaker 1: high level FBI informant, he probably wouldn't think it was
Speaker 1: a good idea to fake his own kidnapping. Otherwise, it's
Speaker 1: a great ideas a solid plan. But I'm saying is
Speaker 1: if your dad has buddies in the FBI, they've got
Speaker 1: the tools to catch you real quick. Now, at the
Speaker 1: time of this kidnapping, his best friend is this Judge's son,
Speaker 1: who's this is narrative. Well, he's also has a girlfriend.
Speaker 1: She's an eighteen year old who attends at a community college.
Speaker 1: She's also an exercise teacher. Her name is Carmen Karin.
Speaker 1: And uh yeah, so he's got the narrative. Well, Judge's
Speaker 1: best friend, the jazzercise teacher as his girlfriend, and together
Speaker 1: these three amateur kidnappers come up with a plan to
Speaker 1: con and extort his father, the cocaine cartel gangster. There's
Speaker 1: three amateurs idea. It's a simple plan to keep it
Speaker 1: down to brass. Tax was like, well, we're not gonna
Speaker 1: have a lot of a dormant and embellishments. We're just
Speaker 1: gonna do straight ransom notes. Right. So, David Butler Jr.
Speaker 1: This is their plan. He'll go missing on a Friday,
Speaker 1: have a nice long weekend, hang out with his girlfriend,
Speaker 1: you know, just normally do what they would do. They
Speaker 1: they're gonna go enjoy a Florida weekend together while his
Speaker 1: friend Joe Hickey, he helps work out the threatening parts
Speaker 1: for his father, right, because it's important that his father
Speaker 1: be terrified that he's gone. It can't just be that
Speaker 1: they go off on a lark. So they have this
Speaker 1: whole plan. On Friday, he'll go missing and then hide
Speaker 1: up for the weekend, laylo with her girlfriend. On Monday,
Speaker 1: they'll arrange for his return once they've properly scared his
Speaker 1: father throughout the weekend. Okay, Okay. Now, his girlfriend Carmen,
Speaker 1: she comes up with the plan. She'll type up ransom
Speaker 1: notes at the community college. They have typewriters there. That
Speaker 1: way they won't be traced back to her, won't be handwritten.
Speaker 1: Kind of smart right now, Joe Hickey, he helps a
Speaker 1: word these so they're maximally threatening. He actually has a
Speaker 1: little history with threatening people. He faced a charge where
Speaker 1: he tried to get a woman to pay five hundred
Speaker 1: dollars to get a dog back or something. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: he's like a whole I said, never do well, He's like,
Speaker 1: I got this one. Here's what we gotta do. Put
Speaker 1: in terrifying language. So he believes that it's the cocaine
Speaker 1: smugglers who grabbed you. So he's working on making this
Speaker 1: terrifying ransom notes. Right, So, the first typewritten ransom note
Speaker 1: arrives at the Butler home on Friday, Right one's gone missing.
Speaker 1: The ransom note reads, we have finally taken revenge against you,
Speaker 1: Mr Butler. We are now holding your son David Jr.
Speaker 1: Al Right, simple, straightforward, right to the point, right, And
Speaker 1: the note also includes the demand they will insist on
Speaker 1: two million dollars in small bills if you ever want
Speaker 1: to see your son ever again. It's this one strapper money.
Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, I want five and one and they
Speaker 1: got to be crinkly and correctly. And I can't smell sweat.
Speaker 1: I don't want it now. David Butler Sr. His son's grabbed.
Speaker 1: He knows he deals with bad men all the time
Speaker 1: from a living He immediately begins to panic. His worst
Speaker 1: fears have been realized. His criminal business dealings have now
Speaker 1: not only put his life at risk, but put his
Speaker 1: family's life at risk. Right, So on Friday, he doesn't
Speaker 1: know what to do. He does he want to tell
Speaker 1: his wife? Does he what can? He can't call the cops.
Speaker 1: He doesn't know what to do, right, So he's like panicking,
Speaker 1: racking his mind, spends the whole night in fear. Saturday,
Speaker 1: new ransom note or lives and he's like, okay, so
Speaker 1: he checks the ransom note and this one, this one
Speaker 1: is more threatening. Thank you, Joe Hicky. So but no,
Speaker 1: you must know our threat is real. David is safe.
Speaker 1: Your time is running out. We will not stand for
Speaker 1: any setups or police involvement if we are informed. Otherwise
Speaker 1: your son will be killed without hesitation. Right, So it's
Speaker 1: ramping up. Good job, Joe Hicky. Now the father David
Speaker 1: Butler Sr. He believes Rampson notes are or could be legit.
Speaker 1: He's not exactly certain because they don't quite fit the
Speaker 1: pattern he would expect. But it's his son. I would
Speaker 1: think at this point they'd be like sending a pinky
Speaker 1: or something that exactly, you know, if he's dealing with
Speaker 1: real Colombian Cartel's like, we got to ramp this up,
Speaker 1: and it's not. It's hard to find a spare pinky
Speaker 1: to send. So like if I were them, if they
Speaker 1: went upstairs to the faculty lounge at this community college
Speaker 1: and they got me to come down and help them
Speaker 1: type it up, it's true freedom. I feel. Here's what
Speaker 1: we do. You guys go get a piece of bologney
Speaker 1: and we'll say we cut off some of his rump
Speaker 1: meat and this is it slice. Yeah, it would be
Speaker 1: really good on rye. Yeah exactly. I like this. You
Speaker 1: could have been good. See I don't think not, and
Speaker 1: we just haven't found out about it yet. The look
Speaker 1: on my face right now, pure shock, Elizabeth, Master, criminal
Speaker 1: that you are. What would you do next? You've got
Speaker 1: the father terrified. Okay, so we're not sending rump meat,
Speaker 1: so flip it. What do you do as the father?
Speaker 1: As the father, how about that. I call some people
Speaker 1: I know and feel like you're good at this. These
Speaker 1: amateur criminals, they should have consulted with someone like you,
Speaker 1: because that's exactly what his father did. There. He goes
Speaker 1: right to his handlers at the FBI and he's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: my son has been grabbed. And the FBI is like,
Speaker 1: you're in luck. That's what we do. We don't care.
Speaker 1: So they're like, we promise you will find your son
Speaker 1: or we will try really hard. So FBI's free. He
Speaker 1: spring into action. Right, they promised to find the kidnappers. Sunday,
Speaker 1: nothing has occurred yet a new ransom note arrives at
Speaker 1: the Butler home. Right. This note now has instructions for
Speaker 1: what he's supposed to do to get his son back.
Speaker 1: The note tells him to follow instructions to a sidewalk
Speaker 1: cafe in Coconut Grove, Florida. So he does. He gets
Speaker 1: in his car, takes into one of his luxury cars,
Speaker 1: drives down to Coconut grow He finds his sidewalk cafe.
Speaker 1: He walks in. He follows a ransom notes instructions and
Speaker 1: it says to check behind a poster on the wall.
Speaker 1: He goes up, he finds his poster on the wall,
Speaker 1: and there behind the poster is what a second note.
Speaker 1: It's fun hanging out down. It's just like flat stamps.
Speaker 1: So this second note, it warn't quote. Every precaution has
Speaker 1: been taken to prevent any of your tricks. So these
Speaker 1: people apparently know him, right, these people is his son?
Speaker 1: His son knows his father, well, he knows his father's
Speaker 1: up to all his tricks. At least he thinks he
Speaker 1: knows his father. Well, that's the key. Now, as this
Speaker 1: weekend drags on, David Hampton Butler Sr. Begins to suspect
Speaker 1: it may not be a rival Colombian cartel that kidnapped
Speaker 1: his son. It doesn't feel like their style. They wouldn't
Speaker 1: send all these cheeky messages, is your point. They would
Speaker 1: send a finger, They would do and something. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine they had to go to this cafe and like
Speaker 1: slip the paper, do they know, like one of the
Speaker 1: waiters like don't tell anybody for a scavenger and then
Speaker 1: like slip it behind in Florida State. It's fun. It's
Speaker 1: a fat thing. So yeah, that's not cartel behavior. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the whole like sidewalk cafe. I mean, right there, I'm like,
Speaker 1: you are not a member of a cocaine cartel. They're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: go to this frozen yogurt the bottom of the eminem sprinkle.
Speaker 1: Make sure it asked for the fun fl you find
Speaker 1: your son's pinky. Well, it turns out that his instincts
Speaker 1: are mostly right, as we will soon find out after
Speaker 1: the short break. Will be right back with more The
Speaker 1: Strange Tale of David Hampton Butler Jr. Versus David Hampton
Speaker 1: Butler Sr. So, Elizabeth, where were we? We were talking
Speaker 1: some Dave versus Dave action. We got the battle and
Speaker 1: Dave Dave Senior, Dave Junior producer, Dave yea, do you
Speaker 1: have any comments on this? Houses Dave on Dave action?
Speaker 1: For you, I mean, the thing is, you can't really
Speaker 1: bet for or against either Dave. I mean comes out
Speaker 1: you just you just got. It's written for Dave. I
Speaker 1: always root for Dave. Dave always wins. Dave's right now.
Speaker 1: David Hampton Butler Jr. Missing David Hampton Butler Senior panicked
Speaker 1: but has the FBA on his side. So he's feeling
Speaker 1: a little bit of a good position and he's kind
Speaker 1: of certain this is a little hinky and that maybe
Speaker 1: his son is not really in danger. That's where we're at.
Speaker 1: So being an FBI informant, he's feeling, you know, these
Speaker 1: tricks don't quite play, and he's uh, you know, curious.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, it's his son. He's got
Speaker 1: to still care about what's going to happen to his son.
Speaker 1: So if he's wrong, even if ten percent chance that
Speaker 1: it could be actual cartel, he's got to play that
Speaker 1: tempercent chance, right. But his FBI context they also have
Speaker 1: their doubts, so it's getting lower, more like a five
Speaker 1: percent chance. Right By Monday, the FBI agents come to
Speaker 1: the conclusion that there are no true kidnappers involved in this.
Speaker 1: They've looked over all the materials, they've read it. They're like,
Speaker 1: these are amateurs. I don't know what's going on here.
Speaker 1: Do you have any personal contexts? Do you owe anybody
Speaker 1: money who would be trying to do this to you?
Speaker 1: Dave Hampton Butler, seeing your rax's mind, he cannot think
Speaker 1: of anybody he owes money to anybody personally who would
Speaker 1: be doing this to him. It's got to be one
Speaker 1: of his criminal contexts. If somebody was doing this to you.
Speaker 1: Would you have a long list of people you would
Speaker 1: guess at the intern um, I don't really. I would
Speaker 1: not have a long right. It's difficult to come up
Speaker 1: with a list of enemies for the average person. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're an FBI informant, you have a little bit
Speaker 1: longer list, and if you're a drug dealer, double your length.
Speaker 1: So he's got a list he's kind of creating, like uh,
Speaker 1: and he's crossing out names. He can't figure it out.
Speaker 1: Luckily for him, Monday night, he gets a call from
Speaker 1: the kidnappers, first time they have actually spoken with him.
Speaker 1: So now he's like, oh, I guess they are legit.
Speaker 1: They tell the worried father, if you pay the ransom,
Speaker 1: your boy will be returned the following day. So he's like,
Speaker 1: all right, well, I gotta play the five percent chance
Speaker 1: that these people are He's instructed to bring twenty bags
Speaker 1: of cash once again, all small bills, totaling two million dollars,
Speaker 1: and drive out to a remote location for the exchange.
Speaker 1: David Hampton Butler Senior. He listens to all the instructions,
Speaker 1: He's like, okay, bet, and he does as he's So
Speaker 1: he's got that kind of cash. He's a drug smuggler.
Speaker 1: So I got he's got the two million sitting around,
Speaker 1: went out to the deep freezer and the only hard
Speaker 1: part was making sure it's small bills. He's like, I
Speaker 1: gotta go down and find he broke, Like he had
Speaker 1: to go around breaking him at strip clubs. He was
Speaker 1: going out to clubs and when the girls are walking out,
Speaker 1: how would you shift? Did you make a couple of foul?
Speaker 1: So after he's been done, gathering up all his cash,
Speaker 1: putting it in like ziplock bags of twenty ziplock bags,
Speaker 1: all with little cash. He does this. He's instructed. He
Speaker 1: drives out to this remote location. Now he has to
Speaker 1: go down to two lane highway from basically Tampa to
Speaker 1: Miami that runs through the Everglades. And this is like,
Speaker 1: there's nothing on this highway. It's just the Everglades, just
Speaker 1: swamp right. So he's like, I don't know where I'm
Speaker 1: going to possibly meet a person out here. Elizabeth, you've
Speaker 1: ever been to the floor Everglades? Now do you know
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about? It all seen. So imagine a road,
Speaker 1: the two lanes like a southern highway, a little grass
Speaker 1: strip on either side, and then as soon as the
Speaker 1: grass strip ends, it's just swamp swamp immediately cypress trees.
Speaker 1: Like an alligator could crawl out onto the road. Right,
Speaker 1: that's where he's driving by himself, with all these two
Speaker 1: million dollars in cash. So, Elizabeth, I'd like you to
Speaker 1: close your eyes and picture it. Okay, It's a sweltering
Speaker 1: Monday night in Florida. It's the kind of humid night
Speaker 1: that makes your clothes stick to your skin. You can
Speaker 1: hear the air vibrating with the heat and the bugs.
Speaker 1: You're alone, standing on the side of a two lane
Speaker 1: rural highway hitchhike. It's a very yeah, you know, we
Speaker 1: got the short shorts on. So far, it's been a long,
Speaker 1: hot night. A few cars have passed, none have stopped
Speaker 1: for you, and the mosquitoes there won't leave you alone. Finally,
Speaker 1: out past the curtain of cypress trees and the thick
Speaker 1: swamp rushes, you spy headlights approaching in the dark distance.
Speaker 1: Maybe this will be the car that stops you. Hope,
Speaker 1: you say a small prayer. You need to get out
Speaker 1: of this night. The mosquitoes are pretty much feeding on you,
Speaker 1: and the sweat is driving you mad. So the car.
Speaker 1: It slows down. Maybe a small hope is being answered.
Speaker 1: It's a Mercedes. It pulls to a stop in the
Speaker 1: loose gravel right next to you. It starts idle, passenger
Speaker 1: windows slides down. It's middle aged white man. He's at
Speaker 1: the wheel. He tarranting, looks at you. His face is
Speaker 1: really worried. It's kind of actually scary. He says, do
Speaker 1: you know where the trail Indian Baptist churches? You're like, uh, Now,
Speaker 1: before the truth can escape your lips, which is no,
Speaker 1: you do not, a lie leaps from your lips and
Speaker 1: you say, yes, yes I do. If you give me
Speaker 1: a ride, I'll show you where it is. I'm going
Speaker 1: that way. Now, you're from California. You don't know Florida
Speaker 1: at all. You're with psychiatrists. Call lying. I am covered
Speaker 1: in mosquitoes. I'm getting like anaphylactic at this point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm like whatever, Yeah, I know where everything is. Let
Speaker 1: me in the car. I'll personally build the church. Let's go.
Speaker 1: I built the globe. Let me in here. Well, it's
Speaker 1: like I say, a bump steer is better than no
Speaker 1: steer at all. So you give him the bumpstaer and
Speaker 1: send him on the road, but you also hop in
Speaker 1: the car with him. So he's like, yeah, get in.
Speaker 1: You're like, all right, cool. You immediately notice when you
Speaker 1: get in that there are but at least fifteen bags
Speaker 1: of cash in the back seat. I'm like, well, just dude,
Speaker 1: to turn around with bags of cash? Did he just
Speaker 1: rob a strip clumb Now this car idea maybe wasn't
Speaker 1: such a good idea for you, but you're in it,
Speaker 1: and he floors it. And now you're on this rural
Speaker 1: highway tearing down inn Mercedes and this guy with the
Speaker 1: loose cash in the back and he's got wild eyes.
Speaker 1: You're like, I need to make better choices with my life. Yeah, totally,
Speaker 1: But hear me out, I'd rather see bags of cash
Speaker 1: in the back than see like an abduction kit of
Speaker 1: like duct tape and a hammer and that garbage bags.
Speaker 1: And he's just you know, that's so I look around.
Speaker 1: I see the cash like this I can probably handle.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's a legitimate businessman. Maybe he won't notice if
Speaker 1: I just put one into my back pocket. I like
Speaker 1: your thoughts. So this middle aged man, frantic eyes behind
Speaker 1: the wheel, he turns to you. After a few miles,
Speaker 1: he says it's the church this way or back the
Speaker 1: other way, and you're like, uh, now you got tell well,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to go straight right it is down the road, apiece.
Speaker 1: We will just keep going. It's exactly what you say.
Speaker 1: You lie your sweet face off it. He buys it.
Speaker 1: And now you're turning to wonder if you get to
Speaker 1: the church, can you make a run for it because
Speaker 1: this guy is really making you nervous. Oh yeah I can.
Speaker 1: And then oh what luck? You spy a sign there?
Speaker 1: It is? You claim it's the Trail Indian Independent Baptist Church. Yes,
Speaker 1: totally right, it's a chance you one. He barely touches
Speaker 1: the brakes, the car slides into the gravel of the
Speaker 1: church parking lot. Luckily it's just before midnight, there's nobody
Speaker 1: in there. He then hops out of the car just
Speaker 1: as it stops, runs over to a pay phone by
Speaker 1: the church, and you then see that he doesn't use
Speaker 1: the payphone. Need to stand there waiting, and you're like,
Speaker 1: this is really odd. Does he not know the number
Speaker 1: to call? Is he nervous to call the person? Is
Speaker 1: he calling his wife? What's going on here? Right? Then,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the phone rings. You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: he was waiting for the call. The money in the
Speaker 1: back seats all starting to put together. You're like, huh.
Speaker 1: Now you're sitting there alone in the Mercedes with the cash,
Speaker 1: and you're like, did he leave the keys? He did
Speaker 1: not leave the keys. So you're having to sit there
Speaker 1: and you're in this parking lot. Every lade swamps all
Speaker 1: around you. As I told you, it looks like an
Speaker 1: alligator could climb out of the swamp at anytime. You
Speaker 1: don't really want to get out of the car. You're like,
Speaker 1: what the do I do? You know what I do?
Speaker 1: What do you do? I grab a bag of cat
Speaker 1: every plane starts, I really quietly get out of the
Speaker 1: car and I tiptoe around the back and they break
Speaker 1: in the back of the church suctuary, yes, the church
Speaker 1: in the wild, and then I hide from him. This church,
Speaker 1: it turns up, belongs to the Mikosuki and Seminole tribes
Speaker 1: who live in the area. It's of super rural. This
Speaker 1: is like there's nobody around there, but they have a
Speaker 1: little community. Right. So this church, as all churches are
Speaker 1: most churches are, is open. You're like hoping that maybe,
Speaker 1: you know, I could spend the night here, right, You're like, huh.
Speaker 1: But right as you're kicking over all these plants in
Speaker 1: your head, you see the driver screaming into the phone,
Speaker 1: go where go where? I'm not going out into the
Speaker 1: swamp in the middle of night. You have to be
Speaker 1: kidding me. You're like, I don't know what's going on here.
Speaker 1: Silence told the silence again, he listens. Then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, more shouting, yes, I have a cash Do
Speaker 1: you have my son? You're like, oh, snap, you're at
Speaker 1: a ransom exchange. You don't know what to do. Then
Speaker 1: you hear the driver shouting to the phone. Well, then
Speaker 1: you can't keep him and he hangs up like, oh
Speaker 1: I didn't go well. So he slammed the car door shut,
Speaker 1: gets back in with you. You call me, turn everything okay,
Speaker 1: and he's like, I'm going home. You need a ride.
Speaker 1: You're like, ah, you look at him, You look at
Speaker 1: the church. You look at him, You look at the church, like,
Speaker 1: I'll just I'll stay here. So you get out of
Speaker 1: the car, you walk over the church. Luckily you're right,
Speaker 1: the doors are open. You spend the night in the church,
Speaker 1: and Mercedy pulls away and you're like that was one
Speaker 1: of the weirdest nights of my life. I've got a
Speaker 1: great story going forward that, Oh totally. You're gonna have
Speaker 1: one hell of a TikTok to tell. All Right, So
Speaker 1: as you're sitting there in the church, you spend the night,
Speaker 1: you sleep in a pew, you wake up in the morning,
Speaker 1: you go outside, the sun is there to greet you.
Speaker 1: And you walk out and there's a cop car. You're like,
Speaker 1: what the And it's a look a sucky seminal tribal
Speaker 1: police officer. It's like out a cruiser and in the
Speaker 1: back is this kid, a white kid, sweaty face, mosquito
Speaker 1: bites all over. He looks like he slept in a
Speaker 1: swamp because he did. You're like, I bet that's the kid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you are right David Hampton Butler Jr. David Junea.
Speaker 1: So it turns out you just saw David Hampton Butler Jr.
Speaker 1: Right at the moment when he gets rescued from his
Speaker 1: botch self kidnapping. Uh wait, he was actually at this
Speaker 1: whole So on Friday he kidnapped himself. Here's okay. What
Speaker 1: had happened was he spent the weekend driving around town
Speaker 1: with his jazzer size instructor girl from They like, you know,
Speaker 1: they're calling Joe Hicky, you got the new ransom note ready,
Speaker 1: We're ready to go. Type it. They go to community
Speaker 1: college type it up. They're doing their bit right. Everything's
Speaker 1: going like a bad Team movie starting, I don't know,
Speaker 1: like a pre fame Nicholas Cage. And this bad Team
Speaker 1: movie comes to its culmination on Monday when they decide, okay,
Speaker 1: it's time to get paid now. Joe Hicky is looking
Speaker 1: at about a thirty grand score that's his cut of this,
Speaker 1: and he's willing to do all this stuff two million
Speaker 1: and he's only doing thirty grant right. So he picks
Speaker 1: the church. He's like, I know this roll out of
Speaker 1: the way spot. He lines up everything. He drives David
Speaker 1: Hampton Butler Jr. Out To the church, goes get out,
Speaker 1: drops him off in the swamp and says, we'll get
Speaker 1: your father to come out here. When you see him
Speaker 1: drop off the money, walk out of the swamp and
Speaker 1: greet him like, Dad, it's me bet. So he makes
Speaker 1: him hang out in the swamp there for twenty six hours.
Speaker 1: And remember you saw the dad drive away. The dad
Speaker 1: was like no, I ain't going into I'm not following
Speaker 1: these instructions anymore that five percent. I don't believe you
Speaker 1: don't really have my son or you are my son.
Speaker 1: I don't care. I'm out of here. So, after he
Speaker 1: realizes his dad is not coming to save him, he
Speaker 1: has to walk out of the swamp. He walks out
Speaker 1: of the swamp all like mosquito, bitten and sweaty and
Speaker 1: and barely surviving all the venomous creatures that live in
Speaker 1: the swamp, and the first thing he sees is a
Speaker 1: cop who pulls them over and they go, hey, what
Speaker 1: are you doing out here because there's nobody out there,
Speaker 1: and oh, yeah, I got grabbed by these Spanish speaking gentlemen.
Speaker 1: The cops are like, now their their native cops, so
Speaker 1: they don't go for the racist lies, like we don't
Speaker 1: believe your son, So they keep questioning for three hours.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, he's Spanish speaking gentleman who took me
Speaker 1: in there? Like okay, well what did they say? And
Speaker 1: it's like it's like, I don't know Spanish and so
Speaker 1: I don't speak that, you know, So they don't buy it.
Speaker 1: They keep after him. Eventually he's like okay, I did
Speaker 1: it myself. I could have myself. He totally comes clean.
Speaker 1: He admits to the cops that he his girlfriend Joe Hikey,
Speaker 1: they all got together and they were trying to extort
Speaker 1: his dad, but it didn't happen, so it's fine, no crime.
Speaker 1: The cops are like, no, that's a crime, So we're
Speaker 1: going to call the FBI because that's kid. Not think
Speaker 1: you can have yourself. That's still kidding. So they always
Speaker 1: that's boss, which is embarrassing to say the least. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine if your mom worked with the FBI and
Speaker 1: she got that call, Like, hey, by the way, So
Speaker 1: David Hampton Butler Jr. Uh, Well, before we get back
Speaker 1: to David Hampton Butler Junior having to come correct with
Speaker 1: his father once he figures this out. When you were
Speaker 1: a kid, do you ever have to wait for your
Speaker 1: parents and like they didn't come and like you're sitting yeah,
Speaker 1: my grandma your grandma house. Well, she was supposed to
Speaker 1: pick us up from school, and a lot of times
Speaker 1: she would get distracted doing stuff and like one time,
Speaker 1: like sometimes would be like she was just in the
Speaker 1: supermarket for she loved going to the supermarket and staying
Speaker 1: for like three hours. She loved going she did. That
Speaker 1: was her jam. And then one time we were there
Speaker 1: and I like to remember it where it was raining,
Speaker 1: but I don't know if it really was raining, but
Speaker 1: in my memory it was, yeah, my brother and I
Speaker 1: were sitting there all rain soaked, and she didn't show up.
Speaker 1: And in my like, I'm like it was like, what
Speaker 1: eight o'clock. I was probably you know, like she was
Speaker 1: probably like an hour late. I'm like six hours late. Um.
Speaker 1: And it turned out that she got stuck in a
Speaker 1: parking lot of a store because there was a car
Speaker 1: accident blocking the exit, so she was just stuck there
Speaker 1: and she didn't have a cell probably just went back
Speaker 1: into the store like something. Do I know that? And
Speaker 1: this is this is hitting a little close to home, sah.
Speaker 1: And also I think you may need to amplify that
Speaker 1: to like buy a thousand percent because like, imagine if
Speaker 1: you kidnapped yourself and your dad's like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: keep them. It's worse than sitting in the the Florida cops,
Speaker 1: as they told you, they call the FBI, and the
Speaker 1: FBI sends out agent David Boner to work the case.
Speaker 1: Agent David Boner because there's how many. They're just going alphabetically.
Speaker 1: Anderson's busy Boner, Dave Anderson, No, Dave Boner, gut go on.
Speaker 1: So doesn't take long for the agents to break the case.
Speaker 1: David Hampton Butler Junior confesses to it all. He gives
Speaker 1: up everyone, and then they of course they turn them
Speaker 1: loose on the justice system and the prosecutors for the
Speaker 1: federal courts. They go after him, They confront him, He
Speaker 1: agrees to a pleadio and basically gives up everybody. His
Speaker 1: girlfriend does the same thing. So these eighteen year old
Speaker 1: jazzercise instructor Karmen, she confesses to typing up the ransom
Speaker 1: letters and her parents have to put up their house
Speaker 1: to bail. He speaking of the ransom letters. So can
Speaker 1: I just tell you that I am positive that the
Speaker 1: FBI seizing the typewriters at the community college is like
Speaker 1: the most exciting thing that's ever happened there, and they
Speaker 1: still talk about it. They came in Dan their jackets
Speaker 1: is the Blues and two's coming in. So David Butler Jr.
Speaker 1: Because he you know, makes a plea deal. He quickly
Speaker 1: goes to arrangement. And I want you to picture this
Speaker 1: just lightly his arraignment hearing. He goes and their judges
Speaker 1: there on the bench and he tells the judge, yes, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I have to understand are I'm a businessman
Speaker 1: and uh very important kai and I don't know that
Speaker 1: little nonsense about fake kidnapping. It was a more of
Speaker 1: a deal, I don't. Judges like, excuse me, you're a businessman.
Speaker 1: How was this a Business's like, well, you know, I've
Speaker 1: recently invested dollars in a pasta and gelato factory. Just like,
Speaker 1: excuse me what now He's like, I'm not a businessman.
Speaker 1: I'm a businessman man. So the guys like the judges
Speaker 1: like I'm sorry, did you say you have an Italian
Speaker 1: ice cream factory? And he's like that is your right,
Speaker 1: your honor. And the judges like, well, where did you
Speaker 1: get this thirty thousand dollars you invested? And David Butler Jr.
Speaker 1: He quickly confers with his lawyer and then he goes
Speaker 1: back to the judge. He says, well, I'd like to
Speaker 1: not enter that question at this moment. You're on now
Speaker 1: what's ill gotten gains for a gelato factory? And he's
Speaker 1: wearing by the way, for his arrayment. Hearing he's wearing
Speaker 1: a T shirt and the T shirt says, trust me,
Speaker 1: what in the what? Yeah? Now as she was wearing
Speaker 1: one of those tuxedo T shirts that would be amazing
Speaker 1: now his partner cried, Joe Hikey a judge. He tries
Speaker 1: to fight the case and he decides to go on trial.
Speaker 1: He's like, I was taking to trial. I know how
Speaker 1: to beat the system. But he doesn't count on boyfriend
Speaker 1: and girlfriend David Hampton Butler Jr. And Carmen Karin. No.
Speaker 1: They both agree to testify and they say it was
Speaker 1: his idea was double cross junction over here where they're
Speaker 1: like you're gonna get you're not getting a big cut.
Speaker 1: And keep in mind they're all facing twenty five years
Speaker 1: to life for this. This is sure they're going to
Speaker 1: so they of course, you know, they roll over the Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was his idea. He worded the ransom letters. Karmens
Speaker 1: like I just typed. I don't even know this is
Speaker 1: you know that. The David him to fathers like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he picked the exchange side. He dropped me off and
Speaker 1: it wasn't it was all him And everyone's like, oh now,
Speaker 1: Joe Hicky's like you, mother, but he sits there, grins
Speaker 1: and bears it. And after the after everything, he's tried
Speaker 1: and he's convicted. So both Butler Junior and Hicky, though,
Speaker 1: get lucky and they are only sentenced to one year
Speaker 1: in federal prison. If you can believe it, this is
Speaker 1: not the end of this story. Back after these, I'd
Speaker 1: like to tell you the other side of the story.
Speaker 1: David Hampton Butler, Senior. Side of the story. Elizabeth. Last
Speaker 1: week left agent David Bohner was trying to get to
Speaker 1: the bottom of the case. We then went to trial.
Speaker 1: Joe Hicky made the regrettable decision to take it to trial.
Speaker 1: Then David Hampton Butler Jr. And Carmen Cranda flipped on
Speaker 1: him and everybody ended up going to jail. What fourth
Speaker 1: grader wrote this screenplay and Hickey and then the Hubbub aerobics.
Speaker 1: It was a twelve year old fever dreams like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna kidnap myself on a two million dollars from my
Speaker 1: dad and my Jagger sized girlfriend and I We're gonna
Speaker 1: go take that money to Sonic and my my friend
Speaker 1: Joe Hicky, said Dave Hampton Butler Jr. When he decided
Speaker 1: to kidnap himself. This was August. Meanwhile, his dad, David
Speaker 1: Hampton Butler Senior, he had his own legal troubles because
Speaker 1: on March two three, his father got busted moving pounds
Speaker 1: of cocaine. Wait so earlier that year, that same year,
Speaker 1: months earlier, he it was coked at. His bosses at
Speaker 1: the FBI knew nothing about oops and his dad was
Speaker 1: facing a coke bus when his son decided to fake
Speaker 1: his own kidnapping. So he had real legal problems. He's
Speaker 1: moonlighting and this is why he you get that he
Speaker 1: believed the kidnapping is that he was combust and he's
Speaker 1: an informant, So he's figuring that the cartel has figured
Speaker 1: this out and they're just trying to get back at
Speaker 1: him that Thus it took him a while to go,
Speaker 1: you know what this is? This is hanky. Now. The
Speaker 1: deal was from two to nineteen eighty four, David Hampton
Speaker 1: Butler Sr. Worked for the FBI as an undercover informant.
Speaker 1: Right now, He did all sorts of drug deals. They
Speaker 1: had him traveling internationally and the FBI is only supposed
Speaker 1: to be domestic. The CIA Islanda's international Yeah, I go
Speaker 1: down to Columbia, go down to whatever you need, move
Speaker 1: them go. Yeah, you're going to Jamaica. We'll get you
Speaker 1: the tickets, get your hair braided, have fun. Good. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll put a sandal. You'll love it. Elizabeth recommends it
Speaker 1: to everyone. So he's and we're talking to the Bahamas,
Speaker 1: South America, everywhere. He's going, right, but he's also working domestically.
Speaker 1: They haven't flying out to Arkansas for drug deals to
Speaker 1: fabulous Arkansas. And uh so the FBI has got him,
Speaker 1: you know, turned out drugs everywhere. Right, He's got this
Speaker 1: Miami supervisor who's super pleased with him because, according to
Speaker 1: his supervisor, who testifies that to this David Butler Senior
Speaker 1: quote helped the FBI recover more than eighty million worth
Speaker 1: of drugs, boats, vehicles, and planes eighty million dollars in
Speaker 1: nineteen eight three. So that's some serious coin, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now supervisor would also testify that quote, David Butler was
Speaker 1: no doubt the top informant the FBI had operating in
Speaker 1: South Florida during the early part of that's a big statement, exactly.
Speaker 1: You know, this is Tokayne Cowboy era. So what's a
Speaker 1: little light drug smuggling on the side. Exactly, what's twenty
Speaker 1: two pounds of cocaine here there between friends? Now, just
Speaker 1: to kind of put some of these numbers in perspective
Speaker 1: of what he was moving, I want to tell you
Speaker 1: about there was a thousand pound pot bust that he
Speaker 1: was in charge of that coincidentally was a load seased
Speaker 1: in Arkansas. He was moving pounds the right. They seized
Speaker 1: this load and then he flew it in on a
Speaker 1: small private plane. The FBI sees is that they then
Speaker 1: make him the hero of the moment. He's done this
Speaker 1: huge thousand pound pot bust, right, So this is amazing
Speaker 1: FBI agent rustled dugger, he says in his court testimony.
Speaker 1: Quote Adler set the load up, he renegotiated with the
Speaker 1: smugglers involved, and it actually flew the load in for
Speaker 1: the government. Right, So he's like a drug smuggler for
Speaker 1: the US government. Now, Elizabeth, I'd like to go to
Speaker 1: close your eyes for a rare second picture it. Okay,
Speaker 1: you're in Arkansas. Sorry about that, don't apologize. I love Arkansas. Actually,
Speaker 1: so you're in the middle of remember we love everywhere. Yeah, well, no,
Speaker 1: we've been in Arkansas. Remember together. We were in that
Speaker 1: town where they put us off the forty Palestine, Arkansas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were driving an across country. There was an accident.
Speaker 1: Google Maps rerouted us. Yeah, and we've got to hang
Speaker 1: out in that very interesting town of Palestine and there
Speaker 1: well yeah, and it was like all the people in town,
Speaker 1: they brought up lounge chairs to watch the traffic, watch
Speaker 1: the traffic through There was that the red headed boy
Speaker 1: with a bull whip. Yeah, just like showing off for everything.
Speaker 1: He's ripping the tree. People got a crowd. Hey, mom,
Speaker 1: I gotta cross. It was so harmony. Karn, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Yeah you Murer took a picture of him and he's
Speaker 1: turned and stared right at us, and there's no way
Speaker 1: he could have heard the click because the windows were up,
Speaker 1: and was like that kid's got it. So that place
Speaker 1: the middle of the night, your standing looks to be
Speaker 1: an enormous grass field. A landing strip has been mowed down.
Speaker 1: This makeshift airstrip is filled with road flares, because I
Speaker 1: know you love road flares. This small plane approach of
Speaker 1: the landing strip, descending from the nights Guy. The pilot
Speaker 1: is a young man, a friend of David Hampton. Butler Senior.
Speaker 1: A total pro pilot who puts the plane down on
Speaker 1: the grass field airstrip like he's a combat air veteran
Speaker 1: or better yet, a drug smuggling pilot. And this pilot
Speaker 1: who David Hampton Butler Seniors worked with numerous times is
Speaker 1: now officially a drug smuggler thanks to him because he's
Speaker 1: doing his first big load for the government, so they
Speaker 1: now know who he is. He'll show up later on
Speaker 1: in the stories, but for now, he's this pilot and
Speaker 1: David Hampton Butler Sr. He's waiting at a truck and
Speaker 1: with him are two undercover FBI agents, but you can't
Speaker 1: tell that from where you are standing in the field.
Speaker 1: They just look like two guys. Now, the truck meets
Speaker 1: the small plane that pulls onto the landing strip and
Speaker 1: you watch the offload bales of pot onto this truck
Speaker 1: and they loaded and it takes them a little while
Speaker 1: because it's a it's like probably about a thousand pounds
Speaker 1: of pot. Right, you walk out in the field and
Speaker 1: you ask them, hey, do you mind if I catch
Speaker 1: your ride? Was like, what are you doing in this field?
Speaker 1: The agents are totally thrown but David Ampton Butler Sr.
Speaker 1: He recognizes you and he's like, yeah, cool whatever, man,
Speaker 1: come on, because I got a pull with Yeah. And
Speaker 1: also he had so much fun with you last time,
Speaker 1: and you're really chill when he had the whole thing
Speaker 1: with his son. So David Ampton brother seen. He tells
Speaker 1: you hopping back with the pot and you're like cool.
Speaker 1: Beats you hop in the background and you the pot bales.
Speaker 1: David Ampton brother seen. You're in the two Undercabry FBI agents.
Speaker 1: You all drive across multiple states until you reach a
Speaker 1: toll and fuel plaza located on the floor to turnpipe.
Speaker 1: Am I in the back of the truck pickup truck?
Speaker 1: It's dusty? Do I have at least like a band? Damn?
Speaker 1: You got like one of the Mexican blankets is on
Speaker 1: the side of the road and keeping your warm. You're
Speaker 1: like doing like the real American like drug. It's so good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's awesome. It's cross country drug. You're doing. You're doing great.
Speaker 1: By the way, Thank you so much. So you're back
Speaker 1: in Florida and you thank them for the ride. You
Speaker 1: kept the pot bails from blowing out, not that they would. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did I have to lay flat on top of them?
Speaker 1: And they go over a bump and we all fly
Speaker 1: up and then land. You have to grab the blue
Speaker 1: tarp again pull it back down. So you tell him, look,
Speaker 1: I'll find a new ride from here. I'm good, I'm
Speaker 1: almost home. They're like, all right, cool David Hampton Butler
Speaker 1: Seniors like points at you. I'm stuck because I'm still
Speaker 1: imagining like green bales of hay or they're in like that,
Speaker 1: like um coffee sack, damned pot pre duby Colombian pot.
Speaker 1: So as you're standing there and you're geting ready to
Speaker 1: say goodbye to your man David Hampton Butler Senior, and
Speaker 1: you're like, hey, it's been at such time. I can't
Speaker 1: believe we're back in Florida together. This is so wild.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, maybe next time and we'll call me.
Speaker 1: These two people walk up. They can tell from their
Speaker 1: accents they're not necessary the English speakers. Turns out that
Speaker 1: they're a Cuban and a Colombian, which you very quickly
Speaker 1: part from the accents and they're like hey, and they
Speaker 1: know David Hampton, but they're senior. You're like, oh, I
Speaker 1: will leave you to do with a quickness for bags
Speaker 1: of cash like a swirl of dust where I was standing.
Speaker 1: So and now as you are, you know, walking across
Speaker 1: the toll and fuel plaza, you watch the Cuban and
Speaker 1: Colombia and they briefly talk with the undercover FBI agents.
Speaker 1: They get out of the truck, The Colombian and the
Speaker 1: Cuban get in the truck and they drive away. You're like,
Speaker 1: that's kind of odd. But what you don't know is
Speaker 1: that the FBI has rigged the truck. They put in
Speaker 1: a kill switch so that the truck's engine will suddenly
Speaker 1: cut out whenever they had a button. So the agents
Speaker 1: go get in their car. They follow from a discrete
Speaker 1: distance miles down the road, not in a place that
Speaker 1: you can see. They hit the kill switch, the truck dies,
Speaker 1: engine fades away. The car pulls off on the side
Speaker 1: of the road, on the side of the highway in
Speaker 1: the last floor to the highway, patrol pulls up because
Speaker 1: they've been told this is going to happen. They swoop in,
Speaker 1: but they act like, oh, sir, are you having trouble
Speaker 1: with your vehicle? What is this in the back? Is
Speaker 1: this hey? And they're like no, no, no, say so
Speaker 1: it turns out not hey. They Florida Highway Patrol. They
Speaker 1: quickly figured this out. They arrest the guys and all
Speaker 1: of this is done, This whole theater of arrest, the
Speaker 1: multiple state lines being crossed. All that was to throw
Speaker 1: off the scent of the FBI stitch David Hampton Butler
Speaker 1: because he's so good. They don't want to lose their
Speaker 1: number one informant. This is just one example from the
Speaker 1: mini tales of David Hampton Butler Sr. And his work
Speaker 1: for the FBI. And once wanted you to keep that
Speaker 1: in mind because he was doing this and each time
Speaker 1: he did these things, he was putting his life at risks.
Speaker 1: And what he didn't know is he's also, if he
Speaker 1: was honest with himself, he's putting his family's life at risk.
Speaker 1: That's also true, and that's something that they don't seem
Speaker 1: to think about. Well, that's why he was so worried
Speaker 1: about his son being kidnapped. But you don't really think
Speaker 1: about it until his son was gone. Once he got
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, everything became real for him.
Speaker 1: And then it's like he's not moving hey, he's moving hey,
Speaker 1: And is it worth it? He has to ask himself. Well, also,
Speaker 1: I haven't told you this, but but David Hampton Butler Senior,
Speaker 1: he wasn't just moving drugs. He wasn't just a drug trafficker.
Speaker 1: He was also working in organized crime and he was
Speaker 1: working international terrorism. So the FBI had him working the fields,
Speaker 1: all places where people will kill you for what you know.
Speaker 1: So he's in South America, he's in Columbia, and he
Speaker 1: works out that there is this intersection between drug trafficking
Speaker 1: and international terrorist funding. And so this is the early eighties.
Speaker 1: He stumbles upon a round contra on his own. He's like,
Speaker 1: the guys, I guess he gave us quote significant information
Speaker 1: in this regard. So I'm thinking about how many people
Speaker 1: may want this guy to be killed. So this is
Speaker 1: all the stuff that the Bureau is not helping him with.
Speaker 1: But you can see why they may be a little
Speaker 1: guilty about, Oh, your son got grabbed, can help get
Speaker 1: him back right. So the other thing the FBI doesn't
Speaker 1: know is that David Hampton Butler Senior has a whole
Speaker 1: other identity, a whole person like Chris Gaines. Yeah, his
Speaker 1: name is John Craig Beazy of HIC Cargo, Illinois. Busy Hey, busy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So John Craig Busy. He has a driver's license, a
Speaker 1: social Security card, he has a birth certificate, he has
Speaker 1: the complete alias. Right, you have another family, okay, but
Speaker 1: he uses this for when he travels internationally. So on
Speaker 1: March two three, he decides, I'm gonna try this domestically.
Speaker 1: So he goes out and he is John Craig Busy
Speaker 1: of Chicago, Illinois for a twenty two pound cocaine deal.
Speaker 1: It doesn't go well for J. C. Deuzy. The six
Speaker 1: million dollar deal goes south and that's about its eighteen
Speaker 1: million dollars today, so some big money. The question is
Speaker 1: was David Hampton Butt the senior working with the FBI
Speaker 1: at the time of the twenty two pound cocaine deal
Speaker 1: or not? Was this a freelance gig? Was this professional?
Speaker 1: Where did this fall in? Right? So the night he
Speaker 1: gets busted, he's in Greenville, South Carolina, and the city
Speaker 1: cops happened to arrest the people he gave the drugs too.
Speaker 1: They catch them and guys like, oh no, we got
Speaker 1: this from these guys at Howard Johnson. They tell him
Speaker 1: the room number. So the cops drive out to Howard
Speaker 1: Johnson's and they find like knock on the door. David's like, oh,
Speaker 1: is it my macaroni and cheese? He opens it up
Speaker 1: and it is not room service. It is the local
Speaker 1: cops and then they arrest him for being a cocaine smuggler.
Speaker 1: So what does he do? He tells the cops, Hey, man,
Speaker 1: it's cool. I'm with the FBI. So they're like, oh, really,
Speaker 1: do you have any identification? He's like yeah, here you go.
Speaker 1: John Craig Busy Like okay, John Craig Busy. So they
Speaker 1: call up the FBI in Miami, Florida. They're like, hey,
Speaker 1: we got this guy here, John Craig Bausy. They're like who.
Speaker 1: He's like David Hampton, but they're senior like oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we know him. They're like, okay, well we just busted
Speaker 1: him on a twenty two pound cocaine deal here in
Speaker 1: South Carolina. And the FBI in Miami's like, he did
Speaker 1: whatnot with with the cocaine? You say? They're like yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: The supervisor gets on the phone, he's like, what is
Speaker 1: he doing in South Carolina with a cocaine deal? Miami?
Speaker 1: FBI they have no answers for wise. They're supervisors, like
Speaker 1: I did tell him, I don't have anything on my schedule.
Speaker 1: This is news to me, right. So David Hampton but
Speaker 1: Their Senior, he gets charged for the cocaine distribution possession.
Speaker 1: He's now looking at a new twenty five years behind bars,
Speaker 1: so lucky for him. In July, his trial gets postponed
Speaker 1: because the FBI needs to figure out is this legit?
Speaker 1: Is this not legit? So they're going to try to
Speaker 1: figure out anybody give this guy the cover on this. Now.
Speaker 1: The next month, David Hampton Butler Jr. Decides to kidnap himself.
Speaker 1: This is the last thing we need, darn it, Dave. So,
Speaker 1: after his son's fake kidnapping and gets sorted out and
Speaker 1: his son gets arrested, David Hampton Butler Senior goes back
Speaker 1: on trial for his cocaine bust. So now the trial
Speaker 1: gets kicked back up and we kick over to the
Speaker 1: spring and he goes back to Greenville, South Carolina. He's
Speaker 1: in a courtroom and during his trial, David Hampton Butler
Speaker 1: Senior attempts to portray himself as this undercover FBI informant.
Speaker 1: He goes over all the bus he's done the traveling internationally.
Speaker 1: He has different agents coming through his supervisor, gifts testimony
Speaker 1: this guy is amazing, And the prosecution meanwhile focuses on
Speaker 1: the fact that the Miami FBI never asked him to
Speaker 1: fly to South Carolina, did not know he was there,
Speaker 1: and this is apparently a freelance night move regards what
Speaker 1: he had done this and one in particular, and so
Speaker 1: the jury is like following along with this, And then
Speaker 1: there is the damning witness who testifies that David Hampton
Speaker 1: Butler Senior hadn't just been the pilot looking to make
Speaker 1: a few hundred bucks on this deal. He'd been there
Speaker 1: when the Colombians met with their contacts in Florida to
Speaker 1: arrange the whole deal. So he's like, oh, yeah, there's
Speaker 1: that right. So the pilot who he had had hired
Speaker 1: to fly in Darkansas, this pilot was involved in this one.
Speaker 1: He eventually flips on him. He's like, yeah, yeah, he
Speaker 1: brought me in on this. It's not legit. So he
Speaker 1: goes down right between all of this and the handlers
Speaker 1: and at my mb FBI. He has nobody to cover
Speaker 1: his back. So what does David Hampton Butler Senior do
Speaker 1: once he has found guilty, Well, he sent his five
Speaker 1: years for cocaine possession. He's got he's looking at fifteen
Speaker 1: years for conspiracy charges. And what did his son say?
Speaker 1: Does he flip on somebody? And well, his son warned
Speaker 1: him when he kidnapped himself, none of your old tricks.
Speaker 1: So David Hampton Butler Senior immediately to his book of
Speaker 1: tricks and starts looking for a way out. So on
Speaker 1: April second five, now the US Court of Appeals affirms
Speaker 1: his conviction after he appeals it. So he here, he
Speaker 1: tries his first trick. I'll appeal it. That doesn't work.
Speaker 1: April two, they're like, yeah, man, you're going to prison.
Speaker 1: He's like, damn it. Now at this point he's out
Speaker 1: on bail. The bail amount is, he's out on seven
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand dollars bond. So that's normally enough
Speaker 1: to keep a person in homebound. Not David Ampton got
Speaker 1: two million floating around and fly planes. He likes to
Speaker 1: get international with it. So when the U. S. Marshalls
Speaker 1: show up at the Butler home, there is no David
Speaker 1: Hampton Butler Senior there. Now Junior is like going, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm about to go to prison myself. So you guys,
Speaker 1: you guys looking for me. They're like, no, no, no, yeah.
Speaker 1: So David Ampton Butler senior is gone. He has kidnapped
Speaker 1: himself now, but he left no ransom notes. It's just gone,
Speaker 1: all right. So the seven years on the bench that
Speaker 1: the judge William Kato Jr. Another junior, had been on,
Speaker 1: he had never once seen a single person do anything
Speaker 1: like this. So he's stunned and he basically tells the
Speaker 1: bail bondsman, I don't care. This is on you man.
Speaker 1: You're out seven dollars unless you can find this guy
Speaker 1: you got until he basically goes until I reconvene court
Speaker 1: til like Thursday, right, and the guys like, what are
Speaker 1: you talking about? So federal court gets reconvened. No David,
Speaker 1: but their senior, the bail bondsman shows up and he's like,
Speaker 1: I goes in bad news for your judge. Are you
Speaker 1: for real? Right now? He really didn't show up. He's like, well,
Speaker 1: he called me. He's like, what do you mean he
Speaker 1: called me? He called me last night and he said, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry about what's going down, and he promised me, Look,
Speaker 1: I'm out of the country right now, but I will
Speaker 1: come back as soon as I can, just gonna make
Speaker 1: a little money, just like you are you telling me
Speaker 1: this is really what he did? Like I swear to
Speaker 1: gud he called me last night. He's like, okay, man,
Speaker 1: you're out your money. So sends out the U. S. Marshals.
Speaker 1: They scour the no Nation, They call up the Royal
Speaker 1: Canadian Mounted Police. They checked the Great White North. Everybody's
Speaker 1: looking in the US, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahama
Speaker 1: is anybody who could possibly be looking under US law
Speaker 1: or Alliance agreement is looking for this dude. Nothing. Nine
Speaker 1: hours of U. S. Marshall deputies time is spent, absolutely nothing.
Speaker 1: The bail bondsman has to show back up and he's like, um,
Speaker 1: your honor, who's really hurting. He's like, look, man, I
Speaker 1: don't know to tell you. So the bail montsmen, he's like,
Speaker 1: puts out a reward of his own fifty for any
Speaker 1: information leading to his rest. Nothing. This dude has kidnapped
Speaker 1: himself in a way that his son should have paid attention. Now,
Speaker 1: it turns out in January, though he makes one little mistake.
Speaker 1: He gets arrested in Vancouver by some Canadian cops on
Speaker 1: some nonsense. The local cops are about to release him
Speaker 1: when they run his identity and it turns out he's
Speaker 1: not going by Craig Beazy at the time, so the
Speaker 1: US Assistant attorney, who happens to be scanning the reports
Speaker 1: for the North American like justice system, sees this name
Speaker 1: go by. He then spent sixteen hours on the phone
Speaker 1: over his weekend trying to get the Canadian cops not
Speaker 1: to release this guy before he can get U. S.
Speaker 1: Marshals there. The Canadian cops are like, oh, man, really,
Speaker 1: okay at lunch we're gonna release him. They're like, no, no,
Speaker 1: a little longer, okay, dead nerve because then we got
Speaker 1: a new shift and I don't wanted to tell Bob
Speaker 1: about this, and they're like, could you just hold him
Speaker 1: till the U. S. Marshals get there? Okay, Man, but
Speaker 1: if tea time he's using their jeers or oh no,
Speaker 1: he wasn't using busy. He's going by David Hampton Butler.
Speaker 1: That's why popped right and comes through and then so
Speaker 1: go Brad like you know, the fax machines or whatever.
Speaker 1: So David Hampton Butler's juniors tricks finally fail him and
Speaker 1: he is caught and returned to justice, handed over to
Speaker 1: the U. S. Marshals and uh boom, he's going to
Speaker 1: have to now spend twenty five years in prison. His
Speaker 1: son must have finally been pleased to see his dad
Speaker 1: face justice right now. During his ne'er do well friend
Speaker 1: Joe Hickey's doomed trial, his son actually did speak to
Speaker 1: his relationship with his father, and David Hampton Butler Jr.
Speaker 1: Spoke very candidly, and I quote he said, he has
Speaker 1: never really been the kind of father I wanted. I
Speaker 1: had suspicions about his business, but he would never really
Speaker 1: tell me about it. I couldn't understand why he was
Speaker 1: doing what he was doing and endangering his family. So
Speaker 1: there's more confuse kid, right, So that's why he decided,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to start him for two
Speaker 1: million dollars because he doesn't pay enough attention. So anyway,
Speaker 1: did use his dad a lesson. He does this and
Speaker 1: they both learned lessons, and after one year he's free,
Speaker 1: and after twenty five years dad looks to be free. Now,
Speaker 1: this whole story, as you pointed out, is basically like
Speaker 1: a Disney Channel movie written by Harmony Corn and directed
Speaker 1: by Don't of the Safty Brothers. It's pretty much an
Speaker 1: insane family tale that would only happen in Florida. It's
Speaker 1: time gems meet spring breakers. So Elizabeth, what's our ridiculous
Speaker 1: take away? Oh, heavens, I'm taking away a lot today,
Speaker 1: taken away. The bags are loaded. I see that. I
Speaker 1: thought you were just packed and ready to go, and
Speaker 1: I am I have a bale of green head. Get
Speaker 1: the scissors into all the magazine letters. Okay, a little typewriter.
Speaker 1: My takeaway is that, you know, go get family counseling.
Speaker 1: Don't do this self abductions, right. I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: doomed from the get go, because honestly, he gets two
Speaker 1: million from his dad. Let's say it all went off.
Speaker 1: Then what he goes back and he's still dating the
Speaker 1: gals and two million hanging around. Now, well, I imagine
Speaker 1: they were going to probably go somewhere else, open a
Speaker 1: nice gelato business in the Bahamas or whatever. You know,
Speaker 1: they had plants, dreams, studio and gelatto factory. I don't
Speaker 1: think they thought every buying them put their dreams together.
Speaker 1: For me, Elizabeth, and thank you for asking, I don't
Speaker 1: want to know. I think the ridiculous takeaway is that
Speaker 1: I'm a Zarain Walter Burnett the Third. I understand what
Speaker 1: it's like to be named after your father, and it
Speaker 1: can be weird trying to create your own identity. But
Speaker 1: I think the point is to focus on not that
Speaker 1: and actually focus on the other part, which is you
Speaker 1: never fully know anyone. That's fair, right, Like not even
Speaker 1: your own father and mother, people, your sister, your brother,
Speaker 1: people you think you know really well. Everyone has secrets
Speaker 1: and they have sides to themselves. They don't show anyone,
Speaker 1: and sometimes their secret is that they're an undercome every
Speaker 1: FBI informant. You know that you don't know what the
Speaker 1: secret kind of huge. But my point is is leave
Speaker 1: some room for the unexpected. Just like you know, there's
Speaker 1: always something you don't know, and be cool with that exactly.
Speaker 1: The not knowing is pretty cool. Yeah, we love that.
Speaker 1: Who knows what? I know nothing, So it's awesome. But
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us. I am Elizabeth Dutton and
Speaker 1: over there that's Zaren Burnett the Third. Online Every ridiculous
Speaker 1: crime about Twitter and Instagram. You got a tip for
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Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Dutton and Zaron Burnett, produced and edited by Cocaine Cowboys
Speaker 1: preferred travel agent Dave Couston. Researches by fake kidnapping expert
Speaker 1: and pretend bank robbery enthusiast Marissa Brown. The theme song
Speaker 1: is by Thomas Jane, Fonda's biggest fan, Lee and Travis.
Speaker 1: I'm more of a jazzer, science Officionado Dotton, executive priests
Speaker 1: or bench officer. That is not my cocaine Bowling and nol. Yes,
Speaker 1: that is also not my cocaine Brown. We did quiet
Speaker 1: say it one more time. We dequeous crew. Ridiculous Crime
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