WEBVTT - The Butcher Gets a Pardon: John Factor 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:02.760 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:07.480 Saren Elizabeth, Saren Elizabeth, what's up? How are you doing? Good? 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:09.440 Good listen? You know what's ridiculous? 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:12.000 Oh my god, I'm so glad you asked. I've been 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:16.160 waiting to tell you. Game of Thrones. Yeah, that's pretty right. Okay, 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.239 you know the Knights watch you know nothing, John Snow, No, 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:22.920 you know the show? Right? Okay, there's a show called Throne. 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:23.919 I've not seen it. 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:24.680 You've never seen. 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:26.960 Okay, I you know, I joke say. 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:27.520 I don't watch TV. 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:29.520 You know, I watch a hell of a lot of TV, 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.080 but I've actually I don't watch You've. 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:34.040 Never seen Game of Thrones, not even a single minute. No, 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:35.800 I've seen like a minute or okay, we are you 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:37.839 familiar that there are guys on the show who are 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.760 wearing big furry black jackets. You've seen them. Sure, they're 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:45.200 called the Knight's Watch. Okay, right now, those big dope 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:49.160 black shag that they're wearing. It turns out that those 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:51.880 were made from they look like their enormous bear skin 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.440 rug like some kind of like what wear yak, Yeah, 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.880 exactly like saber to wear yak. Anyway, So those are 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:02.880 actually a Kia rug get out. They were like shaggy 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:06.280 white Ikea floor rugs that they then died black and 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:08.440 then they like tailored into coat. So the next time 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.160 you watch the Night's watch those are Ikea rug very clever. 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:14.880 Sorry to spoil that show, but it's spoiled itself. 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:18.399 Yeah, from what I've heard. Yeah, no, that's very cool. 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:20.200 That ridiculous. That is ridiculous. 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:21.319 I love it. 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:23.560 So I'm going to be doing that, ma, getting all 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:25.040 my clothing at Ikea floor shows. 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.600 Okay, this sounds good, I'll drive you do you know 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.160 what else is ridiculous? No, that's why I'm here holding 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:53.560 out on legs, Diamond. No, this is ridiculous crime a 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:58.120 podcast about absurd and outrageous capers. Heis and cons It's 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:02.640 always ninety nine percent murder free, one percent ridiculous. 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:05.320 You damn right. Welcome back. 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.040 Once upon a time there were two boys, Maximilian and 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:14.880 Yako Okay, half brothers, fifteen years apart in age. The 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.240 family lived in Poland at like the turn of the 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:22.280 twentieth century. They were hard workers, but terribly poor. Maximilian, 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.280 he had been working since the age of eight. When 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.200 he was nine, he got a job as an apprentice 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.880 for a wig maker. Had work. Yeah, a nine year 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:33.040 old in a wig. 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.520 Well, there's that, I'm sure from there had some chemicals 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.320 that are not good for sure, his skins turning blue. 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.799 He got a job at a cosmetics and hairstyling company 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.240 in Berlin, and then by the time he was fourteen, 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:49.440 he was working at a wig maker and cosmetician in Moscow. Wow, 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:53.440 dolling up the Imperial Russian Grand Opera thirteen years old. 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.600 Whoa, I forget the child labor laws. I'm impressed with his. 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:59.919 Talents and the time, the speed is Yeah. So he's 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.640 served in the Imperial Army in Russia for a spell, 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.120 and then he opened a shop and he sold handmade makeup, 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:11.000 perfume and wigs and yeah, this nice thing. All of 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.639 the theater folks loved and used his products. 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:15.840 They were so into it. He's innovative too. 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:18.200 Yeah, well he was, and he was eventually chosen as 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:22.240 the official cosmetics expert for the Russian royal family and 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:23.760 as well as the opera. 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:25.040 What do you do for a living? I am the 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:26.760 cosmetics expert for the royal family. 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:29.600 Yeah that sounds good. It drew a lot of attention 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:31.480 to him and his young family. But not all of 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.000 it good because I've mentioned in other episodes that there 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.840 was incredible anti Semitism in Eastern Europe at the time. 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:40.320 Ah yes, not just discriminatory but violence. 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:42.400 Oh yeah, not real life. Yeah bad so. 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.120 In nineteen oh four, at the age of twenty seven, 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:49.200 Maximilian and his family went to America. Good call, Yeah, 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:51.800 it's a common story. Once there, they met up with 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.760 his older brother in Saint Louis. Meet me in Saint Louis. 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.320 He said, They said, sure, and I'll be there. 0:03:57.560 --> 0:03:58.440 But what of Yakka? 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.560 What of Yakika? I've been wondering about old Yaka. 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:03.520 He and the rest of the family met up with 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.040 Maximilian two years later, in nineteen oh six. 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.560 Ye Echo was twelve. Is I like Jacob Jacob? 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:13.800 Ye so Maximilian And that's m A K S Y 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:16.520 M I L I A N whoa. 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.080 I love this totally. 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:25.280 He was taking the world by storm, folks. Maximilian Factrowitz 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:25.800 was a hit. 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.440 Oh wait a minute, I'm hearing it now, you don't. 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.440 He had the opportunity to sell his cosmetics at the 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.200 nineteen oh four World Fare U huh. He changed his 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.880 name to something easier for Anglo Americans to pronounce something 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:38.839 punchy memorable. 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:39.120 Yes. 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:43.039 Unfortunately, his business partner made off with all of the 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:44.280 stock in the profits. 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.880 He changed his name to Maybell Maybelene. 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:54.039 Go On Loriel. So Maximilian was crushed. Absolutely. His family 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:56.120 was there for him though. They helped him open a 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:57.359 barber shop in Saint Louis. 0:04:57.960 --> 0:04:59.600 How about I know you've been. 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.719 High flying and doing how we want to cut hair 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:02.480 at a barbershop? 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:03.480 How about shaven haircut too? 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:04.719 But was the sweet hair? 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:04.919 No? 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:07.560 Not me no, So it would be a good business 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:08.920 for him though as he got back on his. 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.479 Feet, people need to do hair all the time, totally. 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:13.560 People have hair, they need hair. 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:14.440 They need to cut all the time. 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:17.239 People like to gather up the hair at the barber 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.080 shop and like save it. 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:24.440 Like Elvis for dinner, save it and bring it over 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:29.000 as a treat delectables. So anyway, let's discuss. 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:31.719 But he didn't give up on his dream though. A 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.600 few years later shop is doing really great business and 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.760 he even brought his half brother Yako into the mix. 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.000 Like I said, Maximilian wanted more. He headed to Los 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.320 Angeles and he opened a shop selling hair care products, 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:47.920 and he positioned himself to be like the makeup guy 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:48.960 in the new filming. 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:50.680 Ow under his new name sl Right. 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:55.239 So then soon all of the starlets they wanted his 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:57.520 his you know what his name was, what and wild? 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:05.200 All of the starlets want it his service. Uh, everyone 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:07.680 wanted to slett me say one more time. All the 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:08.680 starlets wanted to service. 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:10.560 They wanted services. 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:13.240 Glorious Wanson, Mary Pickford. 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.440 Need services, Jean Harlowe loved. 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:20.440 The services for the services, Beddie Davis service, Queen Lucille 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.800 Ball and friend of the show Judy Garland. Yeah, he 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:27.799 had all the luminaries. He invented Clara Bo's heart shaped liplow. 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:29.640 Oh that was the that's huge. 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:33.000 He also pretty much invented like pancake makeup foundation. 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.039 Clara Bo was the first girl. She was the first 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.120 time we had like, oh, this is the coolest person 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.839 is because of him. Yeah, I'm saying that's he created 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:42.839 the look that everybody wanted under. 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:44.720 He did this all under a new name that he'd 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:50.000 given himself and eventual cosmetics Empire Max Factor. 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.400 Down. I was so certain it was. 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:59.680 No affect Horowitz. So while Max Factor was making the 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.600 beauty he's in Hollywood even more beautiful. 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:02.680 What of Young? 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:03.040 Let yo? 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:03.960 What of Young? 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:05.360 Asked that, we asked that all the time. 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:06.200 He found. 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.000 He changed his name to Eve Saint Laurel. No, he 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:12.800 was still in Saint Louis, still cutting hand. 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:14.400 He's now known as Rudolph Valentino. 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:17.840 Yes, he changed his name too, though, and he kind 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:22.280 of shortened it like Max did. He became John Factor. 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:25.840 John he's got the John factors max factor, max factor 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.040 that sings. That sounds like you're in a spaceship. We've 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:30.000 hit Max Factor. 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.360 No, John Factor, non factor sounds like something that's like, oh, 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:35.160 he's the new host of the show. I don't watch 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:35.960 John Factor. 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:41.240 Because of this job that he had cutting her, he 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:43.160 would later earn a nickname that he hated. 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.240 I bet Jake the barber that is not a. 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:49.360 Good called him Jake the Barber. So John moved on 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.400 from the family business and he got a job as 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.080 a barber at the uber Lux Morrison Hotel. 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:57.240 And everyone knows it's Jake the snake, Brutus the barber. 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.840 I mean, it goes it might be the only one. 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:01.720 They mixed it up. Okay, we'll go on. So he's 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.520 working on literation people. He's working at the Morrison Hotel 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:05.120 in Chicago. 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.520 And just like Max Over on the West Coast, John 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.640 cater to the rich and famous and sometimes the infamous. 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:13.040 Oh he's the bad brother. 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:13.760 He's the bad brother. 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:16.720 He's on this show right now. It's just a story 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:17.360 of two guys. 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.400 Setting hair make up this wholesome America. And you know what, 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:24.000 the crime was a crime of fashion. Okay, so cutting 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:26.640 hair wasn't enough. He had a little bit of the 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:30.240 con man in him. Resists a lot, Yeah, couldn't resist it. 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.840 Nineteen nineteen, he's indicted on a federal warrant for stock fraud. Yeah, 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:36.160 so he did a big jump. 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.079 In nineteen nineteen. Yeah, it's like ten years before everyone 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:40.360 else was getting busted stock fraud exactly. 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:43.000 So he agreed to give back all the money that 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:45.640 he collected on phony stocks and the case was dismissed. 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:50.280 Ok So, remember Addison and Wilson Meisner and the Florida 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.679 land boom in the twenties. We talked about them. I'm 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.400 going to take you right back there, please. Who would 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:59.720 show up but John Factor, John Factor, he too got 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:01.959 into the land swindles down there. Of course, so he's 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:04.040 right next to him, Addison magnet for. 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:06.720 Con artists and and sham up people. 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.000 No, it's right for the picking Addison meister. He went bankrupt. 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.000 Wilson just got all the way out of town. Factor 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:15.480 wasn't so lucky. He was indicted for land fraud. 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:17.760 Oh, he got caught on the swamp, caught and. 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.600 He likely he was likely selling plots that didn't even exist. 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:22.200 Oh, he wasn't even selling bad swamp. 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:24.360 Yeah, like, oh, you can build on this swamp. 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:25.719 He's like, there's no land there. 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:28.079 Go to this address. They're like that that numbers not 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:28.880 on the street. 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.559 In the world. And he's like, yeah, in Biscayne Bay. 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:35.520 So he collected even more indictments over the next few years, 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.640 this time for larceny mail fraud. He had a lot 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:40.760 of irons in the fire, but he didn't seem to 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.439 be too good at keeping them hot because he keeps 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:47.400 getting indicted. So then he got into the gold mines 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.679 stock scam game. Remember the diamond hoaks. 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.400 I once told you the field was littered with gems. 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.480 Yeah, refer to your notes. The government didn't catch him 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:58.840 on this one, but it was like similar, and he 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:00.320 became a very wealthy man. 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:00.640 From it. 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:02.680 Oh really yeah, selling all these fake minds. 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:03.120 Yeah. 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.199 And then he goes back to Chicago. So he's got 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.280 all this money, he buys a fourteen room apartment on 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:09.080 the Gold Coast. 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:09.720 Smart. 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:14.400 Yeah swank, Hillary Swank was there. He was a long 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.160 way from sweeping up here in Saint Louis, very far. 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.880 Yeah, or worrying about a safety in Poland. It's a 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:20.520 long way. 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:25.440 Safety it's going concern, especially in nineteen twenty three and 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.280 especially in the circles in which John Factor ran. 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:30.760 Is he kind of getting mobbed up at this point? 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:31.120 Well? 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:34.080 Yeah, is he in the Capone gang? Almost? Kind of? 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:34.599 Yeah, he is. 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:35.520 He gets there. 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.320 So he had an idea. He you know, he had 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.280 done the stock scams before, kind of screwed up, got indicted. 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:44.000 He has another idea. He's like, how about this time 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:45.120 we'll do it in Europe? 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:46.000 Oh, good call. 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:46.280 Yeah. 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:48.120 They don't they even have police, they don't. 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:49.240 Know, they don't know how to read, they don't know 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:49.679 how to write. 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:51.199 Yeah, come on the old world. 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:54.280 So he had it all worked out and he was 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.559 sure that he could make a ton of money on this. Okay, 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:58.600 he needed an investor. 0:10:58.200 --> 0:10:59.959 Though, always always going to need a money. 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.160 He needs someone with money and no morals. 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:02.559 Ah. 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:03.880 I'm always looking for that myself. 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:07.280 He knew just the guy, your guy. In late nineteen 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:09.880 twenty three, he made his move. He went to none 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.280 other than your guy, Arnold the brain Rock, and I 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:13.720 guess this. 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.320 I didn't want to ruin the timing of you what 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:19.280 you were had to say, but I was like, who's 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:20.800 going to be the investor. It's got to be the brain, 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:21.720 the brain, the brain. 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.880 So, as you've mentioned, this is the criminal mastermind from 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:26.600 New York who rigged the nineteen nineteen. 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:28.360 It's this point. Yeah, he's four years off of his 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:29.520 greatest like poll. 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:33.880 Yeah yeah. Factor asks him for fifty thousand dollars as 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.400 an initial cash investment for what he explained was a 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.520 fool proof stock scam, and Rostein heard him out and 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.400 bought it. She would He's like, okay, this sounds yeah. 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.560 So early nineteen twenty four, Factor heads to London. Once there, 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:52.319 he starts selling these like worthless penny stocks to chumps 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.640 and he promised these fools seven to twelve percent return 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.959 on their investments, and most places, you know, pay out 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:00.720 one to two percent. 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.120 That's going to beat your five year lipper average. 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:06.720 Exactly exactly in the motor Trend car of the year Ward. 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:12.079 So Factor he paid people out. At first, it was 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:16.079 like any good Ponzi ski and the happy Yeah. They 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:18.200 start telling their friends, They're like, get a load of 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:23.320 may it's amazing. So Factor he starts working this. He 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:26.080 pulls in one point five million dollars. 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:27.319 In that money in that money. 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.160 Wow, And then that was his cue to pull up stakes. Yeah, 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.680 I got him out of here. He leaves town. He 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:35.000 was sure that he wouldn't be arrested, though, because his 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.080 clients were super rich, and some of them were even 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:40.839 in the royal family, so they didn't want to make 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.360 their idiocy public and be better saying thing. 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:43.840 Yeah. 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:45.720 So he's right that no one went to the cops. 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:47.800 He come across this often with a very very wealthy yeah, 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:49.160 like all the other people know, I'm a mark. 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:51.800 I'm a Mark. It'll be embarrassing. I'll just write it 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:52.840 off and will act like nothing. 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:54.480 I lost pocket change. 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.720 And no one went to the cops. He got away 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:58.720 with it. So he heads back to the States and 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:00.200 he cuts Rothstein. 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.000 And I've got to start fleecing the ultra wealthy. Elizabeth, 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:04.600 what is this whole telling stories there. I don't know, 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:07.079 should take the skills we've learned from this show. 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:08.520 Make me more than the lotto tickets? 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:10.120 I thought so. 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:13.840 Anyway, he cuts Rothstein in It's like, here's your share. 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:15.480 The brain very happy. 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:17.280 That was easy. You got to pay off the brain. 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.360 Yeah. So the brain is so happy that he funds 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:22.440 another round of phony stocks. 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.280 And that's rare. He doesn't usually like to be increasing 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:26.480 your risk every time exactly. 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.360 So Factor headed over. He set up shop in this 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.960 very expensive, very impressive joint on Grosner Square, and he. 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:35.200 Started very legit. 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:37.959 Oh yeah, it's a fancy office. He starts a stock 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:39.720 brokerage firm called Tyler Wilson. 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.000 In company sounds completely legit, totally. 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.280 He tells his clients, I have a great opportunity for you. 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:49.440 It's a stock called Triplex, which sounds like something now 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:51.520 that someone would say, like anyway. 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.040 It sounds made up. Yeah, if you're and even now. 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.120 Yeah and so, But it was a real stock and 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.360 it was trading at about, you know, American dollars four 0:13:58.400 --> 0:13:59.000 dollars a share. 0:13:59.200 --> 0:13:59.600 Oh wow. 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.440 The Factor said that he would turn around and buy 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.280 back the stock at six dollars a share, So they're 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:06.680 going to make a fifty percent profit. 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:09.520 Buy it for I'll buy it back from you at six. 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:10.199 I don't get it. 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.320 People didn't ask why do you need this mediary? 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:15.040 I don't know. So the dupes are hooked though. 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.720 Sure I love stock, profit, not free money. Take it. 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:20.760 So he waits a bit and then he offer. He 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.760 offers another stock, Edison Bell, at three dollars a share. 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:27.280 As soon as he sells them to him, he's like, 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:28.800 turn around, I want to buy him back. 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.360 At six the original stock. 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:35.680 Oh, the three dollars Edison Bell stock. He's like, oh, 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:38.640 buy it back at six. I still, how do none 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.600 of them think this is suspicious? This sounds fantastic. Okay, 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.320 here's the thing. He was buying them back in word only, 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.160 and he was selling them in word only. He never 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:53.200 filed any paperwork, so they paid for the stocks that 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.800 they never got and they're waiting for payments that are 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:59.360 never processed. So he's like, give me, you know, give 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:01.360 me three dollars. I'll buy you a share, and then 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:03.320 here and I'll sell you. Here's the paper to show 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:04.800 that I sold you back. But all he's doing is 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.960 collecting the three dollars never buying the stock. So factor 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:10.920 he puts out the word that he has a line 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.760 on two pretty much worthless stocks, Vulcan Mines and Rhodesian 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:19.680 Border Minerals, both supposedly South African gold mining companies. So 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:21.760 he like dances around the fact that the companies are 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:23.200 about to blow up. He's like, I don't know, I'm 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:25.080 just hearing these things. I don't want to say too much. 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:27.840 You know, huge profits might be on the way. So 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:31.680 his caginess about it made the investors drool. They wanted 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:33.840 in on it. And the stocks are going to like 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:37.880 nothing like twenty pence. There's nothing stocks, So the investors 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.040 come pouring in. Everyone is desperate to get a piece 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.440 of this, and they're thrilled when they get paid out 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.200 at two point fifty a share two dollars to fifty 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.600 cents a share. But they get paid in land. You mean, well, 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.760 they're getting deeds to plots of supposed. 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:53.600 Land on another Africa. 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:57.080 Yeah, okay, yeah, and there's Stokes. They're like, oh, look 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:59.600 at me, I've got three acres in in Africa. 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.360 What tre Africa. Yeah. 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.320 Meanwhile, back at home, there was trouble for Rothstein. The 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:07.600 most serious kind of trouble. 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:08.720 Oh he was murdered. 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:10.840 Oh yeah, like that's why that point five percent. 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:13.320 That's rough. Yeah, so that'll make a bad day for it. 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:14.920 That's a big trouble right there. 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:17.240 So he gets killed over debts that he owed from 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.080 a three day high stakes poker game. Oh right, he 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:22.880 owed three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, which is almost 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.960 six million today, but he wouldn't pay it because he 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:27.440 said the game was fixed. 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:27.680 Yeah. 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.480 Yeah, So he was shot at Park Central Hotel died 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:33.280 two days later in the hospital. As he's laying there dying, 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:36.720 Rostein refuses to identify his killer. When the cops asked. 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.000 He would only say, you stick to your trade. I'll 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:39.720 stick to mine. 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:42.640 Yes, won't say a thing. I'm sorry, that's ball. 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:44.320 Yeah, so that's my point five percent here. 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:44.600 Okay. 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.640 So one of Rothstein's right hand men was a guy 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:51.720 named Jack Legs Diamond. Oh, yes, Legs Diamond. When I 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:53.480 was growing up, if my brother and I would be 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:55.920 like dancing around, my grandma would say like, oh, look 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.400 at you, Legs Diamond. I always thought leg Simon was 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.600 a dancer and then I found out. Anyway, So Legs 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.400 Diamond he had a lot to gain in the passing 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:07.080 of Rothstein. It was hinted that, like he might have 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:07.960 been involved in this. 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.160 You also have to wonder how does a man get 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:13.320 the nickname Legs at that time as a mobster. You know, 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.640 like he's probably super tall. I know, but Legs. 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.240 Everyone's like, I can't help but look at the stick exactly. 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:25.679 It's like gams hot gams. I would suspect that he 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:27.680 may have known about it before so much. 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.240 Yeah, So either way, Legs figured that he was picking 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:35.440 up a lot of Rothstein's revenue streams. You know, Rostein's 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:36.840