Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Saren Elizabeth, Saren Elizabeth, what's up? How are you doing? Good?
Speaker 3: Good listen? You know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I'm so glad you asked. I've been
Speaker 2: waiting to tell you. Game of Thrones. Yeah, that's pretty right. Okay,
Speaker 2: you know the Knights watch you know nothing, John Snow, No,
Speaker 2: you know the show? Right? Okay, there's a show called Throne.
Speaker 3: I've not seen it.
Speaker 2: You've never seen.
Speaker 3: Okay, I you know, I joke say.
Speaker 2: I don't watch TV.
Speaker 3: You know, I watch a hell of a lot of TV,
Speaker 3: but I've actually I don't watch You've.
Speaker 2: Never seen Game of Thrones, not even a single minute. No,
Speaker 2: I've seen like a minute or okay, we are you
Speaker 2: familiar that there are guys on the show who are
Speaker 2: wearing big furry black jackets. You've seen them. Sure, they're
Speaker 2: called the Knight's Watch. Okay, right now, those big dope
Speaker 2: black shag that they're wearing. It turns out that those
Speaker 2: were made from they look like their enormous bear skin
Speaker 2: rug like some kind of like what wear yak, Yeah,
Speaker 2: exactly like saber to wear yak. Anyway, So those are
Speaker 2: actually a Kia rug get out. They were like shaggy
Speaker 2: white Ikea floor rugs that they then died black and
Speaker 2: then they like tailored into coat. So the next time
Speaker 2: you watch the Night's watch those are Ikea rug very clever.
Speaker 2: Sorry to spoil that show, but it's spoiled itself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, from what I've heard. Yeah, no, that's very cool.
Speaker 2: That ridiculous. That is ridiculous.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to be doing that, ma, getting all
Speaker 2: my clothing at Ikea floor shows.
Speaker 3: Okay, this sounds good, I'll drive you do you know
Speaker 3: what else is ridiculous? No, that's why I'm here holding
Speaker 3: out on legs, Diamond. No, this is ridiculous crime a
Speaker 3: podcast about absurd and outrageous capers. Heis and cons It's
Speaker 3: always ninety nine percent murder free, one percent ridiculous.
Speaker 2: You damn right. Welcome back.
Speaker 3: Once upon a time there were two boys, Maximilian and
Speaker 3: Yako Okay, half brothers, fifteen years apart in age. The
Speaker 3: family lived in Poland at like the turn of the
Speaker 3: twentieth century. They were hard workers, but terribly poor. Maximilian,
Speaker 3: he had been working since the age of eight. When
Speaker 3: he was nine, he got a job as an apprentice
Speaker 3: for a wig maker. Had work. Yeah, a nine year
Speaker 3: old in a wig.
Speaker 2: Well, there's that, I'm sure from there had some chemicals
Speaker 2: that are not good for sure, his skins turning blue.
Speaker 3: He got a job at a cosmetics and hairstyling company
Speaker 3: in Berlin, and then by the time he was fourteen,
Speaker 3: he was working at a wig maker and cosmetician in Moscow. Wow,
Speaker 3: dolling up the Imperial Russian Grand Opera thirteen years old.
Speaker 2: Whoa, I forget the child labor laws. I'm impressed with his.
Speaker 3: Talents and the time, the speed is Yeah. So he's
Speaker 3: served in the Imperial Army in Russia for a spell,
Speaker 3: and then he opened a shop and he sold handmade makeup,
Speaker 3: perfume and wigs and yeah, this nice thing. All of
Speaker 3: the theater folks loved and used his products.
Speaker 2: They were so into it. He's innovative too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well he was, and he was eventually chosen as
Speaker 3: the official cosmetics expert for the Russian royal family and
Speaker 3: as well as the opera.
Speaker 2: What do you do for a living? I am the
Speaker 2: cosmetics expert for the royal family.
Speaker 3: Yeah that sounds good. It drew a lot of attention
Speaker 3: to him and his young family. But not all of
Speaker 3: it good because I've mentioned in other episodes that there
Speaker 3: was incredible anti Semitism in Eastern Europe at the time.
Speaker 3: Ah yes, not just discriminatory but violence.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, not real life. Yeah bad so.
Speaker 3: In nineteen oh four, at the age of twenty seven,
Speaker 3: Maximilian and his family went to America. Good call, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a common story. Once there, they met up with
Speaker 3: his older brother in Saint Louis. Meet me in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2: He said, They said, sure, and I'll be there.
Speaker 3: But what of Yakka?
Speaker 2: What of Yakika? I've been wondering about old Yaka.
Speaker 3: He and the rest of the family met up with
Speaker 3: Maximilian two years later, in nineteen oh six.
Speaker 2: Ye Echo was twelve. Is I like Jacob Jacob?
Speaker 3: Ye so Maximilian And that's m A K S Y
Speaker 3: M I L I A N whoa.
Speaker 2: I love this totally.
Speaker 3: He was taking the world by storm, folks. Maximilian Factrowitz
Speaker 3: was a hit.
Speaker 2: Oh wait a minute, I'm hearing it now, you don't.
Speaker 3: He had the opportunity to sell his cosmetics at the
Speaker 3: nineteen oh four World Fare U huh. He changed his
Speaker 3: name to something easier for Anglo Americans to pronounce something
Speaker 3: punchy memorable.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, his business partner made off with all of the
Speaker 3: stock in the profits.
Speaker 2: He changed his name to Maybell Maybelene.
Speaker 3: Go On Loriel. So Maximilian was crushed. Absolutely. His family
Speaker 3: was there for him though. They helped him open a
Speaker 3: barber shop in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2: How about I know you've been.
Speaker 3: High flying and doing how we want to cut hair
Speaker 3: at a barbershop?
Speaker 2: How about shaven haircut too?
Speaker 3: But was the sweet hair?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: Not me no, So it would be a good business
Speaker 3: for him though as he got back on his.
Speaker 2: Feet, people need to do hair all the time, totally.
Speaker 3: People have hair, they need hair.
Speaker 2: They need to cut all the time.
Speaker 3: People like to gather up the hair at the barber
Speaker 3: shop and like save it.
Speaker 2: Like Elvis for dinner, save it and bring it over
Speaker 2: as a treat delectables. So anyway, let's discuss.
Speaker 3: But he didn't give up on his dream though. A
Speaker 3: few years later shop is doing really great business and
Speaker 3: he even brought his half brother Yako into the mix.
Speaker 3: Like I said, Maximilian wanted more. He headed to Los
Speaker 3: Angeles and he opened a shop selling hair care products,
Speaker 3: and he positioned himself to be like the makeup guy
Speaker 3: in the new filming.
Speaker 2: Ow under his new name sl Right.
Speaker 3: So then soon all of the starlets they wanted his
Speaker 3: his you know what his name was, what and wild?
Speaker 3: All of the starlets want it his service. Uh, everyone
Speaker 3: wanted to slett me say one more time. All the
Speaker 3: starlets wanted to service.
Speaker 2: They wanted services.
Speaker 3: Glorious Wanson, Mary Pickford.
Speaker 2: Need services, Jean Harlowe loved.
Speaker 3: The services for the services, Beddie Davis service, Queen Lucille
Speaker 3: Ball and friend of the show Judy Garland. Yeah, he
Speaker 3: had all the luminaries. He invented Clara Bo's heart shaped liplow.
Speaker 2: Oh that was the that's huge.
Speaker 3: He also pretty much invented like pancake makeup foundation.
Speaker 2: Clara Bo was the first girl. She was the first
Speaker 2: time we had like, oh, this is the coolest person
Speaker 2: is because of him. Yeah, I'm saying that's he created
Speaker 2: the look that everybody wanted under.
Speaker 3: He did this all under a new name that he'd
Speaker 3: given himself and eventual cosmetics Empire Max Factor.
Speaker 2: Down. I was so certain it was.
Speaker 3: No affect Horowitz. So while Max Factor was making the
Speaker 3: beauty he's in Hollywood even more beautiful.
Speaker 2: What of Young?
Speaker 3: Let yo?
Speaker 2: What of Young?
Speaker 3: Asked that, we asked that all the time.
Speaker 2: He found.
Speaker 3: He changed his name to Eve Saint Laurel. No, he
Speaker 3: was still in Saint Louis, still cutting hand.
Speaker 2: He's now known as Rudolph Valentino.
Speaker 3: Yes, he changed his name too, though, and he kind
Speaker 3: of shortened it like Max did. He became John Factor.
Speaker 3: John he's got the John factors max factor, max factor
Speaker 3: that sings. That sounds like you're in a spaceship. We've
Speaker 3: hit Max Factor.
Speaker 2: No, John Factor, non factor sounds like something that's like, oh,
Speaker 2: he's the new host of the show. I don't watch
Speaker 2: John Factor.
Speaker 3: Because of this job that he had cutting her, he
Speaker 3: would later earn a nickname that he hated.
Speaker 2: I bet Jake the barber that is not a.
Speaker 3: Good called him Jake the Barber. So John moved on
Speaker 3: from the family business and he got a job as
Speaker 3: a barber at the uber Lux Morrison Hotel.
Speaker 2: And everyone knows it's Jake the snake, Brutus the barber.
Speaker 2: I mean, it goes it might be the only one.
Speaker 2: They mixed it up. Okay, we'll go on. So he's
Speaker 2: working on literation people. He's working at the Morrison Hotel
Speaker 2: in Chicago.
Speaker 3: And just like Max Over on the West Coast, John
Speaker 3: cater to the rich and famous and sometimes the infamous.
Speaker 2: Oh he's the bad brother.
Speaker 3: He's the bad brother.
Speaker 2: He's on this show right now. It's just a story
Speaker 2: of two guys.
Speaker 3: Setting hair make up this wholesome America. And you know what,
Speaker 3: the crime was a crime of fashion. Okay, so cutting
Speaker 3: hair wasn't enough. He had a little bit of the
Speaker 3: con man in him. Resists a lot, Yeah, couldn't resist it.
Speaker 3: Nineteen nineteen, he's indicted on a federal warrant for stock fraud. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so he did a big jump.
Speaker 2: In nineteen nineteen. Yeah, it's like ten years before everyone
Speaker 2: else was getting busted stock fraud exactly.
Speaker 3: So he agreed to give back all the money that
Speaker 3: he collected on phony stocks and the case was dismissed.
Speaker 3: Ok So, remember Addison and Wilson Meisner and the Florida
Speaker 3: land boom in the twenties. We talked about them. I'm
Speaker 3: going to take you right back there, please. Who would
Speaker 3: show up but John Factor, John Factor, he too got
Speaker 3: into the land swindles down there. Of course, so he's
Speaker 3: right next to him, Addison magnet for.
Speaker 2: Con artists and and sham up people.
Speaker 3: No, it's right for the picking Addison meister. He went bankrupt.
Speaker 3: Wilson just got all the way out of town. Factor
Speaker 3: wasn't so lucky. He was indicted for land fraud.
Speaker 2: Oh, he got caught on the swamp, caught and.
Speaker 3: He likely he was likely selling plots that didn't even exist.
Speaker 2: Oh, he wasn't even selling bad swamp.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like, oh, you can build on this swamp.
Speaker 2: He's like, there's no land there.
Speaker 3: Go to this address. They're like that that numbers not
Speaker 3: on the street.
Speaker 2: In the world. And he's like, yeah, in Biscayne Bay.
Speaker 3: So he collected even more indictments over the next few years,
Speaker 3: this time for larceny mail fraud. He had a lot
Speaker 3: of irons in the fire, but he didn't seem to
Speaker 3: be too good at keeping them hot because he keeps
Speaker 3: getting indicted. So then he got into the gold mines
Speaker 3: stock scam game. Remember the diamond hoaks.
Speaker 2: I once told you the field was littered with gems.
Speaker 3: Yeah, refer to your notes. The government didn't catch him
Speaker 3: on this one, but it was like similar, and he
Speaker 3: became a very wealthy man.
Speaker 2: From it.
Speaker 3: Oh really yeah, selling all these fake minds.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then he goes back to Chicago. So he's got
Speaker 3: all this money, he buys a fourteen room apartment on
Speaker 3: the Gold Coast.
Speaker 2: Smart.
Speaker 3: Yeah swank, Hillary Swank was there. He was a long
Speaker 3: way from sweeping up here in Saint Louis, very far.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or worrying about a safety in Poland. It's a
Speaker 2: long way.
Speaker 3: Safety it's going concern, especially in nineteen twenty three and
Speaker 3: especially in the circles in which John Factor ran.
Speaker 2: Is he kind of getting mobbed up at this point?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, is he in the Capone gang? Almost? Kind of?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he is.
Speaker 2: He gets there.
Speaker 3: So he had an idea. He you know, he had
Speaker 3: done the stock scams before, kind of screwed up, got indicted.
Speaker 3: He has another idea. He's like, how about this time
Speaker 3: we'll do it in Europe?
Speaker 2: Oh, good call.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: They don't they even have police, they don't.
Speaker 3: Know, they don't know how to read, they don't know
Speaker 3: how to write.
Speaker 2: Yeah, come on the old world.
Speaker 3: So he had it all worked out and he was
Speaker 3: sure that he could make a ton of money on this. Okay,
Speaker 3: he needed an investor.
Speaker 2: Though, always always going to need a money.
Speaker 3: He needs someone with money and no morals.
Speaker 4: Ah.
Speaker 2: I'm always looking for that myself.
Speaker 3: He knew just the guy, your guy. In late nineteen
Speaker 3: twenty three, he made his move. He went to none
Speaker 3: other than your guy, Arnold the brain Rock, and I
Speaker 3: guess this.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to ruin the timing of you what
Speaker 2: you were had to say, but I was like, who's
Speaker 2: going to be the investor. It's got to be the brain,
Speaker 2: the brain, the brain.
Speaker 3: So, as you've mentioned, this is the criminal mastermind from
Speaker 3: New York who rigged the nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 2: It's this point. Yeah, he's four years off of his
Speaker 2: greatest like poll.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah. Factor asks him for fifty thousand dollars as
Speaker 3: an initial cash investment for what he explained was a
Speaker 3: fool proof stock scam, and Rostein heard him out and
Speaker 3: bought it. She would He's like, okay, this sounds yeah.
Speaker 3: So early nineteen twenty four, Factor heads to London. Once there,
Speaker 3: he starts selling these like worthless penny stocks to chumps
Speaker 3: and he promised these fools seven to twelve percent return
Speaker 3: on their investments, and most places, you know, pay out
Speaker 3: one to two percent.
Speaker 2: That's going to beat your five year lipper average.
Speaker 3: Exactly exactly in the motor Trend car of the year Ward.
Speaker 3: So Factor he paid people out. At first, it was
Speaker 3: like any good Ponzi ski and the happy Yeah. They
Speaker 3: start telling their friends, They're like, get a load of
Speaker 3: may it's amazing. So Factor he starts working this. He
Speaker 3: pulls in one point five million dollars.
Speaker 2: In that money in that money.
Speaker 3: Wow, And then that was his cue to pull up stakes. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I got him out of here. He leaves town. He
Speaker 3: was sure that he wouldn't be arrested, though, because his
Speaker 3: clients were super rich, and some of them were even
Speaker 3: in the royal family, so they didn't want to make
Speaker 3: their idiocy public and be better saying thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So he's right that no one went to the cops.
Speaker 2: He come across this often with a very very wealthy yeah,
Speaker 2: like all the other people know, I'm a mark.
Speaker 3: I'm a Mark. It'll be embarrassing. I'll just write it
Speaker 3: off and will act like nothing.
Speaker 2: I lost pocket change.
Speaker 3: And no one went to the cops. He got away
Speaker 3: with it. So he heads back to the States and
Speaker 3: he cuts Rothstein.
Speaker 2: And I've got to start fleecing the ultra wealthy. Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: what is this whole telling stories there. I don't know,
Speaker 2: should take the skills we've learned from this show.
Speaker 3: Make me more than the lotto tickets?
Speaker 2: I thought so.
Speaker 3: Anyway, he cuts Rothstein in It's like, here's your share.
Speaker 3: The brain very happy.
Speaker 2: That was easy. You got to pay off the brain.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So the brain is so happy that he funds
Speaker 3: another round of phony stocks.
Speaker 2: And that's rare. He doesn't usually like to be increasing
Speaker 2: your risk every time exactly.
Speaker 3: So Factor headed over. He set up shop in this
Speaker 3: very expensive, very impressive joint on Grosner Square, and he.
Speaker 2: Started very legit.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's a fancy office. He starts a stock
Speaker 3: brokerage firm called Tyler Wilson.
Speaker 2: In company sounds completely legit, totally.
Speaker 3: He tells his clients, I have a great opportunity for you.
Speaker 3: It's a stock called Triplex, which sounds like something now
Speaker 3: that someone would say, like anyway.
Speaker 2: It sounds made up. Yeah, if you're and even now.
Speaker 3: Yeah and so, But it was a real stock and
Speaker 3: it was trading at about, you know, American dollars four
Speaker 3: dollars a share.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 3: The Factor said that he would turn around and buy
Speaker 3: back the stock at six dollars a share, So they're
Speaker 3: going to make a fifty percent profit.
Speaker 2: Buy it for I'll buy it back from you at six.
Speaker 3: I don't get it.
Speaker 2: People didn't ask why do you need this mediary?
Speaker 3: I don't know. So the dupes are hooked though.
Speaker 2: Sure I love stock, profit, not free money. Take it.
Speaker 3: So he waits a bit and then he offer. He
Speaker 3: offers another stock, Edison Bell, at three dollars a share.
Speaker 3: As soon as he sells them to him, he's like,
Speaker 3: turn around, I want to buy him back.
Speaker 2: At six the original stock.
Speaker 3: Oh, the three dollars Edison Bell stock. He's like, oh,
Speaker 3: buy it back at six. I still, how do none
Speaker 3: of them think this is suspicious? This sounds fantastic. Okay,
Speaker 3: here's the thing. He was buying them back in word only,
Speaker 3: and he was selling them in word only. He never
Speaker 3: filed any paperwork, so they paid for the stocks that
Speaker 3: they never got and they're waiting for payments that are
Speaker 3: never processed. So he's like, give me, you know, give
Speaker 3: me three dollars. I'll buy you a share, and then
Speaker 3: here and I'll sell you. Here's the paper to show
Speaker 3: that I sold you back. But all he's doing is
Speaker 3: collecting the three dollars never buying the stock. So factor
Speaker 3: he puts out the word that he has a line
Speaker 3: on two pretty much worthless stocks, Vulcan Mines and Rhodesian
Speaker 3: Border Minerals, both supposedly South African gold mining companies. So
Speaker 3: he like dances around the fact that the companies are
Speaker 3: about to blow up. He's like, I don't know, I'm
Speaker 3: just hearing these things. I don't want to say too much.
Speaker 3: You know, huge profits might be on the way. So
Speaker 3: his caginess about it made the investors drool. They wanted
Speaker 3: in on it. And the stocks are going to like
Speaker 3: nothing like twenty pence. There's nothing stocks, So the investors
Speaker 3: come pouring in. Everyone is desperate to get a piece
Speaker 3: of this, and they're thrilled when they get paid out
Speaker 3: at two point fifty a share two dollars to fifty
Speaker 3: cents a share. But they get paid in land. You mean, well,
Speaker 3: they're getting deeds to plots of supposed.
Speaker 2: Land on another Africa.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, yeah, and there's Stokes. They're like, oh, look
Speaker 3: at me, I've got three acres in in Africa.
Speaker 2: What tre Africa. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, back at home, there was trouble for Rothstein. The
Speaker 3: most serious kind of trouble.
Speaker 2: Oh he was murdered.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, like that's why that point five percent.
Speaker 2: That's rough. Yeah, so that'll make a bad day for it.
Speaker 2: That's a big trouble right there.
Speaker 3: So he gets killed over debts that he owed from
Speaker 3: a three day high stakes poker game. Oh right, he
Speaker 3: owed three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, which is almost
Speaker 3: six million today, but he wouldn't pay it because he
Speaker 3: said the game was fixed.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So he was shot at Park Central Hotel died
Speaker 3: two days later in the hospital. As he's laying there dying,
Speaker 3: Rostein refuses to identify his killer. When the cops asked.
Speaker 3: He would only say, you stick to your trade. I'll
Speaker 3: stick to mine.
Speaker 2: Yes, won't say a thing. I'm sorry, that's ball.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's my point five percent here.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: So one of Rothstein's right hand men was a guy
Speaker 3: named Jack Legs Diamond. Oh, yes, Legs Diamond. When I
Speaker 3: was growing up, if my brother and I would be
Speaker 3: like dancing around, my grandma would say like, oh, look
Speaker 3: at you, Legs Diamond. I always thought leg Simon was
Speaker 3: a dancer and then I found out. Anyway, So Legs
Speaker 3: Diamond he had a lot to gain in the passing
Speaker 3: of Rothstein. It was hinted that, like he might have
Speaker 3: been involved in this.
Speaker 2: You also have to wonder how does a man get
Speaker 2: the nickname Legs at that time as a mobster. You know,
Speaker 2: like he's probably super tall. I know, but Legs.
Speaker 3: Everyone's like, I can't help but look at the stick exactly.
Speaker 2: It's like gams hot gams. I would suspect that he
Speaker 2: may have known about it before so much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So either way, Legs figured that he was picking
Speaker 3: up a lot of Rothstein's revenue streams. You know, Rostein's
Speaker 3: gone here, I'll take them.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: One of those was factors the same game, new name, Right,
Speaker 3: He's got factors London stock scam. So who's going to
Speaker 3: take that? Factor though, thought that since Rothstein was now dead,
Speaker 3: the whole operation was his because you know, like the
Speaker 3: rest of Rostein's crew really wasn't involved and the suff Yeah,
Speaker 3: so Legs reaches out to Factor and he tells him
Speaker 3: to pay yup.
Speaker 2: He's like, look, I'm the new man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm the big boss. Now you pay me Legs diamonds. See,
Speaker 3: but Factor is like call me. Factor doesn't answer, Hey,
Speaker 3: call me doesn't doesn't call him, So Legs sets sail
Speaker 3: to England on a luxury liner to talk to Factor
Speaker 3: face to face. Factor won't meet with him, Yeah, won't
Speaker 3: meet with Legs Diamond. Instead, he closes up shop and
Speaker 3: runs off with eight million dollars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, buddy, eight million back then.
Speaker 3: Uh huh, eight million back then. When we come back,
Speaker 3: I'll Russia. I'll tell you how that goes for Jacob.
Speaker 2: I bet it didn't go well. Hello Zaren, Hello Elizabeth.
Speaker 3: When I left off, when I left you hanging Yes,
Speaker 3: Jake the barber on Factor. He was on the run
Speaker 3: from Leg's Diamond with eight million dollars burning a hole
Speaker 3: in his pocket.
Speaker 2: And Legs, I mean he's tall, he's got, he's just.
Speaker 3: It takes like three strides and he's walked like a
Speaker 3: city block. Factor. He left England and went somewhere logical, India,
Speaker 3: Monte Carlo. And he didn't just lilo there amongst the
Speaker 3: rest of the wealthy. He had to keep his head
Speaker 3: in the game, so he rigged the casino tables and
Speaker 3: he broke the casino bank. Well done you, Yeah, So
Speaker 3: he had to that heat. So in December of nineteen
Speaker 3: thirty he went down Mexico away.
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, to Mexico.
Speaker 3: The sole purpose was to get to see a Dad
Speaker 3: Juarez and cross the border at El Paso.
Speaker 2: Oh. He wasn't doing like the Trotsky to go see
Speaker 2: Mexico City.
Speaker 3: He was like, I gotta get back home.
Speaker 2: I got to get back. How do I sneak into America? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So he crosses the border and he writes out
Speaker 3: a sworn statement that he was born in England in Hull.
Speaker 3: To be exact, that was actually true. He was born
Speaker 3: had been born in England to a Polish family who
Speaker 3: later moved back to Poland. Right, Okay, so you know
Speaker 3: he's trying to avoid all this detection, but he's got
Speaker 3: to swear something when he comes in.
Speaker 2: Now. Quick question. I'm not sure if you know this.
Speaker 2: If you're born in England, does that make you an
Speaker 2: English subject? I believe so, okay, I'm just wondering. I
Speaker 2: don't know how that law goes. Yeah, I don't know
Speaker 2: if we were a citizenship is a birthright? Clitaizenship is common?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I know it's not common in a lot of places
Speaker 2: in Europe. I thought maybe England, who knows.
Speaker 3: Who knows quite frankly, who cares. So here's the problem. Though,
Speaker 3: there was already a statement on file from nineteen oh
Speaker 3: five that his parents had signed when they immigrated over
Speaker 3: They said that he was a Russian national born in Poland.
Speaker 2: They lied.
Speaker 3: This opened a file on him and it didn't give
Speaker 3: him trouble right then, but it would in the future.
Speaker 3: So anyway, Factor knew that Legs was trying to like,
Speaker 3: he is going to try and keep finding him. He
Speaker 3: wasn't going to give up. He's he's leg Simon. So
Speaker 3: Factor goes to Chicago and he looks for help from
Speaker 3: the outfit.
Speaker 2: Oh man, that's probably the best Icago. Yeah, go to
Speaker 2: the sum at the top and go, hey, can you
Speaker 2: ask protect me?
Speaker 3: As it's called, so Murray the camel Humphries took him
Speaker 3: in in exchange for a cut of all the cash
Speaker 3: that Factor was carrying, and a couple of years later,
Speaker 3: Legs Diamond is killed and Factor considered his debt to
Speaker 3: Legs erased.
Speaker 2: Of course, that's it's one to.
Speaker 3: Collect it and whoever comes after Legs is like, I
Speaker 3: don't know about all these other things, you know.
Speaker 2: Anyway, So it's like in Hollywood where like the when
Speaker 2: an executive leaves all those projects die with them.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, so factor he comes out of hiding.
Speaker 3: It's finally safe. But he was immediately arrested and because
Speaker 3: the Brits had put out a warrant for receiving property
Speaker 3: that was fraudulently obtained. He was released on a fifty
Speaker 3: thousand dollars bond, but a judge ruled that he should
Speaker 3: be extradited to England. Why because the English are coming
Speaker 3: after him, Like, you know, it's the British warrant. Here's
Speaker 3: the thing, Like, in the time that he was on
Speaker 3: the run, he had already been tried and convicted in absentia.
Speaker 2: There, okay, then that changes.
Speaker 3: He sentenced to twenty four years in prison, hard labor definite.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So his lawyers said that he hadn't conned anyone at all,
Speaker 3: that there was no fraud. They said that the clients
Speaker 3: had in fact been given a little bit of land
Speaker 3: in South Africa's payment, and a federal judge agreed with
Speaker 3: this and overruled the extradition.
Speaker 2: Oh there you go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So the Justice Department appealed this decision and it
Speaker 3: went to the Supreme Court.
Speaker 2: What all the way up?
Speaker 3: He and his lawyers used every delay tactic in the book,
Speaker 3: and something major happened. Zarin, Yes, closure out. I want
Speaker 3: you to picture it. It's midday on April eighteenth, nineteen
Speaker 3: thirty three, and you're a student at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Speaker 3: You've made lots of pals, and you love your studies,
Speaker 3: the books and paper and pencils and all that. You're
Speaker 3: standing outside the arch at the corner of Sheridan Road
Speaker 3: and Chicago Avenue. The wind is whipping, so you pull
Speaker 3: your scarf tighter around your neck and face. You're supposed
Speaker 3: to meet your friend Jerome here and then head out
Speaker 3: to get a bite to eat. Cars rubble passed, and
Speaker 3: you adjust the strap on your book bag. You wish
Speaker 3: you'd warn a thicker sweater. Two students laugh and chat
Speaker 3: as they walk by. Otherwise the sidewalks are empty. You
Speaker 3: keep your eyes open for Jerome and his small round glasses.
Speaker 3: You spot him coming down the path from University Hall,
Speaker 3: a sweet grin on his face. As he approaches you
Speaker 3: at the curb, a car comes screaming around the corner
Speaker 3: and peels to a stock right in front of you.
Speaker 3: Two thugs right out of the comics burst out of
Speaker 3: the back seat and grab Jerome on either side. His
Speaker 3: little looks fall to the ground. They shove a rag
Speaker 3: in his mouth and shuffle him toward the car. The
Speaker 3: driver stares at you and shakes his head. You weekly
Speaker 3: call out, you shouldn't do that. Do you know who
Speaker 3: his pop is? The car races off and too sits horn.
Speaker 3: You're left alone on the sidewalk wondering if you should
Speaker 3: call the police or John Factor, Jerome's dad. Oh, Nat,
Speaker 3: Jerome Factor has just been kidnapped. There's a ransom five
Speaker 3: thousand dollars, which is one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars today.
Speaker 3: Two days after that, on what would have been the
Speaker 3: opening day of his hearing at the Supreme Court, another
Speaker 3: ransom note arrived, this one for fifty thousand, which is
Speaker 3: one point two million today. The kidnappers said that they
Speaker 3: would send Jerome home in quote pieces if the ransom
Speaker 3: wasn't paid. And a couple of days after that, another
Speaker 3: ransom letter comes, this one for one hundred thousand, which
Speaker 3: is two point three million dollars. Wow, do they just
Speaker 3: keep amber better?
Speaker 2: Answer?
Speaker 3: Yeah. Detectives grabbed the guy who delivered the notes. He
Speaker 3: was questioned for less than an hour and then released.
Speaker 3: When he exited the station, reporters are everywhere. All the
Speaker 3: delivery man said to them was I can't talk to
Speaker 3: you guys. Murray Humphries told me to keep my mouth shut.
Speaker 3: So Factor assembled a crack team to find his son.
Speaker 3: So he's got Murray Humphries, you know, putting the kibosh
Speaker 3: on everything. The cops are running their investigation, and Factor
Speaker 3: calls in men from the outfits. They set up shop
Speaker 3: in a suite at the Congress Hotel. And this is
Speaker 3: thirty three.
Speaker 2: So Frank Nitty still alive. He's pretty much running it
Speaker 2: at this point.
Speaker 3: Pretty much. And so they get this beautiful suite at
Speaker 3: the Congress Hotel in Chicago. The press we're calling it
Speaker 3: the Hoodlum Detective Agency, and the cops didn't trust this operation,
Speaker 3: so they raided it and they arrested the outfit guys,
Speaker 3: Murray Humphries, machine Gun, Jack mcgern, Wow, Sam golf bag Hunt,
Speaker 3: Tony Acardo, Oh wow, yeah, Frankie, Rio, Phil Deandria, and
Speaker 3: Rocco de Grazia.
Speaker 2: Dude Anthony Orcardo would later do murder ink he comes.
Speaker 3: He comes up, So all of them tell the same story.
Speaker 3: We're just working to get Jerome back. The cops didn't
Speaker 3: really have anything, so they booked them on vagrancy charges.
Speaker 3: You're just lounging about in the hotel room. Don't worry
Speaker 3: about it. Factor immediately posts their bail good. So, almost
Speaker 3: a week after the kidnapping, there's a break in the case.
Speaker 3: Jerome gets dropped off on the streets of Chicago.
Speaker 2: Whoa, yeah, just like Frankie Junior to get out here
Speaker 2: you go.
Speaker 3: Exactly, But no abalony divers. So six men were eventually
Speaker 3: arrested for Jerome's kidnapping, and three of them had ties
Speaker 3: to a kidnapping ring in Iowa, Iowa, Iowa kidnapping. Wowah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 3: So Jerome's mother identified two of the men. She said
Speaker 3: she'd seen them driving around the house like a few
Speaker 3: days before all this went down. Factor then told the
Speaker 3: press his story. Oh and this is popa Factor, not Jerome.
Speaker 3: John says, he's like, he worked really hard on this
Speaker 3: to create dissension in the ranks of the kidnappers. So
Speaker 3: he pretended to receive the fifty thousand dollars ransom note
Speaker 3: they never sent it. In truth, he created it to
Speaker 3: make the kidnappers think someone else was going to try
Speaker 3: and take credit for their work, and that you know,
Speaker 3: maybe one or two kidnappers in the gang were trying
Speaker 3: to score the money out from under the rest of them.
Speaker 3: So the lead kidnappers to be like, well, wait, we
Speaker 3: didn't send that note. Now he's going to pay someone
Speaker 3: fifty thousand dollars for this. So then he said he
Speaker 3: hired the Capone men and let them get busted so
Speaker 3: that the kidnappers would see it in the papers and
Speaker 3: get freaked out that the outfit was coming after them.
Speaker 3: They're not even really looking. They just put them on parade.
Speaker 3: And he also put out false word that the fifty
Speaker 3: thousand dollars on the streets. He puts out word that
Speaker 3: it had been paid, and then the boy gets released.
Speaker 2: This is brilliant.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so factors case again. He works it, but and
Speaker 3: it delays into delays, But finally the case is back
Speaker 3: on at the Supreme Court. They're like, they set a
Speaker 3: new date.
Speaker 2: God of Supreme Well, he's doing it to kind of stop.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, this just happens. So all this happens
Speaker 3: right before the Supreme Court case, and then they reschedule sure,
Speaker 3: and it's coming up Jerome's Home, Safe and Sound Council
Speaker 3: for the British Crown, though they accused Factor of staging
Speaker 3: the kidnapping in order to avoid extradition to England.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, oh no though.
Speaker 3: June thirtieth, nineteen thirty three, kidnappers struck again.
Speaker 2: Did they get this time?
Speaker 3: Well, they're supposed kidnappers, and this time it was Factor himself.
Speaker 2: Who got got to get the cheese. So Factor is.
Speaker 3: Quote released twelve days after he goes missing. He walked
Speaker 3: up to two cops and he told them, I'm John Factor,
Speaker 3: Like okay, yeah, he said. He paid his abductors fifty
Speaker 3: thousand dollars in ransom money for his release. They just
Speaker 3: throw this fifty k around like that was like a million.
Speaker 3: And according to him, he paid it all in five
Speaker 3: and ten dollars bills, so.
Speaker 2: It's just like duffel back stack of cash.
Speaker 3: Newspaper wire reports said that Factor was returned quote in
Speaker 3: a serious condition, suffering from a nervous breakdown. So he
Speaker 3: said in a statement to police, quote they never harmed me,
Speaker 3: but they were pretty tough in their threats.
Speaker 2: Once they put they looked.
Speaker 3: A funny once they put machine guns against me, one
Speaker 3: and back, and another in front, and they said they
Speaker 3: were going to kill me. Another held a big pair
Speaker 3: of shears close to my face and let me feel them.
Speaker 3: They said they were going to cut my ears off,
Speaker 3: just like drags the scissors down. This cutting a little
Speaker 3: girl's neck is like cutting warm butter. I'm quoting Commando.
Speaker 3: That's not what anyway. So the truth is that he
Speaker 3: and his lawyers had figured out that a kidnapping was
Speaker 3: a really good way to stall a trial.
Speaker 2: Yeah apparently.
Speaker 3: So there are conflicting reports as to whether Jerome's kidnapping
Speaker 3: was even real, but there's original, the original, but there's
Speaker 3: no doubt that his was staged. He and his lawyers
Speaker 3: knew that if they delayed the trial long enough with
Speaker 3: these various kidnappings, the statute of limitations would run out
Speaker 3: and the charges would be dropped. They just needed now, okay,
Speaker 3: so now they got to go back. Okay, Now we
Speaker 3: got to.
Speaker 2: Frame something that you can keep going through parts of appeals.
Speaker 3: No, but you know, I don't know who he's I'm.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I'm not a simple though.
Speaker 3: They need to They need to cause more confusion and delay.
Speaker 3: So instead of just saying well, we don't know who
Speaker 3: the kidnappers are that sucked. They're like, we know who
Speaker 3: it was, now we need a whole trial and I'm
Speaker 3: going to have to be a witness. So they need
Speaker 3: to frame someone for it. Murray Humphries. Uh, Rank Nitty Needy.
Speaker 2: Frank Nitty, not a great guy, but a great mobster.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's the acting boss that now that Paul the
Speaker 3: Waiter Rica and another Chicago.
Speaker 2: He's another legend.
Speaker 3: Yeah he's he's Yeah, he's a crime boss. They all
Speaker 3: get together and they picked a stooge for the crime.
Speaker 3: They would pin it on Roger the Terrible too.
Speaker 2: He oh, I don't know Roger the Terrible two.
Speaker 3: Irish American mobster.
Speaker 2: Two.
Speaker 3: He had been a thorn in Capone's side. You know
Speaker 3: that he he ran all these liquor rackets and Capone
Speaker 3: wanted a piece of it, and and.
Speaker 2: Like and he's a Chicago guy, not a Detroit guy.
Speaker 3: Terrible to he he would yeah, he's a Chicago guy.
Speaker 3: He would kind of blow it up like he had
Speaker 3: all of these these associates and this huge operation. He
Speaker 3: would pretend to be on the phone with people like yeah,
Speaker 3: go ahead and kill him. And then when he was
Speaker 3: talking to Capone's guys, and these guys are naive. Oh
Speaker 3: my god, Like he's got like PHI, he's got like
Speaker 3: a kill squad out there. He's just talking to the
Speaker 3: dial tone.
Speaker 2: Yeah he's doing that's a DJ.
Speaker 3: Move and totally exactly. So Capone's side like the outfit.
Speaker 3: They want him gone. He's a big problem and this
Speaker 3: is a clean way to do it. So December fourth,
Speaker 3: nineteen thirty three, Factor lost his extradition case. The US
Speaker 3: Supreme Court held that he should be turned over to
Speaker 3: the British and he was taken into custody on April seventeenth,
Speaker 3: nineteen thirty four. His wife begged a federal district court
Speaker 3: to dismiss the extradition because he had been held for
Speaker 3: longer than the two months permitted under US law. Everyone's
Speaker 3: looking for loopholes. The Secretary of State intervened and he
Speaker 3: asked the court to release Factor because he might be
Speaker 3: needed as a witness in the case against Tuohey.
Speaker 2: Wow, he's dirty. He's Secretary's stayed dirty.
Speaker 3: So the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals this is, I.
Speaker 2: Guess what FDR's Secretary of State thirty three?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he orders Factor released and extradition proceedings ended. There
Speaker 3: It is February twenty third, nineteen thirty four, two Hey
Speaker 3: and two gang members found guilty of kidnapping John Factor.
Speaker 3: I didn't, is it t o u h Y?
Speaker 2: I imagine too. I don't know. It's an Irish name,
Speaker 2: so I could be totally wrong.
Speaker 3: Yeah too, who knows.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: If that's your name and I'm saying it wrong, Twey
Speaker 3: will say it is. He fought tirelessly to have his
Speaker 3: case reopened, but it was always denied. And even though
Speaker 3: there's more and more evidence that he's in his Yeah,
Speaker 3: just keep stacking. Oh, he totally did. Gen O'Connor was
Speaker 3: in prison with Tuey and served a life sentence for
Speaker 3: the He was serving a life sentence for the robbery
Speaker 3: and murder of a Chicago cop. He thought that his
Speaker 3: only option was to make a break for it, to escape,
Speaker 3: and he convinces Touey that his fate is the same way. Wait,
Speaker 3: only way you're gonna get out of it. You gotta
Speaker 3: we gotta make a run for it.
Speaker 2: Um so two.
Speaker 3: He later said, I stayed awake until dawn and myself
Speaker 3: thinking I was without hope. I was buried alive in prison,
Speaker 3: and I would die there. I couldn't see a light
Speaker 3: ahead anywhere, nothing but darkness, loneliness, desperation. The world had
Speaker 3: forgotten me. After eight years, I was a nothing. Well,
Speaker 3: there was only one way I could focus public attention
Speaker 3: on my misery.
Speaker 2: I could escape.
Speaker 3: I would be caught, of course, but the break would
Speaker 3: show my terrible situation. What cock eyed thinking that was
Speaker 3: my mental attitude was a mess? I later came to realize,
Speaker 3: I'd yeah, I think so. He gets caught after a
Speaker 3: month on the run, and the stunt earned him an
Speaker 3: additional one hundred and ninety nine years on his sentence.
Speaker 2: Oh god, yeah, that backfired.
Speaker 3: But in nineteen fifty nine he writes a book about
Speaker 3: his false imprisonment.
Speaker 2: You know how it goes, his stolen years, Okay.
Speaker 3: And later that year he's exonerated and released from prison.
Speaker 2: What's for the book? You say?
Speaker 3: So good?
Speaker 2: You got a book tour today, bro?
Speaker 3: What was factor up to while? You know, jimmy bookmaker
Speaker 3: over here was writing books in prison.
Speaker 2: Playing golf of Franknity. No hangout.
Speaker 3: I hang out during these ads, and I'll tell you
Speaker 3: when we get back.
Speaker 4: Nice zaren Yes, Elizabeth, did you finish your test?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: No, you beat me. You went again. You're first one, He.
Speaker 3: Spun like spelling quizzes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, during the break and you want problems?
Speaker 3: Yeah anyway, Roger Toohey, he's doing time for a crime
Speaker 3: he didn't commit. John Factor, free from his extradition out
Speaker 3: on the town, never won to stray far from his
Speaker 3: criminal roots. He got involved in a large scale effort
Speaker 3: later known as the million dollar whiskey warehouse receipts scam.
Speaker 2: That's sound probly helpful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Factor, He's started this Delaware corporation.
Speaker 2: Called hasn't started corporation among us.
Speaker 3: It's called United Bottling and Distributing.
Speaker 2: I'm not even lying. I have started a.
Speaker 3: Good for you whiskey receipts. So United Bottling and Distributing whisky.
Speaker 3: Do you know what whiskey warehouse receipts are?
Speaker 2: No, go, please explain it.
Speaker 3: I shall tell you. Whiskey warehouse receipts are a way
Speaker 3: to finance the liquor as it ages. So it's basically
Speaker 3: a marker stating that you have a product that will
Speaker 3: be worth something in X number of years. He convinced
Speaker 3: John Factor convinced owners of whiskey warehouse receipts to exchange
Speaker 3: them for bottling contracts, where United Bottling would hold the
Speaker 3: whiskey until it was properly aged, get it bottled and distributed,
Speaker 3: and then send the profits minus a service fee of course,
Speaker 3: back to them. So the thing is there's no bottling
Speaker 3: plant and there's no distribution. It's all on paper. And
Speaker 3: as soon as they got the receipts they would turn
Speaker 3: around and sell them.
Speaker 2: Okay, So like as a small market, people would hear
Speaker 2: about this really quickly. So it's like a.
Speaker 3: Day you don't know whiskey receipt community. Most of the
Speaker 3: receipts holders lived in Iowa, oddly.
Speaker 2: Enough, always with the Iowa it's interesting. Not just in
Speaker 2: cold Blood. No.
Speaker 3: So when the Feds came calling, they indicted Factor and
Speaker 3: his minions in Cedar Rapids. Yes, and in nineteen forty
Speaker 3: two he was convicted for mail fraud and sentenced to
Speaker 3: ten years, got out in six. After that he moved
Speaker 3: to Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: Good place for a con the big windy angel Baby.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he set himself up well. He borrowed five thousand
Speaker 3: dollars and he started investing in real estate, which is
Speaker 3: a great.
Speaker 2: Thing to do. Then, yeah, there's always the movie.
Speaker 3: And then and then an old pal came calling. Oh no,
Speaker 3: you ever heard of Big Tuna? And I'm not talking
Speaker 3: about Andy's nickname for Jim on the office.
Speaker 5: Oh okay, then Joe Batters. No, I don't think Bill
Speaker 5: Parcells aka Bill Parcells. Yes I do, thank you, producer, Dave.
Speaker 5: That is the only two Big Tuna I know.
Speaker 3: Tonycardo.
Speaker 2: Oh that's his nickname, is big Tuna. I've never heard
Speaker 2: that Big Tona. Yea, I've always heard as Anthony Accardo.
Speaker 2: I mean, like Andrew here. I heard people call him Tona.
Speaker 2: It's Anthony.
Speaker 3: His friend called them Joey Batter's Big toun.
Speaker 2: Joey Batters.
Speaker 3: So Chicago mobster, part of the outfit. He rose through
Speaker 3: the ranks. He went from common street hood to day
Speaker 3: to day boss to.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, top dog like runner of the Summit.
Speaker 3: Yes, in the fifties he was big into slot machines,
Speaker 3: vending machines, counterfeit liquor, and ran vegas.
Speaker 2: They're the one whom they make.
Speaker 3: Vegas right, that's the Chicago and get into that. Sorry,
Speaker 3: calm down, narcotic smuggling. I did that too, and so
Speaker 3: they got like you said, they go from Chicago to Vegas.
Speaker 3: They tried to muscle out the five families from New
Speaker 3: York who were in trying to establish in Vegas. They're
Speaker 3: making a ton of cash and so like, while the
Speaker 3: slot machines were bringing in dough, it would have been
Speaker 3: more if they had a whole casino. And casinos are
Speaker 3: popping up on the strip. Mom wants in, Big Tuna
Speaker 3: wants in. Johnny Yes, bootlegger Tony Carnero aka Tony the
Speaker 3: Hat he also wanted in. He wanted to open his
Speaker 3: own casino in Las Vegas, the Star Dust, he'd call it.
Speaker 2: The problem was.
Speaker 3: The gaming license.
Speaker 2: That's a tough one.
Speaker 3: It is tough one. I hear. The Nevada Gaming Commission
Speaker 3: is tough.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The cowboys are a little skeptical of outsiders.
Speaker 3: So you can't get a gaming license if you have
Speaker 3: prior convictions or association criminal association.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the big one for the mom.
Speaker 3: Right. So Tony Cornero he couldn't get the gaming license,
Speaker 3: so he leased the casino to a small group of investors.
Speaker 3: The Gaming Commission wouldn't issue the license without a list
Speaker 3: of those investors. He didn't provide it. Construction gets stalled.
Speaker 3: The lease is eventually approved, but deals kept falling apart,
Speaker 3: and the place wasn't even open at this point, And
Speaker 3: eventually it winds up in receivership, and so buyers stepped up.
Speaker 3: They wanted to buy it. They're super eager to grab
Speaker 3: this hot property in Vegas. It's about to be completed.
Speaker 3: The winning bid was put forward by none other than
Speaker 3: Relea Factor, wife of John whoa she helped. So she
Speaker 3: goes up there, she bids who helped pay the price
Speaker 3: tag of four point three million dollars, which is like
Speaker 3: forty six and a half million dollars today. Oh god, yeah,
Speaker 3: she's like, here's my bid, who helped her? Big tuna,
Speaker 3: Big tuna. So there's John Factor running a casino with
Speaker 3: the mob.
Speaker 2: With Ado, with Anthony acarda like.
Speaker 3: So the Factors, though, they're becoming a fixture, not in
Speaker 3: Vegas but in La. They lived at eleven eighty five
Speaker 3: Loma Linda Drive in Beverly Hills, which area a property
Speaker 3: that is actually currently for rent as of this recording.
Speaker 3: Of course I did. It's thirty two thousand dollars a
Speaker 3: month to rent this place. It's a lot more. It's okay.
Speaker 3: It's on a little more than half acre, looks out
Speaker 3: over the city of Angels in the ocean beyond. So
Speaker 3: the Factors were living large. If you want to go
Speaker 3: look on Zillo, you can tour the home rabbit Hole.
Speaker 3: So at the John Factor he's still owning and running
Speaker 3: the casino and giving a taste or a very big
Speaker 3: bite to Acardo. But they were very generous in their philanthropy,
Speaker 3: John and his wife. In nineteen sixty John Factor was
Speaker 3: the largest individual donor to John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign
Speaker 3: with twenty thousand dollars. That's like two hundred thousand dollars today.
Speaker 2: The Chicago outfit got John Kennedy.
Speaker 3: So it's always good to buy.
Speaker 2: In, Yes, exactly, get in on the ground floor of
Speaker 2: a presidency.
Speaker 3: You'll see in nineteen sixty two, he sells the hotel
Speaker 3: and Casino, a very very profitable hotel and casino, for
Speaker 3: only fourteen million to another mob frontman Mode Dallits Oh
Speaker 3: and so yeah, in the seven years that he ran it,
Speaker 3: the casino brought in close to two hundred million dollars.
Speaker 3: And then he turns around and sells it for fourteen million. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so quite the deal.
Speaker 2: Is Yeah.
Speaker 3: So later that year someone darkened his doorway. Another mobster,
Speaker 3: I'm guessing close the Feds. So remember that whiskey warehouse
Speaker 3: receipt thing. He was convicted on multiple counts of mail fraud.
Speaker 2: Did time mail fraud? It gets you every time.
Speaker 3: And remember how I told you that the border guards
Speaker 3: in El Paso were told that he was born in England. Well,
Speaker 3: it seems since his whiskey scam conviction, immigration laws had changed.
Speaker 3: It used to be that in order to deport someone,
Speaker 3: they had to be convicted in at least two separate
Speaker 3: cases before deportation proceedings could move forward.
Speaker 2: Just one.
Speaker 3: The law changed. A person was now deportable if they
Speaker 3: got convicted of more than one count in a single case.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, thusly Factor could now be deported. Yes, so
Speaker 3: the same law had just been used to issue a
Speaker 3: deportation order for Frank Castello, boss of the Luciano bribe family.
Speaker 3: The government tried to strip his naturalized citizenship in the
Speaker 3: fifties but it didn't work out. But now they're going
Speaker 3: after John Factor.
Speaker 2: So Factor and he's got twenty four years hanging over him.
Speaker 2: If this goes through exactly.
Speaker 3: So he had recently been named Man of the Year
Speaker 3: by a local Jewish charitable organization. Of course, he goes
Speaker 3: and he tells the press he's outraged as the year
Speaker 3: it keeps coming up in all the news articles that, like,
Speaker 3: you know, he was named man of the year, and
Speaker 3: they don't name it. It's just a local Jewish charitable organization.
Speaker 2: I don't know it's one that he started.
Speaker 3: So this is what he tells the press quote, I
Speaker 3: just can't believe it. It's a horrible thing. This conviction
Speaker 3: happened twenty years ago. Since then, I've always cooperated with
Speaker 3: the government as far as I'm concerned. I believe I
Speaker 3: am just as good an American as anyone. I will
Speaker 3: fight this case all the way. What else can I do?
Speaker 2: Play out there?
Speaker 3: Remember Factor had friends in high places.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and low ones.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It was a US Attorney General, Robert Kennedy who
Speaker 3: put the wheels in motion to deport Factor.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, yeah.
Speaker 3: RFK was going hard on organized crime.
Speaker 2: He was so wild about that. Elected He's like, I'm
Speaker 2: going to bite the hand that feeds me and go
Speaker 2: after anything else I can't, right.
Speaker 3: Well, so what triggered the look at factor was the
Speaker 3: low sales price of the startup, of course, and RFK
Speaker 3: wanted to know who really owned the startup. And then
Speaker 3: a gaming commission, we're looking into the stardust in hope
Speaker 3: of capturing like hidden mafia ass.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So RFK had to be stopped in Factors estimation and
Speaker 3: the only the only help would come from his brother JFK.
Speaker 2: Max Factor's brother. Oh wait, oh I got it.
Speaker 3: Okay, go on, so remember Factors twenty thousand dollars donation
Speaker 3: to President Kennedy. It didn't stop there, I bet not.
Speaker 3: Here's what happens. A made man working for Chicago mob
Speaker 3: boss Sam g and Conna. He goes outside of the
Speaker 3: bar where they all hung out like their little club house, and.
Speaker 2: Sam Zondher got him elected, got youa elected.
Speaker 3: So this made man walks out and he walks up
Speaker 3: to an FBI surveillance tale parked across the street. It's
Speaker 3: like leans up against the car. And this is what
Speaker 3: agents later relayed. He said, quote this is their report.
Speaker 3: English is bemoaning the fact that the federal government is
Speaker 3: closing in on the organization and nothing can be done
Speaker 3: about it. He made several bad remarks about the Kennedy
Speaker 3: administration and pointed out that the Attorney General raising money
Speaker 3: for the Cuba invaders makes Chicago syndicate look like amateurs. Wow,
Speaker 3: see here's what he's referring. This is his reference. RFK
Speaker 3: had been working the phones trying to drum up donations
Speaker 3: to help rescue Bay of Pigs survivors. Yes, and it
Speaker 3: wasn't just a kind request, it was mafia flavor. He
Speaker 3: would tell executives and rich guys, you know, hey, you
Speaker 3: know you have contracts waiting to be approved by a shakeman. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and you know, maybe you have a pending criminal case.
Speaker 3: He just calls him a pay did you get you
Speaker 3: at the top.
Speaker 2: Of the line. Doesn't keep you out of book?
Speaker 3: No, not even that, Not this will do that. He
Speaker 3: just says, here's a fact, you have a contract that
Speaker 3: needs approval. And when they try and say something, he
Speaker 3: would cut him off and he'd say, you know, it's crazy,
Speaker 3: we have this fund to rescue the Cubans. He's never
Speaker 3: telling him, if you.
Speaker 2: Do this, you can't say the tit for tap, but
Speaker 2: you say one, then you say that's the only things
Speaker 2: you say.
Speaker 3: And then he'd hang up. That was it so total shakedown.
Speaker 3: Factor knew about this, and he knew that would be leverage,
Speaker 3: so he donated twenty five thousand dollars to this fund
Speaker 3: Bay of Pigs, and when asked by the press about it,
Speaker 3: he it's just because it's a cause I believe in Maria.
Speaker 2: I'm good America.
Speaker 3: Christmas Day in nineteen sixty two, John factors.
Speaker 2: He's always busy on Christmas Day.
Speaker 3: It's always busy, well, especially here he gets pardoned by
Speaker 3: President Kennedy.
Speaker 2: Oh there you go. The Christmas Day pardon has completely.
Speaker 3: Wiped his record put an immediate stop to the deportation order.
Speaker 2: Hmm.
Speaker 3: Factor said of the pardon, quote, I'm very surprised and grateful.
Speaker 3: I hope I have earned it. It's a wonderful Christmas present,
Speaker 3: and I believe justice has been done.
Speaker 2: JFK said. And I leave Bobby Alow.
Speaker 3: And what's weird is that it's like, you know, anyway,
Speaker 3: I'll get to this part. So not everyone is so happy.
Speaker 3: GOP national chairman William Miller says, quote, I think it
Speaker 3: is incumbent on the administration to assure the American people
Speaker 3: in no uncertain terms that the presidential pardon granted John
Speaker 3: factor is in no way connected with the fact that
Speaker 3: he and his wife were substantial contributors to the cause
Speaker 3: of the Democratic Party. Our system of justice would be
Speaker 3: in great jeopardy if the day comes when persons of
Speaker 3: wealth can obtain leniency in such a manner.
Speaker 2: Too many words, brouh.
Speaker 3: I'm like, dude, are you new here? This is how
Speaker 3: it works.
Speaker 2: And you got to say it faster than that. Even
Speaker 2: in the sixties you say it faster than that.
Speaker 3: Of course, if you have money, you get out of there.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, that's what happens. Anyway. I suspect this is
Speaker 2: an excessive use of dirty money, like say something like that.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: It wasn't my use of dirty money with someone else, exactly.
Speaker 2: It is not how we used dirty money in this town.
Speaker 3: What's crazy, though, is that RFK had actually changed the
Speaker 3: protocol for pardons right before this all happened. So well, okay,
Speaker 3: it used to be that the request went to the
Speaker 3: Department of Justice and then it went to the President
Speaker 3: and he swapped it.
Speaker 2: I don't know why.
Speaker 3: So requests had to go right to the top and
Speaker 3: then be sent to the dj to execute them.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so they just finalized the paperwork.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so the thing is, though, is it most
Speaker 3: usually like these would come in in a group of
Speaker 3: pardons and factors. It was like a solo submission. It
Speaker 3: was the only one. So, I mean it's pretty anyway.
Speaker 3: So the threat of deportation has gone away, and so
Speaker 3: did the investigation into the startist eight equals clean nice.
Speaker 3: He never walked away from criminal life completely. At one
Speaker 3: point he tried to bail out Jimmy Hoffa from financial
Speaker 3: troubles to Florida real.
Speaker 2: Estate, really taking the wrong side on that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he had another shady stock deal, this time with
Speaker 3: Murray Humphries's old mob. But for the most part he
Speaker 3: spent his sunset years as a philanthropist legit. And when
Speaker 3: you look at newspaper articles, like they'll reference they always
Speaker 3: reference the kidnapping, and then they are like veiled references
Speaker 3: to the shadiness and then sometimes they'll talk about mob connections,
Speaker 3: but very rarely in these newspaper articles at the time,
Speaker 3: and they just say he's a developer, he's a businessman,
Speaker 3: so the legitimate businessman exactly. So he donated money to
Speaker 3: build all sorts of parks and buildings and like social efforts.
Speaker 2: So he was money watching his.
Speaker 3: Name, Yeah, all over California, but particularly in inner city
Speaker 3: underserved communities where he really like dumped money. So he
Speaker 3: died in nineteen eighty four. He was ninety one years old.
Speaker 3: His funeral was attended by three US senators and the
Speaker 3: mayor of Los Angeles. Yeah, what year eighty four? So
Speaker 3: Tom Bradley, Tom Bradley, and he's alongside hundreds of people
Speaker 3: who he'd helped through charitable donations over the years. Not
Speaker 3: bad for a poor kid from Poland.
Speaker 2: Seriously, and to be the lesser factor, I mean, he's
Speaker 2: not Max exactly. He's still killing.
Speaker 3: And a lot of accounts said that he died from
Speaker 3: a long undisclosed illness, but he was ninety one. That
Speaker 3: illness was life.
Speaker 2: It finally got him, you know, I imagine like prostate
Speaker 2: cancer or something like that.
Speaker 3: Anyway, so he yeah, he's a long way from Poland. Dang, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I loved What is your ridiculous takeaway.
Speaker 2: That I did not know Anthony or Carter's nickname was
Speaker 2: beg Tona, Like, I mean, wow, Burnett, I'm really falling
Speaker 2: down in the game. I mean, I hope my father
Speaker 2: didn't hear this one man. No, that was great. I'd
Speaker 2: love that I did not know that Max Factor's brother
Speaker 2: was a mobster and that he was so connected to
Speaker 2: so many mobsters that I did love and I haven't
Speaker 2: learned about throughout my childhood. I mean, I've heard all
Speaker 2: these stories of these guys, never really heard about the
Speaker 2: lesser factor.
Speaker 3: Well, I think something that I love, Thank you for asking.
Speaker 3: Uh here, his nickname is Jake the Barber total and
Speaker 3: he never kills anybody. Yeah, he's not violent, like.
Speaker 2: Doesn't even bring blades into his stuff. Like he briefly
Speaker 2: worked as a barber, take.
Speaker 3: The barber and he's just like, no, literally, I cut her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's looking to work as like a garbage man
Speaker 2: or like a fishmonger. I mean that could have stuck
Speaker 2: with him, making Jake the fishmonger. That would have sucked.
Speaker 3: That would suck.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 3: That's all I got. Thank you, flank Errol. You can
Speaker 3: find us online at Ridiculous Crime dot com. There's merch
Speaker 3: there or soever.
Speaker 2: I'm starting the Frank Nitty fan club there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're like fan club. Packages's horrible. Maybe some like
Speaker 3: platform boots should sell platform boots.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're at Ridiculous Crime on Twitter Instagram about waiters Yeah,
Speaker 3: hip waiters walking into like deep panama hats. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 3: toe rings. Okay, we have an email address. Also, you
Speaker 3: can leave a talkback on the iHeart app.
Speaker 2: So do that.
Speaker 3: That's it, Bye bye. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth
Speaker 3: Dutton and Zaren Burnette, produced and edited by Dave the
Speaker 3: Candlestick Maker. Kusten Research is by Marissa the bean Bag
Speaker 3: Brown and Andrea the Dustpan Song Sharpen Tear. The theme
Speaker 3: song is by Thomas the Salad Spinner Lee and Travis
Speaker 3: the bilge Pump.
Speaker 2: Dutton.
Speaker 3: Executive producers are Ben the Flat Tire Bowlin' and Noel
Speaker 3: the toilet Duck Brown.
Speaker 2: Crime Say It One More Time Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more Podcasts.
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