Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: And and and A.
Speaker 3: Elizabeth five, six, seven, and eight was.
Speaker 2: Just working on some chair dancer routine.
Speaker 3: Oh, I was doing with deep stretches over here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 3: With the leg warmers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like those? Are this pink? Or would you
Speaker 2: eat more? Future? What is that?
Speaker 3: They're black?
Speaker 2: Oh? I don't have my glasses on, So I got
Speaker 2: a question for you. Besides it's about your lovely leg warmers.
Speaker 2: Do you know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: I certainly do. Do you like baked potatoes? No? Stop it.
Speaker 3: Maybe I have a fun fact about the history of
Speaker 3: baked potatoes.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's pretend Elizabeth. I know a lot about big potato.
Speaker 2: Do you like them? Do I like them? Yeah?
Speaker 3: You like a good baked potato?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean like if it's like dressed. Well, I mean, actually,
Speaker 2: I grew up.
Speaker 3: It's funny you should say it that way.
Speaker 2: I grew up eating a lot of them because my
Speaker 2: mother gave us a vegetarian diet, so we had bake
Speaker 2: and she's Irish and Catholic, so we had baked potatoes
Speaker 2: like twice a week. Sure, So I got I know
Speaker 2: a lot of ways to dress up but to baked potato.
Speaker 3: Do you know? But I can also, I mean it
Speaker 3: would just butter dress a baked potatoes. No, but you
Speaker 3: know in the UK they call them a jacket potato.
Speaker 2: I did not know that.
Speaker 3: A lot of times they put like corn on it.
Speaker 3: You've seen that, Like you done that cut off the
Speaker 3: corn from a corn cob.
Speaker 2: Do they like boil the corn or no? But I mean,
Speaker 2: like did they turn it into like a mash?
Speaker 3: It's just corn on their corn on pizza.
Speaker 2: Corn kernels, Like I'm.
Speaker 3: Not like a corn pone or a polenta. Anyway, I'm
Speaker 3: getting off track here. So jacket potatoes in the UK
Speaker 3: are baked potatoes over here. And I've talked before about
Speaker 3: Aldi they have a special this time of year on
Speaker 3: jacket potatoes. Yeah, because they say it's jacket potato season.
Speaker 2: Now, oh, kind of cuffing season.
Speaker 3: Well, no, it's more sweat weather. A companies sweat a
Speaker 3: weather and so they have come up with you know,
Speaker 3: they have all those cool products in the center aisle.
Speaker 3: They have like well they have a new new thing,
Speaker 3: but you can't buy it in the store.
Speaker 2: Oh it's only online. It's in the center aisle.
Speaker 3: One steaks. You have to enter on social media to
Speaker 3: get purchase.
Speaker 2: Necessarily.
Speaker 3: It's a limited edition jacket potato jacket. So it's a
Speaker 3: puffer coat that has the outside print like the outside
Speaker 3: of a potato, which kind of makes it look like
Speaker 3: this guy's got a skin disorder.
Speaker 2: It looks like something Tyler the creator would wear.
Speaker 3: Ago maybe, but it's all fleece inside, so it looks
Speaker 3: like fluffy inside of a potato. And then you can
Speaker 3: also it comes with a silver rain poncho over the outside,
Speaker 3: wrapped in foil when you bake them. Some people bake
Speaker 3: them in foil.
Speaker 2: Some on the street like that. Yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 2: like in London, but I've seen that sold that.
Speaker 3: Way, like baked potatoes on the street.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, like they sell like hot dogs on
Speaker 2: the street.
Speaker 3: They tacos where I'm front, Yeah.
Speaker 2: People also sell baked potatoes.
Speaker 3: Really freaks. So anyway you can get this, you're the
Speaker 3: one with the jacket. Gotta go on, you gotta go
Speaker 3: on and try and get you a jacket potato jacket
Speaker 3: if you're in aldi UK. Here's my favorite part of it,
Speaker 3: and then I'll stop. Julie Ashfield is the chief commercial
Speaker 3: officer at Aldi UK. Okay, and she said, you know,
Speaker 3: we know our customers love jacket potatoes, so launching this
Speaker 3: jacket made sense, especially now the temperatures are dropping. Okay,
Speaker 3: that makes sense. Here's the line that I feel like
Speaker 3: she wrote for us, enjoying a jacket potato in all
Speaker 3: these new jacket potato jacket is sure to be a
Speaker 3: mash made in heaven. But I'm chat that is ridiculous
Speaker 3: every time.
Speaker 2: Well, if you guys a can just sit back down,
Speaker 2: keep those legwarmers present, because you know I got something
Speaker 2: for you. Yea, it's ridiculous. Yeah, you know, like lots
Speaker 2: of Hollywood stars and celebrities get fan mail, but the
Speaker 2: mid century actress and the World War two era sex
Speaker 2: symbol Betty Grable, right, she was the rare star who
Speaker 2: got lots and lots of extortion letter as fan mail boy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: in the immortal words of Keenan Thompson, what's up with that?
Speaker 3: What's up with that?
Speaker 2: This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
Speaker 2: heists and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free
Speaker 2: and one hundred percent what one hundred percent?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 2: One hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Ridiculous, Elizabeth Sar.
Speaker 2: A few weeks back, you told me a story that
Speaker 2: blew my mind about the child actor Jackie Coogan.
Speaker 3: Yes, you remember that one, right, I remember it well.
Speaker 2: Today I want to tell you a story about his
Speaker 2: better half, one of his wives, the super famous actress
Speaker 2: Betty Grabil.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: What do you know about Betty Grabel.
Speaker 3: I know she was married to Jackie Coogan, and I
Speaker 3: know she was like a World War two pin up.
Speaker 3: She's got the famous one where she's kind of looking
Speaker 3: over her shoulder. Yeah, you're looking at her rump in
Speaker 3: a swimsuit, like.
Speaker 2: If you look over my shoulder. I've brought a Betty
Speaker 2: Grable here.
Speaker 3: Into the student I can see that.
Speaker 2: I always tell you I have a poster of Betty Grable.
Speaker 3: So I took a life size cardboard cutout. Did you
Speaker 3: have that in your car?
Speaker 2: Laminated totally for weather never mind? Yeah? So okay, So
Speaker 2: now let's dive a little deeper and get to know
Speaker 2: Betty Grabil. Yes, she was born in nineteen sixteen and
Speaker 2: her parents named her Elizabeth Ruth Grabil, So it's really
Speaker 2: her name, Betty Grabil. She was raised in Saint Louis, Missouri,
Speaker 2: youngest of three kids. Father was a stockbroker. Her mother
Speaker 2: was basically a stage mom. She used she used to
Speaker 2: enter her daughter and like beauty contest all the time
Speaker 2: as a little girl, and then like as a younger girl,
Speaker 2: and she would win, like she want a bunch of them.
Speaker 2: She's a looker, right yeah. So after that taste of
Speaker 2: early success, and just after the stock market crashed in
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty nine, her mother took her out to Hollywood
Speaker 2: to chase stardom. Yeah, no mention of her father going
Speaker 2: the stockbroker.
Speaker 3: But any way, I hope he was okay.
Speaker 2: Betty Grable was twelve years old at the time, and
Speaker 2: her mother lied and said she was fifteen so she
Speaker 2: could work in the industry.
Speaker 3: Oh that's disturbing, right yeah.
Speaker 2: So she gets her first movie part that same year,
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty nine, and at the time she was using
Speaker 2: a stage name, Francis Dean. You got a name like.
Speaker 3: Betty Gray Grable's like the best name.
Speaker 2: Right anyway, Next year nineteen thirty, at age thirteen, she
Speaker 2: signs a contract with Samuel Goldwyn and becomes one of
Speaker 2: the og.
Speaker 3: Goldwyn Girls at thirteen.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, which if you're unfamiliar. That's just a Hollywood
Speaker 2: knockoff of the Ziegfield Follies, which are the chorus girls
Speaker 2: that were all the rage on Broadway at the time.
Speaker 2: And again thirteen years old.
Speaker 3: Thirteen yeah.
Speaker 2: So two years later, nineteen thirty two, she signs with
Speaker 2: RKAO Pictures. That's where she gets to her start actually
Speaker 2: doing acting parts, not just like kicking her legs. She
Speaker 2: takes classes because that was the thing back in like
Speaker 2: classic Golden age Hollywood. So she's doing acting classes, dance classes,
Speaker 2: voice lessons, and she then goes to her birth name
Speaker 2: as her stage name, Betty Grabel. After she spends the
Speaker 2: thirties basically playing like a typically colleged age girls in
Speaker 2: a series of college set films, and she starts to
Speaker 2: make a name for herself as Betty Grabel. And then
Speaker 2: in nineteen thirty seven she gets married to who former
Speaker 2: child star Jackie Coogan. But as you explained in your episode,
Speaker 2: at the time, he was all emotionally bogged down with
Speaker 2: the lawsuit against his parents over his childhood earnings. So
Speaker 2: eventually that puts strain on their marriage and it gets
Speaker 2: cramped by all this emotional like you know, baggage and
Speaker 2: they get divorced two years later in nineteen thirty nine.
Speaker 2: Before they got divorced, they started a movie together called
Speaker 2: Million Dollar Legs.
Speaker 3: Million Dollar Legs.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was the movie where she earned her nickname
Speaker 2: and they called attention to her world famous legs.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Anyways, after her divorce from Jackie Coogan in thirty nine,
Speaker 2: the next year, she's feeling a little blue. She's considering
Speaker 2: leaving showbism behind. Right, She's like in her feels because
Speaker 2: she's been in the industry for a decade.
Speaker 3: So she's twenty three, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2: Now at this point, she goes on this national tour
Speaker 2: where she would do personal appearances, and this saves her
Speaker 2: career because it rekindles her love of being a star
Speaker 2: when she's out amongst the people. Though, yeah those of us,
Speaker 2: of the little people, right. But the big deal of
Speaker 2: this tour is that she meets Daryl F. Xanik, the
Speaker 2: head of twentieth Century Fox, and he's all charmed by
Speaker 2: Betty Grabil. He can see potential in this, like untapped
Speaker 2: possible megastar. Yeah, So she dyes her hair blonde. She
Speaker 2: becomes Xanic Like well, Xank was kind of a sucker
Speaker 2: for a blonde star. Right, So she becomes his new
Speaker 2: like favorite, like it girl of the moment, and he
Speaker 2: believed that he could make this happen for America too.
Speaker 2: And this is when her career really starts to take off.
Speaker 2: She becomes this glamorous movie star, a blonde bombshell. She's
Speaker 2: also essentially known for her self deprecating wit, which really
Speaker 2: went a long way in differentiating her from some of
Speaker 2: the other stars of the time. Like as far as
Speaker 2: why she became a big star, Betty Grabel once said,
Speaker 2: as a dancer, I couldn't outdance Ginger Rogers or Eleanor Powell.
Speaker 2: As a singer, I'm no rival to Doris Day. As
Speaker 2: an actress, I don't take myself seriously. I'm the girl
Speaker 2: truck driver's loves. And she also means she's such like
Speaker 2: a woman of the people and specifically soldiers. She also acknowledged, yeah,
Speaker 2: she said quote, I'm strictly an enlisted man's girl. Oh right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: So that's obviously in reference to Betty Grabel being a
Speaker 2: major screen icon of the World War two era, because
Speaker 2: you know it's gonna kick off in forty one for us,
Speaker 2: right now, there's that famous image that you mentioned of
Speaker 2: her in the white bathing suit. She's like glancing over
Speaker 2: her shoulder, which is just over my shoulder, And that
Speaker 2: image it gets painted on the sides of bomber planes
Speaker 2: and she becomes the it girl of the day. Darryl's
Speaker 2: Anni's call works out perfectly. He's totally right, and she
Speaker 2: becomes actually a good luck charm for soldiers over sees
Speaker 2: this sexy reminder of why and who they're fighting for
Speaker 2: back home. She's what they would call a morale booster.
Speaker 2: But who was Betty Grabel beyond the iconic pin up imagery.
Speaker 2: So glad you asked you.
Speaker 3: I'm glad to like.
Speaker 2: I've been saying, she was a fun star. She's a
Speaker 2: self deprecating woman. She manages to scale the heights of Hollywood.
Speaker 2: And also this is, you know, stark contrast to who
Speaker 2: she really is, because she was painfully shy, and yet
Speaker 2: she becomes really, yeah, this major star. This was because
Speaker 2: of a few factors, all right, As Debbie Reynold's, a
Speaker 2: fellow actress and a contemporary, once said Betty Grabel was
Speaker 2: the most easy going woman in Hollywood. So, like everybody
Speaker 2: liked working with her. Everyone liked chilling on the set
Speaker 2: with her, and she often said, you know that she
Speaker 2: just loved show business, Like she's got this great quote
Speaker 2: about show business. It's loud, it's cheap, it's gaudy, it's
Speaker 2: like everything I've ever done. I love it.
Speaker 3: I love stars who lean into it, like how good
Speaker 3: they have it, how fun it can.
Speaker 2: Be, exactly like a set is incredible. It really does
Speaker 2: feel awesome. It feels like you're getting away with something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you look at like actors and professional athletes
Speaker 3: who moan about it. You know, when you think that
Speaker 3: there are people who that's their life's dream and you're
Speaker 3: sitting there complaining about this, like, come on.
Speaker 2: You've lost perspective, you have lost the plot exactly now.
Speaker 2: Betty Grabel was also a huge star because Betty Grabel
Speaker 2: knew who Betty Grabel was. She was super realistic about
Speaker 2: what the public wanted from her. She was extremely self
Speaker 2: aware as a star in show business terms. She was
Speaker 2: essentially a song and dance woman, right, and that's what
Speaker 2: those the movies she made. And she once said, there
Speaker 2: are two reasons why I am successful in show business,
Speaker 2: and I am standing on both of them, or more succinctly.
Speaker 2: She once said, there's nothing mysterious about me. My legs
Speaker 2: made me. Yeah. I saw this Life magazine pictorial they did.
Speaker 2: We had like eighteen pictures of her, and I think
Speaker 2: her face is only in like four of them. It's
Speaker 2: just always her legs. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: I mean they used to use her legs as measurements.
Speaker 2: If you went into go buy hosiery, They're like, okay,
Speaker 2: Betty Grabel's legs, this, what are yours?
Speaker 3: Oh wow?
Speaker 2: Yeah. Her megastarretan was very much due to this obviously
Speaker 2: self awareness and then her sexy legs. Yeah, and you
Speaker 2: could say she was also unafraid to flaunt what she had,
Speaker 2: namely her million dollar legs.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: In fact, as this publicity stunt Daryl Zanik in twentieth
Speaker 2: Century Fox the Studio, they paid this insurance company, Lloyd's
Speaker 2: of London to ensure her legs for one million dollars.
Speaker 3: Every time they do those like I've insured my hands.
Speaker 3: Really it's fat, it's so bizarre, lovely if you get hurt,
Speaker 3: you know, I guess.
Speaker 2: Now by the nineteen forties, so when World War two
Speaker 2: is in full swing, Betty Grabel is the biggest female
Speaker 2: star in America, specifically, in nineteen forty three, she was
Speaker 2: the number one box office draw in the world. That's
Speaker 2: including male actors. Really, she stayed the number one box
Speaker 2: office draw for a full decade when she's making these
Speaker 2: lush Technicolor musicals. Yeah, Betty, Now, Betty Grabel was more popular.
Speaker 2: I want to make this clear, then the big male
Speaker 2: stars of the day. She's more popular than Clark Gave,
Speaker 2: more popular than Gary Cooper, Humphy, Bauagart, Bob Hope. And
Speaker 2: due to that, in forty three, she signs this million
Speaker 2: dollar contract with twenty eighth Century Fox, every with hers
Speaker 2: million dollars. Yeah, of course, she comes the first woman
Speaker 2: to join what was known as the million dollar club
Speaker 2: because male actors were getting paid that they'd cross that line.
Speaker 2: Right now, since I know you often wondered that this
Speaker 2: a million dollars in nineteen forty three would be eighteen
Speaker 2: point seven million dollars in today's dollars. Wow, she's like
Speaker 2: in the basically the twenty million dollar club.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, for the next ten years, as I said, she
Speaker 2: remains the highest paid female star in America. In fact,
Speaker 2: the US Treasury confirmed with data that in nineteen forty
Speaker 2: six and nineteen forty seven, she was the highest paid
Speaker 2: woman in America regardless of the industry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, think too about you know, we talk about salaries
Speaker 3: now in Hollywood, but that's also because you have this
Speaker 3: global market and they didn't have that then. I mean,
Speaker 3: films could make it overseas, but not to the degree
Speaker 3: of like that's where the earning is.
Speaker 2: Exactly, and that's what now the majority of the earnings. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So to recap Betty Grabel, she's this pin up girl,
Speaker 2: She's the sex symbol of her era. She's a major
Speaker 2: blonde bombshell. Basically, one way of thinking about is this,
Speaker 2: before there was Marilyn Monroe, there was Betty Grabl. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: you can think of her. Actually, you can kind of
Speaker 2: think of this this series of famous blonde sex symbols.
Speaker 2: It goes like this. First there's Gene Harlow, She's the
Speaker 2: first blonde bombshell. She's the Big six symbol of the
Speaker 2: nineteen thirties. And then comes Betty Grabl, the pin up girl,
Speaker 2: blonde bombshell of World War Two of the nineteen forties.
Speaker 2: And then along comes Marilyn Monroe, who fuses the appeal
Speaker 2: of both Geen Harlowe and Betty Grabel and then becomes
Speaker 2: you know, it's basically the sex appeal Jean Harlowe and
Speaker 2: the mystery of her and then the every GI's girl,
Speaker 2: all American appeal of Betty Grabel. Right, that's how Maryland
Speaker 2: becomes the huge star of the nineteen fifties. So essentially,
Speaker 2: Betty Grabel actually even passes the torch to Maryland when
Speaker 2: they start together in the movie How to Marry a Millionaire?
Speaker 3: Oh right, right, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2: In fact, Marilyn Monroe would tell anyone who listened when
Speaker 2: she was growing up, she idolized Betty Grabel like that's
Speaker 2: who she wanted, Yeah, because she knew she had it,
Speaker 2: and also she was unapologetic about it.
Speaker 3: That's what I think is interesting when you're describing her
Speaker 3: and we know what we know about Marilyn being very
Speaker 3: self aware and in control, and you know, they get
Speaker 3: portrayed as like ditches and not and kind of manipulated.
Speaker 3: Jane Mansfield is another one like that, where these are
Speaker 3: really smart women who are savvy and talented and they
Speaker 3: play characters and people think they are those characters.
Speaker 2: Exactly and they know that. You know, American audience at
Speaker 2: the time in particular, liked these like dumb, daffy, goofy women,
Speaker 2: so they would play into that. But you have to
Speaker 2: be smart to play that part exactly. So, No, in
Speaker 2: the nineteen forties, if you're Betty Grabel and your sex symbol,
Speaker 2: if you're at this blonde bombshell and you're the most
Speaker 2: famous woman in the world, there's something you also are.
Speaker 2: You're a symbol, you're a focus of obsessions, and you
Speaker 2: become a target for you guessed it.
Speaker 3: Crime, Oh boy, in this case, oh Betty.
Speaker 2: Ridiculous crime. Now. I mentioned old radio shows far too often,
Speaker 2: but in this case who Ida too, because it's relevant
Speaker 2: to the story. Because before TV becomes the thing in
Speaker 2: nineteen forty eight, radio is what folks did at night
Speaker 2: for entertainment, as you know, right. They'd gather around, they'd
Speaker 2: listen to sitcoms or news programs. They listened to soap
Speaker 2: operas in the daytime, action adventure shows at night for
Speaker 2: the kids, major Broadway plays, if you're cultured, Hollywood movies
Speaker 2: would get acted on the airways. Right. One of the
Speaker 2: big shows of the day was The Green Hornet, which
Speaker 2: I've mentioned before. It's the radio show that Seth Rogan
Speaker 2: turned into a movie in twenty eleven, but in nineteen
Speaker 2: forty that show became the inspiration for a Betty Grabel based.
Speaker 3: Crime waits The Green Hornet.
Speaker 2: The Green Hornet. On December sixth, nineteen forty, someone sat
Speaker 2: down and they penned a letter to Betty Grabel. But
Speaker 2: this wasn't fan mail. Instead, this person wanted to send
Speaker 2: an extortion letter to Betty Grabel, but rather than call
Speaker 2: himself by his government name since it was an extortion letter,
Speaker 2: he called himself the Yellow Hornet.
Speaker 3: Yellow Hornet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the letter he's sent read you have been selected
Speaker 2: by me, the Yellow Hornet, to pay me the sum
Speaker 2: of two thousand dollars in cash. Of course, of course
Speaker 2: I love the court lady. No want to start to
Speaker 2: a letter. It's like part scam letter, part deranged fantasy.
Speaker 2: And also that much money two thousand dollars in nineteen
Speaker 2: forty would be yes, forty six thousand dollars that I've
Speaker 2: been doing it for you, right forty. So back to
Speaker 2: the Yellow Hornet's letter. This amount will be addressed to
Speaker 2: Miss Betty Westlake, six' Ten Allison, Avenue, Washington. Pennsylvania the
Speaker 2: amount will be sent by special delivery any, way you
Speaker 2: prefer By december twenty, Fifth Christmas, day or you will
Speaker 2: thus suffer the results is.
Speaker 3: That The Yellow horns. House.
Speaker 2: No, interestingly he doesn't make it clear what these bad
Speaker 2: results will. BE i, guess like hel For, ditchcock he
Speaker 2: wants to leave it to the. Imagination but The Yellow
Speaker 2: hornet then ends his. Letter this is not a, joke
Speaker 2: as you may, think but strictly. Business if, you, however
Speaker 2: don't send this money to the address, ABOVE i will
Speaker 2: personally come out and get. You, sincerely The. Hornet strictly.
Speaker 3: Business no pleasure involved in. This it's LIKE.
Speaker 2: Epmd it's strictly. Business Erica Perrish Macon ducats.
Speaker 3: Come and get.
Speaker 2: You yeah. Right he decides to go with the threat
Speaker 2: IF i don't get my money By Christmas, day will
Speaker 2: personally come out and get. You AND i assume he
Speaker 2: means to come out To, hollywood, right not like to his.
Speaker 2: Mother AND i guess he'll buy one of those maps
Speaker 2: of the stars homes and just go, knock, knock knock
Speaker 2: on her. Door, now another interesting thing about The Yellow hornets.
Speaker 2: Letter it's at the address he sent you asked. About
Speaker 2: this is the home In East, Washington, pennsylvania was the
Speaker 2: home of the superintendent Of schools For East, washington and we,
Speaker 2: assumed presumably he was the father Of Betty, westlake except,
Speaker 2: for as THE fbi found, out there was No Betty. Westlake,
Speaker 2: instead the daughter was Named Mary. Westlake so, yeah, anyway
Speaker 2: THE fbi investigates the center of the letter is this
Speaker 2: eighteen year old kid Named James, porter Not Betty. Westlake
Speaker 2: he didn't even Know betty Or Mary. Westlake and THE
Speaker 2: fbi discover all this when they arrest him On january,
Speaker 2: third nineteen forty. One, yeah they catch up to The
Speaker 2: Yellow hornet before he gets his act together and pops
Speaker 2: across the country to go Visit Betty Grabil, yeah because
Speaker 2: obviously she did not send the. Money On december twenty, fifth,
Speaker 2: obviously after he's arrested by THE fbi and The Pennsylvania State,
Speaker 2: Police James porter confesses that he did in fact send the,
Speaker 2: letter but not only, that he'd also sent letters to
Speaker 2: sixteen of his neighbors in the town Of, Washington.
Speaker 3: Pennsylvania sixteen neighbors Plus Betty.
Speaker 2: Grave exactly why? Not he said they were all part
Speaker 2: of His Yellow Hornet. Club oh, yeah which they had
Speaker 2: to know. This, no they had not opted to join.
Speaker 2: This it's just like he would send quote assignments under
Speaker 2: penalty of What i'm going to come out to your
Speaker 2: house or. Whatever, now if you're wondering What Betty grabel's
Speaker 2: response to the letter, was she never actually received. It
Speaker 2: the letter instead was sent to twenty Century fox as fan,
Speaker 2: mail so they she never saw. It they, did the
Speaker 2: folks At. Fox they opened the fan. Mail then they
Speaker 2: send it to THE, fbi like we got a live.
Speaker 2: One they contact The Pennsylvania State police and some LOCAL fbi.
Speaker 2: Agents you, know they all go out and arrest this confused,
Speaker 2: Kid James. Porter and when the press Told Betty grabel
Speaker 2: about the yellow hornet, business she, said it's flattering that
Speaker 2: someone THINKS i can reach out and produce two thousand
Speaker 2: dollars at a moment's. Notice But i've never heard of Miss,
Speaker 2: westlake and SO i don't THINK i should make any further.
Speaker 2: Comments and, also further, Ironically James porter was released on
Speaker 2: two thousand dollars. Bail, okay so that's kind of a weird.
Speaker 2: Case some random kid tries to extort A hollywood star
Speaker 2: the same way he has been trying to extort his
Speaker 2: neighbors and he gets arrested by THE. Fbi get, This,
Speaker 2: Elizabeth this was only the start of folks trying to
Speaker 2: Extort Betty, grabel and his stories only get weirder as we.
Speaker 2: Go but, first let's take a, break chow, out listen
Speaker 2: to some, ads and after these, MESSAGES i will tell
Speaker 2: you even wilder ones from the life Of Betty. Grabel.
Speaker 5: Nice we're, Back yes we, Are.
Speaker 2: And i've got More Betty grabel for.
Speaker 4: You?
Speaker 2: Nice are you ready for some folks looking to extort
Speaker 2: the most, famous most, desired most highly Paid american woman
Speaker 2: of the nineteen. Forties so after The december nineteen Forty
Speaker 2: january forty one story about The pennsylvania farm Boy James,
Speaker 2: porter which becomes obviously national, news it leads to what
Speaker 2: we now call copycat. Crime oh, yeah and it didn't
Speaker 2: even take. Long one month later the blue, yeah, like
Speaker 2: do you know how you heard about? This because he
Speaker 2: got Busted, nope doesn't stop. Him In february forty, one
Speaker 2: another young man From pennsylvania was, LIKE i want to
Speaker 2: Extort Betty grabel.
Speaker 3: Too WHY i make everyone feels like they can do it?
Speaker 2: Better? YEAH i think so, yeah because his second, guy
Speaker 2: he wasn't a high school age kid Like James. Porter,
Speaker 2: instead he was a twenty four year old nightclub waiter
Speaker 2: working In. Philadelphia. Wow but he was also Named James JAMES.
Speaker 2: D Thompson ibry. Fourth nineteen forty, one THE fbi Arrested
Speaker 2: James thompson after he Sent Betty grabil an extortion. Letter
Speaker 2: but unlike the kid who demanded two, grand he went Bigger.
Speaker 2: ELIZABETH i, mean he was some punk. Kid he's a
Speaker 2: working night.
Speaker 3: Club he has the value of.
Speaker 2: Money he's got a, tailor he's got you, know he's
Speaker 2: got people to. Pay he may even have a, bookie who.
Speaker 2: Knows but he demanded eighty five hundred dollars From Betty
Speaker 2: grabil and what's? That that would be one hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty seven thousand.
Speaker 3: Dollars, okay, right, yeah, yeah that's a good.
Speaker 2: Chunk and he said unless the amount was, paid she
Speaker 2: would suffer bodily.
Speaker 3: Harm oh, vague, YES i like.
Speaker 2: It leave it to the.
Speaker 3: Magic did he have a fun name at the end
Speaker 3: of the.
Speaker 2: Letter, No, no he just well he just sent it as,
Speaker 2: like you, know LIKE i don't actually don't remember the bumblebee.
Speaker 2: YEAH i don't THINK i found what his name was
Speaker 2: on the. Letter they just mentioned different sections of the
Speaker 2: letter in the. News but, Yeah so he sends his
Speaker 2: letter On january twenty, fourth AND i guess he wasn't
Speaker 2: dissuaded by the fact the kid From pittsburgh got. Caught
Speaker 2: so he's, like, No i'm From. Philadelphia we're smart kids
Speaker 2: in Western. Pennsylvania So thompson the nightclub, waiters like things
Speaker 2: will go differently for. Me his plan was slightly. SMARTER
Speaker 2: i gotta give him. That rather than have the money
Speaker 2: sent to a girl he didn't, know, yeah he demanded
Speaker 2: That Betty grabil send the money to him via general,
Speaker 2: delivery and then she was to place a personal ad
Speaker 2: in a Local philadelphia paper so he would know that
Speaker 2: she'd sent it and when to expect the money's.
Speaker 3: Arrival, wait and to his name general. Delivery.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Basically, Yeah, so instead of sending any money to
Speaker 2: her Second pennsylvania extortion, Is Betty grabil hands the letter
Speaker 2: over to THE. Fbi it takes them a week and
Speaker 2: a half this, time and the GM n spring into
Speaker 2: action and they arrest the nightclub. Waiter the good news
Speaker 2: For Betty grabel was that no one sent her an
Speaker 2: extortion letter for the rest of that. Year oh that's,
Speaker 2: Good nor did she receive. One in nineteen forty. Two
Speaker 2: the war was, on you, know the young men Of
Speaker 2: america or busy wondering if they had been draft, yet
Speaker 2: had other. Concerns maybe not as much time for, nonsense
Speaker 2: but maybe, not because in nineteen forty three it all
Speaker 2: starts right back up. Now if you remember from up
Speaker 2: top WHEN i was telling you About Betty, grabil nineteen
Speaker 2: forty three was her million dollar, year, Right that's the
Speaker 2: year she signed her million dollar contract with Twentieth Century,
Speaker 2: fox and she had her, legs you, know insured With
Speaker 2: lloyd's Of london for a million. Dollars, yeah big million
Speaker 2: dollar year for, her, Right and all that talk of
Speaker 2: million dollars may have been what triggered the next extortion.
Speaker 2: Letter or maybe this is just something you, know something. ELSE
Speaker 2: i don't, know because the extortion letter it arrives In
Speaker 2: february forty. Three, coincidentally the letter was Postmark february, sixth
Speaker 2: which was one day after her previous extortionists had been
Speaker 2: busted by the G men back in forty. One oh,
Speaker 2: really it almost the. Anniversary, yeah so the story. Goes
Speaker 2: in Early, February Betty grabil receives her latest extortion, letter
Speaker 2: and it begins rather, Formally Dear Miss, grabil this is
Speaker 2: an extortion under threat at your life or a great bodily.
Speaker 2: Harm gathered twenty five thousand dollars in uncut diamonds and
Speaker 2: mail them in two envelopes addressed To JONATHAN. C Wild,
Speaker 2: Esquire Gates hotel fifth And, Figueroa, Sandelus, california signed The.
Speaker 3: Leopard, wait now we're at The. Leopard this we got
Speaker 3: to break this letter down for a. Second, right twenty
Speaker 3: five grand and uncut diamonds in two, envelopes, envelope slit it.
Speaker 3: Up he's, LIKE i think it's gonna go over postage
Speaker 3: if you put them all in one, envelopes, like split it.
Speaker 2: Up he doesn't trust the. Mail he's, LIKE i want
Speaker 2: to get at least one of these through The.
Speaker 3: Leopard.
Speaker 2: Esquire, yes he's a. LAWYER i guess he's.
Speaker 3: Like bill And. Ted oh, wow.
Speaker 2: By the, way twenty five grand you're, wondering that's four
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty eight thousand dollars twenty twenty. Five oh,
Speaker 2: yeah half mil, mo, right Because he's, like, yeah you're
Speaker 2: worth a million. Dollar your leg's are worth a million.
Speaker 2: Dollars i'll take a half Mill i'll take a one
Speaker 2: baty grable leg worth of. Money, also what is up
Speaker 2: with these, guys The Yellow, hornet The? Leopard these are
Speaker 2: like b grade comic book.
Speaker 3: VILLAINS i, know it's.
Speaker 2: Amazing and also the you know The JONATHAN. C wild,
Speaker 2: esquire is he even a real? Lawyer is that just.
Speaker 3: Means fancy exactly to be messed? With so is he The?
Speaker 2: Leopard is He JONATHAN?
Speaker 3: C wild?
Speaker 2: With, anyway these are all great.
Speaker 3: Questions send it to my.
Speaker 2: Lawyer OH i like, That i'm. Smart, yeah he's probably
Speaker 2: watching a lot of like noir films.
Speaker 3: Exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah so THE fbi when they hear about, this they're,
Speaker 2: like we got. This we're getting pretty good at busting these.
Speaker 2: Bozos what is this number? Three so the g men
Speaker 2: decided to play. Along this time they send what was
Speaker 2: described as a dummy package to the address given by
Speaker 2: The leopard way and they had undercover agents watched the
Speaker 2: hotel At fifth And figureoa to see who would come
Speaker 2: pick up the. Package but no one.
Speaker 3: Came oh, Really, Yeah.
Speaker 2: But one month later In March march, ninth to be,
Speaker 2: exact a second letter is sent To Betty. Grabil it
Speaker 2: was just as formal as the first and was also
Speaker 2: using increasingly violent. Language the letter, read dear Miss, grabil
Speaker 2: On march, nineteenth at nine to forty, am come north
Speaker 2: On Gower street and a half block south Of Santa Monica.
Speaker 2: BOULEVARD i will be waiting leaning on the cemetery. Wall
Speaker 2: bring five thousand dollars or you will not be alive
Speaker 2: on the, Twentieth Signed Snowy.
Speaker 3: Baker first of, All i'm kind of excited BECAUSE i
Speaker 3: know where all these places.
Speaker 2: ARE i thought you.
Speaker 3: Would and Then snowey's sne, Dude Snowy, baker.
Speaker 2: This is apparently the gnome de plume of the. Leopard
Speaker 2: he's a snow. Lepard and uh, yeah if you if
Speaker 2: you the THE fbi they did had handwriting analysis check the.
Speaker 2: Letter they confirmed it was definitely the same. Guy Snowy
Speaker 2: baker is the.
Speaker 3: Leopard Snowey baker leaning on the cemetery. Gate, yes That's
Speaker 3: Rombi keats And yates on his. SIDE i like, that.
Speaker 2: So five grand in nineteen forty, Three in case you were,
Speaker 2: Wondering elizabeth is about ninety three, thousand six hundred dollars these. Days,
Speaker 2: okay so still a pretty good. Page, yeah but no
Speaker 2: one cut diamonds this. Time he's dropped from twenty five
Speaker 2: grand to five, grand a fifth of the. Value but he's,
Speaker 2: like you, KNOW i don't know the snowy baker is
Speaker 2: and as greedy as the. LEOPARD i don't want to tell.
Speaker 2: You but it's still a ton of money in forty. Three.
Speaker 2: Yeah so WHAT i also love about this second extortion
Speaker 2: letter is how the letter is so damn. Specific, yeah
Speaker 2: it's like not half past, nine, no nine, Am like
Speaker 2: he's running a, bus.
Speaker 3: Go, yeah. Totally, well you wonder if it does coincide
Speaker 3: with a bus that he would he's planning to jump
Speaker 3: on a bus right After oh good. Call and he
Speaker 3: never picked up the original dummy. Package, no it never.
Speaker 2: Came to The hotel fifth and. Figure now at this,
Speaker 2: one at the intersection Of gower And Santa. Monica the
Speaker 2: exchange is a half block south Of Santa monica right.
Speaker 2: NOW i don't know how well you know The hollywood,
Speaker 2: area but that street you, MEAN i know you said
Speaker 2: you can know all these But gower was a really
Speaker 2: interesting choice at that time to pick because that's where
Speaker 2: a bunch of movie studios were located At Sunset boulevard And, gower,
Speaker 2: right which is which is just a few blocks. Away
Speaker 2: it's about like four city. Blocks so it's a great
Speaker 2: exchange place for the leopard if you want to run
Speaker 2: into a bunch of like guys dressed like, cowboys because
Speaker 2: the area was Called Gower. Gulch, yeah because there's basically
Speaker 2: like At sunset And gower. There back in the silent film,
Speaker 2: Era sunset And gower was the home of movie, cowboys,
Speaker 2: right and this continued into the sound, era so you
Speaker 2: Had Columbia studios, there you had The bean Movie Maker
Speaker 2: Republic studios which made a ton of. Westerns so extras
Speaker 2: and people who just wanted to be a star would
Speaker 2: hang out in this area and they would be like
Speaker 2: walking around like dressed as like you, know a horse,
Speaker 2: rustler and that way they some casting director might see
Speaker 2: them and they could get hired for the day to
Speaker 2: be a member of a posse, amazing, Right, yeah So
Speaker 2: Gower gooles becomes this home of.
Speaker 3: Movie has my own costume guys.
Speaker 2: Exactly and also if you didn't find work that, day
Speaker 2: you could go over to The columbia Drug store and
Speaker 2: you can just mosey on, in grab a, seat and
Speaker 2: enjoy a cup of coffee or sandwich or. Whatever and
Speaker 2: this is Where John wayne used to hang out when
Speaker 2: he was a young. Actor, also Both Roy rogers And
Speaker 2: Gene autry, like if you're looking for, stars, yeah this
Speaker 2: is the.
Speaker 3: Space.
Speaker 2: Yeah, anyway so this is just a couple of blocks
Speaker 2: away from the leopard who wants to Meet Betty grable
Speaker 2: to go at.
Speaker 3: Nine to forty as and there's a, cemetery.
Speaker 2: Yeah where he'll be waiting on the cemetery. Wall, now
Speaker 2: this time the g men they decide not to send
Speaker 2: a dummy. Package, instead they want to Send Betty grable
Speaker 2: to deliver the five grand in cash as. Instructed but
Speaker 2: you can't Risk Betty grabil and her million dollar. Legs
Speaker 2: you can't send the Real Betty. Grable so instead they
Speaker 2: plan to send an UNDERCOVER fbi. Agent now you may
Speaker 2: be picturing some clean shape of AN fbi guy drag
Speaker 2: and a.
Speaker 3: Bond wahgray, Amazing but it.
Speaker 2: Turns out THE fbi had female agents at the, time
Speaker 2: so they scared up an agent who had a passing
Speaker 2: resemblance To betty grabil and they sent her to make the.
Speaker 2: Exchange oh.
Speaker 4: Wow but rather than me tell you, That, Elizabeth i'd
Speaker 4: like you to close your eyes as a Closed i'd like.
Speaker 2: You to picture. It It's march, nineteenth nineteen forty, three
Speaker 2: the appointed day for the, exchange the day to hand
Speaker 2: over the extortion money to The leopard Aka Snowy. Baker
Speaker 2: the g men of THE fbi have planned extensively for
Speaker 2: this sting. Operation charts of the street have been created
Speaker 2: with precise locations selected for the full surveillance of the
Speaker 2: scene of this. Exchange some of the agents are excited
Speaker 2: to bring to bear the latest high technology of the,
Speaker 2: day cutting edge and surveillance. TECH a, camera but not
Speaker 2: just any, camera a handheld movie, camera specifically a sixteen
Speaker 2: millimeter camera outfitted with a telephoto.
Speaker 3: Lens Oo La La.
Speaker 2: Jegar hoover's like my boys can make movies. Too, Anyway
Speaker 2: they have a plan for total coverage of the. Payoff
Speaker 2: the new lightweight sixteen millimeter movie cameras are perfect tool
Speaker 2: for a sting. Operation perched in like these advantageous vantage,
Speaker 2: points g men have their sixteen millimeter cameras trained on the.
Speaker 2: Street there are also spotters using high powered. Binoculars they
Speaker 2: have radios to signal the other agents who are down
Speaker 2: at street. Level in the, cemetery there ARE fbi field
Speaker 2: agents dressed as gardeners digging in the fresh turned. Earth
Speaker 2: there are also other UNDERCOVER fbi agents dressed as grave.
Speaker 2: Diggers they work the soil with, shovels but they're ready
Speaker 2: to spring into action as soon as the perp reveals.
Speaker 2: Themselves on both sides of the. Street on the, sidewalk
Speaker 2: there are also other undercover g men acting as, lookouts
Speaker 2: and they have portable walkie talk is that they have
Speaker 2: hidden behind the newspapers and other useful. Items prowling the
Speaker 2: corner of the streets are even more UNDERCOVER fbi agents
Speaker 2: driving around in radio, equipped unmarked cars and behind the
Speaker 2: wheel of a shiny blue. Sedan is You? Elizabeth you
Speaker 2: are the lone FEMALE fbi agent working the sting. Operation
Speaker 2: at the moment your hands grip the steering wheel of
Speaker 2: the shiny blue, sedan you push a few stray wind
Speaker 2: blown blonde hairs out of your, eyes because that's right you're.
Speaker 2: Dressed Is Betty? Grable you have the windows down because
Speaker 2: that's part of the, act and the wind coming in
Speaker 2: through the open windows is blowing around the hairs of
Speaker 2: your blonde. Wig everything has been. Coordinated you know just
Speaker 2: what you are to do with this, sting just as
Speaker 2: instructed by the extortion letter sent by The leopard Aka Snowy.
Speaker 2: Baker you turn Onto gower at the appointed time nine forty.
Speaker 2: Am the shiny blue sedan smoothly corners and you keep
Speaker 2: the car in a slow roll as you head Down.
Speaker 2: Gower you also keep your eyes peeled searching for or the.
Speaker 2: Perp he should be here on the cemetery. Gates as
Speaker 2: you approach the drop spot halfway down the block Of,
Speaker 2: gower you grip the brown paper wrapped package on the
Speaker 2: bench's front seat next to. You you brush a few
Speaker 2: more stray blonde wig hairs out of your, eyes but
Speaker 2: you still don't see any obvious, perp so you go
Speaker 2: ahead and do as. Instructed you lift the brown bundle
Speaker 2: and you toss it out of the open window of
Speaker 2: the shiny Blue. Sedan the package is weighted appropriately and
Speaker 2: is well. Wrapped it slaps at the street when it. Lands,
Speaker 2: meanwhile you continue to drive slowly down to the end
Speaker 2: of the. Block at that same, moment g men hidden
Speaker 2: in second story windows with sixteen millimeter cameras and their telephoto,
Speaker 2: lenses as well as THE fbi agents on the roof
Speaker 2: perched up there with their high powered. BINOCULARS a spot.
Speaker 2: Movement could this be The leopard Aka Snowy baker the.
Speaker 2: EXTORTIONIST a gangly young man hops off the cemetery. Wall
Speaker 2: he walks between two parked, cars and he heads right
Speaker 2: for the brown paper wrapped. Package the surveillance team were
Speaker 2: all over. It rate the spotters down on street level
Speaker 2: and signal the g men in a cemetery he dressed
Speaker 2: as gardeners and, gravediggers but they don't need to be.
Speaker 2: Signaled they see the same gangly young. Man they drop
Speaker 2: their cover shovels hit the. Grass the UNDERCOVER fbi agents
Speaker 2: run out of the. Cemetery the ones with walkie talkies
Speaker 2: on the sidewalk break, character and they also run towards
Speaker 2: the gangly young man in the middle of the. Street
Speaker 2: they SHOUT fbi. Freeze in your rear view, mirror you
Speaker 2: see the gangly young man reach down and scoop up
Speaker 2: the brown paper wrap packets from the. Street he tucks
Speaker 2: it under an arm and makes a run for. It
Speaker 2: in the rear view, mirror you watch him run right
Speaker 2: towards where you are further down the, block so you
Speaker 2: press down on the gas pedal and. Accelerate the shiny
Speaker 2: Blue sidan gives a throaty growl of the engine in.
Speaker 2: Response you glance again in the rear view, mirror just
Speaker 2: in time to see the gangly young man get tackled
Speaker 2: by the UNDERCOVER fbi. AGENTS a grave digger wraps him
Speaker 2: up like a linebacker for Usc the young man goes
Speaker 2: down r his face slaps the. Street you look down
Speaker 2: from the rear view mirror in time to turn the
Speaker 2: wheel of the Shiny lucidan as the car takes the.
Speaker 2: Corner at the same, time you yanked the blonde wig
Speaker 2: from your. Head no more need to Be Betty. Grable nice,
Speaker 2: Work Agent.
Speaker 3: Dunton that was exciting.
Speaker 2: Now at this, point the man known As Snowy baker
Speaker 2: aka The leopard was revealed to be an eighteen year
Speaker 2: old high school student From, Omaha. Nebraska own From.
Speaker 3: Nebraska his Name RUSSELL. E.
Speaker 2: Alexanderson, Alexanderson, yes it's very strange. NAME i was, like
Speaker 2: AM i seeing that?
Speaker 3: Right? Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah his father was in The. Army his mother had
Speaker 2: gotten a job in THE la area working in an
Speaker 2: aircraft plant In, inglewood all, right so she's, like you,
Speaker 2: know building planes for the war. Effort, so since this
Speaker 2: was the third extortion attempt Of Betty grabil and since
Speaker 2: this was now a Major hollywood star aka The Blonde
Speaker 2: Bomb show with a million dollar, legs, yeah none other
Speaker 2: Than Jagger hoover announces the latest.
Speaker 3: Bus of, Course.
Speaker 2: Jagger hoover swans in to tell the national press that
Speaker 2: the eighteen year Old, herp who was a big boy
Speaker 2: at six foot, four had been. Waiting he grabbed the
Speaker 2: package and tried to make a run for, it But
Speaker 2: hoover's g men gave chase and captured the pimply faced
Speaker 2: high school boy aka The leopard a block away.
Speaker 3: From the exchange right.
Speaker 2: Now RUSSELL. E, alexanderson who went by his middle Name,
Speaker 2: Eugene So Eugene alexanderson was interviewed and interrogated BY Fbi
Speaker 2: District Commissioner DAVID. B, head and he confessed To Commissioner
Speaker 2: head that quote the threat of harm in the, letters
Speaker 2: so it's never intended to be carried out at any.
Speaker 2: Time so what was his deal? Then why did he do?
Speaker 2: It great, Question. Elizabeth, yeah let's take a, break listen
Speaker 2: to some, ads and after these, MESSAGES i will tell
Speaker 2: you why he did it and what happens when the
Speaker 2: leopard strikes yet.
Speaker 4: Again oh, no, Okay, elizabeth we are.
Speaker 3: Back we're.
Speaker 2: Now we've got some questions about the. Leopard Eugene alexanderson From, Omaha,
Speaker 2: nebraska have.
Speaker 3: A lot of. Questions what's his? Deal, yeah, right what's
Speaker 3: his major?
Speaker 2: Damage why Did eugene keep sending extortion letters To Petty?
Speaker 2: Grable well it turns out the leopard did actually want the.
Speaker 3: Money, WELL i would.
Speaker 2: Imagine, Yeah but for what what would this eighteen year
Speaker 2: old kid want during the war, Years you know when
Speaker 2: they're rationing, BUTTER i mean like.
Speaker 3: Getting pants with that long of a. Leg good.
Speaker 2: Point he'd outgrown his clothes and.
Speaker 3: They're you, know rationing.
Speaker 2: Fabric he's got him like mid.
Speaker 3: Cast he wants a pair of silk. Slacks they don't do.
Speaker 3: That it's For.
Speaker 2: He moved out west and was, LIKE i want one
Speaker 2: of them zoot.
Speaker 3: Suits, yeah it could be, so As.
Speaker 2: Eugene alexanderson explained to THE, fbi, QUOTE i wanted them
Speaker 2: only to enable me to see movie. STARS i had
Speaker 2: no opportunity to see them BECAUSE i had to account
Speaker 2: to my mother for every DIME i.
Speaker 3: Spent, wait how many movies did this boy want to?
Speaker 2: Watch joe the movie? Stars he wanted to like go
Speaker 2: like Six, Sea LIKE i don't go to The Brown
Speaker 2: derby or. Something, yeah you gotta pay for.
Speaker 3: Food that's probably you.
Speaker 2: Know he also bust money or. Whatever so his mom was.
Speaker 2: Down but to the quarter and the. Nickel he was
Speaker 2: very eager.
Speaker 3: To see a lot of the uncut. Gems, right did
Speaker 3: he have a? Fence did he think this? Through like
Speaker 3: what was happening in this kid's? Head uncut? Gems so
Speaker 3: it's not even, like, Oh i'm going to go pawn the.
Speaker 3: Summer you have to go to a to a gem.
Speaker 3: Cutter he Wants, airfair To, antwerp Is la.
Speaker 2: Down To they Have downtown L. A they have a jewelry,
Speaker 2: district so he could move the loose.
Speaker 3: Rocks this, kid.
Speaker 2: MAYBE i don't, know maybe once again maybe.
Speaker 3: SO i don't. KNOW i don't want to the. Leopard
Speaker 3: you never.
Speaker 2: Can underestimate the. Leopard so the kid who wanted to
Speaker 2: see movie, stars, right he's ironically LIKE i, said just
Speaker 2: blocks away From Gower, gulchi you want to just walk up.
Speaker 3: The street and then also look for Free.
Speaker 2: But Paramount studios is not far away. Either he could
Speaker 2: go down to the gates Of Paramount studio to check
Speaker 2: out hangout. There it's over like On, melrose, right which
Speaker 2: is just parallel To Santa. Monica, anyway he, Decides, Nope
Speaker 2: i'm going to Extort Betty. Grable my mom's got all my.
Speaker 2: Money fore. MOTHER i WISH i could make it make Sense.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth and by the, way now we're under our third
Speaker 2: young man who's trying to extort Baby. Grabel and he's
Speaker 2: the third to get. Busted, like why don't these like
Speaker 2: these guys learn from the kooks who came before? Them,
Speaker 2: AGAIN i do not, Know but WHAT i do know
Speaker 2: is Since World War two is now in full. Swing
Speaker 2: after eighteen year Old Eugene alexanderson pleads, guilty he is
Speaker 2: sentenced not to, jail but instead he is inducted into the.
Speaker 3: Army you're in the army, now something about a hall of.
Speaker 3: FAME i was, like he's inducted into the.
Speaker 2: Army, yeah he gets drafted.
Speaker 3: Up put him to good.
Speaker 2: Use but when six foot, four pimply Faced eugene shows
Speaker 2: up at army. Induction the army gets takes one good
Speaker 2: look at, him and The army's like unsuitable stamp and
Speaker 2: sends him. Back so instead he's given a sentence of
Speaker 2: five years on. Probation right and get This. Elizabeth while
Speaker 2: he's on, probation just a few months, later he sends
Speaker 2: another extortion letter To Betty.
Speaker 3: Cravele he needs to go TO. Napa he needs to
Speaker 3: go To, yeah.
Speaker 2: Then bing bang. Boom In may of forty, three he's arrested.
Speaker 2: Again this time he'd sent her a letter demanding even less.
Speaker 2: Money he demanded she give him five hundred dollars, yes
Speaker 2: or Else i'll kill you and you'll never guess Where
Speaker 2: he instructed her to meet him to hand over the.
Speaker 2: Money where does he have to go? Regularly that would
Speaker 2: be like on his bus route. Trips that's, right His
Speaker 2: federal probation. Office, no he's, like meet me at The
Speaker 2: federal probation office and, gammy the five hundred dollars are?
Speaker 2: You and that's where THE fbi arrested him because he
Speaker 2: did show meeting, yes see my. Po so he gets,
Speaker 2: interrogated interviewed BY Fbi District Commissioner head again and the,
Speaker 2: gangly pimply faced young man explains his latest insane. Plan
Speaker 2: eugene said that, QUOTE i just couldn't overcome the desire
Speaker 2: to try to see her. Again you See elizabeth the,
Speaker 2: man this young, man he had a, heart a heart of.
Speaker 2: Fire he was badly in. Love he was out of
Speaker 2: his mind with, desire or has he put? It for seven?
Speaker 2: Years i've been in love with Miss grable SINCE i
Speaker 2: first saw her in. PICTURES i think IF i could see,
Speaker 2: Her i'd be. Satisfied at any, RATE i won't write
Speaker 2: any more. Letters just give him one of the. Cutouts
Speaker 2: keep in mind he's he's yet to actually See Betty, grabil,
Speaker 2: unless of, course he means you in a wig in
Speaker 2: a moving car for him actually convinced That Betty grabel
Speaker 2: was behind the wheel. Anyway Commissioner head was, like we're
Speaker 2: not doing this, again, Son.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: No, eventually a judge releases him on bail while he
Speaker 2: considered inappropriate sentence since probation hasn't done, anything and so
Speaker 2: While eugene is awaiting, sentencing he decides to get in
Speaker 2: one more. Letter, however this time he doesn't send it
Speaker 2: To Betty, grable he's moved. On oh, yes he has
Speaker 2: a different blonde in. Mind this time he decides to
Speaker 2: Extort May.
Speaker 3: WEST i would NOT i would not Cross May. West,
Speaker 3: NO i gotta tell you right, now or, NO fbi.
Speaker 2: Right she feels like a woman has a dringer in a.
Speaker 3: BOSOM i feel like she would answer the letters herself
Speaker 3: and they'd be, like, Yeah i'll meet.
Speaker 2: You, there show up and cut them with a. RAZOR
Speaker 2: i dare. You, Now no one cut diamonds From May. West,
Speaker 2: no but the amount he, demanded it's gone back. Up
Speaker 2: he's way past five hundred. Dollars eugene writes To May
Speaker 2: west that unless you give me one hundred thousand, dollars
Speaker 2: she would live her days under threat of your life
Speaker 2: or great Bodily.
Speaker 3: HEART i love the great Bodily.
Speaker 2: Heart it's his. Thing one hundred thousand, dollars that's a
Speaker 2: major escalation, here.
Speaker 3: Comand from like spot me fifty?
Speaker 2: Bucks that would be one point eight seven million in today's?
Speaker 2: Money is it just a cool like near two? Million
Speaker 2: Or i'm going to cut?
Speaker 3: Him.
Speaker 2: So The leopard's instructions For maywest were that she was
Speaker 2: to put it in a package and bring it to
Speaker 2: six two three Three Hollywood boulevard up to the sixth Floor,
Speaker 2: Saturday february, sixth at ten ten. Am once, again bus
Speaker 2: schedule time.
Speaker 3: Ten, tens ten minutes off of The. Meridian totally. Interesting you, KNOW.
Speaker 2: I Think i've mentioned this. BEFORE i once had an,
Speaker 2: office like a like A hollywood, detective like a private
Speaker 2: detective office on sixty four oh Four Hollywood, boulevard so
Speaker 2: just like two blocks down for, So i'm super familiar
Speaker 2: with this part of the. Town it's Basically hollywood And.
Speaker 2: Vine it's like super busy at his. Time Yea hollywood
Speaker 2: And vine on the sixth floor. Shop so, anyway for
Speaker 2: May west, extortion he went back to using his comic
Speaker 2: book villain. Nickname he signed his letter The Leopard.
Speaker 3: Ckily for her he should go as the leopard For.
Speaker 3: Halloween oh, yeah we're still have.
Speaker 2: To explain it to everyone each. Time only you got
Speaker 2: thirty minutes and some pimple.
Speaker 3: Spot it's a bag of uncut, time.
Speaker 2: Exactly, YEAH i.
Speaker 3: Have to explain it all over and. Over you just
Speaker 3: have a.
Speaker 2: Handout what are you supposed to?
Speaker 3: Do one?
Speaker 2: Sheet, People and it kind of got a link to
Speaker 2: this episode yes. Exactly, Anyway luckily for, her May west
Speaker 2: had essentially ignored the extortion letter and the threats. Made
Speaker 2: she had read. It she actually got to, her but
Speaker 2: then she saw The Betty grabil story in the news
Speaker 2: and then she's, like wait a, minute contacts THE Fbi
Speaker 2: after The May west. Letter commissioner had was, Like, okay,
Speaker 2: yeah that's. It we're done here, kid.
Speaker 3: We know where to find.
Speaker 2: Them. Yeah the judge sentenced The Pimply face Gangly omaha
Speaker 2: kid to. Prison, yeah if you can believe. It someone
Speaker 2: else decides to press their luck and Extort betty GREG i.
Speaker 3: Cannot imagine prison was kind of Rest Gene.
Speaker 2: No no and his tenuous grasp on. Reality, yeah BUT
Speaker 2: i bet.
Speaker 3: You there were so many pictures Of Betty grable up
Speaker 3: in the. Cells it just drove them to.
Speaker 2: Madness they just called Them Harry, james, yeah or maybe
Speaker 2: Called Jackie. Coogan, Hey, jackie come on in. Here AS
Speaker 2: i was, saying if you can believe, it don't ask
Speaker 2: me how everyone's been. Caught but someone else is, like
Speaker 2: you know What i'm gonna. Do i'm going to Extort Betty.
Speaker 2: GRABLE a great.
Speaker 3: Idea now it's done That, no.
Speaker 2: One's gotten away with it, yet but at this point
Speaker 2: it's pretty much an easy way to punch your ticket
Speaker 2: to being locked up or getting set to the army
Speaker 2: to fight. Overseas they're, Like i'm gonna try my. Luck
Speaker 2: it hasn't worked out for anyone, else but maybe it'll
Speaker 2: work out for me. Now in nineteen forty, five war still.
Speaker 2: On Betty grabel was married to the swing music Bandleader Harry. James,
Speaker 2: right but that didn't stop someone from, thinking you know,
Speaker 2: WHAT i should threaten to do harm To Betty. Grabel
Speaker 2: It's january of nineteen forty five when the press report
Speaker 2: That Betty grabel has been under police guard for several
Speaker 2: days as a result of a tip that a plot
Speaker 2: might be directed against. Her, now this time it wasn't
Speaker 2: some pimply faced kate with a comic book pen. Name,
Speaker 2: nope this time it was two men in a. Bar oh, Okay,
Speaker 2: so according to Police Captain Thad, brown two men had
Speaker 2: been overheard in a bar discussing a plan to abduct
Speaker 2: the star and hold her for. Ransom that's. Gross, yeah
Speaker 2: the bar owner felt like you did like? That that's. Gross,
Speaker 2: Yeah he's, like you're just you're really mucking up the
Speaker 2: vibe in my gin.
Speaker 3: Mill, well he's heard all manner a bad bar bets
Speaker 3: exactly bad. Plans and then he hears, This he's, like
Speaker 3: absolutely not. Right, yeah it means big stop it to
Speaker 3: get A sweatson A.
Speaker 2: World war two era like gin mill bar owner pissed
Speaker 2: off enough to contact THE. LAPED i got a live
Speaker 2: one for. You he overheard two of, US i, said
Speaker 2: two of his customers talking about Kidnapping Betty grabel holding for.
Speaker 2: Ransom and since he's worried that one of them is
Speaker 2: an ex, convict he calls THE. Lapd so, Please Captain
Speaker 2: Thad brown gets in touch with Twentieth Century fox to
Speaker 2: make sure that the studio is aware of this threat
Speaker 2: to their big star because remember number one box office, draw.
Speaker 3: Right and they have to increase security at the studio and.
Speaker 2: Have somebody with, her, like you, know taking her, home
Speaker 2: pick her up in the morning for her early calls
Speaker 2: because they don't know when they're going to. Strike, yeah
Speaker 2: as the newspapers of the day reported from that time,
Speaker 2: on Miss, grable wife of orchestra Leader Harry, james and
Speaker 2: walk her dog without tripping over. Guards now her band leader.
Speaker 2: Husband he also starts to carry a handgun on him
Speaker 2: because he kind of leans that. Way he's, Like i'm
Speaker 2: gonna keep that nickel plated on. Me and he wasn't
Speaker 2: taking any chances with his new. Wife he's, LIKE i
Speaker 2: got lucky to get. HER i ain't gonna lose her right.
Speaker 2: Now three weeks, past the two men fail to act
Speaker 2: on their like tough guy bar, talk and so eventually studio, officials,
Speaker 2: police THE, fbi and forty special agents who guarded The
Speaker 2: star agreed it was only a dream and no kidnap.
Speaker 2: Plot so eventually it was tough bar.
Speaker 3: Talk oh but you know, what you gotta watch what you.
Speaker 2: Say oh, yeah people are gonna take it for. Real. Yeah,
Speaker 2: NO i would love to tell you that that was
Speaker 2: the final time someone tried to kidnap her Ransom Betty
Speaker 2: rabel or a, Starter but IF i told you, That
Speaker 2: i'd be, lying because three years, later in nineteen forty,
Speaker 2: eight it happens. Again the war's over.
Speaker 3: Now there's no.
Speaker 2: Excuse people were, like, well remember when we used to
Speaker 2: Extort Betty grable. World, NO i thought you'd appreciate, this
Speaker 2: are ever curious eagle eyed Researcher Marissa, brown she raised
Speaker 2: this interesting in her notes and her research dossier on this,
Speaker 2: One marisa, said quote side, note what is it about
Speaker 2: winter that makes people want to Kidnap Betty? Grable because
Speaker 2: every one of these takes place in the. Winter is
Speaker 2: there never summer time? Plans?
Speaker 3: Oh you, know you're bundled, up.
Speaker 2: You're stuck, inside you listen to a lot of. Radio
Speaker 2: you're wishing you could afford A tv at this. Point
Speaker 2: so yet, again come, winter someone gets the, IDEA i
Speaker 2: should Extort Betty grabel for big. Payday it's been a few,
Speaker 2: years no one's tried, it so, someone you, know to
Speaker 2: catch the. Spirit and then In january of nineteen forty,
Speaker 2: Eight Betty, grabel still the number one box office draw
Speaker 2: in the, world with the million dollar, contract million dollar,
Speaker 2: legs this blonde bombshell pin up girl next door. Vibes
Speaker 2: someone Decides i'm gonna threaten to kill her.
Speaker 3: And this one will.
Speaker 2: Work, yeah oh, god but they'd go one pass. Out
Speaker 2: they're like, no, no everyone's said, that Like i'm gonna hurt,
Speaker 2: You i'm gonna kill, You i'm gonna kidnap. You she's
Speaker 2: like this new person's, like what IF i steal her new. Baby, no,
Speaker 2: no there ain't nothing funnybout baby steal unless it's The
Speaker 2: Coen brothers Movie rais In. Arizona yeah right. True but that,
Speaker 2: said this one is still good because oh The Storring.
Speaker 2: Coast Elizabeth Jane, bean twenty years old Of, Kaufman, texas
Speaker 2: and her Husband WILFORD. E. Bean these names are always cartoon.
Speaker 2: Names Jane bean And Willy. Bean willy so mister and Missus.
Speaker 2: Bean by the, Way.
Speaker 3: Billy, Bean Billy.
Speaker 2: Bean, yeah there you. Go Billy bean's. Job what does
Speaker 2: Mister bean do for a. Living he's an employee at
Speaker 2: a glass. Company So i'm imagining him as like some
Speaker 2: industrial glass blower coming home to his wife because, like,
Speaker 2: honey you want to know WHAT i did? TODAY i
Speaker 2: threatened to Take Betty grabel's. Baby we're gonna get, paid.
Speaker 2: Honey So Jane bean Of, Kaufman, texas she has a
Speaker 2: sort of bright anddea twenty year old fresh To hollywood
Speaker 2: would come up with. Stort Betty grable plan is simple
Speaker 2: and diabolicals is just snatch your. Baby, yeah then just,
Speaker 2: RUN i don't just run up steal steal the.
Speaker 3: Baby what happens? Next what happens, Next Missus, bean all.
Speaker 2: RIGHT i think they're just gonna live high on the.
Speaker 2: HOG i GUESS i don't know ABOUT i forgot this.
Speaker 2: Part she wrote this fan mail To Betty grable and
Speaker 2: sent it to Twentieth Century. Fox, oh so the letters,
Speaker 2: like send me five thousand. Dollars, Oh i'm gonna steal your.
Speaker 3: Baby i'm gonna start texting that to my.
Speaker 2: Friends and by the, way that's no small ass because
Speaker 2: in nineteen forty, eight five grand would be sixty seven
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, today right, Right and by the, way, Also
Speaker 2: Jane bean Of, Coffin texas didn't plan to steal the.
Speaker 2: Baby she planned to get paid for threatening to steal the.
Speaker 3: Baby she. Wasn't, yeah she wanted to.
Speaker 2: Get paid for playing With Betty grabel's.
Speaker 3: Imagination so scary this letter that she's, like of, course,
Speaker 3: please Missus, Bean i'm.
Speaker 2: Going to ransom a theoretical kidnapped baby of the. Future,
Speaker 2: yeah and so sad part from His bean is that
Speaker 2: she didn't know how to get the future ransom letter
Speaker 2: extortion threat To Betty, grable so she sends it as
Speaker 2: fan mail and its big star Like Betty grable doesn't
Speaker 2: open her own fan. Mail so some poor schmuck in
Speaker 2: the mail room at the studio dome like.
Speaker 3: Went on probably to become like a huge. Producer, oh
Speaker 3: they start the mail.
Speaker 2: Totally becomes Like Irving thaulberg or. Something, anyway so this
Speaker 2: porschmuck in the mail room opens this particular piece of fan,
Speaker 2: mail reads the extortion letter future ransom, letter and he's, like,
Speaker 2: well that's not. Good so he takes it to his.
Speaker 2: Boss they read, it they're, like, well that's not. Good
Speaker 2: they take it to the security of the. Studio they're, like,
Speaker 2: oh that's not. Good and then they hand the letter
Speaker 2: over to THE fbi because at this point the studio
Speaker 2: is like a relationship with THE fbi just to Handle
Speaker 2: Baby grabel's extortion. Letters so THE fbi agents they read the,
Speaker 2: letter and the agents are, like, well that's not, good
Speaker 2: and they go look up where they can find Miss
Speaker 2: Jane bean Of, Kaufman. Texas And i'm betting she sent
Speaker 2: her a return address on her future baby ransom. Letter
Speaker 2: probably either, way THE fbi shows up at her home
Speaker 2: and then the whole, pitiful deranged story comes out in the.
Speaker 2: Papers quote a drab little blonde admitted today she sent,
Speaker 2: Baby grable a threat to kidnap her baby because she
Speaker 2: wanted some quote easy, money, right newspaper people cutting on them.
Speaker 2: Now this is When Missus Jane bean and the rest
Speaker 2: of the world learned That Betty grabil never even saw
Speaker 2: the future baby ransom, letter, because as the papers also,
Speaker 2: reported the movie star and her, husband band Leader Harry,
Speaker 2: james didn't know about the threat until they read the.
Speaker 2: Newspaper her studio found the, rambling long hand note in
Speaker 2: a pile of fan. Letters oh, yeah they're just cutting. Everywhere.
Speaker 2: Now if you're wondering, why why would someone send a
Speaker 2: rambling longhand note about Stealing Betty grabil's. Baby, yeah unless
Speaker 2: she receives five, grand there's a simple. Reason as the
Speaker 2: paper put, It Missus Jane bean twenty TOLD fbi agents
Speaker 2: she tried to extort five thousand dollars from Miss grable
Speaker 2: because she was tired of being poor and.
Speaker 3: Hungry, no, SISTER i get it, right that's not the
Speaker 3: way to do.
Speaker 2: It, WELL i guess she figured a hypothetically Stealing Betty
Speaker 2: grabil's baby was the best way to fix her world.
Speaker 2: Problems would have been my, choice but it is a choice.
Speaker 2: Now Missus Jane bean A, Kaufman. Texas she tells THE
Speaker 2: fbi agents that arrested her that her motive was actually quite,
Speaker 2: straightforward one might, say directed to the. Point as Missus bean,
Speaker 2: said it seems like everyone In hollywood has lots of.
Speaker 2: MONEY i need some, myself.
Speaker 3: Right to.
Speaker 2: IT i, mean when you put it like, that hard
Speaker 2: to argue with. You so there you, Go. Elizabeth the
Speaker 2: many extortions Of Betty Grabil my, goodness what's? Ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Takeaway don't try and Extort Betty, grabel, right that's just
Speaker 3: rules to live, by don't especially. NOW i told you
Speaker 3: it's not worth it.
Speaker 2: Now, no that would be really hard, now a lot of,
Speaker 2: digging get those shovels. OUT i THANK i don't.
Speaker 3: Know maybe what's your takeaway.
Speaker 2: Mine is if somebody is the most famous woman in the,
Speaker 2: world the one of the highest, earners you're going to
Speaker 2: need more than just sending a fan mail, letter as,
Speaker 2: like if that's your, plan you're gonna probably need to
Speaker 2: buy a star map and figure out how to drop
Speaker 2: it in through her actual mail. Saws maybe Kidnap Harry
Speaker 2: james and see if she cares about, him you, know
Speaker 2: like mix it.
Speaker 3: Up, yeah and you're gonna have to have a little
Speaker 3: bit more of a. Plan yeah that would be.
Speaker 2: Good, yeah that would be really. Good actually think through
Speaker 2: what you're doing instead of being, like how much money
Speaker 2: DO i want and then just asking for that in a,
Speaker 2: rambling long winded handwritten. Note, okay so you in the
Speaker 2: moon for a talk back a week, Always oh my,
Speaker 2: god SUPER.
Speaker 3: I love Get, hi.
Speaker 6: GUYS i need to share something a little bit, ridiculous
Speaker 6: and that is THAT i finally figured out Who elizabeth sounds,
Speaker 6: like and that would Be Carrie, browns seen specifically when
Speaker 6: playing the role Of, tony the feminist bookseller In. PORTLANDIA
Speaker 6: i like producer. Ge i'm From Rhode island and it's
Speaker 6: freaking hot here and people are sharing that meme about
Speaker 6: the heat being, hot and, YEAH i love you. Guys
Speaker 6: this Is.
Speaker 3: Jill, Okay, hi thank You.
Speaker 2: Jill he gave me a, Laugh, Jill.
Speaker 3: Jill i've heard far worse than, that SO i take
Speaker 3: that as a. Compliment, yeah, yeah as you.
Speaker 2: Should it.
Speaker 3: Is, yeah that's very.
Speaker 2: Good as, always you. Guys you can find us online
Speaker 2: a ridiculous crime on social. Media you can email us
Speaker 2: if you want a ridiculous crime at gmail dot Com.
Speaker 2: Jamail we have the Account Ridiculous crime pod pod as
Speaker 2: in short for podcast on. YouTube you check it. Out
Speaker 2: there's a great videos there to watch if you prefer
Speaker 2: your pods coming through. YouTube also we have a, Website
Speaker 2: Ridiculous crime dot. Com, ALSO i don't know if on
Speaker 2: YouTube they have the ads just put that in your
Speaker 2: pipe and. SMOKE i don't. Know we also we love
Speaker 2: your talkbacks, obviously so please go find the iHeart, app download,
Speaker 2: it leave a. Talkback maybe you hear your voice, here
Speaker 2: we'd like to hear. It, yes and as ALWAYS i
Speaker 2: got to say one more, time thank you for. Listening
Speaker 2: we will catch you next. Crime Ridiculous crime is hosted
Speaker 2: By Elizabeth dutton And Zaron, burnette produced and edited By
Speaker 2: Betty grables other bandleader Boy, Toy Dave, kustube and Starring
Speaker 2: Analys ruck As. Judith research is by the underwriters For
Speaker 2: Betty grabel's Leg Insurance, Policy Marissa brown And Jabbari. Davis
Speaker 2: our theme song is by the rhythm section For Harry
Speaker 2: James Road, Band Thomas lee And Travis. Dunney host wardrobe
Speaker 2: provided By botany five hundred Guest. Harry makeup By sparkleshot
Speaker 2: and Mister. Andre executive producers are J Edgar hoover's favorite
Speaker 2: UNDERCOVER fbi gravediggers and cemetery, Gardeners Ben bolin And Noel.
Speaker 3: Brown Dis Cry Say It One More.
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