Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Saren Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Hey, ELIZABETHA listen, buddy, you know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Oh man, dude, I was just reading this email that
Speaker 3: the interns handed me. They hand me the emails, unlike you. Anyway,
Speaker 3: it was from this rude dude, Andrew Right, and it's
Speaker 3: kind of awesome. So subject line ridiculous, but no crime,
Speaker 3: so he writes, and I quote. A while ago, maybe
Speaker 3: ten years, I was starting my crafting era. As fate
Speaker 3: would have it, when visiting a local good Will store,
Speaker 3: there were two film reels on top of the soda
Speaker 3: fridge by the checkout. I thought, oh, gosh, I can
Speaker 3: craft something out of film, right, No idea what that
Speaker 3: would have been, but I'm sure pinterest has some ideas.
Speaker 3: When I got home, of course, I wanted to see
Speaker 3: what these film reels could be. Enter my trusty flashlight.
Speaker 3: Turns out they were part one and part two of
Speaker 3: Deep Throat What Elizabeth the porn film? Oh god, but
Speaker 3: how can we watch this cinematic masterpiece. We were bragging
Speaker 3: about our score to friends that we didn't have a
Speaker 3: movie projector. One person said, no, we have a movie projector.
Speaker 3: At church, I can check it out and load it
Speaker 3: to you. And that is how the Mormon Church assisted
Speaker 3: me in watching Deep Throat. Wait, thanks Joseph Smith.
Speaker 2: Fistbump, this is the greatest femail.
Speaker 3: So I was inspired by the Nixon episode because we
Speaker 3: met a deep throat. So he says, thanks for all
Speaker 3: the amazing ridiculousness and crimes ing. Thank you for that
Speaker 3: awesome story, Sir.
Speaker 2: Andrew Andrew, I love the crafting and getting the film.
Speaker 2: I'm desperate to see what you would have come up with,
Speaker 2: but I'm so glad you used a church projector rupted
Speaker 2: the greatest. That is ridiculous, amazing. Do you know what
Speaker 2: else is ridiculous?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: I Don't's why I showed up today.
Speaker 2: Super secret spy organizations, those I know you do. This
Speaker 2: 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 ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Ridiculous siculus sticulous, ridiculous siculus sticulusticulus, siculusticulous.
Speaker 2: That was so good. It's really fun. It was fun
Speaker 2: for us.
Speaker 3: That was ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Right now, right, I am standing in my.
Speaker 3: Truth sitting in it, but shirt whatever.
Speaker 2: Sharing my journey as someone who watches and loves television.
Speaker 3: Yeah you are, I have.
Speaker 2: I've divulged that I'm currently watching Scandal. Yes, it's taking
Speaker 2: me a while because I only watch a handful of
Speaker 2: episodes a week.
Speaker 3: Sure you know.
Speaker 2: When I'm not working or taking time to insult people
Speaker 2: in their hobbies, I watch the show.
Speaker 3: I look forward to your text about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like to. I like to live text and
Speaker 2: then I know that they you know.
Speaker 3: Years later live text, and then I respond days later
Speaker 3: to your year's late live texting of the show.
Speaker 2: Go on context free thing. So well, I'm not spoiling
Speaker 2: anything for anyone who hasn't gotten on the Olivia Pope.
Speaker 2: I trust my gut and it's always wrong train. So
Speaker 2: the show is about a woman, Olivia Pope. There's a
Speaker 2: political fixer in Washington, d C. She was on the
Speaker 2: President's successful campaign, and she was also on the president
Speaker 2: successfully They were having an affairs Aaron. There are a
Speaker 2: lot of plot lines, some freestanding to an episode, but
Speaker 2: most running throughout the entire series, like the free standing ones.
Speaker 2: I feel is just like the first season and they
Speaker 2: gave up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they figured out the whole Monster of the Week
Speaker 3: thing won't work for them.
Speaker 2: I know, which is kind of a shame because I
Speaker 2: like that. But here one of the big plot lines
Speaker 2: is this B six thirteen. Yes, right, it's a super
Speaker 2: secret spy agency that operates above the levels of government
Speaker 2: in the US. They work for the Republic.
Speaker 3: They're the d state.
Speaker 2: They don't answer to the President or the DJ or
Speaker 2: NSA or.
Speaker 3: Another alphabet supreme court them.
Speaker 2: They operate above the laws. So the members of B
Speaker 2: six thirteen are trained spies and killers, experts in interrogation
Speaker 2: and infiltration and assassination, dancing, and they're they're the greatest dancers.
Speaker 2: They're everywhere, always everywhere. And then one of them was
Speaker 2: even once married to Jennifer Garner. Yes, so anyway, B
Speaker 2: six thirteen. They say this phrase all the time in
Speaker 2: the show B six thirteen. It gets tossed around like crazy.
Speaker 2: If you drank every time you've heard someone say it,
Speaker 2: RIPU and your vaporized liver. So I have no idea
Speaker 2: what the B stands for or the six thirteen whatever,
Speaker 2: but it's it sounds like it's something spy.
Speaker 3: Sounds like Bureau six thirteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and obviously something spyish is something you aren't supposed
Speaker 2: to know about, super secret.
Speaker 3: I think it's also supposed to sound like M I six,
Speaker 3: where it's like even different than the traditional FBI.
Speaker 2: It's very international. It's compelling, right, and so I love
Speaker 2: And that's why it's a component of Scandal, the wildest
Speaker 2: telenovela about the beltwet. So that said, let me tell
Speaker 2: you about a guy.
Speaker 3: I love. A guy, go ahead, the.
Speaker 2: Name of Garrison Courtney. It sounds like a character on Scandal.
Speaker 3: Courtney to Garrison.
Speaker 2: Courtney's dad was in the Air Force, and because his
Speaker 2: dad was stationed there, he was born in the Philippines.
Speaker 2: But this family moved back to the States, more specifically
Speaker 2: Great Falls, Montana, when he was only four years. When
Speaker 2: he's five, his mom is like I can't take it.
Speaker 2: She leaves, She's like bye bye, Great Falls. And then
Speaker 2: his dad he meets a lady he marries or he's
Speaker 2: course the same day, amazing man, like three hours later, just.
Speaker 3: Winds are over, fre software feet whirlwind romance.
Speaker 2: That's how it works. In Montana, he spent most of
Speaker 2: his time with his stepmom, and he later characterized that
Speaker 2: as very difficult and lonely because his dad was always
Speaker 2: away working. According to the Daily Beast, in high school,
Speaker 2: he quote worked as a student aid, excelled on the
Speaker 2: debate team, played in the jazz band, served on the
Speaker 2: yearbook staff, competed on the drama team, and was named
Speaker 2: student body president. So he's just like, you know them,
Speaker 2: a number one guy totally.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know something about jazz band. It's kind of
Speaker 3: where when you hear jazz band because I can't imagine,
Speaker 3: like in forty years they're being my high school's hip
Speaker 3: hop band. I was like it being like kind of
Speaker 3: geeky and like that, like parents have to get together
Speaker 3: to give him money to travel.
Speaker 2: You know it will be the hip hop band with
Speaker 2: the DJ. Right, my son is the DJ and the
Speaker 2: hip hop.
Speaker 3: Band hip hop hands.
Speaker 2: Sorry, Oh that was terrible and I love it. His
Speaker 2: theater teacher described him as quote an idea man. I
Speaker 2: like that, right, and quote your typical class clown who
Speaker 2: had millions of thoughts, plans, and schemes in his brain
Speaker 2: and was always looking for a way to manipulate systems
Speaker 2: and people and create stories about his life.
Speaker 3: I kind of got it.
Speaker 2: Starts out really wholesome, and then it just starts getting
Speaker 2: a little bit darker to manipulate systems and people. What
Speaker 2: a high school could wait? What? Anyway, she warned him
Speaker 2: at one point to use his powers for good, not evil.
Speaker 3: I got that speech, did you? I really did?
Speaker 2: Yikes?
Speaker 3: Yeah no, so I listened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank god. In nineteen ninety four, after high school,
Speaker 2: he joined the Army National Guard.
Speaker 3: I did not do that.
Speaker 2: And one of his duties in that capacity was to
Speaker 2: fight forest fires in Montana. That is brutal.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: In ninety five he went on active duty with the army,
Speaker 2: but then he got honorably discharged the next year because
Speaker 2: he got all this lung damage fighting fires.
Speaker 3: By the way, shout out to all the firefighters.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, especially inmate firefighters.
Speaker 3: All of them. Yeah, but like in particular. Yes, those
Speaker 3: we're getting paid nothing and can't do the job when
Speaker 3: they get out.
Speaker 2: So it's so mad. Things. We've got really bad wildfires
Speaker 2: going on, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: That's a California thing. We think about it. But all
Speaker 3: of them, all the fires send a lot of love,
Speaker 3: not just the ones to help us, like all of the.
Speaker 2: Everywhere, all across this world. You know, let's just take
Speaker 2: a moment to thank every firefighter on.
Speaker 3: This It's also one of the coolest job titles ever,
Speaker 3: Like what do you do? I fight?
Speaker 2: Fire fight?
Speaker 3: Like can you imagine? Like what do you I'm a
Speaker 3: water fighter, I'm a wind fighter. None of the other
Speaker 3: elements would sound yeah, but firefighter.
Speaker 2: That's the coolest.
Speaker 3: Anyway, go on, So he gets out.
Speaker 2: He you know, he attends Montana State University Northern. He's
Speaker 2: the editor of the school paper there.
Speaker 3: So he's just a goer, storyteller, storyteller.
Speaker 2: Around ninety seven, he transferred to University of Montana at
Speaker 2: Missoula and he studied broadcast journalism. Graduated in two thousand.
Speaker 3: Nice.
Speaker 2: Here's what one of his college roommates had to say.
Speaker 2: Quote a phone call a couple of weeks before class
Speaker 2: started in August of nineteen ninety seven, told me that
Speaker 2: my final semester at UM was going to be anything
Speaker 2: but ordinary. And wait, doesn't that sound like the beginning
Speaker 2: of like an essay? Horrible? Anyway? To continue the quote?
Speaker 3: To get into college? Yeah, right, college entrances.
Speaker 2: On the other end of the phone was Garrison, who
Speaker 2: said he was going to be one of my roommates.
Speaker 2: He said he was a stand up comedian, and I
Speaker 2: believed him because he pretty much did an hour long
Speaker 2: routine over the phone. Garrison could do hundreds of spot
Speaker 2: on impressions Oh god. And he proved it to me
Speaker 2: by doing most of them on that phone call.
Speaker 3: As somebody who will entertain himself with impressions, Oh god,
Speaker 3: an hour long. I'm something you just met, you knowing,
Speaker 3: I'm like on the phone.
Speaker 2: Very few people can do impressions like I can.
Speaker 3: No, yeah, are you kidding me? I don't even get close.
Speaker 2: Well, so the roommates said that living with him was
Speaker 2: like quote living with Robin Williams during a Letterman set.
Speaker 3: Oh God.
Speaker 2: And he said, everyone like gravitated.
Speaker 3: Towards him, or like some good cocaine.
Speaker 2: That sounds exhausting. He sounds so exhausting, like I am
Speaker 2: your new roommate.
Speaker 3: And then he just chatters for vers impressions. You're like,
Speaker 3: what the hell?
Speaker 2: Man? He's like, can we talk? Wait? What stop? He
Speaker 2: also gave this anecdote quote one night he told me
Speaker 2: he was going to join the UM football team. He
Speaker 2: talked to head coach mc denihey, and he said he
Speaker 2: was all said to become a grizzly lineman. He was
Speaker 2: big enough.
Speaker 3: But I was.
Speaker 2: Skeptical of his story because I was familiar with how
Speaker 2: players joined the football team just randomly walking by practice
Speaker 2: and saying, hey, I can play. Usually is and how
Speaker 2: it works. Garrison, though, was convincing. The next day he
Speaker 2: told me he failed a physical because of his knees
Speaker 2: and lungs, so his football plans were over.
Speaker 3: Nah darn.
Speaker 2: So at the same time, don't worry, though, like, okay,
Speaker 2: here's here's the problem he ran into. He was like,
Speaker 2: I'm a stand up comedian, yes, but at the same time,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be a football player. So he's dead
Speaker 2: set on the football, so he said he told people
Speaker 2: that because he was sure that football was a go,
Speaker 2: he had to cancel a bunch of stand up shows
Speaker 2: that he'd booked all over the state. The problem is
Speaker 2: in like football falls through, right.
Speaker 3: Of course, now the bookers think he's a flag But
Speaker 3: well then.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, all the slots had already been taken up.
Speaker 2: They're like, oh, sorry, we booked the spin doctors.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a very big comedy area. Yeah, so
Speaker 3: no comedy through all the time.
Speaker 2: Well, his roommates said, quote, knowing that Montana is not
Speaker 2: exactly a hotbed for live comedy. That seems suspect, but again,
Speaker 2: Garrison was convincing the same wavelength anyway.
Speaker 3: It's not a stop on the big comedy circuits than this, right.
Speaker 2: He says that Courtney told him that he was going
Speaker 2: to join the cheerleading squad. Quote. I thought he was
Speaker 2: full of But the next home game comes and he's
Speaker 2: down there on the field with the cheerleaders in full uniform.
Speaker 2: He did so many things that didn't seem realistic, but
Speaker 2: he sold it to you.
Speaker 3: He did them so and then you're like, well, okay,
Speaker 3: did he go Was he doing the like throwing the
Speaker 3: cheerleaders up in the air. He's like one of the
Speaker 3: guys who's like the stand holder guys. Yeah, he'd have
Speaker 3: to practice. It doesn't sound like a guy who's gonna
Speaker 3: show up two weeks of practice.
Speaker 2: No. There was an article in nineteen ninety eight in
Speaker 2: the school paper about huh quote. Courtney, a junior whose
Speaker 2: academic pursuits range from journalism to dance, is a sort
Speaker 2: of unlikely renaissance man. When asked to list his numerous
Speaker 2: and varied activities, he rolls his eyes, takes a deep breath,
Speaker 2: and starts counting on his fingers. There are too many
Speaker 2: people that just sit back and do nothing, Courtney explained,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't like it if I wasn't involved in anything.
Speaker 2: Aside from juggling his scholastic workload. Courtney currently plays the
Speaker 2: role of fraternity brother, radio disc jockey, stand up comedian, cheerleader,
Speaker 2: and part time model. Newly added to his um resume
Speaker 2: maybe the position of self defense guru.
Speaker 3: What this guy really missed out being a technic life coach?
Speaker 2: Let me let the paper tell you. Courtney made time
Speaker 2: in his schedule last week to teach a two part
Speaker 2: seminar for UM's experimental college program entitled Basic Self Defense.
Speaker 2: Courtney holds a third degree black belt in an offshoot
Speaker 2: of Chinese kung fu called Shaolin chin Naw that translated
Speaker 2: literally means seize and control. The ranking took him the
Speaker 2: better part of eleven years to obtain, Courtney said, although
Speaker 2: he only began to study seriously while he was in
Speaker 2: high school. So his roommate was like, that's total garbage
Speaker 2: because he'd never seen Courtney work out train.
Speaker 3: You would have some evidence.
Speaker 2: They're a little bit important. If you're going to be
Speaker 2: like a martial art.
Speaker 3: You would come back from a gym at least once.
Speaker 2: At least once, So like Courtney did know some moves,
Speaker 2: but like his roommate was, like, I think he learned
Speaker 2: that as a kid. All kia kia. So after college,
Speaker 2: Courtney gets a job. He becomes the weatherman at a
Speaker 2: CBS affiliate in Missoula.
Speaker 3: Perfect fie, really.
Speaker 2: Forget to mention his meteorological training.
Speaker 3: You did forget to mention it.
Speaker 2: No, I did not forget because he didn't have any erran.
Speaker 2: So he was named the Missoula Independence Best Forecaster that year.
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess there are some weather reporters who
Speaker 2: aren't meteorologists and they just read, you know, whatever's generated.
Speaker 2: He gets transferred to science it is he gets well,
Speaker 2: you know who is a weatherman, David Letterman.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Courtney gets transferred to Eugene, Oregon. And it's
Speaker 2: not really clear what his next jobs were, but they
Speaker 2: seem to be with the government. Here are some of them.
Speaker 2: Spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security in Seattle, Congressional
Speaker 2: liaison for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in I and S.
Speaker 2: And I think that that was in d C communications
Speaker 2: staffer for a Republican representative from Florida, that Representative Catherine Harris.
Speaker 3: No way from this way.
Speaker 2: He also said he was chief of staff for a
Speaker 2: quote high profile member of Congress. That's mysterious. Maybe it
Speaker 2: was Melly Grant, who knows. Okay, so two thousand and five,
Speaker 2: he's living in DC like Olivia Pope. Is he wearing
Speaker 2: spike heels and full length leather gloves?
Speaker 3: Is he wearing like full length gloves and spiked heels?
Speaker 2: You know? Who's to say? He was working as a
Speaker 2: spokesman for the DEA, and he stayed doing that until
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine. But you go back two thousand
Speaker 2: and five, he did actually apply for and was offered
Speaker 2: a job from the CIA.
Speaker 3: Wait, he applied for one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they it isn't really how it works. But anyway,
Speaker 2: he didn't respond to the board and then two years
Speaker 2: I'm going to go apply And then two years went
Speaker 2: by and the offer last laps two years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he had his offer in the cis so bad.
Speaker 3: They're like, we need somebody who can do weather comedy.
Speaker 3: Maybe sure that.
Speaker 2: You can apply for a job at the CIA, but.
Speaker 3: Not as like an agent.
Speaker 2: Why not? I'm going to write him a letter.
Speaker 3: I don't think.
Speaker 2: Hey, guys, me, from what I.
Speaker 3: Understand that it's more often that they reach out to you, Like,
Speaker 3: would you consider?
Speaker 2: That's what I understood? But who you know?
Speaker 3: All the people I know have been approached by the CIA.
Speaker 3: The CI approached them, right, So I guess that same
Speaker 3: as speak to yourself. Yeah, it is. You can learn
Speaker 3: a lot, you can, you can. What's the bar?
Speaker 2: All the people I've known named John are named John,
Speaker 2: So it's safe to say he never worked for the CIA.
Speaker 2: Like me, I haven't worked for the CIA. No, or
Speaker 2: have I. So in this era of his life, he
Speaker 2: got married, he started a family. According to him, from
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine to twenty ten, he worked as
Speaker 2: a producer at TMZ. Just a weird career turned totally Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's no evidence of this.
Speaker 3: And you think they could find that.
Speaker 2: He might have been a secret agent for TMS.
Speaker 3: There you go deep cover on TMZ.
Speaker 2: Whatever he's doing. He did leave government work and he
Speaker 2: started working as a consultant for various defense companies. I mean, like,
Speaker 2: so he has this dea resume contractor, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Defense Secure, Special Security.
Speaker 2: Defense contractors, and like he knows tons of people he
Speaker 2: had government clearance. He's the perfect person to hire to
Speaker 2: grease the wheels and like navigate contracts.
Speaker 3: I don't get it, okay.
Speaker 2: He said that his work was quote Marketing and Communications
Speaker 2: executive at Defense and Aerospace, and according to his Twitter
Speaker 2: bio quote, Garrison Courtney is a communications ninja focused on
Speaker 2: the dark arts of online media. Marketing and communications words
Speaker 2: are my ninja stars?
Speaker 3: Oh god, So he's a professionals.
Speaker 2: Can I just say that, like every day the world
Speaker 2: tests me on my abandonment of dark Elizabeth and I'm
Speaker 2: just like, you know what.
Speaker 3: You just set her down. He's already climbing back up.
Speaker 2: Nope, get back, get back, Satan. Okay. So he's doing
Speaker 2: all this insulting work and then he lands a big contract.
Speaker 2: He was brought onto a project that was trying to
Speaker 2: press the government to release a few Kuwaiti prisoners at
Speaker 2: Guantanamo and then, according to the show American Greed on
Speaker 2: Oxygen quote, Courtney promised his clients op ed placements in
Speaker 2: top tier media and said he'd reach out to key
Speaker 2: legislators and President Obama to try and secure the prisoner's release.
Speaker 3: The families, no, I don't know.
Speaker 2: They thought that they hired Oliver Pope fixer. They wanted results.
Speaker 2: Courtney said he had them. He presented them with a
Speaker 2: letter supposedly from the House Armed Services Committee saying they
Speaker 2: were interested in responding directly to the Kuwaiti government, which
Speaker 2: is nice. The problem is that the formatting of the
Speaker 2: letter looked a little.
Speaker 3: Off, like wait a minute, be on here, the committee
Speaker 3: was on cardboard. So he gets fired. The Speed Committee rong.
Speaker 2: They didn't report him to the authorities. They just let
Speaker 2: him go. In twenty twelve, a former coworker of his
Speaker 2: was trying to start a company, so he reaches out
Speaker 2: to Courtney, and Courtney said, dude, you are in luck.
Speaker 2: I know this guy used to be a US ambassador
Speaker 2: to Costa Rica and he's interested in helping fund something.
Speaker 2: He just feels like, what would I like today, I'd like.
Speaker 3: To fund I'd like to put my money on something.
Speaker 2: And so he's like, I know this guy, Curtis Windsor
Speaker 2: Junior through the Freemasons. What yeah, and.
Speaker 3: So through like the Freemasons. Like he's not a member
Speaker 3: of the Freemasons, he just knows them through the Freemasons.
Speaker 3: Like I was hanging out with.
Speaker 2: Some Freemans they're like, you know, we're pals.
Speaker 3: Is he trying to say I am a free Yeah,
Speaker 3: he's like a freemason when I would get that clear.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So now we've cleared that up, we'll take a
Speaker 2: break and we come back. We're going to find out
Speaker 2: about this freemason connection. Zarin Elizabeth Saron. All right, so
Speaker 2: let's talk about the Freemasons.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Apparently Garrison Courtney was in the Freemasons, and he knows
Speaker 2: this guy, Curtis Windsor Junior, former US Ambassador to Costa Rica,
Speaker 2: who wants to spend money. And then Courtney's pal is like,
Speaker 2: I need money, need money.
Speaker 3: So Courtney's like, I don't have anything for the need
Speaker 3: of the money.
Speaker 2: He connects them, He's like you meet you, and so
Speaker 2: the colleague and the former ambassador they email back and forth.
Speaker 2: The ambassador sends over a contract and Courtney's palse signs it,
Speaker 2: and then the friends just like waiting for the money
Speaker 2: and waiting and waiting, and then Courtney he's like, oh,
Speaker 2: you know why there's a delay because the ambassador's wife
Speaker 2: died and he's all in pieces. He can't focus on
Speaker 2: his work, like things weren't adding up for Courtney's friend,
Speaker 2: and there is very.
Speaker 3: Much a very working internet at this point, it wouldn't
Speaker 3: be hard to look so.
Speaker 2: Well, So the friend did something you should have done
Speaker 2: on day one. He asked around, he got the phone
Speaker 2: number for the ambassador.
Speaker 3: Well even better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the phone rings, The wife answers, wait a miracle.
Speaker 2: Hey O. So then the ambassador gets on the phone
Speaker 2: says he has no idea about any contract. He has
Speaker 2: not been emailing with anyone about one. The friend is like,
Speaker 2: all right, so do you even know Garrison Courtney? And
Speaker 2: the Ambassador's like, yeah, I know that guy. He was
Speaker 2: kicked out of the Freemasons in twenty eleven for quote
Speaker 2: unexplained reasons, and then he wouldn't clarify any further.
Speaker 3: Ooh, kicked out of the Freemasons.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 3: You know the only way I think that you can
Speaker 3: get kicked out of the Freemasons like that unexplained reasons.
Speaker 3: Either you were like sleeping with like somebody in the
Speaker 3: Freemasons and everyone found you, like in the cloak clause
Speaker 3: you're like, that's not what we do here, or else
Speaker 3: you were trying to do business, which the other thing
Speaker 3: that you're not supposed to do. You're not supposed to
Speaker 3: fraternize or do business like no romantic money man, And I.
Speaker 2: Guess that that's exactly what that was. Yeah, So I'm
Speaker 2: guess they're on the phone chatting about this, like wait
Speaker 2: what he was kicked out? I can't tell you any
Speaker 2: more about it, please, And then, by chance, right when
Speaker 2: the friend is on the phone with the ambassador, he
Speaker 2: gets a text from Courtney. Yes, and the text is like,
Speaker 2: the ambassador says he's pulling out of the investment, but
Speaker 2: I have good news. I have another friend from the
Speaker 2: Freemasons who's interested. And so the friend was like, oh
Speaker 2: my god. Yeah, so he calls Courtney a fraud right
Speaker 2: to his face. And then the friend he gets all
Speaker 2: the bogus documents that had been provided to him and
Speaker 2: he goes to the cops. However, since he hadn't actually
Speaker 2: lost any money, the police didn't care. They send it
Speaker 2: to prosecutors. The colleague he went around to other contractors,
Speaker 2: He went over to the Pentagon and like, no one
Speaker 2: got back to him. He's just like trying to spread
Speaker 2: the truth. So he started a word press website.
Speaker 3: Naturally, he called it guys love this this is the
Speaker 3: move your guys.
Speaker 2: He called it Garrison Courtney cheating America one sucker at
Speaker 2: a time. There are three posts in the about me section.
Speaker 2: He has a poll that's like the question is have
Speaker 2: I screwed you? And then there are three answers. Yes
Speaker 2: you lied, that's fifty three point nine one percent, Yes
Speaker 2: you defrauded me twenty five point five to one percent,
Speaker 2: Yes you stole from me twenty point fifty eight percent
Speaker 2: above or No. I don't know this guy. I couldn't
Speaker 2: answer it. Have I screwed No? I have never heard
Speaker 2: of him. Another little bit from the site quote, I
Speaker 2: may tell you how I have traveled the world in
Speaker 2: secrecy for the Masons. I may tell you I can
Speaker 2: bring you one hundred million dollars in dea and army contracts.
Speaker 2: I probably will forget to tell you that I was
Speaker 2: kicked out of the Masons for unethical behavior and me yow,
Speaker 2: So we have so now we have this guy. He's
Speaker 2: like on a min No one's listening to him. Courtney
Speaker 2: just keeps rolling.
Speaker 3: He's a lighthouse trying to warn people at the.
Speaker 2: Same time, Like Courtney's like just moving on with it.
Speaker 2: But things aren't so rosy for him. He's in serious
Speaker 2: financial that's.
Speaker 3: Just about ass. Yeah, he's a new big school.
Speaker 2: He's having personal problems. He divorces his first wife, then
Speaker 2: he marries her, he divorces her apparently wow, and then
Speaker 2: he marries this other lady. They wind up having like
Speaker 2: three kids together, not all at once. This is according
Speaker 2: to the Daily Beast quote. He defaulted on his mortgage
Speaker 2: and his car loan, and was evicted from his home
Speaker 2: for not paying rent, according to public records. In March
Speaker 2: of twenty fourteen, he filed for bankruptcy. The records show
Speaker 2: he owed creditors six hundred ninety seven, one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty seven dollars, while claiming personal assets of just four
Speaker 2: eight hundred and twenty three dollars, about four hundred of
Speaker 2: which was cash. His obligations included a twenty five thousand
Speaker 2: dollars divorce settlement, twenty five hundred dollars a month in
Speaker 2: child support, thirty five thousand in six hundred, eleven of
Speaker 2: which was in arrears, an eleven thousand, two hundred and
Speaker 2: forty five dollars IRS bill, a one hundred and nineteen
Speaker 2: thousand and fifty one dollars civil judgment for breach of
Speaker 2: contract and hundreds of thousands more dollars in medical bills,
Speaker 2: car loans, student loans, business loans, lawyer's fees, and credit
Speaker 2: card debt.
Speaker 3: Damn, that's quite the collection.
Speaker 2: So things weren't so great.
Speaker 3: No, but then he is a CV it kind of
Speaker 3: lack of it.
Speaker 2: It's rough. But then along came Alpha to fourteen, Alpha
Speaker 2: to fourteen, Alpha two fourteen aka the Task Force AKAA
Speaker 2: two fourteen aka not B six thirteen?
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: This all went down while Scandal was on the air?
Speaker 3: Are you kidding?
Speaker 2: Early two, mid twenty teens.
Speaker 3: He watched TV and he's like, I can.
Speaker 2: Do I really do wonder if he was inspired by
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 3: He moved from B to A and then got some numbers.
Speaker 2: You can't find anyone making that connection, and they didn't.
Speaker 3: Nobody, No, only us is immediately thinking that we watched
Speaker 3: too much Scandals.
Speaker 2: So he's not just getting consulting gigs. By playing up
Speaker 2: his connection to his time in the DEA, he also
Speaker 2: starts hinting at or just directly stating that he's deep.
Speaker 2: He's a deep cover CIA operative. The people he's trying
Speaker 2: to get jobs from. Future He's on a classified assignment
Speaker 2: crucial to national security, and like somehow a bunch of
Speaker 2: companies hired him, like not really as a consultant, but
Speaker 2: is quote commercial cover. So basically a cover job that's
Speaker 2: going to make him look like he's gainfully employed. He's
Speaker 2: just a regular average joe.
Speaker 3: Do they think it's a tax?
Speaker 2: Right off? They think that they're helping their government. But wait,
Speaker 2: you'll see, so in exchange for like the title and
Speaker 2: the paycheck, he's going to make sure that they get
Speaker 2: like sweet government contracts of course, so that's why they're
Speaker 2: doing it.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: You'd think that his luck would run out when the
Speaker 2: contracts didn't materialize.
Speaker 3: One would think, but sometimes they did the content.
Speaker 2: So yeah, if you can believe it, because I couldn't.
Speaker 2: He was actually able to con some military and government
Speaker 2: officials into doling out contracts as part of his cover.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't even want to depress you with how
Speaker 3: many contracts are given out.
Speaker 2: He said that his mission was so super secret that
Speaker 2: even government officials weren't suspicious. They just thought it was
Speaker 2: over their pay grade.
Speaker 3: Are you getting no, I'm not.
Speaker 2: So his main targets in all of this he must
Speaker 2: know and he's just we saw it like in his
Speaker 2: early years, he's just I'm.
Speaker 3: Saying from the DA He's figured out the right language
Speaker 3: to use later exactly.
Speaker 2: So his main targets in this small defense contractor. Oh,
Speaker 2: of course, so he'd say that he was leading up
Speaker 2: a program to start a new network of companies that
Speaker 2: could help the US with its intelligence gathering wuff right,
Speaker 2: And this is around the time of the Edward Snowden leaks. Oh.
Speaker 2: He used that to his advantage. So when asked, he
Speaker 2: would say that the task force that he was building
Speaker 2: was in an effort to head off the next to
Speaker 2: make sure it didn't happen again. Or he would tell
Speaker 2: them that he was quote supporting secret military maneuvers in Africa,
Speaker 2: or fighting Chinese commercial espionage like whatever he thought would
Speaker 2: land when he was talking to him.
Speaker 3: How how well versed are they with Tom Cruise's filmography, and.
Speaker 2: So it depends meaning to meeting what he's going to do.
Speaker 2: And you know what, I shouldn't just tell you about
Speaker 2: the meetings, saren closure eyes, Yes, I want you to
Speaker 2: picture it closed. Your name is Brock Taggington, and you
Speaker 2: are the CEO of a small defense contractor in Bethesda Maryland.
Speaker 2: You're in your office at a nondescript office park, waiting
Speaker 2: to meet with a man who has contacted you about
Speaker 2: some government business. That's you, mister government business. Your company
Speaker 2: makes the joysticks for the drones that you know what.
Speaker 2: Let's just leave it at that. So there you are
Speaker 2: in your office. Your assistant Knox and then ushers man
Speaker 2: to the seat set up in front of your desk,
Speaker 2: facing you. You stand and shake his hand. He's a tall,
Speaker 2: milk fed farm boy looking guy, brown hair, with the
Speaker 2: slightest tinge of red go tee, navy blue suit. He
Speaker 2: looks like every other guy at the golf course, and
Speaker 2: he looks like he may own more than one pair
Speaker 2: of salmon colored shorts. He one hundred percent owns a visor.
Speaker 2: He looks like his party has once been asked to
Speaker 2: leave a buffalo wild wings, but he managed to talk
Speaker 2: their way out of it. From being eighty six, that's
Speaker 2: what he looks like. So he's got a good handshake.
Speaker 2: He seems like you're kind of guy. He clears his
Speaker 2: throat and sits down, pulls a folder from his briefcase,
Speaker 2: drops it onto your desk. You look at the label
Speaker 2: on the front of the folder A two fourteen that
Speaker 2: kind of reminds you of something from your favorite TV show, Scandal.
Speaker 2: You like to curl up on the sofa in your
Speaker 2: man cave with a glass of red wine and an
Speaker 2: enormous bowl of popcorn. I'm talking enough popcorn to feed
Speaker 2: a family of four. So thinking about the show makes
Speaker 2: you think of all the amazing saying if ill timed
Speaker 2: soul music used in the episodes, excuse me, You tell
Speaker 2: the man, do you mind if I put on the
Speaker 2: radio not too loud or anything. It just helps me
Speaker 2: think when I'm working on government contracts. Go right ahead,
Speaker 2: the man says. You flip on the digital radio on
Speaker 2: the table behind your desk, and the sweet sounds of
Speaker 2: Motown just barely drift into the air above you. You
Speaker 2: do one of your affirmations, I am command, you tell yourself.
Speaker 2: Then you tell the man to go ahead start his pitch.
Speaker 2: I'm part of something called the task force, he says.
Speaker 2: Some call it A two fourteen or Alpha two fourteen.
Speaker 2: This is a very sensitive project, one authorized directly by
Speaker 2: the Attorney General, the Director of National Intelligence, and President
Speaker 2: Obama himself. Go on, you say, The man proceeds to
Speaker 2: tell you that if anyone ever asks you about a
Speaker 2: two fourteen or even this conversation that you're having, he'll
Speaker 2: deny everything. And then he goes on to explain that
Speaker 2: he needs a job. He needs a cover story, nor
Speaker 2: job that would act as cover since he was a
Speaker 2: super secret undercover adventure man. You reach over and open
Speaker 2: the folder. Inside is his resume. You scan it quickly,
Speaker 2: weather Man, Well, these could be his other cover jobs.
Speaker 2: Courtney explains to you that he served in the US
Speaker 2: Army during the Gulf War and had hundreds of confirmed
Speaker 2: kills while in combat. You love that. That makes you happy,
Speaker 2: because your soul and your conscience are but charred husks.
Speaker 2: He says that he has a little wheeze sometimes because
Speaker 2: he got lung injuries from smoke caused by the fires
Speaker 2: set to Iraq's oil fields. Oh and a hostile foreign
Speaker 2: intelligence service once attempted to assassinate him by poisoning him
Speaker 2: with ricin So he may or may not be able
Speaker 2: to fulfill the job description requirement of the ability to
Speaker 2: lift twenty pounds. So you stare at the man for
Speaker 2: a while. His story is wild, and why would he
Speaker 2: tell you such secrets. You always trust your gut just
Speaker 2: like Olivia Pope. You know what to do. You're hired,
Speaker 2: you tell him so as you can guess. Everything Courtney
Speaker 2: told the defense contractor you was garbage. So the truth
Speaker 2: was that his dad was the one who served in
Speaker 2: the golf for he was in the National Guard after
Speaker 2: the golf w he did have asthma that was made
Speaker 2: worse by fighting fires in Montana and not the Iraqi
Speaker 2: oil fire skills. This is according to the Justice Department.
Speaker 3: He watches a lot of movies. It sounds like because
Speaker 3: these are all iconic things, oil fires.
Speaker 2: Totally, Totally, this is what, according to the Justice Department quote.
Speaker 2: Courtney went to extraordinary lengths to perpetuate the illusion that
Speaker 2: he was a deep cover operative. Among other things, he
Speaker 2: falsely claimed that his identity and large portions of his
Speaker 2: conduct were classified, and directed victims and witnesses to sign
Speaker 2: fake non disclosure agreements that purported to be from the
Speaker 2: US government and that forbade anyone involved from speaking openly
Speaker 2: about the supposed classified program. So he's walking around with
Speaker 2: NDA's just handing them out. Some of the Defense exist
Speaker 2: katives that he met with got even stranger fishtails. He
Speaker 2: would tell them that they could be in danger or
Speaker 2: under Russian surveillance just.
Speaker 3: By working by contacting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so for this reason, I'm He's like, you
Speaker 2: know what, you should buy everything with cash, like stop
Speaker 2: using your credit cards? Like why is it just you know,
Speaker 2: it adds to the it adds to it. He's like,
Speaker 2: you need to be careful what you say on the phone,
Speaker 2: which is honestly just good advice. An he tells them
Speaker 2: that they should think about buying guns. But I feel
Speaker 2: like these dudes probably already hadn't covered like guns. I guess.
Speaker 2: So he's saying all this crazy stuff, but his paperwork
Speaker 2: seemed legit, and he had authentic looking contracts NDAs from
Speaker 2: the CIA Pentagon. They're on official letterhead, and they're signed
Speaker 2: with serious names like Glenn Nelson, the Glen has two ends?
Speaker 2: There whoa or Glenn or Glen Nielsen and the Glen
Speaker 2: has two ends? Or Gary Pearson or Garrison Pearson. Wait
Speaker 2: a minute, they're all fake names, but they sounded super
Speaker 2: real to do guys. Yeah, According to the New York
Speaker 2: Times quote.
Speaker 3: I like the you know, not to do Gary Pearson.
Speaker 3: He's like, I got it, Yeah, make it sound read.
Speaker 2: I don't want to go to the far side. Yes,
Speaker 2: this is what it was. In the New York Times,
Speaker 2: quote Norman Hayes, a retired Navy rear admiral and thirty
Speaker 2: year veteran of intelligence work who was bamboozled by mister Courtney.
Speaker 2: He told me, quote he knew the jargon had connections
Speaker 2: everywhere in government. No door seemed closed to him. You'd
Speaker 2: need access to a highly secure video teleconferencing system, and
Speaker 2: no problem. He'd get access to a government facility whose
Speaker 2: name I can't even reveal. So he is some guy
Speaker 2: who was in intelligence for thirty years.
Speaker 3: So he's partly legit in terms of how he's able
Speaker 3: to connive someone else. And it shows that to another person.
Speaker 3: But the person that he probably conned originally he doesn't
Speaker 3: know that that's what he's doing, right, but then it
Speaker 3: gives him the authority or the least, you know, the
Speaker 3: gravitas of that, and the person believes and then now they.
Speaker 2: Will vouch it exactly. And that's how he has.
Speaker 3: He's making stone soup, but for his well And the
Speaker 3: thing is it's.
Speaker 2: One thing to pull the wool over the eyes of
Speaker 2: some war profiteers. He went even bigger. He convinced seven
Speaker 2: government officials DEA military intelligence community that A two fourteen
Speaker 2: was real. What Yeah, Like, who he gets? He gets
Speaker 2: a high ranking Navy officer, he gets a person in
Speaker 2: the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Two DEA officials.
Speaker 2: The only name that was made public later was Eileen Prasser,
Speaker 2: a senior Air Force liaison to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agents.
Speaker 3: Wait, you're telling me he got all these guys the
Speaker 3: only person to hear about his one woman.
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just saying I just noticed Eileen. I was like,
Speaker 3: wait a minute.
Speaker 2: Like, but come on, Eileen. Yeah, okay, so but the
Speaker 2: National Geospatial Intelligence Agency NNGA, I've never heard of that. Amazing.
Speaker 2: So she Eileen. She worked for thirty years again in intelligence defense,
Speaker 2: and when she was asked by two trusted senior intelligence
Speaker 2: officials to act as an unpaid program manager for A
Speaker 2: two fourteen, she said, yes.
Speaker 3: She's working on the spike.
Speaker 2: Eileen, we talked about this. Come on, Eileen, but it's
Speaker 2: because two trusted senior officials, like he just the snowballing it, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So it's not who you know, not what you know,
Speaker 3: it's who you know.
Speaker 2: He also convinced two private citizens, described by The Daily
Speaker 2: Beasts as quote a pediatric anesthetus with a side gig
Speaker 2: as a writer and video producer and then consultant for
Speaker 2: private companies doing business with the federal government. He tells
Speaker 2: them that they've been selected for a two fourteen, and
Speaker 2: he asked them to pose as government officials in meetings
Speaker 2: as like their first big undercover op. So he's meeting
Speaker 2: with the intelligence officials, big dogs. Where do they.
Speaker 3: Meet Denny's Starbucks?
Speaker 2: No, girl, No, that's not where they met. Sometimes they
Speaker 2: met in actual government secure rooms, sensitive compartmented information facilities,
Speaker 2: scaled the skiff.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: No, the ones where they patch you down before you
Speaker 2: had no cell phones. Law.
Speaker 3: I thought he was doing like the Rockford Files where
Speaker 3: you meet him in the lobby of the building and
Speaker 3: you act like you've just come from it. I gotta
Speaker 3: go outside because he.
Speaker 2: Had fooled so many government officials to.
Speaker 3: The living into the clear rooms.
Speaker 2: He's like, we need the skiff for this one. This
Speaker 2: is according to the Washington Post, quote Courtney didn't take
Speaker 2: you out to the waffle house. They met in secure
Speaker 2: facilities at the National Geospatial Intelligence agency and at Riverside Research,
Speaker 2: a nonprofit that does scientific research for the government. He
Speaker 2: said both required extensive background checks, and in the room
Speaker 2: were current and former high ranking government officials. We were
Speaker 2: in there with some major companies that were sitting right
Speaker 2: next to us CEOs of companies, said Ed MacDonald, who
Speaker 2: ran a small Gainesville, Virginia based contracting firm with his
Speaker 2: wife that was defrauded by Courtney. I was like, well,
Speaker 2: if they've already validated it, who am I to question it?
Speaker 3: Always question everything exactly.
Speaker 2: So he's bringing together defense contract actors to meet with
Speaker 2: government officials about some totally made up spy group.
Speaker 3: And also, if you don't know why you're in the room,
Speaker 3: probably not be in the room exactly. Like there's a
Speaker 3: reason why you're not in that room.
Speaker 2: Yes, And like I think, because it sounded so cool.
Speaker 3: Everybody wants it. I could told me he would.
Speaker 2: Give the government folks a list of quote official talking points,
Speaker 2: information that he just pulled out of his patuit totally,
Speaker 2: and they'd all sit around and play scandal together. Meanwhile
Speaker 2: he's setting up millions of dollars in deals that would
Speaker 2: ultimately go to him. Oh my god, he did get
Speaker 2: an actual job as a contractor at a government agency,
Speaker 2: the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center. Wow,
Speaker 2: they do you know it? Related government contract There.
Speaker 3: Are another alphabet, but not a common one.
Speaker 2: He told them that they'd also been chosen by the
Speaker 2: CIA to handle a two Fourteen's it stuff big win, right,
Speaker 2: and then he's going to be the supervisor for all
Speaker 2: the personnel. Brothers, Let's pause here for commerce, and upon
Speaker 2: our return, we shall find out how Garrison Courtney's little
Speaker 2: scam was going now that he was bringing in actual
Speaker 2: government agencies. Okay, so Garrison Courtney, he's playing both shorte
Speaker 2: ud Okay.
Speaker 3: During the break, I was thinking about it. You pointed
Speaker 3: this out earlier. So it's B six thirteen. He name
Speaker 3: says A two fourteen, So he keeps the one in
Speaker 3: the teensplice. He goes up one or from three to
Speaker 3: and then he's like, oh two six, I gotta go
Speaker 3: away from six. There's only so many numbers. Let's go
Speaker 3: with two. I mean, they he did almost no work,
Speaker 3: and nobody, nobody's ever mentioned this.
Speaker 2: I looked, I could not find any mention of it.
Speaker 3: People need to watch more TV. That's what that's what
Speaker 3: I'm getting from this.
Speaker 2: So he's telling the government that they have given him
Speaker 2: a secret spy operation and they should allow him to
Speaker 2: hire folks and contracts to defense. And then he's telling
Speaker 2: the defense contractors he's in charge of a secret spy
Speaker 2: operation and they can get government contracts from there. So
Speaker 2: it's like if he said at enough times, it became true.
Speaker 3: It feels like that, you.
Speaker 2: Know, soon enough, though, contractors, they're wondering.
Speaker 3: He has a wife and three kids right now, he's
Speaker 3: got like a normal life. Okay.
Speaker 2: The contractors are like, why are there no actual contracts
Speaker 2: coming in? And the ones that have come in, why
Speaker 2: aren't they paying out? So Cordy and he's on the
Speaker 2: payroll of all these places because remember they're providing him
Speaker 2: cover job, So where's the balance for that? They're like,
Speaker 2: you were on health dental vision. Come on, he's got
Speaker 2: like quintuple coverage on the medical, so they you don't
Speaker 2: have a co pay, They pay you when you go
Speaker 2: in for an appointment. So when he's confronted, right, hey, Garrison,
Speaker 2: what's up, he would threaten the security clearance that he
Speaker 2: got them, which wasn't real to begin with. He's like
Speaker 2: you have level eight security. They're like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: don't tell anyone about it. So then he's like, you
Speaker 2: know what, I'm pulling your security clearance if you have
Speaker 2: a problem with this, or he would just like straight
Speaker 2: up accuse them of being spies, like you're from j
Speaker 2: twenty five. So yeah, so just like it flips it around.
Speaker 2: The Department of Justice said he also quote created fake
Speaker 2: letters purporting to have been issued by the Attorney General
Speaker 2: of the United States, which claimed to grant blanket immunity
Speaker 2: to those who participated in the supposedly classified program.
Speaker 3: He's handing out get out of jail free cards from
Speaker 3: the government from the government.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that worked for a while until it didn't.
Speaker 3: So in.
Speaker 2: Twenty fifteen, one company, Blue Canopy, they wanted the government
Speaker 2: to pay. Yeah, that sounds like one of those meal
Speaker 2: or like a dog food confusing with a bunch of
Speaker 2: other things. So they want the government to pay sand company.
Speaker 2: They had a one point nine million dollar contract that
Speaker 2: he needed to be paid. Yeah, that's a lot of chicken.
Speaker 2: So Cortney, he gets desperate, and so he goes to
Speaker 2: an investment firm in Virginia and he tells him that
Speaker 2: the government is going to try and seize Blue Canopy
Speaker 2: for criminal violations by the senior executive Sarah, but that
Speaker 2: he the man in charge of a secret spy agency.
Speaker 2: He had a one point nine to five million dollars
Speaker 2: he throws in an extra, you know, fifty grand contract.
Speaker 2: Was Canopy and A two fourteen really needed the money,
Speaker 2: and if the Fed seized everything, all spying hell would
Speaker 2: break loose, that they wouldn't be able to pay their
Speaker 2: windbreaker and earpiece bills, and that there's wine and popcorn
Speaker 2: to buy for crime Andy's sake. So why was Blue
Speaker 2: Canopy funding this secret spy project?
Speaker 3: And there's no like those called the assassin hats.
Speaker 2: Those aren't all the assassin hats like they're very expensive
Speaker 2: these days. So Courtney is like tells the investment firm
Speaker 2: that the money couldn't come directly from the government, that
Speaker 2: there had to be plausible deniability if A two fourteen
Speaker 2: got found out, of course, so this investment firm had
Speaker 2: to be the one to wire Courtney the money. But
Speaker 2: no worries someone's going to wire them two point five
Speaker 2: million on behalf of the government. They're going to make
Speaker 2: money on the risk. But here's my thing. Did no
Speaker 2: one at this investment firm ask why the third party
Speaker 2: wiring them the two point five million? Couldn't wire Courtney
Speaker 2: the money.
Speaker 3: Or like, could I get like a purchase order or
Speaker 3: some kind of like paperwork maybe like.
Speaker 2: A well a wire train if you asked for paperwork.
Speaker 2: He had official looking paperwork, and it would be so
Speaker 2: cool to be involved in a secret spy organization. They
Speaker 2: watch Scandal. Oh yeah, they're like, all right, it's worth
Speaker 2: the risk.
Speaker 3: They go to work with their phone on their hip.
Speaker 3: They're like, I want to pull.
Speaker 2: This boy Houlster for that. Yes, they totally guys got
Speaker 2: the Oakley's on the loa. So he had this official
Speaker 2: looking document. He's holding meetings in a skiff. Government officials there,
Speaker 2: they're like, deal, all right. So the investment firm wires
Speaker 2: one point nine million to Blue Canopy, who didn't care
Speaker 2: that the money was coming from some lawyer's escrow account.
Speaker 2: So it made sense. You know, it's like spy stuff.
Speaker 2: It's going to come. You know, it will come as
Speaker 2: no surprise that the investment company was never paid. What yeah,
Speaker 2: I know, crazy, huh. So twenty fifteen, the government finally
Speaker 2: opens an investigation into Garrison Courtney, and they finally spoke
Speaker 2: to the guy who got so check cheesed off that
Speaker 2: he made a website. But there was a problem. Courtney
Speaker 2: had convinced these people. Hell, by the.
Speaker 3: Way, the guy with the website that's easy to find,
Speaker 3: like all type in his name, but he's using all
Speaker 3: these fake names so people can't find Yeah.
Speaker 2: He is, he's clouding the fake names. So but he Okay,
Speaker 2: he's convinced all these people that he's deep undercovered, sure,
Speaker 2: and that A two fourteen is the most sensitive of
Speaker 2: sensitive operations. And you're very lucky that he'll tell you
Speaker 2: about it, like I'll tell you because you're amazing.
Speaker 3: Command doesn't like you to talk exactly.
Speaker 2: Knowing about it could get them killed.
Speaker 3: Karen, I'm putting you in danger even mentioning it.
Speaker 2: That's right. So a lot of the companies he bamboozled
Speaker 2: they wouldn't talk to the FEDS because they felt that
Speaker 2: they had quote a legal and patriotic duty to remain silent,
Speaker 2: perfect marks right, And this goes above this is above
Speaker 2: the president.
Speaker 3: They don't ask questions, they believe what they want to believe,
Speaker 3: and they tell themselves a story. He doesn't even need
Speaker 3: to tell them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, decisely.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: January twenty sixteen, the FBI serves as subpoena to one
Speaker 2: of the companies that where he had a job.
Speaker 3: Jobs.
Speaker 2: He finds out and he tries to stop it. So
Speaker 2: he what does he do? He goes and tries to
Speaker 2: get a two fourteen legitimized under National security law. He's
Speaker 2: just gonna make it real.
Speaker 3: What how under who's aegis Like, I don't well.
Speaker 2: A government memo later said, quote, it is chilling to
Speaker 2: consider what the defendant could have accomplished. Yes, that's serious
Speaker 2: B six thirteen s.
Speaker 3: Yes, if he actually did manage to get the clarence
Speaker 3: and then become confidential, he actually would be able to
Speaker 3: erase a lot of his trial and then people he
Speaker 3: would be above the law.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he almost makes it.
Speaker 2: He gets called up to the Pentagon, Oh my goodness,
Speaker 2: and the Air Force's highest ranking intelligence officer, Lieutenant General
Speaker 2: Robert Otto, wants to meet with him. They already knew
Speaker 2: each other because Courtney had come to AUTO a year
Speaker 2: before with his scam. He tried to scam the highest
Speaker 2: ranking intelligence officer in the Air Force, and so AUTO
Speaker 2: at the time like when he hears this, it sounded
Speaker 2: fishy to him. He tells him, kicks, I'm not interested.
Speaker 2: But now Auto's reaching out to him. So super spy
Speaker 2: Garrison Courtney He's like, this is great. He finally figured
Speaker 2: it out. I can rope this dude in I can
Speaker 2: get some leverage cards. Zaron, he could not close your eyes.
Speaker 2: I'm just kidding. So Courtney he meets with Auto and
Speaker 2: Auto is wearing a wire for the FBI. So Courtney
Speaker 2: he starts bragging about how he'd had a meeting at
Speaker 2: the White House with the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.
Speaker 2: What kind of meeting He's like, oh, you know, like stuff,
Speaker 2: And the FBI told the general to ask some specific
Speaker 2: questions to try and trap Courtney. So, for example, one
Speaker 2: of them, who is your boss at the CIA? Courtney says,
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's how it is.
Speaker 2: Many questions they start to make Courtney think that maybe
Speaker 2: his goose was coicked. So he got out of there
Speaker 2: and he tried to figure out his next move. He
Speaker 2: goes to one of the government officials that he duped
Speaker 2: into believing a two fourteen he is real, and he
Speaker 2: tells them, you've got to shut down this FBI investigation,
Speaker 2: and then he calls some of the companies he's working
Speaker 2: with and says, don't cooperate with the FBI like that
Speaker 2: there you know. It's it's like they're they're going to
Speaker 2: feel like they're part of a spy operation.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, just like mentioned Paul Maniford. They're like, oh,
Speaker 3: Man's happening. We got to protect that.
Speaker 2: So, in a pretty scandal esque move, that official in
Speaker 2: Courtney then met with the FBI demandingly stop the investigation
Speaker 2: like they're investigating. He goes, He's like you have to
Speaker 2: you have to drop it, and the FBI like thinks
Speaker 2: about it for like thirty seconds, is like.
Speaker 3: No, yeah, no, we don't do that.
Speaker 2: This is according to the Justice Department quote. Among other things,
Speaker 2: Courtney caused a public official to attempt to prevent a
Speaker 2: private company from responding to a grand jury subpoena. Caused
Speaker 2: a civilian attorney with the Air Force to contact one
Speaker 2: of the prosecutors on the case in an attempt to
Speaker 2: read that prosecutor into the bogus program, thereby freezing the investigation.
Speaker 2: Caused a public official to threaten FBI agents investigating this
Speaker 2: case with themselves being prosecuted if they did not drop
Speaker 2: the investigation. Falsely told victims who had questioned his legitimacy
Speaker 2: that they were about to be arrested by the FBI
Speaker 2: for supposedly leaking classified information. Used unwitting public officials to
Speaker 2: feed the names of innocent witnesses to the FBI in
Speaker 2: the hopes that the FBI would seek to prosecute those
Speaker 2: innocent persons for supposedly leaking classified information, thereby diverting attention
Speaker 2: from himself.
Speaker 3: He so basically he's on a getaway wagon and throwing
Speaker 3: people off the web and helping them.
Speaker 2: Well, the FBI, though, they're like, no, not going to happen.
Speaker 2: They raid his house, of course, and then they tell
Speaker 2: his wife that he's under investigation. He corney tells his wife, though, no,
Speaker 2: it's a case of mistaken identity and that totally unrelated.
Speaker 2: We need to all move to Tampa. But like, guess what,
Speaker 2: the FBI knows where Tampa is, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Like so related?
Speaker 2: Yes, So while in Tampa, Courtney starts calling himself Bear Pearson. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Bear Bear Bear b a e r oh Bear Pearson.
Speaker 2: He gets a job with Huntington Ingles Industry, a military shipbuilder.
Speaker 2: Sure why and he lets them in on a secret.
Speaker 2: You know you shouldn't tell him this, But he was
Speaker 2: deep undercover for the CIA. But my cover got blown,
Speaker 2: is what he tells him. But hiring me would mean
Speaker 2: you'd have access to huge government contracts. Great, huh, like
Speaker 2: what a favor I could do? So in twenty.
Speaker 3: Nineteen and shoehorn, what shoe do you want to go in? Show?
Speaker 2: In the twenty nineteen the FBI drops in on him again.
Speaker 2: They tell him they have enough evidence to press charges now.
Speaker 2: And one government official who fell for his whole act
Speaker 2: made a guess estimated that with the commercial cover of
Speaker 2: thirty five plus companies, what get thirty five five more
Speaker 2: than thirty five jobs at once, he would conservatively be
Speaker 2: making two point twenty five million dollars a.
Speaker 3: Year easily conservatively.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the government they reached out to hunt well,
Speaker 2: because that's the thing is that they if he has
Speaker 2: thirty more than thirty five jobs, say it's thirty five jobs,
Speaker 2: he can tell them, oh, you don't have to pay me.
Speaker 3: That may like twenty grand a year. Yeah, and I'll
Speaker 3: be forty grand.
Speaker 2: I'm good, you know what, I don't even need benefits
Speaker 2: and they're like, all right, that's.
Speaker 3: I got vision from his other p and I can
Speaker 3: get a two.
Speaker 2: Million dollar contract. Yeah, that's great. So the government they
Speaker 2: reached out to Huntington Ingles Industries in twenty twenty and
Speaker 2: they tell them all about their employee Bear, and so
Speaker 2: he resigns, immediately resigns. In June of twenty two, he
Speaker 2: pleads guilty to one count of wiref and then he
Speaker 2: admitted to defrauding at least twelve companies of over four
Speaker 2: point four million. His lawyer told the court that Courtney
Speaker 2: had only taken a million dollars for himself because he
Speaker 2: had that all that debt and the rest had gone
Speaker 2: to quote maintaining the fraud. Oh here's the thing, though,
Speaker 2: the prosecution said that he had another nearly four billion
Speaker 2: with a b as in Beyonce in upcoming military contracts
Speaker 2: million set up and because he cooperated, he avoided criminal charges.
Speaker 3: He was released on cooperated from who else do they
Speaker 3: want to get?
Speaker 2: He was released on twenty five thousand dollars bond fitted
Speaker 2: with an ankle monitoring while he's awaiting sentencing. In a
Speaker 2: letter to the judge, he said it was a scheme
Speaker 2: that had just gotten out of control.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Think while he's out on bail, he gets a job
Speaker 2: at Pizza Hut to try and pay some bills, and
Speaker 2: I doubt that they pay as well as a defense contractor.
Speaker 2: Pizza Hut workers deserve to be paid defense contractor wages.
Speaker 3: They do. You'd be surprised how many spies you run into.
Speaker 2: I haven't had Pizza Hut in decades, but I will
Speaker 2: go on records saying that they need to make defense
Speaker 2: contractor money. No further questions at this time. So remember
Speaker 2: Huntington Ingles Industries.
Speaker 3: Forget them.
Speaker 2: I feel like they're fake too. Like anyway, they asked
Speaker 2: the government for a real classified briefing to understand Courtney's fraud.
Speaker 2: They wanted their turn in the skiffs erin and they
Speaker 2: wanted it to be real, magical, authentic, But give me
Speaker 2: the real experience that I was promised. Somehow, Courtney finds
Speaker 2: out about their request for a classified meeting. Pizza Hut
Speaker 2: was his B six thirteen cover. He called an attorney
Speaker 2: for Huntington Ingles Industry and said he was someone named
Speaker 2: Devon Asimoria from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Speaker 2: OH Devon Hut he told the lawyer he was calling
Speaker 2: to set up a meeting for company executives to be
Speaker 2: read in to the classified program. They would of course
Speaker 2: have to sign NDA's and they couldn't tell anyone about
Speaker 2: any of this. That they'd all get together in McLean
Speaker 2: you know, CIA headquarters, the mothership. So everyone involved in
Speaker 2: this had learned to be suspicious, a lesson that I
Speaker 2: learned as a child. But apparently they had to come
Speaker 2: around to this. Someone from huntingdon Ingles Industries got with
Speaker 2: investigators to confirm the meeting. Finally turns out that no
Speaker 2: one named Devin Asimoria works at the Office of the
Speaker 2: Director of National Intelligence.
Speaker 3: Can you believe that, JOCKAMAI.
Speaker 2: So they looked at the phone records and they traced
Speaker 2: the caller's number to an Internet address assigned to Garrison
Speaker 2: Courtney's house. He should have called from Pizza Hut. So
Speaker 2: his bail, as you can guess, was revoked. He had
Speaker 2: to cool his heels in the clink until sentencing, and
Speaker 2: that happened in October twenty twenty who he was sentenced
Speaker 2: to seven years in prison. Really, that's where he is
Speaker 2: right now. He also has to pay back four point
Speaker 2: formula dollars, and it should be noted at this point
Speaker 2: his wife divorced him. I was guessing, Yeah, she's either
Speaker 2: so Zaren, what's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 3: I didn't try hard enough. I mean, like, just where
Speaker 3: are roads diverged in that snow? We would I'm sorry
Speaker 3: to question I could he lived with such an interesting
Speaker 3: life's agency. I mean, like, come on, I would have
Speaker 3: been so good inventing a spy agency. Man, I'm just envious.
Speaker 3: But also I'm always blown away by this, Like how
Speaker 3: I mentioned it earlier. Basically, it's how easy it is
Speaker 3: to make someone like to get over their gollibility, or
Speaker 3: to basically weaponize their go ability against them, or to
Speaker 3: get over their their critical thinking skills and get them
Speaker 3: to no longer be critical at all. With the no
Speaker 3: longer questioning, they're just trying to make sense of things. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it happens rather quickly. You see it, like in in
Speaker 3: religion or culture where the people but this is that
Speaker 3: same place where it's they're moving from a place of belief.
Speaker 3: They're not thinking, they're just going all this makes it.
Speaker 3: I believe that he's this. I believe this is how
Speaker 3: the world works. I believe spy. I mean, that's what
Speaker 3: they're operating by, is their beliefs. And so how hard
Speaker 3: is it? But yet if you talk to them, they
Speaker 3: would all think that they were very savvy. They listen,
Speaker 3: they waited until he had he used the right language.
Speaker 3: I'm like, sir, if you could be convinced by the
Speaker 3: right language, is it the right language exactly?
Speaker 2: Well, And you know, in case you were wondering, let
Speaker 2: me tell you my take, Elizabeth. I you know, everyone
Speaker 2: wants to be involved in something cool, be involved in something.
Speaker 3: I learned this in Hollywood. That's the power of being on.
Speaker 2: The inside, that yeah, that you know something that no
Speaker 2: one else does. And but I'm shocked of all these
Speaker 2: people who've been in intelligence for thirty years. But we
Speaker 2: think about all these con men, con artists that we've
Speaker 2: seen on the show, who are able to just swindle
Speaker 2: people by their their charm.
Speaker 3: And their magnifice flash of a badge.
Speaker 2: Well, but also there's just a certain quality within some
Speaker 2: people that you can get, you know, others to do
Speaker 2: whatever they want. And so you know, I think that's
Speaker 2: it's a curious combination. He hit a sweet spot that's
Speaker 2: amazing to convince people at the level that he did.
Speaker 3: But they don't expect somebody to con them, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. So they're not he knows this stuff.
Speaker 3: He does that, so they don't have to actually think
Speaker 3: about it. They're all excusing themselves from ever being critical
Speaker 3: because he fits in.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is a want the scandal.
Speaker 3: No, that's why I don't believe anything I see.
Speaker 2: I believe nothing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my father kind of taught me that with Peekaboo.
Speaker 3: From that point on, I've been skeptical exactly.
Speaker 2: I think what I need right now is a talkback David. Oh,
Speaker 2: oh my god, Ie.
Speaker 4: Nope, nope, there you shut up, shut up, Let Elizabeth
Speaker 4: do it.
Speaker 2: Just go.
Speaker 4: No, it's I'm laughing. You don't stop her. Oh her
Speaker 4: beautiful Elizabeth, You're beautiful.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: Rendition of the German Oh good, That obviously what I
Speaker 4: think of when I think of a German official. Okay,
Speaker 4: Dutch spot up.
Speaker 3: I have to tell myself once again, Montuta Burnett. One
Speaker 3: doesn't do that. One does I apologize about that. I
Speaker 3: don't know where my head was at. Okay, Fanny got
Speaker 3: that beautiful German lab.
Speaker 2: That's about it for today. You can find us online
Speaker 2: at ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also at ridiculous Crime
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Speaker 2: Crime at gmail dot com and leave a talk back
Speaker 2: the iHeart app, or you know, just.
Speaker 3: In some way reach out tell me to shut up
Speaker 3: on the iHeart app. I Like that.
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnett,
Speaker 2: produced and edited by shondaland Shadow CEO Dave Kusten, starring
Speaker 2: Emilie Rep as Judith. Research is by C eight thirty
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