WEBVTT - 10. Aging Boy of Summer 0:00:15.036 --> 0:00:22.036 Pushkin Hey, Lost Hills listeners, it's Dana. I wanted to 0:00:22.076 --> 0:00:24.196 let you know that you can hear the entire new 0:00:24.236 --> 0:00:27.596 season of Lost Hills ad free, along with other great 0:00:27.596 --> 0:00:31.836 binge listens by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. Find Pushkin 0:00:31.916 --> 0:00:35.156 Plus on the Lost Hills Show page in Apple Podcasts, 0:00:35.316 --> 0:00:39.476 or at pushkin dot fm slash plus. 0:00:44.556 --> 0:00:47.436 He used to call me when I'm back in California. 0:00:47.836 --> 0:00:50.796 Half the conversations, some guys were wondering about who was 0:00:50.836 --> 0:00:53.036 out trying to get him with the FPI looking for him. 0:00:53.396 --> 0:00:55.356 Don't talk to so and so, don't tell so and 0:00:55.396 --> 0:00:56.636 so where I am. 0:00:57.276 --> 0:01:01.596 Kevin Naughton and Craig Peterson, the Surfer magazine photojournalists, kept 0:01:01.636 --> 0:01:04.196 in touch with Mickey after they left France in nineteen 0:01:04.236 --> 0:01:08.676 seventy eight, or he kept in touch with them. He'd 0:01:08.716 --> 0:01:11.476 always call from a certain phone booth. 0:01:12.116 --> 0:01:14.916 The phone booth was in in a was it bi 0:01:14.996 --> 0:01:15.356 own on. 0:01:15.316 --> 0:01:18.516 Board main Telecommunications and Biota. 0:01:18.436 --> 0:01:22.516 Right outside the main telecommunications building in byone, and it's 0:01:22.556 --> 0:01:24.836 a classic phone booth. And you would go in there 0:01:24.876 --> 0:01:28.196 and put in your frank pieces of coin and in 0:01:28.236 --> 0:01:31.236 there and try to dial internationally to different places. 0:01:31.316 --> 0:01:34.676 Remember Craig. There was a couple of dozen phone booths outside. 0:01:34.316 --> 0:01:39.236 The building, but Mickey's phone booth didn't work like other telephones. 0:01:40.076 --> 0:01:41.276 There was a trick to. 0:01:41.236 --> 0:01:44.516 It, but Mickey showed us the one that if you 0:01:44.676 --> 0:01:46.996 did it a certain putting your coins a certain way, 0:01:47.276 --> 0:01:49.276 and as the coin was dropping down, you hit it 0:01:49.356 --> 0:01:52.236 like on the side of the machine twice and once 0:01:52.276 --> 0:01:55.236 at the bottom or something, then it would be unlimited 0:01:55.516 --> 0:01:56.476 time on the phone. 0:01:58.596 --> 0:02:02.196 That phone booth by the main telecommunications building in Bayone 0:02:02.596 --> 0:02:04.876 was the way Mickey kept in touch with his network 0:02:04.956 --> 0:02:05.796 around the world. 0:02:06.236 --> 0:02:07.996 He would only go late at night when there was 0:02:08.036 --> 0:02:11.476 no one else around, and he liked to do it 0:02:11.476 --> 0:02:13.116 in the secret like that, you know, and be the 0:02:13.156 --> 0:02:16.156 guy making these calls, probably because of some time zone 0:02:16.236 --> 0:02:16.836 changes too. 0:02:17.636 --> 0:02:22.756 What he didn't realize was that he was being watched. 0:02:23.796 --> 0:02:27.516 He kept going there regularly at night and that after 0:02:27.596 --> 0:02:31.036 a while it aroused his suspicion of the French authorities. 0:02:31.516 --> 0:02:35.196 There were bass Separatists very active around the French Spanish 0:02:35.196 --> 0:02:36.156 border at that time. 0:02:36.956 --> 0:02:41.636 The Basque Separatists, a militant leftist group seeking independence from Spain, 0:02:41.996 --> 0:02:45.916 had carried out a number of high profile robberies kidnappings 0:02:45.956 --> 0:02:48.796 and terror attacks in the region, so the. 0:02:48.756 --> 0:02:51.916 Authorities thought, you know, if they're going to blow up something, 0:02:51.916 --> 0:02:54.436 it might be the telecommunications buildings, so let's keep an 0:02:54.436 --> 0:02:56.716 eye on it. Of course, Then after a while they 0:02:56.796 --> 0:02:59.396 noticed this guy end of showing up in his van 0:03:00.156 --> 0:03:02.996 the Florida going to this back to the well, what's 0:03:03.036 --> 0:03:05.356 he doing at this same phone making all these calls? 0:03:05.796 --> 0:03:08.036 You know. This went on for weeks and then months 0:03:08.076 --> 0:03:10.516 and going to gone and on, and they swooped in. 0:03:11.196 --> 0:03:13.796 One night he showed up, was making a call somewhere, 0:03:13.836 --> 0:03:18.516 and they busted him. And that was when all his 0:03:18.796 --> 0:03:22.556 past deeds caught up with him very quickly. Everything happened 0:03:22.596 --> 0:03:26.156 at once. They ran an international check on him, and 0:03:26.276 --> 0:03:29.996 it all came collapsed down his world, all because of 0:03:30.036 --> 0:03:32.796 this one little phone in France that he showed us 0:03:32.836 --> 0:03:35.036 that he just didn't know enough to stop using it, 0:03:35.116 --> 0:03:37.436 and he kept going back to it. And that's the 0:03:37.516 --> 0:03:39.596 single frank that led to his downfall. 0:03:42.676 --> 0:03:46.156 Mickey was busted in May of nineteen eighty one. He'd 0:03:46.196 --> 0:03:50.396 been a fugitive for nearly seven years now. He was 0:03:50.476 --> 0:03:54.436 headed for a moldy French jail cell and he was 0:03:54.556 --> 0:03:58.716 one step closer to seeing his long lost California coast, 0:03:59.716 --> 0:04:04.196 courtesy of the FBI, which couldn't wait to bring him home. 0:04:08.396 --> 0:04:38.516 I'm Dana go Year and this is Lost Hills episode ten, 0:04:39.476 --> 0:04:40.876 Aging Boy of Summer. 0:04:44.636 --> 0:04:47.876 Okay, here's a here's a box full of eight hundred 0:04:47.876 --> 0:04:52.076 pages of the FBI file. Enter at your OSK. 0:04:54.836 --> 0:04:58.036 This is David Renson again, the journalist who wrote the 0:04:58.036 --> 0:05:01.676 definitive oral history of Mickey Dora's life. 0:05:02.076 --> 0:05:04.916 I moved to California in nineteen sixty four with my family. 0:05:05.436 --> 0:05:09.796 Before I left, some young classmate said you'll be able 0:05:09.796 --> 0:05:14.316 to go surfing. I said, what's that? And so I 0:05:14.516 --> 0:05:18.636 got aboard and went with my friends, and I started 0:05:18.676 --> 0:05:22.156 reading the genre magazines in sixty four and sixty five, 0:05:22.876 --> 0:05:29.036 Surf Guide, Surfer, International Surfing. So that's how I discovered Mickey. 0:05:30.156 --> 0:05:33.596 He's been fascinated by Mickey Dora ever since he moved 0:05:33.636 --> 0:05:35.756 to southern California from New Jersey. 0:05:36.956 --> 0:05:38.756 I found out that, you know, from reading these magazines, 0:05:38.796 --> 0:05:41.876 he disappeared in nineteen seventy four, and so all of 0:05:41.956 --> 0:05:45.276 us wondered would happened. The rumors were always a lawyer 0:05:45.276 --> 0:05:49.956 in Century City. You know, he's living with the third 0:05:49.996 --> 0:05:54.556 Reich escapees in Argentina. He's doing this, He's doing that. 0:05:54.676 --> 0:05:55.676 Nobody knew. 0:05:56.316 --> 0:05:59.636 From most of the nineteen seventies. There were only rumors, 0:06:00.116 --> 0:06:02.756 all of them added to the Mickey Dora mythology. 0:06:03.876 --> 0:06:07.756 And then in nineteen eighty two, I saw a clip 0:06:08.036 --> 0:06:11.796 that said famous surfer health in Denver for credit card 0:06:11.876 --> 0:06:13.876 fraud Mickey Dora. 0:06:15.156 --> 0:06:19.276 Not only was Mickey Dora not a lawyer in Century City, 0:06:19.316 --> 0:06:21.916 he was about to be an inmate in federal prison. 0:06:22.996 --> 0:06:26.356 David was working for California Magazine at the time. He 0:06:26.436 --> 0:06:30.556 pitched his editor a profile of Mickey Mickey the felon, 0:06:31.716 --> 0:06:34.836 and he submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to 0:06:34.916 --> 0:06:35.556 the FBI. 0:06:36.836 --> 0:06:39.076 Water Coffee, he will say. 0:06:40.476 --> 0:06:43.476 I'm sitting at David's dining room table, looking out a 0:06:43.476 --> 0:06:47.356 big window at the ocean. On a chair, there's a 0:06:47.396 --> 0:06:51.836 box containing all the documentation of the criminal investigations into 0:06:51.836 --> 0:06:58.156 Mickey Dora. The FBI's file on Mickey Dora is eight 0:06:58.316 --> 0:07:02.796 hundred and seventy six pages long. That's a little longer 0:07:02.796 --> 0:07:06.876 than the FBI's file on the Zodiac Killer, and not 0:07:07.076 --> 0:07:11.596 much shorter than its file on and Clyde. But the 0:07:11.676 --> 0:07:16.276 contents of Mickey's file are a whole lot of nothing, 0:07:17.516 --> 0:07:21.276 eight hundred and seventy six pages of tracking and minutely 0:07:21.316 --> 0:07:26.476 documenting the worldwide travels of a surfer who had number 0:07:26.516 --> 0:07:31.316 one stolen some ski equipment and antiques and violated his probation. 0:07:32.516 --> 0:07:37.236 Number two allegedly filed false information on a passport application 0:07:37.836 --> 0:07:41.476 for a passport that was never issued, and number three 0:07:42.156 --> 0:07:50.276 defrauded the Diners Club while on said worldwide travels. David 0:07:50.276 --> 0:07:53.556 walks me through the first case, the ski equipment stolen 0:07:53.596 --> 0:07:56.116 from a shop in Mammoth in Mono County. 0:07:56.956 --> 0:08:00.756 Charges abroad. I believe he missed a few court dates, 0:08:01.316 --> 0:08:05.796 got there, finally pled guilty. You know, Judge Harry Roberts 0:08:06.836 --> 0:08:10.916 set up the repayment schedule, plus came on need credit 0:08:10.956 --> 0:08:16.076 cards and need permission to leave California. 0:08:16.276 --> 0:08:19.756 But instead of sticking around and doing what he was told. 0:08:20.476 --> 0:08:22.116 He applies for a passport in the name of a 0:08:22.156 --> 0:08:22.596 dead guy. 0:08:23.796 --> 0:08:25.036 So then he's on the run. 0:08:25.876 --> 0:08:27.156 So then he's on the run. 0:08:28.516 --> 0:08:32.156 That's the second case, the passport application in the name 0:08:32.196 --> 0:08:35.796 of Richard Austin Roach Junior. And that's what caught the 0:08:35.836 --> 0:08:40.556 attention of the FBI, and once they started looking at Mickey. 0:08:41.116 --> 0:08:45.796 They couldn't take their eyes off him. They interviewed people 0:08:46.036 --> 0:08:49.236 up and down the coast of California, staked out Mickey's 0:08:49.276 --> 0:08:56.716 father's house, intercepted mail agents, spent years interviewing his friend's family, x'es, 0:08:57.076 --> 0:09:02.636 and his quote blood enemies. In particular, they focused on surfers. 0:09:03.436 --> 0:09:07.116 Interviewing sources in Malibu and other beach cities, they got 0:09:07.156 --> 0:09:11.556 an earful about quote, the surfing god. They call him 0:09:11.556 --> 0:09:16.236 the cat. One informant told the FBI because quote, no 0:09:16.276 --> 0:09:18.396 one knows when he's coming or going. 0:09:19.556 --> 0:09:22.436 Yeah, this is all this stuff is just this route 0:09:22.516 --> 0:09:25.196 up the Where's Mickey? What's going on with Mickey? Where's Mickey? 0:09:25.916 --> 0:09:31.596 Some people know knew, but the interview is family and friends. 0:09:32.276 --> 0:09:34.996 Please let us know if you hear from him. It's 0:09:34.996 --> 0:09:39.156 illegal to harbor a criminal. People would either say I 0:09:39.196 --> 0:09:42.236 wouldn't tell you if I did know, or you know, 0:09:42.396 --> 0:09:45.156 just put out a bag of jewels in the center 0:09:45.196 --> 0:09:48.076 of the square and the Mickey door, A snake will 0:09:48.116 --> 0:09:49.316 slither out and grab it. 0:09:50.636 --> 0:09:54.876 One FBI informant offered to provide information on Mickey, quote 0:09:55.076 --> 0:09:58.996 for the right price. Another went on at length about 0:09:58.996 --> 0:10:03.996 illegal operations Mickey was supposedly the mastermind of jewelry heists 0:10:04.036 --> 0:10:08.636 in Central and South America, smuggling counterfeit US currency from 0:10:08.676 --> 0:10:14.836 Singapore to New Zealand and Australia. According to another FBI source, 0:10:15.036 --> 0:10:18.676 Mickey had been smuggling drugs into New Zealand using quote 0:10:18.996 --> 0:10:24.236 hollowed out surfboards. The more the FBI asked around about Mickey, 0:10:24.876 --> 0:10:30.596 the more interested they got. Agents had been keeping close 0:10:30.716 --> 0:10:33.756 tabs on Linda Kai when she was traveling with Mickey. 0:10:34.556 --> 0:10:37.436 When she left Mickey and came back to California, they 0:10:37.476 --> 0:10:39.036 swooped and. 0:10:39.156 --> 0:10:42.276 I was sick. I'd just come back from somewhere I 0:10:42.276 --> 0:10:44.396 can't remember where now, some long trip. 0:10:45.036 --> 0:10:47.116 She was recuperating at her parents' house. 0:10:47.796 --> 0:10:49.276 I was in the front room and the dog was 0:10:49.356 --> 0:10:51.836 barking like nuts. There was some guy ran around through 0:10:51.876 --> 0:10:54.156 the back gate to be sure nobody was back there 0:10:54.196 --> 0:10:57.636 with a gun drawn. And a guy comes to the front, 0:10:57.756 --> 0:11:03.556 you know, plain clothes, and he goes, where's Mickey door here? 0:11:04.836 --> 0:11:07.076 And I said, no, he doesn't live here, why would 0:11:07.076 --> 0:11:12.076 he be here. Well, you're Linda right and Nicai and 0:11:12.116 --> 0:11:15.916 I said yes, And he said, well, we almost caught 0:11:15.916 --> 0:11:18.756 you in Kenya. And I was like, well, I don't 0:11:18.756 --> 0:11:20.036 know anything about any of that. 0:11:20.236 --> 0:11:20.436 You know. 0:11:21.076 --> 0:11:22.756 He says, yeah, we caught, we were close. 0:11:24.476 --> 0:11:29.036 Oh okay. I was like, what else? 0:11:29.076 --> 0:11:31.276 I said, I'm not feeling real good, you know, I'm sick. 0:11:31.356 --> 0:11:31.556 You know. 0:11:32.196 --> 0:11:35.436 He goes, where's Mickey? And I said, I don't know. 0:11:35.596 --> 0:11:38.636 I said, I haven't seen him at all. And it 0:11:38.716 --> 0:11:41.596 was just a real like a quick kind of scarer 0:11:41.596 --> 0:11:44.356 and you know, I said, you don't need to have guns, 0:11:44.396 --> 0:11:47.116 you know, come on, this is scary. 0:11:47.196 --> 0:11:48.596 And did you call Mickey right away? 0:11:49.076 --> 0:11:50.116 There's no where to call. 0:11:50.476 --> 0:11:52.996 Where was he? I have no idea, so you really 0:11:52.996 --> 0:11:53.916 didn't know where he was. 0:11:53.996 --> 0:11:54.076 No. 0:11:55.436 --> 0:12:00.076 The FBI also visited Jim Kempton. He's now the president 0:12:00.116 --> 0:12:03.316 of the California Surf Museum, but back then he was 0:12:03.476 --> 0:12:05.436 editing Surfer magazine. 0:12:05.756 --> 0:12:07.196 I got a visit from the FBI. 0:12:08.396 --> 0:12:10.956 First, the agent showed up at his parents' house. 0:12:11.716 --> 0:12:14.036 And of course, my parents, being you know, the greatest 0:12:14.036 --> 0:12:16.636 generation forties people, immediately told him right where I was. 0:12:17.076 --> 0:12:19.876 You're right, not like, oh you don't know, you know, like, oh, no, 0:12:19.916 --> 0:12:21.316 my son lives right down here. You'll be able to 0:12:21.356 --> 0:12:23.236 find him right away. No, assuming that, like I was 0:12:23.396 --> 0:12:26.276 a total good guy, you know, which probably wasn't the 0:12:26.316 --> 0:12:30.636 greatest assumption to make. But so they came and they 0:12:30.676 --> 0:12:33.316 asked me all about Mickey and what I knew, and 0:12:33.436 --> 0:12:36.316 I went out of my way to give them as 0:12:36.356 --> 0:12:39.836 little information as I possibly could without lying to them, 0:12:39.876 --> 0:12:41.916 because I knew that lying with the FBI was a crime, 0:12:42.036 --> 0:12:44.876 so I wasn't going to tell him anything untrue, but 0:12:44.956 --> 0:12:47.756 I was I was going to I don't recall as 0:12:47.796 --> 0:12:50.436 many times as I could, or I don't know as 0:12:50.436 --> 0:12:54.756 many times as I could without being obvious, but Mickey 0:12:54.876 --> 0:12:55.596 heard about it. 0:12:57.636 --> 0:12:59.876 For a guy hiding out in a van in the 0:12:59.916 --> 0:13:02.676 south of France, Mickey was pretty connected. 0:13:03.916 --> 0:13:07.476 So a few weeks later at Surfer magazine, this box 0:13:07.596 --> 0:13:14.276 arrives that I open. It's from Mickey, dressed on the 0:13:14.316 --> 0:13:17.796 outside so i'd be sure to open it right. And 0:13:18.076 --> 0:13:25.836 it's a dried turn with a relatively threatening note in it. 0:13:26.636 --> 0:13:30.796 And all it did was really make me angry, because 0:13:32.036 --> 0:13:33.956 it made me angry that he would think that I 0:13:33.956 --> 0:13:39.596 would do that, and the fact that I had gone 0:13:39.596 --> 0:13:41.596 out of my way not to do that and wasn't 0:13:41.636 --> 0:13:47.596 being credited by him for having protected his position was 0:13:47.716 --> 0:13:49.156 very aggravating. 0:13:48.596 --> 0:13:55.756 To me, the FBI seemed to really want Mickey, but why. 0:13:58.156 --> 0:14:06.116 I thought it was really interesting how vociferously the FBI 0:14:06.356 --> 0:14:11.756 pursued the Richard Austin roach thing. It seemed like, so 0:14:11.916 --> 0:14:17.596 what I mean, it's a crime and making a false statement. 0:14:17.596 --> 0:14:20.516 They would chase him all over the world and send 0:14:20.556 --> 0:14:24.276 all those telicxis back and forth, And that FBI file 0:14:24.516 --> 0:14:27.156 is heavy, heavy, heavy with that stuff. 0:14:28.836 --> 0:14:32.116 The alleged crime they wanted him for making a false 0:14:32.156 --> 0:14:35.156 statement in a passport application for a passport that was 0:14:35.236 --> 0:14:39.116 never issued, would have meant at the most five years 0:14:39.116 --> 0:14:41.916 in prison or a fine of a couple thousand dollars. 0:14:43.116 --> 0:14:48.716 It just doesn't seem to justify all this effort. And meanwhile, 0:14:49.236 --> 0:14:53.116 Mickey was denying he'd done anything wrong, So what was 0:14:53.196 --> 0:15:11.916 really going on. The third case against Mickey had to 0:15:11.956 --> 0:15:15.716 do with all those doctored credit cards Linda says they 0:15:15.716 --> 0:15:19.676 were using in their travels. The Diners Club was alleging 0:15:19.836 --> 0:15:24.156 large scale fraud, and Mickey, in absentia, had been indicted 0:15:24.236 --> 0:15:29.516 in federal court. By the late seventies, Mickey's father was 0:15:29.556 --> 0:15:34.116 speaking regularly to the FBI. He would sometimes confront Mickey 0:15:34.196 --> 0:15:39.676 with the allegations against him. Mickey insisted he was innocent. 0:15:41.036 --> 0:15:47.916 Mickey said he was being framed. Dear father, Mickey wrote 0:15:47.956 --> 0:15:50.916 to Miklosch, there is this creature by the name of 0:15:51.036 --> 0:15:55.556 Don Wilson, the poor man's dillinger of our times. This 0:15:55.676 --> 0:15:59.396 person is an escaped convict, a record of forgery, credit 0:15:59.436 --> 0:16:02.916 card theft, and many other offenses. I'm quite sure he's 0:16:02.956 --> 0:16:06.036 been dashing around the US and elsewhere using my checks 0:16:06.036 --> 0:16:12.796 and credit cards and identifications. Don Wilson the pirate captain, 0:16:13.716 --> 0:16:17.076 Linda's old con artist boyfriend who'd shown up at their 0:16:17.076 --> 0:16:22.076 doorstep in New Zealand. Mickey said Don was impersonating him, 0:16:22.556 --> 0:16:27.476 committing crimes in his name. According to a memo in 0:16:27.556 --> 0:16:32.036 Mickey's FBI file, Mieklos spoke to Mickey about the passport fraud, 0:16:32.676 --> 0:16:35.876 saying he'd seen the photo submitted with the passport application 0:16:36.156 --> 0:16:41.236 for Richard Austin Roch Junior, and he recognized Mickey. Mieklos 0:16:41.316 --> 0:16:44.236 told the agents that Mickey had said someone else must 0:16:44.276 --> 0:16:45.996 have done the fraud and was trying to put the 0:16:46.036 --> 0:16:49.316 blame on him. The memo goes on to state that 0:16:49.396 --> 0:16:52.076 Mickey claimed that back when he was living in Brentwood, 0:16:52.276 --> 0:16:55.796 an old friend from the Pacific Palisades. I e. Don 0:16:55.836 --> 0:16:59.516 Wilson had somehow gotten into his house and stolen his 0:16:59.556 --> 0:17:03.956 credit cards and some other documents. Don Wilson, Mickey said, 0:17:04.196 --> 0:17:07.796 was likely the person behind the passport fraud, and Don 0:17:07.876 --> 0:17:11.636 Wilson was probably the one using doctored credit cards with 0:17:11.676 --> 0:17:15.956 Mickey's name on them. Don had been pulling scams in 0:17:15.996 --> 0:17:23.396 Mickey's name, Mickey was the victim. It's intriguing, mostly because 0:17:23.436 --> 0:17:26.676 Mickey and Don seemed to sabotage each other whenever possible. 0:17:27.556 --> 0:17:31.556 But I struggle to believe that Don Wilson's mischief explains 0:17:31.796 --> 0:17:36.876 Mickey's legal trouble. Mickey's storage unit in New Zealand, for example, 0:17:37.516 --> 0:17:40.316 it was filled with one hundred thousand dollars worth of 0:17:40.396 --> 0:17:45.316 antiques and other valuables, twenty four used fake airline tickets, 0:17:45.716 --> 0:17:50.036 and sixty credit cards, many of them altered or defaced, 0:17:50.356 --> 0:17:54.196 that had been taken out in Dora's name. I don't 0:17:54.236 --> 0:17:57.916 think even the pirate captain could have managed to get 0:17:57.956 --> 0:18:04.276 inside Mickey's storage unit and plant that incriminating evidence. But 0:18:04.396 --> 0:18:07.876 there is something that doesn't make sense about the case 0:18:07.956 --> 0:18:13.676 against Mickey. Why is his file so fat? Why did 0:18:13.716 --> 0:18:18.436 agents trace his movements around the world on such flimsy 0:18:18.476 --> 0:18:24.756 and insignificant charges. Some people say the reason Mickey was 0:18:24.876 --> 0:18:29.236 so on their radar was because he was working for them. 0:18:30.196 --> 0:18:33.876 That he wasn't a target of the FBI. He was 0:18:34.076 --> 0:18:38.916 an asset. The file, all the dirt they gathered on him, 0:18:39.196 --> 0:18:44.236 the gossip and the rumors that was collateral. They let 0:18:44.316 --> 0:18:48.716 him run so far and for so long, not because 0:18:48.756 --> 0:18:52.316 they were inept and couldn't nab him, but because he 0:18:52.436 --> 0:18:57.596 was gathering useful information for them in India, Africa, Indonesia, 0:18:58.356 --> 0:19:01.436 everywhere he went on his search for the perfect wave. 0:19:03.476 --> 0:19:08.036 This theory turns the whole Mickey story inside out. 0:19:08.596 --> 0:19:12.356 David Ran, You've got all that stuff about people saying 0:19:12.396 --> 0:19:16.636 he wasn't really working for the FBI. You've heard of that. 0:19:17.956 --> 0:19:20.156 I don't know what to make of that, because I 0:19:20.236 --> 0:19:25.596 believe the idea was noticed how he ends up in 0:19:25.636 --> 0:19:28.636 these hotspots coincidentally. 0:19:29.596 --> 0:19:32.676 I'm tempted to think that this is pure myth making. 0:19:33.396 --> 0:19:38.236 Mickey's fanboys trying to glamorize his exploits give a James 0:19:38.236 --> 0:19:45.036 Bond varnish to Mickey's chintzy three card monty approach to life, 0:19:45.236 --> 0:19:48.556 but David says there's some reason to give credence to 0:19:48.596 --> 0:19:51.876 the idea that Mickey had a special status with the FBI. 0:19:53.236 --> 0:19:57.196 He says, while Mickey was still a fugitive, he'd somehow 0:19:57.236 --> 0:20:00.036 gotten access to his own FBI file. 0:20:02.196 --> 0:20:05.476 My friend Jerry said he was in Beeritz one day 0:20:06.076 --> 0:20:11.836 when before the the repatriation to America, and Mickey had 0:20:11.836 --> 0:20:15.676 his FBI file and said to Jerry, here, look at 0:20:15.716 --> 0:20:18.116 here it is. And Jerry said, I don't know how 0:20:18.156 --> 0:20:20.276 he got that. And he looked through it and he 0:20:20.316 --> 0:20:22.956 saw sorts of stuff that is obviously I don't know 0:20:22.956 --> 0:20:28.156 how Mickey got it, which leads to the I don't know. 0:20:28.516 --> 0:20:30.596 I think Jerry's telling the truth. And I talked to 0:20:30.596 --> 0:20:33.356 a friend of mine who's an FBI agent, who did 0:20:33.356 --> 0:20:37.956 describe to me that sometimes informants, you know, get some privileges, 0:20:38.436 --> 0:20:41.716 but no guarantees, you know, if they screw up, they 0:20:41.756 --> 0:20:49.036 could just it's just a total guess that it's possible 0:20:49.196 --> 0:20:52.396 Mickey cut a deal, But I don't know. 0:20:52.356 --> 0:20:54.956 Who or what would he have had info on that 0:20:54.996 --> 0:20:55.956 they wanted. 0:20:57.356 --> 0:21:02.996 Stolen passports, smuggling, drug smuggling, a credit card fraud. I 0:21:03.076 --> 0:21:06.236 don't know, but that's the nature of Mickey Dora, you 0:21:06.396 --> 0:21:08.876 never know what's true, or there. 0:21:08.796 --> 0:21:10.396 Could be a little tiny. 0:21:10.076 --> 0:21:13.196 Bit, so you took the words out of my mouth. 0:21:15.156 --> 0:21:18.436 Whatever the truth is about Mickey's relationship with the FBI, 0:21:19.236 --> 0:21:22.636 the longer he stayed in exile, the more he began 0:21:22.876 --> 0:21:29.276 to unravel. The records in Mickey's FBI file painted dark 0:21:29.316 --> 0:21:32.436 picture of his time and gettory. Leading up to his arrest, 0:21:33.516 --> 0:21:38.956 Linda told agents Mickey was quote totally paranoid and emotionally unstable, 0:21:39.356 --> 0:21:44.156 and that she was quote scared to death of him. Mickey, 0:21:44.236 --> 0:21:46.996 she said, had hidden her passport and her money to 0:21:47.036 --> 0:21:50.236 try to keep her from leaving. She told the agents 0:21:50.596 --> 0:21:55.316 she was done with him. Back in France in his 0:21:55.396 --> 0:22:01.956 green Mercedes Benz camper van, Mickey was losing it. Quote 0:22:02.236 --> 0:22:06.436 subject recently returned to France from South Africa, believed to 0:22:06.476 --> 0:22:10.156 be using altered expired passport in his own name, and 0:22:10.236 --> 0:22:16.916 believed heavily involved in narcotics. Unquote quote subject becoming paranoid 0:22:16.996 --> 0:22:23.396 and erratic unquote quote. Subject appears to be undergoing nervous breakdown, 0:22:23.596 --> 0:22:26.676 has alienated a number of friends, and believed to be 0:22:26.956 --> 0:22:34.676 financially desperate. Unquote. Mickey was arrested at the rigged phone 0:22:34.676 --> 0:22:38.236 booth in May of nineteen eighty one. His first instinct, 0:22:38.596 --> 0:22:42.036 formed of lifelong habit, was to try to get out 0:22:42.116 --> 0:22:42.356 of it. 0:22:44.076 --> 0:22:46.156 He said, well, you know, I'm just calling some friends 0:22:46.156 --> 0:22:50.716 and I put my fifty so teams in and I 0:22:50.716 --> 0:22:53.316 don't know, it doesn't ask for more money. 0:22:53.356 --> 0:22:57.076 This is Bob Simpson, an American lawyer who knew Mickey 0:22:57.156 --> 0:22:57.676 in France. 0:22:58.436 --> 0:23:00.396 So I just keep talking. I don't know what the 0:23:00.396 --> 0:23:01.996 problem is with this thing, but I use it all 0:23:02.036 --> 0:23:04.156 the time. I thought maybe this was made available for 0:23:04.156 --> 0:23:06.676 foreigners or something, so he made up all sorts of stories. 0:23:07.556 --> 0:23:11.196 The French police took Mickey to a damp stone prison 0:23:11.596 --> 0:23:14.196 known by locals as Villa Chagrin. 0:23:16.516 --> 0:23:19.636 They took him to jail in Bayjun, where he was 0:23:19.676 --> 0:23:24.436 for several months, and when they were there, the police 0:23:24.476 --> 0:23:27.956 discovered that he was wanted by Interpol and that there 0:23:28.036 --> 0:23:32.196 was an international arrest warrant out from the United States 0:23:32.196 --> 0:23:33.076 from California. 0:23:34.156 --> 0:23:37.916 According to Bob, they found eight fake passports with different 0:23:37.996 --> 0:23:41.636 names on them. Mickey no longer had a valid passport, 0:23:41.876 --> 0:23:44.996 and authorities in France gave him a choice go back 0:23:45.036 --> 0:23:47.996 to the United States and deal with the outstanding warrants 0:23:48.516 --> 0:23:51.756 or go to another country of his choice. 0:23:51.996 --> 0:23:56.396 He made the choice. As far as I know, Niklos 0:23:56.596 --> 0:24:00.116 convinced him to come back. It's some suggestion that get 0:24:00.156 --> 0:24:02.516 it over with now and it'll be okay. 0:24:03.796 --> 0:24:07.316 Mickey, after consulting some lawyers for the Rothschilds who were 0:24:07.356 --> 0:24:12.476 helping out, decided to surrender himself. Miklos sent him a 0:24:12.516 --> 0:24:16.716 first class ticket. He made a reservation on Air France 0:24:16.836 --> 0:24:21.236 flight zero zero three, NonStop from Paris to lax A. 0:24:21.396 --> 0:24:25.076 U S Marshal was dispatched to meet him. The US 0:24:25.076 --> 0:24:29.596 Marshal watched as every single passenger got off that plane 0:24:30.476 --> 0:24:37.636 and Mickey wasn't there. A few days later, the FBI's 0:24:37.796 --> 0:24:40.516 man in Paris sent a telex to the director of 0:24:40.556 --> 0:24:45.636 the FBI. Quote. It would appear that Dora, best described 0:24:45.676 --> 0:24:49.636 as a quintessential, albeit aging boy of summer on a 0:24:49.676 --> 0:24:53.876 perennial quest for the legendary ninth Wave, may have returned 0:24:53.916 --> 0:24:57.396 to Beurritz or some other surfing site instead of too 0:24:57.396 --> 0:25:01.876 Los Angeles as originally planned, given his surf compulsion and 0:25:02.076 --> 0:25:08.036 legendary lack of responsibility unquote. A short time later, the 0:25:08.116 --> 0:25:12.556 FBI learned Mickey had booked a new flight. The bureau 0:25:12.596 --> 0:25:20.316 telex noted quote Paris aware of Dora's hidonic pilgrimage. Magniloquently described, 0:25:20.356 --> 0:25:27.676 heretofore realized he may alter his plans unquote. Then the 0:25:27.876 --> 0:25:33.716 FBI lost track of him. The next bureau communication read 0:25:34.396 --> 0:25:40.316 quote Paris assumes Scintillating Sandor has surfed into the sunset 0:25:40.716 --> 0:25:47.476 and sunk unquote. Sandor was Mickey's middle name. The FBI's 0:25:47.556 --> 0:25:52.876 man in Paris was calling him Scintillating Sandor, an aging 0:25:52.996 --> 0:25:57.036 boy of summer with a legendary lack of responsibility on 0:25:57.116 --> 0:26:00.996 a quest for the ninth Wave. What is this guy 0:26:01.356 --> 0:26:04.756 his handler? He sounds more like a press agent than 0:26:04.796 --> 0:26:08.716 an FBI agent. And why is he so invested in 0:26:08.716 --> 0:26:13.396 Mickey's persona and his quest? Maybe Mickey was working for 0:26:13.476 --> 0:26:19.676 the FBI. Either way, they'd lost him. Mickey was in 0:26:19.836 --> 0:26:35.436 the wind. Micky Dora didn't surf into the sunset and sink, 0:26:36.036 --> 0:26:39.876 though he probably would have loved to. It took another 0:26:39.956 --> 0:26:43.636 two weeks, but Mickey did eventually arrive in Los Angeles 0:26:43.956 --> 0:26:47.836 on September one, nineteen eighty one. He was arrested by 0:26:47.836 --> 0:26:50.836 an FBI agent who took him to a medium security 0:26:50.916 --> 0:26:55.716 federal prison at Terminal Island. He was forty seven years old. 0:26:57.556 --> 0:26:59.876 The first thing Mickey had to do was go up 0:26:59.876 --> 0:27:03.956 to Mono County and face the judge. He was sentenced 0:27:03.956 --> 0:27:07.876 to three years in state prison, suspended he'd need to 0:27:07.876 --> 0:27:11.796 serve less than six months in county jail. In the 0:27:11.836 --> 0:27:16.836 passport case, the FBI's handwriting analysts failed to match Mickey's 0:27:16.876 --> 0:27:21.036 sample with the writing on the Richard Austin Rose Junior application. 0:27:22.076 --> 0:27:26.316 The fingerprint analysis failed too, so the case was dropped 0:27:26.836 --> 0:27:31.356 due to insufficient evidence. That just left the charge over 0:27:31.396 --> 0:27:34.796