Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Miss West. The letter stated, quote we told you before
Speaker 2: one thousand dollars or by god, we will get your
Speaker 2: face at Western and Sunset you personally acid burns. This
Speaker 2: was not the first time may West had run up
Speaker 2: against extortionists. In another instance, in nineteen twenty nine, The
Speaker 2: New York Times reported she paid three thousand dollars to
Speaker 2: quote stay out of trouble with Chicago gangsters who were
Speaker 2: threatening and terrorizing quote nationally known performers to hand over
Speaker 2: cash for their own good. It was bigger than actors, though.
Speaker 2: There were five major studios at the time, and they
Speaker 2: not only made movies but also distributed them through their
Speaker 2: own theater chains. Chicago gangster Frank Nitti. Since the Mob
Speaker 2: controlled the Hollywood unions, the mob would also be able
Speaker 2: to run a racket extorting theaters around the United States,
Speaker 2: and they did. Plus they targeted actors, producers, executives, everyone.
Speaker 2: By nineteen forty three, Nitty and his associates were charged
Speaker 2: with extorting millions of dollars from Hollywood studios. But this
Speaker 2: letter sent to May West this was different. This may
Speaker 2: have been Hollywood, but this one was personal. Welcome to Criminalia.
Speaker 2: I'm Rich Markey and I'm Holly Frye. So this time around,
Speaker 2: West wasn't being threatened by the mob. She wasn't being
Speaker 2: blackmailed in regard to something salacious or indecent that she
Speaker 2: may or may not have said her done, or for
Speaker 2: her secret, albeit short lived marriage to New York vaudeville
Speaker 2: performer Frank Wallace in nineteen eleven.
Speaker 1: That's right. She denied it until nineteen thirty seven, but
Speaker 1: she finally admitted under oath that she was yes, missus
Speaker 1: maymie Zukis, but the pair she claimed had never lived together. Wallace,
Speaker 1: which was of course his stage name, was not trying
Speaker 1: to blackmail her in the action that brought her before
Speaker 1: a judge. He was trying to get New York state
Speaker 1: courts to declare that he was entitled to half of
Speaker 1: everything she had. She won that case.
Speaker 2: After Labor Day in nineteen thirty five, West received the
Speaker 2: first of what would become a series of extortion letters,
Speaker 2: threatening death or disfigurement by acid if one thousand dollars
Speaker 2: was not paid. This wasn't about secrets or favors. It
Speaker 2: was about taking money from a celebrity. It started with
Speaker 2: an envelope postmarked September thirteenth, nineteen thirty five, Special Delivery,
Speaker 2: and was addressed to Miss May West of five p
Speaker 2: seventy North, Rossmore, Ravenswood Apartments, Hollywood, California. There was nothing
Speaker 2: unusual about the envelope, but its contents were a different matter.
Speaker 2: The blackmail letter read as quote acid is a horrible
Speaker 2: thing to throw in one's face, so beautiful in the
Speaker 2: height of her career. You can lose one thousand dollars
Speaker 2: or a million dollars. We are determined to get it.
Speaker 2: We want money no later than nine o'clock Monday night
Speaker 2: at the other end of Warner Brothers studio in the
Speaker 2: last palm tree. If the extortion squad is there, we
Speaker 2: will spoil your face for all time. You know where
Speaker 2: the last tree is, by the gate on the corner.
Speaker 2: Stick it in the tree by the palms, and don't
Speaker 2: try to stop who gets it ty a handkerchief on
Speaker 2: the wall there opposite the tree. If you fail to
Speaker 2: meet our demands, we will shoot an air gun at you,
Speaker 2: and we are good shots.
Speaker 1: Over. Another letter followed it read quote acid is a
Speaker 1: holy job. It never heals. We have an air gun
Speaker 1: which will shoot one hundred yards and it has a
Speaker 1: perfect sight. We know we would be caught if we
Speaker 1: walk up to you and throw it in your face,
Speaker 1: so we are playing safe. We want one thousand dollars
Speaker 1: by Tuesday night at twelve o'clock. There is a tin
Speaker 1: can in front of the Warner Brothers studio on Sunset Boulevard,
Speaker 1: next to the Remick Music Pub. There's a passage there.
Speaker 1: It's inside the concrete wall next to the hydrant. Tie
Speaker 1: a white handkerchief on the faucets so we know it's there.
Speaker 1: Cross us and lose a million, we will send a
Speaker 1: decoy for it, acid burns.
Speaker 2: These were threats meant to induce terror, no doubt, Promising
Speaker 2: to disfigure a celebrity known for their face probably seemed
Speaker 2: like a quick way to gain compliance. As we ponder that,
Speaker 2: we're going to take a break for a word from
Speaker 2: our sponsors. And when we return there are more letters
Speaker 2: to talk about. But first we'll get to know more
Speaker 2: about May West.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. You may know her from lines
Speaker 1: like cut up and see me sometime, But May West
Speaker 1: was much more than the character she played, So let's
Speaker 1: talk about how she got to be a celebrity.
Speaker 2: Mary Jane May West was an American actress, singer, playwright,
Speaker 2: and screenwriter. She wrote under the pen named Jane mast And.
Speaker 2: She was known for her sex appeal and her body humor.
Speaker 2: West was born on August seventeenth, eighteen ninety three, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn,
Speaker 2: the first of three children born to John West and
Speaker 2: Matilda Delker. After she placed well in local talent contests
Speaker 2: under the stage name Baby May as a child, her
Speaker 2: parents allowed her to drop out of school to pursue
Speaker 2: the stage. Her education ended after the fourth grade. Recalling
Speaker 2: of herself growing up, May has stated quote, I had
Speaker 2: a deep, rough voice for a child. The audience started
Speaker 2: laughing when they heard my first powerful tones. I fell
Speaker 2: in love on that stage.
Speaker 1: May began her acting career when she was fourteen years old,
Speaker 1: when she signed with hal Clarendon Stock Company at the
Speaker 1: Gotham Theater in New York City. She spent the next
Speaker 1: few years working the vaudeville and burlesque circuit. By the
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty she was acting, singing, and writing her own plays.
Speaker 1: It was in nineteen twenty six when she shot to stardom,
Speaker 1: some say, to notoriety with her self penned play titled
Speaker 1: Sex The Story of a Montreal Sex Worker was a
Speaker 1: hit on Broadway, and a year into its run, as
Speaker 1: many as three hundred seventy five performances had already taken
Speaker 1: place and three hundred twenty five thousand people had seen
Speaker 1: the show. But in February of nineteen twenty seven, authorities
Speaker 1: rated the theater and the show was shut down. West
Speaker 1: was arrested and faced a grand jury claiming that her
Speaker 1: quote obscene, indecent, immoral, and impure drama would corrupt the
Speaker 1: morals of youth.
Speaker 2: The court offered to drop the charges if she paid
Speaker 2: a five hundred dollars fine and closed the show, but
Speaker 2: the savvy West chose to serve a ten day jail
Speaker 2: sentence in a workhouse on Welfare Island now known as
Speaker 2: Roosevelt Island because of the publicity it would garner. She
Speaker 2: ended up serving eight of those days, and she used
Speaker 2: the very public opportunity to her advantage, including stating to
Speaker 2: the press during her incarceration that she'd dined with the warden.
Speaker 2: She shocked the tabloid press when she told them she
Speaker 2: wore silk garments under her inmate uniform. In response to
Speaker 2: a journalist who asked her what she thought was going
Speaker 2: to happen next, West replied, quote, I expect this will
Speaker 2: be the making of me. The whole event, said West
Speaker 2: was quote marketing gold. It was the first time she
Speaker 2: was arrested on indecency charges, but it wasn't the last.
Speaker 1: She followed up Sex with several other plays, including Diamond Lil,
Speaker 1: a massive hit that ran for more than three hundred
Speaker 1: performances on Broadway alone. When the Great Depression began to
Speaker 1: take a toll on the economy, West, at age thirty eight,
Speaker 1: relocated from New York to Hollywood, and in nineteen thirty two,
Speaker 1: she was offered her first motion picture contract. The contract
Speaker 1: with Paramount Pictures not only launched her screen career, but
Speaker 1: it also helped save Paramount from bankruptcy. Arriving in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: West famously announced quote, I'm not a little girl from
Speaker 1: a little town making good in a big town. I'm
Speaker 1: a big girl from a big town making good in
Speaker 1: a little town. And she proved it. Variety reported quote,
Speaker 1: May West's films have made her the biggest conversation provoker
Speaker 1: free space grabber and all around box office bet in
Speaker 1: the country. She's as hot an issue as Hitler. It's
Speaker 1: kind of a dubious honor to be given by the press.
Speaker 2: Yes. By nineteen thirty five, West had become a hot
Speaker 2: celebrity topic. She was the highest paid woman in the
Speaker 2: United States and the second highest paid person behind William
Speaker 2: Randolph Hurst. Her critics called her quote the first female
Speaker 2: leading man and the greatest female impersonator. So not exactly
Speaker 2: adored by.
Speaker 1: All, but there were many who championed her too, including
Speaker 1: popular American writer f. Scott Fitzgerald, who considered West quote
Speaker 1: the only Hollywood actress with an ironic edge and comic spark.
Speaker 1: Popular British novelist Hugh Walpole wrote that only she and
Speaker 1: Charlie Chaplin quote dare to directly attack with their mockery
Speaker 1: the fraying morals and manners of a dreary world. French
Speaker 1: author Sidey Gabrielle Colette praised her independent spirit, writing quote,
Speaker 1: she alone, out of an enormous and dull catalog of heroines,
Speaker 1: does not get married at the end of the film,
Speaker 1: does not gaze sadly at her declining youth, does not
Speaker 1: experience it's the bitterness of the abandoned older woman. She
Speaker 1: alone has no parents, no children, no husband. This impudent
Speaker 1: woman is in her style as solitary as Chaplain used
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 2: We are now going to take a break for word
Speaker 2: from our sponsors, and when we return we will talk
Speaker 2: about yes, more letters and how West's extortionist was caught
Speaker 2: sort of caught.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. It took more than one try
Speaker 1: to do it. But let's talk about the odd way.
Speaker 1: This case was closed.
Speaker 2: In October of nineteen thirty five. The letters kept arriving.
Speaker 2: One stated quote, lose your career and beauty on the
Speaker 2: set or fights or home five seventy raw or writing
Speaker 2: or parties or studio. We see you every day. Acid burns.
Speaker 2: Yet another read quote, you can call the police if
Speaker 2: you wish, but then you will be sure to get
Speaker 2: acid and a little lie in the eyes as good measure.
Speaker 2: We want one thousand in fives, tens, twenties, unmarked or copied.
Speaker 2: If so you shall never be afraid again of this threat,
Speaker 2: as we keep our promise, as.
Speaker 1: Any of us would. West reported these letters to the
Speaker 1: authorities as soon as they started arriving. District Attorney's Office
Speaker 1: investigator Harry Dean was assigned to the case capture the
Speaker 1: extortionist who was threatening to throw acid at May West
Speaker 1: unless she delivered one thousand dollars, and to catch their
Speaker 1: suspect to Dean went undercover, really undercover. He impersonated May West,
Speaker 1: wearing hair, makeup and clothing in her style and manner.
Speaker 2: Part of another letter read quote, we could have did
Speaker 2: it many times already, but we want to see what
Speaker 2: you would say.
Speaker 1: First.
Speaker 2: We had your chauffeur's automatic last Friday, but put it back,
Speaker 2: ask him if he left it in the car, and
Speaker 2: then came back for it an hour later.
Speaker 1: Attempts to make contact with the perpetrator failed the first
Speaker 1: few times. Dean and his team left a decoy package
Speaker 1: at the site more than once, but no one showed
Speaker 1: up at the drop to claim it, and then May
Speaker 1: received another letter stating quote, we've seen your sign. It
Speaker 1: looked like a trap. You put that money next to
Speaker 1: the fire plug over the wall in the bushes tonight
Speaker 1: and leave it there in a tin can, a small
Speaker 1: can of your own. If anyone stops the man who
Speaker 1: comes for it, this town will be too hot to
Speaker 1: hold you as he will not know who we are,
Speaker 1: and we don't joke. We knew you when you sent
Speaker 1: one guy up the river for publicity, so don't try
Speaker 1: it again, Acid burns.
Speaker 2: After those few failed attempts by dean impersonating Way to
Speaker 2: make the drop at the named rendezvous point, May herself
Speaker 2: went with her chauffeur to drop off the money, well
Speaker 2: to drop off the decoy. West's chauffeur, by the way,
Speaker 2: was a man named Albert Chalky Wright, who was a
Speaker 2: former boxer, and he was no joke. In two thousand
Speaker 2: and three, he appeared in The Ring magazine's list of
Speaker 2: one hundred Greatest Boxers of All Time. There was serious
Speaker 2: backup at the scene too, a shotgun squad. Shotgun squads
Speaker 2: were used in stakeouts, during which officers would camp out
Speaker 2: for hours or longer at the scene waiting for their suspect.
Speaker 2: One retired sergeant who worked these types of shifts once
Speaker 2: quipped that the process was quote seven hours of boredom
Speaker 2: and three seconds of sheer terror when confronting a suspect.
Speaker 1: A man named George Janus, a cafeteria worker at one
Speaker 1: of the studios, was taken into custody after he picked
Speaker 1: up the decoy, which had been placed by Chalky Wright.
Speaker 1: Reported by the Los Angeles Time on October tenth, nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty five, quote, the bus boy was arrested Monday night
Speaker 1: when he picked up a pocketbook which miss West chauffeur
Speaker 1: had placed near Warner Brothers Sunset Boulevard studio. Per instructions
Speaker 1: contained in the last of six notes received by the actress,
Speaker 1: Yanoo stuck to his story that he happened along as
Speaker 1: the pocketbook was placed by the tree, and that he
Speaker 1: had picked it up out of sheer curiosity. The Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Times then reported the next morning that quote, six
Speaker 1: other suspicious characters found loitering in the neighborhood were taken
Speaker 1: to the District Attorney's office for questioning. Those six people
Speaker 1: were released.
Speaker 2: And Janoos well, the chief special investigator for the District Attorney,
Speaker 2: a man named Blaney Matthews, doubted his guilt because George,
Speaker 2: a Greek immigrant, spoke little English. Janos was released from
Speaker 2: custody on October tenth, nineteen thirty five, and the extortion
Speaker 2: story just kind of ends there. The case wasn't solved,
Speaker 2: but it was closed. No one was held accountable for
Speaker 2: the threats, but after Yanus was detained and questioned, the
Speaker 2: letters stopped.
Speaker 1: Dean for his efforts, received acclaim and applause for his
Speaker 1: investigation and his impersonation from his fellow investigators. The New
Speaker 1: York Times reported that his colleagues turned his office into
Speaker 1: what could have been may West's dressing room, tying ribbons
Speaker 1: to his telephone and placing flowers on his desk and
Speaker 1: leaving quote essence of hyacinth spray lingering in the air.
Speaker 1: At the same time and off the record, some reports
Speaker 1: suggest FBI Director j. Edgar Hoover was really angry with
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Police Department because he believed blackmail and
Speaker 1: extortion fell under federal responsibility and was not an enforcement
Speaker 1: matter for local law. Hoover built the reputation of the
Speaker 1: FBI by targeting and arresting bank robbers in the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 1: That's true, but yes, the new bureau was responsible for
Speaker 1: investigating this type of threat.
Speaker 2: When may West died from complications of a stroke at
Speaker 2: the age of eighty seven in November of nineteen eighty,
Speaker 2: it was front page news and the embalmer it said,
Speaker 2: made her look half her age. The Los Angeles Times
Speaker 2: reported quote. In her life, she became both an icon
Speaker 2: and a caricature. May herself lives on in so many
Speaker 2: ways still today, and she's been a dictionary entry, yes,
Speaker 2: since World War Two, when RAF pilots cheekily named their
Speaker 2: full chested inflatable life preservers in her honor. I think
Speaker 2: we should have a drink to her honor.
Speaker 1: Listen, I'll drink to May West any day. I love her.
Speaker 1: So this coercion concoction, it's an interesting one. Before I
Speaker 1: talk about the one we're having, there is a cocktail
Speaker 1: called a May West.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: I was not brave enough to make it, and I'll
Speaker 1: tell you why. It is an odd combination of ingredients
Speaker 1: because it is made with vodka, amaretto, madori, and cranberry juice.
Speaker 2: What very interesting fruity salad you got going on there.
Speaker 1: It seems like it would be a war. Allegedly, and
Speaker 1: again I didn't make this to test it. Allegedly, something
Speaker 1: happens where when you drink it, it actually tastes like
Speaker 1: a cherry cordial like. It takes on a chocolatey note
Speaker 1: from the amaretto and the medori's sweetness. Okay, does something
Speaker 1: that makes it sound like a confection. I haven't tried it.
Speaker 1: I might at some point, but just if you're curious
Speaker 1: about it, that's what that is. That's not what we're having.
Speaker 1: The thing, of course, that I would bet most of
Speaker 1: us are thinking throughout this whole thing is acid Burns,
Speaker 1: which is interesting right the way it's always the tag
Speaker 1: of the letters. It almost sounds like somebody's name, their
Speaker 1: pen name is acid Burns, like Charles Montgomery Burns and
Speaker 1: his brother Acid his brother, just to get a little
Speaker 1: Simpsons reference in at any time. But it made me
Speaker 1: think about a cocktail that would be acidic ie in
Speaker 1: cocktail language, that means citrus, heavy and a little bit interesting, familiar,
Speaker 1: but something with a bite that was like as robust
Speaker 1: and brazen as May West. This one is a little
Speaker 1: bit it shares DNA with a margarita, but it goes
Speaker 1: to a different place pretty quickly. But we also haven't
Speaker 1: done tequila in a while, so it felt like the
Speaker 1: right time, right. I could definitely see May West doing
Speaker 1: shots of tequila, or we're not doing shots, but.
Speaker 2: I could see that. Yes.
Speaker 1: So the acid burn starts with an ounce and a
Speaker 1: half of tequila reposotto would be my choice. A half
Speaker 1: ounce of quantro, a half ounce of ginger liqueur, a
Speaker 1: half ounce of lime juice. Then you're also gonna add
Speaker 1: a quarter ounce of lemon juice, anywhere between a splash
Speaker 1: and a half ounce of a gave, depending on how
Speaker 1: sweet you like it, like in agave syrup. And then
Speaker 1: you're gonna shake that. You're gonna pour it into a
Speaker 1: pre chilled glass, and you're gonna top it with a
Speaker 1: low kiss of prosecco. There's enough sweetness because the citrus,
Speaker 1: we're getting citrus from the liqueur and the ginger liqueur
Speaker 1: is involved that it's not just the bitter acid flavor.
Speaker 1: You're also getting that sweetness. And the prosecco evens it
Speaker 1: out a little bit, makes it very crisp and bright,
Speaker 1: because otherwise I found it a little heavy.
Speaker 2: And you get a little bubbly from may West.
Speaker 1: I think you know I love a little bubble action
Speaker 1: the mocktail. For this one, we're gonna do things a
Speaker 1: little different. We're gonna do an ounce of lime juice,
Speaker 1: a half ounce of lemon juice, a half ounce of
Speaker 1: ginger syrup, and a half ounce of orange syrup. If
Speaker 1: you cannot find ginger syrup, man, that's the easiest syrup
Speaker 1: in the world to make. If you just boil some ginger,
Speaker 1: literally chunks of ginger and water, you will have ginger tea,
Speaker 1: and then you can make that into ginger syrup by
Speaker 1: just adding sugar to it. I usually do like a
Speaker 1: cup and a half of tea and a cup and
Speaker 1: a half of sugar. I like a one to one.
Speaker 1: Some people like more sugar to get a thicker syrup,
Speaker 1: which is fine, that's dealer's choice. But then you're gonna
Speaker 1: take all of that, You're gonna put it in your shaker,
Speaker 1: you're gonna strain it into a pre chilled glass, and
Speaker 1: you can top that with ginger ale or if you
Speaker 1: want a less sweet drink, club soda. That's just like
Speaker 1: a refreshing variation on a lemon lime. It's very, very
Speaker 1: yummy and very easy to drink. So that is the
Speaker 1: acid burns, which hopefully will not burn you in any
Speaker 1: way and will only be delightful and make you feel
Speaker 1: refreshed and also make you think of May West, because
Speaker 1: she's pretty interesting, a fascinating woman. We just can't help
Speaker 1: but admire a bit I like that. She was like, Ugh,
Speaker 1: just give me the thing. I'll take it myself.
Speaker 2: I yeah, right, you've tried five times, I'll do the
Speaker 2: six to one. Right.
Speaker 1: I got a boxer with me. We're fine between the
Speaker 1: two of us, not a problem. If you find yourself
Speaker 1: in dire straits, please let authorities handle it. Don't presume
Speaker 1: that you can do it, even if Maywest is very.
Speaker 2: Cool or you have a boxer friend.
Speaker 1: We are so thankful that you spent this time with us.
Speaker 1: We hope that you will join us once again next week.
Speaker 1: Four other stories of blackmail, extortion, and coercion concoctions. Criminalia
Speaker 1: is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.