WEBVTT - The Pancake Battles 0:00:15.304 --> 0:00:15.824 Pushkin. 0:00:20.384 --> 0:00:23.504 I'm Reevesweidermann, and I wrote The Battle of Fishkill for 0:00:23.624 --> 0:00:26.464 New York Magazine, and it's the story of the week. 0:00:27.624 --> 0:00:30.064 Every time my wife and I would drive from Manhattan 0:00:30.104 --> 0:00:33.544 to our hometown of Husick Falls, New York, we pass 0:00:33.624 --> 0:00:37.624 by this town of Fishkill, and sometimes I'd look out 0:00:37.624 --> 0:00:41.864 the window and wonder do we need gas? I now 0:00:41.944 --> 0:00:45.744 know I should have wondered many many more things about Fishkill. 0:00:52.224 --> 0:00:53.264 Writing is hard. 0:00:53.464 --> 0:00:56.784 Who's got that kind of time when you're already busy 0:00:56.904 --> 0:00:59.984 trying to be Jon stand So it turns on a mike. 0:01:00.304 --> 0:01:03.944 Maybe the twitdles enough because a journalist Trand has got 0:01:03.944 --> 0:01:07.824 in that jewel jibes. Single story. 0:01:08.104 --> 0:01:10.064 Just listen, people speak. 0:01:12.144 --> 0:01:27.104 Conversation Film with information is the story. 0:01:30.224 --> 0:01:32.544 Over a decade ago, a man from the Bronx had 0:01:32.544 --> 0:01:35.944 a dream. That dream was to build an I hoop 0:01:36.064 --> 0:01:39.664 in a town called Fishkill, New York. This dream led 0:01:39.744 --> 0:01:42.344 him to find his true calling, the one that brought 0:01:42.424 --> 0:01:45.024 him even more joy than giving people Rudy two d 0:01:45.144 --> 0:01:49.144 fresh and fruities, one that has cost him millions of dollars, 0:01:49.944 --> 0:01:53.744 all of which he says were well spent. That calling 0:01:54.584 --> 0:01:59.304 was revenge. Reeves Widemann wrote about the epic battle to 0:01:59.304 --> 0:02:02.144 build an I hoop in Fishkill for New York magazine. 0:02:03.064 --> 0:02:04.064 How'd you find this story? 0:02:04.344 --> 0:02:07.784 Someone happened to be visiting family in Fishkill, New York, 0:02:08.104 --> 0:02:12.184 and was driving down the street and saw these signs 0:02:12.504 --> 0:02:17.544 that we're talking about some kind of weird conspiracy that 0:02:17.664 --> 0:02:20.464 was unfolding. The one thing I remember being on the 0:02:20.544 --> 0:02:23.144 sign was it said learned the Truth, like it was 0:02:23.144 --> 0:02:26.624 something out of the X Files kind of. And and 0:02:26.704 --> 0:02:29.304 so this person had just kind of read some stories 0:02:29.344 --> 0:02:33.344 I'd written and sent it along as something they thought 0:02:33.544 --> 0:02:34.664 might make for a fun story. 0:02:35.504 --> 0:02:37.504 Wow, So who put these signs up? 0:02:37.704 --> 0:02:39.904 The man who put these signs up is a guy 0:02:39.944 --> 0:02:41.744 whose name is Dominic Broccoli. 0:02:42.304 --> 0:02:43.064 That's his real name. 0:02:43.144 --> 0:02:46.984 That is his real given birth name. Great name. He 0:02:47.064 --> 0:02:49.064 is a character who lives up to his name in 0:02:49.104 --> 0:02:51.784 many ways. Comes from an Italian family, as you might 0:02:51.784 --> 0:02:54.824 be able to guess. His family owned a restaurant, popular 0:02:54.864 --> 0:02:58.944 Italian restaurant in the Bronx for decades. He shut it 0:02:58.984 --> 0:03:02.704 down after his father died, business had changed and opened 0:03:02.704 --> 0:03:06.104 an eye hop. Proceeded to open a number of eye hops. 0:03:06.464 --> 0:03:07.944 And does that make you a lot of money? Because 0:03:07.984 --> 0:03:09.064 Dominic rich for his eye hops. 0:03:09.224 --> 0:03:11.744 As he told it to me, he's doing very well 0:03:11.744 --> 0:03:14.184 for himself, so much so that it allowed him to 0:03:14.264 --> 0:03:17.704 fund this effort to build another IHOP in the town 0:03:17.744 --> 0:03:20.544 of Fishkill, about ninety minutes north of New York City. 0:03:21.104 --> 0:03:23.664 The one in Fishkill was meant to be his fifth 0:03:23.704 --> 0:03:25.544 and his largest and most elaborate. 0:03:25.624 --> 0:03:28.824 Yet the fifth, much like the ninth Symphony, is always 0:03:28.864 --> 0:03:29.264 the hardest. 0:03:29.384 --> 0:03:29.944 That's true. 0:03:30.544 --> 0:03:31.864 So where's the problem start. 0:03:32.264 --> 0:03:34.624 Initially, it's just a real estate play with a cousin 0:03:34.704 --> 0:03:37.784 of his. He actually bought this property back in the 0:03:37.824 --> 0:03:41.944 eighties just as an investment. But eventually he decided, I'm 0:03:41.944 --> 0:03:44.664 going to put in a strip mall here. The problem 0:03:44.784 --> 0:03:49.824 starts in two thousand and seven. And the backdrop here 0:03:49.984 --> 0:03:53.104 is that Fishkill and much of kind of Hudson Valley, 0:03:53.144 --> 0:03:56.864 New York, is steeped in Revolutionary War history. 0:03:57.384 --> 0:03:58.584 Is there a Battle of Fishkill? 0:03:58.784 --> 0:04:00.704 There was no Battle of Fishkill. What there was in 0:04:00.704 --> 0:04:04.704 Fishkill was the Fishkill supply Depot, which is one of 0:04:04.744 --> 0:04:08.944 these sort of artifacts of history that was incredibly important 0:04:09.584 --> 0:04:12.304 and also a little bit boring to look back on. 0:04:12.544 --> 0:04:14.504 Yeah, I got bored when you said supply depot, I'll 0:04:14.544 --> 0:04:15.344 be completely honest. 0:04:15.464 --> 0:04:16.984 Yeah, I mean that's kind of the end of it, 0:04:17.024 --> 0:04:19.624 and it sort of tells you most of what you 0:04:19.704 --> 0:04:23.184 need to know. It was a place where when George 0:04:23.224 --> 0:04:27.864 Washington's troops needed muskets or rations or whatever, they would 0:04:27.864 --> 0:04:31.344 get them from there. So that's the backdrop. If you 0:04:31.384 --> 0:04:34.624 go to Fishkill now, it's like any town in America. 0:04:35.104 --> 0:04:38.144 There's chain restaurants, there's hotels, there's a Sam's Club. There's 0:04:38.144 --> 0:04:42.384 a big gap distribution warehouse for the clothing company and 0:04:42.504 --> 0:04:46.224 built on top of where this supply depot used to be. 0:04:46.504 --> 0:04:48.504 It's just a new kind of a supply depot. It's 0:04:48.544 --> 0:04:50.024 got the gap and Sam's Club. 0:04:50.104 --> 0:04:53.024 Yeah, it's got everything the modern America needs. There's long 0:04:53.064 --> 0:04:57.424 been a rumor in town that there might be a 0:04:57.624 --> 0:05:01.584 mass grave somewhere in Fishkill of Revolutionary War. 0:05:01.744 --> 0:05:04.184 Soldiers, you mean, like a cemetery. 0:05:03.864 --> 0:05:07.544 A cemetery, And there's a couple of reasons to think that. One, 0:05:07.584 --> 0:05:10.984 there's reports from the Battle of White Plains, which was 0:05:10.984 --> 0:05:13.424 a major battle in the Revolutionary War, and how tons 0:05:13.424 --> 0:05:16.304 of bodies were brought to Fishkill, And if you read 0:05:16.384 --> 0:05:19.944 certain historical texts, there was reason to think one possible 0:05:19.984 --> 0:05:24.704 place for the cemetery was Dominic BROCCOLI's property. So in 0:05:24.704 --> 0:05:26.784 two thousand and seven, the state of New York has 0:05:26.824 --> 0:05:31.104 a Historic Preservation office and they asked Dominic to do 0:05:31.184 --> 0:05:33.624 a study and to actually dig into the ground and 0:05:33.664 --> 0:05:35.904 see what was there. They went through with the dig, 0:05:36.224 --> 0:05:38.384 hired in a team of archaeologists led by a guy 0:05:38.464 --> 0:05:43.704 named Bill Sandy, and they spent about a month digging 0:05:43.904 --> 0:05:48.624 a couple of large trenches on Dominic's property, found some artifacts, 0:05:49.024 --> 0:05:51.584 and eventually, sort of towards the end of that month, 0:05:52.144 --> 0:05:56.064 they found what appeared to be a row of graves. 0:05:56.464 --> 0:05:59.504 So Bill Sandy dug into one of the graves, hit bone, 0:05:59.944 --> 0:06:03.264 found a skull and said, okay, this is it. We 0:06:03.344 --> 0:06:06.184 finally found the cemetery. In his words, he thought, this 0:06:06.304 --> 0:06:09.864 is going to be a national monument tomorrow case closes. 0:06:09.944 --> 0:06:13.344 Are people excited? Like? Are historians or journalists excited about this? 0:06:13.464 --> 0:06:16.024 At the time, the discovery was covered in The New 0:06:16.064 --> 0:06:19.464 York Times. Chuck Schumer Senator Chuck Schumer a year or 0:06:19.504 --> 0:06:22.904 two later, showed up in Fishkill part of a campaign. 0:06:23.024 --> 0:06:26.224 He was at the time looking to expand this program 0:06:26.224 --> 0:06:29.744 that preserves military sites and what really led to a 0:06:29.784 --> 0:06:32.944 lot of the attention was another archaeologist did what's called 0:06:32.944 --> 0:06:37.024 a ground penetrating radar study, which is basically pushing a 0:06:37.064 --> 0:06:39.584 thing that looks kind of like a lawnmower across the 0:06:39.584 --> 0:06:43.464 ground and it gets readings from what's underneath. 0:06:43.504 --> 0:06:45.664 And that's sounds fake. This sounds like those guys on 0:06:45.704 --> 0:06:46.824 the beach looking for metal. 0:06:47.144 --> 0:06:49.664 I think it's only a little bit more advanced than that. 0:06:50.024 --> 0:06:52.904 And the report that came back included a line that 0:06:53.104 --> 0:06:57.344 said something roughly to the effect of, we found some 0:06:57.464 --> 0:07:01.944 three hundred more anomalies as they called them, that appeared 0:07:02.024 --> 0:07:05.824 to be like the graves. Oh so, at that point, 0:07:05.864 --> 0:07:08.424 Dominic BROCCOLI's property, which was going to be a strip mall, 0:07:08.624 --> 0:07:13.184 was suddenly being called New York's Valley Forge and being 0:07:13.224 --> 0:07:17.864 described as possibly the largest cemetery of Revolutionary War soldiers 0:07:18.184 --> 0:07:19.104 anywhere in the country. 0:07:19.664 --> 0:07:23.264 Okay, so what's the plan? Is the government going to 0:07:23.304 --> 0:07:24.064 buy it from him? 0:07:24.264 --> 0:07:26.864 Chuck Schumer had showed up on this notion that the 0:07:26.864 --> 0:07:29.024 federal government might be able to step in by the 0:07:29.064 --> 0:07:31.424 property turn it into a national park of some kind. 0:07:32.104 --> 0:07:36.304 The problem is, the American Battlefield Protection Program, as it 0:07:36.344 --> 0:07:38.384 is called, has the word battlefield in it. 0:07:39.064 --> 0:07:40.784 And it should. The more I think about this, I'm 0:07:40.784 --> 0:07:44.224 not going to go visit what was formerly a cemetery 0:07:44.384 --> 0:07:47.344 and it's not a cemetery anymore. This sounds like a crap. 0:07:47.464 --> 0:07:49.144 This doesn't sound like an interesting place to visit. 0:07:49.504 --> 0:07:51.704 That has always been kind of the uphill battle. And 0:07:51.904 --> 0:07:54.384 so the group of people that were trying to convince 0:07:54.424 --> 0:07:56.184 you that you're wrong was a group that sort of 0:07:56.224 --> 0:07:58.984 formed after the body was found, and they called themselves 0:07:59.064 --> 0:08:02.584 the Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot, and they basically 0:08:02.624 --> 0:08:06.824 came up with a plan to try to turn this 0:08:07.664 --> 0:08:11.904 site into some thing like Jamestown where there's kind of 0:08:11.904 --> 0:08:14.104 this working archaeological dig. 0:08:14.224 --> 0:08:15.664 No one's building another Jamestown. 0:08:15.824 --> 0:08:19.144 Yeah, So the Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot had 0:08:19.184 --> 0:08:23.104 this very grand vision for what this was going to become. 0:08:23.144 --> 0:08:25.544 And I would say, in some ways it's fair to 0:08:25.624 --> 0:08:28.504 say that it was naive to think that it would 0:08:28.544 --> 0:08:31.184 become this big, huge, massive tourist attraction. 0:08:31.504 --> 0:08:33.264 Who are these people who are into the idea of 0:08:33.304 --> 0:08:36.344 building a new Williamsburg without peanut soup. It's a weird 0:08:36.504 --> 0:08:38.784 that's the only reason they got r Yeah, it's. 0:08:38.664 --> 0:08:42.304 A weird sort of local mishmash of people. 0:08:42.584 --> 0:08:43.824 Is that a way of saying old people? 0:08:45.064 --> 0:08:48.104 I think they would push back on that characterization, but 0:08:48.704 --> 0:08:50.664 I think by and large that's fair to say. The 0:08:50.704 --> 0:08:52.664 group was made up largely of the kinds of people 0:08:52.744 --> 0:08:57.344 who show up to town board meetings to complain about X, 0:08:57.464 --> 0:08:59.984 Y or z. Another faction of people who were sort 0:09:00.024 --> 0:09:01.624 of Revolutionary War re enactors. 0:09:02.024 --> 0:09:05.704 Who's running this group the Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot. 0:09:05.744 --> 0:09:07.944 The president of the Friends is a guy named Lance 0:09:08.024 --> 0:09:12.024 Ashworth is a West Point graduate and an FBI agent, 0:09:12.584 --> 0:09:15.984 like real, actual FBI agent. He was involved in, you know, 0:09:16.064 --> 0:09:19.104 catching an Israeli spy in New Jersey back in the 0:09:19.144 --> 0:09:20.144 two thousands. 0:09:20.504 --> 0:09:21.904 Does he look like an FBI agent? 0:09:22.024 --> 0:09:26.424 Yeah, classically, you know, burly guy, shaved head. Where Dominic 0:09:26.544 --> 0:09:30.264 is incredibly outgoing and all over the place. Lance is 0:09:30.664 --> 0:09:33.464 very straightforward and kind of buy the book. So he's 0:09:33.544 --> 0:09:36.744 running it with kind of this support crew of Bill, Sandy, 0:09:36.784 --> 0:09:39.304 the archaeologists and these re enactors. 0:09:40.104 --> 0:09:42.984 Okay, so what does Broccoli do once these people get 0:09:43.024 --> 0:09:44.744 together and try and save this land. 0:09:44.824 --> 0:09:47.104 At first, he tries to work with them. He's kind 0:09:47.144 --> 0:09:49.544 of like, well, okay, maybe I'm not gonna be able 0:09:49.544 --> 0:09:51.504 to build my strip mall. So these guys can buy 0:09:51.544 --> 0:09:54.704 the property, then good luck to them. So he gives 0:09:54.704 --> 0:09:57.384 them a chance to buy it. We're talking probably a 0:09:57.424 --> 0:10:00.424 couple million dollars to buy this property. They can't come 0:10:00.504 --> 0:10:02.904 up with the money, and so it's sort of back 0:10:02.944 --> 0:10:07.304 to the drawing board, and Dominic sort of offered this chance. Well, 0:10:07.464 --> 0:10:10.504 I could give you this small part of the property 0:10:10.544 --> 0:10:13.784 where we found the graves, and you could just keep that. 0:10:13.984 --> 0:10:18.144 But the friends their position was, we think there's bodies everywhere. 0:10:18.184 --> 0:10:20.184 We think this whole thing should be a park, not 0:10:20.424 --> 0:10:22.504 just the half acre you want to give us. The 0:10:22.544 --> 0:10:24.704 negotiation kind of falls apart at that point. 0:10:24.904 --> 0:10:27.144 So it seems a good compromise is that there'd be 0:10:27.224 --> 0:10:30.504 some area where the cemetery actually was, that's some kind 0:10:30.544 --> 0:10:33.184 of historical site. But then you get your sweet sweet 0:10:33.184 --> 0:10:36.784 eye hop in the property without the graves. It's not 0:10:36.824 --> 0:10:37.304 going to work. 0:10:37.464 --> 0:10:40.144 That's the best of all worlds. But what starts to 0:10:40.264 --> 0:10:44.504 happen is Dominic starts taking a look at other parts 0:10:44.504 --> 0:10:46.504 of the property and does some more digs to kind 0:10:46.544 --> 0:10:49.904 of see what's under there. And he does another dig 0:10:49.944 --> 0:10:53.744 and they find half a dozen more spots that seem 0:10:53.864 --> 0:10:56.624 like graves. They find some bones, So. 0:10:56.584 --> 0:10:58.224 He keeps looking for a spot for an eye hoop, 0:10:58.264 --> 0:10:58.944 and they keeps. 0:10:58.824 --> 0:11:00.584 Kind of thinking. He keeps thinking, Okay, if I dig 0:11:00.624 --> 0:11:02.824 over here and I show there's nothing there, then that's 0:11:02.824 --> 0:11:04.904 somewhere I can build and maybe the rest of it'll 0:11:04.944 --> 0:11:05.384 be fine. 0:11:05.544 --> 0:11:07.584 But he keeps finding bones, keeps finding. 0:11:07.304 --> 0:11:10.064 Some more things, and then eventually he talks to one 0:11:10.064 --> 0:11:13.824 of his archaeologists about that initial study that showed that 0:11:13.944 --> 0:11:17.624 there were some three hundred bodies buried on the property, 0:11:18.184 --> 0:11:21.344 and this other archaeologist points out that the report just 0:11:21.384 --> 0:11:27.264 said they were anomalies, not graves, and anomalies, in archaeologists speak, 0:11:27.744 --> 0:11:30.384 could be any number of things. It could be it 0:11:30.544 --> 0:11:32.784 just means that there's something under the ground. It might 0:11:32.864 --> 0:11:35.304 be a boulder, it might be a tree stump, it 0:11:35.384 --> 0:11:36.984 might be like a rodent burrow. 0:11:37.664 --> 0:11:39.384 Wait, so all like the New York Times story like 0:11:39.424 --> 0:11:41.624 there might be wrong. There may not be three hundred 0:11:42.024 --> 0:11:43.064 soldiers buried under there. 0:11:43.224 --> 0:11:45.864 Yes, So Dominic once he found that out, he had 0:11:45.904 --> 0:11:49.624 another team of archaeologists dig into some of the places 0:11:49.624 --> 0:11:54.064 where the anomalies were found, and in every single case 0:11:54.744 --> 0:11:59.544 they didn't find anything, which was very surprising, shocking to 0:11:59.704 --> 0:12:01.984 the person who had conducted the study. They said it 0:12:02.024 --> 0:12:05.624 they almost never, you never get it that wrong. And 0:12:05.664 --> 0:12:10.984 then what made Dominic even more suspicious was that in 0:12:11.024 --> 0:12:14.384 a couple of the places, it seemed that the dirt 0:12:14.504 --> 0:12:19.104 under the ground had been recently disturbed thereway, implying what 0:12:19.104 --> 0:12:22.584 what Dominic came to believe is that the friends of 0:12:22.624 --> 0:12:27.464 the fishkill supply depot were planting bones that they were 0:12:27.704 --> 0:12:31.064 hoping Dominic would find in an effort to make it 0:12:31.104 --> 0:12:35.144 seem like there were hundreds and hundreds of Revolutionary war soldiers, 0:12:35.424 --> 0:12:38.664 when in fact, in Dominic's conception, these were just bones 0:12:38.784 --> 0:12:40.984 that had been buried yesterday. 0:12:41.384 --> 0:12:45.024 Wait, so the accusation is that the FBI agent who 0:12:45.184 --> 0:12:48.824 runs this group to save this area might have been 0:12:48.944 --> 0:12:53.464 grabbing bones, burying them from some late at night from somewhere. 0:12:53.584 --> 0:12:56.344 FBI guys can get bones anywhere, and they burying them 0:12:56.384 --> 0:12:59.824 late at night in the ground in order to save 0:13:00.424 --> 0:13:01.944 this piece of land and not turn it into an 0:13:01.944 --> 0:13:06.264 ie hop. Yes, wow, okay, And what are the other 0:13:06.424 --> 0:13:09.744 tactics the friends are using besides possibly bearing fake bones 0:13:09.784 --> 0:13:10.984 in order to win this battle? 0:13:11.224 --> 0:13:14.264 So they were trying to push this kind of promotional 0:13:14.344 --> 0:13:17.944 campaign pr campaign. And they had a connection to a 0:13:17.984 --> 0:13:21.144 local community college and there was a class there and 0:13:21.184 --> 0:13:23.944 I think sort of video production, and got a couple 0:13:23.984 --> 0:13:26.224 of students in the class to make a video but 0:13:26.264 --> 0:13:29.464 basically about the history of the depot, largely from the 0:13:29.464 --> 0:13:32.424 friend's perspective, telling the story of why it's important to 0:13:32.464 --> 0:13:33.424 preserve this property. 0:13:33.944 --> 0:13:34.824 Propaganda. 0:13:35.024 --> 0:13:37.384 Yeah, that's I think a fair way to put it. 0:13:37.544 --> 0:13:40.424 Much like the painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. Yeah, 0:13:40.504 --> 0:13:41.864 there's a giant piece of propaganda. 0:13:41.944 --> 0:13:44.984 Yeah, exactly. So Lance Ashworth, the head of the Friends, 0:13:45.264 --> 0:13:50.144 started working with his community college class along with another member, 0:13:50.224 --> 0:13:53.704 a guy named Alec Crosby who had joined joined the Friends. 0:13:53.984 --> 0:13:56.744 And Alec Krasby was an unusual figure in that he 0:13:57.424 --> 0:14:01.064 was young relatively, he was in his thirties, and he 0:14:01.144 --> 0:14:03.544 just kind of always seemed to be available to help 0:14:03.624 --> 0:14:05.544 the Friends with stuff, and so he jumped in with 0:14:05.664 --> 0:14:09.904 Lance to help with this community college project. And Lance 0:14:09.984 --> 0:14:12.544 had told the kids do not go to the property. 0:14:12.984 --> 0:14:16.544 If you do, the landowners gonna call the police on you. 0:14:16.584 --> 0:14:20.064 But while Lance is away, Alec Crosby tells the kids, 0:14:20.624 --> 0:14:23.424 let's go let's go over and visit the property. Let's 0:14:23.464 --> 0:14:25.624 go get some b roll. The kids show up and 0:14:26.104 --> 0:14:28.544 within a few minutes there's a Mexican restaurant across the 0:14:28.544 --> 0:14:32.144 street called the Maya Cafe, and within a few minutes, 0:14:32.184 --> 0:14:36.144 Dominic Broccoli walks out of my A Cafe just happens 0:14:36.304 --> 0:14:38.744 to be there at the same time that these kids 0:14:38.784 --> 0:14:42.144 are there, walks over, tells them come on over to 0:14:42.184 --> 0:14:44.984 the Maya Cafe. Let's have some drinks and I'll show 0:14:45.024 --> 0:14:49.104 you my presentation about why I think the friends are 0:14:49.184 --> 0:14:52.544 lying about what's on the property and why you should 0:14:52.584 --> 0:14:54.144 believe me and not them. 0:14:54.264 --> 0:14:56.264 That's a great pivot. Instead of arresting them, just try 0:14:56.304 --> 0:14:57.384 and convince them. That's brilliant. 0:14:57.504 --> 0:15:00.704 I know, soft carrot, there's a stick. And so Lance 0:15:00.744 --> 0:15:03.304 greets this his terrible news when Alec tells him. 0:15:03.264 --> 0:15:05.864 And because they stop making this documentary, he wins them over. 0:15:06.224 --> 0:15:08.384 It kind of created this tension in the group. Two 0:15:08.424 --> 0:15:11.224 of them were like, whatever this is, I just need 0:15:11.264 --> 0:15:14.584 to graduate and get this done. Let's just make this thing. 0:15:14.664 --> 0:15:16.904 And then you had two kids who were like, no, 0:15:17.384 --> 0:15:20.024 there is actually a conspiracy going on. Let's fight. Let's 0:15:20.024 --> 0:15:22.104 get to the bottom of this and so sort of 0:15:22.144 --> 0:15:23.224 tore the group apart. 0:15:24.904 --> 0:15:28.344 When we come back, the friends of Fishkill Supply Depot 0:15:28.584 --> 0:15:31.304 will start to wonder if something fishy is going on. 0:15:32.264 --> 0:15:35.984 But first our advertisers have an incredible offer on some 0:15:36.144 --> 0:15:48.344 fake eighteenth century skeleton bones and boison berry syrup. Okay, 0:15:48.424 --> 0:15:52.944 so these community college kids go onto Dominic BROCCOLI's property 0:15:53.624 --> 0:15:56.584 despite being warned to shoot some of this video. But 0:15:56.944 --> 0:16:00.744 he sees them from this Mexican restaurant and then walks 0:16:00.744 --> 0:16:04.584 over and offers to buy them drinks, which seems a 0:16:04.624 --> 0:16:06.664 little too convenient, right, It was a. 0:16:06.624 --> 0:16:10.584 Little unusual, like, why, of all days was Dominic Broccoli 0:16:10.624 --> 0:16:14.664 there at the precise exact time that these kids are there. 0:16:15.264 --> 0:16:17.984 He is just at this cafe with a presentation ready 0:16:17.984 --> 0:16:18.544 to go. 0:16:18.824 --> 0:16:23.344 Like on his laptop, open, lengthy presentation, just like ready 0:16:23.344 --> 0:16:27.144 to go and spend a couple hours with some college kids. 0:16:26.984 --> 0:16:28.944 When he's a guy who lives in the Bronx doesn't 0:16:28.984 --> 0:16:29.664 even live there. 0:16:29.824 --> 0:16:34.224 Pretty strange. And so by this point, let you know, 0:16:34.384 --> 0:16:37.224 Lance emails the friends in this kind of spy thriller 0:16:37.264 --> 0:16:40.504 way to just say, keep things to yourself. Spies are 0:16:40.504 --> 0:16:42.344 at play once again in Fishkill. 0:16:42.984 --> 0:16:44.984 Just like the Revolutionary War, just like the revolution they 0:16:45.024 --> 0:16:46.744 were when there was a Hercules Mulligan. 0:16:47.264 --> 0:16:52.384 Yeah, exactly. There there were actual spies in Fishkill, and 0:16:52.424 --> 0:16:55.904 in fact, there was a very famous spy named Enoch Crosby, 0:16:56.424 --> 0:16:59.424 who is an American spy based in Fishkill. 0:16:59.384 --> 0:17:01.824 Well the same name as Crosby, as the young guy 0:17:01.984 --> 0:17:02.424 in Friends. 0:17:02.544 --> 0:17:05.024 You are starting to piece together what it took the 0:17:05.064 --> 0:17:07.344 friends along time to piece together. 0:17:07.744 --> 0:17:10.584 Well, it helps I write your story. 0:17:11.064 --> 0:17:14.904 Which is the fact that Alec Crosby was not Ali Crosby. 0:17:15.144 --> 0:17:19.024 He was, in fact a spy, a private investigator whose 0:17:19.064 --> 0:17:23.304 real name is Ian Bondi, hired by Dominic Broccoli to 0:17:23.504 --> 0:17:26.824 infiltrate the Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot, dig up dirt, 0:17:26.904 --> 0:17:29.384 all in an effort to scuttle their plans. 0:17:29.664 --> 0:17:33.024 Wait how long is Ian Bondi spending on this spy mission? 0:17:33.304 --> 0:17:36.984 Years years of his life. Yeah, I think he'd got 0:17:37.024 --> 0:17:42.464 other assignments. But for about three years he was regularly 0:17:42.504 --> 0:17:45.104 going to meetings of the Friends of the Fishkill Supply 0:17:45.184 --> 0:17:47.184 Depot under an assumed name. 0:17:47.304 --> 0:17:49.264 Is this the craziest job that guy's ever had? 0:17:49.344 --> 0:17:51.224 He did tell me at one point about like having 0:17:51.264 --> 0:17:53.904 to like sit in someone's backyard to see if aliens 0:17:53.944 --> 0:17:57.304 were landing. So that's stranger, but I think this was 0:17:58.024 --> 0:17:59.944 you know, as he said, he lived in the area, 0:17:59.984 --> 0:18:02.624 and this kind of became an all consuming thing where 0:18:02.664 --> 0:18:05.344 his even his friends and family started calling him by 0:18:05.384 --> 0:18:09.664 his assumed name name by Ala Crosby. And then he 0:18:09.704 --> 0:18:11.544 said that he had girlfriends who didn't know his name. 0:18:11.664 --> 0:18:15.104 I can't believe, to save a possible I hoop, you 0:18:15.144 --> 0:18:19.504 would date women under a fake name. That's a devotion 0:18:19.624 --> 0:18:20.184 to craft. 0:18:20.544 --> 0:18:24.744 Yeah. The one time he told me that he felt 0:18:25.024 --> 0:18:27.864 really nervous was there was a moment when Lance had 0:18:27.864 --> 0:18:30.184 brought one of his colleagues from the FBI to one 0:18:30.184 --> 0:18:33.984 of the meetings, and so suddenly Ian described himself as 0:18:34.024 --> 0:18:37.424 sitting there like between two FBI agents in his own 0:18:37.504 --> 0:18:40.104 fit of paranoia. When the meeting was over, he said, 0:18:40.104 --> 0:18:43.184 he rolled up his sleeves and just wiped down the 0:18:43.264 --> 0:18:46.824 table to in case they were onto him and thinking 0:18:46.864 --> 0:18:48.904 of snacking his fingerprints. 0:18:48.904 --> 0:18:51.944 So the group's run by an FBI agent. How does 0:18:51.984 --> 0:18:55.184 an FBI agent get fooled by like a spy who's 0:18:55.184 --> 0:18:58.144 normally getting hired to make sure that aliens don't appear 0:18:58.144 --> 0:18:58.824 in your backyard. 0:18:59.464 --> 0:19:03.024 I think Lance did defend himself, and I think reasonably so. 0:19:04.024 --> 0:19:09.024 When you start running volunteer organization dedicated to historic preservation 0:19:09.184 --> 0:19:12.064 and you don't think that you're going to be infiltrated 0:19:12.104 --> 0:19:13.864 by a paid spy. 0:19:14.384 --> 0:19:17.544 You must get made fun of so badly at FBI 0:19:17.624 --> 0:19:21.624 headquarters that you've been fooled by. Dominic Broccoli is like 0:19:21.704 --> 0:19:22.384 amateur spy. 0:19:22.824 --> 0:19:25.424 I don't think it was a great look for him. 0:19:25.784 --> 0:19:29.544 Okay, what else did this spy find out for Dominic Brocoli. 0:19:30.144 --> 0:19:31.544 The main thing he was there to do was just 0:19:31.584 --> 0:19:33.864 collect information. So Alic Crosby was showing up to all 0:19:33.904 --> 0:19:36.424 these events with a recorder in his pocket. 0:19:36.864 --> 0:19:37.704 He was all wired up. 0:19:37.944 --> 0:19:39.824 He was wired up, and they were just trying to 0:19:39.904 --> 0:19:43.944 catch the Friends in a lot of cases just talking 0:19:43.984 --> 0:19:48.104 shit about Dominic. One of the sort of best examples 0:19:48.344 --> 0:19:51.824 was they were at this event and this woman who 0:19:51.904 --> 0:19:54.184 was served for a time as the vice president of 0:19:54.224 --> 0:19:56.704 the Friends, was joking with a group of people that 0:19:56.744 --> 0:20:00.424 Dominic Broccoli had connections in the cement and stone business, 0:20:01.264 --> 0:20:05.344 which she then elaborated on by saying begins with an 0:20:05.544 --> 0:20:06.864 m ends with an a. 0:20:07.904 --> 0:20:10.544 Oh, this is an anti Italian American slur. 0:20:10.784 --> 0:20:14.584 It does seem so basically, and without much evidence, the 0:20:14.664 --> 0:20:18.584 friends were trying to connect Dominic to the mob. Dominic 0:20:18.584 --> 0:20:21.224 then turned around with this and in a few other 0:20:21.264 --> 0:20:25.824 cases sued members of the friends for defamation. And he 0:20:25.864 --> 0:20:28.784 had by this point had started giving them all nicknames. 0:20:29.224 --> 0:20:30.544 This woman's name the friends. 0:20:30.704 --> 0:20:33.544 All the friends got nicknames. This woman. Her name was Barbara, 0:20:33.544 --> 0:20:35.784 and so he started referring to her as Barbara the bigot. 0:20:36.224 --> 0:20:40.704 Nice Lance Ashworth, for all of his supposed exaggeration about 0:20:40.704 --> 0:20:43.504 what might be on the property, was now sir Lance 0:20:43.664 --> 0:20:44.384 lies a lot. 0:20:45.224 --> 0:20:46.144 This is very Trumpian. 0:20:46.464 --> 0:20:49.544 Well I thought so too, as Dominic told me, this 0:20:49.704 --> 0:20:51.824 is just how people talk in the Bronx. 0:20:52.784 --> 0:20:54.984 Is they give dads from the Bronx. My dad doesn't 0:20:54.984 --> 0:20:56.344 give people weird nicknames. 0:20:56.184 --> 0:20:59.184 And Trump's from queens, so you know. But anyway, the 0:20:59.264 --> 0:21:02.704 last nickname was for a guy named Marty Bister, and 0:21:02.784 --> 0:21:08.464 the nickname Dominic gave him was bone burying Bister. And 0:21:08.624 --> 0:21:12.064 the reason for that, yeah, it's a little too too 0:21:12.104 --> 0:21:15.904 many syllables. What it happened to lead to that nickname 0:21:15.984 --> 0:21:18.504