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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio. It

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Speaker 1: was a bit done, Zaren. Do you know what's ridiculous? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you it's ridiculous. Hit me with it. Okay,

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Speaker 1: when you don't want your car stolen, which is not

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Speaker 1: that's not ridiculous. No one wants her car stolen unless

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Speaker 1: you just need to get rid of it. Well, sure,

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Speaker 1: evidence wise, but let's say you don't trust the club,

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Speaker 1: you don't trust the locks or an alarm. Did you

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Speaker 1: know I think this is ridiculous. You can buy a

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Speaker 1: boot for your own car. I think I know you're

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Speaker 1: going with this like it's not just a municipal thing.

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Speaker 1: Did you get some reason to this one? Recently in

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Speaker 1: my neighbor's driveway. What your neighbor boots his own car?

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Speaker 1: Boots his own car? And I have decided that's ridiculous. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I would agree, an idiotic. Why did he boot his

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Speaker 1: own car? Because did you have the car stolen a

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Speaker 1: couple of times? Now? Did he have his like something

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Speaker 1: else stolen? He's just kind of like gunshie about this innocence.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, just snatch from him and now he's like,

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Speaker 1: not my truck. I think maybe he shouldn't be living

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Speaker 1: in the city. Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. So wait is

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Speaker 1: he like, uh, somebody from like rural small town America? Mhm,

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Speaker 1: what's this deal? I don't know, but he's ridiculous. I'll

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Speaker 1: completely concur with that. Now. I got one for you, Yes,

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Speaker 1: you're ready. This is a story. It's about a middle

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Speaker 1: aged woman. She's from rural, small town Illinois, and this

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Speaker 1: particular Midwestern woman she uh, she had his taste for

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Speaker 1: that sweet sweet horsey breeding life. Oh yeah. Now to

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Speaker 1: pay for her horse jones, she decided to dip into

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Speaker 1: the bank account, not of her wealthy husband, not of

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Speaker 1: her family, but of her town, her hometown, and she

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Speaker 1: used the money that she could on the horses, and

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Speaker 1: she started diverting so much of the town's budget that

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Speaker 1: the town was almost going bankrupt. The perfect criminals, since

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Speaker 1: no one sees her coming. This is the story of

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Speaker 1: Rita Crundwell, the woman who got hooked on horse. I'm

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Speaker 1: sorry the horses. Woman had got hooked on horses, those

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Speaker 1: sweet sweet ponies. This is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about

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Speaker 1: absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. It's always murder

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Speaker 1: free and ridiculous today's bizarre tale, a small town crime

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Speaker 1: takes place in the American heartland. One of your favorite places, Elizabeth,

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Speaker 1: America's heartland is now this story of Rita Crundwell. It

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Speaker 1: takes place in a very specific part of rural small

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Speaker 1: town America, the Illinois town of Dixon. Now, this is

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Speaker 1: also famous for a couple of things. Before Rita Krundwell

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Speaker 1: was famous as the hometown of the star of the

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Speaker 1: Bedtime for Bonzos series of movies would later became I

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Speaker 1: Believe a politician Ronald Reagan that guy. Yeah h Then Dixon,

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Speaker 1: Illinois is also the petunia capital of well, not the world,

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Speaker 1: but of Illinois. It's the petunia capital of Illinois, which

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Speaker 1: is you know, high praise for Illinois. Also the catfish

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Speaker 1: capital of Illinois once again of Illinois fish not the

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Speaker 1: practice of doing people not like really good at like

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Speaker 1: cooking up with like like foreigners, getting them to come

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Speaker 1: over here and like wait a minute, cat the bottom feeder. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is not like Manteto's hometown. Now. Our second fun

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Speaker 1: fact about Dixon is that Rita Crunwell lives there and

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Speaker 1: she is the fifth most prolific embezzler of all time.

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Speaker 1: Of all times of all time. Dang Elizabeth, has the

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Speaker 1: FBI ever come to your home or place of work

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Speaker 1: and asked to speak with you? Well, Elizabeth, Um, no

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Speaker 1: they haven't. They haven't. They haven't asked to speak with me.

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Speaker 1: But one time when I worked at a certain place,

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Speaker 1: they came in, but not to talk to me. Did

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Speaker 1: you get to watch them operate? Yeah? Well not really.

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Speaker 1: They went into another office and then everyone was terrified

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Speaker 1: in our office and scarrying around, and I was like, well,

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Speaker 1: we haven't done anything, wait have we? And then okay,

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Speaker 1: well I've got a little fun visualization for you. You're ready.

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Speaker 1: This is the moment when the FBI comes to your

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Speaker 1: work and what that is like? Ready, I want you

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Speaker 1: to close your eyes, Yes, I want you to picture.

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Speaker 1: It's a Tuesday morning in April. It's early in the day,

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Speaker 1: a little after nine am. You're working at the Dixon

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Speaker 1: City Hall. You're a part time secretary, just typing away,

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Speaker 1: doing your thing. It's how Rita started at city Hall.

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Speaker 1: And you spot these three FBI agents to say, push

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Speaker 1: open the double doors. Streaming in sunlight behind them, the

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Speaker 1: noises of the day on Main Street Dixon all come

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Speaker 1: pouring in these FBI agents. They stride in with purpose

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Speaker 1: and they're looking past you and you're like, no, I

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Speaker 1: agree people, They're like, no, we know where we're going.

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Speaker 1: They go marching up the stairs. You go to follow

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Speaker 1: to see if they need help, trying to get to

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Speaker 1: wherever it is that they're going. And as you're going

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Speaker 1: up the horrible steps, you can see them make the

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Speaker 1: turn and start heading towards the mayor's office. You're like, okay,

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Speaker 1: I know where they're going. So you trail behind them.

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Speaker 1: You follow them all the way down the hallway. They

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Speaker 1: get to the mayor's office. Mayor Jim Burke is in

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Speaker 1: his office that morning. This is a point of fact,

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Speaker 1: because he's a part time mayor. He's not always in

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Speaker 1: the office this morning. Common in small town he is,

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Speaker 1: It is very common now. Full time real estate agent,

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Speaker 1: part time mayor. Jim Burke is a good hearted guy,

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Speaker 1: and so you know, kind self effacing, kind of Midwestern guy,

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Speaker 1: Big Jim, Big Jim Burke, and the FBI agents come in.

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Speaker 1: He's really friendly, nice to them, and you're right on

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Speaker 1: the FBI S six right You're watching pass them into

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Speaker 1: Mayor Jim Burke's office because you want to see what

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Speaker 1: all this hullabaloo is about. Nose as hell. I figured you, yes,

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Speaker 1: and in imagination. So as Mayor Jim Burke is greeting

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Speaker 1: the FBI agents, you notice he doesn't look scared, frightened, intimidated, nothing.

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Speaker 1: He's cool as a cucumber in a bowl of hot

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Speaker 1: stung would say. Yeah. Big him is sitting there and

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Speaker 1: he's like, you know, I basically called you into the office.

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Speaker 1: It seems he's got that demeanor like he invited the FBI.

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Speaker 1: Know why would he invite the FBI? You're wondering, Well,

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Speaker 1: the FBI agents they don't say anything at first, they

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Speaker 1: just keep doing their business. And uh, you don't know this,

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Speaker 1: but you're about to find out that the FBI has

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Speaker 1: been working with Mayor Jim Burke to bust one of

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Speaker 1: the employees in city Hall and today is the day

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Speaker 1: for the silver bracelets to be slapped on their wrist.

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Speaker 1: Here Jim Burke's face starts to lighten a little bit.

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Speaker 1: He looks at the FBI guys, and you're like, what's

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Speaker 1: going on to you? The moment that the excitement is

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Speaker 1: just rippling through you and all of a sudden, Mayor

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Speaker 1: Burke says to the three FBI agents, are we ready?

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Speaker 1: They're like, oh, it's going down the on The FBI

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Speaker 1: guys replies, yes, let's bring her in. Mayor Burke picks

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Speaker 1: up his telephone. He dials an extension in city Hall people,

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Speaker 1: and then he waits, puts the phone on speaker mode.

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Speaker 1: You can hear the phone down the hall ringing. You're like,

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Speaker 1: do you call someone in the office. You hear a

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Speaker 1: woman's voice at the other end. Hello, She's got a

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Speaker 1: nice sunny, you know, springtime e voice. Air Burke, very serious,

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Speaker 1: very solemn, says Rita, would you mind stepping into my

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Speaker 1: office for a minute. Rita replies sure. Now a moment later,

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Speaker 1: her office door opens. You hear it and also me.

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Speaker 1: Then you hear his footsteps clanking. She's going down the hallway,

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Speaker 1: the marble steps her heels to get louder. She gets closer.

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Speaker 1: You're so anticipatory, you just cannot wait for the moment

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Speaker 1: what is going to be happening. Rita pokes her head

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Speaker 1: in the doorway that you're standing there in the doorway

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Speaker 1: with her. Now she squeezes and she says hi, and

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Speaker 1: everyone turns. A three FBI engagent turn Mayor Jim Burke turns.

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Speaker 1: You just kind of just glance over at it, because

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Speaker 1: she's standing there right next to you. The FBI agents say, Rita,

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Speaker 1: would you mind coming in? Mayor Burke reiterates, Rita, would

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Speaker 1: would you please mind stepping into my office? The lead

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Speaker 1: FBI says, Hi, I'm with the FBI. That moment has come.

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Speaker 1: You're like, oh, it's going down now. He flashes his badge.

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Speaker 1: Rita looks at it and her face starts to break

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Speaker 1: a little. She knows it's over decades of flies, the fraud,

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Speaker 1: the embezzlement, the scams, the cons all of it are

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Speaker 1: coming crashing down. But yet her face doesn't fully show it.

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Speaker 1: Just a hint of it is in her eyes. The

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Speaker 1: lead FBI guy continues, Rita, we'd like to ask you

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Speaker 1: some questions. Mayor Burke stares at Rita. Meanwhile, Rita's face

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Speaker 1: still hasn't changed. It's just placid, and you're like, how

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Speaker 1: is she doing this? She just keeps smiling. It just

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Speaker 1: the small perch smile breaks on her face. It's almost

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Speaker 1: midwestern and polite, super eerie. And then the FBI agents

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Speaker 1: slapped the cuffs on her and they say she won't talk.

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Speaker 1: They're taking into the office. They leave city Hall, they

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Speaker 1: perp walker out. Everybody is a gas. They're all looking,

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Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, it's Rita, Rita. I can't believe it's Rita.

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Speaker 1: That moment was the moment when Mayor Jim Burke finally

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Speaker 1: realized what we will call the dow of Rita Krundwell, Now,

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Speaker 1: what is the doo of Rita Krundwell, Well, as it goes,

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Speaker 1: he said, and I quote, it showed me she didn't

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Speaker 1: give us about our town. Oh yeah, So how much

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Speaker 1: do you, Rita exactly not give about the town of Dixon, Illinois?

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Speaker 1: Can you guess? Try the tune of fifty three million dollars?

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Speaker 1: Fifty three million dollars fifty three million. How did the

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Speaker 1: town have that much money to begin with? Well that

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Speaker 1: was over multiple years. She was just basically siphoning off

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Speaker 1: cash to pay for her horses, year after year after

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Speaker 1: year after year from the small little town until she

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Speaker 1: had taken fifty three million dollars in the FPI. I

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Speaker 1: showed up and said, we'd like to talk to you, Rita.

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Speaker 1: Can I tell you how excited I am that they

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Speaker 1: didn't kick me out when they started doing this whole

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Speaker 1: rita we need to talk to They just let me

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Speaker 1: stand in the doorway. I like that. I knew you'd

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Speaker 1: like to kind of just watch that same play out. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the FBI is very generous, you know, in small town America,

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Speaker 1: and they sent the FBI comes. It's not like state

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Speaker 1: police or anything. So this is big time. Yeah, they

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Speaker 1: didn't bring the U. S. Marshals to grab her. They

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Speaker 1: wanted to talk with her and then to cover So. Coincidentally,

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Speaker 1: that fifty three million I just told you, that's the

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Speaker 1: exact same amount that Kanye West was in bankruptcy for.

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Speaker 1: He's not almost a billionaire. If he's not already a billionaire,

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Speaker 1: I don't know who cares. But the point is is

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Speaker 1: that's a sizeable chunk of money. It's enough to turn

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Speaker 1: you into a billionaire, and in this case, it was

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Speaker 1: enough to pretty much bankrupt her hometown. Now, let's say

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Speaker 1: you stole fifty three million dollars, Elizabeth, should we say

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Speaker 1: it together? Elizabeth? Okay? I felt good. Now let's say

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Speaker 1: he didn't donate any of it. You just had to

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Speaker 1: spend all of it on yourself for stuff or whatever. Gifts.

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Speaker 1: I don't care what would you spend fifty three million

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Speaker 1: I'll limit it. What animal would you spend fifty three

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Speaker 1: million dollars on? Oh? Dogs? Hello? Really you wouldn't go

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Speaker 1: like big like peacocks or bears. I would have a

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Speaker 1: standing dog army that would be completely pampered. Okay, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it would be wild. What would you do with your

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Speaker 1: dog army? I mean you've got enough money to pamper them, so, like,

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Speaker 1: how are you going to pamper them various acts of vengeance? No?

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Speaker 1: I would you have probably for them. Everyone gets their

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Speaker 1: own bed so they don't all try and sleep on

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Speaker 1: my bed. Okay, they get the list of foods and

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Speaker 1: table scraps. Okay, I don't know, buy like a bunch

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Speaker 1: of acres and build my own dog park. Like would

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Speaker 1: you travel with them? Would you get like maybe like

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Speaker 1: a very large trailer in a truck and you take

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Speaker 1: them on a road trip around the country with all

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Speaker 1: their heads outside of the sunglasses on all of them?

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, I would get the nicest sunglasses for

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Speaker 1: all the dogs. Everybody gets custom ray bands. Very nice,

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Speaker 1: very nice. You're starting to now get what Rita Crundwell

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Speaker 1: was about. Was she about that rude dude life. No,

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Speaker 1: unfortunately she was just about that rude life. Now, after

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Speaker 1: this short break, it's time to meet the star of

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Speaker 1: our story, the embezzler extraordinaire, Rita Krundwell. Elizabeth M. You

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Speaker 1: used to live in a small town. You you told me,

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Speaker 1: yea the small town that we don't have to name it.

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Speaker 1: But living in a small town, you know what it's like.

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Speaker 1: Were there any any liars in your town? Anybody who

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Speaker 1: got busted for a lie? Maybe it was like a

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Speaker 1: divorce that all said came to light of scandal with money.

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Speaker 1: Is there anything like that? Of course, human beings live there. Well, yes,

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Speaker 1: I know I'm saying, but in small towns, it's it's

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Speaker 1: less likely that a secret emerges because people know the secret.

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Speaker 1: It kind of gets whispered about, you know what I mean,

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Speaker 1: Like it doesn't just get broken in the news. It's

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Speaker 1: more like people knew about it and then it's like

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Speaker 1: the news confirmed. But that's accurate. I think, Yeah, there

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Speaker 1: are secrets that that are sort of known secrets. Everyone's

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Speaker 1: in on it. But then sometimes she gets surprised out

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Speaker 1: of It's gonna be like the violent secrets. There's the

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Speaker 1: marital secrets. The money secrets, but oftentimes there's the whisper

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Speaker 1: networks that are very different than big cities. Right, you

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Speaker 1: can't be anonymous, right, exactly. Keep that in mind as

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Speaker 1: I tell you how Rita Krundwell pulled off for fifty

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Speaker 1: three million dollars theft of her How many people lived

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Speaker 1: in this Dixon, Illan About sixteen thousand people, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's pretty small, Yeah, pretty pretty small. That's big compared

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Speaker 1: to where I was living. People sixteen thousand would be

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Speaker 1: asked the big city, going into the big city to

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Speaker 1: like get your checks cash. Well, that's where like Starbucks

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Speaker 1: is five minutes away. Yeah, anyway, so I think that's yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's in the grand scheme of things. Pretty small town. Well,

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Speaker 1: getting to Dixon, Illinois, Rida Crundwell's hometown. Rita was one

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Speaker 1: of six Crundwell kids. She grew up on the family farm.

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Speaker 1: She was the type of teen who were cowboy boots.

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Speaker 1: She drove a beat up pickup trucks. She was in

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Speaker 1: a four age. She raised livestock, She competed in livestock shows,

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Speaker 1: and she showed up in the lyrics I think one

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Speaker 1: or two John Cougar Mellancamp song that's gonna say. She

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Speaker 1: sounds like a character in a New Country lyrics. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: she's like Tracey Atkins, ideal girl, drinking from a red

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Speaker 1: solo cup, sitting how much hey means to her? That

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Speaker 1: reminds me a home out. Rita Cronwells. So she was

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Speaker 1: also a smart girl. She was a National Honor Society member.

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Speaker 1: She was a popular girl, the kind of kid who

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Speaker 1: gets nominated or elected. I don't know how it goes,

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Speaker 1: but to her high school's homecoming court. Yeah, I don't

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Speaker 1: know how that works. Yeah, I think it's elected. I

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Speaker 1: don't know anyway. Rita Kronwell all American upbringing. Just keep

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Speaker 1: that in mind. Now, one of the facts I just

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Speaker 1: told you above is not true. I'll let you guess

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Speaker 1: which one. John Cougar mellencom Okay, So Rida our former

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Speaker 1: honor student girl with the big glasses, brown hair for

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Speaker 1: eight kid cowboy boots out in your mind. Okay. She

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Speaker 1: goes to work at the city hall thanks to her

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Speaker 1: high school's work study program. So she's like a junior

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Speaker 1: at the time. This is nineteen seventy Okay, So in

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one, she graduates and then she takes a job,

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Speaker 1: full time job at city hall. It's like, that's a

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Speaker 1: good job all town. So she's like, I'm keeping it around.

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Speaker 1: That same time, the mayor he creates this new position

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Speaker 1: called the town's comptroller. And the comptrollers you were familiar is,

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Speaker 1: handles the money. They're a little bit different than say

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Speaker 1: the treasurer. They are in charge of like writing the checks,

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Speaker 1: making sure that the checkbook is balanced. So this person

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Speaker 1: is important in the town at Dixon because, as I

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Speaker 1: said earlier, Mayor Jim Burke part time mayor, city council

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Speaker 1: and city council members rather there's four of them. They're

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Speaker 1: also all part time, so the city relies on some

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Speaker 1: full time employees to handle city business. So Rita Krundwell

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Speaker 1: joins this full time cartier of city hall employees, and

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Speaker 1: eventually she works her way up to treasure and then

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Speaker 1: from treasurer to comptroller. So it takes her about thirteen years.

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Speaker 1: So now we're in ninete, we're into the Reagan years

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Speaker 1: of America. There is a new feeling about rural America.

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Speaker 1: There's a new optimism coming out of the seventies and inflation.

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Speaker 1: So people are they're having a little bit of a

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Speaker 1: not a go go American moment, but the rural America

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Speaker 1: is feeling better about themselves, right. Rita takes that moment says,

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Speaker 1: I'm feeling better, but myself too right now. Quicker than

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Speaker 1: you can say Kevin Bacon and footloose, Rita Krundwell starts

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Speaker 1: angling for how she can make her new appointment work

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Speaker 1: for her. Takes her a little bit of time, about

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Speaker 1: seven years. About At that time, She's like, I think

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Speaker 1: I gotta handle how I'm going to scam this town now. Rita,

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Speaker 1: she's really good with numbers, like that's part of her

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Speaker 1: bag is that she's exacting. She's detail oriented and everybody

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Speaker 1: knows this about her. It's it's her rep right. The

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Speaker 1: mayor at the time of her arrest, to quote, Rita

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Speaker 1: was very efficient, very pleasant, She got along with everyone,

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Speaker 1: and she knew the job in and out. She seemed

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Speaker 1: like a perfect fit. Yeah, right, so that's her general

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Speaker 1: m oh everybody's reacting to now. Meanwhile, Rita is acting

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Speaker 1: like a Banana Republic dictator. She decides to take total

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Speaker 1: control of city Hall, which in this case means the

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Speaker 1: flow of information. She has all of the paperwork that

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Speaker 1: she deals with routed to a p O box so

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Speaker 1: nobody can see the mail that is coming to her. Nope,

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Speaker 1: the address that you normally would think of the mail

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Speaker 1: will go city hall. The whole reason why you have

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Speaker 1: a city hall was a building for business of city

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Speaker 1: hall to be done. She's like, no, send that to

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Speaker 1: my pel box. I'll do it at home. I'm this

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Speaker 1: is this is like way before are work at home? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: She's like, I'm a workaholic and this way I can

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Speaker 1: work on the weekends. And I see rita, Yeah, you're

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Speaker 1: onto right now. Yeah. Apparently in her small town everyone

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Speaker 1: was like, no, she's just so good at her work. Well,

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Speaker 1: and one of the things that I noticed living in

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Speaker 1: a small town is that you are sort of um

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Speaker 1: locked into your public persona when you're in high school,

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Speaker 1: and so whoever you are in high school tends to

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Speaker 1: follow you through. And so if you were like the

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Speaker 1: handsome quarterback and then you just kind of keep screwing

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Speaker 1: up later, people are always you know, but he was

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Speaker 1: the handsome quarterback, or you're the weird outsider, it's hard

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Speaker 1: to then change. And so she's like she it's hard

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Speaker 1: to reinvent yourself. Whereas like where I'm you know, born

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Speaker 1: and raised California. That's like a pastime, right, constant reinvention,

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Speaker 1: but you're not. Really it's hard. It's hard in a

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Speaker 1: small town. So I can see Rita. If she just

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Speaker 1: locks herself in in high schools like National Honor Society,

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Speaker 1: doing work study, riding around in a pickup truck, whatever,

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Speaker 1: like doing all the right things for h everyone's going

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Speaker 1: to see her like that, and they never they never

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Speaker 1: took a second glance. You're so right about that. She

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Speaker 1: apparently locked in then she used that. I think she

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Speaker 1: was aware of it, like you are that, like this

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Speaker 1: is all they see. So the meanwhile, Rita is like

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Speaker 1: basically doing exactly just saying, is creating this persona that

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Speaker 1: is impeccable and implacable in terms of like everybody thinks

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Speaker 1: they know Rita, they have no idea who Rida is. Right, So, like,

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Speaker 1: for instance, to advance her idea of her being really

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Speaker 1: frugal and meticulous about money, she always did ducts money

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Speaker 1: from her own salary for any day of work that

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Speaker 1: she misses. Right now, what this means is if like

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Speaker 1: she's out of office for like a week for to

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Speaker 1: go to a horse show, will say she did ducts

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Speaker 1: that from her pay and that balanced out that one year.

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Speaker 1: She makes about three dollars a year, so she one

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Speaker 1: year im only made sixty one dollars because she took

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Speaker 1: twenty two dollars off of her salary. So that way

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Speaker 1: it would look like, you know, did she not get

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Speaker 1: vacation time beyond? I think she may have used up

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Speaker 1: her page. So she's just above board, like yeah, look

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Speaker 1: I'm taking leave without pay. When she go to horse stuff,

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Speaker 1: horse shows and like travel, people don't know. They just

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Speaker 1: know she leaves. Wait a second, so she makes a

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Speaker 1: d g year and she took off. That's like a

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Speaker 1: quarter of the time. She's not even there. I do math, Yes,

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Speaker 1: look at it took me a second smoke coming out

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Speaker 1: of my ears. I was worried something caught fire. But

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Speaker 1: like that's like half, it's half of her time. So

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Speaker 1: they weren't doing this math. The local townspeople, they're just

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Speaker 1: so happy and they figured rid it was so good

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Speaker 1: at a job. Meanwhile, that same time, when she's out sick,

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Speaker 1: she's has like a family member go to her po

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Speaker 1: box and pick up her work to make sure that

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Speaker 1: nobody ever sees it. Maybe they're using. Like the metric

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Speaker 1: that I wish all jobs would do is like forget

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Speaker 1: the eight hours a day, forty hour week. However, if

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Speaker 1: you get your work done, then fine, you get paid. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm with you. That should be the stap So, and

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Speaker 1: let's be honest, like a quarter of our time is

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Speaker 1: you know, doing I don't know crypto quip for instance.

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Speaker 1: For instance, I don't know just you know, spitball in here,

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Speaker 1: but I think you know she's she's laying out something now,

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Speaker 1: she's doing nefarious things. But if we're all honest with ourselves, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we could get all of our work done in three

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Speaker 1: quarters at the time she went way past I'm going

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Speaker 1: to make the biggest ball of rubber bands I can.

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Speaker 1: But I see your point, which is basically, you know,

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Speaker 1: people should be able to work as much as their

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Speaker 1: work is required of and not try to fill in

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Speaker 1: some arbitrary oh you gotta be here on the clock

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff, exact completely, and Rita would agree with you,

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Speaker 1: But I don't like that. I don't you don't want

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Speaker 1: her in your side. Rita creates her fake dummy bank

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Speaker 1: account and goes into business of Rita, Inc. She starts

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Speaker 1: sidelining money and creating like, well, what will soon become

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Speaker 1: a vast empire in fortune in the horse world. And

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Speaker 1: the way she did it is she started a city

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Speaker 1: account but in her name, so that way she's the

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Speaker 1: only signatory on the account. But as far as the

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Speaker 1: bank is concerned, it's doing city business. So it's like

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Speaker 1: City of Dixon exactly, and with signatory Rita. So that's

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Speaker 1: how she starts to do being Bazzel funds. And she

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Speaker 1: likes it. She's into it, right, she gets after it.

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Speaker 1: She's like, I don't know a colonist in the new world.

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Speaker 1: She's like, oh, look at all this value just lying

404
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Speaker 1: around here. So her plan works because one there's this

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Speaker 1: constant influx of new city leaders. Right the city council

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Speaker 1: member of new mayor comes in. She teaches them the books,

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Speaker 1: this is how the city works, this is what I do.

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Speaker 1: So she teaches them her cooked books method. When the

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Speaker 1: city auditors come in, because she was smart about this.

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Speaker 1: Starting about the somewhere in the mid eighties, she started

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Speaker 1: basically faking the records. And so when she creates her

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Speaker 1: false account and starts diverting funds, by that point she

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Speaker 1: has all these records that are fake. So the auditors

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Speaker 1: looking back seven years they have a false record, they don't,

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Speaker 1: so they can't see it either. The local town is uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, they're the banks that are supposed to be

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Speaker 1: in charge of the account that they keep getting bought

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Speaker 1: up by national banks, so that no longer is that

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Speaker 1: nosy bank manager who's paying attention to how often Rida

420
00:22:14,359 --> 00:22:16,239
Speaker 1: is coming in and diverting funds. She's just sitting at

421
00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:20,400
Speaker 1: home clicking buttons now and done. So there's no oversight

422
00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:23,560
Speaker 1: either officially by the like money cops, there's no oversight

423
00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:28,600
Speaker 1: by the bank managers, and there's no oversight by her bosses. Right, yes, exactly.

424
00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:31,560
Speaker 1: So at this point, the only thing that's holding it

425
00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:34,399
Speaker 1: together is that everybody has, I keep pointing out, is

426
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:36,840
Speaker 1: so convinced that Rita it's just so darn good at

427
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:40,600
Speaker 1: her job. Rights And I'll quote Mayor Jim Burke again,

428
00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:44,119
Speaker 1: he was just like enamored as mayor. He didn't have

429
00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:46,280
Speaker 1: to work very hard because if he needed anything done,

430
00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:48,359
Speaker 1: he just went to Rita. She knew right where it was,

431
00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:51,560
Speaker 1: so quote I could go into her office and say, Rita,

432
00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:54,320
Speaker 1: do you have a copy of the cable TV contract

433
00:22:54,359 --> 00:22:58,000
Speaker 1: from and she'd go right to a drawer and pull

434
00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:01,399
Speaker 1: it out. How can you argue I trust her with

435
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:05,800
Speaker 1: the nuclear codes exactly? So just you know, imagine poor

436
00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:08,040
Speaker 1: Jim Burke's surprise when the FBI showed up a city

437
00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:10,719
Speaker 1: hall for Rita. But of course he did know at

438
00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:16,720
Speaker 1: that point. Well wait a second, so what if everything

439
00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:20,280
Speaker 1: is getting not everything, but if she's diverting significant funds,

440
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:24,920
Speaker 1: is the town up and running? Well? I mean, oh no,

441
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:27,520
Speaker 1: not at all. Like that's the thing is though, so

442
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:30,639
Speaker 1: like they couldn't afford to repair the cemetery, like they

443
00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:33,160
Speaker 1: had problems with their cemetery. Their streets were going bad,

444
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:36,680
Speaker 1: the street lights weren't working. They couldn't get uniforms and

445
00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:40,199
Speaker 1: radar guns for the cops. They had basketball courts at

446
00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,400
Speaker 1: all broken up. The kids can't play on them. They

447
00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:46,159
Speaker 1: had to go without city jobs or pay increases for years.

448
00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:49,560
Speaker 1: It was bad. But Rita knows where the cable contract

449
00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:53,800
Speaker 1: is exactly that? What is Mayor Jim Burke's really care

450
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:56,960
Speaker 1: about the rest of goodness? No, but I just like

451
00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:59,800
Speaker 1: to focus on Rita for a second. Can you imagine

452
00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 1: being her? Like lying to everyone you know, everyone you

453
00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:06,520
Speaker 1: grew up with everyone you worked with every day of

454
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,680
Speaker 1: your life for decades and just creating this larger and

455
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 1: larger divide between you and what who people think you

456
00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:14,280
Speaker 1: are and who they're giving you credit for when you're

457
00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:16,639
Speaker 1: not Rida Crundwell anymore now. And she must have the

458
00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:20,440
Speaker 1: lowest opinion of every other human being to know she's

459
00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 1: so seopathic or is she just something else like? And

460
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:25,680
Speaker 1: I don't mean to get a diagnosis. I'm just saying,

461
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:27,760
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know. I'm sure she's got

462
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:30,919
Speaker 1: a whole host of issues. I'm wondering just about what

463
00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:34,280
Speaker 1: happened to her, Rita, who hurt you? I know? Right?

464
00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:36,600
Speaker 1: So the thing that we do know is that Rita

465
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:40,359
Speaker 1: did it for one for the glamour. We know what

466
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:42,879
Speaker 1: her motivation was other than the horses. It wasn't just

467
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:45,840
Speaker 1: the horses. It was also Rida lets, the diamonds, the fur,

468
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:48,440
Speaker 1: the bright lights of the big city and in this case,

469
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:52,680
Speaker 1: the big cities. Oklahoma City. Well it's a big city, sure, okay, yeah,

470
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:55,080
Speaker 1: I mean like, yeah, it's a big city from Dixon, Illinois.

471
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:57,880
Speaker 1: I'm just saying it's not like, oh, she's out in Manhattan.

472
00:24:57,880 --> 00:24:59,240
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not trying to say, and every city

473
00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 1: has been measured again New York. But there are a

474
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:02,400
Speaker 1: lot of big cities in this world. I will put

475
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:06,480
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City defend Oklahoma. I like that about you. My apologies,

476
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City District. Oh no, I like the city. I'm

477
00:25:10,119 --> 00:25:13,040
Speaker 1: not like saying anything bad. I just wouldn't say that

478
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 1: it's a big city in America like Houston. Houston is

479
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,360
Speaker 1: a big city in America. Oklahoma City, I mean, yes,

480
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:25,119
Speaker 1: it is a beautiful city with a big heart. The

481
00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:29,359
Speaker 1: American quarter Horse Association's World Championship Show, it happens to

482
00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:32,960
Speaker 1: be in Oklahoma City every year. Yeah, and uh, that

483
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,480
Speaker 1: place is. I don't know if you've ever been to

484
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 1: the American quarter Horse Association World Championship Show but missed it.

485
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:42,919
Speaker 1: Oh that I don't need to tell you. But just

486
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:46,119
Speaker 1: from my own edification, I'll remind you that it is

487
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 1: possibly one of the largest collections of humans you know

488
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 1: that takes place in the North American continent. Is bigger

489
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:55,080
Speaker 1: than Democratic National Convention, better than the Republican National Convention.

490
00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:57,399
Speaker 1: It's bigger than the Super Bowl. It's hundreds of thousands

491
00:25:57,440 --> 00:26:00,159
Speaker 1: of people coming into Oklahoma City. Just talking horse is

492
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:02,720
Speaker 1: walking horses, looking at horses, just being all about horse

493
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:09,640
Speaker 1: life for days. Yeah whatever, Yeah, that horsey life. Horse life.

494
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:11,480
Speaker 1: So like the type of people that you would see

495
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:15,160
Speaker 1: in town, Oklahoma City during the quarter Horse Association World

496
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 1: Championship Show. People like Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner, Robert Redford,

497
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:21,760
Speaker 1: Lyle love it. So all those celebrities that you can

498
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:23,199
Speaker 1: think of is like, I can imagine him with a

499
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 1: horse on the horse set. The horse set. People are

500
00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:29,280
Speaker 1: down for that horse life. So Rita krunwell, she would

501
00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:31,680
Speaker 1: like to go and to Oklahoma City and whenever she

502
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:36,359
Speaker 1: would go, she would show out for a bikini's not

503
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:39,880
Speaker 1: that kind of show out, but but she would put

504
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:41,480
Speaker 1: a show on a show. I'll just leave it at that.

505
00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:44,720
Speaker 1: So the floor of the arena, because just imagine like

506
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 1: a giant like a basketball stadium or football indoors football stadium, right,

507
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:52,239
Speaker 1: So on the floor of that stadium you would have

508
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:55,840
Speaker 1: convention stalls and booze, and Rita would down be down

509
00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 1: there with everybody else. But instead of having like a

510
00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:00,159
Speaker 1: table on the stall, she would have, for instance, a

511
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:04,199
Speaker 1: log cabin recreated for the event, an entire log an

512
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:06,800
Speaker 1: entire log cabin. And it's like, hey, Look, dude, was

513
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln barn there? What's going on here? Now? That

514
00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:12,800
Speaker 1: was just the entrance to her section. Once you stepped

515
00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:15,720
Speaker 1: inside the recreation log cabin, you be greeted by the

516
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:18,280
Speaker 1: side of the glitter in the shine of her trophy

517
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:20,800
Speaker 1: room she had. You had to walk past all of

518
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:23,960
Speaker 1: her trophies like a pageant kid. Yeah, exactly, like total

519
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:26,960
Speaker 1: pageant kid. And she had like that love of like

520
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:29,440
Speaker 1: I don't know, ribbons, that whatever it is that motivates

521
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:32,119
Speaker 1: the passion for ribbons. You wanted everyone to see her

522
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:35,280
Speaker 1: ribbon collection, old plastic exactly what she's like, Look at this,

523
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:39,040
Speaker 1: this is etched, has my name on it. Magical. So

524
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:41,439
Speaker 1: after the gleam of her trophy room wears off and

525
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:45,480
Speaker 1: you wander further into the recreated log cabin, then you

526
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,439
Speaker 1: meet the full open bar that she has arrayed for

527
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:51,680
Speaker 1: her guests, and you could grab a cocktail, all courtesy

528
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 1: of Rita Crundwell. And now I like to imagine, you know,

529
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:57,240
Speaker 1: one of this Horsey set sitting in that recreated log

530
00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:00,320
Speaker 1: cabin with her, let's say Harrison Ford, right, He's like

531
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,360
Speaker 1: raising a glass talking horses to Rita, and Rita's telling

532
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:05,160
Speaker 1: them how good it was this year. And he's telling

533
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 1: her how good the whiskey is. And she's like, oh

534
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:09,760
Speaker 1: you like the whiskey And he's like, yep, what am

535
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:13,359
Speaker 1: I doing it? You're the celebrity, I professional, the professional. Okay,

536
00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:15,600
Speaker 1: would you mind being Harrison Ford for a second. I'm

537
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:18,720
Speaker 1: happy to Okay, So I'm Rita. So she's like, imagine

538
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 1: the scene. She's like, oh yeah, sitting there surrounded by

539
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 1: log cabins, people elbow hob nobbing, talking horses and horse

540
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,280
Speaker 1: trailers or whatever they talk about. She's like, more champagne,

541
00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:33,080
Speaker 1: Harrison Ford, Hey have a bad is me Harrison Ford?

542
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:38,080
Speaker 1: A flan airplane and I eat play though flawless. I mean,

543
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,480
Speaker 1: it's like you're in the log cabin with Rita and

544
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:44,160
Speaker 1: Harrison or as I call him, Harry. Now, oh my god,

545
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:46,479
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I have to apologize with I totally forgot

546
00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:48,560
Speaker 1: to tell you how she's dressed at these events for

547
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 1: practically though practically real close. So just put a little

548
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,080
Speaker 1: bit more fur on it and make it like a

549
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:59,640
Speaker 1: full white fur coat, like you know, like white, I

550
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:04,160
Speaker 1: don't know, snow leopard for something exotic, something endangered, and

551
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:08,840
Speaker 1: then diamonds and like, I don't know, Tiara, it's going hard.

552
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: It's kind of more than I anticipated. I thought she'd

553
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,040
Speaker 1: be like in TJ Max's Finest. Oh yeah, know, she's

554
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 1: got like the beaded tops or whatever those things are,

555
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:19,520
Speaker 1: like the sequence and beads. I don't know what the

556
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 1: lame bryant of it all. I'm just imagining with the

557
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 1: beated tops that instead it's like those beaded seat covers

558
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:30,120
Speaker 1: for cab drivers, not quite those big like a like

559
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 1: a wooden backroomate top. She's very experimental. She's very fashion forward,

560
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 1: like so fashion forward you can't even see her. She's

561
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: just down the line. She doesn't have that she's out

562
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: there still. She's just in like a milar suit. Yeah,

563
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:44,520
Speaker 1: it was real. I thought you would appreciate her, Like,

564
00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:46,200
Speaker 1: see if I can find some pictures and we put

565
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 1: them on Instagram. She has a real best in show

566
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 1: vibe to her outfits. And I know how you love

567
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:54,560
Speaker 1: that movie go for that. Yeah, so we just kind

568
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:59,000
Speaker 1: of imagine that, but less fun, more crime. I don't know. Also,

569
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:02,840
Speaker 1: what is your favorite like middle aged woman's fashion tendency?

570
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 1: Like I did, I was trying to think of like

571
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 1: what stores that is that she's probably shopping at. That's

572
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:09,959
Speaker 1: what I was. That's the only when I could go with.

573
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:11,280
Speaker 1: And I was like, I don't mean to just pick

574
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:13,959
Speaker 1: on the Chicos woman. Is there like another brand that

575
00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 1: is J J Jill? Okay, I don't know. I'd have

576
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 1: to know her full aesthetic to give it a good assessment.

577
00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 1: Does she like a she a department store goal? No? No,

578
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:27,479
Speaker 1: are you kidding me? No? She is definitely boutique as

579
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:29,960
Speaker 1: much as possible. Now. I mean, occasionally, if she can't

580
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:31,840
Speaker 1: get out of Dixon, she may have to, like, you know,

581
00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:36,680
Speaker 1: get her jeans at the local store. But other than that. Interesting, Well,

582
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:38,720
Speaker 1: there was a woman in the horse scene who knew

583
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,200
Speaker 1: her very well, and she was talking in a newspaper

584
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 1: article and I found this and I thought, this answer

585
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:47,440
Speaker 1: Elizabeth question. So she clocked read his style to time

586
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 1: and I quote, this is about her beated gowns that

587
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:54,840
Speaker 1: she would wear to these events, like at the nighttime

588
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 1: formal event at the American quarter Horse Association's World Championship Show,

589
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:01,719
Speaker 1: and I quote, they're beautiful. I went to look at

590
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 1: a couple of the blouses she wore. The used ones

591
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 1: were dollars a pop and Rita didn't wear used. I

592
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:16,080
Speaker 1: thought gad Zouks the Midwest jumped out. So she's like

593
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:19,200
Speaker 1: wearing designer Dud's. Yeah, exactly. Do you think she wore

594
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 1: Carl Loggerfeld because didn't he eat horsemeat? Oh god, I

595
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:28,720
Speaker 1: don't know anything about that. That up, that's true. I

596
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:31,160
Speaker 1: make up most of what I say, But I do

597
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:33,800
Speaker 1: believe that it's true that Carl Loggerfeld was on like

598
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 1: a horse meat diet. It's a lot of French people

599
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 1: eat horse meat. I'm aware of that. They do eat

600
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 1: horse meat over there, and I just tried to forgere

601
00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:48,120
Speaker 1: just like the synergy of her wearing Laggerfeld carlat well,

602
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:49,960
Speaker 1: I don't know about the horse meat part. Well, I

603
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 1: have a headline Carl Lagerfeld lost ninety pounds on a

604
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:57,080
Speaker 1: diet of tuna and BlackBerry moose. I'm not hearing horsemeat.

605
00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:00,360
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, No. It was rumored that Carl Lagerfeld's famous

606
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 1: diet involved eating horse meat, tomatoes, and diet coke together

607
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:10,760
Speaker 1: like a vogue, a slurry of horsemeat, tomatoes and diet

608
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:15,720
Speaker 1: slurry of horse meat. Thank you for something I'll never forget. Then,

609
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:20,800
Speaker 1: thank you, Elizabeth for yet another grosser stopping a gross out. Oh,

610
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:24,440
Speaker 1: Calf's liver too and wild strong. Well, I'm glad you

611
00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:28,040
Speaker 1: asked about Rita and what people thought about her and money.

612
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:32,840
Speaker 1: So speaking of Rita, speaking of Rita cryned well and uh,

613
00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:35,640
Speaker 1: whether or not she came from money or not, people

614
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:38,160
Speaker 1: used to wonder if she had inherited land from her family,

615
00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:41,560
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, it's true she actually had inherited

616
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 1: a horse farm from her mother. The details may have varied,

617
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: but the general story was the same. Someone died, she

618
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:48,880
Speaker 1: got wealthy, right, And it's like the story around the

619
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:51,800
Speaker 1: horse world. Now that was pretty true. A whole last

620
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:54,760
Speaker 1: town was literally dying and she got wealthy. So there

621
00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 1: was the death man Welsh sharp are there everything else?

622
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,920
Speaker 1: The details a little wrong now, when Aita would arrive

623
00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:02,800
Speaker 1: at a horse show before she would you know, set

624
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 1: up her bass pro shop Lincoln log cabin, before he

625
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:08,600
Speaker 1: drinks got poured for a horse loving stars like Lyle

626
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 1: love it. Oh, I gotta do one more? Would you

627
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:14,680
Speaker 1: like some more Champagne Lyle loving? Hey have about it?

628
00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:17,440
Speaker 1: It's me Lyle, I love it. I just stole Temple

629
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,920
Speaker 1: Grandon's shirt. It's amazing. It's like he's just here for

630
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 1: a moment then he disappears. Yeah, I get I transform. No,

631
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:26,720
Speaker 1: thank you for gracing us with that one. I always

632
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,120
Speaker 1: like this. That one's on the house. Before Rita would

633
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: pull on her white fur coat or for you, her

634
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:34,320
Speaker 1: white fur bikini and some hot little sequin number to

635
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:36,840
Speaker 1: dazzle the horsey crowd. Rita also liked to make a

636
00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:40,280
Speaker 1: big splash in the parking lot. She would like, I

637
00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:42,120
Speaker 1: don't mean like jumping from a height, and I mean

638
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,160
Speaker 1: like she didn't do it that way, I like pushing

639
00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:47,320
Speaker 1: a watermelon off the top of a building splash. I

640
00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:49,080
Speaker 1: mean like she wanted people to be like, oh, it's

641
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:53,240
Speaker 1: a Rita walk on music pretty much. It was just

642
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 1: like the sound of pain and suffering in her hometown.

643
00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:59,880
Speaker 1: But Drumpy was amazing. Before she get there, she would

644
00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:02,920
Speaker 1: like have like her fleet arrived right, and her fleet

645
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:07,920
Speaker 1: consisted of forty five ft Liberty Coach RV. And in

646
00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:09,799
Speaker 1: case you're not in the market for r vs, that's

647
00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 1: one of the nicest ones you can get. Yeah, so

648
00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:17,400
Speaker 1: that one is the luxury liner forty five ft long

649
00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:22,839
Speaker 1: Liberty Coach RV's way bigger than like your normal like

650
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:26,919
Speaker 1: a tour bus. Now this boasted a king size bed,

651
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:33,400
Speaker 1: five satellite TVs, marble countertops, leather wrapped railings, multiple tile floors,

652
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:37,919
Speaker 1: multiple tile floors, also a washer and dryer. I don't

653
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 1: even have one of those in my apartment. Now, this

654
00:34:40,719 --> 00:34:43,840
Speaker 1: whole thing costs two million dollars. Two million dollars for

655
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:47,000
Speaker 1: an RV. Do you know how much of Dixon, Illinois

656
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:49,920
Speaker 1: you could fix with that RV? Now, of course she

657
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:53,120
Speaker 1: didn't handle her horses herself. Now, Rita had professional cowboys.

658
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:55,600
Speaker 1: For all that she didn't like brush down the mane

659
00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:59,000
Speaker 1: and tail. She just would boys. There's the stall, set

660
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:01,239
Speaker 1: up the horses, right, So she'd have them mucking out

661
00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:02,960
Speaker 1: the trailers and all that stuff that she didn't want

662
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,160
Speaker 1: to do. But those cowboys they weren't cheap either, so

663
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:07,440
Speaker 1: she had to have a trailer for them, and then

664
00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:10,080
Speaker 1: have you know, lodging for them and so forth. She

665
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:12,800
Speaker 1: had a mighty convoy. Oh yeah, but she was really

666
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 1: successful with this because how much money she was diverting

667
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:18,280
Speaker 1: into her horsey funds. In two thousand eleven, just before

668
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:20,400
Speaker 1: this is right before ready gets busted. She gets busted

669
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:22,760
Speaker 1: in two thousand twelve, the year before she gets busted

670
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:25,759
Speaker 1: when she went to the American quarter Horse Association World

671
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:30,480
Speaker 1: Championship Show in Oklahoma City, a mouthful. Quite. She was

672
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:32,840
Speaker 1: the bell of the ball that year. She won fifty

673
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:36,200
Speaker 1: four prizes at the Oklahoma And any of those money

674
00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:38,040
Speaker 1: or is it just a bunch of Yeah, she's wanting

675
00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:41,160
Speaker 1: some ribbons, some proven some prize money. Yeah, like quarter

676
00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 1: million dollars kind of prize money. She was named the

677
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:48,279
Speaker 1: leading owner of the American quarter Horse Association that year. Yeah,

678
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:50,680
Speaker 1: she's pouring a bunch of money into the whole thing completely.

679
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:52,600
Speaker 1: Eight year in a row, she was named Owner of

680
00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:55,719
Speaker 1: the Year employee. I'll tell you your hometown is harder

681
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:59,560
Speaker 1: and money goes far if you directed in one tight funnel. Now,

682
00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:01,960
Speaker 1: the only thing that her friends and neighbors knew about

683
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:04,319
Speaker 1: what Rita was doing down in Oklahoma City came to

684
00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 1: them from the newspaper articles because they would, like, you know,

685
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:10,120
Speaker 1: see like a headline, Oh Rita won again down in

686
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:13,719
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City. We're so proud of her. So going back

687
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:18,400
Speaker 1: to my man Mayor, Big Jim Burke, he was quoted

688
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:21,640
Speaker 1: talking about how all this prize money Rita was winning

689
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:24,880
Speaker 1: chunky the newspapers, he said, and I quote, we all

690
00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:27,239
Speaker 1: knew that she had these horses, but you know, there

691
00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:29,360
Speaker 1: were big write ups about her in the papers, and

692
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:32,480
Speaker 1: she's winning all these national championships, and there were stories

693
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:35,680
Speaker 1: flying around town that she was selling horses for two

694
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:38,440
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thou dollars three hundred thousand dollars. So

695
00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:40,720
Speaker 1: we thought this was what that was, what was providing

696
00:36:40,719 --> 00:36:44,239
Speaker 1: her this nice income, a successful horse business. Now, when

697
00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:46,440
Speaker 1: she was caught by the FBI, Rita, as I told you,

698
00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:49,080
Speaker 1: was the officially the fifth greatest embezzler of all time.

699
00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:52,560
Speaker 1: That's how successful her horse business was. Now, she's like

700
00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:54,920
Speaker 1: the Larry Bird of embezzlement, just this hard worker from

701
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:58,000
Speaker 1: the heartland. You know. Now, personally, if I was someone

702
00:36:58,280 --> 00:36:59,440
Speaker 1: asked me, like, what do you do for a living,

703
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:02,200
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say anything about my real life anymore.

704
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:04,200
Speaker 1: I'm going to use the Rida Krundwell method. I'm gonna

705
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:06,680
Speaker 1: start telling people, oh, all my money it's in a

706
00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:09,760
Speaker 1: walrus is. I'm in the walrus business. See if people

707
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:12,880
Speaker 1: go for it. I really like this. We'll take a

708
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:15,760
Speaker 1: quick break and after this I'll tell you how Rita

709
00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:39,640
Speaker 1: got busted. Elizabeth, Yes, our girl readA Krundwell, I've been

710
00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:41,520
Speaker 1: telling you about her. I've been telling you about Harrison

711
00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:43,359
Speaker 1: Ford like I'll love it, all the fun stuff she's

712
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 1: been doing. But what else was she spending her stolen

713
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:51,040
Speaker 1: ludon besides impressing Harrison Ford with expensive whiskeys and Champagne's

714
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:54,400
Speaker 1: scented candles. Good call, good call. No, she was actually

715
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:57,360
Speaker 1: buying land. Well that's smart. Yeah, that's what you. You know,

716
00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:00,160
Speaker 1: they aren't making it anymore, it's mark Twain would say. Well,

717
00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:02,719
Speaker 1: starting in two thousand six, Rita she made some real

718
00:38:02,800 --> 00:38:05,920
Speaker 1: estate purchases and she bought an eight acre spread that

719
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:08,520
Speaker 1: cost her about half million dollars of her hometown's money.

720
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:11,880
Speaker 1: She dubbed her new spread Rita's Ranch. Now, personally I

721
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:14,200
Speaker 1: would have gone with Cossa de Rita, but that's just me.

722
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:16,879
Speaker 1: I don't know. You know, you had a name like Rita.

723
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:20,480
Speaker 1: You can really run with Rita, Bill, Yeah, exactly. See

724
00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 1: already two better names right there. We're not even trying.

725
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:28,400
Speaker 1: So it was a complete horse breeding complex, training exercise compound.

726
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:31,279
Speaker 1: She even had a whole arena built for her to

727
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:33,799
Speaker 1: practice in. Just imagine you're riding around on horses with

728
00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:36,640
Speaker 1: an empty arena, her imagining the crowds cheering her. She

729
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:41,720
Speaker 1: had a button she pushed in the sound of crowds.

730
00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:48,840
Speaker 1: Confetti cannons all shaped like butterflies. Yes, Cary, I know

731
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:51,520
Speaker 1: I threw that one in there. From Mariah carries a

732
00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 1: tour rider. She requests that there'll be confetti in her

733
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:57,920
Speaker 1: dressing room that must be the shape of butterflies. No

734
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:02,239
Speaker 1: moth confetti for missing Amy. Now, as I told you,

735
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:04,480
Speaker 1: rita Cronwell salary from the city of Dixon eighty three

736
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:07,600
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. So people are willing to believe that the

737
00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:11,879
Speaker 1: eighty three thousand dollars salaries being very well invested. Apparently so,

738
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:14,120
Speaker 1: while she was a hobnobbing with the rich and famous

739
00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:17,000
Speaker 1: in her Whiteford and her diamonds and tr whatever she

740
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:19,399
Speaker 1: was doing, that was her one persona. Back home, she's

741
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 1: still like all of her neighbors. She's wearing the you know,

742
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:26,160
Speaker 1: the boots, the cow the cowboy you know, flannels like

743
00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:29,319
Speaker 1: she looks like everybody else, And that is pretty much

744
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,359
Speaker 1: how she manages her whole criminal enterprise. Nobody looks past

745
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:34,359
Speaker 1: the surface of what she looks like. A middle aged

746
00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:36,960
Speaker 1: woman man that's at the time, and in a small town,

747
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:39,000
Speaker 1: it's a lot of money. Today, in a small town,

748
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:41,240
Speaker 1: making eighty three thousand dollars, there's a lot of money.

749
00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:44,239
Speaker 1: It's not enough for a two million dollar RV. No

750
00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:46,200
Speaker 1: do they know? What does the town know about the

751
00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:51,479
Speaker 1: two million? She comes back to town with cars under

752
00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:55,640
Speaker 1: cover darkness. She had like full on eighteen wheelers pulling

753
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:59,480
Speaker 1: horse trailers. Multiple she had multiple eighteen wheelers in her

754
00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:02,200
Speaker 1: company envoy. She's probably just telling you know what, I

755
00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:04,080
Speaker 1: got a great deal. If you go to the back

756
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:07,720
Speaker 1: of t J Max, they have all the cars and trucks,

757
00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 1: ask for Sheryl, people don't know. And then if you

758
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:12,359
Speaker 1: kind of bump it a little scratch at you get

759
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:15,000
Speaker 1: another Where do you think I got this bracelet? Yeah?

760
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:19,239
Speaker 1: Everything is she got a deal. The US district court

761
00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:23,440
Speaker 1: that filed the indictment against her, they would not agree

762
00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:25,880
Speaker 1: that she got great deals because they have to actually

763
00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:27,960
Speaker 1: the itemized list of all of her stuff. And I'll

764
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:31,240
Speaker 1: just read you a couple of the highlights. Um, between

765
00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:35,160
Speaker 1: nineteen nine and two thousand and six, she stole about

766
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:38,440
Speaker 1: twenty three million dollars. Oh, so that's that's when she

767
00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:42,920
Speaker 1: got started. Se million dollars over that sixteen year period.

768
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:45,480
Speaker 1: That gives you an average of about one point four

769
00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:49,359
Speaker 1: million dollars a year. After she got going in two

770
00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:51,600
Speaker 1: thousand six, she starts ramping it up, and she starts

771
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:54,239
Speaker 1: trying to win some of them championships, and world championships

772
00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:56,840
Speaker 1: are not cheap. So she sat there and wrapped it

773
00:40:56,880 --> 00:41:00,160
Speaker 1: back up to taking it about five million dollars year

774
00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:04,440
Speaker 1: in embezzled money. What is the town's budget. The town's budget,

775
00:41:04,480 --> 00:41:07,360
Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked, is nine million dollars roughly, So

776
00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:11,279
Speaker 1: she's taking more than half of the town's budget. When

777
00:41:11,320 --> 00:41:14,200
Speaker 1: she got really going and those engines were running red

778
00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:17,360
Speaker 1: hot goods and they still weren't noticing it, and you

779
00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:18,719
Speaker 1: know how she was getting away with it, but she

780
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:21,319
Speaker 1: was blaming the state of Illinois. She said that, like, oh,

781
00:41:21,360 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 1: they're supposed to pay for this stuff that I charged

782
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:25,080
Speaker 1: and I put the money out, but they haven't, so

783
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:27,360
Speaker 1: next year we should get the money. And people believe

784
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:29,280
Speaker 1: it because they're like, oh, you know, the state lawmakers

785
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:32,520
Speaker 1: are always stealing our money. Yeah, no one really to

786
00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:36,200
Speaker 1: local they'll pay attention when the basketball courts are all

787
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:39,279
Speaker 1: checked up, but then they don't know the minutia of no,

788
00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:42,520
Speaker 1: and also he's counting on it. They like big mayor,

789
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:44,600
Speaker 1: Big Jim Burke, right, he's a local guy. But they

790
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:46,680
Speaker 1: don't seem to like the state lawmakers and the governor,

791
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:50,560
Speaker 1: like those people are not trustworthy. Read Crundwell. Here they

792
00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:57,000
Speaker 1: don't understand small town values. Yeah so, reader Crundwell, she

793
00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:01,440
Speaker 1: uh meets fate one day when and unbeknownst to her,

794
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:03,400
Speaker 1: while she was away on one of her vacations or

795
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:06,960
Speaker 1: in this case, attending a horse show, a piece of

796
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:10,440
Speaker 1: mail arrives and it's a bank statement and it's been

797
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:12,560
Speaker 1: basically sent to the wrong place, and it's on her

798
00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:17,200
Speaker 1: desk and this replacement for her. This the city clerk

799
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:19,320
Speaker 1: is in her office trying to go through all the paperwork.

800
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:21,320
Speaker 1: She sees this one thing she looks like from a

801
00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:24,000
Speaker 1: bank reads it. It's a bank statement. She doesn't recognize

802
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 1: the account, so she takes the account to the mayor.

803
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:28,919
Speaker 1: Mayor Jim Burks like, I don't recognize this, asked Rita

804
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,280
Speaker 1: what it is. She's like, no, I think that's the problem.

805
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:33,960
Speaker 1: It looks like this is Rita's account. They's like, I

806
00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:36,000
Speaker 1: can't be uh. She's like, no, I think it is.

807
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:38,359
Speaker 1: They look at He's like, oh my goodness, I love

808
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:40,879
Speaker 1: this nosy hero. But yes, I thought you would like her.

809
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:43,680
Speaker 1: So her name is Katha Swanson. By the way, well

810
00:42:43,719 --> 00:42:47,080
Speaker 1: miss Swanson. First of all, I believe there was a

811
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:49,839
Speaker 1: whisper network in town. Everybody knew about this. It wasn't

812
00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:52,439
Speaker 1: a secret. And she didn't just see something on the desk.

813
00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:54,520
Speaker 1: She went and dig in. I think she took her

814
00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:56,160
Speaker 1: moment when Rita was out of the office. He's like,

815
00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:57,839
Speaker 1: what's this, what's that? And went through it all well

816
00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:03,480
Speaker 1: done investigatory special investor gator. So Katha and Mayor Jim

817
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:06,280
Speaker 1: Burke have their moment together in his office. He's convinced

818
00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:08,239
Speaker 1: by her to go take this to the FBI. He

819
00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:10,080
Speaker 1: takes to the FBI. FBI was like, oh, yeah, this

820
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:14,240
Speaker 1: is not good. This is not good, Mayor said they there, Hey, Mayor,

821
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:17,240
Speaker 1: we want you don't blow the investigation we're about to start.

822
00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:19,279
Speaker 1: Don't let anybody know. We need you to keep this

823
00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:20,839
Speaker 1: under your hat. And he's like, I think I can

824
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:23,319
Speaker 1: do that. Like, no, we're serious. This may take some time.

825
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,040
Speaker 1: It's a small town. Don't tell anybody, not even like

826
00:43:26,239 --> 00:43:29,200
Speaker 1: your closest friends. He's like, I tell my wife. They're like, okay,

827
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:31,439
Speaker 1: if you tell your wife, mayor just nobody else, don't

828
00:43:31,480 --> 00:43:34,319
Speaker 1: take it to the rotary club. Nobody in American legion

829
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:36,600
Speaker 1: needs to know this one. He's like, okay, Like when

830
00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:39,319
Speaker 1: can I tell them when we bust start? He's like, okay,

831
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:41,120
Speaker 1: how long will that be? And then they're like, just

832
00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:43,440
Speaker 1: let us do our work. Six months later, they come

833
00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:45,719
Speaker 1: into his office. They're like, we're gonna need to talk

834
00:43:45,719 --> 00:43:47,839
Speaker 1: to Rita. And that's why he's like, oh man, he's

835
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:49,759
Speaker 1: all excited. And that was the day that you were

836
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:52,359
Speaker 1: standing in the doorway. I remember it well, yes. So

837
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:57,080
Speaker 1: what did the FBI found was that Rita basically taken,

838
00:43:57,239 --> 00:43:59,120
Speaker 1: as I told you, a dummy bank account, but not

839
00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:02,160
Speaker 1: only that, she'd created multiple bank accounts for the city

840
00:44:02,200 --> 00:44:04,399
Speaker 1: that were legitimate. She would bounce the money through those

841
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:07,160
Speaker 1: different accounts, then she would create a fake invoice, send

842
00:44:07,160 --> 00:44:09,319
Speaker 1: the money into that fake invoice account, use the fake

843
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:12,400
Speaker 1: invoice account, then to dummy back out to her account,

844
00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:15,840
Speaker 1: and then she was hiding both the writing of the checks,

845
00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:17,600
Speaker 1: the bouncing of the books, and where the money was going.

846
00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:20,680
Speaker 1: So people were thinking it all looks fine. The amounts

847
00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:23,160
Speaker 1: seemed to balance out because they didn't notice that she

848
00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:25,879
Speaker 1: was the one who was, you know, saying you owe

849
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:28,719
Speaker 1: me money. You owe me six million dollars or whatever

850
00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:32,080
Speaker 1: she was saying. So that's how you get a payday

851
00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:34,960
Speaker 1: for Rita is you know, classic money laundering. You know,

852
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:37,480
Speaker 1: jay Z would be proud of her, so after she

853
00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:40,799
Speaker 1: would withdraw her laundered funds and she'd go and buy

854
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:44,879
Speaker 1: all her expensive stuff. The thing that was like kind

855
00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:46,719
Speaker 1: of working to her benefit, as I've pointed out a

856
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:49,680
Speaker 1: couple of times, is people didn't look past her appearance,

857
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:51,719
Speaker 1: and yet she was very aware of this. She would

858
00:44:51,719 --> 00:44:54,399
Speaker 1: put on an appearance for the Oklahoma people, she would

859
00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:56,520
Speaker 1: come home and take off that and she knew that

860
00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:59,480
Speaker 1: people wouldn't do anything except for your girl, Kata Swanson.

861
00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:03,240
Speaker 1: You know now, that is the advantage that con artists

862
00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:06,160
Speaker 1: have over the average people is that they know that

863
00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:09,200
Speaker 1: a person is usually persuaded more by a good story

864
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:11,920
Speaker 1: than by facts. Your Kaifa and you, you guys are

865
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:14,240
Speaker 1: rare who actually want to see the numbers on paper,

866
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:16,680
Speaker 1: want to investigate, you want to get confirmation. Most people

867
00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:19,719
Speaker 1: are like I heard read of her mother died left

868
00:45:19,719 --> 00:45:21,959
Speaker 1: her a farm that's good enough for them. That's that's

869
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:23,600
Speaker 1: what they have. And so if you can tell a

870
00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:26,400
Speaker 1: good story, you can be a good con artist. Do

871
00:45:26,440 --> 00:45:28,960
Speaker 1: you think, as a former school teacher and a storyteller,

872
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:31,880
Speaker 1: that you could be a good con artist? Why not?

873
00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:37,440
Speaker 1: I I'd feel really bad my my mark, my my

874
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:40,279
Speaker 1: victim would have to be a horrible person, and then

875
00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:42,319
Speaker 1: I would to feel bad about it. That's totally that's

876
00:45:42,320 --> 00:45:44,240
Speaker 1: the way within the balance. You don't have to only

877
00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:46,359
Speaker 1: go after the innocent gobl. But I also have too

878
00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:49,840
Speaker 1: many tells. I'm not good at at at lying. It

879
00:45:50,040 --> 00:45:52,680
Speaker 1: becomes really obvious. Here's how you can get good at lying.

880
00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:55,200
Speaker 1: This is true for anything. I don't think you're lying

881
00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:56,759
Speaker 1: if you believe your story. No, I mean, I know

882
00:45:56,800 --> 00:45:58,880
Speaker 1: this sounds ridiculous, but you'd have to believe it that

883
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:01,359
Speaker 1: this momentarily is the truth. And if you do that,

884
00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:03,640
Speaker 1: your body will behave as if it's the truth. If

885
00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:06,680
Speaker 1: you can just tell yourself, I will momentarily live under

886
00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:10,000
Speaker 1: these imaginary circumstances. That's how you become a good liar.

887
00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:12,680
Speaker 1: That's also how you become a good actor. Same things,

888
00:46:12,719 --> 00:46:15,720
Speaker 1: the exact same deect. You have to emotionally convince yourself.

889
00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:17,640
Speaker 1: You convince yourself. You can convince anything that's true. I

890
00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:19,359
Speaker 1: could see that, So I think you could be should

891
00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:22,960
Speaker 1: I practice start culling people to talk about this. We

892
00:46:22,960 --> 00:46:25,279
Speaker 1: can develop a whole routine for you. I'll sign up

893
00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:28,200
Speaker 1: for your classes. But in all honesty, as a teacher,

894
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:30,000
Speaker 1: do you would you agree that a story is more

895
00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:34,239
Speaker 1: persuasive than facts? I think so, well, I don't know,

896
00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:37,560
Speaker 1: not in my time as a as an instructor, but

897
00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:40,480
Speaker 1: I would say that as a writer, you know you can.

898
00:46:40,680 --> 00:46:42,600
Speaker 1: You can get people to believe all sorts of things.

899
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:45,960
Speaker 1: You can get them to change what's true to them.

900
00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:49,800
Speaker 1: So not necessarily facts, but everyone has their own truth,

901
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:52,359
Speaker 1: their interpretation. But yeah, whatever is true to someone, and

902
00:46:52,400 --> 00:46:54,520
Speaker 1: you can, if you tell a good enough story, you

903
00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:58,240
Speaker 1: can rearrange the value of facts totally. Well, that's exactly

904
00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:00,560
Speaker 1: what readA did. Now, getting to a couple of the

905
00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:03,160
Speaker 1: facts that people overlooked that I think would have been

906
00:47:03,280 --> 00:47:06,360
Speaker 1: so much suspicious to me if I were living in Dixon, Illinois.

907
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:09,120
Speaker 1: Here's an example of some of the horses that she named.

908
00:47:09,719 --> 00:47:11,640
Speaker 1: People would see these names in print, like so and

909
00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:14,359
Speaker 1: so one like Rita Cronwell, one with and that these

910
00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:17,319
Speaker 1: are the horses names, right, Okay, we'll play a little

911
00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:20,040
Speaker 1: game four horses. I'm going to name three or real

912
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:26,560
Speaker 1: number one. I'm money too, Number two. I found a penny.

913
00:47:27,200 --> 00:47:31,920
Speaker 1: Number three good, I will be number four. Dixon, Illinois

914
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:36,160
Speaker 1: can suck it. Oh, I don't know which. What do

915
00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:38,320
Speaker 1: you think is not the real horse name? The penny

916
00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:41,839
Speaker 1: now Dixon? No, it's good, I will be. No, I'm

917
00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:47,839
Speaker 1: kidding Illinois. But all of her horse names are about

918
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 1: money or be like trickery, and people's just that's your interests. No,

919
00:47:51,239 --> 00:47:54,040
Speaker 1: good old Rita well right under their noses. Yeah. Well,

920
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:56,640
Speaker 1: in the US Marshalls showed up. They had to collect

921
00:47:56,640 --> 00:47:58,480
Speaker 1: all the ill gotten games Rita had gotten over the

922
00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:01,440
Speaker 1: decades She've been fleecing everyone town. They showed up and

923
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:04,200
Speaker 1: they find four hundred horses that they now have to move.

924
00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:06,880
Speaker 1: Four four hundred horses. Remember, some of these horses are

925
00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:11,080
Speaker 1: worth two apiece exactly. So the d J is like,

926
00:48:11,080 --> 00:48:13,120
Speaker 1: oh man, what are we gonna do? They called up

927
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:15,080
Speaker 1: I don't know, like the cowboy US Marshals and they

928
00:48:15,080 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 1: started like putting them in trailers and wrangling them up

929
00:48:17,200 --> 00:48:20,719
Speaker 1: and going up to infestation. Dude. They had to have

930
00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:22,719
Speaker 1: a whole auction for all of her stuff, and then

931
00:48:23,360 --> 00:48:25,640
Speaker 1: a large part of the stuff was hers her family

932
00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:29,680
Speaker 1: bought back for her with what money? Yeah, exactly. So

933
00:48:29,800 --> 00:48:31,400
Speaker 1: here's the list of some of the stuff that the

934
00:48:31,640 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 1: d o J took from her two single family homes

935
00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:37,480
Speaker 1: in Dixon. A single family home in Inglewood, Florida. A

936
00:48:37,480 --> 00:48:40,919
Speaker 1: horse farm in Dixon. The custom Liberty Coach motor home.

937
00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:44,479
Speaker 1: They're worth two million dollars. The Featherlight trailer also worth

938
00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:46,840
Speaker 1: about a quarter million dollars. That's for pulling horses and

939
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:49,759
Speaker 1: so forth. A bunch of Chevy Silverado trucks because at

940
00:48:49,800 --> 00:48:53,000
Speaker 1: least she knew good value. Some GMC trucks but really

941
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:55,000
Speaker 1: there should have been dodges because they were cowboys, because

942
00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:57,160
Speaker 1: that's what cowboys and cow girls drive, but whatever. A

943
00:48:57,320 --> 00:48:59,919
Speaker 1: ken Worth tractor truck, which was worth about two grand.

944
00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:02,160
Speaker 1: A freight liner truck these are the eighteen wheelers that

945
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:04,560
Speaker 1: are pulling the trailers, also worth two hundred grand. A

946
00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:08,399
Speaker 1: Ford Thunderbird, a classic sixty seven Chevy Corvette once again

947
00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:11,960
Speaker 1: nose class. And lastly, a bunch of John Deer utility vehicles,

948
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:14,840
Speaker 1: tractors and riding boat. Nothing rides like a deer nothing

949
00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:18,160
Speaker 1: at all. Then that's just the homes in vehicles, So

950
00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:22,400
Speaker 1: imagine everything else. You got all the horse stuff for

951
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:26,600
Speaker 1: a bikinis and the various sentence candles find Corinthian leather

952
00:49:26,680 --> 00:49:31,400
Speaker 1: bound books. Exactly. So on April seventeen twelve, at the

953
00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:33,640
Speaker 1: time of her arrest, in her bank account, she had

954
00:49:33,680 --> 00:49:36,000
Speaker 1: a hundred and ninety one thousand, three hundred and seventy

955
00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:38,319
Speaker 1: five dollars and seventy five cents. Because you know, it's

956
00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:41,000
Speaker 1: also good at math, the d O J and they

957
00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:44,480
Speaker 1: made sure to get every penny. So when did she start?

958
00:49:44,520 --> 00:49:49,319
Speaker 1: Eight three? She starts scamming in you guess the job

959
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:51,160
Speaker 1: in eight three takes about seven years to cook the

960
00:49:51,200 --> 00:49:54,960
Speaker 1: books she gets going and then for six long run.

961
00:49:56,280 --> 00:50:00,120
Speaker 1: So the city of Dixon meanwhile left holding an empty bag.

962
00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:05,160
Speaker 1: Yes exactly, they're like, what are we gonna do? Now?

963
00:50:05,160 --> 00:50:07,600
Speaker 1: I told you they had like basically lost all this stuff.

964
00:50:07,600 --> 00:50:10,000
Speaker 1: The cops couldn't get radar guns, the kids couldn't have

965
00:50:10,040 --> 00:50:12,680
Speaker 1: basketball uniforms. Were out there with hair dryers. Yeah, just

966
00:50:12,760 --> 00:50:15,120
Speaker 1: pretending that they have. Like don't look too closely, you

967
00:50:15,160 --> 00:50:18,520
Speaker 1: were going forty eight and thirty five. Now they did

968
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:20,520
Speaker 1: all that obviously, so Rita can have her little, my

969
00:50:20,560 --> 00:50:23,880
Speaker 1: Little Pony collection as show horses and like, you gotta

970
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:26,719
Speaker 1: love at least I don't know. I don't love is

971
00:50:26,719 --> 00:50:29,279
Speaker 1: the wrong word. But there was a Netflix documentary on

972
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:31,120
Speaker 1: her story that was made. If you'd like to see

973
00:50:31,160 --> 00:50:33,480
Speaker 1: more about the Rita Cronwell story, check out the documentary.

974
00:50:33,640 --> 00:50:36,680
Speaker 1: But the director, Kelly Richmond Pope, who is a DePaul

975
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:42,040
Speaker 1: University accounting professor by day and a documentary filmmaker by night, said,

976
00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:45,040
Speaker 1: and I quote, I feel like she had the last laugh.

977
00:50:45,239 --> 00:50:47,720
Speaker 1: She won. She lived like a queen for twenty plus

978
00:50:47,800 --> 00:50:50,160
Speaker 1: years and only served eight years. You do the math,

979
00:50:50,360 --> 00:50:53,200
Speaker 1: she's sort of won. So what he put in the

980
00:50:53,239 --> 00:50:55,799
Speaker 1: quote is that she after she's convicted, she does eight

981
00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:58,520
Speaker 1: years in prison, federal prison. Her family buys up most

982
00:50:58,520 --> 00:51:00,239
Speaker 1: of the property when he goes to auctions, so she

983
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:02,279
Speaker 1: spends eight years. That's her price for all that she

984
00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:04,440
Speaker 1: got away with. So this guy is saying, oh, eight

985
00:51:04,480 --> 00:51:07,120
Speaker 1: years will be worth all of that, and she's the winner.

986
00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:11,280
Speaker 1: What's your thought, No, she's not because of the fact

987
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:14,120
Speaker 1: that even if she was never caught, she didn't win.

988
00:51:14,719 --> 00:51:18,920
Speaker 1: Because that's the grossest behavior to take from the people

989
00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:21,359
Speaker 1: around you who have supported you. Gave her a job

990
00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:24,000
Speaker 1: at a time, like you know, at that time to

991
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:26,640
Speaker 1: be in a small town, to be the treasurer at

992
00:51:26,680 --> 00:51:30,839
Speaker 1: the city of the town as a woman. Yeah, and

993
00:51:30,880 --> 00:51:33,719
Speaker 1: she obviously everyone supported her growing up. And then she

994
00:51:33,760 --> 00:51:35,799
Speaker 1: turns around and gives them the big two fingers to

995
00:51:35,840 --> 00:51:38,400
Speaker 1: this guy, and it's like, I'm taking all your stuff?

996
00:51:39,239 --> 00:51:41,759
Speaker 1: Is this not winning? I'm with you. I do the

997
00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:45,000
Speaker 1: methold differently than old Kelly Richmond Pope. I just see her,

998
00:51:45,080 --> 00:51:47,160
Speaker 1: as I said before, she's basically a one woman version

999
00:51:47,160 --> 00:51:49,680
Speaker 1: of colonization. She's just like I can if I can

1000
00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:52,560
Speaker 1: lift it, I'm taking it. It's just it's so gross.

1001
00:51:52,719 --> 00:51:55,280
Speaker 1: It is absolutely gross what she did. I mean seeing

1002
00:51:55,440 --> 00:51:59,560
Speaker 1: half of more than half of your towns annual budget. Okay,

1003
00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:03,080
Speaker 1: let's just put this in perspective. Let's say I stole

1004
00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:05,480
Speaker 1: half of the money from your family's budget, and I

1005
00:52:05,520 --> 00:52:08,799
Speaker 1: did that every year year after here for six years,

1006
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:11,799
Speaker 1: and I did this to fund my sea horse habit right,

1007
00:52:11,880 --> 00:52:14,279
Speaker 1: and eventually I get busted by the FBI. Do you

1008
00:52:14,280 --> 00:52:16,880
Speaker 1: think if someone came along and said that man, he's winning,

1009
00:52:17,360 --> 00:52:20,040
Speaker 1: would you be like, yeah, that's right. Brother that brothers

1010
00:52:20,200 --> 00:52:23,120
Speaker 1: look at that old folk hero there. No, they wouldn't

1011
00:52:23,120 --> 00:52:25,759
Speaker 1: because I don't look like reader Krandwell at my point,

1012
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:30,719
Speaker 1: so the only reason you are right now, well, yeah,

1013
00:52:30,760 --> 00:52:33,160
Speaker 1: and we have sequence, but that's not read is that's

1014
00:52:33,239 --> 00:52:37,080
Speaker 1: that's where Read and I overlap. Okay, but the basically

1015
00:52:37,120 --> 00:52:38,400
Speaker 1: this the idea is that here you have this middle

1016
00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:41,400
Speaker 1: aged white woman in rural America, and everybody would assume

1017
00:52:41,440 --> 00:52:43,000
Speaker 1: that she could be a criminal on the level of

1018
00:52:43,040 --> 00:52:45,960
Speaker 1: like some Walter White breaking bad level of like you know,

1019
00:52:46,400 --> 00:52:48,279
Speaker 1: that's why we have to assume that everyone is a

1020
00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:53,600
Speaker 1: criminal problem. I mean, that's essentially My point is. Look, look,

1021
00:52:53,600 --> 00:52:55,719
Speaker 1: you need to be both skeptical and optimistic and do

1022
00:52:55,800 --> 00:52:58,680
Speaker 1: both at the same time. It's hard, it's exhausting. The

1023
00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:02,840
Speaker 1: answer is always the same, don't believe the hype. That's true.

1024
00:53:03,239 --> 00:53:08,120
Speaker 1: So what's our ridiculous takeaway, Elizabeth ridiculous takeaway is that

1025
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:12,440
Speaker 1: I really wish that they would have caught onto her earlier,

1026
00:53:12,480 --> 00:53:14,600
Speaker 1: because now I'm just like dwelling on the fact that

1027
00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:17,320
Speaker 1: the roads were all messed up and kids had didn't

1028
00:53:17,320 --> 00:53:19,120
Speaker 1: have like parks to play in because she wanted to

1029
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:21,080
Speaker 1: go ride a horse somewhere now. She wasn't even riding

1030
00:53:21,080 --> 00:53:24,560
Speaker 1: these horses. No, she's winning, She's just parading them around.

1031
00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:29,800
Speaker 1: She's disgusting. I also noticed she didn't need a weapon

1032
00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:32,160
Speaker 1: to rob anyone. She just needed a pen. And we

1033
00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:34,360
Speaker 1: always tend to forget that these white colored crimes do

1034
00:53:34,440 --> 00:53:37,040
Speaker 1: far more damage to a community than someone sticking up

1035
00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:39,520
Speaker 1: the corner store. But they don't get punished. And I'm

1036
00:53:39,520 --> 00:53:41,239
Speaker 1: not suggesting that we need to punish people, but we

1037
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:44,120
Speaker 1: need to consider the actual effect and impact of crimes

1038
00:53:44,120 --> 00:53:46,080
Speaker 1: as opposed to how they make us feel. You know

1039
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:50,000
Speaker 1: what the heroic quality was here? Yes, I thought you'd

1040
00:53:50,000 --> 00:53:55,319
Speaker 1: like that. I knew Wanson was like your people. I'd yeah, Well,

1041
00:53:55,360 --> 00:53:57,640
Speaker 1: you know, as you know about me, Elizabeth, I would

1042
00:53:57,640 --> 00:54:00,080
Speaker 1: love to own a horse ranch. I love horses as

1043
00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:02,279
Speaker 1: I would just pretty much do anything to have a

1044
00:54:02,280 --> 00:54:05,200
Speaker 1: horse ranch of my own, except for stealing all of

1045
00:54:05,239 --> 00:54:07,880
Speaker 1: the money I can from my hometown. That is the

1046
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:12,160
Speaker 1: Zaron Burnett guarantee. That so thanks for joining us. I'm

1047
00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:14,000
Speaker 1: Zarn Burnette, and over there in the white fur and

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Speaker 1: diamonds is Elizabeth Dutton. You can find us online. A

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Speaker 1: ridiculous crime about Twitter and Instagram got a tip for

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00:54:20,600 --> 00:54:22,359
Speaker 1: us about a ridiculous crime you look to hear about.

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Speaker 1: You want to confess to a ridiculous crime, email us

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Speaker 1: at ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Ridiculous Crime is

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Speaker 1: hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnett, produced and edited

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Speaker 1: by Harrison Ford's horse trainer Dave Houston. Researches by the

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Speaker 1: President of the three quarter and seven Eights Horse Association,

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Speaker 1: Marissa brownn our theme song is by part time mayor

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Speaker 1: Thomas Lee and our resident Lyle Lovett look alike Travis Dutton.

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Speaker 1: Executive producers are Ben the Horse Breeder to the Stars

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Speaker 1: Bolan and Noel Don't you Dare Call me a Controller Brown.

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts to my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.