Speaker 1: Gampsite Media large.
Speaker 2: So Rory.
Speaker 3: Episode four is the halfway point of our series. Can
Speaker 3: you recap for fans who maybe smoked too much weed
Speaker 3: between last week and what's been going on.
Speaker 4: David Gant, the mastermind of acquiring seventeen million dollars from
Speaker 4: Alumis Fargo, is hiding out in Mexico with a little
Speaker 4: bit of cash and trying to guess beyond the lamb.
Speaker 4: While in the United States of America, the rest of
Speaker 4: his crew is getting a little flimsy with the money.
Speaker 4: And also we're starting to learn that the FBI is
Speaker 4: easily gaining traction. Who is guilty of what? So, yeah,
Speaker 4: seventeen million dollars have been stolen. David Gann is the
Speaker 4: only one on the lamb. Everyone else is hiding out
Speaker 4: in broad daylight spending the money he stole.
Speaker 3: All right, then let's get onto the episode. This is
Speaker 3: Hilbilly Heist Episode four.
Speaker 5: When you're twenty five years old, somebody engine offers you
Speaker 5: tuner for the Grand first thing that pops in your
Speaker 5: head is cocaine, hookers, and hot tubs.
Speaker 1: Cocaine and hooker, sure, but adding a hot tub just
Speaker 1: seems fungusy.
Speaker 6: Why the hot tubs.
Speaker 2: He needs someplace to relax.
Speaker 5: That's usually the unholy Trinity.
Speaker 1: This is Mike McKenny, a man who knows precisely what
Speaker 1: he wants out of life, and also a man who's
Speaker 1: fairly comfortable doing whatever it takes to get it.
Speaker 2: I have been labeled with sociopathic tendencies.
Speaker 5: That's also coming from over educated people with too many degrees.
Speaker 1: I don't care, which brings us to why Mike McKenny
Speaker 1: got offered two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It was
Speaker 1: a cash deal to pull off one simple job killing
Speaker 1: David Gant. Mike mckennie is a former marine who got
Speaker 1: kicked out for, in his words, going feral, but before
Speaker 1: he was discharged he got pretty good at shooting guns
Speaker 1: and blowing shit up. He's a big dude, a muscular
Speaker 1: six foot four. Back in the day, he rocked bleach
Speaker 1: blonde hair and a dark beard, and the carpet didn't
Speaker 1: match the curtains or did it.
Speaker 2: To each their own way, The nineties were to me.
Speaker 1: When he was still in the Marines, Mike served with
Speaker 1: Michelle's first husband, and he also got to know Steve Chambers, who,
Speaker 1: as we know eventually became Michelle's second husband.
Speaker 5: Cute little bitty thing, but she's louding obnoxious. Steve was
Speaker 5: a bigger guy. He thought he was super slick. Thought
Speaker 5: he's a tough guy.
Speaker 2: But he was pretty good con man. He could make
Speaker 2: you believe a story. He was kind of slicking that regard.
Speaker 5: If you've ever been around a really good con man,
Speaker 5: you can talk to them and know they're full oft shit,
Speaker 5: but they still draw you in.
Speaker 2: I don't know how they do it.
Speaker 1: Mike started working construction in Illinois after the Marines booted
Speaker 1: him out, but he stayed in touch with Steve and Michelle,
Speaker 1: and then in the fall of nineteen ninety seven, Steve
Speaker 1: approached Mike with the proposition.
Speaker 5: The story he told me was this guy needs to
Speaker 5: get out of town fast. He robs some money from
Speaker 5: the wrong people. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for fifty thousand dollars cash. I was like deal.
Speaker 1: The real story that Steve gave his ID to David Gant,
Speaker 1: who used it to flee to Mexico. David and Mike
Speaker 1: don't really look anything alike. But remember TSA doesn't exist.
Speaker 1: There are no digital eyeball scanners. Also giving someone else
Speaker 1: your ID wasn't such a big deal back then.
Speaker 5: On me, it wouldn't have mattered if somebody would have
Speaker 5: ran a credit scam because I didn't have any credit.
Speaker 5: I didn't have any assets for them to try to
Speaker 5: cheat me out of, if I didn't have a huge
Speaker 5: banking account that they could empty my bank account.
Speaker 1: Plus, you could just show up to the DMV, take
Speaker 1: a number, and get a new ID with basically no
Speaker 1: questions asked. A few weeks after Mike gave Steve his ID,
Speaker 1: Steve and his henchman, Big Eric, took a trip to Illinois.
Speaker 1: They met Mike in a motel room and gave him
Speaker 1: the money Stevid promised fifty grand in small bills. Steve
Speaker 1: still didn't tell him where the money came from, but
Speaker 1: he did offer Mike a chance to make even more.
Speaker 5: He did drop a seed in there, and he said,
Speaker 5: a there might be something big, else big coming up
Speaker 5: to we might have to take somebody out.
Speaker 1: And as soon as Steve mentioned that he was willing
Speaker 1: to pay a quarter million dollars cash, Mike probably immediately thought,
Speaker 1: you know how much cocaine, hookers and hot tubs that'll
Speaker 1: buy you.
Speaker 5: There was no way I would have ever seen that
Speaker 5: kind of money in my life. You know, number one,
Speaker 5: you're probably gonna end up dead or in prison. It's
Speaker 5: a conclusion, and that's what you accept. The only thing
Speaker 5: you do is run one day at a time, throwing
Speaker 5: as much fun in there as you could before you
Speaker 5: hit the brick wall.
Speaker 1: Mike told Steve he'd do the job. He still didn't
Speaker 1: know where, when, or even who he was killing. Still
Speaker 1: he persevered, But hey, dealing with that kind of uncertainty
Speaker 1: is just part of being a professional assassin.
Speaker 5: Actually, I prefer the the hitman or the hard gun
Speaker 5: conferred to assassin because to me, the assassin sounds like
Speaker 5: your elite government type of person, you know, one the
Speaker 5: government's used, and hit man or a gun for her
Speaker 5: sounds more like the hill billy, redneck version of the assassin.
Speaker 1: Huh. Anyway, after Steve left, Might quit his construction job
Speaker 1: and waited for the call from SmartLess media, campsite media,
Speaker 1: and big money players. In partnership with iHeart Podcasts, I'm
Speaker 1: Johnny Knoxville and you're listening to Crime List Bill Billy Heist.
Speaker 1: This is our fourth episode. The hit Man a month
Speaker 1: into his time in Cancun, David Gand has transformed. He's
Speaker 1: no longer the scrawny outlaw giving himself the first little
Speaker 1: taste of luxury. Now he's a full blown connoisseur.
Speaker 7: I'm learning how to be a person of means, so
Speaker 7: I'm trying out the more expensive desserts. I'm drinking better alcohol. Lobster,
Speaker 7: so I order a double. It comes with this huge potato.
Speaker 7: That's great.
Speaker 1: The heist was the first time that David's impulsive frame
Speaker 1: and his army trained planning Frain really got to join forces.
Speaker 1: Turns out these two sides of David like working together
Speaker 1: and having a pocket full of cash. In Mexico, it's
Speaker 1: a new opportunity for collaboration. He's devised a new routine,
Speaker 1: a regular circuit of indulgence.
Speaker 7: And we made this loop of really good bars and
Speaker 7: restaurants and I would start around two thirty three o'clock.
Speaker 8: I'd go for a morning.
Speaker 7: Swim, come back, take a nap, and I'd start making
Speaker 7: my rounds.
Speaker 1: The highlight of this tour was Senior Frogs.
Speaker 8: I don't like to dance, but if I have enough tequila,
Speaker 8: I will.
Speaker 1: After Senior Frogs, he'd hit another club called Laboom, and
Speaker 1: he'd usually end his night at Daddy Rock.
Speaker 8: By then it's two in morning, and I've spent a
Speaker 8: don't know how.
Speaker 1: Much money real talk, probably about seventy eight bucks. And
Speaker 1: all this time David claims that he's not missing Kelly.
Speaker 7: I'll be brutally honest, like the turb to come in,
Speaker 7: and there were enough females.
Speaker 8: And I really didn't put my salt in her to
Speaker 8: be brutally honest.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we get a David. You never really liked
Speaker 1: her anyway.
Speaker 7: One of the contests I went to was a bear
Speaker 7: as You Dare contest, and since I tipped the doorman,
Speaker 7: I got to be an honorary judge. So I got
Speaker 7: up front and they go through, and I mean, the
Speaker 7: bikinis are getting smaller and smaller, and finally the one
Speaker 7: girl comes out and she's got a band aid on
Speaker 7: her foot.
Speaker 1: But hitting every club in Cancoon every single day is
Speaker 1: kind of tough on the wallet.
Speaker 8: That'll run your money out quick.
Speaker 1: And as the weeks go on, David is starting to
Speaker 1: wonder what the hold up is. I mean, how hard
Speaker 1: could it be to get contraband into Mexico.
Speaker 8: You can smuggle in South all.
Speaker 1: This time, David is making his weekly calls to Kelly
Speaker 1: at the payphone in North Carolina. He's asking about the money,
Speaker 1: explaining that he's running out, and she's just making excuses.
Speaker 8: She's talking about, Oh, they haven't problems moving it as
Speaker 8: a lot.
Speaker 7: They didn't think you'd get nothing of small bills, And
Speaker 7: I'm like, what what are you fussing about?
Speaker 1: But through it all, David is still David. Here are
Speaker 1: the emotions of the guy who threw his life away
Speaker 1: for one third share of millions of dollars that he
Speaker 1: has yet to see.
Speaker 8: Not really fed up, but I'm kind of angry.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, David, if you were pissed, we
Speaker 1: would understand. And yet somehow he is still not angry
Speaker 1: with Kelly. He's angry with the other guy from the heist,
Speaker 1: and he finally knows that guy's name.
Speaker 8: She's let slip.
Speaker 7: I knew that Steve is a name I wasn't supposed
Speaker 7: to know, mister Orange or whatever.
Speaker 1: David tells Kelly he needs fifty grand a SAP. She
Speaker 1: tells him she'll let Steve know. Mike McKinnie isn't much
Speaker 1: of a people person.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a lot easier to tolerate people when you
Speaker 2: don't have to be around them all the time.
Speaker 1: Actually, I find that really relatable. But after accepting Steve's
Speaker 1: initial offer, Mike was still waiting on instructions on who
Speaker 1: he was supposed to kill. In the meantime, Steve had
Speaker 1: another way for Mike to make money. He could come
Speaker 1: to North Carolina, live in a motel and be Steve's bodyguard.
Speaker 5: You know, and somebody hires you for that, You kind
Speaker 5: of take it serious at first, and then you realize
Speaker 5: there's really no threat here. He just he just wants
Speaker 5: to pay me money to look tougher because he has
Speaker 5: a buddyguard.
Speaker 2: It's like get paid to hang out.
Speaker 5: I had to carry the pistol because he was a felon,
Speaker 5: and other than that, right around in the truck with
Speaker 5: him and Sidney's furniture store and go back to the
Speaker 5: hotel room at night.
Speaker 1: This life of leisure did give Mike and Steve plenty
Speaker 1: of time to hang out in the mansion.
Speaker 5: We actually went to the basement and saw the wine
Speaker 5: cellar full of PBR.
Speaker 1: That's actually great.
Speaker 5: He treated the wine cellar more like a walking cooler
Speaker 5: at the liquor store.
Speaker 2: He went in there and.
Speaker 5: Basically had cases and twelve packs packed everywhere inside of
Speaker 5: this place. The velvetelle was the Cuban cigars and humid
Speaker 5: or he couldn't get to work right. Of course, I
Speaker 5: didn't know that this was newly acquired money. I just
Speaker 5: figured he'd been building up since the few years i'd
Speaker 5: seen him.
Speaker 1: Mike still didn't know how his old friend Steve had
Speaker 1: acquired all this money, and Steve didn't explain who he
Speaker 1: wanted Mike to kill, but he did start to finally
Speaker 1: provide a few details, like that the target was in
Speaker 1: Mexico and needed money, so Mike could get close to
Speaker 1: him by dropping off the cash. And just how did
Speaker 1: Steve instruct Mike to take him out with the bleach
Speaker 1: injection tossing a grenade in his general direction, something that
Speaker 1: won't attract any attention, right, He was.
Speaker 2: Just going to leave the method up to me because
Speaker 2: I was a trained assassin.
Speaker 1: Uh huh oh okay, Mike, But there was nothing funny
Speaker 1: about the code name Mike would have to use to
Speaker 1: get close to his target.
Speaker 2: Steve chose the name Bruno. I don't know where he
Speaker 2: came up with it.
Speaker 5: Of course, that was the same time that what Bruce
Speaker 5: Willis came out with his album and he called himself
Speaker 5: Bruno or something.
Speaker 1: Bruno rad Aalini. How dare you?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I didn't think. I looked at it
Speaker 2: like a Bruno.
Speaker 1: The real point of this nickname was that David couldn't
Speaker 1: know that the guy delivering him money was named Mike McKinny,
Speaker 1: because that would make the connection to Steve and the
Speaker 1: fake ID a little too obvious.
Speaker 5: I was still traveling under my name with my papers.
Speaker 5: So yes, at that time, there were two entries for
Speaker 5: Mike McKinny with my so security number and everything on
Speaker 5: that ID. Both of us entered Mexico and one of
Speaker 5: us hadn't left yet.
Speaker 1: Ah, the free wheeling nineties, But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Speaker 1: Steve tells Kelly to let David know a guy named
Speaker 1: Bruno will be delivering his fifty grand as promised, and
Speaker 1: then he buys Mike a ticket to Cancun and hands
Speaker 1: him fifteen grand to either deliver to David or to
Speaker 1: use to lure David to his death.
Speaker 2: And it was all basically brand new, like twenties. That's
Speaker 2: a lot of money in twenties.
Speaker 5: And so I had it around inside of my way
Speaker 5: and I showed up at the airport. Of course, I
Speaker 5: was flying first class, so they kind of basically escorted
Speaker 5: you through, held your hand to go through, And at
Speaker 5: the moment we left the desk, the money starts slipping
Speaker 5: down my legs. So I had to jet into the
Speaker 5: bathroom real quick and rearrange it again, tighten up the belt.
Speaker 5: You might consider it a waddle. Maybe that airline agent
Speaker 5: definitely knew something was off. I mean, you're running, nervous guy,
Speaker 5: fidgety all of a sudden, got a run into the bathroom.
Speaker 5: It's like you try to blow it off to Yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm nervous of flying. Once we take off, then I'm fine.
Speaker 1: When Mike gets to Mexico, he's supposed to meet David
Speaker 1: at the Rainforest Cafe to hand him the money. Mike
Speaker 1: arrived and scanned the room. He didn't see David. Part
Speaker 1: of the problem might be that he actually doesn't know
Speaker 1: what David looks like.
Speaker 5: I don't know if I was supposed to meet at
Speaker 5: Rainforced Cafe or not, but I think I'd just gone
Speaker 5: to Rainforce Cafe to eat probably some of the best
Speaker 5: rips I ever ate.
Speaker 1: Anyway, the money drop doesn't happen. One give you this
Speaker 1: as a failure, but Mike is an optimist. He's in Cancun,
Speaker 1: he's got fifteen thousand dollars cash, and his only job
Speaker 1: just got canceled.
Speaker 2: What to do?
Speaker 5: Cocaine was cocaine, you know, it was considered recreational back then,
Speaker 5: and only people who had money did it.
Speaker 2: And so you know, you always make jokes about doing.
Speaker 5: Lines off strippers asses, which I've actually seen it. I
Speaker 5: can't say I ever did it, though, not off strippers.
Speaker 1: After a couple of days of partying and not doing
Speaker 1: cocaine off strippers' asses, Mike goes back to Charlotte without
Speaker 1: ever making eye contact with David say Leve, but no worries.
Speaker 1: Steve gives him another ten grand to make a second
Speaker 1: trip south of the border, and Mike's a bit better
Speaker 1: at discreetly smuggling that cast through the airport. This time.
Speaker 1: He's been told that David is really pissed off. Turns
Speaker 1: out he was at the Rainforest Cafe waiting for him
Speaker 1: at the appointed time. But now Mike has a hotel address.
Speaker 1: He knocks on the door.
Speaker 2: They gave me the wrong hotel room. It was a circus.
Speaker 2: Oh well, h well, the T shirt contest it was.
Speaker 5: I didn't specifically go looking for one. It just happened
Speaker 5: to be there whenever I got to the nightclub, the
Speaker 5: SuDS Party's phone parties, whatever you call him, there was
Speaker 5: one of them that had that, and that was basically
Speaker 5: a we T shirt contest waiting to happen with plenty
Speaker 5: of bubbles.
Speaker 1: And for the discriminating female clientele.
Speaker 5: They actually had like uh guy hop bun contests. They
Speaker 5: would have guides get up here and they would have
Speaker 5: curtain down to their waist right and the women to
Speaker 5: be out there cheering whichever one they wanted. So they
Speaker 5: were catering to the female crowd too.
Speaker 7: So do you think about entering?
Speaker 8: Ever?
Speaker 2: No, I never even considered entering.
Speaker 1: Mike was frugal and only spent about fifteen hundred dollars
Speaker 1: of David's money that night, But then he got a
Speaker 1: call from Steve with the correct address. However, Steve didn't
Speaker 1: want him to do the hit just yet. He wanted
Speaker 1: Mike to gain David's trust by giving him way less
Speaker 1: money than he had been promised. The first meeting is
Speaker 1: going to go just peachy, Mike knocks on the door.
Speaker 1: A nervous guy with the spray tand that looks like
Speaker 1: Boris Becker opens it.
Speaker 2: I said you for something from Charlotte.
Speaker 1: David invites him in. Mike, sorry. Bruno puts the money
Speaker 1: on the bed. It's about eight grand, Mike says. David
Speaker 1: freaks out.
Speaker 2: He acted like it.
Speaker 5: I'd skimmed off him bringing him money or something, which
Speaker 5: is literally what he did, because I think they told
Speaker 5: him they're going to have like fifty thousand sent to
Speaker 5: him or something like that, I think, And of course
Speaker 5: it'd be a letdown.
Speaker 2: I mean there'd be a lot of disappointment on that one.
Speaker 1: See, Mike just radiates empathy.
Speaker 2: He said, well, I asked for more than that. I
Speaker 2: was like, hey, I was in the neighborhood. They just
Speaker 2: asked me to drop off whatever I had. I walked out.
Speaker 1: Of course, any skimming Mike did was nothing compared to
Speaker 1: Steve holding on to David's five million dollar share. David
Speaker 1: talks to Kelly on their usual Tuesday phone call. His
Speaker 1: patience has been somewhat tested.
Speaker 8: I go, how much did y'all sen with Bruno.
Speaker 1: Kelly tells him she thinks it was ten or twelve grand.
Speaker 8: Well, either he's stealing or y'all can't effan count.
Speaker 1: I got eight, which is less than twelve and significantly
Speaker 1: less than the fifty thousand dollars David was expecting, in
Speaker 1: the whole hell of a lot less than the five
Speaker 1: million dollars he's owed. And then David says something he
Speaker 1: can't take back, and.
Speaker 7: I'm like, listen, if you guys can't deliver, I can
Speaker 7: walk over here to the embassy and we'll end this tomorrow.
Speaker 7: Y'all need to figure it out. I'm i get angry
Speaker 7: with her over the wall, like this is stupid. Y'all
Speaker 7: are gonna get busted and it's gonna be overWe But
Speaker 7: if you'll keep screwing me around, I'm gonna all go
Speaker 7: over here to the embassy. I'll end it myself. You
Speaker 7: know what happens to the first rent that goes off
Speaker 7: the ship gets the dryest board.
Speaker 1: What does that even mean?
Speaker 7: Like?
Speaker 1: I get the second rat gets the cheese. Okay, onward
Speaker 1: and forward. Kelly promises David that he'll get the money.
Speaker 1: They just need a little more time.
Speaker 9: It was frustrating having to keep gant believing that I
Speaker 9: was going to come down and see him, and keeping
Speaker 9: him believing that Steve was going to send him all
Speaker 9: the money. I don't know why he didn't send him
Speaker 9: more at one time instead of just keeping it dragging
Speaker 9: it out, And I imagine that was a pretty horrible
Speaker 9: feeling and not getting the money that you were expecting
Speaker 9: to get and then having the woman that you expected
Speaker 9: to spend the rest of your life living high on
Speaker 9: the hog with keep putting you off. But yeah, in
Speaker 9: the end, he was getting pretty tasty.
Speaker 1: Despite David's bad vibes, Kelly was starting to allow herself
Speaker 1: to enjoy her share of the money. Her motivations had
Speaker 1: always been about providing the finer things for her children,
Speaker 1: and that's what she did. She bought a brand new minivan,
Speaker 1: a Toyota Siena. Steve came to the dealership with her
Speaker 1: and shrewdly paid for it in twenty dollars bills and
Speaker 1: used a fake name for the vehicle registration to boot
Speaker 1: and then Kelly and her mother and her kids took
Speaker 1: a short vacation to Disney World to reset refocus.
Speaker 8: You're gonna love this place, Larry.
Speaker 5: It really brings out the kidney.
Speaker 1: It's been a couple of months since the FBI knocked
Speaker 1: on Kelly's door. She hopes there may be off her trail,
Speaker 1: but then she gets another call. Two agents want to
Speaker 1: speak to her again. She heads to the mall to
Speaker 1: meet them. Unfortunately, Kelly has no memory of this meeting,
Speaker 1: which may have something to do with all that dope
Speaker 1: she smoked.
Speaker 2: Can't remember shit.
Speaker 1: The FBI, on the other hand, has considerably better recall.
Speaker 6: I always say, you can't hide money because if you
Speaker 6: have money.
Speaker 8: People like to show it.
Speaker 6: Build a bigger house, buy a nicer car, So you
Speaker 6: can't hide money.
Speaker 1: The FBI had learned a lot about Kelly Campbell since
Speaker 1: that first interview, you know, at her house where she
Speaker 1: rudely refused to share her wead with the agents.
Speaker 6: We knew through interviews of other Lumis employees that Kelly
Speaker 6: and David were friends, and her denial and a refusal
Speaker 6: to take the polygraph and her denial that they were
Speaker 6: friends connected Kelly right away. I mean all of us
Speaker 6: were like, she's involved somehow, or she knows something.
Speaker 1: The FBI subpoenaed her phone records and found out she
Speaker 1: had received calls from David Gant on the day of
Speaker 1: the heist, so she had definitely lied to the agents
Speaker 1: about the last time she had talked to him. Combine
Speaker 1: that knowledge with all the one four to three texts
Speaker 1: to David's pager, and Kelly didn't exactly project innocence. Loomis
Speaker 1: also told the FBI that David had passed all his
Speaker 1: company drug tests, So apparently Kelly had lied about smoking
Speaker 1: weed with him too. And it gets worse. The FBI
Speaker 1: also knows that Kelly bought a new minivan and that
Speaker 1: she paid cash for it. While continuing to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on Kelly, the FBI is also gained a lot
Speaker 1: of calls about money floating around Charlotte. The main culprits,
Speaker 1: of course, are Steven Michelle. They'll take the BMWZ three
Speaker 1: roadster of forty three thousand dollars diamond ring, Armani suits,
Speaker 1: a Rolex, a few tanning beds at ten thousand dollars
Speaker 1: full table, and the beast Thieve Resistance mission painting of
Speaker 1: General George Patten in the form of a bulldog.
Speaker 9: I guess they just they wanted to be big time
Speaker 9: because Michelle got a boob job, a friend of theirs,
Speaker 9: Eric his wife got a nose job and a boob job.
Speaker 9: I looked into having some leco suction that never roe
Speaker 9: around to it.
Speaker 1: Kelly is misremembering here. Michelle actually got her new boobs
Speaker 1: just before the heist. Call it foreshadowing her life was
Speaker 1: pointing in the right direction, and now so were her breasts.
Speaker 1: And the Eric mentioned there, of course, is Steve's henchman,
Speaker 1: Big Eric, from the night of the heist. He's not
Speaker 1: even that big. We've just been calling him Big Eric
Speaker 1: because he's the Johnny Appleseed of plastic surgery. Wherever he goes,
Speaker 1: boobs flourish. So the tally stands at one fresh nose
Speaker 1: and four new boobs.
Speaker 6: Eric Paine got breast in plants for his sisters. I
Speaker 6: do remember going out to doctor's offices and subpoenaing their records,
Speaker 6: and all of it was paid in twenty dollar bills.
Speaker 6: Three boop jobs and one nose job.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, six boobs in one nose. My bad. And
Speaker 1: Eric didn't just limit his spending the plastic surgery.
Speaker 6: He buys a Hartley, he purchases a Tahoe and just
Speaker 6: ridiculous spending. And he's spending it all in twenty dollars bills,
Speaker 6: and eleven point three million of the fourteen million dollars
Speaker 6: missing was twenty dollar bills.
Speaker 1: Once Eric gets on the FBI's radar, they realized that
Speaker 1: he used to work at a paper company that's just
Speaker 1: a short drive from Loomis and a short distance from
Speaker 1: where the Loomis van was abandoned. Another former employee of
Speaker 1: that company, Steve Chambers.
Speaker 6: Winner. Steve and Michelle were just out of control, completely
Speaker 6: out of control, like they won the lottery a movie
Speaker 6: inside their head. It's the only way I could describe it.
Speaker 2: Stephen.
Speaker 1: Michelle even literally acted out the scene from Goodfellas where
Speaker 1: Rayleota's wife asks to go shop and he asked her
Speaker 1: how much she needs and she holds up her fingers
Speaker 1: to indicate how high the stack of bill should be.
Speaker 6: And they were using clips from movies and they were
Speaker 6: acting like it, but they weren't taking the advice from
Speaker 6: some of the movies either, like spending the money. If
Speaker 6: you watch that movie Goodfellas, it's all about not showing
Speaker 6: and giving the Feds any reason to come looking at you.
Speaker 6: And they gave us all the reasons.
Speaker 8: Did you hear what I said?
Speaker 1: Don't buy anything, don't get anything, nothing big. Did what
Speaker 1: I said, what's the matter with you?
Speaker 8: Do you get excited for it?
Speaker 3: Did I get excited about because you're gonna get us
Speaker 3: ad fucking pinch?
Speaker 8: That's why?
Speaker 2: What are you stupid?
Speaker 6: And he's buying all these ridiculous things in his own
Speaker 6: hometown that people know he never had this kind of wealth,
Speaker 6: and to buy a home for six hundred and seventy
Speaker 6: thousand dollars and it's a cash deal, and Loomis Fargo
Speaker 6: is missing seventeen point three million dollars literally just fifteen
Speaker 6: minutes away. That's when all these calls are coming in.
Speaker 6: But we couldn't prove that it was Loomis money. And
Speaker 6: you spending twenty dollars to bills is not a crime.
Speaker 6: You can't arrest anybody for that, you can't charge them
Speaker 6: for that.
Speaker 1: But then, amid all the purchases, the mansions, the diamond rings,
Speaker 1: the luxury cars, the boobs, so many boobs, the FBI
Speaker 1: pulls the paperwork for Kelly's minivan and the name on
Speaker 1: the registration matches an alias Steve Chambers used back in
Speaker 1: the day when he was cashing hot checks. The Kelly
Speaker 1: Steve connection is coming into focus.
Speaker 6: Myself and another agent. We went to the high school
Speaker 6: that Steve Chambers went to and got the yearbooks and
Speaker 6: found that Kelly Campbell and Derek Payne had gone to
Speaker 6: the same high school. And we knew by that point
Speaker 6: that Kelly Campbell and Steve Chambers were friends.
Speaker 1: The FBI had plenty of reason to surveil Stephen Michelle
Speaker 1: at this point. Watching Michelle, they notice a pattern with
Speaker 1: her trips to the bank.
Speaker 6: Michelle gets to it like it's a job, and she's
Speaker 6: depositing every Tuesday at this branch, every Thursday at this branch.
Speaker 1: This gives the agents the perfect opportunity to set a trap.
Speaker 1: Widra goes undercover.
Speaker 6: I'm just sitting in an office. She just thought I
Speaker 6: was a banker.
Speaker 1: Michelle walks in right on schedule to make her usual
Speaker 1: cash deposit, just a hair under ten grand, so it
Speaker 1: will never show up on the FBI's radar. Wink wink.
Speaker 1: The teller takes the cash and Michelle goes on her way.
Speaker 6: I go behind the teller window and I take the
Speaker 6: straps off the cash that she just deposited. Doesn't say
Speaker 6: lumis Fargo on the strap. It's just a generic cash strap.
Speaker 6: But it had initials on It means someone at Loumis
Speaker 6: Fargo counted it.
Speaker 1: Whydra immediately takes the strap to Loomis.
Speaker 6: So we went and asked whose initials they were at
Speaker 6: Louis Fargo. Well, as luck would have it, it was
Speaker 6: just a coincidence that the employee that counted that particular
Speaker 6: money hadn't worked at Louis Fargo since the robbery. That
Speaker 6: meant that money was pre robbery. That conclusively tied the money,
Speaker 6: the Loomis Fargo money to Stephen Michelle Chambers. That was
Speaker 6: the key piece of evidence. It was like party time.
Speaker 1: The FBI pretty much has it all wrapped up at
Speaker 1: this point. They even get a picture of Kelley and
Speaker 1: Michelle in front of the furniture store.
Speaker 6: And that was another aha moment, Like that bridged everything,
Speaker 6: like it connected Steve Chambers to the money, to Kelly Campbell,
Speaker 6: to David Gant. This is the crew, there is nobody else.
Speaker 6: And then it became a matter of where's the money,
Speaker 6: Where's David.
Speaker 1: One evening in mid December, David is eating an authentic
Speaker 1: Mexican dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Cancun. He's
Speaker 1: got a view of the beach and of rock music
Speaker 1: videos playing on the TV's overhead. It's been more than
Speaker 1: two months since the heist, but it's still in the
Speaker 1: news constantly. David's on the FBI's most Wanted list. His
Speaker 1: face has probably flashed across every TV in America by
Speaker 1: this point, and all this time, David has been hanging
Speaker 1: around Cancun, hitting the same few bars and restaurants every
Speaker 1: day while wave after wave of American tourists passed through.
Speaker 1: So of course it finally happens. A stranger approaches David's
Speaker 1: table and says, hey, man, you look a lot like
Speaker 1: that guy from North Carolina who stole like twenty million dollars.
Speaker 1: The guy just leaves it at that and goes back
Speaker 1: to his table, but David Sin's the safety is completely shattered.
Speaker 1: He hurries out of the restaurant to call Kelly and
Speaker 1: tells her that he needs to get out of Cancun fast.
Speaker 1: Kelly says, no problem, they'll send Bruno to take good
Speaker 1: care of him.
Speaker 7: So Bruno comes back, and then he asked me a
Speaker 7: really mirrored question. Do you have a gun you haven't,
Speaker 7: Do you carry a knife? Do you lock your doors?
Speaker 7: Questions like that.
Speaker 1: That's next time on Crime List, He'll Billy heist.
Speaker 2: Roy.
Speaker 3: We've just spent another half hour or so with our heroes,
Speaker 3: heroes and quotes.
Speaker 4: I love it when a new character comes into play.
Speaker 4: That's I love it.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say my first question was like, what's
Speaker 3: your assessment of Mike McKinney.
Speaker 4: Here's what I love about this entire everybody that's involved
Speaker 4: in this entire production, of the actual thieves and criminals.
Speaker 4: Hearing their voices, it almost sounds like none of them
Speaker 4: even remember or know that what they did was so
Speaker 4: highly illegal. They seem so calm about it. It almost
Speaker 4: makes you like all of them in their own weird,
Speaker 4: strange way. And this guy a hired uh he didn't
Speaker 4: like assassin, hired hitman is no different. He was hired
Speaker 4: to kill somebody and yet just acts very blase about it.
Speaker 4: Are Bruno? I love it?
Speaker 3: How do we feel about Bruno as a hitman's nickname?
Speaker 4: Love that that had to be the It's too perfect.
Speaker 4: It's like Bruno. Of course, of course you wanted to
Speaker 4: be Bruno. I love that Steve Chambers got to make
Speaker 4: so many decisions and at no point it seemed like
Speaker 4: anyone at the time realized how dumb this guy was
Speaker 4: actually being, but they sort of treated him with a
Speaker 4: lot of respect.
Speaker 3: I guess he just acted the part. He watched a
Speaker 3: bunch of Mafia movies and just acted like he was
Speaker 3: in charge, and that goes a long way.
Speaker 4: I think.
Speaker 9: So.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he watched so many Mafia movies that it very
Speaker 4: quickly became we need to kill David Gant. We've already
Speaker 4: got ourselves in so much hot water. Let's up the ante.
Speaker 3: Let's add a murder charge on top of it.
Speaker 8: Right, Yeah, yeah, So.
Speaker 3: We also get to drop back in on David in Cancun.
Speaker 3: He's having a pretty good time if they would just
Speaker 3: send him enough cash.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I gotta say that gives me anxiety. That was one
Speaker 4: thing that gave me anxiety, hearing the spending of going
Speaker 4: to all that. When he said double lobster, I couldn't
Speaker 4: even handle that. It just felt very gluttonous. I realized
Speaker 4: they've stolen money. But it's like every night club. Also,
Speaker 4: I love that he's like, I don't even like to
Speaker 4: dance unless I've had some tequila. Like I guess. I
Speaker 4: guess in reality, David Gant did go live up the
Speaker 4: life he sort of dreamed of in a way, not
Speaker 4: the version he thought it would be. But he didn't
Speaker 4: at least just sit around in a hotel room waiting.
Speaker 4: He did go party, and I respect that absolutely.
Speaker 3: My biggest frustration. What's it gonna take for David to
Speaker 3: actually get mad and blame Kelly?
Speaker 4: I know, I just can't. Kelly frustrates me the entire time,
Speaker 4: the most aloof person ever, And now that she's even
Speaker 4: slightly involved in wanting to have David Gant killed and
Speaker 4: seems to not even understand or know that is nerve racking,
Speaker 4: nerve racking, nerve wrecking, will never know nerve racking. I think, Yeah,
Speaker 4: That's how I've always said it.
Speaker 3: Okay, On that note, thanks for joining us this week, folks.
Speaker 3: We'll see you next time for episode five of Crimeless
Speaker 3: Hillbilly Heist.
Speaker 1: Crimeless Hillbilly Heist is a production of SmartLess Media, Campside Media,
Speaker 1: and Big Money Players in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. Bhill
Speaker 1: Billy Heist is narrated by me Johnny Knoxville and created
Speaker 1: by Liz Elkington and Stewart Bailey. Written by Michael Kenyon
Speaker 1: Meyer with Liz Elkieington, and Stuart Bailey. Produced by Lane
Speaker 1: Rose and Sierra Franco. Additional production help by Rajeev Gola.
Speaker 1: The series with sound design and mixed by ewin Le Tremwen,
Speaker 1: fact checking by Gray Lanta, and a special thanks to
Speaker 1: our operations team Doug Slaywyn, Ashley Warren, Sabina Mara and
Speaker 1: Destiny Dingle iHeart Podcasts and Big Money Players. Executive producers
Speaker 1: are Jack O'Brien, Lindsay Hoffman, and Matt Appadeca. Campsite Media's
Speaker 1: executive producers are Josh Deen, Vanessa Grigoriatis, Adam hoff and
Speaker 1: Matt Cher. Executive producers are Liz Elkington and Stuart Bailey.
Speaker 1: From SmartLess Media, the producers are Will Arnett, Jason Bateman,
Speaker 1: Sean Hayes, and Richard Corson. Bernie Kaminski is the head
Speaker 1: of production. The associate producer is Mattie McCann. If you've
Speaker 1: enjoyed Crimeless Hillbilly Heies, please rate and review the show
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.