Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Joel Waldman is the co host of the hit true
Speaker 2: crime podcast Surviving the Survivor and the author of a
Speaker 2: book of the same name, Surviving the Survivor. Joel's co
Speaker 2: host on the podcast is his eighty something year old mother,
Speaker 2: carm Waldman, a Holocaust survivor and psychotherapist for over forty years.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: Carm couldn't be here tonight because she's a little under
Speaker 2: the weather, but we wish her a speedy recovery. Joel
Speaker 2: is also an Emmy Award winning broadcast journalist who worked
Speaker 2: most recently as a Washington, DC based correspondent for Fox News,
Speaker 2: covering national politics from Capitol Hill. He's also worked as
Speaker 2: an investigative reporter for Fox five in New York City
Speaker 2: and for TV News program in West Palm Beach, Miami,
Speaker 2: and Tucson. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife
Speaker 2: and three children. Joel Waldman, Welcome to Coast to Coast AM.
Speaker 3: How are you Richard doing so well?
Speaker 4: I'm had to say I'm a Coast to Coast insider
Speaker 4: myself a huge fan since ninety seven, so this is
Speaker 4: supernatural to me, like and outer body experience.
Speaker 3: So thank you so much. This is a thrill for me.
Speaker 3: And I've done a lot of media with a book,
Speaker 3: with the podcast, so I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: First of all, you're in Miami. How were things down
Speaker 2: in Florida for you?
Speaker 4: So the storm passed us to the west and we
Speaker 4: were fine here, just you know, intermittent rain, but the
Speaker 4: West coast obviously got hit so hard. And I've got
Speaker 4: a good friend in Ashville, and if you haven't seen
Speaker 4: the flooding up there, it's worth googling. It's amazing what
Speaker 4: Mother Nature can do. So we're seeing her wrath today.
Speaker 4: And as you said off the top of the show,
Speaker 4: my thoughts are with the forty plus people who have
Speaker 4: passed away as a result of the storm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just terrible, terrible, all right. Before we dive
Speaker 2: into the true crime, I want to ask you about
Speaker 2: your mom karm, a Holocaust survivor. How has her extraordinary
Speaker 2: life experience shaped your approach to investigating and discussing true crime.
Speaker 4: That's an amazing question and one I hadn't really pondered.
Speaker 4: But my mom also, in addition to being a Holocaust
Speaker 4: survivor was a licensed marriage therapist for forty plus years,
Speaker 4: so I really grew up in a household and my
Speaker 4: dad may he Rest in Peace, was a psychiatrist, So
Speaker 4: I grew up. You know, people think I'm crazy by default,
Speaker 4: but I really got a very strong understanding of human nature,
Speaker 4: the way people think, the issues and the problems that
Speaker 4: they go through, and I think that's really what drew
Speaker 4: me to journalism. I've always been a people person, always
Speaker 4: been interested in stories, and I think that's the answer.
Speaker 4: It's more so what she did than where she came from.
Speaker 4: But her background is really amazing.
Speaker 2: As I mentioned, the dynamic between you and your mom
Speaker 2: on the podcast is just so special. But what's it
Speaker 2: like exploring the darkest corners of human nature together, especially
Speaker 2: given the contrast between her survival story and these modern
Speaker 2: day crimes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so her story, just to get a feel for it,
Speaker 4: and I just wrote a book about it under the
Speaker 4: same titles of podcast, called Surbiding the Survivor, And for
Speaker 4: full disclosure, it's really kind of a laugh out loud book,
Speaker 4: even though you know, we talked about the Holocaust, so
Speaker 4: it's about fifteen percent Holocaust and eighty five percent life
Speaker 4: advice from her, And if anyone's got life advice, it
Speaker 4: is she. She really wanted to be here by the
Speaker 4: way tonight, but she's, as you said, under the weather.
Speaker 4: But promised to come on the next time. But at
Speaker 4: the age of just four and a half, she was
Speaker 4: actually forced to leave her own family behind. I have
Speaker 4: a five year old boy, so every time I look
Speaker 4: at him and imagined that my mother was six months
Speaker 4: younger when she was taken from her mother and her
Speaker 4: father was taken by the Nazis, it just blows my mind.
Speaker 4: But very very long story short. She was saved by
Speaker 4: two non Jews known as righteous Gentiles, one of whom
Speaker 4: was a Catholic nun who hid my mother in a
Speaker 4: Catholic school for boys in the former Yugoslavia now Serbia,
Speaker 4: and my mom I grew up, we had a picture
Speaker 4: of this nun in my living room, and obviously I'm
Speaker 4: a part of a Jewish family, and I just figured
Speaker 4: every Jewish family, he's got a picture of a nun.
Speaker 3: It was only later in life, once I.
Speaker 4: Started working on this book, that I found out my
Speaker 4: mom was sending the nun money just until very recently
Speaker 4: she passed in her late nineties. The day she went
Speaker 4: into hiding her grandfather, my grandfather, her father was snatched
Speaker 4: by the Nazis, and soon after that she found out
Speaker 4: he was gassed in the Auschwitz gash. And then she
Speaker 4: rennected to her mom in Budapest and there was a
Speaker 4: big seas there. Uh, luckily she made it through. I mean,
Speaker 4: just crazy stories about having to eat horses who were
Speaker 4: collateral damage from all the bombing. That's the only food
Speaker 4: that they could get. She had to say all her
Speaker 4: you know, Catholic prayers that she knew by heart, so
Speaker 4: no one would be tipped off to the fact that,
Speaker 4: you know, she was in facteous. And then once they
Speaker 4: were liberated, it was a two week walk home. Two
Speaker 4: weeks of walking from Budapest back to Serbia in March
Speaker 4: when it is absolutely freezing.
Speaker 3: So my story.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she also, you know, she lost the son, and
Speaker 4: the book also details my father who's in a nursing
Speaker 4: home passing away at the time I wrote this book.
Speaker 4: And for her, she admits that's the most difficult thing
Speaker 4: she's ever experienced. But nevertheless, she is the most optimistic
Speaker 4: person you will ever meet. Hilarious funny believes in Hue
Speaker 4: to get through things.
Speaker 3: And she's my role model. She's who I look up to, and.
Speaker 2: Her insights as a psychotherapist must bring a fascinating layer
Speaker 2: to your conversations. I mean, how does her perspective on
Speaker 2: human behavior influence the way you dissect motives and the
Speaker 2: psychology of the criminals you cover.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So the podcast, I kind of found a niche
Speaker 4: within a niche, and we have the best guest and
Speaker 4: true crime and I always say it's not a tagline,
Speaker 4: it is the reality. Shout out to my booking producer
Speaker 4: Steve Cohen and my wife Eleanna, who helped produce the show.
Speaker 4: But we bring in absolutely amazing guests. I mean the
Speaker 4: top criminal profilers, the top criminal defense attorneys, top FBI agents,
Speaker 4: children of serial killers, you name it. But well, my
Speaker 4: mom is able to do at eighty five is just
Speaker 4: sort of use this vast life experience that she has
Speaker 4: and her knowledge of therapy and the psychology of the
Speaker 4: mind to really break it down and always give a
Speaker 4: different perspective. You've met her, you've talked to her. She
Speaker 4: as sharp as attack for eighty five and she always
Speaker 4: comes up with an angle or a comment that no
Speaker 4: one else has.
Speaker 3: So's why we keep on the show. And I love
Speaker 3: her on top of that.
Speaker 2: All right, So let's dive into some true crime. In
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, Florida law professor Dan Markle was executed in
Speaker 2: his driveway, a victim. It appears of a bitter custody battle,
Speaker 2: and allegedly this was orchestrated by his ex wife's family.
Speaker 2: And this chilling murder reveals a web of betrayal and revenge.
Speaker 2: With hitmen convicted, the mastermind remains elusive. It's a haunting mystery.
Speaker 2: But let's talk about Dan Markle, the victim, this prominent
Speaker 2: law professor at Florida State University shot and killed again
Speaker 2: in twenty fourteen. Just kind of walk us through what happened,
Speaker 2: and then also we'll get into some of the you know,
Speaker 2: the main let's say, players in this whole case, Wendy
Speaker 2: Adelson and Donna Addelson and Charlie Addelson and so forth.
Speaker 4: Sure, so, Den Martl, he was, as you just said,
Speaker 4: murdered back in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 3: He was born in.
Speaker 4: Montreal, grew up in Toronto. Both stories to night actually
Speaker 4: have a Toronto connection, which is, I know where you're
Speaker 4: coming from, but I don't think totally intentional. Dan by
Speaker 4: all accounts, was an absolute genius. He went to Harvard undergrad.
Speaker 4: He went to Harvard Law School, top of his class,
Speaker 4: was offered and took a position initially as a very
Speaker 4: high paid attorney. Imagine where you're getting paid at.
Speaker 3: A top firm coming out of Harvard.
Speaker 4: And he had no interest. Really, he wanted to teach.
Speaker 4: That was his life passion. So he eventually gets a
Speaker 4: professorship at.
Speaker 3: Florida State University up in Tallahassee.
Speaker 4: Along the way, he meets a woman named Wendy Adelson
Speaker 4: and they connect. She's from where I am down in
Speaker 4: South Florida, and you know, they hit it off. They're
Speaker 4: in kind of their honeymoon stage. They get married in
Speaker 4: two thousand and six, and like many marriages, after a
Speaker 4: certain period of time, things started to go south. What's interesting,
Speaker 4: and by the way, this story is why to do it?
Speaker 4: While the other one's who done it? But one of
Speaker 4: the issues that came up was custody. They had two
Speaker 4: young children, Benjamin and Lincoln, and things were going south,
Speaker 4: and now Wendy did not want to stay in Tallahassee.
Speaker 4: Wendy happens to have a very overbearing domineering mother named
Speaker 4: Donna Adolson Donosue Adelson. She also has a brother named
Speaker 4: Charlie Adelson. So she starts getting in their ear about being,
Speaker 4: you know, miserable that she's stuck in what she called
Speaker 4: hick Tallahassee. And the grandmother said the same thing. And
Speaker 4: by the way, I've been to Tallahassee multiple times for
Speaker 4: this story now and it's one of the nicest cities
Speaker 4: you will find in Florida. It's also the most highly
Speaker 4: educated city in Florida because it's the capital and FSU
Speaker 4: of course is there. So it's a long, complicated story,
Speaker 4: but long story short, and we can go back and
Speaker 4: track over some of the things we're discussing right now.
Speaker 4: Dan Marcel drops his two kids off. He's separated. At
Speaker 4: this point, they're going through legal proceedings, you know, regarding
Speaker 4: a divorce and it's really contentious. And Dan on July eighteen,
Speaker 4: twenty fourteen, goes and drops his two kids off at daycare.
Speaker 3: He goes to the.
Speaker 4: Gym, gets back into his driveway, and he is shot
Speaker 4: in the head two times. Unbelievably, he doesn't die unseen.
Speaker 4: He's taken to the hospital. Rabbi praise for him. Family
Speaker 4: is called and he succumbs to his injuries the next day,
Speaker 4: and then the police investigation is just on and no
Speaker 4: one knows what happened, why it happened. An elderly next
Speaker 4: door neighbor happens to see or hears something, he goes
Speaker 4: out there. He's the one that finds Dan and then
Speaker 4: this major investigation ensues.
Speaker 2: And it's been just over ten years since Dan wash that.
Speaker 2: As you say, he died the next day. Why is
Speaker 2: it taken so long to get justice in this case?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a question that everybody asked.
Speaker 4: And you know true crime, and I want to say this,
Speaker 4: it's intriguing and I've always been fascinated by it. But
Speaker 4: one of the problems is when you are covering true crime,
Speaker 4: there is a tendency to forget the victims. So that's
Speaker 4: something we are really conscious of at and the survivor.
Speaker 4: We really try to focus on the victims. As a result,
Speaker 4: if there's any silver lining in this, I've become very
Speaker 4: close with Ruth Markel and Phil Markel and Shelley Markell,
Speaker 4: who are the parents and sister of Dan Markel. But
Speaker 4: the answer to why it took so long police had
Speaker 4: very little to go on, but they did a fantastic
Speaker 4: job in Tallahassee. They ended up getting a slight description
Speaker 4: of the car from this neighbor who thought they saw
Speaker 4: a silver car. They then used video cameras on buses.
Speaker 4: They used a sun Pass, which is the coal pass
Speaker 4: here in Florida, and eventually traced it back to a
Speaker 4: rental car and two guys from South South Florida, right
Speaker 4: where I live, literally twenty blocks from where I'm talking
Speaker 4: to you from. And turns out one is a Latin
Speaker 4: King gang member, the other is basically just a career
Speaker 4: criminal and a thug. And the thug his name is
Speaker 4: Secredo Garcia. He has two children with Katie Magbanawa. Katie
Speaker 4: Magbanua was dating Charlie Adelson, so she's the connection. Cops
Speaker 4: figured out the conveni grand jury.
Speaker 3: And the dominoes start to fall.
Speaker 2: So Katie Magbanua the intermediary. She hires the hitman, Sigfredo
Speaker 2: Garcia and Garcia's friend Louis Rivera, and correct Rivera did
Speaker 2: Garcia and Rivera cop a plea.
Speaker 3: Rivera caught the Plea.
Speaker 4: He was already in prison on racketeering charges, so he
Speaker 4: caught the plea and you know has the famous quote
Speaker 4: he couldn't He said he didn't even know who had
Speaker 4: hired him. But to paraphrase, he said, uh, the lady
Speaker 4: wanted her kids back, inferring that when they Adelson was
Speaker 4: behind it. So one of the you know, the much
Speaker 4: bigger questions right now is who really orchestrated this. The
Speaker 4: consensus is that it was Donna Adelson, this overbearing Jewish mother.
Speaker 4: And by the way, I might have a little bit
Speaker 4: of an overbearing Jewish mother, even though she's not here
Speaker 4: to defend herself. And that's one of the things that
Speaker 4: kind of drew us to this story initially, you know,
Speaker 4: is just kind of the odd similarities, if you will.
Speaker 4: But she really infantilized her children, and Charlie was an
Speaker 4: unbelievable mama's boy. So what people think happened, and what
Speaker 4: I think happened, is that Wendy was really unhappy. She
Speaker 4: and Dan started having a major rift in the relationship.
Speaker 4: She starts complaining to her mother, the mother, Donnosiue Adelson,
Speaker 4: then starts complaining to Charlie. This is a highly enmeshed family.
Speaker 4: Charlie's a very wealthy periodontist, as is his father. He
Speaker 4: drives around Charlie does enough Ferrari with a license plate
Speaker 4: that says Maestro.
Speaker 3: He's a total ladies man.
Speaker 4: He's out, you know, parting, and and people think that
Speaker 4: Donna basically convinced Charlie to help put this hit together.
Speaker 4: And the question remains, what heart of this did Wendy have.
Speaker 4: So Charlie actually was on trial a year ago November,
Speaker 4: he was convicted in the murder for Higher Plot. He
Speaker 4: is now sentenced to life in prison.
Speaker 1: Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
Speaker 1: one am Eastern and go to Coast to coastam dot
Speaker 1: com for more