Speaker 1: Pushkin Hey, Lost Hills listeners, it's Dana. I wanted to
Speaker 1: let you know that you can hear the entire new
Speaker 1: season of Lost Hills ad free, along with other great
Speaker 1: binge listens by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. Find Pushkin
Speaker 1: Plus on the Lost Hills show page in Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or at pushkin dot fm Slash Plus. Mickey Dora, the
Speaker 1: Dark Prince, had vanished from Malibu in nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: but he didn't disappear from the surf world's collective consciousness.
Speaker 1: Everybody wanted to know where the so called King of
Speaker 1: Surfers was. Some people claim to have spotted him surfing
Speaker 1: in California. Others said he'd given up the surf life
Speaker 1: and was a lawyer in Century City. The article Curse
Speaker 1: of the Shumash said, quote in nineteen seventy five, he's
Speaker 1: so conspicuous in his absence that there were collective group
Speaker 1: hallucinations in which numerous sycophants saw his illusionistic presence unquote.
Speaker 1: Someone kept tagging the Wallet surf rider with the words
Speaker 1: Dora lives. Was Mickey Dora dead? Not possible. He was
Speaker 1: sending letters postmarked from all over the world from anywhere
Speaker 1: but where he actually was. A few years into Mickey's
Speaker 1: Vanishing act, two young surfers set out to find him there.
Speaker 2: It is Craig Kevin, and this is Mickey. How's that
Speaker 2: this is my son's T shirt? They had to wear
Speaker 2: even though it's my son's. You got to take a picture.
Speaker 1: Kevin Naughton and Craig Peterson are pushing seventy now, still surfing,
Speaker 1: still close friends. I met them at Kevin's house in
Speaker 1: the Buna Beach, California. Kevin greeted me wearing a T
Speaker 1: shirt printed with a photo of Mickey flipping off the
Speaker 1: camera at Malibu in nineteen sixty three.
Speaker 2: I'm Kevin Naughton, and I used to be a surf journalist,
Speaker 2: mostly for Surfer Magazine, traveling around the world and writing
Speaker 2: stories of great venture tales for about our travels.
Speaker 3: And I'm Craig Peterson. I was the photographer staff photographer
Speaker 3: for Surfer Magazine for over a decade and during our
Speaker 3: surf travels back in the seventies and eighties.
Speaker 1: We made our way into the living room and I
Speaker 1: noticed a photograph leaning against the wall. It was a
Speaker 1: picture of Kevin, his back to the camera, sitting on
Speaker 1: a bench looking out at the Bay of Biscay in
Speaker 1: the south of France. The waves are peeling in perfect, clean,
Speaker 1: mostly right breaking lines, and there's not a single surfer out.
Speaker 2: See that photo there. That's where we first met Mick.
Speaker 2: That's when we met Mickey at Guitary And this is
Speaker 2: something that will never You'll never see again in your
Speaker 2: lives or anybody's lives from now until the end of time.
Speaker 2: There's empty perfect gitory as perfect as it.
Speaker 1: Gainst Gitori is a small fishing village on the Basque
Speaker 1: coast between Beerret's and Saint Jean Balous.
Speaker 2: So oftentimes I would look at it and just to
Speaker 2: think that it's almost like going through a portal into
Speaker 2: another world, to look at the photo. World that will
Speaker 2: never come back. But we were a part of it.
Speaker 2: And then this is probably within the same week that
Speaker 2: we had met Mickey in nineteen seventy seven, and it's
Speaker 2: a phenomena that only surfers really could appreciate, to see
Speaker 2: a way this good, at a spot this famous and
Speaker 2: no one out, And this was Mickey's spot.
Speaker 1: Here in France. Mickey had found a new Malibu Gitori
Speaker 1: in the seventies was a surfer's paradise. It was hidden,
Speaker 1: tucked away off the radar, and it had a perfect
Speaker 1: right breaking wave, Mickey's kind of wave.
Speaker 2: So we served it with him quite a few times,
Speaker 2: and quite a few times it would just be the
Speaker 2: three of us, that's just us.
Speaker 1: Out in France, Mickey was unexpectedly mellow, no measure schmidting
Speaker 1: other surfers or posturing with his Nazi surfboard, and he'd
Speaker 1: left his SS trench coat behind in the storage unit
Speaker 1: in New Zealand there was no one around to intimidate anyway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was nice to get to know him in
Speaker 2: some place other than Malibu, were he was so entrenched.
Speaker 2: He was so ingrained there that it was like his
Speaker 2: little personal fortress or fiefdom. And when France were all
Speaker 2: there sort of on this neutral were in Swiss neutral country.
Speaker 1: He would have poured the boiling oil on you in Maliboumi, yeah.
Speaker 2: Right, Whereas in France it was more like it was this,
Speaker 2: we're in neutral ground. Everyone was more on neque footing,
Speaker 2: and that's how you felt when you were around in there.
Speaker 1: But Kevin and Craig were not just twenty something meters
Speaker 1: surf nomads stoked to find a kindred spirit. They were
Speaker 1: traveling on assignment, and their assignment was to find Mickey
Speaker 1: and report back to their boss at Surfer Magazine. Turns
Speaker 1: out finding Mickey would be the easy part. The hard
Speaker 1: part would be getting away. I'm Dana Goodyear and this
Speaker 1: is Lost Hills, Episode nine. The Fall Guys. Kevin and
Speaker 1: Craig got their start young. They published their first piece
Speaker 1: in Surfer in nineteen seventy three when they were still teenagers.
Speaker 1: And the two of you were a team.
Speaker 2: Act right right, We're a photojournalist team. And the funny
Speaker 2: thing is Craig needed someone to take photos of somebody
Speaker 2: you could surf. He was a good photographer. I was
Speaker 2: a good surfer, and we both like adventure and searching
Speaker 2: for good waves.
Speaker 3: A bonus too that Kevin was a good writer, so
Speaker 3: we could write the stories and send them back to
Speaker 3: Surfer Magazine.
Speaker 1: The pictures of them from this time are classic. Craig
Speaker 1: with his shoulder length blonde hair and Jesus Beard wearing
Speaker 1: his frame backpack, a surfboard under one arm and a
Speaker 1: silver briefcase full of photo equipment under the other. Kevin
Speaker 1: with a Duffel bag and a board and a curly mane.
Speaker 1: Heaven and Craig filed dispatches from all over the world
Speaker 1: under the heading the Further Misadventures of Kevin Naughton and
Speaker 1: Craig Peterson. Early on they wrote about a surf trip
Speaker 1: to Al Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. At the time,
Speaker 1: it was Tara incognita for surfers.
Speaker 2: Surfer said, hey, you readers love this stuff. This is
Speaker 2: really popular because at that point you time, you're mefor
Speaker 2: think that most of the articles you saw in the
Speaker 2: magazines were about Hawaii or California, you know, maybe Australia
Speaker 2: once in a while, but that was kind of it.
Speaker 2: So we kind of opened up this kind of window
Speaker 2: of hey, there's a lot of surf adventure out there
Speaker 2: to be done in Surfer. To their credit, they recognized
Speaker 2: that and said, hey, you know, what, where do you
Speaker 2: guys want to go next? You know, and because this.
Speaker 1: Is working, their timing was good. Surfing had fully taken
Speaker 1: off in California and the breaks were crowded. Here's Craig.
Speaker 3: Malibu was crowded, Huntington, all these places. So when I
Speaker 3: approached Surfer magazine, and said, hey, we want to go
Speaker 3: down and try to find some waves down in Central
Speaker 3: America and see who we can find. They kind of
Speaker 3: didn't know what to make of it. They knew that
Speaker 3: there was probably good waves there, but it was like, well,
Speaker 3: we don't know how many articles will do or get
Speaker 3: out of it, so let's just see what happens.
Speaker 1: Kevin and Craig traveled to West Africa, the Canary Islands,
Speaker 1: the Caribbean, and back through Central America, publishing stories as
Speaker 1: they went. When they returned home, Surfer Magazine asked them
Speaker 1: where they were headed next. Kevin and Craig were hoping
Speaker 1: to explore the unknown surf spots of Europe. They pitched
Speaker 1: a trip to Portugal, Ireland and France.
Speaker 2: So Surfer kind of scratched their heads and said okay.
Speaker 2: And then right before we left, it was one priceless
Speaker 2: moment where the editor called or publisher called, was into
Speaker 2: his office and he said, okay, you guys are going
Speaker 2: to France, and we know Mickey Dorr is hanging out
Speaker 2: in France. He's been dropped off the radar now for
Speaker 2: a few years and no one's heard anything of him
Speaker 2: or from him. But we know he's there, and you
Speaker 2: guys are going there and no matter what, you know,
Speaker 2: what did he say to you?
Speaker 3: He said, if Mickey even farts, I want a picture
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 2: That's how much they wanted coverage of Mickey. Right. Of course,
Speaker 2: he was one of our surf finals from the sixties,
Speaker 2: so we were all stoked a chance to meet him.
Speaker 2: So we said, okay, we're on it.
Speaker 1: Kevin and Craig had grown up on Dora stories. He
Speaker 1: was legendary, not just for his surfing, but for his
Speaker 1: celebrity surfer persona, the elegant, vicious prankster who'd show up
Speaker 1: to the beach in tennis whites, built a kid out
Speaker 1: of twenty bucks and drive off in a lotus.
Speaker 2: He had this genes sikuah, this air about him. He
Speaker 2: had this more than just the surfer persona. He had
Speaker 2: another persona that he took, you know, all the way
Speaker 2: on the land. It's not just in the water. The cat,
Speaker 2: you know, the mysterious cat.
Speaker 1: It made sense that Mickey had fetched up in France,
Speaker 1: quietly on the surf world's Whispernet, that stretch of Basque
Speaker 1: coastline that included Saint Jean Valou's Gitory and Beeritz was
Speaker 1: becoming known as the next great spot. It was California
Speaker 1: as it used to be before Gidget, before the crowds.
Speaker 1: It's probably why Mickey was so relaxed.
Speaker 2: Everyone at that point surfers in California had been to
Speaker 2: France or braving about how much it was like California
Speaker 2: in terms of climate food waves. So the word was
Speaker 2: out from like nineteen sixty nine on that France was
Speaker 2: a cool place to be in. Mickey just was one
Speaker 2: of the first guys there hanging out.
Speaker 1: It was the ultimate assignment surf largely undiscovered waves in
Speaker 1: an idyllic place the next Malibu, and in the process
Speaker 1: meet the most mysterious figure in surfing who you've worshiped
Speaker 1: since childhood. Kevin and Craig were in They made it
Speaker 1: to the south of France in the fall of nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven.
Speaker 2: It was late in the season, I think around November,
Speaker 2: so all the surfers that had been there kind of
Speaker 2: cleared out. There was this surfer migration at the time
Speaker 2: where everybody kind of moved on from France down through
Speaker 2: Spain and Portugal and went to Morocco for the winter.
Speaker 2: It was nice and warm, so everybody was gone, and
Speaker 2: we pulled in in a kind of a stormy, cloudy
Speaker 2: day to get to ree and lo and behold, there
Speaker 2: in the parking lot was Mickey's big green Mercedes then
Speaker 2: and you know, outsteps Mickey looks at us. It was
Speaker 2: just Mickey and us in the parking lot, you know,
Speaker 2: no one else.
Speaker 1: Mickey spotted the surfboards tied to the top of their car.
Speaker 1: He came over and they could feel him sizing them up.
Speaker 1: He could tell right away that Kevin and Craig were
Speaker 1: from California, and he invited them to surf with him.
Speaker 3: He's a you know, a little bit of a initially
Speaker 3: shy guy, cautious, but you know, approachable in that way.
Speaker 3: And I kind of think he already knew who we
Speaker 3: were from our previous articles on surf travel and misadventure theory.
Speaker 2: So absolutely he did. Because after a few days of
Speaker 2: hanging around in his Mercedes Van, he was feeding us
Speaker 2: from this bottomless pot of stew that he would just
Speaker 2: keep throwing whatever he had into the stew. It never emptied,
Speaker 2: it never ended. It was great for us because he,
Speaker 2: you know, he always offered us something in the vent
Speaker 2: and come in for surf or freezing and get some
Speaker 2: of his stew and talk.
Speaker 1: As far as the surfer assignment was concerned, they were
Speaker 1: killing it. They'd surfed with Mickey, They'd hung out in
Speaker 1: his van, they were gaining trust.
Speaker 2: And then finally, after about a week of this, you know,
Speaker 2: the other shoe dropped and Micky said, Okay, look at
Speaker 2: I know who you guys are. You know, and you
Speaker 2: guys have done a bunch of star for surfer. I
Speaker 2: read your articles, I've seen your stories, and here's the deal.
Speaker 2: You know, I know you're here. You've probably been told
Speaker 2: to take photos of me and write something about me,
Speaker 2: because I just can tell. You said, but here's the
Speaker 2: deal I'll do. You guys are as broke as can
Speaker 2: be broker than any surfers I've ever run across, which
Speaker 2: was typical for surf journalists at the time, And you said,
Speaker 2: I'll make you a bargain. I'll feed you on this
Speaker 2: pot of great stew I have going to my Mercedes
Speaker 2: all the time. As much as you want, doors always open,
Speaker 2: you're always welcoming, You're always ready to have a ball
Speaker 2: of a stew on the condition that you don't take
Speaker 2: any photos of me, and you don't write anything about me.
Speaker 2: And if you're going to try to take photos and
Speaker 2: you're going to try to write about me, get out
Speaker 2: of the van right now and get out of my life.
Speaker 2: What's it going to be? So it was like this
Speaker 2: ten second of pause. You know, Craig I looked at
Speaker 2: each other. Well, you know what, remember what best remember
Speaker 2: your tolgienced surfer. We thought, uh, well Mickey uh never parted? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: Hannah is a bull of that stew. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Kevin and Craig decided to ignore their assignment for surfer
Speaker 1: in favor of something more sustaining. The stew was good
Speaker 1: and a lifetime supply of Mickey stories that would be
Speaker 1: totally worth it.
Speaker 2: We took his offer up on the stew and Craig
Speaker 2: didn't take any photos of him, and I never wrote
Speaker 2: about him. But we all hung out together and surf together,
Speaker 2: and you know, through New Year's and Christmas and had
Speaker 2: a great time surf in incredible ways through that winner.
Speaker 2: It was just an epic winner of surf in France,
Speaker 2: and you know, nobody was around except seemed like Mickey
Speaker 2: and us. And that was it, really, that was it.
Speaker 1: When Kevin and Craig met him. Mickey was alone, and
Speaker 1: he was hiding. He was evading any number of angry
Speaker 1: innkeepers and restauranteurs and antiques dealers, having burned bridges from
Speaker 1: Hong Kong to Nairobi. There was a bench warrant out
Speaker 1: for him in California, a federal warrant for the alleged
Speaker 1: passport fraud, and another federal warrant for allegedly defrauding the
Speaker 1: Diners Club of nearly twenty thousand dollars. Interpol was looking
Speaker 1: for him too. Add to that, Linda had left. She
Speaker 1: was exhausted, sick of fighting, sick of running, and she
Speaker 1: told authorities she was afraid of Mickey. He was so
Speaker 1: paranoid she'd run away from him in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night. A couple of wide eyed surfers from SoCal
Speaker 1: were the perfect distraction for Mickey.
Speaker 2: You know, he was so entertaining. I mean, it's hard
Speaker 2: to describe. He seemed to like company. You know, he
Speaker 2: wasn't like he was a recluse or hermit, or he
Speaker 2: wasn't completely antisocial. He was actually quite social. But he
Speaker 2: it was almost like a big game for him all
Speaker 2: the time. You know, the social interaction with people. He
Speaker 2: had a wicked sense of humor and he liked to
Speaker 2: keep it sharpened.
Speaker 1: Mickey was as quick as ever mentally, and for a
Speaker 1: guy in his mid forties, he was surfing well.
Speaker 3: At that time, in the fall of seventy seven. Mickey
Speaker 3: was very athletic still, you know, a great surfer, had
Speaker 3: his classic style, and we never really saw him physically
Speaker 3: surfing at Malibu. We did see it in movies and
Speaker 3: later on times, but you could definitely tell it was
Speaker 3: Mickey outsurfing, you know the ways when he was out
Speaker 3: in water.
Speaker 1: Hanging out with Mickey, Kevin and Craig got to know
Speaker 1: his quirks. Mickey was convinced the world was going to hell,
Speaker 1: starting with his own body.
Speaker 2: I remember him also as being somewhat of a hyperchondriac.
Speaker 2: Remember he had a shelf of pills he would take
Speaker 2: every day, and Mickey winter, all these pills or my
Speaker 2: knees are popping, and he had pills for every conceivable ailment,
Speaker 2: and he was taking them all the time. He did
Speaker 2: complain a lot about knees popping and backs hurting, and
Speaker 2: a little prematurely, you know, because for my opinion, now,
Speaker 2: because he would have been in his forties then, and
Speaker 2: you know that seems like, wow, that's he's still in
Speaker 2: your prime now to be now, but he was already
Speaker 2: complaining quite a bit then.
Speaker 1: Kevin and Craig were broke and traveling light. They had
Speaker 1: T shirts and jeans. Micky was always dressed to the nines.
Speaker 1: Even if he was a little threadbare from his years
Speaker 1: on the run living in a van, Mickey was still dapper.
Speaker 3: I think it's a lot why the French liked him
Speaker 3: so much, because you really would, you know, make an
Speaker 3: effort to you know, look his best. You know, had
Speaker 3: that classic California rogue look to him.
Speaker 2: You know. We was coming up to New Year's at
Speaker 2: the party time and there's parties here and there. He said, hey, guys,
Speaker 2: what do you think of this one? I'm ready for anything.
Speaker 2: He broke out this jacket right and it was you know,
Speaker 2: he had some white pants on and he had the
Speaker 2: white jacket. Mickey, that's pretty spiffy, you know, white on white.
Speaker 2: You're ready for stepping out? Said yeah, but watch this
Speaker 2: just in case I go to a different party that
Speaker 2: has a kind of a different scene happening. Watched this
Speaker 2: and he think the jacket he turned it inside out
Speaker 2: and it was leopardskin. So what leverskin. It could be
Speaker 2: a leverskin jacket, or it could be a white jacket,
Speaker 2: depending on what party it was you were going to.
Speaker 2: And he loved that. He just loved the fact that
Speaker 2: he could kind of go and switch personas from party
Speaker 2: to party.
Speaker 1: During this time, Mickey was living in his van the
Speaker 1: Gittory parking lot. But Mickey's van wasn't just any van.
Speaker 1: It was a gigantic, late model, dark green Mercedes camper.
Speaker 1: It was his home, his safe place, and also his
Speaker 1: escape plan. If anyone closed in, or if the surf
Speaker 1: started sucking or the water got too cold, then he
Speaker 1: wanted to move on. One of Mickey's girlfriends told Mickey's
Speaker 1: biographer that van was Mickey. It had his heart's soul,
Speaker 1: story travels, his secrets, which were in a black briefcase.
Speaker 1: Also his scent, which was quite like a lion.
Speaker 2: Mercedes Dan was something else. It was state of the
Speaker 2: art mess of surfers that had these converted VW vans
Speaker 2: in that and this one thing was sizable. It was
Speaker 2: you know, like a motor home size kitchen there. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: kitchen bed, the whole works. You know, it had everything
Speaker 2: you would see in a Winnebago, but with that great
Speaker 2: German engineering and style, so it was top of the
Speaker 2: lion event. You would not see any surfer drive it around.
Speaker 2: Only Mickey had this fan and he was known for it. Fancy, yeah,
Speaker 2: very fancy mess ad cost a pretty penny at that time.
Speaker 3: We would usually be sitting in the front two seats
Speaker 3: and Mickey would be you know, cooking up the stew
Speaker 3: or serving it up, and conversation would go on back
Speaker 3: that way. Usually these conversations would go on for either
Speaker 3: a half hour, depending on the surf were up to,
Speaker 3: you know, two or three hours at night. So it
Speaker 3: was you know, a lot of you know, good conversation.
Speaker 3: I remember covering all kinds of.
Speaker 1: Subjects, subjects like Mickey's apocalyptic philosophy, the surf, the price
Speaker 1: of gold, politics, the surf, and of course the surf.
Speaker 1: But Kevin and Craig noticed a wistfulness in Mickey for
Speaker 1: his youth and for his home.
Speaker 3: There was a certain kind of sadness for Mickey being
Speaker 3: around him that I remember kind of he wished he
Speaker 3: could still be in California for you know, aside from
Speaker 3: all of his other troubles that he still, you know,
Speaker 3: loved California and now he could not go back to California. Really,
Speaker 3: I mean, I think there was a certain sadness to
Speaker 3: his character when he talked about California to us. You'd
Speaker 3: want to know what's going on, you know, what's what's
Speaker 3: being developed.
Speaker 2: He was in exile because of his grifter ways, but
Speaker 2: part of him also had this sort of romanticized, idealized
Speaker 2: version of going someplace and finding more empty great waves
Speaker 2: like he'd had in Malibu in the fifties before it
Speaker 2: turned into something else. Because a lot of our conversations
Speaker 2: would kind of talk about where'd you go to to
Speaker 2: get empty ways? Was it like, you want to know
Speaker 2: all about Central America and what were the ways were
Speaker 2: like and where we found empty great spots, And he
Speaker 2: was really quisitive about the details. So I think he
Speaker 2: kind of sensed in this sort of we had this
Speaker 2: romantic idealized version, We're going to escape the crowds, the
Speaker 2: madness of southern California. That's what got started on our travels,
Speaker 2: you know, that was the driving force, the impetus to
Speaker 2: get away and find new empty waves and hopefully find
Speaker 2: our own personal Malibu, and I think Micky always held
Speaker 2: on to that kind of hope and.
Speaker 1: Ideal, but there was always the possibility lingering in the
Speaker 1: back of their minds that Mickey was playing them. They
Speaker 1: knew Mickey's reputation as a hustler. Kevin and Craig, by
Speaker 1: their own admission, were pretty naive, but they weren't fools.
Speaker 3: Even the people that got taken advantage of by Mickey
Speaker 3: he was He is so charismatic and in a lot
Speaker 3: of ways, they were kind of like, Wow, I've got
Speaker 3: a Mickey's Dora story to tell, even though I lost
Speaker 3: my camera or something else, or my girlfriend or something else,
Speaker 3: but it was Mickey Dora.
Speaker 1: We do that.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, you had to always be kind of cautious
Speaker 2: about what you were stepping into.
Speaker 3: Well, I think he did have a reputation around so
Speaker 3: just kind of people say that, just be careful around Mickey,
Speaker 3: you know, because you know, you don't know what he's
Speaker 3: kind of up to or thinking, you know. So we
Speaker 3: knew that we really enjoyed the relationship that we had
Speaker 3: with Mickey at the time while we're in France, but
Speaker 3: somewhere something was going to pop up, and of.
Speaker 1: Course, something did pop up. Eventually, Inevitably, Mickey's charm seemed
Speaker 1: less companionable and more intentional. He wanted something from them,
Speaker 1: but they couldn't figure out what.
Speaker 2: Because we got to know him, we realized the guy's
Speaker 2: always up to something, and we never quite knew what
Speaker 2: it was. Remember, you would have to take bottles of
Speaker 2: wine back and forth across the border. Yeah, can you
Speaker 2: take this wine and bring it back? And why is
Speaker 2: he having to? Why would bring this Aaron for Mickey?
Speaker 2: But we would good naturally go along with some of
Speaker 2: these things, and I think he was just kind of
Speaker 2: sensing about how he could to kind of work with us,
Speaker 2: or manipulate us, or used to deal with us, and
Speaker 2: some for one of his schemes.
Speaker 1: Later they'd figure out that Mickey had been testing them,
Speaker 1: seeing how far he could push them.
Speaker 2: He set us off on these kind of fool's errands
Speaker 2: to get refill, not even refill a bottle wine, bring
Speaker 2: the wine and bring it back. I think you want
Speaker 2: to see if we're going to do anything with the
Speaker 2: wine they've given us. Looking back on it, probably that
Speaker 2: we were too naive to even though at the time,
Speaker 2: what's what's this all about? But I think he was
Speaker 2: kind of testing the waters to see how far, you know,
Speaker 2: what would we do.
Speaker 1: He sent you with a full bottle to bring just
Speaker 1: cross the border and come back with that same body.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just do just to see what's you to do it?
Speaker 2: Why we just go ahead and do it. Don't ask questions,
Speaker 2: just you know, go ahead and please do this for me.
Speaker 1: I mean, cult leaders do that when they want to
Speaker 1: start to create, they do, uh, groom, it's grooming.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: This went on for like a week or two all
Speaker 2: and I can't even remember all the other little nonsensical
Speaker 2: errands that he was asking us to do. And so
Speaker 2: we said yes, and somebody said, come on, Mickey, we're
Speaker 2: not going to stop, you know. But then that's after that.
Speaker 2: That was the warm up to the big prize.
Speaker 1: Mickey hadn't just been toying around with them for fun,
Speaker 1: and he didn't really need that bottle of wine taken
Speaker 1: over the border and back. He was laying the groundwork
Speaker 1: for something much grander, a plot they came to think
Speaker 1: of as the Van Scam. Kevin and Craig had come
Speaker 1: to France with the goal of finding Mickey Dora. They'd
Speaker 1: played it cool, worked their way in cultivated him, but
Speaker 1: then they'd fallen under Mickey's spell, gorged themselves on his
Speaker 1: stew stayed too long in the van, gone to parties
Speaker 1: with Mickey dressed in his magic reversible suit. Micky even
Speaker 1: introduced Kevin to his future wife.
Speaker 2: I'd seen her on the Get to Read the streets
Speaker 2: the day before. We'd kind of seen each other but
Speaker 2: were felt too shy to talk. And then a few
Speaker 2: days later I met La Fitania looking at the really
Speaker 2: good ways, and up pulled the Mercedes van and lo
Speaker 2: and behold in the passenger your seat, she was sitting there.
Speaker 2: She's friends with Mickey. So Mickey stepped out, and you know,
Speaker 2: there I have, and he introduced me Kevin. Here's Chelsey,
Speaker 2: and introduced this and took it from there. We've been
Speaker 2: married ever since.
Speaker 1: Maybe Micky Dora had found and cultivated them, not the
Speaker 1: other way around. He'd wooed them over to his side,
Speaker 1: played on their weaknesses, shaped them to his ends because
Speaker 1: he had something big in mind for these two carefree
Speaker 1: young men. Look, they'd already given up on the sturt
Speaker 1: for magazine assignment. They might as well work for him.
Speaker 2: He came up with a grand plan one day where
Speaker 2: sat us down in the van with first of the
Speaker 2: bull a stew in the bottle of wine. He said,
Speaker 2: look it, I can see you guys are you know, broke,
Speaker 2: even beyond any thing I would believe in. But you
Speaker 2: are that broke, you know. And so I've got a
Speaker 2: plan where we can all keep traveling and surfing and
Speaker 2: doing the stuff we like to do, and you just
Speaker 2: have to go along with my plan and it's all
Speaker 2: going to work out. So we said, okay, Mickey, we're
Speaker 2: or open for anything. Fill us in. And he said, okay,
Speaker 2: I've got this Mercedes van here you were all sitting in,
Speaker 2: and which by the way, he had bought in England
Speaker 2: and written a bad check for of course, so Inner
Speaker 2: Pol was out looking for him in the France anyway,
Speaker 2: So the van was bought on a bad check and
Speaker 2: Harry was hanging out hiding out in France, and he said,
Speaker 2: what I'll do is we'll go to Spain, three of us,
Speaker 2: and then I'm going to sell you guys the van there.
Speaker 4: In Spain.
Speaker 1: Micky told them they'd be able to buy a Swiss
Speaker 1: insurance policy on the van in their names.
Speaker 2: And you guys are of course established photojournalist team. So
Speaker 2: of the big deal and you're traveling around Europe doing
Speaker 2: some stories. So then you drive the van to Italy
Speaker 2: and to a place someone has struck you to go to. Well,
Speaker 2: it turned out at this time there was a lot
Speaker 2: of activity going on in Italy with the Red Brigade.
Speaker 1: The Red Brigade was a violent far left gorilla group, a.
Speaker 2: Lot of social unrest and they were blowing up cars
Speaker 2: and burning down buildings. So the Red Brigade, they were
Speaker 2: very active in Italy. Micky was going to send us
Speaker 2: to a town where they were doing a lot of mischief,
Speaker 2: and we were checking the hotel there, and then Mickey
Speaker 2: would sort of in the stealth of the night, jump
Speaker 2: into the van and drive it straight to Greece where
Speaker 2: he had somebody in who was going to buy this van,
Speaker 2: no questions asked, And we wake up the next day
Speaker 2: and we report our van stolen to the Italian authorities.
Speaker 1: Mickey thought the Italian police would be ready to blame
Speaker 1: the Red Brigade and sympathize with clueless Americans who had
Speaker 1: just rolled in in a Mercedes van.
Speaker 2: They'll go on that premise, he said, And then what
Speaker 2: happened is the insurance company in Switzerland. You know, you
Speaker 2: can cash it on the policy there and we all
Speaker 2: meet back here in France afterwards and we divvy up
Speaker 2: the money half to me and after you two guys.
Speaker 2: We're involving now five countries, France, Spain, Italy, Greece. So
Speaker 2: the list goes on. But I don't I'm not doing
Speaker 2: justice to the detail which with Mickey had planned this.
Speaker 2: He really had it down to like all these things
Speaker 2: on a time schedule was going to happen just as
Speaker 2: he had planned, and we were going to just go
Speaker 2: along with his instructions and everything was going to be cool,
Speaker 2: and we were going to end up cashing in on
Speaker 2: this great policy, come back to France, celebrate over a
Speaker 2: bottle of wine, and divvy up the money. And I mean,
Speaker 2: he made it sound like so enticing, like this can't
Speaker 2: go wrong, this is great. We're gonna have we're gonna
Speaker 2: have money to travel for the next year. We go
Speaker 2: or we want just we just have to go with
Speaker 2: Mickey's grand plan. Let's do it. And so we said, okay,
Speaker 2: just give us a little bit of time to think
Speaker 2: about it, because it did kind of cross a little
Speaker 2: There were some moral issues that it was crossing some
Speaker 2: boundaries we kind of had ourselves. And then of course
Speaker 2: getting involved with something with Mickey, you always got to
Speaker 2: a little wonder is it going to backfire? And then
Speaker 2: so we thought about it overnight and went back and forth,
Speaker 2: and then the next day said, Mickey, it sounds really good,
Speaker 2: but what happens at the end, you know, and let's
Speaker 2: say it all goes through and make you said, no problem,
Speaker 2: we just meet here and you know, half the money
Speaker 2: goes to you and have to meet He said, of course,
Speaker 2: I will have to make deductions for whatever costs me
Speaker 2: to you know, support you guys for in the month
Speaker 2: to two it takes to this. You know, it's it's
Speaker 2: not going to be a free ride for you guys,
Speaker 2: and so I will make whatever deductions I think I
Speaker 2: have to make. I looked at each other and said, okay,
Speaker 2: that tells us we're going to end up with a
Speaker 2: bus ticket to London. You know, that's that's pretty much it.
Speaker 2: Not even a plane fair home, just a bus ticket.
Speaker 2: A in pole looking for looking for us and Vicky
Speaker 2: high tailing it off somewhere else in the world New Zealand,
Speaker 2: whoever where skiing in Switzerland, and we're going to be
Speaker 2: the straw guys and we're going to be the fall
Speaker 2: guys for this. So we politely said, you know, Mickey
Speaker 2: is really not in our wheelhouse. We're not We're not
Speaker 2: going to go with this. Would rather be poor and broken,
Speaker 2: honest than get involved in something like this. And he
Speaker 2: just said, okay, I just wanted to put the offer
Speaker 2: out there, and it's there if you guys want to
Speaker 2: do it. And I said, well, Mickey, if it's so good,
Speaker 2: why don't you know, why don't you do it yourself?
Speaker 2: And he said, well, I actually I've already done it.
Speaker 2: I can't go back to the well, I can't do
Speaker 2: it again. So okay, now we see. Then we saw
Speaker 2: the big picture.
Speaker 1: Mickey's m O was to embroil other people in his
Speaker 1: elaborate plots, and if they got burned, so what Mickey
Speaker 1: would pussy foot away with his cheshire cat smile. But
Speaker 1: maybe he was losing his touch. He was definitely changing.
Speaker 2: He had a certain paranoia streak in a suspicion about
Speaker 2: society in general and who was out to get him.
Speaker 2: And I sensed this kind of paranoia to his personality
Speaker 2: that was kind of strange.
Speaker 1: Or maybe it was just that his luck was running out.
Speaker 2: You know, you're never really fully free from your past deeds,
Speaker 2: and I think Mickey is a good example of that.
Speaker 1: Kevin and Craig got out of Getory a little wiser
Speaker 1: to the world, but with their morals intact and a
Speaker 1: classic Mickey Dora story. They'd escaped and just in time.
Speaker 1: Being a friend of Mickey's was getting dangerous. Next time
Speaker 1: I Lost Hills, the FBIS got questions.
Speaker 4: I got a visit from the FBI, so they came
Speaker 4: and they asked me all about Mickey and what I knew,
Speaker 4: and I went out of my way to give them
Speaker 4: as little information as I possibly could without lying to them,
Speaker 4: because I knew lying with the FBI with crime, so
Speaker 4: I wasn't going to tell them. I wasn't going to
Speaker 4: tell him anything untrue, but I was going to I
Speaker 4: don't recall as many times as I could, or I
Speaker 4: don't know as many times as I could without being obvious.
Speaker 1: That's next in episode ten, Aging Boy of Lost Hills
Speaker 1: is written and reported by Me Dana Goodyear. It's created
Speaker 1: by me and Ben Adair and produced by Western Sound
Speaker 1: and Pushkin Industries. Subscribe to pushkin Plus, and you can
Speaker 1: binge the entire season right now ad free. Find Pushkin
Speaker 1: Plus on the Lost Hill Show page in Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or at pushkin dot fmslash plus