Speaker 1: A note to listeners, this episode contains a reference to suicide.
Speaker 2: The escalation in the number of criminals being murdered by
Speaker 2: each other gives us some idea of the surge and
Speaker 2: growth of the underworld. An underworld of this nature, which
Speaker 2: is now moved into contract killings and the elimination of rivals,
Speaker 2: will definitely have a network in the country's power structures,
Speaker 2: because the two go together.
Speaker 1: Early twenty eighteen, a few months after Dafnese murder, the
Speaker 1: assassins Vincent de kof Moscat, Chinese George de Georgio and
Speaker 1: Alfred de Bin de Georgio are in Malta's Cordine prison
Speaker 1: awaiting trial. So far, none of them are talking. It's
Speaker 1: an investigative dead end. Mister Alleged Mastermind, the powerful, wealthy
Speaker 1: individual who allegedly ordered Daphnese murder, still seems invulnerable. He
Speaker 1: is not even considered a suspect, and it appears that,
Speaker 1: thanks to Alleged Mastermind's close friendships with corrupt police officers
Speaker 1: and senior politicians, every detail of the police investigation is
Speaker 1: known to him. He seems invincible. That leaves this guy,
Speaker 1: our middleman, Melvin Toma, the taxi driver, Dodgy Bucky and
Speaker 1: occasional long Shark, who recruited the assassins, oversaw the murder
Speaker 1: and reports back to mister alleged Mastermind.
Speaker 3: Melvin the Middleman is the only member of this criminal
Speaker 3: enterprise who knows mister Alleged Mastermind's true identity, the only
Speaker 3: person who can connect mister Alleged Mastermind to Japanese murder,
Speaker 3: and Melvin the Middleman is still free, at least from
Speaker 3: the authorities, but he's far from free from the rest
Speaker 3: of the gang, and his obligations are only increasing. From
Speaker 3: iHeart podcast topic studios in Vespucci, I'm.
Speaker 1: John Sweeney and I'm Manuel Delia and.
Speaker 3: This is Crooks Everywhere, Episode six, Carbon Culture. On this morning,
Speaker 3: Melvin the Middleman is paying one of his regular visits
Speaker 3: to a modest home in Marsa, the hometown of the killers.
Speaker 3: These visits may not look like much, but they are
Speaker 3: a window into this world, a world where the assassination
Speaker 3: of a journalist, where Daphne's cold blooded murder is possible,
Speaker 3: and in its way, this visit will be a masterclass
Speaker 3: in power and how to exert it.
Speaker 1: So on this day, Melvin de Middleman is paying a
Speaker 1: family visit, but it's far from friendly. The following is
Speaker 1: a dramatization based on Melvin de Middlemanto Ma's court testimony.
Speaker 1: It streamlines multiple events that took place during this period.
Speaker 1: The man who answers the door hurries him inside. Melvin
Speaker 1: the Middleman mustn't be seen in front of the house
Speaker 1: for long. Melvin reassures him, Hat, Marani, no one is
Speaker 1: watching me. He's wrong about that. As it happens, the
Speaker 1: man whose house this is is Mario de Georgio, the
Speaker 1: older brother of two of the killers, Chinese George de
Speaker 1: Georgio and Alfred de Bin de Georgio. Mario de Georgio
Speaker 1: is in his early sixties, wears glasses and looks like
Speaker 1: an ordinary pensioner, But like the whole family, he's not
Speaker 1: someone you want to upset.
Speaker 3: The oldest to Giorgio brother has been officially registered as
Speaker 3: out of work for the last fourteen years, and he
Speaker 3: seems to be living comfortably. Melvin the Middleman says that
Speaker 3: he sees gold chains and a diamond studied rolex during
Speaker 3: his visits. Because Daphne's actual killers are locked up, Melvin
Speaker 3: alleges that Mario has been designated as the killer's official
Speaker 3: representative and spokesman on the outside. It's what Daphne would
Speaker 3: call a moral faminalism in action. Greed, power and criminality
Speaker 3: channels through family ties and family loyalty, in this case,
Speaker 3: family ties that allow the killers to reach through the
Speaker 3: prison walls and continue shaping events in the outside world.
Speaker 1: Even if the older the Georgia brother, Mario does not
Speaker 1: have the same criminal history as his two younger brothers,
Speaker 1: he is now their eyes and ears, managing some of
Speaker 1: their sensitive business arrangements, like this visit from Melvin, the middleman.
Speaker 1: Whatever happens this house called must remain completely see. Mario
Speaker 1: de Georgia asks Melvin if he has the afaid things
Speaker 1: and Monty they agreed upon deliveries. Melvin nods and begins
Speaker 1: pulling out parcels from his bag, placing them on the table.
Speaker 1: The food comes first, parcels of rabbit, traditional Maltese cheeses
Speaker 1: and delicious to revise steaks Chinese. George and Alfred de
Speaker 1: Bean may be behind bars on murder charges, but that's
Speaker 1: no reason for them to eat bland prison food like
Speaker 1: ordinary criminals, and Melvin doesn't just need to provide the
Speaker 1: prison picnics. He's expected personally to foot the bill for
Speaker 1: this too.
Speaker 3: If Melvin the Middleman finds all this humiliating, the switch
Speaker 3: from hiring Japanese killers to acting as their butler, he
Speaker 3: doesn't show it.
Speaker 1: But steaks and rabbit are and the only thing Melvin
Speaker 1: the Middleman has been asked to bring on this visit.
Speaker 1: Mario asks if he has the other stuff. Melvin jumps
Speaker 1: to and passes over the first bulging anth. It's backed
Speaker 1: with big denomination banknotes, the euro equivalent of thousands of dollars.
Speaker 1: Maria de Georgia Counct one two, three thousand. That's all there.
Speaker 3: Japanese Killers have let it be known that while they're
Speaker 3: behind bars, they also expect certain other things to be
Speaker 3: taken care of. All three of them are family men
Speaker 3: with partners and children, so weekly donation has been requested
Speaker 3: to pay for family expenses, everything from private school fees
Speaker 3: to health insurance, all on top of the original fee
Speaker 3: they were paid for the murder. This regular donation has
Speaker 3: got steadily larger as the weeks have gone by, and
Speaker 3: once again this is all coming out of Melvin the
Speaker 3: Middleman's own pocket.
Speaker 1: Now, the second envelope of banknotes is handed over, this
Speaker 1: one even larger. This is to cover some of the
Speaker 1: murderer's legal fees tens of thousands of dollars. The kind
Speaker 1: of lawyers they want don't come cheap. According to Melvin
Speaker 1: the middleman alleged master mindset he would be paying for this,
Speaker 1: and should also be funding all the expenses involved with
Speaker 1: keeping the assassins happy behind bars, But in fact he's
Speaker 1: come up short. So Melvin is reaching into his own
Speaker 1: pocket again to make up the difference, and that keeps happening.
Speaker 4: So jibobawaya.
Speaker 3: Here's the reason that Melvin finds himself personally bankrolling so
Speaker 3: many of the assassin's expenses. The reason he finds himself
Speaker 3: funding a murder plot that wasn't his idea and that
Speaker 3: he doesn't benefit from. He simply can't say no. Melvin
Speaker 3: the Middleman knows that at any point, any one of
Speaker 3: the three killers behind bars could begin talking to the authorities.
Speaker 3: So Melvin the Middleman's own freedom depends on their continued silence.
Speaker 1: So each week and each month, as the demands for
Speaker 1: cash and gifts grow greater and greater, Melvin the Middleman
Speaker 1: hands over more and more banknotes to Mario de Georgio.
Speaker 1: Much later in court, Melvin the Middleman will describe himself
Speaker 1: as feeling blackmailed and having his back to the wall
Speaker 1: when faced with these demands from the Georgios. But however
Speaker 1: he feels for now he keeps paying, and around this
Speaker 1: time it almost seems as though the Georgia clan is
Speaker 1: actively enjoying testing how far they can push Melvin's generosity.
Speaker 1: The fluffy dog that Mario de Georgia now keeps as
Speaker 1: a pet, the one sniffing at the coffee table, that
Speaker 1: was another unwilling gift from Melvin. It's not just any pet.
Speaker 1: The Georgia wanted a designer pedigree dog imported all the
Speaker 1: way from China, one that costs nearly six thousand dollars online.
Speaker 1: Melvin the Middleman paid up again at any greed time.
Speaker 1: During the visit, Mario de Georgio gets a phone call
Speaker 1: from inside Corde Prison. It's the younger of the Georgia brothers, Alfred,
Speaker 1: being the Georgia. He wants to know that everything is
Speaker 1: running according to plan. Mario de Georgia confirms that Melvin
Speaker 1: the Middleman has brought what he supposedly owes for this week,
Speaker 1: including their bi steaks and the cheese, and from inside
Speaker 1: cordeen prison, the two brothers tell Mario that they have
Speaker 1: a special message to pass on to Melvin the middle Man.
Speaker 1: Melvin something for him to hear and bear in mind
Speaker 1: at all times. Okay, the oldest the Georgia brother listens
Speaker 1: and then looks his visitor dead in the eye and
Speaker 1: repeats word for word the messages on the inside, not
Speaker 1: those on the outside.
Speaker 3: Mario Georgia will later be charged with blackmail and money
Speaker 3: in connection with the Tessamiley about these events by Melvin
Speaker 3: the Middleman, married to Georgio, who's pleaded not guilty, and
Speaker 3: the proceedings are still continuing.
Speaker 1: So it appears that Melvin the Middleman is caught in
Speaker 1: a delicate web connected to both mister alleged Mastermind on
Speaker 1: one side, and did the Georgios and Vincent the Cough
Speaker 1: on the other, and it's pretty fragile. His predicament is
Speaker 1: in many ways a product of Malta's unique gang culture,
Speaker 1: a culture of impunity and power and money, the same
Speaker 1: culture that killed Daphne. In fact, the very method use
Speaker 1: to murder her is virtually a hallmark of our homegrown mafia,
Speaker 1: which brings us to the next piece of the puzzle,
Speaker 1: the carbonb.
Speaker 3: So Manuel, where are we?
Speaker 1: This is in Sea Duck Creek, which is a very
Speaker 1: busy junction connecting the center to the north of the island.
Speaker 3: And what happened here.
Speaker 1: Well a few years back, just across the street early
Speaker 1: in the morning, in rush hour traffic, a car blew up.
Speaker 1: So let me read you this. This is from Malta today,
Speaker 1: twentyeth February twenty seventeen, forty year old man from Floriana
Speaker 1: has been critically injured after a car exploded in McDuck
Speaker 1: close to the Workers Monument. That's the thing behind me here.
Speaker 1: The victim, who has lost both legs in the explosion
Speaker 1: has been identified as Romeo Bone. Only last year, Bone
Speaker 1: was cleared of participating into two thousand and seven Port
Speaker 1: Tomas or jewelry heist. Listen to this. The explosion took
Speaker 1: place at around ten thirty am, causing traffic creos in
Speaker 1: the area. The witnesses said that Bone was dragged away
Speaker 1: from the car by passers by, who also reported that
Speaker 1: he was conscious and was able to identify himself.
Speaker 3: And was anybody arrested tried convicted for this car bombing.
Speaker 1: This was one of a long series of car bombs,
Speaker 1: and over none of those car bombs was there ever
Speaker 1: any arrest, never mind charges or prosecution or any of that.
Speaker 1: No one was ever arrested for these. There's also this
Speaker 1: spectacular factor, right, this is a ball of fire in
Speaker 1: the middle of the road. Is someone being pulled out
Speaker 1: without their legs from that car? And this is where
Speaker 1: a bit of reaction starts. The public starts expecting the
Speaker 1: police to act on this because the police are not
Speaker 1: making any arrest, they're not getting anywhere.
Speaker 3: So the gangsters who were blowing people up, what was
Speaker 3: there to take away from this When nobody's arrested, nobody's prosecuted, uncertainly,
Speaker 3: nobody's convicted.
Speaker 1: I think the most important messages that they could get
Speaker 1: away with it that this was fine, that this method
Speaker 1: would work. In fact, when you study the series of
Speaker 1: car bombings that preceded Daphne's more some patterns emerge. First
Speaker 1: the sheer frequency.
Speaker 4: There was one in January six, twenty sixteen, another in
Speaker 4: September twenty sixteen. You know, there was one in October
Speaker 4: twenty sixteen. January twenty seventeen, February twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: You know, Julian Bonici is a former Maltese journalist who
Speaker 1: has tried to catalog these killings.
Speaker 4: These are five car bombs within the space of a
Speaker 4: year and nothing was done about it. Five bombs and
Speaker 4: a yeah should be a major red flag.
Speaker 1: There had been nineteen bomb attacks, many of them car bombs,
Speaker 1: in the seven years leading up to Dafnese murder in
Speaker 1: a country the size of Malta with a population of
Speaker 1: only half a million people. That's an incredible statistic. And
Speaker 1: the second pattern that emerged is the similarity in the
Speaker 1: carbon devices, suggesting an organized infrastructure a production line behind
Speaker 1: each attack. Dafnee bomb appears to have come from this
Speaker 1: production line. Take the killing of John Camillary, blown up
Speaker 1: around the year before Deafnie.
Speaker 4: He was meted by carbon in Saint Paul's Bay. The
Speaker 4: car bomb was particularly powerful, you know, during the day,
Speaker 4: it was a really shocking scene.
Speaker 1: News footage shows a white car turned almost inside out
Speaker 1: by the blast, the roof peeled back and blackened, all
Speaker 1: in the middle of a normal residential street.
Speaker 4: And the bomb, much like very similar other cases, was
Speaker 4: placed on the Camilliary seat and was detonated by mobile.
Speaker 4: But what's very interesting about this murder is Camilary was
Speaker 4: also chasing Georgia Georgia for some money at the time,
Speaker 4: for over fifty two thousand euros.
Speaker 1: Yes, Chinese George de Georgio, one of Dafnie's assassins, and
Speaker 1: allegedly the man who drove the car in the drive
Speaker 1: by murder of the lawyer carmelker Kopp that we heard
Speaker 1: about in episode one. It's probably a good moment to
Speaker 1: emphasize that no one has been convicted for the Camillary
Speaker 1: killing or any of the other car bombs other than Daphny's.
Speaker 1: So in the majority of these murders we don't know
Speaker 1: officially or otherwise who carried them out. But as is
Speaker 1: becoming increasingly clear, there are many more people involved than
Speaker 1: just those who pull the trigger or in this case,
Speaker 1: detonate the bomb. There is a wider organized infrastructure and
Speaker 1: the same names start to come up. If we ask
Speaker 1: who supplied all the materials for the bomb that killed Daphnie,
Speaker 1: another connection with previous bombings seems to emerge. According to
Speaker 1: later testimony by Vincent, the kof those materials were supplied
Speaker 1: by a criminal gang led by two notorious brothers, Adrian
Speaker 1: and Robert Tajus. Their organization's street name is Talmaksar. No
Speaker 1: translation of this phrase works.
Speaker 3: Vincent macaff was telling people that Talmukshah had worked closely
Speaker 3: with the Di Giorgios and him for years. He later
Speaker 3: estimated that at one point Seal Makshah were handing over
Speaker 3: the equivalent of twenty one thousand dollars per month through
Speaker 3: the Georgios for quotes work end quotes. The two criminal
Speaker 3: gangs appeared to have cooperated closely on other things too.
Speaker 3: In the Carmel Kirkopp drive by murder, the shooter was
Speaker 3: allegedly Jamie Vella, an alleged associate of tal Muxar doctor
Speaker 3: kirk Coopp. The victim was owed money by one of
Speaker 3: the tal Muxar brothers, and according to Vincent the Cough,
Speaker 3: Jamie Veller and Robert Adjus were also closely involved in
Speaker 3: the logistics of Daphne's murder too. Remember, the first plan
Speaker 3: was to kill Daphne by shooting her through the window
Speaker 3: of her home. Tal Maxa's Robert Adeus was alleged to
Speaker 3: have supplied the rifles.
Speaker 1: When that plan was abandoned. And the decision was made
Speaker 1: to switch to a car bomb. The police believe Jamievella
Speaker 1: picked up the bomb in Sicily and brought it to
Speaker 1: Malta on the ferry, an import service of a kind.
Speaker 1: Vincent Dakoff was a unsurprised. He said that Al Maksarman
Speaker 1: were known to have many Italian friends and not too
Speaker 1: subtle reference to connections with the mafia. And there are
Speaker 1: also striking similarities between the bomb that killed Daphne and
Speaker 1: the device that donated in rush hour traffic at mcd creek.
Speaker 1: The bomb that amputated Romeo Bone's legs also triggered by
Speaker 1: cell phone.
Speaker 4: What's very interesting about this med is that the court
Speaker 4: sittings have revealed, you know, a potential link, you know,
Speaker 4: between this explosion of Romeo Bone, Vince and Vince Musca,
Speaker 4: George Georgia and Alfred de Georgia, or the three men
Speaker 4: charged with murdering Dafnieasa.
Speaker 3: According to Vincent Lakoff's testimony, Japhanes's gillers were so conscious
Speaker 3: of the fact that mister Bone had survived that they
Speaker 3: discussed whether it was wise to use a similar device
Speaker 3: to kill Daphne. They put these professional concerns to Tom
Speaker 3: Maxar's Robert Aurjeus as the bomb supplier, and they got
Speaker 3: an intriguing and detailed answer. The Romeo bone bomb had
Speaker 3: failed to kill its target, they were told, because it
Speaker 3: had been placed under the car's key lock, not under
Speaker 3: the seat, and so the blast had been misdirected. The
Speaker 3: kind of detailed information that you would need to be
Speaker 3: close to the perpetrators to know, it might seem.
Speaker 1: Once again, no one has ever been convicted of any
Speaker 1: of these crimes other than Daphanie's murder.
Speaker 3: Roberts Us and Jamie Veller are currently awaiting trial for
Speaker 3: complicity in Daphanese's murder as well as the Carmel Kirkop killing,
Speaker 3: alongside other charges. Edrin ADUs is a waiting trial for
Speaker 3: involvement in the Carmel Kirk coop killing, but is not
Speaker 3: charged with involvement in Daphane's murder. They all deny the charges.
Speaker 2: October twelfth, twenty fourteen. Some background on crime gang Adrian Adjus.
Speaker 3: Daphne did not write much on street crime in Malta,
Speaker 3: but she did write one post about Adrian Adjus.
Speaker 1: It was a characteristically fearless post and it mentioned another
Speaker 1: business associate of mister Ajus, who had disappeared suddenly.
Speaker 2: Adrian Addus's friend and close associate, the drug dealer Terence
Speaker 2: janen Say, vanished in November twenty twelve after telling his
Speaker 2: family that he was going fishing. His car was found
Speaker 2: parked and locked, and his yacht was still at its
Speaker 2: usual mooring. None of his bank accounts have been touched
Speaker 2: since he has presumed dead. He was twenty four when
Speaker 2: he vanished.
Speaker 1: It's important to note that Daphni never directly accused Adrian
Speaker 1: Ajus of the murder, and he was never convicted. Surprisingly,
Speaker 1: it's possible that we know exactly what Adrian Ajews thought
Speaker 1: about this blog post. Under the post, one of Daphne's
Speaker 1: fans had written anonymously praising her for covering this topic
Speaker 1: and raising further questions about mister Ajus's family criminal history.
Speaker 1: Mister A Juice appears to have responded to this fan.
Speaker 1: Someone posting and Adrianajus's name wrote, I know you don't
Speaker 1: have the balls, but if you find them somewhere in
Speaker 1: your wife's pocket, let's meet up and we sort things out.
Speaker 4: You are just a low life afraid to show your face.
Speaker 4: Unsolved murders in themselves are a little bit part of
Speaker 4: multi sculpture.
Speaker 1: I'd hate to say it.
Speaker 4: You know, we've had some really high profile killings in
Speaker 4: the country, murders that just sort of went code. A
Speaker 4: sort of question that always needed in my mind is
Speaker 4: why these, particularly Mathia style murders never got solved.
Speaker 3: Take the car bombings for example. The space of these
Speaker 3: bombings in the years leading up to Japanese's death was
Speaker 3: so pronounced, but it provided the impetus for the police
Speaker 3: to purchase a special computed database to collate and store
Speaker 3: evidence of these killings going years. So when Daphne was murdered,
Speaker 3: that should have been the starting point for police to
Speaker 3: tease out these very patents and connections from previous crimes.
Speaker 3: But when the officer leading the investigation into Daphne's death
Speaker 3: opened the database, he found almost nothing. Later he described
Speaker 3: this as bare, almost unused, and the crimes remained unsolved.
Speaker 1: And that brings us to one of Daphnie's great themes,
Speaker 1: Malta's culture of corruption.
Speaker 4: It's impossible and mold not to have connections. You know,
Speaker 4: your minister, your police officer is not twenty kilometers away,
Speaker 4: he's down the road. You know, you can't bump into
Speaker 4: him at the supermarket, he said, you know, so, yeah,
Speaker 4: what I did it created this. I think it just
Speaker 4: adds to the climate and the culture of empiathetics and
Speaker 4: the more the.
Speaker 1: Same impunity that fueled both the high level misdeeds exposed
Speaker 1: in Dafnes's blog and our epidemic of car bombings and
Speaker 1: contract killings.
Speaker 4: Criminals are confident in Morta, all the hitmen they did
Speaker 4: it because they thought they could get away with it.
Speaker 4: I think they were probably sure they could get away
Speaker 4: with it. I mean major crime in mals are at
Speaker 4: least for me. I mean, this is my perspective, and
Speaker 4: I think the fact and figures would back me up.
Speaker 4: Is that goes ignored, you know, whether it's a question
Speaker 4: of resources in the police department, whether it's a question
Speaker 4: of you know, corruption, bribery and what it does. Obviously
Speaker 4: it creates a climate where these things can happen.
Speaker 3: Indeed, these things can happen. So for all these reasons,
Speaker 3: when Melvin the Middleman is paying visits to Mario de
Speaker 3: Giorgio and Marsa and making his regular donations of food,
Speaker 3: cash and gifts, he is every good reason to fear
Speaker 3: those on the inside. But Melvin the Middleman is also
Speaker 3: reaching breaking point. He's beginning to realize that he is
Speaker 3: far out of his depth with this crime and its aftermath.
Speaker 1: Soon after the arrest of the de Georgios and Vincent
Speaker 1: de Kov, Melvin the Middleman takes out a will for
Speaker 1: the first time, he begins drinking heavily and taking tranquilizers. Later,
Speaker 1: he will testify that his relationship with his boss, mister
Speaker 1: Alleged Mastermind, also changes. Although the two of them have
Speaker 1: known and trusted each other for decades, for the first time,
Speaker 1: Melvin the Middleman begins to fear his old friend and godfather,
Speaker 1: fear him almost as much as he fears the de Georgios.
Speaker 1: As ever, Melvin the Middleman is aware that he is
Speaker 1: the only man who knows Alleged Mastermind's role in Dafne's murder,
Speaker 1: and so if he Melvin were to disappear Suddenly, he
Speaker 1: realizes it might of an important problem for mister Alleged Mastermind.
Speaker 1: For all their years of friendship, nothing can change that fact,
Speaker 1: And increasingly Melvin the Middleman sees that what happened to
Speaker 1: people like Romeo Bone, Carmelker Cobb, John Camilly and Tiffany
Speaker 1: herself could happen to him, and if it did happen,
Speaker 1: he also knows there is little chance mister alleged Mastermind
Speaker 1: would ever be caught.
Speaker 3: At times, Melvin contemplates turning himself into the police, even
Speaker 3: driving to a police station, before turning back at the
Speaker 3: last minute, fearing the power and influence of mister alleged Mastermind.
Speaker 1: And as time goes on, Melvin's drinking and self control
Speaker 1: keep getting worse. At one point, he turns up at
Speaker 1: Alleged Mastermind's office in front of important international businessmen, wanting reassurance.
Speaker 1: As the police investigation develops and the international pressure on
Speaker 1: Malta is so off, Daphne's murder grows, mister Eliged master
Speaker 1: Mind continues to try to calm Melvin the Middleman down.
Speaker 1: He reminds him of the political connections that are in
Speaker 1: their favor. He texts him not to panic, to stay strong.
Speaker 1: They both know that if Melvin cracks under the pressure,
Speaker 1: he might bring them both down, and so the measures
Speaker 1: mister religid master Mind takes to keep Melvin the Middleman
Speaker 1: on side become more extravagant. At one point he even
Speaker 1: pays for Melvin and his family to have a beach
Speaker 1: holiday at his expense to reduce their stress levels. But Melvin,
Speaker 1: perhaps wisely, is not reassured. He senses the risk of
Speaker 1: betrayal ever more strongly. Years later, in court, Melvin the
Speaker 1: Middleman described how Daphne's fate, the murder he had organized
Speaker 1: as a favor, now felt like a warning for his
Speaker 1: own future. I thought it was my turn now, he said.
Speaker 1: One evening, mister alleged Mastermind tries to cheer Melvin up
Speaker 1: with a gift of some meat and wine to take home,
Speaker 1: but Melvin doesn't dare touch it. Jason Atterpietly asked him
Speaker 1: about this in court. He believed it was poisoned and
Speaker 1: he threw it away.
Speaker 5: He said in court that too much, I was afraid
Speaker 5: for my life, and.
Speaker 3: The pressure from mister alleged Mastermind, from quotes those inside,
Speaker 3: and from the police investigation continues to build. One night,
Speaker 3: he becomes too much. He drinks whiskey and takes pills,
Speaker 3: and then he climbs up onto the roof of his house,
Speaker 3: having decided to end it all, And at the top
Speaker 3: he waits, but something stops him.
Speaker 1: He later said that at that moment in his mind,
Speaker 1: he imagined mister Leig, mastermind, with his legs crossed, smoking
Speaker 1: a cigar to celebrate getting away with everything, and the
Speaker 1: idea of that made him decide instead to fight for
Speaker 1: his survival, and.
Speaker 3: He realizes there is one way he can begin to
Speaker 3: protect himself by using the secrets he's carrying to his
Speaker 3: own advantage a weapon to defend himself. One thing that
Speaker 3: those responsible for Daphne's murder haven't considered.
Speaker 1: And there's something else they didn't reckon on Daphne's family
Speaker 1: and their own determination to bring her killers to justice
Speaker 1: whatever the cost.
Speaker 5: We were turning up with speaking points about the corruption crisis,
Speaker 5: and in doing so, we were in a way dehumanizing
Speaker 5: our own mother. We were turning her into a case,
Speaker 5: and we were turning ourselves into campaigners rather than grieving songs.
Speaker 3: That's next time.
Speaker 1: Crooks Everywhere is a production of iHeart Podcasts, Topic Studios
Speaker 1: and Vespucci. It's reported and hosted by me Manuel Delia
Speaker 1: and John Sweeney. The senior producer is Leo Hornack. The
Speaker 1: producer is Maddi Hickish. Chris Denesh Kumar is the assistant producer.
Speaker 1: The story editors are Emma Federill, Matt Willis and Philippa Geering.
Speaker 1: The managing producers are Thomas Curry and Rachel Byrne.
Speaker 3: The voice of.
Speaker 1: Dafnie Carvana Galizia is played by Ciena Miller, acting direction
Speaker 1: by Christopher Houten, Multie voices by Mikhail basma Jan and
Speaker 1: Pierre staff Rach. The executive producers are Johnny Galvin and
Speaker 1: Daniel Turken at Vespucci, Christi Gressman at Topic Studios, Katina Norvell,
Speaker 1: and Nicki Etoor at iHeart Podcasts. Ancienna Miller marketing leader
Speaker 1: is David Wasserman. Audio recording by Tom Berry at Wardoor Studios.
Speaker 1: Audio mix and sound design by Joel Cox. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to Andrew Watchcardona, Alessandra di Crespo, Eddie Isles, and Andrew
Speaker 1: Carvana Galicia