WEBVTT - Happy - E4 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:07.360 Murder in Miami is a production of iHeartRadio previously on 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:08.400 Murder in Miami. 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:12.119 So it's nineteen eighty two and I decided how to 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:14.640 go back to Washington, DC. Along the way, it had 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:18.120 occurred to me that the people I considered the real 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.880 criminals were the people who were running things in Washington 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:23.159 and other places like that. 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:27.680 The Christic Institute was a nonprofit public interest law firm. 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:29.880 They sought to wield the law as a weapon of 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:33.240 progressive change against a number of daunting targets. 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:37.159 What I told Danny was that Bob Adams had been 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.760 part of a military intelligence unit that provided logistical support 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:46.080 for assassinations conducted by the United States. And in any case, 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:50.200 Danny offered me a monthly stipend of twenty five hundred 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:52.760 dollars a month, and I put everything in the car 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:54.760 again and went back to Miami. 0:00:55.440 --> 0:01:01.160 Now, you're basically working as a private investigator, investigative journalist, 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.080 investigating intercept a private investigation. 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.399 Yeah, I suppose. So the funny part is that when 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.800 I got back, I went out to the office in 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:16.200 Perne and it was closed. So finally I tracked down Bob, 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:20.119 and Bob tells me turns out that Lamar has been 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:24.200 under federal investigation for some time now, something called Operation 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:26.840 Loan Star, and it's a very big deal. The next 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.080 thing I know, I get this call from Bob saying 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:32.240 that Lamar wants to meet me at the mutiny. When, 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.160 out of the blue, Lamar says, well, I just want 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:37.880 you to know that I appreciate what you're doing here, 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:40.280 but I sure as i'll wish you and your boys 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:43.640 back in Washington would get a move on it. I 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.240 don't know what to make of it, and he says, oh, 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:48.200 come on, now, you're with the CIA. 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:48.560 Right? 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:53.280 Wait? He thought you were with the CIA. Why? 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:56.280 I had no idea at the time. 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:03.440 So if Bob Adams led Phil to believe Intercept was 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:08.600 connected with drug smuggling through Lamar Chester, who was Chester's connection, 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:12.320 the man you're about to meet would definitely know because 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.640 he claims he facilitated one of Chester's notable expansions in 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:17.640 the drug trade. 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:19.400 Did you quit loving me? 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:21.320 Happy Miles here? 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:22.160 Give me a call. 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.680 That's mister Happy Miles, a man who's led a pretty 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:31.720 fantastical life when peppered with some very unique professions. He's 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:33.720 also very active on Facebook. 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:36.919 Happy here, give me a call. 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:42.000 On Facebook, his dormant Twitter self describes Happy as a 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:47.200 lifelong adventurer, pilot, sailor, boat builder, plane builder, and a 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:50.040 purveyor of the finer things in life. 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:54.920 Judge spuggling was born than a job. It was an adventure. 0:02:56.160 --> 0:03:00.560 Mister Miles was also a close business associate and friend 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:05.200 of Intercept's biggest client, Lamar Chester, the man indicted as 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:10.120 a marijuana smuggler, although Happy himself never bothered much with marijuana. 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.240 I don't like doing around pot because I hate the 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:14.960 smell of it. 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:18.200 Cocaine was Happy. He's preferred cargo. 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:22.680 It is. It is bulky, and it's not as messy. 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.480 Coke is all nice and clean and wrapped up. You 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.200 just put it in Duffel bags. 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:31.240 What do you miss about those times? 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:34.079 The money? 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:41.040 I'm Lauren brad Pacheco, and this is murder in Miami. 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:03.280 When I started working in an Intercept, I was just 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.800 like mister Magoo, stumbling around there. I didn't know anything, 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:09.960 and I certainly had no idea that at the time 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.640 they were already under federal investigation. 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:13.880 Wow. 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:16.720 All I really knew about Lamar Chester was what Bob 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.120 Adams had told me. And I wouldn't meet Happy Miles 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:23.520 till years later, when I figured I'd better start looking 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:24.159 into this thing. 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:28.520 What was your initial take on Happy Miles. 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:34.680 He was a very eccentric, interesting guy. He had a 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:37.800 lot of great stories. He had an island in the 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.160 Bahamas for a while. One story that sticks with me 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:43.679 is that when he was making a lot of money 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:46.039 in the drug business, like all of those guys, he 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.960 had a lot of disposable income, he gave a fifteen 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.919 thousand dollars tip to a waitress and a lunch counter 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.120 down in the Keys. It's quite a life he's lived. 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:57.080 Yeah, he's such a character. 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:05.599 He strikes me as this purely like Dionysian person. 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.200 There's a reason why they called himself Happy Miles. 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.200 And over the course of many months, I've grown used 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:20.279 to hearing Happy Miles share the stories woven into that life, 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:22.840 which spans eighty three years. 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:28.479 When I tell people about my life, they don't believe me. 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:32.080 Nobody could have done all the things I've done. 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:34.000 He's not kidding, you know. 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.960 I produced a record you did, what is it? Called 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:42.839 The Songwriter with Michael dunafon the ex wide receiver for 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:48.120 the Denver Broncos. He's dead now, But I wrote you 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:50.200 heard the song Coyote Ugly. 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:52.599 There's a movie called Coyote Ugly. 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:58.160 I should see the Bastards because it's a copyrighted name. 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.960 What's the song kyote yug So you order up the 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:04.120 shot and you order of a here and hopes that 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:04.960 it'll bring her bit. 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:13.240 There you're you, yah, the old woman. I went with 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:17.200 an eight, kind of woke up with three. What dead 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.800 this woman do to deserve me? 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.599 And then it goes on to say just how ugly 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:25.200 was she? 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.600 I'm telling you she could drop them mag it off 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:29.360 of me wagon. 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:32.720 Well, this woman is what you call. 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:38.720 Cow cowd. The ugly is when you roll over in 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:40.479 the morning, you take a look at her and you 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.240 chew your arm off to keep from waking her up. 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:45.800 No, that's coyote ugly. 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:50.520 You wrote that, yeah, Mike, and I did. I owned 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:51.760 the copy right. 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:56.200 Well, not exactly a feminist anthem. The song does appear 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.360 on the album Happy Nailed Me, complete with a nineteen 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.120 eighty one cop be right, and the singer Michael Dunavan 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.720 was indeed on the roster of the Broncos in nineteen 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:11.760 seventy six and seventy seven, before becoming mayor of Glendale, Colorado, 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.679 and running for governor in twenty fourteen. The thing about 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.360 Happy his stories check out. Happy's kind of like the 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:21.400 dose ekis guy of decadence. 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:26.000 Well, la world knows Vias Happy H Miles. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:27.400 What does the H stand for? 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:29.080 Horny? 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:30.400 Yep? 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:35.040 And, as my voicemail can attest, most every Happy Miles 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:36.600 story leads to another. 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:40.160 Hey, I saw a real funny story. 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:41.640 Give me a call. 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:46.200 If you'd wager a former cocaine smuggler with eighty three 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:49.600 years under their belt would have some pretty interesting stories 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.240 to share with Happy, you'd hit the jackpot. 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:56.080 I didn't tell you the red sheetcase story, did I? 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:56.760 No? 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:01.640 Okay? When I flew for another. 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:08.080 Guy, he had this Arab that would take samsoried suitcases, 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:14.280 the lining out and leticulously with bag the cocaine and 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:20.800 very small bags like a small condom. Kind of okay, 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:26.400 and he would line the vertical edges of the suitcase 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:32.400 with it glue in ice cream sticks to hold everything 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:37.440 in place, and then put the lining back in. NIA 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:42.880 couldn't tell just by glancing that anything it had done 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:46.880 to the suitcase unless you picked it up and it 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:51.560 would be twenty pounds heavier right than it should be. 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.880 Happy's job was to fly into Venezuela and pick up 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:59.680 the suitcases containing the hidden cocaine. But when the courier 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.120 arrived did his hotel. Happy had immediate issues. 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:08.920 The suitcases were empty, and I said, hold it, hold it, 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:16.240 I'm not carrying these seaitcases out past immigration and customs 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:20.680 to the airplane. I'm not going to do it these 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:27.160 empty suitcases. This is ridiculous. And what man owns red suitcases? 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:28.720 They were both red. 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:34.640 Yeah, brand new sampsodite red suitcases with twenty keys of 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:39.520 coch in each one, made them by twenty pounds more. 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:45.600 So I went down to the Habitashery in the hotel, 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:52.720 very swank Habiitashery, and I bought arrows shirts enough to 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:58.000 fill up these big suitcases, probably four or five grand 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.679 worth because they were like five dollars apiece. 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:03.200 They weren't cheap. 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:05.000 How big were these suitcases? 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:10.160 They were big suitcases. I filled these up with shirts, 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.680 so now they had all these unwrapped shirts in it. 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.920 Right, So I buy a a flight plan out for. 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:23.120 The morning at the stun up at dawned because nobody 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:27.760 will be out there right, and I paid customs off 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:32.720 ahead of time, so I felt rather secure. But I 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.920 had a hanging bag. I had a duffel bag. I 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:42.680 had my flight bag and two fucking red suitcases. Well 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:44.280 that's quite a load. 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:45.400 For one to carry. 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:50.840 Yeah, So next morning, I carry the shit downstairs, grab 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.720 a tap to the airport, and I'm walking out to 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:55.880 the airplane. 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.840 It's about a four hundred foot truck. I get about 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:04.120 halfway there to the airplane. 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.360 And that's exactly when mister Miles says. A young army 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:10.240 guard shows up to offer a huffing and puffing happy 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:12.080 assistance with his heavy load. 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:17.559 Now, the last thing guy wanted him doing is carrying 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:24.360 one of these suitcases, right. So he says, kak Enny 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.839 and the suitcase. What do you got in the suitcases? 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.880 So I laid him down and opened them right away, 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:36.760 and he looks really puzzled. I've got all these brown 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:41.199 new shirts. And he says to me in Spanish, he says, 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:46.800 kiddy enters, you stead him contrabandista to come. He says, 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.160 what are you a smuggler of shirts? 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:56.240 I said, yeah, he caught me. But look, just. 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.520 Take whatever shirt you want and you can have them. Well, 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:04.040 this kid never saw a thirty dollars shirt and there's light, 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:08.600 so he took two shirts and told me on Spanish, 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.040 I have to go quick before the sergeant seized me. 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.400 And he takes off of a couple of shirts and 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.840 I take off for the airplane loaded, jump in, light 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:25.319 it up and go. But he had caught a smuggler 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:26.840 of shirts. 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:31.120 Who had a lot of cocaine stuffed underneath the shirts. 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:32.240 Yeah. 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:49.719 Anyway, so that was the story. 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:50.360 And middle initial aside. There's also a story behind the 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:51.480 Happy Miles name. 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:56.319 Well, people started calling me Happy while I was dating 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:57.400 amm Margaret. 0:12:58.200 --> 0:12:58.800 That makes sense. 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:02.120 You should be a happy man if you're and Margaret yes, 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:06.840 and Margaret that and Margaret Viva Las Vegas as in 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:10.600 Elvis and Margaret. But as Happy tells it, this was 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:12.920 a few years before she found fame. 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:16.880 In the sixties. I had just gotten out of the 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:21.240 Marine Corps and then I met Anne Margaret. She went 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.640 to work at the Villa Marina, and I took her 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:28.880 to breakfast every morning after she got off work at 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:33.319 midnight or two, because they didn't have any money to eat. 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.440 The They is the band she was singing with at 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:36.839 the time. 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.360 They didn't even have money to put gas in their 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:45.559 car to get to the gig. I took her to Catalina, 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:50.680 earned two of the guys from the subtle tone her band. 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:53.680 We had a rough ship coming back. 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.480 We had to drift all night because it was so 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:58.680 rough you couldn't go either way. 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:03.160 Happy so he offered to keep Ms. Margaret warm under 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:04.480 a tarp during the night. 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:09.120 We got in about nine o'clock in the morning and 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:11.640 the guy said, boy, it looks like you've had a 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:15.800 lot of Happy Miles and the name just stuck. 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:20.480 Does your driver's license say Happy Miles. 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:24.760 My driver's license says it. I have two names on 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:30.160 my passport and my pilot's licenses in the name of 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:36.320 Happy Miles. When I crashed on the mountain top in Bolivia, 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.760 they told me that they were going to suspend my 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:45.720 license because I wasn't Happy Miles. I was John Anthony Mahalo. 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:49.040 In order to avoid a formal hearing, Happy says he 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:52.480 was given the option of providing the Bolivian officials with 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.840 character references confirming he was an upstanding citizen known as 0:14:56.840 --> 0:15:01.040 Happy Miles. He figures he collected about three signatures. 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.720 Yeah, I had everybody sign it. I had the Mayor 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:09.000 of Miami Beach. I had the Mayor of Miami Maurice Foray. 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:14.520 I had the customs officers where I cleared customs with 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:19.520 the airplane all the time. I had the Fire Department 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:25.160 and Coral Gables police Chief. And I had tons of 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:28.640 members from the Adventures Club. 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:32.840 Sign It nestled in Coconut Grove in the mid to 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:37.640 late nineteen seventies, the Adventurers Yacht and Sailing Club offered 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:43.880 participants a clever combination of an exclusive membership with outdoor adventures, 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:48.440 complete with instruction and rentals for sailing and eventually flying. 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.480 At the time, the Adventurers Club was a fixture on 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.320 the Miami social scene, and so was its flashy founder, 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:56.720 mister Happy Miles. 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:01.240 Coca At Grove was a great place to live. And 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:06.760 you know, having the Adventures Club, I was Miammies fair 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:10.920 haired boy. I was on a first named basis with 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:16.520 the Mayor of the city, attorney and manager. 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.480 Happy shared a ton of pictures with me from all 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.760 different stages of his life. Many are set in tropical 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.600 or social situations where he's smiling next to an assortment 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.480 of beautiful women in the nineteen seventies. 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:32.560 Happy stood about six feet. 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.080 Tall, with a wavy head of dark hair and a 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.760 devious smile that competed with the bright blue of his 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:42.400 eyes for attention, which competed with the sparkle of his 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.520 taste in gold chains, expensive watches, and at one point 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.920 a diamond studded bracelet that spelled out his name. 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.280 It was a nugget bracelet. I'll send you a picture 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:59.840 of me wearing it, and also wearing a gold Rolettes 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.600 was a nugget band that I paid forty thousand for. 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:06.119 Wouldn't that kind of be a dead giveaway as to 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:07.119 what you did for a living? 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:09.560 Well, catch me if you can. 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:11.479 He sent the picture. 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:14.399 You can see why in his younger days, Happy was 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:17.600 often mistaken for Teddy Kennedy. He's seated at a desk, 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:21.560 arms resting in front of him, golden bling popping out 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:25.119 from both the dazzled wrist, and a medallion in chain 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:29.040 resting atop his chest hair. He's wearing a confident grin 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:33.080 and a sleek white collared shirt generously unbuttoned at the neck. 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.440 I was a pretty good dresser. I mean I had 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:41.320 a lot of Western seats. I still learned the boots 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:41.920 from that. 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:45.720 Era, and those boots seem made for walkin'. Considering the 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.000 number of times Happy he's been married. 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.320 Some people that are in better know than I am 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.439 say it's been a Baker's dozen, but I'm not sure. 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:56.480 Thirteen. 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:00.560 Wow, Well, in my case, there were tons of tons 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.680 of women around as the commodore. 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.879 You know, Happy was known as the commodore of the 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.439 Adventurers Club, which at its height posted more than twenty 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:15.360 five hundred members, including the then mayor of Miami. 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:20.520 And international drug smuggler Lamar Chester. That's where their paths 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:21.400 first crossed. 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:27.280 Lamar Chester joined my yacht club to sail, and I 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:30.320 get such a good job of running boats. He thought 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.720 I should be in the airplane business, and he had 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:37.399 a bunch of airplanes he couldn't pay for, so I 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:38.440 bought him. 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:40.440 And that's how I met Lamar. 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:47.720 He was flying for Eastern Airlines, but he had overextended himself. 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.080 And you guys ended up becoming pretty good friends, right. 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:55.520 Yeah. I was the only outsider at his wedding because 0:18:55.640 --> 0:19:00.000 it was only family relatives. I was the only non 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:04.240 family member there. It was an Indian theme. 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:08.080 And by Indian mister miles means Native American. 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:13.240 I got a picture of it Artists and Lamar, okay, 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:17.520 let me get up so I can describe it. Artists 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:21.920 was a she was tall by pianner or something like that. 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:24.960 She west eighty and others. 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:30.640 Lamar's kind of been a eisenhowerd tight jacket, but a 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:37.280 Western like and he stands about three quarters of a head, 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:40.000 two thirds of the head taller than Artist. 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:43.000 Why was there a theme to the wedding just for fun? 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:47.560 No, it was both of their second marriages, and they 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:48.520 were like that. 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:53.159 The photo was faded to a soft pastel blow. Lamar 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:55.840 and Artists are looking at the camera, likely held by 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:59.520 happy Chester's right arm resting on his bride's lower back. 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.280 Both are wearing wide grins, and Artists is indeed wearing 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.760 what appears to be Native American garb and a band 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:07.800 across her forehead. 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:09.960 Chester smile is topped by. 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:12.760 A thin mustache that gives off an earl Flynn sort 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:16.440 of vibe. He's wearing his dark hair meticulously slipped back 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:18.679 and a yellow rose on his left lapel. 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:21.000 They look like a very happy couple. 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.280 Well, I think they were very much in love with 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:28.200 each other. I know she was going with some mafia. 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:30.160 Also when Lamar met her. 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:34.159 Lamar used to buy roses and fly over there a 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:38.600 yacht and dump the roses out from his nose at 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:39.959 the mafia. 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:41.360 He wasn't afraid. 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:46.159 Lamar wasn't afraid of anything. He stood about two or 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:50.879 three inches taller than I, long, lanky, kind of a 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:55.199 farm boy type, and he wasn't afraid of anybody or anything. 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.840 That fearlessness would be on full display during a double date. 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.120 Happy remembers as memorable on multiple levels. 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:10.800 One time we went for Paiea in Cuban Town in 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.919 my Cadillac and Lamar and artists were in the back seat, 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:17.920 and I'd pull up to a stop sign and a 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:20.760 guy would pull up alongside of us and then want 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:25.359 a drag racist to the next light. And I didn't 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:26.919 know Lamar. 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:29.320 Was giving him the finger of the whole time. 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:32.320 And when we came to stop, he had a three 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:34.920 point fifty seven pointed at me. 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:38.600 And I was in the right lane, so I made 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:39.280 the right. 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:42.520 Turn and tried to lose them. And here we were, 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:46.080 at one hundred miles an hour, going through Cubantown, all 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:47.959 the residential. 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:49.440 Roads, and I was open for. 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:53.600 A cop to see us. We finally locked him and 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:58.600 we got back to his apartment on Brickell Avenue on 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:01.919 the water there, and I went up to his apartment 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:05.879 and he opened a foot locker and got a couple 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:10.520 machine guns out of it uzzis and said, let's go 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:14.520 find the bastard. I said, Lamar, you're crazy. We're not 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:18.760 going looking for any trouble. And he was flying guns 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:22.800 then to Nicaragua. 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:26.320 You heard that, right, machine guns that were being flown 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:30.119 from Miami to Nicaragua in the late nineteen seventies. 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:35.200 They were military foot lockers in the living room, stacked 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:39.840 one on top of the other, standard military foot lockers, 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:42.680 the issue you in the Marine Corps. 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:45.080 A foot locker is about. 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:49.000 Two feet high and two feet deep and four feet 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:51.399 long or something like that. 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:53.400 And they were just filled with guns. 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:56.960 Yeah, there were probably at least twenty thirty guns of 0:22:57.080 --> 0:22:57.760 each one. 0:22:58.359 --> 0:22:59.960 And what kind of guns. 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:06.760 Sixteen's I guess and M one and stuff. 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:10.040 Like that, so military grade stuff. 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:12.600 Yeah, all military grade. 0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:16.320 And did he tell you who he was running the 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:16.960 guns for? 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:22.960 This IA? I would imagine the CIA was running that. 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:27.720 Show those guns and Chester's claim of running them for 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:31.560 the government will play a major role as history in Foles, 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:34.800 and that remains one of the pieces Bill Stamford is 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:38.440 still trying to place and one that will eventually play 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:39.760 out in a court of law. 0:23:41.040 --> 0:23:44.159 Yeah, that was one of the stories that struck me 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:48.840 as very important because it was evidence that Chester was 0:23:49.640 --> 0:23:52.080 running guns. I mean, there were crates of guns, and 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:54.960 is Happy says, no one has that many guns for 0:23:55.000 --> 0:23:58.360 personal use. I mean they were in these crates for shipping. 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:02.040 And apparently he told Happy that he was flying them 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:02.920 to Nicaragua. 0:24:04.200 --> 0:24:07.840 Remember that story because it'll come up again. But in 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:11.600 terms of our timeline, Happy's hold on Miami social scene 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:14.800 was coming to an end by the time Phil relocated there, 0:24:15.080 --> 0:24:18.040 which is why their paths wouldn't cross until years later. 0:24:18.760 --> 0:24:20.720 When I finally tracked him down. It turned out he 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:24.840 was living about ninety miles from me in Albany, Oregon, 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:28.679 in an abandoned aircraft hangar building a plane. 0:24:30.000 --> 0:24:30.879 Very happy asque. 0:24:31.200 --> 0:24:35.320 He has remarkable abilities. I mean he's completely unschooled, but 0:24:35.520 --> 0:24:39.280 there's a little bit of certainly mechanical genius about him. 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:41.879 He was able to put together huge deals. He was 0:24:41.920 --> 0:24:45.760 able to master several crafts. I think he started out 0:24:45.760 --> 0:24:48.560