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Speaker 1: Blood on the Tracks is a production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and Double Elvis. John Lennon was a musical genius

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Speaker 1: and one of the most beloved cultural figures of the

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Speaker 1: twentieth century. His songs inspired dreamers to imagine, his search

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Speaker 1: for the truth gave power to the people. But some

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Speaker 1: thought he dreamed too much. Others thought he was too powerful.

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Speaker 1: So he was followed, he was threatened, he was declared

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Speaker 1: a danger to the United States, and in night he

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Speaker 1: was assassinated. This is his story told by his so

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Speaker 1: called friends. This is special Agent Jim Steele with the

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Speaker 1: Federal Bureau of Investigation work in case number double oh

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Speaker 1: nine dash zero eight dash zero four nine one, case

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Speaker 1: subject of Lennon, John Winston oh No. This information pertains

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Speaker 1: to a period and in December seven interview subject as

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Speaker 1: Yoko oh Oh Lennon interview number zero dash zero two

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Speaker 1: dash zero six one dash nine eight one. We call

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Speaker 1: number one December. If John and I did something that

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Speaker 1: the people didn't like, it was my fault. And if

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Speaker 1: we did something successful, John about the credit that was

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Speaker 1: a learning process. I think that life is a process

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Speaker 1: of learning. We're given each of us are guing the

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Speaker 1: light we use the light to learn the things we

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Speaker 1: have to learn. John and I had to learn those things,

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Speaker 1: especially me. I had to learn the experience of humiliation.

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Speaker 1: It was probably good that I learned it, otherwise I

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Speaker 1: would have stayed at the proud yoga on now And

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Speaker 1: in a funny sort of way, I felt the weight

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Speaker 1: of the beatles break up because John expected all of

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Speaker 1: that to be replaced by me. All of us are

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Speaker 1: trying to win some kind of fight. Jaunt. Did I

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Speaker 1: do you do? The fight of learning of light? The

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Speaker 1: fight and experienced the kind of fight that leads to

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Speaker 1: blood on the Transah Yeah. Year one, John Lennon and

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Speaker 1: Yogo Werner, they called us subversives. They said we were dangerous,

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Speaker 1: a threat to national security, enemies of the state. That

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Speaker 1: wasn't just the American people talking. The American government said this.

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Speaker 1: As soon as John and I stepped foot in New

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Speaker 1: York City in nineteen seventy one. The American government wanted

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Speaker 1: us out. They said we were bad for the impressionable youth.

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Speaker 1: You know, the impressionable youth as in the eighteen to

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Speaker 1: twenty one year old who could buy records. But I've

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Speaker 1: never been able to cast a vote in their life

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Speaker 1: until now. So they followed us, They tapped our phones,

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Speaker 1: they tracked our every movement. Yeah, they even change in

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Speaker 1: their own rules to get us, you know, just because

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Speaker 1: they had a fire on John. Not just one file,

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Speaker 1: lots of files. The files ran up the chain of

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Speaker 1: command all the way to Hoover Nixon. But they needed

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Speaker 1: a legitimate reason to kick John out, so they leaned

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Speaker 1: on the cannabis charge from a few years before. That

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Speaker 1: was their excuse, the reason for why John Lennon was

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Speaker 1: not fit for a green card. The cannabis charge was

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Speaker 1: from back in London, nine October. It was late morning.

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Speaker 1: John and I were in bed. We weren't wearing much,

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Speaker 1: which was normal for us, you know. Recently John had

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Speaker 1: gotten a tip from newspaper friend thought he was going

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Speaker 1: to be the next target of London's drug squad. The

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Speaker 1: squad wasn't just feared, they were entitled. They were the

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Speaker 1: same entitled group that busted down Donovan's drawer at what

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Speaker 1: one thirty in the morning for what some hash the

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Speaker 1: same squad that found us and coke on making teeth.

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Speaker 1: One perhaps doesn't ask for responsibilities, Perhaps one has given responsibilities.

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Speaker 1: One One News pushed into the limelight in this particular sphere,

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Speaker 1: rather than ask him to be asked to be pushed

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Speaker 1: into this in any way, merely asked to be my

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Speaker 1: private life, to be left alone, so as it were.

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Speaker 1: The drug squad was led by Sergeant Norman Pilcher. Pilcher

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Speaker 1: was on his own crusade, his own trip. Everyone knew

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Speaker 1: he was going after rock and rollers, and everyone also

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Speaker 1: knew that he was dirty. He planted evidence, he wrote

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Speaker 1: false rewards. Half of the arrest that he made in

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Speaker 1: the late sixties were probably frame ups. It's true. He

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Speaker 1: was convicted of perjury years later and they sent him

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Speaker 1: to jail. Earlier that morning, John had vacuum to the flat.

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Speaker 1: Jimmie Hendricks had once lived there amongst others, and John

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Speaker 1: was just being extra careful that there was no evidence

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Speaker 1: hanging around that could be used against us in case

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Speaker 1: his friend's tip was legitimate. If those walls could talk,

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Speaker 1: you know. In fact, at the time, we weren't doing

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Speaker 1: any drugs. We were on a microbiotic diet, no drugs,

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Speaker 1: no caffeine. Even so, we were in bed. There was

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Speaker 1: a knock on the door. Someone on the other side

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Speaker 1: of the door yelled something about a warrant. I looked

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Speaker 1: at John and panicked, what should we do? We knew

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Speaker 1: exactly who it was. We knew it was Piltra, and

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Speaker 1: we had nothing to hide, but still feeling a panic

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Speaker 1: came over me. John said, don't answer the door, so

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Speaker 1: we didn't. They kept knocking, They got louder, more voices.

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Speaker 1: They were trying the doriendal, and suddenly there was a

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Speaker 1: commotion at the rear of the flat. John left out

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Speaker 1: of bed and ran out back, where he found one

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Speaker 1: of Pilcher's officers trying to get inside through a rear window.

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Speaker 1: John was in his underwear with his hands on top

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Speaker 1: of the window, pushing it down while the officer outside

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Speaker 1: was trying to pry it open. At this point I

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Speaker 1: think John was beginning to panic as well. The officer

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Speaker 1: at the window was yelling that he was going to

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Speaker 1: break the window if he had to. It didn't matter

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Speaker 1: that John was John Lennon or that he was a beatle.

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Speaker 1: The police didn't care. Actually it worked against us. The

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Speaker 1: beatle thing. Being a beatles what got John in this

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Speaker 1: mess in the first place. John knew he wasn't going

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Speaker 1: to be able to hold back a team of determined

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Speaker 1: police officers, so he relented. He told the man at

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Speaker 1: the window to stand down and he would go open

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Speaker 1: the front door. There were seven of them, detective sergeants,

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Speaker 1: detective constables, all policewomen, dog handlers, and of course, Sergeant Pilcher.

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Speaker 1: They barged inside the flat. Once John had unlocked the door.

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Speaker 1: Piltre had victory in his eyes. Before he even stepped

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Speaker 1: foot in the place. You could just see it written

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Speaker 1: on his face that he was about to bust the

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Speaker 1: John Lennon, the one who was bigger than Jesus Pulture

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Speaker 1: told the dog handlers to let the dogs loose. Their

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Speaker 1: names were Yogi and Boo Boo. I'm not kidding what

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Speaker 1: you gonna do about a yo game. They sniffed around

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Speaker 1: the flat while John argued with Pilcher and the others.

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Speaker 1: John was getting angry. He knew there was nothing illegal

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Speaker 1: in the place, and he kept telling Pilture there was nothing.

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Speaker 1: Over and over. John argued that just because he was

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Speaker 1: a rocky musician didn't mean that he was sitting on

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Speaker 1: a pilot drugs. Yogi and Boo Boo told a different story. Allegedly,

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Speaker 1: they found grass in a binoculars case. Grass and film

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Speaker 1: canister and more grass and a cigarette roller, something like

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Speaker 1: an ounce total. It was bullshit. It wasn't ours. We

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Speaker 1: never proved that it wasn't ours, or that Piltre had

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Speaker 1: planted the evidence. Python did a funny sketch about him

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Speaker 1: with a pultry character was arresting someone and saying, I'm

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Speaker 1: charging you with the illegal possession of whatever we can

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Speaker 1: happen to have down there. Pultre did have to face

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Speaker 1: questions from the Home Secretary, however, who wanted to know

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Speaker 1: why so many officers had been used for such a

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Speaker 1: small bust. Pilcher's response was that he thought he'd be

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Speaker 1: busting some wild sex party again because John was a beatle.

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Speaker 1: That was what he thought of us. He couldn't imagine

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Speaker 1: that a rock star could just be enjoying a lazy

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Speaker 1: morning in bed with his wife. Well, technically we weren't

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Speaker 1: married quite yet. In a few months time we would be.

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Speaker 1: But that's the thing. What Piltre couldn't imagine, what he

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Speaker 1: couldn't see. It was the same thing that the whole

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Speaker 1: world couldn't see. They couldn't see John as anything but

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Speaker 1: a beatle. They couldn't see him without his myth As

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Speaker 1: John began to extract himself from that myth, his fans

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Speaker 1: in England got confused and angry and looked for someone

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Speaker 1: to blame for their anger and confusion. Of course, they

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Speaker 1: directed it at me at the experience of humiliation, because

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Speaker 1: I was the one who took their beetle away from them.

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Speaker 1: I was the one who opened his eyes and woke

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Speaker 1: him up. I was the one who liberated him. I

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Speaker 1: loved John for John, not for being famous, or being

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Speaker 1: a beetle or any of that. I didn't even know

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Speaker 1: John Lennon the Beatle when I first met him, which

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Speaker 1: people find hard to believe because the group was so

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Speaker 1: famous at the time. I knew of the phenomenon of

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Speaker 1: the Beatles, and I knew Ringo's name, I think subconsciously,

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Speaker 1: because Ringo means apple in Japanese. I don't think John

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Speaker 1: even knew who John was until we got together. He

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Speaker 1: said himself that our relationship brought out the best in him.

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Speaker 1: He said something like the king is always killed by

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Speaker 1: his courtiers, not his enemies. That the psycho fans surrounding

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Speaker 1: the king do whatever they need to do in order

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Speaker 1: to keep him on that throne. They overfeed him over

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Speaker 1: drug him, over indulge him. But I was able to

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Speaker 1: extract him from that fate about It wasn't easy. John

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Speaker 1: was difficult, and that should have been his nickname, the

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Speaker 1: Difficult Beetle. And then the nineteen seventies were difficult decade

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Speaker 1: for us. Our marriage was tested, our trust was tested,

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Speaker 1: our love was tested. There are a lot of awful

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Speaker 1: things that happened in the seventies to John and me

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Speaker 1: that I would really rather not get into al We

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Speaker 1: spent a lot of time apart before we reconciled. You know,

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Speaker 1: I spent too many nights alone and afraid, my entire

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Speaker 1: body just shaking, you know, just completely and utterly alone

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Speaker 1: in our apartment near Central Park, where we settled in

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three. Once it was clear we were going

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Speaker 1: to be in town for a while, John was out

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Speaker 1: god knows where, in Los Angeles or somewhere else in

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Speaker 1: New York City, or maybe even somewhere in between. There

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Speaker 1: were moments when I thought we wouldn't pulter. More moments

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Speaker 1: when I thought John would wind up dead, shot to

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Speaker 1: death by Phil Specter, the crazy pastor, or silenced for

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Speaker 1: good by the FBI men who wouldn't leave him alone.

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Speaker 1: There were always fans hanging out outside the Dakota. The

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Speaker 1: most of the time, they were friendly and respectable, and

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Speaker 1: John was friendly back to them. But occasionally things got

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Speaker 1: out of hand. Fans would get past the lobby and

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Speaker 1: find their way up to our place, apartment seventy two

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Speaker 1: up on the seventh floor. They just walk right in

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Speaker 1: the door, looking for John to fight. That kind of

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Speaker 1: thing terrified me, never mind that I had suspicions about

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Speaker 1: the apartment to begin with. It used to belong to

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Speaker 1: Robert Ryan, and his wife had died there, which is

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Speaker 1: why he left it and we moved him. You know,

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Speaker 1: Robert Ryan, right Crossfire, the wild Bunch. Anyways, I used

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Speaker 1: to think the place was haunted or at least a

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Speaker 1: little unsettled, and that it was because Robert Bryant's wife

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Speaker 1: had died there. Maybe she didn't want us there, maybe

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Speaker 1: she didn't want anyone there. I know that I didn't

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Speaker 1: want those fans in the apartment. I don't even know

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Speaker 1: if they knew that. It wasn't okay that they would

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Speaker 1: do that, just come in. I hired security to help us,

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Speaker 1: but it made John even more uncomfortable. He used to say,

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Speaker 1: if they're going to get you, they're gonna get you.

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Speaker 1: So just killed the bodyguard first. I'm getting off track.

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Speaker 1: As I said earlier, there's a lot I don't want

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Speaker 1: to talk about. I want to talk about the good things,

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Speaker 1: the happy moments, the moments when all our hard work

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Speaker 1: paid off. I want to talk about October nine. October nine,

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Speaker 1: that was the day Shawn was born, our son. It

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Speaker 1: was also John's thirty five birthday the same day. We

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Speaker 1: were able to enjoy the indescribable joy of that day

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Speaker 1: in the way we hadn't been able to enjoy anything

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Speaker 1: for a while. Because October nine was also the day

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Speaker 1: after we had heard from our lawyer, Leon Wilds that

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Speaker 1: three panel judge had ruled in John's favor in the U.

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Speaker 1: S government's case to haven't deported. John would be able

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Speaker 1: to stay in the United States. We could go on

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Speaker 1: living at the Dakota On that day, at that moment,

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Speaker 1: anything was possible for us. We had beat back a

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Speaker 1: government that wanted us gone. We had conquered the unknowable

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Speaker 1: months in which we put our relationship on indefinite hiatus.

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Speaker 1: We were just two people, a man and a woman

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Speaker 1: who know had a third, A beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy.

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Speaker 1: We just wanted to be us. Whatever that meant, we

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Speaker 1: were going to figure it out. We'll be right back

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Speaker 1: after this word word word. Well. When we first came

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Speaker 1: to New York City in n I was more than

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Speaker 1: happy to leave England, not just because it got us

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Speaker 1: away from Norman Pilcher. But bothered me were the Beatle fans.

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Speaker 1: They were awful. They waited for us outside of Abbey

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Speaker 1: Road Studios, and when we would leave after a session,

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Speaker 1: they would attack. This is when the Beatles were still together.

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Speaker 1: They would yell insults at me, racial insults, hurtful insults.

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Speaker 1: They would bring roses simply so they could use the

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Speaker 1: thorns to attack me. I just hated England. Plus, John

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Speaker 1: loved America. He loved New York City. He loved the people,

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Speaker 1: the cultures. He loved being able to walk through the

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Speaker 1: streets of New York just as John and not necessarily

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Speaker 1: as a Beatle. I wanted to do everything I could

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Speaker 1: to ensure that John would be allowed to stay. John

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Speaker 1: had taken sole responsibility for the possession charge back in London.

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Speaker 1: He did it so that I wouldn't have to face

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Speaker 1: the charges. He did it for me. He also did

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Speaker 1: it because he thought he could simply pay a fee,

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Speaker 1: move on with his life and never have to worry

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Speaker 1: about it ever. Again, maybe it was naive. We were

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Speaker 1: used to being called naive, some people said, are political

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Speaker 1: views where naive? You know? Give piece of chance? War

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Speaker 1: is over if you wanted the idea that people could

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Speaker 1: have peace, if they really wanted peace. Is that so naive?

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Speaker 1: Many people thought so, though I'm not exactly sure why

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Speaker 1: we were talked down to by people who had a

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Speaker 1: million complicated reasons why something so uncomplicated was impossible. You

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Speaker 1: know why, though, I know why, because war is a

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Speaker 1: business and peace is not. And just like one of

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Speaker 1: those million little reasons preventing world peace, the United States

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Speaker 1: decided that the reason John couldn't stay in the country

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Speaker 1: was because of this possession charge, which we all saw through. Well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, let's say that a few friends of ours

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Speaker 1: in the pop business have exactly the same conviction as me,

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Speaker 1: and I'll have to come and go as phrase they like.

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00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:26,200
Speaker 1: There was the thing with John Sinclair. John saw solidarity

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Speaker 1: in that fight. John Sinclair was sent to prison for

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00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:33,320
Speaker 1: ten years for having two joints that's the mentality we

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00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:36,320
Speaker 1: were up against. The government was waging not just a

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Speaker 1: war in Vietnam, but a war at home on how

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Speaker 1: to think and how to act. John fought for John

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00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:45,560
Speaker 1: Sinclair's release, and by aligning himself with that movement, he

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00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:49,399
Speaker 1: was made a public enemy as well. So did his

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00:18:49,520 --> 00:18:53,480
Speaker 1: relationships with Jerry Ruben and Abby Hoffman and Bobby Seal.

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Speaker 1: One of John's first friends when we came to New

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Speaker 1: York City was David Peel over at St. Mark's Place. David,

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00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:05,840
Speaker 1: it was very vocal anti government, prograss. John even produced

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Speaker 1: one of his albums, The Pope Smokes Dope, put it

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00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:13,480
Speaker 1: on Apple Records. It was widely banned. You know. This

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Speaker 1: was the same time Paul was getting banned for his

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Speaker 1: song Hi Hi Hi. Let you know. David Peel, Bobby Seal,

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Speaker 1: Abby Hoffman, they were all radicals to Hoover Nixon, and

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Speaker 1: so John was a radical by association. John and I

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00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:34,159
Speaker 1: were very much anti war and pro peace. We were

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Speaker 1: anti Nixon. Nixon was Cambodia and Kent State an Attica.

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Speaker 1: In nine seventy one or nineteen seventy two, John was

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Speaker 1: the highest profile rabble rouser in the United States and

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00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:53,760
Speaker 1: he had built an audience that would hang on his

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00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:56,840
Speaker 1: every word, not to mention, a media that would follow

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00:19:56,960 --> 00:20:00,720
Speaker 1: his every move. So the US government bugged our phones.

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00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:06,800
Speaker 1: This is when we were on Bank Street in the

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00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:10,360
Speaker 1: West Village before we moved to the Dakota, a two

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00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:12,840
Speaker 1: room apartment that we were renting from Joe Butler of

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00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:16,000
Speaker 1: The Loving Spoonful. We've got into some hot water, just

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00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:20,440
Speaker 1: knowing Joe Butler. I'll tell you about that in a minute. First,

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00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:25,160
Speaker 1: the bugs. They bugged our phone. They bugged our lawyer's phone.

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Speaker 1: Someone told us about a number you could dial to

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00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:31,359
Speaker 1: tell if they were listening or not. If you've dialed

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00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:33,720
Speaker 1: the number and you've got a busy signal, then you

295
00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:37,000
Speaker 1: were good. Your line was clean. But if you dialed

296
00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:41,040
Speaker 1: and heard, then they were on the call with you.

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00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:46,320
Speaker 1: Hoover's men. Our lawyer started to conduct all his phone

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Speaker 1: conversations in Yiddish, just to be extra careful. And it

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00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:53,800
Speaker 1: wasn't just our phone conversations they were paying attention to.

300
00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:59,280
Speaker 1: They were combing through John's lyrics. Agents were in the

301
00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:02,840
Speaker 1: audience that night at the John Sinclair Rally, scribbling these

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00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:07,320
Speaker 1: brand new song lyrics into little spiral notebooks. Someone at

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00:21:07,520 --> 00:21:10,359
Speaker 1: m I five thought that John was secretly funding the

304
00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:14,640
Speaker 1: i RA in Ireland, so the Feds poured over songs

305
00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:18,960
Speaker 1: like Sunday, Bloody Sunday and Luck of the Irish. Later

306
00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:21,840
Speaker 1: I'd find out they were even looking into whether or

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00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:24,720
Speaker 1: not John had earned money in the United States while

308
00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:27,800
Speaker 1: he was in the country on a tourist visa, you know.

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00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:35,640
Speaker 1: And they followed us everywhere we went, if we took

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00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:38,280
Speaker 1: a walk through the village or took a cab across

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00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:43,680
Speaker 1: town or whatever. They tried to dress casual, but to

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00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,399
Speaker 1: quickly learned how to pick them out. They were just

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00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:49,280
Speaker 1: about the only people who couldn't blend in into a

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00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:53,959
Speaker 1: crowded Manhattan street. I'm not exactly sure why John opened

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00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:56,280
Speaker 1: the door to the apartment on this particular night when

316
00:21:56,320 --> 00:21:59,280
Speaker 1: the doorbell rang out of the blue. We were both

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00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:02,680
Speaker 1: so par annoyed, par annoid about what we said and

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00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:05,720
Speaker 1: who we were with and what we were doing. It

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00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:08,160
Speaker 1: seemed common sense not to open the door without first

320
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:11,800
Speaker 1: figuring out who was calling. But John opened it, and

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00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:16,560
Speaker 1: these two well, they looked like junkie's there's no better

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00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:20,280
Speaker 1: way to describe them. These two junkies came marching in.

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Speaker 1: They were here to collect, they said, collect what John

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00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:27,480
Speaker 1: yelled at them. But these guys were dead to the

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00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:34,840
Speaker 1: world hard fight. They took our color TV, a Salvador

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00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:39,600
Speaker 1: Dolly lithograph, and a small antique table. I was dumbfounded.

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00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:43,040
Speaker 1: The worst of it came after the thieves were gone.

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00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:50,600
Speaker 1: John gasped. Then he went mad. He started to rummage

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00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:53,760
Speaker 1: through the place himself, frantically looking for something he would

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00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:56,760
Speaker 1: he was rambling. He wouldn't tell me what he was

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Speaker 1: looking for. Once it was clear that he wasn't going

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00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:03,080
Speaker 1: to find it, he told me I address book, he said.

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00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:06,359
Speaker 1: The blood had trained from his face. My address book

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00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,920
Speaker 1: was in the drawer of that table. His address book

335
00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:14,240
Speaker 1: contained not just the phone numbers of every anti authority

336
00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:19,000
Speaker 1: radical he knew, but their physical locations as well. Like

337
00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:22,359
Speaker 1: Dana Biel, the Yippie he was the head of the

338
00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 1: legalization fight. He was on the FBI shortlist. And Timothy Learry,

339
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:31,159
Speaker 1: who was hiding in Switzerland after he walked out of

340
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:35,879
Speaker 1: prison where he was serving a sentence for possession. He

341
00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 1: literally walked out of jail. I escaped with the help

342
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: of the Weatherman Underground of their crack Underground operators came

343
00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:49,879
Speaker 1: to California six weeks before my escape, and it was

344
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:54,440
Speaker 1: a very complicated operation. They found Larry's danhim prison uniform

345
00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:57,080
Speaker 1: in one of his socks in the restation bathroom a

346
00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:00,720
Speaker 1: few miles down the one oh one. He was long gone,

347
00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:06,080
Speaker 1: but John knew where Larry was. It was in that book,

348
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:11,119
Speaker 1: and if that book fell into the wrong hands, it

349
00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:16,000
Speaker 1: could be disastrous to the movement. That's when we began

350
00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:18,480
Speaker 1: to think that maybe the junkies who had bust into

351
00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:24,399
Speaker 1: our apartment weren't actually junkies at all. Maybe they had

352
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:26,840
Speaker 1: been planted there by the government. Maybe they were two

353
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:29,840
Speaker 1: guys from the government playing the roles of junkies in

354
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:32,920
Speaker 1: order to justorient us so that they could take the table.

355
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,679
Speaker 1: Because they knew the address book was in that table,

356
00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:38,159
Speaker 1: and they knew that the address book was in that

357
00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:40,960
Speaker 1: table because they were listening in on all of our conversations.

358
00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:48,720
Speaker 1: We were so paranoid we actually believed that for a while.

359
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:55,120
Speaker 1: It turns out, however, that Joe Butler, that guy from

360
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:58,240
Speaker 1: the Loving Spoonful who was renting us the apartment, it

361
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:01,440
Speaker 1: turns out he had some pretty serious gambling debts, and

362
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:06,520
Speaker 1: that's who the junkies had come to collect from, not us,

363
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:12,199
Speaker 1: Joe Butler. The realization didn't mean that we stopped worrying

364
00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:15,600
Speaker 1: right away. We worried a little bit less when John

365
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 1: had a front track down our table and it is

366
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:21,160
Speaker 1: address book back. And then we worried even less when

367
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 1: we dialed the number over and over and never heard

368
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:28,679
Speaker 1: the static squeel. That meant we were under surveillance. By

369
00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:32,080
Speaker 1: the end of the decade, our guards were down. We

370
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:36,320
Speaker 1: had put so much behind us. We simply weren't prepared

371
00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:40,240
Speaker 1: for what was coming. And when it hit, it seemed

372
00:25:40,280 --> 00:26:13,280
Speaker 1: to come out of nowhere. New York City, December. It

373
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:16,800
Speaker 1: was shortly after midnight when the telephone inside Apartment seventy

374
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:20,520
Speaker 1: two at the Dakota Building rang out. Yoko Ono answered.

375
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 1: The man on the other end spoke broken English with

376
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:26,840
Speaker 1: a Puerto Rican accent. He wanted to know if Yoko

377
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:29,920
Speaker 1: Ono and John Lennon had his money, the money he

378
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:32,840
Speaker 1: had demanded in the letter he sent back in November.

379
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 1: John and Yoko got this letter right, of course they did,

380
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:39,639
Speaker 1: so where was his hundred grand? He wanted to know.

381
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:42,520
Speaker 1: December nine was the date they were supposed to get

382
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 1: him the hundred grand and now it was fifteen minutes

383
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:50,880
Speaker 1: into December. They were late. Where was the money? Yoko stalled,

384
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:54,119
Speaker 1: Of course she knew about the letter. The letter was

385
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 1: written by people claiming to be the Puerto Rican Independence Movement.

386
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:01,680
Speaker 1: They described themselves as Terror US and took responsibility for

387
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:05,679
Speaker 1: explosions and several major cities in the US. Even though

388
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:10,200
Speaker 1: they didn't cite specific incidents, they bemoaned money problems within

389
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:13,120
Speaker 1: the organization, and thus we're hoping to solve set money

390
00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:15,800
Speaker 1: problems by extorting one of New York's most rich and

391
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:20,720
Speaker 1: famous couples. That letter had set Yoko's anxiety on eleven,

392
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:23,640
Speaker 1: As if New Yorkers didn't already have enough to fear.

393
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:27,880
Speaker 1: In seven the city was still recovering from the shocking

394
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,840
Speaker 1: murders that the forty four caliber killer a k a.

395
00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:34,119
Speaker 1: The Son of Sam had committed, putting every borrow on

396
00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 1: high alert during one of the hottest summers on record.

397
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:40,800
Speaker 1: The letter brought that powerless feeling of fear right back,

398
00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:44,560
Speaker 1: as well as the feeling of paranoia, the same feeling

399
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:47,840
Speaker 1: that Yoko and John regularly experienced at the start of

400
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:51,160
Speaker 1: the decade when federal agents were monitoring their every move

401
00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:55,200
Speaker 1: the self described terrorist letter had demanded that John and

402
00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:58,320
Speaker 1: Yoko leave one hundred thousand dollars in a quote unquote

403
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:01,800
Speaker 1: strong package in the lobby the Dakota. The letter gave

404
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,480
Speaker 1: John and Yoko nine days to get the money together

405
00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 1: December nine, and if John and Yoko didn't do is

406
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:11,440
Speaker 1: the letter instructed, there would be extortion. Is threatened to

407
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:14,359
Speaker 1: kidnap or even kill one of them. Would they go

408
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:18,360
Speaker 1: after John? Yoko sean it was crystal clear that these

409
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 1: people weren't above kidnapping a two year old. John brought

410
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,560
Speaker 1: the letter to the FBI, which he knew was more

411
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:26,800
Speaker 1: than a bit ironic given the fact that he and

412
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:30,440
Speaker 1: the FBI have been mortal enemies just a few years earlier.

413
00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:34,240
Speaker 1: The FEDS agreed to help and tapped John and Yoko's phone,

414
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,359
Speaker 1: again ironic, given that the last time the FEDS tapped

415
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:40,440
Speaker 1: the couple's phone it was to build a case against them.

416
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:46,200
Speaker 1: Undercover agents went to work at the Dakota. The FEDS

417
00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:50,000
Speaker 1: posted armed guards. They arranged to get the requested hundred grand,

418
00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 1: rolled it up in a newspaper, and left it into

419
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 1: the lobby of the Dakota on December nine, As instructed,

420
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 1: the FEDS had enough agents haunting the place that when

421
00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 1: the so called Puerto rican An independence movement came to collect,

422
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,440
Speaker 1: they would be easily tracked and apprehended, and John and

423
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:09,080
Speaker 1: Yoko could put this harrowing experience behind them and stopped

424
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 1: fearing for the life of their taught their son. But

425
00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:15,600
Speaker 1: no one ever came to claim the money. Hours went by.

426
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 1: Soon the FEDS were concerned that the money might be

427
00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:21,320
Speaker 1: accidentally taken by someone else who wasn't even involved in

428
00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:24,840
Speaker 1: the shakedown, so they took the money back and remained vigilant.

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00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:29,040
Speaker 1: Later that night is when Yoko received the call. They

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00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 1: were late, Where was the money? Yoko tried to explain

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00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 1: that the money had been prepared for them as requested,

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00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:37,720
Speaker 1: but seeing as nobody ever picked it up, it took

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00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 1: it back for safe keeping. The caller got impatient. You've

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00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,640
Speaker 1: made a big mistake, he said, right before he hung up.

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00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:46,360
Speaker 1: Yoko hoped in vain that the whole thing would just

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00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:50,360
Speaker 1: go away. It didn't. A week later, another letter arrived

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00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:54,640
Speaker 1: at the Dakota. This particular letter informed John and Yoko

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00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:57,240
Speaker 1: that back on December nine, the day that the money

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00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 1: was due, twenty eight members of the Puerto Rican independ

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00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 1: Pendance movement had surrounded the Dakota Building around eleven in

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00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:05,959
Speaker 1: the evening. They were all armed to ensure they had

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00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,560
Speaker 1: proper backup while they sent in a man to collect

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00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:13,880
Speaker 1: the quote unquote strong package from the lobby, and they

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00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,720
Speaker 1: were expecting an ambush from the police. But of course

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00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 1: there was no ambush, and there was also no strong

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00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:24,120
Speaker 1: package of money. The Puerto Rican Independence movement were disappointed

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00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 1: in the wealthy celebrities they were trying to extort, and

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00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 1: they told John and yokos so and the letters that followed.

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00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:34,719
Speaker 1: The FBI continued their surveillance. Nothing out of the ordinary happened,

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00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,720
Speaker 1: and they ran latent prints from the envelopes and paper

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00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:41,800
Speaker 1: in their lab no matches. As weeks turned into months

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00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 1: and the letters and phone calls stopped, the FBI eventually

453
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:47,840
Speaker 1: decided that John and Yoko were no longer in any danger.

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00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:50,960
Speaker 1: The FEDS wondered if there ever was any danger at all.

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00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:53,520
Speaker 1: John and Yoko weren't sure if they should take the

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00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 1: American government's reassurances at face value, seeing as how this

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00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: was the same government that spent an incredible amount of

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00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:04,480
Speaker 1: man hours and taxpayer dollars in the nine seventies trying

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00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:07,800
Speaker 1: to deport a Beatle for promoting peace. So they're feelings

460
00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:11,239
Speaker 1: of true safety came and went. Because this was New

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00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 1: York City, it didn't sleep. Anything went. You could let

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00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 1: your guard down, but you couldn't be too careful. And

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00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:21,200
Speaker 1: if it wasn't the government or terrorists, or a drug

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00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:24,640
Speaker 1: squad or table stealing junkies, it would be something else,

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00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:28,840
Speaker 1: something random, unexpected in a city of seven millions, something

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00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:31,720
Speaker 1: so random and so disruptive that it would leave destruction

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00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:50,240
Speaker 1: in its wake. And Blood on the Tracks. All right, everybody,

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00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:52,560
Speaker 1: thanks for listening to Blood on the Tracks. If you

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00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:54,680
Speaker 1: like what you hear, be sure to find and follow

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00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:58,000
Speaker 1: Blood on the Tracks on Apple podcast, I Heart Radio, app,

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00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:01,320
Speaker 1: Amazon Music, or wherever you get with podcasts. On this

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00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:03,920
Speaker 1: season two of Blood on the Tracks, we'll be releasing

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00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,160
Speaker 1: ten episodes on the Incredible life of John Lennon, with

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00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:10,280
Speaker 1: a new episode every Thursday. You can also binge all

475
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: ten episodes of season one on the insane story of

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00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:17,240
Speaker 1: the notorious record producer Phil Spector right now. It's available

477
00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:20,120
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast. This episode of Blood on

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00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 1: the Tracks was written by Zeth Lundie and hosted an

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00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:26,520
Speaker 1: executive produced by me Jake Brennan, also executive produced by

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00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:30,120
Speaker 1: Brady sab Story and copy editing by Pat Heally. This

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00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 1: episode was mixed by Colin Fleming. Additional music and score

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00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:37,480
Speaker 1: elements by Ryan Spreaker. This episode featured Mikayla Whit as

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00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 1: Yoko Ower. Blood on the Tracks is produced by Double

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00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:43,560
Speaker 1: Elvis and partnership with I Heart Radio. Sources for this

485
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: episode are available at Double Elvis dot com on the

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00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:49,160
Speaker 1: Blood on the Tracks series page. If you want to

487
00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 1: chat about this show or hear more about the other

488
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:54,240
Speaker 1: shows we're making it Double Elvis, tap in on Instagram

489
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:57,720
Speaker 1: at double Elvis, on Twitter at Double Elvis FM, and

490
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,480
Speaker 1: now on Twitch, where we're streaming three days a week.

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00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:05,040
Speaker 1: At Twitch dot tv slash Double Elvis Podcasts, and finally,

492
00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:08,240
Speaker 1: be sure to check out disgrace Land, the award winning

493
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:11,520
Speaker 1: music and true crime podcast that I also host. Disgrace

494
00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:14,280
Speaker 1: Land is available only on the free Amazon Music app.

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00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:17,480
Speaker 1: To hear tons of insane stories about your favorite musicians

496
00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,160
Speaker 1: getting away with murder and behaving very badly, go to

497
00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 1: Amazon dot com slash disgrace Land, or if you have

498
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: an Echo device, just say Alexa play the Disgrace LAMB Podcast,

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00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:38,960
Speaker 1: rock Alo or Dad