Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi Zarin, Hi, Elizabeth, Hi Zarin.
Speaker 3: What you doing girl?
Speaker 4: I'm just sitting here.
Speaker 3: Nice. So we're both just kind of sitting here reading
Speaker 3: our notes and going over here.
Speaker 4: You're reading notes. I'm just staring at the wall.
Speaker 3: Oh that's what you were doing.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I thought you're, like, you know, pontificating standby mode. Yeah,
Speaker 6: one stands.
Speaker 4: How are you?
Speaker 3: I'm dude, girl, I'm feeling good.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: How about your neighborhood?
Speaker 3: Completely? I'm over here. I'm eating good.
Speaker 4: It's good eating over here. I'm good.
Speaker 3: In case you're wondering, I did ask.
Speaker 4: I know. Do you want to know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: I do, well, Elizabeth. But let me tell you what's ridiculous.
Speaker 6: Have you ever heard about like a kid getting on
Speaker 6: the Alexa and then ordering stuff that they want? Yes, So,
Speaker 6: like there's this one kid in Texas who I guess
Speaker 6: they've went on Alexa or they talked to Alexa and
Speaker 6: they ordered a one hundred and sixty dollars dollhouse and four
Speaker 6: pounds of sugar cookies. And there was another six year old.
Speaker 6: Apparently there's just six year olds who do this yeah,
Speaker 6: in Utah, and they ordered three hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 6: of barbies and then a toy pony from their mom's
Speaker 6: Alexi account. But it's funny when kids do it. But
Speaker 6: what if it's your pet parrot. No, there's this woman
Speaker 6: Mary and Wishnowski, right, and she was a volunteer who
Speaker 6: was like working with National Animal Welfare Trust in the UK,
Speaker 6: and she re homed this parrot and she didn't know
Speaker 6: that the parrot was apparently just kind of kicky with
Speaker 6: the devices, because the parrot started talking to Alexa when
Speaker 6: the family was gone and ordering stuff No, and I
Speaker 6: was so curious, I'm like, what does a parrot want
Speaker 6: to order? Well, it turns out that they were ordering watermelon, raisins,
Speaker 6: ice cream, strawberries, broccoli.
Speaker 3: Cigarettes, no.
Speaker 6: And occasionally they'd come home and the parrot would just
Speaker 6: be chilling with romantic music that they I thought, that's amazing,
Speaker 6: Alexa play my romantic playlist.
Speaker 3: So there you go. Now we know what Polly wants.
Speaker 3: He's not a cracker.
Speaker 4: It's not a cracker, it's it's Alexa.
Speaker 3: So they ain't got ridiculous.
Speaker 4: That is ridiculous. Do you want to know what else
Speaker 4: is ridiculous. Hundreds of thousands of queludes. Dude, this is
Speaker 4: Ridiculous crime. A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists
Speaker 4: and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and
Speaker 4: one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Oh you damn right.
Speaker 4: That's right. I am my good dude. I know you
Speaker 4: love mafia stories.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. They're like bedtime stories to me.
Speaker 4: Italian Mob, Irish mob, Jewish mob, Chinese mob, Japanese New York, Boston, Philly,
Speaker 4: Rhode Island, Chicago, San Francisco, Vegas, La Language, all of it.
Speaker 4: I mean we both romanticize it, yes, And there's a
Speaker 4: lot of violence and destruction and loss.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 4: And at the same time there are fabulous characters and
Speaker 4: an interesting culture.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're talking about an abstract.
Speaker 4: They're great stories and they do like they do, ridiculous things.
Speaker 3: Oh god.
Speaker 4: That So let's start with a guy. I got a guy. Guy,
Speaker 4: I know a guy, Raymond long John Marchroano.
Speaker 3: He already got me going, long John.
Speaker 4: He was born Ignazio Raymond Anthony Marchrano in nineteen twenty
Speaker 4: seven in Sicily, Sichilia, So he real Oh yeah. When
Speaker 4: he was in his early twenties, he moved from Italy
Speaker 4: to Philadelphia, South Philly, to be specific, Hugetai in American neighborhood. There,
Speaker 4: he wasted no time getting into trouble. Between nineteen fifty
Speaker 4: and nineteen fifty five, he got busted five different times
Speaker 4: for drugs or illegal liquor dealing. And then you know,
Speaker 4: at first they give him probation. They're like, oh, this
Speaker 4: poor immigrant, he doesn't know up from down. Okay, but
Speaker 4: you do bad things enough and they start stiffening the sentence.
Speaker 3: Well, the cop started believing a story about you you've
Speaker 3: given them.
Speaker 4: Well, he's telling a good story about himself. Pretty soon
Speaker 4: he'd earned himself five years behind bars. Yeah. So by
Speaker 4: the sixties, Long John and his brother they're running a
Speaker 4: vending machine company and like the company was like pretty
Speaker 4: much legit, which made for a good front. So then
Speaker 4: Long John got another gig, this time driving for a
Speaker 4: guy named Angelo Bruno aka the Dustcile Done. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: I should mention that Bruno was the boss of a
Speaker 4: Philladelphia crime fan. Yeah. So long John is officially inside
Speaker 4: the tent with my dad.
Speaker 3: He's tell me great stories about Angela Brune.
Speaker 4: Okay, So he Long John starts as a driver, works
Speaker 4: his way up. Classic American success story. I love America, right.
Speaker 4: I was going to tell a story about making my
Speaker 4: friend Peter pants in a movie theater by yelling something
Speaker 4: about America during the previews back in college, But never mind. Anyway,
Speaker 4: Long John, So he evolved, He grew pretty soon he
Speaker 4: was running gambling operations, and then he became a lone
Speaker 4: shark all for the mob, of course, and he was
Speaker 4: bringing in serious coin. So he pulled all this stuff
Speaker 4: almost never got arrested, and they loved that. Like, if
Speaker 4: there's something the mob loves, it's not getting arrested.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you're not getting pinched. It means you're smart
Speaker 3: or you're bribing the right people there.
Speaker 4: They love it, and so that's what they look for
Speaker 4: in a employee, like I'm sorry, an associate. They should
Speaker 4: do it all Disney style and call them cast members.
Speaker 3: Like that.
Speaker 4: So long John he goes higher and higher in the organization,
Speaker 4: and like, keep that up and you'll be a chief imagineer.
Speaker 4: Ma BLI. Long John. He did the Donna solid gave
Speaker 4: him a job.
Speaker 3: He gave the Dona job.
Speaker 4: At least on paper. He made Bruno an employee of
Speaker 4: the vending machine business that he had with his brother.
Speaker 5: Job.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so he's on commission as a salesman. He's pulling
Speaker 4: in fifty thousand dollars a year. That's not bad in
Speaker 4: the seventies, legit, and so it's not bad for today,
Speaker 4: depending where you live. So this is a good move,
Speaker 4: Like it puts long John on the boss's good side.
Speaker 4: He's protected now the boss has legit income as far
Speaker 4: as the government's.
Speaker 3: Concerned, is laundered to money.
Speaker 4: Yes, I told you we're in the seventies. Now. By
Speaker 4: the end of the decade, Long John is one of
Speaker 4: the most successful methamphetamine dealers in this city.
Speaker 2: Damn so good.
Speaker 4: So he's so good at it. He had that on
Speaker 4: a certificate on his wall in his office in the
Speaker 4: vending machine company. Dealer, best speed dealer around. It's kind
Speaker 4: of like Captain Olivia Benson's Woman of the Year award
Speaker 4: on Law and Order SVU. You and I refer to
Speaker 4: it as the Woman Award for being a woman.
Speaker 3: Of the Year.
Speaker 4: We maybe talk about that show a little too much, possibly,
Speaker 4: but someone has to delve into an analysis of her.
Speaker 4: David Koresh Glasses The.
Speaker 3: New Ones what does she what is she doing.
Speaker 4: With blue tinted their like transition and it's not you
Speaker 4: can't tell are they reading glasses or distance because sometimes
Speaker 4: she wears them, or are they you know, buyfocals?
Speaker 3: Yeah, where'd you get those wac Awayfair specials?
Speaker 4: Olivia? What's going on anyway? Long John? So in the
Speaker 4: Philly mob drug dealing? Big no no?
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, that was surprised when you said the meth.
Speaker 4: And it's said there right in the employee manual, it
Speaker 4: says it exactly. But Bruno is like, you know, I
Speaker 4: don't I don't know what you're talking about. He acts
Speaker 4: like he doesn't know, you know, blind eye.
Speaker 3: This is like coffee and the teacher's lounge.
Speaker 5: What is it?
Speaker 4: Where are we? Who are we?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 4: Bruno is not going to say anything because he's taken
Speaker 4: a little cream off the top on that one. Why
Speaker 4: would he stop that? So in nineteen seventy nine, a
Speaker 4: buddy of Long John's was arrested by the dea down
Speaker 4: Floridaway who now, yeah, he was dealing both coke and
Speaker 4: wait for it, queludes.
Speaker 3: Oh, I thought you're gonna say marijuana.
Speaker 4: No no, no, So this was bad, yeah, not just
Speaker 4: because drugs are bad and no one should do coke
Speaker 4: or the ghost of kualudes past. Can we talk about
Speaker 4: how the double a, by the way in kueludes just
Speaker 4: like hits the nail on the head. Well, it makes
Speaker 4: you want to say it slow, like you're on kululudes.
Speaker 4: What's the double A about?
Speaker 3: Branding? I don't know. I don't even know what the
Speaker 3: actual non street name of.
Speaker 4: Like methaqualone or something like that.
Speaker 2: I think you're right, that sounds familiar anyway.
Speaker 4: So this was bad because it meant the cops were
Speaker 4: closing in. Okay, see Long John, he's also slang and
Speaker 4: he was moving stuff that was even.
Speaker 3: Worse speed, and he's the big fish to flip on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he was making hundreds of millions of dollars
Speaker 4: doing this like mass quantity.
Speaker 3: Wow, he was feeding the wonder.
Speaker 4: Bruno was like, yeah, I'm gonna pretend like I didn't
Speaker 4: see that. But he's got his hand out behind his back.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of one percent action around his time,
Speaker 4: which I'm gonna skip, okay, but I won't skip this
Speaker 4: one percent action. In nineteen eighty two, Long John was
Speaker 4: indicted for his drug operation. He made bail. While awaiting trial,
Speaker 4: he met up with the guys from the Pagan's motorcycle club.
Speaker 4: That's what I mean by one percent outlaw bikers.
Speaker 3: Oh you flipped it. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So he told the Pagans, He's like, hey, guys, want
Speaker 4: to meet up, you know, like cool bar. And they
Speaker 4: go there and he's like, he's like please, do they
Speaker 4: have paps. He's like, I have bad news.
Speaker 2: They're like what.
Speaker 3: What what's the bad news, bro?
Speaker 4: He's like, there's a street tax being put on you
Speaker 4: by Nicodemo Dominico Scarfo senor aka Little Nikki aka Nikki Scarfo.
Speaker 4: He's the new boss of the Philly crime family after
Speaker 4: the one percent passing of Angelo Bruno. So the Pagans
Speaker 4: they're not happy.
Speaker 3: Right, roof nails and so forth.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're not. The Pagan's like, what do you mean
Speaker 4: the street te Nikki Scarfo is putting a street tax
Speaker 4: on us.
Speaker 3: They're mad.
Speaker 4: They take it out on the messenger. They kidnapped Long
Speaker 4: John's son.
Speaker 2: Oh George, Oh, they.
Speaker 4: Put a vest full of TNT on him.
Speaker 2: What George is like thirty.
Speaker 4: Two at the time. By the way, like that changes
Speaker 4: the image of your head totally. It's not an eight
Speaker 4: year old sitting there.
Speaker 3: It's a grown man.
Speaker 4: But don't don't worry. Long John paid them ten grand
Speaker 4: and they let George go and he was able to
Speaker 4: get rid of the street tax.
Speaker 3: I bet he did.
Speaker 4: But then things changed from Long John. May nineteen eighty two,
Speaker 4: he was convicted, sentenced to ten years on those drug charges. Man,
Speaker 4: and while he was inside.
Speaker 3: So hard for them they were.
Speaker 4: He's inside, he made a partnership with the guys from
Speaker 4: the Black Mafia, specifically Lonnie Dawson and Nudie Mims, and
Speaker 4: they're all locked up together, and Long John he still
Speaker 4: had all his ties to the outside, so he was like,
Speaker 4: I'll help you run your enormous heroin distribution network. Let's
Speaker 4: be cast members together in this.
Speaker 3: So this is a dream jail house deal that has
Speaker 3: outside jail re percussions.
Speaker 4: Yes, So Dawson met with Afghan heroin smugglers like pretty
Speaker 4: often while he was inside. That must have been amazing.
Speaker 3: Visitor days.
Speaker 4: He is meeting the inmate, Moon is here to see
Speaker 4: He's like, I'll be right out, that's fine.
Speaker 3: Visiting day.
Speaker 4: On FBI wiretaps Mims and Dawson, they're both recorded saying
Speaker 4: that they could sell four hundred thousand dollars worth of
Speaker 4: heroin per month a month. That's almost one point four
Speaker 4: million a month today.
Speaker 3: And they're saying this over the phone and visiting.
Speaker 4: They're like, so, what's going on with you? I don't
Speaker 4: know four They're like, still dragging. So the rest of
Speaker 4: Long John's story is interesting, but bloody and not what
Speaker 4: I wanted to tell you about today. I want to
Speaker 4: go back to George. George is the sun.
Speaker 3: Let's back it up.
Speaker 4: I want to talk about him. George mar Toronto born
Speaker 4: in teen fifty and he earned himself a nickname later on,
Speaker 4: Cowboy George.
Speaker 3: What cowboy by George?
Speaker 4: Cowboy George got a children's show because he was a
Speaker 4: real cowboy. He was a tree top flyer.
Speaker 3: Let the Stugglers blues.
Speaker 4: And I'm gonna honor his nickname. That's his choice, that's
Speaker 4: his life, Pat Sure, Cowboy George.
Speaker 3: So his dad cowboy up.
Speaker 4: It was a gangster, as we know, George didn't know
Speaker 4: that growing up. Yes, yes, I wonder if he had
Speaker 4: a meadow soprano moment like are you and the mob?
Speaker 4: He's like his dad's just like seething, driving like I'm
Speaker 4: gonna go strangle someone later. So he's in the dark,
Speaker 4: which is good, I suppose.
Speaker 3: Probably if you're raise kids.
Speaker 4: George like he claims, like, I didn't know my dad
Speaker 4: was a the mafia. And according to him, he learned
Speaker 4: more about the criming life and Omerta and family from
Speaker 4: his godfather. Angelo Bruno was the actual godfather. So when
Speaker 4: George was ten, he had his own business. He sold
Speaker 4: pony rides when the weather was nice. Yeah, so he
Speaker 4: either owned a pony, or he borrowed one or stole one.
Speaker 4: But like pony rides, nonetheless pile.
Speaker 3: He's got his own little pony.
Speaker 4: It's all coming together. Yeah, And so he's like, kids,
Speaker 4: it's the sun is shining, it's a beautiful day. Get
Speaker 4: on his horse. Five dollars. And as he told Philly Blunt,
Speaker 4: as he got older, he got quote more mischievous. He
Speaker 4: and his friends they'd go to buildings that had recently
Speaker 4: had fires and they'd steal the copper and resell it. Oh,
Speaker 4: I mean his dad sold meths. So it tracks.
Speaker 2: Sure, methy because but he's a kid.
Speaker 3: It's still a kid.
Speaker 4: But by the early eighties, so now we've jumped forward.
Speaker 4: By the early eighties, while his dad he's worn a
Speaker 4: T and T vest. At this time, his dad is
Speaker 4: looking down the barrel of a prison sentence for drug distribution.
Speaker 4: George is selling weed in Philadelphia. Okay, now, if you
Speaker 4: ask him, he sold only weed.
Speaker 3: He's in his thirties selling weed and.
Speaker 4: Sell nothing else. No meth, no coke, no snapple, no
Speaker 4: plastic wrap, costco, poppy seed muffins. And he said he
Speaker 4: only did it for three years.
Speaker 3: Get off his.
Speaker 4: Back, man, He only did it for three years.
Speaker 3: Zaren never hurt nobody, No, no one's ever on weed.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: He also says he was never part of the mafia.
Speaker 4: And he also says that it was the government who
Speaker 4: sold him the weed that he would later sell.
Speaker 3: Knowingly. That was like the government came to was like,
Speaker 3: hey man.
Speaker 4: Yes, you know what makes you think Zara, Yeah, clearly
Speaker 4: makes me think anyway.
Speaker 3: So it was this America too, right the eighties.
Speaker 4: It was father son time in the correctional system because
Speaker 4: while his father was locked up and shot calling a
Speaker 4: heroin empire with a black mafia, George was on a
Speaker 4: collision course with the authorities. Yes, the FBI said it.
Speaker 4: Quote videotaped Martinaro conspiring in a hotel room to distribute
Speaker 4: mass quantities of heroin with the black mafia in North Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: He was in the wrong room at the wrong time.
Speaker 4: That's right, Okay, So it was George who was long
Speaker 4: John's connection to the outside. He's like, you want to
Speaker 4: sling h. I got a kid. He likes selling things.
Speaker 4: He likes horse You can just see that the street
Speaker 4: line who it's your energy is just seeping in me.
Speaker 4: Nineteen eighty two, George gets busted. The FBI took him
Speaker 4: down at a quote North Miami hotel and charged him
Speaker 4: with shipping a truckload of cannabis to Philadelphia. His argument, quote,
Speaker 4: it was only twenty six hundred pounds a weed, and
Speaker 4: I wasn't even there. Only twenty six hundred pounds. That's
Speaker 4: all in his mind. Serenh. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: What's some big amount.
Speaker 4: I mean is like how many horses is that? How
Speaker 4: many elephants is I don't know. On September nineteenth.
Speaker 3: Nineteen one in a third pound or so, let me
Speaker 3: come on one third ton.
Speaker 4: September nineteenth, nineteen eighty three, federal grand jury handed out
Speaker 4: an indictment accusing George of distributing cocaine, meth quelus.
Speaker 3: Just named drugs to marijuana.
Speaker 4: Two FBI agents went under cover, one posed as a
Speaker 4: pilot and another as a lawyer, and they wormed their
Speaker 4: way into his drug ring. They're probably like, hey, we're
Speaker 4: just looking for ludes, man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we can do runs for you. Man, I gotta play.
Speaker 4: So it wasn't just weed, No, he had clearly so.
Speaker 4: According to the Philadelphia Daily News quote, in the course
Speaker 4: of the investigation, undercover federal agents had purchased or seized
Speaker 4: two kilograms of heroin. Okay, you know tequilas sure, thousands
Speaker 4: of pounds of marijuana. Yeah, so his personal stash three
Speaker 4: hundred and forty thousand counterfeit.
Speaker 2: Kualudes, three hundred forty thousand, one.
Speaker 4: Hundred and twenty five grand in cash, six cars and
Speaker 4: three trucks, not even legit qualuds. Fake kualuds?
Speaker 3: What kind of fake ludes? I don't know, Like I mean,
Speaker 3: like I'm saying, it's.
Speaker 4: Like like SERTs breath, That's what I.
Speaker 3: Mean, Like sugar pills or will they get you high?
Speaker 3: Just not The way you want.
Speaker 4: To say is to say, I'll have to try and
Speaker 4: what and tell you.
Speaker 3: Because that's a lot to sell if it's fake. I mean,
Speaker 3: like the dealer's trying to push it. Someone's gonna run.
Speaker 4: And forty thousand qualuds. So the yearly haul for George's
Speaker 4: crew was well into.
Speaker 3: The millions, if this seems like it.
Speaker 4: And the indictment charged that he had supervised, you know,
Speaker 4: all these people in his drug empire. He's big boss
Speaker 4: making big boss money. So what was the evidence? One
Speaker 4: hundred and six tape recording conversations, the cash, the marijuana,
Speaker 4: the heroine, all those fake kuludes. According to the Philly
Speaker 4: Daily News quote, the operation was so vast. The federal
Speaker 4: authorities said that Martinaro had two airplanes operating out of
Speaker 4: his Hastings, Florida airstrip to carry in quantities of cocaine
Speaker 4: from Jamaica and South American points. And the prosecution was like,
Speaker 4: how about you set bail at five million. Yeah, let's
Speaker 4: take a break. When we come back, we're going to
Speaker 4: court Zarin, all right. When we left off, the prosecution in.
Speaker 2: The case of George, Cowboy George.
Speaker 4: Cowboy George, they wanted bail at five million.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And the Philadelphia Daily News observed quote in his argument
Speaker 4: for the huge bail Paccini. The d said that Martinaro
Speaker 4: had indicated to the undercover FBI agents that he would
Speaker 4: flee the country if indicted on serious charges. In fact,
Speaker 4: he told the FBI agent who posed as the pilot
Speaker 4: that he the pilot, was the key to his escape
Speaker 4: plan because he gave Marchinaro the ability to fly quickly
Speaker 4: out of the country.
Speaker 3: Here, my god.
Speaker 4: Yeah, here's a tip for bad guys. Don't share your
Speaker 4: plans like in fact, you don't always have to say something.
Speaker 3: And also have multiple plans.
Speaker 4: That's just good advice. In general. You can just keep quiet.
Speaker 4: Do you know someone who just can't help but talk
Speaker 4: in any situation?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, plenty me.
Speaker 4: So don't and don't I tell myself, don't. Do you
Speaker 4: know who also got arrested when George did? No, Okay,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell you. Do you want to know?
Speaker 5: I do want to know?
Speaker 3: This is my expectant face.
Speaker 4: Okay, cool fella by the name of Kevin Rankin. So,
Speaker 4: Kevin Rankin had two jobs. He was the frontman for
Speaker 4: the drug operation. He was also George's lawyer brother who really, so, now,
Speaker 4: who's going to get George out of jail? His lawyers
Speaker 4: sitting next to him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, this is like Sean Penn and Donny Brasco. Right,
Speaker 6: it's like you got the lawyer who's doing the crimes.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Now, Rankin had another concern. He had just opened a
Speaker 4: restaurant and the authorities wanted to seize it.
Speaker 3: No, my restaurant, my dream.
Speaker 4: The best part about that the name of the restaurant.
Speaker 2: What's the name of the restaurant, titty winks.
Speaker 3: It's a strip club restaurant.
Speaker 4: No, it was okay, So I looked it up and like,
Speaker 4: Tittywinks is an alternative name for Titley Winks. You know
Speaker 4: the game?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got that part.
Speaker 4: You ever play it? Or were you not born in
Speaker 4: the olden days?
Speaker 3: I wasn't born in the same olden day as you.
Speaker 4: Were, say, titty Winks. The restaurant was on Sansum around
Speaker 4: South sixteenth Street in Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: Way, don't go fast, I'm writing this down.
Speaker 5: Go on.
Speaker 4: And I became obsessed with finding out more about the
Speaker 4: restaurant because it was only mentioned like in passing in
Speaker 4: a newspaper article. Like yeah, like my radar went up,
Speaker 4: So of course I went to Google street View. I
Speaker 4: mean the restaurant's long gone, but I wanted to get
Speaker 4: a sense of the area having never been to Philadelphia.
Speaker 4: It looks a lot like downtown San Francisco there, and
Speaker 4: not just because the name of the street is Sandsum
Speaker 4: like in San Francisco. So anyway, Sansum on about half
Speaker 4: a block either side of sixteenth is like pretty cool looking,
Speaker 4: you know, lots of restaurants and bars. Like I get
Speaker 4: the sense it was a nice neighborhood and then it
Speaker 4: got gritty, and then it got gentrified as all get out.
Speaker 4: Like there's yoga studios and oyster barshizza places and like
Speaker 4: a guitar shop, pilates and dumplings. And you can tell
Speaker 4: by the fonts that the businesses used that things aren't
Speaker 4: cheap inside, you know what I mean. But the buildings
Speaker 4: look super cool, like not modern lots of brick anyway
Speaker 4: that there's.
Speaker 3: Like one word plus sign one word you're spending a lot.
Speaker 4: Yes, And if they went the extra mile and hired
Speaker 4: like a paint sign company to like use gold leaf.
Speaker 3: Paint on the window, yeah, now paying the rest.
Speaker 4: I can't afford it. So then I was like, you
Speaker 4: know who I need to talk to newspapers dot Com,
Speaker 4: which never disappoints. Give me a sponsorship. I love you
Speaker 4: so much so. This is from the Tuesday, September thirteenth,
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty three edition of the Philadelphia Daily News. There's
Speaker 4: this columnist, Larry Fields, and he wrote next to a
Speaker 4: very large photo of Debbie Reynolds, provided for another item
Speaker 4: in his piece and totally unrelated to the restaurant.
Speaker 3: But she was.
Speaker 4: Staring at me the whole time I was reading this quote.
Speaker 4: A new restaurant night spot called Tittywinks opening tomorrow at
Speaker 4: seven am. That's right, seven am at sixteen oh five
Speaker 4: Sansom Street. Figures to set our town on its ear
Speaker 4: rear would probably be more accurate. It will feature an
Speaker 4: X rated menu boom that you knew it examples sandwich
Speaker 4: is named between the sheets, the Score, the bush.
Speaker 7: Oh, a soup called Brothel Broth, desserts which are listed
Speaker 7: under Climax, including Queen of Tarts and Huff and Puff.
Speaker 4: In keeping with the heavy ambiance of the new spot,
Speaker 4: ninety nine percent of the Tittiwink staff will be gorgeous
Speaker 4: dolls wearing skimpy costumes, and there will be only one
Speaker 4: token mail in the kitchen. But don't expect me to
Speaker 4: complain of sex discrimination because of the policy. And if
Speaker 4: the staff decides to treat me as a sex object
Speaker 4: when I enter the place, I won't object to that either.
Speaker 2: Larry, Larry, this is.
Speaker 4: A family newspaper. Larry.
Speaker 3: You have to go and you have to order off
Speaker 3: a menu. You have to blush every time you try
Speaker 3: to say your order. The bush es to bush for
Speaker 3: this table. Horrible, This is horrible on my bush.
Speaker 4: Gorgeous dolls, Tittywinks, Yeah, it's not like I thought. Well,
Speaker 4: maybe it's like a penny farthing old timey.
Speaker 3: No, you haven't hung out with as many dirtbags as
Speaker 3: I have.
Speaker 4: No, So, Tittywinks is now that location is now the
Speaker 4: Philadelphia Chutney Company.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 4: It's a big space. It's a lot of chutney, every.
Speaker 3: Kind of chutt not cheap chutney.
Speaker 4: Probably not so less than ten days later after Larry's
Speaker 4: just gushing about the hubba hubba of it all.
Speaker 3: And speculating and what kind of a sex object you.
Speaker 4: Would be, And I swear to God, go on there,
Speaker 4: find this column and look at Larry's picture, and then
Speaker 4: you're just like Larry ain't nobody going to whatever? Okay?
Speaker 4: So ten days after Larry's column, the papers were reporting
Speaker 4: that Rankin was George's front man and that Tittywinks was
Speaker 4: used to launder drug money. Ten days days after it opened,
Speaker 4: George hired Robert Simone Esquire to be his trial counsel.
Speaker 4: In Simone's two thousand and seven obituary by the Philadelphia Inquirer,
Speaker 4: they described him as quote a criminal defense lawyer whose
Speaker 4: client list was a cross between guys and dolls and goodfellas.
Speaker 4: He was Nicky Scarfs lawyer Pale, they were pals.
Speaker 3: It seems like he's a mob lawyer. But the guys
Speaker 3: in dolls part like that's supposed to conjure up, like
Speaker 3: Nathan Detroit and Sky Masterson, and like dancers, like a.
Speaker 4: Lot of dancers. The staff of Titty Winks. That's yeah, So,
Speaker 4: I mean that's all.
Speaker 3: They have a floor show.
Speaker 4: You know, they probably had some sort of routine, sure,
Speaker 4: but don't forget they're also laundering the money.
Speaker 3: Happy birthday to you.
Speaker 4: You know who's working in the back, Furyo making Matzarell.
Speaker 4: That's what's going on in there. Oh yeah, they have
Speaker 4: like a whole birthday thing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's like DGI Fridays, they'll come out and exactly.
Speaker 4: So you know, this is great. Now he's got this
Speaker 4: new lawyer. But there's a little snag.
Speaker 3: See before a restaurant review.
Speaker 4: Well, no, it's it's worse than that. Before the date
Speaker 4: that was set for George's trial, his lawyer, Bobby Simone
Speaker 4: got busted. He was indicted on tax evasion charges according
Speaker 4: to the Feds themselves quote. As a result of Simone's indictment,
Speaker 4: the district Judge Hannam held a hearing on March fifteenth,
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty four, at which he advised Martinaro that his
Speaker 4: counsel had been indicted and that consequently a conflict of
Speaker 4: interest might arise between Martinaro and Simone. During the course
Speaker 4: of Martinaro's trial, Judge Hannam asked Martenaro thirteen questions, which
Speaker 4: explored virtually every aspect of a conflict of interest. In
Speaker 4: response to these questions, Martinaro indicated that he understood the
Speaker 4: risks inherent in continued representation by Simone, but stated that
Speaker 4: he wished for Simone to continue to represent him, thus
Speaker 4: waiving the question of a conflict of interest.
Speaker 2: He's my counselor and my co defendants family.
Speaker 4: That's loyalty. But I guess when George and his lawyer
Speaker 4: waited all out, they realized trial was going to be
Speaker 4: an uphill battle. Yes, So on June fourth, nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 4: George pled guilty.
Speaker 2: Cowboy George correct, Cowboy.
Speaker 4: George guilty of distribution of vast mountains of cocaine, meth amphetamine, marijuana,
Speaker 4: wait for its Oh, and then there was also that
Speaker 4: heroin buying with intent to distribute. There is that nineteen
Speaker 4: counts in all. George later said that he only pleaded
Speaker 4: guilty because he believed that his lawyer, Bobby Simone, had
Speaker 4: worked it out with the judge that George would only
Speaker 4: get the minimum sentence forty to fifty months. No, the
Speaker 4: judge slapped him with life in prison without the possibility
Speaker 4: of parole.
Speaker 3: Damn right, you don't see that coming.
Speaker 4: No, Now, drugs are very bad, But George was a
Speaker 4: nonviolent offender, according to georgemartinaro dot com. Course, Martinaro's life
Speaker 4: sentence drew widespread criticism. Many questioned how a first time
Speaker 4: non violent offender could receive such a severe punishment, especially
Speaker 4: since much of the case revolved around marijuana. His defense
Speaker 4: team argued that he had been set up during an
Speaker 4: arrow when the federal government was cracking down on drug
Speaker 4: related crimes and organized crime. There's no doubt he was
Speaker 4: big in the weed business, his lawyer stated, But that
Speaker 4: doesn't warrant spending half your life in prison for something
Speaker 4: you did when you were young.
Speaker 6: It feels like either they wanted a headline for like
Speaker 6: these just say no era, or like a senator's son
Speaker 6: died of heroin and somebody wanted, oh, you're going.
Speaker 4: To find out. You're going to find out why. So
Speaker 4: it wasn't just to punish for and it wasn't It
Speaker 4: wasn't all the for the drugs or the mob or
Speaker 4: like you're saying, like someone you know. Yeah, they wanted
Speaker 4: to squeeze intel out of him about the mob because
Speaker 4: like his dad's pretty high up. But George wasn't having it.
Speaker 4: He knew nothing about nothing. He said. Quote they thought
Speaker 4: I had secrets of the Philly mob. I don't know.
Speaker 4: I was just the weed guy. I was just the
Speaker 4: weed guy. But here's so. George said that the judge
Speaker 4: wanted him to become an informant snitch on his dad
Speaker 4: and the whole mob. Nick Nope, And then the federal prosecutor,
Speaker 4: you know, was like, no, he's trying to reconstruct history.
Speaker 3: Quote.
Speaker 4: It was much more than marijuana. That's the federal prosecutor
Speaker 4: who's now legal counsel at Deloitte. Uh yeah, Paccini quote,
Speaker 4: and the evidence supported it. We never had a case
Speaker 4: with the evidence as strong as that one. We had
Speaker 4: hours and hours of tape. So George appealed the over
Speaker 4: and over.
Speaker 2: So he had a bunch of reasons.
Speaker 4: First, his council stated that, quote, the district judge abused
Speaker 4: his discretion not recusing himself because of the alleged appearance
Speaker 4: of impropriety given by the district judges. Having testified after
Speaker 4: Martinuro's initial sentencing at the tax evasion trial of Martinuro's
Speaker 4: then counsel Bobby Simone, Hannam was criticized in the media
Speaker 4: for testifying on Simone's behalf, even though his testimony was
Speaker 4: considered innocuous. You heard that, right, So the judge in
Speaker 4: the case testified on behalf of George's crooked lawyer at
Speaker 4: said lawyer's tax evasion. Well, the theory was that then
Speaker 4: Hannam went overboard with George, so it wouldn't look like
Speaker 4: some sort of favoritism. Okay, that's why Hannam denied all
Speaker 4: those motions to recuse himself from the case. Another point
Speaker 4: that Martineau raised in a bunch of his various appeals.
Speaker 4: The judge was like, there's no basis for me recusing myself.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to do it. And then there's another
Speaker 4: reason why he filed an appeal. He said that he
Speaker 4: said the judge was biased against him because Rankin, the
Speaker 4: Tittywinks guy, had previously accused the judge of quote physically
Speaker 4: assaulting Rankin during Rankin's separate criminal trial. Wait what yeah,
Speaker 4: Rankin said that quote Judge Hannam had struck him, battered him,
Speaker 4: and chased him around the courtroom the courtroom during the
Speaker 4: first trial. These charges gave rise to criminal charges against
Speaker 4: Rankin for making false statements and obstructing justice.
Speaker 3: I was picturing this outside the courthouse. They're walking up
Speaker 3: the steps.
Speaker 4: Maybe they apparently courtroom judge tried to beat him up
Speaker 4: in the courtroom his Tittywinks owner. Yes, Judge Hannam, according
Speaker 4: to court documents, quote, held that a reasonable person could
Speaker 4: not conclude that the reassignment of the ranking case would
Speaker 4: affect his ability to be impartial with respect to Martinarro.
Speaker 3: I want to see the court artist drawing of that scene.
Speaker 4: Oh for real? So okay, so those tactics don't work
Speaker 4: on appeal. How about this one?
Speaker 3: Okay, you got more.
Speaker 4: Yeah, George is just too stupid to have done everything
Speaker 4: you said he did dumb. So that's what Bobby Simone
Speaker 4: puts forward. Yeah, and so the court was like, all right,
Speaker 4: let's do a psychological study. Eight experts testified. The appellate
Speaker 4: judges decided that George was neither mentally deficient nor mentally ill.
Speaker 4: He was just faking it. So it's like good news,
Speaker 4: bad news, You're you're not an idiot. However, you're still
Speaker 4: in jail. Wow, they did those quote show that Martinarro
Speaker 4: suffers even more than the rest of the world from
Speaker 4: the tendency to shape the world into the world of
Speaker 4: his desiring. Yeah. So, while George was in prison, he
Speaker 4: did five of those years in solitary confinement out which
Speaker 4: I think is the definition of cruel and unusual punishment.
Speaker 4: But see, he was at FCI Marion in southern Illinois,
Speaker 4: and Marion was originally built as a maximum security facility
Speaker 4: that would replace Alcatraz. So it opened the year the
Speaker 4: Rock closed.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's like a supermax.
Speaker 4: No, not yet. So right before George got there, there
Speaker 4: were two horrible violent incidences involving the Aryan Brotherhood knives
Speaker 4: and correctional officers, and as a result, the prison went
Speaker 4: into permanent lockdown and became what would later be known
Speaker 4: as a supermass. Okay, And so I mean it had
Speaker 4: like a camp. It had a low minimum security camp.
Speaker 4: All the inmates inside in the yard though, were in
Speaker 4: solitary confinement for twenty three hours a day, everybody. And
Speaker 4: it wasn't until two thousand and six that it was
Speaker 4: downgraded to a medium security prison, partly because they opened
Speaker 4: up before that FCI Florence that became like the major
Speaker 4: mega supermax. Anyway, Others who did time there included John Gottie,
Speaker 4: who also happened to be George's cellmate.
Speaker 3: Wow, they booked them together.
Speaker 4: Thankey Scarfo Carlos later.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah, the my man, Pablo's.
Speaker 4: Guy, the pilot, the pilot, Pete Rose. Yeah, he did
Speaker 4: five months, Gamlie, he did five months at the minimum
Speaker 4: security okay, and then Also, you know who else was
Speaker 4: in there, Garrett brock trap.
Speaker 3: Now I was going to say, I don't want to
Speaker 3: bring it up, but that's where he was when he
Speaker 3: tried to do the flying exactly. He tried to get his
Speaker 3: girlfriend to break out, and it's steal a plane for that.
Speaker 4: Was Marion and anyway, So then there's George, the longest
Speaker 4: serving first time offender for a non violent offense. But
Speaker 4: he made the best of it. When we come back
Speaker 4: from this ad break, i'll tell you how, all right,
Speaker 4: zarenlib When we left off, Yes, George, what's his name?
Speaker 3: Cowboy George?
Speaker 4: Cowboy George had been sentenced to life without the possibility
Speaker 4: of parole.
Speaker 3: Brutal, which is yeah, insane, Yeah.
Speaker 4: And he's a Federal Correctional Institute Marion in Illinois, rough place.
Speaker 4: John Gottie sitting next to him for a while.
Speaker 3: There, twenty three hours a day lockdown.
Speaker 4: But George is a fighter and his daddy didn't raise
Speaker 4: a whimp. He took stock of his situation and he
Speaker 4: decided to make the best of it.
Speaker 3: He's like, what's the pony rides I can offer here?
Speaker 4: He transformed himself. Oh really, He taught yoga okay. He
Speaker 4: developed a course for father in prison that help them
Speaker 4: develop like really meaningful relationships with their kids.
Speaker 3: There's the pony ride yep.
Speaker 4: The federal facility where I taught had that also led
Speaker 4: by an inmate, and it really did make a huge difference.
Speaker 4: Did My students would talk to their kids about homework,
Speaker 4: and they'd tell the kids like, I got it too,
Speaker 4: and college is really hard, but it's interesting and it's fun.
Speaker 4: So when they say, are you doing your homework? Yea,
Speaker 4: you know they have I have to do mine too.
Speaker 4: And the dads and the kids like kind of kept
Speaker 4: each other accountable with that stuff. And they learned how
Speaker 4: to discipline by suggestion and serve as a life lesson
Speaker 4: about choices in post.
Speaker 3: Control expectations instead of their voice right exactly.
Speaker 4: They learned how to be patient, They learned how to
Speaker 4: be vulnerable but still strong for the kids I love.
Speaker 3: In prison is actually rehabilitative, yes exactly.
Speaker 4: It was great, and that's that's what George was doing.
Speaker 4: And he also he put together a course called Release
Speaker 4: Preparations star darting a business for under one thousand dollars,
Speaker 4: and it was described as quote empowering inmates to prepare
Speaker 4: for life after incarceration. That's another huge deal. I once
Speaker 4: had a student give our whole class a lesson on
Speaker 4: how to do just that, and it was fascinating. So
Speaker 4: it was a sort of impromptu where he started talking
Speaker 4: about it, but all of us were just listening. It
Speaker 4: involved a lot of hard work and determination and like
Speaker 4: people skills, but was one hundred percent legal. And then
Speaker 4: there's what gets George into our literary Hall of fame.
Speaker 4: According to George himself quote, George Martinarro not only taught
Speaker 4: yoga to his fellow inmates, but was also considered one
Speaker 4: of the most prolific writers in the federal prison system,
Speaker 4: having authored over thirty one books and numerous short stories, screenplays,
Speaker 4: and poems. George also started a creative writing course, the
Speaker 4: Right to Life Wripailia, which inevitably guided numerous inmates to
Speaker 4: receiving their ged and developing remarkable creative writing skills. While incarcerated,
Speaker 4: Martin Arrow turned to writing as a form of expression
Speaker 4: and rehabilitation. He authored several books, including Chisel My Heart,
Speaker 4: Love and Evil Jailer and Pain Grows A Platinum rose.
Speaker 3: At these romance novels.
Speaker 4: I hope so these works explore themes of love, redemption,
Speaker 4: and the challenges of life behind bars. So George was
Speaker 4: doing good works behind bars and when he was in
Speaker 4: transit too, in transit zerm Yeah, close your eyes, clo,
Speaker 4: I want you to picture it. It's twenty ten. You
Speaker 4: are an inmate at the federal prison in Yankton, South Dakota.
Speaker 4: You're actually from New Jersey, but for some reason they
Speaker 4: put you out in South Dakota. It's a minimum security joint.
Speaker 4: Not bad, but not good. Right now you are in
Speaker 4: either New Jersey nor South Dakota. You're on a plane
Speaker 4: con Air. You're headed from Philadelphia to Oklahoma. You had
Speaker 4: an appeals hearing and you went and you lost. So
Speaker 4: now you're on a plane to the prison transit center
Speaker 4: in Oklahoma. There are a dozen other inmates on the plane,
Speaker 4: plus some US marshals. A couple of you are coming
Speaker 4: back from appeals. The rest are being transferred to other facilities.
Speaker 4: There are two guys behind you who, through whispers, you've
Speaker 4: been told are Somali pirates. You don't know how true
Speaker 4: that is. You had a Somali neighbor back in Camden
Speaker 4: who was super chill, nice guy, cutest kids, so the
Speaker 4: language the guys behind you were speaking sounds vaguely familiar.
Speaker 4: These guys do look terrifying. They have that look in
Speaker 4: their eye. You know that the evil they've seen and
Speaker 4: done is permanently reflecting back out from their pupils, coloring
Speaker 4: all they see and projecting a horrible picture onto the
Speaker 4: world if you know how to see it. The guy
Speaker 4: next to you is like the opposite of those guys.
Speaker 4: You don't go in for wo woo stuff, for hippie garbage,
Speaker 4: but he has some seriously calm and oddly loving energy.
Speaker 4: It's weird, he just radiates it. After the plane takes off,
Speaker 4: the two of you, shackled share some small talk. His
Speaker 4: name is George. He's heading back to FCI Marian. You
Speaker 4: tell him you heard it's brutal there. He tells you
Speaker 4: it is, or rather it can be, but that people
Speaker 4: are so much more powerful than that. He's a handsome guy.
Speaker 4: He wears his gray hair pushed back, his postures amazing.
Speaker 4: You would love to be his friend on the outside,
Speaker 4: and you can't imagine how he wound up inside. But
Speaker 4: despite your curiosity, you don't ask. That would be Goosh.
Speaker 4: One of the men behind you coughs and then mutters something.
Speaker 4: At the same time. Both you and George see movement
Speaker 4: at your feet. Is that a pen, you ask George.
Speaker 4: That would be contraband for sure. George leans down to look,
Speaker 4: and then slowly, surely sits back up and speaks to
Speaker 4: you quietly while facing forward. It's a handcuff key, he whispers.
Speaker 4: They're shuffling behind you as the pirates try to reach
Speaker 4: the key they seem to have dropped. George moves his
Speaker 4: foot over like he's just readjusting and getting comfortable, and
Speaker 4: the sole of his shoe comes down firmly on the
Speaker 4: hand reaching under your seats from behind. The men behind
Speaker 4: you venomously whisper something sharp, but the engine noise drowns
Speaker 4: them out. George speaks to you again. There are protocols
Speaker 4: on these flights, he says, I've lost enough appeals to
Speaker 4: have flown this a couple of times before. If the
Speaker 4: marshals see this, or if those guys get the key,
Speaker 4: the marshals will shoot on site, no questions, and we're
Speaker 4: in the line of fire. I don't want them to
Speaker 4: be killed, and I don't want us to be killed.
Speaker 4: George gently bends down and picks up the key. The
Speaker 4: man behind you whips his hand from under George's foot
Speaker 4: makes a last ditch effort to grab the key.
Speaker 3: No luck.
Speaker 4: Your heart is pounding. If you rose up, The air
Speaker 4: marshals chat and tell stories and laugh. George turns to you.
Speaker 4: I have to get rid of this key, he says.
Speaker 4: It'll be the death of us all. You see him
Speaker 4: scan around, looking at the seats and the aisle in
Speaker 4: any other area. You don't know what he's looking at
Speaker 4: or for. You're just too freaked out. The guy behind
Speaker 4: you shoves your seat. You close your eyes and take
Speaker 4: a deep breath. I have to throw this somewhere. No
Speaker 4: one can get it, he says to you. I only
Speaker 4: have one shot at this, he says. Then you watch
Speaker 4: as he raises his arm and tosses the key. You
Speaker 4: watch it glide through the air, almost in slow motion.
Speaker 4: It clatters on the ground, landing in a groove in
Speaker 4: the floor, two empty rows ahead of you. George raises
Speaker 4: his arm again, and he calls for the air Marshal.
Speaker 4: A man in a blue windbreaker heads your way. The
Speaker 4: pirates are irate, now, swearing and threatening in pointed whispers.
Speaker 4: The Marshal reaches your seats, and George calmly tells them
Speaker 4: you should get your hand cuff key, it's over there
Speaker 4: in that groove in the floor. The whole rear of
Speaker 4: the plane erupts as the Marshal begins shouting and other
Speaker 4: US Marshals head your way. You can hear the panic
Speaker 4: in the Marshall's voice as he shouts orders. The inmates
Speaker 4: yelled back, feeding off his fear and the lack of control.
Speaker 4: Soon all of you, all dozen of you, are duck
Speaker 4: taped to your seats. The Marshall never thanked George, just
Speaker 4: taped him into his seat and his arms pinned to
Speaker 4: his sides. You turn to George, you ask if he's okay.
Speaker 4: I'm taped to a seat, but I'm still alive.
Speaker 3: We all are.
Speaker 4: He says, that's a victory.
Speaker 6: Whoa think he was on a plane where the Marshall
Speaker 6: started firing previously.
Speaker 4: I wonder he knew what they were supposed to do,
Speaker 4: and it was just like he did whatever he could
Speaker 4: to prevent that. When he landed, he was interviewed by
Speaker 4: the FBI. He explained everything. They were satisfied with his story.
Speaker 4: But it's just like another wild time in the life
Speaker 4: of Cowboy George.
Speaker 3: I've expected him to swallow the key.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he just.
Speaker 4: Didn't want anything to do with it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he can't get it to it. Yeah, swallow it.
Speaker 4: That's true. So five years later, in twenty fifteen, George
Speaker 4: got out of prison under compassionate release guidelines. He'd been
Speaker 4: inside for thirty two years.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 4: Thirty two years, according to a prepared statement by the
Speaker 4: US Attorney's Office in explaining their position on his release quote.
Speaker 4: During his thirty two years of incarceration, George Martinaro provided
Speaker 4: exceptional assistance to other inmates in furthering rehabilitation and re
Speaker 4: entry skills, mentoring inmates with significant mental health issues, and
Speaker 4: serving as a suicide watch counselor for troubled and depressed inmates.
Speaker 4: Prison staff praised Martinarro for promoting a culture of nonviolence
Speaker 4: and contributing to a healthy environment within the prison walls.
Speaker 4: Those factors influenced the decision to support his early release.
Speaker 3: To live up to you're nickname, Cowboy Joe.
Speaker 4: Cowboy George, so, according to his profile on the Farmer
Speaker 4: and the Felon Cannabis Company website. Quote. Since his release,
Speaker 4: George has continued in his attempt to better the liize
Speaker 4: of others and is now a motivational speaker as well
Speaker 4: as a cannabis advocate and founder of Hip Hemp Cafe. Now.
Speaker 4: George's mission is to advocate for prison reform and to
Speaker 4: help remove the stigma associated with cannabis. Hey man, I'm
Speaker 4: just the weed guy. Hip Cafe in South Philadelphia has closed.
Speaker 3: It's an unfortunate it is, but I.
Speaker 4: Think it had something to do with Philadelphia enforcing the
Speaker 4: FDA prohibitions and restrictions on CBD in products. I don't know.
Speaker 4: I'm going by Reddit chatter on that one. And you
Speaker 4: know the place got rave yelper views. Really yeah. Now,
Speaker 4: though George has a T shirt brand called the grow Father,
Speaker 4: and he does there's a lot of speaking events like
Speaker 4: Ted Talk type stuff.
Speaker 6: He had a thing he could have like a weed
Speaker 6: brand called Sticky Scarfoe.
Speaker 4: You should send him. There's a contact on his website.
Speaker 4: He he had a thing back in April that we
Speaker 4: sadly missed. It was in Vegas at Don Marco's Pizzeria
Speaker 4: and Winebar. He was there to tell true mob stories
Speaker 4: about when the mob ran Vegas.
Speaker 3: I would have loved I.
Speaker 4: Would one go listen to him talk just about anything told.
Speaker 4: Mob stories are kidding me. So he's a storyteller. Now,
Speaker 4: that's what he does.
Speaker 3: And I wrote thirty one books. I figure he's good
Speaker 3: at it. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I hope he is doing well wherever he is. Oh yeah, Zaren,
Speaker 4: what's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 3: I did not see this story coming at all.
Speaker 4: We've had two redemption stories this week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look at that.
Speaker 6: But also, I mean, like legitimately when you started out
Speaker 6: with the mob story, this one has taken so many
Speaker 6: twists and turns and unexpected like like you know, I
Speaker 6: don't even say escalations of like car sure that it's
Speaker 6: it's really incredible. So I love that, and I love that,
Speaker 6: as I said earlier, that anytime there's a rehabilitative effort
Speaker 6: in a prison and he's the one doing it, like
Speaker 6: helping like you know, people who are on suicide watch
Speaker 6: and mentally challenged. I mean, like I love the person
Speaker 6: he became in such a severe place. Yeah, so it
Speaker 6: shout out to his soul on that one. What's yours, Elizabeth.
Speaker 4: He's someone who takes initiative right now. They can do
Speaker 4: that in a positive or negative way. So he took
Speaker 4: the initiative and had this large drug operation, right, So
Speaker 4: that's the negative. But I mean even as a kid,
Speaker 4: he's making money doing pony rides, right, and he takes
Speaker 4: the initiative when there's like about to be this chaos
Speaker 4: of some guys getting loose on a plane. You know,
Speaker 4: he could have just sat back, but as he rightfully
Speaker 4: pointed out, like there was no way for anyone to
Speaker 4: really survive no matter how that shook out, aside from
Speaker 4: how he did it, or had he swelled keys, I
Speaker 4: don't know, I was just a speculative, but I mean
Speaker 4: like that, you know, it would have gone so bad,
Speaker 4: but he took initiative where others you know, wouldn't have,
Speaker 4: and he takes initiative behind bars, And I just think
Speaker 4: like that's.
Speaker 6: The and he's kind of ballsy about it because like
Speaker 6: I don't imagine the Somali pirates were really pleased with him,
Speaker 6: and he's got to know they may try to come
Speaker 6: after him once they land if they're going to the
Speaker 6: same facility, right, right.
Speaker 4: But I think that like it tells us that we
Speaker 4: have the opportunity to either like be passive or to
Speaker 4: opt in. And you know, I'm kind of always just
Speaker 4: opt in, just you know, take the initiative, do something.
Speaker 4: We talk a lot about people who do that in
Speaker 4: a negative way, but you know, none of us should
Speaker 4: be passive participants in this life.
Speaker 3: Definitely. He also learned to make better choices.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know what I think would top
Speaker 4: this off beautifully.
Speaker 3: What's that Elizabeth of Cherry.
Speaker 4: I talk back?
Speaker 5: Oh oh, oh my god, I would.
Speaker 8: Get Hi everyone, This is Emma from Wisconsin. I just
Speaker 8: finished listening to the Big Boy episode and it reminded
Speaker 8: me of a local crime. You see, several teenagers stole
Speaker 8: a Ronald McDonald's statue. They put it in the back
Speaker 8: of their pickup truck and drove it around town to
Speaker 8: post her pictures with it at different at different locations. Obviously,
Speaker 8: they got caught and had to do a bunch of
Speaker 8: community service. And that's pretty ridiculous.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 4: Those Ronald McDonald's statues are creepy. Any of those kind
Speaker 4: of a fast food statue is just creepy, full stop.
Speaker 3: I've had friends who loved going around taking photos with
Speaker 3: Ronald McDonald, the ones where he seated on the back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, problems, that is asking for trouble him in.
Speaker 3: The pack of a truck. I'd be down pretty good stuff.
Speaker 4: That's us for today. You can find us online at
Speaker 4: ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also at Rediculous Crime on
Speaker 4: both Blue Sky and Instagram. We're on YouTube at Ridiculous
Speaker 4: Crime Pod, Email Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com, and
Speaker 4: as always, please leave us a talkback on the free
Speaker 4: iHeart app Just reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by
Speaker 4: Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by Dawn
Speaker 4: of the Iheartmafia. Dave Cousten. Our Ridiculous Assistant is certified
Speaker 4: Air Marshall Terry Maldonado. Fong Research is by rival Hemp
Speaker 4: Cafe owner Marissa Brown and Philly Health inspector Jabari Davis.
Speaker 4: The theme song is by John Gotti's other cellmate, Thomas
Speaker 4: Lee and guy who bought Kludes that turned out to
Speaker 4: be Pez Travis dutton post wardrobe is provided by Botany
Speaker 4: five hundred producer. Dave Coustin's wardrobe is by mister Guy
Speaker 4: of Beverly Hills. Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and
Speaker 4: mister Andre. Executive producers are Somali Pirates. Ben One and
Speaker 4: the old Brown Ridicous Crime Say it one more Timequious Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
Speaker 1: from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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