Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: E Elizabeth Dutton, Mcgirls, Aaron Burnett. I got a question
Speaker 2: for you. Have been burning as uh huh. You know
Speaker 2: it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3: I do?
Speaker 2: Do you I do? We're just making that face.
Speaker 3: I'm one hundred percent serious. It's ridiculously cool. Oh really yeah,
Speaker 3: our listeners, Yeah, totally sure. So I have two things
Speaker 3: for you today, listener mail. The first is from Summer
Speaker 3: that says, Hi both. I'm a new listener from London, England.
Speaker 3: I'm absolutely loving listening to the show. I'm currently listening
Speaker 3: to The Ocean's ten the Baker Street robbery episode, and
Speaker 3: have more information for you on the emergency circumcision ambulance mentioned.
Speaker 2: At the beginning, Oh thank you, Sommer.
Speaker 3: It was owned by a man called from Josevic, who
Speaker 3: is a Hackney based private circumcisions surgeon. I say that
Speaker 3: eighty five times. Who does home visits?
Speaker 2: He's not a moil, He's not to somebody who does
Speaker 2: the circumcisions culturally, Well, no he does.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I suppose he's an and Hackneys in East London.
Speaker 3: The Audi TT was a private ambulance, so not part
Speaker 3: of our national health service, so you can't call nine
Speaker 3: nine nine our version of nine to one one to
Speaker 3: get a call out. I believe, but can't confirm that
Speaker 3: it services the Shamrim Jews. I'm maybe not saying that
Speaker 3: right Jewish community in London, but don't quote me on that.
Speaker 3: I'll attach the relevant links below. Anyway, I'm loving the show,
Speaker 3: can't wait to hear more. Summer.
Speaker 2: Nice, Thank you.
Speaker 3: I came through with the intel on that, so that
Speaker 3: was ridiculously cool to get an update, a ridiculously cool update.
Speaker 3: And then we heard from Jeremy through Instagram and he said, hey, y'all,
Speaker 3: not sure if you guys already talked about this monstrosity
Speaker 3: on the podcast intro, but if you haven't enjoyed this
Speaker 3: food crime, they were first come, first serve, is what
Speaker 3: he's saying.
Speaker 2: Oh was this a mashup? Did you sneak a mashup?
Speaker 2: Hask me? He gave me all like, oh, listener, Summer's
Speaker 2: got this cool bit of fun fact. And then all
Speaker 2: was by the way, if somebody decided they made an
Speaker 2: edible bagel that you can wear as a shoe.
Speaker 3: Close. So it says they were first come, first serve
Speaker 3: on their Sauccles website late last year, and each box
Speaker 3: got two tongue torchin and two zax sauce flavors. And
Speaker 3: I was quote lucky enough to get a box of them.
Speaker 3: And yes, they were just as horrendous tasting as they look.
Speaker 2: What is sauccles. I don't even know.
Speaker 3: So Zaxby's.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the chicken price in the fast.
Speaker 3: Food place, which is, if I think, is a fancy
Speaker 3: fast food place. Where I lived in the deep rural South,
Speaker 3: you had to drive like an hour to get to
Speaker 3: fancy Zaxby's.
Speaker 2: High class.
Speaker 3: We have Bojangles. So they had saucicles which were popsicles
Speaker 3: that were sauce flavored. Oh god, So it says Zaxby's
Speaker 3: sauce is going where no sauce is gone before freezer.
Speaker 3: Well they're saying that they've gone where no sauce is
Speaker 3: gone before the freezer. Guess what people freeze sauce? Zaxby.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know how people live. And
Speaker 3: it says why because we figured if you'll lick every
Speaker 3: last drop of that legendary sauce off your fingers, you'll
Speaker 3: probably lick every last drip of sauce off a popsicle.
Speaker 3: So what are you waiting for? Get them? Will they're cold?
Speaker 2: I question your reasoning about what I will do, sir.
Speaker 3: Two flavors, yes, tongue torch, a mild garlicly peppery heat,
Speaker 3: just cold. In other words, spice spice baby is what
Speaker 3: it says. And then it also says ice cream. Use
Speaker 3: This is for Zack's sauce, which I suppose is they're
Speaker 3: like house sauce, You know, sauce Somalie draws up ice cream,
Speaker 3: you scream, We all scream for this creamy blend of
Speaker 3: zesty spices.
Speaker 2: Can I be left out of this? Can I be
Speaker 2: left out of the WII? Say?
Speaker 3: The sauce sauccle freezer is empty, so they're not available anymore?
Speaker 2: Oh darn.
Speaker 3: And apparently they were shipping them places, but it says
Speaker 3: here they couldn't ship them to California.
Speaker 2: So is this like the Fall of Rome is the
Speaker 2: weirdest stuff?
Speaker 3: Weird decadent fall of Rome? In this country?
Speaker 2: We were making animals extinct because they're just like, yes,
Speaker 2: I like to eat their tongues.
Speaker 3: Okay, well they're taking out the rare wild zaxonies.
Speaker 2: I can't chicken with eight breasts a saucicle. I didn't
Speaker 2: need to know that way, Thanks, Jeremy oh Man, I
Speaker 2: got I got something for you. You got a second
Speaker 2: I want to get you back. No, this one's fun.
Speaker 2: It's a guy from Omaha, Nebraska, and I thought you did. Yeah,
Speaker 2: his own mother said, quote, he looks like a nerd. Now,
Speaker 2: this guy, he'd given himself the street name mcguiver, So
Speaker 2: you know I love him. Yeah, yeah, So he's basically
Speaker 2: you know. For those who don't know, this story takes
Speaker 2: place in the mid nineties, and mcgiver was an early
Speaker 2: eighties poster boy for Ingenuity under Pressure. Right now, this
Speaker 2: nerdy team from Omaha. He was like, I'm known for
Speaker 2: my improvisational skills, right, but not to like blow up
Speaker 2: cartel speedboats with like a hunk of bubblegum and like
Speaker 2: a double a battery and a paper clip. No, that
Speaker 2: kind of mcguiver. More like I can go to a
Speaker 2: gas station and walk out with cartons of cigarettes mcgiver, Right, Okay,
Speaker 2: whatever you know. Anyway, So this cat, he said, he
Speaker 2: turns to crime, finds he's good at it. He's so
Speaker 2: good he earns himself a new nickname. The James Bond
Speaker 2: of Crime. That's an upgrade, right, totally right, and it
Speaker 2: goes from TV to movies anyway. Supremely fitting because by then,
Speaker 2: at this point the dude was allegedly parachuting onto Austrian
Speaker 2: castles to steal priceless Crown jewels.
Speaker 3: Get out.
Speaker 2: Not bad for a kid from Omaha, huh huh.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and
Speaker 4: outrageous capers.
Speaker 2: Heicce and cons. Yes, it's always nine to nine percent
Speaker 2: moder free and one ridiculous. Elizabeth saren so glad to
Speaker 2: have you here, Thank you, because, oh boy, do I
Speaker 2: have a very special episode of Ridiculous Crime for you.
Speaker 3: Am I going to learn a lot By the time
Speaker 3: it's over, We're all.
Speaker 2: Going to be changed. Yeah. So you hear me say
Speaker 2: this a fair bit a lot. We'll say these are
Speaker 2: my kind of guys, or like, this is my dude,
Speaker 2: this chat I love him, right, But in this instance,
Speaker 2: I'd say all of those are true. This is my
Speaker 2: kind of guy. Oh really, my dude, I love this cat.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: So meet Gerald Blanchard, International Burglar Extraordinaire. He's also the
Speaker 2: star in the focus of a new documentary that's about
Speaker 2: to come out from Hulu called The Jewel Thief. Now,
Speaker 2: the folks from Hula, they reached out to ridiculous Crime,
Speaker 2: and they said to me, you don't open the emails.
Speaker 2: I opened the email, so they sent me an early screen,
Speaker 2: or they would have sent you on if you opened
Speaker 2: your email. But anyway, I watched it. I enjoyed it,
Speaker 2: and I didn't tell you about it. So I'm gonna tell
Speaker 2: you about it now. So I thought i'd tell you
Speaker 2: about my dude, Gerald Blanchard. Now I told you up
Speaker 2: tom dudes from Omaha, Nebraska. That's not exactly true. I've
Speaker 2: already started lying to you. Oh right, you know, so
Speaker 2: history begins earlier than that. He was originally from Canada.
Speaker 3: Oh, like, is he conceived in Canada?
Speaker 2: No? No, he's not that kind of guy.
Speaker 3: Is that how far back you're going?
Speaker 2: Like he was a glimmer in his parent's eye? But no,
Speaker 2: he was. He was adopted by two loving parents and
Speaker 2: then raised in a family and home of wealth and privilege. Right.
Speaker 2: But then, as so often happens for those featured on
Speaker 2: this show, there was a schism in his childhood and
Speaker 2: fracturing of a sense of what is and what could
Speaker 2: be and what was about to be, because he went
Speaker 2: from living as a comfortly secure Canadian to being the
Speaker 2: son of a single mother barely scraping by to care
Speaker 2: for herself and her young son in America. Oh wow, Yeah,
Speaker 2: So his parents get divorced, right, that was the schism
Speaker 2: for Gerald. Parental divorce. This fractured his life into before
Speaker 2: and after. Right now, after the divorce is newly single mom.
Speaker 2: She moves across the border, as they said, to Nebraska.
Speaker 2: She finds work, she tries to raise her adopted son
Speaker 2: on her own. It's not easy because America, but they
Speaker 2: make a go of it, right, I don't want you
Speaker 2: worrying too much. And they had each other. Their love
Speaker 2: was just you know, holding them as their bond, their
Speaker 2: bond super strong.
Speaker 3: So they had each other, but not health insurance exactly America.
Speaker 2: So the bank for closes on their home and this
Speaker 2: is like a devastating blow to the young boy. This
Speaker 2: becomes the real final schism that brooked'reilled away from we'll
Speaker 2: call the path of a normal life. Right at this point,
Speaker 2: he's like, I despise the banks, you know, He's like
Speaker 2: one of the depression era of people like maybe he's
Speaker 2: gonna start shooting at the revenue man, right. So he's
Speaker 2: like decides that what the banks have done to his
Speaker 2: mother and to him is a crime, right. And his
Speaker 2: mother had begged and pleaded and said, I can make
Speaker 2: a new payment arrangements, please don't take our home, and
Speaker 2: the bank's like, a lady, this has more value do
Speaker 2: it to us than to you. She's like, but it's
Speaker 2: my home, right, And he's like, this is just cruel.
Speaker 2: So he decides, I'm going to go full nineties on this, right,
Speaker 2: So he did as many of our folk heroes opted
Speaker 2: to do. He turns to crime. So he starts with,
Speaker 2: you know, initially stealing food from stores. Yeah, nothing big.
Speaker 3: Very very like you know, limiz of him, very.
Speaker 2: Lame, is very limb, is very lea miz in Omaha.
Speaker 2: So he's going down to like the local like gas
Speaker 2: and gulp and grabbing like stuff, right, and so this
Speaker 2: is mostly for him and his mom, and then he
Speaker 2: goes both moves on to stealing us as I said,
Speaker 2: cigarettes or whatever for his teenage friend. Now you were
Speaker 2: there for the early nineties, Elizabeth, I was. Now you
Speaker 2: remember the bangs that were hair sprayed into gravity defining. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you remember the Aquinet bathroom era, right walking, they be
Speaker 2: a cloud. Okay. Now, imagine like two or three of
Speaker 2: those girls with the acid washed jeans. They're all giggles
Speaker 2: and like hair sprayed bangs, and there's this skinny teene
Speaker 2: boy shirtless because you know o mah, and he's outwitting
Speaker 2: the clerk at work in the night ship.
Speaker 3: He's shirtless in the in the.
Speaker 2: Gas station, he's getting service. He's no shoes, no shirt,
Speaker 2: no service.
Speaker 3: All around with no shirts more often.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well into the nineties. You know, people think, oh,
Speaker 2: it's a seventies and I'm like, no, that really kept going.
Speaker 3: It was like, that's up.
Speaker 2: What happened nine to eleven. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know what towers fell. It was just like
Speaker 3: the spark out of.
Speaker 2: Go shirt list. He can't be showing your nips and
Speaker 2: that anymore serious people. But in all seriousness, it was working,
Speaker 2: you know, the local gas and gulp late at night
Speaker 2: and he's there, shirtless, skinny boy impressing the girls with
Speaker 2: the bangs, snaking out carts cigarettes right under the eyes
Speaker 2: of like, you know, this dopey clerk. Now that's not
Speaker 2: too hard. So he's like, oh, I'm good at this,
Speaker 2: and he was getting a name. So he's like known
Speaker 2: as like the guy takes risks, right, and everybody else
Speaker 2: cigarette dirt bag exactly, all the kids know. He's like
Speaker 2: he'll be the one man he's steal like a you know,
Speaker 2: the stereo from radio shack. Yeah, okay, yeah, exactly. High crimes, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: high crimes. So I saw, as I told you the
Speaker 2: documentary about him, so I know a little bit about him,
Speaker 2: and I know some things like he broke ridiculous crime
Speaker 2: Commandment number two do not film yourself in the commission
Speaker 2: of a felony.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: That's the way I know about how these girls looked
Speaker 2: and everything is that they had cameras in the gas
Speaker 2: station filming him, and they filmed him like steal the
Speaker 2: cigarettes and run out to the car and everything. So
Speaker 2: he was just always doing this. But like I said,
Speaker 2: this is the early nineties, so this wasn't like a
Speaker 2: camera phone. They had like a video camera in somebody's hand,
Speaker 2: you know, like they're filming.
Speaker 3: So it wasn't like security cameras his buddies for filming
Speaker 3: it like an episode of cops.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or like reality bites or something. It's like like
Speaker 2: they're like talking to the camera anyway. So this guy
Speaker 2: looks like a nerd. He's the one who's gonna grow
Speaker 2: up to be the James Bond of crime. So how
Speaker 2: does he do this? Well, okay, so budding antihero Gerald Blanchard,
Speaker 2: he as I said, starts to make a name for himself.
Speaker 2: He does actually start stealing from Radio Shack. He starts
Speaker 2: stealing stereo components, speakers, cameras. He's selling it to these
Speaker 2: other kids. They got this new thing called a cell phone.
Speaker 2: The cell phone. It looks like a like a red
Speaker 2: brick wrapped in plastic with an antenna shoved in. It
Speaker 2: is huge, right, It's like Radio Shack's cell phone. Now
Speaker 2: you can call from like the Little League game or whatever.
Speaker 2: So his peers and Omaha are loving him because he's
Speaker 2: dealing all the stuff that they would want to buy
Speaker 2: hot commodities. Now he starts getting living the good life.
Speaker 2: He's buying new clothes, he's buying himself in the tech toys,
Speaker 2: fancy watches, expensive labels.
Speaker 3: He develops microwaves, cd ron exactly.
Speaker 2: So into hotels with free cable, who waterbeds, you know,
Speaker 2: HBO anyway, So now he's that one guy at the
Speaker 2: school everybody knows, right, and so eventually this means the
Speaker 2: cops know about him. So soon enough the fate follows.
Speaker 2: He gets busted, Swat shows up at his mother's house.
Speaker 2: They go breaking in, they find all this stolen gear
Speaker 2: he's got stored in the garage. Age fifteen, Gerald Blanchard
Speaker 2: is busted for the first time. All right, cocky teen
Speaker 2: did not see it coming, even if he knew it
Speaker 2: was a possibility, still a surprise because he's fifteen. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we were fifteen boys were like, no, it won't happen
Speaker 2: to me. Happened to him, So well, he gets lucky though,
Speaker 2: because what happens to him is American racism. Floats his
Speaker 2: boat right, because he gets to go to court and
Speaker 2: rather than have his future snatched away from him by
Speaker 2: some over zealous judge, the judge looks at him and goes, well,
Speaker 2: was just just a little white boys gotten himself into
Speaker 2: a little spat of trouble. You know, it is a
Speaker 2: wayward kid. And he decides, you know, this youthful indiscretion,
Speaker 2: she could probably best be met by some parole. So
Speaker 2: he lets him go even though this guy was moving
Speaker 2: basically moving trucks worth of stolen equipment.
Speaker 3: It was that much.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, so still a youthful in discretion, right. So
Speaker 2: he gets granted parole and the wayward white boy does
Speaker 2: he fix his errand ways? Elizabeth?
Speaker 3: He does not?
Speaker 2: He no, Instead, he goes and as Blanchard puts it,
Speaker 2: he got smarter, better and bigger. Okay, see why I
Speaker 2: love this guy. So he gets still good at crime.
Speaker 2: He's able to buy his mother a house.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, new.
Speaker 2: Home, and won the bank can't take away because he's
Speaker 2: all paid for. He pays for the whole thing. Why
Speaker 2: is the house right?
Speaker 3: Nice?
Speaker 2: And he buries about one hundred grand behind his mom's
Speaker 2: house for tough times. So at that time, Gerald was
Speaker 2: sixteen years old.
Speaker 3: He bought a home at sixteen after earlier? How does
Speaker 3: that work? You know?
Speaker 2: In terms of he had He told his mom that
Speaker 2: he worked to deal with his friends, and his friend
Speaker 2: paid for the house and then his mom's like, okay, details, how.
Speaker 3: Did they transfer all this? I have logistical question.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was like, you know, they
Speaker 2: put it into an escrow account as like and then
Speaker 2: just wrote, you know, a credit line from there. I
Speaker 2: don't know how the money was managed, but I know
Speaker 2: that it was worked through other adults. Interesting, that's the story.
Speaker 2: That's what I know. Now, Boom, this starts his real
Speaker 2: crime career. He's buying houses. Now, yeah, exactly. So at
Speaker 2: this point on he's a career criminal with a heart
Speaker 2: of gold. And at one point he has this miraculous
Speaker 2: double escape from police custody as a Gerald tells the
Speaker 2: story in The Doctor Jewel Thief, and he's like all
Speaker 2: casual about it. He's like, quote, a friend of mine
Speaker 2: set his car on fire to collect on the insurance.
Speaker 2: That's the start of the story, right, so, you know,
Speaker 2: as one does when you're a middle aged guy or
Speaker 2: you know, or a made man. You know, this is
Speaker 2: what that's what you come up with when you just
Speaker 2: set the car on fire to get the insurance. But
Speaker 2: because he's a teenage boy and he's in Omahan, they're
Speaker 2: doing it in the middle of nowhere. They're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: how much gasoline do we need to set a car
Speaker 2: on fire? Elizabeth? How much gasoline do you think you
Speaker 2: would need? I don't know them gallons and I'll give
Speaker 2: you just you know, numbers.
Speaker 3: I don't know two gallons of guess.
Speaker 2: They used ten ten gallons of gas. Ten gallons was
Speaker 2: too much, that was overkill.
Speaker 3: That's like two of those like tanks you fill up
Speaker 3: for your lawnmower.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those small ones usually music too. The bigger ones
Speaker 2: like for like cars and trucks, and they do five
Speaker 2: the bigger, bigger red one. Yeah, I know, two of
Speaker 2: those those red pour it all over a car and
Speaker 2: then throw the match. Now they have a fire bomb, right,
Speaker 2: the fire bomb goes off, boom, but just to get
Speaker 2: it going, they get the fire started. No gas tank yet,
Speaker 2: fire enough, the big black smoke oes. Cops see this
Speaker 2: on the horizon, like what's going on over the hill.
Speaker 2: So they go and they go and to check, well, I.
Speaker 3: Wonder how much gas was in the car?
Speaker 2: Good question? Thank you, Thank you so much, like that
Speaker 2: you bring your a game to thank you. So the
Speaker 2: boys hide out when they see the cops come up.
Speaker 2: And then Gerald's like, you know what, I'm tired of
Speaker 2: hide now. So he's like he tells his buddy, who's
Speaker 2: like a little bit less brave. We'll say, He's like, uh,
Speaker 2: you wait here, And I said I'm waiting here. So
Speaker 2: he's like, I'm gonna go talk to the cops. He
Speaker 2: walks out in the middle of nowhere and the cops
Speaker 2: are like, what are you doing there. He's like, well,
Speaker 2: there's a car on fire, so I thought i'd come
Speaker 2: over here and see what's going on. The cops like uh.
Speaker 3: Huh so and he reeks of gasoline.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's the other thing. So he's like, oh
Speaker 2: the afternoon officers, what's up with the car fire. They're like, sir,
Speaker 2: you smell like gasoline. Oh no, he did, yeah, absolutely
Speaker 2: reeked up it right. And they also recognize him because
Speaker 2: I said, the kids all have been talking about him.
Speaker 2: He is that guy in a small town. So they're like,
Speaker 2: it's you. So then he gets busted. So while he's
Speaker 2: talking to the cops, the car explodes.
Speaker 4: Come home.
Speaker 2: Now. They're like, sorry, we're taking you in. They arrest them.
Speaker 2: They cough, and they're like, you know what, you're coming
Speaker 2: with us. So they take him into the cops shop
Speaker 2: and then Gerald's word, they make the mistake of disrespecting him.
Speaker 3: That's a mistake.
Speaker 2: Yes, So this sixteen year old is gonna make these
Speaker 2: police officers learned that you don't disrespect him. Let's take
Speaker 2: a little break, and I'll tell you how it goes
Speaker 2: when he gets his vengeance against these local cops for
Speaker 2: trying to disrespect him for pulling a you know, an
Speaker 2: insurance shop when he shouldn't have.
Speaker 3: All right, Elizabeth, Okay, we're back and now, okay, I'm excited.
Speaker 2: Okay. So we had the car be a fire bomb
Speaker 2: by the teenage boys. The cops have arrested one. They've
Speaker 2: taken Gerald back to the cop shop, and as Gerald
Speaker 2: said in the documentary The Jewel of Faith, they said
Speaker 2: he said, quote, they brought me into the police station.
Speaker 2: The police officer totally disrespected me. And I knew I
Speaker 2: was smarter than him. I knew I was better than him. Yeah,
Speaker 2: little cocky kid, right, So he gets to work on
Speaker 2: getting his revenge. So keep in mind, he's in police custody,
Speaker 2: he's in the cop shop. His buddy who you know
Speaker 2: whose car they blew up, That guy is still on
Speaker 2: the loose. He's out there. So he has a police
Speaker 2: scanner radio because they've been at this little while. So
Speaker 2: they roll around with the police scanner radio and he's
Speaker 2: listening for a word on Gerald, right, and then he
Speaker 2: hears something while Gerald was in the interrogation room. Apparently
Speaker 2: not handcuffed, Gerald climbed up on the table. He opened
Speaker 2: up the ceiling tiles, pulled himself up into the space
Speaker 2: for the air ducts, and then he slid the ceiling
Speaker 2: tiles closed and then starts crawling around the police station's
Speaker 2: ventilation system.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Yes, it's amazing. The cops walk back
Speaker 2: into the terry gation's room. He's gone, right. They're like,
Speaker 2: the kid's gone, What the heck? Right, They're like aliens magic, right, and.
Speaker 3: They're wondering why in the rest of the building the
Speaker 3: tiles move every now and then in dust comes from
Speaker 3: the scene.
Speaker 2: Remember though, skinny kids, I think he can manage on
Speaker 2: those like aluminum braces. He's not moving the tiles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's wow, exactly, that kid's got stones.
Speaker 2: So he stays up there. Cops are flabbergasted, and they
Speaker 2: put out word over the radio. Gerald Blanchard has escaped
Speaker 2: from police custody. His buddy, his friend's listening to this.
Speaker 2: He's like, oh yeah. He drives out of the cop
Speaker 2: shop to see if Gerald needs his help.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the police in the station, they were looking
Speaker 2: for this Houdini kid. They're looking every looking underdsk they're
Speaker 2: looking in cars, they can't find them. Gerald is gone, gone, right,
Speaker 2: So the cops are full panic at this point. What
Speaker 2: are we gonna do? What we call his mom? What
Speaker 2: do we do? So meanwhile, the teenage boy is watching
Speaker 2: all of this through the events, just amuse tickled. His
Speaker 2: friend gets brought in. He watches his friend get interrogated,
Speaker 2: and then his friend's like, yeah man, They're like, what
Speaker 2: are you doing here? And he's like, I came to
Speaker 2: see if Gerald needed help getting away. Oh Chro's like yeah,
Speaker 2: that's my dog, right. He's loving all this right, So
Speaker 2: the cops are like, okay, you're free to go, buddy,
Speaker 2: and his friendly's right. So Gerald watching all this waits
Speaker 2: till one am. The cops decide, well, guess we can't
Speaker 2: find him. Turn off the lights. They lock up the station.
Speaker 3: They wait kidding, Oh my god, I think it's more like.
Speaker 2: The detective's room. I don't think the entire police station.
Speaker 2: But they lock up for us. Yeah, so that's it. No,
Speaker 2: they call it right. So then he drops down out
Speaker 2: of the ceiling tiles. He goes over to the detective
Speaker 2: who disrespected him, and he goes over to his desk.
Speaker 2: I couldn't think guy's not asleep at his desk. He
Speaker 2: goes over to his desk, right, and then he quote
Speaker 2: takes the cops gun, his badge, his walkie talkie, the
Speaker 2: pictures of his wife and it's kids off of his desk,
Speaker 2: his rolodex file, and I took a bullet out of
Speaker 2: his gun, put a happy face on it and stuck
Speaker 2: it right on the middle of the desk.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Like the what is in this this child?
Speaker 3: But also why does the cop leave his gun unsecured
Speaker 3: in his desk?
Speaker 2: I guess this is I mean, basically the response the
Speaker 2: nineties Omaha Nebraskat hadn't gotten full militarized yet once again,
Speaker 2: even so, they don't have all the tanks and everything
Speaker 2: they've gotten fully militarized, so I think they're like down
Speaker 2: home cops there. Like I locked my desk drawer. Oh
Speaker 2: I forgot to lock my desk drawer. Whatever, the door
Speaker 2: is locked at the detective's office. I don't know. I
Speaker 2: have no idea. It surprised me. I'm surprised he didn't
Speaker 2: get cup in the interrogation room.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, there's you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: There's so many things. I'm like, Wow, things are casual
Speaker 2: and Omaha anyway. So, as Gerald puts it, everyone should
Speaker 2: be respected no matter what. But when someone disrespects you,
Speaker 2: you have a problem, or at least I have a problem,
Speaker 2: and I will make you pay for it. Oh yike,
Speaker 2: man Diddy. Because Gerald's not done, Gerald bundles all this
Speaker 2: stuff into a police uffle bag and he bounces. So
Speaker 2: he leaves the dude's gun, his badge, pictures of his wife.
Speaker 2: Now he's in a chess match with the Omaha police,
Speaker 2: so he's trying to help think him. He's okay, what
Speaker 2: did they think that I would go? What's a safe
Speaker 2: place that they wouldn't think that I would think that
Speaker 2: he's doing all this Inteed decides I'm gonna go home
Speaker 2: because he's a teenage boss. They wouldn't think that I
Speaker 2: would be dumb enough to go there. And also he
Speaker 2: just really wanted to sleep, So he goes back to
Speaker 2: his house, goes home, goes to sleep. Next morning, the
Speaker 2: Blues and Twos roll up to his house. I think,
Speaker 2: so yeah, bubble gum machines blaring the lights. They come
Speaker 2: out with full riot gear swat team. They bust down
Speaker 2: the door, show up like guns in his face and
Speaker 2: he's not in bed. Nobody he's there. They're like, what
Speaker 2: I thought they care to be here? Takes them a while.
Speaker 2: They go digging through boxes and boxes and they go
Speaker 2: into this one closet fill the box. They take some
Speaker 2: ten fifteen minutes to pull all the boxes out. They
Speaker 2: finally pull all the boxes out and there behind like
Speaker 2: some little crawl spaces a half naked Gerald going, oh,
Speaker 2: you caught me. So he gets brought in, right, he's arrested.
Speaker 2: Now remember I said double escape.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, so listen.
Speaker 2: Now he got wrapped. Once he's a rest he's back
Speaker 2: in custody. So he gets transferred. The arresting detective tells
Speaker 2: the Omaha Pde uniform Cup be careful. This guy's kind
Speaker 2: of slick, right, uniform Cup. You gotta see this guy
Speaker 2: in the documentary. It's really macho.
Speaker 5: God.
Speaker 2: He's like, tells the story great, and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: they ain't gonna be a problem. This nerdy kidd ache
Speaker 2: gonna get away from me right there. I'm telling you
Speaker 2: this is foreshadowing. He can take away from you. Roger
Speaker 2: Ramjet So cut to him. A few moments later, they're
Speaker 2: at Central booking the uniform officer he parks. He gets
Speaker 2: out of his patrol car, leaving Gerald in the back
Speaker 2: handcuffs on right behind his back. He's canna cuff this, yeah,
Speaker 2: But before the cop can say John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt, Gerald
Speaker 2: has hopped over the seat, drops into the driver's seat
Speaker 2: of the cop car, locks the cop car doors. Then
Speaker 2: the cop spins around. When he hears the doors locked, he
Speaker 2: sees the suspect now in his patrol car with like
Speaker 2: his gun and his keys. His hands are up in
Speaker 2: front of his face, now holding onto the steering wheel.
Speaker 2: He's managed to get them over his head or under
Speaker 2: his kick exactly, so his hands no longer behind his back.
Speaker 2: He grabs the steering wheel. The cop goes, oh no,
Speaker 2: he really His whole career starts splashing before his eyes.
Speaker 2: What does he do? What does he do? Elizabeth? He
Speaker 2: goes for his gun and he draws on the boy.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean he's because the kid's behind the wheel.
Speaker 3: He's now behind the wheel of a lethal weapon.
Speaker 2: That's true that you're you're much more stute than I'm.
Speaker 2: I'm just thinking, like, Okay, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 2: Shoot the cop car? So he's like he's going to
Speaker 2: do exactly, He's prepared. But then I think the you know,
Speaker 2: Gerald knew that he wouldn't. So all the screaming is
Speaker 2: going on in the cop shop full volume. Remember they're
Speaker 2: in Central Booking parking lot of Central. The cops just
Speaker 2: popped out for a second. So the guy's yelling like
Speaker 2: it's like you know in Reservoir Dogs when they had
Speaker 2: that moment. Look, buddy, I will shoot you in the face.
Speaker 2: That's what I was picturing. When he's telling the story,
Speaker 2: he's like all angry, right, So he squared off cop
Speaker 2: in criminal What does the kid do? What does Gerald do?
Speaker 2: Put it in reverse, and well he's the cop has
Speaker 2: backed in, so they're facing each other. He's looking at them,
Speaker 2: he's looking. He drives right, he punches hid so he
Speaker 2: floors and he puts the cop up on the hood
Speaker 2: of his own car, dumps a cop behind him. Tire squeal,
Speaker 2: smoke fills the arrow. Gerald races off. He drives through
Speaker 2: the parking lot style gate shatters that he's on the loose, right,
Speaker 2: So what does he do now? He drives one state
Speaker 2: away in a.
Speaker 3: Cop car in a cop car.
Speaker 2: So the original arresting detective was in Iowa, right. So
Speaker 2: he's out working a traffic accident scene directing traffic. He
Speaker 2: spots a car in Iowa because this is taking place
Speaker 2: with Council Bluffs, Iowa and Obaha, Nebraska. So he drives
Speaker 2: over to Council Bluffs, Iowa, one state away, right, And
Speaker 2: this is a neighboring jurisdiction essentially, but the neighboring jurisdiction
Speaker 2: is a different step. So the cop is in Iowa
Speaker 2: and now he's wondering what an Omaha cop car is
Speaker 2: doing in Iowa coming up on a traffic scene. But
Speaker 2: he's like whatever, starts waving the guy through. He's like,
Speaker 2: I must be doing business. Maybe he's going home to
Speaker 2: his wife. I don't know what it is. Right then
Speaker 2: he notices, like, wait a minute, that's not a cop.
Speaker 2: He sees a shirtless, half naked Gerald Blanch shirtless behind
Speaker 2: the wheel. I don't know when he took his clothes off,
Speaker 2: never put a shirt on him. Yes, anyway, he's sitting there,
Speaker 2: he's a you know, naked from the waist up, and
Speaker 2: he just kind of like meekly waves at the cop
Speaker 2: cop has Yes, exactly, you're picturing it. Cop has mom like,
Speaker 2: am I having a stroke?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What's going on? He like drops his clipboard and everything
Speaker 2: from the accident scened runs over his cop car and
Speaker 2: he gives chase right, so then boom and then the
Speaker 2: finally they managed they chase him for a while, they
Speaker 2: catch Gerald and boom. Because of all of these charges,
Speaker 2: he's now going to prison.
Speaker 3: Oh, I would say so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So he goes off to prison and that's really
Speaker 2: becomes a real, real criminal. And after he comes out,
Speaker 2: I was like, this guy is like, you know, he's
Speaker 2: moved on from I'm gonna steal from Radio Shack. Now
Speaker 2: He's like, I'm ready to be James Bond because you
Speaker 2: made me a hard criminal exactly. So this guy rare
Speaker 2: one total lollapalooza of a man rather than a pull
Speaker 2: quotes from like newspaper articles or you know, share more
Speaker 2: quotes from the Hulu doc.
Speaker 3: I have a surprise for you, accent.
Speaker 2: Well, I figured we could hear from Gerald himself. What Yeah,
Speaker 2: I sat down with him for an interview. No producer, Dave,
Speaker 2: would you hit play? Well? Gerald, thank you for making
Speaker 2: time to speak with ridiculous crime. I'm super stoked to
Speaker 2: talk to you. I've checked out the Whola documentary The
Speaker 2: Jewel Thief. I very much enjoyed it, and I am
Speaker 2: just super gitty to speak with you today. So thank
Speaker 2: you for making time.
Speaker 5: For us, Thanks for having me on your shoulder.
Speaker 2: Now, Gerald, I did my research. I saw your government name,
Speaker 2: Gerald Daniel Blanchard, street name mcguiver. You're called the James
Speaker 2: Bond of crime. But I want to ask you which
Speaker 2: criminal title do you prefer? Master thief, international, criminal mastermind?
Speaker 5: Well, when I was younger in Omaha, Nebraska, my street
Speaker 5: name was mcgiver because I would always be tinkerringing with
Speaker 5: electronics and doing pranks in high school with friends, like
Speaker 5: shocking the biggest guy in high school, like a guy
Speaker 5: named or Meets for an example. So my school was
Speaker 5: like really tough, and that's why they gave me that
Speaker 5: street name mcgiver or actually, and they also called me
Speaker 5: the Wizard when I was in jail. But those were
Speaker 5: the two names.
Speaker 2: Nice and nice. And now what do you prefer in
Speaker 2: terms of like your criminal appellation? Do you like a
Speaker 2: criminal mastermind? Do you like master thief? Do you like
Speaker 2: jewel thief? What do you think making yourself as if
Speaker 2: you were to be, you know, described in such terms.
Speaker 5: Well, if I had to be described, I would probably
Speaker 5: just say I don't know, maybe just Gerald because the
Speaker 5: past is the past.
Speaker 2: Fair enough. Look at that, Elizabeth, My god, I am.
Speaker 3: Like, I am having such a hard time processing this.
Speaker 3: I can't believe you actually talked to him.
Speaker 2: Yes, I gotta have to finally talk to one of
Speaker 2: my dudes, the Wizard. Yes, the Wizard and I we
Speaker 2: mashed it up. This is my idea of the mash up, Elizabeth. See,
Speaker 2: we like the King mash up. So we got the guy,
Speaker 2: the actual guy. And I said, like, you know, like
Speaker 2: I wanted asking all these questions, the ones we constantly pose,
Speaker 2: which is like, you know, what's life like as a
Speaker 2: professional criminal? Like you know, we're your role models, and
Speaker 2: I'd like in all honestly, these are the things I read.
Speaker 3: How many movies have you watched? Are you writing a book?
Speaker 2: Exactly? When do you get a book deal? Do you
Speaker 2: have a literary agent? So this is I have their number?
Speaker 2: Exactly what do I have to do a crime? Or
Speaker 2: can I? Can I fake a crime and then do anyway?
Speaker 2: So this is like the first time really coming forward
Speaker 2: and telling his story, not to us but the Hulu
Speaker 2: doc He comes from this o so but he'd.
Speaker 3: Ha, oh that's right, I'd forgotten about the Houlah Yeah.
Speaker 2: Sorry. So he had other opportunities in the past to
Speaker 2: come forward. There are big name people who asked him
Speaker 2: to tell the story, like names, you know, like Oprah.
Speaker 2: What he's one of the few people to tell.
Speaker 3: Oprah no, And like he said no to Oprah.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, day, I can you play the club?
Speaker 5: Thirteen years ago, Oprah actually called my criminal lawyer, Danny
Speaker 5: Gunn from Winnipeg, Manitoba, requested for me to do an interview,
Speaker 5: and I turned her down because I wanted my privacy.
Speaker 5: And I decided to do this documentary with Landon in
Speaker 5: Hulu because I thought it was the right time to
Speaker 5: tell my side of the story and what things transpired.
Speaker 2: Right. So he says no to Oprah.
Speaker 3: Wow, I mean, like does he have like is there
Speaker 3: a price on his head now that he's denied Oprah something?
Speaker 2: I think he kind of had to wait for some things.
Speaker 3: Deceimber down Stadman's outside of his house in the bushes,
Speaker 3: like the silencer.
Speaker 2: Nobody says no to Oprah tightening the silence. So, uh,
Speaker 2: the systeps was our you know, our chance to actually
Speaker 2: talk to an actual, factual international jewel thief. Yeah. I
Speaker 2: asked a lot of the things that we wonder about
Speaker 2: on this show. I didn't go for, like, you know,
Speaker 2: the normal questions of like a respectable journalist might. I
Speaker 2: went for the questions we want to know they answer to,
Speaker 2: Like who did you look up to when you were
Speaker 2: a baby crimer? I asked him, you know, like when
Speaker 2: when you were a young perp, who did you want
Speaker 2: to be? Things like that, Right, So I said, uh, Dave,
Speaker 2: do you mind this doc from Hulu, The Jewel Thief?
Speaker 2: It covers your impressive criminal career. And I just was
Speaker 2: just curious because we spent a lot of time talking
Speaker 2: about criminals on our show, and we often look at
Speaker 2: the arc of a career, and I was wondering, when
Speaker 2: you were first starting out, who did you look up to?
Speaker 2: Who did you have as your criminal role models?
Speaker 5: Actually it was Batman and Robin and I was always
Speaker 5: fascinated by they were trying to catch the bad guy,
Speaker 5: and that seemed like it was easier to be a
Speaker 5: bad guy than a good guy.
Speaker 2: Mm hm.
Speaker 5: So I remember when I was younger watching the show,
Speaker 5: and then I remember, like my first heist and that
Speaker 5: was going to o the neighbor's milk because when my
Speaker 5: mom left my father, we were actually really poor.
Speaker 3: Oh right, Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Batman and Robin are his criminal role model. He's like,
Speaker 2: it's easier to beat the bad guy. Is amazing. He
Speaker 2: takes all the wrong it is amazing.
Speaker 3: Is like the greatest day of my life.
Speaker 2: I thought you loved this. A little surprise for you.
Speaker 3: It's so good.
Speaker 2: And his first heist is stealing milk. You know, he's
Speaker 2: like my first tie. That's when I was a milk runner, but.
Speaker 3: It was for a good cause.
Speaker 2: Totally. Oh yeah, you got I gotta say.
Speaker 3: Too, Zaren, you would almost think that you were a journalist.
Speaker 3: These amazing questions.
Speaker 2: Well, let's just pretend along, all right, So the questions
Speaker 2: we always talk about, Right, as I said, I gotta
Speaker 2: finally ask one of my dudes. And I was like,
Speaker 2: I love this answer. Isn't like Michael mant heat or Scorse,
Speaker 2: it's Batman and Robins.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: So I also got to ask him, like I said
Speaker 2: at one point, quote, we found a lot of criminals
Speaker 2: who escape into the movies and the shows they watch,
Speaker 2: and I was like, telling, they start imagining this bigger,
Speaker 2: better life that's existing up on the screen right or
Speaker 2: the flickering screen of TV, the silver screen of movie theater,
Speaker 2: whatever it is. I'm like a lot of them, that's
Speaker 2: where they and also they get their ideas where the crimes.
Speaker 2: So I asked Gerald, like, did you ever do that?
Speaker 5: And he was like, actually, pro no, I was just
Speaker 5: more creative on my own ways.
Speaker 2: Don't you love this guy?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I was like I want to tell him by like
Speaker 2: we don't faid, but he's like, no, I don't do that.
Speaker 2: I was like, never mind, moving on.
Speaker 3: So much better than that.
Speaker 2: So I see he's very much his own guy, a
Speaker 2: little cocky, which I also like. And I asked him
Speaker 2: about his strong moral code because you'll notice he has this.
Speaker 2: It showed his moral code showed off very early from
Speaker 2: like you know, his first bust at fifteen. He's kind
Speaker 2: of like that train robbing bandit Billy Minor that way.
Speaker 2: He's like, he has his real strong code. He won't
Speaker 2: rob individuals. He only robs companies, corporations, and then like
Speaker 2: when he like robs from banks and stuff. He'll like
Speaker 2: call the credit card companies and be like, here's all
Speaker 2: the credit cards that I took. So if you see
Speaker 2: these charges, don't oh well, yeah, he's insane. So Gerald
Speaker 2: told me about how he was like, in my words,
Speaker 2: that kind of like a mafia don honoring the code
Speaker 2: of Omerta. When he gets busted, he wouldn't say a word, right,
Speaker 2: no matter how much the cops tried to scare the
Speaker 2: kid that was sitting across the table from them for
Speaker 2: his first big bust. He's out. They're looking at for
Speaker 2: his crew.
Speaker 3: Right, this is amazing.
Speaker 5: We know the manager of the store has been involved.
Speaker 5: And the police officer gave me a pencil and a
Speaker 5: piece of paper and said, write down on this paper
Speaker 5: and tell me exactly what happened and you can go
Speaker 5: home tonight, and if you don't, you're going to jail.
Speaker 5: That's the first time in my life I had to
Speaker 5: make the decision. Am I going to be a rat
Speaker 5: and keeps solid? And I said, Okay, if I rat
Speaker 5: this guy out, he's going to lose his job, he
Speaker 5: has a family, he has kids, He's going to go
Speaker 5: to jail. I'm going to destroy this guy's life. But
Speaker 5: if I keep my mouth shut, what's going to happen.
Speaker 5: They're going to send me to youth jail.
Speaker 2: This kid's got a pair on him, right, seriously, so
Speaker 2: he refuses a snitch. He takes his sentence like he's
Speaker 2: Polly Walnuts and this earns him respect when he gets
Speaker 2: on the inside.
Speaker 3: He's not violent. I mean he did hit that cop,
Speaker 3: which is like he's probably still in phad.
Speaker 2: Pulled a gun on him. I mean, you're kind of
Speaker 2: escalated to the point of like I think he would
Speaker 2: have driven away without it.
Speaker 3: I just think of his poor knees as someone was
Speaker 3: really destroyed knees.
Speaker 2: I asked Cherld about our theory, but criminals who only
Speaker 2: steal from fat cats incorporations and why they choose and
Speaker 2: never use violence or steal from their equals, you know,
Speaker 2: or the vulnerable if you will. Now he had a
Speaker 2: great view on this, so I thought you would like
Speaker 2: a producer, David. He had that clip.
Speaker 5: I'll tell you this, I'm very one hundred percent against
Speaker 5: stealing from individuals so much so that might be because
Speaker 5: I remember I had a coin collection when I was
Speaker 5: maybe eight or nine years old, and my sister took
Speaker 5: the hinges off the back of my safe and stole
Speaker 5: some of my coins. She stole it, and I was like,
Speaker 5: how could you steal from your own family member, like
Speaker 5: your own brother? And she was really young, like maybe
Speaker 5: six at the time, so I can't blame her because
Speaker 5: she didn't know better. But I've always been against stealing
Speaker 5: from people like just so much. I just frowned upon it.
Speaker 5: You want to steal, go to the store and steal
Speaker 5: from a big names story. They can absorb the cost,
Speaker 5: just sortain extent, rather than the family next stories worked
Speaker 5: really hard their whole lives to have all this stuff
Speaker 5: saved their money, and then the neighbor goes in there
Speaker 5: and robs and while they're at work. That's not fair.
Speaker 5: I do not like that.
Speaker 3: This is yeah's amazing.
Speaker 2: I thought you'd love that guy. We could hear from
Speaker 2: his mouth like boom, there's the yeah, I've saved the
Speaker 2: most impressive crime, at least to me. That He's got
Speaker 2: a bunch of crimes that a lot of them are impressive,
Speaker 2: But the one that I want to tell you about
Speaker 2: is an international gem thief heist. So take a break
Speaker 2: and I will get all my papers in order, and
Speaker 2: I'll tell you the rest in a second. Awesome, All right, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: we're back. Yes, so I said. The the most impressive
Speaker 2: crime into my mind is the one I'm about to
Speaker 2: tell you international gem thief.
Speaker 3: This is like an escalation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh he's This is when he gets its like
Speaker 2: James Bond level, like criming on. Right. So have you
Speaker 2: ever heard of the c C Star of Austria. No,
Speaker 2: I've never heard of this either. Do you know who
Speaker 2: Empress c C is? I did not know. I had
Speaker 2: to look all this.
Speaker 3: It sounds like my next door neighbor's little daughter, Empress CC.
Speaker 3: Oh really what she would make you call her?
Speaker 4: Like? Oh?
Speaker 2: I thought her real name was Like, she's always.
Speaker 3: Out there playing outside. Remember sure you are kid.
Speaker 2: So warm hearted? So this this Empress c she shares
Speaker 2: your name. Oh yeah, Elizabeth, not Clyde, Elizabeth Amiie Eugenie,
Speaker 2: Empress of Austria and Queen to Hungary.
Speaker 3: Good for her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this was all by via marriage to Emperor Franz
Speaker 2: Joseph the first huh. Yeah. She ruled from April twenty first,
Speaker 2: eighteen fifty four, until she was assassinated by an anarchist
Speaker 2: in eighteen ninety eight.
Speaker 3: That was a that was a common thing at this Yeah,
Speaker 3: that was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a big cause of death with an anarchism. It
Speaker 2: was like heart attack, car accident.
Speaker 3: Just wait, I'm gonna tell you about it.
Speaker 2: That car accident. Little too early for that burnette anyway, but.
Speaker 3: She was She was not only the proto anarchist cars.
Speaker 2: Diesel, like he's inventing a car running over his neighbors.
Speaker 2: We had like three anyway, So the longest ruling monarch
Speaker 2: of the nineteenth century, she was one of them. She
Speaker 2: was also considered one of the most striking beautiful women
Speaker 2: of the nineteenth century. She was like she set standards
Speaker 2: for certain things. I think you'd like her because she
Speaker 2: was fluent to multiple languages. She wrote poetry. She called
Speaker 2: herself Titiana, in honor of the fairy queen of Shakespeare.
Speaker 2: Like that was like her court name. But she was
Speaker 2: not into court life. She kind of like thumbed her
Speaker 2: nose at all. She suffered blue period what'll be called depression.
Speaker 2: She was very much her own woman. She smoke cigarettes,
Speaker 2: which was unheard of in the mid nineteenth century, like
Speaker 2: it was big in the nineteen twenty.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2: So even more shocking, she had a tattoo and that
Speaker 2: just like some normal like oh, I don't know, like
Speaker 2: a rose. Yeah it rose exactly, I'm shrinking flower. She
Speaker 2: had an anchor tattoo on her arm. She said it
Speaker 2: marked her love of the sea and her affinity for
Speaker 2: sailors eighteen.
Speaker 3: Did she like a Polynesian tattoo?
Speaker 2: No, she just was aware that people have these, and
Speaker 2: she's like, I want one, give me one. I want
Speaker 2: the anchor for He doesn't say, mom, Mom married me.
Speaker 3: I love her.
Speaker 2: Also, she was a strident animal lover.
Speaker 3: Everything is better and better about that, right, I'm.
Speaker 2: Telling you she's like your patron saint Franctically. For the
Speaker 2: holiday Saints Day, she was asked what gifts that you
Speaker 2: know she would like, and she was like, oh yes
Speaker 2: in her answer very elizabeth. Yeah. She said that she
Speaker 2: would like a a baby tiger and be a medallion,
Speaker 2: and above all, she said that she would like quote
Speaker 2: a fully equipped lunatic asylum would please me most.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, No, I wouldn't want the baby tiger,
Speaker 3: you know how I am wildly but wanted still gift card.
Speaker 2: Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 3: I want to now I want a lunatic asylum.
Speaker 2: Right, exactly, She was known for a compassionate treatment of
Speaker 2: suffering from mental illness, so she wanted to be able
Speaker 2: to give them greater care. Yes, that's what she means,
Speaker 2: fully equipped. She met with doctors for everybody. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: so she was also a lover of fine things. It's
Speaker 2: in particular Empress CC. She loved gemstones her. That was
Speaker 2: like her bag basically, so the people, if they wanted
Speaker 2: to impress it, they're like, oh, hey, beautiful woman, please
Speaker 2: wear my gemstones. Right, so we get the Star of CCI.
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety eight, to mark the one hundred year anniversary,
Speaker 2: the centenary of Empress Elizabeth's death, the Star of CC
Speaker 2: was put out on display at the Schombrone Palace of Vienna. Okay,
Speaker 2: right now. Coincidentally, my man Gerald Blanchard happened to be
Speaker 2: in Vienna at that time. He was there with his
Speaker 2: then wife and father in law. They took a tour
Speaker 2: of the palace. Oh, look at all the fineries, right,
Speaker 2: and he goes and he spots the jewels.
Speaker 3: I've actually seen the palace before. Really, word, I've been there.
Speaker 2: You've been in this palace. I have look at you jetson. Well,
Speaker 2: give me so lokive me, dude, much like you wander
Speaker 2: around in the palace. He's smit with all the fineries
Speaker 2: that you could probably better attest to than I. He's
Speaker 2: delighted by them. Is it really spectacular in there? Okay?
Speaker 2: So he was just gobsmacked by all this. He decides
Speaker 2: right then and there, I must steal the Star of CC. Yes,
Speaker 2: this message. It's one of those like National Treasure moments
Speaker 2: or like Nicholas Cage. I'm going to steal the decoration.
Speaker 3: Dependent of criminals on the show who see something and
Speaker 3: it just speaks to them. I have to have it.
Speaker 2: He had that voice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's all that's.
Speaker 2: Do that one more.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I'll be able to talk.
Speaker 2: I want that little voice on my shoulder anyway. The
Speaker 2: c C Star is also known as the Cocuert Diamond Pearl.
Speaker 2: It is a ten pointed star. It is bejeweled with
Speaker 2: diamonds on the stars arms or legs what you call it?
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: They all fan out from the center and not the
Speaker 2: center is a single enormous pearl right, very striking the
Speaker 2: museum staff. It took them a year to discover that
Speaker 2: the CC Star had been stolen wait what Yes, the
Speaker 2: reason why is the thief had left behind a replica
Speaker 2: one he was just at the gift shop. No, that's amazing.
Speaker 2: So Lizabeth, as I told you, we have the rare
Speaker 2: opportunity to talk shop with a career criminals. So the
Speaker 2: man alleged to have stolen the Star of CCI is
Speaker 2: Gerald Blanchard, So I thought we'd ask him all about
Speaker 2: the jewel heist. Dave, you mind the C C Star
Speaker 2: of Austria? Why that one? What about that one? Drew
Speaker 2: your attention? You decided I'm just going to do this,
Speaker 2: like was it a one off? Was it a new challenge?
Speaker 2: Was it you were there with you know, the wife
Speaker 2: and the father in laws. You're like, I just need
Speaker 2: to have an escape.
Speaker 5: Let me say this here in Canada, I played guilty
Speaker 5: to possession of the CC Star. I didn't plead guilty
Speaker 5: to the theft because Austria wants to extradite me back
Speaker 5: for the crime because it's international jewel. So I'm not
Speaker 5: going to say I stole it. I'm going to say
Speaker 5: possession of him?
Speaker 2: Why you had, how you had? How you came into possession?
Speaker 5: But you caread in between the lines and somehow it
Speaker 5: ended up in my possession.
Speaker 4: Was just that.
Speaker 5: But I was at museum, and when I took a tour,
Speaker 5: I saw beautiful pieces. For an example, I saw the
Speaker 5: crown with diamonds, I saw the cisy star, different medals
Speaker 5: and different things, and it was just something that I was
Speaker 5: just so fascinating and I knew it was one of
Speaker 5: a kind. And I like challenges.
Speaker 2: Let's just say, my man, he does it as a lark.
Speaker 3: He likes a challenge.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like, I gotta do that. I mean, like,
Speaker 2: it's just speaking to me. I got the Elizabeth voice
Speaker 2: in my ear. It's a challenge I got to meet.
Speaker 2: I'm like, God, this is better than the Omaha police.
Speaker 2: I can beat this. So he decides, you know, Also
Speaker 2: he told me he was a way to keep his
Speaker 2: mo fresh, you know, like the modus operandi. So he
Speaker 2: wanted them to not be able to guess what crimes
Speaker 2: he would do and also expand his possibilities. So because
Speaker 2: he keeps the cops guessing, and also he kept me guessing,
Speaker 2: I had to know more Elizabeth. So I was like,
Speaker 2: you know, Elizabeth, maybe looking for a new retirement plan.
Speaker 2: Maybe she maybe perhaps bank robbery is right for her,
Speaker 2: so I asked him for more information for you and
Speaker 2: for me. But since we had I said, there's this
Speaker 2: rare opportunity to talk to dude himself here how it
Speaker 2: is from the inside. I asked Gerald Blanchard for a
Speaker 2: personal favor because I was like, all giddy and confused.
Speaker 2: I was like, you know, I'm asking you all the
Speaker 2: wrong questions. You should just tell me the thing. What's
Speaker 2: it like on the inside. And he was kind enough
Speaker 2: to oblige me. He was like, oh, okay, I'll tell you.
Speaker 2: And I was like, all right, well, let me just
Speaker 2: turn the mic over to him.
Speaker 5: You, Elizabeth, close your eyes and picture it, imagining jumping
Speaker 5: out of an air plane into the darkness and you
Speaker 5: see the street lights so far down, and you see
Speaker 5: the rooftop of the castle, and you're hoping you would
Speaker 5: land perfectly. And as you land, you hit so hard
Speaker 5: you could feel you're capable. You felt like it shattered
Speaker 5: as you're sliding down the edge of the roof, and
Speaker 5: luckily you're slamming on your body up against the column
Speaker 5: so you don't fall off the edge of the roof.
Speaker 5: That there is a thrill in itself, the adrenaline overseats
Speaker 5: the pain that you feel after you land on the roof.
Speaker 5: You would take your rope and you would wrap your
Speaker 5: rope around the column as a big you so as
Speaker 5: you tie to your body, you could lower yourself down
Speaker 5: to the roof and then the window that was left
Speaker 5: open the day before, you push open the window, pull
Speaker 5: the rope back up. Now you're inside of the museum
Speaker 5: and you have the museum to yourself. It's easy pickings.
Speaker 5: All you can hear is your heartbeat. But as long
Speaker 5: as you stay quiet and your body's under control, and
Speaker 5: the museum all you see is like the emergency lights
Speaker 5: are basically glowing and lighting up, and the only thing
Speaker 5: you can see is like the sparkles of the diamond
Speaker 5: or in another part of the museum there was the
Speaker 5: crown with the diamonds, and that was very challenging and
Speaker 5: interesting to have that feeling that at any moment you
Speaker 5: could be caught if somebody walks in, because obviously there's
Speaker 5: armored guards walking around everywhere. When you leave, you leave
Speaker 5: the exact same way you take the rope, You wrap
Speaker 5: it around an existing item inside the museum, and you
Speaker 5: let go of the rope. You lower yourself hold the
Speaker 5: other rope down, gather up all your items, wrote them
Speaker 5: in the dumpster, and you run her way into the
Speaker 5: darkness of night, hopefully never to be seen again.
Speaker 2: Boom, did you picture it?
Speaker 3: That was the best picture it ever.
Speaker 2: Not gonna take that personally, but isn't it? It was
Speaker 2: so also just a point of note, Dave.
Speaker 5: And that's all hypothetical story time.
Speaker 2: All hypothetical, alleged and imagine.
Speaker 3: Exactly all right, Oh sure, yeah.
Speaker 2: I got to put that in there for legal reasons,
Speaker 2: of course. So we got a guided to her from
Speaker 2: the man himself allegend allegen. Now, remember how I told
Speaker 2: you earlier that Gerald broke one of the cardinal rules
Speaker 2: of ridiculous crime. Yeah, he left a slew of evidence
Speaker 2: he filmed us up doing crimes. Yeah, I had to
Speaker 2: know why, so I asked him about that. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: why did you break crime rule number one and decide
Speaker 2: to record so much stuff on camera?
Speaker 5: The reason why is because when you record stuff, you
Speaker 5: can go back and learn what you've done and how
Speaker 5: you could do things differently and make things better. Like yeah,
Speaker 5: when I was younger, me shoplifting from stores when I
Speaker 5: was like fifteen, recording it so what it's shoplifting, Nothing's
Speaker 5: going to happen. But I should have recorded with a
Speaker 5: gold pro when I did the ATMs, Like can you
Speaker 5: imagine me like running to the ATM room, opening up
Speaker 5: each machine, grabbing the money, and then running out and
Speaker 5: having to documented. I should have hit it, But I
Speaker 5: never had the thought that I'm going to get caught
Speaker 5: because I thought I had it really well planned out.
Speaker 2: So I'm agog I thought he might be what he's
Speaker 2: talking about with the ATMs. It's one of his bank robberies.
Speaker 2: He went into in a Canadian bank, and while I
Speaker 2: was being built, he put in all these security and
Speaker 2: surveillance equipment, and then once it was about to be opened,
Speaker 2: then he strikes the night before it's gonna be opened,
Speaker 2: and he empties all the ATM machines that they have
Speaker 2: filled up with fresh cash. Oh my, And so we
Speaker 2: talked about the ATM room. He's talking about a brand
Speaker 2: new ATM and being in the little room on the
Speaker 2: backside obviously where they load the machines and just tearing
Speaker 2: open all those drawers and that seeing all that cash
Speaker 2: and the.
Speaker 3: Idea that he wants to be able to like it's
Speaker 3: like those football films where they watch back.
Speaker 2: Over places totally wants to watch films.
Speaker 3: I could, I could have gone right on that. Or
Speaker 3: it's kind of also like an arsonist who goes back
Speaker 3: and watches and gets his jollies off.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I thought about that. I like more of
Speaker 2: the idea that he's like John Madden with the telestrap here.
Speaker 2: I could have come into the agypt exactly so as
Speaker 2: I told you he was. He got in the bank robbery.
Speaker 2: He has a really big job the CIBC bank in Winnipeg, Canada,
Speaker 2: that one eventually would cost him his freedom right. But
Speaker 2: to learn about that when you have to watch the
Speaker 2: doc because I don't want to tell all the stories,
Speaker 2: but if you do, want to hear about how he's caught,
Speaker 2: how he pulled off his biggest heightst jobs and all
Speaker 2: of that, and then his life is a real life,
Speaker 2: you know, full hero outlaw. Do check The Jewel Thief.
Speaker 2: It's streaming now. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: I'll watch it.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth. You know how you like to sleep.
Speaker 3: God, I love to sleep, right, yeah, yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: like you.
Speaker 2: Know who loves a good night's sleep almost as much
Speaker 2: as you do. Cats good call a person on the run.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, because it's few and far.
Speaker 2: They never get a good night's sleep, right, and it
Speaker 2: starts to catch up to them and they get all
Speaker 2: you know, you want to see someone who's grouchy hang
Speaker 2: out with someone who's on the run. Sure, right, So
Speaker 2: Gerald discovered the key to a good night's rest. You
Speaker 2: want to know what it is. What's telling the truth? Apparently,
Speaker 2: and melowtonin no, no, that's you're seeing. Yeah, So now
Speaker 2: his recipe is slightly different. His was a night in
Speaker 2: jail and then telling the truth. So at least that
Speaker 2: first night in jail was a good night sleep. I
Speaker 2: don't know about the ones after that, but that first
Speaker 2: night was like awesome. So he'd been on the run
Speaker 2: for years at that point, and uh, how was it
Speaker 2: for Gerald once he finally was busted and his head
Speaker 2: hit that county issued pillow. Well, we can take it
Speaker 2: from him, Dave.
Speaker 5: The best night was the first night I slept in
Speaker 5: jail like I was caught. I was relieved, I didn't
Speaker 5: have to worry about anything else, and it was the
Speaker 5: best sleep of my life.
Speaker 2: And we hear this over and over again, how good
Speaker 2: it feels to be caught. Were you surprised by that relief.
Speaker 5: Actually, I was like, had I known, I probably would
Speaker 5: have done things a lot differently. I just didn't realize.
Speaker 5: Like I said to the police, like nine to ten
Speaker 5: years to catch me.
Speaker 2: WHOA right?
Speaker 3: Nine to ten years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's on the run for nine to ten years.
Speaker 2: There's a whole thing. I mean, that's stressful. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: it's crazier than that, because as I told you, he
Speaker 2: was like, you know, very anti violence, doesn't and he
Speaker 2: also doesn't want to hurt anybody. He eventually gets involved
Speaker 2: with real criminals and then international criminals, credit card fraud.
Speaker 2: Then there's allegations he's involved with a terrorist mastermind and
Speaker 2: that's where the credit card fraud is funding. And this
Speaker 2: is like post nine to eleven, two thousand and four eras,
Speaker 2: So it's like real dicey to be involved with like
Speaker 2: terrorists find out. So he finds like the world of
Speaker 2: crime swallows him up like the sea and drags him
Speaker 2: out into the drowning.
Speaker 3: Do you think it must be hard to stay nonviolent
Speaker 3: and stay like not targeting people.
Speaker 2: You don't want to do the violence, and if you
Speaker 2: want to protect what you have and also protect yourself
Speaker 2: against other criminals you're doing business with, who will take
Speaker 2: from you what you have if you have to defend
Speaker 2: yourself or defend yourself with violence. Eventually you realize I'm
Speaker 2: in a room with all criminals and they will if
Speaker 2: I don't act tough and it You're like, oh, this
Speaker 2: is not the best growth plan. Like I'm gonna have
Speaker 2: to do this more and more. I'm had to get
Speaker 2: other guys with guns to sit next to me and
Speaker 2: protect my stuff. If I get more stuff, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: need more guys with guns. It's just like this is
Speaker 2: so that's why you get out of crime, if you
Speaker 2: really get deep into it. Right anyway, lesson over, what's
Speaker 2: our ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 3: Wow, I don't know. I mean I think that he's
Speaker 3: a good cautionary tale that like in terms of like
Speaker 3: we were just talking about getting swallowed up into larger things.
Speaker 3: So he had like a I don't want to say
Speaker 3: a noble mission because he was breaking the law totally,
Speaker 3: but it's same to But it wasn't damaging to the
Speaker 3: everyday person.
Speaker 2: No, exactly, he was His victims were not such that
Speaker 2: their lives were ruined. He was not you know, causing
Speaker 2: funerals he was not doing the stuff it's usually the
Speaker 2: costly aspect and.
Speaker 3: Just breaking people because he came from a family that
Speaker 3: had I mean divorce, but you had to know what
Speaker 3: it's like to just have nothing.
Speaker 2: He'd been the victim of that, so this time he
Speaker 2: thought so.
Speaker 3: But I think it's interesting that he and the idea
Speaker 3: that your first good night of sleep is the one
Speaker 3: in jail.
Speaker 2: After ten years or almost, you know.
Speaker 3: And I also, my other ridiculous takeaway is apparently like
Speaker 3: cool things like Hulu and all this other stuff contacts.
Speaker 2: You open your emails. That's all I got to say.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 2: Well, my ridiculous takeaway, once again, thank you for asking, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: is not only open your emails. But my other one
Speaker 2: is that I find it really fascinating how he kind
Speaker 2: of comes around, because now he is a security consultant,
Speaker 2: you know, so he's like what we often see. He
Speaker 2: becomes like the white hat happer. He's like, I'll teach
Speaker 2: you how to not have your sheep you take, and
Speaker 2: I'm the wolf who will protect you. But he still
Speaker 2: has like a not a disregard, but a lot of
Speaker 2: his attitudes haven't changed. He just realized that crime doesn't
Speaker 2: pay in the way that he wants, but he hasn't
Speaker 2: changed his mind about like, they're still robbing you too.
Speaker 2: You have to come around like legally exactly. I like that,
Speaker 2: you know, he's trying to make his way in a
Speaker 2: world where he's I has to watch other people get
Speaker 2: away with crime and he's like, nope, I can't do that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I find that really fascinating because he's so smart
Speaker 2: and he's like and he also his old desire to
Speaker 2: get back he's right now having to live like where
Speaker 2: he's muting himself. Yeah, so he's he's like another I'm
Speaker 2: not saying this is some zent maaster, but I thought
Speaker 2: that was really interesting.
Speaker 3: Well, and I just I'm so appreciative that he sat
Speaker 3: down to talk to you about that totally.
Speaker 2: It was great, So thank you, Gerald, I had a
Speaker 2: great time. And uh, anytime you want to come back,
Speaker 2: you know, you're always welcome, friend of the show, and
Speaker 2: if you enjoyed that, I also wanted to let you
Speaker 2: know we will make a full interview available on our website,
Speaker 2: So check back A Ridiculous Crime you want to hear
Speaker 2: the full interview with Gerald Blanchard Jewel Thief extraordinary. You
Speaker 2: can find us online if you'd like to hear more
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime on Twitter, Instagram, now threads.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's right, and.
Speaker 2: You can email us Elizabeth at Ridiculous Crime at gmail
Speaker 2: dot com. Somebody will get me the emails and currently
Speaker 2: she doesn't ever see it anyway. We also have the
Speaker 2: talkback app on iHeart, so you can uh you know,
Speaker 2: send us with she does hear those I can attest today,
Speaker 2: those she likes, those she likes to sun to your guys' voices.
Speaker 2: So end of an email that you just have a
Speaker 2: voicemail in it, I don't know, maybe should listen to
Speaker 2: that anyway. We'll be back next to Ryan. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett,
Speaker 2: produced and edited by Jewel thief connoisseur Dave researches by
Speaker 2: Marissa Interval's Most Wanted Brown and Andrea cat Burglar to
Speaker 2: the Stars song Shopping Too. Our theme song is a
Speaker 2: by Thomas Majestic Lee and Travis Benjamin Dutton. Post wardrobe
Speaker 2: is provided by Botany Five. Executive producers are Ben.
Speaker 6: The Other, mcgui Ver Bowlin and Noel mad Dog Murdoch Brown, Cry.
Speaker 3: Say It One More Time. Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeart Radio four more
Speaker 1: podcasts My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.