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Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime is a production of My Heart Radio's Elizabeth Doutton.

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Speaker 1: Nothing much. Oh, you know, it's ridiculous. I've been waiting

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Speaker 1: to see you because, Okay, I saw this and I

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Speaker 1: just wanted to read it to you. The hashtag Rivvyan

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Speaker 1: stories hashtag Rivyan This was a tweet and I quote.

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Speaker 1: I performed what is likely the world's first rivan power

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Speaker 1: to vasectomy today. The power and clinic went out. Patient

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Speaker 1: didn't want to reschedule because he already had time off.

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Speaker 1: Electrocuterie was normal, procedure went great. So somebody out there

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Speaker 1: was like they signed them for their vasectomy. Docs like,

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, man, I got problem. No power in the shop.

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Speaker 1: Patients like I saw, you got a nice new rivan

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Speaker 1: out front. You can you run a little drop cord

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Speaker 1: to that. Maybe we can cop this thing on now.

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Speaker 1: Apparently I didn't know this. You only need to power

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Speaker 1: a couple of things to do of a sector. So

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Speaker 1: you need to run the extension cord from the truck's

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Speaker 1: outlet of the bed to the air and n high

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Speaker 1: frequency desiccator that prevents blood loss during the operation. That

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Speaker 1: it and then also he needed a fan in the

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Speaker 1: patient room. Because it was hot because there was no power,

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Speaker 1: so the fan and the desiccation machine. The rest of

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Speaker 1: was just scalpel and knife and like clamp, you know

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Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So the total success, the doctor said,

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Speaker 1: the procedure itself went great. It just went as normal

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Speaker 1: as one could go the modern world. Keep making that face,

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Speaker 1: I'm like the I'm like the spinning wheel on the

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Speaker 1: back or like he just kept making the same face

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Speaker 1: already talking. You're like, there's just so that's that's ridiculous.

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Speaker 1: That's done world. I love it. It's like, okay, you

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Speaker 1: know what if, like if there's a hurricane and we're

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Speaker 1: without powerful, don't worry. I can still Yeah, we can

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Speaker 1: get this done. We got a rivian a guy who

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Speaker 1: got a vasectomy and it came back to work and

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Speaker 1: he tried to like work, and then it just says

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Speaker 1: his stuff swelled up so bad that he passed out.

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Speaker 1: We had no extended back to the I'm sorry, but

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Speaker 1: I Am not going to feel bad for him because

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Speaker 1: the stuff that women work through didn't compare. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean a lot of times women will will have

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Speaker 1: procedures and the doctor, oh, you know, you can go

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Speaker 1: back to work after an hour, and I'm always thinking like,

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Speaker 1: men couldn't. Yeah, they wouldn't even tell men they could

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Speaker 1: do that. You're gonna probably need to stay here tonight.

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Speaker 1: I love that he rubbed in his you got a

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Speaker 1: rivan outside. Things were like, ridiculous, that's super coolgrivan. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that is cool and ridiculous, And I'm still processing it.

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Speaker 1: Do you want to know what else is ridiculous? Ridiculous

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Speaker 1: being an incredible con man with no regrets, who gets

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Speaker 1: away with millions over his career and runs with free

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Speaker 1: thinkers of his time and even uses Hitler as a

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Speaker 1: pawn in one of his scams. God, we're just short, circunach.

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Speaker 1: I'm over here. I'm making the phase now. M This

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Speaker 1: is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,

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Speaker 1: heists and cons. It's always murder free and one ridiculous.

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Speaker 1: I have a MegaCon for you today. He's got like

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Speaker 1: a little bit of Edgar La Plant, some Arno Funka,

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Speaker 1: some Margaret Lydia Burton, some Bruno Schulz by' ball Baron,

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Speaker 1: maybe a little Billy Minor. The people. He is a

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Speaker 1: milange of ridiculous criminality. His name is Joseph Vile, Joseph

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Speaker 1: wild w e e Lay, but he was known to

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Speaker 1: all is yellow Kid, while he's a real con man's

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Speaker 1: con man, dude. That's like the straight up club games

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Speaker 1: he had. He wrote his autobiography Yellow Kid while but

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Speaker 1: they later repackaged it and called it con Man a

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Speaker 1: Master Swindlers Story. Okay, right, thanks barn. Do you know

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Speaker 1: the movie The Sting? Yeah, yeah, I love it supposedly

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Speaker 1: based on him? Sure, um, wrong movie now, okay, so

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Speaker 1: that was a brain fart. Yeah, we're it's we have

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Speaker 1: we have a lot to process right now. Yeah. Okay.

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Speaker 1: So one of his unverified cons was swindling two million

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Speaker 1: dollars out of Mussolini. Um, Marissa the researcher and I

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Speaker 1: we looked all over creation for more information on that,

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Speaker 1: but we came up drying. Okay, that's a thank you.

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Speaker 1: So he pulled off this incredible number of cons in

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Speaker 1: his life, absolutely mind boggling. It's the spinning wheel on

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Speaker 1: the mac like I just can't get my head. Um,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to give you like my top ones. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: highlight reel the legend of his crime, exactly, the essence,

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Speaker 1: the haiku of it. Um, little backstory. First born in

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Speaker 1: Chicago in eighteen seventy seven. When he was seventeen, he

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Speaker 1: left school to work as a quote collector for the Shark,

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Speaker 1: like a beach comber, Yeah, like a like No, for

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Speaker 1: just a legitimate business. Yeah. The salary, though, was small.

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Speaker 1: He wanted something better. But in his collection job, he

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Speaker 1: saw that everyone around him, the other collectors, the cashiers,

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Speaker 1: the bookkeepers, they kind of skimmed a little off the top,

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Speaker 1: all right, everybody. So he used that to his advantage,

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Speaker 1: though he basically blackmailed his coworkers, who paid for his silence. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I see you. I'm going to pamp your crime. He

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Speaker 1: later said, quote. I was of a very fragile constitution,

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Speaker 1: unfit for the heavier sort of manual labor. I knew

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Speaker 1: I could not toil like other men. How was I

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Speaker 1: to live? My power lay in words? In words, I

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Speaker 1: became a commander. Moreover, I could not lead a tame

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Speaker 1: life of monotony. I needed excitement, variety, danger, intellectual stimulus.

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Speaker 1: I was a psychologist. My domain was the human mind,

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Speaker 1: all right, Henry James. Right, So he gives his He

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Speaker 1: gets a job with a guy named Doc Merriweather, who

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Speaker 1: went around selling a tape worm cure that he called

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Speaker 1: Merryweather's a lickxer like this guy already. Yeah, And it

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Speaker 1: was just like the you know, herbal tincture or whatever

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Speaker 1: little booze in it. At the time, everyone thought they

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Speaker 1: had a tapeworm. I know they a lot of them

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Speaker 1: did tape worms to be like, I'm sad. They're like,

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Speaker 1: you have a tape uh. And they had all these

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Speaker 1: other weird things that they do where a currently they

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Speaker 1: treat the people, and it was unclear if they'd have

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Speaker 1: them like do their business in a bucket or something,

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Speaker 1: but then they had. They would peel a potato, one

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Speaker 1: long potato peel and drop it in and be like, look,

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Speaker 1: your tapeworm went for that, the potato. The potato peel

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Speaker 1: tape about the old fashioned medicine. You got ghost your blood.

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Speaker 1: You might do cocaine about it pretty much pretty much,

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Speaker 1: you got a potato peel in you so spring while

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Speaker 1: it's like I'm out of hair, yellow kid can't do

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Speaker 1: it anymore. He becomes a traveling magazine salesman. Sure he

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Speaker 1: gets married. He marries a woman named Jesse. She when

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Speaker 1: should they marry? She doesn't know. He's a con man

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Speaker 1: and later when she finds out, she's always begging him

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Speaker 1: to get out of the biz um. They had a

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Speaker 1: daughter together, Josephine. So three, he is hanging out in

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Speaker 1: this saloon that's owned by a Chicago alderman and boss

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Speaker 1: named John Coughlin. I don't know, no. Uh. He said

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Speaker 1: that that guy gave him the name the Yellow Kid

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Speaker 1: because he used to read a popular comic strip at

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Speaker 1: the time called Hogan's Alley and the Yellow Kid. So

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Speaker 1: that's what he says. He was named after a lot

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Speaker 1: of times in the news they'll they'll say that it

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Speaker 1: was because he always wore yellow gloves. But like then

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Speaker 1: they would also point out in all these news stories

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Speaker 1: through like time, they're like, you know, they searched his

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Speaker 1: house and they didn't turn up any yellow gloves, and

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Speaker 1: it's like, well, because he doesn't wear and detail totally.

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Speaker 1: So he worked as a door to door salesman, conned

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Speaker 1: people in that career. He had a ton of these

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Speaker 1: horse racing scams, like he actually went and bought horses.

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Speaker 1: Oh that kind like the horse trading scam. Well, he

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Speaker 1: said he was going to like throw a race and

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Speaker 1: that then he wouldn't And then that you can't come

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Speaker 1: after him because it's you know, you're already in an

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Speaker 1: illegal agreement already. So he would tell these dudes that,

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm fixing it. No, I'm not fixing it.

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Speaker 1: Whatever um dares him to go to the cops. He

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Speaker 1: gets away with that quite a bit. In he bought

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Speaker 1: a bank with his friends. You know, that's the move, um,

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Speaker 1: real crime stuff. He drew up fake lines of credits,

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Speaker 1: like his friend is the president, he's the vice president.

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Speaker 1: And then they had all the regular employees who are

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Speaker 1: already there with a bank. If you can get a loan,

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Speaker 1: you can make nine fake dollars off of one real dollar.

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Speaker 1: Well that's what they did. They dropped fake lines of credit.

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Speaker 1: He and the VP and like another guy, and they

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Speaker 1: go to Europe and they buy a bunch of stuff,

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Speaker 1: all these really these luxury goods, and then they also

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Speaker 1: got cash advances and stuff. I think they returned some

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Speaker 1: of the luxury anyway, they come home, they have like

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Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of dollars off of this. So then

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Speaker 1: the European banks they you know, they're like waiting. They

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Speaker 1: try to collect on it. And the you know, yellow

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Speaker 1: kid and his friends like Oh, you know what, Like,

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Speaker 1: we had this cashier here and he drew up all

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Speaker 1: these fake lines and he just ran off to Mexico.

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Speaker 1: There's nothing we can do. And the guy that they

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Speaker 1: had signed them was a cashier and they sent him

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Speaker 1: to live in Mexico and they paid him. So it's like,

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Speaker 1: we're not lying. He's in Mexico. Yeah, so he's also yellow.

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Speaker 1: Kids like this super sharp dresser, and the press loved

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Speaker 1: talking about his court appearances, in one article that said Mr.

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Speaker 1: While wore blue over a white shirt studded with gold,

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Speaker 1: a diamond blazer in his cravat, an overcoat of Killarney green,

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Speaker 1: a green velour hat of gay and rakish tilt, and

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Speaker 1: a spank and pair of tan shoes with spats. I hope. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he was just outfit. He's deck, dude. The drip is clean.

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Speaker 1: Let me tell you about my first favorite, your favorite

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Speaker 1: Sarah closed your eyes as a closed girl. I want

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Speaker 1: you to picture it. Alright. You're in Chicago in n

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Speaker 1: You're a successful businessman. You're sitting in the lobby of

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Speaker 1: the Metropol Hotel. You're reading the paper while you wait

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Speaker 1: for a colleague to join you. But you're actually eavesdropping

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Speaker 1: on all the people around you. Super fun. There's a

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Speaker 1: natly dressed gentleman sitting a few over stuffed chairs over

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Speaker 1: and then a man in a blue suit approaches him. Hello, Joe,

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Speaker 1: what are you doing now? The snappy dresser sitting near

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Speaker 1: you replies, at the moment, I'm free. Do you have

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Speaker 1: something in mind? Yes? How'd you like to make a

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Speaker 1: trip to Baltimore? You know me, Sam, I always like

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Speaker 1: to travel. What's the deal? Now? This sounds interesting? Zaron,

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Speaker 1: You're hooked. You lean forward. You can make your own deal.

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Speaker 1: I'll give you the layout and you can work it

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Speaker 1: any way that you like. So come over to the

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Speaker 1: office with me and I'll tell you all about it too,

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Speaker 1: mad And they walk off out through the grand entrance

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Speaker 1: of the hotel. You just witnessed the birth of an

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Speaker 1: incredibly ridiculous con Oh. I love being there at the start.

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Speaker 1: So Joe, the sharp dressed man, that's the yellow kid, Sam.

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Speaker 1: The guy in the blue suit. His name is Sam Banks.

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Speaker 1: He is a really successful businessman based in Chicago. He

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Speaker 1: had just opened up a Boston office. What does Sam do? No,

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Speaker 1: he's a fortune teller, so he caters to stockbrokers, but

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Speaker 1: also the uber wealthy. Yeah, and he he just like

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Speaker 1: studied stocks in depth. He knew the market better than anybody. Um,

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Speaker 1: but they knew him as like a magical fortune teller,

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Speaker 1: not like some staid advisor guy. He wore a turban

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Speaker 1: in his in his well. The client would write a

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Speaker 1: question on a piece of paper. Sam would lie back

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Speaker 1: on a couch and he'd put the paper on his

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Speaker 1: forehead and he would tell the client, Okay, guys going

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Speaker 1: into a trance, be ready, and like so he'd have

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Speaker 1: the paper. He wouldn't look at the paper. He put

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Speaker 1: the paper on his forehead, go into a trance. Um.

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Speaker 1: Ed mcman would laugh, right and Ed mcmann's hiding there.

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Speaker 1: Paper that he puts on his forehead isn't the one

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Speaker 1: the client gave him though, because like the client hands

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Speaker 1: him the paper and he would do all these mystical

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Speaker 1: hand gestures of the yeah, and then he like uses

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Speaker 1: sleight of hand to slip the actual question behind some

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Speaker 1: drapes to an assistant who's waiting there, and then he'd

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Speaker 1: say some stuff in Jewish, you know, uh yeah, bring

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Speaker 1: king kom um. The turban that he was wearing had

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Speaker 1: a telephone headset like it was hiding it. So he

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Speaker 1: had had telephone headset over his ears, the turban covering that.

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Speaker 1: A wire from the headset went down his back to

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Speaker 1: a metal connection in his shoes, and then he had

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Speaker 1: the metal connection in the couch. So when he lies

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Speaker 1: back and he puts his feet to the end of

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Speaker 1: it makes a circuit. Yeah. So um. He then that

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Speaker 1: at the couch had a line that went behind this

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Speaker 1: curtain to these assistant. That's really smart, so he's not connected.

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Speaker 1: He can get up and move around. Yeah, so yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's he's basically wireless at them. So he lays down.

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Speaker 1: The assistant would read the question over the telephone line.

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Speaker 1: Sam would then sit up, take the paper off of

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Speaker 1: his forehead and without looking at it, lighted on fire

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Speaker 1: off like on a candle that was on a table,

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Speaker 1: and then answer the question. So you're the client, you

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Speaker 1: can write this down totally and then you know the client.

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Speaker 1: The mark would be just so this is amazing, pay

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Speaker 1: up and walk out. A lot of rich ladies would

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Speaker 1: come in and they'd have questions about romance and that

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Speaker 1: sort of stuff. He just gave them like common sense

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Speaker 1: answers and they're like, oh my god, you're right, and

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Speaker 1: so they were. So a week before in the interaction

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Speaker 1: that you saw a yellow kid running into Sam at

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Speaker 1: the Metropole. Yeah, Sam had done a session in Boston

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Speaker 1: with this rich woman named Dora Albright. They met up

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Speaker 1: in Boston. Dora, Yeah, and so he wants to tell

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Speaker 1: yellow kid all about what happened. Dora is a spinster

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Speaker 1: and she was visiting Boston from Baltimore to see about

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Speaker 1: some investments. Based on other elements of casual conversations, Sam

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Speaker 1: he basically did a cold reading and was able to

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Speaker 1: say a lot of stuff about Dora that she hadn't

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Speaker 1: shared yet. Like he sees that you know, she's she's

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Speaker 1: talking about how she's coming into town. She's kind of

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Speaker 1: like running the show. He's like, ooh, you're the you're

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Speaker 1: the oldest of your siblings. Oh yeah, like you know

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Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Dora is sold. So she writes

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Speaker 1: her question on the piece of paper and it says,

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Speaker 1: my sisters and I have two hundred thousand dollars in cash.

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Speaker 1: Should we put it into a savings bank or should

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Speaker 1: we seek an investment? Like if this were a movie

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Speaker 1: and their money soon parted, I would think that she

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Speaker 1: was the one running the com because who asked that

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Speaker 1: I got two grand? What do I do? Got this

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Speaker 1: pocket and it's got a lighting, Lenny asked the fortune teller.

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Speaker 1: So Sam as the routine the trance, puts the paper

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Speaker 1: blah blah blah, and then he responds, he said, I

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Speaker 1: see a man coming into your life. He has a beard,

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Speaker 1: and I can't tell you how he's going to come

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Speaker 1: into your life or when it's going to happen. And

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Speaker 1: then quote he'd him, the bearded one holds the key

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Speaker 1: to your fortune. That is all. So the next man

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Speaker 1: with the beard comes up, well, he has someone in

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Speaker 1: his head. Dora gets super emotional over this. She thanks him,

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Speaker 1: pays her hefty feet goes on her way. Sam then,

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Speaker 1: of course, sees the yellow Kid, tells the story and says, look,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to know the details of whatever you

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Speaker 1: come up with. I've given you all the material you need.

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Speaker 1: Just give me a cut or whatever you get. Oh,

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Speaker 1: he trusts the yellow kid. He's like, here, I'm just

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Speaker 1: gonna give you the give you the give you the facts.

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Speaker 1: You run with him. I don't, okay, do you think

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Speaker 1: Sam is in on it? Where he's like he knows

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Speaker 1: this lady's in Mark and it's a hot markets. I

285
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Speaker 1: just want my cut. Or is he thinking like we're

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Speaker 1: doing actual business for this lady. Oh no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: he knows she's a Mark. He's like, I don't want

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Speaker 1: to know what you're going to do with this or

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Speaker 1: just give exactly. So Yellow Kids like, yeah, let's do this.

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Speaker 1: I gotta go to Texas. And Sam's like, wait, we'll wait.

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Speaker 1: Now she lives in Baltimore. But you know, he says, quote, yes,

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Speaker 1: I know, but Texas fascinates me right now, there's something

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Speaker 1: there I want to which Sam replies, well, do it

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Speaker 1: your own way, Joe, so, which of course he did.

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Speaker 1: When we come back, I'm going to tell you about Texas,

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Speaker 1: the Bearded One and Old Dora. All right, Zaron, Oh hey,

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Speaker 1: what's up? Elizabeth? Hey? How you doing? I'm doing proved

298
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Speaker 1: Robert too? Not bad, not bad. When we left off,

299
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Speaker 1: we were just talking about do you remember we were

300
00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:11,240
Speaker 1: talking about some stuff. Yeah, it's nineteen sixteen. Yellow Kid.

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Speaker 1: He has a lead from his friend Sam that the

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Speaker 1: Sam the fortune Teller, that there's a spinster in Baltimore

303
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Speaker 1: who's got an extra two hundred thousand dollars cash Sam,

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Speaker 1: you know, lays it all out for him. Yellow Kids like,

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Speaker 1: guess what, perfect I'm going to Texas, by the way,

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Speaker 1: two thousand dollars and is like five and a half

307
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Speaker 1: million today. I'm wondering. Yeah. Yeah, So Yellow Kid goes

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Speaker 1: to Texas. He uses the name Ari Ruel. That's one

309
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Speaker 1: of his favorite aliases, Henry Royal. Yeah, I guess, well

310
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Speaker 1: not royal, but like U R E U E L

311
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Speaker 1: L I suppose um. He he goes there and he

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00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:54,320
Speaker 1: buys fifteen hundred acres of land at a dollar and

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Speaker 1: acre between Standard Oil and the Texas Company which is

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Speaker 1: now Texaco. So he buys this big plot. He then

315
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:06,520
Speaker 1: drives to Baltimore. He wrote, quote, my car was a

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Speaker 1: Fiat imported and custom built. It was expensive, powerful, and luxurious.

317
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Speaker 1: So he's just hammers down from Texas to Baltimore. It

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Speaker 1: was a Saturday evening when he rolls into town. He

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00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:23,840
Speaker 1: purposefully stalled his car in front of Dora's place and

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Speaker 1: then goes and asks to use the phone. You know, sorry,

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Speaker 1: Oh no, he always had a beard. Sorry, he always

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Speaker 1: had a beard. Yeah, from like the jump. So that's

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Speaker 1: why when you know she's telling this line and Sam

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Speaker 1: the fortune teller's hearing it in his head. He's like,

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Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna say beard because Yellow Kid's gonna

326
00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:44,919
Speaker 1: be all over this one. So he knows there's no

327
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Speaker 1: way he's going to get a mechanic out there until

328
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Speaker 1: Monday morning because it's Saturday night. So he knocks door,

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Speaker 1: opens the door, she sees a man with a beard.

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Speaker 1: He's like, hello, I am alre re well. Dora lives

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Speaker 1: with her sisters. She's like, sees this man, sees the beard.

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Speaker 1: It was like, do you want to stay the weekend?

333
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Speaker 1: She hasn't run into any other bearded men, not like

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00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:12,520
Speaker 1: introducing themselves in this right didn't capture her. The butler

335
00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:16,480
Speaker 1: carries Yellow kids bags into the house and Dora sees

336
00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:19,200
Speaker 1: that his bags were covered in labels from all over Europe.

337
00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,439
Speaker 1: And so he goes into the guest room to freshen up.

338
00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:24,919
Speaker 1: He gets his beard looking all good. He greases it

339
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:27,800
Speaker 1: up nice, and then they're all hanging up the moths

340
00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:31,160
Speaker 1: and bugs from the road. Well, I guess he had

341
00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:34,959
Speaker 1: it like he like parted it in the middle. Yeah,

342
00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:38,080
Speaker 1: you know style, you could do the scott and with

343
00:20:38,119 --> 00:20:42,200
Speaker 1: the beads that would be dope. Yeah. So they're hanging

344
00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:45,040
Speaker 1: out in the parlor. Yellow kid like he sees like

345
00:20:45,119 --> 00:20:50,960
Speaker 1: these sisters are a little sheltered, surprised. Um. They asked

346
00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:54,160
Speaker 1: him what he did, and he's just super casual. He's like, well,

347
00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:58,160
Speaker 1: I represent all these European clients and um, a lot

348
00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:00,439
Speaker 1: of them have money in Texas and I want to

349
00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:03,359
Speaker 1: sell it off because they're really distracted. There's war coming

350
00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:06,280
Speaker 1: to Europe, so they kind of want to just liquidate

351
00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:08,960
Speaker 1: and get out of here. Um. They asked him about, Oh,

352
00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:10,800
Speaker 1: so you've been in Europe. He's like, yeah, I traveled

353
00:21:10,840 --> 00:21:14,840
Speaker 1: all over. He tells them tales of the continent. He's like,

354
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,520
Speaker 1: you know, um, wars on the horizon. They got to liquidate.

355
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:22,080
Speaker 1: I've been able to sell everything except for you know,

356
00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:27,040
Speaker 1: I've just exhausted. I have fifteen hundred acres left. I

357
00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:30,160
Speaker 1: got to move these fifteen hundred acres and then I'm done,

358
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:34,919
Speaker 1: you know with this whole project. Um. They're interested, right, like,

359
00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:38,320
Speaker 1: oh acres, you say, Um, is there a way that

360
00:21:38,359 --> 00:21:40,159
Speaker 1: we can get in illness? Like, if you need to

361
00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:44,040
Speaker 1: do you need to sell this off, maybe we could help.

362
00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:46,800
Speaker 1: And he's like, well, you know, I've only been working

363
00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:49,520
Speaker 1: with investment firms. I hadn't even thought about selling the

364
00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:54,399
Speaker 1: private investors. Well, you know why not, that would probably work.

365
00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:57,119
Speaker 1: So he goes back to the guest room and he

366
00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:00,400
Speaker 1: returns with these fake maps that he'd made, like he

367
00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: drew up these maps that had like the where the

368
00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:07,320
Speaker 1: area was and the real maps. But then he had

369
00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:10,520
Speaker 1: like the mother pool, which was just like his guests

370
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:12,879
Speaker 1: on maybe there's oil. They're like it just he just

371
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:18,879
Speaker 1: made it all up. So he, um, he agrees to

372
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:20,399
Speaker 1: sell it to them. I'm going to give you a

373
00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:24,760
Speaker 1: huge bargain, a hundred and twenty dollars an acre. So

374
00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:27,760
Speaker 1: he bought it at a dollar so you know, he

375
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:30,080
Speaker 1: left him a little that has that that's a hundred

376
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:35,439
Speaker 1: and eighty thousand exactly. This is that they had this

377
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:39,760
Speaker 1: nice dinner and a lot of wine to celebrate this deal. Um,

378
00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:41,199
Speaker 1: it is nice to have a good meal when you're

379
00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:44,760
Speaker 1: gonna get screwed. Like he has him write up a contract.

380
00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:46,800
Speaker 1: He's like, I really, I want I want you to

381
00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:50,040
Speaker 1: go and take this, you know, um to get to

382
00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:52,359
Speaker 1: file it with the Assessor of Power. They're going to

383
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:54,760
Speaker 1: do it, just because I want to make sure we

384
00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:59,480
Speaker 1: lock this in, like as soon as possible basically, and

385
00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:01,719
Speaker 1: so they spend the rest of the weekend together. They

386
00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:05,119
Speaker 1: go to church on Sunday. Yeah, he's just playing it up.

387
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,320
Speaker 1: Mechanic comes on Monday, pops it open. It's like, oh

388
00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:14,120
Speaker 1: this ignition wires plug it back in. So fixes the car.

389
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:17,280
Speaker 1: He has the deed, He gets there a hundred and

390
00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:20,760
Speaker 1: eighty thousand dollars, goes on his way. He wrote later quote,

391
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:23,680
Speaker 1: there was nothing the all Bright sisters could have done

392
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:26,479
Speaker 1: to me, even if they wanted to. For all I know,

393
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:29,359
Speaker 1: there really was oil on the land I'd sold them.

394
00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:31,600
Speaker 1: At any rate, the sale was good, and the land

395
00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:35,040
Speaker 1: actually existed. Whether they later tried to develop it for oil,

396
00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:39,120
Speaker 1: I don't know. I never heard anymore about them. Exists existed,

397
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:43,480
Speaker 1: not everything I've sold so hard to find out what

398
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:47,720
Speaker 1: happened to Dora Albright. I've like searched and searched what happened.

399
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:51,879
Speaker 1: Are about to look for a new place, But they

400
00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:57,040
Speaker 1: own acres in Texas and enjoy it. Maybe. Um, So

401
00:23:57,280 --> 00:23:59,920
Speaker 1: of course he goes and gives forty five dollars to say,

402
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:04,240
Speaker 1: um the fortune teller as thanks, And that's like almost

403
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:07,480
Speaker 1: one point to five million dollars today. As just a

404
00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:13,679
Speaker 1: finder's incredible. So yellow Man, Yellow Man, Yellow Man, the

405
00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:19,080
Speaker 1: reggae artist, father of Yellow Kids, Yellow Kid, he worked

406
00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:22,400
Speaker 1: with a bunch of different conmen and um, I remember

407
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:27,560
Speaker 1: when he was a dj A. It was amazing Yellow

408
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,119
Speaker 1: So you have no idea how hard it was for me,

409
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:35,440
Speaker 1: like getting Yellow Man songs in my head as I

410
00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:40,399
Speaker 1: was researching. So. Um, he had all these conman pals.

411
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 1: One of them Sam the Fortune Teller. Another one was

412
00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:47,560
Speaker 1: a guy named Fred buck Minster, and Fred Buckminster he

413
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,800
Speaker 1: was nicknamed the Deacon because his face looks so honest,

414
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:55,040
Speaker 1: like of course, Um, yellow Kid would go to great

415
00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:58,960
Speaker 1: lengths to fleece a victim. Like he would do very complicated,

416
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,720
Speaker 1: drawn out things and then sometimes inspiration would just strike

417
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:04,600
Speaker 1: him and that's where he would come up with a scam.

418
00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:06,920
Speaker 1: But he also he was the master of the twist.

419
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:10,480
Speaker 1: We'll get to that. He did the twist. He taught

420
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:15,960
Speaker 1: it to Chubby Checker. Yes, So one time, Yellow Kid

421
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,000
Speaker 1: he's like reading through the paper and he sees an

422
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:22,000
Speaker 1: ad to sub let this like really nice luxury apartment

423
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 1: for nine months in Chicago, and so he's like, let's

424
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:28,280
Speaker 1: rent it and just we'll have access to that space.

425
00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:31,320
Speaker 1: We can find a use for this. Yeah, this looks

426
00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 1: like a good opportunity. So he and his pals, including

427
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:38,120
Speaker 1: the Deacon Buckminster, they set up a fake private gambling

428
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:41,640
Speaker 1: club there. So they didn't open a real private gambling club.

429
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:45,280
Speaker 1: It was a fake. They paid actors to hang out

430
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:49,680
Speaker 1: and pretend the gamble. Yeah, they paid him twenty five

431
00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:52,800
Speaker 1: dollars a pop. They had drinks, they had gaming tables.

432
00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:56,199
Speaker 1: They were like fake stacks of money. It's amazing. So

433
00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 1: then he Yellow Kid, he invites an acquaintance of his

434
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:05,199
Speaker 1: named Corvill Hotchkiss to you know, so hotch Kiss he

435
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:08,840
Speaker 1: knew Yellow Kid as Joe Warrington. So his pal Joe

436
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 1: Warrington slash Yellow Kid, he invites him. Yellow Kids says, look,

437
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:16,200
Speaker 1: I have an uncle who works at this club as

438
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:21,880
Speaker 1: a Pharaoh Bank dealer. Do you know what Pharaoh bank game? Yeah,

439
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 1: it's uh yeah, Pharaoh Bank is a Pharaoh French card game,

440
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:27,919
Speaker 1: kind of like poker but totally not big on the

441
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:31,680
Speaker 1: Old West. Yeah. I'm really terrible at understanding or explaining

442
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:35,000
Speaker 1: card games, but basically it goes like this. There's a

443
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:38,480
Speaker 1: banker like the dealer in essence, and then the cards

444
00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:42,440
Speaker 1: are shuffled and then they play and did someone win

445
00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:45,720
Speaker 1: and someone lose? Yes, those are the rules games. It's

446
00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:48,800
Speaker 1: super fun. Thank you for sharing. You're welcome. So um

447
00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 1: the uncle who in reality another con Man actor. He

448
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:56,720
Speaker 1: had allegedly been screwed over for a promotion. So he's

449
00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:59,159
Speaker 1: looking to throw a game and screw over the club

450
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:02,400
Speaker 1: and he is like willing to split the profits with

451
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:06,639
Speaker 1: a willing patron. So Yellow Kid says to hot Kiss, like,

452
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:09,160
Speaker 1: can you help, can you help my uncle screw over

453
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:13,040
Speaker 1: this club? Was like, yeah, let's do it. And so

454
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 1: this quote unquote uncle, he taught hot Kiss the game

455
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:20,400
Speaker 1: of Farroh or Pharaoh. I say farrow because I'm looking

456
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 1: at it like it's the Pharaoh because it looks like

457
00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:28,439
Speaker 1: the alternate spellings are Pharaoh, like Egyptian pharaoh. Yeah, but

458
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:32,159
Speaker 1: it's f a R. So he's like, I'm going to

459
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 1: teach you the game. He went a little more in

460
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:37,040
Speaker 1: depth than my explanation. I imagine there's a couple of

461
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:39,760
Speaker 1: degrees made like one or two other items. Um, and

462
00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 1: then he's like, I'll give you certain signals of what

463
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:46,840
Speaker 1: to do. So then uh, Yellow Kid brings him to

464
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:49,439
Speaker 1: the club. Looks super official, It looks like it's popping.

465
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 1: You know, um can do is make a look official? Right?

466
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:58,160
Speaker 1: Hot Kiss didn't have any money on him, but Yellow

467
00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:00,840
Speaker 1: Kid was like, look, just write a check for fifty

468
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:04,240
Speaker 1: grand for the chips. It's cool. So things go according

469
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:07,840
Speaker 1: to plan. Right During the game, hot Kiss wins three

470
00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars and the club's overseer, though played by Buckminster,

471
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,120
Speaker 1: the deacon. He says he just came in from New York.

472
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:19,600
Speaker 1: He's like, I'm not gonna let you cash in those chips.

473
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 1: I don't know you, and I don't know if this

474
00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:26,880
Speaker 1: check is valid. I only take checks from known club members.

475
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:33,600
Speaker 1: So Buckminster is just not budging. Yellow Kid pretends to

476
00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 1: try and convince them all right, listen, listen, listen. If

477
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 1: Hot Kiss, if this guy brings in the five cash

478
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 1: that he had on this check, if he brings it tomorrow,

479
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:45,960
Speaker 1: could he get his three hundred thousand? Then if he

480
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:49,400
Speaker 1: just swaps stuck, can you hold his chips for him?

481
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 1: Obviously the club doesn't have three d dollars to hand out,

482
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:56,240
Speaker 1: no intention of it, but they're like, okay, fine, this

483
00:28:56,320 --> 00:29:00,960
Speaker 1: is the twist. Then Hot Kiss doesn't have to tw thousand, right,

484
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 1: Yellow Kid knows this, but he knows that Hot Kiss

485
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 1: knows someone who does. Mr McHenry. Mr McHenry was the

486
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 1: intended target in the first Yeah, so the whole set

487
00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:16,120
Speaker 1: up with hot Kiss was really just to get access

488
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,640
Speaker 1: to mckenry. Is the weak link for mckenry. He's an

489
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 1: emotional soft point. Yes, so yellow Kid says, you know

490
00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:27,120
Speaker 1: to hot Kiss, well, you know, kind of off handled. Well,

491
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 1: why don't you invite your friend mckenry to the club

492
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:33,960
Speaker 1: tomorrow night and then we can get Henry. He can

493
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,440
Speaker 1: help us screw over the club. He can throw a

494
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 1: faro game. He's a big dog. He can definitely and

495
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:40,480
Speaker 1: then you know, he could probably also front you that

496
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:43,520
Speaker 1: fifty grand so you can get your three hundred. You

497
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:46,840
Speaker 1: can be a winner. Everyone everyone wins. Guys. Hot Kiss

498
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:51,400
Speaker 1: is like, yeah, let's do this. So he he um.

499
00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:54,280
Speaker 1: He goes in, Hey, McHenry, quick question, do you want

500
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:57,240
Speaker 1: to come to a gambling club and give me fifty dollars?

501
00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:01,160
Speaker 1: And mckenry is like, all right, but here's the rest

502
00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:03,640
Speaker 1: of the details. Yeah, okay, the three Yeah, and we

503
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:08,000
Speaker 1: can screw over this club. Yeah. So the like supposed

504
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 1: scorned uncle, he now has to teach McHenry about the

505
00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 1: game the same rules that I gave and then Um

506
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:20,840
Speaker 1: and the hand Chester's the cues right, and so that

507
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:24,560
Speaker 1: that evening. Though there's a big difference because first, instead

508
00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:28,280
Speaker 1: of writing a check, mckenry throws down fifty cash. He's ready,

509
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:33,440
Speaker 1: he's in now. During the Pharaoh game, the uncle slashed dealer.

510
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:38,800
Speaker 1: Um didn't actually let McHenry win, and in fact, he

511
00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:42,160
Speaker 1: blamed him afterwards. He's like, I was giving you all

512
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 1: the right signals and you screwed them up. Like what

513
00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:48,720
Speaker 1: is wrong with you? Why weren't you doing I told

514
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:52,000
Speaker 1: you over and over. He's like, it's your fault. So

515
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,760
Speaker 1: they lose the fifty grand. Yellow Kid walks off with

516
00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 1: fifty grand, so like he has all that's like a

517
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:02,920
Speaker 1: typical that's like a solid yellow Kid one. Some of

518
00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 1: the ones that he did were just like silly for

519
00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 1: his own giggles, his own entertainment. So in the twenties,

520
00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:12,040
Speaker 1: Yellow Kid was a member of a bohemian discussion group

521
00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 1: called the Dill Pickle Club. Are you familiar the Dill

522
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:20,440
Speaker 1: Pickle Club? It was a speakeasy in the theater that

523
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 1: was in operation in Chicago from nineteen seventeen to ninety five,

524
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: and he was a member UM. It was like this

525
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 1: haven for free thinkers. I've never heard of this. Let

526
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 1: me tell you who. Some of the frequent attendees were

527
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 1: Clarence Darrow, Emma Goldman, Upton Sinclair, Carl Sandberg, William Carlos Williams,

528
00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:49,160
Speaker 1: Kenneth rex Row, labor leaders like Bill Haywood, and like

529
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:57,480
Speaker 1: people from all walks of life right there were social workers, artists, scientists, anarchists, prostitutes,

530
00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:01,880
Speaker 1: like religious zealots, and then con men. Of the people

531
00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:05,920
Speaker 1: in the club all knew who Yellow Kid was. Yeah, exactly.

532
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:08,520
Speaker 1: So one time he's there and he gives this fake

533
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 1: demonstration for a machine that he claimed would roast a

534
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:17,600
Speaker 1: chicken in thirty seconds, so it's obviously it's a fake machine.

535
00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 1: He had a previously roasted chicken that was swapped for

536
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,800
Speaker 1: a rawlin under the table. It was like supposed to

537
00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:26,760
Speaker 1: be this jokey thing, and he wrote quote any but

538
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:29,280
Speaker 1: the most gullible should have realized what was going on,

539
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:33,320
Speaker 1: So he claims though Yellow Kids said that after the

540
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:37,560
Speaker 1: lecture to people, including a University of Chicago professor, came

541
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: up to him and wanted to invest in the company

542
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:43,760
Speaker 1: wanted to know, like, what are your plans to patent it?

543
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,720
Speaker 1: Are we going to sell this? He thought it was

544
00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 1: super amusing, wouldn't take their money, so it was like

545
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,440
Speaker 1: he loved just getting one over. He wasn't always because

546
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 1: he could have just fleeced those guys too, So he

547
00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:56,280
Speaker 1: tried a bunch of times to go straight, but he

548
00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:58,760
Speaker 1: just couldn't do it. He tried to sell pianos for

549
00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 1: a while, and that didn't pan out because like some

550
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 1: of his con man budd he's found out about his business. Yeah,

551
00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:07,720
Speaker 1: and they were like, all right, look, we're going to

552
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 1: get into this. They kind of tried to flip it

553
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:12,560
Speaker 1: into an illegal operation, so we gave up. He tried

554
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:17,040
Speaker 1: selling Catholic encyclopedias for a while. Yeah. He opened a

555
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 1: legitimate hotel called the Martinique in Chicago, super luxury place. Um.

556
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:30,800
Speaker 1: They sort of really nice booze during prohibition. After a while, though,

557
00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:33,360
Speaker 1: like the patrons of the hotel just kept being like

558
00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 1: more and more swindlers and high end comment and it

559
00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:39,680
Speaker 1: was like this criminal hot spot. After only a couple

560
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 1: of months, he was in the whole first seven fifty

561
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:47,400
Speaker 1: thousand dollars on this hotel. How well, they're just like

562
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 1: everyone's like he's just doing one scamp like it just

563
00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 1: like it started out legitimately and then it just goes

564
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,440
Speaker 1: like downward spiral quickly. He wants to save the hotel,

565
00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:57,960
Speaker 1: to burn it down. Well, he starts working with this

566
00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:01,240
Speaker 1: gang that had him selling stolen bonds and gold coins.

567
00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:04,280
Speaker 1: He got swept up in the bus for their initial

568
00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 1: robbery of all that stuff. Um, and he got sentenced

569
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:11,120
Speaker 1: to five years in Leavenworth as a result. And on

570
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:14,160
Speaker 1: this one, it's just like he was adjacent, so adjacent

571
00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:17,279
Speaker 1: to it. He had been recogress in a bunch of times, right,

572
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:19,880
Speaker 1: and that this one that was his third conviction. So

573
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:23,160
Speaker 1: the first conviction was in nineteen eleven. And a fun

574
00:34:23,200 --> 00:34:25,960
Speaker 1: fact about that, on his way to Juliet prison for that,

575
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:29,719
Speaker 1: he allegedly managed to convince the detective that was with

576
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,279
Speaker 1: him to buy thirty thousand dollars of fake stock from

577
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:35,960
Speaker 1: him on his way to prison, so that his second

578
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 1: conviction was nineteen Here's a fun fact about the second conviction.

579
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:44,400
Speaker 1: His lawyer for that case was none other than his

580
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:51,040
Speaker 1: Dill Pickle Club pal, Clarence Darrow. Yes, Leopold Love if

581
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,480
Speaker 1: you're going to get a closing remarks Clarence Darrow exactly.

582
00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:58,160
Speaker 1: So this time, though Yellow Kid off to leaven Worth

583
00:34:58,239 --> 00:35:01,359
Speaker 1: five year stretch, Let's take break, we come back. I'll

584
00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:05,240
Speaker 1: tell you about an international and audacious scam that Yellow

585
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:30,440
Speaker 1: Kid ran. Please Saren, welcome back. Have you been? I

586
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:33,239
Speaker 1: love those pants? Thank you so much. I love that

587
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,000
Speaker 1: you're not wearing pants. No, just sucks, just sucks. Yeah,

588
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:38,839
Speaker 1: well leg warmers. Oh that's what those are. Yeah, well

589
00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:43,320
Speaker 1: that's what I was told they were. Okay, okay, well yeah, okay.

590
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:48,439
Speaker 1: So we're talking about Yellow Kid while vile Yellow kids vile,

591
00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:52,840
Speaker 1: while um in his various con man exploits um. So

592
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:56,040
Speaker 1: he did time in leaven Worth, gets out in March

593
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 1: of nineteen the full stretch. Yeah, he gets out of

594
00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:03,200
Speaker 1: prison and he and Fred the Deacon Buckminster, they go

595
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:07,560
Speaker 1: to Europe. Yeah. So on the boat right over they

596
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:11,320
Speaker 1: meet two ladies and the ladies ended up swindling them

597
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 1: for ten thousand dollars with the same sort of tale

598
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:18,440
Speaker 1: that they would tell victims are like, there's an emergency,

599
00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:20,600
Speaker 1: we need money, but the money is held up and

600
00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:23,799
Speaker 1: should be coming shortly. Can we give you something as collateral? Like,

601
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:27,959
Speaker 1: here's a necklace can you hold? And it looks really

602
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:31,360
Speaker 1: expensive but it's worthless. So but they're like amused by this,

603
00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:34,359
Speaker 1: so like, yeah, we got scammed. It was a good one. Um.

604
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 1: His One of his last big admitted scams was with

605
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:42,759
Speaker 1: a wealthy American woman who owned a mine in Arizona.

606
00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:47,480
Speaker 1: So Yellow Kid, pretending to be a famous mining engineer,

607
00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:52,279
Speaker 1: he said he help her with apparently, so well, yeah,

608
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:57,080
Speaker 1: I remember back, yeah, with the mines and the gems.

609
00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:00,799
Speaker 1: So he gets Buckminster on board as his assistant, and

610
00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:04,120
Speaker 1: the two they go to Arizona all in this lady's dime,

611
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,319
Speaker 1: like an expense account. They're like yep, they go and look,

612
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:09,960
Speaker 1: the mine is legitimate, but like it's not being used.

613
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:12,680
Speaker 1: So they spend the rest of the time like on vacation,

614
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:17,840
Speaker 1: just like sitting by a pool, sip and drink rocks exactly.

615
00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:20,759
Speaker 1: So then they go back to Chicago and Yellow Kids like,

616
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:22,960
Speaker 1: you know what, yeah, I will help you manage that mine.

617
00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:26,879
Speaker 1: Uh no, she wants to sell it. He's like, okay, well,

618
00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:28,880
Speaker 1: you know what, you can get way more for the

619
00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:32,520
Speaker 1: land in Europe than you can't at home. So she agrees, right,

620
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:36,040
Speaker 1: so they go back to Europe. Yellow Kid and the

621
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 1: Deacon they sail to Berlin in nineteen thirty. So when

622
00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:48,440
Speaker 1: they get there, they make a formal written request to

623
00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:52,719
Speaker 1: meet with Hitler and it's denied. But they knew it.

624
00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:56,359
Speaker 1: They knew that was going. Well, why do you think

625
00:37:56,360 --> 00:38:00,120
Speaker 1: they wanted that? The letterhead exactly, that's they want at

626
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:04,480
Speaker 1: official government stationary. So then they also make an inquiry

627
00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:08,839
Speaker 1: at the German government bank, the Right Bank, um, with

628
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:14,279
Speaker 1: the purpose of attaining more more letter totally, so they

629
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:17,840
Speaker 1: got these two pieces of paper. Yellow Kid forges a

630
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:22,480
Speaker 1: conversation between Hitler and the bank, expressing interest in this

631
00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:27,040
Speaker 1: Arizona property. And then but the negotiations are delayed, like

632
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:30,320
Speaker 1: that's what you know in his letter l Mr Hitler

633
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:34,319
Speaker 1: is frustrating. He wants Arizona. I just I love Arizona one,

634
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:37,719
Speaker 1: a little piece of property. Um. So then Yellow Kid

635
00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:40,080
Speaker 1: and the Deacon they go back to Chicago. He shows

636
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:43,279
Speaker 1: the woman the letters. He's like, look Hitler's in and

637
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:48,320
Speaker 1: she's like, awesome. Go back to Berlin finalize the purchase.

638
00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:51,040
Speaker 1: But you know, there's this little thing called World War

639
00:38:51,080 --> 00:38:53,279
Speaker 1: two bubbling up over there. He's like, I don't want

640
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:57,520
Speaker 1: to go that's I don't want this. So she goes, fine,

641
00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:00,440
Speaker 1: I'm cutting off your expense account. And then he's kind

642
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:02,319
Speaker 1: of getting worried, like, wait, is she going to take

643
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:05,680
Speaker 1: these letters and go have someone else do this? She's

644
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:07,960
Speaker 1: going to get She's onto me like, I don't I

645
00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:10,400
Speaker 1: I flew too close to the sun on this one

646
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:13,719
Speaker 1: for complete. So he goes to d C and then

647
00:39:13,719 --> 00:39:15,359
Speaker 1: he goes to New York. He's just kind of like

648
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:18,000
Speaker 1: moving around a lot. In New York. He goes to

649
00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:20,360
Speaker 1: a party that's thrown by some con man friends of

650
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:23,000
Speaker 1: his UM. One of the guys there is a high

651
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:28,920
Speaker 1: ranking army officer. Now, two months later, the friends that

652
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:32,520
Speaker 1: he's with UM they get busted for mail fraud. And

653
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:36,600
Speaker 1: that high ranking army officer says, oh, you know who

654
00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:40,440
Speaker 1: else I saw there? This guy Dr Alriuell. But I

655
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:45,840
Speaker 1: think he's really Yellow kid rats him out right. But

656
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:48,800
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Yellow Kid wasn't involved in the mail fraud.

657
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:52,000
Speaker 1: He was just at the party. Yeah, he gets connected

658
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:55,279
Speaker 1: to the crime and arrested, and they arrested him at

659
00:39:55,480 --> 00:40:00,840
Speaker 1: his daughter's apartment, hiding in the closet. So here's according

660
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:04,719
Speaker 1: to the New York Times, according to that. I love

661
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:06,960
Speaker 1: this part. Here's what it said. The New York Times

662
00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:11,239
Speaker 1: quote a voice through the door said While wasn't there.

663
00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:14,680
Speaker 1: The raiders obtained a pass key. A framed picture of

664
00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:17,400
Speaker 1: While hung on the wall, but While was not found.

665
00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:20,640
Speaker 1: Until the search reached the clothes closet in the apartment

666
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:23,759
Speaker 1: were found many medical books and a complete physicians kit.

667
00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:27,640
Speaker 1: Outside was Wild's car with the physicians insignia on it.

668
00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:31,800
Speaker 1: The raiders said that While had been posing as Dr R. E. Durraine.

669
00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 1: Letters were found indicating that under several medical aliases, he

670
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:41,080
Speaker 1: had required many patients. While had fifteen suits with London trademarks,

671
00:40:41,239 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 1: twenty hats, twenty pairs of spats, and sixteen pairs of

672
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:48,120
Speaker 1: shoes in his wardrobe. However, were none of the yellow

673
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:52,239
Speaker 1: gloves which won him his sober cap. Always always the

674
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:54,920
Speaker 1: yellow gloves. But I love that, Like, No, there's no

675
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:58,200
Speaker 1: While here. Well his pictures on the wall, you know, Well,

676
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:00,799
Speaker 1: I just know about Dr Ari to reign like he

677
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:03,520
Speaker 1: had in the insignia on his car. So good, Okay.

678
00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:07,120
Speaker 1: So in the meantime, the woman back in Chicago, she

679
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:10,640
Speaker 1: finds out, wait a second, his name isn't Dr M.

680
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:14,520
Speaker 1: Well he's yellow kid. And so then she turns around

681
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:18,440
Speaker 1: and she reports the Hitler letters to the authorities. The

682
00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:22,239
Speaker 1: prosecutors now that they've got him on this mail fraud thing,

683
00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:26,240
Speaker 1: they're like, will drop that indictment on the Hitler letters

684
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:29,080
Speaker 1: if you plead guilty to mail fraud and go to

685
00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:33,799
Speaker 1: jail for four Yeah. So he agrees, but he argues that, like,

686
00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:37,439
Speaker 1: not four years, how about one year. That's that's way fair.

687
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:40,719
Speaker 1: Offer one year, yeah, because he's like, look, I was

688
00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:43,399
Speaker 1: just at the party. You have no proof of any

689
00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:46,160
Speaker 1: crime that I've committed. So the judge is like, all right,

690
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 1: I'll give you two years, and he sends them in early.

691
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:53,239
Speaker 1: He gets sent to prison in Atlanta. He called it,

692
00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:57,120
Speaker 1: quote perhaps the finest of all federal prisons, and with

693
00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:00,799
Speaker 1: an easy job, lots of athletic opportunit unities he got

694
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:04,320
Speaker 1: to exercise. In nineteen forty two, he returned to Chicago

695
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:07,960
Speaker 1: for the Hitler letter case, but his it was just

696
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:14,720
Speaker 1: a formality. Cases dropped no, so he wrote his autobiography

697
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:17,600
Speaker 1: in eight He said that since his release from the

698
00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:21,080
Speaker 1: Atlanta prison, he quote resolved that I would never again

699
00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:23,680
Speaker 1: be involved in anything that might send me to prison

700
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:28,239
Speaker 1: and we heard that, and after that he did the

701
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:32,319
Speaker 1: work legally getting donations for charities, and he would get

702
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:34,040
Speaker 1: like a commission for it, so he would be able

703
00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:36,760
Speaker 1: to use his skills. Yeah, charity the second to last

704
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:41,760
Speaker 1: refuge for the scoundrel. Exactly nineteen fifty six, he's eighty

705
00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:46,240
Speaker 1: years old. He gets interviewed by Saul Bellow for The Reporter,

706
00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:51,200
Speaker 1: and Bellow described Wild's appearance as such quote, the kid

707
00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:54,399
Speaker 1: is now very frail, and it becomes him now. There

708
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:57,520
Speaker 1: is a sort of fallen natinus about him. His shoes

709
00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:00,000
Speaker 1: are beautifully shined, though not in the best of condition.

710
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:03,399
Speaker 1: His suit is made of a bold material. It has

711
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:05,680
Speaker 1: gone too often to the cleaner, but it is an

712
00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:09,120
Speaker 1: excellent press. His shirt must belong to the days of

713
00:43:09,239 --> 00:43:12,240
Speaker 1: his prosperity, for his neck has shrunk and the collar

714
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:16,320
Speaker 1: fits loosely. It has a green pattern of squares within squares,

715
00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:20,200
Speaker 1: tie and pocket handkerchief for all of matching green. His

716
00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:24,560
Speaker 1: little face is clear and animated. Long practice and insincerity

717
00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:27,360
Speaker 1: gives him an advantage. It is not always easy to

718
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:31,440
Speaker 1: know when he's being straightforward. No, every time they describe him,

719
00:43:31,480 --> 00:43:33,479
Speaker 1: they mentioned how he's wearing green. I think you could

720
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:35,200
Speaker 1: have called him the green kid while and did a

721
00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:38,879
Speaker 1: little bit more accurate. I think so, I think so, yeah,

722
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:43,400
Speaker 1: he's just you know, the green while the green while so. Uh.

723
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:47,960
Speaker 1: That same year that he gets interviewed, he test he yeah,

724
00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:53,800
Speaker 1: hold on. So he testified at a Senate subcommittee hearing

725
00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:58,840
Speaker 1: on juvenile delinquency, and he complained about contemporary kan men

726
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:01,560
Speaker 1: who used children to help con older people. And he

727
00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:03,719
Speaker 1: was like, in my back, in my day, we never

728
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:13,200
Speaker 1: did that. Nineteen fifty nine, a magazine called Man's Smashing Stories. Yeah,

729
00:44:13,280 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 1: they ran an article that said yellow Kid died in

730
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:20,760
Speaker 1: the Bowery in nineteen thirty four, and he's like, um, no, hello, alive,

731
00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:24,759
Speaker 1: present name. He sued them in nineteen sixty two for

732
00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:28,520
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars for libel and one. And then

733
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 1: he also sued Playboy for using content from his book

734
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:36,560
Speaker 1: without permission, and he won that one as well. He

735
00:44:36,600 --> 00:44:41,040
Speaker 1: turned ninety in nineteen sixty six, and he told reporters, quote,

736
00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:44,600
Speaker 1: each of my victims had larceny in his heart. I

737
00:44:44,680 --> 00:44:47,120
Speaker 1: never fleeced anyone who could not afford to pay my

738
00:44:47,239 --> 00:44:50,960
Speaker 1: price for a lesson in honesty. A truly honest man

739
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:55,160
Speaker 1: would never have had my schemes. Wow, that is always

740
00:44:55,160 --> 00:44:57,560
Speaker 1: the thing, like the really good comments say, is basically

741
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:01,800
Speaker 1: they wait for someone's greed to qualify them to become

742
00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:04,160
Speaker 1: the mark. And that's what he would do. The sting

743
00:45:04,160 --> 00:45:07,160
Speaker 1: we talked about nineteen seventy three movie Paul Newman Robert

744
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:10,560
Speaker 1: Red allegedly based on all of his scams. He never

745
00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:12,680
Speaker 1: saw the movie, and he said he never wanted to.

746
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:16,120
Speaker 1: He wouldn't watch it. Yeah. He turned ninety nine in

747
00:45:16,239 --> 00:45:19,319
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, and he told a reporter he had

748
00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:25,160
Speaker 1: no regrets about his life, exactly saying, quote, I do

749
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:29,360
Speaker 1: it the same way again, run it right back. On

750
00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:33,279
Speaker 1: his one hundredth birthday, he told reporters the same thing,

751
00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:36,160
Speaker 1: but he added, I don't feel a day over seventy.

752
00:45:36,280 --> 00:45:38,160
Speaker 1: I still like to look at the ladies and take

753
00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:40,680
Speaker 1: a sip of wine. I like to listen to the radio.

754
00:45:40,719 --> 00:45:42,600
Speaker 1: But I'll be damned if I'll play bingo with the

755
00:45:42,640 --> 00:45:47,480
Speaker 1: restaurant here. It's a rip off. It's feisty. The cops

756
00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:52,280
Speaker 1: showed up on his birthday. Well, they wanted to present

757
00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:55,920
Speaker 1: him with a police bulletin from June four, n eighteen,

758
00:45:56,440 --> 00:45:58,759
Speaker 1: warning the department to be on the lookout for him,

759
00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:01,960
Speaker 1: and then they they also got a letter from Chicago

760
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:08,160
Speaker 1: Mayor Richard Daily congratulated him, you know, real recognizers, real totally.

761
00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:11,279
Speaker 1: He's like he did the whole was the what was

762
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:17,520
Speaker 1: the weather man? The one hundred year Fred Willard Scott? Yeah,

763
00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:23,680
Speaker 1: I was thinking the jeopardy answer. See he did the

764
00:46:23,680 --> 00:46:27,040
Speaker 1: Willard Scott and he's like, hooray, you're one hundred. February

765
00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:29,600
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, he passed away at the age of

766
00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:32,400
Speaker 1: one hundred. He spent the last three years of his

767
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:36,040
Speaker 1: life at the Lakefront Convalescent Center. And he actually died

768
00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:40,759
Speaker 1: with very little to his name, despite yeah, because he

769
00:46:40,880 --> 00:46:43,560
Speaker 1: had that lack of funds and all this like bureaucratic

770
00:46:43,880 --> 00:46:47,000
Speaker 1: stuff red tape. He wasn't buried in the plot next

771
00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:49,120
Speaker 1: to his wife and his daughter. He was buried in

772
00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:53,000
Speaker 1: a pauper's grave, which I'd like to correct. Um. He

773
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:57,959
Speaker 1: spent all his money on parties, travel, close, general ball, Vivon. Yeah,

774
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:02,120
Speaker 1: he spent the money well, regrets gener regret. Yeah, probably

775
00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:04,000
Speaker 1: the best way to do it, I think so. He

776
00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:08,000
Speaker 1: claimed to have about two thousand victims in his career.

777
00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:14,680
Speaker 1: MS educated popular and he calculated he made somewhere between

778
00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:18,120
Speaker 1: three and eight million dollars over the course of his career.

779
00:47:18,280 --> 00:47:21,280
Speaker 1: He's a really good teacher. He was arrested now depends

780
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:23,560
Speaker 1: on who you ask, but he was arrested between twenty

781
00:47:23,600 --> 00:47:27,440
Speaker 1: five and forty one time, but only five convictions. That's

782
00:47:27,480 --> 00:47:31,320
Speaker 1: pretty good percentage. He spent a total of twelve years

783
00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:34,319
Speaker 1: of his life in prison for his crimes. That's a

784
00:47:34,360 --> 00:47:37,320
Speaker 1: really good rate. Yeah, And he wrote that he wasn't

785
00:47:37,360 --> 00:47:40,560
Speaker 1: caught much because quote, I made it a rule never

786
00:47:40,600 --> 00:47:43,720
Speaker 1: to let any documentary evidence get out of my hands.

787
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:48,680
Speaker 1: Though I displayed thousands of fake letters, documents, stock certificates, etcetera.

788
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:52,960
Speaker 1: To prospective victims, I was always careful to recover them.

789
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:55,959
Speaker 1: And then he used a really good forger to make

790
00:47:56,040 --> 00:47:58,320
Speaker 1: his all his fake stuff. Got to have a good forger,

791
00:47:58,719 --> 00:48:02,919
Speaker 1: you knowing taught us that. Yeah. Um, he made sure

792
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:05,400
Speaker 1: that that he had like the foreign envelopes and the

793
00:48:05,480 --> 00:48:12,239
Speaker 1: postal markings. Yes, that alias. He loved Dr alri Um.

794
00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:14,200
Speaker 1: It was his favorite one to use. And it was

795
00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:18,359
Speaker 1: also a real person that he was impersonating was an

796
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:23,239
Speaker 1: actual mining engineer and an author. So he read the

797
00:48:23,239 --> 00:48:26,520
Speaker 1: guy's books and so that he could use information in

798
00:48:26,600 --> 00:48:31,799
Speaker 1: them in this conversation with potential marks um. And then

799
00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:35,920
Speaker 1: he also used his forger to make copies of the

800
00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 1: book jacket with his own photo on the back to

801
00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:41,839
Speaker 1: cement the story. So if someone's like, oh, you wrote

802
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:48,759
Speaker 1: a book, Yeah, here it is the details logistics, why

803
00:48:48,800 --> 00:48:52,600
Speaker 1: did he do it? I mean, well, this is what

804
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:55,319
Speaker 1: he said quote. I don't believe I ever had any

805
00:48:55,360 --> 00:48:58,920
Speaker 1: basic desire to be dishonest. One of the motivating factors

806
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:02,359
Speaker 1: in my actions was, of course, the desire to acquire money.

807
00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:05,319
Speaker 1: The other motive was a lust for adventure, and this

808
00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:08,040
Speaker 1: was the only kind of adventure for which I was equipped.

809
00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:11,400
Speaker 1: The men I swindled were also motivated by a desire

810
00:49:11,440 --> 00:49:14,240
Speaker 1: to acquire money, and they didn't care at whose expense

811
00:49:14,280 --> 00:49:18,480
Speaker 1: they got it. I was particular I took. I took

812
00:49:18,520 --> 00:49:20,560
Speaker 1: money only from those who could afford it. And we're

813
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:23,000
Speaker 1: willing to go in with me in schemes they fancied

814
00:49:23,040 --> 00:49:28,640
Speaker 1: would fleece others. See that's the one that I'm like. Okay,

815
00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:32,480
Speaker 1: So he told Saalbello that his marks quote may have

816
00:49:32,520 --> 00:49:35,440
Speaker 1: been respectable, but they were never any good and that

817
00:49:35,600 --> 00:49:38,240
Speaker 1: quote they wanted something for nothing. I gave them nothing

818
00:49:38,239 --> 00:49:46,680
Speaker 1: for something. You are his final thoughts quote. People will

819
00:49:46,719 --> 00:49:49,560
Speaker 1: tell you that crime does not pay. Perhaps that is right,

820
00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:52,600
Speaker 1: but it paid me handsomely. I feel that I have

821
00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:57,360
Speaker 1: lived a thousand years in seventy. Those periods of incarceration, well,

822
00:49:57,440 --> 00:49:59,400
Speaker 1: they were not always what I would have chosen, but

823
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:02,000
Speaker 1: they gave me time to relax, reflect and catch up

824
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:04,880
Speaker 1: on my reading. The bad part about serving a prison

825
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:07,680
Speaker 1: term is not while you're doing the stretch. It's the

826
00:50:07,719 --> 00:50:10,319
Speaker 1: stigma that forever clings to you after you come out.

827
00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:13,320
Speaker 1: In England, it is illegal to refer to a person

828
00:50:13,360 --> 00:50:16,040
Speaker 1: as an ex convict, but in this country you can

829
00:50:16,080 --> 00:50:18,960
Speaker 1: never escape the brand, no matter how hard you try.

830
00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:20,879
Speaker 1: I didn't know that about anyone and all that. It's

831
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:22,600
Speaker 1: a really good point. Yeah, it was a good point.

832
00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:26,680
Speaker 1: So that is Yellow Kid while dude, he's one of

833
00:50:26,719 --> 00:50:30,000
Speaker 1: my new favorite Yeah, he's an amazing character, and I

834
00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:32,600
Speaker 1: love that he's little bits of everybody. Yeah, exactly. I

835
00:50:32,640 --> 00:50:34,960
Speaker 1: gotta read about this Dill Pickle club too. You piqued

836
00:50:35,040 --> 00:50:38,840
Speaker 1: my curious. That a good one. Yeah. On another project,

837
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:41,120
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of research on Emma Goldman and

838
00:50:41,160 --> 00:50:45,279
Speaker 1: I learned a lot about the Dill Pickle Club. Yeah,

839
00:50:46,800 --> 00:50:49,359
Speaker 1: thank you. That's all I have for you today. You

840
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Speaker 1: can find us online at Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter

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Speaker 1: while it's still around and Instagram. That's the picture place.

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Speaker 1: Email us if you want to ridiculou Crime at gmail

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Speaker 1: dot com. Tune in next time. Ridiculous Crime is hosted

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Speaker 1: by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnett, produced and edited by

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Speaker 1: president of the Totally Legit International mining Company, Dave Kusten.

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Speaker 1: Research is by jaded Aris Marissa Brown. The theme song

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Speaker 1: is by phony Faro. Bankers Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton.

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Speaker 1: Executive producers are Black Market Stationary salesman Ben Bollen and

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Speaker 1: Noel Brown. Ride say It one more Time, We Dequeous.

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeart Radio. Four more

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Speaker 1: podcasts to my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.