Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime is a production of My Heart Radio's Elizabeth Doutton.
Speaker 1: Nothing much. Oh, you know, it's ridiculous. I've been waiting
Speaker 1: to see you because, Okay, I saw this and I
Speaker 1: just wanted to read it to you. The hashtag Rivvyan
Speaker 1: stories hashtag Rivyan This was a tweet and I quote.
Speaker 1: I performed what is likely the world's first rivan power
Speaker 1: to vasectomy today. The power and clinic went out. Patient
Speaker 1: didn't want to reschedule because he already had time off.
Speaker 1: Electrocuterie was normal, procedure went great. So somebody out there
Speaker 1: was like they signed them for their vasectomy. Docs like,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, man, I got problem. No power in the shop.
Speaker 1: Patients like I saw, you got a nice new rivan
Speaker 1: out front. You can you run a little drop cord
Speaker 1: to that. Maybe we can cop this thing on now.
Speaker 1: Apparently I didn't know this. You only need to power
Speaker 1: a couple of things to do of a sector. So
Speaker 1: you need to run the extension cord from the truck's
Speaker 1: outlet of the bed to the air and n high
Speaker 1: frequency desiccator that prevents blood loss during the operation. That
Speaker 1: it and then also he needed a fan in the
Speaker 1: patient room. Because it was hot because there was no power,
Speaker 1: so the fan and the desiccation machine. The rest of
Speaker 1: was just scalpel and knife and like clamp, you know
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So the total success, the doctor said,
Speaker 1: the procedure itself went great. It just went as normal
Speaker 1: as one could go the modern world. Keep making that face,
Speaker 1: I'm like the I'm like the spinning wheel on the
Speaker 1: back or like he just kept making the same face
Speaker 1: already talking. You're like, there's just so that's that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: That's done world. I love it. It's like, okay, you
Speaker 1: know what if, like if there's a hurricane and we're
Speaker 1: without powerful, don't worry. I can still Yeah, we can
Speaker 1: get this done. We got a rivian a guy who
Speaker 1: got a vasectomy and it came back to work and
Speaker 1: he tried to like work, and then it just says
Speaker 1: his stuff swelled up so bad that he passed out.
Speaker 1: We had no extended back to the I'm sorry, but
Speaker 1: I Am not going to feel bad for him because
Speaker 1: the stuff that women work through didn't compare. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of times women will will have
Speaker 1: procedures and the doctor, oh, you know, you can go
Speaker 1: back to work after an hour, and I'm always thinking like,
Speaker 1: men couldn't. Yeah, they wouldn't even tell men they could
Speaker 1: do that. You're gonna probably need to stay here tonight.
Speaker 1: I love that he rubbed in his you got a
Speaker 1: rivan outside. Things were like, ridiculous, that's super coolgrivan. Okay,
Speaker 1: that is cool and ridiculous, And I'm still processing it.
Speaker 1: Do you want to know what else is ridiculous? Ridiculous
Speaker 1: being an incredible con man with no regrets, who gets
Speaker 1: away with millions over his career and runs with free
Speaker 1: thinkers of his time and even uses Hitler as a
Speaker 1: pawn in one of his scams. God, we're just short, circunach.
Speaker 1: I'm over here. I'm making the phase now. M This
Speaker 1: is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
Speaker 1: heists and cons. It's always murder free and one ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I have a MegaCon for you today. He's got like
Speaker 1: a little bit of Edgar La Plant, some Arno Funka,
Speaker 1: some Margaret Lydia Burton, some Bruno Schulz by' ball Baron,
Speaker 1: maybe a little Billy Minor. The people. He is a
Speaker 1: milange of ridiculous criminality. His name is Joseph Vile, Joseph
Speaker 1: wild w e e Lay, but he was known to
Speaker 1: all is yellow Kid, while he's a real con man's
Speaker 1: con man, dude. That's like the straight up club games
Speaker 1: he had. He wrote his autobiography Yellow Kid while but
Speaker 1: they later repackaged it and called it con Man a
Speaker 1: Master Swindlers Story. Okay, right, thanks barn. Do you know
Speaker 1: the movie The Sting? Yeah, yeah, I love it supposedly
Speaker 1: based on him? Sure, um, wrong movie now, okay, so
Speaker 1: that was a brain fart. Yeah, we're it's we have
Speaker 1: we have a lot to process right now. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 1: So one of his unverified cons was swindling two million
Speaker 1: dollars out of Mussolini. Um, Marissa the researcher and I
Speaker 1: we looked all over creation for more information on that,
Speaker 1: but we came up drying. Okay, that's a thank you.
Speaker 1: So he pulled off this incredible number of cons in
Speaker 1: his life, absolutely mind boggling. It's the spinning wheel on
Speaker 1: the mac like I just can't get my head. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you like my top ones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: highlight reel the legend of his crime, exactly, the essence,
Speaker 1: the haiku of it. Um, little backstory. First born in
Speaker 1: Chicago in eighteen seventy seven. When he was seventeen, he
Speaker 1: left school to work as a quote collector for the Shark,
Speaker 1: like a beach comber, Yeah, like a like No, for
Speaker 1: just a legitimate business. Yeah. The salary, though, was small.
Speaker 1: He wanted something better. But in his collection job, he
Speaker 1: saw that everyone around him, the other collectors, the cashiers,
Speaker 1: the bookkeepers, they kind of skimmed a little off the top,
Speaker 1: all right, everybody. So he used that to his advantage,
Speaker 1: though he basically blackmailed his coworkers, who paid for his silence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I see you. I'm going to pamp your crime. He
Speaker 1: later said, quote. I was of a very fragile constitution,
Speaker 1: unfit for the heavier sort of manual labor. I knew
Speaker 1: I could not toil like other men. How was I
Speaker 1: to live? My power lay in words? In words, I
Speaker 1: became a commander. Moreover, I could not lead a tame
Speaker 1: life of monotony. I needed excitement, variety, danger, intellectual stimulus.
Speaker 1: I was a psychologist. My domain was the human mind,
Speaker 1: all right, Henry James. Right, So he gives his He
Speaker 1: gets a job with a guy named Doc Merriweather, who
Speaker 1: went around selling a tape worm cure that he called
Speaker 1: Merryweather's a lickxer like this guy already. Yeah, And it
Speaker 1: was just like the you know, herbal tincture or whatever
Speaker 1: little booze in it. At the time, everyone thought they
Speaker 1: had a tapeworm. I know they a lot of them
Speaker 1: did tape worms to be like, I'm sad. They're like,
Speaker 1: you have a tape uh. And they had all these
Speaker 1: other weird things that they do where a currently they
Speaker 1: treat the people, and it was unclear if they'd have
Speaker 1: them like do their business in a bucket or something,
Speaker 1: but then they had. They would peel a potato, one
Speaker 1: long potato peel and drop it in and be like, look,
Speaker 1: your tapeworm went for that, the potato. The potato peel
Speaker 1: tape about the old fashioned medicine. You got ghost your blood.
Speaker 1: You might do cocaine about it pretty much pretty much,
Speaker 1: you got a potato peel in you so spring while
Speaker 1: it's like I'm out of hair, yellow kid can't do
Speaker 1: it anymore. He becomes a traveling magazine salesman. Sure he
Speaker 1: gets married. He marries a woman named Jesse. She when
Speaker 1: should they marry? She doesn't know. He's a con man
Speaker 1: and later when she finds out, she's always begging him
Speaker 1: to get out of the biz um. They had a
Speaker 1: daughter together, Josephine. So three, he is hanging out in
Speaker 1: this saloon that's owned by a Chicago alderman and boss
Speaker 1: named John Coughlin. I don't know, no. Uh. He said
Speaker 1: that that guy gave him the name the Yellow Kid
Speaker 1: because he used to read a popular comic strip at
Speaker 1: the time called Hogan's Alley and the Yellow Kid. So
Speaker 1: that's what he says. He was named after a lot
Speaker 1: of times in the news they'll they'll say that it
Speaker 1: was because he always wore yellow gloves. But like then
Speaker 1: they would also point out in all these news stories
Speaker 1: through like time, they're like, you know, they searched his
Speaker 1: house and they didn't turn up any yellow gloves, and
Speaker 1: it's like, well, because he doesn't wear and detail totally.
Speaker 1: So he worked as a door to door salesman, conned
Speaker 1: people in that career. He had a ton of these
Speaker 1: horse racing scams, like he actually went and bought horses.
Speaker 1: Oh that kind like the horse trading scam. Well, he
Speaker 1: said he was going to like throw a race and
Speaker 1: that then he wouldn't And then that you can't come
Speaker 1: after him because it's you know, you're already in an
Speaker 1: illegal agreement already. So he would tell these dudes that,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm fixing it. No, I'm not fixing it.
Speaker 1: Whatever um dares him to go to the cops. He
Speaker 1: gets away with that quite a bit. In he bought
Speaker 1: a bank with his friends. You know, that's the move, um,
Speaker 1: real crime stuff. He drew up fake lines of credits,
Speaker 1: like his friend is the president, he's the vice president.
Speaker 1: And then they had all the regular employees who are
Speaker 1: already there with a bank. If you can get a loan,
Speaker 1: you can make nine fake dollars off of one real dollar.
Speaker 1: Well that's what they did. They dropped fake lines of credit.
Speaker 1: He and the VP and like another guy, and they
Speaker 1: go to Europe and they buy a bunch of stuff,
Speaker 1: all these really these luxury goods, and then they also
Speaker 1: got cash advances and stuff. I think they returned some
Speaker 1: of the luxury anyway, they come home, they have like
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of dollars off of this. So then
Speaker 1: the European banks they you know, they're like waiting. They
Speaker 1: try to collect on it. And the you know, yellow
Speaker 1: kid and his friends like Oh, you know what, Like,
Speaker 1: we had this cashier here and he drew up all
Speaker 1: these fake lines and he just ran off to Mexico.
Speaker 1: There's nothing we can do. And the guy that they
Speaker 1: had signed them was a cashier and they sent him
Speaker 1: to live in Mexico and they paid him. So it's like,
Speaker 1: we're not lying. He's in Mexico. Yeah, so he's also yellow.
Speaker 1: Kids like this super sharp dresser, and the press loved
Speaker 1: talking about his court appearances, in one article that said Mr.
Speaker 1: While wore blue over a white shirt studded with gold,
Speaker 1: a diamond blazer in his cravat, an overcoat of Killarney green,
Speaker 1: a green velour hat of gay and rakish tilt, and
Speaker 1: a spank and pair of tan shoes with spats. I hope. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was just outfit. He's deck, dude. The drip is clean.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you about my first favorite, your favorite
Speaker 1: Sarah closed your eyes as a closed girl. I want
Speaker 1: you to picture it. Alright. You're in Chicago in n
Speaker 1: You're a successful businessman. You're sitting in the lobby of
Speaker 1: the Metropol Hotel. You're reading the paper while you wait
Speaker 1: for a colleague to join you. But you're actually eavesdropping
Speaker 1: on all the people around you. Super fun. There's a
Speaker 1: natly dressed gentleman sitting a few over stuffed chairs over
Speaker 1: and then a man in a blue suit approaches him. Hello, Joe,
Speaker 1: what are you doing now? The snappy dresser sitting near
Speaker 1: you replies, at the moment, I'm free. Do you have
Speaker 1: something in mind? Yes? How'd you like to make a
Speaker 1: trip to Baltimore? You know me, Sam, I always like
Speaker 1: to travel. What's the deal? Now? This sounds interesting? Zaron,
Speaker 1: You're hooked. You lean forward. You can make your own deal.
Speaker 1: I'll give you the layout and you can work it
Speaker 1: any way that you like. So come over to the
Speaker 1: office with me and I'll tell you all about it too,
Speaker 1: mad And they walk off out through the grand entrance
Speaker 1: of the hotel. You just witnessed the birth of an
Speaker 1: incredibly ridiculous con Oh. I love being there at the start.
Speaker 1: So Joe, the sharp dressed man, that's the yellow kid, Sam.
Speaker 1: The guy in the blue suit. His name is Sam Banks.
Speaker 1: He is a really successful businessman based in Chicago. He
Speaker 1: had just opened up a Boston office. What does Sam do? No,
Speaker 1: he's a fortune teller, so he caters to stockbrokers, but
Speaker 1: also the uber wealthy. Yeah, and he he just like
Speaker 1: studied stocks in depth. He knew the market better than anybody. Um,
Speaker 1: but they knew him as like a magical fortune teller,
Speaker 1: not like some staid advisor guy. He wore a turban
Speaker 1: in his in his well. The client would write a
Speaker 1: question on a piece of paper. Sam would lie back
Speaker 1: on a couch and he'd put the paper on his
Speaker 1: forehead and he would tell the client, Okay, guys going
Speaker 1: into a trance, be ready, and like so he'd have
Speaker 1: the paper. He wouldn't look at the paper. He put
Speaker 1: the paper on his forehead, go into a trance. Um.
Speaker 1: Ed mcman would laugh, right and Ed mcmann's hiding there.
Speaker 1: Paper that he puts on his forehead isn't the one
Speaker 1: the client gave him though, because like the client hands
Speaker 1: him the paper and he would do all these mystical
Speaker 1: hand gestures of the yeah, and then he like uses
Speaker 1: sleight of hand to slip the actual question behind some
Speaker 1: drapes to an assistant who's waiting there, and then he'd
Speaker 1: say some stuff in Jewish, you know, uh yeah, bring
Speaker 1: king kom um. The turban that he was wearing had
Speaker 1: a telephone headset like it was hiding it. So he
Speaker 1: had had telephone headset over his ears, the turban covering that.
Speaker 1: A wire from the headset went down his back to
Speaker 1: a metal connection in his shoes, and then he had
Speaker 1: the metal connection in the couch. So when he lies
Speaker 1: back and he puts his feet to the end of
Speaker 1: it makes a circuit. Yeah. So um. He then that
Speaker 1: at the couch had a line that went behind this
Speaker 1: curtain to these assistant. That's really smart, so he's not connected.
Speaker 1: He can get up and move around. Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 1: there's he's basically wireless at them. So he lays down.
Speaker 1: The assistant would read the question over the telephone line.
Speaker 1: Sam would then sit up, take the paper off of
Speaker 1: his forehead and without looking at it, lighted on fire
Speaker 1: off like on a candle that was on a table,
Speaker 1: and then answer the question. So you're the client, you
Speaker 1: can write this down totally and then you know the client.
Speaker 1: The mark would be just so this is amazing, pay
Speaker 1: up and walk out. A lot of rich ladies would
Speaker 1: come in and they'd have questions about romance and that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff. He just gave them like common sense
Speaker 1: answers and they're like, oh my god, you're right, and
Speaker 1: so they were. So a week before in the interaction
Speaker 1: that you saw a yellow kid running into Sam at
Speaker 1: the Metropole. Yeah, Sam had done a session in Boston
Speaker 1: with this rich woman named Dora Albright. They met up
Speaker 1: in Boston. Dora, Yeah, and so he wants to tell
Speaker 1: yellow kid all about what happened. Dora is a spinster
Speaker 1: and she was visiting Boston from Baltimore to see about
Speaker 1: some investments. Based on other elements of casual conversations, Sam
Speaker 1: he basically did a cold reading and was able to
Speaker 1: say a lot of stuff about Dora that she hadn't
Speaker 1: shared yet. Like he sees that you know, she's she's
Speaker 1: talking about how she's coming into town. She's kind of
Speaker 1: like running the show. He's like, ooh, you're the you're
Speaker 1: the oldest of your siblings. Oh yeah, like you know
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Dora is sold. So she writes
Speaker 1: her question on the piece of paper and it says,
Speaker 1: my sisters and I have two hundred thousand dollars in cash.
Speaker 1: Should we put it into a savings bank or should
Speaker 1: we seek an investment? Like if this were a movie
Speaker 1: and their money soon parted, I would think that she
Speaker 1: was the one running the com because who asked that
Speaker 1: I got two grand? What do I do? Got this
Speaker 1: pocket and it's got a lighting, Lenny asked the fortune teller.
Speaker 1: So Sam as the routine the trance, puts the paper
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, and then he responds, he said, I
Speaker 1: see a man coming into your life. He has a beard,
Speaker 1: and I can't tell you how he's going to come
Speaker 1: into your life or when it's going to happen. And
Speaker 1: then quote he'd him, the bearded one holds the key
Speaker 1: to your fortune. That is all. So the next man
Speaker 1: with the beard comes up, well, he has someone in
Speaker 1: his head. Dora gets super emotional over this. She thanks him,
Speaker 1: pays her hefty feet goes on her way. Sam then,
Speaker 1: of course, sees the yellow Kid, tells the story and says, look,
Speaker 1: I don't want to know the details of whatever you
Speaker 1: come up with. I've given you all the material you need.
Speaker 1: Just give me a cut or whatever you get. Oh,
Speaker 1: he trusts the yellow kid. He's like, here, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna give you the give you the give you the facts.
Speaker 1: You run with him. I don't, okay, do you think
Speaker 1: Sam is in on it? Where he's like he knows
Speaker 1: this lady's in Mark and it's a hot markets. I
Speaker 1: just want my cut. Or is he thinking like we're
Speaker 1: doing actual business for this lady. Oh no, no, no,
Speaker 1: he knows she's a Mark. He's like, I don't want
Speaker 1: to know what you're going to do with this or
Speaker 1: just give exactly. So Yellow Kids like, yeah, let's do this.
Speaker 1: I gotta go to Texas. And Sam's like, wait, we'll wait.
Speaker 1: Now she lives in Baltimore. But you know, he says, quote, yes,
Speaker 1: I know, but Texas fascinates me right now, there's something
Speaker 1: there I want to which Sam replies, well, do it
Speaker 1: your own way, Joe, so, which of course he did.
Speaker 1: When we come back, I'm going to tell you about Texas,
Speaker 1: the Bearded One and Old Dora. All right, Zaron, Oh hey,
Speaker 1: what's up? Elizabeth? Hey? How you doing? I'm doing proved
Speaker 1: Robert too? Not bad, not bad. When we left off,
Speaker 1: we were just talking about do you remember we were
Speaker 1: talking about some stuff. Yeah, it's nineteen sixteen. Yellow Kid.
Speaker 1: He has a lead from his friend Sam that the
Speaker 1: Sam the fortune Teller, that there's a spinster in Baltimore
Speaker 1: who's got an extra two hundred thousand dollars cash Sam,
Speaker 1: you know, lays it all out for him. Yellow Kids like,
Speaker 1: guess what, perfect I'm going to Texas, by the way,
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars and is like five and a half
Speaker 1: million today. I'm wondering. Yeah. Yeah, So Yellow Kid goes
Speaker 1: to Texas. He uses the name Ari Ruel. That's one
Speaker 1: of his favorite aliases, Henry Royal. Yeah, I guess, well
Speaker 1: not royal, but like U R E U E L
Speaker 1: L I suppose um. He he goes there and he
Speaker 1: buys fifteen hundred acres of land at a dollar and
Speaker 1: acre between Standard Oil and the Texas Company which is
Speaker 1: now Texaco. So he buys this big plot. He then
Speaker 1: drives to Baltimore. He wrote, quote, my car was a
Speaker 1: Fiat imported and custom built. It was expensive, powerful, and luxurious.
Speaker 1: So he's just hammers down from Texas to Baltimore. It
Speaker 1: was a Saturday evening when he rolls into town. He
Speaker 1: purposefully stalled his car in front of Dora's place and
Speaker 1: then goes and asks to use the phone. You know, sorry,
Speaker 1: Oh no, he always had a beard. Sorry, he always
Speaker 1: had a beard. Yeah, from like the jump. So that's
Speaker 1: why when you know she's telling this line and Sam
Speaker 1: the fortune teller's hearing it in his head. He's like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna say beard because Yellow Kid's gonna
Speaker 1: be all over this one. So he knows there's no
Speaker 1: way he's going to get a mechanic out there until
Speaker 1: Monday morning because it's Saturday night. So he knocks door,
Speaker 1: opens the door, she sees a man with a beard.
Speaker 1: He's like, hello, I am alre re well. Dora lives
Speaker 1: with her sisters. She's like, sees this man, sees the beard.
Speaker 1: It was like, do you want to stay the weekend?
Speaker 1: She hasn't run into any other bearded men, not like
Speaker 1: introducing themselves in this right didn't capture her. The butler
Speaker 1: carries Yellow kids bags into the house and Dora sees
Speaker 1: that his bags were covered in labels from all over Europe.
Speaker 1: And so he goes into the guest room to freshen up.
Speaker 1: He gets his beard looking all good. He greases it
Speaker 1: up nice, and then they're all hanging up the moths
Speaker 1: and bugs from the road. Well, I guess he had
Speaker 1: it like he like parted it in the middle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know style, you could do the scott and with
Speaker 1: the beads that would be dope. Yeah. So they're hanging
Speaker 1: out in the parlor. Yellow kid like he sees like
Speaker 1: these sisters are a little sheltered, surprised. Um. They asked
Speaker 1: him what he did, and he's just super casual. He's like, well,
Speaker 1: I represent all these European clients and um, a lot
Speaker 1: of them have money in Texas and I want to
Speaker 1: sell it off because they're really distracted. There's war coming
Speaker 1: to Europe, so they kind of want to just liquidate
Speaker 1: and get out of here. Um. They asked him about, Oh,
Speaker 1: so you've been in Europe. He's like, yeah, I traveled
Speaker 1: all over. He tells them tales of the continent. He's like,
Speaker 1: you know, um, wars on the horizon. They got to liquidate.
Speaker 1: I've been able to sell everything except for you know,
Speaker 1: I've just exhausted. I have fifteen hundred acres left. I
Speaker 1: got to move these fifteen hundred acres and then I'm done,
Speaker 1: you know with this whole project. Um. They're interested, right, like,
Speaker 1: oh acres, you say, Um, is there a way that
Speaker 1: we can get in illness? Like, if you need to
Speaker 1: do you need to sell this off, maybe we could help.
Speaker 1: And he's like, well, you know, I've only been working
Speaker 1: with investment firms. I hadn't even thought about selling the
Speaker 1: private investors. Well, you know why not, that would probably work.
Speaker 1: So he goes back to the guest room and he
Speaker 1: returns with these fake maps that he'd made, like he
Speaker 1: drew up these maps that had like the where the
Speaker 1: area was and the real maps. But then he had
Speaker 1: like the mother pool, which was just like his guests
Speaker 1: on maybe there's oil. They're like it just he just
Speaker 1: made it all up. So he, um, he agrees to
Speaker 1: sell it to them. I'm going to give you a
Speaker 1: huge bargain, a hundred and twenty dollars an acre. So
Speaker 1: he bought it at a dollar so you know, he
Speaker 1: left him a little that has that that's a hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty thousand exactly. This is that they had this
Speaker 1: nice dinner and a lot of wine to celebrate this deal. Um,
Speaker 1: it is nice to have a good meal when you're
Speaker 1: gonna get screwed. Like he has him write up a contract.
Speaker 1: He's like, I really, I want I want you to
Speaker 1: go and take this, you know, um to get to
Speaker 1: file it with the Assessor of Power. They're going to
Speaker 1: do it, just because I want to make sure we
Speaker 1: lock this in, like as soon as possible basically, and
Speaker 1: so they spend the rest of the weekend together. They
Speaker 1: go to church on Sunday. Yeah, he's just playing it up.
Speaker 1: Mechanic comes on Monday, pops it open. It's like, oh
Speaker 1: this ignition wires plug it back in. So fixes the car.
Speaker 1: He has the deed, He gets there a hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty thousand dollars, goes on his way. He wrote later quote,
Speaker 1: there was nothing the all Bright sisters could have done
Speaker 1: to me, even if they wanted to. For all I know,
Speaker 1: there really was oil on the land I'd sold them.
Speaker 1: At any rate, the sale was good, and the land
Speaker 1: actually existed. Whether they later tried to develop it for oil,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I never heard anymore about them. Exists existed,
Speaker 1: not everything I've sold so hard to find out what
Speaker 1: happened to Dora Albright. I've like searched and searched what happened.
Speaker 1: Are about to look for a new place, But they
Speaker 1: own acres in Texas and enjoy it. Maybe. Um, So
Speaker 1: of course he goes and gives forty five dollars to say,
Speaker 1: um the fortune teller as thanks, And that's like almost
Speaker 1: one point to five million dollars today. As just a
Speaker 1: finder's incredible. So yellow Man, Yellow Man, Yellow Man, the
Speaker 1: reggae artist, father of Yellow Kids, Yellow Kid, he worked
Speaker 1: with a bunch of different conmen and um, I remember
Speaker 1: when he was a dj A. It was amazing Yellow
Speaker 1: So you have no idea how hard it was for me,
Speaker 1: like getting Yellow Man songs in my head as I
Speaker 1: was researching. So. Um, he had all these conman pals.
Speaker 1: One of them Sam the Fortune Teller. Another one was
Speaker 1: a guy named Fred buck Minster, and Fred Buckminster he
Speaker 1: was nicknamed the Deacon because his face looks so honest,
Speaker 1: like of course, Um, yellow Kid would go to great
Speaker 1: lengths to fleece a victim. Like he would do very complicated,
Speaker 1: drawn out things and then sometimes inspiration would just strike
Speaker 1: him and that's where he would come up with a scam.
Speaker 1: But he also he was the master of the twist.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that. He did the twist. He taught
Speaker 1: it to Chubby Checker. Yes, So one time, Yellow Kid
Speaker 1: he's like reading through the paper and he sees an
Speaker 1: ad to sub let this like really nice luxury apartment
Speaker 1: for nine months in Chicago, and so he's like, let's
Speaker 1: rent it and just we'll have access to that space.
Speaker 1: We can find a use for this. Yeah, this looks
Speaker 1: like a good opportunity. So he and his pals, including
Speaker 1: the Deacon Buckminster, they set up a fake private gambling
Speaker 1: club there. So they didn't open a real private gambling club.
Speaker 1: It was a fake. They paid actors to hang out
Speaker 1: and pretend the gamble. Yeah, they paid him twenty five
Speaker 1: dollars a pop. They had drinks, they had gaming tables.
Speaker 1: They were like fake stacks of money. It's amazing. So
Speaker 1: then he Yellow Kid, he invites an acquaintance of his
Speaker 1: named Corvill Hotchkiss to you know, so hotch Kiss he
Speaker 1: knew Yellow Kid as Joe Warrington. So his pal Joe
Speaker 1: Warrington slash Yellow Kid, he invites him. Yellow Kids says, look,
Speaker 1: I have an uncle who works at this club as
Speaker 1: a Pharaoh Bank dealer. Do you know what Pharaoh bank game? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's uh yeah, Pharaoh Bank is a Pharaoh French card game,
Speaker 1: kind of like poker but totally not big on the
Speaker 1: Old West. Yeah. I'm really terrible at understanding or explaining
Speaker 1: card games, but basically it goes like this. There's a
Speaker 1: banker like the dealer in essence, and then the cards
Speaker 1: are shuffled and then they play and did someone win
Speaker 1: and someone lose? Yes, those are the rules games. It's
Speaker 1: super fun. Thank you for sharing. You're welcome. So um
Speaker 1: the uncle who in reality another con Man actor. He
Speaker 1: had allegedly been screwed over for a promotion. So he's
Speaker 1: looking to throw a game and screw over the club
Speaker 1: and he is like willing to split the profits with
Speaker 1: a willing patron. So Yellow Kid says to hot Kiss, like,
Speaker 1: can you help, can you help my uncle screw over
Speaker 1: this club? Was like, yeah, let's do it. And so
Speaker 1: this quote unquote uncle, he taught hot Kiss the game
Speaker 1: of Farroh or Pharaoh. I say farrow because I'm looking
Speaker 1: at it like it's the Pharaoh because it looks like
Speaker 1: the alternate spellings are Pharaoh, like Egyptian pharaoh. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: it's f a R. So he's like, I'm going to
Speaker 1: teach you the game. He went a little more in
Speaker 1: depth than my explanation. I imagine there's a couple of
Speaker 1: degrees made like one or two other items. Um, and
Speaker 1: then he's like, I'll give you certain signals of what
Speaker 1: to do. So then uh, Yellow Kid brings him to
Speaker 1: the club. Looks super official, It looks like it's popping.
Speaker 1: You know, um can do is make a look official? Right?
Speaker 1: Hot Kiss didn't have any money on him, but Yellow
Speaker 1: Kid was like, look, just write a check for fifty
Speaker 1: grand for the chips. It's cool. So things go according
Speaker 1: to plan. Right During the game, hot Kiss wins three
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars and the club's overseer, though played by Buckminster,
Speaker 1: the deacon. He says he just came in from New York.
Speaker 1: He's like, I'm not gonna let you cash in those chips.
Speaker 1: I don't know you, and I don't know if this
Speaker 1: check is valid. I only take checks from known club members.
Speaker 1: So Buckminster is just not budging. Yellow Kid pretends to
Speaker 1: try and convince them all right, listen, listen, listen. If
Speaker 1: Hot Kiss, if this guy brings in the five cash
Speaker 1: that he had on this check, if he brings it tomorrow,
Speaker 1: could he get his three hundred thousand? Then if he
Speaker 1: just swaps stuck, can you hold his chips for him?
Speaker 1: Obviously the club doesn't have three d dollars to hand out,
Speaker 1: no intention of it, but they're like, okay, fine, this
Speaker 1: is the twist. Then Hot Kiss doesn't have to tw thousand, right,
Speaker 1: Yellow Kid knows this, but he knows that Hot Kiss
Speaker 1: knows someone who does. Mr McHenry. Mr McHenry was the
Speaker 1: intended target in the first Yeah, so the whole set
Speaker 1: up with hot Kiss was really just to get access
Speaker 1: to mckenry. Is the weak link for mckenry. He's an
Speaker 1: emotional soft point. Yes, so yellow Kid says, you know
Speaker 1: to hot Kiss, well, you know, kind of off handled. Well,
Speaker 1: why don't you invite your friend mckenry to the club
Speaker 1: tomorrow night and then we can get Henry. He can
Speaker 1: help us screw over the club. He can throw a
Speaker 1: faro game. He's a big dog. He can definitely and
Speaker 1: then you know, he could probably also front you that
Speaker 1: fifty grand so you can get your three hundred. You
Speaker 1: can be a winner. Everyone everyone wins. Guys. Hot Kiss
Speaker 1: is like, yeah, let's do this. So he he um.
Speaker 1: He goes in, Hey, McHenry, quick question, do you want
Speaker 1: to come to a gambling club and give me fifty dollars?
Speaker 1: And mckenry is like, all right, but here's the rest
Speaker 1: of the details. Yeah, okay, the three Yeah, and we
Speaker 1: can screw over this club. Yeah. So the like supposed
Speaker 1: scorned uncle, he now has to teach McHenry about the
Speaker 1: game the same rules that I gave and then Um
Speaker 1: and the hand Chester's the cues right, and so that
Speaker 1: that evening. Though there's a big difference because first, instead
Speaker 1: of writing a check, mckenry throws down fifty cash. He's ready,
Speaker 1: he's in now. During the Pharaoh game, the uncle slashed dealer.
Speaker 1: Um didn't actually let McHenry win, and in fact, he
Speaker 1: blamed him afterwards. He's like, I was giving you all
Speaker 1: the right signals and you screwed them up. Like what
Speaker 1: is wrong with you? Why weren't you doing I told
Speaker 1: you over and over. He's like, it's your fault. So
Speaker 1: they lose the fifty grand. Yellow Kid walks off with
Speaker 1: fifty grand, so like he has all that's like a
Speaker 1: typical that's like a solid yellow Kid one. Some of
Speaker 1: the ones that he did were just like silly for
Speaker 1: his own giggles, his own entertainment. So in the twenties,
Speaker 1: Yellow Kid was a member of a bohemian discussion group
Speaker 1: called the Dill Pickle Club. Are you familiar the Dill
Speaker 1: Pickle Club? It was a speakeasy in the theater that
Speaker 1: was in operation in Chicago from nineteen seventeen to ninety five,
Speaker 1: and he was a member UM. It was like this
Speaker 1: haven for free thinkers. I've never heard of this. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you who. Some of the frequent attendees were
Speaker 1: Clarence Darrow, Emma Goldman, Upton Sinclair, Carl Sandberg, William Carlos Williams,
Speaker 1: Kenneth rex Row, labor leaders like Bill Haywood, and like
Speaker 1: people from all walks of life right there were social workers, artists, scientists, anarchists, prostitutes,
Speaker 1: like religious zealots, and then con men. Of the people
Speaker 1: in the club all knew who Yellow Kid was. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So one time he's there and he gives this fake
Speaker 1: demonstration for a machine that he claimed would roast a
Speaker 1: chicken in thirty seconds, so it's obviously it's a fake machine.
Speaker 1: He had a previously roasted chicken that was swapped for
Speaker 1: a rawlin under the table. It was like supposed to
Speaker 1: be this jokey thing, and he wrote quote any but
Speaker 1: the most gullible should have realized what was going on,
Speaker 1: So he claims though Yellow Kids said that after the
Speaker 1: lecture to people, including a University of Chicago professor, came
Speaker 1: up to him and wanted to invest in the company
Speaker 1: wanted to know, like, what are your plans to patent it?
Speaker 1: Are we going to sell this? He thought it was
Speaker 1: super amusing, wouldn't take their money, so it was like
Speaker 1: he loved just getting one over. He wasn't always because
Speaker 1: he could have just fleeced those guys too, So he
Speaker 1: tried a bunch of times to go straight, but he
Speaker 1: just couldn't do it. He tried to sell pianos for
Speaker 1: a while, and that didn't pan out because like some
Speaker 1: of his con man budd he's found out about his business. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they were like, all right, look, we're going to
Speaker 1: get into this. They kind of tried to flip it
Speaker 1: into an illegal operation, so we gave up. He tried
Speaker 1: selling Catholic encyclopedias for a while. Yeah. He opened a
Speaker 1: legitimate hotel called the Martinique in Chicago, super luxury place. Um.
Speaker 1: They sort of really nice booze during prohibition. After a while, though,
Speaker 1: like the patrons of the hotel just kept being like
Speaker 1: more and more swindlers and high end comment and it
Speaker 1: was like this criminal hot spot. After only a couple
Speaker 1: of months, he was in the whole first seven fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars on this hotel. How well, they're just like
Speaker 1: everyone's like he's just doing one scamp like it just
Speaker 1: like it started out legitimately and then it just goes
Speaker 1: like downward spiral quickly. He wants to save the hotel,
Speaker 1: to burn it down. Well, he starts working with this
Speaker 1: gang that had him selling stolen bonds and gold coins.
Speaker 1: He got swept up in the bus for their initial
Speaker 1: robbery of all that stuff. Um, and he got sentenced
Speaker 1: to five years in Leavenworth as a result. And on
Speaker 1: this one, it's just like he was adjacent, so adjacent
Speaker 1: to it. He had been recogress in a bunch of times, right,
Speaker 1: and that this one that was his third conviction. So
Speaker 1: the first conviction was in nineteen eleven. And a fun
Speaker 1: fact about that, on his way to Juliet prison for that,
Speaker 1: he allegedly managed to convince the detective that was with
Speaker 1: him to buy thirty thousand dollars of fake stock from
Speaker 1: him on his way to prison, so that his second
Speaker 1: conviction was nineteen Here's a fun fact about the second conviction.
Speaker 1: His lawyer for that case was none other than his
Speaker 1: Dill Pickle Club pal, Clarence Darrow. Yes, Leopold Love if
Speaker 1: you're going to get a closing remarks Clarence Darrow exactly.
Speaker 1: So this time, though Yellow Kid off to leaven Worth
Speaker 1: five year stretch, Let's take break, we come back. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you about an international and audacious scam that Yellow
Speaker 1: Kid ran. Please Saren, welcome back. Have you been? I
Speaker 1: love those pants? Thank you so much. I love that
Speaker 1: you're not wearing pants. No, just sucks, just sucks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well leg warmers. Oh that's what those are. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: that's what I was told they were. Okay, okay, well yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about Yellow Kid while vile Yellow kids vile,
Speaker 1: while um in his various con man exploits um. So
Speaker 1: he did time in leaven Worth, gets out in March
Speaker 1: of nineteen the full stretch. Yeah, he gets out of
Speaker 1: prison and he and Fred the Deacon Buckminster, they go
Speaker 1: to Europe. Yeah. So on the boat right over they
Speaker 1: meet two ladies and the ladies ended up swindling them
Speaker 1: for ten thousand dollars with the same sort of tale
Speaker 1: that they would tell victims are like, there's an emergency,
Speaker 1: we need money, but the money is held up and
Speaker 1: should be coming shortly. Can we give you something as collateral? Like,
Speaker 1: here's a necklace can you hold? And it looks really
Speaker 1: expensive but it's worthless. So but they're like amused by this,
Speaker 1: so like, yeah, we got scammed. It was a good one. Um.
Speaker 1: His One of his last big admitted scams was with
Speaker 1: a wealthy American woman who owned a mine in Arizona.
Speaker 1: So Yellow Kid, pretending to be a famous mining engineer,
Speaker 1: he said he help her with apparently, so well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember back, yeah, with the mines and the gems.
Speaker 1: So he gets Buckminster on board as his assistant, and
Speaker 1: the two they go to Arizona all in this lady's dime,
Speaker 1: like an expense account. They're like yep, they go and look,
Speaker 1: the mine is legitimate, but like it's not being used.
Speaker 1: So they spend the rest of the time like on vacation,
Speaker 1: just like sitting by a pool, sip and drink rocks exactly.
Speaker 1: So then they go back to Chicago and Yellow Kids like,
Speaker 1: you know what, yeah, I will help you manage that mine.
Speaker 1: Uh no, she wants to sell it. He's like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, you can get way more for the
Speaker 1: land in Europe than you can't at home. So she agrees, right,
Speaker 1: so they go back to Europe. Yellow Kid and the
Speaker 1: Deacon they sail to Berlin in nineteen thirty. So when
Speaker 1: they get there, they make a formal written request to
Speaker 1: meet with Hitler and it's denied. But they knew it.
Speaker 1: They knew that was going. Well, why do you think
Speaker 1: they wanted that? The letterhead exactly, that's they want at
Speaker 1: official government stationary. So then they also make an inquiry
Speaker 1: at the German government bank, the Right Bank, um, with
Speaker 1: the purpose of attaining more more letter totally, so they
Speaker 1: got these two pieces of paper. Yellow Kid forges a
Speaker 1: conversation between Hitler and the bank, expressing interest in this
Speaker 1: Arizona property. And then but the negotiations are delayed, like
Speaker 1: that's what you know in his letter l Mr Hitler
Speaker 1: is frustrating. He wants Arizona. I just I love Arizona one,
Speaker 1: a little piece of property. Um. So then Yellow Kid
Speaker 1: and the Deacon they go back to Chicago. He shows
Speaker 1: the woman the letters. He's like, look Hitler's in and
Speaker 1: she's like, awesome. Go back to Berlin finalize the purchase.
Speaker 1: But you know, there's this little thing called World War
Speaker 1: two bubbling up over there. He's like, I don't want
Speaker 1: to go that's I don't want this. So she goes, fine,
Speaker 1: I'm cutting off your expense account. And then he's kind
Speaker 1: of getting worried, like, wait, is she going to take
Speaker 1: these letters and go have someone else do this? She's
Speaker 1: going to get She's onto me like, I don't I
Speaker 1: I flew too close to the sun on this one
Speaker 1: for complete. So he goes to d C and then
Speaker 1: he goes to New York. He's just kind of like
Speaker 1: moving around a lot. In New York. He goes to
Speaker 1: a party that's thrown by some con man friends of
Speaker 1: his UM. One of the guys there is a high
Speaker 1: ranking army officer. Now, two months later, the friends that
Speaker 1: he's with UM they get busted for mail fraud. And
Speaker 1: that high ranking army officer says, oh, you know who
Speaker 1: else I saw there? This guy Dr Alriuell. But I
Speaker 1: think he's really Yellow kid rats him out right. But
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Yellow Kid wasn't involved in the mail fraud.
Speaker 1: He was just at the party. Yeah, he gets connected
Speaker 1: to the crime and arrested, and they arrested him at
Speaker 1: his daughter's apartment, hiding in the closet. So here's according
Speaker 1: to the New York Times, according to that. I love
Speaker 1: this part. Here's what it said. The New York Times
Speaker 1: quote a voice through the door said While wasn't there.
Speaker 1: The raiders obtained a pass key. A framed picture of
Speaker 1: While hung on the wall, but While was not found.
Speaker 1: Until the search reached the clothes closet in the apartment
Speaker 1: were found many medical books and a complete physicians kit.
Speaker 1: Outside was Wild's car with the physicians insignia on it.
Speaker 1: The raiders said that While had been posing as Dr R. E. Durraine.
Speaker 1: Letters were found indicating that under several medical aliases, he
Speaker 1: had required many patients. While had fifteen suits with London trademarks,
Speaker 1: twenty hats, twenty pairs of spats, and sixteen pairs of
Speaker 1: shoes in his wardrobe. However, were none of the yellow
Speaker 1: gloves which won him his sober cap. Always always the
Speaker 1: yellow gloves. But I love that, Like, No, there's no
Speaker 1: While here. Well his pictures on the wall, you know, Well,
Speaker 1: I just know about Dr Ari to reign like he
Speaker 1: had in the insignia on his car. So good, Okay.
Speaker 1: So in the meantime, the woman back in Chicago, she
Speaker 1: finds out, wait a second, his name isn't Dr M.
Speaker 1: Well he's yellow kid. And so then she turns around
Speaker 1: and she reports the Hitler letters to the authorities. The
Speaker 1: prosecutors now that they've got him on this mail fraud thing,
Speaker 1: they're like, will drop that indictment on the Hitler letters
Speaker 1: if you plead guilty to mail fraud and go to
Speaker 1: jail for four Yeah. So he agrees, but he argues that, like,
Speaker 1: not four years, how about one year. That's that's way fair.
Speaker 1: Offer one year, yeah, because he's like, look, I was
Speaker 1: just at the party. You have no proof of any
Speaker 1: crime that I've committed. So the judge is like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'll give you two years, and he sends them in early.
Speaker 1: He gets sent to prison in Atlanta. He called it,
Speaker 1: quote perhaps the finest of all federal prisons, and with
Speaker 1: an easy job, lots of athletic opportunit unities he got
Speaker 1: to exercise. In nineteen forty two, he returned to Chicago
Speaker 1: for the Hitler letter case, but his it was just
Speaker 1: a formality. Cases dropped no, so he wrote his autobiography
Speaker 1: in eight He said that since his release from the
Speaker 1: Atlanta prison, he quote resolved that I would never again
Speaker 1: be involved in anything that might send me to prison
Speaker 1: and we heard that, and after that he did the
Speaker 1: work legally getting donations for charities, and he would get
Speaker 1: like a commission for it, so he would be able
Speaker 1: to use his skills. Yeah, charity the second to last
Speaker 1: refuge for the scoundrel. Exactly nineteen fifty six, he's eighty
Speaker 1: years old. He gets interviewed by Saul Bellow for The Reporter,
Speaker 1: and Bellow described Wild's appearance as such quote, the kid
Speaker 1: is now very frail, and it becomes him now. There
Speaker 1: is a sort of fallen natinus about him. His shoes
Speaker 1: are beautifully shined, though not in the best of condition.
Speaker 1: His suit is made of a bold material. It has
Speaker 1: gone too often to the cleaner, but it is an
Speaker 1: excellent press. His shirt must belong to the days of
Speaker 1: his prosperity, for his neck has shrunk and the collar
Speaker 1: fits loosely. It has a green pattern of squares within squares,
Speaker 1: tie and pocket handkerchief for all of matching green. His
Speaker 1: little face is clear and animated. Long practice and insincerity
Speaker 1: gives him an advantage. It is not always easy to
Speaker 1: know when he's being straightforward. No, every time they describe him,
Speaker 1: they mentioned how he's wearing green. I think you could
Speaker 1: have called him the green kid while and did a
Speaker 1: little bit more accurate. I think so, I think so, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's just you know, the green while the green while so. Uh.
Speaker 1: That same year that he gets interviewed, he test he yeah,
Speaker 1: hold on. So he testified at a Senate subcommittee hearing
Speaker 1: on juvenile delinquency, and he complained about contemporary kan men
Speaker 1: who used children to help con older people. And he
Speaker 1: was like, in my back, in my day, we never
Speaker 1: did that. Nineteen fifty nine, a magazine called Man's Smashing Stories. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they ran an article that said yellow Kid died in
Speaker 1: the Bowery in nineteen thirty four, and he's like, um, no, hello, alive,
Speaker 1: present name. He sued them in nineteen sixty two for
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars for libel and one. And then
Speaker 1: he also sued Playboy for using content from his book
Speaker 1: without permission, and he won that one as well. He
Speaker 1: turned ninety in nineteen sixty six, and he told reporters, quote,
Speaker 1: each of my victims had larceny in his heart. I
Speaker 1: never fleeced anyone who could not afford to pay my
Speaker 1: price for a lesson in honesty. A truly honest man
Speaker 1: would never have had my schemes. Wow, that is always
Speaker 1: the thing, like the really good comments say, is basically
Speaker 1: they wait for someone's greed to qualify them to become
Speaker 1: the mark. And that's what he would do. The sting
Speaker 1: we talked about nineteen seventy three movie Paul Newman Robert
Speaker 1: Red allegedly based on all of his scams. He never
Speaker 1: saw the movie, and he said he never wanted to.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't watch it. Yeah. He turned ninety nine in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, and he told a reporter he had
Speaker 1: no regrets about his life, exactly saying, quote, I do
Speaker 1: it the same way again, run it right back. On
Speaker 1: his one hundredth birthday, he told reporters the same thing,
Speaker 1: but he added, I don't feel a day over seventy.
Speaker 1: I still like to look at the ladies and take
Speaker 1: a sip of wine. I like to listen to the radio.
Speaker 1: But I'll be damned if I'll play bingo with the
Speaker 1: restaurant here. It's a rip off. It's feisty. The cops
Speaker 1: showed up on his birthday. Well, they wanted to present
Speaker 1: him with a police bulletin from June four, n eighteen,
Speaker 1: warning the department to be on the lookout for him,
Speaker 1: and then they they also got a letter from Chicago
Speaker 1: Mayor Richard Daily congratulated him, you know, real recognizers, real totally.
Speaker 1: He's like he did the whole was the what was
Speaker 1: the weather man? The one hundred year Fred Willard Scott? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was thinking the jeopardy answer. See he did the
Speaker 1: Willard Scott and he's like, hooray, you're one hundred. February
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, he passed away at the age of
Speaker 1: one hundred. He spent the last three years of his
Speaker 1: life at the Lakefront Convalescent Center. And he actually died
Speaker 1: with very little to his name, despite yeah, because he
Speaker 1: had that lack of funds and all this like bureaucratic
Speaker 1: stuff red tape. He wasn't buried in the plot next
Speaker 1: to his wife and his daughter. He was buried in
Speaker 1: a pauper's grave, which I'd like to correct. Um. He
Speaker 1: spent all his money on parties, travel, close, general ball, Vivon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he spent the money well, regrets gener regret. Yeah, probably
Speaker 1: the best way to do it, I think so. He
Speaker 1: claimed to have about two thousand victims in his career.
Speaker 1: MS educated popular and he calculated he made somewhere between
Speaker 1: three and eight million dollars over the course of his career.
Speaker 1: He's a really good teacher. He was arrested now depends
Speaker 1: on who you ask, but he was arrested between twenty
Speaker 1: five and forty one time, but only five convictions. That's
Speaker 1: pretty good percentage. He spent a total of twelve years
Speaker 1: of his life in prison for his crimes. That's a
Speaker 1: really good rate. Yeah, And he wrote that he wasn't
Speaker 1: caught much because quote, I made it a rule never
Speaker 1: to let any documentary evidence get out of my hands.
Speaker 1: Though I displayed thousands of fake letters, documents, stock certificates, etcetera.
Speaker 1: To prospective victims, I was always careful to recover them.
Speaker 1: And then he used a really good forger to make
Speaker 1: his all his fake stuff. Got to have a good forger,
Speaker 1: you knowing taught us that. Yeah. Um, he made sure
Speaker 1: that that he had like the foreign envelopes and the
Speaker 1: postal markings. Yes, that alias. He loved Dr alri Um.
Speaker 1: It was his favorite one to use. And it was
Speaker 1: also a real person that he was impersonating was an
Speaker 1: actual mining engineer and an author. So he read the
Speaker 1: guy's books and so that he could use information in
Speaker 1: them in this conversation with potential marks um. And then
Speaker 1: he also used his forger to make copies of the
Speaker 1: book jacket with his own photo on the back to
Speaker 1: cement the story. So if someone's like, oh, you wrote
Speaker 1: a book, Yeah, here it is the details logistics, why
Speaker 1: did he do it? I mean, well, this is what
Speaker 1: he said quote. I don't believe I ever had any
Speaker 1: basic desire to be dishonest. One of the motivating factors
Speaker 1: in my actions was, of course, the desire to acquire money.
Speaker 1: The other motive was a lust for adventure, and this
Speaker 1: was the only kind of adventure for which I was equipped.
Speaker 1: The men I swindled were also motivated by a desire
Speaker 1: to acquire money, and they didn't care at whose expense
Speaker 1: they got it. I was particular I took. I took
Speaker 1: money only from those who could afford it. And we're
Speaker 1: willing to go in with me in schemes they fancied
Speaker 1: would fleece others. See that's the one that I'm like. Okay,
Speaker 1: So he told Saalbello that his marks quote may have
Speaker 1: been respectable, but they were never any good and that
Speaker 1: quote they wanted something for nothing. I gave them nothing
Speaker 1: for something. You are his final thoughts quote. People will
Speaker 1: tell you that crime does not pay. Perhaps that is right,
Speaker 1: but it paid me handsomely. I feel that I have
Speaker 1: lived a thousand years in seventy. Those periods of incarceration, well,
Speaker 1: they were not always what I would have chosen, but
Speaker 1: they gave me time to relax, reflect and catch up
Speaker 1: on my reading. The bad part about serving a prison
Speaker 1: term is not while you're doing the stretch. It's the
Speaker 1: stigma that forever clings to you after you come out.
Speaker 1: In England, it is illegal to refer to a person
Speaker 1: as an ex convict, but in this country you can
Speaker 1: never escape the brand, no matter how hard you try.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that about anyone and all that. It's
Speaker 1: a really good point. Yeah, it was a good point.
Speaker 1: So that is Yellow Kid while dude, he's one of
Speaker 1: my new favorite Yeah, he's an amazing character, and I
Speaker 1: love that he's little bits of everybody. Yeah, exactly. I
Speaker 1: gotta read about this Dill Pickle club too. You piqued
Speaker 1: my curious. That a good one. Yeah. On another project,
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of research on Emma Goldman and
Speaker 1: I learned a lot about the Dill Pickle Club. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. That's all I have for you today. You
Speaker 1: can find us online at Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter
Speaker 1: while it's still around and Instagram. That's the picture place.
Speaker 1: Email us if you want to ridiculou Crime at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. Tune in next time. Ridiculous Crime is hosted
Speaker 1: by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnett, produced and edited by
Speaker 1: president of the Totally Legit International mining Company, Dave Kusten.
Speaker 1: Research is by jaded Aris Marissa Brown. The theme song
Speaker 1: is by phony Faro. Bankers Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton.
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Black Market Stationary salesman Ben Bollen and
Speaker 1: Noel Brown. Ride say It one more Time, We Dequeous.
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