Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Ah.
Speaker 3: No, it's so good for you to have.
Speaker 2: You been since the last time you saw.
Speaker 3: Me getting better? You know, I think this it's still
Speaker 3: so ridiculous. It's still summertime. Okay, go ahead, but I
Speaker 3: think that the summer of Dark Elizabeth may be ending.
Speaker 4: What.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm not feeling as mad as I have.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's nice.
Speaker 3: Joy has entered.
Speaker 2: I'm really happy for me. It's joy has entered your life.
Speaker 2: What happened?
Speaker 3: Just being joyous?
Speaker 2: Just being joyful.
Speaker 3: I made the personal decision to not be pissed off.
Speaker 2: Congratulations. I'm so happy for us, you so much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm really happy for you.
Speaker 2: Do you know what's ridiculous? I do?
Speaker 3: What TikTok?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Are you onto totally the byte dance of the TikTok?
Speaker 3: What's your favorite TikTok trend?
Speaker 2: Me not scrolling?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not on there. So I tell you. I
Speaker 3: just hear people complaining about TikTok challenges.
Speaker 2: And what have you people sent me to. I watched
Speaker 2: a whole hour long video about what goes on on TikTok,
Speaker 2: so I didn't have to go on.
Speaker 3: I'm there's this makeup artist. I think I've talked about
Speaker 3: it before, Aaron Parsons that I follow on Instagram. Sure,
Speaker 3: and she has longer videos on TikTok that I really
Speaker 3: really want to watch, but not enough to get on TikTok. Yeah. Uh, anyway, TikTok.
Speaker 3: One of the kind of fads that's been going down
Speaker 3: on there is that people are buying kit kats, you know,
Speaker 3: a k give me a break, give me a break.
Speaker 2: Into a KitKat exactly.
Speaker 3: They've been taking them and dipping them and ketchup. Yeah why,
Speaker 3: I don't know. So much of this stuff is just why.
Speaker 3: But anyway, so like never one to miss an opportunity. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I know, I got you, Hines. It was like, we
Speaker 3: haven't been making a terrible product for the last I
Speaker 3: don't know five minutes. So hey, kit cat, you want
Speaker 3: in on this? And so they they drew. I think
Speaker 3: they went to AI and like had an AI.
Speaker 2: Why actually waste time on.
Speaker 3: This picture of it. It's called kit Catchup and it's
Speaker 3: a ketchup flavored kit Cat's.
Speaker 2: Not just like a dip for your your kit cat.
Speaker 3: No, it's like so they had picture of it. It
Speaker 3: hasn't really been released I think it's like a test balloon, Like, hey,
Speaker 3: you guys, would you be into this? And you know
Speaker 3: people would.
Speaker 5: Buy so uh that would apparently the official Craft Dinner account,
Speaker 5: uh commented in response to this, y'all want to add
Speaker 5: cheese to the mix.
Speaker 3: It's like all of them need to be hosed down
Speaker 3: and swatted with the paper. Look, they're getting me back
Speaker 3: to dark quick and like, I don't so let's just
Speaker 3: let's just stop it. Gez No, No, that's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: No one else is ridiculous, Elizabeth. All Right, I got
Speaker 2: a special one for you. FBI agents, Yeah, who once
Speaker 2: played dress up as chiks to catch mobsters, but instead
Speaker 2: they caught senators and congressmen doing crimes.
Speaker 3: Oh I love this.
Speaker 4: Yeah right, this.
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists,
Speaker 2: and cons. It's always ninety nine murder free and ridiculous.
Speaker 2: That's the truth, Elizabeth. Yeah, today, I got a special
Speaker 2: one for you. You know, I want to tell you
Speaker 2: the story of an undercover operation that changed how the
Speaker 2: FBI does its FBI business. Sibbons, Yes, exactly. We've already
Speaker 2: discussed what little law there is to constrain undercover officers.
Speaker 3: Yeh, I covered that shocking right.
Speaker 2: Well. This story is what caused the FBI to come
Speaker 2: up with some rules of their own for their undercover
Speaker 2: operations after the FBI caught a bunch of congressmen doing crimes. Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: you ever heard of ab scam?
Speaker 3: Vague sounds vaguely familiar.
Speaker 2: Same, Yeah, it's like right on the edge of like
Speaker 2: cultural memory. I remember my father referencing it. I don't
Speaker 2: know what it was. And I learned something today as well.
Speaker 2: It was like ab fab that I know about. Yeah, yes, Patty,
Speaker 2: and yes, Patty and Adina definitely know about Patsy what
Speaker 2: I said, Patty, Yeah, I know all this Patty show
Speaker 2: and Edward I love them. So before we dig into
Speaker 2: the FBI's fun with costumes, I need to provide a
Speaker 2: little context the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 3: Oh you love the song.
Speaker 2: I love the seventies not only is it bad fashion
Speaker 2: and great music. We often cover stories from this decade
Speaker 2: because there's a lot of crime, just a ton of crime,
Speaker 2: mostly because it was this hinge in history, right, Like
Speaker 2: it's a point in time when the world was starting
Speaker 2: to use like new things like jet planes and the
Speaker 2: computer and computers and the internet, right, but also that
Speaker 2: was you know, intended to make the world much smaller,
Speaker 2: but mostly it made it easier to find criminals. So
Speaker 2: this is right at the point where we're like, oh,
Speaker 2: criminals realize they're no longer able to just cross state
Speaker 2: lines or whatever they've been doing for most of the
Speaker 2: twentieth century. Right, this is the end of that era,
Speaker 2: and this is like, well, this is the story of
Speaker 2: the folks who are doing the busting, right, Like, first
Speaker 2: we need to discuss the idea and the image of
Speaker 2: that they tried to borrow from the chic. The seventies
Speaker 2: is when the sheic becomes popular in American culture.
Speaker 3: Right, like the not c chi see chic.
Speaker 2: But like, yeah, not like the chic like Miles Rogers.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: No, it doesn't like oo, No chic has in like
Speaker 2: our shake. I guess there's probably more of a pronounce.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So it all started with the rise of OPEK. Right
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy three, OPEC they announced this oil and bargo,
Speaker 2: this action sense oil prices skyrocketing. We've seen the pictures
Speaker 2: in the footage of the lines from gas stations stretching
Speaker 2: around the block, right, It pretty much brings Western countries
Speaker 2: to a near standstill when they can't get their oil.
Speaker 2: This is also when Americans stopped driving gas guzzler cars.
Speaker 2: They switch over to hondas and toyotas right now. This
Speaker 2: is also when the image of the Sheiks starts to
Speaker 2: pop up in American pop culture as this kind of like, oh,
Speaker 2: this is who's getting all the money? Kind of yeah,
Speaker 2: exactly right. So this do you remember the movie Cannonball Run?
Speaker 3: I do?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you do? Okay, So my boy hal need them,
Speaker 2: director of Smoking in the Bandit, which Hitchcock called his
Speaker 2: favorite film. Is what I swear to God Halfred Hitchcock
Speaker 2: look it up. He said this Smoking the Bandit was
Speaker 2: his favorite film. It was the end of his life.
Speaker 2: So who knows what was going on, but anyway he consciousness,
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly. He's out a letter that I need him,
Speaker 2: is saying this anyway, how need him? He's back in
Speaker 2: the director's chair for Cannonball Run. Now, do you you
Speaker 2: remember the movie I did Burt Reynolds, JJ McClure, Dom
Speaker 2: Delawai Tom Delawis as Victor prinsy aka who Captain Chaos.
Speaker 2: You heard the costume that was like his alter ego
Speaker 2: is like his first sona but no fur.
Speaker 3: I always liked when they would show like the outtakes
Speaker 3: and they're just cracking themselves up, and I'm like, it's
Speaker 3: not that.
Speaker 2: Funny the whole of the movie. Oh my god, it's
Speaker 2: such a Hollywood. We got drunk and went off to
Speaker 2: a set and like, yeah, yeahmpletely so. But also, you know,
Speaker 2: speaking of drunk, there was Dean Martin in this movie,
Speaker 2: Sammy Davis Junior. They were dressed as priests. Remember, right,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to get my buddy Derek to do this
Speaker 2: costume for Halloween. Like the two of us get some
Speaker 2: priest shirts and.
Speaker 3: We go do it.
Speaker 2: I know, right, it's right slam dunk. Also Jackie Chan
Speaker 2: the guy and the guy who played Jaws in the
Speaker 2: Bonds movies their teammates. Anyway, do you remember the shake
Speaker 2: je Jamie Fame, he plays Abdul ben Falafel.
Speaker 3: Oh God, stuff from the eighties, like when you look back,
Speaker 3: like there have been times when I'll think, oh, I
Speaker 3: loved that movie, and then I watched.
Speaker 2: You watch it and I'm just like, oh, I don't
Speaker 2: remember all this.
Speaker 3: First of all, super offensive. Second of all, there are
Speaker 3: a lot of movies where you're like, kids.
Speaker 2: Watched oh most of them, even the ones where I'm like,
Speaker 2: I watched this as a kid, Like what, who let
Speaker 2: me watch this? Ex So, Jamie Farr is the only
Speaker 2: character who's in all three Cannonball movies this shake abdul
Speaker 2: ben Falafel, and he plays them obviously as a wild
Speaker 2: stereotype of an Arab and I looked it up. Also,
Speaker 2: I should note, do you remember his father was Ricardo Montabon.
Speaker 2: He was in Cannonball Run two aka mister Rourke from Fantasy.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, rich Corinthian love.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, real commitment to Arab stereotypes here Ricardo montaban
Speaker 2: and Jamie Farr. But it should be noted Jamie Farr
Speaker 2: is of I looked it up, needs descent his family.
Speaker 2: They are Antioch Orthodox Christians, so it's not really you know,
Speaker 2: entirely his culture to make fun of. But he is
Speaker 2: of the region, you know. So anyway, the Canniball Run movies,
Speaker 2: Janie far As shake abdol ben Faloffel, he drives this
Speaker 2: tricked out rolls Royce silver Shadow. That's to like make
Speaker 2: fun of the fact of like the implausibility, that rageousness
Speaker 2: of Arab wealthy you're gonna try to raise, and of
Speaker 2: Rolls Royce. That's the whole joke, right, which speaks to
Speaker 2: what was going down in the seventies. Arabs are suddenly everywhere. Right,
Speaker 2: They're in New York, They're in London. They have money,
Speaker 2: They have more money than the queen right in this
Speaker 2: desert shake the irresponsible Saudi prince. They become this image
Speaker 2: of the excessive, outsized Arab oil wealth.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: But the shak's also become an iconic image of the
Speaker 2: seventies era with just the look. It's just such an
Speaker 2: iconic look. Soddenly got this, these long flowing white robes,
Speaker 2: the clean white draped kefia. The head dress right, the
Speaker 2: sorry caffa headdress often accessorized with these dark designers sunglasses. Right,
Speaker 2: they look all clean. Perhaps they have like a statement
Speaker 2: bird of prey, like a falcon, very.
Speaker 3: Very much like an eighties kids Halloween come totally.
Speaker 2: Right, or like there's a also. I mean, this look
Speaker 2: it gets becomes so iconic people start playing with it.
Speaker 2: Like you pointed out, it becomes a costume. Frank Zappa
Speaker 2: very famously on his very first album, the one for
Speaker 2: Zappa Records that he released in nineteen seventy nine. It
Speaker 2: was called Shake Your Booty. Oh yeah on the cover
Speaker 2: of Frank Zappa dressed as a desert shake. The album
Speaker 2: features the title track, obviously, shake your Booty. That was
Speaker 2: a play on the song that was a big song
Speaker 2: of the day, Shake your Booty by Sunshine.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: All right, so this same album, the same Zappa album.
Speaker 3: They've got shake notes exactly.
Speaker 2: Do you know Jewish American Princess the Zappa song? Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: I want to funky little Jews printans. Anyway, so Frank Zappa,
Speaker 2: he's playing with the Israeli tensions at the time, apparently,
Speaker 2: I don't know. But another person who also becomes famous
Speaker 2: playing with the same iconic imagery he played a shake
Speaker 2: Actually his is a man named Hossain Kostro Ali Vasiri,
Speaker 2: better known as the Iron Cheek. You're familiar with the
Speaker 2: professional wrestler the Iron Cheek.
Speaker 3: I really know much about wrestling, but like you remember
Speaker 3: characters like that and like pul Kogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper.
Speaker 2: There you go, classic Rowdy, my big boy. I like
Speaker 2: him anyway, you remember at the time, right, like in
Speaker 2: the eighties and he comes from he was in the seventies,
Speaker 2: but he really comes to dominance in the eighties. And
Speaker 2: you could like tell that he's like this Cold War
Speaker 2: proxy war figure because you have the Soviet Union that
Speaker 2: was his like wrestling partner. He's with this big Soviet
Speaker 2: Russian and that was to kind of play on the
Speaker 2: fact that Iran or Rock War was going on at
Speaker 2: the time, right, So we have this whole thing, and
Speaker 2: so the Soviets choose Iran, we choose a rock that
Speaker 2: we being the West. So all this gets played out.
Speaker 2: And so that's why there's photos of George Bush and
Speaker 2: Saddam Hussein together in the Reagan years. It's because of this.
Speaker 2: So the Iron Cheek is capitalizing on.
Speaker 3: This Iron Chek today like a Twitter he was.
Speaker 2: He passed away. He passed away recently. He was a
Speaker 2: huge Twitter presence. Everybody loved him and it really was
Speaker 2: him apparently doing although like you're a j'r Broni. Now,
Speaker 2: he was an Iranian born wrestler. Now, if you know anything,
Speaker 2: it's kind of weird for him to be called the
Speaker 2: Iron Chic if he's because there's no shakes in Iran. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a Persian culture if you want. Yeah, the Shiks
Speaker 2: they they're from the Arabian Peninsula, from the Gulf States, right, So,
Speaker 2: but I guess the Iron Persian just didn't have the
Speaker 2: same ring, right. But this is the whole point is
Speaker 2: in the seventies they're like, oh, you got to be
Speaker 2: a shake well, and it was just.
Speaker 3: There was this notion that it's just all the same.
Speaker 2: Yes, there's always that, there's you know, it's just.
Speaker 3: That whole region. And I think it really.
Speaker 2: Wasn't until the flattening of that area.
Speaker 3: Like the First Gulf War, that people were able to
Speaker 3: start differentiate, differentiating different countries.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, or even understanding like the Souni Shia divide
Speaker 2: and Islam some of these things they're they're not known
Speaker 2: at this point, not really, right. So at this point,
Speaker 2: for purely visual reasons, the Iron Shake. He wears these
Speaker 2: curved toad shoes from like the Ottomans. He has an
Speaker 2: ancient Persian style club, he's got the Kafia of the
Speaker 2: the chk Right, He's just mixing up all the Middle
Speaker 2: Eastern signified.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's basically playing on occidental fears. That's the
Speaker 2: whole idea, right, So these three shak examples, I give you.
Speaker 2: None of them are Arab, right, these are this is
Speaker 2: what people are picturing when they're learning about shakes. These
Speaker 2: people pretending in the seventies, right, So your average media
Speaker 2: trained American, this is what they think of a shake
Speaker 2: in the seventies and eighties. Is these people. Yeah, Frank Zappa,
Speaker 2: Jamie Farr, and the Iron Shake. So anyway, that Elizabeth
Speaker 2: brings us to the story of the day abscam. Nice
Speaker 2: to story almost as big as Watergate was in the
Speaker 2: nineteen seventies. It's this huge crime and there's you know,
Speaker 2: it's government figures are involved. The Feds are going after
Speaker 2: government figures. It's like people are like, oh this again.
Speaker 2: But after two decades of victories in court thanks to Rico,
Speaker 2: the Feds have been going after mobsters for a while,
Speaker 2: all right, and the Fed lawyers there at this point
Speaker 2: they're finishing up and prisoning the last of the Great
Speaker 2: Dawns of the Five Families of New York and New Jersey. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the FBI, they've run a number of stings, surveillance operations,
Speaker 2: all against the mafia. This is when like Rudy Giuliani,
Speaker 2: James Comer and Michael Chertoff all make their names as
Speaker 2: US attorneys. So abscam. It starts out as an FBI
Speaker 2: sting operation, just another one of these. It was an
Speaker 2: attempt to ensnare mobsters working with white collar criminals. But eventually,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, out of nowhere pops up into
Speaker 2: the second greatest political scandal of the seventies. It starts with,
Speaker 2: as I said, FBI agents playing dress up as shakes.
Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy eight, FBI agent John Good, middle name Francis.
Speaker 2: So he was John F. Goood, not like Johnny F. Good.
Speaker 2: Now anyway, if his name was like, middle name was Bernard,
Speaker 2: I know so much better. Yeah, but his parents had
Speaker 2: no sense of humor, foresight. Yeah, John F. Good, Johnny F.
Speaker 2: Good whatever. Anyway, This dude, John F. Good, FBI guy,
Speaker 2: guy with a big idea. He stationed at the FBI
Speaker 2: suburban Long Island Field office. Right, he wants to get
Speaker 2: into this anti mob crackdown energy. So listen, if you
Speaker 2: want to fight crime, it helps if you have your
Speaker 2: own what army criminal?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it.
Speaker 2: Helps because if you have your own criminal, because they
Speaker 2: know things you don't. They know the language, they know
Speaker 2: some people. They know the ins and outs. They can
Speaker 2: tell you things and what things mean that you would
Speaker 2: never even think the question. Yeah, right, so it helps
Speaker 2: have a criminal basically, So, this criminal that John F.
Speaker 2: Good decides he's going to draft for his operation is
Speaker 2: named Melvin Weinberg. Melvin Weinberg. He is a con artist,
Speaker 2: a swindler. He's recently been arrested and is looking at
Speaker 2: a long stretch inside. Yeah, that's why he agrees to
Speaker 2: become an FBI and foremant He's like, oh, yeah, out
Speaker 2: of my two choices, I'll take what's in your right hand.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He ropes in his girlfriend who's also been busted, also
Speaker 2: run up on charges, Evelyn Knight. So that together they
Speaker 2: agree to help the FBI help some agents run low
Speaker 2: priority sting operations, just like I said, catch some white
Speaker 2: collar criminals. Folks are doing business with the mob in
Speaker 2: Long Island. Yeah, operations of initial budget was thirty two
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, not much at all. No, Weinberg, he goes,
Speaker 2: he takes his money. He creates a fake business, a
Speaker 2: front company called Abdul Enterprises. The company was purportedly to
Speaker 2: be this business arm for an Arab shake. The sheik
Speaker 2: was named Comber Abdul Ramen, and they were that was
Speaker 2: entirely made up. These are obviously covers for FBI agents.
Speaker 2: Shake Ramen and there was another one to shake Yasir Habib.
Speaker 2: So shake Khabib and Shake Ramen. They become the FBI
Speaker 2: agent's cover stories. They pretend to have one million dollars
Speaker 2: that they wish to invest in American businesses. Right, so
Speaker 2: we got some arab oil money. I just want to
Speaker 2: come over and put in the Yeah. So that whole
Speaker 2: the idea is that hopefully people see them is like,
Speaker 2: oh I can con them, I can take them whatever.
Speaker 2: They're like new Nuvaux Reach.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So the first bust that they go, they they conduct them.
Speaker 2: They're working like like Subaru engineering, Elizabeth just smooth. Weinberg,
Speaker 2: he's able to define this set of stolen paintings in
Speaker 2: one of the crimes. Right. That ends up that pretty
Speaker 2: much takes most of the thirty two thousand dollars budget
Speaker 2: to get through these first stainings because he's using it
Speaker 2: as like buy money and so forth. FBI they recover
Speaker 2: the stolen artwork. Then Weinberg he gets this big surprise.
Speaker 2: The insurance company flips him a cool ten thousand for
Speaker 2: his recovery effort. It's ten larks just for like, you know,
Speaker 2: being involved. This one gives Weinberg a big idea of
Speaker 2: his own. He's like, I got big ideas too. He
Speaker 2: can make some big money roping in criminals for the FBI.
Speaker 2: He happens to know them, so now he'll just start
Speaker 2: targeting them and hopefully get a little piece on the side,
Speaker 2: or is he put it, he'll start working as a
Speaker 2: quote government crook. So he goes back to his handlers
Speaker 2: and he tells him, look, if you want to go
Speaker 2: after some real big fish, like some real criminals, then
Speaker 2: you need to give me some real money. So the
Speaker 2: FBI is like, well, how much you do you have
Speaker 2: in mind? He's like he goes like full doctor evil.
Speaker 2: He's like, I need one million dollars. So the FBI
Speaker 2: they go, okay, one million dollars and they transfer it
Speaker 2: to a Chase Manhattan bank account. So now Weinberg's got
Speaker 2: some real like flash show money, and he's got these
Speaker 2: fake FBI shakes to go around and play dress up
Speaker 2: into you know, flash in front of the purpse. So
Speaker 2: he's got some flash money. He's got these people who
Speaker 2: are gonna make people think, oh I can take them.
Speaker 2: It's great. Right, So they now they go, I like
Speaker 2: this guy. They put them on the official FBI payroll.
Speaker 2: This informant, he gets a salary of three grand a
Speaker 2: month in nineteen seventy. Yes, it's a lot of money.
Speaker 2: So that's not to mention any bonuses that he earned. No,
Speaker 2: I don't know if the FBI was covering his expenses,
Speaker 2: but I do know this. He kept the same attitude
Speaker 2: as a quote government crook that he brought to his
Speaker 2: work as a con man or. As Wineberg put it,
Speaker 2: and I quote, I'm a swindler. There's only one difference
Speaker 2: between me and the congressman I met on this case.
Speaker 2: The public pays them a salary for stealing. So he's
Speaker 2: got real respect for his targets. Yeah. Anyway, second, little
Speaker 2: breg Elizabeth, after these messages, we will check back in
Speaker 2: on Weinberg and how these FBI shakes get to work. Excellent, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: we're back. How are those ads? Huh so good?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, there's so much I want to buy.
Speaker 2: I know, where's my wallet? Where were we? Right? Yes,
Speaker 2: we got a bunch of FBI agents pretending to be
Speaker 2: Shakes to catch American gangsters. I love it, Okay, so
Speaker 2: the swindler Weinberg, he earns the trust and a salary
Speaker 2: from his FBI handlers. He repays them with new schemes.
Speaker 2: Now they have their own criminal dreaming up crimes for
Speaker 2: them to pull. After some initial successes, Weinberg comes up
Speaker 2: with the act. He gets it down in pat He
Speaker 2: will pose as an agent for this insanely wealthy Arab
Speaker 2: named Shake Combo abdul Ramen. Fun fact, it seems like
Speaker 2: he invented this namdu sting because Weinberg says he wants
Speaker 2: sat next to a Combu abdul Ramen on a flight
Speaker 2: from Paris and just took his name. There's a guy, Yeah, exactly, boy,
Speaker 2: he's doing crimes in this guy's name. Anyway. The sheikh
Speaker 2: who he's supposed to be is allegedly from the Arab Emirates.
Speaker 2: He's a Gulf state Shake. That's the idea this imaginary shake.
Speaker 2: The gambit is simple. Weineberg, posing as the agent. He
Speaker 2: would find a purp approach them with an offer of
Speaker 2: a loan from the Shakes, like I got some money
Speaker 2: because due to the dictates of Islamic Shariah law. The
Speaker 2: Shakes were forbidden from usury, right, they can't do normal
Speaker 2: banking laws, and therefore they have to avoid the interest
Speaker 2: of Western banks. And so that means that the Shakes
Speaker 2: were looking for investment potential and that's where they like
Speaker 2: to park their money. And so they loan money also
Speaker 2: in exchange for say, fake certificates of deposit, so that
Speaker 2: the Shakes can later withdraw their money from a Muslim
Speaker 2: bank overseas. And people are like, oh, okay, they know
Speaker 2: for this all scammers, right. The other scam that Weinberg
Speaker 2: starts to work is he approaches a purp again posing
Speaker 2: as the agent for the fake Shakes, and he says
Speaker 2: he's looking for investment opportunities to skirt American banking oversight
Speaker 2: because their fortunes are so vast and they'll be seized
Speaker 2: if they know blah blah blah. Yeah, and then the
Speaker 2: Shakes are also looking for you know, when I say
Speaker 2: investment opportunities, we're talking expected businesses like American made porn films.
Speaker 2: Whoa yeah. So people are like, oh, the Shakes really
Speaker 2: want to get in this, were like, oh, yes, they
Speaker 2: don't care as long as their names are not involved.
Speaker 2: They're looking for solid businesses, good you know, bottom lines,
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff, like, oh, porn business for
Speaker 2: you brother. So now you might be imagining the FBI
Speaker 2: had these like the same guy always like pose as
Speaker 2: the shake. Yeah, like you might be imagining some agent
Speaker 2: of Arab descent who can carry off the act, who
Speaker 2: can convincingly play a shake he speaks Arabic and you
Speaker 2: would be wrong. Oh no, of course. The course they
Speaker 2: have no respect for the role. So they're just like
Speaker 2: you know, tonight the shake will be played by So
Speaker 2: there's three different agents playing shake Rahmen. For the most part, right,
Speaker 2: one of the agents is of Irish descent. I don't
Speaker 2: know if he's a redhead, but he's of Irish descent.
Speaker 2: He's a dude named Michael Danahey, but he was American.
Speaker 2: I gave him the except for fun. He plays the shake,
Speaker 2: and of course he didn't know a single word of Arabic,
Speaker 2: so when he did try, he would just utter simple
Speaker 2: phrases like and he couldn't even make it through, like
Speaker 2: uh aslama lakeam. He'd be like like, oh it all
Speaker 2: or whatever? Right, it come out of like a wholly
Speaker 2: different set of vowels and consonants, and if I, if I imitated,
Speaker 2: it would probably sound racist, right, So you.
Speaker 3: Know, oh my god, I'm just trying to process this.
Speaker 2: Now. I don't know if they got the memo after
Speaker 2: Michael Dennehy's version of the ship played out a few times,
Speaker 2: but eventually the FBI they drag in this agent who
Speaker 2: is of Lebanese descent, much like Jamie Farr. They're like, oh,
Speaker 2: this works enough, works in Cannonball, can you do it?
Speaker 2: So I get this Elizabeth, this agent. He actually spoke
Speaker 2: Arabic fluently, but he'd do some words so you could
Speaker 2: muster a passing accent.
Speaker 3: All of my friends from the region from the Levant. Yeah,
Speaker 3: speaks so many languages, totally totally Yeah.
Speaker 2: And dialects too. So anyway, where was I?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 2: So things they start to go better for the agents.
Speaker 2: Now they've got this bit down. They got this second
Speaker 2: sheek is more convincing than the Irish guy. So then
Speaker 2: they decide, okay, well, now that we got down, we'll
Speaker 2: bring in They bring in shake. Yes, Sayer Habib I
Speaker 2: mentioned him earlier. He comes on. Now they got two
Speaker 2: shakes and this second shake he's a goer, Elizabeth, because
Speaker 2: soon enough he earns himself for promotion, he becomes a
Speaker 2: mirror and so yeah, he's got his own He's the
Speaker 2: leader of his own golf state. Apparently not bad for
Speaker 2: a pretend shake. Anyway, Enough about the FBI guys playing
Speaker 2: dress up like Frank Zappa, who were they targeting? Great question, Elizabe,
Speaker 2: I'm so glad I asked that. Now, Weinberg he liked
Speaker 2: to target obviously white collar criminals. That was the aim. Right.
Speaker 2: So he finds this one guy, William Rosenberg, and he
Speaker 2: approaches the agent for the fake Shakes with an angle
Speaker 2: of some business in New Jersey. Right, so Weinberg the swindler.
Speaker 2: He tells Rosenberg that the Shakes would like to invest,
Speaker 2: are looking to invest in Atlantic City, and he thinks
Speaker 2: that the casino business would be perfect for them and
Speaker 2: their vast wealth. So he says, they have some money
Speaker 2: to invest, but they'll need guarantees. They'll need guarantees that
Speaker 2: they can be awarded a gambling license as foreigners. Now
Speaker 2: we're talking serious money. You Now you have to understand
Speaker 2: they have one hundred million dollars as they plan to
Speaker 2: drop on Atlantic City. They'll transform the city into the
Speaker 2: Los f He gets of the East. People are like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, Rosenberg, this purpose. He's like, I got people.
Speaker 2: Don't you worry? I canna help you out. Turns out
Speaker 2: he knows the mayor of Camden, New Jersey. Oh, this
Speaker 2: guy's like a major power like player in Jersey politics.
Speaker 2: Rosenberg says, I get Mayor Angela Erchetti to play ball,
Speaker 2: right for a small fee. So the FBI informant Weinberger Swindler,
Speaker 2: he invites the mayor to meet him at the Long
Speaker 2: Island offices of Abdul Enterprises. Meet the shakes yourself, right.
Speaker 2: So the office was of course fully kitted out with cameras,
Speaker 2: hiding microphones and FBI special so the FBI records everything
Speaker 2: that's said and everything that's done inside this office. And
Speaker 2: the mayor shows up right. December nineteen seventy eight, Marriger
Speaker 2: Eric Shetty arrives at the office of Abdul Enterprises. He
Speaker 2: and Weinberg, the agent for the fake Shakes, They get
Speaker 2: to talking about corruption, like, oh, you like coruption, I
Speaker 2: love corruption. Let's do some corruption, right, what do these
Speaker 2: fake shakes think about it? Or so obviously real shakes
Speaker 2: to him. They get to talking about it. He's like,
Speaker 2: so you want store bought casino licenses, that's the deal.
Speaker 2: So Mayor Eric shetty. He starts to, you know, get
Speaker 2: a little full of himself. He swells up a little.
Speaker 2: He brags that he has contacts with the Casino Control Commission.
Speaker 2: That's not problem for me, the mayor tells. The agent
Speaker 2: tells this agent for the fake shakes Weinberg, I'll give
Speaker 2: you Atlantic City without me. You do nothing.
Speaker 3: It just plays into everyone's ideas.
Speaker 2: And all the stereotypes. You got this like Italian mayor
Speaker 2: of Jersey without me, you got nothing.
Speaker 3: He's actually played.
Speaker 2: But it is better because I don't even get this one.
Speaker 2: He's Italian. They're apparently supposed to be fake Arabs. He said,
Speaker 2: ends his quote with like, you know, I'll give you
Speaker 2: Atlantic City without me, you do nothing. I'll be your rabbi,
Speaker 2: Like I don't know if.
Speaker 3: Italian.
Speaker 2: I'll be a rabbi.
Speaker 3: Into a bar.
Speaker 2: Anyway. His price four hundred thousand dollars, So he's like,
Speaker 2: he makes that clear. He's like, I will take that.
Speaker 2: So now they got the mayor on tape naming his price.
Speaker 2: So also he had his own ideas from some crimes
Speaker 2: they could pull. He's like, I got other guys you
Speaker 2: need to talk to. You got some loose money. I
Speaker 2: got guys who are like vacuums. This is great. So
Speaker 2: Weinberg would later recall he wanted me to get into
Speaker 2: counterfeit money. He wanted to give us the Port of
Speaker 2: Camden for narcotics. He's like, hey, what do you want
Speaker 2: to run heroin? I saw the French connection. What are
Speaker 2: you guys doing?
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: So to get the casino license, which is what they
Speaker 2: say they want, Eric Shetty, he said that he'd need
Speaker 2: to bribe this dude McDonald to Kenneth McDonald, the vice
Speaker 2: chairman of the Casino Control Commission. So that will cost
Speaker 2: another hundred grand. All right, no problem, you guys got that.
Speaker 2: So he later he visits Obdul Enterprises over on Long
Speaker 2: Island to pick up the hundred large, which of course
Speaker 2: gets recorded on videotape. So Weinberg gets to know this
Speaker 2: new class of white collar criminals. He begins to think
Speaker 2: of them as a quote, a bunch of perverts, drunks
Speaker 2: and crooks. And he liked the mayor. Weinberg said he
Speaker 2: could relate to him since quote, he's a likable guy.
Speaker 2: He didn't beat around the bush. He wanted to make money.
Speaker 2: So Mayor Eric Shetty, he's indeed, as I said, powerful
Speaker 2: in South New Jersey. He's connections. They run all the
Speaker 2: way up to the local congressman. He bragged about that too.
Speaker 2: Is I can bag him for you if you want, right,
Speaker 2: So Weinberg and his FBI handlers they start. They change
Speaker 2: their cover story now for the fake shakes. They don't
Speaker 2: want to just get into the gambling business in Atlantic City.
Speaker 2: They had a new wrinkle to see if they can
Speaker 2: bake the hook for a congressman. So they tell Eric
Speaker 2: Shetty that that's fake shakes. They also need help with
Speaker 2: some problems, uh deportation. Yeah, yeah, see they're trying to
Speaker 2: get rid of they can't get You can't let this happen, right, Well,
Speaker 2: they'll pay, you have to understand. So the mayor tells
Speaker 2: the undercover FBI informed that's no problem, we can take
Speaker 2: care of that. So he gets them set up with
Speaker 2: some congressmen who will sponsor legislation in Congress that will
Speaker 2: cover the fake shakes. No way, of course, Elizabeth. There
Speaker 2: will be a charge for such a service. So Weinberg,
Speaker 2: the undercover FBI informed, He's like, no problem, money is
Speaker 2: not a problem. Look at these guys, right, So if
Speaker 2: the Arabs have money to buy politicians and Mayor Eric Shetty,
Speaker 2: he will provide the invites. So, now the FBI is
Speaker 2: in the congressional corruption sting business, so may Eric Sheddy.
Speaker 2: He brings in political players from the tri state area.
Speaker 2: We're talking New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Who do you
Speaker 2: want Congressman? What do you be a senator? So he
Speaker 2: starts introducing the fake shakes there and their undercover informant
Speaker 2: Weinberg who's proposing as their agent to Philadelphia Congressman Raymond
Speaker 2: f Lederer and Michael Ozzy Myers. Right, the mayor promises
Speaker 2: Weinberg that, oh, you're gonna like Congressman Ozzie Myers. He's
Speaker 2: our kind of people, now, Elizabeth, remember the offices of
Speaker 2: Abdul Enterprises all micd up. There's hidden cameras everywhere, right,
Speaker 2: it's basically a film set. Weinberg would often wear a wire,
Speaker 2: you know. So he's also on top of that, he's
Speaker 2: like going out in the field. Right, So he's got
Speaker 2: a meeting in a car. He just wears a shir
Speaker 2: why not. So even when he meets politicians in public
Speaker 2: places to talk about their corruption plans, we still know
Speaker 2: exactly what we said.
Speaker 3: So yeah.
Speaker 2: For instance, in August of seventy nine, Weinberg and a
Speaker 2: bagman for the Sheiks who is actually an undercover FBI agent.
Speaker 2: Of course, they meet Mayor Eric Shetty at JFK Airport
Speaker 2: for a payoff. Okay, they sat together in the Northwest
Speaker 2: Airlines lounge.
Speaker 3: Oh rip, definitely.
Speaker 2: The mayor told the FBI informant, an undercover agent, that
Speaker 2: Congressman Ozzi Myers quote, He's gonna be your man, period,
Speaker 2: anything you want. Oh wow. So Weinberg calls the mayor
Speaker 2: by his nickname. That's the level that they're on now, right,
Speaker 2: he says, Angi's always got to tell you, sierr is
Speaker 2: that ah, when the time comes, I will sponsor anything
Speaker 2: you want. That's all he's asking for.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: So now the mayor responds, He'll say that, let me
Speaker 2: tell you something. This guy's good. Myers is good. So Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: he was indeed good at the corruption kind of except
Speaker 2: for the getting caught part. Congressman Ozzie Myers. He meets
Speaker 2: with Weinberg and the undercover FBI agents at the Airport
Speaker 2: Hotel near JFK Airport. Apparently it is just like the
Speaker 2: spot in New York. Yeah, so it's now August twenty second,
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy nine. He's handed fifty thousand dollars in cash
Speaker 2: in a briefcase on camera on camp. Just as promises,
Speaker 2: he says he will do his part to make the
Speaker 2: fake shake's plans work out. He tells the agent he
Speaker 2: will introduce an immigration bill into Congress, and he'll even
Speaker 2: speak to the folks at the State Department. Whatever you guys.
Speaker 3: Oh wow.
Speaker 2: So during their meeting, recorded on FBI surveillance, Congressman II
Speaker 2: Meyers assured his co conspirators and I quote money talks
Speaker 2: in this business and walks, oh god. So from that point,
Speaker 2: for that fifty thousand dollars he picked up, he only
Speaker 2: kept fifteen grand for himself. He spread the juice around
Speaker 2: like bribe money for all the others, all of his
Speaker 2: other coke conspirators. Right over time, Mayor Angie Araschetti, he
Speaker 2: brings mel Weinberg, the Swindler, a whole basketball team's worth
Speaker 2: of corrupt politicians for the FBI to bust. The list
Speaker 2: of congressmen includes a Senator for New Jersey, Harrison A.
Speaker 2: Pete Williams, Representatives John Jenrett of South Carolina, Richard Kelly
Speaker 2: of Florida, John Murphy of Staten Island, Frank Thompson of Trenton,
Speaker 2: New Jersey. Thompson initially didn't take the money. He's like
Speaker 2: a really well respected congressman. So the swindler Weinberg has
Speaker 2: to go at him twice. He got him second time.
Speaker 6: No way.
Speaker 2: Now what about the two shakes getting in on the action.
Speaker 2: We gotta have a story of that, right, Elizabeth. We do.
Speaker 2: For instance, there's this story of when Weinberg and his
Speaker 2: two fake shakes met with Senator Harrison Pete Williams. The
Speaker 2: highest ranking member of Congress who was caught up in
Speaker 2: this sting was Senator Pete Williams. Okay, he was a
Speaker 2: Democrat from New Jersey. When the swindle of Rheinberg, he
Speaker 2: reaches out to him with an offer of a payoff
Speaker 2: from the fake shakes. There was no cash offer. This
Speaker 2: is complicated bribing. He instead said that the fake shakes
Speaker 2: would offer the Senator an eighteen percent ownership stake in
Speaker 2: a titanium mine, okay, And in exchange, Senator Williams would
Speaker 2: of course expedite the immigration bill and the licenses for
Speaker 2: the casino construction. And then for the fake shakes also
Speaker 2: they would get he would steer a government contract to
Speaker 2: the titanium mine, so both parties would profit from that.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Now keep in mind, as I said, Senator Pete Williams
Speaker 2: received no actual payoff, just a promise of profits. So
Speaker 2: the meeting was with the two fake shakes, and being
Speaker 2: the nineteen seventies, of course, the meeting took place aboard
Speaker 2: a yacht. It's a yacht party in del Rey, Florida.
Speaker 2: The meeting was an interesting affair. But rather than take
Speaker 2: mine before port, Elizabeth, I'd like you to close your eyes.
Speaker 2: I'd like those to picture it. It's a late March
Speaker 2: afternoon named del Rey, Florida. Despite the month, since it's Florida,
Speaker 2: it's still warm. Elizabeth. You are aboard a yacht, the Corsair,
Speaker 2: sitting at anchor in the marina. Seagulls call waves lap
Speaker 2: at the dock pilings, and oh yeah, this boat is
Speaker 2: a rocket. There's a yacht party underway. New guests have
Speaker 2: just arrived. Unfortunately, Elizabeth, you're here because you're working. The
Speaker 2: theme for this yacht party is a new hit show,
Speaker 2: the love Boat. This means you're working with a bartender
Speaker 2: who's supposed to be a lookalike for the Afrod love
Speaker 2: Boat bartender Isaac. He's close, but he's no eyes anyway,
Speaker 2: you're mixing my ties as you watch the new guest
Speaker 2: step aboard. Out front is a charismatic mayor from New
Speaker 2: Jersey named Angela Aroshetti. The party is in his honor.
Speaker 2: With him is a curious entourage. There's a man who
Speaker 2: looks important and he is. It's US Senator Pete Williams,
Speaker 2: also of New Jersey. Also with the Mayor's what looks
Speaker 2: to be a shake and his interpreter, he's announced as
Speaker 2: is Eminence. Shake you, Sir Rabi. The shak is dressed
Speaker 2: in the traditional robe, the burnous, the white, flowing regal
Speaker 2: looking striking on his head. He wears a cafea the
Speaker 2: traditional Arab chik headdress, his eyes shielded by designer sunglasses.
Speaker 2: You're called over by the yacht over. Guess you're supposed
Speaker 2: to play waitress for this crowd. You come over greet
Speaker 2: the guests. You ask the Shake if he'd like something
Speaker 2: to drink. He looks to his interpreter, who then repeats
Speaker 2: what you just said, but in what sounds like, I
Speaker 2: don't know, guttural, made up impression of Arabic. But hey,
Speaker 2: what do you know? The Shak responds, and then the
Speaker 2: interpreter turns to you and says, orange juice, twist of
Speaker 2: lun Now you ask the others what they'd care to drink.
Speaker 2: The important looking man he says he'd like a Scotch neat.
Speaker 2: The mayor from New Jersey asks for a Scotch but
Speaker 2: on the rocks. The interpreter doesn't say what he wants.
Speaker 2: You decide you'll make him an orange juice, the same
Speaker 2: as for the chik. You go back, you mix the drinks.
Speaker 2: Ice cubes hit the glass. That's for the Scotch on rocks.
Speaker 2: Next is the Scotch neat, and then the two orange
Speaker 2: juices with a twist of lime. You return with the drinks.
Speaker 2: When you get back, the men are now all seated.
Speaker 2: You hand out the drinks and you hear the interpreters
Speaker 2: speaking with the shake. Now you're pretty damn sure he's
Speaker 2: just making up sounds there is no way that's Arabic,
Speaker 2: but hey, what do you know exactly? The shake seems
Speaker 2: to like what he hears. He then nods, smiles, laughs
Speaker 2: a little, and then the shake says something in a
Speaker 2: low voice. It also sounds like make believe movie Arabic.
Speaker 2: The interpreter turns to the group and he says, the
Speaker 2: shake is delighted with your open spirit, most strong, very masculine.
Speaker 2: You roll your eyes as you hear the important man.
Speaker 2: The senators laugh and loudly say, you tell the Shake.
Speaker 2: I'll do all I can. You tell them, I'll deliver
Speaker 2: my end. You head back to the bar, Elizabeth. Next
Speaker 2: time you look back, the men are now posing for
Speaker 2: a photo. Oh god, So after that yacht party, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: the deal was not done.
Speaker 3: With it's photographic evidence.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a great photo for them on the
Speaker 2: boat together. It took three more meetings that took place
Speaker 2: over several months in Manhattan at the Pierre Hotel. The
Speaker 2: senator medigan with Weinberg, you know the Pierre. Yes, that's
Speaker 2: right for your story. So the senert he he meets
Speaker 2: with Weinberg and the Shake, and they agreed to invest
Speaker 2: one hundred million dollars in the titanium mine and they
Speaker 2: made a deal for Williams to get his cut. They
Speaker 2: present him with like his ownership papers as stock certificates.
Speaker 2: In Arlington, Virginia, the Senator meets again and he promises
Speaker 2: the fake shake he will use his influence to get
Speaker 2: the military contracts going help the mind development along. They're
Speaker 2: all going to be in swell. Finally, last meeting at
Speaker 2: JFK Airport once again, Senator. He's winging his way to Paris.
Speaker 2: He's about to catch a flight, so he just pops
Speaker 2: over to meet Weinberg in the fake shake. At the
Speaker 2: airport hotel, he stops off to pick up the stock
Speaker 2: certificates for the mine. All of this was recorded on
Speaker 2: hidden mike surveillance cameras. The Senator, in other words, was
Speaker 2: now having he was stuck with incontrovertible proof of his crimes.
Speaker 2: So there you go, a recorded look behind the curtain
Speaker 2: of corruption. Okay, let's take a little break, Elizabeth, and
Speaker 2: after this, I will tell you what happens when abscam
Speaker 2: hits the fan and shocks a nation that's still recovering
Speaker 2: from Watergate.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and isabey so abscam?
Speaker 2: How are you liking it?
Speaker 3: So it's the scope is so big.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, start out with a little time.
Speaker 3: These little tiny hotel room meetings and.
Speaker 2: Start out with like they're going to get some Long
Speaker 2: Island white color criminals and work with the mob. They're
Speaker 2: just trying to clean up Whoever's.
Speaker 3: What's jumping out to me is that he goes, you know,
Speaker 3: the fake shake is like, we're having immigration issues. They're like,
Speaker 3: instead of saying we're just going to address your issue,
Speaker 3: they're like, let's just do some legislation.
Speaker 2: About immigration bill.
Speaker 3: And it doesn't seem like it's that expensive.
Speaker 2: No, also seems rather common. Yeah, they have answers that
Speaker 2: this is not These are not the first people who
Speaker 2: came to them.
Speaker 3: We got to think about what we want to go
Speaker 3: to someone with, what kind of legislation.
Speaker 2: What kind of ridiculous crime all we want?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the ridiculous Zarens law.
Speaker 2: So at this point, now we have the New Jersey
Speaker 2: mayor who's opened the door to political corruption, which leads
Speaker 2: to a road right through the power politics in the
Speaker 2: tri state area of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania
Speaker 2: that then leads all the way to Washington, d C.
Speaker 2: In the US Congress. The other senator who got caught
Speaker 2: up in this FBI sting was Senator Larry Presler. He
Speaker 2: was a Republican from South Dakota. Don't even see that coming,
Speaker 2: Yeah right, So, what's this Republican from South Dakota doing
Speaker 2: it on this scam? Well, he'd been a congressman first,
Speaker 2: but then in nineteen seventy eight he runs for the
Speaker 2: Senate and he wins. Then Senator Presler he was, by
Speaker 2: the way, the first Vietnam veteran to be elected to Senate.
Speaker 2: This is like seventeen eight. He's very fresh out of
Speaker 2: the war.
Speaker 3: And he, guys, still got his uniform.
Speaker 2: Pretty much like team you take that hat off.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I guess he was feeling pretty high in his
Speaker 2: own supply because in nineteen seventy nine, after being elected
Speaker 2: to Senate, he the he decides to run for president.
Speaker 2: He's like, why not, I'm a Republican. It's nineteen eighty.
Speaker 2: People are they've forgotten about Watergate enough? You know, we
Speaker 2: got Jimmy.
Speaker 3: Carter got There's no one else in the eighties, nobody run.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no one, No one leaps to mind. In nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty giant figure, No, no so, needless say, he didn't make.
Speaker 3: It known to the entire country.
Speaker 2: He didn't make it far into the primary, said Ronald Reagan,
Speaker 2: mopped up the whole shield. So but the dude did
Speaker 2: manage to rack up a hell of a lot of
Speaker 2: debt from his presidential campaign. Oh boy. So that's when
Speaker 2: the FBI informant Weinberger approached him with an offer from
Speaker 2: the fake Shakes. Oh, someone from one of his fundraisers
Speaker 2: makes the connection. All right, They're like, oh, you've got
Speaker 2: to meet these guys. There's these shakes in Washington. Everybody's
Speaker 2: getting in on it. So the meeting is set up
Speaker 2: for at a tony home in Georgetown, like where all
Speaker 2: the good corruptions done. As an FBI man, John F. Good,
Speaker 2: remember the guys running all this, he recalled a We
Speaker 2: chased him actually, like they aimed at this guy.
Speaker 3: So they figure that he's a vulnerable, you know, position.
Speaker 2: Totally and he's full of himself. I think he made
Speaker 2: a couple of enemies. It's been this whole long. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna run for president. Yeah, anyway, I don't know, I'm
Speaker 2: just speculating. A while on hidden camera, old Senator Presler
Speaker 2: was offered a bribe of fifty thousand dollars, a going
Speaker 2: rate for senators. Apparently, the payoff would be paid in
Speaker 2: exchange for his help to for the two shakes to
Speaker 2: get their deportation problems cleared up. Right, So this first
Speaker 2: time senator, he's new at this level. He says, I'll
Speaker 2: look into it. Let me go talk to my guys.
Speaker 2: But he promises nothing more than I will go look
Speaker 2: into it. Now that's important that he promised them nothing.
Speaker 2: But he was recorded saying, and I quote, in any event,
Speaker 2: it would not be proper for me to promise to
Speaker 2: do anything in exchange for a campaign contribution. So he
Speaker 2: just tells them right like, I can't do it when
Speaker 2: it comes to payoffs. At the time, we can get around.
Speaker 3: Then.
Speaker 2: Now that when it comes to the payoffs, there's this
Speaker 2: guy who's like the other major bag man. It was
Speaker 2: Mayor Eric Haschetti's friend, Howard Crichton. He's a Philadelphia based
Speaker 2: real estate lawyer. Okay, right. He Ultimately he becomes the
Speaker 2: one who starts bringing in the congressman for the shakes.
Speaker 2: For the congressman, the FBI had, as I said, they
Speaker 2: set up this house on w in Washington, d c
Speaker 2: to go along with their georgetownhouse. I guess they set
Speaker 2: up mikes and cameras, and then they invited the congressmen
Speaker 2: to come by and pick up the cash at the
Speaker 2: house with the fake shakes and come by meet the shak.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now there they would meet at shake Rahmen and Shaka
Speaker 2: later Amir Habib. So, according to those who visited the
Speaker 2: house for the surveillance cameras to be able to get
Speaker 2: clean photos and video, because this is like nineteen eighties
Speaker 2: video cameras, the home's porch lights were so bright that
Speaker 2: the congressmen are often seen squinting in the photos. They're
Speaker 2: right there on the front porch like oh god, my eyes.
Speaker 2: Now they had a reason to explain away the super
Speaker 2: bright lights. The fake shake explained through his interpreter, obviously
Speaker 2: that he liked the lights to be so bright because
Speaker 2: he missed the bright, hot, sunny deserts of his homeland.
Speaker 3: We'll get out of here, and they went for it.
Speaker 2: They're like, oh, it makes sense to me.
Speaker 4: Uh shake.
Speaker 2: Oh, So this Philly lawyer, the bagman, cried and he
Speaker 2: brings congressmen after congressmen by the house to meet and
Speaker 2: greet and get paid by the shakes. Yeah, so Pennsylvania
Speaker 2: Democrats Raymond Larder, he was forty one of the time.
Speaker 2: In Michael Ozzie Meyer's thirty six, they both get filmed
Speaker 2: at the house picking up their briefcases of cash. There
Speaker 2: was another one, New York Democrat John Murphy fifty three.
Speaker 2: He gets picked up, but he was already under investigation
Speaker 2: by the House Ethics Committee, so he didn't want to
Speaker 2: actually pick up the money himself, so he made cride
Speaker 2: and bring it to him.
Speaker 3: Oh God.
Speaker 2: So when a Republican Congressman from Florida, Richard Kelly fifty five,
Speaker 2: he hears about the shakes giving out all this money
Speaker 2: to his like, you know, colleagues, He's like, where do
Speaker 2: I get in line? I swear to God a bill,
Speaker 2: as Time magazine put it, and I quote. Kelly apparently
Speaker 2: learned of the available cash from a chain starting with
Speaker 2: a convicted stock swindler and leading through an accountant and
Speaker 2: an East Coast mobster, all three of whom had expected
Speaker 2: to acquire fifty thousand each from Shay Kabebe. Only Kelly, however,
Speaker 2: received a delivery. The cameras in the w Street house
Speaker 2: caught him stuffing twenty five thousand dollars, two hundred and
Speaker 2: one hundred dollar bills and two hundred and fifty twenty
Speaker 2: dollars bills into his suit coat and pants pockets, and
Speaker 2: then asking does it show?
Speaker 3: Oh, are you kidding me? So it's so low just
Speaker 3: shoving it in your pocket?
Speaker 2: And why in every pocket you got your jackets bulging
Speaker 2: your pants pocket? How does my butt look?
Speaker 3: Here's about it from different criminals.
Speaker 2: It goes running over for it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's like it's not just like oh I
Speaker 3: got wind of it from one dee. Oh yeah, No,
Speaker 3: like multiple criminals that he knows.
Speaker 2: Yeah, huh. So watching these congressmen line up like little
Speaker 2: piggies at the trock exactly, FBI agents are astounded. They're like,
Speaker 2: we thought Watergate was bad, so there's one FBI agent
Speaker 2: put it later on quote, we found people climbing all
Speaker 2: over each other to get some of the action. We
Speaker 2: were mystified. So they're just gaps and gobsmacked by this, right, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: The FBI guy guys had made so many deals for
Speaker 2: so many payoffs that they ran out of bribe money
Speaker 2: and they had to go back to the FBI for more.
Speaker 2: Like we're gonna need some more bribe money to pay
Speaker 2: off these people.
Speaker 3: Don't worry, we'll get it back.
Speaker 2: At this point, the FBI bosses are like, wait, what's
Speaker 2: going on with this operation? We got all these senators
Speaker 2: and congressmen. We're giving a briefcases of cash with a
Speaker 2: fake shake, Like wait, whoa, whoa. We really should have
Speaker 2: been doing a little more oversights. So the FBI is like,
Speaker 2: we're gonna have to shut this down. So they go
Speaker 2: and they turn off the money hose.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: So, all in all, the FBI's undercover investigation last twenty
Speaker 2: three months. One hundred FBI agents work on it. Over
Speaker 2: the two year long operation, it cost roughly eight hundred
Speaker 2: thousand dollars in total. There was one other reason why
Speaker 2: the FBI chose to shut down abscam. Your point about
Speaker 2: the word was spreading. The press learned about the fake shakes.
Speaker 2: The corrupt congressmen are all lining up for the bribes,
Speaker 2: so they actually find out where the house is, and
Speaker 2: the press starts to get in the way because reporters
Speaker 2: starts surveiling the FBI's surveillance teams. For instance, reporters from
Speaker 2: NBCTV they had not one, but two Winnebago vans that
Speaker 2: they parked near the FBI's fake shake and trapman house
Speaker 2: on W Street. So there you have the FBI truck
Speaker 2: and then like five cars down as a Winnebago watching
Speaker 2: the FBI truck.
Speaker 3: Did the news so the news knew that it was
Speaker 3: the FBI or did they think, No, there's these crooked They.
Speaker 2: Think it's I think because there's a crooked shake, who's
Speaker 2: buying Congressman?
Speaker 3: Think this investigative news team is going to bring down exactly?
Speaker 2: Then they and then they noticed that there's that somebody
Speaker 2: else is watching and then not the press to get there.
Speaker 2: Oh they're gonna they're gonna beat us on the story.
Speaker 2: They're like, oh wait, those are not reporters. Those guys
Speaker 2: look like yeah, exactly. So then from their surveillance vans,
Speaker 2: NBC tries to film whoever goes in and out of
Speaker 2: the super Bright house. Right, But the windows, by the way,
Speaker 2: are also always draped, and when the drape, when the
Speaker 2: drapes are slightly removed for a moment, the windows are tinted,
Speaker 2: so they can't film anything in. They can only get
Speaker 2: people coming in and out of the house.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: It's also buying you wintertime in Washington, DC, back when
Speaker 2: that actually mattered. It was a cold winter. There was
Speaker 2: snow and terrible weather. NBC reporter, they're on steak out.
Speaker 2: Their orange juice is freezing in their truck. For two
Speaker 2: months they watched the FBI's undercover operation, not knowing fully
Speaker 2: that it was the FBI. Eventually they figure it out.
Speaker 2: But meanwhile, the neighbors noticed these two suspicious winnibeg goes
Speaker 2: and they phone the police on NBC. So the DC
Speaker 2: cops they show up to investigate, and the reporters they're like,
Speaker 2: so we need you to step out of the winnebago.
Speaker 2: The reporter's like, go go away, go, don't stop, get away.
Speaker 2: The cops like, seriously, you need you out. They're like,
Speaker 2: we're with NBC. They're like, what do you stop whispering?
Speaker 2: Where shit? Don't look go away right. They eventually show
Speaker 2: the cops away by telling them, getting upset and saying,
Speaker 2: what's the matter with you guys, You're screwing up our investigation.
Speaker 2: So the cops are like, oh, sorry about that, and
Speaker 2: they'll wait. Now. Around the same time, the FBI has
Speaker 2: decided it's time to shut down the fake shake operations.
Speaker 2: And bring some charges. So Saturday February second, soon enough,
Speaker 2: the story now breaks because everybody's ohay, and the sting
Speaker 2: hits the fan. And by that I mean the headlines
Speaker 2: and we're talking big crazy headlines like Watergate level. They're like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, government corruption at the highest level, Senator
Speaker 2: by Shakes, it's just insane. And also then there's the
Speaker 2: whole foreigner racism part of like, our government's being corrupted
Speaker 2: by outside influences of oil money, blah blah, the people
Speaker 2: who've just punished us with So it's like you're on
Speaker 2: the side of the villains or whatever. So this is whole,
Speaker 2: like what's going on. Everyone's trying to get to the
Speaker 2: bottom of this, And then it goes to the court rooms.
Speaker 2: In court under oath, testimony reveals the inner workings of
Speaker 2: power politics in the late seventies, Grand jury hearings, Senate
Speaker 2: committee hearings, courtroom trials. The trials they started in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 2: In total, eight defendants were put on dockets in federal
Speaker 2: courts in Brooklyn, Washington, d C. And Philadelphia. The full list,
Speaker 2: if you're keeping track, was Senator Harrison Pete Williams of
Speaker 2: New Jersey Congressman Raymond Larder and Michael Ozzy Myers of Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: Representative John Jenrett of South Carolina, Reped Frank Thompson of
Speaker 2: New Jersey, Representative John Murphy of New York, and finally,
Speaker 2: Representative Richard Kelly of Florida. All of the senators in
Speaker 2: congressmen caught in the staying were Democrats except for Kelly
Speaker 2: of Florida and Presler of South Dakota. Washington Posts though
Speaker 2: they loved Presler much like you had the reaction of like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: somebody finally said no, at least like I can't do
Speaker 2: this like that. Yeah, So they described his experience. Pressler's
Speaker 2: experience with the fake shake as a moment of principled
Speaker 2: defiance on the front page. Mind you, it was not
Speaker 2: exactly that, but either way, as the Washington Post reported
Speaker 2: and I quote preserved among the videotape footage that may
Speaker 2: be used as bribery evidence against a number of members
Speaker 2: of Congress, there is a special moment in which Senator
Speaker 2: Larry Presler, Republican of South Dakota, tells the undercover agents,
Speaker 2: in effect, to take their sting and stick it. Presler,
Speaker 2: according to law enforcement sources was the one approached member
Speaker 2: of Congress who flatly refused to consider financial favors in
Speaker 2: exchange for legislative favors, as suggested by undercover agents posing
Speaker 2: as Arabs. At the time, he said he was not
Speaker 2: aware that he was doing anything quite so heroic.
Speaker 3: He had a precious moment.
Speaker 2: Saying no to being like a corrupt congressman. Way to
Speaker 2: be heroic. S just amazing, missus eighty I mean, like
Speaker 2: the bar was lowered Vans. Yeah, where is it now?
Speaker 3: Anyway, there is no bar.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's just what I'm telling you. It's just a
Speaker 2: valley and you roll into it and roll out of it.
Speaker 2: In the end, all eight who were indicted were convicted
Speaker 2: of bribery conspiracy. In eighty one and in eighty one
Speaker 2: Congressman Ozzie Myers he justifies his guilt in this great interview.
Speaker 2: He talks about his acceptance of the payoff from the
Speaker 2: fake FBI Shakes and Meers said, and I quote, I
Speaker 2: took money because I like money. I feel I didn't
Speaker 2: do anything wrong, and if anybody offers me twenty five
Speaker 2: thousand dollars this afternoon, I will take it like money.
Speaker 2: I love money. I like money problem. I love the money.
Speaker 2: Money so hard not to lack a criminal who just
Speaker 2: admits who he is. Right, Even the FBI guys they
Speaker 2: liked this. Congressman John F. Good, the leader of the operation.
Speaker 2: He said Ozzie was one of my favorite guys. Now,
Speaker 2: I should point out that neither Senator Larry Presler or Rep.
Speaker 2: John Murtha uill See also gets mentioned in the story
Speaker 2: where ever indicted because neither man promised to do anything
Speaker 2: even though they were approached, or and neither man took
Speaker 2: any of the money offered to them even though they
Speaker 2: were at least in Mirtha's case, recorded saying he would, yeah, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: The weird thing about abscam is how it led to
Speaker 2: this surprise backlash. For one, there's the name abscam. When
Speaker 2: the news of FBI's undercover operation breaks, right the authorities,
Speaker 2: they tell the press that abscam is short for arab scam,
Speaker 2: so it's not far off, but it's not accurate. Right. Eventually,
Speaker 2: after the Arab American Relations Committee makes a stink about
Speaker 2: it and says like, what this is offensive? How could
Speaker 2: you name a government operation arab scam? And they're like, well, no, no, no, sorry, sorry,
Speaker 2: it was abdual scam. They're like, that's not much better,
Speaker 2: but anyway, So at this point a federal judge clears
Speaker 2: it up and tells them you, no, no, it's abdol scam.
Speaker 2: It's fine, guys, and everyone's like all right. So they
Speaker 2: move on to the fact that, you know, aside from
Speaker 2: both judge points out there's no there was no racial
Speaker 2: bias in any of the charges, like I don't know,
Speaker 2: it's like like whatever. So the FBI, know, though, is
Speaker 2: now in trouble because they've targeted members of US Congress
Speaker 2: in a free ranging sting operation that was essentially a
Speaker 2: fishing expedition. So you know there's going to be a
Speaker 2: bad reaction when your boss finds out that you've been
Speaker 2: following home at work, Right, Elizabeth, there was definitely a
Speaker 2: bad reaction. Even the public was offended by the FBI.
Speaker 2: They're like, why would you you hired this career swindler,
Speaker 2: You put them on the payroll, you make us pay
Speaker 2: his salary as taxpayers. Then you create these two fake
Speaker 2: shakes for the FBI to play dress up with, and
Speaker 2: then they go around in trapping sitting senators. In a
Speaker 2: post Watergate world, it was not a good look. So
Speaker 2: Mini felt it was what folks in the legal industry
Speaker 2: call entrapment. And they weren't far off. US Congress decided
Speaker 2: to retaliate, so they open up hearings. They're like, we're
Speaker 2: gonna watergate these hearings. So they make everyone tries to
Speaker 2: grand stand, right, So inter Senator Alan K. Simpson, the
Speaker 2: Republican from Wyoming, when it came time for him to
Speaker 2: speak in the hearings, he's grilling the FBI officials. He's
Speaker 2: accusing the g men of all sorts of inappropriate He
Speaker 2: even tells them, I think you guys are giddy because
Speaker 2: when they realized that they had some congressmen on the line,
Speaker 2: well sure, and by on the line, this guy's from
Speaker 2: I'm like Wyoming. So he goes full fishing metaphors tender.
Speaker 2: Simpson says, and I quote, you had so many hooks
Speaker 2: in and had landed so many lunkers. Did you just
Speaker 2: decided here you'd fish on into the night?
Speaker 3: Oh boy, he's with.
Speaker 2: Just his hat. Old John F. Good, our head of
Speaker 2: the FBI operation. He defends his men and his operation
Speaker 2: at the Senate hearings, and he says, and I quote,
Speaker 2: if we were real crooks out there looking to bribe congressmen,
Speaker 2: and somebody came to us and said, look, I got
Speaker 2: a better fish for you. How can you say no,
Speaker 2: I don't need him. Yeah, which is a fair point.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: The hearings go on like this, back and forth. They
Speaker 2: create this spectacle with these hearings intended to embarrass the FBI,
Speaker 2: but also into getting the FBI to never investigate Congress again, Like,
Speaker 2: don't you dare do that again? That was the real message, right,
Speaker 2: So they started they delayed FBI appointments. Congress was like,
Speaker 2: really screwing the FBI. And they did all this just
Speaker 2: to punish the g men, right, So they're left looking silly,
Speaker 2: much like the CIA after the Church Committee hearings where
Speaker 2: they're holding up like the heart attack gun, they're like
Speaker 2: what is that? CI is like, oh man, that looks
Speaker 2: bad here. So they're like, you know, the FBI is
Speaker 2: like trying to like you know, get right in the
Speaker 2: public's eye. Then this eight hundred page report drops, Right,
Speaker 2: I found the whole thing. I didn't read the whole thing,
Speaker 2: but I read the good parts. Those eight hundred pages.
Speaker 2: They're all generated by these committee hearings and this just
Speaker 2: filled with crazy quotes, right, But in the end, Congress
Speaker 2: makes the Attorney General revise the protocols for the FBI's
Speaker 2: undercover operations, like we want to see it, right, because
Speaker 2: Congress they're big mad.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: So in the Congressional committee hearings, it had come out
Speaker 2: that Weinberg had been personally benefiting from his work picking
Speaker 2: targets for the FBI.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: That was bad. Yeah, and then so they got this
Speaker 2: professional swindler who's now a professional swindler for the FBI.
Speaker 2: And it's like they're like, let's not justice. Basically what
Speaker 2: we said earlier about the undercover cops. Yeah, once you're
Speaker 2: doing crime, you're no longer.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Anyway, as this eight hundred page Congressional report details exhaustively,
Speaker 2: mel Weinberg are swindler. He also had received all kinds
Speaker 2: of goodies along the way, not like money or cash favors,
Speaker 2: literal stuff like he I got a list here and
Speaker 2: I quote a General Electric microwave oven, a stereo system
Speaker 2: which included Harmon Cardon's receiver, two Genesis speakers, other components. Also,
Speaker 2: he received three Sony Trinitan color television sets and a
Speaker 2: Sody Beta Max video cassette recorder dudes basically opening his
Speaker 2: own electronics store.
Speaker 3: We're going to say, like a roll X.
Speaker 2: He wanted toys he wanted basically like he wanted to
Speaker 2: go on like price is right to go shopping, and
Speaker 2: he's like, oh, well, I'll take the Beta Max, I'll
Speaker 2: take the triniton color sets. So as the gradtional report
Speaker 2: took great pains to note, and I quote, Weinberg failed
Speaker 2: to disclose to the FBI his solicitation or receipt of
Speaker 2: these gifts, and when confront it, falsely denied to government
Speaker 2: attorneys and agents that he had solicited or received them.
Speaker 2: Presco's nuts about this. You've got his pip swindler working
Speaker 2: for the FBI. Oops, looks like the FBI's undercover criminal
Speaker 2: was doing undercover crimes. So the thing was, Weinberg had
Speaker 2: been largely left on his own, much like we'd heard
Speaker 2: about in the previous episode with undercover cops. There wasn't
Speaker 2: much overset, so he wasn't He wasn't even given much
Speaker 2: field assistance. He had the FBI agents the two fake shakes,
Speaker 2: but he had to supply his own tape recorder for
Speaker 2: the FBI sting.
Speaker 3: Are you serious quote.
Speaker 2: Weinberg has testified that in nineteen seventy eight he'd been
Speaker 2: using only his own tape recorder, which he continued to
Speaker 2: use throughout the investigation, and that the FBI did not
Speaker 2: supply any tape recorder until approximately March nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 2: So once the press and the public here about this,
Speaker 2: the FBI is like, you know, short shifting their agents.
Speaker 2: They're like, you haven't been doing on spec So he's
Speaker 2: entering all these crimes and spying like he's a dollar
Speaker 2: store James Bond. The FBI looks super foolish, right, So
Speaker 2: in the wake of abscam, the Attorney General and the
Speaker 2: DOJ they sit down and they update the policies on
Speaker 2: undercover informants not agents. Informants. They can no longer have
Speaker 2: the they have to have more authorization and oversight. So
Speaker 2: that's where the change is. But as we covered the
Speaker 2: Undercover Cops episode, the FBI did not extend that to
Speaker 2: their agents, like, no, they have to be able to
Speaker 2: do crimes. So, Elizabeth, I'd like to draw your attention
Speaker 2: to this document from the DOJ's archive, Chapter four, the
Speaker 2: Attorney General's guideline on FBI to cover operations, and I quote,
Speaker 2: in contrast to the mini compliance of deficiencies we found
Speaker 2: in the Criminal Informant program, our examination of the FBI
Speaker 2: is undercover operations identified comparatively few instances of non compliance
Speaker 2: with the undercover guidelines. In other words, we performed an
Speaker 2: investigation of ourselves and we found we're good.
Speaker 5: Basically, no problems here, guys, it's all yeah, move on.
Speaker 2: So all those darn seies, what can you tell me? Criminals?
Speaker 2: What are you gonna do under control? No, it's the
Speaker 2: business we're in. So they put it. They drew a
Speaker 2: line between them and the criminals they worked with, and
Speaker 2: the said, everyone happy. And that's the last time pretty
Speaker 2: much they did anything. Ye abscan was when the FBI
Speaker 2: realized they could no longer partner with criminals and do crimes,
Speaker 2: no matter how much fun it was for everyone involved. Solizabeth,
Speaker 2: what's our ridiculous takeaway here?
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, I'm torn that there's a part of
Speaker 3: me that thinks, you know what, Like, I have no
Speaker 3: idea why Congress would get so upset if it's obvious
Speaker 3: that the slightest little tidbit thrown out there. It's like
Speaker 3: when you go to a pond that's full of like
Speaker 3: hoy that are used to being fed a lot and
Speaker 3: throws some food in and they all it's not like, oh,
Speaker 3: this is the first time this.
Speaker 2: Happened some well trained congressman.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're like, all right, I know this lady's gonna
Speaker 3: keep throwing stuff out there.
Speaker 2: You see that shadow move across the wad.
Speaker 3: But it's the same time I can see where it's like,
Speaker 3: you don't want to have pay a criminal to go
Speaker 3: and hustle some of this up. But yeah, shameful. The
Speaker 3: whole thing is shameful in every way.
Speaker 2: And now you know, I love Miami vice as much
Speaker 2: as the next like har cor criminal who likes go
Speaker 2: fast boats. But if you're going to try to like
Speaker 2: crock it in tubs with the bad guys, you can't
Speaker 2: have them planning the crimes. That's my That's where I
Speaker 2: draw the lot, like it should be the criminal's idea.
Speaker 2: The crime should still be the criminals that you can
Speaker 2: do the crime with them, as long as their idea
Speaker 2: can't be your. That was the entrapment that your takeaway.
Speaker 2: I'm old school, Elizabeth. I think crime is crime, and
Speaker 2: even if it's an undercover FBI agent doing it anyway. Takeaway.
Speaker 3: See I came back around to confirm it.
Speaker 2: I like that instead of asking, I'm not going.
Speaker 3: To I'm going to lift you up at the end
Speaker 3: and celebrate you help.
Speaker 2: I know you. Should you ready for talkback?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: Please?
Speaker 2: Pretty? Can you favor us with a talkbag?
Speaker 4: Oh my god, Siver, I lent geet.
Speaker 6: Hey, guys, this is Kurrill for MAUI and I'm going
Speaker 6: to do the arithmetic on the four hundred and fifty
Speaker 6: thousand rupees that Natwirrel stole in nineteen thirty seven. In
Speaker 6: nineteen thirty seven, one dollar was worth two point seven rupees,
Speaker 6: making the entire haul worth one hundred and sixty five
Speaker 6: thousand dollars. One dollar in nineteen thirty seven is worth
Speaker 6: twenty one point eighty one dollars in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 6: making one hundred and sixty five thousand dollars worth three
Speaker 6: point six million.
Speaker 4: Yang, Thank you.
Speaker 3: So much for doing the math.
Speaker 2: I always appreciate that I didn't do that this episode,
Speaker 2: just to keep her like wanting.
Speaker 3: Exactly, always want more.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you always for listening. You can find us
Speaker 2: online Ridiculous Crime on the social media, so we have
Speaker 2: our website Ridiculous Crime dot com. We obviously love you
Speaker 2: talk back, so please go to the iheartapp downloaded, leave
Speaker 2: a message you can maybe hear your voice here and
Speaker 2: email us if you want ever Ridiculous Crime at gmail
Speaker 2: dot com and write it to pre dear producer Dave.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening. We'll catch you next crime. Ridiculous
Speaker 2: Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnette, produced
Speaker 2: and edited by Shake Shack Shak Sonata, Shake Your Body
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