Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the
Speaker 1: third season of Criminalia. This season, we're exploring the lives
Speaker 1: and motivations of some of the most notorious impostors throughout history.
Speaker 1: Today we're talking about the original and legendary Wolf of
Speaker 1: Wall Street. I'm Maria Tremarki and I'm Holly Fry. And
Speaker 1: you may think you know who. The Wolf of Wall
Speaker 1: Street was based on Martin Scorsese's movie, which was appropriately
Speaker 1: named The Wolf of wall Street. Right, that is a
Speaker 1: person named Jordan Belford, and that movie was based on
Speaker 1: Jordan's book where he described his debaucherous rise as a
Speaker 1: New York stockbroker right up to his very corrupted, messy fault. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so Jordan's rise. At his peak, he bought mansions. He
Speaker 1: bought cars for those car people out there, especially from
Speaker 1: the eighties. He had two superstars, the Lamborghini Kuntosh and
Speaker 1: the Ferrari Tester Rosa. He bought a helicopter which he crashed.
Speaker 1: He bought a yacht which he sank. And as a
Speaker 1: side note to that yacht, he bought it from cocosan. Now,
Speaker 1: he took a lot, a lot which explains a lot
Speaker 1: of his behavior. He took a lot of coludes. He
Speaker 1: said that he modeled himself after his on screen hero,
Speaker 1: Gordon Gecko, who was the ruthless corporate raider played by
Speaker 1: Michael Douglas in the eighties movie Wall Street. Ultimately, Jordan
Speaker 1: was arrested that was in and he pled guilty to
Speaker 1: fraud and various crimes associated with defrauding investors out of
Speaker 1: more than two hundred million dollars. And because he was
Speaker 1: willing to cooperate with the FBI and give testimony against
Speaker 1: his partners and subordinates in this whole thing, his sentence
Speaker 1: was lightened. He only spent twenty two months in prison,
Speaker 1: and it was during his prison time when he began
Speaker 1: writing his book, his memoirs, which he called the Wolf
Speaker 1: of Wall Street. That's a road name. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk about that in the second need. He did steal
Speaker 1: something in years after Jordan had served his time, Martin
Speaker 1: Scor says, he's movie was released, it wouldn't be wrong
Speaker 1: to call Jordan's the Wolf of Wall Street because he
Speaker 1: certainly sounds as though he could be the wolf of
Speaker 1: Wall Street. But it turns out though that Jordan's just
Speaker 1: a Wolf of Wall Street. He's not the first, and
Speaker 1: of all things he did, he actually never impersonated anyone.
Speaker 1: Enter the real topic of today's conversation, David Lamar. David
Speaker 1: Lamar is the original Wolf of Wall Street, not Jordan Belfort.
Speaker 1: Although comedically enough, they do have something in common despite
Speaker 1: that it's in their name. Neither of these men actually
Speaker 1: ever really worked on Wall Street. It's just coincidence. Bryan,
Speaker 1: So um, it is a little bit early, But we're
Speaker 1: going to stop now for a break for a word
Speaker 1: from our sponsor, so that when we come back, will
Speaker 1: introduce David Lamar. Welcome back to criminal LYA. Do you
Speaker 1: know how to short stock? This has been in the
Speaker 1: news in recent times. Everyone's trying to figure it out. Well,
Speaker 1: David Lamar, sha knew how to do it. Yes, So
Speaker 1: David David was born in or around seventy seven, we
Speaker 1: don't know the exact date. He went on to become
Speaker 1: a legend for his financial scams as well as his
Speaker 1: impersonation of a member of Congress and various other people.
Speaker 1: Let's just say for right now, he was known for
Speaker 1: walking about New York City with his diamond studied walking
Speaker 1: stick for his horses, and also for being brash and
Speaker 1: cutthroat in his dealings. So he was actually born David Levy.
Speaker 1: We know that because he had a brother, Henry, who
Speaker 1: would sign his last name Levy, and that how people
Speaker 1: put it together. But David later told people that he
Speaker 1: changed his last name to Lamar to match that of
Speaker 1: a noted Mississippi senator in order to help facilitate his
Speaker 1: business dealings. And Holly just said facilitate with quotation marks
Speaker 1: around him. Yeah, that person he's referencing would presumably be
Speaker 1: a man named Lucius Quintus Cincinnatis Lamar. And in the
Speaker 1: eighteen seventies and eighteen eighties that Lamar served as both
Speaker 1: a member of the U. S. House of Representatives and
Speaker 1: then the U. S. Senate, and then he became Secretary
Speaker 1: of the Interior and eventually an Associate Justice of the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. But here's the thing. L QC. Lamar's legacy
Speaker 1: is one that is deeply rooted in racism. It is
Speaker 1: extraordinarily ugly, and he had a lot of very active
Speaker 1: rhetoric around white supremacy. So really not a great choice
Speaker 1: for someone to associate yourself with via a name change.
Speaker 1: It was not actually the only name that he would use, though,
Speaker 1: David at Lamar also went by David Lewis, particularly during
Speaker 1: a stretch of time he spent in Omaha, Nebraska, and
Speaker 1: at one point JP Morgan smartly had become suspicious of
Speaker 1: Lamar and his financial doings, and he put two and
Speaker 1: you together, and he figured out that these were very
Speaker 1: likely the very same man. So Morrigan actually paid to
Speaker 1: have a judge from Omaha who had had dealings with
Speaker 1: David Lewis fly to New York to identify David Lamar
Speaker 1: as being the same man. And as you probably expected,
Speaker 1: he was. And many sources say that David pretended to
Speaker 1: be the heir of a wealthy Georgia family that allowed
Speaker 1: him not only to live very extravagantly, but also gave
Speaker 1: him better access to politicians and financial heavyweights. Some sources
Speaker 1: also suggest that around people with money, David pretended to
Speaker 1: be a legitimate businessman. He was charged with bribery in
Speaker 1: in Virginia after what he got involved with, which the
Speaker 1: press called quote electric franchise fight. Presumably he was trying
Speaker 1: to help monopolize the delivery of electricity to people. He
Speaker 1: went on to pose as a New York businessman while
Speaker 1: he was in Mobile, Alabama. I mean, the list goes
Speaker 1: on and on and on. It's actually kind of tricky
Speaker 1: if you look back partically at his obituaries that came
Speaker 1: out when he died, all of the newspapers are just
Speaker 1: like lists of weird things that he was involved in,
Speaker 1: and like his rap sheet, and it's actually so thick
Speaker 1: it's you can see that they were even having trouble
Speaker 1: keeping it all straight. It's hard to track the timeline
Speaker 1: with the name and the associated event. Because he was mobile,
Speaker 1: he was in a lot of places, and you can
Speaker 1: see he managed to get into a lot of scrapes.
Speaker 1: But he was very driven and even after any of
Speaker 1: these scrapes, he always continued simply moving on from one
Speaker 1: ruse to the next because he he had big imagination
Speaker 1: um and knew a lot of people. Uh So, David
Speaker 1: was the type of fraudster who would do whatever it
Speaker 1: took to close a deal and make some money. And
Speaker 1: early and really significant score for him was when he
Speaker 1: fleeced the Rockefeller's in by manipulating George Rogers, who was
Speaker 1: the secretary to Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller Senior.
Speaker 1: David convinced the junior Rockefeller to buy stock in US Leather.
Speaker 1: Rockefeller did buy that stock, and then David did short it.
Speaker 1: Rockefeller Junior lost about a million dollars of his father's money. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we told you we would talk about shorting. If
Speaker 1: you do not know what shorting is, here is the
Speaker 1: quick and dirty version because this will come up again,
Speaker 1: and also it's just good life information to have. Shorting stock,
Speaker 1: also called short selling, is when an investor borrows shares
Speaker 1: and then immediately sells them with the intention of buying
Speaker 1: them back later at a lower price. This is a
Speaker 1: trading technique for people who are willing to take substantial
Speaker 1: risk of capital laws, at least potentially substantial risk and lass.
Speaker 1: It's also a trading technique that can make someone like
Speaker 1: Jordan who we mentioned earlier, or David Lamar a lot
Speaker 1: of pocket change. Yeah, he's gonna need a lot of
Speaker 1: pockets right now. So much of David's story actually revolves
Speaker 1: around following his arrest record, So we're moving ahead a
Speaker 1: few years to a really great example of how ruthless
Speaker 1: and cutthroat he could be, as well as his air
Speaker 1: of feeling sort of above the laws he was doing things.
Speaker 1: So in July, David's coachman was a man named James McMahon,
Speaker 1: and he was supposed to appear in court to testify
Speaker 1: against David Lamar on an assault charge. But unfortunately McMahon
Speaker 1: was stabbed and beaten before he was able to enter
Speaker 1: the courthouse, and because of this he was unable to testify.
Speaker 1: David's brother in law and two of David's plays were
Speaker 1: arrested and subsequently charged with having been involved in the
Speaker 1: attack on McMahon. So now we're going to move on
Speaker 1: the timeline to and that was an extraordinarily busy year
Speaker 1: for Lamar. And during one scandal, a reporter actually asked
Speaker 1: Lamar about his name change and his involvement in various
Speaker 1: nefarious business dealings, and David replied, quote, I'm sorry, I've
Speaker 1: never given an interview and I can't start now on
Speaker 1: a personal matter. As for the matter of my change
Speaker 1: in name, well, the Senate records show I declined to
Speaker 1: tell the right one because it would make the innocent suffer.
Speaker 1: Perhaps we really have no idea what he was getting
Speaker 1: at with that, none whatsoever. I my personal suspicion is
Speaker 1: that he was just trying to continue to cultivate his
Speaker 1: air of mystery. I agree to, especially the addition of perhaps.
Speaker 1: But it's here in nineteen thirteen when David begins to
Speaker 1: impersonate some real big fish for power and financial gain.
Speaker 1: Say you want an drive down steel prices in an
Speaker 1: effort to short the stock and make huge amounts of
Speaker 1: money for yourself. If you're David, you settle on a
Speaker 1: plan to defraud the US Steel Corporation as well as
Speaker 1: JP Morgan and Company, which pretty much dominated the corporate
Speaker 1: finance world on Wall Street at the time. So to
Speaker 1: do this, he figured he would pretend to be a
Speaker 1: member of Congress. And he really did just do exactly that. Yes,
Speaker 1: Like he woke up one day, I know this will work. Uh.
Speaker 1: His target to impersonate was Pennsylvania Representative Alexander Mitchell Palmer,
Speaker 1: who was a lawyer and a politician, and David faked
Speaker 1: this persona in telephone interviews, and he even attempted but
Speaker 1: failed to deliver a floor speech to persuade Congress to
Speaker 1: his proposal. Sometimes your schemes, though, do not go as planned.
Speaker 1: In this instance, while no one could see him over
Speaker 1: the phone, and that seemed to work. He could not
Speaker 1: mask his face in front of all those gersman who
Speaker 1: actually knew Alexander Mitchell Palmer. That would actually been really
Speaker 1: impressive on his impersonate, like the way that he was
Speaker 1: imperson in people. And now he's like, now I covered
Speaker 1: my face and face job it becomes Harry mission impossible
Speaker 1: with the very much right, so Palmer. Actually, Palmer served
Speaker 1: in Congress from nineteen and nine to nineteen fifteen, although
Speaker 1: you probably actually know him better as the U. S.
Speaker 1: Attorney General under President Wilson Woodrow Wilson. By nineteen twenty,
Speaker 1: Palmer had his eye on the White House, and so
Speaker 1: if you're not really familiar with his name, you may
Speaker 1: be familiar with one of the things he's most famous
Speaker 1: for doing, which were the Palmer Raids, conducted by the U. S.
Speaker 1: Department of Justice between nineteen nineteen and January nine. The
Speaker 1: raids kicked off what became known as the Red Summer,
Speaker 1: and this was all led by Palmer, but it was
Speaker 1: executed by a young j Edgar Hoover. This campaign targeted
Speaker 1: people who were alleged communists anarchists, focused on people of
Speaker 1: certain countries Russians were targeted, but basically any people who
Speaker 1: were suspected of far left extremism were targets, and in
Speaker 1: the end, about four thousand people were arrested and about
Speaker 1: eight hundred were deported. Yeah, that whole thing started because
Speaker 1: there was a bombing attack on Palmer, but then he
Speaker 1: parlayed that into I am going after anyone I don't like,
Speaker 1: particularly anyone for him, Like he just went mad with
Speaker 1: his quest on that. It was kind of a weird
Speaker 1: little story, you know, like somebody tried to bomb his house,
Speaker 1: that messed up and blew themselves up, and the Roosevelts
Speaker 1: looked across the street and they were afraid. So all
Speaker 1: of this kind of played into what became this terrible year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they treated people absolutely horribly. David Lamar, not surprisingly, did
Speaker 1: not get away with impersonating the Palmer, even though this
Speaker 1: was several years price or when Palmer really would have
Speaker 1: been in the every single paper in the United States,
Speaker 1: though he was already a prominent politician, and David was
Speaker 1: subsequently arrested at his apartment at the Hotel Laurelton, which
Speaker 1: was in Manhattan's Midtown neighborhood. So to set the wealth scene. Here.
Speaker 1: Let's say, if you're not familiar with New York City,
Speaker 1: this is a neighborhood today where you'll find the Empire,
Speaker 1: State Building, the christ they're building Times Square. I can
Speaker 1: just keep listing them. There are many more attractions. But
Speaker 1: back at the turn of the twentieth century, Midtown was
Speaker 1: kind of a stagnant, almost commercial neighborhood. When David moved
Speaker 1: in there though, it was undergoing a huge transformation and
Speaker 1: moneyed families were turning the neighborhood into this bustling business district.
Speaker 1: And that's when the big towers were created, the Prysler
Speaker 1: Building was built, and it was all on par with
Speaker 1: Wall Street when it came to power. Yeah, if you
Speaker 1: look at the history of New York City, it's very
Speaker 1: fascinating how initially the population was all clustered at the
Speaker 1: south end of the island and it just slowly spread
Speaker 1: up and up and up and up northward. Um, that's
Speaker 1: a whole other story. It's a whole another show. In
Speaker 1: a Senate committee hearing on this whole matter, Lamar, calmly
Speaker 1: and perhaps amazingly, just confessed to impersonating people all the time.
Speaker 1: A big deal. He would be like a picture of
Speaker 1: nonchalance about it, and joked about it, like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you got me. I'm impersonated people. It's hilarious, Like you
Speaker 1: don't do that too. One press write up noted quote,
Speaker 1: never before had the national lawmakers listened to such brazen
Speaker 1: effrontery and acknowledgement of chicanery as came from the lips
Speaker 1: of the Wolf of Wall Street on that occasion. His
Speaker 1: own confessions clearly proved that his character was a dash
Speaker 1: of Baron, Munchausen and Anius and a trace of Cagliostro.
Speaker 1: I love that. That's a good description. It's a great
Speaker 1: description that just apeared in the newspaper, like it has
Speaker 1: a great description of him. So David was charged for
Speaker 1: his attempt at impersonating a member of Congress, and on
Speaker 1: December three, he appeared in the Federal District Court before
Speaker 1: he had judged sessions, and after just about forty five minutes,
Speaker 1: the jury found him guilty of impersonating by telephone representative
Speaker 1: Alexander Mitchell Palmer with the intention of defrauding two major
Speaker 1: corporate players. He was convicted on two counts of the
Speaker 1: second of three indictments against him and his council planned
Speaker 1: to appeal, and the court granted his counsel a writ
Speaker 1: of error that meant a stay of execution of the
Speaker 1: sentence pending the result of that appeal. And if that
Speaker 1: just sounds like a lot of legal language in mumbo jumbo,
Speaker 1: because kind of is. What it boils down to, is
Speaker 1: that the court temporarily suspended David's sentence while his lawyers
Speaker 1: prepared to challenge the case's outcome. And we did look
Speaker 1: that up, of course as well. David did go on
Speaker 1: to serve two years in Atlanta pen a tentury in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break for a word
Speaker 1: from our sponsor, but when we're back, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: the sunset of david sordid occupation. Welcome back to Criminalia. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's kick things off with David conspiring with a German
Speaker 1: spy surprises no one. So over the years, the type
Speaker 1: of David's engagements kind of changed a bit, although his
Speaker 1: end goal was still, of course, power and money. So
Speaker 1: fresh out of prison in nineteen fifteen, he acted as
Speaker 1: an agent for Captain Franz von Rintelin, who was a
Speaker 1: German naval intelligence officer which you could also call him
Speaker 1: a German spy in the United States during World War One.
Speaker 1: Much later, while giving a speech, the Captain joke amid
Speaker 1: the audience is laughter that a secret service agent is
Speaker 1: a spy. He is on the other side, but an
Speaker 1: intelligence officer if working for you. He also admitted he
Speaker 1: had lived in New York under five aliases, but that
Speaker 1: was just about all he ever divulged of his intelligence
Speaker 1: slash spy work. He was always pretty tight lipped about
Speaker 1: what exactly he did and how exactly he did it.
Speaker 1: Von Brintlin spoke on occasion about how the war would
Speaker 1: not be decided in Europe. He believed rather that it
Speaker 1: would be in the United States. So he struck a
Speaker 1: plan to conduct a campaign of propaganda to improve relations
Speaker 1: between the United States and Germany, and it would also,
Speaker 1: he hoped, create a pro German sentiment in the US.
Speaker 1: There was actually a second piece to this plan as well.
Speaker 1: You know. So this was war and he also wanted
Speaker 1: to curtail the commercial power in other countries and in
Speaker 1: particular Great Britain. To do that, he wanted to prevent
Speaker 1: munition manufacturing and shipments, and that meant strikes in American
Speaker 1: munitions factories. This was important to the war effort, of course,
Speaker 1: because munitions factories were making military weapons and equipment that
Speaker 1: we're in high demands. Working together, Von Rintlin and David
Speaker 1: Lamar as David Lamar this time concocted a plan to
Speaker 1: pressure American munitions factories and shipping agencies to strike. They
Speaker 1: figured out that they could do this by taking aim
Speaker 1: at financial institutions and business organizations. And because of his
Speaker 1: talent for manipulating people, as well as his obvious total
Speaker 1: disregard for ethics and morals, David was considered the brains
Speaker 1: behind this campaign. Von Rinteln gave him somewhere between three
Speaker 1: hundred thousand to five hundred thousand dollars at the reports
Speaker 1: on just how much vary. It's all big numbers, uh.
Speaker 1: And this was given to David to implement the plan. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're doing spy work, you don't really
Speaker 1: like broadcast your receipts on people speak your David Lamar
Speaker 1: was not signing a received three dollars with a copy
Speaker 1: right for this little carbon book. This whole thing, though,
Speaker 1: despite all the money involved and promises of what would
Speaker 1: be done with it, did not go as planned, and
Speaker 1: that is because of David. Remember he was not any
Speaker 1: kind of expert in such matters. He was an opportunistic poser.
Speaker 1: David's reports on the campaign's success, when he reported von Riddlen,
Speaker 1: we're all faked and they were always exaggerated, he was
Speaker 1: basically like, yes, boss, everything is according to plan. Where
Speaker 1: it was not until later that von Rentalin realized that
Speaker 1: David had swindled him out of a large amount of
Speaker 1: money and didn't deliver any results. And we should point
Speaker 1: out this really doesn't reflect well on von Rentalin's intelligence
Speaker 1: at all, Like, yeah, surely he should have spotted a collaborator,
Speaker 1: but David somehow convinced him that he would be a
Speaker 1: great partner in such a move. Why not, I's got
Speaker 1: a lot of risk in and here's five thousand dollars um.
Speaker 1: So it actually wasn't after he was swindled. It wasn't
Speaker 1: bon Vinoline or any other man involved in the plan
Speaker 1: as far as we can tell, who actually tipped off
Speaker 1: the authorities. But David was yet again arrested. This time
Speaker 1: he was convicted of conspiring with Germans and interfering with
Speaker 1: munitions shipments, which technically yes, um he testified on his
Speaker 1: own behalf that indeed he had engaged in the anti
Speaker 1: munitions scam. David also gave up the captain and claimed
Speaker 1: that the campaign was done at the request of actually
Speaker 1: another man, someone named the Reverend doctor Thomas C. Hill,
Speaker 1: who had also been a professor of Christian ethics at
Speaker 1: Union Theological Seminary. Hill only comes up in the men's testimony.
Speaker 1: Actually he remains a bit of a mystery to both
Speaker 1: of us. Another man who was implicated in this plan
Speaker 1: was Henry B. Martin, and he, like David, took the stand.
Speaker 1: While he denied he knew that the money came from
Speaker 1: a German source, he did admit that he accepted large
Speaker 1: amounts of money from David, which he spent on the
Speaker 1: behalf of the Labors National Peace Council as well as
Speaker 1: promoting and distributing pro German propaganda to Americans. All of
Speaker 1: the Labors National Peace Council really does sound like a
Speaker 1: very official group. It actually wasn't at all. It was
Speaker 1: a reputable organization, it was just one that David formed
Speaker 1: all as part of this larger plan. So also taking
Speaker 1: the stand that day was George Plockman, who was treasurer
Speaker 1: of the Transatlantic Trust Company. He testified against von Riddlin, David,
Speaker 1: a former congressman, and five associates for the Labors National
Speaker 1: Peace Council. Other prominent businessmen and former politicians all denied
Speaker 1: that they knew about any of this, and they definitely
Speaker 1: or so claimed did not know that the Labor's National
Speaker 1: Peace Council was backed by a German spy. The Sherman
Speaker 1: Act passed in eight nine as a way to prosecute
Speaker 1: violations that would include things like price fixing, market allocation,
Speaker 1: and interfering with trade with the intent of lowering economic
Speaker 1: competition for your personal gain. And if that doesn't sound
Speaker 1: like David Lamar to you, yeah it does to us.
Speaker 1: So the charge was conspiracy to instigate strikes, and the
Speaker 1: men were all found guilty. David, Ron Ridlin, and Martin
Speaker 1: were all sentenced to one year in jail. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: kind of sounds like David Lamar read the Sherman Act
Speaker 1: as like a job description, right, He's like, I could
Speaker 1: do all these things, check in check. It should surprise
Speaker 1: no one that after losing a scheme this big David
Speaker 1: initially tried to run. According to the Evening Star of Washington,
Speaker 1: d C quote, he jumped an appeal bond and fled
Speaker 1: to Mexico by airplane, subsequently sur rendering himself and serving
Speaker 1: out the sentence in Trenton, New Jersey. There's actually a
Speaker 1: pretty steady stream of press coverage about all of this
Speaker 1: while it was going on, and one of the most
Speaker 1: fun to read is uh this story that ran in
Speaker 1: the San Francisco Examiner in April of n under the
Speaker 1: headline the Wolf of Wall Street Trapped, with the subheadline
Speaker 1: A prison cell at Last awaits David Lamar, the most
Speaker 1: daring and resourceful pirate whoever tormented New York's Great Financial District,
Speaker 1: And perhaps the best paragraph from all of this the
Speaker 1: reads quote, David Lamar has been one of those hovering vultures,
Speaker 1: and from time to time he has prayed upon the
Speaker 1: best workers of the financial district for many years until
Speaker 1: he became known as the Wolf of Wall Street. While
Speaker 1: he was surely active in his fraud and impersonations games,
Speaker 1: it actually wasn't until ninety three when we find that
Speaker 1: David again gets arrested, and this time it was a
Speaker 1: charge of grand larceny involving the sale of rubber. History
Speaker 1: actually doesn't have to say about this particular trial and
Speaker 1: arrest and jailing. We don't really know that much about
Speaker 1: the story except that he sold but he never delivered.
Speaker 1: Throughout all of this, we should mention that David he
Speaker 1: wasn't just scheming. He had a social life and a family.
Speaker 1: In Nive he got married to an actress who was
Speaker 1: thirty six years younger than him. She was just twenty
Speaker 1: one at the time, and her name was Edna French.
Speaker 1: But that was actually his second marriage, his first wife,
Speaker 1: Marie Anderson. You'll remember we mentioned his brother in law earlier,
Speaker 1: but Marie divorced him in nineteen four, a year before
Speaker 1: he married French. Yeah, and and she doesn't come up
Speaker 1: very much at all. So, not long after his rubber scandal,
Speaker 1: on January twelve, four, when he was in his mid fifties,
Speaker 1: David was found dead in a hotel room at the
Speaker 1: Hotel Wellington in New York City. His death was determined
Speaker 1: to have been caused by heart disease um and all
Speaker 1: that was left of his fortune, which at one time
Speaker 1: was said to be in the millions, was thirty eight
Speaker 1: dollars in cash, a suit, a hat, a cane, a
Speaker 1: gold watch and chain. And gold cuff links. The front
Speaker 1: page of the New York Times the day after he
Speaker 1: died ran the headline Lamar found dead in midtown hotel
Speaker 1: Wolf of Wall Street dies obscure and alone owing a
Speaker 1: week's room rent. Yeah, all of those stories that broke
Speaker 1: when he was found dead, you could tell they were
Speaker 1: just aching for it to be something more dramatic than
Speaker 1: it was, and they're like listing out, like, well, a
Speaker 1: hotel porter said he did um stick to his room
Speaker 1: by himself and wanted his towels delivered without knocking like
Speaker 1: a druggist down the street. Was like he did buy
Speaker 1: a lot of heartburn medication. And it's like, yeah, because
Speaker 1: he had heart disease, because he was about to die
Speaker 1: of heart disease. Yes, it's not really a very thrilling
Speaker 1: end for someone that led nefarious, but thrilling to the
Speaker 1: spectator life exactly. No spy came and got him in
Speaker 1: his room, right, and the whereabouts of his wife when
Speaker 1: he was initially found were unknown according to those first
Speaker 1: press coverage appearances about his death. But David's body was
Speaker 1: claimed by Edna French Lamar on January sixteenth, that's four
Speaker 1: days after the story broke from the Riverside Memorial Chapel
Speaker 1: in Manhattan. A funeral was arranged for the following day,
Speaker 1: and a burial immediately followed. Friends, and we're using quotes
Speaker 1: around that because that is who Edna named of David.
Speaker 1: We're covering the expenses. And that was all according to
Speaker 1: a story that ran in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. So
Speaker 1: at one time in his I don't necessarily want to
Speaker 1: call it a career, but like you know, it kind
Speaker 1: of was a long career. He had an estate in
Speaker 1: New Jersey, and he had a mansion on Fifth Avenue.
Speaker 1: He had wealth on and off, but what do you want?
Speaker 1: It really was power and recognition and I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: and wealth, but like he wanted that to come with it.
Speaker 1: While we mentioned a few of the highlights, and there
Speaker 1: are way more than we even talked about. There are
Speaker 1: much smaller incidents that lended David in court over the years,
Speaker 1: usually under accusations of swindling someone out of money. Often
Speaker 1: and seemingly miraculously, he often went free, uh not totally free, though.
Speaker 1: You know, you play this game long enough and you might,
Speaker 1: like David, find yourself forbidden to have transactions with various
Speaker 1: stock firms due to your various unscrupulous doings, um or
Speaker 1: you know, often you'll just find yourself broke. Oh, David,
Speaker 1: I know he wanted wealth and power so badly. I
Speaker 1: mean he got it sometimes sometimes not and off sometimes
Speaker 1: so h it's an interesting one actually to do a
Speaker 1: mocktail for I think, um, I know, researching David, I
Speaker 1: wanted to take a few shots of whatever. So uh,
Speaker 1: you know, So what do you bring to the table
Speaker 1: this week, my dear. So this is a drink that
Speaker 1: I'm calling a wolf and sweet clothing, and this is
Speaker 1: one that is, um, it's very yummy, but it does
Speaker 1: have a surprise little kick even without any alcohol in it.
Speaker 1: So it starts out with three ounces of orange juice,
Speaker 1: and then you are going to take any kind of
Speaker 1: spicy syrup. I did mind two ways. I have one
Speaker 1: that's a spicy mango syrup and I have another that's
Speaker 1: a hobby nurro lime syrup. And I made it both
Speaker 1: ways and both were very delicious. The aftertaste was the
Speaker 1: primary difference. Interesting. I always love when you bring in
Speaker 1: the mango one good. I'll describe how they taste a
Speaker 1: little bit different afterwards. Um. And then on top of that,
Speaker 1: you're gonna pour three ounces of sprite, and I like
Speaker 1: to not mix this as I go because I like
Speaker 1: a little subtle gradient to it. And then you're going
Speaker 1: to take some black cherry puree just and just drizzle
Speaker 1: it on top, and it's going to sink largely to
Speaker 1: the bottom, but it creates these pretty streaks in the drink,
Speaker 1: and then you kind of top it with three to
Speaker 1: four marrish you no cherries. So it looks very beautiful
Speaker 1: and sweet, and it is very sweet. But what happens
Speaker 1: because of that spiky syrup that's in there afterwards, Like
Speaker 1: it leaves this like film in your mouth where you're
Speaker 1: like hot, spicy hot. It's very subtle, it's not it's
Speaker 1: not bad, but I feel like this is how people
Speaker 1: felt when they met this person who looked very handsome
Speaker 1: and very put together, and then they realized, like, I've
Speaker 1: been duped. Where did um? Oh? This bites a little
Speaker 1: bit at the end. So yeah, So the one that
Speaker 1: I did with spicy mango, it leaves that sense of
Speaker 1: spice in your mouth. And the one that I did
Speaker 1: with the Habbanniro limes syrup, it's not so much a
Speaker 1: taste is just the sensation of heat, so it's a
Speaker 1: little bit different, but both are very yummy. And if
Speaker 1: there's like another syrup that you have that is in
Speaker 1: that sort of family, like sometimes I'll make hallepeen you syrup,
Speaker 1: which is super easy. If anyone's interested, you just do
Speaker 1: your simple syrup recipe, which is one part sugar to
Speaker 1: one part water. Throw a couple of sliced Halloween ews
Speaker 1: in there while you get it to boiling point and
Speaker 1: make sure the sugar is dissolved, and then you let
Speaker 1: it cool and then you strain out or pull out
Speaker 1: the Halloween news if you want, you can leave them
Speaker 1: in there to steep. It will make it hotter and
Speaker 1: hotter depending on the Halloween you. There are lots of fun,
Speaker 1: easy ways to make hot syrup, but that was the
Speaker 1: one I did and it was very yummy. Now for
Speaker 1: my drinkers in the crowd, I will shock you because
Speaker 1: in my experiments, this is another time where I thought
Speaker 1: vodka was going to be the easy clear winner, and
Speaker 1: again it was gin. I don't know how it is changing.
Speaker 1: What's going on. Jim. Jim goes so well with that,
Speaker 1: like hyper sweet and citrus combination. This drink can be,
Speaker 1: if you are not into sweetness, a little bit cloying.
Speaker 1: So when you add gin, it really kind of like
Speaker 1: cuts back on that that soda sweetness. And it was
Speaker 1: really really yummy. But I didn't try it. But I
Speaker 1: think you could also throw rum in here, like a
Speaker 1: white rum, and it would be delightful. It would feel
Speaker 1: very tropical at that point. Yeah, exactly. So I actually
Speaker 1: will admit that I found Marischino chraerries in my refrigerator
Speaker 1: and happened to mention it to Holly, who promised me
Speaker 1: that she would use them for a drink at some point.
Speaker 1: And so I am very excited about this because it's
Speaker 1: either used them in his drink or eat them on
Speaker 1: a fork. Well, you can also make yourself a little
Speaker 1: Shirley Temple course with a lemon lime soda and some
Speaker 1: Maraschino cherries and some pomegranate juice or any kind of
Speaker 1: juice really, if you just do half juice, half lemon
Speaker 1: lime soda, or even club soda, if you want to
Speaker 1: take it back from that sweet place and throw those
Speaker 1: cherries in there, delicious. I have a lot of options,
Speaker 1: but I like yours, got to do it too. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: throw a little spicy sir up in there and you'll
Speaker 1: get a nice surprise and you won't be cheated out
Speaker 1: of your money and doing so, I hope, we all hope,
Speaker 1: like I paid seven hundred dollars to this bottle of syrup,
Speaker 1: Please don't do that. You can make it for a buck.
Speaker 1: This guy outside the story told me that it would
Speaker 1: be the cheapest that I would find in town ever. Ever. Alrighty,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. We hope if you trying this
Speaker 1: mocktail or cocktail that you dig it. We want to
Speaker 1: thank you again for spending this time with us, and
Speaker 1: we will see you right back here next week with
Speaker 1: more imposters. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land Audio
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