Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iheartradiozalentm.
Speaker 2: Zaren Oh Elizabeth, lady host. Hey, what's up, lady host?
Speaker 3: How are you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm doing well. Just man hosting over here. Sorry, gentlemen.
Speaker 2: Hosting host Maxings maxing with a hammer in my hand.
Speaker 3: The way to do you know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 2: Just hit your temple though, I do. You know, Sometimes
Speaker 2: you try to explain to somebody about like something you
Speaker 2: saw online. In my case, usually it's going to be
Speaker 2: like a skeeter or a tweet or whatever, a post,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, oh, and they're not not one of
Speaker 2: your friends who are ever online, And I'm I'm sure
Speaker 2: you have some of those, right, yeah, So and you're
Speaker 2: trying to you sound like you're like I sound insane, right.
Speaker 2: So I've now started taking screenshots so that I can
Speaker 2: show them, like the post that I wanted and tended
Speaker 2: to be trying to remember it and then look finding it, right,
Speaker 2: So I found one that I wanted to share with
Speaker 2: you because this reminds me of our conversations about cased meats,
Speaker 2: and I often want to bring it up whenever we're
Speaker 2: talking about case to meats.
Speaker 3: So, which is often.
Speaker 2: It's far more often than my other friends. So the
Speaker 2: post is by c. Joiner and it's a classic. The
Speaker 2: post says a sign in the window reads cured Meats. Inside,
Speaker 2: Salami takes his first steps since the accident, A Preshudo
Speaker 2: learns to forgive. It is absolutely love. It kills me
Speaker 2: every time they absurdedes.
Speaker 3: You know, I absurd comedy is what is giving me
Speaker 3: life right now.
Speaker 2: Going.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was.
Speaker 2: At a bar that was having a birthday for a dog,
Speaker 2: and I was trying to explain to my friend, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I didn't know the dog, but I was out there
Speaker 2: at the bar when the party was going down, so
Speaker 2: I took photos of it, you know, and I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: what's the dog's name? And like they pointed at the sign.
Speaker 2: I'm like, God, isretty big? I should have seen that.
Speaker 2: It's like happy birthday lady.
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh, could have been anybody?
Speaker 2: I thought that could have been yeah, pretty much anyone
Speaker 2: in here. So yeah, there you go. Ridiculous.
Speaker 3: It's ridiculous. Do you want to know what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Love it messing with No Show Jones? What what this is?
Speaker 3: Ridiculous Crime? A podcast about absurd and outrageous cavers, heists,
Speaker 3: and cons It's always ninety nine percent murder free and
Speaker 3: one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I know you don't heard that. Oh I don't heard
Speaker 2: it that grape fun.
Speaker 3: You and I have an affinity not just for Encase meets,
Speaker 3: but for outlaw country music.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yes, yeah, Willie.
Speaker 3: Nelson, Johnny cash, Merle Haggard, Haig Williams, Junior AKA.
Speaker 2: But not so much David David Allen co. But I
Speaker 2: like David Allen I know.
Speaker 3: But I like when Junior calls himself bo. Got to
Speaker 3: bring that up, Yes, Chrisson, he falls up in there.
Speaker 2: So what do you call it, Jesse culter? I mean,
Speaker 2: let's not leave her out.
Speaker 3: Yes, So it's a seventies sub genre of country music
Speaker 3: in this sense, anti establishment, rebellious, stripped.
Speaker 2: Down sound outside of Nashville.
Speaker 3: Yes, gritty lyrics, it's not polished up. It's very real.
Speaker 3: These are the guys who are fighting against Nashville for
Speaker 3: the soul of country. Yes, they wanted to save the
Speaker 3: soul of traditionalist country. So Willy Willy started out with
Speaker 3: traditionalist honky Tonk Roadhouse, and then Nashville got slick and glossy.
Speaker 3: He went outlaws shotgun Willy. So the original traditionalists are
Speaker 3: folks like Hank Williams, buck Owens, Lorette, A Lynn, and Merle.
Speaker 3: I'll put Merle back into Jimmy Rodgers in there. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: definitely Jimmie Rogers. And we can't forget George Jones. So
Speaker 3: while he fell more into the traditionalist camp rather than outlaw,
Speaker 3: the guy lived the life of a country outlaw, like
Speaker 3: a big old, messy country out He got them, Yes,
Speaker 3: the other I want to talk about George Jones today
Speaker 3: much possom. They called him the possum. He's not the
Speaker 3: criminal in these stories. No, the crime just like buzzes
Speaker 3: around him like horse flies in a stable. His run
Speaker 3: ins with the law were generally a product of his alcoholism,
Speaker 3: and I don't find that particularly funny or entertaining. Clear
Speaker 3: of all that, but let me tell you a little
Speaker 3: bit about George Jones. Let's set the stage for what's
Speaker 3: to come. George Glenn Jones born in September twelfth, nineteen
Speaker 3: thirty one, in Saratoga, Texas. He grew up in nearby
Speaker 3: Vider in the piny Woods of Southeast Texas, and he
Speaker 3: was the youngest of eight children in a working class family,
Speaker 3: and they were poor. There was all this instability because
Speaker 3: of the Great Depression. His father, George Washington Jones, was
Speaker 3: an alcoholic who was sometimes violent. His mother, Clara Patterson Jones,
Speaker 3: she was musically inclined, and she really encouraged her son's
Speaker 3: early interest in singing. And so he later said that
Speaker 3: hearing gospel music in church and on the radio, especially
Speaker 3: the stuff by Roy Acuff, stirred something in him and
Speaker 3: it hooked in. So by the time he was nine,
Speaker 3: he was performing on the streets of Beaumont for tips,
Speaker 3: and at sixteen he left home started playing in honky
Speaker 3: tonks all across East Texas. So by nineteen fifty he
Speaker 3: got married, got divorced.
Speaker 2: You wanted to get one out, just knock it out, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Just like just a little trial run. He enlisted in
Speaker 3: the Marines during the Korean War conflict, so stationed in California,
Speaker 3: continue to play music when he could. He gets out
Speaker 3: in nineteen fifty three, goes back to Texas and he's like,
Speaker 3: I'm going to be a full time musician.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that's my look. You're able to just
Speaker 2: open my mouth and.
Speaker 3: It wouldn't that be amazing?
Speaker 2: It would be the most amazing. Imagine.
Speaker 3: He gets a recording contract with Starday Records in nineteen
Speaker 3: fifty four with this producer Pappy Daily.
Speaker 2: The names oh Country Pappy Daily.
Speaker 3: So his early country and Western yeah, very much so.
Speaker 3: His early singles had that like hard edged honky tonk
Speaker 3: style of the period. His breakthrough came in nineteen fifty
Speaker 3: five he had a song why Baby Why. It was
Speaker 3: a top ten country hit, got him like national attention,
Speaker 3: and then through the late fifties he recorded this string
Speaker 3: of like really successful singles, including White Lightning m and
Speaker 3: that became his first number one country hit in nineteen
Speaker 3: fifty nine. And it has like this really driving rhythm.
Speaker 3: He has expressive, kind of comedic vocals, and he shows
Speaker 3: that he can be funny and demonstrate humor, but had
Speaker 3: this like technical precision like what light So his voice
Speaker 3: quickly became like his defining instrument. He had this really
Speaker 3: wide range, incredible breath control.
Speaker 2: Yes like Frank Sinatra that way yeah.
Speaker 3: And a gift for really again like Sinatra, subtle freeze.
Speaker 2: Raising totally lets you do with the great breath, you
Speaker 2: can do exactly what you want.
Speaker 3: Exactly. So he could slide between notes in a way
Speaker 3: that you know, showed a lot of nuance, but it
Speaker 3: wasn't He was never sappy or sentimental.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, he had more of an ache than yes.
Speaker 3: So all other artists, critics, they said that he was
Speaker 3: the Many described him as the greatest male country singer
Speaker 3: of his generation. Yeah. So his ballads were groundbreaking because
Speaker 3: they were like super conversational and intimate and that went
Speaker 3: on to influence performers all across country and Americana music.
Speaker 3: Oh they all are kind of riffing him. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So in nineteen sixty six, George Jones and his band
Speaker 3: recorded at Nugget Studios, and this was this like really
Speaker 3: modest facility in north of Nashville. Musicians loved it because
Speaker 3: it was cheap and it was out in the country,
Speaker 3: like out the Millanore. So George Jones, we can make
Speaker 3: a racket, yeah exactly. Has a hit with White Lightning.
Speaker 3: He's also got a hit. She thinks I still care.
Speaker 3: But people are starting to hear about his drinking troubles
Speaker 3: and like he'd go.
Speaker 2: On benders possible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he wasn't particularly reliable in the studio or on
Speaker 3: the road, but people didn't care. They're just like, you're
Speaker 3: too good. He still sells out shows. It's kind of like,
Speaker 3: you know, people buy a ticket to a Lauren Hill
Speaker 3: show and they're like, she may not show up Morrissey,
Speaker 3: but you know, I'll hang in there. So during the
Speaker 3: Nugget Sessions, Jones and his musicians they recorded a ton
Speaker 3: of songs like tons. He did some originals, but he
Speaker 3: covered a lot of Hank Williams tunes. One of his
Speaker 3: originals was a song called Ship of Love and it
Speaker 3: was co written with Earl Peanut Montgomery and Johnny Paycheck.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Johnny Paycheck right, so.
Speaker 3: And he also like saying like harmony vocals and played
Speaker 3: the bass Johnny Paycheck did.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 3: The recordings are produced under this agreement with Jimmy Donn
Speaker 3: Enterprises that is a rad hillbilly company. So this was
Speaker 3: a business partnership between Donald gilbreath Don and Jones's road manager,
Speaker 3: Jimmy Klein.
Speaker 2: So, Jimmy don Jimmy, I don't know why I thought
Speaker 2: it was one guy.
Speaker 3: Gilbreth had known Jones for years. They worked together on
Speaker 3: music on promo stuff, and according to documentation, that was
Speaker 3: signed by Jones The arrangement called for payment of six
Speaker 3: thousand dollars in exchange for recording about one hundred and thirty.
Speaker 2: Songs, and one.
Speaker 3: Hundred and thirty these would be for radio play sure,
Speaker 3: and the ownership rights right that's a lot ownership rights
Speaker 3: would go to Jimmy Dawn Enterprises. So the precise nature
Speaker 3: of the rights transfer later became unclear, like did Jones
Speaker 3: formally sell the recordings, did he assign them outright, or
Speaker 3: did he just straight up relinquish them because he was
Speaker 3: in a bad way with his addiction. It's not really clear.
Speaker 3: In a Sword statement years later, Kleine mentioned that Jones
Speaker 3: had fully given up his.
Speaker 2: Interest in the rust rights and publishing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they're like why, He's like, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I can't explain it, possum, you just can't. So after
Speaker 3: the nineteen sixty six sessions wrapped up and when Nugget
Speaker 3: was in everyone's rear view, the master tapes pretty much
Speaker 3: disappeared from public view, and more than a decade later,
Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy nine, Gilbreath he made a friend fellow
Speaker 3: by the name of David's Snotty s n O D
Speaker 3: d wy Wow. So the two. They bonded over all
Speaker 3: these shared interests they had bowling, go krt sales. You
Speaker 3: know how you meet someone who're like you, I do
Speaker 3: go I'm into go kart sales? Like no way, so
Speaker 3: am I.
Speaker 2: Are you saying go kart sales? You don't mean like
Speaker 2: selling go karts? You mean a go cart that has
Speaker 2: a sale?
Speaker 3: No? No, no selling go carl face.
Speaker 2: Was like a desert thing.
Speaker 3: And commerce of go carts go cart dealers Like.
Speaker 2: I couldn't be that easy talking about you like to
Speaker 2: move units?
Speaker 3: I love power what So they started hanging out with
Speaker 3: at an Alabama bowling alley that was managed by Gilbreath
Speaker 3: why not and like George Jones would come by sometimes
Speaker 3: and be like what's up?
Speaker 2: Yeah? They got.
Speaker 3: So throughout the eighties, Gilbreath and Snotty they became partners
Speaker 3: in all these different ventures, vending machine operations for the
Speaker 3: Mafia construction, real estate development. They also leased tour.
Speaker 2: Busuction so cement were they also in like wistmans I think?
Speaker 3: So they they leased tour buses to to George Jones
Speaker 3: and sometimes to.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, one of my favorites.
Speaker 3: So in addition to transportation services, they also handled the
Speaker 3: merch sales at George Jones concerts, of course, and so
Speaker 3: and he was raking it in one shirts, ball caps,
Speaker 3: bumper stickers, T shirts and I feel like a George
Speaker 3: Jones bumper sticker is a surefar way to get pulled
Speaker 3: over and subjected to a breath lez pull me over
Speaker 3: right now. Snotty later testified that he and Gilbreath divided
Speaker 3: the profits from the merchandise sales with Jones and his
Speaker 3: band over a three year period.
Speaker 2: Basically, George Jones bumper stickers is like one of those
Speaker 2: like I've been to Gillies. It's like, okay, you drink
Speaker 2: and yeah, exactly so light you.
Speaker 3: So. By the early nineteen eighties, the Pals had branched
Speaker 3: out into a new transportation venture. What is that large
Speaker 3: scale drug trafficking transportation. They moved marijuana and Colombian coke
Speaker 3: into Southern States via small aircraft.
Speaker 2: I really got the organized crime feeling from them early.
Speaker 3: You could sniff it out.
Speaker 2: You did a good job, thank you, and I'd like it.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that they're keeping up with the trends in crime,
Speaker 2: like thees. Let's get into cocaine.
Speaker 3: Sure, good things.
Speaker 2: We should sell pot right now.
Speaker 3: They're just they're just carrying it over so that we're
Speaker 3: in the early eighties. Snotty owns some of the planes
Speaker 3: the sky to play like a little buzzer like he
Speaker 3: did a little treetop flying. One alleged associate claimed that
Speaker 3: the pair would hide drugs in the tour buses that
Speaker 3: they were leasing out to country stars, and Snotty was like, lies, lies,
Speaker 3: I tell you. I just hope they weren't making Miss
Speaker 3: Loretta carry wait, like that's just right.
Speaker 2: Getting caught on the Texas is wrong.
Speaker 3: In late nineteen eighty two, Gilbreath took over Klein's Steak
Speaker 3: in the nineteen sixty six tapes and he brought Snotty
Speaker 3: in as a partner and they tried to get a
Speaker 3: buyer for those Hank Williams covers. By the way, what's
Speaker 3: your favorite Hank Williams song.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of my favorite Hank Williams song.
Speaker 2: Give me a second. What's your favorite Hank?
Speaker 3: I think mine is you win again. Yeah, they're great
Speaker 3: covers of that, Like Mike Nest does an incredible cover.
Speaker 3: Grateful Dead used to cover it. Fats Demino, that's Domino.
Speaker 3: But some say some say Fats Domino, Johnny Cash, Keith
Speaker 3: Richards does a weird cover it. I also I also
Speaker 3: like cold cold Heart. Aretha in like the Muscle Shoals
Speaker 3: Sessions does an incredible cold cold heart. Tony Bennett's the
Speaker 3: one actually who made it popular in the first place
Speaker 3: and drew attention to it, and that drew attention to Hank.
Speaker 2: That was Tony Bennett, old Tonetti.
Speaker 3: God bless him.
Speaker 2: A thank you, Tony.
Speaker 3: So any strike your fans.
Speaker 2: I was thinking, like, you're cheating heart, but uh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, that's that's a tough question.
Speaker 4: Give me.
Speaker 2: Let me see if I can answer that later. A
Speaker 2: good looking Well, yeah, that's a fun one.
Speaker 3: Do you think on it? Let it percolate?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I don't anyway, I often so I do
Speaker 2: it so flippant, I always, and I hear back the episode,
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's you'll have.
Speaker 3: A chance to think on it for a second. It's
Speaker 3: so anyway, these two bosos, they're trying to sell off
Speaker 3: the Hank covers, okay, And before they could get that together,
Speaker 3: they got arrested in connection with a conspiracy to purchase
Speaker 3: tens of thousands of pounds in marijuana. Oops, Like, I
Speaker 3: don't think Hank done it this way. So they posted
Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars bond backed by real
Speaker 3: estate holdings. And so you know, there was a conviction
Speaker 3: and they appeared it and they had to satisfy their
Speaker 3: bail while they were on appeal a million dollars. Now,
Speaker 3: So at that stage, Gilbreath presented the George Jones tapes
Speaker 3: as collateral. He said the five reel to reel tapes
Speaker 3: contained thirty five live performances by George Jones and his band,
Speaker 3: and that their value was more than a million dollars.
Speaker 3: And he said there were projections that you know, the
Speaker 3: price could go up sure because Jones was so legendary
Speaker 3: and like the finite nature of his recording career. I mean,
Speaker 3: we all got to go sometimes.
Speaker 2: Oh that's what they mean. I was wondering, are they trying.
Speaker 3: To say, like they're like right, so as soon as
Speaker 3: he's gone, the price.
Speaker 2: Will be they should sell.
Speaker 3: So the court accepted the tapes as collateral and both
Speaker 3: of them got temporary release pending appeal. Let's take a break.
Speaker 3: You think on your favorite Hanks on when we return
Speaker 3: the tapes?
Speaker 4: Nice Zaren Elizabeth, we're back where we are?
Speaker 3: So have you thought a little bit more about your
Speaker 3: favorite Hank song?
Speaker 2: I did while you were brushing at your hair during
Speaker 2: the break. I had a moment.
Speaker 3: Are you making fun of the fact that I don't
Speaker 3: brush my hair?
Speaker 2: No? Never, Why would I do that? You caught me
Speaker 2: off guard. You know, I'm terrible a song titles, Like
Speaker 2: if you don't sing the song title in your song,
Speaker 2: I'm like, I wants the name of that song. Yeah
Speaker 2: he does, so I'm good there, right, and a lot
Speaker 2: of them. But I wanted to be certain because like
Speaker 2: I always feel bad and I said earlier, like you know,
Speaker 2: you're cheating heart as probably, but I don't want to
Speaker 2: be like all modling, like, oh I'm so lonesome, I
Speaker 2: could cry. It was my favorite song. So I'll go
Speaker 2: with the one that I had a lot of fun
Speaker 2: as a boy singing, which always was like, you know,
Speaker 2: wear my blove the country started just singing country with
Speaker 2: my dad driving around or dancing and while he's cooking breakfast.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna go with hey, good looking, cooking cooking
Speaker 2: up with me that.
Speaker 3: Looking. We could just sing Hank songs for the rest
Speaker 3: of it Ridico's crimes.
Speaker 2: Are you giving me that time to think about it?
Speaker 2: Because I always feel like a bozo whenever I'm like no, no,
Speaker 2: no songs I like on.
Speaker 3: This spot, you know, like and I've been in this,
Speaker 3: you know, working on this for a bit here, so.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I just I can't thought about my dud.
Speaker 2: That's kind of tough because like they're all such different moves.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, that's the thing too, all right. So where
Speaker 3: when we left off Guild Breath and Snotty, They got
Speaker 3: busted for drug running and they needed to pay their
Speaker 3: bail while on appeal, so they put up George Jones's
Speaker 3: nugget sessions.
Speaker 2: Some original.
Speaker 3: No, some originals, had a bunch of Hank Williams covers.
Speaker 3: So this is in nineteen eighty four. By nineteen eighty
Speaker 3: six they were hooked up with none other than the
Speaker 3: Medaine Cartel. Yeah, they had upsized and so this was
Speaker 3: coke running on the biggest scale imaginable. They used their planes.
Speaker 3: They got some pilots who were willing to take some risks,
Speaker 3: and sometimes it got a little squirrely with those pilots
Speaker 3: that they oh the.
Speaker 2: Small planes with an uneven load shifting around.
Speaker 4: In the back.
Speaker 3: Saren close.
Speaker 5: Yes, I want you to picture it.
Speaker 3: It's February thirteenth, nineteen eighty six. You are a US
Speaker 3: customs agent named Gary Gingrich, not Jerry Gurgich, and likely
Speaker 3: no relation to Newt Gangridge. You're a helicopter pilot. I
Speaker 3: know how much you love that. You and your partner
Speaker 3: are on a patrol ship north of the Gulf Coast.
Speaker 3: You got a report of a suspicious cessna. The registration
Speaker 3: number came back to a David Leon Snoddy out of
Speaker 3: Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Turns out the guy is a known
Speaker 3: drug runner. You get eyes on the plane and begin
Speaker 3: to follow. You've just gassed up, so you're ready to
Speaker 3: track him wherever he may go. You picked him up
Speaker 3: near the Louisiana Mississippi border. He's flying a little low
Speaker 3: and won't respond when you try and raise him on
Speaker 3: the radio. You move in closer. The pilot still won't
Speaker 3: answer you on the radio. You get closer. You're now
Speaker 3: about ten feet behind the plane. You and your partner
Speaker 3: notice a side window open up and then a package
Speaker 3: is fluffed. It spins and flips as it topples to
Speaker 3: the ground. You are a customs agent. You know what
Speaker 3: a kilo of coke looks like? Crab apple, you shout,
Speaker 3: You don't say Badwards. Down below, in the parking lot
Speaker 3: of a small Baptist church out in the woods of
Speaker 3: the Hamachido National Forest, a brick of coke comes to
Speaker 3: sumbling toward the earth. Taped and wrapped like a high
Speaker 3: school senior's visits class project. It bounces off the dirt
Speaker 3: of the lot without splitting open. It carives through the air,
Speaker 3: clears a low chain link fence, and skitters across the
Speaker 3: neat grass of the church's small cemetery. The package rolls
Speaker 3: away deep into the thick woods, where it sits to
Speaker 3: this day. You continue to follow the plane. Another brick
Speaker 3: of coke flies out the window, then another. You continue
Speaker 3: to follow goodly. Time goes by with still no answer
Speaker 3: from the pilot of the plane. It's just the whirr
Speaker 3: of your blades and the crackle of an empty radio channel.
Speaker 3: You pull alongside the plane. Now there are two men
Speaker 3: in there. The pilot wears large dark aviator sunglasses and
Speaker 3: a polo shirt. The passenger's wearing a Hawaiian shirt and
Speaker 3: looks straight at you. He smiles, then he gives you
Speaker 3: the finger, bark a lounger. You shout, you radio to
Speaker 3: the ground. The passenger just gave me the finger. They
Speaker 3: tell you to continue pursuit. You ask if they're sending
Speaker 3: up support. I mean, you're in a helicopter and you've
Speaker 3: been flying for a while.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: You are ironically just passing over Muscle Shoals, Alabama. You've
Speaker 3: got to stop for fuel soon. You pull up beside
Speaker 3: the plane again in gesture for the pilot to answer
Speaker 3: his radio. The two men in the plane laugh. You
Speaker 3: gesture for him to land. Well, that's what you mean.
Speaker 3: Your partner asks, what are you trying to tell them land?
Speaker 3: You say, oh, it looks like that Egyptian dance. He says, Gogenheim.
Speaker 3: You yell the passenger, and the plane flips you off
Speaker 3: once again, and then opens his side window and tosses
Speaker 3: another brick of cocoa. You're just approaching Huntsville, Alabama. You
Speaker 3: radio control that you have to stop and refuel. They
Speaker 3: promise to send another flyer up to track the cessma.
Speaker 3: You peel off and head for an airstrip. The plane
Speaker 3: keeps going. You land and a crew comes out to
Speaker 3: fill up your tank. And you slam your fist on
Speaker 3: your knee. Man at Toba, you yell. Your partner asks
Speaker 3: what the problem is. You tell them that you hate
Speaker 3: to not get your man. Just as they're finished, you
Speaker 3: get a message. The plane landed in Collegedale, Tennessee, just
Speaker 3: outside of Chattanooga, Chattanooga. You cry. Your partner asks him,
Speaker 3: what is it this time? We're headed to Chattanooga. You
Speaker 3: tell him off. You go racing through the sky. When
Speaker 3: you land at Collegedale, the cops on the ground have
Speaker 3: the passenger in custod You approach and confirm what it's
Speaker 3: the value you saw? Not so funny now you kill.
Speaker 3: You walk over and peek your head into the plane.
Speaker 3: Looking back into the passenger area, a little transistor radio
Speaker 3: plays a mournful country ballad. Kilos of cocaine raptpe are
Speaker 3: stacked along the ground. You walk back over to the cops.
Speaker 3: What about the pilot? Where's he? I'd like the word
Speaker 3: with him, you say. They tell you that as soon
Speaker 3: as the plane landed, the pilot hopped out and skid
Speaker 3: outled into the woods. They were unable to locate in
Speaker 3: Hippopotamus foiled again, so the FEDS got Snotty's plane full
Speaker 3: of coke. The pilot, Samuel Klaus Burchard, managed to escape
Speaker 3: and not get caught. In fact, he was featured on
Speaker 3: America's Most Wanted in nineteen eighty eight as a result
Speaker 3: of this.
Speaker 2: As a result of this.
Speaker 3: Yes, he made it off of the airfield in College Dale,
Speaker 3: got a friend to come pick him up and drive
Speaker 3: him to Miami, and then from there he was believed
Speaker 3: to have gone to the Bahamas. He was never seen again.
Speaker 2: Ever, Sure he's never came back to America if he
Speaker 2: could help it. Sure, so she can still.
Speaker 3: Fly around because he'd been smuggling cocaine and other drugs
Speaker 3: since the early seventies. He had connections all over the place.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping some savings probably, I hope also, you know,
Speaker 2: around the same time, if I'm not mistaken, it could
Speaker 2: have been these guys. But Pabulo Escobar found out that
Speaker 2: Whalen was like doing his blow and he had a
Speaker 2: like kilo sent directly and the FBI ended up tracking
Speaker 2: a shipment that went directly from Pablo.
Speaker 3: These kind of makes sense how long that they were
Speaker 3: exactly so the pilot he gets indicted, along with forty
Speaker 3: other members of this smuggling ring, and that included Snotty
Speaker 3: and gil Breath. And that was May of nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 3: There had been this year long undercover operation to bust
Speaker 3: what was a billion dollar operation at that time. So,
Speaker 3: following the new charges, Bond gets revoked. The nugget tapes,
Speaker 3: remember those, They get returned to the men's attorney, who
Speaker 3: acknowledged retrieving them in nineteen eighty six, and he later
Speaker 3: stated that, acting under instructions from his clients, he sold
Speaker 3: the recordings for twenty eight thousand dollars to cover mounting
Speaker 3: legal expenses. And it was only a fraction of their value.
Speaker 2: That's what that was.
Speaker 3: Grand they're saying it was a million.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So in nineteen eighty seven, both Gilbreath and Sicho.
Speaker 2: Selling a car for a book of stamps. Yeah exactly,
Speaker 2: I need to send this postcard.
Speaker 3: Yes exactly. They get convicted in the cocaine case in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty seven. Gilbreath gets out in nineteen ninety two
Speaker 3: after cooperating against a cartel figure. I know, right, brave.
Speaker 2: So it wasn't now long.
Speaker 3: Snotty got free in nineteen ninety three, but then he
Speaker 3: went back to prison for something else, and then he
Speaker 3: got released in twenty fifteen. Now unexpectedly, in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 3: a Louisiana court found some of the Jones tapes stored
Speaker 3: in a bank vault that had been used for court
Speaker 3: collateral decades earlier. Because only Gilbreath had been formally listed
Speaker 3: as the owner when the tapes were pledged, the court
Speaker 3: released them to his estate following his two thousand and
Speaker 3: five death. Current there was no will in place, a
Speaker 3: Tennessee court appointed Dwayne Maddox the Third as the estate administrator.
Speaker 3: He transferred the tapes to a Tennessee bank vault, where
Speaker 3: they remain unplayed. Huh and then it gets, you know,
Speaker 3: transferred over. It just bounces all over the place.
Speaker 2: Does he know what they were? And you think, oh,
Speaker 2: they got some real to real tape.
Speaker 3: I guess Snotty, whose co ownership had never been formally recorded,
Speaker 3: successfully pursued a legal claim to shared ownership in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3: Than twenty twenty, George Jones's sons find out about the tapes.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I was wondering when the family would here
Speaker 2: about these.
Speaker 3: They sued Snoddy and the Gilbreath estate. They disputed the
Speaker 3: ownership rights and they questioned the validity and the scope
Speaker 3: of that original nineteen sixty six contract. So they said,
Speaker 3: even if it's enforceable, the agreement seemed to restrict usage
Speaker 3: only to radio broadcast, so not like records and not
Speaker 3: April of twenty twenty two, a federal court intend.
Speaker 2: And am.
Speaker 3: So that's their suit. Right April of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: a federal court in Tennessee dismissed the suit for lack
Speaker 3: of jurisdiction. So, decades of legal maneuvering, we still don't
Speaker 3: know what's on the tapes.
Speaker 2: No one's heard them, no, no one.
Speaker 3: Has publicly verified whether they contain the labeled master recordings
Speaker 3: of the nineteen sixty six performances or if that old
Speaker 3: magnetic tape could survive being digitized. It's so fragile at
Speaker 3: this point. So a judge previously noted concerns that the
Speaker 3: judge was like, look, there are these concerns that exposure
Speaker 3: to magnetic or electrical interference could permanently erase them and
Speaker 3: snatty in the Gilbreath estate. They want to market it,
Speaker 3: but Jones's sons are like, no, no, you can't. You
Speaker 3: can't make money off of this like, we need to
Speaker 3: get this all settled.
Speaker 2: So good for them.
Speaker 3: Let's go back to nineteen sixty nine's Elizabeth. That's when
Speaker 3: George Jones married Tammy Wynette.
Speaker 2: On the Age of Aquarius.
Speaker 3: It's the age Tammy was a huge.
Speaker 2: Country Tammy wan George.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, forget about it.
Speaker 3: Their partnership became one of country music's most commercially successful
Speaker 3: and publicly scrutinized.
Speaker 2: Marriage Honey, hush, honey.
Speaker 3: They divorced in nineteen seventy five, and so his personal
Speaker 3: George's personal struggle really escalated in the seventh.
Speaker 2: A lot of the craziest stories yes to come from there.
Speaker 3: Alcohol cocaine addiction would disrupt the recording sessions, the tour schedules.
Speaker 3: He was notorious within the industry for missing concerts, and
Speaker 3: that got him the nickname no Show Jones.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know that the Gwaylon Jennings talking about the
Speaker 2: time he had to like basically tie a rope and
Speaker 2: tie George Jones to a tree. Yes, right, I mean
Speaker 2: like that's where like he was a willful Yes he was.
Speaker 3: Yes, he was a country boy, thank you. He started
Speaker 3: to have more and more financial problems because he wasn't
Speaker 3: showing up for these paid performances.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he's gonna do what he's going to do, because.
Speaker 3: Erratic behavior became legendary. And then there's the often retold
Speaker 3: story that he once wrote a lawnmower riding lawnmower to
Speaker 3: a liquor store after Tammy why Nutt hit his car keys.
Speaker 2: I was trying not to bring that one up because
Speaker 2: he sat up top, but U one of my favorite
Speaker 2: stories of all country music history, just because of the
Speaker 2: choice of like, yeah, like I was saying, he's wilful,
Speaker 2: He's like, I'm going to get there. I'll take my
Speaker 2: rod and.
Speaker 3: Mower and I'll come get on the john there you
Speaker 3: can get down there. So despite these setbacks.
Speaker 2: Did you know why people drove past him and didn't
Speaker 2: give him a ride?
Speaker 3: I've seen that when I lived down South. Oh I
Speaker 3: bet I saw someone take a writing lord of the
Speaker 3: liquor store. It was it was a thing.
Speaker 2: See in California. It's like, oh, you're riding a little
Speaker 2: girl's bike.
Speaker 3: So despite all these setbacks, George Jones continued to record
Speaker 3: really important work, and in nineteen eighty he released he
Speaker 3: Stopped Loving Her Today, Oh Song, produced by Billy Cheryl.
Speaker 2: This I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: Somber, somber narrative about lifelong devotion ending only in death,
Speaker 3: and that became the defining recording of his career. He
Speaker 3: stopped loving her today. If you haven't heard it, you
Speaker 3: got to listen to it. It won multiple awards, is
Speaker 3: frequently cited by critics and other artists as one of
Speaker 3: the greatest country songs ever recorded. Oh yeah, definitely, and
Speaker 3: so the performance revitalized his reputation and also introduced him
Speaker 3: to this whole new generation of listeners. So in nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty three he married Nancy Sepulvido, and she became a
Speaker 3: total stabilizing force in his life and in his career.
Speaker 3: And so with her support, he got sober, rebuilt his
Speaker 3: professional standing, and he credited her in nineteen eighties and
Speaker 3: early nineties had all this renewed touring success.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine both the strength and will you have
Speaker 2: to have to meet George Jones and overcome him, and
Speaker 2: then the kindness you also have to be. She has
Speaker 2: to be one of the hardest and softest people.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, and just like a rock Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: he had all these other hits, still doing time. I
Speaker 3: always get lucky with you. He gets into the Country
Speaker 3: Music Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety two, and in
Speaker 3: April of twenty thirteen is when he passed away and
Speaker 3: Nancy wanted to sell. They had this huge estate in
Speaker 3: Tennessee Country Gold. It was called She wanted to sell
Speaker 3: it when he passed away. During that summer, a guy
Speaker 3: named Kirk West toured the property. He presented himself like
Speaker 3: this seasoned investor. He wanted to buy it. There was
Speaker 3: no deal that came about, but he starts buzzing around.
Speaker 3: You know, he's like two decades younger than she is. Handsome, No, okay,
Speaker 3: but we'll see anyway, who is Kirk? I mean for
Speaker 3: some some ladies would probably look at the mir a
Speaker 3: handsome man.
Speaker 2: Are we talking about, like one of those like you know, handsome,
Speaker 2: good old boy, like you know, conn to come.
Speaker 3: Around, That's what I would say. So but like a
Speaker 3: little bit like Schlubier. Yeah yeah, anyway, who who is
Speaker 3: Kirk West?
Speaker 2: That's kirk question.
Speaker 3: Let's take a break, and when we come back, I
Speaker 3: shall tell you, Zaren, Zaren, who is Kirk West?
Speaker 2: Elizabeth? I have been wondering who Kirk West is ever
Speaker 2: since you mentioned his name. I know me too, possibly before.
Speaker 3: I was hoping you could tell me because I have
Speaker 3: nothing else on here. Let's find out, let's join that Kirk.
Speaker 3: He was born Kirk Leipzig, was raised in Wisconsin, and
Speaker 3: he initially worked as a grocery store manager before he
Speaker 3: reinvented himself as a career placement consultant. What I need
Speaker 3: a new career. Let me talk to this guy.
Speaker 2: So he's like essentially like a headhunter and life coach.
Speaker 3: Yeah, god, the whole life coaching. By the early two
Speaker 3: thousands he had relocated to Nashville, was he had all
Speaker 3: these different business names. The most notable one J. L.
Speaker 3: Kirk Associates.
Speaker 2: Oh you literally a bunch of different names like oh yeah,
Speaker 2: welcome to Kirk America.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah.
Speaker 3: He had like a bunch of.
Speaker 2: L's unfurnished furterature.
Speaker 3: He had all these different explanations of why it was J. L.
Speaker 3: Kirk Associates, And sometimes he, you know, was like, well,
Speaker 3: it's either Jesus Lord or Jesus loves.
Speaker 2: He needs a Matthew McConaughey.
Speaker 3: Just live in Kirk, Just live in Kurtney exactly. So
Speaker 3: in two thousand and seven, this blogger Catherine Coeble in
Speaker 3: Tennessee publicly criticized his firm. Apparently, her husband got an
Speaker 3: unsolicited call promising executive level employment with his firm.
Speaker 2: With his firm, yes, with JKL, with.
Speaker 3: JK, just keep living. He he had to pay some fees
Speaker 3: up front first five grand.
Speaker 2: Sorry j LK. You know Matthew McConaughey through me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Oh Jesus loves Kirk.
Speaker 2: Ye remember that way.
Speaker 3: She had to pay five thousand dollars in fees up front.
Speaker 2: Oh, he had to pay five thousands.
Speaker 3: Yeah, in order to get executive level employment. There were
Speaker 3: just some like upfront fees.
Speaker 2: It sounds like a modeling scam of the children. Totally
Speaker 2: wed to give a couple lesson.
Speaker 3: Don't worry, you can put it on a credit card
Speaker 3: week except credit cards. Five thousand dollars, like, ignore all
Speaker 3: the red flags, she said. She described the intake process
Speaker 3: as aggressive and manipulative rather than constructive, like, lady, come on,
Speaker 3: I can't help you through everything. Think about this. So
Speaker 3: after she published her account West so she goes and
Speaker 3: blogs it out. She's like, I'm going to blog all
Speaker 3: over this. We're going to regret when she.
Speaker 2: Found her way out of the public restroom. She was
Speaker 2: stuck in for three days.
Speaker 3: They won't let me reverse the charges on this credit card.
Speaker 3: So attorney sent a cease and desist and threatened legal actions.
Speaker 3: So what did she do? She posted the letter on
Speaker 3: her blog. Yeah, rare, and so there's all this like
Speaker 3: public commentary. By the year's end, West had closed his office.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's far more.
Speaker 3: And then local media reports the Better Business Bureau he
Speaker 3: had received numerous complaints. And that's the end of that period.
Speaker 2: Who cares a lot of.
Speaker 3: West. He went on to promote himself as a real
Speaker 3: estate investor specializing in distressed properties. And so he somehow
Speaker 3: gets this favorable profile in Forbes and it highlights these
Speaker 3: like rapid home flips, those with huge profits. He's like,
Speaker 3: I'm flipping, flipping back and forth, slap it up, flip it.
Speaker 3: So he uses all this he gets all this credibility
Speaker 3: with perspective. According to Forbes quote, West boasted about flipping
Speaker 3: two homes within six weeks, making nearly half a million
Speaker 3: dollars in profit. The spread became a calling card for West,
Speaker 3: referring potential investors to the flattering piece as proof of
Speaker 3: both his trustworthiness and track record.
Speaker 2: Should I say it's neither. I'm just going to go
Speaker 2: with the opposite of what he said.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Over time, lawsuits start stacking up. Investors are like, you know,
Speaker 3: we gave him money, he bought the properties, then he
Speaker 3: resold them and didn't tell us that he had sold them.
Speaker 3: Like still they think they're still just on the market
Speaker 3: and sit.
Speaker 2: He bought the properties with our money. Yeah, and then
Speaker 2: he sold them and he kept all the money.
Speaker 3: According to Rolling Stone quote, after reading West's Forbes article,
Speaker 3: a couple who'd been in touch with West withdrew from
Speaker 3: their retirement fund, used a portion of their savings, and
Speaker 3: borrowed money from their adult son to invest one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty thousand dollars in a home West was flipping
Speaker 3: in August of twenty ten. Allegedly promised a double return.
Speaker 3: They learned West sold the house a year later and
Speaker 3: never shared the profits. Only after confronting him did they
Speaker 3: manage to recoup one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, filing
Speaker 3: suit for the remaining thirty five thousand dollars. This is like,
Speaker 3: so that case eventually gets dismissed because they started missing
Speaker 3: deadlines on it. So I mean anyway, financial institutions, other entities,
Speaker 3: they start suing him too. He has all these unpaid debts.
Speaker 3: He owed a local paper money for ads that he ran.
Speaker 3: Mercedes Benz was subscription. Basically, Mercedes Benz is like, we
Speaker 3: need to talk. You owe us thirty thousand in car
Speaker 3: payments at leasing and even as attorney sued him after
Speaker 3: the property that he was renting entered foreclosure. Also form
Speaker 3: Rolling Stone magazine quote, even West's own attorneys sued him.
Speaker 3: Scott Johansson said he successfully fought off several fraud litigation
Speaker 3: claims against West, but after the house Johansson was living
Speaker 3: in which he rented from West, suddenly went into foreclosure,
Speaker 3: he filed suit. In February of twenty fourteen, Johansson listed
Speaker 3: seven alleged Ponzi schemes West was involved in between November
Speaker 3: twenty eleven and August twenty thirteen. He alleged West followed
Speaker 3: the same pattern in each instance. After West was quote
Speaker 3: threatened by an attorney with a civil law action and
Speaker 3: potential criminal prosecution for allegedly orchestrating and participating in a
Speaker 3: Ponzi scheme, Johansson claimed Westwood settle with moneies borrowed and
Speaker 3: or otherwise secured for one or more third parties.
Speaker 2: So I had to wonder about Johansson. Yeah, as the
Speaker 2: lawyer who knows what he's defending, he seems yeah, and
Speaker 2: then he decides, like I'm going to run a house
Speaker 2: from this guy who's like scamming everybody won't scam he.
Speaker 3: Will skim me, no special baby. So the case becomes
Speaker 3: moot because West declared bankruptcy. Okay, thanks, Personally, like the
Speaker 3: guy had been married multiple times and then court records
Speaker 3: show like he had all these child support disputes. There
Speaker 3: was infidelity alleged and abuse. In one of the divorces,
Speaker 3: there was an order of protection. His ex wife accused
Speaker 3: him of harassment. He had a misdemeanor charge for violating
Speaker 3: the order, but it got dropped.
Speaker 2: Is there anything not gross about it?
Speaker 3: No, family members, It gets worse. Family members described that
Speaker 3: he had like two different personas. He had like this
Speaker 3: publicly affable religious side and then the private, controlling, volatile partner.
Speaker 2: Okay, once again my previous answer.
Speaker 3: So Rolling Stone spoke with his former stepdaughter Alicia Porter
Speaker 3: quote he was also a cheater. Porter claims he told
Speaker 3: my mom that he was going on a spiritual retreat,
Speaker 3: and she followed him to the airport and found another
Speaker 3: woman's luggage tag and that he was taking the woman
Speaker 3: on a ten thousand dollars vacation on their anniversary.
Speaker 2: Morn says, maybe he had plans to see God with
Speaker 2: that woman.
Speaker 3: I bet he did. So. All sorts of exes tell
Speaker 3: similar stories. I'm sure he'd overwhelm them, love bombam, shower
Speaker 3: them with gifts, help around the house. He targeted like
Speaker 3: single mombs who were struggling, straight up predator. Then he
Speaker 3: turn and like get mean and violent and basically.
Speaker 2: He was a piece of I hate this guy.
Speaker 3: He was a piece of Yeah, I'm gonna say one.
Speaker 3: We're talking about twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2: I mean, did I not blush?
Speaker 3: He has all these like lawsuits, all this stuff. He
Speaker 3: legally changed his name from Leipzig and in the court
Speaker 3: documents he listed his reason as quote, don't like my
Speaker 3: name always misspelled too hard, And that's when he became Kirkquest.
Speaker 3: So in April of twenty thirteen, that's when he met
Speaker 3: Nancy Jones. She wanted to sell Country Gold, the ninety
Speaker 3: six hundred square foot home on eight acres that she
Speaker 3: shared with George Jones.
Speaker 2: How did their circles intersect.
Speaker 3: I'm about to tell you. I can just imagine George
Speaker 3: Jones coming back and tuning this guy up.
Speaker 2: Like just bending a golf club over his head.
Speaker 3: So when West went to look at Country Gold, do
Speaker 3: you know who was with him? No, Jamie Spears, father
Speaker 3: of Britney Spears, That scumbag, as Marissa researcher. Marissa said,
Speaker 3: quote this is entirely unexplained, but seems to track.
Speaker 2: Birds of a feather.
Speaker 3: I mean, so she's going out on the market and
Speaker 3: he goes as a real estate investor, okay, and he's like,
Speaker 3: he presents himself as this quiet, god fearing man.
Speaker 2: So he gets a home tour and she has to
Speaker 2: be the one. Dude.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Nancy, she's religious and so that was really
Speaker 3: appealing to her. He laid it on stick. He gained
Speaker 3: her friendship and her trust per Rolling Stone, Well.
Speaker 2: Will you pray with me, sister?
Speaker 3: Oh my god. Quote. Nancy had been distraught when the
Speaker 3: Honky Tonk crooner died, and she cherished what seemed to
Speaker 3: be a genuine friendship with West in the immediate months
Speaker 3: after Jones's death. That quickly blossomed into romance.
Speaker 2: Teeth so hard.
Speaker 3: My friends of hers were suspicious that he targeted Nancy
Speaker 3: because she was vulnerable and wealthy.
Speaker 4: Yes quote, and he's a sleeves ball quote.
Speaker 3: I never trusted him. An old friend of Nancy's who
Speaker 3: knew the couple for more than a decade tells Rolling
Speaker 3: Stone George had just passed and all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: this guy shows up hanging around with Nancy. It's kind
Speaker 3: of obvious what he was looking for. It seems to
Speaker 3: me that he was just looking for the widow's money.
Speaker 3: But he's hung around for a long time. I guess
Speaker 3: he was playing the long game. And he's a guy
Speaker 3: that reads obituaries and praise on people, said one former
Speaker 3: ex girlfriend. And I'm fairly confident that's how he managed
Speaker 3: to get in touch with Nancy.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. So I've heard about people reading obituaries
Speaker 2: trying to find like a rent control department in York,
Speaker 2: and I was like, that's a good angle, but like
Speaker 2: this is like just next level, like just cruising the
Speaker 2: Nashville widow scene and like, go on, who's got money
Speaker 2: the lowest?
Speaker 3: So but she seemed happy, So her friends decided to
Speaker 3: mind their own business. But in October twenty fourteen, they
Speaker 3: did run a background check on him. They found over
Speaker 3: a dozen like state and federal lawsuits filed against him Wisconsin, Tennessee.
Speaker 3: They didn't tell Nancy about the background check, just for gossip.
Speaker 3: A friend said, quote. A friend said quote. Time went
Speaker 3: by and she was still with him. I just let
Speaker 3: it be. I never showed it to her because it
Speaker 3: seemed like she was happy.
Speaker 2: No, it's tough, I will say that, friend.
Speaker 3: It is tough in those situations when you see someone
Speaker 3: in Nancy's type of position, like bad relationship, whatnot, because
Speaker 3: a lot of times if you do say something, either
Speaker 3: the person won't listen or they'll get defensive or start
Speaker 3: to pull away.
Speaker 2: But now your standard like that, but if you have receipts.
Speaker 3: But even then, if they start to pull away, you
Speaker 3: won't be able to see when things get really bad.
Speaker 3: Like you such a.
Speaker 2: Tough I totally agree, but I'm saying that. But can't
Speaker 2: you have the conversation if you've got pages of lawsuits
Speaker 2: and civil complaints and like, But you know, these these
Speaker 2: predator guys, they have they have answers that they're ready.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so within weeks of their meeting. Now, remember he
Speaker 3: shows up like, oh, yeah, I'm a real estate investor. Yeah,
Speaker 3: He's like, I have to tell you something, Nancy, and broke.
Speaker 3: So she's like, you know what, I will help you.
Speaker 3: She moves him into the home in a separate wing
Speaker 3: of the estate. And she later said, you know, it
Speaker 3: was totally platonic at first, but then it became intimate
Speaker 3: and from early on and they're like, you know, twenty
Speaker 3: something years different.
Speaker 2: Just like as in Day and Tom Holland lovers friends.
Speaker 3: To lover her, friends to love her exactly classic.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna yank my tongue out and wrap it
Speaker 2: around my throat and pull real tight. Don't mind me.
Speaker 3: So from early on she financed their lifestyle. Of course,
Speaker 3: she They went on these like fancy tropical vacations. She
Speaker 3: bought them a new Mercedes he to replace the other one.
Speaker 2: He said, twenty years separates them. Yeah, do we have
Speaker 2: any idea of like where those twenty years are located? Like,
Speaker 2: is it like seventy to fifty forty?
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't know. I'm gonna guess probably
Speaker 3: like seventy to fifty sixty too.
Speaker 2: In the sixty five forty five the difference.
Speaker 3: In late twenty thirteen, jewelry went missing from Nancy's safe
Speaker 3: and police identified West as a suspect, but the matter
Speaker 3: was closed without resolution over time.
Speaker 2: You know, she didn't want press charge.
Speaker 3: Yeah. He then starts taking on more and more roles
Speaker 3: in her business affairs. So he helped Nancy make the
Speaker 3: George Jones Museum in Nashville a reality. There was a restaurant,
Speaker 3: events space, roof, deck, bar, and of course a gift shop.
Speaker 3: I would certainly hope they sold the bumper stickers there.
Speaker 3: West became the general manager and he worked in the restaurant.
Speaker 3: Nancy worked as a waitress, and she cleaned the toilets.
Speaker 2: Wait, wait, wait, I'm going to need you to back up.
Speaker 2: He's the manager in the restaurant. She's cleaning toilets of
Speaker 2: her own volition, in her the place that she owns.
Speaker 3: I know George Jones was looking down on all this
Speaker 3: and was absolutely steaming.
Speaker 2: I'm sure he insisted on being reincarnated just so he
Speaker 2: could have time to come beat this guy up from there.
Speaker 2: Give me a couple of years, just enough to learn
Speaker 2: to watch.
Speaker 3: So then Nancy made a deal Concord Bicycle Music. They
Speaker 3: bought George Jones's music catalog for thirty million dollars in
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2: In twenty sixteen, that seems like a crazy discount.
Speaker 3: In the paperwork for the sale, West is listed as
Speaker 3: secretary for the record company and business manager for the estate, and.
Speaker 2: Then the double books the sale.
Speaker 3: That same year, West gets arrested on federal bank fraud charges.
Speaker 3: Prosecutor say that he falsified income and net worth figures.
Speaker 3: He submitted forged documents all in order to get mortgages,
Speaker 3: and he made himself look like a high earning investor
Speaker 3: and not a predator who scams vulnerable women. So he
Speaker 3: pleaded guilty. He received a sentence that included house arrest
Speaker 3: and around a million dollars in restitution. Nancy paid the
Speaker 3: legal expenses. Oh advanced the funds to satisfy the restitution obligations.
Speaker 3: He's like, I will pay you back, Zarin. He never
Speaker 3: paid her back, no kidding, yeah, And then West told
Speaker 3: others that like, Oh, I was able to pay it
Speaker 3: back because she and I did a lot of good
Speaker 3: investing together.
Speaker 2: I don't understand how you go from I can like
Speaker 2: hang with the possum to I can get worked by
Speaker 2: this bozo e.
Speaker 3: So during house arrest, West got super into crypto. Oh,
Speaker 3: so he encouraged Nancy to buy a bunch of cryptocurrency
Speaker 3: Doge and ethereum. Those are like the big ones. In
Speaker 3: a sworn Affidavid, Nancy said, quote, mister West volunteered to
Speaker 3: access my accounts with crypto trading platforms in light of
Speaker 3: his assertion that I was far too inexperienced. Each investment
Speaker 3: was funded by assets transferred from my personal bank accounts
Speaker 3: and was performed by mister West on my behalf and
Speaker 3: for my benefit. In twenty twenty five, she finds out
Speaker 3: that West is hooked up with another lady who has
Speaker 3: just publicly announced their engagement. According to Rolling Stone, quote,
Speaker 3: in late April twenty twenty five, the woman posted a
Speaker 3: video of a massive oval cut diamond ring marking herself
Speaker 3: engaged on Facebook with book officially all that's how, that's
Speaker 3: how you really send out good announcements.
Speaker 2: So after I don't know if I can grind my
Speaker 2: TV any harder.
Speaker 3: And they're going to come spraying out of the side
Speaker 3: of your face. After confronting him, Nancy had her granddaughter
Speaker 3: helped her secure her valuables, and they found that there
Speaker 3: was four hundred thousand dollars in cash missing from a
Speaker 3: safe in the house.
Speaker 2: And does she even know what all of her valuables
Speaker 2: are at this point since he's got some of it
Speaker 2: in crypto?
Speaker 3: I mean like, also, how much cash do you have
Speaker 3: in the safe? In that worse worse though, you know
Speaker 3: what else was missing from the safe a ledger containing
Speaker 3: more than eleven million dollars in cryptocurrency. There you go,
Speaker 3: it was gone from the safe. Stand yep, So she
Speaker 3: fouled a police report. Then she hired forensic specialists to
Speaker 3: come trace the assets. West calls her up and is like,
Speaker 3: I'll give you some of the crypto back. I'll give
Speaker 3: you five million.
Speaker 2: Are you going to make a deal?
Speaker 3: And he's like the rest is mine for because it's
Speaker 3: mine because they were According to Rolling Stone quote, what
Speaker 3: happened next is unclear. West says Jones agreed to split
Speaker 3: their assets evenly so he would move out of the house.
Speaker 3: Jones's lawsuit does not mention such an agreement. None of
Speaker 3: the traditional assets were divided between them. When West left,
Speaker 3: doesn't she I know all he needs like two good rowans,
Speaker 3: you can get this done with call in Jim and Dawn.
Speaker 3: It became pretty obvious that West was going to make
Speaker 3: a break for it, like he's going to run Kim.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised he's still in the country.
Speaker 3: Sure enough, authorities arrested him at the airports Court YEP
Speaker 3: July of twenty twenty five. He had a one way
Speaker 3: ticket to the Philippines and he was with a lady friend.
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so charged with felony theft. He pleaded not guilty.
Speaker 3: He did two weeks in county while he worked and
Speaker 3: weaseled to get his bail reduced from a million to
Speaker 3: four hundred thousand. He's looking at fifteen to sixty years,
Speaker 3: so it's pending. Nancy subsequently filed suit seeking recovery of
Speaker 3: the cryptocurrency. Her complaint characterizes West's conduct as consistent with
Speaker 3: this pattern of exploiting women through charm and the appearance
Speaker 3: of financial success. This is what it says in the
Speaker 3: suit quote. It was West's well established modus operendi to
Speaker 3: use his looks, gentlemanly manners, and veneer of a successful
Speaker 3: real estate career to exploit wealthy, potentially vulnerable women. And
Speaker 3: she's being generous with the whole looks thing.
Speaker 2: Okay, I was wondering. I mean, he sounds like this
Speaker 2: is a very classic, like dating backs when I was
Speaker 2: a kid. This is an average year about like a whatever,
Speaker 2: like carpet bagging Southerners into in the post Civil war period,
Speaker 2: coming down and like romancing some civil war widow and
Speaker 2: whole plantation like this has been all basically story.
Speaker 3: Yes. In early twenty twenty six West countersuit, he said
Speaker 3: that their assets had been combined and that he's entitled
Speaker 3: the half of certain holdings, including crypto currency, five million
Speaker 3: dollars in gold and silver and a million in cash.
Speaker 3: And then he also part of his lawsuit was reputational
Speaker 3: harm and defamation. Sir, sure, sure, ma'am. No, ma'am. That's
Speaker 3: when I swat him on the nose, No, ma'am. The
Speaker 3: litigation remains ongoing.
Speaker 2: Under the windy xerous Sir, you are under a Windy's.
Speaker 3: Zero. Your ridiculous takeaway.
Speaker 2: I hope that goes to George Jones, catches up to
Speaker 2: him as soon as he's behind bars and can't get away,
Speaker 2: and spends all of his nights just like getting whispered
Speaker 2: too till he goes mad or till his cellmate just
Speaker 2: you know, like helps him find heaven.
Speaker 3: I just I just this guy, what the like?
Speaker 2: I cannot believe. I don't know. You know me, I'm
Speaker 2: not a big fan of taking it. I don't mind
Speaker 2: con men in particular because I understand, but I like
Speaker 2: it when they go for fat cats, when they get
Speaker 2: somebody who's full of themselves and they know the hoists
Speaker 2: it on the pitard bit Like I'm okay with like
Speaker 2: Robin A. Rockefeller, But if you're going and robbing the
Speaker 2: widow of a country music legend.
Speaker 3: I mean, she she's well whatever, but he's a predator.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying it. Also, she's very vulnerable.
Speaker 3: He's vulnerable.
Speaker 2: The Rockefeller ain't vulnerable. He's just a fool. Like you
Speaker 2: can rob a rich full and all I may applaud,
Speaker 2: but you rob like a rich, vulnerable person who is
Speaker 2: grieving essentially when they first meet, Yes, exactly, lonely and low,
Speaker 2: and you're like, oh I can take I can fill
Speaker 2: that hole in your heart.
Speaker 3: My takeaway is I love that you got me so
Speaker 3: mad on Tuesday and now today I got you so mad.
Speaker 4: That is how do we see this?
Speaker 2: That's fun?
Speaker 3: Well, we have a lot of tent up rage that
Speaker 3: we're just directing.
Speaker 2: We have like this weird InSync quality, like you know,
Speaker 2: like two college women who would get on the same
Speaker 2: period cycle. You know, it's like you become roommates. You're like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, now we're on the same side. A
Speaker 2: week after a week we go through and like this
Speaker 2: week apparently was let's rage bait the other.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, well there it is. I think I need
Speaker 3: to talk back.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: I went you. Hey, guys, Scott from here in North Carolina.
Speaker 3: Here so I actually have lyrics to.
Speaker 1: Your theme song.
Speaker 2: Here it goes Zarah Nan Liza the crimes head all.
Speaker 3: Ridiculess, murder free Eliza, but hate SERBESO, dude are here.
Speaker 2: Knows?
Speaker 1: Who cares?
Speaker 2: Love you guys, wait so much? That is so good base.
Speaker 2: That was incredible, brother, that was amazing. And also, by
Speaker 2: the way, you can say, I like I.
Speaker 3: Heard this song, you know hey those good time is
Speaker 3: good man, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: That's it for today.
Speaker 3: You can find us online at ridiculous Crime dot com.
Speaker 3: We're also a Ridiculous Crime on both luskay and Instagram.
Speaker 3: We're on YouTube at Ridiculous Crime pod. You can email
Speaker 3: us at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Most importantly,
Speaker 3: as always, leave us a talkback on the free iHeart
Speaker 3: app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton
Speaker 3: and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by Dave the Lonesome
Speaker 3: Fugitive Cousten, starring.
Speaker 2: Annals rutger Is Judith.
Speaker 3: Research is by Marissa hass Brown and Jabbari tater Davis.
Speaker 3: The theme song is by Thomas the Gambler Lee and
Speaker 3: Travis Bociphus Dutton post wardrobe is provided by Botany five
Speaker 3: hundred guests Haron, makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive
Speaker 3: producers are Ben the Coal Miner's Daughter Bowlin and Noel
Speaker 3: the Hillbilly Shakespeare Brown.
Speaker 1: Dus QUI say It one More Timequious Qui. Ridiculous Crime
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts from iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.