WEBVTT - Playin' Possum: Crimes around George Jones 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:08.039 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iheartradiozalentm. 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:11.000 Zaren Oh Elizabeth, lady host. Hey, what's up, lady host? 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:12.400 How are you doing? 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:16.680 I'm doing well. Just man hosting over here. Sorry, gentlemen. 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:21.279 Hosting host Maxings maxing with a hammer in my hand. 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:24.279 The way to do you know what's ridiculous? 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:29.360 Just hit your temple though, I do. You know, Sometimes 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:33.159 you try to explain to somebody about like something you 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:35.080 saw online. In my case, usually it's going to be 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:37.400 like a skeeter or a tweet or whatever, a post, 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:40.600 and I'm like, oh, and they're not not one of 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:43.160 your friends who are ever online, And I'm I'm sure 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:45.199 you have some of those, right, yeah, So and you're 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:47.639 trying to you sound like you're like I sound insane, right. 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:50.519 So I've now started taking screenshots so that I can 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:52.640 show them, like the post that I wanted and tended 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:55.120 to be trying to remember it and then look finding it, right, 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:56.840 So I found one that I wanted to share with 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.760 you because this reminds me of our conversations about cased meats, 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:02.560 and I often want to bring it up whenever we're 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:04.200 talking about case to meats. 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:06.319 So, which is often. 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.920 It's far more often than my other friends. So the 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.600 post is by c. Joiner and it's a classic. The 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:19.120 post says a sign in the window reads cured Meats. Inside, 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.640 Salami takes his first steps since the accident, A Preshudo 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:33.160 learns to forgive. It is absolutely love. It kills me 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:34.840 every time they absurdedes. 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:40.280 You know, I absurd comedy is what is giving me 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:41.520 life right now. 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:42.399 Going. 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:44.280 Yeah, I was. 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:46.960 At a bar that was having a birthday for a dog, 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:49.720 and I was trying to explain to my friend, Yeah, 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:52.080 I didn't know the dog, but I was out there 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.360 at the bar when the party was going down, so 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:56.600 I took photos of it, you know, and I was like, oh, yeah, 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.400 what's the dog's name? And like they pointed at the sign. 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:01.000 I'm like, God, isretty big? I should have seen that. 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:02.520 It's like happy birthday lady. 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.560 And I was like, oh, could have been anybody? 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:07.840 I thought that could have been yeah, pretty much anyone 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.160 in here. So yeah, there you go. Ridiculous. 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.399 It's ridiculous. Do you want to know what else is ridiculous? 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:38.960 Love it messing with No Show Jones? What what this is? 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:44.000 Ridiculous Crime? A podcast about absurd and outrageous cavers, heists, 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:47.840 and cons It's always ninety nine percent murder free and 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.120 one hundred percent ridiculous. 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:52.640 I know you don't heard that. Oh I don't heard 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:54.119 it that grape fun. 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.200 You and I have an affinity not just for Encase meets, 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:00.520 but for outlaw country music. 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:04.280 Oh my god. Yes, yeah, Willie. 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:09.840 Nelson, Johnny cash, Merle Haggard, Haig Williams, Junior AKA. 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.400 But not so much David David Allen co. But I 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:13.920 like David Allen I know. 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:19.079 But I like when Junior calls himself bo. Got to 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:22.440 bring that up, Yes, Chrisson, he falls up in there. 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.720 So what do you call it, Jesse culter? I mean, 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:27.640 let's not leave her out. 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:31.959 Yes, So it's a seventies sub genre of country music 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:36.840 in this sense, anti establishment, rebellious, stripped. 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:38.520 Down sound outside of Nashville. 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:42.160 Yes, gritty lyrics, it's not polished up. It's very real. 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.440 These are the guys who are fighting against Nashville for 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.560 the soul of country. Yes, they wanted to save the 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:52.960 soul of traditionalist country. So Willy Willy started out with 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:57.800 traditionalist honky Tonk Roadhouse, and then Nashville got slick and glossy. 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:02.680 He went outlaws shotgun Willy. So the original traditionalists are 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:08.040 folks like Hank Williams, buck Owens, Lorette, A Lynn, and Merle. 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:10.880 I'll put Merle back into Jimmy Rodgers in there. Oh yeah, 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:16.400 definitely Jimmie Rogers. And we can't forget George Jones. So 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:20.400 while he fell more into the traditionalist camp rather than outlaw, 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:23.880 the guy lived the life of a country outlaw, like 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:27.599 a big old, messy country out He got them, Yes, 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:33.719 the other I want to talk about George Jones today 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.919 much possom. They called him the possum. He's not the 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.560 criminal in these stories. No, the crime just like buzzes 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:45.080 around him like horse flies in a stable. His run 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.520 ins with the law were generally a product of his alcoholism, 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:52.320 and I don't find that particularly funny or entertaining. Clear 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:54.239 of all that, but let me tell you a little 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:57.120 bit about George Jones. Let's set the stage for what's 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:01.359 to come. George Glenn Jones born in September twelfth, nineteen 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.479 thirty one, in Saratoga, Texas. He grew up in nearby 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:09.560 Vider in the piny Woods of Southeast Texas, and he 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:12.680 was the youngest of eight children in a working class family, 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:16.640 and they were poor. There was all this instability because 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:22.760 of the Great Depression. His father, George Washington Jones, was 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:27.360 an alcoholic who was sometimes violent. His mother, Clara Patterson Jones, 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:31.200 she was musically inclined, and she really encouraged her son's 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.719 early interest in singing. And so he later said that 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:38.040 hearing gospel music in church and on the radio, especially 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:42.560 the stuff by Roy Acuff, stirred something in him and 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.120 it hooked in. So by the time he was nine, 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:47.960 he was performing on the streets of Beaumont for tips, 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.280 and at sixteen he left home started playing in honky 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:56.880 tonks all across East Texas. So by nineteen fifty he 0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:58.600 got married, got divorced. 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.839 You wanted to get one out, just knock it out, Yeah. 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:05.599 Just like just a little trial run. He enlisted in 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:10.039 the Marines during the Korean War conflict, so stationed in California, 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:12.960 continue to play music when he could. He gets out 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.920 in nineteen fifty three, goes back to Texas and he's like, 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:17.720 I'm going to be a full time musician. 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.240 Oh my god, that's my look. You're able to just 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:21.039 open my mouth and. 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:22.599 It wouldn't that be amazing? 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:24.960 It would be the most amazing. Imagine. 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.600 He gets a recording contract with Starday Records in nineteen 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.880 fifty four with this producer Pappy Daily. 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:34.840 The names oh Country Pappy Daily. 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.960 So his early country and Western yeah, very much so. 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.840 His early singles had that like hard edged honky tonk 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.719 style of the period. His breakthrough came in nineteen fifty 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:48.719 five he had a song why Baby Why. It was 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.799 a top ten country hit, got him like national attention, 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:57.040 and then through the late fifties he recorded this string 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:00.520 of like really successful singles, including White Lightning m and 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:03.320 that became his first number one country hit in nineteen 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.000 fifty nine. And it has like this really driving rhythm. 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.760 He has expressive, kind of comedic vocals, and he shows 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.560 that he can be funny and demonstrate humor, but had 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:19.440 this like technical precision like what light So his voice 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:23.559 quickly became like his defining instrument. He had this really 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:27.200 wide range, incredible breath control. 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:29.040 Yes like Frank Sinatra that way yeah. 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.840 And a gift for really again like Sinatra, subtle freeze. 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.040 Raising totally lets you do with the great breath, you 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:35.320 can do exactly what you want. 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.240 Exactly. So he could slide between notes in a way 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:41.320 that you know, showed a lot of nuance, but it 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:44.200 wasn't He was never sappy or sentimental. 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.360 Yeah, yeah, no, he had more of an ache than yes. 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.200 So all other artists, critics, they said that he was 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.920 the Many described him as the greatest male country singer 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:59.120 of his generation. Yeah. So his ballads were groundbreaking because 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:02.800 they were like super conversational and intimate and that went 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:07.040 on to influence performers all across country and Americana music. 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:11.040 Oh they all are kind of riffing him. Yeah. Yeah. 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.400 So in nineteen sixty six, George Jones and his band 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.600 recorded at Nugget Studios, and this was this like really 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:21.480 modest facility in north of Nashville. Musicians loved it because 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:23.480 it was cheap and it was out in the country, 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:26.480 like out the Millanore. So George Jones, we can make 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.560 a racket, yeah exactly. Has a hit with White Lightning. 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.240 He's also got a hit. She thinks I still care. 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.480 But people are starting to hear about his drinking troubles 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:36.400 and like he'd go. 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:38.280 On benders possible. 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.240 Yeah, he wasn't particularly reliable in the studio or on 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:43.960 the road, but people didn't care. They're just like, you're 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:47.240 too good. He still sells out shows. It's kind of like, 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:49.240 you know, people buy a ticket to a Lauren Hill 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:52.480 show and they're like, she may not show up Morrissey, 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:56.079 but you know, I'll hang in there. So during the 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:00.200 Nugget Sessions, Jones and his musicians they recorded a ton 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.600 of songs like tons. He did some originals, but he 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:07.640 covered a lot of Hank Williams tunes. One of his 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:10.880 originals was a song called Ship of Love and it 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:16.040 was co written with Earl Peanut Montgomery and Johnny Paycheck. 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:18.880 Yeah, Johnny Paycheck right, so. 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:22.120 And he also like saying like harmony vocals and played 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:23.360 the bass Johnny Paycheck did. 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:23.959 So. 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:27.120 The recordings are produced under this agreement with Jimmy Donn 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:32.160 Enterprises that is a rad hillbilly company. So this was 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:37.120 a business partnership between Donald gilbreath Don and Jones's road manager, 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:37.880 Jimmy Klein. 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.400 So, Jimmy don Jimmy, I don't know why I thought 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:43.400 it was one guy. 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.800 Gilbreth had known Jones for years. They worked together on 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:51.160 music on promo stuff, and according to documentation, that was 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:55.280 signed by Jones The arrangement called for payment of six 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:59.640 thousand dollars in exchange for recording about one hundred and thirty. 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:03.440 Songs, and one. 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.559 Hundred and thirty these would be for radio play sure, 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.840 and the ownership rights right that's a lot ownership rights 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:14.640 would go to Jimmy Dawn Enterprises. So the precise nature 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:19.280 of the rights transfer later became unclear, like did Jones 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:23.920 formally sell the recordings, did he assign them outright, or 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.920 did he just straight up relinquish them because he was 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:30.439 in a bad way with his addiction. It's not really clear. 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:35.120 In a Sword statement years later, Kleine mentioned that Jones 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:36.280 had fully given up his. 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:38.199 Interest in the rust rights and publishing. 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:40.320 Yeah, and they're like why, He's like, I don't know. 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:44.920 I can't explain it, possum, you just can't. So after 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.160 the nineteen sixty six sessions wrapped up and when Nugget 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.319 was in everyone's rear view, the master tapes pretty much 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.959 disappeared from public view, and more than a decade later, 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.760 in nineteen seventy nine, Gilbreath he made a friend fellow 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:02.280 by the name of David's Snotty s n O D 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:05.440 d wy Wow. So the two. They bonded over all 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:11.160 these shared interests they had bowling, go krt sales. You 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.480 know how you meet someone who're like you, I do 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:15.760 go I'm into go kart sales? Like no way, so 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:16.679 am I. 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:18.800 Are you saying go kart sales? You don't mean like 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.000 selling go karts? You mean a go cart that has 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:21.600 a sale? 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:26.200 No? No, no selling go carl face. 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:28.680 Was like a desert thing. 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:33.240 And commerce of go carts go cart dealers Like. 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.280 I couldn't be that easy talking about you like to 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:37.040 move units? 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:41.960 I love power what So they started hanging out with 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.400 at an Alabama bowling alley that was managed by Gilbreath 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.080 why not and like George Jones would come by sometimes 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:48.880 and be like what's up? 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:49.760 Yeah? They got. 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.960 So throughout the eighties, Gilbreath and Snotty they became partners 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:59.520 in all these different ventures, vending machine operations for the 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:05.600 Mafia construction, real estate development. They also leased tour. 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:09.000 Busuction so cement were they also in like wistmans I think? 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.640 So they they leased tour buses to to George Jones 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:14.960 and sometimes to. 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:16.800 Oh yeah, one of my favorites. 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.720 So in addition to transportation services, they also handled the 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.480 merch sales at George Jones concerts, of course, and so 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:29.000 and he was raking it in one shirts, ball caps, 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:33.360 bumper stickers, T shirts and I feel like a George 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.280 Jones bumper sticker is a surefar way to get pulled 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:40.880 over and subjected to a breath lez pull me over 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:46.320 right now. Snotty later testified that he and Gilbreath divided 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:48.920 the profits from the merchandise sales with Jones and his 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:50.720 band over a three year period. 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.520 Basically, George Jones bumper stickers is like one of those 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.040 like I've been to Gillies. It's like, okay, you drink 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:59.160 and yeah, exactly so light you. 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:04.360 So. By the early nineteen eighties, the Pals had branched 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.680 out into a new transportation venture. What is that large 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:14.839 scale drug trafficking transportation. They moved marijuana and Colombian coke 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.280 into Southern States via small aircraft. 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.559 I really got the organized crime feeling from them early. 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:22.920 You could sniff it out. 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:25.360 You did a good job, thank you, and I'd like it. 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.600 I'm glad that they're keeping up with the trends in crime, 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:29.840 like thees. Let's get into cocaine. 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:30.840 Sure, good things. 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:32.319 We should sell pot right now. 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:34.439 They're just they're just carrying it over so that we're 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.920 in the early eighties. Snotty owns some of the planes 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.599 the sky to play like a little buzzer like he 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:46.880 did a little treetop flying. One alleged associate claimed that 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:49.439 the pair would hide drugs in the tour buses that 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:53.960 they were leasing out to country stars, and Snotty was like, lies, lies, 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:56.920 I tell you. I just hope they weren't making Miss 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.920 Loretta carry wait, like that's just right. 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:02.040 Getting caught on the Texas is wrong. 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:08.000 In late nineteen eighty two, Gilbreath took over Klein's Steak 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.200 in the nineteen sixty six tapes and he brought Snotty 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.000 in as a partner and they tried to get a 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:17.439 buyer for those Hank Williams covers. By the way, what's 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:18.800 your favorite Hank Williams song. 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.400 I'm trying to think of my favorite Hank Williams song. 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:27.520 Give me a second. What's your favorite Hank? 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:31.200 I think mine is you win again. Yeah, they're great 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.240 covers of that, Like Mike Nest does an incredible cover. 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:41.160 Grateful Dead used to cover it. Fats Demino, that's Domino. 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:46.840 But some say some say Fats Domino, Johnny Cash, Keith 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.360 Richards does a weird cover it. I also I also 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:55.240 like cold cold Heart. Aretha in like the Muscle Shoals 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:59.000 Sessions does an incredible cold cold heart. Tony Bennett's the 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:01.560 one actually who made it popular in the first place 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.120 and drew attention to it, and that drew attention to Hank. 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.920 That was Tony Bennett, old Tonetti. 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:08.160 God bless him. 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:10.280 A thank you, Tony. 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:12.000 So any strike your fans. 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:16.240 I was thinking, like, you're cheating heart, but uh, yeah, 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.280 I don't know. I mean, that's that's a tough question. 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:19.360 Give me. 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:21.120 Let me see if I can answer that later. A 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.680 good looking Well, yeah, that's a fun one. 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:25.960 Do you think on it? Let it percolate? 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.520 Yeah, because I don't anyway, I often so I do 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:30.880 it so flippant, I always, and I hear back the episode, 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:32.440 I'm like, that's you'll have. 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:33.880 A chance to think on it for a second. It's 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:36.760 so anyway, these two bosos, they're trying to sell off 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:40.040 the Hank covers, okay, And before they could get that together, 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:44.680 they got arrested in connection with a conspiracy to purchase 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.720 tens of thousands of pounds in marijuana. Oops, Like, I 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:52.760 don't think Hank done it this way. So they posted 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.200 two hundred and fifty thousand dollars bond backed by real 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:58.680 estate holdings. And so you know, there was a conviction 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.600 and they appeared it and they had to satisfy their 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.800 bail while they were on appeal a million dollars. Now, 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:09.480 So at that stage, Gilbreath presented the George Jones tapes 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.520 as collateral. He said the five reel to reel tapes 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:18.080 contained thirty five live performances by George Jones and his band, 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:20.880 and that their value was more than a million dollars. 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:24.440 And he said there were projections that you know, the 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:28.000 price could go up sure because Jones was so legendary 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:31.760 and like the finite nature of his recording career. I mean, 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:32.920 we all got to go sometimes. 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:35.960 Oh that's what they mean. I was wondering, are they trying. 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:40.920 To say, like they're like right, so as soon as 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:42.120 he's gone, the price. 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:43.840 Will be they should sell. 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:49.040 So the court accepted the tapes as collateral and both 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:53.440 of them got temporary release pending appeal. Let's take a break. 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.160 You think on your favorite Hanks on when we return 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:57.200 the tapes? 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:21.240 Nice Zaren Elizabeth, we're back where we are? 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:23.000 So have you thought a little bit more about your 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:23.840 favorite Hank song? 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:25.880 I did while you were brushing at your hair during 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:27.359 the break. I had a moment. 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:29.480 Are you making fun of the fact that I don't 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:30.160 brush my hair? 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:33.960 No? Never, Why would I do that? You caught me 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.000 off guard. You know, I'm terrible a song titles, Like 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:38.680 if you don't sing the song title in your song, 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:40.720 I'm like, I wants the name of that song. Yeah 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:42.920 he does, so I'm good there, right, and a lot 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:44.760 of them. But I wanted to be certain because like 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.000 I always feel bad and I said earlier, like you know, 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:49.879 you're cheating heart as probably, but I don't want to 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.359 be like all modling, like, oh I'm so lonesome, I 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:54.840 could cry. It was my favorite song. So I'll go 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:57.040 with the one that I had a lot of fun 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:59.280 as a boy singing, which always was like, you know, 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.080 wear my blove the country started just singing country with 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.360 my dad driving around or dancing and while he's cooking breakfast. 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:09.960 So I'm gonna go with hey, good looking, cooking cooking 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.040 up with me that. 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:18.880 Looking. We could just sing Hank songs for the rest 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.680 of it Ridico's crimes. 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:25.800 Are you giving me that time to think about it? 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:28.399 Because I always feel like a bozo whenever I'm like no, no, 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:30.880 no songs I like on. 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.680 This spot, you know, like and I've been in this, 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.040 you know, working on this for a bit here, so. 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.200 Well, yeah, I just I can't thought about my dud. 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:40.879 That's kind of tough because like they're all such different moves. 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.639 Well, yeah, that's the thing too, all right. So where 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.400 when we left off Guild Breath and Snotty, They got 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.360 busted for drug running and they needed to pay their 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.200 bail while on appeal, so they put up George Jones's 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:55.640 nugget sessions. 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:57.320 Some original. 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.879 No, some originals, had a bunch of Hank Williams covers. 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.520 So this is in nineteen eighty four. By nineteen eighty 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.359 six they were hooked up with none other than the 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:15.040 Medaine Cartel. Yeah, they had upsized and so this was 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:19.520 coke running on the biggest scale imaginable. They used their planes. 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:22.240 They got some pilots who were willing to take some risks, 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.160 and sometimes it got a little squirrely with those pilots 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:25.880 that they oh the. 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:29.680 Small planes with an uneven load shifting around. 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:29.840 In the back. 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:32.200 Saren close. 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:44.480 Yes, I want you to picture it. 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:48.680 It's February thirteenth, nineteen eighty six. You are a US 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:53.680 customs agent named Gary Gingrich, not Jerry Gurgich, and likely 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.760 no relation to Newt Gangridge. You're a helicopter pilot. I 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:00.800 know how much you love that. You and your partner 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.199 are on a patrol ship north of the Gulf Coast. 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.879 You got a report of a suspicious cessna. The registration 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.840 number came back to a David Leon Snoddy out of 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.680 Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Turns out the guy is a known 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:17.000 drug runner. You get eyes on the plane and begin 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:19.760 to follow. You've just gassed up, so you're ready to 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:22.639 track him wherever he may go. You picked him up 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.920 near the Louisiana Mississippi border. He's flying a little low 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:27.879 and won't respond when you try and raise him on 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:31.520 the radio. You move in closer. The pilot still won't 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:34.520 answer you on the radio. You get closer. You're now 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.800 about ten feet behind the plane. You and your partner 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:40.400 notice a side window open up and then a package 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.960 is fluffed. It spins and flips as it topples to 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:47.760 the ground. You are a customs agent. You know what 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:51.000 a kilo of coke looks like? Crab apple, you shout, 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.600 You don't say Badwards. Down below, in the parking lot 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:56.520 of a small Baptist church out in the woods of 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:59.840 the Hamachido National Forest, a brick of coke comes to 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:02.760 sumbling toward the earth. Taped and wrapped like a high 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:06.000 school senior's visits class project. It bounces off the dirt 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.680 of the lot without splitting open. It carives through the air, 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:12.760 clears a low chain link fence, and skitters across the 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:16.200 neat grass of the church's small cemetery. The package rolls 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:18.720 away deep into the thick woods, where it sits to 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:22.480 this day. You continue to follow the plane. Another brick 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:25.880 of coke flies out the window, then another. You continue 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.560 to follow goodly. Time goes by with still no answer 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:32.200 from the pilot of the plane. It's just the whirr 0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:35.000 of your blades and the crackle of an empty radio channel. 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.720 You pull alongside the plane. Now there are two men 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.439 in there. The pilot wears large dark aviator sunglasses and 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:45.720 a polo shirt. The passenger's wearing a Hawaiian shirt and 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.919 looks straight at you. He smiles, then he gives you 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:52.600 the finger, bark a lounger. You shout, you radio to 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.760 the ground. The passenger just gave me the finger. They 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:58.600 tell you to continue pursuit. You ask if they're sending 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:01.400 up support. I mean, you're in a helicopter and you've 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:02.520 been flying for a while. 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:02.800 Now. 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:07.520 You are ironically just passing over Muscle Shoals, Alabama. You've 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:10.280