1
00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:03,400
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

2
00:00:03,680 --> 00:00:05,320
Speaker 2: Zaren Elizabeth Listen.

3
00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:08,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know it's ridiculous. Oh my god. Do you

4
00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:10,800
Speaker 3: like German chocolate cakes? Yeah? Sure, right? Do you know

5
00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:12,880
Speaker 3: the secret of German chocolate cakes? Not like how to

6
00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:14,760
Speaker 3: bake a good one? But what the secret is? I'm

7
00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:16,040
Speaker 3: scared it's not German?

8
00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:16,880
Speaker 2: Okay.

9
00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:19,959
Speaker 3: Yeah, So turns out German chocolate cake was actually named

10
00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:24,079
Speaker 3: after an American named Samuel German. No. Yes, So in

11
00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:27,000
Speaker 3: nineteen fifty seven, this there was this recipe called Germans

12
00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:30,760
Speaker 3: German's Chocolate Cake, and it appeared in this the Dallas

13
00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:33,600
Speaker 3: Morning News as the recipe of the day, submitted by

14
00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:35,959
Speaker 3: missus George Clay. So we don't even know her real

15
00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:37,760
Speaker 3: name because she went by her husband's name, because it's

16
00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:40,599
Speaker 3: nineteen fifty seven. So this homemaker from Dallas, she submits

17
00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:43,440
Speaker 3: this recipe and it was from an eighteen fifty three

18
00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:46,840
Speaker 3: recipe of an American baker, Samuel German, who had made

19
00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:49,600
Speaker 3: this cake for you know, Baker's Chocolate Company, so owned

20
00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:53,520
Speaker 3: by General Foods. Well, they published this recipe and within

21
00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:57,080
Speaker 3: like it becomes a sensation across the country. Sales of

22
00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:00,200
Speaker 3: chocolate Baker's. Baker's choclate went up by seventy three percent,

23
00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:02,480
Speaker 3: and from that point on, we've had German chocolate cake,

24
00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:06,080
Speaker 3: and people then just drop the Germans because it didn't

25
00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:08,199
Speaker 3: sound as much fun as German chocolate cake, and fools

26
00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:10,560
Speaker 3: like me thought it was German. I'm over there asking Germans, oh,

27
00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:12,760
Speaker 3: when you guys go for a good German chocolate cake

28
00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:14,200
Speaker 3: and they look at me like I'm an idiot, which

29
00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:14,840
Speaker 3: they often do.

30
00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:16,479
Speaker 2: But whatever, coconut right now.

31
00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:18,160
Speaker 3: It's all this, Yeah, the shavings and all that. Yeah,

32
00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:20,200
Speaker 3: I think it's good coca coconut and shavings on movie.

33
00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:21,200
Speaker 2: That's not very German.

34
00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:23,160
Speaker 3: No, that was the thing. That's why I'm like, when

35
00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:25,200
Speaker 3: did you guys get all coco for coconuts?

36
00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:26,000
Speaker 2: I had no idea.

37
00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:28,080
Speaker 3: You know what, that's ridiculous, Hey, ridiculous.

38
00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:30,560
Speaker 2: Well done. Uh do you know what else is ridiculous?

39
00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:30,640
Speaker 4: No?

40
00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:31,959
Speaker 3: I do not. That's what I'm here for.

41
00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:57,160
Speaker 2: Conning al Capone. What this is ridiculous Crime A podcast

42
00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:01,680
Speaker 2: about absurd and outrageous capers. Heisen cons it's always ninety

43
00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:05,760
Speaker 2: nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous. I

44
00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:10,040
Speaker 2: know you heard that zaren you like to quote Biggie's

45
00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:11,079
Speaker 2: crack commandments?

46
00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:12,880
Speaker 3: I do, I do. It's good philosophy.

47
00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:15,480
Speaker 2: Let's let's clarify that we're talking about the late rap

48
00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:20,959
Speaker 2: superstar Notorious Big and his tune ten crack commandments.

49
00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:24,040
Speaker 3: Yes, and not the wrestler Big E what we and

50
00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:25,919
Speaker 3: let me recount them for you.

51
00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:31,360
Speaker 2: So rule number uno, never let no one know how

52
00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:33,880
Speaker 2: much dough you hold. So that's don't let anyone know

53
00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:36,799
Speaker 2: how much money you have on you. Number two, never

54
00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:38,160
Speaker 2: let them know your next move.

55
00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:38,640
Speaker 4: Yes.

56
00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:42,200
Speaker 2: Don't you know bad boys move in silence and violence. Yes, yeah,

57
00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,840
Speaker 2: so that's self explanatory, dude, Real G's moving silence like Lasagna.

58
00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:46,520
Speaker 4: Exact.

59
00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:53,760
Speaker 5: Number three. Never trust nobody. Yes, now we're going to

60
00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:56,440
Speaker 5: ignore the double negative. Why, so that makes it you

61
00:02:56,440 --> 00:03:00,960
Speaker 5: can trust everybody. Never trust nobody. Number four.

62
00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:02,919
Speaker 2: Never get high on your own supply.

63
00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:03,720
Speaker 3: So important.

64
00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:06,440
Speaker 2: That's incredible advice for all sorts of things.

65
00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:08,480
Speaker 3: Even if your supply is just your own ego exactly.

66
00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:13,840
Speaker 2: Number five. Never sell no crack where you rest at. Yes, yeah,

67
00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:15,840
Speaker 2: which I mean I abide by that.

68
00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:18,240
Speaker 3: And numbers So don't bring your business home.

69
00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:21,840
Speaker 2: That goddamn credit dead it it Yes, which don't sell

70
00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:22,640
Speaker 2: your wares on credit.

71
00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:23,840
Speaker 3: Yes' front for nobody.

72
00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:27,919
Speaker 2: Yes. Seven, keep your family in business completely separated. That's

73
00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:28,440
Speaker 2: always good.

74
00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:29,919
Speaker 3: I think Ben Franklin would agree with all of this.

75
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:30,720
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.

76
00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:33,239
Speaker 2: Number eight, Never keep no weight on.

77
00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:35,720
Speaker 3: You, yes, never someone else holds it for it.

78
00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:38,680
Speaker 2: Again you know, so, don't don't have the drugs on

79
00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:39,080
Speaker 2: your person.

80
00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:40,920
Speaker 3: These are the way they stay free.

81
00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:46,640
Speaker 2: Number nine. If you ain't getting bagged, stay there from police. Yes, so,

82
00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:51,880
Speaker 2: don't cooperate with law enforcement. Number ten A strong word

83
00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:56,560
Speaker 2: called consignment, so you know, meaning it's only for seasoned

84
00:03:56,840 --> 00:03:59,760
Speaker 2: drug dealers to use a system whereby the drugs are

85
00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:02,280
Speaker 2: shit to a dealer who pays only for what is

86
00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:04,320
Speaker 2: sold and who may return what is unsold.

87
00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:04,760
Speaker 5: Yes.

88
00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:07,200
Speaker 2: Or it's an arrangement in which goods are left in

89
00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:09,320
Speaker 2: the possession of an authorized third party to sell.

90
00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:11,840
Speaker 3: Yes. Basically you would only front to somebody who you

91
00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:14,360
Speaker 3: really trust. So like Pablo Basketbar, may can do consignment,

92
00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:16,560
Speaker 3: but you shouldn't as a local dealer, right.

93
00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:18,159
Speaker 2: And I'm just gonna admit I have no idea what

94
00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:22,200
Speaker 2: all that means. You know, you're very convinced, you know

95
00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:27,360
Speaker 2: who had crime commandments long before Biggie Smalls, Jesus, Victor Lustig.

96
00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:28,400
Speaker 3: Oh I was close.

97
00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:37,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, Noah Moses nd Nicodemus Adam okay, so Victor Lustig

98
00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:40,520
Speaker 2: he created the ten commandments for con men.

99
00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:41,880
Speaker 3: Oh right.

100
00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:46,280
Speaker 2: Number one, be a patient listener. It is this, not

101
00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:49,600
Speaker 2: fast talking that gets a con man his coups, all right.

102
00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:53,880
Speaker 2: Number two, never look bored. Yes, that's good advice. Three,

103
00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:57,240
Speaker 2: wait for the other person to reveal any political opinions

104
00:04:57,279 --> 00:04:58,080
Speaker 2: and then agree with them.

105
00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:00,720
Speaker 3: Yes, okay. Number ever express yeah.

106
00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:04,600
Speaker 2: Number four. Let the other person reveal religious views, then

107
00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:05,839
Speaker 2: have the same ones once again.

108
00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:07,600
Speaker 3: Emulate your person you're talking about, right.

109
00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:11,240
Speaker 2: Next one, hint at sex talk, but don't follow it

110
00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:14,040
Speaker 2: up unless the other person shows a strong interest. Yes,

111
00:05:14,200 --> 00:05:15,120
Speaker 2: that's always good advice.

112
00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:17,640
Speaker 3: We're all smart for conversation exactly.

113
00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:21,920
Speaker 2: Never discuss illness unless some special concern is shown. And

114
00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:24,080
Speaker 2: we're just going with like this is how to you know,

115
00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:28,880
Speaker 2: be in public. Never pry into a person's personal circumstances.

116
00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:33,760
Speaker 2: They'll tell you all eventually. Again solid, never boast, Just

117
00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:35,880
Speaker 2: let your importance be quietly obvious.

118
00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:38,080
Speaker 3: I kind of live by these. These are solid.

119
00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:41,600
Speaker 2: Never be untidy, and lastly, never get drunk.

120
00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:44,160
Speaker 3: Damn. I was good for up till then I got

121
00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:44,560
Speaker 3: all ten?

122
00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:48,240
Speaker 2: So who is this professor of CON's?

123
00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:50,719
Speaker 3: Who is this professor of cons Elizabeth.

124
00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:51,720
Speaker 2: Count Victor Lustig?

125
00:05:51,839 --> 00:05:52,760
Speaker 3: Want to be Lustig?

126
00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,640
Speaker 2: Lustig? Sure, I'm just americanizing.

127
00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:55,840
Speaker 4: You know.

128
00:05:55,880 --> 00:05:59,080
Speaker 2: Here's the thing. I say things wrong all the time.

129
00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:03,160
Speaker 2: I mispronounce, I do bad accents. I'm not trying to

130
00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:05,359
Speaker 2: neither one of us are trying to do an effective

131
00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:05,719
Speaker 2: as No.

132
00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:07,600
Speaker 3: But sometimes I do put the like when I'm going

133
00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:09,000
Speaker 3: to say a word, I'll put the emphasis on the

134
00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:09,720
Speaker 3: wrong sol.

135
00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:11,240
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I do that all the time too. So

136
00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:14,280
Speaker 2: what I'm trying to say is that I don't care

137
00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:21,480
Speaker 2: if I say things wrong, nor should anyone else Anyway, Lustig, Lustig,

138
00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:22,400
Speaker 2: what have you?

139
00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:22,680
Speaker 1: Vi?

140
00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:23,320
Speaker 3: Vic?

141
00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:28,000
Speaker 2: He wasn't a real count, and as many like we have,

142
00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:31,600
Speaker 2: all these con artists that we discussed, he liked to be,

143
00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:34,320
Speaker 2: you know, fake, being a member of aristocracy. But also

144
00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:36,160
Speaker 2: he had this air about him that people just called

145
00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:40,400
Speaker 2: him that. In his long career of criming, he never

146
00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:41,039
Speaker 2: held a gun.

147
00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:43,840
Speaker 3: I like it, I know, I really like that. Have

148
00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:46,239
Speaker 3: to force it, don't force the issue exactly.

149
00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:50,479
Speaker 2: His hobby collecting butterflies and pinning them in shadow boxes.

150
00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:52,800
Speaker 2: I like it, you know, pen and notunt me like

151
00:06:52,839 --> 00:06:56,479
Speaker 2: a butterfly. As the Despicable Morrissey would sing so many

152
00:06:56,560 --> 00:07:01,159
Speaker 2: double entendres. He was always kind of the Ladies smooth talker.

153
00:07:01,640 --> 00:07:06,120
Speaker 2: He was born in hostin a Bohemia ninety yeah, Bohemia,

154
00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:10,280
Speaker 2: land of my grandpa's people and con artists. He used

155
00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:12,400
Speaker 2: to tell people that his dad was the mayor of

156
00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:16,400
Speaker 2: his hometown. It's not true, it's not true. He later

157
00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:21,080
Speaker 2: admitted that his parents were quote the poorest peasant people. Okay,

158
00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:23,760
Speaker 2: which is you know, that's good, nothing wrong, But he

159
00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:26,000
Speaker 2: said he had to turn to crime just to survive.

160
00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:30,280
Speaker 2: Times were so tough. In twenty fifteen, a historian from

161
00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:36,160
Speaker 2: Hostine started looking for biographical information about his town's famous native.

162
00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:38,600
Speaker 3: Son, most prominent residents and yeah who.

163
00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:41,560
Speaker 2: The problem is that the Nazis had burned a lot

164
00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:44,080
Speaker 2: of records, and so he was looking through what was left,

165
00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:46,800
Speaker 2: and it looked like there were records remaining that aligned

166
00:07:46,840 --> 00:07:49,440
Speaker 2: with the time that he was in town. There's absolutely

167
00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:54,960
Speaker 2: no mention of him in anything, school roles, electoral records, anything,

168
00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,080
Speaker 2: So whether he was telling the truth or not up

169
00:07:58,120 --> 00:07:58,520
Speaker 2: in the air.

170
00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:00,520
Speaker 3: Maybe he was a homeschooled or aristocrat.

171
00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:02,960
Speaker 2: It could be. But you know, here's here's what I say.

172
00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:04,440
Speaker 2: Who knows who cares?

173
00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:06,480
Speaker 3: Yeah right, he said, I sort.

174
00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:09,520
Speaker 2: Of care, but like I don't. Anyway. As a kid,

175
00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:13,360
Speaker 2: he started out panhandling, and that led to pickpocketing, and

176
00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:16,240
Speaker 2: that led to burglary, which led to street hustling.

177
00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:18,840
Speaker 3: It's a nice little step one, two, three.

178
00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:24,000
Speaker 2: He mastered card tricks, according to True Detective magazine, quote palming,

179
00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:27,080
Speaker 2: slipping cards from the deck, dealing from the bottom, and

180
00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:29,160
Speaker 2: then by the time he reached adulthood, he could make

181
00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:33,800
Speaker 2: a deck of cards. Quote do everything but talk, so

182
00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:36,880
Speaker 2: I like you. By the time he was nineteen, he

183
00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:39,240
Speaker 2: made his way to Paris and that's where he got

184
00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:42,560
Speaker 2: into gambling. Yes, he learned a bunch of languages when

185
00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:44,440
Speaker 2: he was there. He wound up speaking six languages.

186
00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:47,080
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm so jealous. I know, right, I've always wanted

187
00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:48,080
Speaker 3: to speak six languages.

188
00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:49,559
Speaker 2: I can barely speak this one.

189
00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:51,520
Speaker 3: I'm trying to work my way into two.

190
00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:53,400
Speaker 2: Okay, what two English?

191
00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:53,719
Speaker 4: And what?

192
00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:54,400
Speaker 5: Well?

193
00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:57,800
Speaker 3: Why Spanish is basically you know California work Spanish, right, right,

194
00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:01,120
Speaker 3: but also my vocabularies. I went to school so I

195
00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:03,719
Speaker 3: can understand far more. It's much like a French. I

196
00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:05,520
Speaker 3: can read it because of my vocabulary, but I can't

197
00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:09,000
Speaker 3: really speak at the grammars still, like on the mode terrible. Anyway,

198
00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:11,240
Speaker 3: So I guess that's almost two languages. Would be if

199
00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:13,000
Speaker 3: you could buy my Spanish and my French.

200
00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,000
Speaker 2: So anyway, this dude's six languages, so amazing. He learned

201
00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:19,400
Speaker 2: how to read people and how to manipulate situations. He

202
00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:21,320
Speaker 2: also played competitive level chess.

203
00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:22,839
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he's a brain.

204
00:09:23,040 --> 00:09:25,880
Speaker 2: He picked up a humdinger of a scar on his

205
00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:28,559
Speaker 2: face thanks to a dust up with a love rival.

206
00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:28,880
Speaker 6: Oh.

207
00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:30,120
Speaker 3: I thought it was gonna be like in a chess

208
00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:32,440
Speaker 3: match and one like buried or rook in something.

209
00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:34,520
Speaker 2: Well, let's say that happened. Yeah, he just got it,

210
00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:36,319
Speaker 2: like you know, he was fighting over something, Okay, so

211
00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:39,200
Speaker 2: she cut him. Yeah, so he got his first real

212
00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:42,000
Speaker 2: crime gig on Transatlantic.

213
00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:44,200
Speaker 3: Voyages oh steamship right.

214
00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:44,520
Speaker 5: Yeah.

215
00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:48,000
Speaker 2: He especially liked to target the nouvau riche, so he'd

216
00:09:48,040 --> 00:09:50,680
Speaker 2: hop on a liner in one of the Atlantic ports

217
00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:52,800
Speaker 2: in France and then ship off to New York City.

218
00:09:53,760 --> 00:09:56,400
Speaker 2: He'd mentioned to the swells that he who was like

219
00:09:56,480 --> 00:10:00,320
Speaker 2: this musical producer looking for investors for his Broadway production.

220
00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:01,920
Speaker 2: There's no production, of course.

221
00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:02,200
Speaker 5: Yeah.

222
00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:06,400
Speaker 2: So things stopped for him in World War One because

223
00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:09,280
Speaker 2: Transatlantic liners, you know, you know, couldn't make it a

224
00:10:09,320 --> 00:10:12,920
Speaker 2: getting sunk a little problem, and he needed to find

225
00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:15,640
Speaker 2: a new place to con and what better choice than

226
00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:17,520
Speaker 2: these United States of America.

227
00:10:17,679 --> 00:10:19,400
Speaker 3: So rich, so ready to be picked.

228
00:10:19,679 --> 00:10:22,439
Speaker 2: So this was a booming time in the US for

229
00:10:22,559 --> 00:10:24,800
Speaker 2: cons It's the age of Charles Ponzi.

230
00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:27,160
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, this is we said, basically just after World

231
00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:29,640
Speaker 3: War One. So we're going into the Roaring twenties big

232
00:10:29,679 --> 00:10:30,720
Speaker 3: time for christ exactly.

233
00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:33,199
Speaker 2: And you know, we've had a number of criminals on

234
00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:36,000
Speaker 2: this podcast who cast about the States. At this time.

235
00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:40,080
Speaker 2: People were suckers for unidentifiable European accents.

236
00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:40,880
Speaker 3: Oh we still are.

237
00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:43,840
Speaker 2: Oh I know. So there were like all these smooth,

238
00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:46,160
Speaker 2: non violent, charming scoundrels.

239
00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:48,040
Speaker 3: Yeah.

240
00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:52,160
Speaker 2: I'm going to again quote True Detective Magazine that Lustig

241
00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:54,680
Speaker 2: was a man who quote society took by one hand

242
00:10:54,840 --> 00:10:57,520
Speaker 2: and the underworld by the other. A flesh and blood

243
00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:01,400
Speaker 2: Jekylin Hyde. Oh yeah, because he was he was messing

244
00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:04,360
Speaker 2: with like all the rich folks and with like the

245
00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:05,320
Speaker 2: mom in the Underworld.

246
00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:06,719
Speaker 3: It's also kind of fun to picture him as a

247
00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:08,360
Speaker 3: kid and those are his parents and he's like swinging

248
00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:11,079
Speaker 3: from their hands as they're walking down the sidewalk. Exactly.

249
00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:16,000
Speaker 2: Nineteen nineteen, he married a woman named Roberta Okay, and

250
00:11:16,280 --> 00:11:20,960
Speaker 2: she was from Kansas. Pretty old Kanson. This was one

251
00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:24,040
Speaker 2: of the many loves in his life. In nineteen twenty five,

252
00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:26,800
Speaker 2: he then heads back to Paris. He's like, Bertie, it's

253
00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:30,280
Speaker 2: been great, hanging tight. She's you know, he's gone.

254
00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:31,240
Speaker 3: I gotta go check on Hemingway.

255
00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:33,480
Speaker 2: Yeah. So he's like, I gotta go to Paris and

256
00:11:33,640 --> 00:11:35,600
Speaker 2: it was there. While he's there, he learns that there

257
00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:39,719
Speaker 2: are problems with maintaining the Eiffel Tower and the thing

258
00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:43,280
Speaker 2: fallen apart. It really desperately needed a paint job.

259
00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:46,280
Speaker 3: He needed some new ratchet on there. Rabbits.

260
00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:49,040
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the problem, rashets is that they call

261
00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:51,640
Speaker 2: him over there. So there was all this talk that

262
00:11:51,679 --> 00:11:53,079
Speaker 2: they were just going to tear it down.

263
00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:54,200
Speaker 3: The Eiffel Tower.

264
00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:55,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was so busted up.

265
00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:57,319
Speaker 3: It wasn't it put up like eighteen thirty nine.

266
00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:00,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it was only supposed to be sort of temporary.

267
00:11:59,679 --> 00:12:00,440
Speaker 3: For this world.

268
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:05,839
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, Victor's there, light bulb goes off

269
00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:08,480
Speaker 2: in his head. In this criminal brain of his. He

270
00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:11,160
Speaker 2: had someone print up stationary for him that had the

271
00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:15,920
Speaker 2: official French government seal on and he used that stationary

272
00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:21,160
Speaker 2: to write to some scrap metal dealers. Okay, and he said, hey, guys,

273
00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:22,920
Speaker 2: I'm a government official.

274
00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:23,400
Speaker 3: Love me.

275
00:12:24,760 --> 00:12:27,760
Speaker 2: Can I meet with you at the Hotel de Crient. Again,

276
00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:31,040
Speaker 2: I don't do accents. Why not though a super swanky hotel.

277
00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:35,960
Speaker 2: Please be discreet, he says, this is confidential, wink wink.

278
00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:39,800
Speaker 2: So at the hotel, he introduces himself as the Deputy

279
00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:43,240
Speaker 2: director General of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs.

280
00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:44,800
Speaker 3: I believe it, that sounds right.

281
00:12:45,280 --> 00:12:49,640
Speaker 2: So he tells the men this sorrowful tale about how

282
00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:52,040
Speaker 2: it was just costing way too much to maintain the

283
00:12:52,200 --> 00:12:58,000
Speaker 2: Chili Fell quote because of engineering faults, costly repairs and

284
00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:01,520
Speaker 2: political problems. I cannot just gus the tearing down of

285
00:13:01,559 --> 00:13:03,479
Speaker 2: the Eiffel Tower has become mandatory.

286
00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:06,400
Speaker 3: How much and how hard it is to paint this thing,

287
00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:07,400
Speaker 3: and it's such a shame.

288
00:13:07,840 --> 00:13:11,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, so no one ever liked it as such, the

289
00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:13,400
Speaker 2: French government looking to sell it for scrap.

290
00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:15,079
Speaker 3: Beauty.

291
00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:17,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just doesn't fit in with the rest of

292
00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:18,760
Speaker 2: the city architecturally.

293
00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:20,120
Speaker 3: We have the park.

294
00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:23,000
Speaker 2: However, this is going to upset a lot of people

295
00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:25,559
Speaker 2: that we want to scrap this thing. They'll take their

296
00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:29,080
Speaker 2: anger to the streets, as is their wont So that's

297
00:13:29,120 --> 00:13:31,000
Speaker 2: why you need to be so secret about this. That's

298
00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:33,120
Speaker 2: why you can't tell anyone about this meeting. No one

299
00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:37,120
Speaker 2: tell no one about this. So Victor tells the group

300
00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:40,400
Speaker 2: that he's responsible for selecting the dealer who will receive

301
00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:42,839
Speaker 2: ownership of the structure. So it's just like kind of

302
00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:46,600
Speaker 2: an audition. This is seven thousand tons of metal. Yes,

303
00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:49,760
Speaker 2: this is a big job, big payday. He even rented

304
00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:53,439
Speaker 2: limos and like took the dealers on tours of the tower.

305
00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:56,440
Speaker 3: Wow right, I mean, that's just Gus's the show.

306
00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:59,720
Speaker 2: So as he tells this tale, he tried to figure

307
00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:02,800
Speaker 2: out who the most gullible of this group is. He's

308
00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:04,840
Speaker 2: like looking at him, like that guy is a mouth breather.

309
00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:07,040
Speaker 2: I don't know about him. So he sees this one guy,

310
00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:11,319
Speaker 2: Andrea Poisson. He's a social climber, Like he's new in

311
00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:13,559
Speaker 2: Paris and he wants to build up his business, and

312
00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:16,800
Speaker 2: he's just like glad handing everyone. So that's who Victor

313
00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:19,440
Speaker 2: sets up a meeting with Andre Fish Andre Fish, and

314
00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:23,520
Speaker 2: it was there like at this next meeting, he's like, Andrea,

315
00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:28,960
Speaker 2: I'm crooked. I am fully corrected. Are you into that?

316
00:14:29,080 --> 00:14:32,480
Speaker 2: Because I'm into that. I'll take a bribe in exchange

317
00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:35,240
Speaker 2: for getting you the contract, but you know you got

318
00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:39,200
Speaker 2: to juice me. So Andre hands over about seventy thousand

319
00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:42,720
Speaker 2: francs and it's just pleased his punch with his steel.

320
00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:46,440
Speaker 2: He's like, hey, the contract's mine. Victor is like, may

321
00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:49,000
Speaker 2: he goes to Austria. He's like, I'm out of here.

322
00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:51,840
Speaker 2: So he's in the wind. He got away with the scam.

323
00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:55,440
Speaker 2: Andre too ashamed to admit like how gullible he was,

324
00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:58,680
Speaker 2: and so Victor's watching like is there any news in this?

325
00:14:59,680 --> 00:14:59,920
Speaker 3: Nothing?

326
00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:01,640
Speaker 2: So he's like, you know what, I'm going to do

327
00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:02,040
Speaker 2: it again.

328
00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:02,880
Speaker 3: I'm going back.

329
00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:05,960
Speaker 2: He goes back to Paris, so he set up everything

330
00:15:06,040 --> 00:15:10,600
Speaker 2: as he had before, the stationery, the hotel, and this

331
00:15:10,760 --> 00:15:13,040
Speaker 2: time he takes another like selected group of.

332
00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:16,000
Speaker 3: More scrap dealers. How many scrap dealers?

333
00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:20,880
Speaker 2: Place is lousy with scrap dealers every street corner, so

334
00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:23,480
Speaker 2: like one of them. Oh, he gets a little uneasy

335
00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:26,200
Speaker 2: in this meeting. He's like, this just doesn't add up, Like,

336
00:15:26,320 --> 00:15:30,640
Speaker 2: why aren't we meeting in government offices? Yeah, so he's like,

337
00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:33,200
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm going to the cops. I don't

338
00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:38,480
Speaker 2: trust this squeals on on Victor. Doesn't matter. He's already

339
00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:40,880
Speaker 2: long gone to the States before the fuzz could catch him,

340
00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:42,400
Speaker 2: because he's like I think, I think.

341
00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:43,440
Speaker 4: Yeah.

342
00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:46,120
Speaker 2: So he gets back to the States and he continues

343
00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:50,720
Speaker 2: these con man ways with even more inventive means. Nineteen sixteen,

344
00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:55,800
Speaker 2: he like he created his own church on the Manhattan waterfront. What, yeah,

345
00:15:55,920 --> 00:15:58,280
Speaker 2: this is this like small mission? He said. The service

346
00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:01,520
Speaker 2: would quote swell all hearts and souls with joy.

347
00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:04,680
Speaker 3: Well, eventually all scoundrels will find their way to the churche.

348
00:16:05,560 --> 00:16:10,360
Speaker 2: He copied a Polish Catholic priest speech word for word

349
00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:11,960
Speaker 2: and then ad libs some bits.

350
00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:14,640
Speaker 3: Okay, but like it was the general thing, and a

351
00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:15,400
Speaker 3: couple of connections.

352
00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:18,040
Speaker 2: The flock blown away. They're like this is so.

353
00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:20,360
Speaker 3: Moving, oratory, genius, so moving.

354
00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:24,120
Speaker 2: I'm going to fork over collectively ninety dollars. That's like

355
00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:26,880
Speaker 2: twenty five hundred dollars today in the offering.

356
00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:28,680
Speaker 3: From a waterfront church that's a lot of mo and

357
00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:29,400
Speaker 3: this wasn't.

358
00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:31,800
Speaker 2: A long con. This was just he got the cash

359
00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:33,080
Speaker 2: and disappeared.

360
00:16:34,880 --> 00:16:35,200
Speaker 3: Sus.

361
00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:38,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly. Then he set up a fake off

362
00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:41,520
Speaker 2: track betting shop and so he would pose as like

363
00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:47,320
Speaker 2: this displaced European aristocrat, Count von Kessler, and then he'd

364
00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:49,320
Speaker 2: trick a rich guy into going with him to like

365
00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:51,400
Speaker 2: place bets this sting.

366
00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:51,880
Speaker 3: Yeah.

367
00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:55,680
Speaker 2: Inside the fake betting shop, he had actors playing employees

368
00:16:56,280 --> 00:16:59,320
Speaker 2: and it looked completely legit. And then you know, Victor

369
00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:01,720
Speaker 2: in the fat they'd like listen to the broadcast of

370
00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:04,160
Speaker 2: the race through the shop speakers, except it wasn't the race,

371
00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:06,680
Speaker 2: one of his guys in the back room calling the

372
00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:08,840
Speaker 2: fake race, and then they'd soak the guy and then

373
00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:09,159
Speaker 2: move on.

374
00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:11,200
Speaker 3: This is exactly, exactly.

375
00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:16,960
Speaker 2: Exactly is inspiration. So let's take a break. When we

376
00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:19,280
Speaker 2: come back, I'm going to share with you more antics

377
00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:47,280
Speaker 2: of Victor Lustig. Welcome Victor if you're not Count Lustig.

378
00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:51,159
Speaker 2: In his life, he actually had like scores of aliases.

379
00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:52,960
Speaker 2: He used all these sorts of fake names.

380
00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:54,160
Speaker 3: Do you have any good ones?

381
00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:54,359
Speaker 4: No?

382
00:17:55,280 --> 00:18:00,080
Speaker 2: His later so his most ingenious scam was the room.

383
00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:02,600
Speaker 3: Manian Box, the Romanian box.

384
00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:05,920
Speaker 2: The Roumanian box was a pretty good sized wooden box.

385
00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:08,680
Speaker 3: And you're not pronouncing Romanian with a slow use, are you.

386
00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:10,440
Speaker 3: Okayian box.

387
00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:13,000
Speaker 2: So there's this big box, well kind of like I

388
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:14,720
Speaker 2: don't know, I've seen some of the things said that

389
00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:16,320
Speaker 2: it was a small box. Some said it was the

390
00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:17,520
Speaker 2: size of a steamer trunk.

391
00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:19,280
Speaker 3: Oh, a lot of questions.

392
00:18:19,359 --> 00:18:21,639
Speaker 2: He made more than one. Okay, so I think there

393
00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:22,800
Speaker 2: was like whatever box was.

394
00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:24,320
Speaker 3: Handy, like this is the box I got right now?

395
00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:24,640
Speaker 5: Yeah.

396
00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:26,960
Speaker 2: So he would put like all these dials on the

397
00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:28,920
Speaker 2: outside and had rollers inside.

398
00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:29,520
Speaker 3: Okay.

399
00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:33,560
Speaker 2: And he said that the box was able to duplicate

400
00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:36,680
Speaker 2: cash using radium. What I don't know?

401
00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:41,119
Speaker 3: Wait wait, wait, money could be duplicated using a radioactive

402
00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:45,040
Speaker 3: material because we all know money, you know, it's this new,

403
00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:47,440
Speaker 3: brand new thing. Yeah, people are like X raying your bones,

404
00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:49,800
Speaker 3: which like blows people's minds, like you can see through

405
00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:51,960
Speaker 3: my hands exactly. How would that make money?

406
00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:52,560
Speaker 5: You know what?

407
00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:53,600
Speaker 2: Just trust the box?

408
00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:55,280
Speaker 3: Okay, trust the box.

409
00:18:55,440 --> 00:18:58,040
Speaker 2: So all you had to do was insert a bill

410
00:18:58,200 --> 00:19:00,520
Speaker 2: into an entry slot okay, and then he had to

411
00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:05,480
Speaker 2: wait six hours while it creates the coffee. The coffee

412
00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:07,040
Speaker 2: would come out this exit slot.

413
00:19:07,160 --> 00:19:09,679
Speaker 3: So this is like a mission impossible face mask machine,

414
00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:12,160
Speaker 3: but some money go in there, take a little picture

415
00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:12,760
Speaker 3: and run it through.

416
00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:15,720
Speaker 2: So he'd ask the mark for a hundred dollars bill

417
00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:17,920
Speaker 2: and then he'd put it in the box with a

418
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,119
Speaker 2: blank piece of paper and slide them both in, and

419
00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:24,120
Speaker 2: the two of them would wait like this time yeah,

420
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:26,840
Speaker 2: while it did its magic, and then he would turn

421
00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:29,879
Speaker 2: the dial and the original bill would come out with

422
00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:33,879
Speaker 2: another fresh hundred. And then you know, Victor heads to

423
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:36,480
Speaker 2: the bank with the mark and they show the teller

424
00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:39,760
Speaker 2: this new bill and they get it authenticated. What was

425
00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:42,720
Speaker 2: really happening is that Victor had stocked the box with

426
00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:46,080
Speaker 2: like a few hundreds, yeah, And so he would sit

427
00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:48,359
Speaker 2: with the guy while they ran the machine a couple of.

428
00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:49,520
Speaker 3: Times, how about them Yankees?

429
00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:53,960
Speaker 2: And like inevitably the guy wants to buy the box, of.

430
00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:56,760
Speaker 3: Course a money printing box. So he I'm a sucker,

431
00:19:57,359 --> 00:20:00,480
Speaker 3: so he'd like, demuur it. First, I could never, and

432
00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:02,200
Speaker 3: then my mother gave me this box.

433
00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:05,480
Speaker 2: Yes exactly. Then he's like, well all right, and he

434
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:08,560
Speaker 2: would name like this huge sum. When the mark agrees,

435
00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:10,440
Speaker 2: he'd sell it to the guy and then be on

436
00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:12,879
Speaker 2: his way. And like sometimes he sold the boxer as

437
00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:14,960
Speaker 2: much as thirty grand. That's like half a mill.

438
00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:18,000
Speaker 3: My god. Yeah, some of these suckers get these very

439
00:20:18,119 --> 00:20:18,639
Speaker 3: much money.

440
00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:21,520
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, the guy'd like he'd get a couple more bills

441
00:20:21,560 --> 00:20:22,760
Speaker 2: out of it, and then it would run.

442
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,680
Speaker 3: Dry, and by that time it's four hours later.

443
00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:26,240
Speaker 5: Oh yeah.

444
00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:28,959
Speaker 2: So one time he pulled this on a Texas sheriff.

445
00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:31,960
Speaker 3: Oh wow, that's that's he's got a pair on him. Yeah,

446
00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:33,320
Speaker 3: maybe that will shoot you.

447
00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:34,760
Speaker 2: He made a few thousand off of them.

448
00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:35,120
Speaker 4: Really.

449
00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:38,359
Speaker 2: The sheriff tracked him down and caught up with him

450
00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:38,960
Speaker 2: in Chicago.

451
00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:40,520
Speaker 3: States away, they don't care.

452
00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:44,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, he confronts Victor, probably armed, but Lustig was so

453
00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:47,959
Speaker 2: smooth that he managed to turn the tables and convince

454
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:49,920
Speaker 2: the sheriff that he just wasn't using He did it wrong.

455
00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:53,119
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, to use my not paying attention. So he's like,

456
00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:55,960
Speaker 2: you know what, I am so so sorry. Let me

457
00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:57,960
Speaker 2: give you a refund. I'm going to give you your money.

458
00:20:57,800 --> 00:20:59,000
Speaker 3: Back because you're so dumb.

459
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:01,080
Speaker 2: And the sheriff is all, PA, He's like, thank you

460
00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:04,560
Speaker 2: so much. And then he finds out later we'll get

461
00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:07,080
Speaker 2: to that that the cash that he got was all counterfeit.

462
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:11,919
Speaker 2: So yes, once he like worked the Romanian box as

463
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 2: much as he could, he shifted focus.

464
00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:16,000
Speaker 3: I hope that that cop got busted trying to pass

465
00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:16,840
Speaker 3: counterfeit bills.

466
00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:18,080
Speaker 2: He did, and we'll get to that.

467
00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:18,679
Speaker 3: Oh my god.

468
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:23,440
Speaker 2: Nineteen twenty five, the US is in the grip of prohibition. Okay,

469
00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:25,400
Speaker 2: mobsters are making mad cash.

470
00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:26,600
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's good time for my people.

471
00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:31,119
Speaker 2: Who's the biggest mobster of all, mister Coon Capone. He

472
00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:35,000
Speaker 2: was twenty six years old. On the rise. Lustig arranged

473
00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:38,080
Speaker 2: a meeting with Capone at the Hawthorne Hotel in Cicero,

474
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:42,640
Speaker 2: hometown to both Capone and Anthony Pelicano. So Lustig had

475
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:46,359
Speaker 2: a proposal. All Capone had to do was invest fifty

476
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,920
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. It's like eight hundred and seventy.

477
00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:51,000
Speaker 3: K trying to rip off Capon for hunt.

478
00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:53,399
Speaker 2: Okay on and he's like, look, I will double your

479
00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:56,680
Speaker 2: money in sixty days or less. And like Capone, He's like,

480
00:21:56,760 --> 00:21:59,040
Speaker 2: I like the cut of your jim, you know, you

481
00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:01,600
Speaker 2: feel like an honest Here's here's fifty k.

482
00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:02,159
Speaker 4: Wow.

483
00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:05,679
Speaker 2: So Lustig he sat on that money for sixty.

484
00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:08,320
Speaker 3: Days, ran shaking his head, and then he took it

485
00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:08,760
Speaker 3: back to.

486
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:11,840
Speaker 2: Capone and he told him the plan had fallen apart.

487
00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:15,399
Speaker 2: I can't make the investment. I'm returning your money and

488
00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:18,480
Speaker 2: I'm apologizing, and Capone's impressed.

489
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:20,119
Speaker 3: Nobody does for honest.

490
00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:22,800
Speaker 2: So then Lustig kind of lets it slip that the

491
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:25,520
Speaker 2: deal falling apart meant that he was ruined. He was

492
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:29,840
Speaker 2: totally broke. So Capone so impressed. You're so honest, you

493
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:33,800
Speaker 2: sacrificed yourself to shield me and protect my money. Here's

494
00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 2: five grand. It's like eighty seven thousand dollars today, and

495
00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:40,879
Speaker 2: so he risks his life conning al Capone. But it

496
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:42,720
Speaker 2: was like the easiest five k he ever.

497
00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:44,880
Speaker 3: Made, totally, just like he just melted them. He didn't

498
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:45,919
Speaker 3: really con it totally.

499
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:49,159
Speaker 2: But he's so smooth he can convince anyone that he's.

500
00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:52,119
Speaker 3: Being so magnanimous. Huh, that's great milk his ego.

501
00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,760
Speaker 2: So December of nineteen twenty eight, Victor cozied up to

502
00:22:55,840 --> 00:23:00,119
Speaker 2: a businessman, Thomas Kerns, in Massachusetts, and then Kerns like

503
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 2: he invites Lustig over to his house to talk about

504
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:06,320
Speaker 2: a potential investment. While he's there, Victor does something totally

505
00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:10,240
Speaker 2: out of character. He sneaks upstairs and he steals sixteen

506
00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:12,920
Speaker 2: thousand dollars from a desk drawer. What yeah, that's like

507
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:15,720
Speaker 2: three hundred thousand dollars today. Can you imagine having that

508
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:19,080
Speaker 2: kind of money lying around? I can, I know, so

509
00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:22,680
Speaker 2: I would like it would be amazing to keep imagining it.

510
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:25,640
Speaker 2: So Kerns, of course, like he finds out, he calls

511
00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 2: the cops. Now Lustig is officially on the police radar.

512
00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:31,760
Speaker 2: And it was a dumb move. It was a dumb move.

513
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:35,520
Speaker 2: He'd always con he must have. But like you know,

514
00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 2: you can, you can sneak off for anyone's away, or

515
00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:41,680
Speaker 2: they're ashamed, like they that's the thing. Yeah, most of

516
00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:43,840
Speaker 2: the time they're too embarrassed to admit the con. And

517
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 2: so this was his first burglary, big misstep. Nineteen thirty,

518
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,680
Speaker 2: he drew on the inspiration of the Roumanian Box and

519
00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:55,359
Speaker 2: he went all in on counterfeiting. So he paired up

520
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:58,800
Speaker 2: with two Nebraska boys, a chemist named Tom Shaw and

521
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:02,640
Speaker 2: a pharmacist named Will Watts. Now, in some accounts they're

522
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:06,399
Speaker 2: listed as chemist and pharmacist. Others he's like a pharmacy clerk.

523
00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:11,320
Speaker 2: They're both like. Watts definitely has mafia ties, like he's

524
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:12,879
Speaker 2: in with that, and I think he had done all

525
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:15,639
Speaker 2: sorts of chemical stuff for them. It helps in that

526
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:21,000
Speaker 2: kind of situation. So they get this whole operation together, plates, paper, ink,

527
00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:23,720
Speaker 2: and the ink that they had replicated the red and

528
00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:25,120
Speaker 2: green threads in reality.

529
00:24:25,119 --> 00:24:25,680
Speaker 4: Oh wow.

530
00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:29,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Watts and Shaw they engraved the plates, Lustig,

531
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,320
Speaker 2: put together a crew of couriers. They had no idea

532
00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 2: what they were carrying. They just knew they were carrying

533
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 2: these packages. It was a huge venture. The distribution system

534
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:43,160
Speaker 2: put out over one hundred thousand dollars a month into circulation. Yeah,

535
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:45,000
Speaker 2: their work made it all.

536
00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:47,520
Speaker 3: Over the United States, millions.

537
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:49,959
Speaker 2: Of dollars in circulation. The cops started calling it Lustig

538
00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:53,159
Speaker 2: money when they'd stumble onto it. It messed with the

539
00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:57,640
Speaker 2: monetary system in the US, and it threatened to destabilize

540
00:24:57,920 --> 00:24:59,720
Speaker 2: international confidence in the US.

541
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:02,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, like our Moody or credit rating and going down

542
00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:05,639
Speaker 3: totally said they were aware it was Lustig. Then if

543
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:07,640
Speaker 3: they're calling it lustig money, yeah yeah.

544
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:10,520
Speaker 2: Later, well you'll see. So they printed mostly one hundred

545
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:14,159
Speaker 2: dollars bills that they had other denomination. The hundreds are

546
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:17,320
Speaker 2: really risky because that draws a lot of his now,

547
00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:19,119
Speaker 2: but even then it's even more much.

548
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:21,320
Speaker 3: O twenties and fives or yeah, yeah, yeah.

549
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,040
Speaker 2: So the cash was so well made that even the

550
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:26,520
Speaker 2: hundreds the bank tellers couldn't tell that they were holding

551
00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:29,120
Speaker 2: bad bills. A judge said that Lustig and his crew

552
00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:32,520
Speaker 2: were quote like some other government issuing money and rivalry

553
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:36,320
Speaker 2: with the United States Treasury. It's just like overdoing it.

554
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,639
Speaker 2: In nineteen thirty eight, William H. Moran, head of the

555
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:43,000
Speaker 2: Secret Service, he established a task force, so they gathered

556
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:45,959
Speaker 2: in his office. Spread Out on his desk were all

557
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:48,280
Speaker 2: of these twenty dollars bills and they all had the

558
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 2: imprint of the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland, Ohio. So

559
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,280
Speaker 2: all of these agents are studying the bills. They have

560
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:58,159
Speaker 2: magnifying glasses, all these like special lights. They can't believe it.

561
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:01,359
Speaker 2: The twenty dollars bills on the deer counterfeit done so

562
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:04,720
Speaker 2: cleverly that they could only detect them with the lights

563
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 2: and the magnifying glasses. Each bill had been in circulation

564
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:10,840
Speaker 2: for a while, okay, and had passed in and out

565
00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:14,760
Speaker 2: of banks like that. So the Secret Service agents they'd

566
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:18,560
Speaker 2: start tracking these bills. The heaviest traffic was in Chicago,

567
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:21,320
Speaker 2: and that led them to believe that the mob was involved.

568
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:25,280
Speaker 2: So government investigators they checked all the engravers employed by

569
00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:27,840
Speaker 2: the Mint, and then they looked into the activities of

570
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:30,879
Speaker 2: other engravers outside the Mint who like might be capable

571
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:34,320
Speaker 2: of turning out like a perfect bill. So all of

572
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 2: these guys, all these engravers, they get a clean bill

573
00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:40,640
Speaker 2: of health. You know, they're not involved. Meanwhile, new five

574
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,160
Speaker 2: ten and one hundred dollars counterfeits are appearing in each

575
00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:47,440
Speaker 2: series on a different Federal Reserve bank, so they're switching

576
00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:50,679
Speaker 2: up the Yeah. So the first hint that Lustig might

577
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:53,879
Speaker 2: be involved came when that Texas sheriff he fooled with

578
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:56,840
Speaker 2: the Rumanian box paid off with fake cash. He gets

579
00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:02,440
Speaker 2: picked up in New Orleans for passing bad Yeah, and

580
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:04,679
Speaker 2: like the sheriff is arguing and they're like.

581
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:07,040
Speaker 3: Red you know it.

582
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:09,800
Speaker 2: He gives them a full like description of listed. Oh yeah,

583
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:12,640
Speaker 2: he still had to do a little time. What yeah

584
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:15,000
Speaker 2: he got he got like busted busted for it.

585
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:17,240
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I expressed this to a Bank of America

586
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 3: when they gave me counterfeit bills. When I went to

587
00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:21,040
Speaker 3: the Bank of America, and I try to use one.

588
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:22,440
Speaker 3: I went right back and I said, you guys gave

589
00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:24,800
Speaker 3: these to me, Like I'm like, I can be arrested

590
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:26,600
Speaker 3: for what you did or like sorry. They wouldn't even

591
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 3: give me my money back. They're just like sorry, get

592
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:28,760
Speaker 3: out of the bank.

593
00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 2: We had a we had like a fundraiser thing when

594
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 2: I was teaching, like the faculty all had to like

595
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:36,760
Speaker 2: kick in for some Christmas thing and I was in

596
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 2: charge of it, and I was going through the bills

597
00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:40,920
Speaker 2: and a ten was like a lot smaller than the rest,

598
00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 2: and it was totally someone gave me counterfeit cash faculty member.

599
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:47,680
Speaker 2: So I like didn't know what to do. So I

600
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:49,880
Speaker 2: called like the local cops and they sent out these

601
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:52,880
Speaker 2: detectives and they took it, and like I was out ten.

602
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 3: Likely you call the cops. Yeah, well I don't want

603
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 3: to get well, I had special investigators. You guys got

604
00:27:57,200 --> 00:27:59,120
Speaker 3: to work together exactly solidarity.

605
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 2: So does time.

606
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:01,040
Speaker 3: Yes.

607
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,600
Speaker 2: The problem that like with finding Lustig is that he

608
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:08,479
Speaker 2: was a master of disguise. Really, he had all these costumes, right,

609
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:09,879
Speaker 2: sometimes he dressed.

610
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:14,040
Speaker 3: Like a priest's a rabbi, you know, he was. People

611
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:15,520
Speaker 3: don't question a man of the clos exactly.

612
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:18,720
Speaker 2: He would dress as a bell hop. And the reason

613
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:21,119
Speaker 2: that was helpful because then like he could just pretend

614
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:23,359
Speaker 2: to carry luggage out for a guest and he's actually

615
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 2: making a run for it.

616
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:27,680
Speaker 3: Totally. Yeah, So the FEDS they instruction painter also because

617
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:29,520
Speaker 3: people never ask, no wonder why you're there.

618
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, you put on one of those orange vests. You're

619
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:34,720
Speaker 2: good to go. So the FEDS they start trailing this

620
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:37,280
Speaker 2: man who had passed some of the fake bills. They

621
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:40,160
Speaker 2: go to his house and they found out that he had,

622
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 2: like back in Prohibition, he'd been printing fake whiskey labels

623
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,760
Speaker 2: for bootleggers. Oh, and so then they search his place

624
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,000
Speaker 2: and they find the press that the money had been

625
00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:52,440
Speaker 2: printed on. Okay, and they found three hundred thousand dollars

626
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:55,320
Speaker 2: in fake bills. If you're wondering, Zara, yes, I was

627
00:28:55,360 --> 00:29:00,440
Speaker 2: wondering six and a half million today bake bills small dominations,

628
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:04,160
Speaker 2: so take it right. The printer told him that like,

629
00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:06,440
Speaker 2: I don't have the plates, I just have this machine.

630
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 2: I have to return the plates after each printing. He

631
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:12,040
Speaker 2: said that he never met Lustig, and it was some

632
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:15,480
Speaker 2: other dude who brought him the supplies the ink paper plates,

633
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:19,240
Speaker 2: and so things went south for Lustig. Not because of

634
00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:23,040
Speaker 2: good detective work on the part of the Secret Service, Nope, Barren,

635
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 2: it was lust and a woman who closed the nut

636
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:31,080
Speaker 2: on them. Yeah. So Lustig, he's having an affair. He's

637
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 2: having an affair with Tom Shaw's mistress, his partners.

638
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:36,320
Speaker 3: His chemist mistress, chemist buddies mistress.

639
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:40,840
Speaker 2: She's also considerably younger, the mistress. It wasn't Tom who

640
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 2: got upset, it was Lustig's girlfriend.

641
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:46,080
Speaker 3: By a lot of parties involved in this.

642
00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:48,720
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, she lost it. She finds out that going

643
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:53,840
Speaker 2: to lose, so she makes an anonymous call to the FEDS. Feds,

644
00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:59,480
Speaker 2: Billy may get him. She tells them everything where and

645
00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:01,640
Speaker 2: she you know, she's like and the coup de gras,

646
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:03,320
Speaker 2: I can tell you where he is in New York

647
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 2: right now, right this minute. Yeah, So the FEDS they

648
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 2: have intel that Lustig had taken up with another gal

649
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 2: totally no, a third. Yeah, she's holed up in a

650
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:15,520
Speaker 2: hotel in New York. So the agents they sit on

651
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:18,480
Speaker 2: the hotel until they saw Lustig and his lady friend

652
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:21,560
Speaker 2: coming and going, and then they taped the phone and

653
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 2: they heard him make an appointment to pick up a

654
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:27,400
Speaker 2: suitcase at Broadway in forty seventh Street. Right Zarin, close

655
00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:31,040
Speaker 2: your eye, I want you to picture it. It's a

656
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:35,040
Speaker 2: lovely Sunday evening, May tenth, nineteen thirty five. You are

657
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 2: Secret Service agent Peter A.

658
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:38,440
Speaker 3: Rubano Pete.

659
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:42,040
Speaker 2: You made a name for yourself busting mafioso Ignazio, the

660
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:45,160
Speaker 2: wolf loupo Oh. Yeah, you're a big Italian American and

661
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:48,600
Speaker 2: you take no guph. So you've been tailing Victor Lustig

662
00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:51,719
Speaker 2: for months. You and your team are following Lustig as

663
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:54,720
Speaker 2: he strolls down Broadway in the Upper West Side. He's

664
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:57,600
Speaker 2: a stylish and well composed man, and you notice that

665
00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:01,120
Speaker 2: he has a new mustache, and alongside Branch you can

666
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:03,720
Speaker 2: spot him a mile away. Still, even with all that

667
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 2: you've been studying his photograph, his mannerisms, all the little

668
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:09,640
Speaker 2: details that make a person who they are, and in

669
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:13,160
Speaker 2: this case it's a crook. Besides, there's no hiding that

670
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:15,840
Speaker 2: big scar down the side of his face. So his

671
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 2: cars whiz by. You signal to one of your agents.

672
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:19,200
Speaker 3: Down the road.

673
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 2: He watches as Lustig strolls past, heading your way. Lustig

674
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:26,360
Speaker 2: wears a posh double breasted dark overcoat with a velvet collar,

675
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 2: cutting a fine figure as always. You stand at a

676
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 2: bus stop reading a newspaper. Just as Lustig approaches, You

677
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:34,840
Speaker 2: throw down the paper and grab him by that velvet collar,

678
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:37,680
Speaker 2: hands in the air. You yell as all your fellow

679
00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:40,960
Speaker 2: agents surround you and the infamous con man. A car

680
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:43,920
Speaker 2: honks its horn at the gathered crowd of lawmen. People

681
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,800
Speaker 2: on Sunday evening strolls scoot around you. You slap handcuffs

682
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 2: on Lustig, and another agent grabs a suit case he

683
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:53,120
Speaker 2: was carrying Victorious. You shove him in the back of

684
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:55,680
Speaker 2: a squad car and head for the Federal building. You've

685
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:59,560
Speaker 2: finally captured your white whale. Let's take a break. We

686
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:02,560
Speaker 2: come back. We'll find out how the criminal justice system

687
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:26,200
Speaker 2: treated Victor Listig and vice versa. Victor Lustig.

688
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:29,920
Speaker 3: LEO, my white whale.

689
00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:35,239
Speaker 2: Con man extraordinary, so he impressed the agents who interviewed him.

690
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 2: Victor stayed calm, confident the whole time. One of the

691
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:43,880
Speaker 2: agents said, count, you're the smoothest con man that ever lived,

692
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:48,480
Speaker 2: and Listig's reply, I wouldn't say that, after all, you've

693
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:54,720
Speaker 2: conned me, ohe with great flourish. An agent brings the

694
00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:58,360
Speaker 2: suitcase into the interrogation room to open it. He's hoping

695
00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 2: for stacks and stacks of fake cash and like maybe

696
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:02,920
Speaker 2: the printing plates.

697
00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:04,280
Speaker 3: Oh okay, Nope.

698
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:06,600
Speaker 2: They open it up and all that's in there is

699
00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:09,600
Speaker 2: like a good portion of his immaculate wardrobe, like all.

700
00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:13,200
Speaker 3: This expensive clothing all like soak sherets So.

701
00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 2: Victor though, he's like, you know what, I will tell

702
00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:18,960
Speaker 2: you all about Tom Shawn William Watts, anything you want

703
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,520
Speaker 2: to know. He sings like a bird all about their plan.

704
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:23,320
Speaker 2: But he's like, I had nothing to do with it.

705
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 2: I just heard about it.

706
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:25,160
Speaker 3: I don't even those dudes.

707
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:28,320
Speaker 2: Yeah. So an agent goes through his Chesterfield coat and

708
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,000
Speaker 2: he finds a wallet and a key, and he wouldn't

709
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:33,160
Speaker 2: tell them where the key came from, but they, you know,

710
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 2: searched it out and it went to a locker in

711
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 2: Times Square subway station. So he's like, I have no idea.

712
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:41,800
Speaker 2: I have no idea where that key came from. So

713
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 2: the agents they go to the locker, They open it up,

714
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:46,760
Speaker 2: and they found the counterfeit cash and the printing plates

715
00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:49,520
Speaker 2: that they thought would be in the luggage, fifty one

716
00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:52,560
Speaker 2: thousand dollars in cash that's like one point one million today,

717
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:55,440
Speaker 2: all right, So they have him dead to rights. They

718
00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:57,800
Speaker 2: want answers. They also wanted to know if he was

719
00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:01,880
Speaker 2: involved in the shooting of Legs Diamond, whoa, because Leg's

720
00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:03,840
Speaker 2: Diamond was staying just down the hall from him in

721
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 2: a hotel the night he was shot. Okay, but he

722
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:06,800
Speaker 2: didn't have anything to do with it.

723
00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:09,560
Speaker 3: Doesn't sound like he would move out of his crime

724
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:11,200
Speaker 3: ouvra twice, right.

725
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:14,040
Speaker 2: But he had all these weird tentacle connections to the mob.

726
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:16,400
Speaker 3: Sure, but becoming a hit man for them is a

727
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:17,880
Speaker 3: that's quite a step less stretch.

728
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:21,320
Speaker 2: So he gets charged with possession of the fake cash

729
00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:25,160
Speaker 2: and the plates, and his trial was scheduled for September second,

730
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:28,680
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty five. Now they ship him off to the

731
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:32,200
Speaker 2: federal detention headquarters in New York, and he's bragging, like,

732
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:34,680
Speaker 2: you know what, no prison can hold me. And this

733
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:37,640
Speaker 2: place was supposed to be inescapable. But if I'm telling

734
00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:39,799
Speaker 2: you that, you can probably guess that it was escapable.

735
00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:40,359
Speaker 5: Right.

736
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:45,160
Speaker 2: So the day before his trial, the Sunday before Labor Day,

737
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:48,880
Speaker 2: September one, nineteen thirty five, he escaped. He cut the

738
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:51,359
Speaker 2: bars in his cell and he made a rope out

739
00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:52,120
Speaker 2: of bed sheets.

740
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 3: The classic like if you're trying to say that your

741
00:34:55,200 --> 00:34:57,560
Speaker 3: prison is like inescapable, you should be able to stop

742
00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:00,880
Speaker 3: somebody from cuttings and leaving the getting a rope out

743
00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:02,239
Speaker 3: of bed sheet, that's the first movie.

744
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:04,640
Speaker 2: So like out, he goes like swinging on the rope.

745
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:08,640
Speaker 2: Writer Jeff mashe said in Smithsonian Magazine quote like an

746
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:13,600
Speaker 2: urban Tarzan. So he's going down the building the way down,

747
00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:16,720
Speaker 2: but people are walking down the street. So he pulls

748
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,160
Speaker 2: a handkerchief out of his pocket and pretends to be

749
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:23,400
Speaker 2: washing the windows. Brilliant, Yeah, and like passers by stop.

750
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:25,120
Speaker 3: Sheets.

751
00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:27,600
Speaker 2: So then he slides all the way down the rope.

752
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:30,080
Speaker 2: He like lands outside the prison walls. He takes a

753
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:31,800
Speaker 2: bow for the people who are watching, and then he

754
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:35,160
Speaker 2: runs his little legs down the road, scurry, scurry. So

755
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:37,279
Speaker 2: when the guards get to his cell, they found a

756
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:42,280
Speaker 2: note that he'd written. He quoted Victor Hugo's Limizeraba quote.

757
00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:45,560
Speaker 2: He allowed himself to be led in a promise, Jean

758
00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:49,320
Speaker 2: Valjean had his promise even to a convict, especially to

759
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:53,160
Speaker 2: a convict, it may give the convict confidence and guide

760
00:35:53,239 --> 00:35:55,640
Speaker 2: him on the right path. Law was not made by

761
00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:57,080
Speaker 2: God and man can be wrong.

762
00:35:57,480 --> 00:35:58,800
Speaker 3: Wow. And on the other side, he was written in

763
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:00,279
Speaker 3: French late.

764
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:04,160
Speaker 2: So now we've got Count Victor Liustig out on the loose,

765
00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:07,400
Speaker 2: a master of disguise and a smooth talker on the

766
00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:10,840
Speaker 2: run from the law. Lustig he stayed away from the Fuzz,

767
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 2: but they eventually caught up with On the night of Saturday,

768
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 2: September twenty eighth, nineteen thirty five, they busted him in Pittsburgh.

769
00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 3: Pittsburgh, Yeah, the FBI.

770
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:22,319
Speaker 2: And Secret Service, they got a tip that he was there.

771
00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:25,120
Speaker 2: So they spotted Lustig jump into a car that had

772
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:27,279
Speaker 2: been waiting for him, and then two agents give chase.

773
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:31,320
Speaker 2: Chase only lasted nine blocks, but they were going super fast,

774
00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:34,160
Speaker 2: like yeah, and they're like neck and neck, like right

775
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:36,359
Speaker 2: next to each other. And so the FEDS ram their

776
00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:40,480
Speaker 2: car into Lustigs and then the cars locked wheels. Oh no, yeah,

777
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:42,920
Speaker 2: So then they have this huge crash of course, and

778
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:46,040
Speaker 2: the Feds like jump out of their car. Gun's drawn.

779
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:49,319
Speaker 2: Lustig steps out of his car and says, well, boys, here,

780
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:51,160
Speaker 2: I am so smooth.

781
00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:52,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, he didn't have a gun. You know, he's never

782
00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:55,279
Speaker 3: a fight exactly exactly, and he can't run because they're

783
00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:56,080
Speaker 3: just in a car accident.

784
00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:59,040
Speaker 2: He's all like, his pupils are tiny. So he gets

785
00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:02,280
Speaker 2: sent back to New York and goes before a judge

786
00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:04,680
Speaker 2: in November of nineteen thirty five, and by this time

787
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:07,040
Speaker 2: he's like a little worse for wear. That sounds like, yeah,

788
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 2: he's looking bad. He pleads guilty and got sentenced to

789
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:14,759
Speaker 2: twenty years. Five of those were for his escape from

790
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:18,359
Speaker 2: the you know the j yeah, and then fifteen years

791
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:21,880
Speaker 2: for counterfeiting. He's only forty six, he looks far older

792
00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:25,279
Speaker 2: in the pictures. So the courtroom was standing room only

793
00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:29,719
Speaker 2: as he calmly took his sentence. Nice He was seeking leniency, though,

794
00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:32,560
Speaker 2: so his lawyer pointed out that he had generally victimized

795
00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:36,560
Speaker 2: other criminals like quote, Chicago gangsters Arnold Rothstein, and other

796
00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:38,480
Speaker 2: Underworld leaders in New York and Boston.

797
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:39,600
Speaker 3: He also caned Arnold.

798
00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:43,680
Speaker 2: Apparently I couldn't find anything else about the Rothstein stuff

799
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:44,560
Speaker 2: going through all the.

800
00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:46,279
Speaker 3: SAR didn't make the papers. He had to tell his.

801
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:49,560
Speaker 2: Lawyer exactly, so that he's like, ps, I got him.

802
00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:51,560
Speaker 3: I also got dut Sheltz. I got it exactly.

803
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:55,279
Speaker 2: So Watts was also sentenced that day, both he and

804
00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:59,400
Speaker 2: Lusta got one thousand dollars fines. Watts got ten years

805
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:05,200
Speaker 2: at prison in Pennsylvania. Where did they send Lustig Alcatraz?

806
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:09,360
Speaker 3: Nice I forgot. It's the thirties, of course.

807
00:38:09,239 --> 00:38:14,240
Speaker 2: The alcatrazactly, so Alcatraz. Just as an aside, I'm working

808
00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:17,080
Speaker 2: on a butte of an episode about escapes from Alcatraz,

809
00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:20,080
Speaker 2: So stay tuned. Yeah, it'll be a while, but it'll

810
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:23,480
Speaker 2: be worth it. So Lustig he goes to Alcatraz. Al

811
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:26,720
Speaker 2: Capone had been sent there a year before. You mentioned

812
00:38:26,760 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 2: that he played the banjo.

813
00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:31,239
Speaker 3: Yes, and the band the Alcatraz I guess, like at

814
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:33,760
Speaker 3: the rock band totally, and they had like a standing

815
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:35,359
Speaker 3: every Tuesday or whatever.

816
00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:39,560
Speaker 2: So Lustig gets there and he's searched in a most

817
00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:43,080
Speaker 2: thorough manner as they do. And when they're done, they

818
00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:46,640
Speaker 2: hosed him down with ice cold seawater as was the

819
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:47,399
Speaker 2: custom of the day.

820
00:38:47,719 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 3: Oh man got to be rough.

821
00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:52,600
Speaker 2: So now he is prisoner number three hundred, three hundred.

822
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:54,080
Speaker 3: The numbers are so low, I know.

823
00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:57,600
Speaker 2: So they paraded him naked as a jaybird down Broadway.

824
00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:01,000
Speaker 2: That's the term for that. Main Borda and the other

825
00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:04,080
Speaker 2: inmates are like hootin' and howling at them, and they're

826
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:05,840
Speaker 2: clanking their metal cups on the bars.

827
00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:08,600
Speaker 3: Quote.

828
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 2: He is somewhat superficially humiliated. He asserts that he was

829
00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 2: accused of everything in the category of crime, including the

830
00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:18,240
Speaker 2: burning of Chicago that was in his prison record.

831
00:39:18,520 --> 00:39:21,839
Speaker 3: The burning of Chicago. He's like the cow kicked over.

832
00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:25,040
Speaker 2: He's like, they're trying to get me on everything, even

833
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:28,280
Speaker 2: the burning of Chicago. Apparently he just is like complaining

834
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:29,000
Speaker 2: about this all the time.

835
00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:32,319
Speaker 3: Day, I just going around once again, Are they going

836
00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:34,080
Speaker 3: to charge me Larry's cow?

837
00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:37,640
Speaker 2: So they referred to him as Miller in all the paperwork.

838
00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:41,000
Speaker 2: That was one of his aliases. Oh yeah, he didn't

839
00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:44,840
Speaker 2: do too well in the punishing climate at Alcatraz. It's cold.

840
00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:48,720
Speaker 2: It is cold out there. So by December seventh, nineteen

841
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:53,160
Speaker 2: forty six, eleven years into his twenty year sentence, Lustig

842
00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:57,200
Speaker 2: had made more than one thousand medical requests and filled

843
00:39:57,239 --> 00:40:00,600
Speaker 2: more than five hundred prescriptions, one thousand when one thousand

844
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:03,360
Speaker 2: just as an aside. He was there for the entirety

845
00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:06,719
Speaker 2: of World War Two. Could you like the news coming in?

846
00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:09,440
Speaker 3: It must have been wild, insane and you hear the

847
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 3: sirens and you see like maybe like the lights going across,

848
00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:12,799
Speaker 3: sweeping the sky.

849
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:14,719
Speaker 2: Well, and like to be in the middle of the

850
00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:17,520
Speaker 2: San Francisco Bay, you're seeing all the planes go over.

851
00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:19,560
Speaker 3: You're hearing planes all the time. Uh huh.

852
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:22,440
Speaker 2: So the prison guards they all thought he was faking

853
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:26,439
Speaker 2: it the sickness, of course, a malingerer. And they knew

854
00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:29,640
Speaker 2: he'd escaped before, so they thought this was just another ruise.

855
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:32,279
Speaker 2: But this like one hundred doctor visits a year.

856
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:35,160
Speaker 3: It's yeah, a lot. I don't even know how you'd

857
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:37,080
Speaker 3: be able to pull off, Like I got a new thing,

858
00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:39,080
Speaker 3: I mean, right, and so when you get bored at

859
00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:40,960
Speaker 3: number seventy eight nineteen.

860
00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:44,680
Speaker 2: Coming So, according to medical reports, he was quote inclined

861
00:40:44,719 --> 00:40:48,360
Speaker 2: to magnify physical complaints and constantly complaining of real and

862
00:40:48,440 --> 00:40:49,360
Speaker 2: imaginary ills.

863
00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:51,080
Speaker 3: He's kind of a hypochondria.

864
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:53,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, but here's the thing. On the ninth of March

865
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:57,400
Speaker 2: nineteen forty seven, he came down with pneumonia and he

866
00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:01,640
Speaker 2: got shipped out to the Medical Center for Federal in Springfield, Missouri,

867
00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:05,200
Speaker 2: and they let him out him so far well, doctors

868
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:07,440
Speaker 2: took one look at him and they realized he was

869
00:41:07,520 --> 00:41:11,120
Speaker 2: not faking it, and it wasn't just pneumonia, he had

870
00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:12,440
Speaker 2: an aggressive brain tumor.

871
00:41:12,680 --> 00:41:13,359
Speaker 3: Oh god. Yeah.

872
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:16,600
Speaker 2: So two days after he arrived he died, and his

873
00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:20,160
Speaker 2: death certificate list his occupation as apprentice salesman.

874
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:23,040
Speaker 3: So dance instruction.

875
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:25,680
Speaker 2: A few months after he died, his name was in

876
00:41:25,719 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 2: the papers, but not as a death notice. Other counterfeitters

877
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 2: had been nabbed, and it was the biggest bust since Lustig.

878
00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:35,839
Speaker 2: So that ring was rounded up on a tip from

879
00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:40,640
Speaker 2: a farmer who distrusted quote city slickers. Yes, the counterfeitters.

880
00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 2: They printed six hundred thousand dollars in bogus money, and

881
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 2: agents followed the trail of the bills from Detroit to

882
00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, and so they arrested a bunch of guys

883
00:41:50,680 --> 00:41:58,520
Speaker 2: Joe Mociano alias Joe Much, Peter Klicus, Minas, Constantine Aratos,

884
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:09,640
Speaker 2: Veto Dougostino, John Brennan, and George Cannacasa Canacas, Italians Greeks

885
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 2: Irish working together in harmony.

886
00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:11,960
Speaker 3: Finally, yeah.

887
00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:15,799
Speaker 2: So the tip from the farmer came after Canacas bought

888
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:19,799
Speaker 2: a turkey from this deplane, Illinois farmer a few days

889
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:22,960
Speaker 2: before Thanksgiving. So the farmer said that he quote didn't

890
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:25,200
Speaker 2: even watch me when I weighed the bird. I figured

891
00:42:25,239 --> 00:42:27,480
Speaker 2: there must be something wrong with anybody that trusting.

892
00:42:28,719 --> 00:42:31,440
Speaker 3: So they spanded someone else's money. I don't trust it.

893
00:42:31,480 --> 00:42:34,399
Speaker 2: I don't trust this. So he got the license number

894
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:36,640
Speaker 2: from the car and he took the twenty dollars bill

895
00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:39,320
Speaker 2: that Cannacas gave him to the bank and the cashier

896
00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:41,640
Speaker 2: was like, that is counterfeit. That is some fake money.

897
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:45,040
Speaker 2: So the farmer calls the Secret Service WO and then

898
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:47,720
Speaker 2: the agents get that license number from him and they

899
00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:51,080
Speaker 2: trace the car to Kansas. They arrested him right before

900
00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:54,439
Speaker 2: Thanksgiving with two hundred dollars in bogus twenty dollars bills

901
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:57,319
Speaker 2: in his pocket, and he admitted to passing between two

902
00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:02,319
Speaker 2: and three thousand dollars stoves. He ran a coffee shop,

903
00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:04,800
Speaker 2: and he printed counterfeit ten dollar bills in a vacant

904
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:08,640
Speaker 2: store next door. He was picked up while delivering two

905
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:11,360
Speaker 2: thousand dollars worth of fake cash to a quote passer

906
00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:14,360
Speaker 2: right and then another thirty thousand was found hidden in

907
00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 2: his house and Brennan he got arrested next. He admitted

908
00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:21,120
Speaker 2: that he was the one who made the plates at

909
00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:25,719
Speaker 2: their hideout on Dougostino's farm. Near Schneider, Indiana. Ok So,

910
00:43:25,920 --> 00:43:29,040
Speaker 2: the Secret Service went there and they recovered the press,

911
00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:33,160
Speaker 2: the printer's ink, bond paper, all the accessories. Agents said

912
00:43:33,160 --> 00:43:36,200
Speaker 2: that Brennan admitted that the ring printed thirty thousand dollars

913
00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:39,440
Speaker 2: in five dollar bills, two hundred thousand dollars in twenties,

914
00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:41,240
Speaker 2: and four hundred thousand and tens.

915
00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:42,040
Speaker 3: Yeah.

916
00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:44,440
Speaker 2: Brennan's just singing on everything. He's like, I'll tell you

917
00:43:44,520 --> 00:43:45,080
Speaker 2: whatever you need to know.

918
00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:46,480
Speaker 3: So I play it tuone, I got a song.

919
00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:49,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, click as he gets seized. Next so agents found

920
00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:52,920
Speaker 2: thirty thousand dollars in counterfeits hidden near the skylight of

921
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:57,120
Speaker 2: an upstairs bedroom. Oka and Dougostino when he was arrested,

922
00:43:57,160 --> 00:43:59,120
Speaker 2: the agent said that he admitted to printing the fake

923
00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:04,080
Speaker 2: twenties in his space. It's like fine, so Ratos Brennan

924
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:09,360
Speaker 2: klikas Dougostino. Yeah, they're arraigned and they plead innocent. The

925
00:44:09,640 --> 00:44:12,160
Speaker 2: arraignment was kept secret because they were waiting to arrest

926
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:15,200
Speaker 2: Joe Moush oh okay, and so then they pick him up.

927
00:44:15,239 --> 00:44:17,480
Speaker 2: He pleads in got to get the moosh, yeah exactly.

928
00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:21,080
Speaker 2: The sale price, the Secret Service said was you could

929
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:23,880
Speaker 2: pay eighteen dollars for one hundred dollars in bogus, fives

930
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:28,080
Speaker 2: thirty dollars for one hundred dollars in counterfeit, tens and twenties.

931
00:44:28,920 --> 00:44:32,280
Speaker 2: So apparently the larger denominations were not such bad fakes,

932
00:44:32,360 --> 00:44:35,600
Speaker 2: but the fivers were bad. They were really hard to pass.

933
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:38,400
Speaker 2: And the authorities all said that this was this huge score.

934
00:44:38,480 --> 00:44:40,440
Speaker 2: But then the papers are like, this is huge, but

935
00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:43,960
Speaker 2: he's no victor Listig, Like they just keep and they

936
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:47,560
Speaker 2: think that he's all still stealing in Alcatraz because news

937
00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:50,839
Speaker 2: of his death didn't become public for two years. Why well,

938
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:53,719
Speaker 2: it wasn't until his brother, his brother got pinched on

939
00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:55,400
Speaker 2: counterfeit charges in New Jersey.

940
00:44:55,960 --> 00:44:57,080
Speaker 3: He brought his brother into the family.

941
00:44:57,640 --> 00:44:59,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so he goes he goes to court for

942
00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:03,000
Speaker 2: and he tells the judge, you know, my brother passed away,

943
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:06,479
Speaker 2: and gives the date. At the time of his death,

944
00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:09,040
Speaker 2: Lustig money was still in circulation.

945
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 3: Oh I bet.

946
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:12,360
Speaker 2: Yeah. So what's your ridic's takeaway?

947
00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:14,680
Speaker 3: I got to get into counterfeiting, you do? It just

948
00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:17,240
Speaker 3: sounds like fun. It seems like you meet interesting people,

949
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:18,520
Speaker 3: you have fun adventures.

950
00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:21,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not bad. Eighteen dollars for one hundred and

951
00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:25,440
Speaker 2: bogus five five? Really bad? I pay thirty dollars for

952
00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:26,480
Speaker 2: one hundred counterfeit?

953
00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:26,840
Speaker 3: Would you?

954
00:45:27,840 --> 00:45:27,880
Speaker 4: No?

955
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:30,720
Speaker 3: Oh, you would not know what's your REDICU was? Take away, Elizabeth,

956
00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:31,799
Speaker 3: don't see what I just did.

957
00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:34,040
Speaker 2: I don't know how. I don't know how to do that.

958
00:45:34,239 --> 00:45:38,279
Speaker 3: Oh yea okay, well anyway, hold on, hold on, wait

959
00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:38,680
Speaker 3: what I.

960
00:45:38,719 --> 00:45:40,200
Speaker 2: Think I feel some talkbacks coming on?

961
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:40,560
Speaker 5: Oh?

962
00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:51,279
Speaker 4: Is that what that is? Oh? God? I love cheat.

963
00:45:52,880 --> 00:45:54,680
Speaker 3: Hi, Elizabeth and Zarah, and my name is Brandon.

964
00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:57,800
Speaker 6: I was just listening to the show about riots and

965
00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:01,319
Speaker 6: it was thrilling to me because I also was at

966
00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:04,600
Speaker 6: that body Count and Metallica and Guns N' Roses show.

967
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:10,360
Speaker 6: I participated in the throwing of dirt. I also was

968
00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:13,920
Speaker 6: struck by dirt and I had dirt put down my pants.

969
00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:18,160
Speaker 6: It was everything a fourteen year old could have asked for.

970
00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:21,560
Speaker 6: And my next consort was Cannibal Corpse.

971
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:24,400
Speaker 3: So whatever, Hey guys, this is Brandon.

972
00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:24,719
Speaker 2: I just.

973
00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:28,680
Speaker 6: Sent a message about the rioting thing, and I just

974
00:46:28,719 --> 00:46:31,000
Speaker 6: wanted to say thank you for your show. I work

975
00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:33,880
Speaker 6: out here in Pleasanton at the garbage company, and I

976
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:37,520
Speaker 6: put tires on the garbage trucks and It's a miserable

977
00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:41,120
Speaker 6: sninky job and you guys in between. All the wrestling

978
00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:48,440
Speaker 6: podcasts are a bright spot in my otherwise smell even Thanks.

979
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:51,200
Speaker 3: Yes so good.

980
00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:54,520
Speaker 2: That's us for today. You can find us online at

981
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:57,960
Speaker 2: ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also at Ridiculous Crime on

982
00:46:58,080 --> 00:47:02,160
Speaker 2: both Twitter and Instagram. Email Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.

983
00:47:02,960 --> 00:47:05,359
Speaker 2: Leave us a talk back on the iHeart app reach

984
00:47:05,440 --> 00:47:13,880
Speaker 2: out Baby. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and

985
00:47:13,960 --> 00:47:17,319
Speaker 2: Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by Count Dave Cousten. Master

986
00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:21,680
Speaker 2: of Disguise. Disguise research is by Marissa twenty Bucks Gets

987
00:47:21,680 --> 00:47:25,040
Speaker 2: You a hundred, Brown and Roumanian box manufacturer Andrea Song

988
00:47:25,160 --> 00:47:28,520
Speaker 2: Sharpen Tear. The theme song is by plate engraver Thomas

989
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:32,280
Speaker 2: Lee and ink mixer Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided

990
00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:36,320
Speaker 2: by Botany five hundred. Executive producers are Ben Secret Bolan

991
00:47:36,520 --> 00:47:37,960
Speaker 2: and Noel Service.

992
00:47:37,640 --> 00:47:48,760
Speaker 4: Brown Disquime Say It One More Times Crime.

993
00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:53,200
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more Podcasts

994
00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:56,520
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

995
00:47:56,520 --> 00:47:58,280
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.