Speaker 1: I can't explain Maltese culture. This is not a democratic place.
Speaker 1: There is no democratic spirit. People think only in terms
Speaker 1: of surviving and keeping the Hakem the Master off their backs.
Speaker 1: We have moved from a good house built on solid
Speaker 1: rock foundations to a skyscraper built on sand.
Speaker 2: It's April twenty seventeen, six months before Daphnese murder, a
Speaker 2: pleasant warm day on the Key Side in Imcida, a
Speaker 2: harbor town just next to Malta's capital of the letter.
Speaker 3: This is a place built for relaxation and luxury. The
Speaker 3: water is filled with beautiful and expensive yachts popping gently
Speaker 3: in this well. Right now is just before noon, and
Speaker 3: a few pedestrians about are mostly middle aged joggers or
Speaker 3: restaurant workers on a smoke break. But one man is
Speaker 3: here on Celia's business. Mister Middleman, Melvin Toma has an
Speaker 3: appointment as definitely would say he's keen to keep the
Speaker 3: Hearkem the Master off his back. From iHeart Podcasts, Topic
Speaker 3: Studios and Vespucci. I'm Manuel Delia and I'm John Sweeney
Speaker 3: and this is Crooks Everywhere, Episode five. The middle Man.
Speaker 3: The agreement is to meet here at the Busybe Cafe,
Speaker 3: a much loved place that's been around for decades.
Speaker 2: And the inside of the busy Bee is also typical
Speaker 2: of an old Maltese seafront cafe. Small, with the tables
Speaker 2: close together, may be not ideal for the kind of
Speaker 2: private conversation that Melvin the Middleman needs to have today.
Speaker 2: Even so, it's too late for him to back out now,
Speaker 2: even if he were.
Speaker 3: Considering it and waiting for Melvin. At a table at
Speaker 3: the back end of the busy Bee is a lanky
Speaker 3: man in his fifties, thinning hair, nursing a soft drink,
Speaker 3: Alfred de Bean de Georgio, the brother of Chinese George
Speaker 3: de Georgio.
Speaker 2: The following is once again a reconstruction of events described
Speaker 2: in court room testimony by one of those present. We've
Speaker 2: dramatized the evidence and provided color in places without changing
Speaker 2: any of the material facts or allegations.
Speaker 3: On this day, Alfred de Bean has already been sitting
Speaker 3: here for a few minutes. Around the corner, the third
Speaker 3: member of the team, Vincent de kof Moscat, is waiting
Speaker 3: in a car acting as chauffeur. Melvin the Middleman leans
Speaker 3: across the table and they shake hands wherey small talk follows.
Speaker 3: If Malta's a small place where everyone knows everyone, the
Speaker 3: world of Maltese organized crime is even smaller. Both men
Speaker 3: know that if you cross someone, it's not hard for
Speaker 3: them to find you. And these two men already go
Speaker 3: back years. They aren't close, but Melvin used to rent
Speaker 3: out an apartment in the town of Mosta to the
Speaker 3: Georgia Brothers. Dangerous men to have as tenants, maybe, but
Speaker 3: also maybe useful connections to develop.
Speaker 2: Especially if you might need someone to be dealt.
Speaker 3: With for a certain kind of job. In Malta. The
Speaker 3: Georgia Brothers are believed to be the real professionals, so
Speaker 3: much so that Melvin, the middleman, has already been told
Speaker 3: to seek out the Brothers specifically for this particular task.
Speaker 3: According to courtroom testimony, that task assassinating Malta's most famous journalist.
Speaker 4: Pully Cavelli.
Speaker 3: Espresso please thank you coffee is ordered and the real
Speaker 3: discussion begins Mada.
Speaker 2: As middleman, Melvin is acting on behalf of this boss,
Speaker 2: one of the most powerful men in malt We will
Speaker 2: call him mister alleged Mastermind, and we are calling him
Speaker 2: that because he's been indicted for arranging Daphne's murder, but
Speaker 2: is currently awaiting trial. It seems that mister alleged Mastermind
Speaker 2: has been finding Daphne's writing extremely inconvenient recently, and he's
Speaker 2: concerned about what she might publish next. According to secretly
Speaker 2: tape recordings heard in court, he is particularly concerned about
Speaker 2: what she might publish about corruption and government links to business.
Speaker 3: So, according to Melvin, mister alleged Mastermind asked him to
Speaker 3: get in touch with the the Georgia Brothers to resolve
Speaker 3: the situation. As a first step, Melvin the Middleman has
Speaker 3: already paid a visit to the Potato Shack, the warehouse
Speaker 3: that the Jorjo Brothers and Vincent de Koff use as
Speaker 3: an office. On that visit, Melvin let it be known
Speaker 3: that someone was willing to pay to have Dafne permanently
Speaker 3: a eliminated that Georgios signaled their possible interest and suggested
Speaker 3: a further meeting here at the busy Bee.
Speaker 2: And now Alfred the Bean is ready to talk in
Speaker 2: more detail.
Speaker 3: The Bean explains that the task is possible, but only
Speaker 3: for the right price. Melvin signals that he expected this.
Speaker 2: Alfred the Bean doesn't know who Melvin the middle Man
Speaker 2: is working for, and naturally he doesn't ask. Also, he
Speaker 2: doesn't fully appreciate who daphnely is, her influence in importance
Speaker 2: in Maltes's politics, or the international impact her death will
Speaker 2: have on their cottage industry of killing people on the island.
Speaker 2: In fact, crucially neither of them do.
Speaker 3: Both Alfred de Bean and Melvin the Middleman sit on
Speaker 3: one side of Malta's deep cultural divide, part of the
Speaker 3: mainly Maulti speaking working class world where English language political
Speaker 3: blogs are not a big concerned. Although did the Georgis
Speaker 3: have connections to politicians like Chris Cardona, they do not
Speaker 3: appear to follow politics too closely. But even so, a
Speaker 3: contract on someone outside the criminal underworld must be a
Speaker 3: major undertaking. It can't come cheap, As the Bean explains,
Speaker 3: the Bean is blunt. The price of Daphne's life will
Speaker 3: be miasenev one hundred and fifty thousand euros about one
Speaker 3: hundred sixty thousand dollars Chinese.
Speaker 2: George will later claim that it was easy for him
Speaker 2: and his brother to settle on these numbers. They simply
Speaker 2: reuse the figures they had given the last time. Someone
Speaker 2: had asked them to kill Daphne. That earlier murder plot
Speaker 2: had fizzled out before an attempt could be made on
Speaker 2: her lifetor.
Speaker 3: Multice for I'll check with someone, and with that, Melvin
Speaker 3: the Middleman makes it clear he understands the terms of
Speaker 3: the deal. He finishes his and thanks Alfred de Bean
Speaker 3: for his time. When the response from his boss comes,
Speaker 3: Daphne's death warrant will have been signed.
Speaker 2: So how do you become a middleman and a murder plot?
Speaker 2: Why would you involve yourself in a crime on behalf
Speaker 2: of someone else when you don't even really know who
Speaker 2: the victim is or stand to benefit from their death?
Speaker 2: What's in it the Melvin the Middleman.
Speaker 3: So far as we can tell, he never asked for
Speaker 3: any payment for his work enabling the plot, although he
Speaker 3: did receive some reward. Definitely never wrote about the De
Speaker 3: Georgia brothers or Melvin the Middleman specifically, but she did
Speaker 3: write a lot about the culture that lets organized crime
Speaker 3: and corruption thrive in Malta, the kind of networks and
Speaker 3: relationships that also underpinned the plot to kill her.
Speaker 1: January twenty ninth, twenty fifteen. The fabric of Maltese society
Speaker 1: is your typical Southern Mediterranean situation in which it's the
Speaker 1: family versus everybody and everything else.
Speaker 3: And this was a recurring theme for Deafnie, that Malta
Speaker 3: is not a society of laws and moral rules, but
Speaker 3: instead the culture of networks of power and loyalty.
Speaker 1: There is no concept of society and hence absolutely no
Speaker 1: civic sense. Maltese people do not care about each other.
Speaker 1: They care about themselves first and foremost, and their immediate
Speaker 1: family a close second.
Speaker 2: And how does loyalty to family get us through a
Speaker 2: murder plot?
Speaker 3: Definitely wrote about that too. For her, Maltese culture was
Speaker 3: based on what you called a moral feminism. It's a
Speaker 3: slightly academic term, but then that was sometimes Deafhnie's style.
Speaker 3: A moral feminalism has its own answer to the question
Speaker 3: what's the right thing to do. It's not what's best
Speaker 3: for everyone, or even what's best for most people. Right
Speaker 3: or wrong, is about what's best for my family, because
Speaker 3: if it's good for my family, I'm likely to be
Speaker 3: better off as well.
Speaker 1: March twenty fifth, twenty thirteen. Those who wish to understand
Speaker 1: how Maltese society functions have no choice, but to read
Speaker 1: up on a moral famiism. A moral famialism is the
Speaker 1: reason people in Malta use their vote as currency and
Speaker 1: do not think in terms of the common good or
Speaker 1: choosing the right government, but in terms of s fighting
Speaker 1: slash rewarding getting slash preventing others from getting. It is
Speaker 1: not a trend, but the ancient roots of Maltese society,
Speaker 1: not even money or EU membership, have been able to
Speaker 1: eradicate it. This is where you have the split between
Speaker 1: the two Maltas.
Speaker 2: The two Maltas. That's Snaphanie's name for the cultural divide
Speaker 2: between a predominantly English speaking, more middle class group and
Speaker 2: the more working class Maltese speaking wider population.
Speaker 3: Amorral feminism can also mean that if you are a
Speaker 3: person without power or connections, you will need a godfather
Speaker 3: to get ahead, someone more powerful than you who can
Speaker 3: help you climb the leader, someone to act as family.
Speaker 5: Melvin Tooma wasn't an known person before all this came
Speaker 5: to light.
Speaker 3: Kert Sansne is executive editor of Monta Today, one of
Speaker 3: the main English language newspapers in Malta, and someone who
Speaker 3: has covered the investigation into Deafnie's murder and depth.
Speaker 5: I mean, he might have had, you know, some court records,
Speaker 5: but he wasn't the type you know the name crops
Speaker 5: up and is ah okay, he's that type of person.
Speaker 3: In contrast to men like Alfred de Bean or Chinese George,
Speaker 3: for example, Melvin the Middleman flew more under the radar
Speaker 3: with law enforcement, but his backstory and the spider web
Speaker 3: of criminal loyalty and obligation he was caught up in
Speaker 3: explains how he came to be involved in Deafnie's killing.
Speaker 5: So far, we know that Melvin Town basically was a
Speaker 5: taxi driver. He used to be given sort of preferential
Speaker 5: taxi stance treatment outside the Hilton Hotel in Saint Julian's
Speaker 5: From what.
Speaker 2: Has been reported, we also know that Melvin didn't grow
Speaker 2: up in luxury or privilege. He certainly wasn't plugged into
Speaker 2: Daphnese blog and the world it served.
Speaker 3: But that didn't mean that he wasn't a sevy operator
Speaker 3: or fiercely intelligent. Melvin the Middleman is a native of
Speaker 3: birger Khana, the same residential district in the center of
Speaker 3: Malta where the lawyer Carmel Kirkopp was shot dead. We
Speaker 3: know that his father died when he was just a teenager,
Speaker 3: a tragedy which may have forced him to grow up
Speaker 3: even faster. And if Amorial Famininism is a defining force
Speaker 3: in Maltese culture, an ambitious teenager like Melvin might have
Speaker 3: known he needed to look for somewhere and someone to
Speaker 3: pledge his loyalty to agreements.
Speaker 2: What's coming on here?
Speaker 3: This is old video footage of the Motor Race Club.
Speaker 3: It's the Club President's Cup Final nineteen ninety three, when
Speaker 3: Melvin would have been a teenager. One of the nicer
Speaker 3: legacies of British colonialism, apart from red phone boxes and
Speaker 3: the liking for greasy breakfasts, the Empire also left as
Speaker 3: a culture of horse racing.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at grainy TV pictures of traps going around
Speaker 2: in type formation. Each ride on a sort of chariot
Speaker 2: behind his horse lower.
Speaker 3: Those chariots are called three can light two wheeled cards
Speaker 3: bearing a driver and his whip. For fans, these races matter.
Speaker 3: A lot of money changes hands.
Speaker 2: In the footage. It looks like a close race on
Speaker 2: that day in the nineteen ninety Some middle class martes
Speaker 2: are snobbish about the sport. It's seen by them as
Speaker 2: almost embarrassing, perhaps because, in contrast with its high society
Speaker 2: British origins, horse racing and mortar has evolved into a
Speaker 2: distinctly working class activity.
Speaker 3: As a young guy, Melvin the Middleman found his calling
Speaker 3: at the races, working as a groom, running gurians, making connections,
Speaker 3: and learning how the bookkeeping and gambling business works.
Speaker 2: That needs skills how to calculate odds, figure out payouts,
Speaker 2: balance profit and loss. But also it needs the emotional
Speaker 2: intelligence to understand the punters, the ability to tempt them
Speaker 2: into another flutter, just one more bet, to recover their losses,
Speaker 2: to persuade them to chase a win that is just
Speaker 2: around the corner.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and Melvin seems to have been good at it.
Speaker 3: Who was at home a deras trek, connected and trusted
Speaker 3: By the time, Melvin the Middleman was a young man
Speaker 3: who was running his own black market betting business, taking
Speaker 3: bets in exchange for a commission, and allegedly, on at
Speaker 3: least one occasion, offering loans to men who wanted to
Speaker 3: keep gambling but had already spent all their money.
Speaker 2: And of course those useful extra loans came with interest.
Speaker 2: One of his first brushes with the low came from this.
Speaker 2: When he was twenty five, the case was brought against
Speaker 2: him for loan sharking, charging extortion's interest on money lent
Speaker 2: for gambling. The court heard how he lent one punter
Speaker 2: the equivalents of about eight two hundred dollars in today's money.
Speaker 2: These loans were for betting on the master horse races.
Speaker 2: The punter paid that all back a few days later,
Speaker 2: plus an extra fifty percent his interest. Everything purely a
Speaker 2: verbal agreement, but when the borrower wasn't able to pay
Speaker 2: up on later loans, Melvin the Middleman allegedly became unhappy.
Speaker 2: The court case records the complaints of frets made against
Speaker 2: the borrower and his wife as they turned to other
Speaker 2: loan sharks in order to pay him off. Melvin the
Speaker 2: Middleman was acquitted of all charges. As he was acquitted,
Speaker 2: it would be unfair to draw any conclusion right.
Speaker 3: At some point, it seems, Melvin the Middenman began to
Speaker 3: think bigger, to look beyond the race track. He started
Speaker 3: to operate a national black market lottery based on the
Speaker 3: numbers from the official lottery, but with its own tickets
Speaker 3: and its own prizes, and again he was good at it.
Speaker 3: Press reports quote sources saying he was known for paying
Speaker 3: up promptly when customers won. When he was eventually arrested
Speaker 3: in connection with Daphanie's murder, police found the equivalent of
Speaker 3: two point two million dollars in cash in his home. Still,
Speaker 3: he always maintained his other official, legitimate business, driving a
Speaker 3: cab with a stand at the luxury Hilton Hotel. And
Speaker 3: this might be where the idea of loyalty, connections and
Speaker 3: the godfather comes in again.
Speaker 2: If you want to run a successful black market gambling business,
Speaker 2: eventually you will start to need connections, relationships with people
Speaker 2: further up the food chain, those with real power, and
Speaker 2: Melvin the middleman seems to have been astute here too.
Speaker 2: In his early days at the racetrack, he starts running
Speaker 2: errands for a powerful, rich family who also keep horses
Speaker 2: at the track. At first, he takes bets for them
Speaker 2: as part of his business. It's a natural way in
Speaker 2: the men of the family already like gambling. Apparently, everyone
Speaker 2: knows that the family patriarch has a lucky number at
Speaker 2: Roulette seventeen.
Speaker 3: Black Later, the relationship between him and this family grows
Speaker 3: into something more personal and more subservient. He brings them
Speaker 3: gifts of rabbits for their kitchen, a Maltese delicacy, and
Speaker 3: drops off lows of bread for them to eat, making
Speaker 3: himself useful and establishing that he deserves a place within
Speaker 3: the circle of trust and loyalty under the rules of
Speaker 3: amoral feminism. The family patriarch's son is close to Melvin
Speaker 3: the Middleman in age, a young man who shares Melvin's
Speaker 3: love of the racetrack, but comes from a different world
Speaker 3: of wealth, luxury, and connections. Someone who is going places.
Speaker 3: Melvin is reported to have thought that this young man,
Speaker 3: not his equal, but also not quite his boss, knew.
Speaker 2: Everyone, and this young man will grow up to become
Speaker 2: our mister alleged mastermind. Melvin the middle Man will later
Speaker 2: testify that when he needed help with something that required
Speaker 2: government content, he would pass the request through his well
Speaker 2: connected old friend. The man helps in other important ways too.
Speaker 2: He's probably the one who arranges for Melvin to be
Speaker 2: allowed to work the taxi stand outside the Hilton Hotel,
Speaker 2: a lucrative spot.
Speaker 3: And it's not a one sided relationship for mister alleged Mastermind.
Speaker 3: Melvin the Middleman is useful as well. We know that
Speaker 3: at various times he acts as a personal chauffeur for
Speaker 3: Alleged Mastermind, sometimes on deeply personal business. When the patriarch
Speaker 3: of the family dies, it's Melvin who was trusted with
Speaker 3: driving Alleged Mastermind to the funeral. At some point, it
Speaker 3: seems Melvin the Middleman and mister Alleged Mastermind even go
Speaker 3: on a gambling holiday together to France, with Alleged Mastermind
Speaker 3: paying for everything. So this also seems to have been
Speaker 3: a close trusting relationship. As amoral feminism demands, and Melvin
Speaker 3: the Middleman Tuma might be useful to mister Alleged Mastermind
Speaker 3: for an another reason. Melvin has connections to the underworld,
Speaker 3: connections to men like the de Giorgio brothers, Connections that
Speaker 3: his powerful friend might need.
Speaker 2: One day, in April twenty seventeen, Melvin the Middleman gets
Speaker 2: a call from mister Alleged Mastermind is a request to
Speaker 2: meet face to face to talk. Melvin doesn't hesitate. By
Speaker 2: this time, the Labor government of Joseph Muscat has been
Speaker 2: in power for four years. A general election has been
Speaker 2: called early and is due in a few weeks. Daphne
Speaker 2: is now one of the government's most outspoken and effective critics.
Speaker 2: Her stories and government corruption are dominating politics. Prime Minister
Speaker 2: Joseph Muscat even claims that he had to call the
Speaker 2: elections to put to rest her accusations of wrongdoing. But
Speaker 2: miss through alleged mastermind isn't calling a meeting to discuss politics.
Speaker 2: He asked Melvin the Middleman to meet him outside a
Speaker 2: Thai restaurant near the Hilton Hotel by the Marina.
Speaker 4: It was a restaurant by the name of Blue Elephant.
Speaker 3: Jason Atza Pardi the lawyer for Dafinie family.
Speaker 6: And over there he spoke with Melvin Toma, asking him
Speaker 6: how he could get in touch with a particular criminal,
Speaker 6: one of Malta's foremost underworld criminals, because he needed to
Speaker 6: get rid of someone.
Speaker 3: That someone is definite. According to court testimony given by
Speaker 3: Melvin the Middleman, the request is as follows, do you
Speaker 3: know Chinese George because I need him I want to
Speaker 3: kill Dafnicia. There's no room for confusion. Melvin is being
Speaker 3: recruited as the middleman in a conspiracy to commit murder and.
Speaker 2: For me, this is one of the most depressing moments
Speaker 2: in the whole story. Melvin the Middleman's criminal activity, so
Speaker 2: far as we know, is black market bookmaking, working the
Speaker 2: dark side of gambling, maybe some loan sharking, all illegal,
Speaker 2: but he's not a killer. But at that moment, by
Speaker 2: the Blue Elephant is being asked to organize the murder
Speaker 2: of an innocent woman. By any normal moral compass, it's
Speaker 2: straightforwardly evil. It's also not even in his financial self interest.
Speaker 2: There isn't a fee offered to him, and so Melvin
Speaker 2: the Middleman does have an opportunity here. In theory, he
Speaker 2: could do the right thing and back out.
Speaker 3: But that's not what it does. In fact, he's all in.
Speaker 3: And to understand why, I think Definie's on analysis is useful.
Speaker 3: Once again, however evil this plan is, and however risky
Speaker 3: it is, for Melvin Dedman, under the rules of AMORL feminism,
Speaker 3: the only ethical value that he must honor is loyalty.
Speaker 3: Loyalty to the family and Melvin the Middleman's years of
Speaker 3: history with the alleged Mastermind, the gifts, the favors, the
Speaker 3: odd jobs, make alleged Mastermind's family Melvin's own. As Dephney said,
Speaker 3: it's the family versus everybody and everything else. But once more,
Speaker 3: this is just my take. What we do know is
Speaker 3: that when Melvin the Middleman Toma is asked to help
Speaker 3: kill Dephanie, he does not hesitate.
Speaker 6: Melvin Toma got going and contacted the Georgios, and thereafter
Speaker 6: a series of contacts starts until one fine day they
Speaker 6: meet in a cafeteria in the small town of Incida,
Speaker 6: where the details of the commissioning of the murder to
Speaker 6: take place were given, the price requested, and subsequently Melvin Toma,
Speaker 6: of course, each time going back to the Mastermind.
Speaker 2: The same cafe meeting by the key side that this
Speaker 2: episode started with. In the weeks that follow that meeting,
Speaker 2: Melvin's enabling role as middleman becomes crucial, varying information and
Speaker 2: instructions between the assassins and his powerful friend. After the
Speaker 2: busy Bee meeting, he relays the price that Alfred the
Speaker 2: Bean has quoted one hundred and fifty thousand euros, and
Speaker 2: mister alleged Mastermind signs off on it. It is Melvin
Speaker 2: the Middleman who then informs the killers that preparations for
Speaker 2: the murder can begin. Later, it is Melvin the Middleman
Speaker 2: who is tasked with ordering the murder team to move faster.
Speaker 2: Mister alleged Mastermind specifically tells him to pass on a
Speaker 2: chilling message, hurry up and kill her.
Speaker 3: Throughout, Melvin the Middleman is providing a crucial service, a
Speaker 3: layer of insulation and distance between mister alleged Mastermind and
Speaker 3: the actual killers who will murder Dafny. Thanks to Melvin
Speaker 3: the Middleman, Daphnee killers do not know who they are
Speaker 3: ultimately working for.
Speaker 2: Soon after the killing is agreed and the preparations have begun,
Speaker 2: he gets a call from mister alleged Mastermind, who says
Speaker 2: that someone is about to get in touch an important official.
Speaker 2: When he asks what the call will be about, mister
Speaker 2: alleged Mastermind declines to discuss it on the phone. Soon after,
Speaker 2: the official from the government does call him. It's Sandro Kraus,
Speaker 2: the mayor of the town of Rabbits and whose other
Speaker 2: job is head of customer Care at the office of
Speaker 2: the Prime Minister, a powerful man at the center of government,
Speaker 2: close to the leadership of the whole country, and mister
Speaker 2: Kraus invites Melvin for a personal appointment at Castile Moult's
Speaker 2: central government offices. Melvin the middleman isn't the kind of
Speaker 2: guy who's comfortable in fancy government officers. On the day
Speaker 2: of the appointment, he calls mister alleged Mastermind for advice
Speaker 2: on which door to enter by. When he does figure
Speaker 2: that out, there's another surprise. He's met on the steps
Speaker 2: by an even more important man, Keith Skembrie, the Prime
Speaker 2: Minister's chief of staff.
Speaker 3: He's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's right hand man. They even
Speaker 3: went to school together. It was Skembury who managed the
Speaker 3: election campaign that first got Joseph Mouscat elected in twenty thirteen,
Speaker 3: and as the Prime Minister's chief of staff, he's considered
Speaker 3: by some to be the real power behind the throne
Speaker 3: in Malta. Needless to say, definitely. Karina Galizia isn't a
Speaker 3: fan of mister Scambrie. He's one of the politicians she
Speaker 3: is most famous for attacking, along with the Prime Minister
Speaker 3: and Crescardoona. Daphnely alleged that Schkembrie was at the heart
Speaker 3: of some of the most important corruption scandals in the
Speaker 3: country and was using his political power for a legal profit.
Speaker 3: Scanbury denies it, but we will come to The evidence
Speaker 3: definitely found for that later in this podcast, but for now,
Speaker 3: it's enough to know Keith sch Caambrie is one of
Speaker 3: the most powerful politicians in the country.
Speaker 2: He's understandably amazed to be greeted by mister Skembrey himself.
Speaker 2: In fact, Melvin the Middleman seems to be an honored
Speaker 2: guest for some reason. Keith Schambrie, who's made time to
Speaker 2: give Melvin a Middleman, a black market bookie, a personal
Speaker 2: tour of his office. He also offers Melvin a coffee.
Speaker 2: Melvin has the presence of mind to get a photo
Speaker 2: of them together himself and mister Skembury arms around each
Speaker 2: other's shoulders in the office of the Chief of Staff
Speaker 2: of the Prime Minister of Malta.
Speaker 3: Years later, this will become one of the most famous
Speaker 3: photos in Malta.
Speaker 2: Soon after, Melvin the Middleman gets another invitation to a
Speaker 2: government building, where another surprise waits for him. Without warning,
Speaker 2: he finds he's in a job interview. It lasts a
Speaker 2: few minutes, and he's then informed that he's now a
Speaker 2: public employee, a government driver. He will receive a regular
Speaker 2: salary of around one thousand dollars a month, Melvin the
Speaker 2: Middleman is so confused. He tries to argue, pointing out
Speaker 2: that he doesn't need another job, as he's already got
Speaker 2: his taxi business. But he's missing the point. This is
Speaker 2: a special kind of government job, one way you get
Speaker 2: sent a check each month, but you aren't expected to
Speaker 2: turn up or do anything else.
Speaker 3: It appears that alleged mastermind is even better connected with
Speaker 3: politicians than Melvin the Middleman realized.
Speaker 2: So you can still understand some of why Melvin might
Speaker 2: be surprised by all of this. If you're involved in
Speaker 2: planning a murder, it seems obvious that you would try
Speaker 2: and keep things as to screech and quiet as possible
Speaker 2: as few people involved as you can. But instead, Melvin
Speaker 2: the Middleman is being invited to photo opportunities and guided
Speaker 2: tools with politicians, and now because of his fake government job,
Speaker 2: there is a financial paper trail involving him as well.
Speaker 3: Not very discreeched exactly, and this set of meetings in
Speaker 3: government offices does turn note to be catastrophic for everyone involved,
Speaker 3: no matter whether any of the officials and politicians actually
Speaker 3: know about the rest of the murder plot. Years later,
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two, Keach Cambrie, Sandro Craus, mister alleged Mastermind,
Speaker 3: and two other men will be entitled criminal charges of
Speaker 3: theft and misappropriation for their role in providing Melvin the
Speaker 3: Middleman Tuma with this imaginary job. They have all denied
Speaker 3: the charges and the case is ongoing. So yes, it
Speaker 3: is difficult to understand the motivation for creating this false job.
Speaker 3: It seems more than indiscrete. It's a needless risk. But
Speaker 3: I think there's a twisted logic to it within the
Speaker 3: rules of corrupt power, politics and patronage, within amoral feminism.
Speaker 3: Here's the logic. For a boss like mister relegit Mastermind
Speaker 3: to retain his power, he needs to demonstrate it, to
Speaker 3: flex his muscles, the opposite of being discrete. So as
Speaker 3: I read it, the meetings at Castile are a performance,
Speaker 3: a demonstration to impress and reassure Melvin the Middleman. Look
Speaker 3: at the strings I can pull. Look how far above
Speaker 3: the law I am. Look who my own godfather is.
Speaker 3: Trust me and follow my lead and never cross possibly.
Speaker 3: But all this is just my interpretation of why this happened.
Speaker 2: A few months later, Melvin the Middleman completes his mission
Speaker 2: definitely is murdered, but this isn't the end of the assignment.
Speaker 2: He continues his crucial work as middleman. He returns to
Speaker 2: the busybe Cafe to pass only a greed payment in
Speaker 2: cash to the assassins, and he continues to provide a
Speaker 2: communication channel between them and mister alleged mastermind.
Speaker 3: After the murder, Melvin de middleman Toma begins to get nervous.
Speaker 3: Like everyone else. He's watching the growing protests of Verdephnie's death,
Speaker 3: the demonstrations by women's groups and human rights organizations at
Speaker 3: the Great Siege Monument that we heard about last episode.
Speaker 6: Belvin Toma who never anticipated the uproar, this tsunami of reactions,
Speaker 6: the civil society protests.
Speaker 4: He never expected not to know in their wildest dreams.
Speaker 3: The tsunami of reactions is coming from the other Malta,
Speaker 3: the world of the mainly middle class of English speaking,
Speaker 3: certainly English reading Malta, the Malta of Deafney supporters.
Speaker 6: This was all, let's say, on chartered territory for them.
Speaker 6: They never anticipated it would. And there was a moment
Speaker 6: where literally month after month, various countries around the world,
Speaker 6: as far as far away as Japan and the USA
Speaker 6: recognizing the sterling work of definite Carna Galicia, and that
Speaker 6: is something that instilled fear, the fear of being caught.
Speaker 3: But it turns out that mister Relligit Mastermind does have
Speaker 3: one very important weapon to defend himself and everyone else
Speaker 3: involved in Daphne's murder, access to information. The police investigation
Speaker 3: into Daphne's death is supposed to be the most secure
Speaker 3: and tightly monitored operation and more as recent history. And
Speaker 3: yet somehow did the Georgias and Vince de Koff knew
Speaker 3: that trade on their Potecto Schad was coming.
Speaker 2: How Throughout the investigation, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is given
Speaker 2: regular confidential briefings with police investigators to hear the progress
Speaker 2: they are making in solving the case. These briefings include
Speaker 2: every breakthrough that the investigators make, an information about who
Speaker 2: is on their list of suspects. One of the senior
Speaker 2: police officers each briefing is Deputy Police Commissioner Sylvia of
Speaker 2: the Letter. Unluckily for the killers, it just so happens
Speaker 2: the Deputy Police Commissioner Sylvia the Letter is a close
Speaker 2: personal friend of mister alleged Mastermind and According to later
Speaker 2: court testimony by Melvin the Middleman, mister alleged Mastermind repeatedly
Speaker 2: received confidential information about the investigation into Daphne's murder from
Speaker 2: Sylvio the Letter. Sylvio the Letter denies any wrongdoing.
Speaker 3: That's not all. It turns out that the Prime Minister,
Speaker 3: Joseph Mouscat himself also knows mister alleged master Mindwald. Melvin
Speaker 3: the Middleman later said that he was given to understand
Speaker 3: they were very close friends. The two of them also
Speaker 3: message each other regularly through WhatsApp, with hundreds of messages
Speaker 3: sent over several years. At some point, a private WhatsApp
Speaker 3: group is even created. The only members are the Prime Minister,
Speaker 3: mister Alleged Mastermind, and Keach Cambrie. In the group, they
Speaker 3: bent the about food and women, never anything too political, or,
Speaker 3: as far as we can tell, anything openly connected to
Speaker 3: Daphne's But it's another sign of how the rules of
Speaker 3: amoral feminism who you know and who you are loyal
Speaker 3: to appear to be working in mister Alleged master Mind's favor.
Speaker 2: And Keith Schambrie, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, is
Speaker 2: relevant for another reason. He's another of the people regularly
Speaker 2: present at the confidential security briefings on Daphne's murder, even
Speaker 2: though his job has no direct relation to law enforcement.
Speaker 2: Keith Schambrie has denied leaking this information.
Speaker 3: In other words, the investigation into Daphne's death is deeply
Speaker 3: compromised from day one. All the painstaking early investigative work
Speaker 3: by the FBI, the project to correct the killers as
Speaker 3: a mess messages, triangulate their positions, and gather daming phone evidence,
Speaker 3: all of that is leaked to the criminals.
Speaker 2: This is how the assassins are so well prepared when
Speaker 2: their hideout is hit with the dawn swat raid. This
Speaker 2: is the real answer when the interrogating officer asked Chinese George,
Speaker 2: how did you know we were coming?
Speaker 3: George?
Speaker 2: They knew the police were coming because this is Malta
Speaker 2: and their intelligence was better than that of the police.
Speaker 3: Secretly taped recordings revealed mister Eligit mastermind, telling Melvin that
Speaker 3: he should relax more to remember they are now in control.
Speaker 3: It's simple, he says.
Speaker 4: He told him, don't worry.
Speaker 6: As long as we have the money, they can kiss
Speaker 6: our balls quote unquote in vernacular molt ease.
Speaker 4: That was the mindset.
Speaker 6: Once I have the money, once I'm so rich, I
Speaker 6: am untouchabile.
Speaker 2: We do have one other insight into the special moral
Speaker 2: compass of Melvin the Middleman. Years later, when he was
Speaker 2: testifying about his role in the murder Jason as a
Speaker 2: party cross examined him as a party asked him in court.
Speaker 4: Didn't you realize?
Speaker 6: Didn't you ever think you are going to kill a woman,
Speaker 6: a mother, a wife.
Speaker 4: A daughter, a sister.
Speaker 6: Okay, she was a human being, and Melvin Toma went silent.
Speaker 4: You could hear a pin drop in the courtroom.
Speaker 6: He broke down, crying, admitting that it was the first
Speaker 6: time that moment someone had made him see the cruelty,
Speaker 6: the inhumanity of what he had done.
Speaker 3: But that crisis of conscience is still a long way off.
Speaker 3: Back in early twenty eighteen, in the first few months
Speaker 3: of the Daphne's death and the protests and the Swat
Speaker 3: raid and the arrests of the assassins, Melvin the Middleman
Speaker 3: begins to be consumed by fear that he might not
Speaker 3: be as safe as he taught. That's next. Crooks Everywhere
Speaker 3: is a production of iHeart Podcasts, Topic Studios and Vespucci
Speaker 3: It's reported and hosted by me Manuel Delilla and John Sweeney.
Speaker 3: The senior producer is Leo Hornack. The producer is Maddie
Speaker 3: Hickish krish Denesh Kumar is the assistant producer. The story
Speaker 3: editors are Emma Federill, Matt Willis and Philippa Geering. The
Speaker 3: managing producers are Thomas Curry and Rachel Byrne. The voice
Speaker 3: of Dafne Karwana Galizia is played by Ciena Miller, acting
Speaker 3: direction by Christopher Houghten Maltese voices by Mikhail basma Jan
Speaker 3: and Pierre Staffraj. The executive producers are Johnny Galvin and
Speaker 3: Daniel Turken at Vespucci, Christi Gressman at Topic Studios, Katriina
Speaker 3: Norvel and Nikki Etoor at iHeart Podcasts, and Cienna Miller.
Speaker 3: Marketing leader is David Wassman. Audio recording by Tom Berry
Speaker 3: at Wardoor Studios. Audio mix and sound design by Joel Cox.
Speaker 3: Special thanks to Andrew Botchcardona, Alessandra di Crespo, Eddie Isles,
Speaker 3: and Andrew Krwana Galizia