# The Johnny Cash Jamaican Christmastime Miracle

An episode of [Ridiculous Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1608230191), 9 Dec 2025, 1 h 00 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0b4bcc39-7ba2-453f-aaac-ae510011dd80/fa7c491e-d4ec-4b6e-8025-b3ad017b806c/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3a4c50f5-ff69-4807-aa26-ae510011dd8e

Who would possibly think it's a good idea to rob Johnny Cash...at Christmastime... in Jamaica? If this sounds like some sort of Mad Lib, trust us, it's not. This really happened. And oddly enough, it's actually a charming Christmastime tale. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio and one.
[0:04] Speaker 2: And two and Hey Elizabeth Saron Burnette, what's up girl?
[0:09] Speaker 3: Hey sassy pants? How are you?
[0:10] Speaker 2: I was working on a chair dancing. You got so good? Yeah,
[0:13] Speaker 2: it's so good.
[0:13] Speaker 3: You're gonna go pro Thank you.
[0:15] Speaker 2: I got a question for you and that smile and
[0:18] Speaker 2: face yours?
[0:19] Speaker 3: Hello.
[0:20] Speaker 2: Do you know it's ridiculous I.
[0:21] Speaker 4: Do ridiculously cool, kind of like what she did the
[0:25] Speaker 4: other day with.
[0:26] Speaker 3: The talking about our Australian mustard plug.
[0:29] Speaker 4: Guy.
[0:29] Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I can one up you.
[0:32] Speaker 4: So we got a like the super Rude Dude Summer
[0:37] Speaker 4: Bristow from Jolly Old England. Nice heard me talking about
[0:42] Speaker 4: Dorito's black Garlic dip and that it was only available
[0:47] Speaker 4: in the UK, and she's like, I got you sent
[0:50] Speaker 4: to us a jar us me me a jar of
[0:58] Speaker 4: this dip from England's dope. And so I was like, okay,
[1:05] Speaker 4: I gotta I gotta taste this. I gotta let everyone
[1:07] Speaker 4: know that like number one Rude Dude Summer just knocked
[1:11] Speaker 4: it out of the park. It is an interesting flavor,
[1:16] Speaker 4: it's very garlicy, but you didn't kind of taste the
[1:19] Speaker 4: food coloring it's not black garlic as in like fermented
[1:23] Speaker 4: black garlic. It's it's garlic that has dyed black. Oh yeah,
[1:28] Speaker 4: it's interesting because it's for stranger things like So, I
[1:32] Speaker 4: don't know, I didn't I didn't watch that show, so
[1:34] Speaker 4: I guess they eat this kind of stuff or.
[1:36] Speaker 2: They only watched the first.
[1:37] Speaker 3: Swim in it. Either way, it was it was very.
[1:42] Speaker 2: Is this I don't know.
[1:43] Speaker 4: It could be if you cut the guy open and
[1:45] Speaker 4: it goes out, it looks like dip. Anyway, it's very garlicky,
[1:52] Speaker 4: which I love, sure, but like I said, very food coloring.
[1:57] Speaker 2: Ish a red number five flavor.
[1:59] Speaker 4: Yeah, except for like vant to Black's number eight. So anyway,
[2:05] Speaker 4: I'm just I still can't get over the fact that
[2:07] Speaker 4: A I got to taste.
[2:08] Speaker 2: It after you know, talking about it, yeah.
[2:11] Speaker 4: Talking at you about it, and then b we had
[2:13] Speaker 4: someone who went to all that trouble.
[2:15] Speaker 3: Is the nicest thing.
[2:16] Speaker 2: Ever that is really considered. Thank you, soming So.
[2:17] Speaker 4: I'm gonna have that's I look at that as like
[2:20] Speaker 4: my next eight Christmas presents.
[2:21] Speaker 2: It was so cool. You just made her so happy, Somedy, Well,
[2:27] Speaker 2: I got one for you that's also ridiculous. Yes, please Okay,
[2:30] Speaker 2: try this on for size. Imagine that you think it's
[2:33] Speaker 2: a good idea to rob Johnny Cash and his family
[2:38] Speaker 2: at Christmas time in Jamaica.
[2:40] Speaker 3: Okay, I would not think that was a good idea.
[2:43] Speaker 2: I know. This is Ridiculous Crime, A podcast about absurd
[3:08] Speaker 2: and outrageous capers. Heicce and cons. It's always ninety nine
[3:14] Speaker 2: percent murder free and one hundred percent.
[3:19] Speaker 4: Ridiculous ridiculous Elizabeth oh Zaren.
[3:23] Speaker 2: Before I tell you this story, I have to ask
[3:25] Speaker 2: you a couple of questions as I want to do. Yes,
[3:28] Speaker 2: do you like country music?
[3:29] Speaker 3: I do well, I like outlaw country okay.
[3:32] Speaker 2: Yeah, same, yet more than that house country. I feel
[3:36] Speaker 2: you on that.
[3:37] Speaker 3: I don't like contemporary country?
[3:38] Speaker 2: Well sure not maybe not contemporary. But do you like
[3:41] Speaker 2: anything older like the Carter Family? Yeah, Merle Travis, Merle Haggard.
[3:48] Speaker 3: Merle Haggard.
[3:49] Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, there you go. Yeah, Okay, Now, second question, I.
[3:52] Speaker 4: Mean, I don't like when they're all in a pickup
[3:54] Speaker 4: truck and yeah you did so little Cup and little
[3:58] Speaker 4: Girl and.
[4:00] Speaker 2: So like late eighties and on.
[4:02] Speaker 3: Uh yeah, yeah, because.
[4:05] Speaker 2: You like you know, Dolly Parton obviously, sure you know.
[4:08] Speaker 2: And then like I don't. I don't know how you
[4:10] Speaker 2: feel about like white yeah, Tammy Wow. Yeah, George Jones, No,
[4:16] Speaker 2: I like.
[4:17] Speaker 3: I like outlaw country. I like Willie Whalen Merle I
[4:22] Speaker 3: like that. I like that crowd.
[4:24] Speaker 2: Okay, Chris Christopherson love Chris Christopherson. Well, I got another
[4:28] Speaker 2: question for you, Yeah, second one.
[4:29] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[4:30] Speaker 2: Do you like Christmas music?
[4:33] Speaker 5: You know?
[4:34] Speaker 3: And I had a conversation about this Christmas that you know.
[4:39] Speaker 4: I I was not always a fan of Christmas and
[4:43] Speaker 4: found it sort of inexplicably depressing. I don't really know why,
[4:47] Speaker 4: but I've been making an effort. I do love Christmas lights,
[4:50] Speaker 4: oh my god.
[4:51] Speaker 2: Okay, love them, Okay, Christmas lights.
[4:55] Speaker 3: Christmas music is not the greatest.
[4:57] Speaker 4: I used to work in an office that had a
[4:59] Speaker 4: squawk box, and it had a radio station that would
[5:03] Speaker 4: come through on it. It's like the local smooth jazz.
[5:06] Speaker 4: But then they go to Christmas music come December November,
[5:10] Speaker 4: and if I like, I would hear Santa Baby more
[5:13] Speaker 4: than once a day, and I thought, I have to
[5:15] Speaker 4: quit this job.
[5:17] Speaker 3: I can't work here.
[5:18] Speaker 2: I've worked retail, I know how that is. Yeah.
[5:20] Speaker 4: So there are some that are just done to death.
[5:21] Speaker 4: There are some Christmas carols. I really like Holy Night.
[5:24] Speaker 2: Sure that's beautiful. Well there's Christmas carols. There's also just
[5:27] Speaker 2: Christmas songs like the Christmas Waltz Frank Sinatras. Sure, yeah,
[5:33] Speaker 2: you love it?
[5:33] Speaker 3: Though you love Christmas music?
[5:35] Speaker 2: I do you love Christmas? Well? Yeah, well okay, I'll
[5:41] Speaker 2: put well first, let me ask you my third question.
[5:43] Speaker 2: Then I'll get back to that. How familiar are you
[5:46] Speaker 2: with Jamaica's place in the Cold War?
[5:51] Speaker 3: This is like the weirdest MASSI I'm not familiar.
[5:57] Speaker 2: Well, I've got good news for you. Oh good. We're
[6:00] Speaker 2: not going to talk about Christmas music or really even
[6:02] Speaker 2: country music that is Christmas songs. Yeah, but we are
[6:05] Speaker 2: going to talk about Johnny Cash big time. You know.
[6:08] Speaker 2: Christmas guy.
[6:08] Speaker 3: I love Johnny Cash and.
[6:10] Speaker 2: Also Jamaica's place in the Cold War.
[6:12] Speaker 3: I love I love to learn about Jamaica's place in
[6:14] Speaker 3: the Cold.
[6:15] Speaker 2: This is a wild one, Elizabeth. So you do know
[6:18] Speaker 2: that I am a like I love the Christmas time season.
[6:20] Speaker 2: We've talked about that, and that's that means Christmas.
[6:23] Speaker 6: Guy.
[6:23] Speaker 2: I like Christmas movies, not like the Hallmark themed holiday movies.
[6:27] Speaker 2: I mean like it's a wonderful life Billy Wilder's movie
[6:29] Speaker 2: The Apartment, which is actually a Christmas and a New
[6:32] Speaker 2: Year's Eve movie. They both Anyway, I even like Christmas
[6:36] Speaker 2: specials like Johnny cashtal Christmas specials.
[6:38] Speaker 3: What about all the Peanuts ones?
[6:40] Speaker 2: Yes, I like those, the Thanksgiving one Christmas. I like
[6:44] Speaker 2: Christmas themed episodes of TV shows, like when they do
[6:46] Speaker 2: they're like, oh, of course snowed in and we can't
[6:49] Speaker 2: go and we have to make Christmas here or like
[6:51] Speaker 2: so and so. You know, Like I love all that, right,
[6:54] Speaker 2: you know, like you miss your flight home and then
[6:56] Speaker 2: get invited to like the character they don't like on
[6:58] Speaker 2: the show, and then they have to hang out with them.
[7:00] Speaker 2: I love that. What I'm saying is I'm a sentimental
[7:02] Speaker 2: sucker for Christmas themed entertainment.
[7:04] Speaker 3: Yeah you are. You are sentimental, But.
[7:06] Speaker 2: It appeals to It's intended to appeal to our best sides,
[7:09] Speaker 2: like our generosity, our sense of community, our awareness of
[7:13] Speaker 2: the loneliness of others. Sure right, I mean it hits
[7:16] Speaker 2: for me. It has it all anyway.
[7:18] Speaker 4: I feel like Thanksgiving accomplishes a lot of that without
[7:22] Speaker 4: the commercialism.
[7:23] Speaker 2: Well, I noticed I didn't mention any Christmas gift giving.
[7:26] Speaker 3: Or commercialism like the big thing though.
[7:28] Speaker 2: That's what you're sold on. I'm talking about real Christmas
[7:32] Speaker 2: entertainment is all about that other stuff.
[7:34] Speaker 3: You heartwarming thing, Yes.
[7:36] Speaker 2: I like my heart to be warmed. It's a cold sight, Elizabeth. Anyway,
[7:41] Speaker 2: this is a Christmas story, right, and it's a terribly
[7:45] Speaker 2: strange and violent Christmas story so perfect. It's everything I like,
[7:50] Speaker 2: and I think you'll enjoy it because, as I said,
[7:52] Speaker 2: it features Johnny Cash aka country music's man in black
[7:55] Speaker 2: born rebel.
[7:56] Speaker 3: Right.
[7:56] Speaker 2: It also has real life Jamaican political rebels on right,
[8:00] Speaker 2: and it features a CIA backed Cold War stoogeer apparently.
[8:04] Speaker 2: Love a man anyway, Elizabeth, it's a ridiculous cold war
[8:09] Speaker 2: Christmas special.
[8:10] Speaker 3: I am very excited for this.
[8:12] Speaker 2: Before we get to this, and also we're going to
[8:15] Speaker 2: touch on like the Bob Marley era of Jamaica. Right,
[8:18] Speaker 2: this just hits a lot of cylinder. But first we
[8:21] Speaker 2: need to talk about Jimmy Buffett. No, I know, thinking
[8:28] Speaker 2: why him, Why Jimmy Buffett. I know how much you
[8:31] Speaker 2: don't love Jimmy Buffett or his sun Warmed Margarita brand
[8:36] Speaker 2: of music, But I promise Warren, I do have a
[8:40] Speaker 2: good reason to bring up Jimmy Buffett, and it most
[8:42] Speaker 2: certainly is ridiculous and it's criminal. Consider this in a
[8:46] Speaker 2: mouse boosh to get to the mood for Jamaica, and
[8:49] Speaker 2: then we'll get to Johnny Jamaica Christmas Miracle, which is
[8:54] Speaker 2: ridiculous for a whole different set of reasons. But okay, first,
[8:57] Speaker 2: Jimmy Buffett. I don't know about you, but when I
[8:59] Speaker 2: think of a amous American musician down in Jamaica having
[9:02] Speaker 2: a bad one, I think Jimmy Buffett. Really, but not
[9:06] Speaker 2: after this story I'm about to tell you, But Elizabeth
[9:09] Speaker 2: associated with Jamaica, I know. That's why I'm going to
[9:11] Speaker 2: tell you this. Did you know Jimmy Buffett was a pilot? Good?
[9:15] Speaker 2: Ye is? Sure? Do you know he had his own plane? Sure? Well,
[9:17] Speaker 2: he has actually a few planes, as he had this
[9:20] Speaker 2: one sea plane called Hemisphere Dancer, that was the name
[9:23] Speaker 2: of it. The model was a grooman grooman h U
[9:27] Speaker 2: sixteen Albatross flying boat. Yeah, I got a couple of
[9:30] Speaker 2: those myself, an Albatross flying boat. Elizabeth. It was a
[9:34] Speaker 2: Navy plane that was converted into a civilian flying boat.
[9:37] Speaker 3: What was it called Hemisphere Dancer?
[9:39] Speaker 2: Hemisphere dancer. Go ahead, hold it on like deep breath.
[9:44] Speaker 3: You know what, whatever makes people happy.
[9:46] Speaker 2: And and you know Jimmy Buffett loved the Caribbean and
[9:50] Speaker 2: its island paradise. Right. Did you know that the Jamaican
[9:53] Speaker 2: police once tried to shoot Jimmy Buffett right out of
[9:56] Speaker 2: the sky.
[9:56] Speaker 3: God bless me.
[9:57] Speaker 2: I thought you'd like this. See now, this may be
[10:00] Speaker 2: overstating it a bit, but I mean they did light
[10:02] Speaker 2: his playing up with the heavy machine gun fire. But
[10:05] Speaker 2: don't listen to me, Elizabeth.
[10:07] Speaker 4: It is like one of those terrible like I mean,
[10:09] Speaker 4: he's gone now, Rest in power, Jimmy Buffett.
[10:13] Speaker 3: But you know, like the horrible tourist.
[10:15] Speaker 4: Things where if I pay enough money, I can go
[10:17] Speaker 4: to Jamaica and shoot Jimmy Buffett out of the sky.
[10:20] Speaker 2: I think it's Vegas like they'll give you, Jimmy Buffett. Well,
[10:27] Speaker 2: I have an accounting of this that Jimmy Buffett told
[10:30] Speaker 2: your man Andy Cohen. We'll go on the show Live
[10:33] Speaker 2: with Andy Cohen. That's the show where he interviews celebrities.
[10:37] Speaker 3: Turns Christmas music on. We'll make this a real party.
[10:40] Speaker 2: So Andy Cohen's chatting up with Jimmy Buffett I'm pretty
[10:43] Speaker 2: sure he's there to like sell a book or a
[10:44] Speaker 2: new CD or a mango flavored margarita mix. I don't know,
[10:48] Speaker 2: but he's telling stories from his wild life, right. And
[10:51] Speaker 2: Andy Cohen clearly has no interest in any of this interview,
[10:55] Speaker 2: much like you, right, but he's covering it up with
[10:58] Speaker 2: like up speak and fox excited voice. And so Andy
[11:01] Speaker 2: asked Jimmy a question like, Jimmy, Sean B. Wants to
[11:04] Speaker 2: know what was going through your mind when the Jamaican
[11:06] Speaker 2: government shot at your plane? And Jimmy's all smiled.
[11:10] Speaker 3: That was a really good impression. I felt like I.
[11:13] Speaker 2: Was on it. Jimmy, he's all smiles, and he says, uh, ducking.
[11:18] Speaker 2: You know there's a two rules in rock and roll
[11:21] Speaker 2: I found, never forget to duck and never forget it
[11:24] Speaker 2: can go to hell at any minute now. But yes,
[11:27] Speaker 2: ducking came in handy that day. Right. So Andy tries
[11:31] Speaker 2: to make this obvious and semi risk a joke out
[11:34] Speaker 2: of it all, and he asked, so they thought you
[11:36] Speaker 2: had a tremendous amounts of wheat on your plane? And Jimmy,
[11:40] Speaker 2: he takes his question like it's like it's a t ball, right,
[11:42] Speaker 2: just all set up for him, and he cool, He says,
[11:44] Speaker 2: I mean all I had on was Bono as in
[11:48] Speaker 2: the Irish singer aka the frontman of you two.
[11:51] Speaker 3: He was in the plane these.
[11:52] Speaker 2: Days, Yes, the global humanitarian and Davos attendee was on
[11:56] Speaker 2: the plane. So yeah, Like Jimmy Buffett, he's trying to
[11:59] Speaker 2: joke just those two, like he's smuggling Bono into Jamaica,
[12:03] Speaker 2: Like that's his joke, right, But it turns out and
[12:05] Speaker 2: this idea is very upsetting to Andy Cohen because he's like,
[12:07] Speaker 2: oh no, really, Bono was on board, and Jamie he
[12:11] Speaker 2: plays it cool like Bono was on the plane, and
[12:14] Speaker 2: so Andy now up speaks his excitement appropriately like wow,
[12:18] Speaker 2: oh my gosh. And I love it when Andy Cohn
[12:21] Speaker 2: was pretending that he really cared about like Bono getting
[12:25] Speaker 2: machine machine guns by the Jamaican.
[12:27] Speaker 4: Mike can handle, Andy Cohen is That's what I watch
[12:29] Speaker 4: on New Year's Eve when he and Anderson giggly totally.
[12:34] Speaker 4: But otherwise he's brought so much horrible stuff to this world.
[12:40] Speaker 3: Just can't I can't.
[12:42] Speaker 2: Close out their interview. Jimmy Buffett, he tries to like
[12:45] Speaker 2: end on a joke, so he says, I don't know
[12:47] Speaker 2: what he had on him, Like Bono, this is the
[12:50] Speaker 2: smuggler I was carrying Boom Comedy Gould. Anyway, this story
[12:58] Speaker 2: goes that it's the middle of January nineteen ninety six,
[13:01] Speaker 2: just after the holidays. Jimmy Buffett is flying a seaplane
[13:04] Speaker 2: down to Jamaica while he's on tour and you know,
[13:06] Speaker 2: for shiggles as you would put it. He decides to
[13:09] Speaker 2: take Bono and Bono's wife and their kids with him
[13:12] Speaker 2: aboard his flying boat for a quick hop down to
[13:15] Speaker 2: Negrill in Jamaica. Also on the boat is Chris Blackwell, which,
[13:19] Speaker 2: if you don't know him, he's the founder of Island Records,
[13:22] Speaker 2: the guy who signed Bob Marley and the Whalers and
[13:24] Speaker 2: helped make them world famous. So that guy, right, it's okay.
[13:27] Speaker 2: Jimmy Buffett brings his seaplane in for a water landing,
[13:30] Speaker 2: and the Jamaican police believe that the plane is smuggling drugs,
[13:34] Speaker 2: so they train their machine guns on Jimmy Buffett's seaplane
[13:37] Speaker 2: and then just open fire.
[13:39] Speaker 3: Oh so this is like a tradition of like I
[13:41] Speaker 3: think there's drugs there.
[13:42] Speaker 2: Pretty much just light them up. The way Bono told
[13:46] Speaker 2: it to the Belfast Telegraph. The boys were shooting all
[13:49] Speaker 2: over the place. I felt as if we were in
[13:50] Speaker 2: the middle of a James Bond movie, only this was real.
[13:53] Speaker 2: It was absolutely terrifying, and I honestly thought we were
[13:56] Speaker 2: all going to die.
[14:02] Speaker 4: Wait, this is such a cursed thing, right, Well, of
[14:04] Speaker 4: course the Jamaicans are gonna think you're you're flying a
[14:07] Speaker 4: boat in the air.
[14:09] Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks like it's just filled with drugs or
[14:11] Speaker 2: like Disney characters from Tailspin or Bono and his family
[14:16] Speaker 2: so apparently from what I read. When the machine guns
[14:18] Speaker 2: start to fire, Bono, his wife, Ali, their kids, they
[14:21] Speaker 2: all die for cover, appropriately afraid they're about to be killed.
[14:24] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[14:24] Speaker 2: And then after the Jamaican police cool their cannons, Bono
[14:27] Speaker 2: looks around. He sees no one in his family got
[14:29] Speaker 2: like shot, and as he told the newspaper, thank god
[14:33] Speaker 2: we were safe and sound. My only concern was for
[14:35] Speaker 2: their safety. It was very scary. Let me tell you. You
[14:38] Speaker 2: can't believe the relief I felt when I saw the
[14:40] Speaker 2: kids were okay.
[14:41] Speaker 3: What an international incident.
[14:42] Speaker 2: That event totally now. That same year, Jimmy Buffett was
[14:46] Speaker 2: asked about the whole I almost got Bono shot by
[14:48] Speaker 2: the Jamaican police, right, and he say, he said, I
[14:51] Speaker 2: thought it was a joke until I heard the gunfire exactly.
[14:56] Speaker 2: So once Bono is certain his family's safe and sound,
[14:59] Speaker 2: I guess he He and his family then grabbed the
[15:01] Speaker 2: first flight out of Jamaica, not flown by Jimmy Buffett.
[15:04] Speaker 2: They wing their way back to Miami. Meanwhile, the Jamaican authorities,
[15:08] Speaker 2: they're quick to apologize, so Jimmy Buffett for nearly killing
[15:11] Speaker 2: him and Bono and their kids, and they they basically
[15:13] Speaker 2: hope that he wouldn't make a big deal out of
[15:15] Speaker 2: it and like scare away tourists and since that's like
[15:18] Speaker 2: a key part of the economy. Of course, you know,
[15:20] Speaker 2: mister blown out my flip flop stepped on a pop top,
[15:24] Speaker 2: he's cool about it, right, Jimmy Buffett doesn't make a
[15:26] Speaker 2: big deal. He doesn't even need to be told. But
[15:28] Speaker 2: he did write a song about it, and then don't
[15:31] Speaker 2: anyone drop it on his next album released that same year, Elizabeth.
[15:36] Speaker 2: The song is called Jamaica mistaka spelled like like.
[15:45] Speaker 3: Wait, this is so Sammy Hagar.
[15:48] Speaker 2: And he dropped it on the album name Banana Wind
[15:54] Speaker 2: Jamaica mistake off of his album Banana.
[15:57] Speaker 4: Wind Silver with the banana Banana Wind?
[16:02] Speaker 2: What what? Anyway? That used to be the first.
[16:07] Speaker 4: Story I've babysat some toddlers that get banana wins.
[16:13] Speaker 2: Now I thought you'd appreciate all this as in a
[16:16] Speaker 2: mouse boosh.
[16:17] Speaker 4: Right, I'm like waiting to come to and this is
[16:21] Speaker 4: what's happening. Some people, their life flashes before their eyes meet.
[16:25] Speaker 4: I hear jibberish about banana wind and Jamaica.
[16:28] Speaker 2: Mistake, Jamaica mistake. Oh god, So that used to be
[16:33] Speaker 2: the first story I would think of whenever I thought
[16:36] Speaker 2: of an American musician having a bad day in Jamaica.
[16:39] Speaker 2: But now, after researching this story, I will forever think
[16:43] Speaker 2: of Johnny Cash and his Jamaican Christmas time miracle, which
[16:47] Speaker 2: is what I want to share with you today, Elizabeth,
[16:49] Speaker 2: Happy Hondah days to you. Thank you so. First though,
[16:52] Speaker 2: let's take a break and after these messages we'll catch
[16:55] Speaker 2: back up with Bob Marley, Henry Kissinger, Johnny Cash. It's
[16:59] Speaker 2: gonna get wicked fever. What's happening you shake things up?
[17:03] Speaker 2: Back in two We're back, Elizabeth, Yes we are. How amused.
[17:28] Speaker 2: Is your boosh?
[17:30] Speaker 3: I'm boushed out right now?
[17:32] Speaker 2: So where were we?
[17:32] Speaker 6: All?
[17:33] Speaker 2: Right, Jamaica mistake, So skipping past Jimmy Buffett, Now before
[17:37] Speaker 2: we bring Johnny Cash into the story, what is a
[17:39] Speaker 2: banana wind? I have no idea. I didn't even We can't.
[17:44] Speaker 3: Ask the man he's gone to the other Sure there
[17:47] Speaker 3: is a good answer.
[17:48] Speaker 2: It's probably like you know, Kirby in there Caribbean slang.
[17:52] Speaker 2: I don't know.
[17:53] Speaker 3: All right, you keep going and I'll look it up.
[17:56] Speaker 2: So before we bring all Johnny Cash into the story,
[17:58] Speaker 2: we do need to understand a little bit about Jamaica,
[18:00] Speaker 2: especially what Jamaica was like when this story goes down
[18:03] Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty one, eighty one. Yeah, so a little
[18:06] Speaker 2: quick history. The colony of Jamaica wins its independence on
[18:10] Speaker 2: August sixth, nineteen sixty two. Right, there won't be a quiz,
[18:13] Speaker 2: but that's important. So this didn't come about after years
[18:16] Speaker 2: of armed rebellion, the way that many African nations won
[18:19] Speaker 2: their independence that in say, the sixties. Instead, like there
[18:23] Speaker 2: were liberation struggles in Jamaica. Don't get me wrong, right,
[18:25] Speaker 2: right from the beginning of the colonial history, they were
[18:28] Speaker 2: against being colonized and so forth. Yeah, but after World
[18:31] Speaker 2: War Two, the UK was financially spent basically, and the
[18:35] Speaker 2: former empire was down to let you know, former protectorates
[18:38] Speaker 2: and territories like Jamaica become independent nations. Okay, So all
[18:42] Speaker 2: during the fifties a bunch of ideas get kicked around
[18:44] Speaker 2: about how this would happen. Right, So at one point
[18:47] Speaker 2: there's this idea to create the West Indies Federation of
[18:51] Speaker 2: former island colonies. Right, it would have brought ten islands
[18:54] Speaker 2: together into this one new nation. But the Jamaicans they
[18:58] Speaker 2: didn't seem to want to join the other. So they
[19:00] Speaker 2: held a Brexit style vote and the Jamaicans where they
[19:03] Speaker 2: voted in this referendum whether to stay in the West
[19:06] Speaker 2: Indies funderation or not, the choice to leave wins fifty
[19:10] Speaker 2: two to forty eight. Wow. That was nineteen sixty one.
[19:13] Speaker 2: So the next year, July sixty two, in response, the
[19:15] Speaker 2: UK Parliament they passed the Jamaican Independence Act, and the
[19:19] Speaker 2: very next month, in August sixth, the nineteen sixty two
[19:23] Speaker 2: to be exact, Jamaica is formally recognized as an independent
[19:27] Speaker 2: new nation. However, that's misleading since it's still part of
[19:31] Speaker 2: the British Commonwealth, technically still under the Queen. Sure, So
[19:35] Speaker 2: basically Jamaica joins the Commonwealth of Nations, which is this
[19:38] Speaker 2: organization for ex British territories. Right, but the Jamaicans did
[19:42] Speaker 2: have their own government and their own flag, et cetera,
[19:45] Speaker 2: but they were still under the Queen. So the first
[19:47] Speaker 2: Prime Minister Jamaica is cat Sir Alexander Bustamante. He's not
[19:51] Speaker 2: important to this story. After him comes Sir Donald Sangster.
[19:54] Speaker 2: Once again also not important. He doesn't even last that long.
[19:57] Speaker 2: He gets sick and he dies like two months into
[19:58] Speaker 2: his term as prime minister.
[20:00] Speaker 3: To make a mistake of it.
[20:01] Speaker 2: He's also unimportant to the story. So he gets replaced
[20:04] Speaker 2: by Hugh Sheer as prime minister. He's the third prime
[20:06] Speaker 2: minister of this young nation. Hugh Shearer actually serves out
[20:10] Speaker 2: his term, but in nineteen seventy two he gets voted
[20:13] Speaker 2: out of office, right, and so he also doesn't really
[20:16] Speaker 2: matter to the story. Okay, his replacement of lisabth I'm.
[20:19] Speaker 3: Trying to write this down as fast as I can.
[20:21] Speaker 2: Is this dude named Michael Manley. Okay, and he does
[20:24] Speaker 2: matter to this story. Yeah, Michael Manley gets elected in
[20:27] Speaker 2: seventy two, right, becomes the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica.
[20:30] Speaker 2: This is no big surprise because his father was Norman
[20:33] Speaker 2: Manley and he was the first and only Premier of
[20:35] Speaker 2: Jamaica back when it was part of this West Indies Federation. Yeah. Anyway,
[20:40] Speaker 2: back to his son, Michael Manley, it's no big surprise
[20:43] Speaker 2: that this son of a former leader would be elected
[20:45] Speaker 2: as the prime minister. But it was a bit of
[20:48] Speaker 2: a surprise because Michael Manley was you know, he gets elected,
[20:51] Speaker 2: but he's also this avowed socialist. Yeah, like he's a
[20:55] Speaker 2: friend of Fidel Castro. There's talk that he wants to
[20:57] Speaker 2: turn Jamaica full on social friend of right. So now
[21:01] Speaker 2: that he's elected to trift, he elects the Cigars. So
[21:06] Speaker 2: since he's elected in seventy two, we're smack dab in
[21:08] Speaker 2: the middle of the Cold War right now. You know,
[21:11] Speaker 2: there is no way America, and specifically Henry Kissinger is
[21:15] Speaker 2: going to be cool with another communist nation in the
[21:18] Speaker 2: Caribbean one especially it's eager to join up with Fidel
[21:21] Speaker 2: in Cuba and the Soviet Union. Elizabeth, remember how I
[21:24] Speaker 2: said earlier Jamaican rebels would be robbing Johnny Cash I
[21:27] Speaker 2: mentioned that very up top. Yes, okay, well this is
[21:29] Speaker 2: how the rebels and the bad man come to be
[21:32] Speaker 2: bad man, because basically, as I said, after World War Two,
[21:34] Speaker 2: the UK has decided it's too expensive to keep all
[21:37] Speaker 2: their territories in the British Empire, so they let him
[21:39] Speaker 2: go independent. But as I said, that's a farce. It's
[21:41] Speaker 2: more like the UK starts franchising out new nations. So
[21:46] Speaker 2: this but along comes this new Prime Minister, Michael Manley,
[21:49] Speaker 2: who they thought they could trust. He's the son of
[21:50] Speaker 2: a former leader. He looks legit, but he turns out
[21:53] Speaker 2: he's this big time anti capitalist. So Michael Manley's like, cool, cool,
[21:57] Speaker 2: if we are free to govern ourselves, we want to
[21:59] Speaker 2: go socialists. And the West is like, oh, oh no,
[22:01] Speaker 2: that's not what we meant. That won't do at all.
[22:05] Speaker 2: Enter Henry Kissinger. So while the Queen and the UK
[22:08] Speaker 2: Parliament are all in a lather about the prospect of
[22:10] Speaker 2: Jamaica going socialist, possibly full on communist, Henry Kissinger's like,
[22:15] Speaker 2: let me see what I can destabilize. God. So you
[22:18] Speaker 2: got Michael Manley. He's busy creating programs like free public
[22:22] Speaker 2: education for elementary school, middle school, high school, even college,
[22:25] Speaker 2: you know, like a modern European state. And then but
[22:28] Speaker 2: he's also doing land reform. He's building houses, he's building
[22:32] Speaker 2: daycare facilities, new hospitals. His government is also subsidizing meals
[22:36] Speaker 2: for the Hungary. He's fighting against all literacy, he's raising
[22:40] Speaker 2: pinches for the elderly. He's equalizing like the playing fields
[22:43] Speaker 2: like this. So his administration introduces equal pay for women.
[22:47] Speaker 2: And meanwhile, Henry Kissinger's like, this man must be stopped.
[22:52] Speaker 2: So Elizabeth Prime Minister Michael Manley he announces that Jamaica
[22:56] Speaker 2: is going to leave the Commonwealth and it's going to
[22:58] Speaker 2: become an independent republic, truly and dependent. And this is
[23:01] Speaker 2: when Queen Elizabeth in the UK turn Henry Kissinger loose.
[23:04] Speaker 2: They're like, have Adam Henry. So in nineteen seventy five,
[23:08] Speaker 2: Henry Kissingers he's acting as the both the Secretary of
[23:11] Speaker 2: State of the United States and the National Security Advisor.
[23:14] Speaker 2: He's doing both rule yes, yeah, And so that same year,
[23:17] Speaker 2: nineteen seventy five, the CIA starts messing around in the
[23:20] Speaker 2: shadows in Jamaica. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Michael Manley he's helping
[23:24] Speaker 2: Cuba out, who's sending its armies and its doctors over
[23:26] Speaker 2: to Africa, specifically to Angola to aid in its war
[23:29] Speaker 2: against apartheid South Africa. So there's like all basically there's
[23:33] Speaker 2: like heavy duty Cold war internationalism going down, and Jamaica
[23:37] Speaker 2: is all a part of it. Throughout the second half
[23:39] Speaker 2: of the seventies. From seventy five on Kissinger, he's still
[23:42] Speaker 2: in charge of the State Department, even though he steps
[23:44] Speaker 2: down to his National Security Advisor. So the CIA, though,
[23:47] Speaker 2: stays busy trying to fomentous rebellion against Michael Manley and
[23:50] Speaker 2: his socialist administration. So the CIA, they back this dude
[23:54] Speaker 2: named Edward Siaga to be the next Prime Minister of Jamaica,
[23:58] Speaker 2: which was kind of a wild develop on its own,
[24:01] Speaker 2: because if you knew Edward Siaga back in the day,
[24:03] Speaker 2: he was just this Jamaican record producer. Oh really no, yeah,
[24:07] Speaker 2: So who is Edward Siaga? Who is Edward A great question, Elizabeth.
[24:12] Speaker 2: Edward Siaga was the leader of the opposition party through
[24:15] Speaker 2: the seventies, which was the Jamaican Labor Party, But in
[24:18] Speaker 2: his youth he'd been this like hip record producer guy
[24:21] Speaker 2: who's kind of a big deal in the Jamaican recording industry.
[24:24] Speaker 2: And importantly, he was born in the United States and
[24:27] Speaker 2: then he returned to the US for college, so he
[24:29] Speaker 2: attended Harvard graduates with a BA in social sciences. Then
[24:34] Speaker 2: he dips back to Jamaica and in the sixties he's
[24:36] Speaker 2: working as a music promoter. But then he he starts
[24:39] Speaker 2: his own music company, the whole thing, and then Edward Siaga,
[24:42] Speaker 2: this semi hip pan global cat. He's like he grows
[24:46] Speaker 2: up essentially, but he's really an interesting character because his
[24:50] Speaker 2: father is a Lebanese Jamaican descent. His mother is a
[24:54] Speaker 2: mix of Black African, Scottish and Indian descent, like East Indian, right, yeah,
[25:00] Speaker 2: so he's very much this representative mix of Jamaican population.
[25:03] Speaker 3: Sure yeah.
[25:04] Speaker 2: And also, like Michael Manley, he's born into wealth and privilege.
[25:08] Speaker 2: So after he's like dabbling in music production and they
[25:11] Speaker 2: said he grows up, he goes into politics. Then he
[25:13] Speaker 2: finesses his way into being the opposition leader against socialist
[25:17] Speaker 2: Michael Manley, and that's when the CIA approaches him and
[25:20] Speaker 2: the agency is like, how would you like to be
[25:21] Speaker 2: the next Prime Minister of Jamaica. This leads to the
[25:25] Speaker 2: full on craziness of the CIA in Jamaica. So in
[25:28] Speaker 2: the run up to the Jamaican elections scheduled for say
[25:31] Speaker 2: the beginning of seventy seven, Michael Manley's government is facing reelection.
[25:35] Speaker 2: Meanwhile CIA fomenting all kinds of nonsense. And this is
[25:39] Speaker 2: the same time when there's an assassination attempt against who
[25:42] Speaker 2: Bob Marley? Oh yeah, that's right, right, So the CIA
[25:46] Speaker 2: they suspect that Bob Marley is supporting Michael Manley and
[25:50] Speaker 2: his whole socialist agenda. So the CIA, they can't have
[25:52] Speaker 2: the most popular man in Jamaica sway the vote. Yeah.
[25:55] Speaker 2: So one night, some arm bad men try to kill
[25:58] Speaker 2: Bob Marley. I'm not saying the CIA is behind it,
[26:02] Speaker 2: but their fingerprints are all over it. So the story
[26:05] Speaker 2: goes in December third, nineteen seventy six. It's like two
[26:08] Speaker 2: and a half days before they're supposed to be this
[26:10] Speaker 2: huge show called Smile Jamaica. Sis cots her right, Yeah,
[26:14] Speaker 2: So Bob Marley's the headliner. The show is meant to
[26:16] Speaker 2: calm down all the political violence, and that particular night,
[26:20] Speaker 2: at around eight thirty at night, Bob Marley's chilling at
[26:23] Speaker 2: his house. And he doesn't have a house. He's got
[26:24] Speaker 2: a compound this fifty six Hope Road. It's huge. It's
[26:28] Speaker 2: basically a commune where he and his wife Rita live
[26:31] Speaker 2: with all of their kids and all these other people,
[26:33] Speaker 2: some members of his band. People are like sleeping outside,
[26:36] Speaker 2: like in groups of five, and it's just this wild
[26:39] Speaker 2: Rastafarian compound.
[26:40] Speaker 6: Right.
[26:41] Speaker 2: Anyway, that night, while they're chilling at fifty six Hope Road,
[26:45] Speaker 2: seven gunmen raid the compound and they start shooting at
[26:47] Speaker 2: whomever they think matters. So like Bob Marley's wife Rita,
[26:51] Speaker 2: she gets shot. She's sitting in a car when she
[26:53] Speaker 2: gets shot. And I don't mean like just wing. She's
[26:55] Speaker 2: shot in the head. She totally she survives, don't worry. Yeah,
[26:58] Speaker 2: But the gunmen they sneak further into compound and then
[27:01] Speaker 2: they poke their guns into the house and they just
[27:03] Speaker 2: let the guns spray. Remember there's kids all over the
[27:05] Speaker 2: place like that. Not of our problem, right, So Bob
[27:09] Speaker 2: Marley manager, he gets shot. Another man, like a band associate,
[27:14] Speaker 2: he gets shot. Then some gunmen stick their like their
[27:17] Speaker 2: weaponry into the kitchen door and they let off some shots.
[27:19] Speaker 2: They hit Bob Marley like two times right, the chest
[27:22] Speaker 2: in the arm. Yeah, it's bad, but obviously not fatal.
[27:25] Speaker 2: So good news, Elizabeth. All this gunfire, all those children
[27:29] Speaker 2: all around, None of the gun shots leave wounds that
[27:32] Speaker 2: are fatal, No one loses their life. Wow, right for
[27:35] Speaker 2: all that, Wow totally. Three days later, on December sixth,
[27:38] Speaker 2: Bob Marley shows up at the Smile of Jamaica concert
[27:41] Speaker 2: after being shot in the chest, and he's like, I'm
[27:44] Speaker 2: here to sing, right. So the two leaders, Prime Minister
[27:47] Speaker 2: Michael Manley and the opposition leader Edward Siaga, they stand
[27:50] Speaker 2: on stage together with Bob Marley between them, and he
[27:53] Speaker 2: lifts up both of their hands over his head. Ye
[27:55] Speaker 2: to like quell the political violence. Like he's like, and
[27:58] Speaker 2: everyone knows he's been shot. It's huge news, Like he
[28:00] Speaker 2: is a bad man. Right, but this is supposed to
[28:03] Speaker 2: be symbolic. It's supposed to say stop the violence. Right. So,
[28:06] Speaker 2: feeling this ground swell of support, Michael Manley moves up
[28:10] Speaker 2: elections to December fifteenth. Since it's parliamentary elections, it can
[28:14] Speaker 2: be moved around, so it works. He wins. So now
[28:18] Speaker 2: Edward Siag and the CIA are like, who's gonna tell Kissinger. Right,
[28:23] Speaker 2: So the CIA, they don't give up. They're still deep
[28:25] Speaker 2: in their Cold War Shenanigans. Right, So for the next
[28:27] Speaker 2: few years there's all sorts of ramped up political violence.
[28:30] Speaker 2: Jamaica becomes the scene of all kinds of political fights.
[28:33] Speaker 2: And I'm talking like street gangs shooting at each other. Right,
[28:35] Speaker 2: it's bloody, it's ugly, it's bad. You got like street
[28:38] Speaker 2: gangs and rude boy Yardy's all going at it.
[28:41] Speaker 5: Right.
[28:41] Speaker 2: Some are pro US and support Edward Siaga will others
[28:45] Speaker 2: they support the pro socialist Michael Manley. And it gets bad, Elizabeth, Like,
[28:49] Speaker 2: no joke in nineteen eighty, like eight hundred people get killed,
[28:52] Speaker 2: you're kidding, Oh yeah, And that's all just in Jamaica.
[28:56] Speaker 2: It gets bad. So by this point, Bob Marley he's
[28:58] Speaker 2: suffering from the toe cancer that would have actually go
[29:00] Speaker 2: on to kill him, so he can't step up to
[29:02] Speaker 2: help quell the political violence. It's ravaging Jamaica and the
[29:05] Speaker 2: CIA is just running amuck. So long story short, Edward
[29:09] Speaker 2: Siaga wins the nineteen eighty election and he becomes the
[29:13] Speaker 2: new pro US, pro British, pro capitalism Prime Minister of Jamaica.
[29:18] Speaker 2: The nation it doesn't leave the Commonwealth, it doesn't become
[29:21] Speaker 2: a fully independent republic, it stops supporting Cuba in order
[29:25] Speaker 2: to like, you know, symbolically align himself with Bob Marley,
[29:29] Speaker 2: who's obviously a symbol Jamaica to the rest of the world,
[29:32] Speaker 2: to the Jamaican people. In February of nineteen eighty one,
[29:35] Speaker 2: this new Prime Minister, Edward Siaga awards an ailing Bob
[29:39] Speaker 2: Marley with the Jamaican Order of Merit. Because if anything,
[29:43] Speaker 2: Edward Siaga, former music promoter turned prime minister, he knows
[29:48] Speaker 2: the power of fame. He knows the power of a
[29:49] Speaker 2: musician and had a hype cool, especially if it's a
[29:52] Speaker 2: world famous musician like Bob Marley or say Johnny Cash. Okay, Elizabeth,
[29:58] Speaker 2: now that we've reached nineteen eighty one, the moment when
[30:00] Speaker 2: Johnny Cash takes center stage, I've teased this long enough.
[30:04] Speaker 2: We shot down Jimmy Buffett, we nearly assassinated body. You've
[30:09] Speaker 2: elected numerous Jamaican Prime ministers, and now the CIA has
[30:13] Speaker 2: installed their man in power, one Edward Siaga. So things
[30:16] Speaker 2: look like they're going well for them. That is, you know,
[30:18] Speaker 2: if you're Henry Kissinger and into this madness. Is Johnny
[30:21] Speaker 2: Cash pops down to Jamaica.
[30:23] Speaker 3: Amazing?
[30:24] Speaker 2: So, like, what's up with country music legend spending Christmas
[30:27] Speaker 2: in Jamaica? Like that's curious, right, Johnny Cash isn't known
[30:30] Speaker 2: as a big time pothead. No, right, so like what
[30:33] Speaker 2: was the draw for him?
[30:34] Speaker 3: And what year is this?
[30:35] Speaker 4: Nineteen eighty one so he's still No, he's out of
[30:38] Speaker 4: the throes of all the pil addiction.
[30:40] Speaker 2: Yeah, he's gone to Betty Betty Ford Center. Yeah, so
[30:43] Speaker 2: he's Yeah, he's not popping the speed pills. He's like
[30:45] Speaker 2: big on his Jesus moment at this point, he's like
[30:47] Speaker 2: doing the gospel songs with June Carter.
[30:49] Speaker 3: Did Keith Richards loan of his house?
[30:52] Speaker 2: No, The story goes Johnny Cash buys his own home
[30:55] Speaker 2: in Jamaica in an area called Montego Bay, which I
[30:58] Speaker 2: think you're probably familiar from, like the Beach Boys song.
[31:01] Speaker 2: I don't know they mentioned Hey Montigue, No is that figured?
[31:04] Speaker 2: I don't listen to Beach Boys, but it seemed like
[31:06] Speaker 2: he listened Beach Boys. Yeah. So anyway, the house he
[31:09] Speaker 2: buys it used to be a planter's house or what
[31:12] Speaker 2: we in the US would call it. Plantation.
[31:13] Speaker 6: Yeah.
[31:13] Speaker 3: I was like, that's a way to skirt around that one.
[31:15] Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's an old sugar plantation, and like plantations
[31:18] Speaker 2: in the South in the US, the house has a
[31:20] Speaker 2: name and everything. It's called cinnamon Hill.
[31:23] Speaker 3: Okay.
[31:23] Speaker 2: Now, most of the year, Johnny Cash and his wife
[31:25] Speaker 2: June Carter, they live in Hendersonville, Tennessee. After they had
[31:28] Speaker 2: this big home, the same home where Chris Christopherson showed
[31:31] Speaker 2: up with the stolen helicopter looking to give this demo. Okay,
[31:34] Speaker 2: well we've covered that before, so I won't get into that,
[31:36] Speaker 2: but I told you this is also a similar ridiculous
[31:39] Speaker 2: crime because part of the year, Johnny and June they
[31:42] Speaker 2: live in Jamaica. Because Johnny Cash just loves Jamaica. Well
[31:46] Speaker 2: it is Johnny Cash once said of the island, Jamaica
[31:49] Speaker 2: has renewed me more times than I can count. Partly
[31:52] Speaker 2: it's the isolation. It's not Nashville or Tennessee or even
[31:56] Speaker 2: the United States. So Johnny Shack likes to go down
[32:00] Speaker 2: to his place and Cinnamon Hill to get away from
[32:02] Speaker 2: being Johnny Cash country music legend. He can just be Jr.
[32:06] Speaker 2: Like how the family used to call him back in Arkansas. Right,
[32:09] Speaker 2: So he first buys Cinnmon Hill in seventy two. This
[32:11] Speaker 2: place has history, I mean like it has so much history.
[32:14] Speaker 2: It has ghosts. Elizabeth Waylon Jennings who you mentioned, Yeah,
[32:17] Speaker 2: and his wife Jesse Coulter, they both claim to have
[32:20] Speaker 2: heard a ghost at this house.
[32:22] Speaker 6: Right.
[32:22] Speaker 2: But it's better than that because Johnny Cash said he
[32:24] Speaker 2: personally saw a ghost. He saw a woman walk through
[32:27] Speaker 2: a locked door. Oh well, here's how he tells it. Well,
[32:30] Speaker 2: once a woman appeared in the dining room when six
[32:33] Speaker 2: of us were present. We all saw she came through
[32:36] Speaker 2: the door leading to the kitchen, a person in her
[32:38] Speaker 2: early thirties, i'd say, wearing a full length white dress,
[32:42] Speaker 2: and proceeded across the room toward the double doors in
[32:45] Speaker 2: the opposite wall, which were closed and locked. She went
[32:49] Speaker 2: through them without opening them, and then from the other
[32:52] Speaker 2: side she knocked r out of Tat tat right, a
[32:55] Speaker 2: tat tat. So they're always wearing long white dresses. It's
[33:00] Speaker 2: because of the eighteen hundreds and the seventeen that's which
[33:02] Speaker 2: you wore back then.
[33:03] Speaker 3: How they get along. She's been so foggy lately.
[33:06] Speaker 2: How great would it be to have to see a
[33:07] Speaker 2: ghost who's like wearing like, I don't know, in Adidas
[33:10] Speaker 2: tracksuit from the nineties.
[33:11] Speaker 6: You know.
[33:12] Speaker 2: But I'm saying like.
[33:13] Speaker 4: I'm going to get a long white dress and go
[33:15] Speaker 4: wander around in the fog, hopefully not get hit by
[33:17] Speaker 4: a car. Yeah, but you know, scare some people.
[33:20] Speaker 2: I'm going to get along black dress and then do
[33:22] Speaker 2: the whole country song.
[33:23] Speaker 3: A long black veil.
[33:24] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
[33:26] Speaker 4: Well, just you know, we'll be like spy versus spies.
[33:31] Speaker 2: So, Elizabeth, this house, Cinnamon Hill, it was built back
[33:34] Speaker 2: in seventeen thirty four, so that's part of the reason
[33:37] Speaker 2: why you're seeing.
[33:37] Speaker 3: That some bad, bad business going on there.
[33:40] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, this house saw some rough times and like
[33:42] Speaker 2: you know, slavery, so it was a sugar plantation a
[33:45] Speaker 2: human being. So I say rough times violently doing so
[33:49] Speaker 2: very much an understatement, yes, violent, violent, violent. Right. Anyway,
[33:54] Speaker 2: now you are fully ready to hear the story of
[33:56] Speaker 2: Johnny Cash in his Christmas miracle.
[33:58] Speaker 3: You have all the pieces in I have everything I
[34:00] Speaker 3: need to know.
[34:01] Speaker 2: But first let's take a break.
[34:02] Speaker 4: Well, but first, here's something you need to know. Sure
[34:05] Speaker 4: I looked up banana winds.
[34:07] Speaker 2: Oh you did, and.
[34:08] Speaker 4: When you know how you do Google, and they have
[34:10] Speaker 4: the AI overview now, which is usually wrong.
[34:12] Speaker 2: So I'm going to read it, okay, perfect It says.
[34:15] Speaker 4: Banana wind can refer to a strong wind that blows
[34:18] Speaker 4: bananas off trees, or is the name of the nineteen
[34:21] Speaker 4: ninety six Jimmy Buffett album. In the context of the album,
[34:25] Speaker 4: banana wind is a metaphor for a strong emotional breeze
[34:29] Speaker 4: that blew through his music, which blends various genres. The
[34:33] Speaker 4: term can also refer to a beautiful yellow iris with
[34:36] Speaker 4: a subtle fragrance named banana wind.
[34:38] Speaker 2: This album will knock the fruit out of your.
[34:40] Speaker 3: Trees and strong emotional breeze.
[34:45] Speaker 2: Excuse me, that was me, Jimmy.
[34:49] Speaker 4: So anyway out Now we know everything we need to know.
[34:53] Speaker 2: Now we are the wall is built. So let's take
[34:55] Speaker 2: a little break. Lit's just some ads and when we're
[34:58] Speaker 2: at least some banana wind gonna rob Johnny Cash at Christmas.
[35:01] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, okay, we're back. We're back.
[35:25] Speaker 3: How you doing.
[35:25] Speaker 2: So we've had our fun, but now it's time to
[35:28] Speaker 2: get to the real deal. Do you smell that with
[35:31] Speaker 2: the banana win? Banana win? So do you make a
[35:34] Speaker 2: mistake over there? It's the interns. I'm releasing Banana Win.
[35:41] Speaker 2: So that's who you're gonna blame them. So I'm calling
[35:45] Speaker 2: this Johnny Cash and is Jamaican Christmas Time Miracle. That's
[35:48] Speaker 2: a good title. Good Like as I told you, Elizabeth,
[35:51] Speaker 2: this story takes place in nineteen eighty one, ten years
[35:54] Speaker 2: before Point Break was released. No, what year did play?
[35:58] Speaker 2: Eighteen ninety one?
[35:59] Speaker 3: Eighty one?
[36:01] Speaker 4: You know that was five years before Banana Wind was released?
[36:05] Speaker 2: No, fifteen, He came out in nineteen ninety six.
[36:08] Speaker 3: Yeah, ninety six.
[36:08] Speaker 2: We're talking about eighty four. Point break.
[36:11] Speaker 4: Relative took break is my reference for everything.
[36:15] Speaker 2: Of course, Utah, give me two.
[36:18] Speaker 4: I am an f B I agent with Banana Wind.
[36:24] Speaker 2: Go ahead. It's Christmas time. Johnny Cash takes his family
[36:29] Speaker 2: down to Cinnamon Hill for the holidays. There's this is okay,
[36:32] Speaker 2: June Carter. There's it. That's his wife. There's their son,
[36:36] Speaker 2: John Carter Cash. He brings a friend with him, this
[36:38] Speaker 2: boy named Doug Caldwell.
[36:40] Speaker 3: Okay.
[36:40] Speaker 2: Also with them are some other family members, Like there's
[36:42] Speaker 2: Johnny Cash, his sister Reba Hancock and her husband Chuck Hussey.
[36:47] Speaker 2: Also one of Johnny's friends, this archaeologist guy named Ray Fremmer.
[36:51] Speaker 2: And there's that they also have their their house stacked
[36:53] Speaker 2: with normal archaeologists, totally right. They also have a cook
[36:57] Speaker 2: and her stepdaughter who works at that guy as a
[36:58] Speaker 2: maid at a local house in Jamaica. And then they
[37:01] Speaker 2: also have their house manager from who's the one who
[37:03] Speaker 2: takes care of their house back in Tennessee, but who
[37:06] Speaker 2: comes down with them for the holidays to like manage that.
[37:08] Speaker 3: I was gonna say, well, then who's watching the house
[37:10] Speaker 3: in Tennessee?
[37:11] Speaker 2: Chris Christofferson. Oh, that's right, Stle helicopter flew back over.
[37:16] Speaker 2: So what they don't have at the house though, are
[37:18] Speaker 2: security guards?
[37:19] Speaker 3: Oh?
[37:19] Speaker 2: In fact, Johnny also like to leave the doors unlocked
[37:22] Speaker 2: at Cinnamon Hill. And as we've covered, there are all
[37:25] Speaker 2: sorts of political violence and cold war stuff going on
[37:28] Speaker 2: in Jamaica at this same time. Even though Edward Siaga
[37:31] Speaker 2: has been elected, they have released at tention that cannot
[37:35] Speaker 2: just be put back a light switch, cannot turn it off.
[37:37] Speaker 2: There's street gang still fighting and still like getting mad
[37:41] Speaker 2: and like you know, getting violent at each other.
[37:43] Speaker 4: Word travels fast, I imagine, and so all it takes
[37:46] Speaker 4: is one person to say, you know, they have no security.
[37:48] Speaker 2: Yeah, and they got Johnny Cash up there, so smash
[37:51] Speaker 2: cut December twenty third. The details of what went down
[37:55] Speaker 2: that night were shared in a UPI syndicated story originally
[37:58] Speaker 2: published by the Tennesseean. I want to give them credit
[38:01] Speaker 2: even though I found it reprinted in the Fort Pierce
[38:03] Speaker 2: Port Saint Lucy Tribune. It's a UPI syndicated story anyway.
[38:08] Speaker 2: The story is told a reporter by the brother in law,
[38:11] Speaker 2: Chuck Hussey. He tells the story of how Johnny Cash
[38:14] Speaker 2: is Jamaican Christmas Time miracle goes down. So, according to
[38:18] Speaker 2: the UPI story, Johnny Cash, his family and guests had
[38:21] Speaker 2: their heads bowed in prayer at the dinner table when
[38:24] Speaker 2: three armed men burst through the dining room door of
[38:27] Speaker 2: their Jamaican estate overlooking the Caribbean. So the three men,
[38:31] Speaker 2: mind you, Elizabeth, are wearing pantyhose over their heads.
[38:34] Speaker 3: And pantyhose all over their bodies.
[38:36] Speaker 2: They're all young. The leader of the crew is likely
[38:38] Speaker 2: in his twenties. The other two look to be in
[38:40] Speaker 2: their teens. Okay, bad mon, Yeah, So back in ninety seven,
[38:44] Speaker 2: Johnny Cash, he shared bits of this story with us Weekly.
[38:48] Speaker 2: According to him, we were sitting down to Christmas dinner,
[38:51] Speaker 2: and suddenly three robbers came in, one with a gun,
[38:55] Speaker 2: one with a knife, and one with a hatchet. They
[38:58] Speaker 2: told us to hit the floor. So the leader yells,
[39:02] Speaker 2: somebody's gonna die here tonight, and you're like, what the
[39:05] Speaker 2: In a response, Johnny Cash leaps up from his chair
[39:08] Speaker 2: and he demands, what do you want now? The masked
[39:11] Speaker 2: men with the gun points his gun at the boy
[39:14] Speaker 2: that he thinks is Johnny Cash's son, and he shouts
[39:17] Speaker 2: everything the boy dies right now. According to one account
[39:20] Speaker 2: I read, the ringleader also yelled, everybody do as I say,
[39:24] Speaker 2: or John Carter's gun to die.
[39:27] Speaker 3: Oh how nobody move, nobody get airt right? Yeah?
[39:30] Speaker 2: How did he know the boy's name? I don't know.
[39:33] Speaker 3: I don't know.
[39:33] Speaker 2: But it turns out he isn't pointing the gun at
[39:36] Speaker 2: John Carter Cash. He's pointing it out of port Dunk Caldwell.
[39:40] Speaker 2: He's probably wetting himself at this point because they're both
[39:42] Speaker 2: eleven year old boys. And so anyway, the armed men
[39:46] Speaker 2: they quickly figure out their mistake, and then the leader
[39:48] Speaker 2: corrects his aim and points his gun at John Carter Cash. Elizabeth,
[39:52] Speaker 2: can we pause for a moment to consider a question.
[39:54] Speaker 2: Can you imagine thinking it's a good idea to rob
[39:57] Speaker 2: Johnny Cash on Christmas let alone, threatening the life of
[40:00] Speaker 2: his son at gunpoint.
[40:02] Speaker 3: No, I can't imagine that's a good idea.
[40:04] Speaker 2: So what happens next? Great question?
[40:05] Speaker 3: Thank you, I'm so glad you asked.
[40:07] Speaker 2: Back to the UPI story, according to Cash's brother in law,
[40:11] Speaker 2: Hussy said, the robbers forced everyone to lie face down
[40:14] Speaker 2: on the floor and then, as the brother in law
[40:17] Speaker 2: you know elaborates, they held guns to everybody's head. Hussy
[40:21] Speaker 2: said they pushed and shoved and had the guns constantly exposed,
[40:25] Speaker 2: asking all the time if we wanted to die. We
[40:27] Speaker 2: were told not to look at them. They kept asking
[40:29] Speaker 2: do you want to die?
[40:30] Speaker 6: Mon?
[40:31] Speaker 2: Keep your head down man.
[40:33] Speaker 3: Now, Later on I would like, yes, yes, I did
[40:37] Speaker 3: free me from.
[40:37] Speaker 2: This this what? So later on Johnny Cash's son, John
[40:42] Speaker 2: Carter Cash, he wrote a memoir about his life and
[40:45] Speaker 2: he tells the same story in his book and the
[40:47] Speaker 2: book is called Anchored in Love like a boat anchor
[40:50] Speaker 2: sure right, And in it, John Carter he says how
[40:53] Speaker 2: the masked men with the gun holds it to his
[40:55] Speaker 2: head and makes him repeat, say you would die if
[40:59] Speaker 2: they do not give us three million dollars. So, despite
[41:03] Speaker 2: the armed men's he didn't quote any mond in there, No,
[41:07] Speaker 2: he did not.
[41:07] Speaker 3: And did he have to say it tree or three?
[41:10] Speaker 2: I just added that for you. I'm just working with you, Elizabeth, just.
[41:16] Speaker 4: Trying to put myself in that like what is the
[41:18] Speaker 4: guy says three million dollars? And then little Johnny Cash
[41:21] Speaker 4: Junior is all true.
[41:25] Speaker 2: What are you making fun of me?
[41:26] Speaker 3: And then they get to see anyway, don't.
[41:29] Speaker 2: You have any cultural sensitivity? So, despite the armed men's
[41:32] Speaker 2: demands that Johnny Cash handover a million or tree or
[41:35] Speaker 2: so to save his son's life, Johnny Cash has to
[41:39] Speaker 2: explain them he don't have it, ye right, He's like, look,
[41:41] Speaker 2: did Jamaican government would never allow me to bring that
[41:44] Speaker 2: much cash into your country. I can't just fly. I
[41:46] Speaker 2: don't have Jimmy Buffett over here. So, according to his
[41:49] Speaker 2: book Anchored in Love, after they realized that they won't
[41:51] Speaker 2: get a loose million or tree the armed mask men,
[41:55] Speaker 2: they changed their plan. So, as John Carter recalls it,
[41:57] Speaker 2: one of the bandits said they were going to take
[41:59] Speaker 2: us at a time, like around the house to our
[42:01] Speaker 2: room so we could give them all the money and
[42:03] Speaker 2: valuables we had. We were completely at their mercy, not
[42:07] Speaker 2: that they seemed to have any. Now, if like me,
[42:10] Speaker 2: you're wondering what Johnny Cash does while there's a gun
[42:13] Speaker 2: pointed at his boy's head. According to Hussy, he and
[42:17] Speaker 2: Cash worked out a plan to follow if anyone was shot.
[42:20] Speaker 2: John and I lay there whispering that we would take
[42:22] Speaker 2: a chair and charge the man with the hatchet. Hussy said,
[42:27] Speaker 2: So their plan is, I guess, take him out first
[42:29] Speaker 2: and just hope the guy with a gun is bad
[42:30] Speaker 2: aim I got. I don't know, but at this point
[42:33] Speaker 2: they all head crazy bad head. At this point, the
[42:38] Speaker 2: our men tell everyone to take off their jewelry, their watches,
[42:41] Speaker 2: hand them over. Now you may be wondering, Saren, I'm
[42:44] Speaker 2: not hearing a Christmas miracle now right now, I didn't
[42:50] Speaker 2: think so well to answer where the Christmas miracle part
[42:52] Speaker 2: of the story is, Elizabeth. I'd like you to close
[42:54] Speaker 2: your eyes and I'd like you to picture it. It's
[43:07] Speaker 2: the twenty third of December, and all through the house
[43:10] Speaker 2: a bunch of creatures are stirring, except for a mouse.
[43:13] Speaker 2: Because at the moment, a Jamaican badmn is planting a
[43:16] Speaker 2: gun at the head of Johnny Cash's son, and you, Elizabeth,
[43:20] Speaker 2: are a knife in the hand of a Jamaican rebel.
[43:23] Speaker 2: At the moment your a shiny metal blade gazes down
[43:26] Speaker 2: at all the folks lying head down on the floor
[43:28] Speaker 2: of the dining room of the Cinnamon Hills House. They
[43:31] Speaker 2: seem presently terrified, partly because of you, but most certainly
[43:36] Speaker 2: because of the gun aimed at the head of Johnny
[43:38] Speaker 2: Cash and June Carter's boy. John Carter, the so called
[43:41] Speaker 2: rebel who grips you tight in his somewhat sweaty hand,
[43:44] Speaker 2: he seems nervous. He's young, while the leader, much older
[43:48] Speaker 2: who holds the gun seems cool as a polar bear's toenails.
[43:51] Speaker 2: You hear him bark in order that he's gonna take
[43:53] Speaker 2: John Carter Cash with him on a tour of the
[43:56] Speaker 2: home so they can find whatever jewelry and valuables there
[43:59] Speaker 2: are to grab. He lifts the eleven year old boy
[44:02] Speaker 2: roughly to his feet. You hear the man in black
[44:05] Speaker 2: ask the gun wielding bad Mond to please remove the
[44:09] Speaker 2: gun from his son's head. The masked and armed man
[44:13] Speaker 2: sneers back. Don't worry about it, man and with that,
[44:17] Speaker 2: off you go the leader gunman. He leads the boy
[44:20] Speaker 2: to the wing of the house with the bedrooms. The
[44:22] Speaker 2: bad man with the hatchet follows, as does the man
[44:25] Speaker 2: who clutches you in hand. You're taken into the master bedroom,
[44:29] Speaker 2: where you sure hope you won't be plunged into a
[44:31] Speaker 2: mattress again to cut it open to reveal some hidden
[44:33] Speaker 2: jewels or whatnot, or worse yet, plunged into Johnny Cash's boy.
[44:38] Speaker 2: You hear the gun toting leader ask John Carter a
[44:41] Speaker 2: curious question, what do you do down here? The boy
[44:45] Speaker 2: hesitates to answer, so the masked man asks him what
[44:48] Speaker 2: do you like to do in Jamaica? Still scared, the
[44:51] Speaker 2: boy doesn't answer that question either. The armed man asks
[44:54] Speaker 2: another question, in a softened voice, do you snarkle? This
[44:59] Speaker 2: finally result at a wordless answer. The boy shakes his
[45:02] Speaker 2: head to say no. The man holding you in his
[45:05] Speaker 2: hand is amused by this line of questioning and laughs
[45:08] Speaker 2: to himself as he checks the bedside table for rings, earrings,
[45:11] Speaker 2: whatever he can find. He turns quickly as you both
[45:15] Speaker 2: hear the armed leader ask another question, do you wanta
[45:18] Speaker 2: fole my gun? You see the masked armed man hold
[45:22] Speaker 2: out his gun till the eleven year old boy as
[45:24] Speaker 2: if he would hand it over to him. This makes
[45:27] Speaker 2: no sense to you. As a thinking knife. You and
[45:30] Speaker 2: the man holding you in his semi sweaty hand are
[45:33] Speaker 2: riveted to see the boy's reaction. Will he take the
[45:36] Speaker 2: gun from the Jamaican bad mun John Carter Cash bravely
[45:40] Speaker 2: looks up at the man into his eyes, the same
[45:42] Speaker 2: eyes he can barely see through the paneos the man
[45:45] Speaker 2: wears on his head in order to hide his face.
[45:47] Speaker 2: And then he looks down at the gun, the one
[45:49] Speaker 2: that's been aimed at his head but is now reached
[45:52] Speaker 2: out if he wants to grab it. John Carter Cash
[45:56] Speaker 2: doesn't take the gun. Instead, he says, no, sir, I
[46:00] Speaker 2: don't play with guns. I have a lot of respect
[46:02] Speaker 2: for them. They're very dangerous. You guess Johnny Cash is
[46:06] Speaker 2: raising his boy right. He respects what a gun can do.
[46:10] Speaker 2: He likely also respects what a sharp knife like you
[46:12] Speaker 2: can do too. And then you hear the mask Jamaican
[46:16] Speaker 2: bad Man laugh, and he says in response, I like
[46:20] Speaker 2: youme on. He pulls the gun back, and he indicates
[46:23] Speaker 2: to his partners to follow him back to the dining
[46:25] Speaker 2: room to rejoin the others. When you come back into
[46:28] Speaker 2: the dining room, you see the relief fill Johnny Cash's
[46:31] Speaker 2: face and June Carter's eyes wet with waiting tears spread
[46:36] Speaker 2: wide at the sight of her son, who's still very
[46:39] Speaker 2: much alive. It's a Christmas time miracle. As the menace
[46:43] Speaker 2: in the room begins to fade away, John Carter Cash
[46:47] Speaker 2: has disarmed the anger of the intruders, and you are
[46:50] Speaker 2: also relieved. Even though you are a knife you still
[46:53] Speaker 2: abhor wonton violence, especially death at Christmas time. So there
[46:57] Speaker 2: you go, Elizabeth. Now, if you're wondering what Johnny Cash
[47:01] Speaker 2: was thinking while all this was going down, like, was
[47:03] Speaker 2: he praying to God to protect his son, I don't
[47:05] Speaker 2: have answers for that, I would assume, so, yeah, but
[47:08] Speaker 2: I do know this, Johnny Cash said at one point,
[47:11] Speaker 2: I really wasn't scared, except I was uneasy when the
[47:14] Speaker 2: one with the gun held it on my son. I
[47:17] Speaker 2: guess I was scared, but I couldn't let myself show it.
[47:21] Speaker 2: So he's trying to act tough. Johnny Cash got into
[47:23] Speaker 2: the place where he's trying to act tougher than he is. Yeah, exactly,
[47:26] Speaker 2: Luckily for Johnny, as you just saw, the arm bad
[47:28] Speaker 2: men did return John Carter Cash unharmed, and this helps
[47:32] Speaker 2: change the mood in the house. After that, the Jamaican
[47:35] Speaker 2: bad men quote took each person that there was, one
[47:38] Speaker 2: at a time and went from room to room looking
[47:40] Speaker 2: for valuables. This now lasts for the next two hours.
[47:43] Speaker 3: Two hours searching this place.
[47:45] Speaker 2: One at a time. Yeah, so, Elizabeth, it's pretty wild
[47:48] Speaker 2: that this Christmas dinner starts out with an armed man
[47:51] Speaker 2: who's wearing pantyhose on his head, who bursts into the
[47:53] Speaker 2: house yelling someone's going to die here tonight, and then
[47:56] Speaker 2: surprising with the same night ends without a single casualty
[47:59] Speaker 2: or exactly now. Also, rather than rip and ransack the place,
[48:04] Speaker 2: once they were satisfied with their haul of stolen loot,
[48:06] Speaker 2: the armed masked men, they ordered Johnny Cash and his
[48:09] Speaker 2: family and guests to get up off the floor and
[48:12] Speaker 2: then they lead them down to the basement. Now you
[48:15] Speaker 2: already know nothing bad is going to happen to them,
[48:18] Speaker 2: but remember they don't know exactly, So immediately some of
[48:22] Speaker 2: the women start crying, assuming they're being led down to
[48:24] Speaker 2: the basement to be murdered. Sure like a whole leave
[48:27] Speaker 2: no witnesses moment. Right, So the cook she falls out,
[48:30] Speaker 2: she faints. She's like, no, please, don't Lord Jesus, right,
[48:34] Speaker 2: So in response, the armed men bring her a cool
[48:36] Speaker 2: glass of water to drink. This relaxes the people because
[48:39] Speaker 2: now it seems less like they're going to be murdered
[48:42] Speaker 2: in the basement of a Jamaican plantation. In fact, according
[48:45] Speaker 2: to the UPI story, after the cook faints and they
[48:47] Speaker 2: bring her water, the armed masks men also bring down
[48:50] Speaker 2: some Christmas turkey, oh like a whole platter.
[48:52] Speaker 6: Right.
[48:53] Speaker 2: The UPI story said that they did that so that
[48:56] Speaker 2: the families quote seasonal celebrations would not be entire ruined. So,
[49:01] Speaker 2: being two growing boys, John Carter and his friend Doug,
[49:04] Speaker 2: they get busy and they mow down all that turkey.
[49:08] Speaker 2: They eat their fill. At this point, the bad men
[49:10] Speaker 2: barricade them all in the cellar and they lock them inside,
[49:13] Speaker 2: and then they are a mask man. They hop in
[49:15] Speaker 2: June Carter's land rover and they tear off into the
[49:18] Speaker 2: dark of the Jamaican night. If you're wondering how the
[49:21] Speaker 2: family gets out of the cellar, it just so happens.
[49:25] Speaker 2: You might imagine as Johnny Cash would later tell us Weekly,
[49:29] Speaker 2: I took a two by four after they left and
[49:31] Speaker 2: broke the door down, But by then the arm masked
[49:34] Speaker 2: bad men. They're gone. There's somewhere with like thirty five
[49:38] Speaker 2: to fifty thousand. I saw different amounts that they reported
[49:40] Speaker 2: somewhere between thirty five thousand and fifty thousand dollars worth
[49:43] Speaker 2: of jewelry and valuables. Now, when Johnny Cash tells this
[49:47] Speaker 2: story later on, in like one of his biographies or autobiographies,
[49:51] Speaker 2: rather he tells the story, he leaves out the fact
[49:54] Speaker 2: that the bad men stole a large cache of shoes,
[49:57] Speaker 2: Like I'm talking like one hundred and seventy five pairs
[50:00] Speaker 2: shoes to be exactly. I a couple questions, Melda Marcos.
[50:04] Speaker 4: Yeah, did he travel with all these? Did he just
[50:06] Speaker 4: have them shipped down? How many pairs of shoes does
[50:09] Speaker 4: one man need?
[50:10] Speaker 3: Is it was it just his? Was it everybody's shoes?
[50:13] Speaker 2: Totally? Why one hundred and seventy five shoes? Johnny? Is
[50:15] Speaker 2: he a shoe guy?
[50:16] Speaker 3: Were they in boxes? Is that why they were stolen?
[50:19] Speaker 2: Were they worn it?
[50:20] Speaker 3: I have a lot of.
[50:21] Speaker 2: You're you're forgetting who we're talking about. As did I
[50:23] Speaker 2: when I was reading about this, because Elizabeth the shoes
[50:26] Speaker 2: are intended as a Christmas time donation to a local
[50:29] Speaker 2: orphanage that Johnny Cash and June Carter supported.
[50:32] Speaker 3: What if the name of the of his like charity
[50:35] Speaker 3: was walk the line?
[50:37] Speaker 2: Oh my god, you're good.
[50:40] Speaker 3: I did not even dawn on me. I thought I shouldn't.
[50:43] Speaker 2: I shouldn't have thought he'd be so selfish, I know,
[50:46] Speaker 2: but I did the same thing. I was like, Johnny,
[50:47] Speaker 2: why I got some damn shoes. So, once they're all
[50:50] Speaker 2: freed from the seller, Hussey, the brother in law, he
[50:52] Speaker 2: leaves the Simon Hill State with one of the staff
[50:54] Speaker 2: to go alert the police about the robbery. So, according
[50:57] Speaker 2: to the account that Hussey shared with the UPI, when
[50:59] Speaker 2: they contact the authorities, the police inspectors like, oh yeah.
[51:02] Speaker 2: They end up telling Johnny Cash and them that those
[51:04] Speaker 2: same robbers who busted in on their Christmas dinner were
[51:07] Speaker 2: known bad men. They were members of a terrorist group
[51:11] Speaker 2: according to the police. Now, in fact, the leader of
[51:13] Speaker 2: the group had been shot and killed by the police
[51:15] Speaker 2: a week prior, not the same one.
[51:18] Speaker 3: They just put it aside and went out and got
[51:21] Speaker 3: back to work.
[51:22] Speaker 2: We right back to work, the professionals, semi professionals. So
[51:25] Speaker 2: the police they had developed this working theory that perhaps
[51:27] Speaker 2: robbing Johnny Cash was an inside job because the robbers
[51:31] Speaker 2: sure knew a lot about the family. They knew to
[51:32] Speaker 2: threaten John Carter right. They also, the Jamaican cops could
[51:36] Speaker 2: come to believe that perhaps the robbers had even been
[51:38] Speaker 2: to the house before because based on their familiarity with
[51:41] Speaker 2: it and the fact that they knew no security would
[51:42] Speaker 2: be there.
[51:43] Speaker 3: Yeah, I could see that.
[51:44] Speaker 2: So like, were they delivery people, were they workmen? Were
[51:47] Speaker 2: they friends of neighbors? Who knows? But what we do
[51:49] Speaker 2: know is that what happens after the break in, two
[51:52] Speaker 2: of the arm mask men they get caught and arrested
[51:55] Speaker 2: at Donald Sankster International Airport, named for the former prime minister.
[52:00] Speaker 2: They get busted in Montego Bay at the airport. You
[52:03] Speaker 2: both had tickets to Miami, and as Hussey told the UPI,
[52:07] Speaker 2: we were told they had a fence in Miami. So
[52:11] Speaker 2: at least they did think of that part. They had
[52:13] Speaker 2: a fence. We always tease these guys and they make
[52:15] Speaker 2: they don't have so true. But I don't know. I
[52:18] Speaker 2: don't know about you, Elizabeth, but I kind of doubt
[52:20] Speaker 2: they'd get top dollar in Miami, Like, I don't know
[52:22] Speaker 2: if the provenance of the jewels would be properly appreciated,
[52:25] Speaker 2: Like who knows of a fence working in Miami in
[52:27] Speaker 2: nineteen eighty one is a country music fan or even
[52:29] Speaker 2: like would know who June Carter is. You know, it's
[52:31] Speaker 2: like these are June Carter's. Oh yeah, I'm sorry, I'm
[52:35] Speaker 2: a cocaine cowboy.
[52:36] Speaker 3: I don't take it to Nashville, No.
[52:38] Speaker 2: Exactly where do you? They took it to Miami and
[52:40] Speaker 2: they had a fence there, so they're like working like
[52:42] Speaker 2: I don't know, like the cocaine cowboy like rounde.
[52:44] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[52:45] Speaker 2: Either way, most of the stolen valuables they get recovered
[52:48] Speaker 2: when they bust them. So John Carter cast said in
[52:50] Speaker 2: his memoir the whole incident was well, as he put it,
[52:53] Speaker 2: yeah that was quite a night. I love his impulse
[52:56] Speaker 2: to downplay the whole night. But how many crazy knights
[52:59] Speaker 2: you seen this?
[53:00] Speaker 3: As you're thinking, like if it doesn't rank in like
[53:03] Speaker 3: the top ten.
[53:04] Speaker 2: Right, yes? So anyway, how does Prime Minister Edward Siaga
[53:08] Speaker 2: come into play into this scenario? You great, great question
[53:11] Speaker 2: Elizabeth As. The UPI story from the days after the
[53:14] Speaker 2: incident reports Jamaican police, fearing the impact of the publicity
[53:18] Speaker 2: on their fragile tourism industry, have had no comment about
[53:21] Speaker 2: the robbery. However, there was one man who wanted to
[53:25] Speaker 2: get ahead of the narrative. One Edwards Siaga, the tool
[53:29] Speaker 2: of the CIA, a man elected in the fraught violent
[53:31] Speaker 2: nineteen eighty Jamaican elections. Yeah, the same man, as I said,
[53:34] Speaker 2: brought to power by the CIA backed unrest that now
[53:38] Speaker 2: that no one can quite put away. They're like, stop it.
[53:40] Speaker 2: What is this the French Revolution? I said, stop it. So,
[53:43] Speaker 2: according to the UPI story, the Jamaican Prime Minister Edward
[53:46] Speaker 2: Siaga personally apologized to Cash. Personally, the Prime Minister was like,
[53:51] Speaker 2: come on, Johnny. Now, they didn't even do that for
[53:53] Speaker 2: Jimmy Buffett, you know, they shot him out of the
[53:55] Speaker 2: sky with bonhom They're like, I don't know, send him.
[53:58] Speaker 2: I had out. So they're also reports that the Prime
[54:00] Speaker 2: Minister ordered an armed guard of Jamaican soldiers from the
[54:03] Speaker 2: Jamaican Defense Force to encircle the home and keep Johnny
[54:06] Speaker 2: Cash in Cinnamon Hill safe. The symbolism of his actions
[54:10] Speaker 2: were pretty clear at the time there would be no
[54:12] Speaker 2: more violence against rich white men, especially influential all American
[54:16] Speaker 2: types like Johnny Cash. So obviously Siago's leadership very much
[54:19] Speaker 2: pleases Margaret Thatcher and the newly elected US President Ronald Reagan.
[54:24] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they're geeked that they have this guy in
[54:26] Speaker 2: Jamaica and that Jamaica is no longer a friend of Cuba.
[54:29] Speaker 2: And thus it marks the beginning of a new era
[54:31] Speaker 2: for the Caribbean and for the Western world. It kind
[54:34] Speaker 2: of stops the turning tide of the of communism socialism
[54:38] Speaker 2: in the Western hemisphere. And why because a man like
[54:41] Speaker 2: Edward Siaga knew how to shrewdly align himself with both
[54:44] Speaker 2: Bob Marley and Johnny Cash. He knew how to co
[54:47] Speaker 2: opt those rebels and signal to all the world that
[54:49] Speaker 2: Jamaica is now a playground for the rich and the
[54:53] Speaker 2: and the cultural rebels, but not the militant Yeah. So, now,
[54:57] Speaker 2: am I suggesting that CIA backed viol it's going down
[55:00] Speaker 2: in the Jamaican streets is somehow related to these former
[55:03] Speaker 2: rebels who were this so called terrorists? Yes, i am,
[55:06] Speaker 2: And also am I suggesting that it was connected the
[55:09] Speaker 2: same sort of lawlessness that almost took Bob Marley's life.
[55:11] Speaker 2: And then I'll now threaten Johnny Cash. I also, but
[55:14] Speaker 2: I don't know that for a fact. I do know
[55:17] Speaker 2: Johnny Cash naively chalked up what went down in that
[55:20] Speaker 2: night to what he called the Ganja Wars. Oh, because
[55:24] Speaker 2: there was a bunch of That's how he described it.
[55:26] Speaker 2: That vastly understates what was going down at Jamaica. But Elizabeth,
[55:32] Speaker 2: I will say that Edward Siagas certainly knew how to
[55:34] Speaker 2: use this moment to his benefit. And I think it's
[55:36] Speaker 2: ultimately fitting we give the final words to the man
[55:38] Speaker 2: in black himself. In his autobiography, Johnny Cash wrote that
[55:42] Speaker 2: he considered what happened that night as well as he
[55:45] Speaker 2: put it, I'm out of answers. My only certainties are
[55:48] Speaker 2: that I agree for desperate young men and the societies
[55:51] Speaker 2: that produce and suffer so many of them. I felt
[55:54] Speaker 2: that I knew those boys. We had a kinship they
[55:57] Speaker 2: and I. I knew how they thought. I knew they needed.
[56:01] Speaker 2: They were like me. He's talking about trucks. Yeah, no,
[56:04] Speaker 2: there it is, Elizabeth. But there's our second Christmas Time miracle.
[56:08] Speaker 2: Johnny Cash gets robbed. They point guns at his son,
[56:12] Speaker 2: his wife, him, his friends, his archaeologist. Yes, they threatened
[56:15] Speaker 2: to kill someone. They steal valuables, and they steal his
[56:18] Speaker 2: shoes for an orphanage. And he never demonizes Jamaica. It's
[56:22] Speaker 2: people or even those bad men. Yeah, Instead, Johnny Cash
[56:25] Speaker 2: walks away identifying with the armed bad men. He sees
[56:30] Speaker 2: himself in them. I think, old baby Jesus.
[56:33] Speaker 4: You know you gotta you gotta give it up to
[56:35] Speaker 4: Johnny Cash is true Christians.
[56:37] Speaker 2: Right, that's the kind of Christian that I'm like, hats off. Sorry,
[56:40] Speaker 2: I can see how your your spirituality informs your life exactly,
[56:44] Speaker 2: how you walk the line, right you do. What's a
[56:47] Speaker 2: ridiculous takeaway?
[56:48] Speaker 3: Here, mess Johnny Cash?
[56:50] Speaker 4: Right, that's just yeah, that should that should be a
[56:53] Speaker 4: global thing. I mean, obviously he's not around anymore to
[56:56] Speaker 4: mess with, but even just in his spirit, don't step
[56:59] Speaker 4: to him, Sarah, what's your ridiculous take away?
[57:02] Speaker 2: You know, sometimes you try real hard and sometimes you
[57:05] Speaker 2: jamake a mistake.
[57:07] Speaker 3: Oh my god, that's sweet, Banana Winds.
[57:13] Speaker 2: Yes, so you're in the mood for talkback. We can
[57:16] Speaker 2: watch this down like it with a cool dacker Eam
[57:19] Speaker 2: produce a d Can you favor us with a nice
[57:22] Speaker 2: and tasty one? Oh?
[57:27] Speaker 6: Oh my god, I love get.
[57:36] Speaker 2: Hey rude dudes.
[57:36] Speaker 5: I just listened to the Pizza Connection episode excellent title,
[57:39] Speaker 5: by the way, and I have a related story. About
[57:42] Speaker 5: ten years ago, I was renting a house with some
[57:44] Speaker 5: friends in kind of a sketchy neighborhood like you do
[57:46] Speaker 5: in your twenties. A KFC up the street from us
[57:48] Speaker 5: was eventually busted for selling drugs out the drive through
[57:51] Speaker 5: window openly like people were ordering a ten piece and
[57:54] Speaker 5: a dimebag. That was our cue to move. Obviously, thanks
[57:57] Speaker 5: for the podcast, and I'm looking forward to the loof
[57:59] Speaker 5: Heistuff episode.
[58:01] Speaker 2: Yes, time back a ten piece?
[58:06] Speaker 3: I love it.
[58:07] Speaker 2: I like that dimebag, extra crunchy, extra sticky.
[58:12] Speaker 3: Oh that's so good.
[58:14] Speaker 2: Well, thank you for that one. And uh we obviously
[58:17] Speaker 2: we'd love your talkback, So please go to the iHeart
[58:19] Speaker 2: app downloaded and you can leave a talk back there
[58:21] Speaker 2: maybe to hear your voice here, we would love to
[58:23] Speaker 2: hear it. And uh you can also find us online
[58:26] Speaker 2: at Ridiculous Crime on our social media that's mostly Instagram,
[58:30] Speaker 2: a blue sky. I think I think somewhere else, maybe
[58:31] Speaker 2: I don't know. And we have the account Ridiculous Crime
[58:34] Speaker 2: Pod on YouTube, so go check that out if you
[58:37] Speaker 2: prefer listening on YouTube. And we have our website, Ridiculous
[58:40] Speaker 2: Crime dot com, which we we didn't get nominated for
[58:44] Speaker 2: any awards this week. I think we're slacking, I know,
[58:47] Speaker 2: but whatever, So that's okay. So now you can't win
[58:50] Speaker 2: every week. So you can email us though if you
[58:53] Speaker 2: want at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. We'd love
[58:56] Speaker 2: to hear from you. We've been getting some great ones
[58:57] Speaker 2: if we think about putting together a mailbag episode, so
[59:00] Speaker 2: please send us some ridiculous Confessions stories, you know, things
[59:04] Speaker 2: you found. We'd love to hear it. As always, thank
[59:07] Speaker 2: you for listening and we will catch you next crime.
[59:15] Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnett,
[59:19] Speaker 2: produced and edited by Johnny Cash's favorite podcast producer, mister
[59:24] Speaker 2: Dave Kustin, and starring analyst Rucker Is Judith. Research is
[59:28] Speaker 2: by our very own Tennessee two Marissa Brown and Jabbari Davis.
[59:32] Speaker 2: Our theme song is by our resident June Carter, fanboys
[59:36] Speaker 2: Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by
[59:39] Speaker 2: Body five hundred guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshop and
[59:43] Speaker 2: mister Andre. Executive producers are Henry Kissinger, Anti Fan Club
[59:48] Speaker 2: presidents Ben Bolin and Noel.
[59:50] Speaker 6: Brown REDI Why Say One, We're Ridiculous Crime.
[1:00:03] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
[1:00:06] Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
[1:00:10] Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.

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