# The Last Temptation of Aubrey Lee Price

An episode of [Ridiculous Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1608230191), 10 Mar 2026, 1 h 15 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0b4bcc39-7ba2-453f-aaac-ae510011dd80/a2b60b79-05f1-465f-9d05-b408016d0078/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3a4c50f5-ff69-4807-aa26-ae510011dd8e

He was a husband, a father, a pastor, a financial planner and broker, that is until he decided he'd had enough of that life. So he threw it all away and found a new path as a small-time pimp, cocaine trafficker and marijuana cultivator. But he never gave up on Jesus and the Lord. Because Aubrey Lee Price contained multitudes. And he considered Jesus his role model... for his life of crime. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
[0:03] Speaker 2: Elizabeth Dunnon Zaren Burnette.
[0:07] Speaker 3: Ah, nice to see you.
[0:10] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good to be here.
[0:11] Speaker 4: It's good to see you.
[0:12] Speaker 3: Oh good. I'm glad you feel that way.
[0:13] Speaker 2: Yeah, I do feel that way.
[0:15] Speaker 3: I've got a question for you. Do you know it's ridiculous?
[0:18] Speaker 2: I do know it's ridiculous.
[0:19] Speaker 3: You look like you do.
[0:20] Speaker 2: Yeah. What's seven inches by seven inches by eleven and
[0:23] Speaker 2: point four inches weighs two point four pounds.
[0:27] Speaker 3: I have no idea, but I'm afraid of it.
[0:29] Speaker 2: It is made of one hundred percent polyester resin.
[0:31] Speaker 3: I'm getting more afraid of it and.
[0:33] Speaker 2: Cost you four hundred ninety five dollars.
[0:37] Speaker 3: I am so curious. Let's see a laminated flat map
[0:42] Speaker 3: of the world, over and over and over again.
[0:46] Speaker 2: Close introducing the world's first ever music streaming Earn from
[0:54] Speaker 2: Liquid Death and Spotify. This makes me want to do
[1:00] Speaker 2: something to myself. Finally, death is a lot less boring
[1:05] Speaker 2: fine with the Eternal playlist Earn. Now the dead can
[1:08] Speaker 2: listen to their favorite jams for all of eternity. Upgrade
[1:13] Speaker 2: any post life experience with this latest revolution in being dead.
[1:19] Speaker 3: I'm sorry, go on.
[1:20] Speaker 2: It's they only made one hundred and fifties things, thank
[1:22] Speaker 2: your God, and they're sold out.
[1:25] Speaker 3: Okay, I can believe that. Dudes.
[1:28] Speaker 2: Everybody wants to clue us in four hundred and ninety
[1:31] Speaker 2: five dollars a limit of five per customer, and.
[1:36] Speaker 4: He does.
[1:37] Speaker 2: And then Spotify we're like, guess what we can come
[1:40] Speaker 2: up with an eternal soundtrack? And so they partnered with
[1:45] Speaker 2: Liquid Death at the Water Company and they came up
[1:48] Speaker 2: with the Eternal Playlist Earn.
[1:51] Speaker 4: So I couldn't.
[1:52] Speaker 2: I don't know if you have it on, can you
[1:53] Speaker 2: hear it outside of the urn? Or is it only inside?
[1:57] Speaker 5: No?
[1:58] Speaker 2: I really think it's only for inside the earn because
[2:01] Speaker 2: it's saying it's a collector's item for anyone looking to
[2:04] Speaker 2: take their love for music to the next level. With
[2:07] Speaker 2: a discrete Bluetooth speaker built into the lid, you can
[2:11] Speaker 2: connect from any compatible device and enjoy your favorite playlist
[2:14] Speaker 2: for all eternity. Yes, it's all parodies. No, The thing is,
[2:20] Speaker 2: it's like if you don't have a personality and you
[2:24] Speaker 2: want them to make one for you. You can go
[2:26] Speaker 2: to Spotify's Eternal Playlist Generator and answer a few questions
[2:30] Speaker 2: like what is your eternal vibe or what's.
[2:34] Speaker 4: Your go to ghost noise?
[2:37] Speaker 3: What?
[2:37] Speaker 2: I don't have Spotify, so I can't get like I'm
[2:39] Speaker 2: not having account I don't know what.
[2:41] Speaker 3: A ghost noise is. I mean, I don't know.
[2:44] Speaker 2: I'm trying to see. It looks like it's not it's
[2:46] Speaker 2: it's multiple choice, because I was like, my favorite ghost
[2:49] Speaker 2: noise would be, you know, like the sound of someone
[2:53] Speaker 2: playing a French horn and falling down the stairs. You know,
[2:57] Speaker 2: ghost right, But no, Okay, So what's your turn vibe?
[3:00] Speaker 2: One big party, very very chill, so much yearning or
[3:06] Speaker 2: being an actual angel?
[3:08] Speaker 4: Those are the choices.
[3:09] Speaker 3: There pop music over the last ten years.
[3:11] Speaker 2: It has to be what's your go to ghost noise?
[3:14] Speaker 2: Wu wah wah wah wa maha ha ha ha boo
[3:20] Speaker 2: or gentle spooky whispering. I'm going with the whispering.
[3:23] Speaker 3: Yeah, those choices.
[3:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, so then you're gonna get ivy. That is ridiculous,
[3:32] Speaker 2: zaren the limited quantity they only had.
[3:37] Speaker 3: Death needs to be stopped.
[3:38] Speaker 2: Liquid They do need to be stopped. There's just they've
[3:41] Speaker 2: gone too far. The joke isn't funny anymore. I will
[3:45] Speaker 2: note that and that the details about the product. Each
[3:50] Speaker 2: is one of a kind and produced in small batches,
[3:52] Speaker 2: may have small imperfections that make them unique. So like
[3:56] Speaker 2: they paid very little money your eternal reward for some
[4:02] Speaker 2: timu thing that. It's like, it's not gonna look exactly
[4:05] Speaker 2: like we wanted to.
[4:06] Speaker 4: But it was on purpose.
[4:11] Speaker 3: This world.
[4:12] Speaker 4: But I thought it was a joke.
[4:14] Speaker 6: It is a joke, a.
[4:16] Speaker 4: Joke, but I thought I was like, it's not April.
[4:19] Speaker 3: No, it's not that kind of joke, funny ha ha joke.
[4:22] Speaker 3: It's like, what are you doing around?
[4:24] Speaker 2: This is the late stage capitalism?
[4:26] Speaker 3: Yeah exactly. Wow, Yeah, it's ridiculous wind like when you exceed,
[4:32] Speaker 3: like this could be a Larry David you know episode,
[4:35] Speaker 3: Like we're way past that. You can't even see that
[4:38] Speaker 3: from here in the rear view. I got one for you, Elizabeth.
[4:43] Speaker 3: If you are creative and open minded enough, sure you
[4:46] Speaker 3: can find role models anywhere. For instance, there's a Georgia
[4:51] Speaker 3: man who believed Jesus was a perfect criminal role model.
[4:55] Speaker 4: Oh well, I mean he's just trashed the temple.
[5:19] Speaker 3: This is Ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists,
[5:24] Speaker 3: and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and
[5:30] Speaker 3: one hundred percent ridiculous.
[5:33] Speaker 6: Yes, Elizabeth, I've got two words for you.
[5:36] Speaker 3: Two words Jesus Christ.
[5:39] Speaker 2: That's you and I both attended Catholic school, and you
[5:43] Speaker 2: get a different sense of who Jesus was and what
[5:45] Speaker 2: he meant to the world depending on if you hear
[5:47] Speaker 2: it from nuns or from priests.
[5:48] Speaker 3: Would you agree about that?
[5:50] Speaker 4: And where you went to Catholic school?
[5:52] Speaker 3: Oh, definitely, And also yeah, which type of Catholic school
[5:54] Speaker 3: it is. It's more than one. So to the priests
[5:57] Speaker 3: who taught me theology, Jesus wasn't just like some you know,
[6:00] Speaker 3: turn the other cheeks started proto hippie and open toad
[6:03] Speaker 3: sandals at Jesuit. Jesus was the leader of spiritual warfare. Yeah, because, yeah,
[6:09] Speaker 3: the Jesuits are quote warriors for Christ aka God's Holy Marines.
[6:14] Speaker 2: Now, many British soldiers, many.
[6:17] Speaker 3: Of the priests, they did see and talk about Jesus
[6:19] Speaker 3: as this radical, anti Roman, anti militaristic figure, like you're
[6:22] Speaker 3: talking about the Prince of peace and all that. The
[6:25] Speaker 3: table flipping Jesus right, disrupting power structures, and like you,
[6:30] Speaker 3: I also like the table flipping Jesus. That's that's my favorite.
[6:34] Speaker 2: Jesus in like a meadow with like little baby animals.
[6:38] Speaker 3: Yeah, that's good.
[6:39] Speaker 6: Like feed everybody, Jesus.
[6:42] Speaker 2: I love feed everybody Jesus. I like Jesus. Your healed Jesus.
[6:45] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's good. And I like Jesus like whoa guys, No,
[6:49] Speaker 2: don't do that.
[6:49] Speaker 3: Yeah, hey, be good to her. Yeah, help this, like
[6:52] Speaker 3: you know, foreigner Samaritan.
[6:55] Speaker 2: What have you? Exactly?
[6:56] Speaker 3: So my point is this all brings me to the
[7:00] Speaker 3: purpose today and why he saw Jesus as a criminal
[7:04] Speaker 3: role model, which is a totally new view.
[7:06] Speaker 2: On jess This is groundbreaking.
[7:08] Speaker 3: No, he didn't see Jesus as a criminal who was
[7:11] Speaker 3: some table flipping anti authority figure. That's not the criminal
[7:13] Speaker 3: he saw. He also wasn't a Catholic, so that may
[7:16] Speaker 3: has something to do with it. He was a Baptist,
[7:19] Speaker 3: and he saw Jesus the way a lot of Southern
[7:20] Speaker 3: Baptists do, which is the source of forgiveness. Okay, right,
[7:24] Speaker 3: so specifically forgiving him for his crimes. Yeah, and if
[7:28] Speaker 3: Jesus could forgive him, then who is he to say otherwise?
[7:31] Speaker 3: You know, But he also saw Jesus as a criminal
[7:35] Speaker 3: role model, specifically and more importantly, because Jesus came back
[7:39] Speaker 3: from the dead.
[7:41] Speaker 2: Okay, I did not know that that was a prerequisite
[7:44] Speaker 2: for a good criminal.
[7:46] Speaker 3: For this guy's plan, Elizabeth, this one is a classic story,
[7:50] Speaker 3: a parable of a godly man who falls to temptation
[7:53] Speaker 3: and he becomes what he once ministered against. I'd like
[7:57] Speaker 3: you to meet Aubrey. Lee Price ends a family. They
[8:00] Speaker 3: all call him Lee Price, and I don't call him
[8:02] Speaker 3: all Aubrey.
[8:02] Speaker 6: Just like Drake.
[8:03] Speaker 3: He dropped the Aubrey yeah, and kept it moving. So
[8:06] Speaker 3: let's get into the rise and fall of Lee Price. Yes,
[8:09] Speaker 3: he was born in nineteen sixty six. Lee Price began
[8:12] Speaker 3: his life in Atlanta, Georgia. Shout out to the atl Soon,
[8:15] Speaker 3: though his father relocated his family down to Palm Beach, Florida.
[8:19] Speaker 3: That is where Lee Price, second son of a farmer,
[8:22] Speaker 3: learned to happily pick vegetables on the old family plot. Okay,
[8:26] Speaker 3: that didn't last long though, because his family bounced around
[8:28] Speaker 3: in Florida. They left farming behind and his father opened
[8:32] Speaker 3: a family restaurant, so he started working there. As a boy,
[8:35] Speaker 3: Lee Price was his quiet kid, good at sports. Tennis
[8:38] Speaker 3: was his favorite. Being a Southern boy, he also enjoyed fishing,
[8:42] Speaker 3: and so when he gets to junior high, I want
[8:43] Speaker 3: to tell you his old childhood. His family returns to Georgia,
[8:46] Speaker 3: where young Lee Price continues his tennis career. His high
[8:50] Speaker 3: school tennis coach liked and respected this kid so much
[8:54] Speaker 3: he named one of his own children after the boy. Okay, right,
[8:58] Speaker 3: that's just what that same coach said of Lee. Quote,
[9:01] Speaker 3: he had a good head on his shoulders. He was
[9:03] Speaker 3: sensitive and hard working. So there you go. Now, Lee
[9:07] Speaker 3: brought those same characteristics with him when he went off
[9:09] Speaker 3: to college. First, though, he got a job at a
[9:11] Speaker 3: power plant so that he could save up money to
[9:13] Speaker 3: attend Bruton Parker. It's a Baptist college in Georgia. So,
[9:17] Speaker 3: as Lee wrote in his unpublished memoir, The Inglorious Fugitive
[9:21] Speaker 3: unpublished quote, thank you. I paid my way through a
[9:24] Speaker 3: four year private college on my own. I was not
[9:27] Speaker 3: a trust fund bratt, and I did not like kids
[9:29] Speaker 3: who got everything handed to them. I still do not.
[9:32] Speaker 3: I worked for everything and anything I had, So, you know,
[9:36] Speaker 3: good old fashioned American good for him. Now you can
[9:38] Speaker 3: imagine you basically, you can start to get the general
[9:40] Speaker 3: shape of this guy. Hard worker, polite, respectable, likable, self starter, achiever,
[9:45] Speaker 3: highly principled, total achiever, ambitious. Those same values and behaviors
[9:49] Speaker 3: they would hold into adulthood. As Lee Price later wrote,
[9:53] Speaker 3: until my late thirties, I never really had any debt
[9:56] Speaker 3: other than a mortgage. I never wanted to know anyone
[9:58] Speaker 3: anything but the love of my heart. And that is
[10:01] Speaker 3: how I live most of my adult life. Okay, good guy, Right, Yeah,
[10:05] Speaker 3: she's surprised no one that Lee Price found a home
[10:07] Speaker 3: for himself in the church. That's why he went to college,
[10:10] Speaker 3: in fact, to study to become a minister, and he
[10:12] Speaker 3: left with a bachelor's in ministry. And while in college,
[10:15] Speaker 3: he met a young woman named Rebecca. He asked her
[10:17] Speaker 3: to be his wife. She said yes. Now, as for
[10:21] Speaker 3: his ministerial career, he started out as a youth pastor
[10:24] Speaker 3: in Georgia. He also went on to attend Columbia International University,
[10:27] Speaker 3: where he got a master's degree. After that, he got
[10:30] Speaker 3: his first job as a minister in a small town
[10:33] Speaker 3: called Paleone, South Carolina, about twenty two miles from the
[10:37] Speaker 3: outside of Columbia. Okay, now, he and his wife soon
[10:40] Speaker 3: greeted the first two I said it a small town.
[10:43] Speaker 4: Now, I believe he was of it.
[10:46] Speaker 3: They greeted the first two of their four kids right now. Meanwhile,
[10:48] Speaker 3: Lee Price, he also earned his reputation around town. Is
[10:51] Speaker 3: this friendly, caring local pastor. Soon enough, in the late
[10:55] Speaker 3: nineteen nineties, the family moves back to Georgia into a
[10:57] Speaker 3: town called Griffin. This is where Lee Price takes a
[11:00] Speaker 3: job as the pastor at the local Baptist church. You
[11:03] Speaker 3: can kind of see what he's doing, right, It's nice.
[11:06] Speaker 3: It's this devout young minister. He tithed Elizabeth. He gave
[11:10] Speaker 3: ten percent of his income to back to the church
[11:13] Speaker 3: for its charity works. He also began his own missionary
[11:16] Speaker 3: work down to South America. He traveled to Venezuela to
[11:19] Speaker 3: spread the word of God right and many of his
[11:21] Speaker 3: congregation would travel down with him.
[11:23] Speaker 7: Yeah.
[11:24] Speaker 3: Now, this was around the same time that Lee Price
[11:26] Speaker 3: also began his financial education. He studied investment strategies basically
[11:31] Speaker 3: with the same zeal that he studied the Bible back
[11:33] Speaker 3: in Baptist College. So by the year two thousand, he
[11:36] Speaker 3: begins his secondary career as a broker. He soon finds
[11:40] Speaker 3: work in this brokerage firm, Solomon Smith Barney, one of
[11:44] Speaker 3: the big dogs. Yeah, that meant the family got to
[11:46] Speaker 3: move to a suburb north of Atlanta called Alpharetta, Georgia.
[11:49] Speaker 3: Probably heard of Alpharetta right now. Once settled in there,
[11:53] Speaker 3: he finds new work as the pastor of Clear Springs
[11:55] Speaker 3: Baptist Church. And by this point, his career as a
[11:58] Speaker 3: broker is earning him enough money that he donates not
[12:01] Speaker 3: just ten percent, he no longer ties, yeah, ten times
[12:04] Speaker 3: that because he gives his entire paycheck from the church
[12:07] Speaker 3: to his Venezuelan charity. It's called a global discipleship. Now,
[12:12] Speaker 3: the young pastor and financial broker, this father, family man,
[12:15] Speaker 3: his many identities, they all find happy expression and success
[12:19] Speaker 3: in Alfaretta. Like when he would, like, for instance, as
[12:22] Speaker 3: a father, when he would tuck his kids into bed
[12:24] Speaker 3: at night, they would pray together, and often they would
[12:26] Speaker 3: pray for so long that it ended up being like
[12:28] Speaker 3: a bedtime story and the kids would just drift off
[12:31] Speaker 3: to sleep before their prayer was even done. Really, yeah,
[12:34] Speaker 3: I don't know, so.
[12:35] Speaker 2: These kids so long, so long prayer.
[12:39] Speaker 3: These kids were the center of his world. He rarely
[12:41] Speaker 3: missed their school plays, their football game, soccer, tennis matches,
[12:45] Speaker 3: you name it. He was their very involved family man.
[12:47] Speaker 3: One of his sons, Nathan, I found a quote where
[12:49] Speaker 3: he said of his dad, quote, He's my hero. My
[12:51] Speaker 3: favorite thing to do was watch my dad preach. I
[12:54] Speaker 3: would just blow up with pride. We look good for that,
[12:57] Speaker 3: he following his father into the ministerial heart.
[13:00] Speaker 2: Can I get an amen? Yeah?
[13:01] Speaker 3: Man, sister. Now, Lee Price's life in finance also blossomed
[13:05] Speaker 3: with great success. In two thousand and three, he joins
[13:08] Speaker 3: this new firm bank with a sea of America securities.
[13:11] Speaker 3: So I'm thinking it's a Southern yeah bonk, Yeah, it's
[13:15] Speaker 3: like South American. And he soon pursues his broker's live
[13:18] Speaker 3: of his own. So by two thousand and eight he
[13:21] Speaker 3: had his broker's license. What a time, and he starts
[13:23] Speaker 3: his own firm. Soon enough he has one hundred dedicated
[13:26] Speaker 3: clients who entrust him with their money.
[13:29] Speaker 2: Wow.
[13:30] Speaker 3: Yeah. This sort of success leads to him buying a
[13:32] Speaker 3: second home down in Bradenton, Florida. American success story Elizabeth
[13:36] Speaker 3: and then in two thousand and nine, for reasons only
[13:39] Speaker 3: he can explain, Lee Price humble, likable family man, devout
[13:43] Speaker 3: servant of God, local pastor, founder of his own charity
[13:46] Speaker 3: brokerage and his own firm, he decides to make yet
[13:49] Speaker 3: another career change, Elizabeth. You see, in two thousand and nine,
[13:52] Speaker 3: Lee Price decides to become a professional financial fraudster. Well,
[13:57] Speaker 3: let me just add that to my quiver. Now, if
[13:59] Speaker 3: you're clocking the years I've just been.
[14:01] Speaker 4: Say yeah, he has been.
[14:02] Speaker 3: This is right in the middle of one of the
[14:04] Speaker 3: worst financial eras in US history, aka the two thousand
[14:07] Speaker 3: and eight economic collapse. Amidst all that financial ruin the
[14:11] Speaker 3: next year, so we're in two thousand and ninety, a
[14:13] Speaker 3: year past that. So the next year, in twenty ten,
[14:16] Speaker 3: amidst all this financial ruin in the wake of wreckage,
[14:19] Speaker 3: Price decides to take some of that money entrusted to
[14:22] Speaker 3: him by his forty of his one hundred investors, and
[14:24] Speaker 3: he buys a local bank. Okay the bank, mind you,
[14:28] Speaker 3: is distressed. It's got a bunch of loans, bad paper
[14:31] Speaker 3: and get the idea. But Lee thinks he can turn
[14:33] Speaker 3: it around. He thought he could capitalize all the financial
[14:36] Speaker 3: collapse to make no pun intended bank Well.
[14:39] Speaker 2: Sale, yeah, I hear you like him done.
[14:42] Speaker 3: So, Lee wrote in his unpublished memoir, I had no
[14:46] Speaker 3: community banking background or experience, But several my clients and
[14:49] Speaker 3: other contacts were convinced that these community banks needing capital
[14:53] Speaker 3: were opportunities we should consider. After attending a number of
[14:57] Speaker 3: dog and pony shows meetings with a couple of different
[14:59] Speaker 3: banks in the state of Georgia, my interests perked up.
[15:02] Speaker 3: I listened to the stories. I how if certain amounts
[15:04] Speaker 3: of capital were injected into these banks, they would be
[15:08] Speaker 3: gold mines.
[15:09] Speaker 2: Again, no experience in it, No send them in.
[15:13] Speaker 3: Yeah, all he needs is a dog and pony show
[15:15] Speaker 3: and he's he's signed up like it's one of those.
[15:18] Speaker 4: Timeshare Thank you.
[15:20] Speaker 3: Now, this all sounds super promising to Lee Price, because,
[15:23] Speaker 3: as it turns out, he just needs to make a
[15:25] Speaker 3: fortune or two to replace the money of his investors,
[15:27] Speaker 3: which he had lost in the two thousand and eight
[15:29] Speaker 3: two thousand and nine economic collapse. You see, Lee had
[15:32] Speaker 3: been secretly pursuing high risk investment opportunities with his clients
[15:36] Speaker 3: money he'd lost eye popping amounts in South American.
[15:41] Speaker 6: Real estate deals.
[15:42] Speaker 4: Oh god, So by this.
[15:43] Speaker 3: Point, Lee is already lying to his clients and to
[15:46] Speaker 3: cover for his losses. He's sending the fraudulent account statements
[15:49] Speaker 3: and hoping like hell, they don't ask for their money, right.
[15:52] Speaker 3: So on the final day of the year, December thirty first,
[15:54] Speaker 3: twenty eleven, Lee Price approves the purchase of a bank
[15:58] Speaker 3: by his investment firm, pf G. He arranges the deal
[16:01] Speaker 3: for ten million dollars to help the bank achieve it's like,
[16:04] Speaker 3: you know, a near term.
[16:06] Speaker 6: Success, we'll call it.
[16:07] Speaker 3: He convinces locals in Alpharetta to invest four million of
[16:10] Speaker 3: their money into the bank. So now he's got fourteen
[16:13] Speaker 3: million dollar injection of capital, this liquidity, right, it's designed
[16:18] Speaker 3: to get the bank back on its feet and also
[16:20] Speaker 3: to save the economic future of Alpharetta.
[16:22] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[16:23] Speaker 3: Two of the initial local investors were a father and
[16:26] Speaker 3: a son, who together invested two million dollars. The father
[16:30] Speaker 3: wanted to revive the local economic activity. His dutiful son
[16:34] Speaker 3: went along with his father's plans. But at one of
[16:36] Speaker 3: their very first board meetings, Keith McSwain, that's the son,
[16:40] Speaker 3: he gets a look at the bank's balance sheet. Now,
[16:43] Speaker 3: he was a homebuilder, like he was used to banks
[16:46] Speaker 3: in financing. He was not unused to this world at all.
[16:50] Speaker 3: Actually very rather knowledgeable, and so what he sees in
[16:54] Speaker 3: this bank's balance sheet is just all this bad paper,
[16:57] Speaker 3: all these bad loans, and he's on the board. And
[16:59] Speaker 3: he's on the board. Yeah, what his father is He's
[17:01] Speaker 3: like invited to the board meeting, he says, a junior investor.
[17:04] Speaker 3: I don't know. Yeah, So whatever he sees scares the
[17:08] Speaker 3: hell out of him. So when he has a chance
[17:10] Speaker 3: to pull lead Price aside at dinner that night, McSwain says, uh, Lee,
[17:14] Speaker 3: this is a major problem.
[17:16] Speaker 6: Now you know what.
[17:17] Speaker 3: Lee Price's response was, no, boy, he stopped inviting McSwain
[17:21] Speaker 3: to any future board meetings for the bank.
[17:23] Speaker 4: Oh that'll solve it. That'll solve it.
[17:25] Speaker 3: Later on, Keith gets a call from his father, and
[17:27] Speaker 3: his dad, who had invested one point five million into
[17:30] Speaker 3: the bank, tells his son, who'd invested a half million
[17:33] Speaker 3: of his own money, that quote, Hey, I just got
[17:36] Speaker 3: a call from Lee and they had an audit and
[17:38] Speaker 3: a write down and basically all the equity in the
[17:40] Speaker 3: bank has been severely reduced. So it turns out that
[17:44] Speaker 3: was the first big red flashing neon sign that indicated
[17:48] Speaker 3: that the bank Lee Price had talked to everyone into
[17:51] Speaker 3: buying and talked to his investors into capitalizing, was bleeding cash.
[17:55] Speaker 3: As in their cash yeah, and it owns some truly
[17:59] Speaker 3: terrorrible loans, like underwater car loans, like just terrible paper. Now,
[18:05] Speaker 3: Lee Price explained in an interview with Charles Bethea of
[18:08] Speaker 3: Atlanta Magazine, where We've got many of these great quotes
[18:12] Speaker 3: that I'm going to be using throughout this episode. Quote. So,
[18:16] Speaker 3: now we buy the bank and we find out these
[18:18] Speaker 3: numbers are nowhere near correct. I mean, how bad are
[18:21] Speaker 3: they off? Well, instead of three point four million dollar hole,
[18:25] Speaker 3: we're in at least a fifty.
[18:27] Speaker 6: Million dollar hole.
[18:28] Speaker 3: Fifty instead of three point four fifty million.
[18:33] Speaker 6: Like that's far. I can't even see.
[18:35] Speaker 3: Fifty from here.
[18:37] Speaker 2: Huge difference.
[18:38] Speaker 3: But this wasn't all, Elizabeth, because it was also far
[18:41] Speaker 3: worse than what I just said. It wasn't just a
[18:43] Speaker 3: fifty million dollars open because remember, prior to the bank,
[18:46] Speaker 3: Lee Price was already losing his client's investment capital. So
[18:50] Speaker 3: now he's got two lost leaders. Yeah, in the millions. Okay,
[18:55] Speaker 3: with that thought, let's take a little break, and when
[18:57] Speaker 3: we're back, we'll get into how much worse this can get.
[19:01] Speaker 7: No, we're back, Elizabeth.
[19:24] Speaker 2: So where were we staunching two incredible wounds?
[19:29] Speaker 3: The Lee Price is leveraging his clients' funds and the
[19:32] Speaker 3: money of new local investors to buy a bank that's
[19:35] Speaker 3: drowning in bad paper loans that will never be repaid
[19:38] Speaker 3: and have to be written off as losses. That's like
[19:40] Speaker 3: to settle with the government and you're filing your taxes correctly,
[19:43] Speaker 3: which I'm doubting that, which also means now Lea's scheme
[19:46] Speaker 3: to repay the funds he's already lost is now underwater
[19:50] Speaker 3: because the gold mine he thought was a gold mine
[19:52] Speaker 3: is actually a bad bank. Sure, so this is all
[19:54] Speaker 3: crashing and burning, and now his problems get worse. So
[19:58] Speaker 3: what does Lee do next? Well, does engage in like
[20:00] Speaker 3: a campaign of deep and I don't know meaningful prayer
[20:04] Speaker 3: asking God for guidance. Does he buy a new business
[20:07] Speaker 3: one where he can legitimately make back this lost money.
[20:10] Speaker 3: Does he get into maybe real estate with all these
[20:12] Speaker 3: low prices in the housing crash, Maybe snap up some
[20:16] Speaker 3: properties on the cheap, put in a little hard work, Elizabeth,
[20:18] Speaker 3: flip them for big profits. Lotto tickets like lots of them.
[20:22] Speaker 3: They're all great questions, Elizabeth, stop guessing. I'll tell you. Oh,
[20:25] Speaker 3: I can't Lee sweet talk the bank officials into letting
[20:29] Speaker 3: him transfer five million dollars of the fourteen million dollar
[20:33] Speaker 3: capitalization to purchase safe, sustainable US securities. Like, let's just
[20:37] Speaker 3: shore some of the money up here and we'll be
[20:40] Speaker 3: able to grow that from that.
[20:41] Speaker 2: How do these guys sweet talk because people let lenders
[20:46] Speaker 2: and banks.
[20:47] Speaker 3: Well, he's talking to like the bank officials, basically like
[20:49] Speaker 3: the board in primary. There's some regulators evolved though in
[20:53] Speaker 3: this process. Yeah, Well, he's able to wire the five
[20:56] Speaker 3: million dollars into a global investment firm.
[20:59] Speaker 2: Okay.
[21:00] Speaker 3: Meanwhile, he continues to mail out fraudulent investment statements to
[21:04] Speaker 3: his firm's clients, like at his brokerage, not just hiding
[21:08] Speaker 3: the losses and debts he's incurred at the brokers, but
[21:10] Speaker 3: also showing that despite the rough financial headwinds everyone's going
[21:13] Speaker 3: through in the post two thousand and eight economic collapse,
[21:16] Speaker 3: Lee is earning them big profits. You don't need to
[21:18] Speaker 3: get your money making suspicious. Don't take it out because
[21:21] Speaker 3: you're making so much. Let it cook so they got
[21:24] Speaker 3: nothing to worry about, what, you know? So you know
[21:26] Speaker 3: what we call that move, by the way, a Ponzi scheme.
[21:29] Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's the name for it.
[21:30] Speaker 3: But also one with a rug pull as the kids
[21:33] Speaker 3: would say, on the side. So you get this, Elizabeth,
[21:37] Speaker 3: there was no account at any global investment firm that
[21:40] Speaker 3: five million dollars that Lee transferred that went to himself,
[21:44] Speaker 3: to his charity.
[21:45] Speaker 4: His charity would disappear.
[21:48] Speaker 3: Look over there. So now he's stealing more money. He's
[21:55] Speaker 3: already down legally on paper all over the place. Now
[21:57] Speaker 3: he's making money disappear. That is good money.
[22:00] Speaker 2: What would Jesus do?
[22:01] Speaker 4: Bracelet is burning like ligature marks on his wrist?
[22:05] Speaker 2: Is happening?
[22:06] Speaker 3: Yet Now remember how I said would all get worse.
[22:08] Speaker 3: We're not there yet. This is not the worst part
[22:11] Speaker 3: because around the same time he's able to attract more
[22:14] Speaker 3: investment funds, swelling the total from fourteen million to twenty
[22:18] Speaker 3: one million.
[22:20] Speaker 6: And of that twenty one million.
[22:21] Speaker 3: He manages to lose sixteen million dollars. But hell, that's
[22:28] Speaker 3: just in the bank. Now there's also his brokerage, yeah,
[22:31] Speaker 3: where he's also raised forty million dollars from his one
[22:34] Speaker 3: hundred and so investors. Right, and he deposited thirty seven
[22:37] Speaker 3: million of money in a trading account at Goldman Sachs, Okay.
[22:41] Speaker 3: By the May of twenty twelve. Of that thirty seven million,
[22:45] Speaker 3: only four hundred and eighty thousand dollars was remaining.
[22:49] Speaker 2: Stop it.
[22:50] Speaker 3: That is just over one percent of the initial thirty
[22:54] Speaker 3: seven million. No, I mean it is like point zero
[22:58] Speaker 3: one two nine.
[22:59] Speaker 2: So it was just like one of those general trading
[23:01] Speaker 2: accounts or was.
[23:01] Speaker 3: He he's trading, he's making trade.
[23:05] Speaker 4: Index, So he's.
[23:06] Speaker 3: Making mistake after mistake and then putting on their high
[23:10] Speaker 3: risk leverage and then getting wiped out, and then trying
[23:13] Speaker 3: to do it like maybe I don't assume, like a
[23:15] Speaker 3: futures contract and leveraging and Martin gets a margin call.
[23:18] Speaker 3: He's doing everything wrong. So Lee isn't done losing money though,
[23:23] Speaker 3: because before all was said and done, he incurred total
[23:26] Speaker 3: investment losses of seventy million dollars.
[23:28] Speaker 2: He lost seventy million dollars.
[23:30] Speaker 3: But that total wasn't revealed until the bank of the
[23:32] Speaker 3: brokerage fully collapsed. So at this point nobody knows this
[23:35] Speaker 3: financial regulators' accountants seventy million. Most For the most part,
[23:39] Speaker 3: I think he made he made himself some early on,
[23:42] Speaker 3: you know, to be able to get to the place
[23:43] Speaker 3: people trusted him.
[23:44] Speaker 7: Come on.
[23:44] Speaker 3: Yeah, So with the end clearly on the horizon. Yeah,
[23:48] Speaker 3: what's Lee thinking? Now? Well, don't bother guessing, Elizabeth. I'll
[23:52] Speaker 3: just tell you, or rather I'll let Lee tell you,
[23:54] Speaker 3: as he wrote in his unpublished memoir The Inglorious Fugitive.
[23:58] Speaker 3: But time running out and facing extreme pressure, the losses
[24:02] Speaker 3: in all trade and accounts compounded daily. The situation at
[24:05] Speaker 3: the bank had forced me into quick, high risk taking
[24:08] Speaker 3: that caused me to make many very hasty and irreversible decisions.
[24:12] Speaker 3: No matter how hard I worked or tried, I could
[24:15] Speaker 3: not come up with any money making ideas or trades.
[24:19] Speaker 2: No matter how hard I tried.
[24:21] Speaker 3: I love it.
[24:22] Speaker 6: He's like, I'm by a bank, I lost all the money.
[24:24] Speaker 6: I'm trying. I'm working real hard over here.
[24:26] Speaker 4: You need to forgive me everything.
[24:29] Speaker 3: So Lee does the inevitable. He starts liquidating his own assets. Okay,
[24:33] Speaker 3: he sells his family's second home in Bradenton, Florida.
[24:35] Speaker 2: Well that'll do what. That should knock it all out at.
[24:38] Speaker 3: Least maybe a half million and a half or so,
[24:41] Speaker 3: he eyes. He starts eyeing the exits.
[24:43] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[24:43] Speaker 3: Meanwhile, changes in his behavior start to become obvious to
[24:46] Speaker 3: his family, and I think, I don't know. I don't share.
[24:50] Speaker 3: You probably had the same idea about this. I think
[24:51] Speaker 3: adults forget how much children clock them. Oh god, right,
[24:55] Speaker 3: they watched them. They're learning from them, but they're also
[24:57] Speaker 3: gauging how their future will look since their parents control
[25:00] Speaker 3: their lives.
[25:01] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the thing. I mean. They always say, like
[25:03] Speaker 2: little pictures have big ears can hear things. But kids
[25:06] Speaker 2: also the studies, especially if there's like crisis in the house,
[25:10] Speaker 2: they pick up all the little micro expressions and all
[25:14] Speaker 2: the subtle stuff. And a lot of parents think they're
[25:17] Speaker 2: arguing in another room and it's like, yeah, sure.
[25:19] Speaker 3: Yeah, we can hear you through the vents.
[25:21] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
[25:22] Speaker 3: So this is certainly the case for Lee Price. His
[25:24] Speaker 3: kids clock him constantly. They see the pressure he's under.
[25:27] Speaker 3: Like Daddy seems stressed now. His daughter Hannah told Atlanta
[25:31] Speaker 3: Magazine we could tell he was under pressure. He'd say,
[25:34] Speaker 3: keep me and my business in your prayers, be strong,
[25:36] Speaker 3: and keep your eyes on the Lord. He eventually told
[25:39] Speaker 3: us we'd probably be going into bankruptcy.
[25:43] Speaker 2: BK's coming. Ps. Kids, pray for my business, Pray for
[25:47] Speaker 2: daddy's business.
[25:48] Speaker 3: Yeah, pray that God doesn't looks kindly on my bankruptcy.
[25:52] Speaker 2: And they're just like it's like prayer hands emoji prayers
[25:55] Speaker 2: going up.
[25:57] Speaker 3: Father, God, take care of daddy. So one night Lee
[26:01] Speaker 3: sits down with his eldest son, Nathan, and together they
[26:03] Speaker 3: watch Braveheart. Nice father's son moment, And that night they
[26:07] Speaker 3: end up staying well into like the small hours of
[26:08] Speaker 3: the morning, just talking about life, talking about the importance
[26:11] Speaker 3: of the church. And this is a mind you a
[26:14] Speaker 3: path his son would consider following. So, according to Atlanta Magazine,
[26:18] Speaker 3: the next morning, with tears in his eyes, Lee Price
[26:21] Speaker 3: tells his son, never give up, never give up. And
[26:25] Speaker 3: these are like the last words that Lee Price says
[26:28] Speaker 3: to his son.
[26:29] Speaker 4: And after an evening of Braveheart, Yeah, and.
[26:32] Speaker 3: Talking all night about how life should go and the curves,
[26:35] Speaker 3: you'll be thrown.
[26:35] Speaker 2: A little light financial fraud exactly.
[26:40] Speaker 8: Now.
[26:40] Speaker 3: Rather ironic to me that Lee Price said never give up,
[26:43] Speaker 3: never give up, because.
[26:44] Speaker 6: He gave up.
[26:46] Speaker 3: He gave up on his life as a husband, a father,
[26:49] Speaker 3: a minister, a financial broker, a bank owner. Yeah, and
[26:52] Speaker 3: he decided it was time to fake his own death.
[26:54] Speaker 3: Oh my god, No, Elizabeth, Lee Price is no fool.
[26:58] Speaker 2: You know.
[26:59] Speaker 3: He sounds like not only did he since the end
[27:03] Speaker 3: was nigh. He knew if he opted to fake his death,
[27:06] Speaker 3: he'd need a fool proof plan to fake it. Yeah,
[27:09] Speaker 3: he never came up with that, So he just winged it,
[27:11] Speaker 3: and he went with the best plan he could come
[27:13] Speaker 3: up with on the fly.
[27:15] Speaker 6: So what did he do? A great question, Elizabeth.
[27:18] Speaker 3: In June of twenty twelve, Lee decides it's time to
[27:20] Speaker 3: make his move, time to fake his death. But first
[27:22] Speaker 3: he hops on a plane. He flies down to Key West, Florida.
[27:25] Speaker 3: He's dressed like Jimmy Buffett on a bender. He's got
[27:29] Speaker 3: like the white shirt, the khaki shorts, sneakers, topped off
[27:32] Speaker 3: with a red ball cap. Okay, And we know all
[27:34] Speaker 3: of this because and like what he was wearing because
[27:37] Speaker 3: it's filmed by security cameras in the Key West airport. Okay,
[27:40] Speaker 3: we also know that he takes a cab from the airport,
[27:43] Speaker 3: same reason. The next time he shows up on a
[27:45] Speaker 3: security cameras at the local post office, also in Key West,
[27:48] Speaker 3: red ball cap has gone, has been now been replaced
[27:50] Speaker 3: by a white one, but same guy.
[27:52] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[27:52] Speaker 3: After the post office trip, Lee then next shows up
[27:55] Speaker 3: on security cameras at a dive shop. From there, he
[27:58] Speaker 3: climbs a board a ferry one that's headed north from
[28:01] Speaker 3: Key West to Fort Myers, Florida, which is like located
[28:05] Speaker 3: there on the Gulf side, just a little ways up. Okay,
[28:07] Speaker 3: So Lee is filmed aboard the ferry. He's still wearing
[28:10] Speaker 3: the same white ball cap and now it's pulled all
[28:13] Speaker 3: low to hide his face, like he's like, you know,
[28:14] Speaker 3: Leonardo DiCaprio going out to get ice cream.
[28:17] Speaker 6: And he's recorded standing.
[28:19] Speaker 3: Alone by the railing of the ferry looking sad, despondent. Yeah.
[28:25] Speaker 3: Days later, the letters that Lee sent from the Key
[28:27] Speaker 3: West Post office arrived back home to his family. Letters
[28:31] Speaker 3: are also sent to bank officials and to many of
[28:34] Speaker 3: his clients. The letters are essentially suicide letters. They outline
[28:38] Speaker 3: his financial losses, the deep shame that overcame him. He
[28:42] Speaker 3: hints at his plans to throw himself from the Key
[28:44] Speaker 3: West ferry. Terrified worried about her husband and their kid's father,
[28:48] Speaker 3: his wife, Rebecca, contacts the coast guard right, She's like,
[28:51] Speaker 3: you have to go out and look for him.
[28:53] Speaker 6: They're like, look, man, well no, you have to to.
[28:55] Speaker 3: They say, Okay, we'll send out a search and rescue
[28:57] Speaker 3: team see if we can find Lee. Price However, there's
[28:59] Speaker 3: a little summer storm that gets in the way, so
[29:02] Speaker 3: they can't send out a rescue mission right away. When
[29:04] Speaker 3: they finally do go out and look, they find nothing,
[29:07] Speaker 3: no body, no signs of like a floater, No red hat,
[29:10] Speaker 3: no white hat, nada. At this point, Lee Price has
[29:13] Speaker 3: left his wife and four children with just five thousand
[29:16] Speaker 3: dollars in the bank to carry on.
[29:18] Speaker 2: Yeah, because if it's there, if there were a life
[29:22] Speaker 2: insurance policy, he can't collect on the suitde.
[29:24] Speaker 3: Remember I said he was liquidating his assets. He didn't
[29:27] Speaker 3: put that in the bank for them. He did, like,
[29:29] Speaker 3: I'm gonna need that. Daddy's going on the road.
[29:31] Speaker 2: So of course with five grand, Yeah, five grand for
[29:34] Speaker 2: five people, for five people for the rest of their life, exactly.
[29:37] Speaker 3: From here on out. And most likely I'm guessing because
[29:40] Speaker 3: she was the wife of a Southern minister who's also
[29:41] Speaker 3: a financial probably wasn't working.
[29:44] Speaker 4: That's just as the Lord intendeds Yes.
[29:46] Speaker 3: So seventeen year old daughter Hannah, who's working as a waitress,
[29:49] Speaker 3: begins to ask for extra shifts so her family can't
[29:52] Speaker 3: get by God. Yes, So about six months past, no
[29:56] Speaker 3: sightings of Lee Price, his wife Rebecca. She asked the
[29:59] Speaker 3: courts to legally declared her husband deceased. This is necessary
[30:02] Speaker 3: for the life insurance policy and so forth death benefits,
[30:06] Speaker 3: you know whatever else. Oh yeah, the family believes Lee
[30:09] Speaker 3: Brice is gone, swallowed up by the rough and storm
[30:11] Speaker 3: he sees that day. On December thirty first, twenty twelve,
[30:14] Speaker 3: judge declares him deceased. However, some folks have their doubts.
[30:19] Speaker 3: For instance, his daughter Hannah had a coworker who told
[30:21] Speaker 3: her your daddy's alive. Well, then, I don't know if
[30:25] Speaker 3: this is like her faith exactly. I don't know, like
[30:29] Speaker 3: it was like a psychic's intuition, a premonition from Aleco whatever,
[30:32] Speaker 3: a waffle House line cook. I don't know. Perhaps it
[30:35] Speaker 3: was just cynicism, like no, I don't think he's dead,
[30:37] Speaker 3: whatever it was. That same opinion was also shared by
[30:40] Speaker 3: the FBI.
[30:42] Speaker 4: Yeah, so let's I think you'll probably go.
[30:44] Speaker 2: Into this video again, will you like which one? Is
[30:47] Speaker 2: there any footage of him jumping?
[30:49] Speaker 8: No?
[30:50] Speaker 3: No, so, because you see Elizabeth he did not jump.
[30:54] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[30:54] Speaker 3: I figured they couldn't have footage of jumping because he
[30:57] Speaker 3: never jumps, But the FBI does.
[31:00] Speaker 6: Man, they investigate.
[31:00] Speaker 3: They discovered the financial trail of fraud, the suspicious transfer
[31:04] Speaker 3: of millions of dollars. They conclude that Lee Price is
[31:07] Speaker 3: most likely not dead. So, as special Agent Ed Suckliffe
[31:12] Speaker 3: put it, although his suicide letters seemed sincere, we didn't
[31:16] Speaker 3: believe he was dead for the simple reason there was
[31:18] Speaker 3: no body, so nobody no. You know, they like to
[31:22] Speaker 3: have a body to say someone's dead.
[31:23] Speaker 2: They do.
[31:24] Speaker 3: They tend to do that right now. Is also as
[31:27] Speaker 3: the FBI, then would you know they were motivated to
[31:30] Speaker 3: put out a public statement that was, in my opinion,
[31:32] Speaker 3: a bit aggressive the quote. Price lied to investors about
[31:36] Speaker 3: where their money would be invested, and lied to them
[31:39] Speaker 3: about the solvency of his company. He lied to the
[31:42] Speaker 3: bank on whose board he served about investment of bank capital.
[31:45] Speaker 6: And lied again to cover up that lie.
[31:48] Speaker 3: It is therefore reasonable to assume that Price's talk of
[31:51] Speaker 3: suicide was also a lie. The FBI is actively looking
[31:55] Speaker 3: for Aubrey Lee Price. How many times did they say lie? Well?
[32:00] Speaker 2: And I would imagine where the Fairy Goes has pretty
[32:03] Speaker 2: easily tracked currents and is a well traveled waterway.
[32:09] Speaker 3: And they see where people wash up. This isn't not
[32:11] Speaker 3: the first person to die if you go on to.
[32:13] Speaker 2: The deep way out into the ocean, that's more likely
[32:16] Speaker 2: the golds around.
[32:17] Speaker 3: Yes, it's not like you're going to get like stucked
[32:19] Speaker 3: into a widening gyre of.
[32:21] Speaker 4: The golf f You're never very far from the coast.
[32:26] Speaker 3: That's the other part. And it was a fast fairy.
[32:28] Speaker 3: So it was like, yeah, yeah, anyway, since now we'll
[32:32] Speaker 3: put it this way, if he wasn't deceased, yeah, if
[32:35] Speaker 3: he had indeed faked his death on that ferry from
[32:38] Speaker 3: Key West, where is Lee Price?
[32:40] Speaker 2: Is there?
[32:41] Speaker 4: Let's roll back the stone and find out great.
[32:43] Speaker 3: Question, Elizabeth and great analogy. He was, wait for it
[32:46] Speaker 3: in Mexico. Okay, Now, the idea to run off to
[32:51] Speaker 3: Mexico had not come from prayer and divine intervention, but
[32:54] Speaker 3: rather it was the intervention of a friend of his,
[32:56] Speaker 3: a man who he called Pedro, which is not man's
[33:00] Speaker 3: real name. Oh yes, now, he just.
[33:03] Speaker 4: He just found a man from Mexico and decided his
[33:06] Speaker 4: name was Pedro.
[33:07] Speaker 3: For the purposes of his memoir. He needed a name,
[33:10] Speaker 3: so he's Pedro. Ok Okay, So, as Lee Price tells it,
[33:13] Speaker 3: he was eating dinner with Pedro one night at Pedro's restaurant,
[33:16] Speaker 3: and according to a truly wild story that he tells
[33:19] Speaker 3: in chapter five of his memoir The Inglorious Fugitive, the
[33:22] Speaker 3: two men were out drinking some liquor when his friend
[33:25] Speaker 3: pedro Quote leaned forward, cleared his throat, looked me dead
[33:28] Speaker 3: in the eyes, and said, listen to me very closely.
[33:31] Speaker 3: Before we talk any further. You need to know one thing.
[33:34] Speaker 3: I know where your children are right now, and I
[33:37] Speaker 3: can have them all dead in just a few hours
[33:39] Speaker 3: with one simple phone call. I held my stare as
[33:43] Speaker 3: my hands began to shake and sweat intensely. I felt
[33:47] Speaker 3: something run through my veins. It was not fear. It
[33:50] Speaker 3: was the deepest hatred I had ever felt. I slowly
[33:54] Speaker 3: reached into my pants under the table, I pulled out
[33:58] Speaker 3: a loaded thirty eight magnum and pointed it straight above
[34:03] Speaker 3: his belly. Now, in case you were curious, Elizabeth, there
[34:05] Speaker 3: is no such gun as at thirty eight magnum. We
[34:08] Speaker 3: so we know that parts.
[34:10] Speaker 4: So that's a problem.
[34:11] Speaker 2: So did any of these scenarios like when they were
[34:14] Speaker 2: when he was in Bible college and they were running
[34:16] Speaker 2: through like preacher class, like was this one of the
[34:19] Speaker 2: case studies?
[34:20] Speaker 3: Well, so I'm not sure how twelve verst you are
[34:23] Speaker 3: in Star Wars, but I like that he pulled the
[34:25] Speaker 3: Han Solo move of pointing a gun at a person.
[34:27] Speaker 6: From under a table.
[34:29] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah.
[34:30] Speaker 3: And if you think about it, the name Grido who
[34:31] Speaker 3: Han Solo pointed the gun out, it's not far from Pedro.
[34:35] Speaker 3: So what I'm saying is that this story is likely
[34:36] Speaker 3: as real as Star Wars. Anyway, back to Lee Price and.
[34:41] Speaker 2: Was Pedro supposed to be like a cartel guy?
[34:43] Speaker 3: Oh? Hold that thought. Oh so, anyway back to Lee
[34:46] Speaker 3: Price and his action packed adventures with Pedro, and I
[34:50] Speaker 3: quote he heard me cock the trigger and I said,
[34:53] Speaker 3: listen to me very carefully.
[34:55] Speaker 6: Do not take your.
[34:56] Speaker 3: Eyes off of my eyes. Do not even blink at
[34:59] Speaker 3: your bodyguards. We will both die right here, right now,
[35:02] Speaker 3: and I'm.
[35:03] Speaker 6: More than ready to go. I looked at him.
[35:05] Speaker 3: With fire in my eyes and said, poor k chingar
[35:09] Speaker 3: laderia algo como aso, which means why the would you
[35:14] Speaker 3: say something like that?
[35:15] Speaker 6: He started laughing.
[35:16] Speaker 9: He said, I wanted to see if you are alive,
[35:19] Speaker 9: you are having feeling left in you. I see that
[35:22] Speaker 9: you do as firmly as I could, I said, I
[35:25] Speaker 9: may be a mere shell of a man at this moment,
[35:27] Speaker 9: but I do not care who you are.
[35:30] Speaker 3: I have absolutely no fear of death.
[35:33] Speaker 6: I will put at.
[35:33] Speaker 3: Least six bullets in you before your bodyguards empty every
[35:37] Speaker 3: shell of their guns into my body. If I even
[35:40] Speaker 3: get a small whiff that you are thinking about touching
[35:43] Speaker 3: my family in any kind of harmful way.
[35:46] Speaker 10: He said, tranquilo, trankuilo. I promise that nothing will happen
[35:49] Speaker 10: to your family as long as we have an understanding.
[35:54] Speaker 2: I am just a slack job, right And then how
[35:56] Speaker 2: long his sentence that he ran off about I have
[36:00] Speaker 2: actually no I will put at least six, But he
[36:02] Speaker 2: goes on and ministering fantasy pages. Yes, this did not happen.
[36:09] Speaker 3: No one could talk that. I could barely get it
[36:11] Speaker 3: out in one breath. No, and I knew what I
[36:13] Speaker 3: was gonna say. So anyway, what was this so called
[36:16] Speaker 3: mutual understanding that he and Pedro had. Well, that's what
[36:20] Speaker 3: I wanted to know, Elizabeth. And according to Lee Price,
[36:22] Speaker 3: is this tough guy moment not only impressed his boy Pedro,
[36:25] Speaker 3: but it also made Lee Price feel all icky inside,
[36:28] Speaker 3: so he had to excuse himself from the table of
[36:31] Speaker 3: color as he tells it, I could feel my face
[36:34] Speaker 3: turning pale and my body shaken, so I hurried to
[36:37] Speaker 3: the bathroom and.
[36:37] Speaker 6: Vomited my entire meal.
[36:40] Speaker 3: Tears were streaming down my face again, and I sat
[36:43] Speaker 3: bent over trying to catch my breath. After a few minutes,
[36:47] Speaker 3: I finally regained my composure enough to walk out. He
[36:51] Speaker 3: smiled nast if I my pants, He put his arm
[36:54] Speaker 3: around me and said, I think you and I can
[36:56] Speaker 3: work together just fine. So there's just ends up that story.
[37:03] Speaker 6: Did you in your pants? You and I are good?
[37:06] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[37:07] Speaker 6: So, now that he's abandoned.
[37:08] Speaker 2: His family, I love that he's so angry that this
[37:11] Speaker 2: family is threatened, but he's willing to leave them high
[37:14] Speaker 2: and dry.
[37:16] Speaker 3: Dollars and the idea that he's dead, That's what I'm.
[37:19] Speaker 2: Saying, the idea that he's dead, that he's got this
[37:21] Speaker 2: one kid and he is like, Daddy.
[37:23] Speaker 4: You're my hero. My favorite thing in the world is
[37:25] Speaker 4: to watch you preach.
[37:27] Speaker 2: And then, oh, but then my dad took his own
[37:30] Speaker 2: life and jumped off a fairy.
[37:31] Speaker 3: So remember this, All this Pedro stuff happened obviously before
[37:36] Speaker 3: the fairy. He gets the idea to get on the fairy.
[37:39] Speaker 4: I he he hates my family, I hate them more.
[37:44] Speaker 2: I meet up with him at a restaurant and have
[37:49] Speaker 2: an argument.
[37:50] Speaker 3: So now that he's abandoned his family, betrayed his friends,
[37:53] Speaker 3: his trusted investors, giving up all that he wants, claim
[37:55] Speaker 3: to be holy and true and valuable, Lee Price is
[37:58] Speaker 3: ready for a new career, ready to face new challenges
[38:00] Speaker 3: with his crime buddy Pedro. So back to Lee Price
[38:03] Speaker 3: and his action packed adventures. With Pedro. We walked through
[38:06] Speaker 3: a back hallway and through a side door where we
[38:09] Speaker 3: entered his club. The room was full of flawless, young, beautiful,
[38:14] Speaker 3: barely dressed ladies dancing for hundreds of men to loud
[38:18] Speaker 3: dump in Latin music. There must have been ten on
[38:22] Speaker 3: the stage and another thirty sitting with men. When Pedro
[38:26] Speaker 3: walked in, everyone looked as if the King were coming through.
[38:30] Speaker 6: I followed. We went out another door and down a
[38:33] Speaker 6: long hallway.
[38:35] Speaker 3: We must have passed six different well armed guards, and
[38:39] Speaker 3: then someone opened the doors to a large warehouse room. Elizabeth,
[38:43] Speaker 3: do you want to take a wild guess what was
[38:45] Speaker 3: waiting behind door number one? U. If you guess cocaine,
[38:50] Speaker 3: you win today's no prize.
[38:52] Speaker 6: As Lee price remembers it.
[38:54] Speaker 3: There's thirty to forty workers, there's stuffing little bags full
[38:58] Speaker 3: of white powder. Pedro took me to every station. I
[39:02] Speaker 3: spent a couple of hours just listening. I'm a curious
[39:05] Speaker 3: person by nature. I'm adventurous. I have very little fear.
[39:09] Speaker 3: We walked outside and stood on the loading dock looking
[39:13] Speaker 3: over a lake in this incredible city. He stood there
[39:16] Speaker 3: and he said, do you want to be on the
[39:18] Speaker 3: receiving end of a stream of or the giving end
[39:22] Speaker 3: of the stream of wait? I told him I'd never
[39:25] Speaker 3: thought about it like that.
[39:28] Speaker 2: Stop. This is like the worst episode of Sons of
[39:34] Speaker 2: Anarchy I've ever seen, mixed with Bosh because he told
[39:39] Speaker 2: him trin Kilo, which is my favorite thing in the
[39:42] Speaker 2: world to tell people. By the way, Trinkloo like the
[39:49] Speaker 2: desperate need to be cinematic of walking into a booming
[39:53] Speaker 2: nightclub and you walked through to a warehouse.
[39:57] Speaker 4: That's where there are all these people.
[39:58] Speaker 6: In these you don't want to separate, rate those you
[40:00] Speaker 6: want to Then he.
[40:01] Speaker 2: Goes on like a comprehensive guided tour of all the
[40:05] Speaker 2: different stations.
[40:07] Speaker 3: To listen to when someone's packing cocaine, So are you
[40:10] Speaker 3: tamping it with your finger.
[40:13] Speaker 4: And then meanwhile, can we get.
[40:16] Speaker 6: Back to the stream of you can either be giving or.
[40:19] Speaker 2: Receive that you have two wolves. Do you want to
[40:24] Speaker 2: be on the receiving end of the stream or do
[40:26] Speaker 2: you want to be on the giving end of the streaming?
[40:29] Speaker 3: I mean, basically, Lee's price is New World. There's all
[40:33] Speaker 3: These are your two choices to be done. He decided
[40:37] Speaker 3: he would rather wet others.
[40:39] Speaker 2: You know. But here's the thing, like, what side of
[40:42] Speaker 2: what was? What did Jesus do? Did he on people?
[40:45] Speaker 2: Or did he get peed on?
[40:46] Speaker 6: He give the peace?
[40:47] Speaker 4: If you have to, you have to pick one.
[40:50] Speaker 6: You both receive it and give it, you know, or you.
[40:53] Speaker 4: Could be like Jesus an opt out of the context.
[40:56] Speaker 3: He turned into wine, so actively pricing his action packed
[41:01] Speaker 3: adventures with Pedro.
[41:03] Speaker 2: This guyed is watching Lee. That's all I gotta say.
[41:10] Speaker 3: And not chuckling. Pedro laughed and walked upstairs to his
[41:14] Speaker 3: plush office, where he continued his pitch.
[41:16] Speaker 10: I want you to work for me. I can give
[41:18] Speaker 10: you whatever you want. If you can help me, I
[41:21] Speaker 10: can help you make millions.
[41:23] Speaker 6: He said. You are a.
[41:25] Speaker 10: Criminal, and we are all criminals. I need someone like
[41:28] Speaker 10: you that you can help me and I want to
[41:30] Speaker 10: help you.
[41:31] Speaker 2: That's like you've gone from like Mexican pedro to South
[41:35] Speaker 2: American team.
[41:36] Speaker 3: I moved around, Elizabeth, I bory. I have many problems
[41:39] Speaker 3: throughout my businesses. I will pay you very well.
[41:41] Speaker 10: Yes there are risks, but you will learn quickly and
[41:44] Speaker 10: I personally will train you.
[41:47] Speaker 3: My family has.
[41:47] Speaker 10: Millions and millions of dollars in US, European and Asians banks.
[41:53] Speaker 6: You know banks, you know investments.
[41:55] Speaker 10: You will know our biggest and best buyers of our
[41:59] Speaker 10: product in the United States.
[42:01] Speaker 6: And that, Elizabeth, is how Lee Price decided he should
[42:04] Speaker 6: become a major cocaine trafficker.
[42:06] Speaker 2: Sure. Sure, this whole criminal enterprise, not in theory and operation.
[42:15] Speaker 2: I'm talking about the physical plant is now my new
[42:20] Speaker 2: Bob Newhart's apartment. So we've got a restaurant, a nightclub,
[42:27] Speaker 2: a coke warehouse, offices upstairs that are very plush, very plush,
[42:32] Speaker 2: And so I'm trying to get a layout in my head,
[42:34] Speaker 2: much the way that I tried to get a layout
[42:36] Speaker 2: of Bob Newhart's apartment in my head and found it
[42:38] Speaker 2: to defy physics. Yes, but aside from that, this is so,
[42:42] Speaker 2: this is my new thing. I'm gonna draw schematic.
[42:46] Speaker 3: I'm glad you're gonna tribute that couldn't make sense of it.
[42:48] Speaker 3: I that with crayons, and she's like, where does the
[42:52] Speaker 3: staircase go? So, by the way, you know this is
[42:56] Speaker 3: all before he would impand in his family and fake
[42:58] Speaker 3: his death because it's so this was you know, he's
[43:01] Speaker 3: going to go start off his new life and he's
[43:02] Speaker 3: just looking down the road. So we've covered it. That's
[43:05] Speaker 3: what he does. He fakes his desk, he nopes out
[43:07] Speaker 3: on his family. Once he's presumed dead, he finds his
[43:09] Speaker 3: way down to Old Mexico to start his new life
[43:12] Speaker 3: with Pedro, and he later become an expert in cocaine.
[43:16] Speaker 6: So let's leave it there.
[43:17] Speaker 3: Let's take a little break, cool oark basis, and then
[43:21] Speaker 3: after these messages we'll get back to Lee Price.
[43:46] Speaker 6: Rebeca Elizabeth. So where is Lee Price now?
[43:50] Speaker 2: Down in the like the mall that's underneath.
[43:54] Speaker 3: He's in Mexico, Old Mexico, and he's trying to become
[43:57] Speaker 3: an expert in cocaine to become a major trafficker and
[44:00] Speaker 3: make millions and put him in Japanese banks. And you're a.
[44:02] Speaker 2: Friend, that's how you lead a flock. That's the way
[44:05] Speaker 2: to preach the word of the Lord.
[44:06] Speaker 3: So, as Lee Price told the reporter from Atlanta Magazine
[44:10] Speaker 3: and Interview, he was a very quick study when it
[44:13] Speaker 3: came to cocaine, or as he put it, I was
[44:17] Speaker 3: an expert taster of cocaine, understanding the quality. I had
[44:21] Speaker 3: to taste it to know if it was any good
[44:23] Speaker 3: or not quality control. Every one of my friends were criminals.
[44:28] Speaker 3: I didn't have any friends that were normal people on purpose.
[44:31] Speaker 3: I didn't want to be around anyone normal. I'd never
[44:34] Speaker 3: been around people he used drugs. Before I preached against alcohol.
[44:39] Speaker 3: But now I'm sitting around with a bud light in
[44:41] Speaker 3: my hand, fake drinking it. I'd usually drink about half
[44:44] Speaker 3: a bottle at most. That was hard for me.
[44:47] Speaker 6: I just don't like it. But it was part of
[44:49] Speaker 6: my cover.
[44:51] Speaker 2: So fake drinking it, Well, I drink half of it?
[44:53] Speaker 2: Will I drink half the case?
[44:55] Speaker 3: Our undercover minister is now getting caught up and pushing
[44:59] Speaker 3: cocaine real Miami vice style.
[45:01] Speaker 2: Yeah, once he's worried about bud light and he's moving
[45:06] Speaker 2: of coke.
[45:06] Speaker 3: Yes, and that he has to try and.
[45:08] Speaker 4: This is.
[45:11] Speaker 2: This is before like you said before.
[45:14] Speaker 3: He Well, at this point, he's he's made the faking.
[45:19] Speaker 3: This is his new life.
[45:19] Speaker 6: He's becoming a cocaine expert.
[45:22] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[45:22] Speaker 6: So uh. Once the league completes.
[45:24] Speaker 3: His on the job training as a cocaine trafficker, he
[45:27] Speaker 3: decides to test his luck and sneak back into America.
[45:29] Speaker 2: Oh that's perfect ideally, yeah, because.
[45:32] Speaker 3: There's a lot of competition in South America, in Mexico
[45:34] Speaker 3: a cocaine traffickers. He's like, I'm going to go to
[45:36] Speaker 3: a growth market like rural Georgia. So did he choose
[45:40] Speaker 3: to make a life for himself far away from his
[45:42] Speaker 3: family and all that he knew, like say in San Diego. No, No,
[45:45] Speaker 3: he did not. Instead, he went back to Florida and
[45:48] Speaker 3: he started his new life as he has he recalled
[45:51] Speaker 3: the restart of his life. I lived out of a
[45:53] Speaker 3: budget motel for a week or so and made a
[45:56] Speaker 3: couple of fake id's. Once I was able to purchase
[45:58] Speaker 3: a bicycle, I rode bike all over the place, mainly
[46:02] Speaker 3: for exercise and the working off of stress. I had
[46:05] Speaker 3: a few friends and quite a few associates. My rules
[46:09] Speaker 3: were kind of simple. Trust absolutely, no one talk as
[46:12] Speaker 3: little as possible and do as little evil as possible,
[46:16] Speaker 3: get close to no one. There you go. Those are
[46:19] Speaker 3: his three life.
[46:20] Speaker 2: He's in a cheap motel, rides a bike everywhere in Florida,
[46:24] Speaker 2: made Sarah top of the Mountain.
[46:27] Speaker 3: Sewing cocaine by the gram. This is when Lee creates
[46:30] Speaker 3: his new identities. Namely, he becomes Jason, who was a
[46:33] Speaker 3: divorced dad who sadly lost both his fortune and his
[46:36] Speaker 3: family because of his cocaine addiction.
[46:38] Speaker 4: That's a good cover, right.
[46:40] Speaker 3: He also had other identities such as Gator oh and
[46:44] Speaker 3: Diesel Oh. So these are his primary three new names,
[46:47] Speaker 3: Jay for Jason, Gator, and Diesel Now to help you
[46:50] Speaker 3: sort out one from the other. As Lee Price tells it,
[46:53] Speaker 3: Gator was the funniest because he wore Florida Gator football apparel,
[46:57] Speaker 3: including a hat and acting like I was fan.
[47:02] Speaker 6: I don't know what. I don't know what Diesel war.
[47:05] Speaker 6: Perhaps he's just a fantas Jean of Diesel jeans.
[47:07] Speaker 3: Yeah, or maybe like he was big into Shack Diesel's
[47:09] Speaker 3: rap career and he's just like have you heard this album?
[47:11] Speaker 4: Maybe he just huffs Diesel.
[47:15] Speaker 3: Red rag. I got another chemical burn on my butt
[47:20] Speaker 3: cheeks now, Anyway, Lee settles into his new life as
[47:23] Speaker 3: a dead man and a major cocaine trafficker. As he
[47:25] Speaker 3: tells it, the focus from my first six months was
[47:28] Speaker 3: to restore my spirit and my soul and to try
[47:31] Speaker 3: and rebuild some mental capital. It was very difficult. The
[47:35] Speaker 3: beast within had me and I could not break free.
[47:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't feel bad.
[47:41] Speaker 3: He was suffering a major religious crisis. He'd also started
[47:44] Speaker 3: his new career as a major cocaine trafficker with his
[47:46] Speaker 3: crime buddy Pedro. So you know he's suffering Elizabeth, He's challenge,
[47:51] Speaker 3: he's being tested by the Lord. He decides to learn
[47:55] Speaker 3: about a second trade, marijuana cultivationion distribution. Yeah. As he
[48:00] Speaker 3: wrote in his memoir The and Glorious Fugitive, I understand
[48:03] Speaker 3: every strain of marijuana. I mean I spent time in
[48:05] Speaker 3: twenty grow houses there. I know where there are twenty
[48:08] Speaker 3: grow houses in the Southeast right now. I was just
[48:11] Speaker 3: walking through whatever doors open for me. I met all
[48:15] Speaker 3: kinds of people, people that I love. Now they don't
[48:18] Speaker 3: judge you, and I like that. I'm a criminal. We're
[48:21] Speaker 3: all criminals. We've got each other's backs. We're all criminals.
[48:25] Speaker 3: And now it is the Lord Elizabeth Leckley.
[48:27] Speaker 2: Well, and I've met all these grow houses where they
[48:29] Speaker 2: attached to night clubs. Did they have a restaurant there? Also?
[48:33] Speaker 3: I love that as he's embracing his new life as
[48:35] Speaker 3: a drug trafficker, his life is becoming like a Soviet
[48:38] Speaker 3: era movie that meant as a cautionary tale about life
[48:41] Speaker 3: in the United States. In the Medica, we are all criminals.
[48:46] Speaker 2: Well, and it's like they don't judge you. I'm like,
[48:49] Speaker 2: my dear, Yeah, that was your old job is to
[48:52] Speaker 2: be welcoming and loving and it's not your job to judge.
[48:57] Speaker 3: Judgmental Baptist so deeper level, Lee Price can't turn his
[49:01] Speaker 3: back on his faith Elizabeth, not as easily as he
[49:03] Speaker 3: turned his back on his family and everyone he knew
[49:05] Speaker 3: what he loved.
[49:06] Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds like he's turning his back on his
[49:08] Speaker 2: faith really easily, you.
[49:09] Speaker 6: Know, because his faith still gave him something.
[49:12] Speaker 3: God was still on his side, Because, as Lee Price
[49:15] Speaker 3: tells us, I went to bed every night crying, quoting
[49:19] Speaker 3: Psalm twenty three, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall
[49:22] Speaker 3: not want he makes me lie down in green pastures.
[49:24] Speaker 3: You know. I didn't stop crying before bed until probably
[49:27] Speaker 3: a few weeks ago.
[49:30] Speaker 2: I'm just you know, Okay, So that's his faith that
[49:35] Speaker 2: he's leaning on. His version of things. He's at this point,
[49:43] Speaker 2: he sneaks, I'm gonna keep a lot of myself.
[49:46] Speaker 3: He sneaks successfully back into America, and he makes a
[49:49] Speaker 3: new home for himself as a pot grower, distributor cocaine
[49:53] Speaker 3: supplier in a town called Citra, Florida. Okay, it's a small, rural,
[49:58] Speaker 3: unincorporated area central Florida. If you want to picture it
[50:01] Speaker 3: is in northern Florida, but not at the top like
[50:03] Speaker 3: in the Panhandle over by Tallahassee, you like where Florida
[50:06] Speaker 3: turns into America's appendage. It's like a right smack dab
[50:09] Speaker 3: in the middle of the northern part of the state,
[50:11] Speaker 3: near Gainesville and that weird retirement community.
[50:13] Speaker 6: The Villages.
[50:14] Speaker 2: Sure, so he's in an unincorporated area, like.
[50:17] Speaker 3: An hour or two north Orlando. Are you get the idea?
[50:21] Speaker 3: So he there in central Florida is where Lee aka
[50:27] Speaker 3: j Ak gator Ak Diesel is work.
[50:30] Speaker 2: Aubrey I never forget forget.
[50:33] Speaker 3: Is working as a bodyguard for sex workers and he's
[50:36] Speaker 3: getting his he's trying to grow his cocaine trafficking business
[50:39] Speaker 3: and his marijuana cultivation business. Yes, so part time pamp,
[50:46] Speaker 3: full time drug dealer and trying to make it work.
[50:48] Speaker 4: I just.
[50:50] Speaker 3: Lee lives there in a mobile home one where he
[50:52] Speaker 3: trades labor with the couple who owns it, so that
[50:55] Speaker 3: that qualifies as paying his rent. So he's doing like
[50:57] Speaker 3: odd jobs around their land.
[50:59] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[51:00] Speaker 3: He also grows pot in a large shed on their property.
[51:02] Speaker 3: A shed that's large enough for two hundred and twenty
[51:05] Speaker 3: five pot plants.
[51:06] Speaker 2: That's a big that's a barn that is, and a
[51:08] Speaker 2: night club underneath it and as office and a pool
[51:12] Speaker 2: on the top.
[51:13] Speaker 3: Yes, so of course he's lying about what's in the shed.
[51:16] Speaker 3: He tells his local handyman that comes like, you know,
[51:18] Speaker 3: doing work for the family, that his uncle is ill
[51:22] Speaker 3: and he lives in the shed and don't go near
[51:24] Speaker 3: it because apparently his pretend sick uncle has a hell
[51:27] Speaker 3: of a temper and wants absolute privacy and uses.
[51:30] Speaker 2: An incredible amount of electricity exactly and gives off a
[51:33] Speaker 2: very distinct.
[51:34] Speaker 6: Smell buttery pot smell.
[51:37] Speaker 2: No, you can smell it.
[51:40] Speaker 3: Yes, it smells like butter and pots shoved together. So
[51:43] Speaker 3: he also tells this handyman that his uncle quote will
[51:46] Speaker 3: shoot anyone who came near him.
[51:48] Speaker 4: So you stay, give it a good parime that.
[51:51] Speaker 3: Works to keep most folks away from his shed barn. Now,
[51:54] Speaker 3: this ruse goes on for a year almost two as
[51:57] Speaker 3: Lee aka j Aka Gator aka d's aa Aubrey makes
[52:01] Speaker 3: his way deeper into the Florida dope game despite his
[52:04] Speaker 3: life he's made for himself through luck and pluck.
[52:07] Speaker 2: I'm still I'm still going back to the electricity bill.
[52:10] Speaker 2: No one saw it shoot up. Well, you know, do
[52:13] Speaker 2: you have a barn, a grow operation in a barn barn?
[52:16] Speaker 3: Yes, with like two or twenty five plants. That's a
[52:18] Speaker 3: lot of lights, a lot of light lights, and those
[52:20] Speaker 3: lights get hot.
[52:21] Speaker 2: Yes.
[52:21] Speaker 3: So at this point he's, like I say, he's trying
[52:24] Speaker 3: to make a life for himself. You know, he's got
[52:26] Speaker 3: luck and pluck and also exquisite tasting cocaine, and the
[52:29] Speaker 3: good times are bound to be showing up any day
[52:32] Speaker 3: now for Lee Price. But then there's this nagging feeling
[52:35] Speaker 3: he has like he kind of just wants them to end, you.
[52:38] Speaker 4: Know, he just you know, there's a really easy way
[52:40] Speaker 4: to do that.
[52:40] Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, one day stop one Fateful Day in June
[52:43] Speaker 3: twenty thirteenth. It all kind of comes to the ahead
[52:48] Speaker 3: right the way Lee Price tells the story of his terrible,
[52:51] Speaker 3: no good, very bad days. It starts with a line
[52:54] Speaker 3: that I love in any memoir. I didn't have an
[52:57] Speaker 3: adderall that morning, this guy, so you just know where
[53:02] Speaker 3: the start. Like that, things are gonna go downhill fast,
[53:04] Speaker 3: real fast. So let's get to it. From an interview
[53:07] Speaker 3: Lee did with the reporter from Atlanta magazine, and I quote,
[53:09] Speaker 3: I didn't have an adderall that morning. I was driving
[53:12] Speaker 3: up to Hinesville, Georgia on nine nine to five to
[53:14] Speaker 3: get my car registered so I could sell it. It
[53:16] Speaker 3: was about ten am. I was praying through my prayer list.
[53:19] Speaker 3: I couldn't never finish. I'd get distracted. It was one
[53:22] Speaker 3: of those moments where I was angry at God. I
[53:25] Speaker 3: just crossed over into the Brunswick area. Immediately I thought
[53:28] Speaker 3: about the bank. I kept asking, where are you God?
[53:30] Speaker 3: Why don't you ever answer my prayers? Why have you
[53:33] Speaker 3: left me in this situation? So he's driving in like
[53:37] Speaker 3: a Dodge Ram truck, yelling at God about leaving it.
[53:41] Speaker 6: Why did you do this to me?
[53:43] Speaker 3: God?
[53:43] Speaker 2: Yeah?
[53:43] Speaker 4: Why not?
[53:44] Speaker 3: Why did I do this right?
[53:46] Speaker 6: Why did you do this?
[53:47] Speaker 2: But also it makes me think of there's that story
[53:50] Speaker 2: about the guy who's drowning and all these people come up.
[53:53] Speaker 2: Can I help you?
[53:53] Speaker 3: No?
[53:53] Speaker 6: No, the Lord's gonna save The Lord's gonna save me.
[53:56] Speaker 4: And it's like, why did you take all the opportunity.
[53:58] Speaker 6: To how many people I sent you?
[54:00] Speaker 2: Yes? Lord's so I feel like that's this cat where
[54:02] Speaker 2: he's just like why God?
[54:04] Speaker 3: Why? So to complicate matters emotionally, spiritually and you know
[54:08] Speaker 3: you name it. Lee Price is also missing his family
[54:11] Speaker 3: at this time in his life.
[54:12] Speaker 4: You know what, because it's get out of here. Who cares?
[54:19] Speaker 4: I hope they've forgotten who you are.
[54:21] Speaker 6: This is the end of the year.
[54:22] Speaker 3: It's just after Christmas, it's coming up, so it's like
[54:25] Speaker 3: New Year's Eve, or as he tells it, it was
[54:27] Speaker 3: the Christmas holidays and I wanted to see my kids.
[54:30] Speaker 3: I banged my steering wheel and anger and I remember saying, Lord,
[54:34] Speaker 3: where are you? I said that like ten times? So
[54:37] Speaker 3: he still this angry faith.
[54:39] Speaker 2: Because he wanted to feel better.
[54:41] Speaker 3: The one thing he just can't quit is that the
[54:43] Speaker 3: Lord loves and looks out for him. That's the thing
[54:45] Speaker 3: he's kept anyway. He receives an answer from the Lord
[54:49] Speaker 3: is Lee Price remembers it, and I quote, then I
[54:52] Speaker 3: looked up and there were blue lights behind me, and
[54:54] Speaker 3: I said, yes, thanks Lord, that's where you are.
[54:57] Speaker 2: Yes, Love.
[54:58] Speaker 3: Now, rather than me tell you where God is, Elizabeth,
[55:01] Speaker 3: close your eyes, I want you to picture it. It's
[55:14] Speaker 3: New Year's Eve, twenty thirteen, and you, Elizabeth, are working
[55:18] Speaker 3: because you are Glenn County Sheriff's Deputy, Justin Giuliano, and
[55:22] Speaker 3: you are out on patrol.
[55:24] Speaker 6: It's been a mostly quiet night.
[55:25] Speaker 3: A few house calls, a couple of fights at the bars,
[55:28] Speaker 3: and a few drunk drivers. Nothing too out of the ordinary,
[55:31] Speaker 3: not for a holiday night in southern Georgia. You're parked
[55:35] Speaker 3: alongside the Interstate Freeway, good Old I ninety five. You're
[55:38] Speaker 3: parked in a speed trap spot unseen, waiting for some
[55:41] Speaker 3: bozo to come blown by.
[55:43] Speaker 6: You get lucky and.
[55:44] Speaker 3: Some bozo does come rolling past. It's a two thousand
[55:47] Speaker 3: and one Dodge Ram truck. What catches your eye isn't
[55:50] Speaker 3: the speed of the truck, but rather the cracked windshield,
[55:53] Speaker 3: as well as the overly dark tinted windows. And to
[55:57] Speaker 3: top it off, the expired tags on their license, So
[56:00] Speaker 3: you flip on the lights of your cruiser pull out
[56:02] Speaker 3: onto the interstate. Your well maintained cruiser easily catches up
[56:06] Speaker 3: to the two thousand and one Dodge Ramp truck. The
[56:09] Speaker 3: driver does as they should and pulls over to the
[56:11] Speaker 3: side of the interstate. He turns off his truck engine
[56:14] Speaker 3: and you step out of your patrol car. You take
[56:17] Speaker 3: your time walking up to the driver's side window. You
[56:20] Speaker 3: unsnap the holster of your gun. You also touched the
[56:24] Speaker 3: back of the truck to leave your handprint in case
[56:26] Speaker 3: anything goes wrong. Then you approach the driver's side window
[56:29] Speaker 3: as cars speed past you on the interstate. The driver
[56:33] Speaker 3: is a middle aged man. He looks like he's seen
[56:36] Speaker 3: some rough years. You ask for license and registration. The
[56:39] Speaker 3: man seems nervous, edgy, like a long tailed cat in
[56:43] Speaker 3: a room full of rocking chairs. He stammers out in answer, Uh, yes, sir,
[56:47] Speaker 3: I have that.
[56:48] Speaker 6: That's right here.
[56:49] Speaker 3: You tell him to move slowly as he gets his
[56:51] Speaker 3: registration out of the glovebox. You never know when one
[56:54] Speaker 3: of these good old boys has a gun in the
[56:55] Speaker 3: glove box or under the seat. He turns back with
[56:59] Speaker 3: registration in hand and a State of Georgia driver's license.
[57:03] Speaker 3: Something's not right about the license. For one, it doesn't
[57:06] Speaker 3: match the name on the registration. He says, you just
[57:08] Speaker 3: borrowing the truck to go see his family for the holidays.
[57:11] Speaker 3: His voice tells you that's a lie. You ask him
[57:14] Speaker 3: to step out of the truck. He agrees, He opens
[57:17] Speaker 3: the door and steps out. You ask to search his
[57:20] Speaker 3: vehicle and his person again, he agrees, careful to keep
[57:24] Speaker 3: your senses attuned for any sudden movement. You search the vehicle.
[57:28] Speaker 3: Then you go and pat him down and empty his pockets. Well, well, well,
[57:32] Speaker 3: what is this a second driver's license? It's also him,
[57:36] Speaker 3: and it's also fake. That's grounds right there for an
[57:40] Speaker 3: arrest giving a false name and date of birth. You
[57:43] Speaker 3: tell him he's under arrest, and you run down his
[57:46] Speaker 3: MIRANDA rights. Once you have him safe and secure in
[57:48] Speaker 3: your patrol car, he tells you his real name. He
[57:52] Speaker 3: says he's Augrey Lee Price, and getting caught by you
[57:56] Speaker 3: is like a weight lifted off my shoulders. Boom, just
[58:01] Speaker 3: like that.
[58:01] Speaker 4: I love that. I love that I got to a rest.
[58:04] Speaker 2: Did I hit his head on the car?
[58:09] Speaker 3: So the Second Life of Lee Price aka j aka
[58:12] Speaker 3: Gator aka Diesel aka Aubrey. It all comes to a
[58:16] Speaker 3: wholly abrupt and unexpected stop at a traffic stop, to
[58:19] Speaker 3: be specific. But what relief he feels, you know, that
[58:22] Speaker 3: he could be freel all the lies and all the
[58:25] Speaker 3: hiding and the shame of running from his family, all
[58:27] Speaker 3: of it. That is what he's like. This is my reward.
[58:30] Speaker 3: And so once he's in police custody, Lee Price admits
[58:33] Speaker 3: he faked his death. He tells him everything okay. So
[58:35] Speaker 3: at the station, the deputy gives him his one phone call.
[58:38] Speaker 3: So the obvious question is who does he call? Yeah, Elizabeth,
[58:42] Speaker 3: I'd love to tell you he calls his wife Rebecca.
[58:44] Speaker 3: He does not, or perhaps one of his older children
[58:47] Speaker 3: or you know, tell them where he is. He's alive, right,
[58:49] Speaker 3: Daddy's coming home. But he does none of that. And
[58:52] Speaker 3: it would be kind of darkly funny to say that
[58:54] Speaker 3: he called his crime buddy Pedro, But no, he didn't
[58:57] Speaker 3: do that either, So who does that leave. Well, instead,
[59:00] Speaker 3: he called his own father and he tells him the
[59:02] Speaker 3: good news, Daddy, He's alive. Daddy, I'm alive, which must
[59:06] Speaker 3: have been a hell of a shock for the old man, right, sure,
[59:08] Speaker 3: and he tells him also the bad news, and I'm
[59:09] Speaker 3: in police custody. So, according to Lee Price, the phone
[59:13] Speaker 3: call with his father goes like this, Daddy, I'm alive.
[59:16] Speaker 3: I need you to listen carefully, call this number four
[59:18] Speaker 3: me and give them this code six six six.
[59:24] Speaker 2: Wait.
[59:24] Speaker 3: Yes, yes, So if you think about this from this
[59:29] Speaker 3: old man's perspective, his father thinks his son is dead.
[59:32] Speaker 3: He took his own life after failing a business and
[59:34] Speaker 3: as a minister. But then his son calls him from
[59:36] Speaker 3: the police holding. He seems frantic, seems off kilter, tells
[59:39] Speaker 3: him he's not dead, not like he thought. But he
[59:41] Speaker 3: also doesn't have any much more to say about all that.
[59:43] Speaker 3: No apology, nothing like that. Also, no message for his
[59:46] Speaker 3: wife or his family is said. He asked his father
[59:48] Speaker 3: to call some strange phone number and to pass on
[59:51] Speaker 3: a message. The message isn't words, no ope. Instead, it's
[59:53] Speaker 3: just the number six sixty six, aka the number of
[59:56] Speaker 3: the beast.
[59:56] Speaker 4: If I'm the dad, I'm like, are you on the planet?
[59:59] Speaker 2: Like what is he?
[1:00:00] Speaker 6: Are you calling me from hell?
[1:00:03] Speaker 3: So?
[1:00:05] Speaker 6: So what's up with them sixty sixty six message?
[1:00:07] Speaker 4: And who is he calling?
[1:00:09] Speaker 2: Pedro? Yes?
[1:00:10] Speaker 3: Elizabeth you're on it crime buddy Pedro number one in
[1:00:13] Speaker 3: his family life. At this point, that's what the six
[1:00:17] Speaker 3: six is meant for. It's a code. According to Leap Price,
[1:00:20] Speaker 3: the code was some drug business. It meant run for
[1:00:23] Speaker 3: your life, get rid of your phones. So there you go.
[1:00:27] Speaker 4: And so he's got like his dad made the call.
[1:00:30] Speaker 3: No, well, I'd love to tell you, like, you know, like,
[1:00:33] Speaker 3: what what did his dad say when he heard this?
[1:00:35] Speaker 3: I don't know that, but I do know his dad
[1:00:38] Speaker 3: never made the call.
[1:00:39] Speaker 4: Good for him.
[1:00:39] Speaker 3: He's a former marine, family farmer. He hears his shag
[1:00:43] Speaker 3: as Jim Price. The dad said, I didn't know what
[1:00:45] Speaker 3: he was talking about. I couldn't do it. So he
[1:00:48] Speaker 3: doesn't call Pedro.
[1:00:50] Speaker 4: Hello, this is BEG.
[1:00:53] Speaker 3: Six. So at this point the FBI gets involved. They
[1:01:00] Speaker 3: searched Lee's mobile home there in Citra. They discovered the
[1:01:03] Speaker 3: shed with the two hundred and twenty five pot plants,
[1:01:06] Speaker 3: but that's not all they find. They also discover that
[1:01:08] Speaker 3: Lee Price has equipment to make fake identification cards. Of course,
[1:01:11] Speaker 3: he also has all of his equipment for cocaine trafficking,
[1:01:14] Speaker 3: like a triple beam, scale, grinders, sifters. I assume that
[1:01:17] Speaker 3: he's cutting his cocaine. So he's got the sifters anyway,
[1:01:20] Speaker 3: FBI special Agent Ed Suckcliffe, but some diss all our brothers. Succincly,
[1:01:24] Speaker 3: it was like classic drug stuff. He was living that life.
[1:01:27] Speaker 2: Drug stuff.
[1:01:29] Speaker 3: Especially Ed Suckcliffe also rather neatly summed up the arc
[1:01:33] Speaker 3: of Lee Price's life up to this point, saying it
[1:01:36] Speaker 3: went from a clean cut preacher, an investment advisor, to
[1:01:39] Speaker 3: weed grower and prostitutex scort. So, Elizabeth, it's a lot
[1:01:44] Speaker 3: of like a modern day biblical tail, the prodigal coke dealer.
[1:01:49] Speaker 3: So now that he's alive, what happens to all of
[1:01:52] Speaker 3: his ripped off financial clients? So a special agent Ed
[1:01:56] Speaker 3: Suckcliffe he also had something to say about that, and
[1:01:59] Speaker 3: I quote, he will tell you he made all those
[1:02:01] Speaker 3: risky investments trying to earn back his client's money. He
[1:02:05] Speaker 3: will tell you he still considers himself a religious person
[1:02:07] Speaker 3: who prays for his victims by.
[1:02:10] Speaker 6: Name every day.
[1:02:12] Speaker 3: Like any good con man, you want to believe what
[1:02:15] Speaker 3: he is saying is true, but in the end the
[1:02:17] Speaker 3: words don't match the actions, And then you think about
[1:02:20] Speaker 3: the victims that were left with nothing.
[1:02:22] Speaker 2: Thank you, right, thank you?
[1:02:25] Speaker 3: When I was reading about this story, I kept thinking
[1:02:26] Speaker 3: about Special Agent Ed and thinking, this guy gets it.
[1:02:31] Speaker 6: I love the quote.
[1:02:32] Speaker 3: Like any good con man, you want to believe what
[1:02:34] Speaker 3: he is saying is true. But in the end, the
[1:02:35] Speaker 3: words don't match the actions because we know how so
[1:02:38] Speaker 3: often that's what it boils down to. Just like how
[1:02:40] Speaker 3: you will know a tree by its fruit, you will
[1:02:42] Speaker 3: know a person by their actions. Words are easy to
[1:02:45] Speaker 3: say or to fake, so keeping a standard of action,
[1:02:49] Speaker 3: though over time that's difficult, that's how you can know
[1:02:52] Speaker 3: who a person was. Anyway, back to Special Agent Agent
[1:02:55] Speaker 3: Ed Suckliffe of the FBI's Atlanta Field office. He goes
[1:02:58] Speaker 3: around to personally interview as many of the victims aka
[1:03:01] Speaker 3: his former clients, his former friends, his former congregants, and
[1:03:04] Speaker 3: his church. His Special Agent Ed says, it's unbelievably sad.
[1:03:09] Speaker 3: Most of prizes victims had worked thirty or forty years
[1:03:12] Speaker 3: to save for retirement. They were living off those funds.
[1:03:14] Speaker 3: They had to learn from us that price. Their friend
[1:03:17] Speaker 3: and advisor was missing, and all their money was gone.
[1:03:21] Speaker 3: And I'm talking all their money.
[1:03:23] Speaker 6: Remember do I get my annuity check?
[1:03:25] Speaker 4: Well, yeah, seventy million or something was he was taking like.
[1:03:29] Speaker 3: Old people's like annual annuity checks, so they they're having
[1:03:32] Speaker 3: like a widow and no longer has a retirement fund.
[1:03:36] Speaker 3: It's like very like than it requires a lot of forgetting.
[1:03:41] Speaker 3: So what about punishment for Lee Price? What happens once
[1:03:44] Speaker 3: the legally declared dead man comes back to life like Jesus,
[1:03:47] Speaker 3: only he has to face a judge about his many
[1:03:49] Speaker 3: crimes and the judge is not his dad god Well,
[1:03:52] Speaker 3: US District Court Judge b Avante Edenfield or Edenfield presides
[1:03:57] Speaker 3: over this trial. All right, and Lee Price is nearly
[1:03:59] Speaker 3: seventy million dollar ponzi scheme doesn't take the judge and
[1:04:02] Speaker 3: long to say guilty, and he's ordered, or rather, Lee
[1:04:06] Speaker 3: Price is ordered to pay forty seven million dollars in
[1:04:09] Speaker 3: restitution good luck, which seems like a lot of money
[1:04:11] Speaker 3: for him to pay back.
[1:04:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, and make it he rides a biker around town.
[1:04:15] Speaker 3: It's the judge gonna let him go back to selling
[1:04:17] Speaker 3: cocaine because other way he ain't gonna make this ubble. No,
[1:04:20] Speaker 3: But in terms of other punishment, Lee Price also gets
[1:04:22] Speaker 3: convicted and sentenced the thirty years in prison, which is
[1:04:25] Speaker 3: really going to mess up the restitution plan.
[1:04:27] Speaker 6: That is, he's making like three cents on the on
[1:04:30] Speaker 6: the hour.
[1:04:30] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:04:31] Speaker 3: So when he's in court, Lee Price is no longer
[1:04:33] Speaker 3: the crime buddy of Pedro. He's back to being a
[1:04:34] Speaker 3: clean cut guy. He looks basically like a former biker
[1:04:37] Speaker 3: turned Baptist preacher, you know, okay, And he tells the
[1:04:40] Speaker 3: judge problem is, we didn't know some things about the bank.
[1:04:44] Speaker 3: Some things were hidden from us. Oh that was he
[1:04:47] Speaker 3: played ignorance.
[1:04:48] Speaker 4: That was the old that's that was the thing that
[1:04:51] Speaker 4: went wrong.
[1:04:52] Speaker 2: And then after that it was totally out of his hands. Yes,
[1:04:56] Speaker 2: there was nothing that could be done. One of those
[1:04:59] Speaker 2: butterflies effect flat. They didn't tell us that he had to.
[1:05:03] Speaker 4: Actually, I was too ignorant.
[1:05:05] Speaker 3: To do what I'm doing. That's not my fault. So
[1:05:08] Speaker 3: he says, this whole multimillion dollar fraud thing, you know,
[1:05:11] Speaker 3: not his fault. In a very Southern Christian way. Lee
[1:05:14] Speaker 3: says he wants to turn the page and to get
[1:05:16] Speaker 3: to the forgiveness part as fast as he can. He says,
[1:05:18] Speaker 3: my story will be about restitution. The only life I
[1:05:21] Speaker 3: have left his future life, the past is gone, so
[1:05:25] Speaker 3: let's not talk about so in prison, Lee Price finds
[1:05:29] Speaker 3: great solves in two books. The first is the Bible,
[1:05:31] Speaker 3: because duh, it's a book.
[1:05:32] Speaker 2: He knows well, break he didn't read the Another.
[1:05:34] Speaker 3: Book is The Inglorious Fugitive, his unpublished prison memoir.
[1:05:38] Speaker 2: He keeps saying unpublished, and that gives me such happiness.
[1:05:42] Speaker 6: No, I like to typically think of the Bible.
[1:05:44] Speaker 2: It makes me wonder, how did you get it? It
[1:05:46] Speaker 2: was in the article.
[1:05:47] Speaker 3: The article the person who interviewed had just huge swaths
[1:05:50] Speaker 3: because the writing was just so much fun to make
[1:05:52] Speaker 3: fun of it. Yeah, yeah, like well like to basically
[1:05:55] Speaker 3: do a lot of people like, at least to me,
[1:05:58] Speaker 3: the Bible is just this niche mash of a book, right,
[1:06:00] Speaker 3: Like there's the first part, which is like this historical
[1:06:02] Speaker 3: adventure story, and then there's the latter half, which is
[1:06:05] Speaker 3: like the coming age story of like a soulful magician,
[1:06:07] Speaker 3: and then like the book ends with like the dictation
[1:06:09] Speaker 3: of someone's bad trip on d MT.
[1:06:11] Speaker 6: It's a wild book.
[1:06:12] Speaker 2: That's the talk that gets you sent to detention totally.
[1:06:15] Speaker 3: What do you think so much time or jug did jesuit?
[1:06:20] Speaker 2: I just under god burnette, I just chalk.
[1:06:26] Speaker 3: I've had rulers, I mean you name it. I've been
[1:06:28] Speaker 3: hit or thrown thrown at me. Now to a lot
[1:06:30] Speaker 3: of people, the Bible, obviously, is also the world's greatest
[1:06:33] Speaker 3: self help book. It's his book of tests and trials
[1:06:36] Speaker 3: and redemptions and salvations. And I think that's kind of
[1:06:38] Speaker 3: how Lee Price viewed his memoir as a self help
[1:06:41] Speaker 3: book filled with tests and trials and redemptions and salvations.
[1:06:44] Speaker 3: So he uses his own trials as a sort of
[1:06:46] Speaker 3: like testimony, as an example for the reader.
[1:06:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, now you know.
[1:06:50] Speaker 3: As far as his impossible forty seven million dollars in restitution,
[1:06:53] Speaker 3: the man formerly known as Gator says, the day of restitution,
[1:06:56] Speaker 3: that's the day I'm dreaming of. I don't want anyone
[1:06:58] Speaker 3: forgive me to I pay them back now his plan
[1:07:01] Speaker 3: to pay them.
[1:07:01] Speaker 4: Back away, I'm dying to hear with this.
[1:07:03] Speaker 6: How does he expect to raise that kind of capital?
[1:07:05] Speaker 3: Well, as a reporter from a Lanta magazine tells us,
[1:07:07] Speaker 3: he is working on his book and talking to the
[1:07:09] Speaker 3: literary agent and the scriptwriters. Maybe his incredible story will
[1:07:12] Speaker 3: make money for all those he's wronged. Another one, the
[1:07:16] Speaker 3: screenplay is gonna make a movie.
[1:07:18] Speaker 2: He just wants to direct.
[1:07:20] Speaker 6: He's forty seven million dollars.
[1:07:21] Speaker 4: I want to go to the jam.
[1:07:22] Speaker 2: I want to go to the prison, and like he'll
[1:07:24] Speaker 2: be behind the bars and I'll say, is that the
[1:07:26] Speaker 2: only copy of the manuscript? And he'll say, yeah, I'll
[1:07:29] Speaker 2: bit pass it through here.
[1:07:30] Speaker 4: I want to read it from all.
[1:07:31] Speaker 2: Then I get out a lighter and I have set
[1:07:34] Speaker 2: it on fire and look him dead in the eyes
[1:07:36] Speaker 2: while it burns, and he freaks out.
[1:07:38] Speaker 3: Also, by the way, since movies are dying, what are
[1:07:40] Speaker 3: criminals going to do? Once we stop making movies? The
[1:07:43] Speaker 3: lives are going to be meaning so this way, so
[1:07:47] Speaker 3: he has other options for his future? Has the man
[1:07:49] Speaker 3: formerly known as a diesel Palsill pointed out to a
[1:07:52] Speaker 3: reporter of Atlanta Magazine. Or I have to sit on
[1:07:55] Speaker 3: my just dye in prison, not help anybody. I can
[1:07:58] Speaker 3: do that.
[1:07:58] Speaker 4: Oh what do you see the future?
[1:08:01] Speaker 3: I'm embarrassing myself, letting people know the sins of my life.
[1:08:05] Speaker 6: I should get compensated the right way.
[1:08:07] Speaker 2: Oh, my.
[1:08:10] Speaker 4: Dear, good God to heaven.
[1:08:12] Speaker 3: You may be wondering what about his family, his dear
[1:08:15] Speaker 3: wife Rebecca, his four kids. How did they react when
[1:08:19] Speaker 3: they find out he's alive and living in Northern Florida. Well,
[1:08:22] Speaker 3: Lee Price tells his wife that you quote, you need
[1:08:25] Speaker 3: divorce me and find a man who can help support them,
[1:08:29] Speaker 3: which is actually a blessing in disguise. Yeah yeah, but
[1:08:33] Speaker 3: because his family is the faithful sort. When Lee is
[1:08:36] Speaker 3: in court for his trial, his family shows up and
[1:08:38] Speaker 3: tries to support him. His wife, Rebecca, and three of
[1:08:41] Speaker 3: his children. They reportedly quote showed little emotion and spoke
[1:08:44] Speaker 3: infrequently amongst themselves. They looked collectively like the resigned victims
[1:08:48] Speaker 3: of an emotional siege. Yeah yeah, and emotional siege is
[1:08:52] Speaker 3: really accurate.
[1:08:53] Speaker 4: I'm with whatever kid was like, it's better I am
[1:08:56] Speaker 4: not there.
[1:08:57] Speaker 3: Yes, Well, we don't know exactly what they were feeling because,
[1:08:59] Speaker 3: unlike Diesel aka Lee Price, they didn't speak with the press.
[1:09:02] Speaker 3: They had more dignity than that.
[1:09:04] Speaker 2: Thank you. I'm so glad they didn't talk to anybody.
[1:09:10] Speaker 3: Lastly, whatever happened to the earnest, dependable, likable kid whose
[1:09:14] Speaker 3: tanage coach named a child after him.
[1:09:18] Speaker 4: It's been such a wild journey.
[1:09:21] Speaker 3: I guess somewhere along the way, Lee Price found that
[1:09:24] Speaker 3: he wanted to enjoy his heaven here on earth, and
[1:09:26] Speaker 3: it involved cocaine, various sex workers, dance music, and of
[1:09:31] Speaker 3: course Pedro riding a bike exactly as the light dips
[1:09:36] Speaker 3: into the horizon. Now, I do have to also believe
[1:09:39] Speaker 3: that becoming Gator or Diesel, whatever you want to call him,
[1:09:42] Speaker 3: started long before he met his crime buddy Pedro, this
[1:09:45] Speaker 3: was in him. He described it as the beast that
[1:09:47] Speaker 3: was in him. I think, remember so, I think that
[1:09:49] Speaker 3: he had a divided soul from the get and just
[1:09:52] Speaker 3: hit it until eventually it came out. And when he
[1:09:56] Speaker 3: had the chance to make money and get.
[1:09:57] Speaker 2: Ready to at least he was able to destroy a
[1:10:02] Speaker 2: lot of lives alone exactly.
[1:10:03] Speaker 3: So what's the ridiculous takeaway here, Elizabeth?
[1:10:06] Speaker 2: This guy he will be judged in the final judgments.
[1:10:12] Speaker 2: Like I just I am so angry, Like he encapsulates
[1:10:17] Speaker 2: so many things that just irritate the berjeebers out of me.
[1:10:22] Speaker 3: Oh, I can tell you're like three colors of red rid.
[1:10:24] Speaker 2: I just you know that what he's done to his family,
[1:10:27] Speaker 2: when he's done to these people who trusted him, his
[1:10:30] Speaker 2: absolute hypocritical, you know, godless use of God.
[1:10:37] Speaker 4: You know all of this, and for what.
[1:10:41] Speaker 3: And also how about this? He is a father who
[1:10:44] Speaker 3: betrayed his family and his children, but he looks at
[1:10:47] Speaker 3: God as his father who needs to always be there
[1:10:49] Speaker 3: for him. And yes he's like that father. Yes, me,
[1:10:52] Speaker 3: father knew.
[1:10:53] Speaker 2: And then he goes back into his own fact.
[1:10:57] Speaker 3: He goes to exactly. Yeah, like wow, so that's that's
[1:11:01] Speaker 3: my Elizabeth is all the father son relationships.
[1:11:04] Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's just like this notion that you
[1:11:07] Speaker 2: can use faith as a get out of jail free
[1:11:09] Speaker 2: card in this case, you know, literally it misses the
[1:11:14] Speaker 2: point completely, and it's just it is the antithesis of
[1:11:18] Speaker 2: what that faith is supposed to be.
[1:11:21] Speaker 3: Our works.
[1:11:22] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's you know, I don't care if people obviously
[1:11:27] Speaker 2: like people drink and do drugs and about it. It's
[1:11:29] Speaker 2: like whether it's recreationally and like I pray for those
[1:11:32] Speaker 2: who have it as a struggle, right, But so I
[1:11:36] Speaker 2: don't care about talking about like the absolute betrayal of
[1:11:40] Speaker 2: people's trust and love is disgusting.
[1:11:43] Speaker 3: Yes, yes, agree, And the abandonment of affection, the betraying
[1:11:48] Speaker 3: like like defenseless like widows and taking their future to
[1:11:52] Speaker 3: fund your like weird egotistic financial.
[1:11:56] Speaker 2: No self reflection none, you know, I say.
[1:11:59] Speaker 3: He wrote a he wrote a whole book and he
[1:12:01] Speaker 3: still hasn't got anywhere near with So yeah, there you go.
[1:12:06] Speaker 4: You know, it's really nice to have something else to
[1:12:08] Speaker 4: be mad.
[1:12:12] Speaker 3: Lazy Susan. I spun it around. How about this, Elizabeth?
[1:12:16] Speaker 3: I took what was in front of you somewhere else.
[1:12:18] Speaker 2: This was great.
[1:12:19] Speaker 3: Thank you, so prettzy. You got to ridiculous takeaway. No,
[1:12:23] Speaker 3: well you have a talkback for us. Let's hear it.
[1:12:28] Speaker 3: Oh my god.
[1:12:31] Speaker 8: Did.
[1:12:34] Speaker 2: I lent you.
[1:12:40] Speaker 8: Y'all? I cannot tell you how much I howled how
[1:12:44] Speaker 8: old out loud in my car when Elizabeth mentioned follow
[1:12:49] Speaker 8: that Bird. I grew up with that soundtrack on an album.
[1:12:52] Speaker 8: My sister and I did a duet that the farm
[1:12:55] Speaker 8: Kids sing with Big Bird. I could do the whole
[1:12:59] Speaker 8: album if I didn't have just thirty seconds anyway, at delight,
[1:13:03] Speaker 8: Thank you. This is Rachel. Next time you're in Cleveland,
[1:13:06] Speaker 8: drinks are on me.
[1:13:09] Speaker 10: Yes.
[1:13:10] Speaker 2: Follow that Bird is cinema.
[1:13:12] Speaker 3: It is. It is a great You and Martycorsese agree
[1:13:15] Speaker 3: on that. I love it.
[1:13:17] Speaker 2: To me, this is a cinema, and yes, I'll take
[1:13:20] Speaker 2: you up on it forever.
[1:13:22] Speaker 3: Yes, Hey, don't don't make fun of Cleveland. That's my job.
[1:13:26] Speaker 4: That was awesome. Thank you.
[1:13:28] Speaker 3: Yes, as always, you can find a line Ridiculous Crime
[1:13:31] Speaker 3: at Bluska Instagram and we have the account Ridiculous Crime
[1:13:36] Speaker 3: Pod on YouTube. Go check that out if you'd like
[1:13:39] Speaker 3: to listen. There we got you covered. We also have
[1:13:42] Speaker 3: our website ridiculous Crime dot com that h has merch
[1:13:46] Speaker 3: and gifts and uh it's just a good old fashioned
[1:13:49] Speaker 3: fun time and obviously we do always look forward to
[1:13:52] Speaker 3: your talkbacks, so please.
[1:13:53] Speaker 6: Go to the iHeart app, download it, leave it talk back.
[1:13:56] Speaker 3: We'd love to hear your voice here and or if
[1:13:58] Speaker 3: you'd like, you can go the old older school route
[1:14:01] Speaker 3: and email us if you like at ridiculous Crime at
[1:14:03] Speaker 3: gmail dot com. We've been getting some good ones, thank you,
[1:14:06] Speaker 3: and uh we even had some couple of great show ideas,
[1:14:08] Speaker 3: so really appreciate that. And uh yeah, there you go.
[1:14:12] Speaker 3: As always, thank you for listening, and we will catch
[1:14:15] Speaker 3: you next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton
[1:14:23] Speaker 3: and Zarin Burnette, produced and edited by Atlanta's favorite son,
[1:14:27] Speaker 3: Dave Kustin, and starring Annals Rutger as Judith. Research is
[1:14:31] Speaker 3: by our resident Bible scholars, Reverend Marissa Brown and Father
[1:14:35] Speaker 3: Jabari Davis. Our theme song is by the Bandit and
[1:14:38] Speaker 3: the Snowman aka Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. The host
[1:14:42] Speaker 3: wardrobe provided by Bonnie five hundred, guest hair and makeup
[1:14:45] Speaker 3: by Sparkleshott and mister Andre. Executive producers are Burt Reynolds
[1:14:49] Speaker 3: stunt Man in Gator, Ben Bolin and Burt Reynolds stunt
[1:14:53] Speaker 3: driver in Smoking The Bandit three, Noel.
[1:14:56] Speaker 5: Brown, Ridicous Crime, Say It One More Time Ridiquious Crime.
[1:15:09] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
[1:15:12] Speaker 1: from heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
[1:15:15] Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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