# Welcome to America, Suckers: Selling the Brooklyn Bridge

An episode of [Ridiculous Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1608230191), 19 Feb 2026, 58 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0b4bcc39-7ba2-453f-aaac-ae510011dd80/9824edce-0b71-43f2-94be-b3f501584462/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3a4c50f5-ff69-4807-aa26-ae510011dd8e

It's become shorthand for someone being gullible, thinking they can buy the Brooklyn Bridge (and at a discount!). But the idea had to start somewhere. Turns out selling the bridge and other landmarks to those newly arrived on U.S. shores was a lucrative con in the early 1900s. But such cons are not sustainable, and eventually bad guys go to prison. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio zaren.
[0:06] Speaker 2: Zar.
[0:08] Speaker 3: I was talking to Sorry, are they good? They're good?
[0:11] Speaker 3: They were licking my hand. Oh, that sounds wrong. They
[0:14] Speaker 3: don't tell hr. No, I won't the four Legged ones,
[0:18] Speaker 3: how are we?
[0:18] Speaker 2: Oh? Because I was gonna say, like for the other ones,
[0:20] Speaker 2: for like Braiden Limb, jay Lee and Jaye. I was like,
[0:26] Speaker 2: those two, Oh my god, I don't want to give
[0:30] Speaker 2: them the college credits that they're supposed to be earning. No,
[0:34] Speaker 2: they Braiden Limb erased all the emails again again.
[0:38] Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that they've lost their car, or at
[0:41] Speaker 3: least lied to me and said that they couldn't come
[0:43] Speaker 3: into work because they lost their car. I don't know
[0:45] Speaker 3: which one it is.
[0:46] Speaker 2: No, I can't tell. I can't tell them apart.
[0:48] Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm like, is that a lie or just an
[0:49] Speaker 3: ambition of your stupidity?
[0:51] Speaker 2: I know, we'll both do you know what?
[0:53] Speaker 3: It's ridiculous? I do, Elizabeth. Yeah, this is kind of
[0:56] Speaker 3: a little bit more serious and a heartfelt plea for
[0:58] Speaker 3: the world to slow down and stop changing, because I'm
[1:01] Speaker 3: not a fan of all these changes.
[1:03] Speaker 2: Oh, I know you and me both, sister.
[1:05] Speaker 3: No book for real like, okay, I don't know about you.
[1:09] Speaker 3: I loved mass market paperbacks, those little books. They would
[1:13] Speaker 3: fit in your back pocket. When I was in college,
[1:15] Speaker 3: I was known to always have a book on me
[1:18] Speaker 3: because I wore big pants like junko, totally like big
[1:23] Speaker 3: sake skateboard pants.
[1:24] Speaker 2: Put like two friends in each leg.
[1:25] Speaker 3: Oh, I could put a forty in my front pockets.
[1:28] Speaker 3: I used to used to steal a pound of cheese
[1:29] Speaker 3: from the Safeway on Marcus Street and Church.
[1:32] Speaker 2: They looked like ball gowns.
[1:34] Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it was. It was insane. We used to
[1:36] Speaker 3: do so much. But one times friends we used always
[1:39] Speaker 3: amuse themselves and ask me to empty my pockets and
[1:41] Speaker 3: it would take like twenty five minutes because I had
[1:43] Speaker 3: so much in there, anything way more than what I
[1:45] Speaker 3: have now, which is like basically a pocket knife and
[1:47] Speaker 3: a couple other things like a lucky penny, a rock
[1:49] Speaker 3: or two.
[1:50] Speaker 2: Then it was like tell the truth, Tell the truth
[1:53] Speaker 2: about what you keep in the like kangaroo pouch of
[1:55] Speaker 2: your hoodie, what you have like a notebook, a pen, yeah,
[2:00] Speaker 2: an extra pair of glasses, a rock.
[2:03] Speaker 3: Okay, I still do the same thing.
[2:07] Speaker 2: There's just random I've seen you have to empty it
[2:09] Speaker 2: out to security.
[2:10] Speaker 3: If you see me going to the airport, always like sir,
[2:13] Speaker 3: could you consolidate some of this stuff? They always complained
[2:16] Speaker 3: to me at security about how much stuff out in
[2:18] Speaker 3: my pocket, or they'll wave somebody over to look at
[2:21] Speaker 3: how much stuff came out, Like I'm like a drunk kangaroo.
[2:23] Speaker 4: I'll just pulling.
[2:24] Speaker 2: Stuff seeing you like look for something. Oh no, we
[2:26] Speaker 2: were at some show and you were pulling out Okay,
[2:28] Speaker 2: my phone, some glasses, here's a rock, and pads and
[2:35] Speaker 2: a pen, and then an unopened can of sparkling water.
[2:39] Speaker 3: It's true anyway.
[2:44] Speaker 2: And that thing of trail mix, Oh.
[2:46] Speaker 3: Yeah, the trail mix. A pack of a trail mix. Okay,
[2:48] Speaker 3: they get peckish. So I used to always be known
[2:51] Speaker 3: for having a mass market paperback on me, you know,
[2:53] Speaker 3: like just like a John D. McDonald mystery just whatever,
[2:57] Speaker 3: like a lot of mysteries generally. And I've learned recently
[3:01] Speaker 3: they are stopping the publication of mass market paperbacks. They're
[3:05] Speaker 3: gonna be like, oh, I got to get a kindle
[3:07] Speaker 3: and I don't even have a kindle. I think I've
[3:09] Speaker 3: been given a couple of gifts on never use them,
[3:11] Speaker 3: and I have to find those and dust them off,
[3:12] Speaker 3: because my favorite form of book well pocket size.
[3:16] Speaker 2: In paperback, but it's the ones that like you see
[3:19] Speaker 2: on the display these them in supermarkets.
[3:21] Speaker 3: Yeah, totally yeah, like yeah, all the like the Clive
[3:24] Speaker 3: Custlers and the what's the John Grisham books and the
[3:28] Speaker 3: Valley of the Dolls.
[3:29] Speaker 2: And like can how that's like it keeps popping up
[3:33] Speaker 2: in like my timeline and those like guys kind I
[3:36] Speaker 2: love that, but.
[3:36] Speaker 3: I'm just so bummed the end of that era. I mean, like,
[3:39] Speaker 3: come on, what about so now I have to go
[3:41] Speaker 3: to like good Wills and why.
[3:44] Speaker 2: Why people don't know how to read anymore?
[3:46] Speaker 3: That is true? Have you seen the numbers?
[3:48] Speaker 4: It's sad post post COVID.
[3:50] Speaker 3: It fell off a cliffs because before then it was
[3:53] Speaker 3: going bad and it was like all of a sudden,
[3:55] Speaker 3: the car just went right off the road and they
[3:57] Speaker 3: could stop going downhill and just went into a ravine
[3:59] Speaker 3: and then the being caught fire.
[4:01] Speaker 2: Everything, and then it burned all the way up to
[4:03] Speaker 2: the river and it set the river on fire.
[4:06] Speaker 3: Lake Erie and there's all they want. Yeah, it was ridiculous, right.
[4:13] Speaker 2: Do you want to know what else is ridiculous? I've
[4:15] Speaker 2: been hired to star in the next Marvel movie called
[4:20] Speaker 2: Hammock Woman. And if you believe that, I've got a
[4:24] Speaker 2: bridge to sell you, Yeah, this is Ridiculous Crime, a
[4:48] Speaker 2: podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's
[4:54] Speaker 2: always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.
[5:00] Speaker 3: You damn right.
[5:00] Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. Uh, you know. There's that old trope
[5:04] Speaker 2: that if someone's gullible, we say, well, I've got a
[5:07] Speaker 2: bridge to Celia. Oh yeah, I've heard that, and the
[5:09] Speaker 2: person is talking about the Brooklyn Bridge specifically. Yeah, it's
[5:14] Speaker 2: There are references to this in movies and in cartoons.
[5:17] Speaker 2: For example, the nineteen thirty seven comedy every Day is
[5:21] Speaker 2: a Holiday. In it, a bodacious babe con artist named
[5:26] Speaker 2: Peaches Oday Great Name, played by May West Yes sells.
[5:31] Speaker 2: Peaches Oday new alias sells the Brooklyn Bridge to a
[5:36] Speaker 2: guy for two hundred dollars, and the bill of sale reads,
[5:40] Speaker 2: one bridge in good condition.
[5:42] Speaker 3: Very distracted.
[5:43] Speaker 2: I'm sure he was. She gets busted, she's run out
[5:45] Speaker 2: of town, but she's like a tough, bressy broad so
[5:49] Speaker 2: she comes back in a black wig, calling herself Mademoiselle Fifi,
[5:54] Speaker 2: and then she goes on to be elected mayor of
[5:56] Speaker 2: the city, of course, and so every day is a holiday.
[5:59] Speaker 2: Is on my watch list? Yes, my two watch list.
[6:03] Speaker 2: So yeah, okay, there's that. In the nineteen forty nine
[6:06] Speaker 2: cartoon Bowery Bugs, Bugs sells the bridge to an old
[6:09] Speaker 2: man after charming him with the story. And so there
[6:12] Speaker 2: was a time when everyone knew this phrase. If you
[6:16] Speaker 2: believe that I've got a bridge that I want to
[6:18] Speaker 2: sell you. Oh and so it had to come from somewhere.
[6:21] Speaker 3: Where did it come from?
[6:22] Speaker 2: Let me tell you there were actually a lot of
[6:24] Speaker 2: swindlers who tried to sell people the Brooklyn Bridge.
[6:26] Speaker 3: It wasn't just like one famous incident.
[6:28] Speaker 2: No no, no, no, no, no, no, no no. Okay, So
[6:31] Speaker 2: let's learn a little about the thing. The Brooklyn Bridge
[6:35] Speaker 2: is one of the most important engineering landmarks in American history.
[6:39] Speaker 3: It is a good looking bridge.
[6:40] Speaker 2: I didn't know it was this big of a deal.
[6:42] Speaker 2: So it connects Manhattan and Brooklyn over the East River.
[6:48] Speaker 2: It was the first steel wire suspension bridge ever completed,
[6:52] Speaker 2: and at the time of its opening, it was one
[6:53] Speaker 2: of the longest suspension bridges in the world. So before
[6:58] Speaker 2: the bridge, if you wanted to get between Brooklyn in
[7:00] Speaker 2: New York City, you had to take the ferry. Construction
[7:04] Speaker 2: started in eighteen seventy. So as an aside, which I
[7:08] Speaker 2: know you love I do, I found some interesting information
[7:11] Speaker 2: about the designer of the bridge and the construction when
[7:14] Speaker 2: I was doing all my research. So John A. Roebling,
[7:17] Speaker 2: he was the mastermind behind the bridge. Yeah, he was
[7:21] Speaker 2: like this genius engineer. But in eighteen sixty nine, while
[7:26] Speaker 2: taking compass readings on the edge of the river, his
[7:29] Speaker 2: foot got crushed by a docking ferry. Oh right, and
[7:34] Speaker 2: so he developed tetanus and he died a couple of
[7:37] Speaker 2: weeks ago.
[7:37] Speaker 3: Oh lord, from a ferry accident. A couple He.
[7:41] Speaker 2: Smashed his foot and that's f E R R y
[7:45] Speaker 2: the boat.
[7:46] Speaker 3: Yeah, sprite, I don't know.
[7:48] Speaker 2: Sometimes it's you know, could happen. So, yeah, tetanus and
[7:53] Speaker 2: jaw locked up. That was it. So his son, Washington Robeling,
[7:57] Speaker 2: took over the project. He was also an engineer or
[8:00] Speaker 2: he was a Civil War vet. He refined the design
[8:03] Speaker 2: and he oversaw the most difficult construction phases, so like
[8:07] Speaker 2: when they're digging the giant chambers that are sunk into
[8:10] Speaker 2: the riverbed, for the towers. A lot of workers got
[8:14] Speaker 2: decompression sickness, and so they'd be like they'd get joint pain, paralysis,
[8:22] Speaker 2: some even died. Washington Robling himself became seriously ill from
[8:26] Speaker 2: decompression sickness and was left partially disabled during his illness,
[8:33] Speaker 2: so he's out. His wife, Emily Warren Robling, took on
[8:38] Speaker 2: like this very crucial and well documented role. She studied
[8:42] Speaker 2: engineering principles, material strength, cable construction, and she became the
[8:47] Speaker 2: on site liaison between her husband and the field engineers.
[8:51] Speaker 2: And then she like she had this like sustained technical
[8:56] Speaker 2: managerial involvement that made her one of the earthiest widely
[9:01] Speaker 2: recognized women in major civil engineering work in the United States.
[9:05] Speaker 3: So is she kind of doing like the Edith Wilson
[9:06] Speaker 3: Woodrow Wilson thing was like I'll take this to him
[9:09] Speaker 3: and then comes that just.
[9:09] Speaker 2: Comes back he said this, Yes, okay, she was calling
[9:12] Speaker 2: the shots. So those are some fun facts. Yeah, it's fine,
[9:15] Speaker 2: aside from like the foot stuff anyway, which is rough,
[9:18] Speaker 2: which is cool, buddy. So the bridge officially opened May
[9:22] Speaker 2: twenty fourth, eighteen eighty three, after fourteen years of construction.
[9:26] Speaker 2: Opening day major celebration US President Chester A. Arthur was there,
[9:32] Speaker 2: New York Governor Grover Cleveland.
[9:34] Speaker 3: All the fact totally were you in New York politics
[9:38] Speaker 3: and kind of hanky.
[9:39] Speaker 2: Come on, Emily Robling, she got the first ceremonial ride
[9:44] Speaker 2: across the bridge and then but right after it opened,
[9:47] Speaker 2: there was rumor that it was going to collapse and
[9:51] Speaker 2: there was this like crowd panic, all these people. They
[9:54] Speaker 2: had a stampede, people died. So to restore public confidence. P. T.
[9:59] Speaker 2: Barnum marched a parade of elephants across the bridge in
[10:03] Speaker 2: eighteen eighty four to demonstrate its strength.
[10:05] Speaker 3: That is a scientist.
[10:06] Speaker 2: Oh yeah. And then everyone's like, oh crap, Well, if
[10:08] Speaker 2: the elephants can do.
[10:09] Speaker 3: It, we can take a parade of elephant. Fine. You
[10:12] Speaker 3: know about the Golden Gate Bridge where they had like
[10:14] Speaker 3: too many people on the bridge and the bridge almost
[10:16] Speaker 3: collapse because they had like basically a march when it
[10:18] Speaker 3: opened it they had too many people.
[10:20] Speaker 2: And Grandpa was on there. Really yeah, he was in
[10:23] Speaker 2: the navy and this ship was docked and they marched
[10:26] Speaker 2: them all across and he tells it bounced.
[10:28] Speaker 3: Yeah, like the boat. They gave its boat on an
[10:31] Speaker 3: inverted way, like convex and they went concave right.
[10:34] Speaker 2: So many people. So it happens with these things. The
[10:37] Speaker 2: eleve they did, they needed more elephants. So when immigrants
[10:41] Speaker 2: arrived in New York via boat, they saw two things,
[10:45] Speaker 2: the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. And the
[10:48] Speaker 2: bridge instantly became this iconic you know, it was. It
[10:51] Speaker 2: was a symbol of the feeling of endless possibility.
[10:55] Speaker 3: The New World industry.
[10:57] Speaker 2: Those who were already here saw it as this marvel
[11:00] Speaker 2: of engineering, and so if you're just arriving, anything's possible.
[11:04] Speaker 2: Twenty three years before the bridge opened in eighteen sixty,
[11:08] Speaker 2: a boy child was born. His parents, Irish immigrants, named
[11:12] Speaker 2: him George C.
[11:13] Speaker 4: Parker.
[11:15] Speaker 2: So he has this big Irish family. It's like a
[11:17] Speaker 2: true American story. Seven kids, some of them even got
[11:21] Speaker 2: to graduate from high school.
[11:22] Speaker 3: Wow, it's a big thing. Then, yes, back then.
[11:25] Speaker 2: And to make an even truer American story, George liked
[11:29] Speaker 2: to be on the wrong side of the law.
[11:30] Speaker 3: Nice, good for you, George.
[11:32] Speaker 2: He was super charming. He's like a pretty good looking guy,
[11:35] Speaker 2: particularly if you're into handlebar mustaches.
[11:38] Speaker 4: Oh at the time, yeah, in the game, oh yeah.
[11:40] Speaker 2: And he documentation on his childhood is limited, because you know,
[11:44] Speaker 2: that's kind of how it works for non elites at
[11:47] Speaker 2: that time. We do know just from like the year
[11:51] Speaker 2: of his birth and that he grew up during the
[11:54] Speaker 2: post Civil war, that he was there for this crazy
[11:57] Speaker 2: expansion in New York. It's growing and growing, immigration, tourism,
[12:02] Speaker 2: speculative business ventures like that. There's just so much fertile
[12:07] Speaker 2: ground for fraud.
[12:09] Speaker 3: I think all those we talk about pre war buildings, yeah,
[12:12] Speaker 3: being built.
[12:12] Speaker 2: Right now exactly.
[12:14] Speaker 3: So.
[12:14] Speaker 2: By the eighteen eighties and the eighteen nineties, Parker was
[12:17] Speaker 2: already operating confidence tricks in New York City. Yes, and
[12:20] Speaker 2: his specialty was property and title fraud with a little
[12:25] Speaker 2: impersonation and forged documentation sprinkled.
[12:27] Speaker 3: In okay go the stamp well Yeah.
[12:30] Speaker 2: Unlike short con street swindlers, the three card monte men
[12:34] Speaker 2: and the like, he had these like elaborate scenarios. So
[12:38] Speaker 2: his victims thought that they were making large, legitimate investments.
[12:42] Speaker 2: They thought they were entering the realm of the robber baron.
[12:45] Speaker 2: They were going to be a captain of industry at
[12:47] Speaker 2: some point. By the late nineteenth century, he had started
[12:51] Speaker 2: posing as the legal owner or authorized agent of all
[12:55] Speaker 2: these high profile New York properties, so he had like
[12:59] Speaker 2: these consistent elements he always used. He would rent offices
[13:03] Speaker 2: near the property that he planned to quote unquote sell.
[13:07] Speaker 2: He would draw up forged deeds, permits, ownership papers, like
[13:11] Speaker 2: he was really good at fake paperwork, and he had
[13:14] Speaker 2: all these accomplices posing as clerks, lawyers, government officials, like
[13:19] Speaker 2: it was a huge protection. Yes, and despite his own parents'
[13:23] Speaker 2: history of crossing the Atlantic on an Irish coffin ship,
[13:27] Speaker 2: he went after recent immigrants.
[13:29] Speaker 3: Well, you know, he got to go with what you know.
[13:32] Speaker 2: Some out of towners as well, but like they were
[13:35] Speaker 2: dazzled by everything their new home had to offer, and
[13:38] Speaker 2: they knew that this is the land of opportunity. Anything's possible,
[13:42] Speaker 2: you can go from rags to riches. They're also thinking,
[13:45] Speaker 2: like the laws are different, it's more open here when
[13:47] Speaker 2: it comes to property ownership.
[13:49] Speaker 3: And oh yeah than the landlords of old. Right.
[13:51] Speaker 2: It was intoxicating, and Parker was there to pour him
[13:54] Speaker 2: a cocktail of hope. He's like, come on, dude, he
[13:57] Speaker 2: understood that newcomers are often assumed that official looking paperwork
[14:02] Speaker 2: and a rented office meant legitimacy and not just newcomers
[14:08] Speaker 2: who fall for that. People do the same today, but
[14:11] Speaker 2: back then there were no tidal verification systems.
[14:15] Speaker 3: It was all right where you can look at the
[14:17] Speaker 3: history of the building.
[14:18] Speaker 2: Exactly, and it wasn't as centralized, so document fraud was
[14:22] Speaker 2: pretty easy to carry off at that point. Before Ellis
[14:26] Speaker 2: Island opened in eighteen ninety two, immigrants were processed at
[14:30] Speaker 2: Fort Clinton in Lower Manhattan, and then even after Ellis
[14:34] Speaker 2: Island opened, there are all these newcomers still passed through
[14:37] Speaker 2: Lower Manhattan transit points where all the fixers and the
[14:41] Speaker 2: swindlers operating. They kind of had to run the gauntlet.
[14:44] Speaker 2: So Parker and all these like similar con artists, they
[14:48] Speaker 2: were looking for folks who had some savings, maybe spoke
[14:51] Speaker 2: limited English, wanted to invest quickly, and did not understand
[14:55] Speaker 2: US property law.
[14:56] Speaker 3: And did not have access to a lawyer.
[14:58] Speaker 2: No, so he had inside on site who would point
[15:01] Speaker 2: these types out to him, like those taking yeah and
[15:05] Speaker 2: then yeah. He'd present himself as this connected insider who
[15:11] Speaker 2: could sell them revenue producing infrastructure or prime real estate.
[15:16] Speaker 2: So he started selling office buildings to immigrants who thought
[15:19] Speaker 2: they'd like hit the right guy at the right time
[15:21] Speaker 2: and they could establish themselves in their new home. But
[15:25] Speaker 2: then he wanted up the stakes and the money. So
[15:27] Speaker 2: he started selling the Brooklyn Bridge and he would say
[15:32] Speaker 2: I own the bridge, or sometimes he was like I
[15:34] Speaker 2: have control of it. And he would offer victims the
[15:38] Speaker 2: right to operate toll booths or control access, and he's like,
[15:43] Speaker 2: it's steady revenue. People go back and forth between Manhattan
[15:46] Speaker 2: and Brooklyn constantly. Yeah, And then he'd say, look, it's
[15:49] Speaker 2: this privately owned bridge, or there's actually there's a transferable concession.
[15:55] Speaker 2: And so he's thrown around all these terms. He had forged,
[15:59] Speaker 2: franchise rights and operating permits. All the documents looked totally legitimate,
[16:04] Speaker 2: especially to someone new on the scene. Everything looked official important,
[16:09] Speaker 2: And the contracts that he drew up granted the buyer
[16:12] Speaker 2: toll collection authority because that's the money maker.
[16:15] Speaker 3: That's what they're looking for.
[16:16] Speaker 2: So all these victims reportedly attempted to set up toll
[16:20] Speaker 2: gates after their purchases. They get it all set up,
[16:23] Speaker 2: and then the cops would show up and tell them
[16:25] Speaker 2: to dismantle it and get off the bridge, like, no,
[16:28] Speaker 2: move out of here.
[16:29] Speaker 3: You don't get to charge a toll for this poor suckers.
[16:31] Speaker 3: I know, but Parker, the paint's not even dry.
[16:34] Speaker 2: The Parker was back, like he bribed the captains at
[16:37] Speaker 2: Ellis Island Ferry to find him more marks. There was
[16:39] Speaker 2: always a new crop, and it wasn't just the Brooklyn Bridge.
[16:43] Speaker 2: So he told new arrivals that Ulysses S. Grant was
[16:47] Speaker 2: his grandpa and that he wanted to pay tribute to
[16:50] Speaker 2: this war hero and construct a breathtaking monument a tomb.
[16:55] Speaker 2: But he didn't have the cash on hand to do it,
[16:57] Speaker 2: so he needed investors. Would they like to buy into
[17:00] Speaker 2: this most American and patriotic of efforts, Like did they
[17:05] Speaker 2: want to be part owner of Grant's tomb? And these
[17:08] Speaker 2: are people, they're coming here for a new life. They
[17:10] Speaker 2: want to be part of this amazing country that has
[17:12] Speaker 2: so much to offer. Like of course, all chip in
[17:15] Speaker 2: and they may have barely spoken English, but they knew
[17:18] Speaker 2: who Grant was.
[17:20] Speaker 3: Won the Civil War, and they knew America.
[17:21] Speaker 2: They're like coming in.
[17:23] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[17:24] Speaker 2: He also made a go at selling a piece of
[17:26] Speaker 2: Madison Square Garden and the Metropolitan.
[17:29] Speaker 4: Museum of Arts, of course names and.
[17:31] Speaker 2: Then also the most American of all landmarks, the Statue
[17:35] Speaker 2: of Liberty of course, you know, mother of exiles. Give
[17:38] Speaker 2: me you're tired, you're poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe, free,
[17:43] Speaker 2: the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the
[17:47] Speaker 2: homeless tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside
[17:51] Speaker 2: the golden door. That one. That's the one.
[17:55] Speaker 3: So it's such a great phrase.
[17:59] Speaker 2: So he's just going along selling things that aren't his
[18:02] Speaker 2: to sell. There are reports that he sold the bridge
[18:06] Speaker 2: two times a week for years.
[18:08] Speaker 3: How is he finding that many buyers?
[18:11] Speaker 2: It seems like an exaggeration, but he did pull it
[18:13] Speaker 2: off a lot.
[18:14] Speaker 3: It seems like people like talk would get around or
[18:16] Speaker 3: somebody like you, Yeah.
[18:17] Speaker 2: But they're new, you're right off the boat.
[18:20] Speaker 3: But still the family, Yeah kah.
[18:23] Speaker 2: You can only pull it off so many times and
[18:25] Speaker 2: for so long. Sure it's bound to catch up, and
[18:27] Speaker 2: it does.
[18:28] Speaker 3: I think it also because in the immigrant community this
[18:30] Speaker 3: would be like kind of a story that would get
[18:32] Speaker 3: passed around.
[18:33] Speaker 2: I think. Well. And he did get arrested for either
[18:35] Speaker 2: selling the Brooklyn Bridge or swindling someone three different times.
[18:40] Speaker 2: And he would do a little spell inside and then
[18:42] Speaker 2: he'd get out and he'd go back to his one
[18:44] Speaker 2: and only job con artist.
[18:46] Speaker 4: Uh huh.
[18:47] Speaker 2: But then in nineteen twenty eight things got a little sticky.
[18:50] Speaker 2: Let's take a break and when we come back, I've
[18:53] Speaker 2: got some complicating factors. Oo zaren So I was telling
[19:18] Speaker 2: you about George C.
[19:19] Speaker 3: Parker. I was.
[19:21] Speaker 2: He's credited as the guy who originally inspired the whole.
[19:25] Speaker 2: If you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell
[19:27] Speaker 2: you mine. And there are all sorts of articles about
[19:30] Speaker 2: him and his exploits. He's mentioned in books. He has
[19:33] Speaker 2: his own Wikipedia page, and there's a photo of him
[19:37] Speaker 2: on there. Like I said, handsome gent.
[19:39] Speaker 3: Did he have the actual mustache? Described it?
[19:41] Speaker 2: He totally did. Yeah. And on that page there's a
[19:45] Speaker 2: link to another swindler, a guy named William mcclowndy. He
[19:51] Speaker 2: also has a Wikipedia page, although it's terribly thin and
[19:54] Speaker 2: there's no photo. So I went diving into the newspapers
[19:58] Speaker 2: dot com archive for information mclowndy, and I found just
[20:03] Speaker 2: one run of articles from nineteen twenty eight. Some had
[20:07] Speaker 2: a photo of him, and he was not a particularly
[20:10] Speaker 2: handsome gent.
[20:11] Speaker 3: Was he well worn? He written?
[20:15] Speaker 2: Yes, yes, But in those articles they list George C.
[20:20] Speaker 2: Parker as an alias of William mclowndey, and mclowndey's criminal
[20:26] Speaker 2: history and legal woes line up with those of Parker. WHOA,
[20:30] Speaker 2: so were they the same guy?
[20:32] Speaker 3: Parker go through a couple of rough years of hard drinking.
[20:34] Speaker 2: The photos, I mean it's not even close to the face.
[20:38] Speaker 3: No, no, no, not at all, not at all.
[20:39] Speaker 2: He has like a totally different face, different sized body, everything.
[20:44] Speaker 2: The photos argue against them being the same guy. But
[20:47] Speaker 2: the news reports sure make it seem like they're one
[20:50] Speaker 2: in the same. And yet George Parker has his own
[20:53] Speaker 2: set of nineteen twenty eight news articles. None of them
[20:57] Speaker 2: mentioned mclowndy.
[20:59] Speaker 3: Interesting.
[21:00] Speaker 2: Yeah, so mclowndey articles, those are from July of nineteen
[21:03] Speaker 2: twenty eight. The Parker articles are from November December nineteen
[21:07] Speaker 2: twenty eight. So mclowndey's listed as sixty eight years old
[21:12] Speaker 2: and Parker is listed for the most part as fifty
[21:15] Speaker 2: eight years old, but some say sixty eight.
[21:18] Speaker 3: Let me read you.
[21:18] Speaker 2: A short article about George Parker from a December eighteenth,
[21:22] Speaker 2: nineteen twenty eight wire story. Man who sold Brooklyn Bridge
[21:26] Speaker 2: gets life term. His hands trembling beneath the frayed cuffs
[21:31] Speaker 2: of his wrinkled coat. George C. Parker fifty eight, one
[21:35] Speaker 2: time king of the confidence Men, was sentenced to life
[21:38] Speaker 2: in prison today for forging a one hundred and fifty
[21:41] Speaker 2: dollars check. Parker, famous in the Naughty nineties as the
[21:45] Speaker 2: biggest of big time confidence men, is the city slicker
[21:49] Speaker 2: who first sold the Brooklyn Bridge to what was then
[21:53] Speaker 2: called a hay seed. It made him later. Parker started
[21:57] Speaker 2: one new year right by walking out of a local
[22:00] Speaker 2: jail where he was awaiting trial, wearing the overcoat and
[22:03] Speaker 2: resplendent official cap of the new Sheriff of the City
[22:06] Speaker 2: of New York, starting his first day in office. Altogether,
[22:10] Speaker 2: Parker was arrested twelve times and sentenced seven times. As
[22:14] Speaker 2: is usual, his first conviction started him on the downward
[22:17] Speaker 2: path from his eminence as a crook. He was sentenced
[22:21] Speaker 2: today under Baum's Law, which makes mandatory on a judge
[22:25] Speaker 2: the life sentencing of a fourth offender against criminal laws.
[22:30] Speaker 2: In his prime, Parker was known as the best dressed
[22:33] Speaker 2: grafter in New York. His clothes today were threadbare, and
[22:37] Speaker 2: he seemed broken after his long duel of wits with society.
[22:42] Speaker 3: So this is twenty eight. He got famous in the
[22:44] Speaker 3: naughty nineties, so we're like looking at thirty years at least,
[22:47] Speaker 3: yeah later, and he's still like the talk of the
[22:50] Speaker 3: town enough that people are referencing him like guy number one.
[22:54] Speaker 2: He's the king of the con men.
[22:56] Speaker 3: But he's fallen off and say hard.
[22:58] Speaker 2: Times, and he's not all over the paper in those years.
[23:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy. So it's kind of like a throwback like, oh,
[23:03] Speaker 3: this guy got caught. Yeah, yeah, ask your parents about it.
[23:06] Speaker 2: Gets pinched for a check for one hundred and fifty.
[23:08] Speaker 3: Bucks and why locked up for life?
[23:10] Speaker 2: But then I'll get to that. But so then in
[23:13] Speaker 2: the Brooklyn Daily Times five months earlier, there was the
[23:17] Speaker 2: story about William mclowndy. He's listed as sixty eight years
[23:20] Speaker 2: old and living at three forty nine Third Avenue, Asbury Park,
[23:24] Speaker 2: New Jersey, and they mentioned him selling the Brooklyn Bridge
[23:28] Speaker 2: and other properties, and they say he spent twenty years
[23:30] Speaker 2: in prison. So he's pulled from New Jersey into New
[23:34] Speaker 2: York because a guy named Max Schmeier said mclowndey sold
[23:38] Speaker 2: him ten lots on Highland Boulevard and the problem was
[23:41] Speaker 2: that mclowney didn't own them. So in the article they
[23:44] Speaker 2: list off all of mclowndey's aliases, I owe you O'Brien.
[23:50] Speaker 3: Get out of town. I owe you a bra that's
[23:52] Speaker 3: a hell. The street name Captain George C.
[23:54] Speaker 2: Parker.
[23:54] Speaker 3: Okay, so that's when he wheres his uniform.
[23:56] Speaker 2: Warden James Kennedy. Smart, But see that overlaps with Parker's
[24:01] Speaker 2: thing of that he dressed like the police chief to escape.
[24:05] Speaker 2: So apparently he'd been passing himself off as quote, captain
[24:09] Speaker 2: of a large ocean liner and also warden of the
[24:12] Speaker 2: city prison. When he sold the bogus lots to Schmeyer,
[24:17] Speaker 2: he was calling himself Albert Merch and said he was
[24:20] Speaker 2: a real estate man. So the article says mcclowndy first
[24:23] Speaker 2: sold the Brooklyn Bridge in nineteen oh one, and he
[24:26] Speaker 2: was arrested for that and did two years and six
[24:29] Speaker 2: months in sing Sing prison for it. Then in nineteen
[24:32] Speaker 2: eleven he sold interests in city Hall and that got
[24:36] Speaker 2: him another two years in sing Sing. Once out, he
[24:39] Speaker 2: gets busted for forgery, does another four years and five
[24:43] Speaker 2: months in sing Sing. According to the article quote. He
[24:46] Speaker 2: served ten days in the King's County Jail in nineteen
[24:49] Speaker 2: oh seven on a grand larceny conviction. Other terms included
[24:53] Speaker 2: nineteen fourteen impersonating a police officer, six months in city prison,
[24:57] Speaker 2: nineteen fifteen, one year in penitentiary for four day, nineteen
[25:01] Speaker 2: twenty three, six months city prison, attempted grand larceny, nineteen
[25:04] Speaker 2: twenty three grand larceny, Boston, Massachusetts. No disposition. So there's
[25:09] Speaker 2: an article in the Brooklyn Eagle the next day that
[25:12] Speaker 2: has even more detail, but a little different. There's no
[25:15] Speaker 2: mention of Schmeyer in it. They do talk about the
[25:18] Speaker 2: extradition from New Jersey, but it has a little.
[25:20] Speaker 4: More juice to it.
[25:23] Speaker 2: Zaren, close your eyes. Oh, I want you to picture it.
[25:34] Speaker 2: You are a New York City Police detective fellow by
[25:38] Speaker 2: the name of Benny Drisco. It's July sixth, nineteen twenty eight,
[25:43] Speaker 2: and you're working a string of cons that goes back decades.
[25:46] Speaker 2: You've been chasing this Purp all over. He tried to
[25:50] Speaker 2: sell the Brooklyn Bridge, if you can believe it, and
[25:52] Speaker 2: city Hall, and he's constantly passing bad checks and swindling
[25:56] Speaker 2: folks out of their hard earned cash. But this afternoon
[26:00] Speaker 2: this stops. You and your partner have driven over to
[26:03] Speaker 2: Asbury Park, New Jersey. It was a real drive your
[26:06] Speaker 2: future great grandkids will be able to zip through the
[26:09] Speaker 2: same trip driving a little over an hour on smooth
[26:12] Speaker 2: paved roads and sleek cars with power steering and anti
[26:16] Speaker 2: lock brakes and suspension systems and air conditioning and radios
[26:20] Speaker 2: and touchscreens and heated steering wheels. You though, are chugging
[26:24] Speaker 2: along down rutted roads and under construction highways in a
[26:28] Speaker 2: brand new Ford Model A. You are an impatient driver.
[26:33] Speaker 2: An old Gelopi pulls out in front of you around
[26:36] Speaker 2: perth Amboy and creeps along, slowing your progress. You hit
[26:40] Speaker 2: the switch for the growler siren and it slowly comes
[26:43] Speaker 2: to life to turn on the red lights. The truck
[26:45] Speaker 2: pulls over to the side a bit, and when the
[26:47] Speaker 2: driver sees the emblem of NYPD on the side of
[26:51] Speaker 2: your car, he shakes his fist at you out the
[26:53] Speaker 2: open window and yell something you can't make out. After
[26:56] Speaker 2: what feels like an eternity, you arrive in Asbury Park.
[27:00] Speaker 2: Your partner draws his finger along the map and his
[27:02] Speaker 2: lap and directs you to a house. It's a few
[27:05] Speaker 2: blocks from the beach. People still have American flag bunting
[27:08] Speaker 2: up on their porches from the fourth of July. It's
[27:11] Speaker 2: a hot day, but there's a lovely breeze coming off
[27:13] Speaker 2: the water. You pull up in front of a small
[27:16] Speaker 2: clapboard house and stop the car. Some kids come stare
[27:20] Speaker 2: in awe at the cop car from New York City.
[27:22] Speaker 2: You get out and you reach into the back seat
[27:24] Speaker 2: for your hat and your suit jacket. You fan yourself
[27:27] Speaker 2: with your hat before propping it on your head and
[27:29] Speaker 2: donning your light jacket, your shirt sticking to your back
[27:33] Speaker 2: with sweat. What are you doing here, mister? A brave
[27:37] Speaker 2: kid shouts at you from across the street. Your partner
[27:40] Speaker 2: tells him to beat it, and you both head for
[27:41] Speaker 2: the door of the house. You step onto the porch
[27:44] Speaker 2: and knock. No answer. You hear a cough coming from
[27:47] Speaker 2: behind the house, so you nod at your partner and
[27:50] Speaker 2: the two of you make your way to the backyard.
[27:52] Speaker 2: You peek over the fence and see a man. He's
[27:55] Speaker 2: a short, squat fellow with small eyes and tiny round glasses.
[28:00] Speaker 2: He wears a straw pork pie hat with a blue
[28:02] Speaker 2: and red stripe ribbon around the bottom of the crown.
[28:05] Speaker 2: He has a measuring tape in one hand and the
[28:07] Speaker 2: other hand on his hip. He looks up and spots
[28:10] Speaker 2: you and your partner. Can I help you Fellas he calls,
[28:13] Speaker 2: smile on his face William mcclowndey. You ask, uh, sure,
[28:18] Speaker 2: who's asking? He replies, Detective Benny Drisco. You announce come
[28:23] Speaker 2: out from back there. The man's face falls and he
[28:27] Speaker 2: begins a slow trudge toward you. He opens the gate
[28:30] Speaker 2: and looks up at you. You tell him he's under arrest.
[28:33] Speaker 2: Then you list off the litany of crimes that got
[28:36] Speaker 2: him there, and you hold out a judge's order directing
[28:39] Speaker 2: his extradition to New York. Just then, a man approaches.
[28:43] Speaker 3: Hey, what's the big idea?
[28:45] Speaker 2: He booms. You tell him to mind his own business,
[28:48] Speaker 2: and he tells you to get out of his yard.
[28:50] Speaker 3: Your yard.
[28:51] Speaker 2: You ask yeah, He tells you this is his house.
[28:54] Speaker 2: You stare at William mclowndey. He looks sheepish. Your partner
[28:58] Speaker 2: grabs a tape measure from his hand and slaps cuffs
[29:00] Speaker 2: on him. You start marching mclowndy toward the back seat
[29:03] Speaker 2: of your forge. You tell the homeowner that you'll be
[29:06] Speaker 2: out of his hair now, but he shouldn't be surprised
[29:09] Speaker 2: if someone else shows up. Saying they just bought this place.
[29:12] Speaker 2: If so, call the cops. You tell him. He looks confused.
[29:15] Speaker 2: With mclowndey in the back seat. You get the cargoing
[29:18] Speaker 2: and the engine wars to life. Shame you picked me
[29:21] Speaker 2: up when you did. Mclowndey tells you, why is that
[29:25] Speaker 2: size of that lot? I could have sold that place
[29:27] Speaker 2: for seventeen thousand dollars. You shake your head and pull
[29:30] Speaker 2: out into the road. The kids from across the street
[29:33] Speaker 2: chasing after you, the long drive ahead of you, and
[29:36] Speaker 2: a real wise acre in the seat behind you.
[29:39] Speaker 3: So are people just paying like full cash for these properties?
[29:42] Speaker 2: Yes? Yes, and he draws up a fake deed and
[29:46] Speaker 2: then so.
[29:47] Speaker 3: They're basically like doing like a loan in their immigrant community,
[29:50] Speaker 3: with somebody getting the money cash on the barrel, had.
[29:55] Speaker 2: Even all at once. He's saying, you can do it
[29:57] Speaker 2: on a payment plan.
[29:58] Speaker 3: Sure, but that'd be sure he gets the chunk. Payment
[30:01] Speaker 3: plan is like in not forty years or thirty years. No, No,
[30:04] Speaker 3: it's it's like ten payments or something exactly. So if
[30:07] Speaker 3: he can get just a couple of them, seriously. Love Also,
[30:11] Speaker 3: by the way, that mclowndy was selling like it's like
[30:15] Speaker 3: pieces of city Hall because it's like, you know, the people,
[30:18] Speaker 3: the powers that be, that's their job. They sell the
[30:21] Speaker 3: city Hall. They're going to be real, Maddie.
[30:24] Speaker 2: We already own it.
[30:25] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[30:26] Speaker 2: So back to that article. The article said that he
[30:29] Speaker 2: sold the Brooklyn Bridge for fifty thousand dollars in eighteen
[30:32] Speaker 2: eighty five, so that's about like one point seven million.
[30:35] Speaker 3: Thank you for the conversion.
[30:37] Speaker 2: No problem for that sale, though he served two years
[30:40] Speaker 2: and six months in sing sing And the article says
[30:43] Speaker 2: that mclowndey was selling to visitors from quote the West,
[30:47] Speaker 2: not immigrants coming from Europe or the East.
[30:50] Speaker 3: So are we thinking the West means like Ohio? Or
[30:53] Speaker 3: do you think West means like Oregon, California?
[30:56] Speaker 2: I have no idea. They just keep calling it the West.
[31:00] Speaker 2: And here's the overlap. The article, this one that I
[31:03] Speaker 2: was talking about, unlike the other one, says that the
[31:07] Speaker 2: indictment against mclowndey was for a bad check for one
[31:10] Speaker 2: hundred and fifty dollars that he tried to pass to
[31:13] Speaker 2: missus Emma Ramsey of fifteen twenty six Kimball Street. That
[31:17] Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty dollars check, that's like Parker. They
[31:21] Speaker 2: also mentioned that quote. Six months ago, he gained the
[31:23] Speaker 2: confidence of Missus George B. Titus, widow of a police inspector,
[31:28] Speaker 2: and obtained from her a diamond ring valued at five thousand.
[31:31] Speaker 4: Dollars widow of a police inspector.
[31:33] Speaker 2: Right, he told Missus Titus he would take it to
[31:36] Speaker 2: Tiffany's to have it fixed. The police expect to locate
[31:39] Speaker 2: other victims of mclowndey's wily ways, many of whom have
[31:42] Speaker 2: kept quiet because of a distaste for publicity.
[31:45] Speaker 3: Oh, rub yeah, so that one.
[31:48] Speaker 2: I hadn't seen in any of the Parker stuff. The
[31:50] Speaker 2: article continues quote mclowndey, whose favorite alias is Warren Kennedy,
[31:56] Speaker 2: pretending to be the warden of a jail, talked freely
[32:00] Speaker 2: about his various arrests with the inspector and mentioned the
[32:03] Speaker 2: earlier ones quote. They were in the good old days
[32:06] Speaker 2: before the police became so systematic, he told the inspector
[32:10] Speaker 2: in court. Maclowndey said he did not have funds to
[32:13] Speaker 2: employ counsel, and David Melbourne was assigned to defend him.
[32:16] Speaker 2: He said he had four children but does not know
[32:19] Speaker 2: their whereabouts, but not they're going to try and keep
[32:22] Speaker 2: it that way. So some of the details are the same,
[32:25] Speaker 2: some are different, different names. The most striking thing for
[32:29] Speaker 2: me is that the photos are not the same guy.
[32:31] Speaker 3: And could not be. Like it's like, oh, this guy's
[32:34] Speaker 3: five seven, this guy's six to two. This guy's got
[32:36] Speaker 3: a square face, he's got a rectangular face.
[32:38] Speaker 2: Yeah, so is it the same guy? I do know
[32:39] Speaker 2: there were multiple people trying to sell the Brooklyn Bridge
[32:42] Speaker 2: to dupes, and that's why we have that trope. Did
[32:45] Speaker 2: the press get confused by all the aliases? Was it
[32:49] Speaker 2: just one guy whose crimes and identities were hard to
[32:52] Speaker 2: keep straight? The articles on both men mentioned that Bomb's Law.
[32:57] Speaker 2: So that was a New York state law enacted in
[32:59] Speaker 2: nineteen twenty six that was designed to address rising crime
[33:03] Speaker 2: rates by targeting habitual criminals or what they were calling
[33:07] Speaker 2: four time losers. Yeah. So Senator Caleb H. Baums was
[33:13] Speaker 2: the one who put this together. He wanted to curb
[33:16] Speaker 2: crime by incapacitating repeat offenders. And this is like a
[33:22] Speaker 2: version of three strikes.
[33:23] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[33:24] Speaker 3: So the law.
[33:25] Speaker 2: Removed judicial discretion for fourth time felons, so automatic life sentence.
[33:29] Speaker 3: So mandatory sentence, saying judges like, look, my hands are
[33:33] Speaker 3: taped anything about like you should kind of deal. No,
[33:36] Speaker 3: there's no deal to do before this occurs.
[33:39] Speaker 2: Like on your second or third of when you hit four,
[33:42] Speaker 2: you got a life sentence. That's it. And the felonies
[33:44] Speaker 2: didn't have to be violent.
[33:46] Speaker 3: I didn't sound like it. Yeah, it seemed like if
[33:48] Speaker 3: you go before a judge four.
[33:49] Speaker 2: Times, convin felony. Yeah. And so in addition to the
[33:53] Speaker 2: fourth felony rule, it introduced longer sentences for first time offenders,
[33:57] Speaker 2: and it tightened up parole restrictions. So they amended it
[34:00] Speaker 2: in nineteen thirty six to allow for a little more flexibility.
[34:04] Speaker 2: But like we said, it went on to influence three
[34:07] Speaker 2: strikes like California we got in nineteen ninety four.
[34:10] Speaker 3: Now do you think that was because baseball by them
[34:12] Speaker 3: was so much more popular? I think three strikes four
[34:17] Speaker 3: four balls, take yours.
[34:18] Speaker 2: Ours wasn't revised until twenty twelve to require that the
[34:21] Speaker 2: third strike be serious or violent. So anyway, this newish
[34:26] Speaker 2: law is mentioned in the pieces about both Parker and mclowndey,
[34:31] Speaker 2: and then that would fit if they were two men
[34:34] Speaker 2: or one just one. Either way, a lot of felonies
[34:38] Speaker 2: were committed, so we attribute the fame of selling the
[34:43] Speaker 2: Brooklyn Bridge to Charles Parker, who may or may not
[34:46] Speaker 2: have also been William mclowndy.
[34:48] Speaker 3: It seems like he started the game much earlier than mclowndey's. Yeah.
[34:51] Speaker 2: Rest, but there's a dark horse out there. We got
[34:54] Speaker 2: the third option, someone I stumbled upon in the old papers.
[34:57] Speaker 2: Another big shout out to newspapers who really should become
[35:01] Speaker 2: our sponsors. I found a compelling case to move this
[35:06] Speaker 2: guy up to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge salesman list.
[35:10] Speaker 3: Really more on him when we.
[35:12] Speaker 2: Come back from these ads. And if there's one that's
[35:14] Speaker 2: trying to sell you the Golden Gate Bridge, it's fake.
[35:17] Speaker 2: And if there's one selling off the Washington Monument, you
[35:20] Speaker 2: may want to do a little more research.
[35:21] Speaker 3: What if it's trying to sell me a ballroom in Washington, DC.
[35:25] Speaker 2: It's probably legit.
[35:26] Speaker 4: Be right back, all right, Zaren Elizabeth.
[35:49] Speaker 2: So, I promised you a new guy, but I do
[35:51] Speaker 2: want to finish up the story of the other two
[35:53] Speaker 2: before we move.
[35:54] Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, please tie off that strand yes. So.
[35:56] Speaker 2: On December seventeenth, nineteen twenty eight, George C. Parker was
[36:00] Speaker 2: sentenced to life in prison for all of his crimes
[36:02] Speaker 2: thanks to Bomb's Law. From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle quote,
[36:08] Speaker 2: this amazing rascal, who already has served two terms in
[36:12] Speaker 2: sing sing and who has been convicted seven times for
[36:16] Speaker 2: confidence games, is said to have sold Madison Square Garden
[36:19] Speaker 2: to a trustful visitor from the Southwest earlier, but the
[36:23] Speaker 2: sale of the Brooklyn Bridge for one thousand down and
[36:26] Speaker 2: four thousand to be paid in quarterly installments was his
[36:29] Speaker 2: most noteworthy transaction. He goes to sing sing for the
[36:33] Speaker 2: rest of his life because he was convicted of forging
[36:36] Speaker 2: a check for one hundred and fifty dollars under Bomb's
[36:40] Speaker 2: Law as a fourth offender, life sentence was mandatory.
[36:45] Speaker 3: So it answers my question how you get life sentence
[36:48] Speaker 3: out one hundred and fifty dollars for checks? And that's
[36:51] Speaker 3: it then Balm's law.
[36:52] Speaker 2: After the articles about mcclowndery's arrest, he never appears in
[36:56] Speaker 2: the paper again, so not even about sentence anything like that. Really,
[37:01] Speaker 2: Parker did spend the rest of his life in sing sing.
[37:04] Speaker 2: He passed away in nineteen thirty seven at the age
[37:06] Speaker 2: of seventy seven, which would confirm that the news articles
[37:10] Speaker 2: claiming he was fifty eight at the time of his arrest,
[37:13] Speaker 2: had typos and he was really sixty eight. Ok So
[37:16] Speaker 2: this new guy when we look back. The first documented
[37:20] Speaker 2: newspaper story describing someone trying to sell the Brooklyn Bridge
[37:24] Speaker 2: appeared in the New York Herald in May of nineteen hundred,
[37:29] Speaker 2: and of course the article made its way to the
[37:31] Speaker 2: National Wire Service because it was like an only in
[37:34] Speaker 2: New York type story. Ah, I gotcha, and within weeks
[37:37] Speaker 2: it gets in all these papers across the US. It's
[37:40] Speaker 2: in Hawaii papers, you know.
[37:43] Speaker 3: So this scheme Sandwich Island Times, ex So you said
[37:47] Speaker 3: it was completed in eighteen ninety three, so like in
[37:50] Speaker 3: seven years after it's completed, we had the first person going,
[37:53] Speaker 3: I'll sell you that.
[37:53] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
[37:54] Speaker 3: Okay.
[37:55] Speaker 2: So the scheme to sell the bridge was described as
[37:59] Speaker 2: a new variety of Bunco fraud.
[38:02] Speaker 3: Yes, okay.
[38:02] Speaker 2: And we've talked about Bunco in depth, and that was
[38:05] Speaker 2: another thing about the story that drew interest. Everybody knew
[38:09] Speaker 2: about Bunco, but no one had seen something this audacious before.
[38:14] Speaker 2: So even the attorney who received the complaint indicated that
[38:18] Speaker 2: he had not encountered this type of scam before. He
[38:21] Speaker 2: did what now, And so this article that's talking about it,
[38:24] Speaker 2: it's you know that the victim goes to an attorney
[38:29] Speaker 2: to make the complaint and then it goes from there.
[38:33] Speaker 2: So here's how it starts off.
[38:34] Speaker 3: Quote.
[38:35] Speaker 2: The police are looking for an Italian bunco man who
[38:38] Speaker 2: has been swindling his fellow countrymen for the past month
[38:42] Speaker 2: in a novel manner. He was first heard of when
[38:45] Speaker 2: Signor Luigi Corelli, an Italian merchant who recently landed in
[38:49] Speaker 2: New York, went to the office of lawyer Robert Racy
[38:52] Speaker 2: in the Erin's Building at the corner of Elm and
[38:55] Speaker 2: Franklin Streets and told a remarkable story of how he
[38:58] Speaker 2: had been fleeced by this swindler. He told his story
[39:01] Speaker 2: through an interpreter, explaining that he'd been buncoed out of
[39:05] Speaker 2: five hundred dollars. So now I need to add here
[39:09] Speaker 2: that this is primetime yellow journalism. Everything is sensationalist and insensitive.
[39:16] Speaker 2: So in convey in conveying what the translator says, the
[39:21] Speaker 2: newspaper makes sure to give the best stereotypical Italian accent
[39:26] Speaker 2: written oh yeah, oh yeah, so can I read to
[39:30] Speaker 2: you transcripts? How did the bunco man get it, asked
[39:35] Speaker 2: Lawyer Racy. He's sella the Brooklyn Bridge to my friend,
[39:40] Speaker 2: explained the interpreter. Sold the Brooklyn Bridge to your friend, sure,
[39:44] Speaker 2: answered the interpreter. Only not all the bridge, only New
[39:49] Speaker 2: York Aside. He'd tell him, my friend of Mayor van
[39:52] Speaker 2: Week own a durest. He'd tell him, I a friend,
[39:56] Speaker 2: the Brooklyn Bridge do much a business. He maya friend,
[40:01] Speaker 2: just so soon does ship come in? He find out
[40:05] Speaker 2: his name? Sure, pretty soon he say hello, Signor Correlli,
[40:11] Speaker 2: and he's shake the hand. My friend think he know
[40:14] Speaker 2: him in the old country. But forget the name all right.
[40:20] Speaker 2: He say he's sella my friend one piece New York
[40:25] Speaker 2: Aside for a week. And then he liked by all
[40:29] Speaker 2: Brooklyn side two for ten tous dollar. Very cheap for
[40:33] Speaker 2: the Brooklyn side of the bridge, remarked lawyer Racy. I'd
[40:37] Speaker 2: give that much myself for it, my friend by a
[40:40] Speaker 2: Central Park bear two and two stores, continued the interpreter.
[40:47] Speaker 2: So the article goes on to talk about all the
[40:49] Speaker 2: others who got scammed by some Italian guy, and then
[40:52] Speaker 2: the lawyer tells Signor Correlli that he'll report the matter
[40:56] Speaker 2: to the police. Here we go back, you know, catching
[41:00] Speaker 2: him today, asked the interpreter, And when the lawyer said no,
[41:05] Speaker 2: the signor threw out his chest, tugged at the end
[41:08] Speaker 2: of his mustache and exclaimed, Lucina, no man, my friend
[41:13] Speaker 2: very bad, explained the interpreter. It's like Bora, I know,
[41:17] Speaker 2: he say when mister Bunco no bay at the bridge.
[41:20] Speaker 2: Back he kill a mister Bunco tomorrow, goodbye, and off
[41:28] Speaker 2: they went.
[41:28] Speaker 3: You don't fix it today, my friend here.
[41:32] Speaker 2: He's gonna kill mister Bunco.
[41:34] Speaker 3: Can you imagine coming over here with like your steak
[41:37] Speaker 3: to start a new life. Yeah, you meet a guy
[41:39] Speaker 3: who thinks from the old country. You're like, oh, this
[41:42] Speaker 3: will be my first business. And he's like, you're just
[41:45] Speaker 3: like buying a butcher shop. You're imagine it would be
[41:47] Speaker 3: great for.
[41:47] Speaker 2: Your family, and it's a money maker.
[41:50] Speaker 3: It's a bridge, it's you know. And he does it
[41:52] Speaker 3: and he's like, what I don't He loses his whole
[41:55] Speaker 3: nut and then he's like the only thing I got
[41:57] Speaker 3: left is a mike pissed though, but okay, thank you.
[42:06] Speaker 2: And so the fugitive Italian confidence man remained anonymous, but
[42:12] Speaker 2: not for long. Eventually his identity was discovered.
[42:16] Speaker 3: Edward Basso.
[42:20] Speaker 2: Yeah, so his name came out during a hearing in
[42:23] Speaker 2: federal court on a separate immigration fraud case. There were
[42:27] Speaker 2: witnesses there that were like, oh, yeah, I was conned
[42:29] Speaker 2: into buying the Brooklyn Bridge by that guy. Oh yeah,
[42:32] Speaker 2: I know him. There was a man named Frank Madaline.
[42:36] Speaker 2: He was the son of an Italian saloon keeper. He'd
[42:40] Speaker 2: been arrested for quote making a false statement in his
[42:43] Speaker 2: application for citizenship papers. So during his confession he said
[42:47] Speaker 2: that he had been hoodwinked by someone claiming to be
[42:50] Speaker 2: his cousin and who gave his name as James Madaline.
[42:55] Speaker 3: So this is Frank.
[42:57] Speaker 2: James is like, oh, I have the same last name.
[42:59] Speaker 2: We're and he said, you know what, I can help
[43:03] Speaker 2: make you a full fledged citizen. I can get you
[43:06] Speaker 2: in the door. And so a witness that the hearing
[43:09] Speaker 2: testified that this James had also sold the Brooklyn Bridge
[43:14] Speaker 2: to two other Italians. If they chip in.
[43:16] Speaker 3: Five dollars five dollars, I got.
[43:20] Speaker 2: Five on it. I've got yeah. So they did, and
[43:25] Speaker 2: the Italians went looking for this new property of theirs,
[43:29] Speaker 2: and they found the bridge, but they couldn't find the seller,
[43:32] Speaker 2: and so but they track him down. James Madelene gets
[43:36] Speaker 2: identified as Edward Basso. Several months later, a federal grand
[43:41] Speaker 2: jury formally charged him with impersonation connected to the acquisition
[43:46] Speaker 2: of naturalization documents. And so then he faces prosecution again
[43:53] Speaker 2: for providing counterfeit citizenship papers to this time a guy
[43:56] Speaker 2: Antonio Petrillo in exchange for twenty b oh. Yeah, and
[44:01] Speaker 2: that's like seven hundred dollars today. So Basso explained himself
[44:05] Speaker 2: to the court and was like, okay, no, no, there's
[44:07] Speaker 2: a huge misunderstanding.
[44:09] Speaker 3: I can't wait to hear this.
[44:10] Speaker 2: I am a United States Court interpreter and I'm working
[44:15] Speaker 2: with the Secret Service to uncover forged naturalization records. So
[44:20] Speaker 2: I'm deep undercover right now, thanks guys. Yeah. Wow. And
[44:25] Speaker 2: so nineteen oh four he got arrested.
[44:29] Speaker 3: Did they let him out on deep cover?
[44:32] Speaker 2: Yeah, nineteen oh four he gets arrested and then jailed
[44:35] Speaker 2: for all these fraud schemes tied to immigration. He had
[44:40] Speaker 2: arrangements with lawyers who would like solicit newly arrived immigrants
[44:44] Speaker 2: at Ellis Island. There was an operation where Italian travelers
[44:48] Speaker 2: were headed up to Canada and he sold them all
[44:51] Speaker 2: these worthless railroad ticket vouchers. Oh, and so this is
[44:57] Speaker 2: all the stuff that he did came to light because
[45:00] Speaker 2: people started complaining to the Society for the Protection of
[45:04] Speaker 2: Italian Immigrants.
[45:06] Speaker 3: Oh, it's like the Society of Italian Opera Lovers, but
[45:09] Speaker 3: the real version of Anciety for.
[45:10] Speaker 2: The Protection of Italian Immigrants.
[45:12] Speaker 3: They must have been getting worked over, baby. Yeah, you
[45:15] Speaker 3: can see why the mafia had to come about and like, look,
[45:17] Speaker 3: we'll take care of.
[45:18] Speaker 2: Every So during the prosecution, he agreed to cooperate with
[45:22] Speaker 2: authorities and testify against the attorneys who had paid him
[45:27] Speaker 2: for steering vulnerable immigrants to their offices, and so that
[45:30] Speaker 2: everyone's indicted, Bosso cooperates and he acknowledged that, like, yeah,
[45:36] Speaker 2: I totally did this. I would pick people off the boats,
[45:39] Speaker 2: send them to these lawyers, and then I got half
[45:42] Speaker 2: the fees. He said he referred more than fifty cases
[45:48] Speaker 2: and most of them didn't need any legal representation whatsoever. Yeah,
[45:52] Speaker 2: and he's like yeah, and then about the railroad tickets, Yeah,
[45:55] Speaker 2: I was in on that. I got a cut, I
[45:57] Speaker 2: got a third of it. And so you know, it's
[46:02] Speaker 2: not clear like he made that deal what kind of
[46:05] Speaker 2: deal that got him. That was in nineteen oh four,
[46:07] Speaker 2: nineteen oh five, he's back at it though. That year
[46:11] Speaker 2: he got sentenced to a year in jail for selling
[46:13] Speaker 2: Ellis Island visitor passes for ten dollars apiece. And the
[46:17] Speaker 2: problem is that Ellis Island visitor passes were free.
[46:22] Speaker 3: So wait, visitor passes is to like meet your immigrant family, Like.
[46:26] Speaker 2: Yeah, if you want to go see them, it's ten bucks.
[46:28] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not like you've arrived in So he goes
[46:30] Speaker 3: and he gets a stack of free ones.
[46:32] Speaker 2: It kind of reminds me when I was a freshman
[46:33] Speaker 2: in high school, the seniors went around like the first
[46:36] Speaker 2: couple of weeks of school and said they were selling
[46:39] Speaker 2: discount pool passes for ten cents each for the march
[46:42] Speaker 2: of times and it would get you like a week's
[46:44] Speaker 2: pass at the pool. And when asked where the pool was,
[46:48] Speaker 2: they said it was on the roof. And that was
[46:51] Speaker 2: like and they would act like that's the stupidest question
[46:54] Speaker 2: they'd ever heard, like, where's the pool? It's the pools
[46:55] Speaker 2: on the roof, now, my mama and my grandmama and
[47:00] Speaker 2: raise no dummy. So I just like rolled my eyes
[47:02] Speaker 2: and walked away. There's no way there was a pool
[47:05] Speaker 2: on the roof, and like that's too dangerous.
[47:08] Speaker 3: The building's so old, like it's just not happening, not
[47:11] Speaker 3: working out.
[47:11] Speaker 2: But there were girls that fell for it, so much
[47:13] Speaker 2: so that the nuns had to make an announcement one
[47:16] Speaker 2: morning explaining that there was no pool on campus, not
[47:20] Speaker 2: on the roof, not in some basement under the auditorium
[47:23] Speaker 2: as others were told, and that we were not to
[47:26] Speaker 2: give anyone a dime or any other change for anything.
[47:29] Speaker 2: So basically I went to school with a bunch of
[47:32] Speaker 2: budding bossos just they just wanted change to buy chips
[47:35] Speaker 2: for the vending machine.
[47:36] Speaker 3: Oh dude. We did the same thing in high school,
[47:38] Speaker 3: which is you had students like at Jesuit, you'd have
[47:42] Speaker 3: to like do turns of like as you were a freshman,
[47:44] Speaker 3: because everyone knew you weren't driving, and so you would
[47:47] Speaker 3: have to work the like for basketball games and different
[47:50] Speaker 3: nighttime events, basically directing people into because our school had
[47:54] Speaker 3: a big, long road going into where you would park,
[47:57] Speaker 3: so you'd stand at the far end and tell them
[47:59] Speaker 3: you're coming the right way, and then someone else would
[48:00] Speaker 3: guide you. So those of us who stood at the
[48:02] Speaker 3: gate would charge people money, like five dollars for parking
[48:06] Speaker 3: to come on and they're supposed to be free. So
[48:09] Speaker 3: we were thinking, these parents don't care. They're well off.
[48:11] Speaker 3: We would make like fifty bucks really quick.
[48:13] Speaker 2: I've told you I used to do that, like at bars,
[48:16] Speaker 2: like when there's no bouncer.
[48:18] Speaker 3: Oh yeah, stand outside, and I.
[48:20] Speaker 2: Would stand outside and tell people is a five dollars cover?
[48:23] Speaker 3: Exactly?
[48:24] Speaker 2: Did you check?
[48:25] Speaker 3: Id's as long as you have change and you act
[48:27] Speaker 3: like you're annoying, and we checked ideas.
[48:30] Speaker 2: And take money that way anyway, So Bosso we all
[48:35] Speaker 2: got at everybody a little boso in them. When the
[48:39] Speaker 2: Ellis Island Past thing came out, paper started connecting the
[48:42] Speaker 2: dots and like running stories that included information about his
[48:46] Speaker 2: previous scams about selling landmarks. Here's from the New York Times.
[48:50] Speaker 2: Edward Bosso, an Italian who once upon a time derived
[48:54] Speaker 2: a considerable income from the sale of shares of the
[48:57] Speaker 2: Brooklyn Bridge, the custom House, and the city all to
[49:00] Speaker 2: confiding fellow countrymen just landed, was sentenced yesterday to a
[49:05] Speaker 2: year in the penitentiary by Justice Wyatt in the Court
[49:08] Speaker 2: of Special Sessions. The charge against him was petty larceny
[49:12] Speaker 2: and was made by Antonio Mancuso, a Brooklyn shoemaker, who
[49:16] Speaker 2: said that Basso sold him a pass to Ellis Island
[49:19] Speaker 2: for ten dollars. Passes to Ellis Island are free upon
[49:22] Speaker 2: application to the steamship companies owing to the efforts of
[49:26] Speaker 2: the Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants. Basso was
[49:30] Speaker 2: arrested last April on the charge of grand larceny. He
[49:33] Speaker 2: pleaded guilty before Judge Newberger in General Sessions, and on
[49:37] Speaker 2: an apparent earnest promise to reform, sentence was suspended. His
[49:41] Speaker 2: lawyer yesterday made a plea for him on the ground
[49:44] Speaker 2: that he had a wife and eight children to support.
[49:47] Speaker 2: Quote that's a poor reason for defrauding the wives and
[49:50] Speaker 2: children of hundreds of families, remarked Justice Wyatt, as he
[49:54] Speaker 2: imposed the limit allowed by the law exactly so much
[50:01] Speaker 2: like William mcclowndy, Edward Bosso faded from the public eye
[50:06] Speaker 2: after repeated incarceration. But there is a very good chance
[50:10] Speaker 2: that it was he and not George C. Parker, who
[50:13] Speaker 2: introduced the idea of selling the Brooklyn Bridge to the gullible.
[50:17] Speaker 3: So the Italians started it. The Irish picked it up
[50:20] Speaker 3: and ran with it. Right. This is very New York story,
[50:22] Speaker 3: isn't it.
[50:23] Speaker 2: It's so so Will Rogers deserves the last. Yes, he
[50:29] Speaker 2: is quoted as saying, they may call me a rube
[50:33] Speaker 2: and a hicic, but I'd a lot rather be the
[50:36] Speaker 2: man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the man who
[50:38] Speaker 2: sold it.
[50:40] Speaker 3: Oh look at him there it is. That's a nice
[50:42] Speaker 3: little moral twist.
[50:43] Speaker 2: Right, So Zaren, what's your ridiculous takeaway?
[50:47] Speaker 3: Wow? So what was the bridge that eventually got put
[50:51] Speaker 3: in Arizona? Is that the London Bridge?
[50:53] Speaker 2: No, that's the Brooklyn Bridge. The actually like had people
[50:56] Speaker 2: sold versions of it and it got moved. Really, No
[51:00] Speaker 2: London bridges in Arizona, Right, it's like Tennessee or something.
[51:04] Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, that's the other one.
[51:05] Speaker 2: Yeah, London Bridge is the one that was another.
[51:09] Speaker 3: One that they were selling all the time. Right, So
[51:11] Speaker 3: what is it about bridges? I guess in the old
[51:13] Speaker 3: world you could put up a toll booth and so
[51:15] Speaker 3: really this is like a concession for how do I
[51:17] Speaker 3: make money off of other suckers? Right? So it's a
[51:20] Speaker 3: classic conya when.
[51:21] Speaker 2: You think about it. There is an Italian company that,
[51:24] Speaker 2: particularly in.
[51:25] Speaker 3: The American Cus totally.
[51:26] Speaker 2: Goes through and builds toll roads that are.
[51:29] Speaker 3: Really nice attractive roads.
[51:30] Speaker 2: Yeah, and then they they for the cost of building it,
[51:34] Speaker 2: then they collect the tolls and.
[51:35] Speaker 3: So in perpetuity practically, so they're making a grip yep exactly.
[51:39] Speaker 3: So this is really a modern tales. What you're telling
[51:42] Speaker 3: it very much is piculous takeaway.
[51:46] Speaker 2: I you know, I think about we look at it
[51:49] Speaker 2: as this like symbol of gullibility of like you would
[51:52] Speaker 2: buy the Brooklyn Bridge. But I just keep you know,
[51:55] Speaker 2: like you mentioned, these are people who have every last
[51:58] Speaker 2: penny to their name and their family's name, and you
[52:02] Speaker 2: know they're leaving. No one wants to leave their homeland,
[52:06] Speaker 2: you know, where they feel connected to and so but
[52:09] Speaker 2: you have to to survive or for a better life
[52:12] Speaker 2: or I mean like literally for you to run for
[52:14] Speaker 2: your life and oftentimes and so you come here with
[52:18] Speaker 2: this promise.
[52:19] Speaker 3: You know.
[52:19] Speaker 2: It's like I've talked before about how they would market
[52:22] Speaker 2: California to people if like you can walk down the
[52:25] Speaker 2: street and pick an orange off the tree and it's
[52:27] Speaker 2: always always sunny and you know all these things oeeople, Yeah,
[52:32] Speaker 2: or that you walk in the mountains and you scoop
[52:34] Speaker 2: the gold out of the river. And so you know,
[52:36] Speaker 2: there's the there are these myths that arise, and you
[52:40] Speaker 2: know there's always like some hint of truth to it.
[52:43] Speaker 2: They did find gold oranges. You can grow oranges in
[52:46] Speaker 2: southern California with relative ease. But if you think that,
[52:51] Speaker 2: like what that must be like to take that gamble,
[52:55] Speaker 2: to say I'm going to risk it and take everything
[52:58] Speaker 2: I have and go start over takes so much hope
[53:02] Speaker 2: and like the exploitation of that hope is so sickening
[53:06] Speaker 2: to me.
[53:07] Speaker 3: And it's so easy. It's it's so easy. You can
[53:10] Speaker 3: see it in their eyes on.
[53:11] Speaker 2: This well, and you hear all sorts of success stories,
[53:13] Speaker 2: and it could be something like, yeah, my cousin came
[53:16] Speaker 2: over and he bought a butcher shop and.
[53:17] Speaker 3: Then yeah, hit seventeen dollars.
[53:19] Speaker 2: You think, yeah, okay, well I've got this money and
[53:22] Speaker 2: it's yeah, it's fine. You got five dollars on the
[53:26] Speaker 2: Brooklyn Bridge. You know, they're like, okay, I'll scrape this
[53:29] Speaker 2: together and then I can be in on this, and
[53:31] Speaker 2: I'm you know, you look around too.
[53:33] Speaker 3: At that time, it was just filled with these stories.
[53:36] Speaker 2: But it's also filled with incredible wealth.
[53:38] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[53:39] Speaker 2: You know, you see the absolute sickening wealth all around you,
[53:42] Speaker 2: and you think, like I want a piece of that.
[53:44] Speaker 3: And there's also the rags to riches aspect, which is
[53:46] Speaker 3: what's to stop you could become super well, Yeah, exactly.
[53:49] Speaker 3: Is it's not like in the old country where only
[53:51] Speaker 3: certain people had the chance to get wealthy.
[53:53] Speaker 2: So it's this clash. This fascinates me because it's a
[53:55] Speaker 2: clash of like the best of humanity and the worst
[53:59] Speaker 2: of humanity. Because it's not even that they're.
[54:02] Speaker 3: Not violent, it's just so low and petty. Yeah, it is.
[54:05] Speaker 3: It's as low as like the cut purse, but it's
[54:08] Speaker 3: preying upon a person's optimism, the hope, the best parts
[54:11] Speaker 3: of themselves.
[54:11] Speaker 2: Yeah. And also I just feel too, like, you know,
[54:15] Speaker 2: it's hard enough to be an immigrant who doesn't speak
[54:17] Speaker 2: a language and go somewhere and to have a fellow
[54:20] Speaker 2: immigrant turn on you like that, Like that's that's slow
[54:24] Speaker 2: as well.
[54:24] Speaker 3: To get bill a butchered exactly exactly. So you told
[54:30] Speaker 3: me your takeaway, Yeah, you did kind of. I danced
[54:33] Speaker 3: around one. I think my takeaway is, to quote your nephew,
[54:36] Speaker 3: sometimes you have to risk it for the biscuit and
[54:39] Speaker 3: I respect people who do.
[54:41] Speaker 2: You do something. Oh.
[54:45] Speaker 3: On that note, I would like to talk back. Oh
[54:53] Speaker 3: my god, I w hey's Aaron Elizabeth. My name is Chris.
[55:04] Speaker 3: I'm from Bristol, Virginia. I just want to let you
[55:07] Speaker 3: know that I was high for thirty one years.
[55:11] Speaker 2: I've been sober for two and whenever I'm feeling down,
[55:14] Speaker 2: whenever i'm jones into go get higher, having cravings, I
[55:17] Speaker 2: will go to your show and it helps get me
[55:20] Speaker 2: through each time.
[55:21] Speaker 3: Thank you for being there, brother.
[55:26] Speaker 2: We are so glad to do Chris two years congratulations,
[55:30] Speaker 2: that's awesome.
[55:31] Speaker 3: I respect you for that. That is awesome. As somebody
[55:34] Speaker 3: who spent a lot of their life high, I totally relate,
[55:37] Speaker 3: so I can say one hundred percent. I respect your
[55:40] Speaker 3: ability to find a positive like a deviation from your
[55:44] Speaker 3: typical to say, your old path of like, oh, I'll
[55:47] Speaker 3: just do this to you know, and we're glad that
[55:49] Speaker 3: we get to be that for you.
[55:50] Speaker 2: Yes, as someone who's sober and the world tells you
[55:54] Speaker 2: like you don't want to block it all out? Yeah, no,
[55:57] Speaker 2: you know you hold fast, You hold fast. I I'm
[56:00] Speaker 2: so proud of you.
[56:02] Speaker 3: You know.
[56:02] Speaker 2: Luckily we're on call twenty four to seven if you
[56:05] Speaker 2: need to listen to maybe if you want to like
[56:07] Speaker 2: really laugh, you could listen to one of the stories
[56:09] Speaker 2: I tell anyway. That's awesome, Chris, thank you for sharing
[56:17] Speaker 2: that too.
[56:18] Speaker 3: I like that.
[56:19] Speaker 2: You know, we've said it before, like we got to
[56:21] Speaker 2: stick together and all this, all of us, we do
[56:24] Speaker 2: this for y'all.
[56:25] Speaker 3: I mean, like, we're not telling each other stories, but
[56:27] Speaker 3: we really what motivates us is to tell you stories
[56:30] Speaker 3: to y'all and to know that from what we hear
[56:32] Speaker 3: back that it means so much and it helps you
[56:35] Speaker 3: because we would like to be helped that same way.
[56:37] Speaker 3: So it's like a big circle. We're all helping each
[56:39] Speaker 3: other get by.
[56:39] Speaker 2: Here we are and rude Dudes, we all have each
[56:42] Speaker 2: other's backs.
[56:43] Speaker 3: When we have rough weeks. Doing that you guys are
[56:44] Speaker 3: out there, helps us.
[56:45] Speaker 2: Have no idea honestly, seriously, that is it for today.
[56:51] Speaker 2: You can find us online at Ridiculous Crime dot com.
[56:54] Speaker 2: We're also at Ridiculous Crime on Blue Sky Instagram. We're
[56:58] Speaker 2: on YouTube at Ridiculous Crime Pod. Email Ridiculous Crime at
[57:02] Speaker 2: gmail dot com and then leave us a talkback. Rude
[57:05] Speaker 2: Dudes on the iheartapp reach Out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted
[57:14] Speaker 2: by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by Dave.
[57:17] Speaker 2: I'm not a notary, but I play one. On TV
[57:20] Speaker 2: Coustin starring Analice Rutger as Judith. Research is by Marissa
[57:25] Speaker 2: There's a show about a Notary Brown and Jabbari. I
[57:29] Speaker 2: think it's on Wednesdays on CBS. It's called NOTARYE.
[57:32] Speaker 4: Davis.
[57:33] Speaker 2: The theme song is by Thomas I saw a commercial
[57:35] Speaker 2: for that one. It stars Donald Logan, David Sharvey, Lee,
[57:39] Speaker 2: and Travis no That's Title Company on NBC. Rotary stars
[57:44] Speaker 2: Analice Rutger Dutton. Host wardrobe is provided by Botany five
[57:48] Speaker 2: hundred guest Haarn, makeup by co owners of the Saint
[57:51] Speaker 2: Louis Arch, Sparkleshot and Mister Andre. Executive producers are me
[57:55] Speaker 2: TV executives who Green with a show about a notary,
[57:59] Speaker 2: Ben Bolin and Noel Brown.
[58:06] Speaker 1: Ridicous Crime Say It One More Time Pridiquious Crime. Ridiculous
[58:13] Speaker 1: Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts from
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