# Where The Streets Have No Shame: Marianne Andle

An episode of [Ridiculous Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1608230191), 15 Feb 2024, 54 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0b4bcc39-7ba2-453f-aaac-ae510011dd80/22227f48-970b-4787-b50a-b116013a75f3/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3a4c50f5-ff69-4807-aa26-ae510011dd8e

Like MLK and Biggie Smalls, Marianne Andle also had a dream. Her dream? That one day she could become Irish. After that plan failed and Marianne had to flee Northern Ireland with the cops hot on her trail, and after a quick name change and return to the US, she found a new dream. That new dream? Conning the semi-rich and gullible of Los Angeles, California, by posing as an Irish heiress. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
[0:03] Speaker 2: Zaren Elizabeth Saren, Elizabeth all right, hold on, yes, do
[0:07] Speaker 2: you know it's ridiculous?
[0:08] Speaker 3: Oh?
[0:08] Speaker 4: Yes, oh, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton Okay, okay, So this guy,
[0:15] Speaker 4: he's writing a book about them called Exotic No wait,
[0:19] Speaker 4: Erotic Vagrancy.
[0:20] Speaker 2: Okay, Erotic Vagrancy.
[0:22] Speaker 4: Yeah. Did you know how excessive they were? I mean
[0:24] Speaker 4: you've probably sure. I got some numbers for you.
[0:27] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[0:28] Speaker 4: One time and they went to a film festival in
[0:29] Speaker 4: nineteen sixty seven. They brought with them one hundred and
[0:32] Speaker 4: fifty six suitcases.
[0:35] Speaker 2: Wait what they get your head around that?
[0:38] Speaker 4: How many? That is one hundred and fifty six. I
[0:41] Speaker 4: don't have enough stuff to put in one hundred and suitcases.
[0:46] Speaker 4: Why don't we just be sand like think about my backyard.
[0:49] Speaker 2: At the airport, you see a family and they've got
[0:51] Speaker 2: like five suitcases on one of those carts.
[0:53] Speaker 4: It's all unweeling, totally one hundred and fifty six. They
[0:57] Speaker 4: traveled with makeup artists, housekeepers, a house photographer just like
[1:03] Speaker 4: normally taking photos of them, tutors, you know, just for
[1:06] Speaker 4: people around them. I guess, bodyguards, nurses, secretaries, business managers, chauffeurs, butlers,
[1:13] Speaker 4: and of course a suitcase packer. Yeah, but somebody they're
[1:17] Speaker 4: not packing that now. When they stayed at the Hotel
[1:19] Speaker 4: Lancaster in Paris, or maybe the Lancast, I don't know
[1:21] Speaker 4: my baby pronouncing that anyway, the Hotel Long Coaster in Paris,
[1:25] Speaker 4: they occupied right this place.
[1:27] Speaker 2: It's like that, like an army, totally occupied.
[1:30] Speaker 4: They took over twenty one rooms, twenty one rooms. They
[1:35] Speaker 4: had quote pet dogs accompanying the humans into restaurants and
[1:38] Speaker 4: had to be fed from the menu. Yes, when they traveled,
[1:41] Speaker 4: they bought a boat just for their dogs. They had
[1:43] Speaker 4: all their dogs on their yacht. The dogs were ruining
[1:46] Speaker 4: the carpets because they were just letting them pee, walking
[1:48] Speaker 4: around peeing. They were switching out the carpets every six months,
[1:51] Speaker 4: and they were like, this doesn't work for us, Let's
[1:53] Speaker 4: just buy a boat for the dogs. So they bought
[1:55] Speaker 4: a dog boat. That was for you, Elizabeth, a dog boat,
[1:58] Speaker 4: a dog boat, just a dog.
[2:00] Speaker 2: I don't love people bringing dogs into restaurants and having
[2:03] Speaker 2: them eat off the table.
[2:04] Speaker 4: I didn't think you'd like that. The dog boat.
[2:06] Speaker 2: That when people bring their dogs into supermarkets and they're
[2:09] Speaker 2: not actual service dogs, you know whatever, emotional support dogs whatever.
[2:16] Speaker 2: Leave them at home and people get mad. I don't
[2:19] Speaker 2: want to hear it. But like non working dogs in
[2:24] Speaker 2: in a commercial.
[2:25] Speaker 4: Market, but you're cool with like like a bird on
[2:27] Speaker 4: the shoulder.
[2:28] Speaker 2: No, there you go. Ridiculous, k ridiculous.
[2:35] Speaker 4: Right.
[2:35] Speaker 2: Do you know what else is ridiculous?
[2:37] Speaker 4: No, That's why I'm here.
[2:39] Speaker 2: The old inheritance scam.
[2:41] Speaker 4: That old scam.
[3:02] Speaker 2: This is ridiculous crime. A podcast about a third and
[3:06] Speaker 2: outrageous caper's heis and cons It's always ninety nine percent
[3:10] Speaker 2: murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.
[3:13] Speaker 4: Damn raight.
[3:14] Speaker 2: Once upon a time, Yes, there was a little girl,
[3:18] Speaker 2: a little girl named Marianne Andel. She lived in Bangor Main,
[3:23] Speaker 2: which is where she was born, Surrounded by woods. In
[3:27] Speaker 2: this cozy town, she spent her winters in the snow
[3:30] Speaker 2: and her summers swatting mosquitoes from her legs next to
[3:33] Speaker 2: jewel like ponds. Ah, very nice, beautiful. She graduated from
[3:38] Speaker 2: high school in nineteen eighty seven. Only a year before
[3:41] Speaker 2: that and about.
[3:42] Speaker 4: An hour away with nineteen eighty six.
[3:44] Speaker 2: Yes, a young man had just ventured into the woods
[3:49] Speaker 2: ditching his super Oh yes, only to remain there for decades.
[3:53] Speaker 4: A hermit pond.
[3:54] Speaker 2: Hermit the subject of a ridiculous crime episode and a
[3:58] Speaker 2: famous song of very beautif. But he's not the subject
[4:02] Speaker 2: on our Instagram it is so God, it's incredible. But
[4:06] Speaker 2: he's not the subject of the episode today today we're talking.
[4:10] Speaker 4: That would be lazy for you to tell that again.
[4:11] Speaker 2: What if I just I get a little bit different way.
[4:17] Speaker 4: You tell from this, like the side of the trees. Yeah,
[4:19] Speaker 4: they're watching this all go down.
[4:21] Speaker 2: Yeah, let's try that. No, okay. So Marianne she moved
[4:26] Speaker 2: to Tennessee after high school. She got a job as
[4:29] Speaker 2: a medical orderly at like a naval hospital in Florida.
[4:32] Speaker 2: She went to Florida, she had a kid. She also
[4:35] Speaker 2: had dreams we all do.
[4:37] Speaker 4: I hope she got her.
[4:39] Speaker 2: Were grand and not always feasible, darn so, like, for example,
[4:44] Speaker 2: she really wanted to be Irish.
[4:46] Speaker 4: That's not a dream.
[4:47] Speaker 2: She wasn't.
[4:48] Speaker 4: You can't dream of being Irish. I tried that for
[4:52] Speaker 4: ten years.
[4:53] Speaker 2: She wasn't. But she really wanted to be So that's
[4:56] Speaker 2: cool for her. And a lot of times her dream
[5:00] Speaker 2: were more important to her than to other people than
[5:03] Speaker 2: other people were.
[5:05] Speaker 4: Her dreams are more important than other people. Yes, not
[5:08] Speaker 4: that her dreams are more important to her than other
[5:10] Speaker 4: dreams were important to.
[5:11] Speaker 2: We're more important than the truth.
[5:13] Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that's very common for people who think they're
[5:16] Speaker 4: more important than other people.
[5:17] Speaker 2: She told her friends and her family that she had
[5:20] Speaker 2: terrible news, devastating. She'd been diagnosed with breast cancer. Oh,
[5:24] Speaker 2: she's a single mom, teenage daughter. Is this terrible blow.
[5:28] Speaker 2: But she's going to fight it and she's going to wink.
[5:31] Speaker 2: But she needed money for treatment. And I think you
[5:34] Speaker 2: can figure out where I'm going with this.
[5:36] Speaker 4: Yes, this was a scam.
[5:38] Speaker 2: She did not have cancer.
[5:39] Speaker 4: Yes, she was lying those.
[5:42] Speaker 2: People, But soon enough she had thousands of dollars from
[5:46] Speaker 2: people who cared about, you know, her livelihood.
[5:49] Speaker 4: She reached one of her dreams, one of her low
[5:51] Speaker 4: hanging dreams.
[5:51] Speaker 2: Didn't have cancer, but she did have everyone stolen money.
[5:54] Speaker 2: So her family found out and they disowned her, as
[5:58] Speaker 2: they should in two thousand. In the year two thousand,
[6:03] Speaker 2: she takes the cash. She takes her daughter, Chelsea. They
[6:05] Speaker 2: leave Tennessee and they go to Northern Ireland because she'd
[6:08] Speaker 2: met a dude online.
[6:10] Speaker 4: She's really going through with this. I want to be Irish.
[6:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, this guy is Stephen Smith. She marries Steven His
[6:15] Speaker 2: his last name is s m y t h and
[6:19] Speaker 2: so it's Smith, Prince Smith. But all it makes me
[6:21] Speaker 2: think of is in the James Bond Masterpiece of You
[6:25] Speaker 2: to a Kill when what's his name? Christopher No, well yeah,
[6:31] Speaker 2: Christopher Watkins in it? Who's bonding that one? Roger Moore
[6:37] Speaker 2: shows up at like a Stallion auction in like a
[6:41] Speaker 2: morning suit and he introduces himself as Sir StJohn's smile.
[6:46] Speaker 2: I have always wanted to use that as like.
[6:49] Speaker 4: You never use that name. I used that I got
[6:52] Speaker 4: to tell someone.
[6:56] Speaker 2: Hey, so I was hoping it was happen at Smith.
[7:00] Speaker 2: So they they're both greyhound racing enthusiasts. That's how they
[7:04] Speaker 2: got together online.
[7:05] Speaker 4: I guess it's the wait one quick question if I'm bookkeeping.
[7:08] Speaker 4: Is she going to be satisfied in her dream if
[7:09] Speaker 4: she attains the nationality of Irish or she want the
[7:12] Speaker 4: cultural heritage? She wants to be called Irish.
[7:15] Speaker 2: She wants people to like know her as Irish.
[7:18] Speaker 4: She wants her hair to turn red and her to
[7:20] Speaker 4: be like real Irish. Irish code is as Irish.
[7:23] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Brogue and everything. Okay, yeah, it's just not
[7:27] Speaker 2: citizenship she's looking for which ps he went to Northern Ireland.
[7:31] Speaker 2: It's not going to work for you on that one anyway.
[7:34] Speaker 2: So she's now she's Mary Anne Smith, goes by mayor.
[7:38] Speaker 4: Okay, and a big Greyhound enthusiasts.
[7:40] Speaker 2: Yes, And she gets a job as a mortgage broker
[7:42] Speaker 2: in Belfast. And this is like mid two thousands at
[7:45] Speaker 2: this point. Okay, so she's she's working on loans and
[7:48] Speaker 2: she's also working for pret housings.
[7:50] Speaker 4: Yeah, meltdown. Yeah, well and is this point that was
[7:52] Speaker 4: a big wild West industry then.
[7:54] Speaker 2: And you look at both Ireland and Northern Ireland, the
[7:57] Speaker 2: Republican in the north, we're getting into that Celtic tiger.
[8:01] Speaker 4: Yeah exactly, That's what I was figuring.
[8:02] Speaker 2: And then Belfast coming into the two thousands, you go
[8:05] Speaker 2: from it being like oh, you shouldn't be there and
[8:07] Speaker 2: like it's you know, war Torning. You get to the
[8:09] Speaker 2: past good Friday agreement, but like the influx of money
[8:13] Speaker 2: and all of a sudden it's like by the mid
[8:15] Speaker 2: two thousands that's like the place where you go for
[8:16] Speaker 2: a hen party, you know, like it's a destination anyway.
[8:19] Speaker 4: And yeah, and also a big tech economy.
[8:22] Speaker 2: Yes, yes, so she's riding that. So she's working on loans.
[8:25] Speaker 2: She's working on separating people from their harder in cash.
[8:28] Speaker 4: Ah. Yes, a classic.
[8:29] Speaker 2: So there's this buyer who pays one hundred and twenty
[8:31] Speaker 2: thousand pounds for a house. Mayer said, I believe I
[8:35] Speaker 2: will took the money and ran six other.
[8:38] Speaker 4: People scrow here I go.
[8:41] Speaker 2: Six other people take out mortgages from the same company.
[8:45] Speaker 2: They get taken by her. She conned scores of neighbors
[8:49] Speaker 2: and people that she would be friend with, just like
[8:52] Speaker 2: made up sob stories so they'd be charitable to her.
[8:55] Speaker 2: In total, in Northern Ireland she had twenty six victims
[8:58] Speaker 2: and she made off with half a million pounds. Yeah.
[9:03] Speaker 2: So the police in Northern Ireland they're hot on her trail.
[9:06] Speaker 2: So to avoid capture, she goes back to the States
[9:09] Speaker 2: in two thousand and nine.
[9:10] Speaker 4: Okay, now does her husband go with her?
[9:12] Speaker 2: No, And it's not just that she goes back to
[9:14] Speaker 2: the States. She goes back to the States and gets
[9:16] Speaker 2: plastic surgery. So she has a nose job, boob job, liposection,
[9:20] Speaker 2: tummy tuck, you name it.
[9:22] Speaker 4: Oh yeah, gangster on the run completely and she loves it.
[9:24] Speaker 2: She loves plastic surgery, she loves changing her look all them. Yeah,
[9:29] Speaker 2: so she's just like changes her hair, her body. Here
[9:33] Speaker 2: me totally. And if Mary's your name, and plastic surgery
[9:37] Speaker 2: in Kawns is your game? Yes, why not move to la.
[9:39] Speaker 4: Oh my god, she would love it.
[9:41] Speaker 2: Yeah, it just makes sense. It makes sense. So it
[9:43] Speaker 2: was Los Angeles in twenty thirteen. Oh, she gets a
[9:47] Speaker 2: job at a travel agency. And it was that same
[9:50] Speaker 2: year there that she becomes friends with Emmy Award winning
[9:53] Speaker 2: TV producer Jonathan.
[9:55] Speaker 4: Walton, who is Emmy Award winning.
[9:58] Speaker 2: Jathan any producer who won one Emmy. Okay, Jonathan Walt.
[10:02] Speaker 4: And it's okay, that's why his last name is kind of.
[10:05] Speaker 2: He winds up being like the star of the show. Yeah,
[10:07] Speaker 2: so Walton. He's unable to get access to a pool
[10:11] Speaker 2: at his Bunker Hill apartment complex, okay, in downtown because
[10:16] Speaker 2: his building is beefing with a neighbor a neighboring.
[10:18] Speaker 4: Building round by Flower Street.
[10:21] Speaker 2: We've all been there, folks. My building's fighting with that building.
[10:26] Speaker 4: Completely.
[10:26] Speaker 2: And it was a huge pool, Olympic sized pool, rooftop pool. Yeah,
[10:29] Speaker 2: probably so he describes it. Walton says, it's the crown
[10:33] Speaker 2: jewel of the building. It's an oasis buildings, right. But
[10:37] Speaker 2: the residents they lose they lose access. So he hosts
[10:41] Speaker 2: a meeting for the building residents to join forces get
[10:44] Speaker 2: their pool back. One of the residents who shows up
[10:47] Speaker 2: is Smith. She says that she's a luxury travel agent
[10:50] Speaker 2: and she works for a company called Pacific Island. She
[10:54] Speaker 2: said she didn't have to work because she was an
[10:55] Speaker 2: heiress from Ireland and she had like a vaguely heiress
[10:59] Speaker 2: from She has like a vaguely something accent that apparently
[11:02] Speaker 2: shifted all over the place. I found video of her
[11:05] Speaker 2: because I'm like, I gotta here, does she do like
[11:07] Speaker 2: hey accent? Like she doesn't have an accent at all
[11:12] Speaker 2: in the videos where she's you know later on, I
[11:14] Speaker 2: couldn't find it whatever.
[11:15] Speaker 4: So she's not doing like the Hilaria baldwind or it's
[11:18] Speaker 4: like you.
[11:19] Speaker 2: Say, cucumber love that so much so anyway, No, she's
[11:24] Speaker 2: basically Hilaria baldwinning up now. But she has like so
[11:28] Speaker 2: she has a drifting accent.
[11:29] Speaker 4: At this point, she should have said she was one
[11:31] Speaker 4: of the Gennis hears what the classic line.
[11:33] Speaker 2: Yeah, but she's she's coming out of the Ulster States.
[11:35] Speaker 4: I know it doesn't work.
[11:36] Speaker 2: Yeah, So even though she's an heiress, she wanted to
[11:40] Speaker 2: keep busy during the day. That's what she tells him.
[11:42] Speaker 2: She just loves selling vacations for people to the Pacific Islands.
[11:47] Speaker 2: Have you been to Micronesia this time of year? It's delightful.
[11:51] Speaker 2: So she also said that her boyfriend was a like
[11:53] Speaker 2: prestigious real estate attorney who won cases against the apartment
[11:58] Speaker 2: complex in the past, so like he knows you know this,
[12:00] Speaker 2: this is what this is what Walton said. Quote. She
[12:04] Speaker 2: just kind of took over the meeting. It reminded me
[12:06] Speaker 2: of Ava Perona and Avida talking to the masses who
[12:09] Speaker 2: adored her. She had that kind of energy. She was
[12:12] Speaker 2: brash and bold and charismatic and funny and irreverent. She
[12:16] Speaker 2: told dirty jokes and everybody loved her. She tells us
[12:19] Speaker 2: that she's from Ireland, but she's been living in the
[12:20] Speaker 2: States for years. She's dating this powerful politician who's a
[12:24] Speaker 2: partner in a law firm. He's going to get the poolback,
[12:26] Speaker 2: no problem. Her boyfriend had sued this billding twice before,
[12:30] Speaker 2: and they're scared of him. One letter from his office,
[12:32] Speaker 2: we'll get the poolback. Basically, she was the heroine from
[12:35] Speaker 2: the get go.
[12:36] Speaker 4: Now, when he did the Avida Perone comparison, I'm guessing
[12:39] Speaker 4: he's doing a actually Madonna as.
[12:43] Speaker 2: Or Patti LuPone on Broadway.
[12:45] Speaker 4: Hello, I'm sorry, Hello, let me take a step back.
[12:49] Speaker 2: I mean, come on. Give it back to Walton and Smith.
[12:53] Speaker 2: They decided to form a tenants association. Smart, let's get
[12:57] Speaker 2: like Harry Bridges on this and just union up paper them. Yeah,
[13:00] Speaker 2: and soon they're best friends. So they bonded over the
[13:05] Speaker 2: fact that they had both been disowned by their families.
[13:07] Speaker 2: Oh wow, Yeah, so she's.
[13:09] Speaker 4: Got to be a deep bond.
[13:10] Speaker 2: Walton gets he was disowned by his family for being gay.
[13:13] Speaker 2: She gets. She tells him, I was disowned over family
[13:17] Speaker 2: drama because I have a massive inheritance, not because I
[13:21] Speaker 2: faked cancer and took everyone's last time. No, I had
[13:24] Speaker 2: this incredibly huge inheritance. My family's filthy rich. So this
[13:31] Speaker 2: is what he said. Quote. Her uncle's twenty five million
[13:33] Speaker 2: euro estate is being divided up. She's supposed to get
[13:36] Speaker 2: five million, but her cousins don't want her to. Inherit anything.
[13:39] Speaker 2: Over the course of the next few months, weeks, months, years,
[13:43] Speaker 2: she'd show me text messages from her evil cousin Finton,
[13:46] Speaker 2: from her Irish barrister, all of which confirming and collaborating
[13:50] Speaker 2: everything she's saying. Why would someone make that up? I never,
[13:53] Speaker 2: not even for a second suspect that this is a scam.
[13:57] Speaker 4: So she was able to use a different like a
[13:58] Speaker 4: burner phone, make it just text herself whatever.
[14:01] Speaker 2: And this guy's like, there it is, yeah, insulting me.
[14:06] Speaker 2: So Walton said that Smith had a framed Irish Constitution
[14:09] Speaker 2: on parchment paper on her wall, and that her great
[14:12] Speaker 2: great uncle was a signatory and founder of Ireland.
[14:16] Speaker 4: Oh Irish and Irish can be the well fact check.
[14:19] Speaker 2: There were no signatories on the nineteen thirty seven Constitution
[14:22] Speaker 2: of Ireland. She said she was Irish Royalty. Fact check.
[14:28] Speaker 2: Royalty in Northern Ireland is the British Crown, and Irish
[14:31] Speaker 2: Royalty was pretty much snuffed out in the twenty six
[14:34] Speaker 2: counties by seventeen hundred yes. In the Republic of Ireland,
[14:37] Speaker 2: the Irish Constitution, the one supposedly seinberg great great uncle,
[14:40] Speaker 2: doesn't allow the state to issue titles of nobility and
[14:43] Speaker 2: citizens can't accept titles of nobility. Existing holders of aristocratic
[14:49] Speaker 2: titles they can use them, but they're not recognized by
[14:52] Speaker 2: the Irish government.
[14:53] Speaker 4: Oh they're just decorative.
[14:54] Speaker 2: Yeah, completely, So she's a she's a royalty to what anyway?
[15:00] Speaker 2: She said, she here's my favorite part. She's royalty. She
[15:04] Speaker 2: said she had Ira connections.
[15:06] Speaker 4: Oh, she's really working both sides of the aisle.
[15:08] Speaker 2: Right, she's a straddler. And she said her grandmother taught
[15:12] Speaker 2: her how to throw Molotov cocktails at British soldiers as
[15:15] Speaker 2: a child. Fact check, she's from Maine. But also it's like, you.
[15:21] Speaker 4: Know, why were the British soldiers in Maine that she
[15:23] Speaker 4: didn't throw cocktails that's over the Canadian border.
[15:28] Speaker 2: Are like splinterself exactly. So she would show Walton text
[15:34] Speaker 2: messages that she got that were in Gaelic because like
[15:36] Speaker 2: God bless Google translate. Yeah, so Smith had Walton believing
[15:40] Speaker 2: she was this Irish heiress and that her cousins were
[15:43] Speaker 2: trying to sabotage her life. Over the years, she told
[15:46] Speaker 2: lots of tales about herself. She was a life coach,
[15:49] Speaker 2: which is by the way, an all due offense to
[15:51] Speaker 2: life coaches. Shady and scammy. She said she was a psychic.
[15:56] Speaker 2: She was also a psychologist or a lawyer. Sometimes she
[15:58] Speaker 2: had cancer, sometimes she didn't. Okay, you're saying, yeah, she
[16:03] Speaker 2: did actually get gastric bypass surgery in Prague, you know,
[16:07] Speaker 2: as you do weights. Yeah, yeah, the al rokery, and
[16:13] Speaker 2: as a result, she had perpetually low iron levels in
[16:16] Speaker 2: her blood. Yeah, and she would purposefully deplete the iron
[16:20] Speaker 2: in her by not eating iron rich food so like
[16:23] Speaker 2: no liver, no spinach for this one. And as a
[16:25] Speaker 2: result she'd have to go to the hospital and get
[16:27] Speaker 2: admitted for transfusions. Let's take a break. I gotta take
[16:31] Speaker 2: a break.
[16:31] Speaker 4: From Yeah, you're talking transfusions.
[16:33] Speaker 2: When we come back, we'll talk a little more about transfusions. Okay, Saren, right,
[16:57] Speaker 2: check this out. We were talking about iron transfuse. Like
[17:00] Speaker 2: she cuts her tummy down, her stomach down, Canny doesn't
[17:04] Speaker 2: eat iron rich foods. Let's take a look at what
[17:09] Speaker 2: that's like.
[17:10] Speaker 4: Can you tell me about gastric bypass the results says
[17:13] Speaker 4: it's like, I need a transfusion.
[17:14] Speaker 2: I'm so curious. Oh yes, I want you to picture it.
[17:20] Speaker 2: You are a nurse at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.
[17:23] Speaker 2: This is slow afternoon before you. Sitting in a recliner
[17:27] Speaker 2: with a magazine in her lap, is a woman named
[17:30] Speaker 2: Mary Anne Smith. She tells you to call her Mayor.
[17:32] Speaker 2: She says she's a psychic. She's in for an iron transfusion.
[17:36] Speaker 2: This isn't her first. She tells you she has chronically
[17:39] Speaker 2: low iron. You ask her if she's eating lots of
[17:42] Speaker 2: leafy greens and red meat taking supplements. Nope, she tells
[17:46] Speaker 2: you I don't like them, so you guess she'd rather
[17:50] Speaker 2: just go through this procedure over and over. You glance
[17:52] Speaker 2: at her chart. What a mess as codes are called
[17:56] Speaker 2: over the intercom and orderlies walk by the open door
[17:59] Speaker 2: to the room you're in. You get the catheter into
[18:01] Speaker 2: her arm and adjusts the IV bag of iron hanging
[18:03] Speaker 2: above her. Okay, you tell her, I'll be back in
[18:06] Speaker 2: about three hours or so, I know. Mayor tells you
[18:09] Speaker 2: this isn't the first time I've done this. Well, you
[18:12] Speaker 2: tell her, let's hope it's the last. I'll be back
[18:15] Speaker 2: and check you out in a bit. Wait, yells Mayor,
[18:17] Speaker 2: as you're heading out the door. I need you to
[18:19] Speaker 2: do something for me. She holds out her cell phone.
[18:22] Speaker 2: Can you take some pictures? What in the like? If
[18:26] Speaker 2: you sit it here, you lift the phone to send
[18:28] Speaker 2: her in the shot. No, not like that, she tells you.
[18:31] Speaker 2: Here with one hand, she directs you to stand over her,
[18:34] Speaker 2: capturing her pensive face, the line into her arm, the IV,
[18:38] Speaker 2: the wrist id tag, the cold beige of the room,
[18:41] Speaker 2: in the out of focus distance. You roll your eyes
[18:44] Speaker 2: and snap a photo. She tells you do a couple more.
[18:47] Speaker 2: You oblige, and when she asks for some different angles,
[18:49] Speaker 2: you tell her you're busy, set the phone on the
[18:51] Speaker 2: table next to her, and then you walk out of
[18:53] Speaker 2: the room. As soon as you're gone, she picks up
[18:55] Speaker 2: the phone and starts texting the photos to people. She's
[18:58] Speaker 2: telling them that she's in the hospital getting chemo. The
[19:02] Speaker 2: cancer scam that she's running right now paid for almost
[19:05] Speaker 2: six months of rent. WHOA, Yeah, so Smith. She's besties
[19:10] Speaker 2: with Walton, but she had another BFF, Jennifer Aniston b
[19:15] Speaker 2: y and she was also best friends with Ashley Judd.
[19:18] Speaker 2: They met in college when they pledged the same sorority.
[19:21] Speaker 2: Like same girl, me too, same you did it too.
[19:24] Speaker 2: That's how you know Ashley Judd.
[19:25] Speaker 4: That's how I met Sam Jackson.
[19:27] Speaker 2: So she had a pretty, you know, fabulous life, and
[19:29] Speaker 2: she had all the trappings of his life, and that
[19:32] Speaker 2: helps people believe what they want to be true. They
[19:34] Speaker 2: see it and they're like, yeah, should be. She would
[19:37] Speaker 2: show off her closet full of supposedly original designer pieces.
[19:41] Speaker 2: Walton said quote she wore twelve hundred dollars Jimmy chooes
[19:44] Speaker 2: and once showed me her closet filled with more than
[19:47] Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty pairs. That's three hundred thousand dollars
[19:51] Speaker 2: in shoes alone, I thought to myself. But I later
[19:53] Speaker 2: discovered they were all fake.
[19:55] Speaker 4: Oh I thought. I thought it was like, you know,
[19:57] Speaker 4: the money wasn't all going to rent?
[19:59] Speaker 2: Yeah?
[19:59] Speaker 4: No, No, she's getting faked.
[20:01] Speaker 2: I like to imagine her either like using red nail
[20:04] Speaker 2: polish to paint the bottom of some fake baton, or
[20:07] Speaker 2: like maybe she buys them on Ali Express and then
[20:10] Speaker 2: she's wearing them to the Polo lounge and having like
[20:12] Speaker 2: a heel give way.
[20:13] Speaker 4: I got fresh red bottoms, like.
[20:16] Speaker 2: Clicking along the heel flies off. That's what would happen
[20:19] Speaker 2: to me, and like I'd roll an ankle in the stiletto. Yeah,
[20:24] Speaker 2: but then the heel flies off and it lodges in
[20:26] Speaker 2: Nicole Kidman's temple, and I'm like a Hollywood pariah for
[20:30] Speaker 2: accidentally killing a UNICEF good Will ambassador.
[20:33] Speaker 4: I'm standing there, going, this is cinema to me in.
[20:35] Speaker 2: The star of BMX, Bandits and Zarin. That's why I
[20:39] Speaker 2: don't wear high heels. I get it us slot scales
[20:42] Speaker 2: like we we have sponsorships from Adidas, Birkin stock Vans,
[20:48] Speaker 2: those half fligger woolen clogs.
[20:51] Speaker 4: Those Chinese flats, yeah, and those.
[20:53] Speaker 2: And the sponsorships forbid high heels. So I couldn't wear
[20:56] Speaker 2: them if I wanted to, honestly, and I don't. So
[20:58] Speaker 2: back to Smith, remember I said she's also a psychic
[21:01] Speaker 2: the domain of the confidence trickster. Yes, so, Mayor Smith.
[21:05] Speaker 2: She told her best buddy, Emmy Award winning TV producer
[21:08] Speaker 2: Jonathan Walton that she got a job running Orchids Psychics
[21:13] Speaker 2: or South Figaro.
[21:14] Speaker 4: In La oh, just the name of the place. Yeah,
[21:16] Speaker 4: not a type of psychic.
[21:17] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I thought too. And it was like
[21:19] Speaker 2: I was reading it, I'm thinking, wait, what the what
[21:21] Speaker 2: kind of psychic is that?
[21:23] Speaker 4: From?
[21:23] Speaker 2: You sit on a desk and sit real still.
[21:27] Speaker 4: You look beautiful and hope you don't get over one
[21:30] Speaker 4: very delicate.
[21:31] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. It looks to be closed now Orchid Psychics,
[21:35] Speaker 2: But I need to read you some reviews.
[21:37] Speaker 4: Oh please, I love these reviews.
[21:39] Speaker 2: Promise it's relevant, and even if it wasn't relevant, I
[21:42] Speaker 2: don't care. I'm going to read it anyway relevant. You
[21:44] Speaker 2: know what, Mama runs the show the way she wants it.
[21:46] Speaker 2: That's what I'm trying to say. So here's what Nasri
[21:49] Speaker 2: m had to say. In twenty sixteen, she went from
[21:52] Speaker 2: four stars to two. I spoke to Mayor and she
[21:55] Speaker 2: was really nice. She went out of her way to
[21:57] Speaker 2: make me feel comfortable, and her reading was verys Did
[22:00] Speaker 2: her predictions come true? I don't know. It might take
[22:03] Speaker 2: a bit of time to see if anything manifests itself.
[22:05] Speaker 2: But Mayer was extremely accommodating and I like her energy.
[22:09] Speaker 2: So that's in twenty sixteen, two years later. Nothing she
[22:12] Speaker 2: said was accurate. I know most psychics are off, but
[22:16] Speaker 2: this one was exceptionally rancid. My cat is more psychic
[22:20] Speaker 2: than her. At least she can predict when I'm going
[22:22] Speaker 2: to pinch a loaf. But this woman should practice or
[22:24] Speaker 2: something to get better. I even waited a year to
[22:27] Speaker 2: post this, hoping it would finally come to fruition. But no,
[22:30] Speaker 2: she wasn't even close to accurate. She should just tell
[22:32] Speaker 2: people she's not a real psychic and that she just
[22:34] Speaker 2: does it for some giggles.
[22:36] Speaker 4: Two things. I love that she did the scientific method
[22:39] Speaker 4: of like, let's give her time, and then two years
[22:41] Speaker 4: later she reports back with her findings exactly amazing. And
[22:45] Speaker 4: then also I want to know what happened in those
[22:47] Speaker 4: two years because she's like, it was all wrong. Oh girl,
[22:51] Speaker 4: So do you need a hug, maybe some lemonade something
[22:54] Speaker 4: so we.
[22:54] Speaker 2: Have another turnaround? Huh. This one is from a gal
[22:57] Speaker 2: named jayg in twenty fifteen. Here's the first part of it. Wow,
[23:02] Speaker 2: all caps. Okay, I'm what one would call a skeptic,
[23:07] Speaker 2: although my mother also calls me Nancy Reagan thanks to
[23:09] Speaker 2: my interest in astrology.
[23:11] Speaker 4: Woahoo at energy.
[23:14] Speaker 2: That said, I had no idea what to expect, and frankly,
[23:17] Speaker 2: my expectations weren't high. The crazy thing about Mayor is
[23:20] Speaker 2: that she's the type of person with whom one immediately
[23:23] Speaker 2: feels comfortable. Unusual for me, my notion of a psychic
[23:26] Speaker 2: was that of the psychic friend's hotline. I'll say it,
[23:29] Speaker 2: I was wrong. Yeah, Mayor gave me direction, and quite frankly,
[23:34] Speaker 2: I felt better after speaking with her than I've ever
[23:36] Speaker 2: felt speaking with my therapist. She was realistic and warm,
[23:40] Speaker 2: and a couple of things she said had me speechless.
[23:43] Speaker 2: That info was not google uble, especially information that wasn't
[23:47] Speaker 2: about me, and a person whose last name she couldn't
[23:49] Speaker 2: possibly have known. I'll be back, There's no question. I
[23:53] Speaker 2: feel as if I can breathe again. That alone is
[23:55] Speaker 2: worth everything.
[23:56] Speaker 4: And then eat music.
[24:00] Speaker 2: Now it's here. And then she puts in edit. So
[24:03] Speaker 2: much fell into place. About the weirdness that followed. I'd
[24:06] Speaker 2: purchased my reading via Living Social and was allowed to
[24:09] Speaker 2: get more than one. I called to schedule and the
[24:12] Speaker 2: number had changed. She'd changed her name. I set up
[24:15] Speaker 2: a reading, and then suddenly she had all kinds of excuses.
[24:17] Speaker 2: Car problems in the middle of the desert, couldn't get
[24:20] Speaker 2: to a phone, blah, blah blah. Finally she canceled the
[24:23] Speaker 2: appointment because she said I'd already used a voucher. Living
[24:26] Speaker 2: Social refunded me, so she never had my credit card information.
[24:29] Speaker 2: Thank god, I never attempted again. Because it was so unprofessional.
[24:33] Speaker 2: Now I know why.
[24:34] Speaker 4: That was quite the turn. Yeah, wow too, Oh my god,
[24:38] Speaker 4: thank god she doesn't have my credit card.
[24:41] Speaker 2: So, like in the beginning, she didn't tell her best
[24:44] Speaker 2: friend Walton about her gig at orkin psychics. It was
[24:46] Speaker 2: later yeah, but so quote she said she had never
[24:50] Speaker 2: told me because she was ashamed of it, but that
[24:52] Speaker 2: the gift apparently ran in her family. Her grandmother used
[24:56] Speaker 2: to help police find missing people. I didn't know what
[24:58] Speaker 2: to think, but she started getting more and more clients
[25:00] Speaker 2: and was getting good reviews on Yelp. So I started
[25:03] Speaker 2: to think maybe she's a psychic.
[25:05] Speaker 4: Stick around for those reviews.
[25:06] Speaker 2: But to be fair, there are a number of good
[25:07] Speaker 2: Yelp reviews for her. Oh and sure, here's my favorite part.
[25:10] Speaker 2: If you go on there and there are bad reviews
[25:12] Speaker 2: from the past, mayor pops in occasionally to argue with
[25:16] Speaker 2: the person. Really yeah, she leaves responses to the reviews.
[25:19] Speaker 4: She's still out there in the game.
[25:20] Speaker 2: Well like at that time. Okay, So Walton first got
[25:25] Speaker 2: a taste of her psychic abilities at a New Year's
[25:27] Speaker 2: Eve party in Santa Monica. So she invites Walton and
[25:30] Speaker 2: his husband to the party, and he told Image magazine quote.
[25:35] Speaker 2: I think admission was like five hundred dollars or something,
[25:37] Speaker 2: but she gets us in for free because we're with her.
[25:40] Speaker 2: They hired her as a psychic to read guests at
[25:42] Speaker 2: the party. So we go and drink and have a
[25:44] Speaker 2: good time at the party, and I literally witnessed her
[25:47] Speaker 2: bring dozens of people to tears with her accuracy. So
[25:51] Speaker 2: he sums up what we see a lot in the
[25:53] Speaker 2: Yelp reviews quote. A lot of the victims she scammed
[25:57] Speaker 2: she started seeing her as a psychic all told me
[25:59] Speaker 2: this same thing. The first couple of readings were staggeringly accurate.
[26:04] Speaker 2: She knew things that were impossible for her to know.
[26:06] Speaker 2: She must have a gift. But if she gets to
[26:09] Speaker 2: know someone, she can't read them anymore. Familiarity is her kryptonite.
[26:13] Speaker 2: So I really do believe she has a psychic ability,
[26:16] Speaker 2: but she can only read strangers, which is why she
[26:18] Speaker 2: couldn't read me, because we became fast friends very quickly.
[26:22] Speaker 4: I have the same problem with cards in Vegas. My
[26:26] Speaker 4: psychic powers don't work.
[26:27] Speaker 2: Don't work for me.
[26:29] Speaker 4: I could do it for anybody else. I'm like, if
[26:30] Speaker 4: you're gambling, Elizabeth takes me, and I'll be like, that's
[26:32] Speaker 4: a king.
[26:33] Speaker 2: But for me, I told you I want psychic powers.
[26:38] Speaker 4: Oh I want them, but go on please.
[26:40] Speaker 2: So when the psychic bit it like falls apart with people, obviously,
[26:44] Speaker 2: she'd shift over to being a life coach and she
[26:48] Speaker 2: would charge them tens of thousands of dollars well, giving
[26:52] Speaker 2: them what she called homework. And that was just like
[26:55] Speaker 2: fact finding missions for her. So like, you do this
[26:57] Speaker 2: work and tell me about your family, and she'd gather
[27:00] Speaker 2: all this intel to further the scam. One of the
[27:03] Speaker 2: victims of that particular con was a Hollywood costume designer,
[27:06] Speaker 2: a friend of Walton's who wouldn't come publicly forward when
[27:10] Speaker 2: this all fell apart, must have remained anonymous. They lost
[27:12] Speaker 2: ten grand Wow, people get embarrassed about being taken for
[27:16] Speaker 2: a ride like that. Oh yeah, completely, Now I mentioned
[27:18] Speaker 2: Jennifer Aniston.
[27:19] Speaker 4: You did?
[27:20] Speaker 2: I did? Supposed to be one of Maher's close friends.
[27:23] Speaker 2: They met, according to Mayor, when jen became one of
[27:26] Speaker 2: her clients for the psychic services.
[27:28] Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I heard she likes stars.
[27:32] Speaker 2: So here's the thing. Though, Smith used a bunch of
[27:35] Speaker 2: different email accounts and Google phone numbers to impersonate people
[27:39] Speaker 2: like Jennifer Aniston, Ashley jud Dario Franchetti. No one was safe,
[27:44] Speaker 2: even award winning TV producer Jonathan Walton. No, no, Yeah,
[27:48] Speaker 2: she pretended to be him to scam other people.
[27:51] Speaker 4: Oh that she was using it.
[27:53] Speaker 2: And so in that case she tricked a mark into
[27:55] Speaker 2: thinking that she'd been hospitalized. It was like a life
[27:58] Speaker 2: coaching client that she had. So she as Walton said
[28:01] Speaker 2: that Mayor had a collapsed lung and couldn't make the class,
[28:04] Speaker 2: and no, he can't discuss a refund. So she's like
[28:08] Speaker 2: as him.
[28:09] Speaker 4: Doing the journeys like sock puppet business manager.
[28:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, and it was more likely for Mayor though, like
[28:15] Speaker 2: she'd use the fake email addresses and the phone numbers
[28:17] Speaker 2: to send herself stuff from supposed celebrities to her, and
[28:20] Speaker 2: then she'd show them like look what jen just texted me.
[28:24] Speaker 2: Or she'd set up accounts to look like her phony
[28:26] Speaker 2: Irish family and like like all of her barristers in England,
[28:32] Speaker 2: her lawyers completely the King of Ireland. And so people
[28:37] Speaker 2: like especially Walton, they took it all at face value.
[28:40] Speaker 2: And here's what he told people who couldn't believe that
[28:42] Speaker 2: he'd bought some of the stories. Quote people in Ireland
[28:46] Speaker 2: are like, who would believe that? Well, we're in Los
[28:49] Speaker 2: Angeles the period, full stop. It's not unfounded that someone
[28:55] Speaker 2: I know knows Jennifer Anniston. When I worked on Shark Tank,
[28:59] Speaker 2: I was in Sony Studios and I was working down
[29:01] Speaker 2: the hall from Will Smith. I would talk to him
[29:03] Speaker 2: every day getting coffee. So it's not a crazy assertion
[29:06] Speaker 2: that someone in LA knows Jennifer Aniston.
[29:08] Speaker 4: Totally. I can tell you a gas station to go
[29:10] Speaker 4: to in LA if you want to meet famous people,
[29:12] Speaker 4: I can tell you exactly the one to go to.
[29:14] Speaker 4: And if you go there, it's one that famous people stopped
[29:16] Speaker 4: it because it happens to be on a pathway between
[29:18] Speaker 4: the studios and where they a lot of them live,
[29:20] Speaker 4: and it's the gas station. And this is how Hollywood works.
[29:23] Speaker 4: There's a lot of places like this. I'm just using
[29:25] Speaker 4: one example. Yeah, but it's very much. These are real
[29:27] Speaker 4: people moving around in the world. So you're going to
[29:29] Speaker 4: have a work friend who is famous.
[29:31] Speaker 2: And they're not. It's not like they only talk to
[29:32] Speaker 2: other famous people their love exactly.
[29:34] Speaker 4: They like talking to normal people because they don't get
[29:36] Speaker 4: to so of course they're gonna be friends with the team.
[29:38] Speaker 2: Stir Yeah, totally exactly. So Mayor she keeps using that.
[29:42] Speaker 4: That whole notion, that connection vibe.
[29:45] Speaker 2: Is yeah, exactly, and she's using the emails. Twenty fourteen,
[29:48] Speaker 2: she meets a man that we're going to call Mark.
[29:51] Speaker 2: He's a film producer and she meets some in online
[29:54] Speaker 2: dating and so we don't know Mark's real name because
[29:58] Speaker 2: he didn't want his name out there. Again with embarrassment.
[30:01] Speaker 2: So Smith told Mark that she's best friends with Jennifer
[30:04] Speaker 2: Aniston and like, hey, you want to tag along with me?
[30:07] Speaker 2: Like to go meet her for lunch. And again, here's
[30:09] Speaker 2: the thing about La like you can often run into
[30:12] Speaker 2: celebrities and people have odd connections to said celebrities. It's
[30:15] Speaker 2: part for the course, but the town works on who
[30:17] Speaker 2: you know, and people are desperate to know the right
[30:20] Speaker 2: people opportunity, Yeah, because lunching with Jennifer Aniston can like
[30:25] Speaker 2: you know, to work or more in totally, So Mark
[30:29] Speaker 2: would agree to go, but then he and Mayor would
[30:31] Speaker 2: get like stood up by Jen so busy, you guys,
[30:35] Speaker 2: and she would text these deep apologies to their big
[30:38] Speaker 2: sale Lululemon got totally so Smith like she's she's showing
[30:43] Speaker 2: Mark all these like, oh my god, you guys, A'm
[30:45] Speaker 2: a school. Sorry, and she's like, you know what, Mark,
[30:48] Speaker 2: here's all Jen's contact information. Yeah, he just here's her.
[30:53] Speaker 2: Here's her cell phone number, Yeah, here's her, here's her email.
[30:57] Speaker 2: He thinks he's texting and emailing Rachel from friends. Yes,
[31:00] Speaker 2: and Jennifer Aniston. You know, it's a tough one. She
[31:04] Speaker 2: was always on Mark's case in these conversations, getting on
[31:08] Speaker 2: him for like not caring enough about Mayor, not treating
[31:12] Speaker 2: her like he should.
[31:13] Speaker 4: Why don't you look up for Mayor? You should give
[31:15] Speaker 4: her money? Mayor doesn't have enough money. And that's a
[31:17] Speaker 4: way love language.
[31:20] Speaker 2: To do it.
[31:21] Speaker 4: That's great, using Aiston has.
[31:25] Speaker 2: And so after a while Mark he's like, he asked
[31:29] Speaker 2: a techy friend of his to research the contact information,
[31:33] Speaker 2: and the friend is like, stop chatting with her immediately,
[31:36] Speaker 2: because like, there's no history anywhere, everything's all suspicious. He
[31:39] Speaker 2: finds out it's a Google phone number, He's like, stop Smith.
[31:43] Speaker 2: Though she eventually gets arrested for investment. Too many victims
[31:46] Speaker 2: to keep them all quiet. Walton fully convinced of Mayor's
[31:50] Speaker 2: jealous Irish cousins that are out to destroy her life.
[31:54] Speaker 2: So he paid for all her legal fees. Oh god,
[31:56] Speaker 2: more than seventy five thousand dollars. Oh god, this is
[31:59] Speaker 2: what he said. Quote. She shows me an email from
[32:01] Speaker 2: her barrister that says there's a clause in her uncle's
[32:03] Speaker 2: will that says if any errors are convicted of a felony,
[32:06] Speaker 2: they'll be disinherited. The barrister's like, I just wanted to
[32:09] Speaker 2: make you aware of this. I don't think it applies,
[32:11] Speaker 2: but you should know. I was a news reporter for
[32:13] Speaker 2: ten years, and I'd covered stories and read stories about
[32:16] Speaker 2: you know, husbands knocking their wives off over a million dollars,
[32:18] Speaker 2: insurance policies, and people getting set up. So immediately I'm like, Mayor,
[32:22] Speaker 2: you've got to be careful. Like your boss's best friend
[32:25] Speaker 2: is your cousin Finton, who now hates you. They might
[32:28] Speaker 2: set you up to make it look like you're stealing
[32:30] Speaker 2: so you get convicted of a felony and then they
[32:32] Speaker 2: get to keep the money. We're talking millions of dollars.
[32:35] Speaker 2: People kill for millions of dollars. Be careful, And she
[32:37] Speaker 2: laughed it off, like, no, Jonathan, don't be stupid. They
[32:40] Speaker 2: would never do that. No, no, No. Fast forward literally
[32:43] Speaker 2: a couple of weeks later, and I get a call
[32:45] Speaker 2: from jail. She's been arrested, and she's crying on the phone,
[32:48] Speaker 2: telling me I was right. Her family set her up
[32:50] Speaker 2: to make it look like she stole two hundred thousand dollars.
[32:53] Speaker 2: I walked right into it. She used my good nature
[32:55] Speaker 2: against me. We're almost a year and a half into
[32:57] Speaker 2: our friendship at this point. I love her like a sister.
[33:00] Speaker 2: I love her as much as any gay man can
[33:03] Speaker 2: love a woman. So I immediately bail her out of jail.
[33:06] Speaker 2: I feel so bad for Jonathan Walton.
[33:08] Speaker 4: I do. I feel bad for him because his kindness
[33:12] Speaker 4: is being used against him. Yeah, but I also really
[33:15] Speaker 4: want to take him to the side and politely and
[33:17] Speaker 4: kindly hold his hand and say, just do me one favorite.
[33:21] Speaker 4: When you hear something, ask yourself, okay that sounds like
[33:24] Speaker 4: and before you start the story of what you think
[33:26] Speaker 4: it sounds like, oh could this be true? Could this
[33:28] Speaker 4: not be true? And then entertain both of those ideas
[33:31] Speaker 4: rather than just rushing down those. He has so far
[33:33] Speaker 4: into that story completely. She didn't need to tell him anything.
[33:36] Speaker 4: He painted it all for.
[33:37] Speaker 2: Her exactly, And he's so distressed. I get upset because
[33:41] Speaker 2: he's so distressed.
[33:42] Speaker 4: I know.
[33:42] Speaker 2: So Smith told Walton that she was being set up
[33:45] Speaker 2: to look like it was you know that she stole
[33:47] Speaker 2: two hundred thousand from the travel agency. As far as
[33:50] Speaker 2: Walton knew, Smith was secretly dating a married politician at
[33:53] Speaker 2: the time, and so the day after Walton bailed her out,
[33:58] Speaker 2: Mayor paid him right back, saying the money was from
[34:00] Speaker 2: her secret boyfriend. Of course, we know how that works.
[34:03] Speaker 2: That is the confidence in con. Here's what he had
[34:06] Speaker 2: to say. Quote, I've been investigating con artists for the
[34:09] Speaker 2: past five years now, and I can tell you that
[34:11] Speaker 2: that is a huge red flag. That's called wetting your beak. Yep,
[34:14] Speaker 2: it's a technique scammers use. Once she pays me back,
[34:17] Speaker 2: I now have confidence in loaning her more money. She's
[34:20] Speaker 2: trustworthy in my mind, she's a woman of her word.
[34:23] Speaker 2: I feel comfortable loaning her more money down the line.
[34:25] Speaker 4: As you pointed out that even worked on al.
[34:28] Speaker 2: Capone mm hm, Smith kept up with the lies. Of course.
[34:31] Speaker 2: She said her evil family was working with a compromised
[34:34] Speaker 2: LA District attorney to freeze her bank accounts. She said
[34:39] Speaker 2: they were tapping her phones like she probably blamed Anthony Pelicano,
[34:42] Speaker 2: but I think he was in prison at that time anyway.
[34:45] Speaker 2: So Walton describes the dramatics of it all. Quote, every
[34:49] Speaker 2: time we would talk about the case, I would take
[34:51] Speaker 2: my phone in her phone and put it five hundred
[34:54] Speaker 2: feet away under a couch cushion. We would talk out
[34:58] Speaker 2: of earshot of the phones because they were tapping her phone.
[35:01] Speaker 2: You know. Of course looking back, that was just, but
[35:04] Speaker 2: it made it seem real, like I really thought, you know,
[35:07] Speaker 2: I've got to help this woman get what's rightfully hers.
[35:09] Speaker 4: Good job, Fox Molder. I want to believe.
[35:13] Speaker 2: Smith was beside herself because the Irish had frozen her accounts.
[35:18] Speaker 4: Darned the King of Ireland.
[35:22] Speaker 2: Cruel. I like making the Irish the faceless villains here
[35:27] Speaker 2: because it reminds me of on Sons of Anarchy, how
[35:29] Speaker 2: they like Ran going oh yeah for the Irish and
[35:31] Speaker 2: the Irish always doing something terrible to them, like all
[35:34] Speaker 2: of irony Irish the.
[35:35] Speaker 4: Irish, and also you don't ever hear it's always like,
[35:37] Speaker 4: oh the Russians are doing this, what about the Irish?
[35:39] Speaker 2: Get It's like our favorite Orson Wells quote, Ah, the French,
[35:43] Speaker 2: if you weren't familiar with that. Look it up faint
[35:45] Speaker 2: me later? Where was I the Irish bank accounts frozen
[35:48] Speaker 2: by the Irish? Walton did what friends do. We helped
[35:51] Speaker 2: her out, and by that I mean he kept lending
[35:53] Speaker 2: her money. You know, she seemed good for it. Let's
[35:56] Speaker 2: take a break and we come back. We'll just keep
[35:59] Speaker 2: telling this story.
[36:00] Speaker 4: Yeah it my beak is wet, all right, Zaren Elizabeth.
[36:23] Speaker 2: Saren the Irish. The Irish remember that bad season of
[36:28] Speaker 2: Sons of Anarchy where they went to Ireland. But it
[36:30] Speaker 2: looked suspiciously like San Bernardino County anyway, So Mayer's like,
[36:36] Speaker 2: oh my god, the Irish shows all my accounts. This
[36:38] Speaker 2: is how Walton tells, you know how Jonathan Walton Emmy
[36:42] Speaker 2: Award winning producer quote. I started loaning her money to
[36:46] Speaker 2: live on. I pay her rent. By then, she'd moved
[36:48] Speaker 2: into a fancier building where the rent was like six
[36:51] Speaker 2: thousand dollars a month, and I paid her rent for
[36:53] Speaker 2: a couple of months, and then eventually she moves back
[36:55] Speaker 2: into our building, which was like three thousand dollars, and
[36:58] Speaker 2: I loaned her twenty something thousand to live on for
[37:00] Speaker 2: a couple months. You'd think I was worried, but I
[37:02] Speaker 2: wasn't at all because I believe she was going to
[37:04] Speaker 2: get her inheritance. And she was showing me emails and
[37:07] Speaker 2: text messages from her barristers saying that the case is
[37:10] Speaker 2: going to be resolved. Everything's looking good, she's happy. Then
[37:13] Speaker 2: one day she tells me all she needs is fifty
[37:15] Speaker 2: thousand dollars for legal fees and court costs to make
[37:18] Speaker 2: the case go away and get her inheritance. Now, you know,
[37:21] Speaker 2: people are like, how can you be so stupid? Well,
[37:24] Speaker 2: have you ever hired a lawyer? When you go to
[37:26] Speaker 2: hire a lawyer? And I've had to hire lawyers for
[37:28] Speaker 2: contract stuff, for the work I do in the entertainment industry,
[37:31] Speaker 2: they want five thousand dollars ten thousand dollars on retainer,
[37:34] Speaker 2: and then there's probably more money down the line. Like
[37:36] Speaker 2: I know, lawyers are expensive. So when she tells me
[37:39] Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars, it didn't strike me as unbelievable. I
[37:42] Speaker 2: didn't have fifty thousand dollars in cash, but I did
[37:46] Speaker 2: have an eight forty credit score, so I let her
[37:50] Speaker 2: charge the fifty thousand dollars on credit cards using her
[37:53] Speaker 2: PayPal account to get the criminal case against her dropped,
[37:56] Speaker 2: thereby opening the pathway for her to secure six point
[37:59] Speaker 2: two five million dollars inheritance and pay me back. Oh honey, no,
[38:03] Speaker 2: say farewell to that eight forty buddy.
[38:05] Speaker 4: Oh god.
[38:06] Speaker 2: Yeah. So he starts, he's paying her bills, paying her fees.
[38:10] Speaker 2: Then he gets a call from mayor.
[38:12] Speaker 4: What is the top creditscre Can you get like a
[38:14] Speaker 4: twelve hundred?
[38:15] Speaker 2: It was like eight fifteen.
[38:16] Speaker 4: I thought. I thought, he's like right at the top.
[38:18] Speaker 2: I got the perfect amount of credit line.
[38:20] Speaker 4: I don't know well enough. And you said the number.
[38:22] Speaker 4: I'm like, I think that's near the top. But I'm like,
[38:23] Speaker 4: maybe it's like twelve hundred. I don't even know.
[38:26] Speaker 2: It's like the sat Yeah, who knows. So he gets
[38:29] Speaker 2: a call from mayor, collect call from County lock up. Okay,
[38:34] Speaker 2: And so.
[38:35] Speaker 4: You have a call from the inmate name.
[38:38] Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't fake those. So she said that the
[38:42] Speaker 2: judge was punishing her because she charged all of her
[38:45] Speaker 2: fees and bills for the criminal case through the credit cards,
[38:48] Speaker 2: and the judge said that was money laundering and for
[38:51] Speaker 2: that she'd have to do thirty days in jail to
[38:53] Speaker 2: teach her a lesson because that's totally how it works there.
[38:57] Speaker 4: That's exactly how it is. That's why I'm here going, okay,
[39:00] Speaker 4: teach you lessons.
[39:03] Speaker 2: That'll learn you good. In the court transcripts, we're going
[39:06] Speaker 2: to raise you up right. So Walton said, you know,
[39:08] Speaker 2: it's sit tight. I'm gonna come see you.
[39:10] Speaker 4: She tells him, no, please don't.
[39:12] Speaker 2: I don't want you to see me like this.
[39:14] Speaker 4: Embarrassing.
[39:14] Speaker 2: I'm laid low nonsense, thought Walton. This woman is my
[39:22] Speaker 2: closest friend. I need to be there for her. So he,
[39:25] Speaker 2: you know, logged into the jail's website to schedule a visit.
[39:28] Speaker 2: And on the jail's website you can like set up
[39:30] Speaker 2: a visit time and you can also see what they're.
[39:32] Speaker 4: In for, and you can look up if they are in.
[39:34] Speaker 2: She's in there, and she's in there for felony Graham theft,
[39:37] Speaker 2: which is a one hundred percent not what she told him. Yes,
[39:40] Speaker 2: he heads to the courthouse, wants to see everything you
[39:43] Speaker 2: can about her case, and that's when he discovered that
[39:46] Speaker 2: she'd pled guilty to stealing two hundred thousand dollars. The
[39:50] Speaker 2: money that he loaned her went towards restitution and if
[39:54] Speaker 2: she hadn't paid it, she'd do in a nickel five years. Instead,
[39:57] Speaker 2: she only had to do thirty days because she paid
[39:59] Speaker 2: their institution with his money. So he goes home and
[40:02] Speaker 2: he has a total breakdown. Oh my god, his husband's
[40:06] Speaker 2: trying to comfort him. He's like beyond consolation. He's ruined.
[40:10] Speaker 2: But like every staunch hero or heroine in history, he
[40:14] Speaker 2: steeled himself.
[40:15] Speaker 4: Oh wow.
[40:15] Speaker 2: His sorrow and his pain turned to anger and a
[40:18] Speaker 2: desire for vengeance.
[40:20] Speaker 4: His heart caught fire.
[40:21] Speaker 2: Welcome to the dark Side, Jonathan, What I say? So?
[40:25] Speaker 2: Mayor would call him from jail and he'd act like
[40:27] Speaker 2: he didn't know anything, and so he said he was
[40:29] Speaker 2: still pretending that everything was cool. He's a quote. You know,
[40:32] Speaker 2: I did a lot of theater in high school. I
[40:35] Speaker 2: love this man. I love him. So he picked her
[40:40] Speaker 2: up from jail thirty days later, and then he confronts her,
[40:43] Speaker 2: and he also secretly recorded the conversation. So he tells
[40:47] Speaker 2: her like, if you don't pay me back everything, I'm
[40:49] Speaker 2: going to the cops. And she doesn't ever really like apologize,
[40:52] Speaker 2: she just offers more lip service. He knew, like's she's
[40:56] Speaker 2: never going to pay him back. So he goes to
[40:58] Speaker 2: the cops and he tells, you know everything he knows,
[41:01] Speaker 2: and they tell him we can't do anything. It's not
[41:04] Speaker 2: a crime because you willingly gave her the money, which
[41:07] Speaker 2: is not true. But he had one believer. One cop
[41:12] Speaker 2: says to him, quote, listen, they're only going to do
[41:14] Speaker 2: something about it if you call about your case every day.
[41:17] Speaker 2: Become a pain in their ass, or they're not going
[41:19] Speaker 2: to do anything. And I thank him for that because
[41:21] Speaker 2: that changed the trajectory of everything. I started calling every
[41:25] Speaker 2: day every time I found a new victim. I called
[41:27] Speaker 2: every time I found a new scam.
[41:29] Speaker 4: I called, huh so and that worked with the LAPD.
[41:33] Speaker 2: I doubt it, so he the guy's like, yeah, just
[41:36] Speaker 2: keep bothering call him like he's just trying to get
[41:38] Speaker 2: his buddy call and asked for detectives Aaron Burnett. That's
[41:42] Speaker 2: what I would do. He's just he loves this case
[41:45] Speaker 2: and he just wants to hear about it every day.
[41:47] Speaker 2: Walton also has he hired six private eyes to help
[41:51] Speaker 2: him dig into Smith's sack.
[41:53] Speaker 4: Six that's not cheap.
[41:54] Speaker 2: No, He's like, look, I got an eight forty credit score.
[41:57] Speaker 2: Stead's knocked down a little bit, but I'm just going
[41:59] Speaker 2: to keep right about Rackham. He reaches out to all
[42:03] Speaker 2: these other victims. He hopes that they'll file reports too.
[42:06] Speaker 2: Most of them decline either like they don't care or
[42:09] Speaker 2: they're ashamed of it. Of all of the ones that
[42:12] Speaker 2: he contacted, only two ever reported Smith to the police.
[42:15] Speaker 4: Jennifer Aniston.
[42:16] Speaker 2: And then there was a breakthrough. Walton remembered that he
[42:22] Speaker 2: had Smith's Aol account password. Homegirl was running around with
[42:26] Speaker 2: an AOL account Lee's. So he got into the account
[42:34] Speaker 2: and he found email addresses for the Irish cousins Finton,
[42:38] Speaker 2: Tristan and Dharmu. And he used the same password that
[42:42] Speaker 2: he knew to try to get into those email accounts
[42:44] Speaker 2: on Gmail and Outlook. It worked, bubbaba bingos. So he
[42:49] Speaker 2: opened the accounts of Jennifer Aniston, Ashley Judd and like
[42:52] Speaker 2: other digital aliases, twenty three separate email personas, including one
[42:57] Speaker 2: of him.
[42:58] Speaker 4: I can't even read in the emails I get for
[43:00] Speaker 4: what exactly?
[43:01] Speaker 2: You know we can't twenty three We can't get the
[43:04] Speaker 2: interns to answer emails. Yeah, no, it's ridiculous. They print
[43:07] Speaker 2: them out and they put them on that corkboard, and
[43:11] Speaker 2: I go and like flip through and I'm just like,
[43:12] Speaker 2: I don't even know. I can't get into there to
[43:14] Speaker 2: answer people.
[43:15] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[43:15] Speaker 2: Also, well we read them, they just nobody answered anyway.
[43:19] Speaker 2: So twenty three email addresses. On April fifth, twenty eighteen,
[43:24] Speaker 2: Smith gets arrested and charged with grand theft. Finally it sticks.
[43:28] Speaker 2: She's also facing felony charges of grand theft as well
[43:31] Speaker 2: as fraud in Florida and Tennessee. Because, like the dominoes
[43:34] Speaker 2: starts falling in connect her to stuff. This is what
[43:37] Speaker 2: Walton posted on Instagram. Quote, I'm a happily married gay man,
[43:41] Speaker 2: so she couldn't use sex to ensnare me. Her techniques
[43:44] Speaker 2: were far more cunning. She scammed nearly one hundred thousand
[43:48] Speaker 2: dollars out of me using a series of brilliant confidence
[43:51] Speaker 2: tricks over four years. I fell hard for one of
[43:54] Speaker 2: the oldest cons in the book, the Inherited scam. But
[43:57] Speaker 2: this wasn't some Nigerian prince soliciting me through email. This
[44:01] Speaker 2: was a delightful and lovable woman who inextricably inserted herself
[44:05] Speaker 2: into my life and became my best friend.
[44:07] Speaker 4: Yeah. It's like a softer Spanish prisoner.
[44:10] Speaker 2: Yeah exactly. And she she's not doing the birth of
[44:13] Speaker 2: the Big birth of like you know exactly. This is
[44:18] Speaker 2: what Elsie said. He's a quote. I'm a reality TV producer.
[44:21] Speaker 2: I've worked on shows like American Ninja Warrior for NBC.
[44:24] Speaker 2: It's a shout out to you, and Shark Tank for ABC.
[44:28] Speaker 2: You'll get on the show one day.
[44:29] Speaker 4: One day if dreams can come through and wipe out, yeah,
[44:33] Speaker 4: call me wipeout.
[44:35] Speaker 2: You have to go on that show. But the most
[44:38] Speaker 2: spectacular reality show I've ever been a part of had
[44:40] Speaker 2: no camera shooting it and no network airing it and
[44:43] Speaker 2: no viewers watching it. Just a devious con artist secretly
[44:47] Speaker 2: plying her craft in the shadows and dozens of unsuspecting
[44:50] Speaker 2: victims like myself quietly falling prey.
[44:53] Speaker 4: It was the reality show called Me, and they only
[44:55] Speaker 4: had one viewer, my poor husband.
[44:58] Speaker 2: So she gets arrested, she gets released on bond. A
[45:02] Speaker 2: month before her trial. She accused Walton of physically threatening
[45:06] Speaker 2: her because she wanted a restraining order because she figured
[45:09] Speaker 2: if I get that, then he can't be in the
[45:11] Speaker 2: same room as me, so he won't be able to
[45:13] Speaker 2: testify the judge. That's true, that's not how it works.
[45:16] Speaker 2: The judge is like no, first of all, No, second
[45:19] Speaker 2: of all, No.
[45:19] Speaker 4: We can work that out. Yeah, we've come across this
[45:21] Speaker 4: problem before.
[45:22] Speaker 2: But the whole restraining order thing cost Walton fifteen hundred
[45:25] Speaker 2: dollars in legal fees of course, so like dude can't
[45:28] Speaker 2: catch a break. This is what he said. Quote. The
[45:30] Speaker 2: problem with the criminal justice system is she's on trial
[45:33] Speaker 2: for scamming me, Right, That's all we're allowed to talk
[45:36] Speaker 2: about in the trial. I'm not allowed to talk about
[45:38] Speaker 2: any of these other victims she's scammed. No prior bad
[45:41] Speaker 2: acts is the legal term in the United States. I
[45:43] Speaker 2: do manage while I'm testifying to work in a lot
[45:46] Speaker 2: of other scams that I've heard. Her attorney objected and
[45:49] Speaker 2: the judge usually struck it from the record, but the
[45:52] Speaker 2: jury had already heard it by that point, so the
[45:54] Speaker 2: story is left to Mark regardless.
[45:55] Speaker 4: Oh, way to go, lawn order. I'm also surprised that
[45:59] Speaker 4: she wasn't like leans against people where they don't even
[46:02] Speaker 4: know that she's Suddenly they go to sell their house
[46:04] Speaker 4: and they can't get out she owns the house soon.
[46:06] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's some sneaky sneakies.
[46:07] Speaker 4: I'm surprised to friend used to do that. He was terrible.
[46:12] Speaker 4: We're not friends anymore.
[46:13] Speaker 2: Yeah. Anyway, So after going through the evidence and receiving testimony,
[46:17] Speaker 2: four victims, multiple witness statements, the jury finds are guilty
[46:20] Speaker 2: on all charges. Her own daughter said quote, I think
[46:24] Speaker 2: that she's a very troubled person who has used her
[46:26] Speaker 2: intelligence malevolently and the things that she has been accused of.
[46:30] Speaker 2: I'm absolutely disgusted by.
[46:32] Speaker 4: A poor Chelse.
[46:33] Speaker 2: Well, there's plenty to be disgusted by, yes, because like
[46:36] Speaker 2: Mayor's daughter, Chelsea was fathered by Jeff Welch Okay, He
[46:40] Speaker 2: and Smith had another daughter, Courtney, and Courtney died in
[46:43] Speaker 2: twenty twelve of cystic fibrosis when she was in her
[46:46] Speaker 2: early twenties. Absolutely tragic. Mayor used photos of Courtney to
[46:50] Speaker 2: scam sixteen thousand dollars via a gofund me page that
[46:54] Speaker 2: she created. This is what Jeff Welch had to say, quote,
[46:58] Speaker 2: seeing this go fundme page, there was a picture of
[47:00] Speaker 2: my daughter. Smith raised over sixteen thousand dollars telling people
[47:05] Speaker 2: that she had a sick child. That made me sick
[47:07] Speaker 2: to my stomach. I can't believe that someone would do
[47:09] Speaker 2: something like that. It was very, very apparent that she
[47:12] Speaker 2: had no interest in being a mother or a wife.
[47:15] Speaker 2: After I became aware of all these stories of people
[47:18] Speaker 2: being scammed, it was such a big shock to learn
[47:20] Speaker 2: I was married to somebody that has done this much
[47:23] Speaker 2: damage to so many people.
[47:25] Speaker 4: She wasn't even interested in being a human being. No,
[47:27] Speaker 4: she was basically a financial suckuit, like a dark spirit.
[47:31] Speaker 4: Me take that.
[47:31] Speaker 2: Yes, after the four day trial, she gets sentenced to
[47:34] Speaker 2: five years, but she got released early in December twenty
[47:37] Speaker 2: twenty because of COVID protocols and safety regulations. So Walton,
[47:42] Speaker 2: he said, quote in California, they're releasing a lot of
[47:46] Speaker 2: nonviolent criminals, tens of thousands of them, and she was
[47:48] Speaker 2: one of them. Once she's out, she goes straight to Maine,
[47:51] Speaker 2: her home state, which is about three thousand miles away
[47:54] Speaker 2: from California. Literally the furthest point she could get. From me,
[47:58] Speaker 2: I'm still hearing from victims there that she's scamming. She
[48:01] Speaker 2: changed her name again, but nothing else has changed. She's
[48:03] Speaker 2: still scamming people and getting away with it.
[48:06] Speaker 4: Scams.
[48:07] Speaker 2: Yeah. So she was supposed to be extradited to Northern
[48:09] Speaker 2: Ireland when she got out of jail, so that she
[48:11] Speaker 2: could face charges there. About the twenty people in their
[48:14] Speaker 2: mortgage deposits. But remember COVID, the borders were closed. Oh
[48:18] Speaker 2: so off she went. So where is she now? Sarin
[48:22] Speaker 2: still church, She still faces extradition in Northern Ireland after
[48:27] Speaker 2: their Public Prosecution Service decided to bring a case against her.
[48:32] Speaker 2: It was like a you know, a five hundred thousand
[48:35] Speaker 2: pounds mortgage scam.
[48:37] Speaker 4: Totally.
[48:37] Speaker 2: It's believed that she's located somewhere in Bangor, Maine, but
[48:41] Speaker 2: it's not confirmed. That information isn't confirmed. Walton says that
[48:45] Speaker 2: she's still running cons she's faking mental illness and attempting
[48:49] Speaker 2: to get a mentally ill man to marry her. Quote,
[48:53] Speaker 2: he was in his late seventies and he's six, so
[48:55] Speaker 2: he's not going to live much longer.
[48:58] Speaker 4: I thought it was just anyone she wanted.
[49:02] Speaker 2: She pretended to have the same mental illness he did.
[49:05] Speaker 2: I don't know what it is. He used to be
[49:07] Speaker 2: in the Navy. He fought a couple of wars and
[49:09] Speaker 2: he's on disability, so he's he's making like five thousand
[49:13] Speaker 2: dollars a month in retirement and Social Security and veterans
[49:16] Speaker 2: disability because he served in the military. She wanted to
[49:19] Speaker 2: marry him so that when he dies, that money is hers.
[49:21] Speaker 2: He told me that she kept pressuring him to get
[49:23] Speaker 2: married again. She was saying all the right things. At
[49:26] Speaker 2: one point, she even brings in paperwork for him to
[49:29] Speaker 2: sign so they can get married, but he wouldn't do it. Eventually,
[49:32] Speaker 2: he notices that the name she told him and the
[49:34] Speaker 2: name on her prescription model don't match. So he googles
[49:38] Speaker 2: her and guess what, he finds my blog and he
[49:40] Speaker 2: calls me to tell me his story. That blog, by
[49:42] Speaker 2: the way, is Jonathan Walton dot com. He tells everyone
[49:46] Speaker 2: Jonathan Walton dot com all the time, ye one hundred percent,
[49:50] Speaker 2: and it's j O h n a.
[49:52] Speaker 4: T hijeh com.
[49:55] Speaker 2: He said.
[49:56] Speaker 4: Quote.
[49:56] Speaker 2: Mayor is what the FBI calls a rescue merchant. She
[50:00] Speaker 2: offers to help people. That was her way into everyone's life.
[50:03] Speaker 2: For me, it was offering to help with the pool.
[50:05] Speaker 2: I don't feel sorry for her because I don't consider
[50:07] Speaker 2: her a human being. She's scammed so many people, including
[50:11] Speaker 2: her own daughters, her own family. Even the most notorious
[50:14] Speaker 2: mobster in America, who's murdered scores of people and has
[50:17] Speaker 2: blood on his hands, even he loves his family. He
[50:19] Speaker 2: looks out for his children. You know, this woman does
[50:22] Speaker 2: not have that ability. In my mind, she's not a
[50:25] Speaker 2: human being. She has no empathy, no remorse for anyone
[50:27] Speaker 2: or anything.
[50:29] Speaker 4: I probably agree that she's on I don't know the
[50:31] Speaker 4: scales a psycho or sociopathy, but I imagine she's somewhere
[50:34] Speaker 4: on the scale, Like, I don't get a feeling from anybody.
[50:37] Speaker 2: And how did he feel about falling victim to this psycho?
[50:39] Speaker 4: How did he feel?
[50:40] Speaker 2: Quote? This guy is so quotable that I can't I
[50:44] Speaker 2: couldn't break him down. Yeah, so quote. Honestly, I wouldn't
[50:50] Speaker 2: believe a word of it if it didn't happen to me. Initially,
[50:53] Speaker 2: I just felt forsaken by God, Like why would this
[50:56] Speaker 2: happen to me? I'm a good person. I've done nothing
[50:58] Speaker 2: but help people my whole life. But then as the
[51:01] Speaker 2: months and now years have passed, I realized it was
[51:03] Speaker 2: meant to happen to me. This is what I was
[51:05] Speaker 2: meant to do. I know that sharing my story is
[51:08] Speaker 2: helping people. I hear that directly from them, and it
[51:10] Speaker 2: makes me feel that I was meant to go through
[51:13] Speaker 2: what I went through. By the time I'm done with her,
[51:15] Speaker 2: the world will know her face and she'll never be
[51:17] Speaker 2: able to scam anyone again.
[51:19] Speaker 4: Damn way to find the dawn in that darkness.
[51:21] Speaker 2: Right, So he and his production partner m AK Pictures,
[51:25] Speaker 2: they're currently shopping the story of his experiences with Smith would.
[51:28] Speaker 4: Be streaming soon at some sime.
[51:30] Speaker 2: Of course, because of course, founder of Gwen Global terrees
[51:35] Speaker 2: test catchatory. I just wanted to say her name. Wants
[51:39] Speaker 2: to intersperse some facts from the Smith case into an
[51:43] Speaker 2: original scripted series because of course, producer Mark thinking about
[51:48] Speaker 2: a lifetime pitch. Because of course, of course, this is
[51:51] Speaker 2: how Walton sum things up quote, I'm forever changed by
[51:56] Speaker 2: my experience of getting conned. I'm now suspicious of everyone
[51:59] Speaker 2: and everything. I will suss out even the most miniscule
[52:03] Speaker 2: inconsistencies in someone's story upon meeting them and throw it
[52:06] Speaker 2: in their face. I spent two years doggedly pursuing Maryann Smith.
[52:10] Speaker 2: It consumed me and I had to file bankruptcy because
[52:13] Speaker 2: of what she'd done to me. And the twenty four
[52:16] Speaker 2: court appearances I made even before the actual trial, including continuances,
[52:20] Speaker 2: pre trial motions and hearings, meant I had to miss
[52:23] Speaker 2: a lot of work and lost even more money, not
[52:25] Speaker 2: to mention the cost of hiring six private investigators in
[52:28] Speaker 2: multiple states and countries to ferret out all her scams.
[52:31] Speaker 2: But damn it was worth it. And again, Zaren, that's
[52:36] Speaker 2: j O H N A t h A n w
[52:40] Speaker 2: A L t O N dot com Jonathan Walton for
[52:43] Speaker 2: more information. He is He's on a crusade and we
[52:47] Speaker 2: have to support him.
[52:48] Speaker 4: I'm down.
[52:49] Speaker 2: What's your ridiculous takeaway?
[52:51] Speaker 4: Normally when I hear the name Jonathan Walton, I think
[52:54] Speaker 4: of little house on the Prairie, But now I have
[52:56] Speaker 4: all a whole different way. I'm imagining what Walton can
[52:59] Speaker 4: mean for me. What's yours, Elizabeth, what's your ridiculous takeway?
[53:04] Speaker 2: Thanks for asking. My ridiculous takeaway is don't trust anyone ever.
[53:09] Speaker 4: Case close done. It's simple, it's clear, it's concise.
[53:13] Speaker 2: Best advice ever. That's it for today. You can find
[53:16] Speaker 2: us online at ridiculous Crime dot com, at Ridiculous Crime
[53:20] Speaker 2: on both Twitter and Instagram. Email Ridiculous Crime at gmail
[53:22] Speaker 2: dot com. It will be read, but it won't be responding.
[53:26] Speaker 2: To leave a talkback on the iHeart app. God, I
[53:29] Speaker 2: love those. That's it. Beat out ridiculous Crime is hosted
[53:37] Speaker 2: by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnette, produced and edited by
[53:40] Speaker 2: Dave Cousten. The Finest Last in County Claire Research is
[53:44] Speaker 2: by upstanding psychics Marissa Brown and Andrea Song Sharpen Tear.
[53:47] Speaker 2: The theme song is by Irish cousins Thomas Lee and
[53:50] Speaker 2: Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred.
[53:54] Speaker 2: Executive producers are Ben I'm about to inherit seventy million books,
[53:58] Speaker 2: Bowlin and Noel. He means Dear.
[54:01] Speaker 3: Crown, Ridicous Crime, Say it one more time Piquious Crime.
[54:13] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
[54:16] Speaker 1: from my heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
[54:20] Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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