# Have Mercy!: The Hard Gambling Nuns of Torrance

An episode of [Ridiculous Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1608230191), 21 Jan 2025, 58 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0b4bcc39-7ba2-453f-aaac-ae510011dd80/6f19fbbe-2e83-4578-b0c6-b26b01573cfb/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3a4c50f5-ff69-4807-aa26-ae510011dd8e

Holy moley! A fake nun, a fake bishop, a con man priest, and the belle of the ball... a pair of hard gambling nuns who embezzle a million dollars from a Catholic school in Los Angeles to fund their secret lifestyle as Vegas whales AKA high roller gamblers who just love the action. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
[0:04] Speaker 2: Elizabeth is Saren, How you doing?
[0:08] Speaker 3: I'm so good?
[0:09] Speaker 2: I got a question for you?
[0:10] Speaker 3: All right?
[0:11] Speaker 2: Do you know what's ridiculous?
[0:12] Speaker 3: Oh?
[0:13] Speaker 2: Do I look in your eyes? I do you really do?
[0:16] Speaker 3: Now? You wear a ball cap pretty much every day
[0:21] Speaker 3: unless it's like really cold. Then you were a beanie.
[0:23] Speaker 2: It's a religious ball cap, Elizabeth. I'm you know, covering
[0:26] Speaker 2: my head for God.
[0:26] Speaker 3: Okay, good for you. But it's like every time I
[0:29] Speaker 3: see you, youde yes, every day?
[0:32] Speaker 2: Yes, you need to keep the hair out of my eyes.
[0:35] Speaker 3: Okay, Well that's a good that's a good thing. It's
[0:38] Speaker 3: fun for you. But do you ever feel like, oh
[0:40] Speaker 3: my god, people can't look at my hair?
[0:43] Speaker 2: Also, why I wear the hat?
[0:45] Speaker 3: Oh? You don't want to know?
[0:47] Speaker 2: Sometimes Maybebeth.
[0:49] Speaker 3: But I'm just thinking like, do you do you have
[0:51] Speaker 3: that conflict, that point of conflict in your just say
[0:54] Speaker 3: I do? Okay, good because there's an answer.
[0:58] Speaker 2: Now is it an app? No, it's their hairstyle.
[1:04] Speaker 3: There's Lids. Are you familiar with Lids? Do you have
[1:07] Speaker 3: any of their products?
[1:08] Speaker 2: I've bought some from I know.
[1:09] Speaker 3: Okay, so Lids they joined up. You got me I
[1:15] Speaker 3: know another company called sport Clips, which is like super cuts.
[1:19] Speaker 3: It's a hair cut in place, like please.
[1:21] Speaker 2: Tell me they like attached hair to a hat.
[1:23] Speaker 3: No, although those are pretty amazing. You've seen that, like
[1:29] Speaker 3: the a visor with the guy fiery, or there's like
[1:32] Speaker 3: the tam with the dreads you usually do and then
[1:35] Speaker 3: have it's like it's like it off, you still still
[1:39] Speaker 3: has it like a Russian What are those called extensions?
[1:44] Speaker 2: Your hair looks fact like you don't know what those
[1:45] Speaker 2: are called. You're from Oakland, one of those.
[1:48] Speaker 3: One of those cold extensions. Or I've seen it with
[1:52] Speaker 3: like a mullet in the back. This isn't that.
[1:55] Speaker 2: No, No, no hockey hair for this one.
[1:58] Speaker 3: This is like I want people to see my hair.
[2:01] Speaker 3: So what they've done for National Hat Day which we missed?
[2:05] Speaker 2: I missed it again this year?
[2:06] Speaker 3: Yeah, January fifteenth, put it on your calendar. Will They
[2:11] Speaker 3: came together with the thing a clear hat?
[2:15] Speaker 2: Is this like so you can get your hat through
[2:17] Speaker 2: security at TSA.
[2:18] Speaker 3: To take it to a concert?
[2:19] Speaker 2: Concert? This hat's clear?
[2:22] Speaker 3: No, this hat is clear. This it's a clear hat
[2:28] Speaker 3: so that people can see your cool haircut.
[2:30] Speaker 2: Are you for real? I'm one hundred percent of hat.
[2:33] Speaker 3: Yeah, and so one hundred exclusive clear hats we're up
[2:38] Speaker 3: for grabs through the sports Clips and Lid's Instagram accounts.
[2:43] Speaker 3: It was a giveaway through January twentieth. It's it's it's
[2:47] Speaker 3: a lot.
[2:48] Speaker 2: It's a weak mashup. I'll tell you who. My sister, Martin.
[2:50] Speaker 3: Lee, chief marketing officer of sports Clips Haircuts, said, for
[2:55] Speaker 3: too long, the hat has been the enemy of hair,
[2:59] Speaker 3: but this partnership is putting an end.
[3:01] Speaker 2: To that is an enemy of hair.
[3:07] Speaker 3: Our pro stylists take great care and giving our clients
[3:11] Speaker 3: incredible haircuts, and now our clients can show off their
[3:14] Speaker 3: fresh cuts all day every day.
[3:16] Speaker 2: Oh big JFK fan this guy.
[3:19] Speaker 3: Yeah, they had of the hair. The hat is the
[3:21] Speaker 3: enemy of the hair because.
[3:23] Speaker 2: You know he killed the whole Fedora wearing the hat
[3:25] Speaker 2: wearing tradition in America.
[3:26] Speaker 3: Right, that's right, right.
[3:28] Speaker 2: And clear that up? Make what I meant you know.
[3:33] Speaker 3: You go so in some insummation.
[3:37] Speaker 2: Please, what's your conclusion of this button?
[3:39] Speaker 3: That's ridiculous.
[3:40] Speaker 2: That is ridiculous.
[3:43] Speaker 3: Oh wait, and one more thing, Mason on Instagram is
[3:46] Speaker 3: the one who told us about this totally yodally on Instagram.
[3:50] Speaker 2: Or thank you to.
[3:52] Speaker 3: Wait.
[3:53] Speaker 2: Wait, you know, sit back down. You know what else
[3:54] Speaker 2: is ridiculous? I got something for you? Yeah? Back down?
[3:58] Speaker 2: All right? Yeah, there you go, smile too, look at that. Okay,
[4:02] Speaker 2: this one is more like a joke. Okay, it is
[4:04] Speaker 2: a joke. What's black and white and red all over?
[4:07] Speaker 3: Uh?
[4:10] Speaker 2: A newspaper? There you go. I got another one for you.
[4:13] Speaker 2: What's black and white and ridiculous all over?
[4:16] Speaker 3: Uh?
[4:16] Speaker 2: You a none with a hardcore gambling problem.
[4:19] Speaker 4: Oh, this is ridiculous crime, a podcast about ebisode and
[4:45] Speaker 4: a rageous capers his and comes.
[4:49] Speaker 2: It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred
[4:53] Speaker 2: percent ridiculus ticulus diculus.
[4:56] Speaker 3: Are you okay?
[4:57] Speaker 2: I know I'm telling Elizabeth, Elizabeth, I got more fun
[4:59] Speaker 2: for you though. I love fun, you know I was
[5:02] Speaker 2: telling you. I ordered myself some priests shirts and priest
[5:04] Speaker 2: collars and I fly domestically. They arrived. I got them
[5:10] Speaker 2: like a long sleeve, short sleeve, one for the summer,
[5:12] Speaker 2: one for the winter. I'm about to have so much
[5:15] Speaker 2: fun on domestic flights. Yes, the white collar, it's got
[5:18] Speaker 2: the whole neck and everything. I got like, I got
[5:20] Speaker 2: like six collars in case I lose one. When I'm traveling, I.
[5:22] Speaker 3: Just some Daisy Dukes.
[5:25] Speaker 2: That's the thing. I got to get the right shoes
[5:27] Speaker 2: and pants. I do not have priest pants in my wardrobe.
[5:30] Speaker 3: Just a pair of Carhart.
[5:32] Speaker 2: Well yeah that would work. I don't think my car
[5:34] Speaker 2: Hearts would work. So yeah. And also my Adidas stripe
[5:37] Speaker 2: to like uh, like what do you call it? Track pants?
[5:40] Speaker 2: That also gonna work. Yeah, So I need to go
[5:42] Speaker 2: get somewhere.
[5:43] Speaker 3: You wear those Adidas running shoes with the big heel, right, oh.
[5:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, the slow shoes. Yeah yeah, yeah exactly. I don't
[5:50] Speaker 2: think those are gonna work either as a priest. So
[5:52] Speaker 2: I need to get some really good I don't know,
[5:54] Speaker 2: sensible new balances. I guess at most you.
[5:57] Speaker 3: Need like black good like good boys shoes, know, yeah,
[6:00] Speaker 3: like loafers, the loafers, you know what I'm talking about.
[6:04] Speaker 2: What are those called, like uh Thom mc cann type
[6:07] Speaker 2: of yeah.
[6:08] Speaker 3: Like from the yeah loafers, loafers, Okay, yeah, you know
[6:12] Speaker 3: us brown stride rights.
[6:19] Speaker 2: I'm just gonna get spirits around China Town to get
[6:21] Speaker 2: myself some comfortable Chinese flats. They're black, don't want to
[6:24] Speaker 2: look down, yeah exactly i'd be dope. So anyway, all
[6:29] Speaker 2: that got me thinking about this story, right about if
[6:31] Speaker 2: I'm going to pretend to be a priest in public
[6:33] Speaker 2: on domestic flights, you know, and just the whole idea
[6:35] Speaker 2: of wearing costumes in general. That's what I got it for.
[6:40] Speaker 3: The hair, I.
[6:41] Speaker 2: Know, that's the other issue I'm working on that I'm
[6:43] Speaker 2: thinking about, Like, yeah, some kind of hat, like I
[6:47] Speaker 2: can get all the hair up in or it looks
[6:48] Speaker 2: like oh maybe he's yes, well no, but like that
[6:51] Speaker 2: just you make in maybe a miter would work. Producer
[6:55] Speaker 2: d on that, like I like, like a real pope pat.
[6:58] Speaker 3: Well, that actually would work. But then you got to
[6:59] Speaker 3: go with the robe. What about like a Badu head wrap?
[7:02] Speaker 2: There you go, I can go like Eastern Orthodox styley
[7:05] Speaker 2: and get one of them, just like big hats.
[7:07] Speaker 3: Then you got to do a beard.
[7:08] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, maybe I can say I'm beard deficient, like
[7:11] Speaker 2: you know, I was in an accident Chernobyl as a boy.
[7:15] Speaker 2: This long story anyway, I gotta do this story for you,
[7:18] Speaker 2: Elizabeth about criminal nuns and fake priest and I was like,
[7:23] Speaker 2: I got to share this, right, So yeah, Well, the
[7:26] Speaker 2: first story is the story of a nun on the run.
[7:28] Speaker 3: Oh you've told me that, yeah, well twice. Well then
[7:32] Speaker 3: on the run and then criminal nuns.
[7:34] Speaker 2: Yeah, this one is about a woman's bounce around in
[7:36] Speaker 2: northern Italy. I told you about that.
[7:37] Speaker 3: Oh no, no, we had the Belgian nuns on the run,
[7:41] Speaker 3: and then we had the Texas nuns.
[7:44] Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yeah, sister, like I got a thing for nuts.
[7:49] Speaker 2: Trying to dress as a priest. I'm hoping maybe more
[7:51] Speaker 2: nuns will talk to me. You can pick up, start
[7:53] Speaker 2: taking on. That's my move, a priest picking away from
[7:59] Speaker 2: the life. Guys follow me. I got a whole plan.
[8:02] Speaker 2: I'm gonna get a podcast out of this, Eliz I'm
[8:06] Speaker 2: an pick up artist. So anyway, this story has this
[8:11] Speaker 2: woman bouncing around northern Italy, right, trying to stay one
[8:14] Speaker 2: step ahead of the long arm of Gianni law. Can
[8:19] Speaker 2: stick with me, So the story goes, it's forty seven
[8:22] Speaker 2: year old Sicilian fraudster, not a real nun. She gets
[8:25] Speaker 2: popped by the Italian police, right, this is twenty seventeen,
[8:29] Speaker 2: and she thinks perhaps it's time for her to you know,
[8:31] Speaker 2: join the clergy. And this is like, you know, before
[8:33] Speaker 2: she goes to prison. Yeah, and of course unofficially, of course.
[8:36] Speaker 2: She just so, I'm gonna go hang out with some nuns.
[8:38] Speaker 2: It's like, you know, if you want to like disappear
[8:40] Speaker 2: in a crowd, there's a bunch of like priests around.
[8:42] Speaker 2: This is just me, This is just so. This frauster
[8:46] Speaker 2: goes into hiding to avoid her troubles in the court.
[8:48] Speaker 3: I told you before we you and I had a
[8:50] Speaker 3: conversation a long time ago about what if you found
[8:52] Speaker 3: yourself homeless, Like what would you do? And I was like,
[8:55] Speaker 3: join a convent.
[8:56] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you can help them, Like I go in
[8:58] Speaker 2: there and be like.
[9:00] Speaker 3: Up and safe, I love Jesus and place, where.
[9:05] Speaker 2: Is my girl?
[9:06] Speaker 3: I got food, I got friends.
[9:08] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you'd be a great time to do. Totally.
[9:10] Speaker 3: I would be a really good.
[9:11] Speaker 2: So good retirement bad plan for you.
[9:13] Speaker 3: Honestly, I think I'm gonna have to do that looking
[9:16] Speaker 3: at my non existent retirement.
[9:18] Speaker 2: Pick a country, you like, go find a convent there.
[9:21] Speaker 3: That's really good idea. Right.
[9:24] Speaker 2: So that's what this homegirl does, right because she gets
[9:26] Speaker 2: tried in absentia in Italy. Meanwhile, and she's like, I
[9:29] Speaker 2: gotta go to the Elizabeth Dutton plan and laylo in
[9:32] Speaker 2: a convent right, And so while she's tried and absentia,
[9:35] Speaker 2: she gets sentenced to two years in prison. So it's
[9:38] Speaker 2: like real time she's facing right now. There's also a
[9:40] Speaker 2: legit warrant for her rest out. People are looking inner
[9:43] Speaker 2: Pole as well, but she's like, you know, Bonjo, I
[9:46] Speaker 2: don't know now, deuce is I'm outty five one thousand right,
[9:49] Speaker 2: She's gone, right, So the Sicilian fraudster? Where does she
[9:52] Speaker 2: go hide to Elizabeth? As we said, a convent? But
[9:54] Speaker 2: where in Italy? What convent in what part of Italy
[9:56] Speaker 2: would you pick?
[9:57] Speaker 3: Uh? Tuscany?
[10:00] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, she picks Lombardy. Okay, yeah, not far away,
[10:03] Speaker 2: that's not too well, yeah, kind of far away. Anyway,
[10:06] Speaker 2: she's laying low with the sisters and no one thought
[10:08] Speaker 2: to look there amongst a bunch of nuns. Yeah, that's
[10:10] Speaker 2: hard to say anyway, has our favorite resident noun expert. Right,
[10:16] Speaker 2: let's say you're on the run, as you said, and
[10:18] Speaker 2: you need to hide out in a convent and you're
[10:20] Speaker 2: not trying to be like, hey, I want to join up.
[10:22] Speaker 2: How do you convince them to let you hang out
[10:25] Speaker 2: as like just passing through? Do you think you could
[10:27] Speaker 2: do that? Oh? Yeah, how would you do it well,
[10:32] Speaker 2: would you like volunteer? Would you try to show them
[10:34] Speaker 2: like you got arts? Would you do like a little
[10:36] Speaker 2: like show and tell, like hey, i'd be.
[10:37] Speaker 3: Funny to make sure that it's that you're more of
[10:40] Speaker 3: a benefit than a dream. Because they already don't have anything.
[10:43] Speaker 2: Exactly, and they don't want to take up their resources.
[10:46] Speaker 3: So I think you have to not only bring them
[10:50] Speaker 3: like skills talent assistance if you don't have money, Yeah, exactly,
[10:55] Speaker 3: I think you then need to give them a story
[10:58] Speaker 3: that they want to take pity and help you.
[11:01] Speaker 2: You're brilliant. I know that this is exactly what she does. Yes,
[11:07] Speaker 2: our Sicilian fake nun crafty like you phones ahead, she
[11:10] Speaker 2: would wring a convent and she says that she was
[11:13] Speaker 2: quote a sister looking for help and claiming she was
[11:15] Speaker 2: severely ill. So she played on their pity and the
[11:18] Speaker 2: nuns went right into none action. So this fake mother Mary,
[11:22] Speaker 2: she's good right, well practiced devil in the con game.
[11:25] Speaker 2: Not just all that, she's also a thief, right, she's
[11:27] Speaker 2: a sort of criminal who would like convince her marks
[11:29] Speaker 2: to happily give her what she wanted so she could
[11:32] Speaker 2: steal moments, steal hard she was amazing right now, nuns
[11:35] Speaker 2: obviously very compliant marks they're believing, they're trusting so forth
[11:40] Speaker 2: and may even forgive you, you know. Anyway, at one convent,
[11:44] Speaker 2: this fake mother Mary shows up. Right. She claims to
[11:46] Speaker 2: be a niece of one of the sisters at the convent.
[11:49] Speaker 2: I guess this niece and aunt hadn't seen each other
[11:51] Speaker 2: in a long time, or maybe the numb was hard
[11:53] Speaker 2: of the hard of hearing, had poor vision where she
[11:56] Speaker 2: couldn't see her niece, or maybe both hard of hearing.
[11:59] Speaker 3: And I don't know, all those cons where people will
[12:01] Speaker 3: call an elderly person and be like Grandma, I'm in chaill.
[12:05] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, in a moment of panic. Yeah sure, but
[12:11] Speaker 2: somehow it worked out.
[12:13] Speaker 3: And who is Susan anyway?
[12:18] Speaker 2: Why Susan such a funny name. So at this point,
[12:23] Speaker 2: she keeps it moving, right, She's bouncing around from convent
[12:25] Speaker 2: from convent, using all these tricks. She phones ahead, that's
[12:28] Speaker 2: her move, right, So she gets sets up her next
[12:30] Speaker 2: lodgings and then this other one. She tells these expectant
[12:33] Speaker 2: nuns that she's a mother superior, like I don't know
[12:36] Speaker 2: if she's like she doesn't say that she's their new
[12:38] Speaker 2: mother superior, they have one, but she rolls in like
[12:41] Speaker 2: a mother superior at large, just like a floating mother Mary. Yeah,
[12:44] Speaker 2: I don't get any totally. She has no gag. So
[12:50] Speaker 2: what do we know about this fake mother Mary is
[12:53] Speaker 2: about all this? We don't know her name because the
[12:55] Speaker 2: press didn't tell her name, but we do know that
[12:57] Speaker 2: she also had no official church paperwork. Okay, right, she's
[13:01] Speaker 2: not like working like strong on this con. It's all charm.
[13:04] Speaker 5: Yeah right.
[13:05] Speaker 2: So she also had no counterfeit IDs of her own.
[13:08] Speaker 2: She has just her own paperwork. She's able to be
[13:11] Speaker 2: identified by her legit ID.
[13:14] Speaker 3: She has her real idea.
[13:15] Speaker 2: Hidden on her but yeah, but it's and the rest
[13:18] Speaker 2: is just well, it's just silver.
[13:19] Speaker 3: Tongue, like, let me see your ID, you know, she.
[13:23] Speaker 2: Said nun nobody questions her, right, So at this point,
[13:25] Speaker 2: this fake mother Mary, Oh, I forgot to tell you.
[13:27] Speaker 2: She's originally from a place called Aquaturme.
[13:29] Speaker 3: Okay, I'm not mistaken.
[13:32] Speaker 2: Waterfall, I thought, and I thought that's what it meant,
[13:36] Speaker 2: and I looked it up. It actually means thermal waters. Interesting,
[13:42] Speaker 2: the opposite, yes, exactly. Apparently the town had sulfuric hot springs.
[13:47] Speaker 3: Cool.
[13:47] Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't want to give you a mistranslations. I
[13:49] Speaker 2: thought I knew what it was like, let me actually
[13:50] Speaker 2: go look this up. But like Elizabeth would, So this
[13:53] Speaker 2: fake mother Mary from the stinky sulfuric springs of aquaturmy right.
[13:57] Speaker 3: Or the deep relaxing hus good point.
[14:00] Speaker 2: I'm allergic to sulfurrus. I'm a little bit opinion.
[14:02] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[14:02] Speaker 2: So anyway, at this point, she's got like, you know,
[14:05] Speaker 2: she's operating purely off of her charm, her silver tongue,
[14:09] Speaker 2: the fact that she's from these areas. She's able to, oh, yes,
[14:11] Speaker 2: I know this place, right, So she's not she's from
[14:13] Speaker 2: like like I don't know, America and trying to hang
[14:16] Speaker 2: out as a nun in a way. And then she
[14:19] Speaker 2: runs into one woman who this her campaigns of charm
[14:22] Speaker 2: and kindness or you know, please inviting kindness I should say,
[14:26] Speaker 2: doesn't work.
[14:27] Speaker 5: Right.
[14:27] Speaker 2: She's a she's not hard hearted, but she's your type
[14:30] Speaker 2: of person. She's extra curious. Okay, Yeah, she's a little
[14:34] Speaker 2: bit of a busybody's she had a taste for mystery, Elizabeth,
[14:37] Speaker 2: and she likes to solve them. This fake mother Mary, right,
[14:40] Speaker 2: she rocks up to this woman's convent catches this nun's attention.
[14:44] Speaker 2: This sister fully you know, piques her interest. Now she's like,
[14:46] Speaker 2: is this none for real? I don't know about her
[14:48] Speaker 2: starts doing what you do, which is she starts listening. Yeah, right,
[14:51] Speaker 2: then that's key.
[14:53] Speaker 3: She's like me. She trusts no one, that the Lord.
[14:58] Speaker 3: She believes everyone's Mary and Mary. Yeah more first and foremost, So.
[15:02] Speaker 2: This Scooby dow Ass mystery solovn nun. Right, she's from
[15:05] Speaker 2: a Benedictine convent. If that tells you little something about it.
[15:08] Speaker 2: You know, the Benedictines. They don't play, well, they don't play.
[15:10] Speaker 2: It's a pretty serious order, right, A little more lucy, see,
[15:17] Speaker 2: I don't know. But also she's a homegirl. She's a local,
[15:20] Speaker 2: she's from that area, so this is like home tower.
[15:23] Speaker 2: Yeah exactly. She's Jenny from the block, right, sister Jenny.
[15:27] Speaker 2: So these two local girls have a tete on tede
[15:29] Speaker 2: of subterfuge and fakery. She's pretending that she's not on
[15:33] Speaker 2: her and then she's like pretending that no one knows
[15:36] Speaker 2: who I am. So the two of them are both pretending. Yeah, exactly.
[15:39] Speaker 2: She gets this, this faint whiff of bull sugar and
[15:41] Speaker 2: just sticks with it.
[15:42] Speaker 6: Right.
[15:42] Speaker 2: She starts paying attention to every story. This fake mother
[15:45] Speaker 2: Mary drops every single one right, just like, oh you would,
[15:49] Speaker 2: And now what do you think this does? It doesn't
[15:50] Speaker 2: make her long, It just you know. Eventually she starts
[15:52] Speaker 2: as listening to everything, she's remembering it all. She starts
[15:55] Speaker 2: comparing things. She very quickly has just a list of contradictions,
[15:58] Speaker 2: like you couldn't be in these two places at the
[16:00] Speaker 2: same time, you ain't padre Pio. So this mother Colombo
[16:04] Speaker 2: directly questions, Fake mother Mary just sits her down and goes, okay,
[16:07] Speaker 2: so if you were here, how could you also be
[16:09] Speaker 2: here if you were that kind of stuff. She knows
[16:11] Speaker 2: like she's at this point, she knows she's right. She
[16:13] Speaker 2: sees her like melt. So she doesn't completely confess. The
[16:16] Speaker 2: fake mother Mary doesn't give up the act. But there's
[16:18] Speaker 2: no you know, she can no longer pretend that she
[16:21] Speaker 2: is the woman she says and she claims she is.
[16:23] Speaker 2: So this mother Colombo goes to the local police rats
[16:26] Speaker 2: her out and she's like, oh, you got to come
[16:27] Speaker 2: to the convent. We got her live one right, the
[16:30] Speaker 2: police they roll out to the convent. Italian blues and
[16:33] Speaker 2: two is Elizabeth. Right, they pull up. There's no time
[16:36] Speaker 2: for fake mother Mary to run. Apparently Mother Columbo like
[16:39] Speaker 2: slipped out on the slide because the cops surprise her
[16:41] Speaker 2: the convent. They rest her life. I just love the
[16:44] Speaker 2: idea of all these like. So she tries to give
[16:48] Speaker 2: the cops answers for who she really is, why she's there.
[16:51] Speaker 2: They fail her lies fail. She's like, look on my
[16:53] Speaker 2: level with you, I'm not really the mother superior. No,
[16:56] Speaker 2: So the cops take her to her cell at the convent,
[16:59] Speaker 2: and you know where she sleeps, and she keeps all
[17:02] Speaker 2: of her stuff and all that is there her a
[17:04] Speaker 2: little tiny bedroom right her dorm room. So the cops go.
[17:07] Speaker 2: They find her ID squirreled away the hidden ideas. It's
[17:11] Speaker 2: not counterfeit, it's real, but it's stolen. She did have.
[17:16] Speaker 2: I didn't say it was counterfeit. It's stolen. But this
[17:20] Speaker 2: all the cops need because now they have an official crime.
[17:23] Speaker 2: So they arrest her for having the stolen ID and
[17:25] Speaker 2: then they sorted it out. Once they have her in possession,
[17:28] Speaker 2: purp walked the nun out of the handcuffs right, and
[17:31] Speaker 2: once she's in police custody obviously. Then you know, as
[17:33] Speaker 2: they say, it doesn't take long to figure out. She
[17:35] Speaker 2: gets sent back to Sicily to face justice. And while
[17:39] Speaker 2: we're talking about Sicily, I have another one for you,
[17:41] Speaker 2: but the second little break and then hold that thought
[17:43] Speaker 2: in mind and dip back to Sicily.
[17:46] Speaker 5: Let's do it, Elizabeth, So you want to get back
[18:09] Speaker 5: to Cicily.
[18:10] Speaker 2: Yes, it's a quick one for you. It's it's another
[18:13] Speaker 2: appetite if we're going to get back to the nuns.
[18:16] Speaker 2: Because this one is about a priest. Okay, but he
[18:19] Speaker 2: was also a real deal Sicilian mafia boss whoa yeah,
[18:23] Speaker 2: his name is Bernardo Provenzano.
[18:25] Speaker 3: So he wasn't a real priest.
[18:27] Speaker 2: No.
[18:28] Speaker 3: I was so stuked that maybe a real priest now.
[18:31] Speaker 2: Yeah they are, but not this guy. So yeah, but
[18:36] Speaker 2: actually he did be one better because he dressed like
[18:38] Speaker 2: a bishop. He Italian. You know, he's like, I want
[18:41] Speaker 2: to look good.
[18:42] Speaker 3: It dressed for the job you want.
[18:44] Speaker 2: So this Sicilian mafia boss we're alling around dressed like
[18:47] Speaker 2: a bishop. He was on the lamb for forty three years,
[18:51] Speaker 2: forty three dressed as a bishop. I guess it's hard
[18:55] Speaker 2: to pick a bip about sister. So he finally gets
[18:59] Speaker 2: arrested in two thouh and six. Right, so this is
[19:01] Speaker 2: not a bishop Bernardo Provenzano, classic old fashioned mafia boss. Right,
[19:06] Speaker 2: He's a connector. He's got powerful relationships. He solves problems
[19:09] Speaker 2: for people. You know, he got don don godfather, then
[19:12] Speaker 2: you do you know he's that guy he broke his
[19:14] Speaker 2: piece amongst his rivals and his capo's right, but meanwhile
[19:17] Speaker 2: dressed as a bishop. Huh yeah, but not always. This
[19:20] Speaker 2: is like it's not his Monday to Sunday. Look, this
[19:24] Speaker 2: is like when he's going to be out and possibly spotted,
[19:26] Speaker 2: when he's sitting around the house, not dressed like a press.
[19:28] Speaker 2: When he leaves to go to like a meeting, you know, boom.
[19:31] Speaker 3: He put the other guys out there.
[19:34] Speaker 2: They're all at the table.
[19:35] Speaker 3: And exactly that's amazing.
[19:39] Speaker 2: And he does this for forty three years.
[19:43] Speaker 3: They just all think that, like he's a little special.
[19:46] Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, do they get that's why he
[19:48] Speaker 3: does it?
[19:49] Speaker 2: They all I figured they know, yeah, I figure they
[19:51] Speaker 2: hit on the bit.
[19:52] Speaker 3: You know, he's a little eccentric. He's a strange one.
[19:55] Speaker 3: But you know what, he's an earner.
[19:58] Speaker 2: He's not only an earner but I mean he's like
[20:00] Speaker 2: he's running the shop. Everyone's got to respond to him.
[20:03] Speaker 2: They got to kiss the bishop's ring, so that all
[20:06] Speaker 2: busy all the way. The cops don't have a lot
[20:08] Speaker 2: of to go off of. All they have is one
[20:10] Speaker 2: mugshot of him over all these forty three years, so
[20:12] Speaker 2: they don't really quite know what he looks like. And
[20:14] Speaker 2: these guys aren't telling right. So anyway, he also, though
[20:17] Speaker 2: kind of lived the ascetic life of a monk, really
[20:20] Speaker 2: drove beat her cars when he would leave the house.
[20:23] Speaker 2: His house was a shepherd's hut high in the hills
[20:26] Speaker 2: above the town of Corleone in Sicily.
[20:28] Speaker 3: No.
[20:28] Speaker 2: Yeah, he never used computers or a phone. That's why,
[20:32] Speaker 2: part of why he never got caught. So he's just
[20:34] Speaker 2: up there in like a shepherd's hut above Corleone, is
[20:36] Speaker 2: telling people, running things and.
[20:38] Speaker 3: Wait, so what's he earning all this money for.
[20:40] Speaker 2: He had one luxury. He had his wife delivered clothes
[20:42] Speaker 2: to him up on the mountain, so she would go
[20:44] Speaker 2: out get all these really fancy like silks, ties and stuff.
[20:47] Speaker 2: And he's up there in the shepherds by himself in
[20:49] Speaker 2: the shepherd's.
[20:50] Speaker 3: Dress, raising the money and giving it to his family.
[20:53] Speaker 2: I imagine he's doing all sorts of stuff. I mean,
[20:54] Speaker 2: what does anybody need money for after a while, Elizabeth,
[20:57] Speaker 2: who knows whatever?
[20:58] Speaker 3: It is question because there are a lot of and
[21:00] Speaker 3: not a lot, but there are people in this world
[21:02] Speaker 3: who have more money than they will be able to
[21:03] Speaker 3: spend in a lifetime.
[21:05] Speaker 2: That's very true. Sister doesn't and there's.
[21:06] Speaker 3: No point in that. But I'm just thinking, like, he's
[21:09] Speaker 3: committing crimes for for what?
[21:11] Speaker 2: For the game?
[21:12] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah.
[21:13] Speaker 2: Yeah, but money is more than just money, you know.
[21:16] Speaker 2: It's a lot of things. It's it's power, it's prestige,
[21:19] Speaker 2: it's competition, it's the ability to make people be fearful
[21:22] Speaker 2: or listen to you. You got to keep it going.
[21:24] Speaker 2: You got all these people to feed. It's a lot
[21:25] Speaker 2: of things, I guess.
[21:26] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[21:27] Speaker 2: Anyway, this phony bishop, he's finally arrest in two thousand
[21:29] Speaker 2: and six in Palermo. Now, the Italian police they show
[21:32] Speaker 2: up dressed in ski masks. This is not because it's
[21:34] Speaker 2: cold and they're skiing. Is to protect their identities, right, They
[21:37] Speaker 2: do that with the mafia, so they swarm over the.
[21:41] Speaker 3: Mass.
[21:41] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's a totally different reason though, so he
[21:44] Speaker 2: gets paraded before the camera. Bernardo Provenzano, big grin for
[21:47] Speaker 2: the camera, his first mug shot in three years, and
[21:51] Speaker 2: he smiles like, oh proud, like a real bishop. Hey,
[21:54] Speaker 2: so there you go, Lizabeth. Then a the little appetizer
[21:56] Speaker 2: for you. Now this next one, because I want to
[22:00] Speaker 2: point out nuns aren't the outlaws. I'm gonna save that
[22:03] Speaker 2: for one, for a little bit. I got one more,
[22:05] Speaker 2: tiny one. I want to tell you. This one's about
[22:07] Speaker 2: Adriano so mayor Okay, no relation to justice, Okay, so
[22:12] Speaker 2: Mayor right. Yeah. Now, back in two thousand and nine,
[22:14] Speaker 2: this New Jersey con artist gets his hands on a
[22:17] Speaker 2: phone list of nuns in priests living on the island
[22:19] Speaker 2: of Puerto Rico. Well sounds like it doesn't sound like
[22:23] Speaker 2: the first sentence of a novel. This New Jersey too.
[22:26] Speaker 2: In two thousand and nine, this New Jersey connard has
[22:28] Speaker 2: got his hands on the phone list of nuns in
[22:30] Speaker 2: priests living on the island of Puerto Rico. So anyway,
[22:32] Speaker 2: he starts calling around until he finds a live one. Right,
[22:35] Speaker 2: an elderly nun from the Dominican Order of the Sisters
[22:37] Speaker 2: of Rosarya Fatima. Okay, Adriana Mayor starts spitting his rap
[22:42] Speaker 2: addr and not like a freestyle I don't want your picture.
[22:45] Speaker 2: He's like telling her his con. Yeah, fox is what
[22:47] Speaker 2: you got, sister now. But the con is simple. He
[22:50] Speaker 2: tells the nun that he's a priest from New Jersey
[22:52] Speaker 2: and he has strange news. One of his parishioners has
[22:55] Speaker 2: passed away. That's not the strange part. The parishioner has
[22:58] Speaker 2: a sizeable personal fortune. Still not the strange part. But
[23:02] Speaker 2: this parishioners decided to leave it to the nun. In specifically,
[23:06] Speaker 2: she is the beneficiary of a two point one million
[23:09] Speaker 2: dollar estate. Yeah, and the nun is like, oh, praise
[23:12] Speaker 2: the Lord or whatever, right stoke to hear the good news.
[23:16] Speaker 2: And then Adriano so tomoy or see springs the trap.
[23:19] Speaker 2: He informs the nun that to process this bequeathed fortune,
[23:22] Speaker 2: she will need to wire money to a company handling
[23:25] Speaker 2: the will and the estor.
[23:26] Speaker 3: So this is just the Nigerian prince scamp.
[23:29] Speaker 2: Pretty much with a priest.
[23:30] Speaker 3: Interesting.
[23:31] Speaker 2: So it's a New Jersey based company that he has
[23:33] Speaker 2: called Flex Account. That company will handle the legal fees
[23:36] Speaker 2: and the taxes and so forth, so that she can
[23:38] Speaker 2: have the bequeathed fortune transferred to Puerto Rico, except there
[23:42] Speaker 2: is no company called flex account. There also is no
[23:46] Speaker 2: dead parishioner. As you probably guessed, it's all lies. The
[23:49] Speaker 2: elderly nun goes for it, believes them. Oh no, she's
[23:52] Speaker 2: powerful belief, right, She's well practiced in believing things. She's
[23:56] Speaker 2: already thinking about what she can do with the money, though,
[23:58] Speaker 2: because she's a nun, she doesn't want for herself. She
[24:00] Speaker 2: wants to buy She's not like the Belgian nuns who
[24:02] Speaker 2: wanted to buy a fellet to luxury. Belgian girls had
[24:05] Speaker 2: the right idea, but these is not sisters of the poor.
[24:08] Speaker 2: Claire's this She's from the Fatima's sisters. Right. So she's like,
[24:12] Speaker 2: you know what I'm gonna do. I'm going to do
[24:14] Speaker 2: good work. I'm going to build a new religious community
[24:16] Speaker 2: in Haiti. Great idea in terms of like, if you
[24:19] Speaker 2: can do some charity work, that's where you should be doing.
[24:21] Speaker 2: I would think, So what does this gullible elderly nun do? Next?
[24:25] Speaker 2: She does what any god fearing none would do. Elizabeth.
[24:28] Speaker 2: She prays for help, and then she asks people she
[24:30] Speaker 2: knows for donations and then she borrows money from other
[24:33] Speaker 2: nuns as well as from family friends, parishioners in Puerto Rico.
[24:39] Speaker 2: Once she gathers up nearly a million.
[24:41] Speaker 3: Dollars, Wait, how much was the was the inherent two
[24:45] Speaker 3: point one? And she has to a.
[24:47] Speaker 2: Million a lot of taxes in America?
[24:50] Speaker 3: What the she's in America?
[24:52] Speaker 2: Well, I know I didn't say that. She wasn't what
[24:55] Speaker 2: she's saying, like, you know, burying somebody probate is all
[24:58] Speaker 2: expensive in America, we don't do any So she wires
[25:02] Speaker 2: the money to Atlantic City. Why Atlantic City? Great question, Elizabeth, Like,
[25:08] Speaker 2: was it.
[25:08] Speaker 3: A specific casino in Atlantic City?
[25:11] Speaker 2: Yeah? Andrew Andreana, So to my arm bit of a gambler,
[25:15] Speaker 2: he had debts, the kind that get your face to
[25:18] Speaker 2: arranged by professional rangers. Oh yeah, he's not a good guy.
[25:22] Speaker 2: So he also talked the elderly nun and des sending
[25:25] Speaker 2: it in multiple transfers. So she's sending like bits and
[25:27] Speaker 2: bits and borrowing more and sending more, borrowing more, sending more.
[25:30] Speaker 2: Gets it up to me.
[25:31] Speaker 3: I'm sure he's spinning it is. I'm gonna do you
[25:33] Speaker 3: a kindness. You don't have to get it all at once.
[25:36] Speaker 2: He's a priest. He's not asking for anything. Remember he's
[25:40] Speaker 2: a priest. So this comeback so to my r father,
[25:44] Speaker 2: So to my r he contacts his none mark. He
[25:47] Speaker 2: tells her it's not enough. I need more money for
[25:49] Speaker 2: processing the will whatever. She's maybe getting a little suspicious.
[25:52] Speaker 2: He can't tell us. He tells her, no, no, there's
[25:54] Speaker 2: a snake in the grass. Right, But I could have
[25:57] Speaker 2: put this in biblical terms. We got a snake in
[25:59] Speaker 2: the grass. So there's some other party that hopes to
[26:02] Speaker 2: contest the will and fight for this fortune. The dead parishioner,
[26:05] Speaker 2: he's got this greedy son. He's trying to get his
[26:07] Speaker 2: hands on the two point one million that he bequeathed
[26:09] Speaker 2: to you to do good works with. So the nuns goes, Okay,
[26:13] Speaker 2: what do I have to do to do? You know,
[26:14] Speaker 2: so we can get the money that God bequeathed me
[26:16] Speaker 2: or whatever. He's like, oh yo, She's like, you know
[26:19] Speaker 2: it's two point one million dollars. I could really use that.
[26:21] Speaker 2: So he's like, just gonna need a little bit more money.
[26:23] Speaker 2: So she sends up more money and.
[26:26] Speaker 3: Then she now more than one million.
[26:28] Speaker 2: No, she's like approaching one million. She just keeps sending money,
[26:31] Speaker 2: keeps sending money.
[26:33] Speaker 3: She could have done a lot of good with.
[26:36] Speaker 2: The money she was able the.
[26:37] Speaker 3: Money she's shaken out of everybody, and that then maybe
[26:40] Speaker 3: she's thinking, well, this man's son should maybe get them.
[26:45] Speaker 2: I'm gonna argue she gets the nun does get reluctant, right,
[26:48] Speaker 2: And then so Sodomayor has to threaten her, right, and
[26:50] Speaker 2: he's like, you know, look, you send me the money, right,
[26:52] Speaker 2: And what he threatens her with his media attention, he's like,
[26:54] Speaker 2: you don't want the sisterhood to look foolish if it
[26:57] Speaker 2: comes out that you're like involved in all this grass
[27:00] Speaker 2: being for money with this dead guy's son. So when
[27:03] Speaker 2: he doesn't get the result he wants from that, he
[27:05] Speaker 2: then threatens her that I may have to go to
[27:07] Speaker 2: the police and report you.
[27:08] Speaker 6: Right.
[27:08] Speaker 2: I don't know for what, but it works well enough
[27:11] Speaker 2: that she's like still trying to keep low and not
[27:14] Speaker 2: like trying to have it all blow over something or
[27:16] Speaker 2: at least maybe pray that something changes. Anyway. The elderly
[27:19] Speaker 2: none starts contacting people who were loander the money and
[27:22] Speaker 2: asks for more money so she can make this work.
[27:25] Speaker 2: She just needs to look, I see a little bit
[27:26] Speaker 2: more she's like to e scratch. So yeah, so her investors,
[27:31] Speaker 2: one of them is smart, one of them is suspicious.
[27:34] Speaker 2: One of them contacts the FBI. Okay, all right, and
[27:37] Speaker 2: then he tells them all about what's going down to
[27:38] Speaker 2: the convent. Yeah, Sodomayor has fleeced her out of almost
[27:41] Speaker 2: a million dollars at this point. Doesn't take the FBI
[27:44] Speaker 2: long to track him down, doesn't take the sw They
[27:47] Speaker 2: indict him. He tries to run. I'm out of here, right.
[27:50] Speaker 2: They catch him the next day in Las Vegas.
[27:51] Speaker 3: Because he's got all these loyalty points in casino.
[27:55] Speaker 2: Money, he's got to go in the cash out somewhere.
[27:58] Speaker 2: Where do I go to? You know, hard Rock and Florida?
[28:00] Speaker 2: Do I go to Vegas? So what was his punishment? Well?
[28:03] Speaker 2: Did the nuns forgive him all great questions? Elizabeth?
[28:06] Speaker 3: Thank you?
[28:06] Speaker 2: They may have. I don't know. I'm going to keep
[28:08] Speaker 2: guessing that they did. But I can tell you what
[28:09] Speaker 2: the FBI did.
[28:10] Speaker 3: They did not forget.
[28:11] Speaker 2: They did not care about the forgiveness part.
[28:13] Speaker 3: No.
[28:14] Speaker 6: No.
[28:14] Speaker 2: In twenty thirteen, Sodamorar was tried, convicted, and sentenced to.
[28:18] Speaker 3: Five hundred years.
[28:20] Speaker 2: Eighteen years eighteen in federal prison. Yeah, and he had
[28:24] Speaker 2: to pay restitution for these stolen million dollars.
[28:26] Speaker 3: Oh that's good.
[28:27] Speaker 2: Yeah, so now see it again. But that's okay, Elizabeth,
[28:30] Speaker 2: Now that you're all primed and press nuns, the story
[28:35] Speaker 2: I'm about to tell you is the hard Gambling Nuns
[28:38] Speaker 2: of Torrance, California.
[28:41] Speaker 3: Let's back this up, The hard gambling Nuns of.
[28:43] Speaker 2: Torrance, California. Yeah, this one takes place at a Catholic
[28:47] Speaker 2: school in Los Angeles and features a nun who was
[28:50] Speaker 2: the principal of the K through eighth grade school. Sure,
[28:53] Speaker 2: and this homegirl, she had a gambling problem, capital g
[28:55] Speaker 2: gambling problem, like a capital o MG gambling problem. Yeah.
[29:00] Speaker 2: The school is called Saint James and it's in La
[29:02] Speaker 2: as I said, in the neighborhood of Torrance. Now, the
[29:04] Speaker 2: school had about three hundred students. These students enjoyed a
[29:06] Speaker 2: very traditional Catholic school education along that's a big yeah,
[29:10] Speaker 2: pretty good. So.
[29:11] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[29:11] Speaker 2: They classes of language, classes, art classes, music, sport, took
[29:15] Speaker 2: full and rich curriculum. The school's motto was quote preparing, confident,
[29:20] Speaker 2: competent and carrying Catholic citizens. Oh okay, yeah, inter Sister
[29:25] Speaker 2: Mary Margaret Kreiper, the hard gambling nun and school principle
[29:29] Speaker 2: of Saint James.
[29:30] Speaker 3: Now what kind of gambling does she do?
[29:33] Speaker 2: All gambling? Oh, Sister Mary Margaret. She earned a bachelor's
[29:38] Speaker 2: degree in sociology from Mount Saint Mary's College in Los Angeles.
[29:42] Speaker 2: She does student teaching in the la parishes. She becomes
[29:44] Speaker 2: a Catholic school teacher at twenty eight. Then the sister
[29:47] Speaker 2: starts bouncing around the West. So Sister Mary Margaret, she
[29:50] Speaker 2: teaches fourth grade at Saint Patrick's in Pascoe, Washington. Then
[29:53] Speaker 2: she's over teaching fifth grade, and Our Lady of Las Vegas,
[29:56] Speaker 2: and then Samwich. Between those gigs, this sister was working
[29:59] Speaker 2: as the principle. It's Saint Stanislaw in Lewiston, Idaho. Keep
[30:04] Speaker 2: that in mind. Eventually, this parapatetic nun settles in Saint
[30:08] Speaker 2: James School in Torrance, Right, Sister Mary Margaret, She's forty
[30:11] Speaker 2: seven years old when she arrives. At this point, she's
[30:14] Speaker 2: been teaching or working as a principal for nineteen years.
[30:17] Speaker 2: Just a veteran in the game. Saint James. They're happy
[30:20] Speaker 2: to have her. Sister Mary Margaret becomes the principal of
[30:22] Speaker 2: the school. She grabs hold of the power, never lets go.
[30:26] Speaker 2: She runs the schools or a little private fiefdom. But
[30:28] Speaker 2: everyone's into it. I mean, it's just a powerful nun.
[30:30] Speaker 2: Everyone's like a kiss to it. It wasn't weird. She
[30:32] Speaker 2: takes her professional and personal hand in developing lesson plans.
[30:36] Speaker 2: She carefully considers her staff, she reviews them often, she
[30:39] Speaker 2: picks well. She's also, as I said, in charge of
[30:42] Speaker 2: hiring but also firing, so she offers teachers annual contracts,
[30:46] Speaker 2: so every year she renews, which I guess is pretty
[30:48] Speaker 2: standard for the Catholic and private schools. But this also
[30:51] Speaker 2: gives her the power to renew or not. So she
[30:53] Speaker 2: does have some obvious powers of persuasion, powers of the purse.
[30:57] Speaker 2: So and also speaking of she has control of the
[31:00] Speaker 2: school's finances, the multiple bank accounts, the tuition, the charity donations.
[31:05] Speaker 2: She's got funds on funds, streams on loose money everywhere.
[31:08] Speaker 3: All the walkithan money everywhere.
[31:10] Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of raffles you do walk Oh yeah,
[31:13] Speaker 2: all of it everything you can name.
[31:15] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[31:16] Speaker 2: So the temptation though of all this loose money walkathon
[31:19] Speaker 2: cast sitting around is too great for old Sister Mary Margaret,
[31:22] Speaker 2: because at this point I should have you meet our
[31:25] Speaker 2: other larcen This nun, Sister Lana Chang, ten years younger
[31:28] Speaker 2: than Sister Mary Margaret. Sister Laana earned her master's in
[31:31] Speaker 2: education from Loyola Marymount, LMU and Lay. She's also a
[31:35] Speaker 2: veteran Catholic school educator, hired in nineteen ninety six to
[31:39] Speaker 2: teach at Saint James. Sister Mary Margaret got there in
[31:42] Speaker 2: eighty eight, so by this point Sister Lana she'd been
[31:44] Speaker 2: teaching for twenty five years. Another veteran in the game
[31:47] Speaker 2: when she shows up yea in ninety six. Right, interesting
[31:50] Speaker 2: thing to take note. For three years, Sister Laana was
[31:54] Speaker 2: teaching at a Catholic school in Lewiston, Idaho. Okay, I
[31:57] Speaker 2: want to guess which.
[31:58] Speaker 3: One the whatever the one should Yeah, what did I say?
[32:02] Speaker 2: I keep note Saint Stanislaus. Oh, Yes, in Lewis and idohs.
[32:08] Speaker 2: So that's where Sister Mary Margaret was the principal and
[32:12] Speaker 2: the Sister Lana was a teacher for three years exactly,
[32:15] Speaker 2: so they were there at the same time. Now, that
[32:17] Speaker 2: may be the easy answer for how sister Lana got
[32:19] Speaker 2: a teaching job at Saint James under sister Mary Margaret
[32:22] Speaker 2: may also be the answer to why the two women
[32:24] Speaker 2: lived together in Torrance. The two nuns, they shared a townhouse.
[32:27] Speaker 2: They were roommates for twenty years. They worked together, they
[32:30] Speaker 2: were about to retire together. They put a nice deposit
[32:33] Speaker 2: down on a three bedroom, two bath rental property. It
[32:36] Speaker 2: was most likely going to be their home for retirement.
[32:39] Speaker 2: Now it's none of my business, but this story does
[32:40] Speaker 2: have some points that as a kid, if this was
[32:43] Speaker 2: my teacher and the principal and I went to a
[32:45] Speaker 2: Saint James, so like I was thinking about this all
[32:47] Speaker 2: the time, I would have had some questions like, Okay,
[32:50] Speaker 2: you're telling me these two nuns, they've been roommates for
[32:52] Speaker 2: twenty years. These two nuns who work together and a
[32:55] Speaker 2: school teachers, they travel together, they have planned to retire together.
[32:58] Speaker 2: I mean, that's a couple, right, And people would be like,
[33:01] Speaker 2: why do you say that. I'm like, those are not
[33:02] Speaker 2: the nuns?
[33:03] Speaker 3: Do that?
[33:03] Speaker 2: I'm like, that's a couple. I don't know, y'all, I
[33:05] Speaker 2: don't know.
[33:06] Speaker 3: I just the retirement thing. All I went to Catholic
[33:09] Speaker 3: school was taught by nuns. They all retired to like
[33:13] Speaker 3: the the orders retirement home.
[33:16] Speaker 2: Yeah, not together, not in the apartment, townhouse.
[33:20] Speaker 3: Somewhere, like, yeah, that's a little bit just I'm saying
[33:24] Speaker 3: I hate Look, no.
[33:25] Speaker 2: Judgment, I'm not even saying that. I'm saying that they're
[33:29] Speaker 2: they're already I would guess hiding something, you know, Like,
[33:32] Speaker 2: I'm not saying that they should have to hide something.
[33:34] Speaker 2: But as a kid, I'm like, wait a minute, y'all,
[33:37] Speaker 2: come off.
[33:37] Speaker 3: I'm going on.
[33:38] Speaker 2: I would have been a little suspicious of these two nuns.
[33:40] Speaker 2: That's all I'm saying, quote unquote, Really, I find it
[33:43] Speaker 2: interesting that none of the adults ever had any questions
[33:45] Speaker 2: about these nuns, like, really the ones who are retiring
[33:47] Speaker 2: together after And also I should also remind you this
[33:52] Speaker 2: woman's a hardcore gambler. That comes off of you, right,
[33:55] Speaker 2: This is a criminal couple. If I was a.
[33:57] Speaker 7: Kid, they don't know it like I would have known,
[34:03] Speaker 7: because you know, you know, what's far more interesting than
[34:05] Speaker 7: their personal life is the hardcore gambling part of this.
[34:08] Speaker 2: Because now let's get into the weirdness.
[34:10] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[34:10] Speaker 2: In March twenty eighteen, sister Mary Margaret wrote a letter
[34:13] Speaker 2: to the parents of Saint James right, explaining that you know,
[34:16] Speaker 2: quote I do not receive a salary from my service
[34:19] Speaker 2: as principal of Saint James School. As a member of
[34:22] Speaker 2: a religious community, I receive a stipend for my work.
[34:25] Speaker 2: The same is true for Sister Laana.
[34:27] Speaker 3: And yet they have money to put down on a place.
[34:30] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, not only that. Uh it's curious though, that
[34:33] Speaker 2: heat shosseled. But oh yes, since Sister Laana too.
[34:35] Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just gonna go around waving all the red flags.
[34:37] Speaker 2: But she didn't say for all the nuns of my order,
[34:39] Speaker 2: this is true. She's like, also is true for Sister Laana.
[34:42] Speaker 2: Just the Yeah, I thought that as a kid, I
[34:44] Speaker 2: would find that interesting anyway. So now that got my
[34:48] Speaker 2: few suspicions out there about these two horror gambling nuns.
[34:52] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention they also always take
[34:54] Speaker 2: trips to Las Vegas Tahoe Reno together. Wait, with the
[34:59] Speaker 2: roommate of twenty years. They constantly take trips together to
[35:02] Speaker 2: Tahoe Reno, Las Vegas. I'm a kid, I'm gonna put
[35:06] Speaker 2: that together. I'm just saying, Well, I just I.
[35:08] Speaker 3: Don't know nuns who like vacationed like that.
[35:11] Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. None of this is right. I
[35:13] Speaker 2: would be suspicious if they weren't the nuns in my school.
[35:17] Speaker 2: So but yes, whatever, people don't want to ask questions, right,
[35:19] Speaker 2: They don't want to look past the fact they got
[35:21] Speaker 2: habits on. And that's what I think I'm trying to
[35:23] Speaker 2: point out is that they were able to do all
[35:25] Speaker 2: this whatever they wanted to hide because nobody wanted to
[35:28] Speaker 2: look past the habit. Why I'm getting my shirt so
[35:31] Speaker 2: you're seeing. But also because people, some people are generous
[35:33] Speaker 2: of heart, like you, they wanted to go. Maybe these
[35:35] Speaker 2: nuns need to cut loose, you know, maybe yeah, but
[35:38] Speaker 2: that's why they like to.
[35:39] Speaker 3: Travel and then becoming less and less generous.
[35:42] Speaker 2: But Sister Mary Margaret and Sister Lana did have a convenient,
[35:44] Speaker 2: workable cover story because you know, the rumors were that
[35:47] Speaker 2: eighth grade teacher Sister Lana had had a rich uncle
[35:51] Speaker 2: and he was still alive, and he was assumed to
[35:53] Speaker 2: be the one paying for the two nuns to go
[35:55] Speaker 2: have fun in Vegas, Reno and Tahoe. Okay, so that's
[35:58] Speaker 2: why everyone's like, oh, yeah, he's paying for the nuns,
[36:00] Speaker 2: because I think works so hard and God bless them all. Right, Well, yeah,
[36:05] Speaker 2: now there was also another reason to raise some suspicions.
[36:08] Speaker 2: Sister Mary Margaret also hosted an annual Vegas Night at
[36:11] Speaker 2: the school. I was just about to say it was
[36:15] Speaker 2: for charity. The parents would get dressed up and play
[36:17] Speaker 2: creepies and deep car dealers. And now, as I told you,
[36:21] Speaker 2: I went to a Saint James. Literally, we also had
[36:24] Speaker 2: a Vegas Night. So I was like, all right, okay,
[36:26] Speaker 2: this is fair. I mean, I'm not gonna be too
[36:28] Speaker 2: suspicious about that part, but it would have stood out
[36:30] Speaker 2: a little. So let's take a little break and when
[36:34] Speaker 2: we get back, I'm gonna take you to Vegas Night
[36:36] Speaker 2: at Saint James Elizabeth.
[36:37] Speaker 3: Oh God, I can't wait.
[36:58] Speaker 2: And we're backy thever Becky. So as I was telling you,
[37:05] Speaker 2: a Vegas Knight Saint James, Torrence, California, this place is
[37:09] Speaker 2: like they would do it up, like they would like
[37:11] Speaker 2: really do it up. Like one year, the one of
[37:14] Speaker 2: the parents, so they worked at a party supply store.
[37:16] Speaker 2: They got Sister Mary Margaret some right proper card tables
[37:19] Speaker 2: and card shoes, like you know, so you're dealing out
[37:22] Speaker 2: of a card shoe? What sh't do in Vegas? Real
[37:25] Speaker 2: Vegas Night? Kids?
[37:26] Speaker 3: Yeah, so that her hands would stop shaking.
[37:30] Speaker 2: The one funny thing about these Vegas Nights, so Sister
[37:33] Speaker 2: Mary Margaret always seemed to get lucky, just a lucky
[37:36] Speaker 2: ass nun. So she had this tendency of win is
[37:39] Speaker 2: what I'm saying, right, all kinds of stuff though, right,
[37:41] Speaker 2: which is, you know whatever, It isn't the best look
[37:43] Speaker 2: for a principle to be hosting Vegas night. She keeps winning.
[37:47] Speaker 2: But you know, also people are like kind of happy
[37:49] Speaker 2: for it because the nun is like, oh, we don't
[37:50] Speaker 2: pay them enough anyway. So but when I say that,
[37:54] Speaker 2: you know, it was fun and lucky and all that,
[37:57] Speaker 2: and God works in mysterious ways and all that. It
[37:59] Speaker 2: was also like, once again, if I was a kid,
[38:01] Speaker 2: I would have been a little curious about because like,
[38:03] Speaker 2: for instance, one time Sister Mary Margaret she want a raffle, right,
[38:07] Speaker 2: she also would win a card, whatever game she want,
[38:09] Speaker 2: but it raffles. She won a red radio flyer wagon
[38:12] Speaker 2: and I would have been eyeball on that. Right then
[38:14] Speaker 2: that's obviously not for a child because it was loaded
[38:16] Speaker 2: up with bottles of booze.
[38:18] Speaker 3: Wait what yeh. First of all, she should as the principal,
[38:21] Speaker 3: she should not be entering the raffle.
[38:23] Speaker 2: Right, thank you. She just can't keep her hands off
[38:25] Speaker 2: that action. Warm my hands, my mama, warm her hands
[38:29] Speaker 2: on that action. So she hears gambling, She's like, come on,
[38:32] Speaker 2: she's got other kids, like go put ten on that right,
[38:35] Speaker 2: give me some tickets.
[38:36] Speaker 3: So I love that they were raffling off a wagon,
[38:40] Speaker 3: Red Flyer, do you fall off that wagon?
[38:44] Speaker 2: You have the booze in the web. Yeah, I imagine
[38:46] Speaker 2: it's like, you know, nice Irish whiskey and so far. Yeah, donated.
[38:50] Speaker 2: It's a grand prize for the annual Harvest festival. And
[38:54] Speaker 2: she wanted so listen, I'm telling your sister Mary Margaret
[38:57] Speaker 2: went and everything. As I said, let's be real about this.
[39:00] Speaker 2: We're both Catholics. Catholics like to gamble. Yeah, there's always
[39:04] Speaker 2: church raffles, super Bowl betting pools.
[39:06] Speaker 3: There's also an elementary school raffle, including bottles of heart alcohol.
[39:11] Speaker 3: Is such a Catholic.
[39:12] Speaker 2: Very Catholic too, I don't want to say everybody. Yeah,
[39:15] Speaker 2: that's also right. I mean I know about weekly poker
[39:17] Speaker 2: games in a basement of a Catholic church. You know,
[39:19] Speaker 2: there's like and if I think a father went there,
[39:22] Speaker 2: most of the.
[39:22] Speaker 3: Time, Columbo Club and all that.
[39:24] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the Nights of Columbus. Oh yeah, so what
[39:26] Speaker 2: do we what do we know about how sister Mary
[39:29] Speaker 2: Margaret ran her Vegas Knights, Right, that's probably what would
[39:32] Speaker 2: have raised eyebrows. And if I was a kid, I
[39:34] Speaker 2: would have been raising my eyebrows. Is a well, you know,
[39:38] Speaker 2: rather than me tell you about a Vegas night, Yeah,
[39:40] Speaker 2: I'd like you to close your eyes.
[39:42] Speaker 5: As a club, I'd like you to picture it.
[39:46] Speaker 2: It's a Friday night in Torrance, California, in the spring
[39:48] Speaker 2: of twenty eleven. It's a pleasant evening outside, there's a
[39:51] Speaker 2: starry sky above. Inside and Father Jim's Saloon, laughing and
[39:56] Speaker 2: smiling faces have given way to focused stairs. At the
[40:00] Speaker 2: moment you are among them, Elizabeth standing there with the
[40:03] Speaker 2: haybales and country Western decorations in Father Jim's saloon. The
[40:07] Speaker 2: saloon is not a real drinking establishment, which helps explain
[40:11] Speaker 2: why there are so many children in this saloon. You see,
[40:13] Speaker 2: Father Jim's Saloon is the multipurpose room of Saint James School,
[40:16] Speaker 2: and this is a charity event. It's Vegas Night at
[40:18] Speaker 2: Saint James. Doesn't make sense anyway, Elizabeth. You are a
[40:22] Speaker 2: Catholic educator, a fifth grade teacher at Saint James Catholic School.
[40:26] Speaker 2: They're after hours watching other teachers and your school's principal
[40:31] Speaker 2: gamble against the parents of the school children. Specifically, you're
[40:34] Speaker 2: watching Sister Mary Margaret hold it down in a wicked
[40:36] Speaker 2: game of Texas hold them. She's sitting at the card
[40:38] Speaker 2: table wearing a green gambler's visor. She's focused. The nun
[40:42] Speaker 2: is about it because you see Sister Mary Margaret is
[40:44] Speaker 2: battling in the final. Her opponent is a parent of
[40:48] Speaker 2: some of the school children. Jack Alexander. He also volunteers
[40:51] Speaker 2: and coaches a few sports for the school. Nice guys.
[40:54] Speaker 2: There's thousands of dollars in charity money in the pot
[40:57] Speaker 2: right now. It's the final, a pile of doll her
[41:00] Speaker 2: full poker chips. Jack Alexander doesn't want to bet too big.
[41:03] Speaker 2: He doesn't want to scare off Sister Mary Margaret. Now,
[41:06] Speaker 2: not when he's holding the hand he's got. You watch
[41:09] Speaker 2: him intently, so does Sister Mary Margaret. You shift your
[41:12] Speaker 2: focus to your principle. She's all business. The nun has
[41:15] Speaker 2: got a good poker face. Parents standing around whisper about
[41:18] Speaker 2: what may happen next. The dealer lays down the flop.
[41:21] Speaker 2: The cards on the table clearly seem to give Jack
[41:24] Speaker 2: Alexander a shot, a confidence because he is holding a
[41:27] Speaker 2: queen high flush. Sister Mary Margaret's face implacable, unreadable. She's good,
[41:33] Speaker 2: her poker face is impenetrable, she calls. After that, the
[41:37] Speaker 2: dealer flips over an ace. This causes an instant reaction
[41:41] Speaker 2: of oohs an interested oz from the crowd watching this.
[41:43] Speaker 2: Texas hold him final, you are riveted to the game. Meanwhile,
[41:47] Speaker 2: Jack Alexander sizes up Sister Mary Margaret. He imagines what
[41:51] Speaker 2: hand could the nun be holding. He's guessing she may
[41:55] Speaker 2: have three of a kind. Jack Alexander lays down his bet.
[41:58] Speaker 2: He pushes more poker chips into the pot. The dealer
[42:01] Speaker 2: goes on, it's the last card flip, it's a queen.
[42:04] Speaker 2: If you focus on Jack Alexander, you can almost hear
[42:07] Speaker 2: him thinking he's not at all sure what Sister Mary
[42:10] Speaker 2: Margaret is holding in her hands. Could be a two pair,
[42:13] Speaker 2: maybe it's a clean high full house. You watch Jack
[42:17] Speaker 2: Alexander glance back down at his own hand. Then you
[42:20] Speaker 2: see him look back up a devilish glint in his eyes.
[42:23] Speaker 2: He says, as dramatically as possible, I'm all in. That
[42:28] Speaker 2: sends the crowd into hysterics. The kids are going wild.
[42:32] Speaker 2: The parents react with wild whoops and hollers. Everyone loves it.
[42:36] Speaker 2: Not typical of a poker final. The coach is he
[42:39] Speaker 2: about to beat Sister Mary Margaret, But you look back
[42:42] Speaker 2: at her, still implacable, her face of fortreits of quietude.
[42:47] Speaker 2: And then Sister Mary Margaret speaks up, me too, She's
[42:52] Speaker 2: all in. The crowd of schoolcaates losing. The parents go
[42:55] Speaker 2: crazy again. Jack Alexander lays down his cards. It's a
[42:59] Speaker 2: queen high flush, all diamonds. His hands reach forward to
[43:02] Speaker 2: claim his pot of winnings. But then you see a small,
[43:05] Speaker 2: tight smile on Sister Mary Margaret's lips. She lays down
[43:10] Speaker 2: her cards, an ace and a queen. She has a
[43:13] Speaker 2: full house, three queens over aces. Oh my goodness. The
[43:17] Speaker 2: crowd of school kids parents go haywire. Sister Mary Margaret
[43:21] Speaker 2: has done it again. You shake your head, save yourself. Goddamn,
[43:25] Speaker 2: she's good at cards.
[43:28] Speaker 3: So is she cheating?
[43:29] Speaker 2: No, she's she's a gambler. Yeah, she's a Vegas whale.
[43:35] Speaker 2: I mean, remember she's she's swimming with guppies this this
[43:39] Speaker 2: Vegas night. So yeah, anyway, it's a sister Lana and
[43:44] Speaker 2: Sister Mary Margaret. This is what they're doing when imagine
[43:47] Speaker 2: them in Vegas. Imagine in Vegas. And she dressed like
[43:50] Speaker 2: a nun in Vegas. I don't think. Maybe she's got
[43:52] Speaker 2: the sensible like sweater on. Well, this is the white
[43:54] Speaker 2: button up shirt.
[43:55] Speaker 3: Very few nuns in this country wear a habit anymore.
[43:58] Speaker 2: Yeah, come out though, Yeah.
[44:01] Speaker 3: She probably has like a you know card again.
[44:03] Speaker 2: And yeah, what's the little crop hat they wear now
[44:05] Speaker 2: it's like a nun's hat. No, the nurse's hat.
[44:08] Speaker 3: Oh, they don't wear that.
[44:09] Speaker 2: You'll see you, I see them in the airports. So anyway,
[44:13] Speaker 2: there's this story has a core theme I find fascinating. Right,
[44:16] Speaker 2: going back to my priest shirt and priest callar for
[44:19] Speaker 2: domestic flights, that's the theme. Right. Everyone looks past the wrapper,
[44:23] Speaker 2: look at how she's gambling a bit. We're like, oh, wow,
[44:25] Speaker 2: she's going to Vegas all the time. They're like, huh,
[44:28] Speaker 2: By the way, this school has money problems all the time, obviously, right,
[44:31] Speaker 2: because she's taking.
[44:33] Speaker 3: Money from the school yeah, so.
[44:35] Speaker 2: The parents, no matter what they see, it's Saint James.
[44:37] Speaker 2: They never grow suspicious, constant budget problems, charity fundraisers all
[44:42] Speaker 2: the damn time, can't get an awning for the kids.
[44:44] Speaker 2: They got to sit out in the sun. Oh yeah, yeah,
[44:47] Speaker 2: but they just assume it's money troubles for the church
[44:49] Speaker 2: here or something. I don't know. She's able to run
[44:51] Speaker 2: a decades long con and bezzling nearly a million dollars
[44:55] Speaker 2: from these people.
[44:55] Speaker 3: Wow.
[44:56] Speaker 2: Yeah, the parents, they just thought she was one hell
[44:58] Speaker 2: of a good card player.
[45:00] Speaker 3: So anyway, they're a poor, poor money manager.
[45:03] Speaker 2: With the energy of like a sweaty face degenerate gambler. Right, anyway,
[45:07] Speaker 2: do you remember the two thousand and eight Super Bowl. No,
[45:10] Speaker 2: it was an epic game. New England Patriots the New
[45:12] Speaker 2: York Giants, the Tom Brady led Patriots. They were a
[45:16] Speaker 2: twelve point favorite. Okay, there was a good reason for that.
[45:18] Speaker 2: The Patriots hadn't lost all season seventeen and zero, gone into.
[45:21] Speaker 3: The playoffs out de losses.
[45:23] Speaker 2: Yeah, only other team had ever done this is a
[45:24] Speaker 2: seventy two Dolphins. The seventy two Dolphins went all the way,
[45:27] Speaker 2: They won the Super Bowl. Right, so that's what the
[45:28] Speaker 2: Patriots tell me.
[45:29] Speaker 3: There were seventy two dolphins on a field.
[45:32] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's amazing. Keeping it what was a real challenge.
[45:35] Speaker 2: So then in the fourth quarter of the Giants were
[45:37] Speaker 2: trailing the down fourteen to ten. They start to drive
[45:40] Speaker 2: on their own seventeen yard line. Elizabeth, it's two minutes,
[45:42] Speaker 2: thirty nine seconds left to play. The drive does not
[45:45] Speaker 2: go well. They miss on first and second down. All
[45:47] Speaker 2: of a sudden, Now they got one last chance wide
[45:50] Speaker 2: received David Tyree. He makes this insane catch. It's a
[45:55] Speaker 2: third down in forever right. He goes up, pulls in
[45:58] Speaker 2: a one handed catch, pins it to his helmet and
[46:01] Speaker 2: goes down to the ground and holds it that way
[46:04] Speaker 2: off the ground. Oh, unbelievable. Keeps the drive alive. Thirty
[46:08] Speaker 2: two yard third down play nuts play right. This then
[46:11] Speaker 2: allows Steve Smith to get another third down conversion other receiver.
[46:14] Speaker 2: He gets an eleven yard one and then Plaxico Burris.
[46:17] Speaker 2: I love Plexico, but I should tell a story about
[46:19] Speaker 2: him sometime anyway. Plaxico Burris he hauls in a thirteen
[46:22] Speaker 2: yard touchdown. Boom. Giants win the game, ruin the Patriots
[46:26] Speaker 2: and Tom Brady's chances at perfection. Wow, baby, brother Eli
[46:30] Speaker 2: Manning goes the hope we did it right. He beat
[46:32] Speaker 2: Tom Brady, sins in him of the best Super Bowl
[46:34] Speaker 2: wins of all time.
[46:35] Speaker 3: This stop. I'm gonna pretend like you're telling me this
[46:37] Speaker 3: and it has absolutely nothing to do with the rest
[46:39] Speaker 3: of Yes.
[46:42] Speaker 2: Here's the thing. Coach Jack Alexander and sister Mary Margaret
[46:46] Speaker 2: both saw the game. They were chatting about it the
[46:48] Speaker 2: next day, and he remembered this sixty something year old
[46:51] Speaker 2: nun tasks him, Hey, you watch the game. He's like,
[46:53] Speaker 2: oh yeah, that gad Giants winning drive and sister Mary
[46:57] Speaker 2: Margaret's like, did you see that catch? And he was like,
[46:59] Speaker 2: oh yeah. He thinks she means a Plasico buris one right.
[47:02] Speaker 2: She's like, no, David Tyreese one handed the helmet catch,
[47:05] Speaker 2: and he's like he realized she had money on the game,
[47:07] Speaker 2: the twelve point favorite. She was betting on the Patriots.
[47:10] Speaker 2: She was bad because that's when the game was lost
[47:12] Speaker 2: by so as a gambler, that's what she focused. Wait
[47:17] Speaker 2: a minute, this is finally when people start to be
[47:20] Speaker 2: a little suspicious, but not enough suspicious, right, And also,
[47:24] Speaker 2: by the way, never go against Eli Manning. If you're
[47:27] Speaker 2: Tom Brady in Super Bowl because you lose both times, Okay,
[47:30] Speaker 2: remember that he's dumb lucky. You know you can't beat
[47:33] Speaker 2: dumb lucky. Kind of like sister Mary Margaret. She seems
[47:35] Speaker 2: to be dumb lucky. Turns out she gets caught on
[47:38] Speaker 2: some dumb luck. Really yeah, the bad kind like Eli
[47:42] Speaker 2: Manning got the good kind of dumb lucky. She gets
[47:44] Speaker 2: caught on the bad guy.
[47:45] Speaker 7: Yeah.
[47:45] Speaker 2: Yeah, two sisters, remember them.
[47:47] Speaker 3: The it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck
[47:51] Speaker 3: at all.
[47:51] Speaker 2: Oh stop, let.
[47:53] Speaker 3: Me play a little too.
[47:56] Speaker 2: So these two sisters, right, and I told you his
[47:58] Speaker 2: sister law and his sister Mary Margaret. They play to
[48:00] Speaker 2: retire at this point. Sister Mary Margaret's in her mid seventies,
[48:03] Speaker 2: Sister Lawanna is in her mid sixties. They're ready for
[48:06] Speaker 2: the life to whine now and just be able to
[48:08] Speaker 2: go gamble and get some buffets in Vegas without any
[48:11] Speaker 2: of these hassle of kids and parents, you know whatever.
[48:14] Speaker 2: And maybe I'm wrong, who knows, Maybe they don't want
[48:15] Speaker 2: buffet in a show. But they prelan to retire. And
[48:18] Speaker 2: then since they planned to retire, this triggers our financial review,
[48:22] Speaker 2: just a standard procedural audit. Well, yeah, dumb luck is
[48:25] Speaker 2: that at that same time, a family from Saint James
[48:28] Speaker 2: requests a copy of an old tuition check. Now I know,
[48:31] Speaker 2: we're going through the old records. We'll find that for you. Yeah,
[48:33] Speaker 2: And they dig it out and the old tuition check
[48:35] Speaker 2: starts the great unraveling of a tuition check. As Monsignor
[48:39] Speaker 2: Myers remembers it, quote, when we got the check, it
[48:42] Speaker 2: was noticed that the endorsement on the back was not
[48:45] Speaker 2: for the Saint James School account. It was an account
[48:47] Speaker 2: that nobody knew about. Record scratch hup. So Mon Senior
[48:52] Speaker 2: he approaches sister Mary Margaret and the principal. The sister
[48:55] Speaker 2: she acts sketchy, you know, and he's like, that's weird.
[48:58] Speaker 2: She doesn't give any real answers. It's all varications and
[49:00] Speaker 2: misleading lies or you know, vague statements. So they hire
[49:04] Speaker 2: a forensic auditor. They bring them in. They start going
[49:06] Speaker 2: through the school's finances. At this point, it's May June
[49:09] Speaker 2: twenty eighteen. School's out. It works all summer. They're hoping
[49:12] Speaker 2: they'll get it done by design schools back in. They're
[49:15] Speaker 2: not done. They work all autumn, they'll maybe they'll get
[49:17] Speaker 2: done by winter break. They're not done. They're like, look,
[49:20] Speaker 2: after six months, we can tell you we have no
[49:22] Speaker 2: idea where all the money went, but we were able
[49:23] Speaker 2: to track back. We found half a million dollars and
[49:26] Speaker 2: they went to this one account, but that count only
[49:28] Speaker 2: started in twenty twelve and she got there nineteen eighty eight.
[49:32] Speaker 2: Oh wow, so we're pretty certain they've probably got other accounts.
[49:34] Speaker 2: So they keep looking around. They started, they find other
[49:37] Speaker 2: bank endorsements on other tuition checks. They find five different
[49:41] Speaker 2: accounts five ye one's dated back to nineteen ninety seven.
[49:46] Speaker 2: So remember still got there in nineteen ninety eight. They
[49:48] Speaker 2: haven't even gotten to the beginning yet. So I know
[49:50] Speaker 2: they possibly this may be a lot of it. So one,
[49:54] Speaker 2: they don't know what happened to all the school funds
[49:55] Speaker 2: and did all go to gambling trips in the high life?
[49:58] Speaker 2: Probably so at this point, winner of twenty eighteen folks
[50:01] Speaker 2: from Saint James School, they approached the Torrents Police. They've
[50:04] Speaker 2: waited six months to do them, to bring the cops in,
[50:06] Speaker 2: but not only that, they decide they do not want
[50:08] Speaker 2: to press charges and we do not want to file
[50:09] Speaker 2: a criminal complaints.
[50:10] Speaker 3: Do you imagine the meetings at some parents' house, like
[50:14] Speaker 3: the secret meetings?
[50:16] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and.
[50:17] Speaker 3: They're all gathered around, Oh my god. And it's like
[50:20] Speaker 3: half gossip yes.
[50:23] Speaker 2: Oh so good, half pitchfork sharpening.
[50:26] Speaker 3: Yes, oh my god.
[50:28] Speaker 2: So the church in the school promises Sister Mary, Margaret,
[50:30] Speaker 2: Sister Lawana, they will face quote canonical sanctions. I have
[50:34] Speaker 2: no idea what those are. It sounds like, you know,
[50:36] Speaker 2: go clean.
[50:36] Speaker 3: Up the ya does church business.
[50:39] Speaker 2: That's what it is. We'll handle this inside the house.
[50:41] Speaker 2: So as for you're stolen funds, the Order of the
[50:44] Speaker 2: Sisters of Saint Joseph of carondole A. They guarantee that
[50:48] Speaker 2: the sisters will pay for the nuns crimes and make restitutions.
[50:51] Speaker 2: So now another order of nuns, not the church, not
[50:53] Speaker 2: the diocese, the Order of Nuns.
[50:56] Speaker 3: That's her order.
[50:57] Speaker 2: Yeah, they got to pay for it. They're like, we'll
[50:58] Speaker 2: take care of her. About that now. Michael Myers as
[51:03] Speaker 2: in Monsignor Myers, his full name is Michael Myers, like
[51:05] Speaker 2: the Texas Chainsaw massacre, or you can shorten it to
[51:08] Speaker 2: Mike Myers, like the guy who voice shresk Ether pick Elizabeth.
[51:11] Speaker 2: But anyway, Monsignor Michael Myers, he had to inform the
[51:14] Speaker 2: parents now about all this back channel talk with the
[51:16] Speaker 2: church and the diocese so forth, and that what they're
[51:19] Speaker 2: going to do about the former principle and how they
[51:21] Speaker 2: violated the trust. So he writes a letter to the
[51:23] Speaker 2: parents and it goes, quote, it is with much sadness
[51:26] Speaker 2: that I'm informing families of Saint James School that an
[51:28] Speaker 2: internal investigation has revealed that over a period of years,
[51:31] Speaker 2: Ster Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang have been
[51:35] Speaker 2: involved in the personal use of a substantial amount of
[51:37] Speaker 2: school funds. Really undercuts it. Yeah, there's no drama in that.
[51:41] Speaker 2: So he assures the parents that the Order of the
[51:43] Speaker 2: Sisters of Saint Joseph so Corondela will be quote cooperating
[51:47] Speaker 2: with us and the Archdiocese to confirm the amount of
[51:50] Speaker 2: the funds that were misappropriated, and the Order of Done
[51:52] Speaker 2: promises once again to pay restitution as well the criminal part.
[51:55] Speaker 2: So Monsignor Mike Myers added that the archdiocese had no
[51:58] Speaker 2: plans to prosecute them. He tells that to the parents,
[52:01] Speaker 2: and then Sister Mary, Margaret and Sister Lana were quote
[52:04] Speaker 2: very sorry. And now, as he also put it, and
[52:07] Speaker 2: I quote, they have expressed to me and asked that
[52:10] Speaker 2: I convey to you the deep remorse that they each
[52:13] Speaker 2: feel for their actions and ask your forgiveness and prayers.
[52:18] Speaker 3: Okay, that was then, and.
[52:20] Speaker 2: Then entered the DOJ. We don't want to go to
[52:23] Speaker 2: the Torrents PD. Well, one of the parents decided, let's
[52:26] Speaker 2: go to the FBI. No way, That's what I have
[52:30] Speaker 2: to guess, because the DOJ got involved. Yeah, nun's actions
[52:33] Speaker 2: met the criteria for federal prosecution. Yeah, rather than on
[52:36] Speaker 2: senior one to press charges or not.
[52:37] Speaker 3: Now that's the well maybe the I don't know.
[52:41] Speaker 2: Yeah. Press release from the DOJ dated February seventh, twenty
[52:44] Speaker 2: twenty two. The fed's summed up the crimes. Thus, Lee
[52:47] Speaker 2: Elizabeth sister Mary Margaret Kreiper, who had as a nun,
[52:51] Speaker 2: had taken a valve of poverty, diverted school funds into
[52:53] Speaker 2: the Saint James Convent account and the Saint James Savings account,
[52:57] Speaker 2: and then use the diverted funds to pay for ex
[53:00] Speaker 2: expenses that the order would not have approved, much less
[53:02] Speaker 2: paid for, including large gambling expenses and curdit casinos and
[53:06] Speaker 2: certain credit card charges. So Bo Meredith, the principal of
[53:10] Speaker 2: this school for twenty eight years, sole discretion of our
[53:13] Speaker 2: school finances for decades. It's really impossible to say how
[53:17] Speaker 2: much she and sister Lane got away with. The FEDS
[53:19] Speaker 2: estimated it at eight hundred and thirty five thousand, three
[53:23] Speaker 2: hundred and thirty nine dollars day, or, as the DOJ
[53:26] Speaker 2: prosecutor laid it out, on an annualized basis, approximately eighty
[53:30] Speaker 2: three thousand dollars per year. Kreyper stole the equivalent of
[53:33] Speaker 2: the tuition of fourteen different students every year.
[53:36] Speaker 3: Oh man, denying they I love the tuition conversion on it. Yeah,
[53:41] Speaker 3: and we'll just assume those are in parish Catholics.
[53:43] Speaker 2: Yes we are.
[53:44] Speaker 3: Are they? The price goes up?
[53:48] Speaker 2: So all I gotta say to that is damn sister
[53:53] Speaker 2: so Elizabeth, what's that ridiculous takeaway?
[53:55] Speaker 3: Yeah, a ridiculous takeaway. I think it's interesting. We were
[53:58] Speaker 3: saying about how no one looks past us the wrapper
[54:00] Speaker 3: of like, if you have this, this notion of it, we'll.
[54:05] Speaker 2: Tell them a story they can understand. They don't then
[54:06] Speaker 2: question the story.
[54:07] Speaker 3: Right. One of the things that I saw once where
[54:10] Speaker 3: you're talking. You mentioned nuns and airports, and I saw
[54:13] Speaker 3: in I think it was in like Rome, Fumacino, But
[54:17] Speaker 3: there were all these nuns and they had then they
[54:19] Speaker 3: were in full habit and and they were walking and
[54:26] Speaker 3: everyone kind of moved out of their way like they
[54:28] Speaker 3: and they were kind of gliding through. And I thought
[54:31] Speaker 3: that must be the coolest feeling to have everybody get
[54:34] Speaker 3: out of your way, as someone who just like gets
[54:36] Speaker 3: bumped into all the time. And like in airports, people
[54:40] Speaker 3: don't care. They like they had.
[54:41] Speaker 2: Like a force.
[54:43] Speaker 3: And I don't know if that was just because they
[54:45] Speaker 3: were in Italy, but I feel like other places too,
[54:48] Speaker 3: to have when you have that outside appearance and all
[54:52] Speaker 3: the things that affords you, you know, it's a it's
[54:55] Speaker 3: a blessing and a curse in this case, Saren, what's
[54:59] Speaker 3: her ridiculous?
[55:00] Speaker 2: Oh, it's a miracle. Ask mine is damn sister? That's
[55:06] Speaker 2: all I got for Princy. Do though? Do you got
[55:09] Speaker 2: to talk back for us? Sure?
[55:11] Speaker 3: Do?
[55:13] Speaker 7: Oh my god?
[55:20] Speaker 3: I love che.
[55:24] Speaker 6: Hello everyone. So this is a response to something ridiculous
[55:27] Speaker 6: Elizabeth brought up in an episode of twenty twenty three.
[55:30] Speaker 6: So I hope it still blows your mind with how
[55:32] Speaker 6: much you guys love pickles. But there's more than just
[55:34] Speaker 6: a pickle hard Seltzer. There's a pickle moonshine that has
[55:37] Speaker 6: the spears in it. Really good for Bloody Mary's pickle
[55:41] Speaker 6: Vodka's many pickle beers. Those are pretty good too. You
[55:45] Speaker 6: can get them spicy. But you guys, there's a whole
[55:47] Speaker 6: pickle world out there for you. And I hope you
[55:50] Speaker 6: love this, love the show, Thank you so much.
[55:53] Speaker 2: We do.
[55:53] Speaker 3: I do love that. You know what I got recently
[55:56] Speaker 3: pickled a gaio. Oh gorillas makes it's just chopped, yeah,
[56:02] Speaker 3: and you can put it like you know. I do
[56:04] Speaker 3: all sorts of experimental tacos there.
[56:06] Speaker 2: I've heard this about you. You told me that I
[56:08] Speaker 2: was your pr company.
[56:09] Speaker 3: Yes, and I'm gonna put a little pickle the guyo
[56:12] Speaker 3: on there. See what happens. Get a little loose.
[56:14] Speaker 2: Crazy, I'm gonna get drunk on.
[56:17] Speaker 3: I think let's get you some pickle one. The Bloody
[56:21] Speaker 3: Mary idea is interesting and we get pickled on the
[56:24] Speaker 3: pickle juice. Love it.
[56:25] Speaker 2: I love it well as always. You can find us
[56:27] Speaker 2: online ridiculous crime on those social media, some of them,
[56:30] Speaker 2: most of them whatever. We also have our website, Ridiculous
[56:32] Speaker 2: Crime dot com. It is award winning experience. I recommend it.
[56:36] Speaker 2: We just won thrill Ride roller Coaster of the Air
[56:39] Speaker 2: in Ohio. We also like your talkbacks, as you can tell,
[56:42] Speaker 2: so please get the iHeart app downloaded then leave one there.
[56:47] Speaker 2: You may hear your voice here. Also, you can email
[56:49] Speaker 2: us you feel like a Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.
[56:51] Speaker 2: We do like hearing from you there as well as
[56:53] Speaker 2: always catch us next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by
[57:02] Speaker 2: Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Brenette, produced and edited by the
[57:05] Speaker 2: Right Reverend Monsignor Dave Kustin, and starring Analyze Rutger at
[57:09] Speaker 2: his tune in. Research is by our Honorable Mother Superior
[57:12] Speaker 2: Warissa Brown. Our theme song is by Brother Thomas Lee,
[57:16] Speaker 2: Father Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred,
[57:20] Speaker 2: guest Harry, makeup by Sparkleshot and He's Done. Executive producers
[57:25] Speaker 2: are official Deacons of the Church of the Plastic Jesus,
[57:27] Speaker 2: Ben Bolin and Noel Brown.
[57:34] Speaker 4: Ridic Crime Say It One More Times Crime.
[57:41] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeart Radio four more podcasts.
[57:44] Speaker 1: My Heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or
[57:47] Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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