# The Great Escapes: Steven Jay Russell

An episode of [Ridiculous Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1608230191), 5 Sep 2024, 57 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0b4bcc39-7ba2-453f-aaac-ae510011dd80/36c30461-5164-42f5-9fab-b1e1012fba97/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3a4c50f5-ff69-4807-aa26-ae510011dd8e

This guy. He pulled off great cons and even better prison escapes. He got tossed in solitary for life, but now walks free. Jim Carrey played him in a movie. I mean, this guy. You simply can't keep him down. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
[0:03] Speaker 2: Dave Elizabeth, Dave Dave.
[0:05] Speaker 3: Guess what It's just us again. Yeah, and I have
[0:11] Speaker 3: a question for you. Do you know what's ridiculous?
[0:15] Speaker 4: I do?
[0:17] Speaker 5: Here?
[0:17] Speaker 6: Let me I'm going to ask you this in two ways. First,
[0:21] Speaker 6: have you ever loved a building?
[0:24] Speaker 3: Yeah?
[0:24] Speaker 2: Sure, Well let me ask you in the.
[0:26] Speaker 5: In the other way before you go in.
[0:28] Speaker 6: Mm hmmm, tell me have you ever really, really really
[0:31] Speaker 6: ever loved the building?
[0:35] Speaker 7: No?
[0:35] Speaker 3: I definitely have.
[0:36] Speaker 2: Okay, what building have you loved?
[0:38] Speaker 5: Oh?
[0:38] Speaker 3: I don't know. I've loved an old home that I
[0:43] Speaker 3: lived in. I've loved you know, I really I really
[0:47] Speaker 3: loved my high school building.
[0:49] Speaker 2: I mean like, i'm's beautiful?
[0:51] Speaker 3: Really did I really?
[0:52] Speaker 2: Really?
[0:52] Speaker 5: Oh?
[0:53] Speaker 3: Not like love love I admired from a distance. I
[0:56] Speaker 3: think I know where you're going with this, and I
[0:58] Speaker 3: think this is not going to be kosher.
[1:01] Speaker 5: Well it is.
[1:03] Speaker 2: It is not a mashup, So I'll tell you that.
[1:06] Speaker 5: Okay, Well that's but there is a woman. She was
[1:12] Speaker 5: named Erica LaBrie.
[1:14] Speaker 6: She she loved a building, I mean like really really
[1:18] Speaker 6: loved like she had feelings for a bit.
[1:22] Speaker 5: I will give you a hint as to which building
[1:24] Speaker 5: she loved.
[1:25] Speaker 3: Mm hmmm.
[1:27] Speaker 5: After she got married, she changed her name to Erica Eiffel.
[1:31] Speaker 3: Stop yes, why do we allow these things?
[1:35] Speaker 6: She's also known as Aya. She is an American competitive archer.
[1:40] Speaker 6: She actually did marry the Eiffel Tower in a commitment
[1:43] Speaker 6: ceremony in two thousand and seven.
[1:45] Speaker 3: Oh good for her.
[1:47] Speaker 5: Now.
[1:47] Speaker 6: It's not like somebody was like, I knew this would
[1:49] Speaker 6: bug you. I knew it. It's just like the equivalent
[1:53] Speaker 6: of a mashup is like, let me get you into
[1:55] Speaker 6: a funky sexual.
[1:56] Speaker 3: Thing that no, I mean, that's the thing is that
[1:58] Speaker 3: the equivalent of a mashup for me is like some
[2:02] Speaker 3: weird I'm quirky like activity, and my irritation with it
[2:09] Speaker 3: makes people upset. And yet you and Zaren find this
[2:14] Speaker 3: very entertaining, so go on.
[2:18] Speaker 6: So And it's not like somebody was like, oh, you
[2:20] Speaker 6: love the Eiffel Tower so much, why don't you marry it?
[2:22] Speaker 5: And she's like, Okay, I will.
[2:24] Speaker 6: She married the Eiffel Tower in a commitment ceremony in
[2:27] Speaker 6: two thousand and seven. This isn't even like a long
[2:29] Speaker 6: time ago. Erica Eifel is a competitive archery archer. She's
[2:35] Speaker 6: a really good archer, she won championship. She went since
[2:38] Speaker 6: she went to the Olympics. She won gold in two
[2:41] Speaker 6: thousand and seven, and first she fell in love with
[2:45] Speaker 6: her bow, who she called Lance, her compound bow, and
[2:48] Speaker 6: was like Lance, Yeah, yeah, this relationship with Lance is
[2:53] Speaker 6: what helped me become a world class archer. Lance understands me.
[2:57] Speaker 6: She then went on to found os Internetia Now, which
[3:01] Speaker 6: is an objectum sexuality where she believes in developing significant
[3:06] Speaker 6: relationships with inanimate objects. She says she encountered the Eiffel
[3:10] Speaker 6: Tower in two thousand and four, she felt an immediate attraction.
[3:14] Speaker 2: She said.
[3:15] Speaker 6: She told ABC News that she and others quote feel
[3:17] Speaker 6: an innate connection to objects. It comes perfectly normal to
[3:21] Speaker 6: us to connect on various levels emotional, spiritual, and also
[3:26] Speaker 6: physical for something.
[3:27] Speaker 3: Wait, okay, so you know you're just you're you've spent
[3:32] Speaker 3: all this money to go on vacation to France, to
[3:35] Speaker 3: go to Paris. It's just like dream vacation of a lifetime.
[3:39] Speaker 3: And you're walking up and you go to look at
[3:41] Speaker 3: the Eiffel Tower to Tillifel and there's some lady rubbing
[3:44] Speaker 3: up on it, and you're like wait a second, no, stop, Well.
[3:47] Speaker 6: Think about her, She's like, oh that's oh, that's oh,
[3:51] Speaker 6: like it hit her like at three different levels.
[3:53] Speaker 3: Uh huh.
[3:54] Speaker 2: And this was like a.
[3:55] Speaker 6: Big deal enough she uh, well, you may not host
[3:58] Speaker 6: her on Ridiculous Crime. But in April of two thousand
[4:01] Speaker 6: and nine, she got on Good Morning America. This was
[4:03] Speaker 6: the second anniversary of her wedding, and she explained how
[4:06] Speaker 6: her object love empowered her. And there's another structure that
[4:13] Speaker 6: she fell in love with. She had a twenty year
[4:15] Speaker 6: relationship with the Berlin Wall and there's a musical called
[4:18] Speaker 6: Erica's Wall that really details that.
[4:20] Speaker 3: So you got, oh wait, so she's like the Elizabeth Taylor.
[4:23] Speaker 5: Of architecture or like the Henry the Eighth.
[4:26] Speaker 3: So I you know, I used to always say, as
[4:29] Speaker 3: long as you're not hurting anybody, and then we entered
[4:32] Speaker 3: the Summer of Dark, Elizabeth trying so hard to get
[4:35] Speaker 3: out of it, and it's really really difficult for me
[4:38] Speaker 3: when you tell me stories like this. Well, but you know,
[4:42] Speaker 3: if she's not hurting anybody, fine, See I can't say that.
[4:46] Speaker 3: Like with the furries, if you're a furry and you're
[4:48] Speaker 3: not hurting anyone, go forth. But if you're trashing a
[4:51] Speaker 3: hotel and being disgusting. Okay, then I can pass judgment.
[4:54] Speaker 5: That's fair. And with the.
[4:57] Speaker 3: Pokemon folks, who I apparently really riled up. If you're
[5:01] Speaker 3: making it so that kids can't get the cards because
[5:04] Speaker 3: you've driven the price up, then I'm irritated. But you know, otherwise,
[5:08] Speaker 3: do your thing whatever. I don't care anymore.
[5:10] Speaker 5: I like that. That's good, thank you.
[5:12] Speaker 6: What about what about say like a hunchback and I
[5:15] Speaker 6: use that term in a literary sense.
[5:18] Speaker 3: I I love them.
[5:21] Speaker 6: Some of the this OS group, this OS what was it.
[5:25] Speaker 3: Called something about the sexul International, Yeah, objective sexuality, the calculatist,
[5:34] Speaker 3: bisexual excuse me, the bisexual calculator.
[5:42] Speaker 6: So one of the scholars that hooks onto this says
[5:47] Speaker 6: that they see OS like behavior in classical literature, for example,
[5:52] Speaker 6: in Victor Who's eighteen thirty one novel The Hunchback of
[5:55] Speaker 6: Notre Dame, and I quote.
[5:58] Speaker 5: Quasimoto, love the bells, caress them, talk to them, understood them.
[6:03] Speaker 5: From the carry on and the steeple of the transsept
[6:06] Speaker 5: to the great bell over the doorway, they all shared
[6:09] Speaker 5: his love. Claude Frolo has made the bell ringer of
[6:12] Speaker 5: Notre Dame, and to give the Great Bell in marriage
[6:15] Speaker 5: to Quasimoto was to give Juliette Delomeo. M I'm just
[6:20] Speaker 5: gonna leave you with that.
[6:21] Speaker 3: You know, Quasimoto had a lot going on, cut him
[6:24] Speaker 3: a lot of slack. As one hundred percent ridiculous, you've gone,
[6:31] Speaker 3: You've gone beyond one hundred percent ridiculous. You're into the
[6:33] Speaker 3: one thousand percent ridiculous.
[6:35] Speaker 5: I'll take you.
[6:36] Speaker 3: Do you want to know what else is ridiculous?
[6:38] Speaker 5: Yeah, give me like two thousand percent ridiculous.
[6:41] Speaker 3: Being the first person in US history to receive a
[6:44] Speaker 3: life sentence in solitary confinement for prison escapes. Ouch, ouch,
[7:11] Speaker 3: this is ridiculous crime. A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.
[7:17] Speaker 3: Heis and cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free
[7:20] Speaker 3: and one hundred percent ridiculous.
[7:24] Speaker 2: You know you said that.
[7:25] Speaker 3: I know, I totally just said that. I have a
[7:29] Speaker 3: fascinating story for you today, Captain d You ever seen
[7:33] Speaker 3: the movie I Love You Philip Morris?
[7:36] Speaker 5: I have not. I have seen I Love You. You're
[7:38] Speaker 5: perfect now change.
[7:40] Speaker 3: Oh, I've not seen that. This isn't about the tobacco
[7:45] Speaker 3: company Philip Morris, which when I saw it, I thought
[7:48] Speaker 3: that that's what it was about. But it's based on
[7:50] Speaker 3: a real guy. Stephen J. Russell. Like I said, I
[7:53] Speaker 3: didn't see the movie. It came out in two thousand
[7:55] Speaker 3: and nine. I don't know what I was doing that year.
[7:58] Speaker 3: I haven't watched the movie anyway. It's fictionalization and I
[8:01] Speaker 3: generally don't watch stuff like that when I'm researching my
[8:04] Speaker 3: little stories because I like to stick purely to the
[8:07] Speaker 3: news accounts and like maybe a book or memoir. Anyway,
[8:11] Speaker 3: Stephen J. Russell, So, I am so intrigued by this guy.
[8:15] Speaker 3: He's complex, Dave, he contains multitudes.
[8:18] Speaker 2: Oh, this is exciting.
[8:19] Speaker 3: Yeah. He was born in North Carolina in nineteen fifty seven.
[8:22] Speaker 3: Good guy. He was adopted right after his birth by
[8:25] Speaker 3: a family in Virginia. And this family they ran like
[8:28] Speaker 3: a produce business, And when he was nine, they told
[8:32] Speaker 3: him that he was adopted. And this was really tough
[8:34] Speaker 3: for him, even though the family did their very best,
[8:36] Speaker 3: Like they broke the news to him in a really
[8:39] Speaker 3: gentle way, and they made sure that he understood that
[8:41] Speaker 3: they were there for him as he processed it, which
[8:44] Speaker 3: is like seems like pretty progressive for the time.
[8:47] Speaker 5: Was he adopted?
[8:48] Speaker 3: Yeah, he was adopted.
[8:50] Speaker 2: They wanted to like some big mean joke.
[8:52] Speaker 3: They're like, Okay, here's what we're going to do. We're
[8:54] Speaker 3: going to convince him, honey, you're adopted. No, he really
[8:58] Speaker 3: was adopted. Adopted it they're good people. He later learned
[9:02] Speaker 3: that his birth mother, who was unmarried when he was born,
[9:05] Speaker 3: eventually married his birth father and they even had more
[9:09] Speaker 3: children together, but they never made an attempt to kind
[9:11] Speaker 3: of like reach out, get him back, get in touch
[9:15] Speaker 3: even and so he said, quote, I felt rejected. I
[9:18] Speaker 3: had a little bit of a problem when I found out. So,
[9:21] Speaker 3: you know, he tried really hard to be a good kid,
[9:24] Speaker 3: but he was troubled and like his parents had his
[9:26] Speaker 3: IQ taken one sixty three. Super smart kid, yeah, super
[9:31] Speaker 3: smart kid, but he's troubled. And it was by more
[9:34] Speaker 3: than just the adoption thing. Like he started setting fires,
[9:37] Speaker 3: which is no bueno TI. Yeah, that's a very bad
[9:41] Speaker 3: So he's like thirteen, like his firebug ways are getting
[9:44] Speaker 3: him sent to this place called Hanover Boys Home, and
[9:47] Speaker 3: the place was absolutely terrible, of course, but it was
[9:50] Speaker 3: there that he figured something out about himself. He realized
[9:54] Speaker 3: he was gay. And so this is the early seventies
[9:57] Speaker 3: in the South, not the easiest place to be, Oh no,
[10:02] Speaker 3: but he did his best to just blend in hide
[10:04] Speaker 3: who he was. So he started working for the family
[10:07] Speaker 3: produce business. As soon as he turned eighteen, he volunteered
[10:11] Speaker 3: as a reserve sheriff's deputy. He even he played the
[10:14] Speaker 3: organ for his church.
[10:16] Speaker 2: Wow, he was an upstanding citizen.
[10:17] Speaker 3: Right nineteen seventy six, he marries Debbie Davis, the daughter
[10:22] Speaker 3: of the police chief's secretary, and so then two years
[10:25] Speaker 3: later they have this daughter named Stephanie. And then not
[10:28] Speaker 3: long after that, I believe it was like right after
[10:31] Speaker 3: his adopted father passed away, he just couldn't hide his
[10:35] Speaker 3: truth anymore. So he came out to his wife and
[10:37] Speaker 3: the two of them got divorced. This is what he said. Quote.
[10:42] Speaker 3: People use the term sham marriage, but I don't think
[10:45] Speaker 3: it was a sham because there was a sexual attraction
[10:48] Speaker 3: towards women, but there was always a stronger attraction towards men.
[10:52] Speaker 3: I finally let go, and it became easier to deal
[10:55] Speaker 3: with my sexuality because I wasn't trying to hide it.
[10:58] Speaker 3: So complex guy, Yeah, yeah, So he tried. He tried
[11:02] Speaker 3: to earn an honest living. He moved out to Los Angeles.
[11:05] Speaker 3: He became a sales manager at this like food company
[11:09] Speaker 3: and after a while his manager learned that he was gay,
[11:13] Speaker 3: and he the response was he fires Stephen Russell immediately.
[11:18] Speaker 3: And then yeah, so Russell says, quote, when I lost
[11:21] Speaker 3: my job, that really screwed with my head. I lost
[11:25] Speaker 3: control of my life. I would never put myself or
[11:28] Speaker 3: anyone else through that. Instead of feeling sorry for myself
[11:31] Speaker 3: when I lost my job, I would have got another job.
[11:34] Speaker 3: I didn't know how to react because I was angry.
[11:36] Speaker 3: I'm not angry anymore. So it's that loss of control
[11:40] Speaker 3: that's so key here. The guy had a bad run
[11:43] Speaker 3: as a kid. He did his best to get on track,
[11:46] Speaker 3: and that meant hiding who he was, which damaged him
[11:49] Speaker 3: and his wife and his kid. Like, there are no
[11:52] Speaker 3: winners at this point, and I think that even though
[11:54] Speaker 3: it was painful, he really did the honorable and brave
[11:57] Speaker 3: thing by you know, by his wife in coming out.
[12:01] Speaker 3: And here he is, He's trying to keep on track.
[12:03] Speaker 3: He wants to work hard, become a productive member of society.
[12:07] Speaker 3: And then something that he has that has absolutely nothing
[12:10] Speaker 3: to do with him as a professional or a worker
[12:13] Speaker 3: or a member of staff gets them fired, and I mean,
[12:15] Speaker 3: we have laws against that now, but it still happens.
[12:19] Speaker 2: And yeah, and I'm sure it happened all the time
[12:21] Speaker 2: back then. You're terrifying.
[12:22] Speaker 3: Yeah, And I'm so I'm so pained by people harming
[12:25] Speaker 3: others out of their own imagined fears, right because like
[12:30] Speaker 3: they're just afraid of something because it's different. And that's
[12:33] Speaker 3: just like that hurts my heart anyway. So there's Stephen Russell.
[12:36] Speaker 6: Yeah, Like I was just going to say, for rude dudes,
[12:39] Speaker 6: like rud dudes who are older will remember the show
[12:41] Speaker 6: Three's Company from the eighties when he was younger. They
[12:44] Speaker 6: might not, but even as recently the eighties, like go
[12:46] Speaker 6: watch that sitcom and it's a very funny show and
[12:49] Speaker 6: very thoughtful show, and like it just gives you a
[12:51] Speaker 6: sense of the stigma of being gay at the time.
[12:54] Speaker 6: And how like it was this running joke of the
[12:56] Speaker 6: show of like, oh there's Jack, he might he must
[12:59] Speaker 6: be a little you know, and they all these different
[13:01] Speaker 6: terrible epithets with like mm hmm. You wouldn't do that now,
[13:04] Speaker 6: but like it was like a punchline in the.
[13:07] Speaker 3: Eighties totally, and it was like, these are people's lives, right.
[13:10] Speaker 3: So he's out of a job, he's crapped on by society,
[13:14] Speaker 3: and so you know, he turned to crime. Now luckily
[13:17] Speaker 3: he's not setting fires, not wanton destruction. He turns to
[13:22] Speaker 3: cons and I feel like this is his middle finger
[13:25] Speaker 3: to the world, like you don't want me to participate, fine,
[13:27] Speaker 3: I won't. So he starts selling fake Rolex watches, which
[13:33] Speaker 3: is like, is it wrong that I kind of want
[13:35] Speaker 3: a fake.
[13:35] Speaker 6: Roles I actually, for a brief period of time I
[13:38] Speaker 6: had one when I was a student in New York,
[13:40] Speaker 6: like oh yeah. Then there were those guys like down
[13:43] Speaker 6: in Times Square and like yeah, and the village, especially
[13:45] Speaker 6: in Chinatown, and it was like it wasn't fooling anybody.
[13:49] Speaker 2: I mean it was ten dollars.
[13:51] Speaker 6: Clear and like really heavy, like heavier than a watch
[13:53] Speaker 6: should be because it probably made of lead or something.
[13:56] Speaker 2: But it was fun. It's cool to have like that
[13:58] Speaker 2: in a fake ID.
[13:59] Speaker 3: I love fig I used to have a phone case
[14:01] Speaker 3: that said Gucci but it was Guccy and I love
[14:07] Speaker 3: obviously knockoff stuff. My friend Ave Linda, she's a fashion
[14:11] Speaker 3: scholar and she used to be an authenticator, and my
[14:14] Speaker 3: love of bad fakes gives her aneurysms like I just
[14:18] Speaker 3: I love bad fakes. I want a fake Rolex anyway, Russell.
[14:21] Speaker 3: So he would fake slip and fall accidents like stuff
[14:24] Speaker 3: like that. He defrauded in Russell.
[14:26] Speaker 2: It's like sliping Jimmy exactly.
[14:29] Speaker 3: He defrauded an insurance company out of forty five thousand
[14:32] Speaker 3: dollars good good haul nineteen ninety two. He turned in
[14:37] Speaker 3: a fake passport application and that's what got inbusted, like
[14:41] Speaker 3: he couldn't pull that off. And for the for that though,
[14:43] Speaker 3: he got a ten year sentence in Harris County Jail
[14:47] Speaker 3: in Texas. And here's what he had to say. Quote
[14:50] Speaker 3: keep in mind that Texas was asking me to serve
[14:52] Speaker 3: ten years for insurance fraud, another six months for passport fraud,
[14:57] Speaker 3: and Virginia wanted ninety days of jail time for me
[15:00] Speaker 3: for theft. By the time I was to get out
[15:02] Speaker 3: of prison, Jim would be dead. Dave, Who's Jim?
[15:06] Speaker 5: That's That's what I was a good question.
[15:07] Speaker 2: Who's Jim.
[15:08] Speaker 3: Jim was James Kempel, That was his boyfriend, and Jim
[15:12] Speaker 3: had tested positive for HIV, which at the time was
[15:15] Speaker 3: a death sentence. So there's Russell in prison. The person
[15:19] Speaker 3: he loves is on limited time. He's going to be
[15:22] Speaker 3: locked up and miss out on the years they could
[15:24] Speaker 3: have had together. And it's it's not just that they're apart,
[15:27] Speaker 3: they're a part in his partner's suffering. And so I mean, like, yeah,
[15:31] Speaker 3: Russell needs to face the consequences of his actions. But
[15:33] Speaker 3: it's a sad tale all around.
[15:35] Speaker 6: And back then, would you have like you had payphones
[15:37] Speaker 6: and you had letters, like that's the way.
[15:40] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Russell decides to do something about it.
[15:44] Speaker 3: And I've been bumming you out until now, Dave, my
[15:47] Speaker 3: good dude, let's get ridiculous. So Russell he starts by
[15:52] Speaker 3: studying the shift patterns of the guards in the prison,
[15:56] Speaker 3: and he made note of the comings and goings. He
[15:58] Speaker 3: watched their routines and their manner. And one day he
[16:02] Speaker 3: came across a room and in it were all of
[16:04] Speaker 3: the personal effects of the female inmates on the other
[16:07] Speaker 3: side of the jail. So we rifled through the stuff.
[16:10] Speaker 3: He found a pair of sweatpants that would fit him,
[16:12] Speaker 3: and I should note the guy's six foot two, and
[16:15] Speaker 3: so then he found the only shirt that he could
[16:17] Speaker 3: find that would fit him was a tie dyed shirt.
[16:19] Speaker 3: So he grabs them both and like secrets them away
[16:22] Speaker 3: in his cell. And another thing he managed to nab
[16:25] Speaker 3: at some point was a walkie talkie used by the guards.
[16:27] Speaker 3: I have no idea how he landed that, but he
[16:29] Speaker 3: did so with civilian traders.
[16:32] Speaker 5: He must have traded right.
[16:34] Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly so with civilian clothes in the radio he
[16:38] Speaker 3: made his move. Dave's closed eyes.
[16:42] Speaker 6: Oh yeah, I never get to do this.
[16:44] Speaker 2: I'm closing my eyes.
[16:46] Speaker 3: I want you to picture it. You are a correctional
[16:50] Speaker 3: officers radio. You're old, battered. You've been dropped and skidded
[16:55] Speaker 3: along cold, polished cement floors. You've been ripped in sweaty hands.
[17:01] Speaker 3: You've been perched atop toilet paper dispensers while your owner
[17:05] Speaker 3: took a dump. You're wrapped in electrical tape to keep
[17:08] Speaker 3: your sides from splitting. You've heard and relayed some crazy
[17:11] Speaker 3: stuff over the years, fights, medical emergencies, gossip, jokes. Life
[17:17] Speaker 3: has been hard. Someone dropped you behind a bookshelf in
[17:20] Speaker 3: the jail library a couple weeks ago. Oh, your power
[17:23] Speaker 3: switched knocked to off when you fell, and you sat
[17:26] Speaker 3: silent the soft steps of inmates and coos passed you
[17:30] Speaker 3: by on the carpet, but you were unnoticed until Stephen
[17:33] Speaker 3: Russell saw you. He scooped you up and tucked you
[17:35] Speaker 3: under his shirt. Back in his cell, he flipped your
[17:38] Speaker 3: switch to on. You crackled to life. He quickly turned
[17:41] Speaker 3: your volume all the way down, then powered you off.
[17:44] Speaker 3: Then he tucked you into a box under his buck,
[17:46] Speaker 3: and there you sat. You wondered what would happen next,
[17:49] Speaker 3: where you'd go. You figured guards would inspect to Sell
[17:52] Speaker 3: at some point and find you, and you'd be returned
[17:54] Speaker 3: to your life of germs and hip holsters and noise
[17:56] Speaker 3: and clatter. But for now things are blessedly silent. Until
[18:00] Speaker 3: they weren't. One day, you're removed from the box. There's Russell,
[18:05] Speaker 3: clad in his prison uniform, but you see sweatpants and
[18:08] Speaker 3: a tied eyed shirt peeking out from underneath. He tucks
[18:11] Speaker 3: you under his shirt and nestled in the dark between
[18:13] Speaker 3: the tied eye and an undershirt. You feel a little claustrophobic,
[18:16] Speaker 3: but also weirdly comforted. Russell makes his way to the
[18:19] Speaker 3: common area and then ducks into an alcove, removing the
[18:22] Speaker 3: jail uniform as he watches the guards go on their
[18:25] Speaker 3: usual smoke break. He walks over to the door leading outside.
[18:28] Speaker 3: There's a windowed booth next to it. He lifts you
[18:31] Speaker 3: up and taps you against the window. You've made this
[18:34] Speaker 3: move a million times. The guard looks out and sees
[18:37] Speaker 3: a man in civilian clothes, admittedly strange and casual ones,
[18:41] Speaker 3: probably undercover. The guard thinks. He nods his head and
[18:44] Speaker 3: buzzes the lock open. Russell walks out the door and
[18:47] Speaker 3: into the parking lot. You in his hand. He takes
[18:50] Speaker 3: a deep breath. Birds chirp, cars whiz by on a
[18:53] Speaker 3: nearby highway. He's free, and so are you. You've never
[18:58] Speaker 3: really been out here, out in the world. It's exhilarating,
[19:01] Speaker 3: so bright, so fresh. Russell turns up your volume and
[19:04] Speaker 3: listens for any mention of his escape. Nothing. He sets
[19:08] Speaker 3: you on a fence post as he walks out of
[19:10] Speaker 3: the jail parking lot and into the world. Goodbye, you
[19:13] Speaker 3: try to tell him, but he's already gone. So hustle,
[19:19] Speaker 3: Russell made his way to Jim. The two of them
[19:22] Speaker 3: fled to Mexico. They lived there for a while, but
[19:24] Speaker 3: then Jim's health got really bad and they had to
[19:26] Speaker 3: come back to the States so he could get better treatment.
[19:29] Speaker 3: So they get back. Russell tried to make some money
[19:32] Speaker 3: for the couple to live off by committing insurance fraud
[19:35] Speaker 3: and they'd been on the run for two years at
[19:37] Speaker 3: this point, but he got busted. Russell sent to jail
[19:40] Speaker 3: and Jim died a few weeks later, so he's heartbroken
[19:43] Speaker 3: behind bars. But then things changed on both fronts. Let's
[19:48] Speaker 3: take a break and we come back. We'll see what
[19:51] Speaker 3: new adventures awaited. Stephen Jay Russell. Yes, Dave, Dave, Dave,
[20:17] Speaker 3: we're back. Okay, nineteen ninety five is where we are now,
[20:22] Speaker 3: great year, Russell.
[20:24] Speaker 2: Do you have a walkman? Do I have a disc man?
[20:26] Speaker 5: Like? What do I have?
[20:28] Speaker 3: Sort of a discman? And you're wearing like super baggy
[20:31] Speaker 3: jeans and like.
[20:33] Speaker 6: A really bright like club shirt, like a like a
[20:37] Speaker 6: shiny blue shirt for ye clubs.
[20:40] Speaker 3: Exactly. Yeah, we're right there. So Stephen J. Russell, he's
[20:45] Speaker 3: in jail, he's just lost his partner, but he meets
[20:48] Speaker 3: someone new. He met fellow inmate Philip Morris, so pretty
[20:52] Speaker 3: soon the two begin a relationship. This is how Russell
[20:55] Speaker 3: described it quote. I didn't think it was possible. I
[20:58] Speaker 3: mean we were in prison. He was softly spoken with
[21:01] Speaker 3: a deep Southern accent. I saw him in the law
[21:04] Speaker 3: library trying to get a book. He's short, He's only
[21:06] Speaker 3: five foot two and I'm six foot two, and I said,
[21:09] Speaker 3: hold on, I'll get that for you. And that was it.
[21:12] Speaker 3: He's very intelligent. He loves fishing and four wheel driving.
[21:16] Speaker 3: He loves music classical like Bach and Beethoven and Mozart.
[21:20] Speaker 3: He's like a little mess. He's a diabetic, but he'll
[21:23] Speaker 3: go out and buy twelve donuts and eat them all
[21:25] Speaker 3: at once.
[21:26] Speaker 2: So strangely, he didn't smoke.
[21:29] Speaker 3: Right, and so we have another like, you know, very complex,
[21:33] Speaker 3: but you know, interesting guy. So what was Morrison for?
[21:39] Speaker 3: Thank you for asking, Dave. He failed to return a
[21:42] Speaker 3: rental car and so wow, I.
[21:46] Speaker 6: Didn't realize I would figure they find you.
[21:50] Speaker 3: But I mean, like maybe he sold it. I don't know.
[21:53] Speaker 3: But so Russell and Morris, they were both paroled later
[21:57] Speaker 3: that year, and so they get out at the same time.
[22:00] Speaker 3: They stay together. Russell wasted no time getting back to criming.
[22:04] Speaker 3: You know, he and Morris had to support themselves somehow,
[22:07] Speaker 3: so he cashed in a bunch of fraudulent life insurance
[22:11] Speaker 3: policies that he'd taken out on Jim Kemple. And in
[22:15] Speaker 3: the most audacious move, he also applied for a job
[22:19] Speaker 3: as the CFO of this huge medical management company called
[22:24] Speaker 3: NAMM and like, he didn't have any of the qualifications
[22:28] Speaker 3: for this job, like zero, So he faked a resume.
[22:32] Speaker 3: But like a gig like this is sure to contact references, right,
[22:36] Speaker 3: don't worry about that. He acted as his own references.
[22:39] Speaker 3: So he had this special talent for changing his voice.
[22:43] Speaker 3: You know that some of us have I like this
[22:45] Speaker 3: and his speech patterns, he could sound like different people
[22:48] Speaker 3: we could be. You know, he's adopted and so okay.
[22:55] Speaker 3: So there's this Houston based journalist Steve McVicker. He became
[23:00] Speaker 3: friends with Russell when he was He's the one who
[23:02] Speaker 3: wrote the book I Love You Philip Morris that the
[23:05] Speaker 3: film's based on. So this is what he said quote.
[23:08] Speaker 3: He has lots of different voices and he always makes
[23:11] Speaker 3: sure to give a different face in every mugshot, which
[23:15] Speaker 3: is incredible. And it kind of makes sense then that
[23:16] Speaker 3: they got Jim Carrey to play him in the movie.
[23:19] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know, so little was dead.
[23:25] Speaker 3: Oh rip, So the Master of a Million voices, he
[23:28] Speaker 3: gets hired and he got to work at his real
[23:31] Speaker 3: job though crime he he embezzled about eight hundred thousand
[23:36] Speaker 3: dollars that's one point four million today from NAMM. And
[23:41] Speaker 3: remember he didn't have any of the job experience necessary
[23:44] Speaker 3: for the gig, but apparently that made him a model employee.
[23:48] Speaker 3: So the founder of can I get this job?
[23:51] Speaker 5: I know?
[23:51] Speaker 4: Right?
[23:52] Speaker 3: The founder of NAMM later said that Russell was like
[23:56] Speaker 3: way easier to work with than any of the other
[23:59] Speaker 3: CFOs that he'd ever met, and that he did his
[24:02] Speaker 3: job really effectively. So I mean, I guess he didn't
[24:05] Speaker 3: have that like inflated sense of self where I don't know,
[24:08] Speaker 3: like he probably just delegated really well and didn't micromanage,
[24:13] Speaker 3: because what the hell is he going to manage?
[24:15] Speaker 7: It?
[24:15] Speaker 3: Has no idea. He used the cash that he stole
[24:18] Speaker 3: to live large, so like he bought Mercedes Benz cars,
[24:23] Speaker 3: he bought jet skis. He they only ate Hogandaws. It
[24:30] Speaker 3: was it was incredible good. They wore matching Rolex watches
[24:37] Speaker 3: him and Morris, so he went from the fake rolies
[24:40] Speaker 3: to the Yeah, they had a little cute matching watches.
[24:42] Speaker 3: And then he did some self care, He got veneers
[24:44] Speaker 3: on his teeth and he had plastic surgery on his eyes.
[24:47] Speaker 3: I feel like that's a misstep. Just don't do it anyway. Yeah,
[24:51] Speaker 3: so a CFO, well it was its early days. Like
[24:56] Speaker 3: if he'd done it today, he'd be he'd look like
[24:59] Speaker 3: that new species of person that we see who has
[25:02] Speaker 3: like the fillers and the cheekbones and then they get
[25:04] Speaker 3: the buckle fat taken out of their cheeks and.
[25:08] Speaker 5: Yeah, and they look like a weird fish.
[25:11] Speaker 3: What is that? It's interesting anyway. So you know, if
[25:14] Speaker 3: you're a CFO for like this major medical management company,
[25:18] Speaker 3: you're gonna make serious coin sure. So like, why didn't
[25:21] Speaker 3: he just get the gig and lay low and collect
[25:23] Speaker 3: the paycheck and be like yeah bies also whatever.
[25:25] Speaker 2: Like and get a pension.
[25:27] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly. This is what he said. Quote and
[25:33] Speaker 3: I feel bad that that. I love this so much.
[25:36] Speaker 2: Quote.
[25:37] Speaker 3: The HMOs put gem and I through hell during his illness.
[25:41] Speaker 3: They wouldn't cover the cost of certain treatments At NAMM.
[25:45] Speaker 3: I watched executives badger their medical directors to put pressure
[25:48] Speaker 3: on network physicians to get patients out of a hospital
[25:51] Speaker 3: as soon as possible, because otherwise it would affect their bonus.
[25:55] Speaker 3: That got my revenge jeans all greased up. I decided
[25:59] Speaker 3: to make NAMM pay for their deeds as well as
[26:02] Speaker 3: the other HMO's deeds towards Jimmy. So I'm like, okay,
[26:06] Speaker 3: I'll allow it, you know him. Yeah, what it's like
[26:09] Speaker 3: dealing with HMOs, It's enough to drive you to crime.
[26:13] Speaker 6: And those what is it like PBMs? The benefit managers
[26:17] Speaker 6: that are the middleman. They are the absolute titus because
[26:21] Speaker 6: get all the money that when they say no exactly.
[26:24] Speaker 3: And so I also, I love the term revenge jeans.
[26:28] Speaker 3: It's just so in you you can't. Yeah, I love that.
[26:30] Speaker 5: It's a pizza tooth. It's like I've got a pizza tooth.
[26:32] Speaker 3: It's yeah, I too have a pizza tooth. So Russell
[26:39] Speaker 3: was not on the job for very long. He got
[26:41] Speaker 3: found out for the embezzlement about five months after he
[26:44] Speaker 3: put it into play. And then the yeah, the cops
[26:47] Speaker 3: came calling, and of course, like he wants to avoid
[26:50] Speaker 3: jail at all costs, so he told officers that he
[26:53] Speaker 3: was diabetic and he asked for insulin and so like
[26:56] Speaker 3: this is at his house, so they get him the
[26:58] Speaker 3: insulin that's there it's Morris's juice, and he filled himself
[27:01] Speaker 3: with forty doses. And there's like a conflicting recollection as
[27:06] Speaker 3: to whether this was like a gambit to buy time
[27:08] Speaker 3: or an effort to end it all. But either way,
[27:11] Speaker 3: he goes into the Shope seizure.
[27:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, is that what happens.
[27:14] Speaker 3: Yeah, he goes into shock and they take him to
[27:15] Speaker 3: the hospital. And so a judge sets his bail at
[27:19] Speaker 3: nine hundred thousand dollars that's like one point five mil today,
[27:23] Speaker 3: And like most people granted bail, he didn't think this
[27:25] Speaker 3: was a fair amount. So instead of talking to his
[27:28] Speaker 3: lawyer or complaining to it, Cell made about it. He
[27:30] Speaker 3: actually did something. He called the district court clerk from
[27:34] Speaker 3: jail and impersonated the judge and he told yeah, he
[27:38] Speaker 3: told the clerk to reduce the bail amount to forty
[27:40] Speaker 3: five thousand dollars. Clerk's like, yeah, sure thing.
[27:43] Speaker 5: Oh my god.
[27:44] Speaker 3: Russell paid his bail the following day and then walked home.
[27:49] Speaker 3: So that's escape number two. And like a few days later,
[27:52] Speaker 3: the courts figured out their mistake and it was only
[27:55] Speaker 3: because the funds that he used to pay the forty
[27:57] Speaker 3: five thousand dollars bail didn't clear, they went out, they
[28:00] Speaker 3: re arrested, and they knew where to find him. Like
[28:02] Speaker 3: he's not on the run. He was with Morris. He said, quote,
[28:05] Speaker 3: I did those things because I wanted to be with Philip.
[28:08] Speaker 3: I was out of control. So all he wants to
[28:11] Speaker 3: do get back to Philip. And this goes back to
[28:13] Speaker 3: my thing about impulse control. When I taught in the prison,
[28:17] Speaker 3: all my students talked about their issues with impulse control,
[28:19] Speaker 3: and it was something that they were all actively working on,
[28:23] Speaker 3: and there were good programs in the federal facility for
[28:25] Speaker 3: those that wanted to take advantage of them. And you
[28:28] Speaker 3: can imagine that those that were enrolled in college classes
[28:31] Speaker 3: also participated in those workshops and made an effort to
[28:34] Speaker 3: better themselves. But I think it's something we have to
[28:37] Speaker 3: recognize early and help correct in people. And it's not easy.
[28:41] Speaker 5: Yeah, And I.
[28:42] Speaker 6: Think it is, like there's got to be something biochemical
[28:46] Speaker 6: about it, because like I can only very loosely relate
[28:50] Speaker 6: to it, Like I can't say I can't relate to it.
[28:53] Speaker 6: I've certainly done some things that were impulsive, but it's
[28:56] Speaker 6: not like I don't feel like I have intrusive thoughts
[28:59] Speaker 6: or or like I'm just gonna go do something to
[29:01] Speaker 6: solve a problem that's like way off the wall, and
[29:04] Speaker 6: I can you can tell there's people that that's just
[29:06] Speaker 6: what occurs to them.
[29:08] Speaker 3: Well think too, you have this whole generation generations that
[29:11] Speaker 3: had exposure to lead paint and lead in gasoline fumes,
[29:15] Speaker 3: and that has been studied to show like that it
[29:18] Speaker 3: contributes to impulse control issues. And so I know that. Yeah,
[29:22] Speaker 3: so I mean like that I think plays into it too,
[29:24] Speaker 3: So it's a real thing. Anyway, Russell, he gets sentenced
[29:28] Speaker 3: to prison for forty five years. And if if we
[29:31] Speaker 3: know anything about Stephen Jay Russell, it's that he always
[29:34] Speaker 3: has a plan. So in prison there's a commissary. Incarcerated
[29:39] Speaker 3: individuals can buy stuff like snacks, radios, papers, pens. Russell
[29:43] Speaker 3: bought pens, like a lot of them, lots and lots
[29:47] Speaker 3: of them, lots of green felt tipped markers.
[29:50] Speaker 6: Now I can relate to this because when I was little,
[29:53] Speaker 6: I just love green twos. So I actually wrote green
[29:57] Speaker 6: twos all over my parents' garage.
[29:59] Speaker 3: Oh my love that.
[30:00] Speaker 6: And thankfully, you know, I don't think they did anything
[30:04] Speaker 6: horrible to me for it. And I also stole all
[30:07] Speaker 6: of the playing cards from my sister's card decks that
[30:10] Speaker 6: were twos and wrote green two on them.
[30:12] Speaker 3: Oh that's cool.
[30:13] Speaker 5: They couldn't find.
[30:14] Speaker 6: Them, So yeah, I love green felt tip markers. I'm
[30:17] Speaker 6: with you, Stephen.
[30:17] Speaker 3: He's right there, and it's like, but he what's he
[30:20] Speaker 3: doing with him? He wasn't giving out like pre aged
[30:22] Speaker 3: temporary tattoos. He was a massing die. So one day
[30:28] Speaker 3: he emptied all the ink into the sink in his
[30:30] Speaker 3: cell and he dyed his white prison uniform green. That right,
[30:35] Speaker 3: that was the I would do it just for aesthetics,
[30:38] Speaker 3: because I green's my favorite color.
[30:40] Speaker 5: Are you a spring? Is that it?
[30:41] Speaker 2: Are you a late spring?
[30:42] Speaker 3: I'm a late spring, not much of a new autumn.
[30:46] Speaker 3: So this is the color. The green was the color
[30:49] Speaker 3: that visiting doctors wore. So here's a pro tip from
[30:53] Speaker 3: Russell quote, you have to be very careful because if
[30:55] Speaker 3: you wring them out, you get streaks in the material,
[30:58] Speaker 3: like this is the aft knowledge. So a few days
[31:02] Speaker 3: after dyeing his uniform, like I guess he gave it
[31:04] Speaker 3: enough time to dry, he made his move. He waited
[31:08] Speaker 3: until the guard at the door was on the phone,
[31:10] Speaker 3: and then he walked up and he puts it on.
[31:13] Speaker 3: He puts the outfit on, the green outfit. He walks
[31:15] Speaker 3: up and he asked to be waved through like a
[31:17] Speaker 3: doctor would, and he gets this hole. Remember he could
[31:19] Speaker 3: like study mannerisms and he gets this thing. Come on,
[31:23] Speaker 3: I gotta get out of here. This is what he said.
[31:25] Speaker 3: Russell said quote, if you're scared, you really mustn't show it.
[31:30] Speaker 3: You have to act like you're meant to be there.
[31:32] Speaker 3: But you do get a huge adrenaline rush. I walked
[31:36] Speaker 3: to the woods just outside the penitentiary, and after about
[31:39] Speaker 3: one hundred yards, I turned round and I went like this,
[31:42] Speaker 3: flipping the bird. I guess it was kind of arrogant.
[31:45] Speaker 3: So he did that, you know, yeah, totally, and he
[31:49] Speaker 3: planned the hell out of it. He figured that they
[31:52] Speaker 3: would send dogs after him, so he taped a bunch
[31:54] Speaker 3: of plastic bags, like really tight against his body so
[31:58] Speaker 3: that his scent would be blocked and the dogs would
[32:00] Speaker 3: track him.
[32:00] Speaker 6: I thought, you're going to say, he taped a bunch
[32:02] Speaker 6: of steaks to me.
[32:05] Speaker 3: It's the exact office. He's like, damn it, I just
[32:07] Speaker 3: wanted to pet the dogs. So he's like, he's still
[32:10] Speaker 3: dressed up as a doctor. I don't know if he
[32:12] Speaker 3: also got like a stethoscope somewhere. Probably let's say he did,
[32:15] Speaker 3: who knows, And so he's all dressed up like that.
[32:19] Speaker 3: He goes to the nearest house. He knocks on the
[32:21] Speaker 3: door and like, you figure, you live a woods away
[32:24] Speaker 3: from a prison, you're probably got you know, your like
[32:28] Speaker 3: censors up all the time. Yeah. No, he convinced the
[32:31] Speaker 3: homeowner that he was a doctor who needed a ride
[32:33] Speaker 3: into town. Like, you know, see, I'd gotten into a
[32:36] Speaker 3: little accident with macar Can you help an mb is.
[32:38] Speaker 5: It's just like a horror movie at this point.
[32:40] Speaker 3: Totally so he said. Quote by the time they had
[32:43] Speaker 3: their helicopters and search teams out, I was drinking Margarita's
[32:47] Speaker 3: in a bar in Houston. This guy's good escape number three.
[32:52] Speaker 3: So he immediately goes to meet up with Morris. The
[32:55] Speaker 3: two of them they head for Mississippi to start a
[32:57] Speaker 3: new life, but they were eventually found, you know, arm
[33:00] Speaker 3: of the law and all. His story though, is huge
[33:03] Speaker 3: in the media. I mean, like, how could it not be.
[33:05] Speaker 3: He's multiple brazen escapes and this made the authorities look really,
[33:10] Speaker 3: really bad. And you know what happens when you poke
[33:13] Speaker 3: that bear. They threw the book at him. So normally,
[33:17] Speaker 3: like he would have kind of laughed at the whole thing,
[33:20] Speaker 3: like even as he was being sentenced, but this time
[33:22] Speaker 3: was different. He was sad and defeated and the court
[33:27] Speaker 3: and in court they asked him like, what's up. You know,
[33:29] Speaker 3: you're normally you find this all hilarious, and he's like, well,
[33:33] Speaker 3: I just found out I'm HIV positive and I don't
[33:35] Speaker 3: have long to live. And everyone's like, oh my god.
[33:38] Speaker 3: So they take him into lock up for ten months.
[33:42] Speaker 3: While he's in there, his condition just deteriorated, like he
[33:45] Speaker 3: lost a ton of weight. He's like feeble and exhausted.
[33:50] Speaker 3: And then they thought, well, okay, we have to send
[33:52] Speaker 3: him to the prison nursing home for hospice care. So
[33:55] Speaker 3: they send him to the home and then the prison
[33:57] Speaker 3: officials they get a call from a doctor who said
[33:59] Speaker 3: that Russell had been selected for an experimental drug trial.
[34:03] Speaker 3: And this is the era when you're getting like all
[34:05] Speaker 3: of these you know, new leaps and bounds, and so
[34:09] Speaker 3: they needed to send him to the treatment center immediately
[34:11] Speaker 3: to begin the new drug trial. And so they show
[34:14] Speaker 3: this incredible compassion. They release him into the care of
[34:16] Speaker 3: the doctor and a few weeks later they find out
[34:19] Speaker 3: though that the experiment had failed and Russell had passed away.
[34:23] Speaker 3: The thing is, Russell never had HIV. Made the whole
[34:29] Speaker 3: thing up dog He he watched Jim die, so he
[34:34] Speaker 3: knew what the process looked like. And he's this great mimic.
[34:38] Speaker 3: So he ate basically nothing, and he took a bunch
[34:40] Speaker 3: of laxatives. And they never administered an HIV test because
[34:44] Speaker 3: he had one on file, but it was one that
[34:47] Speaker 3: he'd fake the results of, Like he literally just typed
[34:49] Speaker 3: one up like Stephen Russell's got HIV, like look see
[34:53] Speaker 3: you know.
[34:53] Speaker 5: And he induced lethargy and like wasting.
[34:57] Speaker 3: Completely completely, And so now they think he's dead because
[35:00] Speaker 3: they get word from this supposed doctor who doesn't exist.
[35:03] Speaker 3: He's like, well, rip, he pulled off escape number four.
[35:08] Speaker 2: Wow, this guy is good.
[35:10] Speaker 3: This is what he said. Quote. That was the most difficult.
[35:14] Speaker 3: I had to completely discipline myself. You do whatever you
[35:18] Speaker 3: have to do. I get my ideas from studying. I watch,
[35:21] Speaker 3: I look for weaknesses, you look the whole way around something,
[35:24] Speaker 3: and you never let yourself get blocked in. I don't
[35:27] Speaker 3: think I'm cleverer than the police. But I managed it
[35:30] Speaker 3: because they think anyone who is a criminal is stupid
[35:33] Speaker 3: and they're complacent. I think anyone can escape from anywhere.
[35:36] Speaker 2: That's probably right. I mean, it's you know true.
[35:40] Speaker 3: And because anytime we have these criminals who have their
[35:43] Speaker 3: wits about them and are pretty smart about it, the
[35:45] Speaker 3: cops are always remarking, like, God, this guy's good. I
[35:48] Speaker 3: respect him, so they're not anticipating it and like it's
[35:52] Speaker 3: this clever. But man, that's bad juju what he did, Like,
[35:56] Speaker 3: don't I don't know, yeah, don't do that.
[35:59] Speaker 6: On the other hand, like his his like part of
[36:02] Speaker 6: the population who was at the time like being almost
[36:05] Speaker 6: deliberately diminished. So if anybody can do it like wear
[36:09] Speaker 6: it does a badge to get out, like he could
[36:11] Speaker 6: do it, and I you.
[36:12] Speaker 3: Know, it's another one of his kind of middle finger
[36:14] Speaker 3: to the world like yeah, yeah. So he's out on
[36:18] Speaker 3: the lamb. On March twentieth, nineteen ninety eight, he poses
[36:22] Speaker 3: as this like rich guy goes into Nations Bank in
[36:25] Speaker 3: Dallas and tries to get a seventy five thousand dollars loan,
[36:28] Speaker 3: and the bank staff they're a little suspicious. They call
[36:31] Speaker 3: the authorities. Cops show up and Russell's like, oh my god,
[36:34] Speaker 3: they found me. So he fakes a heart attack. They
[36:37] Speaker 3: take him to the hospital and it was there that
[36:40] Speaker 3: authorities find out that the guy that they had there
[36:42] Speaker 3: wasn't some rich man trying to score alone. He was
[36:45] Speaker 3: the dearly departed Stephen Russell.
[36:47] Speaker 6: And he's using they're dead, he's using a whole fake profile,
[36:50] Speaker 6: this whole whole fake profile.
[36:51] Speaker 3: Yeah. But they print him and they're like, oh, not really,
[36:54] Speaker 3: So they arrest him, and he tried to convince the
[36:57] Speaker 3: cops that it was all a mistake, like, I'm not
[36:59] Speaker 3: Stephen J. Russell, You've got to be confused. But the
[37:02] Speaker 3: police had when they send the prince out, they find
[37:05] Speaker 3: out who he is. Texas Department of Criminal Justice tells
[37:08] Speaker 3: the cops there ignore everything he says to you, no
[37:11] Speaker 3: matter how believable it seems. Yeah, right, Glenn Castlebury of
[37:17] Speaker 3: the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said, quote, we told
[37:20] Speaker 3: them in Florida, if he comes out of the apartment
[37:23] Speaker 3: and says he's Bill Clinton, don't believe him, even though
[37:25] Speaker 3: you may want to. But I'm like, I'm not sure
[37:28] Speaker 3: why they would believe him, But I'm going to start
[37:30] Speaker 3: telling people I'm Bill Clinton and sticks.
[37:33] Speaker 5: And you're a Hollywood producer, Holly producer.
[37:36] Speaker 3: Bill Clinton com a Hollywood producer. So Russell he gets
[37:40] Speaker 3: placed under heavy security watch didn't matter. He impersonated an
[37:45] Speaker 3: FBI agent, called the hospital on his cell phone and
[37:48] Speaker 3: told them that he could be released. Does escape number five.
[37:52] Speaker 3: So a couple of weeks later, US Marshalls they track
[37:55] Speaker 3: him to Florida arrested him.
[37:58] Speaker 2: Imagine how mad Johnny Law is at the point, like.
[38:01] Speaker 3: Oh, they're just living and they want to catch them
[38:03] Speaker 3: no matter what. They They tricked him into going to
[38:05] Speaker 3: pick up a fax which you know r I P faxes,
[38:09] Speaker 3: and that's where.
[38:10] Speaker 5: They want.
[38:13] Speaker 3: That fact every time. So let's stop here for the
[38:17] Speaker 3: long arm of the law, and when we return from
[38:20] Speaker 3: our advertising sojourn, I'm going to let you know what
[38:23] Speaker 3: lies in store for old Stephen Russell.
[38:25] Speaker 5: I'm pulling for the.
[38:26] Speaker 4: Guy, Dave.
[38:47] Speaker 3: Oh here we are talking Stephen J. Russell.
[38:51] Speaker 5: We sure are.
[38:52] Speaker 2: This is a this is an interesting change.
[38:54] Speaker 3: He's a complex guy. Five escapes, some clever, well pretty
[38:57] Speaker 3: much all of them pretty clever, some pretty down low though.
[39:01] Speaker 3: He gets busted again, and now everyone's taking every precaution
[39:05] Speaker 3: to make sure he stays in custody.
[39:07] Speaker 5: I mean, I'm assuming that's mostly just like closing his mouth.
[39:10] Speaker 3: It's pretty much like tape him to.
[39:13] Speaker 2: The pens away.
[39:15] Speaker 3: So at trial, the judge sentenced him to one hundred
[39:18] Speaker 3: and forty four years in prison. That's forty five years
[39:23] Speaker 3: for all of his various scams, ninety nine years for
[39:26] Speaker 3: his multiple prison escapes. And they didn't put him into
[39:30] Speaker 3: gen POP. He was sentenced to be held in solitary confinement.
[39:34] Speaker 5: Oh so that far it hurts here.
[39:36] Speaker 3: Yeah, that meant that he was kept in a small
[39:39] Speaker 3: room for twenty two to twenty three hours a day.
[39:42] Speaker 3: Even with this treatment, prison officials were still convinced that
[39:46] Speaker 3: he was plotting to escape again. They interviewed one guard
[39:49] Speaker 3: and he said, quote, if I know Steven, he's in
[39:52] Speaker 3: touch with Philip Morris right now. I'm absolutely positive that
[39:55] Speaker 3: his little brain is constantly turning.
[39:58] Speaker 5: Is that? Like?
[40:00] Speaker 2: Is that constitutional? Like I feel like we're.
[40:02] Speaker 3: Going yeah, but it's just not true though at this
[40:08] Speaker 3: point he's not in touch with Philip Morris. He doesn't
[40:10] Speaker 3: want to escape again like he always did it for love, right,
[40:13] Speaker 3: first for Jim, then for Philip Morris. But now Philip
[40:17] Speaker 3: Morris doesn't want anything to do with him, so he
[40:20] Speaker 3: has nothing to run to. This is what Russell said
[40:23] Speaker 3: about Morris never visiting him. Quote, I miss him, but
[40:27] Speaker 3: I'm also realistic. I don't want to ever do anything
[40:30] Speaker 3: that would hurt him again, and any action I took
[40:33] Speaker 3: now would cause him problems. I can't be with him.
[40:36] Speaker 3: There's no way they would let that happen. It doesn't
[40:38] Speaker 3: make any difference how I feel about it. But you
[40:41] Speaker 3: can't feel sorry for yourself. I did this to myself.
[40:44] Speaker 3: When I hear from him, it's through letters. He's on
[40:47] Speaker 3: my visitation list. So far, he hasn't come to see me,
[40:51] Speaker 3: so it's like he's owning up to it. And I
[40:53] Speaker 3: thought it was really interesting that he realizes that if
[40:56] Speaker 3: he does this, it's going to hurt Philip more than
[40:59] Speaker 3: anything else. So while he felt like he didn't have
[41:02] Speaker 3: anyone to run to, he did feel like he had
[41:05] Speaker 3: someone to stay on track for, and that was his daughter, Stephanie. Okay,
[41:10] Speaker 3: so he said, quote, my daughter Stephanie travels from the
[41:13] Speaker 3: East Coast several times a year so she can spend
[41:16] Speaker 3: time with her dad. She deserves all of the credit
[41:18] Speaker 3: for my change. In behavior. It's because of her that
[41:21] Speaker 3: I stopped trying to escape. The power a daughter has
[41:24] Speaker 3: over her father is strong. She helped me see that
[41:27] Speaker 3: my actions weren't just hurting me, they were hurting her
[41:30] Speaker 3: as well. All of my escapes had been acts of
[41:32] Speaker 3: unthinking selfishness. In order for me to stop hurting the
[41:36] Speaker 3: ones I love, they had to stop.
[41:38] Speaker 5: He's got a surprising level of awareness on several levels.
[41:41] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, And you see, like just like his
[41:45] Speaker 3: I hate to say his journey, but like his journey
[41:48] Speaker 3: through life is really fascinating of how he responds and
[41:51] Speaker 3: adapts and develops. And he had did his twenty eighteen interview,
[41:57] Speaker 3: he was asked what he would do to stop prisoners
[42:00] Speaker 3: from escaping, and his response was quote, first off, I
[42:03] Speaker 3: would keep the front door locked. If they need further advice,
[42:06] Speaker 3: they can hire me as a consultant after I'm paroled again.
[42:10] Speaker 3: Love jus so he Morris. Philip Morris got interviewed in
[42:13] Speaker 3: twenty ten by the Houston Chronicle and he shared some
[42:16] Speaker 3: interesting insights into the mind of Steve and j Russell.
[42:20] Speaker 3: He told the paper, quote, you know, when we were
[42:23] Speaker 3: in Harris County Jail, my lawyer told me they were
[42:26] Speaker 3: going to reinstate my probation, that I was going to
[42:28] Speaker 3: be out of there. Well. Instead, when I came back
[42:31] Speaker 3: to my cell, Steve was there, all happy and smiling.
[42:35] Speaker 3: Sometimes he'd have three or four phones going at the
[42:37] Speaker 3: same time. Before I even opened my mouth, he said,
[42:40] Speaker 3: they gave you a three year sentence, didn't they? I said, Steve,
[42:43] Speaker 3: how'd you know that? Of course, what he had done
[42:47] Speaker 3: was he had called the judge pretending to be another
[42:49] Speaker 3: judge or the DA so I would not be getting
[42:52] Speaker 3: out that night. He wanted to make sure that I
[42:54] Speaker 3: would go to prison. We spent all this time together
[42:57] Speaker 3: in Harris County Jail. He did that to make sure
[43:00] Speaker 3: I wouldn't go back to my ex lover. He wanted
[43:02] Speaker 3: to make sure he got out before I got out.
[43:05] Speaker 5: That is wild.
[43:06] Speaker 3: Yeah, so manipulative. So you're like, like every time you
[43:09] Speaker 3: think like I kind of pull for him that he
[43:10] Speaker 3: does these nasty things. Yeah, so he get This interview
[43:14] Speaker 3: was just after the film I Love You Philip Morris
[43:16] Speaker 3: was released. They asked him how They asked Philip Morris,
[43:19] Speaker 3: how do you feel about seeing your story on the screen?
[43:22] Speaker 3: He said, quote, I'm delighted about it, just the fact
[43:25] Speaker 3: that people will see me as one of Steve's victims
[43:27] Speaker 3: as well. I've watched it with really close friends of
[43:30] Speaker 3: mine and family members who don't know the extent of
[43:33] Speaker 3: what that man put me through. After the movie, one
[43:35] Speaker 3: of my best fishing buddies who happens to be straight,
[43:38] Speaker 3: he actually held me and cried and told me, Philip,
[43:41] Speaker 3: I did not know this about you. So this is
[43:44] Speaker 3: also you know, every time we tell these stories, we
[43:46] Speaker 3: talk about how ridiculous these things are, and obviously there
[43:48] Speaker 3: are always victims, and sometimes, you know, we don't care
[43:51] Speaker 3: when it's like a big multinational corporation, you know, because
[43:54] Speaker 3: up there, up theres but like you know, you do,
[43:58] Speaker 3: you do have to always take into account that there's
[44:00] Speaker 3: you know, there are ramifications for these things. So yeah,
[44:04] Speaker 3: we got Russell locked up and alone and insolitary, and
[44:08] Speaker 3: he has a lot to say about that quote. Extreme
[44:12] Speaker 3: isolation has given me time to consider who I am
[44:15] Speaker 3: and how I got here. It's a daily battle, though,
[44:17] Speaker 3: full of regret, flashbacks, self doubt, paranoia, bored him self loathing, questioning,
[44:23] Speaker 3: and futility care the dage right. There are days when
[44:27] Speaker 3: I break down and cry my daily life, if you
[44:29] Speaker 3: can call it, that is barely worth living all by myself,
[44:33] Speaker 3: not touching another individual, not being able to hug my daughter,
[44:36] Speaker 3: And it's my fault. It's only the future that gives
[44:39] Speaker 3: me hope. I'm now almost sixty one years old. Do
[44:42] Speaker 3: I belong in prison? Yes? I do. I understand and
[44:46] Speaker 3: accept why I'm here. I most definitely do not belong
[44:49] Speaker 3: in solitary However, that is a cruel and unusual punishment,
[44:53] Speaker 3: completely disproportionate to my crimes. So let's talk about solitary confinement.
[44:58] Speaker 3: So you know, I said, like, they're in there twenty
[45:00] Speaker 3: two to twenty three hours a day. It's a windowless
[45:03] Speaker 3: concrete cell. They're fed through slots in the door. They
[45:08] Speaker 3: can't participate in job training or like other prison programs
[45:12] Speaker 3: that would help them better themselves. They can't earn time
[45:14] Speaker 3: served credits for parole eligibility.
[45:17] Speaker 5: They can very exercise, right, I mean there's no that's.
[45:19] Speaker 3: Not one hour. That one hour is to go out
[45:22] Speaker 3: and like move and but yeah, otherwise you can't really
[45:25] Speaker 3: do anything. The United Nations Chief Official on issues involving
[45:29] Speaker 3: torture said that solitary confinement for more than fifteen days
[45:33] Speaker 3: constitutes torture has.
[45:35] Speaker 6: To and like a week is like most people could
[45:37] Speaker 6: not survive for a week, there would.
[45:39] Speaker 3: None and this guy he gets a full sentence of it. Yeah,
[45:44] Speaker 3: and it's an issue that a lot of states are
[45:46] Speaker 3: working to regulate. In California, there's a big fight over
[45:51] Speaker 3: whether to limit the amount of time someone can be
[45:53] Speaker 3: put in solitary. And they tried to put these regulations
[45:56] Speaker 3: on and then it gets it, you know, it always
[46:00] Speaker 3: to fall apart. And there are arguments too about like
[46:02] Speaker 3: how long should a pregnant woman be in solitary? You
[46:05] Speaker 3: don't even think of those things.
[46:07] Speaker 6: Yeah, well it always like there's always people who like
[46:11] Speaker 6: when you're in the prison environment, like stuff happens to you,
[46:14] Speaker 6: you need medical care and unless unless like in most cases,
[46:18] Speaker 6: they just deny it, like if you're in if you're
[46:20] Speaker 6: in solitary, like you're.
[46:21] Speaker 5: Not going to get your medical care no matter what
[46:22] Speaker 5: I need.
[46:23] Speaker 3: And what's interesting too, like when I when I taught
[46:25] Speaker 3: in the Federal prison, I had a lot of students
[46:27] Speaker 3: who would go into solitary on purpose because to avoid
[46:32] Speaker 3: like a fight or to be you know, oh yeah
[46:35] Speaker 3: injured really or something bad happening to them. And it's
[46:38] Speaker 3: usually like something over like a commissary debt or a
[46:41] Speaker 3: gambling thing, and then they'd you know, or they would
[46:43] Speaker 3: get thrown in for fighting or that kind of stuff.
[46:45] Speaker 3: But it's like to have to go in there as
[46:51] Speaker 3: your safe haven is even more terrifying, I think Russell
[46:55] Speaker 3: he thinks, you know, obviously that solitary is overkill. He said,
[46:59] Speaker 3: quote it's also unnecessary. Setting aside my decision to give
[47:03] Speaker 3: up trying to escape. Escaping is now a physical impossibility
[47:07] Speaker 3: for me. My spine is now so impacted that I
[47:10] Speaker 3: have to be pushed around in a wheelchair whenever I
[47:12] Speaker 3: leave myself. Escaping also makes no sense now that I
[47:16] Speaker 3: have served so much time, because all of my crimes
[47:19] Speaker 3: were nonviolent, I may make it out of here legitimately
[47:22] Speaker 3: one day on parole. That is an infinitely better option
[47:26] Speaker 3: for me than trying to escape again. So like he
[47:29] Speaker 3: can't escape, that was the whole point of the solitary.
[47:32] Speaker 3: M I'm with him. It's overkill anyway. So research has
[47:36] Speaker 3: shown that keeping people from that meaningful human contact can
[47:39] Speaker 3: cause what's called isolation syndrome. And you know a lot
[47:43] Speaker 3: of people talked about this with like COVID lockdowns that
[47:46] Speaker 3: if you know, we're trying to save each other and
[47:48] Speaker 3: save our lives and protect people, but at the same time,
[47:51] Speaker 3: you know, if you're especially if you're all by yourself,
[47:54] Speaker 3: like they can drive you mad absolutely, and it manifests
[47:58] Speaker 3: itself with like anxiety, depression, anger, perceptual distortions and paranoia
[48:04] Speaker 3: psychosis there and we talked about it on Tuesday. There's
[48:09] Speaker 3: this other iHeart podcast called Politiken with My Dream Team
[48:13] Speaker 3: of Gavin Marshawn and then Doug so Good. So sorry Doug,
[48:19] Speaker 3: but it is Oh yeah. So they did this recent
[48:21] Speaker 3: two parter from San Quentin and knew some talked a
[48:25] Speaker 3: lot about the California model for incarceration, which focuses on
[48:28] Speaker 3: reducing recidivism and encouraging rehabilitation. And what struck me was
[48:34] Speaker 3: that he and the warden talked a lot about how
[48:36] Speaker 3: most of the guys inside would soon be outside and
[48:39] Speaker 3: they would be our neighbors. So like, what kind of
[48:41] Speaker 3: neighbor do you want to have? What kind of services
[48:44] Speaker 3: can these guys get to get them to a place
[48:47] Speaker 3: where they will be good neighbors in the community.
[48:49] Speaker 6: That's also like a it's like a Buddhist way to
[48:51] Speaker 6: look at it too. It's like you're you're stuck on
[48:53] Speaker 6: this planet with all these other people like you don't
[48:55] Speaker 6: have any other options, so how can you all live
[48:57] Speaker 6: together in a way.
[48:58] Speaker 3: That's exactly And when you think about it, they're paying
[49:01] Speaker 3: their debt to society and then you're supposed to have
[49:04] Speaker 3: this clean slate when you get out, which you don't.
[49:07] Speaker 3: But like how solitary is not the way to get
[49:10] Speaker 3: people to being a productive member of society. And I
[49:13] Speaker 3: would hope that everyone who complains about all the sacrifices
[49:16] Speaker 3: that we had to make when we were all locked
[49:18] Speaker 3: in for COVID stuff with think about that, you know.
[49:20] Speaker 3: But this is more of what Stephen Russell had to
[49:23] Speaker 3: say about solitary quote. In my opinion, solitary confinement should
[49:28] Speaker 3: only be reserved for the most violent of inmates and
[49:31] Speaker 3: should never be used for more than two years at
[49:33] Speaker 3: a time. It destroys the human spirit. Put simply, it
[49:37] Speaker 3: makes men mad. It is the only legal form of
[49:40] Speaker 3: torture in today's prison system. But it's a slow maltreatment
[49:43] Speaker 3: of the body and mind that in the short run
[49:46] Speaker 3: at least leaves no visible signs. That's why it's permitted.
[49:50] Speaker 3: Plus society tends to view anything that happens to inmates
[49:53] Speaker 3: in prison as no more than they deserve. Prisoners, however,
[49:57] Speaker 3: aren't necessarily evil or beyond redemption. If we expect prison
[50:01] Speaker 3: to rehabilitate offenders, or if we expect inmates to reintegrate
[50:05] Speaker 3: into society once they've done their time, the less broken
[50:08] Speaker 3: they are when they finally come out, the easier that
[50:10] Speaker 3: will be. That's exactly what we're talking about, you know.
[50:15] Speaker 3: And I think it's interesting that he's like, there are
[50:17] Speaker 3: all these examples in his life of when like society
[50:22] Speaker 3: pushes him down and his response and we're like, yeah,
[50:24] Speaker 3: it kind of makes sense where he just like gives
[50:27] Speaker 3: the world the middle finger and does and breaks the
[50:29] Speaker 3: social contract. And it's like, if you're constantly you know,
[50:33] Speaker 3: of course you're going to come out of solitary wanting
[50:35] Speaker 3: to break the social contract because it broke for you.
[50:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, you're also just broken.
[50:40] Speaker 6: I mean, like it creates real scars that you know
[50:44] Speaker 6: that it's really hard to heal.
[50:46] Speaker 3: Yeah. So his maximum sentence would put him behind bars
[50:50] Speaker 3: until March thirteenth, twenty one, thirteen, and he In twenty eighteen,
[50:57] Speaker 3: he released a memoir called Life after Philip Morris. He
[51:00] Speaker 3: wrote it kind of like a play, and he became
[51:04] Speaker 3: eligible for parole on December fifteenth, twenty twenty and on
[51:09] Speaker 3: February seventh, twenty twenty three, he got paroled. He was
[51:13] Speaker 3: released on July eleventh, twenty twenty four. Not too long while. Yeah,
[51:18] Speaker 3: so he's done some public speaking engagement since then. It's
[51:21] Speaker 3: not easy to kind of track down. But then there
[51:24] Speaker 3: was that movie right, I Love You Philip Morris. Jim
[51:27] Speaker 3: Carrey played Russell, Ewan McGregor played Philip Morris, and the
[51:32] Speaker 3: screenwriters for it, who adapted the screenplay, they originally pitched
[51:37] Speaker 3: the story to a studio that was affiliated with the
[51:39] Speaker 3: book publisher, and one of the writers was like, yeah,
[51:42] Speaker 3: it didn't go so well because there the studio wanted
[51:47] Speaker 3: them to make Philip into a girl, like they were
[51:50] Speaker 3: not wait, yeah, they were not comfortable with it being
[51:53] Speaker 3: a gay couple. So in the.
[51:55] Speaker 2: Writers three or whatever, like was this reach.
[51:58] Speaker 3: Well no, this was two thousand and nine, was the
[52:02] Speaker 3: was the movie?
[52:03] Speaker 5: Okay?
[52:04] Speaker 2: But still yeah, I mean like yeah.
[52:06] Speaker 3: So like the screenwriters they wanted to make this classic
[52:09] Speaker 3: romantic comedy.
[52:10] Speaker 5: But with me cut and like yeah, but it.
[52:13] Speaker 3: Was like two gay men in the roles that they
[52:15] Speaker 3: They said that would typically go to Doris Day and
[52:17] Speaker 3: Rock Hudson, which is like, well Rock Hudson, Yeah, but
[52:21] Speaker 3: like in the fifties, like a fifties kind of zany.
[52:24] Speaker 3: One of the screenwriters, John Request said quote to say
[52:28] Speaker 3: that the subject matter, the gay subject matter, played no
[52:31] Speaker 3: part in our distribution problems would be a lie. I
[52:34] Speaker 3: mean it did. We went with a distributor who was
[52:37] Speaker 3: not one of the major independent distributors at Sundance because
[52:40] Speaker 3: I believe that the larger distributors were afraid of it
[52:43] Speaker 3: because it wasn't a gay message movie and it was
[52:46] Speaker 3: a frank depiction of gay life. So it wasn't like,
[52:49] Speaker 3: you know.
[52:49] Speaker 2: Still nuts.
[52:50] Speaker 6: I mean, like, I believe it one hundred percent, but yeah,
[52:52] Speaker 6: it's nuts to reflect on the fact that it was.
[52:55] Speaker 6: It's been that long till you could just have a
[52:58] Speaker 6: story that didn't revolve around the homosexuality of it, but
[53:02] Speaker 6: have two gay men as leads.
[53:03] Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, and not be like, oh, we're fighting for
[53:05] Speaker 3: the you know, like yeah, and so Russell though he uh,
[53:10] Speaker 3: he's only seen clips from the movie, he's never seen
[53:12] Speaker 3: the whole thing. He said, quote they've got it down.
[53:15] Speaker 3: The way we speak, the mannerisms, the close everything, it's surreal.
[53:19] Speaker 3: And then Jim Carrey, when asked about it, said, quote,
[53:22] Speaker 3: the bottom line was that he wanted to be loved
[53:25] Speaker 3: and he felt disenfranchised his entire life. So like that
[53:29] Speaker 3: was what he took out of it, and that's what
[53:31] Speaker 3: he put into that role. So, Dave, what's your ridiculous takeaway?
[53:35] Speaker 6: Oh my god, Well, something just popped into my head
[53:37] Speaker 6: as you said that last bit, which is that, like,
[53:40] Speaker 6: is this a truth about people who ultimately become con artists.
[53:45] Speaker 5: Like they want to be loved?
[53:47] Speaker 6: Yeah, like deep down, and that's like they so they
[53:51] Speaker 6: managed to like extract goods or emotions out of somebody.
[53:57] Speaker 5: But it's obviously artificial because there's a setup.
[53:59] Speaker 6: But what they're really doing is kind of like pantomiming
[54:03] Speaker 6: the interaction they really want, Like they would love for
[54:05] Speaker 6: somebody to be like, I love you so much, I'm
[54:06] Speaker 6: going to give you eighty thousand dollars.
[54:08] Speaker 3: Yeah, to force that love, whether they know about it
[54:11] Speaker 3: or not, I mean love.
[54:14] Speaker 6: This may be way too abstracted from real life to
[54:17] Speaker 6: be true, but it's it's neat and tidy, like it's
[54:19] Speaker 6: an interesting way to look at it exactly exactly.
[54:22] Speaker 3: Uh you know, no, I think I already covered it all.
[54:29] Speaker 3: I really really think we should do a talk back here.
[54:32] Speaker 5: I got one for you. Oh my god, I love you.
[54:46] Speaker 3: Hey, Saren and Elizabeth.
[54:48] Speaker 7: This is rude dudes, Alison and Lily here what she's
[54:53] Speaker 7: a shy fourteen year old anyway, we just were driving
[54:57] Speaker 7: home from plane in the Ciahoga River and we happen
[55:02] Speaker 7: to be listening to your ten cent Beer Night South
[55:05] Speaker 7: of Cleveland. It's nice and clean and fun. We love, love,
[55:10] Speaker 7: love your show.
[55:12] Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
[55:14] Speaker 3: I love that, Lily. I have been in that position
[55:18] Speaker 3: so many times when people are like, say hi, no, no,
[55:21] Speaker 3: I would say it if I wanted to. But I
[55:24] Speaker 3: love this in the Cuyahoga River. See how it's been
[55:27] Speaker 3: cleaned up. God, bless God, blessed Cleveland. That's it for today.
[55:32] Speaker 3: You can find us online at ridiculous Crime dot com.
[55:37] Speaker 3: We're at Ridiculous Crime on Twitter, Instagram, Flicker, Friends to Jazzo, Jazzo,
[55:45] Speaker 3: Bing Bong, Mad Magazine, all the good ones. You can
[55:50] Speaker 3: email Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com, but it's pointless,
[55:53] Speaker 3: and then you can also do something that's not pointless.
[55:56] Speaker 3: Leave us a talk back on the iHeart App. It's
[55:58] Speaker 3: free and you can be on the show reach Out.
[56:06] Speaker 3: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton, Zern Burnett and
[56:09] Speaker 3: this time Dave Coustin. That's Me for It is edited
[56:14] Speaker 3: by Jim Carrey as Dave Cousten, starring and Elis Rutger
[56:18] Speaker 3: as Judas. Research is by Marissa Brown as Jim Carrey
[56:22] Speaker 3: and Jim Carrey as Andrea Song Sharpen Tear. The theme
[56:25] Speaker 3: song is by Jim Carrey as Thomas Lee and Travis
[56:28] Speaker 3: Dutton featuring Jim Carrey. Post wardrobe is provided by Botany
[56:32] Speaker 3: five hundred. Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre.
[56:36] Speaker 3: Executive producers are Ben Bolan Is portrayed by Ewan McGregor
[56:40] Speaker 3: and Ewan McGregor as Noel Brown QUI Say It One
[56:51] Speaker 3: More Time.
[56:54] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
[56:57] Speaker 1: in my Heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
[57:01] Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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