The Soldier's Fate and the Con Man's Playbook

Can a soldier become a drug smuggler and still believe that everything happens for a reason? Join us as we unravel the compelling life of Ronald J. Baker. From the harrowing battlefields of Vietnam to the high-stakes underworld of drug smuggling, Baker's story is filled with close calls, personal losses, and a relentless drive shaped by his wartime experiences. We'll take you through his journey from Wall Street to a Tijuana jail where a chance meeting with a notorious smuggler steered his life into uncharted territories. 

But that's not all. We also bring you the astonishing tale of Arturo Hoyo, a master con artist whose path intriguingly intersects with Baker's. Imagine the moral dilemma of managing gentleman's clubs in Fort Lauderdale while being courted by a man like Hoyo, who masquerades as Mr. Bacardi with grandiose plans of deception. We'll explore the intricate scams Arturo orchestrated—from travel industry exploits to coal futures fraud—and his eventual downfall. Plus, hear about the captivating book, "The Plastic Magician," that chronicles his life and their own incredible experiences, including time in federal prison. This episode is a whirlwind of deception, redemption, and the unpredictable turns of life.

https://theplasticmagician.weebly.com/

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:00

Darkcast Network. Welcome to the dark side of podcasting.

Speaker 3: 0:05

Welcome to Murder and Mimosas, a true crime podcast brought to you by a mother and daughter duo.

Speaker 1: 0:13

Bringing you murder stories with a mimosas in hand.

Speaker 3: 0:18

Just a quick disclaimer before we get started. Our show is Murder and Mimosas. It's a true crime.

Speaker 2: 0:24

podcast before we get started, Our show is Murder and Mimosas. It's a true crime podcast. This means that we do discuss crimes including, but not limited to, disappearances, murder and sexual assault. All our episodes are told with the respect of the victims and the victims' families in mind. We strive to ensure that we provide factual information, but some information is more verifiable than others. With that, grab your mimosas and let's dive in. Welcome to Murder and Mimosas. I'm Danica and I'm Shannon. Welcome back.

Speaker 2: 1:03

This is our first episode back and we have a doozy for you. Thank you for coming back to listen to us Absolutely Thank you, and you are going to be so glad you did after you hear today's episode. We have really two different stories in one for you today. One of them is about Ronnie Baker and the life he lived. He was a Vietnam soldier turned drug smuggler, and in prison he met Arturo Ahoy, who became the greatest con artist of the 20th century, Also dubbed the plastic magician. We'll learn that it would be a desire for revenge that would lead him down the path into being one of the biggest scam artists to ever walk the earth. It is crazy, the rollercoaster of a ride you're taking today and when we are finished. You are going to want to read the book and you're definitely going to want to see this on a big screen.

Speaker 4: 2:01

My name is Ronald J Baker. I'm a disabled veteran. I was in the Vietnam War and when I was in the Vietnam War, after I got wounded and they put me into a company an MP company in Saigon, I was selling and sending marijuana back to my friends in the States for $200, for a Martel cognac filled with 10 packs of cigarettes, and I used the money on the black market and got twice as much. And when I landed in San Francisco on my birthday, April 23rd 1969, I had $26,500 in my possession.

Speaker 2: 3:03

Wow.

Speaker 4: 3:05

And that was the start of my smuggling career. And then I got into the restaurant nightclub business. I was the head bartender of the Playboy Club in Manhattan In Manhattan. I started out in Wall Street. When I graduated high school, I went to college. I went to Hunter College at the New York School of Finance, at night and working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during the day in a day. Then, when I got drafted and I came back to my work at the stock market, I lost my senior already due to the fact that I was in Vietnam and I got really disappointed and I quit and I started with selling boutiques clothes and I went down into Mexico and was purchasing items in Mexico to sell to the boutiques and I had the wrong color receipts and they locked me up and threw me in the Tijuana jail for like seven days for smuggling cotton, having the wrong receipts.

Speaker 4: 4:31

Oh wow, yeah. So while I was in there I met this guy who was one of the biggest smugglers and sellers of marijuana. He puts himself away every six months and he told me when I get out to look him up and he'll put me in business. So when I got out after seven days I went back home and I came back about two months later. I looked them up and I started smuggling marijuana from Tijuana into San Diego in El Camino van with false bottoms. And that's what I was doing. And then when I went back to New York, I was selling and, like I said, always working. And then my parents my father came down with cancer when I was at the Playboy Club. I had to leave and come down to Florida to take care of him and when he passed away, my mother went into the hospital and she passed away six months later. So I lost both my parents in 1977, within the same year.

Speaker 2: 6:01

Wow, that has to be really hard.

Speaker 4: 6:04

Yeah, well, that's what gave me the belief and the faith when I was. You know that God put me in Vietnam to live with death for that longer period because he was preparing me for what was going to happen seven years later in my life was going to happen seven years later in my life. So ever since that time, I just believe that things happen for a reason and I don't question it no more. You know, it's just something that I know that I have faith in and there had to be a reason for that. So you never know when it's going to play its course. You know could be the next day, a week, a month In this case there was seven years and me, being the only child I definitely was would have been prone to having a nervous breakdown.

Speaker 2: 6:59

Right. So with your drug smuggling from Tijuana, you said to San Diego, were there ever times that you were like close calls where you almost got caught, or you had run-ins or anything like that?

Speaker 4: 7:13

San Francisco I happened to buy some marijuana from some people that I was selling to, and it was right. There was a big concert environmental concert in Madison Square Garden and we had tickets to that, and on the way to the airport we had two suitcases which had about 175 pounds and we went to the airport and it turns out that there was a plane that had a problem taking off and there was a lot of security at the front gate.

Speaker 1: 8:05

And there was a lot of security at the front gate.

Speaker 4: 8:07

And so what I did was I had an attache case that had like three kilos of pot in there, which was about six pounds, and the regular luggage was checked in. And when I saw the security and everything, I got really nervous and I put my attache case down and I walked over to the boarding gate and I asked what the problem was. They explained it to me, and when they told me that, I went and walked away. And as I'm walking away, an undercover cop came to me and says excuse me, could I speak to you? And I said sure, and I started walking with him. So he says don't you want to take your attache case? And I said no, that's not mine. And so they took me to the back of the airport, opened up the attache case and they put me in the San Mateo jail for seven days.

Speaker 4: 9:26

And it turned out that the person that sold me the marijuana it wasn't marijuana, it was hemp. I couldn't believe that. I got ripped off and got busted with the hemp, oh boy. So they released me after seven days and that was really a trying experience, to say the least. But my smuggling operation I had a boat and we had a plane and we were smuggling from Jamaica and from Columbia and when I got out of the I was going to get and I got indicted for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine and the federal judge gave me 23 years because they said that I was a ringleader of a large scale, sophisticated drug ring.

Speaker 4: 10:58

And while I was, when I got to prison in FCI, tallahassee, I was in the law library when this Arturo Hoyo, who ripped off American Express for $8 million, was sentenced to eight years and came to Tallahassee Prison. Years and came to Tallahassee prison and I met him in the law library and we became very friendly and since I always had marijuana that I was smuggling into Tallahassee, we were smoking pot together on the rec field and then in 1983, the federal government stated that they wanted all the federal institutions to take a 10% piss test of all of the inmates. So they took a piss test of the 400 and some odd inmates that were there in Tallahassee and it turned out that there were like 80 people came back with dirty urines for marijuana and they didn't know what to do. They didn't believe it would be so high and they put together a set of cells in the cell house nine cells, and we called it Piss Test Row and they put two people in each cell for 30 days because everybody had to do 30 days of solitary so they couldn't afford to put that many people in there. So they doubled it up and every 30 days you would have a ticket to say okay, on March 1st you report to the cell house and then 30 days later another 18 people would come to the cell house.

Speaker 4: 13:07

And it just so happened that Arturo wound up coming to my cell house. So we shared a cell together for 30 days and while I was doing my appeal and talking to him, we got even closer and he told me his life story for the death of his parents who were murdered by his parents' business partner. That left him and his brother homeless in the Fountain Blue Hotel after taking their parents' father's money $2 million and left him alone, him and his brother, not knowing anybody, and it was just like fate that he got into the same business, a business that, when he was sent to Brazil, turned out that he ran into, the businessman that ripped him, that murdered his family and left him stranded in the Fountain Blue Hotel.

Speaker 2: 14:27

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 14:30

And so that was like 11 years after and the guy, thank God, never recognized him. And Arturo came back and had to tell his boss he couldn't put the deal together because there was a death in the family. And the boss got really irate and said you should have called me before you left Brazil. You know we needed this account. It was a $2.2 million government account for tires. And Arturo said listen, I'm sorry, but but you know I had to come home. He goes well, you don't have a job, no more.

Speaker 4: 15:10

And now Arturo was like really devastated because he wanted to jump across the desk and choke the guy when it happened. But he was just so nervous and overwhelmed with that excitement that he just postponed the meeting for the following day. But when he got back to the hotel he just couldn't think of anything but revenge and got on the first plane and left Brazil. So when he told his brother the story, his brother said well, you just use your company, you will sell the tires through your company. He goes no, they fired me. So Arturo and his brother derived a plan to get back at that guy by opening up and starting a bogus company for selling tires up and starting a bogus company for selling tires and that's part of the book where he was able to get revenge by selling the tires and scamming this guy in Brazil for the 2.2 million dollars. And that was the start of him getting into the scamming business and after that he did that. He just fell in love with being a scam artist to do with any future types of criminality.

Speaker 4: 16:37

But Arturo was. That just changed him and he became one of the greatest impersonators and scam artists of the 20th century, dressing up as an Artini in general and ripping off banks for $2.3 million. You know I mean he. If you saw the movie Catch Me, if you Can, it makes this movie look like a kindergarten movie. I mean this guy was unbelievable. I mean the scams that he would pull off guy was unbelievable. I mean the scams that he would pull off. If you read my book in there I have excerpts of him going to the judicial committee in Washington on crimes involving scams and computers. While he was doing time with me, vice President Bush asked for him to come to Washington so he could help them prevent banks from getting ripped off from the scams that he was doing and I got his whole from that in my book and he was getting paid $100,000 from people from all over the world coming to him seeking his advice on if this scam is good. If this scam isn't good, what can you do, you know, to improve it or whatever? And he was just like. He was so well known in the underworld and got solicited by organized crime people because they wanted to get out of the extortion business and everything else, and he was showing them a way to beat, for them to get into the credit card fraud business, for them to get into the credit card fraud business. And then, when I left him, he still had five years left to go on his well, four years left to go on his sentence.

Speaker 4: 18:58

When I got out, I went back into the business I was before, which was the gentleman nightclub business. I was managing and running solid gold and pure platinum gentleman's clubs in Fort Lauderdale. And about four years later I get a call from my boss telling me that Mr Bacardi from the Bacardi rum family is on his way up there. I want you to put him in the VIP room, give him the bet, put the best champagne on ice and he's going to be a former partner. So I want you to give him a VIP treatment. So I want you to give him a VIP treatment. So I told my staff you know that expecting Mr McCarty coming up in a limousine, I had my top five or six girls meet me at the front door. When he showed up, I came down walking towards the front door.

Speaker 1: 20:08

When he walked in with two models.

Speaker 2: 20:09

On both of his side it was my friend Arturo Hoyer. Oh wow, we've mentioned the book real quick, so we don't forget. Can you give us the name of the book and like where we can, where people can buy the book?

Speaker 4: 20:20

yes, I'll give you my website. It's all on my website. It's theplasticmagicianweeblycom. Okay.

Speaker 2: 20:34

And we'll link that in the show notes, but just so everybody listening knows where they can get that. But go ahead and continue. So he shows up with two models. He's people.

Speaker 4: 20:47

Mr McCarty, I just you know everybody. Instead we just we just hugged. And you know, I just couldn't believe. I said I can't believe that you. And he said I can't believe. I found you. And then he said I'll talk to you later, just be quiet. And everybody's looking. How did I know? How is this guy hugging me, mr McCarty, you know? And he told me he says listen, we went to the VIP room and we had the champagne and everything. And I said what's going on? And he says well, I'm going to be one, he's my next target. And I can't believe that.

Speaker 4: 21:31

When I wrote my book I didn't have this part in it. I wrote it with saying Will, when and if the plastic magician finally gets released, will he wind up on the side of law and order? But I don't think so. After looking in his eyes and seeing the glitter when setting up a prospect, I don't think so and I just hope that the banking world and the banks are able to deal with him when he gets out and who knows where he'll land. And that's the way I ended it. I said in five years, who knows where I'll be or where he'll be?

Speaker 4: 22:23

And when we were talking a little at the in the VIP room. He said, listen, I'm going to be a partner, I'm going to be, I'm going to get him for 1.1 million dollars. He thinks that I'm going to open up a gentleman's club in Germany and I was hoping to have you run it for me if I didn't want to rip them off right away. And I said I can't believe this. He says, listen, I heard about you working here. It got back to me because I was in Tallahassee for 54 months and I was like a legend there. I mean, I can't my exploits in doing federal time. I had to do an extra year because of my getting into fights and my disciplinary problems. But he said, word got back to me that this is what you were doing and I was jealous and I figured that would be a great business to have.

Speaker 4: 23:29

When I got out and I figured that you and I you would be my sidekick and we would just rip off, you know, scam people and have a gentleman's club of our own. And I said, well, listen, you know I still have three years left on probation and I'm 41 years old. I said I just can't be taking off and doing this. God forbid. You know, I come back and they see they just run my name for just a traffic violation or whatever. They see they just run my name for just a traffic violation or whatever. They're going to see that I have a warrant out for my arrest or an escape and I'm going to have to do another three to five more years. And I'm sorry, I just I can't do it.

Speaker 4: 24:16

He says, man, you're going to have all the money in the world, you don't have to come back here. You live with me in Monaco. I have penthouses here I got. They never found any of the money, even when they had him in the uh and on the committee for the judiciary committee they said it stated here that they never found the money. Did you ever pay tax on that? He said no.

Speaker 2: 24:46

I'm a scam artist, but I definitely paid my taxes.

Speaker 4: 24:49

Yeah, you know, that was the first thing they wanted to know and he said, no, I have it where they know where it is, but they can't touch it where it is, but they can't touch it. That's all documented in my book and it's great reading and it's an incredible story. And then it gets even greater because, first of all, what is the fate of him winding up in the same cell as me and what was the fate of me winding up in the same cell as me? And what was the fate of me? I didn't think I had it in me to be able to write as good as I wrote, even though I had been writing poetry and had stuff published in the Stars and Stripes in Vietnam. I've had short stories, but this was just like incredible, you know. And for three days he whined and dined me and tried to show me why I should be with him. And I told him I couldn't and that was the last I saw of him was like 1990. I saw if it was like 1990. And it turns out that less than a year ago I get a call from well, let me go back.

Speaker 4: 26:19

I, during that time that I wrote the book, I had two or three producers that after reading the script, wanted to know where he was, and I said I have no idea, you know. He says well, listen, it's one thing having permission to write the book, it's another thing having the permission to do a movie. He might come out of the woodwork and want to know and have percentages of this and sue us for that. So I had like two producers back out of a deal because of that. And then last year I get a phone call from my publishing company and they tell me that there's been a mr bacardi, that i's been a Mr Bacardi that's been wanting to try to get in touch with you and my first thought was you know, was rights, you know publishing rights and stuff like that. Being that my book is out there and they hear the word Bacardi, it might be the Bacardi family that is calling me to see in what connotation I was utilizing their name.

Speaker 2: 27:31

Right.

Speaker 4: 27:32

And so I called up on the Fred the Mind's phone number because I was afraid. And it turns out I get the son of Arturo Hoyo, I believe it. He goes. Listen, I was going through Amazon books and I saw the title the Plastic Magician and it just rang. It just hit me. I liked the title. I turned it over when I read the back.

Speaker 4: 28:09

It was a story of my father wow and I'm saying, oh my god, this has been fate I got right now I got goose pimples just saying that because I couldn't believe it. What were the odds of him? And when his I said what happened to your father? He said you know your father, his father loves you. He said he talked about you and I was only 11 years old when he died. He said yeah, my mother and father both went to prison for selling baseball memorabilia and my father had a heart attack when he was in federal prison.

Speaker 4: 28:57

And he said when I read your book, and I read the part where you stated that you don't think that he would ever go back, I mean would? He would ever not want to get into that business again. That was the look that he had in his eyes. You're right, he did what he loved and he died doing it and his son sent me pictures of him and I said well, how'd you get the last name bacardi? He said, well, when he ran that scam that he wanted to do with you, all the id that he had was Bacardi and because of my being born and with all of his ID, they gave me the name Alex Bacardi and I just had to get in contact with you and I'm sure you have all kinds of questions and answers, and I loved your book and you couldn't have portrayed my father in a better light, and I just wanted to just get in touch with you.

Speaker 4: 30:16

If you ever have any questions or whatever, just please feel free to call me. I'm 28 now. I went into the Marines and now I'm going to school to be an architectural, design and engineering, and you know, life goes on, but I definitely wanted to speak to you and it just brought tears to my eyes and just closure on something that was like wow, ever. You know the odds of him finding the person that murdered his parents and left him, you know an orphan, and then the fate of him being in my cell and then the I mean, it was just the story was just meant to be.

Speaker 2: 31:08

It sounds like it for sure. I mean, that's too many things to call it a coincidence.

Speaker 4: 31:14

Right, exactly, exactly right. You know what I mean. So it was 37 years ago that I wrote this book. So it was 37 years ago that I wrote this book and I added that last part, which took me about three or four years because I didn't know how to just do that. You know, just showing up at my place as Mr Bacardi and wanting to you know his parole officer coming to saying, have you spoken to your friend? And I said why he goes? Well, he's out on parole, but he hasn't shown up for parole. And so the script and the book is so exciting.

Speaker 4: 32:00

Like I said, when I was telling the people my story prior to me getting it published, I was, you know, running it by them and everybody said, oh man, that sounds like this movie that they probably got from your book or from you. I said, really, what movie? Oh, catch me if you can. It sounds exactly like what you're describing. And I said really. And then, when I saw the movie, I mean it was a good movie, but it was nothing like what Arturo, from what one of the producers said. It's the dark side of catch me if you can, yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:40

If you can that was.

Speaker 4: 32:43

That was what one of the producers said this movie was, so I have a trail of being made. Right now that's been made and right now I'm looking for funding for for the movie and also with hopes of selling as many books as I can for people to get to know this story, to want to have a movie that could bring out everything that's in this book, and thankful for the opportunity that you're giving me with this and I really truly appreciate it, that you're giving me with this and I really truly appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 33:24

It sounds really fascinating. So I actually have a question that I was thinking about. So if you have a friend that is a scam artist, do you end up trusting your friend or do you feel like you're going to be scammed by them? What's that now? If you have a friend that is a scam artist like this, do you feel like you can trust them, like when you're out like that, or is that just?

Speaker 4: 33:50

I don't have it.

Speaker 1: 33:51

He's no more, he's passed away I know, but like when he came to you, I know you didn't go, but did you feel like you could have trusted him if you had went?

Speaker 4: 33:59

yeah, this guy loved me. I mean we were, we were so close, okay. I mean you really get to know somebody when you're doing 30 days in the in solitary with somebody you know. And he was a man's man and his schemes and his reflected a lot of my early life because I was doing scams with credit cards.

Speaker 4: 34:26

When they first came out, I had a guy that was working in the post office and back then they would just mail you a credit card. You wouldn't even know you were getting it until you got a letter saying we just mailed you a credit card, please let us know that you know when you get it. So I was getting credit cards and and back then in the restaurants, if your bill wasn't $125, they would just look on a sheet that they would get every two weeks to see if your card was reported stolen. So I was able to eat and without them even calling up for like a month on using a credit card I mean. So I ran scams with that.

Speaker 4: 35:31

I ran scams with Mother Goose Travel Agency. I had a person that worked in Liberty Travel that was able to get me prepaid tickets to anywhere I wanted. All I had to do was call up and use a certain code and I could book you a ticket to anywhere in the United States, you know, for whatever price I wanted. And I had sent people nine people down to Las Vegas. I mean not Las Vegas, well, I did Las Vegas, but the big one was down in New Orleans for the fight with Muhammad Ali. 12 people, wow, first class round trip $650 a person.

Speaker 4: 36:23

So, can you give me?

Speaker 2: 36:24

one of those tickets now.

Speaker 4: 36:26

Right, and you didn't even have to show an ID. All you had to do was go over to the window and say the prepaid tickets, my name is so and so so, and so They'd say OK and they'd give you the ticket. I mean, it got to the point that Liberty Mutual was losing so much money that I couldn't call up until it was like late Friday afternoon because they wouldn't have a chance to check to see if the ticket was real or not in the amount of time that I had done it. So there was just so many things that Arturo did with, you know, coal mining futures he set up. You know, like in the Wolf of Wall Street, you know, having that coal center Arturo set up, one of those selling coal futures had walked away with about 25 million.

Speaker 4: 37:28

I mean, there was, there was just so many business yeah, I mean, if you read the back of my book it says when Arturo you know the old expression, when EF Hutton talks everyone listens, right? I wrote in my book when Arturo speaks he talks about how to make money without really trying, and I guess everybody wants to know that trick.

Speaker 2: 37:57

They want to know that trick. Yeah.

Speaker 4: 37:59

You know, and that's part of in the back of my book that I wrote, which I have in front of me it says some of his cons were some of the greatest cons you'll ever imagine those true life you know, meetings with somebody that has that. He was such a great con artist that they never got him. They didn't get him for what he was doing. What happened was one of his employees went to the bank and went to draw out money, went to the bank and went to draw out money and they went ahead and they were following his attorney and the attorney led him to this guy and the attorney the guy said listen, my attorney, if you give him $50,000, he could squash everything, everything, and I don't have to. You know, nobody's going to get in trouble. So Arturo gave his worker the $50,000 to give to the attorney and then the attorney still and the other guy still went ahead and turned him in. So it was. They never got him.

Speaker 2: 39:22

He was always one step and the other guy still went ahead and turned him in.

Speaker 4: 39:23

Wow, they never got him. He was always one step of the game in everything he did, and that's very rare, you know. And then me doing that much time in federal prison with all of these con artists, and I mean, I heard some of the greatest stories you could ever imagine, but they all, they were all because they were all pale, considered the way he was, what he did, you know. And so I was just inspired to write his life story and, like I said, it's gotten so much fan tail these last three years. I had it published four years ago, so it's relatively, you know, fresh. And it's been hard for me to try to get recognition of the book itself, you know. So that's when I hired a team to put a trailer together, to make it, you know, ready for funding for movies and sending it to film studios. And then I figured that my next avenue would be podcasts for me to try to get myself out there and get the book out there as much as possible.

Speaker 2: 40:48

Yeah, and here you are. This has been such a crazy interesting conversation.

Speaker 4: 40:54

This is my second podcast and I'm really excited. I had one where the guy said I never had such a great response from my audience that I want to have you back a second time. And so I came back a second time and he wanted me to come back a third time and I moved to Costa Rica. So that's where I'm living right now. But yeah, my life has been one of those where people say people talk about life, but you lived it yeah, that is true you know.

Speaker 4: 41:31

So I'm really, like I said, I'm really grateful for this opportunity and how, whatever else we could do to try to generate, you know, sales for my book, or people's comments to say that they would like to see this in a movie I would love to see this in a movie.

Speaker 1: 41:53

Yes, is there.

Speaker 2: 41:54

A place that people can go to help with funding is that on the website as well well, yes, on the on website it says investment opportunities.

Speaker 4: 42:06

It says so right after the pitch deck, where it has the whole layout of the movie, has the actors, has the roles that they're playing. It's really formulated, unbelievable. The website it talks more about me and my background. And then Arturo it's very informative. The Plastic Magician weeblycom.

Speaker 2: 42:37

That's what I wrote down earlier. Plasticmagicianweeblycom. That's what I wrote down earlier.

Speaker 4: 42:42

Plasticmagicianweeblycom.

Speaker 2: 42:47

Perfect, that's what I have. Yeah, this has been so interesting. I cannot even imagine living the life that you've lived. You have done so many things that I couldn't even think of in my wildest dreams. You have truly lived a life that and so getting to hear about yours and his life and the things that you guys have gone through definitely be buying the book. I'd love to see this in a movie. We've really, really enjoyed hearing everything about your experience and his, so we really appreciate you talking to us and taking the time to tell us about all of that.

Speaker 1: 43:27

Yes.

Speaker 4: 43:28

Thank you, Margaret.

Speaker 2: 43:28

Amazing.

Speaker 4: 43:30

I was waiting for these opportunities and I'm glad that it's being taken the way I thought it would be taken. I truly appreciate your opinions. You know, because you hear a whole lot of stories none of them have.

Speaker 2: 43:46

like things bang come to this, like this is we hear a lot of third party stories where somebody is telling you know the life of another person but you're telling yours and his but because you have a personal connection, and it's wild. None of them have come close to to what you have experienced Hands on.

Speaker 2: 44:08

It's not hearsay Right Exactly, and I would love if it's not hearsay Right exactly, and I would love, if it's okay with you I think I have a couple other podcasts that would probably be interested in having you on there. I can send them your information, if that's okay with you, so that we can get this out to more and more people, because I think people really would love to hear your story.

Speaker 4: 44:28

Thank you, yes, whatever help wherever you feel that it would bring notoriety. That's, you know, it's in your hands. Okay, you'd have been the first one that I did for this pitch tech. You know pitch TV. Once I felt that my producers and screenwriters All felt that I had enough for me to solicit film studios where, if anybody has any questions, everything is answered on that website.

Speaker 1: 45:03

Absolutely.

Speaker 4: 45:04

And any other questions or areas of crime that you could come into your mind. I'm you know I could pretty be a pretty good authoritative person because of my ties with organized crime and my life of egalities and turning myself around. That's to me that when I wrote this, this was. I mean, I'm very steadfast when I make a decision and I told myself when I got into the business that I want to just wait until I get my first conviction, because that's usually a slap on the wrist, but me being such a perfectionist, it took them nine years and I'm the leading case in New York.

Speaker 4: 46:02

In 1976. My girlfriend and I were indicted in New York for possession and sale. I was just charged with conspiracy, but she was charged with conspiracy and possession of a quarter pound of cocaine and I was facing 45 years in jail. 1976 was a year right before both my parents passed away and I was marked for trial for two years because they couldn't find the informant who plays the part of the transaction, and for two years I kept coming into court stating where's the informant. I had six judges state that the informant. Well, they found me.

Speaker 4: 46:58

The jury found me guilty and the judge couldn't believe it because he told my attorney that he could throw this case out. But if he did, there'd never be a record of it and it could happen to other innocent people, just like what's happening with Donald Trump right now. Ok, something ridiculous. Ok, how could? My girlfriend was found not guilty for conspiracy and yet the jury had I only had one count of conspiracy, and the conspiracy law states it takes two or more people to conspire to have a conspiracy. If my girlfriend was found not guilty for conspiracy, who did I conspire with? So the judge didn't throw out the case because he wanted it to be a precedent case in New York, because they violated all of my rights and he says don't worry, the jury's going to find me not guilty. I didn't even take the witness stand.

Speaker 4: 48:17

When the jury came back with a guilty verdict, he couldn't believe it. He went crazy. He sentenced me two to six years and granted me bail pending appeal. I went to Rikers Island. I was in Rikers Island for three days, even though my bail was put up within 24 hours, because they've never seen anybody get sentenced to conspiracy for cocaine with bail pending appeal Wow, pending appeal. And so, finally, in 1980, 1983, from 1976, the state of New York, flew down to Tallahassee, took me up in a plane and took me to court, and the court of the Supreme Court of New York dropped all charges against me because they said that they I was violated my fast and speedy trial rights. My case right now, if you pick up a New York law book, I'm the leading precedent case on the fast and speedy trial in new york wow, that's.

Speaker 2: 49:32

That's just really interesting. I still can't believe you got charged for conspiracy.

Speaker 4: 49:36

I guess you've inspired with yourself right, exactly, I talked to myself, me myself in life, you know I didn't know talking to myself could lead to a conspiracy charge.

Speaker 2: 49:48

I may have to not talk to myself out anymore.

Speaker 4: 49:54

I'm so happy that when I leave this world, there'll be innocent people and people utilizing my case as a case to get their freedom, and I couldn't ask for anything more than that. That's quite a legacy.

Speaker 2: 50:08

If you've ever read Torture Mom or you've seen the film the girl next door, the next week's episode is going to be one for you. So we dive into the real happenings. In the case of sylvia lichens, we tear apart the awful and atrocious things that happened to her. Be sure to tune in next week to hear it all.

Speaker 3: 50:37

We always recommend more bubbly and less OJ Cheers. If you'd like to see pictures from today's episode, you can find us at murdermimosas on Instagram. You can also find us at murdermimosas on TikTok, twitter, and if you have a case you would like us to do, you can send that to murdermimosas at gmailcom. And lastly, we are on Facebook at Murder and Mimosas Podcast, where you can interact with us there. We love any type of feedback you can give us, so please rate and review us on Spotify, itunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts.