Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Ah.
No, it's so good for you to have.
You been since the last time you saw.
Me getting better? You know, I think this it's still so ridiculous. It's still summertime. Okay, go ahead, but I think that the summer of Dark Elizabeth may be ending.
What.
Yeah, and I'm not feeling as mad as I have.
Oh, that's nice.
Joy has entered.
I'm really happy for me. It's joy has entered your life. What happened?
Just being joyous?
Just being joyful.
I made the personal decision to not be pissed off.
Congratulations. I'm so happy for us, you so much.
Yeah, I'm really happy for you.
Do you know what's ridiculous? I do?
What TikTok?
Yeah?
Are you onto totally the byte dance of the TikTok?
What's your favorite TikTok trend?
Me not scrolling?
Yeah, I'm not on there. So I tell you. I just hear people complaining about TikTok challenges.
And what have you people sent me to. I watched a whole hour long video about what goes on on TikTok, so I didn't have to go on.
I'm there's this makeup artist. I think I've talked about it before, Aaron Parsons that I follow on Instagram. Sure, and she has longer videos on TikTok that I really really want to watch, but not enough to get on TikTok. Yeah. Uh, anyway, TikTok. One of the kind of fads that's been going down on there is that people are buying kit kats, you know, a k give me a break, give me a break.
Into a KitKat exactly.
They've been taking them and dipping them and ketchup. Yeah why, I don't know. So much of this stuff is just why. But anyway, so like never one to miss an opportunity. Yeah, I know, I got you, Hines. It was like, we haven't been making a terrible product for the last I don't know five minutes. So hey, kit cat, you want in on this? And so they they drew. I think they went to AI and like had an AI.
Why actually waste time on.
This picture of it. It's called kit Catchup and it's a ketchup flavored kit Cat's.
Not just like a dip for your your kit cat.
No, it's like so they had picture of it. It hasn't really been released I think it's like a test balloon, Like, hey, you guys, would you be into this? And you know people would.
Buy so uh that would apparently the official Craft Dinner account, uh commented in response to this, y'all want to add cheese to the mix.
It's like all of them need to be hosed down and swatted with the paper. Look, they're getting me back to dark quick and like, I don't so let's just let's just stop it. Gez No, No, that's ridiculous.
No one else is ridiculous, Elizabeth. All Right, I got a special one for you. FBI agents, Yeah, who once played dress up as chiks to catch mobsters, but instead they caught senators and congressmen doing crimes.
Oh I love this.
Yeah right, this.
Ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. It's always ninety nine murder free and ridiculous. That's the truth, Elizabeth. Yeah, today, I got a special one for you. You know, I want to tell you the story of an undercover operation that changed how the FBI does its FBI business. Sibbons, Yes, exactly. We've already discussed what little law there is to constrain undercover officers.
Yeh, I covered that shocking right.
Well. This story is what caused the FBI to come up with some rules of their own for their undercover operations after the FBI caught a bunch of congressmen doing crimes. Elizabeth, you ever heard of ab scam?
Vague sounds vaguely familiar.
Same, Yeah, it's like right on the edge of like cultural memory. I remember my father referencing it. I don't know what it was. And I learned something today as well. It was like ab fab that I know about. Yeah, yes, Patty, and yes, Patty and Adina definitely know about Patsy what I said, Patty, Yeah, I know all this Patty show and Edward I love them. So before we dig into the FBI's fun with costumes, I need to provide a little context the nineteen seventies.
Oh you love the song.
I love the seventies not only is it bad fashion and great music. We often cover stories from this decade because there's a lot of crime, just a ton of crime, mostly because it was this hinge in history, right, Like it's a point in time when the world was starting to use like new things like jet planes and the computer and computers and the internet, right, but also that was you know, intended to make the world much smaller,
but mostly it made it easier to find criminals. So this is right at the point where we're like, oh, criminals realize they're no longer able to just cross state lines or whatever they've been doing for most of the twentieth century. Right, this is the end of that era, and this is like, well, this is the story of the folks who are doing the busting, right, Like, first we need to discuss the idea and the image of
that they tried to borrow from the chic. The seventies is when the sheic becomes popular in American culture.
Right, like the not c chi see chic.
But like, yeah, not like the chic like Miles Rogers.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, it doesn't like oo, No chic has in like our shake. I guess there's probably more of a pronounce.
Yeah.
So it all started with the rise of OPEK. Right in nineteen seventy three, OPEC they announced this oil and bargo, this action sense oil prices skyrocketing. We've seen the pictures in the footage of the lines from gas stations stretching around the block, right, It pretty much brings Western countries to a near standstill when they can't get their oil. This is also when Americans stopped driving gas guzzler cars.
They switch over to hondas and toyotas right now. This is also when the image of the Sheiks starts to pop up in American pop culture as this kind of like, oh, this is who's getting all the money? Kind of yeah, exactly right. So this do you remember the movie Cannonball Run?
I do?
Yeah, you do? Okay, So my boy hal need them, director of Smoking in the Bandit, which Hitchcock called his favorite film. Is what I swear to God Halfred Hitchcock look it up. He said this Smoking the Bandit was his favorite film. It was the end of his life. So who knows what was going on, but anyway he consciousness, Yeah exactly. He's out a letter that I need him, is saying this anyway, how need him? He's back in
the director's chair for Cannonball Run. Now, do you you remember the movie I did Burt Reynolds, JJ McClure, Dom Delawai Tom Delawis as Victor prinsy aka who Captain Chaos. You heard the costume that was like his alter ego is like his first sona but no fur.
I always liked when they would show like the outtakes and they're just cracking themselves up, and I'm like, it's not that.
Funny the whole of the movie. Oh my god, it's such a Hollywood. We got drunk and went off to a set and like, yeah, yeahmpletely so. But also, you know, speaking of drunk, there was Dean Martin in this movie, Sammy Davis Junior. They were dressed as priests. Remember, right, I'm trying to get my buddy Derek to do this costume for Halloween. Like the two of us get some priest shirts and.
We go do it.
I know, right, it's right slam dunk. Also Jackie Chan the guy and the guy who played Jaws in the Bonds movies their teammates. Anyway, do you remember the shake je Jamie Fame, he plays Abdul ben Falafel.
Oh God, stuff from the eighties, like when you look back, like there have been times when I'll think, oh, I loved that movie, and then I watched.
You watch it and I'm just like, oh, I don't remember all this.
First of all, super offensive. Second of all, there are a lot of movies where you're like, kids.
Watched oh most of them, even the ones where I'm like, I watched this as a kid, Like what, who let me watch this? Ex So, Jamie Farr is the only character who's in all three Cannonball movies this shake abdul ben Falafel, and he plays them obviously as a wild stereotype of an Arab and I looked it up. Also, I should note, do you remember his father was Ricardo Montabon. He was in Cannonball Run two aka mister Rourke from Fantasy.
Oh yeah, yeah, rich Corinthian love.
Yes, exactly, real commitment to Arab stereotypes here Ricardo montaban and Jamie Farr. But it should be noted Jamie Farr is of I looked it up, needs descent his family. They are Antioch Orthodox Christians, so it's not really you know, entirely his culture to make fun of. But he is of the region, you know. So anyway, the Canniball Run movies, Janie far As shake abdol ben Faloffel, he drives this
tricked out rolls Royce silver Shadow. That's to like make fun of the fact of like the implausibility, that rageousness of Arab wealthy you're gonna try to raise, and of Rolls Royce. That's the whole joke, right, which speaks to what was going down in the seventies. Arabs are suddenly everywhere. Right, They're in New York, They're in London. They have money, They have more money than the queen right in this
desert shake the irresponsible Saudi prince. They become this image of the excessive, outsized Arab oil wealth.
Right.
But the shak's also become an iconic image of the seventies era with just the look. It's just such an iconic look. Soddenly got this, these long flowing white robes, the clean white draped kefia. The head dress right, the sorry caffa headdress often accessorized with these dark designers sunglasses. Right, they look all clean. Perhaps they have like a statement bird of prey, like a falcon, very.
Very much like an eighties kids Halloween come totally.
Right, or like there's a also. I mean, this look it gets becomes so iconic people start playing with it. Like you pointed out, it becomes a costume. Frank Zappa very famously on his very first album, the one for Zappa Records that he released in nineteen seventy nine. It was called Shake Your Booty. Oh yeah on the cover of Frank Zappa dressed as a desert shake. The album
features the title track, obviously, shake your Booty. That was a play on the song that was a big song of the day, Shake your Booty by Sunshine.
Yeah.
All right, so this same album, the same Zappa album.
They've got shake notes exactly.
Do you know Jewish American Princess the Zappa song? Yes, yes, I want to funky little Jews printans. Anyway, so Frank Zappa, he's playing with the Israeli tensions at the time, apparently, I don't know. But another person who also becomes famous playing with the same iconic imagery he played a shake Actually his is a man named Hossain Kostro Ali Vasiri, better known as the Iron Cheek. You're familiar with the professional wrestler the Iron Cheek.
I really know much about wrestling, but like you remember characters like that and like pul Kogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper.
There you go, classic Rowdy, my big boy. I like him anyway, you remember at the time, right, like in the eighties and he comes from he was in the seventies, but he really comes to dominance in the eighties. And you could like tell that he's like this Cold War proxy war figure because you have the Soviet Union that
was his like wrestling partner. He's with this big Soviet Russian and that was to kind of play on the fact that Iran or Rock War was going on at the time, right, So we have this whole thing, and so the Soviets choose Iran, we choose a rock that we being the West. So all this gets played out. And so that's why there's photos of George Bush and Saddam Hussein together in the Reagan years. It's because of this. So the Iron Cheek is capitalizing on.
This Iron Chek today like a Twitter he was.
He passed away. He passed away recently. He was a huge Twitter presence. Everybody loved him and it really was him apparently doing although like you're a j'r Broni. Now, he was an Iranian born wrestler. Now, if you know anything, it's kind of weird for him to be called the Iron Chic if he's because there's no shakes in Iran. Yeah,
it's a Persian culture if you want. Yeah, the Shiks they they're from the Arabian Peninsula, from the Gulf States, right, So, but I guess the Iron Persian just didn't have the same ring, right. But this is the whole point is in the seventies they're like, oh, you got to be a shake well, and it was just.
There was this notion that it's just all the same.
Yes, there's always that, there's you know, it's just.
That whole region. And I think it really.
Wasn't until the flattening of that area.
Like the First Gulf War, that people were able to start differentiate, differentiating different countries.
Yeah, totally, or even understanding like the Souni Shia divide and Islam some of these things they're they're not known at this point, not really, right. So at this point, for purely visual reasons, the Iron Shake. He wears these curved toad shoes from like the Ottomans. He has an ancient Persian style club, he's got the Kafia of the the chk Right, He's just mixing up all the Middle Eastern signified.
Yeah.
Yeah, because it's basically playing on occidental fears. That's the whole idea, right, So these three shak examples, I give you. None of them are Arab, right, these are this is what people are picturing when they're learning about shakes. These people pretending in the seventies, right, So your average media trained American, this is what they think of a shake in the seventies and eighties. Is these people. Yeah, Frank Zappa, Jamie Farr, and the Iron Shake. So anyway, that Elizabeth
brings us to the story of the day abscam. Nice to story almost as big as Watergate was in the nineteen seventies. It's this huge crime and there's you know, it's government figures are involved. The Feds are going after government figures. It's like people are like, oh this again.
But after two decades of victories in court thanks to Rico, the Feds have been going after mobsters for a while, all right, and the Fed lawyers there at this point they're finishing up and prisoning the last of the Great Dawns of the Five Families of New York and New Jersey. Yeah, the FBI, they've run a number of stings, surveillance operations, all against the mafia. This is when like Rudy Giuliani, James Comer and Michael Chertoff all make their names as
US attorneys. So abscam. It starts out as an FBI sting operation, just another one of these. It was an attempt to ensnare mobsters working with white collar criminals. But eventually, all of a sudden, out of nowhere pops up into the second greatest political scandal of the seventies. It starts with, as I said, FBI agents playing dress up as shakes. In nineteen seventy eight, FBI agent John Good, middle name Francis. So he was John F. Goood, not like Johnny F. Good.
Now anyway, if his name was like, middle name was Bernard, I know so much better. Yeah, but his parents had no sense of humor, foresight. Yeah, John F. Good, Johnny F. Good whatever. Anyway, This dude, John F. Good, FBI guy, guy with a big idea. He stationed at the FBI suburban Long Island Field office. Right, he wants to get into this anti mob crackdown energy. So listen, if you want to fight crime, it helps if you have your own what army criminal?
Oh yeah, it.
Helps because if you have your own criminal, because they know things you don't. They know the language, they know some people. They know the ins and outs. They can tell you things and what things mean that you would never even think the question. Yeah, right, so it helps have a criminal basically, So, this criminal that John F. Good decides he's going to draft for his operation is named Melvin Weinberg. Melvin Weinberg. He is a con artist,
a swindler. He's recently been arrested and is looking at a long stretch inside. Yeah, that's why he agrees to become an FBI and foremant He's like, oh, yeah, out of my two choices, I'll take what's in your right hand.
Yeah.
He ropes in his girlfriend who's also been busted, also run up on charges, Evelyn Knight. So that together they agree to help the FBI help some agents run low priority sting operations, just like I said, catch some white collar criminals. Folks are doing business with the mob in Long Island. Yeah, operations of initial budget was thirty two thousand dollars, not much at all. No, Weinberg, he goes, he takes his money. He creates a fake business, a
front company called Abdul Enterprises. The company was purportedly to be this business arm for an Arab shake. The sheik was named Comber Abdul Ramen, and they were that was entirely made up. These are obviously covers for FBI agents. Shake Ramen and there was another one to shake Yasir Habib. So shake Khabib and Shake Ramen. They become the FBI agent's cover stories. They pretend to have one million dollars that they wish to invest in American businesses. Right, so
we got some arab oil money. I just want to come over and put in the Yeah. So that whole the idea is that hopefully people see them is like, oh I can con them, I can take them whatever. They're like new Nuvaux Reach.
Yeah.
So the first bust that they go, they they conduct them. They're working like like Subaru engineering, Elizabeth just smooth. Weinberg, he's able to define this set of stolen paintings in one of the crimes. Right. That ends up that pretty much takes most of the thirty two thousand dollars budget to get through these first stainings because he's using it as like buy money and so forth. FBI they recover the stolen artwork. Then Weinberg he gets this big surprise.
The insurance company flips him a cool ten thousand for his recovery effort. It's ten larks just for like, you know, being involved. This one gives Weinberg a big idea of his own. He's like, I got big ideas too. He can make some big money roping in criminals for the FBI. He happens to know them, so now he'll just start targeting them and hopefully get a little piece on the side, or is he put it, he'll start working as a
quote government crook. So he goes back to his handlers and he tells him, look, if you want to go after some real big fish, like some real criminals, then you need to give me some real money. So the FBI is like, well, how much you do you have in mind? He's like he goes like full doctor evil. He's like, I need one million dollars. So the FBI they go, okay, one million dollars and they transfer it
to a Chase Manhattan bank account. So now Weinberg's got some real like flash show money, and he's got these fake FBI shakes to go around and play dress up into you know, flash in front of the purpse. So he's got some flash money. He's got these people who are gonna make people think, oh I can take them. It's great. Right, So they now they go, I like this guy. They put them on the official FBI payroll. This informant, he gets a salary of three grand a
month in nineteen seventy. Yes, it's a lot of money. So that's not to mention any bonuses that he earned. No, I don't know if the FBI was covering his expenses, but I do know this. He kept the same attitude as a quote government crook that he brought to his work as a con man or. As Wineberg put it, and I quote, I'm a swindler. There's only one difference between me and the congressman I met on this case. The public pays them a salary for stealing. So he's
got real respect for his targets. Yeah. Anyway, second, little breg Elizabeth, after these messages, we will check back in on Weinberg and how these FBI shakes get to work. Excellent, Elizabeth, we're back. How are those ads? Huh so good?
Oh my gosh, there's so much I want to buy.
I know, where's my wallet? Where were we? Right? Yes, we got a bunch of FBI agents pretending to be Shakes to catch American gangsters. I love it, Okay, so the swindler Weinberg, he earns the trust and a salary from his FBI handlers. He repays them with new schemes. Now they have their own criminal dreaming up crimes for them to pull. After some initial successes, Weinberg comes up with the act. He gets it down in pat He will pose as an agent for this insanely wealthy Arab
named Shake Combo abdul Ramen. Fun fact, it seems like he invented this namdu sting because Weinberg says he wants sat next to a Combu abdul Ramen on a flight from Paris and just took his name. There's a guy, Yeah, exactly, boy, he's doing crimes in this guy's name. Anyway. The sheikh who he's supposed to be is allegedly from the Arab Emirates. He's a Gulf state Shake. That's the idea this imaginary shake.
The gambit is simple. Weineberg, posing as the agent. He would find a purp approach them with an offer of a loan from the Shakes, like I got some money because due to the dictates of Islamic Shariah law. The Shakes were forbidden from usury, right, they can't do normal banking laws, and therefore they have to avoid the interest of Western banks. And so that means that the Shakes were looking for investment potential and that's where they like
to park their money. And so they loan money also in exchange for say, fake certificates of deposit, so that the Shakes can later withdraw their money from a Muslim bank overseas. And people are like, oh, okay, they know
for this all scammers, right. The other scam that Weinberg starts to work is he approaches a purp again posing as the agent for the fake Shakes, and he says he's looking for investment opportunities to skirt American banking oversight because their fortunes are so vast and they'll be seized if they know blah blah blah. Yeah, and then the Shakes are also looking for you know, when I say investment opportunities, we're talking expected businesses like American made porn films.
Whoa yeah. So people are like, oh, the Shakes really want to get in this, were like, oh, yes, they don't care as long as their names are not involved. They're looking for solid businesses, good you know, bottom lines, all that kind of stuff, like, oh, porn business for you brother. So now you might be imagining the FBI had these like the same guy always like pose as
the shake. Yeah, like you might be imagining some agent of Arab descent who can carry off the act, who can convincingly play a shake he speaks Arabic and you would be wrong. Oh no, of course. The course they have no respect for the role. So they're just like you know, tonight the shake will be played by So there's three different agents playing shake Rahmen. For the most part, right, one of the agents is of Irish descent. I don't know if he's a redhead, but he's of Irish descent.
He's a dude named Michael Danahey, but he was American. I gave him the except for fun. He plays the shake, and of course he didn't know a single word of Arabic, so when he did try, he would just utter simple phrases like and he couldn't even make it through, like uh aslama lakeam. He'd be like like, oh it all or whatever? Right, it come out of like a wholly different set of vowels and consonants, and if I, if I imitated, it would probably sound racist, right, So you.
Know, oh my god, I'm just trying to process this.
Now. I don't know if they got the memo after Michael Dennehy's version of the ship played out a few times, but eventually the FBI they drag in this agent who is of Lebanese descent, much like Jamie Farr. They're like, oh, this works enough, works in Cannonball, can you do it? So I get this Elizabeth, this agent. He actually spoke Arabic fluently, but he'd do some words so you could muster a passing accent.
All of my friends from the region from the Levant. Yeah, speaks so many languages, totally totally Yeah.
And dialects too. So anyway, where was I?
Oh?
So things they start to go better for the agents. Now they've got this bit down. They got this second sheek is more convincing than the Irish guy. So then they decide, okay, well, now that we got down, we'll bring in They bring in shake. Yes, Sayer Habib I mentioned him earlier. He comes on. Now they got two shakes and this second shake he's a goer, Elizabeth, because soon enough he earns himself for promotion, he becomes a mirror and so yeah, he's got his own He's the
leader of his own golf state. Apparently not bad for a pretend shake. Anyway, Enough about the FBI guys playing dress up like Frank Zappa, who were they targeting? Great question, Elizabe, I'm so glad I asked that. Now, Weinberg he liked to target obviously white collar criminals. That was the aim. Right. So he finds this one guy, William Rosenberg, and he approaches the agent for the fake Shakes with an angle of some business in New Jersey. Right, so Weinberg the swindler.
He tells Rosenberg that the Shakes would like to invest, are looking to invest in Atlantic City, and he thinks that the casino business would be perfect for them and their vast wealth. So he says, they have some money to invest, but they'll need guarantees. They'll need guarantees that they can be awarded a gambling license as foreigners. Now we're talking serious money. You Now you have to understand they have one hundred million dollars as they plan to
drop on Atlantic City. They'll transform the city into the Los f He gets of the East. People are like, oh yeah, Rosenberg, this purpose. He's like, I got people. Don't you worry? I canna help you out. Turns out he knows the mayor of Camden, New Jersey. Oh, this guy's like a major power like player in Jersey politics. Rosenberg says, I get Mayor Angela Erchetti to play ball, right for a small fee. So the FBI informant Weinberger Swindler, he invites the mayor to meet him at the Long
Island offices of Abdul Enterprises. Meet the shakes yourself, right. So the office was of course fully kitted out with cameras, hiding microphones and FBI special so the FBI records everything that's said and everything that's done inside this office. And the mayor shows up right. December nineteen seventy eight, Marriger Eric Shetty arrives at the office of Abdul Enterprises. He and Weinberg, the agent for the fake Shakes, They get to talking about corruption, like, oh, you like coruption, I
love corruption. Let's do some corruption, right, what do these fake shakes think about it? Or so obviously real shakes to him. They get to talking about it. He's like, so you want store bought casino licenses, that's the deal. So Mayor Eric shetty. He starts to, you know, get a little full of himself. He swells up a little. He brags that he has contacts with the Casino Control Commission.
That's not problem for me, the mayor tells. The agent tells this agent for the fake shakes Weinberg, I'll give you Atlantic City without me. You do nothing.
It just plays into everyone's ideas.
And all the stereotypes. You got this like Italian mayor of Jersey without me, you got nothing.
He's actually played.
But it is better because I don't even get this one. He's Italian. They're apparently supposed to be fake Arabs. He said, ends his quote with like, you know, I'll give you Atlantic City without me, you do nothing. I'll be your rabbi, Like I don't know if.
Italian.
I'll be a rabbi.
Into a bar.
Anyway. His price four hundred thousand dollars, So he's like, he makes that clear. He's like, I will take that. So now they got the mayor on tape naming his price. So also he had his own ideas from some crimes they could pull. He's like, I got other guys you need to talk to. You got some loose money. I got guys who are like vacuums. This is great. So Weinberg would later recall he wanted me to get into counterfeit money. He wanted to give us the Port of
Camden for narcotics. He's like, hey, what do you want to run heroin? I saw the French connection. What are you guys doing?
Oh my god.
So to get the casino license, which is what they say they want, Eric Shetty, he said that he'd need to bribe this dude McDonald to Kenneth McDonald, the vice chairman of the Casino Control Commission. So that will cost another hundred grand. All right, no problem, you guys got that. So he later he visits Obdul Enterprises over on Long Island to pick up the hundred large, which of course gets recorded on videotape. So Weinberg gets to know this
new class of white collar criminals. He begins to think of them as a quote, a bunch of perverts, drunks and crooks. And he liked the mayor. Weinberg said he could relate to him since quote, he's a likable guy. He didn't beat around the bush. He wanted to make money. So Mayor Eric Shetty, he's indeed, as I said, powerful in South New Jersey. He's connections. They run all the way up to the local congressman. He bragged about that too. Is I can bag him for you if you want, right,
So Weinberg and his FBI handlers they start. They change their cover story now for the fake shakes. They don't want to just get into the gambling business in Atlantic City. They had a new wrinkle to see if they can bake the hook for a congressman. So they tell Eric Shetty that that's fake shakes. They also need help with some problems, uh deportation. Yeah, yeah, see they're trying to get rid of they can't get You can't let this happen, right, Well,
they'll pay, you have to understand. So the mayor tells the undercover FBI informed that's no problem, we can take care of that. So he gets them set up with some congressmen who will sponsor legislation in Congress that will cover the fake shakes. No way, of course, Elizabeth. There will be a charge for such a service. So Weinberg, the undercover FBI informed, He's like, no problem, money is
not a problem. Look at these guys, right, So if the Arabs have money to buy politicians and Mayor Eric Shetty, he will provide the invites. So, now the FBI is in the congressional corruption sting business, so may Eric Sheddy. He brings in political players from the tri state area. We're talking New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Who do you
want Congressman? What do you be a senator? So he starts introducing the fake shakes there and their undercover informant Weinberg who's proposing as their agent to Philadelphia Congressman Raymond f Lederer and Michael Ozzy Myers. Right, the mayor promises Weinberg that, oh, you're gonna like Congressman Ozzie Myers. He's our kind of people, now, Elizabeth, remember the offices of Abdul Enterprises all micd up. There's hidden cameras everywhere, right,
it's basically a film set. Weinberg would often wear a wire, you know. So he's also on top of that, he's like going out in the field. Right, So he's got a meeting in a car. He just wears a shir why not. So even when he meets politicians in public places to talk about their corruption plans, we still know exactly what we said.
So yeah.
For instance, in August of seventy nine, Weinberg and a bagman for the Sheiks who is actually an undercover FBI agent. Of course, they meet Mayor Eric Shetty at JFK Airport for a payoff. Okay, they sat together in the Northwest Airlines lounge.
Oh rip, definitely.
The mayor told the FBI informant, an undercover agent, that Congressman Ozzi Myers quote, He's gonna be your man, period, anything you want. Oh wow. So Weinberg calls the mayor by his nickname. That's the level that they're on now, right, he says, Angi's always got to tell you, sierr is that ah, when the time comes, I will sponsor anything you want. That's all he's asking for.
Right.
So now the mayor responds, He'll say that, let me tell you something. This guy's good. Myers is good. So Elizabeth, he was indeed good at the corruption kind of except for the getting caught part. Congressman Ozzie Myers. He meets with Weinberg and the undercover FBI agents at the Airport Hotel near JFK Airport. Apparently it is just like the spot in New York. Yeah, so it's now August twenty second, nineteen seventy nine. He's handed fifty thousand dollars in cash
in a briefcase on camera on camp. Just as promises, he says he will do his part to make the fake shake's plans work out. He tells the agent he will introduce an immigration bill into Congress, and he'll even speak to the folks at the State Department. Whatever you guys.
Oh wow.
So during their meeting, recorded on FBI surveillance, Congressman II Meyers assured his co conspirators and I quote money talks in this business and walks, oh god. So from that point, for that fifty thousand dollars he picked up, he only kept fifteen grand for himself. He spread the juice around like bribe money for all the others, all of his other coke conspirators. Right over time, Mayor Angie Araschetti, he brings mel Weinberg, the Swindler, a whole basketball team's worth
of corrupt politicians for the FBI to bust. The list of congressmen includes a Senator for New Jersey, Harrison A. Pete Williams, Representatives John Jenrett of South Carolina, Richard Kelly of Florida, John Murphy of Staten Island, Frank Thompson of Trenton, New Jersey. Thompson initially didn't take the money. He's like a really well respected congressman. So the swindler Weinberg has to go at him twice. He got him second time.
No way.
Now what about the two shakes getting in on the action. We gotta have a story of that, right, Elizabeth. We do. For instance, there's this story of when Weinberg and his two fake shakes met with Senator Harrison Pete Williams. The highest ranking member of Congress who was caught up in this sting was Senator Pete Williams. Okay, he was a Democrat from New Jersey. When the swindle of Rheinberg, he reaches out to him with an offer of a payoff from the fake shakes. There was no cash offer. This
is complicated bribing. He instead said that the fake shakes would offer the Senator an eighteen percent ownership stake in a titanium mine, okay, And in exchange, Senator Williams would of course expedite the immigration bill and the licenses for the casino construction. And then for the fake shakes also they would get he would steer a government contract to the titanium mine, so both parties would profit from that.
Oh my god.
Now keep in mind, as I said, Senator Pete Williams received no actual payoff, just a promise of profits. So the meeting was with the two fake shakes, and being the nineteen seventies, of course, the meeting took place aboard a yacht. It's a yacht party in del Rey, Florida. The meeting was an interesting affair. But rather than take mine before port, Elizabeth, I'd like you to close your eyes. I'd like those to picture it. It's a late March
afternoon named del Rey, Florida. Despite the month, since it's Florida, it's still warm. Elizabeth. You are aboard a yacht, the Corsair, sitting at anchor in the marina. Seagulls call waves lap at the dock pilings, and oh yeah, this boat is a rocket. There's a yacht party underway. New guests have just arrived. Unfortunately, Elizabeth, you're here because you're working. The theme for this yacht party is a new hit show,
the love Boat. This means you're working with a bartender who's supposed to be a lookalike for the Afrod love Boat bartender Isaac. He's close, but he's no eyes anyway, you're mixing my ties as you watch the new guest step aboard. Out front is a charismatic mayor from New Jersey named Angela Aroshetti. The party is in his honor. With him is a curious entourage. There's a man who looks important and he is. It's US Senator Pete Williams,
also of New Jersey. Also with the Mayor's what looks to be a shake and his interpreter, he's announced as is Eminence. Shake you, Sir Rabi. The shak is dressed in the traditional robe, the burnous, the white, flowing regal looking striking on his head. He wears a cafea the traditional Arab chik headdress, his eyes shielded by designer sunglasses. You're called over by the yacht over. Guess you're supposed to play waitress for this crowd. You come over greet
the guests. You ask the Shake if he'd like something to drink. He looks to his interpreter, who then repeats what you just said, but in what sounds like, I don't know, guttural, made up impression of Arabic. But hey, what do you know? The Shak responds, and then the interpreter turns to you and says, orange juice, twist of lun Now you ask the others what they'd care to drink. The important looking man he says he'd like a Scotch neat. The mayor from New Jersey asks for a Scotch but
on the rocks. The interpreter doesn't say what he wants. You decide you'll make him an orange juice, the same as for the chik. You go back, you mix the drinks. Ice cubes hit the glass. That's for the Scotch on rocks. Next is the Scotch neat, and then the two orange juices with a twist of lime. You return with the drinks. When you get back, the men are now all seated. You hand out the drinks and you hear the interpreters
speaking with the shake. Now you're pretty damn sure he's just making up sounds there is no way that's Arabic, but hey, what do you know exactly? The shake seems to like what he hears. He then nods, smiles, laughs a little, and then the shake says something in a low voice. It also sounds like make believe movie Arabic. The interpreter turns to the group and he says, the shake is delighted with your open spirit, most strong, very masculine. You roll your eyes as you hear the important man.
The senators laugh and loudly say, you tell the Shake. I'll do all I can. You tell them, I'll deliver my end. You head back to the bar, Elizabeth. Next time you look back, the men are now posing for a photo. Oh god, So after that yacht party, Elizabeth, the deal was not done.
With it's photographic evidence.
Yeah, that was a great photo for them on the boat together. It took three more meetings that took place over several months in Manhattan at the Pierre Hotel. The senator medigan with Weinberg, you know the Pierre. Yes, that's right for your story. So the senert he he meets with Weinberg and the Shake, and they agreed to invest one hundred million dollars in the titanium mine and they made a deal for Williams to get his cut. They present him with like his ownership papers as stock certificates.
In Arlington, Virginia, the Senator meets again and he promises the fake shake he will use his influence to get the military contracts going help the mind development along. They're all going to be in swell. Finally, last meeting at JFK Airport once again, Senator. He's winging his way to Paris. He's about to catch a flight, so he just pops over to meet Weinberg in the fake shake. At the airport hotel, he stops off to pick up the stock certificates for the mine. All of this was recorded on
hidden mike surveillance cameras. The Senator, in other words, was now having he was stuck with incontrovertible proof of his crimes. So there you go, a recorded look behind the curtain of corruption. Okay, let's take a little break, Elizabeth, and after this, I will tell you what happens when abscam hits the fan and shocks a nation that's still recovering from Watergate.
Yeah, and isabey so abscam?
How are you liking it?
So it's the scope is so big.
Yeah, right, start out with a little time.
These little tiny hotel room meetings and.
Start out with like they're going to get some Long Island white color criminals and work with the mob. They're just trying to clean up Whoever's.
What's jumping out to me is that he goes, you know, the fake shake is like, we're having immigration issues. They're like, instead of saying we're just going to address your issue, they're like, let's just do some legislation.
About immigration bill.
And it doesn't seem like it's that expensive.
No, also seems rather common. Yeah, they have answers that this is not These are not the first people who came to them.
We got to think about what we want to go to someone with, what kind of legislation.
What kind of ridiculous crime all we want?
Yeah, the ridiculous Zarens law.
So at this point, now we have the New Jersey mayor who's opened the door to political corruption, which leads to a road right through the power politics in the tri state area of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania that then leads all the way to Washington, d C. In the US Congress. The other senator who got caught up in this FBI sting was Senator Larry Presler. He was a Republican from South Dakota. Don't even see that coming, Yeah right, So, what's this Republican from South Dakota doing
it on this scam? Well, he'd been a congressman first, but then in nineteen seventy eight he runs for the Senate and he wins. Then Senator Presler he was, by the way, the first Vietnam veteran to be elected to Senate. This is like seventeen eight. He's very fresh out of the war.
And he, guys, still got his uniform.
Pretty much like team you take that hat off.
Yeah.
So I guess he was feeling pretty high in his own supply because in nineteen seventy nine, after being elected to Senate, he the he decides to run for president. He's like, why not, I'm a Republican. It's nineteen eighty. People are they've forgotten about Watergate enough? You know, we got Jimmy.
Carter got There's no one else in the eighties, nobody run.
Yeah, no one, No one leaps to mind. In nineteen eighty giant figure, No, no so, needless say, he didn't make.
It known to the entire country.
He didn't make it far into the primary, said Ronald Reagan, mopped up the whole shield. So but the dude did manage to rack up a hell of a lot of debt from his presidential campaign. Oh boy. So that's when the FBI informant Weinberger approached him with an offer from the fake Shakes. Oh, someone from one of his fundraisers makes the connection. All right, They're like, oh, you've got to meet these guys. There's these shakes in Washington. Everybody's
getting in on it. So the meeting is set up for at a tony home in Georgetown, like where all the good corruptions done. As an FBI man, John F. Good, remember the guys running all this, he recalled a We chased him actually, like they aimed at this guy.
So they figure that he's a vulnerable, you know, position.
Totally and he's full of himself. I think he made a couple of enemies. It's been this whole long. I'm gonna run for president. Yeah, anyway, I don't know, I'm just speculating. A while on hidden camera, old Senator Presler was offered a bribe of fifty thousand dollars, a going rate for senators. Apparently, the payoff would be paid in exchange for his help to for the two shakes to get their deportation problems cleared up. Right, So this first time senator, he's new at this level. He says, I'll
look into it. Let me go talk to my guys. But he promises nothing more than I will go look into it. Now that's important that he promised them nothing. But he was recorded saying, and I quote, in any event, it would not be proper for me to promise to do anything in exchange for a campaign contribution. So he just tells them right like, I can't do it when it comes to payoffs. At the time, we can get around.
Then.
Now that when it comes to the payoffs, there's this guy who's like the other major bag man. It was Mayor Eric Haschetti's friend, Howard Crichton. He's a Philadelphia based real estate lawyer. Okay, right. He Ultimately he becomes the one who starts bringing in the congressman for the shakes. For the congressman, the FBI had, as I said, they set up this house on w in Washington, d c
to go along with their georgetownhouse. I guess they set up mikes and cameras, and then they invited the congressmen to come by and pick up the cash at the house with the fake shakes and come by meet the shak.
Yeah.
Now there they would meet at shake Rahmen and Shaka later Amir Habib. So, according to those who visited the house for the surveillance cameras to be able to get clean photos and video, because this is like nineteen eighties video cameras, the home's porch lights were so bright that the congressmen are often seen squinting in the photos. They're right there on the front porch like oh god, my eyes. Now they had a reason to explain away the super
bright lights. The fake shake explained through his interpreter, obviously that he liked the lights to be so bright because he missed the bright, hot, sunny deserts of his homeland.
We'll get out of here, and they went for it.
They're like, oh, it makes sense to me.
Uh shake.
Oh, So this Philly lawyer, the bagman, cried and he brings congressmen after congressmen by the house to meet and greet and get paid by the shakes. Yeah, so Pennsylvania Democrats Raymond Larder, he was forty one of the time. In Michael Ozzie Meyer's thirty six, they both get filmed at the house picking up their briefcases of cash. There was another one, New York Democrat John Murphy fifty three.
He gets picked up, but he was already under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, so he didn't want to actually pick up the money himself, so he made cride and bring it to him.
Oh God.
So when a Republican Congressman from Florida, Richard Kelly fifty five, he hears about the shakes giving out all this money to his like, you know, colleagues, He's like, where do I get in line? I swear to God a bill, as Time magazine put it, and I quote. Kelly apparently learned of the available cash from a chain starting with a convicted stock swindler and leading through an accountant and an East Coast mobster, all three of whom had expected
to acquire fifty thousand each from Shay Kabebe. Only Kelly, however, received a delivery. The cameras in the w Street house caught him stuffing twenty five thousand dollars, two hundred and one hundred dollar bills and two hundred and fifty twenty dollars bills into his suit coat and pants pockets, and then asking does it show?
Oh, are you kidding me? So it's so low just shoving it in your pocket?
And why in every pocket you got your jackets bulging your pants pocket? How does my butt look?
Here's about it from different criminals.
It goes running over for it.
Yeah, but it's like it's not just like oh I got wind of it from one dee. Oh yeah, No, like multiple criminals that he knows.
Yeah, huh. So watching these congressmen line up like little piggies at the trock exactly, FBI agents are astounded. They're like, we thought Watergate was bad, so there's one FBI agent put it later on quote, we found people climbing all over each other to get some of the action. We were mystified. So they're just gaps and gobsmacked by this, right, Elizabeth. The FBI guy guys had made so many deals for so many payoffs that they ran out of bribe money and they had to go back to the FBI for more.
Like we're gonna need some more bribe money to pay off these people.
Don't worry, we'll get it back.
At this point, the FBI bosses are like, wait, what's going on with this operation? We got all these senators and congressmen. We're giving a briefcases of cash with a fake shake, Like wait, whoa, whoa. We really should have been doing a little more oversights. So the FBI is like, we're gonna have to shut this down. So they go and they turn off the money hose.
Right.
So, all in all, the FBI's undercover investigation last twenty three months. One hundred FBI agents work on it. Over the two year long operation, it cost roughly eight hundred thousand dollars in total. There was one other reason why the FBI chose to shut down abscam. Your point about the word was spreading. The press learned about the fake shakes.
The corrupt congressmen are all lining up for the bribes, so they actually find out where the house is, and the press starts to get in the way because reporters starts surveiling the FBI's surveillance teams. For instance, reporters from NBCTV they had not one, but two Winnebago vans that they parked near the FBI's fake shake and trapman house on W Street. So there you have the FBI truck and then like five cars down as a Winnebago watching the FBI truck.
Did the news so the news knew that it was the FBI or did they think, No, there's these crooked They.
Think it's I think because there's a crooked shake, who's buying Congressman?
Think this investigative news team is going to bring down exactly?
Then they and then they noticed that there's that somebody else is watching and then not the press to get there. Oh they're gonna they're gonna beat us on the story. They're like, oh wait, those are not reporters. Those guys look like yeah, exactly. So then from their surveillance vans, NBC tries to film whoever goes in and out of
the super Bright house. Right, But the windows, by the way, are also always draped, and when the drape, when the drapes are slightly removed for a moment, the windows are tinted, so they can't film anything in. They can only get people coming in and out of the house.
Right.
It's also buying you wintertime in Washington, DC, back when that actually mattered. It was a cold winter. There was snow and terrible weather. NBC reporter, they're on steak out. Their orange juice is freezing in their truck. For two months they watched the FBI's undercover operation, not knowing fully that it was the FBI. Eventually they figure it out. But meanwhile, the neighbors noticed these two suspicious winnibeg goes
and they phone the police on NBC. So the DC cops they show up to investigate, and the reporters they're like, so we need you to step out of the winnebago. The reporter's like, go go away, go, don't stop, get away. The cops like, seriously, you need you out. They're like, we're with NBC. They're like, what do you stop whispering?
Where shit? Don't look go away right. They eventually show the cops away by telling them, getting upset and saying, what's the matter with you guys, You're screwing up our investigation. So the cops are like, oh, sorry about that, and they'll wait. Now. Around the same time, the FBI has decided it's time to shut down the fake shake operations. And bring some charges. So Saturday February second, soon enough, the story now breaks because everybody's ohay, and the sting
hits the fan. And by that I mean the headlines and we're talking big crazy headlines like Watergate level. They're like, oh my god, government corruption at the highest level, Senator by Shakes, it's just insane. And also then there's the whole foreigner racism part of like, our government's being corrupted by outside influences of oil money, blah blah, the people who've just punished us with So it's like you're on the side of the villains or whatever. So this is whole,
like what's going on. Everyone's trying to get to the bottom of this, And then it goes to the court rooms. In court under oath, testimony reveals the inner workings of power politics in the late seventies, Grand jury hearings, Senate committee hearings, courtroom trials. The trials they started in nineteen eighty. In total, eight defendants were put on dockets in federal
courts in Brooklyn, Washington, d C. And Philadelphia. The full list, if you're keeping track, was Senator Harrison Pete Williams of New Jersey Congressman Raymond Larder and Michael Ozzy Myers of Pennsylvania, Representative John Jenrett of South Carolina, Reped Frank Thompson of New Jersey, Representative John Murphy of New York, and finally, Representative Richard Kelly of Florida. All of the senators in congressmen caught in the staying were Democrats except for Kelly
of Florida and Presler of South Dakota. Washington Posts though they loved Presler much like you had the reaction of like, oh, yeah, somebody finally said no, at least like I can't do this like that. Yeah, So they described his experience. Pressler's experience with the fake shake as a moment of principled
defiance on the front page. Mind you, it was not exactly that, but either way, as the Washington Post reported and I quote preserved among the videotape footage that may be used as bribery evidence against a number of members of Congress, there is a special moment in which Senator Larry Presler, Republican of South Dakota, tells the undercover agents,
in effect, to take their sting and stick it. Presler, according to law enforcement sources was the one approached member of Congress who flatly refused to consider financial favors in exchange for legislative favors, as suggested by undercover agents posing as Arabs. At the time, he said he was not aware that he was doing anything quite so heroic.
He had a precious moment.
Saying no to being like a corrupt congressman. Way to be heroic. S just amazing, missus eighty I mean, like the bar was lowered Vans. Yeah, where is it now?
Anyway, there is no bar.
Yeah, that's just what I'm telling you. It's just a valley and you roll into it and roll out of it. In the end, all eight who were indicted were convicted of bribery conspiracy. In eighty one and in eighty one Congressman Ozzie Myers he justifies his guilt in this great interview. He talks about his acceptance of the payoff from the fake FBI Shakes and Meers said, and I quote, I
took money because I like money. I feel I didn't do anything wrong, and if anybody offers me twenty five thousand dollars this afternoon, I will take it like money. I love money. I like money problem. I love the money. Money so hard not to lack a criminal who just admits who he is. Right, Even the FBI guys they liked this. Congressman John F. Good, the leader of the operation.
He said Ozzie was one of my favorite guys. Now, I should point out that neither Senator Larry Presler or Rep. John Murtha uill See also gets mentioned in the story where ever indicted because neither man promised to do anything even though they were approached, or and neither man took any of the money offered to them even though they were at least in Mirtha's case, recorded saying he would, yeah, Elizabeth. The weird thing about abscam is how it led to
this surprise backlash. For one, there's the name abscam. When the news of FBI's undercover operation breaks, right the authorities, they tell the press that abscam is short for arab scam, so it's not far off, but it's not accurate. Right. Eventually, after the Arab American Relations Committee makes a stink about it and says like, what this is offensive? How could you name a government operation arab scam? And they're like, well, no, no, no, sorry, sorry,
it was abdual scam. They're like, that's not much better, but anyway, So at this point a federal judge clears it up and tells them you, no, no, it's abdol scam. It's fine, guys, and everyone's like all right. So they move on to the fact that, you know, aside from both judge points out there's no there was no racial bias in any of the charges, like I don't know,
it's like like whatever. So the FBI, know, though, is now in trouble because they've targeted members of US Congress in a free ranging sting operation that was essentially a fishing expedition. So you know there's going to be a bad reaction when your boss finds out that you've been following home at work, Right, Elizabeth, there was definitely a bad reaction. Even the public was offended by the FBI.
They're like, why would you you hired this career swindler, You put them on the payroll, you make us pay his salary as taxpayers. Then you create these two fake shakes for the FBI to play dress up with, and then they go around in trapping sitting senators. In a post Watergate world, it was not a good look. So Mini felt it was what folks in the legal industry call entrapment. And they weren't far off. US Congress decided to retaliate, so they open up hearings. They're like, we're
gonna watergate these hearings. So they make everyone tries to grand stand, right, So inter Senator Alan K. Simpson, the Republican from Wyoming, when it came time for him to speak in the hearings, he's grilling the FBI officials. He's accusing the g men of all sorts of inappropriate He even tells them, I think you guys are giddy because when they realized that they had some congressmen on the line, well sure, and by on the line, this guy's from
I'm like Wyoming. So he goes full fishing metaphors tender. Simpson says, and I quote, you had so many hooks in and had landed so many lunkers. Did you just decided here you'd fish on into the night?
Oh boy, he's with.
Just his hat. Old John F. Good, our head of the FBI operation. He defends his men and his operation at the Senate hearings, and he says, and I quote, if we were real crooks out there looking to bribe congressmen, and somebody came to us and said, look, I got a better fish for you. How can you say no, I don't need him. Yeah, which is a fair point.
Right.
The hearings go on like this, back and forth. They create this spectacle with these hearings intended to embarrass the FBI, but also into getting the FBI to never investigate Congress again, Like, don't you dare do that again? That was the real message, right, So they started they delayed FBI appointments. Congress was like,
really screwing the FBI. And they did all this just to punish the g men, right, So they're left looking silly, much like the CIA after the Church Committee hearings where they're holding up like the heart attack gun, they're like what is that? CI is like, oh man, that looks bad here. So they're like, you know, the FBI is like trying to like you know, get right in the public's eye. Then this eight hundred page report drops, Right, I found the whole thing. I didn't read the whole thing,
but I read the good parts. Those eight hundred pages. They're all generated by these committee hearings and this just filled with crazy quotes, right, But in the end, Congress makes the Attorney General revise the protocols for the FBI's undercover operations, like we want to see it, right, because Congress they're big mad.
Right.
So in the Congressional committee hearings, it had come out that Weinberg had been personally benefiting from his work picking targets for the FBI.
Yeah.
That was bad. Yeah, and then so they got this professional swindler who's now a professional swindler for the FBI. And it's like they're like, let's not justice. Basically what we said earlier about the undercover cops. Yeah, once you're doing crime, you're no longer.
Yeah.
Anyway, as this eight hundred page Congressional report details exhaustively, mel Weinberg are swindler. He also had received all kinds of goodies along the way, not like money or cash favors, literal stuff like he I got a list here and I quote a General Electric microwave oven, a stereo system
which included Harmon Cardon's receiver, two Genesis speakers, other components. Also, he received three Sony Trinitan color television sets and a Sody Beta Max video cassette recorder dudes basically opening his own electronics store.
We're going to say, like a roll X.
He wanted toys he wanted basically like he wanted to go on like price is right to go shopping, and he's like, oh, well, I'll take the Beta Max, I'll take the triniton color sets. So as the gradtional report took great pains to note, and I quote, Weinberg failed to disclose to the FBI his solicitation or receipt of these gifts, and when confront it, falsely denied to government attorneys and agents that he had solicited or received them.
Presco's nuts about this. You've got his pip swindler working for the FBI. Oops, looks like the FBI's undercover criminal was doing undercover crimes. So the thing was, Weinberg had been largely left on his own, much like we'd heard about in the previous episode with undercover cops. There wasn't much overset, so he wasn't He wasn't even given much field assistance. He had the FBI agents the two fake shakes, but he had to supply his own tape recorder for the FBI sting.
Are you serious quote.
Weinberg has testified that in nineteen seventy eight he'd been using only his own tape recorder, which he continued to use throughout the investigation, and that the FBI did not supply any tape recorder until approximately March nineteen seventy nine. So once the press and the public here about this, the FBI is like, you know, short shifting their agents. They're like, you haven't been doing on spec So he's entering all these crimes and spying like he's a dollar
store James Bond. The FBI looks super foolish, right, So in the wake of abscam, the Attorney General and the DOJ they sit down and they update the policies on undercover informants not agents. Informants. They can no longer have the they have to have more authorization and oversight. So that's where the change is. But as we covered the Undercover Cops episode, the FBI did not extend that to their agents, like, no, they have to be able to
do crimes. So, Elizabeth, I'd like to draw your attention to this document from the DOJ's archive, Chapter four, the Attorney General's guideline on FBI to cover operations, and I quote, in contrast to the mini compliance of deficiencies we found in the Criminal Informant program, our examination of the FBI is undercover operations identified comparatively few instances of non compliance
with the undercover guidelines. In other words, we performed an investigation of ourselves and we found we're good.
Basically, no problems here, guys, it's all yeah, move on.
So all those darn seies, what can you tell me? Criminals? What are you gonna do under control? No, it's the business we're in. So they put it. They drew a line between them and the criminals they worked with, and the said, everyone happy. And that's the last time pretty much they did anything. Ye abscan was when the FBI realized they could no longer partner with criminals and do crimes, no matter how much fun it was for everyone involved. Solizabeth, what's our ridiculous takeaway here?
Oh my goodness, I'm torn that there's a part of me that thinks, you know what, Like, I have no idea why Congress would get so upset if it's obvious that the slightest little tidbit thrown out there. It's like when you go to a pond that's full of like hoy that are used to being fed a lot and throws some food in and they all it's not like, oh, this is the first time this.
Happened some well trained congressman.
Yeah, they're like, all right, I know this lady's gonna keep throwing stuff out there.
You see that shadow move across the wad.
But it's the same time I can see where it's like, you don't want to have pay a criminal to go and hustle some of this up. But yeah, shameful. The whole thing is shameful in every way.
And now you know, I love Miami vice as much as the next like har cor criminal who likes go fast boats. But if you're going to try to like crock it in tubs with the bad guys, you can't have them planning the crimes. That's my That's where I draw the lot, like it should be the criminal's idea. The crime should still be the criminals that you can do the crime with them, as long as their idea can't be your. That was the entrapment that your takeaway.
I'm old school, Elizabeth. I think crime is crime, and even if it's an undercover FBI agent doing it anyway. Takeaway.
See I came back around to confirm it.
I like that instead of asking, I'm not going.
To I'm going to lift you up at the end and celebrate you help.
I know you. Should you ready for talkback?
Yes?
Please?
Pretty? Can you favor us with a talkbag?
Oh my god, Siver, I lent geet.
Hey, guys, this is Kurrill for MAUI and I'm going to do the arithmetic on the four hundred and fifty thousand rupees that Natwirrel stole in nineteen thirty seven. In nineteen thirty seven, one dollar was worth two point seven rupees, making the entire haul worth one hundred and sixty five thousand dollars. One dollar in nineteen thirty seven is worth twenty one point eighty one dollars in twenty twenty four, making one hundred and sixty five thousand dollars worth three point six million.
Yang, Thank you.
So much for doing the math.
I always appreciate that I didn't do that this episode, just to keep her like wanting.
Exactly, always want more.
Well, thank you always for listening. You can find us online Ridiculous Crime on the social media, so we have our website Ridiculous Crime dot com. We obviously love you talk back, so please go to the iheartapp downloaded, leave a message you can maybe hear your voice here and email us if you want ever Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com and write it to pre dear producer Dave.
Thank you for listening. We'll catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnette, produced and edited by Shake Shack Shak Sonata, Shake Your Body Line Dave Coustin and starring Anie's Rucker as Judith. Research is by Desert Sunlight aficionados Marissa Brown and Andrea. Song Sharpened Tear our theme song is by yacht rock party Boys Thomas Lee and Travis Dutt. The host wardrobe provided by by Me five hundred, Guest Tarn makeup by Sparkleshot
and Mister Andrea. Executive producers are Ben President of the Isaac from Loveboat Fan Club Bowland and Noel I was always a fan of Doc Brown.
Ridicous Crime, Say It One More Time. Piquious Crime.
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.