Ridiculous Crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Hi Zarin, Hi, Elizabeth, Hi Zarin.
What you doing girl?
I'm just sitting here.
Nice. So we're both just kind of sitting here reading our notes and going over here.
You're reading notes. I'm just staring at the wall.
Oh that's what you were doing.
Yeah.
I thought you're, like, you know, pontificating standby mode. Yeah, one stands.
How are you?
I'm dude, girl, I'm feeling good.
Yeah.
How about your neighborhood?
Completely? I'm over here. I'm eating good.
It's good eating over here. I'm good.
In case you're wondering, I did ask.
I know. Do you want to know what's ridiculous?
I do, well, Elizabeth. But let me tell you what's ridiculous.
Have you ever heard about like a kid getting on the Alexa and then ordering stuff that they want? Yes, So, like there's this one kid in Texas who I guess they've went on Alexa or they talked to Alexa and they ordered a one hundred and sixty dollars dollhouse and four pounds of sugar cookies. And there was another six year old. Apparently there's just six year olds who do this yeah, in Utah, and they ordered three hundred and fifty dollars of barbies and then a toy pony from their mom's
Alexi account. But it's funny when kids do it. But what if it's your pet parrot. No, there's this woman Mary and Wishnowski, right, and she was a volunteer who was like working with National Animal Welfare Trust in the UK, and she re homed this parrot and she didn't know that the parrot was apparently just kind of kicky with the devices, because the parrot started talking to Alexa when the family was gone and ordering stuff No, and I was so curious, I'm like, what does a parrot want
to order? Well, it turns out that they were ordering watermelon, raisins, ice cream, strawberries, broccoli.
Cigarettes, no.
And occasionally they'd come home and the parrot would just be chilling with romantic music that they I thought, that's amazing, Alexa play my romantic playlist.
So there you go. Now we know what Polly wants. He's not a cracker.
It's not a cracker, it's it's Alexa.
So they ain't got ridiculous.
That is ridiculous. Do you want to know what else is ridiculous. Hundreds of thousands of queludes. Dude, this is Ridiculous crime. A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Oh you damn right.
That's right. I am my good dude. I know you love mafia stories.
Oh my god. They're like bedtime stories to me.
Italian Mob, Irish mob, Jewish mob, Chinese mob, Japanese New York, Boston, Philly, Rhode Island, Chicago, San Francisco, Vegas, La Language, all of it. I mean we both romanticize it, yes, And there's a lot of violence and destruction and loss.
Sure.
And at the same time there are fabulous characters and an interesting culture.
Yeah, and you're talking about an abstract.
They're great stories and they do like they do, ridiculous things.
Oh god.
That So let's start with a guy. I got a guy. Guy, I know a guy, Raymond long John Marchroano.
He already got me going, long John.
He was born Ignazio Raymond Anthony Marchrano in nineteen twenty seven in Sicily, Sichilia, So he real Oh yeah. When he was in his early twenties, he moved from Italy to Philadelphia, South Philly, to be specific, Hugetai in American neighborhood. There, he wasted no time getting into trouble. Between nineteen fifty and nineteen fifty five, he got busted five different times for drugs or illegal liquor dealing. And then you know, at first they give him probation. They're like, oh, this
poor immigrant, he doesn't know up from down. Okay, but you do bad things enough and they start stiffening the sentence.
Well, the cop started believing a story about you you've given them.
Well, he's telling a good story about himself. Pretty soon he'd earned himself five years behind bars. Yeah. So by the sixties, Long John and his brother they're running a vending machine company and like the company was like pretty much legit, which made for a good front. So then Long John got another gig, this time driving for a guy named Angelo Bruno aka the Dustcile Done. Oh yeah, I should mention that Bruno was the boss of a
Philladelphia crime fan. Yeah. So long John is officially inside the tent with my dad.
He's tell me great stories about Angela Brune.
Okay, So he Long John starts as a driver, works his way up. Classic American success story. I love America, right. I was going to tell a story about making my friend Peter pants in a movie theater by yelling something about America during the previews back in college, But never mind. Anyway, Long John, So he evolved, He grew pretty soon he was running gambling operations, and then he became a lone shark all for the mob, of course, and he was bringing in serious coin. So he pulled all this stuff
almost never got arrested, and they loved that. Like, if there's something the mob loves, it's not getting arrested.
Oh yeah, you're not getting pinched. It means you're smart or you're bribing the right people there.
They love it, and so that's what they look for in a employee, like I'm sorry, an associate. They should do it all Disney style and call them cast members.
Like that.
So long John he goes higher and higher in the organization, and like, keep that up and you'll be a chief imagineer. Ma BLI. Long John. He did the Donna solid gave him a job.
He gave the Dona job.
At least on paper. He made Bruno an employee of the vending machine business that he had with his brother.
Job.
Yeah, so he's on commission as a salesman. He's pulling in fifty thousand dollars a year. That's not bad in the seventies, legit, and so it's not bad for today, depending where you live. So this is a good move, Like it puts long John on the boss's good side. He's protected now the boss has legit income as far as the government's.
Concerned, is laundered to money.
Yes, I told you we're in the seventies. Now. By the end of the decade, Long John is one of the most successful methamphetamine dealers in this city.
Damn so good.
So he's so good at it. He had that on a certificate on his wall in his office in the vending machine company. Dealer, best speed dealer around. It's kind of like Captain Olivia Benson's Woman of the Year award on Law and Order SVU. You and I refer to it as the Woman Award for being a woman.
Of the Year.
We maybe talk about that show a little too much, possibly, but someone has to delve into an analysis of her. David Koresh Glasses The.
New Ones what does she what is she doing.
With blue tinted their like transition and it's not you can't tell are they reading glasses or distance because sometimes she wears them, or are they you know, buyfocals?
Yeah, where'd you get those wac Awayfair specials?
Olivia? What's going on anyway? Long John? So in the Philly mob drug dealing? Big no no?
Oh, yeah, that was surprised when you said the meth.
And it's said there right in the employee manual, it says it exactly. But Bruno is like, you know, I don't I don't know what you're talking about. He acts like he doesn't know, you know, blind eye.
This is like coffee and the teacher's lounge.
What is it?
Where are we? Who are we?
Uh?
Bruno is not going to say anything because he's taken a little cream off the top on that one. Why would he stop that? So in nineteen seventy nine, a buddy of Long John's was arrested by the dea down Floridaway who now, yeah, he was dealing both coke and wait for it, queludes.
Oh, I thought you're gonna say marijuana.
No no, no, So this was bad, yeah, not just because drugs are bad and no one should do coke or the ghost of kualudes past. Can we talk about how the double a, by the way in kueludes just like hits the nail on the head. Well, it makes you want to say it slow, like you're on kululudes. What's the double A about?
Branding? I don't know. I don't even know what the actual non street name of.
Like methaqualone or something like that.
I think you're right, that sounds familiar anyway.
So this was bad because it meant the cops were closing in. Okay, see Long John, he's also slang and he was moving stuff that was even.
Worse speed, and he's the big fish to flip on.
Yeah, and he was making hundreds of millions of dollars doing this like mass quantity.
Wow, he was feeding the wonder.
Bruno was like, yeah, I'm gonna pretend like I didn't see that. But he's got his hand out behind his back. There's a lot of one percent action around his time, which I'm gonna skip, okay, but I won't skip this one percent action. In nineteen eighty two, Long John was indicted for his drug operation. He made bail. While awaiting trial, he met up with the guys from the Pagan's motorcycle club. That's what I mean by one percent outlaw bikers.
Oh you flipped it. Yeah.
So he told the Pagans, He's like, hey, guys, want to meet up, you know, like cool bar. And they go there and he's like, he's like please, do they have paps. He's like, I have bad news.
They're like what.
What what's the bad news, bro?
He's like, there's a street tax being put on you by Nicodemo Dominico Scarfo senor aka Little Nikki aka Nikki Scarfo. He's the new boss of the Philly crime family after the one percent passing of Angelo Bruno. So the Pagans they're not happy.
Right, roof nails and so forth.
Yeah, they're not. The Pagan's like, what do you mean the street te Nikki Scarfo is putting a street tax on us.
They're mad.
They take it out on the messenger. They kidnapped Long John's son.
Oh George, Oh, they.
Put a vest full of TNT on him.
What George is like thirty.
Two at the time. By the way, like that changes the image of your head totally. It's not an eight year old sitting there.
It's a grown man.
But don't don't worry. Long John paid them ten grand and they let George go and he was able to get rid of the street tax.
I bet he did.
But then things changed from Long John. May nineteen eighty two, he was convicted, sentenced to ten years on those drug charges. Man, and while he was inside.
So hard for them they were.
He's inside, he made a partnership with the guys from the Black Mafia, specifically Lonnie Dawson and Nudie Mims, and they're all locked up together, and Long John he still had all his ties to the outside, so he was like, I'll help you run your enormous heroin distribution network. Let's be cast members together in this.
So this is a dream jail house deal that has outside jail re percussions.
Yes, So Dawson met with Afghan heroin smugglers like pretty often while he was inside. That must have been amazing.
Visitor days.
He is meeting the inmate, Moon is here to see He's like, I'll be right out, that's fine.
Visiting day.
On FBI wiretaps Mims and Dawson, they're both recorded saying that they could sell four hundred thousand dollars worth of heroin per month a month. That's almost one point four million a month today.
And they're saying this over the phone and visiting.
They're like, so, what's going on with you? I don't know four They're like, still dragging. So the rest of Long John's story is interesting, but bloody and not what I wanted to tell you about today. I want to go back to George. George is the sun.
Let's back it up.
I want to talk about him. George mar Toronto born in teen fifty and he earned himself a nickname later on, Cowboy George.
What cowboy by George?
Cowboy George got a children's show because he was a real cowboy. He was a tree top flyer.
Let the Stugglers blues.
And I'm gonna honor his nickname. That's his choice, that's his life, Pat Sure, Cowboy George.
So his dad cowboy up.
It was a gangster, as we know, George didn't know that growing up. Yes, yes, I wonder if he had a meadow soprano moment like are you and the mob? He's like his dad's just like seething, driving like I'm gonna go strangle someone later. So he's in the dark, which is good, I suppose.
Probably if you're raise kids.
George like he claims, like, I didn't know my dad was a the mafia. And according to him, he learned more about the criming life and Omerta and family from his godfather. Angelo Bruno was the actual godfather. So when George was ten, he had his own business. He sold pony rides when the weather was nice. Yeah, so he either owned a pony, or he borrowed one or stole one. But like pony rides, nonetheless pile.
He's got his own little pony.
It's all coming together. Yeah, And so he's like, kids, it's the sun is shining, it's a beautiful day. Get on his horse. Five dollars. And as he told Philly Blunt, as he got older, he got quote more mischievous. He and his friends they'd go to buildings that had recently had fires and they'd steal the copper and resell it. Oh, I mean his dad sold meths. So it tracks.
Sure, methy because but he's a kid.
It's still a kid.
But by the early eighties, so now we've jumped forward. By the early eighties, while his dad he's worn a T and T vest. At this time, his dad is looking down the barrel of a prison sentence for drug distribution. George is selling weed in Philadelphia. Okay, now, if you ask him, he sold only weed.
He's in his thirties selling weed and.
Sell nothing else. No meth, no coke, no snapple, no plastic wrap, costco, poppy seed muffins. And he said he only did it for three years.
Get off his.
Back, man, He only did it for three years.
Zaren never hurt nobody, No, no one's ever on weed.
Yeah.
He also says he was never part of the mafia. And he also says that it was the government who sold him the weed that he would later sell.
Knowingly. That was like the government came to was like, hey man.
Yes, you know what makes you think Zara, Yeah, clearly makes me think anyway.
So it was this America too, right the eighties.
It was father son time in the correctional system because while his father was locked up and shot calling a heroin empire with a black mafia, George was on a collision course with the authorities. Yes, the FBI said it. Quote videotaped Martinaro conspiring in a hotel room to distribute mass quantities of heroin with the black mafia in North Philadelphia.
He was in the wrong room at the wrong time.
That's right, Okay, So it was George who was long John's connection to the outside. He's like, you want to sling h. I got a kid. He likes selling things. He likes horse You can just see that the street line who it's your energy is just seeping in me. Nineteen eighty two, George gets busted. The FBI took him down at a quote North Miami hotel and charged him with shipping a truckload of cannabis to Philadelphia. His argument, quote, it was only twenty six hundred pounds a weed, and
I wasn't even there. Only twenty six hundred pounds. That's all in his mind. Serenh. Yeah, I don't know.
What's some big amount.
I mean is like how many horses is that? How many elephants is I don't know. On September nineteenth.
Nineteen one in a third pound or so, let me come on one third ton.
September nineteenth, nineteen eighty three, federal grand jury handed out an indictment accusing George of distributing cocaine, meth quelus.
Just named drugs to marijuana.
Two FBI agents went under cover, one posed as a pilot and another as a lawyer, and they wormed their way into his drug ring. They're probably like, hey, we're just looking for ludes, man.
Yeah, we can do runs for you. Man, I gotta play.
So it wasn't just weed, No, he had clearly so. According to the Philadelphia Daily News quote, in the course of the investigation, undercover federal agents had purchased or seized two kilograms of heroin. Okay, you know tequilas sure, thousands of pounds of marijuana. Yeah, so his personal stash three hundred and forty thousand counterfeit.
Kualudes, three hundred forty thousand, one.
Hundred and twenty five grand in cash, six cars and three trucks, not even legit qualuds. Fake kualuds?
What kind of fake ludes? I don't know, Like I mean, like I'm saying, it's.
Like like SERTs breath, That's what I.
Mean, Like sugar pills or will they get you high? Just not The way you want.
To say is to say, I'll have to try and what and tell you.
Because that's a lot to sell if it's fake. I mean, like the dealer's trying to push it. Someone's gonna run.
And forty thousand qualuds. So the yearly haul for George's crew was well into.
The millions, if this seems like it.
And the indictment charged that he had supervised, you know, all these people in his drug empire. He's big boss making big boss money. So what was the evidence? One hundred and six tape recording conversations, the cash, the marijuana, the heroine, all those fake kuludes. According to the Philly Daily News quote, the operation was so vast. The federal authorities said that Martinaro had two airplanes operating out of his Hastings, Florida airstrip to carry in quantities of cocaine
from Jamaica and South American points. And the prosecution was like, how about you set bail at five million. Yeah, let's take a break. When we come back, we're going to court Zarin, all right. When we left off, the prosecution in.
The case of George, Cowboy George.
Cowboy George, they wanted bail at five million.
Yeah.
And the Philadelphia Daily News observed quote in his argument for the huge bail Paccini. The d said that Martinaro had indicated to the undercover FBI agents that he would flee the country if indicted on serious charges. In fact, he told the FBI agent who posed as the pilot that he the pilot, was the key to his escape plan because he gave Marchinaro the ability to fly quickly out of the country.
Here, my god.
Yeah, here's a tip for bad guys. Don't share your plans like in fact, you don't always have to say something.
And also have multiple plans.
That's just good advice. In general. You can just keep quiet. Do you know someone who just can't help but talk in any situation?
Oh yeah, plenty me.
So don't and don't I tell myself, don't. Do you know who also got arrested when George did? No, Okay, I'm gonna tell you. Do you want to know?
I do want to know?
This is my expectant face.
Okay, cool fella by the name of Kevin Rankin. So, Kevin Rankin had two jobs. He was the frontman for the drug operation. He was also George's lawyer brother who really, so, now, who's going to get George out of jail? His lawyers sitting next to him.
Yeah, this is like Sean Penn and Donny Brasco. Right, it's like you got the lawyer who's doing the crimes.
Yeah.
Now, Rankin had another concern. He had just opened a restaurant and the authorities wanted to seize it.
No, my restaurant, my dream.
The best part about that the name of the restaurant.
What's the name of the restaurant, titty winks.
It's a strip club restaurant.
No, it was okay, So I looked it up and like, Tittywinks is an alternative name for Titley Winks. You know the game?
Yeah, I got that part.
You ever play it? Or were you not born in the olden days?
I wasn't born in the same olden day as you.
Were, say, titty Winks. The restaurant was on Sansum around South sixteenth Street in Philadelphia.
Way, don't go fast, I'm writing this down.
Go on.
And I became obsessed with finding out more about the restaurant because it was only mentioned like in passing in a newspaper article. Like yeah, like my radar went up, So of course I went to Google street View. I mean the restaurant's long gone, but I wanted to get a sense of the area having never been to Philadelphia. It looks a lot like downtown San Francisco there, and not just because the name of the street is Sandsum
like in San Francisco. So anyway, Sansum on about half a block either side of sixteenth is like pretty cool looking, you know, lots of restaurants and bars. Like I get the sense it was a nice neighborhood and then it got gritty, and then it got gentrified as all get out. Like there's yoga studios and oyster barshizza places and like a guitar shop, pilates and dumplings. And you can tell by the fonts that the businesses used that things aren't
cheap inside, you know what I mean. But the buildings look super cool, like not modern lots of brick anyway that there's.
Like one word plus sign one word you're spending a lot.
Yes, And if they went the extra mile and hired like a paint sign company to like use gold leaf.
Paint on the window, yeah, now paying the rest.
I can't afford it. So then I was like, you know who I need to talk to newspapers dot Com, which never disappoints. Give me a sponsorship. I love you so much so. This is from the Tuesday, September thirteenth, nineteen eighty three edition of the Philadelphia Daily News. There's this columnist, Larry Fields, and he wrote next to a very large photo of Debbie Reynolds, provided for another item in his piece and totally unrelated to the restaurant.
But she was.
Staring at me the whole time I was reading this quote. A new restaurant night spot called Tittywinks opening tomorrow at seven am. That's right, seven am at sixteen oh five Sansom Street. Figures to set our town on its ear rear would probably be more accurate. It will feature an X rated menu boom that you knew it examples sandwich is named between the sheets, the Score, the bush.
Oh, a soup called Brothel Broth, desserts which are listed under Climax, including Queen of Tarts and Huff and Puff.
In keeping with the heavy ambiance of the new spot, ninety nine percent of the Tittiwink staff will be gorgeous dolls wearing skimpy costumes, and there will be only one token mail in the kitchen. But don't expect me to complain of sex discrimination because of the policy. And if the staff decides to treat me as a sex object when I enter the place, I won't object to that either.
Larry, Larry, this is.
A family newspaper. Larry.
You have to go and you have to order off a menu. You have to blush every time you try to say your order. The bush es to bush for this table. Horrible, This is horrible on my bush.
Gorgeous dolls, Tittywinks, Yeah, it's not like I thought. Well, maybe it's like a penny farthing old timey.
No, you haven't hung out with as many dirtbags as I have.
No, So, Tittywinks is now that location is now the Philadelphia Chutney Company.
There you go.
It's a big space. It's a lot of chutney, every.
Kind of chutt not cheap chutney.
Probably not so less than ten days later after Larry's just gushing about the hubba hubba of it all.
And speculating and what kind of a sex object you.
Would be, And I swear to God, go on there, find this column and look at Larry's picture, and then you're just like Larry ain't nobody going to whatever? Okay? So ten days after Larry's column, the papers were reporting that Rankin was George's front man and that Tittywinks was used to launder drug money. Ten days days after it opened, George hired Robert Simone Esquire to be his trial counsel.
In Simone's two thousand and seven obituary by the Philadelphia Inquirer, they described him as quote a criminal defense lawyer whose client list was a cross between guys and dolls and goodfellas. He was Nicky Scarfs lawyer Pale, they were pals.
It seems like he's a mob lawyer. But the guys in dolls part like that's supposed to conjure up, like Nathan Detroit and Sky Masterson, and like dancers, like a.
Lot of dancers. The staff of Titty Winks. That's yeah, So, I mean that's all.
They have a floor show.
You know, they probably had some sort of routine, sure, but don't forget they're also laundering the money.
Happy birthday to you.
You know who's working in the back, Furyo making Matzarell. That's what's going on in there. Oh yeah, they have like a whole birthday thing.
Yeah, it's like DGI Fridays, they'll come out and exactly.
So you know, this is great. Now he's got this new lawyer. But there's a little snag.
See before a restaurant review.
Well, no, it's it's worse than that. Before the date that was set for George's trial, his lawyer, Bobby Simone got busted. He was indicted on tax evasion charges according to the Feds themselves quote. As a result of Simone's indictment, the district Judge Hannam held a hearing on March fifteenth, nineteen eighty four, at which he advised Martinaro that his counsel had been indicted and that consequently a conflict of
interest might arise between Martinaro and Simone. During the course of Martinaro's trial, Judge Hannam asked Martenaro thirteen questions, which explored virtually every aspect of a conflict of interest. In response to these questions, Martinaro indicated that he understood the risks inherent in continued representation by Simone, but stated that he wished for Simone to continue to represent him, thus waiving the question of a conflict of interest.
He's my counselor and my co defendants family.
That's loyalty. But I guess when George and his lawyer waited all out, they realized trial was going to be an uphill battle. Yes, So on June fourth, nineteen eighty four, George pled guilty.
Cowboy George correct, Cowboy.
George guilty of distribution of vast mountains of cocaine, meth amphetamine, marijuana, wait for its Oh, and then there was also that heroin buying with intent to distribute. There is that nineteen counts in all. George later said that he only pleaded guilty because he believed that his lawyer, Bobby Simone, had worked it out with the judge that George would only get the minimum sentence forty to fifty months. No, the judge slapped him with life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Damn right, you don't see that coming.
No, Now, drugs are very bad, But George was a nonviolent offender, according to georgemartinaro dot com. Course, Martinaro's life sentence drew widespread criticism. Many questioned how a first time non violent offender could receive such a severe punishment, especially since much of the case revolved around marijuana. His defense team argued that he had been set up during an arrow when the federal government was cracking down on drug
related crimes and organized crime. There's no doubt he was big in the weed business, his lawyer stated, But that doesn't warrant spending half your life in prison for something you did when you were young.
It feels like either they wanted a headline for like these just say no era, or like a senator's son died of heroin and somebody wanted, oh, you're going.
To find out. You're going to find out why. So it wasn't just to punish for and it wasn't It wasn't all the for the drugs or the mob or like you're saying, like someone you know. Yeah, they wanted to squeeze intel out of him about the mob because like his dad's pretty high up. But George wasn't having it. He knew nothing about nothing. He said. Quote they thought I had secrets of the Philly mob. I don't know. I was just the weed guy. I was just the
weed guy. But here's so. George said that the judge wanted him to become an informant snitch on his dad and the whole mob. Nick Nope, And then the federal prosecutor, you know, was like, no, he's trying to reconstruct history.
Quote.
It was much more than marijuana. That's the federal prosecutor who's now legal counsel at Deloitte. Uh yeah, Paccini quote, and the evidence supported it. We never had a case with the evidence as strong as that one. We had hours and hours of tape. So George appealed the over and over.
So he had a bunch of reasons.
First, his council stated that, quote, the district judge abused his discretion not recusing himself because of the alleged appearance of impropriety given by the district judges. Having testified after Martinuro's initial sentencing at the tax evasion trial of Martinuro's then counsel Bobby Simone, Hannam was criticized in the media for testifying on Simone's behalf, even though his testimony was
considered innocuous. You heard that, right, So the judge in the case testified on behalf of George's crooked lawyer at said lawyer's tax evasion. Well, the theory was that then Hannam went overboard with George, so it wouldn't look like some sort of favoritism. Okay, that's why Hannam denied all those motions to recuse himself from the case. Another point that Martineau raised in a bunch of his various appeals. The judge was like, there's no basis for me recusing myself.
I'm not going to do it. And then there's another reason why he filed an appeal. He said that he said the judge was biased against him because Rankin, the Tittywinks guy, had previously accused the judge of quote physically assaulting Rankin during Rankin's separate criminal trial. Wait what yeah, Rankin said that quote Judge Hannam had struck him, battered him, and chased him around the courtroom the courtroom during the
first trial. These charges gave rise to criminal charges against Rankin for making false statements and obstructing justice.
I was picturing this outside the courthouse. They're walking up the steps.
Maybe they apparently courtroom judge tried to beat him up in the courtroom his Tittywinks owner. Yes, Judge Hannam, according to court documents, quote, held that a reasonable person could not conclude that the reassignment of the ranking case would affect his ability to be impartial with respect to Martinarro.
I want to see the court artist drawing of that scene.
Oh for real? So okay, so those tactics don't work on appeal. How about this one?
Okay, you got more.
Yeah, George is just too stupid to have done everything you said he did dumb. So that's what Bobby Simone puts forward. Yeah, and so the court was like, all right, let's do a psychological study. Eight experts testified. The appellate judges decided that George was neither mentally deficient nor mentally ill. He was just faking it. So it's like good news, bad news, You're you're not an idiot. However, you're still
in jail. Wow, they did those quote show that Martinarro suffers even more than the rest of the world from the tendency to shape the world into the world of his desiring. Yeah. So, while George was in prison, he did five of those years in solitary confinement out which I think is the definition of cruel and unusual punishment. But see, he was at FCI Marion in southern Illinois, and Marion was originally built as a maximum security facility
that would replace Alcatraz. So it opened the year the Rock closed.
Oh yeah, it's like a supermax.
No, not yet. So right before George got there, there were two horrible violent incidences involving the Aryan Brotherhood knives and correctional officers, and as a result, the prison went into permanent lockdown and became what would later be known as a supermass. Okay, And so I mean it had like a camp. It had a low minimum security camp. All the inmates inside in the yard though, were in
solitary confinement for twenty three hours a day, everybody. And it wasn't until two thousand and six that it was downgraded to a medium security prison, partly because they opened up before that FCI Florence that became like the major mega supermax. Anyway, Others who did time there included John Gottie, who also happened to be George's cellmate.
Wow, they booked them together.
Thankey Scarfo Carlos later.
Yeah, oh yeah, the my man, Pablo's.
Guy, the pilot, the pilot, Pete Rose. Yeah, he did five months, Gamlie, he did five months at the minimum security okay, and then Also, you know who else was in there, Garrett brock trap.
Now I was going to say, I don't want to bring it up, but that's where he was when he tried to do the flying exactly. He tried to get his girlfriend to break out, and it's steal a plane for that.
Was Marion and anyway, So then there's George, the longest serving first time offender for a non violent offense. But he made the best of it. When we come back from this ad break, i'll tell you how, all right, zarenlib When we left off, Yes, George, what's his name?
Cowboy George?
Cowboy George had been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Brutal, which is yeah, insane, Yeah.
And he's a Federal Correctional Institute Marion in Illinois, rough place. John Gottie sitting next to him for a while.
There, twenty three hours a day lockdown.
But George is a fighter and his daddy didn't raise a whimp. He took stock of his situation and he decided to make the best of it.
He's like, what's the pony rides I can offer here?
He transformed himself. Oh really, He taught yoga okay. He developed a course for father in prison that help them develop like really meaningful relationships with their kids.
There's the pony ride yep.
The federal facility where I taught had that also led by an inmate, and it really did make a huge difference. Did My students would talk to their kids about homework, and they'd tell the kids like, I got it too, and college is really hard, but it's interesting and it's fun. So when they say, are you doing your homework? Yea, you know they have I have to do mine too. And the dads and the kids like kind of kept
each other accountable with that stuff. And they learned how to discipline by suggestion and serve as a life lesson about choices in post.
Control expectations instead of their voice right exactly.
They learned how to be patient, They learned how to be vulnerable but still strong for the kids I love.
In prison is actually rehabilitative, yes exactly.
It was great, and that's that's what George was doing. And he also he put together a course called Release Preparations star darting a business for under one thousand dollars, and it was described as quote empowering inmates to prepare for life after incarceration. That's another huge deal. I once had a student give our whole class a lesson on how to do just that, and it was fascinating. So it was a sort of impromptu where he started talking
about it, but all of us were just listening. It involved a lot of hard work and determination and like people skills, but was one hundred percent legal. And then there's what gets George into our literary Hall of fame. According to George himself quote, George Martinarro not only taught yoga to his fellow inmates, but was also considered one of the most prolific writers in the federal prison system, having authored over thirty one books and numerous short stories, screenplays,
and poems. George also started a creative writing course, the Right to Life Wripailia, which inevitably guided numerous inmates to receiving their ged and developing remarkable creative writing skills. While incarcerated, Martin Arrow turned to writing as a form of expression and rehabilitation. He authored several books, including Chisel My Heart, Love and Evil Jailer and Pain Grows A Platinum rose.
At these romance novels.
I hope so these works explore themes of love, redemption, and the challenges of life behind bars. So George was doing good works behind bars and when he was in transit too, in transit zerm Yeah, close your eyes, clo, I want you to picture it. It's twenty ten. You are an inmate at the federal prison in Yankton, South Dakota. You're actually from New Jersey, but for some reason they put you out in South Dakota. It's a minimum security joint. Not bad, but not good. Right now you are in
either New Jersey nor South Dakota. You're on a plane con Air. You're headed from Philadelphia to Oklahoma. You had an appeals hearing and you went and you lost. So now you're on a plane to the prison transit center in Oklahoma. There are a dozen other inmates on the plane, plus some US marshals. A couple of you are coming back from appeals. The rest are being transferred to other facilities. There are two guys behind you who, through whispers, you've
been told are Somali pirates. You don't know how true that is. You had a Somali neighbor back in Camden who was super chill, nice guy, cutest kids, so the language the guys behind you were speaking sounds vaguely familiar. These guys do look terrifying. They have that look in their eye. You know that the evil they've seen and done is permanently reflecting back out from their pupils, coloring all they see and projecting a horrible picture onto the
world if you know how to see it. The guy next to you is like the opposite of those guys. You don't go in for wo woo stuff, for hippie garbage, but he has some seriously calm and oddly loving energy. It's weird, he just radiates it. After the plane takes off, the two of you, shackled share some small talk. His name is George. He's heading back to FCI Marian. You tell him you heard it's brutal there. He tells you it is, or rather it can be, but that people
are so much more powerful than that. He's a handsome guy. He wears his gray hair pushed back, his postures amazing. You would love to be his friend on the outside, and you can't imagine how he wound up inside. But despite your curiosity, you don't ask. That would be Goosh. One of the men behind you coughs and then mutters something. At the same time. Both you and George see movement at your feet. Is that a pen, you ask George.
That would be contraband for sure. George leans down to look, and then slowly, surely sits back up and speaks to you quietly while facing forward. It's a handcuff key, he whispers. They're shuffling behind you as the pirates try to reach the key they seem to have dropped. George moves his foot over like he's just readjusting and getting comfortable, and the sole of his shoe comes down firmly on the
hand reaching under your seats from behind. The men behind you venomously whisper something sharp, but the engine noise drowns them out. George speaks to you again. There are protocols on these flights, he says, I've lost enough appeals to have flown this a couple of times before. If the marshals see this, or if those guys get the key, the marshals will shoot on site, no questions, and we're in the line of fire. I don't want them to be killed, and I don't want us to be killed.
George gently bends down and picks up the key. The man behind you whips his hand from under George's foot makes a last ditch effort to grab the key.
No luck.
Your heart is pounding. If you rose up, The air marshals chat and tell stories and laugh. George turns to you. I have to get rid of this key, he says. It'll be the death of us all. You see him scan around, looking at the seats and the aisle in any other area. You don't know what he's looking at or for. You're just too freaked out. The guy behind you shoves your seat. You close your eyes and take a deep breath. I have to throw this somewhere. No one can get it, he says to you. I only
have one shot at this, he says. Then you watch as he raises his arm and tosses the key. You watch it glide through the air, almost in slow motion. It clatters on the ground, landing in a groove in the floor, two empty rows ahead of you. George raises his arm again, and he calls for the air Marshal. A man in a blue windbreaker heads your way. The pirates are irate, now, swearing and threatening in pointed whispers.
The Marshal reaches your seats, and George calmly tells them you should get your hand cuff key, it's over there in that groove in the floor. The whole rear of the plane erupts as the Marshal begins shouting and other US Marshals head your way. You can hear the panic in the Marshall's voice as he shouts orders. The inmates yelled back, feeding off his fear and the lack of control. Soon all of you, all dozen of you, are duck
taped to your seats. The Marshall never thanked George, just taped him into his seat and his arms pinned to his sides. You turn to George, you ask if he's okay. I'm taped to a seat, but I'm still alive.
We all are.
He says, that's a victory.
Whoa think he was on a plane where the Marshall started firing previously.
I wonder he knew what they were supposed to do, and it was just like he did whatever he could to prevent that. When he landed, he was interviewed by the FBI. He explained everything. They were satisfied with his story. But it's just like another wild time in the life of Cowboy George.
I've expected him to swallow the key.
Yeah, he just.
Didn't want anything to do with it.
Yeah.
Yeah, he can't get it to it. Yeah, swallow it.
That's true. So five years later, in twenty fifteen, George got out of prison under compassionate release guidelines. He'd been inside for thirty two years.
Wow.
Thirty two years, according to a prepared statement by the US Attorney's Office in explaining their position on his release quote. During his thirty two years of incarceration, George Martinaro provided exceptional assistance to other inmates in furthering rehabilitation and re entry skills, mentoring inmates with significant mental health issues, and serving as a suicide watch counselor for troubled and depressed inmates.
Prison staff praised Martinarro for promoting a culture of nonviolence and contributing to a healthy environment within the prison walls. Those factors influenced the decision to support his early release.
To live up to you're nickname, Cowboy Joe.
Cowboy George, so, according to his profile on the Farmer and the Felon Cannabis Company website. Quote. Since his release, George has continued in his attempt to better the liize of others and is now a motivational speaker as well as a cannabis advocate and founder of Hip Hemp Cafe. Now. George's mission is to advocate for prison reform and to help remove the stigma associated with cannabis. Hey man, I'm just the weed guy. Hip Cafe in South Philadelphia has closed.
It's an unfortunate it is, but I.
Think it had something to do with Philadelphia enforcing the FDA prohibitions and restrictions on CBD in products. I don't know. I'm going by Reddit chatter on that one. And you know the place got rave yelper views. Really yeah. Now, though George has a T shirt brand called the grow Father, and he does there's a lot of speaking events like Ted Talk type stuff.
He had a thing he could have like a weed brand called Sticky Scarfoe.
You should send him. There's a contact on his website. He he had a thing back in April that we sadly missed. It was in Vegas at Don Marco's Pizzeria and Winebar. He was there to tell true mob stories about when the mob ran Vegas.
I would have loved I.
Would one go listen to him talk just about anything told. Mob stories are kidding me. So he's a storyteller. Now, that's what he does.
And I wrote thirty one books. I figure he's good at it. Yeah.
I hope he is doing well wherever he is. Oh yeah, Zaren, what's your ridiculous takeaway?
I did not see this story coming at all.
We've had two redemption stories this week.
Yeah, look at that.
But also, I mean, like legitimately when you started out with the mob story, this one has taken so many twists and turns and unexpected like like you know, I don't even say escalations of like car sure that it's it's really incredible. So I love that, and I love that, as I said earlier, that anytime there's a rehabilitative effort in a prison and he's the one doing it, like helping like you know, people who are on suicide watch and mentally challenged. I mean, like I love the person
he became in such a severe place. Yeah, so it shout out to his soul on that one. What's yours, Elizabeth.
He's someone who takes initiative right now. They can do that in a positive or negative way. So he took the initiative and had this large drug operation, right, So that's the negative. But I mean even as a kid, he's making money doing pony rides, right, and he takes the initiative when there's like about to be this chaos
of some guys getting loose on a plane. You know, he could have just sat back, but as he rightfully pointed out, like there was no way for anyone to really survive no matter how that shook out, aside from how he did it, or had he swelled keys, I don't know, I was just a speculative, but I mean like that, you know, it would have gone so bad, but he took initiative where others you know, wouldn't have, and he takes initiative behind bars, And I just think like that's.
The and he's kind of ballsy about it because like I don't imagine the Somali pirates were really pleased with him, and he's got to know they may try to come after him once they land if they're going to the same facility, right, right.
But I think that like it tells us that we have the opportunity to either like be passive or to opt in. And you know, I'm kind of always just opt in, just you know, take the initiative, do something. We talk a lot about people who do that in a negative way, but you know, none of us should be passive participants in this life.
Definitely. He also learned to make better choices.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know what I think would top this off beautifully.
What's that Elizabeth of Cherry.
I talk back?
Oh oh, oh my god, I would.
Get Hi everyone, This is Emma from Wisconsin. I just finished listening to the Big Boy episode and it reminded me of a local crime. You see, several teenagers stole a Ronald McDonald's statue. They put it in the back of their pickup truck and drove it around town to post her pictures with it at different at different locations. Obviously, they got caught and had to do a bunch of community service. And that's pretty ridiculous.
That's amazing.
Those Ronald McDonald's statues are creepy. Any of those kind of a fast food statue is just creepy, full stop.
I've had friends who loved going around taking photos with Ronald McDonald, the ones where he seated on the back.
Yeah, problems, that is asking for trouble him in.
The pack of a truck. I'd be down pretty good stuff.
That's us for today. You can find us online at ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also at Rediculous Crime on both Blue Sky and Instagram. We're on YouTube at Ridiculous Crime Pod, Email Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com, and as always, please leave us a talkback on the free iHeart app Just reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by Dawn of the Iheartmafia. Dave Cousten. Our Ridiculous Assistant is certified
Air Marshall Terry Maldonado. Fong Research is by rival Hemp Cafe owner Marissa Brown and Philly Health inspector Jabari Davis. The theme song is by John Gotti's other cellmate, Thomas Lee and guy who bought Kludes that turned out to be Pez Travis dutton post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred producer. Dave Coustin's wardrobe is by mister Guy of Beverly Hills. Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and
mister Andre. Executive producers are Somali Pirates. Ben One and the old Brown Ridicous Crime Say it one more Timequious 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.