428 - Flip That Board

[0] This is exactly right.

[1] And welcome to my favorite murder.

[2] That's Georgia Hardstark.

[3] That is Karen Kilgariff.

[4] This is the podcast we're about to do.

[5] Welcome to our podcast.

[6] Starting now in five, four, three.

[7] Silent two, one.

[8] There we go.

[9] Fucking professional from the very beginning.

[10] Fucking stage manager level professional on a podcast.

[11] There's no stage.

[12] I just painted my nails because I was like, well, I'm going to sit here for like an hour and a half.

[13] half so it's going to be impossible to fuck my nails up because every time I paint my fucking nails I'm like oh yeah I got it whatever and then ruin them so I'm like I'm stuck here always like it's like suddenly you need to put on nylons really fast or it's like this is crazy why didn't think about this before this is why did I decide to do this like that's every time I do my nails or I'm just sitting there and suddenly touch one piece of paper and you're just like smear for me whenever I get a manicure it's at a place you know and subject of myself it's the seatbelt getting back into my car every fucking time.

[14] Also, do you ever have like in -seat getting a manicure anxiety where I'm like, I just don't feel like doing this anymore?

[15] Like it takes too long.

[16] Oh, yeah.

[17] I've been in one before where I'm like, this isn't supposed to last this long before.

[18] I don't know what it is.

[19] I think it's just I should be doing other things.

[20] Right.

[21] It's a little too indulgent.

[22] You feel like it's the middle of the day.

[23] Stop showing off and getting a manicure.

[24] Meanwhile, there's people who are having like the most.

[25] artistic, gorgeous nails being made.

[26] And they're like for however much time it takes.

[27] I know.

[28] And you're like, this orange fucking shit that's getting put on my nails is taking too by the moment.

[29] Or the, um, when we used to at live shows, just do a real quick pass of blackmail polish.

[30] You could not miss. Because that's all you brought.

[31] And I was like, I need that too.

[32] And so it was always messed up.

[33] And you didn't matter.

[34] When you mess up either black or metallic silver nail polish, no one's the wiser.

[35] Guess what?

[36] You can't tell from the stage.

[37] can you?

[38] Guess what?

[39] We have more beauty tips and tricks like this all throughout the show.

[40] Welcome to our beauty podcast.

[41] Here's my thing.

[42] Don't pluck your own eyebrows anymore.

[43] Just have somebody else do it for you.

[44] Really?

[45] Mine are so simple though.

[46] Mine are so simple.

[47] I like to think that, but I have almost completely gotten rid of my right eyebrow while my left eyebrow is flourishing as if I'm a 25 year old influencer.

[48] It's really hilarious.

[49] I caught it the other day in the like in the rearview mirror so it had a lot of sunlight on my forehead and I was like what have I done oh no you're going in there with that face shaver and you're like maybe I'll do this on my forehead too and they're like you shouldn't do that you know me in the face shaver I'm like let's get rid of these uh this little patch of gray hair up in my part of that thing I saw this influencer this beauty influencer that I love was like here's a way to like take care of your grays between getting it dyed, get Just For Men, because you can just measure it out better.

[50] The Just For Men hair, like, beard dye, than an actual, like, bottle, having to get a whole bottle of dye.

[51] It's just like a quarter cup as opposed to a full cup type of thing.

[52] Yeah.

[53] It's just two tubes and you just can squirt out as much as you need and go, boop, poop, poop, and your sideburns for me. And you're done.

[54] Yeah.

[55] Now, I feel that the Just For Men look is a very strong kind of, uh, for men.

[56] And I'm saying, like thinking of Robert Goulet, for example, where it's like a real flat black.

[57] Yeah.

[58] I wonder if it's come farther than that.

[59] It can get brown.

[60] I don't think it's the color that you'd be like, wow, her hair is lustrous.

[61] It's not what you're going for on that round.

[62] No. It's just like, wow, she covered her grays with like brown sharpie kind of a thing.

[63] Yeah.

[64] But it reminds me of Inglebert Humperdink for some reason.

[65] I just want to reference more 70s actors with moustaches.

[66] I know I wish you would.

[67] No one knows what I'm talking about.

[68] Oh, there's a corrections corner that's pretty powerful.

[69] Someone wrote in, well, not just someone, the good year blimp people wrote in about my last story.

[70] Oh, are we in trouble?

[71] No, not at all.

[72] Here, I'll just read it to you.

[73] So if you don't know, and you're listening right now, I covered the Hindenberg disaster in episode 426, which I believe was our last episode, if I'm not mistaken, or the one before.

[74] And this email says, hi, I'm FM team.

[75] My name's Leah.

[76] I'm reaching out from the good year blimp team.

[77] We heard last week's episode called Hell Never, because when I asked you for going to Blimp, you said hell never.

[78] Oh, we're in trouble.

[79] We're in trouble.

[80] It's very hard, even after all this time, to remember when we're recording that people listen to this outside of us.

[81] And, like, the five people we know.

[82] Totally.

[83] And, like, the thought that's someone who works on a Goodyear Blimp.

[84] Well, because it's like, they said the team.

[85] So then it's like, so the blimp people got together to listen to our blimp story.

[86] And now they're like, here's our notes.

[87] All right.

[88] Let's hear it.

[89] It's always going to be high school, isn't it?

[90] Okay.

[91] My name's Leah.

[92] I'm reaching out from the Goodyear Blimp team.

[93] We heard last week's episode on the Hindenburg disaster that included a mention of the new fleet of good year airships.

[94] while Karen and Georgia both mentioned that they wouldn't take a ride in an airship if they ever changed their mind, we would love the opportunity to take them for a flight.

[95] We have a blimp based in California and could even coordinate recording a podcast episode on board.

[96] I would do it immediately.

[97] That's yes.

[98] Oh my God, that's hilarious.

[99] That's a hell yes for me. I guess that's a hell always.

[100] Okay, it says we also wanted to correct one detail.

[101] So this isn't, Leah is clearly from the marketing PR department because she started with a compliment and like with a nice invitation.

[102] Then she's like, also you fucked up.

[103] Yeah, yeah.

[104] We also wanted to correct one detail, which we hope could get back to your audience.

[105] Yes, it will.

[106] That's what we try to do.

[107] The new ships are not rigid airships as described, but semi -rigid airships with a fabric envelope.

[108] This seems minor, but it's quite significant as it's a different type of aircraft from the Hindenburg.

[109] You know what?

[110] That's incredibly significant, Leah.

[111] and we'll say it again and again.

[112] If you thought these were rigid airships over the Goodyear Blimp Corporation, you're wrong.

[113] It's crazy to think, though, that technology has advanced on them since the 1930s.

[114] I mean, wow.

[115] They're different.

[116] I would have guessed.

[117] It's a lot like the advancement for me where it's mostly on the inside.

[118] Yeah, from your 30s, totally.

[119] From the 30s.

[120] Okay.

[121] The current Goodyear fleet has some internal framework, but the outer structure is held up by a pressurized envelope.

[122] Rigid airships like the Hindenberger held up by the structure itself, not internal pressure.

[123] And of course, airships no longer use flammable hydrogen, the Goodyear blimps, are powered by helium.

[124] Cute.

[125] Let me know if I can arrange a flight for Karen and Georgia for later this year.

[126] Thank you, Leah.

[127] Wow.

[128] That would be an epic selfie.

[129] The, we can actually, we should just bring like headphones and microphones on.

[130] on, but then not.

[131] We're like, yeah, we don't want to actually record.

[132] Yeah, the sound quality is actually terrible here.

[133] It's just insulting for no reason.

[134] This isn't a very good podcast studio, but also I don't know if I could go up in an airship.

[135] I don't know.

[136] We did helicopter Vincent Island when we were in Hawaii, and that was like, I might bail at the very last second.

[137] That was like, hell maybe.

[138] Yeah.

[139] And I did it, and I'm glad I did.

[140] And it was good and everything like that.

[141] But it's like, do I want to keep chancing it?

[142] I mean, yeah, I think I'm just from people who are very low to the ground.

[143] We like it down here so much.

[144] I thought it's skeptical, but low to the ground is much better.

[145] You guys believe in gravity and you trust it.

[146] You don't totally know the science.

[147] We use a lot of it, you know, we're very meaty, grounded human beings.

[148] That's what, that's my deal.

[149] You come from grounded stock.

[150] Yeah, that's right.

[151] But thank you, Leah.

[152] That was lovely.

[153] and I'm glad I could make that correction for you.

[154] I apologize for the...

[155] Me, when I talk about rigid airships, I love to pretend like I know about rigid airships.

[156] I don't.

[157] We've always said that about you.

[158] It's the gossip about me on the streets.

[159] I have a book recommendation, but someone in the comment somewhere said something about, wow, George's book recommendations are like, what not to read when you're depressed, essentially.

[160] You're like, don't read George's books if you don't want to be depressed.

[161] And I was like, that's fucking true.

[162] Because the book I want to recommend today is this incredible memoir by David Kushner called Alligator Candy.

[163] And it's a memoir about his big brother who got kidnapped and murdered in the 70s in Florida and how his family coped.

[164] It's about grieving and loss and how to live with that grief and still find joy in your life.

[165] It's a beautiful book.

[166] Yeah.

[167] And so now what I need is everyone to give.

[168] I don't know where to look for positive books because now that I listen to these kinds of books, that's all Audible suggests to me is like, how about this?

[169] fucking at depressing -ass book.

[170] How about this person who killed a bunch?

[171] Like, it's all I get.

[172] Well, yeah, it's our business.

[173] It's our business.

[174] You're doing business.

[175] If people could give me like uplifting, but good and not sappy book recommendations, I would appreciate that.

[176] And what kind?

[177] Do you like uplifting as in uplifting nonfiction or fiction?

[178] Or do you care?

[179] I guess I don't care either way.

[180] I guess I don't like romance that much unless it's like tangential.

[181] Really dirty.

[182] Yeah, you mean really dirty.

[183] Just filthy.

[184] If you can send me fanfic, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty fan.

[185] Manfic.

[186] I appreciate it.

[187] Should we do some business?

[188] Sure.

[189] We have a podcast network.

[190] It's called exactly right.

[191] We have a bunch of podcasts on it that are really good.

[192] Here are some highlights.

[193] Don't miss this week's episode of Ghosted by Roz Hernandez.

[194] Raz's guest this week is our very own Bridger Weinerger.

[195] He's the host of I Said No Gifts.

[196] That's a crossover for the ages.

[197] I can't wait to listen.

[198] What a duo.

[199] On I saw what you did, Millie and Danielle are serving up a double feature.

[200] they're talking about the movies 310 to Yuma and the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford, both from 2007.

[201] Those are both great movies.

[202] I can't wait to hear what they say about them.

[203] I just rewatch 310 to Yuma because it's such a dad movie and I've been up staying with my dad.

[204] And it's like, there's somebody should make a dad movie list because that is a perfect one, just perfect.

[205] It's like the movies you can watch with your kids when you're like, and the parents will like it too.

[206] But this was like movies you can watch their parents and the kids will like it too.

[207] Yeah.

[208] Movies I can watch with your kids.

[209] watch with my dad.

[210] So there's not too much F word.

[211] Definitely no sex scenes.

[212] And if we can learn a little something like based on the truths, that would help.

[213] Great.

[214] Over on Buried Bones, Kate Winkler, Dawson, and Paul Holes are covering Margaret Hossack, who was accused of murdering her abusive husband in 1900s, Iowa.

[215] And members of the fan cult can now log in and enter our weekly drawing to an assigned copy of our book, Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered.

[216] That's right.

[217] We wrote a once.

[218] Remember that?

[219] I do.

[220] The website is fancult .com.

[221] That's like an old -fashioned sweepstakes giveaway.

[222] Yeah.

[223] Who doesn't love those?

[224] I mean, we're old school.

[225] We are.

[226] We're not with the times.

[227] No, we refuse the times.

[228] Also, the silky MFM pajamas featuring art by listener Rachel Flannery have returned to the exactly right store.

[229] Your two -piece set can include shorts or pants and long sleeve tops or short sleeve tops.

[230] So mix and match.

[231] Make the gems of your dreams.

[232] The pattern features Elvis and his cookies, me and Georgia, and perhaps Mimi makes an appearance.

[233] I think Mimi's in it.

[234] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[235] She's in there too.

[236] So it's a real dog and cat and Karen and Georgia party.

[237] It's a real home's home.

[238] Karen, you know I'm all about vintage shopping.

[239] Absolutely.

[240] And when you say vintage, you mean when you physically drive to a store and actually purchase something.

[241] cash.

[242] Exactly.

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[245] That's right.

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[250] Their sleek, reliable POS hardware takes every major payment method and looks fabulous at the same time.

[251] With Shopify, we have a powerful partner for managing our sales, and if you're a business owner, you can too.

[252] Connect with customers inline and online.

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[254] Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify .com slash murder.

[255] Important note, that promo code is all lowercase.

[256] Go to Shopify .com slash murder to take your retail business to the next level today.

[257] That's Shopify .com slash murder.

[258] Goodbye.

[259] All right.

[260] You want to kick it off?

[261] Sure.

[262] I'm going first.

[263] I shouldn't sound so excited because this one's a downer.

[264] Yeah.

[265] Today I'm going to tell you the story of the New Bedford Highway Killer.

[266] Okay.

[267] Which is the subject of the book, the true crime book I just read, called Shallow Graves by Maureen Boyle.

[268] That was really incredible, really victim -centric.

[269] She talked to a lot of the victim's family and survivors, and so it was really a great book.

[270] So the New Bedford Highway Killer cases, a cold case from the late 80s, it's very similar to the Gilgo Beach murders.

[271] Except I hadn't known about this at all.

[272] And I think the Gilgo Beach murders got a lot more attention.

[273] And so, and now that there's a suspect, like maybe there can be one in this case as well.

[274] Yeah.

[275] So the book is shallow graves.

[276] That was the main source I used.

[277] And the rest can be found in our show notes.

[278] So it's July 3rd, 1988, the busy 4th of July weekend on the south coast of Massachusetts.

[279] In the pre -holiday traffic, a woman stops along Route 140 in Freetown, Massachusetts to relieve herself on the side of the road.

[280] There's tons of traffic.

[281] She jumps out.

[282] Freetown is just inland of New Bedford.

[283] And I didn't know anything about this area.

[284] I don't know Massachusetts, except I want to retire there.

[285] It's adorable, right?

[286] It's right by Dartmouth.

[287] Your favorite college?

[288] My favorite college that I love.

[289] It's like Boston is like pretty far so it feels like kind of more remote from the rest of the, you know, town.

[290] It's a coastal town.

[291] It was once the country's whaling capital.

[292] So it's one of those places you see with all the like beautiful like boats docked and beautiful old, you know, whaling village type of thing.

[293] It's really charming.

[294] Cool.

[295] After the whaling stuff, then it became home to textile mills.

[296] And then it generally fell on hard times in the decades that followed.

[297] It was home to about 100 ,000 residents at the time in the 80s, many of which were working class families with roots from Portugal and ties to the fishing industry.

[298] And there was a steady underbelly, as there is in a lot of towns, especially in the 80s, the drugs, heroin specifically, had come to town.

[299] There was, you know, just a lot of people who had become addicted to drugs and there were not a lot of resources to treat that addiction.

[300] Like getting a bed in a facility for women was like nearly impossible back then.

[301] So Route 140 connects to Interstate 195, which is the I -95 bypass.

[302] You would take if you wanted to go towards Cape Cod instead of going directly from Providence, Rhode Island, to Boston.

[303] So all these little towns you can go through.

[304] And I feel like whenever we're talking about roads like this, you immediately have to suspect someone who's very familiar with the area because you wouldn't just go on those roads randomly.

[305] So obviously, you know, a truck driver is someone we immediately think might be involved.

[306] The woman who's stopped by the side of the road, she goes about 30 feet away from the highway for privacy towards some brush.

[307] There she finds the body of a woman that appears to have been there for a long time.

[308] It's skeletal remains.

[309] She calls the police.

[310] Oh.

[311] I know.

[312] The body who's classified as a Jane Doe is partially dressed, and it appears that her bra is wrapped around her neck.

[313] She's brought to Boston for an autopsy where the cause of death is determined to be strangulation.

[314] Based on the condition of the skin and progression of decomposition, the autopsy also determines that the woman was killed about nine months prior before the winter.

[315] But some of these things turned out not to be true because the heat that summer was so intense that it sped up decomposition.

[316] Investigated could also see that the woman had been treated for a broken jaw.

[317] So that's a good place to start looking.

[318] The bone still has wires on it.

[319] Maybe through that she can be identified.

[320] So that was July 3rd.

[321] July 30th, two motorcyclists find the remains of another woman on the side of the road, this time on I -195, this is the highway that links Providence to Cape Cod, and it's, you know, big touristy area, passing right by New Bedford.

[322] Maureen Boyle, the author, writes, quote, her features were unrecognizable, there was no smell, no flies, no one would ever know she was there, even if they walked a few feet to the right or left, end quote.

[323] So it's just by total happenstance that these motorcycles happen to find, uh, the road.

[324] remains.

[325] The grass leading from the highway to the body does look worn, and investigators wonder if the person who killed this woman had been revisiting the body.

[326] From the state of the remains, which are mostly skeletal, the medical examiner believes that this woman died in the spring, and they can tell that both women had brown hair, similar builds, and both appear to have been strangled to death.

[327] So that's in July.

[328] A few months later, now we're in September, investigators are still trying to identify the two women who have been found and a new bed for detective named Don Dexter.

[329] That's how it's said in the audiobook.

[330] So he is looking through no missing person's cases in the area.

[331] He's shocked to realize that there are actual several options of who these bodies belong to.

[332] There are several missing women in the area who all fit the description of the two bodies that have been found.

[333] Their names are Nancy Lee Piva, Mary Rose Santos, Sandra Botelo, and Don Mendez.

[334] The problem is that the timelines of when all these women were last seen don't line up with when the medical examiners think the two Jane Does died.

[335] So they don't connect it immediately.

[336] Nancy Lee Paiva's disappearance was actually reported missing on July 8th, just a few days after the first body was found and a few weeks before the second one was found.

[337] Mary Rose Santos was last seen on July 16th, right in the middle of when the two bodies were found.

[338] The other two women, Sandra Botelo and Don Mendez, went missing after the first bodies were found in August and early September.

[339] So those couldn't have, the remains couldn't have belonged to them.

[340] Right.

[341] But the similarities between all of these women in physical appearance for many of them and in life circumstances for pretty much all of them are striking and disturbing to the detective.

[342] Almost all are in their 20s and 30s.

[343] All are struggling with addiction.

[344] And most of them had turned to sex work to afford their addictions.

[345] Many of them were keeping their addictions and sex work secret from their families.

[346] or at least have been trying to.

[347] And Maureen Boyle goes over every victim in the book.

[348] And it's just so many of these stories you've heard a million times of, you know, woman divorces.

[349] She meets this guy.

[350] He gets her into drugs.

[351] I mean, it's just, you know, could be any one of us that could happen.

[352] Yeah.

[353] It could happen to.

[354] And people have to do what they have to do.

[355] It's like the morality around it is something that so, as we know, embedded in this culture and so kind of automatic where it's like, yeah, except for it seems like, oh, it's just, women that we do that too.

[356] Like every, you know.

[357] Right.

[358] So Mary Rose and Sandra had disappeared during nights out when they had been out at bars with friends.

[359] There's a big bar scene.

[360] Don went missing while she was en route to her nephew's christening party.

[361] Though she was struggling with addiction and her mother had custody of her five -year -old son, her family all agree that it was completely unlike her not to show up at the family event and they reported her missing soon after.

[362] And this is another group of women who don't get reported missing in a lot of cases right away because they have the transient lifestyle of drug addiction and sex work.

[363] And so these big events like not being there when, you know, for your son, it takes something like that to make it obvious that something's not right.

[364] So it's, you know, kind of hard.

[365] Then there's another woman from Cape Cod, who John personally has been looking for since May because she was supposed to be a witness in one of his other cases.

[366] Her name is Rochelle Dapriella, and she's 28.

[367] So over the course of the next month, this detective is the first and only one to, like, put pieces together and realize that there's suddenly so many missing women in this small town of New Bedford.

[368] He finds out about two more missing women who disappeared under similar circumstances to the others as well.

[369] One is 29 -year -old Robin Rhodes, and one is 19 -year -old Christina Montero.

[370] And like the others, both are struggling with addiction, but both maintain close relationships with their family in the area.

[371] And then there's something else for John, the detective, he realizes right off the bat, almost all of these women know the same man. They have a similar person in common.

[372] He's a lawyer named Kenneth Pont.

[373] He's originally from an affluent family in town, but he's kind of gone on his own bumpy path.

[374] You know, you hear he's a lawyer and you think, oh, you know, you must be like a professional.

[375] like this is not he just is like past classes and got into law he's not good at memorizing things yeah yeah and he's like kind of got that charismatic charm however it's not as damning as it sounds kind of also struggles with addiction and since new bedford's not a very big place it's kind of everyone knows everyone so he has come into contact with he's hung out with he's like lived with some of the victims And also he's a lawyer.

[376] And so many of these women have had run -ins with the law.

[377] In fact, Pont had represented Rochelle Dapriella in 1988, one of the missing women, shortly before she disappeared when she accused another man of raping her.

[378] And all of these people are running in roughly the same circle, but still does stand out that this guy, Kenneth Pont, who is a hulking, intimidating figure, he kind of looks like he'd be in the mob.

[379] He kind of has Fred Gwynn vibes, like Herman Munster intimidating, you know, vibes.

[380] Kenneth had worked on the local sheriff's campaign and is a deputy sheriff, which is just a fucking fancy word.

[381] But it means that he has a badge.

[382] And there were rumors that Kenneth sometimes flashed his badge at drug dealers and then stole her supply.

[383] So, you know, he wasn't on the up and up.

[384] The detective also heard that sometimes he had women buy cocaine for him, so he wouldn't be seen buying it.

[385] And Rochelle Dapriella is a witness in a gun case against Kenneth Pont and had agreed to testify against him.

[386] And now she's missing.

[387] Oh, wow.

[388] So there's some very suspicious stuff going on with this guy.

[389] And the problem, too, is that there's a lot of politics in play.

[390] Like, Kenneth Pont is loud and won't shut out.

[391] Like, he won't stop talking to radio stations.

[392] He talks too much to detectives, gives them too much information, almost like confuses the whole thing it makes it more complicated than it needs to be.

[393] And then the politics of the city and the county at the time were just ugly.

[394] So it's almost like that stuff got in the way of solving this case.

[395] So when investigators ask Kenneth about the missing women, since he knows all of them, he starts talking very quickly, he throws out incoherent theories, then he hangs up.

[396] It's like there's so many of these kinds of phone calls.

[397] In October, shortly after Don Mendez is reported missing, Kenneth up and moves to Port Ritchie, Florida, which the detectives obviously find suspicious.

[398] So then in November, a cleanup crew is working on the side of I -195, the same highway where the second body was found.

[399] They're about a mile and a half away from that spot when they discover another set of human remains.

[400] This time the body is on the median between the two sides of the highway and clothes are found across the road in a wooded area.

[401] All three locations where bodies have been found are within about 20 minutes drive of one another.

[402] Wow.

[403] Yeah.

[404] Investigators bring in a dog to comb the highways to see if there are more.

[405] Almost as soon as the dog starts looking, the dog finds a human skeleton in a ditch also on the side of I -195.

[406] Oh my God.

[407] I know.

[408] So it's just, it's similar to Gilgo Beach, right?

[409] It's just a sudden area where a bunch of, you know, bodies are found.

[410] Right.

[411] A few days later at the beginning of December, the dog finds yet another body.

[412] So this one at the side of Route 140 where the first body had been found.

[413] So now between July and December, five sets of human remains have been found along these two highways.

[414] Through fingerprints, police are able to identify one of the bodies as Don Mendez, the 25 -year -old woman with the five -year -old son who went missing on her way to her nephew's christening party.

[415] What a shocking series of events where it's bad enough to have one set of skeletal remains.

[416] And people are like, How did this?

[417] How did we miss this?

[418] This is a case.

[419] Then there's two.

[420] Then it just keeps going.

[421] Like, it's just so crazy.

[422] It must have been terrifying.

[423] Also, we're talking about a district where they didn't get a lot of this type of, or any, this type of homicide.

[424] So they might not have been as well equipped to deal with it as if they had brought in a bigger police department to, you know, to help.

[425] So small town cops kind of situation.

[426] Yeah.

[427] Like they arrest, you know, people for being drunk in public, let's say, but not really in domestic abuse, but not.

[428] They don't know how to solve a serial killer, essentially, is what we have now.

[429] It's cold case serial killer.

[430] Yeah.

[431] So there's now a significant amount of media attention on the case and loved ones of two other missing women in the area.

[432] They see what's happening.

[433] The police and the media are like, if you haven't reported someone missing who has been missing, please come forward.

[434] So these two families make reports.

[435] These families are used to their daughters, both addicts, disappearing for a few weeks at a time.

[436] and hadn't previously made reports because of that.

[437] But now they realize the situation might be far worse than they thought.

[438] The woman's names are Deborah McConnell, who was from Rhode Island, and Marilyn Cardozo Roberts, who is local to New Bedford, and she's the daughter of a retired cop.

[439] In December, another body is found.

[440] Bring the total to six women found dead so far, and only one identified.

[441] This woman is found in a gravel pit not far from I -195 in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

[442] It's just skeletal remains, and there's a jacket found around her neck.

[443] So in late November to early December in 1988, investigators began making breakthroughs and identifications through dental records and with help from the FBI and the Smithsonian Institute.

[444] So they do ask for help.

[445] So the first two women who were found are Deborah Maderos, who was 29, and Nancy Piva, who was 36.

[446] Debra had been last seen leaving her boyfriend's house in May, but wasn't reported missing until a month later.

[447] and Nancy, Nancy's boyfriend who was into drugs and had gotten her into drugs actually reported her missing two days after she went missing.

[448] And he avoided cops like crazy.

[449] So the fact that he walked into the police station to report, like it would seem suspect, but he was cleared of all charges.

[450] In both cases, the initial autopsies placed the time of death months earlier than they actually happened, which is why it took so long to identify them.

[451] And both women had been strangled to death.

[452] Nancy Piva had two daughters and two grandchildren.

[453] She was 36 years old.

[454] Her clothes and earrings are later found near a different woman's remains.

[455] That's like a really creepy aspect of this.

[456] It's like there's clothes found next to bodies they don't belong to, that belong to other victims.

[457] Like it feels like perhaps the serial killer is communicating and trying to link himself to that.

[458] Absolutely.

[459] It's like almost like a taunting.

[460] When Nancy Piva's daughter is.

[461] called to identify the earrings.

[462] She recognizes them as her mother's.

[463] They have the birthstones of her children, Nancy's grandchildren.

[464] I know.

[465] In shallow graves, Nancy's sister, Judy, who's a big part of us, specifically remembers driving home from a pool with her family on I -95 on that hot July 30th day.

[466] They drive by the medical examiner's van on the side of the road as they're collecting the remains that they had just found.

[467] And Judy had seen that.

[468] And Judy had seen screamed at her husband to pull over.

[469] She hadn't seen her sister in a while.

[470] She was certain it was her missing sister being pulled out of the woods.

[471] Her husband convinced her she was wrong.

[472] It's just, this is just something else.

[473] They keep driving.

[474] But it turns out she really was passing by her sister that day.

[475] That is so sad.

[476] I know.

[477] Just that connection.

[478] A few days later, the woman who had been found in the gravel pit is also identified through dental records as Rochelle Doppriella.

[479] Rochelle was 29 and was the one who had been a witness in the case against Kenneth Pont.

[480] But she was actually last seen with Nancy Piva's boyfriend, the one who had reported her missing two days later.

[481] But he's fully cleared in both Nancy and Rochelle's deaths.

[482] He's not treated as a suspect.

[483] But it just demonstrates how like intertwined all of these women are.

[484] They all have these connections and how close a community New Bedford is.

[485] And it just confounds the investigation.

[486] It makes it harder to sift through suspects.

[487] when it's like everyone knew everyone.

[488] Right.

[489] Small town.

[490] Yeah.

[491] Right before Christmas, another body is identified as 35 -year -old Deborah Domello.

[492] She also has two sons who are eight and three years old.

[493] Oh, no. I know.

[494] So in March and April, now we're in 1989, the last three bodies are found.

[495] They belong to Mary Rose Santos, Robin Rhodes, and Sandra Botelo.

[496] And they had been in that first batch of missing persons reports that John Dextrater put together the previous September when he was like putting the pieces together those missing women were found like their bodies were found.

[497] His bodies were found, yeah.

[498] Mary Rose was 26 and had disappeared a year earlier during a night out.

[499] She had two children.

[500] She had been a client of the lawyer, Kenneth Pont, and he had helped her husband make missing posters after she disappeared.

[501] Robin was 29 and had dated Kenneth Pont and she had a young child and Sandra was 24 and had two children.

[502] It just so many people going missing, so many women going missing in a small area, like just, I don't know, it's so frustrating that there's not a better system set up for like missing persons where it's like, it has to be, you know, you can't report it until 24, whatever the setup is now.

[503] And then it's like, and then we'll just see what happens.

[504] Yeah.

[505] It's like, this is the beginning of those reports are the beginning of finding out that you have a serial killer in your town.

[506] Right.

[507] But because of the lifestyle that these women lead, the police don't take it seriously, you know, they don't have the funds to really look for them or won't use the funds to look for them.

[508] Yeah.

[509] And suddenly everyone, and it's like from a small little scene that had to be so scary if you were part of that little scene to like suddenly realize that there was a killer.

[510] And if you're a sex worker, I think a lot of them had been picked up and never seen again.

[511] So if you're a sex worker and you still need to make money, you still.

[512] still have to put yourself out there and how terrifying that has to been.

[513] Yeah.

[514] And basically the message you're getting is the authorities don't care.

[515] Right.

[516] It doesn't matter.

[517] Yeah.

[518] So actually, to the day, two women who had been reported missing are never found.

[519] They are 19 -year -old Christine Montiero and 34 -year -old Marilyn Cardoza Roberts.

[520] They disappeared in May and June of 1988 right before the first bodies were discovered.

[521] And the two women were actually neighbors.

[522] So in a one -year period between 1988 and 1989, 11 women are reported missing in the new Bedford area under similar circumstances.

[523] Nine are ultimately found dead, murdered, most along local highways, mostly strangled, and two other bodies were never found.

[524] So the big theory, of course, is that Kenneth Pont was the serial killer.

[525] In August of 1990, he's indicted by a grand jury in Rochelle Daprielle.

[526] as murder, and it does seem like a big publicity stunt by the district attorney.

[527] It does, he's got, he's up for re -election, he's kind of got this hard line to him.

[528] He, like, makes a big scene out of it, you know, like there's reporters every day at the front of the courthouse.

[529] He parades Kenneth Pine and out.

[530] It's, it's silly.

[531] It's convenient.

[532] Yeah, totally.

[533] But there's pretty much no hard evidence tying Kenneth to the crime.

[534] And a lot of the investigators disagree with the DA's decision to charge Kenneth.

[535] A lot of the detectives don't think he's the guy.

[536] And the charges are dropped and he dies in 2010.

[537] And right before he dies, they actually excavate his old house, his backyard.

[538] There was like a concrete slab that was laid and they didn't find anything.

[539] And I mean, that would be really horrible if they did all that to him, then he dies and it wasn't true.

[540] And he just was like yet another addict that was just trying to kind of help people and you know, was just wrong place on time.

[541] I hear what you're saying, though, but that's always a possibility.

[542] It's absolute speculation.

[543] He might have had nothing to do with it at all.

[544] He didn't really try to hide his connection to these women or his relationship to them.

[545] He, like, hung out with them as friends.

[546] So it seems like a not suspicious thing to do.

[547] You know what I mean?

[548] Yes.

[549] Right.

[550] So who knows?

[551] The other theory, investigators focus on a man named Tony DeGrasia.

[552] the DA charges him with multiple rape and assault charges stemming from alleged violence towards sex workers.

[553] So he already has a history of violence towards sex workers.

[554] He has a really distinct build and like a flat nose.

[555] Although women say it looks like he was a boxer, so they're able to find him pretty easily.

[556] One woman testifies before the grand jury that he lunged at her throat and tried to snap her neck.

[557] She testifies that he told her he was going to do to her, like he, quote, did to the other bitches, end quote.

[558] Oh.

[559] So this guy is problematic as fuck.

[560] He is known for violence against sex workers.

[561] No one ever sees any evidence against him in the murder cases.

[562] Like, it's hidden because he dies by suicide, seemingly suicide, before his trial in 1991.

[563] So then they just kind of stop investigating him.

[564] There's another theory about a man named Daniel Tavares.

[565] He goes to prison for murdering his mother in 1991, possibly under the influence of LSD.

[566] He's from Fall River, Massachusetts, which is about 15 minutes from New Bedford.

[567] Once incarcerated, he sends a letter to prison staff claiming to be the highway killer.

[568] He's released after 16 years of his life sentence for murdering his mom, which is so egregious.

[569] I could talk about that.

[570] In 2007, and he skips town breaking his parole, but no one goes to fucking look for him.

[571] No one tries to find him.

[572] And then he's caught when over a $50 debt, he shoots and kills and kills his neighbors, Brian and Beverly Mouk.

[573] They're a newlywed couple.

[574] They live down the street from him in Washington State.

[575] And so now he's serving a life sentence there.

[576] While incarcerated again, he confesses on four different occasions to murdering a woman in October 1988 during a, quote, wild party.

[577] Her name was Gail Batello, which is the same last name of one of the highway killers' victims.

[578] But there seems to be no relation between the two women.

[579] But it would have been right in the middle of the other.

[580] bodies being found.

[581] Wow.

[582] Her body is found in his mother's backyard and had been stabbed multiple times and he's convicted of her murder in 2015.

[583] Jesus.

[584] Another great suspect, unfortunately.

[585] Yeah, God.

[586] When there's multiple suspects, it's just like, what in the fuck is going on?

[587] What is this world?

[588] What is this world?

[589] Also, and sorry to cross promote during your story, but Fall River, Massachusetts, if I'm not mistaken, is where Lizzie Warden is from.

[590] Oh, wow.

[591] And season 20, 12 of 10fold more wicked is all about the murders that take place there before Lizzie Borden's murders.

[592] It's been, it's like a crazy, creepy area since like the colonial times.

[593] It's had a lot of really crazy stuff happening in it.

[594] When you just mentioned that, and I know it's like, you know, we're in Massachusetts.

[595] So it's not California.

[596] It's not big and spread out.

[597] But it's just kind of wild.

[598] It's like, it's like cursed.

[599] Well, you think of that area.

[600] I've been to Providence, Rhode Island is the only place I've been that's near there.

[601] But, like, you think of those areas, it's like quaint, charming, kind of slower towns, you know, touristy and quiet in the winter.

[602] You don't expect these kinds of things to happen in places like this, you know, which is what everyone says.

[603] I know.

[604] But so no one besides Kenneth Pont is ever charged and no bodies are found in the same area after early 1989.

[605] Like a spate of bodies found in such a short time and then nothing.

[606] People believe the killer either died, went to prison for something else, or moved somewhere else.

[607] Over the years, people have pointed out the similarities between this case and the Gilgo Beach murders.

[608] They also talk about maybe it was a truck driver since the bodies were found along those roots.

[609] It kind of reminds me of the podcast Murder 101 where, you know, it just needs fresh eyes and someone to put pieces together and figure out who this was.

[610] build a profile and maybe do some DNA testing on this, you know.

[611] So Maureen Boyle, the author of Shallow Graves, says that the most disturbing thing about this case is how many possible suspects there are.

[612] Judy, the sister of Nancy Piva, who wanted to pull over on the side of the road because she thought her sister was there, recently said, quote, to me, it's today.

[613] It's yesterday.

[614] It's every day.

[615] It's not 30 years for us.

[616] The time doesn't really matter because it is every day.

[617] the time, the memories are there for every day, end quote.

[618] And that is the story of the nine known and two probable victims of the new Bedford Highway Killer.

[619] Wow.

[620] I know, right.

[621] That's staggering and I've never, ever heard of it.

[622] I hadn't either.

[623] God.

[624] I know.

[625] So awful.

[626] Let's get that one looked into again.

[627] I mean, that's the only thing is that it's like these days when the, these cold cases come up and there is, you know, new evidence, new light, you know, people working on.

[628] It's like it is such a huge relief to see it from a distance.

[629] But to Nancy Piva's sister, it's like she is finally off the hook.

[630] Like getting those answers is everything.

[631] Yeah.

[632] Yeah.

[633] It's, it's still happening to the families for sure.

[634] Great job.

[635] Thank you.

[636] Okay.

[637] Well, I'm going to change the tone.

[638] A little bit as we like to do in the back half of these shows.

[639] Great.

[640] So we can just take a left turn.

[641] I'm going to tell you today about a massive long -running fraud that took place right before America's eyes.

[642] There is no need to tease this out with a cold open because chances are if you saw the HBO docu -series McMillions, you already know this crazy story.

[643] Today I'm going to tell you about the McDonald's Monopoly scam.

[644] Now, I mean, I'm a woman of advanced stage, so it's funny to think about that there's people that don't know, like, about the Burger Wars of the 1980s.

[645] And this was, of course, back when for us, because I lived out in the country, we literally had four channels.

[646] We had the choice of four channels to watch TV on.

[647] And all of them had advertising, and I think, I could be wrong, but I think Burger King started it.

[648] Burger King went at McDonald's really hard in the early 80s to say in a coast -to -coast pole flame broiling beats frying nearly three to one and it was Elizabeth shoe dressed in a Burger King employee outfit and she was like, the McDonald's people need to leave the room and it was like this weird thing where suddenly we were being told to pick a side.

[649] I was firmly on the side at the time of Burger King because I really did enjoy the flame broiling chemicals that they used to put out, out of a little chimney at the top of their stores.

[650] I'm getting hungry.

[651] Right.

[652] And it went back and forth.

[653] Then Wendy's comes into the mix and they're like, where's the beef?

[654] And that was a legendary 80s commercial that like Gen X people know by heart.

[655] And the funny thing is, and no and I don't know if people discuss this anymore, nor if they care at this late date in our world.

[656] But ultimately, McDonald's did win the burger wars because those other companies who were slightly smaller, basically trying to attack the giant, they were spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising and marketing.

[657] And McDonald's, all of their shit went up by 40%.

[658] It's like, it's like, no, I think it's McDonald's.

[659] We should try McDonald's and see if it's better.

[660] Yeah.

[661] We should give a shit about this at all.

[662] Like it's that it was the early marketing of the 80s that worked because we didn't understand we were being marketed to and used.

[663] No, I was just going to say that.

[664] We were so susceptible.

[665] because it was just as fucking more naive time.

[666] Yeah, so naive.

[667] Also, I think I just realized, does this mean Elizabeth Shoe is the first influencer?

[668] I think she may have been, could have been.

[669] I'd give Santa Claus, the first.

[670] That's the first in the past of my, maybe Jesus.

[671] I don't know.

[672] Remember when Santa Claus got those lip injections?

[673] It was insane.

[674] Okay.

[675] So McDonald's had been already working with a company called Simon Mark who were helping devise ways from McDonald's to get more customers.

[676] And one of their first and best -known initiatives was they invented the Happy Meal in 1979, which I would then also maybe claim that arguably that was when people started to realize, oh, we should be marketing to children.

[677] They're the ones watching this.

[678] Like, they're the ones that care and tell their parents they want to go here or there.

[679] They actually do have some spending power.

[680] So when the Simon Marketing executives come up with their next big idea, and maybe I was thinking, I wonder if they did this to change that conversation, to basically be like, we don't want to talk about that anymore.

[681] Because if we all talk about how big or small the hamburger patties are or how we make them, everybody's going to stop eating this shit immediately.

[682] So instead, how about we all play a little game that America knows very well called Monopoly?

[683] So they invented the McDonald's Monopoly game.

[684] And when they pitched, it to the McDonald's people, they immediately green lit it.

[685] They were like, it's, yeah, it's great.

[686] We love everything you do, Simon Marketing.

[687] So if you don't know, basically, they had tiny, free -floating version of Monopoly where you would get these little game pieces on your cup that you ordered your drink in or in the front of your French fry thing.

[688] Only did you order the large one, though.

[689] It was very smart.

[690] Oh, is that right?

[691] Yeah, it wasn't on the small fries.

[692] Yeah, no, you had, that was like your reward for getting a, large.

[693] Yeah.

[694] And then you were like, oh, but I would have got, okay, I guess I want the Monopoly when you're like, Park Avenue.

[695] I need to keep playing this game.

[696] It really is such a smart idea because I remember people collecting those pieces and I would always be like, how are you keeping, like I know you would get an, a fold out like fake McDonald's Monopoly page that you would then, I guess, tape them to.

[697] But I was like, who is this organized?

[698] Who is this like?

[699] Well, my siblings and I, we thought we were going to win for sure.

[700] Did you do it?

[701] Yeah, a couple, there were a couple of years where we like got into it for sure, like under 10 years old, obviously.

[702] Yes, but so smart because you get into it, it's just that while I'm going to eat this shit, because I'm going to eat it anyway, I might as well collect these little pieces and play this game.

[703] I mean, we barely went to get fast.

[704] Like my mom did not allow fast food or my dad.

[705] So we had like three pieces, you know, three McDonald's.

[706] But those three pieces brought you so much hope.

[707] Yes.

[708] So, but the interesting thing is you didn't have to buy the McDonald's food.

[709] You could walk in and ask for free pieces and they legally had to give them to you.

[710] Otherwise, it would be considered gambling.

[711] Yeah.

[712] So if you got little cards and, you know, you have to kind of know the game of Monopoly.

[713] Sorry, if you don't, I can't explain the Monopoly to you right now.

[714] But essentially, if you collected Vermont Avenue or St. Charles Place, you could win something like small fries, free burger, whatever.

[715] Those were, of course, the most common pieces.

[716] But then you collect entire property strips, like in Monopoly.

[717] That could lead to bigger prices, like $1 ,000 in cash.

[718] Then if you get the high value property, like boardwalk and park place, then you win a million dollars.

[719] Fuck, that's what we were going to do.

[720] That was our plan.

[721] Yeah, you were saving up for that.

[722] And those pieces, of course, are the hardest ones to find and nobody expected to get them.

[723] But it was very, the energy was very Charlie in the chocolate factory.

[724] It's like we could all win and just do it and hey, my aunt collects these.

[725] If you don't care, can I take them?

[726] Like I remember having those conversations with people.

[727] It's like, oh, if you're not going to keep it, can I have it?

[728] Yeah.

[729] Because there were people that were putting in the time.

[730] And that suddenly made you realize they were worse on things.

[731] You're like, no, I'm doing it.

[732] No. And then you put in your pocket, you wash those jeans.

[733] It's over.

[734] So this whole thing starts in 1987, huge hit.

[735] P .E. is great.

[736] People are talking like in that way of can I have your piece.

[737] My aunt's doing it.

[738] Sales go up 40%.

[739] Wow.

[740] Everybody gets really high cholesterol.

[741] Year after year, people flock to this game and to their local McDonald's to play the game.

[742] And so it just kept going on and on.

[743] Like it was the kind of thing or it was like, oh, they're going to do this for a little while, but they just kept doing it.

[744] So smart.

[745] The energy was incredible.

[746] So cut to 2001.

[747] We're at the FBI office in Jacksonville Florida and there's a young up -and -comer named Special Agent Doug Matthews and he's there talking to his colleague who's a veteran.

[748] His name is Special Agent Rick Dent.

[749] And Matthews sees a posted note on Rick Dent's desk that says, McDonald's Monopoly Fraud, question mark.

[750] And Agent Matthews wants to know more.

[751] He normally works in health care fraud.

[752] And so he was like, I would love this change of pace, this actually, I'm going to look into this.

[753] So he calls up, he takes the Post -it note, and he calls up this anonymous source who originally gave Agent Dent the tip.

[754] And that source tells Matthews that the McDonald's Monopoly game has to be fixed because three of the million -dollar winners are related.

[755] And because they have different last names, no one has caught on to that.

[756] Snitch.

[757] What a snitch.

[758] What a pre -Internet -era snitch.

[759] Oh, the 2001, right?

[760] We're right on the verge.

[761] But still, the kind of thing we're like, again, that naivete and that kind of willful ignorance where we're just like, of course it's fair.

[762] Of course I could win.

[763] Yeah.

[764] Of course three siblings down in Irvine, California could be the ones that win a million dollars.

[765] So this source gives the three names of the people he's talking about.

[766] And then he also gives another name.

[767] And it's the name of the man who's supposedly behind this alleged plot, someone named Uncle.

[768] Jerry.

[769] So Matthews goes back to Dent, basically gives him the lowdown on what he's just learned.

[770] They go to their squad supervisor, Christopher Graham, and they get permission to open up this investigation.

[771] And Graham loops in, Assistant U .S. attorney Mark Devereaux.

[772] So Defero, Matthews, and Dent review the list of every McDonald's Monopoly prize winner, like the big prize winners.

[773] And it turns out they all have some sort of familial connections that trace back.

[774] to the Jacksonville, Florida area.

[775] The odds of one person winning the McDonald's Monopoly game are 1 and 250 million.

[776] Jesus.

[777] The odds of two relatives, both winning the game, are one in one quadrillion, which is one with 15 zeros after it.

[778] Oh, my God.

[779] The odds of three relatives winning the McDonald's Monopoly game is one in 300 sextillion, which is a three and then 23 zeros after it.

[780] So unlikely, I say, is the short way to say that.

[781] But listen, stranger things have happened.

[782] Look, this world, you don't know.

[783] Anything's possible, baby Georgia.

[784] It could be a simulation for all we know.

[785] Keep on collecting McDonald's drink cups out of the garbage and seeing if you get something.

[786] I know I've told this story already, but my cousin Lisa got, she got a job at Burger King when I was like eight or seven.

[787] And she came home one day and threw two like bags, Burger King bags.

[788] at us and they were filled with scratchers from the latest Burger King game that they probably tried to put out after the McMillian started.

[789] And we went through, I think we won like a couple fries, maybe a Wopper Jr. And that was it out of probably 500 of these cards.

[790] And I, first of all, it's so my cousin Lisa to be like, let's see if we can win some of the shit and just takes the cards.

[791] But then I was like, I became so cynical at like age eight because I was like, what a fucking scam.

[792] All I can say is you're lucky the statute of limitations is probably up on that crime.

[793] No, I'm just throwing it in everyone's face.

[794] We were minors.

[795] Yeah, we were minors and we were, I was going to say, colluded into it.

[796] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[797] There's a better word.

[798] Yeah, you were.

[799] Lord.

[800] Okay, so the team starts the investigation trying to figure out how this could happen in the first place.

[801] So it could be the manufacturers who make the cups and the French fry boxes that the tickets go on, or it could be the people making the game pieces themselves, could be one of the delivery drivers or the factory workers.

[802] It could also be someone from McDonald's corporate.

[803] And so they first investigate McDonald's corporate because they're like, that's probably what it is.

[804] So they call up the head of McDonald's Global Security, his name's Rob Holm, and they ask him to come down to the FBI office in Jacksonville, but they don't want to tip off any potential suspects, so they don't tell Holm what this is about, and they tell him, do not tell anyone you're coming down here.

[805] Oh, God, can you imagine?

[806] Very scary.

[807] But, you know, this guy is the head of McDonald's global security, so he probably doesn't scare too easy.

[808] Yeah, that's true.

[809] So Rob Holm and two other representatives from his team go to the FBI offices.

[810] they're brought into a conference room.

[811] They still don't know what the meeting's about, but obviously they get the feeling.

[812] It's pretty serious.

[813] And that's when Agent Matthews shows up in his gold suit.

[814] Agent Matthews is a bit of a quirky.

[815] You see him in this in the HBO documentary, and he's a real personality, which is like my favorite, but you can tell, like, I bet guys at the FBI aren't super into it.

[816] So he told them later, he thought it would be funny if he dressed up like a French fry.

[817] So he literally has a gold suit on when he walks in.

[818] And, of course, Devereaux and Dent are furious.

[819] They're like, we're trying to fucking investigate fraud.

[820] That's someone who wakes up every day and is like happy to be alive and then wants to show it.

[821] That sounds amazing.

[822] Yeah.

[823] Although it is the FBI.

[824] So it's kind of out of, you know.

[825] It's true.

[826] It's out of practice, whatever.

[827] So this meeting starts with Devereaux writing the names of these sweepstakes winners on a whiteboard.

[828] And then he starts drawing lines explaining their interconnected relationships.

[829] This person's married to this person's kid, so on, so forth.

[830] And this revelation absolutely stuns these McDonald's security team.

[831] They are right about to launch the next Monopoly game, right?

[832] So it would get played for however many months.

[833] Somebody would win it.

[834] They would put it to bed and then bring it right back.

[835] So they're about to launch the new one and they get this news.

[836] So the FBI team, Matthews Denton Devereaux, pitch this idea to the McDonald's guys.

[837] They want to use the next leg of the Monopoly game to catch the fraudster in the act.

[838] But the McDonald's team is like, no, this is lose, lose for us.

[839] Because first of all, this was right when mad cow disease broke out in America, which you may have been too young.

[840] It was so scary.

[841] Every night on the news, they would show film of the cow.

[842] cows like shaking uncontrollably.

[843] It was so freaky.

[844] And of course, immediately these burger wars that we'd all been up to our necks in and them talking about our burgers like this and our burgers like that, it's like people were scared to death to eat.

[845] So a horrifying time for that in general.

[846] So the McDonald's team's already worried and that's already a big issue for them.

[847] And now they're afraid that if they do run the sweepstakes and they know that it's rigged, could jeopardize the brand reputation even further like people find out.

[848] So they don't give the FBI an answer when they leave the office that day.

[849] They say they need time to consider their options because they could actually just end the monopoly game entirely go out on a high note and then just like make it go away and nobody will be the wiser.

[850] But if they sweep it under the rug now and then the fraud is somehow revealed later, which made me laugh where it's like living in 2024 where it's like somehow revealed later works like it will be for sure it always will be you have to know and it's just a better way to live just assume anything you do is going to get found out and behave accordingly yeah so if it comes out later and it comes out that they knew the game was rigged and they did nothing about it of course that's worst case scenario for the brand and even worse if the fraudster is working from within macdonald's corporate they wouldn't be able to find out who they were and then they would just keep on ripping them off in a different way.

[851] So they're kind of in a pinch.

[852] Ultimately, they decide to move forward with the next leg of the sweepstakes because they want to find out who is doing it and get rid of them.

[853] But they also know this is their last shot because if they're going to catch the person, obviously they have to do it now and then they know it's going to come out, basically.

[854] Right.

[855] So this begins, and this is a reference to the game show who wants to be a millionaire, which was very big at the time.

[856] Operation Final Answer.

[857] So the first major prize winner of this new leg of the McDonald's Monopoly, I like that I'm calling it a leg.

[858] It's like a race of the McDonald's Monopoly sweepstakes is a 56 -year -old man named Michael Hoover.

[859] So Denton Matthews run a background check on this guy.

[860] They learn he's a pit boss at the Foxwood Casinos in Westerly Rhode Island, and he's recently filed for bankruptcy.

[861] So instead of just wiretapping Hoover, Matthew gets one of his creative ideas.

[862] So he says they should go undercover as a camera crew who are shooting a promotional commercial for McDonald's.

[863] And since all the winners in the Monopoly sweepstakes have to sign over permission for McDonald's to use their name and their image for promotional purposes, it won't be kind of this weird out of the blue thing.

[864] It'll be expected and people like stuff like that.

[865] So they'll agree to it.

[866] So smart.

[867] Yeah.

[868] So French fry guy, he finally has an idea that pays off.

[869] So he's given special permission to go undercover as the commercial director because he wasn't, I guess, an undercover agent.

[870] And that's not what he did.

[871] So they had to like give him special permission to do this, which was a thrilling, also terrifying opportunity for him because it's like constant acting.

[872] Yeah, you have to pretend to not be an FBI agent.

[873] That's hard enough.

[874] Yeah.

[875] To be a commercial TV.

[876] director.

[877] So they put together a fake production team under the name Shamrock Productions.

[878] And it's basically FBI agents pretending to be camera and sound men and all that.

[879] And then there's the member of the McDonald's global security team named Amy Murray.

[880] She's also in the documentary.

[881] She's delightful human being.

[882] And she is the one who normally covers the McDonald's games and works with the prize winner.

[883] So she is brought in basically as the legitimizing kind of corporate entity that's like you're official and you really did win.

[884] So on August 3, 2001, this team as Shamrock Productions visits Michael Hoover at his home.

[885] They hand him a giant check for a million dollars with cameras rolling.

[886] They ask him to tell the story of how he won, basically.

[887] So Hoover happily goes into this story about that he was at the beach one day and he accidentally dropped his people magazine into the ocean.

[888] And so because of that, he had to go to the local grocery store, McQuaids, and go buy himself a new people magazine.

[889] And that's where he got his ticket.

[890] Because they were also in certain issues of people magazine, or of magazines, I guess.

[891] Yeah.

[892] So when Hoover tells the story, Matthews asks him if he'll take him to the store where he bought the magazine, where he found the winning ticket.

[893] Meanwhile, there's a bunch of FBI agents in an undercover van who are surveilling the entire thing.

[894] And that's not in the plan.

[895] He's like improvising.

[896] So they're like, we're not going to a second location.

[897] Like they're all freaking out that like we need to keep this contained.

[898] But Hoover, the winner is totally into it.

[899] He agrees to go not only there, but also back to the beach where Hoover dropped to the magazine into the ocean.

[900] So luckily, the guys in the van are wrong.

[901] Nothing bad happens at the second or third location, except for when a drunk teenager runs up to the camera crew on the beach and steals the giant check away from them, which is a really, they actually have it on camera.

[902] So it's in the docu series.

[903] It's really funny.

[904] And of course, Matthews, like any good commercial director would, chases this kid down and steals the check back.

[905] Oh, my God.

[906] So before they wrap, Agent Matthews asks Hoover what he plans to do with the money.

[907] And Hoover says he's going to buy a boat and name it ruthless scoundrel.

[908] The shoot wraps, the camera crew leaves Hoover to enjoy his winnings.

[909] But what Hoover doesn't know is there is now a wiretap on his phone that the FBI put in.

[910] And within hours, the agents are able to hear a conversation that Hoover has with a man named Andrew Glom in South Florida.

[911] Florida.

[912] Glam has no obvious ties to Hoover, but he does have a record of federal drug trafficking convictions.

[913] And so the agents are like, is this the mysterious Uncle Jerry?

[914] But when they both mention Uncle Jerry on the call, it's clear that Andy Glam isn't Uncle Jerry, but he is working with Uncle Jerry.

[915] Even more damning, the agents hear Hoover bragging to Glam that the camera crew, quote, believed everything he told them about the winning ticket, end quote.

[916] It's exactly the evidence the FBI is looking for, but this would only be the tip of the iceberg.

[917] So the FBI team decides to go back and analyze the phone records of every major McDonald's Monopoly Prize winner from two months before they won and then two months after they won.

[918] And they find a recurring phone number in every winner's records.

[919] they trace that phone number and they get a name Jerome Jerry Jacobson.

[920] He is the head of security at McDonald's marketing partner, Simon Marketing.

[921] Okay.

[922] So they were on the right track for sure.

[923] So we'll tell you a little something about Jerry Jacobson.

[924] He grew up in Florida.

[925] Ironically, he had dreams of becoming an FBI agent.

[926] It didn't pan out, but he does become a police officer in Hollywood, Florida.

[927] In 1981, he marries a fellow officer named Marcia Derbyshire, and he becomes stepdad to their two boys.

[928] But he's forced into early retirement in around 1982 when he wakes up one morning and he can't lift his arms.

[929] And when Marcia takes him to the hospital, he's diagnosed with Gian Barre syndrome, which is a rare autoimmune disorder that can lead to paralysis and even death.

[930] So the family moves to Atlanta, Georgia so that they can be closer to a doctor they found who specializes in Guillaume Barre.

[931] And it actually helps.

[932] So Jacobson is able to then go back to work and he gets a security job for Simon Marketing in 1982.

[933] Five years later, he's put in charge of handling the game pieces for the McDonald's Monopoly game.

[934] And two years after that, in 1989, Jerry approaches his stepbrother Marvin Braun.

[935] and he tells him that he might be able to get him a winning monopoly ticket that's worth $25 ,000.

[936] So a month later, he gives Marvin that ticket, tells him to follow the instructions to cash it in, and when he does, Marvin becomes the first big ticket winner in Jerry Jacobson's monopoly scheme.

[937] So now agents Dent and Matthews go to McDonald's Global Security Director Rob Holm, and without revealing the identity of the suspect, they ask Home what protocols have been set up by Simon Marketing for making and distributing these game pieces.

[938] And Rob Holm realizes he doesn't know.

[939] And realizing what a problem it is that he doesn't know.

[940] And I think it was that idea of like, oh, that's what you guys do.

[941] Like, we're relying on you to do it correctly.

[942] So he sets up a meeting with the Simon Marketing executives and to go find out about the process.

[943] And basically, this is what Rob learns.

[944] and then relays to the FBI.

[945] Simon Marketing uses a third -party printing company to print the game pieces called Dittler Brothers Printing.

[946] And they're just north of Atlanta.

[947] And Dittler Brothers is a secure printing business that handles lottery tickets, scratch -offs, U .S. postage stamps, and, of course, the Monopoly Game Pieces.

[948] It's a trusted company for printing these kinds of valuable, like, contest items.

[949] And McDonald's is their biggest client.

[950] The security protocols surrounding the winning monopoly tickets are at the highest level of security within an already high security facility.

[951] So, Dittler brothers are no joke.

[952] The entry into the facility requires key cards and multiple guard checkpoints.

[953] The vault containing winning tickets is surrounded with guards, cameras, and a robust alarm system 24 -7.

[954] The only way to get into that vault is through two key code pads that are positioned far away from each other so that the codes on each pad have to be entered simultaneously by two different people.

[955] Wow.

[956] So do not ever doubt the Dittler brothers, because it ain't them.

[957] When tickets are shipped out, they're loaded onto delivery trucks that are then locked and sealed with tamper tape.

[958] Simon marketing officials then fly out to meet those trucks at their final destinations so they can inspect that security seal, make sure it hasn't been tampered with.

[959] Then they take stock of the inventory, making sure that all the tickets are in there.

[960] And they do that with the common game pieces, like free fries and $1 ,000.

[961] They even do it with the no prize ticket.

[962] They have a really good protocol set up.

[963] But the high prize tickets are handled even more delicately with even more security.

[964] Those ones never see the inside of a delivery truck.

[965] Instead, Jerry Jacobson himself, along with several other officials and auditors, hand -deliver those tickets to the French fry carton or the drink cup manufacturers for assembly.

[966] Jerry holds a suitcase that's handcuffed to his wrist with the tickets inside.

[967] And then inside the suitcase, there's an envelope with a metallic sticker seal to ensure that it has not been tampered with in any way.

[968] And then inside that envelope with the metallic sticker steel are a bunch of tickets.

[969] Most of them are non -winners, only one is the high -price winner.

[970] And so then under Jerry's watch and these other auditors watch, a manufacturer attaches those tickets to the random fry cartons and cups before shipping them out to other McDonald's restaurants.

[971] So when someone finds a high -price winning ticket, that ticket is then analyzed by Simon Marketing Security Team for the intentional imperfections that were built in that prove it's a real ticket.

[972] So those include things like chip -offs of the printed letters or invisible code written in black ink on the face of the ticket.

[973] Once this ticket passes this intense inspection, that winner is confirmed.

[974] That's how it goes and everything is going great until the day that Jerry Jacobson is mistakenly sent a package of those metallic envelope seal stickers.

[975] So so basically he suddenly has the ability to mess around with that envelope and then reseal it with nobody knowing and that's what he does normally those metallic stickers are sent to didler brothers but since jerry has them now he figures out that when he and an auditor fly out to deliver these tickets he can go into the airport bathroom where the auditor can't see him swap out the winning ticket with a regular ticket, keep the winning ticket, and reseal the envelope with the new stickers.

[976] Yeah.

[977] So Jerry Jacobson starts this scheme by giving the people in his close circle family and friends the winning tickets.

[978] Family members who have different last names, he gives one to his butcher and so on.

[979] That's the most comprehensive list.

[980] That gives you the full range of who he's giving them to.

[981] And when he gives them to those people, those people agree to give Jerry half of their winnings.

[982] Sure.

[983] Right?

[984] In 1995, while at the Atlanta airport, Jerry Jacobson meets the man who will then become his first accomplice in this little plot.

[985] It's none other than Gennaro Jerry Colombo of the Colombo crime family of New York City.

[986] Whoa.

[987] When Jerry Jacobson tells the story, he says it was a chance meeting.

[988] other people suspect this was arranged by members of the mafia who somehow caught wind of Jerry's operation and we're like, now we're your partners.

[989] Either way, Colombo pays Jerry Jacobson for a winning ticket and he wins a free car.

[990] And Jerry Colombo is actually featured in the promotional commercial that McDonald's runs on national television.

[991] He's smiling and holding the keys to his brand new Dodge Viper.

[992] And he's like, this worked so well for me that I'm now going to help you expand your network of winners so they don't have to be like people that you know, it can be people further away.

[993] So they start getting tickets to people throughout Florida, all through New York, and beyond.

[994] And with Colombo's help, Jerry successfully steals and gives out nearly every major winning ticket in the McDonald's Monopoly sweepstakes from 19.

[995] 1995 to 1998.

[996] And they split the winnings with all the ticket recipients every time.

[997] Now, it sounds cynical and shitty, obviously, it's not the worst thing anyone's ever heard of.

[998] It's like, hey, we're going to get ours.

[999] America was essentially founded on this kind of thinking.

[1000] Capitalism.

[1001] Yeah.

[1002] And Jerry Jacobson is not a pure villain.

[1003] In fact, around Christmas time of 1995, he anonymously sends a million -dollar winning monopoly ticket to St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, which is like, good job.

[1004] Yeah.

[1005] Good job.

[1006] Yeah.

[1007] And so normally, prizes are not technically transferable, but this generous donation is so lovely and also such good PR for McDonald's that they honor the ticket and they let that happen.

[1008] Wow.

[1009] Then in 1998, Jerry Colombo dies in a car accident.

[1010] So now Jerry Jacobson has to find another distributor, and he has to act fast.

[1011] So that might explain why his first accomplice is a former trucking company owner from Georgia named Don Hart, who he meets in line while they're waiting to board a cruise ship.

[1012] Okay.

[1013] It's not high -level crime ring.

[1014] action.

[1015] Hart introduces Jacobson to two other guys, Richard Cordier and Andrew Glam, who is the man that Hoover called after he talked about his shoot with Shamrock Productions.

[1016] Over dinner, these four men form an alliance to expand the circle of winners.

[1017] And they eventually rope in a fifth guy, a former real estate developer named Dwight Baker, who's fallen on hard times.

[1018] And Baker takes the first winning ticket for himself, and then he, He gives the subsequent tickets to family members that he knows are also struggling financially.

[1019] So this kind of expansion of the network allows operations to continue through 2001.

[1020] So meanwhile, Agent Stent and Matthews are working backwards to try to piece together this case and all the people that are involved in it.

[1021] So after Hoover's call with Glam, they wiretap more people.

[1022] They discover this odd network of connected winners.

[1023] But the phone calls aren't as useful as Hoover's was because they're not as explicit.

[1024] And so they realize they're going to need more evidence if they're going to convict this ring of cheaters.

[1025] So Agent Matthews comes up with yet another brilliant new idea.

[1026] He wants to organize a winner's reunion in Las Vegas.

[1027] Oh, no. So everyone's like, hey, it's my cousin Larry or whatever.

[1028] Right?

[1029] So the idea is they're going to ask the winners.

[1030] to come to Las Vegas so they can retell their stories and then film them, get those tacit confessions, and basically be able to make it their arrests.

[1031] But, of course, this is like now so far out of the FBI crime, kind of anything Jacksonville FBI has dealt with.

[1032] Yeah.

[1033] And certainly outside of their budget.

[1034] So they decide, this is a good idea, but what we're going to do is we're going to pretend to do this.

[1035] So they basically say, we're going to do this, but we're going to, film your stories ahead of time.

[1036] So then at the big Vegas reunion, we're going to play this super cut of all of the winner's stories.

[1037] Almost every winner agrees to be filmed.

[1038] On camera, some of the winners stumble through their stories.

[1039] Some stories conflict with what the winner originally told McDonald's when they first turned their ticket in.

[1040] And some are just telling obvious lies that the FBI already has evidence to disprove.

[1041] So they get all that and armed with all that evidence, the FBI uses a very simple tactic that sends all of these fraudsters into panic mode.

[1042] They have McDonald's delay the prize payment.

[1043] So when the money doesn't come in as expected, the winners start calling Jerry frantically and his recruiters and start talking on the phone about what's going on and I thought I was going to get my thing.

[1044] Yeah.

[1045] Of course, all those phones are still wiretapped.

[1046] So on August 22nd, 2008 people are arrested.

[1047] including Andrew Gloam, Dwight Baker, Michael Hoover, and Jerry Jacobson, and more arrests follow.

[1048] When all of a sudden done, 53 people are indicted of fraud or conspiracy charges, this scheme raked in more than $24 million.

[1049] Wow.

[1050] And it went on for 12 years.

[1051] Holy shit.

[1052] Man, if you had stopped at year six and half of that amount of money, you probably would have gotten away with it.

[1053] Yeah.

[1054] I mean like, you know, no when enough is enough.

[1055] But I think like after a while, they must have just been like, we're so inside, we'll never get caught.

[1056] Totally.

[1057] And I did a good thing by sending that one ticket to St. Jude.

[1058] So.

[1059] Yeah, exactly.

[1060] So morally I'm in the clear.

[1061] It clears me for at least 15 more years.

[1062] Wow.

[1063] 48 people plead guilty in exchange for lesser penalties.

[1064] Most of them get house arrest or probation sentences in the docu series.

[1065] There's some really sad.

[1066] stories of people that kind of like got roped in of like this is easy money you need it I'm your relative like whatever so for sure it's very understandable and it's not that kind of like oh these people are the worst people in the world it's like people get sick people there's all kinds of reasons yeah even back in the golden era of the 90s 2000s when people had money so you may ask yourself why didn't I hear about all this when Jerry Jacobson got brought to trial and that's because Jerry Jacobson's trial started on September 10th, 2001.

[1067] Oh, dear.

[1068] Right.

[1069] 9 -11 hits.

[1070] All of this goes far, far away from anybody's mind.

[1071] It is no one cares, small potatoes.

[1072] The FBI doesn't give a shit anymore, probably.

[1073] They're like, yeah.

[1074] So Jerry Jacobson ends up pleading guilty.

[1075] He's sentenced to three years in prison, and he has to pay $12 .5 million in restitution.

[1076] Oh, my God.

[1077] He serves three years, which is, the longest sentence of anyone convicted.

[1078] And he's released in 2006.

[1079] He moves back to Georgia and he settles outside of Atlanta with his seventh wife.

[1080] Oh my God.

[1081] No judgments.

[1082] Just keep working on it.

[1083] No judgments.

[1084] It's hard.

[1085] Relationships are hard.

[1086] McDonald's no longer runs the monopoly game in the United States, but you can go to Canada, Ireland, or the UK and play it.

[1087] They still do it there.

[1088] Damn.

[1089] In 2018, 20th century Fox announced plans for a scripted movie.

[1090] about this scam with Ben Affleck attached to direct and Matt Damon attached in the leading role.

[1091] Oh.

[1092] Was he, Agent Matthews, who dresses up like a French fry?

[1093] He had to be.

[1094] It seems like he would be.

[1095] They still haven't made the movie.

[1096] That doesn't really mean anything.

[1097] Show business movies are optioned and moved around for 10, 12, 15 years.

[1098] Yeah.

[1099] So it could happen, especially because in 2020, HBO releases the six -part docu series that details the crimes called McMillions, which I think it was during quarantine.

[1100] So everybody watched it and I think everybody kind of loved it because it was like goofy, fun, you know.

[1101] Not too dark, but still, you know, you know who to root for.

[1102] Yeah.

[1103] And you know who to root against McDonald's.

[1104] Among the people interviewed in the docu series are attorney Mark Devereaux, special agent Doug Matthews, recruiter Andrew Glam.

[1105] But Jerry Jacobson wants nothing to do with the film.

[1106] Glam would tell the filmmakers, he doesn't want to think about it, doesn't want to talk about it, nothing.

[1107] Uncle Jerry.

[1108] Uncle Jerry.

[1109] And that's the story of the McDonald's Monopoly scam.

[1110] Wow.

[1111] Right?

[1112] It's like almost diabolical.

[1113] Well, the idea that we believed that that wouldn't be rigged.

[1114] Right.

[1115] It makes me sad for who we used to get to be because I feel like we're so much internet smarter these days.

[1116] It was really different.

[1117] Like, we just watch TV and the news would be like, this is what's happening.

[1118] And we'd be like, that's what's happening.

[1119] Yep.

[1120] But it's sex that they ruined it for everyone else.

[1121] You mean for you and your brother and sister?

[1122] That's what I'm saying.

[1123] Yes.

[1124] We'd still talk to each other today if Monopoly game hadn't been.

[1125] Oh, you could have kept the hard starts together, you sons of bitches.

[1126] We stopped talking because Monopoly game ended.

[1127] It was a really hard time in my family.

[1128] If your family stopped talking to each other because of the McDonald's Monopoly game, please write in to my favorite murder at gmail .com.

[1129] We want to hear about the dumb reasons your family stopped talking to each other for our hometowns, please, for minisodes.

[1130] Wow, great job.

[1131] Oh, thank you.

[1132] Thank you so much.

[1133] This has become one of my favorite things that we've done on this show.

[1134] I'm so glad.

[1135] We have asked you to tell us what you do while you listen to this podcast.

[1136] You have all responded.

[1137] It's great.

[1138] You have.

[1139] We appreciate it.

[1140] You guys are doing some weird ass shit, and we are here for it.

[1141] Okay.

[1142] You want to go first?

[1143] Sure.

[1144] This one's from Tatum Jones.

[1145] They wrote in and said, my son's school gets out at $150 on Wednesdays.

[1146] So every Wednesday I get myself a little lunchy lunch, and I sit in the pickup line for an hour listening to y 'all.

[1147] Oh, pickup lines.

[1148] That sounds like such a nightmare.

[1149] Okay.

[1150] Mine says from our Gmail, it says, listen to you crazy ear besties while I walk around being the friendly neighborhood male lady in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

[1151] Hey.

[1152] So there's a lot of extra use in this email.

[1153] It says, wave to elders that like to stop to chat with me as I deliver their bills, checks and magazines while hearing about horrible murders, but still have a huge smile on my face.

[1154] If they only knew what I was listening to, cheers, love yous.

[1155] Is there a name?

[1156] No. A mystery.

[1157] male person from Halifax Nova Scotia listens to us.

[1158] We would have never known that if we hadn't asked what are you even doing right now?

[1159] What are you even doing right now?

[1160] You tell us.

[1161] But in the meantime, thanks for just listening.

[1162] You don't have to participate.

[1163] You know, we're not like monopoly.

[1164] We are like Monopoly.

[1165] You can come and ask for a piece.

[1166] It's not gambling.

[1167] You can just listen to what other people are doing right now.

[1168] That's right.

[1169] It's free.

[1170] It's all free.

[1171] And it's fun like Monopoly.

[1172] Yeah, just like Monopoly.

[1173] It's very, very similar, which I used to lose all the time when I was the youngest child, of course.

[1174] Yeah, flip that, you flip that board and you walk away.

[1175] Stay sexy.

[1176] And don't get murdered.

[1177] Goodbye.

[1178] Elvis, do you want a cookie?

[1179] This has been an exactly right production.

[1180] Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck.

[1181] Our managing producers Hannah Kyle Creighton.

[1182] Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

[1183] This episode was mixed by Liana Squalache.

[1184] Our researchers are Marin McClashen and Ali Elkin.

[1185] Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail .com.

[1186] Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at My Favorite Murder and Twitter at MyFave Murder.

[1187] Goodbye.