House of Cards (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

[0] One afternoon in the summer of 2001, a man pulled up to a pump at a gas station and began fueling his car.

[1] Once his car was full, the man put the nozzle back into its holster, he hopped back inside of his car, and he was about to fire up the engine again when he stopped, because something had caught his attention.

[2] There was something or someone moving around outside of his car to the left.

[3] But when this man turned to look out the window to see whatever it was, The world suddenly went black, and the air outside was filled with the sound of people screaming.

[4] But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, dark, and Mysterious, delivered in story format, then you come to the right podcast, because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[5] So, if that's of interest to you, repeatedly text the Amazon Music Follow button saying that they need to call you immediately, but when they do, dismissively tell them, You can't talk right now.

[6] Okay, let's get into today's story.

[7] I'm Dan Tibergki.

[8] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York.

[9] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[10] What's the answer?

[11] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[12] Hysterical.

[13] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[14] Binge all episodes of Hesterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[15] In Akron, Ohio, June is typically the gloomiest and wettest month of the year.

[16] But on one particular morning, in June of 2001, when Akron resident, Jeff Zach, poked his head out of his bedroom window, he was thrilled to discover that the sun was out and the sky was clear.

[17] Jeff immediately rushed to his closet to change into his yard work clothes.

[18] He pulled on a t -shirt and then he zipped up a pair of beat -up old cargo shorts, and then he raced down the stairs, grabbed his pruning shears, and then dashed out the back door without even putting his shoes on.

[19] On the stoop behind his house, the 44 -year -old gardening enthusiast slash professional landscaper paused briefly to admire his work.

[20] Although Jeff's backyard was a pretty standard size and shape for an American house in the suburbs, it was filled with lush green grass that was always perfectly cut, and around the perimeter of the yard, Jeff had planted the colorful rose bushes that were just about to reach their peak bloom.

[21] After stepping down the few back steps, Jeff began marching across his beautiful grass toward his own.

[22] rose bushes to do some pruning.

[23] As he walked along, he smiled to himself, feeling certain he must have the best landscaping in the whole neighborhood.

[24] Jeff was a very competitive guy, and so he loved being the best at things.

[25] But as much as he'd love to say that he had some kind of magical touch with plants, the truth was, Jeff just understood how plants worked.

[26] Give them the right mixture of sunlight, soil, and water, and plants will reward you with fruit and flowers.

[27] Simple.

[28] But as Jeff lifted his pruning shears to make the first cut, he heard his wife Bonnie calling to him from the kitchen about breakfast being ready, and he was instantly reminded that people were not like plants.

[29] People were complicated.

[30] You could give them everything they ever thought they wanted, and still they'd be miserable.

[31] And as Jeff cut back the errant stems of his rosebush, he thought about how his relationship with Bonnie was a perfect example of this.

[32] Jeff and Bonnie had gotten married 15 years ago.

[33] At the time, they wanted the same things in life, stability and family, and they were both very physically attracted to each other.

[34] So, logically speaking, their marriage should have worked out perfectly.

[35] But it didn't, at least not to Jeff.

[36] Even though Bonnie had given Jeff the family and the stability he'd always wanted, and she still was very attractive to him, there were still times when Jeff just could not stand to look at her.

[37] And sometimes, just the sound of her voice, even when she was doing something nice, like that morning calling out to him to let him know that she had made him breakfast was like nails on a chalkboard for Jeff.

[38] And not because Bonnie was a bad person or bad wife.

[39] Really, it was the opposite.

[40] She was a great wife who'd given him everything he thought he wanted, but still, Jeff just felt unhappy.

[41] And unfortunately, his unhappiness had led to bitter resentment of his wife.

[42] However, recently, Jeff had begun telling himself that it was him who needed to make changes, not his wife.

[43] And so, over the last month, Jeff had been making a very conscious effort to be kinder, more patient, and less hot -headed when he was around his wife and also his son.

[44] But every day was a struggle.

[45] After cutting one more stem on his rose bush, Jeff stood up and walked back over to the door leading into the house.

[46] He paused just outside of it and took a few deep breaths to calm down, he knew he felt annoyed with his wife, for really no other reason than he heard her voice, but he told himself, today he would do his best to be a better husband and a better father.

[47] Jeff wiped his feet on the mat, and then he opened the door and stepped inside.

[48] Less than an hour later, Jeff had fallen back into his old angry ways and was screaming at his wife Bonnie for no apparent reason and saying he wanted a divorce.

[49] Moments later, Jeff was storming outside, slamming the front door behind him.

[50] Once outside, Jeff clamored into his Ford Explorer SUV parked in the driveway, and after firing the engine up, he flew out of the driveway and just started driving.

[51] For the next couple of hours, Jeff drove around the city aimlessly, honking at yelling at other drivers, and just kind of generally taking out his anger on anyone who happened to come near him.

[52] But at a certain point, during this kind of crazed drive around town, Jeff realized he actually had a lot of errands he needed to run, so he decided he would start doing those.

[53] Jeff usually had a lot of errands to run because he worked in a lot of different businesses.

[54] In addition to professionally landscaping, Jeff also worked as a handyman, he did some flooring work, and he also owned and operated a slew of vending machines around town.

[55] As Jeff was getting ready to head to a hardware store for his first errand, he looked down and he realized he was very low on gas.

[56] So instead of going to the hardware store, Jeff decided he would go to BJ's.

[57] BJ's is a big American wholesale store, and it's where Jeff went every Saturday to buy items for his various vending machines.

[58] BJ's also had their own gas station right out front near the parking lot, so Jeff figured he could get the gas he needed for his car and then also knock out a vending machine refill run.

[59] When Jeff arrived out front of BJ's and looked at the parking lot and the gas station, he was immediately struck by how crowded the place seemed.

[60] Now, BJ's is a very popular store, and the parking lot is usually full of people, but this day, it just seemed like there were way more people than usual.

[61] But when Jeff looked at his watch and saw the date, he knew why.

[62] It was Saturday, June 16th, the day before Father's Day, and so most likely, all these people were here getting all the things they would need for their celebration the next day.

[63] Things like hot dogs and hamburgers, chips, soda, lawn chairs, charcoal for grills.

[64] Father's Day is a big cookout day in the U .S. And as Jeff thought about Father's Day, his heart sunk.

[65] What a terrible father and husband he had been that morning, yelling at his wife and slamming the door on the way out.

[66] Suddenly, all Jeff wanted to do was rush home, say he was sorry, and give his wife and son a big hug.

[67] So he whipped his Ford Explorer into the gas station right up alongside an open pump, and as quick as he could, he got to work getting the nozzle into his car to start filling up.

[68] There were so many vehicles moving in and out of the gas station that Jeff didn't even notice the motorcyclist in the full -faced helmet pull up right behind him.

[69] After filling his car's tank and then putting the pump back in the holster, Jeff climbed back inside of his car.

[70] And there, sitting behind the wheel, Jeff glanced over at all the happy families buzzing around the BJ's parking lot, loading their Father's Day celebration goods into their car, and as he watched, Jeff felt another pang of regret about how he had acted that morning.

[71] Luckily, he'd be home soon, he could apologize, and maybe even salvage a fun Father's Day the next day.

[72] But before Jeff could fire up his car's engine, the motorcyclist in the full -faced helmet that had pulled up behind Jeff, walked up to Jeff's driver's side window.

[73] Jeff noticed him and looked up at him through his window very inquisitively, and as he did this, the motorcyclist casually raised a 38 -caliber handgun from his waist, he aimed it at the glass, and fired a single shot directly into Jeff's face.

[74] Jeff's head fell forward onto the car's horn.

[75] And suddenly, between the sound of the gunshot and the sound of Jeff's car horn, which was now just blaring constantly, everyone at the gas station and in the nearby BJ's parking lot was thrown into a sudden panic.

[76] That is, everyone except for the motorcyclist who had just shot Jeff.

[77] While everyone else was screaming and running around and trying to figure out what was going on, the motorcyclist simply turned around, walked calmly back to their bike, and then rode away from the scene as if nothing happened.

[78] One of the people who actually saw the shooting take place was the gas station attendant, and within 30 seconds of the shooting, this attendant was on the phone with 911.

[79] But by that point, it was already too late for Jeff.

[80] He was dead.

[81] Jeff had been murdered in front of dozens of people in one of the most crowded shopping centers in the city, and yet, when police arrived just a few minutes after the 911 call, they would discover that not a single witness could actually identify the shooter.

[82] In fact, nobody could even say for sure if the shooter was a man or a woman.

[83] All that anyone could remember was that the motorcyclist had been wearing a full, helmet, and that they were riding a green and white ninja motorcycle.

[84] Given the cold -blooded nature of the murder and the fact that it was done in broad daylight in public, the police knew it was only a matter of time before the news of what happened found its way to the victim's family, Jeff's family.

[85] To ensure that that was not how the family learned about Jeff's death, not long after arriving on scene and identifying Jeff, police officers radioed back to the station to tell the chief that someone needed to go to Jeff's house, ASAP, to break the news.

[86] 15 minutes later, a pair of detectives arrived in front of Jeff's perfectly landscaped two -story home.

[87] And when Jeff's wife, Bonnie, opened the door, the police were apologetic but direct.

[88] They told the 46 -year -old woman what happened to her husband and asked if she knew of anyone who might want to hurt him.

[89] Bonnie leaned against the doorframe as if it was the only thing holding her up.

[90] It was clear that Bonnie was shocked by the news of her husband's death, but as Bonnie would tell the detectives, she was not exactly surprised by it.

[91] For one thing, Bonnie said, Jeff had a lot of enemies.

[92] In fact, Jeff seemed to make enemies wherever he went.

[93] He was an aggressive and deeply unhappy person who seemed to enjoy being confrontational.

[94] So as far as Bonnie was concerned, it was definitely possible that Jeff had been killed by someone he had upset.

[95] But Bonnie was quick to tell police that she did not think her husband had been killed by a total stranger.

[96] Before saying another word, Bonnie scanned the street out front and then invited the detectives to come inside her house where she could explain why she thought this was no random attack.

[97] The detectives followed Bonnie into her kitchen and once they were all seated around the table, Bonnie told them that she believed her husband knew he was going to be killed.

[98] She said about a month earlier, Jeff had started acting different.

[99] Bonnie admitted that for years, Jeff had been emotionally and physically abusive with her.

[100] He also cheated on her constantly, and sometimes, as recently as that morning, he threatened to divorce her.

[101] But lately, Bonnie told them, he'd been generally kinder to her, all things considered, which was very noticeable, and he had also begun saying strange things to her, that seemed to indicate that he thought he was going to die soon.

[102] Bonnie said that three weeks earlier, Jeff had taken her down into their basement to show her where he kept his financial papers.

[103] Bonnie asked him why he was showing this to her now all of a sudden after 15 years of marriage, and Jeff just said it was because he wanted her to know where to find things in case he wasn't around to provide for them.

[104] Bonnie thought this was totally ridiculous because her husband seemed totally healthy, and so she didn't think much of it.

[105] However, Bonnie told the detectives that just a few days ago, someone had called their house and left a voicemail for Jeff.

[106] It was a man who just kept demanding to speak with Jeff, and his tone very obviously suggested he was not happy with Jeff.

[107] Bonnie had saved the voicemail and wound up playing it right there in the kitchen for the detectives, and after the short message was over, they agreed that whoever was calling sounded very threatening.

[108] Bonnie told detectives, that when Jeff came home on the night that this voicemail came through, she immediately played it for Jeff and then asked him who was that.

[109] Bonnie would tell detectives that as Jeff listened to this recording, he looked visibly frightened by whoever was on the phone.

[110] But he would say to Bonnie that he didn't know who it was or what they wanted and that Bonnie should just forget about it and move on.

[111] But Bonnie could tell her husband was lying.

[112] It seemed obvious to her that Jeff knew who this guy was, he knew what he wanted, and he just didn't want him.

[113] to tell her.

[114] This information was obviously very interesting to the detectives, but the most interesting thing they would hear while visiting Jeff's house was not this recording or anything Bonnie said.

[115] Instead, it was something Jeff and Bonnie's 12 -year -old son said.

[116] While Bonnie and the detectives sat at the kitchen table talking, Bonnie and Jeff's son came into the house, and after he was told what happened to his father, he was absolutely devastated, but after composing himself, He told police that he might know who killed his father.

[117] He said just one night earlier, he had been watching TV with his dad when out of the blue his dad, Jeff, turned to him and said, If anything happens to me, Ed George did it.

[118] At the mention of this name, Ed George, the detective's ears perked straight up because they knew who Ed George was.

[119] In fact, pretty much anyone who lived in Akron, Ohio, knew who Ed George was.

[120] Ed was one of the wealthiest men in.

[121] in Akron, and he owned one of the city's most popular institutions, a place called Tangier.

[122] Tangier was part restaurant, part nightclub, and part banquet hall.

[123] And over the years, it had played host to major celebrities and personalities, ranging from the Beach Boys to Tina Turner to President George H. W. Bush, and years later, his son, President George W. Bush.

[124] There had always been rumors that some of Ed's wealth might be tied to organized crime, But those rumors had never been substantiated.

[125] And as far as anyone could tell, Ed was an upstanding citizen.

[126] He was an active member of the Catholic Church and a devoted father of seven kids.

[127] So why had Jeff told his son that Ed might hurt him someday?

[128] After talking for a while with the son and with Bonnie, the detectives left for the night.

[129] The next morning, when the detectives went into the station, they told their colleagues about what Jeff had told his son, about Ed George.

[130] And in that moment, one of the detectives, a guy named Paul Callahan, suddenly remembered a strange interaction he'd had with Ed about six months back.

[131] Paul had known Ed for years.

[132] Paul was in an Irish folk band that used to play at Ed's restaurant, Tangier, every St. Patrick's Day.

[133] So it wasn't weird for Paul to get a social call from Ed every once in a while.

[134] But six months ago, when Ed called Paul on his office line at the police station, it was not for a social call.

[135] On this call, Ed told Paul that some guy had been harassing his wife, Cindy.

[136] Paul asked Ed if he knew who this guy was, and Ed said yes.

[137] Paul said, okay, who is it?

[138] But Ed said he didn't want to tell Paul.

[139] He also said he didn't want to file a police report.

[140] At first, Paul was confused by this, but he sensed that maybe Ed was just looking for some advice on how to handle the situation on his own.

[141] So Paul told Ed to just go confront the guy and tell him to leave Cindy alone.

[142] Ed said, okay, thank you.

[143] And then they both hung up.

[144] Now, normally, Paul might have just forgotten about a call like this, except this was not the only time Ed called Paul about this guy who was harassing his wife.

[145] In fact, just two weeks earlier, so roughly five months after this first call Paul got from Ed, and only two weeks before Jeff's murder, Ed called Paul again to say this guy was still harassing Cindy.

[146] After Paul finished telling his colleagues about these strange calls he got from Ed, the whole police department quickly began to wonder if maybe the guy who was harassing Ed's wife was actually Jeff, and maybe Ed did confront Jeff about it, and in the process of this confrontation, Ed killed Jeff.

[147] Regardless, the police knew they needed to figure out why Jeff had told his son that he thought Ed was going to hurt him.

[148] And who better to ask than Ed himself.

[149] Hey, all you fans of the strange, dark, and mysterious.

[150] It's me, Mr. Ballin, and today I have some big news.

[151] It's something I'm holding in my hands right now, and so obviously you can't see it, but this is something you're really going to want to see.

[152] It's the first ever official Mr. Ballin publication.

[153] It's a graphic novel, and it's called Mr. Ballin Presents, Strange, Dark and Mysterious, The Graphic Stories.

[154] It's an anthology of both classic and brand new, terrifying stories that we've never covered on any of my other platforms, because we created them specifically for this first book.

[155] Each of these stories in the book are feature -length Mr. Ballin's stories that really needed to be told visually.

[156] And the artwork in this book is, I mean, I'm looking at it, and it's just absolutely stupid.

[157] stunning.

[158] So the book is not actually coming out until my birthday this year, October 1st, but you can pre -order it right now at book .bollen studios .com.

[159] Again, that's book .bollinstudios .com.

[160] I'm Dan Taberski.

[161] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[162] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[163] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[164] She's like, I can't.

[165] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[166] It's like doubling and tripling, and it's all these girls.

[167] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the download.

[168] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[169] Well, you were holding something back.

[170] Intentionally.

[171] Yeah, well, yeah.

[172] No, it's hysteria.

[173] It's all in your head.

[174] It's not physical.

[175] Oh, my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[176] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem?

[177] Or is it something else entirely?

[178] Something's wrong here.

[179] Something's not right.

[180] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[181] A new limited series from Wondering, and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.

[182] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[183] You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

[184] So the next day, a team of four detectives drove out to Ed George's house located 20 miles outside of Akron.

[185] The house was actually more like a compound.

[186] It sat on 18 acres of land and was made up of two big buildings.

[187] There was the main house, which was a whopping 8 ,000 square feet, and then there was the second house, which was a separate four -bedroom home just for Ed and Cindy's servants.

[188] The detectives had all heard about how big Ed's property was, but when they turned off the main road and began driving up Ed's long driveway, they were all stunned by the sheer size of everything.

[189] The detectives reached the end of the driveway and parked right near the front steps of the main house.

[190] Then they climbed out of their vehicle and walked up to the front door and they knocked.

[191] A moment later, they heard shuffling feet coming from inside the house, then the door slowly opened, and the detectives were met with one of the George family's nannies.

[192] After the nanny said a quick hello, she asked the detectives what they were doing there.

[193] And when they explained the situation, the nanny said that Ed was actually not home at the moment, he was out golfing, and wouldn't be back for a while.

[194] But she said Ed's wife, Cindy, was home if they wanted to talk to her.

[195] The detectives tried to act casual.

[196] They said, okay, yeah, sure, we'll talk to Cindy.

[197] But secretly, the detectives were actually thrilled about the prospect of talking to Ed's wife without Ed around to supervise.

[198] The detectives knew Cindy from Tangier.

[199] She often acted as the hostess.

[200] She was warm and charismatic, and she was also extremely beautiful.

[201] In fact, just one year earlier, Cindy had placed third in the Mrs. Ohio America pageant.

[202] But when 47 -year -old Cindy emerged from her wing of the house, she looked extremely frail and broken down.

[203] The mother of seven smiled a weak smile and then invited the detectives to join her in one of the family's large sitting rooms.

[204] Once they were all settled in, detectives explained that they were there to ask some questions about the death of Jeff Zach.

[205] Cindy was nervous, but she told them she would do her best to answer all of their questions.

[206] When asked what her husband, Ed, had been doing on the morning that Jeff was murdered, she said he had spent the entire morning at Tangier dealing with a drainage issue.

[207] As for her own whereabouts that morning, Cindy said that she was at home with her seven kids getting everybody ready to go to a friend's wedding that was being held later that afternoon.

[208] When the detectives eventually shifted the conversation and asked Cindy directly if Jeff had been the person who was harassing her, Cindy seemed to take.

[209] taken aback that they knew about that, but after taking a breath, she looked down and said, yes, he was.

[210] Cindy said that Jeff had actually been a friend of the family for many years, but at some point earlier that year, he just started calling the house incessantly asking to talk to Cindy.

[211] When asked, Cindy said she did not know why Jeff was calling so much or what he wanted to talk to her about, but she didn't say it confidently, and as she said this, she looked kind of troubled.

[212] To the detectives, it seemed like Cindy might be hiding something about Jeff, but she also seemed totally scared about it.

[213] So the detectives very gently followed up with another similar question to try to figure out what Cindy knew.

[214] They said, well, even if you don't know why he was calling you, could you maybe just take a guess as to what he wanted?

[215] Cindy looked down at her hands as if the answer to this question was written somewhere on them, and then after a long pause, she looked back up at the detectives and shook her head before telling them again she just didn't know.

[216] The detectives felt confident that Cindy did know more about Jeff than she was letting on, but they got the feeling that she was not going to open up much more that day.

[217] So they very politely wrapped up the conversation, thanks Cindy for her time, and then they made their way back outside to their car and headed back to the station.

[218] The next morning, Paul called his old friend Ed and asked him if you wouldn't mind coming into the station so they could ask him some questions about Jeff Sack's murder.

[219] Ed responded by saying, of course, me and Cindy will be there soon.

[220] But neither Ed nor Cindy would come down to the police station that day.

[221] Instead, about an hour after that phone call with Paul, Ed's lawyer showed up at the police station and walked straight up to Paul's desk and informed the detective that his client, Ed George, would not be participating in this investigation.

[222] The lawyer then turned around and left.

[223] Paul was stunned.

[224] He felt like if Ed was innocent, he never would have sent his lawyer in like that.

[225] But without evidence, tying Ed to Jeff's murderer, there was really nothing the police could do.

[226] Over the next few weeks, the police tried calling Ed and Cindy's friends and relatives in the hopes that someone would be willing to shed some light on what happened between Ed and Cindy and Jeff.

[227] But one after another, Ed's friends and family all declined to speak with law enforcement and just told the detectives to speak with their lawyers instead.

[228] And these lawyers, the detectives would discover, were all being paid for by Ed.

[229] But again, despite how guilty Ed looked, without evidence, there was really nothing police could do about Ed or how he was conducting himself.

[230] So the detectives had to go back to the drawing board.

[231] They spent days reviewing the crime scene photos and reading witness statements and playing Bonnie's voicemail tape over and over again, but none of that got them anywhere.

[232] And then, one day, the detectives realized they'd miss something.

[233] The detectives were sitting around at a conference table talking in circles about the case when one of the detectives picked up a photo of the George family and this detective immediately noticed something.

[234] In this photo were Ed and Cindy and their seven kids.

[235] Two of their kids were adopted, and so of course they looked nothing, like Ed or Cindy, but as this detective stared at this photo, they noticed that four of the five biological children looked exactly like Ed and Cindy.

[236] But the fifth biological child, the youngest, the eight -year -old, looked nothing like Ed or Cindy.

[237] Instead, this youngest child looked just like the murder victim, Jeff Zak.

[238] The detective who noticed this turned the photo around to show her colleagues, and after looking it over, they all agreed.

[239] And if this eight -year -old child was indeed Jeff's child, not Ed's, then the child was clear evidence of an affair happening between Cindy and Jeff, which would give Jeff a reason for wanting to call Cindy all the time, and it would give Ed a motive for wanting to kill Jeff.

[240] When the detectives brought this theory to the county prosecutor's office, they agreed, there was enough evidence to to get a warrant that would force the Georges to take a paternity test.

[241] So that's what they did.

[242] The warrant was issued, and on August 24th, 2001, a little more than two months after Jeff's murder, Ed and Cindy, along with the eight -year -old youngest child, arrived in a doctor's office to take a court -ordered DNA test.

[243] And sure enough, when the results came back three weeks later, it would show that Jeff was the father of this child, not Ed.

[244] The George family was not notified by phone, so the detectives didn't get to see how Ed or Cindy reacted to the news, but when the results of this paternity test made it to the local press, people were absolutely shocked.

[245] Ed and Cindy were like local celebrities, and they seemed like the perfect couple.

[246] So this news about Cindy's affair quickly swept through the city, and soon locals would begin openly speculating about the possibility that Ed had hired a hitman to murder his wife's love.

[247] Jeff.

[248] And it wasn't just the locals who thought this was what happened.

[249] The police also suspected that this was a professional hit.

[250] And so they began scouring its phone records, his bank statements, and questioned every Tangier employee willing to speak to them in order to find the evidence they needed that proved Jeff's murder was an assassination paid for by Ed.

[251] But after months of looking, they found nothing.

[252] And so it was starting to look like this case.

[253] was going to go cold.

[254] However, about one year after the murder, a new tip would come into the station that would lead the detectives in a roundabout way to the home of a 40 -year -old single mother named Christine Todaro, and she would break the case wide open.

[255] Christine seemed to have no apparent connection to the case, but she believed that her ex -husband was the masked motorcycle riding hitman, the man who killed.

[256] Jeff Zach.

[257] And the reason she believed this was because one time when she was speaking on the phone with her ex, he made this joke about him being the killer.

[258] But Christine suspected he was not actually joking.

[259] Because during her brief marriage to him, 35 -year -old John Zafino had been violent and dangerous.

[260] In fact, Christine left him because he punched her 13 -year -old son in the face and, in a separate incident, broke Christine's arm intentionally.

[261] When Christine listened to the mysterious voicemail that Jeff's wife Bonnie had shown police, or some guy was demanding to speak to Jeff, Christine's eyes shot wide open, and she said, yes, 100%, that is my ex -husband, John.

[262] After that, detectives would run a search on any and all vehicles registered in John's name, and by noon they had a full report in their hands.

[263] Everybody at the station got a copy of this report, and together the detectives reviewed it line by line scanning for anything that could tie John to Jeff's murder.

[264] And within minutes, the detectives found what they were looking for.

[265] According to the report, in May of 2001, less than one month before Jeff's murder, John had purchased a motorcycle from a dealership outside of Akron.

[266] and when police called that dealership, the manager told them that the bike John had purchased was a black ninja -style bike with a green stripe, just like the one ridden by the person who killed Jeff.

[267] Detectives would also discover that in that same month, John had also purchased a weapon, a 38 -caliber handgun, the same kind of gun that killed Jeff.

[268] But while John certainly looked like the prime murder suspect, there were still two questions the detectives were struggling to answer.

[269] The first was, why would John do this?

[270] There was no connection between him and Jeff whatsoever.

[271] So was he just a hitman, potentially hired by Ed?

[272] Nobody knew.

[273] The second question was, how could John afford the very expensive motorcycle and gun?

[274] The police had done a lot of digging on John, and they knew he did not have very much money.

[275] In fact, John was so deep in debt, he couldn't even afford his own apartment.

[276] The police would spend months searching for the answers to these two general questions, and by the time John was arrested in September of 2002, detectives would be convinced that both of these questions actually had the same answer, and that answer was Sparky.

[277] Sparky was the nickname John had given to a woman he met one night in the summer of 2000, about a year before Jeff's murder.

[278] That summer, John was standing outside of a restaurant in Akron, when he saw this woman, Sparky, walking toward her car.

[279] She was beautiful, she was alone, and to John, she looked really sad.

[280] So John walked up to her and started a conversation.

[281] And quickly, in this conversation, Sparky would tell John that she was married, to which he said he didn't care because he was married too, to Christine.

[282] John reached into his pocket and pulled out an old gum wrapper and then wrote his phone number on it, and then he handed the paper to Sparky and asked her to please call him that night after she got home so he would know she arrived safely.

[283] Sparky would indeed call John later that night when she got home and they would chat for a while, nothing more.

[284] But not long after this first interaction, Sparky began sneaking off from her husband to go meet up with John.

[285] Now at the time, John did not have a steady source of income or an apartment of his own.

[286] So not long after they met, Sparky moved John into an apartment that she paid for where they could spend the nights alone together.

[287] She also paid all of John's other bills and bought him a cell phone so she could reach him whenever she wanted.

[288] It was an extremely passionate love affair, but they both talked openly about the future and how maybe there was some way for them to be together long term.

[289] However, Sparky made it very clear that no matter what, she would never, ever leave her husband.

[290] Before she married her husband, she had nothing.

[291] She was a poor coal miner's daughter living in a 200 square foot house with three other people.

[292] But now, through her husband, she had a home and she had some nice things, and so she was not prepared to give any of that up.

[293] However, things in Sparky's married life were far from perfect, as John would find out one night in January of 2001, roughly six months after meeting Sparky.

[294] That January night, Sparky called John hysterically crying.

[295] She told him that an ex -boyfriend of hers was giving her serious problems.

[296] It would turn out John was not the first man Sparky had had an affair with.

[297] It would also turn out that this other guy was not technically Sparky's ex -boyfriend, at least not yet.

[298] Sparky had been seeing this other guy for nearly a decade, and she had tried to break it off with him many times in the past, But each time, he always figured out a way to rope her back in.

[299] But now that Sparky was with John, she finally had the courage to tell this other guy that it was really over.

[300] And so she had told him that she did not want to see him again or have any contact with him whatsoever.

[301] And this made the now ex -boyfriend absolutely furious.

[302] He started threatening to hurt Sparky and her children, and he threatened to expose their secret relationship to the public.

[303] Sparky was terrified and didn't know what to do.

[304] John's reaction to all of this was not being upset with Sparky for seeing another man. Instead, John's reaction was fear.

[305] He was scared that if this ex -boyfriend exposed Sparky, then Sparky's husband would divorce her and suddenly, Sparky wouldn't have all that money that she got from her husband, and so Sparky would not be able to pay for John's life, Because remember, Sparky is paying for John's apartment, she's paying all his bills, I mean, she's paying for everything.

[306] And so John couldn't have that happen.

[307] He needed to make sure Sparky and her husband stayed married for his sake.

[308] And so naturally, a plan was made to murder Sparky's very troublesome ex -boyfriend, whose real name was Jeff Zak.

[309] No one knows for sure if Sparky or John initiated this murder plan, but what invented Investigators do know is that in May of 2001, about one month before Jeff Sack was murdered, Sparky withdrew $5 ,300 from her bank account.

[310] And then three hours later, John used that same amount of money to buy the black ninja -style bike with the green stripe.

[311] Also that same month, John purchased a handgun from one of his colleagues at the trucking company where he worked.

[312] A couple weeks after that, John quit his job at the trucking company because, as John told one of his colleagues, his girlfriend was going to be, quote, setting him up in business.

[313] One week later, on Saturday, June 17, 2001, the day before Father's Day, John suited up in full -body leather and put on a full -faced motorcycle helmet over his head, then he rode his brand -new motorcycle to BJ's wholesale to wait for Jeff.

[314] John knew that Jeff would most likely swing by BJ's at some point that day, because usually on Saturdays, Jeff would go to BJ's to buy candy to restock his vending machines.

[315] And so, at 1149 a .m., Sparky, aka Cindy George, mother of seven, called her lover and hitman John on the cell phone she had bought for him.

[316] The pair talked on the phone while John rode in circles on his motorcycle around the BJ's parking lot, hoping, praying that Jeff would show up.

[317] That call would end at 1156, just as John spotted Jeff pulling into the parking lot in his Ford Explorer.

[318] As Jeff pulled up to one of the gas pumps, John pulled up right behind him.

[319] Then after Jeff had fueled his vehicle and gotten back inside, John got off his motorcycle, pulled the handgun out of his saddlebag, and then walked right up to Jeff's driver's side window, aimed his gun, and fired a single shot directly into Jeff's face.

[320] In the confusion that followed, John managed to hop back on his motorcycle and ride quickly away from the scene without being followed.

[321] About 20 minutes later, when he'd reached a safe distance from the crime scene, he called Cindy again.

[322] We don't know exactly what was said on that call, but it's assumed that on this call, John told Cindy that he had just killed Jeff and that she no longer had to worry about her marriage to Ed falling apart.

[323] But, of course, whatever piece that murder brought for Cindy and John was short -lived.

[324] Because in June of 2003, almost exactly two years after Jeff was murdered, John was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

[325] Cindy would be arrested a year and a half after John went to jail, and then 11 months after her arrest, Cindy would be convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to life in prison as well.

[326] However, Cindy's conviction would not stand.

[327] Less than two years after being sentenced, her conviction was overturned on appeal.

[328] The justices ruled that the evidence presented in her trial was insufficient to prove her guilt.

[329] And so, on March 22, 2007, almost six years after the murder of Jeff Zach, Cindy George was released from prison.

[330] And waiting for her outside the prison walls were her seven kids and her husband Ed.

[331] After a long, tearful embrace, the family hopped into a car and took Cindy back to their giant estate outside of Akron, where she and her family still live today.

[332] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

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