00:00:00
This is exactly right. an average annual single-line payment of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile customers
00:00:32
compared to 12 months on the Boost Mobile Unlimited Wireless plan as of January 2026.
00:00:35
For full offer details, visit BoostMobile.com. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.
00:00:38
I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.
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It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today.
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I'm told it's super easy to do at MintMobile.com slash switch. Did you know not all batteries are the same?
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00:01:55
What's up, San Diego? Wow. Do you see somebody way at the top of the third row up there?
00:02:25
Hi, guys. Just a little camera light flashing back and forth. Oh, my God. I always forget that's going to happen until I walk out on stage
00:02:36
and then it happens and I was like, oh, I want to cry every time. I know. It's very moving.
00:02:41
Hi. How's it going, everybody? There's a sign someone held up that said, Karen, do a,
00:02:52
what is it called? Herky? Okay, first of all, first of all, not taking notes from the audience, first and foremost.
00:03:02
Don't boss me the fuck around. And also... Yeah! As if, as if. You know there's some ex-cheerleaders in the house right now
00:03:14
that are like, please. Oh, no, that many? Really? Uh-oh. Oh, shit. We're surrounded by ex-cheerleaders, apparently.
00:03:24
You know they'll fight for you. Yeah. They'll throw down. I hope so. What's going on?
00:03:31
Well, we're on tour, everybody. It's very exciting. It's very fun. It's very exciting.
00:03:39
I will tell a really quick airport story. Okay. You were there as well. Yeah. So, it isn't that common.
00:03:50
They don't let us fly at the same time a lot. but we were at this airport and I walked in and one of the first people I saw was the act the
00:04:01
British actress Jessie Buckley for some reason Irish sorry nothing I'm not she has red hair she
00:04:09
has red hair I don't think that necessarily means she's Irish it doesn't matter listen if you saw
00:04:15
the uh the recent Olivia Colman movie uh Nasty Little Letters or whatever it was called it's
00:04:21
hilarious she is the red-headed woman and that she's the young mother that is being fucked over
00:04:27
by everybody so she's an amazing actress she's so good she's so good she's been in a million things
00:04:33
but she's the she's my one of my favorites and so when i walked in i almost walked straight up to her
00:04:38
which is not my style at all i'm really not interested in celebrities of any kind or what
00:04:44
they do because it's all fake but but she's one of those kind of people where she's like so legit
00:04:51
and badass and I was like I almost went up like oh my god I can't believe and like thought in her
00:04:55
face but instead I saw Georgia first and I was like do you read and I didn't have three words
00:05:01
out just Georgia's like I know I know and I was like she never does that it's so true like she
00:05:07
doesn't care about famous people so it's like a big deal and I was like you were but you were
00:05:11
definitely like calm the fuck down and you are not going over there and I was like yes of course
00:05:16
you should have I would have pushed you well but here's what happened oh no uh so when we landed
00:05:22
I was like yeah that's best that I didn't say anything to her and then I was walking out the
00:05:27
door and just by chance she was walking this way so as I was moving just never paused or anything
00:05:33
I just went, you're the best. And she literally went like this. Thank you. Did not want to hear it at all.
00:05:48
It's spooky season, ladies and gentlemen. I can even see you Yeah There will be a three pileup on this stage tonight Get ready What are you wearing Oh my god this is cute I love those Oh thank you Oh my outfit Oh this dress It no big deal
00:06:11
It's just, it's yet another dress with pockets. Although, let me just say this. We were just in
00:06:20
Oakland and I decided I was going to wear a vintage dress because I liked it it didn't have
00:06:26
pockets that audience turned on me so fucking fast so fast tell them about the brooch backstage
00:06:34
I found this brooch that's some a beautiful purple brooch that someone gave us maybe Salt Lake City maybe on this trip we get lovely gifts from people and so I had it in my
00:06:48
bag and then george is like this is the dress i'm gonna wear and i'm like oh my god and i pull the
00:06:53
brooch out i'm like you could wear this and she's like we were like admiring it it was shimmery it
00:06:58
was gorgeous perfectly and then she's like okay and she turns around and it literally was as if
00:07:04
the brooch jumped up out of my hand and slammed itself on the ground because it's like suddenly
00:07:09
i dropped it and the center gem from his brooch busted out and broke into four pieces yeah that
00:07:18
It was tragic. It was bad. But now it's more of like a wreath shape with nothing in the center.
00:07:24
It still works. Yeah. It still works. We could make it work. Yeah. I thought you had some anecdotes that you said you wanted to share.
00:07:32
Something about chin hair and how being on tour for some reason, every hotel we've stayed in has like terrible mirror lighting.
00:07:41
So when I get home, it's just hair city. Yes. Oh, yes. And I run straight to that magnifying mirror and just zen out.
00:07:53
Got rid of it. Yeah. Because there are those old witch in the woods hairs that sneak up on you.
00:08:00
And then you're just like, great. How many people have I talked real close to with a thing coming out?
00:08:07
Always the question you have to ask yourself. Are you going to do yours? Oh, here's what I'm wearing.
00:08:12
Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I got it a few days ago when we were in San Francisco for shows.
00:08:21
Nice. And I'm obsessed with it. Isn't it pretty? There's some vintage stains on it.
00:08:26
Sure. Sure, I could have washed those out. Oh, look at that. That's a big fucking stain.
00:08:30
You did call this the dust cover earlier. You're like, what do I do with the dust cover of this?
00:08:35
It does look like I'm a couch that hasn't been sat on in 25 years. Yeah, hasn't been a butt on this couch in 25 years.
00:08:44
Should we sit at our tiny table? Let's do it. This is my favorite murder of the podcast.
00:08:52
That's right. And that's Georgia Hardstar. That's Karen Kilgaro. And we're very, so pleased to be with you tonight, San Diego.
00:09:04
Oh, look at this. It's a tiny table. We got a text at like 5 o'clock being like,
00:09:08
Hey, so we ordered the exact same tables we always do, but for some reason it's tiny.
00:09:13
Is that okay? As if we were going to be like, Now, put it on a box or something.
00:09:20
I did yell four bricks just at the top of my lungs. Four bricks! I think it's better than if it was too tall and we looked like little children.
00:09:29
But I also like this. This is a real Alice in Wonderland situation where we're just like, too big, too small.
00:09:35
We don't know. I don't mind it. Yeah, it works, right? Sure. Sure, it's fine. Do you want to tell them why they're here and what's happening?
00:09:45
Absolutely. Great. You're here because you really like listening to two people talk for reasons that you can't explain to your family or friends,
00:10:00
except for those special ones that understand and already were listening. You came out at 7 p.m. on a Tuesday to support this talking, and we really appreciate it.
00:10:14
We know. A Tuesday? This is time for Bible study. You should not be here. But if you are here and you don't listen to this podcast,
00:10:27
you're going to be very confused and probably upset. So we just want to say this to you now.
00:10:33
This is a true crime comedy podcast, but George and I don't think murder is funny.
00:10:38
We just think we're funny. And we are the types of people who have had the kind of trauma
00:10:45
in our early lives that we then learned to cope with that trauma through the use of humor.
00:10:51
And so we also, I think, coped with it through the obsession with true crime. And those things, when they come together, only certain people understand.
00:11:04
So if you're a drag-along and someone made you come here and you don't like what's happening,
00:11:10
you are welcome to get the fuck out. Thank you. Good job. Thank you. I'm going to make this, by the end of this tour,
00:11:22
that speech will be 45 minutes long. And then we'll just mention two cases in passing
00:11:29
and get the fuck out ourselves. All right. Well, we don't know each other's stories, right?
00:11:36
We also never tell people that, but it's true, which makes everyone who works with us hate our guts.
00:11:41
Yes, but it's always a surprise. What Georgia's about to tell me is a surprise what I'm going to tell her is a surprise to her.
00:11:47
And I'm first, right? And you are first. Let's get into it. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.
00:11:57
I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.
00:12:04
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00:12:20
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00:12:28
Hello, hello. This is Malcolm Glebel from Smart Talks with IBM. Today we're diving into a fascinating conversation with Stefano Pallard,
00:12:37
head of fan development for Scuderia Ferrari HP. Your pronunciation is strongly American. It's more Scuderia Ferrari.
00:12:46
I'm still working on rolling my R's. But what I was able to learn from Stefano was the importance of engaging the Tifosi,
00:12:53
the Ferrari superfans in the digital age. Ferrari fans and superfans want to be part of something,
00:13:00
want to belong to something. So they want to be part of a community, and ultimately they want to be part of a winning team.
00:13:07
You've got Ferrari, which has a long history, design history. And now you're interacting in a kind of digital space.
00:13:16
I'm curious how you balance those two traditions. When it comes to fan engagement, it's really digital technology and digital channels are being able to create a deeper connection with our fans.
00:13:29
To learn more about how Ferrari and IBM are using technology to build deeper connections with fans, visit ibm.com slash Ferrari.
00:13:40
This is Jacob Goldstein from What's Your Problem? Business software is expensive,
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Check out Odoo at O-D-O-O dot com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. Don't you feel like a proper Victorian lady side-saddling this table?
00:14:30
It does feel very, like, quite. I should have a cigarette. Ooh. Okay. Next time.
00:14:38
so you know in echo park there is a huge white domed mega church called angelus temple yes you
00:14:47
know the one i do and there's always people walking around it for some reason yeah there's
00:14:52
like they've got a lot of pedestrian action over there they do it's a thing in echo park and um so
00:14:57
that building is actually one of the country's oldest mega churches did you know that and it
00:15:01
was founded in 1923 by the Ennevatic character I'm going to be talking about tonight. And
00:15:09
she actually started amassing followers right here in San Diego. So it's a bit of a SoCal
00:15:14
story. I want to take a look at the temple. Nope, that's her. There she is. That's not
00:15:20
a temple. That's her. Oops. There she is. This is a story about an eccentric Pentecostal
00:15:26
evangelist evangelist evangelist thank you who at the height of jewish who at the height of her popularity disappeared under mysterious circumstances this is the story
00:15:42
of sister amy semple mcpherson yes i bet you've bought that dress before oh i bet i have that
00:15:50
and i'm always going like that you're like i'm always reading out of a bible amen
00:15:56
hear ye is that how you yep a lot of hear you hear you in the bible definitely cool um so the main sources i use for the story are claire hoffman's book sister sinner the
00:16:13
miraculous life and mysterious disappearance of amy semple mcpherson and the pbs american
00:16:18
experience documentary sister amy she got her own american experience episode i mean that's big
00:16:23
Sorry, really quick. Can we have a little more of us in the monitors on stage? So sorry to say something like that in front of everybody.
00:16:31
I feel like I'm very loud in my mic. I just can only hear myself. And I don't like her.
00:16:39
Well, we do. So shut up. How's that? Is that a little better? Yes, that works better.
00:16:49
And here's the temple in Echo Park. There it is. There used to be a really good diner.
00:16:55
Bright spot. The fucking bright spot. And they just kept changing hands, and now it's something totally different.
00:17:00
Yeah. You can't go there anymore? No, you can't. I mean, you can. Maybe it's better.
00:17:05
We haven't been in a while. Yes, that's right. Chuck your Yelp reviews. Don't listen to us.
00:17:09
Don't ever listen to us. Okay, so let's talk about Amy. Amy Kennedy was born in 1890 and raised in a devout Methodist and Salvation Army household in rural Ontario, Canada.
00:17:24
Did you know they have a rural? Good job. As a teenager, Amy starts questioning how religion and science coexist.
00:17:32
How does it work? No one's ever figured it out. Magnets. Magnets. Right at this time, boredom and curiosity leads her to a local tent revival where a Pentecostal
00:17:45
preacher is wooing new believers. So imagine this young lady. She's like not sure what she wants out of life.
00:17:52
She in a rural place and she comes in I been there Yeah And she sees the very good preacher Robert Semple And she like that my religion now
00:18:06
Amen. I believe. I believe. They get married in 1908, when Amy was just 18. And together they become missionaries, bringing God's word to China.
00:18:18
They're very successful at it, particularly Amy. Like that picture I showed you, that's when I wanted that.
00:18:24
I did it wrong. It's okay. She's a charismatic and powerful preacher. There she goes.
00:18:32
Oh, thank you so much. That was on me. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you. She's like, I'm right here.
00:18:37
Look at the power. You yourself are right now believing whatever it is she's trying to espouse.
00:18:43
Amen. Amen. then she's um they went over a lot of converts together because they're just charismatic and
00:18:50
probably really good looking together unfortunately they both also contract malaria yeah and so while
00:18:58
pregnant amy survives and her new but her new husband dies of fucking dysentery oh no yeah
00:19:05
like what a bummer he what i hate to question you this early in the story yeah always do it
00:19:13
He contracted malaria, but he died of dysentery. Oh, yeah. Really? Yeah. He got two?
00:19:20
According to Allie, yeah. Does one happen after the other? To me, no. Never. Are you questioning religion and science again and how they work together?
00:19:34
No, no, no. Amy says no. But Amy gives birth to a daughter months after Robert's death
00:19:42
and names her Roberta. and the two of them sail back to America shortly after Roberta's birth.
00:19:49
So her baby lives. Her baby and her live and her hot preacher husband dies of dysentery.
00:19:55
Okay. Maybe. Asterisk, look it up later. Right. So Amy joins her mother back home.
00:20:05
Her name is Mildred, but she goes by Minnie. And she starts working with the Salvation Army in New York City
00:20:11
and that's where she meets an accountant named Harold Stuart McPherson, who she then marries in
00:20:16
1912. At this point, Amy's still just in her early 20s, and the newlyweds move to Providence,
00:20:23
Rhode Island, and they have a son named Rolf. But Amy is not great. She's not doing great.
00:20:30
She has a big depressive episode, and pretty much the issue is that she doesn't want to be a housewife.
00:20:36
She wants to be back on the road preaching. And she thinks it's her calling. And so she gets back to evangelizing.
00:20:46
Evangelizing? Evangelizing? That's a word? Shit. You're going to fold me. That's a word.
00:20:52
Doesn't seem right. What a wonderful life you've led not having to deal with this shit.
00:20:56
so she gets back to it and she holds tent revivals amassing such a sizable falling that
00:21:09
she's forced to go to larger and larger venues she becomes really popular and she's so passionate
00:21:14
about her work that she um starts putting more and more production value into every appearance
00:21:19
so like a little razzle dazzle the hand goes up a little higher fans out a little further maybe
00:21:24
Are there some sequins? Does God like sequins? I don't know. Sure does. He invented them.
00:21:32
And so her sermons are fully theatrical with costumes and props. And, oh, would I pay to see that right now?
00:21:39
Yeah. You know? Yeah. But I wouldn't actually pay to see it. No. Amy performs faith healings, speaks in tongues, and describes experiencing divine visions.
00:21:48
She finds a way to strike that perfect balance of fervor and spectacle. and she has this really smart idea of keeping the super fanatical followers in a different tent so
00:21:59
they don't scare away the like not we're not there yet people but like maybe oh let's check
00:22:05
this out yeah so she just keeps them apart it's like everybody chill in this tent and if you want
00:22:12
to freak out about jesus you have to go over there go next door yeah to freak out about jesus and
00:22:17
they're like hey you're the one that's making us freak out this much and she's like not my problem
00:22:21
I can't control my charisma. So Amy's great at what she does, but her new husband, Harold, doesn't love that she's so married to her work.
00:22:32
So she gets sick from appendicitis, and the experience, I guess, was so hardcore that it changes her.
00:22:40
And through the suffering, she hears a voice telling her to return to preaching on the road full time.
00:22:45
So she takes the kids and gets the fuck out of there. so she gets appendicitis yeah and she's like ow ow god is speaking god is saying i shouldn't be a
00:22:56
housewife anymore so bye so bye but she sends letters to harold inviting him to join her she's
00:23:02
like i'm not breaking up with you but you have to come to me you do my thing yeah he takes her up on
00:23:08
it at first hoping to drag her back home he sets up their tents and he tries his own hand at preaching
00:23:13
alongside her. Right? Yeah. Can't do it. They sell their house and live out of their
00:23:19
so-called gospel car. Which one do you think that was? Edsel. Edsel, definitely.
00:23:24
With their two young kids. Oh, those kids were fucking miserable, right? So there's no air conditioning
00:23:30
for sure anywhere. But maybe no school. Oh. So yeah. Yeah. Hippie wonderland. But Harold's super not into it.
00:23:39
He's not nearly as popular as his wife, which had to sting. So he leaves her behind, returns to Rhode Island, and files for divorce.
00:23:47
So Amy tours the South with her mother instead. She's like, fuck you. You're cool.
00:23:53
I'll get my mom. Yeah, I'm killing my mom. She's not a sore loser. Right. And they prove...
00:24:00
from a perch on the back seat of their convertible, she just shouts sermons through a megaphone, which...
00:24:07
That's how they do it. That's pretty standard. God can't hear you just talking. No, wait, I'm on a microphone right now.
00:24:13
What am I fucking talking about? Can you hear us, Lord? Kettle, etc. It's us. Can you get me a new brooch?
00:24:24
Is this how this works? It's us. We're podcasters. It's us. The highest form of...
00:24:30
Believer. That's right. You know, our religion podcast. We're literally turning this audience against us so hard.
00:24:38
We're just like, what else can we make fun of? All the cheerleaders hate us already.
00:24:43
Any Pentecostals in the house. They're like, bye. So they go out. The audiences are like building.
00:24:52
They're super awed by her public faith healing performances and word about her talent spreads across the country.
00:24:58
and she works so hard, this might sound familiar, she makes herself sick. Oh. Yeah.
00:25:04
She says that she wipes her nose. This is like, I have a nervous, I'm really not happy about this nose thing that keeps happening.
00:25:12
I think it's charming and people love it. Maybe the first time, thank you. We need to be sponsored by an allergy medication, promo code murder.
00:25:24
Yes. so she makes herself sick from exhaustion a doctor advises her to recuperate in warmer
00:25:31
warmer climate because I think that's what they do back then is just go over there or they bleed you out pick one
00:25:38
but then her daughter comes down with the Spanish flu which is my favorite influenza
00:25:45
really honestly and while praying over her she receives yet another divine message
00:25:52
God says, you got to go, however he says it, you got to go to California. He says, hear ye, hear ye.
00:25:59
Hear ye, hear ye. God loves California, I guess. That's right. You know why? The butter.
00:26:11
Are we known for our butter? Such good butter. That's your town, right? Yeah. Petaluma-specific butter.
00:26:19
The Orange Fields that we don't have anymore. They were all gone. They cut them all down.
00:26:24
They were great. They cut them down, made them parking lots. You heard the song.
00:26:30
So Amy's skills are really profitable in Southern California, where she begins holding small revival meetings at local churches
00:26:37
and rented halls with her mother. Minnie, word spreads, and she starts drawing in larger crowds
00:26:44
and tents and auditoriums, hey, across Southern California. stop comparing yourself to Amy Semple Brown
00:26:52
podcasting and gospel is the same thing it is the same very much so she's the original podcaster
00:27:00
she's OG podcaster spreading the word at one point the city has to call in the marines
00:27:08
in order to control a crowd of 30,000 people who show up to one of her revivals so that's no fucking joke
00:27:16
that's Joe Rogan level i wrote vintage viral it's she went vintage viral yeah that's right at this point in the
00:27:25
early 20s amy is now about 30 and the population of california is booming because people are coming
00:27:31
from the midwest and the east coast because it's cooler here yeah and um so she starts focusing
00:27:38
her efforts up north in los angeles and celebrities start attending her services
00:27:43
Remember the show? No, I'm not going to. You know what I'm talking about. Yes. And she's in this.
00:27:49
Yes. What's it called? Perry Mason. Perry Mason. I said it first. Thank you. I said it first.
00:27:56
Perry Mason. Roll the tape back. We want to hear it. And the girl from Warp of the Black plays her.
00:28:01
Yes. Yes. And when you were talking about I Would Kill to See That, there are scenes inside that church
00:28:08
of her doing her thing. Totally. And I think this storyline is, you know, is made for TV, but it's in there.
00:28:15
But that's a great show, and she's part of it. So I don't even need to read this to you guys even.
00:28:20
You know. We already know. And now we're going to watch it together. Every episode.
00:28:27
So media, celebrities start paying attention to her. She's getting a little famous.
00:28:31
But remember, she suffered a health setback. And the whole point of her being in California is to recuperate.
00:28:36
But she is a vintage workaholic. And against doctor's orders, she continues her nightly services, which are so popular that people have to wait hours just to get inside to see her.
00:28:48
That's how much they like her and God. They ship her and God. Is that what the kids say?
00:28:56
Angelinas are so enraptured by her dramatic and theatrical style of worship that some of them build a house for her to live in.
00:29:02
They're just like, here's a house. We like you so much. Immediately? I don't know a timeline there.
00:29:09
They leave church and they're just like, go get some wood. I have to express how I feel.
00:29:15
We must shelter her. We must. It's kind of Amish of them to do that, actually. Maybe.
00:29:22
I mean, there was so much land back then in Southern California. Yeah. They just walk outside.
00:29:29
Throw one up right here. Right. But there's something even bigger that she wants than a house and all these followers.
00:29:37
Amy starts raising money to build her very own venue. Congregants eagerly contribute,
00:29:43
and in 1923, the 5,300-seat Angeles Temple opens, which in today's seats is... It doesn't matter, I'd get it wrong.
00:29:54
50 That right It looks like a white coliseum in the middle of Los Angeles It right by Echo Park Lake And in its first seven years more than 40 million visitors walk through
00:30:06
its door to see this like biblical production every Sunday. Amy expands into radio. Hey,
00:30:14
like podcasting. This theory is coming true as you tell this story. Becoming one of the first
00:30:20
women to have her own broadcast license and founds her own religious radio station. And
00:30:24
She starts being pictured with celebrities, and even Charlie Chaplin comes to her service sometimes.
00:30:32
Hey. I know. Should I tell my story about Charlie Chaplin? Yeah, that's so good.
00:30:36
You may have heard this already if you've listened to this podcast, which is the problem with having a podcast.
00:30:41
For a person like me who loves to tell the same four anecdotes over and over, like, we heard this one, Karen.
00:30:48
When I bought the house I live in now, my cousin, my real estate agent cousin Pete Castro,
00:30:53
contact him if you're trying to buy real estate in los angeles he's a great person very honest
00:30:59
really fun good times anyhow pete castro for all your real estate needs anyhow he went and had to go get some paperwork finalized paperwork whatever and when he was there
00:31:13
in the in the official city files they found a certificate that said this house is owned by
00:31:20
Charles Chaplin. And so they made a copy of it and then they gave it to me like framed in a frame
00:31:28
as a housewarming gift. And I was like, what? And they're like, yeah, we found it on the city thing.
00:31:33
And we all freaked out and I hung it in my kitchen. I would bring people, I would make people come and
00:31:38
stand near it. Just be like, did you see? I don't know if you saw that he used to live here. And
00:31:44
it's not that big of a house and it's actually, it was built in 1950. So it's kind of modern
00:31:49
comparatively, but I didn't care. And I never really asked one question about it until mid
00:31:55
COVID when my next door neighbor, Joey came over and I met him for the first time. And he'd lived
00:31:59
there for like 30 years. And I was, and we were just talking about everything and getting to know
00:32:04
each other. And then I, then I said, Oh, by the way, did you know Charlie Chaplin used to live?
00:32:09
And before the sentence was over, he was like, no, that's Chuck. That's Chuck. My old neighbor
00:32:13
No relation. No fucking relation to Charlie Chaplin whatsoever. That's impossible. But here's the thing about that, though.
00:32:23
He lived there for 30 years, which is only 1995. Yeah. So maybe he doesn't fucking know, maybe 10 years before that, Charlie fucking Chaplin.
00:32:34
It's like the oldest Charlie Chaplin of all time. I was like, hey, no. I'd just say that I went in and very quietly took that framed thing down
00:32:45
and stuck it in a drawer. And any time anyone asks me, I pretend like I don't know what they're talking about.
00:32:50
I never said that. What do you mean? I love it. I think you should keep it up. Because it's just, yeah.
00:32:56
It's a great story. Also, my cousin's here tonight, too. I forgot. Savannah. Hi, Savannah.
00:33:01
Hi. She's the sweetest. She's a liar here in San Diego. A real liar? Mm-hmm. so you guys better watch out.
00:33:10
No trip and falls in this theater tonight. No way. Not on my watch. Radio, it happened.
00:33:18
And then Charlie Chaplin happened. Yep. And then I stopped your story cold. And now we're back in.
00:33:25
Anyways, huge celebrity. She's working overtime, performing daily church services,
00:33:30
live radio broadcasts, fundraising, and nationwide revival tours. You know, she wants to do it all.
00:33:35
But the more attention Amy receives, of course, the more her haters want to bring her down, as they do.
00:33:42
There are plenty of trolls back then, vintage trolls. Always in humanity. Man. Since the dawn of man.
00:33:49
I'm angry that you're successful. No. This is the story of Cain and Abel. Is it?
00:33:55
Guys, we're going to fold some scripture through this show tonight. Everyone's going to leave happy, I swear to God.
00:34:01
there are plenty of people who don't believe in her particular brand of christianity they point
00:34:08
out that she's a divorcee oh no slut and some of them think that the theatrics and flourishes
00:34:16
are over the top like meanwhile people are speaking in tongues and have snakes you know
00:34:21
it's just but she had props okay is that not normal in church no you guys don't do props
00:34:27
know really what it is, but she's a woman. Critics accuse her of acting in her own best interest
00:34:34
while she's pretending to be a modern day disciple, which God forbid, well, literally.
00:34:41
That's actually the rule. At the same time, this is not quite the profit-driven model of
00:34:48
televangelists that would later be adopted. Her ministry actually does a fair amount
00:34:54
of charity work and social good. They distribute food, they offer clothing banks,
00:34:58
and they help local immigrants, particularly the working class and Hispanic populations
00:35:02
of Echo Park. So she does good. What? I like that you said she does a fair amount.
00:35:10
And it's like, as a church, shouldn't you do like an unfair amount, like an insane,
00:35:15
over-the-top amount with all that money? Fair. Just an observation, not a new one, Joel Alstein.
00:35:24
Remember when, like, 10 years ago, Texas flooded, and Joel Osteen said his megachurch doors were closed to the public,
00:35:32
and then the guy that had a mattress door opened his doors to the public? And that solved everything in this country because then people realized?
00:35:41
No, you're right. You're right. You're right. My mistake. That wasn't it. Not yet.
00:35:48
That did not happen. Mm-hmm. And then Amy disappears. Oh Shit Okay so on May 18th 1926 Amy goes for a swim at Venice Beach along with her secretary Emma
00:36:05
And that morning, Emma stays on the sand while Amy wades into the water. But after a while, Emma loses sight of her and starts freaking out.
00:36:13
And so she assumes she's drowned. Emma unlists lifeguards and bystanders to join the search immediately, but there's no sign of Amy dead or alive.
00:36:23
Within what? No, I'll listen to the whole thing. I'm just going to listen to the whole thing first.
00:36:30
I swear to God. No, do it. I interrupted you right before Amy disappears last time.
00:36:36
I don't want to do it. That was it. That was the button. So the last Emma saw was that she was out swimming.
00:36:43
Yeah, and suddenly can't find her, doesn't see her, she doesn't come back to shore.
00:36:47
Emma's freaking out. She calls a bunch of people to try to help find her, thinking she drowned.
00:36:51
Are you seeing this fog or is it just me? It's a lot of fucking fog. It's a fucking...
00:36:56
The fog budget for this tour... We're good on the fog. We're good on the fog. It's astronomical.
00:37:03
It truly is. We're not even getting paid. All our money's going to fog. Straight to...
00:37:09
Straight to fog. This hot ice machine or whatever the fuck it's called. Hot ice.
00:37:14
Anyway, over in foggy London town... What if that's what it was? We're just changing locations now?
00:37:22
Yeah. So it was a foggy day at Venice Beach. Actually, it probably was. Here's a picture of thousands of church members gathered to pray for her on the beach and to find her.
00:37:34
They're praying. They're freaking out. There's no sign of her. That's a lot of fucking people at the beach.
00:37:39
How many of the people that were, like, around 12 years old that their parents forced them to go just kept staring at that roller coaster?
00:37:45
They're just like, please, mommy, please. God gave me a message that he wants me on that roller coaster.
00:37:51
I'm feeling particularly called to the pier. Anyone else? Thank you. And so thousands of people go back to Angela's temple to pray for her safe return,
00:38:04
and some even begin the mourning process thinking she'd probably fucking drown. Her disappearance
00:38:10
is huge news. A massive search effort takes place. There's deep sea divers and hundreds of officers
00:38:17
combing the shore. Here's a picture of a newspaper headline. Amy McPherson believed drowned.
00:38:25
She's got that hand up again. It turns out she could never put it down. It's like in a cast.
00:38:32
Don't make fun of her. A permanent cast arm. Asleep in the ocean. What? Who wrote that?
00:38:42
Hold on a second. You know back then, if your last name was McPherson, they could just substitute the C with an apostrophe?
00:38:49
Didn't know that. Amy Mafferson. Mafferson. Yeah, I didn't know they did that. It's strange.
00:38:56
What else is going on in Los Angeles? Al Smith Brand's Dry Law Retaliation Dishonest.
00:39:02
Dishonest. Oh. Okay. That Al Smith. Young suffers seven broken ribs. What? Okay.
00:39:11
Sorry to read the newspaper in front of you. my mistake the drag along is like what in the fuck am i watching why they're reading paper in
00:39:21
front of them they're reading things behind them it's not podcasting dude blah blah blah there is also uh speculation as to what really happened that day particularly
00:39:35
when amy's radio engineer a handsome but married man named kenneth ormiston also turns out to
00:39:44
be missing. Did he go swimming? He didn't go swimming. And Keith, Kenneth and Amy had actually
00:39:52
been caught flirting is all that we have over the church's inner, inner calm system. Like they
00:40:00
didn't know they had hot mics on. Oh, that's the best. Hey, what kind of flirting? Hey baby. Like
00:40:06
they were not flirting. They were doing it and you fucking know it. They just like are too proper
00:40:09
to say that back then. You're in the main chapel dusting. Hey, what's up with you? And
00:40:18
then you're just like, everyone runs into the main chapel. So good. Best day of someone's
00:40:25
life. So that, if that happened to you, you would want to just walk into the sea. Right.
00:40:30
That's true. I would fucking, yeah, there's, that's not cool. That's, that's horrible. So
00:40:35
embarrassed yeah um and he's married so it looks really bad for this person who's pretend
00:40:40
her saying she's really really religious with her hand up in the air all the time
00:40:44
what if that's her flirting hey hey what's that right after that happened kenneth's wife shows up
00:40:53
at the temple and makes a big scene about the whole thing good for her fucking throw down oh
00:40:58
because her husband's now disappeared no because someone caught them quote flirting oh this is in
00:41:04
between the two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got you. And this was obviously really embarrassing and distressing
00:41:09
to Amy, but it had been even more distressing to her mother, Minnie, who had been involved at the
00:41:15
church for years. She's really disappointed in her daughter. And then her daughter disappears.
00:41:20
So after five whole weeks, Amy's mother, Minnie, decides to proceed with a memorial service at the
00:41:25
temple for her daughter. She believes she's dead. But according to some reports, Minnie had actually
00:41:30
pronounced Amy dead the day after her disappearance and suggested that her daughter Roberta, who's now
00:41:37
15, should take over for her daughter. The next day, she's like, you know what? My granddaughter's
00:41:43
stepping in. That's right. She listens to me now. You don't listen to me enough. The 15-year-old
00:41:48
should take over this mega church 15 Oh my God you guys Did you hear about Locke wife 15 don talk like that anymore Karen Well I don care It my new character And so 20 people attend the service
00:42:07
for what they believe is Amy's memorial. And, but something strange is happening in the meantime.
00:42:15
The police keep getting tips from people who believe they're seeing Amy in and around the town of Carmel by the Sea.
00:42:22
Oh. about 450 miles north of here. And it's just a bunch of non-related people being like,
00:42:29
yep, we know what she looks like because she's always on the newspaper. There she is.
00:42:33
Oh, no. So authorities... So on June 23, 1926, one month after her disappearance into the ocean,
00:42:42
Amy turns up in Agua Prita in Mexico, just across the border from Douglas, Arizona.
00:42:48
She claims... You've heard this one before. she claims that she'd been held in a shack somewhere in the desert where kidnappers were
00:42:56
holding her prisoner vintage vintage gone girl right the shack shack girl get in there she says
00:43:07
that she had been out on the beach that day and a couple had come up to her and asked her to pray
00:43:12
over their sick child and then when she went to the car with them swoop they just kidnapped her
00:43:17
Mm-hmm. Yoink. But she can't give a ton of details about her captors or the shack in the desert, which is never found.
00:43:24
But what details do you need of a shack in the desert? It's a shack. It's shitty wood.
00:43:29
There was graffiti on the inside. There was one small bench. Right. What do you need?
00:43:36
We know what a shack in the desert looks like. And the media, of course, goes crazy on her return.
00:43:43
Thongs of supporters celebrate at the Angelus Temple, believing that she survived through the divine protection,
00:43:50
this ordeal that she was kidnapped. When she arrives back in L.A. by train, thousands of her fans and followers greet her at the station
00:43:57
with flowers, songs, and chanting her name. We, oh, Amy, you were in a shack in the desert,
00:44:05
but now you're back. We're so proud of you. We love Jesus, too. Amy, Amy, Amy. Thank you so much.
00:44:18
Appreciate you. That was beautiful. It's fun to imagine songs people would sing at the train station back in the 20s.
00:44:23
Because you don't know. You could be exactly right. You know, I could be. Dead on.
00:44:27
Yeah. There's something we were all singing. It's Amy's train and here she comes.
00:44:32
Let me stand over here. I'm a man. so she makes her triumphant return to the pulpit uh and the temple overflows and worshipers
00:44:46
are convinced that she has a direct line to god okay she's dramatically escorted to thunderous
00:44:55
applause escorted um and people like james brown kind of like she's all tired already totally
00:45:01
Going out, sweating. People are overcome with joy. They faint at the sight of her.
00:45:06
Like, it's, you know, are they faking it? That's a little dramatic. I was like, wait, watch, her arm's about to go up.
00:45:12
Oh, my God. I'm going to lose it if her arm goes up. Is she going to play Hot To Go?
00:45:19
I'm going to lose it. I will lose it. We have a whole other one of these after this.
00:45:26
We've got to keep it fresh. Keep it tight. That's right. So if Amy's followers had faith in her before, they're even more devout.
00:45:35
The non-believers are like, yeah, right. They're over it. This includes the LA district attorney, a man named Asa Keys.
00:45:42
He believes that this is either a publicity stunt or a cover-up for that romantic rendezvous.
00:45:48
And so he convenes a grand jury to determine if fraud has taken place. I just thought a second ago.
00:45:54
Okay. Again. What? About the intercom coming on. And it's like, so anyway, how many brothers and sisters do you have?
00:46:03
Are your eyes green or blue? I can't tell. Oh, no. Oh, no. We're mic'd. Sorry. No, it's good.
00:46:12
We need it. We need it. In today's economy. In 2025, we need these terrible jokes.
00:46:21
So witnesses come forward, hotel maids, neighbors, people just from Carmel-by-the-Sea.
00:46:27
Have you been there? Yes. Yeah. It's cute, right? They don't have house numbers or something?
00:46:32
Right. No addresses, and it's covered in caramel. It's so delicious. But it seems like a good place to hide out, especially back then, probably, right?
00:46:42
Nobody could get up the one. Back then? Right. It would take days. The one. There was no one.
00:46:48
It was only a two. And so all of them swore that they saw Amy and Kenneth together.
00:46:56
Reporters came on the courthouse steps. They were filing daily stories. And her kidnap case becomes front page news across America.
00:47:05
Ask your grandparents about that. Or great grandparents. Yeah. Everyone's young here.
00:47:13
Prosecutors paint this sensational picture that she had faked her in abduction to cover this illicit romance.
00:47:19
Oh, God. Kenneth's wife must have been so fucking pissed. So pissed. And also, it's such a weird idea where it's like, well, I'm insanely famous because of God.
00:47:30
So let me go ahead and have this affair by drowning. Right. It doesn't sound planned.
00:47:37
That's just the beginning and we'll figure the rest out later. Come on, Kenneth.
00:47:40
That was a rough draft. She went for it. So basically, if it's true, she lied to her congregation, obstructed justice,
00:47:50
wasted the resources of police and the Coast Guard who were looking for her, all the volunteers who were looking for her body.
00:47:57
So indictments for perjury and conspiracy, loom, but Amy maintains her story, and she has the support of thousands of her followers.
00:48:05
So the grand jury winds up proving that Kenneth had rented a cottage in Carmel-by-the-Sea,
00:48:10
but Kenneth claims he had actually been renting it with a different woman altogether, not even Amy.
00:48:15
That's a great excuse. No, no, hear him out, hear him out. He's got to be going somewhere with this, right?
00:48:21
It was not my side piece, Your Honor, it was my back piece. Don't worry about it.
00:48:27
She's a different one. But essentially, because he says that, the city's forced to drop the case due to lack of evidence in 1927, one year after the disappearance.
00:48:37
So him saying he had a side piece that wasn't his side piece got her off. Yeah. And the wife is still over there like, this isn't making it better, Kenneth.
00:48:46
Yeah. Where's my redemption arc, please? Please now. There's actually one more theory about Amy's disappearance that gets kicked around, and that is actually, it was a legitimate kidnapping, and that Amy's mother arranged it, because remember her mom was in that Perry Mason, too.
00:49:04
Yes. there's very little evidence allegedly, allegedly, they're all dead that point to this
00:49:11
but some people do point out that Minnie was unhappy with her daughter's behavior and possible affair
00:49:17
and actually wanted her granddaughter to take over so she was like set up a kidnapping
00:49:22
to get rid of her daughter yoinked her off the beach sent her to the desert to that one shack
00:49:28
that shack that we all know and love it has a little chimney but there's no fireplace
00:49:32
it's just It's what they need. But yeah, not a lot to back this up. So Amy returns to her regularly scheduled pulpit programming at the Angelus Temple,
00:49:42
but rarely discusses the incident. It tarnishes her image with non-believers, but she's media savvy.
00:49:50
She knows how to make everyone excited about God and her own self. And so people just keep coming to her church.
00:49:58
That's the magic recipe right there. God and me. Yeah. That's it. In the 1930s, she marries and divorces again within a few years, but works hard to establish her church, which she names the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
00:50:13
Is that a thing? Yes. Foursquare? That's right. It's not just the game? It can be anything you want it to be.
00:50:19
Okay, great. So the church now does go by the Foursquare Church, and it's actually still operational in the Angelus Temple today.
00:50:29
Outside of the temple, she has dozens of affiliated congregations spread across the U.S.
00:50:33
and makes use of them during the Great Depression to distribute clothing, food, and assistance to tens of thousands of struggling families.
00:50:41
So she's like, sorry about that one thing. I'm going to make up for it with this other thing.
00:50:44
Great. Then we'll take it. Yeah. Her humanitarian work softens the public image.
00:50:50
Behind the scenes, she is still suffering from a lack of sleep and a dependence on pills.
00:50:55
She's traveling with her sermons, devoted to the cause. I mean, touring back then had to suck, right?
00:51:03
Well, maybe except for, don't forget that they used to put cocaine in soda. That's true.
00:51:10
You know, depends on what you're into. Yeah. Driving around the country in your little un-air-conditioned car.
00:51:18
Coked out of your mind. Coked out of your fucking mind. Let's get the word out. so in September of 1944
00:51:27
she fails to show up at an appearance in Oakland and people are immediately concerned
00:51:32
so on September 27, 1944 hotel staff where she's staying find her in her room alone in her bed, unresponsive
00:51:40
Amy's declared dead at 53 the causes ruled an accidental overdose of second all that's sedative that everyone
00:51:48
loved back then her premature passing shocks her followers She's only 53, and the public toggles between her professional impact and her personal scandals.
00:51:59
Her body's transported back to Los Angeles, where upwards of 50,000 mourners file past her casket.
00:52:06
How many touched her, do you think? Doesn't matter. She's dead. Okay. Well, I was really like, I hope they had hand sanitizer.
00:52:15
But that's weird. It is. Fingerprints. I'm talking like fingerprints, you know what I mean?
00:52:24
No, no, inappropriate. Yeah. The funeral is one of the largest Los Angeles has ever seen
00:52:30
with traffic jams reported for blocks around Echo Park. Reporters noted that the grandeur of the Angeles Temple
00:52:36
filled with flowers, white drapery, and music was more like a pageant than a traditional funeral.
00:52:42
And in true Amy spirit, The Affair is a Hollywood-type production with genuine religious devotion,
00:52:49
a fitting end for such a theatrical person. and that is the story of Amy Semple McPherson.
00:52:55
Wow. Wow. What do you think really happened? I think she took off with her lover
00:53:07
and had a fucking nice couple of weeks to herself. Yeah. Yeah, what do you think?
00:53:13
I love the shack concept. I don't know why. You're really sticking with the shack.
00:53:18
Because it also makes it feel like if it's a shack in the desert, it's really small.
00:53:21
but then the kidnappers have to be in there with her. So they're all just shoved into.
00:53:25
Nobody's happy. Right? Yeah. We'll all suffer out here until your mom says we can come back to town.
00:53:32
Anything's possible. Truly. With God. Stop kidding. Amen. And that is the message that we're trying to give to everyone tonight.
00:53:42
Whatever God you would like that to be. Very open, non-denominational, but highly religious show.
00:53:51
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don know if you knew this but anyone can get the same premium wireless for a month plan that I been enjoying It not just for celebrities So do like I did and have one of your assistant assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today
00:54:08
I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required.
00:54:16
Intro rate first three months only. Then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra.
00:54:21
Default terms at mintmobile.com. Hello, hello, this is Malcolm Glabal from Smart Talks with IBM.
00:54:29
Today we're diving into a fascinating conversation with Stefano Pallard, head of fan development for Scuderia Ferrari HP.
00:54:37
Your pronunciation is strongly American. It's more Scuderia Ferrari. I'm still working on rolling my R's.
00:54:45
But what I was able to learn from Stefano was the importance of engaging the Tifosi,
00:54:49
the Ferrari superfans in the digital age. Ferrari fans and super fans want to be part of something, want to belong to something.
00:54:58
So they want to be part of a community and ultimately they want to be part of a winning team.
00:55:04
You've got Ferrari, which has a long history, design history. And now you're interacting in a kind of digital space.
00:55:13
I'm curious how you balance those two traditions. When it comes to fan engagement, it's really digital technology and digital channels
00:55:22
are being able to create a deeper connection with our fans. To learn more about how Ferrari and IBM are using technology
00:55:28
to build deeper connections with fans, visit ibm.com slash Ferrari. This is Jacob Goldstein from What's Your Problem?
00:55:40
When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing.
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Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales.
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Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need.
00:56:02
Check out Odoo at odoo.com. That's odoo.com. Okay, we're going to take a little bit of a left turn.
00:56:14
Let's do it. my story and I don't know if you've ever seen there's a billboard that is on
00:56:22
East Melrose almost like almost to Virgil and a couple times a year or I guess once a year
00:56:31
but I notice it it doesn't matter often times once a year there will be a billboard
00:56:39
it's a very small billboard you wouldn't notice it for the LA Bug Fair. Have you ever seen this?
00:56:47
I've been to the LA Bug Fair. What? Yeah. I ate a chocolate chirp cookie that had crickets in it.
00:56:54
Oh, hell yes. We begin this story, the 2003's Los Angeles most prestigious Hollywood event,
00:57:02
the Natural History Museum's annual bug fair. That's right. It's a fucking bug fair story, ladies and gentlemen.
00:57:10
I love that you know the bug fair. Hell yeah, it's rad. It's horrifying, but it's rad.
00:57:14
Yeah. So every year, if you don't know, thousands of people, nature enthusiasts and collectors
00:57:20
alike, flock to the museum for this event, featuring workshops, educational exhibits,
00:57:25
and a marketplace where you can buy pretty much any bug-related thing imaginable, including
00:57:31
actual bugs at this bug fair market. Are you looking for a praying mantis? Why don't you go on down to the bug fair?
00:57:39
Get a good price. One up. Did I ever tell you about the fucking time I got a weird feeling?
00:57:44
I was sitting in my house at the kitchen table, and I got a weird feeling, and I looked at my shoulder,
00:57:49
and there was a fucking praying mantis on my shoulder. Oh, my God. And this may be exaggeration because I'm a big liar,
00:57:56
but when I turned and looked at this praying mantis, its head went like this. Ew.
00:58:04
Like it was also gazing back at me. Oh, my God. And then I screamed and slapped it off my head.
00:58:11
shoulder. Oh my god. It was so fucking scary. That sounds like Uncanny Valley. Yeah. It's just
00:58:17
you are staring into the fucking eyeballs of a fucking perched. I feel weird. Why do I feel so
00:58:24
you? I mean I love them. I just don't like surprise bugs. I can deal with bugs but not
00:58:31
surprise bugs. And what is a more surprising bug than a fucking praying mantis? In your house. For
00:58:36
For God's sakes. No. Head separate from body. Head toed. Looking at you and thinking with its weird praying hands, more religion stuff.
00:58:45
Okay. You can buy live bugs and you can buy dead bugs that have been mounted and put on display.
00:58:57
Among the crowd at the 17th annual bug fair is a man named Ed Newcomer. Writer Jessica Speart describes him as, quote,
00:59:06
your typical Southern California beach boy, end quote. He's in his 30s. He's a self-professed nature lover,
00:59:13
but he's not here for bug fair fun like everybody else. You see, Ed is a rookie special agent
00:59:20
with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and he is tasked with fighting the illegal wildlife trade.
00:59:26
He sees his work as very important, and rightfully so. Special agent newcomer has said, quote,
00:59:32
there's really no more innocent victim than our natural environment. You know, a bear can't call 911 and say that someone came and poached her cub.
00:59:42
What if he could? Hello? Who is this? Is this a prank call? My baby. You said do a scene I did it It me I the problem You immediately accept responsibility It all on me I fucking take it We still middle of the quote
01:00:05
Okay. So it's really important to have law enforcement officers out there who are willing to take the time to try to solve wildlife crime.
01:00:16
Is he hot too? Like, what's the deal? We're going to look at him in one second in one second.
01:00:21
So Ed got into this game because he thought he'd be investigating the poaching of big exotic animals like, of course, bears or elephants or jungle cats.
01:00:32
He never knew there was a market for dead butterflies, but it turns out that there is, and it's a huge trade.
01:00:40
Rare pinned and mounted butterflies, including endangered and protected ones. those trade for small fortunes in that quaint little corner of the black market so special
01:00:53
agent newcomer has gotten a tip that one of the world's most notorious butterfly dealers
01:00:59
the quote indiana jones of butterflies come on he gave that to himself for sure no the whole
01:01:06
butterfly community all three of them they got together on a conference call and they said
01:01:13
We're naming this motherfucker. The Indiana Jones of Butterflies has a booth at the bug fair this year,
01:01:20
and along with the legal specimens that he will have on sale, there may be some illegal insect contraband available for his most trusted patrons.
01:01:31
Oh, shit. For years, this smuggler has evaded authorities in the illegal bug and insect trade,
01:01:36
but now Special Agent Newcomer is on the case, and he's determined to bring this entire dirty yet incandescently beautiful enterprise downtown to Chinatown.
01:01:50
This is the story of Special Agent Ed Newcomer's investigation into butterfly trafficker Yoshi Kojima.
01:01:59
Wow. So, the main sources used in this story today are the book Winged Obsession,
01:02:06
The Pursuit of the World's Most Notorious Butterfly Smuggler. Oh, a whole book. By Jessica Speart.
01:02:12
Great. She wrote a whole book on it. Also, episode 305 of my favorite podcast, Criminal.
01:02:21
Of course. Entitled The Butterfly Smuggler. And Ed Newcomer's own podcast series, Special Agent Ed Newcomer,
01:02:29
has a podcast and it's called Nature's Secret Service. Hmm. Okay. Everyone's got a podcast these days.
01:02:36
the nature guy and they were like oh oh yeah and this one big butterfly has a podcast too
01:02:43
so please listen to her side of the story okay so we're back at the 17th annual bug fair
01:02:51
agent special agent newcomer is not just on the case first of all he's a rookie this is the first
01:02:57
case so it's his name is literal newcomer he's a newcomer um he's not just on the case
01:03:05
he's working uh he's in sorry left the page undercover yes he's undercover thank you so much
01:03:14
god damn it i can't believe i got that i was i just wanted to say in disguise so badly and i'm
01:03:19
like that's not the correct term for the police trench coat on eye glass got a weird metal arm
01:03:25
that comes out and grabs a bug takes it back inspector gadget okay the inspector gadget of
01:03:32
the butterfly world. So Ed is there to get eyes on 53-year-old Yoshi Kojima, but he is not working
01:03:43
alone. He also has a wired informant in the crowd today who Ed hopes will catch Yoshi saying
01:03:49
something damning on tape. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency has had Yoshi on their radar for
01:03:56
years, so Ed already knows a little bit about him. He knows Yoshi has homes in both Kyoto and Los
01:04:02
Angeles. He's always traveling back and forth between them. He knows that in the decade or so
01:04:06
that Yoshi's been legally active in this trade. He has also been suspected of some very unethical
01:04:12
and outright illegal practices. For example, it's believed that Yoshi harvested butterfly species
01:04:19
in such huge numbers in the Sierra Nevada mountains that experts were afraid entire
01:04:27
local populations of butterflies were wiped out. Dude, chill out. But he just loves them so much.
01:04:36
How big is that net, for real? He's also suspected of targeting very rare protected butterflies
01:04:42
in national parks around the U.S., but there's never been a serious enough investigation
01:04:47
to lead to any criminal charges for it. But that's all going to change at the 2003 bug fair.
01:04:57
Right? What a fun job. Like, why didn't they tell you out of high school that you could walk around a bug fair in disguise as your job?
01:05:04
Like, I maybe would have gone to college. Yes. Instead of just, oh, study, homework, no science.
01:05:10
It's like, no. Communications? No. I wouldn't like to find a bug thief. How about bug disguises?
01:05:16
How about the real shit? How about wired informants? or the first time I read that I was like, was that Wired Informant, like just a very curious
01:05:26
second grader that was like, what kind of insect do you have? And it's like, got you, motherfucker.
01:05:33
We'll get to that part. Okay, so. Special Agent Newcomer will later be quoted as saying,
01:05:43
quote, when you arrest these people and they end up in front of a judge, they tell the judge,
01:05:48
I'm an animal lover. I just got a little carried away and nothing pisses me off more.
01:05:53
They are not animal lovers They are either in it for the money or they in it for the obsession of collecting and owning and having and controlling Whoa he hard Yes this is his first case
01:06:05
and he's fucking had it. It's like, you love a man with passion, but butterfly passion? Oh my god.
01:06:16
So special agent newcomer is strolling through the bug fair incognito, right with whistling real loud because this is his first case he's wearing his dockers and his
01:06:29
braided belt and a nice golf shirt uh he's not a cop he's not a cop um and then he finally gets oh sorry i think we have a picture of ed newcomer don't we oh
01:06:42
Oh, yes. What a hero. Right? And then Ed finally gets a visual of his target. It's Yoshi.
01:06:52
He's at his booth. And Ed doesn't think he looks particularly criminal. No, he doesn't.
01:06:58
No, he's got a dad hat on, Hawaiian shirt. He's just kind of a party dad. Yeah, with a couple bugs.
01:07:05
He loves bugs. It's all above the table. Above a very, very low table. Okay, so he gets his, he sees, he puts eyes on, he realizes who he's dealing with.
01:07:19
What are you laughing about? Puts eyes on. Does anyone have eyes on? So, as author Jessica Spirit reports, Yoshi's staple outfit consists of a fanny pack, loose khaki pants, and either a Hawaiian shirt or a polo shirt.
01:07:39
and this is this specifically usually stained. Ouch. Ouch. I mean that I would be like that's
01:07:48
a cop for sure. You know dressing like a cop. But also it's just so rough for your like known
01:07:55
outfit to include the staining. Yeah. It's just like like she usually wore black pants, black
01:08:00
shirt and a ton of white dog hair. It's just like you didn't have to say the last part about me.
01:08:06
You didn't have to say it. God damn it. She's always asking for a lint roller for some reason.
01:08:13
It's a subtle dig, for sure. It hurts. Just like a stain. So special agent newcomer has a visual on the enemy.
01:08:23
He keeps his distance. He plays it cool on the sidelines, but he watches intently as his informant approaches Yoshi's booth.
01:08:31
Hey, my third. um also how subtle is this intent watch because i bet he's not good yet at it just like pacing
01:08:39
back and forth rubbing his chin the only guy sweating at the bug fair i just love bugs sorry
01:08:46
dude i just love bugs um so ed will say about the informant i saw him go talk to yoshi a few times
01:08:54
but every time i would check in with the informant he would say he won't talk to me he won't talk to
01:08:59
me. He just won't say anything. And then the informant just got more and more jittery. It
01:09:04
definitely was not going well. So I decided, what the hell? I'm going to go talk to this guy.
01:09:10
So special agent is like, out of my way, eight-year-old. I'm going to take care of this.
01:09:16
So newcomer isn't exactly prepared for this moment. He's new to the case. He hasn't had
01:09:21
the opportunity to learn much about butterflies, but he's quick on his feet. He strolls up to the
01:09:27
booth and introduces himself as Ted Nelson. Okay. Yes, someone's been taking UCB classes.
01:09:34
Ted Nelson, you say? He then says he's a recently retired businessman who sold off his father's
01:09:42
company and now has some money to burn, and he has a new fascination with rare insects.
01:09:48
You know, that casual conversation you make at the bug fair. Ed looks through Yoshi's display
01:09:54
cases, all legal insects that are there to buy and sell. He pretends to be amazed and
01:10:02
this feeds Yoshi's ego so well that he can't help but show Ted Nelson something that
01:10:08
he's been keeping in the back. So to speak, it is a massive six inch horned dynastony
01:10:16
beetle. Living. A living. Look at it. Look at it. Also known as the rhinoceros beetle.
01:10:26
Oh. So. What if that was on your shoulder when you looked over? I'd be like, what is it?
01:10:35
What do you have to tell me? So because it said, Maren wrote in here that this was a six-inch beetle,
01:10:43
I immediately turned and Googled, what is six inches long? Okay. It's not a dick joke.
01:10:51
It's so lame of you. And cheap of you. It's not. The first thing that came up in AI, we're fucked.
01:11:06
I mean, we are fucked beyond belief. I don't have to tell you guys that. This is, instead of a dick joke, it's just about how fucked we are with AI.
01:11:16
Because here's what the AI answer I got. There's a quad of like four pictures that say common things that are six inches long.
01:11:25
And no joke, the first picture is a baseball. It's a baseball. It's a baseball. That's not right.
01:11:33
That's the first fucking picture. An American baseball. And then it says under that quote,
01:11:43
items around six inches long include the width of a dollar bill. No. The width of a dollar bill.
01:11:51
There are companies using AI to build things like airplanes and rockets and engines and
01:11:59
shit like that. The width of a dollar bill is six inches. Even we know that's not right.
01:12:09
And we didn't go to college. Even math dipshits like ourselves. It literally says, the width of a dollar bill, some pens, certain chef's knives,
01:12:23
and half a standard 12-inch ruler. Thanks so much. Thank you. thank you wow great now i know exactly what i'm dealing with that was just rude
01:12:36
a baseball some chef knives to give you six and chef knives yes not some some too bad there's ones
01:12:48
that are this long some pens but not those ones you get when you're a tourist that have their real
01:12:57
long because you went to New York City, the Big Apple. And you turn it upside down and she's naked.
01:13:04
There's your six inches right there. You made me do that. You forced me to do it.
01:13:10
I don't want to work blue. You want me to. Okay, we're done with that part. Never forget the 16-inch rhinoceros beetle. I never will. Okay, so special agent newcomer suspects
01:13:24
that this dollar bill-wide beetle was smuggled into the U.S. from its native South America,
01:13:31
almost certainly without the necessary permits, but that's a minor violation of U.S. Department of Agriculture rules,
01:13:37
so Ed doesn't think that that will be enough to take down a smuggler on the level of Yoshi,
01:13:42
who is rumored to trade in much, much rarer, more highly protected specimens. But Yoshi showing Ed this beetle is huge for this investigation
01:13:50
investigation because it shows that they have that yoshi has now made a connection with aspiring
01:13:56
collector ted nelson so um so ted nelson thanks yoshi for his time does a casual loop around the
01:14:04
bug fair and then when it's almost closing time circles back to yoshi's booth only to find yoshi
01:14:14
waiting there with a box which he presents to his new friend Ted Nelson. And inside, there are 13 dead pinned and mounted butterflies,
01:14:24
which Yoshi says are to, quote, start your collection. Whoa. There you go. It's so insulting to do that in a natural history museum.
01:14:32
Like, go to a cafe. You know what I mean? It's like double bad. Yes. It's pretty shitty.
01:14:39
So now Special Agent Newcomer knows for sure he has made a connection and even better, Yoshi wrote his email address inside that box.
01:14:48
And so Ed now has a direct line to him, to one of the biggest insect smugglers that they know about.
01:14:54
So Ed still plays it cool. He doesn't reach out to Yoshi right away. Oh. Right? Yeah.
01:15:00
That's how you do it. You have to wait five days. Five? I don't know. In smuggling, you have to wait five days.
01:15:08
Yeah, for quarantine. okay so then he doesn't reach out to him right away he goes and listens to the recordings that
01:15:16
the informant captured and in them Yoshi isn't revealing much although there is one bombshell
01:15:23
Ed listens as Yoshi brags about how at the airport he pretends to work for National Geographic
01:15:29
and tells customs agents that he provides bugs for their documentaries they're all cast it's like
01:15:36
I had auditions. This rhinoceros beetle was incredible. Really got that it factor.
01:15:44
Yoshi tells the informant this lie works like a charm, and the airport officials usually let him go without scrutinizing his collection.
01:15:52
And then he also brags about outsmarting U.S. fish and wildlife investigators. And that's the part where special agent newcomer just slides his headphones off.
01:16:03
And Ed's hails, and then he goes, now it's personal. This is for my movie, Special Agent Ed Newcomer.
01:16:14
Nobody gets to steal it. Okay. So he sits tight for about a week, and then acting as Ted Nelson,
01:16:21
he sends Yoshi an email asking for help identifying some of the butterflies Yoshi gave him as a gift.
01:16:27
The men exchange some emails, then they talk on the phone, and then Yoshi sets up an in-person meeting at the Starbucks
01:16:34
near the intersection of Venice and Robertson in Los Angeles. They took my advice and went to a cafe.
01:16:40
That's right. That's weird. They literally, what if this whole thing just turns into you
01:16:44
dictating what the story is? This is the newest version of AI. It's called self-podcasting.
01:16:53
So this is that Starbucks on Venice and Robertson that has very little parking. It's almost like a Trader Joe's in that way.
01:17:01
The vibe is off there. Okay. So Ed is incredibly nervous for this meeting because he's wearing a wire this time
01:17:11
and he's doing everything that he can not to blow his cover. He needs to say all the right things that Ted Nelson would say
01:17:19
while simultaneously pushing for more information and incriminating information,
01:17:26
but not so hard that Yoshi would become suspicious. but Yoshi immediately starts asking a ton of questions
01:17:32
and they're really prying questions and they seem to be geared at sussing out whether or not Ted Nelson is a cop.
01:17:40
Ed has prepared for this though. He's got his full Ted Nelson backstory memorized
01:17:46
and he even has a Ted Nelson Costco card in his wallet just in case anybody looks in there.
01:17:53
You gotta get the Costco card You wanna prove something Yeah I actually have done that though when you go like I don have my license Oh right Just like well I do have this Costco card I a gold
01:18:06
member. Will that get me through security? Okay. So Ed Newcomer will later say about this meetup
01:18:17
quote, I was sweating like crazy. Real chill. That's the thing you don't want to do is sweat
01:18:23
like crazy sweat while wearing a wire yeah yeah um but in the end Yoshi seems to buy that was the
01:18:29
whole quote by the way I just uh thought that was good to put that in there in the end Yoshi seems
01:18:34
to buy Ted Nelson's whole story and offers to teach him all about identifying mounting and
01:18:40
collecting rare butterflies so that the two of them can get into business together um it's a
01:18:47
lucrative business, Yoshi claims that he nets anywhere between $800 and $10,000 per butterfly,
01:18:55
depending on how rare they are. Damn. Yes. So Ed suspects Yoshi sees his new friend Ted Nelson as a useful fall guy in this very high
01:19:06
stakes game of illegal insect trading. So because the two men come up with this arrangement where Ted will post bugs and butterflies for
01:19:17
sale on eBay and Yoshi will act as the supplier, which also enables Yoshi to keep his hands clean
01:19:23
and it'll all go on Ted if the shit goes down. So Ed tries to cement this relationship, but it's
01:19:32
clear that Yoshi's trust is fragile because in one of their earlier meetings, Yoshi walks Ted
01:19:38
out to his car, but then circles the car completely looking into the windows and checking the license
01:19:43
plate and even examining the front grill. Well, it's not going to say his real name on it.
01:19:48
It's like, what if, what if it's down here? Yeah. Where do you put your name on your car?
01:19:53
Way down under the front. That's right. Yeah. Just put my initials up under there.
01:20:01
So Ed remembers quote, it would have been very unnatural for me not to have been like,
01:20:06
what the hell are you doing? That's the whole quote. I did it again. Sorry. That was too short.
01:20:12
sorry so he asks yoshi what's going on yoshi says he's looking for cameras a police gun or any other
01:20:19
sign that ted nelson is working undercover ed laughs it off um but he can't deny that yoshi
01:20:26
is clearly a serious dealer so soon after this yoshi returns to japan um but he calls emails
01:20:34
and Skypes, because it's 2003, with Ted Nelson regularly. And on these calls, he feeds Ed's ongoing investigation
01:20:44
by bragging about carrying an American passport under a name that's not his own.
01:20:49
He's just chit-chatting and incriminating the fuck out of himself, left and right.
01:20:55
He shares details on how he actually ships his butterflies to buyers, and he even boasts about how he has a network of collectors
01:21:02
all around the world who capture specimens locally and send them to him. Dude, shut up. Keep your mouth shut.
01:21:08
No, you can't. Just like that. He's having a great time. He even shares tips with Ted Nelson on how to avoid getting nabbed
01:21:16
by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents. But months are going by, and Yoshi hasn't sent Ted any endangered butterflies,
01:21:26
which means it doesn't have any kind of evidence or any of the evidence that he needs.
01:21:32
So he tries to push things along and build goodwill by posting flattering comments about Yoshi on various bug trading websites.
01:21:40
And Ed thinks this will make it look like, this is good policing. He'll make it look like he's helping out Yoshi's business because then that'll be good for his business.
01:21:52
But actually it backfires and Yoshi cuts Ted off because he thinks the attention is going to put the heat on both of them.
01:21:59
Right, and then connect them online. Yeah, on bug websites. On all those. Where it's literally only that eight-year-old informant and four of his friends.
01:22:11
So now Ed tries to reel Yoshi back in by creating fake eBay listings and having his Fish and Wildlife Service colleagues bid on them,
01:22:19
hoping Yoshi will feel like he's missing out on all the sales Ted Nelson is doing solo.
01:22:23
Okay, that's smart. Right, FOMO. um not only does yoshi take the bait oh not only does yoshi not take the bait he sees ted's listings
01:22:32
as direct and hostile competition and he gets so angry that he reports ted nelson as a potential
01:22:39
smuggler to the u.s fish and wildlife service wow yep it's all one big circle So now special agent newcomer, who's become known around the office as the butterfly agent.
01:22:56
Oh, so mad. Feels like his case has just imploded. Because as anyone who deals in the illegal insect trade knows, many of us do,
01:23:05
once someone gets reported to the USFAWS, I'm assuming that's the initials, the assumption is that an agent will then reach out and either bust them
01:23:17
or try to flip them as an informant, which means that the extremely cautious Yoshi
01:23:22
won't come anywhere near his fake friend Ted Nelson now. Oops. So Ed's bummed, but he's not going to give up completely.
01:23:31
Instead, he reluctantly sets this butterfly case aside and he takes on a new case.
01:23:37
He grows a handlebar mustache and he goes undercover as a guy that gambles with domesticated pigeons.
01:23:45
What? You got to move on. You just got to move on. Okay, hold on. Are the gamblers the pigeons?
01:23:53
Yes. Are the pigeons the monetary I don know Boxcars baby Little hat on That was supposed to be a pigeon sound but I got excited
01:24:06
Wow. Got a handlebar mustache. You've got to have the handlebar mustache to be believed in the pigeon game.
01:24:13
People are like, you are not here to bet on birds. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see your mustache.
01:24:18
Yes, you are. Yes, you are. It's basically the departed with animals at this point.
01:24:25
So then a year later in 2006, it's time for the LA Bug Fair again. 18th annual. That was the theme song.
01:24:34
And Ed hears that Yoshi is going to be back in LA again. So he remembers thinking, quote, heck, we got to give it one more try.
01:24:43
Heck. Oh, sorry, that's not the whole thing. Here's the whole quote. Heck, we got to give it one more try, right?
01:24:49
We're going to give it our all. End quote. heck yeah man heck yeah so this year ed's plan is very simple he's just gonna quote bump into
01:25:01
yoshi at the bug fair as ted nelson and then when he does and this really happens yoshi looks nervous
01:25:08
because again he not only turned ted nelson into the authorities but he also is worried probably
01:25:15
that ted is now an informant himself right but ed doesn't miss a beat he tells yoshi it's great to
01:25:21
see him and that he really owes him because some quote asshole turned him into the U.S. Fish and
01:25:26
Wildlife Service. Agents even got a search warrant for his house, but thanks to Yoshi's advice,
01:25:34
he'd already hidden everything incriminating and the investigators walked away empty-handed.
01:25:39
Ed later remembers quote, Yoshi's whole demeanor changed instantly. He was so thrilled that he had
01:25:44
he had given me advice that helped me. End quote. So Yoshi asks Ted to lunch and there he quizzes him on
01:25:53
where he's been getting his butterflies lately. Ed explains lying that he now has a German supplier but that he's not
01:26:00
happy with the condition of the butterflies he's been receiving. They often arrive with
01:26:05
damaged wings and antenna. Can't have that. It's just so weird. It's just so weird.
01:26:13
so Yoshi offers to step in and work with Ted once again they make plans to Skype when Yoshi's
01:26:20
back in Japan like let's make plans for you to see a picture that moves every four seconds of me
01:26:28
and we are back so Ted can check out his stock and then they can go from there so soon these two men fall back in a
01:26:48
constant communication Yoshi offers to supply Ted with all the all kinds of rare butterflies
01:26:54
he claims to have access to some Queen Alexandra's bird wings those are the largest butterflies on
01:27:01
earth. Shut up. That's right. Bigger than six inches? They're, the wingspan is a foot. It's
01:27:09
two rhinoceros beetles wide. No, no, no, no, no. A foot wide. No. They're native to Papua New Guinea
01:27:18
and that's the last fact I have about them. No, sorry, I have one more. They're so big that when
01:27:26
these butterflies fly, they're often mistaken for birds. But they're also one of the rarest
01:27:34
butterflies in the world, so they're on the endangered species list. And this makes capturing
01:27:39
and selling them highly illegal. The Associated Press reports, quote, they're as protected as a
01:27:46
snow leopard. Oh, wow. Right? Who would you rather run into in the jungle? What would be great is if
01:27:55
the bird wing butterfly landed on your head and then it looked like a hat. Oh my God.
01:28:00
So modern. It's so modern. What? If there's any haberdashers in the audience tonight,
01:28:08
I have a copyright on that idea. But I'll never make it. But you should. Then I'll sue you.
01:28:20
A single mounted Queen Alexandria's bird wing butterfly sells for thousands of dollars on the black market.
01:28:27
So obviously Yoshi now fully trusts Ted Nelson because over the next two months,
01:28:33
he express mails him around 40 different butterflies, including two Queen Alexandra's bird wings.
01:28:42
And those cost him $8,500. Wow. And how much is that in today's money? 2006? Yes.
01:28:50
Okay. $14,000. So close. It's never satisfying. You're getting a little bit of applause
01:28:59
for being kind of close. At least I wasn't laughed at this time because I have been laughed at by many audiences.
01:29:06
Sometimes we go in the complete opposite direction. Sometimes we go lower. Doesn't make sense.
01:29:13
We should do just a whole, like, everybody vote. Yeah. Because this show isn't long enough.
01:29:20
All right. So the butterflies in total are all 40. Cost Undercover Ed somewhere between 14,
01:29:29
oh, sorry, no, 14, the dash is for something else. They cost it $14,000, which is $22,000 in today's money.
01:29:38
Thank you. You're welcome. So now Ed finally has the concrete evidence he needs for his investigation.
01:29:45
He has those butterflies. He has endless recordings and Skype conversations and phone calls that outline in rich detail
01:29:52
indisputable criminal activity. But Yoshi in Japan and to make an arrest of course Ed needs Yoshi to be on U soil so he has a plan It finally dawns on him that quote and this is the part where the story
01:30:07
changes for me, and I don't like it anymore, and it gets very sad, because it finally dawns on
01:30:13
Ed Newcomer that, quote, sometime during those calls, I realized Yoshi's got some type of an
01:30:19
attraction toward me. So at first he simply brushed off Yoshi's advances, but now he decides
01:30:27
he's going to use them. Ed secures an arrest warrant without Yoshi knowing. And then as Ted
01:30:33
Nelson, he hints that the two of them should go on a date when Yoshi's back in California and Yoshi
01:30:39
takes the bait. So there was a little bit of like making a friend and talking about a mutual interest.
01:30:45
Oh my God, I love dead bugs too. This is magical. But it's a fucking, it's a special agent in disguise.
01:30:55
No, what a bummer. It gets worse. On July 31st, 2006, three years after Ed and Yoshi first crossed paths at the 2003 bug fair,
01:31:04
Yoshi flies into Los Angeles and is immediately arrested on federal wildlife smuggling charges.
01:31:09
well it gets more heartbreaking because hours later while he's in custody yoshi's eyes light up when he sees ted nelson arriving to bail him out of jail but in fact it
01:31:24
is special agent ed newcomer took his mustache off he's like rip and these sideburns are fake too
01:31:33
motherfucker. Ed says of this quote and then he looked down and he saw the special agent badge
01:31:40
attached to my belt right by my holster. He says have you been with fish and wildlife the whole
01:31:45
time I've known you? He kind of put his head down. He didn't say anything else. He never asked me any
01:31:51
questions about how it all happened. It was weird. We had this relationship and then I arrested him
01:31:56
and the relationship was over. End quote. that's sad. It sucks. Yeah. Aside from the butterflies and the wildlife,
01:32:14
I know guys that have done shit like this. Separate from the insects. Right. Like, what?
01:32:19
Yeah. I didn't realize. I just Skype with you every night. I have a girlfriend. What are you talking about?
01:32:24
What? Okay, we'll talk about that later. In the end, Yoshi Kojima pleads guilty to 17 counts of selling and smuggling endangered species and is sentenced to 21 months in prison.
01:32:39
And he's fined almost $39,000, which Ed says has yet to be paid. And when he's released in 2008, Yoshi is sent back to Japan.
01:32:49
It seems that Yoshi has never spoken publicly about his arrest or dealings in the butterfly smuggling business.
01:32:56
But when Ed Newcomer is interviewed by our friend Phoebe Judge on Criminal, he tells her that in 2015, he busts a 25-year-old smuggler at LAX who, among many other species, is carrying bird-winged butterflies in his suitcase.
01:33:13
And Ed says, quote, out of nowhere, he goes, hey, have you heard of Yoshi Kojima?
01:33:19
And I said, yeah, I've heard of Yoshi. And he goes, he's my mentor. fuck you double double bird into your face as he gets zip tied
01:33:31
that's bug smuggling man you did not have to pretend it was love it was just bug smuggling
01:33:41
yeah this is ed newcomer's very first case as a u.s fish and wildlife service investigator so
01:33:48
maybe we can forgive his ungodly transgression against the human heart. Fast forward two decades.
01:33:55
Now it's 2021. Special Agent Ed Newcomer is about to retire when he is handed one last assignment.
01:34:03
Did you say fast forward two decades? It's 2021. Don't you dare confront my math. Did I?
01:34:11
listen why why do we care about numbers now we don't i don't care i love it let's fast forward two decades minus four years plus one year i think sorry who's good at math
01:34:32
so he's handed his final case which and then in my movie special agent ed newcomer
01:34:40
it gets slapped down on his desk and then he picks it up and he opens it and then he takes some headphones off
01:34:47
and he exhales and he says, I'm too old for this shit and then we get sued by Danny Glover
01:34:57
so this is a case that takes place in Alpine, California where yes so you guys, you already know about this story
01:35:08
A construction worker named Eddie shows up to work one day and discovers a dog abandoned in a crate in the parking lot.
01:35:15
But when he goes to check if the dog's okay, he looks inside and it's a baby jaguar.
01:35:21
What? You know, alpine shit. A six-week-old alpine, sorry, jaguar cub. Alpine born and bred jaguar cub.
01:35:36
Oh, man, what a find. like I never find anything good. So good. When am I gonna be on the Jaguar distribution system?
01:35:44
Exactly! Vince can't say no if I accidentally stumble upon it. Look! It's ours now.
01:35:50
We found a baby Jaguar, we keep a baby Jaguar! So it turns out someone left this baby Jaguar in the
01:36:00
this exact spot, hoping that the nearby animal sanctuary, lions, tigers, and bears,
01:36:05
would come and find him and take him in. And that is exactly what happens. He's taken in, he's cleaned up, and they name him Eddie. And that's just a very cute coincidental
01:36:19
name, because this is the last case Agent Ed Newcomer is ever going to work. And he takes it
01:36:27
very seriously as we know. He says about this case, quote, whenever I had the chance to work
01:36:32
on a case that involved live wildlife, particularly babies, I tried to make it a priority. So this was
01:36:38
a case I was going to close before I retired, no question. So, end quote. So Ed tracks down the
01:36:47
dealer who first sold Eddie the baby Jaguar. As it turns out, she did it through her OnlyFans
01:36:52
account what i didn't know they did that you can and you should and fucking power to all women
01:36:59
everywhere so look get an only fans account sell illegal animals exotic endangered animals on them
01:37:10
get your bag girl do what you gotta do just make sure you're ahead of the game as missy elliott
01:37:16
likes to say in 2022, this woman is arrested and pleads guilty to one felony count of trafficking
01:37:23
an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. In California, you can be fined up to $500,000
01:37:30
for this and given between five and 20 years jail time. Depending on the law, you break.
01:37:39
But I did get that those numbers from the AI answer on Google. So take it with a grain of salt.
01:37:46
The good news is Eddie the Jaguar is living his best life at the Lions, Tigers, and Bears sanctuary.
01:37:55
Eddie! You're so cute. And with this case closed, Special Agent Ed Newcomer, who kick-started his career by catching the Indiana Jones of butterflies,
01:38:07
closes it by bringing justice to a baby jaguar. And that is the story of Special Agent Ed Newcomer's crusade to bring down butterfly smuggler Yoshi Kojima.
01:38:19
Wow. Vince, do we have time for our hometown? Yeah. Okay. Oh. Here's my husband, Vince Averill.
01:38:32
Let's see what it is. 619. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What's up? What's up?
01:38:39
Vince Averill, ladies and gentlemen. That's what I'm talking about. The Travis Kelsey of podcasting That right I don know about that With that I will stand right over there Okay So choose wisely
01:38:55
Okay. Choose wisely. Thank you. Oh, you're going to choose this time. So we've got some rules.
01:39:01
You can keep doing that, but we've got some rules to tell you, and these are important.
01:39:06
And I think I'm going to move this rule up to number one. if you're too drunk to tell your story just write it in and then say in the in the subject line i
01:39:17
was too drunk to tell my story in san diego but i'd love for you to read it on the mini so because
01:39:23
we'll fucking do it yeah but if you're drunk shut the fuck up because there's a bunch of people who
01:39:31
have really well rehearsed stories and hometowns and they know they got it going on okay also your
01:39:39
story has to have a beginning, middle, and end. And it needs to be local. San Diego would be beautiful.
01:39:45
I don't know. Southern California. So Cal's okay. Other than that, don't push it.
01:39:50
And we're just telling you that as your friends, the audience will absolutely attack you
01:39:54
and tear you apart outside. And now it is time for a hometown. You're picking this time.
01:40:01
Remember? I gave it up. Did you really? I gave it up. Did you officially give it up? I'm not fucking doing it anymore.
01:40:06
Okay. Well, how about right down the center right there? Yeah. The lone person. Yes.
01:40:16
Yes. Yes. Keep pointing at yourself. You're the only one. It's just you. Go. Go.
01:40:21
Go, go, go to Vince. Yes. This is the walk of the hometown teller. It takes a while, but it's worth it.
01:40:43
Just keep it moving. Keep it moving. Stand right over here. Jennifer is here, everyone.
01:40:52
It's Jennifer, everybody. Jennifer. Hold this. You can't have notes. Stand here.
01:40:58
I have notes. You don't need notes. No, I'm old. I'll hold your notes. I'm old. You can do it.
01:41:04
Okay, well, hang on a second. Where are you from? I am from San Diego. I live in San Marcos.
01:41:10
Okay, we like that. All right. Great, great, great. Okay. Sadly, this is not a San Marcos story.
01:41:17
Okay. It is Southern California. Okay, great. I grew up in Upland, California. And this is a story of a young, sweet baby angel who was taken at the age of 17 in high school.
01:41:33
I was a junior in 1984 She was a class of 1983 and she was lured by her friend ex into a garage where
01:41:52
her name is Anna, Anna Marie. I'm not going to give her last name. And she was lured in by a
01:42:01
friend of her ex-boyfriend's into her garage where the ex-boyfriend, who was also a senior
01:42:06
in high school strangled her with a an extension cord very sad so keep an eye on your girls make
01:42:15
sure they're not in bad relationships um she was buried uh three blocks from my home
01:42:25
in what is now the 210 freeway that goes across 19th and mountain in upland and um after
01:42:33
about four, five, six weeks, the guy that lured her into this felt guilty about the situation
01:42:44
that he was involved in and confessed to the police. Her body was exhumed and she was identified
01:42:51
by her teeth. And I just, being the mother of a daughter, I can't even imagine what her parents
01:42:58
went through. This happened in April of 83. She was supposed to graduate in June. Very sad. Yeah.
01:43:07
It's very unfortunate. I hear the, uh, the kid went to jail. I looked to figure out where he went.
01:43:12
I, uh, how long he served, I don't know, but I, I, I'm not going to share his name because,
01:43:19
you know, they don't deserve it, but, um, but to Anna Marie, we still think of you.
01:43:28
She was the year ahead of me. She still thought of. A friend of mine did a blog about her.
01:43:34
She's a writer, and she did a big tribute to her, which was wonderful. Nice. Oh, my God.
01:43:40
Thank you, Jennifer. Beautiful. That's nice. Jennifer, everybody. Let's hear her for it.
01:43:44
Good job. Oh, my God. Like, the best hug I've ever fucking had in my life. It's crazy.
01:43:53
Thank you so much. I feel like I'm... Thank you so much for being here. Great job.
01:43:58
San Diego, we've done it. You guys, we made it. We finally did it. Thank you for coming out to see us after all these years off the road.
01:44:12
This has been so amazing and special to see so many of our friends on this tour.
01:44:19
So thank you guys so much for coming and supporting us. Yeah, we've been here for, we've come to San Diego many a time on tour.
01:44:26
we always had an incredible time with you guys It means the world that you show up and that you support this show You guys have given us a dream life and we thank you so much
01:44:38
from the bottom of our hearts for it. It's incredible. And it's because of you guys.
01:44:46
So thank you so much. Thank you for creating the Murderino community, which is such a beautiful thing.
01:44:52
It's a time in this country where we need community more than everything. and you guys have it with each other and for each other.
01:45:01
And please use it and please stay sexy. And don't get hurt! Thank you, San Diego.
01:45:09
Thank you. Good to see you. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an Exactly Right production.
01:45:21
Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer is Tessa Hughes. Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.
01:45:27
This episode was mixed by Liana Squalachi. Our researchers are Mary McGlashan and Allie Elkin.
01:45:32
Email your hometowns to myfavoritemurder at gmail.com. And follow the show on Instagram at myfavoritemurder.
01:45:38
Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
01:45:43
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