December 14, 2021 • 33 mins
38 year-old April Christine Favazzo thought she’d finally found the one in 54-year-old doctor, James Kauffman. They were a good match; she was an advocate for veterans and he was a decorated Vietnam War Vet. In a lovely ceremony, April and James were married on Valentine’s Day 2003. But soon things took a turn for the worse when April discovered cracks in James’ outward apperance that revealed dark secrets about the man she once thought she knew.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Crazy and Love is the true crime podcast that tells
love stories with a twist. This handsome doctor who also
is a retired military vet. It's almost like her dream
man came into her life sometimes the twist of a knife.
And I just can't imagine when your spouse is murdered
in such a horrific way, you don't want to know
(00:23):
who did it and why. Just because things start off
with once upon a time doesn't mean everyone lives happily
ever after. This is Crazy and Love, a production of
Katie Studios and I Heart Radio. I'm Courtney Armstrong, a
crime producer at Katie Studios, joined by fellow producers Tim
(00:47):
Hamilton's Beth Greenwald and Chris Graves. We've all worked for
years on various crime podcasts and TV series, and as
crime producers we talk murder all the time. One thing
we've noticed is just how many of them stem from love.
We're exploring the story of the radio host, the doctor,
(01:07):
and the motorcycle gang. They say the third times a
charm and it was for thirty eight year old April
Christine Vavaso, who tied the knot with fifty four year
old Dr James Kaufman. On Valentine's Day in two thousand three.
It was a big happy event for the couple. The
two were both successful and in their prime. But that
(01:27):
wasn't always the case for April. She grew up as
the oldest of five. Her home life was shrouded in
some drug and alcohol abuse, and her siblings were sent
to foster care. In fact, April was the only one
not put into the system, and she was raised by
her grandmother. But now in her thirties, April was a
successful radio talk show host working at w IBG in
(01:48):
New Jersey. She helmed a popular talk show that covered
every topic imaginable. When she met the eligible Dr James Kaufman,
she was smitten and he swept her off her feet.
James was a successful endochronologist who ran the Egg Harbor
Township medical practice, and April was thrilled to give her
only daughter, Kim, a new stepfather. April and James were
(02:12):
known around Lynnwood, New Jersey as a classic power couple.
They lived in a big house. April jove a cherry
red Corvette, and she owned to Harley Davidson. April was
also philanthropic and passionate about helping veterans. She even opened
her home to nearby cadets and military recruits around the holidays.
(02:33):
In fact, her fierce dedication to veteran care earned her
the nickname Airstrike. April James was a Vietnam War veteran
and a former Green Beret. He earned a Purple Heart
and several Sharp Shooter medals for his valor. He was
also a big, gregarious personality popular with his patients. April
(02:53):
respected and adored him. Here's Chris. April was just a
super successful women. I mean, she had a couple of
successful businesses, salon and a catering outfit, and then she
set her sights on radio and became a successful radio host.
She's kind of this woman that seems to set her
sights on something and then she makes it happen. And
(03:16):
then she also was very well liked in the community.
She was enthusiastic volunteer for many organizations. She was known
for her gregarious personality, and one of the things that
she really loved to do was advocate for military veterans.
And I wonder if Tim if her background that she had,
because she was kind of a trouble background to a
certain extent, her family life maybe made her a little
(03:38):
more empathetic to military veterans because they go through a lot. Totally,
I think that her background and her childhood definitely played
a part because she didn't have the greatest childhood. She
was one of those women who found love or what
she thought was love early on in her life and
it happened to lead to a pregnancy and a marriage
that dissolved, but a beautiful baby. Her daughter, Kim came
(03:58):
out of that, which was so important because they were
like best friends, growing up more like best friends instead
of mother daughter, and they shared a bond that was
just undeniable. I think the closeness that April had with
her daughter was because they were really close in age.
I mean, she had her when she was seventeen, so
I can kind of see that. I think because she
didn't have that perfect Norman Rockwell childhood, she was always
(04:19):
searching and had businesses all over the place and trying
to find where she belongs. She was looking for love,
and she seemed like she found it with James Kaufman.
James was a well respected doctor Jersey guy through and through.
I think he got a license in ninety eight. He
was an end of chronologist. He was also a veteran,
which we knew was one of Kim's passions, and it
was a green beret, which is impressive. You know, he
(04:41):
loved to ride his motorcycle around and like him, a
really adventurous spirit, and he was a hard worker. You know,
he would get up early every day and go to work.
But he also really loved him. He would call her
every day once he got to the office to check
in with him. So I think in Jim, she really
found her, you know, happily ever after. And it sounds
like Jim and Ap well. I mean, he was known
about town. She had this radio show. You know, people
(05:04):
were really aware of them and their life and really
well liked in their community. She used to have the
saying that you know, nobody gives you anything and you
have to work for everything you get. And I think
with that closeness on that she had with Kim, she
probably taught her work ethic is the pinnacle of how
you gained success. Kim was forty seven years old at
that point. She's had a couple of failed relationships. You
(05:25):
know what you want and you know what doesn't work.
And here at this point in Dr Jim Coffman. With Jim,
she found stability, she found companionship, having a grown daughter
at that point, being a successful businesswoman who's single and
knowing what you want and don't want. And then incomes
this handsome doctor with a thriving practice who also is
(05:49):
a retired military vet. It's almost like her dream man
came into her life. Right. It's like they always say,
you won't find it when you're looking for it. You'll
find that love in your least expecting it, and bam,
she wasn't expecting it in her late forties, and look
what happened. By twelve, nine years into the marriage, cracks
began to appear. April's daughter, Kim, remembers her mother telling
(06:13):
her she'd fallen down the stairs, but later April admitted
that James pushed her. It got to a point where
April confided to him that the marriage was over. There
were rumors of infidelity on both sides, and James would
threaten April that she would never get half of everything
if they ever divorced. On May ten, James made his
(06:36):
daily call to April from his office, but no one answered.
He called several more times and then called his handyman
Billy Gonzalez, who took care of the family's pets and
did odd jobs around the house. He wanted Billy to
check on April. This was highly unusual, since James had
only called Billy on his phone a handful of times
(06:56):
in the six years he worked for the couple. What
Billy saw when he got to the house would remain
with him for the rest of his life. Forty seven
year old April Coffman was sprawled face down on the
bedroom floor dead. She'd been shot twice. Panicked, Billy called
James and then called nine one one. James also called
(07:20):
nine one one. Here's a portion of his call. Dr
I just got called by my house person that my
wife is faced down on the floor, my partner spending
out the evils as we speak. First of all, I
don't know why he's calling nine one one if we
know that Billy Gonzalez already called nine one one. The
(07:42):
other thing that really stands out to me about this
is he sounded remarkably calm for someone who just received
a call saying I found your wife face down with
two shotgun holes in her back. I'm perplexed by this call.
Tim My whole thought is why does somebody call nine
one one? You call nine one one to ask for help.
He's not calling asking for help. He's calling to check
(08:03):
in like it's his executive assistant. Oh, I'm on my way.
You don't hear any emotion, and you don't hear a
sense of urgency. He is calling nine on one. So
there's a record that he called nine one one. He
already in his head knows they might look at this
as odd in an investigation. And if he calls nine
one one, it's on record that he called nine one one,
(08:24):
and that he was at the office and it wasn't
near the house when it happened. And Kim has actually
said that when he called her, he said, your mom
is dead. She's dead. She's dead, And he kept saying
it over and over again with no emotion, is as
if to almost want to hurt Kim as well. Kim
rushed over to the house. She parked in the middle
(08:46):
of the cold de sac and ran towards the front door,
and a police officer put out his arm to stop her,
and she was frantically asking where was her mother, Where
is my mom? Where's my mom? And she was so
worked up that she passed out, and when you woke up,
she started to look around, and unfortunately it was just
in time to see them wheeling her mom's body out
the front door of the house. How sad is that
(09:08):
for you know, this daughter who anybody well, yeah, but
she's also particularly close to her mom, and to not
have been allowed in and to have been so emotional
that she passes up, I mean, that speaks to the
love that Kim has for her mom. After they've wheeled
April away from the crime scene, the cops have their
business set out for them, right, the investigators need to
(09:30):
get to work. We're going to take a quick break.
We'll be back in just a moment. The scene was
(09:51):
really clean, I mean, considering somebody had just been murdered.
There there was no shell casings, no guns, no fingerpins,
no forensics. And and another thing was really strange is
that there was no sign of force entry or burglary.
And you know, it was so clean it looked like
a hit. The only thing that they did find was
a pillow that was covered in soot um, which indicated
(10:13):
that somehow it was used to muffle the gun that
shot Kim. And you know, April being, you know, outspoken
a radio host, and you know, she had strong point
of views and a fair share of people that weren't fans.
And so this really kind of set up a challenging
investigation for the police that they were really gonna have
(10:33):
to follow every lead because they had nothing to go on,
which then caused conspiracy theories all around the town of
who could have done this? Was it some professional, was
it a disgruntled listener, was that a veteran? The rumors
and innuendoes were now all around town, and the crime
scene didn't really leave any clues as to who might
(10:54):
have done this. And they questioned Jim, but I mean,
obviously he had an alibi. He was at work and
he called nine one to say I'm on my way home,
but he was cleared by the police. The one thing
that Jim did offer was a tip that he thought
that maybe the Pagan motorcycle gang at a hand at
Kim's murder. Eerily enough, in April's last radio appearance and
(11:15):
I'm not getting you, she talked about her legacy and
imagine a funeral with a flyover. I don't even know
how to explain that. Next thing, you know, she's been
shot dead, right, and after the murder, instead of behaving
like a loving husband and step dad, James asked Kim
(11:37):
to meet him at a restaurant. And it's not to
console her anything. It's to tell her that he's hired
a lawyer, even though he was never arrested. He's he's lawyering,
up right. I mean, that's super strange. And the lawyer
he ends up hiring is Ed Jacobs, the guy who
defended Bill Cosby. And he then informs her that he
(11:58):
thinks the case will never be solved. How does James
know that? What is he got under his sleeve that
he thinks these things? Kim thought that the conversation would
be about possible leads and her mom's death, and now
she's hearing her stepdad say these weird things to her.
It's all very odd. And something else that's odd was
(12:20):
that Kim never was in love with her mom's husband
the way you would think somebody would be happy and
really invested in the new husband that their mother marries.
But that wasn't the case here. She always felt a
little odd. She always felt like something was up, and
it stems back to when she was talking to police.
(12:40):
It triggered a memory where Kimberly wanted to interview James
and talk about his being a vet and all of
the honors and medals and how highly decorated he was.
And he says, I'll do the interview with you, but
you can't tell your mother anything that I tell you,
and you have to destroy the tapes after we're done.
(13:03):
That's really bizarre and odd, and it's just it plays
into her suspicion what else he's hiding, because now he's
telling her he's lawyered up. He's telling her all these
things that she doesn't really expect to hear, and it
suggars that memory about him being very cautious about his
(13:24):
background in the military. And kim determined that she is
to get to the root of her mom's murder. She's
not stopping down just like her mom. She's gonna badger everyone.
She's gonna knock on doors, she's gonna talk to everybody.
She is going to connect the dots if nobody else will,
including her stepfather and the police. You know, She's gonna
do candle light visuals and things like that. But the
(13:46):
prosecutor that was in the state when the murder happened.
Their term was up and a new prosecutor, and Kim
was tenacious enough to make sure that new prosecutor knew
about this case and didn't get forgotten. Kim wanted to
sit down and just have a conversation with him because
she want to find out who did this, and he
wouldn't even really sit down with her. It was one
of the things that I found super strange. And when
(14:08):
all these candle a vigils were going on and people
gathering to console each other, Jim was never there. No.
In fact, what he was doing was he was back
at his house packing up all of her stuff to
sell it at a garage sellar donated you know, to
the local charity houses so that he can get her
out of the house and on with his life. The
(14:30):
case gets a lot of media attention, but no leads,
and James is not a suspect. He was seen on
a surveillance camera at a local convenience store at the
time of April's murder. But three months after April's death,
James tries to cash in on her six dred thou
dollar insurance policy. April's daughter, Kim, received a copy of
(14:53):
the paperwork listing James as the primary beneficiary with herself
as the contingent beneficiary. That meant that if something happened
to James, Kim would get the money. However, Kim decided
not to sign, and she filed a wrongful death suit
against James to stop him from receiving the money. She
(15:14):
believes this will help her get some answers about what
actually happened to her mother. The lawsuit becomes an opportunity
for James to testify under oath about his wife's death.
In a four and a half hour deposition, he said
April may have been killed by a veteran or someone
in the Pagan motorcycle Gang. The Pagans are a known
(15:35):
motorcycle outlaw club and they are violent. James was also
asked about his career in the military and admitted that
he had never served. He did stay in the deposition
that he had told April and her daughter Kim, along
with several other people, that he was a veteran. In
other words, he was a liar. Here's Tim, Well, here's
(16:01):
the interesting thing. Since her daughter opens a wrongful death suit,
the insurance company decides to hold off on paying out
any of that insurance money and it winds up landing
in x Grow where nobody can touch it. It's just
sitting there. Kim hires her own team of lawyers now
to look over her mother's case, and they bring in investigators, experts, pathologists,
(16:21):
and they're all trying to find out something anything on James. Basically,
Kim is trying to keep her mother's case alive and
won't let it just kind of fizzle out to be
a case that just goes cold. And then the one
year anniversary of April's death, there's a candlelight vigil that
that Kim coordinates and holds in the community. However, James
(16:43):
is the only person that doesn't show up. And the
interesting part of why he's not there is because he's
out auctioning off all of April's prize possessions and anything
that was keepsake or a family something that could have
gone to Kim or are people in the family. He
totally just killed all that and auctioned off and sold everything.
(17:04):
I mean, that's terrible, Tim. I mean, here's Kim who
has been so close to her mom, and you can
expect that James would have known there were things that
she probably would want here. He is auxening off and
selling Kim's mother's life. I mean, April's life is being sold,
you know, all her possessions for memories and Kim. You know,
Kim had wanted several things. She wanted UH to remember her.
(17:27):
You know, if there was family heirlooms, there was like
a really important set of Disney coffee mugs, or James
sold everything. He didn't say anything for her. Not only
did he sell everything, but he did something else that
I thought was really disturbing. Fifteen months after April was murdered,
he got married again, and he claimed that he met
(17:48):
the new woman after April died. But I think Kim
had concerns that you know, he was chading. I also
think the other thing was is even if you're trying
to put this behind you in some capacity, you know,
Jim never came to the vigils for April, and someone
even held up in the crowd. I remember seeing this
a sign saying where's Jim Kaufman and brought it to
(18:08):
the vigil because it's it's not like he had any
He wasn't looking to figure out who murdered his wife,
and he wasn't distraught. He was looking forward, not back
in any way, shape or form. And I just can't
imagine when your spouse is murdered in such a horrific way,
you don't want to know who did it and why.
And you know, once the community of Little leg Harbor
(18:29):
starts realizing he's not here and where is Jim, you
know your days are kind of numbered. And if you're
a patient of his practice, I don't know if I
want to still be his patient now I'm you know,
I could imagine all this and the really bad optics
of it are going to start to have a ripple
effect within his community. So Jim wanted to get this
(18:51):
insurance money and the case wasn't solved yet, so the
insurance company put the money in escrow, and Kim also
hired her own legal team to fight the matter. So
as a result of this battle over the insurance payment,
you know, there was gonna have to be a legal fight,
and for that reason, Jim was gonna have to be deposed.
Kim hired a team of lawyers not only to try
(19:12):
and stop Jim from getting the insurance pay out, but
to help her investigate Jim and her mother's murder. So
they brought in investigators and those experts and all these
people to really dig deep. And as a result of
these lawyers in this settlement, Jim was gonna have to
be deposed, which was really the only way that they
were gonna be able to ask him questions and get
some solid answers. And if it wasn't for Kim constantly
(19:35):
pushing and pushing and pushing, that wouldn't have happened. And
ultimately that's the key that opens and cracks the whole case.
So during the deposition, you know, Jim was question under
oath about April's murder. He was asked if he ever
threatened to shoot April. He said no. He was asked
if he hadn't affair during the marriage, He said no.
During the deposition, they basically let him tell whatever story
(19:57):
he wanted for four and a half hour, and they
were basically going to use this videotape deposition to be
used as a roadmap for the prosecutor. This was the
only shot at asking him these questions, So they were
asking him everything under the sun. So that way, when
this deposition was done, here's a videotape of everything he said,
and see where the cracks begin to show it. Let's
(20:18):
just start with one of the biggest cracks of all.
He wasn't even in the military. He wasn't a soldier,
he wasn't a retired vet. He lied. It makes sense
now why he wanted Kimberly to destroy the tapes after
his interview. Why Kimberly could never tell her mother what
he said, or anybody for that matter. Like I think
(20:38):
that to me is the most shocking because of all
the things that she loved about him, and there were
a lot, she loved the fact that he was a
vet and she was so proud to help vets. As
the years marched on, April's case grew cold, but a
new prosecutor, a former judge, resurrected it five years later
(20:59):
into an He's seventeen. After an FBI tip, the police,
armed with a search warrant, attempted to search James's office.
This was not about April's murder. Instead, it was a
totally unrelated insurance fraud case involving unnecessary blood tests James
would build to insurance companies and received tens of thousands
(21:21):
of dollars in kickbacks. As the police surrounded his practice
and announced themselves, James answered the door holding a gun
and threatened to kill himself. Here is a piece of
the police bodycam audio of when the police served the
doctor with the search warrant. I've won a gun, point
(21:42):
Dr James Calten, he has a weapon. Dropped the gun.
Dropped the gun. Hey dropped the gun. Dropped the gun, Sir,
dropped the gun? To drop drop the gun. Let's talk.
So I just dropped a gun. War, we have a
(22:03):
search war in your half your process. I don't believe it. Yes,
I'm not going to jail for it. So we just
have search warrants. What the weapon? Day? Dropped the weapon? Listen,
let's talk. Listen, Let's talk, sir. And that's some of
(22:25):
the most shocking police body cam I've ever heard. You know,
they're there for a search warrant that has nothing to
do with anything that he's been looked at in the past.
You know, that to me speaks to James's guilty conscience.
He assumes that the police are there to get him
when all they wanted to do is search his office.
I mean, really, when you think about it, it's like
guilty conscience anyone. I mean, that is a drastic response
(22:48):
to police, and they want to come look through your records.
You know, he was yelling at the police, and this
is on video. There's there's police officer cameras that show
him and this standoff, screaming I'm not going to ja
out for this. I think he really thought the police
were there about April's death, and so he was panicking
and he was behaving so erratically. He went back inside
his office and then the investigators said they really only
(23:11):
wanted to search the clinic and look at his records.
But like you just said, he went off the deep end.
He's going crazy, and he's he's guilty, he knows he's guilty.
He doesn't even realize why they're actually there. Well, I
mean it was obviously a complete erratic behavior and it
was forty five minutes of this standoff and yelling, and
he had a gun and everything else. And when the
police finally got in, Chris, I think you know what
(23:31):
they found. Yeah, I mean the police found a hundred
thousand dollars in cash and some weapons. I mean, who
keeps a hundred thousand dollars in cash? Either it's money,
but he's saving because he needs to get away and
he wants to keep off the radar, or it's money
he's making from something he shouldn't be doing. Once they
found the hundred thousand dollars in cash and some weapons,
they booked him on weapons charges and he was put
(23:54):
behind bars, which allowed the police to now continue their
investigation into him when there that was on what they
thought he was doing with his office or what happened
in April. Let's stop here for another quick break. When
(24:24):
he finally did you know, surrender, he was booked on
weapons charges and he was put behind bars, and it
really kind of served two purposes because obviously they had
an investigation going on into this insurance fraud, but they
also over here at this unsolved murder of his wife.
It would have just been a routine check your files,
make sure you're billing correctly, and be done. But because
(24:46):
of his guilty conscience, it went a whole another direction,
and really one slip of the tongue of the truth
comes out well except him, They did find the hundred
thousand in cash, and they did find the weapons, so
they had him on weapons chargers. They knew what they
were looking for on that front, but it really did
also give them a hundred thousand knowledge in cash also
speaks to me like is he going somewhere or is
(25:06):
he paying somebody off? Finding what they found in the
way that he behaved gave them cause to put him
behind bards while they investigated not only the insurance claim
but April's murder. So law enforcement was simultaneously keeping Kim's
lawyers in the loop. Getting Jim into custody for something
else was really just them setting the stage for charging
him with April's murder. So this was all a ruse
(25:28):
just to really get the goods of what they really
need from him. I just keep going back to the
thought that if it wasn't for Kim's persistence and wanting
to bring justice and and bring her mother the justice
that she deserves, none of this would happen. Not only that,
and all that came from April teaching her that nobody
gives you anything, you have to work for it, So
(25:50):
Kim was working for her mom's justice. Prosecutors also uncovered
that April wanted a divorce, and what was really disturbing,
Jim stated that he would sooner kill her than give
her divorce and lose half his empire, and April threatened
certain steps to obtain a divorce, spending as much money
as she could, and also threatening to expose the fact
(26:12):
that there was an illegal drug operation going on at
Jim's office. This was all shared by the prosecutor's office.
Chris April knew about the pill mill, you know that
he was running. All of these pieces of information are
now coming forward that's going to allow the prosecutor to
really go after James. And that's part of what the
search weren't was about. When they uncovered April talking about
(26:34):
the pill mill and they connected Jim to it. Jim
was actually connected to the very same motorcycle gang. He
tried to pin April's murder on the Pagan motorcycle gang,
and he had several friends in there, and he ran
a pill mill with this motorcycle gang where he would
write scripts for them and give them drugs and then
they would go out in the street and sell it.
(26:54):
And so one would think that the money that they
found in his office was probably connected that, because you know,
usually that's usually the cash business. So the man that
he dealt with most was a man called Fernanaguio in
the in the motorcycle gang, and the scripture for mainly
for oxy and so they would get a thousand dollars
per script, and then the pills would get sold, and
(27:17):
those without insurance were required to pay a hundred dollars
per visits. So it's it's a cash machine for James here,
who is also, you know, contributing to people probably being
predicted to pain killers and stuff. It's not a very
glamorous thing to be doing, or a good thing, and
I'm assuming that's partly why April wanted a divorce from him,
because she probably didn't believe in what he was doing
(27:38):
and threw tips from Kim's lawyer's law enforcement learned of
a burner phone that Jim had used in the FBI
obtained ten day's worth of phone records for the phone
prior to April's murder, and there was hundreds of calls
to Ferdinand Aguayo, and he was the former head of
this pagan motorcycle gang. It's interesting because they both really
(27:59):
enjoyed the motor cycle gang. They rode motorcycles together. These
were people that they were friendly with, and yet the
same time he's trying to pin his wife's death on them.
At the same time, he's also in a drug ring
with them. It's so multi layered of how let up
this is. As the FEDS and police dug deeper, they
(28:20):
uncovered a narcotic scheme with James at the center. The
doctor was writing fraudulent medical prescriptions for the Pagan motorcycle
gang who sold oxy cotton on the streets. The authorities
finally had James and he was arrested, but he wasn't done.
James sent a letter to the prosecutors claiming it was
(28:42):
the Pagans who are responsible for everything, including April's murder.
The police shared that letter with the Pagans, who were
not happy to have a snitch in their clan. That's
when they started talking about April Kaufman's death. Here's Chris.
When the Pagans found out that James had turned snitch,
(29:03):
they got pretty angry about it, and they started talking
to the police and they let them know that April
had found out about the pill mill. They knew about
that and had threatened to expose it, and it had
made James super, super angry. He didn't take kind to
being threatened himself with a divorce because she wanted to
get away from him, and so he started making inquiries
throughout the motorcycle gang to find out if anyone wanted
(29:26):
to help him make April go away, which obviously was
a euphemism for I want my wife murdered. Right. The
motorcycle gang member who was talking to the police went
on to say that the doctor propositions several people to
murder his wife, and it took a year for someone
to agree to kill her. I mean, that's a lot
of premeditated planning on James's part. Yeah, and that's when
(29:48):
enter Francis Mulholland, an opioid user who the good doctor
was writing prescriptions for illegally, came in and took the
job to kill April for twenty dollars. So for twenty dollars,
he killed April, destroyed a family, destroyed everything good about
this woman. And then just a year later, Mulholland died, ironically,
(30:11):
of a drug overdose of those same pills that he
was buying from the doctor. Think about it. This guy
was an opioid user, he was a murderer, and the
man that paid him twenty dollars also sold him the
pills that ultimately killed him. There's some sort of poetic
justice in that, and you know it was crazy that
that pill mill that James was running went on for
(30:32):
five years after April was murdered. The evidence is mounting
up on James. It's not coming on everybody else. He
wrote prescriptions for It's not coming back to Vets. Every
single thing keeps coming back to James. And from the
very beginning, April's daughter Kimberly said, I would be looking
at my stepfather, the former leader of the Pagans, you know,
(30:54):
Freddy Haguelo was already so concerned about Jim flipping, so
much so that he tried to hire someone in prison
to kill Jim. And Jim realized this and knew what
was gonna happen and really kind of terrified him. And
police were also concerned knowing this gang and knowing what
they've been into and knowing how they operate, so they
moved Jim to a prison where they thought he'd be safer.
(31:14):
And then in October, Ferdinand Greo, who was found guilty
of conspiracy, wreckedteering and drug charges, and he was sentenced
to life in prison plus thirty years, all for his
connection to helping James find a hit man to kill
his wife April. In January eighteen, James was charged with
(31:35):
putting a hit on his wife and racketeering. He was
also charged with working with the Pagan motorcycle gang to
set up a distribution network for oxy cotton. Before he
went to trial, sixty nine year old Dr James Kaufman
hung himself with the laundry court in his cell. He
left behind a six page note. In it, he says
(31:56):
he was forced into the drug ring by April and
claims he didn't murder her. The note also included the
following quote as God is my witness and will be.
I cannot live like this no matter what anybody says.
I did not do anything to my wife, and I
am not was not in the rackets. April's son in
(32:18):
law and nephews dedicated a bench in her memory that
the family often visits, and two of April's friends bought
back all of the possessions that James had sold and
returned them to Kim. One of the items had a
note inside it that said to Kimberly, from Mom, whenever
you look at this, no, you are always loved. You
(32:39):
are special. Best wishes for the rest of your life.
If you're enjoying crazy and love listen to seasons one
and two of The piked In Massacre. Another Katie Studios production,
Crazy in Love is produced by Stephanie Laie Decker, Beth Greenwald,
Chris Graves, Lisa d Giovine, Jeff Shaye, Tim Hamilton's and
(33:01):
me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by Jeff ta
Additional editing by Davy Cooper Wasser. Crazy in Love is
a production of I Heart Radio and Katie Studios. For
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Crazy and Love is the true crime podcast that tells
love stories with a twist. This handsome doctor who also
is a retired military vet. It's almost like her dream
man came into her life sometimes the twist of a knife.
And I just can't imagine when your spouse is murdered
in such a horrific way, you don't want to know
(00:23):
who did it and why. Just because things start off
with once upon a time doesn't mean everyone lives happily
ever after. This is Crazy and Love, a production of
Katie Studios and I Heart Radio. I'm Courtney Armstrong, a
crime producer at Katie Studios, joined by fellow producers Tim
(00:47):
Hamilton's Beth Greenwald and Chris Graves. We've all worked for
years on various crime podcasts and TV series, and as
crime producers we talk murder all the time. One thing
we've noticed is just how many of them stem from love.
We're exploring the story of the radio host, the doctor,
(01:07):
and the motorcycle gang. They say the third times a
charm and it was for thirty eight year old April
Christine Vavaso, who tied the knot with fifty four year
old Dr James Kaufman. On Valentine's Day in two thousand three.
It was a big happy event for the couple. The
two were both successful and in their prime. But that
(01:27):
wasn't always the case for April. She grew up as
the oldest of five. Her home life was shrouded in
some drug and alcohol abuse, and her siblings were sent
to foster care. In fact, April was the only one
not put into the system, and she was raised by
her grandmother. But now in her thirties, April was a
successful radio talk show host working at w IBG in
(01:48):
New Jersey. She helmed a popular talk show that covered
every topic imaginable. When she met the eligible Dr James Kaufman,
she was smitten and he swept her off her feet.
James was a successful endochronologist who ran the Egg Harbor
Township medical practice, and April was thrilled to give her
only daughter, Kim, a new stepfather. April and James were
(02:12):
known around Lynnwood, New Jersey as a classic power couple.
They lived in a big house. April jove a cherry
red Corvette, and she owned to Harley Davidson. April was
also philanthropic and passionate about helping veterans. She even opened
her home to nearby cadets and military recruits around the holidays.
(02:33):
In fact, her fierce dedication to veteran care earned her
the nickname Airstrike. April James was a Vietnam War veteran
and a former Green Beret. He earned a Purple Heart
and several Sharp Shooter medals for his valor. He was
also a big, gregarious personality popular with his patients. April
(02:53):
respected and adored him. Here's Chris. April was just a
super successful women. I mean, she had a couple of
successful businesses, salon and a catering outfit, and then she
set her sights on radio and became a successful radio host.
She's kind of this woman that seems to set her
sights on something and then she makes it happen. And
(03:16):
then she also was very well liked in the community.
She was enthusiastic volunteer for many organizations. She was known
for her gregarious personality, and one of the things that
she really loved to do was advocate for military veterans.
And I wonder if Tim if her background that she had,
because she was kind of a trouble background to a
certain extent, her family life maybe made her a little
(03:38):
more empathetic to military veterans because they go through a lot. Totally,
I think that her background and her childhood definitely played
a part because she didn't have the greatest childhood. She
was one of those women who found love or what
she thought was love early on in her life and
it happened to lead to a pregnancy and a marriage
that dissolved, but a beautiful baby. Her daughter, Kim came
(03:58):
out of that, which was so important because they were
like best friends, growing up more like best friends instead
of mother daughter, and they shared a bond that was
just undeniable. I think the closeness that April had with
her daughter was because they were really close in age.
I mean, she had her when she was seventeen, so
I can kind of see that. I think because she
didn't have that perfect Norman Rockwell childhood, she was always
(04:19):
searching and had businesses all over the place and trying
to find where she belongs. She was looking for love,
and she seemed like she found it with James Kaufman.
James was a well respected doctor Jersey guy through and through.
I think he got a license in ninety eight. He
was an end of chronologist. He was also a veteran,
which we knew was one of Kim's passions, and it
was a green beret, which is impressive. You know, he
(04:41):
loved to ride his motorcycle around and like him, a
really adventurous spirit, and he was a hard worker. You know,
he would get up early every day and go to work.
But he also really loved him. He would call her
every day once he got to the office to check
in with him. So I think in Jim, she really
found her, you know, happily ever after. And it sounds
like Jim and Ap well. I mean, he was known
about town. She had this radio show. You know, people
(05:04):
were really aware of them and their life and really
well liked in their community. She used to have the
saying that you know, nobody gives you anything and you
have to work for everything you get. And I think
with that closeness on that she had with Kim, she
probably taught her work ethic is the pinnacle of how
you gained success. Kim was forty seven years old at
that point. She's had a couple of failed relationships. You
(05:25):
know what you want and you know what doesn't work.
And here at this point in Dr Jim Coffman. With Jim,
she found stability, she found companionship, having a grown daughter
at that point, being a successful businesswoman who's single and
knowing what you want and don't want. And then incomes
this handsome doctor with a thriving practice who also is
(05:49):
a retired military vet. It's almost like her dream man
came into her life. Right. It's like they always say,
you won't find it when you're looking for it. You'll
find that love in your least expecting it, and bam,
she wasn't expecting it in her late forties, and look
what happened. By twelve, nine years into the marriage, cracks
began to appear. April's daughter, Kim, remembers her mother telling
(06:13):
her she'd fallen down the stairs, but later April admitted
that James pushed her. It got to a point where
April confided to him that the marriage was over. There
were rumors of infidelity on both sides, and James would
threaten April that she would never get half of everything
if they ever divorced. On May ten, James made his
(06:36):
daily call to April from his office, but no one answered.
He called several more times and then called his handyman
Billy Gonzalez, who took care of the family's pets and
did odd jobs around the house. He wanted Billy to
check on April. This was highly unusual, since James had
only called Billy on his phone a handful of times
(06:56):
in the six years he worked for the couple. What
Billy saw when he got to the house would remain
with him for the rest of his life. Forty seven
year old April Coffman was sprawled face down on the
bedroom floor dead. She'd been shot twice. Panicked, Billy called
James and then called nine one one. James also called
(07:20):
nine one one. Here's a portion of his call. Dr
I just got called by my house person that my
wife is faced down on the floor, my partner spending
out the evils as we speak. First of all, I
don't know why he's calling nine one one if we
know that Billy Gonzalez already called nine one one. The
(07:42):
other thing that really stands out to me about this
is he sounded remarkably calm for someone who just received
a call saying I found your wife face down with
two shotgun holes in her back. I'm perplexed by this call.
Tim My whole thought is why does somebody call nine
one one? You call nine one one to ask for help.
He's not calling asking for help. He's calling to check
(08:03):
in like it's his executive assistant. Oh, I'm on my way.
You don't hear any emotion, and you don't hear a
sense of urgency. He is calling nine on one. So
there's a record that he called nine one one. He
already in his head knows they might look at this
as odd in an investigation. And if he calls nine
one one, it's on record that he called nine one one,
(08:24):
and that he was at the office and it wasn't
near the house when it happened. And Kim has actually
said that when he called her, he said, your mom
is dead. She's dead. She's dead, And he kept saying
it over and over again with no emotion, is as
if to almost want to hurt Kim as well. Kim
rushed over to the house. She parked in the middle
(08:46):
of the cold de sac and ran towards the front door,
and a police officer put out his arm to stop her,
and she was frantically asking where was her mother, Where
is my mom? Where's my mom? And she was so
worked up that she passed out, and when you woke up,
she started to look around, and unfortunately it was just
in time to see them wheeling her mom's body out
the front door of the house. How sad is that
(09:08):
for you know, this daughter who anybody well, yeah, but
she's also particularly close to her mom, and to not
have been allowed in and to have been so emotional
that she passes up, I mean, that speaks to the
love that Kim has for her mom. After they've wheeled
April away from the crime scene, the cops have their
business set out for them, right, the investigators need to
(09:30):
get to work. We're going to take a quick break.
We'll be back in just a moment. The scene was
(09:51):
really clean, I mean, considering somebody had just been murdered.
There there was no shell casings, no guns, no fingerpins,
no forensics. And and another thing was really strange is
that there was no sign of force entry or burglary.
And you know, it was so clean it looked like
a hit. The only thing that they did find was
a pillow that was covered in soot um, which indicated
(10:13):
that somehow it was used to muffle the gun that
shot Kim. And you know, April being, you know, outspoken
a radio host, and you know, she had strong point
of views and a fair share of people that weren't fans.
And so this really kind of set up a challenging
investigation for the police that they were really gonna have
(10:33):
to follow every lead because they had nothing to go on,
which then caused conspiracy theories all around the town of
who could have done this? Was it some professional, was
it a disgruntled listener, was that a veteran? The rumors
and innuendoes were now all around town, and the crime
scene didn't really leave any clues as to who might
(10:54):
have done this. And they questioned Jim, but I mean,
obviously he had an alibi. He was at work and
he called nine one to say I'm on my way home,
but he was cleared by the police. The one thing
that Jim did offer was a tip that he thought
that maybe the Pagan motorcycle gang at a hand at
Kim's murder. Eerily enough, in April's last radio appearance and
(11:15):
I'm not getting you, she talked about her legacy and
imagine a funeral with a flyover. I don't even know
how to explain that. Next thing, you know, she's been
shot dead, right, and after the murder, instead of behaving
like a loving husband and step dad, James asked Kim
(11:37):
to meet him at a restaurant. And it's not to
console her anything. It's to tell her that he's hired
a lawyer, even though he was never arrested. He's he's lawyering,
up right. I mean, that's super strange. And the lawyer
he ends up hiring is Ed Jacobs, the guy who
defended Bill Cosby. And he then informs her that he
(11:58):
thinks the case will never be solved. How does James
know that? What is he got under his sleeve that
he thinks these things? Kim thought that the conversation would
be about possible leads and her mom's death, and now
she's hearing her stepdad say these weird things to her.
It's all very odd. And something else that's odd was
(12:20):
that Kim never was in love with her mom's husband
the way you would think somebody would be happy and
really invested in the new husband that their mother marries.
But that wasn't the case here. She always felt a
little odd. She always felt like something was up, and
it stems back to when she was talking to police.
(12:40):
It triggered a memory where Kimberly wanted to interview James
and talk about his being a vet and all of
the honors and medals and how highly decorated he was.
And he says, I'll do the interview with you, but
you can't tell your mother anything that I tell you,
and you have to destroy the tapes after we're done.
(13:03):
That's really bizarre and odd, and it's just it plays
into her suspicion what else he's hiding, because now he's
telling her he's lawyered up. He's telling her all these
things that she doesn't really expect to hear, and it
suggars that memory about him being very cautious about his
(13:24):
background in the military. And kim determined that she is
to get to the root of her mom's murder. She's
not stopping down just like her mom. She's gonna badger everyone.
She's gonna knock on doors, she's gonna talk to everybody.
She is going to connect the dots if nobody else will,
including her stepfather and the police. You know, She's gonna
do candle light visuals and things like that. But the
(13:46):
prosecutor that was in the state when the murder happened.
Their term was up and a new prosecutor, and Kim
was tenacious enough to make sure that new prosecutor knew
about this case and didn't get forgotten. Kim wanted to
sit down and just have a conversation with him because
she want to find out who did this, and he
wouldn't even really sit down with her. It was one
of the things that I found super strange. And when
(14:08):
all these candle a vigils were going on and people
gathering to console each other, Jim was never there. No.
In fact, what he was doing was he was back
at his house packing up all of her stuff to
sell it at a garage sellar donated you know, to
the local charity houses so that he can get her
out of the house and on with his life. The
(14:30):
case gets a lot of media attention, but no leads,
and James is not a suspect. He was seen on
a surveillance camera at a local convenience store at the
time of April's murder. But three months after April's death,
James tries to cash in on her six dred thou
dollar insurance policy. April's daughter, Kim, received a copy of
(14:53):
the paperwork listing James as the primary beneficiary with herself
as the contingent beneficiary. That meant that if something happened
to James, Kim would get the money. However, Kim decided
not to sign, and she filed a wrongful death suit
against James to stop him from receiving the money. She
(15:14):
believes this will help her get some answers about what
actually happened to her mother. The lawsuit becomes an opportunity
for James to testify under oath about his wife's death.
In a four and a half hour deposition, he said
April may have been killed by a veteran or someone
in the Pagan motorcycle Gang. The Pagans are a known
(15:35):
motorcycle outlaw club and they are violent. James was also
asked about his career in the military and admitted that
he had never served. He did stay in the deposition
that he had told April and her daughter Kim, along
with several other people, that he was a veteran. In
other words, he was a liar. Here's Tim, Well, here's
(16:01):
the interesting thing. Since her daughter opens a wrongful death suit,
the insurance company decides to hold off on paying out
any of that insurance money and it winds up landing
in x Grow where nobody can touch it. It's just
sitting there. Kim hires her own team of lawyers now
to look over her mother's case, and they bring in investigators, experts, pathologists,
(16:21):
and they're all trying to find out something anything on James. Basically,
Kim is trying to keep her mother's case alive and
won't let it just kind of fizzle out to be
a case that just goes cold. And then the one
year anniversary of April's death, there's a candlelight vigil that
that Kim coordinates and holds in the community. However, James
(16:43):
is the only person that doesn't show up. And the
interesting part of why he's not there is because he's
out auctioning off all of April's prize possessions and anything
that was keepsake or a family something that could have
gone to Kim or are people in the family. He
totally just killed all that and auctioned off and sold everything.
(17:04):
I mean, that's terrible, Tim. I mean, here's Kim who
has been so close to her mom, and you can
expect that James would have known there were things that
she probably would want here. He is auxening off and
selling Kim's mother's life. I mean, April's life is being sold,
you know, all her possessions for memories and Kim. You know,
Kim had wanted several things. She wanted UH to remember her.
(17:27):
You know, if there was family heirlooms, there was like
a really important set of Disney coffee mugs, or James
sold everything. He didn't say anything for her. Not only
did he sell everything, but he did something else that
I thought was really disturbing. Fifteen months after April was murdered,
he got married again, and he claimed that he met
(17:48):
the new woman after April died. But I think Kim
had concerns that you know, he was chading. I also
think the other thing was is even if you're trying
to put this behind you in some capacity, you know,
Jim never came to the vigils for April, and someone
even held up in the crowd. I remember seeing this
a sign saying where's Jim Kaufman and brought it to
(18:08):
the vigil because it's it's not like he had any
He wasn't looking to figure out who murdered his wife,
and he wasn't distraught. He was looking forward, not back
in any way, shape or form. And I just can't
imagine when your spouse is murdered in such a horrific way,
you don't want to know who did it and why.
And you know, once the community of Little leg Harbor
(18:29):
starts realizing he's not here and where is Jim, you
know your days are kind of numbered. And if you're
a patient of his practice, I don't know if I
want to still be his patient now I'm you know,
I could imagine all this and the really bad optics
of it are going to start to have a ripple
effect within his community. So Jim wanted to get this
(18:51):
insurance money and the case wasn't solved yet, so the
insurance company put the money in escrow, and Kim also
hired her own legal team to fight the matter. So
as a result of this battle over the insurance payment,
you know, there was gonna have to be a legal fight,
and for that reason, Jim was gonna have to be deposed.
Kim hired a team of lawyers not only to try
(19:12):
and stop Jim from getting the insurance pay out, but
to help her investigate Jim and her mother's murder. So
they brought in investigators and those experts and all these
people to really dig deep. And as a result of
these lawyers in this settlement, Jim was gonna have to
be deposed, which was really the only way that they
were gonna be able to ask him questions and get
some solid answers. And if it wasn't for Kim constantly
(19:35):
pushing and pushing and pushing, that wouldn't have happened. And
ultimately that's the key that opens and cracks the whole case.
So during the deposition, you know, Jim was question under
oath about April's murder. He was asked if he ever
threatened to shoot April. He said no. He was asked
if he hadn't affair during the marriage, He said no.
During the deposition, they basically let him tell whatever story
(19:57):
he wanted for four and a half hour, and they
were basically going to use this videotape deposition to be
used as a roadmap for the prosecutor. This was the
only shot at asking him these questions, So they were
asking him everything under the sun. So that way, when
this deposition was done, here's a videotape of everything he said,
and see where the cracks begin to show it. Let's
(20:18):
just start with one of the biggest cracks of all.
He wasn't even in the military. He wasn't a soldier,
he wasn't a retired vet. He lied. It makes sense
now why he wanted Kimberly to destroy the tapes after
his interview. Why Kimberly could never tell her mother what
he said, or anybody for that matter. Like I think
(20:38):
that to me is the most shocking because of all
the things that she loved about him, and there were
a lot, she loved the fact that he was a
vet and she was so proud to help vets. As
the years marched on, April's case grew cold, but a
new prosecutor, a former judge, resurrected it five years later
(20:59):
into an He's seventeen. After an FBI tip, the police,
armed with a search warrant, attempted to search James's office.
This was not about April's murder. Instead, it was a
totally unrelated insurance fraud case involving unnecessary blood tests James
would build to insurance companies and received tens of thousands
(21:21):
of dollars in kickbacks. As the police surrounded his practice
and announced themselves, James answered the door holding a gun
and threatened to kill himself. Here is a piece of
the police bodycam audio of when the police served the
doctor with the search warrant. I've won a gun, point
(21:42):
Dr James Calten, he has a weapon. Dropped the gun.
Dropped the gun. Hey dropped the gun. Dropped the gun, Sir,
dropped the gun? To drop drop the gun. Let's talk.
So I just dropped a gun. War, we have a
(22:03):
search war in your half your process. I don't believe it. Yes,
I'm not going to jail for it. So we just
have search warrants. What the weapon? Day? Dropped the weapon? Listen,
let's talk. Listen, Let's talk, sir. And that's some of
(22:25):
the most shocking police body cam I've ever heard. You know,
they're there for a search warrant that has nothing to
do with anything that he's been looked at in the past.
You know, that to me speaks to James's guilty conscience.
He assumes that the police are there to get him
when all they wanted to do is search his office.
I mean, really, when you think about it, it's like
guilty conscience anyone. I mean, that is a drastic response
(22:48):
to police, and they want to come look through your records.
You know, he was yelling at the police, and this
is on video. There's there's police officer cameras that show
him and this standoff, screaming I'm not going to ja
out for this. I think he really thought the police
were there about April's death, and so he was panicking
and he was behaving so erratically. He went back inside
his office and then the investigators said they really only
(23:11):
wanted to search the clinic and look at his records.
But like you just said, he went off the deep end.
He's going crazy, and he's he's guilty, he knows he's guilty.
He doesn't even realize why they're actually there. Well, I
mean it was obviously a complete erratic behavior and it
was forty five minutes of this standoff and yelling, and
he had a gun and everything else. And when the
police finally got in, Chris, I think you know what
(23:31):
they found. Yeah, I mean the police found a hundred
thousand dollars in cash and some weapons. I mean, who
keeps a hundred thousand dollars in cash? Either it's money,
but he's saving because he needs to get away and
he wants to keep off the radar, or it's money
he's making from something he shouldn't be doing. Once they
found the hundred thousand dollars in cash and some weapons,
they booked him on weapons charges and he was put
(23:54):
behind bars, which allowed the police to now continue their
investigation into him when there that was on what they
thought he was doing with his office or what happened
in April. Let's stop here for another quick break. When
(24:24):
he finally did you know, surrender, he was booked on
weapons charges and he was put behind bars, and it
really kind of served two purposes because obviously they had
an investigation going on into this insurance fraud, but they
also over here at this unsolved murder of his wife.
It would have just been a routine check your files,
make sure you're billing correctly, and be done. But because
(24:46):
of his guilty conscience, it went a whole another direction,
and really one slip of the tongue of the truth
comes out well except him, They did find the hundred
thousand in cash, and they did find the weapons, so
they had him on weapons chargers. They knew what they
were looking for on that front, but it really did
also give them a hundred thousand knowledge in cash also
speaks to me like is he going somewhere or is
(25:06):
he paying somebody off? Finding what they found in the
way that he behaved gave them cause to put him
behind bards while they investigated not only the insurance claim
but April's murder. So law enforcement was simultaneously keeping Kim's
lawyers in the loop. Getting Jim into custody for something
else was really just them setting the stage for charging
him with April's murder. So this was all a ruse
(25:28):
just to really get the goods of what they really
need from him. I just keep going back to the
thought that if it wasn't for Kim's persistence and wanting
to bring justice and and bring her mother the justice
that she deserves, none of this would happen. Not only that,
and all that came from April teaching her that nobody
gives you anything, you have to work for it, So
(25:50):
Kim was working for her mom's justice. Prosecutors also uncovered
that April wanted a divorce, and what was really disturbing,
Jim stated that he would sooner kill her than give
her divorce and lose half his empire, and April threatened
certain steps to obtain a divorce, spending as much money
as she could, and also threatening to expose the fact
(26:12):
that there was an illegal drug operation going on at
Jim's office. This was all shared by the prosecutor's office.
Chris April knew about the pill mill, you know that
he was running. All of these pieces of information are
now coming forward that's going to allow the prosecutor to
really go after James. And that's part of what the
search weren't was about. When they uncovered April talking about
(26:34):
the pill mill and they connected Jim to it. Jim
was actually connected to the very same motorcycle gang. He
tried to pin April's murder on the Pagan motorcycle gang,
and he had several friends in there, and he ran
a pill mill with this motorcycle gang where he would
write scripts for them and give them drugs and then
they would go out in the street and sell it.
(26:54):
And so one would think that the money that they
found in his office was probably connected that, because you know,
usually that's usually the cash business. So the man that
he dealt with most was a man called Fernanaguio in
the in the motorcycle gang, and the scripture for mainly
for oxy and so they would get a thousand dollars
per script, and then the pills would get sold, and
(27:17):
those without insurance were required to pay a hundred dollars
per visits. So it's it's a cash machine for James here,
who is also, you know, contributing to people probably being
predicted to pain killers and stuff. It's not a very
glamorous thing to be doing, or a good thing, and
I'm assuming that's partly why April wanted a divorce from him,
because she probably didn't believe in what he was doing
(27:38):
and threw tips from Kim's lawyer's law enforcement learned of
a burner phone that Jim had used in the FBI
obtained ten day's worth of phone records for the phone
prior to April's murder, and there was hundreds of calls
to Ferdinand Aguayo, and he was the former head of
this pagan motorcycle gang. It's interesting because they both really
(27:59):
enjoyed the motor cycle gang. They rode motorcycles together. These
were people that they were friendly with, and yet the
same time he's trying to pin his wife's death on them.
At the same time, he's also in a drug ring
with them. It's so multi layered of how let up
this is. As the FEDS and police dug deeper, they
(28:20):
uncovered a narcotic scheme with James at the center. The
doctor was writing fraudulent medical prescriptions for the Pagan motorcycle
gang who sold oxy cotton on the streets. The authorities
finally had James and he was arrested, but he wasn't done.
James sent a letter to the prosecutors claiming it was
(28:42):
the Pagans who are responsible for everything, including April's murder.
The police shared that letter with the Pagans, who were
not happy to have a snitch in their clan. That's
when they started talking about April Kaufman's death. Here's Chris.
When the Pagans found out that James had turned snitch,
(29:03):
they got pretty angry about it, and they started talking
to the police and they let them know that April
had found out about the pill mill. They knew about
that and had threatened to expose it, and it had
made James super, super angry. He didn't take kind to
being threatened himself with a divorce because she wanted to
get away from him, and so he started making inquiries
throughout the motorcycle gang to find out if anyone wanted
(29:26):
to help him make April go away, which obviously was
a euphemism for I want my wife murdered. Right. The
motorcycle gang member who was talking to the police went
on to say that the doctor propositions several people to
murder his wife, and it took a year for someone
to agree to kill her. I mean, that's a lot
of premeditated planning on James's part. Yeah, and that's when
(29:48):
enter Francis Mulholland, an opioid user who the good doctor
was writing prescriptions for illegally, came in and took the
job to kill April for twenty dollars. So for twenty dollars,
he killed April, destroyed a family, destroyed everything good about
this woman. And then just a year later, Mulholland died, ironically,
(30:11):
of a drug overdose of those same pills that he
was buying from the doctor. Think about it. This guy
was an opioid user, he was a murderer, and the
man that paid him twenty dollars also sold him the
pills that ultimately killed him. There's some sort of poetic
justice in that, and you know it was crazy that
that pill mill that James was running went on for
(30:32):
five years after April was murdered. The evidence is mounting
up on James. It's not coming on everybody else. He
wrote prescriptions for It's not coming back to Vets. Every
single thing keeps coming back to James. And from the
very beginning, April's daughter Kimberly said, I would be looking
at my stepfather, the former leader of the Pagans, you know,
(30:54):
Freddy Haguelo was already so concerned about Jim flipping, so
much so that he tried to hire someone in prison
to kill Jim. And Jim realized this and knew what
was gonna happen and really kind of terrified him. And
police were also concerned knowing this gang and knowing what
they've been into and knowing how they operate, so they
moved Jim to a prison where they thought he'd be safer.
(31:14):
And then in October, Ferdinand Greo, who was found guilty
of conspiracy, wreckedteering and drug charges, and he was sentenced
to life in prison plus thirty years, all for his
connection to helping James find a hit man to kill
his wife April. In January eighteen, James was charged with
(31:35):
putting a hit on his wife and racketeering. He was
also charged with working with the Pagan motorcycle gang to
set up a distribution network for oxy cotton. Before he
went to trial, sixty nine year old Dr James Kaufman
hung himself with the laundry court in his cell. He
left behind a six page note. In it, he says
(31:56):
he was forced into the drug ring by April and
claims he didn't murder her. The note also included the
following quote as God is my witness and will be.
I cannot live like this no matter what anybody says.
I did not do anything to my wife, and I
am not was not in the rackets. April's son in
(32:18):
law and nephews dedicated a bench in her memory that
the family often visits, and two of April's friends bought
back all of the possessions that James had sold and
returned them to Kim. One of the items had a
note inside it that said to Kimberly, from Mom, whenever
you look at this, no, you are always loved. You
(32:39):
are special. Best wishes for the rest of your life.
If you're enjoying crazy and love listen to seasons one
and two of The piked In Massacre. Another Katie Studios production,
Crazy in Love is produced by Stephanie Laie Decker, Beth Greenwald,
Chris Graves, Lisa d Giovine, Jeff Shaye, Tim Hamilton's and
(33:01):
me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by Jeff ta
Additional editing by Davy Cooper Wasser. Crazy in Love is
a production of I Heart Radio and Katie Studios. For
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
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