October 15, 2025 • 37 mins
David's running out of money. Instead of sending his cut, Steve sends "Bruno" to eliminate his co-conspirator.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Gampsite Media large.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
So Rory.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Episode four is the halfway point of our series. Can
you recap for fans who maybe smoked too much weed
between last week and what's been going on.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
David Gant, the mastermind of acquiring seventeen million dollars from
Alumis Fargo, is hiding out in Mexico with a little
bit of cash and trying to guess beyond the lamb.
While in the United States of America, the rest of
his crew is getting a little flimsy with the money.
(00:52):
And also we're starting to learn that the FBI is
easily gaining traction. Who is guilty of what? So, yeah,
seventeen million dollars have been stolen. David Gann is the
only one on the lamb. Everyone else is hiding out
in broad daylight spending the money he stole.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
All right, then let's get onto the episode. This is
Hilbilly Heist Episode four.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
When you're twenty five years old, somebody engine offers you
tuner for the Grand first thing that pops in your
head is cocaine, hookers, and hot tubs.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Cocaine and hooker, sure, but adding a hot tub just
seems fungusy.
Speaker 6 (01:36):
Why the hot tubs.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
He needs someplace to relax.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
That's usually the unholy Trinity.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
This is Mike McKenny, a man who knows precisely what
he wants out of life, and also a man who's
fairly comfortable doing whatever it takes to get it.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I have been labeled with sociopathic tendencies.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
That's also coming from over educated people with too many degrees.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I don't care, which brings us to why Mike McKenny
got offered two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It was
a cash deal to pull off one simple job killing
David Gant. Mike mckennie is a former marine who got
(02:25):
kicked out for, in his words, going feral, but before
he was discharged he got pretty good at shooting guns
and blowing shit up. He's a big dude, a muscular
six foot four. Back in the day, he rocked bleach
blonde hair and a dark beard, and the carpet didn't
match the curtains or did it.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
To each their own way, The nineties were to me.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
When he was still in the Marines, Mike served with
Michelle's first husband, and he also got to know Steve Chambers, who,
as we know eventually became Michelle's second husband.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Cute little bitty thing, but she's louding obnoxious. Steve was
a bigger guy. He thought he was super slick. Thought
he's a tough guy.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But he was pretty good con man. He could make
you believe a story. He was kind of slicking that regard.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
If you've ever been around a really good con man,
you can talk to them and know they're full oft shit,
but they still draw you in.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I don't know how they do it.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Mike started working construction in Illinois after the Marines booted
him out, but he stayed in touch with Steve and Michelle,
and then in the fall of nineteen ninety seven, Steve
approached Mike with the proposition.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
The story he told me was this guy needs to
get out of town fast. He robs some money from
the wrong people. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, for fifty thousand dollars cash. I was like deal.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
The real story that Steve gave his ID to David Gant,
who used it to flee to Mexico. David and Mike
don't really look anything alike. But remember TSA doesn't exist.
There are no digital eyeball scanners. Also giving someone else
your ID wasn't such a big deal back then.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
On me, it wouldn't have mattered if somebody would have
ran a credit scam because I didn't have any credit.
I didn't have any assets for them to try to
cheat me out of, if I didn't have a huge
banking account that they could empty my bank account.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Plus, you could just show up to the DMV, take
a number, and get a new ID with basically no
questions asked. A few weeks after Mike gave Steve his ID,
Steve and his henchman, Big Eric, took a trip to Illinois.
They met Mike in a motel room and gave him
(04:49):
the money Stevid promised fifty grand in small bills. Steve
still didn't tell him where the money came from, but
he did offer Mike a chance to make even more.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
He did drop a seed in there, and he said,
a there might be something big, else big coming up
to we might have to take somebody out.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
And as soon as Steve mentioned that he was willing
to pay a quarter million dollars cash, Mike probably immediately thought,
you know how much cocaine, hookers and hot tubs that'll
buy you.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
There was no way I would have ever seen that
kind of money in my life. You know, number one,
you're probably gonna end up dead or in prison. It's
a conclusion, and that's what you accept. The only thing
you do is run one day at a time, throwing
as much fun in there as you could before you
hit the brick wall.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Mike told Steve he'd do the job. He still didn't
know where, when, or even who he was killing. Still
he persevered, But hey, dealing with that kind of uncertainty
is just part of being a professional assassin.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
Actually, I prefer the the hitman or the hard gun
conferred to assassin because to me, the assassin sounds like
your elite government type of person, you know, one the
government's used, and hit man or a gun for her
(06:20):
sounds more like the hill billy, redneck version of the assassin.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Huh. Anyway, after Steve left, Might quit his construction job
and waited for the call from SmartLess media, campsite media,
(06:47):
and big money players. In partnership with iHeart Podcasts, I'm
Johnny Knoxville and you're listening to Crime List Bill Billy Heist.
This is our fourth episode. The hit Man a month
(07:13):
into his time in Cancun, David Gand has transformed. He's
no longer the scrawny outlaw giving himself the first little
taste of luxury. Now he's a full blown connoisseur.
Speaker 7 (07:27):
I'm learning how to be a person of means, so
I'm trying out the more expensive desserts. I'm drinking better alcohol. Lobster,
so I order a double. It comes with this huge potato.
That's great.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
The heist was the first time that David's impulsive frame
and his army trained planning Frain really got to join forces.
Turns out these two sides of David like working together
and having a pocket full of cash. In Mexico, it's
a new opportunity for collaboration. He's devised a new routine,
a regular circuit of indulgence.
Speaker 7 (08:07):
And we made this loop of really good bars and
restaurants and I would start around two thirty three o'clock.
Speaker 8 (08:16):
I'd go for a morning.
Speaker 7 (08:17):
Swim, come back, take a nap, and I'd start making
my rounds.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
The highlight of this tour was Senior Frogs.
Speaker 8 (08:31):
I don't like to dance, but if I have enough tequila,
I will.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
After Senior Frogs, he'd hit another club called Laboom, and
he'd usually end his night at Daddy Rock.
Speaker 8 (08:44):
By then it's two in morning, and I've spent a
don't know how.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Much money real talk, probably about seventy eight bucks. And
all this time David claims that he's not missing Kelly.
Speaker 7 (08:57):
I'll be brutally honest, like the turb to come in,
and there were enough females.
Speaker 8 (09:07):
And I really didn't put my salt in her to
be brutally honest.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Oh yeah, we get a David. You never really liked
her anyway.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
One of the contests I went to was a bear
as You Dare contest, and since I tipped the doorman,
I got to be an honorary judge. So I got
up front and they go through, and I mean, the
bikinis are getting smaller and smaller, and finally the one
girl comes out and she's got a band aid on
(09:39):
her foot.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
But hitting every club in Cancoon every single day is
kind of tough on the wallet.
Speaker 8 (09:49):
That'll run your money out quick.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And as the weeks go on, David is starting to
wonder what the hold up is. I mean, how hard
could it be to get contraband into Mexico.
Speaker 8 (09:59):
You can smuggle in South all.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
This time, David is making his weekly calls to Kelly
at the payphone in North Carolina. He's asking about the money,
explaining that he's running out, and she's just making excuses.
Speaker 8 (10:13):
She's talking about, Oh, they haven't problems moving it as
a lot.
Speaker 7 (10:17):
They didn't think you'd get nothing of small bills, And
I'm like, what what are you fussing about?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
But through it all, David is still David. Here are
the emotions of the guy who threw his life away
for one third share of millions of dollars that he
has yet to see.
Speaker 8 (10:34):
Not really fed up, but I'm kind of angry.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I mean, come on, David, if you were pissed, we
would understand. And yet somehow he is still not angry
with Kelly. He's angry with the other guy from the heist,
and he finally knows that guy's name.
Speaker 8 (10:53):
She's let slip.
Speaker 7 (10:54):
I knew that Steve is a name I wasn't supposed
to know, mister Orange or whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
David tells Kelly he needs fifty grand a SAP. She
tells him she'll let Steve know. Mike McKinnie isn't much
of a people person.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, that's a lot easier to tolerate people when you
don't have to be around them all the time.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Actually, I find that really relatable. But after accepting Steve's
initial offer, Mike was still waiting on instructions on who
he was supposed to kill. In the meantime, Steve had
another way for Mike to make money. He could come
to North Carolina, live in a motel and be Steve's bodyguard.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
You know, and somebody hires you for that, You kind
of take it serious at first, and then you realize
there's really no threat here. He just he just wants
to pay me money to look tougher because he has
a buddyguard.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
It's like get paid to hang out.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
I had to carry the pistol because he was a felon,
and other than that, right around in the truck with
him and Sidney's furniture store and go back to the
hotel room at night.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
This life of leisure did give Mike and Steve plenty
of time to hang out in the mansion.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
We actually went to the basement and saw the wine
cellar full of PBR.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
That's actually great.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
He treated the wine cellar more like a walking cooler
at the liquor store.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
He went in there and.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
Basically had cases and twelve packs packed everywhere inside of
this place. The velvetelle was the Cuban cigars and humid
or he couldn't get to work right. Of course, I
didn't know that this was newly acquired money. I just
figured he'd been building up since the few years i'd
seen him.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Mike still didn't know how his old friend Steve had
acquired all this money, and Steve didn't explain who he
wanted Mike to kill, but he did start to finally
provide a few details, like that the target was in
Mexico and needed money, so Mike could get close to
him by dropping off the cash. And just how did
Steve instruct Mike to take him out with the bleach
(13:16):
injection tossing a grenade in his general direction, something that
won't attract any attention, right, He was.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Just going to leave the method up to me because
I was a trained assassin.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Uh huh oh okay, Mike, But there was nothing funny
about the code name Mike would have to use to
get close to his target.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Steve chose the name Bruno. I don't know where he
came up with it.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Of course, that was the same time that what Bruce
Willis came out with his album and he called himself
Bruno or something.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Bruno rad Aalini. How dare you?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I don't know. I didn't think. I looked at it
like a Bruno.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
The real point of this nickname was that David couldn't
know that the guy delivering him money was named Mike McKinny,
because that would make the connection to Steve and the
fake ID a little too obvious.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
I was still traveling under my name with my papers.
So yes, at that time, there were two entries for
Mike McKinny with my so security number and everything on
that ID. Both of us entered Mexico and one of
us hadn't left yet.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Ah, the free wheeling nineties, But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Steve tells Kelly to let David know a guy named
Bruno will be delivering his fifty grand as promised, and
then he buys Mike a ticket to Cancun and hands
him fifteen grand to either deliver to David or to
use to lure David to his death.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
And it was all basically brand new, like twenties. That's
a lot of money in twenties.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
And so I had it around inside of my way
and I showed up at the airport. Of course, I
was flying first class, so they kind of basically escorted
you through, held your hand to go through, And at
the moment we left the desk, the money starts slipping
down my legs. So I had to jet into the
bathroom real quick and rearrange it again, tighten up the belt.
(15:22):
You might consider it a waddle. Maybe that airline agent
definitely knew something was off. I mean, you're running, nervous guy,
fidgety all of a sudden, got a run into the bathroom.
It's like you try to blow it off to Yeah,
I'm nervous of flying. Once we take off, then I'm fine.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
When Mike gets to Mexico, he's supposed to meet David
at the Rainforest Cafe to hand him the money. Mike
arrived and scanned the room. He didn't see David. Part
of the problem might be that he actually doesn't know
what David looks like.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
I don't know if I was supposed to meet at
Rainforced Cafe or not, but I think I'd just gone
to Rainforce Cafe to eat probably some of the best
rips I ever ate.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Anyway, the money drop doesn't happen. One give you this
as a failure, but Mike is an optimist. He's in Cancun,
he's got fifteen thousand dollars cash, and his only job
just got canceled.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
What to do?
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Cocaine was cocaine, you know, it was considered recreational back then,
and only people who had money did it.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And so you know, you always make jokes about doing.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
Lines off strippers asses, which I've actually seen it. I
can't say I ever did it, though, not off strippers.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
After a couple of days of partying and not doing
cocaine off strippers' asses, Mike goes back to Charlotte without
ever making eye contact with David say Leve, but no worries.
Steve gives him another ten grand to make a second
trip south of the border, and Mike's a bit better
at discreetly smuggling that cast through the airport. This time.
(17:13):
He's been told that David is really pissed off. Turns
out he was at the Rainforest Cafe waiting for him
at the appointed time. But now Mike has a hotel address.
He knocks on the door.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
They gave me the wrong hotel room. It was a circus.
Oh well, h well, the T shirt contest it was.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
I didn't specifically go looking for one. It just happened
to be there whenever I got to the nightclub, the
SuDS Party's phone parties, whatever you call him, there was
one of them that had that, and that was basically
a we T shirt contest waiting to happen with plenty
of bubbles.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
And for the discriminating female clientele.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
They actually had like uh guy hop bun contests. They
would have guides get up here and they would have
curtain down to their waist right and the women to
be out there cheering whichever one they wanted. So they
were catering to the female crowd too.
Speaker 7 (18:18):
So do you think about entering?
Speaker 8 (18:20):
Ever?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
No, I never even considered entering.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Mike was frugal and only spent about fifteen hundred dollars
of David's money that night, But then he got a
call from Steve with the correct address. However, Steve didn't
want him to do the hit just yet. He wanted
Mike to gain David's trust by giving him way less
money than he had been promised. The first meeting is
going to go just peachy, Mike knocks on the door.
(18:55):
A nervous guy with the spray tand that looks like
Boris Becker opens it.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
I said you for something from Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
David invites him in. Mike, sorry. Bruno puts the money
on the bed. It's about eight grand, Mike says. David
freaks out.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
He acted like it.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
I'd skimmed off him bringing him money or something, which
is literally what he did, because I think they told
him they're going to have like fifty thousand sent to
him or something like that, I think, And of course
it'd be a letdown.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I mean there'd be a lot of disappointment on that one.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
See, Mike just radiates empathy.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
He said, well, I asked for more than that. I
was like, hey, I was in the neighborhood. They just
asked me to drop off whatever I had. I walked out.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Of course, any skimming Mike did was nothing compared to
Steve holding on to David's five million dollar share. David
talks to Kelly on their usual Tuesday phone call. His
patience has been somewhat tested.
Speaker 8 (20:03):
I go, how much did y'all sen with Bruno.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Kelly tells him she thinks it was ten or twelve grand.
Speaker 8 (20:08):
Well, either he's stealing or y'all can't effan count.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I got eight, which is less than twelve and significantly
less than the fifty thousand dollars David was expecting, in
the whole hell of a lot less than the five
million dollars he's owed. And then David says something he
can't take back, and.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
I'm like, listen, if you guys can't deliver, I can
walk over here to the embassy and we'll end this tomorrow.
Y'all need to figure it out. I'm i get angry
with her over the wall, like this is stupid. Y'all
are gonna get busted and it's gonna be overWe But
(20:49):
if you'll keep screwing me around, I'm gonna all go
over here to the embassy. I'll end it myself. You
know what happens to the first rent that goes off
the ship gets the dryest board.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
What does that even mean?
Speaker 7 (21:02):
Like?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I get the second rat gets the cheese. Okay, onward
and forward. Kelly promises David that he'll get the money.
They just need a little more time.
Speaker 9 (21:14):
It was frustrating having to keep gant believing that I
was going to come down and see him, and keeping
him believing that Steve was going to send him all
the money. I don't know why he didn't send him
more at one time instead of just keeping it dragging
it out, And I imagine that was a pretty horrible
(21:38):
feeling and not getting the money that you were expecting
to get and then having the woman that you expected
to spend the rest of your life living high on
the hog with keep putting you off. But yeah, in
the end, he was getting pretty tasty.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Despite David's bad vibes, Kelly was starting to allow herself
to enjoy her share of the money. Her motivations had
always been about providing the finer things for her children,
and that's what she did. She bought a brand new minivan,
a Toyota Siena. Steve came to the dealership with her
and shrewdly paid for it in twenty dollars bills and
(22:26):
used a fake name for the vehicle registration to boot
and then Kelly and her mother and her kids took
a short vacation to Disney World to reset refocus.
Speaker 8 (22:35):
You're gonna love this place, Larry.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
It really brings out the kidney.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
It's been a couple of months since the FBI knocked
on Kelly's door. She hopes there may be off her trail,
but then she gets another call. Two agents want to
speak to her again. She heads to the mall to
meet them. Unfortunately, Kelly has no memory of this meeting,
which may have something to do with all that dope
(23:13):
she smoked.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Can't remember shit.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
The FBI, on the other hand, has considerably better recall.
Speaker 6 (23:20):
I always say, you can't hide money because if you
have money.
Speaker 8 (23:24):
People like to show it.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
Build a bigger house, buy a nicer car, So you
can't hide money.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
The FBI had learned a lot about Kelly Campbell since
that first interview, you know, at her house where she
rudely refused to share her wead with the agents.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
We knew through interviews of other Lumis employees that Kelly
and David were friends, and her denial and a refusal
to take the polygraph and her denial that they were
friends connected Kelly right away. I mean all of us
were like, she's involved somehow, or she knows something.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
The FBI subpoenaed her phone records and found out she
had received calls from David Gant on the day of
the heist, so she had definitely lied to the agents
about the last time she had talked to him. Combine
that knowledge with all the one four to three texts
to David's pager, and Kelly didn't exactly project innocence. Loomis
also told the FBI that David had passed all his
(24:20):
company drug tests, So apparently Kelly had lied about smoking
weed with him too. And it gets worse. The FBI
also knows that Kelly bought a new minivan and that
she paid cash for it. While continuing to keep an
eye on Kelly, the FBI is also gained a lot
(24:40):
of calls about money floating around Charlotte. The main culprits,
of course, are Steven Michelle. They'll take the BMWZ three
roadster of forty three thousand dollars diamond ring, Armani suits,
a Rolex, a few tanning beds at ten thousand dollars
full table, and the beast Thieve Resistance mission painting of
(25:00):
General George Patten in the form of a bulldog.
Speaker 9 (25:06):
I guess they just they wanted to be big time
because Michelle got a boob job, a friend of theirs,
Eric his wife got a nose job and a boob job.
I looked into having some leco suction that never roe
around to it.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Kelly is misremembering here. Michelle actually got her new boobs
just before the heist. Call it foreshadowing her life was
pointing in the right direction, and now so were her breasts.
And the Eric mentioned there, of course, is Steve's henchman,
Big Eric, from the night of the heist. He's not
(25:45):
even that big. We've just been calling him Big Eric
because he's the Johnny Appleseed of plastic surgery. Wherever he goes,
boobs flourish. So the tally stands at one fresh nose
and four new boobs.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
Eric Paine got breast in plants for his sisters. I
do remember going out to doctor's offices and subpoenaing their records,
and all of it was paid in twenty dollar bills.
Three boop jobs and one nose job.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Oh okay, six boobs in one nose. My bad. And
Eric didn't just limit his spending the plastic surgery.
Speaker 6 (26:18):
He buys a Hartley, he purchases a Tahoe and just
ridiculous spending. And he's spending it all in twenty dollars bills,
and eleven point three million of the fourteen million dollars
missing was twenty dollar bills.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Once Eric gets on the FBI's radar, they realized that
he used to work at a paper company that's just
a short drive from Loomis and a short distance from
where the Loomis van was abandoned. Another former employee of
that company, Steve Chambers.
Speaker 6 (26:50):
Winner. Steve and Michelle were just out of control, completely
out of control, like they won the lottery a movie
inside their head. It's the only way I could describe it.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Stephen.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Michelle even literally acted out the scene from Goodfellas where
Rayleota's wife asks to go shop and he asked her
how much she needs and she holds up her fingers
to indicate how high the stack of bill should be.
Speaker 6 (27:14):
And they were using clips from movies and they were
acting like it, but they weren't taking the advice from
some of the movies either, like spending the money. If
you watch that movie Goodfellas, it's all about not showing
and giving the Feds any reason to come looking at you.
And they gave us all the reasons.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
Did you hear what I said?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Don't buy anything, don't get anything, nothing big. Did what
I said, what's the matter with you?
Speaker 8 (27:39):
Do you get excited for it?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Did I get excited about because you're gonna get us
ad fucking pinch?
Speaker 8 (27:42):
That's why?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
What are you stupid?
Speaker 6 (27:47):
And he's buying all these ridiculous things in his own
hometown that people know he never had this kind of wealth,
and to buy a home for six hundred and seventy
thousand dollars and it's a cash deal, and Loomis Fargo
is missing seventeen point three million dollars literally just fifteen
minutes away. That's when all these calls are coming in.
(28:11):
But we couldn't prove that it was Loomis money. And
you spending twenty dollars to bills is not a crime.
You can't arrest anybody for that, you can't charge them
for that.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
But then, amid all the purchases, the mansions, the diamond rings,
the luxury cars, the boobs, so many boobs, the FBI
pulls the paperwork for Kelly's minivan and the name on
the registration matches an alias Steve Chambers used back in
the day when he was cashing hot checks. The Kelly
(28:42):
Steve connection is coming into focus.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
Myself and another agent. We went to the high school
that Steve Chambers went to and got the yearbooks and
found that Kelly Campbell and Derek Payne had gone to
the same high school. And we knew by that point
that Kelly Campbell and Steve Chambers were friends.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
The FBI had plenty of reason to surveil Stephen Michelle
at this point. Watching Michelle, they notice a pattern with
her trips to the bank.
Speaker 6 (29:13):
Michelle gets to it like it's a job, and she's
depositing every Tuesday at this branch, every Thursday at this branch.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
This gives the agents the perfect opportunity to set a trap.
Widra goes undercover.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
I'm just sitting in an office. She just thought I
was a banker.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Michelle walks in right on schedule to make her usual
cash deposit, just a hair under ten grand, so it
will never show up on the FBI's radar. Wink wink.
The teller takes the cash and Michelle goes on her way.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
I go behind the teller window and I take the
straps off the cash that she just deposited. Doesn't say
lumis Fargo on the strap. It's just a generic cash strap.
But it had initials on It means someone at Loumis
Fargo counted it.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Whydra immediately takes the strap to Loomis.
Speaker 6 (30:05):
So we went and asked whose initials they were at
Louis Fargo. Well, as luck would have it, it was
just a coincidence that the employee that counted that particular
money hadn't worked at Louis Fargo since the robbery. That
meant that money was pre robbery. That conclusively tied the money,
(30:26):
the Loomis Fargo money to Stephen Michelle Chambers. That was
the key piece of evidence. It was like party time.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
The FBI pretty much has it all wrapped up at
this point. They even get a picture of Kelley and
Michelle in front of the furniture store.
Speaker 6 (30:45):
And that was another aha moment, Like that bridged everything,
like it connected Steve Chambers to the money, to Kelly Campbell,
to David Gant. This is the crew, there is nobody else.
And then it became a matter of where's the money,
Where's David.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
One evening in mid December, David is eating an authentic
Mexican dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Cancun. He's
got a view of the beach and of rock music
videos playing on the TV's overhead. It's been more than
two months since the heist, but it's still in the
news constantly. David's on the FBI's most Wanted list. His
face has probably flashed across every TV in America by
(31:29):
this point, and all this time, David has been hanging
around Cancun, hitting the same few bars and restaurants every
day while wave after wave of American tourists passed through.
So of course it finally happens. A stranger approaches David's
table and says, hey, man, you look a lot like
(31:51):
that guy from North Carolina who stole like twenty million dollars.
The guy just leaves it at that and goes back
to his table, but David Sin's the safety is completely shattered.
He hurries out of the restaurant to call Kelly and
tells her that he needs to get out of Cancun fast.
Kelly says, no problem, they'll send Bruno to take good
(32:13):
care of him.
Speaker 7 (32:14):
So Bruno comes back, and then he asked me a
really mirrored question. Do you have a gun you haven't,
Do you carry a knife? Do you lock your doors?
Questions like that.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
That's next time on Crime List, He'll Billy heist.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Roy.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
We've just spent another half hour or so with our heroes,
heroes and quotes.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
I love it when a new character comes into play.
That's I love it.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
I was gonna say my first question was like, what's
your assessment of Mike McKinney.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
Here's what I love about this entire everybody that's involved
in this entire production, of the actual thieves and criminals.
Hearing their voices, it almost sounds like none of them
even remember or know that what they did was so
highly illegal. They seem so calm about it. It almost
(33:14):
makes you like all of them in their own weird,
strange way. And this guy a hired uh he didn't
like assassin, hired hitman is no different. He was hired
to kill somebody and yet just acts very blase about it.
Are Bruno? I love it?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
How do we feel about Bruno as a hitman's nickname?
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Love that that had to be the It's too perfect.
It's like Bruno. Of course, of course you wanted to
be Bruno. I love that Steve Chambers got to make
so many decisions and at no point it seemed like
anyone at the time realized how dumb this guy was
actually being, but they sort of treated him with a
lot of respect.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
I guess he just acted the part. He watched a
bunch of Mafia movies and just acted like he was
in charge, and that goes a long way.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
I think.
Speaker 9 (34:01):
So.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Yeah, he watched so many Mafia movies that it very
quickly became we need to kill David Gant. We've already
got ourselves in so much hot water. Let's up the ante.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Let's add a murder charge on top of it.
Speaker 8 (34:13):
Right, Yeah, yeah, So.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
We also get to drop back in on David in Cancun.
He's having a pretty good time if they would just
send him enough cash.
Speaker 6 (34:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
I gotta say that gives me anxiety. That was one
thing that gave me anxiety, hearing the spending of going
to all that. When he said double lobster, I couldn't
even handle that. It just felt very gluttonous. I realized
they've stolen money. But it's like every night club. Also,
I love that he's like, I don't even like to
dance unless I've had some tequila. Like I guess. I
(34:43):
guess in reality, David Gant did go live up the
life he sort of dreamed of in a way, not
the version he thought it would be. But he didn't
at least just sit around in a hotel room waiting.
He did go party, and I respect that absolutely.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
My biggest frustration. What's it gonna take for David to
actually get mad and blame Kelly?
Speaker 4 (35:04):
I know, I just can't. Kelly frustrates me the entire time,
the most aloof person ever, And now that she's even
slightly involved in wanting to have David Gant killed and
seems to not even understand or know that is nerve racking,
nerve racking, nerve wrecking, will never know nerve racking. I think, Yeah,
(35:27):
That's how I've always said it.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Okay, On that note, thanks for joining us this week, folks.
We'll see you next time for episode five of Crimeless
Hillbilly Heist.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Crimeless Hillbilly Heist is a production of SmartLess Media, Campside Media,
and Big Money Players in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. Bhill
Billy Heist is narrated by me Johnny Knoxville and created
by Liz Elkington and Stewart Bailey. Written by Michael Kenyon
Meyer with Liz Elkieington, and Stuart Bailey. Produced by Lane
(36:02):
Rose and Sierra Franco. Additional production help by Rajeev Gola.
The series with sound design and mixed by ewin Le Tremwen,
fact checking by Gray Lanta, and a special thanks to
our operations team Doug Slaywyn, Ashley Warren, Sabina Mara and
Destiny Dingle iHeart Podcasts and Big Money Players. Executive producers
(36:25):
are Jack O'Brien, Lindsay Hoffman, and Matt Appadeca. Campsite Media's
executive producers are Josh Deen, Vanessa Grigoriatis, Adam hoff and
Matt Cher. Executive producers are Liz Elkington and Stuart Bailey.
From SmartLess Media, the producers are Will Arnett, Jason Bateman,
Sean Hayes, and Richard Corson. Bernie Kaminski is the head
(36:48):
of production. The associate producer is Mattie McCann. If you've
enjoyed Crimeless Hillbilly Heies, please rate and review the show
wherever you get your podcasts.
Gampsite Media large.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
So Rory.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Episode four is the halfway point of our series. Can
you recap for fans who maybe smoked too much weed
between last week and what's been going on.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
David Gant, the mastermind of acquiring seventeen million dollars from
Alumis Fargo, is hiding out in Mexico with a little
bit of cash and trying to guess beyond the lamb.
While in the United States of America, the rest of
his crew is getting a little flimsy with the money.
(00:52):
And also we're starting to learn that the FBI is
easily gaining traction. Who is guilty of what? So, yeah,
seventeen million dollars have been stolen. David Gann is the
only one on the lamb. Everyone else is hiding out
in broad daylight spending the money he stole.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
All right, then let's get onto the episode. This is
Hilbilly Heist Episode four.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
When you're twenty five years old, somebody engine offers you
tuner for the Grand first thing that pops in your
head is cocaine, hookers, and hot tubs.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Cocaine and hooker, sure, but adding a hot tub just
seems fungusy.
Speaker 6 (01:36):
Why the hot tubs.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
He needs someplace to relax.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
That's usually the unholy Trinity.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
This is Mike McKenny, a man who knows precisely what
he wants out of life, and also a man who's
fairly comfortable doing whatever it takes to get it.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I have been labeled with sociopathic tendencies.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
That's also coming from over educated people with too many degrees.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I don't care, which brings us to why Mike McKenny
got offered two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It was
a cash deal to pull off one simple job killing
David Gant. Mike mckennie is a former marine who got
(02:25):
kicked out for, in his words, going feral, but before
he was discharged he got pretty good at shooting guns
and blowing shit up. He's a big dude, a muscular
six foot four. Back in the day, he rocked bleach
blonde hair and a dark beard, and the carpet didn't
match the curtains or did it.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
To each their own way, The nineties were to me.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
When he was still in the Marines, Mike served with
Michelle's first husband, and he also got to know Steve Chambers, who,
as we know eventually became Michelle's second husband.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Cute little bitty thing, but she's louding obnoxious. Steve was
a bigger guy. He thought he was super slick. Thought
he's a tough guy.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But he was pretty good con man. He could make
you believe a story. He was kind of slicking that regard.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
If you've ever been around a really good con man,
you can talk to them and know they're full oft shit,
but they still draw you in.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I don't know how they do it.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Mike started working construction in Illinois after the Marines booted
him out, but he stayed in touch with Steve and Michelle,
and then in the fall of nineteen ninety seven, Steve
approached Mike with the proposition.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
The story he told me was this guy needs to
get out of town fast. He robs some money from
the wrong people. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, for fifty thousand dollars cash. I was like deal.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
The real story that Steve gave his ID to David Gant,
who used it to flee to Mexico. David and Mike
don't really look anything alike. But remember TSA doesn't exist.
There are no digital eyeball scanners. Also giving someone else
your ID wasn't such a big deal back then.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
On me, it wouldn't have mattered if somebody would have
ran a credit scam because I didn't have any credit.
I didn't have any assets for them to try to
cheat me out of, if I didn't have a huge
banking account that they could empty my bank account.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Plus, you could just show up to the DMV, take
a number, and get a new ID with basically no
questions asked. A few weeks after Mike gave Steve his ID,
Steve and his henchman, Big Eric, took a trip to Illinois.
They met Mike in a motel room and gave him
(04:49):
the money Stevid promised fifty grand in small bills. Steve
still didn't tell him where the money came from, but
he did offer Mike a chance to make even more.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
He did drop a seed in there, and he said,
a there might be something big, else big coming up
to we might have to take somebody out.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
And as soon as Steve mentioned that he was willing
to pay a quarter million dollars cash, Mike probably immediately thought,
you know how much cocaine, hookers and hot tubs that'll
buy you.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
There was no way I would have ever seen that
kind of money in my life. You know, number one,
you're probably gonna end up dead or in prison. It's
a conclusion, and that's what you accept. The only thing
you do is run one day at a time, throwing
as much fun in there as you could before you
hit the brick wall.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Mike told Steve he'd do the job. He still didn't
know where, when, or even who he was killing. Still
he persevered, But hey, dealing with that kind of uncertainty
is just part of being a professional assassin.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
Actually, I prefer the the hitman or the hard gun
conferred to assassin because to me, the assassin sounds like
your elite government type of person, you know, one the
government's used, and hit man or a gun for her
(06:20):
sounds more like the hill billy, redneck version of the assassin.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Huh. Anyway, after Steve left, Might quit his construction job
and waited for the call from SmartLess media, campsite media,
(06:47):
and big money players. In partnership with iHeart Podcasts, I'm
Johnny Knoxville and you're listening to Crime List Bill Billy Heist.
This is our fourth episode. The hit Man a month
(07:13):
into his time in Cancun, David Gand has transformed. He's
no longer the scrawny outlaw giving himself the first little
taste of luxury. Now he's a full blown connoisseur.
Speaker 7 (07:27):
I'm learning how to be a person of means, so
I'm trying out the more expensive desserts. I'm drinking better alcohol. Lobster,
so I order a double. It comes with this huge potato.
That's great.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
The heist was the first time that David's impulsive frame
and his army trained planning Frain really got to join forces.
Turns out these two sides of David like working together
and having a pocket full of cash. In Mexico, it's
a new opportunity for collaboration. He's devised a new routine,
a regular circuit of indulgence.
Speaker 7 (08:07):
And we made this loop of really good bars and
restaurants and I would start around two thirty three o'clock.
Speaker 8 (08:16):
I'd go for a morning.
Speaker 7 (08:17):
Swim, come back, take a nap, and I'd start making
my rounds.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
The highlight of this tour was Senior Frogs.
Speaker 8 (08:31):
I don't like to dance, but if I have enough tequila,
I will.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
After Senior Frogs, he'd hit another club called Laboom, and
he'd usually end his night at Daddy Rock.
Speaker 8 (08:44):
By then it's two in morning, and I've spent a
don't know how.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Much money real talk, probably about seventy eight bucks. And
all this time David claims that he's not missing Kelly.
Speaker 7 (08:57):
I'll be brutally honest, like the turb to come in,
and there were enough females.
Speaker 8 (09:07):
And I really didn't put my salt in her to
be brutally honest.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Oh yeah, we get a David. You never really liked
her anyway.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
One of the contests I went to was a bear
as You Dare contest, and since I tipped the doorman,
I got to be an honorary judge. So I got
up front and they go through, and I mean, the
bikinis are getting smaller and smaller, and finally the one
girl comes out and she's got a band aid on
(09:39):
her foot.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
But hitting every club in Cancoon every single day is
kind of tough on the wallet.
Speaker 8 (09:49):
That'll run your money out quick.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And as the weeks go on, David is starting to
wonder what the hold up is. I mean, how hard
could it be to get contraband into Mexico.
Speaker 8 (09:59):
You can smuggle in South all.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
This time, David is making his weekly calls to Kelly
at the payphone in North Carolina. He's asking about the money,
explaining that he's running out, and she's just making excuses.
Speaker 8 (10:13):
She's talking about, Oh, they haven't problems moving it as
a lot.
Speaker 7 (10:17):
They didn't think you'd get nothing of small bills, And
I'm like, what what are you fussing about?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
But through it all, David is still David. Here are
the emotions of the guy who threw his life away
for one third share of millions of dollars that he
has yet to see.
Speaker 8 (10:34):
Not really fed up, but I'm kind of angry.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I mean, come on, David, if you were pissed, we
would understand. And yet somehow he is still not angry
with Kelly. He's angry with the other guy from the heist,
and he finally knows that guy's name.
Speaker 8 (10:53):
She's let slip.
Speaker 7 (10:54):
I knew that Steve is a name I wasn't supposed
to know, mister Orange or whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
David tells Kelly he needs fifty grand a SAP. She
tells him she'll let Steve know. Mike McKinnie isn't much
of a people person.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, that's a lot easier to tolerate people when you
don't have to be around them all the time.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Actually, I find that really relatable. But after accepting Steve's
initial offer, Mike was still waiting on instructions on who
he was supposed to kill. In the meantime, Steve had
another way for Mike to make money. He could come
to North Carolina, live in a motel and be Steve's bodyguard.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
You know, and somebody hires you for that, You kind
of take it serious at first, and then you realize
there's really no threat here. He just he just wants
to pay me money to look tougher because he has
a buddyguard.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
It's like get paid to hang out.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
I had to carry the pistol because he was a felon,
and other than that, right around in the truck with
him and Sidney's furniture store and go back to the
hotel room at night.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
This life of leisure did give Mike and Steve plenty
of time to hang out in the mansion.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
We actually went to the basement and saw the wine
cellar full of PBR.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
That's actually great.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
He treated the wine cellar more like a walking cooler
at the liquor store.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
He went in there and.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
Basically had cases and twelve packs packed everywhere inside of
this place. The velvetelle was the Cuban cigars and humid
or he couldn't get to work right. Of course, I
didn't know that this was newly acquired money. I just
figured he'd been building up since the few years i'd
seen him.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Mike still didn't know how his old friend Steve had
acquired all this money, and Steve didn't explain who he
wanted Mike to kill, but he did start to finally
provide a few details, like that the target was in
Mexico and needed money, so Mike could get close to
him by dropping off the cash. And just how did
Steve instruct Mike to take him out with the bleach
(13:16):
injection tossing a grenade in his general direction, something that
won't attract any attention, right, He was.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Just going to leave the method up to me because
I was a trained assassin.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Uh huh oh okay, Mike, But there was nothing funny
about the code name Mike would have to use to
get close to his target.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Steve chose the name Bruno. I don't know where he
came up with it.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Of course, that was the same time that what Bruce
Willis came out with his album and he called himself
Bruno or something.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Bruno rad Aalini. How dare you?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I don't know. I didn't think. I looked at it
like a Bruno.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
The real point of this nickname was that David couldn't
know that the guy delivering him money was named Mike McKinny,
because that would make the connection to Steve and the
fake ID a little too obvious.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
I was still traveling under my name with my papers.
So yes, at that time, there were two entries for
Mike McKinny with my so security number and everything on
that ID. Both of us entered Mexico and one of
us hadn't left yet.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Ah, the free wheeling nineties, But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Steve tells Kelly to let David know a guy named
Bruno will be delivering his fifty grand as promised, and
then he buys Mike a ticket to Cancun and hands
him fifteen grand to either deliver to David or to
use to lure David to his death.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
And it was all basically brand new, like twenties. That's
a lot of money in twenties.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
And so I had it around inside of my way
and I showed up at the airport. Of course, I
was flying first class, so they kind of basically escorted
you through, held your hand to go through, And at
the moment we left the desk, the money starts slipping
down my legs. So I had to jet into the
bathroom real quick and rearrange it again, tighten up the belt.
(15:22):
You might consider it a waddle. Maybe that airline agent
definitely knew something was off. I mean, you're running, nervous guy,
fidgety all of a sudden, got a run into the bathroom.
It's like you try to blow it off to Yeah,
I'm nervous of flying. Once we take off, then I'm fine.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
When Mike gets to Mexico, he's supposed to meet David
at the Rainforest Cafe to hand him the money. Mike
arrived and scanned the room. He didn't see David. Part
of the problem might be that he actually doesn't know
what David looks like.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
I don't know if I was supposed to meet at
Rainforced Cafe or not, but I think I'd just gone
to Rainforce Cafe to eat probably some of the best
rips I ever ate.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Anyway, the money drop doesn't happen. One give you this
as a failure, but Mike is an optimist. He's in Cancun,
he's got fifteen thousand dollars cash, and his only job
just got canceled.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
What to do?
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Cocaine was cocaine, you know, it was considered recreational back then,
and only people who had money did it.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And so you know, you always make jokes about doing.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
Lines off strippers asses, which I've actually seen it. I
can't say I ever did it, though, not off strippers.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
After a couple of days of partying and not doing
cocaine off strippers' asses, Mike goes back to Charlotte without
ever making eye contact with David say Leve, but no worries.
Steve gives him another ten grand to make a second
trip south of the border, and Mike's a bit better
at discreetly smuggling that cast through the airport. This time.
(17:13):
He's been told that David is really pissed off. Turns
out he was at the Rainforest Cafe waiting for him
at the appointed time. But now Mike has a hotel address.
He knocks on the door.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
They gave me the wrong hotel room. It was a circus.
Oh well, h well, the T shirt contest it was.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
I didn't specifically go looking for one. It just happened
to be there whenever I got to the nightclub, the
SuDS Party's phone parties, whatever you call him, there was
one of them that had that, and that was basically
a we T shirt contest waiting to happen with plenty
of bubbles.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
And for the discriminating female clientele.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
They actually had like uh guy hop bun contests. They
would have guides get up here and they would have
curtain down to their waist right and the women to
be out there cheering whichever one they wanted. So they
were catering to the female crowd too.
Speaker 7 (18:18):
So do you think about entering?
Speaker 8 (18:20):
Ever?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
No, I never even considered entering.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Mike was frugal and only spent about fifteen hundred dollars
of David's money that night, But then he got a
call from Steve with the correct address. However, Steve didn't
want him to do the hit just yet. He wanted
Mike to gain David's trust by giving him way less
money than he had been promised. The first meeting is
going to go just peachy, Mike knocks on the door.
(18:55):
A nervous guy with the spray tand that looks like
Boris Becker opens it.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
I said you for something from Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
David invites him in. Mike, sorry. Bruno puts the money
on the bed. It's about eight grand, Mike says. David
freaks out.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
He acted like it.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
I'd skimmed off him bringing him money or something, which
is literally what he did, because I think they told
him they're going to have like fifty thousand sent to
him or something like that, I think, And of course
it'd be a letdown.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I mean there'd be a lot of disappointment on that one.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
See, Mike just radiates empathy.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
He said, well, I asked for more than that. I
was like, hey, I was in the neighborhood. They just
asked me to drop off whatever I had. I walked out.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Of course, any skimming Mike did was nothing compared to
Steve holding on to David's five million dollar share. David
talks to Kelly on their usual Tuesday phone call. His
patience has been somewhat tested.
Speaker 8 (20:03):
I go, how much did y'all sen with Bruno.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Kelly tells him she thinks it was ten or twelve grand.
Speaker 8 (20:08):
Well, either he's stealing or y'all can't effan count.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I got eight, which is less than twelve and significantly
less than the fifty thousand dollars David was expecting, in
the whole hell of a lot less than the five
million dollars he's owed. And then David says something he
can't take back, and.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
I'm like, listen, if you guys can't deliver, I can
walk over here to the embassy and we'll end this tomorrow.
Y'all need to figure it out. I'm i get angry
with her over the wall, like this is stupid. Y'all
are gonna get busted and it's gonna be overWe But
(20:49):
if you'll keep screwing me around, I'm gonna all go
over here to the embassy. I'll end it myself. You
know what happens to the first rent that goes off
the ship gets the dryest board.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
What does that even mean?
Speaker 7 (21:02):
Like?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I get the second rat gets the cheese. Okay, onward
and forward. Kelly promises David that he'll get the money.
They just need a little more time.
Speaker 9 (21:14):
It was frustrating having to keep gant believing that I
was going to come down and see him, and keeping
him believing that Steve was going to send him all
the money. I don't know why he didn't send him
more at one time instead of just keeping it dragging
it out, And I imagine that was a pretty horrible
(21:38):
feeling and not getting the money that you were expecting
to get and then having the woman that you expected
to spend the rest of your life living high on
the hog with keep putting you off. But yeah, in
the end, he was getting pretty tasty.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Despite David's bad vibes, Kelly was starting to allow herself
to enjoy her share of the money. Her motivations had
always been about providing the finer things for her children,
and that's what she did. She bought a brand new minivan,
a Toyota Siena. Steve came to the dealership with her
and shrewdly paid for it in twenty dollars bills and
(22:26):
used a fake name for the vehicle registration to boot
and then Kelly and her mother and her kids took
a short vacation to Disney World to reset refocus.
Speaker 8 (22:35):
You're gonna love this place, Larry.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
It really brings out the kidney.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
It's been a couple of months since the FBI knocked
on Kelly's door. She hopes there may be off her trail,
but then she gets another call. Two agents want to
speak to her again. She heads to the mall to
meet them. Unfortunately, Kelly has no memory of this meeting,
which may have something to do with all that dope
(23:13):
she smoked.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Can't remember shit.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
The FBI, on the other hand, has considerably better recall.
Speaker 6 (23:20):
I always say, you can't hide money because if you
have money.
Speaker 8 (23:24):
People like to show it.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
Build a bigger house, buy a nicer car, So you
can't hide money.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
The FBI had learned a lot about Kelly Campbell since
that first interview, you know, at her house where she
rudely refused to share her wead with the agents.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
We knew through interviews of other Lumis employees that Kelly
and David were friends, and her denial and a refusal
to take the polygraph and her denial that they were
friends connected Kelly right away. I mean all of us
were like, she's involved somehow, or she knows something.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
The FBI subpoenaed her phone records and found out she
had received calls from David Gant on the day of
the heist, so she had definitely lied to the agents
about the last time she had talked to him. Combine
that knowledge with all the one four to three texts
to David's pager, and Kelly didn't exactly project innocence. Loomis
also told the FBI that David had passed all his
(24:20):
company drug tests, So apparently Kelly had lied about smoking
weed with him too. And it gets worse. The FBI
also knows that Kelly bought a new minivan and that
she paid cash for it. While continuing to keep an
eye on Kelly, the FBI is also gained a lot
(24:40):
of calls about money floating around Charlotte. The main culprits,
of course, are Steven Michelle. They'll take the BMWZ three
roadster of forty three thousand dollars diamond ring, Armani suits,
a Rolex, a few tanning beds at ten thousand dollars
full table, and the beast Thieve Resistance mission painting of
(25:00):
General George Patten in the form of a bulldog.
Speaker 9 (25:06):
I guess they just they wanted to be big time
because Michelle got a boob job, a friend of theirs,
Eric his wife got a nose job and a boob job.
I looked into having some leco suction that never roe
around to it.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Kelly is misremembering here. Michelle actually got her new boobs
just before the heist. Call it foreshadowing her life was
pointing in the right direction, and now so were her breasts.
And the Eric mentioned there, of course, is Steve's henchman,
Big Eric, from the night of the heist. He's not
(25:45):
even that big. We've just been calling him Big Eric
because he's the Johnny Appleseed of plastic surgery. Wherever he goes,
boobs flourish. So the tally stands at one fresh nose
and four new boobs.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
Eric Paine got breast in plants for his sisters. I
do remember going out to doctor's offices and subpoenaing their records,
and all of it was paid in twenty dollar bills.
Three boop jobs and one nose job.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Oh okay, six boobs in one nose. My bad. And
Eric didn't just limit his spending the plastic surgery.
Speaker 6 (26:18):
He buys a Hartley, he purchases a Tahoe and just
ridiculous spending. And he's spending it all in twenty dollars bills,
and eleven point three million of the fourteen million dollars
missing was twenty dollar bills.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Once Eric gets on the FBI's radar, they realized that
he used to work at a paper company that's just
a short drive from Loomis and a short distance from
where the Loomis van was abandoned. Another former employee of
that company, Steve Chambers.
Speaker 6 (26:50):
Winner. Steve and Michelle were just out of control, completely
out of control, like they won the lottery a movie
inside their head. It's the only way I could describe it.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Stephen.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Michelle even literally acted out the scene from Goodfellas where
Rayleota's wife asks to go shop and he asked her
how much she needs and she holds up her fingers
to indicate how high the stack of bill should be.
Speaker 6 (27:14):
And they were using clips from movies and they were
acting like it, but they weren't taking the advice from
some of the movies either, like spending the money. If
you watch that movie Goodfellas, it's all about not showing
and giving the Feds any reason to come looking at you.
And they gave us all the reasons.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
Did you hear what I said?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Don't buy anything, don't get anything, nothing big. Did what
I said, what's the matter with you?
Speaker 8 (27:39):
Do you get excited for it?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Did I get excited about because you're gonna get us
ad fucking pinch?
Speaker 8 (27:42):
That's why?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
What are you stupid?
Speaker 6 (27:47):
And he's buying all these ridiculous things in his own
hometown that people know he never had this kind of wealth,
and to buy a home for six hundred and seventy
thousand dollars and it's a cash deal, and Loomis Fargo
is missing seventeen point three million dollars literally just fifteen
minutes away. That's when all these calls are coming in.
(28:11):
But we couldn't prove that it was Loomis money. And
you spending twenty dollars to bills is not a crime.
You can't arrest anybody for that, you can't charge them
for that.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
But then, amid all the purchases, the mansions, the diamond rings,
the luxury cars, the boobs, so many boobs, the FBI
pulls the paperwork for Kelly's minivan and the name on
the registration matches an alias Steve Chambers used back in
the day when he was cashing hot checks. The Kelly
(28:42):
Steve connection is coming into focus.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
Myself and another agent. We went to the high school
that Steve Chambers went to and got the yearbooks and
found that Kelly Campbell and Derek Payne had gone to
the same high school. And we knew by that point
that Kelly Campbell and Steve Chambers were friends.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
The FBI had plenty of reason to surveil Stephen Michelle
at this point. Watching Michelle, they notice a pattern with
her trips to the bank.
Speaker 6 (29:13):
Michelle gets to it like it's a job, and she's
depositing every Tuesday at this branch, every Thursday at this branch.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
This gives the agents the perfect opportunity to set a trap.
Widra goes undercover.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
I'm just sitting in an office. She just thought I
was a banker.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Michelle walks in right on schedule to make her usual
cash deposit, just a hair under ten grand, so it
will never show up on the FBI's radar. Wink wink.
The teller takes the cash and Michelle goes on her way.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
I go behind the teller window and I take the
straps off the cash that she just deposited. Doesn't say
lumis Fargo on the strap. It's just a generic cash strap.
But it had initials on It means someone at Loumis
Fargo counted it.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Whydra immediately takes the strap to Loomis.
Speaker 6 (30:05):
So we went and asked whose initials they were at
Louis Fargo. Well, as luck would have it, it was
just a coincidence that the employee that counted that particular
money hadn't worked at Louis Fargo since the robbery. That
meant that money was pre robbery. That conclusively tied the money,
(30:26):
the Loomis Fargo money to Stephen Michelle Chambers. That was
the key piece of evidence. It was like party time.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
The FBI pretty much has it all wrapped up at
this point. They even get a picture of Kelley and
Michelle in front of the furniture store.
Speaker 6 (30:45):
And that was another aha moment, Like that bridged everything,
like it connected Steve Chambers to the money, to Kelly Campbell,
to David Gant. This is the crew, there is nobody else.
And then it became a matter of where's the money,
Where's David.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
One evening in mid December, David is eating an authentic
Mexican dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Cancun. He's
got a view of the beach and of rock music
videos playing on the TV's overhead. It's been more than
two months since the heist, but it's still in the
news constantly. David's on the FBI's most Wanted list. His
face has probably flashed across every TV in America by
(31:29):
this point, and all this time, David has been hanging
around Cancun, hitting the same few bars and restaurants every
day while wave after wave of American tourists passed through.
So of course it finally happens. A stranger approaches David's
table and says, hey, man, you look a lot like
(31:51):
that guy from North Carolina who stole like twenty million dollars.
The guy just leaves it at that and goes back
to his table, but David Sin's the safety is completely shattered.
He hurries out of the restaurant to call Kelly and
tells her that he needs to get out of Cancun fast.
Kelly says, no problem, they'll send Bruno to take good
(32:13):
care of him.
Speaker 7 (32:14):
So Bruno comes back, and then he asked me a
really mirrored question. Do you have a gun you haven't,
Do you carry a knife? Do you lock your doors?
Questions like that.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
That's next time on Crime List, He'll Billy heist.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Roy.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
We've just spent another half hour or so with our heroes,
heroes and quotes.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
I love it when a new character comes into play.
That's I love it.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
I was gonna say my first question was like, what's
your assessment of Mike McKinney.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
Here's what I love about this entire everybody that's involved
in this entire production, of the actual thieves and criminals.
Hearing their voices, it almost sounds like none of them
even remember or know that what they did was so
highly illegal. They seem so calm about it. It almost
(33:14):
makes you like all of them in their own weird,
strange way. And this guy a hired uh he didn't
like assassin, hired hitman is no different. He was hired
to kill somebody and yet just acts very blase about it.
Are Bruno? I love it?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
How do we feel about Bruno as a hitman's nickname?
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Love that that had to be the It's too perfect.
It's like Bruno. Of course, of course you wanted to
be Bruno. I love that Steve Chambers got to make
so many decisions and at no point it seemed like
anyone at the time realized how dumb this guy was
actually being, but they sort of treated him with a
lot of respect.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
I guess he just acted the part. He watched a
bunch of Mafia movies and just acted like he was
in charge, and that goes a long way.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
I think.
Speaker 9 (34:01):
So.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Yeah, he watched so many Mafia movies that it very
quickly became we need to kill David Gant. We've already
got ourselves in so much hot water. Let's up the ante.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Let's add a murder charge on top of it.
Speaker 8 (34:13):
Right, Yeah, yeah, So.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
We also get to drop back in on David in Cancun.
He's having a pretty good time if they would just
send him enough cash.
Speaker 6 (34:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
I gotta say that gives me anxiety. That was one
thing that gave me anxiety, hearing the spending of going
to all that. When he said double lobster, I couldn't
even handle that. It just felt very gluttonous. I realized
they've stolen money. But it's like every night club. Also,
I love that he's like, I don't even like to
dance unless I've had some tequila. Like I guess. I
(34:43):
guess in reality, David Gant did go live up the
life he sort of dreamed of in a way, not
the version he thought it would be. But he didn't
at least just sit around in a hotel room waiting.
He did go party, and I respect that absolutely.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
My biggest frustration. What's it gonna take for David to
actually get mad and blame Kelly?
Speaker 4 (35:04):
I know, I just can't. Kelly frustrates me the entire time,
the most aloof person ever, And now that she's even
slightly involved in wanting to have David Gant killed and
seems to not even understand or know that is nerve racking,
nerve racking, nerve wrecking, will never know nerve racking. I think, Yeah,
(35:27):
That's how I've always said it.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Okay, On that note, thanks for joining us this week, folks.
We'll see you next time for episode five of Crimeless
Hillbilly Heist.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Crimeless Hillbilly Heist is a production of SmartLess Media, Campside Media,
and Big Money Players in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. Bhill
Billy Heist is narrated by me Johnny Knoxville and created
by Liz Elkington and Stewart Bailey. Written by Michael Kenyon
Meyer with Liz Elkieington, and Stuart Bailey. Produced by Lane
(36:02):
Rose and Sierra Franco. Additional production help by Rajeev Gola.
The series with sound design and mixed by ewin Le Tremwen,
fact checking by Gray Lanta, and a special thanks to
our operations team Doug Slaywyn, Ashley Warren, Sabina Mara and
Destiny Dingle iHeart Podcasts and Big Money Players. Executive producers
(36:25):
are Jack O'Brien, Lindsay Hoffman, and Matt Appadeca. Campsite Media's
executive producers are Josh Deen, Vanessa Grigoriatis, Adam hoff and
Matt Cher. Executive producers are Liz Elkington and Stuart Bailey.
From SmartLess Media, the producers are Will Arnett, Jason Bateman,
Sean Hayes, and Richard Corson. Bernie Kaminski is the head
(36:48):
of production. The associate producer is Mattie McCann. If you've
enjoyed Crimeless Hillbilly Heies, please rate and review the show
wherever you get your podcasts.
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