January 28, 2025 • 40 mins
Diane Guerrero (Encanto, Doom Patrol) joins Arturo as he recounts the first grand escape by one of the most infamous crime lords of the 21st century: El Chapo.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, guys, Welcome to Greatest Escapes, a show bringing you
the wildest true escape stories of all time. This is
our first episode and we are kicking it off in style.
I'm Arturo Gastro. I'm an actor. Not that one. No, no,
not the one you're thinking about. The other one. Yeah,
that's me. So you might not be shocked to hear that.
I love to stir the pot. When I was younger,
(00:21):
you know, and I've escaped some pretty crazy, life threatening situations.
I've always been drawn to the ingenuity that it takes
to escape. So when I heard about some of the
craziest escapes in history, I don't know, I wanted to
explore them in a deeper format, also having fun and
maybe some laughs along the way. Also, I don't make
the show on my own right. No man is an island,
So throughout the episodes you'll hear my producers aka my overlords,
(00:44):
please help me, Carl, Ben and Toy. For our story.
We're revisiting an early escape by one of the most
infamous jailbreakers of the twenty first century, and I'm joined
by the powerful voice of the activist, the actress, the
wonderful human being Diane Guerrero. Hey, so listener, what a
(01:10):
treat we have for you today, our very own Colombian sensation,
Miss Diane Guerrero on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I love that and I love that sound.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Diane, Tell me, what do you consider to be your
greatest escape?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Oh my gosh, Well this was actually really PG compared
to something that I wanted to tell you about.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Tell me all about it.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Okay, I'll tell you. I don't consider myself a bad kid,
you know what I mean. But I was heavily influenced
by movies like Home Alone or like basically where any
little white kid was like doing mischief. I was like,
it's exactly what I want to do for my career. Yes,
And my mom would take me to the mall a lot.
(01:55):
This was like during Christmas time, and so like the
mall is really decorated. This is in New Jersey, this
is in Boston. And so I was with my friend
and we had drinks and we the drinks were over,
and then all we had was ice. So we were
like sucking on the ice and then we were kind
of like on the balcony.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And so like, how old are you at this point? Sorry?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Maybe like seven eight?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Okay, Okay, so child child, Sorry.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I was a child, Yeah, but I had ice in
my mouth and I just I happened to drop it
and it landed on someone's head and we were like,
oh shit, and we went we went back and we
just thought it was so funny. We just we just
kept doing it and but we didn't get in trouble.
It was like innocent, it was fine. It was multiple
(02:40):
days in the shopping mall, not just that day. So
the next day we went. I thought it was a
really great idea. Hey, what do you think about instead
of ice? I bring this bucket of toys. And here's
the thing. Toys back in the day, these were like
nineteen eighty six toys geatre made of steel. Dude, this
is like this is like big bird on a car
(03:00):
and that shit is heavy. And so we're like, what
if we throw these off of the second floor or whatever.
And so we went and we started doing this and
like it would hit people in the head, and we
thought it was hilarious and we're like whaa whatever. All
of a sudden we turn around and this guy goes,
is this yours? This man shows me my big bird
(03:22):
on a fire truck and I just a freaking grab it,
and I was like run. We didn't know where our
parents were. Thank god we passed by the Talbots. It's
a store that my mom was in. Anyway, I tell
her the situation and she goes, you're on your own.
You have to run.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Thing to do is like I didn't throw the thing.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
She was like exactly, and so yeah, and then we
just booked it. But the guy did say he was
going to call the cops.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Guess what, Dane, you have the guy here today, Come motherfucker,
come on out, let's do this. No, we definitely played
with like asbestos, like fucking rubber duckies when we were
chilling anyone, like you knowitas were like, yeah, that'll be fine.
It built character.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Those things hurt ye, your weapons, I know, well you.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Know, and that's and I think some of that will
be relevant to our story today. So if you're ready, Diane,
I'm ready, let's escape. Hey, Benja, can you give me
some escape music?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
There we go, Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
As a minute hand on the wall climbed towards nine,
Joaquin tapped on his cell gate. The year was two
thousand and one, and Joaquin was locked inside the maximum
security prison in Jalisco. But it was finally that they
had planned for. It was his kin Sannea hey even
(04:48):
got everybody else just kidding, just kidding, It was not
It was more dramatic than that.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
He ran through all the steps in his head, the
upcoming maneuvers necessary. The rives handed off. The clock ticked
and ticked and ticked. All of Joaquin's tedious calculations for
a grand escape accounted to this laundry day. Today's story
is about a truly infamous character.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
We'll get to laundry day in a second, but to start,
let's go back to the beginning. He was born in
the spring of nineteen fifty seven into a poor family
in the rural community of Latuna, a little town in
the mountains of western Mexico, which was incidentally famous for
it's salma. Now it's salmon, goddamn it. It was like, I
m doing the pilgrims and be like, do you guys
(05:35):
have tuna?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
They're like, sorry, it's just a salmon, just because.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Our name is Tuna, sir, Just not mean so.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
So.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
The nearest school to his home was about sixty miles away,
and he was taught by traveling teachers during the early years. Okay,
they would come stay for months for a few months
before moving on to other areas. So school was never
that important to Joaquin and he quit after elementary school. Okay,
but this did lead to stories about how bad his
handwriting was. Were you were you a good student? Then
(06:04):
what was the subject that most tripped you out?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Math?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
MATHA.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
It wasn't a good math student, it really, I mean
it got my armpits real.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Drink, Yeah, it got my arm pits are flowing.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
It scared me. I would hide. I would hide under
the desk, like every time we had to do problems
on the on the pisa, whatever it is on the blackboard. Yeah,
it was very scary for me.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
There is very little dread, similar to that pit in
your stomach when you don't have your homework right, but
when you know you can't fucking do it whatever it is,
it's just like you don't have it and they're gonna
ask for it and it's today, and your like mouth
is dry and like it's just like there's very little
feelings like that.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
You're like peeing your pants. Your mouth is dry, but
you're very wet and others.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I was like, can you figure out the moisture, like, yeah,
the distribution is not working for me. My handwriting is
embarrassingly bad, though, so I just tell people that it's
ase I imitated my doctor father's writing, which is not true.
It's just my hands have always shaken for some reason.
You're shaking now, I'm a shaky guys, shall Yeah, Jimmy
shakes over here. So for Joaquin, penmanship didn't really matter
(07:15):
that much. No, no, because he had other work to do.
So it's not like there were a lot of jobs
in his hometown, right. Latuna was a farming community, so
that's what Joaquin did. He would go up into the
mountains and work on raising the area's cash crops opium,
poppies and marijuana plans. Okay, yeah, oh boy.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So during harvest season, Joaquin and all of his brothers
were busy hiking from farm to farm cutting buds of
one kind or another.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Now, his past is a little hazy, but as the
legend goes, Joaquin's dad worked as a driver and the
boys would cut in stack and then their father would
drive the harvest to suppliers in Juliakan and Juan Muchil. Yeah,
but there is one major problem with his arrangement. So
Joaquin's dad was supposed to sell the crops and then
come back home with the money, but instance he would
collect the money and immediately go on a fucking bender dude,
(08:05):
like drink sex, whatever, crazy shit he felt like he was.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
He dipped into the stash.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
She dipped into the set. You never go into your
o stash, the number one rule. You don't go into
the set. Bro. You're never talk about my club, and
you don't go into your own stash. Right, that's such
a classic story of the fields sometimes where the father's
just like, h I could use this not all the
time I knew, but like I could use this to
you my family. Or there's a saloon over here. I
(08:32):
don't know why.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
This is like the West saloon.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah that's right, it's.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Okay, very western.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, you never know. It's not like it's the eighteen hundreds.
For fuck it. We'll suspend in this belief. So obviously,
Joaquin was extremely tired of this year after year, Right,
He wanted more than just grinding poverty for himself and
his family, which, to be honest, fare, so he saved
up balloon money until he could move away from home
and to start his own marijuana plantation. Oh he's an
(09:00):
industrial list. Good for him, Good for him, he said,
up his spot close to the bigger town of Baddi
ra Wato. It's not like I can ask my producers
if I'm pronouncing this correctly. Buddy got what they got
Buddy Baddy okay, which sounds like a name of a
sexy regged tone dance, doesn't it?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Like for sure?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Uh, Baddy got Thank you for indulging me. I love that.
But the crazy thing was that this whole start my
own farm thing when he was only fifteen, that's when
it happened. And he brung brought along people in his
family to help him. Brung, he brung along people in
(09:38):
his family to help and get the mistake number one rule.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
You don't talk about fight club, you don't go into
your own stash, and you don't bring your own family
to your business.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
It's a big misry the business. So by twenty he
was married and he was starting to make some real
money enough to support all of them. Wow, And and
everybody's like, oh my god, I knew he was always
going to make something of himself, And like, yeah, no,
you didn't know you didn't, but okay, one thing to
know about Howking is he was pretty short. Okay, he
(10:07):
only grew up to be five foot six. It had
kind of a stock if you sik. And that's what
gave him his nickname. It was slang for shorty. Do
you know who we're talking about? Chapel You got it?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Oh my gosh, shivers down my spine.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I know that. I don't know who that whose voice
that was, but it was really into my soul.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, can you believe so? In one of all the
nickname for for short people is chaparros. What is it
in Columbia? Do you guys have one? Okay?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
That's like like like no, like what is it?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Like little gnome?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Little like little gnome?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, and so fucked up that we are like it's
like that's what you'll be known for your entire life.
If you're growing up in Latin America, you get one nickname, and.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
That's one nickname. It's and it's attributed to your physical whatever, always.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
With what you can see.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
They're like, that's rude, and it's like now we're like
in this phase of like, oh we're starting to to
it's like, don't comment on my body, don't like talk
about my physical attributes. But Latin America don't care.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
But in Americas you're like, yeah, yeah, if you're dark,
you're the dark one. If you're like light, you're the
light one.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
You know, you're like machete. If you killed somebody one
time with a machete.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Can you believe you kill somebody one time and they
call you machette forever? Like that's unfair. They give me
a chance. So yes, you got him. And Chapel's full
name was Juaquin Archivaldo Guzman nomine like a soap opera star,
and you know, and by the seventies he had caught
the attention of some really big players in Mexican cartels.
(11:42):
I want to say his name one more time, just
for the fuck of it. Ja. I feel like that's
like there's a certain university in Guatemala where where if
you're from there, you tend to announce every one of
your names, and it's like my name number seven. You're like,
I get it, I know where you went to school, NDA,
but and like, okay, well what's your full name? Josserturo
(12:05):
Castro rees.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
You also have like five names Yeah, what is your name,
Diane Guerrero. No, there's I don't have a second name.
I guess my mom. My mom's name is Bessera.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Okay, Dian Gerrero Beserra.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Diane Gerrero Beerra.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
See. I expect you by the end of this podcast
to start hyphenating that ship. I know, I do want
to unpack something. Did you ever consider changing your name
to something less Latino when you were starting out?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
No, you know what, I was always really proud of
the name Guerrero, and it was my dad's name.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
By the way, it means warrior in Spanish.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
You guys, Yeah, it's really what like I felt inside
of like who I was, and I really wanted to
honor my.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Father one hundred percent. I considered it for a brief second,
just because I'm jos Erturo Castro, you know, and like
I got like the first when I first moved to
the States, people couldn't really pronounce Arturo, and I was like,
fuck that, I have to change it. And then I
met this director called Angei Karkowski's and he's like, He's like, kids,
if they can say name, they gonna say.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
And I've been this ever since.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
You know, what name did you What name did you consider?
Speaker 1 (13:07):
You don't want to know. Please make me do don't
make me do this in front of my Film Nation buddies,
you know what, they get them, get them down by.
So it was gonna be it was going to be
Joe Descant, Joseph Descent with an apostrophe. Let me walk
you through this, Yes, let me walk you through this. Okay.
So my first name and I was like, Joseph fucking easy.
(13:29):
And then my mother's maid enim name is Ruis Santiso,
and I was like, that's it. I'm just instead of
they like d E, I'm going to do like hyphenated
D and then it's going to be descent. No, I'm
going to leave now. But thank you guys so much
for having me. Oh my god, Film Nation. This is great. Diane,
you're the new host of the podcast.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
This is my podcast. Now get used to it. Joseph,
you call me out, Ben Wow, I'm glad you kept
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Joe Dessant is leaving the building. So after a little while,
he wasn't working for himself anymore. No, no, no, Instead,
old Chapel was employed by the drug lord Ecto Eluero Bama,
and the chapel was trusted with the difficult stuff. Right.
He transported drugs and supervised shipments from the Sierra Made
region to cities on the US and Mexico border, and
(14:18):
the chapel was super ambitious. The little guy, oh my god,
you know, little a pinch him if it wasn't such
a fucking psycho. The story goes that he was always
pushing for more responsibility. Over and over. He tried to
get his bosses to give him more responsibility, bigger shipments,
and a bigger share of their business.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
In fact, one story says that he basically never talked
about anything else. That Chapo. He's always talking about drug business.
Wherever he is, with whatever people he's with, he's talking
about drugs. Is this an Italian Mexican dude, Toria? Or
where's he? Where's he from? A fucking COMI Tori, I
produced everybody. Have you ever gotten so obsessed with one
(15:00):
particular thing that you start to annoy your family and
friends because you can't talk about anything else?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
The Fresh Prince of Balat song, I just couldn't stop
singing it. No, yeah, yeah, for a while.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I just I worked for ten years.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
I don't. Yeah, exactly exactly. I still do to this day.
But there was like definitely a one week where I
just kind of like just became obsessed. I just was like, yo,
I can rap now.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah No, So like, you know, you got in one
little little fight and your mom got scared.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
You know, Yeah, moving with you, Auntie and uncle and ballet.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Do it, don't do it.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Georgia's song is gonna come so for a cab and
when it came near. Sorry, but Chapa was like this,
he was like, you couldn't stop talking about the business.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, let's go back to a chapel. So in November
nineteen eighty four brought a little shake up to the business.
So the Mexican military got a hot tip from an
inside man. He got the hot goss right that cheese
me and they rated a large marijuana plantation owned by
the Wild Hata cartel known as Francho Buffalo. So in
nineteen eighty five, the cortel figured who the snitch was
(16:01):
and killed them because that's what these mass murdering fuck
heads tend to do. So after that raid, Mexico responded
by carrying out a massive manhunt for those involved in
the incident and they swept out tons of cartel players.
So with the leaders in the business arrested or on
the run, CHAPO saw an opportunity. The FEDS were smashing
off cartel operations and they were leaving a vacuum behind
(16:22):
a space that ol CHAPO could fill, a very tiny,
tiny Chapel filled space. So one of the imprisoned cartel
leaders called for a summit in a Capulco a few
years later, and at the meeting, Chapel and others who
had daunched the raid discussed the future of Mexico drug trafficking.
They agreed to divide up the territories.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
They rented like a huge spa, like like a whole
like hotel.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
They're like, don't come in here until your cheese. The line, guys,
your cheese, not fucking a ligne. I Hey, hey, Chapel,
a little more margerite up on the chapel, please, thank
you so much. Find your voice, find your inside voice,
and then talk to me.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
We had like group games trying to like, you know,
get to know each other and everything. Trustful icebreakers.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, it's not your fault. It's just a bunch of
fucking rounds. Being like it's not your fault, and like
crying into each other like uh, goodwill hunting. It was
really actually yeah, the most emotionally connected moment for all cartels.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So after this peaceful retreat, they all agreed to divide
up the territories previously controlled by the Wada Lajarak. So
that's when the scene la cartel was formed under three traffickers, right,
including a chapel but he was really the one in charge.
But the meeting didn't really set up a happy split
between the groups. It was less like cutting the cake
so that everybody got a slice, and more like drawing
(17:35):
the battle lines just to see what side everyone was on.
But imagine if it really was about cake though, Like
what like if everybody just resolved things with a bakeof style, Like,
come listen to me, I don't agree with your business practice,
but this chocolate Fuondon is absolutely heavily No, that's not
the chapter. No, that's not the chapter. Sound give me
(17:56):
the chapter. Sound there we go, that's the chapter. Sound
give me a little mariachi yell. Thank you very much.
God Benchuk is on it. Wow, that's not a bad one.
I got I got one. I got hi hi hi no, No,
that was not very good.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
That's a good one. I've been practicing now.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
And for a little while it seemed like life was
good for the chapel. He started raking in millions and
he knew what to do with it. As the story goes,
he bought himself four jets, and he had ranches in
(18:41):
every state of Mexico, not to mention houses on every beach.
Oh and yeah, he built his mom a little church
right by their house. It's is that a Heavenly give
me that again? He built a church right by his house.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Good for you because he might have been on Tapa.
But he's like he still like loves his believes in
the first community.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
But it's exactly, it seems like it's always intertwined, right,
Like these absolute lunatics always seem to consider themselves religious.
It must be part of our culture, I guess, Like,
I don't know, it's your family religious.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Not intensely so, but I mean it's they still, yeah,
believe in God, and everything is cudio skid it? You know,
everything is it sudio skid it this or that? And
I think that those guys they have to believe in
God because their survival has dependent really on that, like
on the fact that like God is with them, you
know what I mean, And the way that they repent
is by giving money to the church.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
It seems like these psychopaths or like people, murders, tyrants,
they always a line themselves to the church in order
to try to pay their way out of their sin
or their guilt, you know.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I mean, church is kind of like the original kind
of sin. Yeah, right, I mean, no, they're but they're
like bad folks, right, I mean, if we think about
the Christian Church and everything that they did.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
I mean, I mean legally, I can't say that out
loud because they own the rights of my career. But yeah,
I am, I'm I'm not nodding, but I'm nodding. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
No.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
You know, if if Chapel had a church, it was
probably his ranch in Guadalajada, and that's where he built
his own zou full of panthers and tigers and lions
and deer. Plus thank you for this, so yeah, very nice.
Plus there was a little train that you could ride
around to see.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
It all much never Land. He had like a never
Land situation.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Kind of like never Land, but way less dangerous. Oh
oh by the way. Chapel had also had four wives.
I'm not sure how that worked out, but maybe each
of them stayed in a different jet I don't know.
Or he went to Bernie Man and pitched like ethical
non monogamy.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You know, he's like, we all.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Love each other, but we don't want to be with
each other that way. Chapel was making friends outside of
Mexico two for instance, the Million and in Colombia, they
found that he was the most efficient of the Mexican operators. Yeah. Wow,
no one could smuggle north across the US board as
fast as Chapel. To the Colombians, he was less a
Chapel and more rapid.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Do you have a favorite nickname that somebody has ever
called you?
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I mean it's really offensive.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Ship, Like, you don't have to like go deep that
way if you don't want.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
People called me Shrimpo Shrimpo. Okay, if you must know.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Because you were tiny, Yeah, Chapel was taken, so people
called you Shrimpo.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Chapa was taken, so people call me Shrimpo.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
They called me Joe Dessant. It was weird.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
One day I was like going into like you know,
Sunday school or whatever. We were practicing for like a
big play or whatever, and I come in and these
kids are laughing, and I was like, what's so funny?
And then somebody starts saying shrimpo son so bitches, and
I was like, what's happening? And They're like, they're calling
you shrimpo and I was like, why are they calling
you shrimpo?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
And I'm going to need you to write down their
social Security numbers and their names. We're going to get
Film Nation to fucking publicly cut off their their access
to any Film Nation. Films.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Film Nation have this much power.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
You don't know. You know, we do them straight. We
got this, don't worry that yet. We got this.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I got it joint to sign that's.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Showing the sun. So anyway, of course, a chap point
Is cartel were also making enemies, right, for instance, with
the other Mexican cartels. In the spring of nineteen ninety three,
and Chapel pulled up to the Wada La Airport in
a white Mercury Grand Marquee. As his driver parked the car,
a group of men rushed forward and blasted the car
with a hill of bullets. Right normal shit in Mexican.
(22:26):
Dirk cartels, right, But El Chapel ran for the terminal,
dodging the gunfire with his bodyguards. He climbed onto the
baggage carousel and dove thlew the opening into the back
of the airport. Now, the sad as part of these
cartel wars are all the innocent people that are killed
and effected by it, right, Like, literally, no one nowhere
was safe during this time. Right. But once they were
thought to be on the other side, a Chapoint his
(22:47):
souldiers ran across the runway and into the forest behind.
It was an escape of swords. But at Chapel wasn't
the only one who arrived at the airport in a
white mercury. The other one was the archbishop of the
Catholic Church in Mexico, Cardinal Ocampo, who by all accounts
was a really sweet man. And the assassin said hit
his car as well because of the confusion, and the
(23:08):
Cardinal had been shot and killed in broad daylight. I
didn't know this, but anyway, at first the murder was
spinned on the chapel, but the shooters were hitmen in
from the Tijuana cartel. Apparently, a Chapel was devastated by
the cardinal's death. As we you know already, he's a
religious he's got a church, he's got a church. And
he blamed the Tijuana cartel double right, first for the
(23:29):
hit itself and second for letting him take the blame
for the Cardinal Ocampo's murder. Now, regardless of the blame game,
a cardinal had still been killed, and this put a
Chapel in the international crosshairs.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
International crosshairs. What do you mean? Like that means like
Italy called and was like, you killed one of us.
He's done.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah. Yeah, Italy was a was a mechanic from the
pre hold, New Jersey. But yeah, exactly. So cardinals are
like one step down from the pope. So anytime one
of them dies, it's a huge deal. And even more
if it was a murder, Chapel now had the attention
(24:10):
of the world, right, and now he also had the
attention of the Mexican government.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
This is nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Nineteen eighty five, yeah, okay, okay, the year I was born.
Where ye wear were you were born?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Eighty six babies?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Oh, I'm old man than you.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Is he still alive, by the way, yes, okay, good, good, good.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
But so so feel good. So as a fence closed in,
Chapel decided he would rather try to slip away from
the scrap than try and deal with the authorities. So
to get out from the limelight, hwalking and his girlfriend
decided to take a trip to Guatemala. Why the fuck
was he in Watemala?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Get out of Guatemala, Get on.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Actually Chapel was apparently trying to drive to Elsa to
try to start a business connection.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
There, but you know he was he ended up in Guatemala.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
He was driving through Watemala because it was just on
the way, and he was like, actually, this is kind
of nice. And I don't blame him because the waterm
that's the shit.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So yeah, I've actually been seeing more of Guatemala on
your trips. I'm like, I'm online stalking you and I'm like,
what is he doing it? And that's right, guatemalaks gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
The whole point in my career is to take tourism
away from Costa Rica. That's all. There is one big
long play from the Watermelon Tourism Board to just make
sure that I get more than one person there a year.
I'm going I'll give you all the good spot I
got something that will take care of you. It's our
producer from a film nation.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
We got you, Kevi. Don't worry, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Thanks guys.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
So, to make sure that this trip was totally under
the radar, and Chapel paid a Wanmalan military official one
point two million dollars to allow him to hide south
of the Mexican border. Yeah, so the guy took the money,
but he would also passed on the information about El Chapels.
Whereabout the law force? The fuck them both. But also,
you can't trust the guy who's already corrupt, buddy boy. Right.
(25:52):
In June nineteen ninety three, when Chapel was on his
way back from he set up a meeting with a
watermelon cut But when he showed up for his meeting
at hotel near Tapachula instead of this guy, he was
actually greeted by the watermelon army. Yes, they loaded him
into what No, are you on his side?
Speaker 2 (26:12):
I get scared?
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Who saw you on?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I don't like authority? Okay, well, not that I'm not
on the Chapel side, but I gotta say I'm not
on the fucking military side either.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Okay, fair enough, fair enough, So They loaded him on
a military plane and flew him back to Mexico. But
on the ride, Chapel was interrogated and he confessed to
a ton of crimes. Apparently he could still only talk
about one thing. Like everybody's like, you need to tell
us all about this. No, no, no, no way, wait till
you hear this one. So when he landed, a Chapel
(26:41):
was taken to Federal Social Readaptation Center number one, a
maximum security prison in Alas. It needs a new fucking name.
That's too long, I'll tell you what. Not very catchy,
is it?
Speaker 2 (26:52):
No? It snow Alcatraz.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Yeah, it needs a name like El Spot or whatever
the fuck you know. So the Chapel was sending to
twenty years and he was transferred to a different maximum
security person in Halley School, Federal Social Readaptation Center number two. So, uh,
this one, this, this one went by a much catcher name.
Apparently it was called Puente. Oh it was a big bridge,
(27:14):
good for you guys. But by putting a Chapel in
a cell that wasn't gonna be enough to shut that down.
Why does it suddenly turn into an a SMR session? Now?
(27:36):
While he was in prison, at Chapel's drug empire, and
the cartel continued to operate unabated. His brother was known
as the chicken Stock. Yeah, I started got it wasn't
the most fierce emine. I feel like everyone in want
of moll In Center America had a nickname too. Mine
was it Poopies, by the.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Way, you just like pooped your pants.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Well that no, because I was a pupilio by the way,
because my friends are. When I was thirteen, I met
the high schoo kids. They were older, and they taught
me all my fucked up ways, Like they taught me
how to smoke cigarettes and like, and I was like,
I'm thirteen be doing this, but I.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Want to, but you were like really cool. So they're
like Poopies.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Yeah, they called me, oh man, that's like our little mascot.
That's like our little paddaw on the Poopies. But the
problem with that nickname is that everybody assumes immediately like
just to shat myself.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You know, uncontrollably all the time.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
It didn't come on until later on in life. And
that's how I got this podcast. Anyway. So during his
time in the Clink, and Chapel even met his longtime
mistress former police officer a name Sulima. She was serving
time for arm robbery.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Oh yeah, fucking yeah, Hey, hey jinks, hey jings, buddy boy.
Apparently Chapel spotted her during a family visitation time and
started sending her flowers, love letters, and even a bottle
of whiskey that the guards brought to her. Oh my god.
They say romance is dead, you guys, But no, not
for a family visitation means that his family aka his wife,
(29:00):
was fucking visiting him and he's like, who's that over there?
He seems like trouble. But while Chapel was carrying on
with his prison romance, he was indicted in San Diego
on US charges of money laundering and importing tons of
cocaine into California. At first, he seemed fine to a Chapel.
You know, he was in Mexico and not the US.
He was already in prison, so what can they do
(29:20):
to him? But then the Supreme Court in Mexico handed
down a ruling that made extradition between Mexico and the
United States much easier.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
So the United States basically brought him.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
By fucking accent, So they brought him, no, no, no,
not yet no, but a ruling from the Supreme Court
made it easier. Right, So before that it was kind
of like, you know, you could stall it forever. But
now it was basically in the works, and the Chapel
didn't intend to get shipped to the United States, so
he set a plan into motion.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Wait a minute, so he got extradited to the United States.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yet, but the threat was imminent, right, and suddenly became
a real possibility. So he started the plan to get
the fuck out of prison, which brings us to the
year two thousand and one and the escape the first
and made El Chapel famous as an escape artist. Or
in other words, we're finally back till laundry day, Diana,
(30:24):
Are you ready for this? Yes, that's rock and roll.
So the plan starts with a prison guard nicknamed El
Chito or the silent one. All right, so he was
the one in charge of the prison laundry. So when
laundry day came it, Chito was a man who hit
the switch that opened Il Chapel cell door. Once a
Chapel cell door was opened, Ichito rolled the laundry cart
(30:44):
inside El Chapel, popped in. Come on you little munchkin
nestling down into the dirty clothes. I've never been tempted
to jump into a pile of dirty clothes, but clean clothes. Fuck, yeah, man,
I get the impulse.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Okay. From there on, the route was simple but strewn
with obstacles, and Chito would have to roll the laundry
cart through multiple security checkpoints where a guard could look
down through the glass and see who was waiting at
the door. But of course it Chito was a familiar
figure doing a familiar job, so the guards let him
pass through the doors one by one, pushing the cart
(31:19):
the way he always did. At one point, as the
story goes, and Chito stopped to talk to one of
the guards and he let go of the cart and
it started to roll away, And he should have known
something was up because the cart started going w so
e Chito had to jump forward and grab it, but
eventually he pushed the cart right out the front door.
Whoa As a maximum security prison, the JLISKO facility was
(31:41):
supposedly equipped with heat sensors and surveillance camera, all kinds
of locked doors and other stuff that should have caught
a chapel on his way out, but he slipped past
all of them undetected. As a Chito rolled the cart
through the electronic doors. One by one, the sensors that
should have detected Chapel never went off. Wow, he left
without trace all. The most one thing he did leave
(32:04):
was a love note for Suleima. Oh my gosh, I
say goodbye, sending all my greatest sentiments that the man
can feel for a woman that he loves loves. And
she was like, you left me, You fucking left me,
your fucking bastard. Soon there may be an excellent surprise surprise.
(32:26):
I love you, signed J g L.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Goose you say j g L, also known as with
the actor's name j g L.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Joseph Gordon love it.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yes, yeah, dude, he's L Chappo. I knew it.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
You are the fucking Chappo. I knew it. His career
started around the same time that fucking escape happened. That's wild,
that's right. And remember though his handwriting was so terrible,
right and chappos so she probably didn't know what the
fuck he was saying. It was just like, I don't
like this is just a bunch of scratches.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Was he like, I'll be back for you.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
No, no, no, no, he was just like he was
just like, it's been fun, see you later. Hey, let
me ask you something. Has ever has anyone ever made
a love gesture to you that was like that really
turned you off because it was so grading?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Yes, names okay, so let me tell you something. It
was I was dating this guy and like I went
over his house. He like made dinner. It was like
really nice, and then you know we're we're like kind
of like laying on his bed and I like look
over and on his nightstand is a picture of me
with my prom date. It was a picture of me
(33:34):
and my prom date, like a prom picture of me.
He had it framed, and I was like, what.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Do you He didn't go to high school with you? No,
from your Facebook or whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I don't know where he got it from, but yeah,
he took a picture of me with another guy and
it was on his nightstand and I thought, I was like,
what is this?
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Oh my god, that's so fucking creepy.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
It was so creepy.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
But you're still together to this date, which is always happened.
Now we're it and now we're check it out.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
No, and then check it out. His ex girlfriend came later.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
That day to could like to start to start some
ruckus at the apartment to.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Start some ship ready, and this kid sticks me in
the closet. Dude, I felt very unsafe, very you know.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Oh my god, I'm so sorry that happened to you.
So my biggest turn off is when I when I
was when I was single, and I would go to
a girls house and she didn't have fucking pictures of
me and my promp printed on her fucking night side.
I'm like, how do you do? You not give a
fuck about me? Done? Done? You're done to me, kidd.
So back to the Chapo. So once his tender Little
(34:36):
Love No. Was delivered, he was on his way. Once
he was outside at Tapao, jumped from the laundry into
a trunk of a car that was waiting for them,
and Chito jumped into the driver's seat and chauffeured them
out of town. Now, one story says that Chapel was
dressed as a prison guard by the time they got outside.
That sounds a little too much to be honest. When
I Chito had to stop the getaway car for gas,
(34:57):
he pulled over at a station and he went inside
to pay and he went back out and chapel was gone.
What yeah, man, you got left at the author by
because you're a fucking dumbass. Maybe you should have shouted
after him, but you're too quiet because we took out
on he had taken off into the night on foot
apparently damn So police launched in nationwide search the warden
(35:18):
and over seventy prison workers were detained and question this
potential accomplices, I mean, of course, like what the fuck? Man?
Of course, regardless when all the bribes on record were
taled up. The escape supposedly cost a chapel two point
five million dollars. Like that's a lot of money, I guess,
but like not doing chapel right now, Like it's a
fucking dropping a bucket. And besides, he went on to
(35:39):
have a successful Hollywood career and eventually do a show
with me as Joseph Goordon Levitt, so at all it
was worth it. In addition to the prison employee accomplices,
there's a story that police in Hallis School were paid
off to ensure that the chapel had at least twenty
four hours to get out of the state, and say
ahead of the military manhunt that followed founded a Chapel
(36:00):
sometimes strolled into restaurants as his body guard confiscated people's
cell phones, and he would eat his meal and then
leave after paying everyone's tap. Imagine he's just one of
those customers at a restaurant, but like, there's nothing anyone
can do, right, You're like right, You're like, I don't know.
As long as we're ordering, Can I get the nacho
cheese please?
Speaker 2 (36:18):
He paid for our job.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
So for more than thirteen years, Mexican security forces coordinating
many operations to re arrest El Chapel, but their efforts
were largely in vain. He appeared to be always a
few steps ahead of his captors, like in his early days,
when a Chapel moved away from Natuna to fire up
his business. He wouldn't stay hidden in the boondogs forever.
But that's another story for another day. That's our story.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
What, oh my gosh, I actually didn't know much about
a Chapel.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
I didn't know about this. This, I didn't know about
his first escape. I knew about the second one that
we'll cover at a later date.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
I never knew. I didn't know he was such a romantic.
But I should have known because of the whole cape
they I mean to go down because you were like
this much in love with someone is.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Being a hornball listen. So so in order to wrap up,
wrap up the show, I want Benchuk to play that
romantic music again. I mean, I'm a terrible singer, but
you're such a wonderful singer. Maybe we'll like sing back,
like we'll invent what Sulema's response was to him, and
we'll just a little back and forth once once, once
or twice back what do you think?
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Okay, that's soulem Chaito?
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Is that you.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
See?
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Because I have to go meet Okay del Castillo. See
did you leave.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
A big fat bag for me?
Speaker 1 (37:45):
I have nowhere else to go. Poo poo when I
was hiding in the laundry. Back, but I love you.
I will be back, Pito.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Miquel.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
No, I just have to go make a film career
and work with Jonathan Nolan, with Chris Nolan.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
But I'm pregnant. I have your child.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
His name is Chuckie. Oh my god, what a fucking
pleasure to have you come back anytime? Will we come
back and visit it sometime? Please?
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Absolutely, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Hey, so listeners can find you on the socials, of course,
but also catch you in the upcoming film The Whistler
and the final season of Doom Patrol.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Final season of Doom Patrol.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yes, you can catch that in HBO Max.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Yeah, that's right, HBO Max first season. If you haven't
watched Ganto and heard me sing.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
I mean, god, you're so good in that. I can't
I can't believe that. You know what, I was so
proud of I watch you performing the fucking Oscars, Diane.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
That I was really really nervous. I mean, of course,
I was just like I don't know, I don't even
have words for it, but it was a really beautiful
experience just to like I've watched that show every year,
it just kind of like made me feel closer to
the possibility of like ever I just I mean, I
was just kind of like, I can't believe that I'm
(39:15):
in a film that is being recognized, and not only that,
but a film that has that has such close ties
to my my family and my culture and my country.
And so it was really.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Latino joy and to Latino that that it's not about
the tragedy of being Latin.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
But ABI ex actually I'm just like, yeah, I'm like,
I'm like happy. You know, it was, it was a
beautiful experience. It was.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
It was wonderful to see you there. Thank you, Thank
you so much for being here. This is great as
Escapes guys, and until next time, make sure to not
leave a love letter behind.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
Goodbye, everybody.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Grace Escapes is a production IF I Heard Radio and
Film Nation Entertainment in association with Gilded Audio. Our executive
producers are me are Turo Castro, Alyssa Martino and Milan
Papelka from Film Nation Entertainment, Andrew Chug and Witning Donaldson
from Gilded Audio, and Dylan Fagan from iHeartRadio. The show
is produced and edited by Carl Nellis and Ben Chubb,
who are also, respectively, our research overlord and music overlord.
(40:20):
Our associate producer is Tory Smith, who's our other overlord.
Nick Dooley is our technical director. Additional editing by Whitney Donaldson.
Special thanks to Alison Cohen, Dan Welsh, Ben Riizek, Sarah Joyner,
nicki Stein, Olivia Canny and Kelsey Albright. Hey, thank you
(40:44):
so much for listening, and if you're enjoying the show,
please drop a rating or review. My mom will call
you each personally and thank you, and we'll see you
all next week.
Hey, guys, Welcome to Greatest Escapes, a show bringing you
the wildest true escape stories of all time. This is
our first episode and we are kicking it off in style.
I'm Arturo Gastro. I'm an actor. Not that one. No, no,
not the one you're thinking about. The other one. Yeah,
that's me. So you might not be shocked to hear that.
I love to stir the pot. When I was younger,
(00:21):
you know, and I've escaped some pretty crazy, life threatening situations.
I've always been drawn to the ingenuity that it takes
to escape. So when I heard about some of the
craziest escapes in history, I don't know, I wanted to
explore them in a deeper format, also having fun and
maybe some laughs along the way. Also, I don't make
the show on my own right. No man is an island,
So throughout the episodes you'll hear my producers aka my overlords,
(00:44):
please help me, Carl, Ben and Toy. For our story.
We're revisiting an early escape by one of the most
infamous jailbreakers of the twenty first century, and I'm joined
by the powerful voice of the activist, the actress, the
wonderful human being Diane Guerrero. Hey, so listener, what a
(01:10):
treat we have for you today, our very own Colombian sensation,
Miss Diane Guerrero on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I love that and I love that sound.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Diane, Tell me, what do you consider to be your
greatest escape?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Oh my gosh, Well this was actually really PG compared
to something that I wanted to tell you about.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Tell me all about it.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Okay, I'll tell you. I don't consider myself a bad kid,
you know what I mean. But I was heavily influenced
by movies like Home Alone or like basically where any
little white kid was like doing mischief. I was like,
it's exactly what I want to do for my career. Yes,
And my mom would take me to the mall a lot.
(01:55):
This was like during Christmas time, and so like the
mall is really decorated. This is in New Jersey, this
is in Boston. And so I was with my friend
and we had drinks and we the drinks were over,
and then all we had was ice. So we were
like sucking on the ice and then we were kind
of like on the balcony.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And so like, how old are you at this point? Sorry?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Maybe like seven eight?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Okay, Okay, so child child, Sorry.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I was a child, Yeah, but I had ice in
my mouth and I just I happened to drop it
and it landed on someone's head and we were like,
oh shit, and we went we went back and we
just thought it was so funny. We just we just
kept doing it and but we didn't get in trouble.
It was like innocent, it was fine. It was multiple
(02:40):
days in the shopping mall, not just that day. So
the next day we went. I thought it was a
really great idea. Hey, what do you think about instead
of ice? I bring this bucket of toys. And here's
the thing. Toys back in the day, these were like
nineteen eighty six toys geatre made of steel. Dude, this
is like this is like big bird on a car
(03:00):
and that shit is heavy. And so we're like, what
if we throw these off of the second floor or whatever.
And so we went and we started doing this and
like it would hit people in the head, and we
thought it was hilarious and we're like whaa whatever. All
of a sudden we turn around and this guy goes,
is this yours? This man shows me my big bird
(03:22):
on a fire truck and I just a freaking grab it,
and I was like run. We didn't know where our
parents were. Thank god we passed by the Talbots. It's
a store that my mom was in. Anyway, I tell
her the situation and she goes, you're on your own.
You have to run.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Thing to do is like I didn't throw the thing.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
She was like exactly, and so yeah, and then we
just booked it. But the guy did say he was
going to call the cops.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Guess what, Dane, you have the guy here today, Come motherfucker,
come on out, let's do this. No, we definitely played
with like asbestos, like fucking rubber duckies when we were
chilling anyone, like you knowitas were like, yeah, that'll be fine.
It built character.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Those things hurt ye, your weapons, I know, well you.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Know, and that's and I think some of that will
be relevant to our story today. So if you're ready, Diane,
I'm ready, let's escape. Hey, Benja, can you give me
some escape music?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
There we go, Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
As a minute hand on the wall climbed towards nine,
Joaquin tapped on his cell gate. The year was two
thousand and one, and Joaquin was locked inside the maximum
security prison in Jalisco. But it was finally that they
had planned for. It was his kin Sannea hey even
(04:48):
got everybody else just kidding, just kidding, It was not
It was more dramatic than that.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
He ran through all the steps in his head, the
upcoming maneuvers necessary. The rives handed off. The clock ticked
and ticked and ticked. All of Joaquin's tedious calculations for
a grand escape accounted to this laundry day. Today's story
is about a truly infamous character.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
We'll get to laundry day in a second, but to start,
let's go back to the beginning. He was born in
the spring of nineteen fifty seven into a poor family
in the rural community of Latuna, a little town in
the mountains of western Mexico, which was incidentally famous for
it's salma. Now it's salmon, goddamn it. It was like, I
m doing the pilgrims and be like, do you guys
(05:35):
have tuna?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
They're like, sorry, it's just a salmon, just because.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Our name is Tuna, sir, Just not mean so.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
So.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
The nearest school to his home was about sixty miles away,
and he was taught by traveling teachers during the early years. Okay,
they would come stay for months for a few months
before moving on to other areas. So school was never
that important to Joaquin and he quit after elementary school. Okay,
but this did lead to stories about how bad his
handwriting was. Were you were you a good student? Then
(06:04):
what was the subject that most tripped you out?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Math?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
MATHA.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
It wasn't a good math student, it really, I mean
it got my armpits real.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Drink, Yeah, it got my arm pits are flowing.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
It scared me. I would hide. I would hide under
the desk, like every time we had to do problems
on the on the pisa, whatever it is on the blackboard. Yeah,
it was very scary for me.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
There is very little dread, similar to that pit in
your stomach when you don't have your homework right, but
when you know you can't fucking do it whatever it is,
it's just like you don't have it and they're gonna
ask for it and it's today, and your like mouth
is dry and like it's just like there's very little
feelings like that.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
You're like peeing your pants. Your mouth is dry, but
you're very wet and others.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I was like, can you figure out the moisture, like, yeah,
the distribution is not working for me. My handwriting is
embarrassingly bad, though, so I just tell people that it's
ase I imitated my doctor father's writing, which is not true.
It's just my hands have always shaken for some reason.
You're shaking now, I'm a shaky guys, shall Yeah, Jimmy
shakes over here. So for Joaquin, penmanship didn't really matter
(07:15):
that much. No, no, because he had other work to do.
So it's not like there were a lot of jobs
in his hometown, right. Latuna was a farming community, so
that's what Joaquin did. He would go up into the
mountains and work on raising the area's cash crops opium,
poppies and marijuana plans. Okay, yeah, oh boy.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So during harvest season, Joaquin and all of his brothers
were busy hiking from farm to farm cutting buds of
one kind or another.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Now, his past is a little hazy, but as the
legend goes, Joaquin's dad worked as a driver and the
boys would cut in stack and then their father would
drive the harvest to suppliers in Juliakan and Juan Muchil. Yeah,
but there is one major problem with his arrangement. So
Joaquin's dad was supposed to sell the crops and then
come back home with the money, but instance he would
collect the money and immediately go on a fucking bender dude,
(08:05):
like drink sex, whatever, crazy shit he felt like he was.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
He dipped into the stash.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
She dipped into the set. You never go into your
o stash, the number one rule. You don't go into
the set. Bro. You're never talk about my club, and
you don't go into your own stash. Right, that's such
a classic story of the fields sometimes where the father's
just like, h I could use this not all the
time I knew, but like I could use this to
you my family. Or there's a saloon over here. I
(08:32):
don't know why.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
This is like the West saloon.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah that's right, it's.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Okay, very western.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, you never know. It's not like it's the eighteen hundreds.
For fuck it. We'll suspend in this belief. So obviously,
Joaquin was extremely tired of this year after year, Right,
He wanted more than just grinding poverty for himself and
his family, which, to be honest, fare, so he saved
up balloon money until he could move away from home
and to start his own marijuana plantation. Oh he's an
(09:00):
industrial list. Good for him, Good for him, he said,
up his spot close to the bigger town of Baddi
ra Wato. It's not like I can ask my producers
if I'm pronouncing this correctly. Buddy got what they got
Buddy Baddy okay, which sounds like a name of a
sexy regged tone dance, doesn't it?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Like for sure?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Uh, Baddy got Thank you for indulging me. I love that.
But the crazy thing was that this whole start my
own farm thing when he was only fifteen, that's when
it happened. And he brung brought along people in his
family to help him. Brung, he brung along people in
(09:38):
his family to help and get the mistake number one rule.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
You don't talk about fight club, you don't go into
your own stash, and you don't bring your own family
to your business.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
It's a big misry the business. So by twenty he
was married and he was starting to make some real
money enough to support all of them. Wow, And and
everybody's like, oh my god, I knew he was always
going to make something of himself, And like, yeah, no,
you didn't know you didn't, but okay, one thing to
know about Howking is he was pretty short. Okay, he
(10:07):
only grew up to be five foot six. It had
kind of a stock if you sik. And that's what
gave him his nickname. It was slang for shorty. Do
you know who we're talking about? Chapel You got it?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Oh my gosh, shivers down my spine.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I know that. I don't know who that whose voice
that was, but it was really into my soul.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, can you believe so? In one of all the
nickname for for short people is chaparros. What is it
in Columbia? Do you guys have one? Okay?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
That's like like like no, like what is it?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Like little gnome?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Little like little gnome?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, and so fucked up that we are like it's
like that's what you'll be known for your entire life.
If you're growing up in Latin America, you get one nickname, and.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
That's one nickname. It's and it's attributed to your physical whatever, always.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
With what you can see.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
They're like, that's rude, and it's like now we're like
in this phase of like, oh we're starting to to
it's like, don't comment on my body, don't like talk
about my physical attributes. But Latin America don't care.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
But in Americas you're like, yeah, yeah, if you're dark,
you're the dark one. If you're like light, you're the
light one.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
You know, you're like machete. If you killed somebody one
time with a machete.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Can you believe you kill somebody one time and they
call you machette forever? Like that's unfair. They give me
a chance. So yes, you got him. And Chapel's full
name was Juaquin Archivaldo Guzman nomine like a soap opera star,
and you know, and by the seventies he had caught
the attention of some really big players in Mexican cartels.
(11:42):
I want to say his name one more time, just
for the fuck of it. Ja. I feel like that's
like there's a certain university in Guatemala where where if
you're from there, you tend to announce every one of
your names, and it's like my name number seven. You're like,
I get it, I know where you went to school, NDA,
but and like, okay, well what's your full name? Josserturo
(12:05):
Castro rees.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
You also have like five names Yeah, what is your name,
Diane Guerrero. No, there's I don't have a second name.
I guess my mom. My mom's name is Bessera.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Okay, Dian Gerrero Beserra.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Diane Gerrero Beerra.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
See. I expect you by the end of this podcast
to start hyphenating that ship. I know, I do want
to unpack something. Did you ever consider changing your name
to something less Latino when you were starting out?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
No, you know what, I was always really proud of
the name Guerrero, and it was my dad's name.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
By the way, it means warrior in Spanish.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
You guys, Yeah, it's really what like I felt inside
of like who I was, and I really wanted to
honor my.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Father one hundred percent. I considered it for a brief second,
just because I'm jos Erturo Castro, you know, and like
I got like the first when I first moved to
the States, people couldn't really pronounce Arturo, and I was like,
fuck that, I have to change it. And then I
met this director called Angei Karkowski's and he's like, He's like, kids,
if they can say name, they gonna say.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
And I've been this ever since.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
You know, what name did you What name did you consider?
Speaker 1 (13:07):
You don't want to know. Please make me do don't
make me do this in front of my Film Nation buddies,
you know what, they get them, get them down by.
So it was gonna be it was going to be
Joe Descant, Joseph Descent with an apostrophe. Let me walk
you through this, Yes, let me walk you through this. Okay.
So my first name and I was like, Joseph fucking easy.
(13:29):
And then my mother's maid enim name is Ruis Santiso,
and I was like, that's it. I'm just instead of
they like d E, I'm going to do like hyphenated
D and then it's going to be descent. No, I'm
going to leave now. But thank you guys so much
for having me. Oh my god, Film Nation. This is great. Diane,
you're the new host of the podcast.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
This is my podcast. Now get used to it. Joseph,
you call me out, Ben Wow, I'm glad you kept
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Joe Dessant is leaving the building. So after a little while,
he wasn't working for himself anymore. No, no, no, Instead,
old Chapel was employed by the drug lord Ecto Eluero Bama,
and the chapel was trusted with the difficult stuff. Right.
He transported drugs and supervised shipments from the Sierra Made
region to cities on the US and Mexico border, and
(14:18):
the chapel was super ambitious. The little guy, oh my god,
you know, little a pinch him if it wasn't such
a fucking psycho. The story goes that he was always
pushing for more responsibility. Over and over. He tried to
get his bosses to give him more responsibility, bigger shipments,
and a bigger share of their business.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
In fact, one story says that he basically never talked
about anything else. That Chapo. He's always talking about drug business.
Wherever he is, with whatever people he's with, he's talking
about drugs. Is this an Italian Mexican dude, Toria? Or
where's he? Where's he from? A fucking COMI Tori, I
produced everybody. Have you ever gotten so obsessed with one
(15:00):
particular thing that you start to annoy your family and
friends because you can't talk about anything else?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
The Fresh Prince of Balat song, I just couldn't stop
singing it. No, yeah, yeah, for a while.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I just I worked for ten years.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
I don't. Yeah, exactly exactly. I still do to this day.
But there was like definitely a one week where I
just kind of like just became obsessed. I just was like, yo,
I can rap now.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah No, So like, you know, you got in one
little little fight and your mom got scared.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
You know, Yeah, moving with you, Auntie and uncle and ballet.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Do it, don't do it.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Georgia's song is gonna come so for a cab and
when it came near. Sorry, but Chapa was like this,
he was like, you couldn't stop talking about the business.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, let's go back to a chapel. So in November
nineteen eighty four brought a little shake up to the business.
So the Mexican military got a hot tip from an
inside man. He got the hot goss right that cheese
me and they rated a large marijuana plantation owned by
the Wild Hata cartel known as Francho Buffalo. So in
nineteen eighty five, the cortel figured who the snitch was
(16:01):
and killed them because that's what these mass murdering fuck
heads tend to do. So after that raid, Mexico responded
by carrying out a massive manhunt for those involved in
the incident and they swept out tons of cartel players.
So with the leaders in the business arrested or on
the run, CHAPO saw an opportunity. The FEDS were smashing
off cartel operations and they were leaving a vacuum behind
(16:22):
a space that ol CHAPO could fill, a very tiny,
tiny Chapel filled space. So one of the imprisoned cartel
leaders called for a summit in a Capulco a few
years later, and at the meeting, Chapel and others who
had daunched the raid discussed the future of Mexico drug trafficking.
They agreed to divide up the territories.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
They rented like a huge spa, like like a whole
like hotel.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
They're like, don't come in here until your cheese. The line, guys,
your cheese, not fucking a ligne. I Hey, hey, Chapel,
a little more margerite up on the chapel, please, thank
you so much. Find your voice, find your inside voice,
and then talk to me.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
We had like group games trying to like, you know,
get to know each other and everything. Trustful icebreakers.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, it's not your fault. It's just a bunch of
fucking rounds. Being like it's not your fault, and like
crying into each other like uh, goodwill hunting. It was
really actually yeah, the most emotionally connected moment for all cartels.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So after this peaceful retreat, they all agreed to divide
up the territories previously controlled by the Wada Lajarak. So
that's when the scene la cartel was formed under three traffickers, right,
including a chapel but he was really the one in charge.
But the meeting didn't really set up a happy split
between the groups. It was less like cutting the cake
so that everybody got a slice, and more like drawing
(17:35):
the battle lines just to see what side everyone was on.
But imagine if it really was about cake though, Like
what like if everybody just resolved things with a bakeof style, Like,
come listen to me, I don't agree with your business practice,
but this chocolate Fuondon is absolutely heavily No, that's not
the chapter. No, that's not the chapter. Sound give me
(17:56):
the chapter. Sound there we go, that's the chapter. Sound
give me a little mariachi yell. Thank you very much.
God Benchuk is on it. Wow, that's not a bad one.
I got I got one. I got hi hi hi no, No,
that was not very good.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
That's a good one. I've been practicing now.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
And for a little while it seemed like life was
good for the chapel. He started raking in millions and
he knew what to do with it. As the story goes,
he bought himself four jets, and he had ranches in
(18:41):
every state of Mexico, not to mention houses on every beach.
Oh and yeah, he built his mom a little church
right by their house. It's is that a Heavenly give
me that again? He built a church right by his house.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Good for you because he might have been on Tapa.
But he's like he still like loves his believes in
the first community.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
But it's exactly, it seems like it's always intertwined, right,
Like these absolute lunatics always seem to consider themselves religious.
It must be part of our culture, I guess, Like,
I don't know, it's your family religious.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Not intensely so, but I mean it's they still, yeah,
believe in God, and everything is cudio skid it? You know,
everything is it sudio skid it this or that? And
I think that those guys they have to believe in
God because their survival has dependent really on that, like
on the fact that like God is with them, you
know what I mean, And the way that they repent
is by giving money to the church.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
It seems like these psychopaths or like people, murders, tyrants,
they always a line themselves to the church in order
to try to pay their way out of their sin
or their guilt, you know.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I mean, church is kind of like the original kind
of sin. Yeah, right, I mean, no, they're but they're
like bad folks, right, I mean, if we think about
the Christian Church and everything that they did.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
I mean, I mean legally, I can't say that out
loud because they own the rights of my career. But yeah,
I am, I'm I'm not nodding, but I'm nodding. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
No.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
You know, if if Chapel had a church, it was
probably his ranch in Guadalajada, and that's where he built
his own zou full of panthers and tigers and lions
and deer. Plus thank you for this, so yeah, very nice.
Plus there was a little train that you could ride
around to see.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
It all much never Land. He had like a never
Land situation.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Kind of like never Land, but way less dangerous. Oh
oh by the way. Chapel had also had four wives.
I'm not sure how that worked out, but maybe each
of them stayed in a different jet I don't know.
Or he went to Bernie Man and pitched like ethical
non monogamy.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You know, he's like, we all.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Love each other, but we don't want to be with
each other that way. Chapel was making friends outside of
Mexico two for instance, the Million and in Colombia, they
found that he was the most efficient of the Mexican operators. Yeah. Wow,
no one could smuggle north across the US board as
fast as Chapel. To the Colombians, he was less a
Chapel and more rapid.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Do you have a favorite nickname that somebody has ever
called you?
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I mean it's really offensive.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Ship, Like, you don't have to like go deep that
way if you don't want.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
People called me Shrimpo Shrimpo. Okay, if you must know.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Because you were tiny, Yeah, Chapel was taken, so people
called you Shrimpo.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Chapa was taken, so people call me Shrimpo.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
They called me Joe Dessant. It was weird.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
One day I was like going into like you know,
Sunday school or whatever. We were practicing for like a
big play or whatever, and I come in and these
kids are laughing, and I was like, what's so funny?
And then somebody starts saying shrimpo son so bitches, and
I was like, what's happening? And They're like, they're calling
you shrimpo and I was like, why are they calling
you shrimpo?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
And I'm going to need you to write down their
social Security numbers and their names. We're going to get
Film Nation to fucking publicly cut off their their access
to any Film Nation. Films.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Film Nation have this much power.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
You don't know. You know, we do them straight. We
got this, don't worry that yet. We got this.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I got it joint to sign that's.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Showing the sun. So anyway, of course, a chap point
Is cartel were also making enemies, right, for instance, with
the other Mexican cartels. In the spring of nineteen ninety three,
and Chapel pulled up to the Wada La Airport in
a white Mercury Grand Marquee. As his driver parked the car,
a group of men rushed forward and blasted the car
with a hill of bullets. Right normal shit in Mexican.
(22:26):
Dirk cartels, right, But El Chapel ran for the terminal,
dodging the gunfire with his bodyguards. He climbed onto the
baggage carousel and dove thlew the opening into the back
of the airport. Now, the sad as part of these
cartel wars are all the innocent people that are killed
and effected by it, right, Like, literally, no one nowhere
was safe during this time. Right. But once they were
thought to be on the other side, a Chapoint his
(22:47):
souldiers ran across the runway and into the forest behind.
It was an escape of swords. But at Chapel wasn't
the only one who arrived at the airport in a
white mercury. The other one was the archbishop of the
Catholic Church in Mexico, Cardinal Ocampo, who by all accounts
was a really sweet man. And the assassin said hit
his car as well because of the confusion, and the
(23:08):
Cardinal had been shot and killed in broad daylight. I
didn't know this, but anyway, at first the murder was
spinned on the chapel, but the shooters were hitmen in
from the Tijuana cartel. Apparently, a Chapel was devastated by
the cardinal's death. As we you know already, he's a
religious he's got a church, he's got a church. And
he blamed the Tijuana cartel double right, first for the
(23:29):
hit itself and second for letting him take the blame
for the Cardinal Ocampo's murder. Now, regardless of the blame game,
a cardinal had still been killed, and this put a
Chapel in the international crosshairs.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
International crosshairs. What do you mean? Like that means like
Italy called and was like, you killed one of us.
He's done.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah. Yeah, Italy was a was a mechanic from the
pre hold, New Jersey. But yeah, exactly. So cardinals are
like one step down from the pope. So anytime one
of them dies, it's a huge deal. And even more
if it was a murder, Chapel now had the attention
(24:10):
of the world, right, and now he also had the
attention of the Mexican government.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
This is nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Nineteen eighty five, yeah, okay, okay, the year I was born.
Where ye wear were you were born?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Eighty six babies?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Oh, I'm old man than you.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Is he still alive, by the way, yes, okay, good, good, good.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
But so so feel good. So as a fence closed in,
Chapel decided he would rather try to slip away from
the scrap than try and deal with the authorities. So
to get out from the limelight, hwalking and his girlfriend
decided to take a trip to Guatemala. Why the fuck
was he in Watemala?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Get out of Guatemala, Get on.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Actually Chapel was apparently trying to drive to Elsa to
try to start a business connection.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
There, but you know he was he ended up in Guatemala.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
He was driving through Watemala because it was just on
the way, and he was like, actually, this is kind
of nice. And I don't blame him because the waterm
that's the shit.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So yeah, I've actually been seeing more of Guatemala on
your trips. I'm like, I'm online stalking you and I'm like,
what is he doing it? And that's right, guatemalaks gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
The whole point in my career is to take tourism
away from Costa Rica. That's all. There is one big
long play from the Watermelon Tourism Board to just make
sure that I get more than one person there a year.
I'm going I'll give you all the good spot I
got something that will take care of you. It's our
producer from a film nation.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
We got you, Kevi. Don't worry, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Thanks guys.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
So, to make sure that this trip was totally under
the radar, and Chapel paid a Wanmalan military official one
point two million dollars to allow him to hide south
of the Mexican border. Yeah, so the guy took the money,
but he would also passed on the information about El Chapels.
Whereabout the law force? The fuck them both. But also,
you can't trust the guy who's already corrupt, buddy boy. Right.
(25:52):
In June nineteen ninety three, when Chapel was on his
way back from he set up a meeting with a
watermelon cut But when he showed up for his meeting
at hotel near Tapachula instead of this guy, he was
actually greeted by the watermelon army. Yes, they loaded him
into what No, are you on his side?
Speaker 2 (26:12):
I get scared?
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Who saw you on?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I don't like authority? Okay, well, not that I'm not
on the Chapel side, but I gotta say I'm not
on the fucking military side either.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Okay, fair enough, fair enough, So They loaded him on
a military plane and flew him back to Mexico. But
on the ride, Chapel was interrogated and he confessed to
a ton of crimes. Apparently he could still only talk
about one thing. Like everybody's like, you need to tell
us all about this. No, no, no, no way, wait till
you hear this one. So when he landed, a Chapel
(26:41):
was taken to Federal Social Readaptation Center number one, a
maximum security prison in Alas. It needs a new fucking name.
That's too long, I'll tell you what. Not very catchy,
is it?
Speaker 2 (26:52):
No? It snow Alcatraz.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Yeah, it needs a name like El Spot or whatever
the fuck you know. So the Chapel was sending to
twenty years and he was transferred to a different maximum
security person in Halley School, Federal Social Readaptation Center number two. So, uh,
this one, this, this one went by a much catcher name.
Apparently it was called Puente. Oh it was a big bridge,
(27:14):
good for you guys. But by putting a Chapel in
a cell that wasn't gonna be enough to shut that down.
Why does it suddenly turn into an a SMR session? Now?
(27:36):
While he was in prison, at Chapel's drug empire, and
the cartel continued to operate unabated. His brother was known
as the chicken Stock. Yeah, I started got it wasn't
the most fierce emine. I feel like everyone in want
of moll In Center America had a nickname too. Mine
was it Poopies, by the.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Way, you just like pooped your pants.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Well that no, because I was a pupilio by the way,
because my friends are. When I was thirteen, I met
the high schoo kids. They were older, and they taught
me all my fucked up ways, Like they taught me
how to smoke cigarettes and like, and I was like,
I'm thirteen be doing this, but I.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Want to, but you were like really cool. So they're
like Poopies.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Yeah, they called me, oh man, that's like our little mascot.
That's like our little paddaw on the Poopies. But the
problem with that nickname is that everybody assumes immediately like
just to shat myself.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You know, uncontrollably all the time.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
It didn't come on until later on in life. And
that's how I got this podcast. Anyway. So during his
time in the Clink, and Chapel even met his longtime
mistress former police officer a name Sulima. She was serving
time for arm robbery.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Oh yeah, fucking yeah, Hey, hey jinks, hey jings, buddy boy.
Apparently Chapel spotted her during a family visitation time and
started sending her flowers, love letters, and even a bottle
of whiskey that the guards brought to her. Oh my god.
They say romance is dead, you guys, But no, not
for a family visitation means that his family aka his wife,
(29:00):
was fucking visiting him and he's like, who's that over there?
He seems like trouble. But while Chapel was carrying on
with his prison romance, he was indicted in San Diego
on US charges of money laundering and importing tons of
cocaine into California. At first, he seemed fine to a Chapel.
You know, he was in Mexico and not the US.
He was already in prison, so what can they do
(29:20):
to him? But then the Supreme Court in Mexico handed
down a ruling that made extradition between Mexico and the
United States much easier.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
So the United States basically brought him.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
By fucking accent, So they brought him, no, no, no,
not yet no, but a ruling from the Supreme Court
made it easier. Right, So before that it was kind
of like, you know, you could stall it forever. But
now it was basically in the works, and the Chapel
didn't intend to get shipped to the United States, so
he set a plan into motion.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Wait a minute, so he got extradited to the United States.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yet, but the threat was imminent, right, and suddenly became
a real possibility. So he started the plan to get
the fuck out of prison, which brings us to the
year two thousand and one and the escape the first
and made El Chapel famous as an escape artist. Or
in other words, we're finally back till laundry day, Diana,
(30:24):
Are you ready for this? Yes, that's rock and roll.
So the plan starts with a prison guard nicknamed El
Chito or the silent one. All right, so he was
the one in charge of the prison laundry. So when
laundry day came it, Chito was a man who hit
the switch that opened Il Chapel cell door. Once a
Chapel cell door was opened, Ichito rolled the laundry cart
(30:44):
inside El Chapel, popped in. Come on you little munchkin
nestling down into the dirty clothes. I've never been tempted
to jump into a pile of dirty clothes, but clean clothes. Fuck, yeah, man,
I get the impulse.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Okay. From there on, the route was simple but strewn
with obstacles, and Chito would have to roll the laundry
cart through multiple security checkpoints where a guard could look
down through the glass and see who was waiting at
the door. But of course it Chito was a familiar
figure doing a familiar job, so the guards let him
pass through the doors one by one, pushing the cart
(31:19):
the way he always did. At one point, as the
story goes, and Chito stopped to talk to one of
the guards and he let go of the cart and
it started to roll away, And he should have known
something was up because the cart started going w so
e Chito had to jump forward and grab it, but
eventually he pushed the cart right out the front door.
Whoa As a maximum security prison, the JLISKO facility was
(31:41):
supposedly equipped with heat sensors and surveillance camera, all kinds
of locked doors and other stuff that should have caught
a chapel on his way out, but he slipped past
all of them undetected. As a Chito rolled the cart
through the electronic doors. One by one, the sensors that
should have detected Chapel never went off. Wow, he left
without trace all. The most one thing he did leave
(32:04):
was a love note for Suleima. Oh my gosh, I
say goodbye, sending all my greatest sentiments that the man
can feel for a woman that he loves loves. And
she was like, you left me, You fucking left me,
your fucking bastard. Soon there may be an excellent surprise surprise.
(32:26):
I love you, signed J g L.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Goose you say j g L, also known as with
the actor's name j g L.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Joseph Gordon love it.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yes, yeah, dude, he's L Chappo. I knew it.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
You are the fucking Chappo. I knew it. His career
started around the same time that fucking escape happened. That's wild,
that's right. And remember though his handwriting was so terrible,
right and chappos so she probably didn't know what the
fuck he was saying. It was just like, I don't
like this is just a bunch of scratches.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Was he like, I'll be back for you.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
No, no, no, no, he was just like he was
just like, it's been fun, see you later. Hey, let
me ask you something. Has ever has anyone ever made
a love gesture to you that was like that really
turned you off because it was so grading?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Yes, names okay, so let me tell you something. It
was I was dating this guy and like I went
over his house. He like made dinner. It was like
really nice, and then you know we're we're like kind
of like laying on his bed and I like look
over and on his nightstand is a picture of me
with my prom date. It was a picture of me
(33:34):
and my prom date, like a prom picture of me.
He had it framed, and I was like, what.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Do you He didn't go to high school with you? No,
from your Facebook or whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I don't know where he got it from, but yeah,
he took a picture of me with another guy and
it was on his nightstand and I thought, I was like,
what is this?
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Oh my god, that's so fucking creepy.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
It was so creepy.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
But you're still together to this date, which is always happened.
Now we're it and now we're check it out.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
No, and then check it out. His ex girlfriend came later.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
That day to could like to start to start some
ruckus at the apartment to.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Start some ship ready, and this kid sticks me in
the closet. Dude, I felt very unsafe, very you know.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Oh my god, I'm so sorry that happened to you.
So my biggest turn off is when I when I
was when I was single, and I would go to
a girls house and she didn't have fucking pictures of
me and my promp printed on her fucking night side.
I'm like, how do you do? You not give a
fuck about me? Done? Done? You're done to me, kidd.
So back to the Chapo. So once his tender Little
(34:36):
Love No. Was delivered, he was on his way. Once
he was outside at Tapao, jumped from the laundry into
a trunk of a car that was waiting for them,
and Chito jumped into the driver's seat and chauffeured them
out of town. Now, one story says that Chapel was
dressed as a prison guard by the time they got outside.
That sounds a little too much to be honest. When
I Chito had to stop the getaway car for gas,
(34:57):
he pulled over at a station and he went inside
to pay and he went back out and chapel was gone.
What yeah, man, you got left at the author by
because you're a fucking dumbass. Maybe you should have shouted
after him, but you're too quiet because we took out
on he had taken off into the night on foot
apparently damn So police launched in nationwide search the warden
(35:18):
and over seventy prison workers were detained and question this
potential accomplices, I mean, of course, like what the fuck? Man?
Of course, regardless when all the bribes on record were
taled up. The escape supposedly cost a chapel two point
five million dollars. Like that's a lot of money, I guess,
but like not doing chapel right now, Like it's a
fucking dropping a bucket. And besides, he went on to
(35:39):
have a successful Hollywood career and eventually do a show
with me as Joseph Goordon Levitt, so at all it
was worth it. In addition to the prison employee accomplices,
there's a story that police in Hallis School were paid
off to ensure that the chapel had at least twenty
four hours to get out of the state, and say
ahead of the military manhunt that followed founded a Chapel
(36:00):
sometimes strolled into restaurants as his body guard confiscated people's
cell phones, and he would eat his meal and then
leave after paying everyone's tap. Imagine he's just one of
those customers at a restaurant, but like, there's nothing anyone
can do, right, You're like right, You're like, I don't know.
As long as we're ordering, Can I get the nacho
cheese please?
Speaker 2 (36:18):
He paid for our job.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
So for more than thirteen years, Mexican security forces coordinating
many operations to re arrest El Chapel, but their efforts
were largely in vain. He appeared to be always a
few steps ahead of his captors, like in his early days,
when a Chapel moved away from Natuna to fire up
his business. He wouldn't stay hidden in the boondogs forever.
But that's another story for another day. That's our story.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
What, oh my gosh, I actually didn't know much about
a Chapel.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
I didn't know about this. This, I didn't know about
his first escape. I knew about the second one that
we'll cover at a later date.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
I never knew. I didn't know he was such a romantic.
But I should have known because of the whole cape
they I mean to go down because you were like
this much in love with someone is.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Being a hornball listen. So so in order to wrap up,
wrap up the show, I want Benchuk to play that
romantic music again. I mean, I'm a terrible singer, but
you're such a wonderful singer. Maybe we'll like sing back,
like we'll invent what Sulema's response was to him, and
we'll just a little back and forth once once, once
or twice back what do you think?
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Okay, that's soulem Chaito?
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Is that you.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
See?
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Because I have to go meet Okay del Castillo. See
did you leave.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
A big fat bag for me?
Speaker 1 (37:45):
I have nowhere else to go. Poo poo when I
was hiding in the laundry. Back, but I love you.
I will be back, Pito.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Miquel.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
No, I just have to go make a film career
and work with Jonathan Nolan, with Chris Nolan.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
But I'm pregnant. I have your child.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
His name is Chuckie. Oh my god, what a fucking
pleasure to have you come back anytime? Will we come
back and visit it sometime? Please?
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Absolutely, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Hey, so listeners can find you on the socials, of course,
but also catch you in the upcoming film The Whistler
and the final season of Doom Patrol.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Final season of Doom Patrol.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yes, you can catch that in HBO Max.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Yeah, that's right, HBO Max first season. If you haven't
watched Ganto and heard me sing.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
I mean, god, you're so good in that. I can't
I can't believe that. You know what, I was so
proud of I watch you performing the fucking Oscars, Diane.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
That I was really really nervous. I mean, of course,
I was just like I don't know, I don't even
have words for it, but it was a really beautiful
experience just to like I've watched that show every year,
it just kind of like made me feel closer to
the possibility of like ever I just I mean, I
was just kind of like, I can't believe that I'm
(39:15):
in a film that is being recognized, and not only that,
but a film that has that has such close ties
to my my family and my culture and my country.
And so it was really.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Latino joy and to Latino that that it's not about
the tragedy of being Latin.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
But ABI ex actually I'm just like, yeah, I'm like,
I'm like happy. You know, it was, it was a
beautiful experience. It was.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
It was wonderful to see you there. Thank you, Thank
you so much for being here. This is great as
Escapes guys, and until next time, make sure to not
leave a love letter behind.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
Goodbye, everybody.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Grace Escapes is a production IF I Heard Radio and
Film Nation Entertainment in association with Gilded Audio. Our executive
producers are me are Turo Castro, Alyssa Martino and Milan
Papelka from Film Nation Entertainment, Andrew Chug and Witning Donaldson
from Gilded Audio, and Dylan Fagan from iHeartRadio. The show
is produced and edited by Carl Nellis and Ben Chubb,
who are also, respectively, our research overlord and music overlord.
(40:20):
Our associate producer is Tory Smith, who's our other overlord.
Nick Dooley is our technical director. Additional editing by Whitney Donaldson.
Special thanks to Alison Cohen, Dan Welsh, Ben Riizek, Sarah Joyner,
nicki Stein, Olivia Canny and Kelsey Albright. Hey, thank you
(40:44):
so much for listening, and if you're enjoying the show,
please drop a rating or review. My mom will call
you each personally and thank you, and we'll see you
all next week.
Host
Arturo Castro
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