October 7, 2021 • 33 mins
Johnathan discovers that his good will helping his best friend was actually a long con: Mair scammed him out of nearly $100,000. But his story is only the beginning of what’s shaping up to be a laundry list of cons, including credit card fraud, blackmail, and much more. When police refuse to take his case seriously, Jonathan takes to the internet, writing blog posts warning any future victims, including one in particular: a wealthy SoCal software engineer Mair is dating who has no idea what she has in store for him.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Certain portions of what you're about to hear have been
dramatized based on real life events, eyewitness accounts, and court records.
For two years straight, I'm helping Mayor Smith battle her
wealthy and hateful Irish family for millions in inheritance. That's
rightfully hers. Why do you think she did have this
inheritance coming? And my buddy, fellow reality TV producer Evan Goldstein,
(00:25):
witnesses my whole crusade from day one. Well, she had
a ton of evidence, or what I took for evidence.
She would show me emails from her barristers, which are
lawyers in Ireland. Oh, she had like paperwork. She'd show
you well, emails, but still like a paper trial. It's
not just her telling you exactly. By the beginning of seventeen,
I loan Mayor almost seventy thousand dollars to help clear
(00:49):
a legal path to claiming her share of a twenty
five million euro inherance, the equivalent of nearly thirty million
U S dollars At this point, I know Mayor for
almost four years. Then suddenly, one day out of the blue,
she's arrested for the second time. I know exactly what's happening.
She's being screwed over by her Irish family. Yeah, it
(01:12):
certainly looks that way, but in this town, looks are deceiving.
I'm Jonathan Walton and this is Queen of the Con
(01:34):
Episode three, The Real Mayor. It's February. Mayor Smith is
sitting in Los Angeles County jail again. This time though
she tells me goodbye and she meets with authorities to
(01:57):
turn herself in. Mayor says she's serving a thirty day
jail sentence for the most bizarre reason I've ever heard,
inadvertent money laundering. And then, dude, you are not going
to believe the ship. Shortly after Mayor explains it to me,
I call of Evan and tell him what happened. So
the judge in the Pacific Islands case is furious at
(02:20):
Mayor because I let her charge my credit cards fifty
four thousand to pay the court fees and he considers
that money laundering. Yeah, and he's punishing her with a
thirty day jail sentence. Her family is behind this man.
They're not going to make it easy for her to
get her six and a half million dollars. That's her Sure,
the inhereance. So Mayor tells me it's just it's a
(02:42):
slap on the wrist from the judge. It's not a felony,
so she's still eligible to get the inheritance. So it's
thirty days in jail. While Mayor is sitting in jail
for thirty days, A couple of weeks go by, and
I do what any family member would do. I schedule
a visit. I log on to the l A County
(03:02):
Sheriff's website, I enter her name and date of birth,
and then bem. It brings up the location of the jail,
with a link to the jail scheduling website showing the
days and times I can choose to visit her. It
also brings up something else, something really disturbing. It brings
up the reason she's in jail, felony grand theft. There
(03:28):
it is on the Sheriff's website, plain as day. It
says she's in jail for felony grand theft. Suddenly I
couldn't Breathe Mayor told me she's serving thirty days in
jail as a slap on the rest because the judge
is mad at her for charging my credit cards to
(03:48):
pay her dollar court fee. She swears it's not a felony,
much less grand theft. Hey, dude, I gotta leave. Will
you cover for me? Yeah? What's up? I'm producing a
show called Booze Traveler for the Travel Channel in when
I find all this out, and my buddy Evan is
(04:08):
the show's co executive producer. I can't explain to Night,
but it's kind of emergency. I gotta go. Is everything okay?
I don't know. I don't know. I'll call you later.
I get in my car and high tail it down
to the Los Angeles Courthouse where that Pacific Island's case
against mayor is being prosecuted and records are on the
(04:33):
I asked the criminal clerk to pull all the records
for the people versus Mary Ann Smith case number Essay
zero eight zero. You know the expression lies are like rats.
When you find one, it means there are a thousand
others hiding sifting through the pages and pages of court records.
(04:56):
My hands start trembling because I'm fine being rat after
rat after rat. Mayor is lying to me about everything
regarding this case. Nothing she said about the Pacific Islands case,
it was true. She she lied about everything. Man, everything,
(05:18):
No one throws her bank account. That was a lie
that the fifty four thousand that I let her charge
my credit cards was willing to pay at dollar restitution
guilty plea agreement, and I guess she just kept the
extra fourteen grand for herself as my scam bunny. Jesus dude,
she's a fucking criminal. Man. She played guilty to stealing
(05:41):
two hundred thousand dollars from Pacific. She played guilty for that. Yes,
she was taking customers vacation payments into her personal PayPal
account for like two years, and they caught her red handed.
Jesus Christ scammed me, dude, She fucking scammed me. I
(06:03):
go home and collapse in my husband's arms. I'm not crying,
I'm wailing as the reality of what happened washes over
me like a slow moving hurricane. How could I have
let this woman scam me out of seventy dollars. It's
so unreal. I don't even feel like I'm in my
(06:25):
own body. The next day, still a mess, but trying
to function, I call up the District Attorney's office and
I explained to them that Mayor scammed me to get
the money to pay her for guilty plea agreement. They say, sorry,
there's nothing they can do. That case against Mayor is
(06:48):
already adjudicated. Welcome to the criminal justice system. She's so John,
you know, what are you gonna do? Oh? I don't know.
I mean, I want my fucking money back. Do you
even think her inheritance is real? You know, if it is,
(07:10):
it doesn't matter because she's disqualified from getting it anyway,
because she's convicted of a felony. I gotta try to
contact her family in Ireland. Are you going to go
to the police. I don't know. I don't know. I
just want my money back. You know. She gets out
of jail in two weeks, so I'm gonna pick her
up and confront her about it. Maybe she'll confess. I
(07:33):
want to see what she says. Somehow, those two weeks
fly by, in what feels like two days, Mayor is
released from jail. She calls and asks if I can
pick her up and take her to where her cars parked.
So I drive down to the l A County Women's
(07:55):
Jail in Lynnwood and there she is standing on a
sidewalk out front. She looks gaunt and pale. It feels
weird to be free. Yeah. I had to walk outside
(08:15):
today to get to the bus and from downtown to Lynnwood,
and it was like my eyes were hurting. It was
so bright, and I'm like, what the hell is all about?
During the drive home, I'm playing it cool. I can't
let her know that I know she tricked me out
of seventy grand. I'm just pretending everything's pay okay. As
(08:36):
I hit the record button in voice memos on my
iPhone four teen, Yeah, she's crazy. We're talking about our
neighbor Sherry. Before I hit record, Mayor tells me Sherry
the strip club manager called her fourteen times while she
was in jail, and that Sherry personally knows a lot
(08:59):
of the inmates she was serving time with. I had
already been keeping my distance from Sherry since Mayor told
me years ago Sherry was wanted for murder in Canada
and she's hiding out in our Los Angeles apartment building.
And now, after serving thirty days with some of Sherry's
criminal cronies, Mayor wants nothing to do with her. And
(09:23):
like I said, but I'm still playing it cool, like
things are fine. As we head north on the one
tent freeway into downtown Los Angeles in a half mile
destination on the right. I mean, I'm fuming inside thinking
about all the money she scammed me out of, but
(09:45):
sitting right next to me, she has no idea. My
head is ready to explode. All that theater I did
in college is finally getting put to good use. As
we pull into the parking garage where her car is
are in there, I'll just I'll drive in just because
it's only They don't charge for like two minutes. Mayor
(10:09):
doesn't want me to take a ticket and drive in
because she doesn't want me to get charged for parking. Ironic,
isn't it. She wants to save me twenty bucks for
parking after conning me at a seventy grand She's a
real fucking giver. So I pull in, quickly park, and
carry a box of Mayor's things she asked me to
(10:30):
keep an eye on while she was in jail to
her car. I unfold a piece of paper I had
written some stuff down on to prep for this moment.
Happy Okay, um, so unpleasant. Stop Okay, you've been line
(10:53):
to us the whole time about everything. Your pleas was
forty not fifty four at the Core record, No one
waved your right to ordinary trial. George follow scheduled the
whole time. That was a lot. That last four grand
(11:16):
you needed that came out of nowhere, that was a lot.
He gave three checks one three, one for three. You
needed a check for four. You've been scamming us out
of money this whole time you have. Yeah, you're not
gonna You're busted, So from here on end, we're not friends.
So I only want to see you or hear from
(11:36):
you when you have a payment for us. Until this
money is paid off, you're busted. Good luck. As I
(12:11):
drive out of that parking garage, I'm so angry, I
can't see straight. I wanted her to admit she lied
to me to get the money, but she wouldn't. And
what's weird is she seems so believable. Her eyes filled
with tears. At one point, I really wasn't sure what
to do next. I come home and play the recording
(12:37):
of me and Mayor for my husband and for my
buddy Evan. I remember, like, I think I called you
obsessively because I was scared, because You're like, okay, I'm
going and I'm just like oh shit, like, who knows
it could anyway? Literally right where we're sitting now in
my barbecue area. Do you remember or do you drink
too much? You don't have a good memory for these things?
All that strong irish. We were sitting literally right over
(13:00):
there when I brought the recording back for you because
I was desperate to hear what happened. And well, first
I was glad that you came back, thank you. And
second I remember hearing it and thinking, like, how do
you start a conversation like this? You know, you're picking
her up from jail, confronting her that you stole almost
(13:21):
a hundred grand? How do you get there? You know,
how do you start? And I remember hearing your voice.
You were very I don't know if hesitants the word,
but you had a tone of voice that was very
not your normal talking voice, not like us talking now.
It was like so it almost sounded hesitant at first,
and you're like, I know, and this is from memory.
(13:45):
I know, I know everything you're lying And tears like
filled her eyes immediately, and yeah, oh she's a cry dude.
She could give to me more a run for her
fucking money. She could cry. Does she have a cry
in front of you. Oh she cried it from me
all the time, well to get money. So at that
point when tears filled arises in my mind, I'm like,
those are fucking fake tears. I know that now, that's
(14:07):
not real. As the days pass, I play that confrontation
over and over again in my head and on my phone.
You've been scamming us out of money this whole time,
you have, Okay. Her complete lack of remorse every time
I hear it at the correct infuriates me more and more.
(14:29):
She never even apologizes. And you know why she never
apologizes because she's not sorry. She's not fucking sorry at all.
And when that suddenly dawns on me, I realize she's
never going to pay me back. So I go to
police the next day and explain what happened. You gave
(14:50):
him them money. It's not a crime, yep. That's what
I have to deal with. It's the reason most scam
victims never go to police in the first place. The
cop is so sure that no crime has occurred because
I willingly gave Mayor all that money, he doesn't want
to even take a police report. He fights me on it.
But she lied to get the money. Isn't that a crime?
(15:12):
I mean, it's no different than those scammers. You say.
They're calling from the I R s and tricked the
elderly descending the money. That's a crime. Listen, I'll take
a report, but I don't think as much we can do.
So I give the police officer a detailed timeline listing
all the amounts of money Mayor tricked me out of
over the course of our four year friendship. Hundred dollars here,
(15:33):
hundred there, four thousand over here. I also hand him
pages and pages of bank records, text messages, and emails
that prove she lied to me to get that money.
His demeanor suddenly changes. Now he seems impressed that I'm
so anal retentively organized. It's the TV producer in me.
(15:56):
The cop then leans in and offers me the most
profound and life changing advice I'll ever receive from anyone
in law enforcement. Look, you gotta call every day. What
do you mean every time you call about your case,
it's taken from the bottom of the pile of new
case and placed on top. More times you call, more
likely it'll be assigned or an investigator. Okay, that's what
(16:18):
you want. You wanted to assigned to an investigator. Okay,
all right, I'll call every day. Man, Thank you so much.
So I go home and for the next week I
call about my case every day, every single day. You've
reached the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division. We're sorry,
we can't take your call at this time. You think
(16:41):
your name. Big surprise, my case is not getting assigned
to an investigator. It's just sitting there in limbo, maybe forever.
Hi na cha, I'm trying to check the status of
support I filed. It's instant number one seven zero three
one name zero zero three six one seven. Uh, give
(17:03):
me a call back. So, after three weeks of getting nowhere,
I flipped the script and I start my own investigation.
My TV producing skills kick in, and I began treating
this whole thing like prepping one big reality show for air.
I paid a sign up for a bunch of criminal databases.
Then I sneak into a local law school library and
(17:26):
use their Lexus Nexus system to do multiple background checks.
I then hire six different private detectives in the various
cities where my research shows mayor has a history, and
I very quickly uncover that Mayor Smith is not from
Ireland at all. Your purpose American. She was born in
(17:46):
Bangor Main in n There is no Irish family, there
is no inheritance. She's actually been sued by a bunch
of people all over Los Angeles. Hey, we're showing several
felony charts for fraud, grind, theft, in passing bad checks
through multiple states. I mean, this woman really is a
(18:07):
piece of work. I share Mayor's criminal past with everyone
I know who knows Mayor, but getting through to them
isn't easy. I couldn't have communication you do. I was
told specifically, if you talk to Jonathan, you cannot be
my friend. Remember my neighbor Sherry Cooper, who Mayor and
I talked about in the car, the one Mayor claimed
(18:28):
as wanted from murder. After I confront Mayor for scamming me,
she tells Sherry not to talk to me. She convinces
Sherry to block my phone number and block me on Facebook.
She made you to be kind of like just not
quite stable. Just don't talk to him, leave him alone.
And remember, for the past four years, Mayor never wanted
(18:48):
me talking to Sherry either. She told me that you
guys had murdered someone in Canada and you were hiding out,
and I'll let you were the run from police in Canada,
hiding out. I wish I was that interesting. I was
legit scared of you. I quickly figure out the reason
(19:11):
Mayor doesn't want me and Sherry talking to each other,
because while Mayor is scamming me out of thousands of dollars,
she's also scamming Sherry out of thousands of dollars to
using a different story, she essentially scammed you by telling
you a lie about me. Mayor tells Sherry that she
desperately needs five thousand dollars to pay me back for
(19:33):
bailing her out of jail. She makes it seem like
I'm broke and I'm having a mental breakdown because I
don't have my money. Sherry has no idea. The politician
already paid me back the very next day. And since
Sherry and I aren't talking, Remember I think she's a
murderer and she thinks I'm crazy, we both avoid each
(19:53):
other like the plague. So Mayor scams Sherry out of
five thousand dollars under the guys of paying me back,
and her husband Andre has no idea I never asked
him when I lent her the money, you like, did
it in secret? No, not his secret. That's my money,
my accounts or my accounts his accounts. I went and
I took my money. Now she was crying that you
(20:15):
were winding at her because you didn't have your money.
I'm like, here you go. That was five thousand even,
and she was like, wow, thanks so much, and she goes,
I'll get it back to you, you know in the
next couple of days. Soon just the politician pays Johnny
And it never happened. No, well, it did happen, that's
the thing. The politician paid me back the next day. Um.
(20:36):
But she invented that story that I was desperate for money.
I was desperate to be paid back and I couldn't
make my rent and but the politician gave me cash
literally the next day. And that was crucial for her
to scam me, because I had confidence in loaning her
more money because she paid me back the next night.
That was the first money I loaned her, and she
(20:57):
paid me back the next day. I never when she
came for more money, I had no doubt, like sure,
like I trust you, like you're a woman of your word,
you know, and that is not a singular thing. In
every con, you always see a little bit of your
money first back, you know, whether it's an investment, can
any kind of con they let you. They call it
wetting your beak. You get to wet your beak a little.
(21:20):
And looking back, I wouldn't have given her any money
if she never paid me back that next day, like
because I think, well, you already on what am I
going to get that back? But because she demonstrated she
could pay me back the next day, I'm like, oh,
I feel comfortable. She said her and the politician had
a bank account but it was all frozen, and she
(21:42):
had she had a bank account sitting there but it
was frozen. And I was like, okay, yeah. I called her,
I emailed her, I begged her, I pounded her. Always
an excuse, always an excuse. I'm doing the best I can,
And Mayor really is doing the best she can. At
that point, scamming my neighbor Sherry and me, I suddenly
(22:04):
start wondering if Mayor is possibly scamming any other neighbors
in our building. I offered her the money I did. Yep,
she sure is, Remember attorney Tina Mensch, who signs on
(22:29):
early in the fight to get our pool back and
becomes good friends with Mayor. I got that story that
her bank accounts were frozen, that her papal account was frozen,
that she was having these issues, and that it's not
really my job to question people's money problems. So I
did get the district attorney story and that her accounts
(22:53):
were all frozen because of the Pacific Islands stuff, and
that's how she tricked you. And to giveing her some money. Yes,
she it said that it was gonna cost her like
two thousand dollars to get her papal account reactivated. I
offered her the money I did. She was my friend
(23:14):
and I had it, and I really didn't think anything
of I mean, it's not chump change, but it's it's
what you do for friends. It's what you do for friends, right.
She insisted that she would pay me back. She still
has not. And remember that crazy earlier experience Tina has
with Mayor. After they both are apparently drugged during a
(23:37):
night out at a downtown Los Angeles bar. Tina wakes
up the next day with bruises on her forearm and
can't remember how or when she got home. And Mayor
claims not to remember anything either, but now looking back,
we think pretty sure she drugged me. And why would
she drug you so that we could have a bonding experience.
(24:00):
It's it's a trauma bond. You know what. You fucking
nailed it. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. It is
a trauma bond that would get you closer together. And
this was before the two thousand, yes, significantly before. Yeah,
this just made you closer friends quicker, Like if when
you go through an experience like that with someone, you're
both robbed, you're both almost potentially raped. You know, I
(24:21):
don't know what happened. I mean I had a giant
bruise on my forearm. It went from for the audio,
I mean you can describe it, but it went from
here to your entire fore arms entire four blue like
black and blue, as if I had blocked somebody. Yeah, um, wow,
it is a trauma bond. Yeah, I got chills. Yes,
that's what she was doing. At this point, it's becoming
(24:44):
so clear Mayor Smith is a master manipulator and a
bona fide con artist. I mean she scams me and
she scams two other neighbors in our building. I start
wondering how many other victims are out there, and so
it begins. I systematically start contacting everyone Mayor has ever
(25:05):
introduced me to or talked about. During the course of
our four year friendship. I was buying my first health
then we closed in December of Remember Michelle Thompson DaCosta,
one of Mayor's early psychic clients who was impressed by
her spot on readings. Well, Mayor figures out a clever
(25:25):
and caring way to get her hands on Michelle's Social
Security number? Why was she helping you with your mortgage anyway?
So she told me, guess what. I was a realtor
and I owned a mortgage company in Ireland, so I
know exactly what they're looking for. I can help you out.
And I was like, okay, perfect. I had opened new
(25:49):
bank accounts to kind of shift, you know, instead of
using a bank account I had since I was sixteen,
using a new bank account that would be my main
account that they got those records out of, and so
how her look at it before I sat the minute?
So I would send them to her, And I remember
thinking the first couple of passes at sending over my
bank records to make sure all my documents were together,
(26:11):
because I was just like, oh my god, pulling all
these documents is coming too much for me. I was
redacting my social Security number from her eyes, yes, and
I was also redacting my bank account number. And then
the final time she helped me, I didn't. I said,
(26:33):
it's Mayor, it's your best friend. This is in November.
Michelle sends Mayor her final set of bank records, with
her social Security number clearly visible, and the very next month,
a new credit card in Michelle's name gets applied for
and approved unbeknownst to Michelle, and to sent to Michelle's
(26:54):
new home that she hasn't even moved into yet. And
then someone starts charging up a storm. In February, I
checked my mailbox at my new house and I see
a credit card statement. First of all, I've never gotten
this credit card. So I opened the credit card statement
(27:18):
and it's a PayPal credit card, which if you know her,
you know she loved PayPal. Okay. Bitch loves a PayPal okay.
So I'm like a PayPal credit card. I would never
I'm like American Express or nothing. So I look at it.
It had all this information, so I decided to try
to log on. So I go in, and you know where,
(27:39):
like if you start entering stuff and it's like you
can ask what you're like user name is, stuff will
pop up. So it popped up, and it started with
an M, and then it was like at gmail dot
com or whatever hers ended up as. And so then
I called them. It was like, this isn't me, blah
blah blah. But also looking at the charges, it was
(28:00):
notorious Mayor. It was taxis uber's food. As soon as
Michelle tells me that, I think about all the times
Mayor wind and dyed my husband and me at fancy restaurants?
Was she paying for our meals with someone stolen credit card?
(28:21):
So how much money total was charged to a credit
card that you did not take out but was in
your name? I would say it would probably be about
which seems pretty cheap for Mayor. You found out about it,
and that was I want to say, either the first
or second cycle on that. So as soon as I call,
they got rid of it. So Michelle reports Mayor to
(28:47):
police and moves on with her life, and her credit
card fraud case against Mayor gets added to the pile
of millions of credit card fraud cases reported every year
in this country and quickly disappears into oblivion. After talking
to Michelle, I get a really bad feeling thinking about
how many other potential victims are right now getting scammed
(29:09):
by Mayor Smith, and how can I stop her. The
police clearly aren't doing anything, So I decide I will.
Why did you start a blog? Why was that like
your first instinct to go that route. Well, you know,
we're living in the digital age. I wanted to warn people.
I wanted to warn people. That was my sole intent,
especially with Bob. Months before our confrontation in that parking garage,
(29:32):
Mayor texts me a picture of the guy she's dating,
a guy named Bob. I knew he was an engineer
in Newport Beach, and I knew they were dating by
the time I confronted her, and you know, she got
out of my life, and I knew he was probably
if he wasn't currently getting scammed, he was about to,
because I just had a feeling she was probably gonna
scam him. I don't have Bob's phone number or email address.
(29:57):
I don't even have his last name, So I start
an online blog. To warn Bob. I post his picture,
the one Mayor had texted me once earlier asking if
I thought he was boyfriend material. He's a good looking,
successful guy I approve wholeheartedly. So my first blog entry
under that picture I post reads, I know his name
(30:17):
is Bob, I know he's an engineer in Newport Beach,
and I know he's getting scammed by Mayor Smith. If
you know him, warn him. She's not that great looking,
she doesn't photograph that well, but in person, she's magical.
There's a charisma she does she has. She definitely has
an aura about her. She definitely has like and I
(30:39):
think so much of it just comes down to confidence,
you know, Like she walks the walk. She exudes confidence,
and I think that's that's attracted to a lot of people.
My buddy Evans right, Mayor Smith is very attractive to
a lot of people, people like Bob the engineer in
Newport Beach. And while I hope and pray Bob finds
my blog and avoids getting gammed by Mayor, I have
(31:01):
to be realistic. I mean, there are twenty three million
people living in southern California, and the chances of Bob
actually finding my blog are infinitesimal. And then one day
my phone rings. Hello. Yep, it's Bob calling and he's
got a lot to say about his new girlfriend, Mayor Smith.
(31:28):
Next time on Queen of the Con, she invited you
to the Golden Globes with Jennifer Aniston. Yea, Jennifer Aniston
invited her and she said, I want to take you
as my plus one. Mayor's latest con is one for
the record books. She was trying to get ahold of
his property. She was trying to get her name put
on both of the deeds and to do that she
(31:49):
needs to wreak havoc. They were abusing the kids like
this pedophile ring kind of thing. For exclusive photos and
other bonus material, follow at Queen of the Con on
Instagram and if you're enjoying Queen of the Con, tell
your friends about it and leave us a review on
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Queen of
(32:15):
the Con The Irish Heiress is a production of a
y R Media and I Heart Radio, hosted by me
Jonathan Walton. Executive producers Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton Productions
and Eliza Rosen for a y R Media written by
Jonathan Walton, Consulting producer Evan Goldstein, Senior Associate producer Eric Newman.
(32:38):
Sound designed by baked ZD Media, mixed and mastered by
Elliott Herman. Audio engineering by Elliott Herman, Studio engineering by
Chris McMasters. Voice acting performed by Many Facts Sus Jorge Farragut,
Carol Marrin, and David Teitelbaum. Legal counsel for A y
R Media, Gianni Douglas, Executive producer for I Heart Radio,
(33:02):
Chandler Mainz
Certain portions of what you're about to hear have been
dramatized based on real life events, eyewitness accounts, and court records.
For two years straight, I'm helping Mayor Smith battle her
wealthy and hateful Irish family for millions in inheritance. That's
rightfully hers. Why do you think she did have this
inheritance coming? And my buddy, fellow reality TV producer Evan Goldstein,
(00:25):
witnesses my whole crusade from day one. Well, she had
a ton of evidence, or what I took for evidence.
She would show me emails from her barristers, which are
lawyers in Ireland. Oh, she had like paperwork. She'd show
you well, emails, but still like a paper trial. It's
not just her telling you exactly. By the beginning of seventeen,
I loan Mayor almost seventy thousand dollars to help clear
(00:49):
a legal path to claiming her share of a twenty
five million euro inherance, the equivalent of nearly thirty million
U S dollars At this point, I know Mayor for
almost four years. Then suddenly, one day out of the blue,
she's arrested for the second time. I know exactly what's happening.
She's being screwed over by her Irish family. Yeah, it
(01:12):
certainly looks that way, but in this town, looks are deceiving.
I'm Jonathan Walton and this is Queen of the Con
(01:34):
Episode three, The Real Mayor. It's February. Mayor Smith is
sitting in Los Angeles County jail again. This time though
she tells me goodbye and she meets with authorities to
(01:57):
turn herself in. Mayor says she's serving a thirty day
jail sentence for the most bizarre reason I've ever heard,
inadvertent money laundering. And then, dude, you are not going
to believe the ship. Shortly after Mayor explains it to me,
I call of Evan and tell him what happened. So
the judge in the Pacific Islands case is furious at
(02:20):
Mayor because I let her charge my credit cards fifty
four thousand to pay the court fees and he considers
that money laundering. Yeah, and he's punishing her with a
thirty day jail sentence. Her family is behind this man.
They're not going to make it easy for her to
get her six and a half million dollars. That's her Sure,
the inhereance. So Mayor tells me it's just it's a
(02:42):
slap on the wrist from the judge. It's not a felony,
so she's still eligible to get the inheritance. So it's
thirty days in jail. While Mayor is sitting in jail
for thirty days, A couple of weeks go by, and
I do what any family member would do. I schedule
a visit. I log on to the l A County
(03:02):
Sheriff's website, I enter her name and date of birth,
and then bem. It brings up the location of the jail,
with a link to the jail scheduling website showing the
days and times I can choose to visit her. It
also brings up something else, something really disturbing. It brings
up the reason she's in jail, felony grand theft. There
(03:28):
it is on the Sheriff's website, plain as day. It
says she's in jail for felony grand theft. Suddenly I
couldn't Breathe Mayor told me she's serving thirty days in
jail as a slap on the rest because the judge
is mad at her for charging my credit cards to
(03:48):
pay her dollar court fee. She swears it's not a felony,
much less grand theft. Hey, dude, I gotta leave. Will
you cover for me? Yeah? What's up? I'm producing a
show called Booze Traveler for the Travel Channel in when
I find all this out, and my buddy Evan is
(04:08):
the show's co executive producer. I can't explain to Night,
but it's kind of emergency. I gotta go. Is everything okay?
I don't know. I don't know. I'll call you later.
I get in my car and high tail it down
to the Los Angeles Courthouse where that Pacific Island's case
against mayor is being prosecuted and records are on the
(04:33):
I asked the criminal clerk to pull all the records
for the people versus Mary Ann Smith case number Essay
zero eight zero. You know the expression lies are like rats.
When you find one, it means there are a thousand
others hiding sifting through the pages and pages of court records.
(04:56):
My hands start trembling because I'm fine being rat after
rat after rat. Mayor is lying to me about everything
regarding this case. Nothing she said about the Pacific Islands case,
it was true. She she lied about everything. Man, everything,
(05:18):
No one throws her bank account. That was a lie
that the fifty four thousand that I let her charge
my credit cards was willing to pay at dollar restitution
guilty plea agreement, and I guess she just kept the
extra fourteen grand for herself as my scam bunny. Jesus dude,
she's a fucking criminal. Man. She played guilty to stealing
(05:41):
two hundred thousand dollars from Pacific. She played guilty for that. Yes,
she was taking customers vacation payments into her personal PayPal
account for like two years, and they caught her red handed.
Jesus Christ scammed me, dude, She fucking scammed me. I
(06:03):
go home and collapse in my husband's arms. I'm not crying,
I'm wailing as the reality of what happened washes over
me like a slow moving hurricane. How could I have
let this woman scam me out of seventy dollars. It's
so unreal. I don't even feel like I'm in my
(06:25):
own body. The next day, still a mess, but trying
to function, I call up the District Attorney's office and
I explained to them that Mayor scammed me to get
the money to pay her for guilty plea agreement. They say, sorry,
there's nothing they can do. That case against Mayor is
(06:48):
already adjudicated. Welcome to the criminal justice system. She's so John,
you know, what are you gonna do? Oh? I don't know.
I mean, I want my fucking money back. Do you
even think her inheritance is real? You know, if it is,
(07:10):
it doesn't matter because she's disqualified from getting it anyway,
because she's convicted of a felony. I gotta try to
contact her family in Ireland. Are you going to go
to the police. I don't know. I don't know. I
just want my money back. You know. She gets out
of jail in two weeks, so I'm gonna pick her
up and confront her about it. Maybe she'll confess. I
(07:33):
want to see what she says. Somehow, those two weeks
fly by, in what feels like two days, Mayor is
released from jail. She calls and asks if I can
pick her up and take her to where her cars parked.
So I drive down to the l A County Women's
(07:55):
Jail in Lynnwood and there she is standing on a
sidewalk out front. She looks gaunt and pale. It feels
weird to be free. Yeah. I had to walk outside
(08:15):
today to get to the bus and from downtown to Lynnwood,
and it was like my eyes were hurting. It was
so bright, and I'm like, what the hell is all about?
During the drive home, I'm playing it cool. I can't
let her know that I know she tricked me out
of seventy grand. I'm just pretending everything's pay okay. As
(08:36):
I hit the record button in voice memos on my
iPhone four teen, Yeah, she's crazy. We're talking about our
neighbor Sherry. Before I hit record, Mayor tells me Sherry
the strip club manager called her fourteen times while she
was in jail, and that Sherry personally knows a lot
(08:59):
of the inmates she was serving time with. I had
already been keeping my distance from Sherry since Mayor told
me years ago Sherry was wanted for murder in Canada
and she's hiding out in our Los Angeles apartment building.
And now, after serving thirty days with some of Sherry's
criminal cronies, Mayor wants nothing to do with her. And
(09:23):
like I said, but I'm still playing it cool, like
things are fine. As we head north on the one
tent freeway into downtown Los Angeles in a half mile
destination on the right. I mean, I'm fuming inside thinking
about all the money she scammed me out of, but
(09:45):
sitting right next to me, she has no idea. My
head is ready to explode. All that theater I did
in college is finally getting put to good use. As
we pull into the parking garage where her car is
are in there, I'll just I'll drive in just because
it's only They don't charge for like two minutes. Mayor
(10:09):
doesn't want me to take a ticket and drive in
because she doesn't want me to get charged for parking. Ironic,
isn't it. She wants to save me twenty bucks for
parking after conning me at a seventy grand She's a
real fucking giver. So I pull in, quickly park, and
carry a box of Mayor's things she asked me to
(10:30):
keep an eye on while she was in jail to
her car. I unfold a piece of paper I had
written some stuff down on to prep for this moment.
Happy Okay, um, so unpleasant. Stop Okay, you've been line
(10:53):
to us the whole time about everything. Your pleas was
forty not fifty four at the Core record, No one
waved your right to ordinary trial. George follow scheduled the
whole time. That was a lot. That last four grand
(11:16):
you needed that came out of nowhere, that was a lot.
He gave three checks one three, one for three. You
needed a check for four. You've been scamming us out
of money this whole time you have. Yeah, you're not
gonna You're busted, So from here on end, we're not friends.
So I only want to see you or hear from
(11:36):
you when you have a payment for us. Until this
money is paid off, you're busted. Good luck. As I
(12:11):
drive out of that parking garage, I'm so angry, I
can't see straight. I wanted her to admit she lied
to me to get the money, but she wouldn't. And
what's weird is she seems so believable. Her eyes filled
with tears. At one point, I really wasn't sure what
to do next. I come home and play the recording
(12:37):
of me and Mayor for my husband and for my
buddy Evan. I remember, like, I think I called you
obsessively because I was scared, because You're like, okay, I'm
going and I'm just like oh shit, like, who knows
it could anyway? Literally right where we're sitting now in
my barbecue area. Do you remember or do you drink
too much? You don't have a good memory for these things?
All that strong irish. We were sitting literally right over
(13:00):
there when I brought the recording back for you because
I was desperate to hear what happened. And well, first
I was glad that you came back, thank you. And
second I remember hearing it and thinking, like, how do
you start a conversation like this? You know, you're picking
her up from jail, confronting her that you stole almost
(13:21):
a hundred grand? How do you get there? You know,
how do you start? And I remember hearing your voice.
You were very I don't know if hesitants the word,
but you had a tone of voice that was very
not your normal talking voice, not like us talking now.
It was like so it almost sounded hesitant at first,
and you're like, I know, and this is from memory.
(13:45):
I know, I know everything you're lying And tears like
filled her eyes immediately, and yeah, oh she's a cry dude.
She could give to me more a run for her
fucking money. She could cry. Does she have a cry
in front of you. Oh she cried it from me
all the time, well to get money. So at that
point when tears filled arises in my mind, I'm like,
those are fucking fake tears. I know that now, that's
(14:07):
not real. As the days pass, I play that confrontation
over and over again in my head and on my phone.
You've been scamming us out of money this whole time,
you have, Okay. Her complete lack of remorse every time
I hear it at the correct infuriates me more and more.
(14:29):
She never even apologizes. And you know why she never
apologizes because she's not sorry. She's not fucking sorry at all.
And when that suddenly dawns on me, I realize she's
never going to pay me back. So I go to
police the next day and explain what happened. You gave
(14:50):
him them money. It's not a crime, yep. That's what
I have to deal with. It's the reason most scam
victims never go to police in the first place. The
cop is so sure that no crime has occurred because
I willingly gave Mayor all that money, he doesn't want
to even take a police report. He fights me on it.
But she lied to get the money. Isn't that a crime?
(15:12):
I mean, it's no different than those scammers. You say.
They're calling from the I R s and tricked the
elderly descending the money. That's a crime. Listen, I'll take
a report, but I don't think as much we can do.
So I give the police officer a detailed timeline listing
all the amounts of money Mayor tricked me out of
over the course of our four year friendship. Hundred dollars here,
(15:33):
hundred there, four thousand over here. I also hand him
pages and pages of bank records, text messages, and emails
that prove she lied to me to get that money.
His demeanor suddenly changes. Now he seems impressed that I'm
so anal retentively organized. It's the TV producer in me.
(15:56):
The cop then leans in and offers me the most
profound and life changing advice I'll ever receive from anyone
in law enforcement. Look, you gotta call every day. What
do you mean every time you call about your case,
it's taken from the bottom of the pile of new
case and placed on top. More times you call, more
likely it'll be assigned or an investigator. Okay, that's what
(16:18):
you want. You wanted to assigned to an investigator. Okay,
all right, I'll call every day. Man, Thank you so much.
So I go home and for the next week I
call about my case every day, every single day. You've
reached the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division. We're sorry,
we can't take your call at this time. You think
(16:41):
your name. Big surprise, my case is not getting assigned
to an investigator. It's just sitting there in limbo, maybe forever.
Hi na cha, I'm trying to check the status of
support I filed. It's instant number one seven zero three
one name zero zero three six one seven. Uh, give
(17:03):
me a call back. So, after three weeks of getting nowhere,
I flipped the script and I start my own investigation.
My TV producing skills kick in, and I began treating
this whole thing like prepping one big reality show for air.
I paid a sign up for a bunch of criminal databases.
Then I sneak into a local law school library and
(17:26):
use their Lexus Nexus system to do multiple background checks.
I then hire six different private detectives in the various
cities where my research shows mayor has a history, and
I very quickly uncover that Mayor Smith is not from
Ireland at all. Your purpose American. She was born in
(17:46):
Bangor Main in n There is no Irish family, there
is no inheritance. She's actually been sued by a bunch
of people all over Los Angeles. Hey, we're showing several
felony charts for fraud, grind, theft, in passing bad checks
through multiple states. I mean, this woman really is a
(18:07):
piece of work. I share Mayor's criminal past with everyone
I know who knows Mayor, but getting through to them
isn't easy. I couldn't have communication you do. I was
told specifically, if you talk to Jonathan, you cannot be
my friend. Remember my neighbor Sherry Cooper, who Mayor and
I talked about in the car, the one Mayor claimed
(18:28):
as wanted from murder. After I confront Mayor for scamming me,
she tells Sherry not to talk to me. She convinces
Sherry to block my phone number and block me on Facebook.
She made you to be kind of like just not
quite stable. Just don't talk to him, leave him alone.
And remember, for the past four years, Mayor never wanted
(18:48):
me talking to Sherry either. She told me that you
guys had murdered someone in Canada and you were hiding out,
and I'll let you were the run from police in Canada,
hiding out. I wish I was that interesting. I was
legit scared of you. I quickly figure out the reason
(19:11):
Mayor doesn't want me and Sherry talking to each other,
because while Mayor is scamming me out of thousands of dollars,
she's also scamming Sherry out of thousands of dollars to
using a different story, she essentially scammed you by telling
you a lie about me. Mayor tells Sherry that she
desperately needs five thousand dollars to pay me back for
(19:33):
bailing her out of jail. She makes it seem like
I'm broke and I'm having a mental breakdown because I
don't have my money. Sherry has no idea. The politician
already paid me back the very next day. And since
Sherry and I aren't talking, Remember I think she's a
murderer and she thinks I'm crazy, we both avoid each
(19:53):
other like the plague. So Mayor scams Sherry out of
five thousand dollars under the guys of paying me back,
and her husband Andre has no idea I never asked
him when I lent her the money, you like, did
it in secret? No, not his secret. That's my money,
my accounts or my accounts his accounts. I went and
I took my money. Now she was crying that you
(20:15):
were winding at her because you didn't have your money.
I'm like, here you go. That was five thousand even,
and she was like, wow, thanks so much, and she goes,
I'll get it back to you, you know in the
next couple of days. Soon just the politician pays Johnny
And it never happened. No, well, it did happen, that's
the thing. The politician paid me back the next day. Um.
(20:36):
But she invented that story that I was desperate for money.
I was desperate to be paid back and I couldn't
make my rent and but the politician gave me cash
literally the next day. And that was crucial for her
to scam me, because I had confidence in loaning her
more money because she paid me back the next night.
That was the first money I loaned her, and she
(20:57):
paid me back the next day. I never when she
came for more money, I had no doubt, like sure,
like I trust you, like you're a woman of your word,
you know, and that is not a singular thing. In
every con, you always see a little bit of your
money first back, you know, whether it's an investment, can
any kind of con they let you. They call it
wetting your beak. You get to wet your beak a little.
(21:20):
And looking back, I wouldn't have given her any money
if she never paid me back that next day, like
because I think, well, you already on what am I
going to get that back? But because she demonstrated she
could pay me back the next day, I'm like, oh,
I feel comfortable. She said her and the politician had
a bank account but it was all frozen, and she
(21:42):
had she had a bank account sitting there but it
was frozen. And I was like, okay, yeah. I called her,
I emailed her, I begged her, I pounded her. Always
an excuse, always an excuse. I'm doing the best I can,
And Mayor really is doing the best she can. At
that point, scamming my neighbor Sherry and me, I suddenly
(22:04):
start wondering if Mayor is possibly scamming any other neighbors
in our building. I offered her the money I did. Yep,
she sure is, Remember attorney Tina Mensch, who signs on
(22:29):
early in the fight to get our pool back and
becomes good friends with Mayor. I got that story that
her bank accounts were frozen, that her papal account was frozen,
that she was having these issues, and that it's not
really my job to question people's money problems. So I
did get the district attorney story and that her accounts
(22:53):
were all frozen because of the Pacific Islands stuff, and
that's how she tricked you. And to giveing her some money. Yes,
she it said that it was gonna cost her like
two thousand dollars to get her papal account reactivated. I
offered her the money I did. She was my friend
(23:14):
and I had it, and I really didn't think anything
of I mean, it's not chump change, but it's it's
what you do for friends. It's what you do for friends, right.
She insisted that she would pay me back. She still
has not. And remember that crazy earlier experience Tina has
with Mayor. After they both are apparently drugged during a
(23:37):
night out at a downtown Los Angeles bar. Tina wakes
up the next day with bruises on her forearm and
can't remember how or when she got home. And Mayor
claims not to remember anything either, but now looking back,
we think pretty sure she drugged me. And why would
she drug you so that we could have a bonding experience.
(24:00):
It's it's a trauma bond. You know what. You fucking
nailed it. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. It is
a trauma bond that would get you closer together. And
this was before the two thousand, yes, significantly before. Yeah,
this just made you closer friends quicker, Like if when
you go through an experience like that with someone, you're
both robbed, you're both almost potentially raped. You know, I
(24:21):
don't know what happened. I mean I had a giant
bruise on my forearm. It went from for the audio,
I mean you can describe it, but it went from
here to your entire fore arms entire four blue like
black and blue, as if I had blocked somebody. Yeah, um, wow,
it is a trauma bond. Yeah, I got chills. Yes,
that's what she was doing. At this point, it's becoming
(24:44):
so clear Mayor Smith is a master manipulator and a
bona fide con artist. I mean she scams me and
she scams two other neighbors in our building. I start
wondering how many other victims are out there, and so
it begins. I systematically start contacting everyone Mayor has ever
(25:05):
introduced me to or talked about. During the course of
our four year friendship. I was buying my first health
then we closed in December of Remember Michelle Thompson DaCosta,
one of Mayor's early psychic clients who was impressed by
her spot on readings. Well, Mayor figures out a clever
(25:25):
and caring way to get her hands on Michelle's Social
Security number? Why was she helping you with your mortgage anyway?
So she told me, guess what. I was a realtor
and I owned a mortgage company in Ireland, so I
know exactly what they're looking for. I can help you out.
And I was like, okay, perfect. I had opened new
(25:49):
bank accounts to kind of shift, you know, instead of
using a bank account I had since I was sixteen,
using a new bank account that would be my main
account that they got those records out of, and so
how her look at it before I sat the minute?
So I would send them to her, And I remember
thinking the first couple of passes at sending over my
bank records to make sure all my documents were together,
(26:11):
because I was just like, oh my god, pulling all
these documents is coming too much for me. I was
redacting my social Security number from her eyes, yes, and
I was also redacting my bank account number. And then
the final time she helped me, I didn't. I said,
(26:33):
it's Mayor, it's your best friend. This is in November.
Michelle sends Mayor her final set of bank records, with
her social Security number clearly visible, and the very next month,
a new credit card in Michelle's name gets applied for
and approved unbeknownst to Michelle, and to sent to Michelle's
(26:54):
new home that she hasn't even moved into yet. And
then someone starts charging up a storm. In February, I
checked my mailbox at my new house and I see
a credit card statement. First of all, I've never gotten
this credit card. So I opened the credit card statement
(27:18):
and it's a PayPal credit card, which if you know her,
you know she loved PayPal. Okay. Bitch loves a PayPal okay.
So I'm like a PayPal credit card. I would never
I'm like American Express or nothing. So I look at it.
It had all this information, so I decided to try
to log on. So I go in, and you know where,
(27:39):
like if you start entering stuff and it's like you
can ask what you're like user name is, stuff will
pop up. So it popped up, and it started with
an M, and then it was like at gmail dot
com or whatever hers ended up as. And so then
I called them. It was like, this isn't me, blah
blah blah. But also looking at the charges, it was
(28:00):
notorious Mayor. It was taxis uber's food. As soon as
Michelle tells me that, I think about all the times
Mayor wind and dyed my husband and me at fancy restaurants?
Was she paying for our meals with someone stolen credit card?
(28:21):
So how much money total was charged to a credit
card that you did not take out but was in
your name? I would say it would probably be about
which seems pretty cheap for Mayor. You found out about it,
and that was I want to say, either the first
or second cycle on that. So as soon as I call,
they got rid of it. So Michelle reports Mayor to
(28:47):
police and moves on with her life, and her credit
card fraud case against Mayor gets added to the pile
of millions of credit card fraud cases reported every year
in this country and quickly disappears into oblivion. After talking
to Michelle, I get a really bad feeling thinking about
how many other potential victims are right now getting scammed
(29:09):
by Mayor Smith, and how can I stop her. The
police clearly aren't doing anything, So I decide I will.
Why did you start a blog? Why was that like
your first instinct to go that route. Well, you know,
we're living in the digital age. I wanted to warn people.
I wanted to warn people. That was my sole intent,
especially with Bob. Months before our confrontation in that parking garage,
(29:32):
Mayor texts me a picture of the guy she's dating,
a guy named Bob. I knew he was an engineer
in Newport Beach, and I knew they were dating by
the time I confronted her, and you know, she got
out of my life, and I knew he was probably
if he wasn't currently getting scammed, he was about to,
because I just had a feeling she was probably gonna
scam him. I don't have Bob's phone number or email address.
(29:57):
I don't even have his last name, So I start
an online blog. To warn Bob. I post his picture,
the one Mayor had texted me once earlier asking if
I thought he was boyfriend material. He's a good looking,
successful guy I approve wholeheartedly. So my first blog entry
under that picture I post reads, I know his name
(30:17):
is Bob, I know he's an engineer in Newport Beach,
and I know he's getting scammed by Mayor Smith. If
you know him, warn him. She's not that great looking,
she doesn't photograph that well, but in person, she's magical.
There's a charisma she does she has. She definitely has
an aura about her. She definitely has like and I
(30:39):
think so much of it just comes down to confidence,
you know, Like she walks the walk. She exudes confidence,
and I think that's that's attracted to a lot of people.
My buddy Evans right, Mayor Smith is very attractive to
a lot of people, people like Bob the engineer in
Newport Beach. And while I hope and pray Bob finds
my blog and avoids getting gammed by Mayor, I have
(31:01):
to be realistic. I mean, there are twenty three million
people living in southern California, and the chances of Bob
actually finding my blog are infinitesimal. And then one day
my phone rings. Hello. Yep, it's Bob calling and he's
got a lot to say about his new girlfriend, Mayor Smith.
(31:28):
Next time on Queen of the Con, she invited you
to the Golden Globes with Jennifer Aniston. Yea, Jennifer Aniston
invited her and she said, I want to take you
as my plus one. Mayor's latest con is one for
the record books. She was trying to get ahold of
his property. She was trying to get her name put
on both of the deeds and to do that she
(31:49):
needs to wreak havoc. They were abusing the kids like
this pedophile ring kind of thing. For exclusive photos and
other bonus material, follow at Queen of the Con on
Instagram and if you're enjoying Queen of the Con, tell
your friends about it and leave us a review on
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Queen of
(32:15):
the Con The Irish Heiress is a production of a
y R Media and I Heart Radio, hosted by me
Jonathan Walton. Executive producers Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton Productions
and Eliza Rosen for a y R Media written by
Jonathan Walton, Consulting producer Evan Goldstein, Senior Associate producer Eric Newman.
(32:38):
Sound designed by baked ZD Media, mixed and mastered by
Elliott Herman. Audio engineering by Elliott Herman, Studio engineering by
Chris McMasters. Voice acting performed by Many Facts Sus Jorge Farragut,
Carol Marrin, and David Teitelbaum. Legal counsel for A y
R Media, Gianni Douglas, Executive producer for I Heart Radio,
(33:02):
Chandler Mainz
Popular Podcasts
1. Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
2. Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
3. Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.