A Fraudulent Aretha Franklin: How Do You Spell Respect?

If a New York City hairdresser who looks a little like James Brown comes up to you and says he can make you a star, don't believe him. But Miss Mary Jane Jones had to learn that lesson the hard way –– by playing Florida nightclubs as she pretended to be the real Aretha Franklin. Naturally, that's no way to earn R.E.S.P.E.C.T. But it will certainly get you attention from the law.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Elizabeth Dutton's Aaron Burnette. That's you.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
Yeah, Hey, what's it?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
I got a question for you? Yes, do you know
what's ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (00:10):
I do know it's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
What close your eyes? My eyes are closed.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
You're sitting in a buffalo wild wings Okay, just just
going to town on some wild wings. Okay, I mean
I assume that's what they saw.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Theresays.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yeah, so you're just like, oh, you're just putting the
herd on.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
And then you look up and there's a bodecious babe okay,
and she's she's one hundred percent real American beef saring.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Whoa this is?

Speaker 3 (00:44):
She comes over and she's got like this like beautiful
lipstick on, and she leans in and she says to you,
I want to put you on a one way trip
to Flavor Town.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Now, is this like the best fantasy you've ever had?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Totally? I mean it's just like, this is pretty much
how I dream of restaurant flirtations.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, exactly. Well, you know what this could be real? Really, yeah,
because there are a lot of trashy ladies out there,
but also because Guy Fieri, yes, teamed up God with
Revlon what to come up with a Guy Fieri inspired
lip bomb.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
I want to see the dart board where these things
come up with. They just put Revlon on there and
they're throwing darts, Guy fiery, and yeah, we hit like
the dice they rolled. They rolled sets of dicetnerships.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
You know. Guy was just like, I love my lips
gloss my wife recommends, so they get together. It's called
Flavor Town, of course, and it's coral colored, which I
always feel like, if you want to tell the world
you're crazy, put on coral colored lipstick, but do it
outside the lines of your lips. In some parts that's

(02:03):
the universal like she's not all there. That's why I
keep some I don't wear lipstick, but if I have to,
like it's signified.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Like very Reno casino, like this girl's not right you
put that on?

Speaker 3 (02:14):
It is It does not taste like any kind of sauce.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Oh there's that.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
It doesn't taste like barbecue sauce. It doesn't taste like
it's just it has a vanilla scent and a buttery texture. Sure,
but it's yeah, it's like a coral color.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Trying to play along with this mashup and trying to
get ahead of it.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
Saren, it doesn't stop there, God damn. So it has
like you can only get it from Revlon dot com.
Like you can't have it.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
In the stores. Why would you.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
It would be shoplifted immediately, like they'd all be gone.
But it comes with stickers so you can customize that
outside of your lip bombay and the container and like
one of them is like something says Boss of Sauce
and then like flames. So next time you're a Buffalo
Wild Wings getting.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
My hands from that guy Fieri.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Good yeah, Well, and you there are women who are
trying to induce the male gaze because we know that
every single man on the planet loves chicken wings.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Totally and football and a bright shiny lip gloss and shiny.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
Lip gloss or you know what, if you want to
wear it to Buffalo Wild Wings.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
I might be interesting or it would look good on me, It.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Would actually be really complimentary. It would that would be
bad insummation your honor. That's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
I'll give you that.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
I know you will.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
We're going to score that ridiculous. Thank you, Elizabeth. While
we're at it. I got something for you that's ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, there's this saying you'll hear people refer to from
time to time. It's usually attributed to Oscar Wilde. The
aphorism goes, imitation is the highest form of flattery. You've
heard that, right, it is zaren it is now. It
wasn't Oscar wild who said that. He actually said imitation
is the student seriest form of flattery that mediocrity can
pay to greatness.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Well that's even better, which is.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, it's a much fuller comment. But he was actually
not the one to coin the saying. Originally, he borrowed
it from this man named Charles Caleb Colton, who had
also borrowed it from an earlier version that dates back
to seventeen fourteen. And the earliest version is probably my favorite.
It is imitation is a kind of artless flattery.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Oh that's good too.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
I think that one says it the best.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
I think this just shows that there's nothing new under
the sun.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
No, a lot of imitation in this flattery. Elizabeth, Today,
I want to tell you about the criminal and ridiculous
dangers of artless flattery.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
Oh yeah, this is ridiculous crime a podcast about absurd

(04:55):
and outrageous capers, heists, and cons.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
It's always n nine percent murder free and one hundred
percent ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Read ridiculous, Elizabeth.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
To start this story out and to keep things somewhat modern,
today's first story involves friend of the show, Justin Bieber.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah, buddy, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
So Justin Bieber. How does he come into this great question? Elizabeth? Yeah,
I'm guessing you may or may not have seen the
Reason headlines about Justin Bieber in Las Vegas.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Uh uh, I don't really know. Like he's another one
of those singers like Katy Perry, Taylor Swift. I could
not name a song, not sure if I've heard one before.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
You've heard them, you may have. They're like an ambient
noise coming out.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Of I couldn't tell you the name, or like sing
a bar or too. So, yeah, Justin Bieber. But you
know boy doesn't like to wear a shirt.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
No that we do both know that about him. Yeah, Well,
apparently he was in Las Vegas recently, or rather, a
guy who pretended to be Justin Bieber was in Las
Vegas recently.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Uh huh.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Now, before you get into that, you were once a
Vegas local, So I wanted to ask, does this happen
in Vegas often? Where you have of like folks like
cover band people just losing their minds and going I
am Rod Stewart, Not that I've seen claims that they're not.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
No, I did. I do know one one case of
this which I've heard about. There was this guy who
was going all over New Orleans pretending to be Ziggy Marley.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
You mean me and I mean you yeah, I mean yea,
huh yeah. I've told this.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Story before, you know what, I can never hear it
enough times, Like every time I hear it, new details
come out that I savor.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Get it out. I was in the French Quarter in
New Orleans, big tourist area, a lot of people out drinking,
drinking those hurricanes, right, and this guy comes up to me.
He's like, man, I didn't know you were in town.
And I had to look at him real quick, and
I'm like, I don't know this guy. And I was right,
I didn't know him, but he thought he knew me
because he thought I was Ziggy Marley. So he buys
me a free round to drinks and I'm like, oh,
and I thanked him a Jamaican accent. Right, that's the

(06:56):
best part.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
That's because if someone came up to me and said,
i'd know you're in Town of Bill, neither did I,
and then just go away.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
But you're like, of course, So I get the free
round of drinks, and then he was like, I said,
I thank him in the Jamaican accent. But he's not done.
He now wants to show me a good time. So
he takes me from bar to bar to bar and
everyone I get introduced as Ziggy Marley. I do a
little Jamaican at them, a little patois, throw it down.
They give me free drinks. I keep going. This goes
on for hours.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Right.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Of course, I get drunk as hell on those hurricanes,
and then I'm like, I'm ready to go back to
the hotel. So I turned to my friend is with me,
and I'm like, hey, are you ready to bounce? Now?
The guy who's been taking us around he hears me
because I'm thinking I'm whispering, but all the hurricanes, I'm
probably just talking at normal volume. He hears me he's
speaking an American accent. Big mistake, huge mistake, right, and
he then his eyes change his hot anger flashes across

(07:44):
his face and he's like, you're not Ziggy Marley and
I was like, no, i am not Ziggy Marley. But
he grabs me and insists that I now go back
and apologize to every bar that I had gotten free drinks.
And so I did, and I had to go up
to all these bartenders and be like, Hi, I'm a
terrible person. You were so generous and I tricked you
and I'm a bad person. I'm sorry for bar after

(08:05):
bar after bar.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
I love.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah. So basically I learned firsthand that people get pissed
when you trick them and pretend to be someone they love.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, that is they people do. They don't like it,
and they're like, can you sing tomorrow people for us?

Speaker 2 (08:18):
And you were like, well, I'm off the clock, man,
I can't remember all the lyrics right now in my patois.
So this brings us to pretend justin Bieber?

Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yes, no, thank you for sharing that story.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
Yeah, you're welcome.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
I love hearing it.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
So I got the full story of this, uh, this
guy who conned Vegas and how he got to pretend
he was justin Bieber until his ruse was busted. You
ready to hear about not Justin Bieber. Yes. So this
went down on August sixteenth of this year at the
Win Las Vegas Casino. Big you know, big casino. They
got a big nightclub. Everybody goes to this La based
DJ named Griffin with a y. He was performing at

(08:54):
the XS nightclub in the wind Casino. Oh Excess, Yeah exactly,
there you go, yeah, club Excess man. So it was
a Saturday night, crowds packed places, a bump in. DJ
Griffin isn't doing his thing in the booth on the
ones and twos WEEKI week the hell on When someone
comes up from the casino and whispers to him, Justin
Bieber's in the club. He's like what and he like

(09:15):
takes off a headphone so you can hear him. He's like, what,
what's up? And he's like and they're like, yeah, Justin
Bieber's here, and he's like now, DJ Griffin, he's cool
with it. He's like, oh, you know what do you
want to come up here? And he's like oh. They
wants to do a surprise performance sing one of his hits.
Sorry it's a song. Sorry, Oh the song is called Sorry.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
I thought They're like sorry, he wants to perform, and
he's like, yeah, I'm sorry about that.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
So DJ Griffin's like, yes, of course, we'd love to
do a surprise show. But Justin Bieber are you kidding me?
Have him come up here to the DJ booth. I'll
introduce him to the crowd. Then he could take the stage,
do a few songs. It'll be a dope and then
that's not a direct quote, obviously, but you get the idea.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
So not Justin Birder's interpretation.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Thank you. He rocks up to the DJ booth, He
wraps up DJ Griffin. They chat real quick. Industry insider
to industry insider.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
You know.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
DJ Griffin tells a crowd at the club, I got
a super SMA surprise for you guys, and Justin Bieber's
in town. And the crowd just goes nuts, right because
he's gonna do a special surprise set for them, and
he's just recently dropped an album, so this all fits
for them. They're like, oh my god, this is history
or whatever. DJ Griffin cues up the track. Out on
stage comes not Justin Bieber. He starts to do some

(10:19):
low key Justin Bieber dance moves. He pulls up his
like the hood on his hoodie because he's actually wearing
a shirt in this instance, and then he busts into
his song. Sorry, right, Elizabeth, this guy is good. I mean, like,
I've watched the cell phone videos pit folks shot of this,
and he sounds like Justin Bieber, at least to my ears.
He looks like him. Right, He's got the same tattoos

(10:39):
as Justin Bieber, oh, exact same, exactly right, he all
has also has the same haircuts, got the same die
job because right now he's got this blonde die job.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
My understanding from the various guss of subreddits that I
that I lurk in that he's having Justin Bieber's having
some trouble.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
He's had a little bit of a rough time right now.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
It looks like he's going. I want to think he
was also like victimized all coming out and he's having
a rough one, and so I think that if he
does something weird, like I just want to be on
stage for this exact pople aren't like, no, that's out
of character, because there's no such things out him. There's
such in character and reading a book maybe.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
So this guy not Justin Bieber, He's up there on
stage and he's moving like Justin Bieber, He's roughly the
same size. He fools the majority of the crowd. They're like,
oh my god, I can't believe this. It's all these
videos that are taken. When he gets done singing sorry,
he waves to the pack, crowd, leaves the stage or whatever.
DJ Griffin posts this video of him on Instagram of
him right after the set. Right, he's walking away saying

(11:39):
how amazing was that? Direct quote? Right, and then someone
comes up and tells him, Nah, that wasn't Justin Bieber.
That was one hundred percent of fake out some pretender
once again, pretty much direct quote. Yeah, you see DJ
Griffin realize he just got conned. And he's not pissed though,
like not like the guy in New Orleans was when
I tricked him. He's just a little bummed.

Speaker 5 (11:57):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
So then DJ Griffin says in the video the only
indication he had that it wasn't Justin Bieber was quote,
I literally thought he's put on a lot of weights
since the album dropped in such a Vegas comment. Also
a very la comment anyway, So I did find a
tweet from someone who was there that night at club excess.
They posted this on x SO trim Bean with two

(12:20):
ends said quote, can someone explain why this is a
thing going this far to look like somebody or are
him and Justin working together to promote something? Not gonna lie?
He almost had me fooled and clearly had all these
other people fooled once I got in his face. Nah,
I might come on, trim Beanieber fool, don't lie?

Speaker 3 (12:38):
You were texting people? Oh my god, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Exactly, I got it justin Bieber's face.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
That would be an interesting promotional thing for the album.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
I think that'd be amazing.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, like you know, and then up and look at us.
We're talking about it.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
I didn't even know, and that we're helping out with
the album so well. So not Justin Bieber is actually
this twenty nine year old Frenchman named Dylan Deskoloso, and
this is what he does for a living, Like he's
been imitating Justin Bieber for years, which helps explain how
he was able to con somebody in the night club, right,
But how did he conn the folks that win Las Vegas?

(13:11):
I mean a range of fake surprise show. He's got
to like coordinate it with them. Remember they went up
and told the DJ, well, great question, Elizabeth, I got
an answer for you. For answers, we turned to Las
Vegas entertainment reporter John Katz aka John Katz lamedes, yes
you know this guy?

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, no is.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
He reported that not Justin Bieber contacted Win Las Vegas,
or rather his team did, and as John Katz put it, quote,
the people who helped him execute this contacted the Wind
Resort and Win nightlife executives during the day on Saturday
and said, we're gonna have Justin Bieber in town. We'd
like to have a table and a VIP setup. So
it sounds legit to them, right, That helps sell the
lie initially, but like, wouldn't the Win folks kind of

(13:51):
sniff out of a faker if like not everything's correct,
not the right email account, so forth. Well, as John
Katz explains, the Win people thought that this was the
real Justin Bieber. Now he's had a shuffle in his
management and Justin Bieber's world is a little inconsistent to
begin with, so they were saying, okay, well, you know,
he just had an album drop swag last month, so
they said okay, so they believe it the same thing

(14:12):
you've said. Basically, he's going through a spell. This may
be Justin Bieber, who knows. So also the not Justin Bieber,
he had laid some really solid groundwork earlier in the
day on social media. How well, back to John Katz,
before they came over to the Wind, they were at
the Las Vegas Premium outlets in Symphony Park, no stop it.

(14:32):
They were seen there, and they also visited the Esplanade shops,
and they were in the Balanciaga they were seen coming
out of there. So basically exactly this not Justin Bieber
pops over the factory outlets, schmoozes with the people, he
poses for photos like hey, I'm also trying to get
a Chanel bag on the cheap. So then that night
at the club, though, after the lie gets exposed, and

(14:55):
as John Katz tells it, quote people who were there
who'd seen a performance said, this is not him, it's
the saying happening. But that's not all because not Justin
Bieber also had enjoyed all the perks of stardom. Remember
that VIP stuff. Oh yeah, he got bottle service. So now,
as John Katz explains, quote, his team would come in
expecting to have been comped bottle service at their booth,
and by the time he left, he had to sign

(15:16):
off for almost ten thousand dollars since he's not getting comped.
So now oops, not Justin Bieber's umblebook for ten grand
for his stunt, or at least his credit card was,
or someone's credit card was. Once the ruse gets exposed,
the Win folks not only did they make them pay up,
they also ban him for ever coming back to the
Win casinos. Now he's a Frenchman, what does he care?

(15:36):
You know?

Speaker 3 (15:37):
Also, it's like the ten grand for that bottle service
is like literally they're giving him like forty dollars worth
of Oh.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah, it's such a ripoff, it's ridiculous. So the Frenchman,
as I said, Dylan discos, he's been doing this imitation
game for a long minute, like around six years, and
he's successful over in Europe doing this. He's got a
YouTube channel where he posts his shows as a tribute act.
In fact, that last year Justin Bieber's wife, Hayley Bieber,
was shown a TikTok of this Frenchman. He was filmed

(16:06):
while he was on a train, and she said and
I quote I'm scared like he could fool even her.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yes, but would be nice to me? Okay?

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Would he be more present? This all started where people
told this not Justin Bieber, that he looked a hell
of a lot like the real Justin Bieber. And He's like,
maybe I make a career out of this, And he did.
Is he put in an interview with the outlet Need
to Know from the United Kingdom quote, A lot of
people told me that I look like Justin Bieber in
the past. However I do make sure to dressed like him.

Speaker 6 (16:35):
I think our similarities looks wise, more some points of
our faces, and definitely our attitudes. Oh Now, Likewise, when
I'm on stage, I need to be the most Justin
I can be, and I think I'm good at mimicking him.
I became a look alike simply by going to a
Justin Bieber a concert. I took a lot of photos
and I thought it was super cool.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
So he went to a concert.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
And pretended to be Justin Bieber became his career.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
He also said, when it comes to the reactions to
his whole Tribute Act quote, I would.

Speaker 6 (17:03):
Say that the best and funniest reactions I got to
was people thinking I was Justin and knocking on my
hotel door at two am. There was so many of
them taking pictures and asking me to sign pictures as
Justin Bieber.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
So he really gets off on this.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
How on the list of like what should we do tonight?
How far down is Justin Bieber tribute show? Right?

Speaker 2 (17:28):
So I think it's underneath like change my oil by hand.
So there was at the other end of the spectrum
of things that when it doesn't go so well for
not Justin Bieber, as he told the UK outlet Need
to Know quote, the worst reaction I had to the public,
I would say was being mobbed with crying and hugs.

(17:49):
I don't understand very well that the power of love
for Justin, so it's nothing to bothers me. So he's
got these people fake crying on am thinking their meeting.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
I don't understand that either. And there are musicians where
I'm like, dude, I you like saved my life. I
would never cry, chase them and go to their hotel.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
We're talking more. I think imagine like teen fandom, you know,
it's that whole like Beatlemania screaming at the met Stadium
that's probably true. Like, yeah, you're probably right.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
I know.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
I'm some like thirty three year old business associate from
like I don't know, a restaurant chain in Omaha, Nebraska
is over there crying on their shoulder. You changed my
life justin I know, I know I did. So that's
our appetizer for today. Yes, next up, after this break,
we'll get into the main meal. It's a really good story,
a story of a woman who pretended to be Aretha
Franklin and it changed her whole life. Oh no, back

(18:40):
after this basket of ads fresh out of the oven,
warm and delicious enough for everyone. We're back, Elizabeth. Hello,

(19:07):
you ready to get down and get soulful with an
Aretha Franklin conjob. So I first saw this story in
an excellent article from Smithsonian Magazine. I'm a subscriber of
Smith's recommend magazine Totally. Article was a long form piece
called The Counterfeit Queen of Soul, a strange and bittersweet
ballad of kidnapping, stolen identity, and unlikely stardom by Jeff mash.
Now we've covered stories similar to this one, for instance,

(19:29):
Lost Beatles Americanos remember aka the American Beatles who did
a tour of South America, passing themselves off as the
actual Beatles while conning the locals for fun and profit. Now,
the same sort of con job was also going down
in the UK back in the day, especially for R
and B X in like the late fifties, starting with
Little Richard and later motown acts and soul singers in
the sixties. Because back then Americans would hop over the

(19:51):
pond pretend to be Diana Ross and the Supremes, or
pretend to be the Temptations or James Brown or whoever.
And this worked really well because the fans in the
UK and over in Europe, by Continental Europe, they didn't
exactly know what the R and B performers looked like. Yeah,
they knew what they sounded like, but they weren't saturated
with media the way we are, so it was a
lot easier to fake well.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
And the images they'd see, like in magazines, weren't particularly
high reds.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
No, there's also that, or even on the posters. Yeah,
so it wasn't also, by the way, just the Brits
and the Europeans who got conned like this, because this
also went down in the States. Oh no, oh yeah.
Now these days, as I said, it's much more difficult
to pull off eight not to justin Bieba, because it's
so easy to see where stars actually are right now.
You can just check their social media and be like,

(20:35):
that's not Sabrina Carpenter because she's in Toronto right now.
I just saw on Instagram or whoever you like. Now,
obviously this was not the case in the late sixties
when our story takes place. Yea, so are you ready?

Speaker 3 (20:47):
TikTok really wasn't popping off then, No, it was a
very niche totally.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
It was like eight millimeter reels. It sucked.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yeah, not everyone had it.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
So, Elizabeth, I'd like you to meet Mary Jane Jones.
She was a young Black woman who was very much
wanted to earn the same rispect that Aretha Franklin enjoyed.
She looked up to the Queen of soul and she
wanted what Aretha had. She wanted to be a star too,
because she certainly knew what it was like to not
have much at all. And she's like, this sucks. I'd

(21:16):
like to do that. And Aretha came from well, Aretha
but didn't come from poverty per se. But she was like,
you know, I want what Aretha has gained as a
young black woman in the sixties. So she by the
way Mary Jane Jones. She was raised in rural Petersburg, Virginia.
I'm not sure if you're familiar. I don't know it.
But she had a house without indoor plumbing. We're talking
in the late sixties. And then, you know, as things do,

(21:39):
life came at her pretty fast. She dropped out of
school after tenth grade. She got married at nineteen Sadly,
her husband passed away, leaving her to be a widow
with a young son that was rough on her. Things
didn't improve much when she remarried. Her new husband gave
her three more sons, but he was also a violent drunk,
so she divorced him. Now she's a single mother in

(21:59):
Royal vergil with four young sons. Oh man, the year
is nineteen sixty eight. Yeah, she'll has a dream though,
of making it as a star. So to make ends meet,
she performed at the local gospel music group, the Great
Gates of Petersburg. She had this tremendous voice, like a big,
full throated voice, the kind that sings out like the
up to the angels in heaven right, just like a

(22:20):
real soul singer voice. Only trouble for her was she
was untrained. She couldn't read music. She just had a
natural born talent. Yeah, yeah, now it was married Jane Jones.
But quote, I don't know one note from the next.
But what talent I got I got from God. And
as you know, Elizabeth, that's also how I sing. I
don't know one note from the next except for God
forgot to give me any musical talent whatsoever. But this

(22:41):
is how I sing. So I related to her immediately, yes,
but anyway. By nineteen sixty nine, Mary Jane Jones was
twenty seven years old. She'd been singing with her gospel
group at this point for six years. The leader of
her gospel group was this cat named Reverend Billy Lee,
and he said of her talent, I had to teach
most of the folks in my groups, but that was
one young lady I did not have to teach soul right,

(23:03):
Like I said, natural born talent. And she was also
a natural born performer. Like when she sang, emotions came
out of her like like the way they did from
Frank Sinatra. In that way that the audience could feel
her longing, her a, her blues, her pain, her love.
Sometimes she would even cry while she was singing. I'm
talking like real tears. She moved herself with her songs right.

(23:24):
Other times, well, she'd be sweating in that role of
Virginia heat and then the beads of perspiration ran down
her face like this, little tiny rivers of sweat. I
mean she felt it when she was singing. So people
were like, oh my god, this is so real. But
singing gospel music wasn't enough to feed her growing boys.
So to earn a little extra scratch for her family,
Mary Jane also performed some of that music her fellow
gospel singers would call the devil's music. So to do that,

(23:48):
she often worked at local nightclubs. She performed as part
of a review style show where she'd sing as an
Aretha Franklin tribute act. They didn't call it tribute acts
back then. She'd just be like a Retha Franklin cover
song or Retha Franklin, you know, imitator.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
So it's because you don't really like you're saying it's
a reviews So I think she was probably doing more
than just a yeah, songbook and you don't have like
live you know, big name acts coming through when people
want to hear someone singing and do all music.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, if you're in Petersburg, Virginia and you're like you're
willing to do Aretha, I'm willing to pay right and
you know, whatever the dollar to get in. So this
earned her on average ten dollars a night to play
these different nightclubs in the area. And now she had
a backing R and B band and they would play
the latest hits and so they knew all of Aretha's songbook.
She was really good on Aretha's song think Right, And

(24:34):
so when Mary jans Jones laid into Aretha's lyrics, she
was like sing to her imagined lover and the audience
they truly felt her lonesome heart right. Like I said,
the emotions poured out of her. But her gospel group
could never know about the sinning she was doing on
Saturday nights, otherwise it would risk her check that she's
taking care of her boys with right. If they ever
learned about her Moonlight gig, she'd be dumped from the

(24:55):
gospel group. So she came up with this persona she
performed under a stage name, Miss Vicky Jones, and she
pull on a wig and go out and transform into
the star to be Miss Vicky Jones. Love right, and
she was damn good Chelsea plays, She sang rock songs,
she sang whatever the people wanted to hear. Yeah yeah,
But eventually words still got back to the leader of
her gospel group, the good Reverend Billy Lee.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Now, one Saturday night, he dips into the nightclub and
he's tucked in the back of this darkened club. He's
watching the show and Mary Jane Jones aka Miss Vicky
Jones didn't spot her boss in the crowd. She just
went ahead with her show. Meanwhile, old Reverend Billy Lee
he's watching and he starts to worry about his his
like star singers, everlasting soul, and how she's putting it

(25:38):
at risk and also risking her spot in heaven with
her blues act and the Aretha Franklin tribute songs. As
he tells it, he didn't confront her right away. In fact,
he didn't confront her that night. Instead, he just said
a little prayer to himself, say a little prayer. Oh
he did he really? Yeah? Right, He's like, don't lecture her,
don't preach to She'll be all right now. However, he
did worry, as I said, about how she'd manage if

(26:00):
she got out into the dangerous world of show business
and nightclub singers, as he recalled it. He thought to himself,
she goes in these situations, things could get out of hand. Elizabeth,
I'm here to tell you things got out of it.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
Oh, I could imagine this is like, this is very
much like the Perks and Reck storyline with Ron has
a has an alter ego who plays in nightclubs called
really Silver, really Saxophone. And that's basically what I'm imagining.
So she now looks like Ron Swanson with the mustache.

(26:32):
With the mustache, that's what she had on the saxophone. Yeah,
and and like a Fedora.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
I gotta check that show something amazing. So, as I said,
things got out of hand. And of course this goes
down in a nightclub. It was the winner of nineteen
sixty eight and she was performing at a nightclub called
the Pink Garter. That name should tell you everything you
need to know. The club was in Richmond, Virginia. It
used to be a grocery store, but by the time
Mss Vikett Jones was performing. It had been converted into

(27:00):
the Pink Garter.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
The Pink Garters. So it's like, let's say, it's not
a huge it's not a supermarket, it's a grocery store.
I'm imagining like the kind of cavernous interior.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah no, don't just imagine like a lot of tables.
Maybe as it candles on the tables, I.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
Don't know, a lot of people get up to no good.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
The deli sections now a bar. So the house band
was called the River Nets, right. The leader of that
band was the same man who ran the Pink Garter.
His stage name was the Great Josea all right, and
his mama called him Fenroy Fox.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
That's a great stage name.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
That's what this why the Great he doesn't want you know,
maybe he worried about his mama finding out. So, as
the Great Hosea told the Smithsonian magazine, the Pink Guarter
was a black night club. Quote, it was ninety percent
black and there everything changed after Martin Luther King got killed.
Blacks was staying in black places. People were scared because
you know, remember he died in sixty eight, So this
is fresh, right, right, So the folks went to places

(27:58):
that they felt safe, like the Pink Garter, and that's
where things all change for Mary Jones aka Miss Vicki Jones.
So the Great Hosea, he's leading the river nets with
their rendition of Aretha Franklin's huge hit, respect And when
Miss Vickiy Jones steps up to the mic and she
lets her big voice fill up that room, that former
grocery store. Yeah, and in the dark and dimly lit
air of this club. The folks there at the Pink

(28:20):
Garter that night, you could have told them this was
Aretha Franklin and most of them would have believed it
was true. That's how much he sounded, but not only sounded,
but looked like Aretha really. Oh yeah, But it wasn't.
Just then we saw and heard this similarity to the
Queen of Soul, one of the other acts performing that night.
He saw Miss Vicki Jones singing and he heard dollar signs. Yeah.
Now into Lavell, Hade. Lavell wasn't from Virginia or even

(28:45):
from the South. He was a New York City hairdresser,
and he looked like one. He wore his hair in
this high pomper door like six inches off his head.
My favorite fun fact about Lavell Hardy was that in
nineteen sixty eight he had a near hit song of
his own called Don't Lose Your Groove. It reached number
forty two on the charts.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
Did you listen to it?

Speaker 2 (29:04):
I did not, but I did find a fun fact
for you.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
It topped out just below a parody song by Bill
Cosby called Hooray for the Salvation Army Band. Oh dear,
that's what it was behind. It did not pass that
song it was from. That song was from the album
Bill Cosby sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band with
an exclamation for my copy out from what I found.
That track was a comedic knockoff of Jimmy Hendrick's song

(29:27):
Purple Hayes.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
So the Bill Bill Cosby song Hooray for the Salvation
Army Band was a knockoff of Jimmy Hendrick song Purple
Hayes Yeah. And the album cover he looks like Jim Croche.
He's got this big bushy mustache, and he's got a
like like a kind of like a semi hippie gig.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
Even happening right now?

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Elizabeth, I gotta tell you, none of what I just
said makes any sense. No, I have no answers for you.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
How does one get yet?

Speaker 4 (29:51):
Whatever?

Speaker 2 (29:51):
Anyway, back to the Pompadoor, Lavell Hattie, after he watched
Miss Vicki Jones do her best impression of Aretha Franklin
at the Pink Garter, he thought to himself, she that
I dentical from head to toe. She's got the complexion,
she got the looks, she got, the height, she got,
the tears, she got everything. So the wheels in his
devious mind start spending. And what I haven't told you

(30:12):
yet is Lavell Hardy earned two hundred dollars per night
working as a James Brown impersonator. Stop Yes, getting bust
the Popadour, and thus he knew Miss Vicky Jones as
a fake Aretha Franklin could be worth at least that much.
And she looked more like her than he looked like James.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
So the next weekend, Vicky Jones was back in Richmond
performing at the Executive Motor n and Lavelle Hardy turned
up at the gig. After she does her act, he
makes his pitch. She steps up to her and he
tells her she could be making way more money with him,
and she could be making in these Virginia spots. He
told her about all the money to be made down
in Florida. That's where they pay for my music. So

(30:50):
Lavell Hardy was what we call it natural born operator.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
Yeah, sounds like it.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
And as such, she told Miss Jones that whatever she
needed to hear to sign on to his plan to
tour Florida, and you know, ex Lloyd her talents. So
he told her for an upcoming tour he was planning,
he wanted her to open for Aretha Franklin. He would
pay her one thousand dollars for a six city tour.
That's six shows. That's one hundred times what she was
making for one night in rural Virginia.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
She's going to open for Aretha as in personally no.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Just as Miss Vicka Jones. Oh, so the offer is
it's too tempted for her to say no.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Is she going to do other songs aside from Aretha's No, Yeah,
She's going to.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Do her own song choices be they what they are? Sure,
So Mary Jane Jones, she went to a man she knew,
a cat named Harold Big Daddy Strayhorn, and he was
a local band leader and a money lender, apparently because
she borrowed the cash from him that she'd need for
a bus ticket down to Florida. So this was going
to be the first time she'd ever gone on a
tour without the Reverend Billy Lee and his gospel group.

(31:48):
So she was truly going to be out in the
world on her own, the thing that he feared. Now,
she sent her four boys to stay with her mother
and she packed for Florida, and then as the bus
headed south, she watched the world change from her window seat.
All Right, So when she arrives in Melbourne, Florida, she
linked up with Lavell Hatty and she was super eager
to start her new life as an opening act for

(32:09):
her hero, Aretha Franklin, Right, and that's when Lavell burst
her naive bubble. She wasn't going to be the opening
act for Aretha. Instead, she was gonna go out there
and she was gonna be Aretha. You see, he'd conder Elizabeth.
He told her exactly whatever she needed to hear to
get her down to Melbourne, Florida. And now she's stuck
because she doesn't have the money to buy a bus
ticket back home. There's no big daddy strayhoan Dawn in

(32:32):
Florida that she knows. Yeah, so she's like, and also
she shouldn't have the money to pay him back when
she gets back.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
Yeah, no, she's got to earn while she's.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
There, exactly. But she did still have her integrity, so
she said, no, I do not, and he's like no.
So Lavell's like arguing with her. She's like, I don't
want to be Aretha. I mean I want to be
like Aretha. She's like, I want to be miss Vicki Jones.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
Now that's when Lavell treated her like the naive country
girl that she was. He told her she didn't get
up on that stage and tell those nice folks in Melbourne,
Florida that she was Aretha, he could make her life hell.
As The Tampa Bay Times later reported, Lavell threatened her
saying that quote hit down, he had broken, don't know anybody,
and you are Aretha Franklin. So yo.

Speaker 5 (33:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
And then he went further than that. He quote threatened
to throw me in the bay. And not only that
she couldn't swim, she was also deathly afraid of the water,
so he hit the one like everything button to hit.
So now this pompadoord fake James Brown tribute act guy
further threatens her. Your body can easily be disposed of
in the wada.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah, So that's when she entertained what Lavell had in mind.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
What else are you going to do?

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Totally right, She's basically been kidnapped. So he tells her
again that while they're in Florida, quote, you are Aretha Franklin.
Now next up Lavell. He works the local promoters. He
tells them his client, Miss Franklin was in town looking
to do some shows. Typically she charged twenty grand a night.
Everybody knew that, but for them, she'd be willing to

(34:01):
book shows for the low low prices seven grand a night.
Why because the crowds in rural Florida would be smaller
than her shows up north or out west in places
like Las Vegas. So one local Florida promoter he goes
for it.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
And none of them are like why why is she
desperate for a gig out.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
Here in the winter too, not even tourist season like
they were talking. January of nineteen, sixteen.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
Years oh, she's working out new material maybe, but even.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
Then, you know no. And so Mary Jane Jones tells reporters.
After that same local promoter saw her first perform, he
thought I really was Aretha, and he acts, according to
he quote often to range a detective to protect me
and a car from my convenience.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
Which Aretha would have been like, yes, please, no, don't.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
You know that? Yeah, so of course, Lavelle hard it
was like, no, no cops are necessary now. So that
same local promoter he booked gigs for the Aretha Franklin Review,
and Mary Jans Jones aka Miss Vicki Jones went out
there night after night, and she does her best impression
of Aretha. The crowds they love it, Elizabeth. Most of
them were convinced if what they were seeing and what

(35:05):
they were hearing was the real Queen of Soul, Soul
System number one, even if it was some small podunk
town in rural Florida, and it made no sense of
the Aretha we'd be playing their little theater or nightclub.
They're like, no, no, of course she'd be here. They
decided to believe their lying eyes over the obvious truth
before them. Now at the end of each night's show,
miss Jones, she would rush back to her dressing room

(35:25):
because she didn't want to talk to anybody, and then
that way she could avoid the crowds. And then she
would go back there and just cry about what she
was doing. And then after she was done crying, she
would eat one of the two hamburgers that Lavelle gave
her each day as her food for the tour. What
she got two hamburgers.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
A day, diet totally living on burgers.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yeah, like one in the morning, one in the evening,
and yeah, it's terrible kibble for a dog. Then she's like,
you know, packed off to the motel room where he
would like hide his star act.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
Oh my god, she's basically being trafficked.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Yeah, pretty much. It was a rough first three night,
first three shows, but Lavell hardy. He was making money
hand over fist, so he wanted to book bigger and
bigger shows, which meant bigger and bigger cities, which also
meant it would get harder and harder to con the
Florida crowds into thinking that's a refa. So, as missus
Jones told Jet Magazine, quote, I wanted to tell everybody

(36:18):
beforehand that I was not Miss Franklin, but Lavell said
the show promoters would do something awful to me if
they learned who I really was. I was scared. I
didn't have any money, no place to go. So, like
I said, she's got Basically, she's exactly. She's been kidnapped,
she's a hostage, and she's left to the whims of Lavell.
So she kept, you know, play acting as she best

(36:40):
she could as the real deal Queen of Soul. She'd
step out on in the stage, she'd become Aretha. She
would close her eyes and let her natural talents just
shine out of her because remember, she can sound like Aretha.
In under low lights, she looks like Aretha. So she'd
let those notes reach up to the heavens just like
Aretha did, and in fact her Arethe act was super convincing,
so like most everyone except for her. At one show,

(37:03):
the owner of the venue recalled that quote. Some people
who had seen Aretha before said that wasn't her, but
nobody was real show and even those doubts washed away
because other show goers would shouted the stage, that's her,
that's Aretha. Yeah. These are direct quotes by the way
from the newspaper at the time.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
I love it, Like, have you ever gone to a
show and been in the crowd.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Like that's Jack White.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
No, yes, that is Jack White.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
I'm telling you, brothers, that is my man, Jack White, Jackson.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
There's no that I didn't know was in question. Obviously
they're talking about it in the crowd.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
There is some debate, yeah, but I think it's more
so some people are like like shoes showing it and
they're like, no, no, that's a Retha. I don't know.
I know two things. Son's coming up tomorrow, and that's
Aretha Franklin. So when miss Jones would leave the stage,
she would get carried off by thunderous applause. I'm talking
screams and shouts of the adoring fans of the real
Aretha Franklin because they got to see Aretha right here
in like Bradenton, Florida, at one venue. She gets this

(37:59):
stand ovation, all right, And so like some twisted like
Faustian bargain, she found that she'd gotten what she'd once
dreamed of when she wanted to sing before the audiences
and be in a star but and the audience responding
with all their heart and everyone's like overcome by her voice,
her presence, her star potential, the ache of her soul,
her transcendent voice. She got it all, but not really. No,

(38:21):
it was only it was it was nothing like what
she wanted it was. It was it was her dream,
but it felt like a nightmare.

Speaker 4 (38:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
One scripted by Livell ha Day. So, of course, a
scam like this one can only go on for so long. Eventually,
someone whose job it is to make money off the
reel of Aretha Franklin is going to hear about this,
and then it's all gonna go. Now, Okay, let's take
a little break. And after these messages, the reel of
Retha Franklin comes into this little morality play and the
temptation of Vicky Jones goes in a whole different directions.

(39:11):
Rebecca Elizabeth, Yes, we are enjoy this so far. I
thought it'd be a nice change of pace.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
So you're ready to hear how this long con goes
belly up. Of course, at this point it's the middle
of January nineteen sixty nine and Mary Jones is it's
book to play a show in Ocalla, Florida. It's a
forty two hundred seat venue, which is I know, I
don't know about you, but if you told me that
Maretha Franklin was booked to play the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion,
I would have been a bit doubtful. But this is

(39:39):
the biggest venue Miss Jones has seen yet, right, forty
two hundred seat venue.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
Pretty good?

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Oh yeah, it's like an exposition hall that she's playing
in at the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion. That's the spot where
Florida Cattleman auctioned off livestock. Yeah. So, I mean, I know,
is going to rockstick right, I mean, I know, yes,
folks play like County Well.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
And out here Cow Palace. I've seen Metallica play at the.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
Total, but they don't still sell cows. They do, do
they know?

Speaker 3 (40:08):
They used to?

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Yeah, they used to. They stopped.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
But they have other stuff that's like, you know, non music.
It's you know, they have like like they have like
gem convention type things.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Yeah. But normally if you see someone in like the
Southeastern Livestock Pavilion, it's at the end of their musical career,
not when they're a huge Grammy win.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
County Fair material, which the go to County Fair people
in the Bay Area. Now, for years was Tower of Power, right,
they always played like Alameda County Fair, And now I'm
finding that, Oh yeah, they play a lot of county
fairs because they're like, you know what, we can get

(40:52):
drunk before we go on stage. It's they'll pay us.
It's very, very limited.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
After there's not going to be anyone here from the
music industry.

Speaker 3 (40:59):
Don't have to go far.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
I don't worry about a music review.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
But I see him on all sorts of crazy low rent.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
Oh yeah, you'll see him on the posters attached to
like light poles and when he's driving. So this has
basically how you fleece suckers because they don't question the
obvious tells like Aretha Franklin being booked to play the
Southeastern Livestock Pavilion in the dead of winter. If they
believe that you've already done half the work, yeah, exactly. Anyway,
all around a call of Florida, Lavelle had posters slapped
up that advertised Queen of Soul was coming to town.

(41:28):
You better act fast, get your tickets now, right. And
not only that, he also got the word out on
the local black radio stations that also helped to sell
the con job because if it's on the radio, how
could it not be true? You see that these days
with TV and like and the internet and the Internet,
it's like, well, it must be true. This guy is
saying it. So the next show would be the biggest
crowd yet. As I said, for Mary Jane Jones, and

(41:48):
the prospect of fooling forty two hundred people at the
same time had her nerves. But she was basically as
nervous as a long tailed cat and a room full
of rock and chairs. Right then, a bit of heavenly
intervention occur, the kind that shattered her faustian bargain with
Lavell Haday. You see, just before that show went down,
the local prosecutor of Marion County received a phone call.

(42:09):
On the other end was Aretha Franklin's attorney. He was
calling from New York City. He'd been busy arranging the
real Aretha Franklin's upcoming shows in Miami, Florida, when he
heard from promoters in Florida, you know, the ones working
down in the sunsigned state, that his client was already
working stages in rural Florida.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Stop. Oh, this is so good.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
He's obviously thrown by this. This is news to him, Elizabeth,
So he starts asking the obvious questions, Now, who did
what and where? What shows? Can you tell me dates?
Can you tell me spots, locations, venues? Who owns that venue?
All the questions.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
Once he gets to the bottom of Lavelle's scam and
basically tracking the progress of this fake Aretha Franklin, Retha
Franklin's real lawyer phones the Marion County Prosecutor and informs
them of what all he's learned. The Prosecutor's like, yeah,
we gotta Retha Franklin in town. My wife's a big
fan and we got tickets to go see her at
the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion and wreatha. Lawyer's like, what, well,

(42:59):
I got some bad news for your wife.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
Ye.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Now the prosecutor he springs into action. He phones the
chief investigator over at the Marion County Sheriff's office. He
tells his chief investigators, basically the chief of detectives, he
wants the impostor arrested and locked up post haste. Yeah.
The chief investigators like, you ain't got to tell me twice?
When and where is this show. So this particular investigator,
he wasn't your typical small town southern sheriff. In fact,

(43:24):
he and his partner were both known to wear fancy
suits and kind of fancy themselves as investigators as opposed
to sheriff detectives. And basically what I'm saying is, Elizabeth,
these two men had notions. Yeah, they got in swollen
heads already after they've been interviewed for like Detective magazine.
And then also they provided security for Elvis when he
was in No callis shooting a movie like they know show.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
Business now yeah, yea.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
So they told the Marion County prosecutor, don't you worry, Hoss,
We'll go get justice for Aretha Franklin. And now before
I tell you about that, Elizabeth, I'd like you to
do me one favor. I'd like you to close your
eyes and I'd like you to picture it. It's sound

(44:09):
check at the Okalla's Club Valley Nightclub. Lavelle Hardy is
running the scene. Meanwhile, the star of the show, the
One and only A Retha Franklin, is running through her
plans set for her upcoming show. At the moment, you, Elizabeth,
are behind the bar since you're a bartender at the
club Valley Nightclub. You're pertending to get ready for the
night to come, but really you're just watching this show

(44:30):
and sound check. Normally you wouldn't show up to work
so early to get ready for the Saturday night. But
how often is Aretha Franklin in your nightclub? As you
towel off highball glasses and arrange them for the night's
drinking to come, you watch Aretha Franklin sing her song.
Think her voice is strong, just like it is on
the albums. Even for just a sound check, it sounds
amazing and it's just you, her, her papadored manager, and

(44:55):
the club owner. It's a super intimate setting. What a
rare treat you think this makes up for all the
nights you have to mop up puke and clean the
toilet after a long Saturday night. It's all worth it
for these moments. After Aretha finishes her song, the club
falls quiet. Her pompadored manager steps up on stage and
whispers some notes in her Now you can't hear what

(45:18):
he's saying. Instead, you hear a knock at the club door.
It's a loud, insistent knock. It sounds like it's the police.
When the club owner gets up, checks that he has
his gun on him, he walks over to the door.
His shoes sound against the club's hard floor, and then
he opens the door. It turns out it is the cops.
Two detectives flash their badgers and then push their way

(45:38):
into the empty night club. On stage, Aretha and her
manager both freeze in place. They both look about as
guilty as a kid who's caught with his hand in
the cookie jar. The cops announce, don't move a muscle.
You're both under arrest. What the hell you think to yourself,
What could Aretha Franklin done to be treated like this?
The cops frisk them both. You watch as the cops

(46:00):
pull seven grand out of the soup pockets of Aretha's
pompadoored manager. After that, outcome the handcuffs. He and Aretha
are both handcuffed, and then purp walked out to the
waiting police car. You follow behind the officers, not quite
believing this is happening. You watch as the two sheriff
detectives shove the pompador manager and then Aretha Franklin into

(46:20):
the back seat of the police car. It's a brand
new sixty nine, Pontiac. The car is clean, clean. Aretha
sits in the back end. She stares back at you.
You mutter to yourself, that is no way to treat
the Queen of soul. And then you hear the club
owners say, you idiot. I don't know who that is,
but it ain't Nowheretha Franklin. So there you go, Elizabeth,

(46:41):
You're a moment with the show. So when they were
doing it was a sound check before they did the
big forty two seats. She just needed somewhere to perform,
so you leaned on some venue like maybe we'll come
back here and do a show for you. Now. After
Lavelle and then Miss Vicki Jones were both arrested and
booked for their fake Aretha Franklin show, this story off
it leads to national headlines oh really. As the Flint

(47:04):
Journal of Flint, Michigan reported on January twenty third, nineteen
sixty nine, from a syndicated story by the Associated Press,
quote dateline oh call of Florida. An itinerant male hairdresser
was jailed Wednesday after police say he staged a quote
Aretha Franklin show by forcing a penniless Virginia girl to
pose on stage as the twenty thousand a week soul

(47:25):
singer from Detroit.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
Well, at least it's there casting it that in the
right lights. Yeah, not an accomplice totally.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
The story goes on from there to report that quote.
Lavelle Hardy, twenty four, of New York was booked into
Marion County Jail under a five hundred dollars bond on
false advertising charges after he bought ads for the Aretha
Franklin Review for Thursday night at a four thousand seat
exposition hall. Meanwhile, when the Marion County Prosecutor speaks with
the miss Vicki Jones aka Mary Jane Jones, yeah, she

(47:54):
tells them about how she'd borrowed money to come to
Florida and that she thought she'd be performing un under
her own name, but instead Lavelle. He threatened her, He
kept her in motel rooms, he was feeding her just
two hamburgers a day. It all becomes clear to this
prosecutor that, as you've noticed, she's the victim. She and
a purp.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
So, in a story I found from the Tampa Bay Times,
the Marion County prosecutor told reporters how quote, I'm sure
glad we found out about this thing. There are going
to be thousands of people from all over the Southeast
for the show. She couldn't have fooled all those people. No,
tell them what they would have done to the pavilion,
and it could have been far worse when she got
to Tampa or Jacksonville.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
Yeah, they don't play.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
No think of the pavilion people. Where are we going
to sell our livestock if something happens to the pavilion.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
We we have a full schedule, yes exactly. We got
nowhere to divert.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
We got a truck pull on Sunday, Yes exactly. So
he tells reporters that he's decided to file charges after
quote the real a rit the Franklin agreed to testify
in criminal court here stop was willing to come down.

Speaker 3 (48:53):
Just wanted to get to get her down.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
Oh my god. Yes, he was like, what, okay, book
the show, I mean booked the trial. So as one
of the sheriff's detectives did point out, quote, if it
was a drag, Aretha would have gotten mad, but this
girl went over. So he's basically saying like, that's why
Aretha and two pissed. The homegirl did her right. So
Elizabeth the Clia Soul wasn't mad at Miss Vicki Jones
for pretending to be her. She was only mad at

(49:15):
the itinerant male hairdresser, Nobelle Hardy. Now, in fact, Aretha
told Jet Magazine quote he ought to be prosecuted, not
that girl. Right, go on, Aretha. However, this wasn't up
to Aretha to decide. That was up to the job
of the Marion County prosecutor, and he still needed to
be fully convinced, because anybody can say anything right. So
to prove her side of the story, he asked, Miss

(49:36):
Vicki Jones, you sing from me, let me hear you
are Aretha. So when Miss Vicki Jones opens her mouth,
she hits him with her natural talent. And after he
heard her sing, this Marion County Prosecutor concluded, this girl
is a sanger. She is terrific. Just singing without a combo,
she showed she had a distinctive style all her own.

Speaker 3 (49:55):
What was the point of that demissu.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
So she convinces him that she is the and the
lavelle had conned this simple girl from rural Virginia into
doing this Florida long con and as the Marion County
prosecutor told reporters, she didn't have a red scent. She
had four children at home and no way to get
to them. We were thoroughly convinced that Vicky was forced
into being Aretha Frankel, and it was obvious she was

(50:18):
a victim. So now, as a result, Miss Vicky Jones
was placed in protective custody and she faces no charges.
Then when she's released from the courthouse, she was met
by this gaggle reporters because it's now a national news
story and they all want to get their angle. So
Vicky Jones tells the gathered newsman, the judge said, I
really sounded like her. I know I can use a
little training in singing jazz and the blues, but I

(50:40):
feel I can go all the way. I don't believe
there is such a word as camped. So she's like
trying to sell us up, like could we get another
little stage for me now? As for her con job
as Aretha, she also told reporters that quote, I'm not her,
I don't look like her, I don't dress like her,
and I should don't have her money and in an
exclusive interview with The Orlando Sentinel. She later said, I
want the truth told. I have never met her Beta Franklin,

(51:03):
and I have never seen her except on television. So
at this point, you know, Areta doesn't come back into
the story. She doesn't come and meet her or anything.

Speaker 3 (51:11):
At least kicked her down some money to get home.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
That would be nice, right, But this isn't the end
of this strange tale of impersonation. Because I have good
news for you, Elizabeth.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
This story has a happy ending, thank you. You see,
when Miss Vicky Jones stepped out of the Marion County Courthouse,
it wasn't just reporters waiting for her. There was also
a self made millionaire named Ray Green. He was smitten
with her, smitting with her story. He wanted to offer
her a legitimate show business place, a legit contract, and
he paid her five hundred dollars to get her back
home to Virginia. And then he offered to be her

(51:40):
managing agent and her advisor, and he booked her a
real deal, sold out to her all across Florida, performing
as herself. Miss Vicky Joneses then enter jazz legend Duke
Ellington Yes, just weeks after her arrest. On February eighth,
nineteen sixty nine, The ord Lando Sentinel reported that quote

(52:02):
erstwhile Aretha Franklin impersonator Mary Jane Jones performed under her
own stage name here Vicky Jones with band leader Duke
Ellington and his band Stop Yes. Her long strange road
to fame it finally paid off.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
When she stepped out on stage with Duke Ellington, he
told his audience at the Civic Auditorium in Sandford, Florida, quote,
I want to introduce you to a Florida girl who
made national headlines two weeks ago. Now he was wrong
about the Florida her part, right, But who's gonna correct
Duke Ellington exactly? So on stage he gave her like
an avuncular kiss on the cheek to like, you know,
basically denote her being special. And this photographer snapped photos

(52:37):
of this like star making moment. And back to the
Orlando Sentinel, which reported that she appeared in an expensive
looking yellow ankle length evening gown and without a wig.
Oh fashion please. All of a sudden, so with this band,
Duke Ellington's band begins to play the song every day,
I have the blues. Miss Jones stood before that microphone
and began to sing the opening lyrics, speaking of bad

(52:59):
luck in trouble. Well, you know I've had my share,
and the crowd was transfixed, mesmerized by her natural talent.
You know, the song choice and you damned to share
a better believe they knew the blues she was singing
was real, so her voice it was basically as striking
and as authentic as like a clap of thunder. Right,
They're like, oh, you cannot deny this. And as the
Orlando set and also reported quote, Ellington said he is

(53:22):
considering giving miss Jones the chance of a lifetime, hiring
her on for a six month contract. The very next month,
in March of sixty nine, the cover of Jet magazine
featured in Miss Vicki Jones cover, Jet Star was Born,
and she told Jet Magazine it was so exciting just
to be in Duke's company. But he didn't know how
I sing, and I didn't know how he play. For

(53:44):
his part, Duke Ellington corrected that because he said of
Miss Vicki Jones, she's a good soul singer. But he
also said that the obvious part out loud. It was
time that she breaked the Aretha imitation and she needed
to have like her own right now. Months later, still
following her story, national newspapers report on her progres rest
to stardom in the Progress Index newspaper. Ironically, on May eleventh,

(54:04):
nineteen sixty nine, the paper reported that Duke Ellington had
written six songs for an upcoming album for Miss Jones. Yeah.
In an interview with the paper, Vicki Jones said, it's
gonna be hard, but nothing's gonna stop me from making
it as a singer, and she added that quote, I
want to do songs strictly about me, how I got
started and how I love. Everything I write will be

(54:25):
based on my life. I think people will be interested.
I love the way I am. I like the many
different people I meet. I want to take time to
see the beauty of this world. Because remember, just from
rural Virginia. Now she's like about to go national tours,
which is exactly what she did. She toured America singing
as herself, and the people loved her. She played sold
out shows not just in Florida now, but in New York, Chicago, Detroit,

(54:47):
Las Vegas. She would arrive in a chauffeured limousine, just
like Aretha Franklin. She was now earning fifteen hundred dollars
a night for her shows. It wasn't exactly Retha Franklin money,
but it was damn good money for nineteen sixty that's
good money for now night totally. In fact, she became
so popular that now there was a Vicky Jones impersonator
playing shows pretending to be her. Hit the story at

(55:11):
Gumpull Circle. Now she was the star for the imitator.
And when she heard about this pretender making money off
of her name, Vicky Jones said, she stopped now. But
I don't hold anything against her. I know how it
was to be hungry without any money, supporting a family,
and to be separated from my husband. Now this is
all pre generous and gracious of her. But after a

(55:31):
year on the road playing sold out shows, she returned
home to Virginia, and she found that she missed her
family and her young boys needed her back home. They
were too much of a handful for her mother to
take care of, so she decided to quit the stage.
She walked away from her dreams of stardom, and she
never went back. She only ever played She only ever
from this point on performed songs for her four boys,
and for them she would occasionally belt out un Aretha

(55:53):
Franklin song. But she also kept a framed copy of
that March nineteen sixty nine Jet magazine with her on
the cover. It was a very tangible reminder of her
year as a bona fide star, a real live soul
singer who played with Duke Ellington and performed for Soldau
shows across the nation.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
It's incredible.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
Oh god, So what's a ridiculous takeaway here?

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Then? That that was a wild ride, that was you know,
the ups and downs. No, I you know, I think
one of the things we see this with like art forgers,
that they're very, very talented if they'd only just do
their own thing. And that's like with her, you know.
And it's just with the art world. With music, it's

(56:35):
hard to break into it if you don't have the
right connections.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Because you're in some world Virginia.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
Yeah, yeah, And so you know, it's a shame that
she wasn't able to from the jump just get the
recognition with her own talents. But I love that she
at long last got it. And then got to like
go out on top of everything she wanted. What's your
ridiculous takeaway?

Speaker 2 (56:59):
Mine is Lavelle Hardy. I mean, like, how do you
not see him coming? You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (57:03):
He's like twenty four years Yeah, I tant from New.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
York City walking around here for like rural Virginia telling
people I can make you money. I'm telling you. So
that's just mine. It's like, come on now, you gotta
be suspicious of the Lavelle Harties. Oh yeah, so you
in the mood for a talkback?

Speaker 3 (57:21):
I am.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
Let's watch this down with a good one, producer. Can
you hit us up with one? Oh?

Speaker 6 (57:28):
Oh my god?

Speaker 5 (57:33):
I love you, hey, Zaren and Elizabeth. You know what's
ridiculous how much I love your podcast. You know what
else is ridiculous. I have an acquaintance who once borrowed
a large plastic cow from a certain chicken establishment's billboard
and placed it in their local church's nativity scene. The
restaurant press charges, so now they have to tell that
story every time they interview with for a job. This

(57:55):
is Sarah from Texas and I love what you guys do.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Have a good one, Yes, Sarah from Texas having to
explain a stolen cow every time you want a new
job to put.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
It into it. You're not stealing from your adding too. Yeah,
but yeah, I love that. Yeah, Oh about that arrest.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
Tell it's about a time you once had to solve
a difficult crisis. Well, I stole a cow one time
from a local fast food joint. Excuse me, everyone in
nativity scene involved, don't worry. Well, as you can say,
we always love to talk back. Yes, so hey, go
download the iHeart app, leave a talk back and maybe
you'll hear your voice here. And you can also always
find us online at Ridiculous Crime on ig and in

(58:35):
Blue Sky, and we have our account Ridiculous Crime Pod
on YouTube. Go like, subscribe, tell your friends, and please
don't be shy leave a comment. We do read them.
We also have our website Ridiculous Crime dot com. Elizabeth.
We were just nominated for the World Wildlife Funds annual
Penguin of the Year People's Choice Award. Yes, we're the
first non penguin to be nominated. Huge honor for us.

(58:57):
Fingers crossed with just luck and email us if you
like if you want at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot
com the interns enjoy read Nos two and that we
do as well. Thank you for listening. We will catch
you next.

Speaker 4 (59:09):
Crime.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, producer,
edited by Jack White's favorite Brian Eno, impersonator Dave Cousten,
and starring Annalise Rutger possibly as Judith. Research is by
Marissa I Am not James Brown. Our theme song is
by the world's best Milli Vanilli tribute act Thomas Lee

(59:35):
and Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Botany five
hundred guest Haarn makeup by Sparkleshop and mister Andre executive producers.
I've been you know I do a mean Marky, Mark
Boland and Noel You should see My Funky Bunch Brown

(59:55):
REDI Why say it one more time?

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
Yes Crime.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.