Dope Floats: The Uncrashable Gary Betzner

Hippie nudist drug dealer in Hawaii. Check. Father of three who faked his death. Check. Crimes done under hypnosis. Check. Pablo Escobar. Check. The CIA and the Iran-Contra Affair. Check? Wait, what. Yes, this story has... everything, and then some!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Elizabeth Dunton Zaren Brunette. I got a question for you. Yes,
do you know what is ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (00:10):
I do know what is ridiculous?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Lay it on me.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Lick what lick what? Lick?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Stop saying that.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
I can't remember when I was Remember when I was
telling you about people getting the Hines fifty seven tattoos.
Oh yeah, and it was oddly in Brazil. Yeah, well
they've taken their craziness Hines over to another continent.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
They can't be stopped.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
No, they cannot. So Hines has partnered with a company
called Lick.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Okay go on, and it's so sure this is gonna
be fun.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
We got a ton of these. This is forwarded to
us by a ton of people.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
The Elizabeth Army was marching, Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
We rise up. Lick Paint. It's a paint company and
so they have a matte.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Paint I know, Blick Art supply the Yeah, they.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Dropped the bee because they're not their crips and so
they they it's Lick and they're out of the UK.
So they spelled color COO l O U R.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Anyway, they have this matte paint red HTK fifty seven.
It's the Hinds Tomato ketchup color and so you can
paint your walls like that and that's that's ridiculous. Yeah,
and so you know, ridiculous, gross, what have you? But
I have another I knew there was more non mashup.
Is this a really good message that we got on

(01:32):
Instagram that was forwarded over to me from Helen w.
She said, you know, in a past episode, I think
it was when we were talking about that male heights
to the planmeth mail highs crime Watch the show in
the UK. She said, I know someone will have said,
but sorry, Elizabeth. Crime Watch was canceled by the BBC

(01:53):
and half of the UK true crime podcasters are still
not over it. It is sad I loved a good
crime watch. Sadly it isn't murder free, but it is
ridiculous that one of the presenters of crime Watch, Jill Dando,
was murdered on her doorstep. I know a man was
tried and jailed for it, but then it was overturned
and her killer has never been caught.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
I don't I just make light of this, but was
her murder then presented on the show that she.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
That begs the question and we're not making light. I don't,
but I just stole your one percent, so you're not
allowed anything in there. Okay, but yeah, So I just
thought that was like one of the greatest dms, like
the two parters.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Totally well structured. Yeah, way to miss your opportunity in
your moment like crime Stoppers, Crime Watch watchers, crime watch Yeah,
crime like, way to miss your moment Like now, true
crime is bigger, let's cancel this right, you.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Think that people be into it whatever. So in summary,
those two things are ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Ridiculous. Yep, well I got one for you. If you
got a second, sit back down. This one has everything.
I don't know. This man's life is in a movie, Elizabeth.
It's an oscar just waiting to happen. Brad Pitt's people
call me no for real. First, seriously, I couldn't believe it.
When I read through this guy's life. I was just like,
page after a page. I was like it was reported
the newspapers, there was stuff in senate testimony. I was

(03:09):
just just shocked, Elizabeth. Over the course of this show,
we have talked drug smugglers. Yeah, we've talked hippie drug
dealers in Hawaii. We've talked dudes who faked their own deaths,
who talked about hypnosis. We talked about Pablo Escobar, who
talked about the CIA. We've never talked about the Iaron
Contra affair.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Have we No? But it's right for the picking.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Mix all of that together and you get this story.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
You're kidding.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
This is ridiculous crime. A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.
I sincds. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and
one hundred percent ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
You are damn right.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Elizabeth Barren in his own words, this guy I'm gonna
tell you about it. He described himself as quote well, basically,
I'm just a farm boy from Arkansas. There is a
story here that is much deeper than it presents itself
on the surface.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Oh he says that, and he ain't lying.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Meet Gary Betzner.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Hi, Gary, all right.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Gary had a rather all American upbringing. He was raised
in the Heartland. He born in the early forties, during
the war years, his formative years. This makes it be
the nineteen fifties, one of those kids raised, you know,
like I've talked before, Blue jeans Westerns on TV the
whole bit, right, Milkman. By the late nineteen sixties, he
was in his mid twenties, and so at this point
he's joined the military. He's become a pilot in the military.

(04:43):
He was one hell of a pilot while he was
in the military. The head of the top Gun program
reportedly told Gary that he was the best pilot he'd
ever known. You know, the top Gun program, right, that's
like the best pilots in the Navy. Yes, exactly. So
back home in Hayes in Arkansas, population fourteen hundred, Gary,
and there was what you might call a local celebrity,
colorful character. Now to pay his bills. What did he do?

(05:06):
What told you he'd become a pilot in the military,
comes back home, becomes a crop duster. He loved it.
He had thrills and chills and for you know, exhibitions
on the weekends. He would be a stunt flier occasionally.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Oh so he's like a crop duster. Did he want
like did he walk around Walmart farting and then leaving
the aisle? Like did you do that professional.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
High passes that the airplane kind airplane? Yeah, agricultural fields
coming in low and fast and or low and slow. Actually,
for instance, this guy, he was such a good pilot.
He could skim the like watering holes and lakes around
his hometown of Hazen. And what I mean skim is
he put his waters right on the wheel and kind
of just kissed the water with his wheel. That's real

(05:50):
difficult because if you catch it'll pull your right out right.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
He makes me think of that Stephen Stills song Tree
Top Flyer.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yes, I love that song very much.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
Mainly because of the line don't do business that don't
make me smile.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Such a good, good one. Well, this dude is good
as the pilot dis he was. He also had his
fair share near death experiences. He crashed eleven planes. Oh yeah,
Ever he walked away without a scratch, every single kidding.
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Well, I mean it's like a low flying slow crop
duster just like jumps out and runs next.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
To it, races it to the ground. So in nineteen
sixty nine, he's out there, you know, single guy moving
around in Hays in Arkansas summer totally Well, you girl,
you don't even know. We're two years out of the
summer love, and you know we're basically in the Oki
from Muskogee era of this part of.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
The country took a while to flow out there.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, they're still like hanging on to like buzz cuts
and like rolled up blue jeans. But oh yeah they
did have The moon landing happened in nineteen sixty nine
in July. Everyone's all excited. So these people they have
a moon party. He goes to attend it. This is
meeting was fortuitous because this night it becomes the night
he beats the love of his life, or at least
for the woman he met, he was the love of

(06:59):
her life. I'll just say that. She says that I
don't want words in his mouth. Anyway. Neil Armstrong took
one small step from man one giant leap for mankind,
and Sally met Gary. They were just like right there saying. Well,
when she was telling the story, she said, and I quote,
there was a boom in the universe. It just shook.

(07:20):
So apparently two universal things happened that night. Yeah, she
fell in love like Muhammad A. Lee boxed Elizabeth shook
up the world. Anyway, There's one problem. Gary was already married.
Oh yeah, he his wife was seven months pregnant. Oh,
so that didn't stop married Gary from starting a family
with Sally. Sally, Someone's universe got shook, I'm telling you.

(07:40):
So his first wife, Claudia. Soon their daughter Pauli was
born and then married Gary got a divorce, and he
got right with Sally and he made an honest woman
out of her, and they started a second family. So
Polly had a brother and sister joined their number. They
named the boy Travis named the girl Sarah Lee. Just
like the Dutch bakery known for it's delicious frozen.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Cakes, you know that, Like there's that jingle. Is it
nobody doesn't like Sarah Lee? Or nobody does it like
Sarah Lee?

Speaker 2 (08:08):
So glad you asked. I looked this up, the Mandel
effect on this. I couldn't remember which it was. I
was certain I was right, so I wanted to look
it up. So yeah, so the question is on the
line you'll find it's debate. Is it nobody does it
like Sarah Lee? Or nobody doesn't like Sarah Lee?

Speaker 3 (08:26):
You know, hold on which one do you think it is?

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Which one do I think it is? How did you
I always thought it was nobody does it like.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Sarah That's what I always thought. Like and also like
the bond. Nobody does it better. It makes it. It
makes pound cake so sexy.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yes, right, it's like surely Bassi's thing.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Walking down the freezer out crop dusting so sexy?

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Look, why do you do this to me? So I
did as I told you. I looked at the answer.
I found that the according to the Frozen cake maker themselves. Oh,
when you hear the full phrasing, the jingle catch race
makes way more sense. Right, So the full actual phrase
is everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sarah Lee.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
That's stupid, right, I.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Don't care about all that because I'm like, dude, it's
nobody doesn't like Sarah Lee. That's Steve McQueen of clean phrasing.
It's just like, it's not some weird double negative contradiction.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
That's exactly.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like I mean,
what the hell's cake? Anyway? Sarah Lee is the name
of gary second daughter. So what is this now? Twice
married father of three makes his way as a stunt
pilot and a crop duster. What does he do next?
To Elizabeth? He goes into business for himself. He started
a company called bettsnerch Flying Service. The company does well,

(09:37):
in fact, does so well Elizabeth in nineteen seventy six,
he's able to sell his company.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Is flying service.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
He does a crop dusting charter flights mostly crop dusting, right,
So he takes the profits from that and he moves
his family north. They relocate from Arkansas to Alaska, North Alaska.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, we've both been to Arkansas. Yeah, you've been to Alaska.
I have not. For my edification, Elizabeth, how different Arkansas
from Alaska? I mean, other than the weather that I'll
be similar at all? A culture shop.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
I think it depends on where in Alaska.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Okay. This is also by the way, Peak Hippie Commune, Alaska,
nineteen seventy Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
I would imagine that there's not too much of a difference, Okay.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
I think rural it's a lot of the same people,
you know, same types of people.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah. I mean there's like logging and fishing and so
it's you know, hard work.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
At a lot of hard scrabble labor.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
They have a much higher percentage of men than women,
I understand in Alaska.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
But so, I mean I've only been to the tourist spots,
you know, if I watched TV. Yes, I may have
watched some sort of Alaskan cop show at some point, sure,
and really learned a lot about you know, life and anchorage.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Okay, I just know northern exposure, which is really fictional,
so I think that is not accurate, very true. Anyway,
Gary takes his family to Alaska for an opportunity working
the oil pipeline business because it was huge. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So he went up there and he tries to go
and like bid on like an oil reclamation business. But
he he loses that because he doesn't now to like
who to like the base. He claims bribe, he didn't

(11:03):
know how to like work the permit process. He loses
his bid, loses a ton of money. So he goes
back to what is he he knows, Elizabeth, what does
he know? Flying right? But he can't crop dust up there.
So meanwhile, also at the same time, I told you
it's nineteen seventy six peak hippie commune, Alaska. So he
starts smoking pot. He then starts realizing, you know, I
could help out with this, so he starts flying in
loads of whiskey to the rural villagers and then picking

(11:25):
up like you know, other stuff in trade money. Then
he's like, oh, I could take out a you know,
a pound of pot to those guys. Does that becomes
a pot smuggler?

Speaker 3 (11:33):
I would imagine that there's tons of work taking supplies out.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Oh yeah, definitely, definitely. But there's also a lot of
bush pilot's doing that.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
So you had to differentiate himself. Yeah, so he's like.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, more costly load exactly.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
So meanwhile he turns his wife Sally onto pot. So
now she loves it too, a little girl from Arkansas.
I was like, wow, this is not I love this cosmic,
wacky tebacy. But after this, you know, some time passes.
His business starts to go bad with the pot smuggling
because he loses his potcat and Gary finds it. He
can only fly up there for about six months of
the year, so he's really not able to make money.
So they have to go back home. Family moves back

(12:07):
down to the lower forty eight. Their return somewhat defeated
to Arkansas. Right, they just keep wanting to get out
of Hazen that they can't. But then fate played a hand. Elizabeth. Yeah,
Gary was brought low by gout the pain from the
condition was so debilitating he could no longer fly runs
for his drug smuggling clients and people that he would
like totally. So Fate played his second hand, Elizabeth, because

(12:28):
Gary heard about a treatment for his gout, something miraculous,
something that would alleviate the pain to just comfort and
let him work PCP. The treatment was cocaine.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
Close.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
You're very close. Not angel does. Yeah, apparently it's actually
he used because built it breaks up the uric acids
and apparently the chemistry makes some sense. I don't know.
I've never had gout.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
I've never used COCD, nor have I. I used to
work with a guy who had gout.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
My father's got I hear about it.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
That's why he had to wear flip flop to work,
and I just.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Think that was a cover for possibly. But anyway, So
Garry also like to drink his cocaine. He didn't start it,
he'd just drop it in some gatorades.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
Wait what you can drink cocaine?

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Oh yeah, as long as you get into the body.
So he would like just drink it and then boom,
as he said, you're on your way, So send it up.
Gary found he also enjoyed cocaine recreationally. He's like, this
isn't just good for my gout, it's good for the Gary.
So that he starts to go to you know, I
need to get more cocaine. It's hard to find in Arkansas.
Where can I go to get myself more cocaine? I

(13:30):
got a plane. I'm gonna fly down to Miami. So
he roes down to Miami to looking to buy cocaine.
He's a smart young man. He goes right to the source.
He flies down. He decides, maybe I can get into
business with the smugglers in Miami.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
Scratch a little off for garytop flying exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Y're this point in nineteen seventy seven. This is peak
cocaine cowboys era of Miami. Right. So Gary Wesner wants
to find himself a place inside that white lined world. Right.
So Garry's like, how could I, a simple country boy
from Arkansas climb the ladder of this year import export business.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
Pardon me, cocaine man.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
So he somebody who has cocaine, lots of cocaine, And
Gary's like, you know what, let me get a little
off that next kilo flocko and uh at this he
arranges a coke by right, and so he's not supposed
to go over and they pick up some kilos at
his arranged coke buy. Gary feels that the vibe is
off right, so he's like, hey, why don't you test
that coke for me? Try it out muchacho, let me
see if it's any good. The coke dealer he won't

(14:23):
do it. Gary's it what? And this is the reason
is for it? This is the guy is no drug smuggler.
So Gary realizes this when he won't do the coke,
and then the DEA rushes in and Gary gets busted
at his first big coke by oh my god, they're
all he was popped with seven pounds of cocaine.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
Seven pounds, yes, but it was a huge raid.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
That night in Miami, they also busted two Miami Dolphins
players who were also caught selling cocaine. They were trying
to sell a pound of cocaine. It was a mood
a little.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
It was a different time. Now, is that why now? Like,
do they encourage undercovered DEA officers to tune it up
and take drugs?

Speaker 2 (14:58):
No they do not. They this point, Gary's facing twenty
years behind bars. So Gary gets let out on bail.
What's he doing now? He skidaddles back to Arkansas. He
goes back to his family, Sally, the two to three kids.
He has Polly with his first wife. It's like Daddy's
home kids. So back in Arkansas, Gerry needs to work.
He's got to pay for his lawyers or whatever. He
goes back to doing what he knows best. He starts

(15:19):
smuggling and he gets busted again.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
So out on bail. Gary's now facing mandatory sentences, decades
in prison, possibly life. So time to get wicked with it.
Gary thinks. Garry's like kids, load up, We're going for
a drive.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
Is there are there no crops to dust?

Speaker 2 (15:32):
No? At this point, that won't pay for everything. September eighteenth,
nineteen seventy seven, Besterner and his family left the town
of Hazen, Arkansas. They planned to take an outing, just
a family excursion. It's Gary, his wife, his daughter, Sarah Lee.
Gary's behind the wheel of their family El Camino. Elizabeth,
Oh your kid, are you free? Car?

Speaker 3 (15:48):
It's car, it's a truck. It's an el Comane.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
It's an el Camino. So they are headed to a
Darry bar. Think Gary queen. Okay, Gary said he was
having car trouble. He pulls over the family el Camene
on the middle of a country bridge, you know, just
matter like iron bridge, right right right, So he popped
the hood, checks the engine. Then, as if possessed by
a spirit or commanded by some unseen force, Gary walked
away from the car over to the side of the bridge,
and then he leapt over the side and plunged down

(16:11):
to the rushing waters of the White River. Elizabeth seeing
their husband, Cinema, who just ended his own life, his wife, Sally,
burst into tears. And I don't mean like the wetwork.
She erupted into hysterics. She's rending at garments, tearing hair.
The daughter Sarah Lee, equally shocked.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
She's like, hey, nobody does it Like Sarah Lee, I
would have survived that chump.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
Spoiler alert. He had not leapt to his death, nor
had he intentionally ended his life. No, And now I'm
sure you were wondering, was this one? Is this like
a sneaky self one percent? No, it was not, Elizabeth.
You should know better than that. Anyway, Just so you know,
he didn't end his own life, all right, So I
will proceed now to make fun of what he did do. Okay,
Gary Betsner had just faked his own death and he

(16:51):
went the extra mile. His wife was in on it too.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
Wait and then she went through the hole? Oh no, yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
They planned the moment, the bridge, the country drive, all
of it. In fact, they've been preparing for months. That's
how long Gary had been working on hypnotizing his wife.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Okay, wait, wait, so she was hypnotized hypnotized? Yes, and
so was she aware? Okay, I gotta listen to some
ads and get my head right.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, what's these ads? Hypnotized?

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Thank you?

Speaker 2 (17:22):
All right, one say back in a flash. All right, Elizabeth,

(17:44):
we're back. Yes, are you cool? Your mind?

Speaker 3 (17:46):
Right? Oh yeah? I think well yeah, I'm ready.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Okay. So now let's get to the story the convincing widow.
So they told you they took no chances on her
having to be convincing to the law enforcement.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
Right.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
So the pair the couple, Gary and his wife Sally,
they practiced for months of hypnotism so that way she
would be believably acting. She would have to actually believe
her husband was dead. So to do that super intensive
hypnotism course, they work out their program. This is for
three weeks, twice a day, they're doing all this hypnotism stuff.
She's now primed to believe her husband's dead. The way
it worked out like this, Gary would put Sally under

(18:19):
Then he would tell her he'd jumped from a bridge
near Hazen, Arkansas. Then he planted a hypnotic suggestion. Sally
would believe Gary was dead at the sound of shoes
hitting the water. When she heard the shoes hit the water,
Sally would be triggered to sob uncontrollably because now her
husband was dead. The hypnotism worked so beautifully, so well
that Sally was the one who went and threw Gary's

(18:39):
shoes off of the bridge that day she was on it.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
She takes self trick, knowing her.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Own part in it. When the shoes hit the water,
the hypnotism kicked in. When Sally heard gary shoes hit
that water from the bridge, she burst into tears, sobs uncontrollably,
her grief so profound that she was eventually checked into
a psychiatric hospital.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
Oh nice, Yes, so he never actually jumped, She just
threw the shoes.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Meanwhile, Gary never went into the White River. He'd said
he climbed into a coordinated getaway truck driven by his
good buddy, and he took off for his new life
on the lamb. He was now dead and loving it.
By the way, when he was doing the hypnotism course,
I watched the documentary about this as an HBO documentary
called The Ghost Pilot, and in it, his wife mentions
how he also added one other hypnotic suggestion he would

(19:20):
be the only man to ever give her really satisfying orgasms.
He put that in there, so for the rest of
her time.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
She wasn't ready abandons.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
But she's telling the story, she laughs. So I don't
know what.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
To do with that. What are you going to do?
But like, honestly like the fact that she she's like,
I believe in you so much. I want you to
abandon me with these children so you can run off.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
So, after a while, believing her husband's dead, Gary contacted Sally.
He contacted her by payphone board. No, it's part of
the plan they'd worked out. It was a payphone one
town away, so she would go there once a month.
She'd drive over to that town at this pre arranged
time and he would call. So kind of guess that
on that first time he must have had like a
post hypnotic suggestion that he like said on the phone

(20:05):
and also like undid everything. I don't know, because otherwise
she'd be shocked. All her phone and her husband's on
the phone.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
She still likes zombieing around.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, exactly. She pretty much was because she believed he
was dead. That part of her was still gone, so
he had to undo it.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
I'm assuming he talked about Oh my god, I have
a really hard time believing.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
I do too, but this story made me much more
of a believer anyway. In The Visible Pilot, Sally said,
quote being in love with a smuggler, it gets complicated.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah, a little bit.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
That's an understatement. So so Gary, where is he and
all of this? Where did he run off onto the
when he was on the way? Are you Gary was
in Hawaii?

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Nice?

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yes, I mean if you're going to run Oh totally.
He changed his name to Lucas Nol Harmony like Noel. No.
He picked his last name. I thought you'd like this, Elizabeth.
He picked his last name from a road sign for Harmony, Californy.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yeah, I'm familiar.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Yes, he says, Lucas it means light, Noel means peace
and harmony. Well, harmony means harmony, so his name means
peace harmony.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Interesting.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah. So, by this point, thanks to a stint in
California where he got into acid, Gary had switched up
his persona and he was now a drug advocating hippie
guru type living in Hawaii.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
You know, Gary wage behind him.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
On the run. So he contacts his wife and uh,
you know, Gary says, hey, bring Trap and Sarah Lee.
You know, don't not Polly. I didn't tell her I'm alive,
so don't bring her, but bring Travis and Saraly and
fly out. Uh you know. And oh, by the way,
tell the kid, Hey, good news dad's not dead. So
you got to tell them that to kids like at

(21:36):
this point. Yeah, So he invites them at five and three,
so invites them to join them in Hawaii. Sally picks
up the kids, flees Arkansas. They relocate to go be
Gary and they go become like become Buddhists. Right, I'm sorry,
that's the type of nudists. They became nudists. Yeah, they.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
Didn't.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
I didn't say, just said Hawaii didn't. I don't know.
They joined their hippie drug daddy, right, as I told you,
quasi nudist bearded guru guy. So the family they all
stripped down and like, okay, Dad, this is the new lifestyle.
I'm so glad you're alive and not dead. Gotta be
a little bit of a mind bender. So from Arkansas
to Alaska, back to Arkansas and now of Hawaii, Dad's undead.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
Tomb dade to the Naked Duster.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Interestingly, Travis the Sun, he said that these are the
happiest years of their lives. A pot growing, nudist hippie
family on the lamb in Hawaii.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
Oh yeah, I mean it sounds like I do. Like
most little boys like little boys.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
So that's just perfect exactly. It's warm enough they can
at all time.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
Right.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
So things eventually don't work out well for the family
in Hawaii because yet again Gary gets busted on drugs.
This time they've been growing pot. He was actually growing it,
he wasn't just smuggling. This time, you have big plants.
Cops show up the house. They've got plants. Yeah, they're nudists, right,
So like, could you put some clothes on you're coming
with us? He gets brought in. He's fingerprinted when he's arrested.
That's bad. He gets bailed out because it's just a misdemeanor.

(22:52):
So before anything can come of the fingerprinting, Gerry's like,
I'm out. Ye remember the last time you saw Gary
it was So he goes back on the No more
Hawaii for Sally and the family. She has to take
the kids back state side to Hazen and Arkansas.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Why couldn't she stay in Hawaiian.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
I don't think she can make a go of it,
So she has her family backside, So she goes back
to her family. Meanwhile, I mean this is where you know,
we're only a couple of years past women being able
to have credit cards for the first time legally. So true,
you have to understand the options were not the same.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
Well, you know they're an unconventional bunch.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, no, totally. She could go go unconventional, but she is,
you know. Anyway, she's just a girl from a small
town Arkansas with her smugglerr husband just got it. No
sisters shoes. Anyway. Meanwhile, Gary, he gets back into drug
smuggling and he goes international with it, and he's loving it,
and right he gets back to his stunt flying days.
They're all rolling around with heavy loads of pot, flying
low between trees to avoid DA agents and radar. Loving

(23:44):
it right, it's everything he loves. He's crop dustin, but
more fun his hand he would have this handheld radar.
He could see where the spots of radar were and
would fly between the bubbles. You're kidding, Yeah, amazing fun failiar.
Just he's down there, just inches from splashes of waves.
I mean for a guy who's basically a grown up
boy with a drug problem. Anyway, nineteen eighty two rolls around,
he meets up with a speedboat racer similar mentality named

(24:05):
George Morales.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
I mean, okay, what's your job, oh, speedboat international.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
Speedboat racers, so all around, good time, guy Morales.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
Excuse me, but there are fewer international speedboat racers than
there are marine biologists.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
That's probably an even Yeah, so Morales. He was connected
to the Metayan Cartel. The Median Cartel is aka Pablo
Escobar's Cartel Hippo man So boom. Just like that, Gary
is suddenly moving heavyweight for the Narco version of the
Capo de Tute Cappo. Yeah. Being the pilot he is,
Gary gets in good with the Medaian cartel. He becomes
a smuggler, daredevil that they love. He starts flying bigger

(24:40):
and bigger loads of drugs between Colombia and Florida. Things
are going really well for Gary. He's made it to
the top of the heat for smugglers. So he contacts Sally.
He's like, baby, I got good news. I'm Morgan from
Pablo Escobar. He has the family locate to Coconut Grove, Florida.
According to Sally, at this point, Gary now lived like Scarface.
Now what do I mean by he lived like Starface? Well,

(25:01):
Sally and her two kids, Travis and Sara Lee. They
show up in Florida and Gary attempts to fold them
into his new lifestyle. Elizabeth, this would be difficult because
and I'm talking about the cocaine or the drug cartel.
That would make it difficult for most. But Sally arrived
with her kids. She found that Gary was living with
another woman.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
Yep, okay, a pattern with Gary. Gary, Gary did this
for you, he will do it for another woman exactly.
Can't stress that enough.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
He wanted them to start a polyamorous relationship. She's like, Hey,
there's ward hasn't been coined yet, but do you want
to become a thrupple, and so you know, she was like, eh, no,
I'm from Hayes in Arkansas. I'm not into this. And
Gary's like, okay, cool, cool, Then we'll stay here in
the master suite. You and the kids can be down
there in the kids room and he put them in
these little room anyway, terrible guy. Okay, right, fun moment

(25:46):
for Sally. So she's like, she stays in Florida. She stays,
she doesn't leave. She stays with Lucas Noel, Harmony.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
She leaves Harmony, yes, and instead.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
She's going to go like coconut grow Florida. Oh my god,
in a non functioning thropple, Like we keep it.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
Clean on this show language wise. But I just like
what I would say to him in that moment, or
if I could insert myself in that scene, say to her, yes,
like smack some sense into her.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Show up with a cab fully paid for here, get
you back to the airport. Well, I got good news.
By nineteen eighty three, Sally had enough. She took Travis
and Sarah Lee and she bounced out of Miami. She
even said, I have had enough. Okay direct quote the
wild part is that. Sally still says that Gary is
the love of her life to this day. No matter
all of this.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
If you ask her the hypnosis, she says, you just
got to hypnotize. She'll never know pleasure again.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
But she's still hypnotized exactly. Poor woman night. Oh yeah.
Pabloar soar and the Mediine cartel to hear him tell it.
Gary Besner and Pablo Escobar, they became tight homies, like
real tight. They had like sympatico views of the world.
I am number one, everybody number two. Right, So Pablo
basically he knew all about his Gary's real life, his family.

(27:04):
No at this point, remember he's going by Lucas Harmony, right,
Lucas Noel Harmony. Yeah. So Pablo often asked him how Sally,
Travis and Sarah Lee were doing. Yeah. So those poor kids, right,
they have the most famous cocaine smuggler. He is asking
about them now he knows them by name. The reason
he's like, are they doing their homework? Are they good kids?

(27:26):
You know? But he did this because their dad had
been killing it in the cocaine game. So he'd sent
people to find out about this guy, and he discovered
that he faked his death. He found the real family,
and then he had the people go up and talk
to his family in public, take pictures of him, and
come back and go and show him the photo.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
Oh yeah, because then now you'll never step out of line.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah, exactly, sure, Gary. He's at Gary. At this point,
he's got five different identities. He's working with Pablo Escobar.
He's making two hundred thousand dollars per load that he's
flying into the US, right, so five loads million dollars
he's smuggling. Loads are usually about four hundred pounds of cocaine,
so he keeps wanting to push the loads. It's right.
He's like, Oh, Pablo, we gotta go bigger, bigger. It
was going to seven forty seven. He's like, Gary, are

(28:04):
you sure? Right. The director of the documentary The Invisible Pilot, right,
phill Lot, He told the New York Post, Gary tells
this great story of purchasing planes, and he created Pablo
Escobar's air force. And it was several planes, big planes,
not just single injured and twin engines. These were jets,
so all moral judgments inside and that's a huge mountain.
We're moving to the side right now. Plane shopping with

(28:25):
Pablo Escobar in.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
The idea that he has like the all this whole fleet.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Yeah, you know, can you imagine it? It's just you
and Pablo and you go on a test flight with
like a possible new coke smuggling beauty, and you're like, now,
rather than to talk about this, Elizabs, let's just be
about it. I'd like you to.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
Close your eyes as a close.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
And picture it. You are ten thousand feet off the
you're flying. You're not like Superman though, more like Wonder Woman,
as in, you are inside of a plane, but not
an invisible plane like Wonder Woman. You are aboard a
private plane. There is a pilot and a co pilot,
and you are in the passenger section of this part plane,
seated on a couch, sipping on a cocktail. Is Pablo Escobar.
You are the private flight attendant. Oh god, the small

(29:06):
plane is leerjetic, comfortable, wellbow pointed. You have just prepared
a fresh round of drinks served on a silver tray.
You hate your new job. You promised yourself you'd stop
taking these random jobs. But you're doing a favor for
our friend. They said, one charter flight.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
Cool.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Cool, and you said, sure, sounds fun. Now you're in it.
And anyway, the pilot of the plane, he gets up
from the controls, he turns it over to the co pilot.
He comes back and joins you in. Pablo Escobar. You
offer a drink to the pilot, Gary Bettzner.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
He takes it almost to the pilot.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
He asked you like the view. You assume he's being flirtatious,
but he means it literally. And also he's talking to Pablo,
and so Pablo is focused on he's looking out the window.
So you look to below you is this beautiful, lush
green valley in the Colombian landscape. It's like a wrinkle
between the mountains. It looks kind of like Hawaii, just
more of everything, more leaves, more bushes, more trees. The

(29:56):
valley is just a chaos of shades of green. The
sky above christ in blue clouds above you, and then
in in the distance they are thick, puffy, looks like
rain's coming. Pablo says, stes Colombia, my friend. Now. Gary
nods and he agrees Columbia. And Pablo looks back from
the window. You hand him his refreshed drink. The ice
clanks in the cut crystal glass. Go sit, Pablo tells you.

(30:18):
He pats the seat next to him on the couch.
You're a little leery, but you put down the silver
tray and you sit with Pablo on the couch across
the tiny coffee table on his own love seat. Gary
takes the sip and says, this is a great man.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
Do you know who he is? Is who's flying the.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
Plane the copo? Okay, you do not know who this is.
This is Pablo Escobar. He will be the next president
of Colombia. He is a great humanitarian. Bablo smiles at
the praise. You wonder what the point is. Gary continues,
This man he gives the world cocaine. Give is a
generous word for what Pablo Escobar does. But you pertly nod.
You're polite. Gary goes on what he does is a

(30:51):
holy thing, the service he has performed for mankind and gout.
Gary sniffs a little, and that's when it all clicks
into place. He's zooted on the coca Yes, hello, nods.
He's seemingly understanding what's being said about him. He interrupts
to talk more about planes Lucas. He says, because he
knows him as Lucas. You have convinced me the leriget
this is the way to go for us my business.

(31:13):
I want to buy five of these now, Gary is key,
That's what I'm talking about, Pablo. He turns back to you.
This man, my friend here, he is a legend, and
rightly so, I would sing his praises to anyone, to you,
not only as a smuggler, but as a human being. Now, Pablo,
He winces at the word smuggler. Pablo looks at you
for reaction. You tell him that pays well, I imagine.

(31:33):
Now Gary has brought out a small glass vial of cocaine.
It attempts to discreetly do a little bit more. Pablo
looks disappointed. He asks, can the co pilots land these
plane now? Gary snorts a bump of coke off his
hand and promise, Oh sure, yeah, no problem. He's crashed
more planes and you've bought Pablo. This does not make
Pablo Escobar feel better, doesn't make you feel better. You
just wonder how do I end up in these situations?

Speaker 3 (31:54):
How do I up in these situations?

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Now? As fun as that all was for you and
for him, right, Arry eventually grew tired of his cocaine
smuggling days, Elizabeth, and probably that was as a result,
as they told you, the Colombians showing up at Sally's
house unannounced and taking pictures of his children, yeah, and
showing them to him. So old Lucas, Noel Harmon. He's like,
I need to get out, and I probably need to
save my family too. So Gary plans his exit from

(32:17):
the cartel. That's not easy. It's a little bit tricky
because the problem is you know too much.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
He still thought he could pull this off. I can
get I'm Gary Betzner or Lucas with the lid off.
Now he's like, I'll just tell Pablo. I want two
weeks notice. No, wait, I'll tell Pablo a month. He's
trying to figure out what does he tell Pablo. So
his retirement plans were hastened when Florida cops busted a
runner who was picking up a load from him at
a local airport. Gary lost a whole plane load of

(32:45):
Pablo Escobar's drugs, all right, So he's lucky to survive
and stay free. So he's like, I gotta get out.
He sees the riding on the wall. Yeah, and like quote,
it was too risky. I packed my bags and locked
the door and left. He cuts and runs right. He
went back to where he felt safe, Hawaii. He's out
there among the nudists, which you think about, it's pretty smart.
Really damn hard to hide a gun if you're naked. True,
So you see Pablo's men coming for you, then be

(33:08):
the one sounds exactly, look all clean. So Gary at
this point escaped cartel successfully, he'd escape the Florida police,
escaped the US government. He's free. He's in a true
paradise on Earth. Why what does Gary Betzner do next, Elizabeth?
He goes back to Miami. Why three months after he

(33:30):
escaped Florida with his life, Why why would he do that?
He was out Well, the answer is very simple. His
old boss and buddy, George Morales, after.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
From the speedboatboat Racer.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Right, he owned an aviation firm and he had hired
Gary to be one of his pilots. His friend gets busted,
Morales contacted Gary and begged him to fly one last level.

Speaker 3 (33:51):
It's always it's always one Morales.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
He didn't want Gary to fly coc into America. Not
this time, not this time Elizabeth. This time he wanted
Gary to fly load into El Salvador. He was running
weapons for a group called the contrast Us. Morow said
it had to be Gary because he was the best
pilot of the thirty pilots he had worked in his fleet.
Gary called, I didn't want to do it, but I
love and trusted George. He took me in when I
was well, like an orphan. So he thinks about the

(34:16):
bonds between men who called themselves outlaws, and he makes
up his mind. Gary, He's explained it, he said, in
our business, your word is your bond. Not to his wife,
but to his business partners. His word is his bond. No,
Gary Betzner, He's at this point working for Pablo Escobar,
soon to be working for the CIA, running guns to
the Contrasts. He's a conspiracy theorist, wet.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
Dream completely, so Morales.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
He promises, old buddy. Then, even if he got caught
this time, he could lean onto CIA context to get
Gary out of his legal trouble with any Feds or
any smuggling issues, whatever came up. He was confident because
by working with the CIA, Morales had been able to
give about four million to five million dollars to the
contrerass from drug profits now the Contras in the Narcos.
They were natural allies, Elizabeth because in the world, the

(34:59):
flow of world events, they were both virulent anti communists.
That wasn't enough for them to have a bond and
with Reagan, so they all just became a triangle. And
so Gary's in business with Pablo Escobar, the Contras, the CIA,
as he would later testify in the US Senate, it's
strictly a capitalist movement, this drug business.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Oh god.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Anyway, setting history aside for just one moment. In nineteen
eighty four, Gary Betsner was busted yet again. He was
flying coke for Pablo Escobar's cartel and he got caught
in Florida. Oooh yeah, Sadly, Gary Betster is no longer dead.
He's now alive. He's all over the news. He's also
in federal custody. His family now has to deal with
the fact that Gary's been suddenly found alive. His wife

(35:38):
lied about this. She's still in the small town. So
everybody in the town now knows the truth. You know
what hell that would be?

Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yeah, that small of a town.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yes, And Gary is still at this point counting on
his CIA connections to keep him out of trouble, and
he was wrong. Oh no, there was no such immunity
in place. Gary Besner was tried, convicted, and sentenced to
twenty seven years and two months in federal prison on
charges of cocaine importation. It didn't take long for Gay
to realize I do not like it in here a
little bit. So he wanted out. What's he gonna do?

(36:09):
He had a plant's take a break, do little ads,
and next up, I'll tell you a helicopter escape attempt
from federal prison and inter Senator John Kerry. Okay, Elizabeth,

(36:40):
where were we?

Speaker 3 (36:42):
That's right?

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Federal prison, the maghouse, the slammer, Yes, the Who's goal?

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yeah, the FC Yes?

Speaker 2 (36:49):
What was it? Was it? Felony? Felony? University? No? Anyway,
Bestner's inside, he doesn't like it. He gets his wife
to work on the outside to help get him free. Baby, baby,
if you just help me break out of prison this time,
I swear I'll make it right for us.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
He's hypnotizing her.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
October ninth, nineteen eighty six, the UPI headline reads, FBI
foils escape attempt. Oh boy, As the story reports, Dateline, Miami.
Two convicts who chartered a helicopter to pluck them from
a prison yard were surprised when the choppers passengers included
three FBI agents. The FBI said Thursday. The choppers intended

(37:28):
passages were Gary Morales and his new prison by the
thirty year old fellow smuggler named Terry g. Brisino. Terry Yeah. Now,
the story goes, quote, the two men ran to the
middle of the football field at MCC and stood beneath
the helicopter, which was hovering twenty feet above the field. Now,
these two men, Gary and his buddy Terry, Gary and Terry, Yeah,
they gaze up at the underside of the chopper like

(37:50):
it's the face of freedom, right, And all of a
sudden the face grimaces at them because Gary noticed, and
I quote, they both suddenly realized the helicopter was occupied
by three FBI agents and they were immediately taking into
custody by other FBI agents and prison personnel on the ground.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
Wait, how did he know they were FBI? Looking at
the moon, they were like dark suit.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
They had the FBI I had. They looked like the FBI.
So according to the EPI, the two were arrested quote
at seven thirty five pm Wednesday, on the football field
at Metropolitan Correctional Center. In charge with attempted escape and conspiracy,
said William E. Walls, special FBI Agent in charge of
the Miami office. Anyway, my favorite detail about all this story, yeah,
quote on Monday, Betsner's wife in Chapel Hill in North

(38:30):
Carolina gave undercover FBI agents in nineteen eighty four BMW
worth about forty thousand dollars as a down payment for
the escape. The complaint said, if you wanted to know
the BMW six thirty three oh prison officials had been
listening in on the phone calls. The pilot was also
completely connected to the FBI. He was a sheriff.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
So they were just like flipping through the paper the
new helicopter tour service and they're like, people.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
I don't know how they tried to you have a
collect call. Somebody contacted them. They're like, I'm trying to
get out, and they talked to somebody, and then somebody
was like, I think whoever. The first person they talked
to in prison ratted them out, and then they connected
him with like a sheriff, and the triffs like, yeah,
I'm I'm your guy, right, but.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
I like to imagine it that they called collect from
the prison to the charter service. Yeah, and then we're like, yeah,
my wife's gonna pay you. And she shows up and
is like here will you take? Do you take car?

Speaker 2 (39:16):
He take silver Bullion?

Speaker 3 (39:17):
You except car?

Speaker 2 (39:18):
How about eighty four BMW's.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
Have a collect call from He gets.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
Busted, And this is at this point, we're in nineteen
eighty six. A year later, nineteen eighty seven, Sally goes
to visit Gary in prison, after presumably helping him try
to escape. She discovers that Gary was married to a
new woman, a woman named Cynthia, and they had a son,
a boy named William. Now the news story's only ever
said his wife. I don't know which wife the love
of his life, wife Sally or his new wife Cynthia.

(39:44):
They don't mention by name. Huh yeah, So anyway, bad
way do.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
You pick up this new wife? I don't know, I
don't even know how real quick on this way?

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Like he was like he saw her, like on the
prison bus. He was on his way anyway, but up
the number. Yeah, anyway. The next year, eighty seven, Gary
Bestner find himself to be the star of one of
the most bizarre moments in US political history, a time
known as the Iran Contra affair. Now the Iran Contra affair,
if you remember that loads of guns that Gary had
been running to El Salvador for George Morales, that one
last load. There are other loads. Apparently that wasn't the

(40:14):
only load. And during the one run of contraband, Gary
was met at a rural out of the way airport
by an American named Chris, whom he understood to be
a CIA agent. Right now, to make sense of all
this for the let's turn to the Congressional record and
inter Senator John Kerrey. But actually know what before that,
a quick little history? Who were the Contras? And what
was the Iran Contra affair? Before I dive into it,

(40:35):
like I'll just tell you, I'll keep it very mercifully brief.
The Contras they were counter revolutionaries in Nicaragua. The Contras
were less on a singular organized rebel army energy. They
are more like an umbrella term that referred to all
of the disparate groups who wanted to undo the Sandinistas.
Now turning to Brown University, quote the contras were disparate

(40:55):
groups comprised former National guardsmen, ex Sandinista soldiers critical of
the new regime, peasants, farmers upset with intrusive Sandinista land policies.
Nicaragua and exiles including former guardsmen and members of the
Conservative Party gathered in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Miami
and discussed the prospect of both unarmed and armed opposition
to the Sandinistas. Now, the Sandinistas were the socialists, their revolutionaries. Yeah,

(41:17):
they had been closely aligned with Cuba, Panama, Venezuela and
then via them, the Soviet Union. So they took ower
in January nineteen seventy nine, and that scared the hell
out of the anti communists in the US. Meanwhile, what
else was going on in nineteen seventy eight and nineteen
seventy nine in the world Elizabeth in the Middle East region,
the little thing called the Iranian Revolution That also scared

(41:38):
the hell out of many of the same people back
in the West. So they said, how do we get
this chocolate in this peanut butter together. CIA is like, oh,
we got a plan. So the Theia they get involved
in thwarting both of these growing threats to the American hegemony. CIA,
they just kind of swirled it together like a chocolate
and vanilla ice cream, and they mixed their black book
funds together and they started sending missiles to Iranian revolutionaries
that were paid for with cocaine profits from Columbia. They

(42:00):
were then circulated to the Nicaraguan counter revolutionaries, usually his
Arms and Weapons. Okay, weird triangle. So nineteen eighty Ronald
Reagan gets elected, things start getting anti communists real quick. Yeah,
he loved to talk about the evil umpires. You probably recall.
He was damn sure it wasn't gonna let any communism
spread in Central America. So he says, CIA have at it.
He gives them the green flag money whatever they need.

(42:21):
CIA starts spending the beginning half of the eighties working
with narco traffickers to fund the concert They're going to
win this war with cocayen, so they use the drug
profits from the concerts. They send that over to Israel
to buy basically their own missiles, but to pay Israel
to give them to Iran through second party vendors. It's
a whole thing, right. October fifth, nineteen eighty six, A
plane load to the contraband for the Concres gets shot

(42:43):
down and Americanism on board. This becomes undeniable physical evidence
of American involvement. Who Meanwhile, Congress had passed a law
we could not be involved in this. President Reagan's like, nah, Son,
you got your facts mixed up. I don't even know
this dude, He don't know me. What are you talking about?
Nothing comes of this shot down American but the conscious
story it won't go away. Later the same month, another
shipment of American missiles transported, once again via Israeli channels.

(43:05):
It gets sent to Iran, intended for Iran's war against
the Soviet backed neighbor Iraq.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
Now, Iran had paid three point six million dollars to
a CIA front company. The money was turned over to
CIA officials who supplied the missiles. The CIA took their
money from the Iran missile deal and diverted it through
black market funds to the contras in Nicaragua. Presumably this
money would be used to fight communists, all right, but
it usually went to the aid of narco traffickers, folks
like Pablo Escobar. So November nineteen eighty six, two Lebanese

(43:31):
newspapers break this story and then that was it. It's
all over. American TV investigative reporters jump on it. It's
the new Watergate. The Washington Post finds George Morales, who's
in prison. They hear the story about this guy, so
they find him, and then George Morales tells him about
his pilot, Gary Bester. You's got to talk to Gary.
He'll corroborate what I say. Suddenly, this whole new Watergate

(43:52):
has all these threads to pull on, and people started
yanking Elizabeth. Oh, yeah, do you remember Iran Contra hearing?

Speaker 3 (43:56):
I do? I was, you know, I was young?

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Yeah, I mean, I just remember it took forever.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
It took forever, and I remember being very convoluted.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
At the time, forever like four hours, and I didn't.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
Quite follow it, you know, Like you said, I was
very young and like very convoluted. Nor had I do
remember too, like I used to have when I was young.
I had a pin on like my jacket or whatever
that said. I survived a Reagan administration. If you're wondering
how obnoxious I was, yes, too, probably, but like honestly,

(44:27):
like what what was I doing?

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (44:28):
Who knows.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
It was probably came with one of your tope eggs
from your subscriptions to the New Yorker.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
Legit I did so.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Also, there was another big name in this. Uh, there's
Colonel Oliver North.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
Senator John Kerrey really made his name during this, other
than obviously what he'd done with the My Life masker
stuff as a soldier, but as a senator, this is
what he makes his name in a lot of ways.
He's on the national news all the time. And at
the center of all of this is Gary Bestner. Now
we've talked about Gary Besner. Imagine adding this figure to.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
This, this little naked cropped us You.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Ready to talk Gary, This is the last thing that
the CIA wanted, all all right. Somehow Gary makes it
safely to the Capitol and he's able to testify before
the Senate on April seventh, nineteen eighty eight. Other witnesses
are disappearing throughout this time. People are dropping deck and overdoses.
It's bad.

Speaker 3 (45:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
So at one point Gary recalled force. Senator carried the
excitement of his smuggling days and how he'd once had
to employ evasive maneuvers to avoid two DA planes chasing him.
He's like, I went between the condominiums and flew down
along the waterway and Gary managed to sneak in like
a landing at a nearby airport. John Carrey is loving this, right,
she had another one. He's telling him a similar like
hard luck story at the other end of a smuggling run.

(45:31):
One time, he was flying a plane that had been
painted military green. He was flying it low to avoid radar.
He was low on fuel and he was loaded down
with cocaine. He took a zigzag path over Cuban airspace
that triggered a response from the Cuban Air Force. They
sent up two MiG nineteens to shoot him down. He
had to perform epic barrel rolls, disappeared behind a cloud bank,

(45:52):
and he emerged from the thick cloud bank and dropped
into this mountain valley and used the high valley walls
as cover. He's literally doing like you know, the gun type.
Why if we just saw yeah, so that scrape for
the Cuban Air Force. It convinces him to get a
transpotter code so he could alert the Cubans and who's
going to be flying over their airspace? As he just
makes a little change, like, hey, guys, ca I buy
one of those transponders. Here's a million dollars. They're like okay.

(46:13):
So so now I don't know if you know this,
but Senator John Kerry is a pilot, so he was
loving all. He keeps asking questions after a question, and
people are like, Senators, should we talk about the Iran Contra.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
He's like, moral issues, Yeah, let's get.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
Back to the Iran contrace. So in an LA Time
story from April eighth, nineteen eighty eight, with the headline
gave Contras four million dollar drug smuggler testifies, it detailed
Morales and Gary Betzner's stunning testimony before Senator John Kerrey subcommittee,
and I quote Senator John Kerrey said that the testimony
before the Foreign Relations sub Committee he heads quote makes
it very clear that narcotics dollars were involved in the

(46:47):
Contra support process. He also said the testimony indicates that
the Reagan administration officials turned their back on drug trafficking
and the interest of pressing their support of the Contra's
guerrilla war against Nicaragua's San Denista government. So he basically
connected that the CIA was doing all this stuff. Yeah,
you hear about. He's the one who's like, oh, yeah,
here it is Awaa doing the cocaine with the Contras

(47:08):
and the Iran and the missiles. Yeah here it is. Yeah,
I'm at the center of all of it. I flew
that stuff.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
I'm Gary, exactly.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Call me Gary. This is by buddy George. So they
both testified, George and Gary. They testified before the Senate Commissions.
Morales testified the using his fleet of planes his pilots
delivered contraband. From nineteen eighty four through eighty five, he
ranged six flights to landing strips in remote locations in
Costa Rica, in particular, this one landing strip that was
adjacent to a ranch owned by this mystery American farmer

(47:35):
named John Hull. Now the details were like a real
life spy movie. You got Iranian Iranian missile deals and
narco traffickers and a mysterious American farmer. Totally right. So
his best pilot, Gary Betzner, he corroborated his old buddy's testimony.
He testified he indeed flew in loads of weapons to
John Hall's landing strip in Costa Rica. In exchange, he'd
fly at with Duffel bags of cocaine. So Morales is

(47:58):
brought in by the CIA and the contrass he brings
in his hippie pilot, Gary Bessner. Gary, I was operating
under the assumption he was protected by CIA handlers. So
he tells that to John Carrey. In senate testimony. Gary
tells Senator Carry that he believed Morales quote had made
a deal with the CIA to supply the contrast. He
wanted me to fly guns in ammunition to the contrast
and bring some contra band back. So he's like, this
is what I was told. So Gary tells, you know,

(48:21):
Senator Carry, that he'd also met the CIA mystery American
John Hall on multiple occasions. He'd personally given him guns.
He gave them some M sixteen machine guns, those big daddies.
He gave him some M sixteen rifles as well a
C four explosives. Land mines. The land mines were particular
interests because they used them to mine the harbors and
it became a big story and the nose and ships
were going down. So he's like, oh, yeah, I delivered

(48:42):
those exact mines, all of it for exchange for cocaine.
It was great and they were like what he's like. Yeah,
and over small arms. They gave me fifteen to seventeen
buffel bags of cocaine. Now, Elizabeth, the nineteen eighties, America,
the nation was shocked, shocked to hear this. So we
may not be so shocked now, but they were shocked.

Speaker 3 (48:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
So Gary told Sandra Carry with a straight face, he'd
smuggled cocaine to safeguard the future of America. And I quote,
somewhere inside of me, I have a deep appreciation of
my country, It's history, the constitution, and what it stands for.
It still moves my soul. Now, none of his testimony
helped lessen his sentence. Perhaps he was telling the truth.
I don't know that. Gary Betsner never got any protection

(49:22):
from the CIA. He served at his full prison sentence.
He was finally set free in twenty eleven. He's still
alive today. As I said, he recently starred in the
HBO documentary The Invisible Pilot. I recommend it if you
actually a three part series. Now, Gary has remarried, in
case you were wondering how his love life is doing.
He has a fifth wife. Her name is Julie. They
live in what seems to be her mother's basement. A

(49:43):
typical night for them, according to Gary, is I usually
sit there, Julie sits over here. She smokes cigarettes and
I smoke weed. Oh so eighty year old Gary smoking
weed the basement in Arkansas?

Speaker 3 (49:54):
Does he have a new child named Marie Calendar?

Speaker 2 (49:58):
If like me, you were still thinking about Gary's poor kids, Yeah,
Sally spoke to this. She said in the documentary The Mother.
You know, there's so many stories about crazy smugglers, but
they never talk about the women in the family. They
never talked about those that were left behind, who really
carried the weight. Okay, now she only alluded to the kids.
She didn't actually mentioned them. I guess there's your answer.
The kids still came second, even.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
In her right always.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
I'll say this, if you ever hear this, Travis and
Sarah Lee, I feel for y'all. I got a raw deal.
I just hope you can laugh at this with us,
because you can. Okay, Look, I'll put it this way.
You can pick your nose, you can pick guitar, but
you can't pick your family. So you just have to
endure them gracefully. They're the heroes in Yes, I hope
you're all in a good place. I really do. Honestly,
there you go, Elizabeth the outlaw folk bower. Did the

(50:41):
story have everything? I mean, do you remember when Gary
hypnotized his wife to fake her own death?

Speaker 3 (50:45):
That was so long ago, it's like four years ago. Takeaway,
my ridiculous takeaway is one if you if you wind
up having to go to Hawaii, just stay in Hawaii,
you know, although don't don't you know, impose on local culture.
But yes, come on, like you're there.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
I got there.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
And then I think, too, I still don't believe the
hypnosis thing, and is she still hypnotized? You'd have to ask, Yeah,
what's your ridiculous take Oh my god, I.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Thank you for asking. No, mine was actually yours. So
I'm just gonna take it back. Hypnotism, that's wild, right,
what's up with that? What's up with that? So I
guess it really works. I mean, this is, like iose,
for those who believe.

Speaker 3 (51:33):
It works, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
And then that's the key aspect. When I was doing research,
I was like seeing different people do hypnotism, and like,
you know that they can get people to like put
their like bodies on chairs and then they go up
and stand on people and stuff to prove that they're
like stiff as a board or you know, stiff a
steel or whatever. So I've seen I saw a bunch
of people just some wild stuff and they were just convinced.
So I think it's just purely if you can convince

(51:55):
a person, they can go a lot further than they
would ever think possible.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
Yeah, but even if I believe it, I don't think
my body would be like, yeah, let's go planking. Like No.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
That's my point is that I think that it's it's
you may break something, you may have written, you know,
like you may never walk again. But I think for
those seven seconds you would do it doing it and
then your body would collapse or whatever. But yeah, that's
what I was blown away by some power suggestion. Yeah,
you don't do benefits, Gary Betzner. Anyway, that's all I
got for it. I hope you enjoyed it. Beautiful as always.

(52:26):
You can find us online a Ridiculous Crime, Twitter, Instagram,
I don't know, look around. We have a website Ridiculous
Crime dot com that was an no place to find us.
Oh also the iHeart Talkback. You can find us there.
You like it when you give us talkbacks. Yeah you
like it when you call this big Daddy Now emails
if you want a Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
As always, thanks for listening, Catch you next round. Ridiculous
Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Duttan Zaron Brenette, produced and
edited by the Pablo Escobar to our Gary Betsner Dave Research.
This is by Marissa Peacelight, Harmony Brown and Andrea Harmony
Peace Light Song Sharpened to You. Our theme song is

(53:07):
by Thomas may Day Lee and Travis Crash Dutton. The
host wardrobe provided I bought me from one hundred. Executive
producers are Ben you are now hypnotized Bowlin and know
Wait what happened to Ben? Where did he go? Brown?

Speaker 3 (53:27):
CUI say it one more time? Geek Wes Crime.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts
my heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
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