Endless Bummer: Beach Bad Boys Rob Hall of Gems

Murf the Surf was an all-star midcentury party boy turned criminal folk hero. Bob Dylan loved his style. Murf and his partner got famous for stealing JP Morgan’s gem collection. But a freelance-writing used car salesman was the true hero; and he’s the one who eventually saves the day.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Attention, rude dudes. Great news. We have a website now.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Yes, it's super modern and super sleek, very user friendly.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Totally legal, totally cool.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
And you know what's on that website a link, and
you know where that link goes merch. You can get
your very own Ridiculous Crime t shirt. The shirts will
be available until.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Guy Fiery finds out that they say flavored and he
makes us take them.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Down right, So act now, rude dudes, go to Ridiculous
Crime dot com.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh you damn right.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Elizabeth Dutton Zaren. I got a question for you. Yes, okay,
do you know it's ridiculous?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yes? Is it? Well?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
You know we're recording this kind of close to Easter,
And do you have any Easter candies that you really love?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
I used to really like the marshmallow yellow I guess peeps,
I think they're terrible, right, But I was like, I
didn't know any better. I never got stuff like that,
so it was like a delicacy to like me.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Did you ever eat Cadbury cream eggs?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
No? Those were gross?

Speaker 3 (01:09):
No way, I loved those when I was a kid,
I knew so sweet I've had one.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Oh god, they're disgusting.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
It's this gooey nuclear waste inside it. Chocolate.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Now I don't like those, but you know what I
do love sandwiches.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Oh god, you pivoted on me. He did you pivoted
to a mash out?

Speaker 5 (01:28):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, completely.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
So.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
We have gotten a ton of recommendations for this one.
I don't know who came in first, because they didn't
give them to me an order of all of the
like Instagram and recommendations. But a lot of rude dudes
were onto this. And let me just let me just
read to you please.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
From the New York Post.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Let me wash over me.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
If you've ever wanted to take your love for Cadbury
cream Eggs to the next level, now's your chance. Subway
the Sandwich Empire is joining with them to launch a new,
if perhaps strange sounding creation, just in time for Easter. However,
not everyone is excited about it. It's okay, hold on,

(02:12):
bite down on that belt. I'm the six inch sandwich
available in the UK on Good Friday, which, hello, you're
not supposed to be eating candy on Good Friday.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
But whatever, it's not meat or candy. Let's it's let's
not over.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Well, if you give up candy for lent right anywhere,
go on six sandwich.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
No partying on good Fridays.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
No, I'm not supposed to be cele.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Despite the name Goodwich.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
So the six inch sandwich, it's only in the UK,
is made on the chain's Italian white bread and has
a chocolate cream egg melted in the middle of it.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
So the pictures is just bread and a cream egg.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, and then it looks like it looks like they
give you a couple of them and they melt them down.
It's got like like seer marks on the outside. It's
a Penniners So it's a.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Cadbreak cream chip buddy.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yes, yes, people, you know only five hundred of them
will be made k Yeah, and they'll be available for
free at just a few select subway locations in England.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
That's what they can't make in London. They can't be
sued in case anything goes wrong in.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
A person's you have to sign a waiver. So yeah,
London and Liverpool. But again, by the time anyone hears this,
it's long past. Rusty Warren, Subway's senior manager of New
Product Development and Innovation. This is what he said on
russ Our Italian white bread and Cadbury cream eggs makes
the most flavorsome combination, a perfect seasonal treat.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
This like an animated turtle.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
This guy eats sugar packets at Denny's. Yeah, so it's
this cool collab.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Huh, we'll mash up.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Unfortunately for some it doesn't look like it's going to
be coming to the United States, so we're safe for now,
unless you know, I'll just go into the kitchen here
at headquarters whip up one.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Why do you do this because I love it?

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Well, I got something for you. I got a second. Yes,
we'll wash that out of your memory. This one's wild,
I promise you. I'm just going to read you the
highlights of an ingredients list. Okay. A pro surfer turned
jewel thief named Murpha Surf, a speedboat racing jewel thief
named Alan, a freelance writing used car salesman named Francis

(04:29):
Eva and Jajah Gabor Nora, Ephron, Bob Dylan, John D. MacArthur,
JP Morgan, and the most spectacular jewel theft in US history.

Speaker 6 (04:39):
Oh boy, Yeah, this is ridiculous crime.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, Heiss and cons.
It's always ninety nine percent motor free and one hundred
percent ridiculous. You damn right, Yeah, Elizabeth, as you've explained
to me, true crime basically starts with Truman Capote's novel
in Cold Blood.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah for the most part. I mean you had pulp
magazines and.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Such tabloids, the pulp like the Keyhole magazine side. Okay,
but true crime really gets born in the mid fifties. Okay,
all right, then it's obviously you're right, it starts to
replace the tabloids because one thing we know about America,
we love crime. So it's just gonna change genres. Right,
So true crime becomes this more intellectualized, less tabloid version
of let's consider what criminals really mean to society. And

(05:45):
this is also, by the way, devoid of the j
Edgar Hoover moralism that had been really hold in the
thirties and the forties and the fifties. You're like, whoa,
this is way beyond go get them g men, Like,
we're dealing with serial killers in the American heartland, right,
and you had.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
A rule that right, She's the one who was she
worked at a suicide hotline. I believe I may be
messing some of this up. But she worked at a
suicide hotline next to Ted Bundy.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Oh whoa.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
And then when everything happened, she realized it and she
wrote a book about him, and then she started writing
all these other true crime nonfiction.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Okay, so she kicks off like the really yeah yeah, Okay.
So this is I'm talking about more is the early
sixties where true crime really kind of hits more than
newspapers and becomes less of a tabloid affair. And the
first star of this true crime wave when it hit
prime time was Murph the Surf.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Murph.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yes, I didn't know this. I'd never even heard of
this cat. He was a national surfing champion. He was
a tennis pro. He was a circus high diver. He
was a stuntman in the movies. He was a concert violinist.
And he was the subject of a film that used
his nickname as the title Murph the Surf, starring Robert Conrad.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
What is it short for Murfher the Surfer?

Speaker 2 (06:56):
But I love it. Its name was Murpher. Their kids
murfer because they like their kids Murfher. Why you're just
setting them up for elementary school abuse. I had a
weird name. I can speak on this, I know, I mean,
Murpher rhymes with too many things. Anyway, So tabloids of
the day, right along with newspapers a record, they all

(07:17):
breathlessly recounted the events and the exploits of old Murfher
the Surfer, right, that's for you, thank you. No Murph
the Surfer. As I said, he's this super fit, handsome, blonde,
sunglass wearing surfer, very classic early sixties but also this
is coming out of the fifties era of like Kookie
and the Surfers, and like you know, they're kind of

(07:38):
like beat nick surfers listen to jazz music. So he
loved jazz. He was a hophead, high on the jazz cabbage,
I mean, and so yeah, he was always good with
a SoundBite too. He was like really quotable. This dude
gets portrayed as such an all American anti hero that
Bob Dylan latches onto him and is like, oh yeah,
this is the spirit of America in this moment, and
he brings them up in his liner notes really oh

(07:59):
yeah for the album bringing It All Back Home. Okay,
So Bob Dylan wrote, and I quote. I'm standing there
watching the parade, feeling combination of sleepy John Estis, Jane Mansfield,
Humphrey Bogard, Mortimer Snurd, Murph the Surf, and so forth.
Erotic kitchhiker wearing Japanese blanket gets my attention by asking
didn't he see me at the hoot Nanny down in

(08:22):
Port of Iarta, Mexico. I say, no, you must be mistaken.
I happened to be one of the Supremes, So yeah,
dat you like me? He has Diana Ross and the
Supremes on his mind. I relate, I get it, get it.
But the Murph the Surf just jumps out because, like
I knew, Mortimer Snurd, you know, that's a Edgerberg and

(08:42):
Charlie McCarthy like idiot character. He's a Marriot. We not
Mary Anette. What is it? A new dummy? Yeah, thank you.
But it's like Humphrey Bauregard, you know, but Murph the Surf.
So this cat had his moment in American culture, right.
And I also I mentioned there was a young writer
who would later make her name in Hollywood. At the time,
she was working as a journalist nor A Ephron. She

(09:03):
was a rookie reporter and she gets basically gifted this
story of this jewel heust with this gorgeous surf bro
and she recalled writing about this back in twenty ten,
Efron said, quote, these guys had committed the perfect victimless crime.
They just seem like fabulous party boys. Yeah, so she
loved these guys. Alright, this is the kind of glowing

(09:23):
coverage they're getting, right. This story has lots of fabulousness
and the party boys and just straight up hilarity. I
promise you all of that. For instance, there is a
surprise appearance from the co star of a famous pig,
yes Ava Gabor, remember the star I can sing them?
Can you? Can you also do petty coat junction?

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, I like that about you of course. Now obviously
there's the jewels. We'll get into those. They had their
obnoxiously big jewels. These are the kind of jewels that
had nicknames like the DeLong Star Ruby, the Midnight Star,
and the Star of India.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
So is a star?

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, stars, the biggin Star, dude, you know how big
and these bad boys were. The DeLong Ruby was one
hundred carrots. The Midnight Star was one hundred and eighteen carrots.
It was a black sapphire. The star of India was
five hundred and sixty three carrot oval shaped blue sapphire.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
How what's the like give it to me in like.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Inches size of a golf ball.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
All right, wow, okay, right, And like when you say, like,
what was there five hundred carrots, you're.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Just picturing actual carrots, aren't you.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
No, I'm thinking like that's got to be like bigger
than a basketball.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
No, it doesn't quite work like that, But I'm not
I'm not good Like, I'm not like nothing. I know
nothing about it.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
I know nothing about it.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
But I just like to imagine like a big jewel
size like basketball.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, I like your hand. You're like, oh my god,
his ring is.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Like Schequil O'Neil size jewel.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
We make an earring, It just rips through your ear
low when you put it on.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
That's the curse your imagination. So the reason I wanted
to tell you this story is, yes, there's a jewel
heist at the heart of it. It was one of
the most spectacular of US history. Right, But the thing
for me is the real hero of the story a
freelance writer.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yeah, so we'll get it people exactly.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
We're get it history much much later. But first let's
focus on the jewels and of course the jewel thieves.
So Murph the Surf Ready to meet Murph real name,
Jack Roland Murphy. Oh okay, but apparently he switched his
name from Ronald to Roland. I get it. My middle
name is Walter, I know from bad middle names. Like
if I could switch it somehow, would just say, oh, yeah,

(11:36):
it's Wilther or Walther. I don't know. He there's no
good options. But anyway, he switched it to Roland. Walmart's
all right, So bye boy. Jack Roland Murphy born in
nineteen thirty seven in La Raised in the town of
Carl's Bad, California. Yeah, Carl's good. Carl's Bad because anyway,

(11:56):
just north and east of San Diego, out in the
like basically the it's good for caverns. It's known for
cavern anyway. His father was this hard ass. He pushed
his son, and Murph of the Surf responded in kind,
and he became excellent at everything, and I'm talking everything,
notably surfing. Obviously, he was a standout in the early
southern California surf scene. In the nineteen sixties. You can

(12:17):
imagine them out there with the redwood boards and everything. Right,
he's there when they actually start getting phone boards. So
he was out there with the eight foot redwoods. Anyway.
So his father moves his family far from the coast
that his son loves and they go to Ready McKeesport, Pennsylvania.
Oh yeah, just southeast of Pittsburgh, right there in Steel Country.
So he goes from Sunday southern California to the Grace

(12:39):
Guys of Pittsburgh and he's like, well, I guess I'm
not surfing anymore.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
So he graduated high school there and rolls in nearby
University of Pittsburgh. He's given a tennis scholarship. So I
told he's really good at everything. At the same time,
he started playing violin at the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
In the symphony That's what he says.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yes, but he didn't stay in pitt long because he
got the bug to go surfing. I told you it
was key to his survivor. So he moves south. He's like,
he picks up sticks and sets course for Miami. Now
down in Florida, he gets back to the surfing he
loves and He's named Florida's top surfer twice, and he
wins the National Surfing Championship. The dude's like really good.
Right nineteen ninety six, he was inducted in the Surf
Legends Hall of Fame. Yeah, like, dude is, like I had.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
No idea there was like a big surf scene down there.
It doesn't feel like they'd have Florida good big waves.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
I don't know. Yeah, I mean, Atlantic doesn't offer but
if you go with the storms and stuff, you can
get really good waves. I mean Kelly Slater is from Florida.

Speaker 5 (13:28):
Well.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, So anyway, New York Times dug into Murtha Surf's
life story. They found there were a couple questions, a
couple of inconsistencies ones you noted. It's like Murtha Surfy
claimed that he played violin for the Pittsburgh Symphony when
he was just eighteen years old. Now when they checked, unsurprisingly,
there was no record of him ever being part of

(13:48):
the Pittsburgh Symphony, but you know whatever, So they also
checked the tennis scholarship that did seem legitimate. So he
was really good at tennis. And then there was rumors
that he was a mensa level genius.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Right, so they said he start those rooms.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Well, it just it was out there and the people
are saying a lot of people are talking a lot
of people know this, you know. But anyway, they Florida
Corrections Department they tested his IQ and they found it
to be one forty three. So it checks out. Ye, Now,
Murpha surf. He was a mix of believable legends and
outsized facts. As you can tell.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
So IQ is like golf, right, the lower the better.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, let's go with that. Yeah, this guy's basically like
an ad water and ready mixed curiosity for mid century America. Right,
you can kind of just hear it. Oh yeah, I
remember always he's a very good looking guy too. So
you have a championship you know, jewel thief in the making, right,
who's also a secret genius and a tennis pro.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
He's a real murfer exactly once.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
I I'll just said everything he does, right, well, i'll
take that back in quote. In fact, he's top notched
everything he does. So yeah, anyway, well, while he was
a freshman at pit, I tell you he was watching
this movie called The Miami Story. And in this it
was this It wasn't a new movie This was a
nineteen fifty four noir flick, and it was like IMDb
sums up the plot as this quote. Fed up with

(15:03):
the rising crime rate in Miami, the police chief and
leading members of the city council hire a former gangster
who's gone straight to help eliminate the biggest crime syndicate
in the city. He's like, dude, I want to go
be the biggest crime syndicate in the city. So yeah,
And like many criminals.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
We cover different aspirational elements in every film.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Exactly. Some people watch Gandhi and they're like, I want
to be you know, Gandhi. Other people are like, I
want to be that guy in the British Parliament. He
looks like he's got power. I'm just saying, you know,
not everyone roots for the hero in the movie. So
Murph the surf he sees this movie and he's like,
I want the life up on that big screen. We've
covered this a lot of apparently, criminals get their start
in a movie theater, right. So he drops out of college,

(15:43):
moves to Miami and you know, but to America. So
we needs a job. So what does he do? I
told you he's a handsome young man. Right tourist town
like a bunch of other handsome young men. He goes
down to hotel Row and he gets a job pleasing
the tourists.

Speaker 5 (15:55):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
He goes through a string of jobs. He's a pool boy,
a candy man, a swimming and strate, and I know
you're going with that, a scuba instructor. Eventually he gets
a job as a high diving stunt clown performer. Yeah.
So he would do flips off a high dive like
a really really high die right, like super high epe
by forty feet right, and then he would pirouette and
dow aerial twists, and then he'd slice into the pool
and barely make a splash, like really impressive stuff. Right.

(16:18):
Of course he excels at this too. So out of
the pool though, one day he puts his hips to
work and he gets a job and he's teaching dance
lessons with all the grabby snowbirds who are working the
cavana scenes. And so Murph the surf he gets h
you know, he does what a lot of the beautiful
in the handsome due He gets himself taxed to the
wealthy tourist life via marriage. He meets a socialite glorious

(16:39):
sauce stock. They have two boys, Murph the surf though,
is not cut out for this life. It does not
last long.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
Then eventually he marries again, this time second wife, far
cry from the wealthy social light Elizabeth. I think you'll
like her. She was a secretary for the Space program.
Oh good for her boss, the German rocket scientist Werner
von Braun.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
So she's there with a Nazi rocket scientist, says he boss.
Now this is his partner. He's like, okay, baby, you
get my whole vibe. She's like, I got you, baby.
So he becomes a pro surfer, and then he gets
back to his beach bone ways, and these things are
going well for him. He opens up a surf shop.
Can you guess what he calls it? Merh surf shop exactly.
Then the second marriage fizzles out. You know, the Space

(17:18):
program secretary. She's like, you know what, I'm gonna stick
with the Nazi rocket scientist in my stable life. And
then you know, his business falls apart. His partner's cheat him.
So what does he do. He starts beech bumming even harder, Elizabeth. Yes,
he does more booze, more drugs, more party, more women,
more music, more paddling out, all of it. He just
turns up the knob right, and then eventually the knob

(17:39):
crosses a line we call crime. Yes, yes, And after
a little short break, I'll be back and we'll get
into Murph the Surf becoming Murph the Crime Surf. Yes,

(18:07):
all right, Elizabeth, all right, Zaren. The year is nineteen
sixty two, it is, yeah, you know, can you feel it?

Speaker 1 (18:13):
I'm right there.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah, we're in the Kennedy years, you know everything. Buddy's
his go go jet age or we're going to the moon.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
I've just turned forty eight.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
We just we got to beat the commies. You're forty
eight and looking at the prime years of your life.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
So our dude, Murphed the Surf. He's out one night
with his friends. They're on a nighttime boat, riding a speedboat,
as one does when you live in Florida and you're
a crazy surfer. Of course, so he's out there cutting
the waves and they're doing that rhythm.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
Bang bang oh right, yeah, bouncing up and down off
that yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Exactly, just just slamming the bottom of the boat. Eventually
they slow it down and they pull up to a
dock at a mansion, right and a couple of the
cats on this boat they hop off and then they just,
you know, speedboat motors away, and he's like, oh, I
guess we're dropping them off. A little while later, after
bang bang for a while longer, the boat circles back
and they pull back up to that same dock and
the dudes come running out of the house and got

(19:00):
apparently like a bag of stuff. That darkened house. Doesn't
look like anybody was greeting them, so he murphed. The
surf free quickly puts together as they scamper onto the speedboat. Oh,
I know what we just did. The boat takes off
and all of a sudden, in they here woo woo.
In Florida, they have police on boats just in the channels.
So the cop boat is on them real quick, and

(19:22):
apparently they're just like hanging out in the nice part
of the docks or whatever canals. So this cop boat
starts giving chase and they're whipping through the canals trying
to get out to the Biscayne Bay. Speedboat takes off,
but the cops have a go fast boat too, so
they're on them right now. The speedboat is trying to
escape when they realize they can't escape them, so the
robbers they hand Murph the Surf of bag of stolen jewels,

(19:43):
like hey, you swim fast, right, and he's like yeah,
and heels write what they mean. He goes right over
the side and the cops don't catch him. They don't
notice him going over the side. They stay after the speedboat.
He swims all the way across Biscayne Bay, which is
a really big body of water. But he's a surfer
so makes it. And uh, it's a long swam, Like
I told you, it's cold water, it's at night, I mean,

(20:04):
like most people probably would have drowned. But anyway, he
makes it because of course he does. He's good at it, right,
he's Murf the Surf, And so he hands the jewels
back to his burglar buddies and then a couple days
later they come back to him with twelve grand Huh
he is now a jewel thief. Yep, just like that.
Done deal, right. So the guy who owned the boat,

(20:24):
that dude was named Alan Cohonk. He ends up becoming
a crime buddy for Mirf the Surf, Right, he doesn't
have a cool nickname, so we'll just have to calling
him Alan Coon. But whatever. So Alan Cohn is he's
also another you know, pretty boy beach bum surf cat.
You know, he's a Florida like a local perfect partner

(20:45):
from Mirf the surf. Right. But they they're ambitious young
street criminals. So they start robbing waterfront Miami mansions, just
one after the other, and they're just they're really good
at it. And then now they're also they're blowing their
loot on booze and drugs and women, all the fun
stuff that young men with stolen jewels would spend their
money on. Right, and then washmnts repeat, and then they

(21:05):
do it again, and surprise, surprise, they catch the attention
of the local police because you know.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
What's what happens exactly, like where do these.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
Guys getting these money for these flashy cars and for all? Anyway, Yeah,
it doesn't make the cops long ago, I think that
up to no good. A couple other people notice this,
so who else would be like, ah, I like these
cats very good. Guess no, but a fence named Hi Gordon.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
I just imagine a fence, an actual.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Fence, like a hurricane fence.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Hurricane anthropomorphic fence.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
So Hi the hurricane fence. He starts giving them shopping
lists for the burglaries, because he knows there're some good
stuff is. He's like, Hey, there's this twelve carrot emerald
cut ring that just so happened to be chilling in
a Palm Beach mansion and if you just so happened
to know how to get it, I just so happened
to know the address, and so Hi the fence. He
offers the beach boys this gig, and he offered them

(21:58):
three hundred and fifty grand in nineteen sixties. Though, wow,
this one ring, if you just so happened could get
your hands on it. So merph to Surf and Allen
are like, bet you know. So they're like, let's fire
up the speedboat. They race over to the Palm Beach mansion.
They break into the house, no problem, cover of darkness,
snatch the ring, speedback over to high the fence. Are like,
all right, show us the money high now. Hi. He

(22:22):
checks the ring right, and he's like, my dudes, I
have most unfortunate news. It just so happens that this
ring that you stole is a fake. Like, what do
you mean he's like, yeah, well, if you doubt my word,
he shows them the Jewelers Loop and they're like, all right,
all right, it's fake high. And he's like, you know,
I bet the owners have the original up in their
place in Manhattan if you were to go up there

(22:42):
and just so happen to put your hands on it.
And they're like, yeah, yeah, we get it. So they're like, bet,
now what do they do? Well, they pile into the
expensive convertible white Cadillact they've purchased with their stolen jewel
money and they go tearing off for Manhattan.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
The Beach Boys take Manhattan exactly.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
So, uh, while they're in New York, the Beach Boys
are like, whoa bruh, you see how many jewels there
are here? They totally decide forget whatever high the fence said,
we's get our own like shopping list. So what do
they do? Eventually they look all around Manhattan, They're like, oh,
what do we do? What do we do? I don't know.
They settle on the vast gem collection of JP Morgan

(23:20):
cause you know, if you're gonna go for it, right yeah.
So also once again it comes down to a movie. Yeah,
I know, right, this time. It's the movie called Top Copy.
You ever heard of this one? No, okay, it's a
Maximilian Schnell movie. And he plays a jewel thief and
he's going he's hired to steal an emerald encrusted dagger.
That is this this jewel blade? Right, it's located in

(23:41):
the Top Copy Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. Therefore Top Copy
so no, some might say Constantinople, but.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
I say, well, Istanbul was Constantinople. Now it's istam okay, stop.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Putting on the reds. It's by Peter Boyle voice.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yeah, I'm doing it.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
I know we're mixings, but I just want to do
Peter Boyle anyway. So they watched them moving all right,
Murphis Surf and Allen. Their accomplice, a house painter named
Roger Clark, who's along for the ride.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Okay, why not?

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah, he's gonna be uh Like they all go they
watch Top Copy together, like, hey, h Roger, you want
to go see this movie. They watched the movie, they're like, bro,
we gotta go steal some gemstones, right, and so they're like, yeah,
let's put this together. So they drive Rome in Manhattan
in the aforementioned white convertible Cadillac. They drove on the
west ever west side, and then they go, oh yeah,
JP Morgan's gemstones. Now do you know where they're they're located.

(24:31):
It's not JP Morgan's house.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
Oh wait, he's dead by this isn't it a bank?

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Nope? Good guess. Stored at the Hall of Gems.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
In the YMCA.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Very good guess. The American Museum of Natural History. Oh
right by Central Park. Really cool museums.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Go in the museum.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah, it's going to a museum. Break in right, okay.
Museum was found in eighteen sixty nine. In nineteen oh one,
JP Morgan was like, look, I have no loved ones here,
take my gems. So he gives them a gems and
then they're like cool, thank you, we'll put these on display.
And the Museum of Natural History. Have you ever been there?

Speaker 1 (25:05):
I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
It's really cool. I went there as a kid one time,
and like, I didn't go there to like go check
out the Robber Barons, fancy rocks. I went there for
like the dinosaur bones and all the animals. Place is amazing.
I recommend it to anybody. I still remember the Gelatto
I had there, Like I remember everything about that place anyway,
So they're like, look, bro, we should totally steal JP
Morgan's gemstone. So they go backing a plan, right, But

(25:28):
by this point, Murph the Surf and Allen they have
their techniques down and everything, so they're a little confident
their career criminals and they get what they're doing, right,
But they don't have a motor boat or speedboat rather
to do anything. So they're in Manhattan, but they're like, whatever,
we never broken into a museum before. Whatever, it's gotta
be the same as a big mansion. So they decide
we don't really need a plan at all, so city
sort of wing it and see how it goes, all right.

(25:49):
So the math is on the side though, because this complex,
the Natural History Museum, has twelve buildings but eight security guards.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
Eight's for twelve buildings.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
I know, right, And so the guard that's responsible for
the Hall of Gems, he's this old dude. He's got
a flashlight out there with equally old battery. So it's
just that kind of thing, right, And there's one window
that has to be left open that night, you know,
just for some fresh air for the museum just happens,
you know, it's little stuffy. So anyways, October twenty ninth,
nineteen sixty four. It's a Thursday, Elizabeth. The beach boys

(26:18):
have gathered up all their supplies that they think they'll
need for this job. They're not literally planning for. And
what do they have. They have a coil of rope
thermal lance. They have a powerful jack, they have a
duct tape. They have some glass cutters. They have rubber
suction cup from when they cut the piece of glass
so they can pull it out like, oh, exactly, and
they're good to go, like we got all our stuff right.

(26:40):
That's the target Natural History Museum. And Elizabeth, rather than
just keep telling you about it, I'd like you to close
your eyes.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
My eyes are closed.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Picture it. Elizabeth. You are a spider. Yes, you live
in the Museum of Natural History. You've been busy tonight,
like most nights, you're spinning a web high above the
Hall of Gems. You don't particularly care for all the gemstones.
You don't care about the gem cases, all the jewels inside,
but you do like all that open air above the
gems where all the bugs like together. That's good hunting.

(27:07):
So you're spending your time, you know, just making another web.
But you're about to have to give up all your
handiwork this evening because right around nine pm you crawl
up a thread of silk working on your latest strand
of the web when you spot movement far down below.
It seems awfully suspicious. Outside the window there's a white
convertible cadillact just idling across the street, and it looks

(27:28):
like some narrot wells at the wheel. At the ground
level of the building though, you spy two men, blond
haired surfer types. You don't even know what a surfer is,
but these look like surfer types to you. Now you
watch as they crawl up and over a fourteen foot
fence with wrought iron spikes at the top of it.
You're oppressive. The surfers then head to the museum wall.
You move and swing over to another window so you

(27:48):
can follow their movements.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Nosy, I know you are.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
They just jump up and they grab the fire escape.
Then they clamber up five stories up the fire escape.
Then they step out onto a ledge. This ledge, it's
just two inch, which is wider than a foot. Now,
being good at math is a spider You know that's
fourteen inches because you're into math all right. Now, they
shimmy along the side of the building and you watch
them tie off a rope and you think to yourself,
nice web amateurs, but whatever, it works fine. They drop

(28:13):
onto the fourth floor roof and without making a sound,
very impressive it is. Now there's a window cracked open,
and so the burglars pride open with just a foot
and then you drop some more silk so you can see,
and you swing out and you watch as they make
their way into the hollow gems. These blonde beach bombs
notice a plane passing overhead and they use it to
cover their glass cutters. Now, with the suction cups they

(28:34):
brought with them, they lift the glass circles out of
the display cases and then this glass it's about an
inch stick. Once again, you're really into facts has a spider.
You're really into dimensionally, so you're measuring with eye. You're
like that stick glass. They reach into the holes cut
in the glass cases and they lift out gem after
gem after gem. It's just like whoa was? I mean,

(28:55):
I didn't even know we could be like that. So
you're wondering why no one thoughts maybe I don't know,
change the batteries on the display case alarms, because that
would have been a good call. Oh well, too late now. Yeah,
So the thieves get away with a five hundred and
eighty three Carrot Star of India, the one hundred and
sixteen Carrot Midnight Star, and the prize of the pack,
the DeLong ruby. Oh yes, so this ruby is so

(29:16):
striking to look at, even to a discriminating spider like you.
You like this one because it's bright red blood red
in color. It's rich and deep with color size of
a golf ball, and it was a mind in mean
mar back in nineteen thirty. You appreciate it. Yeah, yeah,
it's one of your favorite gemstones. And now it's gone. Anyway,
in total, you watch the beach bombs lift twenty two
gems from the cases, and then they trace their steps

(29:38):
back to the window they open. They climb back up
onto the roof, and you watch them climb back up
onto the fifth floor, shimmy back across over to the firescape,
and just like that, they're gone. So, after the cat
Burgers step out of the museum, you go back to
spinning a web, right, But Murph the surf and Allen.
They take a slow walk across the park Elizabeth, then

(29:59):
that part Central Park right now, what do we know
about Central Park cops? Oh, there's always cops on the
beat in the Central Park, and of course they run
in some beat cops are out strolling a night and
when the costs these pass with the cops, numerous cops,
not just one, numerous ones. Every time these guys smile
like dope idiots. They play up what they look like.
They're good evening officers and an officers like yeah, whatever,

(30:19):
good evening and wave them on.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Meanwhile, old Roger Clark, you know, our house painting getaway driver,
he's just sitting there nervous because he's not a street criminal.
He's not a professional, not a career of criminal at all. Yeah,
he's just sitting there in this expensive white caddy at
night next to Central Park going come on, come on, guys,
come on, guys, get back to the car. And what
does he do, well, two am, He's like, I can't
wait anymore, and he leaves. He takes off, and he
goes back to the rendezvous point, the Penthouse Hotels suite,

(30:43):
where he finds the boys already there drunk and party guys.
He grabs some champagne and catches up No. Meanwhile, back
in the Museum of Natural History, an unlucky security guard
is about to have the scare of his white haired life.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
Oh no, yes.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
The guard turns the corner and the Hall of Gems
and sees as his flashlight waves across the gemstone cases.
A terrible sight, the giant hole that you, as a
spider appreciated. He freaks out. Most expensive gems are car
He's gonna lose his job. Everything's terrible. News breaks the
next day Joel thieves pulled off during midnight heist. New

(31:19):
York papers go nuts as news spreads. Murph the Surf
and Allan they catch a ride with the nervous house
painter turned getaway driver Roger Clark and the Beach Boys.
They fly back to Miami. Okay, Rod, you stay here
in New York with the car. Okay, guys, Now, Alan
and Murph the Surf. They get back to their apartment.
Everything's cool. They got all the gemstones. They pour out
their stolen gemstones on the carpet and they wave flashlights

(31:41):
over them. They're like, look, man, they look like little explosions.
Bro literal quote. They look like little explosions. So, once
safely home in Miami, the two they stash their stolen gems.
Once they play with them for a while, you know,
they don't roll around on them like you know, moon rocks,
because they're a little pointy, but they do. They take
them and they hide them in Allen's speedboat. Right, so
they lay low. Now up Meanwhile in New York is

(32:03):
Roger Clark and he's sitting up there with the white caddie.
He's like, what are we going to do? He's like,
I have some friends in Connecticut. So he just goes
over to Connecticut to visit some friends because he doesn't
know what to do.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
So it's like, there's nowhere to park this boat exactly.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Everyone keeps looking at me like I'm something to rip off.
I gotta get out of here. Man, I'm from Florida.
I don't know this. So he leaves. Now everything's chill,
right until it wasn't. Elizabeth No, yeah, because once again,
much like for a friend of the show, Stephen Frye,
this was overlooked hostel staff that ended their crime spree.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. So their gym Heights makes headlines right,

(32:40):
and this desk clerk at this fancy New York hotel
he notices something. So he phones the police and reports
there's these three young guys from out of town staying
in the penthouse suite and they've been spending money like
it's coming out of someone else's wallet. So I think
you may want to check on them. And they're in
New York PD or like, oh yeah, bet, So they
send some detectives over. They go, He give us the
key to the room. They go up to the room,
they open it up and boom. What did the detectives

(33:01):
fine in his penthouse suite? Well, there is off a
bunch of photos of the museum. There's sneakers left behind
with like just dusted with museum glass from when they
kicked in some glass. There's burglariggy tools all around the room.
So the detectives were like, well, maybe they're coming back.
I don't know. This seems pretty dumb. So one of
the detectives stays in the room. He's just like okay,

(33:23):
ends up spending the night in the room and in
the morning he hears like a key jingling sit the maid.
He gets up and boom, it's Roger Clark come back
from Connecticut. There's the New York pd detectives standing there
in his hotel room in a room totally. I love
to picture him, like coming out of the bathroom in
a towel.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
He ordered room service the night before, sit there.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
In bed naked freeze. He's got no free seriously, let
me get my pants. So like the cucumbers on his eyes,
yeah exactly, he's only doing like a little like resto
for me. Oh yeah, Now that New York PDA officer
here rests Roger Clark. And so now these nervist house
painter turned getaway driver who is clearly no career criminal.
He does what you would expect. He flips faster than

(34:06):
you can flip. Say, I don't know a grilled cheese sandwich,
it's just And he tells the cops air a thing,
just everything you can, right. He tells them where they
can find Murph the Surf and Alan, like here's their
apartment and if if they're not there, maybe try this place. Yeah.
The next day, the Miami PDE they go right over
to Murph the Surf and Allen's apartment and they bring
the press with them. They're so certain, like the New

(34:28):
York Times is there, all right? So they get there
and boom, there's the New York City Jewel thieves. And
they get arrested, and Murph the Serf tells the papers man,
I was supposed to be on my way to Hawaii
to serf, but this inconvenience has fouled that whole thing up.
So yeah, the Beach Boys are now in custody forty
eight hours after their heights. That's all the states away. Yeah,

(34:50):
the only thing left to do for now is to
get the gemstones back, which is a lot more difficult
than you would imagine, I think. So yeah, so let's
take a little break and I'll be back to tell
you about how we find these last gemstones, all right,

(35:21):
Elizabeth Zaren. Yes, Now, Murph the Surf gets embraced as
an anti hero as soon as he gets arrested. He
gets brought back to New York and everyone treats them
like their counterculture folk heros. Right, of course, they love it.
They play into this, And I'm talking like when they
get back to face the Raymond on the courthouse steps,
there's like a wave of groupies cheering them on. No way, Yeah,
there's tons of them right. So everyone's just all about

(35:43):
these guys, and then New York's like, get them out
of the state. They give them bail and they send
them back to Florida and say you got to come
back for a trial. They let them go back to Miami.
So while they await trial they do. Now keep in mind,
no one knows who the gems are. Yeah, the insurers
are like, you let them go back to Florida and
didn't get the gems. Can we talk about that? We
don't work for you guys, man. They're like yeah, But
so now weeks are stretching on and the insurers are

(36:05):
getting more nervous. They're putting more pressure on the cops.
Then months past, still nothing, So then they start talking
to the prosecutors like are you gonna make your cops
do something? Like what's going on? So they're just like
mad worried at this point that these gems are in
like the jewelry shop chop shop, yeah, basically, and enter
Ava Gabore. Okay, so the Star of Green Acres, the
aforementioned Star of Greenacres, she was reading the news one

(36:27):
day when she exclaimed, Darling, I know se boys, right,
So she was looking at a picture of Murph the
Surf and Alan Cohon in the paper, and she grabs
her phone. She calls the District Attorney of Manhattan, Jack McCoy. Yeah, exactly,
nab a goo boor. She like claims that these young
men brooke in to my Miami Aupotsman dolling, and so
she like tells them that they stole fifty thousand dollars
of precious gems from her, most notably a fifteen carrot

(36:50):
diamond ring. I have no idea how big that is?

Speaker 1 (36:52):
Well, how long?

Speaker 3 (36:52):
How long is fifteen carrots end to end? They're looking
at like what twelve feet?

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah? Probably yeah, probably eleven to It is a big ring.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
So but this was enough, like her, her claims were
enough to throw more charges at them, because now we
got aggravated assault and battery and robbery and celebrity has
vanity fair pudd it Gabor fingered the beach boys, oh dear,
so the New York prosecutor threatened the beach boys and
surf bumbs, but truly long long stretches behind bars. Now,
Murph to surf, He's like, I can do that on

(37:24):
my head. You know, it's nothing right now his partner.
Alan Kun is like, I don't know. I don't know
about this. Merph starts like, now it's cool. I doubt
these this DA has anything. Alan, he can't make this
cut and he's like, I'm missing my white Caddy. I'm
missing the beach. Yes, he flips. He cuts a deal.
So he tells him like he'll if you take me there,
I'll show you where the gems are, you know, and anything.

(37:46):
Just just let me out of this. I gotta get
out of Riker's Island. Oh, he sings like a canary.
Yeah exactly. So meanwhile, if a Gabore she drops the charges,
she was you know, she's too busy on green acres
to fly dolland I have to do this show cannot
come right, so they dropped the charges. When Gobar drops
the charges, then the prosecutors like, oh well, and as
I quote from Vanity Fair, apparently he said it served

(38:09):
my purposes. So the charges may have never been real.
Who knows. Anyway, it worked good enough to get Alan
Coon on a flight with three NYPD detectives and that
same New York prosecutor. They all go down to Miami,
where they meet up with the guy Hi the fence,
your family, and they arrange to get the gems back,
and High the fence is telling him, like, you know,
like I have some of the rocks. But in High's terms,

(38:31):
he said, quote, if I did just so happened to
know as some stones might be located, would charges against
that person be dropped if that person was me? Because
that would likely help this person's memory. So there's somebody
to that effect right now. The prosecutor agrees the highest terms,
and suddenly I recall the location of the stones. Now

(38:52):
he took the detectives, the prosecutor, Alan Cone, and they
all go to a Miami diner. So then he tells
him wait outside. Now he goes inside and then a
few minutes pass and then he walks back out and
he goes, I got it right here. Now he has
a key and a note. That's what he has right here,
a key in a note. He says. The note is
directions to the hiding police scavenger hunt.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
We're just there on the junket to go down there,
scavenger hunt.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
Good Sonny Miami, there saw the little treasure hunt. So
the cops follow the notes and all the instructions on
the notes. This leads them to downtown Miami and then
leads them to a Trailways bus station, and then that
guides them inside to the bus station to a bus
station locker, and they go to a bus station locker
nine to eleven and the key. The detectives try the
key and it does indeed open the bus station locker.

(39:39):
Inside was a bag of what looked like dirty clothes.
So there's like some use socks and drawers, nothing anyone
wanted to go digging through. So the three NYPD detectives
and the prosecutor, now a coon, they go back to
a motel room. That's where they dump the contents out
onto a coffee table. And what drops out, Elizabeth, other
than the dirty drawers and the dirty.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Socks, baby Yoda, two.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Good guess, two aquamarine jewels, emeralds, a small sapphire, and
then the Midnight Star clunk wow, and finally out tumbles
the Star of India kunk. Yeah. The New York Prosecutor
expected Allan to hand over all of the gems. Now
inside the bag is most of the gems, so Adam
Kiel explained, he doesn't quite notice this at first. He's explained,

(40:22):
oh well, yeah, I'm sorry, man, we did hawk nine diamonds.
There were little ones. We needed some, you know, walking
around money. The prosecutors like, uh, yeah, they're not all here. Allan,
where's the uh the you know, the big daddy long boy,
the DeLong ruby.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Yeah, the long one exactly.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
So he's on of looking for that one now Alan
At this point he stops grinting. He has no idea
they should be there, as far as he knows they
should be there. Yeah, it's not in the bag of
dirty clothes. So it turns out the missing gem would
be found and it would not be found by a cop.
Enter my freelance writer, Yes, Franciero and Tell, freelance magazine
writer working in the Miami area at the time, selling cars.

(40:59):
So really used cars. He was more of a used
car salesman who occasionally sold his writing for money. So yeah,
that's the really the best way to put it. He
is a he's a freelance writing used car salesman. Yah,
So francis antel. He follows the story in the news
and he's tracking it. Why he's watching it developed, He's
got theories. He's convinced he knows where these missing gems are.
So what does my man Francis do well, this freelance

(41:21):
writing used car salesman. He goes after the story, Elizabeth,
he goes right to the source. Now, do you remember
if I told you about a bandon named Dicky Pearson
that I mentioned him?

Speaker 1 (41:30):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
Dicky Pearson was this local small time criminal that Alan
Cohon asked to hide the gems and he's, man, Hi,
these in my backyard. Yeah, that's right, I told you.
They got back to town. He gone to his friend
Dicky Pearson and said, hey, man, hey, could you hide
these for me? So he had them first in his boat.
Then he gave the rest to Dickey Pearson and said,
hied him in your backyard. So somehow my man Francis

(41:51):
Antel figures this out. He goes to Dickey Pearson, and
Dicky Pearson at this point had been doing his best
impression of laying low. He is. He's trying to be
as cool as Steve McQueen behind the wheel of a
Ford fastback, right, He's just like, I'm all about the
crime live, right. He's trying to be like Florida, a
small time criminal. But my hero Francis ante he knows
a bar where Dicky Pearson likes to drink. So he's like, Okay,

(42:13):
my plan is I'm gonna go and confront this small
time Florida criminal. I'm gonna ask him, point blank, Dickie,
where in your backyard did you hide the gems So
now it's summer of sixty five at this point and
we're in West Palm Beach, Florida. Just to put this
all into perspective, now, I want you to imagine it's
a hot, sticky night. Dicky Pearson's as local bar, Roxy's.
It's on the Dixie Highway there, Okachobe Boulevard. Ok. Now,

(42:35):
Francis Ante, our freelance writing used car salesman. He just
shows up at Roxy, walks right up to Dickey Pearson
and says, hey, man, can I get an interview with you?
Dickie's like, yeah, interview, sure, okay, fine, right, and he's
like now, Francis. He kind of like toughens up after
he gets the agreement. He's like, okay, we're in your
backyard at the gems Bery, Dicky. So what does Dicky

(42:56):
do because he's like, uh, he low key freaks out
a little because like, who is this guy?

Speaker 6 (43:02):
You know?

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Who yeh, I know, who does he represent? Why is
he just coming up Bobby like this, Like he's like,
he's just the baddest man in around. So he's convinced
this guy must know something. So before he like totally
fear pees down his leg, Dicky Pearson goes, I got
the gems man, So he just tells them right, yeah,
he goes like, I gotta let me talk to high
the fence and we'll take care of it.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
Now, this is like school for bad criminals.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
It's amazing just imagining all this happening in a Florida
Bards sixty five. That's the other part. So Dicky Pearson says,
and I quote, it's my understanding that the people who
have the stone are willing to return it if they
can obtain immunity from prosecution. They all talk like damon
runyon asque characters like you know, Harry the Horse says,
if there's a man who is a no, I may

(43:42):
know that man anyway. So Dicky Parrison, he asks, He's like,
by the way, if we can talk community, that would
be great for prosecution, but also maybe a little money
on the side, you know, for the effort. So what
does he ask for twenty one grand. He starts to
touch around.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
He's like, yeah, okay, asks the freelance journalist for twenty one.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
He doesn't know who this is. Remember this guy came
on him like he's a tough guy, right, So he's
like okay, now, oh my boy. The freelance writing youth
car salesman. He doesn't know anybody. He's not representing anybody.
As you point out, he has no money. He has
the ability to make a deal, but he's like okay.
He bluffs him. He's like, I'll be in touch. So
now he's got to go find this money. So what
does he do? He does what he does best. He

(44:20):
does research. He starts reading. He reads a lot. He's
a writer, so he's the library and he's just And
then also he knows a couple of criminals. So he
starts listening to what's the word on the street. He
hears from the word on the street that there's this
missing stone. The last one is most likely in the
possession of some loan sharks. They have it and uh,
they know the stone is hot and they want to
get rid of for some ready cash. Yeah, so what

(44:41):
does our freelance writing youth car salesman. Do now, Elizabeth, Well,
you tell me. He goes to his editor because he's
got a story. He's like, I need money. I'm gonna
go to my editor. So he goes. He lays the
whole story out in his lap. And his editor is
dude named Bill Antel, not the an anyway, their names
are similar. Anyway, Bill Antell, he's a city desk at
or Miami right, So he's a former investigative reporter. He

(45:03):
loves his story. He starts digging into it. He comes
back to Francis Antel and he's like, look, man, I
can't corroborate enough of this, so this story doesn't check out.
We can't run with this. He's like, what are you
talking about? I got it all here. Francis freaks out
freelance writer style. Yeah, and the editor's like, look man,
you got to calm down. So Francis the freelance writing
youth car salesman, he's like, this is this is fine.
I'll take it somewhere else. So he's like, who else

(45:25):
has deep pockets? When want this story? The New York
papers and so he contacts the New York Daily News.
They love this story. They're all about it. Francis now
has a new lifeline, but there's one problem. They will
not pay the loan sharks for the gym, so he
still has a problem. He now he's somewhere to publish
his story, but he needs money and he's a broke
ass freelance writer. So what's he gonna do. Well, he

(45:45):
goes to a local billionaire, because duh, who has money?
He's billionaires. Money's like it's a plural.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
Anywhere they have the money, they.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Have the money, lots of the money, so many moneies.
So this is the mid nineteen sixties, right, and this
guy was an accessible billionairess the mid sixties, so he
liked to take lunch and hold court at a corner
table at a hotel coffee shop. So he can just
find his billionaire sitting at a hotel coffee shop. Now,
the reason why he liked this one is he owned
it so he could tell people to get out.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Who is this billionaire?

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Oh yeah, well i'll tell you one sex So Labor
Day in nineteen sixty five, Francis antell. He walks in
to visit the billionaire in his you know, coffee shop office,
tells him, look, I need twenty five grand for some
ransom money for this missing gem from the National History Museum.
You probably read it about his big news and consider
you're you know, it's important, and this billionaire is like hmm.
He gets curious. He does consider it his civic duty

(46:33):
to help the billionaire. Elizabeth John D. MacArthur, Oh same
John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of TBS and
NPR fames.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
And cries you know what, viewers like you exactly.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
You know it. So that dude sitting there in his
corner booth of the coffee shop, he listens to Francis
lay out the story and he's like, hmmm, I don't know,
my boy, this all sounds like hogwash or some kind
of Yankee balder dash. I'm I'm kidding. He's from Pittsburgh.
He doesn't talk about it all anyway. Francis antel. He's persuasive.
He convinces the billionaire to throw in his money to
help him get back the gemstones. Right, So now he's

(47:06):
got financial backing. So what does he do. He goes
over to a hotel room where Dicky Pearson's waiting and
he tells him, look, man, I got the money. You
tell those loan sharks. I got the money and it's
twenty five grand. Dicky Pearson degrees, He's like, all right, cool.
September second rolls around Johndie MacArthur, Francis Antel. They hit
up the first Marine Bank, which he owns, Johnny MacArthur owns.
He's like, look, this is the bank president, a future

(47:28):
by the way, Florida State Senate president. Just you know, coincidentally,
just saying, you know, billionaires can make power. Anyways, happened,
So he and Antel counted out the money right, and
small bills, no consecutive serial numbers, just like in the
movies Elizabeth.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Right.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
Then Antell takes his money and he shoves fifteen bundles
into his coat pockets. He doesn't want to have like
a money bag. So he's just like walking around like
the Michelin man with stuff cash right now. First though,
he had to meet Dicky Pearson in an elementary school
parking lot. So because the reason why is Dicky doesn't
have the rubies on him, but he's got info on
the where the ruby is, and the deal is if

(48:01):
it works, then the ruby is recovered and they'll give
the money. So waiting back at his place is John D.
MacArthur waiting by the phone. He gets the phone call.
It's Francis. He tells him, all right, go to a
phone booth at a gas station at West Palm Beach, right.
So billionaire goes over there and he's at the newspaper
editor from the New York Daily News with him and
a photographer. He's like, okay, it's on the Florida Turnpike.

(48:23):
You can't miss it. So they drive over there. They
get to the phone booth and they're they're looking around
the phone rings. After a couple of minutes like, oh,
thank god, it's you know, it's Francis and Dickey. And
he's like, okay, did you where is it again? Due
looked around on the ground right, he's telling where to look.
He's like, I don't see it, right. So the billionaire
is telling the editor where to look. The editor's on
his knees, messing up his suit, and eventually he's like,

(48:45):
I don't see it. I can't find it. We're asking where,
and it's like they're you, going back and forth. So wait,
I got it. I found it. He looks down. He
holds up this giant stolen ruby just sitting there in
a phone booth and a gas station in Florida for
anyone to find, and the photographer snaps his like epic
shot of him holding up the ruby to the billionaire.

(49:05):
Now they still have to decide is this real? Right?
Maybe it's So they go back and they have an expert,
a jewelry expert, waiting at the hotel, and he checks
it with the loop and he's like, it's real. The
billionaires overjoyed, but now they got to go give the
money to Dicky Pearson. So they hop in the car
and they go over Howard Johnson's just north of the
Miami Ear. Yeah, right, you know, it's time to pay

(49:25):
Dicky Pearson. So they walk in and they're immediately greeted
by that warm, friendly aroma of the extra cheesy mac
and cheese of Howard Johnson's. Then they sit down in
a booth and Dicky Pearson strolls in, cool as he
can be, wordlessly, just picks up the twenty five grand
walks out, Dicky. Wow, done deal with Dicky. Right next day,
the New York Daily News has their exclusive Here's Ruby,

(49:46):
and everyone's all excited. Museum of Natural History flies down,
they pick up the Gemstones. The DeLong is back on
display that same week. Right, you can go there today,
go see it. It is back on display.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
The Long one.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Yeah, everyone's excited now. The charming anti hero of the day,
Murph the surf, the guy who at the heart of
the story, he went on to some truly terrible things.
So if you go and look into a story, I
just know that it is the type of stories we
don't tell. His story, it gets kind of bleak, but
he does then find the Lord and he brings grace
and compassion to the lives of thousands of inmates. So
there is that anyway. Dickie Pearson he gets arrested months

(50:19):
after this exchange where he then gets caught and he
still has some of the ransom money on him and
he has one due ten years in federal prison. Oh
man Hi the Fence. He also gets busted and convicted
for surprise surprise fencing. Jewels Francis Antel, the freelance writing
youth car salesman. He wrote a book about his adventures
as an amateur detective. And look at that, Elizabeth. He
didn't even have to go to prison to do it

(50:43):
time amazing. Gus Hope to all the other writers anyway.
Francis Antel's book is called Ransom and Gems, the DeLong
Ruby Story. It's kind of a mundane title, but not
bad book. It's the job done anyway. Marphed the Serf.
He did have one last great quote, and it wasn't
about Primo afghany Oh darn it no, this one. It
came about after his second stint in the big house. See,

(51:04):
cautions at school and work aren't enough to help a
person walk the good path in life, especially when you're
rehabilitating someone who's gone wayward. And I quote Murph the Surf.
He says, if you don't deal with a person's heart,
with their soul, all you're doing is passing out band aids.
Oh wow, Murph the Surf going deep. All right, Murph, anyway,
there you go. There's my story of a ridiculous stride

(51:26):
and a freelance writer as our hero contest. So it's
a ridiculous takeaway.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
Again, planning, you know they did. There was some lack
of planning going on.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
They basically treated it like you know, like you know,
the surfer, you paddle out and your plan is I'm
just dropping in.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
It's kind of jazz jazz.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
They're just like, oh well, I'm in the right spot.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
But also just some I mean, obviously, I think when
people have these criminal tendencies, they also have impulse control issues.
And these guys have this serious impulse control of like,
just because you have the money doesn't mean you have
to spend it right now in the flat.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Oh yeah, their blood was like pure adderall it's just
like pumping anyway, Thanks for listening.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
You can find us online Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter
and Instagram. Uh Twitter, for as long as it's still going.
You can find us there. On Instagram, We've got pictures
and stories and so forth. Yeah. Also you can get
sneak peeks of our upcoming episodes at both spots. Emails
if you like, at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com,
and you could download the talkback app from iHeart and

(52:28):
talk back at us. We like listeners, we do. We'll
catch you next time. Ridiculous Crimes hopcially by Elizabeth Dutton
and Zaron Brennant, produced edited by our Big Kahuna on
the Ones and Tuesdave Houston. Research is by coffee shop
Billionaire of Facts MRSA. Brown and Andrea Son Chopper and
kere Our. Theme song is by Thomas Moondog Lee and

(52:50):
Travis Daddio. Dutton Executive producers are Ben The Midnight Star
of Georgia Bolan and Noel The Star of Indiana.

Speaker 5 (52:58):
Wow, Ridicous Crime, Say It One More Time Ridiquious Crime.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
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.