March 25, 2025 • 55 mins
Bob Nygaard, a former NYPD detective turned private investigator is a real gumshoe's gumshoe. Like he stepped off the pages of a noir detective novel, the snap-brim fedora-wearing P.I. is the man folks call when a phony psychic fleeces them out of a fortune. And Bob Nygaard, psychic detective, gets them justice.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Elizabeth and Saren. Oh my god, if I got a
question for you, girl, do you know what it's ridiculous?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
I do you look like you?
Speaker 4 (00:12):
It's yeah, I was reading it and making faces. It's
we've gotten this from a couple listeners. But it's a
It's not a mashup unless you count the human body and.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Beef.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Depends on how they're combined.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Okay, So there's this guy in his forties.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
You know, people listen to the TikTok and all about
all sorts of things, and I think one of the
worst things that they listen about.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Is like healthy advice.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah, dietary advice, oral health stuff. Suddenly everyone's got whatever
condition and they self right, and then there are all
these like diets of like, well, you know, drink this
tea and you'll poop yourself.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh gon be great.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, So because I want to do that, poop myself.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
That's how I feel helpful.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
So remember Atkins was like.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, that was like I eat all the meat, right.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Eat all the meat, like bacon it up.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Then he I have a heart attack.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
No carbs. I think he did. Actually, so this guy
in his forties.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
He saw these online things about how you have to
eat like a high fat, meat heavy diet and that you'll,
you know, transcend into a body of an Adonis and
the mind of a genius. So he did that, and
every single day for eight months, he ate.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
How can you think anything you do every day, like
we're going to eat the same thing every day every
eight month, eight months, How can you imagine that's gonna
be good? I mean, like, just come on, man, But.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
You know what he ate every day eight months? Six
to nine pounds what of cheese, stix of butter and hamburgers,
ham murgers. I'm gonna guess the no bun so just
like ground.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So in total to nine pounds of all these things cheese.
So we're talking like two pounds of per meal.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Essentially two pounds.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Two to three pounds per meal like ground ba more
than a quarter pounder, right, because that's a quarter of
a pound. He's got to four quarter pounders to get
up to a pound. And then that's that's it, says
cooking it down.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So he lost weight.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yeah, he had increased energy and improved mental clarity.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
However, then he went to the hospital.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Because his cholesterol was through the roof hands.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
The palms of his hands, his elbows, and the soles
of his feet were covered in these like smooth yellowish
nodules like deposits. A picture is fast, it's it's cholesterol.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
It's actual cholesterol, just pooling itchlesteroleterol. It leaked out of
his arteries and veins.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
His cholesterol levels exceeded one thousand milligrams per desolater and
that his baseline is two ten to three hundred normal
cholesterol ranges or low two hundred, and so we had
it's called zam philasma sure lesterol deposits that build on
the skin, and so it happens like one percent of
(03:11):
women in point three percent of men that if you
have this, you get yellow growths on your eyelids near
the nose.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
But it means that, like.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
You know, your heart's really struggling because you got a
lot of the cholesterol you need cholesterol, but not all
of the cholesterol.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, you need all the things. You need fat, you
need salt, you need cholesterol. Nothing is bad. It's the house.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
He went so hard in the paint that it was
coming out of his hands, and the pictures are so gnarly.
But it's like I'm just thinking, like he must have
smelled terrible.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Oh my god, yes, well that cholesterol. Beef dogs loved him,
and cheese dogs are licking the skin.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, he's just I am become cow.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, oh god, dogs, You're right. That is ridiculous. Thank
you very much. What's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Wow, he's going to need a moment to recover from.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I literally was reading the news article about it.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
And realized I was making this really bad face, like
a stink face, And then I got to the pictures
you're making it now?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, if you got a second, I got one. It's
not nearly as gross, but it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Elizabeth. If I say the words psychic detective, what do.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
You picture a psychic detective?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Mm hmm. Well today I have a story for you
that will answer the question of what is the answer
to that question? And I guarantee it's ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
I love this.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
heist and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one h hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Oh, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, We've covered so many strange stories. We've
had psychic horses, We've had pet detectives.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Today I want to tell you a story that combines those.
For a psychic detective.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Is it a horse?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
No, but it's not like a how it sounds. The
detective is not a psychic. Instead, he investigates fake psychics.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Oh yes, yes, like a dude dude Bro I talked about.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Exactly, dude Bro, just like him. This is Bob Nierguard.
He's dude. Bro's a colleague, okay, colleague. Yeah, my man
Bob is a real old school detective. Like he dresses
like an old school gum shoe he does. Yeah, his
heroes are my man Sam Spade, like the Humphrey Bogart versus.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Is he like current modern day.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yes, he is a like two thousand teens and two
thousand oughts.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Anywhere, like a door, but not in a Milady way.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Like snap brim. Humphrey bock Art felt like, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
He pull it off.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's abatable, you know, like he pulls it off.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
For him.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I would say this, his attitude is right for it.
He pulls it off.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, I mean like I would recommend that he go
fully into it, get himself like one of those Borcelino
nice like Italian like felt like crushed, the kind of
you know Humphy bo Art would have worn. Yeah, exactly,
but whatever, we don't even I'm not even sure if
you have those types of hats available to the average
person anymore. You know, I don't like they have to
like travel to Italy. Yeah, you gotta like really go
(06:39):
around to like the Chappoe shop.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I think most men I'm looking to useer and should
just go buy all their clothes in Italy, oh, because
I mean everyone has the resources for that totally.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
And I've got a lot of reasons to France, to
travel outside of the States and to get out able
to maybe get myself some outfits, some new fits.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I'm looking to get deported something.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
I don't know where to where they would deport me,
but I mean I don't anticipate it.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah it's coming.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
If they deported me, I'd have to be sent in pieces.
Some go here, some go there.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Likewise here.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
So my man, Bob Niguard as I said, his personal
style is a trench coat clad detectives right the snap
brim Fedora. So picture that and then also I'll tell
you about the man inside the outfit with the clothes
don't make Bob Niguard was once a cop. Not only that,
he was born in Queens, raised in Long Island, and
became a cop for the NYPD. Nice, yeah, transit cop
(07:34):
work in the subway in the eighties when it was
like the like, yeah, the rough eighties. Like people were like, yes, exactly,
a little post Curperco, post Bernie Getz, you know, like
right just just after that. But like this is like
when you had the Guardian Angels, right, like those guys
cruising around.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
And they hadn't cleaned up Times Square yet.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
No, yeah, no, this was still grimy and cracky and shows, yeah,
the whole bit. Yeah. As Bob Nygard said of his
time as a transit cup Weather, I got along with
the criminals better than I did with my colleagues. I
was like oil and water at the police department. So
we got a real loose cannon here, Elizabeth, real cowboy.
I know how you love them now. Despite being a
(08:16):
superco two point zero, he does credit his time behind
the Blue Line from making him into the private dick
that he would become. As he put it, quote, I
wouldn't be the PI I am today without all the
lessons I learned on the street. Yeah, life on the street. Now,
late in his career as a cop, he began to
focus on crime that he would later focus on as
a PI. Bob worked insurance scams, sweetheart swindles, Spanish prisoner cons,
(08:40):
fortune telling, grifters, and this is how Bob decided to
join up with the National Association of Bunco Investigators. You
need to get a membership.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
For the Yeah, like yesterday.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I know, right, I didn't even know it was the thing.
But now I'm like, I gotta get you a gift
membership of Bunco Investigator.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
All right, Well I have that badge Nabi.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Okay, you do have the Special Investigator mat certified.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Dude, I'm gonna start carrying that with me.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
I don't know why you don't, because I used to
be worried i'd get arrested for having it.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Now it's gonna save.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Me, yes, exactly. You go out there and fight law
in order to know.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
So.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
After Bob retired from being a cop, then he did
what so many retired New York cops too. Elizabeth he
moved to Florida, specifically Boca Raton, Florida. I don't I
don't think any boat because I know he got bored.
And then once he got bored, he went back to
what he did best. He started investigating scams, cons grifters,
and Florida has plenty of those. So he decided, I'm
gonna go pro. There's enough of a market here. So
(09:41):
he took a PI test, got himself a license, and
now here he was the same as Magnum p I
my man Jim Rockford was a licensed private investigator.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
You were short shirts under the trench.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
That would be amazing, showing like thigh me.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Trend like sir, please sure, oh dear wait leave it open.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So the paradise that he picked wasn't Hawaii in the
eighties or La in the seventies. He picked Florida in
the early odds. That's when he starts his career right.
The work paid well. He earned about five grand case.
Sometimes in complicated affairs, he might charge as much as
twenty percent of what he recovered. Okay tonb a lot.
You know her minded my man Travis McGee, the fictional detective,
(10:21):
I like, yeah, he was a salvage consultant. He took
fifty percent of what he recovered. So this guy, Bob's
a deal.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Yeah, Travis mcgee'e, you do, I know, right? I think
everyone's got to have like a detective.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Who's their detective?
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Their mine would be bosh, yes, lash, Yes, that's.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Very creating for you.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Greatest book series, greatest TV show.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I got to get into this. I have them. You
gave me a few. I gotta read them, to read them.
So where well? Oh yeah, Bob, he decides to become
a psychic detective. Why, great question, listen, thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I was just wondering that he started.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
To investigate the sort of crime as he'd done as
an NYPD cop. Right, so then you know, with the
plenty of work, he's like, okay, two thousand and eight,
I'm going to become a psychic detective. His first case
hooked him. It was a doozy Elizabeth. It was a Wednesday.
Bob was thirsty as a sailor on shore leave, so
he spent some shoe leather taking the short hike over
to his favorite watering hole, a neighborhood bar still happy hour,
(11:15):
Bob ordered his first drink now before he knew it.
Bob's chatting with a pair of dames, eager to hear
about his days as a New York detective. He's impressed
in the Florida ladies with some of his war stories
from his days on the street. The dames amused. Bob
gave them one of his business cards in case they
ever needed a private dick to help them out sometime,
wouldn't you know, Elizabeth. It wasn't long before one of
(11:35):
the women called him, like, not long at all. Fifteen
minutes after Bob left the bar, the woman asked him
if he would meet her somewhere discreet. He asked her
where she had in mind. She named a gas station
the mobile on the corner. So it turns out it
wasn't a love connection. Instead, she needed a PI. The
woman was a doctor. She sounded embarrassed about the fact
(11:58):
that she needed his help. Recalls The doctor said, quote,
I didn't want to say this in front of my friend,
but a psychic has taken over ninety thousand dollars from me.
Whoa yeah, whoa yeah, like reached into her pocket and
took it. No, not exactly, so this is how much
it takes. Before she realized she's being conn ninety grand
that was her line, right, So Bob he agrees to
(12:18):
take the case, and this was his first case. The
psychic was a woman named Gina Marie Marx. She was
a Florida psychic, well known notorious fortune teller in the
Miami area.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
She'd be a notorious Miami fortune teller.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Is so suitable for you, Like you go to your
high school reunion. What are you doing, Elizabeth? Well, I'm
a notorious fortune teller in the Miami area.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
I can think of all sorts of things.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Well.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
She'd written the book Oh by the Way, under her
pen name Regina Milbourne, which reminded me of your pen name,
Regina corn Tower. Yeah, so I was like, wow, you
two are like, am I her? Yeah? I was kind
of wondering. I was going to I'm confused, but I
saw pictures. I was like, Okay, that's not Elizabeth. Okay,
yeah no, But anyway, using the name pen name Regina Milbourne,
South Florida psychic, she writes this book called Miami Psychic
(13:02):
Confessions of a Confidant. Most of it was lies, apparently,
I don't know. So the doctor told Bob that she
first went to visit this psychic after she came to
believe that a coworker had placed a curse on her.
According to the doctor, her coworker, I'm assuming a nurse
buried a piece of rotting meat and the curse was
causing her life to deteriorate, just the same as the
meat was underground. Also, she was worried that the curse
(13:25):
would eventually lead her to being deported from the United States.
Those are the fears that the psychic starts to leverage, right,
She says, Oh, I can lift this curse, but of
course it'll cost her. The doctor agrees. The psychic tells her,
you need to do whatever I say. So she's like,
we need to do a cleansing ritual. She was supposed
to rub an egg while she chanted magical words, and
then she was supposed to wrap up like thousands of
(13:46):
dollars inside of a silk handkerchief. Then she was to
give the handkerchief, the egg, and the thousands of dollars
to the psychic to be blessed at a sacred altar
located in Hollywood, California.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Oh yeah, that's the most sacred of places.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Just that sentence alone should tell you something.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
With a.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Wall exactly so. But this wasn't all. The doctor also
needed her to burn special candles to release the curse,
and that those would also be an up charge. The
doctor gave the psychic her credit card info to pay
for all of it.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Those candles better small gag.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Oh, I'm telling you, and long burning, I hope. So
after she finished telling Bob her said sad tale of whoa,
she asked the psychic detective to get her justice.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Now she was not the first or the only victim
of this infamous South Florida psychic. As Bob investigates and
starts getting into the case, he learns as another victim,
a young attorney Miami who was built out of three
hundred and twelve thousand dollars. That's more than three times
more than the doctor. We got a doctor and an attorney,
yes together between them four hundred grand, just two victims. Wow,
(14:50):
an attorney and a doctor. Now, just like with the doctor,
the psychic GenAm remarks, had the young attorney run the
same psychic therapy with the egg and the thousands of dollars?
You know what, I haven't given you a proper d
tails of the old egg business. Please the victims were
supposed to take an egg and rub it all over
their naked body.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
That would be it was in front of the psychic
or just.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
At home at their discretion. That would be the first
step to undo the voodoo curse.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Right, whimper, no, no, maybe.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Close your eyes. I'm gonna rob it. I'm robbing it.
So this would be the first step to unlock the
voodoo curse that she was under, and she believed that
there had been placed on her by her childhood Haitian maid.
So she did as instructed to rub the egg on
her naked body and brought it back to the psychic,
who then took the egg, cracked it, and Elizabeth, a
live black spider crawled out of the cracked eggshell. What boom?
(15:40):
That did it? The lawyer knew she was cursed, right.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
You know, I'd be thinking I have such an ego
that I'd be like, I'm stronger than any of your curses.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I curse you, you know, curse what's curses over here?
But then you do the whole spider coming out of
the egg.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I lose it worked on That little magic trick was
proof of the curse for her too. So the psychic
informs the young attorney that she's possessed. Right, and then
she had not one, not two, but ninety nine evil
spirits inhabiting her body, Elizabeth, and exactly right, and soon
being rich. Ain't one right her one of her ninety
nine problems anyway. Now, Gina Marie Marks is about to
(16:15):
take up all this woman's money. But that is unless
my man, Bob Niguard can stop her. Now, let's take
a little break. We'll use How about this, You use
your psychic powers and after these messages, we'll see if
you can divine correctly how Bob Niguard gets justice.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Oh, I'm gonna work on that, all right, Elizabeth, We're back,
(16:51):
Yes we are.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
How you enjoined Bob Niguard.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
I love this. I'm loving this so far. But I
want a little Niguard my life.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (16:58):
So.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
In twenty eighteen, Bob Niguard gave an interview to the
outlet Skeptical Inquirer, which I need to get a membership too.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Is a magazine.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a website devoted
to parsing fact from fiction. I love this right, It's
like with a fox molder like desire to know if
the truth is out there, I have that. In his interview,
Bob Niguard was asked, quote, do you go into every
case with a belief that there can't possibly be anything
real regarding the psychic in question? Or are you open
to finding out someone actually has the paranormal powers they
(17:26):
claim to have? And you know, based on his decades
as a New York cop and his decade as a
PI in Florida, Bob had a ready answer. He said,
and I quote, I'm open minded. I'm absolutely one hundred
percent open minded. I don't believe in it. I don't
believe anyone has ever been able to prove they have
psychic ability since the beginning of recorded time. But I
always look at things with an open mind.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
I love it. I'm right on track with him.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
The reason he remains extra suspicious is due to what
all he's seen and heard does. Bob explained the ones
that I investigate. When I first screened the call and
the person tells me about the case, it almost just
jumps out at me. Where all the lies are. The
modus operandi is very evident to me right from the start,
and there are patterns tall Marks. If you will start
the person off at a nominal fee, have a progression
(18:12):
of fees, create a sense of dependency, create a siege mentality.
It's a lot of the same things that you would
see from a cult leader to gain control over his followers.
So boom, now back to tack attack attack exactly, but
also just like destabilize, like separate from all family and people,
all that stuff. Right. But in the case of Gina
(18:32):
Marie Marks, this is definitely her mo Yeah, now where
were we? Oh, that's right, the doctor scammed by her,
and so also was a young attorney to the tune
of four hundred grands. So according to the young attorney,
she experienced nearly the same story as the doctor. Again,
there was cursed meat. Again it was buried. In the
case of the young attorney, yes, she was told that
her former haiti made from childhood, had buried an animal
(18:55):
carcass on the girl's parents property. But then, to make
her spell extra potent, she'd buried the other half of
the carcass high up on a mountaintop in Columbia, the
country Columbia. So the haiti goes to Columbia.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
She somehow transported half of a dead what animal?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yes, and okay, to a mountaintop in Columbia.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
Someone tells you this, and like I said, I should
give you ten to curse you back, like double treble.
Your curse for touching this, your curse for doing that.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Now you're everyone's curse, your whole family cursed. So well. Anyway,
this psychic right, she's she is able to get this
past this poor attorney or about to be poor attorney.
And the psychic tells her that she needs thousands of
dollars to lift this curse, and specifically, she'd need to
travel to Colombia track up to that exact mountaintop to
(19:46):
remove the curse. Sure, yeah, she wouldn't just need airfare,
hotel rooms of per DM. No, the psychic would also
need some special GPS equipment to locate the exact BURI
of course, the meat from the curse. Of course, I
guess the spirits are going to give her precise GPS coordinates.
I don't know how this works anyway. One month afterwards,
the young attorney pays for the track to Columbia. The psychic,
(20:07):
Gina remarks, contacts the young attorney to let her know
she made the trip. I got back from Columbia, and
it was hellish. According to the psychic, she claimed that
she witnessed her trail guide die right before her eyes.
Do you want to you want to guess how? They
shouldn't be laughing, But I think it's a lie, so
I think I can laugh. Do you know how the
(20:28):
trail guide died right before her eyes? He was killed
by a giant mosquito. I assume it means he was
bitten and died from sickness, and not that he was
like carried off like a giant, coming down.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Like an eagle pulling a fish from the river.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Exactly. Now, you may be wondering about the curse itself. Well,
despite the jungle hike and the GPS coordinates and the giant.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Mosquito, large mosquito, the psychic told.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
The young attorney she needed to do some more psychic
battle to get her fully free of the ninety nine demons.
There's ninety nine of them. So also she had good news.
The young attorney was secretly among one of the select
few who were called to save the world.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Oh that's great coincidence.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
He's even better than that, Elizabeth, because she was part
of an ultra secret group known as the Group of Twelve.
It was so ultra secret that the Young Attorney didn't
even know she was a member. The Group of Twelve
was an ultra secret cabal that was representative of the
twelve Disciples of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
I'm part of it, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
It has number seven. The young Attorney was key to
the group's future, since one day she would have twins,
and not just any old twins, Elizabeth. One of her
children would usher in the apocalypse. Oh fun, you probably
guessed it. One of her twins would be the newly
returned Savior, the prophesied Messiah come back to Earth to
do battle against the Antichrist. Just come to earth, depending
(21:55):
on how you view the whole story. Sure, now, that
must have been a lot to hear from this poor woman.
I mean, one day you're rubbing an egg on your
naked body, trying to lift a curse, get free of
your ninety nine demons. The next day you find out
you're gonna be mother to Jesus two point zero. Yeah,
that's heavy, right. Also, imagine just the the poor other twin,
who isn't Jesus the return like that kid? Yes, and
(22:18):
I'm jeff this is my son Jesus Junior, my other boy. Hi,
I'm Jeff, I'm Chef. So yeah, you got like this
one's like, is the twins special at all? It also
is it identical twins? Like you look like Jesus, but
you've got none of the powers.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Well then you're like go around pretending you're Jesus.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Or is it like that they're paternal twins but they
don't look alike and you're like, oh, yeah, god's his father.
My dad's Greg, you know.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Like praternal twins and he's you know.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You imagine your twin brothers performing miracles, life of the party,
this one.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Walking on the water.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Everybody loves them, and you're like, oh, I'm a shepherd.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yeah yeah, but maybe he excels an other thing.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
This is true. Maybe you're right, I shouldn't.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
It's like Jeff is a master of the harpsichord and
like his tunes just you know, unite.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
The world totally. They make the heavens come alive here
on earth. Music, Well mind, psyche Gina remarks. She convinces
his young attorney that she's going to be the new Mary,
the mother of the next Jesus. But at this point
the attorney is like, Okay, I'm starting to have some doubts.
So eventually the deaths blossom into rational thoughts and this
(23:27):
is when she hires Bob Niguard to come and get
her money back. So now he's got two clients trying
to get him to track down the same scammer. Bob
takes a trip to find the childhood maid who first
placed the curse, and would you believe it, he found
her because the psychic told the attorney that her Haitian
maid was dead, and turns out she was very much
still on this side of the grass, and Niguard spoke
(23:49):
with her. Not only that, he filmed the conversation, brought
it back and he played it for the young attorney
so she could like believe everything she sees.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Right, this giant mosquitos exactly, I want this pictures, pictures.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
It didn't happen. So that is what she now. She
faces the truth, right, she's she's been conned. There's no
doubt about it. And here's what I haven't told you yet.
There was way more than the naked egg rubbing. And
then she was tricked into doing to lift this curse.
As Bob Nigart learned in his investigation. By the way,
so the young attorney had to keep a spit jar
under her bed. She had to spit in it all
(24:24):
the time, and it was covered in a black pillow case.
And this was to ward off evil spirits.
Speaker 6 (24:28):
Right.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
She also was only.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Supposed to eat red potential suitors.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Friends, suitors, roommates. She was also only supposed to eat
red fruits. Okay, I don't know, but for whatever reason,
but it's supposed to be symbolic of blood. Sure, I
don't know if she was like only eating red fruits,
like she wasn't eating bread, but that's what I read.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
I could do only red fruits of the fruit that
I would eat.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
If the flesh was red. But like what if they're.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Like, yeah, so, like really good strawberries and aren't white
in the center.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
You know, or pomegranate, dragonfruit, yeah, watermes start fruit, one
of those.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Ones red, a deep red watermelon.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That'd be good.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
So, But beyond the fruits and the spit jar, she
was all supposed to give her psychic tissue and bodily
fluid samples such as hair clippings. You're in samples, So
right there, I'm gonna have my dots. If you're exactly
if you're psychic asking for a poop sample, I'm like, okay,
wait a minute. Also, she gave the young attorney some
old tricks, the kind you might give to a high
(25:26):
school wrestler who's trying to cut weight before a big match. Yeah.
She told her to rub a special gel all over
her naked body. I guess this is after the eggs
a lot of naked body, and then wrap herself in
a clear plastic cling wrap, like like sand wrap. Yeah,
and then go jogging for six miles with no imagin're
supposed to put on like a tracksuit or slats. I
(25:47):
guess the idea is that demons are much like me.
They don't like to jog, and you're gonna get rid
of demons if you jogging. So the psychic Geena remarks
a right, she goes for broke. She tells the attorney
to at one point to lie down on her floor
like she's on an imaginary crucifix, and to recite prayers
to prepare herself as preparation to be the mother of
Jesus two point zero. And lastly, she told her, you
(26:08):
need to stop taking birth control girl, because you need
to get pregnant for the law, and so, you know,
because you're going to bring back the Princess Peace. I
don't think so. No, yeah, no, she's gonna have to
go find like she's got God. You know, he's you know,
she's a husband per se in this case, you know,
it's gonna the holy Holy Inseminator. So after she'd been
through all this and thoroughly fleeced as I said, she
(26:30):
turns to Bob Niguard, right, psychic detective who's already working
the same perp for a different client, so now he's
working them both. Takes four years of investigating, four years. Yes,
he turns over his evidence, sixty five thousand dollars worth
of fraud that he can track down, and he gives
him to the Briard County DA to pursue. They pursue
with charges. Then Geinaber remarks, goes on the run, and
the rest warrants issue. The psychic pulls a new magic trick.
(26:53):
She disappears. Yeah, she's now wanted, by the way, in
multiple states. She's faced justice in other states prior to this.
I'm just leaving out for the cleanliness of the story,
but Bob Niguard, psychic detective, is the one who brings
her to justice. The PI was there when she was
finally caught it, so he put it attractor to New York,
tractor to Phoenix, tractor to King's Beach, California. He's bouncing
(27:15):
around the map, right, and then finally he caught up
to her again in Florida. Though. But rather than me
tell you about it, Elizabeth, close your eyes and I'd
like you to picture it. Lizlie, It's twenty seventeen and
you are presently at the Miami International Airport. You are
seated at the gate waiting to board a flight to Barcelona, Spain.
(27:36):
You've been there before, had a beautiful time, and you've
been looking forward to going back. You've been invited to
travel to Barcelona to take part in a book festival.
A novel you wrote has been translated into Spanish and
become a bestseller in a second language. The whole thing
amuses you. Never did you think any of this would
happen when you wrote your novel about dog trainers in
the San Diego area and your journey to become a
(27:56):
stripper who doesn't take off any of her clothes. It's
a comical novel with the tie at sloths. We wear
robes anyway. At the moment, you're waiting for your flight,
as you eavesdrop on the folks seated near you, a
writer's habit, if ever there was one. As you scan
the crowd, you hear an announcement over the pa your
flight will begin boarding, sir. Then you see it, a
man in a snap brim fedora staring at you. He
(28:19):
looks like a noir detective who stepped right off the
pages of a Sam Spade mystery book. As you check him,
you get the feeling he's maybe not staring at you.
You casually turn and see these looking past you at
a woman who's also wearing a fedora. Interesting, you think,
you wonder if they know each other. Maybe they're both detectives.
There's a man with her. He looks to be her husband,
(28:40):
based on how they're somewhat short with each other. They
look nervous, a little worried. Maybe the noir detective is
clocking their every move. Then it hits you, oh, he's
a cop or a PI. He's clearly watching them. Then
you remember where you saw him and that same woman before.
It was at the TSA security line. They were in
line near you. The husband and wife were fighting then too.
(29:01):
The airline staff is getting ready at the gate. Now
they're almost ready to start boarding the plane. You watch
the man and the snap brim fedora as he checks
his watch. Then he cranes his neck to see if
anyone is approaching. At least that's what it looks like.
Then you spotted what the man in the fedora must
have been looking for. Two Miami Dade Sheriff's deputies emerge
from the crowd. They're headed right for your gate. Oh
(29:24):
it's about to get good, you think to yourself. He
watched the two deputies. They walk right up to the
woman in the white fedora and her husband. She looks
up at them, and you listen intently. As the deputies
introduce themselves. They asked the woman to stand up. You
turn to see the man in the snap brim fedora
practically leap out of his seat. He walks over to
the deputies. He reaches them just as one of the
(29:46):
deputies says to the woman, we have a warrant for
your arrest. You need to come with us. The look
on her face is priceless. The man in the snap.
Brim Fedora introduces himself to the deputies as Bob Nygard,
psychic detective. It was him who called them to report her,
he says. The deputies thank them for his service. Then
you hear Bob say, you see that total look of
shock on her face. That's the look of justice. So
(30:10):
there you go what it feels like when Bob Nyguard
gets justice. Now, I think my man Samsbay would have
been a little had a snappier line. Perhaps it probably
been like she'd the look of a girl who someone
just stole her birthday cake right out of her hands,
And I was that jerk right now. Jeana Marimarks had
been caught by Bob Nyguard for a third time. At
this point, she was tried, sentenced, and convicted to six
(30:31):
years in prison. Trying to catch her over and over again.
He's finally this is the time, bit center, Yeah, this
is literally he gets his first case and then is
his repeater.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
Yah.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Now, if you're wondering, it's not always easy to get
justice for the vics of these fraudulent fortune tellers, because one,
there aren't many laws to apply in the state of
New York. There is an old law that makes prognostication
and sooth's saying a misdemeanor, but it's like a five
hundred dollars fine, maybe three months in jail if the
judge wants to be a hard ass. But if the
psychic milks the victim for enough money, they can cross
(31:06):
over into grand theft or possible larceny. And if that happens,
then a fortune teller can catch real time like up
to twenty five years in the state pen if a
judge really wants to throw the book at him.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Now, but this is always once again, if the DA
even wants to pursue the case to get it before
the judge, which they often don't because you don't make
many political points or smart headlines for busting a psychic.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
In fact, he can actually look silly and trivial. Yeah, So,
as Bob Niguard would point out to the folks at
the DA's office that quote, the women who are part
of these criminal enterprises commit fortune telling, fraud, sweetheart swindles, shoplifting,
an insurance fraud. It's organized crime and usually a family affair.
So he's trying to make it like it's like I'm
like mob families organized crime. It's a family affair. I'm like,
(31:46):
do they have omerica? And is there a code of silence?
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:49):
So the FBI has come to Bob Nayguard and ask
for his help when they're dealing with psychics. Oh wow,
Oh yeah. And he's also told them no, just flat
out to their face, like I ain't helping you some
like former city cop beef with the FEDS who like
love to take a collar from a good cop. No,
it's not that, it's just a principled refusal. Bob Nigard
told the FBI that the bureau was missing the bigger
(32:11):
point and he wouldn't work with them untill they understood it. Essentially,
he cautioned the g men and I quote, I don't
know if psychic powers exist. I told the FBI that
they are approaching the problem the wrong way. What's at
the heart of psychic fraud theft, larceny fraud. He's like
a real cop cop, so Bob reframed for the FBI
how fortune tellers can be seen as real criminals and
(32:32):
not as these like harmless for really, you know, milking
the rubes for a quick, harmless hey day. Yeah, so
Bob told the FBI. Quote the psychic forces someone to
buy a very expensive watch to quote turn back the
hands of time, and promises destroy the watch with a
hammer or throw it into the ocean. And in fact
neither destroys the watch or throws it into the ocean.
There's no crime. But if that psychic takes the watch
(32:54):
to a pawnshop and gets cash for it, that's fraud.
That's theft. Boom. So he's like trying to go like,
here's the parameters for the crime. You know, there are
specific components. But once you cross lines, Yeah, nail on
with real, real charges.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Yeah, that'll stick.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Boom. Over his first forty cases, he brought enough evidence
that led to the prosecution of twenty five different charlatans
and phony fortune tellers.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, Bob was able to recover three million dollars over
the first forty case. He's still working, he's still doing
his thing. Yeah, he's a psychic detective. You don't want
to mess with. Shut your mouth. I'm just talking about Bob.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
When you every time you say Bob Niguard, I keep
thinking of doctor Richard Niguard.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
This interest parks and rec.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Uh huh is it crossing like wires in your head.
I'm like, yeah, well, Elizabeth, let's take another little break
and after these messages to see if you can guess
the next client I'll tell you about from the Bob
Niguard casebook. I'll give you a hint. It's a cosmic
con job, like literally cosmic, as in from space.
Speaker 7 (33:55):
Oh, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, we're back.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Yeah, we're you.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Ready to hear it? From the another case from the
Bob Nygard casebook, zaren am, I give you the phony
Stolen Meteorite Caper?
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Oh? I like this right?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Okay again. This story starts with a woman having a
bad one psychic spots her sees dollar signs in her suffering.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
In this case, the young woman a thirty something with
a master's degree, but who'd recently gone through a bad breakup.
Now she was living alone in New York, babbling persistent depression.
One night, she manages to get herself out of the
house to go see a friend for dinner. She's like
at seventy seventh Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
She stepped off the curb and nearly walks into this
other woman who's like bustling by a very strange woman
(34:58):
died bad die job. Her name is Velvet, Elizabeth. Guess what?
Velvet was a psychic?
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Oh really?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
And and she could see in this young woman's eyes that,
as she said, right there in the street after bumping
into her, there's something wrong with you. I see darkness
surrounding you. So the young woman paused. She listened to
the stranger's warning of ominous portent. But then the psychic
told her that she could save the young woman. She
could fix the dark aura all around you. She promised,
(35:25):
we can help. Now. She hands the young woman a flyer,
and being a New Yorker, the young woman had been
handed many flyers and felt the scam energy coming. But
she took the flyer anyway and pretend promised I might
stop by, thanks, And then she had rushed off to
meet her friend for dinner. Now, all during the meal,
(35:45):
the words there's something wrong with you, a dark aura
kept repeating in her mind. Right, there's something wrong with you.
We can't help. Guess what happens next, Elizabeth, She you
must be psychic, that's right, I am. She fished the
flyer out of her purse, and she makes up her
mind to go see Velvet with the bad hair ed eye.
When she went to the fortune teller spot, she gets
(36:07):
introduced to the big boss, Lady Betty Vlado. Now what
happens next would result in the sixth case from the
files of Bob Niguard, the Phony Stolen Meteorite Caper. The
year was twenty thirteen. When the young woman contacted the
psychic detective. She looked online for help after being scammed.
One name kept popping up, Bob Niguard. You need Bob Niguard.
(36:28):
By the time she hired him, she was already down
fifty grand to Betty Vlado and Velvet. Remember what Bob
said about a psychic making you buy watches, Yeah, this
is the case where that comes from.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Oh okay.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
The idea was that the psychic would use watches to
turn back time. Yeah, like just like like yeah, if
I could turn back task.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
So like literally their analog watches.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yes, they're going to turn They're gonna wind the time backwards.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
You know what. Curse me, curse you.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
So that was the deal. The young one was supposed
to buy not one, but two Rolexes.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
That's the you know, because you need the smooth second hand.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Demons appreciate the smooth secondhand motion. They get yess exactly,
they're terrified, but it doesn't click, like, how is this magic.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Happening only from a rollie? That's all you can do.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
The time pieces were going to be purified, of course,
through prayer, chanting, ritual baths. And then also, yeah, exactly,
well you since you were kind of, you know, like
joking earlier about the demons appreciating the smooth second hand
It's apparently Betty Volado told her that quote, cheap materials
would lead to cheap results. You try to get the best,
(37:45):
you know you do. So the plan wasn'ts like it
would take the two rolexes up to a sacred lake
in Pennsylvania. There she would perform a ceremony to turn
back time, and she would dunk the Rolexes in the
sacred lake, and then that would break the curse. I
think she said she'd like toss him into him, like
you know, the sword and like throwing it into.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
The No, no, she's like, I threw him in there
there in the center of the lake.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Wank wank center. So when that failed to fully remove
the curse, Betty Volado said, don't you worry girl. She
had a new ritual ready to clear up any residual
demon presence in her. She told the woman she needed
a space rock. Oh, but not just any old moon rock.
I mean, anyone get a moon rock, steal those anyway. No,
she need to get her hands on a meteorite. That
would do the trick. And when you know what, the
(38:30):
psychic had a line on a meteorite for us. It's easy, Yeah,
she was. It was hot, it was stolen. It was
a hot rock. The meteorite was stolen from NASA by
someone in Betty Volado's social circle. She knew an insider
at NASA. Hey, I know a guy I got no guy,
get you, Yeah, I do. I bet I got it
from like a jeweler.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
So it's a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Anyway. The cost for this hot rock was fourteen five
hundred dollars day. Yeah. When the young woman scoffed at
the stolen meteorite, Betty Volado calmed any concern she may have.
How did she do that? Great question, Elizabeth? With the
combined power of Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump, the fortune
teller said it was well known amongst those in the
(39:12):
know that both Trump and Oprah credit their phenomenal success
to quote meteorites.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Oh yeah, totally.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
I don't know if they ward off evil spirits or
they means whatever it was. I couldn't find the answer
for Elizabeth, but the rationale is something that the young
woman went for. She's like, totally, I need a meteor
so media Metia Rachel good enough for Gail's best friend
or good enough for her. So she bought the fourteen
thousand dollars hot rock from NASA from her psychic and
(39:42):
get this, Elizabeth, there was no change in her depression.
Oh yeah, the demons, the curse, it all held strong.
Finally she becomes skeptical. She had her meteorite evaluated and
a gemologist told her it was actually a chunk of
quartz crystal oh mys and price tag about three hundred
and fifty dollars.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Paid fourteen five hundred for it.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
So after Bob Niguard handed evidence over to the DA
in this case enough for them to prosecute Betty Vlado,
as a reward, the young woman gave him the phony meteorite.
It's a keepsake from the case. So if you go
and you see Bob and you go to his living room.
There you will see the conversation starter out just on display,
a trophy from his times in the streets, the reminder
of justice delivered.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Now, if you're wondering, the big Boss psychic Lady Betty
Vlado was tried, convicted, and sentenced to one to three
years in prison. She did one full year behind bars. Now,
next up we have the Peaches Stephens affair.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Peaches Stephen's affair.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Right like this, So Bob Niguard rumpled p I would
put it. Quote, Yes, Peaches Stevens. She was out of
the New Orlando area. She ripped off my client. I
got involved in the case and it went to the
Orlando State Attorney's office, but they wouldn't even return our
phone calls. They even kicked her out of the office.
I wanted to help this woman, but I had no
idea how I was going to because the Orlando State
(40:59):
at Turnerney's office wouldn't prosecute the case. I was at
my wits end. So what does Bob do to get justice? Elizabeth?
Back to Niguard. My phone rings and that's a producer
from the Anderson Cooper Show. They read about me and
wanted to know if there were any cases I wanted
to publicize. I told my client, if we're gonna have
any shot, it's gotta be going on the show. Yeah. So,
(41:22):
not only that, he has a very specific plan to
get the attention of the State's Attorney's office, as Bob
puts it, So I said to the producer, I'll let
my client go on the show, but only on one condition.
If Anderson promises he'll let her take the microphone and
blast the Orlando State Attorney's Office for not doing their job. Now, Elizabeth,
as you know, the producers love that kind of conflict.
(41:44):
They booked his client and she did indeed blast the
State Attorney's office. Back to Bob. Within a few days
of that airing, the psychic was under arrest, and it
wasn't long after that that my client had her one
hundred and thirty six thousand dollars back. This is what
we call a happy ending now, believe it or not,
That's only part of his legal fights against the psychic,
Peaches stevens Oh Now, just like Gena Marie Marks, Bob
(42:07):
Nyguard was called out by multiple former clients to get justice.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
That's so crazy when he has all these people complaining
about the same person.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Is it Peacha Stevens. So Peaches Stevens was a classic
street level con artist. She could read people with just
the look. When she saw a young woman walking in Manhattan,
Peaches approached the thirty one year old woman and said
to her, I am a psychic, and I see spirits
swirling around you that must dwell inside your body. Oh
it sounds like sound familiar. The young New Yorker was
taken aback. But it was New York and people said
(42:36):
weird stuff to other people all the time, and they're
always looking to work some angle, a con whatever. So
but the psychic was persistent, persuasive. She even seemed genuinely
worried about the young woman. She said, I see you
have three evil spirits inside of you. Now, technically she
had two adult spirits and one of the spirits was
pregnant with an evil baby spirit two and a half.
(42:56):
So depending on how you count, yeah, when does the
baby spirit become its own spirit? So the young woman
paused to listen to what else Peaches Stevens saw in her.
She had some good news for the young woman. The
Sayakak told her, I see something special in you you
were born under a lucky star. So that's what I
(43:19):
thought too. So the reason why the young woman was
willing to listen was that she'd begun to doubt herself
after a bitter divorce. She also had job stress, She
had a bad ankle from an old injury. This woman
was hobbled in so many ways, right, So I remember
Peaches can read a person. So Peaches convinces the young
woman to come with her to get something to eat
and to talk more. They go to a Chipotle. This right,
(43:43):
it reminded me of you're always like Chipotle is pretty good,
Like I heard that when I was reading it. And
the fast casual Mexican restaurant. The two women continued talking
and they bonded because remember Peaches is pretending that she
cares deeply, and the woman is like, nobody's cared for
me in a long time. I live in the city,
anonymous and alone. So at the end of the meal,
Peaches gives the young woman a flyer for her psychic shop.
He's like, you need to come over, it's right by NYU,
(44:05):
and she's like, okay, I will not. A week later,
the young woman takes the trip over to see Peaches Stevens.
When she's there for her first visit, the psychic tells
her that she can sense what's wrong, right, what it
all stems from. It's the young woman's stepmother's fault. She said, yes,
oh my god, yes, she placed a curse on you. Yes,
because you know the old adage Elizabeth went in doubt
blame a woman in America. I mean, it's just anyway,
(44:28):
some time passes, the two get to work to undo
this curse. And you know what that means? Strip down,
rub an egg all over yo body. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
And I still if I went to someone they said
there's a curse on you, I'd be all right.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
So what are we going to do to curse this person?
Speaker 4 (44:42):
Yeah, exactly, get aggressive, move the curse like no, I
want a more powerful.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Throw the curse on them, multiple curses, the curses of
a thousand years.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Yeah, exactly, get me a crone curse, do this.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
I want one that lasts for like her grandchildren. So
in this case, Peaches did the egg rubbing herself. Peaches
rub the egg, honored this woman's head to all over
her body to gather her energy. And then same thing,
she cracked the egg. You wanted to guess what came
out this time?
Speaker 4 (45:06):
Spider?
Speaker 2 (45:07):
No, live black spider. Nope, it was a dead baby snake.
This is dead baby snake. So Peaches had the yeah,
I know right. I was like, I didn't want to
tell you, but I had had to just for the variety.
So Peaches then add the young woman brought it to
I don't know, Yeah, she've had had one. Sometimes she's
(45:28):
got a market because people know how to get meteorites,
dead baby snakes. They got a whole black market. We
don't know about Elizabeth. So the young woman at this
point is told by Peaches to spit into a jar, like,
did you bring your spit jar? No, here, spit, I've
got a jar you can spit into. So, just like
with Gina Mariemarks, she goes and she has a woman's spit,
but in this case we know exactly the process. She
had her spit into clean water that's in this jar.
(45:50):
And when as soon as this woman spit hit the water,
apparently it thickened into this mass and it turned into
like a bloodlike blobby mass. I don't know how she
did this, but apparently like changed colors and consistency and
turned into like a gross mass. And then the Peaches
gasp and said it's proof of the curs.
Speaker 6 (46:08):
Right.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
So then luckily Peach is new just what to do.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
Though, she is just like buying out all of the
magic shop stuff.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
Yes, exactly, just mix it up.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Got a couple of amateurs, a couple like dragon candles.
So she tells her, you know, do you have fourteen
thousand dollars? Apparently this is the number, so it's a
very specific amount. These uh, these spirit workers like they
have very specific amounts the spirit world requires them to receive.
This help is that we need exactly. Also, it kind
of reminds me. Do you hear the old George Carlin
(46:38):
bit where he's like talking about God needs money?
Speaker 3 (46:41):
Right?
Speaker 6 (46:41):
Yeah, yeah, God loves you and he needs money. He
always needs money. He's all powerful, all perfect, all knowing
and all wise. Somehow just can't handle money.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
So anyway, apparently the whole spiritual world is like that,
because demons also need money. Sure, yeah, everybody needs but
you know, anyway, the young woman does as she's told,
she gets money, and the money she's gathered it wasn't enough.
Peach is like, I know, you can do better. Than this.
So eventually the young woman wires Peaches ten large. Peach
is like this is a start. Then she's like, well,
(47:13):
what did you need more? And we're almost four more grand.
So then Peaches gets her to send her twenty one
and twenty five dollars in gift cards to sax fifth
Avenue and one for Bloomingdale's. Demons like the shop girl.
Don't don't you judgmental? They like they like a good
clean fit, They like expensive fashions. Demons are repulsed by non.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
Luxury goods, a little demonic.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
I remember, better materials, better results, you can pay for exactly,
you know. So the demons they also wanted a Cardia watch,
so the young woman thought it seven nine dollars Cardier
watch for Peaches and the spiritual battles. I guess the
demons were scared off by the diamond encrusted bezels because
in the smooth motion. Because eventually, after four years of fighting,
(47:55):
the demons were still inhabiting her soul. They had released
some of their grip, but you shoot not free of
the curse. The young woman tabulated all the money she'd
given to Peaches over their time together. It was thirty
two large. Goodness by this time was twenty fourteen. So
she tries to contact Peaches and she's like the numbers disconnected.
The next year, the young woman searches for help online.
Whose name does she find. Yeah, Bob Niguard, psychic detective.
(48:18):
I love him now, as a young woman recalled, I
was determined to get justice. Bob Niguard gave me instant
relief because I stopped feeling so helpless, and he did
not pass judgment on me.
Speaker 4 (48:29):
He's like, better than these psychics. You're healing their totally
their psychic needs.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
They're actually helping them. Yeah, she's making them feel somewhat
like heard here Ford, Yeah, and then like some justice valid.
He's also like Etceterrin. He's gonna give you the instant relief.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
So unlike the NYPD whom she had already contacted, Bob
took her case seriously, as she put it, Bob called
me when I got back from the police station, and
he offered to take her case for a percentage of
the recovered fraud. Yeah, they give me a cut of
that thirty two large. And he did as he promised.
Though he's good to his word. Bob worked her case.
He chased leads down rain soaked noir alleys. He haunted
(49:06):
the streets decorated with pools of light cast by lonely
street lamps. He tracked down Peaches Stevens.
Speaker 3 (49:12):
Did he play a saxophone?
Speaker 2 (49:14):
A lot of sax solos? Finally he located her in Florida,
of all places, gives a bunch of snowbirds. They said
they worked in New York. They go down to Florida.
He followed her and her husband to a Denny's on
Highway US one in a town called Lighthouse Point, and
then he called in for backup. Sounlike the NYPD, the
Florida cops sprang into action. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's
(49:36):
deputies zoomed over to the Dennis. They arrived in time
to catch the psych Just after she finished off to
her Rudy two dy fresh and fruity breakfast, she was
arrested outside of a CVS drug store right next door.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
Brands like.
Speaker 5 (49:51):
Good.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
She gets charged with grand theft because they did what
Bob said. He said, Look, it's a real crime. She
gets charged with grand theft. Her victim, the young woman
she walked away with almost no anger at Peaches Stevens.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
Really, I know, right.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Instead, she felt sorry for her. She grasped that Peaches
was the product of a family of criminals, born into
the life, never questioned who or how many people she
was hurting as a young woman. Said I occasionally feel
a mixture of resentment and pity. Peaches was indoctrinated into
her lifestyle as a child and raised to be a
con artist. It's pretty that that's her life, and I
(50:25):
got to hand it to her. I agree with that
Peaches Stevens has only ever really known crime. She was
born into it, and it is It's kind of sad,
you know so, But hold up, this is not where
the story of Bob Niguard is. I have a couple
more for you. Did you notice that all these victims
were women?
Speaker 3 (50:41):
Yes, they did.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
I don't want you to get the idea that only
women fall for this hogswoggle. Men go hard for this scam. Two, however,
that will require a whole other episode, because we have
different themes of manipulation and I want us to focus
on thoseabe. So I'll be back next week with Part
two from the case Book of Bob Niguard. Psychic detective.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
So what's our ridiculous takeaway here?
Speaker 4 (51:03):
Oh my goodness, I think I hate these predators who
we're going after people who are just really going through it.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Yes, thank you.
Speaker 4 (51:13):
You know, And it's like they there are other outlets
that are more difficult to work in. So like, if
you're really having this hard time, therapy would be helpful,
but it requires a lot of self reflection and work,
and it's it's not just a magic fix. And so
these are people who are having such a hard time
and they're looking for help and they're told do X y.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Z and it'll be fixed.
Speaker 4 (51:35):
Yes, And you can blame your state of mind on
this curse or on this thing. And I find that
so predatory and disgusting. So that's my takeaway, Sarah.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
Oh wow, I'm just ye you're on a road. Well,
thank you for asking. My ridiculous takeaway is that I
really want a Rudy to d fresh and fruity.
Speaker 4 (51:58):
When you said Denny, it was like, I would love
breakfast for dinner.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Yes, same, I'd love some like a good diner dinner
that's a breakfast. But also I did have a real one,
which is that the specificity of all their requests are
always so interesting to me, like that I want to rolllex,
I want to Cardie watch. It's always like this, always
expensive stuff. I mean, like the fact that it's so
patterned and like, obviously this works. So this is a
(52:27):
narrative that they figured out that it's almost like a
magic spell that you were casting bit by bit by bit.
It's just kind of interesting to me that actually does
have the properties of what they want. Yeah, ultimately it's horrendous,
but it is a magic spell.
Speaker 4 (52:39):
I'm going to open a business where I'm an empowering
curse person. So if someone's like I'm cursed, I'm like, let's.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
Let's let's curse them.
Speaker 3 (52:47):
Let's curse them. And now you're in charge, We're.
Speaker 2 (52:50):
Gonna be throwing spells. We're gonna be casting curses. Get
ready for some forward action. We're getting aggressive, no defense,
all offense.
Speaker 3 (52:57):
That's my mindset right now.
Speaker 5 (52:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (52:59):
It just it's like I'm not going to be a victim.
I'm just gonna and I'm not gonna complain. It's on
you all gas, everybody look out.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
Yes, yeah, you in the mood for a talk pack.
Speaker 3 (53:09):
Yes, I'm in the mood for it. Talk.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Oh oh my god, super.
Speaker 3 (53:20):
I love cheat.
Speaker 8 (53:24):
Hi Sarah, hy Elizabeth, this is kit your favorite ridiculous
first suitmaker. I wanted to tell you about this woman
named Opal Covey that my ASL class in college was
super obsessed with for some reason. She ran for mayor
in Toledo on a platform of building an amusement park
in a water park and is also a self proclaimed prophetess.
It looks like she did a little pro wrestling thing
in twenty nineteen, kind of a wacky ride. I feel
(53:45):
like it's up your alley, totally look into it. All right,
let's be bye.
Speaker 3 (53:49):
Oh that's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (53:51):
You know, there was a guy who every now and
then runs for mayor in Oakland and he wants to
build like a water park at Lake Merritt.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
Why are the water parks? Why is that always the town?
Speaker 4 (54:00):
Alma, like, you know, to go back and reference parks
and rec.
Speaker 3 (54:03):
Yes, the character who oh yes.
Speaker 4 (54:06):
You know his downfall was as a teen being mayor
and starting some like snow land whatever.
Speaker 3 (54:12):
Yeah, don't do.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
It, don't but thank you for that. That's a great recommendation.
And also to all the listeners, we've been getting some
really good recommendations recently. Thank you all, We really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (54:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
As always, you can find us online Ridiculous Crime on
Blue Sky and Instagram. Reach out to us that way.
Please send us emails at ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.
We also have our website ridiculous Crime dot com. It
is a five time Tony Award winner and we're hoping
for us sixth we want yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:40):
Looking good if we can put it together.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
I mean we're what how I think two wards away
from our sixth egoch Yeah, so that'd be amazing. Just
keep it rolling anyway, Thanks for listening. We will catch
you next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted Elizabeth Dutton and
Zaren Burnette, produced and edited by Dave Kustin, psychic producer,
(55:04):
and starring Annaalice Rutger as Judith. Research is by Marissa Brown,
psychic fact checker. Our theme song is by Thomas Lee
and Travis Dutton, psychic musicians. The host wardrobe provided by
Botany five hundred guest hary, makeup by Sparkle Shock and
Mister Andrew. Executive producers are Ben Boleen and Noel Brown,
psychic historians.
Speaker 5 (55:32):
Why say It One More Time?
Speaker 1 (55:36):
Crime Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeart Radio. Four
more podcasts My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous Crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Elizabeth and Saren. Oh my god, if I got a
question for you, girl, do you know what it's ridiculous?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
I do you look like you?
Speaker 4 (00:12):
It's yeah, I was reading it and making faces. It's
we've gotten this from a couple listeners. But it's a
It's not a mashup unless you count the human body and.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Beef.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Depends on how they're combined.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Okay, So there's this guy in his forties.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
You know, people listen to the TikTok and all about
all sorts of things, and I think one of the
worst things that they listen about.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Is like healthy advice.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah, dietary advice, oral health stuff. Suddenly everyone's got whatever
condition and they self right, and then there are all
these like diets of like, well, you know, drink this
tea and you'll poop yourself.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh gon be great.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, So because I want to do that, poop myself.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
That's how I feel helpful.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
So remember Atkins was like.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, that was like I eat all the meat, right.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Eat all the meat, like bacon it up.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Then he I have a heart attack.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
No carbs. I think he did. Actually, so this guy
in his forties.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
He saw these online things about how you have to
eat like a high fat, meat heavy diet and that you'll,
you know, transcend into a body of an Adonis and
the mind of a genius. So he did that, and
every single day for eight months, he ate.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
How can you think anything you do every day, like
we're going to eat the same thing every day every
eight month, eight months, How can you imagine that's gonna
be good? I mean, like, just come on, man, But.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
You know what he ate every day eight months? Six
to nine pounds what of cheese, stix of butter and hamburgers,
ham murgers. I'm gonna guess the no bun so just
like ground.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So in total to nine pounds of all these things cheese.
So we're talking like two pounds of per meal.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Essentially two pounds.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Two to three pounds per meal like ground ba more
than a quarter pounder, right, because that's a quarter of
a pound. He's got to four quarter pounders to get
up to a pound. And then that's that's it, says
cooking it down.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So he lost weight.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yeah, he had increased energy and improved mental clarity.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
However, then he went to the hospital.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Because his cholesterol was through the roof hands.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
The palms of his hands, his elbows, and the soles
of his feet were covered in these like smooth yellowish
nodules like deposits. A picture is fast, it's it's cholesterol.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
It's actual cholesterol, just pooling itchlesteroleterol. It leaked out of
his arteries and veins.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
His cholesterol levels exceeded one thousand milligrams per desolater and
that his baseline is two ten to three hundred normal
cholesterol ranges or low two hundred, and so we had
it's called zam philasma sure lesterol deposits that build on
the skin, and so it happens like one percent of
(03:11):
women in point three percent of men that if you
have this, you get yellow growths on your eyelids near
the nose.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
But it means that, like.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
You know, your heart's really struggling because you got a
lot of the cholesterol you need cholesterol, but not all
of the cholesterol.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, you need all the things. You need fat, you
need salt, you need cholesterol. Nothing is bad. It's the house.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
He went so hard in the paint that it was
coming out of his hands, and the pictures are so gnarly.
But it's like I'm just thinking, like he must have
smelled terrible.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Oh my god, yes, well that cholesterol. Beef dogs loved him,
and cheese dogs are licking the skin.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, he's just I am become cow.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, oh god, dogs, You're right. That is ridiculous. Thank
you very much. What's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Wow, he's going to need a moment to recover from.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I literally was reading the news article about it.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
And realized I was making this really bad face, like
a stink face, And then I got to the pictures
you're making it now?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, if you got a second, I got one. It's
not nearly as gross, but it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Elizabeth. If I say the words psychic detective, what do.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
You picture a psychic detective?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Mm hmm. Well today I have a story for you
that will answer the question of what is the answer
to that question? And I guarantee it's ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
I love this.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
heist and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one h hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Oh, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, We've covered so many strange stories. We've
had psychic horses, We've had pet detectives.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Today I want to tell you a story that combines those.
For a psychic detective.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Is it a horse?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
No, but it's not like a how it sounds. The
detective is not a psychic. Instead, he investigates fake psychics.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Oh yes, yes, like a dude dude Bro I talked about.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Exactly, dude Bro, just like him. This is Bob Nierguard.
He's dude. Bro's a colleague, okay, colleague. Yeah, my man
Bob is a real old school detective. Like he dresses
like an old school gum shoe he does. Yeah, his
heroes are my man Sam Spade, like the Humphrey Bogart versus.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Is he like current modern day.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yes, he is a like two thousand teens and two
thousand oughts.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Anywhere, like a door, but not in a Milady way.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Like snap brim. Humphrey bock Art felt like, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
He pull it off.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's abatable, you know, like he pulls it off.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
For him.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I would say this, his attitude is right for it.
He pulls it off.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, I mean like I would recommend that he go
fully into it, get himself like one of those Borcelino
nice like Italian like felt like crushed, the kind of
you know Humphy bo Art would have worn. Yeah, exactly,
but whatever, we don't even I'm not even sure if
you have those types of hats available to the average
person anymore. You know, I don't like they have to
like travel to Italy. Yeah, you gotta like really go
(06:39):
around to like the Chappoe shop.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I think most men I'm looking to useer and should
just go buy all their clothes in Italy, oh, because
I mean everyone has the resources for that totally.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
And I've got a lot of reasons to France, to
travel outside of the States and to get out able
to maybe get myself some outfits, some new fits.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I'm looking to get deported something.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
I don't know where to where they would deport me,
but I mean I don't anticipate it.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah it's coming.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
If they deported me, I'd have to be sent in pieces.
Some go here, some go there.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Likewise here.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
So my man, Bob Niguard as I said, his personal
style is a trench coat clad detectives right the snap
brim Fedora. So picture that and then also I'll tell
you about the man inside the outfit with the clothes
don't make Bob Niguard was once a cop. Not only that,
he was born in Queens, raised in Long Island, and
became a cop for the NYPD. Nice, yeah, transit cop
(07:34):
work in the subway in the eighties when it was
like the like, yeah, the rough eighties. Like people were like, yes, exactly,
a little post Curperco, post Bernie Getz, you know, like
right just just after that. But like this is like
when you had the Guardian Angels, right, like those guys
cruising around.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
And they hadn't cleaned up Times Square yet.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
No, yeah, no, this was still grimy and cracky and shows, yeah,
the whole bit. Yeah. As Bob Nygard said of his
time as a transit cup Weather, I got along with
the criminals better than I did with my colleagues. I
was like oil and water at the police department. So
we got a real loose cannon here, Elizabeth, real cowboy.
I know how you love them now. Despite being a
(08:16):
superco two point zero, he does credit his time behind
the Blue Line from making him into the private dick
that he would become. As he put it, quote, I
wouldn't be the PI I am today without all the
lessons I learned on the street. Yeah, life on the street. Now,
late in his career as a cop, he began to
focus on crime that he would later focus on as
a PI. Bob worked insurance scams, sweetheart swindles, Spanish prisoner cons,
(08:40):
fortune telling, grifters, and this is how Bob decided to
join up with the National Association of Bunco Investigators. You
need to get a membership.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
For the Yeah, like yesterday.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I know, right, I didn't even know it was the thing.
But now I'm like, I gotta get you a gift
membership of Bunco Investigator.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
All right, Well I have that badge Nabi.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Okay, you do have the Special Investigator mat certified.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Dude, I'm gonna start carrying that with me.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
I don't know why you don't, because I used to
be worried i'd get arrested for having it.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Now it's gonna save.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Me, yes, exactly. You go out there and fight law
in order to know.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
So.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
After Bob retired from being a cop, then he did
what so many retired New York cops too. Elizabeth he
moved to Florida, specifically Boca Raton, Florida. I don't I
don't think any boat because I know he got bored.
And then once he got bored, he went back to
what he did best. He started investigating scams, cons grifters,
and Florida has plenty of those. So he decided, I'm
gonna go pro. There's enough of a market here. So
(09:41):
he took a PI test, got himself a license, and
now here he was the same as Magnum p I
my man Jim Rockford was a licensed private investigator.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
You were short shirts under the trench.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
That would be amazing, showing like thigh me.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Trend like sir, please sure, oh dear wait leave it open.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So the paradise that he picked wasn't Hawaii in the
eighties or La in the seventies. He picked Florida in
the early odds. That's when he starts his career right.
The work paid well. He earned about five grand case.
Sometimes in complicated affairs, he might charge as much as
twenty percent of what he recovered. Okay tonb a lot.
You know her minded my man Travis McGee, the fictional detective,
(10:21):
I like, yeah, he was a salvage consultant. He took
fifty percent of what he recovered. So this guy, Bob's
a deal.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Yeah, Travis mcgee'e, you do, I know, right? I think
everyone's got to have like a detective.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Who's their detective?
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Their mine would be bosh, yes, lash, Yes, that's.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Very creating for you.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Greatest book series, greatest TV show.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I got to get into this. I have them. You
gave me a few. I gotta read them, to read them.
So where well? Oh yeah, Bob, he decides to become
a psychic detective. Why, great question, listen, thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I was just wondering that he started.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
To investigate the sort of crime as he'd done as
an NYPD cop. Right, so then you know, with the
plenty of work, he's like, okay, two thousand and eight,
I'm going to become a psychic detective. His first case
hooked him. It was a doozy Elizabeth. It was a Wednesday.
Bob was thirsty as a sailor on shore leave, so
he spent some shoe leather taking the short hike over
to his favorite watering hole, a neighborhood bar still happy hour,
(11:15):
Bob ordered his first drink now before he knew it.
Bob's chatting with a pair of dames, eager to hear
about his days as a New York detective. He's impressed
in the Florida ladies with some of his war stories
from his days on the street. The dames amused. Bob
gave them one of his business cards in case they
ever needed a private dick to help them out sometime,
wouldn't you know, Elizabeth. It wasn't long before one of
(11:35):
the women called him, like, not long at all. Fifteen
minutes after Bob left the bar, the woman asked him
if he would meet her somewhere discreet. He asked her
where she had in mind. She named a gas station
the mobile on the corner. So it turns out it
wasn't a love connection. Instead, she needed a PI. The
woman was a doctor. She sounded embarrassed about the fact
(11:58):
that she needed his help. Recalls The doctor said, quote,
I didn't want to say this in front of my friend,
but a psychic has taken over ninety thousand dollars from me.
Whoa yeah, whoa yeah, like reached into her pocket and
took it. No, not exactly, so this is how much
it takes. Before she realized she's being conn ninety grand
that was her line, right, So Bob he agrees to
(12:18):
take the case, and this was his first case. The
psychic was a woman named Gina Marie Marx. She was
a Florida psychic, well known notorious fortune teller in the
Miami area.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
She'd be a notorious Miami fortune teller.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Is so suitable for you, Like you go to your
high school reunion. What are you doing, Elizabeth? Well, I'm
a notorious fortune teller in the Miami area.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
I can think of all sorts of things.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Well.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
She'd written the book Oh by the Way, under her
pen name Regina Milbourne, which reminded me of your pen name,
Regina corn Tower. Yeah, so I was like, wow, you
two are like, am I her? Yeah? I was kind
of wondering. I was going to I'm confused, but I
saw pictures. I was like, Okay, that's not Elizabeth. Okay,
yeah no, But anyway, using the name pen name Regina Milbourne,
South Florida psychic, she writes this book called Miami Psychic
(13:02):
Confessions of a Confidant. Most of it was lies, apparently,
I don't know. So the doctor told Bob that she
first went to visit this psychic after she came to
believe that a coworker had placed a curse on her.
According to the doctor, her coworker, I'm assuming a nurse
buried a piece of rotting meat and the curse was
causing her life to deteriorate, just the same as the
meat was underground. Also, she was worried that the curse
(13:25):
would eventually lead her to being deported from the United States.
Those are the fears that the psychic starts to leverage, right,
She says, Oh, I can lift this curse, but of
course it'll cost her. The doctor agrees. The psychic tells her,
you need to do whatever I say. So she's like,
we need to do a cleansing ritual. She was supposed
to rub an egg while she chanted magical words, and
then she was supposed to wrap up like thousands of
(13:46):
dollars inside of a silk handkerchief. Then she was to
give the handkerchief, the egg, and the thousands of dollars
to the psychic to be blessed at a sacred altar
located in Hollywood, California.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Oh yeah, that's the most sacred of places.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Just that sentence alone should tell you something.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
With a.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Wall exactly so. But this wasn't all. The doctor also
needed her to burn special candles to release the curse,
and that those would also be an up charge. The
doctor gave the psychic her credit card info to pay
for all of it.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Those candles better small gag.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Oh, I'm telling you, and long burning, I hope. So
after she finished telling Bob her said sad tale of whoa,
she asked the psychic detective to get her justice.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Now she was not the first or the only victim
of this infamous South Florida psychic. As Bob investigates and
starts getting into the case, he learns as another victim,
a young attorney Miami who was built out of three
hundred and twelve thousand dollars. That's more than three times
more than the doctor. We got a doctor and an attorney,
yes together between them four hundred grand, just two victims. Wow,
(14:50):
an attorney and a doctor. Now, just like with the doctor,
the psychic GenAm remarks, had the young attorney run the
same psychic therapy with the egg and the thousands of dollars?
You know what, I haven't given you a proper d
tails of the old egg business. Please the victims were
supposed to take an egg and rub it all over
their naked body.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
That would be it was in front of the psychic
or just.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
At home at their discretion. That would be the first
step to undo the voodoo curse.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Right, whimper, no, no, maybe.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Close your eyes. I'm gonna rob it. I'm robbing it.
So this would be the first step to unlock the
voodoo curse that she was under, and she believed that
there had been placed on her by her childhood Haitian maid.
So she did as instructed to rub the egg on
her naked body and brought it back to the psychic,
who then took the egg, cracked it, and Elizabeth, a
live black spider crawled out of the cracked eggshell. What boom?
(15:40):
That did it? The lawyer knew she was cursed, right.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
You know, I'd be thinking I have such an ego
that I'd be like, I'm stronger than any of your curses.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I curse you, you know, curse what's curses over here?
But then you do the whole spider coming out of
the egg.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I lose it worked on That little magic trick was
proof of the curse for her too. So the psychic
informs the young attorney that she's possessed. Right, and then
she had not one, not two, but ninety nine evil
spirits inhabiting her body, Elizabeth, and exactly right, and soon
being rich. Ain't one right her one of her ninety
nine problems anyway. Now, Gina Marie Marks is about to
(16:15):
take up all this woman's money. But that is unless
my man, Bob Niguard can stop her. Now, let's take
a little break. We'll use How about this, You use
your psychic powers and after these messages, we'll see if
you can divine correctly how Bob Niguard gets justice.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Oh, I'm gonna work on that, all right, Elizabeth, We're back,
(16:51):
Yes we are.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
How you enjoined Bob Niguard.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
I love this. I'm loving this so far. But I
want a little Niguard my life.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (16:58):
So.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
In twenty eighteen, Bob Niguard gave an interview to the
outlet Skeptical Inquirer, which I need to get a membership too.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Is a magazine.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a website devoted
to parsing fact from fiction. I love this right, It's
like with a fox molder like desire to know if
the truth is out there, I have that. In his interview,
Bob Niguard was asked, quote, do you go into every
case with a belief that there can't possibly be anything
real regarding the psychic in question? Or are you open
to finding out someone actually has the paranormal powers they
(17:26):
claim to have? And you know, based on his decades
as a New York cop and his decade as a
PI in Florida, Bob had a ready answer. He said,
and I quote, I'm open minded. I'm absolutely one hundred
percent open minded. I don't believe in it. I don't
believe anyone has ever been able to prove they have
psychic ability since the beginning of recorded time. But I
always look at things with an open mind.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
I love it. I'm right on track with him.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
The reason he remains extra suspicious is due to what
all he's seen and heard does. Bob explained the ones
that I investigate. When I first screened the call and
the person tells me about the case, it almost just
jumps out at me. Where all the lies are. The
modus operandi is very evident to me right from the start,
and there are patterns tall Marks. If you will start
the person off at a nominal fee, have a progression
(18:12):
of fees, create a sense of dependency, create a siege mentality.
It's a lot of the same things that you would
see from a cult leader to gain control over his followers.
So boom, now back to tack attack attack exactly, but
also just like destabilize, like separate from all family and people,
all that stuff. Right. But in the case of Gina
(18:32):
Marie Marks, this is definitely her mo Yeah, now where
were we? Oh, that's right, the doctor scammed by her,
and so also was a young attorney to the tune
of four hundred grands. So according to the young attorney,
she experienced nearly the same story as the doctor. Again,
there was cursed meat. Again it was buried. In the
case of the young attorney, yes, she was told that
her former haiti made from childhood, had buried an animal
(18:55):
carcass on the girl's parents property. But then, to make
her spell extra potent, she'd buried the other half of
the carcass high up on a mountaintop in Columbia, the
country Columbia. So the haiti goes to Columbia.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
She somehow transported half of a dead what animal?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yes, and okay, to a mountaintop in Columbia.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
Someone tells you this, and like I said, I should
give you ten to curse you back, like double treble.
Your curse for touching this, your curse for doing that.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Now you're everyone's curse, your whole family cursed. So well. Anyway,
this psychic right, she's she is able to get this
past this poor attorney or about to be poor attorney.
And the psychic tells her that she needs thousands of
dollars to lift this curse, and specifically, she'd need to
travel to Colombia track up to that exact mountaintop to
(19:46):
remove the curse. Sure, yeah, she wouldn't just need airfare,
hotel rooms of per DM. No, the psychic would also
need some special GPS equipment to locate the exact BURI
of course, the meat from the curse. Of course, I
guess the spirits are going to give her precise GPS coordinates.
I don't know how this works anyway. One month afterwards,
the young attorney pays for the track to Columbia. The psychic,
(20:07):
Gina remarks, contacts the young attorney to let her know
she made the trip. I got back from Columbia, and
it was hellish. According to the psychic, she claimed that
she witnessed her trail guide die right before her eyes.
Do you want to you want to guess how? They
shouldn't be laughing, But I think it's a lie, so
I think I can laugh. Do you know how the
(20:28):
trail guide died right before her eyes? He was killed
by a giant mosquito. I assume it means he was
bitten and died from sickness, and not that he was
like carried off like a giant, coming down.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Like an eagle pulling a fish from the river.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Exactly. Now, you may be wondering about the curse itself. Well,
despite the jungle hike and the GPS coordinates and the giant.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Mosquito, large mosquito, the psychic told.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
The young attorney she needed to do some more psychic
battle to get her fully free of the ninety nine demons.
There's ninety nine of them. So also she had good news.
The young attorney was secretly among one of the select
few who were called to save the world.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Oh that's great coincidence.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
He's even better than that, Elizabeth, because she was part
of an ultra secret group known as the Group of Twelve.
It was so ultra secret that the Young Attorney didn't
even know she was a member. The Group of Twelve
was an ultra secret cabal that was representative of the
twelve Disciples of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
I'm part of it, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
It has number seven. The young Attorney was key to
the group's future, since one day she would have twins,
and not just any old twins, Elizabeth. One of her
children would usher in the apocalypse. Oh fun, you probably
guessed it. One of her twins would be the newly
returned Savior, the prophesied Messiah come back to Earth to
do battle against the Antichrist. Just come to earth, depending
(21:55):
on how you view the whole story. Sure, now, that
must have been a lot to hear from this poor woman.
I mean, one day you're rubbing an egg on your
naked body, trying to lift a curse, get free of
your ninety nine demons. The next day you find out
you're gonna be mother to Jesus two point zero. Yeah,
that's heavy, right. Also, imagine just the the poor other twin,
who isn't Jesus the return like that kid? Yes, and
(22:18):
I'm jeff this is my son Jesus Junior, my other boy. Hi,
I'm Jeff, I'm Chef. So yeah, you got like this
one's like, is the twins special at all? It also
is it identical twins? Like you look like Jesus, but
you've got none of the powers.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Well then you're like go around pretending you're Jesus.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Or is it like that they're paternal twins but they
don't look alike and you're like, oh, yeah, god's his father.
My dad's Greg, you know.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Like praternal twins and he's you know.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You imagine your twin brothers performing miracles, life of the party,
this one.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Walking on the water.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Everybody loves them, and you're like, oh, I'm a shepherd.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yeah yeah, but maybe he excels an other thing.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
This is true. Maybe you're right, I shouldn't.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
It's like Jeff is a master of the harpsichord and
like his tunes just you know, unite.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
The world totally. They make the heavens come alive here
on earth. Music, Well mind, psyche Gina remarks. She convinces
his young attorney that she's going to be the new Mary,
the mother of the next Jesus. But at this point
the attorney is like, Okay, I'm starting to have some doubts.
So eventually the deaths blossom into rational thoughts and this
(23:27):
is when she hires Bob Niguard to come and get
her money back. So now he's got two clients trying
to get him to track down the same scammer. Bob
takes a trip to find the childhood maid who first
placed the curse, and would you believe it, he found
her because the psychic told the attorney that her Haitian
maid was dead, and turns out she was very much
still on this side of the grass, and Niguard spoke
(23:49):
with her. Not only that, he filmed the conversation, brought
it back and he played it for the young attorney
so she could like believe everything she sees.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Right, this giant mosquitos exactly, I want this pictures, pictures.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
It didn't happen. So that is what she now. She
faces the truth, right, she's she's been conned. There's no
doubt about it. And here's what I haven't told you yet.
There was way more than the naked egg rubbing. And
then she was tricked into doing to lift this curse.
As Bob Nigart learned in his investigation. By the way,
so the young attorney had to keep a spit jar
under her bed. She had to spit in it all
(24:24):
the time, and it was covered in a black pillow case.
And this was to ward off evil spirits.
Speaker 6 (24:28):
Right.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
She also was only.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Supposed to eat red potential suitors.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Friends, suitors, roommates. She was also only supposed to eat
red fruits. Okay, I don't know, but for whatever reason,
but it's supposed to be symbolic of blood. Sure, I
don't know if she was like only eating red fruits,
like she wasn't eating bread, but that's what I read.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
I could do only red fruits of the fruit that
I would eat.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
If the flesh was red. But like what if they're.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Like, yeah, so, like really good strawberries and aren't white
in the center.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
You know, or pomegranate, dragonfruit, yeah, watermes start fruit, one
of those.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Ones red, a deep red watermelon.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That'd be good.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
So, But beyond the fruits and the spit jar, she
was all supposed to give her psychic tissue and bodily
fluid samples such as hair clippings. You're in samples, So
right there, I'm gonna have my dots. If you're exactly
if you're psychic asking for a poop sample, I'm like, okay,
wait a minute. Also, she gave the young attorney some
old tricks, the kind you might give to a high
(25:26):
school wrestler who's trying to cut weight before a big match. Yeah.
She told her to rub a special gel all over
her naked body. I guess this is after the eggs
a lot of naked body, and then wrap herself in
a clear plastic cling wrap, like like sand wrap. Yeah,
and then go jogging for six miles with no imagin're
supposed to put on like a tracksuit or slats. I
(25:47):
guess the idea is that demons are much like me.
They don't like to jog, and you're gonna get rid
of demons if you jogging. So the psychic Geena remarks
a right, she goes for broke. She tells the attorney
to at one point to lie down on her floor
like she's on an imaginary crucifix, and to recite prayers
to prepare herself as preparation to be the mother of
Jesus two point zero. And lastly, she told her, you
(26:08):
need to stop taking birth control girl, because you need
to get pregnant for the law, and so, you know,
because you're going to bring back the Princess Peace. I
don't think so. No, yeah, no, she's gonna have to
go find like she's got God. You know, he's you know,
she's a husband per se in this case, you know,
it's gonna the holy Holy Inseminator. So after she'd been
through all this and thoroughly fleeced as I said, she
(26:30):
turns to Bob Niguard, right, psychic detective who's already working
the same perp for a different client, so now he's
working them both. Takes four years of investigating, four years. Yes,
he turns over his evidence, sixty five thousand dollars worth
of fraud that he can track down, and he gives
him to the Briard County DA to pursue. They pursue
with charges. Then Geinaber remarks, goes on the run, and
the rest warrants issue. The psychic pulls a new magic trick.
(26:53):
She disappears. Yeah, she's now wanted, by the way, in
multiple states. She's faced justice in other states prior to this.
I'm just leaving out for the cleanliness of the story,
but Bob Niguard, psychic detective, is the one who brings
her to justice. The PI was there when she was
finally caught it, so he put it attractor to New York,
tractor to Phoenix, tractor to King's Beach, California. He's bouncing
(27:15):
around the map, right, and then finally he caught up
to her again in Florida. Though. But rather than me
tell you about it, Elizabeth, close your eyes and I'd
like you to picture it. Lizlie, It's twenty seventeen and
you are presently at the Miami International Airport. You are
seated at the gate waiting to board a flight to Barcelona, Spain.
(27:36):
You've been there before, had a beautiful time, and you've
been looking forward to going back. You've been invited to
travel to Barcelona to take part in a book festival.
A novel you wrote has been translated into Spanish and
become a bestseller in a second language. The whole thing
amuses you. Never did you think any of this would
happen when you wrote your novel about dog trainers in
the San Diego area and your journey to become a
(27:56):
stripper who doesn't take off any of her clothes. It's
a comical novel with the tie at sloths. We wear
robes anyway. At the moment, you're waiting for your flight,
as you eavesdrop on the folks seated near you, a
writer's habit, if ever there was one. As you scan
the crowd, you hear an announcement over the pa your
flight will begin boarding, sir. Then you see it, a
man in a snap brim fedora staring at you. He
(28:19):
looks like a noir detective who stepped right off the
pages of a Sam Spade mystery book. As you check him,
you get the feeling he's maybe not staring at you.
You casually turn and see these looking past you at
a woman who's also wearing a fedora. Interesting, you think,
you wonder if they know each other. Maybe they're both detectives.
There's a man with her. He looks to be her husband,
(28:40):
based on how they're somewhat short with each other. They
look nervous, a little worried. Maybe the noir detective is
clocking their every move. Then it hits you, oh, he's
a cop or a PI. He's clearly watching them. Then
you remember where you saw him and that same woman before.
It was at the TSA security line. They were in
line near you. The husband and wife were fighting then too.
(29:01):
The airline staff is getting ready at the gate. Now
they're almost ready to start boarding the plane. You watch
the man and the snap brim fedora as he checks
his watch. Then he cranes his neck to see if
anyone is approaching. At least that's what it looks like.
Then you spotted what the man in the fedora must
have been looking for. Two Miami Dade Sheriff's deputies emerge
from the crowd. They're headed right for your gate. Oh
(29:24):
it's about to get good, you think to yourself. He
watched the two deputies. They walk right up to the
woman in the white fedora and her husband. She looks
up at them, and you listen intently. As the deputies
introduce themselves. They asked the woman to stand up. You
turn to see the man in the snap brim fedora
practically leap out of his seat. He walks over to
the deputies. He reaches them just as one of the
(29:46):
deputies says to the woman, we have a warrant for
your arrest. You need to come with us. The look
on her face is priceless. The man in the snap.
Brim Fedora introduces himself to the deputies as Bob Nygard,
psychic detective. It was him who called them to report her,
he says. The deputies thank them for his service. Then
you hear Bob say, you see that total look of
shock on her face. That's the look of justice. So
(30:10):
there you go what it feels like when Bob Nyguard
gets justice. Now, I think my man Samsbay would have
been a little had a snappier line. Perhaps it probably
been like she'd the look of a girl who someone
just stole her birthday cake right out of her hands,
And I was that jerk right now. Jeana Marimarks had
been caught by Bob Nyguard for a third time. At
this point, she was tried, sentenced, and convicted to six
(30:31):
years in prison. Trying to catch her over and over again.
He's finally this is the time, bit center, Yeah, this
is literally he gets his first case and then is
his repeater.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
Yah.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Now, if you're wondering, it's not always easy to get
justice for the vics of these fraudulent fortune tellers, because one,
there aren't many laws to apply in the state of
New York. There is an old law that makes prognostication
and sooth's saying a misdemeanor, but it's like a five
hundred dollars fine, maybe three months in jail if the
judge wants to be a hard ass. But if the
psychic milks the victim for enough money, they can cross
(31:06):
over into grand theft or possible larceny. And if that happens,
then a fortune teller can catch real time like up
to twenty five years in the state pen if a
judge really wants to throw the book at him.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Now, but this is always once again, if the DA
even wants to pursue the case to get it before
the judge, which they often don't because you don't make
many political points or smart headlines for busting a psychic.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
In fact, he can actually look silly and trivial. Yeah, So,
as Bob Niguard would point out to the folks at
the DA's office that quote, the women who are part
of these criminal enterprises commit fortune telling, fraud, sweetheart swindles, shoplifting,
an insurance fraud. It's organized crime and usually a family affair.
So he's trying to make it like it's like I'm
like mob families organized crime. It's a family affair. I'm like,
(31:46):
do they have omerica? And is there a code of silence?
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:49):
So the FBI has come to Bob Nayguard and ask
for his help when they're dealing with psychics. Oh wow,
Oh yeah. And he's also told them no, just flat
out to their face, like I ain't helping you some
like former city cop beef with the FEDS who like
love to take a collar from a good cop. No,
it's not that, it's just a principled refusal. Bob Nigard
told the FBI that the bureau was missing the bigger
(32:11):
point and he wouldn't work with them untill they understood it. Essentially,
he cautioned the g men and I quote, I don't
know if psychic powers exist. I told the FBI that
they are approaching the problem the wrong way. What's at
the heart of psychic fraud theft, larceny fraud. He's like
a real cop cop, so Bob reframed for the FBI
how fortune tellers can be seen as real criminals and
(32:32):
not as these like harmless for really, you know, milking
the rubes for a quick, harmless hey day. Yeah, so
Bob told the FBI. Quote the psychic forces someone to
buy a very expensive watch to quote turn back the
hands of time, and promises destroy the watch with a
hammer or throw it into the ocean. And in fact
neither destroys the watch or throws it into the ocean.
There's no crime. But if that psychic takes the watch
(32:54):
to a pawnshop and gets cash for it, that's fraud.
That's theft. Boom. So he's like trying to go like,
here's the parameters for the crime. You know, there are
specific components. But once you cross lines, Yeah, nail on
with real, real charges.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Yeah, that'll stick.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Boom. Over his first forty cases, he brought enough evidence
that led to the prosecution of twenty five different charlatans
and phony fortune tellers.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, Bob was able to recover three million dollars over
the first forty case. He's still working, he's still doing
his thing. Yeah, he's a psychic detective. You don't want
to mess with. Shut your mouth. I'm just talking about Bob.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
When you every time you say Bob Niguard, I keep
thinking of doctor Richard Niguard.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
This interest parks and rec.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Uh huh is it crossing like wires in your head.
I'm like, yeah, well, Elizabeth, let's take another little break
and after these messages to see if you can guess
the next client I'll tell you about from the Bob
Niguard casebook. I'll give you a hint. It's a cosmic
con job, like literally cosmic, as in from space.
Speaker 7 (33:55):
Oh, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, we're back.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Yeah, we're you.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Ready to hear it? From the another case from the
Bob Nygard casebook, zaren am, I give you the phony
Stolen Meteorite Caper?
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Oh? I like this right?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Okay again. This story starts with a woman having a
bad one psychic spots her sees dollar signs in her suffering.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
In this case, the young woman a thirty something with
a master's degree, but who'd recently gone through a bad breakup.
Now she was living alone in New York, babbling persistent depression.
One night, she manages to get herself out of the
house to go see a friend for dinner. She's like
at seventy seventh Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
She stepped off the curb and nearly walks into this
other woman who's like bustling by a very strange woman
(34:58):
died bad die job. Her name is Velvet, Elizabeth. Guess what?
Velvet was a psychic?
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Oh really?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
And and she could see in this young woman's eyes that,
as she said, right there in the street after bumping
into her, there's something wrong with you. I see darkness
surrounding you. So the young woman paused. She listened to
the stranger's warning of ominous portent. But then the psychic
told her that she could save the young woman. She
could fix the dark aura all around you. She promised,
(35:25):
we can help. Now. She hands the young woman a flyer,
and being a New Yorker, the young woman had been
handed many flyers and felt the scam energy coming. But
she took the flyer anyway and pretend promised I might
stop by, thanks, And then she had rushed off to
meet her friend for dinner. Now, all during the meal,
(35:45):
the words there's something wrong with you, a dark aura
kept repeating in her mind. Right, there's something wrong with you.
We can't help. Guess what happens next, Elizabeth, She you
must be psychic, that's right, I am. She fished the
flyer out of her purse, and she makes up her
mind to go see Velvet with the bad hair ed eye.
When she went to the fortune teller spot, she gets
(36:07):
introduced to the big boss, Lady Betty Vlado. Now what
happens next would result in the sixth case from the
files of Bob Niguard, the Phony Stolen Meteorite Caper. The
year was twenty thirteen. When the young woman contacted the
psychic detective. She looked online for help after being scammed.
One name kept popping up, Bob Niguard. You need Bob Niguard.
(36:28):
By the time she hired him, she was already down
fifty grand to Betty Vlado and Velvet. Remember what Bob
said about a psychic making you buy watches, Yeah, this
is the case where that comes from.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Oh okay.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
The idea was that the psychic would use watches to
turn back time. Yeah, like just like like yeah, if
I could turn back task.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
So like literally their analog watches.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yes, they're going to turn They're gonna wind the time backwards.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
You know what. Curse me, curse you.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
So that was the deal. The young one was supposed
to buy not one, but two Rolexes.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
That's the you know, because you need the smooth second hand.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Demons appreciate the smooth secondhand motion. They get yess exactly,
they're terrified, but it doesn't click, like, how is this magic.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Happening only from a rollie? That's all you can do.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
The time pieces were going to be purified, of course,
through prayer, chanting, ritual baths. And then also, yeah, exactly,
well you since you were kind of, you know, like
joking earlier about the demons appreciating the smooth second hand
It's apparently Betty Volado told her that quote, cheap materials
would lead to cheap results. You try to get the best,
(37:45):
you know you do. So the plan wasn'ts like it
would take the two rolexes up to a sacred lake
in Pennsylvania. There she would perform a ceremony to turn
back time, and she would dunk the Rolexes in the
sacred lake, and then that would break the curse. I
think she said she'd like toss him into him, like
you know, the sword and like throwing it into.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
The No, no, she's like, I threw him in there
there in the center of the lake.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Wank wank center. So when that failed to fully remove
the curse, Betty Volado said, don't you worry girl. She
had a new ritual ready to clear up any residual
demon presence in her. She told the woman she needed
a space rock. Oh, but not just any old moon rock.
I mean, anyone get a moon rock, steal those anyway. No,
she need to get her hands on a meteorite. That
would do the trick. And when you know what, the
(38:30):
psychic had a line on a meteorite for us. It's easy, Yeah,
she was. It was hot, it was stolen. It was
a hot rock. The meteorite was stolen from NASA by
someone in Betty Volado's social circle. She knew an insider
at NASA. Hey, I know a guy I got no guy,
get you, Yeah, I do. I bet I got it
from like a jeweler.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
So it's a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Anyway. The cost for this hot rock was fourteen five
hundred dollars day. Yeah. When the young woman scoffed at
the stolen meteorite, Betty Volado calmed any concern she may have.
How did she do that? Great question, Elizabeth? With the
combined power of Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump, the fortune
teller said it was well known amongst those in the
(39:12):
know that both Trump and Oprah credit their phenomenal success
to quote meteorites.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Oh yeah, totally.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
I don't know if they ward off evil spirits or
they means whatever it was. I couldn't find the answer
for Elizabeth, but the rationale is something that the young
woman went for. She's like, totally, I need a meteor
so media Metia Rachel good enough for Gail's best friend
or good enough for her. So she bought the fourteen
thousand dollars hot rock from NASA from her psychic and
(39:42):
get this, Elizabeth, there was no change in her depression.
Oh yeah, the demons, the curse, it all held strong.
Finally she becomes skeptical. She had her meteorite evaluated and
a gemologist told her it was actually a chunk of
quartz crystal oh mys and price tag about three hundred
and fifty dollars.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Paid fourteen five hundred for it.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
So after Bob Niguard handed evidence over to the DA
in this case enough for them to prosecute Betty Vlado,
as a reward, the young woman gave him the phony meteorite.
It's a keepsake from the case. So if you go
and you see Bob and you go to his living room.
There you will see the conversation starter out just on display,
a trophy from his times in the streets, the reminder
of justice delivered.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Now, if you're wondering, the big Boss psychic Lady Betty
Vlado was tried, convicted, and sentenced to one to three
years in prison. She did one full year behind bars. Now,
next up we have the Peaches Stephens affair.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Peaches Stephen's affair.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Right like this, So Bob Niguard rumpled p I would
put it. Quote, Yes, Peaches Stevens. She was out of
the New Orlando area. She ripped off my client. I
got involved in the case and it went to the
Orlando State Attorney's office, but they wouldn't even return our
phone calls. They even kicked her out of the office.
I wanted to help this woman, but I had no
idea how I was going to because the Orlando State
(40:59):
at Turnerney's office wouldn't prosecute the case. I was at
my wits end. So what does Bob do to get justice? Elizabeth?
Back to Niguard. My phone rings and that's a producer
from the Anderson Cooper Show. They read about me and
wanted to know if there were any cases I wanted
to publicize. I told my client, if we're gonna have
any shot, it's gotta be going on the show. Yeah. So,
(41:22):
not only that, he has a very specific plan to
get the attention of the State's Attorney's office, as Bob
puts it, So I said to the producer, I'll let
my client go on the show, but only on one condition.
If Anderson promises he'll let her take the microphone and
blast the Orlando State Attorney's Office for not doing their job. Now, Elizabeth,
as you know, the producers love that kind of conflict.
(41:44):
They booked his client and she did indeed blast the
State Attorney's office. Back to Bob. Within a few days
of that airing, the psychic was under arrest, and it
wasn't long after that that my client had her one
hundred and thirty six thousand dollars back. This is what
we call a happy ending now, believe it or not,
That's only part of his legal fights against the psychic,
Peaches stevens Oh Now, just like Gena Marie Marks, Bob
(42:07):
Nyguard was called out by multiple former clients to get justice.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
That's so crazy when he has all these people complaining
about the same person.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Is it Peacha Stevens. So Peaches Stevens was a classic
street level con artist. She could read people with just
the look. When she saw a young woman walking in Manhattan,
Peaches approached the thirty one year old woman and said
to her, I am a psychic, and I see spirits
swirling around you that must dwell inside your body. Oh
it sounds like sound familiar. The young New Yorker was
taken aback. But it was New York and people said
(42:36):
weird stuff to other people all the time, and they're
always looking to work some angle, a con whatever. So
but the psychic was persistent, persuasive. She even seemed genuinely
worried about the young woman. She said, I see you
have three evil spirits inside of you. Now, technically she
had two adult spirits and one of the spirits was
pregnant with an evil baby spirit two and a half.
(42:56):
So depending on how you count, yeah, when does the
baby spirit become its own spirit? So the young woman
paused to listen to what else Peaches Stevens saw in her.
She had some good news for the young woman. The
Sayakak told her, I see something special in you you
were born under a lucky star. So that's what I
(43:19):
thought too. So the reason why the young woman was
willing to listen was that she'd begun to doubt herself
after a bitter divorce. She also had job stress, She
had a bad ankle from an old injury. This woman
was hobbled in so many ways, right, So I remember
Peaches can read a person. So Peaches convinces the young
woman to come with her to get something to eat
and to talk more. They go to a Chipotle. This right,
(43:43):
it reminded me of you're always like Chipotle is pretty good,
Like I heard that when I was reading it. And
the fast casual Mexican restaurant. The two women continued talking
and they bonded because remember Peaches is pretending that she
cares deeply, and the woman is like, nobody's cared for
me in a long time. I live in the city,
anonymous and alone. So at the end of the meal,
Peaches gives the young woman a flyer for her psychic shop.
He's like, you need to come over, it's right by NYU,
(44:05):
and she's like, okay, I will not. A week later,
the young woman takes the trip over to see Peaches Stevens.
When she's there for her first visit, the psychic tells
her that she can sense what's wrong, right, what it
all stems from. It's the young woman's stepmother's fault. She said, yes,
oh my god, yes, she placed a curse on you. Yes,
because you know the old adage Elizabeth went in doubt
blame a woman in America. I mean, it's just anyway,
(44:28):
some time passes, the two get to work to undo
this curse. And you know what that means? Strip down,
rub an egg all over yo body. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
And I still if I went to someone they said
there's a curse on you, I'd be all right.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
So what are we going to do to curse this person?
Speaker 4 (44:42):
Yeah, exactly, get aggressive, move the curse like no, I
want a more powerful.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Throw the curse on them, multiple curses, the curses of
a thousand years.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Yeah, exactly, get me a crone curse, do this.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
I want one that lasts for like her grandchildren. So
in this case, Peaches did the egg rubbing herself. Peaches
rub the egg, honored this woman's head to all over
her body to gather her energy. And then same thing,
she cracked the egg. You wanted to guess what came
out this time?
Speaker 4 (45:06):
Spider?
Speaker 2 (45:07):
No, live black spider. Nope, it was a dead baby snake.
This is dead baby snake. So Peaches had the yeah,
I know right. I was like, I didn't want to
tell you, but I had had to just for the variety.
So Peaches then add the young woman brought it to
I don't know, Yeah, she've had had one. Sometimes she's
(45:28):
got a market because people know how to get meteorites,
dead baby snakes. They got a whole black market. We
don't know about Elizabeth. So the young woman at this
point is told by Peaches to spit into a jar, like,
did you bring your spit jar? No, here, spit, I've
got a jar you can spit into. So, just like
with Gina Mariemarks, she goes and she has a woman's spit,
but in this case we know exactly the process. She
had her spit into clean water that's in this jar.
(45:50):
And when as soon as this woman spit hit the water,
apparently it thickened into this mass and it turned into
like a bloodlike blobby mass. I don't know how she
did this, but apparently like changed colors and consistency and
turned into like a gross mass. And then the Peaches
gasp and said it's proof of the curs.
Speaker 6 (46:08):
Right.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
So then luckily Peach is new just what to do.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
Though, she is just like buying out all of the
magic shop stuff.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
Yes, exactly, just mix it up.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Got a couple of amateurs, a couple like dragon candles.
So she tells her, you know, do you have fourteen
thousand dollars? Apparently this is the number, so it's a
very specific amount. These uh, these spirit workers like they
have very specific amounts the spirit world requires them to receive.
This help is that we need exactly. Also, it kind
of reminds me. Do you hear the old George Carlin
(46:38):
bit where he's like talking about God needs money?
Speaker 3 (46:41):
Right?
Speaker 6 (46:41):
Yeah, yeah, God loves you and he needs money. He
always needs money. He's all powerful, all perfect, all knowing
and all wise. Somehow just can't handle money.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
So anyway, apparently the whole spiritual world is like that,
because demons also need money. Sure, yeah, everybody needs but
you know, anyway, the young woman does as she's told,
she gets money, and the money she's gathered it wasn't enough.
Peach is like, I know, you can do better. Than this.
So eventually the young woman wires Peaches ten large. Peach
is like this is a start. Then she's like, well,
(47:13):
what did you need more? And we're almost four more grand.
So then Peaches gets her to send her twenty one
and twenty five dollars in gift cards to sax fifth
Avenue and one for Bloomingdale's. Demons like the shop girl.
Don't don't you judgmental? They like they like a good
clean fit, They like expensive fashions. Demons are repulsed by non.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
Luxury goods, a little demonic.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
I remember, better materials, better results, you can pay for exactly,
you know. So the demons they also wanted a Cardia watch,
so the young woman thought it seven nine dollars Cardier
watch for Peaches and the spiritual battles. I guess the
demons were scared off by the diamond encrusted bezels because
in the smooth motion. Because eventually, after four years of fighting,
(47:55):
the demons were still inhabiting her soul. They had released
some of their grip, but you shoot not free of
the curse. The young woman tabulated all the money she'd
given to Peaches over their time together. It was thirty
two large. Goodness by this time was twenty fourteen. So
she tries to contact Peaches and she's like the numbers disconnected.
The next year, the young woman searches for help online.
Whose name does she find. Yeah, Bob Niguard, psychic detective.
(48:18):
I love him now, as a young woman recalled, I
was determined to get justice. Bob Niguard gave me instant
relief because I stopped feeling so helpless, and he did
not pass judgment on me.
Speaker 4 (48:29):
He's like, better than these psychics. You're healing their totally
their psychic needs.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
They're actually helping them. Yeah, she's making them feel somewhat
like heard here Ford, Yeah, and then like some justice valid.
He's also like Etceterrin. He's gonna give you the instant relief.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
So unlike the NYPD whom she had already contacted, Bob
took her case seriously, as she put it, Bob called
me when I got back from the police station, and
he offered to take her case for a percentage of
the recovered fraud. Yeah, they give me a cut of
that thirty two large. And he did as he promised.
Though he's good to his word. Bob worked her case.
He chased leads down rain soaked noir alleys. He haunted
(49:06):
the streets decorated with pools of light cast by lonely
street lamps. He tracked down Peaches Stevens.
Speaker 3 (49:12):
Did he play a saxophone?
Speaker 2 (49:14):
A lot of sax solos? Finally he located her in Florida,
of all places, gives a bunch of snowbirds. They said
they worked in New York. They go down to Florida.
He followed her and her husband to a Denny's on
Highway US one in a town called Lighthouse Point, and
then he called in for backup. Sounlike the NYPD, the
Florida cops sprang into action. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's
(49:36):
deputies zoomed over to the Dennis. They arrived in time
to catch the psych Just after she finished off to
her Rudy two dy fresh and fruity breakfast, she was
arrested outside of a CVS drug store right next door.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
Brands like.
Speaker 5 (49:51):
Good.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
She gets charged with grand theft because they did what
Bob said. He said, Look, it's a real crime. She
gets charged with grand theft. Her victim, the young woman
she walked away with almost no anger at Peaches Stevens.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
Really, I know, right.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Instead, she felt sorry for her. She grasped that Peaches
was the product of a family of criminals, born into
the life, never questioned who or how many people she
was hurting as a young woman. Said I occasionally feel
a mixture of resentment and pity. Peaches was indoctrinated into
her lifestyle as a child and raised to be a
con artist. It's pretty that that's her life, and I
(50:25):
got to hand it to her. I agree with that
Peaches Stevens has only ever really known crime. She was
born into it, and it is It's kind of sad,
you know so, But hold up, this is not where
the story of Bob Niguard is. I have a couple
more for you. Did you notice that all these victims
were women?
Speaker 3 (50:41):
Yes, they did.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
I don't want you to get the idea that only
women fall for this hogswoggle. Men go hard for this scam. Two, however,
that will require a whole other episode, because we have
different themes of manipulation and I want us to focus
on thoseabe. So I'll be back next week with Part
two from the case Book of Bob Niguard. Psychic detective.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
So what's our ridiculous takeaway here?
Speaker 4 (51:03):
Oh my goodness, I think I hate these predators who
we're going after people who are just really going through it.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Yes, thank you.
Speaker 4 (51:13):
You know, And it's like they there are other outlets
that are more difficult to work in. So like, if
you're really having this hard time, therapy would be helpful,
but it requires a lot of self reflection and work,
and it's it's not just a magic fix. And so
these are people who are having such a hard time
and they're looking for help and they're told do X y.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Z and it'll be fixed.
Speaker 4 (51:35):
Yes, And you can blame your state of mind on
this curse or on this thing. And I find that
so predatory and disgusting. So that's my takeaway, Sarah.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
Oh wow, I'm just ye you're on a road. Well,
thank you for asking. My ridiculous takeaway is that I
really want a Rudy to d fresh and fruity.
Speaker 4 (51:58):
When you said Denny, it was like, I would love
breakfast for dinner.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Yes, same, I'd love some like a good diner dinner
that's a breakfast. But also I did have a real one,
which is that the specificity of all their requests are
always so interesting to me, like that I want to rolllex,
I want to Cardie watch. It's always like this, always
expensive stuff. I mean, like the fact that it's so
patterned and like, obviously this works. So this is a
(52:27):
narrative that they figured out that it's almost like a
magic spell that you were casting bit by bit by bit.
It's just kind of interesting to me that actually does
have the properties of what they want. Yeah, ultimately it's horrendous,
but it is a magic spell.
Speaker 4 (52:39):
I'm going to open a business where I'm an empowering
curse person. So if someone's like I'm cursed, I'm like, let's.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
Let's let's curse them.
Speaker 3 (52:47):
Let's curse them. And now you're in charge, We're.
Speaker 2 (52:50):
Gonna be throwing spells. We're gonna be casting curses. Get
ready for some forward action. We're getting aggressive, no defense,
all offense.
Speaker 3 (52:57):
That's my mindset right now.
Speaker 5 (52:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (52:59):
It just it's like I'm not going to be a victim.
I'm just gonna and I'm not gonna complain. It's on
you all gas, everybody look out.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
Yes, yeah, you in the mood for a talk pack.
Speaker 3 (53:09):
Yes, I'm in the mood for it. Talk.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Oh oh my god, super.
Speaker 3 (53:20):
I love cheat.
Speaker 8 (53:24):
Hi Sarah, hy Elizabeth, this is kit your favorite ridiculous
first suitmaker. I wanted to tell you about this woman
named Opal Covey that my ASL class in college was
super obsessed with for some reason. She ran for mayor
in Toledo on a platform of building an amusement park
in a water park and is also a self proclaimed prophetess.
It looks like she did a little pro wrestling thing
in twenty nineteen, kind of a wacky ride. I feel
(53:45):
like it's up your alley, totally look into it. All right,
let's be bye.
Speaker 3 (53:49):
Oh that's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (53:51):
You know, there was a guy who every now and
then runs for mayor in Oakland and he wants to
build like a water park at Lake Merritt.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
Why are the water parks? Why is that always the town?
Speaker 4 (54:00):
Alma, like, you know, to go back and reference parks
and rec.
Speaker 3 (54:03):
Yes, the character who oh yes.
Speaker 4 (54:06):
You know his downfall was as a teen being mayor
and starting some like snow land whatever.
Speaker 3 (54:12):
Yeah, don't do.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
It, don't but thank you for that. That's a great recommendation.
And also to all the listeners, we've been getting some
really good recommendations recently. Thank you all, We really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (54:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
As always, you can find us online Ridiculous Crime on
Blue Sky and Instagram. Reach out to us that way.
Please send us emails at ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.
We also have our website ridiculous Crime dot com. It
is a five time Tony Award winner and we're hoping
for us sixth we want yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:40):
Looking good if we can put it together.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
I mean we're what how I think two wards away
from our sixth egoch Yeah, so that'd be amazing. Just
keep it rolling anyway, Thanks for listening. We will catch
you next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted Elizabeth Dutton and
Zaren Burnette, produced and edited by Dave Kustin, psychic producer,
(55:04):
and starring Annaalice Rutger as Judith. Research is by Marissa Brown,
psychic fact checker. Our theme song is by Thomas Lee
and Travis Dutton, psychic musicians. The host wardrobe provided by
Botany five hundred guest hary, makeup by Sparkle Shock and
Mister Andrew. Executive producers are Ben Boleen and Noel Brown,
psychic historians.
Speaker 5 (55:32):
Why say It One More Time?
Speaker 1 (55:36):
Crime Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeart Radio. Four
more podcasts My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Zaron Burnett
Elizabeth Dutton
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