The Art of Forgery: Art Williams Jr.

Let's face it, counterfeiting is an art. It takes serious talent and skill. So it should come as no surprise that the best counterfeiter in the land is also a fantastic artist. To say Art Williams, Jr. has lived a surprising and ridiculous life is an understatement. Print yourself a five dollar bill, buy some popcorn, and settle in!

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Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hey Elizabeth, Nice to see you girl. How are you doing?

Speaker 3 (00:06):
Good to see you. I'm I'm great.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Nice.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Yeah, well let's let's say I am.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I like to see that.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
He how are you?

Speaker 4 (00:12):
I'm hanging in there, man, you know, you know me.
I'm like a leaf floating on the waters in the gutter.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
That's right, I'm the smooth stone in the river right now.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yes, exact job.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
You know. It's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I do.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (00:23):
I was reading this story and I was thinking, to you,
this guy from Texas. He was in the Mall of
Millennia in Orlando, Florida. He was in a Tiffany store
and he was there and he's like, oh, I'm doing
some shopping for a friend.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
This is why I thought of you.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
And the friend happened to be an Orlando Magic player,
and so he's like, yeah, he wants to get some
like expensive ring.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
So they showed him.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
They took him to a private viewing room and they
showed him this five hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars
diamond ring, two sets of diamond earrings worth collectively a
six hundred, nine thousand and one hundred and other sixty thousand, right,
so like really expensive stuff.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
So while he's discussing like okay, we'll do a wire
transfer to Tiffany's from the player, and then people were like, okay,
that sounds good. Then he quote out of his seat,
grab the jewelry and bolted for the door. Now he
starts running. He's in the VIP viewing room. He's got
to get through the security in Tiffany, So he does that.
He's fighting and pushing through security out of Tiffany's got
the diamond rings and the earrings in his like hot fist, right,

(01:14):
and he's fighting. He gets to the doors and he
managed to free himself from this Tiffany's and the one
ring gets knocked out of his hand. He's got the
ear rings, right. So then the cops, of course they're
on this, so they go and they use a whole
like all the network of public safety cameras, like all
the traffic cameras. They find his twenty twenty four Mitsubishi
Highlander turns out rented vehicle fleeing, right, So they put

(01:37):
out an APV on this guy and he is quote
taking the fastest route back to Texas The best part
is they catch him, right.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
But when they catch him, he's like, oh whoop.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
Swallows the diamond ear rings, right, Like that'll get I'll
get away with this. That did not work out, right,
So the investigators they take them in and they basically
tell him that quote, these foeign objects will need to
be collected after they are passed through your system. So
they just wait about am I going to be This
is a direct quote. Am I going to be charged with?
What's in my stomach?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah? I'm thinking, yeah, bro, So there you go. I
thought that was awesome. You know, I just reminded me
of you. I don't ask me why I watched TV.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
I don't know if you know this.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
I heard that from a friend.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, and I just recently watched an episode of Law
and Order Criminal Intent.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
I love that. My favorite other Franchi, one of.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
The purps, swallowed some diamonds. Jewelers.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Look at that.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Look at that.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
It's like we're hacking a little ora borous here, eating
our own tail. You're telling the same story I'm telling.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
It's amazing. That's ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Do you know what else is ridiculous?

Speaker 5 (02:38):
No?

Speaker 3 (02:38):
I do not, Perhaps being too good at counterfeiting. Oh,

(03:05):
this is ridiculous crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.
Heis and cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one hundred percent ridiculous. Oh I know you heard
that exactly, I heard it. We like counterfeitters here, don't we.

Speaker 5 (03:21):
We do.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
We love the fakers.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, I do feel bad for the people who get
the funny money.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
But it's a.

Speaker 4 (03:26):
Nonviolent crisis, so it's okay. And I've been the one who,
as I've said numerous times, who has received the funny
money exactly, and I may do.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
You Knoweah, they suck.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
We're still above ground. I got that ten spot that
one time.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Exactly. It's just like bad weather sometimes you get.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Wet, exactly, It's just stuff. I am fascinated though, by
the skill that it takes to make a passable.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Fake, Yes, I was impressed. Actually, such an.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Art to it, and it takes so much talent that
should count for something.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
It is.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
I have a forger for you today, Such an interesting
cat gen xer nice, someone with a rough backstory. Love
those scrappy yeahdal survivor. His name is Arthur J. Williams Junior,
Artie J.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Williams Junior Art Williams Art Williams.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
I like born in the year of the Work of Art,
nineteen seventy two. He's from one of your favorite cities.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Oh, Chicago, Chicago, and he.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Grew up in the Bridgeport neighborhood. Okay, And we've talked
before about like the nature nurture of crime. So there
are some of these folks who are just like, they
have criming deep within them, and their families are puzzled,
and they share none of these felonious feelings. Mama tried
and all that. The criminal urge is just part of

(04:45):
their nature.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
It's just in there and they gotta let it out.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
And then there are those born into crime, Yes, those
who pretty much only know crime or have it omnipresent
as they come up.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yes, I tried to do that.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah you did. We We have, we all, each one
of us. We've got our parents as models of how
to live, and it's up to us to either except
or reject those models totally. And then there are some
who come from criminal families, but they choose to walk
the straight and narrow. They reject the model. Yes, their
nature rejects the crime, not art. Williams Junior.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, I look at you art. He did not reject crime,
he embraced it.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yes, his dad was a bad.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Man, nice a chip off the old bad man.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Here's a question for you. What's your earliest memory.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
My earliest memory, I was on my aunt's shoulders in
a she was registering for college class. I had to
be around like eighteen months old, and I remember all
of the details of the room that I've never seen
a photo of, and so I can confirm that it
is a memory because she was like, yeah, that is
exactly what we did, and that's exactly what it looked like.
So my first memory is being with my aunt when

(05:53):
she registered for college.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Okay, ye, thanks for asking.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Oh right, well, Elizabeth, what's yours is?

Speaker 3 (05:57):
I was I was probably maybe around too, and it
was a field of mustard down the street from where
we live, and so I remember how bright that yellow
was in the sun. And I can remember going on
a walk with my mom and looking at the field
and like the California poppies that kind of were ringing
the lot so much saturated yellow and orange, and then

(06:20):
feeling the sun on my face. So that's my Yeah,
I'm pretty amazing that way.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, you're really impressive.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
You contain multiple I impressed myself.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Contained unity, just one thing.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Unified matter. Art Williams he had a different kind of
first memory.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
What was his first memory, Elizabeth, Maybe with the questions
over there.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
You're such a good participant. He remembers sitting in the
backseat of a family car.

Speaker 5 (06:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
He also remembers seeing his dad and another dude lift
a load of TVs from a truck.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Memory is this dad and.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
The dad's friend robbing TVs from some.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
TV's falling off the back of a truck.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, Well his first memory is crime.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, he's like a good fellow listener.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
I love that his dad took him along to take
your kid to work down.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
It's a good father. He's like, I want to spend
time with my boy.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Watch how it's done.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
I got to bring them. I have the option to
work where I work. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
So Art's mom, she was troubled. She was from Texas,
and that's not why she was troubled. She was troubled soul.
She had mental health issues and at one point she
had to head into a facility for inpatient treatment. That's
nineteen eighty two. Let's say so, Art Senior, he took
that as an opportunity to ditch his family for his
side piece.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Damn.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, he's like, your mom's in a mental institution, you're.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
On your own.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
My girlfriend's way more interesting.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Let's do this. She doesn't have to have her diapers changed. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
So I told you Art Senior bad mans serious. Yeah.
So there's Art Junior and his two younger siblings. He's
twelve years old. His dad's gone, his mom's out of
treatment and home and like zonked to the nines because
that's how they treated bipolar at the time, and they're
living in the projects. It's tough. So before his dad

(08:06):
took off, Art Junior had been seen as something of
like a prodigy, an artistic prodigy.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Interesting.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
So just before his dad's departure and just an academic,
you know, prodigy, Art Junior skipped two grades and got
accepted into this like super rigorous Catholic high school.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Oh very cool.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yeah, And he had this art, this incredible talent, and
the school had this really cool print shop with this
professional quality Heidelberg Press in it. And Art told Rolling
Stone quote, I learned some basics on it. I guess
you could say it planted a kind of seed.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
So you find exactly.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
So his dad though out of the picture. Mom struggling
to provide for the family. He had to leave the
Catholic school and transfer to one of the worst public
schools in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Oh that's the worst. You get attempted, You get to
see what your life could be haste of it, and
then it's taken away.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
And he was only he was only in the public
school for two years. He left after his sophomore year,
so he didn't even get to do a full freshman
year at the school. So his mom's out of commission.
He has to support the family. He starts robbing parking meters.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Okay, he got he got.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
His hands on some sort of tool that would pop
them open container. Yeah, so he would take bags of
change to the market and buy food for the family.
And keep in mind he's fourteen at this point.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Good on him. That's what I's family with change from
parking meters. Everyone alive.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
According to Forbes magazine, he didn't really actually drop out
of high school.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Oh, he liked he wouldn't go.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
No, he was kicked out of high school having gang affiliation.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Gang affiliation.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
When Williams was seventeen, his mom started dating a man
who went by the street name Da Vinci, a small
time counterfeiter like his gang affiliations are like through his mom.

Speaker 4 (09:59):
Yeah, and in his first memories his dad doing crime.
This kuy didn't really.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
Exactly the street name Da Vinci is amazing.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Love that, Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
So Art, He's like, I want it on this. I
want to be a crimer like you.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
I need a cool street name.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
And so he's like, I want to act as your apprentice,
Da Vinci. Teach me the way of counterfeiting Da Vince.
She's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, I can't let you.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Oh wow.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
So Art goes out and he gets himself a two
color press at a printer's auction sure, and he used
it to make twenty dollars bills in a friend's garage.
This is what he said about him. Quote. They were,
they had this purple haze to them. I didn't even
try to pass them. I told Da Vinci if he
didn't help me, it would be his fault if I

(10:46):
got caught. It was snotty kids stuff and it worked.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah, so good. So, with this amazing threat hanging over
his head. Da Vinci stepped up.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
It feels like an early Scorsce film. I'm loving this.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
The whole thing sounds like a film's when you.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Work at Roger Korman Independent.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
So Da Vinci he has his own print shop because
he's legit. He's a full setup. He takes art there
and shows him the ropes and so Art's doing like
these basic tasks for Da Vinci, and Da Vinci is
truly acting as as like this is his apprentice and
apprentice sharing his insights into the details of the jobs

(11:26):
and also the work in general.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
True to Da Vinci.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
You know, yeah, he tells them the studio Da Vinci,
he says, quote, if you let your operation get too big,
you'll get caught. Keep it small and stay in control.
If you're smart, you'll make some money and get out
of it. So that was part of his advice.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Great advice, Da Vinci.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
The work, he said his kids straight, I like it.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Straight on the crooked straight. There's so much concentration and
attention to detail needed for this work. Yeah, it's almost contemplative,
very slow.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, that's a lot of reasons, but that's probably chief.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
I think so.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
I think so too. I kind of got the idea
of imagine quiet time.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah exactly that that's not an easy path though for
a kid who was used to like run in his
game in the streets, like.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, he's much more an operator so far. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
And so he had this knowledge and he had the experience,
he got the art talent, yeah, in counterfeiting. But he
decided to go back to street crime. So he and
his crime pals they would pretend to be narcotics officers
and bust drug dealers and take the cash and the drugs.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Brilliant.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Isn't that brilliant?

Speaker 2 (12:33):
The ultimate no victim crime?

Speaker 3 (12:35):
And what are you going to tell you?

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Exactly?

Speaker 3 (12:38):
And so he's doing that, he buries his childhood sweetheart.
Karen Mager's beautiful gal, lots of promise and she also
has direction in her life.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Oh good for her.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
She knew what she wanted to do.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
I like an ambitious person, become a cop. That's going
to be a problem. That's a little bit wrong ambition
for him.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
And become a cop.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
She did, Oh, really, does you want to be a
real cop?

Speaker 3 (12:57):
She and then they had a kid together, Arthur Williams,
the third Okay, And it was then that art.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Like a mixed marriage.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Now well in art, junior kids born, wife's a cop.
He's like, I have to leave the streets behind. I oh, okay,
I can't keep robbing drug dealers.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
That's a good read art.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
I have to go back to counterfeiting.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Half a good rad art.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
I mean he only goes up to sophomore in high
school for I'm calling.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
For the guy still, even with his new cop wife.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
According to Rolling Stone Magazine quote, in nineteen ninety two,
less than one half of one percent of counterfeitters used
desktop publishing equipment, but Williams realized that digital printing was
cheaper and more portable than a full offset shop, yet
could be just as effective. Really, instead of buying a
process camera and a plate maker for three thousand dollars,

(13:45):
he used a bootleg copy of Adobe Photoshop to touch
up scans on an early Apple.

Speaker 6 (13:50):
Wow, he's a good Apple to we like, Oh yeah,
I love.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
He's running bootleg Photoshop too. Yes, I'm not paying a.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
No no wait, well that was before they made you
the subscription.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
You forget every month. I get mad.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah. So he's super particular and inventive, so he could
get into like the very detail oriented party and those
skills are also what he picked up from Da Vinciet.
But it was just innate in him because he that
artistic prodigy part of him.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
This is now his new medium to work through it
correct and.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
He wanted to get absolutely everything right. So for the
color of the paper, he ran blank sheets of paper
through an offset press with no printing details on him.
He was just establishing a background color. Yeah, he had
to get the tint just right.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (14:40):
Then he'd use Hindy Wiley working with his background many
foregrounds the subject I'm loving criticisely.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
Then he'd use another printer for the actual details. He
was meticulous. This operation is a stinky one though, the
ink and the ammonia they're pretty strong. Yeah, So to
keep it i'm the low. He sets up this improvised
HVAC system to pull the odor away from the studio
and his neighbor.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, you definitely want that.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
He obviously he needs paper and he.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Needs somewhere to filter it out. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah. He bribes a worker at the local newspaper like
a little bit, yeah, to give him a thousand sheets
of royal linen, because that's the closest he could get
to the paper. Supplied to the Treasury by Creaming Company.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, bit of cotton in it.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
Right, and they had been the government source for paper
since eighteen seventy nine.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Oh wow, I don't.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
Know if that's still true. Does SpaceX make paper?

Speaker 2 (15:35):
I don't know anything.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
So, with all the good paper and his careful system,
he could churn out around one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars per batch of paper that he would get, but
he could only bribe and pay off the newspaper workers
so much so he got a friend to help him out.
She would go down to the Chicago printing houses and
post up the loading docks, and she posed as an

(15:56):
inner city public school teacher, just looking for paper.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
All right. No one asked questions about that, and she.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Asked to what they call sub rolls. So it's like
the portions left at the end of one ton rolls
of paper.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yes, totally, basically your scraps and spares. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
And so with that paper plug, he was now printing
off almost fifty thousand dollars every month. Yeah, and he
sold that off to other criminals for twenty cents on
the dollars, so you know they're they're getting fifty he's
making ten great. Yeah, and I feel like he's kind
of underselling himself on that.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
But okay, well, I mean you got to leave some
room for them to make money too.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
Exactly exactly. So now he's obviously, though, flush with cash.
What did his wife think of this?

Speaker 4 (16:39):
What did his wife the cop think about all this
questions and all of a sudden influx of money he
didn't know.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
She was suspicious that he had all this money all
of a sudden.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, and he doesn't really have a judge. You know,
he's going to work.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Every day probably, and so it's nineteen ninety three at
this point, she's had enough. She's like, I don't trust
you out all what's happening.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
The recessions on. So it's like hard to get a jet.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
So she left him. He moved everything in his shop
into a storage facility, and then he headed down to
Texas to stay with his mom. She had moved back
down to her home.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Stage.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
So the crime life lost him, his wife, his true love.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yes, he he's like a child kid.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
He's like, I'm walking away from it completely, No more
crime for me, Zaren. He did not walk away from
it completely.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
I was guessing he couldn't do it all.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
He's well, he wasn't counterfeiting, but he was cri He
hooked up with this little girl gang of five ladies.
They loved him. They're like, oh, he's so handsome. He's
such a dangerous bad boy. Yes, in Texas, Texas, So
he comes up with this.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
They were stackets and probably the girls.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
The girls would come on to drug dealers and where
would they pick these guys up?

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Where would they picked these up?

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Monkey tonk bar gillies. Yeah, So with whaling on in
the background, they cozy up to these fellows and then
roofy their drinks toly.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
They got off the electric ball and they're like, hell,
get a drink, drop something right.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
In the michelobe light.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yes, coozy.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
So the drug dealers would pass out and while they're unconscious,
Art would swoop in take everything they had.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
According to La magazine, in nineteen ninety four, he was
arrested for second degree burglary, served a short prison sentence,
got released in nineteen ninety six.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
A couple inside.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yeah, so out of jail, new lease on life. Art
moves back to Chicago and he brought Natalie with him.
Who's Natalie? Who was one of the Roofie crew.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Oh yeah, I'm glad they made it work.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah, so he they'd gotten married while he was behind bars.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
Oh after Locke, I hear about this. Yeah, that's a
real sign of commitment.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
So they're in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
I love Chicago.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
What to do? Do they go to a Cubs game? Maybe? Yes,
counterfeit some currency could SI but it was nineteen ninety six.
Things to change. Let's pause for some ads, and when
we come back, we're going to learn about those changes
together as a team. I love changes me too, Okay.

(19:21):
Zarenes so our junior out of prison, back in Chicago, Texas,
Josh back in the counterfeit game.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Back in Cook County.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
Back not hold right. Because of people like Art, the
US Bureau of Engraving and Printing had to shake things up.
Their website's still active, by.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
The way, Really need to go look at it.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
Okay, So to improve security, they redesigned the circulating currency.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
He changed the game is what you're talking pretty much.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
So first up was the one hundred dollars bill. If
you go to b EP dot gov the website, they
have the history of each bill, sure, and you can
see what hundreds look like from nineteen fourteen to today, with
special attention to the last three iterations. Honestly, like nineteen
fourteen to nineteen ninety six, look about the same changes.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Then in ninety six they made Ben Franklin.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
Huge severe changes. You remember that it was dumb. It
was like when the brands all a sudden had huge
icons of like that's the giant holo logo.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
But Ben Franklin.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Still he's still got those sassy dissatisfied purse lists. Of
course that didn't go away, but there was way more detail.
So this made it harder for copiers and scanners to
create every line, of course, and there was also micro printing,
super super tiny lettering that even the best computer equipment
couldn't perfectly replicate. And so there was color shifting ink yeah, yeah,

(20:47):
the bottom right hand.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
You could see the seal, right, no, no, no, that's later.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Okay, this is the one where the bottom right hand
corner one hundred would go from green to black. That
moved it. Yeah. So, and then there's a watermark built
into the paper itself.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Did they put the stripe in at this point?

Speaker 3 (21:03):
No, well, there is inside the paper, but not the
not the like hologram one.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, that comes later on.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah. So this like, if you hold the bill up
to the light source, you can see the water mark.

Speaker 5 (21:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
And then there's the innovation of the dry mark pen
us yellow tip mark. So if you drew a line
on some counterfeit money, the ink would turn brown. That
was due to the starches in most phony paper money. Yeah,
so real money has no starch. It's carb free.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
I love that. I love a car free doll.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
So the ink is yellow if you put it on
a real bill. And so this was going to be
tough making some of these bills. I had to start
with the paper, okay. He had to find some with
no starch that could pass the quality test. He and
Natalie they went to work. So they ordered samples from
paper companies, but they were smart enough to use fake

(21:57):
names when they made the orders.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
You want to have it sent to another step.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
And with each batch they'd hit the samples with the
dry mark brown brown brown dratt. Natalie gets really frustrated
she didn't have Art's patients. She's running around the apartment
marking every piece of paper with a pen like in
a fury.

Speaker 5 (22:16):
She just.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
Exactly she was just like there then she marks a
copy of the Shes. She marks a copy of the
Chicago Sun Times. Oh yellow, bingo, no starch up in there.
So she goes down to the loading dock at the
papers printer and bums the end of a roll. No
one cared how much you want for that. But now

(22:41):
the next challenge the water mark. So first Art steamed
the paper and then carved the mark into it. But
the paper wouldn't be smooth if you did that, and
he puzzled over it for months. I have my best
genius ideas in the shower.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Art had his shower thing.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
I am a shower thinker.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
I would not have guessed that. Well, now you know
he's half a bottle.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Art had his and his dreams.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
He's like Tesla.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah, so he quote he saw quote two pieces of
paper with the watermark sitting between them. So he woke
up in the morning, tells Natalie. She carefully drew a
faint image of Ben Franklin onto a piece of tissue paper,
Art cut it out, glued it between two sheets of newsprint. Quote.
The moment we saw it, we knew it would work.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Oh my god, can you imagine that moment if here
as counterfeitters just like these is helping them.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
So by using two sheets, they had figured out how
to beat the watermark. They also there was a security
thread in the field bill, so he had originally planned
to skip it because it.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
You know, it would be really difficult. It was put
in there specifically to be very difficult.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
But instead he was able to print his own threads
using fluorescent ink and then insert them between the sheets.
This feels like more than one hundred dollars worth of
work for each hundred dollars bill.

Speaker 4 (24:07):
I was just thinking the same thing. But then again,
he's making he guess he's making individually, not making sheets. No, yeah,
he's making like individual.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
So he's inserting the ink between the sheets. He's a
roofy boy on the streets. Fluorescent ink between the sheets
for that color shifting ink being black, he used metallic
automobile paint.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Had that, Yeah, like the irides in effect.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, And he headed over to Kinko's and had them
make a stamp in the same size and font as
US currency. And that's what he like. He would stamp
that and then print it onto the bill. And then
lastly there's the microt.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
He's a process incredible, so.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
That he has to microprint now. To solve that problem,
he hired a crew. The Keebler Elves had hit a
rough patch and they needed money. No, Saren, that's.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Not I thought there was another crew he ran. He's like, oh,
I got the other crew on.

Speaker 3 (25:03):
The crew he used was photoshop. So he used photoshop
to sort of riff on the look of tiny words
on Ben Franklin's collar, and it was totally convincing to
the naked eye, like you'd have to whip out a
magnifying glass in order to be able to see the difference. So,
with all the components in place, he starts production. He
had an offset press to color the paper like in

(25:23):
the old days. Then he glued that paper to a
thicker carrier sheet so that the printer wouldn't jam, and
he'd print each side of a bill on its own sheet.
Then he would trim off the carrier sheet, put the
watermark and the thread between the sheets, then glue it
all together. And then to complete the process, he'd cover
them with this hardening spray to get the right text.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
That's what I was wondering. How you stamp press it
and then make them hot?

Speaker 3 (25:47):
And he would then use the stamp that he made.
He flattened the bills on a little steel press that.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
They feel new totally.

Speaker 3 (25:54):
And you know what I always like to say to
quote Drew Down in his classic hit play It for Real,
as you always say of my dead President's crispy yes
you do girl. So these were primo bills. He told
Rolling Stone about seeing that first series of one hundred
dollars bills. Quote, it was scary just looking at it.
I knew it would change things. I was like the

(26:16):
caveman discovering fire.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
He has all these great moments, the aha moments, the.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
Clouds part, the shaft of light illuminates him.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
He was doing all of this, mind you, in motels
on portable printers.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Hell.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Yeah, so he didn't have to run a shot. He'd
run off like fifty sixty grand and then he'd box
up the equipment because it was all small.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Any places where people don't want to ask questions.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Right, So from Rolling Stone quote, they roamed the back
roads at a leisurely pace all week, lingering in towns
they liked. They'd go mountain climbing in Wyoming or hit
the beach in Miami. It was total freedom. Recalls Natalie.
We'd go wherever we wanted and not even pack. We'd
just buy closed or care supplies along the way, road
trip America life. So they had to clean the cash though,

(27:06):
of course, and the best place to do that was
that like older out of the way strip malls, because
there's there are no cameras, not a lot of foot traffic.
And they'd put on disguises go shopping. They had character backstories, commitment.
I would pretend to be like a beleaguered husband who's
just born out from a day of shopping, and so

(27:27):
he'd stand outside while the little lady went in and
bought stuff.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
Natural cover story.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
She would pick stuff out with a total of less
than twenty dollars and say she only had honeys on
her and the cashiers they'd run the pen over her bill,
check the watermarks, everything's in order. There you go. So
then Natalie would get her change and whatever chotchkey she'd
picked up be out the door. And they were pulling
in around three grand in cash each day that they

(27:52):
did this.

Speaker 4 (27:53):
Wow, and they're pulling and they're usually spending one hundred
dollars thirty times.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
Wow. Yeah, this is a full.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
It's a they are they are, I don't know how
how break even they are and exactly.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
And they're basically self employed. So the thing to get
out of this is traveling footloose and fancy free.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
That really seems to be no bosses. And like some
of the other counterfeiters that I've told you about, they
have a bunch of junk that they don't want as
a result.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yes, of course they got to be.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
They're living on the road. So Rolling Stone detailed the
list of what they're getting candles, cheap shoes, books, scarves, hats, junk, jewelry, perfume,
pocket knives, ceeds, neckties, dolls, toys, wine, bath oils and soap.
All this stuff. This stuff, it's just taking up too

(28:41):
much room. And they didn't want to just dump it
because if people start finding the dump.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Stuff, women's shelters.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
Know what they figured out they could do. They started
buying baby clothes and toys and stuff like that and
then took them and donated them at the end the move.
That's a bright spot.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
And people needed so much that they're not going to
be thinking.

Speaker 3 (28:59):
Some crawling around wearing an ill gotten onesie.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
And I'm loving that too. I'm like, yeah, so if the.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
Two of them they could clear three thousand dollars in
a day, how much more could they make with a
team of shoppers.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
They start thinking, I'm imagining like tens of thousands.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
Well, they asked family members who weren't snitches to help
them out.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Important.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yeah, so they would fan out to like bigger towns
and cities.

Speaker 4 (29:23):
People, by the way, on that in your family, like honey,
you know, soft introduced the hey, you like you travel
on the summer.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
You like shopping?

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah, Well, they go out.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
They'd spend, spend, spend, and they did this for years.
Art created almost five million dollars in thing bills in
the first two years. Wow, in nine years that they
were doing They're going to do.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
The work of printing and turning over the money. Incredible.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
In nine years, it's estimated he made up to ten
million dollars in phony cash. Ten mill So the numbers
made him, according to authorities, one of the most successful
American counterfeiters of the last twenty.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
Five Oh yeah, he's got to be top ten, maybe
top five. I don't know, he's up there.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
So, of course, if you're in that position, organized crime
comes called. Oh of course, they offered to set him up.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
I appreciate your work. We'd like to talk to you
about getting the James.

Speaker 3 (30:16):
They're like, we'll give you three hundred thousand dollars and
we'll also set you up in a villa anywhere in
the world that you want. You'll start churning this stuff out.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
You don't have to be in America. That's good for
tradition laws.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
They wanted to buy his equipment. He passed. He's like, no, really,
to be my own boy.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
I didn't want to be greedy. He's listening to Da
Vinci's rule, right.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
A counterfeit specialist at the Secret Service in Washington, d C.
Said quote, I'd rate his bills an eight or nine.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Now, that's hot. They need to give him that.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
In fact, a perfect ten is known as a supernote,
and only one of them is known to exist, one ever,
and it's been printed in huge amounts. Okay, And because
the North Korean government got a hold of a ten
million dollar press, just like the one used by the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
So there's that they bought the machine.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
They bought the machine.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
This is the drill that dug the channel.

Speaker 4 (31:11):
This is the other drill from the other side.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
So Art's bills their eights are nine. But they still
had some trouble. According to La magazine quote, his fakes
weren't infallible. He couldn't assemble or spend his bills in
humid climates because they would unravel. A friend splurging at
a bachelor party learned this the hard way after a
run in with the Jamaica Constabulary Force. No, oh, no mon.

(31:43):
Things were going well until they almost went very wrong.
See Art, He was like pretty flirty with Natalie's sister, Amy,
and Art later explained quote, Me and Amy had gotten
very close. We'd never done nothing, but I had taken
her out to dinner. Maybe we had talked sexy to
each other. Nothing real major. You gotta understand that I

(32:04):
love my wife.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (32:06):
We talked sexy to each other. Ny was sexy to
each other and not at each other or.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
On each other. We talked sexy on each other.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
So Amy, like Art had these clients and he would
sell he'd sell the money off to them, and she
came along with him to a meeting with some of
these clients. Once who buddy zaren close.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Your eyes, Oh yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
Want you to picture it. It's February two thousand and one,
oh an innocent time. You are a fake one hundred
dollars bill made just the other day by none other
than Art Williams Junior. You're in the club at the
House of Blues in Chicago, tuck neatly in Amy's handbag.
She's there with Art as well as a couple of Russians.

(32:52):
You were just up in Art in Amy's room upstairs,
brokering a deal for the Russians to take your brothers
and sisters in Duffel back on an adventure. You had
been peeled off earlier and shoved into Amy's bag, and
there you sit next to a mac lipstick. The club
music pounding, everyone enjoying their drinks. After a few hours
of this, the group heads back upstairs. It's a quiet

(33:15):
ride up in the elevator. You all head into the
hotel room and Art offers everyone to join. The Russians
decline they'd be back tomorrow with the real money they
were gonna pay Art for a fake money. They leave,
and Amy heads to the bathroom to change into a robe.
She likes to be comfortable. What can you say, Art,
starts to roll a dooby on the nightstand. Suddenly there's

(33:36):
a knock on the door. Amy comes breezing out of
the bathroom and goes to open it. Art was just
about to tell her not to, but he's too late.
Amy opens the door and four Chicago cops are standing there.
There was a report of loud music and shouting. One
of them says, you can't believe they'd send four cops
for that. They pushed past Amy and head into the room.

(33:57):
Art sits stunned as everyone looks over at the nightstand
and the bag of weeds sitting on it busted. They
cuff him and declare they're searching the room. An officer
walks over to the Duffel bag intended for the Russians.
He unzips it all eyes wide, stacks and stacks of
hundreds your brethren and sistern. He lifts the stack of

(34:17):
bills out of the bag and smiles at his partners.
What have we got here? Amy starts crying. Only you
can hear the silent screams of the bills as the
cops thumb through them. They know they will eventually be incinerated.
Not cozy and smooth leather wallets or tucked in saves
or in happy graduation cards. It's chilling and that sound

(34:40):
will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
So Art gets nabbed, Oh, it gets busted in Chicago of.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
This, he said quote, I was busted with sixty thousand
dollars in counterfeit while in a hotel room with my
wife's semi naked sister. That was not just a bust,
It was a double bus.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
It was ugly when you put it that way, son, right.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
So Art and Amy they were smart about one thing.
They didn't say anything to the cops. In their first
court appearance, the prosecution claimed that when Amy opened the door,
the police saw the drugs on the night stand, and
that's probable cause for a search. But Art's lawyer knew better.
He did his research and was able to prove that
the nightstand wasn't visible from the door. Wow, boom, No

(35:23):
PC searches, fruit of the poison, Try illegal search and
caes are. Case dismiss Thank you, you're honor eye object
case closed. Wait, yeah, so the bills in the satchel
were in fact burned, pretend to six years up in smoke.
But yeah, they got the case dismissed. So this whole
episode drove Art back to Texas. He needed to regroup,

(35:45):
and while he was there, he saw something, something that
would change his life. It was the nineteen eighty seven
Sylvester Stallone hit film Over the Top. And I know
you think I'm pulling another goof on you with that,
but I am not.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
I can actually enjoy this.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
You can enjoy this one.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
I love when life is changed like this.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
He's watching TV. He sees the movie about the arm wrestling.
He's trying to reconnect with the son that he left mine.
He saw it and he knew he had to find
his dad.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
I'm sorry I shouldn't, but I had a friend who
had a very similar art.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
So let's take a break. When we get back, we're
gonna find Art Senior. If it's the last thing we do.

Speaker 6 (36:26):
Powerful movie, alright, Zara Elizabeth so Art Junior has to

(36:50):
find an art Senior.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
He needs to go over the it was foretold.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
By sliced Alone meant to be. So Art found his dad.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Why are you here? I still won't I'm going over
the top.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
He finds his dad, not Chicago, non Texas, in Alaska.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Wow, he ran fall.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
He ran far, Art Junior and Natalie, who was still
with him at that point.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
Are you kidding me? I'm not kidding Natalie.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
They go north to the future to see Pops okay,
and it was there that Junior told Senior that he
was a counterfeitter.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Dad, I'm a counterfeitter. Are you proud of me?

Speaker 5 (37:24):
Are you?

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Are you mad? You ran away? According to we could
have done together.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
According to Art Junior quote, he got that glow in
his face and asked if I could make more. I
wish he would have said no, son, it's time to stop,
but he didn't. I looked at it like my dad
was interested in something I was doing. I wanted to
make him proud.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Oh, it's such a summer. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
He finds his dad, he wants to have that moment
of bonding and his dad's like, you are my golden ticket.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yes, golden is my money tree.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
And so Junior setup shop got to work.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Of course he did.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
He started work on sixty grand. Now, this was the
new bill operation he'd created because he didn't bring.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
All that stuff. He's working out of Alaska, right.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
So he had to make some circa nineteen ninety three
bills and they could be old and well worn, easier,
and when the printing was done, Senior's like, you know what,
your secret's safe with me?

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Oh no, no, oh no no.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
So these two they all take turns floating the bills
around town and it works.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Like anchorage or something enough town that they're not going to.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
Be like, no one seems to notice. And then Art
Senior let it slip to some friends that he had
some fake cash on him. Did they want to pass
some of it for him? Like he'll split the change
with him? Bad move. So at two different stores, cashiers
knew something was off, like the prince fuzzy, The paper
doesn't feel right. And I'm guessing that Art Junior and

(38:50):
Natalie were used to passing the bad bills and it
created like really magnetic charismatically, you know, but not memorable character.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
You need a moment to transfix it. They're not looking
at the mine, so they had.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
To keep the clerks from Yeah, they don't want to
notice anything amiss. And I'm guessing that Art seniors pals
weren't as slick.

Speaker 4 (39:08):
I bet they were nervous. They showed up wearing their
own clothes.

Speaker 3 (39:11):
I want some gum staring at the bill while they
handed over so two of Senior's friends, they get busted
at them all and they squealed, immediately got the cash.
Then they flipped and they wore wires for the Secret Service.
Their phones were tapped. Evidence was collected. Pretty soon everyone's arrested,
Art Senior and his wife, Art Junior and Natalie. Natalie

(39:34):
escaped charges because Art Junior took a plea deal that
said specifically, you don't charge.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
Natalie got on him.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
I like the rest of them, everyone else does time.
And the day that Art Junior left prison in two
thousand and four, his dad died of a heart attack
in jail.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
What tragic.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
Yeah, I'm over here still thinking about how Natalie and
Art have a real love where she and he, she
stays with him, he doesn't flip on her. And then
you hit me with this.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah it is cinematic, is it?

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Oh my god?

Speaker 3 (40:04):
Yes, so our Junior. He was profiled by Rolling Stone
magazine interviewed in two thousand and four, came out in
two thousand and five. He would be again profiled twenty
years later same magazine.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Interesting.

Speaker 3 (40:16):
In the article in two thousand and four two thousand
and five, he told journalist Jason Kirsten that he had
gone straight no more counterfeiting, Saren, he was still counterfeiting. No,
so like in between the interview.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
And when the article comes out that quick.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Yeah, he's still like This is according to the Chicago
Tribune quote. With the profiles still on newstands. In two
thousand and five, he was at it again, producing at
least eighty nine thousand dollars in counterfeit bills before he
was arrested in Chicago in the summer of two thousand
and six.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
The ink was still drying on y so he gets.

Speaker 3 (40:49):
Another year out of it. But why the desperate need
to make all that cash?

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Oh no.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
It turns out his oldest son, Arthur Williams the Third,
wanted to be a rapper.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Okay, we he didn't need like an operation. He wanted
a rap Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
Yeah, he wants to be like the next great.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
White rapes up.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
So and juniors like, I want to finance that.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
I want to produce it. I want to you like father, like.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
Son, or like Da Vinci and his girlfriends.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
Roll doobies all the time. It'll be perfect.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
But art juniors like, all right, son, come with me.
I'm gonna teach you how to counterfeit?

Speaker 5 (41:28):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
Yeah, he gets Art the Third.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
And he's like, you're gonna need money if you want
to be a musician.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
Yeah. And so Art the Third, you know Art Trey
the Rapper, Trip old Trip, Yeah, he put more a trip.
They get into an argument. He and his dad get
into an argument. No, yeah, and uh Art the Third
lashes out. By lashes out. He walks up to a
Chicago cop hands him this huge wad of phony bills

(41:55):
and it's like, my dad made these.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Are you get out of town? Are you kidding?

Speaker 3 (41:59):
I am serious.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Guy has no luck with his son and his father.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
There has to be a family code, dude, I'm dying.
Like in my family, you can complain about a family
member all you want within the family, but you never
say a word against that family member outside. Keep it
in house, and you defend family members to outsiders, even
if you know they're right totally. Like the Gate family

(42:23):
got the same rule. Yeah, so you're mad at your dad,
go rap about it. Don't go to the cops.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
Yeah, you got sixteen bars rappin'.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
But don't begive specifics anyway. So the cops they showed
up at Art Junior's place, and of course all the
equipment's there.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
They should have been contacting the insane clown posse and
getting into the studio.

Speaker 3 (42:43):
Exact some studio time.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Suddenly we got a super citizen.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
We have the cops come and go to Art Juniors.
He gets arrested because all the stuff's there. He pleads
guilty to the charges. According to the Chicago Tribune in
two thousand and seven, quote, prosecutors alleged that since Williams,
thirty four, pleaded guilty to those counterfeiting charges in February,
he still may have been pumping out counterfeit twenty and

(43:09):
one hundred dollars bills while free on bail. Federal agents
recovered an additional one hundred and twelve thousand dollars in
counterfeit bills that match the characteristics of those Williams produces,
and his fingerprints were found on two of them.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
Prosecutors said, legal defenses are not cheap, Elizabeth the man
made the little money, and the lawyers will not take
faked oh.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
Art Junior sentenced to seven years yes Art the third
he caught a conviction for county in two thousand and nine.
A couple years later, in fact, while for a while.
The two of them were locked up in the same
federal pen in Forest City, Arkansas. Oh my god, Art
Junior said, the thing.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
They spoke in there, who knows you staying your cell
block on stare mind, dad, Art.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
Junior said, The third time in jail hit a little different.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
I bet he's getting older, he told Art Space.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Quote. When I got caught counterfeiting, the judge asked to
look at one of the bills to see it for himself.
He looked at it and said, this could have fooled me.
You are really good at this. Then he asked me
how long did it take you to figure out how
to do this? And I told him fifteen years, And
he said, have you ever thought of what you could
have done if you'd spent all that time doing something good?

(44:25):
That hit me really hard. It really did. I hadn't
thought about it like that. So when I went to
prison for seven years, I went in with a different
mindset than when I did the first two times. I
knew that I needed to make use of my time
in there, so I started reading about all the great artists.
I started from the beginning with the Renaissance painters. I
connected to Leonardo da Vinci the most. That was kind

(44:47):
of my style. But I also really liked Andy Warhol.
I didn't really like how he treated people, but I
liked that he had a factory and that he printed
a lot because I was a printer. I spent seven
years in prison painting and coming up with my technique.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
That's so cool, that neat.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
So he gets released.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
I'm glad that he had to embrace his artist self
after all of this. Ye you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
So he gets out of prison in twenty thirteen, and
he took out a one hundred thousand dollars loan from
some gangsters to start counterfeiting again. You totally hooked me,
I know you like, Hey, he does it to everybody,
so he said. Quote. After about six months, I finally

(45:30):
had everything. I had a digital plate burner, I had
the press working, I had the old computer making digital
files for my serial numbers and everything down. Man, and
then I get this feeling I'm being watched. Oh no,
So he had to trust the animal brain, so he did.
He trusted it. He laid low for a couple of weeks,
and then he started to get comfortable again, eased up,

(45:52):
and his fluorescent ink arrived like, yay, we love a
good package delivery that with us. So his son stopped
by to say hello to chat. He'd been a good
boy since getting out.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
I'm glad they worked on their body.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
No crime for the third, right, Sure, he sees his
dad's operation and just like lost.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
His shoes about it. Are you kidding me?

Speaker 3 (46:10):
He I won't quote him yelling at his dad because
that would be a lot of bleeps and I've hit
a couple already. Basically, he told him to be a
real man and get a real job, a couch and
like the little rat snitch that he was. He also
said he was going to go tell his mom Julio
remember is a cop.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yeah, she's still a cop.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
So then he ran off to his car just zoomed away.
And it turns out Art the Third did not report
his father to the cops.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Oh okay, Art.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
Junior was actually this time a change man after their exchange. Wow,
and he managed to get out of the work with
the gangsters. He did this, he told them like, I
think I'm being watched and it's too hot. I don't
think I'm gonna be able to pay you back. The
gangsters they knew that he was also painting actual art,
and they were absolutely sure.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
He was going to make it.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
In exchange for the money he couldn't return to them.
They bought his paintings. They bought four paintings. I love
this art, said quote.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
It was the weirdest moment of my life. He has
so many great moments.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
So this was his first big art sale. Four paintings
for one hundred thousand. Yes, he's got patrons and he
escaped with his life.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Yeah, and he got out of all of his like,
you know, complicity of you know too much and all that.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
So he gave up counterfeiting after that exchange with his son.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
Yeah, now he's an artist. He's selling.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Yeah. He got little jobs here and there. He worked
in an art gallery. He did the most valiant of
work and painted houses.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Hey, you know, I love right.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
In twenty sixteen, the beautiful his own house burned down,
and it was a sort of cleansing moment for him. Oh,
he decided that he had to paint full time. He
still had to live. That's not easy as an artist.
There aren't a lot of patrons out there willing to support.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
Yeah, you can only find so many gangsters.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
You are going to buy, but so he shared his
dream in his intent with this dude, Frank Girolamo. He
Frank's a businessman who'd hooked Art up with construction gigs
in the past. And according to Rolling Stone quote, what
if I paid you a salary to paint? Give you
a space here in the office, Frank said, for the
past few months he had been quietly watching Art break

(48:18):
his back at construction sites, then go home every night
to paint. He was impressed with Art's work ethic and
his paintings, and had attended a couple of small showings.
You don't even know me that well, Art said, tearing up.
You'd do that for me, Just paint, Frank told him.
If it doesn't work out, we can always go back
to painting houses.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Oh my, I'm god gonna get this.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
I mean, if it's on, it's really beautiful.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
I hope it is.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
I don't anyone, but whatever, but it looks it looks
like Frank was sincere and upbreaths meet people like that. Yes,
here he becomes a patron. Art ended up going to
Art Basle in Miami. Wow, which is probably like a
whole other episode of Scammy Crime. And it was there
that Art meets this executive at a jet rental company,

(49:05):
which is like the most Miami ar fossel.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
So the guy he offers to throw a charity auction
for art at the Miami Opa Laca Executive Airport.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Okay, we're talking about that before.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
Art sold some pieces there and he made good connections.
He met a woman who worked at after School All Stars.
That's Arnold Schwarzenegger's nonprofit. So he worked with them for this.
You know, he does this charity work and it winds
up exposing his work to all these celebrities.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Yeah. Of course.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
He takes all this money that he's been making for
the paintings. He goes back to Bridgeport in Chicago and
he opens Da Vinci's gallery. Oh I love this, but
then says twenty seventeen, a couple of years COVID shutdowns
really do a number on stuff like galleries. Yeah, so
he decided to close up shop there for good and
head out to Los Angeles, as one does. But by

(49:58):
this time he has a new wife, a wrapping son,
two new kids, and in addition to the four others,
one of whom is a rap rep wrapper. Wow, it
looks like he's doing really well. He has a lot
of celebrity clients, people like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Floyd Mayweather, Rashaan Evans,
Jason Statham, Roy Jones, Junior, Rosie Rios. They all have

(50:18):
the paintings hanging in their homes, a lot of tough
guys like yeah, and he's even sold some pieces to
commercial properties, including banks. Well, yeah, some of them hang
in banks.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Which just amazing.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
That's great, irony, Zaren, what's your ridiculous takeaway?

Speaker 4 (50:32):
This is an amazing arc, Elizabeth, Like you have brought
sunshine into my day.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
This is a happy ending.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
Yeah, where do we get a happy end?

Speaker 4 (50:41):
And then the sole conversion that he gets to be
an artist and then celebrated in his own lifetime and
he gets both Stallone and Schwarzenegger to come into his
world and be incredible moments Like I just you know,
I'm loving this.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
What's your ridiculous takeaway? Elizabeth?

Speaker 3 (50:54):
I think you know some people, you know, you'd say, like,
if I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck
at all. Well, his swings on this pendulum. He's had
the worst of luck and the best of luck totally,
and you know it's just impressive, Like what he's able
to do with this talent and all of the times
that he bumps up against things that can send him

(51:16):
on the straight and narrow and he doesn't do it. Yes,
And I love that. It's the interaction with his son,
and you see this like this thread going through the
family where it's like he was able to kind of
help his son go straight and then his son helps him.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
I think that's so much ping pong of the son.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
Amazing, amazing stories.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Williams three.

Speaker 3 (51:37):
Yeah, So I'm I'm stoked for him and I hope
everything continues to go well for him.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
Same awesome guy. Give me a shout out from the
Arsenal Crew milkshake, duck me.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
You know what I need, Dave, I need to talk back.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
You got it, O God, I love you, Hi, Zaron
Producer d Elizabeth.

Speaker 7 (52:07):
I have a Marshawn factoid for you. My sister used
to work in the building above Marshawn store called Beast Mode.
It was in downtown Oakland. Anyways, she would know he
was there because one of his cars would be parked
out front. Rolls Royce Bentley, Maybach. Yeah, he has helicrs. Anyways,
all of his cars have stars on the roof of

(52:29):
the interior. That's pretty ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
Bye, I love so like in like your middle school bedroom,
like yeah, in the dark, stars above him.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
Amazing.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
I know where the beast Mode store is.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
It's incredible.

Speaker 3 (52:43):
Thank you for that story. Thank you and the sub
he has helicrs.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
Girl, Uh that's it for today. You can find us
online at ridiculous Crime dot com, which just won new
award just came in like ten minutes ago, the East
Bay Express Best Place for Manny Petties.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
Get Out of Time. We finally got nominated one did
so good.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
You can also check out Blue Sky Instagram. We're on there,
all sorts of stuff going on. You can email us
at ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. You can also
leave a talkback on the iHeart app and reach out.
Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett,

(53:32):
produced and edited by official rapper of Miami Art Basel
Dave Kirsten, starring Annalis Rutger as Judain. Research is by
money presser Marisa Brown and paper steamer Alex French. The
theme song is by Benjamin Franklin impersonator Thomas Lee and
Suspicious Alaskan seven to eleven C Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe

(53:53):
is provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and makeup
by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Secative producers are US Secret
Service agents Ben Bollen.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
And Noel Brown.

Speaker 6 (54:09):
Ridicous Crime Say It One More Timequious Crime.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.