The Detroit Dream-maker: the John DeLorean Story

You know the car from Back to the Future. But John DeLorean was so much more than his stainless steel car. He was also the father of the "Muscle Car Era." He was a maverick, an egotist, and very much a man of his times. DeLorean risked it all to build his eponymous car, and he did so powered by shady coke deals and briefcases of cash. 

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Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Do you know what's ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (00:07):
I do.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
No, you don't.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Wat Okay, So have you ever eaten so much meat
that you got the sweats?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
No? Is that is that thing?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Meat sweats?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I've heard of meat sweats. I thought that was just
like a euphemism.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
I've had meat sweats once, you sweats.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I was on a cruise you're on at.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
My family, like was like, come along to this Mexican
riviera cruise and there was this steakhouse on the ship.
On the ship and I had a steak, but I
had like all this I feel like it had other
meats involved.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Other meats on a steak lamb shoved into the I knows.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
I don't know. I don't remember a whole lot other
than the fact that my brother and I looked at
each other and we're like, that was a lot of meat.
And I told him I think I'm going to start
sweating cream. No, but it was just like my body
like kind of just got too hot trying to like
digest all that heavy protein. You know, It's kind of

(01:12):
like if you eat a lot and then you get
cold because your body's like I have got to I
can't help the rest of you.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
I've got to. Right, So.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
You may not have had meat sweats, but I mean
you've gotten really sweaty before to like purposely not purposely, right, Okay,
sometimes I get kind of sweaty.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Be a sport.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
We're just just sitting there thinking about meat. And but
like some people get sweaty on purpose, right, So they
go to a sauna and they want to sweat it
all out, sweat out the toxin and like my toxes,
I'm thinking like the meat, right, Like.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
If you ate a bunch of meat, sweat and meat out.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Okay, what if what if I pause it to you? Okay,
what if you went and you got purposefully sweaty and
then someone brought you sweaty meat when you were in there? Yeah,
because you know what.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
A sweaty meat, meat that will make me sweat.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Some meat just kind of presents as sweaty. Well, here's
what I'm thinking. Whopper with cheese is like a sweaty
kind of food.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
I would describe that as a greasy meat.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
I'm going to go with grease is meat sweat Oh Okay,
So you're in there sweating it up and then someone's like,
here's whopper. What I'm trying to explain to you. In Finland,
there's a burger King that has a sauna inside, and
it's like you go in, you have it's a fifteen

(02:52):
person sauna. There's a shower room, a locker room, a
media lounge decorated like a burger king, like the colors
of it at all. Again it's in Finland. And then
they'll bring you food.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
In the sauna. I don't have to take my food
into the sauna.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
They come once you're like, fully drink.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
I'm nude, sweaty, I could use a burger your.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Heart rate has increased. And then they're like, here's a whopper.
And some of these gross soggy fries.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Really help push the meat sweats out. Yeah, exactly, And
so it's like detoxing.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
It's retoxing in there. And so Vice Magazine back in
twenty eighteen in the in the pre times, they went
and they said it was terrible, which like, oh, you're kidding,
no way, Uh. They have burger King towels, like it
has burger King logo on the towel.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
That could be cool.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
So anyway, they said it's terrible and that pretty much
the only people who go are journalists from around the world.
Cost it's the cost of hiring the sauna is like
three hundred euros, just like way more expensive than like
luxury ones in Nice.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
So I get to go get my burger, go to
a luxury one and be left alone. I don't just
sit there with fourteen strangers, right.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
Right, Okay, but you know you can just shame, eat
and peace killed.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Ridiculous, so ridiculous, you know it's also ridiculous. Sure, okay, everything, yeah,
everything under the sun and the sun itself. But imagine
a car, Elizabeth, one that was made famous by Hollywood, right,
an iconic car, truly iconic car, Herbie. Sure, but the
car maker of this car, he's one of our people.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
One of our people, yes.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Because he was brought down by the old old triangle
of trouble. You and I both know it. Well. I'll
give you the three corners ego, a briefcase of cash
and of course cocaine. Elizabeth, You ready for the John
DeLorean store?

Speaker 4 (04:46):
Oh wow, yes I am.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
This is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
heists and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one percent ridiculous. Sure is you damn right now, Elizabeth?
I want to start up just with a game of
word association. Let's keep things fun and light. I'm gonna

(05:32):
say four words, and I want to hear your first
three associations. Back to the future.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Michael J. Fox.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
There you go. Look at that. I knew you were
gonna say, Michael J. Fox. Ye, three words. Huh isn't
that amazing? How that is so synonymous?

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Huey Lewis can go back in time.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
I like that one. I got a second game for you, Elizabeth. Yes,
I've gotta say four phrases and you tell me what
they have in common?

Speaker 3 (05:56):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (05:57):
You ready? Common Bard owner of the San Diego Chargers,
part owner of the New York Yankees. The Kokayene plays
a wicked jazz saxophone.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Oh hello, Now what.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Do they all have in common? John DeLorean?

Speaker 5 (06:14):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (06:14):
He plays?

Speaker 2 (06:16):
That's John Delaurian. My man was so much more than
just a humble car maker. John Delorian was a rare personality.
He was a force in late century America.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
I thought that the thing that kept all those people
in common was tight underpants.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
That too that you were, you would that we would
have accepted that as an answer. So one of his
fellow executives, j. Patrick Wright, he co wrote a book
with DeLorean. It's called On a Clear Day you Can
See General Motors. M hm. Anyway, he's at a DeLorean quote.
He once told me that he placed enjoying life very
high in his list of priorities, and he felt that
contrasted with many other executives. Yeah, you imagine that now.

(06:54):
That is a very very understated way of saying. John
Dolorian was a peacock in a world of turkey. Right,
that's a good way to right. He definitely stuck out
in the conservative executive suites of Detroit automakers in the
nineteen sixties.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
It's all lea Coca exactly. Do you say his name?
That's how you have to.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Say it, Coca. Okay, I'll keep that in mind.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah, it's just I mean, it's the only polite thing
to do.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
So imagine his birthday clown had a funeral. Right, that's
old John Delorian swanning around. But he wasn't always such
a wild personality. Turns out, in fact, he started out
quite the opposite. He was born John Zachary Delorian on
January sixth, nineteen twenty five. Both parents immigrants from Hungary
and Romania. I don't know where the Deloorian comes in,

(07:37):
but anyway, Delorian came into the world fittingly enough in Detroit,
home of the American auto industry.

Speaker 6 (07:43):
Right.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
He would eventually revolutionize that one day, But at the
beginning nobody would have guessed that. But he was the
son of an auto worker, a man who turned wrenches,
and he manned the ratchets at the Ford plant. Yes, yes,
I put that in terms.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
You like, thank you, now I understand.

Speaker 6 (07:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
His father worked hard, drank card you know, he was
a hard man to love. And his mother also worked hard,
but she did without all the booze. She hard, no
was she played hard, but just no booze. She was like,
I don't need all that. Oh she's high on life,
yeah exactly. And the family poor, very poor, like whooa
poor right, because dudes born in nineteen twenty five do
the math. Right. Delaurian was raised in the worst of

(08:20):
the Great Depressions as a child, right, small child. He
can't do anything about it, can't go out and get
a job. I mean, he's almost too young to even
work in the factories. Right in always yeah almost. Delaurian
wants to hold a biographer. You cannot understand what poverty
is until you know how poor we were. That's how
poor he was. Beneath the definition of poverty. They're like, yeah,
and then there's the Deloreans. Anyway, despite the bitter vite

(08:42):
of poverty, Delaurian succeeded at a school for the gifted.
He earned a scholarship to Lawrence Institute of Technology, which
is in Detroit, and he earned two master's degrees there,
one in engineering, one in business. You can kind of
see his life pattern forming in front of him. Right
after college, Delaurian he went to work in the car industry.
He's an engineer. His first gig he works at the

(09:03):
old Packard Motor Company. Do you remember them? They made
these big, beautiful sedans. Packard was a luxury audible bile
maker before World War Two. After World War Two, I had.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
A Packard, Did you a thirty six Packerd? And I
got it right. It rolled right off the assembly, okay,
And it was the greatest day of my life.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
I bet it was wood handles of steering wheel.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
I mean just I it was the Oddly enough, it
was the first new car I ever owned, and I
was forty six at the time.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, it's great, but that was a thrill that well,
as you probably then know, the Packard they close up
shop in nineteen fifty eight, but Delourian had left before
that two years before, in nineteen fifty six. So where
does he go after his time at Packard? He goes
to work at General Motors. At the time, GM was
the biggest corporation in the world, right, the biggest DeLorean.
He joins their Pontiac division, and that's where he becomes

(09:59):
a fast rising star in the c suite of executives.
Now by age forty he's a you know, he's a
going concern, right. He's named the general manager of the
Pontiac Division. Then he's named the manager of Chevrolet. Finally,
at age forty eight, he's promoted to the vice president
of GM. But let's backtrack for a second. I want
to get back to when he was working at Pontiac Division,

(10:19):
because I love that period of time, I really do.
Did you know that John Delorian created what we think
of as the muscle car era?

Speaker 3 (10:27):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Really, that's him, That's his responsibility Deloureak. Nineteen fifty nine,
Deloreon he created the Pontiac Tempest and that changed the
idea of what people could do. He was like, oh man,
this car is amazing. It's fast, it's sleek. Right, that
car and it's success. Give my ideas. He's like, we
can go better than that, right, So his ideas they
blossom and they come to fruition in nineteen sixty four
with the Pontiac Gto. That instant success. Kids love it, right,

(10:52):
instant classic Pontiac. They have like expected sales, it exceeded
it by five hundred percent. Really, kids loved it. You
were your boys, the beach boy, they sang about the
Gto if I'm not mistaken, right. So this was the
first time that Delorian had basically touched the zeitgeist, right,
So he had made magic occur. But he was just
getting started now. After the design of the Pontiac Gto

(11:13):
kicks off what was known as the muscle car era.
What followed from Pontiac We're all sorts of crazy muscle cart.
We had the Pontiac Firebird, which eventually would go on
to be the Smoky and the Bandit car. Yeah right,
we have the super crazy Pontiac superbird. Do you remember
those with the crazy fins on the back. It looks
like a like a square basically it's squared off. Yeah, anyway,

(11:34):
you must believe. After Detroit saw the success of the
Gto and all the birds, other carmakers they followed suits.
Chevy gets on board, four gets on board. They all
kick off with the muscle car era. God bless them
right now. Up to this point, the son of impoverished
immigrants had been doing his level best to fit in
with all the other men at GM. So he looks
just like everybody else, Grace. They wear their hair short.

(11:55):
He wears his hair short. They wear three Pce suits.
He wears three Pece suits. They have a paunch around
the middle. Well, he's having seconds at lunch. He's gonna
get that paunch too. They were a member of the
country club. You damn well know the answer of is
John Delaurian a member of the country club. Then one
day he just gets sick of it all, just like
the New York hardcore band sick of it all?

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Man? Can we talk about a second? That's some punch
and music. God bless you.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
You're enough mood.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
I'm telling you so hardcore just in general, like late nineties,
so good, just.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Recommend people to go dive in. Okay, so Delaurian. He
makes a psychological break from Detroit. The man at this point,
he'd been known as the Auto Prince, he'd been called
the Detroit dream maker. He's so integral to their ideas
of who they are and where they're going. But he himself,
he is metamorphoised. Right, he's now emerged, this groovy butterfly,
just ready for the sixties, all day glow and psychedelic. Right, DeLorean,

(12:50):
He went home, he divorced his wife. Then he's one
of those moments.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
Oh yes, he's going to like pop the collar on
the polo shirt.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Only that lets his hair grow shaggy. Begins to dye
his shaggy hair black. He covers that the grays that
are thatched through. He buys an Italian sports car, which
a Maserati. That's sacrilege in Detroit.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
In the biz, we call this a midlife crisis.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Oh, this is the midlife crisis that you could measure
other midlife crises by. Right, dude gets like a whole
new wardrobe. Right, he ditches the three piece suits. He
gets cosmetic surgery. What Oh yeah, he's also int.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Do you get lip fillers?

Speaker 2 (13:27):
I don't know. I don't think they were doing lip
fillers in the sixties.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
But pack implants, half implant.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
I think it's more of like he got a facelift.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Oh, he just got like the little you want to remove.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Move age from his face, you know, tightened neck or whatever.
I don't know, but he did get cosmetic surgery to
enhance his looks and ways to befit his virility or
his sense of virility.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
Right, he doesn't understand that. The real power move, the
one that I'm working on, is you let your neck
waddle get as long as possible, Like, just use it
as a bib. That's what I'm looking forward to, the
Turkey bibs. It's a power move.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Well, at this point, he's got the groovy late sixties shirts,
deep plunging necklines, the medallion, died, black hair, shaggy and.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
What do you need with He's a fool and everybody, of.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Course, and what do you need with that? Elizabeth? We
all know what goes with this.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Uh, cocaine.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
We A'll give you a hint though. Before the cocaine,
he ditched his wife.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
Oh yeah, he got himself a hub a hubbo.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
He ditches the country clubs and starts going to nightclubs. Right,
anything is a date young starlets, and I'm talking starlets
like blonde girl, Ursula Andres what Space Age, pin Up
Rock hel Welch Wow, Nepo Baby, Candice Bergen. Yes, he
also made famous friends during this time. He started to
paler around with nightlife heroes Johnny Carson, Sammy Davis Junior,

(14:45):
starting making a field for where his life is at.
So eventually nineteen sixty nine rolls around nice and he
calms down a little, right, but only a very little.
He marries the young starlet named Kelly Harmon. That last
name may sound familiar. She was the daughter of Tom Harmon,
who was a big Heisman Trophy winner from the University
of Michigan. I thought and was the father of actor
Mark Harmon, wasn't it.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
I thought that Mark Harmon was her dad.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
No, her probably nineteen sixty nine. We got to talk calendars.
So John Delaurien at this time forty four years old old,
at the time new wife twenty years old. Things are
going well for him as far as he's concerned. Delauriene
he takes a bunch of money he was making as
the head of Pontiac. He decides to invest it. So
what's he going to do now? Keep in mind, at
this time he's making six hundred and fifty thousand dollars
a year, which in today's dollars. I love that four

(15:30):
point seven million dollars today Wow a year, which is
actually interesting a low salary for that same job today.
I looked it up. The current executive VP of GM,
Stephen or Stephen Carlisle, he pulls down eight point eight
million a year, which is nearly double what John Delaurien. Yea,
and the execs you know, just generally make more of
these days. Because of market dynamics.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
The execs make more.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
The minimum wage remains.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
The same, right exactly, the dynamic has changed, so these
execs are apparently valued far more. Into Laurian he decides
to take his money because he's got a good chunk
of change. He opts to get into the baseball business
because why not, right?

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Not right?

Speaker 2 (16:07):
And the football business he likes balls. What the heck,
let's just put money everywhere. Delori becomes part owner of
the New York Yankees and part owner of the San
Diego Superchargers, which is like the most seventies team that's
ever seventies.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
Right.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
So around this same time, Delaurian was promoted from head
of Pontiac to be named the head of Chevrolet, which
I told you earlier. Right, two years later, he gets
named the VP of GM. Keep in mind these things
are all occurring concurrently.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Right, he's doing all this like, oh, I'm gonna invest
into San Diego Superchargers, and I got my young starlet,
I'm also the vice president of GM. You can see
a problem here, right, And he's also by far the
youngest to ever do it. So he's changing everything just
by being him. So he's on the fast track to
eventually be named the president of the whole shebang. Everybody
can see it. The writing's on the wall. But then
April nineteen seventy two rolls around. What happens, Elizabeth Nothing,

(16:55):
John Delorian shocks the world, shocks the world because he
announced that he planned to step down from GM. Shocking,
which again, biggest corporation in the world. He was about
to be the leader of the biggest corporation in the world. Yeah,
I know, but there's everyone's like, why would he do it.
There's no obvious reason for Delarean to bounce, you know me,
other than like the incompatibility of who he was becoming.

(17:17):
When he was asked why he decided to step down
from his chance to run the biggest corporation in the world,
Delaurien said, I realized I would never be happy in
the headquarters environment. I wasn't a team player.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Well, I mean, at least he recognizes that then, totally.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
So the father of the muscle car era quits the game.
As his parting gift, GM gives him a Cadillac franchise
in Florida.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
Adding.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Does he have kids at this point? I think he does?
At this point, I know, he.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Goes from on the brink of being in charge of
the biggest corporation in the world to having.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
A Cadillact dealership in Florida. Meanwhile, his love changes too.
You think he got divorced again?

Speaker 3 (18:02):
Oh suck.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah, he lost his young star and soon enough he
remarried like houseon Elizabeth two months later. Oh yeah, this
time the new wife she wasn't a starlet because he
moved on. He learned he'd grown and now he married
a supermodel, so her name was Christine Ferrar. She was
twenty two years old. Dolaurian at this point forty eight
years old. To give you a sense of his new wife,
Elizabeth Ferrar had a needle point pillow, which sounds very sweet,

(18:24):
and she had on it written nu thau is better
than not the reach at all like Newville. Yeah, yeah,
so yes, I thought you'd like her.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
These people are so crass. And now I'm realizing it's
not like, Oh, I own a car dealership now and
so my actress wife, the starlet wife left me. He's like,
I got a car dealership, but I need to trade up.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
Trade up exactly. I'm going bigger, lock it down. So
as for Delaurian's interest in her, he's once spoke to
his penchant for picking these younger women. I don't want
you to judge them unfairly. Judgement on his own words, Elizabeth, something.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
I will do it is judge people unfairly.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Well, just get ready, buckle up, buttercuppies, you got a
lot more to judge. Here we go. I enjoy the
company of attractive women. I've always had a tendency to
associate with women who are dramatically less educated than I.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
Oh, get out of here.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, I did love that one. So one thing these
newly weds did share was a love of all things
opulent and decadent. They immediately started buying things. They're like,
we need to make a life for ourselves. So they
bought for mansions. Oh well, one of which was a
four hundred and thirty four acre estate in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
Oh good.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yeah, And then when they went out to eat, they
would go to places and eat at luxurious, famous dinner
spots at the time, like Maxims, I'm not sure if
you do. They are also already rocking and rolling at
this point, right, so now they're ready to keep their
groove thing going deep into the nineteen seventies. So, oh
and I forgot to tell you this though, There was
one complication for John Delaurien he did not anticipate. According

(19:50):
to his compensation agreement from GM, Delaurien was not allowed
to go to work for any of his competitors, right, so, yeah,
he can't do anything for a living at this point.
It's always supposed to do is just hang out with
his supermodel wife and be fabulous. And he's like, I
don't know about that. So he's been barred from the
auto industry. But you can't keep a kid of immigrants down.
So Delorian he finds himself a workaround, right. He begins

(20:10):
to work on a new secret dream project, Hush hush shsh,
and of course it gets whispered around because everybody knows him.
DeLorean had always daydreamed of designing a card that Detroit
would never build, the ones he always told that he
was told no in his meetings. He's like, I'm building that, right, yeah,
futuristic baby, something fast, something that look good and would
feel good to drive, a real standout number Elizabeth, something

(20:31):
made of cutting edge materials. Word quickly spreads that Deloorian
was back at it.

Speaker 6 (20:35):
Right.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
Everyone's like, oh, you know what's Delorian building? But you
know what this means for him? Right, He's broken his
termination agreement with Gas and they're are companies, so they're like, oh, sir.
They send out the lawyers. They tell him he's been
breach of his contract. The company no longer is now
legally required to honor his termination agreement. Poof, He's talked
out himself from his salary. He had a post termination
agreement where he was making his salary just powever law,

(20:58):
he'd lost it just by talking. So now Delourian middle
aged man, supermodel wife, no income. He sees the immediate
probs with this. He's like, I'm gonna have to change
this picture. He decided. If GM goes back on their
end of the deal, well so will John Dolorian. So
he decides, I will become their competitor, as he put
in nineteen seventy seven, if we were super super lucky

(21:20):
and did everything right, we might someday have another BMW. Yeah,
so do you think that happened? No, you know it didn't.

Speaker 6 (21:28):
Right.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Let's take a break, go and find out what Delourian
did do next and why it did not turn into BMW.

(21:53):
Elizabeth Zaren, let's say you're John Doloorian. Okay, you're John Dolaurian. Sure, okay,
Well what do you do now?

Speaker 3 (22:02):
I atone for everything I've done?

Speaker 2 (22:04):
No, no, no, no, you're not Elizabeth. How do you
make your secret dream car project happen?

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Well? I buy some materials.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
No, number, you're John Delorian, I get a ratchet. No,
you're John Delorian. You go and you can Margaret Thatcher, No,
you're not thinking big enough.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
You are naming all the best people exactly.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
In nineteen seventy five he founded the DeLorean Motor Company, right.
But he needed investors, right, so he looks around for
some and he's like, oh, I know some. He finds
a few, especially one big investor. In nineteen seventy eight,
Delaurion made a deal with the British government. He's like,
you be my investor. They're like right eyoh.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
He's like, look, Maggie, I know that you love denigrating
the workers, and I'm going to start a factor.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
I want to give you some ye portunity together. So
the Brits, as you know, Elizabeth, they just endured a
really dicey economic decade, yeah or two, and the Brits
they look to the iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher to smooth
things over. She's there Ronald Reagan.

Speaker 6 (22:59):
Right.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
So anyway, Delaurien he goes over there and he sweet
talks the Brits into being his financial partner. The British government,
as you point out, they needed jobs. Dolorian had jobs.
He needed money, they had money. It was a match
made in con man heaving, Yeah. So Delaurian he tells
newly elected Margaret, that's your inter conservative British government. I
can build you a factory, design and produce a car,

(23:20):
employ two thousand people, all in eighteen months. They're like, oh,
we love it, we love it. It's fabulous. Right, So that
was exactly what the Iron Lady wanted to hear. Margaret
Thatcher was like, oh, this all sounds stupendous, mister Delaurien.
So what if we give you one million? No, no, sorry,
I make that one hundred million pounds? Oh I think
do you build a car factory in.

Speaker 5 (23:40):
West Belfast, North Ireland?

Speaker 2 (23:43):
And what do you say to that, mister Delaurien? My
Margaret Thatcher spot on? You ever heard? You're like, that's
so good.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
I didn't even do it, that's spot on.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Delaurian was like, as they say in my country, you
got a deal, Mags. So the cost of the British
government how much one hundred and twenty million dollars? Wow,
leaving eighty million dollars for Delorian to come up with
on his own. So he's like, I've taken it down
from two hundred million down to eighty million. Good job, Delorian. Right,
So he's like, okay, where am I going to find that?
Laurian goes, I know some high roller investors. I'll just

(24:12):
cobble them together, maybe get some dentists from nebrascals. Put
this done. A couple days he goes out. He talks
to his drinking and carousing Budd's Johnny Carson, Sammy Davis, Janry.
He's like, I got this car project. You guys might
have heard about it. You want to get involved? Cars
is like, yeah, totally. He gives them like a half
million dollars and Sam Dames was like, oh yeah, Dolly,
I like this idea. Here's one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
He's like, I was kind of think a little bigger guys.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, anyway, so it takes him a while. He gets
together all of investors' money and then he goes and
the BRIT's good to their word. They build the factory.
In nineteen eighty one, the Dolorean factory opens in dun Murray,
North Ireland, Northern Ireland. Rather yeah, the new factory ready
to mass produce the secret dream car, the DeLorean DMC twelve.
That's its official name. Did you ever want a Delorian?

(24:55):
By the way, when you were a kid and your
brother trap ever want one? If you won the lottery,
which I know you're still playing.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
I know. Well, no, only if it gets over one billion.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Okay, well, whatever would you buy Travin, me and Producer
Day of our own Deloreans? Yeah, because I think I
can speak for the group. We would all like that.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
Okay, Yes, right off the bat.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
With the Delorian, there was a problem with it. It's
like a dream car. It's fun to talk about, fun
to like, oh, you should buy me one, but if
you actually owned one, that's a different, whole different question. Right, Well,
here was you talk about the price, but did you
know about this? No. In nineteen eighty one, a brand
new Corvette cost sixteen thousand dollars two hundred and fifty
eight dollars.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
That's a lot.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Then nineteen eighty one a Pontiac Firebird cost thirteen two
hundred and four dollars.

Speaker 5 (25:37):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
They're a new competitor, the DeLorean DMC twelve. It was
slated to sell for twenty five thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
This sounds an awful lot like another drug addled megalomaniac
car guy in the world.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Do I know him? Does he exist? Now?

Speaker 3 (25:53):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yes? There is certainly an analog.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
Too, is an analog. They kind of the cars kind
of Look, we'll.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Come back to that because it's it's right there. You
are a spot caudinary tail. It should be just say,
it should be adjusted for inflation. That twenty five thousand
dollars car would be eighty three thousand dollars in twenty
twenty four dollars. I know you're like the conversion. I
love him now, DeLorean He's always meant to make himself
a luxury sports car, which isn't really a problem. We
do know there's Portia and there's Ferrari McLaren. You can

(26:20):
make a luxury sports car and people will buy it. Yeah,
how did it play out for Delorean's a new luxury
sports car. Well, as you just pointed out, we have
our modern analog. One might say the new Tesla cyber
truck and it's stainless steel design is a nod to
Deloorian and by one I mean Elon Musk. He said that.
He said that he's specifically wanted his truck to be

(26:41):
a shout out to the Dolore. Oh God, of course,
his cyber truck is the first stainless steel vehicle since
the DeLorean hit the road. Did you know that.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
I did not know.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
You know why that is. There's a very good reason
why that is that no one has been making cars
out of stainless steel.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
I think that isn't it. It's like weight and also
body repair, like you have to remove.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
Everything about it. Sucks, it scrat it's dings, it discolors,
it shows all the warps and like the flaws and
the anywhere it's been worked. At the same time, while
it may look cool and like on a drawing or
in a picture, up close does not usually look cool.
And also it's heavy as hell.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
It's ugly as sin. Yes, And from what I understand,
my brother was telling me about how if you open
up a cyber truck trunk and then close it, there's
no there's no warning thing to like protect anything in
the way. So there's video of someone putting a carrot
in there and it just slices it clean in half.
So your fingers, if you put your hand in the

(27:36):
wrong place when.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
The trunk, fingers bye bye, oh God.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
And they're just so uly.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
When I was a boy, I had my fingers stuck
in doors and trunks to so many.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Times I've totally had my finger slammed in the doors
and it's closed, and you're like screaming.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
My dad was driving like seventies Cadillacts. So you imagine
you're four years old, you got your thumb stuck in
the door of a seventies Catillact. Youthing like, well, I'm
never getting that thumb back. He really would for the
cyber truck, that would be come gone. I'd be like, right,
cigar cutter.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Well, only clowns will drive that thing.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Well, the famous car designer who drew up the dream
card that he's trying to imitate, his name is your
jetto Zario, right if you say so, Yeah, I want
to know what's wild that dude, Giazzario. He loves the
cyber truck. And I don't just think it's because it
bites his design. He's like, yeah, that thing is awesome,
looks just like my car. I do believe he really
likes it. Giazzario. He went so far as to call
the Tesla's cyber truck the Picasta of automobiles.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Well, yeah, like Picasso is all jacked up and faces.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
Side depending on what period of Picasso.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
For real, the cyber truck looks like it was like
an eight year old drew like their dream machine.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
Someone's like, all right, well to build it, and it says,
by it build it. So this Tesla cyber truck Giajario.
He called it quote hugely successful because people want to
stand out. That's what he expects it to be successful.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
Wrong with society.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
He also said the cyber truck quote does not represent
the search for harmony and perfection, but for emotion and robustness.
Everyone wants to distinguish themselves. It's a market necessity, and
the cyber truck will surely be successful. I am sure
of it. I am convinced it will find its admirers.
So you guys have different opinions. I guess time will

(29:17):
tell Elizabeth now. To be fair, the DeLorean faced a
similar fate when it dropped. A lot of people are
very critical for starters. Making a car from scratch is
not easy. Elon Musk has found out car makers have
a huge skill set of a storehouse of r indeed
to draw up on, not to mention people who have
all kinds of knowledge and experiences. To build a car.
You need car people essentially, right Deloorian, He figures this out.

(29:40):
He knows this he's a car guy, so he's like, oh,
we need to get some car people. He tries to
but they're like, oh, I can't work with you my car.
Nobody could come work with him because remember the Americans
don't want to help their competition. So Delorian has to
turn to Portia and BMW. He's like, can you guys
help me? The German car designers like, oh yeah, if
you gets how can we help you. Delairen's like, I
want to build my dream car in Northern Ireland and

(30:01):
I wanted to be made out of stainless steel, and
germanys were like yeah, is that just funny? No, but
oh yore not joking, this is for real. You want
to buy it? Okay, we sawt you were making very
funny joke, mister Delauri and okay was then we could
build you a prototype and like, I don't know to
take many years and he's like no, no, I need it now,
like would snap to it in American style, And they're like,
oh yeah, we're not going to be able to do that.

(30:22):
So he turns to the Brits because the Brits were
like years, that's much too long.

Speaker 7 (30:27):
You know.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
We beat the Germans in world War two, we got
this and so he's like, yeah, tell you like that energy.
So the Lotus Group, the British car maker, they are
to help DeLorean build his prototype. John Dolori meanwhile, old
Maverick that he is. He's selling the hell out of
his new car, his new car company, his own genius.
He's much like in the og to Elon Muskin, this
way right, all sales not at the time. In nineteen eighty,

(30:48):
just prior to this, he told a journalist who'd profiled
him for an in flight magazine, remember those in flight magazines.
He said, quote, depending on the degree of integration, we're
capable of building anything from one hundred and twenty thousand,
two hundred and fifty thousand cars in a year in
our North Ireland plant. Do you think that's true? That
does a lot of.

Speaker 7 (31:07):
Cars, like of all the places to build a plant
like outside delphasty one, and you know, you know it's
going to be like shipbuilding at the time, where it's
like they're not going to hire the Catholics.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yes, there is definitely, So.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
What I say is we get rid of that.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
So interestingly enough, the IRA will come into the story,
thank god, So so Laurian Yea. He told that same
journalist that he also had plans for a new sedan.
After he gets his luxury sports car out there, he's
gonna have a sedan, and you know he wants to
get the normies, get them a car. So he says,
and I quote, probably have four golfing doors and be
like a five passenger with about the same interior accommodations

(31:50):
as a Mercedes four fifty sel going doors, going doors.
Can you imagine pulling into a parking lotless with the goalway.
That's from my point. So finally, nineteen eighty, the automotive
journalists they get their first looks at this new car.
They get to test drive this new car, the Delarean
DMC twelve. It is real. It's in front of them,

(32:11):
it's on the tarmact or like, give me the keys,
I'm driving, Elizabeth. Why do you think this went?

Speaker 3 (32:16):
Oh man that the test drives? Did it not go well?
Did they not drive very well?

Speaker 4 (32:20):
Well?

Speaker 2 (32:21):
Remember it's all out. I said it was stainless steel,
and that's really heavy. Yeah, I remember, I said, there's
the car's gold wing doors. Those are also heavy, like
super heavy.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
The lines on the car were very sharp. They're not
soft lion.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
No, it's not aerodynamic in that regard. No, No, the
DMC twelve is again it is supposed to be like
a BMW. That's what his analog was for it. Ideally.
He also compared it to the Jaguar XJS in terms
of the handling and the driving experience. Very liability. So
when the DMC hits the road, it was powered by
a French engine made by Renault. So Delorian made the

(32:54):
bold choice of making a sports car that wasn't particularly fast.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
Right.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
Yes, his DMC twelve topped out one hundred and ninety
five kilometers an hour. Now, if like me, you're not
good at these quick conversions, that works out to be
one hundred and twenty miles per hour. His sports car
top speed one hundred and twenty miles an hour.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yeah, and I bet you when you get it up
to one twenty it starts shimming. It's like I thought
it was breaking up and kept.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Now as for the get up and go, like, how
quick did it start?

Speaker 3 (33:21):
Right?

Speaker 2 (33:21):
His car had none of that either, So bad top
speed and also no pickup at The Delaian sports car
went from zero to sixty in about ten seconds. Oh
your kids, that's like one of the little Toyota pickups.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yeah, totally so delorriy.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
He's confident though, he's like, Americans are gonna love this.
I don't know where this confidence is coming from. Maybe
the cocaine.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
I don't like, you know what, They're not very bright,
he love.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
He may be having to try to sell his dream car,
so he may be lying little. I think. All right,
So there's a huge problem with Delarean though, one that
I'd forgot to mention up till now, some whole thing
called timing, because there's something called the nineteen seventies oil embargo.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
Oh oh my god.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
That was followed by inflation and economics and a recession,
and then response Americans started wanting smaller cars. This is
where you get like the gas gozlers go bye bye,
and all of a sudden, everyone's like, I want to Honda.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
I want to you go.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Cadillacs are out, you go start in. So delorious the
car remember tho oh jezu. Yes he's got his DMC
twelve made in Northern Ireland with British labor, with a
French engine, body, stainless steel. Super cool looking sports car
goes slow as hell, heavy as hell. Oh, by the way,
it's also it costs more than a Portion nine twenty
four if you were looking to buy one. So the

(34:32):
reviews from the automotive press predictably savage the car.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
I don't know what a zero to sixty on a
night of Portion nine twenty four was at the time.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Oh yeah, I'm sure, I don't know. I do don't know.
So we have a little more extra bad timing because
John Delorean's like, that's not enough for me. One of
his investors, the part owners of the company, Johnny Carson,
he goes out one night in nineteen eighty two, he's
driving his brand new DeLorean and he gets arrested in
Beverly Hills for drunk driving. The next day, it's all
over the front pages. And that's what you call good press.

(35:01):
So in that first year DeLorean he hoped to sell
roughly twelve thousand cars. Can you guess how many he sold?
Three thousand? No, he sold a quarter of what he
hoped to sell.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Three thousand. People out there, hat Delorian.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Now, if you might have guessed, Elizabeth, we've reached the
cocaine portion of this story.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
Cocaine, you knew it was coming.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
You know it, You can almost like see it on
the horizon marching forward. Now after this break and then
we should take a break, I'll tell you about how
John Dolorian got busted with millions of dollars of cash
in a briefcase and a boatload of booger sugar, all
because he wanted to save his car company.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
Oh god, Okay, Elizabeth, I have to say first what

(35:59):
I've been doing to you in this in this recording session,
is that there's this guy Chad on Instagram who teaches
people how to say things in sign language that are like,
you know, non conventional. Oh yeah, So I admit that
I have been signing like terrible things to.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
You, like I know what some of those mean.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
It's so good, and I promise from this point forward,
I'm going to stop.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
He did not stop, you just you just did it.
My hand happened to touch my face.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
WHOA, I just signed you need Jesus.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
I know I know what the finger did. The palm
means stigma.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
Anyway, I apologize. I want to apologize to the to
producer Dave. I'm sorry you had to see all that.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
My eyes are burning.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
To Okay, anyway.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yeah, so we've reached the big crime of this story.
We really have ready to start acting, right, so I
can tell you this story.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
We'll pull it together.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Okay, we're ready to talk about one of your favorite subjects, cocaine.
So throughout the nineteen seventies, John Dolaurient and cocaine. They
had a great time, fabulous run. They were everywhere. They
were in New York discos together, they were in swanky
LA restaurants. They could be found in Fifth Avenue apartments,
in mansions in New Jersey, is Hollywood Hills homes. Anywhere

(37:22):
you looked, it was swanky, cool or fun, there was
cocaine and John do right. Sure.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
I mean the thing is, it's like you're in the discothech,
you're doing this, you're you know, you're hanging out with
your every day Yes, we talk about all of this
all the time. Of the cocaine.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Yes, the cocaine.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
We talk about the cocaine. It's ridiculous. Of course it's
going to show up all the time.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, it's kind of like the what's that fabric that
catches fire? That was big? Oh, polyester. It's like the
polyester of drugs. It's just going to show up in
all the worse everywhere. So eventually the long come the
nineteen eightiesuddly things change. Cocaine continues to kick it right,
but it's lost a bunch of it's cool. It gets
turned into crack and exactly, and Delarean he gets even

(38:09):
deeper in with this disco drug because even though disco's dead,
he's like, oh, party's got to keep going. So where
were we? It's right nineteen eighty one DeLorean. He'd started
selling his dream car, the DMC twelve, no relation to
run DMC, and it's not going well.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
What does DMC stand for?

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Delarean Motor Company? The car get I just thought it
was Delorian, like Chevrolet Delorian Motor Company exactly, Bavarian Motorworks.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
There you go, or Bob Marley and the Whalers.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
Also the other one another name for that car. The
car gets ripped in the reviews, right, and they told
you automobile or press. They take turns dunking on it like, oh,
let me take a shot.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
I love doing stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah. There's one point where like uh car and Driver
magazine they do this big story big and they have
the brutal like title the Decline and Fall of the
Dolorean Dream. The story has this illustration of a Doloreian car.
It sat out. It's so it's left to rust behind
a chicken farm. What's tires gone? It's just the portrait
of American failure. Oh yeah, it's great. They're just dunking

(39:10):
on this guy. Right, But his car's failure wasn't his
only trouble. Because Margaret Thatcher could read right. She was
a prolific reader that Mags. She's reading all the time, Elizabeth,
and she read the newspapers and so she knew the word.
On her partner, John Delaurian, he was making her and
her British government look big time foolish in the press.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
They looked like they should be behind a chicken farm.
Why is that like such an I love that. That's
like a huge insult. Well, we all know the car's
stupid and it's falling apart in ps it's behind a
chicken farm.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
So this was always a risk for Margaret that you
know that John Delorian would make her look foolish, But
now the risk was reality did that pretty well on
her own totally. But the British government they launched an
investigation and the financial improprieties at the Dolarean Motor Company.
What what Now? This is officially triggered right, this investigation
by Dolor himself because he'd gone to the brist and said, hey, guys,
I need like thirty million dollars? Can you just slip

(40:05):
me a cool thirty mil? And the Brits were like,
my good man, oh what did you do with the
money we've already given you? Where are the receipts for that?

Speaker 6 (40:11):
So?

Speaker 2 (40:11):
And he's like, oh yeah, he walked away. So the
British investigation eventually they find no financial misdeeds. He's done fine,
no irregularities whatever. Delorian's good there. But Margaret Thatcher she's like,
I can't I can't afford to be made to look stupid. Yeah,
so she's like, I gotta cut my losses. So she
denies the bailout that he asked for. But not only that.
In February nineteen eighty two, the Brits up tied to

(40:31):
appoint a receiver to take over the DeLorean Motor Company's finances.
They're basically going, you're bankrupt. We've decided bankrupt.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
So Delorian's like, oh wait, wait, any time. Let me
put together a deal. I'll buy it out of everything.
They're like, oh, we'll see what you can do, you know.
And so Delorian he's got to start scrambling. He's trying
to find new investors. You need big time money, right,
so Delaurian said, up that time, and I quote, I
began to spend every waking moment seeking investors. I cannot
afford to ignore anyone. Well, keep in mind he had

(41:00):
all sorts of famous, fabulously wealthy friends. But these people,
they're not fools. So DeLorean at this point is a
risky investment, right, just to say the least. But his
risk taking friends like Johnny Carson, Sammy Davis Junior, they've
already invested, so their bets already in. He's like, oh,
I can't go back to them. So he's down to
his last bets. And then one day, Elizabeth, he found
a wind of hope in the words of one of

(41:23):
his neighbors. His neighbors, of course, what luck, what serendipity.
He was willing to become a quote silent partner for
the DeLorean Motor company. The dude's name James Hoffman. Okay, Now,
James Hoffman was a curious person to go into business
with because at that point in his life he was
a convicted tax evader, a perjurer, and a cocaine smuggler.
So and his drug smuggler had recently been busted moving cocaine.

(41:46):
So when business wasn't good like at that moment, he
was also a paid FBI in foremant, so it was
a really dicey choice.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Anyway, Hoffman was facing charges for drug smuggling, so he
thought he could lessen his sentence if he brought the
FEDS a bigger fish or famous fish, like John Delaurian.
So he sets up his neighbor and then he goes
to the FBI and says, you'll never guess who approached
me about a coke deal.

Speaker 7 (42:07):
What.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
So the deal was this, Delaurian would front Hoffman a
cool two million dollars, which he would then use to
leverage sixty million dollar cocaine deal that they would both
then split cool thirty million dollars each. Boom boom boom.
Though while they plot in they plan this deals all together,
Hoffman's federal agent friends are recording everything, right.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
So well recording, you say.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
Yes, recording. So they're in a Washington, DC hotel room,
Delaurian and Hoffman are sitting around discussing their proposed coke deal.
All of it's recorded by the FEDS. There's one problem
with their proposed coke deal. Delaurian needed money. Delaurian didn't
have money. Yeah, so he's like, yeah, you just need
two million dollars. He's like, bro, I don't got two
million dollars. So he's like oh, He's like, you know,
I ain't liquid like that. So they're like, what do

(42:48):
I do? Finally he's like, well, you know, how about
maybe some stock or something. So on September fourth, nineteen
eighty two, Delaurian he met with Hoffman again at the
law enfont Plaza hotel in Washington, d C. Delorian updates
his partner on his plans. I've got good news. He
claims to have found the two million dollars he needs
to back the.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
Coke deal right in the sofa Christians.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
No, it's better than that. He got the money from
who he called very very tough guys. And that's a
quote quote very very tough guys as in the NOPE,
they were the IRA. He turned the IRA for a
two million dollar loan. He's like I'm trying to give
the Irish jobs. They're like in Northern Ireland, wrong side
of the line, mate, you're hitting me, yes, and it's
a time they're actively fighting Margaret Thatcher and her British cavalry. Yeah,

(43:32):
and then what years this nineteen eighty two.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
We lost Bobby Sands eighty one, right.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
This is a bit of a bad time, yes, exactly,
a bit of an interesting move for everybody involved, a
bit of a turnaround for DeLorean. He's like, now I'm
in business with the IRA try and working with Mags.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
Yes, it goes to the opposite.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Said and I quote, I'm relying on you, saying that
there's no way of connecting me to this thing, and
hof and Hoffman assured him, you're not going to be
handling product. No, Delorian didn't won better and said, I'm
I'm gonna be a long way away.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
All right, So he thinks that physical distance.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Ye, he'll be cool. Hoffman offered for Delorian to back
out of the deal if he was feeling skittish about
it. It was like, oh and Delorian, ever the mabbick. He
stayed true to his character and he told Hoffman, I
want to proceed so Delorian asked Hoffman at the coke
dealers and their financiers would consider taking some extra cash
in the form of stock in the DeLorean Motor company
is part of the deal. Like, maybe I could keep

(44:25):
one a million of this and give you guys one
million in stock. Hoffman. He goes back to his FBI
handlers and he tells them Deloorian's plan. I was like,
he wants to do. What Why would a coke dealer
want Delorian stock? Okay, fine, whatever, Tom will take the stock.
I don't care. Just make the deal, right. So Hoffan
he goes back to Delorian and he tells them that
the fake coke dealers will take the Dolorian stock for
the cocaine. Delaurian's like, awesome, man, that's great news. Best

(44:46):
news I've heard all day. Now the hook is set,
So it's time for Delorian to meet the federal agents.
As the Washington Post put it, the federal agents posed
as quote a mafia drug financier and a quote drug
deal financing banker. So one is an FBI agent. One's
a Dee agent.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
Right, he's the vice president of drug dealers.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
I'm telling you one thing I've learned federal agents love
improv they just don't get enough of it. They're always like,
just say yes and keep it moving.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
Yes and yes.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
And so with this loan from the IRA in hand
to buy the coke to save his factory, DeLorean set
the plan in motion. He phoned this dude, Bill Hettrick,
who was a drug smuggling pilot, and he tells, he's like,
I should tell you by the way, that these men
there are all using code words for their communication. But helpfully,
DeLorean he decides to decode them in real.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
Time, so he like published a translation guide.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
No, he said, and I quote Delaurian called Hettrick and
he told him, quote, they'd like to go ahead with
the monkeys a word for cocaine you had up in
San Francisco. That's so they're ready. They got the cash
and they want to go ahead and buy them the monkeys.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
That is so good he's translating in real Amazing. You know,
why didn't this guy ever succeed.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Amazing, just naturally.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
Think of how his life would have been different if
he hadn't have caught that like midlife crisis bug, or
if he'd talk to someone who was like, you know what,
just stay the course, You've got a really great life. Yes,
he'd still be married, you know, he'd be.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
Just his ego is bigger than his body could contain.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
Yes, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
No.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
October eighteenth, the drug smuggling pilot does his run. He
smuggled fifty five pounds of cocaine, delivered it. That's like
a small child of cocaine.

Speaker 3 (46:21):
Right, yeah, fifty five pounds.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
Yeah, he delivered it to a waiting federal agent and
he was properly arrested. So now that they have their
evidence in hand, the Feds give Hoffman the go ahead
to spring their trap. So Hoffman he contacted Delaurian. It
told him to meet him at a hotel room near
Lax Airport in La de Laurian flew in from New
York to seal this deal. Elizabeth, I'd like you to
close your eyes as a close I'd like you to

(46:44):
picture it. It's October nineteenth, nineteen eighty two. You're at
the Sheraton Plaza l Rhina hotel near Lax Airport. It's
an okay spot, fake nice whatever you Elizabeth are a
bottle of French champagne. You're chilling in a silver terrein
of ice waiting to be enjoyed. Hosts them a long,
strange trip, bringing you from your beginnings into a champagne

(47:06):
cave in France to an airport hotel in La to
celebrate a coke deal. But whatever, Viva la France. Now
they're in the silver taureine, where you're chilling in a
bath of ice. You can see everything. There are a
few men in the hotel room, all of them dressed
in suits. They look like executives, except for one man
with his dyed black hair, his open collar shirt and
the gregarious air about him. You like him instantly, You're like,

(47:28):
is he French? You the charismatic man. He lifts a
briefcase onto the hotel bed and says he brought his
part of the deal. He clicks open the briefcase. When
they see the millions in cash, the other men laugh
in the conspiratorial way. Then the unzip a duffel bag.
One of the men reaches into the bag and flips
out a package. You don't know what it is since
you're a bottle of champagne, but I'll tell you it's

(47:49):
a wrapped quilo of cocaine. If you could gasp, you would,
But one of the men says, that's fifty five pounds
of cocaine in the bag. As promised. He hands the
kei low to the charismatic Man. He cuts it open
and checks it. He does that knife tip trial of
the coke bang you see on TV shows if you
watch them, but.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
You're I don't watch your champagne bottle.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
Yeah, and also you don't watch TV anyway. It is
indeed the real deal, uncut booger sugar. The charismatic man says, excitedly,
this is better than gold. Gold weighs more than that,
for God's sakes. Then he reaches for you. Your moment
has come, Elizabeth. He lifts you up out of your
ice bath and he peels away the foil. He untwists
the cage that holds down your cork. Then, with a

(48:28):
flourish and a twist, he pops you open. Your cork
carrams off the hotel room ceiling and lands on the
bed next to the briefcase of cash. The charismatic Man
turns you on your side, and he empties your bubbly
contents into waiting champagne flutes. The men all take up
a champagne flute. They each raise their glass. The charismatic
man says, I think it's gonna be wonderful for everybody,

(48:51):
to a lot of success.

Speaker 3 (48:52):
For everybody, and the cocaine.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
Just before everyone is about to enjoy the tickle of
your bubbles, the moment is shattered. The hotel room door
busts open. An FBI agent coincidentally named Jerry West rushes
into the room and tells the charismatic man he's under arrest.
The men all set their champagne flutes down. Drat it all, Elizabeth.
No one enjoys your bubbles. Your deliciousness goes unappreciated. Your

(49:15):
sparkle is left to go flat.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
I'm going to go live in the La Sewers soon.
Hotel sink.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
You're going for the gutters. So that was a cokebuster,
John Delorian. You ready for the bitter irony. Yes, Delorian
didn't need the cocaine deal, because earlier that same day
the British government announced that the DeLorean factory would be shuttered.
There was nothing to save. This dream was already dead.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
After less than two years of production in Northern Ireland,
the British built factory that housed the Delorian Motor Company
closed its doors. Officially, how many Deloreans do you think
were built? Elizabeth M. Nine thousand. It's estimated there about
five to six thousand of these cars left on the
roads today.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
Really or barn, I've seen one in the world.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
Oh yeah, I've been inside one. I guess you're kidding
you have. I'm a car person. Yeah, I see pretty
much all the major iconic cars. I've either seen one
at a car show or like at a you know,
like if I'm driving in the Midwest and you see
one like at a car lot, I'm like, pull over,
we gotta go see that dukes of hazard car trunk.
Exactly where do you come up with?

Speaker 7 (50:20):
So?

Speaker 2 (50:20):
Delorian's subsequent drug trafficking trial huge news. It's it really
actually marked the beginning of a wave of high profile
celebrity criminal trials. He was the one who marks the
beginning that leads to like all the ones we know
and currently going on. April eighteenth, nineteen eighty four, his
trial begins. Naturally, DeLorean pleads not guilty. Sure he got
himself a good, good lawyer. He put together one hell

(50:42):
of a defense. The trial lasted for three months, sixty
three days of testimony. Elizabeth there was a ton of evidence,
lots of videotape audio. Remember the Feds have been taping
and recording everything they had hoarding. They had Hoffman and
DeLorean talking cocaine and investments in money and stock, all
of it on tape. So when Hoffman took the stand,

(51:02):
he stayed there. He practically moved into the witness stand.
He was on the witness stand for eighteen days straight.
Oh man, he laid out the whole story right. Meanwhile,
there was DeLorean. He came into court every day on
his arm with his supermodel wife. At this point he
stopped dyeing his hair. His hair is pure white. Oh
so he's iconic looking also, and yet he's also still
the charming guy, right. Everyone kind of likes him. And

(51:24):
also he'd recently converted to Christianity, because you know, he
said this was due to his time spent reflecting as
he waited a trial and prisoner in jail. The narrative.
Delorean's lawyer, though, tells in court brilliant the Hoffman, he says,
approached Delaurian that his client the thought that this was
a legitimate investment, which is why he'd offered the coke
dealers stock he thought they were investors.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
His lawyer argued that his client, Delorium, was actually the
victim of a sinister plot, one hatched by an overreaching
federal agency and a lying, connithing, deceitful drug smuggling paid
FBI and formant people were like, oh, tell me more.
The defense attorney, he alleged to the FBI, guys, they lied,
they falsified documents. They even backdated some of the documents

(52:07):
to fit their narrative, which is all pretty much true.
They also destroyed evidence and withheld other crucial evidence. Jury's
lapping it up. The Delorean's attorney suggested the FBI was
drawn by the flickering flame of fame, and like proverbial moths,
the agents just couldn't help themselves when Hoffman brought them
a chance to bust the ever famous John delori and
the agents were like, it's on sign.

Speaker 3 (52:28):
Oh yeah, I'm sure he was just irritating the gebers
out of him, like he is me, And so they're
just like, how can we get rid of him?

Speaker 2 (52:35):
They stop? You like to bring down some of the
people with big humorists, right, yeah, So the defense attorney
he went to work on Hoffman after his eighteen days
of testimony, the Larean's attorney picks it all apart, makes
it worthless. He argued that it was a pack of
lies paid for by the FBI as part of their
manufactured drug deal and staying operation. One of the main
witnesses characters was now thoroughly assassinated. The defense moved on

(52:59):
to a stafeablishing plausible doubt for his client. His attorney
argued that Deloreian never committed a crime. Point to the
crime he'd committed, He was only ever looking for investors.
How is that wrong in America? Right? He's willing to
consider taking money from unsavory characters. Yes, fine, okay, it
was the IRA who cares, so it doesn't matter that
there are alleged revolutionaries whatever. The defense rests. John Delourian

(53:22):
never even took the stand. Elizabeth. Wow, they say, don't
take this. I'm not take the stand. The jury convenes,
they mull over the charges, they argue the details. What
do you think was going to be their decision?

Speaker 3 (53:33):
I know because I told I mentioned it in another episode.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Oh the man, right, the.

Speaker 3 (53:40):
Man who pulled apart the FBI tapes. Yes, none other
than Anthony pellicanna, that's.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
Right, that's right.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
So August sixteen, nineteen eighty four, after roughly twenty nine
hours of deliberation, the jury returns a verdict of acquitted
on all charges, with a verdict was read Delorian turns
around Hugs' supermodel wife. Later, he told his attorneys a
birthday present, it's just like Perry Mason, Perry Mason. The
thing was that the jurors they did not like Hoffman,

(54:09):
nor did they seem to enjoy his eighteen days of testimony.
The thoroughness of that really backfired for defense. One juror
said Hoffman was quote a shabby creep. Another juror cited
what they felt was federal entrapment, and they said the
way a government agents acted in this case was not appropriate.
There was yet another juror who wanted to make it clear,
I do not believe he was innocent, but the juror

(54:30):
then later added that it was specifically that he was
not guilty. One other juror, she was in her twenties,
and she was the youngest of all of them. She
recalled the jury's deliberations inside the juror room, and she
said a number of us cried, some of us lost
a lot of sleep or a lot of weight, so
to lawrence. Defense attorney Howard L. Whitesman later attempted to
sum up his client right. He said, Don Delaurian quote

(54:53):
is a very complicated individual who was willing to play
close to the edge. Whitesman also said, and I quote
he was very art, innovative, and a gambler. His arrogance
and entitlement clouded his judgment. I've represented many people over
the years, but John Delaurian had one of the most
warped views of right and wrong. Gots his own lawyer
a lawyer. So, after Delaurian beat the Feds, his supermodel wife, right,

(55:15):
what does she do? She serves some divorce paper. She's like,
I play my role. I'm out right. She had takes
him to court. He'd also get sued by a group
of his investors. It was not looking like nineteen eighty
five would be a good year for John Delaurian, But then,
out of nowhere, a fun summer movie about a teenager
who traveled back in time to the nineteen fifties and
a time machine made from a Delorian became one of

(55:37):
the biggest hit movies of the year and of the decade, Elizabeth,
we finally reached the Back to the Future section of
this story. That film single handedly saved the legacy of
the DeLorean. It made the car iconic before Back to
the Future, the DeLorean was a punchline. It was a
cautionary tale.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
Why it was in the movie that it was a
little bit of a joke.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Yes, but it's still become cool now. Otherwise we would
not be talking about the DeLorean. It would be out
there with the Yugo as a forgotten car.

Speaker 3 (56:01):
What's the other one?

Speaker 2 (56:02):
The which one?

Speaker 3 (56:03):
Tucker?

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Oh the Tucker? Yes, good call, right. It was decidedly
uncool though, basically, and Michael J. Fox when he climbed
in that time machine built by Christopher Lloyd faster than
you can say, great Scott. The pair turned that Delaurian
into the car we know today, which is cool enough
that Elon Musk wants to make a truck out of it. Anyway,
John Dolaurien, he sent handwritten thank you notes to the
director Bob Zemeckis and screenwriter Bob Gail. The film was

(56:26):
so successful that Delaurian was suddenly flushed with cash from
toy license deals as well as licensing fees from the
three films and the animated cartoon series. On March nineteenth,
two thousand and five, Delarean finally passed away, age eighty,
from complications from a stroke. It was the end of
a long and rebellious winding road. Little detail for you, Elizabeth.
John Dolourian was buried wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket.

(56:49):
Oh god, I knew that reaction.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
The post life crisis.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
Yes, it continued till coming dead. So for a final word,
John Dolreian summed up his own legacy to a journalist
an interview in Playboy, and I quote, I think my
ultimate sin, and it was really terrible, was that I
had this insatiable pride. Looking back at it, I see
that I had an arrogance that was beyond that if
any other human being alive. And I gotta say it's
a shame John Dolian did not live long enough to

(57:15):
see Kanye West, because he would have felt so relieved.
He's like, wha wait a minute, wait a minute, new
data has come in. John Dolaorian ain't not eat number one. Yeah, anyway, Elizabeth,
what's a ridiculous takeaway here?

Speaker 3 (57:27):
I got a couple of quick ones. One, I like
what the juror said that Hoffen was a shabby creep.
Shabby is my new insult phenomenal to Doloreian gross shabby.

Speaker 2 (57:41):
Yes, okay, there my ridiculed takeaway. I was always thank
you for asking, Elizabeth, is I agree with you? Good
points everything. So you want to hear you in the
move for a talkback? Oh yeah, producer Dave hit It.

Speaker 6 (57:56):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (58:03):
Hello, chee.

Speaker 5 (58:07):
Hey guys, this is Teley Fox talks from Twitter, and
I just wanted to share that while I was listening
to the Blingering episode, every time Zarin said dog door Diana,
I busted out, singing, those.

Speaker 6 (58:18):
Teams were made just for they're not gonna foot on me.
Do do donah no, dot do Diana, Yeah, dog do
do and.

Speaker 5 (58:31):
Nah, hey guys, it's Telly Fox again. What I did
not share was that apparently some of my coworkers heard me,
so when I came into work the next night, I
was asked if I was going to be serenading them again,
which was super embarrassing and ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
Ah, yes, all right, Well you can find us online
always at ridiculous Crime on Twitter and Instagram. We have
the website ridiculous Crime dot com. Obviously we'd like to
talk back, so hit us up with them. Go to
the iHeart app recorded talkback. Maybe you can hear yourself
on the air. Always email us if you want Ridiculous
Crime at gmail dot com. Start it, Dear Elizabeth, thanks
for listening and we'll catch you next track. Ridiculous Crime

(59:15):
is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Brenette, produced and
edited by Dave Doc Brown Cousten. Researched by Marissa Wait
why am I not? Doc Brown Brown? And Andrea Can
I be? Marty McFly song sharpened hear our theme song
is by Thomas What was Crispin Glover's name in the movie?
That's me? Lee and Travis Then I am the time
Machine Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Body five hundred.

(59:39):
Executive producers are Ben Damn, I wanted to be the
DeLorean Bowlin and know well I am the flux Capacitor
Brown eighty eight miles an hour, Ridicus Clime, say it
one more Timeous Cry.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows,