Introducing - The Burden | Bad Cops

Baltimore, Maryland likes to call itself Charm City. But you have to wonder: Is the nickname ironic?  Consider one of the city's star cops, a sergeant so accomplished that he earned his own nickname, the Golden Boy.  But Golden Boy led a double life. Said one of those who encountered him in the street.  "I was robbed by the Baltimore City Police….with a gun … armed robbery."  No one believed the allegation. Then a GPS tracker was discovered where it shouldn't have been; next, a wiretap went up on a cop's phone. An FBI agent couldn't believe what she was hearing. Are these guys  gangsters? And then … an insider turned witness. "Like Rambo said, burn it down. And that's what I did."  Welcome to Charm City, where it was sometimes difficult to tell the protectors from the predators.

A podcast from Orbit Media reported and produced by the BBC and hosted by Jessica Lussenhop.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Baltimore, Maryland, a city where you can't always
tell the protectors from the predators.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I shook my head like I must be looking at
like did I mix the files of Like this can't
possibly be right?

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Seen up in my car reverse, they start ramming my
car backs.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
These guys did this.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
They had to have.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
I was robbed while Baltimore City Police. I'm Robert.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
I have a cop for fourteen years, and I was
the best, the best in the city.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
The Golden Boy, Golden Boy, he was the best at
a lot of things.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
Delivering pharmacies. I mean, I mean, there's not too many
people they can do that, but he could.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
They're nineteen thirty style gangsters. As far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
He's he's dangerous, you know what I mean? And I
know that none of it's true. None of.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
This is the story of Golden Boy and the childhood
friend who helped take him down.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
As Rambo says YouTube first Blood, here we go. Now
we're going to burn it down, and that's what I did.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Orbit Media presents the Burden Bad Cops, a podcast by
BBC that asks how do good cops turn bad? Listen
on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow
us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at orbitmedia fm.