August 25, 2025 • 6 mins
A man with an ironically similar name is in hot water.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
What would you do if you were named after somebody famous?
Would you try to be an impersonator of someone famous?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I would sign a lot of checks.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
In my name. You better be careful doing that because
that fraud.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well it's not frive. It's the right name.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Well yeah, but if you don't have the money in
the bank to sign the check, that's the problem. And
there is a guy in Greenville, Tennessee, and his name
is George Herman Ruth oh No, otherwise known as the Babe.
But it's not the same George Herman Ruth because that
George Herman Ruth passed many, many years ago. This guy
(00:44):
is from Morristown in Tennessee, and he is charged with
mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, fraudle use of SO security numbers,
money laundering, making false statements to his probation officer, and
possessing firearms after previously been victim of felonies. The indictment
says he obtained or attempted to obtain more than five
(01:06):
hundred and fifty thousand dollars in his scheme that ranged
from contacts lens pricing allegations to claims of racial discrimination
against the staffing agency he opened a dozen po boxes
in Tennessee over the years. He used the old baseball
players' names or variation of his own name, and the
social Security numbers of unwitting victims. The indictment does not
(01:29):
list the names of the players Ruth claimed to be,
but it described some of them, and some played for
the Philadelphia Athletics, the Saint Louis Browns, and the Kansas
City Packers, teams that no longer exist. A public defender
representing Ruth declined to comment on the charges, and he
apparently in twenty twenty he went to prison or was
(01:50):
sentenced to prison before going on probation for something that
happened in Indiana.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
One of the easier ways I've seen people use fate
names for fraud is when they take a name from
a character from a movie and they would and they
would use that as as like sort of like a
cover identity for themselves, like I saw. Have you ever
seen the show thirty Rock?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I have not.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Okay, Well, there's this one instance where the where the
Jason Senegis's character tries to get out of a bad
conversation with Tina Fey's character and he says he had
he had, he has to catch a flight. He has
a meeting with Peter Banateman. Do you know who Peter
Bateman is? That is Bill Murray's character from Ghostbusters. Okay,
so that's and their instance like that in real life.
I think I saw someone somewhere who they whose name
(02:34):
was literally was Rick Nixon and I and all of
all things right, I don't remember what the what the
case was, but he was he was in jail, and
that was under the assumed alias Rick Nixon. And so
using using someone using a real person's name, you would
think the smart thing to do is either use like
someone of lesser known fame, or or like I've seen
(02:55):
even more of, is like a fictional fame. But Babe
Ruth is a Babe Ruth is a pretty well known
name to where that's that's an immedia red flam.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
But if that's your real name on your birth certificate,
your last name was Ruth and your parents thought it
would be cute to name you after the babe, and
now sixty nine years later you're using it. I mean,
who doesn't know that the real Babe Ruth has been
gone for a long time.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I just remember it. I had a classmate named Alex Bill.
His name was ale His name was Alexander, last name Bill.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
It was his middle named Graham.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I have no idea. I just remember that was his name. Yeah,
Alex Bell, if you're listening, I'm sorry about that.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Well, yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of Valu. There's
probably more Alex Bells than you know of. But I
would think that it would be just fun to go
around just call me the Babe if that was my name.
But I don't know that I would have the guts
to impersonate somebody that's been dead for fifty or however
many years it has been. I think Babe Ruth died
(03:53):
in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
He's been dead for a while. I know that, I
don't I don't know. I don't know the exactly, Like
how old was this guy? First of all? Was it
was he born?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
This guy is sixty nine years old.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Ya, so he's around at least in the timeframe of
when rufus.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Still, No, he wasn't because Babe Ruth died in nineteen
forty eight.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Okay, Yeah, he's been well.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
And so if you're seventy that wouldn't mean you were
born in what fifty five. Yeah, so you may have
seen highlights like the rest of us, but you never
saw him play. But now and I would imagine you could,
you know, you could make open up a business and
sell something that's baseball related if you wanted to, or
(04:33):
tell stories about the babe as if you knew what
they were being what the same name. But I don't
think you need to be going out and opening identity
accounts and fake sale security numbers and trying to go
after people's money to send them fake memorabilia or whatever
else he was attempting to do.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Trying to think it was like a famous person with
the last name Everett, not counting yourself, where you'd have to,
like basically as a parent, steer clear of that name
just for that reason, because my last name is Carter,
and there's a lot of famous Carters that unfortunate I'm
not related to, Yeah, like like Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter,
Vince Carter, Dwayne Carter. Also it was a little Wayne
for those that don't know, Beyonce is now married to
(05:14):
the name Carter. There's all kind of Nick Carter. Yeah,
I'm not really anyone. I wish I was. I could,
let you know, get to that cousin money, but it
ain't happening.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah you could, uh, well, you could still claim that
you're that cousin. They would maybe not know.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
And oh I lied all the time as a kid
that I was relayed to all those people, but it's
not true. I literally tricked the kid one time and
said that Vince Carter was was my cousin, And that
was just a my cousin vinny joke that like no
one picked up on.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Did he how long did he buy it?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
No one bought it and no one no one ever
know or questioned it because they were dumb. I was twelve.
The twelve year olds are dumb.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, well sometimes we are and sometimes we're not.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And these these twelve year olds were dumb.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah. I don't know what ruse I ever pulled that
people thought was actually true when I was a kid,
But I don't really.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
The only effort I can think of is, uh, there's
this old actor who's probably is obviously dead now.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Him was Chad every H Yeah, and he was an
action You have ever played football in the eighties and
nineties for the Rams.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
You could have lied about one of those guys, Yeah, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
It wasn't that good. It wasn't worth lying about. But no, yeah,
but I got I think it's kind of funny that
the guy's name was George Herman.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Ruth.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I think you would have gotten more run for it,
and probably made more money if you'd have done something
legitimate than that than all the the stuff that you're
trying to get away with.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Did the articles say like how much Timmy's facing or
what charges he's facing.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Well, the laundry list is all felonies, so he's sixty
nine years old. He may be there for the rest
of of time. That sucks, but I'm guessing that's probably ten, twelve,
fifteen years what put him into his eighties. If it's
if it's not even more than that, he's gone. All right,
one more segment to go. We wrap up the day
next
What would you do if you were named after somebody famous?
Would you try to be an impersonator of someone famous?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I would sign a lot of checks.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
In my name. You better be careful doing that because
that fraud.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well it's not frive. It's the right name.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Well yeah, but if you don't have the money in
the bank to sign the check, that's the problem. And
there is a guy in Greenville, Tennessee, and his name
is George Herman Ruth oh No, otherwise known as the Babe.
But it's not the same George Herman Ruth because that
George Herman Ruth passed many, many years ago. This guy
(00:44):
is from Morristown in Tennessee, and he is charged with
mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, fraudle use of SO security numbers,
money laundering, making false statements to his probation officer, and
possessing firearms after previously been victim of felonies. The indictment
says he obtained or attempted to obtain more than five
(01:06):
hundred and fifty thousand dollars in his scheme that ranged
from contacts lens pricing allegations to claims of racial discrimination
against the staffing agency he opened a dozen po boxes
in Tennessee over the years. He used the old baseball
players' names or variation of his own name, and the
social Security numbers of unwitting victims. The indictment does not
(01:29):
list the names of the players Ruth claimed to be,
but it described some of them, and some played for
the Philadelphia Athletics, the Saint Louis Browns, and the Kansas
City Packers, teams that no longer exist. A public defender
representing Ruth declined to comment on the charges, and he
apparently in twenty twenty he went to prison or was
(01:50):
sentenced to prison before going on probation for something that
happened in Indiana.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
One of the easier ways I've seen people use fate
names for fraud is when they take a name from
a character from a movie and they would and they
would use that as as like sort of like a
cover identity for themselves, like I saw. Have you ever
seen the show thirty Rock?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I have not.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Okay, Well, there's this one instance where the where the
Jason Senegis's character tries to get out of a bad
conversation with Tina Fey's character and he says he had
he had, he has to catch a flight. He has
a meeting with Peter Banateman. Do you know who Peter
Bateman is? That is Bill Murray's character from Ghostbusters. Okay,
so that's and their instance like that in real life.
I think I saw someone somewhere who they whose name
(02:34):
was literally was Rick Nixon and I and all of
all things right, I don't remember what the what the
case was, but he was he was in jail, and
that was under the assumed alias Rick Nixon. And so
using using someone using a real person's name, you would
think the smart thing to do is either use like
someone of lesser known fame, or or like I've seen
(02:55):
even more of, is like a fictional fame. But Babe
Ruth is a Babe Ruth is a pretty well known
name to where that's that's an immedia red flam.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
But if that's your real name on your birth certificate,
your last name was Ruth and your parents thought it
would be cute to name you after the babe, and
now sixty nine years later you're using it. I mean,
who doesn't know that the real Babe Ruth has been
gone for a long time.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I just remember it. I had a classmate named Alex Bill.
His name was ale His name was Alexander, last name Bill.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
It was his middle named Graham.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I have no idea. I just remember that was his name. Yeah,
Alex Bell, if you're listening, I'm sorry about that.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Well, yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of Valu. There's
probably more Alex Bells than you know of. But I
would think that it would be just fun to go
around just call me the Babe if that was my name.
But I don't know that I would have the guts
to impersonate somebody that's been dead for fifty or however
many years it has been. I think Babe Ruth died
(03:53):
in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
He's been dead for a while. I know that, I
don't I don't know. I don't know the exactly, Like
how old was this guy? First of all? Was it
was he born?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
This guy is sixty nine years old.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Ya, so he's around at least in the timeframe of
when rufus.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Still, No, he wasn't because Babe Ruth died in nineteen
forty eight.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Okay, Yeah, he's been well.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
And so if you're seventy that wouldn't mean you were
born in what fifty five. Yeah, so you may have
seen highlights like the rest of us, but you never
saw him play. But now and I would imagine you could,
you know, you could make open up a business and
sell something that's baseball related if you wanted to, or
(04:33):
tell stories about the babe as if you knew what
they were being what the same name. But I don't
think you need to be going out and opening identity
accounts and fake sale security numbers and trying to go
after people's money to send them fake memorabilia or whatever
else he was attempting to do.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Trying to think it was like a famous person with
the last name Everett, not counting yourself, where you'd have to,
like basically as a parent, steer clear of that name
just for that reason, because my last name is Carter,
and there's a lot of famous Carters that unfortunate I'm
not related to, Yeah, like like Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter,
Vince Carter, Dwayne Carter. Also it was a little Wayne
for those that don't know, Beyonce is now married to
(05:14):
the name Carter. There's all kind of Nick Carter. Yeah,
I'm not really anyone. I wish I was. I could,
let you know, get to that cousin money, but it
ain't happening.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah you could, uh, well, you could still claim that
you're that cousin. They would maybe not know.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
And oh I lied all the time as a kid
that I was relayed to all those people, but it's
not true. I literally tricked the kid one time and
said that Vince Carter was was my cousin, And that
was just a my cousin vinny joke that like no
one picked up on.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Did he how long did he buy it?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
No one bought it and no one no one ever
know or questioned it because they were dumb. I was twelve.
The twelve year olds are dumb.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, well sometimes we are and sometimes we're not.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And these these twelve year olds were dumb.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah. I don't know what ruse I ever pulled that
people thought was actually true when I was a kid,
But I don't really.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
The only effort I can think of is, uh, there's
this old actor who's probably is obviously dead now.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Him was Chad every H Yeah, and he was an
action You have ever played football in the eighties and
nineties for the Rams.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
You could have lied about one of those guys, Yeah, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
It wasn't that good. It wasn't worth lying about. But no, yeah,
but I got I think it's kind of funny that
the guy's name was George Herman.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Ruth.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I think you would have gotten more run for it,
and probably made more money if you'd have done something
legitimate than that than all the the stuff that you're
trying to get away with.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Did the articles say like how much Timmy's facing or
what charges he's facing.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Well, the laundry list is all felonies, so he's sixty
nine years old. He may be there for the rest
of of time. That sucks, but I'm guessing that's probably ten, twelve,
fifteen years what put him into his eighties. If it's
if it's not even more than that, he's gone. All right,
one more segment to go. We wrap up the day
next
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