August 15, 2023 • 48 mins
A ship captain is inexplicably detained and thrown into a Turkish prison, and despite his best efforts, it seems like he may never get out. Against all odds, he fights to find a way to escape, to find a loophole in the prison system, before he dies, forgotten and alone.
Allegedly is back! Enjoy this super-sized special stand-alone episode before all of Season 2 drops!
Allegedly is a production of Voyage Media. The series is produced by Nat Mundel, Robert Mitas and
Dan Benamor. This episode, American Captain, was produced by Chris Goldberg. Executive
produced by Michael Churchward. Michael wrote a book about his experiences - "God Waits
Outside", available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/God-Waits-Outside-Michael-Churchward/dp/1734891580
Edited by John Higgins. Original music by Derlis Gonzalez. If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts or anywhere you're listening, and subscribe now, for future episodes.
Allegedly is back! Enjoy this super-sized special stand-alone episode before all of Season 2 drops!
Allegedly is a production of Voyage Media. The series is produced by Nat Mundel, Robert Mitas and
Dan Benamor. This episode, American Captain, was produced by Chris Goldberg. Executive
produced by Michael Churchward. Michael wrote a book about his experiences - "God Waits
Outside", available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/God-Waits-Outside-Michael-Churchward/dp/1734891580
Edited by John Higgins. Original music by Derlis Gonzalez. If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts or anywhere you're listening, and subscribe now, for future episodes.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, listeners, this is DanBaltimore ahead of podcasts for Voyage Media.
Season two of Allegedly is coming up, but between season one and season two,
we wanted to get you this megaepisode. It's longer than our usual
episodes and it's just an incredible storyof survival of a regular person thrown into
a remote prison, not knowing ifhe'd ever get out. This is the
(00:20):
American Captain. This is film andtelevision producer Chris Goldberg. In my job,
I often get to meet people whoseincredible true stories should be a movie,
from Private Eyes to Mossad spies andundercover agents. But the guy I'm
speaking to you today, Michael Churchward, aka the American Captain, might have
one of the craziest stories I've everheard. And all started in the nineteen
(00:44):
nineties and the Mediterraneum. Michael wasa captain of a private mega yacht.
Alongside his partner in life, Stephanie, who is chef on board the vessel,
we found ourselves managing and running oneof the most glamorous exclusive meggiots in
the world, which involved a greatdeal of wealth pageantry that was unimaginable.
(01:11):
She was a little over two hundredfeet beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boat with
all the toys and bells and whistlesthat comes with having one of the exclusive
Meggiots and quite frankly the busiest Meggiottat that time in the world. Our
homes were made up of ports ofcall like Monte Carlo, can all up
and down the south of France,the Greek Godance, throughout the Mediterranean,
(01:37):
and mister r who owned the Pecante, was one of a kind and he
was of incredible wealth. He wasa billionaire, but you wouldn't have known
it. As I got to knowhim, I immediately click with him.
He said, Michael, you're goingto work for me, but the crew
will work for you. That shipwill be yours to command. That will
(02:00):
be your responsibility. I'll send itwhere I want, but you run the
ship. And for him to saythat was beautiful. That's what I wanted.
In the summer months, we werecruising the Greek Audience with guests on
board. We dropped off our firstgroup of guests in the island of Mickinos.
Our itinerary at that time was tomake our next landfall on the west
(02:25):
coast of Turkey in the port ofKushanasi, a young the Turkish port authority
board of the gangway then was heldup by my first officer, but he
wanted to speak to the captain.And I remember being really annoyed because I
(02:45):
was really tired and irritable from anovernight sale. But I marched down the
gangway. Stephanie was right there.She sounded alarmed a little bit, and
I said, it's okay, don'tworry about it. I got this from
the with these people. I knowthem, they know me. I went
up to the ship's safe. Wehave a wat one hundred dollars bills.
(03:07):
Just knowing and just knowing and familiarwith these foreign ports of call, that
it just might be needed to letus go about our business and on our
way. The Turkish PortMaster, whoonce again I had known and had known
me for years in it coming inand out of these ports, felt very
(03:30):
very uncomfortable detaining me. They weren'tsure what was going on. He would
not tell me why I was beingdetained. He whispered to me, Michael,
you are going before a magistrate.You're being arrested, and they're going
to hold you. And I saidfor what what are you talking about?
(03:51):
What have we done? And Iwill say this right now. Stephanie had
learned through the years of sailing aroundthe world with me, not only was
she our chew fought board, butshe was the gate keeper for me and
really really protected by well being.I handed to the money. I gave
her some instructions. I said,this will all clear itself up. Just
(04:11):
keep the crew and together, getprepared for the next guests. It'll sort
of self out, I'm sure bytomorrow, and phone mister r our owner.
Get a hold of him immediately atwhat she did. Now, for
legal reasons, we have to tellyou this is an episode of allegedly.
Because of when and where this alloccurred, we could not independently verify all
(04:35):
the elements of this story. Sothis is a true story allegedly. It's
Michael's personal account of what happened tohim. To protect the innocent and not
so innocent, you'll hear us bleepout some real names. The next morning
I was told that the American consulatewas coming down. One was a pretty
(04:59):
young girl, Turkish American girl calledwho was very concerned, very sweet in
her demeanor, but business life.I liked her immediately, but then there
was her other partner from the AmericanConsulate, a man named and Honestly,
I don't want to sound nasty,but I could tell immediately, not just
(05:24):
from his physical looks, was whichwas just to be kind, repulsive.
He was unkept, he was ungroomed. Quite frankly, he was he was
not an attractive man. But theminute he opened his mouth, I just
went, oh no. He immediatelyhad a demeanor and an attitude that automatically
(05:46):
thought that I had done something wrong. And he said, You're going to
prison. You're going to prison forforty days. Nothing I can do.
We got to catch the bus backto Yazmer. I freaking, what the
fuck are you talking? I literallygot him up against the wall and just
trying to hold my temper. Says, where you're not going anywhere? What
(06:06):
the hell is going on? Hesays, there's nothing I can do.
You're going before a magistrate today.They are going to hold you for forty
days. They came to get me. I was taken in front of this
inside this gothic, smelly old building. I stood in the middle of the
(06:27):
courtroom, and by this time theport police had replaced by a whole different
group of armed military guards with machineguns and so forth. I was not
handcuffed. I was still still inmy boat uniform. And I looked up
at this judge, big black robe, but he had this high color of
(06:49):
red some kind of apparatus wrapped aroundthe back of his head. And I
just was mesmerized at looking this.If it didn't look so in the stury,
it might have been comical. Theonly words I could understand where Circuit
Prison, Sircuy's Prison started stamping,slamming the stamp on the desk, American
(07:14):
captain Sircuate Prison. Boom boom boom. Before I knew it, the guards
had grabbed me, shackled me,and dragged me out of the courtroom.
Stephanie is trying to speak and yelland scream. I was sowing in the
back of this tiny, little foreignautomobile of a minivan with two other Turkish
(07:39):
prisoners, and I could see upthe back window as we pulled away.
I'm looking out the back window andI caught Stephanie's face just and her green
eyes, her crystal green eyes justwelling up with tears, and I just
let out a giant mom and Imean, we're talking at bellow that way
(08:03):
deep came from weight don you've inside. We finally arrived at the military prison,
Circain military prison, and I couldhear a bunch of screaming and shouting
at Turkish just sitting there huddled outsidethis office door, in this concrete building,
(08:28):
sitting on the concrete floor. Dingy, dirty, hot, grimy,
all the adjectives that you could evenimagine. The stale smell just permeated the
whole area, and to the pointwhere it almost made you gag. There
was like a single light bulb hangingjust as you could pitch as dingy us
(08:50):
it could be. And sitting atthe desk was the command It was hot,
steamy, no air conditioning, andthe Turkish military guards all had these
stained, grimy, sweaty uniforms on. And there were three guards standing behind
me, big sinister looking just asyou can imagine. And the commanants set
(09:11):
up the desk and he started sayingsomething in Turkish, and he looked up
smiled at me in this wolfish,weird, freaking grin. That instant is
when I absolutely knew and felt thedanger I was in. All of a
sudden, I realized I was inreal, real, real, trouble,
(09:33):
and then he screamed and shouted somethingin Turkish. I assumed they wanted me
to take my shirt off. Ididn't. I wasn't doing it fast enough.
And these three guards grabbed me soviolently, ripping my shirt off,
had me down, ripped my pantsoff, slammed me against the rick wall,
(09:54):
cracked my head, stunned me,and before I knew it, they
had my legs at and all Icould see, all I could see and
hunting. All I could see isjust the one Turkish guard putting on the
plastic glove and I'm screaming, andI'm screaming at the top of my lungs,
and yet I remember thinking later Iwasn't even hearing myself scream. It
(10:18):
was almost a conscious blackout. Aftera few beatings, hard blows and of
course the infamous fucking Turkish strip search, which by the way, believe me,
they were experts at it, andI endured it, and the next
thing I know, that picked meup. I could barely even stand,
and I just remember looking up atthe Turkish commandant sitting at his desk and
(10:43):
thinking, through that smile, I'venever experienced that kind of emotion before.
No question. If I could have, I would have killed him right there.
Anyway, I was taken through thecourtroom into the Turkish cell and all
I could do is I just clasped. I just remember feeling stunned and trying
(11:07):
to get a grip on the realityof where I was from, just literally
not more than twenty four hours earlier, being the captain of one of the
most luxurious megiots in the world,sitting in this dungeon of a hell hole,
it was literally a hole in theground, sixteen Turkish prisoners screaming at
(11:28):
me in a foreign language. Theimpact to my psyche was staggering, and
right then I kind of understood thiswas going to be survival and literally nothing
else but pure survival. As Michaelsettled into military prison life, amazingly,
(11:50):
he still had no idea what hewas being detained for or why he was
arrested. Finally, Stephanie was ableto get in and hey a visit,
and she was only able to seeme through a small barred opening in the
wooden door. Being able to seeher face, I could those tearful eyes
just crushed me. But she wasable to convey to me what mister r
(12:13):
had found out and where this alloriginated. The arrest warrant was an Interpol
warrant originating Increase some six to seveneight years earlier from and as soon as
she couldn't even get it out ofher mouth because she didn't understand. But
the minute she said it, Iknew what it was like. Some crew
(12:37):
are bad, some owners are bad. Went to work for a Greek owner,
real bad guy, and I waswarned against him, but I took
the job and he ended up sendingus to the Caribbean. But unmknownst to
me and it was proved out hewas a criminal, and he set me
up and accused me and the crewof stealing his boat. He had set
(12:58):
me up with I'm insurance scam,and that's where the inner Pol warrant originated.
It was always there, never disappeared, and I had sale all around
the world with that in place,and never once was detained until now.
But finally realizing why he was inprison didn't make things much easier. It
(13:18):
would be a battle to clear hisname in a very different system than what
Michael was used to in America.As the days passed inside Sirgay Prison,
the military compound under absolutely squalor conditions, Stephanie was able to set up shop
in Turkey. She was not goingto leave me, got a little place
(13:39):
to stay in a little dungeon,little hotel near the prison she was taking
long attack. He rides in themiddle of nowhere with the promise of my
release for of course, the costof American US dollars. The danger she
faced, everybody was pulling on herhere and there, and I couldn't stop
worrying endlessly night and day about whatshe was going through. But she was
(14:05):
desperately, desperately trying to find usa lawyer that could communicate and navigate the
judicial system, which did not exist. And it is not like anything we
have it in America. There isno such thing as due process. And
one Stephanie did find his lawyer,Michael, was not exactly impressed by what
(14:26):
he saw. And I'm not evensure how to begin with this, but
she was in her forties, veryplump and bust to us, with red
lipstick, spiked high heels. WhenI first got when she first came to
see me to tell me how muchshe was going to help me, I
(14:52):
just went, oh, my god, you had got to be kidding me.
But we had paid her forty eightthousand dollars, which, believe me,
set her up for life in Turkey. And within five minutes I was
shaking my head. I go no, no, and just talking to myself
this this, this is this isa fake. This is not real.
(15:16):
She proceeded to tell me how manypeople she knew, how well she was
connected, and that she would haveme out in three days, three days.
Michael, you will be out.Three days, you will be out,
and I just go no way,no way. She could not get
me out. I was not releasedin three days. Again, after several
weeks, Uh Stephanie was able toget inside inside again to see me.
(15:41):
She had was wearing the Muslim gearyou know of the Muslim women, and
that's how she had she had toblend in. When I saw her face,
I just my heart sunk. Shewas gone. She was real thin.
And the fortieth day had arrived.They could only hold me forty days.
Everybody was looking forward to it.And after the day after that fortieth
(16:04):
day came and went, I wasnot released. I was devastated, looking
at her face, crying. Ijust I couldn't help, but just whispered
harshly to her, but lovingly asbest I could, communicating to her.
Stephanie get home. It was soonafter that Stephanie finally left for the United
(16:30):
States. Then the word came thatthrough the grapevine, the prison grapevine,
that I was being transferred to BougiaPrison is Mere Turkey. And I knew
nothing. I hadn't known anything aboutit. But the other inmates, and
particularly one was frightened for me.He made it very known, shaking his
(16:55):
head that no, no, no, you know, he was so so
worried about me being transferred to BouziaPrison. They wanted to get rid of
me and get me out of there, and they thought they could hide me
by sending me to the most infamousprison practically on the planet. I learned
(17:15):
later it was number three on theHuman Rights hit list for human rights violations.
It is Mere Turkey, was amaximum security lockdown. Down through this
dark, filthy maze of tunnels,literally underground, going through large heavy steel
(17:37):
mock gates. I think I countedeight or nine steel gates that we passed
through, and it got darker indanger and wetter. Prisoners I could hear
starting to scream and chant that wasas I was being shoved and prodded with
the black batons, the big thickturkey black batons, and I'm screaming inside
(18:00):
my head. I go no.I mean, I knew immediately with every
fiber of my body this was abad, bad place. I mean,
by this time I was a littlebit hardened, but I didn't quite quite
understand where I was going and whatI was doing until we got to the
(18:22):
last cell gate, big heavy cellgate, and they opened it up standing.
Right there, right at that lastcell date, was this tall,
handsome I later learned Iranian prisoner withthis flowing gown on including slippers, who
(18:45):
spoke the most perfect words of likeOxford English, Welcome, captain, welcome.
I was stunned. I couldn't evenspeak. He just come with me,
we have a place for you.And all around him, scampering all
around him were these prisoners, otherprisoners in rags, and just like these
(19:07):
scallywags. He escorted me, andhe had two concubines at work that he
looked after, two young boys thatwaited on him a hand and foot.
He would invite me in for tige. He wasn't an art thief in Beverly
Hills, incredibly wealthy. He wasone of the premier opium smugglers out of
(19:30):
the hills of Afghanistan. He hadconnections, huge connections from the outside which
took care of the guards families,enabling them to smuggle everything he needed to
exist comfortably in there, and heshared it with me. He shared his
wit, his knowledge, and heknew everything going on in the prison system,
(19:52):
including all about me. He wouldtell me things that were happening in
the newspapers and the media about methat I was unable to hear about because
I had no content. One ofthe things this colorful and memorable prisoner told
Michael was that his old friends atthe American Consulate were on their way to
(20:14):
the prison to see him. AndI quickly asked, can I get a
piece of paper from you? AndI wrote, I hadn't written note to
the consulate that I was going totry to smuggle out, just to get
back to Stephanie to tell them somehow, some way what was happening to me
and what I was experiencing. AndI did just sat I was able to
(20:40):
sit down next to our across fromher, and of course a Turkish guard
prison guard set right at the atthe entrance to the door, and I
was able to have a one onone with Jean. The look of concern
on her face when she saw mehit me with like a ton of bricks.
I didn't really lies what I hadtransformed into and what I was looking
(21:03):
like. I'm sure I'd look likesome kind of beaten animal to her,
but she wanted to quickly, wantedto try to have some kind of conversation
about niceties. Are you okay?Do you get enough t get? I
got stop? I fucking I toldher to stop. I don't give a
fuck about the niceties. What areyou doing? What are they doing to
(21:23):
get me out of here? IAm going to die in here. And
I said to her with a whisper, I've said I'm gonna slip. I'm
gonna underneath. I'm gonna I've gota letter. You gotta get it to
Stephanie and mister R please just takethe letter. And she agreed to so
under the table, I tried toslip to her this letter and she grabbed
(21:45):
it and she got it. Andin that minute, thinking that the guard
was half asleep, he wasn't.He saw it and boom, he screamed
at her, screamed at me inTurkish. Other guards came in and escorted
me out, and that was theend of that meeting. And then of
course that led the solitary confinement.That's right, solitary confinement. As if
(22:12):
things couldn't get any worse for Michael, and literally my darkest, darkest hour,
I definitely thought, is this reallyhow I die? A depression hit
me that was so heavy it ateas I later, as I sat in
(22:33):
solitary deep despair, was briefly wasable to get in to see me briefly
through a crack, a crack inmont of the cell block, and he
told me literally whispered to me,captain, you're going to be leaving here
soon. You're going to And Itried to crawl over and hear it,
and I go, what you areleaving here soon? Which just stunned me.
(22:56):
Within twenty four hours, the extraextradition had started. Turkey could not
did not want to take any morepressure from the international community by holding me
there at Bouga Prison. They wantedme out, so that extradition process started
once again. Paraded back up throughthe dungeon and the screams and the American
(23:22):
captain then this, and at thatpoint I had survived it. I knew
I was moving forward, although Iwas terrified, but I felt a sense
of a bit of respect by theTurkish guards, the inmates that I had
survived that place, and I wasmoving forward and being extra tited to Greece,
(23:45):
and through the hard work of Stephanieand many others, mister r the
State Department, so many people,I was able, as a foreigner to
get a trial date incredibly quick inthe Greek system. And when I tell
you, a courtroom in Greece islike nothing most Americans could possibly understand.
(24:08):
There were several trials going on atonce. The screaming and the shouting,
and the and the chaos of beingwe were being interrupted by other lawyers from
other trials and so forth. ButI stood firm in front of a three
judge tribunal. I finally got toa court to where all the hard work
(24:30):
by everyone could show this these judges, this tribunal, that I was innocent.
I had all the documentation, everythingto prove that I did not do
this, and I thought I wouldbe released that night. And that's that
was my mindset going in uh.And it started off well, they were
(24:51):
speaking great, stamping papers as theydo, lawyers, screaming at each other,
back and forth and uh. Andthen my intern, her standing right
next to me, was whispering.A female was whispering in my ear.
On the first count of major theft, innocent, acquitted, and I'm calling
(25:12):
and I'm looking around back at Markand Stephanie. I'm smiling, my lawyer
is smiling. I'm going okay,second cut of major whatever it was,
the charges I've made up, acquitted. I was found innocent, innocent,
innocent. Then it came to thelast charge, of which was a misdemeanor
(25:32):
of mischief, misdemeanor mischief guilty.I looked at her and I go,
okay, all right, I'll paya fine, just get me out of
here, give me out, andshe and she just looked at me with
her face just dropped. Three years, three years in prison for a fucking
misdemeanor. I screamed at amongst allthis chaost off the high ceilings, I
(26:00):
scream of no, just bellowed andechoed, and I literally became delirious in
my anger. I could feel Markand Stephanie trying to reach me and grabbed
me as the guards just once againgrabbed me, shackle me, escorted me
to a small area waiting room,and then towards the end of the day,
(26:25):
I finally was able to speak tomy lawyer, who initially tried to
be optimistic, and Michael, youwon your case. You're going You're going
to be out. You'll be outwith time served. You'll be out in
ten months, less than a year. I looked at him with a look
that said it all, and Ijust whispered venomously to him, you can
(26:49):
find a way to get me out. I don't care what it takes,
what it costs, find another wayto get me out. And I told
him I will not survive. Iwill die in this prison. You gotta
get me out. And he lookedat me a little bit, with a
little bit of a frightened look,and he said, Michael, we may
have one more chance, one morechance. I'll come to see you in
(27:15):
a while. I'm not sure when, but I will come to see you.
I was taken back to myself,obviously crashed and burned. I just
hung in myself, didn't leave itfor a few days, but I finally
mustered up enough energy to fight.The all dangerous, chaotic, definitely dangerous
(27:36):
phone lines. Are five payphones onthe wall, with all these outlaws of
inmates behind you, getting in lineand screaming and shouting. And finally I
got to one of the payphones,calling long distance collect and I reached Stephanie.
Her voice on the other end,and I heard a slight whisper,
whisper, go, Michael, areyou okay? I could tell something was
(28:00):
different in her voice, something evenher the way the words she used were
different. And I said, Stephanie, are you okay? Are you okay?
And I'm cupping the receiver, tryingto talk with her ten thousand miles
away, and she said it,She said it, and it hit me
like nothing else had hit me.Michael, I am having an affair.
(28:23):
And from that point I went numb. I couldn't hear anything else. I've
just dropped the receiver, made myway back through the fricken outlaw gangs of
inmates behind me, and trashed andburned again in myself. And then a
couple of days later, one ofthe old boys, an old boy doing
(28:48):
life in prison for killing his businesspartner, and I always enjoyed his company,
always had little bits of prison wisdom. Decided he was going to pay
me a visit, came into mycell and told me, so, Michael's
it's prison unwritten prison knowledge that agirlfriend's only last a year. Maybe wives
(29:12):
might last a year and a half, but they all will leave. It's
your circumstance that you have to beworried about. And I just I just
looked up shaking my head. HereI was. I caught myself. I
had to smile briefly because he wasa likable old boy, but I had
I just caught myself listening to whathe was telling me. Here I was
(29:33):
taking wisdom from from some old inmatedoing life for murder, and and I
just shook my head. Oh mygod, but it hit home. It
hit home, and I tried toregroup. Okay, after about three weeks,
I finally get worried through it thatmy lawyer was going to come to
see me. And he had abig smile, and there was a part
(29:56):
of me that liked him. Hehad a sharp suit on, but he
was a little bit crooked. WhyI needed him. He proceeded to tell
me, Michael, we're we're goingto appeal, and it's a gamble if
we appeal, there's the gamble thatthey could give you more time. But
that's our only last chance of gettingyou out of here. Now. No
foreigners ever released on appeal, neverever, ever, But maybe we might
(30:21):
have a shot. We might havea shot to get you out of prison.
But you will have to wait andbe monitored for about a year a
year and a half until your appealcourt day. And I looked at left
my lawyer, and I said,do it, do it, whatever it
takes. And as we were justseparating, and I look back and I
go, how much is it goingto cost? And he said, oh,
(30:42):
seven grand, seven thousand dollars AndI just sho, okay, I'll
get Stephanie to give you the money. She will send you the money we
need to make this happen. Well, then I knew I had to get
a hold of Stephanie. I hadn'ttalked to her since to day. She
had told me that she was havingan affair, which is crushed and hurt
(31:03):
me. But I needed to getahold of her once again. The waiting
line for the five pay phones onthe cement wall that we're backed up by
one hundred inmates, all screaming atthe top of their lungs, you know,
to get to each pay phone,all monitored and guarded and regulated by
the Albanian gangs. And it wastreacherous. It was fricking dangerous to wait
(31:29):
in line, but I had todo it. And you only got two
minutes, two minutes once you connected, and they were strict about it.
I finally reached that ten thousand milesacross the ocean. I hear the soft
voice of Stephanie and she gets onthe line and I'm cupping the receiver.
The gang of outlaws are just crazynoise behind me, screaming and chounel.
(31:52):
I'm huddling down, and I toldStephanie, Stephanie, I'm gonna get out
there. I'm gonna They're going toappeal. I need to get you need
to send seven thousand dollars to killour lawyer. He's going to bribe the
judge. They are going to letme out. They will release me on
appeal. There was dead silence onthe other end, and I go,
(32:14):
Stephanie, can you hear me?Because Michael, we can't pay any more
money. You know that this isa con. They're gonna con you again.
I go, Stephanie, They're goingto get me out. I will
be able to get out of thisprison. And I could, and my
time was getting up. I couldfeel them screaming and shouting behind me,
all in a foreign language. Ijust huddled down at the receiver right here,
(32:38):
right at my mouth, and Ijust remember, with a fricking,
strong, venomous hiss, I've justsaid, Stephanie, you fucking send that
seven thousand dollars, and you sendit today. And I could hear the
noise behind me, and just sendthe angu who was the enforcer for the
(33:01):
Albanian gangs, this big monster,the most feared guy in the prison.
He was the enforcer for the phoneshired by the Albanian gangs. He had
hit the payphone, my payphone infront of me, had hit it from
the side and had literally exploded offthe wall, exploded. Nothing mattered in
(33:22):
that moment, and I just rememberclutching it. I didn't want to let
go of the phone until I heardStephanie say, okay, okay. I
went to that place where I wasabsolutely not afraid to be hurt, and
I reckon screamed at the top ofmy lungs and inch away from his face,
holding this fucking phone receiver, tellinghim in English, which he didn't
(33:45):
understand a word, that I wouldstick it up his ass so far he'd
be speaking to it on the otherend. He took a step back,
and he looked at me and lookedaround. I don't know, I think
later I realized he might have soundthat saw that I would come lately insane,
and I didn't care, and hemade his way back through the crowd
(34:07):
and walked away. A couple ofdays later, after the manga incident,
that I came to myself and Icould tell he wanted to scold me,
but he actually had some really incrediblenews through the grape fine. As he
always found out, my lawyer hadgot word to him to get to me
(34:31):
that he had received the seven thousanddollars and that my appealed date court date
had been set for two more weeks. I just was elated, elated,
although I knew he was trying totemperate, and he said it usually doesn't
work. It almost never worked witha foreigner. So the day arrived,
(34:52):
I ended up being escorted out upto another court in front of another judge,
and this time it was a singlejudge, and there were a lot
of men, maybe thirty guys inmates, all sitting there, all mostly Greek,
all sitting there and each one beingcalled. All I heard all day
long was I took about an hourand a half, hawky, hawky,
(35:15):
Greek for no, no, no. I heard my name called, and
my lawyer stands up and he's lookingat me, and he wasn't all that
happy, but I I was asnervous as could be. And the next
thing I know, the judge abig giant stamp on the desk, nay
nay, and said a bunch ofother words. And I looked at my
(35:37):
lawyer and he's got this giant grin. I'm going, yes, yes,
you're you're out. You're out.They agreed, they agreed to let you
out. An appeal. I couldn'tbelieve it. I couldn't believe when the
judge actually granted me release. Well, the conditions of this release were serious.
My passport would be would not begiven back to me. I would
(35:59):
have no passport. I was instructedmore more like ordered not to leave the
country at all, and I wasto be check into the police station every
week, to be monitored and checkedon to make sure I did not leave
that country. But I was finallygetting out of the prison, and I
(36:19):
knew once I was out, Icould possibly implement my plan. But they
were strict, strict orders. IfI made any effort, any effort at
all, to leave the country,I would be arrested and thrown back into
prison. But none of that matteredto me. None of it mattered to
be. I knew I had toget myself home. I knew I couldn't
(36:43):
spend one more day in prison.I would either die or be killed.
There is no question about it.I had to get myself home. I
didn't tell my lawyer, nobody,nothing, what I had planned to do.
I immediately went to the American Embassy, which was downtown Athens, saluted
(37:08):
the marine guards. They let mein and U and I will tell you
when I walked into the American Embassyand escorted into the department, every single
person one they knew of me.Of course, it had been in the
news and had been talked about fora year. I'm just so grateful how
they treated me. They treated melike a celebrity. They asked me if
(37:31):
I was okay. They had followedmy odyssey for this whole year and just
fantastic feeling. I was a littlefuzzy because of all the English being spoken,
so I had to kind of concentrateand focus. I really wanted to
get to the person who could maybeissued me a passport, which I did,
(37:51):
and I did request set Now forthe American embassy to issue me a
passport was highly illegal, but Iwas brought in to see at that time
the ambassador, who was now highup in the stage department os him on
TV. He was wonderful. Heissued some orders. In three hours,
(38:13):
I had a passport, an Americanpassport, brand new, albeit it came
with a small little piece of paperin the front instructing in Greek and in
English that I was not to leavethe country. I walked out the embassy
doors. I was like my stepwith it, out of the hots,
given a jump. I saluted theMarine Corps guards right at the gate and
(38:36):
said thank you very much, andproceeded to rip that little piece of paper
out of my passport. So Ihad already a plan in mind. I
made my way to the downtown Athensbus station. There's a port on the
very western side of the Peloponnese.Whether all the ferries going to Ancona or
Italy leave out of I need totake an overnight bus trip, possibly hopefully
(39:01):
get on the ferry and get myselfout of the country. I was terrified.
I had that anxiety that just consumedthat fiber of my body. Beyond
the nervousness, I was exhausted.I couldn't chance going through the passport check
because if I was caught, ifthere was, if there was any kind
(39:22):
of alert against me leaving the country, I would certainly be brought to back
to prison and be serving a lotof many, many many more. Here
and I spotted him. I spottedtwo guys having amstall beer big amstel Beers
(39:42):
nine o'clock in the morning, drinkingaway, and I decided to approach him.
And as it turned out, theywere two English truck drivers. To
be clear, Michael's talking about twocomplete strangers, men that he'd never met.
He was about to risk his entireescape by asking them for the biggest
favor possible. I've decided right then. Once they were engaging, they were
(40:07):
friendly. I introduced myself as anAmerican, and I decided just briefly flat
out tell them what happened to metruthfully that I spent the last year in
a Turkish and Greek prison. Igot to get out of the country.
They were incredibly empathetic, and oneof the truck drivers said, well,
(40:29):
they never checked the back of theback of the cab of the truck.
They never ever looked there. Whydon't you just get in the back of
the cab. We'll load the truck. You just stay on on the inside
the truck until we get to theother side. And I looked at the
two of them, I go,are you sure? And they both both
looked at me directly, but Ican tell they were mesmerized by my story
(40:52):
angles and they said, yeah,I'm right, Yank. We'll get you
home. We'll get you home.And they hid me in the back of
the truck onto the ferry. Andthat's how I've made my way across across
into England. I had gotten outof Greece. I couldn't believe the feeling
(41:14):
I had. It was a crystalblue hot day and I took a deep
breath and I couldn't I almost almostbuckled my knees, and I've just had
that. The English guy spotted meand they came over and welcome, Captain
welcome. And by that time Ithink they even realized that they were part
(41:37):
of a greater adventure. And Imade the decision then to call the American
Embassy in Rome. And I gotonto a guy who I told who I
was, told him who I wasand what had happened to me and what
I was doing. And I wasvery leary, very nervous to tell anybody
(42:00):
anything but what I wanted to covermyself if I was stopped by Interpol or
security chats at Rome Airport. Ineeded to have the American Embassy right there
to possibly be able to take custodyof me. That was my only that
was my hope in case something wentsouth. He agreed to meet me at
(42:22):
the airport with the automatic weapons everywhere, the chaos going on, and I
just took a deep breath and Itold him to just keep an eye on
me, and he said, Iwill, good luck, You'll be fine.
And I made my way through thesecurity lines back forth, got to
the window, looked at my passport, didn't really look at it, but
(42:42):
my heart was like beating out mychest and he stamped it, stamped at
exit and I was through. Nextthing I know, I was on a
plane flying to New York. Ifinally arrived in New York City. I
got off the plane, and youknow, most people might apply that I've
just dropped to my knees, kissedthe ground, but it wasn't that.
(43:04):
For me. It was there wasa sense of being overwhelmed, quite frankly
and completely out of focus. ButI managed to get to the phone immediately.
First thing I did was get toa pay phone and find the connecting
flight to Fort Lauderdale. But I'vemanaged to call Stephen and tell her,
Stephanie, tonight, I will bein Fort Lauderdale tonight. She was there
(43:27):
at the airport to meet me.We both sobbed uncontrollably. But I had
made it home. I had madeit home, and I told her,
I don't care about anything else.I'm home. You got me home.
As the days evolved, I didn'tunderstand what had happened to me. I
knew something was wrong because I couldn'tfocus. I couldn't even go into a
(43:50):
grocery store. And then the mediawere on top of me, calling for
interviews and even camped out in myfront yard. Again. That type of
thing through. Stephanie starting to learnand realize the entire community and how huge
the effort was in our town ofFort Latrille, that also spread nationally and
(44:13):
internationally to famous pie pobol like DustinHoffman, Ross Perot and of course mister
R. Their efforts to get mehome was so I felt so intimidated because
there was no way I could beginto thank all these people. After being
confused out of focus for a fewweeks, there was really only one person
(44:37):
I felt I needed to go see, and that was mister R. And
he had called me and I hadspoken to him and invited me up to
his office in Palm Beach Gardens,big big, huge building that he owns.
He said one thing, and thisis this is the epitome of who
mister R was. He said,Michael, the world out there as a
(45:00):
uncle, and you're one of thelions. I knew immediately he understood what
I was going through. He knewwhat I needed again, he knew I
needed to go back to see.He knew I needed to be who I
was. And I walked out ofthe odd of his office as feeling more
(45:21):
alive. I just felt like Icould move forward. And that's exactly how
he set things up. A fewweeks later, he called and asked me
if i'd be willing to go downto Australia and take a look at another
boat that he's interested in buying,and I sworked. To this day,
(45:43):
I still think he bought that vesselfor me. He knew I needed to
be who I was now. Backat the helm of the Meggiata, Michael
finally had a moment reflect on whathe'd been through. And then we were
(46:04):
getting ready to make our last longtrip from New Pheeva through the Galophicos,
which is a long stretch of openocean up to the Equator. And I
was up on watch and I'm doingmy captain thing, and I'm out on
the wings looking through the binoculars,and I see like this gurgle of ocean
way off, way off, thatwas building and building like a tsunami of
(46:29):
water. And I'm going, what, Oh my God, Go down below,
get everybody, Get all everybody,all the crew on deck, Get
them on deck. You've got towitness it. I am talking thousands and
thousands and thousands of dolphins swimming anddiving and jumping straight at us. They
(46:52):
heard the hum of our engines frommiles and miles away and came and came
running to greet us. And itlasted probably three hours. The crew was
exhausted. I just shook my head. Are you kidding me? That was
a majestic moment. And I literallythought to myself, right at that moment,
(47:17):
eighteen months earlier, I was inthe depths of these feign despicable prisons,
and here I was, in thisbeautiful paradise. Here I was.
I was back where I belonged,as captain of one of the great ten
years. Allegedly as a production ofVoyage Media, the series is produced by
(47:47):
nat Mondel, Robert Midas, andDan Bettimore. This episode, American Captain,
was produced by Chris Goldberg Executive producedby Michael Churchward. Michael wrote a
book about his experiences. God WaitsOutside. It's available on Amazon. A
link is in the show notes,edited by John Higgins. Original music by
Derlas Gonzalez. If you're enjoying theshow, please leave us a five star
(48:08):
review on Apple Podcasts or anywhere you'relistening, and subscribe now for future episodes.
Hey, listeners, this is DanBaltimore ahead of podcasts for Voyage Media.
Season two of Allegedly is coming up, but between season one and season two,
we wanted to get you this megaepisode. It's longer than our usual
episodes and it's just an incredible storyof survival of a regular person thrown into
a remote prison, not knowing ifhe'd ever get out. This is the
(00:20):
American Captain. This is film andtelevision producer Chris Goldberg. In my job,
I often get to meet people whoseincredible true stories should be a movie,
from Private Eyes to Mossad spies andundercover agents. But the guy I'm
speaking to you today, Michael Churchward, aka the American Captain, might have
one of the craziest stories I've everheard. And all started in the nineteen
(00:44):
nineties and the Mediterraneum. Michael wasa captain of a private mega yacht.
Alongside his partner in life, Stephanie, who is chef on board the vessel,
we found ourselves managing and running oneof the most glamorous exclusive meggiots in
the world, which involved a greatdeal of wealth pageantry that was unimaginable.
(01:11):
She was a little over two hundredfeet beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boat with
all the toys and bells and whistlesthat comes with having one of the exclusive
Meggiots and quite frankly the busiest Meggiottat that time in the world. Our
homes were made up of ports ofcall like Monte Carlo, can all up
and down the south of France,the Greek Godance, throughout the Mediterranean,
(01:37):
and mister r who owned the Pecante, was one of a kind and he
was of incredible wealth. He wasa billionaire, but you wouldn't have known
it. As I got to knowhim, I immediately click with him.
He said, Michael, you're goingto work for me, but the crew
will work for you. That shipwill be yours to command. That will
(02:00):
be your responsibility. I'll send itwhere I want, but you run the
ship. And for him to saythat was beautiful. That's what I wanted.
In the summer months, we werecruising the Greek Audience with guests on
board. We dropped off our firstgroup of guests in the island of Mickinos.
Our itinerary at that time was tomake our next landfall on the west
(02:25):
coast of Turkey in the port ofKushanasi, a young the Turkish port authority
board of the gangway then was heldup by my first officer, but he
wanted to speak to the captain.And I remember being really annoyed because I
(02:45):
was really tired and irritable from anovernight sale. But I marched down the
gangway. Stephanie was right there.She sounded alarmed a little bit, and
I said, it's okay, don'tworry about it. I got this from
the with these people. I knowthem, they know me. I went
up to the ship's safe. Wehave a wat one hundred dollars bills.
(03:07):
Just knowing and just knowing and familiarwith these foreign ports of call, that
it just might be needed to letus go about our business and on our
way. The Turkish PortMaster, whoonce again I had known and had known
me for years in it coming inand out of these ports, felt very
(03:30):
very uncomfortable detaining me. They weren'tsure what was going on. He would
not tell me why I was beingdetained. He whispered to me, Michael,
you are going before a magistrate.You're being arrested, and they're going
to hold you. And I saidfor what what are you talking about?
(03:51):
What have we done? And Iwill say this right now. Stephanie had
learned through the years of sailing aroundthe world with me, not only was
she our chew fought board, butshe was the gate keeper for me and
really really protected by well being.I handed to the money. I gave
her some instructions. I said,this will all clear itself up. Just
(04:11):
keep the crew and together, getprepared for the next guests. It'll sort
of self out, I'm sure bytomorrow, and phone mister r our owner.
Get a hold of him immediately atwhat she did. Now, for
legal reasons, we have to tellyou this is an episode of allegedly.
Because of when and where this alloccurred, we could not independently verify all
(04:35):
the elements of this story. Sothis is a true story allegedly. It's
Michael's personal account of what happened tohim. To protect the innocent and not
so innocent, you'll hear us bleepout some real names. The next morning
I was told that the American consulatewas coming down. One was a pretty
(04:59):
young girl, Turkish American girl calledwho was very concerned, very sweet in
her demeanor, but business life.I liked her immediately, but then there
was her other partner from the AmericanConsulate, a man named and Honestly,
I don't want to sound nasty,but I could tell immediately, not just
(05:24):
from his physical looks, was whichwas just to be kind, repulsive.
He was unkept, he was ungroomed. Quite frankly, he was he was
not an attractive man. But theminute he opened his mouth, I just
went, oh no. He immediatelyhad a demeanor and an attitude that automatically
(05:46):
thought that I had done something wrong. And he said, You're going to
prison. You're going to prison forforty days. Nothing I can do.
We got to catch the bus backto Yazmer. I freaking, what the
fuck are you talking? I literallygot him up against the wall and just
trying to hold my temper. Says, where you're not going anywhere? What
(06:06):
the hell is going on? Hesays, there's nothing I can do.
You're going before a magistrate today.They are going to hold you for forty
days. They came to get me. I was taken in front of this
inside this gothic, smelly old building. I stood in the middle of the
(06:27):
courtroom, and by this time theport police had replaced by a whole different
group of armed military guards with machineguns and so forth. I was not
handcuffed. I was still still inmy boat uniform. And I looked up
at this judge, big black robe, but he had this high color of
(06:49):
red some kind of apparatus wrapped aroundthe back of his head. And I
just was mesmerized at looking this.If it didn't look so in the stury,
it might have been comical. Theonly words I could understand where Circuit
Prison, Sircuy's Prison started stamping,slamming the stamp on the desk, American
(07:14):
captain Sircuate Prison. Boom boom boom. Before I knew it, the guards
had grabbed me, shackled me,and dragged me out of the courtroom.
Stephanie is trying to speak and yelland scream. I was sowing in the
back of this tiny, little foreignautomobile of a minivan with two other Turkish
(07:39):
prisoners, and I could see upthe back window as we pulled away.
I'm looking out the back window andI caught Stephanie's face just and her green
eyes, her crystal green eyes justwelling up with tears, and I just
let out a giant mom and Imean, we're talking at bellow that way
(08:03):
deep came from weight don you've inside. We finally arrived at the military prison,
Circain military prison, and I couldhear a bunch of screaming and shouting
at Turkish just sitting there huddled outsidethis office door, in this concrete building,
(08:28):
sitting on the concrete floor. Dingy, dirty, hot, grimy,
all the adjectives that you could evenimagine. The stale smell just permeated the
whole area, and to the pointwhere it almost made you gag. There
was like a single light bulb hangingjust as you could pitch as dingy us
(08:50):
it could be. And sitting atthe desk was the command It was hot,
steamy, no air conditioning, andthe Turkish military guards all had these
stained, grimy, sweaty uniforms on. And there were three guards standing behind
me, big sinister looking just asyou can imagine. And the commanants set
(09:11):
up the desk and he started sayingsomething in Turkish, and he looked up
smiled at me in this wolfish,weird, freaking grin. That instant is
when I absolutely knew and felt thedanger I was in. All of a
sudden, I realized I was inreal, real, real, trouble,
(09:33):
and then he screamed and shouted somethingin Turkish. I assumed they wanted me
to take my shirt off. Ididn't. I wasn't doing it fast enough.
And these three guards grabbed me soviolently, ripping my shirt off,
had me down, ripped my pantsoff, slammed me against the rick wall,
(09:54):
cracked my head, stunned me,and before I knew it, they
had my legs at and all Icould see, all I could see and
hunting. All I could see isjust the one Turkish guard putting on the
plastic glove and I'm screaming, andI'm screaming at the top of my lungs,
and yet I remember thinking later Iwasn't even hearing myself scream. It
(10:18):
was almost a conscious blackout. Aftera few beatings, hard blows and of
course the infamous fucking Turkish strip search, which by the way, believe me,
they were experts at it, andI endured it, and the next
thing I know, that picked meup. I could barely even stand,
and I just remember looking up atthe Turkish commandant sitting at his desk and
(10:43):
thinking, through that smile, I'venever experienced that kind of emotion before.
No question. If I could have, I would have killed him right there.
Anyway, I was taken through thecourtroom into the Turkish cell and all
I could do is I just clasped. I just remember feeling stunned and trying
(11:07):
to get a grip on the realityof where I was from, just literally
not more than twenty four hours earlier, being the captain of one of the
most luxurious megiots in the world,sitting in this dungeon of a hell hole,
it was literally a hole in theground, sixteen Turkish prisoners screaming at
(11:28):
me in a foreign language. Theimpact to my psyche was staggering, and
right then I kind of understood thiswas going to be survival and literally nothing
else but pure survival. As Michaelsettled into military prison life, amazingly,
(11:50):
he still had no idea what hewas being detained for or why he was
arrested. Finally, Stephanie was ableto get in and hey a visit,
and she was only able to seeme through a small barred opening in the
wooden door. Being able to seeher face, I could those tearful eyes
just crushed me. But she wasable to convey to me what mister r
(12:13):
had found out and where this alloriginated. The arrest warrant was an Interpol
warrant originating Increase some six to seveneight years earlier from and as soon as
she couldn't even get it out ofher mouth because she didn't understand. But
the minute she said it, Iknew what it was like. Some crew
(12:37):
are bad, some owners are bad. Went to work for a Greek owner,
real bad guy, and I waswarned against him, but I took
the job and he ended up sendingus to the Caribbean. But unmknownst to
me and it was proved out hewas a criminal, and he set me
up and accused me and the crewof stealing his boat. He had set
(12:58):
me up with I'm insurance scam,and that's where the inner Pol warrant originated.
It was always there, never disappeared, and I had sale all around
the world with that in place,and never once was detained until now.
But finally realizing why he was inprison didn't make things much easier. It
(13:18):
would be a battle to clear hisname in a very different system than what
Michael was used to in America.As the days passed inside Sirgay Prison,
the military compound under absolutely squalor conditions, Stephanie was able to set up shop
in Turkey. She was not goingto leave me, got a little place
(13:39):
to stay in a little dungeon,little hotel near the prison she was taking
long attack. He rides in themiddle of nowhere with the promise of my
release for of course, the costof American US dollars. The danger she
faced, everybody was pulling on herhere and there, and I couldn't stop
worrying endlessly night and day about whatshe was going through. But she was
(14:05):
desperately, desperately trying to find usa lawyer that could communicate and navigate the
judicial system, which did not exist. And it is not like anything we
have it in America. There isno such thing as due process. And
one Stephanie did find his lawyer,Michael, was not exactly impressed by what
(14:26):
he saw. And I'm not evensure how to begin with this, but
she was in her forties, veryplump and bust to us, with red
lipstick, spiked high heels. WhenI first got when she first came to
see me to tell me how muchshe was going to help me, I
(14:52):
just went, oh, my god, you had got to be kidding me.
But we had paid her forty eightthousand dollars, which, believe me,
set her up for life in Turkey. And within five minutes I was
shaking my head. I go no, no, and just talking to myself
this this, this is this isa fake. This is not real.
(15:16):
She proceeded to tell me how manypeople she knew, how well she was
connected, and that she would haveme out in three days, three days.
Michael, you will be out.Three days, you will be out,
and I just go no way,no way. She could not get
me out. I was not releasedin three days. Again, after several
weeks, Uh Stephanie was able toget inside inside again to see me.
(15:41):
She had was wearing the Muslim gearyou know of the Muslim women, and
that's how she had she had toblend in. When I saw her face,
I just my heart sunk. Shewas gone. She was real thin.
And the fortieth day had arrived.They could only hold me forty days.
Everybody was looking forward to it.And after the day after that fortieth
(16:04):
day came and went, I wasnot released. I was devastated, looking
at her face, crying. Ijust I couldn't help, but just whispered
harshly to her, but lovingly asbest I could, communicating to her.
Stephanie get home. It was soonafter that Stephanie finally left for the United
(16:30):
States. Then the word came thatthrough the grapevine, the prison grapevine,
that I was being transferred to BougiaPrison is Mere Turkey. And I knew
nothing. I hadn't known anything aboutit. But the other inmates, and
particularly one was frightened for me.He made it very known, shaking his
(16:55):
head that no, no, no, you know, he was so so
worried about me being transferred to BouziaPrison. They wanted to get rid of
me and get me out of there, and they thought they could hide me
by sending me to the most infamousprison practically on the planet. I learned
(17:15):
later it was number three on theHuman Rights hit list for human rights violations.
It is Mere Turkey, was amaximum security lockdown. Down through this
dark, filthy maze of tunnels,literally underground, going through large heavy steel
(17:37):
mock gates. I think I countedeight or nine steel gates that we passed
through, and it got darker indanger and wetter. Prisoners I could hear
starting to scream and chant that wasas I was being shoved and prodded with
the black batons, the big thickturkey black batons, and I'm screaming inside
(18:00):
my head. I go no.I mean, I knew immediately with every
fiber of my body this was abad, bad place. I mean,
by this time I was a littlebit hardened, but I didn't quite quite
understand where I was going and whatI was doing until we got to the
(18:22):
last cell gate, big heavy cellgate, and they opened it up standing.
Right there, right at that lastcell date, was this tall,
handsome I later learned Iranian prisoner withthis flowing gown on including slippers, who
(18:45):
spoke the most perfect words of likeOxford English, Welcome, captain, welcome.
I was stunned. I couldn't evenspeak. He just come with me,
we have a place for you.And all around him, scampering all
around him were these prisoners, otherprisoners in rags, and just like these
(19:07):
scallywags. He escorted me, andhe had two concubines at work that he
looked after, two young boys thatwaited on him a hand and foot.
He would invite me in for tige. He wasn't an art thief in Beverly
Hills, incredibly wealthy. He wasone of the premier opium smugglers out of
(19:30):
the hills of Afghanistan. He hadconnections, huge connections from the outside which
took care of the guards families,enabling them to smuggle everything he needed to
exist comfortably in there, and heshared it with me. He shared his
wit, his knowledge, and heknew everything going on in the prison system,
(19:52):
including all about me. He wouldtell me things that were happening in
the newspapers and the media about methat I was unable to hear about because
I had no content. One ofthe things this colorful and memorable prisoner told
Michael was that his old friends atthe American Consulate were on their way to
(20:14):
the prison to see him. AndI quickly asked, can I get a
piece of paper from you? AndI wrote, I hadn't written note to
the consulate that I was going totry to smuggle out, just to get
back to Stephanie to tell them somehow, some way what was happening to me
and what I was experiencing. AndI did just sat I was able to
(20:40):
sit down next to our across fromher, and of course a Turkish guard
prison guard set right at the atthe entrance to the door, and I
was able to have a one onone with Jean. The look of concern
on her face when she saw mehit me with like a ton of bricks.
I didn't really lies what I hadtransformed into and what I was looking
(21:03):
like. I'm sure I'd look likesome kind of beaten animal to her,
but she wanted to quickly, wantedto try to have some kind of conversation
about niceties. Are you okay?Do you get enough t get? I
got stop? I fucking I toldher to stop. I don't give a
fuck about the niceties. What areyou doing? What are they doing to
(21:23):
get me out of here? IAm going to die in here. And
I said to her with a whisper, I've said I'm gonna slip. I'm
gonna underneath. I'm gonna I've gota letter. You gotta get it to
Stephanie and mister R please just takethe letter. And she agreed to so
under the table, I tried toslip to her this letter and she grabbed
(21:45):
it and she got it. Andin that minute, thinking that the guard
was half asleep, he wasn't.He saw it and boom, he screamed
at her, screamed at me inTurkish. Other guards came in and escorted
me out, and that was theend of that meeting. And then of
course that led the solitary confinement.That's right, solitary confinement. As if
(22:12):
things couldn't get any worse for Michael, and literally my darkest, darkest hour,
I definitely thought, is this reallyhow I die? A depression hit
me that was so heavy it ateas I later, as I sat in
(22:33):
solitary deep despair, was briefly wasable to get in to see me briefly
through a crack, a crack inmont of the cell block, and he
told me literally whispered to me,captain, you're going to be leaving here
soon. You're going to And Itried to crawl over and hear it,
and I go, what you areleaving here soon? Which just stunned me.
(22:56):
Within twenty four hours, the extraextradition had started. Turkey could not
did not want to take any morepressure from the international community by holding me
there at Bouga Prison. They wantedme out, so that extradition process started
once again. Paraded back up throughthe dungeon and the screams and the American
(23:22):
captain then this, and at thatpoint I had survived it. I knew
I was moving forward, although Iwas terrified, but I felt a sense
of a bit of respect by theTurkish guards, the inmates that I had
survived that place, and I wasmoving forward and being extra tited to Greece,
(23:45):
and through the hard work of Stephanieand many others, mister r the
State Department, so many people,I was able, as a foreigner to
get a trial date incredibly quick inthe Greek system. And when I tell
you, a courtroom in Greece islike nothing most Americans could possibly understand.
(24:08):
There were several trials going on atonce. The screaming and the shouting,
and the and the chaos of beingwe were being interrupted by other lawyers from
other trials and so forth. ButI stood firm in front of a three
judge tribunal. I finally got toa court to where all the hard work
(24:30):
by everyone could show this these judges, this tribunal, that I was innocent.
I had all the documentation, everythingto prove that I did not do
this, and I thought I wouldbe released that night. And that's that
was my mindset going in uh.And it started off well, they were
(24:51):
speaking great, stamping papers as theydo, lawyers, screaming at each other,
back and forth and uh. Andthen my intern, her standing right
next to me, was whispering.A female was whispering in my ear.
On the first count of major theft, innocent, acquitted, and I'm calling
(25:12):
and I'm looking around back at Markand Stephanie. I'm smiling, my lawyer
is smiling. I'm going okay,second cut of major whatever it was,
the charges I've made up, acquitted. I was found innocent, innocent,
innocent. Then it came to thelast charge, of which was a misdemeanor
(25:32):
of mischief, misdemeanor mischief guilty.I looked at her and I go,
okay, all right, I'll paya fine, just get me out of
here, give me out, andshe and she just looked at me with
her face just dropped. Three years, three years in prison for a fucking
misdemeanor. I screamed at amongst allthis chaost off the high ceilings, I
(26:00):
scream of no, just bellowed andechoed, and I literally became delirious in
my anger. I could feel Markand Stephanie trying to reach me and grabbed
me as the guards just once againgrabbed me, shackle me, escorted me
to a small area waiting room,and then towards the end of the day,
(26:25):
I finally was able to speak tomy lawyer, who initially tried to
be optimistic, and Michael, youwon your case. You're going You're going
to be out. You'll be outwith time served. You'll be out in
ten months, less than a year. I looked at him with a look
that said it all, and Ijust whispered venomously to him, you can
(26:49):
find a way to get me out. I don't care what it takes,
what it costs, find another wayto get me out. And I told
him I will not survive. Iwill die in this prison. You gotta
get me out. And he lookedat me a little bit, with a
little bit of a frightened look,and he said, Michael, we may
have one more chance, one morechance. I'll come to see you in
(27:15):
a while. I'm not sure when, but I will come to see you.
I was taken back to myself,obviously crashed and burned. I just
hung in myself, didn't leave itfor a few days, but I finally
mustered up enough energy to fight.The all dangerous, chaotic, definitely dangerous
(27:36):
phone lines. Are five payphones onthe wall, with all these outlaws of
inmates behind you, getting in lineand screaming and shouting. And finally I
got to one of the payphones,calling long distance collect and I reached Stephanie.
Her voice on the other end,and I heard a slight whisper,
whisper, go, Michael, areyou okay? I could tell something was
(28:00):
different in her voice, something evenher the way the words she used were
different. And I said, Stephanie, are you okay? Are you okay?
And I'm cupping the receiver, tryingto talk with her ten thousand miles
away, and she said it,She said it, and it hit me
like nothing else had hit me.Michael, I am having an affair.
(28:23):
And from that point I went numb. I couldn't hear anything else. I've
just dropped the receiver, made myway back through the fricken outlaw gangs of
inmates behind me, and trashed andburned again in myself. And then a
couple of days later, one ofthe old boys, an old boy doing
(28:48):
life in prison for killing his businesspartner, and I always enjoyed his company,
always had little bits of prison wisdom. Decided he was going to pay
me a visit, came into mycell and told me, so, Michael's
it's prison unwritten prison knowledge that agirlfriend's only last a year. Maybe wives
(29:12):
might last a year and a half, but they all will leave. It's
your circumstance that you have to beworried about. And I just I just
looked up shaking my head. HereI was. I caught myself. I
had to smile briefly because he wasa likable old boy, but I had
I just caught myself listening to whathe was telling me. Here I was
(29:33):
taking wisdom from from some old inmatedoing life for murder, and and I
just shook my head. Oh mygod, but it hit home. It
hit home, and I tried toregroup. Okay, after about three weeks,
I finally get worried through it thatmy lawyer was going to come to
see me. And he had abig smile, and there was a part
(29:56):
of me that liked him. Hehad a sharp suit on, but he
was a little bit crooked. WhyI needed him. He proceeded to tell
me, Michael, we're we're goingto appeal, and it's a gamble if
we appeal, there's the gamble thatthey could give you more time. But
that's our only last chance of gettingyou out of here. Now. No
foreigners ever released on appeal, neverever, ever, But maybe we might
(30:21):
have a shot. We might havea shot to get you out of prison.
But you will have to wait andbe monitored for about a year a
year and a half until your appealcourt day. And I looked at left
my lawyer, and I said,do it, do it, whatever it
takes. And as we were justseparating, and I look back and I
go, how much is it goingto cost? And he said, oh,
(30:42):
seven grand, seven thousand dollars AndI just sho, okay, I'll
get Stephanie to give you the money. She will send you the money we
need to make this happen. Well, then I knew I had to get
a hold of Stephanie. I hadn'ttalked to her since to day. She
had told me that she was havingan affair, which is crushed and hurt
(31:03):
me. But I needed to getahold of her once again. The waiting
line for the five pay phones onthe cement wall that we're backed up by
one hundred inmates, all screaming atthe top of their lungs, you know,
to get to each pay phone,all monitored and guarded and regulated by
the Albanian gangs. And it wastreacherous. It was fricking dangerous to wait
(31:29):
in line, but I had todo it. And you only got two
minutes, two minutes once you connected, and they were strict about it.
I finally reached that ten thousand milesacross the ocean. I hear the soft
voice of Stephanie and she gets onthe line and I'm cupping the receiver.
The gang of outlaws are just crazynoise behind me, screaming and chounel.
(31:52):
I'm huddling down, and I toldStephanie, Stephanie, I'm gonna get out
there. I'm gonna They're going toappeal. I need to get you need
to send seven thousand dollars to killour lawyer. He's going to bribe the
judge. They are going to letme out. They will release me on
appeal. There was dead silence onthe other end, and I go,
(32:14):
Stephanie, can you hear me?Because Michael, we can't pay any more
money. You know that this isa con. They're gonna con you again.
I go, Stephanie, They're goingto get me out. I will
be able to get out of thisprison. And I could, and my
time was getting up. I couldfeel them screaming and shouting behind me,
all in a foreign language. Ijust huddled down at the receiver right here,
(32:38):
right at my mouth, and Ijust remember, with a fricking,
strong, venomous hiss, I've justsaid, Stephanie, you fucking send that
seven thousand dollars, and you sendit today. And I could hear the
noise behind me, and just sendthe angu who was the enforcer for the
(33:01):
Albanian gangs, this big monster,the most feared guy in the prison.
He was the enforcer for the phoneshired by the Albanian gangs. He had
hit the payphone, my payphone infront of me, had hit it from
the side and had literally exploded offthe wall, exploded. Nothing mattered in
(33:22):
that moment, and I just rememberclutching it. I didn't want to let
go of the phone until I heardStephanie say, okay, okay. I
went to that place where I wasabsolutely not afraid to be hurt, and
I reckon screamed at the top ofmy lungs and inch away from his face,
holding this fucking phone receiver, tellinghim in English, which he didn't
(33:45):
understand a word, that I wouldstick it up his ass so far he'd
be speaking to it on the otherend. He took a step back,
and he looked at me and lookedaround. I don't know, I think
later I realized he might have soundthat saw that I would come lately insane,
and I didn't care, and hemade his way back through the crowd
(34:07):
and walked away. A couple ofdays later, after the manga incident,
that I came to myself and Icould tell he wanted to scold me,
but he actually had some really incrediblenews through the grape fine. As he
always found out, my lawyer hadgot word to him to get to me
(34:31):
that he had received the seven thousanddollars and that my appealed date court date
had been set for two more weeks. I just was elated, elated,
although I knew he was trying totemperate, and he said it usually doesn't
work. It almost never worked witha foreigner. So the day arrived,
(34:52):
I ended up being escorted out upto another court in front of another judge,
and this time it was a singlejudge, and there were a lot
of men, maybe thirty guys inmates, all sitting there, all mostly Greek,
all sitting there and each one beingcalled. All I heard all day
long was I took about an hourand a half, hawky, hawky,
(35:15):
Greek for no, no, no. I heard my name called, and
my lawyer stands up and he's lookingat me, and he wasn't all that
happy, but I I was asnervous as could be. And the next
thing I know, the judge abig giant stamp on the desk, nay
nay, and said a bunch ofother words. And I looked at my
(35:37):
lawyer and he's got this giant grin. I'm going, yes, yes,
you're you're out. You're out.They agreed, they agreed to let you
out. An appeal. I couldn'tbelieve it. I couldn't believe when the
judge actually granted me release. Well, the conditions of this release were serious.
My passport would be would not begiven back to me. I would
(35:59):
have no passport. I was instructedmore more like ordered not to leave the
country at all, and I wasto be check into the police station every
week, to be monitored and checkedon to make sure I did not leave
that country. But I was finallygetting out of the prison, and I
(36:19):
knew once I was out, Icould possibly implement my plan. But they
were strict, strict orders. IfI made any effort, any effort at
all, to leave the country,I would be arrested and thrown back into
prison. But none of that matteredto me. None of it mattered to
be. I knew I had toget myself home. I knew I couldn't
(36:43):
spend one more day in prison.I would either die or be killed.
There is no question about it.I had to get myself home. I
didn't tell my lawyer, nobody,nothing, what I had planned to do.
I immediately went to the American Embassy, which was downtown Athens, saluted
(37:08):
the marine guards. They let mein and U and I will tell you
when I walked into the American Embassyand escorted into the department, every single
person one they knew of me.Of course, it had been in the
news and had been talked about fora year. I'm just so grateful how
they treated me. They treated melike a celebrity. They asked me if
(37:31):
I was okay. They had followedmy odyssey for this whole year and just
fantastic feeling. I was a littlefuzzy because of all the English being spoken,
so I had to kind of concentrateand focus. I really wanted to
get to the person who could maybeissued me a passport, which I did,
(37:51):
and I did request set Now forthe American embassy to issue me a
passport was highly illegal, but Iwas brought in to see at that time
the ambassador, who was now highup in the stage department os him on
TV. He was wonderful. Heissued some orders. In three hours,
(38:13):
I had a passport, an Americanpassport, brand new, albeit it came
with a small little piece of paperin the front instructing in Greek and in
English that I was not to leavethe country. I walked out the embassy
doors. I was like my stepwith it, out of the hots,
given a jump. I saluted theMarine Corps guards right at the gate and
(38:36):
said thank you very much, andproceeded to rip that little piece of paper
out of my passport. So Ihad already a plan in mind. I
made my way to the downtown Athensbus station. There's a port on the
very western side of the Peloponnese.Whether all the ferries going to Ancona or
Italy leave out of I need totake an overnight bus trip, possibly hopefully
(39:01):
get on the ferry and get myselfout of the country. I was terrified.
I had that anxiety that just consumedthat fiber of my body. Beyond
the nervousness, I was exhausted.I couldn't chance going through the passport check
because if I was caught, ifthere was, if there was any kind
(39:22):
of alert against me leaving the country, I would certainly be brought to back
to prison and be serving a lotof many, many many more. Here
and I spotted him. I spottedtwo guys having amstall beer big amstel Beers
(39:42):
nine o'clock in the morning, drinkingaway, and I decided to approach him.
And as it turned out, theywere two English truck drivers. To
be clear, Michael's talking about twocomplete strangers, men that he'd never met.
He was about to risk his entireescape by asking them for the biggest
favor possible. I've decided right then. Once they were engaging, they were
(40:07):
friendly. I introduced myself as anAmerican, and I decided just briefly flat
out tell them what happened to metruthfully that I spent the last year in
a Turkish and Greek prison. Igot to get out of the country.
They were incredibly empathetic, and oneof the truck drivers said, well,
(40:29):
they never checked the back of theback of the cab of the truck.
They never ever looked there. Whydon't you just get in the back of
the cab. We'll load the truck. You just stay on on the inside
the truck until we get to theother side. And I looked at the
two of them, I go,are you sure? And they both both
looked at me directly, but Ican tell they were mesmerized by my story
(40:52):
angles and they said, yeah,I'm right, Yank. We'll get you
home. We'll get you home.And they hid me in the back of
the truck onto the ferry. Andthat's how I've made my way across across
into England. I had gotten outof Greece. I couldn't believe the feeling
(41:14):
I had. It was a crystalblue hot day and I took a deep
breath and I couldn't I almost almostbuckled my knees, and I've just had
that. The English guy spotted meand they came over and welcome, Captain
welcome. And by that time Ithink they even realized that they were part
(41:37):
of a greater adventure. And Imade the decision then to call the American
Embassy in Rome. And I gotonto a guy who I told who I
was, told him who I wasand what had happened to me and what
I was doing. And I wasvery leary, very nervous to tell anybody
(42:00):
anything but what I wanted to covermyself if I was stopped by Interpol or
security chats at Rome Airport. Ineeded to have the American Embassy right there
to possibly be able to take custodyof me. That was my only that
was my hope in case something wentsouth. He agreed to meet me at
(42:22):
the airport with the automatic weapons everywhere, the chaos going on, and I
just took a deep breath and Itold him to just keep an eye on
me, and he said, Iwill, good luck, You'll be fine.
And I made my way through thesecurity lines back forth, got to
the window, looked at my passport, didn't really look at it, but
(42:42):
my heart was like beating out mychest and he stamped it, stamped at
exit and I was through. Nextthing I know, I was on a
plane flying to New York. Ifinally arrived in New York City. I
got off the plane, and youknow, most people might apply that I've
just dropped to my knees, kissedthe ground, but it wasn't that.
(43:04):
For me. It was there wasa sense of being overwhelmed, quite frankly
and completely out of focus. ButI managed to get to the phone immediately.
First thing I did was get toa pay phone and find the connecting
flight to Fort Lauderdale. But I'vemanaged to call Stephen and tell her,
Stephanie, tonight, I will bein Fort Lauderdale tonight. She was there
(43:27):
at the airport to meet me.We both sobbed uncontrollably. But I had
made it home. I had madeit home, and I told her,
I don't care about anything else.I'm home. You got me home.
As the days evolved, I didn'tunderstand what had happened to me. I
knew something was wrong because I couldn'tfocus. I couldn't even go into a
(43:50):
grocery store. And then the mediawere on top of me, calling for
interviews and even camped out in myfront yard. Again. That type of
thing through. Stephanie starting to learnand realize the entire community and how huge
the effort was in our town ofFort Latrille, that also spread nationally and
(44:13):
internationally to famous pie pobol like DustinHoffman, Ross Perot and of course mister
R. Their efforts to get mehome was so I felt so intimidated because
there was no way I could beginto thank all these people. After being
confused out of focus for a fewweeks, there was really only one person
(44:37):
I felt I needed to go see, and that was mister R. And
he had called me and I hadspoken to him and invited me up to
his office in Palm Beach Gardens,big big, huge building that he owns.
He said one thing, and thisis this is the epitome of who
mister R was. He said,Michael, the world out there as a
(45:00):
uncle, and you're one of thelions. I knew immediately he understood what
I was going through. He knewwhat I needed again, he knew I
needed to go back to see.He knew I needed to be who I
was. And I walked out ofthe odd of his office as feeling more
(45:21):
alive. I just felt like Icould move forward. And that's exactly how
he set things up. A fewweeks later, he called and asked me
if i'd be willing to go downto Australia and take a look at another
boat that he's interested in buying,and I sworked. To this day,
(45:43):
I still think he bought that vesselfor me. He knew I needed to
be who I was now. Backat the helm of the Meggiata, Michael
finally had a moment reflect on whathe'd been through. And then we were
(46:04):
getting ready to make our last longtrip from New Pheeva through the Galophicos,
which is a long stretch of openocean up to the Equator. And I
was up on watch and I'm doingmy captain thing, and I'm out on
the wings looking through the binoculars,and I see like this gurgle of ocean
way off, way off, thatwas building and building like a tsunami of
(46:29):
water. And I'm going, what, Oh my God, Go down below,
get everybody, Get all everybody,all the crew on deck, Get
them on deck. You've got towitness it. I am talking thousands and
thousands and thousands of dolphins swimming anddiving and jumping straight at us. They
(46:52):
heard the hum of our engines frommiles and miles away and came and came
running to greet us. And itlasted probably three hours. The crew was
exhausted. I just shook my head. Are you kidding me? That was
a majestic moment. And I literallythought to myself, right at that moment,
(47:17):
eighteen months earlier, I was inthe depths of these feign despicable prisons,
and here I was, in thisbeautiful paradise. Here I was.
I was back where I belonged,as captain of one of the great ten
years. Allegedly as a production ofVoyage Media, the series is produced by
(47:47):
nat Mondel, Robert Midas, andDan Bettimore. This episode, American Captain,
was produced by Chris Goldberg Executive producedby Michael Churchward. Michael wrote a
book about his experiences. God WaitsOutside. It's available on Amazon. A
link is in the show notes,edited by John Higgins. Original music by
Derlas Gonzalez. If you're enjoying theshow, please leave us a five star
(48:08):
review on Apple Podcasts or anywhere you'relistening, and subscribe now for future episodes.
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