Blow

Episode Transcript
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Ashley (00:08):
Welcome to Criminal Adaptations, the show where we
take a look at some of yourfavorite movies and the true
crime stories that inspired them.
I'm Ashley.
I'm a clinical psychologist andforensic evaluator in the state
of Oregon.

Remi (00:21):
And I'm Remy.
I spent over a decade workingin the film and television
industry in Los Angeles,California.

Ashley (00:27):
Welcome back everyone and thank you for joining us for
I can't believe I'm saying thisour season three finale episode
.
Well, we always do a two-parterfor our finale, so this is part
one, remy.
What are we going to betackling both today and just
over the next two weeks?

Remi (00:51):
Today we will be delving into the interesting and
intriguing world of professionaldrug smuggling with the films
Blow and American Made.
These are two drug smugglersthat did runs for the Medellin
cartel and Pablo Escobar, and itshould be a crazy story between
the two of them.

Ashley (01:06):
And for these episodes we're going to be really
focusing on the life of thesetwo specific drug smugglers.
Pablo Escobar is bound to comeup.
I know he does in Blow.
I'm not sure if he does inAmerican Made.
I'm sure he will.
But if you want to learn moreabout Pablo Escobar's side of
the story, we're not reallygoing to be talking much into

(01:27):
that.
As we talked about at the endof last episode, it's just too
much to tackle and there reallyisn't a great movie that has
been made about him.

Remi (01:35):
Unfortunately there is not , but maybe someday we will
tackle the Netflix series Narcos.
But that is still a ways awayand probably a pretty big
undertaking for Ashley to coverPablo Escobar's entire life and
for me to cover that entireseries.
So for now we are going to befocusing on his underlings I

(01:56):
guess you would call them whohelped him get his illegal
substances into the States.

Ashley (02:02):
Remy, what is your experience with the movie Blow
starring Johnny Depp andPenelope Cruz before today?

Remi (02:10):
I have seen this movie a bunch of times.
I really like this movie.
I first saw it when I was 18, Ithink One of my friends in
Florida showed me it and I was ahuge Johnny Depp fan at the
time and I just thought it was areally crazy kick-ass story.
I really liked drug movies backthen Fear and Loathing in Las

(02:31):
Vegas, trainspotting, that sortof thing and I have revisited
this movie several times, butnot in many years before this
podcast.
But I did remember a lot ofwhat happened in the film.
It left a big impression.
I still really like this movieand I still recommend it for
anyone interested out there.

Ashley (02:50):
I have only seen Blow Once, and it was a very, very
long time ago, so I don't reallyremember anything about the
movie other than that it wasstarring Johnny Depp as George
Young, and that was it.
I didn't even remember it hadPenelope Cruz in it until I got
the book that the movie is basedon and she is on the cover.

Remi (03:08):
This is probably one of the few films that we have
covered that while I waswatching the film in preparation
for the podcast, I was writingout the scenes before they even
happened.
I know this movie very, verywell and I'm really excited to
talk about it today.
Had you ever heard of the truestory that this film is based on
?
Because I know I hadn't.

Ashley (03:29):
I think I just knew that it was based on a true story,
but that was it.
I didn't know anything aboutthis guy's life and going into
reading the book, since I didn'tremember much about the movie.
All I really knew is he waspart of Pablo Escobar's drug
smuggling team and he brought alot of coke to America, but I
didn't know how he did it andhow much of it he brought in and

(03:52):
made during his actually ratherbrief stint as a cocaine
smuggler.

Remi (03:58):
And believe it or not.
I don't know much at all aboutthe true story.
I've seen this movie many timesbut never took it upon myself
to Google the true story behindit.
I have only seen one picture ofthe real George Jung, and it's
the picture shown at the veryend of this movie.
So I am very intrigued to findout how much of this is accurate

(04:19):
and what parts were left outfor the film adaptation.

Ashley (04:23):
And what I will say for anyone who is interested in
learning more, because I had to,as usual, cut down my part and
cut out some details thatweren't really as pertinent to
the story as a whole.
I highly recommend the bookBelow that this movie is based
on.
I'm pretty sure the authorworked extensively with George

(04:45):
himself when writing this, so itis incredibly detailed.
There's a lot of interestingtidbits in there about really
what the cocaine industry waslike at the time and how George
and Escobar and other playersreally transformed it.

Remi (05:01):
Well, with that should we get into this true story of
George Jung and his massivecocaine smuggling empire.

Ashley (05:09):
It is that time.

Remi (05:11):
Blow is a 2001 biographical film written by
David McKenna and NickCassavetes, directed by Ted
Demme and starring Johnny Depp,penelope Cruz, paul Rubens and
Ray Liotta.
Director Ted Demme first beganhis career directing stand-up
comedy specials such as Lock andLoad and no Cure for Cancer
with comedian Dennis Leary backin the mid-90s.

(05:33):
And in case you've never heardof Dennis Leary, here is a
little sample.

Ashley (05:52):
Ah, yes, I have heard that lovely, lovely tune.

Remi (05:55):
It's a classic it really is.
During that time Leary giftedDemi a copy of Bruce Porter's
1993 book Blow how a small-townboy made $100 million with the
Medellin cocaine cartel and lostit all.
That is a mouthful of a title.

Ashley (06:12):
And that is the book I read for my portion.

Remi (06:15):
After reading the story, demi became enthralled by the
classic tale of a young mansearching for the American dream
through his involvement in thedrug trade and felt that the
narrative would make a rivetingadaptation for the silver screen
.
After optioning the rights,both Demi and Leary met with the
book's protagonist, george Jung, at the Otisville Correctional

(06:36):
Institution in New York, wherehe was serving out a sentence on
drug charges.
Demi spent the next six hourswith Jung, laughing, crying and
learning all about George's life.
After their meeting, demistated I feel sorrier for him
now than I ever did.
George knows he played thehighest risk poker game of all

(06:57):
time.
He gambled his life and he lost.
Sometime later, jung's bookalso found its way into the
hands of screenwriter DavidMcKenna, who also wrote such
other true crime films asAmerican History X and Bully,
which we will be covering on ourshow at some point.

Ashley (07:14):
Not only will we be covering them both sometime,
we'll be covering them both nextseason.

Remi (07:21):
Perfect timing then, after devouring the entire book in
just two days, mckenna called upfilm producer Mary Parent and
asked who do I have to screw todo this movie?
Mary soon responded Ted Demmeand Dennis Leary.
Wasting no time at all, mckennasought out Demme and Leary and
was soon hired on and begandeveloping the script for the

(07:43):
next two years, becoming closewith George in the process.
Unfortunately, due to creativedisagreements with the third act
, mckenna was later replaced byNick Cassavetes, who we
previously covered for his workon Alpha Dog.
It all comes full circle.
Blow also happened to be thevery first time that Nick
Cassavetes had ever been hiredto write anything and was only

(08:08):
offered the job becauseCassavetes' friend, mike DeLuca,
had recently been promoted tothe head of New Line Cinema.
After a bit of encouragement,cassavetes agreed to work on the
screenplay and in no time atall he was being flown out to
Otisville to speak with Georgein person.
Time at all he was being flownout to Otisville to speak with
George in person.
Cassavetes spent three daysinterviewing George, but it

(08:28):
wasn't until they begandiscussing their daughters that
Cassavetes truly uncovered theemotional core to the story that
he wanted to build from.
Cassavetes went on to finishthe script in a single pass
before turning it in, which ispretty impressive or careless,
depending on how you look at it.
Former pirate lord of theCaribbean Sea, johnny Depp, who

(08:49):
had already been involved withthe project since the initial
draft of the script, would laterread the revised screenplay and
found the newer approach to bean interesting angle for this
type of drug genre film.
Depp was additionally attractedto the challenge of making
George feel more like a flawedhuman being who is as much of a

(09:10):
victim as anybody else.
Depp admitted that he felt aresponsibility as an actor to
the character, especially sinceit was based on a man who
actually exists.
Depp stated that it certainlyplaces a very intense kind of
responsibility, because you wantto do your best job you can for
him, you want to do him justiceand you want him to be proud of

(09:31):
it.
To prepare for the role, deppinterviewed the real George Jung
, who seemed very available forall the interviews for this film
, and the two spoke for two days, where Jung was able to spill
his entire life to death in anexceptionally short amount of
time.

Ashley (09:48):
He was in prison during all of this, so I think his
schedule was pretty wide open.

Remi (09:54):
But it seems like they all had limitations, like none of
them were given unrestrictedaccess, like everyone that I did
research on seems like they hadtwo or three days tops and then
that was it, no more after that, and I don't know the reasoning
behind that.
Maybe it was a scheduling thingwith the people involved with
the production, but all of thisseemed like they had a short

(10:16):
deadline in order to geteverything they could out of
George.

Ashley (10:20):
I'm sure trying to get visitation into the prison for
this also made things incrediblychallenging.
It's not like he could just puton all these Hollywood people
on his visitation list and theycould just come in with their
videotapes and whatever elseevery time they want.
They probably had to make it sothere was like specific rooms

(10:40):
that they could meet in thatcould be manned by guards, and
they had to all go through theseintense background checks.
The warden probably had to signoff on it because he was in
federal prison.
That means the federalgovernment was involved, so
there would have been a lot oftape.

Remi (10:54):
Knowing how many hoops you need to jump through at times
just to do some of yourevaluations, that actually makes
a lot of sense.

Ashley (11:03):
There's no way they had Johnny Depp just stroll through
the prison and sit down in avisitation cafeteria with
everyone.
That would have caused completechaos.

Remi (11:13):
Very true.
Depp described Jung as a guywho's been rotting away in
prison for a number of years,has realized his mistakes and
paid his debt to society.
How do you feel about that,ashley?

Ashley (11:25):
This one's tough because he was arrested many, many
times before.

Remi (11:31):
So many times.

Ashley (11:36):
Many times before this long stint that ended up getting
him the most time and all thoseother times I mean he was
facing 20 plus years each timeand basically got off with a
slap on the wrist.
So he had ample opportunity toturn his life around and didn't.
On the other hand, I think themandatory sentencing laws for
drugs, especially something likemarijuana, they're so so, so,

(11:58):
so high and it just ends upbacklogging the system with
these non-violent drug offenders.

Remi (12:05):
I do think a big part of his sentence has to do with how
he was arrested the very lasttime, but we'll get into that
when we're closer to that partof the story.
Much of Depp's dialogue in thefilm was completely improvised,
including the line we're gonnaneed a bigger boat, which was
originally a quote from the 1970film Jaws.
Rachel Griffiths, who playsGeorge's mother, ermein Jung, is

(12:30):
actually five years youngerthan her co-star, johnny Depp,
while Ray Liotta, who playsGeorge's father, fred, was only
eight years older than Depp.
Coincidentally, ray Liotta andRachel Griffiths both share the
same birthday of December 18th.

Ashley (12:46):
Ray Liotta looks way older than eight years.

Remi (12:51):
Ray Liotta looks like he lived a harder life.
He definitely looks a littleworse for wear or did at the
time of this filming.
Of course, he has passed away.
Very big fan of Ray Liotta andI honestly wish he had done more
stuff like this.
I think he does a great job.
At the time, Penelope Cruz, whooriginally began her career as
an actress in Spain, had justbegun her transition into

(13:14):
English-speaking American filmsand as a result, she did not
participate in many in-depthinterviews for Blow, largely due
to the fact that she stillhadn't quite mastered the
English language.

Ashley (13:27):
We've actually been on a little Penelope Cruz kick.
This week we watched VanillaSky and also the Spanish film
that Vanilla Sky was adaptedfrom, where Penelope Cruz plays
the exact same character withthe exact same name.

Remi (13:41):
The Spanish film is called Open your Eyes, which I think
was much better than Vanilla Sky.
But Vanilla Sky actually cameout the same year as this one
did, and prior to this I thinkshe had one American film the
year before, but before that itwas all Spanish films.
Self-described picky eater,paul Rubens, aka Pee Wee Herman,

(14:04):
recalls first thinking God, Ihope he has good food.
After being invited over to TedDemme's home to discuss a
potential role in the film.
At the time, Rubens was beingconsidered for a different part
and had to get a tan in order tolook Colombian, before
eventually being recast as Derekfor real, which I think was a

(14:24):
good choice.

Ashley (14:26):
Yeah, he cannot pass as Colombian.

Remi (14:30):
I assume he would have played George's friend, but I
couldn't see that at all.
Paul Rubens does not lookColombian even slightly.
Rubens did receive somecriticism from anti-drug
companies for accepting a rolein the film, since he had
previously done an anti-crackpublic service announcement as

(14:50):
Pee Wee Herman several yearsprior.

Pee-Wee Herman (14:54):
This is crack Rock cocaine.
It isn't glamorous or cool orkid stuff.
It's the most addictive kind ofcocaine and it can kill you.
What's really bad is nobodyknows how much it takes, so
every time you use it you riskdying.

Ashley (15:15):
Man, nothing is funnier than anti-drug campaigns.
Most of them are so ridiculous.
They've gotten better now.
Now they're actually kind ofscary, but back in the day they
were just absurd.

Remi (15:29):
It always makes me think of this Is your Brain on Drugs,
where they cracked the eggs intothe frying pan and they were
frying, and then they didanother version of that
commercial where they did thethis Is your Brain on Drugs.
She cracked the egg and thenshe began destroying the entire
kitchen Like this is your familyon drugs.
This is your work on drugs,until the entire kitchen was
just destroyed and it's probablyone of the most unintentionally

(15:53):
funny drug PSAs I've ever seen.
Rubens would later comment thatit's not my first movie
snorting fake coke.
You know, don't forget my workin the classic film Cheech and
Chong Nice Dreams.
Unfortunately, rubens wasunable to meet with the
real-life Derek Foreal, whosename is Richard Boreal.

(16:13):
Blow also marks the featurefilm debut of American Horror
Story alum Emma Roberts, who wasnine years old at the time of
filming.
Although she attended thepremiere, emma Roberts has
admitted that she never actuallysaw the movie until about six
years after its release, whichis appropriate, I would say.

(16:33):
And finally, for the cocainescenes in the film, actors were
given the choice of eithersnorting milk powder or vitamin
B, which just sounds simplyterrible, if you ask me.
Well, with that, should we diveinto Ted Demme's Blow?

Ashley (16:51):
Let's do it.

Remi (17:10):
Our story begins in the cocaine fields of Columbia, as
we watch the entire productionprocess for the drug, from plant
to powder, before being shippedoff in mass quantities, while
the opening credits roll.
While the opening credits roll.

Ashley (17:22):
This is explained in detail in the book, how it's
done generally.
It's not enough that youraverage Joe would be able to do
it, but it was very, veryinteresting.

Remi (17:38):
From what it looked like in the movie.
They pick the plants and then,like, soak the plants and then
dry them out, or something alongthat I couldn't really
understand everything that wasgoing on, but yeah, it shows how
they do the whole thing.
The drugs are then flown to aprivate airstrip somewhere in
America where George Jung,played by Johnny Depp, is
eagerly awaiting its arrival.
After doing a bump to test outthe product with a few of his

(17:59):
associates in a back room, weflash back to George's childhood
.
George grew up in Wayland,massachusetts, along with his
best friend, tuna.
George's father, fred Jung,played by Ray Liotta, ran a
plumbing and heating companywhere he had three trucks and
ten employees.
George idolized his fathergrowing up and, even though Fred

(18:20):
had to work hard to support hisfamily, he never neglected
making time for his son.
Though Fred did everything hecould for his family,
financially, often working14-hour days, seven days a week,
it was never enough forGeorge's mother, irmine, played
by Rachel Griffith, whorepeatedly left Fred and
abandoned George due to thefamily's money problems before

(18:42):
inevitably returning.
This led to a strainedrelationship between George and
his mother while he was growingup.
In the end, fred wasn't able tokeep his business afloat and
the family had to declarebankruptcy as a result.
But even in times of hardship,fred always made sure to stay
positive and optimistic wheneverhe was with George.
After watching his fatherstruggle to make ends meet for

(19:04):
so many years, george concludedthat he never wanted to be poor
and in order to achieve that, heneeded to get as far away from
Massachusetts as he possiblycould as soon as possible.
Several years later, during thesummer of 1968, george and his
childhood friend, tuna, beingplayed by Ethan Suplee, move out

(19:24):
to Manhattan Beach, california,with a total of $300 between
the two of them.
After moving into a smallone-bedroom apartment on the
beach, george and Tuna quicklyfall into the Bohemian Beach
party scene, where George firstfalls for a stewardess named
Barbara Buckley, played by RunLa La Run's Franca Potente.
I don't know if I said thatright, but I hope I did because

(19:47):
she's a great actress.
George, barbara and Tuna startspending all day, every day,
getting high and smoking weed onthe beach, until Tuna has the
bright idea that they shouldstart selling weed for
themselves instead of getting anormal job.
Barbara is supportive of theidea, so introduces George and
Tuna to her good friend, derekForeal, who just so happened to

(20:08):
own the very first male hairsalon in all of Southern
California and is being playedhere by Paul Rubens.
After ushering the boys into amore private area in the back of
his salon, derek presents themwith a staggeringly large amount
of marijuana, and though thequantity is much more than
George and Tuna had intended,they nevertheless still agree to

(20:32):
take the drugs.
What the fuck is that it's?
Your pot.
Wow, that's more than we had inmind.

Bobcat Goldthwait (20:43):
I don't nickel and dime you want it or
not, we'll take it.

Remi (20:48):
I love Paul Reubens in this film.

Ashley (20:50):
It's hard to remember, as I was reading this, that this
was all taking place in likethe 70s at least most of it 70s
and 80s but the outfits and thehairstyles really drill that
home.
It's a good visual.

Remi (21:03):
The costumes and wigs in this movie are definitely on
point, I must say.
Anyway, george and Tuna's drugdealing venture turns out to be
exceedingly lucrative and theyare soon paid a visit by their
old friend from Boston, kevinDooley, played by Max Perlick,
who is out west vacationingwhile on a break from his East

(21:23):
Coast college.
Who is out west vacationingwhile on a break from his East
Coast college, utterly stupefiedby the quality of his friend's
product, dooley proposes thatthey would all make a fortune if
they could ever find a way tosell George and Tuna's weed back
east.
Never one to miss anopportunity.
George devises a plan withDerek for real to begin

(21:43):
trafficking 100 pounds ofmarijuana weekly from LA to
Boston, which would then be soldat an increased price of $500
per pound.
Though Derek is nervous aboutsuch an aggressive expansion, he
does eventually agree to beGeorge's partner in his latest
business venture.
Within no time, barbara beginstransporting large quantities of

(22:06):
marijuana concealed in herchecked luggage during her
weekly flights to Boston,without fear of being searched
due to her job as a stewardess.
My how times have changed.
Though their latest traffickingendeavor is successful, dooley
is also constantly running outof product before the next
shipment can arrive.
To fulfill their customer'sgrowing demand, george concludes

(22:28):
that they will need to startpurchasing even larger
quantities of product directlyfrom Mexico.
George, tuna, barbara and Derekall take a trip down to Puerto
Vallarta, mexico, soon after, insearch for a new drug
connection.
The group intends on achievingthis by literally walking around
the beach and asking anystranger they come upon if they

(22:50):
know where they can get some pot.
This does eventually worksomehow, and George is brought
to a secluded ranch outside oftown by a pair of shady Mexican
men.
Upon their arrival, georgeexhibits the men's hefty harvest
of marijuana and, much to theirsurprise, george makes an offer
to purchase their entireinventory, then return in a week

(23:13):
with a plane to transport theproduct back to the United
States.
True to his word, george andDooley steal a small aircraft
plane and return to Mexicowithin the week along with
$75,000 in cash to pay for themarijuana.
I have a question on this.
They steal the plane.
Is this something that they didin real life?
Because the movie doesn't gointo it much at all and I

(23:35):
couldn't tell where they werestealing the plane from, but it
seems like stealing a planewould be really hard.

Ashley (23:41):
I'm glad you asked because I did omit this part.
So when things were gettingstarted, he wasn't stealing
planes.
He actually, like found a pilotwho chartered a plane under
like a dummy corporation account.
At some point after that herealized it would be cheaper to
quote unquote borrow airplanes.
He knew about these hangarswhere people who owned private

(24:03):
planes would store them and theywere essentially unmanned and
unchecked during weekends andholidays.
So he would go in, steal theseairplanes, fly them for several
flights and then put them backat like a Santa Monica runway
and then do another one.
And he took about 15 planesthis way.
But it wasn't this initialflight, it was a little bit

(24:24):
after.
It was still in Mexico whenthey were just doing pot, but it
wasn't the first one.
But yeah, he did.

Remi (24:30):
That is fascinating to me.
You'd think one of the pilotswould show up on the weekday and
be like where did all my fuelgo?

Ashley (24:37):
He wouldn't even return them to the same spots.
He would always return them tothe same place in California
because that was where he wasliving, and then they would just
take other ones from differenthangars that they knew of.
But they never got caught.
And really the only downside ofthis plan was that when you're
taking these airplanes he had noway of knowing if there was any

(24:59):
mechanical issues or if theywere serviced regularly.
But from what the book says,there was only one time where
that became a problem and hecrashed and had to like scrounge
everything up in the plane.
He had all the maps of Mexico,all the money, all the leftover
pot and like just book it beforethe cops came.

Remi (25:16):
I cannot believe that wasn't included in the movie.
Wow, but all right, that isgood to know.
By 1970, george and Barbarahave earned enough money to
purchase a beautiful homeoverlooking the coast of
Acapulco, mexico, and are soonengaged to be married.
Not long after, george's timein the lap of luxury comes to an
abrupt halt, however, in 1972,when George is arrested in

(25:40):
Chicago for possession of 660pounds of marijuana with the
intent to distribute.
That is a lot of weed.
During his trial, george comesacross as exceptionally cavalier
as he delivers the followingstatement to the judge in court
your Honor, I'd like to say afew words to the court, if I may

(26:01):
.

Well, you're gonna have to stop slouching and
stand up to address this court,sir All right.

Johnny Depp as George Jun (26:07):
Well , in all honesty, I don't feel
that what I've done is a crimeand I think it's illogical and
irresponsible for you tosentence me to prison.
Because, when you think aboutit, what did I really do?
I crossed an imaginary linewith a bunch of plants.
I mean, you say I'm an outlaw,you say I'm a thief, but where's
the Christmas dinner for thepeople on relief?

(26:28):
Huh, you say you're looking forsomeone who's never weak but
always strong, to gather flowersconstantly, whether you were
right or wrong, someone to openeach and every door.
But it ain't me, babe.
Huh, no, no, no, it ain't me,babe.

Ashley (26:46):
It ain't me you're looking for, babe you follow.
Yeah, so he did do this kind ofspeech at his sentencing
hearing, not for his bailhearing, but yeah, he accepted a
plea deal and it was for wayless time than he should have
gotten based on mandatoryminimum requirements and went
off about how he didn't doanything wrong, which pissed off
the judge Not a lot, though,because she only tacked on an

(27:07):
extra year.

Remi (27:08):
Well, george is sentenced to five years in prison, with
the possibility of parole in twoyears.
But unfortunately, barbarareveals that she may not be
alive long enough to seeGeorge's release, as she has
been secretly dying of cancer.
Devastated, george skips out onbail in Chicago and faithfully
stays by Barbara's side untilshe passes A year later.

(27:31):
Now, a fugitive from the law,george returns home to
Massachusetts to visit hisparents, but the prior
revelation that her son is aconvicted drug dealer has not
gone over well with his mother,irmine, who calls the police on
George.
During his visit, george isarrested and sent to the Federal
Correctional Institute ofDanbury, connecticut, where he

(27:53):
is introduced to his newcellmate, diego Delgado, played
by Jordi Mola.
Diego is originally fromColombia and is serving out his
sentence for stealing cars, butplans on being released in just
nine more months.
In an is serving out hissentence for stealing cars, but
plans on being released in justnine more months.
In an effort to reduce hissentence, george volunteers as
an inmate teacher for theprison's GED program and, as an

(28:14):
added incentive, george offersto spend half of the semester
teaching his incarceratedstudents how to smuggle drugs,
with the caveat that they willneed to still graduate.

Ashley (28:30):
I'm also so glad you included this and was banking
that you would, because it's oneof the things I removed.
But this is all true.
He was assigned as a teacher inthis initial group that he
agreed to teach all about drugsmuggling.
They were a bunch of convictedpimps and in this prison it was
a minimum security, so most ofit was like white collar crimes
ex-mafia guys who had workedtheir way through the system.
But a lot of these guys theycouldn't read and were not

(28:53):
interested at all in schooling.
And George knew that it wouldlook good for the parole board
if he could get all these peoplesuccessfully through the GED
program.
So basically, when they toldhim fuck off, I don't care about
US history he offered them thistrade that if they listened to
him and studied and passed theGED, or at least tried, then he

(29:15):
would teach them everything heknew.

Remi (29:18):
So it plays out pretty much exactly how it did in the
film.
All right.

Ashley (29:22):
And in the book it says that he was extremely successful
at teaching all of thesecohorts and that people
generally were proud of theiraccomplishments and rightfully
so.

Remi (29:34):
Partially due to their forced proximity together,
george and Diego inevitably growclose over time and soon begin
plotting out a brand new drugdealing venture together for
when they are released.
One key change in this latestenhanced business model is that,
rather than smuggling marijuana, they will instead be switching
over to the latest drug crazesweeping the nation cocaine.

(29:57):
After 16 months of imprisonment,george is finally granted
parole in 1976, then immediatelyflies out to Cartagena,
colombia, to meet back up withDiego the very same day as his
release.
Once in Colombia, diegointroduces George to his
business associate, cesar, todiscuss the details of their new

(30:18):
business arrangement.
Despite some initial tensionbetween Cesar and George, an
agreement is soon reached forGeorge to perform a trial run
involving the smuggling of 15kilos of cocaine back into the
United States, stored in ahidden compartment in George's
checked luggage.
Despite being searched bycustoms on his way back into the

(30:40):
country, george doessuccessfully complete his task,
officially launching George'sbusiness partnership with the
Colombian cartel.
After wisely coming to theconclusion that flying on
commercial airlines with massquantities of cocaine was far
too risky, george enlists theservices of an American pilot

(31:00):
who owns his own privateaircraft and agrees to make the
next run for the Colombians atthe modest fee of just $2
million.
Originally I thought thischaracter was Tom Cruise's
character from American Made,but it is not the same person.

Ashley (31:14):
That would have just been an amazing link between
these two stories, because Idon't think these guys actually
I'm like 99.999% positive.
These guys never met or knewanything about each other, but
it would have been great if theydid and they were essentially
doing very similar things.

Remi (31:33):
Pablo had a lot of different people doing his runs
for him from what I've gathered,and George was one of many, but
George may have been one of thefirst.
After the meeting, diego asksGeorge to pick up 50 kilos of
cocaine for him at a nearbymotel, while Diego deals with
his hysterical girlfriend wholocked herself in the bathroom.

(31:55):
When George arrives at themotel, he is greeted by a room
full of menacing Colombians whohave no idea who George is and
respond by sticking the barrelof a loaded gun directly down
George's throat.

Ashley (32:09):
So in reality George did have to pick up these kilos for
Diego, whose name is changedfor the movie, but it wasn't
because Diego was dealing withhis distraught girlfriend, it
was because he didn't getarrested trying to cross the
border from Canada into theStates.
But like, got out of the carbefore his like pickup man was
supposed to get him out, freakedout and just kind of ran and

(32:32):
was off the grid for a coupleweeks.

Remi (32:34):
That comes up in a second actually, so I'm glad you
mentioned that because it comesinto play in just a moment.
It is revealed that the menhave been kept waiting for
nearly three weeks now for Diegoto come and pick up the product
, so are none too happy aboutGeorge being sent to make the
deal in place of Diego.
After issuing a warning, theColombians hurl George two full

(32:58):
duffel bags stuffed with cocaineand say that he has one week to
return with the cash.
And say that he has one week toreturn with the cash.
One specific condition ofGeorge's parole is that he must
live with his parents after hisrelease.
So, following George's tenseinteraction with the Columbians,
george returns home to Bostonwhere he eagerly awaits Diego's
phone call.

(33:18):
Unfortunately, diego is delayedafter being arrested back in
Colombia, leaving George with anungodly amount of cocaine,
along with a fast-approachingweek-long deadline from the
Colombians to boot.

Ashley (33:32):
He does end up getting arrested in Colombia, but it's a
little bit later than all ofthis, but it's still the same.
They're just trying to mush ina lot of details into a coherent
story where they're still kindof including most of it.

Remi (33:46):
The movie does not say why Diego was arrested, so it is
interesting to learn the otherside of that story.
I would assume this is thatsituation.
They're just moving thetimeline.

Ashley (33:58):
No, when he's arrested in Columbia, that's later
Columbia, that's later this parthe was in, actually, yeah, this
part.
He had been deported toColumbia after his initial
arrest and release from prisonand started making his way back
and was in Canada and was tryingto get into the States to pick

(34:20):
up this pot and or this cocaineand freaked out as the car he
was in was approaching customsand fled, and so it took him a
bit to like get back into theStates by foot and then make it
to a place where he was safeenough to call George.

Remi (34:34):
Thinking on his feet.
George flies out to Hollywood,california, three days later to
meet with his old friend DerekForeal and discuss a potential
West Coast distributionarrangement.

Bobcat Goldthwait (34:46):
As Bobcat Goldthwait tests the cocaine's
purity, what I'm doing here ismeasuring the purity.
Pure coke it melts away atabout 185, 190 degrees, at about
a hundred and eighty, fivehundred ninety degrees.
Cutting agents they melt awayat about a hundred.

(35:07):
And quality product well,that's.
That's melting it around 140,130, good, 140 years, yes, 150.

(35:28):
Fuck me running 160.
Jesus Christ, 170.
180.
100.
187.
Where did you get this stuffColumbia, columbia.
Oh uh, Do you mind if I do aline?

(35:50):
Yeah, go ahead.

Ashley (35:52):
This scene is also depicted in the book, with a
different dealer, but the wholehim testing it and realizing how
pure it is and just being likeholy shit.

Remi (36:02):
And I love Bobcat Goldthwait in this scene.
He is a old school, 90s comic,I guess you could describe him
as and he is the perfect castingfor this small role.

Ashley (36:14):
Well and remember, this is the first time Colombian
cocaine had been introducedreally to the States.
So on the West Coast, wherecocaine was being used by mostly
, like the Hollywood scene, theelite and crowds of that sort,
they were used to cocaine butthey were used to it being cut
with a lot of different stuffand being a third, pure as it

(36:38):
was, that George was bringing in.

Remi (36:40):
I don't think the movie does a good job of really
explaining that cocaine was justhitting the scene at this time,
like it was not a really bigpopular drug and this is kind of
when it first began to build upinterest among the public.

Ashley (36:59):
Because there was really no way to transport it in.
All of the cartel's smugglerswere from Colombia, so they
didn't speak English and theydidn't feel comfortable kind of
expanding the market all acrossthe US until people like George
and other people that came afterhim were willing to do that for

(37:20):
them.

Remi (37:21):
Despite Derek's initial trepidations, he still agrees to
the offer and goes on totriumphantly sell out of all the
cocaine in just 36 hours.
That is insane.
Three days later, georgearrives back in Miami with $1.35
million in cash for theColombians.

(37:41):
Impressed with George'sinitiative, along with the
lightning-fast turnaround he wasable to pull off, george is
escorted back to Medellin,colombia, for a one-on-one
meeting with the man himself,pablo Escobar.
Upon their arrival, george isgreeted by Diego, who is
naturally curious about who hadhelped George sell all of the

(38:03):
cocaine so quickly.
But George remains tight-lippedabout his California connection.
During George's meeting withPablo Escobar, the two men agree
on a mutually beneficialbusiness arrangement where
George will begin regularlytrafficking Pablo's cocaine from
Colombia into the United States.
In no time at all.

(38:24):
Cocaine's popularity spreadslike a scatterbomb across
America, earning George andDiego millions upon millions of
dollars in illicit drug money.
George even alleges that ifanyone in the United States had
snorted cocaine during the late70s and early 80s, there was an
85% chance that it hadoriginally come from George and

(38:47):
Pablo's operation.
Talk about cornering the market, geez.

Ashley (38:51):
I mean, it was huge.
His takeaway was at this pointapproaching if it wasn't at that
at least a million per week,and that's just what he was
taking away, and that's afraction of what the cartel was
making.
So I believe it that at thistime he was responsible for a

(39:12):
large majority of the cocainethat was in the States.

Remi (39:15):
Well, one downside to continuously raking in such an
epic amount of physical cash wasthat, before long, george and
Diego began running out ofplaces to store their endless
supply of money.
Under Pablo's recommendation,george and Diego began keeping
their finances in a bank locatedin Panama, rather than

(39:37):
attempting to launder the moneyback into the States at a 40%
loss.
Sometime later, diego getsmarried and during the
celebration, george is entrancedby a smoking hot Colombian
woman named Mirtha, played byPenelope Cruz, who also happens
to be his other businessassociate, caesar's fiancée.

(39:57):
That doesn't stop George,however, from making a move on
Mertha, leading to an affairwhich inevitably breaks up her
and Caesar's engagement.
Mertha and George are insteadmarried not long after, and she
soon becomes pregnant, yet stillrefuses to kick her cocaine
habit Like seriously.
She's railing lines with aneight-month pregnant belly in

(40:20):
one scene.
It's hard to watch.
When George's parents finallypay the happy couple a visit for
the first time, fred and Irmineare both equally flabbergasted
by the luxurious lifestyle thattheir son is now able to afford.
Mertha gives gives Ermine atour of their lavish mansion,
while George and Fred walk thegrounds outside and have a drink

(40:41):
together.
I also just want to say Myrthaand Ermine are crazy names for
people.
I've never heard those names inmy life.
Apologies if your name isMyrtha or Ermine.
During their father-son reunion, fred bluntly states that he
knows full well that George'sfortune had not come from any
sort of legal enterprise, butwill continue to turn a blind

(41:03):
eye as his son is happy.
I know what you're up to.

Not everything, but I get the picture and I
don't care.

Johnny Depp as George Jung (41:17):
I don't like it.
It's not what I would havechosen for you.

But it's your life, it's got nothing to do
with me.
I couldn't stop you if I wantedto, could I?
Probably not.

Ashley (41:35):
No wanted to?
Could I Probably not.
No, At this point in his life,George was not being discreet
about his wealth, so it would beextremely obvious to anyone who
knew him, especially anyonethat knew he was arrested
previously and sent to federalprison for trafficking large
amounts of marijuana that anysort of income he was making was

(41:58):
not through legal means.

Remi (42:01):
Denial can be an extremely powerful thing, but I respect
the fact that this father sawthrough any thinly veiled
bullshit that George was tryingto pull.
During this meeting, fred seemslike he's a good dad in
supporting his kid and knowsthat his kid is gonna do what he
wants, despite what he says.

(42:22):
So all he can do is love him.

Ashley (42:25):
And supporting his kid just by like being there and
loving him, not by likesupporting him in the way of
like helping him in any way.

Remi (42:33):
Yes, there is a key difference there.
He is being a loyal father theway you are supposed to be, and
not in the regard that he isactually contributing to the
negative things that George isdoing in his life.
As time rolls on, diego becomesincreasingly irritated that
George has still not disclosedthe name of his California

(42:56):
connection.
This animosity comes to a headin a Miami Beach motel room when
Diego continuously beratesGeorge during a large drug deal
with several armed men.
Tensions continue to rise untilGeorge is accidentally shot
amidst all the hoopla, yet stillmanages to smooth things over
and finish the deal in the end.

(43:17):
After this altercation, georgefinally reveals to Diego that
the name of his Californiaconnection is none other than
Derek for real.
Within a few months, diegorelocates to a small island in
the Bahamas where he purchasesseveral acres of land along with
a private airstrip to utilizefor his own drug runs.
Moving forward, turns out oldDiego had always intended to cut

(43:42):
George out of their businesspartnership by going directly
through George's Californiaconnection for distribution as
soon as the opportunity hadpresented itself.
Infuriated by Diego's betrayal,george catches the first boat
he can out to Diego's island toconfront his former partner face
to face you fucked me, I didnot yeah you did.

Johnny Depp as George Jung (44:09):
You went behind my back, you cut me
out, you fucked me, me no.
Never, George Never.
I talked to Derek.

(44:31):
Well maybe you're right.
Maybe I did betray you a littlebit.

Remi (44:49):
George reacts by pulling a gun on Diego, which isn't
loaded.
So Diego's men drag George outto the beach and proceed to
savagely beat him within an inchof his life.
When George arrives back homethat evening, broken, swollen
and covered in bloody bruises,he makes a heartfelt vow to his
wife Murtha, promising to quitthe drug game once and for all.

(45:10):
We then flash forward to thechaotic day when George and
Martha welcomed their very firstchild together into the world.
Though George has managed tostay out of the cocaine business
, his cocaine consumption, onthe other hand, has seemingly
skyrocketed to over five grams aday.

(45:30):
In fact, during his daughter'sdelivery, george is so coked out
that he suffers from a heartattack right there in the
delivery room.
This event is what finallyconvinces George to give up
drugs and alcohol for the sakeof his newborn daughter.
For the next several years,george stays clean and sober
while simultaneously being aloving father to his daughter

(45:54):
Christina, played by Itty BittyChild actress Emma Roberts in
her very first role.
For George's 38th birthdayparty, mirtha invites a few of
George's old drug partners tocome and celebrate.
Derek, for real, is one of themany unexpected guests in
attendance that night, and thetwo finally bury the hatchet and

(46:14):
make amends after Derek revealsthat Diego had cut Derek out of
the business too in the end.
George's biggest birthdaysurprise, however, arrives
shortly after, when the party israided by the DEA and his
daughter, christina, is placedinto protective custody.
During his interrogation,george agrees to sign a

(46:34):
statement taking soleresponsibility for any cocaine
found on the premises inexchange for his daughter's
release from custody.

Ashley (46:42):
I cut this out, but he did say when he was arrested at
this time that he was the onlyone that knew the cocaine was
going to be there and everyoneelse had no idea.
Because he really didn't wantany of his friends or
acquaintances to be arrested.
Because he really didn't wantany of his friends or
acquaintances to be arrested.

Remi (46:57):
After posting bail, george pays his parents a final visit
to say goodbye before fleeingthe country.
Unfortunately, when Georgearrives back in Panama to begin
cashing out his millions ofdollars for his life as a
fugitive, he is informed thatthe bank has undergone a
nationalization and that all ofhis funds have been appropriated

(47:18):
by the Panamanian government.
This is something I had neverheard of before, but is a thing.
Apparently, unable to fleewithout his nest egg, george is
forced to return home, pennilessto face the consequences.
To make matters worse, mirthais callously resentful towards
George due to the drasticallyrapid decline in her standard of

(47:39):
living and often belittlesGeorge, with little regard for
their daughter's well-being.
The couple's turmoil continuesto escalate until one evening
when Mertha causes a scene whileGeorge and her are driving in
his convertible, resulting inthem being pulled over by the
police and leading to George'sarrest after Murtha flees from
the vehicle in hysterics.

(48:00):
Three years later, murthavisits George in prison a week
before his release and coldlybreaks the news that she will be
divorcing him and taking fullcustody of their daughter
Christina.
Upon his release, george triesto reconnect with Christina on
her way home from school oneafternoon, but she is
unreceptive towards her father'sattempts at mending their

(48:21):
fractured relationship, georgecontinues to persist until
Christina reluctantly agrees toallow George to walk her home
from school that day.
George continues to accompanyhis daughter to and from school
every day for the remainder ofthe week and even discusses the
possibility of regaining custodyof Christina, despite George
currently being unable to evenafford child support.

(48:44):
Desperate, broke and with fewother options, george makes the
fateful decision to carry outone final drug run so that he
can earn enough money to movehim and Christina out to
California.
During the deal, everythinggoes exactly according to plan
and seems like business as usual.
George and his cohorts test outthe product in a dimly lit back

(49:05):
room as George expressesexcitement and optimism towards
the promising new start for hislife with Christina.
Moments later, george isarrested yet again by the FBI
and DEA in a sting operationthat had been carefully
orchestrated due to thecooperation of many of George's
former business associates.

(49:25):
In the end, george is sentencedto 60 years in prison as the
culmination of his lifetime ofcrime.
Time of crime.
While serving out his sentence,george gets news from his
lawyer, played by the film'sdirector Ted Demme, that
George's father, fred's, healthhas been deteriorating as of
late and he will likely passaway in the near future.

(49:45):
Unable to arrange a visit,george records his father a
farewell message as his lastchance to say goodbye.

Johnny Depp as George Ju (49:55):
Hello Dad.
You know I remember a lifetimeago I was about three and a half
feet tall, weighing all of 60pounds, but every inch of sun,
those Saturday mornings going towork with my dad and we'd climb

(50:21):
into that big green truck.
I thought that truck was thebiggest truck in the universe,
pop.
I remember how important thejob we did was.
If it weren't for us, peoplewould freeze to death, I thought
you were the strongest man inthe world.

Ashley (50:40):
In the book it has the entire letter that George read
to his dad.
It was a lot longer than this,but they really did compact a
full two-page letter andrecording into this scene.
A lot of the beginning and endparagraphs are a lot of the
exact same words, and thenotherwise it just kind of

(51:02):
squishes together a lot of thedifferent points he made.

Remi (51:05):
Well, according to the director's commentary, the tape
that George Jung records for hisfather during the scene is from
a transcript of the tape fromthe real George Jung, who had
recorded a tape under similarcircumstances.
Years later, christina finallyvisits her father in prison and
they make amends, only forGeorge to soon realize that it

(51:27):
was all just a fantasy and he isstill alone in the prison
courtyard.
Before the closing credits, welearn that at the time of this
film's release, george Jung wasserving out his sentence at
Otisville Federal CorrectionalInstitute until 2015,.
And Christina Sunshine Jung hadstill not visited her father.
And that is Ted Demme's blow.

(51:50):
What do you think, ashley?

Ashley (52:00):
first, I don't like how they end with like christina
hasn't visited her dad.
Okay, so no one can know whatit was like being the daughter
of this man, except for thedaughter of this man.
So whether she chose to makeamends with her father or not,
that is a decision that iscompletely hers and hers alone
and deserves zero judgment forwhatever she chose to do.
Other than that, I loved allthe clips you showed.
I think they did a really goodjob of depicting the intensity

(52:22):
of all of these situations andall of the relationships with
all of these characters, andalso the time and culture that
all of this was happening.

Remi (52:31):
Commenting about the ending scene with George and his
daughter.
When I watched this movie as ateenager, for whatever reason,
this scene got to me and I wouldstart crying, and it happened
pretty consistently when Iwatched this movie during this
scene.
And this is when I watched thefilm as a younger man in my
teens, early 20s, and then Ididn't watch the film for many

(52:54):
years, as I've said, and when Irewatched the film, the scene
that had me tearing up was hismessage to his father, instead
of the ending scene, and I don'tknow if that's something that
comes with age, but I think whenI was younger, the thought of
living your life and then, atthe end, having nothing really
got to me.

(53:15):
And this time, watching as anadult living your life and
knowing you made these mistakesbut knowing that people still
love you, is what got to meSomething along those lines, but
I don't know.
The father stuff got to me alot more in this go around than
it had originally.

Ashley (53:32):
If I were the director, I would have ended it there,
because that really did happen.
He couldn't, for differentreasons, say goodbye to his dad
who was dying of cancer, andthere's a little note that I'll
have in my portion when I talkabout this.
But I think of all of thiswhole story, that that part in
the book and that scene in themovie is really the one that

(53:53):
hits the hardest.
So I think they should havejust ended it there and then
done a little update.

Remi (53:58):
I understand what they were trying to do, with him
doing this last drug run tostart a new life with his
daughter and everything.
But I do think that the heartof the story is between George
and his father.
It is tragic what happened toGeorge and his daughter's
relationship, but I really dothink George and Fred's

(54:19):
relationship is the core heartof the story.

Ashley (54:22):
And it also links back to what you said in the first
paragraph, how he idolized hisdad and how hard he worked to
provide for his family, and itjust never seemed to be enough.
And that's when he kind ofdecided, like I'm not going to
be in this situation, I'm nevergoing to want for anything.

Remi (54:41):
It was his motivation to do all of this was his father,
and I think maybe the last runwas for his daughter, but from
the beginning I think his fathermade a bigger impact on him
than anyone else in his life.

Ashley (54:56):
Well, after watching it now for the first time in
several years, and with thismicroscope, what did you think
about the movie?

Remi (55:04):
I still really think this film is great.
I think that this is a filmthat kind of went under the
radar when it was released.
It was not very successful.
It has since gained a cultfollowing.
But I appreciate this film in anew light than I did as a young
man and I think as a young manI almost thought it was cool,

(55:26):
like what this guy was doing.
He became a millionaire, he'sflying around, he's got girls
and drugs and guns and going tocrazy places and all this shit,
and as an adult I realized thatthose things are not things that
you should be thrilled about.
Basically, these are parts of astory that is a tragic tale.

(55:48):
In the end, it's not somethingthat you should watch this movie
and be like.
I want to be like George.
This is a warning story, in myopinion, for people who will go
to any means for success and howthat can basically leave you
with nothing in the end if youpush it too far.
But are you ready to get intosome of the release info from

(56:11):
below?

Ashley (56:12):
Yeah, let's get into it.
This is always my favorite part.

Remi (56:15):
After the film's production, ted Demme and Johnny
Depp both unsuccessfullycampaigned for George Chung's
release.
During an interview, deppstated We've all investigated
the possibilities of goingbefore whomever we have to and
talking to them about George.
We talked to some people in theFBI.
It is possible to take up armsin that fight and maybe even get

(56:37):
some kind of good news out ofit.
But the amount of red tape andstacks and files and papers is
unbelievable.
It's staggering really.
The rules and regulations andeverything.
It's pretty amazing.

Ashley (56:51):
No shit, johnny Depp, it's the federal government he's
like.
But I'm really famous and Ilike this guy.
You sure you can't let him out.

Remi (56:59):
I think that was his logic .
Yeah, I'm famous, Could you dothis for me?
No, All right.
That was the end of his effort.
According to Ted Demme, GeorgeJung was eventually shown a
finished version of the film andwas shocked at just how
accurately his story had beenportrayed.
This is something that not alot of inmates get to do.

(57:21):
Actually, A lot of inmates whohave a film based on their life
never are allowed to see itwhile they are in prison, so he
was very lucky to be given thatopportunity To promote the film.
Pocket-sized rectangularmirrors were distributed during
advanced screenings, but thepromotional items drew criticism
for appearing to promotecocaine use.

(57:41):
At least they weren't handingout razor blades.
Blow was released in NorthAmerica on April 6, 2001 and
performed below expectations atthe box office.
With a budget of roughly $53million, the film went on to
earn slightly under that amountat the domestic box office.
With a budget of roughly $53million, the film went on to
earn slightly under that amountat the domestic box office, but

(58:02):
did manage to bring in another$30 million internationally,
ending in a total gross ofaround $83 million.
Blow currently holds anapproval rating of 55% on Rotten
Tomatoes, with a criticalconsensus that reads with
elements that seem borrowed frommovies like Goodfellas and
Boogie Nights.

(58:22):
Blow has pretty much been there, done that, despite another
excellent performance fromJohnny Depp.
It also becomes too sentimentalin the end.

Ashley (58:32):
I'm really shocked it's that low.
I thought this was a generallywell-regarded movie.
I guess it does kind of play tolike the cult classic feel of
it, but I had no idea thatcritics didn't really like this.

Remi (58:44):
I was surprised, too, by the negative critical response
to this movie.
I thought this was one of thosefilms that may not have done
well financially, but thecritics would have still liked.
But apparently not, and the toosentimental in the end thing, I
don't know.
I don't agree with that.
One actor who wasn't praisedfor her performance, however,

(59:05):
was none other than PenelopeCruz, who appeared in a total of
three.
American films in 2001,.
Blow Captain Corelli's Mandolinand Vanilla Sky.
Blow Captain Corelli's Mandolinand Vanilla Sky.
Cruise was subsequentlynominated for Worst Actress of
the Year at the Golden RaspberryAwards for all three
performances.

Ashley (59:25):
That's not fair.
She is in her early transitionto American films.
She's learning the actingindustry in America and probably
learning to speak English andeveryone is just dogging on her.
And she's like good in VanillaSky, she's fine.

Remi (59:44):
I do think she did a better job in the Spanish
version of Vanilla Sky calledOpen your Eyes, but I think she
did fine in this movie.
I think that Penelope Cruzexcels at being crazy.
She was crazy in Vicky CristinaBarcelona, she was crazy in

(01:00:06):
this movie and I prefer herdoing that sort of thing and I
think she's great at that.
I do think that her performancein Vanilla Sky is weaker than
the Spanish version of the filmbut again, according to my
research, she was 26, 27 whenshe was learning English and
that is the exact same age shewas when she was making all of
these movies.
So I think that we should cuther some slack.

(01:00:27):
And worst actress, goldenRaspberry fuck off.
That's ridiculous.

Ashley (01:00:31):
I'm also glad she stuck with it, because the last movie
we saw her in was Ferrari andshe was phenomenal.

Remi (01:00:37):
Oh, she stole the show in that one.
She was the best actor in thatentire film.
She has gotten better with age.
I think she has really, reallygrown into her own here.
And on a final, more sombernote, less than a year after
Blow's release, director TedDemme collapsed and died of a
heart attack while playing acelebrity basketball game on

(01:00:59):
January 14, 2002.
It was later revealed thatcocaine had been discovered in
Demme's system during an autopsyand may have been a
contributing factor in hisdemise.
And that was Ted Demme's Blow.

Ashley (01:01:14):
That is really sad.
Ted Demme's Blow, that isreally sad.
Earlier I was going to ask youwhat this director had done
since, and it sounds like hiscareer was cut short.

Remi (01:01:24):
He is also the, I believe, cousin of director Jonathan
Demme, but I was not toofamiliar with Ted Demme's other
work, but I think he did amagnificent job with this film
and I think it is reallyunfortunate that he passed away
so soon after its release.
I think this guy could havecontinued to grow as a director

(01:01:45):
and continue making better andbetter films throughout the rest
of his life, and it is very sadthat this happened.

Ashley (01:01:51):
Well, with that, are you ready to hear the true story of
Blow and George Jung?

Remi (01:01:58):
Oh, yes, I am.

Ashley (01:02:14):
George Jung was born in Weymouth, massachusetts, a small
coastal town about 20 milessouth of Boston, on August 6th
1942.
His parents, fred and Ermin,met in 1930.
Fred worked in the oil heatingbusiness, which provided a
steady income for his family Formany years.
He owned three trucks and hadseveral employees and a long

(01:02:35):
list of customers.
Unfortunately, he developed agambling addiction and lost so
much money at the racetrack thathe had to sell off his entire
fleet During World War II.
He worked a defense job in aNavy shipyard and saved enough
to buy a small oil truck whichhe used to secure a contract
with an oil company in Boston.
Although he maintained acomfortable lifestyle for his

(01:02:56):
family, he never regained theincome he was originally making,
which caused stress in hismarriage.
Fred also had an older brotherwho came back from the war as a
high-paying commander, securedan engineering job with the
state and was very generous withhis money.
Irma never let Fred forget howmuch she respected Uncle George,
even going as far as naming heronly son after him.

Remi (01:03:18):
That is very interesting and 100% not in the film.

Ashley (01:03:23):
George Jung was a hyperactive, well-behaved kid.
He was popular in high school,played on several sports teams
and had a penance for adventureand fast driving.
Despite his shiny exterior, hishome life wasn't easy.
Due to frequent argumentsbetween his parents, which
almost always involved financesand how Irvine longed for more.
Stress mounted during hisjunior year when Fred had a

(01:03:45):
stroke that he never fullyrecovered from.
From then on, he workedpart-time as a superintendent in
a cemetery.
By his senior year, george'sgrades were so bad that he was
at risk of not getting intocollege, but he remedied this
and made the dean's list by theend of the year.
He graduated high school in1961 and enrolled at the

(01:04:05):
University of SouthernMississippi in the fall of 1962.
Despite his academicaccomplishments, he was
suspended before the end of theyear after he and a friend got a
hold of a corporate credit cardand offered it to students who
wanted to make long-distancephone calls at $5 a call.
For the next two years heworked as a bricklayer's
assistant, never feelingpersonally or professionally

(01:04:26):
fulfilled.
In the winter of 1965, the23-year-old and his high school
friend Tuna packed all theirbelongings and drove
cross-country to see if theycould make a life for themselves
in sunny California.

Remi (01:04:38):
I would hate to have the nickname Tuna.
I just want to throw that outthere.

Ashley (01:04:43):
George took a few classes at Long Beach College,
worked construction and spenthis free time on the beach
picking up women, since justabout everyone he knew was
involved in the drug business insome way, either as consumers
or retailers.
It wasn't long before he wasusing marijuana and LSD every

(01:05:04):
day.
On the weekends, he and Tunatraveled to Mexico.
That is until Tuna disappearedduring an acid trip.
He didn't see his friend againuntil a trip home in 1970 and
never learned what reallyhappened.

Remi (01:05:13):
What he just vanished on acid one evening.

Ashley (01:05:17):
In Mexico.
George said the last time hesaw him he was just walking down
the train tracks and then hesaw him like four years later
and Tuna was just like I've justbeen inside, scared.

Remi (01:05:27):
They left their friend in Mexico wandering down train
tracks on acid and didn't likesearch the entire town for him,
I guess yeah.
Well, shit.

Ashley (01:05:38):
George dabbled in marijuana dealings shortly after
he landed in California, but hestarted getting more into it in
the fall of 1967.
Realizing he needed a biggersupplier to keep up with the
high demand, he became friendlywith ex-Marine turned
hairdresser Richard Burrill.
Richard owned the first unisexhair salon in LA, was well known

(01:05:59):
in the drug scene and becameGeorge's supplier.
Now that George had all theweed he could ever want, he
decided to go into business withFrank Shea, a high school
friend who lived in a collegetown back in Massachusetts where
weed was selling for six timesmore per kilo compared to what
it was going for on the WestCoast.

Remi (01:06:17):
This is the character Dooley in the film.
I would assume.

Ashley (01:06:20):
Yeah, it definitely was.
I thought that when you saidhis name I was like, oh, this is
another character's name.
They changed, but it's veryclear who it's supposed to be.
Shortly after George received adraft notice for the Vietnam
War, With the help of his uncle,he secured a coveted spot in
the California branch of theNational Guard.
While this theoretically shouldhave saved him from deployment,

(01:06:42):
it didn't, since it was allhands on deck for the Vietnam
War.
In a state of panic, Georgecalled a lawyer friend in San
Francisco who instructed him tocheck into a hotel with five
pounds of pot and wait to getbusted by the police.
While this sounds ill-advised,the lawyer was certain that he
would be able to work his magicto get a probation deal, but the

(01:07:04):
arrest would result in Georgebeing kicked out of the military
, and this is exactly how itwent down.

Remi (01:07:09):
So he purposefully got caught with drugs in order to
avoid getting sent to Vietnam.

Ashley (01:07:14):
Yeah, he knew it would get him kicked out of the
military, so he did it.

Remi (01:07:17):
Not a bad idea, I must say .

Ashley (01:07:19):
Having successfully avoided Uncle Sam's calling,
george put his pot smugglingplan into action.
At the time, he was dating aflight attendant for Transworld
Airlines who could bring as muchluggage as she wanted on each
flight.
This method was used untilGeorge decided he wanted to
transfer more than 20 kilos pershipment, which is why he rented

(01:07:41):
an RV, stuffed it with 275pounds of pot and began making
non-stop cross-country trips.

Remi (01:07:48):
Drug smuggling used to be so simple.

Ashley (01:07:51):
Yeah, just stuff it in a suitcase and be on your way.

Remi (01:07:55):
Yeah, it's insane that this is the way that things were
done back then.

Ashley (01:08:00):
After the RV got involved, he was making anywhere
between $5,000 to $10,000 perweek for the next five to six
months.
While he was happy with thisprofit, he started to calculate
how much more money he could bemaking if he cut out his
supplier and bought the weedstraight from growers in Mexico.
George deduced that the easiestway to smuggle drugs into the

(01:08:21):
country was via air.
At this time, charter companiesweren't asking too many
questions, there wasn't astandardized air monitoring
system and it was easy to flybelow radar ranges when needed.
The plan became this Fly toMexico, load up the pot, land
the plane in one of the dozen orso unpopulated dry lake beds in
Southern California and drivethe load back to Manhattan Beach

(01:08:45):
to prepare for cross-countrytransportation.

Remi (01:08:48):
So they didn't even have a landing strip, they were just
landing in the desert and drylake bed.

Ashley (01:08:55):
Yeah, in spots where they knew it was a low
likelihood that someone wouldstumble upon this.

Remi (01:09:00):
Did it mention anything about how they found their
Mexican weed dealers?

Ashley (01:09:06):
I'm getting to that.

Remi (01:09:07):
Okay.

Ashley (01:09:08):
Learning to fly was the easiest part.
After just one month and 30hours of instruction, george was
qualified to fly solo.
What that's all it takes, Ithink, to just fly one of those
like little planes.
It would take longer if youwanted to like operate like a
commercial airline.

Remi (01:09:25):
I would not feel comfortable flying a plane after
that short of amount of time.

Ashley (01:09:29):
Yeah, you probably do need a little bit more training
now, and rightfully so.
It's a plane.
By this time he had alreadybuilt up a tight collection of
dependable friends andassociates, five or six of whom
accompanied him to PuertoVallarta in the summer of 1968.
The group spoke minimal Spanishand had no idea how to go about
finding a pot connection.

(01:09:49):
For the first few weeks theywandered beaches, hotels and
bars, chatting up strangers andleaving subtle suggestions that
they wanted to talk to someoneabout buying marijuana.
After about a month, george wasintroduced to Ramon Morano and
his boss, sanchez.
Ramon grew up in PuertoVallarta.
At a young age he startedtransporting large harvests of

(01:10:11):
marijuana I'm talking 500 to 600kilos down to the city from
grow operations in the Hills.
During the first meeting withGeorge, sanchez agreed to front
him 300 kilos to sell in thestates, only taking payment
after everything was sold, sinceGeorge had little equity after
a month of unpaid vacation.

Remi (01:10:30):
But they had known each other in some regard before this
.
This seems insane to front thatmuch to someone who you really
didn't know.

Ashley (01:10:38):
No, these are the people that just picked him up on the
street.

Remi (01:10:41):
That is how the film makes it seem as well, and that just
seems so crazy to me thatsomeone you didn't know would
trust you to go to anothercountry and return with the
money like that.
But I guess it's true.

Ashley (01:10:55):
As a sign of good faith, george offered to sell an
additional 100 kilos for Sanchez, with him not taking any cut at
the prevailing price in the US.

Remi (01:11:05):
In the film.
His sign of good faith is theprice of the marijuana is
originally, I believe, $60,000and he gives them 75 as just a
bonus.

Ashley (01:11:17):
Okay, yeah.
So here he was, like I'll sellthe 300 kilos, take my cut, I'll
sell an additional 100 for youand you get 100% of it.
But still they had no way ofensuring that these strangers
that they picked up off thestreet would return.

Remi (01:11:33):
Yeah, what is to stop George from just not returning
and literally keeping all of it?
I understand he's trying to geta business going in this
situation, but he could be justsome American asshole and takes
all of this pot and neverreturns.

Ashley (01:11:49):
Well, because he did return, a relationship was
formed and George's crew movedto Puerto Vallarta after the
first smuggling trip in early1969.
It only took a year for theincreased stress and wealth to
start negatively impacting thegroup.
The first to go was Sanchez.
One night, like Tuna, he alsohad a bad LSD trip, barricaded

(01:12:10):
himself in George's house andstarted firing off random
gunshots to keep police at bay.

Remi (01:12:15):
These guys should not be taking acid.

Ashley (01:12:18):
Ramon took over after his boss was checked into a
psychiatric facility.
After a sketchy interactionwith local law enforcement,
George decided it was time toset up shop elsewhere, prompting
a move to another city whereRamon had connections Mazatlan.
Everything went smoothly for afew months until someone spotted
one of George's associatesburying 300 kilos in a hole,

(01:12:42):
often used to store it until hisplane could pick it up.
Since he hadn't thought tobribe the Mazatlan police to
look the other way beforehand,George found himself in a
precarious legal situation whenhe went to pick up the stash.

Remi (01:12:55):
I feel like he can still bribe his way out of it.

Ashley (01:12:58):
Well, he was given two options Get a lawyer and
challenge the arrest in court,which could take up to three
years, or buy his way out ofthis mess for $50,000, half of
which would go to the courtjudge.
Since George needed a few daysto get the money to Mazatlan the
officer, let him stay at hishouse in the meantime.

Remi (01:13:16):
This is not typical.

Ashley (01:13:18):
It's Mexico, man, lawless land.
$25,000 was transported a fewdays later, but before the
arrest arrived, a federalprosecutor from Mexico City
turned up out of the blue anddecided to make an example out
of George to show PresidentNixon that Mexico was doing more
than they were getting creditfor when it came to targeting

(01:13:39):
drug smuggling operations.

Remi (01:13:41):
It is also crazy to me that this was occurring during
the Nixon administration.

Ashley (01:13:46):
Nixon, and then next is Reagan.
So George was doing all this ata time when the presidents were
really cracking down on drugs.

Remi (01:13:55):
Yeah, didn't Reagan start the war on drugs?

Ashley (01:13:58):
Oh, yes, he did.
As a result, George was told hewould probably need to spend
about three months in prisonbefore the prearranged deal
could proceed.
This stint ended up beingbeneficial for him in the end,
since he made a new connectionwith ties to the Mexican mafia,
Manuel Perez.
After they were both releasedfrom prison a few months later,

(01:14:18):
the pair became 50-50 partners.
Compared to Ramon, Manuel hadmore access to growers, meaning
George needed to find moreplanes and pilots to keep up
with the increased demand forbusiness.
He began contracting with CliffGuttersrud, who supplied him
pilots for free and leased theplanes through a Manhattan Beach
dummy corporation.

(01:14:39):
He used this pilot for a bitand then this is when he brought
in what I was telling you aboutearlier stealing the planes for
a bit.
So that's where we are at thispoint in time.

Remi (01:14:48):
Okay, they didn't include any pilots in the marijuana
stuff in the movie besidesGeorge and Dooley.

Ashley (01:14:54):
In September 1972, george was in Chicago to broker
a deal with someone who offeredhim $45,000 for 600 pounds of
marijuana.
The plan was to transfer thestash between two limos in the
basement of a Playboy club underthe guise that George was a
fashion photographer sellingcamera equipment.

(01:15:15):
Little did he know, theprospective buyer tried to sell
heroin to an undercover officerthree weeks earlier and agreed
to keep them apprised of the potdeal in exchange for
consideration of a lightersentence.
That night, two DEA officersarrested George and charged him
with possession with intent todistribute.
Instead of answering for hiscrimes, he just flew back to LA

(01:15:38):
to continue his operation assoon as he posted bail two days
later.
A little over a year later,george returned to Boston to
meet with a contact that wouldresult in a major increase in
volume to his business, nettinghim close to a million dollars
annually.
Another plus side was this sidewas going to handle the
transportation and distributionside in the US, meaning George

(01:16:00):
just needed to oversee theMexican end of things.
Since this meant he would be outof the country for the
foreseeable future, he decidedto say goodbye to the parents he
hadn't seen in nearly two yearsIn an attempt to limit his risk
of being caught.
He didn't tell anyone he wascoming and approached the house
through the backyard.
It's unclear if he noticed thathis mom kept sneaking off to

(01:16:21):
the back bedroom while he wascatching up with his parents,
but around 10 pm the agentassigned to his bail-jumping
case got a phone call informinghim of the fugitive's
whereabouts.
Now it hasn't been confirmedwho tipped off the feds to
George's visit.
But the trooper who arrestedhim did say the call was not
from a woman, meaning his motherprobably alerted another family

(01:16:44):
member, such as Uncle George,the retired US Navy commander,
who then called the authorities.
George accepted a plea deal inexchange for three years in
prison.
He ended up being sentenced tofour, since he went on and on
about how he didn't do anythingwrong when asked if he had
anything to say during hissentencing hearing and that's
the video you played for usearlier, remy.

Remi (01:17:05):
Which goes about as well as you would expect.

Ashley (01:17:08):
He arrived at Danbury Federal Correctional Institution
, a low-security prison inConnecticut, in April 1974.
Similar to how he spent hisprison time in Mexico, he got
right to building connections,some of which included a fellow
drug smuggler with a lucrativeprison job as the warden's
office clerk, a member of theIrish Mafia who controlled the

(01:17:31):
kitchen, and 24-year-old CarlosLeder.
Carlos arrived at Danbury aboutone month after George to serve
a two-year sentence for cartheft.

Remi (01:17:41):
This is Diego.

Ashley (01:17:42):
This is Diego.
Carlos's father left Germany inthe late 1920s to set up a
construction business inColombia.
His parents divorced when hewas four years old and he was
raised by his mother, who ran asmall boarding house in a poor,
violent part of Medellin.

Remi (01:17:58):
So he was half German, half Colombian.

Ashley (01:18:01):
I think so.
Yes, because his dad came fromGermany.

Remi (01:18:04):
Okay, because the actor who portrays Diego in the film
has strikingly blue eyes and atfirst I thought it was a white
actor playing the role, but no,he is actually a Spanish actor,
and that even makes more senseif he was someone who was
supposed to be half German andhalf Colombian.

Ashley (01:18:23):
Yes, and later I'll get more into this, but he does end
up making his way back toGermany years and years later
because of his dad's nationality.
So I'm yeah, you're right, he'shalf German and half Colombian.
When Carlos was a teenager, hismom moved most of her children

(01:18:43):
to Queens, but Carlos's oldestbrother stayed behind to run a
family owned car dealership,which at some point became a
cover for Medellin's automotivesmuggling industry, which I
didn't even know was a thing.

Remi (01:18:51):
So they were like smuggling cars into America.

Ashley (01:18:54):
No, they were smuggling cars from America into Medellin,
I think.

Remi (01:18:58):
Why.

Ashley (01:18:59):
I'm not really sure.
I skimmed over this part in thebook so I'm not really sure
where things were being smuggledfrom.
Basically, it was for money.
They were getting cars cheaplyand selling them at higher
prices elsewhere.

Remi (01:19:12):
I'd never heard of car smuggling like this.
That's fascinating to me.

Ashley (01:19:17):
So how did George and Carlos cross paths at Danbury
and began making plans for theircocaine empire?
I'll let George tell the storyhimself.

George Jung (01:19:32):
Carl Slater from Columbia.
And Carl was in there forshipping, stealing cars and
shipping them to South America.
All right, not cocaine.
But yet he asked me what am Idoing here?
And I told him I was flying potout of Mexico.
And he said do you knowanything about cocaine?

(01:19:54):
And I didn't.
And he said you know, it costs$60,000 a kilo.
Then the wheels in my headbegan to spin, like you know, at
high velocity and I said youknow what, I know how to get
that out of there.

Remi (01:20:15):
That is the first time I have ever seen the real George
Jung in action, other than thephoto at the end of Blow, and
first reaction looks nothinglike Johnny Depp whatsoever and
he looks like he's not fullywith it after doing so much to
his body for all those years.

Ashley (01:20:36):
He's very old in this clip and he is having
significant health problems.

Remi (01:20:41):
Understandably so.

Ashley (01:20:43):
And I'll include not a photo of him when he's this old,
but a younger photo on ourInstagram page at Criminal
Adaptations.
And even in his younger yearshe did not resemble Johnny Depp,
so I'm sure he was thrilledwhen he had Johnny Depp when
Johnny Depp was at his peak inlike heartthrobness.

Remi (01:21:02):
This was like top-level Johnny Depp times, like he was
probably the coolest best he hadever been around this time.
So, yeah, I'd be pretty psychedif he was playing me in a movie
at that time.

Ashley (01:21:13):
I'd be pretty psyched if he was playing me in a movie at
that time, by the mid-1970s,there was no Medellin cocaine
cartel, but it would soon growto become the most lucrative and
deadly criminal empire in theworld.
Additionally, cocaine hadn'ttaken off yet and was primarily
only used by rock stars, thewealthy and the pop art crowd.
However, by 1985, the Medellincartel netted between $40 and

(01:21:39):
$50 billion per year, making itthe sixth largest private
enterprise in the Fortune 500,all thanks to the ruthless
leader, pablo Escobar.

Remi (01:21:48):
The amount of money that drug dealers and drug cartels
manage to rake in ismind-boggling to me.
Managed to rake in ismind-boggling to me.

Ashley (01:21:56):
At the time of Carlos and George's meeting, the cartel
really only transported cocaineto areas with large Colombian
populations like Miami and NewYork City.
What they really needed wassomeone with a West Coast
connection, someone they couldtrust, with access to a reliable
distribution network someonelike George Jung to a reliable

(01:22:18):
distribution network, someonelike George Young.
32-year-old George was releasedon parole six months early in
1975.
Since he refused to spend sixmonths in a halfway house, he
was required to live with hisparents for the first 12 months
of his 30-month parole period.
He was miserable at home andmissed the fast life, but he had
few options since Carlos wasgoing to be in prison for at
least six more months and wasfacing deportation.

(01:22:39):
In early 1976, he got thetelegram he had been waiting for
, in addition to a Medellinphone number.
It read Weather beautiful,please come down, your friend
Carlos.
Since George was on parole, hedecided it would be safer to
send someone to Medellin in hisplace to meet with Carlos and
his connections.

(01:22:59):
He settled on his good friendand fellow marijuana trafficker,
frank Shea.
Frank flew to Colombia inmid-March 1976 and was ecstatic
about what he learned.
Although George wanted flightsto start right away, the
Columbians were understandablyhesitant to front an unknown
white man hundreds of kilos.

(01:23:20):
The next day, carlos laid outthe plan George would buy 15
hard-shelled suitcases, have twocouriers take them to Antigua,
a Caribbean island wheresuccessful drug runs had already
been achieved, and check into ahotel.
Once there, carlos wouldreplace the suitcases with
identical ones that had theinner linings removed and were

(01:23:42):
replaced with one kilo each,resulting in an expected net
profit of $750,000.
The couriers needed to bepretty tan women who weren't
afraid or uneasy about what theywere doing.
The contents of their luggageshould also resemble something
someone would need for aCaribbean vacation.
The two lucky ladies who carriedoff the plan without a hitch

(01:24:05):
were his girlfriend and her bestfriend.
I am shocked they excluded thisfrom the movie.
After the goods landed inBoston, george delivered 10
kilos to a member of the carteland sold the other five himself.
He quickly found a dealer whoreplaced the five kilos with
$250,000 within a week.
This proved that he couldhandle high volumes, but he

(01:24:27):
wanted a pilot who could handlemuch, much larger loads.
In July 1976, george met BarryKane, a lawyer whose business
was in a decline, had hiscommercial pilot license and a
plane and was more than happy tobecome a drug smuggler.

Remi (01:24:41):
This has to be the guy in the movie.

Ashley (01:24:43):
Perhaps he had several flyers, but this is the main one
that he was working with whenhe was with Carlos.
So if that's how it's portrayedin the movie, then it's this
guy.
Okay.
George and Carlos met inToronto to talk details on
October 1976.
The plan was for Barry to flyto a ranch outside of Medellin
and take off the next day.

(01:25:04):
For this first run they wouldbe paid a total of $3 million
$10,000 per kilo.

Remi (01:25:09):
This is the guy.

Ashley (01:25:11):
George would be given some cocaine to sell, but most
would be delivered to otherdealers working for the cartel.
Barry foresaw a few potentialproblems.
First, he did not want to landin Florida, as that was where
the DEA expected drugs to besmuggled into.
Instead, he proposed stoppingin the Bahamas, landing in North
Carolina and handing the stashoff to George and Carlos, who

(01:25:33):
could then transport it to Miami.
The second problem involved thefuel capacity of Barry's plane.
He estimated it would take$50,000 to install covert fuel
expanders and other high-techdevices to ensure safe travel.
Carlos wrote him a check on thespot and the group went their
separate ways to get everythingready for their first run their

(01:25:57):
separate ways to get everythingready for their first run.

Remi (01:25:58):
In the film, the pilot is also required to give the cartel
photos and addresses of all ofhis family members, just in case
he decided to fly off withtheir drugs.
It's an extra incentive for himto not do that.

Ashley (01:26:11):
I omitted this, but at some point before this first run
happened, carlos told Georgethat the cartel was uneasy with
having this guy fly.
So he basically told Barry whatyou have to do is Carlos has to
come in to your house, seephotos of your family, and then
we can do this.
And Barry was like, okay.

Remi (01:26:31):
Because that's one of the most messed up things about the
Medellin cartel is they would goafter your family.
They would go after women,children didn't matter.

Ashley (01:26:41):
Soon after, carlos' behavior became increasingly
erratic and unpredictable.
In addition to the check thathe gave Barry bouncing, he
wasn't keeping in as close ofcontact with George as much and
even got arrested.
Contact with George as much andeven got arrested.
After he was released heinstructed George to pick up 50
kilos for him in Miami, but hegot stalled trying to cross the

(01:27:01):
Canadian border back to theStates.
Rather than becoming angry orjust taking the drugs for
himself, george took this as anopportunity to show the
Colombians that he could unloadthe product on his own.
He only knew one person whocould sell that amount of
cocaine Richard Burrill.
Five days later he flew back toMiami with over $2 million.
This rapid turnaround caughtthe cartel's attention and they

(01:27:24):
urged him to move to Miami assoon as possible so they could
have him transport 50 to 100,000kilos to the West Coast each
week.
In May 1977, george, carlos andCarlos' wife Jamel moved into a
Miami apartment together.
Two weeks after the move hestarted making regular trips to
LA.
His routine rarely changed.

(01:27:45):
He flew to California, stayedat Richard's for a few days
while the goods were offloaded,went back to Miami and took home
his cut of $50,000.
To keep up with his fast-pacedlifestyle.
He began using more and more ofhis own product and started
chartering his own flights,since he was gaining too many
suitcases to take on commercialones.

Remi (01:28:06):
There's the old, notorious BIG saying never get high on
your own supply.

Ashley (01:28:10):
I think the reason why he did it is he just had so much
fucking money that he was justlike fuck it, I need energy.
He had no time to sleep.
Basically, the only time he wassleeping was on the flights to
and from these places.

Remi (01:28:23):
He was on a lot of flights , though.
Let's be fair.

Ashley (01:28:31):
Throughout this time, Carlos badgered George for
information about his elusiveWest Coast dealer, but George
kept the identities of both mensecret from the other as he was
worried they would team up toget a bigger cut.
He finally agreed to introducethe two by the end of July, a
decision he would later regret.
While George was flying coastto coast, Carlos dove headfirst
into plans to create a cocainetransportation compound in the

(01:28:52):
Bahamas, something he wanted todo since he learned the island
didn't yet have an extraditiontreaty with the US.
He settled on the island ofNorman Cay and immediately began
negotiations to purchase alarge amount of acreage, which
included an airstrip and hotel,under the pretenses of
developing the property fortourism.

(01:29:12):
George thought the 28-year-old'sobsession with building a
Bahaman cocaine empire wasridiculous, but he didn't have
the heart to tell him.
So as Carlos grew closer tosettling the land deal, George
started to wonder whether he wasbeing left out in some way from
the LA-Miami transactions.
Not only was he speaking toCarlos less and less, but the

(01:29:34):
cocaine he was now being givenwas second rate, meaning Richard
couldn't sell as much andcertainly not at the same price
he was used to.
His concerns briefly abatedwhen Barry gave word that his
plane was finally ready to start.
The runs of 250 kilos, that isso much cocaine.
I just did the math, folks, andthat's about 550 pounds of

(01:29:55):
cocaine.

Remi (01:29:56):
I have no words.
That's fucking crazy.

Ashley (01:29:58):
George was also calmed by the fact that at this point
he had more money than he knewwhat to do with about $10
million in cash stored in thewalls, floors, air ducts and AC
units in a safe house inMassachusetts.
Soon after, carlos urged Georgeto visit Norman Kaye to see
what all the excitement wasabout.
During the trip, he talked atlength about his plans to buy up

(01:30:22):
all the houses to get rid ofthe residents, vaguely alluding
to murder if anyone refused.
He also seemed to think that hecould just pay off the prime
minister and basically doanything he wanted.
It was clear to George thatCarlos had changed and that the
partnership and friendship wascoming close to an end.
While all this was going down,george flew to New York City to

(01:30:42):
drop off some cocaine toHumberto Hoyas, a relative of
Carlos' wife, a close associateof Pablo Escobar and controller
of a large portion of thecocaine market on the Upper East
Side.
Upon touching down, he waspicked up by Humberto's wife,
maria, and her 24-year-oldsister, mirtha Calderon.
Mirtha's father was a member ofthe Cuban army and after Castro

(01:31:06):
came to power, her motherbrought her two daughters to
Chicago and married a manconnected to the Italian mob At
age 15 and 16, mirtha married aVietnam soldier, had a daughter
named Claire and moved to NewYork City.
After the short-lived marriagefailed, george and Mirtha had an
immediate connection, so muchso that she called off her
wedding to someone George hadworked with during his early

(01:31:30):
days of suitcase pot smuggling.

Remi (01:31:32):
Wait.
So this woman started with theItalian mob and then graduated
to the Mexican cartel.

Ashley (01:31:38):
So the sister married Humberto, who was Pablo's like
one of his right-hand men.
So, yeah, by the end of theyear the couple lived in Cape
Cod and eloped in Canada.
This union proved to bepersonally and professionally
beneficial to George.
Through Humberto, he was givena new wholesaler in Manhattan,

(01:32:00):
which he needed, since he couldno longer rely on Richard.
He also still had many EastCoast connections from his
marijuana days.
Getting his supply fromHumberto meant he had to work in
some capacity as a dealer,which he didn't like, since he
was making less and puttinghimself at greater risk.

Remi (01:32:16):
When you say dealer, like street level dealer type stuff,
or what level is this?
I picture with this type ofdrug empire he would be pretty
high up.

Ashley (01:32:26):
Basically, carlos was the one that was responsible
getting it from Colombia intothe States, which is what George
wanted to do.
After that it would bedistributed across people within
the Colombian cartel.
Humberto was one of thosepeople.
He would then give the stash toGeorge, who would then give it
to low-level dealers todistribute, and then they would

(01:32:48):
probably give it to lower ones.
But he was still in that dealerpipeline and he wanted to be in
the transportation andtransportation only.
That's where the money reallywas.

Remi (01:32:58):
And far less risk, I would assume.

Ashley (01:33:00):
Yeah, because you have to get higher and higher, higher
, higher up to even get to him.
Although George, like I said,desperately wanted back in the
transportation side of things,carlos had a lock on that.
Now, through Humberto, georgelearned Carlos completed his
Norman Kaye plan by the end of1977.
Shortly after the new year.
He had employees, a fleet ofboats and a number of airplanes,

(01:33:23):
one of which was being operatedby his old pal Barry Kane.
Wherever George went, he wasbombarded with talks about
Carlos, how well he was doing,how big he was getting and how
much he screwed George over.
He became so fed up that hewent to confront his former
partner, only to be told thatthere was only room for one drug

(01:33:44):
kingpin at Norman Kaye.

Remi (01:33:46):
So this was the scene that we played a clip from.

Ashley (01:33:50):
Yes, it was that George basically went and was like we
were supposed to be partners.
What's happening?
Yada, yada, yada, and Carloswas like sorry, not sorry, this
is my empire.
Now I don't know if he ended upgetting assaulted.

Remi (01:34:06):
Carlos was surrounded by bodyguards that had guns, so I'm
not exactly what went down onthat side of things, but that
scene in the movie you showed isthis I just couldn't imagine
being George walking up toCarlos or Diego, literally
outgunned on the guy's ownterritory like this, like you

(01:34:26):
are going into the enemy's zoneand confronting him like this.
It's amazing to me that hewasn't killed.

Ashley (01:34:35):
Especially because, how I read it is he was fucking
pissed because Carlos wasn'tonly pushing him out of the
transportation business, but hewas stealing the men that George
recruited.

Remi (01:34:47):
Even in the film George pulls a gun on him.
It's not loaded.
But I don't understand whyDiego slash Carlos didn't kill
George in this situation.

Ashley (01:34:57):
Despite his business woes, his life with Mirtha was
fairly smooth and theirhappiness only mounted when she
learned she was pregnant inJanuary 1978.
That spring George hired twonew pilots and was back in the
transportation business.
To make up for lost income, herefused to take home anything
less than $1 million per trip.

(01:35:18):
Christina Sunshine Jung wasborn in late July 1978.
By this time George's cocainehabit was completely out of
control.
He was snorting on average 5grams per day, and sometimes up
to 15.
When the family was in the carto take their newborn baby home,
george had a heart attack andleft against medical advice as

(01:35:39):
soon as he was able.
On the plus side, his healthscare and newfound fatherhood
did prompt him to cut back onhis cocaine use, but, unlike how
it is depicted in the movie, itdid not prompt him to stop
selling and transporting cocaine.
Since he now had about $3million in cash lying around, he

(01:35:59):
hired someone to transport ajet full of money to Panama City
each month so it could bedeposited in an offshore account
.
With business looking up,george decided it was finally
time to meet the head honcho,pablo Escobar.
In the fall of 1978, he flew toEscobar's ranch in Medellin and

(01:36:19):
had a rather uneventful weekendwith him.
That is until Pablo shot a manin the chest right in front of
George just minutes before hisdeparting flight.
After learning he was aninformant and then looked at
George and suggested asteakhouse for dinner.

Remi (01:36:33):
This happens in the film and it happens at the very
beginning of their meeting.
Pablo kills a man basically onhis way up to speak with George
and explains the situation toGeorge afterwards.

Ashley (01:36:46):
I feel like it would be so much more nerve-wracking for
this to happen at the beginningof your trip versus the end.

Remi (01:36:52):
I think that's why they changed it for the film.
If you saw someone literallymurder a man seconds before your
business meeting with them, youwould be terrified for the rest
of the time, I assume.

Ashley (01:37:05):
I tried really, really hard to find a clip of the real
George Jung talking about this.
But in the several interviewswhere they asked him about it
because it is depicted in Blow,like you said, and it is in the
book that George worked with theauthor to write but despite
that, each time they asked himhe just either brushed it off or

(01:37:26):
flat out said whatever happenedbetween me and Pablo Escobar is
between me and Pablo Escobar.
He refused to talk about it oncamera.

Remi (01:37:35):
We are really going to have to bite the bullet someday
and do Narcos and a PabloEscobar season finale.
I feel like it will comeeventually.
It's still probably a ways off,but there is so much there,
there's so much story there.
It would be fascinating.

Ashley (01:37:50):
The summer of 1980 was the beginning of the end for
George.
Although he cut back on excessspending and put most of his
income into offshore accounts, alocal cop from the Capes
started questioning how he couldafford all those fancy cars and
lavish parties, prompting himto call the Massachusetts State
Police for help at the beginningof August.

(01:38:11):
In response, the agency sent anundercover trooper posing as a
man named Bill Smith toinvestigate.

Remi (01:38:18):
Yeah, Bill Smith, the most normal name in the world.

Ashley (01:38:20):
I thought that when I wrote it, I'm like wow, that is
such.

Remi (01:38:24):
It's the most generic undercover name I've ever heard.

Ashley (01:38:28):
It's like so generic at the point that if you meet
anyone named Bill Smith you'relike there's no way that's
really your name.
Seriously, I've never met aBill Smith and if I did, I would
assume it's an undercover cop.
The agent drove to a privatebeach near George's house and
posted up for a few hours.
Finally, george stuck his headout of the window and asked Bill

(01:38:49):
if he wouldn't mind pulling inhis catamaran, since it was
about to be high tide.
After the favor, bill got totalking with George and claimed
to be at the beach alone becausehis wife just died.
Moved by the story, georgecontinued getting to know Bill
the next day and shared hissuspicions that Bill was
actually a dope dealer.
He didn't believe Bill whentold that wasn't the case and

(01:39:11):
proceeded to tell the undercoveragent that he worked in the
cocaine business and could makeBill a very, very wealthy man.
Before long, Bill was drivingGeorge and his family on all
sorts of errands and agreed towatch their house while George
and Martha went on a two-monthtrip to Columbia.
They returned on October 13,1980, with several people Bill

(01:39:34):
hadn't seen before, includingRichard Burrill, who George made
up with after Carlos screwedhim over too.
George was in high spirits andshared that he was throwing a
party that night, complete withbooze and a pound of cocaine.
At this time, law enforcementhad a strict buy or bust policy.
This meant if a police officercame across someone in

(01:39:55):
possession of drugs, the onlyway it could be overlooked was
if there was an intent to getdeeper into the organization.
But they would still have tobuy the entire stash right then
to prevent it from getting ontothe streets.
Since the Massachusetts PoliceDepartment didn't have enough
cash for the purchase, they hadno choice but to arrest George

(01:40:15):
that night.
The plan was for the officerssurrounding the house to enter
five minutes after.
Bill signaled them by goingoutside to grab a bottle of
champagne from his trunk as soonas the cocaine came into view.
Although Bill did everythingaccording to plan, no one came.
He couldn't keep his anxiety atbay by 2 am, so he pulled out

(01:40:36):
his gun and told everyone theywere under arrest.
What George and Martha laughed,thinking it was all a joke,
until the rest of the agencystormed in a few seconds later.

Remi (01:40:48):
Lucky for him, it was a few seconds later.
Could you imagine him juststanding there for like 10-15
minutes?
Could you imagine him juststanding there for like?

Ashley (01:40:55):
10-15 minutes.
A few months before this arrest, the government created strict
minimum sentencing laws forcocaine possession, which meant
George was facing 10 yearswithout the possibility of
parole.
After he was bailed out, theJung family packed a few bags
and made a run for it.
George stopped to say goodbyeto his parents, since he knew he
wasn't going to be seeing themfor a while.

(01:41:16):
They wished him luck but toldhim to never come back, since
they could no longer handle thestress he was putting them
through.
This was the last time he eversaw them.
The Jones family changed theirappearance and settled in a
neighborhood in Fort Lauderdalethat was well below their means.
Mertha did not take well tolife on the lam.
Before long she was drinkingheavily and smoking crack.

(01:41:38):
One night she even fell asleepwith a candle burning, the flame
of which set fire to thecurtains and burned the house
down.
While the family barely escapedwith their lives, they lost all
their belongings, includingtheir receipts with the bank
number to Georgia's Panama Cityaccount.
Desperate for cash, he foundanother pilot and secured a trip
transporting 500 kilos While inColombia.

(01:42:01):
To seal the deal, aninterpreter cornered George and
said he wanted him to meet somepeople who had their own dope to
sell to, george decided itprobably wouldn't be wise to
cross Escobar.
So he immediately told the fourmen who were waiting back in
his hotel room.
Shortly after they returnedwith the interpreter and chucked
him off the balcony.
Back at home, george and Mirthafought non-stop.

(01:42:24):
They had a particularly violentargument driving home from a
party one night, during whichthey were pulled over by local
police.
As soon as the cops approachedthe car, she started screaming
about how George was a drugsmuggler with an active warrant
out of Massachusetts.
Two days later George signedextradition papers.
Murtha too was arrested on afugitive warrant and extradited.

(01:42:47):
In October 1981, george andMurtha were sentenced to 13
months in jail.
You're probably wondering howhe got just over a year when the
mandatory minimum sentence forthe amount of cocaine he had was
10.
Well, his lawyers successfullyargued that the mandatory
sentencing law wasconstitutionally vague.
So the prosecution offered asubstantially reduced sentence,

(01:43:10):
which meant the couple would bereleased after a few days with
good behavior credits.

Remi (01:43:15):
That is insane.

Ashley (01:43:16):
This guy has real good lawyers.

Remi (01:43:19):
He had a lot of luck up until the very end.

Ashley (01:43:22):
A few days later George and his family returned to Fort
Lauderdale where he promptlyresumed cocaine smuggling.
In the fall of 1983, georgeagreed to do a favor for a
down-and-out pilot who said hehad some cocaine to sell.
Unfortunately for George, hewas arrested again, again since
the pilot was working with thepolice.
This was the last straw forMartha.

(01:43:42):
She promptly moved the childrento San Francisco to start a new
life and to continue a drug andalcohol treatment program that
she started in jail.
When five-year-old Christinaasked why Daddy wasn't coming,
she was told he was in ahospital and paralyzed a story
developed with the help ofMartha's jail caseworker,
because it would be much easierto tell that to a five-year-old

(01:44:04):
than have to explain who herfather was.

Remi (01:44:06):
I get it.
That was what the caseworkersuggested.

Ashley (01:44:10):
That is the story they came up with together that he's
paralyzed.

Remi (01:44:14):
That is insane.
That that is a caseworkeractually helped contribute to
that sort of story.

Ashley (01:44:20):
But if you put yourself in Martha's shoes, she knew she
wanted to get out of thislifestyle and she knew she would
have to explain to her daughterwhy, all of a sudden, her dad
was no longer there.
So what are her options?
He's dead, he is a cocainekingpin and have to explain what
cocaine and drugs are or somesort of other story.

(01:44:42):
And that's what they told.
It was a way for her to tellher daughter don't worry,
daddy's alive, but he can't comewith us because he physically
cannot and she's five.

Remi (01:44:53):
I don't know what would be more traumatic.
They all seem like really badoptions.

Ashley (01:44:57):
to tell your child it's a tough situation Mirtha was in,
that's for sure.
Yeah, Mirtha remained on theWest Coast and has lived a
low-profile life.
All I could really find abouther is she stayed sober and
became a writer and a poet.
As for Christina, she learnedthat her dad wasn't actually a
hospitalized paraplegic when shewas 22 years old.

(01:45:21):
So I will say Mertha shouldhave told her daughter the truth
way sooner than 22.

Remi (01:45:26):
Yeah, the teen years seems like the time you would break
that sort of news to someone but22?
.
Wow, she really kept up thatlie.

Ashley (01:45:34):
Father and daughter briefly reconciled in 2014, but,
per George during a laterinterview, they did not sustain
any sort of relationship.
By 1982, the mandatorysentencing laws had been fixed.
In addition to the cocainecharge, which carried a
mandatory minimum of 20 years,george was charged with

(01:45:54):
interstate transportation of aweapon in connection with a
felony, since a gun was found inthe trunk of his car.
But since George is one of theluckiest men on the planet, the
seized kilo of cocaine somehowwent missing from the evidence
storage locker.

Remi (01:46:09):
George has a guardian angel looking over him.
That is what are the?

Ashley (01:46:14):
odds.
That's why I don't really feelthat bad for him, because he had
so many opportunities to stopand he just didn't.
As a result, george's lawyerthreatened to call to the
witness stand every singleofficer who had access to the
cocaine to get to the bottom ofwhat happened.
Knowing that this would be a PRnightmare, the prosecution

(01:46:36):
agreed to a compromise Georgewould serve a little over three
years, two of which would be ata minimum security camp, with
the 18 months for the gun chargerunning concurrently.
This was more than acceptablefor George, as he decided he
would try to escape the camp assoon as he got there.

Remi (01:46:52):
Just do the time, george, come on.

Ashley (01:46:56):
So why did he want to escape?
Contrary to what the moviewould have you believe, it
wasn't because he wanted to seehis sweet, sweet baby girl.
It was because he was worriedabout his money in Panama, which
he estimated to be around $68million.
So the plan was to do one moredrug run, get enough money
together to get down to Panamaand list the help of whoever he

(01:47:19):
needed, withdraw his fortune andretire somewhere abroad.
George was at the minimum campfor six months before he just
walked out of the unfenced yardon the night of February 13th
1985.

Remi (01:47:34):
Unfenced yard.

Ashley (01:47:36):
I'm not sure if they still have completely unfenced
places, but yeah, back in theday if you were at a very
minimum security work camp, itwas just basically a prison in
the middle of nowhere with nofences, because they trusted
that people would stay, and mostdid.
If they made it to that point,he only had a year and a half,

(01:47:56):
and that's if he didn't get anysort of good behavior credit.
So it would have been more forthese people that make it this
far.
It's more hassle to run offthan it is to just stick at this
.
Really, really, really easy,easy prison to do your time.
You have so much freedom.

Remi (01:48:15):
Why did he think that he needed to get to his money so
urgently?

Ashley (01:48:20):
That's not really explained.

Remi (01:48:21):
It seems like he could have done his time and then gone
to Panama and gotten his moneyand been hunky dory.

Ashley (01:48:28):
My theory is dating back to early childhood.
George is a man who is addictedto adrenaline and adventure and
the thrill of it.
And yeah, it would have beeneasy.
He could have just sat there,gotten released, even if he was
on parole, done the two to fouryears and then tried to find his

(01:48:48):
money.
But I think he was just so Idon't want to say greedy, but
like just so concerned withkeeping up this persona that he
had made for himself, and I dothink he was addicted to the
adrenaline that all of this gavehim.
Right away he called Humbertoto line up the kilos for one

(01:49:10):
last trip and learned everythingshould be ready in about two
months.
In March, one month after hisprison escape, a man by the name
of Dale was released.
George met Dale in prison andthey struck up a friendship as
they both lived in FortLauderdale and were involved in
drug smuggling.
Dale told him he could helpGeorge get access to planes and

(01:49:32):
a landing field.
As soon as he was released heintroduced George to Leon
Harbuck.
Within a few weeks of meetingLeon, he called to say he found
a couple of guys in thetransportation business who
seemed to have everything Georgeneeded.
George agreed to meet Tom andGreg, along with whoever would
be flying the load.
At first George was a littleuneasy, probably because the

(01:49:55):
last two times he tried to workwith people he didn't know
resulted in prompt arrests.
But his nerves dissipated assoon as he saw the pilot, cliff
Guttersrud, the same pilot whoflew marijuana for him and lived
with him in Puerto Vallartawhat felt like a lifetime ago.

Remi (01:50:13):
In the film it is his friend Dooley to what felt like
a lifetime ago.

Ashley (01:50:16):
In the film it is his friend Dooley.
Oh, so it would have been Barry.
I see why they did that,because George had so many
pilots.
These were definitely the twothat were the most prominent,
because Cliff was kind of thefirst one and that was with him
during the marijuana smugglingand Barry was the most prominent
one during the cocainesmuggling.

Remi (01:50:33):
Dooley is the one that he did his very first drug run
flight in the movie with.
So it's like a full circlething where it's the person he
did his first one with it's alsofor the cocaine right.
Yes, no, it was the marijuanain the movie is what they
started off with.

Ashley (01:50:51):
Okay, then that is who this person is.

Remi (01:50:53):
Oh, okay.

Ashley (01:50:54):
It's one of his first.
It's his first pilot.

Remi (01:50:57):
This guy was not a pilot.
It was his friend that knew howto fly a plane, basically, but
they may have combined thischaracter with a pilot.

Ashley (01:51:05):
Gotcha okay.
So yes, in real life George wasflying for himself for a few
trips and then he wanted someonewho could fly a bigger plane
with more experience and hadaccess to more planes and pilots
so he could make these tripsmore frequently.
And that guy was Cliff.
Okay, so it still really wasthe first pilot that George had,

(01:51:25):
and one that had nothing to dowith cocaine and they hadn't
spoken in years and years andyears.
So it was just it was comingfull circle for him.

Remi (01:51:33):
And it was happenstance in the film as well.
He was not expecting to see hisfor him.
And it was happenstance in thefilm as well he was not
expecting to see his old friend.

Ashley (01:51:39):
And that is true.
He was shocked to see Cliff.
So how did this all come to be?
Was it happenstance or wassomething else in play?
Well, ronald Reagan's war ondrugs was in full force by the
spring of 1985, but the DEAhadn't put a dent in the cartel
cocaine business.
Most drug busts involvedmarijuana or teeny, tiny amounts

(01:52:01):
of cocaine, at most a few kilos.
This changed when a low-leveldealer who made extra money
cooperating with the police toldtwo Fort Lauderdale police
agents that he knew about anolder man in the Everglades with
ties to Columbia looking forsome guys to help him transport
a large amount of cocaine intothe States.
The informant introduced agentsTom and Greg to Leon Harbuck a

(01:52:25):
few days later.
While deciding how to getinvolved, the agents realized
their lack of resources was apotential problem.
The Fort Lauderdale PD hadacquired a few boats and some
flashy cars from Drug Bus, butthey didn't have any airplanes,
much less the level of one theywould need to pull off an
undercover cocaine heist.
So they put in a call to MikeMcGannis at the local DEA office

(01:52:50):
.
As a DEA agent, mcmanus hadaccess to a lot more resources,
the most important of which wereairplanes and pilots.
Many of the pilots were doingpenance for a bust or had done
their prison time and wereearning a living working on
undercover stings.
One of these pilots wasGeorge's former friend, cliff

(01:53:12):
Guttersrud.
The three agents started to planout a controlled delivery.
Tom and George would pose assmugglers, organize the airlift
and have the drugs flown in bytheir own pilot.
Once everything landed in FortLauderdale, they would transport
the load to a safe houseguarded by hidden police.
Their hope was to get a glimpseinto how the Colombian cocaine

(01:53:33):
cartel operated and penetratethe network by meeting with
members living in Miami.
Flashback to the meeting withGeorge Although he kept it to
himself that he recognized Cliff, cliff told the agents all
about who George was.
This could have posed apotential problem, since the DEA
had a strict policy thatwhenever an agent ran across

(01:53:54):
someone wanted by anotherjurisdiction, that person had to
be arrested right away unlessthe jurisdiction signed off on
keeping the fugitive free forthe duration of the sting.
While the Massachusetts StatePolice were willing to go along
with the plan, the Bureau ofPrisons weren't too keen on
keeping an escaped fugitive onthe streets.

(01:54:15):
They ultimately agreed to do soas long as the Fort Lauderdale
Police Department kept closetabs on him.
To do this, they decided tomove everyone into a recently
seized $750,000 yacht, under theguise that it belonged to Tom's
dad.
This worked for a while untilCliff brought home a woman who

(01:54:37):
recognized the boat as the exactsame one seized from her former
husband.
Meaning George had to berelocated to a hotel to protect
their cover.
What luck he just brings homethis.
Like rando, he met at a bar andshe's like this is my
ex-husband's yacht.

Remi (01:54:54):
Seriously, what are the odds?
Husband's yacht.

Ashley (01:54:56):
Seriously, what are the odds?
After three and a half monthsof planning, the plane took off
on May 25th 1985 and returned alittle after midnight.
After that it was taken to thesafe house to begin dealing with
the transfer to the Columbians.
However, these negotiationsdidn't go as planned, since the

(01:55:20):
dealers couldn't come up withthe full $1.2 million without
being fronted some kilos to sellfirst.
Since the DEA was afraid torisk losing the trail and
allowing the cocaine todisappear at people's noses,
they elected to arrest George.
At 9am the next morning, threeto four hundred kilos of cocaine
were seized, making it thelargest cocaine bust in the
department's history.
At the time, george was chargedwith two counts of importing

(01:55:42):
and possession of cocaine withintent to distribute and two
counts of conspiring with othersto import and distribute.
Each count held a possibilityof 15 years in prison.
His lawyer's defense strategywas to muddy the waters for the
prosecution by stressing thatGeorge couldn't have pulled off
the transport without the helpof law enforcement, since he had

(01:56:03):
just escaped prison and didn'thave easy access to the
resources he would need.
The police got him the planeand the pilot, and they came
very close to committing crimesthemselves.
The goal was to convince theprosecutor that this would be a
long and expensive case to win.
He succeeded in getting a dealthat involved George pleading

(01:56:23):
guilty to only one charge inexchange for a 15-year sentence.
George was ready to sign theplea agreement until he learned
the name of one man.
Two FBI agents were searchingfor Carlos Leder.
Norman Kaye had become too hotfor Carlos in the early 1980s,
prompting him to return toColombia, where he bought a

(01:56:44):
ranch and built a resort.
While there, he founded aparamilitary group whose focus
was to retaliate against thekidnappings of cartel members
and their families by militiagroups, a cause he was
interested in, since he waskidnapped for ransom and escaped
after being shot in the leg.
Shortly after he returned toColombia, he also organized the

(01:57:04):
Movimento Latino Nacional, aparty that used Colombian
nationalism as a guise forrallying against extraditing
drug traffickers to the US.
The FBI began gatheringevidence about Carlos'
activities and drug operation inthe Bahamas in the late 1970s.
In January 1981, he and 13co-conspirators were indicted on

(01:57:28):
a total of 39 counts forcocaine smuggling and tax
evasion.
Although the Colombiangovernment signed arrest papers
in September 1983, carlos was inhiding and couldn't be located.
George secretly met with the DEAevery day for close to two
weeks in 1986 and told themeverything about his
relationship and dealings withCarlos.

(01:57:50):
After that, the focus of themeeting switched to discussing
how George could be utilized tohelp capture his nemesis.
To discussing how George couldbe utilized to help capture his
nemesis.
The initial plan was for Georgeto fly to Colombia, make amends
and trick Carlos intopurchasing missiles that he
would want to use for hisparamilitary group.
The problem was that it was nosecret that George had been

(01:58:11):
arrested, so the police wouldhave to stage a fake escape
attempt, something the FBI wasnot willing to go along with.
In the end, this didn't matter,as Carlos was arrested on
February 4th 1987 and became thefirst high-level drug
trafficker extradited to the US.
The prevailing theory for how hewas apprehended involved the

(01:58:34):
cartel or Pablo Escobar himselfproviding a tip about his
whereabouts.
Since he had become quite anuisance, George initially
refused to testify againstCarlos in open court.
Helping catch him was one thing, but being labeled a rat was
something else entirely.
His mind changed in the springof 1987 when he read an article
in the Miami Herald thatincluded a letter Carlos wrote

(01:58:57):
to Vice President George Bush.
In the letter, carlos said hewould turn in everyone in his
criminal network, which includedhundreds of Colombians, and
tell the government everythingthey wanted to know about Pablo
Escobar.
In return, he wanted to bereleased and promised to leave
the country and never smuggledrugs again.

Remi (01:59:17):
He would not be alive for very long after his release.

Ashley (01:59:21):
Also, what a desperate, desperate attempt.
I don't know how the MiamiHerald got hold of this letter
and published it.
I'm very, very, very surprisedthey did.
But yeah, I mean he was clearlydesperate and was like what can
I do?
Maybe write the friggin vicepresident of the United States?
I mean, why not?
After reading this desperateattempt for freedom, george

(01:59:43):
called Murtha, instructed her touse Humberto to get a message
to Escobar about Carlos's letterand asked for permission to
testify against him.
Two days later George gotEscobar's response.

Remi (01:59:57):
Fuck him Two days later George got Escobar's response.
Fuck him, wow.
He asked Pablo Escobar if hecould testify against someone.
That is nuts.

Ashley (02:00:13):
I mean, like you had just said, I think he was
worried about if I do anythingto piss off the all-powerful
Medellin cartel.
What's going to happen if Ifind myself in a prison where
there's another member in hereand I did something to piss off
Pablo Escobar?
If there's anyone in the worldyou didn't want to piss off,
pablo Escobar is on the top ofthat list.

Remi (02:00:30):
I'm just surprised that Pablo Escobar responded at all,
let alone give him permission tocooperate with the police.

Ashley (02:00:38):
I mean he responded not directly to George, but through
this transportation line thatGeorge had, because Humberto was
, you know, one of hisright-hand mans and because the
prevailing theory is thatEscobar and the cartel are the
one that turned Carlos in.
And then Carlos is now sayinglet me free and I'll tell you
everything you want to knowabout every single person in

(02:01:00):
this cartel, including the head,honcho himself.
I'm not really surprised thathe was like bury him.

Remi (02:01:07):
During George and Pablo's only meeting.
In the film it is made clearthat Pablo does not trust Carlos
slash Diego because he justdoesn't find him reliable.
He's getting arrested forrandom things and, yeah, he does
not trust Carlos from day one.

Ashley (02:01:26):
So I think that's why Pablo gave him the go ahead,
because he probably really,really, really respected George
by even going through therigmarole to ask him for
permission in the first place.
Carlos' trial began in lateNovember 1987.
George was the opening witnessfor the prosecution.
His testimony lasted severaldays and filled up 564 pages of

(02:01:50):
court transcript.
The defense strategy was topaint Carlos as a maligned and
misunderstood businessman whoseactivities on Norman Kaye had
nothing to do with cocaine andwas all about making the island
into a tourist resort.
The defense didn't call Carlosor a single witness to the stand
, which is wild because thedefense basically, after it was

(02:02:14):
turned to them, they didn't haveany witnesses to call, so they
were just like the defense rest.
So this is seven months of theprosecution just laying out
their case.
But instead they concentratedtheir efforts on
cross-examination to try to showthe jury that everyone was
lying about who Carlos reallywas.
I imagine eachcross-examination was really

(02:02:36):
really long.
The seven-month trial came to aclose in mid-May 1988.
Seven days later he wasconvicted on all 11 counts, of
which he was charged andsentenced to life without the
possibility of parole plus anadditional 135 years.
His sentence was reduced to 55years after.

(02:02:57):
He provided key testimony inhelping convict a drug smuggler
and former Panama dictator in1992.
Following his testimony, he wasplaced in witness protection
and relocated to an undisclosedprison.
He filed two failed appeals in2005 and 2007 and was ultimately
released on June 15, 2020.

(02:03:19):
He was extradited to Germanysince he had citizenship there
through his father.
I'm not sure if he's stillalive today, but according to
declarations from his daughter,a primary reason for his release
was a relapse in prostatecancer which was diagnosed years
later.
A charity in Germany agreed topay for his treatment.
All the major drug smugglersassociated with George were

(02:03:43):
arrested or, as was the case forHumberto, fled to Colombia In
1988, pilot Barry Kane wasconvicted of charges related to
two drug flights he made forGeorge and Carlos in 1977 and
sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Hairdresser-turned-drug kingpinRichard Baril pled guilty to
cocaine distribution charges in1989.

(02:04:05):
He served two and a half yearsand moved to Mexico after he was
released, which explains whyPee-wee Herman was unable to
meet with him for the film.
And if you want to learn aboutwhat happened to Pablo Escobar,
you'll have to listen to ourseason finale in two weeks.
And lastly, what about GeorgeJung?
Around Christmas 1987, hereceived a call from Martha and

(02:04:27):
learned his father was dying ofcolon cancer.
Although he got permission toleave prison to say goodbye, his
sister said any sort of visitwould not be good for their dad,
since George caused the familyenough heartache for one
lifetime.

Remi (02:04:40):
Instead, an agent gave him a tape recorder so he could
record his final goodbye.

Ashley (02:04:57):
Fred Jung died on April 26, 1988.
Not long after George learnedthat, after the tape arrived,
Fred took it out to his carwhere he could be alone and
listened to it over and over andover.
In exchange for his testimonyagainst Carlos, George was
released from prison withoutparole in 1989.

Remi (02:05:18):
Without parole.

Ashley (02:05:20):
Without parole.
They said the testimony he gavewas instrumental in convicting
Carlos and that his debt tosociety had been paid.

Remi (02:05:29):
Wow, alright, I'm assuming something else happens then.

Ashley (02:05:33):
He returned to the Cape and got a job delivering fish to
seafood restaurants with one ofhis former bodyguards.
He re-entered the marijuanabusiness with his former friend,
ramon not long after.
In 1994, he was caughtimporting several hundred pounds
of marijuana and sentenced to22 years in prison.

(02:05:53):
He was released 20 years later,on July 2, 2014.

Remi (02:06:01):
prison.
He was released 20 years later,on July 2nd 2014.
So his longest stint in prisonis because of a marijuana bust
that he did much, much, muchlater in life.

Ashley (02:06:07):
Yes, so he was released from prison for the cocaine
stuff in 1989.
And five years later he wasarrested for the marijuana.

Remi (02:06:14):
This guy does not know when to stop.

Ashley (02:06:16):
That's why I'm kind of like this is the last one.
All of the other ones, it'slike you could have just stopped
.
You could have just stoppedthis one.
He was looking at a minimum of20 years, a maximum of 60, and
got out in four or five and then, just five years later, is
arrested again.
That is insanity and just fiveyears later, is arrested again.

(02:06:39):
That is insanity.
After his release in 2014, hewas briefly jailed for a parole
violation in 2016 and releasedto a halfway house in 2017.
He remarried and was greetedwith open arms when he returned
to his hometown of Weymouth,Massachusetts.
He died at the age of 78 on May5th 2021, while receiving
hospice care for liver andkidney failure.

(02:07:00):
And that is the true story ofTed Demme's Blow.
What do you think, Remy?

Remi (02:07:07):
I think they changed a lot and left a lot of stuff out and
I think, per usual, there is alot more to this story than they
included in the film.
There is a lot more to thisstory than they included in the
film and, yeah, george is notthis daughter-loving father guy
who got sentenced to 60 yearsfor one last drug run.

(02:07:28):
There's a lot more to the storyand he was someone who had so
many opportunities to stop butjust kept going Like why.
I cannot understand that.
I understand why the moviewould change that information,
because it makes the characterfar less sympathetic.
But, yeah, I will neverunderstand George's motivation

(02:07:51):
behind just keeping this goingrelentlessly in the face of some
very, very serious jail timeand knowing that the feds are
already watching you.

Ashley (02:08:01):
I just looked up the runtime for this movie and it's
two hours.
So I get why they had tocompact a lot of things.
I think the biggest deviationis obviously the entire end.
They completely cut out that.
He got a huge break and couldhave been out for the rest of
his life in 1989.
But what I think is that whenhe was released at that time he

(02:08:23):
had never worked an honest job,he had never had a social
security card, he had never hada checking account, he had never
filed a tax return.
So I think he was just likeunsatisfied with earning a
modest living when he knew howmuch he could be making from
smuggling drugs, a crime that,by his account, he thought was

(02:08:45):
victimless.

Remi (02:08:47):
Yes, but he could have done three years and sat on his
ass for a while and then gone toPanama and cashed out $60
million and been a-OK.
This guy had tons ofopportunities to get out and
still live a comfortable life,but kept going.
I don't feel bad for him thatat the very end he had exhausted

(02:09:07):
all of his opportunities andended up working a minimum wage
job.
As a result of it.
I mean, yeah, that's what heshould be doing.
That's karma.
It's insane.
He got so many chances in thefirst place.

Ashley (02:09:19):
Yeah, I'm not saying I feel bad for him, I don't.
He should have gotten out ofthe game even well before that
last bust with Mirtha.
He had plenty of opportunities,even before he lost the account
numbers to his Panama account,to just be like.
You know what I'm just going todo my parole, sit quietly and
then, when I'm done, I'll takeout my 10 million from my bank

(02:09:41):
account and just live my life.

Remi (02:09:44):
Literally all he had to do was sit on his ass for a couple
of years, and he couldn't dothat.

Ashley (02:09:50):
Well, that leads us to our objection of the week.
Your honor, I object, and why?

Remi (02:09:56):
is that, Mr Reed.
Because it's devastating to mycase.
Overruled.
Good call.

Ashley (02:10:04):
Remy, I'm going to let you kick this off, but before we
do, a quick rundown for ourviewers, our Objection of the
Week is the most superfluouschange that was made from the
true story to the big screen, achange that was made that didn't
have to be and doesn't reallytake away or add much to the
movie.
Remy, what is your pick?

Remi (02:10:24):
This one was actually kind of hard because they changed so
many things and a lot of thechanges drastically affected the
story.
So, with that in mind, the onething that stuck out to me that
I would say is the mostunnecessary change.
I can summarize in one wordnationalism.

(02:10:48):
The bank did not seize George'sassets due to nationalism.
Instead, george could not findhis account number because his
wife passed out and the numberburned up in a fire because of a
candle.

Ashley (02:11:04):
I will say that at some point later, while he is sitting
in prison trying to decidewhether to testify against
Carlos or not, he did find hisbank account and it was empty,
but I couldn't find anythingabout how or why it had been
emptied.
I assume the government got ahold of it the United States
government.

(02:11:24):
That's my assumption.

Remi (02:11:26):
Even so, I think that's a big enough discrepancy in my
book.
So nationalism it is for me.

Ashley (02:11:33):
And I agree with you.
I have a long list here, but asI was looking through it, I'm
like none of these changes aresomething that I would say are
obsolete.
They're big changes that weremade or omitted.
Besides name changes, yeah,most'm assuming of why the names

(02:11:56):
were changed here was forlegality reasons.
So what I am going with is whenGeorge and Martha are arrested
and in the movie she flees fromthe car.
In reality, when the policecome to the door, she
immediately yells he's afugitive, he's wanted in
Massachusetts, he smuggles drugs.

(02:12:18):
Arrest him.

Remi (02:12:19):
This is my bad because that is what she does in the
movie.
That is my poor choice ofwording, saying she fled from
the car in hysterics.
She did exit the car yelling hehas cocaine, he's a drug
smuggler, all of that sort ofthing.
So that is my bad for a pooruse of the word.

Ashley (02:12:42):
Okay, then my second one was how they omitted that his
father lost all of his fleetbecause he declared bankruptcy.

Remi (02:12:53):
He did declare bankruptcy in the movie, but there was no
mention of the gamblingaddiction or any of that.

Ashley (02:12:59):
That's then it that they omitted that.

Remi (02:13:02):
Okay, that counts, I guess , but I'm still going with
nationalism.
That's my vote.
Call me crazy.

Ashley (02:13:08):
Mine is weak, so you can take it.

Remi (02:13:10):
All right, nationalism wins yet again, as it always
does, but that brings us to ourfinale portion of the podcast

(02:13:31):
where we will deliver ourverdict.

Narrator (02:13:33):
If the adaptation is mostly factual, but creative
liberties were taken for thesake of entertainment, the film
will be declared a mistrial.
But if the film ultimatelystrays too far from the truth,
then it will be condemned asguilty and sentenced to a life
behind bars.

Remi (02:13:50):
Since I started things last time, I think you should
start things this time, MissAshley think you should start
things this time.

Ashley (02:13:59):
Miss Ashley, this one was pretty tough, especially
because it's been stuck in mymind for weeks that I said
guilty for all the money in theworld, when I do still stand by
my reasoning.
But when I listened to it backand thought about it I'm not
sure if I still agree, butthat's a story for a different
day.
When I think about Blow and thestory of George Jung, what I
think happened here is thedirectors and writers had a lot

(02:14:22):
of life to compact into a twohour movie and that translated
into a lot of things beingsquished together and, even more
so, a lot of things beingomitted.
This would be an easy mistrialfor me if it wasn't for the end,
where they just completelyignored the fact that he was
released, basically with zeroconsequence, and then rearrested

(02:14:45):
.
But even with that, I thinkwhat was on the screen was a
fair adaptation of this person'slife experiences with cocaine
smuggling.
So for that I'm going to saymistrial.

Remi (02:15:00):
And I am also going with a mistrial on this one.
The amount of random changesmade is pretty staggering, but I
think the biggest changehappened when Nick Cassavetes
became involved with the script.
From my research, it seems thatthe original writer had a
screenplay and, for whateverreason, they were not happy with

(02:15:22):
the final act of the film, sothey brought Nick Cassavetes in
to change the final act.
Nick Cassavetes met with Georgein prison and, from the
interviews I read, nickCassavetes does not like George
Jung and thinks he's kind of ascumbag.
But the one thing that theywere able to connect on during
their conversations was theirdaughters, and it is because of

(02:15:45):
that, I think, that he alteredthe script to have this
heartfelt daughter aspect to it,which I don't think was in the
original script.
I think this is something thatNick Cassavetes brought himself
and, as a result, drasticallychanges a lot of the true events
towards the end of the storyand makes George a much more
sympathetic character than Ithink he deserves to be.

(02:16:08):
So because of all of that, Ithink that this film earns a
mistrial, and it's surprisingAgain, I never did any of the
research about the true storyand all of this is new
information to me and it makesme view the movie very
differently, in all honesty.

Ashley (02:16:25):
And that's a really astute point that you have
mentioned, because it reallywasn't until you started talking
about how George like fled fromprison to be with his daughter
that I moved from a not guiltyverdict.

Remi (02:16:39):
And he stayed sober in the movie for his daughter which
was not the case either and hecontinued to smuggle drugs
basically nonstop.
He never quit for hisdaughter's sake.

Ashley (02:16:50):
Even if that was how it was portrayed, I would still say
not guilty, because even reallyup until that point in the
movie everything was stillpretty true to form, with things
that I felt were changed orcompacted, because I mean, this
is like a 300 plus page book.
You can't expect everything tobe true to how it happened.

(02:17:12):
Otherwise this would be afreaking five, six hour movie.
So I get why they compactedcharacters, omitted some things
just to make the movie flow.
And until that point,especially especially until the
very, very end, everything wasstill kind of following in a
linear sequence.
And then at that very end wherethings just kind of went off

(02:17:32):
the rails, Okay, two mistrials.

Remi (02:17:36):
It is a agreement on both of our halves for this film,
which is kind of a shame.
I think a little less of thismovie now, knowing the true
story in all honesty, knowingthe truth about George, but I
kind of expected that.
But what do we have coming nextweek, Ashley?

Ashley (02:17:54):
As we said at the beginning, this is part one of
our two-part season finale aboutPablo Escobar's United States
cocaine smugglers and commercialairline pilot Barry Seale, who
ditched his lucrative career towork for the man himself and

(02:18:21):
flew a lot of cocaine into theStates for Pablo Escobar.

Remi (02:18:27):
All I know about this film is it's Tom Cruise flying a
plane covered in cocaine.
I didn't even know the realperson's name until you just
said it now I didn't even knowthe real person's name until you
just said it now.

Ashley (02:18:45):
Well, I'm really excited to see if Tom Cruise himself
can save our two-part finale andget a not guilty verdict for
the Medellin cocaine cartel.

Remi (02:18:49):
I'm pessimistic but hopeful.

Ashley (02:18:52):
In the meantime, please check out our Instagram and
TikTok at Criminal Adaptationstime.
Please check out our Instagramand TikTok at criminal
adaptations.
Also, if you have a free moment, it would really help if you
would like subscribe and review.
It helps our algorithms and allthat jazz.

Remi (02:19:08):
And until next time everyone court is adjourned.

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