From Bank Robber to Beverly Hills Butler (Terry Moogan)

Bank robber to Beverly Hills butler?! Terry Moogan survived brutal UK children’s homes, escaped custody more than once, fled to LA in 1980, and, after a fateful Queen Elizabeth two encounter with Elizabeth Taylor, reinvented himself as a Hollywood butler to legends (Clint Eastwood, Joan Rivers, Marlon Brando, Robert Evans… and more). He shares near-heists (Picasso, diamonds), a chilling client tragedy, the Sinatra Polo Lounge story, and why redemption became the through-line of his life.

00:00 – Cold open: “I’m not supposed to survive” (childhood, first capers)
01:04 – Meet Terry: escapes England, lands in Hollywood, aims to act—becomes a butler
03:08 – The books: Liverpool bank clubs → Hollywood Bowl; writing through the pain
05:00 – Early crimes → “I want to be a bank robber” → years in care homes → escapes
08:26 – Arrested… prison strike… 24 hours free → London → LAX (Dec 12, 1980)
10:33 – QE2 to Beverly Hills: Elizabeth Taylor’s advice, first agency, first big houses
12:05 – Inside the circuit: Carmel with Clint, Roxbury Drive, running staff teams
16:03 – The 4am smoke: stopping a client’s suicide attempt… the tragedy that followed
20:18 – Holmby Hills with a titan; Bentley rides; the Sinatra Polo Lounge story
24:24 – Favorites to serve: Max Factor, George Segal; Farrah Fawcett & Joan Rivers
28:07 – Serving Marlon Brando & Robert Evans—while hiding a past life
31:25 – “We were going to steal Elizabeth Taylor’s diamonds”… and why he didn’t
39:12 – Back at the Wiseman estate (now a museum): billion-dollar art & near-Picasso caper
46:43 – Why tell it now: warnings for kids, choosing a better path, how to follow