October 5, 2023 • 31 mins
“Punch” Stanimirovic, a safe-cracking former Pink Panther, didn’t seek out a life of crime—he was born into it. In Episode Six, Stanimirovic offers his take on the Panthers’ murky origin story, but it’s just one of many that have been suggested. Who’s really in charge of this infamous criminal gang? Is it a highly organized global network, a loose collection of thieves with similar styles—or something else entirely?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
My name is Punch Stanymerivich. I'm the highest and youngest
ranking member of the Pink Panthers. I'm the first American
Pink Panther.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
They call me Punch. By the way, for the Punch Safe.
There's a safe that I could open in like fifteen
sixteen seconds. If you ever let me demonstrate it, I
will punch.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Stanimerevich was born in New York City to Serbian immigrants
in nineteen seventy one, the year before Punch was born,
both of his parents were arrested in connection with a
heist at a museum in Miyami, where thieves made off
with one point five million dollars in artwork and silver.
As it turned out, the couple had already been under
(00:42):
surveillance by the police for a series of jewel heists
in Manhattan's Diamond District.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So I'm very rare when it comes to any of
these Pink Panther guys because I was born into this.
You know, I have my father's son, So I was
born into this. Since I was a little, little little baby,
like little kid, a little child, witnessing all these people
coming in and out of my house.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Punch's father managed to avoid a prison sentence and then
started various businesses, hiring many of his fellow countrymen to
work for him. For Punch, they were like family.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I grew up with so many intelligent people that came
from Bosnia, from Croatia, from Montenegro, and you know, I
was practically raised by these guys because my father, you know,
the big inconstruction business, and he employed fifty sixty people
from the Balkans.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
But they weren't coming to America just to work in construction.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Guys are hungry, they want to make some money. They
do a job with my dad and they go back rich.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
And that's how the Pink Panthers started over there, because
they had guys that actually worked with us. You know.
So this is all the evolution of how the pink
Panthers became the Pink Panthers. Because you don't wake up
one morning and then there's a bunch of Pink Panther
guys that are robbing Harry Winston or graft. This is
like the first Pink Panther crew.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Punch is making a major claim here that when these
guys who had been working with his father returned home
to the Balkans in the mid nineteen eighties, with their
money and their newfound skills. That's when the Pink Panthers
were born. I'm Natalia Antalava. I'm a journalist based in
(02:26):
Eastern Europe, and I'm going to take you into the
world of Serbia's most brazen jewel thieves, the.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Most daring and successful diamond thieves in the world.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Thirty to forty seconds in how.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
They've stolen half a billion dollars worth of valuables.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Two well dressed men strolled into an exclusive rollery store
in London and walked out with sixty six million dollars
in jewels.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
They called the Pink Panthers, their loosely connected crew of
over edge, underemployed ambitious young people who rose from the
ashes of the Yugoslav Wars of the nineteen nineties to
commit elaborate smash and grab heists all across the globe,
often in broad daylight.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
This is infamous international The Pink Panthers story, episode six,
Who's the Boss.
Speaker 7 (03:33):
Kind of dollars?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
The story actually starts in the seventies and the eighties
in Yugoslavia.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Punch Sandimirovich has one story about the Panthers' origins. Serbian
investigative journalist Yelenasorrich has another she's one of the leading
experts on the pink panthers. We're hearing her through a translator.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
And that's where we still lived in the immunism which
was very strong in our country. And these people actually
they were helped by our secret services who help them
with logistics. I mean what I mean what I say
logistics is like they helped them move outside of Yugoslavia
and live somewhere else in Europe, find the apartment, everything
(04:19):
they needed for their life. They did smaller robberies there
to have a better living. They were protected by the
secret services. They had fake documents, they had faith passports.
They were helping them with that. And also whenever they
were in travel around the world or in Europe, they
could always come back to Serbia, which was protecting them.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Now, why would the yugoslavin secret service help a bunch
of criminals operate in the West? Ylenosorach says it was
an arrangement with benefits for both sides.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
They would help them hide so that they could use
their services when they needed them. So when the secret
service had to kill this and then this is how
they would pay them. Okay, we hype you hired, we
help you escape, we help you go somewhere else, but
you're going to pay us back because we're going to
order this murder and you're going to do it for us.
So that's what they were doing. In the communist Yugoslavia.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
According to Julenos Orchis reporting, the Yugoslav criminals operating in
the West were part time assets for the state security services,
doing off the books, dirty work in exchange for support
and protection. But after the collapse of Yugoslavia in the
nineteen nineties, with the loss of their government backers, these
criminals returned to Serbia to two cities in particular where
(05:41):
many of them were from.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
That's a Niche and Ujitze, and they are like the
first settlement of these people who are going to start
much bigger and more important group. And these people were
actually looking to recruit new younger generations and they were
looking for them in the local bars, in various sports
(06:07):
club because they knew exactly what kind of people to
look for.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
This new younger generation are people in their twenties who
grew up during the Balkan Wars and the hard Times
that followed people like Mladen Lazarevich, Boyana Mitch, and Milan Lipuya.
Some of these new recruits might, as Punch claims, have
got an experience with his father pulling jobs in the
Diamond District in New York City, and some might have
(06:35):
been state sponsored criminals who had returned from Western Europe,
as Yleno Zorich says. My colleague, reporter in l Greenberg,
researched the Pink Panthers extensively for an article for British
GQ several years ago. I asked him about what he
uncovered about the groups somewhat murky origins.
Speaker 8 (06:57):
One of the things you hear again and again is
they met and were organized in the football clubs, the
soccer clubs in Niche.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Really they played soccer together.
Speaker 8 (07:06):
Well, yeah, they don't seem like soccer playing types. These
are fan clubs. Sometimes they're called the ultras because they're
such ultra fans. They're hanging out, you know, at bars
and cafes. They're you know, they're watching their teams play.
These are team fan clubs and they're fanatics, but it's
not really about rooting for their team. I mean, make
no mistakes these are games.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
And what is the theory there in terms of how
the Panthers spring from the ultras.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Let me explain.
Speaker 8 (07:32):
So, there's some people who believe that the Panthers grew
out of this paramilitary group known as Arkins Tigers, which
was connected to the Red Star Belgrade soccer fan club,
and it was led by this gruesome figure known simply
as Arkhan. And beyond street crime, Arkins Tigers actually committed
war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia. They murdered, they raped,
(07:55):
and they tortured. These are really seriously nasty guys.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
So you're saying there's actual proof that Arkan originated the
Pink Panthers.
Speaker 8 (08:03):
No, we don't know for certain, but it's a really
good bet. Look, these soccer clubs were mixed up in
all kinds of criminal activity, from drug smuggling to robberies,
you know, even murders. And you know, when you talk
to people who really know about the Pink Panthers, they
all go back to the soccer clubs. The soccer clubs
are the Pink Panther's origin story.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
The fact that there are so many different ideas about
their beginnings brings up another question about the Pink Panthers.
How do they operate as a criminal organization? What's the
structure of this gang, the hierarchy, and maybe most importantly,
who's in charge. There are essentially three theories. Elance spoke
to Serbian film scholar Dmitri Voinov. He researched the Pink
(08:53):
Panthers extensively for his film All Panthers Are Paying Here.
Voinov takes us the first theory.
Speaker 7 (09:01):
This organization is actually a franchise, like al Kaeda for example.
So as you know, there isn't a core al Kaeda,
It's a franchise. People appear radicalize, take the name, maybe coordinate,
maybe not, and claim they're Alka you know what I mean.
Then the same thing is with the Pink Panthers, because
they are heists that are done by different teams under
(09:24):
the same moniker. So now you can really pose a question.
Is Pink Panther a solid collective of same persons doing
all kinds of heists or is it a franchise where
different people are doing things in style and sort of
identify as pink painters. It's like a brand. Yeah, it's
(09:46):
like a brand. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
The way to between one of describes the Pink Panthers
as a franchise. Echoes with the Panthers themselves have said
on the rare occasions when they've talked. Filmmaker Havana Marking
interview the member of the Pink Panthers for her twenty
thirteen documentary Smash and Grab. This man called Mike described
the highly compartmented nature of his work.
Speaker 9 (10:11):
Well, I don't have a badge that says Pink Panther
on it. We are a network of teams working together.
Everybody has their specific job to do. Understand, you know,
you never know where you stand in hierarchy because you
never meet the boss.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
And punch Stanymerevich takes it even one step further.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
You have a bunch of these organizations. They're like seals.
But as I said, most of the people that are
in the Pink Panthers, I guarantee you they don't even
know they're in Pink Panthers.
Speaker 8 (10:41):
How do you like that one?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
According to this theory, the Panthers are a network of
separate teams working independently, possibly connected to a big boss,
one they may never even meet. But the way that
law enforcement refers to the Pink Panthers paints a very
different picture. They continually talk about the gang's organization in
(11:06):
a way that makes it feel like the Panthers are
a unified criminal enterprise. Sixteen Minutes of Australia ran this
piece in twenty fourteen, which leans heavily into the notion
that the Pink Panthers are a global squad of super thieves.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Detective Jan Glossie has been hunting the Pink Panthers for
more than ten years.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
How would you describe the Pink Panthers.
Speaker 10 (11:30):
For me, perhaps most organized teams in the world, the
most organized teams in the most organized team in the world.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yes, Interpals Inspector General Ron Nobel talks about the Panthers
the same way as a highly organized criminal syndicate like
the Mafia Here's novel. In an interview on CBS sixty minutes.
Speaker 8 (11:52):
I'd say that they're the most notorious organized crime group
that I've been involved investigating.
Speaker 11 (11:56):
In my life.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
For law enforcement, portraying the Pank Panthers this way is useful.
The more impressive the criminals are, the more impressive it
is when you bring them to justice. Consider the way
the Dubai police turned the heist at the Waffi Mall
from an embarrassment to a point of pride. In twenty thirteen,
(12:18):
authorities in Dubai purchased the blue Nissan rental car the
Panthers had used in their getaway and installed it as
an exhibit at the police museum, complete with a cash
of a fake jewels and then veiling. The Dubai Chief
of Police said, and I quote, it was the first
time the gang, who committed robberies for over twenty years,
(12:41):
fell in the police net before managing to flee with
the jewels. It was a great pr exercise. But according
to journalist Yelena Zorich, at least some of the details
are far fetched.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Dubai police claiming that practically nothing was taken out from Dubai,
and then other sources were saying, yes, something was taken
with them, but practically the only thing that maybe can
lead to a conclusion that can tell us that they
really took the money was the lifestyle they had after
the heightst because they had a very easy life, very
(13:18):
nice life.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Even authorities in Serbia have found the Pink Panthers to
be a useful source of positive pr.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Mass police officers in Serbia moved in to arrest the
four men accused of snatching an impressive haul of Impressionist
works A Monet, a Degas, a van Go and The
Boy in the Red Vest by Paul Saison, all taken
from a museum in Zurich. Back in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Scott Pelly on CBS Evening News reports on the recovery
of a stolen painting worth over one hundred million dollars.
Serbian authorities claimed that the theft was the work of
the paint pant at the press conference held by the
Serbian Interior Minister. This desan is flanked by police officers
in balaclavas and camouflage holding AK forty seven's, and this
(14:12):
triumph of law enforcement couldn't have come at a better time.
Sabier is pushing ahead with moves to join the European Union,
but brusselshimself are unimpressed with its reforms. That interview on
the news program Conflict Zone hints at how useful it
might be for a country notorious for its corruption to
(14:33):
make a dramatic recovery of a stolen European artwork and
arrest a few local celebrity criminals. It's the kind of
news that might just ease Serbia's way into the EU.
Like law enforcement, the medium is also prone to describe
(14:57):
the Pink Panthers as a glamorous and highly organ gang.
With their elaborate heights, cinematin gataways, and the eye popping
value of the things they steal, the Panthers do make
for excellent headlines and compelling television.
Speaker 12 (15:13):
The gang linked to at least three hundred and eighty
robberies around the world, famously using cars and motorcycles inside
shopping malls. Police they've stolen get this, more than three
hundred and seventy one million dollars in jewels.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
That ABC News report sums up the breathless tone of
so much of their reporting about the Panthers. In fact,
the media's fascination as such that anytime there is a big,
dramatic heist, they're likely to pit it on the Panthers.
In twenty sixteen, Kim Kardashian was robbed at her hotel
in Paris. She was tied up while the thieves escaped
(15:51):
with millions of dollars in jewels inside. Addition, was quick
to make the connection to the Pink Panthers.
Speaker 13 (15:58):
The Lightning speed of the raid on Kim Kardashian's hotel
is a hallmark of the Pink Panthers. The Pink Panthers
have hundreds of members, mainly from Eastern Europe, and they're
spread across the continent. They are said to have extensive
contacts who tip them off when a vulnerable target like
Kim Kardashian has checked in.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Except it was not true. Captain Nerve Konan of the
Paris Police worked on many Pink Panther cases. This was
not one of them.
Speaker 14 (16:29):
I was dealing with the Kim Garashan case because none
and I did French guys, French guys, pure local. But
each time something happened, people are thinking it is the
Pink Panthers.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
As it turned out, Kardashian was a victim of the
Granddad Gangsters, a group of elderly thieves led by a
sixty seven year old French Algerian Man. They were eventually
caught and prosecuted. And yet the Pink Panther connection clinks
to this story. Even now, you'll see what I mean
if you google it.
Speaker 15 (17:07):
It doesn't necessarily make sense that there's this one centralized
hierarchy that can dictate all of these different incidents. They're
very complicated. It's very hard to follow the money.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Sociologist Elizabeth Williams has studied the ping panthers and written
about how politicians, police, and the media will often overstate
the threat of criminal organizations. She thinks there's a practical
reason why.
Speaker 15 (17:37):
It's very self serving for law enforcement entities and agencies
that are tasked with addressing these kinds of crimes. It's
very self serving for them to create narratives that might
not be grounded in reality. It's a lot easier to
say that they understand the scope of the problem and
(17:58):
that they know how to attack. Then we have no
idea what's going on, but.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
There could be some value in reinforcing a specific version
of the story.
Speaker 15 (18:08):
If there's no criminal enterprise to take down, then why
is so much time and effort being spent to take
down a criminal enterprise. There's certain people in power, and
they will use the system to further their own interests.
And who's going to benefit from this particular story being
told or this particular story being told in this way.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
That's a good question. Who is going to benefit from
this story being told in this way? Where the Panthers
are a highly organized, far reaching criminal network. Attorney Michelle
Estland specializes in getting INTERPOL red notices removed from her
client's records. According to her, there's a clear reason why
(18:52):
the international crime fighting organization would prioritize a group like
the Panthers.
Speaker 16 (18:58):
You have to remember is a political organization. It has
a lot of member countries and all of the members
want something from the other members, just like any other organization.
So Ronobel was American, and what do Americans do? We
do stuff about money, right, it all comes down to
money with us.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
At some point Interpals Inspector General Ronobyl had big ambitions
for the organization and those ambitions required money funding from
Interpals member countries.
Speaker 16 (19:28):
Interpol has got a huge mission, a wide reaching set
of goals, so he was faced with the challenge of
getting funding to be able to expand Interpol's reach and ability.
They do have some capabilities that some of the member
countries are never going to have if Interpol doesn't jump
in and help out in combating crime.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
It's worth noting that the UA, which needed Interpals help
in solving the Dubai heist, then became one of interpol's
top donor. When Elan Greenberg began investigating the Pink Panthers,
he saw that INTERPOL had a number of stated priorities
(20:11):
major global issues like human trafficking and narcotics, but then
also the Pink Panthers, a group of jewel thieves who
are striking terror into the hearts of luxury brands like
Graf and Harry Winston. On the face of it, it
did not make a lot of sense. Why would INTERPOL
put their project Pink Panther on the same level as
(20:33):
these more serious global crimes.
Speaker 11 (20:38):
My name is Karen Greenaway. I am a retired FBI
Special Agent. For more than eighteen of my twenty three
years in the FBI, I worked transnational organized crime investigations,
mostly from the former Soviet Union and the Balkans.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Elan asked Karen Greenway what she thinks Interpal placed such
a high importance on the Pink Panthers.
Speaker 11 (21:03):
It's because they were in Europe, and because they were
so successful on some of their heists that they did
as a criminal enterprise, they were prioritized. But I think
it was something that came out of an analysis that
was done with an Interpol that this was a priority
target for a number of countries, and therefore they were
(21:23):
going to focus resources on them, and so they prioritized
it over other things.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
The pink panthers. We're a priority for a number of
interpols member countries, specifically places where they had struck. Wealthy
countries where tourism and luxury shopping might be affected by
high profile crime, especially the kind that tends to end
up all over the media. You can see that's just
bad for business. But given that INTERPOL could be spending
(21:53):
its time and resources on the other things on the list,
like human trafficking and drugs, is this a mistake?
Speaker 11 (22:00):
I wouldn't call it a mistake. I would call it
a conscious choice because you didn't feel like you could
get the collective agreement to put it on a target
that was much higher value and potentially international importance.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
So in the end, what does Karen Greenway think of
Interval's decision to focus on the pink panthers.
Speaker 11 (22:20):
So my answer is, if I had a choice an
investigator between them and the groups that I know were
more violent and do have victims and are causing heartache
to people who are average citizens, I would choose that
group over the Pink Panthers. But that being said, you
know it wasn't the victim was crime. Now, the victims,
for the most part, could afford the thefts that were
(22:41):
happening to them. And I'm sure somebody will get angry
at me for saying this that insurance companies covered the losses.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
When the Pink Panthers are portrayed as more organized or
more widespread than they really are, it does more than
create a useful story for law enforcement or some splashy
headlines for the media. It reinforces a stereotype. Journalist David
Samuels wrote a major profile of the Ping Panthers for
The New Yorker. He talked on the magazine's Out Loud
(23:17):
podcast about the narrative that's taken shame around Serbia.
Speaker 10 (23:22):
They have a historical narrative, this sort of Serbian sense
of being the bulwark of Europe and at the same
time scorned and rejected by Europe, and then Serbs themselves
being either left to suffer or being held up as villains.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
This depiction of Serbia as a gateway between East and West,
a trading post for smugglers and thieves. We've heard it before.
Journalist Lilly Lynch is editor of The Balconist magazine. She
spent over a decade living and reporting in Serbia.
Speaker 17 (23:59):
I think that this sort of stereotypes about the Balkans
is really drawn from the nineties war and also organized crime,
and this is a place where you know, criminals flourish.
There's always an answer to these sorts of depictions of
the Balkans is being uniquely prone to violence. The Serbs
are always kind of depicted in films, for example, as
(24:19):
being you know, very blood their sea and violent. That
there's something you know, uniquely warlike about not to Sturbs,
but people from the Balkans.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
And yet, according to Lili Litch, whatever resistance everyday serves
might have to the stereotypes of Western media, there is
some pride to it as well.
Speaker 17 (24:40):
I think that there is a bit of a sort
of pleasure indulging those stereotypes. And it can be you know,
kind of a part of national pride for sure, in
a sick kind of way. And we see stories in
local media and Serbia about you know, Serbs in London,
you know, getting up to all kinds of trouble. This
is the sort of element of like ari our guys
(25:00):
are sort of like making it out there, you know,
even if it's you know, in crime. And of course
I think pianthers are kind of the most flashiest, sort
of in some way is more successful.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
So I mentioned that there are a few ideas about
how the being panthers are organized and ultimately who is
in charge. On the one hand, they're described as a
kind of franchise, or they're the highly organized criminal gang
that law enforcement describes and that the media likes to
report on like a cartel, but with more style and
less bloodshed. But there is at least one other possibility,
(25:37):
a third option that's specific to the Balkan states of
the former Yugoslavia. Stevando Jinovic is founder and editor in
chief of the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network in Belgrade, Serbia.
Speaker 18 (25:50):
There's one difference in Balkan organized crime, which is big
difference than in the countries and the West. When we
say about corruption, Balkan groups they don't work like in
a way that they will find some weak spot into
the police system, some weak police officer which they can
bribe and use, or some other bureaucrat like we'll find
(26:13):
in some Western countries.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
According to Stevando Ginovich. The ties between criminals and the
Balkan governments are at a totally different level than we
might see in the West.
Speaker 18 (26:23):
If you look all discovered cases of corruption, we see
that Balkan gains already had connection at the top. There's
always connected to Minister of Police, to prime ministers, to presidents,
and this is going for decades. We're literally like top
of the state like literally made agreement to the Organs
crime group to get support and in return they will
(26:45):
be more safe to continue doing smuggling. But they also
share their benefits with the state, which there's even terms,
it's called black funds.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
This isn't simply a case of authorities turning a blind eye.
Stephan's reporting shows that the highest levels of government provide
the criminals with protection. In return, they receive a cut
of the proceeds. They're more like partners.
Speaker 18 (27:10):
You want to really look from right perspective, Vulcan organis crime.
What do they do? They make some kind of joint
venture business between organized crime and the state.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
In Serbian investigative reporter Lena Zorich's origin story, the Pink
Panthers got their start as part time assets of the
Yugoslav Secret police. It may be that that relationship never
truly ended.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
The clinician Echo studies, So we have a police that
is corrupted. We have the secret services which are corrupted,
and to these people are always useful to them.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
According to her, this arrangement creates some useful flexibility. Once
the teams are trained up, you can ask almost anything
of them.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
They're using them specifically because the senate for the heist
and the scenario for the murder are exactly the same.
But everything that's leading to that point and everything the
escape afterwards, it always has the same scenario. It's just
that final stage that it is different.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
This idea that the Pink Panthers enjoy the support and
protection of the Serbian state in exchange for doing their
dirty work. It's very different from the glamorous image the
Panthers seem to work so hard to project, so different
from the breathless way the media tells this story. This
is a much more sinister equation where a heist and
(28:39):
a hit are not so far apart. Coming up next
on Infamous International, the Pink Panthers story. If there is
a place on Earth that's made for the Pink Panthers,
it's a very tiny, very rich place called Monaco.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
I said, well, why would any criminal come to Monaco
to steal?
Speaker 10 (29:02):
He said, very simple and direct hands, he said, because
there's a lot of money here.
Speaker 19 (29:06):
The amount that they're pulling in these two minute heis.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Is so astonishing. I think people can't really grasp it.
It's like magic when highly effective police chief finds that
going after Monica's criminals might land him in deep water.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
In our lot meeting, he said, obviously I can't investigate crime,
but they don't want me to, so I might as
well just become part of it.
Speaker 19 (29:31):
I can't imagine a more hideous, but yet in some
ways fitting death for someone who was as powerful as
this guy really was in Monica.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
That's next time on Infamous International, The Pink Panther's Story.
Infamous International The Pink Panther's Story was produced by Best
Case Studios in association with Koda's Story, hosted by me
(30:06):
Natalia aunt Lava, and written by Katrina Wolfe, Adam Pinkis,
Suzanne Meyers, and David Markowitz, with help from Brent Katz
and Matt Levin. For Best Case Studios Executive Producer, Adam
pinkis Senior producer David Markowitz, producer Katrina Wolfe, associate producer
(30:28):
Hannah Libovitz, Lockhart, and consulting producers Julie Goldstein and Louis
Spiegeler for Koda. Story reporting by Lane Greenberg with associate
producer Rebecca Robinson. Edited and sound designed by Gayleen Mullens
and Max Michael Miller. Music by Dave Harrington. Archival producers
(30:49):
Mark de Goora and Paul Dallas. This has been an
exactly write production. Executive producers Karen Kilgareth Georgia Hartstark and
Daniel Kramer. Was consulting producer Kyle Ryan
My name is Punch Stanymerivich. I'm the highest and youngest
ranking member of the Pink Panthers. I'm the first American
Pink Panther.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
They call me Punch. By the way, for the Punch Safe.
There's a safe that I could open in like fifteen
sixteen seconds. If you ever let me demonstrate it, I
will punch.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Stanimerevich was born in New York City to Serbian immigrants
in nineteen seventy one, the year before Punch was born,
both of his parents were arrested in connection with a
heist at a museum in Miyami, where thieves made off
with one point five million dollars in artwork and silver.
As it turned out, the couple had already been under
(00:42):
surveillance by the police for a series of jewel heists
in Manhattan's Diamond District.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So I'm very rare when it comes to any of
these Pink Panther guys because I was born into this.
You know, I have my father's son, So I was
born into this. Since I was a little, little little baby,
like little kid, a little child, witnessing all these people
coming in and out of my house.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Punch's father managed to avoid a prison sentence and then
started various businesses, hiring many of his fellow countrymen to
work for him. For Punch, they were like family.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I grew up with so many intelligent people that came
from Bosnia, from Croatia, from Montenegro, and you know, I
was practically raised by these guys because my father, you know,
the big inconstruction business, and he employed fifty sixty people
from the Balkans.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
But they weren't coming to America just to work in construction.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Guys are hungry, they want to make some money. They
do a job with my dad and they go back rich.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
And that's how the Pink Panthers started over there, because
they had guys that actually worked with us. You know.
So this is all the evolution of how the pink
Panthers became the Pink Panthers. Because you don't wake up
one morning and then there's a bunch of Pink Panther
guys that are robbing Harry Winston or graft. This is
like the first Pink Panther crew.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Punch is making a major claim here that when these
guys who had been working with his father returned home
to the Balkans in the mid nineteen eighties, with their
money and their newfound skills. That's when the Pink Panthers
were born. I'm Natalia Antalava. I'm a journalist based in
(02:26):
Eastern Europe, and I'm going to take you into the
world of Serbia's most brazen jewel thieves, the.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Most daring and successful diamond thieves in the world.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Thirty to forty seconds in how.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
They've stolen half a billion dollars worth of valuables.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Two well dressed men strolled into an exclusive rollery store
in London and walked out with sixty six million dollars
in jewels.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
They called the Pink Panthers, their loosely connected crew of
over edge, underemployed ambitious young people who rose from the
ashes of the Yugoslav Wars of the nineteen nineties to
commit elaborate smash and grab heists all across the globe,
often in broad daylight.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
This is infamous international The Pink Panthers story, episode six,
Who's the Boss.
Speaker 7 (03:33):
Kind of dollars?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
The story actually starts in the seventies and the eighties
in Yugoslavia.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Punch Sandimirovich has one story about the Panthers' origins. Serbian
investigative journalist Yelenasorrich has another she's one of the leading
experts on the pink panthers. We're hearing her through a translator.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
And that's where we still lived in the immunism which
was very strong in our country. And these people actually
they were helped by our secret services who help them
with logistics. I mean what I mean what I say
logistics is like they helped them move outside of Yugoslavia
and live somewhere else in Europe, find the apartment, everything
(04:19):
they needed for their life. They did smaller robberies there
to have a better living. They were protected by the
secret services. They had fake documents, they had faith passports.
They were helping them with that. And also whenever they
were in travel around the world or in Europe, they
could always come back to Serbia, which was protecting them.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Now, why would the yugoslavin secret service help a bunch
of criminals operate in the West? Ylenosorach says it was
an arrangement with benefits for both sides.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
They would help them hide so that they could use
their services when they needed them. So when the secret
service had to kill this and then this is how
they would pay them. Okay, we hype you hired, we
help you escape, we help you go somewhere else, but
you're going to pay us back because we're going to
order this murder and you're going to do it for us.
So that's what they were doing. In the communist Yugoslavia.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
According to Julenos Orchis reporting, the Yugoslav criminals operating in
the West were part time assets for the state security services,
doing off the books, dirty work in exchange for support
and protection. But after the collapse of Yugoslavia in the
nineteen nineties, with the loss of their government backers, these
criminals returned to Serbia to two cities in particular where
(05:41):
many of them were from.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
That's a Niche and Ujitze, and they are like the
first settlement of these people who are going to start
much bigger and more important group. And these people were
actually looking to recruit new younger generations and they were
looking for them in the local bars, in various sports
(06:07):
club because they knew exactly what kind of people to
look for.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
This new younger generation are people in their twenties who
grew up during the Balkan Wars and the hard Times
that followed people like Mladen Lazarevich, Boyana Mitch, and Milan Lipuya.
Some of these new recruits might, as Punch claims, have
got an experience with his father pulling jobs in the
Diamond District in New York City, and some might have
(06:35):
been state sponsored criminals who had returned from Western Europe,
as Yleno Zorich says. My colleague, reporter in l Greenberg,
researched the Pink Panthers extensively for an article for British
GQ several years ago. I asked him about what he
uncovered about the groups somewhat murky origins.
Speaker 8 (06:57):
One of the things you hear again and again is
they met and were organized in the football clubs, the
soccer clubs in Niche.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Really they played soccer together.
Speaker 8 (07:06):
Well, yeah, they don't seem like soccer playing types. These
are fan clubs. Sometimes they're called the ultras because they're
such ultra fans. They're hanging out, you know, at bars
and cafes. They're you know, they're watching their teams play.
These are team fan clubs and they're fanatics, but it's
not really about rooting for their team. I mean, make
no mistakes these are games.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
And what is the theory there in terms of how
the Panthers spring from the ultras.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Let me explain.
Speaker 8 (07:32):
So, there's some people who believe that the Panthers grew
out of this paramilitary group known as Arkins Tigers, which
was connected to the Red Star Belgrade soccer fan club,
and it was led by this gruesome figure known simply
as Arkhan. And beyond street crime, Arkins Tigers actually committed
war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia. They murdered, they raped,
(07:55):
and they tortured. These are really seriously nasty guys.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
So you're saying there's actual proof that Arkan originated the
Pink Panthers.
Speaker 8 (08:03):
No, we don't know for certain, but it's a really
good bet. Look, these soccer clubs were mixed up in
all kinds of criminal activity, from drug smuggling to robberies,
you know, even murders. And you know, when you talk
to people who really know about the Pink Panthers, they
all go back to the soccer clubs. The soccer clubs
are the Pink Panther's origin story.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
The fact that there are so many different ideas about
their beginnings brings up another question about the Pink Panthers.
How do they operate as a criminal organization? What's the
structure of this gang, the hierarchy, and maybe most importantly,
who's in charge. There are essentially three theories. Elance spoke
to Serbian film scholar Dmitri Voinov. He researched the Pink
(08:53):
Panthers extensively for his film All Panthers Are Paying Here.
Voinov takes us the first theory.
Speaker 7 (09:01):
This organization is actually a franchise, like al Kaeda for example.
So as you know, there isn't a core al Kaeda,
It's a franchise. People appear radicalize, take the name, maybe coordinate,
maybe not, and claim they're Alka you know what I mean.
Then the same thing is with the Pink Panthers, because
they are heists that are done by different teams under
(09:24):
the same moniker. So now you can really pose a question.
Is Pink Panther a solid collective of same persons doing
all kinds of heists or is it a franchise where
different people are doing things in style and sort of
identify as pink painters. It's like a brand. Yeah, it's
(09:46):
like a brand. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
The way to between one of describes the Pink Panthers
as a franchise. Echoes with the Panthers themselves have said
on the rare occasions when they've talked. Filmmaker Havana Marking
interview the member of the Pink Panthers for her twenty
thirteen documentary Smash and Grab. This man called Mike described
the highly compartmented nature of his work.
Speaker 9 (10:11):
Well, I don't have a badge that says Pink Panther
on it. We are a network of teams working together.
Everybody has their specific job to do. Understand, you know,
you never know where you stand in hierarchy because you
never meet the boss.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
And punch Stanymerevich takes it even one step further.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
You have a bunch of these organizations. They're like seals.
But as I said, most of the people that are
in the Pink Panthers, I guarantee you they don't even
know they're in Pink Panthers.
Speaker 8 (10:41):
How do you like that one?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
According to this theory, the Panthers are a network of
separate teams working independently, possibly connected to a big boss,
one they may never even meet. But the way that
law enforcement refers to the Pink Panthers paints a very
different picture. They continually talk about the gang's organization in
(11:06):
a way that makes it feel like the Panthers are
a unified criminal enterprise. Sixteen Minutes of Australia ran this
piece in twenty fourteen, which leans heavily into the notion
that the Pink Panthers are a global squad of super thieves.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Detective Jan Glossie has been hunting the Pink Panthers for
more than ten years.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
How would you describe the Pink Panthers.
Speaker 10 (11:30):
For me, perhaps most organized teams in the world, the
most organized teams in the most organized team in the world.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yes, Interpals Inspector General Ron Nobel talks about the Panthers
the same way as a highly organized criminal syndicate like
the Mafia Here's novel. In an interview on CBS sixty minutes.
Speaker 8 (11:52):
I'd say that they're the most notorious organized crime group
that I've been involved investigating.
Speaker 11 (11:56):
In my life.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
For law enforcement, portraying the Pank Panthers this way is useful.
The more impressive the criminals are, the more impressive it
is when you bring them to justice. Consider the way
the Dubai police turned the heist at the Waffi Mall
from an embarrassment to a point of pride. In twenty thirteen,
(12:18):
authorities in Dubai purchased the blue Nissan rental car the
Panthers had used in their getaway and installed it as
an exhibit at the police museum, complete with a cash
of a fake jewels and then veiling. The Dubai Chief
of Police said, and I quote, it was the first
time the gang, who committed robberies for over twenty years,
(12:41):
fell in the police net before managing to flee with
the jewels. It was a great pr exercise. But according
to journalist Yelena Zorich, at least some of the details
are far fetched.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Dubai police claiming that practically nothing was taken out from Dubai,
and then other sources were saying, yes, something was taken
with them, but practically the only thing that maybe can
lead to a conclusion that can tell us that they
really took the money was the lifestyle they had after
the heightst because they had a very easy life, very
(13:18):
nice life.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Even authorities in Serbia have found the Pink Panthers to
be a useful source of positive pr.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Mass police officers in Serbia moved in to arrest the
four men accused of snatching an impressive haul of Impressionist
works A Monet, a Degas, a van Go and The
Boy in the Red Vest by Paul Saison, all taken
from a museum in Zurich. Back in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Scott Pelly on CBS Evening News reports on the recovery
of a stolen painting worth over one hundred million dollars.
Serbian authorities claimed that the theft was the work of
the paint pant at the press conference held by the
Serbian Interior Minister. This desan is flanked by police officers
in balaclavas and camouflage holding AK forty seven's, and this
(14:12):
triumph of law enforcement couldn't have come at a better time.
Sabier is pushing ahead with moves to join the European Union,
but brusselshimself are unimpressed with its reforms. That interview on
the news program Conflict Zone hints at how useful it
might be for a country notorious for its corruption to
(14:33):
make a dramatic recovery of a stolen European artwork and
arrest a few local celebrity criminals. It's the kind of
news that might just ease Serbia's way into the EU.
Like law enforcement, the medium is also prone to describe
(14:57):
the Pink Panthers as a glamorous and highly organ gang.
With their elaborate heights, cinematin gataways, and the eye popping
value of the things they steal, the Panthers do make
for excellent headlines and compelling television.
Speaker 12 (15:13):
The gang linked to at least three hundred and eighty
robberies around the world, famously using cars and motorcycles inside
shopping malls. Police they've stolen get this, more than three
hundred and seventy one million dollars in jewels.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
That ABC News report sums up the breathless tone of
so much of their reporting about the Panthers. In fact,
the media's fascination as such that anytime there is a big,
dramatic heist, they're likely to pit it on the Panthers.
In twenty sixteen, Kim Kardashian was robbed at her hotel
in Paris. She was tied up while the thieves escaped
(15:51):
with millions of dollars in jewels inside. Addition, was quick
to make the connection to the Pink Panthers.
Speaker 13 (15:58):
The Lightning speed of the raid on Kim Kardashian's hotel
is a hallmark of the Pink Panthers. The Pink Panthers
have hundreds of members, mainly from Eastern Europe, and they're
spread across the continent. They are said to have extensive
contacts who tip them off when a vulnerable target like
Kim Kardashian has checked in.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Except it was not true. Captain Nerve Konan of the
Paris Police worked on many Pink Panther cases. This was
not one of them.
Speaker 14 (16:29):
I was dealing with the Kim Garashan case because none
and I did French guys, French guys, pure local. But
each time something happened, people are thinking it is the
Pink Panthers.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
As it turned out, Kardashian was a victim of the
Granddad Gangsters, a group of elderly thieves led by a
sixty seven year old French Algerian Man. They were eventually
caught and prosecuted. And yet the Pink Panther connection clinks
to this story. Even now, you'll see what I mean
if you google it.
Speaker 15 (17:07):
It doesn't necessarily make sense that there's this one centralized
hierarchy that can dictate all of these different incidents. They're
very complicated. It's very hard to follow the money.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Sociologist Elizabeth Williams has studied the ping panthers and written
about how politicians, police, and the media will often overstate
the threat of criminal organizations. She thinks there's a practical
reason why.
Speaker 15 (17:37):
It's very self serving for law enforcement entities and agencies
that are tasked with addressing these kinds of crimes. It's
very self serving for them to create narratives that might
not be grounded in reality. It's a lot easier to
say that they understand the scope of the problem and
(17:58):
that they know how to attack. Then we have no
idea what's going on, but.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
There could be some value in reinforcing a specific version
of the story.
Speaker 15 (18:08):
If there's no criminal enterprise to take down, then why
is so much time and effort being spent to take
down a criminal enterprise. There's certain people in power, and
they will use the system to further their own interests.
And who's going to benefit from this particular story being
told or this particular story being told in this way.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
That's a good question. Who is going to benefit from
this story being told in this way? Where the Panthers
are a highly organized, far reaching criminal network. Attorney Michelle
Estland specializes in getting INTERPOL red notices removed from her
client's records. According to her, there's a clear reason why
(18:52):
the international crime fighting organization would prioritize a group like
the Panthers.
Speaker 16 (18:58):
You have to remember is a political organization. It has
a lot of member countries and all of the members
want something from the other members, just like any other organization.
So Ronobel was American, and what do Americans do? We
do stuff about money, right, it all comes down to
money with us.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
At some point Interpals Inspector General Ronobyl had big ambitions
for the organization and those ambitions required money funding from
Interpals member countries.
Speaker 16 (19:28):
Interpol has got a huge mission, a wide reaching set
of goals, so he was faced with the challenge of
getting funding to be able to expand Interpol's reach and ability.
They do have some capabilities that some of the member
countries are never going to have if Interpol doesn't jump
in and help out in combating crime.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
It's worth noting that the UA, which needed Interpals help
in solving the Dubai heist, then became one of interpol's
top donor. When Elan Greenberg began investigating the Pink Panthers,
he saw that INTERPOL had a number of stated priorities
(20:11):
major global issues like human trafficking and narcotics, but then
also the Pink Panthers, a group of jewel thieves who
are striking terror into the hearts of luxury brands like
Graf and Harry Winston. On the face of it, it
did not make a lot of sense. Why would INTERPOL
put their project Pink Panther on the same level as
(20:33):
these more serious global crimes.
Speaker 11 (20:38):
My name is Karen Greenaway. I am a retired FBI
Special Agent. For more than eighteen of my twenty three
years in the FBI, I worked transnational organized crime investigations,
mostly from the former Soviet Union and the Balkans.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Elan asked Karen Greenway what she thinks Interpal placed such
a high importance on the Pink Panthers.
Speaker 11 (21:03):
It's because they were in Europe, and because they were
so successful on some of their heists that they did
as a criminal enterprise, they were prioritized. But I think
it was something that came out of an analysis that
was done with an Interpol that this was a priority
target for a number of countries, and therefore they were
(21:23):
going to focus resources on them, and so they prioritized
it over other things.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
The pink panthers. We're a priority for a number of
interpols member countries, specifically places where they had struck. Wealthy
countries where tourism and luxury shopping might be affected by
high profile crime, especially the kind that tends to end
up all over the media. You can see that's just
bad for business. But given that INTERPOL could be spending
(21:53):
its time and resources on the other things on the list,
like human trafficking and drugs, is this a mistake?
Speaker 11 (22:00):
I wouldn't call it a mistake. I would call it
a conscious choice because you didn't feel like you could
get the collective agreement to put it on a target
that was much higher value and potentially international importance.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
So in the end, what does Karen Greenway think of
Interval's decision to focus on the pink panthers.
Speaker 11 (22:20):
So my answer is, if I had a choice an
investigator between them and the groups that I know were
more violent and do have victims and are causing heartache
to people who are average citizens, I would choose that
group over the Pink Panthers. But that being said, you
know it wasn't the victim was crime. Now, the victims,
for the most part, could afford the thefts that were
(22:41):
happening to them. And I'm sure somebody will get angry
at me for saying this that insurance companies covered the losses.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
When the Pink Panthers are portrayed as more organized or
more widespread than they really are, it does more than
create a useful story for law enforcement or some splashy
headlines for the media. It reinforces a stereotype. Journalist David
Samuels wrote a major profile of the Ping Panthers for
The New Yorker. He talked on the magazine's Out Loud
(23:17):
podcast about the narrative that's taken shame around Serbia.
Speaker 10 (23:22):
They have a historical narrative, this sort of Serbian sense
of being the bulwark of Europe and at the same
time scorned and rejected by Europe, and then Serbs themselves
being either left to suffer or being held up as villains.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
This depiction of Serbia as a gateway between East and West,
a trading post for smugglers and thieves. We've heard it before.
Journalist Lilly Lynch is editor of The Balconist magazine. She
spent over a decade living and reporting in Serbia.
Speaker 17 (23:59):
I think that this sort of stereotypes about the Balkans
is really drawn from the nineties war and also organized crime,
and this is a place where you know, criminals flourish.
There's always an answer to these sorts of depictions of
the Balkans is being uniquely prone to violence. The Serbs
are always kind of depicted in films, for example, as
(24:19):
being you know, very blood their sea and violent. That
there's something you know, uniquely warlike about not to Sturbs,
but people from the Balkans.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
And yet, according to Lili Litch, whatever resistance everyday serves
might have to the stereotypes of Western media, there is
some pride to it as well.
Speaker 17 (24:40):
I think that there is a bit of a sort
of pleasure indulging those stereotypes. And it can be you know,
kind of a part of national pride for sure, in
a sick kind of way. And we see stories in
local media and Serbia about you know, Serbs in London,
you know, getting up to all kinds of trouble. This
is the sort of element of like ari our guys
(25:00):
are sort of like making it out there, you know,
even if it's you know, in crime. And of course
I think pianthers are kind of the most flashiest, sort
of in some way is more successful.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
So I mentioned that there are a few ideas about
how the being panthers are organized and ultimately who is
in charge. On the one hand, they're described as a
kind of franchise, or they're the highly organized criminal gang
that law enforcement describes and that the media likes to
report on like a cartel, but with more style and
less bloodshed. But there is at least one other possibility,
(25:37):
a third option that's specific to the Balkan states of
the former Yugoslavia. Stevando Jinovic is founder and editor in
chief of the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network in Belgrade, Serbia.
Speaker 18 (25:50):
There's one difference in Balkan organized crime, which is big
difference than in the countries and the West. When we
say about corruption, Balkan groups they don't work like in
a way that they will find some weak spot into
the police system, some weak police officer which they can
bribe and use, or some other bureaucrat like we'll find
(26:13):
in some Western countries.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
According to Stevando Ginovich. The ties between criminals and the
Balkan governments are at a totally different level than we
might see in the West.
Speaker 18 (26:23):
If you look all discovered cases of corruption, we see
that Balkan gains already had connection at the top. There's
always connected to Minister of Police, to prime ministers, to presidents,
and this is going for decades. We're literally like top
of the state like literally made agreement to the Organs
crime group to get support and in return they will
(26:45):
be more safe to continue doing smuggling. But they also
share their benefits with the state, which there's even terms,
it's called black funds.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
This isn't simply a case of authorities turning a blind eye.
Stephan's reporting shows that the highest levels of government provide
the criminals with protection. In return, they receive a cut
of the proceeds. They're more like partners.
Speaker 18 (27:10):
You want to really look from right perspective, Vulcan organis crime.
What do they do? They make some kind of joint
venture business between organized crime and the state.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
In Serbian investigative reporter Lena Zorich's origin story, the Pink
Panthers got their start as part time assets of the
Yugoslav Secret police. It may be that that relationship never
truly ended.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
The clinician Echo studies, So we have a police that
is corrupted. We have the secret services which are corrupted,
and to these people are always useful to them.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
According to her, this arrangement creates some useful flexibility. Once
the teams are trained up, you can ask almost anything
of them.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
They're using them specifically because the senate for the heist
and the scenario for the murder are exactly the same.
But everything that's leading to that point and everything the
escape afterwards, it always has the same scenario. It's just
that final stage that it is different.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
This idea that the Pink Panthers enjoy the support and
protection of the Serbian state in exchange for doing their
dirty work. It's very different from the glamorous image the
Panthers seem to work so hard to project, so different
from the breathless way the media tells this story. This
is a much more sinister equation where a heist and
(28:39):
a hit are not so far apart. Coming up next
on Infamous International, the Pink Panthers story. If there is
a place on Earth that's made for the Pink Panthers,
it's a very tiny, very rich place called Monaco.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
I said, well, why would any criminal come to Monaco
to steal?
Speaker 10 (29:02):
He said, very simple and direct hands, he said, because
there's a lot of money here.
Speaker 19 (29:06):
The amount that they're pulling in these two minute heis.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Is so astonishing. I think people can't really grasp it.
It's like magic when highly effective police chief finds that
going after Monica's criminals might land him in deep water.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
In our lot meeting, he said, obviously I can't investigate crime,
but they don't want me to, so I might as
well just become part of it.
Speaker 19 (29:31):
I can't imagine a more hideous, but yet in some
ways fitting death for someone who was as powerful as
this guy really was in Monica.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
That's next time on Infamous International, The Pink Panther's Story.
Infamous International The Pink Panther's Story was produced by Best
Case Studios in association with Koda's Story, hosted by me
(30:06):
Natalia aunt Lava, and written by Katrina Wolfe, Adam Pinkis,
Suzanne Meyers, and David Markowitz, with help from Brent Katz
and Matt Levin. For Best Case Studios Executive Producer, Adam
pinkis Senior producer David Markowitz, producer Katrina Wolfe, associate producer
(30:28):
Hannah Libovitz, Lockhart, and consulting producers Julie Goldstein and Louis
Spiegeler for Koda. Story reporting by Lane Greenberg with associate
producer Rebecca Robinson. Edited and sound designed by Gayleen Mullens
and Max Michael Miller. Music by Dave Harrington. Archival producers
(30:49):
Mark de Goora and Paul Dallas. This has been an
exactly write production. Executive producers Karen Kilgareth Georgia Hartstark and
Daniel Kramer. Was consulting producer Kyle Ryan
Host
Natalia Antelava
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Intentionally Disturbing
Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.