Episode 154 - Sugar Zaddy

In this week's episode, the ladies visit one wild and rowdy town: Philadelphia. Join Vicky and Janelle as they talk crimes from the city of brotherly love.

You can check out the Vocal Fries Podcast here!

Research links below!:

"Cellar of Horror" by Ken Englade
Philadelphia Magazine - "Inside the House of Heidnik"
Time - "House Of Horrors: Serial Murder in Philadelphia"
Jet Magazine - "Black Women Report of Sex, Torture, Murder At Hands of White Philadelphia 'Bishop'"
Serial Killer Crime Index - "Heidnik, Gary Michael"
Gettysburg Times - "Cyril 'Tony' Brown pleads not guilty in captivity case"
The Telegraph Herald - "Heidnik tries suicide"
truTV - "Gary Heidnik: To Hell and Back"
All Thats Interesting - "Gary Heidnik, The 'House Of Horros' Killer Who Inspired Buffalo Bill"
The True Crime Edition - "The Real-Life Silence of the Lambs"
UPI - "Lawyer: Heidnik's church alive and well"

FindLaw - "Berkery v. Estate of Stuart NJ"
Philadelphia Weekly - "Bootleggers, Burglars and a Beauty"
Justia - "United States of America Ex Re. Raplh Staino, Jr. H-4329 v. Joseph R. Brierly, Superintendent, State Correctional Institution, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19130"
The Philadelphia Inquirer - "Pottsville Burglary: An Incredible Caper That Had Everything"
AP News - "Mobster Asks Judge To Cut His Prison Term"
Casetext - "Reis v. United States Marshal"
Kiko's House - "A Decades-Long Love Story Acted Out Against A Backdrop of Prison & Passion"
Temple University Libraries - "State's star witness [Richard Blaney] in fantastic upstate burglary killed by bomb blast"
Philadelphia City Paper - "War of the Words"
Vlex - "Com. v. Staino"

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
Why they discovered upon their arrivals more. I'm not giving they did. It's
the living. You're gonna worry aboutsomething. If I couldn't keep them there

(00:28):
with me home, I at leastI felt that I could keep there's skeletons.
Hello and welcome to the Bad SeasCrime Podcast. I'm Vicky, I'm
Janelle, We're Becky. In madeit through six years? What's another episode?
Six? Where I was like,I thought you said not six more

(00:49):
or more episode? She put aterm limit on her relationship. It's not
working. No, we might justrun out of crimes. We never know.
We will never run out of crimes. Literally, I mean that's a
beautiful thing, kind of. Imean it's I don't want to Yeah,
no, I take that back.I don't want to break any of this.

(01:11):
But like, we'll never be outof a job, exactly right,
just like a partition. We'll neverbe out of never be out of a
Jeff, people be dying speaking ofmorticians excellently, seg yeah, kind of.
If this is your first show,listening a special habitult Hello to you.
Oh hello, but let's head overto the newsroom. How do we

(01:36):
get there? Foodless to day wehad fifty. We don't think so.
This week we're in the state ofMaryland. This comes from the Baltimore Banner.

(01:57):
Maryland is having some problems, y'allhave you been there? But I
most recently doctor Donald w. Alves, who is the medical director for the
Maryland State Police. Okay, okay, gymnastics. There in my brain for
a minute, Um is being accusedof well, okay, Um, Basically

(02:29):
I'm trying to decide how to wordthis. He was associated with an erectile
dysfunction clinic. Okay, in away that's not great. So at first
he denied that he had any connectionto this clinic, but then he later
said that he had this business relationshipwith this clinic that was, according to

(02:54):
the article run by a convicted felonand repeat securities odd violator and customers type
being blamed was providing poor treatment andcharging steep fees. It's just dick bills.
How hard is it not? Injections? Dick injections? Yeah. Yeah.

(03:19):
He essentially was like allowing this clinicto use his name, UM as
one of their top doctors. Andthe other thing was he gave UM like
authorization for physicians assistance to perform injectionson the patients in his name. I

(03:40):
mean essentially, that's I don't knowhow it works in Maryland, but that's
not that uncommon in some areas tohave physicians assistance doing some of the like
prep, preliminary. It wasn't physiciansassistance, it was somebody who's not supposed
to be doing it. Um,well, let me find it, like
the receptionist says. The Board ofPhysicians received three complaints about the clinic between

(04:01):
September twenty and twenty twenty. InJanuary twenty twenty one, they said they
had been seen not by a doctorbut by non physician staff, and then
like the receptionists yeah, and thenon physician staff had administered an injection into
his penis, and that another customersaid their insurance company called the clinic a

(04:23):
scam company. Yeah, and hethe doctor Alves originally told the medical board
that he like didn't know this clinic, wasn't sure why they were using his
name, and then later he saidhe had been hired on to work a
couple of days a month, andthen later said that he had an agreement

(04:46):
for the physician's assistant to treat theclinics clients calling for the assistance to give
the client's injections withoutseeking permission from alasthe problem. So it's interesting because this
article is like, what what isso he resigned, I should also say
from the state police. But thearticle points out that Maryland has actually been

(05:08):
in a lot of police controversy atthe moment. Said. They are talking
about the quota system that they havewithin the state. They are talking about
arresting a Western Maryland drug task officerfor tipping off a wire tap target and
exchange for money. They're talking aboutracial discrimination, overdose death in jail.

(05:33):
I mean, it's like, what'sgoing on Maryland? Not just crabs?
And also the state medical Examining examineris schilling dick injections pretty much pretty much.
So that's the news, all rightdown quote to Maryland, get your
crabs somewhere. Moving on to Netflixand Kill, which this week is a

(05:58):
Hulu and kill because we're talking aboutHulu done it. If you Hulu done
it? Oh, I like that. Oh that's good. We're gonna have
to start using that stolen youth insidethe cult at Sarah Lawrence. This made
me, it was a lot veryupset. Yeah, it's only about three

(06:20):
episodes, I think, but itwas a lot like heavy, heavy,
heavy. So essentially what happens isthis man named Ray something Larry Ray,
moves into this house that his daughteris staying out with a bunch of other

(06:46):
sophomores attendant camps on campus SA College, um, and sort of like starts
influencing them and this weird sort ofself help way kind of. But then
they all end up moving into thisapartment with him where they have a very
regimented schedule and he was having sexwith one of the college students at that

(07:12):
time. At that time and later, yeah, I mean it was.
It's so weird. It is soweird. Just like when you watch it
and you look at that man,you're just like, fucking how if a
guy like that walked up to meon the street and time me, I'm
like, fuck off, Yeah hedid. It has big fuck off energy
about it. A lot of mentalmanipulation with like gaslighting these kids into thinking

(07:34):
that they had damaged his things andlike getting them to admit to these things
that they had never done or didn'tknow about or whatever, like plots against
them, Oh my gosh. Yeah, um, getting them to think that
they've been poisoned, and that theyhave also poisoned other people. Yeah,
yeah, and admitting to it acamera recording. Larry Ray himself had already

(07:58):
he had just gotten out of jailwhen he moved into this house for I
don't even remember what it was.It was like something fraud related. I
think big fraud guy and yeah,and so he was convinced that he was
being watched by like the FBI andthe police, and convinced these other people
that they were being used by thesedetectives to get back at him for like

(08:22):
whistleblowing on this thing. And Imean, it's just all very strange,
very very strange. And these peoplehave come out of it. I mean,
it's obviously he's been for the mostpart. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's true for the most part.There were still two women who are

(08:43):
struggling deeply. But I mean thepeople who are no longer like dealing with
him have had their own struggles withlike contacting their family and their siblings that
were in it and like being reunited and there's legal battles and things going
through the court system still, youknow what I mean. So it's just

(09:07):
I I don't even know, sayabout it, because it's just it's crazy
fucking spleechless because it's like, well, yeah, how who what? How?
Yeah? Yeah, he was totalmanipulator and just they like moved him
down to North Carolina at one point. It's like work on the farm,
and they were just he was doingso many drugs that he was up like

(09:30):
twenty four hours and would like getthem up to just dig trenches and stuff
like fucking out of control bonker shit. Yeah yeah. And you know what
I found really interesting was the sisterwho had fallen in love with him and
became his girlfriend mom wife. Yeah, because at one point and they the

(09:52):
people who made the documentary essentially interviewedher almost immediately after his arrest um and
then can continued interviewing her as sheis separating herself from the other woman who
is still sort of in it,I guess who had charges against her,
yes, and sort of going throughher own like transformation of kind of figuring

(10:18):
shit out and what was real.I mean she even she talks about like
I don't know what was real andwhat wasn't real, and there's these things
so ingrained in my mind. Andthen I think about it and I'm like
was that real or was that somethingthat I made up? And kind of
so sort of watching that being capturedlike was a really and you don't normally
get to see that sort of cyclethat they go through after getting as they

(10:41):
didn't really talk to the one womanwho was still involved for a long time
who became a sex worker, andthat whole issue with whether or not she
was forced to be a sex workeror not, Like they didn't really get
that whole entire story from her home. Yeah, and so I believe this
is still like working its way throughthe courts. But it's a very crazy
story, horrible tragic, like awful, but weird and bizarre. It kind

(11:09):
of reminded me a little bit ofBad Vegan where she you know, like
the manipulation was kind of strange andvery complete, non secretive, but like,
you know, it kind of gaveme that sort of vibe of this
like a similar type of manipulation.It's just so bonkers to me how people

(11:30):
can be manipulated into such extreme,like the extreme, not just manipulated into
like little tiny See these were kids, they were college kids, like these
were not you know, these arepeople literally in the prime like searching for
who they are and trying to figureout like their place in the world,
Like what a perfect group because likethe most impressionable even at that like Jesus

(11:54):
Christ. Funny because I always thoughtof myself in that like age. I
know, I know, you don'ttell me what to do. I know,
everyone going on, yeah, exceptwe actually know we're talking about um.
So anyway, if you I woulddefinitely say it's some heavy shit.
Yeah, and you're gonna be likeleaving the couple episodes like what Yeah,

(12:16):
but it's very I think it's reallyworth it. I rewatched it because she
was like, there's a lot.I'm gonna have to go back because I
don't understand what's going you know,like it was just so fucking yeah control
Web. So that was Stolen YouthInside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence on Hulu
Hulu Exclusive. I think. Sowe're gonna move right along. This is

(12:39):
that part of the show where saycontent may not be appropriate, fault listeners
talking about some real heavy shit today. I mean, mine's not in Mine
is mine will be like the niceending. That's good. That's good because
mine is very I mean, well, there is a death, but yeah,
dying about instances of kidnapping, rape, sexual assaults. I mean,

(13:03):
it's like a real banger as theysang. Yeah. So if you don't
want to hear about that, justskip ahead, like half an hour before
and listen to Jane's episode. SoI decided that we were going to take
a little trip to, honestly,someplace that I really enjoy. That is

(13:28):
Philadelphia, said nobody ever, Phillybaby, because the chasteake's home of the
craziest fucking sports fans this side ofthe Mississippi. It's because I don't live
there. You know, two ofmy best friends live out there, so
I get to visit and then comeback to the not you don't have to
live. Yeah, it's a goodtime. A historical center of the nation's

(13:52):
birth. Uh yeah, a historicalcenter of the birth of penitentiaries. Yeah,
that's one of my favorite players.So yeah, so we're going to
talk about some Philly crime today.Philadelphia without God, You're welcome. I
may have been to Philadelphia. Phiaccent like something else. Man, if

(14:18):
you've ever seen um Mayor of Easttown, which is very good, I have.
Yeah, that accent, that's it. I heard. I was watching
that. I was like, ohmy God Transporting did a pretty good job.
So I am going to talk aboutGary Heidnik all right. So Gary
Heidnik was born in nineteen forty threeand what is probably the first red flag

(14:41):
in East Lake, Ohio. Goddamn Ohio. Yeah this outside of Cleveland.
I believe his parents divorced at ayoung age, and Heidrich initially lived
as his mom for a few years, but then moved in with his dad
and his dad's new wife. Helater claimed that he suffered abuse from his
father. According to Hydri Hydrick,he um, excuse me, Hidnik,

(15:05):
he had a major issue with bedweddingas a child and claimed that it was
only exacerbated by his father mocking himand hanging the soiled bedsheets in the window
for like the neighborhood to see dumb. It's worth noting that Heidnik's father did

(15:26):
not see these allegations. First,no one wants to admit being an asshole,
right. His social life wasn't muchbetter, as Hidnick was viewed as
um kind of a weird kid.He It's reported that he had this oddly
shaved head as a result of fallingfrom a tree. That sort of made

(15:48):
him a target of ridicule. HidNick rarely interacted with other students and he
just didn't like make any eye contactwith anybody. Now, in nineteen fifty
seven, Hynick joined the Staunton MilitaryAcademy in Virginia and he attended for two
years before returning to high school,but he never graduated. He actually joined

(16:11):
the military before graduating, where heactually started to flourish under the strict structure.
The army continuously gave him excellent marks, but when he applied for like
special assignments, he was continuously denied. Eventually, Heinick transferred to San Antonio,
Texas, where he went to trainas a medic and then later transferred

(16:34):
to the forty sixth Army Surgical Hospitalin Landstool, West Germany, where he
earned his GD. This has gotsome similarities to a man who was killing
in the military that we looked atnot too long ago. I have a
lot of similarities to a lot ofserial killers in general. So by nineteen

(16:55):
sixty two, Heidnick was diagnosed withgastero and toritis as well as show unfortunately
as well as showing signs of mentalillness. So later the same year,
Heidnick was transferred to a military hospitalin Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was
diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder and honorablydischarged from the military. Okay, so

(17:22):
now he's in Philly and he's allkinds of acting crazy, right, Yeah,
they just dropped him off in Philly. So after his military career,
Heynick enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania, but only attended for one semester.
His next venture was working for theVA, but he was fired for attendance

(17:44):
and terrible bedside manner. He essentiallyspent the next twenty five years going in
and out of psychiatric hospitals, attemptingsuicide at least thirteen times. The rest
of his family undem like he neededhelp from the VA oh yeah, oh
yeah, And honestly, like itdefinitely seems like mental illness was something that

(18:07):
kind of ran in his family.His mom was an alcoholic. She later
was diagnosed with bone cancer, andbecause of the alcoholism, she committed suicide
in nineteen seventy by drinking your curicacid. Oh oh god. M Heyne's
brother Terry spent some time in mentalinstitutions as well, and he like attempted

(18:29):
suicide and several times so like definitelyseems like the family as a whole really
needed help. Yeah, Heidneck startedhis next career as a church leader,
that is a one eighty. Innineteen seventy one, at twenty eight years
old, Heyneck formed the United Churchof the Ministers of God Word Salad.

(18:53):
Initially beginning with five members and fifteenhundred dollars. The church would eventually grow
to around fifteen fifty members with fivehundred thousand dollars in the bank by nineteen
eighty six. And I believe intwenty twenty dollars it was that's like two
million. Yeah, in nineteen seventysix, he has the church. By

(19:15):
the way, it's still just likehanging around. I think it's still active.
It's it's not I don't necessarily thinkit was like a cult or anything.
I think it was just like achurch. Yeah. In nineteen seventy
six is when Heinick began his criminalcareer, when he was charged with aggravated
assault and carrying a weapon without alicense after firing a gun at one of

(19:36):
his tenants grazed his cheek. Okay. He was also like dating around at
this time, and he seemed topick up girl friends from these various mental
institutions that he worked at Okay,Okay. So he had a child with

(19:57):
his first girlfriend, Gail cow However, the child was eventually put into foster
care because of the mental capacity ofthe child's mother. Hi Nick would have
another child with another girlfriend, anJeanette Davidson, who he met while he
was at an institution. The childwas also given to foster care as well

(20:19):
due to his mother's mental capacity.An Jeanette's sister was also in the same
institution. Her name was Alberta Davidson. So Heinick had his next running with
the law in nineteen seventy eight whenhe signed out Alberta on a day pass
took her to his home where heimprisoned her in the basement Okay. She

(20:44):
was later found by authorities and returnedto the hospital, where upon examination it
was discovered that she had been raped, sadomized, and contracted Ganaia. Hi
Nick was arrested and charged with kidnapping, rape, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment,
involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, and interferingwith the custody of a committed person

(21:07):
and for all of that, andafter some appeals, he did have his
original sentence overturned. He ended upserving about three years in mental institutions before
being released in nineteen eighty three.How we feeling about this so far?
I feel like, um, there'stoo much, too much releasing happening going

(21:27):
on here. Yeah, I meanthey put him in like mental institutions,
but it doesn't really sound like notfor long enough. Yeah. Shortly after
being released from custody, Heyneck begancommunicating with Betty Disto, who is a
woman that he met through a matrimonialservice in the Philippines. Okay, okay,

(21:48):
we're going there, yes, yep. So they communicated back and forth
for two years, and then Distotraveled to the US to Mary Heidnik,
but the marriage did not last long, like at all, because Heinik is
a terrible person, pretty much,yeah say so. It was reported that
he would force Disto to watch whilehe had sex with other women, sometimes

(22:12):
forcing her to get involved. Distoluckily was able to find help within the
Filipino community and they helped her escapeessentially from his house, and then she
almost immediately went to the police andtold them that he had raped her and
forced her into all of these youknow, sexual assault situations essentially, and

(22:37):
hi Nick was charged with assault,indecent assault, spousal rape, and involuntary
deviant sexual intercourse for that Now.Later in nineteen eighty six, on Thanksgiving,
hi Nick picked up twenty five yearold Josephina Rivera, who was working
on the streets. The two hadstopped McDonald's before hi Nick drove the pair
back to his house on North Marshall's. When they arrived, Rivera noticed that

(23:03):
he had this like weird lock onhis door, and he had pulled out
his keys, and he only hadhalf a key. So what he had
done is he had split the keyin half and left the other half in
the lock to his door, sothat the only people that could get in
was somebody who had the other halfof the key, which was he only
he had the only other half ofthat key, or a locksmith or a

(23:26):
locksmith who has all the tools.But you didn't take that apart. But
yeah, that's smart, are you. Yeah. So the two went upstairs
and had sucks in Highneck's bedroom,and then when they were finished, Rivera
was getting dressed and getting ready toleave, and hi Nick attacked the woman

(23:48):
and then put her into a pitthat he had dug in his basement.
Okay, that's not great for thestructure of your home. First of all,
sir, the pit was then boardedup, which just like left little
bits of light like coming through theboards of the year was this? So
it was in nineteen eighty six,Okay, so before silence of the Yeah,

(24:11):
so that is partially based off ofOkay said that, and I was
like, oh yeah. Just overtwenty four hours later, heidnich Kept kidnapped
twenty five year old Sandra Lindsay fromthe Elwyn Institute, taking her home and

(24:33):
putting her into the pit with Rivera. Later, he forced Lindsay to write
a letter to her mother saying thatshe had left the institute voluntarily, but
her mother was like pretty skeptical andreported her missing to the police immediately,
and they she even gave them Heidnick'saddress, but they were kind of like,
this is just like a runaway shehad gotten shortly after a I think,

(24:56):
like a Christmas card with like fivedollars in it from you know,
quote unquote from Lindsay. And sothe police were like, she just ran
away, it's fine, you know, eighties shit. Yeah, While Rivera
and Lindsay were being held captive.Hei Nick repeatedly raped and tortured and starved

(25:17):
both women. I'm not going togo into heavy detail because it's just a
fucking lap, but it was nota good situation. Just under a month
later, on December twenty second,heid Nick found seventeen year old Lisa Thomas
walking along the side alongside the roadto a friend's house. Thinking she was
a sex worker, he tried topick her up, but she wasn't.

(25:40):
She was not and got like offended, and so he's like, oh,
I'm so sorry, Like let megive you a ride to wherever you're going.
So he gave her a ride tothis friend's house, waited for her
to come out, and somehow talkedher into going to dinner. They later
went back to Heinick's house, wherehe gave Thomas a drugged glass of wine.

(26:00):
While she was unconscious, he rapedher before putting her into the pit
with the other two women. Soaround this time, Heidnik appointed Rivera a
sort of like boss of the otherwomen. She had been in captivity the
longest, and eventually began working withHeidnik to like watch over the women and

(26:26):
convince him that like I'm on yourside like to get better treatment. She
was also forced to help him intorturing some of these other women. It
was definitely like a very Stockholm typesituation, it seemed to me, where
she was just trying to like survive. Yeah, so she kind of is

(26:47):
put in charge of like reporting onwhat the other women are doing while Heidnik
is not there. Essentially. Justtwo weeks later, Heidnik kidnapped nineteen year
old Deborah Dudley and forced her intothe pit with the others. On January
eighteenth, nineteen eighty seven, Heidnickabducted eighteen year old Jacqueline Askins, placing

(27:08):
her in the pit. Then onby February nineteen eighty seven, Sandra Lindsay
passed away. Mainly from start,he had been withholding food from her,
and when he went to feed heragain, she was done. So Heidnick
hauled her body upstairs, where itwas dismembered, and then allegedly some of

(27:33):
it was cooked and ground and mixedinto dog meat that was later fed to
the other women downstairs. The onlyreason I include that is because there's some
speculation as to whether that actually happenedor if that is details that Heidnick included
later when he was trying to pleadinsanity gotcha. So there is some question
as to whether that happened or whetherhe like he polished the women that happened

(27:56):
at the time to make them believethat they were like, you know,
to mess with them psychologically, orif yeah, he just ambolished for like
his insanity defense. Heidnik continued historture and abuse. He eventually killed Deborah
Dudley as well, after he pouredwater into the pit and then ran electricity

(28:17):
to the shackles that they were wearingand she was electrocuted to death. He
had forced Rivera to help him inthis occasion, so she was not actually
down there with the rest of thewomen. He then took Dudley's body and
hid it in the or disposed ofit in the new Jersey Pine Barrens,
big place where the mafia would droppeople off too, and supposedly where there's

(28:41):
encrypted, yes that's or what Iknow encrypted. Rivera had worked really hard
to convince Heynick that she was workingwith him at this point, and he
was letting her into the house alittle bit more, and occasionally she was
even accompanying him on trips out ofthe house. Okay. But on March

(29:04):
twenty fourth, nineteen eighty seven,heid Nick took her vera and drove around
Philadelphia, where they found twenty fouryear old Agnes Adams. The two kidnapped
to the woman, forcing her intothe pit as well. But later that
night, somehow Rivera managed to talkhei Nick into letting her go to visit

(29:26):
her family, just for like ashort time, like a couple of minutes.
He agreed and drove her to anearby gas station that was like kind
of by her boyfriend's house. Andshe had children too, so it was
kind of by her boyfriend's house.And he was like, I'm gonna wait
at this gas station. You gofor a couple of minutes and then come
back and I'll wait here for you. As soon as she was out of

(29:48):
sight, she went to the nearestpay phone and called nine one one,
and the police showed up, heardher story like saw the shackle marks and
stuff on her arms and legs,and and went to the gas station and
arrested Heidnik immediately. When they arrivedat his house, police discovered the women
being kept in his basement, alongwith Sandra Lindsay's forum in the freezer and

(30:12):
other evidence of the dismemberment. Policealso arrested a man named Cyril Brown,
who claimed to be Heidnik's best friend. He received a fifty thousand dollars bail
and agreed to testify against Heidnick,admitting that he was witnessed to both Lindsay's
death and dismemberment. So there wasthis like friend of his just like hanging

(30:37):
out. Yeah, if I walkedin and you were like taking apart somewhere
and be like this is where Islowly back up and leave. So when
Heidnik finally made it to court,he said the women were already in the
house like when I moved in.Even if that was true, you had
the opportunity to let them go.Yeah, and they so they were in

(30:57):
the house for four like total.He had these women trapped in his basement.
He was just like they were justthere when I moved in, which
is also really fucked up that youwould not say anything like what like I
don't again unless it was like somethinghe said to aid his insanity defense.

(31:17):
But like so anyway, they definitelytried to prove his attorneys tried to prove
that Heidnik was insane, legally insane. But remember that religion he started.
Yeah, but so he opened accountsunder the name of his church with like
Merrill Lynch okay, and the attorneys, the prosecuting attorneys basically said that the

(31:45):
fact that he was able to accumulatearound five hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
a brokerage account and like invest itwas enough to prove that he was a
smart investor that knew what the fuckhe was doing. Yeah, that means
we're not insane. And they evenhad a guy from Merrill Lynch like testify,
I have no idea what you justsaid. Yeah, maybe I'm insane.
Yeah. They had a guy fromMerrill Edge testify like, um,

(32:07):
yeah, Like he came in andwas talking to me about investments and like
was totally competent, So like Iwouldn't have any impression that he's insane at
all. Yeah. But then there'salso that argument to play the stock market
and to do finances have to becrazy. Yeah, so you know,
so yeah, they they basically said, no, that's not gonna fly.

(32:31):
And on July first, in nineteeneighty eight, Hynek was found guilty of
two counts of first degree murder sixcounts of kidnapping, five counts of rape,
four counts of aggravated assault, andtwo counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
and sentenced to death. In nineteenninety seven, Heidnik's daughter and ex wife

(32:54):
attempted to get a stage separate people, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah,
separate people because they could him hiswife. Yeah yeah. And this
was the I believe, this secondchild that he had with the woman who
was institutionalized. So her and herdaughter attempted to get a stay of execution

(33:20):
due to mental incompetence, but aftertwo years of litigation, it was denied,
and on July sixth, nineteen ninetynine, Heydrick was executed by lethal
injection in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Andhe was actually the as of last year,
the last person to be executed inthe state of Pennsylvania. Oh okay,

(33:44):
so yeah, surprise. Yeah.It's interesting because I think they still
have the death penalty or they're workingto get it overturned, so they haven't
had any um death especially with thewell, I guess that's just the Philadelphia
DA Anyway. Krasner isn't Krasner isthe best. But that is the story

(34:09):
of Gary Heidnick. Well, thenit's a lot. This is I see
at least as short, so itdidn't have torchia for too long, unlike
those women. That was a poorchoice of word. I'm sorry, y'all.
Listen, it's my naptime. Youneed sensitivity training, Vickie, I

(34:29):
just get So we're gonna go backto the glamour days of Philadelphia, which
I know it's hard to imagine Philadelphiait's being glamorous, um, but I

(34:52):
want you to remember that it isthe first stop from New York to Chicago
on the Mafia train. So youhave New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland,
Chicago. Those are the hot spots. So, yes, Philadelphia was glamorous
in the height of the mafia era, which is where we're going to be

(35:12):
hitting a little bit. Um.There is a lot of mafia action in
Philly. It's mafia adjacent obviously,um. But we're going to talk about
like the late fifties, early sixties. This is about a dame and a
henchman and the most famous burglary inPennsylvania history. It's the Pottsville Burglary.
Oh my god, this is rightup your alley. Girl. Actually,

(35:37):
if you look at the photos thatwere taken. So I used a book
called, oh gosh, what's itcalled? True Crime Philadelphia, and it
had some great stuff in there.And then also, um, oh,
why did I look? Where didI look this up? Temple University's digital

(35:58):
library, so also had amazing photographs. Okay, so you say Temple,
yes, I did. I know, as as someone who works at the
university, I have access to alot of other university libraries. So I
don't know when this episode is goingto come out and if the strike is
going to be resolved by then,but I just want to say that as

(36:20):
a podcast, we stand with theTemple tas. Yes, I stand with
all tas as I have been aTA. We're going to take a stand
on something you might as well be. This also the SEC adjuncts who are
also picketing for like fair wages andhealth insurance. You know. Anyway,

(36:40):
not a political podcast, going tobring that background. Now, this story
starts in Philly, it's going totake a swerve to pots Fillam, then
it's going to come back around again. So okay, we're gonna be all
over into the podcast. Such asuburb. Yeah, so we're starting with
the Temptress of the whole story whosename is Lilian Rays, and Lillian Rays

(37:02):
was considered a bombshell of her timeperiod, very Ava Gardner, very Lee.
Yes. Okay. She started dancingas a chorus girl in her teens
in the late forties and fifties.And if you're not familiar, a chorus
girl was a really highly sought afterjob as it was really really glamorous.

(37:24):
It was movie star adjacent. Youwould have many of people coming in and
out to watch these shows. Itwas the main form of entertainment, even
more so than movies. That soundsfun. And you could meet many a
rich man dancing and singing in atheater, and she did. She met
many a rich man, and shehad many a sugar daddy's well girl.

(37:46):
She would be showered with gifts,jewelry, and just straight up literal piles
of cash. Okay. And youmade good money as a chorus girl,
especially if you were in one ofthe higher end productions. Yeah, it's
estimated than her time as a chorusgirl, she was giving one point three
million dollars in today's money. Ohmy god, Yeah, that was money.

(38:07):
Andrewlry Yes. In nineteen fifty nine, the twenty nine year old former
chorus girl was juggling a few boyfriends, just enjoying her life, not working,
being super glamorous. Get it,it's like my dream, like a
stay at home weener dog mom witha little bit of like chorus girl accents,

(38:28):
you know, dog. Yeah,aspirations just manifested right, the universe
will provide, I mean, likethree more wiener dogs. Top um.
So. She was dating a fewolder gentlemen at this time, and one
gentleman included the fifty three year oldClyde bing Miller. Okay, oh,

(38:49):
Bingie, he was an engineer.He was love sick with this woman and
wanted to give her, like literallyall of his money, like not even
to his detriment. Was giving herso much money. Oh my god.
He paid for her apartment, Hepaid for a maid to take care of
her apartment. He gave her multiplemink coats. Okay, he gave her

(39:14):
a sugar zad zack everything. Yeah. He was like, you're right,
number one love and he had afamily. Okay. I feel like this
was not uncommon, not at all, especially that you got the money to
just be like showering with gifts exactly. Now, her full time lover however,
oh was name Ralph Junior Staino.Was he okay with all this?

(39:36):
And he was a Philly mobster,so he was very okay with this.
He was two years younger than her, so he worked with the K and
A Gang and the Scarfaux Outfit,but primarily he was the lowest level,
just kind of bum in these organizations, you know, just a street guy.
He was a stocky boxer type andhe loved raise and loved, like

(40:00):
truly loved her like this is thetrue mobster dame nineteen sixties movie star relationship.
That's bizarable. Yes, And hecould never really fully give as much
to her as he wanted to.He wanted her to have no sugar daddies.
He wanted to be the one tobe able to give her all the

(40:20):
money, but he just couldn't beingin the lowest part of the organization.
Yeah. Now, his two buds, Vincent Blaney and Robert Polson were part
of the K and A Gang andthey often were rolling people over and burglarizing
them, and Stana would occasionally assistwith these endeavors. So he was kind
of just like helping out, doinga few things here and there, beating
people up for money. You know, you know it wasn't a bad looking

(40:44):
dude. Yeah, I'd be like, okay, mobster. Okay. Now,
Clyde Miller raises sugar Daddy Number oneworked with a guy on occasion named
John Rich. Now, John Richwas the owner of a strip mining company,
in fact, the largest strip miningcompany in all of Pennsylvania. His

(41:06):
last name was super fitting too,because he was also the richest dude in
Pennsylvania at the time. Now,according to the book True Crime Philadelphia,
Clyde Miller told rays about Rich's moneythat he had hid in his home.
Now, this book is I don'tknow if it's one hundred percent. I
wouldn't say accurate. I don't knowif it's one hundred percent true to the

(41:29):
story because it takes from a bunchof people who are involved, who are
all just finger pointing at each other. Sure, take the quotes with a
grain of salt. Okay, That'swhat I'm trying to say. He stated
that Rich only let the government knowabout half the money he was making,
and he hid the rest in hishome. This will be a point of

(41:51):
contention later. Okay, Rich wason vacation with his wife in Europe in
August of nineteen fifty nine, whensomeone or some ones broke into his home
in Pottsville after eight pm, fourhundred and seventy eight thousand dollars in US
currency and seventeen thousand dollars worth ofjewelry were taken from a safe which had

(42:12):
been peeled by the burglars. Now, if you're not familiar with that and
you don't watch enough Mafia No Slash, you know, like this is my
last job heist movie. That meansthat they take a safe and chip away
one of the edges and peel backthe steel and open the rest of it
like a banana. Oh okay,So it's exactly what it sounds like.
Yeah, Okay. On the afternoonof August eight, nineteen fifty nine,

(42:36):
the caretaker entered the house and foundthat someone had broken in and forced opened
the door of the safe. Sothey came in early hours in the morning
left took their ship, and thecaretaker came in and was like, holy
shit, they had broken in throughthe kitchen back door, which is the
main door that the caretaker would comethrough. Okay. The caretaker informed the
son of John B. Rich thenalso who then also called the police.

(43:00):
When the investigation was made, itwas discovered that two pillowcases upstairs had been
removed from the main bed and misterRich's wife's jewels had been taken. It
was also later discovered that they tookpaperwork which wound up being stocks and bonds,
and they Okay, now here's thefucking weird part. Okay, the

(43:22):
two were on vacation in Europe.This happened on August eighth. They were
notified and they didn't come back untilafter Labor Day. That's September, y'all,
that's a full month. Okay.Now, the Sun reported it to
the police. They came and didthe initial investigation, but didn't move on
it until the couple returned from Europe. Why. Now, here's the other

(43:45):
issue. He said that he wasmissing only seventeen thousand dollars in cash and
three thousand, five hundred dollars inbank notes, and then the whatever quantity
it was for the jewelry, seventeenthousand dollars in jewelry. So together that
made what thirty four thousand dollars inassets and three thousand, five hundred dollars

(44:08):
in banknotes and in the reality,four hundred and seventy eight thousand dollars were
taken, so he was saying lesswas taken, was actually there? Okay,
okay. Now, shortly after thisrobbery, William Rays bought a nightclub

(44:29):
called the Celebrity Room and opened itwith a lavish, roaring nineteen twenties party,
complete with flappers and champagne fountains.Which is the picture you were talking
about the girl in the fringe.She claimed that she had saved tons of
money from all of her sugar daddiesand her course girl checks to purchase the
nightclub. That's what she was workingtowards. So she bought the club.

(44:50):
She was the owner, and shewas having amazing shows and raking in a
lot of cash. Nice. Now, in January of nineteen sixty, Richard
Francis Blaney, who as a brotherof Vincent Bliney, who was Ralph Stano's
best friend. If you recall fromthe beginning lots of names here, Yes,
he was infatuated with Captain Ferguson ofthe Philadelphia Detective Bureau. He wanted

(45:15):
desperately to be a g man,but he was just you know, a
street guy who did some crimes,but was like you know, it would
be really cool to be a gman. Yeah, so much so he
was obsessed with this guy that hesold his own brother out to get out
of a small arrest issue. Ohdamn. He told Ferguson that his brother
and two accomplices were the ones whorobbed Rich's house with a tip from a

(45:38):
woman. Okay, so the policeattempted to set up a sting to get
all of these people. Okay.Now, Robert Polson was one of the
first. He was one of theburglars with supposedly the guys that night.
He was arrested and on April third, nineteen sixty, gave a complete statement
to the police in which he implicatedthe two appellants in the case. This

(45:58):
is from a like a jury sitethat it was weird u. He gave
complete details of the crime alleged.So he was saying, no, it
wasn't me, it was the otherguys. No, he was saying he
was there with the other guys.He also stated that Lillian Rays and her
sugar daddy were the ones who startedthe whole thing by conversing about it.

(46:21):
Okay. Now, according to Polson, this is how the night went,
and this is from the True CrimePhiladelphia book eight pm. They pulled up
to the home and said on thestreet, waiting to see if there was
anyone coming or going. After sometime, they entered the home through the
kitchen. Upon entering, they wentinto the basement where the safe was and
took action peeling back the sides.The safe was so stuffed with cash that
they had a hard time getting itout. They had to take two pillowcases

(46:45):
from upstairs to carry all the money. In addition to the bags that they
brought while upstairs, they also stolebonds and jewelry from the dresser. They
then left the home and went toa strip club for a bit. That's
right where they did brag to strippersabout how much money they had. They
didn't say where they got it,but they did break to the strippers.

(47:06):
The men immediately started spending the cash. Now, when the trial started,
this person, Robert Polson, recantedhis confession, so just keep that in
mind. He said that everything thathe said was not true. Rich Blainey
became a star witness as he wasthe first to tip off the police,
and then Polson also originally was astar witness when then he recanted, So

(47:30):
they were deciding not to put himon the stand anymore. Smart, but
the Blaney's became a target because theywere associated with the Philadelphia mob He was
effectively a rat. Yeah, hewas ratting out other mobsters at a good
situation. Rich Blainey became very,very paranoid about being killed, and unfortunately

(47:51):
he had a lot of reasons tobe scarred. So Belie, if you
have the document open, you cantake a look at the next photo.
In nineteen sixty Poulson was shot butsurvived. Six months later, in nineteen
sixty one, Vincent Blainey was murdered, and then in July of nineteen sixty

(48:12):
one, on rich Blainey's birthday,he went to get into his two tone
Sedan, dressed up to celebrate hisbirthday. He went to start the car
for a family trip when it exploded. Yeah, it definitely it explodes.
I was trying to figure I waslooking at this picture trying to figure out
what it was. It looks alittle bit like a car accident. But
then when you look harder, italmost looks like a plane crash. Yeah,
but so that thing is not acar. Three sticks of dynamite packed

(48:37):
into the car forcing an explosion upwardinto the sky, which was actually a
really good thing that they did itthat way, because if it would have
exploded outward, how close the streetis and how close the houses are,
other people would have died. Ohtrue. His wife Janie was inside with
their nine month old son and theywere getting ready to go on a trip
when the car exploded and it causedall of the windows in their home to

(49:00):
break straight. Geez Now. Aman named John Burkery was arrested for the
attempted murder of Pulson and the twomurders of the Blainey Brothers. He was
an associate of Ralph Stano, theCanay Gang, the Scarfa crime family,
but it's not exactly known who orderedhim to attempt to kill Pulson or the

(49:24):
Blainey Brothers. Dude, mob shitis so Stano was never No one tried
to kill him allegedly, we don'tknow, um, but he was fine.
He never no one tried to shoothim or blow up his ship.
But also, John Burkery was arrestedbefore his case came to trial, so
who knows if he would have beenmurdered? Right now, Ralphsino Jr.

(49:46):
Was obviously arrested and tried and itwas a little so this is this is
where things gets a little weird.So he was tried for burglary and larceny.
He was question for three days.Okay, he was repeatedly like bullied,
and they were trying to get aconfession out of him. Now he

(50:08):
had He kept saying he had noidea what they were talking about. He
doesn't know what they were talking about. The police then read to him the
confession from Poolson and he didn't evenreact. Then they took him to Pottsville
and made him stand outside of thehome that was burglarized allegedly by him,
and again he said nothing. Theystood in the street and they were like

(50:30):
yelling at him, like being belligerent. So he went to trial purely based
off of eyewitness accounts supposedly of himbeing in areas and then the confession of
Polson. Now, this gentleman namedAlfred Ronconi testified that he knew Ralph Stano
well and that in January or Februaryof nineteen sixties, Stano came to his

(50:52):
place of business with a sum ofmoney contained in a shirt box. Stano
asked Ranconi to take the money tothe bank and have it changed into one
hundred dollar bills. That in accordancewith the request, he took the money
to a teller to the bank withwhom he was like acquainted with, so
new this person personally, and therethey exchanged the money for one hundred dollar

(51:13):
bills, and the amount of thatwound up being ten thousand dollars. There
was more money in a separate box, the amount unknown, but the teller
refused to change more than the tenthousand dollars because then that would require a
signature of the owner of the money. Yeah, So he returned the ten

(51:34):
thousand dollars in one hundred dollar billsand then the unexchanged money he left in
the box and gave back to sayno. They also called the banker testified,
yes, I exchanged this money.Interesting, I like that, like,
yeah, I'll stop over the line, but not too much, Yeah,
to break any bank rules. Yeah, because then that person had to

(51:55):
show up and sign and then youknow, obviously the money wasn't tracked because
that guy said that he didn't haveit. Yeah, you know what I
mean. True, true, Andalso if he alone had ten thousand dollars,
and they split everything evenly. Obviously, there's more than thirty four thousand
dollars, right right, so mathnow. Lillian Rays also went to trial

(52:20):
as a co conspirator in the entirething, and during her trial, the
purchase of the nightclub came up,and her friends testified saying that she was
an avid saver, and one womanwho lived with her said that she had
thirty thousand dollars in cash under herbed in a shoe box. One of
her other friends that she worked withas a chorus girl before she bought the
club, also said that money wouldliterally men would throw money at her literally

(52:44):
like it just gave her stacks ofcash, right like, oh, you're
so beautiful, here's a hundred throwit at your face now. The jury
in the Lillian Ray's trial ended ina hung jury in nineteen sixty one.
The prosecutors would take two years,but they would get back to court in

(53:04):
nineteen sixty three to try her again. Okay, they would not quit her.
They could not quit her. Innineteen sixty three, Lillian Rays was
arrested in a sting operation. Whilethey were getting her second trial up,
an undercover police officer gave her fakemoney at the club that she was at
and said to her that it wasfake, and she accepted the cash.

(53:28):
This was a bit of a precarioussituation, and I was right, that
sounds fake. But she was arrestedand her club and home were searched.
They didn't find anything, but theywere trying to like get her in many
different ways to show that she wasa criminal. So when they were going

(53:49):
into the second trial, they couldsay, well, she was arrested after
the fact for all of these things. Yeah, it didn't go, but
they tried. Yeah, so shewas you know, she did the second
trial and ultimately was convicted, aswas Staino in nineteen sixty nine, so
they went to jail in nineteen sixtynine. One of the confessions was thrown

(54:14):
out during an appeals process, andthat caused a chain of events. So
after copious amounts of appeals, sofrom nineteen sixty three eight to nineteen sixty
nine appeals of heels, appeals,peals, they were finally like their convictions
were overturned in nineteen seventy okay,because that confession was thrown out and there

(54:35):
was no other evidence against them.Yeah, right, So, like they
couldn't track the cash she never actuallythey never actually found any money or anything.
Do you think she had anything todo with it. I don't know
if they actually stole from him.Yeah, so I'll give you my There
was a lot of conflicting information regardingthese trials, and it was very,

(54:57):
very hard to wade through the opinionsand the fact yeah, because this is
like peek like people talking shit.Yeah yeah, and a lot of those
like overblown headlines and sort of yeahyeah. So altogether, the three trials
amongst them, because she had twotrials, he had one, took ten
years and cost the state fifty thousanddollars. Oh my god, now after

(55:19):
it was worth it. Right afterLillian Raise and Ralph Stano were released from
jail, they got married and theymoved to Florida. I know that the
pair would stay together for fifty fouryears. I want to cry. It's
so cute. Now. The unfortunatepart was Ralph Stano would go to jail
on a racketeering charge related to theScarfo gang, and he was in jail

(55:44):
for twenty one years, but theystayed together. That's adorable. When he
was released, he went back toFlorida to live with Lilian Raise, and
she died in two thousand nine atage seventy nine, and he died in
twenty fifteen. Now here's my thoughtsand feelings. So there was actually the
guy, mister rich Do you rememberhim. He was actually convicted on some

(56:07):
tax evasion charges about a decade afterthe He was the one who was on
vacation when this was yes, stolen, yes, okay, okay, So
here's my thoughts and opinions. Ithink he set up his home to be
burglarized, Okay, to get outof having to claim the money that he

(56:30):
had, yeah, because people werealready on him about tax evasion. And
I think he hired someone related tothe Philadelphia mob, and I think it
might have been those guys that weremurdered. Yeah. I don't know if
Ralph Stana was involved, and Idon't necessarily know if Lillian Rais was involved

(56:52):
either, But I think that thatguy who was her sugar daddy went to
her and asked her if she knewanybody who would do this, yeah,
and she said yes, And sheprobably asked her boyfriend, who then asked
the K and A gang guys,yeah, if they would do a fake
heist basically steal the money from hishome, yeah, and then return it

(57:14):
back and get to keep some Yeah. Yeah, that's what I think happened.
I definitely get like a vibe likesomething is not right with all of
it, Like something is kind ofa mess. And even when you had
initially talked about him being overseas andbeing gone, when all of this is
happening, I was immediately saying anythingwhen he came back a month later.
That's why I think he was inon it. I immediately was like,

(57:35):
yeah, this sounds like almost likeinsurance fraud, right or something like Yeah,
like I said, and when youget bonds and stocks stolen and you
have insurance on them, you getmore money, yeah, exactly so,
and then the jewelry has insurance onit, yeah, which you always claim
more than it's worth. Right,So he was going to make money from

(57:58):
this hide money, yeah, andthen throw a couple thousand dollars to some
schmucks to fucking steal some stuff.Was more Most probable what I think happened
is Ralph Stano, Lillian Rays,and Bang Miller were the ones who set
up this fake sting. That's myphone, sorry. Who set up this
fake sting? Had his buddies doit, and then they were going to

(58:21):
start talking shit so that they wouldn'tgo to jail. And then the Philly
mob was like shut it down.Yeah. Interesting, And if you know
anything about rich guys, most ofthem have some sort of affiliations with the
mafia or crime organized crime. Butthat is the Pottsville burglary, the most
famous burglary in all of Pennsylvania.And there are some amazing pictures of like

(58:46):
Lillian Rays and Ralph Stano getting married. There's these beautiful glamour shots of her.
There's pictures of her opening her club. Like the True Crime Philadelphia book
is really good. Yeah, that'sjust that's just one story in it.
There's lots of other stories, socheck it out. Nice. Well,
before you commit to heist, committo heist, maybe check out this podcast.

(59:09):
We're the Vocal Fries. I'm Carrieand I'm Megan, and we have
a podcast about linguistic discrimination. Wetalk about language, not being in jerk,
not judging people for the way thatthey speak, and we try to
have a good time. We talkabout things like vocal fry, swearing,
Southern American English, and prescriptive grammar. You can find us on iTunes or
your favorite podcast app. All right, guys, that has been our episode.

(59:32):
What do we got Jane? Comingup? We will have a live
show coming up at the end ofthis year in November in Rockford with Haunted
Rockford. The details are still beinghammered out, but we will be doing
another live show with a bunch ofcool spooky people as well. So good
time. Yeah, keep your eyespeeled for that appealed Yes, maybe cool

(59:57):
if that sounds fun. Yeah.On that note. Our sound and editing
is by Tif Folman. Our musicis by Jason Zevsky. Do you anma?
This has been the Bad Taste CrimePodcast. We will see you in
two weeks. Good bye, seeyou late of kids. Kids, it's
my good it's my mafia voice.Lay but Seva washed over wistarn were wearing

(01:00:31):
some form more in Love. IfI knew how to do a Philly accent,
I would, but I can't.I can't even I will Butcher.
Yeah, all I know is likeweird. If you say wit whiz,
I say like daz that is waterwoo wooter that's close. It's a wooter.
Yeah, they call it wooter ice. I've never understood you onto publicly

(01:00:55):
apologized to the entire city of Philadelphiaand even the state of Pennsylvania. Why
would I? Why would I?For the horrible accents that we were unable
to do. Oh my god.