Ridiculous Crime

Who's up for some silliness? We got us a crazy, high-end, hard boiled casino Down Under that just can't seem to avoid trouble. But when a dude takes the place for multiple millions, they aren't so tough after all. With a special appearance by Ridiculous Crime barkeep Rascal Jack! 

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Ireland's world famous Russborough House belonged to Lord Alfred and Lady Clementine –– two 'violently wealthy' British aristocrats with the families to match. Their palatial manor home seemed to attract crime and intrigue. There was the British heiress turned IRA radical who busted in for a robbery. And her success inspired two IRA-adjacent gangsters –– The General and the Viper –– to see what they could pull in art heists of their own. 

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Owing people millions is a big deal, unless you have hundreds of millions and can pay it off. And if you don't and can't, then you just have to act like you can and will. But you can't. And won't. So you don't and…well, you get it.

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Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope are the Insane Clown Posse. Their fans call themselves the Juggalos and Juggalettes. Each year they hold their annual Gathering of the Juggalos. It is a bazar of fairground games, hip-hop, horrorcore rap, oil wrestling, fight clubs... but also family. Get comfortable, crack open a Faygo and... "Whoop Whoop!"

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He was the GOAT of early mass communication. And he was also the GOAT of medical quackery. John R. Brinkley duped thousands and made millions, but nothing gold can stay. Especially when it involves goat testicles.

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He was a man with a dream –– and that dream was to fly. His brother shared this dream. Trouble was they weren't the Wright Brothers, they were Crazy Mike and High Flyin' Ryan. The brothers challenged gravity, the law and common sense... until the FBI stepped in. 

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You know what they say, all dogs go to heaven. And apparently some dogs go to jail. Elizabeth lets the dogs out with tails (get it?) of mischief, larceny, and dogfoolery. 

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There is no one way to break into the entertainment industry, there's just the way you do it. Country music. legend Kris Kristofferson used a stolen helicopter to impress Johnny Cash. The rest is music history. ...And the story is ridiculous!

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Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s heavyweight title fight is considered one of the greatest sporting events of all time. What’s less well known is that five weeks earlier in the very same stadium, James Brown headlined an epic, three-day long, pre-fight music festival. Rumble braids together both boxing and music history for a compelling account of Muhammad Ali’s growth into both The People’s Champ and the GOAT. For his first title fight, he takes on the “bad man” Sonny Liston.

REFERENCE BOOKS:

Ali: The Greatest, My Own Story by Muhammad Ali

Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig

Rumble In the Jungle by Lewis Erenberg

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You gotta love a flashy Italian bank burglar in 1980s London with a penchant for Ferraris. In a bold and zesty tunneling vault robbery, Valerio Viccei stole a bunch of cash, gems, and coke. And then the Flying Squad showed up. This ride? It's wild. 

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Possibly our most-requested subject. And if there's one thing you can about Ridiculous Crime...we do it for the People. So here it is...the strange but true story of Colton Harris Moore, AKA The Barefoot Bandit. Amateur pilot, well-practiced plane thief, and dog lover. 

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Think of this like an early Perpie award. Zaron and Elizabeth are out on assignment and will return with a new episode on Tuesday. Today we're featuring an episode you chose as one of the best of all time, and an episode we still reference all the time in HQ.

Get drunk? Check. Steal a plane? Check. Fly it back to the bar you'd been partying in earlier? Check. Tommy "Fitz" Fitzpatrick had only a few steps in his plan to become a legend. How he executed that plan and took it to new heights makes him the poster boy for mid-century ridiculousness. 

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America selects them, Casey Kasem counts em down. Zaron and Elizabeth are out on assignment for one more week. Today we're featuring another of the Rude Dude chosen best ever Ridiculous Crime episodes, and this one is a real crackerjack.

2 Texas colleges. 
1 two-hundred pound owl. 
Mix in 1200 cadets and their bull sergeants versus a team of football players and tracks stars, stir in as many trains, trucks, and cars as can be found, and garnish with two private dicks, one named Snowball.

That’s called a TAMU over Rice.

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You choose it, we play it. While Zaron and Elizabeth leave Producer Dave all by himself in the studio, we're featuring your picks for the best ever Ridiculous Crime episodes.

Being named Bum Farto is ridiculous. Selling drugs is a crime. Being named Bum Farto and selling drugs in front of a fire station? Now THAT'S a ridiculous crime. 

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You choose it, we play it. While Zaron and Elizabeth are out on assignment, we're featuring your picks for the best ever Ridiculous Crime episodes.

You need money. You know the Sinatra family. Obviously, the only thing to do is kidnap the adult son of Old Blue Eyes and ask for a ransom. But not too much, just enough. You don’t want to seem greedy. In this classic episode, learn about one man’s bumbling crusade to raise money for his family and raise the ire of America’s most mobbed-up crooner. 

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Military service is valuable, so much so that goofballs try to steal it, or at least the valor that accompanies such a sacrifice. Join us on a journey of fake medals, phony uniforms, and ninjas. There are ninjas. 

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Graceland is not just a Paul Simon album, turns out it was also the home of Elvis Presley. Who knew?! Turns out crimers and scammers –– they knew! Because once the King was gone, the scammers came to steal his Graceland. But there's so much more going down in that world famous mansion. E and Z take you behind the gates... of Graceland. Where we all will be received.

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Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Amy Bock conned the rich for shiggles and then gave it all away to random strangers. A fascinating character, she conned throughout her life, over and over. And her masterpiece? You won't bocking believe the audacity.

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David Bloom made a name for himself in the '80s New York art world. That ended badly. So he moved west –– to a new cultural hotspot also ripe with suckers. Folks who'd believe he was a finance bro long enough for him to fleece the sheep. Again, things ended badly.

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This guy. He pulled off great cons and even better prison escapes. He got tossed in solitary for life, but now walks free. Jim Carrey played him in a movie. I mean, this guy. You simply can't keep him down.

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What good is an ice cream cone without the ice cream? What's an elaborate mating ritual without the dirty deed? What's a con without a payoff? Producer Dave dives deep into the life of 1940s LA man about town Charles Edwards, who created a lot of sizzle but somehow never managed to turn it in to a steak dinner.

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What is supposed to be a luxurious, tropical escape on the high seas can sometimes devolve into a floating barge of drunken tussles at the midnight pizza buffet. Choose your cruise wisely, or you could wind up bruised and battered and also starring in a Ridiculous Crime episode.

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Colonial America, and England in the time of the Puritans... not exactly the time or places you'd expect to find a footloose and fancy-free beggar hopping and skipping back and forth across the Atlantic. His secret? Begging, borrowing and stealing. Also, the kindness of others. A shipwreck? A flooded farm? A burned down farmhouse? These weren't calamaties to the King of the Beggars, no, quite the opposite, those were stages for him to debut a new character and then let charity find him. 

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It's pretty brazen to pose as a super secret spy guy in order to hustle up some phony government contracts. You have to convince folks that you are a man of mystery, an agent operating at the most clandestine levels of power. But when your targets are members of the government intelligence community themselves? Patriots and lovers of liberty, hear us when we say that's just plain ridiculous.  

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Just a few years after Watergate, the halls of power of Washington DC were again stained with fresh scandal. A busload of sitting US congressmen were caught up in an FBI sting operation, one run by a career, small-time criminal, a swindler and scammer. The operation is most memorable for the FBI's two fake sheiks used for their undercover busts. But when the FBI's callin' the tune, sometimes all you can do is get down and sheik your booty.

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The game show Press Your Luck was an 80s fan favorite. And the biggest fan? Michael Larson. He studied the show for weeks, finding the weaknesses and plotting his attack. Heading out to Hollywood, he took his chance at stardom. And he didn't just make it onto the show, he made it into the history books. 

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Maybe you’re looking to get back at someone. Maybe that fine root structure is standing in the way of your upcoming financial boon. Or maybe you don’t like the cut of that tree’s xylem and phloem. Whatever the reason and whatever the chosen method, approaching a tree with murderous intent is just plain ridiculous. And it’s way, way out of bounds.

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Sometimes the best way to make money is to literally make money. William Chaloner, a total dirtbag, made his living minting phony coins and framing his co-conspirators for all manner of crimes. That was until a genius stepped in and brought his whole operation down, just like an apple falling from a tree.

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For two long years, President Richard Nixon tried to cover-up a break-in at the Watergate Hotel. Nixon's Cold War spy buddies had engineered a plan to embarrass the Democrats but then when they got caught, Nixon had to mastermind a cover-up that would eventually bring down his presidency. And somehow, Howard Hughes makes an appearance! Why? Because this insane story of US history has a little of everything!

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Don't you hate it when you learn to restore masterworks of art, but then you kind of mess one up, and then you just paint a new one and call it old, but then it's full of anachronisms, and then everyone loves it, but then you don't get any credit for your phony work? Don't you hate that? Lothar Malskat did. He hated it.

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He was a famous lawman of the disappearing west, a Prohibition agent who dressed like a Wild West cowboy. The newspapermen loved him, the locals adored him, the bootleggers and moonshiners feared him. He was a bigger-than-life hero who seemed to be from a different, simpler era. But James "Two Gun" Hart also had a big secret. And when the truth finally emerged, the cowboy hero was revealed to be a far more complicated man. 

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It turns out we do read the emails. Unless Ex-intern Braxton accidentally deletes them all. Join us for cool listener stories, little shorty crimes, and gripping updates. *hits send*

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The Ridiculous crews, both History and Crime, rejoin forces to once again play everyone’s favorite guessing game: 20 Questions. There were questions. There were answers. There were jokes about dogs in sunglasses! Join the gang for some puzzling good fun!

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We lament the behavior of the youth of today, but what about the youngsters of yesteryear? Friends, they were just as bad. Between the Gold Rush and the Great Quake, kids in San Francisco stole purses, toys, and guns. Yes, guns. Kids those days…

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What are the rules for undercover cops? Well, as we learn from stories about cops shooting cops, an activist who falls in love with an undercover cop, a headless Care Bear with an undercover cop inside who busts a drug queen, and the two precincts of undercover cops who brawled... there are none! This week, it's mayhem and chaos with undercover cops! 

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Pokémon! The cards, the games, the Go, the cartoons, the…theft? Oh yeah, when collectibles get pricey, criminals come out of the woodwork, even the Yakuza. These cards are big money these days, and some people will do anything to steal 'em all. 

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From the anarchist ice cream truck to contraband peddling ice cream purveyors in school zones to the slowest police chase you've heard –– it's a full menu chock-a-block with ice cream based crimes.

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It's hard when you feel like a royal, but you're just a commoner like the rest of us. You know what? Live your truth. Live your truth, Helga, and get that money. Soak 'em, sister!

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He's the man who invented the gun that bears his name. He's also the man who ran a truly surprising second business. But the biggest surprise is how Gaston Glock once faced down an assassin –– without a gun.

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A bar fight and a stint on the lam transformed Samuel Clemens into Mark Twain — and changed the course of American literature. Settle in for Mark Twain's origin story.  

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Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, Jason English
Written by Zaron Burnett
Produced by Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design: Jonathan Washington and Josh Fisher
Mixing and Mastering: Baheed Frazier
Story Editor: Marisa Brown
Research and Fact-Checking: Austin Thompson and Zaron Burnett
Voice Actors: Frank Nemec, Zack Nemec, Elizabeth Dutton, and Jonathan Washington
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer: Jason English

Special thanks to Bob Hirst from the Mark Twain Archive at UC Berkeley, and Joseph Amster from Emperor Norton's Fantastic San Francisco Time Machine.

Want to email the show? We'd love to hear from you. You can reach us at [email protected]. 

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In our ongoing effort to get sponsored by Circus Circus Hotel and Casino, we present to you the tale of one man, one woman, one goat's blood altar, one private jet, one armored car, one parade, and millions of dollars all in concert to create a ridiculous crime buffet.

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A man, a plan, a bright yellow innertube. Tony Curcio made his name as the Craigslist Bank Robber after he used the site to devastating effect to hire temp workers. And then, years later, he needed a new name after he dipped into the criminal underworld of black market Pokémon.

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Rare books are, obviously, valuable. And that means people want to steal them, often in ridiculous ways. Sometimes in huge quantities, sometimes over huge amounts of time. This is the tale of three big book heists that are almost as irritating as Elizabeth's pronunciations of just about everything.

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On June 4, 1974... all hell broke loose in Cleveland. You see the Stroh's Beer Co. parked a few of its trucks at the ballpark for a cheap beer promotion –– that culminated in a full-scale riot. Things got so bad Billy Martin had to lead an armed charge!

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India's greatest con artist, Natwarlal, never met a load of cargo he couldn't scam his way into possessing. His many arrests, convictions, and escapes captivated a nation. Especially when he sold the Taj Mahal…thrice!

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During Prohibition, the gangsters and the outlaw folk hero bank robbers agreed on one thing: you need a good mechanic. Enter Joe Bergl. The preferred mechanic of the underworld. He was the favorite car guy of "Bottles" Capone, brother of Scarface. And also he was the favorite wrench turner for Baby Face Nelson and Machine Gun Kelly. Buckle up, Rude Dudes! It's about to get... fast and ridiculous!

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If we say casino heist, you probably think Ocean's 11, 12, 13... Maybe Ocean's 8... Or the original Sinatra Rat Pack version. Look, we all do. This week, Elizabeth has got way more real life stories of international casino heists and robberies –– it's a Vegas buffet of crime!

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The radio and theater phenom, Orson Welles, was the real life Max Fisher from Rushmore. He has early success after success, and then goes off to Hollywood to makes his first film –– Citizen Kane. However, the great man the film is based on goes to war against Orson Welles to crush the filmmaker and bury his film before it's ever released. Hearst uses means, both legal and illegal, to destroy the young genius. Why?! It all comes down to one word: Rosebud.

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The fictional character Raffles established the public's notion of a gentleman thief. But what of the ladies? Josephine O'Dare and Amélie Condemine took the Raffles playbook and blazed their way through European society, lightening wallets and lifting gems. Whether they only made 72 cents on the dollar compared to male thieves remains unknown. 

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Nic Cage is a mixed bag of nuts. But Patricia Arquette is also no slouch when it comes to being, um, unique. Now imagine the two of them together –– young and in love. Well, you don't have to because it already happened! Zaron has the goods on the Love Quest that she sent him on to prove his. And things, of course, get criminally ridiculous!

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Charles Ponzi didn't invent the Ponzi scheme. No, two women pioneered the con on both sides of the Atlantic decades before Ponzi struck. Remember folks, if returns on your investments seem too good to be true, they totally are.

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In 2015, a convention descended on the Seattle–Tacoma Airport Hilton Hotel. The 3-day gathering of Furries was meant to be a fun place to let your fur down... but some let the fur go too low. Public nudity, diaper fights, drugs, booze, cops, firefighters, ambulances, emergency plumbers –– this story has everything. And then some! 

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A guy born in Italy moves to France and says he's the heir to the throne in Constantinople, then he heads to the United States to peddle fake titles. You know what that is? Ridiculous. 

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Paratrooper Jeff Manchester used his skills to burgle Corporate America as The Roofman. First, he'd focused on McDonalds and other fast food. Then, like a criminal butterfly, he morphed into a Toys 'R' Us Man who built a secret apartment in an open store –– it was the ultimate inside job. 

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Jack Shepherd was a petty, pretty thief. He wasn't very good at it, so he got caught a lot. And he escaped a lot. Just like Henry More Smith. He, too, couldn't stop stealing and couldn't stop freeing himself from prison life. These guys prove that you can't keep a good (well, at least non-violent) man down.

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He is an icon of midcentury America. He's cherubic. He's beloved. He's starred in Hollywood movies. And he's often stolen as a prank, but sometimes things turn darker –– but they always stay ridiculous.

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If you have psychic powers, you should see a scam coming a mile away. Not so for Maria Duval. The French psychic only wanted to use her powers for good, but three shady dealers used her name to create one of the world’s longest-running cons. Just because a letter has a coffee stain on it doesn't mean it's real. 

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For many folks, beauty pageants feel like part of a bygone era of 'big hair, don't care' femininity. But Zaron is here to set you straight on that score. Beauty pageants are still very much a thing... and they've got crime a-plenty! Allegations of bribery and hijinks! And also, Steve Harvey! So you know it's bound to get loose. This week it's a bubbly bevy of beauty pageant scandals!

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Elizabeth may not watch tv, but that doesn't stop her from regaling Zaron with tales of television signal hijacking. From porn to zombies to aliens to more porn, no broadcast is safe.

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In the early '90s, the Chicagoland area was home to a bank robber known for wearing very specific masks –– masks of former US presidents. Notably, he wasn't inspired by the classic bank-robbing surfers film, and Point Break wasn't inspired by him, it was all just a...ridiculous crime.

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With debt mounting and no relief in sight, John Darwin figured his only option was to fake his own death. One sunken kayak and a complicit spouse later, he found himself in Panama with no clothes on. But that didn't last. Nothing ridiculous ever does. 

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Musicians get arrested... a lot. These singers, songwriters and superstars were busted in some of the dumbest, weirdest, silliest ways possible. Johnny Cash. Amy Winehouse. Ol' Dirty Bastard. Bob Dylan. Frank Zappa. All of them got popped for some... ridiculous crimes.

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As if the whole cryptocurrency thing wasn't ridiculous enough, enter Heather Morgan aka Razzlekhan. An entrepreneur and amateur rapper, she and her husband, Dutch, lived large. The source? Hacked bitcoin. Can't get enough of these clowns and their techno criming? Fear not, there are plenty of film and tv adaptations in the works. The grift lives on. 

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"Have you seen this man? Single, lonely, grouchy, rumpled and very possibly. the richest thief who ever lived..." so wrote the Washington Post in 1997 after one man ripped off his employer, the Loomis–Fargo armored car company. Phil Johnson stole 21 cubic feet of cash –– and he had a plan to get away with it. But a man's ego is a helluva thing!

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What do hairdressing and bank heists have in common? Precision...and a man named William Smarto. A clever bank burglar, Smarto managed to pull of a bank job almost as big as Dolly Parton's wig budget.

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His hero was DB Cooper. So he imitated his skyjacking ransom down to the letter. Only Martin McNally had never used a parachute before he became a skyjacker. And he never expected someone to play the hero with a '71 Cadillac Eldorado.

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As Orson Welles would say, "Ah, the French." Here, in a lead up to the French Revolution, we consider the tale of one randy Cardinal, one social climbing almost-noble, one doomed queen, and one hideous diamond necklace. C'est ridicule (especially Elizabeth butchering all French pronunciation)!

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Meet Antoine Yates, the man who raised a tiger in a fifth-floor public housing apartment in Harlem. Until, one day, the tiger remembered that it was a tiger. But Antoine didn't just live with a tiger, he also had a lion and a full-grown alligator. Naturally, this one is both wild...and ridiculous!

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Aaron Tonken was celebrity obsessed from a young age, so naturally he made his way to Hollywood. He also made his way into the good graces and wallets of many entertainment icons. With phony or plain chaotic charity galas, Tonken fleeced the rich and famous in one whirlwind fever dream of a conning career.

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An ultra-wealthy British son of a Royal Naval officer partnered with a Danish master of disguise to become major players in the international drug-smuggling scene. And they would've gotten away with it if it weren't for those pesky... Welsh lobstermen and farmers' daughters.

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With a love of robbing banks and the love of a good woman, Forrest Tucker pulled off heists with no violence involved. Plenty of arrests ensued, but so did plenty of prison escapes. He was a man with a life so extraordinary, Robert Redford played him in a movie...that put Zaron to sleep.

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At the end of the 19th century, two outlaws made names for themselves around the world, but over time both have been forgotten. This week, we resurrect the tales of these outlaw folk heroes. Lady outlaws.

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He ran for sheriff, saying he'd take on the mob. Instead, he lined his pockets with their cash. He ran for Congress, saying he'd fight for working Americans. Instead, he had people work for him for free. All the while, James Traficant made a name for himself with his denim suits and a hideous hairpiece. In the words of ol' Jimbo himself, beam me up!

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Imagine a horse. Now imagine if that horse could read your mind. And imagine you paid for this experience. You would be in good company –– even the President of the USA listened to the prophecies of Lady Wonder, the psychic horse. Of course, it was all a long con. 

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Getting a degree is tough work. Or at least it should be. There are some out there, though, who want to get or give a college diploma the easy way: hot off the presses, no questions asked. From fake high school diplomas to phony medical degrees, come browse the college catalog of bogus academic achievement.

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Known locally as the Robin Hood of the Great White North, Ken Leishman was a gentlemen thief who pulled off the greatest Canadian gold heist ever. But he really made his name and criminal fame when he took to the skies and became... The Flying Bandit.

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What do Fats Waller and Jimi Hendrix have in common –– other than both being brilliant musicians who changed the course of American music? The answer is: they were both kidnapped... by the mafia! But it's cool, it's cool... who would ever wanna hurt them?

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The Ridiculous crews, both History and Crime, join forces to play everyone’s favorite guessing game: 20 Questions. There were questions. There were answers. There were half court shots at the buzzer. Join the gang for some puzzling good fun!

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Like MLK and Biggie Smalls, Marianne Andle also had a dream. Her dream? That one day she could become Irish. After that plan failed and Marianne had to flee Northern Ireland with the cops hot on her trail, and after a quick name change and return to the US, she found a new dream. That new dream? Conning the semi-rich and gullible of Los Angeles, California, by posing as an Irish heiress. 

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The president’s wife. Hers is an interesting position, Really just window dressing. Or not. Almost criminal in nature, Trusting the stars to Guide foreign policy is Overly woo-woo. Astrology ran the White House in the 80s and This is the story.

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Money (or the appearance of it) attracts money. Lord Edward Ormus Sharrington Davenport knew this and capitalized on it. With posh mansions, lavish parties, and celebrity pals, Edward Davenport used the appearance of wealth to gain actual wealth by amassing other people's money. Welcome to the lifestyles of the rich and famous...and felonious.

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When a teenage astronomy fan is gifted a piece of the moon by NASA, he’s inadvertently pulled into the seedy underground moonrock trade. But don’t worry. With help from H. Ross Perot, NASA secret agents are on the case.

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Very Special Episodes is a new podcast where we tell one incredible story every week. Stranger-than-fiction tales about normal people in extraordinary situations. Stories that make you say, “this should be a movie!” Follow Zaron, Dana, and Jason down a different rabbit hole every Wednesday.

Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, Jason English
Written by Jake Rossen
Produced, Edited and Sound Designed by Josh Fisher
Additional Editing by John Washington
Mixing and Mastering by Baheed Frazier
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Story Editing by Marisa Brown
Research and Fact-Checking by Marisa Brown, Austin Thompson, and Jake Rossen
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English

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Like Lenny Kravitz, sometimes you want to get away. That was Agatha Christie in 1926. Why did the most famous mystery novelist in the world want to disappear? Hint: her husband. But there's so much more. And it all gets... ridiculous!

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Competition is human nature. And sometimes crime is, too. And sometimes these two come together to give us total ridiculousness. Fat bear ballot box stuffing, cheating Irish dancers, crooked fishermen — this episode has it all. And then some!

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They say a person's wedding day is one of the most magical and memorable days of one's life. Now imagine if you used that extra-special day to pull off... an epic crime. Get ready for tales of wedding bandits!

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A crack team of seasoned bank burglars strikes in a tony enclave in Southern California. A tale as old as time. Only they are from Ohio. And the money in the vault might belong to Richard Nixon. And that money may have been extorted from Jimmy Hoffa. And Jimmy Hoffa may have hired this crack team of seasoned bank burglars to steal his money back. There's a lot to get your head around on this one. 

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You know the car from Back to the Future. But John DeLorean was so much more than his stainless steel car. He was also the father of the "Muscle Car Era." He was a maverick, an egotist, and very much a man of his times. DeLorean risked it all to build his eponymous car, and he did so powered by shady coke deals and briefcases of cash. 

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A burglar hits fancy estates and steals just one thing: silver. Silver salt and pepper shakers. Silver serving spoons. Silver everything. Blane Nordahl was sneaky, he was bold, and eventually, he was caught. And all that silver? Who knows and, frankly, who cares.

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Sometimes you just need to get away. For a Chinese dissident that meant making a daring escape on a jet ski. For a former cyclist turned "ocean jogger," it meant building himself a human-powered hamster wheel so he could run across the sea. In both cases, these men's choices were crimes, but their methods were... ridiculous!

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Ah, the late 1990s. Gritty realism ruled the day in film, music, and literature. And wunderkind JT Leroy took the book world by storm. A kid who survived the streets and HIV, he became the literary darling of the indie set. JT Leroy touched hearts and minds across the globe. Except JT Leroy wasn't all that he seemed. In fact, he wasn't anything he seemed.

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It was 2009, a different time to say the least. The stars of the era known as Young Hollywood were the targets of a ring of break-in burglars, working the Hollywood Hills. Guns, jewelry, designer handbags, artwork, and "jeans made to fit my body" were stolen from the stars. What band of professional thieves had set up shop in LA? Turns out, it was local teens, AKA the Bling Ring.

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It's award season, Rude Dudes! We gather now for the 2nd year of the Perpies, a chance to recognize the best capers, heists, and cons from the last year. And listen, sister, they do not disappoint. With categories like Best Drug Crime, Best Rivalry, and Best Song, you know you are in for a real thrill ride. See you on the red carpet!

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Join Elizabeth and Zaron as they enjoy a sampler plate of some of the most ridiculous crimes to go down over the last calendar year. 2023 certainly offered up a full buffet of ridiculous crimes. Enjoy!

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You sell the Eiffel Tower for scrap. You con Al Capone. You destabilize the American dollar. You get a sheriff arrested for counterfeiting. You end up at Alcatraz. You are Victor Lustig and you are one smooth criminal.

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He was a small town martial arts instructor and local musician. Kevin Curtis was living the dream. Then everything went sideways. One day, he woke up, he had an arch-rival, he was furiously fighting to expose an alleged organ harvesting scandal, and someone had framed him as a presidential assassin. It was a lot to deal with for a simple Elvis impersonator from Tupelo, Mississippi.

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In the 80s, 90s, and early aughts, Anthony Pellicano was the go-to guy in Hollywood if you had any kind of problem. He didn't have an issue with operating outside the law, loved to allude to mafia ties, and always got the job done -- quick. But as always, things fall apart. This flashy private eye wound up in prison. But even being an ex-felon couldn't stop him from making deals and "eating the sin" of his clients.

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Join us for the tale of two men who soaked the streamers for projects that just didn't exist. But hey, the movie business is built on dreams, hype, and money. Con artists thrive on dreams, hype, and money. A match made in Hollywood!

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Sometimes it's not enough to cheat people out of money, spend the ill-gotten gains, and try to kidnap one's own son. If a fella really wants to be the "best hated" guy in the US, he's gotta bankrupt an American hero. And that's exactly what Ferd Ward did.

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Elizabeth has long had a fantasy that one day she would win the lottery, but in this episode, Zaron offers up evidence that she may want to find a new dream. You see, he bigger the lottery win, the more likely the winner's life is ruined by their good fortune. And often in ridiculous ways!

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This episode has it all: internet scammers, Instagram, Gucci, North Korea, ATMs, Zaron getting Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" stuck in your head. You're welcome, thanks for asking.

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For nearly a year to the day, the FBI chased this elusive bank robber all around the country. And for that year, the Flying Bank Robber embarrassed J. Edgar's G-Men on the front pages of the nation's newpapers. Over the course of criminal escapades this all-American midcentury blue collar James Bond wannabe visited countless states, used 35 aliases, stole 29 cars, and crashed three planes. Until one day, his luck went sour, when he crossed paths with an ornery Mexican cow.

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Al Taubman was a good guy, until he wasn't. Captain of industry, supporter of civil rights, mega-developer, art world magnate…crime breaker. This is the story of how one man went from doing deals to doing time.

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Deep in the heart of Texas, in the summer of 2023, a band of rebel nuns had "gone to the mattresses" in an ecclesiastical war against the Bishop of Fort Worth. The leader of this cloistered convent of rebellious Carmelite Nuns, Mother Gerlach, never intended to lead a resistance movement against Rome's representative. But, you see, the trouble all started after the mother superior confessed she'd fallen in love with a priest. 

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What does it take to become so rich that you’re wholly unafraid of the criminal justice system? Eventual clothing magnate Flavio Briatore found a winning combination in great hair, a distaste for hard work, a few card tricks, and the uncanny ability to sell anything to anyone. With Elizabeth out on assignment, Producer Dave explains how Briatore fixed one of the biggest sporting events in the world.

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When you think of drug smugglers, you generally think of speedboats, small planes, kilos of coke shoved into the side panels of cars, and tummies full of balloons. But there exists another sort of drug smuggler, one more daring and more enamored of gadgets and intrigue: the submariner. Join Zaron and Producer Dave as they dive into the world of "narco subs," plumbing the depths of criminal ridiculousness. 

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A man and his wife (with more than 100 cats and a house full of booby traps) have a plan. Forge paintings, sell them, and when caught, accuse the buyer of swapping the real painting for a fake. And when questioned, double down. Again and again. And again.

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The UK town was gifted with green spaces and millions of trees, everything was cool and lovely on those shaded lanes –– that is, until the Highways Team announced its plans for mass tree removal. The locals revolted. War was inevitable. Thus began the Great Sheffield Tree War.

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Dinos! Everybody loves them! Everybody wants them! Brazilian dinosaur fossils are particularly desirable…especially to smugglers and crooked scientists. Come with us on a journey of paleontological criminal intrigue and completely butchered Portuguese and German pronunciations. Boom-boom, acka-lacka-lacka, boom!

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A father and his two sons come up with a plan to get rich –– they'll wheel an impossible-to-defuse bomb into a casino and then charge a hefty ransom to deactivate it. Of course, things go ridiculous!

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Tony Tetro wasn't the kind of artist who felt the call of inspiration. Instead, he used his talents to forge the masterpieces of great artists. But he really found his way when he started doing forgeries of the great forger, Elmyr de Hory. Come for the art crimes, stay for fact this crimer can tell one helluva story, in his inimitable Tony Tetro way.

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From "Houdini" Hinds to Brian Bo Larsen, we consider the works and wonders of two of the world's great escape artists. Long ignored by the art world, the prison escape artist exists in a liminal space, operating as both performance artist and mix media artist, battling against the hard iron bars of tradition and status quo, as they remind us all of the value of freedom.

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A man loves rare books. A lot. But the man doesn't have any money and those rare books are pricey. So he steals books. A lot. There was one man, though, who couldn't let this happen. One man standing for truth, justice, and the literary way. So began a cat and mouse game that exists to this day. 

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Hippie nudist drug dealer in Hawaii. Check. Father of three who faked his death. Check. Crimes done under hypnosis. Check. Pablo Escobar. Check. The CIA and the Iran-Contra Affair. Check? Wait, what. Yes, this story has... everything, and then some!

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The best cat burglar in the world, a guitar player with IBS, the Genovese Crime Family, and a child bride walk into a bar. Actually, they walk into a posh dinner party. Actually, they sneak past a posh dinner party. Trust us, the punchline is ridiculous.

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How did we get cokeheads? Who would put cocaine in wine? Why do young men feel compelled to hang Scarface posters on their walls? Thanks for asking. We can lay the blame squarely at the feet of a soda, a psychiatrist, and a fictional detective. From there, it was just a hop, skip, and a bump to mayhem and racial panic.

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Classical music, it's so fancy! Did you know that classical and modern composers were also sort of a crimey bunch? Elizabeth gets loose sharing the antics of these highfalutin geniuses. 

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This one is a trip through midcentury America and all its paranoias, moral panics, and witchhunts. In particular, we focus on two men, Senator Joseph McCarthy and Harry J Anslinger. One was responsible for the Red Scare and the other started the War on Drugs. But also one was a daily morphine junkie and the other was his plug. Yes...this is 100% a true story! And it's guaranteed ridiculousness!

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It's an excellent idea -- hijack a poorly-guarded mail truck. But what if it's just full of junk mail and postcards? Then it wouldn't merit a mention on Ridiculous Crime, now would it? It was full of cash, baby! In response, the police rounded up the usual suspects…and even went after their cats.

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A story about hundreds of rare birds, some British naturalists, one of the wealthiest families in the world, and the young American musician who planned to steal the rare collection and sell them on the black market, so he could buy himself a golden flute. It sounds like a fairy tale for felons!

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You've heard this name. You may have even used it. The name makes you think of relaxation, luxury, cheesiness, and sexy times. And if we do our job right, every time you hear this word from now on, you'll think of crime. Come with us as we follow the story of an immigrant family dead set on making a name for themselves. And oh, how they did.

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The name Milli Vanilli is now synonmous with a hoax –– but at one time, their heavily-accented pop stardom fooled the whole world. That is, until the truth won out, and when it did it wrecked their money-making illusion. But who were Milli Vanilli, which one was Milli and which one was Vanilli, why did they think they could con the world with well-produced pop songs, and why can't Zaron do a French accent? Learn the answers to all these questions and more!

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Crazy Eddie had a slew of stores selling cheap electronics, touted by infectious advertising. Like the universe itself, the Crazy Eddie empire expanded exponentially. Money flowed, celebrities orbited, good times rolled. But then, like a capitalist black hole, it all imploded. So long, Crazy Eddie. Godspeed, you crooked warrior.

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The Italian carmaker Ferrari is known worldwide for the the elegant look, the unique sound, and insane speed and eye-catching design of its sports cars. Some Ferraris are prized as much as works of art by renowned masters. Tom Baker was an American man, with a very curious hobby. Some people collect stamps, others trade collectibles. Tom Baker liked to steal Ferraris from luxury automobile dealerships. And he was surprisingly good at it –– until Det. Joe Hess was put on the trail of elusive Ferrari thief.

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Los Angeles, the bank robbery capital of the world. When bank robberies are commonplace, it takes an inventive heist team to stand out. That's exactly what the Hole in the Ground Gang did. They lifted their profile by lowering their operations. Right down into the sewers.

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Long before he was one of America's most beloved TV dads, TIm Allen was an inmate in federal prison. He was busted on major cocaine charges. Forget Jay Z, Tim Allen was pushing real weight in those days before he found fame. And he kinda paid a price for it; but it definitely made him the man and superstar he is today.

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Jan Lewan was a man with a dream. He wanted to bring Poland to America, whether it was through music, travel, or delightful merchandise. He also had a dream that selling unregistered securities was a solid road to riches. Turns out, it was a solid road to the clink. Who cares. Everybody polka!

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A world-famous physics professor fell in love with a world-famous bikini model. The professor obeyed the Laws of Newton, but not the laws of the land. His strange criminal escapade escaped the bounds of all logic when he was caught at an airport smuggling kilos of cocaine and he landed in an Argentinian prison. As the professor knew, every action has a reaction.

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Destroying the office of a children's charity. Dropping stolen jewelry. Falling out of the ceiling. Making weed candies. Starring in a hit reality tv show. On the islands of Long and Staten, things can get crazy. How crazy? Oh, just listen to the episode.

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When a woman looking for spiritual guidance met a Florida man calling himself Giovanni, she knew her life was about to change. What she didn't know was that she'd be convinced to steal the jewels of a sheikh, travel to Cannes for no reason, and be given a spell of invisibility. Not all change is good, folks.

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We love food, don't we folks? It's delicious, it nourishes us, it brings us together. Some of it is kind of expensive. And as we all know, where there's worth, there's crime. Join us on a culinary adventure across continents and food groups as we discover sticky situations, fishy deals, tough nuts to crack, and hot cheese.

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He was the most famous superfan of the Kansas City Chiefs. He never missed a game –- home or away. He was famous for his rubber wolf mask, weightlifter pants and unhinged passion. But come to find out the superfan known as KC Wolfman was funding his love of football with... crime!

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John Factor may have been the lesser-known Factor brother, but that didn't stop him from weaving his way through history. Haircuts, Chicago mobsters, London cons, whiskey scams, Vegas casinos, and even JFK. The tale of John Factor is a wild ride through the 20th century's criminal underbelly.

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Imagine a jazz-voiced, reefer-smoking, nightclub comic, a man who preached love long before the Hippies, a cat who was on that cosmic trip of beauty in the decade before the Beats, and imagine this man in a top hat and tuxedo with tails. Before him, there was no one like Lord Buckley. After him, you can find his influence everywhere.

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You want to make money. So you become a hypnotist. Along the way, you marry a starlet, hire a hitman, fight Johnny Carson, start a university, and teach people to make paper flowers. Ah, the life of a nightclub hypnotist.

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He had country music wanderlust and rock star ambition. He was a scion of wealth and privilege. Oh, and he was best friends with Keith Richards! Gram Parsons was someone who was here for a good time not a long time. When he passed, his friends and manager did as they'd promised him. They stole Gram Parsons body and drove out to Joshua Tree, where they gave him the rock n' roll funeral he desired. Including amateur cremation.

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Wise-cracking Wilson Mizner was a legend among legends when it came to cons. Witty, creative, tough, daring, wild, and forever in the right place at the right time. From the Alaskan Gold Rush to the South Florida land boom to the early days of Hollywood, Mizner was there.

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No one expects to hear stories of beard-loving, barn-raising, technology-avoiding Amish and Mennonites being involved in street crime. Let alone that they have secret pot-growing empires. And outlaw biker-supplied cocaine cowboys riding in black buggies. "Welcome to Amish Country, son! Watch your a$$!"

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The Dutch are famous for a lot of things: tulips, cheese, fine art, double jump rope. They are also pretty good at both stealing and having a paintings stolen, apparently. What happens when the same painting is stolen three times? Let's just say it's pretty ridiculous.

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Your wedding day is supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life –– but this cadre of criminal wedding parties, abducted grooms and runaway brides put that to the test. Meet the folks hosting fictitious weddings to get revenge on their exes, and the ones with cold feet who flee from police, as well as the disappearing brides and "gutless" grooms who decide married life may not be for them.

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Alcatraz. The Rock. Home to some of the most notorious criminals in modern American history. Murderers. Vicious thieves. Al Capone! And a guy who got put away for something truly heinous: shaking a woman’s hand. Oh, the humanity.

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In 2004, 23 Sri Lankan men traveled to Germany as the Sri Lankan National Handball Team to take part in an international tournament. But there was one catch, there was no Sri Lankan National Handball Team. And to make things weirder — all 23 men disappeared. A mystery was born in Germany that day.

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A tale as old as crime. Phony wealthy widow seeks dupe to front her cash until her non-existent inheritance comes through. The queen of the hill, top of the heap when it came to these cons? Bertha Heyman aka Big Bertha. Derided by newspapers, besmitten by suitors, no one ran a con like Big Bertha.

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He said “no” to Oprah, but he said “yes” to Ridiculous Crime. In a rare twist, Zaron surprises Elizabeth with his own mash-up — an interview with actual international jewel thief, Gerald Blanchard, the star of a new documentary. Meet the folk hero outlaw, the criminal mastermind who later earned the nickname the “James Bond of Crime.”

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A thief breaks into luxury homes in tony Boca del Mar. the cops are flummoxed by this brazen burglar. Even more so when they find out it’s a lady thief! How could the Bandit of Boca del Mar be a woman? That’s unthinkable! Hey, anything is possible in Palm Beach County, baby.

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In the great spirit of YouTube influencer extreme Logan Paul, we have Trevor Jacob, a man willing to risk his body and soul for “likes and subscribes.”

But he crossed the ridiculous crime line when he crashed a plane into a national forest and then posted the video (ahem, evidence) on his channel. Oops! Don’t look now, Trevor, but it’s the Department of Justice!

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Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue and the shoes are red. 
When the pricey and contentious ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz were stolen from a museum, all hope was lost. But hope never dies. And for the slippers, there was no place like home. 

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When most college-age kids need a little excitement, they do extreme sports or snap into a Slim Jim. Shon Hopwood robbed five banks in 11 months. When he was done paying his debt to society, he built himself a totally legal and totally cool new career.

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Behold as juggernaut hard rock band Guns n’ Roses takes on airplanes, beer, gun stores, video games, and the city of Philadelphia. You know where you are? You’re in Ridiculous Crime, baby!

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Basquiat started as a graffiti artist but soon through talent and ambition he became one of the greatest painters in American history, an artist whose works regularly set records for their auction prices. And you know what that means… crime! Meet the art fraudsters pushing fake Basquiats, fraudulent Warhols and counterfeit Harings, and making millions off well-heeled buyers with more money than sense.

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Group think. Collective acts of violence. Humans can get each other pretty riled up. Sometimes that can be for a good cause, but not on this podcast. Aeronauts, magic tricks, seasonal beverages. You never know what will set people off. 

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Rick Deitsch was a business man with a big big plan — he wanted to make Big Snake. He would use science to milk Wall Street of millions by scamming biotech and pharma investors with the hype for novel new medicines his lab created based on… cobra venom! Unsurprisingly, this modern day snake oil salesman’s grift was not a successsssss…

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The Caped Crusader fights crime, but what happens when he IS crime? Stolen movie scripts, missing toys, and the mother of all Bat memorabilia. Tune in! Same crime time, same crime channel!

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For more than 4 decades the CIA – doing their best impression of Wile E. Coyote – tried to kill Fidel Castro. The spy agency made 634 assassination attempts on the Cuban leader. And almost all of them were ridiculous.

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When you decide to prove to a preacher that the Bible is hokum, the most logical thing to do is craft a stone giant, right? Right? George Hull certainly thought so. He put a large man in the ground and a little birdhouse in your soul.

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When a beloved pet goes missing, who do you call? If you’re Paris Hilton you hire a team of pet psychics, dog whisperers and pet detectives. But what about an everyday person? Luckily, for us, there’s a veteran investigator who’s never charged for her services. Bring ‘Em Back Babs:  pet detective.

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What do you get when you mix spiritualism, bereft seekers, kids drinking wine, knuckle cracking, an Arctic explorer, and chicken bones? You get the Fox Sisters, America's original psychic con artists.

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In 1998, the rivalry between Stanford University and UC Berkeley escalated to kidnapping and hostage videos. But in the geeky tradition of both colleges, it was actually a tree-napping. Some Cal frat bros, calling themselves The Phoenix Five, stole the Stanford mascot (…but really, they stole our hearts). Hijinks ensued!

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Most people spice up their boring lives with fun hobbies or social events. That wasn't enough for Lawrence Bader. He went and made himself a whole new life, this time as Omaha, Nebraska's hippest bachelor. Flagpole sitting, war injuries, hearses, pillow piles -- his new life had it all!

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He was not a real rock star but Robb TaLLLLL University played one in his fantasies. In reality, Mr. University lacked star power or musical talent. Kinda a shame, but he was one helluva bank scammer. He made millions as a pretend rock star. Too bad no one really dreams of growing up to be a bank scammer!

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Everybody loves an entertaining exiled royal. And when that royal is exposed as a fraud? Everybody still loves him! From slinging lies in Brooklyn to slinging fancy strawberry desserts for Hollywood celebrities, Prince Mike lived one ridiculous life.

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Like Ricky Bobby, he was a pretend NASCAR driver — only this was no movie. L.W. Wright was a fake racer in real life who took on the legends of NASCAR by scamming his way onto the track at Talladega. “Shoot, this story should be a movie!”

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A city as fabulous and sinister and romantic as Venice, Italy, deserves a fabulous, sinister, and romantic cat burglar. The ultra wealthy were honored to be his target, and he was happy to take their priceless works of art (and the occassional cashmere sweater). His crimes were almost as egregious as Elizabeth's butchering of the Italian language.

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The song is the band’s most popular. The legends, the conspiracies, and lore that surrounds the song are incredible. But the legal struggles, inspired criminals, and cocaine antics take center stage as we focus on the Eagles and Hotel California.

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What do you get when you mix millions of dollars in gems, stolen cars, wigs, international crime families, a French detective, and 800 Serbians? You get a heist gang Inspector Clouseau couldn't imagine in his wildest dreams.

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🎶 Oh yes, he was the Great Impostor. (Woo-woooo) 🎶
His government name was Fred Demara, but he rarely used that. Unlike most crimers with his particular skillset, Fred used his powers for good — he liked to heal others. For instance, that time he had to perform 19 surgeries because he was pretending to be a doctor.

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It has to be bad mojo to steal a religious artifact, and especially bad mojo if it's a sainted body part. Ireland, it seems, has a problem with this. Will the perpetrators be caught? God only knows.

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Murf the Surf was an all-star midcentury party boy turned criminal folk hero. Bob Dylan loved his style. Murf and his partner got famous for stealing JP Morgan’s gem collection. But a freelance-writing used car salesman was the true hero; and he’s the one who eventually saves the day.

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Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. Taking a break from all your worries sure wouldn't help a lot. Sometimes you want to go where nobody knows your name and they're never glad you came. This is the story of a guy who did just that.

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He was an ultra secret agent, working with the Supreme Court, a cabal of generals, and a very disagreeable Bill Clinton clone, to bring justice and a huge fortune to US farmers. At least, that’s what Roy Schwasinger told crowds at his $300 seminars, where he lightened the wallets of gullible “free men.”

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Like Elmyr de Hory before him, Wolfgang Beltracchi loved painting other artists' works. The "lost" masterpieces were a hot commodity, generating riches for Beltracchi and the rest of the art world. He could forge the works of any genius painter, but he couldn't forge a simple label. Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted.

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Oasis was “the biggest band in the world.” Meanwhile, Liam and Noel Gallagher — the brothers who were the heart of the band — despised each other. This gave the band a creative tension. And it made their crimes against each other… ridiculous.

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Raised in a criminal family, Bobby Comfort was destined for a felonious future. When he paired up with a buddy for some high-end hotel robberies, things were looking good. He planned "one last heist," but that planning failed to take into account the apex predator of the crime world: the mafia.

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She is America’s Greatest Living Jewel Thief. Her career criminal exploits date back to black and white movies. Only Diamond Doris never let racism get in the way of her living the high life as an international bon vivant. 

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You put your Social Security Number all over the place: magazine ads, billboards, websites. What could go wrong? Lots. But what if you own a company that protects people from identity theft? Doesn't matter. Crimers gonna crime.

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Carlos Kaiser had it made — he was a handsome professional footballer in Brazil, and he played for all the top clubs in Rio, as well as abroad. There was only one problem: King Carlos was terrible at soccer. He was the “greatest footballer who never played football.” But that’s how he made his living, conning the world of professional soccer… for 26 years!

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When a charismatic preacher went missing in the ocean off Venice, California, all hope was lost for her safe return. Almost. What followed was a chaotic tale involving a non-Dave producer, TRAINS, Arizona, goggles, and a woman with no left thumb.

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The Rude Dudes send emails. We share them. Get ready for some onions, the rainbow bridge, Spam, texts to entire cities, and one fantastic gorilla suit. Plus Talkbacks from the iHeart app!

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He was zee best con artiste en zee 90s, no? Frenchman Christopher Rocancourt took Los Angeles by storm, rubbing elbows with celebrities and emptying the bank accounts of the wealthy and gullible. But when he took his act on the road to the Hamptons as a phony heir to an enormous fortune, they saw right through him.

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What do you do when you look just like the dictator of North Korea? You make it work for you as a celebrity impostor. And if you’re Howard X, you use it to free a Zelensky lookalike from the war in Ukraine, with the help of a fake Putin.

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Bill McCoy was a man of adventure, a romantic, an innovator, and a gentleman. He also ran illegal booze into the United States, flouting the law and sailing the high seas. That is, until the Coast Guard showed up.

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She was an epic badass. She was the fastest woman alive, after she broke Amelia Earhart’s records. She also ran the Happy Bottom Riding Club for flyboys and future astronauts, that is, until J Edgar Hoover and the Air Force went to war against…Pancho Barnes.

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A legend. A boss. A queen. Stephanie St. Claire ran Harlem's baddest numbers game, thumbing her nose at the mob. Her elegant life took a turn, though, when she married an audacious con artist. Was hooking up with Black Hitler a wise move? What do you think.

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In 1955, one man attempted to control the price of onions in America – to do that he created an illegal onion cartel and then together they cornered the market and drove the prices. It was like Trading Places for onion futures.

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Four amateur crime bros look to make the score of a lifetime -- stealing rare books from their college library. It goes about as well as you'd imagine.

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You'd never believe that an 18-year old buying sandwiches and shoes with a stolen credit card would grow up to be legendary celebrity Stephen Fry. But he did! The actor, comedian, writer, and historian was an honest to goodness teen criminal, one who went on a multi-county spending spree on other people's dimes (well, quid).

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A talented artist is even more talented at forgery. He crosses paths with the rich, famous, and fabulous, and his forgeries are eventually forged themselves. Truly and wonderfully ridiculous, no?

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That one time when the future leader of North Korea abducted the coolest power couple from the South Korean film industry and forced them to make a reboot of Godzilla

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Pop quiz, hotshot: how do you have an awards show with no awards? You can't! When a shipment of Oscars went missing, the tale unfolded with twists and turns right out of a Tinseltown thriller. Would Hollywood's biggest night be saved? Probably.

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The Yap Lavish story has something for everyone: gold coins, private planes, contraband phones, up-and-coming Atlanta rappers. While in state prison, inmate Yap Lavish pulled off the robbery of not one but two billionaires. And he would’ve gotten away with it, if not for those meddling prison guards.

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Want to make a splash in publishing? Try ghostwriting an autobiography for a super famous man. Just make sure the famous man knows about it first.

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Two blonde bombshells get famous after they turn pro as…bank robbers. Heather and Ashley were just a pair of all-American girls who decided that the street crime life was for them. One problem, though: they were terrible at crime.

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She told fortunes. She faked documents. She changed her name. She crashed the economy of a major American city. Sorry, Cleveland.

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In 1920s Chicago there was a crime wave plaguing the city — no, not Al Capone and gangland mayhem — there was an epidemic of gland piracy, testicle thieves were out there stealing balls.

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Organized shoplifting, streamlined fencing, prosthetic arms, hidden pockets, driving cars through shop windows, a strict code of thievery — this London gang (which may have predated the Sicilian mafia) didn't mess around. Just forty women out on the mean streets, taking care of business. 

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Once upon a time... there was a band called Fleetwood Mac, but one day someone had an affair with Mick Fleetwod's wife, and boom, suddenly there were two Fleetwood Macs. This became a big problem for everyone. Mostly because, no one knew how to answer the question: which Fleetwood Mac is the real Fleetwood Mac? 

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It was a developing news story that gripped the nation: a little boy flying high in the sky in an uncontrolled electrified experimental balloon. When it crashed to earth and he wasn't in it, panic turned to grief. Where was little Falcon Heene? Hiding at home, it turns out. Just like his publicity-loving father had arranged it.

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Add two astronauts, mix in one younger woman, stir in a 900-mile drive from Houston to Orlando, and garnish with an adult diaper — that’s how you make an Astronaut Love Triangle! This true story is an out-of-this-world tale of love, sex, jealousy, crime and the limits of the human bladder.

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Awards season is upon us and you know what that means: awards. And awards shows. Ridiculous Crime is proud to present the first annual Perpie Awards, celebrating almost a year of incredible capers, heists, and cons. Don't miss this star-studded event!

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This was one helluva year! As life in a pandemic returned to a semblance of normalcy, criminals also got back to work. In many cases the results were predictably ridiculous. To review the felonious year that was, here’s a rundown of the Top Ten Most Ridiculous Crimes of 2022!

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Many kids dream of becoming astronauts, but only a select few actually make it their profession. And even fewer manage to blow that chance. And only one threw away his dreams of space travel in a truly ridiculous way: stealing moon rocks from work in order to say he'd had sex on the moon. Literally.

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That one time when the Black Panthers, the militant Weather Underground and the surf mafia The Brotherhood of Eternal Love came together to free a psychedelic charlatan

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Strip clubs, crooked politicians, cash payoffs, FBI raids, ski school. It's a Vegas corruption story like no other!

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Mayhem, chaos and international hijinks ensue after three Italian brothers, led by their super-patriotic older brother, break into the Louvre and steal the Mona Lisa for the glory of Italia. The frantic French police search high and low for the stolen masterpiece, they even drag in Picasso and JP Morgan.

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Guy meets girl. Guy loses girl. Guy learns to rob banks. Guy robs banks. Guy likes to look fly. Guy gets arrested. Guy escapes prison. Guy gets caught again. Guy writes memoirs. Guy inspires generations of medical students to better diagnose patients? 

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Born the son of a shepherd, inspired by highwaymen bandits of the mountains, Vassilis Palaiokostas grew up to be a criminal legend known as the Greek Robin Hood. From his daring helicopter prison escapes to his bank-robbery-funded luxurious life on the lam, he’s known for his deep love of Greek guitar music, stolen German cars, and, of course, freedom.

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What do you get when you mix crooked cops, violent firemen, a rollicking bordello, hardboiled clowns, and sectarian violence? You get something wildly ridiculous, that's what. Zaron is still missing, so Producer Dave steps in again and saves the day.

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Who among us hasn’t daydreamed of being Steve McQueen for a day? For a 20-year-old community college student, fancy liquors and semi-exotic cars weren’t enough to scratch the dangerous cool guy itch. Only a major bank heist in tribute to McQueen’s own biggest big screen caper would do. So why are we just hearing about it now? Producer Dave Coustan takes the wheel and fills us in.

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Only the greatest con man could take Mussolini for $2M, run a totally fake casino, fix horse races, pose as a well-known mining engineer, and then write a book about it all. Oh, and look super dapper along the way.

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Ron and Scott were brothers, a pair of SoCal surf kids growing up in the ‘60s. They were into the usual stuff: peace, love, catching waves, international drug smuggling, making phony films as a cover for illicit activities, hanging out with Jimi Hendrix in Hawai`i, fooling Porsche into agreeing to a fake car race. You know, just brotherly fun.

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When your only crime is curiosity, is it still illegal to hack into government computer systems in search of information about UFOs? Yes. Yes, it is. 

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You’re young, you’re hawt, you’re used to getting paid for it as an Instagram influencer – so why not turn pro and get paid for it overseas? But suddenly you’re now an international cocaine smuggler… how did this happen?! (🎵 Life on the Coke  Boat, surely make you lose your mind 🎶)

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Pranks! Some are clever. Some are fun. Some are a little lame. And some manage to create an historical thread from Virginia Woolf to Silvio Berlusconi. 

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Two great tastes that taste great together: horse racing and fraternity brothers. What happens when three frat bros attempt to rig the biggest horse race in America? They all win a free yet priceless education in how not to commit a crime. And it’s all thanks to a long shot horse named Volponi.

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Regional delicacies are a hot market and a point of pride. Tucson's Sonoran Hot Dogs are a prime example. But are they worthy of extortion and death threats? One guy sure thought so.

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They can barely see over the steering wheel, they can’t reach the pedals, many can’t even read, but they don’t let that stop them. Kids will steal the dardenest things — like Mom’s SUV. These criming kids all went big, they each tried to drive cross-country!

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Trains. It was an outrageous caper to end all capers: stealing millions from a train (and maybe a little of the train, too). What could go wrong? Well, a lot. But a fair bit also went right. Trains. And thanks to all that, we have a dope television theme song. Makes sense, don't it? And trains. 

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2 Texas colleges. 
1 two-hundred pound owl. 
Mix in 1200 cadets and their bull sergeants versus a team of football players and tracks stars, stir in as many trains, trucks, and cars as can be found, and garnish with two private dicks, one named Snowball.

That’s called a TAMU over Rice.

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This is the true story of five strangers picked to target a mark, work together, and have their lives taped to find out what happens when people stop criming in secret...and start getting loot for the sake of entertainment.

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David Friedland was a corrupt, mob-connected, LSD-munching, undercover FBI informant and New Jersey state lawmaker, until one day he faked his death and became a scuba diving instructor.

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Choose a job. Choose Australia. Choose a gross hostel. Choose some friends. Choose a crate. Choose a pee bottle. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got trains?

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Is it kidnapping if you’re the kid who naps himself? Do FBI informants have a bring your kid to work day? It’s David Hampton Butler Jr. vs David Hampton Butler Sr. in a Florida Man battle of the ages.

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When a pastor went missing after giving a series of talks about the devil, everyone who knew him was certain Satanists were to blame. But what if the devil in this story was actually the little devil on that pastor's shoulder urging him to find a new life? Guess what...it was.

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Sen. Estes Kefauver was outraged by a crime: the poisoning of the minds of American children. He spied a vile new threat introduced by Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman –– to him, the superheroes were secretly agents of fascism. The lawmaker knew the best way to fight back and save America's children was to call the press and form... a Senate Subcommittee! (Cue the moral panic in 3, 2, 1..)

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Antarctica is cold. Very cold. And there's not much to do other than research and maintenance. Or listen to Metallica. What happens when you mix a limited library, a bully, and a whole lot of booze? Something ridiculous, for sure.

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It was an idea so crazy it just might work: what if a middle-aged scientist invited 10 young, sexy strangers to live aboard a raft with him for 3 – 6 months and together they’d solve the question of world peace. Who knows? (Every one knows.) 

Warning: adult themes

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Diamonds and gems scattered about the dry earth just waiting to be gathered and sold. Little to no work involved. Easy money. Sounds to good to be true, right? Not for the titans of industry, experts, and investors who fell for this ridiculous con.

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Garrett Brock Trapnell was a criminal Swiss Army knife; he ran guns for Fidel Castro, he rented dogs to Hollywood stars, later he became a skyjacker –– and he became so famous from it that a mother and daughter tried to free him from prison.

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What do you get when you put a fearless woman behind the wheel of a truck filled with illicit booze on a winding country road with the feds in hot pursuit? You get the brazen capers of Willie Carter Sharpe.

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One was a man of action, an incredible athlete who was always ready with an outsized proposition bet, like wagering if he could throw a peanut across Times Square; the other man was a walking calculator of odds and angles, a master gambler, but one who preferred it when the game was rigged — they called themselves Titanic and The Brain. One of them is still remembered as the man who fixed the World Series, at least that’s the rumor.

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Edgar Laplante tried it all: pretending to be a Native American chief, pretending to be a famous athlete, pretending to be a war hero, pretending to be in love with a noblewoman. While not always a very convincing imposter, he was weirdly successful in his relentless career of cons and fraud.

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It hits every American 80s movie trope: parents go out of town, teen boy throws party, party gets out of control. Except this time it became a global sensation and wound up inspiring its own movie. And in the tradition of Succulent Chinese Meal Man, this Australian teen is unapologetically larger than life and, well, ridiculous.

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You run for mayor of a large American city. You get elected. You commit a felony. You resign. You run again for mayor of that same large American city. You get elected. You commit another felony. You resign again. But none of that will stop you from remaining a lasting part of the fabric of the city or from participating in a parade. This is the Buddy Cianci story.

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Dubbed the “Bank Robbery of the Century,” the daring break-in at a castle-style bank in the French Riviera town of Nice shocked the world — but it was the fact that the burglars from the heist team kept writing novels about it that was far more shocking! Guys, you got away with it… Ssshhh!

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Brian "The Guv'nor" Reader met his criminal downfall with the Hatton Garden Heist. But that wasn't his first attempt at breaking into a vault. Decades before, he and a crack crew dug a tunnel in search of riches, but were foiled by a guy who just wanted to listen to Radio Luxembourg in peace.

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He spent the majority of his life behind bars, but when he was free he made his time count, robbing stage coaches and trains and traveling the world on stolen booty — meet Billy Miner, outlaw folk hero of the disappearing Wild West.

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What started as a spot for a pirate radio station blossomed into a whole country. At least to the people who lived there. But the founding of any nation is full of strife, crime, and ridiculousness. Why should Sealand be any different?

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Two country legends, good time friends and partners in crime, Willie and Waylon shared a love of staying one step ahead of the law; except sometimes when you fight the law…the law wins.

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Being named Bum Farto is ridiculous. Selling drugs is a crime. Being named Bum Farto and selling drugs in front of a fire station? Now THAT'S a ridiculous crime.

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The Milwaukee Brewers were scheduled to face the Kansas City Royals, but the night before thieves broke in and stole the Royals’ uniforms. The game that went down the next day became baseball history; yet another legend from the ‘70s era of baseball and its disco riot, short shorts and afro’d funkiness.

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What do you get when you take one part hardscrabble Eastern Bloc kid, three parts lousy ice hockey skills, twelve parts booze, six parts non-violence, and infinite amounts of determination? You get one whole Attila Ambrus, the Hungarian Whiskey Robber. 

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Albert Einstein was one of the greatest scientific minds of all time. So of course people wanted to study his brain after he died. One man, though, wanted the brain more than anyone else. His career-ruining obsession with the genius noggin drove him to commit a ridiculous crime and culminated in a bizarre cross-country road-trip with an exasperated journalist. Intent on delivering the pilfered body part to Einstein’s granddaughter, the duo proved that everything is indeed relative.

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A sports-loving jokester with a desire to be seen by the masses, Barry Bremen fraudulently made his way into some of the biggest sporting and entertainment events of the 70s and 80s. It's one thing to dress up as a ref at a game, quite another to accept an award on stage meant for someone else. Will Barry's lust for the limelight take him a little too far?

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Everybody loved Nick Perry. The host of “Bowling for Dollars” was Pittsburgh famous for his loud suits and friendly demeanor. But that wasn’t enough. Nick Perry made a big money move — he rigged the Pennsylvania lottery. Only problem was that he also crossed the mob. That never ends well.

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If you have an interesting accent and know how to act fancy, you can get away with a lot. Margaret Lydia Burton used that fact to her advantage, moving from town to town, conning people and living well. She thought she'd settled down to begin a life of skimming enormous amounts of money from a medical clinic and spending it on...show dogs. But people got wise, so Burton got moving.

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Rita Crundwell seemed like a simple woman. As a kid, she liked 4H, horses, and country living. She grew up to work in City Hall in her small hometown of Dixon, Illinois. For decades, though, this all-American product of the heartland had a secret. She was cooking the town's books, embezzling millions, and lying to everyone she knew to pay for her lavish, pony-loving lifestyle.

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Two major league baseball stars walk into a bar. Well, a nightclub. Either way, chaos ensues. But since it's Jose and Ozzie Canseco, that chaos is awesome. And they didn't stop there. Special guest Travis Dutton, a major Oakland A's/Canseco fan, joins the RC crew for this one.

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Alex Joseph was a lot of things: accountant, school teacher, author, US Marine, postal worker, private investigator, music manager, health food purveyor, mayor, pirate, polygamist, cult leader. He loved living just outside the law, amassing wives (some of questionable age) and squatting on government land. And unlike many of the ridiculous criminals profiled, he managed to stay one step ahead of the law until his last breath.

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Aspiring artist Arno Funke, aka Dagobert, just wanted to make a living doing what he loved. And he did, for a time, because in addition to art he loved bombs and extortion plots, and weird contraptions. His antics captivated a nation and made for great headlines, but those kind of capers just can't last. Luckily, the artist in him prevailed and he was able to delight and captivate the public in a legal way after all.

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It's Christmas in July! Start drafting those letters to Santa — that's just how John Duval Gluck would have wanted it. He scammed the wealthy of New York society into doing good for poor kids, sending the kids gifts from Santa himself. Until one man asked to see the receipts.

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For years, an erstwhile Baron smuggled glass eyes into Hoboken, until he was busted by customs. He later petitioned to officially change his name to reflect his status as the illegitimate son of a Viscount. When he told the romantic and rather dubious tale of his parentage in court? Not a dry eye in the house.

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Criminals decide to steal the body of beloved film star Charlie Chaplin. They call his widow and ask for a ransom. His widow isn't interested. What becomes of The Tramp's remains? Guess you'll have to listen and find out. Come for the crime, stay for Zaron's absurd reenactment of the ransom calls.

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Throughout the ages, con artists have successfully convinced people to buy into fake businesses, fake social or political movements, even fake identities. But it took a truly confident trickster, a brazen Scotsman, to fool people into sinking their life savings into a completely fake country.

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Fed up with local politics, a UFO investigator and his band of misfits conspire to take down their enemies. And expose government plots to conceal alien activity. And equip a school bus with state of the art paranormal detecting gadgets. And threaten the President. And hang out at his mom's house. You know, normal stuff.

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Get drunk? Check. Steal a plane? Check. Fly it back to the bar you'd been partying in earlier? Check. Tommy "Fitz" Fitzpatrick had only a few steps in his plan to become a legend. How he executed that plan and took it to new heights makes him the posterboy for mid-century ridiculousness. 

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In 1876, a small time gang plotted to kidnap Abraham Lincoln. He'd been dead eleven years, but they didn't let that stop them. They planned to trade the late leader's body for their imprisoned counterfeiter comrade's freedom. Guess what -- it didn't work.

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In 2016, the artist Maurizio Cattelan created a masterpiece: a solid goild toilet. After a successful exhibition in New York, the commode was shown in the UK. It was there that the loo went adieu. Who took it? Why? The police had suspects, but will they be able to flush them out?

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What do you get when you mix an obsession with cryptids, money to burn, Buddhist monks, geopolitics, relic theft, lingerie, and Jimmy Stewart? You get this ridiculous tale.

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Michael Sabo was a classic con man. He posed as a respectable doctor, he wrote phony checks, he stole coins, and he misled trusting people. And what does a classic con man do after getting caught? Turn that grifter knowledge into another con: consulting.

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An amateur art thief conspires with a barber/part-time “Tupperware consultant” named Universal Knowledge Allah to steal a multimillion dollar Stradivarius violin; it’s step one of the thief’s Robin Hood-style plan to, uh…renovate and fix Milwaukee?

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We get a LOT of correspondence here at RC HQ, and the time has come to share it with the world. Suggestions! Confessions! Campfire Tales! Requests! Guitars! Turkeys! Manhunts! Duct Tape! Y'all are a fascinating and hilarious bunch.

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It was the ‘90s, just before the internet went big, the perfect moment for two gals to turn outlaw, robbing men from Texas to Vegas. While on the run they were spotted hiding as nurses, strippers and refrigerator customers. Novelty shirts and tv shows followed.

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A dame. A real looker. A minx with a gun demanding all the cash in the register. This was a woman straight out of a film noir. Except this gal's m.o. was a little unusual: your money or your pants, mister!

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Mimes and police: two great tastes that don't taste great together. In the time between the Beat Generation and the Summer of Love, a band of misfit mimes joined forces with a future super-promoter to fight for the rights of performace artists and freedom of expression (also the freedom to get freaky while miming). Clashes with cops ensued, but no invisible box could hold the mimes back. This is the true story of how mime culture changed history...and gave us hippies.

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Even the worst singers think they're magnificent crooners in the shower or alone in the car. But what of the terrible singers who take their warbling public? Can singing be criminally bad? Turns out the answer is YES.

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No one likes medical exams that get a little, uh, personal. And it's only made worse if the doctor administering the test is actually a teen con artist posing as an MD. This teen terror just wouldn't give up his medical dreams until he faced the most tenacious opponent of all: a local investigative news team.

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Ah, the 80s. Back when MTV ruled the airwaves, shoulder pads were mandatory, Coca Cola was going through some identity issues, and television signal jacking was still possible. It was a magical time when someone in Chicago could turn on the tv and get an unintended eyeful of weirdness, thanks to a rascally criminal in a Max Headroom mask.`

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Gaston Means managed to insert himself into some significant crimes in American history. J. Edgar Hoover himself referred to Means as "the most amazing figure in contemporary criminal history" for his ability to successfully lie to suit whichever situation in which he found himself. But he met his match when he tried to swindle Washington socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean in a fake investigation into the Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping. Means ran out of luck when he ran out of lies.

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It used to be gauche to wear white after labor day, or to board a plane in your pajamas. What once would get you stern looks or eye rolls are now widely tolerated sartorial choices. There was once one choice, though, that wasn't tolerated at all. In fact, it got you a beat down. Woe be the men who wore straw hats after the summer season in New York City.

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In the quiet spring and summer of the early COVID-19 pandemic, one creature's reign of terror paralyzed a neighborhood. What was once an idyllic municipal rose garden, prized for its bountiful blooms and serene atmosphere, became a bloody stomping ground for a pissed off turkey. It just so happens that animals can be criminals, too.

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How does a company go from selling craft supplies and tchotchkes to importing stolen and counterfeit curios? This is the story of how Hobby Lobby got into the business of looted goods and managed to embroil the Museum of the Bible along the way.

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The author of the Sherlock Holmes series of books, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was also an ardent believer in spiritualism. While his most famous character was known for laughingly revealing the deceptions of charlatans and con men, Doyle himself was more easily duped. Harry Houdini was disgusted to see his friend conned like that. As an escape artist and magician, Houdini was familiar with spectacle and games of deception. So he put on a show just for Conan Doyle and tried to convince his friend that spiritualism was a fraud. Could Houdini make the creator of Sherlock Holmes finally see the truth?

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Sometimes it's hard to retire. Like they say, do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life. For a group of older English gentlemen thieves, this was especially true. There comes a time when the body can't keep up with the mind, though, and simple plans run into complex worlds. It turns out mega jewel heists just aren't what they used to be.

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Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once said, “Hearing nuns’ confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.” That’s not true in Belgium. In 1990, nuns in the Diocese of Bruge threw off their habits and embraced the criminal life. So much for vows of poverty.

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A mysterious woman washes ashore in 1800s England. She speaks an unknown language, yet still manages to share tales of her pirate-filled high sea adventures and noble lineage. Her story captivates the nation...until a figure from her past comes and ruins everything. Or does she?

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We all know that Pablo Escobar exported cocaine out of Colombia in record amounts. What a lot of people don't know is that he had some problematic imports into the vibrant nation, as well. Meet Pablo Escobar's hippos. The cocaine cowboy brought what turned out to be an invasive species into one of the most biodiverse areas in the world. Antics ensued.

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The grandson of a Georgia plantation owner, “Soapy” Smith turned to crime when his family’s morally-criminal fortunes vanished at the end of the Civil War. Travelling from Texas to Colorado to Alaska, Smith was a natural leader who couldn’t help but expand his short con mini-gangs into full-fledged political and criminal empires. But how on earth did he get the name “Soapy”? A very clever flimflam and a cop gave him the moniker that made him famous.

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When the historian who spent his whole career studying the life and exploits of Sir Francis Drake was presented with what appeared to be the Englishman's most important relic, he should have thought it too good to be true. Instead, he bought into it with his whole heart and career. A nerdy band of history buffs believed they pulled off the greatest of pranks, but the historian's reputation and sway were too strong to be brought down by a phony artifact. Too bad for one of the pranksters, who had counted on the whole affair as a means to exact revenge. This is how one fake metal plate became part of the California educational curriculum.

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In 1966, England hosted the FIFA World Cup, an incredible honor and landmark moment for English football. Just one problem: someone made off with the cup itself just weeks before the start of play. How can you have a global tournament with no prize? How can England save face? Enter Pickles, the pooch with a nose for sirloin and purloined goods.

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Prolific French bank robber Redoine Faid repeatedly evaded capture then repeatedly escaped imprisonment, entertaining all who heard of his exploits. His Hollywood-style capers were larger than life, just like his audacious public image. But can the authorities ever truly capture the man who has captured a nation's imagination?

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Listeners Charlotte and Phil suggested this ridiculous crime (and viral sensation) from Down Under. This is the tale of a legendary Australian video that tickled an entire continent and created a folk hero. But who, exactly, was this folk hero? The plot thickens!

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When a woman, back home for a family funeral, was kidnapped by the hitman her husband hired to kill her, things looked pretty bleak. But lucky for the woman, hers was a hitman with a heart of gold. Together, they plotted to surprise the husband and get her (legal) revenge. The venue: her own funeral.

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During the California Gold Rush, arriving sailors pretty much abandoned ship immediately and headed for the hills in search of gold. Criminals (called “crimps”) solved the sailor shortage by drugging men and tossing them on outgoing ships – if the captain paid enough. The most prolific crimp? Shanghai Kelly, the San Francisco ne’er-do-well who once threw the most epic booze cruise/kidnapping of all time.

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People love their pets. English people are especially fond of our four-legged friends. So when a dastardly criminal was on the loose, kidnapping innocent felines and shaving tufts of fur from their soft bodies, the people of Plymouth were understandably outraged. Ridiculousness, of course, ensued.

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Three weeks. Three hotels. Three vices (booze, drugs, and purchased sex). In 1989, rock icon Billy Idol got wild in Bangkok, seeking total oblivion and taking it to a whole new level. Enter the Thai Army and their tranquilizer guns. Was that rock bottom for Idol? Not even close.

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There you are, enjoying a family barbecue. Sure, the macaroni salad left much to be desired, but why is everyone suddenly vomiting? And why are you now certain it's up to you to save the world? This is the story of one man's descent into Tom Clancy-esque delusions, complete with carjackings and imaginary skydiving. He was sure he was working for the FBI and the CIA, when in fact he was just full of PCP.

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There are flights from hell and then there’s United Flight 976 from Buenos Aires to New York City. With all the drinking, outbursts, violence, and other unmentionable deeds in this story, flying first class never looked so horrible.

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You need money. You know the Sinatra family. Obviously, the only thing to do is kidnap the adult son of Old Blue Eyes and ask for a ransom. But not too much, just enough. You don’t want to seem greedy. Learn about one man’s bumbling crusade to raise money for his family and raise the ire of America’s most mobbed-up crooner.

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An animatronic character was stolen bit by bit from a pavilion at Disneyworld's Epcot, right under the noses of security at the beloved attraction. Who stripped Buzzy naked? Who sold his clothes? Who bought his clothes? Who is Buzzy in the first place?

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A man, a plan, a Lamborghini. It was pretty bold to steal the luxury sports car of Guy Fieri, Mayor of Flavor Town. It was even bolder to drive the bright yellow performance vehicle around for months, evading capture and enjoying the ride right out in the open. But just like bold flavors, bold behavior fades over time. The clever thief was eventually apprehended, and his identity was about as surprising as a Guy Fieri dinner without Donkey Sauce.

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