Transcript
Speaker: My um... Darkcast Network. Indie pods with a dark side.
Speaker: You are listening to Castles and Cryptids, where the castles are haunted and the cryptids are cryptic as fuck. And I'm Alanna. And I'm Kelsey. And Gorda was here and I yeah learned he was in his box and I went, intro!
Speaker: Oops. yeah Cut off the cat chat too early. Oh well, he's gone back to sleep or at least put his head back down. I just won't say his name What a re-endorsement for our podcast. He's just like snoring.
Speaker: Oh my god. Oh my god.
Speaker: Yes. How's everybody doing? we're happy. Alana and I... have already caught up but we know how each other are doing it's it's been a time ah yeah this was supposed to come out a couple days ago um don't know yep we did record some patreon stuff that ended up like almost taking us as long as two regular episodes to record i think that's what set us back yes i think so that's okay they were good cold cases they're out now on patreon
Speaker: yeah Please enjoy Gordo, excuse your foot Did his foot show up on screen? was he went straight towards the laptop to sign up for Patreon That's what he was doing yeah He ran, not walked He ran Across your keyboard yeah Keyboard smash Yeah yeah So yeah, we just posted the last of the or the second of the cold cases you covered one i covered one and they were both quite hefty so they came out in two different sections it was so funny i was editing the first of my case on the serial killer and i was like oh here's the first 18 minutes and then we must have had technical difficulties
Speaker: let's see how much is salvageable. The first 18 minutes was us talking about buying cars and stuff. was like, this is all car talk. None of this is actual content yet.
Speaker: I was like, I guess I'll just edit the next bit.
Speaker: But we were probably just trying to make sure everything was recording properly, to be fair. Yeah. Yes. to be far Gordo, fuck off.
Speaker: Go away. don't acknowledge your presence. Perfectly. You don't fit behind the laptop, so don't even try
Speaker: Buddy. That's what he's saying. No fat shaming.
Speaker: He looks like he's going to go after the stuff on the wall. Don't even think about it
Speaker: hands us He's got his batting hand out. His batting paw. Yeah. You'll get thrown. you will get thrown. Don't even try.
Speaker: sniffing the stickers I have on the wall. Okay, good boy. That was a good boy. he laid down. Just a few minutes ago, we're like, poor Kelsey. like on see She needs to rest. Now she's going to fight her cat. If she can she doesn't fall over first.
Speaker: Yeah. I was telling Alana, I think I got like and low on iron or something. I was getting so fatigued. Something's going on.
Speaker: Yeah, I left work early on Friday because I couldn't concentrate and I felt really nauseous and like busy. And then I was off this weekend and then thought I was doing a bit better. Went to work on Monday, only lasted like two hours. And then I was like, I still can't think like and then I called i called in and told them I didn needed it another day yesterday. today was my first day back at work in four days.
Speaker: Oh my God. This is actually reminding me of a podcast I listened to earlier where they were talking through some work that had to get done in their kitchen. And the host June was like,
Speaker: And then we found out it went from two weeks work on the kitchen to three weeks. So they thought it was going done by the time you get back. But, you know, it's like then it expands, you know, as it does. Yeah. Contractors, et cetera. And then lot of da yeah as the conversation goes on, they were Oh, he thought he hadn't included the um estimate of the cost of the window in the kitchen window repair. Yeah.
Speaker: But no, no, He did. The assistant assured her husband, Paul Scheer. He did. He's just a little bit concussed. She's like, so coming forward.
Speaker: We're just, and you know what? It's fine. It's fine. We're just going to deal with it. And I'm like, seriously, though? Like, yeah, some of the stuff you have to deal with when you're like, ah house issues and stuff you're just like yeah you know what I give up this is this is is the best it's gonna be yeah i I had been planning to like yeah I was like oh I need to cut my grass on Thursday when I'm off and then sometimes my one neighbor he does my front yard now every once in a while so yesterday after he must have got home from work um he was out there cutting it and i was like yes now I only have the back grass that's almost literally what asked to because Pat was gonna do our whole yard and front yard today and then like
Speaker: ours The front yard is so small. Our neighbor yeah will do it and vice versa. I love that. I love that for us and you. yeah so like You might as well, right? It's a postage stamp sized front yard sometimes. like are like You know my lot. like My front yard is pretty big. so like it's yeah I don't know. he He offered to do it. want there i was okay yeah i was there one time cutting it and I think I had briefly met him before, but he came over and then was like asking me if he wanted me to like keep cutting it or if I needed help with that. And i was like, yeah, every once a while, if you want to do it, like I won't be mad or whatever, but I don't expect you to. so um
Speaker: ya he had cut it a few times and everything. And then when I was off like a few weeks ago, um when I was off for the two weeks, like I was obviously cutting it myself, but I hadn't really seen him. then he didn't cut it again for like a couple weeks. So was like, is he mad that I cut my own grass?
Speaker: But no, he cut it again. was like, no. Summer people are just, like, busy and on weird schedules and stuff. Yeah. I think. Well, a couple times, like, yeah I would tell that, like, he had cut his grass, but I hadn't cut mine. And then, like, I hadn't cut mine yet, and it could have been cut. So I was like, oh, is he mad that, like, does he think i'm mad at him or didn't like how he cut the grass was like i never complained for somebody cutting my grass sure sure sure it's just like we're it's ah in such a polite society sometimes it's yeah this is a perceived slight now yeah it's like please don't be mad please cut my grass again ah yeah like if you have to write your neighbors the kind of note of like be quiet i don't know more in apartment buildings i think this comes up but yeah yeah
Speaker: lots of fun yeah i was just like no looks like we're all good we're all good again yeah yeah we did get like new neighbors i haven't really talked to them yet but um i'm not not a super talkative i'll go out there and read and so maybe yeah i'm not like wilson on tim or home improvement remember he's always over yeah i was hanging over the fence talking to tim it's like But like, yeah, we have nice neighbors and we've talked to some of them and it's like, it is quite close on either side. So, you know. Yeah. Yeah. They're they're probably more up in your business or like I'm outside on the porch and I could hear, think his name's Henry on the other side. Like he has a really loud sneeze. You know, someone who's out loud looking at a, who aren't you? Kind of sneeze.
Speaker: Yep. There goes Henry. Yeah. But, um,
Speaker: Anyway, that's, you know, finally had a nice day today. It wasn't raining so I could enjoy my deck a little bit. Yeah, that's good before ah the fall hits us in full force. think tomorrow's also supposed to be like 30 degrees.
Speaker: You said the four letter F word. Yeah. It's almost as bad as the four letter s word that we talk about here in specifically Edmonton. I've found more than anyone is like, don't talk about snow. I'm like, you all live here. It snows like nine months out of the year We're crazy to be like, we hate it.
Speaker: But then I'm like, I live here. So obviously I'm crazy too. and Right? It's a rite of passage. Yeah. You must complain about the snow, but then take no ah efforts to move elsewhere.
Speaker: no it's the cold for me, bro. It's the cold. It's the fucking minus 40. Hey, guess what my new car has that I didn't even think to ask about in the height of summer? A remote starter. That's going to make this winter a game changer.
Speaker: I won't have to get into the cold ass car like, you know, I'll be like, lift my ass off the seat. Like I'm ah going to an awards show with a pristine dress or something.
Speaker: Not to drive, but just to like get actually warm up the seat a little bit. Cause you know, without a remote starter and minus fucking 40, you're like.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely really nice to have. oh hell yeah. It's got a heated steering wheel too. I'm like, damn dog. Once I actually am, you know, affordably paying off this car, I'm to appreciate it so much. Yeah.
Speaker: Anywho, is it? We have... Yeah, I'm good. i I have two. i have two cases for you. um hard to narrow down,
Speaker: Yeah. This one was like kind of... Yeah, it was even hard to narrow it down to these two. There's so many good listicles, I feel like. Yeah, that's how I found both of these.
Speaker: And neither one was quite long enough that you could really do a whole segment by itself. So I think it'll work out good to cover them both. The first one is like a little more...
Speaker: serious I want to say and then the other one is a little bit more funny um but obviously it's probably not funny to the people it was happening to because it's still a robbery that would suck but we it's a we little more armed robbery i mean mine has weapons but that yeah oh We kind of did like like failed um kind of robberies.
Speaker: These both have like kind of like sort of comedic things to them i want like i want like a show it's all like nailed it but it's just like uh robbery's gone wrong just failed him just like nailed it probably yeah um just to get have people that have robbed a bank to like um do fake robbery plans and then they can reenact them see if it would work
Speaker: okay accident but yes ah so this first one is called the Graf Diamond Robbery And this... Yeah, i hadn't heard of either of these.
Speaker: um This first one's, like, probably a lot more well-known than the other one. But it took place on the afternoon of August 6th, 2009.
Speaker: two thousand and nine So, like... i almost said not that long ago, but... yeah It was almost the anniversary. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. that wouldn a bit yeah yeah august has flown by yeah ah so yeah it's the afternoon august 6 2009 when two men walked into the graph diamonds boutique and it's on new bond street in mayfair london This is like a will really high end area with like a lot of luxury boutiques and everything. Yes, known for the money, known for the witches. Just kidding. yeah
Speaker: So this Graff Diamonds was founded by Lawrence Graff in 1960.
Speaker: So, I mean, it's got, it like, a a decent history, but it's not like some of the other companies, or it's, like, hundreds of years history or something like that. Yeah, I suppose.
Speaker: But diamonds, they were just kind like, oh, they're shiny, let's make them valuable. And they... Yeah. made commercials and people went oh I guess they're super valuable and we have to all have them for engagement rings and I feel like it was more of a PR campaign that like made diamonds probably yeah it's a scam no uh so this uh graph diamonds once it was founded it grew into what's and now like one of the most prominent diamond houses in the world a
Speaker: Yeah, it's quite high-end. They're known for acquiring, cutting, and retailing exceptional pieces. And among them, several of the largest and finest diamonds ever bought or ever brought to market.
Speaker: So, like, they got they got the rich, rich shit. They got all the carrots. Yeah. Graff's flagship location is that mayfair' luxury is in Mayfair's Luxury Corridor.
Speaker: And it serves international clientele. And it sits alongside a bunch of other um jewelry locations like Cartier and Tiffany and Bulgari and then a bunch of independent dealers and then even some auction house sales rooms or sale rooms.
Speaker: So it's a pretty... believe it's Cartier, but yes. Yeah. That's fancy. Yeah, pretty fancy. Yeah, this whole street is like very high end. It's a high concentration of these high end stores. And it does make it this kind of hotspot for both the clients as well as periodically being targeted for organized crime. That's crazy, though. Yeah, you're like, well, just put a lot of cameras on these ritzy shopping blocks, shall we? Or whatever. Yeah.
Speaker: um Yeah, so getting back to this ah August 6th, the men were dressed in suits and they appeared to be wearing um what most articles said was professionally applied theatrical makeup ah that was used to substantially alter their appearances. Yeah.
Speaker: There is like some discrepancy about what they were wearing, which I'll get into from like a couple different sources I read. But yeah, they were wearing like a sort of disguise that was not um
Speaker: not like the typical like mask or like um ski mask or anything like that. Like um a little more natural looking but enough that like people couldn't tell really what they actually looked like okay so yeah it's not immediately noticeable if you don't know them maybe like no matt damon and his prosthetic nose and oceans yeah like they're not showing up in there and like
Speaker: and ski masks and everything. but Yeah. And it's not just your fake mustaches from your gardener heist. The most famous heist. Yes.
Speaker: ah Within minutes of them entering, they pulled out firearms and ordered everyone onto the ground. The men ordered the the shop assistant to help empty the display cases. And they started taking rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and some high-end watches that were placed into bags.
Speaker: To bags. ah Your worst Minnesotan accents. I'm just kidding.
Speaker: like seriously though watches oh super super pricey and expensive sometimes right like did i tell you about the watch i thought don't think so oh my god i' I mean, it's not, in the grand scheme of this story, it's not expensive, but the average person, it's pretty expensive.
Speaker: Yeah, I bet. I bought a Gucci watch at work. Oh! For, I spent $700. It normally retails for $1,800. Oh god, that's fucking Birkin bag!
Speaker: I feel like watching Sex in the City, I'm like, I could never afford... Or just like, ah it's the scariness of having something that's worth so much. Like with pricey jewelry, I'm so scared to like wear it. You know what i mean? Ah, that's crazy. You gotta live life.
Speaker: You If the worst thing in life is that somebody steals it, I mean. Right? Like. C'est la vie. Yeah. There's worse things in life. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: That's why was like, oh my god. That's true. and You can spend it on something else. It can be gone just as fast. Yeah, exactly. but that's... What a splurge.
Speaker: yeah I must see this. I can grab it during the break. Okay, yeah, so they are putting this into the bags. In total, the men, these two guys, took 43 pieces that were later valued by Graf at approximately 40 million pounds or about 65 million u s yeah so quite a bit pulling my collar out aye aye yeah um like obviously each item was like they they had varied in price but let's just say the average would be more than million dollars then but like that's a pretty big haul
Speaker: Yeah, like for how quick it was, they were in and out within minutes. And this placed the robbery among one of the largest jewelry thefts ever recorded on British soil.
Speaker: um it happened very quickly and only lasted a few minutes. And as the men were leaving, um because they were going out the front door they ended up taking that shop assistant kind of hostage. Like they basically just like...
Speaker: pulled her out of the store with them so that they could guarantee that they could get into their car and then they like let her go. So they didn't like take her into the car it seems but uh yeah they did take her like out of the store on the sidewalk uh
Speaker: And, yeah, there is some conflicting stuff about some of what happens next, so I tried to piece it together the best I could from, like, what each source was saying. ah sounds like the men... um There was a security guard that I guess they were shooting at who was trying to, like, help the assistant once she was taken outside.
Speaker: um but there wasn't a lot of information about that, and some sources never even mentioned that. so So he wasn't like a casualty, the security guard that... No, I don't think any... Yeah, I don't think anybody died all. Okay, great. getting relaxed now. Sorry, plugging my headphones.
Speaker: So after they left through the front entrance... It seems like they got into a silver BMW that was waiting. um That was being driven by like a third man. Like a getaway driver.
Speaker: man's crime. Yeah, they made their getaway and they disappeared, it seems. um Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a little weird because... A lot of sources just say next that they like this getaway car, the silver BMW, was found abandoned and the group had transferred their items into a different vehicle and had unknowingly left behind pay-as-you-go phone.
Speaker: was more popular in 2009, I'd say. um And that this pay-as-you-go phone had fallen between the seats and was later recovered by police.
Speaker: Yeah, or just make more popular for crimes. Because it's my most disposable phone. yet Yeah, interesting. o Another source, though, that I read said that they left the scene, like the Graff Diamond House, in a blue BMW, not silver.
Speaker: And that in their getaway fairly soon after, they collided with a black ah like cab ah while they were fleeing the scene. And because of this car accident, it that's what caused them to have to transfer into a different vehicle.
Speaker: ah During which one of the three men jumped out of this supposed blue BMW and began shooting at some guy, i guess, who was like on a patio drinking a beer.
Speaker: in a pub and like saw the car crash and thought he was witnessing like a hit and run so when they started running away he started chasing them and then they started shooting at him because he yeah and he didn't know they had just robbed a jewelry store he thought they were just doing hit and run on a cab I guess I was gonna say reminds me of that scene in Memento where he's like and now I've woken up and this guy's or I'm chasing this guy. Oh no wait he's chasing me because he doesn't remember his last few minutes. Classic amnesia moment. I guess I'm just chasing them. yeah so um Yeah so he began like chasing them ma on foot and that like because of this like them crashing into the cab and then being chased by this guy on foot. This is how that mobile phone supposedly was left
Speaker: wedged between the driver's seat and the handbrake, I guess. But, like, again, no two sources said exactly the same information, so I was like, what the hell?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. One source also said that they found a loaded Saunoff shotgun and four cartridges in the boot ah or the trunk of one of either the silver BMW or the blue BMW or the third vehicle that was never described. or i'm figuring the silver and blue one is the same thing. It's just people, yeah like eyewitnesses remembering. That's barely even a different color. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, like they did change at one point, but yeah, it's... yeah yeah um But what is known as like the... um yeah Yeah, they did get that cell phone from one of the vehicles. um Like fairly quickly. Obviously, like the the one source said the audacity of the crime at its location And its location on one of the world's most prestigious streets and amount of items stolen.
Speaker: ah These all made international news and sent a panic to a lot of the other shops in the area. as if Jack the Ripper would never operate on Mayfair Road. Probably.
Speaker: We would never see this in our neighborhood. ah despite how Despite how quick the sophisticated robbery ah was, like the men had left behind forensic and digital evidence.
Speaker: ah So central London, where this is located, has one of the highest densities of CCTV cameras of any city in the world. yeah um So the abundance of footage, they were basically able...
Speaker: um The police, once they launched their investigation, were able to, like, track through CCTV footage from the surrounding streets ah and, like, see basically their getaway the whole time for the most part. And then they helped review, like, the mobile data from the phone they recovered and evidence that they retrieved from the whatever color BMW.
Speaker: um Right. Yeah. Silver-y blue. The silver-blue BMW, they tracked the group's movements across the network of cameras and...
Speaker: uh as is common I'd say in like thefts like this the police knew that the stolen pieces would be really hard to liquidate or do anything with to sell yeah um due to the size of some of their stones as well as the quality um like a lot of times they're engraved and everything with serial numbers um for like that high end and everything so anybody that's like so hot because they've like Yeah. he's gone on yeah and there you know Yeah. So any attempt to sell them, even like sell them legitimately would attract attention immediately. um And because of this, some of the stolen pieces were recovered, but some of them weren't. Wow. So I also read something that i said that none of them were ever recovered. And i was like, I don't think that's true, but...
Speaker: Yeah, sometimes surprisingly hard to find the follow-up details after sensational cases. Yeah, you're like, okay, then what happened? no And you're like, cases ongoing follow for more updates so that they never write another article about it. Did they go to jail? Yeah. yeah ah police searched through like the mobile phone they searched the unknown numbers that were stored in the history of the phone and just called them be like hello helped track who is this you're under arrest ah this helped them track the group's movements leading up to the robbery
Speaker: um oh and then i just name this the people that did it uh yeah um so the two guys that entered the store uh where's his first name Oh my god, do I have their first names later? i think I do. um That was like Patreon. I was just like, this is the guy's name. And then I like almost never mentioned it again. I was like, oh my god.
Speaker: Anyway. Yeah. um For fuck's sakes. I'm sorry. Why do I have the name? was trying to vamp for you. No.
Speaker: Oh why do I have just a random name in here? I don't know where this name came from. I hate that. It's because they were, like, quoted earlier in the article or something.
Speaker: But he's one of the perpetrators, but there's, like, so many of them. Oh my god. the fuck? ah Well, and I can cut this, but when I tell you I had to cut apart when I was like, Franklin, do I remember bringing up a Franklin in this case? On my Patreon full case. And you were like, don't know. And then I'm like listening to it. I'm like,
Speaker: yeah, that's the killer guy's name. I said it like once though, so it didn't like click. ah Because his name was like Lonnie James Franklin Jr. or something like real long. And so then when it came back up again, we were both like, and then I was like, I'm getting this. I saw this stuff.
Speaker: i't know I know. I know. I'm going to cut this later, but no. Okay. Well, I can't find his name because it was weird. The one, the one guy, they, two different sources had two different last names for him. So like, oh, okay. Yeah, and he's like one of the main guys. So I was like, this is really annoying. But yeah. Okay, so um Daniel. I can't remember who Daniel is. Just Daniel. what about one of the last names?
Speaker: No, i I just scrolled through their full names and I can't find Daniel. Oh, okay. I'm like, I don't know why it says Daniel. The unknown Daniel. Yeah.
Speaker: um Maybe I'm just stupid. Nope, it's the Unknown Soldier's Grey. Yeah. um Daniel and I'm gonna butcher this. I think it's Kassi, want to say. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah They both had visited a i talked about them like professional disguises. They had both visited a professional makeup artist. I think named Mishela Hart in the days leading up to the robbery. Yeah. Sorry.
Speaker: My friend was named Michelle. Okay. I love that name. ah They told the artists at that a Covent Garden makeup studio that they needed to be aged up for a pop music video. Aged up?
Speaker: Yeah. Aged? Or aged? Aged. I'm sorry. Make me look older. That's like a prison term I didn't know. Because we'll call H, bro. i thought it was like the letter.
Speaker: and there I can't. No. I'm old. I need my hearing aids turned up. Sorry.
Speaker: Oh my god. Yeah, so they said that one source said that after this was done, like, they had prosthetics and all this stuff to make them look older. They thought it didn't look realistic, so...
Speaker: Some sources said that they like removed all the latex and prosthetics and then used like their, like some sort of makeup, like last minute to like do what they did when they entered the store. And then other stuff says, no, they didn't remove it. So I don't really know ah Interesting. Maybe last minute they decided more practical effects.
Speaker: Like with makeup, you can draw wrinkles on people and shit. My friend was going to, add my my like one of my best childhood friends, Randy, she was going to makeup school in Fredericton. It was like, I need to, I think it was either do a glam day on someone, but like there were times it was like, you had to practice doing like making someone into was like a zombie face or something and just all this cool stuff. um Yeah, like makeup effects. And it's like so cool what they can do with practical stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: ah But like whatever they ended up using, whether it was the stuff that was applied or what they did themselves, um their disguises were able initially um to avoid them being identified like in the CCTV footage, which was kind of interesting because I saw in some of the sources they were talking about that people that even wear the blue face masks and everything...
Speaker: like like the COVID, like surgical masks, like it can, like facial recognition can work through that. It can tell for the most part still who you if you're wearing like a certain amount of facial covering. it was like, okay, like they did enough even though their faces were quote unquote bare, like that it couldn't identify them, which I mean, it's interesting. It altered them enough. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: See, that is weird because I would think, yeah, you must have still been wearing some prosthetics or something. Then it sounds like that you said they were just like ripping them off as they went in like I know. was like This stupid case is so conflicting between the color of the vehicle and people's names and then fucking whether or not they're wearing prosthetics. like oh my god right i'm sure it's uh somewhere in the middle yeah so this uh cass um or this is the guy calderwood i called him calderwood slash craig because it depended what source you read yeah whether his last name was calderwood or it was craig um they're so different in length
Speaker: I know. It's absolutely not the same. ah Calder Woods. I was like, wait, i mean there's a guy who plays D&D whose first name is Calder. It sounds like a full name. Okay.
Speaker: Weird. um I guess they had taken, this is so weird, they took a cab um to the site of the robbery. So they can be identified.
Speaker: Yeah, it was so weird. had them drop them off near, but not at directly the graph store. um The sources all said that they specifically wanted to be remembered by the driver. So they ended up paying the nine, like nine pound 20 fare with a 20 pound note.
Speaker: And then told the driver to like keep the change. And the driver was like, it was the best tip I ever received. And it was like a whole thing. So it was like you wanted to be remembered by the cab driver, but you're about to come commit a robbery.
Speaker: like okay, so stupid. Made no sense. what Yeah, it made no sense to me. I'm like, okay. It's like the opposite of what I've ever heard. I don't get how that is hiding in plain sight or anything like that. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly. Okay. um Yeah, so they had like the names from the phone. So they started arresting these guys. um They arrested Solomon Bain. was 25. That's an evil name.
Speaker: yeah i probably pronounced it wrong. I mean, it's so hard to find out with names. Bang. No. yeah um And then there was a Clinton Mog. He was 43.
Speaker: um That Amon Kasai or Kasai guy. He was 25. And then Craig Calderwood. Who...
Speaker: to Yeah, maybe his first name was Daniel. Maybe it was like Daniel Craig Calderwood. I don't know. Oh my god. Daniel Craig Calderwood. No wonder he shortened it Daniel Craig for showbiz.
Speaker: Yeah. He was only 27, though. He was much younger. Oh, jeez. um No peeking. Sorry, no, I just, that's one of my favorite lines from him from Logan Lucky.
Speaker: Yeah. Such a great film. Speaking heights. Dries. Ooh. Sorry. Yeah. The jury had been told ah that it was believed that an under underworld bosses had actually planned this robbery and that they had remained unidentified and at large.
Speaker: Several, yeah, part of this was because several hired vehicles were strategically placed um during the robbery in order to block police from being able to follow out the getaway car from the scene of the robbery. a blockade. Okay. Yeah, a bit, but there was like multiple of them. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: The jury had also been told that it was possible that the heist was originally planned to take place two days before when it appears that the Cassie guy and Calderwood, again wearing makeup applied by a different artist, were seen on CCTV footage on the 4th looking into the graph like window from the street.
Speaker: And how do we know it's a different artist? Their word for it? Um, I'm not sure. Right? It's just like a specific detail.
Speaker: Yeah. It seems that the plan was changed as at the time of them looking in the window, there seemed to be a routine police patrol car that drove past like twice in the footage. So maybe spooked them a bit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: One of the men ah denied being one of the ones in the CCTV footage, um that Kasai guy, he admitted there there was a resemblance ah to the guy that was caught on tape but claimed that it was a guy that they knew called Omar and that they were being framed and and this fell apart because Calderwood the other guy that was with him in the footage admitted to being the man in the footage and said that he had been forced to take part in the robbery it's like yeah that was me
Speaker: Or he's like, I'm just gonna throw him back under this bus he tried throw me under. That was me, but I was forced. Yeah. ah Yeah.
Speaker: So I guess the jury consisted of eight women and three men, and it took them, I don't know what other evidence they had to go through, but for some reason it took them fucking 15 days to deliberate.
Speaker: wow. Yeah. I was like, Jesus Christ. How much evidence did you have to go through? Because, like, nothing has been made public. Or how nice was that hotel buffet or whatever. Just arguing about the color of your BMW and what this guy's last name is.
Speaker: Whether they had makeup on. was like, oh my god. that's why love it in books when they're like for according to the witnesses it was a red Toyota Camry or a blue Ford Edge or you know like a fucking whatever like the witnesses don't know they're all just like oh no and if you read the Jack Reacher books he's just like it was a car I'm not a car guy I'm like I love it yeah okay I don't have too much more on this one
Speaker: and got So Solomon Bain, he was 25 years old at the time. He was a university graduate and a convicted drug dealer.
Speaker: was like, wow. yeah He had been released from prison just a month before the robbery. and he had been he was identified as the one who had bought phones that were used for the robbery. He had also hired a Ford Transit van um that was like used to block the police who were pursuing them during the getaway.
Speaker: ah he was convicted of conspiracy to rob and sentenced to 15 years. And then there was ah that Clinton Mogg.
Speaker: He had provided a flat or like an apartment, which was used by Cassay and Calderwood on August 4th during their quote unquote failed attempt.
Speaker: ah Mogg was convicted of conspiracy to rob. I can't remember what he was sentenced for. or if it said, um but he wasn't like a main guy.
Speaker: um That Kase guy, he was convicted of kin conspiracy to rob, kidnapping, and possessing a gun. he was one of the two men who pulled out a gun and forced staff onto the floor, and he was sentenced to 23 years.
Speaker: I mean, not so gentlemanly, that robber. No, he was a lot more involved than some of these other guys. ah The jury was unable to reach a verdict on that Craig Calderwood, who said he had been forced to take part of the robbery after they had made threats to kill him and his mother. These threats had come from two underworld figures known as Kev and the Big Boss.
Speaker: um the one source yeah the one source i read said he faced a possible retrial because they were unable to reach a verdict but then on wikipedia it said he was convicted and sentenced to 18 years so i'm not too sure hey at um hopefully still in jail Yes.
Speaker: There's Thomas Thomas who we didn't talk about. Yeah. Double, double, not even double first name, but double same name. Tell me Tom Tom. You don't know what his middle name is.
Speaker: He was 46, and he had hired a seven and a half ton truck, which was also used to block traffic during the getaway. And he was convicted by 10 to one majority of conspiracy to rob. Damn.
Speaker: Yeah, and this is so part of these ones is why I'm confused about whether or not they were marrying the prosthetics. Because this Michelle Hart, the one that, like, applied that old age, like, makeup that they lied about wanting the reason for. of the ones.
Speaker: Yeah. Okay. um She was convicted as an accomplice for her role in applying the disguises and received a shorter custodial sentence. So she was, like, fucking convicted. And I was like, but if they ripped off the prosthetics and then did their own makeup when they did the actual robbery, why is she convicted of anything? And, like...
Speaker: Yeah, it was a little weird. Hope you at least get paid for your service if then it wasn't even used and then it gets used against you in a court of law. oh And there was multiple things I read when I kept running into little blurbs about this story that was saying that um it was actually two different like drag queens that did their makeup and stuff. And it was like, but and then it wasn't actually like mentioned in the sources. I actually don't know.
Speaker: um yeah that sounds a little less specific and a little more like clickbaity or ragebaity it was yeah like queens oh um then there's this like i don't like it because well that seems less involvement Like, you could cause a full deniability that she didn't know what they were doing.
Speaker: Exactly. So why were you convicted of anything? even Sometimes it's a person who's, like, on the inside working at the prison and then helps the inmates get out or whatever, something like that, right? I know this is different. There's someone trying to get in. But, like, this to me seems, like, less...
Speaker: yeah less of an involvement yeah it was weird to me that i was like why was she ever charged like it makes no sense but whatever yeah um courtney lawrence um oh here's david ah no that was daniel why is there a david now my god that's why at the end i just started listing all the names i was like Fuck's sake. So there's a Courtney Lawrence, also 31, West London, and a David Joseph, South London. They were earlier...
Speaker: cleared of conspiracy to rob after denying involvement and then there was two other guys his name got dragged into a gregory jones age 30 of west london and benjamin mcfarlane uh 22 of northwest london who was cleared of the same charge um the month before so there was like a lot of people that were involved in it um yeah and that's it that's everything i could find that wasn't behind a paywall um it's like a little confusing but i was like oh interesting might be sounded familiar or the name of it but yeah exactly once you get into a heist sometimes they have a lot of names and yeah similarities and stuff yeah they need to have the cool nicknames and the very specific jobs um
Speaker: And that's why this one, my next one, has a pretty um common tagline. And ah it's kind of funny. um different It's often just like the catchy clickbaity headline is almost always failed jewelry robbery ends in KFC. And then it's like, ooh, click find out more. Yeah.
Speaker: oh that doesn't sound familiar no i don't i cut chicken didn't i cover the one where it was like and it was oh a mob of like you know a group of italian guys or whatever and then the one guy on the way home stopped when they had the salami sandwiches the food yeah it was like because then they just tossed their garbage out into the woods and some old guy was like get your garbage out of my woods Then I was like, brought down by the salami receipts. Yeah. I'm like, yeah, that'd be me. I need a sandwich.
Speaker: You know, I can't say no to a sandwich. Yeah. hope I wouldn't just like throw my receipts everywhere. <unk> Yeah. So this one's a little more comedic, but again, it's probably not that comedic if it was happening to you at a place of your work. um In retrospect. So this was...
Speaker: This was just after 8am on New Year's Eve 2013 when these two thieves attempted to rob Wright's jewelers in ah Australia.
Speaker: on the one December 31st. Yes. because... I guess so. i was like New Year's Eve at eight a m Yeah, not New Year's Day at 8 a.m., which would everything would be closed January 1st.
Speaker: Wouldn't that make more sense? Presumably. and don't know. Dumbasses. These guys are dumbasses, okay? We'll get into it. Yeah, so this place is like 45 miles south of Brisbane.
Speaker: ah In their attempt, they used an iron bar to break through the wall ah that was located in a communal toilet block. um There was like a tunnel area into what they thought was that Wright's jewelry store, but instead they quickly found themselves inside of a Kentucky Fried Chicken uh store that was next door to their target of jewelry store okay okay so i don't know yeah i feel like i've heard some fuck-ups like this where they're like and then we were locked in the storage room and Yes. Cracked out and needed to be rescued the people we were trying to rob. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're like, wait, what? Yeah.
Speaker: I got robbed during a robbery, so I called the police to tell them I was robbed. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, so they break through the wall in this communal toilet. They think they're going to go into jewelry store. They end up in a KFC. They quickly pivot and change their plans.
Speaker: ah yeah um Yeah, they quickly pivot, change their plans, decide to rob the KFC instead because, you know, they already caused a big scene.
Speaker: breaking through the wall um yeah yeah um the queensland's police service released a statement saying quote the men threatened staff with a metal bar and made depend made demands for cash two female employees complied and handled over a sum of cash to the men um yeah After robbing the KFC, the thieves left on foot with about $2,600 and police confirmed no one was hurt during the theft.
Speaker: um But they were quickly identified and there's a Sergeant Summerfield said that the two men made full and frank admissions when questioned by police.
Speaker: And apparently what began as or like what was them breaking through this wall into kfc had actually apparently been their third attempt at breaking into that jewelry store that day guys stop yeah you're so bad at it just stop um yeah Okay, are you ready to hear what they did through these first two attempts? No, my guess.
Speaker: ah Okay, police prosecutor, Sergeant Damien Summerfield said that they had earlier thrown spark plugs into the store in attempt to smash the front window. ah That was attempt number one.
Speaker: When that failed, the alleged- think so know a lot of see i said i don't know cars i'm like reacher ah feel like that doesn't weigh as much as a brick no if they're like spark plugs like i'm thinking of for a car then that's like not much It's like throwing pebbles on a girl's window in a romance. Yeah.
Speaker: Come out, come out, wherever you are. A handful of spark plugs. How romantic. Secret herbs and spices. um Yeah. So when that failed, they allegedly tried to break into the store through the rear doors.
Speaker: um So they like thought they located the store and were like prying open the back door. But they miscalculated and ended up in the neighboring Animal Welfare League opportunity shop.
Speaker: Oh my. and those are right next door to each other. It's the KFC. Yeah. I guess so. They're all, like, attached together. um So the Sergeant Summerfield said that after they broke into this animal welfare thing, also thinking it was the jewelry store, um the men stole the charity box from the front counter, which contained $50, before trying for their last and third attempt to break into the jewelry store, which is how they ended up in KFC. Yeah.
Speaker: of Wait, what did they hit the first time? No, I'm forgetting. um The first time they would have ended up in the jewelry store, but they were trying to break the front window with the spark plugs. Oh.
Speaker: then And then they went into the back and ended up in an animal welfare shop And then the second time, broke through the ma communal toilets. Yeah, broke through the communal toilets and ended up in KFC.
Speaker: um Yeah, so they yeah broke through the back of, because the group of shops like running, it's kind of like an outdoor thing.
Speaker: I don't know, mall, like a strip mall kind of thing where it's got like all the stores kind of side by side, but they're not like, you can't go. from inside one to the other so it's like just front facing and then but there was like toilets that kind of like public bathrooms that ran across the back part of the building so that's where they went in um and they hacked that hole in the wall with the iron bar and crawled through um so that peter welsh age 32 and duane dulin 31 were arrested and charged with the robbery after police raided welsh's home
Speaker: um yeah they were charged with armed robbery stealing burglary and attempted burglary while doolin was charged with robbery and stealing there was like and yeah they made like full full confessions and were like yeah we did all this other stuff too they were like great let's charge you with that actually steal um but They took $50 from the animal welfare shop, and then they took $2,600 from KFC.
Speaker: Okay, I suppose. Yeah. But that's it. just Were they actually robbed? Okay. Yeah. I mean, it only took three attempts before eight am m but...
Speaker: yeah ge it's like her um in that morning that most people do by noon yeah yeah yeah oh they're tunneling like they're tunneling out of prison or i don't know yeah i don't know how far they had to like go through or if it was like a service corridor or something maybe but Or like one of those delivery corridors.
Speaker: Like where it's just kind of like the hallway. Maybe it was. Yeah. type of deals entrance Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. But it was like, damn, these guys were relentless. You failed three times in one day.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, people are bad at true crime and things. And yeah, I don't think we've ever caught covered the one where they like. trying to kill a guy so many times it was basically like are you rasputin like oh my god well it's he was like an irish was like early america and he's a real irish name like don't know o'malley or something i'm trying to remember i'm like but they and they decide like he's always drunk at the bar we'll try to kill him and then as much as they would try to like
Speaker: drink him to death, you know, like, over-serve him to death, put him out in the cold and the wet and the whatever. my God! He just kept bouncing back and showing back up at the bar, like, the next day. Like, he was, like, the alcoholic that just, like, couldn't be put down.
Speaker: I'm like, I can't believe we've never actually talked about him, but it's, it's like... God. It's like, what's his face from a Shameless? their Their dad? From Shameless? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Frank? Oh, yes, yeah, okay, so I said the dad, and then at the same time you said Frank, and I didn't hear it. Also, speaking of shameless, Emmy Rossum is in a shit ton of things lately, and like,
Speaker: I've been loving it. Yeah, I want to see that enjoy Furious or whatever. That one looks good. Oh, yeah. Yeah, because I was like, there's a bunch of like, that one looks sort of scary. And then I was like, why is Anne Hathaway in some movies that to me look like horror movies, which is not the usual Hathaway vibe I get. Like, there's one where now I saw a preview and she's um a writer that then ends up like paralyzed, like basically like sort of Stephen Hawking condition like can't walk can't talk and like her husband invites someone a young writer woman to you know finish her series or whatever and then it starts getting creepy after that and i was like o oh weird i haven't seen a preview for that yeah that one looks kind of good but yeah all over the place these gals
Speaker: Yeah. She's in the Odyssey along with all the other. i haven't seen that one. I know. It does seem like a commitment, right? I'm going to pirate it. I'm going to find a really good one that's the IMAX 70 millimeter and I'm going to watch it.
Speaker: Yeah. From the comfort of my own home. So I can pause and go to the bathroom whenever I need to. Yeah, that's the thing. Which is fine and because like you still can, especially in the VIP theaters, you have so much like leg room But I'm like, I think I still have the Bogo thing for Cineplex that needs to be used up by like September or something. So if don't go see that, I have to go see something. Yeah, I was talking to my dad. He wants to go see the new Spider-Man movie.
Speaker: it's so good. i think he should. we're going to go do that. And then he wants to see I think, the Avengers Doomsday whatever fucking one it was when it comes out. Oh, okay. i didn't think it was out yet. But yeah, i want to see that. No, that's in like December.
Speaker: Okay, yeah. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah. But, yeah. Yeah, we just re-watched Sinners and Pat said, I've only watched this once. I said, really? thought this was of the ones I saw at least twice in theaters. And I had to try to remember which one I saw with you and which one I Because I was like, a couple of them like twice in theaters. We Sinners.
Speaker: Yeah, we saw Sinners because you told me about the the guy from July Talk, which I didn't know about. yeah but then i thought i went to see it in theaters with pat but i guess not because he said he only seen it once so i was like oh you did oh okay and then i was like you came over here to what we watched uh weapons together at our place right over here you watch yeah because i hadn't seen that okay that's the one i hadn't seen with you in theater yeah well
Speaker: that's sort of that's i'll stop this one that' are he right back our movie talk whom he saying yeah we'll be right back
Speaker: Ever hear a true crime case so wild you had to stop and ask, who does that? Same. And that's exactly why we made our podcast Stop. Who does that? We break down shocking cases, courtroom twists, and headline-making crimes you won't forget. If you're obsessed with true crime and love the details most people miss, come hang out with us on Stop. Who does that? Available on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker: So which song do you like better? The one from ah Sinners about I've been picked, poor, I've been clean. I've been picked, poor, I've been clean. Or do you like... oh my You're like, no, no, it's stuck in my head. But there's also one that um it it does make me think of ah I almost said winners.
Speaker: As every time I try to think of sinners and weapons, it gets no the new horror movie from winners in Homesteads. Yes. The retail hell.
Speaker: I did it before. Night at the museum, but it's winners in Homesteads coming to life at night. The living dead. The customers are after you. ah I just want a 10% discount for this scratch. oh And you know what is my work? It's, but I'm a member. It's probably, fuck but I shop here all the time. Yeah.
Speaker: I'm a regular. oh no, but the one in weapons is... that I think of is the song when ah the guy Paul goes to stay over at the teacher's house for the night even though he shouldn't because he's all married and then he gets all drunk and does all the bad stuff and then she starts playing the song and it's all like cheery it's like gotta get up gotta to get up gotta to get home both sunshine it's like it's really like cheery like pop song I think I've heard that song but I do not think of either of them now
Speaker: Okay. Well, it like, oh God, I hope this is my point I was going to, but, or no, I was asking you which one you like better. The other one, I started watching the Russian doll one and I was like, oh my gosh, that's the song she hears every time she um wakes up, quote unquote, because it's kind of like a Groundhog Day show where she kind of dies on her birthday every day. and it's with a Natasha Leo. And then like, apparently produced by Amy Poehler, which I was surprised about. Yeah. I i liked the i liked the first season that show. I didn't really love the second. And then i oh Whatever. It did branch a little way from Groundhog Day a little more into time travel. But... Yeah.
Speaker: It's like... Yeah, it's one of those shows I put on late at night so I can't really speak specifically. I'm like, I think I liked it. But don't really remember. Gordo...
Speaker: grotto's like right here he's like pay attention to me you being a good boy is she neglecting you i'm just kidding
Speaker: oh my god he's gonna purge straight into the mic now oh my god the the uproar though oh he did come up on the mic last time wow or the patreon whatever the one was i was just editing
Speaker: Sounds like he's digested. Yeah.
Speaker: You're funny, buddy.
Speaker: Oh my god, I heard that.
Speaker: was so loud. You old man. Wait, is that his purring noise? No, that's just like scratching under my chin and my throat's all like extended up. He's looking up. makes his sound weird.
Speaker: is it course My stomach makes that noise lately and I'm like, I wasn't expecting that. He's just drinking something bubbly. It's like, whoa. Oh my god.
Speaker: Alright. Gordo and I are ready for story time. Stomit time. I also felt myself drawn to a listicle and had to yeah narrow it down. Yeah.
Speaker: I think it's enough for two. ah You know. If we come back to it, I'm going to do heists with focus on people that have weird, ah yeah, like heist nicknames.
Speaker: ah Nice. Like the general. Yeah. Excuse me. But. Wasn't a lot. i don't know. I did a little bit of about this was one of the came up on a listicle as one of the first um painting or art thefts that sort of got famous. Ooh.
Speaker: mona lia two of the first ones yeah that one and then one involving pirates yeah i heard that like the mona lisa is only famous because it was stolen yeah i feel like yeah fun trivia which is kind of cool because like if it wasn't for true crime she wouldn't be the art world's darling or whatever but But it is odd. basis
Speaker: Covered in hair. Yes, you baby guy. Are you turning into a cat werewolf? Yeah. Starting one a hair up the nose at a time.
Speaker: Stuck to my face. I've renewed my puffer, so I'm good. But you I know No, so there was a theft of a painting called The Last Judgment by a Hans Memling.
Speaker: o Never heard of her. Right. cor The Last Judgment. Yeah. yeah Probably. I'm like, I think it's picking at it up, but Yeah, the last judgment and the the Hans Memling, the artist's name reminds me of Hans molan Mole Man from The Simpsons.
Speaker: Just saying. But he has those thick bottle cap glasses or whatever. it Coke bottle glasses. He can't see a thing, Mole Man. That's why he's constantly getting run over in the series. He's like Kenny. Yeah.
Speaker: Anyways, but this was a famous painting at the time. And this was 1467. Damn. know. a long time ago.
Speaker: I forgot what my handwritten notes said because it has been so long.
Speaker: um there was a banker named Angelo Tani from Florence and he commissioned this work he had asked for a triptych which I think is a fun word um and ah it just was kind of like those three piece yeah like artwork yeah done in three pieces you could set it on a mantle or whatever with the little hinges.
Speaker: um And yeah, three panels of an artwork. And it was supposed to sit it on and be an altarpiece for their family chapel. So six years later, this commission was done and transport was arranged to be shipped on the ship called the San Mateo.
Speaker: um it was only just supposed to go from uh so i guess it's just over in belgium it had to go from bruges i apologize for my pronunciation to florence italy so that's it was heading to florence it was not leaving europe even okay yeah it was oh it was sorry they were flemish artists so i guess Flemish always gets me because I'm like, there's no country.
Speaker: There's no Fleming. Yeah, there's no Fleming. And I do speak Canadian, which, oh my God.
Speaker: That was a funny anecdote with the actress from um some of the, she's a British yeah um young, up and coming actress. She was in The Last of Us and game of thrones and stuff bella ranzi and she's yeah she was on a podcast i was listening to and she said that she used to um lie and say that she uh was half canadian spoke
Speaker: and told her friends was like i'm pretty sure they speak english there too they bro bro
Speaker: Yeah. But do we? I know, I'm like, I can't even put on a British accent right now. So, what do I know? Um, so. Gordo! How rude. He rubbed his face straight on the mic that time. he was like, you're not petting me, I'll make the mic pet me.
Speaker: To me, it felt like I'm performing to a crowd and they're like crickets instead like... Right in the mic. Straight up snoring. ah Amazing.
Speaker: So this painting left the Flemish artist's home and never arrived at its destination. So it's considered one of the ah first, like, kind of most famous cases of art theft. Like, known art theft. Yeah. you know Damn.
Speaker: Wasn't just, like, Vikings pillaging, ah like, churches. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you're thinking back, like, well, I guess when does art thep go back to? Like, when does art go back to that you like, you know, paintings you hang on your wall or whatever?
Speaker: yeah it's mostly Wasn't it mostly just portraits for a while? Rich people. Don't get me started. I feel like people that are like my friend Ellen, she's so smart in art history. I'm just like, you're so smart. i don't get it.
Speaker: But. Okay, so this. Da, da.
Speaker: Was the first... step that i reported thatft Okay, so yeah, because it left onto the ship on the ship the San Mateo, never arrived at its destination. um So then it was obviously investigated. They were like, well, what the hell?
Speaker: And... you
Speaker: No, that one. Sorry. Hang on.
Speaker: Okay, okay. I gotta make sure I'm going to write the seven notes here. ah So, yeah okay. So there was a lot... was like, yes, it was investigated, but I should probably ah use a different word because this different case, there's not a lot of police back in the 1400s specifically.
Speaker: What? A sheriff? yeah Maybe. But we know, or we think we know it was some Polish pirates as we figured out.
Speaker: They were probably led. I know, Polish virus. right um It's supposedly this Paul. Ooh, Ben, Benike.
Speaker: I didn't look it up, nor can I barely read my own writing, but Benike. I'm not just going to keep saying it until I say it all the wrong ways. We're just going to move on. Who is he was a privateer from.
Speaker: no. is it gdansk poland or is that just the way we all pronounce it because it's funny gdansk have no idea fail at geography gdansk wait where does phoebe's boyfriend go to in friends he had to go to one ahs eastern european oh minsk that's right you okay it's probably just pronounced dance but uh Every time I just see it written down, I pronounce it Gdansk in my house. So in my house, in my head. so I didn't even know.
Speaker: Oh boy. They were patrolling the English waters due to a dispute that had been with the Hanseatic, I believe it's pronounced league. And the Polish port was a leading member of this league.
Speaker: ah So they boarded the San Mateo and they plundered the ship. They figured you're off the coast of of Poland. Gdansk.
Speaker: Goddamn. Then this painting never came back to the original painter, the oh, who commissioned the work, the Tani family, the Angelo Tani. But since then, it's been plagued with lawsuits and ah what was it?
Speaker: An iconic thing to steal. Because since then, it's been some ah attempted thieves have included Napoleon, the Nazis, and the Red Army, who all tried to steal this painting.
Speaker: so So it must have been found, like, at some point. And then other people were just like, i want to steal it, too. Yep, yep. It's safely in Gdansk, Poland.
Speaker: I'm just going to keep saying it. Gordo, you're so distracting, baby boy. Baby boy. it's like wiggling like a worm and trying to turn upside down on top of the laptop he's the ultimate talker yes he's just like pay attention to me i
Speaker: i was gonna say part of that i was telling you that uh editing our last patreon segment i was like first almost 20 minutes before we then had technical difficulties. I was like, okay, what's content? Remember? I was like, nope, nothing here. Almost all i was talking about, um, just, but you know, cars and buying new cars or, you know, stuff like that recently owned cars. But then, um, I think maybe I had to cut out some cat talk.
Speaker: We were talking about different size cats and like how territorial they get. He's trying to roll backwards like on top of the laptop. I'm like, you're going to do something. You're going to push a button.
Speaker: The whole and thing is going to break. And he always made you think he was not the one peeing on the couch, but he was the one peeing on the couch. Yeah, he was. Couch peer.
Speaker: Oh, we got Fenrir a new dog bed, but he doesn't understand, nor is too stubborn to realize that it's such a comfy dog bed that he should sit in. He's like, what? I'm like, here's a blanket on it. Don't attack me.
Speaker: Okay, I'll try to rough it up and hump it like I do with all the big pillows and stuff. Oh, no. No. You're supposed to lay in it. Okay.
Speaker: All right. So as you predicted, the second um sort of most famous time in art went missing. Painting was the Mona Lisa in 1911, which i didn't know that much about, to be fair.
Speaker: They stole it in a movie or two that I've watched in modern times, but that's... Excuse you. Hey.
Speaker: Bordeaux. Stop it. or but
Speaker: um yeah so that one it took that old leo uh almost a decade to perfect his painting so it was kind of crazy how shortly it was plucked from the louvre from its place damn i didn't know that yeah it was like he's working on it there's a lot of things going on I honestly, again, I'm a famous, can't, you know, believe who knows so much about art history because though I love history, art history is very hard for me to retain. It's either interesting or very, very boring.
Speaker: um So then it was, ah ah oh, it was actually a day in August, August 21st, 1911, it were. as it were All August.
Speaker: Wow. And they said all bad things happened in April. This happened almost however many years ago today.
Speaker: Minus five days. Oh, most sources say it was a Monday. But the first source I read said it was a Wednesday. So wouldn't I look stupid if I just said it was Wednesday?
Speaker: So I feel... I know. And that one you could actually like just easily look up, which is so funny because it's like, i have to go verify this now. Like I'm looking up a fault farmer's almanac or whatever, you know?
Speaker: Yeah. um But it was like a weekly kind of closure day, it said, for the museum. So for whatever reason, at this time, quite quiet, not open to the public, only workers are going into the building.
Speaker: Only murdering the building. Yeah. um By the time it was the next morning, however, they noticed Mona Lisa had left the building. But who had took her and taken her and how? They had pretty much no idea. yeah They're like, but nobody's told of her before. Excuse me.
Speaker: They had 60 investigators kind of descend upon the place where she was kept, the Salon Carré. Yeah.
Speaker: Stamping all over. no Yeah. oh They did find some evidence among like with along with the empty frame. There was a partial fingerprint and, you know, a big old hole where the Mona Lisa was supposed to be.
Speaker: But better than like mop all up all the blood as, uh, what's his name says? The comedian. almost said John Krasinski.
Speaker: Oh, the one that says, there's, there's some blood here. Mop it all up. I've got a hunch. The comedian, Oh Um,
Speaker: oh
Speaker: So they did just realize that the time frame that she would have been stolen was around that 7 to 8 a.m. period. i think that was specifically when the museum was closed for their regular scheduled cleaning that day.
Speaker: yeah But again, it was like closed to the public, but they said about 800 workers were coming and going, guards, cleaners, museum officials, photographers. 800? 800?
Speaker: Jesus Christ. I think maybe had access to it, but yeah, I don't know if that would have been like on a daily basis. That's a lot. right I can... I mean... Having to be the place that you would probably have to sign in and out as a visitor, like having 800 people sign in would just be a fucking nightmare.
Speaker: Yeah, but 1911... yeah I don't know, was probably much easier. You're just like, show me your badge! and youre just Right? This is the... like This is our... Our fucking card.
Speaker: like Or business card. People were like fascinated by the idea that you have to carry around identification of yourself. They're like, you have to prove who you are? Yeah.
Speaker: Can't just say it.
Speaker: Don't you know who I am Um... Early days of airports too, right? oh So lackadaisical compared to now. Yeah.
Speaker: Fly on the wing. You get a discount.
Speaker: um There was an early, i don't know about early, but there was a suspect that was quite prevalent whose name was Eddie. I think it's Garen.
Speaker: So it's like G-U-E-R-I-N. Guerin Guerin Guerin Guerinica uh but I'll call him Eddie it was rumored that Eddie wanted to get square with the French government for his convictions by stealing the mona li Mona Lisa so he'd previously been convicted of some bullshit and you know this was his revenge the theory went oh yeah it's like he wants to clear his name by stealing from a museum I know here I'll pay you back
Speaker: as a quote but even that wording confused me too um it said at least that's what a south american businessman told the media after he had heard it from the consular agent who said he helped garan escape from devil's island which is where he was being held was it's like alcatraz or whatever allegedly garan wrote the agent a letter stating his conquest A fortnight later, the news came that the painting had indeed been stolen.
Speaker: So, yeah, kind of circumstantial. He's like, I want revenge, in my opinion. And then, like, this happens.
Speaker: But according to the businessman, a second later letter to the agent stated that Mona Lisa was not destroyed, but would never again fall into the hands of the French government. Dun, dun, dun.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Not true. no that's not it. yeah
Speaker: They had people on the case. um Oh, yeah. So they had found that partial print on the frame or the glass case. um That was basically the only evidence they had, like, forensically.
Speaker: And then they got this, you know, the young hot Pinkerton agency of the day, which you guys might have heard of. It's old time. Pink Panther. Yeah. yeah Pink Panther!
Speaker: yeah Is it? It's Jacques Couzeau! No, but they were a real detectivations. did um du and and du
Speaker: and They sounded familiar, so i was like, I didn't write down too much. else I was like, yeah, we know. have no idea. think
Speaker: they did get quite famous. However, this was, ah so this was this I believe, the son of the founder of the Pinkerton Agency. So this was William A. Pinkerton, who gone to Paris to investigate the ah you know theft itself.
Speaker: And he wanted to help. Yeah. and but He was the head of the western office of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency in Chicago and he would track clues anywhere they would lead him the leads across Europe you know of the country out the continent whatever tips were coming in from all over there were sightings all over Europe Argentina US and Japan it's not always the case it's like when somebody's missing they're like oh we saw them here we saw them all yeah
Speaker: But in like 1911, it was probably way different. These people being like, I've never even seen the Mona Lisa, but I've seen it here. yeah that guy looks kind of like the guy I've seen, though. Yeah, it's all conjecture.
Speaker: Yeah, and then a lot of, like I said, focus was on the Eddie Guerin guy, who was a known con man and thief. A sort of notorious shyster who had been convicted of crimes in the US and Europe and was serving time on Devil's Island. Oh, yes. This was at the French penal colony off the coast of French Guiana.
Speaker: south america and like i said it was kind of like a an alcatraz sort of you can't get out of this place this yeah devil's island come on and because he escaped from there he was notorious i mean they thought it was him for a long time and that it was his revenge revenge against the theft of the french jesus yeah
Speaker: But they also were obviously investigating and like questioning all the people working at the museum from the normal everyday workers to the more temporary part time workers.
Speaker: And so that's how they kind of came upon people that work there like doing. one-time jobs and specific things, including the glaziers, hope I'm saying that right, who work with glass, and that included Pietro Vincenzo Antonio. Vendarez.
Speaker: No. Petrugia. messed it up.
Speaker: Long Italian name, yes. Is that what you said? Sorry. No. Because it
Speaker: Oh my God. Yeah, he worked ah inside the museum with glass. Glaziers would make cases, redo the framing and cleaning of art and the reframing. And so he worked on the actual glass case for the Mona Lisa and would have known how to quickly open it.
Speaker: Yeah. Helpful. um And that day when it was only open to the workers, he went into the Louvre sort of through the service entrance with the other white smocked workers so he was basically wearing the same uniform he lifted her up off her iron pegs and left um some people say just tucked under his smock but others say we don't know how big it was it was too big he was kind of too short for that i'm like okay know she's not huge but yeah i've heard the mona lisa is pretty small so like
Speaker: Maybe in our minds she's like blown up so big, you know, like all the other like landmarks and stuff. Yeah.
Speaker: But like, yeah, think about trying to I think any painting, I think it would look a little bit bulky under a smock maybe. Yeah. Yeah. And again, yeah, we're metric, but like, it was like, he was 160 centimeters and it was 53 by 77 centimeters. And I'm like, ah I don't know how that tall it makes him, but yeah. Okay. Probably hard.
Speaker: the I don't know. I'm 160 something centimeters. I'm like 162 or something. So like I'm five foot six.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But like it's like it's still. To be like a third of my height. I don't know what these smocks look like. I'm like is it like a big deal apron you could just hide something rectangular under or would it be too bulky and obvious you know. Yeah i would think it's like some sort of like painter's smock kind of thing.
Speaker: Either way, apparently he's just using his like look confident and act like you belong. You've been here before. go with it. Yeah.
Speaker: He just takes it home, hides it in his apartment in Paris. ah nice oh I loved this ah to learn that the a quote from there was the the director of the Louvre who was on holiday at the time and lazy French we know no
Speaker: a but he had once boasted steal the Mona Lisa that'd be like thinking you could steal the towers of Notre Dame my god the reality those are two very different things yeah so quotable though you're like oh hell yeah it would never happen it's an unsinkable shit he's just going kind of challenge accepted yeah hold my beer oh my god just missed my mouth
Speaker: um
Speaker: Similarly. The arts minister, who was also away at the time, had said jokingly, don't call me unless the Louvre burns down or the Jaconde is stolen.
Speaker: So, you know, the Jaconde. Don't worry, right? But that's the French name of the Mona Lisa, actually. Oh my god. So both of them were just like, I dare you.
Speaker: Do it while I'm vacation. Merde! Yeah, oh shit, why did we have to say those things and like tempt the fate? Yeah.
Speaker: I'll be alright as long as this thing doesn't happen. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah, so they do sort to get back to them moving on to the more temporary type of workers doing specific things there.
Speaker: They're interviewing the bricklayers, the decorators, and others hired for short periods or specific jobs. um Oh, yeah. and There is the rest of it.
Speaker: They spoke with Vincent twice, but did not actually consider him a prime suspect. And that was interesting, despite the curator saying that the glaziers should be highly suspect, in fact.
Speaker: Yeah. Maybe because they know how closely they work with the glass cases. Yeah. but um Police grew wary when he failed to show up twice to speak to them after they asked him to.
Speaker: failed to show up to two different interviews. Yeah, that is suspicious. He took a gun and shot himself in the foot. One, two. Yeah.
Speaker: After whereupon, they spoke to him again. And I think this was where they actually went to his apartment. Oh, wait, they did go to his apartment where it was hidden. But I don't think they found it right away at this point. Oh, it's not on there. It's not on his wall.
Speaker: God damn it. just remembered who that quote quote is from. John Mulaney. and oh that was because he doesn't remember him saying that. Oh, he's a bit about, I hear True Crimer podcasters say it and it's like, cause he's like, clues, there's a whole bucket of blood here, mop it up, I've got a hunch. And it's like a whole, anyway.
Speaker: But I couldn't remember who said
Speaker: it. Anyway, forensics, we're getting there. um
Speaker: So, oh yeah, the curators were like, look at the glaciers, these glass people. um And then he refused to talk to them a couple times.
Speaker: And... Oh yeah, there was a few other things I had to break down before they could find out who he was. So, Vincenzo or whatever the fuck his first name was, Perugias, I'm so sorry, Italian, his prints weren't taken quite like the other museum employees were at the time. They were supposed to be.
Speaker: ah And then police forgot to add his name to a list of people to check prints on. So I think they got prints from the main museum employees and then he was off that list.
Speaker: and then he might la on the secondary list it's like that dumb luck right like you know your secondary things should be in place to catch these things unfortunately um he hid the artwork the molisa in a trunk in his home for two years before he took it back to his homeland italy by train um they said that he had been seeing some ads for an antique dealership there antique dealers there where he contacted a person named alfredo gary jerry it is spelled jerry like jerry hopper well i'll go with that but alfredo is an amazing first name
Speaker: he owned an art gallery in florence under the pseudonym of or sorry jerry owned an art gallery in florence and um
Speaker: vincenzo or whatever he contacted the art gallery under the pseudonym of leonardo v as in leonardo so good so uh so creative i'm like i already forget his real name but like yeah to them it's probably like what
Speaker: um so from here his story takes a different path than the Jerry guy but it became clear he'd expected to be applauded and rewarded for bringing Mona Lisa home or so he said um i guess is he tried to make it seem more like it was like he was repatriating her back to the you know where Leonardo da Vinci's homeland where she was born whatever I'm sorry, i can't even.
Speaker: But ah Jerry called Giovanni Poggi, director of the Ufizi. think those are cops. No, who authenticated the artwork.
Speaker: They called the cops and it was confiscated. And then vi vin Vincenzo or however I was pronouncing his name or was arrested at his hotel. And he then claimed he had wanted to repatriate the painting back to Italy after it was apparently in his mind, quote, stolen by Napoleon. so oh my that's why he said he stole it.
Speaker: But was that most of it? Yeah. It's like, no, no, no, no bro. yeah
Speaker: o Yeah, I think i had it written down, but like he had written letters to his father saying that his fortune was going to come home soon and stuff. So it was like, you're just kind of going with that defense now that you're like, I was trying to steal it back from Napoleon for my country.
Speaker: Yeah. you're going to steal something like that, you better be prepared to keep it for the rest of your life. Because... As soon as you ever let anybody else see it or you try and get rid of it, that's when you're going to have a problem. Right?
Speaker: Like, what the fuck was that movie? I don't know. We watched it, but, like, yeah, spoiler, because at the end it was, like, someone had the Mona Lisa in their house, and then they, like, were like, but guess what? Now that you showed had the Mona Lisa, I'm going to destroy it. And then it was, like, feel like it was the whole twist to the last end of the movie, and you're like, that'd be crazy. It's such a bang-a-moving move. It's such, like, a look at this yeah crazy valuable thing i'm just gonna destroy it in front of you just because i can or whatever you're like
Speaker: um okay well i hope that one was long enough because like my listicle i was like then they have this other guy who just having watched spider-man he would like scale apartment buildings in paris and then the thief's nickname was spider-man but like also oh He's not young and hot like Tom Holland. No, it didn't really go anywhere.
Speaker: he like said, it said that he stole some paintings in Paris, but then him and a couple of buddies like went to jail and he was like, oh, I panicked and i don't know where threw the paintings away. And you're like, okay, bud, but did you?
Speaker: pretty pretty sure I wouldn't forget that. Yeah, so that was when I didn't fully complete the, I'm like, what happened? Is there anything else on that today? Like, you know, when you're like looking at, like, yeah, did they serve all their time? or that one guy that stole a bunch, or like found a bunch of gold bars or whatever on the sea floor, and they were like, but wait, that was part of the Spanish, you know, shipping fleet, so they belonged to us, and he was like, fuck you guys, and then they just were like, we'll stay in jail for a while then. and he was like, fine.
Speaker: I don't know. oh It was a weird case.
Speaker: Basically just like at a standstill with the like, you know, legalities being like, well I don't have to tell you if there's any more gold fucking coins that I hid away somewhere. I found them.
Speaker: Kind of thing. I was kind of like, you know what? mine keeps Yeah. Like he was like a diver. Anyway, it was a whole thing. i can't remember if his name was like Chris Christopherson or something. It had one of those like ah like like double names or whatever yeah anyway kelsey thank you for listening my notes were all in a bunch of blind post-its thanks for oh my god i didn't know about you
Speaker: Sorry. I'm just... well Sorry. I'm so tired. I get it. I do. Well, hope everybody is ah having a good time and they're keeping it cryptic and they enjoyed our Patreon. Did we forget to do our showdowns? I think that might be one thing.
Speaker: oh yeah. We had a couple new patrons. Hell yeah. i You know, I like to write things on a piece of paper and then I forgot it downstairs. But ah this month we had a new patron, Stephanie and Brittany So hell yeah.
Speaker: Thank you guys for joining. we can't do it without all you loyal fans. You keep the lights on. We're so sorry this summer has been slightly sporadic in scheduling and that was a lot of asses.
Speaker: Yeah. It's like a tongue twister. It is. Wait. What we got next week? We picked something.
Speaker: Historical landmarks. Ooh. And like haunted historical landmarks. Yeah. Well, that's the way I'm going.
Speaker: But we'll see. i don't know what the history of mine is. I'll have to see if it has. Oh. I'm sure it does. It's old enough. So fun, though. No, I know. That's what's fun about history. is like And a haunting always comes with a history, so stands to reason that a history might come with a haunting, too. I'm just saying.
Speaker: Probably. Yeah. Alright, well, we'll catch you next time. Yeah, bye-bye.
Speaker: Thank you for listening to Castles Encrypted. We love all our listeners and appreciate every subscriber, every new review, every listen, rate and download. Our music is by Kobe Off Air and our cover art is by Antonio Garcia. We are also a proud member of DirkCast Network where you can find the best and spookiest of all indie podcasts.
Speaker: Follow us on social media where we are at Castles Encrypted on mostly all of the things now including TikTok. Check out our bonus content on Patreon. cryptid clashes, video mini-sodes of your hosts making asses of themselves, ask me anything, quizzes, other special episodes, and more. Starting at just $2 a month, you can get one to two extra episodes, depending on your level.
Speaker: We produce, edit, and research everything ourselves, and any support you can lend helps us to keep it cryptic.
