Dreamtown: The Story of Adelanto

This is the first episode in Radio Diaries’ new series The Unmarked Graveyard, untangling mysteries from America’s largest public cemetery. Each week, they’re bringing you stories of how people ended up on Hart Island, the lives they lived and the people they left behind.

This debut episode goes back to a few years ago, when a young man who called himself Stephen became a fixture in Manhattan’s Riverside Park. Locals started noticing him sitting on the same park bench day after day. He said little and asked for nothing.

When Stephen’s body was found in 2017, the police were unable to identify him, and he was buried on Hart Island. Then, one day, a woman who knew him from the park stumbled upon his true identity, and his backstory came to light.

Listen to new episodes of The Unmarked Graveyard from Radio Diaries every week, wherever you get your podcasts.

Stevevonna announces her candidacy for mayor, challenging a former ally for the top spot on the city council. But as the election nears, a new issue takes center stage – not weed – but the city’s water supply. 

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Stevevonna Evans’ former friends in the city council have turned against her. But a trip to Sacramento and conversations with an unlikely ally convince her to take a big career swing. 

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Stevevonna Evans is charting a new path for Adelanto and attempting to put an era of corruption in the past. But just a few months into her term, she finds herself caught up in her own scandal and discovers that in Adelanto it’s difficult to govern without making a mess.

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Stevevonna Evans, now on the city council, discovers multiple millions of dollars are missing from the city budget. She begins to investigate, and with every rock she turns over she learns another bonkers secret about what went down while Mayor Kerr, Jermaine Wright and Bug Woodard were in power. 

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With City Hall imploding in scandal, a local resident, Stevevonna Evans, takes it upon herself to run for office, unseat Bug, and clean up the mess he’s left behind. But Evans’ sudden interest in politics isn’t just about solving corruption. She has another, more personal reason for entering the race.

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Bug’s ambitious plan to save Adelanto from bankruptcy by legalizing weed seems to be working. A green rush is on. But soon, strange deals start to go down. When the FBI starts poking around, a new business and multiple politicians are caught in the crosshairs.

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The recent election fills Adelanto’s city council with fresh faces, including the conservative hippie John “Bug” Woodard Jr. But his plan to bring weed to the city is far from complete. He needs to actually pass a cannabis legalization ordinance via City Hall. There’s just one problem: he doesn’t have the votes. 

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It’s 2014. Adelanto is a bankrupt city in the California desert known for its massive detention centers and not much else. Then, a stranger comes to town with a wild idea to make Adelanto great again: Become the first city in Southern California to legalize commercial weed cultivation.

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Sometimes out here in the West, a stranger comes to town and saves the city from whatever peril is threatening it. But sometimes a stranger comes to town disguised as a savior and turns out to be a grifter. 

From Crooked Media, this is Dreamtown: The Story of Adelanto. Coming June 7th wherever you get your podcasts. For early, ad-free access to episodes, join ‘Friends of the Pod’—Crooked’s new subscription community—at crooked.com/friends.