Lunchtime Crime episodes:

• June 15, 2025@LunchtimeCrime | Got Me on My Knees

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  "Leila was a hit in 1970 and a bigger hit in 1993. The acoustic version won a Grammy. And as declarations of love go, I guess this one worked. The woman who inspired the song, Pattie Boyd, left George Harrison and married Eric Clapton in 1974. And now that I know more of the story behind Layla, I think it's going to hit me even harder. Drummer Jim Gordon was originally credited with the late addition to the song the Coda. He was an extremely successful studio musician."

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• June 14, 2025@LunchtimeCrime | Passing the Torch

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  "Flo Ziegfeld, the legendary Broadway impresario, discovered her while she was dancing in a chorus line in one of his productions in 1923, and that led to roles in the Ziegfeld Follies and other reviews. So she paid her dues there on Broadway, and in 1925, she was getting pretty steady nightclub work at Billy Rose's Backstage Club. She inadvertently hit upon one of her trademarks. It was crowded and she perched on the piano, and that gesture would become her trademark. Morgan's Broadway career soared."

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• June 14, 2025@LunchtimeCrime | Gimme Shelter from the Security Force

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  "And yeah, there was some drug use. Rolling Stone magazine called the Altamont free concert Rock and roll's all time worst day. And that certainly seems to be the case for too many people. It kind of makes Fire Festival look like a summer camp."

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• June 13, 2025@LunchtimeCrime | Payback Is Hell

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  "He said his involvement in these music businesses was just a tax advantage and investment opportunity. Since when is pointing to something as an investment opportunity an alibi? I'm confused. Anyway, Clark avoided serious repercussions by divesting himself of his music related investments at the direction of his employer, ABC tv. By contrast, Freed stood his ground, but he stood alone. He refused to testify even when offered immunity, but ultimately did accept guilt ownership of the fact that he accepted some payments. The fallout was brutal."

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• June 13, 2025@LunchtimeCrime | The Octopus of Birdland

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  "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. And I'm not just slinging crying today. I'm singing like a canary in the next couple of posts. All week on the menu, I'm going to be looking at the darker side of the music business. And where better to start than the godfather of the music business himself, Morris Levy."

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• June 08, 2025@LunchtimeCrime | A Lot to Unpack

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  "So that is this week's specials at Lunchtime Crime. You are always welcome to pick through the menu. I think we're up to something like 340 or so posts, and as long as people keep committing crimes, I'll be here."

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• June 08, 2025@LunchtimeCrime | Hang Down Your Head and Wonder?

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  "He fled to Tennessee, and he was tracked down by a posse that included Colonel James Grayson. And he had actually worked for Colonel James Grayson at one point. Dooley was brought back to North Carolina to stand trial, and it was a lurid case with a lot of national attention because there was a love triangle or possibly a quadrangle, if you consider that servant I mentioned. Her name was Pauline Foster."

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• June 08, 2025@LunchtimeCrime | The Dean of Courtroom Artists

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  "After high school, he moved to New York City and studied at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design. And he was fairly successful. Fairly early on, he got illustration jobs from the New York Times. He contributed political cartoons and caricatures. He also worked for the Chattanooga Times. And by the 40s, he was illustrating books for people like Groucho Marx and regularly contributing to popular magazines like Reader's Digest and the Saturday Evening Post."

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• June 08, 2025@LunchtimeCrime | The Game Is at Hand

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  "I don't think I've ever seen one of the originals, but even the reissues from, gosh, I think maybe the 80s, if they're intact and unopened, they're still pricey. So of course today we have better production options and there are lots of subscription based crime games and solve it yourself challenges, including escape rooms, I guess you could count that in the general category."

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• June 06, 2025@LunchtimeCrime | Armes and Dangerous

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  "He also claimed to have been involved in other dramatic exploits, such as orchestrating a helicopter prison escape that inspired the 1975 movie Breakout and conducting a glider mission into Cuba to retrieve millions for a client. He was so remarkable that his fame led to the creation of a children's action figure modeled after him. So he was, as far as I know, the only private investigator in history to be immortalized that way. He was the subject of some documentaries and books and even a TV show called the Investigators."

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