PRETEND

Jules Hannaford from the Fool Me Twice podcast joins me to talk about 4 years of PRETEND.

________

Story idea?

If you have a story to share, email Javier at [email protected].

For more episodes like this, visit pretendradio.org.

To get early releases and bonus episodes, go to pretendradio.org/donate

Today's episode was written and edited by Javier Leiva

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, I turn the mic over to you. Two listeners share stories about their run-in with a con artist.

Our first story is from a long-time listener named Paul Schiffbauer Jr. He tells us about the time he learned the truth about the family business.

Our second story is about a listener whose con artist husband destroyed her life.

Links from the episode:

Amusement Only by Paul Schiffbauer Sr.

https://amzn.to/3uxsbto

Do you have a story to share?

Leave me a voicemail 919-444-2800

or email me at [email protected]

To get early releases and bonus episodes go to pretendradio.org/donate

Today's episode was written and edited by Javier Leiva

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are two sides to Billy. There's Billy, who just wants to do the right thing. And then there's the criminal lurking from within.

So which way did he go? Did Billy end up becoming a criminal? Or did he choose to be the good guy in his own story? Well, he decided to do both.

If you've listened to this show long enough, you know I go to great lengths to fact-check my episodes. But today is different because it's tough to corroborate Billy's stories. And that's okay. One of my favorite movies is Big Fish with Ewan McGregor. It's about a man who lived an extraordinary life. In the end, it turned out that most of his tall tales were true--but just a little skewed due to time.

And that's how I feel about Billy. Some of these stories are too incredible to be real. But they might be. He's always wrestled between being the good guy and the bad guy. And in the end, managed to be both a criminal and a cop.      

So lean back, relax, and grab your adult beverage of choice. Because today we're going to spend the next half hour or so chatting with Billy the Liquor Guy.

Get a copy of Under Too Long by Billy the Liquor Guy:

https://amzn.to/3sWlmjo    

If you have a story to share, email Javier at info [at] pretendradio [dot] org.

For more episodes like this visit pretendradio.org.

To get early releases and bonus episodes go to pretendradio.org/donate

Today's episode was written and edited by Javier Leiva

Featured promo for Missing Persons and DNA:ID podcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week's episode is actually the first episode of my other podcast CRIMINAL CONDUCT.

I wanted you, PRETEND listeners to get a sneak peek before it's debut on April 16th. If you like this episode, subscribe to the CRIMINAL CONDUCT feed to listen to the full episode.

--------

Criminal Conduct is back with a brand new case.

This season, John and Javier investigate a rogue constable in Kentucky who is accused of planting drugs, stealing money, and shaking people down.

Like a police officer, a constable can carry a gun, a badge and drive around town with blue lights. However, unlike police, a Constable has all the powers of a sheriff. He answers to no one but the voters on election day.

Criminal Conduct season 2 returns April 16th.

http://criminalconduct.net/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Doug Williams, the former Oklahoma City police officer who is best known for his crusade against the polygraph industry, teaches an undercover federal agent how to beat the lie detector test. The agent confessed that he had sex with a minor and was smuggling drugs into a prison. Should Doug Williams continue the training? What if Doug William's techniques get into the wrong hands?

Watch the undercover sting on YouTube.

________

Story idea?

If you have a story to share, email Javier at [email protected].

For more episodes like this, visit pretendradio.org.

To get early releases and bonus episodes, go to pretendradio.org/donate

Today's episode was written and edited by Javier Leiva

Featured promo for Die-alogue Podcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Doug Williams is looking over his shoulder because, since 1979, he's been on a crusade to defeat the polygraph machine. In 1996, he started a website called polygraph.com, offering a handbook and one-on-one training teaching people how to pass the test. 

"There is no Pinocchio response. Your nose does not grow when you lie." - Doug Williams, polygraph critic

According to Doug Williams, a lie detector test is about as accurate as a coin toss. He claims the machine doesn't work, and as a result, innocent people are paying the price. Many innocent people have pleaded guilty and skipped trial because they failed a polygraph during an interrogation. And employers routinely administered polygraph tests as part of their hiring process. If you fail a lie detector test in the US federal government, you're potentially placed on a blacklist and never allowed to apply for that government agency job again. 

Doug Willams says that the polygraph is just a stage prop used to scare people. How does he know this? Because he spent most of his law enforcement career using it as what he calls a psychological billy club. To him, it was just a tool to beat a confession out of a bad guy. But over the years, he realized that a polygraph test is just that... a test. It can be cheated. And he was going to devote the rest of his life to destroy it. 

Doug Williams made a career giving people polygraphs exams. Now, he's going to prison for teaching people how to cheat the test.    

To listen to the undercover tape that led to his arrest. 

Check out my latest episodes on YouTube:

Credits

This episode was reported by Javier Leiva. 

Special thanks to George Maschke with antipolygraph.org

Support PRETEND by becoming a member today at pretendradio.org/donate  

Featured promo for Movie Pitch Challenge 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

http://pretendradio.org/the-prophet-word-of-faith-fellowship-revisited/

When I first started this podcast, I reported on a secretive church located in the foothills in western North Carolina called the Word of Faith Fellowship.

The church is accused of being a cult and separating families—forcing them to break ties with non-believers.

One teenager named Matthew Fenner pressed charges against five church ministers because he said they beat the gay demons out of him.

And that's just the beginning. Several former members reported being forced into isolation in what is known as the lower building. Some male congregants say they lived in this makeshift storage unit for over a year. But perhaps they're best remembered for their signature style of prayer. It's known as blasting. As you can hear in this secret audio recording, blasting is a form of deliverance meant to cast out the devil.

It has been said that crying babies were often held down and yelled at until the devil released its grip on the child. I've experienced blasting first hand. In 2018, I was personally invited by the church's leader,

Jane Whaley, to spend the day at the Word of Faith Fellowship. While interviewing her in her office, Jane Whaley looked me straight in the eyes, opened her mouth, and began shouting. It was terrifying. To this day, I still get chills.

It's been 2 years since I finished my 11-part series on the Word of Faith. Since then, I've been flooded with emails asking me to give them an update. They want to know, have there been any new allegations of abuse?

Have any of the church leaders faced any criminal charges? Is Jane Whaley still running the church? Today, I plan to answer some of these questions.

______

If you have a story to share, email Javier at [email protected].

For more episodes like this, visit pretendradio.org.

To get early releases and bonus episodes, go to pretendradio.org/donate

Today's episode was written by Javier Leiva and edited by Logan Castrodale

Covid-19 Timelines:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_in_the_United_States_(2020)

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus

Threats against Word of Faith church over coronavirus rumor https://www.charlotteobserver.com/article242307531.html

Word of Faith church in NC received a PPP loan amid COVID https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/religion/article244084852.html

Lotz International LLC v. Burnette: 

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17404523/lotz-international-llc-v-burnette/

Case against Facebook commenters moves to state court:

https://www.shelbystar.com/story/special/2020/09/23/case-against-facebook-commenters-moves-to-state-court/43180133/

Former Word of Faith member charged with breaking into minister's home: https://wlos.com/news/local/former-world-of-faith-member-charged-with-breaking-into-ministers-home

Word of Faith member reaches plea deal in fraud scam:

https://wlos.com/news/local/word-of-faith-member-reaches-plea-deal-in-fraud-scam

Trump March:

https://youtu.be/yxUksEHZGag?t=350

Trump Rally:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7VJtRZBy-M

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tori Telfer, author of Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion joins us to talk about female con artists. Today, we're focusing on one of the women in her book—Bonny Lee Bakley, the wife of Hollywood actor Robert Blake.

______

If you have a story to share, email Javier at [email protected].

For more episodes like this, visit pretendradio.org.

To get early releases and bonus episodes, go to pretendradio.org/donate

Today's episode was written by Javier Leiva

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today's episode, we're going to take another look at the opioid crisis, but this time from a pharmacist's perspective. But this is not just any pharmacist. Dan Schneider is a vigilante who helped bring down his son's killer, a pill mill, and one of Earth's largest pharmaceutical companies.

Watch the Pharmacist on Netflix:

https://www.netflix.com/title/81002576

______

Today's episode was written by Javier Leiva and edited by Logan Castrodale.

______

If you have a story to share, email Javier at [email protected].

For more episodes like this, visit pretendradio.org.

To get early releases and bonus episodes, go to pretendradio.org/donate

Today's episode was written by Javier Leiva and edited by Logan Castrodale

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A respected anesthesiologist ran a pain-management clinic on the weekends out of a basement in Flushing Queens, New York.

Each Saturday, Dr. Stan Li saw more than seventy patients a day, writing prescriptions for Oxycontin, Xanax, and other opioids.

Today's episode features Charlotte Bismuth, author of Bad Medicine. 

Here's a link to the Birth of a Con Man series.

Also, subscribe to the new PRETEND YouTube channel for a chance to win a t-shirt.

——-

Story idea?

If you have a story to share, email Javier at info [at] pretendradio [dot] org.

For more episodes like this visit pretendradio.org.

To get early releases and bonus episodes go to pretendradio.org/donate

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices