The Burden

Baltimore, Maryland likes to call itself Charm City. But you have to wonder: Is the nickname ironic?  Consider one of the city's star cops, a sergeant so accomplished that he earned his own nickname, the Golden Boy.  But Golden Boy led a double life. Said one of those who encountered him in the street.  "I was robbed by the Baltimore City Police….with a gun … armed robbery."  No one believed the allegation. Then a GPS tracker was discovered where it shouldn't have been; next, a wiretap went up on a cop's phone. An FBI agent couldn't believe what she was hearing. Are these guys  gangsters? And then … an insider turned witness. "Like Rambo said, burn it down. And that's what I did."  Welcome to Charm City, where it was sometimes difficult to tell the protectors from the predators.

A podcast from Orbit Media reported and produced by the BBC and hosted by Jessica Lussenhop.

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Today we hear from Bernie Madoff, mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme ever. Bernie made $65 billion disappear. Billion with a B. Madoff had been a Wall Street star, innovative, rich, honored. He was chairman of the NASDAQ. Also, he was quietly managing other people's money, or said he was. But in fact, he never invested. He paid returns to his clients with the money coming in from new investors. In 2008, Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison. That's when Steve Fishman launched a campaign to get him to talk. It took a year, but he finally spoke.

Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media Inc. in association with Signal Co. No1.

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 Today's episode is the story of Mike Yard. Mike is now a successful comedian headlining shows around the country. But before that, he spent some time as a stickup man, toting around a big ass gun. Mike chose crime for very specific reasons. Some might call them laudable. Those reasons involved….his dad.

Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media Inc. in association with Signal Co. No1.

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Today's episode is a first person account from Jeff Turner. He was one of the best counterfeiters of his generation. He was persistent, resourceful and very skilled. US Treasury agents couldn't believe how inventive he was. And he did it all for love.

Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media Inc. in association with Signal Co. No1.

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In part two of  Education of an Assassin, young Larry Mazza comes of age.  Killers may be born, they're also made.  In this episode, the Grim Reaper takes Larry under his wing. Spoiler alert, it ends with a bang.

For more on Larry's story, read his book, The Life, A True story about a Brooklyn Boy seduced into the Dark World of the Mafia.

Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media Inc. in association with Signal Co. No1.

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 In this episode we feature Richard Stratton. The government called him a drug kingpin. But Richard preferred to be called, King of the Hippie Mafia, a band of counter-cultural cannabis lovers turned criminals. 

In this episode, there's another person you need to know, Norman Mailer, literary heavyweight of his generation who liked to think of himself as an outlaw. He was a vociferous critic of the government and a proselytizer for the joys of marijuana. The government hated Mailer.  But Stratton? He loved Mailer, and Mailer loved him back. In the end, one would do for the other what no person should ever be asked to do. 

Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media Inc. in association with Signal Co. No1.

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Meet Ian Bick. Ian was just 16 years old when the roots of his criminal enterprise were set. You might say he led a double life. A teenager sleeping in a twin bed in his parents' suburban house under his favorite music poster, and also, according to the FBI, a cunning criminal conducting a nefarious Ponzi scheme. Ian maintains he didn't even know what a Ponzi scheme was until the FBI charged him with running one.

Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media Inc. in association with Signal Co. No1.

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In part one of this two-part story, we meet Larry Mazza, a teenage delivery boy at the local supermarket; his customer, a beautiful older woman; and her husband, a mobster known as the Grim Reaper. Listen and find out why we call this episode the Education of an Assassin Part One?

Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media Inc. in association with Signal Co. No1.

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Ever wondered what it’s like to live on the edge? 
To not follow the rules? 
To live outside of the law? 
On Lives of Crime you'll hear true stories from criminals themselves, narrating moments from their lives and expounding upon the crimes they’ve committed. This first person narrative podcast series creates an intimate connection between criminal and listener. It’s true crime without intermediaries. Presented without judgment, each episode features a single voice - a person with a criminal past - telling us the deeply personal details of their lives. We hear about their crimes, sure, but Lives of Crime goes beyond that. We hear the stories that shaped them, the moments that made them, the details that changed the direction of their lives for good or for ill.
True Crime Told by true criminals. 

Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media Inc. in association with Signal Co. No1.

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Sharing a special episode this week from a new podcast called Blood Will Tell. When a birthday party in suburban San Jose turns deadly, 18-year-old identical twins are arrested for suspected murder. One brother spends nearly two years in jail before the truth comes out: authorities locked up the wrong twin. How could one brother let his twin take the fall? And why would the other sacrifice his freedom for a crime he didn’t commit? Blood Will Tell is a modern-day saga of Shakespearean proportions, following Vietnamese-American brothers whose unbreakable bond is tested by silence, sacrifice, and an unthinkable choice. 

In this episode, after a drunken fight at a birthday party turns deadly, police narrow in on two suspects — identical twin brothers, Trung and Anh. But when an eye witness mistakes the brothers for each other in a lineup, one brother must make a heartbreaking sacrifice. 

Listen to more episodes of Blood Will Tell at https://wondery.com/shows/blood-will-tell/

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