Episode Transcript
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2And and and A.
Speaker 3Elizabeth five, six, seven, and eight was.
Speaker 2Just working on some chair dancer routine.
Speaker 3Oh, I was doing with deep stretches over here.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 3With the leg warmers.
Speaker 2Yeah, I like those?
Are this pink?
Or would you eat more?
Future?
What is that?
Speaker 3They're black?
Speaker 2Oh?
I don't have my glasses on, So I got a question for you.
Besides it's about your lovely leg warmers.
Do you know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 3I certainly do.
Do you like baked potatoes?
No?
Stop it.
Maybe I have a fun fact about the history of baked potatoes.
Speaker 2Okay, let's pretend Elizabeth.
I know a lot about big potato.
Do you like them?
Do I like them?
Yeah?
Speaker 3You like a good baked potato?
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean like if it's like dressed.
Well, I mean, actually, I grew up.
Speaker 3It's funny you should say it that way.
Speaker 2I grew up eating a lot of them because my mother gave us a vegetarian diet, so we had bake and she's Irish and Catholic, so we had baked potatoes like twice a week.
Sure, So I got I know a lot of ways to dress up but to baked potato.
Speaker 3Do you know?
But I can also, I mean it would just butter dress a baked potatoes.
No, but you know in the UK they call them a jacket potato.
Speaker 2I did not know that.
Speaker 3A lot of times they put like corn on it.
You've seen that, Like you done that cut off the corn from a corn cob.
Speaker 2Do they like boil the corn or no?
But I mean, like did they turn it into like a mash?
Speaker 3It's just corn on their corn on pizza.
Speaker 2Corn kernels, Like I'm.
Speaker 3Not like a corn pone or a polenta.
Anyway, I'm getting off track here.
So jacket potatoes in the UK are baked potatoes over here.
And I've talked before about Aldi they have a special this time of year on jacket potatoes.
Yeah, because they say it's jacket potato season.
Speaker 2Now, oh, kind of cuffing season.
Speaker 3Well, no, it's more sweat weather.
A companies sweat a weather and so they have come up with you know, they have all those cool products in the center aisle.
They have like well they have a new new thing, but you can't buy it in the store.
Speaker 2Oh it's only online.
It's in the center aisle.
Speaker 3One steaks.
You have to enter on social media to get purchase.
Speaker 2Necessarily.
Speaker 3It's a limited edition jacket potato jacket.
So it's a puffer coat that has the outside print like the outside of a potato, which kind of makes it look like this guy's got a skin disorder.
Speaker 2It looks like something Tyler the creator would wear.
Speaker 3Ago maybe, but it's all fleece inside, so it looks like fluffy inside of a potato.
And then you can also it comes with a silver rain poncho over the outside, wrapped in foil when you bake them.
Some people bake them in foil.
Speaker 2Some on the street like that.
Yeah, I don't know, like in London, but I've seen that sold that.
Speaker 3Way, like baked potatoes on the street.
Speaker 2Yeah, you know, like they sell like hot dogs on the street.
Speaker 3They tacos where I'm front, Yeah.
Speaker 2People also sell baked potatoes.
Speaker 3Really freaks.
So anyway you can get this, you're the one with the jacket.
Gotta go on, you gotta go on and try and get you a jacket potato jacket if you're in aldi UK.
Here's my favorite part of it, and then I'll stop.
Julie Ashfield is the chief commercial officer at Aldi UK.
Okay, and she said, you know, we know our customers love jacket potatoes, so launching this jacket made sense, especially now the temperatures are dropping.
Okay, that makes sense.
Here's the line that I feel like she wrote for us, enjoying a jacket potato in all these new jacket potato jacket is sure to be a mash made in heaven.
But I'm chat that is ridiculous every time.
Speaker 2Well, if you guys a can just sit back down, keep those legwarmers present, because you know I got something for you.
Yea, it's ridiculous.
Yeah, you know, like lots of Hollywood stars and celebrities get fan mail, but the mid century actress and the World War two era sex symbol Betty Grable, right, she was the rare star who got lots and lots of extortion letter as fan mail boy.
Yeah, in the immortal words of Keenan Thompson, what's up with that?
Speaker 3What's up with that?
Speaker 2This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons.
It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent what one hundred percent?
Speaker 3What?
Speaker 2One hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3Ridiculous, Elizabeth Sar.
Speaker 2A few weeks back, you told me a story that blew my mind about the child actor Jackie Coogan.
Speaker 3Yes, you remember that one, right, I remember it well.
Speaker 2Today I want to tell you a story about his better half, one of his wives, the super famous actress Betty Grabil.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2What do you know about Betty Grabel.
Speaker 3I know she was married to Jackie Coogan, and I know she was like a World War two pin up.
She's got the famous one where she's kind of looking over her shoulder.
Yeah, you're looking at her rump in a swimsuit, like.
Speaker 2If you look over my shoulder.
I've brought a Betty Grable here.
Speaker 3Into the student I can see that.
Speaker 2I always tell you I have a poster of Betty Grable.
Speaker 3So I took a life size cardboard cutout.
Did you have that in your car?
Speaker 2Laminated totally for weather never mind?
Yeah?
So okay, So now let's dive a little deeper and get to know Betty Grabil.
Yes, she was born in nineteen sixteen and her parents named her Elizabeth Ruth Grabil, So it's really her name, Betty Grabil.
She was raised in Saint Louis, Missouri, youngest of three kids.
Father was a stockbroker.
Her mother was basically a stage mom.
She used she used to enter her daughter and like beauty contest all the time as a little girl, and then like as a younger girl, and she would win, like she want a bunch of them.
She's a looker, right yeah.
So after that taste of early success, and just after the stock market crashed in nineteen twenty nine, her mother took her out to Hollywood to chase stardom.
Yeah, no mention of her father going the stockbroker.
Speaker 3But any way, I hope he was okay.
Speaker 2Betty Grable was twelve years old at the time, and her mother lied and said she was fifteen so she could work in the industry.
Speaker 3Oh that's disturbing, right yeah.
Speaker 2So she gets her first movie part that same year, nineteen twenty nine, and at the time she was using a stage name, Francis Dean.
You got a name like.
Speaker 3Betty Gray Grable's like the best name.
Speaker 2Right anyway, Next year nineteen thirty, at age thirteen, she signs a contract with Samuel Goldwyn and becomes one of the og.
Speaker 3Goldwyn Girls at thirteen.
Speaker 2Right, yeah, which if you're unfamiliar.
That's just a Hollywood knockoff of the Ziegfield Follies, which are the chorus girls that were all the rage on Broadway at the time.
And again thirteen years old.
Speaker 3Thirteen yeah.
Speaker 2So two years later, nineteen thirty two, she signs with RKAO Pictures.
That's where she gets to her start actually doing acting parts, not just like kicking her legs.
She takes classes because that was the thing back in like classic Golden age Hollywood.
So she's doing acting classes, dance classes, voice lessons, and she then goes to her birth name as her stage name, Betty Grabel.
After she spends the thirties basically playing like a typically colleged age girls in a series of college set films, and she starts to make a name for herself as Betty Grabel.
And then in nineteen thirty seven she gets married to who former child star Jackie Coogan.
But as you explained in your episode, at the time, he was all emotionally bogged down with the lawsuit against his parents over his childhood earnings.
So eventually that puts strain on their marriage and it gets cramped by all this emotional like you know, baggage and they get divorced two years later in nineteen thirty nine.
Before they got divorced, they started a movie together called Million Dollar Legs.
Speaker 3Million Dollar Legs.
Speaker 2Yes, that was the movie where she earned her nickname and they called attention to her world famous legs.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Anyways, after her divorce from Jackie Coogan in thirty nine, the next year, she's feeling a little blue.
She's considering leaving showbism behind.
Right, She's like in her feels because she's been in the industry for a decade.
Speaker 3So she's twenty three, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2Now at this point, she goes on this national tour where she would do personal appearances, and this saves her career because it rekindles her love of being a star when she's out amongst the people.
Though, yeah those of us, of the little people, right.
But the big deal of this tour is that she meets Daryl F.
Xanik, the head of twentieth Century Fox, and he's all charmed by Betty Grabil.
He can see potential in this, like untapped possible megastar.
Yeah, So she dyes her hair blonde.
She becomes Xanic Like well, Xank was kind of a sucker for a blonde star.
Right, So she becomes his new like favorite, like it girl of the moment, and he believed that he could make this happen for America too.
And this is when her career really starts to take off.
She becomes this glamorous movie star, a blonde bombshell.
She's also essentially known for her self deprecating wit, which really went a long way in differentiating her from some of the other stars of the time.
Like as far as why she became a big star, Betty Grabel once said, as a dancer, I couldn't outdance Ginger Rogers or Eleanor Powell.
As a singer, I'm no rival to Doris Day.
As an actress, I don't take myself seriously.
I'm the girl truck driver's loves.
And she also means she's such like a woman of the people and specifically soldiers.
She also acknowledged, yeah, she said quote, I'm strictly an enlisted man's girl.
Oh right, Yeah, So that's obviously in reference to Betty Grabel being a major screen icon of the World War two era, because you know it's gonna kick off in forty one for us, right now, there's that famous image that you mentioned of her in the white bathing suit.
She's like glancing over her shoulder, which is just over my shoulder, And that image it gets painted on the sides of bomber planes and she becomes the it girl of the day.
Darryl's Anni's call works out perfectly.
He's totally right, and she becomes actually a good luck charm for soldiers over sees this sexy reminder of why and who they're fighting for back home.
She's what they would call a morale booster.
But who was Betty Grabel beyond the iconic pin up imagery.
So glad you asked you.
Speaker 3I'm glad to like.
Speaker 2I've been saying, she was a fun star.
She's a self deprecating woman.
She manages to scale the heights of Hollywood.
And also this is, you know, stark contrast to who she really is, because she was painfully shy, and yet she becomes really, yeah, this major star.
This was because of a few factors, all right, As Debbie Reynold's, a fellow actress and a contemporary, once said Betty Grabel was the most easy going woman in Hollywood.
So, like everybody liked working with her.
Everyone liked chilling on the set with her, and she often said, you know that she just loved show business, Like she's got this great quote about show business.
It's loud, it's cheap, it's gaudy, it's like everything I've ever done.
I love it.
Speaker 3I love stars who lean into it, like how good they have it, how fun it can.
Speaker 2Be, exactly like a set is incredible.
It really does feel awesome.
It feels like you're getting away with something.
Speaker 3Yeah, and you look at like actors and professional athletes who moan about it.
You know, when you think that there are people who that's their life's dream and you're sitting there complaining about this, like, come on.
Speaker 2You've lost perspective, you have lost the plot exactly now.
Betty Grabel was also a huge star because Betty Grabel knew who Betty Grabel was.
She was super realistic about what the public wanted from her.
She was extremely self aware as a star in show business terms.
She was essentially a song and dance woman, right, and that's what those the movies she made.
And she once said, there are two reasons why I am successful in show business, and I am standing on both of them, or more succinctly.
She once said, there's nothing mysterious about me.
My legs made me.
Yeah.
I saw this Life magazine pictorial they did.
We had like eighteen pictures of her, and I think her face is only in like four of them.
It's just always her legs.
Yeah.
Speaker 4Wow.
Speaker 2I mean they used to use her legs as measurements.
If you went into go buy hosiery, They're like, okay, Betty Grabel's legs, this, what are yours?
Speaker 3Oh wow?
Speaker 2Yeah.
Her megastarretan was very much due to this obviously self awareness and then her sexy legs.
Yeah, and you could say she was also unafraid to flaunt what she had, namely her million dollar legs.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2In fact, as this publicity stunt Daryl Zanik in twentieth Century Fox the Studio, they paid this insurance company, Lloyd's of London to ensure her legs for one million dollars.
Speaker 3Every time they do those like I've insured my hands.
Really it's fat, it's so bizarre, lovely if you get hurt, you know, I guess.
Speaker 2Now by the nineteen forties, so when World War two is in full swing, Betty Grabel is the biggest female star in America, specifically, in nineteen forty three, she was the number one box office draw in the world.
That's including male actors.
Really, she stayed the number one box office draw for a full decade when she's making these lush Technicolor musicals.
Yeah, Betty, Now, Betty Grabel was more popular.
I want to make this clear, then the big male stars of the day.
She's more popular than Clark Gave, more popular than Gary Cooper, Humphy, Bauagart, Bob Hope.
And due to that, in forty three, she signs this million dollar contract with twenty eighth Century Fox, every with hers million dollars.
Yeah, of course, she comes the first woman to join what was known as the million dollar club because male actors were getting paid that they'd cross that line.
Right now, since I know you often wondered that this a million dollars in nineteen forty three would be eighteen point seven million dollars in today's dollars.
Wow, she's like in the basically the twenty million dollar club.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Now, for the next ten years, as I said, she remains the highest paid female star in America.
In fact, the US Treasury confirmed with data that in nineteen forty six and nineteen forty seven, she was the highest paid woman in America regardless of the industry.
Speaker 3Yeah, think too about you know, we talk about salaries now in Hollywood, but that's also because you have this global market and they didn't have that then.
I mean, films could make it overseas, but not to the degree of like that's where the earning is.
Speaker 2Exactly, and that's what now the majority of the earnings.
Yeah, So to recap Betty Grabel, she's this pin up girl, She's the sex symbol of her era.
She's a major blonde bombshell.
Basically, one way of thinking about is this, before there was Marilyn Monroe, there was Betty Grabl.
Yeah, right, you can think of her.
Actually, you can kind of think of this this series of famous blonde sex symbols.
It goes like this.
First there's Gene Harlow, She's the first blonde bombshell.
She's the Big six symbol of the nineteen thirties.
And then comes Betty Grabl, the pin up girl, blonde bombshell of World War Two of the nineteen forties.
And then along comes Marilyn Monroe, who fuses the appeal of both Geen Harlowe and Betty Grabel and then becomes you know, it's basically the sex appeal Jean Harlowe and the mystery of her and then the every GI's girl, all American appeal of Betty Grabel.
Right, that's how Maryland becomes the huge star of the nineteen fifties.
So essentially, Betty Grabel actually even passes the torch to Maryland when they start together in the movie How to Marry a Millionaire?
Speaker 3Oh right, right, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2In fact, Marilyn Monroe would tell anyone who listened when she was growing up, she idolized Betty Grabel like that's who she wanted, Yeah, because she knew she had it, and also she was unapologetic about it.
Speaker 3That's what I think is interesting when you're describing her and we know what we know about Marilyn being very self aware and in control, and you know, they get portrayed as like ditches and not and kind of manipulated.
Jane Mansfield is another one like that, where these are really smart women who are savvy and talented and they play characters and people think they are those characters.
Speaker 2Exactly and they know that.
You know, American audience at the time in particular, liked these like dumb, daffy, goofy women, so they would play into that.
But you have to be smart to play that part exactly.
So, No, in the nineteen forties, if you're Betty Grabel and your sex symbol, if you're at this blonde bombshell and you're the most famous woman in the world, there's something you also are.
You're a symbol, you're a focus of obsessions, and you become a target for you guessed it.
Speaker 3Crime, Oh boy, in this case, oh Betty.
Speaker 2Ridiculous crime.
Now.
I mentioned old radio shows far too often, but in this case who Ida too, because it's relevant to the story.
Because before TV becomes the thing in nineteen forty eight, radio is what folks did at night for entertainment, as you know, right.
They'd gather around, they'd listen to sitcoms or news programs.
They listened to soap operas in the daytime, action adventure shows at night for the kids, major Broadway plays, if you're cultured, Hollywood movies would get acted on the airways.
Right.
One of the big shows of the day was The Green Hornet, which I've mentioned before.
It's the radio show that Seth Rogan turned into a movie in twenty eleven, but in nineteen forty that show became the inspiration for a Betty Grabel based.
Speaker 3Crime waits The Green Hornet.
Speaker 2The Green Hornet.
On December sixth, nineteen forty, someone sat down and they penned a letter to Betty Grabel.
But this wasn't fan mail.
Instead, this person wanted to send an extortion letter to Betty Grabel, but rather than call himself by his government name since it was an extortion letter, he called himself the Yellow Hornet.
Speaker 3Yellow Hornet.
Speaker 2Yeah, the letter he's sent read you have been selected by me, the Yellow Hornet, to pay me the sum of two thousand dollars in cash.
Of course, of course I love the court lady.
No want to start to a letter.
It's like part scam letter, part deranged fantasy.
And also that much money two thousand dollars in nineteen forty would be yes, forty six thousand dollars that I've been doing it for you, right forty.
So back to the Yellow Hornet's letter.
This amount will be addressed to Miss Betty Westlake, six' Ten Allison, Avenue, Washington.
Pennsylvania the amount will be sent by special delivery any, way you prefer By december twenty, Fifth Christmas, day or you will thus suffer the results is.
Speaker 3That The Yellow horns.
House.
Speaker 2No, interestingly he doesn't make it clear what these bad results will.
BE i, guess like hel For, ditchcock he wants to leave it to the.
Imagination but The Yellow hornet then ends his.
Letter this is not a, joke as you may, think but strictly.
Business if, you, however don't send this money to the address, ABOVE i will personally come out and get.
You, sincerely The.
Hornet strictly.
Speaker 3Business no pleasure involved in.
This it's LIKE.
Speaker 2Epmd it's strictly.
Business Erica Perrish Macon ducats.
Speaker 3Come and get.
Speaker 2You yeah.
Right he decides to go with the threat IF i don't get my money By Christmas, day will personally come out and get.
You AND i assume he means to come out To, hollywood, right not like to his.
Mother AND i guess he'll buy one of those maps of the stars homes and just go, knock, knock knock on her.
Door, now another interesting thing about The Yellow hornets.
Letter it's at the address he sent you asked.
About this is the home In East, Washington, pennsylvania was the home of the superintendent Of schools For East, washington and we, assumed presumably he was the father Of Betty, westlake except, for as THE fbi found, out there was No Betty.
Westlake, instead the daughter was Named Mary.
Westlake so, yeah, anyway THE fbi investigates the center of the letter is this eighteen year old kid Named James, porter Not Betty.
Westlake he didn't even Know betty Or Mary.
Westlake and THE fbi discover all this when they arrest him On january, third nineteen forty.
One, yeah they catch up to The Yellow hornet before he gets his act together and pops across the country to go Visit Betty Grabil, yeah because obviously she did not send the.
Money On december twenty, fifth, obviously after he's arrested by THE fbi and The Pennsylvania State, Police James porter confesses that he did in fact send the, letter but not only, that he'd also sent letters to sixteen of his neighbors in the town Of, Washington.
Speaker 3Pennsylvania sixteen neighbors Plus Betty.
Speaker 2Grave exactly why?
Not he said they were all part of His Yellow Hornet.
Club oh, yeah which they had to know.
This, no they had not opted to join.
This it's just like he would send quote assignments under penalty of What i'm going to come out to your house or.
Whatever, now if you're wondering What Betty grabel's response to the letter, was she never actually received.
It the letter instead was sent to twenty Century fox as fan, mail so they she never saw.
It they, did the folks At.
Fox they opened the fan.
Mail then they send it to THE, fbi like we got a live.
One they contact The Pennsylvania State police and some LOCAL fbi.
Agents you, know they all go out and arrest this confused, Kid James.
Porter and when the press Told Betty grabel about the yellow hornet, business she, said it's flattering that someone THINKS i can reach out and produce two thousand dollars at a moment's.
Notice But i've never heard of Miss, westlake and SO i don't THINK i should make any further.
Comments and, also further, Ironically James porter was released on two thousand dollars.
Bail, okay so that's kind of a weird.
Case some random kid tries to extort A hollywood star the same way he has been trying to extort his neighbors and he gets arrested by THE.
Fbi get, This, Elizabeth this was only the start of folks trying to Extort Betty, grabel and his stories only get weirder as we.
Go but, first let's take a, break chow, out listen to some, ads and after these, MESSAGES i will tell you even wilder ones from the life Of Betty.
Grabel.
Speaker 5Nice we're, Back yes we, Are.
Speaker 2And i've got More Betty grabel for.
Speaker 4You?
Speaker 2Nice are you ready for some folks looking to extort the most, famous most, desired most highly Paid american woman of the nineteen.
Forties so after The december nineteen Forty january forty one story about The pennsylvania farm Boy James, porter which becomes obviously national, news it leads to what we now call copycat.
Crime oh, yeah and it didn't even take.
Long one month later the blue, yeah, like do you know how you heard about?
This because he got Busted, nope doesn't stop.
Him In february forty, one another young man From pennsylvania was, LIKE i want to Extort Betty grabel.
Speaker 3Too WHY i make everyone feels like they can do it?
Speaker 2Better?
YEAH i think so, yeah because his second, guy he wasn't a high school age kid Like James.
Porter, instead he was a twenty four year old nightclub waiter working In.
Philadelphia.
Wow but he was also Named James JAMES.
D Thompson ibry.
Fourth nineteen forty, one THE fbi Arrested James thompson after he Sent Betty grabil an extortion.
Letter but unlike the kid who demanded two, grand he went Bigger.
ELIZABETH i, mean he was some punk.
Kid he's a working night.
Speaker 3Club he has the value of.
Speaker 2Money he's got a, tailor he's got you, know he's got people to.
Pay he may even have a, bookie who.
Knows but he demanded eighty five hundred dollars From Betty grabil and what's?
That that would be one hundred and eighty seven thousand.
Speaker 3Dollars, okay, right, yeah, yeah that's a good.
Speaker 2Chunk and he said unless the amount was, paid she would suffer bodily.
Speaker 3Harm oh, vague, YES i like.
Speaker 2It leave it to the.
Speaker 3Magic did he have a fun name at the end of the.
Speaker 2Letter, No, no he just well he just sent it as, like you, know LIKE i don't actually don't remember the bumblebee.
YEAH i don't THINK i found what his name was on the.
Letter they just mentioned different sections of the letter in the.
News but, Yeah so he sends his letter On january twenty, fourth AND i guess he wasn't dissuaded by the fact the kid From pittsburgh got.
Caught so he's, like, No i'm From.
Philadelphia we're smart kids in Western.
Pennsylvania So thompson the nightclub, waiters like things will go differently for.
Me his plan was slightly.
SMARTER i gotta give him.
That rather than have the money sent to a girl he didn't, know, yeah he demanded That Betty grabil send the money to him via general, delivery and then she was to place a personal ad in a Local philadelphia paper so he would know that she'd sent it and when to expect the money's.
Speaker 3Arrival, wait and to his name general.
Delivery.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Basically, Yeah, so instead of sending any money to her Second pennsylvania extortion, Is Betty grabil hands the letter over to THE.
Fbi it takes them a week and a half this, time and the GM n spring into action and they arrest the nightclub.
Waiter the good news For Betty grabel was that no one sent her an extortion letter for the rest of that.
Year oh that's, Good nor did she receive.
One in nineteen forty.
Two the war was, on you, know the young men Of america or busy wondering if they had been draft, yet had other.
Concerns maybe not as much time for, nonsense but maybe, not because in nineteen forty three it all starts right back up.
Now if you remember from up top WHEN i was telling you About Betty, grabil nineteen forty three was her million dollar, year, Right that's the year she signed her million dollar contract with Twentieth Century, fox and she had her, legs you, know insured With lloyd's Of london for a million.
Dollars, yeah big million dollar year for, her, Right and all that talk of million dollars may have been what triggered the next extortion.
Letter or maybe this is just something you, know something.
ELSE i don't, know because the extortion letter it arrives In february forty.
Three, coincidentally the letter was Postmark february, sixth which was one day after her previous extortionists had been busted by the G men back in forty.
One oh, really it almost the.
Anniversary, yeah so the story.
Goes in Early, February Betty grabil receives her latest extortion, letter and it begins rather, Formally Dear Miss, grabil this is an extortion under threat at your life or a great bodily.
Harm gathered twenty five thousand dollars in uncut diamonds and mail them in two envelopes addressed To JONATHAN.
C Wild, Esquire Gates hotel fifth And, Figueroa, Sandelus, california signed The.
Speaker 3Leopard, wait now we're at The.
Leopard this we got to break this letter down for a.
Second, right twenty five grand and uncut diamonds in two, envelopes, envelope slit it.
Up he's, LIKE i think it's gonna go over postage if you put them all in one, envelopes, like split it.
Speaker 2Up he doesn't trust the.
Mail he's, LIKE i want to get at least one of these through The.
Speaker 3Leopard.
Speaker 2Esquire, yes he's a.
LAWYER i guess he's.
Speaker 3Like bill And.
Ted oh, wow.
Speaker 2By the, way twenty five grand you're, wondering that's four hundred and sixty eight thousand dollars twenty twenty.
Five oh, yeah half mil, mo, right Because he's, like, yeah you're worth a million.
Dollar your leg's are worth a million.
Dollars i'll take a half Mill i'll take a one baty grable leg worth of.
Money, also what is up with these, guys The Yellow, hornet The?
Leopard these are like b grade comic book.
Speaker 3VILLAINS i, know it's.
Speaker 2Amazing and also the you know The JONATHAN.
C wild, esquire is he even a real?
Lawyer is that just.
Speaker 3Means fancy exactly to be messed?
With so is he The?
Speaker 2Leopard is He JONATHAN?
Speaker 3C wild?
Speaker 2With, anyway these are all great.
Speaker 3Questions send it to my.
Speaker 2Lawyer OH i like, That i'm.
Smart, yeah he's probably watching a lot of like noir films.
Speaker 3Exactly.
Speaker 2Yeah so THE fbi when they hear about, this they're, like we got.
This we're getting pretty good at busting these.
Bozos what is this number?
Three so the g men decided to play.
Along this time they send what was described as a dummy package to the address given by The leopard way and they had undercover agents watched the hotel At fifth And figureoa to see who would come pick up the.
Package but no one.
Speaker 3Came oh, Really, Yeah.
Speaker 2But one month later In March march, ninth to be, exact a second letter is sent To Betty.
Grabil it was just as formal as the first and was also using increasingly violent.
Language the letter, read dear Miss, grabil On march, nineteenth at nine to forty, am come north On Gower street and a half block south Of Santa Monica.
BOULEVARD i will be waiting leaning on the cemetery.
Wall bring five thousand dollars or you will not be alive on the, Twentieth Signed Snowy.
Speaker 3Baker first of, All i'm kind of excited BECAUSE i know where all these places.
Speaker 2ARE i thought you.
Speaker 3Would and Then snowey's sne, Dude Snowy, baker.
Speaker 2This is apparently the gnome de plume of the.
Leopard he's a snow.
Lepard and uh, yeah if you if you the THE fbi they did had handwriting analysis check the.
Letter they confirmed it was definitely the same.
Guy Snowy baker is the.
Speaker 3Leopard Snowey baker leaning on the cemetery.
Gate, yes That's Rombi keats And yates on his.
SIDE i like, that.
Speaker 2So five grand in nineteen forty, Three in case you were, Wondering elizabeth is about ninety three, thousand six hundred dollars these.
Days, okay so still a pretty good.
Page, yeah but no one cut diamonds this.
Time he's dropped from twenty five grand to five, grand a fifth of the.
Value but he's, like you, KNOW i don't know the snowy baker is and as greedy as the.
LEOPARD i don't want to tell.
You but it's still a ton of money in forty.
Three.
Yeah so WHAT i also love about this second extortion letter is how the letter is so damn.
Specific, yeah it's like not half past, nine, no nine, Am like he's running a, bus.
Speaker 3Go, yeah.
Totally, well you wonder if it does coincide with a bus that he would he's planning to jump on a bus right After oh good.
Call and he never picked up the original dummy.
Package, no it never.
Speaker 2Came to The hotel fifth and.
Figure now at this, one at the intersection Of gower And Santa.
Monica the exchange is a half block south Of Santa monica right.
NOW i don't know how well you know The hollywood, area but that street you, MEAN i know you said you can know all these But gower was a really interesting choice at that time to pick because that's where a bunch of movie studios were located At Sunset boulevard And, gower, right which is which is just a few blocks.
Away it's about like four city.
Blocks so it's a great exchange place for the leopard if you want to run into a bunch of like guys dressed like, cowboys because the area was Called Gower.
Gulch, yeah because there's basically like At sunset And gower.
There back in the silent film, Era sunset And gower was the home of movie, cowboys, right and this continued into the sound, era so you Had Columbia studios, there you had The bean Movie Maker Republic studios which made a ton of.
Westerns so extras and people who just wanted to be a star would hang out in this area and they would be like walking around like dressed as like you, know a horse, rustler and that way they some casting director might see them and they could get hired for the day to be a member of a posse, amazing, Right, yeah So Gower gooles becomes this home of.
Speaker 3Movie has my own costume guys.
Speaker 2Exactly and also if you didn't find work that, day you could go over to The columbia Drug store and you can just mosey on, in grab a, seat and enjoy a cup of coffee or sandwich or.
Whatever and this is Where John wayne used to hang out when he was a young.
Actor, also Both Roy rogers And Gene autry, like if you're looking for, stars, yeah this is the.
Speaker 3Space.
Speaker 2Yeah, anyway so this is just a couple of blocks away from the leopard who wants to Meet Betty grable to go at.
Speaker 3Nine to forty as and there's a, cemetery.
Speaker 2Yeah where he'll be waiting on the cemetery.
Wall, now this time the g men they decide not to send a dummy.
Package, instead they want to Send Betty grable to deliver the five grand in cash as.
Instructed but you can't Risk Betty grabil and her million dollar.
Legs you can't send the Real Betty.
Grable so instead they plan to send an UNDERCOVER fbi.
Agent now you may be picturing some clean shape of AN fbi guy drag and a.
Speaker 3Bond wahgray, Amazing but it.
Speaker 2Turns out THE fbi had female agents at the, time so they scared up an agent who had a passing resemblance To betty grabil and they sent her to make the.
Exchange oh.
Speaker 4Wow but rather than me tell you, That, Elizabeth i'd like you to close your eyes as a Closed i'd like.
Speaker 2You to picture.
It It's march, nineteenth nineteen forty, three the appointed day for the, exchange the day to hand over the extortion money to The leopard Aka Snowy.
Baker the g men of THE fbi have planned extensively for this sting.
Operation charts of the street have been created with precise locations selected for the full surveillance of the scene of this.
Exchange some of the agents are excited to bring to bear the latest high technology of the, day cutting edge and surveillance.
TECH a, camera but not just any, camera a handheld movie, camera specifically a sixteen millimeter camera outfitted with a telephoto.
Speaker 3Lens Oo La La.
Speaker 2Jegar hoover's like my boys can make movies.
Too, Anyway they have a plan for total coverage of the.
Payoff the new lightweight sixteen millimeter movie cameras are perfect tool for a sting.
Operation perched in like these advantageous vantage, points g men have their sixteen millimeter cameras trained on the.
Street there are also spotters using high powered.
Binoculars they have radios to signal the other agents who are down at street.
Level in the, cemetery there ARE fbi field agents dressed as gardeners digging in the fresh turned.
Earth there are also other UNDERCOVER fbi agents dressed as grave.
Diggers they work the soil with, shovels but they're ready to spring into action as soon as the perp reveals.
Themselves on both sides of the.
Street on the, sidewalk there are also other undercover g men acting as, lookouts and they have portable walkie talk is that they have hidden behind the newspapers and other useful.
Items prowling the corner of the streets are even more UNDERCOVER fbi agents driving around in radio, equipped unmarked cars and behind the wheel of a shiny blue.
Sedan is You?
Elizabeth you are the lone FEMALE fbi agent working the sting.
Operation at the moment your hands grip the steering wheel of the shiny blue, sedan you push a few stray wind blown blonde hairs out of your, eyes because that's right you're.
Dressed Is Betty?
Grable you have the windows down because that's part of the, act and the wind coming in through the open windows is blowing around the hairs of your blonde.
Wig everything has been.
Coordinated you know just what you are to do with this, sting just as instructed by the extortion letter sent by The leopard Aka Snowy.
Baker you turn Onto gower at the appointed time nine forty.
Am the shiny blue sedan smoothly corners and you keep the car in a slow roll as you head Down.
Gower you also keep your eyes peeled searching for or the.
Perp he should be here on the cemetery.
Gates as you approach the drop spot halfway down the block Of, gower you grip the brown paper wrapped package on the bench's front seat next to.
You you brush a few more stray blonde wig hairs out of your, eyes but you still don't see any obvious, perp so you go ahead and do as.
Instructed you lift the brown bundle and you toss it out of the open window of the shiny Blue.
Sedan the package is weighted appropriately and is well.
Wrapped it slaps at the street when it.
Lands, meanwhile you continue to drive slowly down to the end of the.
Block at that same, moment g men hidden in second story windows with sixteen millimeter cameras and their telephoto, lenses as well as THE fbi agents on the roof perched up there with their high powered.
BINOCULARS a spot.
Movement could this be The leopard Aka Snowy baker the.
EXTORTIONIST a gangly young man hops off the cemetery.
Wall he walks between two parked, cars and he heads right for the brown paper wrapped.
Package the surveillance team were all over.
It rate the spotters down on street level and signal the g men in a cemetery he dressed as gardeners and, gravediggers but they don't need to be.
Signaled they see the same gangly young.
Man they drop their cover shovels hit the.
Grass the UNDERCOVER fbi agents run out of the.
Cemetery the ones with walkie talkies on the sidewalk break, character and they also run towards the gangly young man in the middle of the.
Street they SHOUT fbi.
Freeze in your rear view, mirror you see the gangly young man reach down and scoop up the brown paper wrap packets from the.
Street he tucks it under an arm and makes a run for.
It in the rear view, mirror you watch him run right towards where you are further down the, block so you press down on the gas pedal and.
Accelerate the shiny Blue sidan gives a throaty growl of the engine in.
Response you glance again in the rear view, mirror just in time to see the gangly young man get tackled by the UNDERCOVER fbi.
AGENTS a grave digger wraps him up like a linebacker for Usc the young man goes down r his face slaps the.
Street you look down from the rear view mirror in time to turn the wheel of the Shiny lucidan as the car takes the.
Corner at the same, time you yanked the blonde wig from your.
Head no more need to Be Betty.
Grable nice, Work Agent.
Speaker 3Dunton that was exciting.
Speaker 2Now at this, point the man known As Snowy baker aka The leopard was revealed to be an eighteen year old high school student From, Omaha.
Nebraska own From.
Speaker 3Nebraska his Name RUSSELL.
E.
Speaker 2Alexanderson, Alexanderson, yes it's very strange.
NAME i was, like AM i seeing that?
Speaker 3Right?
Oh?
Speaker 2Yeah his father was in The.
Army his mother had gotten a job in THE la area working in an aircraft plant In, inglewood all, right so she's, like you, know building planes for the war.
Effort, so since this was the third extortion attempt Of Betty grabil and since this was now a Major hollywood star aka The Blonde Bomb show with a million dollar, legs, yeah none other Than Jagger hoover announces the latest.
Speaker 3Bus of, Course.
Speaker 2Jagger hoover swans in to tell the national press that the eighteen year Old, herp who was a big boy at six foot, four had been.
Waiting he grabbed the package and tried to make a run for, it But hoover's g men gave chase and captured the pimply faced high school boy aka The leopard a block away.
Speaker 3From the exchange right.
Speaker 2Now RUSSELL.
E, alexanderson who went by his middle Name, Eugene So Eugene alexanderson was interviewed and interrogated BY Fbi District Commissioner DAVID.
B, head and he confessed To Commissioner head that quote the threat of harm in the, letters so it's never intended to be carried out at any.
Time so what was his deal?
Then why did he do?
It great, Question.
Elizabeth, yeah let's take a, break listen to some, ads and after these, MESSAGES i will tell you why he did it and what happens when the leopard strikes yet.
Speaker 4Again oh, no, Okay, elizabeth we are.
Speaker 3Back we're.
Speaker 2Now we've got some questions about the.
Leopard Eugene alexanderson From, Omaha, nebraska have.
Speaker 3A lot of.
Questions what's his?
Deal, yeah, right what's his major?
Speaker 2Damage why Did eugene keep sending extortion letters To Petty?
Grable well it turns out the leopard did actually want the.
Speaker 3Money, WELL i would.
Speaker 2Imagine, Yeah but for what what would this eighteen year old kid want during the war, Years you know when they're rationing, BUTTER i mean like.
Speaker 3Getting pants with that long of a.
Leg good.
Speaker 2Point he'd outgrown his clothes and.
Speaker 3They're you, know rationing.
Speaker 2Fabric he's got him like mid.
Speaker 3Cast he wants a pair of silk.
Slacks they don't do.
That it's For.
Speaker 2He moved out west and was, LIKE i want one of them zoot.
Speaker 3Suits, yeah it could be, so As.
Speaker 2Eugene alexanderson explained to THE, fbi, QUOTE i wanted them only to enable me to see movie.
STARS i had no opportunity to see them BECAUSE i had to account to my mother for every DIME i.
Speaker 3Spent, wait how many movies did this boy want to?
Speaker 2Watch joe the movie?
Stars he wanted to like go like Six, Sea LIKE i don't go to The Brown derby or.
Something, yeah you gotta pay for.
Speaker 3Food that's probably you.
Speaker 2Know he also bust money or.
Whatever so his mom was.
Down but to the quarter and the.
Nickel he was very eager.
Speaker 3To see a lot of the uncut.
Gems, right did he have a?
Fence did he think this?
Through like what was happening in this kid's?
Head uncut?
Gems so it's not even, like, Oh i'm going to go pawn the.
Summer you have to go to a to a gem.
Cutter he Wants, airfair To, antwerp Is la.
Speaker 2Down To they Have downtown L.
A they have a jewelry, district so he could move the loose.
Speaker 3Rocks this, kid.
Speaker 2MAYBE i don't, know maybe once again maybe.
Speaker 3SO i don't.
KNOW i don't want to the.
Leopard you never.
Speaker 2Can underestimate the.
Leopard so the kid who wanted to see movie, stars, right he's ironically LIKE i, said just blocks away From Gower, gulchi you want to just walk up.
Speaker 3The street and then also look for Free.
Speaker 2But Paramount studios is not far away.
Either he could go down to the gates Of Paramount studio to check out hangout.
There it's over like On, melrose, right which is just parallel To Santa.
Monica, anyway he, Decides, Nope i'm going to Extort Betty.
Grable my mom's got all my.
Money fore.
MOTHER i WISH i could make it make Sense.
Elizabeth and by the, way now we're under our third young man who's trying to extort Baby.
Grabel and he's the third to get.
Busted, like why don't these like these guys learn from the kooks who came before?
Them, AGAIN i do not, Know but WHAT i do know is Since World War two is now in full.
Swing after eighteen year Old Eugene alexanderson pleads, guilty he is sentenced not to, jail but instead he is inducted into the.
Speaker 3Army you're in the army, now something about a hall of.
FAME i was, like he's inducted into the.
Speaker 2Army, yeah he gets drafted.
Speaker 3Up put him to good.
Speaker 2Use but when six foot, four pimply Faced eugene shows up at army.
Induction the army gets takes one good look at, him and The army's like unsuitable stamp and sends him.
Back so instead he's given a sentence of five years on.
Probation right and get This.
Elizabeth while he's on, probation just a few months, later he sends another extortion letter To Betty.
Speaker 3Cravele he needs to go TO.
Napa he needs to go To, yeah.
Speaker 2Then bing bang.
Boom In may of forty, three he's arrested.
Again this time he'd sent her a letter demanding even less.
Money he demanded she give him five hundred dollars, yes or Else i'll kill you and you'll never guess Where he instructed her to meet him to hand over the.
Money where does he have to go?
Regularly that would be like on his bus route.
Trips that's, right His federal probation.
Office, no he's, like meet me at The federal probation office and, gammy the five hundred dollars are?
You and that's where THE fbi arrested him because he did show meeting, yes see my.
Po so he gets, interrogated interviewed BY Fbi District Commissioner head again and the, gangly pimply faced young man explains his latest insane.
Plan eugene said that, QUOTE i just couldn't overcome the desire to try to see her.
Again you See elizabeth the, man this young, man he had a, heart a heart of.
Fire he was badly in.
Love he was out of his mind with, desire or has he put?
It for seven?
Years i've been in love with Miss grable SINCE i first saw her in.
PICTURES i think IF i could see, Her i'd be.
Satisfied at any, RATE i won't write any more.
Letters just give him one of the.
Cutouts keep in mind he's he's yet to actually See Betty, grabil, unless of, course he means you in a wig in a moving car for him actually convinced That Betty grabel was behind the wheel.
Anyway Commissioner head was, like we're not doing this, again, Son.
Speaker 3No.
Speaker 2No, eventually a judge releases him on bail while he considered inappropriate sentence since probation hasn't done, anything and so While eugene is awaiting, sentencing he decides to get in one more.
Letter, however this time he doesn't send it To Betty, grable he's moved.
On oh, yes he has a different blonde in.
Mind this time he decides to Extort May.
Speaker 3WEST i would NOT i would not Cross May.
West, NO i gotta tell you right, now or, NO fbi.
Speaker 2Right she feels like a woman has a dringer in a.
Speaker 3BOSOM i feel like she would answer the letters herself and they'd be, like, Yeah i'll meet.
Speaker 2You, there show up and cut them with a.
RAZOR i dare.
You, Now no one cut diamonds From May.
West, no but the amount he, demanded it's gone back.
Up he's way past five hundred.
Dollars eugene writes To May west that unless you give me one hundred thousand, dollars she would live her days under threat of your life or great Bodily.
Speaker 3HEART i love the great Bodily.
Speaker 2Heart it's his.
Thing one hundred thousand, dollars that's a major escalation, here.
Speaker 3Comand from like spot me fifty?
Speaker 2Bucks that would be one point eight seven million in today's?
Money is it just a cool like near two?
Million Or i'm going to cut?
Speaker 3Him.
Speaker 2So The leopard's instructions For maywest were that she was to put it in a package and bring it to six two three Three Hollywood boulevard up to the sixth Floor, Saturday february, sixth at ten ten.
Am once, again bus schedule time.
Speaker 3Ten, tens ten minutes off of The.
Meridian totally.
Interesting you, KNOW.
Speaker 2I Think i've mentioned this.
BEFORE i once had an, office like a like A hollywood, detective like a private detective office on sixty four oh Four Hollywood, boulevard so just like two blocks down for, So i'm super familiar with this part of the.
Town it's Basically hollywood And.
Vine it's like super busy at his.
Time Yea hollywood And vine on the sixth floor.
Shop so, anyway for May west, extortion he went back to using his comic book villain.
Nickname he signed his letter The Leopard.
Speaker 3Ckily for her he should go as the leopard For.
Halloween oh, yeah we're still have.
Speaker 2To explain it to everyone each.
Time only you got thirty minutes and some pimple.
Speaker 3Spot it's a bag of uncut, time.
Speaker 2Exactly, YEAH i.
Speaker 3Have to explain it all over and.
Over you just have a.
Speaker 2Handout what are you supposed to?
Speaker 3Do one?
Speaker 2Sheet, People and it kind of got a link to this episode yes.
Exactly, Anyway luckily for, her May west had essentially ignored the extortion letter and the threats.
Made she had read.
It she actually got to, her but then she saw The Betty grabil story in the news and then she's, like wait a, minute contacts THE Fbi after The May west.
Letter commissioner had was, Like, okay, yeah that's.
It we're done here, kid.
Speaker 3We know where to find.
Speaker 2Them.
Yeah the judge sentenced The Pimply face Gangly omaha kid to.
Prison, yeah if you can believe.
It someone else decides to press their luck and Extort betty GREG i.
Speaker 3Cannot imagine prison was kind of Rest Gene.
Speaker 2No no and his tenuous grasp on.
Reality, yeah BUT i bet.
Speaker 3You there were so many pictures Of Betty grable up in the.
Cells it just drove them to.
Speaker 2Madness they just called Them Harry, james, yeah or maybe Called Jackie.
Coogan, Hey, jackie come on in.
Here AS i was, saying if you can believe, it don't ask me how everyone's been.
Caught but someone else is, like you know What i'm gonna.
Do i'm going to Extort Betty.
GRABLE a great.
Speaker 3Idea now it's done That, no.
Speaker 2One's gotten away with it, yet but at this point it's pretty much an easy way to punch your ticket to being locked up or getting set to the army to fight.
Overseas they're, Like i'm gonna try my.
Luck it hasn't worked out for anyone, else but maybe it'll work out for me.
Now in nineteen forty, five war still.
On Betty grabel was married to the swing music Bandleader Harry.
James, right but that didn't stop someone from, thinking you know, WHAT i should threaten to do harm To Betty.
Grabel It's january of nineteen forty five when the press report That Betty grabel has been under police guard for several days as a result of a tip that a plot might be directed against.
Her, now this time it wasn't some pimply faced kate with a comic book pen.
Name, nope this time it was two men in a.
Bar oh, Okay, so according to Police Captain Thad, brown two men had been overheard in a bar discussing a plan to abduct the star and hold her for.
Ransom that's.
Gross, yeah the bar owner felt like you did like?
That that's.
Gross, Yeah he's, like you're just you're really mucking up the vibe in my gin.
Speaker 3Mill, well he's heard all manner a bad bar bets exactly bad.
Plans and then he hears, This he's, like absolutely not.
Right, yeah it means big stop it to get A sweatson A.
Speaker 2World war two era like gin mill bar owner pissed off enough to contact THE.
LAPED i got a live one for.
You he overheard two of, US i, said two of his customers talking about Kidnapping Betty grabel holding for.
Ransom and since he's worried that one of them is an ex, convict he calls THE.
Lapd so, Please Captain Thad brown gets in touch with Twentieth Century fox to make sure that the studio is aware of this threat to their big star because remember number one box office, draw.
Speaker 3Right and they have to increase security at the studio and.
Speaker 2Have somebody with, her, like you, know taking her, home pick her up in the morning for her early calls because they don't know when they're going to.
Strike, yeah as the newspapers of the day reported from that time, on Miss, grable wife of orchestra Leader Harry, james and walk her dog without tripping over.
Guards now her band leader.
Husband he also starts to carry a handgun on him because he kind of leans that.
Way he's, Like i'm gonna keep that nickel plated on.
Me and he wasn't taking any chances with his new.
Wife he's, LIKE i got lucky to get.
HER i ain't gonna lose her right.
Now three weeks, past the two men fail to act on their like tough guy bar, talk and so eventually studio, officials, police THE, fbi and forty special agents who guarded The star agreed it was only a dream and no kidnap.
Plot so eventually it was tough bar.
Speaker 3Talk oh but you know, what you gotta watch what you.
Speaker 2Say oh, yeah people are gonna take it for.
Real.
Yeah, NO i would love to tell you that that was the final time someone tried to kidnap her Ransom Betty rabel or a, Starter but IF i told you, That i'd be, lying because three years, later in nineteen forty, eight it happens.
Again the war's over.
Speaker 3Now there's no.
Speaker 2Excuse people were, like, well remember when we used to Extort Betty grable.
World, NO i thought you'd appreciate, this are ever curious eagle eyed Researcher Marissa, brown she raised this interesting in her notes and her research dossier on this, One marisa, said quote side, note what is it about winter that makes people want to Kidnap Betty?
Grable because every one of these takes place in the.
Winter is there never summer time?
Plans?
Speaker 3Oh you, know you're bundled, up.
Speaker 2You're stuck, inside you listen to a lot of.
Radio you're wishing you could afford A tv at this.
Point so yet, again come, winter someone gets the, IDEA i should Extort Betty grabel for big.
Payday it's been a few, years no one's tried, it so, someone you, know to catch the.
Spirit and then In january of nineteen forty, Eight Betty, grabel still the number one box office draw in the, world with the million dollar, contract million dollar, legs this blonde bombshell pin up girl next door.
Vibes someone Decides i'm gonna threaten to kill her.
Speaker 3And this one will.
Speaker 2Work, yeah oh, god but they'd go one pass.
Out they're like, no, no everyone's said, that Like i'm gonna hurt, You i'm gonna kill, You i'm gonna kidnap.
You she's like this new person's, like what IF i steal her new.
Baby, no, no there ain't nothing funnybout baby steal unless it's The Coen brothers Movie rais In.
Arizona yeah right.
True but that, said this one is still good because oh The Storring.
Coast Elizabeth Jane, bean twenty years old Of, Kaufman, texas and her Husband WILFORD.
E.
Bean these names are always cartoon.
Names Jane bean And Willy.
Bean willy so mister and Missus.
Bean by the, Way.
Speaker 3Billy, Bean Billy.
Speaker 2Bean, yeah there you.
Go Billy bean's.
Job what does Mister bean do for a.
Living he's an employee at a glass.
Company So i'm imagining him as like some industrial glass blower coming home to his wife because, like, honey you want to know WHAT i did?
TODAY i threatened to Take Betty grabel's.
Baby we're gonna get, paid.
Honey So Jane bean Of, Kaufman, texas she has a sort of bright anddea twenty year old fresh To hollywood would come up with.
Stort Betty grable plan is simple and diabolicals is just snatch your.
Baby, yeah then just, RUN i don't just run up steal steal the.
Speaker 3Baby what happens?
Next what happens, Next Missus, bean all.
Speaker 2RIGHT i think they're just gonna live high on the.
HOG i GUESS i don't know ABOUT i forgot this.
Part she wrote this fan mail To Betty grable and sent it to Twentieth Century.
Fox, oh so the letters, like send me five thousand.
Dollars, Oh i'm gonna steal your.
Speaker 3Baby i'm gonna start texting that to my.
Speaker 2Friends and by the, way that's no small ass because in nineteen forty, eight five grand would be sixty seven thousand dollars, today right, Right and by the, way, Also Jane bean Of, Coffin texas didn't plan to steal the.
Baby she planned to get paid for threatening to steal the.
Speaker 3Baby she.
Wasn't, yeah she wanted to.
Speaker 2Get paid for playing With Betty grabel's.
Speaker 3Imagination so scary this letter that she's, like of, course, please Missus, Bean i'm.
Speaker 2Going to ransom a theoretical kidnapped baby of the.
Future, yeah and so sad part from His bean is that she didn't know how to get the future ransom letter extortion threat To Betty, grable so she sends it as fan mail and its big star Like Betty grable doesn't open her own fan.
Mail so some poor schmuck in the mail room at the studio dome like.
Speaker 3Went on probably to become like a huge.
Producer, oh they start the mail.
Speaker 2Totally becomes Like Irving thaulberg or.
Something, anyway so this porschmuck in the mail room opens this particular piece of fan, mail reads the extortion letter future ransom, letter and he's, like, well that's not.
Good so he takes it to his.
Boss they read, it they're, like, well that's not.
Good they take it to the security of the.
Studio they're, like, oh that's not.
Good and then they hand the letter over to THE fbi because at this point the studio is like a relationship with THE fbi just to Handle Baby grabel's extortion.
Letters so THE fbi agents they read the, letter and the agents are, like, well that's not, good and they go look up where they can find Miss Jane bean Of, Kaufman.
Texas And i'm betting she sent her a return address on her future baby ransom.
Letter probably either, way THE fbi shows up at her home and then the whole, pitiful deranged story comes out in the.
Papers quote a drab little blonde admitted today she sent, Baby grable a threat to kidnap her baby because she wanted some quote easy, money, right newspaper people cutting on them.
Now this is When Missus Jane bean and the rest of the world learned That Betty grabil never even saw the future baby ransom, letter, because as the papers also, reported the movie star and her, husband band Leader Harry, james didn't know about the threat until they read the.
Newspaper her studio found the, rambling long hand note in a pile of fan.
Letters oh, yeah they're just cutting.
Everywhere.
Now if you're wondering, why why would someone send a rambling longhand note about Stealing Betty grabil's.
Baby, yeah unless she receives five, grand there's a simple.
Reason as the paper put, It Missus Jane bean twenty TOLD fbi agents she tried to extort five thousand dollars from Miss grable because she was tired of being poor and.
Speaker 3Hungry, no, SISTER i get it, right that's not the way to do.
Speaker 2It, WELL i guess she figured a hypothetically Stealing Betty grabil's baby was the best way to fix her world.
Problems would have been my, choice but it is a choice.
Now Missus Jane bean A, Kaufman.
Texas she tells THE fbi agents that arrested her that her motive was actually quite, straightforward one might, say directed to the.
Point as Missus bean, said it seems like everyone In hollywood has lots of.
MONEY i need some, myself.
Speaker 3Right to.
Speaker 2IT i, mean when you put it like, that hard to argue with.
You so there you, Go.
Elizabeth the many extortions Of Betty Grabil my, goodness what's?
Ridiculous?
Speaker 3Takeaway don't try and Extort Betty, grabel, right that's just rules to live, by don't especially.
NOW i told you it's not worth it.
Speaker 2Now, no that would be really hard, now a lot of, digging get those shovels.
OUT i THANK i don't.
Speaker 3Know maybe what's your takeaway.
Speaker 2Mine is if somebody is the most famous woman in the, world the one of the highest, earners you're going to need more than just sending a fan mail, letter as, like if that's your, plan you're gonna probably need to buy a star map and figure out how to drop it in through her actual mail.
Saws maybe Kidnap Harry james and see if she cares about, him you, know like mix it.
Speaker 3Up, yeah and you're gonna have to have a little bit more of a.
Plan yeah that would be.
Speaker 2Good, yeah that would be really.
Good actually think through what you're doing instead of being, like how much money DO i want and then just asking for that in a, rambling long winded handwritten.
Note, okay so you in the moon for a talk back a week, Always oh my, god SUPER.
Speaker 3I love Get, hi.
Speaker 6GUYS i need to share something a little bit, ridiculous and that is THAT i finally figured out Who elizabeth sounds, like and that would Be Carrie, browns seen specifically when playing the role Of, tony the feminist bookseller In.
PORTLANDIA i like producer.
Ge i'm From Rhode island and it's freaking hot here and people are sharing that meme about the heat being, hot and, YEAH i love you.
Guys this Is.
Speaker 3Jill, Okay, hi thank You.
Speaker 2Jill he gave me a, Laugh, Jill.
Speaker 3Jill i've heard far worse than, that SO i take that as a.
Compliment, yeah, yeah as you.
Speaker 2Should it.
Speaker 3Is, yeah that's very.
Speaker 2Good as, always you.
Guys you can find us online a ridiculous crime on social.
Media you can email us if you want a ridiculous crime at gmail dot Com.
Jamail we have the Account Ridiculous crime pod pod as in short for podcast on.
YouTube you check it.
Out there's a great videos there to watch if you prefer your pods coming through.
YouTube also we have a, Website Ridiculous crime dot.
Com, ALSO i don't know if on YouTube they have the ads just put that in your pipe and.
SMOKE i don't.
Know we also we love your talkbacks, obviously so please go find the iHeart, app download, it leave a.
Talkback maybe you hear your voice, here we'd like to hear.
It, yes and as ALWAYS i got to say one more, time thank you for.
Listening we will catch you next.
Crime Ridiculous crime is hosted By Elizabeth dutton And Zaron, burnette produced and edited By Betty grables other bandleader Boy, Toy Dave, kustube and Starring Analys ruck As.
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