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Shownotes Transcript
This podcast is supported by FX's English Teacher, a new comedy from executive producers of What We Do in the Shadows and Baskets. English Teacher follows Evan, a teacher in Austin, Texas, who learns if it's really possible to be your full self at your job, while often finding himself at the intersection of the personal, professional, and political aspects of working at a high school. FX's English Teacher premieres September 2nd on FX.
But you know, we're so conditioned. We're conditioned to say the same things. We're conditioned to say what's safe. We're conditioned to be political. And it's hard to shed all that. I think it helps, though, that you guys are filming all the time. John Edwards was a rising star in the Democratic Party. He was young and energetic, smart, handsome, and personable. And the American voters seemed to be responding.
In 2004, Edwards was chosen by John Kerry to be his running mate during his failed bid for the presidency. Two years later, Edwards launched his own campaign to become the next president of the United States. Much like the man who would eventually win the presidency in 2008, one of the ways that John Edwards had strengthened his campaign was by embracing new technology and new forms of media.
He utilized the internet to solicit donations and organize volunteers, and his campaign built a modern website complete with a video series that contained exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of Edwards on the campaign trail. In one of those webisodes, John was mid-flight working on a speech that he was planning to deliver at his next campaign stop later that day. "That's a great speech." "I'm so glad you like it." "I like it. Why don't you hear me give it life?"
The other voice you hear in the video belongs to a woman named Rael Hunter. Rael was the producer of the web series and she was given unlimited access to John and his campaign as she followed him all over the nation. John joked that Rael Hunter and her crew were filming him all the time, but he felt that it was worth it because the short films helped humanize him in the eyes of the voter. John was further humanized by his current struggles at home.
Five months into his campaign, his wife Elizabeth discovered that her cancer had returned after three years in remission. Until then, Elizabeth had appeared at several of her husband's campaign stops and would continue to do so sporadically even after her diagnosis. The Edwards campaign trudged along, day after day, town after town, and everything seemed to be going well until October 10th, 2007.
That was the day that National Enquirer published an article claiming that John Edwards and an unnamed staffer were having an affair. Edwards dismissed the accusations as nothing more than tabloid gossip, and the once humanized politician began repeating rehearsed talking points that he used to try to avoid. I'm in love with one woman. I've been in love with the same woman for 30 plus years. She is the finest human being I've ever known. Warm, loving, beautiful. So the story just follows.
Two months later, the Inquirer published photos of a visibly pregnant Rael Hunter, the Edwards Campaign's videographer, with an accompanying story alleging that John Edwards was the father. John and Rael both denied the allegations, and Andrew Young, an official of the Edwards Campaign, stepped forward claiming to be the father. Long story short, John Edwards was the father of Rael's child, and would not admit it publicly for another two years.
He dropped out of the presidential race, his wife, Elizabeth, legally separated from him, and then she died from breast cancer a year later. John was eventually indicted on four counts of illegal campaign contributions, one count of conspiracy, and one count of providing false statements. Prosecutors allege that he paid Ryle Hunter and Andrew Young hundreds of thousands of dollars from campaign funds to cover up the truth, but the charges were ultimately dropped due to insufficient evidence.
John Edwards and Ryle Hunter reportedly continued to date for a few years after the scandal. John even moved Ryle into the house he once shared with his deceased wife. The couple has since parted ways, and John Edwards has all but disappeared from the public eye. His political career was over, so he dusted off his old career as a lawyer and opened a new law firm in Raleigh, North Carolina. Ryle Hunter, on the other hand, embraced her newfound celebrity.
She appeared on more talk shows and news programs than you could count to promote the book she wrote about her affair with the politician, sometimes even appearing with Francis Quinn, The Child Fathered by John Edwards.
During his TV appearances, no questions were off limits. Well, let's talk about the sex tape first. Whose idea was that? That was a mistake. So it was his idea? That's not true. We were in love and sleep deprived and it was a stupid thing to do. It was a mistake. I guess John Edwards wasn't exaggerating when he said that Rael kept the cameras on him at all times. I'll spare you the details, but they're in Rael's book if you're truly interested.
Ryle Hunter's friends and her family weren't surprised to see her embrace her new role as a D-list celebrity. She had been thirsting for fame since she was a child. She loved the spotlight, and she wasn't known for making the best decisions. John McInerney, the acclaimed novelist, had dated Ryle Hunter decades before the scandal. He has admitted that he based the memorable character of Alison Poole on his former lover.
In McInerney's novels, Allison Poole is a sympathetic character whose addictive and sexually voracious behavior surfaced as a result of her tumultuous relationship with her father. By now, "daddy issues" is a tired cliche in attempting to explain the erratic behavior of certain females, but in Ryle Hunter's case, it might not be too far from the truth. There's one instance in particular from Ryle's youth that really stands out.
As a kid, before she had changed her name to Ryo Hunter, Lisa Druck spent her time riding and caring for an expensive show horse her father had bought for her named Henry the Hawk. Lisa and Henry the Hawk were inseparable. Lisa's parents would often awake to find their daughter sleeping in the hay next to Henry's stall. In 1982, when she was 17, Lisa arrived at the family's barn to find Henry lying motionless on the ground. The death of her beloved horse broke young Lisa Druck's heart.
But it was how Henry died, which she wouldn't discover until years later, that would make her distrust her father forever. Lisa's father, James Druck, was an insurance attorney in Ocala, Florida, who found himself temporarily strapped for cash in the early 80s. James was searching high and low for assets to unload to relieve some of the financial pressure when he heard his daughter working with Henry outside. Suddenly, he remembered that Henry the Hawk had a $150,000 insurance policy on his life.
James invited a 21-year-old man named Tommy Burns to his barn. Tommy had run away from home when he was 15 years old and had been working around horses ever since. That's how he had met the Druck family. Once inside the barn, James Druck held up an electrical extension cord for Tommy to see. He took a knife and chopped off the female end of the cord before slicing it down the middle, separating the two wires housed inside.
He then attached alligator clips to the bare ends of each wire and handed the cord to Tommy and demonstrated his plan. James instructed Tommy to sneak into the barn at night and attach one of the clips to Henry's ear and the other to his rectum. Plug the other end of the cord into a standard wall socket and zap. James would be $150,000 richer and he promised to give Tommy 10% for a job well done, no pun intended.
James Druck knew from his experience as an insurance lawyer that electrocution was the best way to kill a horse for insurance claims. Unless the clips left burn marks, this method of execution was impossible to detect. So Tommy Burns did it. He snuck onto the Druck family farm one night and attached the clips exactly where Mr. Druck had showed them. He stroked Henry's head a few times and whispered apologies in the animal's ear before inserting the electrical cable into the socket. Henry dropped immediately without making a sound.
Tommy detached the clips and exited the barn, stepping over a pile of manure on his way out that Henry had evacuated upon his electrocution. A few months later, James Druck cashed a check for $150,000 from his insurance company. Lisa Druck was devastated, and Tommy Burns took his newfound knowledge and embarked on a new career path. Over the next 10 years, Tommy would be hired by horse owners to murder over 20 horses using the method taught to him by James Druck.
His presence became a fixture on the East Coast horse circuit. Tommy would show up. A horse would die overnight. The Sandman, as he was referred to, strikes again. Tommy tells the story of how a woman who had approached him at an event paid him $10,000 to kill one of her horses. He said she contacted him again two months later, asking him to kill the new horse she had purchased with the insurance proceeds from the last. When Tommy asked the woman why, she responded with, quote, I don't like it.
Although there had been a few times where he used drugs to kill a horse, electrocution remained Tommy Burns' method of choice throughout his murder spree because it was the most humane. Other horse murderers, yes, Tommy Burns was not alone, preferred alternative methods like shoving ping pong balls in a horse's nostrils until it suffocated, or placing a plastic bag over the horse's head and pulling it tight. And if more than one horse needed to go, entire stables were set on fire.
Killing horses for insurance proceeds became common practice after the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which eliminated performance horses as depreciable assets. Tommy Burns, a self-proclaimed animal lover, viewed himself as a compassionate killer. In an interview with William Knack and Lester Munson for Sports Illustrated,
Tommy Burns described the experience and defended his electrocution method. There are some impressive names on Tommy's list of customers.
George Lindeman Jr., a wealthy telecom heir who had a spot on the 1996 Olympic equestrian team, paid Tommy Burns $35,000 to kill a horse named Charisma. Charisma had not been performing up to expectations and had an insurance policy of $400,000. Another former Olympian, Buddy Brown, and his wife Donna summoned the Sandman to kill Streetwise, a 7-year-old jumper with a $25,000 insurance policy.
Streetwise was perhaps the most difficult murder of Tommy's career, and it was his last. Streetwise suffered from colic, the gastrointestinal condition that is the leading cause of premature death in horses. It's the condition that was often blamed when a horse was found dead in its stall from mysterious circumstances. Since Streetwise had already been diagnosed with the condition, death by colic was not covered in his insurance policy. Therefore, electrocution wasn't going to work.
Donna Brown, the horse's owner, had a different idea. She wanted to pay Burns $5,000 to break one of Streetwise's hind legs and make it look like an accident. Horse bones shatter when broken and become impossible to heal, which is why they're typically euthanized after suffering an injury of that magnitude. Tommy Burns did not want to break Streetwise's leg. It was cruel and barbaric. A huge departure from his more humane electrocution method.
He expressed his concerns over beers at a local bar with a friend named Harlow Arley. Tommy told Harlow that he was hesitant to take the job because he had never quote, done one like that before. Harlow downed his drink, looked at his friend Tommy, and said, I'll do it for half the fee. On February 2nd, 1991, at 10.10 p.m.,
Tommy Burns and Harlow Arley arrived at the Browns Ranch to load horses for transport to Palm Beach and to make sure that one of the horses never made it onto the trailer alive. It was pouring rain, which served as a perfect alibi. They'll say Streetwise slipped off the loading ramp and hurt himself. They'll tell the owner, who will call a veterinarian, and there will be no other choice but to put him down. Accidents happen. The two men loaded three horses onto a trailer before turning their attention to Streetwise. Burns handed Harlow Arley a crowbar.
and Arlie reared back and swung the bar with all of his might directly into one of Streetwise's legs. The horse neighed loudly, fell to the ground, and thrashed around violently before passing out unconscious from the pain. "I've never seen anything like it. The horse went into shock." After a few seconds that felt like minutes, Streetwise regained consciousness and lifted himself off the ground, ripping the shank from Tommy's hand in the process.
The horse began running into the night, crying out in pain and dragging his broken hind leg behind him. Burns and Arley could no longer see streetwise, but they heard him when he collapsed to the ground again behind the barn. From that point on, the only sound the men could hear was the soft padding of the rain. They called Donna Brown, who then called a vet, who later arrived at the scene to finish the job.
After taking a few moments to collect themselves, Burns and Arley loaded into their van to deliver the rest of the horses to Palm Beach. Two miles into their trip, on Route 26, the Florida Highway Patrol surrounded the van. Tommy Burns attempted to flee the scene on foot, but was quickly subdued and handcuffed at gunpoint. Investigators had been following Burns' van for days. They had been staking out the farm from across the highway when Streetwise was attacked.
Investigator Harold Berry claimed that he could hear the crack of the horse's leg from the crowbar over 100 yards away. Having been caught red-handed, Tommy Burns had no other choice but to cooperate. He started giving up the names and numbers of everyone who had hired him. In total, there were 36 horse owners, trainers, and veterinarians indicted on various charges, from insurance fraud and obstruction of justice to extortion and animal cruelty.
35 of them were convicted, including George Lindeman Jr., who was sentenced to 33 months in prison. James Druck was not charged because he died the prior year. The Sandman Tommy Burns spent a total of six months in prison. He still lives in Florida, selling auto parts. Florida authorities knew to keep an eye on Burns because of a tip from the FBI. The federal officials had become aware of the horse murder insurance scheme while investigating a different case involving the horse industry.
a case that involved a mafia-like group of men in Chicago who were selling overvalued horses to women by luring them in with a handsome ladies' man, the same ladies' man who was romantically involved with a wealthy heiress named Helen Brock, who would ultimately disappear without a trace. This is the story of Richard Bailey and the most famous unsolved crime in Chicago history on this episode of Swindled.
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Richard Bailey's career of ripping off lonely women started at an early age. While on one of his first jobs at a painting company in Chicago, he talked an older woman into emptying her bank account and moving to Georgia with him, where they would buy a motel and live happily ever after. During their move, Richard's truck broke down on the side of the road, conveniently in front of a Cadillac dealership. He convinced the woman to purchase a brand new Cadillac with his name on the title, and the two of them continued their voyage to Georgia.
A few miles down the road, Richard received a phone call. It was his brother. His mother was sick, and he needed to get back to Chicago as soon as possible. Richard turned the car around, drove back to Illinois, and dropped a woman off at her house with promises to catch up soon. She never saw Richard, nor the Cadillac, ever again. That woman was the first of many who had become victims of a Richard Bailey scam.
His assorted professions always revolved around meeting wealthy widows and divorcees, or "pigeons" as he called them, and ripping them off. He was a dance teacher, a cosmetic salesman, a driving school instructor. In fact, in the 1960s, Richard Bailey opened his own driving school in St. Louis that targeted the elderly. Helpless old ladies would sign up for the expensive lessons only to find out that they never ended.
In one case, a widow spent her entire $20,000 life insurance benefit from her husband's death on driving lessons from Bailey. The lessons stopped when she went broke and she never really learned how to drive. The utilities in her house were eventually shut off because of non-payment. And when her son visited a few weeks later, he found his mother sitting in darkness eating dog food. That woman eventually sued Richard Bailey and won a substantial amount of money.
Bailey's driving school license was also revoked, so he moved back to Chicago. Ever the optimist, Bailey viewed this moment as a learning opportunity. Back in Chicago, Richard Bailey decided to focus his attention on a different industry, one that attracted the type of people who had money to spend.
In 1970, Bailey purchased a horse from a man named Frank Jane Jr. and discovered soon after that the horse wasn't worth nearly as much as he had paid for it. The con man had been conned, but instead of getting upset, Bailey returned to the Jane farm and asked to get in on the action. Frank Jane Jr. was the nephew of Silas Jane. Silas was the patriarch of a ruthless and notorious gang that Chicago police referred to as the Horse Mafia.
The horse mafia had a long history of violence and ruled the Chicago horse business for decades. When Silas' brother George opened a rival stable in 1965, Silas had a bomb wired to the ignition of George's car. The bomb exploded when the car was started, but the intended target wasn't driving. Instead, a 22-year-old woman who had borrowed the car from George was at the wheel. Two years before that, almost 30 bullets had pierced George Jane's office, but he wasn't there at the time.
In 1969, one of George's employees ventured onto Silas Jane's property at night, and Silas shot and killed the man and used three different guns to do so. The incident was ruled as a justifiable homicide. A year later, George was killed in his home, sitting at a table playing bridge with his family. The men arrested for George's murder confessed that Silas had paid them to do it. They also told police that their original plan was to kidnap George so that Silas could kill his brother himself and bury him on his land.
Silas was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, but was only convicted of conspiring to murder his brother. Silas would stay in prison for the next 10 years, leaving the family business to his nephew Frank. With his new connections, Richard Bailey was seeing dollar signs. He spent a few years learning the business and trading horses before opening up his own stable.
Bailey would use this stable and his relationship with the Jane family for the next 20 years as a tool to swindle money from vulnerable women and unsuspecting lovers. Carol Carstensen was 48 years old when she met Richard Bailey on a horse farm in October 1973. Her husband had just died and she liked to ride horses to clear her mind. Carol had politely declined Bailey's initial request to take her on a date, telling him that she was still grieving from the loss of her husband.
But Richard was persistent, and handsome, and charming, and incredibly romantic. It wasn't long after the two started dating that Richard asked Carol if she could loan him $15,000. He told her that he had found a good deal on a couple of broodmares but his money was tied up in other ventures, and that he would lose his deposit if he didn't pay the full price soon. Richard promised her that he would pay her back in a few weeks. Carol was reluctant, but ultimately agreed.
and the ink had not even dried on the check before Bailey was pitching Carol another idea. He suggested that they rent a facility from the Jane family and launch their own horse breeding business. Carol was actually intrigued by the idea. It was something she had always wanted to do and now that her husband had passed, she desperately needed something to do. She wrote another check to Richard Bailey for $100,000 and would spend thousands more on additional horses.
But before their new business venture could get rolling, Carol was diagnosed with a severe blood infection and eventually entered the Mayo Clinic for treatment. Neither Carol nor the doctors knew if she was going to survive. She was under a heavy load of medication and her weight had dropped to 78 pounds. Richard Bailey visited Carol at the clinic when she was deathly ill and he brought a document for her to sign.
The document would give Richard Bailey power of attorney over Carol's estate and allow him to buy and sell horses with her money while she was incapacitated. Carol refused to sign the document and offered an alternative, one that would allow Bailey to sell horses under her name but not the ability to purchase. Richard Bailey rebuked the offer, telling Carol, quote, This isn't worth the paper it's written on. You won't hear from me for a while. And she didn't.
In fact, Carol never heard from Richard Bailey again. The man who told her he loved her and even asked to marry her at one point had walked out on her. It was the lowest moment of her life. Carol Carstensen eventually recovered from her illness and attempted to recover the money she had invested in horses. She discovered that some of the horses she had purchased for $113,000 were actually worth $25,000.
She discovered that a stallion that she had purchased for $25,000 was only worth $900. Carol began preparing a lawsuit against Richard Bailey and his associates when she started to receive threatening phone calls. During one of the calls, a voice on the other end said, "You're rocking the boat. Do you know what happens to people who rock the boat? They drown. And their kids drown too." Carol attempted to escape her problems like she always had, on the back of a horse.
She was riding a familiar trail one afternoon when she stopped to wait for traffic to pass at an intersection with a busy road. She saw a car in the distance coming straight toward her. As it got closer, the driver laid on the horn, which spooked her horse. Carol was thrown off when it reared back, and she landed on the ground, badly injuring her back. She was laying in a hospital recovering when she learned that her barn had burned to the ground. All of her investments, as bad as they turned out to be, were gone.
Once a wealthy woman, Carol Carstensen no longer had a penny to her name. In 1974, Richard Bailey made quick work of another widow named Jean Robinson, whom he had asked to dinner four nights in a row. He asked for a $50,000 loan on their third date, and she gave it to him. He asked for an additional $10,000 on the fourth date, but settled for three that she told him she could afford. After the second check was cashed, Jean Robinson never saw Richard Bailey again.
In 1976, Richard Bailey met Linda Holmwood, a recent divorcee and severe alcoholic. When Bailey discovered these facts, he began supplying Linda with her favorite liquor, and during a 10-day drunk, he convinced her to buy $90,000 worth of horses. Richard even drove Linda to the bank to take out additional loans for which she would eventually have to sell her house to pay back. Like so many before her, when Linda ran out of money, Richard ran out on her.
She survived her remaining years by shoplifting from supermarkets and sleeping on plastic furniture in a tiny apartment. Linda Homewood died in 1982 from liver failure. Richard Bailey's associates were amazed at the scams he was pulling off. One time they asked him how he was able to have sex with such old women. Bailey laughed and replied, quote, I close my eyes and think about the money. Richard got a lead on his next victim while awaiting his turn at a car wash.
He approached a woman who had just parked her brand new Cadillac. He told her he used to have one just like it. After a few jokes and a couple of laughs, Richard moved in for the kill and asked the woman to dinner. She responded by flashing Richard her wedding band and telling him that she was happily married. But she found him so endearing that she invited him over to her house to have dinner with her husband and a friend who was single who he just had to meet. That friend was Helen Brock.
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When Helen Voorhees was 21 years old, she divorced her first husband and moved to Florida from Ohio.
When she was 38 years old, she met Frank Brock at the Indian Creek Country Club where she was working as a hat check girl. Frank was 60 years old at the time, recently divorced and exceptionally wealthy. In 1904, his father had founded Brock's Confections, the largest candy company in America, which Frank took over when he died. Although Frank was quite a bit older than Helen, they enjoyed each other's company. Helen moved into Frank's mansion in Chicago and the two were married in short order.
Frank eventually sold the company his father started to spend the remaining years of his life traveling and partying with Helen. The couple owned multiple properties around the country and had a growing collection of antiques, jewelry, and luxury cars. Helen's new lifestyle was a far cry from her humble beginnings in Ohio. When Frank Brock died in 1970, he was wheelchair-bound and senile. Helen Brock was only 57 years old. She still had a lot of life to live and a lot of money to spend.
She inherited over $30 million from the Brock Estate, which she spent mostly on animals. Helen donated generously to the Chicago Zoo, so much so that the House of Primates is still named after her. There's also a story about how she flew a sick street dog to Chicago from the Bahamas on a private plane so that it could be treated by her favorite veterinarian. Helen reportedly already kept over a dozen dogs at her North Chicago mansion.
She hired a longtime employee of her husband's named Jack Matlick to help her feed the animals and make repairs around the house. Jack Matlick became Helen's closest human companion. A few years had passed since Frank Brock had died, and Helen had not really dated anyone since. She was delighted to meet Richard Bailey. Here was a man who could accompany her to all of the high society functions and really light up the room.
Richard could dance. He could talk to anyone. Plus, he seemed to care a lot about horses. She came up in the same environment I did, from a very poor family. So, Helen Brock and myself was like two peas in a pod. Helen Brock also cared a lot about horses. Her late husband had introduced her to the scene and gifted her a couple of mares of her own, but she had always wanted to expand her stable.
a desire that she expressed to Richard Bailey, who immediately went to work. In 1975, Richard arranged for Helen to purchase three horses from his brother Paul for $98,000. In reality, the horses were worth less than $20,000. Of course, neither Richard nor his brother Paul ever shared that fact with Helen. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. Helen Brock and Richard Bailey continued to see each other for about three years.
On New Year's Eve 1977, Helen invited Richard to New York for a night of dancing at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. A few days later, Richard awoke to find a package on his doorstep. It was a sweater, a gift from Helen with a note that read quote, "To Richard, the nicest man I've ever met." Sometime between January 1st 1977 and early February, Richard Bailey tried to convince Helen to purchase another $150,000 in horses.
Helen wasn't interested at the moment, but she told Richard that she would consider it later. Unbeknownst to Richard, Helen was in the process of having her original purchase appraised. When the appraiser delivered the bad news that she had grossly overpaid for her current stable, Helen immediately became suspicious. She called a friend and explained the story of why she thought she might have been ripped off. Helen's friend agreed and recommended that she talk to the state attorney to find an option of recourse.
Helen liked the suggestion and promised her friend that it would be the first thing she would do when she returned to Chicago from her medical checkup at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. After an eight-day stay, Helen Brock checked out of the Mayo Clinic on February 17, 1977. Her results were good. The doctor told her she could stand to lose a few pounds, but other than that, for a 65-year-old, she was as healthy as a horse.
At 9 a.m., Helen stopped by a shop called the Buckskin Boutique where she purchased gifts for her friends in Florida, whom she planned to visit in a few days. After collecting her change from the cashier, Helen picked up her belongings, opened the door, and exited the store. She was never heard from again. We were not informed that Mrs. Brock was missing until two weeks after she was gone. So whoever perpetrated this, it wasn't abduction or a crime.
Two weeks passed before Helen Brock was reported missing by her houseman, Jack Matlick. He told the police that he picked up Ms. Brock at the airport when she returned from Minnesota. Matlick said he dropped her back off at the airport four days later for her trip to Florida. But his story wasn't adding up. The airline company had no evidence that she ever got on the plane to Florida.
There was no evidence that she had even purchased a ticket, and Helen's friends in Florida claimed that they had never heard from her either. According to his story, Jack Matlick was the last person to see Helen Brock alive. Even more incriminating, Jack Matlick had been busy the two weeks before he reported Helen missing. He hired workers to repaint and recarpet Ms. Brock's living room. He sold the 1963 Cadillac she had given him, and the car used to transport Helen from place to place had been thoroughly cleaned.
Investigators also discovered that Jack had forged Helen's signature on $13,000 worth of checks to pay off his car and gambling debts, and he removed $75,000 in cash, gold coins, and jewelry from her home. He had also burned Helen's diaries in the fireplace with the blessing of her brother Charles. Why would Jack Matlick do all of these things before he was even aware that Helen was missing?
During a search of Helen's home, police found a packed suitcase with price tags still attached to the clothing and a copy of Helen's will that had been conveniently placed in an empty drawer in her bedroom. A will that entitled Jack Matlick to $50,000 if something were to happen to her. Matlick was taken in for questioning and failed two polygraph tests. He refused to talk in front of a grand jury and pleaded the fifth. A judge referred to him as, quote, the worst witness I ever had in this courtroom.
I feel he's not telling us everything that he knows. He definitely knows something, whatever happened. And I feel that if he could come across and tell us what took place, we probably could solve this case. Without a body, without witnesses, without a crime scene or a murder weapon, investigators did not have enough evidence to charge Jack Matlick with anything. He walked and disappeared from public view. He told the Chicago Tribune, quote,
One day, I'll tell my side of the story, but that day never came. Jack Matlick died on February 14th, 2011. The only other person of interest in the disappearance of Helen Brock was her boyfriend, Richard Bailey. When the police contacted Bailey, he refused to talk and immediately lawyered up. He did, however, give authorities an alibi that seemed to check out. He was in Florida waiting for Helen to arrive the day that she disappeared. A year passed with no new leads.
The only new information detectives obtained was in the form of graffiti and big red letters on a wall near the Brock estate. Someone had spray-painted the words "Bailey killed Brock." Perhaps there was someone out there who knew the truth, or perhaps someone was using the suspicions surrounding Bailey to lead investigators astray. Either way, without evidence, investigators' hands were tied. Seven years passed without a break in the case. Helen Brock never surfaced, nor did her body.
She was declared legally dead in 1984, and the majority of her fortune was donated to animal charities as per her wishes. Whoever was responsible for Helen Brock's disappearance had gotten away clean, but sometimes people don't know how to stop when they're ahead. Richard Bailey continued his womanizing con game throughout the 80s. By the end of the decade, it had even evolved to the point where he was placing personal ads in the local newspapers that would have made you swipe right in a heartbeat. It read, quote,
I am a handsome, fun-loving Leo with a red Mercedes. I have a horse farm with llamas, ducks, geese, peacocks, and a German Shepherd dog. Play tennis, racquetball, dance, and cook. I am Irish and enjoy going out and having fun. If you are a beautiful young lady, call me.
Bailey figured that there was no sense in waiting to meet rich, lonely women by chance when he could simply get them to come to him. And they did, including a woman named Barbara Morris, a mid-40s widowed animal lover. Richard pulled his usual tricks. He showered Barbara with bouquets of flowers every week, cooked her favorite meals, and eventually asked her for money. Barbara Morris loaned Richard Bailey $50,000, and he predictably disappeared.
Like Helen Brock, Barbara Morris confided in a friend that she had been ripped off by some man named Richard Bailey. Richard Bailey, the friend repeated. The same Richard Bailey who was implicated in Helen Brock's murder? Barbara shared her story with a detective familiar with the Brock case, and all of a sudden, it all made sense. Helen Brock had suspected she was being cheated and lied to by Richard Bailey, and threatened to turn him in and expose his whole operation. To silence Helen Brock...
Bailey conspired, solicited, and caused her murder. There was only one problem. There was still no evidence that Richard Bailey had killed Helen Brock, so there was no way to put him on trial for murder. However, prosecutors could group multiple crimes together, including the murder, using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, more commonly referred to as RICO.
Under RICO, federal attorneys demonstrate a pattern of criminal behavior under a single charge. The laws were originally devised to prosecute the mafia and other organized crime. If prosecutors could prove that Richard Bailey utilized a group of conspirators, like let's say a horse mafia, to perpetrate a series of crimes over an extended period of time, like let's say selling overvalued horses to multiple victims, then statutes of limitations do not apply.
In total, the investigation would take over five years and thousands of man hours to complete. Investigators dug up over 20 years worth of lawsuits against Richard Bailey from defrauded women. They found connections to the Jane family and the horse mafia and the widespread insurance fraud involving the Sandman Tommy Burns.
In July 1994, 23 defendants were indicted on fraud charges related to the sale and murder of horses, including Richard Bailey, who was charged with 29 counts of racketeering, mail-and-wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to murder Helen Brock. He faced a maximum prison sentence of 245 years. Before his trial began, Richard Bailey pleaded guilty to the fraud charges, thinking that at most he would receive five years in the pen.
He would only have to attend a sentencing hearing and avoid a jury trial altogether, and he would never have to answer for the disappearance and murder of Helen Brock. Bailey's sentencing hearing lasted 11 days. Past victims and family members of victims took the stand to testify against him. Carol Carstensen, now 70 years old, recalled how Richard Bailey had, quote, "...absolutely ruined her life."
Bailey responded during his testimony by laughing to himself and recounting how Carroll wanted to, quote, Marie Homewood, the daughter of Linda Homewood, also testified, alleging that Richard Bailey had been the reason for her mother's end-of-life alcohol binges. Marie told the judge how her mother had died poor using plastic piping for furniture, to which Bailey responded, quote,
Throughout the hearing, Richard Bailey showed very little remorse and maintained that he had nothing to do with Helen Brock's disappearance. However, a surprise witness took the stand and recounted to the judge how Richard Bailey had taken them to lunch and offered him five grand to kill Helen Brock. Joseph Plemons, a serial con man, was already serving time for a different horse-related fraud. He was given a reduced sentence for his testimony and paid over $5,000 for living expenses leading up to the trial.
Not exactly what you would call a dependable witness, but apparently his testimony was effective. In a surprise decision, the judge sentenced Richard Bailey to life in federal prison for fraud and conspiracy to commit murder based on a preponderance of evidence. Neither a judge nor a jury has ever found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. His sentence was later reduced to 30 years.
Public opinion was split over the outcome of the arrests and subsequent trials. The murder was pinned on Richard Bailey, but none of the questions surrounding Helen's disappearance had ever been answered. Had this murder really been solved? Why was Helen killed? How was she killed? And where was her body?
Joseph Plemons, the conman who testified against Bailey, would come forward 10 years later in 2004 to answer most of these questions. He met with detectives at a motel room, telling them that the truth was eating him up inside. Plemons had been dealing with severe health problems. He found himself at death's door, and the last thing he wanted to do was take what he knew about Helen Brock's murder with him to the afterlife.
Joseph Plymouth started this story from the beginning. He told detectives that Helen's houseman, Jack Matlick, owed a significant amount of money to the Chicago horse mob because of gambling losses. In order to pay off his debts, Matlick arranged for members of the mob to rob Helen's house while she was away. When Matlick returned from Minnesota with Helen, they were surprised to find the burglars still inside of the house. In order to cover their tracks, the burglars, along with Jack Matlick, beat Helen to death in her living room.
Her body was wrapped in a blanket and placed in the trunk of the Cadillac that Matlick would sell only days later. Helen's body was driven to a nearby stable where Joseph Plemons met up with the crew. The trunk was popped and they heard a moaning noise coming from beneath the blanket. Plemons told detectives that he was handed a gun and told to finish her off. He said he had no choice because he too would have been killed if he didn't comply. Helen's body was removed from the trunk and placed on the ground and Joseph Plemons shot her twice at point-blank range.
Helen's lifeless body was loaded back into the car and driven to a steel mill with mob connections in Gary, Indiana. Plemons recalls watching as Helen's body was inserted into the furnace. He said the sight and smell of her burning body were impossible to forget. Despite investigators corroborating every aspect of Joseph Plemons' story, no charges were filed against him or any of the other men he pointed the finger at.
One of those men, Ken Hansen, would die in prison anyway after being sentenced to 200 years for the rape and murder of three children. A name that never surfaced in Plymouth's retelling of events was Richard Bailey's, who was still serving time for a murder that he apparently did not commit. Based on the new information, Bailey requested a new hearing in 2005 but was rejected. He tried again in 2008 and was turned down for a second time. Then finally, in 2017...
40 years after the disappearance of candy heiress Helen Brock, the only man convicted in connection with that case has gained some ground in court. Gigolo con artist Richard Bailey, the only man ever convicted in connection with the Brock conspiracy, filed a motion to have his 1997 case reopened. Judge Shador called Bailey's assertion of actual innocence an articulate presentation of his arguments then and now and ordered a response from federal prosecutors.
Richard Bailey is currently waiting on that response. He is 87 years old. Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with music by Ethan Helfrich, a.k.a. Rescue Sleeping Giant. For more information about the show, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Swindled Podcast. Or for a more fulfilling and happy life, you can delete your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
If you want to support the show, you can do so at patreon.com slash swindled. For $5 a month, you'll receive early and advertisement-free access to new episodes and exclusive access to bonus episodes and more. We also have a monthly giveaway where we've given out t-shirts, coffee mugs, posters, stickers, lots of stuff. Check it out, patreon.com slash swindled. Or you can support the show by making a purchase at swindledpodcast.com slash shop.
Shout out to everybody who is already out there rocking your Swindled merch. Easily the coolest kids on your block. And shout out to anybody out there who has told a friend about Swindled or shared it on social media. You all are the reason the show still exists and the reason why it has an audience at all. We've spent zero dollars in advertising. It's been entirely organic and grassroots and it's been cool to watch it grow. A dirty little secret about the podcasting world is that it's very easy to buy your way to the top.
It's no different than any other industry in that way, I guess. He or she with the most money usually wins. So for you to choose to spend your time or money on this little project means a lot, and I can't thank you enough. With that said, this marks the official end of Season 1 of Swindled.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed making it. We're going to take some time off, probably just a couple of months or so, to regroup and take care of some business and to enjoy the summer. We have a lot of exciting things planned for the future and we'll be back very, very soon. All Patreon rewards will continue throughout the break, including bonus episodes, free merchandise, etc. Plus, Patreon supporters will get a very early sneak peek of Season 2, so don't go anywhere.
Finally, I want to thank Jared McClendon for all of his help this year. Thanks to Ethan Helfrich for his musical contributions as well. The show would not be the same without you guys. And Vanessa Pearson from The Cleaning of a John Doe. Ashley Flowers from Crime Junkie. The True Crime Storytime Ladies in Australia. Javier from Pretend Radio. Hannah and Cassie from Texas 1031. Michael from Unresolved. Erica Kelly from Southern Fry True Crime.
Aaron and Shay from All Crime No Cattle, Laney from True Crime Fan Club, and so many more podcasters who have offered their support. I'm doing this off the top of my head, so if I forgot you, my apologies. Speaking of podcasters, make sure you stay tuned after these credits to hear a couple of promos for some other cool independent podcasts, Canadian True Crime and Beyond Bizarre True Crime, both excellent shows that I highly recommend.
That's it. Until next season, thanks for listening. Hi, this is Christy Lee from the Canadian True Crime Podcast. Don't be put off by my weird accent. I am Australian, but I've been living in Canada for many years. My show takes a deep dive into some of Canada's most well-known cases, like Paul Bernardo and Carla Homolka, and Robert Pickton, the pig farmer. But I also tell the complete stories of many cases you probably haven't heard of.
You can find me on your favorite podcast app or social media just by searching for Canadian True Crime.
Welcome to Beyond Bizarre True Crime. These are the stories that will make you wonder if they came from Hollywood, or if Hollywood took it from them. Available on your favorite podcast app or online at beyondbizarretruecrime.com.
Thanks to SimpliSafe for sponsoring the show. Protect your home this summer with 20% off any new SimpliSafe system when you sign up for Fast Protect Monitoring. Just visit simplisafe.com slash swindled. That's simplisafe.com slash swindled. There's no safe like SimpliSafe.