30. The Producer (Joe Francis)
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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.

Yeah, he's pretty funny.

Rufus Hanna took his first sip of alcohol when he was 14 years old and never looked back. His dependence wasn't the result of an abusive parent or childhood trauma of any kind. According to Rufus, his family life in Georgia was great. He just liked to get drunk.

which resulted in the next four decades of Rufus' life passing him by in a complete blur, often on relationships, in and out of jobs. Until eventually, by the late 90s, Rufus found himself living on the streets of the San Diego suburb of La Mesa, sleeping under bridges and digging in dumpsters for food. The only constant in Rufus' life was his drink and his drinking buddy, a man named Donnie Brennan, a Vietnam veteran who was also a homeless lifelong alcoholic.

Together and drunk, Rufus and Donnie would scour the streets of La Mesa looking for ways to acquire money in order to score their next bottle, and they almost always found a way. The two men became familiar to the residents of La Mesa. They were easily recognizable because there weren't many homeless people in the area. Most opted to live in the city instead, but Rufus and Donnie preferred the stillness of the suburbs and they seemed harmless, so no one in La Mesa paid them any mind, except Ryan McPherson.

a 15-year-old high school student who met the duo while skateboarding and befriended them. Rufus and Donnie would watch Ryan and his friends skate in parking lots and parks after school. The homeless men would crack jokes with the teens while drinking their booze and wasting away another day. But Rufus Hanna and Donnie Brennan soon found themselves as the butt of the jokes when Ryan McPherson approached the two homeless men, looking for help with a project for his economics class.

According to Rufus, McPherson told him that he was shooting a film on what it was like to be jobless in America, and he offered him money to participate. But instead of an interview or a conversation, the high school kids wanted Rufus to perform. For $5, Rufus Hanna ran headfirst into a stack of milk crates while McPherson and his friends laughed and recorded. Rufus laughed too. It wasn't the worst job he had ever had, and it paid much more than minimum wage. While Rufus Hanna was seeing stars,

ryan mcpherson was seeing a star and pretty soon the payment amounts increased as did the intensity of the stunts rufus the stunt bum as he had been so lovingly named was filmed running into steel doors and fast food signs he jumped out of swing sets and barreled down flights of stairs and shopping carts donnie brennan received his fair share of screen time too and for each dangerous stunt the two homeless men were paid an average of ten dollars

This is Ryan McPherson. We showed it to millions of kids out there in San Diego and everyone had the same response. They were just shocked and couldn't believe it. They all thought it was better than the jackass and the CKY stuff. And that was good. You know, that's exactly what we're going for. But unlike Johnny Knoxville and Bail Margera, whose pranks and stunts usually targeted their own friends and family, Ryan McPherson targeted the destitute. His vision had expanded to include an entire cast of characters comprised of people living on the streets of San Diego and Las Vegas.

and there was a part for everyone, no matter how substance-dependent or mentally ill. The teenagers captured footage of a man smoking crack and then defecating on a public sidewalk. They filmed a man eating a raw uncooked frog on the side of the street for $20 and a bottle of whiskey. They convinced another man to rip out a tooth using nothing but a pair of pliers, and they laughed amongst themselves as they convinced a guy whose hair they had just lit on fire to drink from a beer bottle filled with urine.

Some of the most disturbing footage involved an actor parodying Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.

The film crew would sneak up and pounce on a sleeping victim, duct tape their mouths and zip tie their hands and feet. You can hear the terror in their voices and see it in their eyes while they try to process the situation and struggle to get free. The actor playing the bum hunter would measure and tag the quote specimens before releasing them back into their quote natural habitats.

Hold down there, mate. Hold down. It's okay there, mate. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not going to hurt you. What the hell are you guys doing? Holy shit, you there, mate. God, all right. We got you there. All right. We're just going to let him calm down here a little bit. Let him calm down. Oh, we got a wild one here. But Rufus Hanna and Donnie Brennan were the stars of the show. And they came up. They said, you want to make some money? And they asked Rufus if he wanted to get a tattoo. And Rufus said, I'm a little wasted.

I don't want to do it. And I went, Donnie, how would you like to go get a tattoo on your forehead? I was so inebriated. I mean, so drunk, so inebriated. I just went, ain't nobody else got the balls. I'll do it. I went, 200 bucks? I ain't got a penny in my pocket. 200 bucks at that time? A lot of money. So I went and I did it. That's all I got out of the whole damn thing.

For $200, Donnie Brennan got the word "Bumfights" tattooed in the middle of his forehead and two inch tall letters next to a picture of a beer bottle. And although Rufus had initially rejected the offer, he eventually ended up with the same word tattooed on his knuckles. "Bumfights" was the name of the shocking documentary film that McPherson and his friends were producing.

In the spring of 2002, they packaged the footage of the homeless performing stunts with footage of fistfights at local high schools onto a DVD and sold it on their website for $20 with little in the way of promotion other than word of mouth. But word of mouth was all they needed. Within the first month, Bumfights had sold 10,000 copies. And after an on-air mention from shock jock Howard Stern, the Bumfights website became overwhelmed with traffic and crashed. Sales skyrocketed.

Bumfights sold over 300,000 copies worldwide, solidifying its place in a popular culture that was clearly circling the drain. The film's newfound popularity resulted in widespread media attention and universal condemnation. Bumfights was labeled disgusting, degrading, and cruel. A U.S. congressman even denounced the film on the floor of the House of Representatives, while other countries banned the sale of the video entirely.

Advocates for the homeless expressed concern about copycats and increased violence on an already disdained population. Ron McPherson took exception to the accusation that he was exploiting the homeless. He told Rolling Stone magazine that he had done more for Rufus and Donnie than anybody had in years. He said he gave them money, even when they weren't on camera, and brought them the leftovers from his family's Thanksgiving dinner. McPherson said his goal with Bumfights was to pull back the curtain on the chaos and lunacy of being homeless on the streets of America.

He wanted to create something so confrontational that you couldn't ignore it just by pretending to look at your phone at a stoplight. But McPherson's artistic intent rings hollow because he was 15 years old. Is it even possible for a middle-class white kid at that age to be in tune with the plight of the homeless? Or was Bumfights merely the result of a group of unsupervised and misguided teenagers bored in the suburbs with access to cheap entertainment?

Ryan McPherson eventually sold his ownership in Bumfights for $1.5 million to two men from Las Vegas who had financed its production. McPherson said the men, who went by the pseudonyms Ray Leticia and Ty Beeson, basically forced the original filmmakers out of the venture. McPherson says he didn't care because it was never his intention to make money from the project in the first place, but making money was the only intention of the new owners, and they did everything they could to stoke the flames of controversy.

A third man, also using the name Ty Beeson, appeared on every news outlet imaginable to defend the video in the most obnoxious and arrogant way possible. He echoed the virtuous endeavor of shedding light on the homeless epidemic, but the new website for the video promised its viewers, quote,

Rufus the superstar stunt bump. We changed his life. What do you mean he's a superstar? How do you figure he's a superstar? He is. Everyone knows him around the world. Everybody knows him, but he's still homeless and doesn't have any money. How do you know that? Why can't you answer how much money you're making on this film? Because I don't have my CFO with me right now. Who's your CFO? Who do you think it is? A financial officer?

Ty Beeson even appeared on the Dr. Phil show, where he mimicked the host's appearance by wearing a suit and a mustache and shaving the top of his head to appear bald.

If you think I exploit people, every time you bring a guest on this show, you exploit them and spread whatever problems they have to the whole world. You think that's helping them? Yeah, keep telling yourself that. You can go. You know what? Who do you think you are, huh? Bye. Come on. Huh? No, I'm not finished talking to you. Yeah, you are. No, I'm not. Yeah, you are. No, I'm not. Yeah, you are. Let's go. Yay!

Dr. Phil claims he kicked Ty Beeson off of his show because he did not want to publicize bumfights. Yet, the episode aired anyway, and CBS posted the full clip of Beeson's appearance on YouTube, where it has almost 4 million views. Good job, Phil.

While Ty Beeson acted like a jackass on his media tour and continued to produce sequels to Bumfights, Ryan McPherson and the original group of filmmakers had been served a criminal lawsuit filed by the Superior Court of California. All four men were arrested and charged with six felonies related to the film, including battery, illegal fight promotion, conspiracy, and soliciting an assault with deadly force.

At their trials, the defense contended that the teenagers had never paid anyone to fight and that Rufus and Donnie knew exactly what they were getting into. The two men had signed licensing agreements and consulted with a lawyer before any filming had begun. The tattoo artist testified that Donnie was sober and that he had been asked three times if he really wanted the tattoo on his forehead. Donnie told the tattoo artist that he was going to be a movie star. Even Rufus Hanna came to the McPherson group's defense, saying, quote,

Ryan McPherson and the three other original producers of Bumfights were acquitted on all of the felony charges because of insufficient evidence. They pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of promoting an illegal prize fight, which McPherson claims was related to a food fight.

They were fined $500 each and sentenced to 280 hours of community service and were disallowed from associating with one another for three years. McPherson and another man would eventually spend six months in jail for failing to complete their community service. There's really, there's really nothing, there was really nothing, uh,

There's really nothing holding me to bumfights like there was to Indigline, you know, there was no there was no passion there It was something I did when I was a kid It was something that we put out and it blew up in our face and it became this huge ridiculous thing And so when it all came crashing down as far as the law was concerned I never felt like I needed to stand up and and fight for it I felt like it would be foolish and rather and actually kind of embarrassing to try to be like

to try to legitimize something like bump fights. While we should have the freedom to release things like that, I would feel like an asshole trying to justify the existence of something like bump fights. I feel like there's other creative and constructive ways to get your message out there. And by the time the whole court case came around and I had to look at what it was I created as a 15-year-old, I was 21. I had grown up quite a bit, and I had changed my views and my opinions and my methods. And so it was...

Ryan McPherson wanted to put bombfights behind him. He returned his focus to In Decline, an activist arts collective that he founded which produces politically progressive and socially conscious art. They're the group responsible for the Black Lives Matter Hollywood Walk of Fame, the largest illegal graffiti project in the world, and the Emperor Has No Balls statue project.

i encourage you to google it mcpherson may have moved on from bun fights but his twisted sense of humor remained three packages were intercepted before being shipped to las vegas bangkok police say they contained body parts including an infant's head a baby's foot and an adult heart police say the preserved remains were stolen from medical museums of a bangkok hospital

In November 2014, Ryan McPherson and Daniel Tanner, another one of the original filmmakers behind Bumfights, were detained by police when a shipping company in Bangkok, Thailand, discovered that three packages labeled as toys actually contained preserved human body parts. McPherson said they were sending the items to a friend as a joke, and although the men were captured on video surveillance attending the museums from where the body parts had been stolen, there was no video evidence of the theft.

McPherson and Tanner were released without charges. The stars of the film returned to their normal lives as well, which mostly included collecting cans from dumpsters. That's how property developer Barry Soper met Rufus Hanna and Donnie Brennan. Soper had discovered a pile of human excrement next to the dumpster behind his house and had been keeping an eye on it ever since to catch a glimpse of the responsible party. Barry Soper eventually hired the men to perform repair and maintenance work at a few of his properties, and he was impressed with their effort.

He noticed the two men's bum fights tattoos and was horrified to hear the details of what Rufus and Donnie had been through. Soper organized a civil lawsuit on the men's behalf. They eventually reached a settlement with McPherson & Company in 2003, rumored to be around $300,000. Donnie Brennan used his settlement money to rent an apartment but eventually found himself back on the streets. He's tried rehab on multiple occasions but apparently still struggles with his addiction to alcohol and he desperately wants to get the tattoo removed.

Rufus Hannah, however, made a complete recovery. After the media attention from Bumfights, he received a call from his estranged daughter that woke him up from his alcohol-induced stupor. He completely sobered up and reconnected with his children and an old flame, who he eventually remarried. I got hurt a lot, and I look back at it, and I can't believe I walked away from it. The hurt that I went through, and then to come to find out that they made money off of that...

Rufus suffered permanent injuries from his short stint as a homeless stuntman, but he was the happiest he had ever been. He worked as Barry Soper's property manager for six years and traveled the country as an advocate for the homeless. Rufus eventually moved back to his hometown in Georgia to be closer to his family. He had successfully turned his life around, and then on October 4th, 2017,

Just outside of Swainsboro, Georgia, a semi-truck ran through a red light and T-boned to the passenger side of the car that Rufus was traveling in. He died instantly. To Rufus, Hannah was his name. And he died because he was a passenger in his sister's vehicle when it collided with an 18-wheeler in Georgia earlier this week.

Barry Sober, the man who gave Rufus a job and helped him get sober, could not travel to Georgia for the funeral because of brain damage that he had suffered from a car accident of his own a few months earlier. Barry honored Rufus by placing flowers on the dumpster where they met. No matter what the filmmakers intended, Bumfights was shocking. It was honest. It was real. And judging by the number of cells and untold amounts of pirated copies, Bumfights was exactly what the audience wanted at the time, whether they knew it or not.

Reality had become entertainment. At the time, America was watching with glee as a house full of strangers and hidden cameras descended into backstabbing chaos and a game show where the contestants were forced to eat some kind of animal testicles just for the chance to win an almighty dollar. But Bumfights was demonized, and rightfully so, because it cruelly exploited a vulnerable segment of society for profit. Then again, exploiting a vulnerable segment of society has always been profitable.

Just ask Joe Francis, a man who at one time actually tried to buy the Bumfight series for $10 million. $10 million that he had earned from exploiting a vulnerable segment of his own, drunk college girls. A young film producer creates a cultural phenomenon that lands him in the celebrity spotlight and in jail on this episode of Swindled.

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Today, video cameras are everywhere. We bring you the pictures they've captured. Sometimes it's serious. Sometimes it's funny. But it's always Real TV. Soon after graduating from the University of Southern California in 1995, Joseph R. Francis landed his first job in the entertainment industry as a production assistant for Real TV, which was a television program that featured actual footage of extraordinary events such as car chases, animal attacks, rescue missions, etc.,

Joe was paid $350 a week to review submissions and choose which clips to include in the show. Of course, it was still cable TV, so the most extreme footage would never air. But Joe Francis, even at age 22, was an entrepreneur that could recognize a good idea. And it pained him to see the most compelling videos submitted to Reel TV were going to waste. Joe thought it was a shame that the footage was, you know, banned from television. Wait a second. That's it.

Banned from television. Before the lightbulb above Joe Francis' head could even dim, he was maxing out his credit cards to license as much of the discarded video as possible. Murders, executions, assassinations, train accidents. Nothing was off limits, because the banned from television video would never be broadcasted on television. Instead, it would be released straight to VHS and marketed via late night advertisements.

and just like that joe francis went from production assistant of real tv to founder and ceo of mantra films initial sales of the band from television video were modest at best the money was decent but it was nothing to write home about if he did it was unlikely that joe's father raymond a man that owned his own pharmaceutical company would be very impressed joe would need a better idea if he was ever going to measure up to his own ideas of success

He needed an idea that would appeal to a much wider audience. One night at home in 1997, Joe Francis was reviewing footage for the next installment of Band From Television when he stumbled across clips of female college students flashing their breasts in exchange for mass-produced plastic beads during Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Upon seeing the footage, the first, maybe second thing that popped up was the idea that Joe had been waiting for. Joe Francis would produce something raw that could never be shown on television uncensored.

It produced something so real that it would capture the attention of everybody in America. Joe Francis would produce a film of, get this, girls going wild. Tell them how it works, Joe. We shoot girls going wild. Yeah, we know, but what does that mean exactly? Going wild? Me, two thousand titties. Oh, okay. Thank you, whoever you are. And what happens after that? Yeah, that's pretty much it.

The girls featured in the video flash their breasts and then they scream "woo". Trust me, I did my research. Basically, Joe Francis' plan was to send camera crews to creep around popular spring break locales like Cancun, Mexico, Panama City Beach, Florida, and South Padre Island, Texas, where they would convince intoxicated co-eds into showing them their boobs for a free t-shirt or hat that featured the company's logo. The extra naughty would get invited back to the hotel room or tour bus to put on a more explicit show.

sometimes with a friend, sometimes with two. The project was incredibly cheap to produce and there was no shortage of volunteers for both behind and in front of the cameras. During spring break, all inhibitions were out the window. Some of the girls used it as a platform to unleash their inner exhibitionist, while others bared it all in hopes that Hollywood would discover them and come calling, essentially serving the same purpose that Instagram does today. And of course, Joe Francis would tag along on most occasions.

because not only was girls gone wild a business venture for joe it was also a passion project francis told rolling stone magazine quote more than anything else girls gone wild started off as a product of my sexual fantasy girls look really good from age 18 to 25. it's just the fact that that's the best time for girls afterward things start to happen bad things this joe francis seems like a pretty cool guy yeah

The best footage from these outings was edited together into an hour-long video, which included gratuitous slow-motion effects in all the right places, and it was promoted using the same direct response marketing tactic that Joe had used to sell banned from television. "Girls Gone Wild travels year-round, coast-to-coast, meeting thousands of hot co-eds to find the cutest, sexiest girls in the country."

By the end of 1997,

30-second commercials for Girls Gone Wild started airing late at night on channels like E! Entertainment, Comedy Central, BET, and Fox Sports. A censored montage of nude women bouncing around and making out and showering together would flash across the screen, resulting in steel drums conditioning a Pavlovian response in millions of young men across America, which many are still struggling with today.

At the bottom of the screen, a 1-800 number was always present so the viewer could call with their credit card in hand if they had a hand free. Girls Gone Wild hit the scene at the perfect time culturally. Pop stars were dressing like Catholic school girls, songs about thong underwear were riding up the charts, and a singular Janet Jackson tit stole the show at the Super Bowl. Needless to say, the video series was an instant success, raking in more than $20 million in the first two years.

By 2001, more than 4.5 million copies had been sold of the more than 80 different Girls Gone Wild titles that were available. Much of the success could be attributed to Mantra Film's aggressive advertising campaign. At its peak, commercials for Girls Gone Wild aired as many as 40,000 times a year in every major market. The company spent more than $21 million in advertising in 2003 alone.

Joe Francis was not at all surprised by his success, telling a Los Angeles Times reporter, quote,

Joe's drunken college party videos were earning him $30 million a year. Girls Gone Wild had become a powerful brand that now included its own magazine and clothing line. A-list celebrities like Brad Pitt and Justin Timberlake were spotted wearing the video franchise's branded hats in public. Future President of the United States Donald Trump called Joe Francis a great entrepreneur. And Francis had been romantically involved with notable nobodies such as Paris Hilton and Kourtney Kardashian.

Joe Francis had ascended to the stars, kinda. But as any faithful Girls Gone Wild viewer will tell you, what goes up must come down. And Joe Francis' newfound fame and fortune would get him into more trouble than he had ever bargained for. I have a problem with being an easy target. I have a problem with being a likable person that lawyers think, God, I'll get this guy in front of a jury and people will be jealous of him. Spring Break 2003 was supposed to be Joe Francis' shining moment.

Like usual, Girls Gone Wild would be camped out in the most popular spring break destinations in the United States, but this time, the debauchery would be broadcast live on pay-per-view. However, when Lee Sullivan, the mayor of Panama City Beach, Florida, heard about what Mr. Francis planned to do in his small conservative beach community, the mayor decided to put his foot down. Mayor Sullivan announced publicly that he would be cracking down on lewd behavior at spring break and that Girls Gone Wild would be banned from filming in his town.

He warned Joe Francis, whom he referred to as "scum sucking trash", that if he even so much as stepped foot on Panama Beach, that he would be arrested on sight. This was the first time in the six years that Girls Gone Wild had been operating that Joe had encountered such strong opposition from a city official, and he was pretty sure that it was a violation of his First Amendment right to free speech. So Joe Francis sued the city, as well as the mayor, the sheriff, and the chief of police, and he won.

Spring break came and went. Filming took place without incident. On to the next alcohol-fueled college party. Not so fast. Before Francis and his crew could leave Panama City Beach, the sheriff's department raided their rented condos and placed them under arrest. Law enforcement also confiscated all of their clothing, their equipment, and Joe's $300,000 Ferrari. His private jet was also searched and seized. Apparently, two girls who had filmed a shower scene in the hotel room were under the age of 18.

They said Joe Francis had paid them $100 each to perform and that he offered them another $50 to touch his penis. One of those girls went home and told her father about what had happened and he in turn contacted the county sheriff's office. Joe Francis was accused by local officials of running a criminal enterprise and was charged with over 70 counts. They included racketeering, prostitution, promoting the sexual performance of children, and drug trafficking related to five Vicodin pills found in Francis' shaving bag.

The combined charges carried a potential maximum sentence of more than 300 years in prison. The sheriff's office released a press release celebrating their victory. They announced that a predator had been taken off the streets and that a significant amount of cocaine had been found in the jet, all of which Joe Francis denied. He had not even met the underage girls in the video.

The person who filmed the scene in question was an independent contractor, and the girls involved had lied about their ages on camera and on the consent forms that all participants are required to complete before any action takes place. In fact, one of the girls had been filmed a few days earlier in a different setting where she had again lied about her age. Joe assumed that the Panama City Beach mayor was coming after him as a retribution for losing the free speech battle, and he might have been correct in that assessment.

No cocaine had been found on this plane. That press release was a blatant lie. In fact, into what can only be interpreted as an act of desperation. The Panama City Beach Sheriff's Department actually vacuumed every nook and cranny of Joe Francis' private jet and sent the collection to forensics to be tested for drug particles. Even then, not the slightest traces of cocaine. As for the Vicodin, Joe had a prescription for the medication, which was faxed to the Sheriff's Office upon request.

Yet, Panama City Beach officials held Francis in custody on the drug charges because they claimed to have difficulty reading the doctor's handwriting. Furthermore, a judge would later rule that the Sheriff's Department's search and seizure of the plane and the condos had been conducted illegally and that any evidence collected in that search and seizure, including over 200 hours of videotape, would be suppressed since there had been no probable cause to collect it in the first place.

All but six of the 71 criminal charges were thrown out of court and all of Joe's belongings were returned to him, including his Ferrari and his private jet, which had suffered more than $1 million in damages as a result of the search. At the time of his arrest, Joe Francis had only spent one night behind bars before bonding out for $50,000. With the criminal charges pending, he escaped to LA as fast as possible, where he continued to run his company.

But Joe would eventually be ordered back to Bay County when the underage girls from the shower scene and five other women filed a civil lawsuit against him for causing emotional distress. But while out on bond, Joe Francis would suffer plenty of emotional distress in his own right. Around midnight on January 22, 2004, after returning home from a nightclub, Joe Francis entered his Los Angeles home and was ambushed from behind by a masked intruder.

The man put a gun to Joe's head, tied his hands behind his back, and led him upstairs to the master bedroom. The intruder pulled Francis' pants and underwear down around his knees and forced him to lie face down on the bed with a pink vibrator resting on his buttocks. At gunpoint, Joe was filmed with a video camera repeating, quote, My name is Joe Francis. I'm from Boys Gone Wild, and I like it up the ass. The ransacking of Francis' house lasted over six hours.

The thief got away with Joe's expensive watch, an original Picasso, a Louis Vuitton bag, and even Joe himself. The man forced Joe into the back of his own car and drove down a hill and stopped where another car was waiting. After unloading the valuables, the man abandoned Joe's car with Joe still inside. Hours passed before Francis was able to free himself from the bindings to call the police. The next day, Joe received a phone call from the intruder who threatened to release the humiliating video unless he was paid half a million dollars.

Joe refused and the man hung up, only to call again the following day. Months passed with no leads and no suspects until Joe's ex-girlfriend Paris Hilton overheard someone bragging about the crime at a party. Turns out, Paris was being blackmailed by the same exact man. I promise this is a true story. Paris alerted the police who arrested 28-year-old Darnell Riley, a man that had served prison time as a juvenile for shooting and killing two Korean shopkeepers at point-blank range.

Darnell Riley was sentenced to eight years in prison for burglary, robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, and attempted extortion. Despite his near-death experience and an upcoming criminal trial, Joe Francis remained on top of the world. His college nudity brainchild continued to sell, and his net worth had increased to over $100 million. The only problem is that, according to Joe, everybody wanted a piece of that $100 million.

Two months after the home invasion, a woman that he had slept with at a hotel in South Beach, Florida, filed a police report accusing the Girls Gone Wild boss of drugging and raping her. She said she woke up next to Francis in bed with no recollection of what had happened, but after multiple witness reports and blood test results that found no evidence of drugs in the woman's system, investigators dropped the case because of lack of evidence and glaring inconsistencies.

In response, Joe Francis sued the woman for $25,036,000. Quote, I not only want to be compensated for $25,000,000 for damages to my reputation and my business caused by these absurd allegations, but I also want to be reimbursed for the $36 I spent on the hamburgers and fries these women devoured before they left my hotel room. If she was going to make up a story that she had been raped, she should have mentioned it before she asked me to buy her and a friend lunch.

Joe further added, "I won't sit back and be called a rapist. Rape is a very serious crime that I personally find disgusting. As a son, and as the brother to three sisters I love very much, I would never have sex with a woman without her consent." Oh really? Is that so? According to a 2006 article in the Los Angeles Times, written by journalist Claire Hoffman, Joe Francis would have sex with a woman without her consent. And he did.

A woman, who was 18 years old at the time, told the reporter how she had met Joe Francis one night while she was dancing at a nightclub. She said Joe fed her shots of alcohol and told her that she would be visiting the Girls Gone Wild bus later that night. The woman claimed she was drunk when she climbed aboard the bus but excited about the prospects of playing around in front of the camera. She was led to a small bedroom in the back where she was filmed willingly flashing her breasts and masturbating.

In the video, which I have not seen for the record, you can hear Joe Francis in the background telling her how adorable she looks. The girl replies that she's a virgin. Joe instructs the cameraman to leave and he starts undressing. The girl told Claire Hoffman that Joe climbed on top of her and began having sex with her. She said she was adamant that she had told Joe no multiple times. And he kept doing it. And I keep telling him it hurts. I said no twice in the beginning.

When he finished, Joe used a paper towel to clean up and invited the cameraman back into the bedroom where he announced, quote, As a souvenir, the woman was given three pairs of Girls Gone Wild underwear. Years later, she says that night still haunts her.

When Joe found out about the story that Claire Hoffman was preparing to print, he threatened her with legal action in an email that read, quote, If you print that, I will fucking sue the shit out of you. If you print that, baby, you just put the nail in your own coffin. You are a fucking cunt. You decided to blast me. You are a fucking bitch. I will get my last laugh on you. I will get you. Joe Francis claims that he and the woman interviewed had consensual sex and that she was in, quote, good spirits afterwards.

He said she hung around outside of the bus for two hours dancing with her friends. His lawyer issued a follow-up statement that said, "Though Mr. Francis cannot speak to the woman's discomfort during the encounter, other news stories have commented that Mr. Francis is reputedly well-endowed." Joe followed up his threats to Claire Hoffman with a call to her editor at the Los Angeles Times.

He told them that Claire's story is a result of jealousy and anger. He said that while Claire was shadowing him for the piece, the reporter's behavior towards him had been aggressively romantic. Quote, I was creeped out about how infatuated she was with me. At one point, she tried to kiss me, but I backed away and said only half joking. I don't hook up with fat girls. The Los Angeles Times ignored Joe Francis' version of events and printed the story anyway.

which included the journalist's personal account of how Joe pinned her face against the hood of a car with her arms behind her back as he reenacted how he was treated in Panama City Beach during his arrest. In the article, Claire describes being so afraid and so in pain that tears were streaming down her face, and even though a uniformed police officer was present and witnessed everything, Claire Hoffman chose not to press charges. Joe Francis had avoided jail this time, but faked as a funny way of coming around.

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In April 2007, Joe returned to Panama City Beach to participate in settlement talks with the lawyers representing the underage girls who had been filmed in the shower. According to Joe Francis, during those settlement talks, one of the women's lawyers offered to settle the case for $70 million, to which Francis replied, quote, Negotiations ended without a settlement, and that lawyer complained to the judge that Francis had been verbally abusive during negotiations.

Curiously, the judge presiding over the civil case, a man named John Richard Smoke Jr., had at one time been the law partner of one of the lawyers representing the girls. In fact, Francis' case had been filed and refiled by the plaintiff's lawyers until Judge Smoke received the assignment. When this conflict of interest was revealed, Francis' legal team requested that Judge Smoke recuse himself from the case, but he refused.

Judge Smowick determined that Francis' use of colorful language during the settlement mediations was tantamount to not negotiating in good faith, and he held the film producer in civil contempt of court, and he ordered him to either settle the case or go to jail, an ultimatum that lacked the backing of any precedent or law. Further negotiations with the women's lawyers went nowhere, so Joe Francis was sent to jail until he finally settled the case behind bars for a life-changing amount of money.

When the girls received the reward, they posted pictures of the brand new luxury cars on their social media accounts with the caption, "Thanks Joe for Spring Break." Although a settlement had finally been reached, Joe Francis remained in jail because Judge Smoak had found him to be in criminal contempt of court for surrendering into custody four days late. To make matters worse, the Sheriff's Department searched Joe Francis' jail cell and found 16 prescription pills used to treat anxiety and high cholesterol as well as $700 in cash.

all of which is prohibited. Joe Francis was charged with nine additional felonies related to introducing contraband into a detention facility, which on their own could result in 85 years in prison. And it gets worse. While detained, apparently Joe Francis had offered a guard $500 for a bottle of water, resulting in another charge of bribing a public servant.

With these new charges, a judge revoked Francis' bail, stemming from the original criminal complaint from four years earlier, and he was ordered to stay in jail until his trial date. I was in a civil lawsuit. I had no criminal record. I had never been to jail before. They would shackle me in the shower, handcuff and shackle me, make me walk naked around. Look, I was fantasizing about Abu Ghraib stories. That would have been an improvement on what they did to me. My father and my parents, it's just...

It's probably some of the most emotional visits that I've had with them, but I mean they come see me and I'm one time I was chained up and I was down there and a cannibal lector hadn't they came on the other side glass and they were crying and I was crying and I'm like I haven't I haven't done anything I mean These people are just getting off on destroying my life, you know, I

While Joe Francis was allegedly being mistreated in a Florida jail, he was indicted by a grand jury in Nevada for two counts of tax evasion. Mantra Films had claimed over $20 million in false tax deductions on its corporate returns, a quarter of which were related to the construction of Joe's new residence and resort in Punta Mita, Mexico.

In 2002, Joe had paid $3.5 million in personal income taxes. In 2003, despite his company's increased earnings, that amount had dropped to only $351,000. The Department of Justice alleged that Francis had used offshore bank accounts to conceal his true income. However, these new tax charges were the best news Joe Francis had received all year. It meant that he would be transferred out of the Sunshine State and away from his abusers.

in nevada francis pleaded not guilty to the tax evasion charges he blamed the errors on his former accountant who prepared the tax returns for him the same accountant who had blown the whistle on the company to collect a bonus that the internal revenue service offered through its tax whistleblower program eventually joe pled guilty to misdemeanor counts of filing a false tax return and a bribery charge because he had offered more than five thousand dollars to nevada jail guards for food

Joe Francis was ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution to the IRS and received credit for a time served since he was already in jail. In fact, Joe Francis had been in jail for 11 straight months because of the case in Florida involving the underage teens that he had never met that he had already paid off. Despite multiple attempts by his lawyer to have the charges dismissed, Joe Francis remained in jail and was denied bail.

He finally agreed to plead no contest to one count of felony child abuse and two counts of misdemeanor prostitution just to put the case behind him. I chose to finally plead to a felony just to get out of jail. That was the only reason I fled here to something I did not do. I have never committed a crime and it's just absurd. I believe this is an absolute embarrassment to everyone because this is an embarrassment

This is embarrassing the entire criminal justice system. The fact that these people, and I mean these people, look, they're great people in Bay County, Florida. I've met many of you. I've met many of them. But the fact that a few corrupt individuals in Bay County, Panama City, Florida, were able to pull this off

This is the United States of America. And politically motivated arrest should never be tolerated, even if it happens to someone as detestable as Joseph R. Francis.

You know what, I feel bad for the people of Bay County who have to deal with this. This is not fair. This is not fair for you, because you're going to be next. The fact that they were able to do... I'm talking to Americans. The fact that this town and these corrupt individuals in this small town were able to do this to me, railroad me like this, keep me incarcerated for 11 months, seize my plane illegally, say that there was cocaine on my plane, which all turned out to be false,

And like the judge said, they're going to return a $300,000 Ferrari completely destroyed to me. Make me pay millions of dollars in legal fees. The fact that they were able to railroad me like this in the United States of America and keep me incarcerated for that long when they knew I did no wrong, it hurts us all, guys, because you're next. You're next. If people get away with this, you are next. If they can do it to me, if I didn't have money, if I didn't have notoriety,

I would have probably had a very different result than I had in that courtroom today, which is, guys, no time, no probation. This is a total victory for us. I'm going to go back to my life. I'm going to go back to making great Girls Gone Wild videos. Not here, as I told the judge. Probably make some today. With Joe Francis out of jail, Girls Gone Wild continued to flourish and the lawsuits continued to pile up.

In June 2007, a woman named Ashley Alexandra Dupree sued Mantra Films for $10 million. She alleged that Francis and Company had filmed her going wild in 2003 when she was only 17 years old. But Ashley Dupree dropped her lawsuit because her consent and her fake ID were captured on camera. Whoops.

If Ashley Dupree's name sounds familiar, this might be why. One of the most powerful men in the country, the governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, announced that he had been hiring young women from an escort service. And by the way, he's a former prosecutor as well.

Another lawsuit filed in 2008 by four women who appeared in one of the videos was thrown out after an all-female jury found in favor of Frances.

A statement by the jury agreed that the producer's behavior was, quote, beyond all possible bounds of decency and is regarded as shocking, atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community. But the jury could not find any intent to inflict emotional distress since all of the women had agreed to be filmed. Okay, fair enough. But what about Lindsay Boyd? She was only 14 years old when two men offered her beads to expose her breasts to a camera while she was walking down the strip in Panama City.

Lindsay fully admits to making a stupid split-second decision to appease the creeps with the camera. But she never imagined that not only would she see herself in a commercial for Girls Gone Wild, College Girls Exposed Volumes 1 and 2, but that her picture would be featured on the cover as well. Lindsay had never signed anything. She never agreed to be included in a commercially available film. There were no signifiers that the cameramen were working for Girls Gone Wild.

But there she was, on national TV, fully exposed for all of her 8th grade classmates and teachers to see. Lindsay Boyd has said that that split-second decision ruined her life. She changed schools three times to escape the bullies and the harassment. Twelve years later, when she was 26 years old, Lindsay filed suit against the company, alleging that her image was misappropriated and used without her consent.

Unfortunately, although Judge Julie Carnes was sympathetic for the mistakes Lindsay made in middle school, the state of Georgia did not have a civil remedy for such an act. In other words, in Georgia, there's no law against the misappropriation of someone's image for commercial use. Although, Lindsay Boyd's case was eventually heard by the Georgia Supreme Court, who ruled that she did, in fact, have grounds to sue. The case was eventually settled out of court. The Lindsay Boyd case was a rare loss for the Girls Gone Wild legal team.

Usually the cases were thrown out as soon as evidence of consent was presented. However, a St. Louis woman whose shirt was pulled up against her wishes by a cameraman sued the company and won $5.7 million because nobody from Mantra Films showed up to court. Probably had something to do with the fact that the company had never paid the $300,000 in legal bills that it owed its lawyer from prior cases.

As a result of all the publicity, in 2009, the gossip website Gawker named Joe Francis the douche of the decade. Joe Francis was not flattered by his new title. He sent an angry email to Nick Denton, the founder of the website, as well as other media outlets and his lawyers with the subject line, Hey Nick, you're fucked. The email read, quote,

No one makes up lies about me and gets away with it. I lost a $10 million deal as a direct result of you calling me a rapist. You will be paying me every dime of that back and more. Are you mentally retarded? Do your research first. I am coming after you harder than I have ever went after anyone. I am going to wipe you off the grid. You are done. I will take everything you have. You, Nick Denton, are truly the douche of the decade. Merry Christmas, idiot.

P.S. I sent you an updated picture of how I actually look now so you can masturbate to it because you seem to be quite sexually obsessed with me. Yes, Joe Francis actually attached a shirtless picture of himself to the email. Douche of the decade. More like douche of the century. Am I right?

and just when you think he couldn't get any douchier, Joe Francis made his way back into the news in January 2011 when he was charged with three misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment, one count of assault causing bodily injury, and one count of dissuading a witness. After a night out, Joe brought a group of three women into his limo and drove them to his house. The women claimed that they thought Joe was merely taking them to their car

When they arrived at Joe's home, a physical altercation ensued that resulted in Joe grabbing one of the women by the throat and hair and repeatedly slamming her head into the tile floor. The women were escorted out of the house and told that a taxi would not be called if they contacted the police. The women contacted the police anyway.

In May 2013, Joe Francis was found guilty of the misdemeanor charges and sentenced to 270 days in jail and 36 months probation, and he was ordered to complete an anger management course and a year of psychological evaluation. Afterwards, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Joe Francis has some strong words for the jury.

Wealthy people don't kidnap people and bring them to a party with, you know, 30, 40 people. Just because a jury is mentally retarded and jealous of who I am, you know, that jury, you should be put in jail, you stupid idiots. That's all I have to say. You stupid, stupid idiots. You stupid jury. You should be put in jail or line up and shot. You're idiots. It's sad.

I mean, that's what they should give the death penalty to, stupid juries, because I'm not that person. It's awful. Just to convict people because you're jealous of them is retarded. And you're a retarded jury, and you should be shot dead. You should. If they have the death penalty for juries, you should be shot dead by a firing squad.

Joe Francis would later apologize for his remarks. He said his words were the result of media manipulation and added, quote, I have private jets. I have a great life. I'm a good looking guy. I'm not conceited, but like, look, I have girls around me all the time. Whatever I want. I make a lot of money. It's a great life. If I wasn't me, I'd fucking hate me. You got that right, Joe.

Speaking of people that fucking hated Joe Francis, Las Vegas casino mogul and billionaire Steve Wynn filed a suit against Joe for making defamatory statements about him in public. According to Wynn, in 2007, Joe Francis had accumulated a $2 million gambling debt at one of his casinos that he never paid. According to Francis, Steve Wynn threatened to harm him if he didn't pay up.

Francis said he saw an email Wynn had sent to his neighbor and mutual friend, legendary music producer Quincy Jones, that detailed his plan. I was afraid for my life. He made it very clear that he wanted to kill me. And all caps and then exclamation points like a crazy person's email. I'm going to hit you.

I'm going to hit him in the back of the head with a shovel and have him buried in the middle of the desert. What say you, Quincy Jones? Did you ever hear Steve Wynn threatened to kill Joe Francis? No, absolutely not. After a four-day trial, a jury awarded Steve Wynn $20 million in the slander case. On top of that, they awarded Wynn another $20 million for punitive damages.

This $40 million was an addition to $7.5 million that had already been awarded for Francis' defamatory statements. The judge would reduce the $40 million award to $19 million. But still, that's a lot of money. This is Steve Wynn. It's hard to believe that anybody sitting in that room could come to any other conclusion than Joe Francis is a liar. That Joe Francis is a desperate, out of control, vicious guy.

I guess it takes a desperate, out of control vicious guy to recognize another.

Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn is facing serious allegations of sexual misconduct. According to the Wall Street Journal, the CEO of Wynn Resorts pressured his employees to perform sex acts on multiple occasions. The report says that after forcing a manicurist to have sex with him in his office, the casino mogul paid her $7.5 million. Wynn, a former business rival and current friend of Donald Trump, currently serves as the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee.

In 2018, Steve Wynn was accused of sexual misconduct with at least 10 women. He quickly resigned from the chief executive position of his company. And if you're asking yourself if everyone in this episode sucks, yes, yes they do. With $50 million in legal liabilities hanging over its head, Girls Gone Wild filed for bankruptcy in 2013 and was sold to a new owner. Joe Francis never filed personal bankruptcy and attempted to hide assets in shell corporations and offshore accounts.

but his financial maneuvering meant nothing for the amount he owed to his claimants. A warrant was issued for his arrest for civil contempt in 2015 when he failed to turn over a Cadillac and a Bentley as part of his asset forfeiture. Francis claimed that he no longer possessed the cars because a strip club owner in Mexico had taken them after Girls Gone Wild went bankrupt and a promotional agreement had fallen through. Joe soon joined the missing vehicles in Mexico when he moved his permanent residence to the resort he owned in Punta Mita.

The extradition treaty between the United States and Mexico does not apply to civil contempt warrants. Joe Francis does not want to go back to jail. But even in Mexico, Joe is not far from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. His resort is only a two-hour flight from Los Angeles, and many celebrities vacation to his residence where they pay $35,000 a night. Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore, Eva Longoria, Ashton Kutcher, and Kim Kardashian have all spent time at the resort.

However, in 2017, a judge ruled that Joe Francis is no longer able to profit off of his home until the $2 million gambling debt is paid back. In 2019, Steve Wynn acquired the deed to Joe Francis' Los Angeles home. Joe remains in Mexico, where he lives with his wife, the winner of the Girls Gone Wild's Hottest Girl in America contest, and their twin daughters. Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen.

Original music for Swindled is written and performed by Trevor Howard, who has been absolutely killing it. And special thanks to Lainey from True Crime Fan Club for the disclaimer up top. That's it, we did it. Another season in the books. I'm going to take a short break now because I'm tired, but we'll be back soon. Besides the music, I'm still doing virtually every aspect of this thing completely by myself. Even the graphic design and merchandise and website, everything.

It's a lot of work, but it's been incredibly rewarding. I hope you all are enjoying it as much as I am. I'm grateful to each and every one of you that listens. And I'm especially grateful to everyone that supports the show on Patreon. You're really the only people keeping this thing afloat.

I've said it before, but businesses and corporations don't really want to advertise on this show. They don't like the content, or they don't like the fact that the host is anonymous. Whatever the case may be, they don't want to associate their brand with Swindled. And I get it, and I can't promise that it will always be that way, but I do like the fact that this little project is almost completely supported by the people. So let's keep it that way. That's the way something like this should be. Keep supporting and I'll return the favor.

All Patreon rewards will continue throughout the break, including bonus episodes. In fact, one of the bonus episodes will be about that homeless veteran GoFundMe scam that happened in Philadelphia last year. Remember that? It's crazy stuff. And there's another about a multi-level marketing scam that you're all familiar with, but probably unaware of the scam involved. Those are coming soon. Go sign up. Patreon.com slash swindled. Should I do my little spiel now? Alright, here we go.

For more information about the show, visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Swindled Podcast. If you're not following us on social media, you're missing out on a huge component of the show. We're having a lot of fun over there. You can support the show by joining our valued listeners rewards program at patreon.com slash swindled. I'll be doing a Q&A over there soon where I'll be answering questions about season two and what's planned for the future. Whatever you want to know.

Go submit your questions now at patreon.com slash swindled. And while you're there, why not check out the bonus episodes about Dashcon, the failed Tumblr convention, or Wyclef Jean, the rap superstar and his charity scam. Plenty to choose from. Patreon.com slash swindled.

You can also support the show by buying something at swindledpodcast.com slash shop. There are stickers, patches, hats, hoodies, posters, t-shirts, and more. And there's new stuff coming soon. Now that I'll have a little time on my hands. Go check it out. Swindledpodcast.com slash shop. Or you can send a one-time donation using the form on the homepage. Anything helps. I appreciate it.

Finally, on July 13th, 2019, I'll be at the True Crime Podcast Festival in Chicago, Illinois, along with a ton of other great shows. Go see the full list at tcpf2019.com. I'll see you there. That's it. Until next season. Thanks for listening.

The world can be a mysterious place. It can also be a boring place, so let's focus on the mysterious. Rusty Hinges is a podcast that explores mysteries, hoaxes, natural phenomena, and weird history. Basically, anything that's a bit, well, hinky. Season one topics include the tale of Clarence Roberts, a man who died more than once. And then there is the maybe kidnapping of June Robles.

the sun that danced in the sky over Portugal, and an unsolved murder on the high seas. Rusty Hinges is generally skeptical, but never dismissive. Well, usually not dismissive. You can find Rusty Hinges on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. That's Rusty Hinges. R-U-S-T. You know what? I have faith in your spelling abilities, so go and subscribe to Rusty Hinges and maybe you'll solve a mystery. Probably not, but you know, you never know.

They say Hollywood is an industry, and it's an industry like no other. Sometimes you spend lots of money on model trains. Five million dollars on two sets of models. One was like three quarters of an inch to a foot. There was another one that was bigger and ran outdoors. And it's the one that it crashed on its first run and ended up in a pile. Sometimes you have spies on your set.

And sometimes a guy shows up to the set with a shotgun.

So we get there, and in Philadelphia, that's when they came after our guy with a shotgun because somebody else hadn't been paid, and they had to come up with cash. Wait, I got to hear this shotgun story. Who came after somebody with a shotgun? For this industry, it's all in a day's work. This is The Industry, a new podcast about some of the crazier things that have happened in Hollywood. Available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and just about everywhere else you can get a podcast.

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