The Problem with Erik | Trailer
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Eric Mond had it all.

A wife and kids. A mansion. Or the Austin Country Club golf course. An executive position. At Charles Morn Toyota, you'll save thousands on every new Toyota. With his family's car dealership. If you shop us, you'll save. We guarantee it. Just a typical rich kid. Here's a guy who was born on third base and thought he hit a triple. But Eric also had a problem. On a trip to Nashville, Eric slept with an escort.

Two weeks later, he got a text. The sender wanted $25,000, or they'd tell Eric's family what he did. You understand when blackmail starts, it doesn't end. There's $25,000 today, it's $250 next week, it's $750 a year later. But this was Eric's world, where Eric made the rules. He didn't go to the cops. He didn't pay the money either. Instead, he came up with a plan to handle the problem himself.

Which is to say, he paid some other guys to handle it. An A-Team. Gil Pallet, Israeli Army veteran and Charlie Sheen's former bodyguard. He was bald. She had gigantic muscles. She would basically look like the Secret Service on casual Friday.

Brian Brockway, a veteran Marine whose voicemail greeting said he couldn't answer because he was taking over the world right now. That shouldn't be too hard then, man. He's got to be super creepy and start stalking him. And Adam Carey, a former Marine's Special Forces sniper who'd also done time for impersonating an officer. If you could describe Adam Carey in one sentence, how would you describe him? I can describe him in one word, sociopath.

The team was just supposed to figure out who was blackmailing Eric and get them to stop. There was still no plan for violence at this point. But that's not what happened. Mon was freaking out. They needed to do something. And that's when Gilad Pallet says, the guys on the ground have offered to take him out.

After the murders, Eric's life went back to normal. Golfed with his buddies, hunting trips to South Texas. People get away with murder all the time.

Eric even left a Google review for the middleman who facilitated the hits. It said, quote, "They get the job done in an expedited time. Couldn't imagine using anyone else." He gave five stars. It all seemed so easy for Eric. So when Eric thought one of the hitmen was turning on him, he figured taking him out would be easy too. If this thing is turning into a problem, do you want him to take care of this? Like what? Give me a number.

100? Yeah. Honestly, I think I'd rather take care of it personally. I'm Katie Vine. When my producer and I started digging into this story, we were expecting to find hubris and greed. But along the way, we also found a perfect storm of secrets, mistaken identities, abusive power dynamics, and tragic miscommunications.

Eric Mond and the other guys involved were all trying to chase away their demons with fantasies and desperate schemes until their delusions collided, leaving two people dead. This is The Problem with Eric, an original podcast created by Texas Monthly and Anna Wuerl, coming July 2nd.