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I'm Renee, and this is Beyond Contempt True Crime. This is beyond contempt true crime.

Boy bands. Pretty much not my thing.

I'm more of a punk, post-punk, hip-hop, or a rock kind of girl.

Groups like Minuto and New Edition were some of the first boy bands that I can recall growing up with.

When I hit middle school, all of my friends were insane for new kids on the block. They were the biggest thing

around. I never understood it, even back then. But I recently watched a documentary called

The Boy BandCon on YouTube, and it was fascinating. The way these groups were constructed and

taken advantage of was unbelievable. So I thought this would make a really good episode.

You're listening to Episode 28, Lou Pearlman.

Louis J. Perlman was born on June 19, 1954 in New York, to parents, Herman and Rini.

Herman went by the name Hi and ran a dry cleaning store.

Rini was a school luncheat.

The small family lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Queens.

High and Rini slept in the living room on a fold-out couch,

while their only son slept in the bedroom.

Lou was an enterprising person and was hustling from a young age.

He sold lemonade at age eight and newspapers at age ten. Lou's cousin was Art Garfunkel,

and when Lou was fast approaching his bar mitzvah, Simon and Garfunkel songs like The Sound of

...