Hello, dreamers, and welcome to the 323rd episode of California Dreaming. I want to thank you all so much for being here with me.

It is 2026, so happy New Year, everybody, and we are headed back to California for today's case.

There is a slightly eclectic cast of characters in this story. I first saw this case

earlier last year on Dateline, but it is a case that took many, many years to work its way

through the court system for various reasons and would end up being one of the longest and most complicated and

expensive cases in California history. And I really had to listen to this story two or three

times to make sure that I didn't miss any of the shenanigans. And actually, Dateline did miss a few of

them. So let's go ahead and dive right in.

Pay close attention because blink and you'll miss one of the many, many cons

that seem to be going on all over the place in the story from start to finish.

So let's get into today's case.

This is the tale of the double double cross.

What happened to Cliff Lambert? What happened to Cliff Lambert?

This is a story where I had to work at rebinding myself,

that there are some things that you just really can't make up.

And, you know, those are the stories that I do like to try and find for the show.

And this is really one like it came out as some sort of wild movie plot.

Recently, well, I think it was in December, I rewatched the Hulu series.

There's Something About Pam with Renee Zalweger as Pam Hup, right?

And I was like, you know, I need another wild story kind of like that to talk about. And sure enough,

I just watched an episode of Dateline sometime like late last year. And it covered the story that we're

talking about today. and I'm seeing

...