Lust, Lies & Audiotape: Two Failed Murders for Hire

True Crime Campfire

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Most people love getting a peek behind a fellow human’s carefully managed facade. We’re delighted when we see the local magistrate gettin’ wrecked at a dive bar two towns over. We catch a glimpse of our married coworker making out with a guy who’s not her husband behind the building, and we can’t wait to tell somebody. We love a hot mic moment, when a news anchor or politician drops the mask for a second and acts like the flawed human they are. I think that’s one of the reasons we love hit-man stings on this show. A recording of somebody offering money in exchange for murder—it's the most authentic peek behind the curtain you could possibly get. A person making an inexplicable, evil choice, dropping the face they normally show to the world to show the darkness underneath. This week we have two cases for you: One where a career fraudster and general snake in human form stays exactly true to his character, and one where a respected member of the community does something light-years out of hers.

Sources:
Oxygen's "Murder For Hire," episodes "Revenge! Revenge!" and "Wrong Side of the Law"
CNBC's "American Greed," episode "A Con Man's Deadly Revenge"
https://www.oxygen.com/murder-for-hire/crime-time/long-island-inmate-joseph-romano-plot-murder-judge-prosecutor-bianco-gatz
https://www.cnbc.com/2014/02/27/how-joseph-romano-went-from-million-dollar-coin-fraudster-to-hiring-a-hit-man.html
Court papers: https://law.justia.com/cases/colorado/supreme-court/1987/86sc254-0.html
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/15/nyregion/inmate-gets-life-in-prison-for-plotting-to-behead-a-judge-and-a-prosecutor.html

Follow us, campers!
Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfire
https://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/
Facebook: True Crime Campfire
Instagram: https://gramha.net/profile/truecrimecampfire/19093397079
Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfire
Email: [email protected]
MERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, campers, grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire.
0:04.8	We're your camp counselors.
0:06.2	I'm Katie.
0:06.8	And I'm Whitney.
0:08.1	And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction.
0:12.0	We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire.
0:20.2	Most people love to get a peek behind a fellow humans carefully managed facade.
0:25.7	We're delighted when we see the local magistrate getting wrecked at a dive bar two towns over.
0:31.0	We catch a glimpse of our married coworker making out with a guy who's not her husband behind the building,
0:35.9	and we can't wait to tell somebody.
0:38.3	We love a hot mic moment when a news anchor or politician drops the mask for a second and
0:43.7	acts like the flawed human they are. I think that's one of the reasons we love hitman
0:48.4	stings on this show. A recording of somebody offering money in exchange for murder. It's the most authentic peak behind the curtain you could possibly get.
0:58.0	A person making an inexplicable, evil choice,
1:01.3	dropping the face they normally show to the world to show the darkness underneath.
1:05.6	This week we have two cases for you.
1:07.8	One, where a career fraudster and general snake in human form, stays exactly true to
1:13.1	his character, and one where a respected member of the community does something light years out of hers.
1:19.7	This is Lust, Lies, and Audio Ta. So, campers, for this one,
1:41.4	we're on Long Island, New York, spring 2012. Waste of carbon, Joe Romano, was,
1:47.5	let's say, a bit miffed about the 15-year sentence he'd just been handed for mail and wire fraud.
1:53.6	I mean, he hadn't killed anybody. All he did was rob a bunch of old guys of their life savings.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from True Crime Campfire, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of True Crime Campfire and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.