Featuring Joe Swaney from Thinking Sideways podcast and filmmaker Vincent Calderney, this is The Shocking Details.

Hey there, welcome to another episode of The Shocking Details.

I am Joe, joined as always, by my partner in crime.

Vincent Caldoni.

And we're here this week to talk about another interesting story.

This is actually, this was kind of a major news story back in the day about 40 years ago,

but it's totally dropped off the radar sense. It's interestingly enough,

that's the kind of story we look for, right? Yeah, yeah, definitely. And this is a tale about a Ponzi scheme.

It was a swindle that netted millions of dollars, but it also resulted in a nice big trail of dead

bodies by the time it was all over. This is kind of like the Bernie Madoff story

in a way, except that he didn't actually, as far as I know, kill anybody.

No. But it's like Bernie Madoff, but I'd say on a smaller scale. A lot smaller scale and a lot

more violent. But anyway, it's the old story. This perp finds a winning plan, but he got a little

too greedy. And the next thing you know, everybody's dead. You're looking at a lifetime in the

slammer. It's also a story about luck, good and bad, and our old friend, Mr. Murphy and his law,

because I think you'll agree, mentioned that Murphy's law played a big factor in this

thing for good and bad. If something could go

wrong in this case, it pretty much does. Even against all odds. Yes, I know. It's it, but, you know,

we're teasing our listeners here. Let's just, let's just tell them the story. Yeah. And this pyramid scheme,

or excuse me, I shouldn't call it a pyramid scheme.

It really is, it's a Ponzi scheme.

Right. But it could have actually gone on for longer, but a very random chance encounter at a party kind of brought it all to a screeching halt.

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