531 - We’re Here at the House Party

This is exactly right. [MUSIC PLAYING]

On the look back at the podcast.

The next exam in 2009, that was Big Mama For Me. 84 is big to me. I'm Sam Jay. And I'm Alex Eglish. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down,

and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, federal comedians, and favorite others, like Mark Lamont Hill, on the 80s. It was a wild, it was a wild, it was a wild year.

“I don't think there's a more important year for black people.”

Listen to look back at it on the "I Heart Radio" at Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When you feel uncomfortable, what do you put on? Biggie. You put on a biggie when you feel uncomfortable?

So I want to get confident. This is DJ Heaster Prince Music's Therapy, a weekly podcast from me, a DJ, and licensed therapist. It's mental health month. Let's figure out what actually works.

I didn't care about my life's circumstance when I listened to that stuff. It didn't matter to me. This isn't just a podcast. It's unconventional therapy for you every day.

Open your free "I Heart Radio" app. Search DJ Heaster Prince Music's Therapy and start listening now. Sometimes a suspect is found guilty before a verdict is ever read in court.

On the wicked words podcast, I talk with the writers who dig deep into the cases that changed history, including Marsha Clark, who went from prosecuting one of the most famous murder cases to writing crime fiction. It doesn't matter that you didn't take part in the murder.

If you were at the scene at all, you're guilty of murder. Every week, the real story is revealed

“join us every Monday for new episodes of "Wicked Words."”

Listen to "Wicked Words" on the "I Heart Radio" app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to my favorite murder. - That's Georgia Hardstar.

- That's Karen Kiligarif. - And we're here to podcast for you on video. - Breaking news. - We're gonna podcast, stay. - Breaking news, everybody.

- Podcasts are on video now, so fucking reason. - And that's actually what breaking news is these days 'cause there's no more local news in America. - We refuse. - You're right.

- Yeah, I'm happy, okay. - There's a lot first. Like, it's pretty crazy. - I know. - I didn't look at anything today,

so I'm feeling like I forgot everything that's going wrong. - I know what's going right. Do you want me to tell you about this? - Yes, you have something to show me. - So I spend, according to my phone,

hours and hours on TikTok. - Don't ever look at that. - It's really shocking. - Yeah.

“- I don't even know how this much free time.”

- But my favorite thing that happened recently is a little kind of like a three part story. - Okay. - And it's gonna start out with, I'm gonna show you a TikTok

and we have to change the music, of course, because this is gonna go Netflix. - Yeah. - But the real music is a song that you and I both love by the rapper Armani White that's the Billie Eilish song.

- Love that song. - Do you see that video when she brings it in that on stage and saying it together? And I start crying. - It's so cute and the audience goes so crazy.

- Billie Eilish so much, okay. - She's the best. - But deserves a song. - Yeah.

- So there's an incredible volleyball player

at Cal State, Northridge. - Okay. - So the amount of doors-- - The amount of doors-- - For real? - I'm pretty sure.

- I did a newner at Northridge one time with Greg Barrett and somebody else. You have to go to the cafeteria and do stand up comedy at noon. - Well, every time. - Every time?

- Yeah. - Okay, that's where my parents were. - Yes. - That's the same. - So that's right now.

- They met. - Yeah, okay. - So there's a very viral volleyball player who is amazing a volleyball. But he also does like full-on, slay,

slay, clean, style gestures once he gets a point. - Oh my god, okay. - Okay. - It is so great and people are loving it. So let me show it to you and we're gonna have

the original music, but we'll put in other music. - Okay. (upbeat music) - He does the neck walk away. (upbeat music)

- Oh my god. (upbeat music) - Oh my god. (upbeat music) - Okay, I love him, that was what's his name?

- Right, Jordan Lucas. - Okay. - His older brother was a volleyball star as well. - Okay. - I think they said his dad was.

So now I'm like an expert on him. - Well, let's tell people who aren't watching Netflix. He's doing these like moves, as soon as he hits. - Well, go to TikTok, he's all over TikTok.

It's basically what everyone is looking at,

but he's spiking the ball. He's jumping what looks like five feet in a year. Spiking the ball, getting the point, and then basically doing a little Rupal's drag race move to be like, slay mama.

- Yeah, kind of in your face. - So this is starting to build in popularity on social media and then CSUN has a game at Irvine. - Oh, so it's where my parents are at versus where I'm from.

- Where they raised you. And at Irvine, one of the color commentators says, I'm surprised nobody has popped Jordan Lucas yet what he's doing on that court is just tasteful. - He isn't standing there screaming you know.

- Look at that. - He literally goes like that. - Yeah. - He turned his head in a way that's like a gesture. - So one of the most popular supercuts

is to the Armani White Song. I think it's called Billie Eilish. That's how I know it. Bitch, I'm stylish. - Yeah.

“Luckily, this story gets out that that's what this guy says.”

- Yeah. - And at the next CSUN game, our Monty White's in the stand, watching Jordan Lucas play and cheering for every single point. And I watched it last night. And I just had tears streaming down my face.

So I'm just like, this is it. This is where he went to the fucking game. - He went to the next fucking game. And it was like, I'd seen all these videos.

And everyone was talking about this amazing volleyball player.

So I wanted to see it for myself. And I did. And it's like him and his friends in the stands cheering for Jordan Lucas. - You're watching Start Crying first of all. I want everyone to know that.

- You're about to start crying. Because, well, what I was gonna say is like, it's the old days growing up, going to high school in the 80s where not only would you be popped for expressing yourself in any way different.

- Right. - Than the standard norm. But that idea that someone would suggest that would mean that would happen. - Totally.

- And it almost is like our Monty White understands all those things. And it's kind of like, here's the Posse that's rolling up for Jordan Lucas. - Right.

“- And symbolically tough guy, rapper, whatever.”

That's basically like, I'm here on his behalf. - Yeah, that's so touching. - It's beautiful. - Wow. - Do you have more video to show me?

- Yeah, I mean, there is another one. And this one is cut to a Beyonce song. So it just like, oh my god, what if Beyonce isn't the fucking, oh, audience next. (upbeat music)

- That one, he just tips it over. - Yes. (upbeat music) - I love it. - What about that team?

That's our Monty White. - Oh my god, we start podcasting like that. - So that like, maybe they'll show up to exactly right studios next time I give a good story. I'm gonna.

- It's almost like, when you're so good, you can't control the in your face, so you have to turn it around. And that's part of what you're doing. - I mean, it's called personality.

- It's pretty fun. - I love it. That's a feel good story. - Right? - Yeah, good job.

- Speaking of breaking news, and going in a completely different direction. - Oh, okay. - But also, you know, in a positive, if you could call it that way.

- Okay. - True crime and positivity are in on ways. But I covered the story when we were in Portland called the Martin Family Disappearance, which is one of those stories

that have always been obsessed with,

where I'm pretty sure that like half of the missing people drove into a lake and the parking stops still in the lake, you know what I mean? - So the family, the Martin Family Disappearate, it was five of them.

It was the husband and wife, Ken and Barbara, and their children, and they all went missing in December of 1958, while off getting bows for Christmas decorations out in Oregon and the wilderness, they all disappeared.

Was there foul play? No one really knew, but their car was finally found in the place where they had pretty much disappeared. So a diving expedition spearheaded by this diver, Archer Mayo, who has been finding cars

and finding missing people at the bottom of lakes, he had also found the Martin Family Camera, and they were able to identify it as the car where some of the family was in. So it looks like it was just an accident on the long,

but 1958, that's crazy. So two of the children had already been found.

“I think that they had floated out of the car”

in the river, but the rest of the family was found in the car. Wow. So it does seem like it just was a horrible accident. They were found in the Columbia River. So sad.

I know, but these stories that come out

is like finally getting at end of a story, you know what I mean?

I mean, yeah. Those are fascinating to me, and so heartbreaking and tragic. Yeah. And good, great news when, finally, there's some sort of resolution.

Yeah. Do you have anything else? You haven't seen the drama yet. No, you have to see it. The drama is a movie?

Yeah, with Zendaya. Oh, okay. So it's just so good. Okay. I know what we'll talk about it, 'cause I need to talk about it.

Like, it's one of those movies that I need to talk something about it. Oh, okay. Like, I had a little bit of a mental breakdown after watching it, 'cause it was so like, it's just one of those things of like,

what would you have done in that situation? Oh, okay. That's a good idea. I'll watch it this weekend and we'll make a video. There you go.

How about that? Yeah. We'll do a rewatch, talk down video. Okay, great. Okay, we're making plans.

When have we ever...

“That's what we were with the plans that we make?”

How many books have we started in our book club? How many? The last one, and we're in your, like, here's a book on burnout. And I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna read it and get back to you. What?

And my talking about... You loved it in the hotel room. I don't know. I don't know. I have it just for you.

Oh, good. But, you know, I have to keep rewatching what we do in the shadows for some reason. That's, it's my serious problem. I've began talking like Nandora around the house.

Oh. This is crazy. Such a good show. It's delightful. Speaking of delightful.

We have a podcast network. Should we do some updates? Very true. Yes, we should. Our podcast network is called Exactly Right Media.

And this week on Dear Movies I Love You, our movie podcast,

Million Casey Revisit, the post-apocalyptic 90s romp "Tank Girl," sought in the theater.

Wow.

“That was the year I think I moved to LA.”

Oh my God. Plus, Cara, Clank joins them to talk about her area of expertise. I want her to achieve me, her husband later in life, must be other people's. Can I just say she and I just recently polished up two bottles of rosé. That's, she's a fucking expert at that.

That's what she's great at. She is. And then over on Ghosted, Ross is joined by Mark Sebastian of the hit series, Great American Gay Side Quest. Have you seen that?

No, was it so good. So great. He's just like standing in front of stuff. Well, I'm here. Like it's hilarious.

Okay. I love it. And they have a spooky download that get into his on-camera ghost sighting at the Stanley Hotel and his haunted childhood home. The Stanley Hotel thing happened.

It's part of the. Oh my God. Side Quest series. Okay. Great American Gay Side Quest.

We're all gonna go watch it. Also, please go listen to our newest podcast, Hollywood Land. This sister podcast of disgraced land from Jake Brennan. And this week, he tells the story of the scariest one of all, Charlie Sheeney. From Tiger blood to machetes to career wrecking levels of excess, this episode is on cocaine.

And then finally, on trust me, you know her as known from the Netflix documentary series, "Trust Me the False Prophet." Namzee Abisline joins Lola and Megan for a compelling two-part interview. This is so good. And for the first time, you can watch the full episode on YouTube.

So go to youtube.com/exactlyratemedia to find episodes of all your favorite exactly right shows except for my favorite murder and buried bones because that's on Netflix. Because we're right here on Netflix. That's right.

“Do you remember when Diana Ross, double tap little Kim's boobs at the VMAs?”

Oh, what when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people? I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little Kim? Well, you can find out on the lookback at a podcast. I'm Sam J.

And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick you here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Marc Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the eighths. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just 'cause of crack. I'm down to talk about crack or date, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, no, no, no, no. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a throughline. We also have eggs on the table right now. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Are you finishing that sentence, man? Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Really, yeah, for me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history.

Listen to look back at it on the Ihard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. May is mental health awareness month, and your 20s, they can feel like a lot. On the psychology of your 20s podcast, we unpack the anxiety, the overthinking, the heartbreak, the identity crisis, all of it that comes with being in your 20s, because if you've ever thought, is anybody else feeling this way, they definitely are.

I feel like my 20s was a process of checking off everything that I was not good at to get to what I was good at. Oftentimes, we take everything a little bit too seriously, and we get lost in things that we later on decide weren't even important to us to begin when there was a large chunk of my 20s that I was just so wanting to like the out of that phase out of my skin, and I just like really regret not living in the present form.

Each week, we break down the science behind what you're going through and give you real tools to navigate it. Your 20s aren't about having it all figured out, they're about understanding yourself just a little bit better. Listen to the psychology of your 20s on the Ihard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or whatever

you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea, with me, Chelsea Hander, we have some fantastic guests, like Amelia Clarke. When like young people come up to me and they want to be an act or whatever, my first thing

is always, can you think of anything else that you can do rather big?

Because, for today, do that, Dennis Leary. I wake up, and I'm hitting him in the head with a water bottle, and Bruce Jenner is on the

Here's the tie, the Kardashians, and we're over there, everybody's going, and the air

“marsh is trying to grab my arms and scream.”

I immediately know that I've been a sleepwalk. David, oh, yeah, the world. I love this podcast, whether it's therapy or relationships or religion or sex or addiction or you just go straight for the guts. Guy Branham, so anyway, no coconut men broke up with Keith Serban.

Being half of a country couple was always a hat she was going to wear, not like a life

she was going to leave. Interesting. I like that. Did you practice that on your way? Gating moderato from Stranger Things, say on a mojou, Camilla Marone, carry Kenny Silver,

and more. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Great, your first. I'm first.

Great.

“May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Months.”

Okay. It is. Every May. And because of that, I'm going to tell you a story that begins August of 1912 in Portland, Oregon with the birth of a baby girl named Hazel.

Her parents, I'm a graded to the U.S. from China. They met each other over here, they get married, they start a family, and baby Hazel is one of eight children. Okay. They do it Irish Catholic style.

But of course, this is an era of rampant anti-immigrant racism and the anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States is looming very large to the point where it's actually codified in our laws with legislation like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which specifically restricts immigration from China for 10 years. That law is renewed again in 1892, and it's made permanent in 1902.

It is not repealed until the 1940s. Hey, build all our infrastructure and risk your life to build a fucking railroad in the infrastructure, but you're not allowed here. It's as if you're psychically reading the net. Really?

Yes. Because when I read that, I was like, that's so weird. It sounds like it's right around the same time that the Chinese built the railroad, and

literally I looked it up, and the first transcontinental railroad crossing of America is

finished May 10, 1869, when the Union Pacific side is connected with the Central Pacific Railroad. So basically, the Central Pacific Railroad side alone, from 1863 to 1869, it's completion. Their employees were over 90% workmen that were Chinese immigrants. They risk their lives daily handling explosives, mining, and like blowing through rock,

completing grueling labor for sometimes half the pay of their white counterparts.

“Did you see that movie that came out recently was nominated for things?”

And it was really good. Train dreams. Train dreams. Thank you, Molly. Train dreams.

Did you see it? It was so low profile. I barely had heard about it. Was it about making? It's about the sky who works on the railroads, and there are characters in it that represent

the Chinese people who helped build it. Who kind of were the majority of the elders, at least in that one side. Yeah. It's a really beautiful movie that doesn't shy away from the horrors. Okay.

That'll be my double feature for the weekend. Where you go? But the irony that then 20 years later, they're passing laws that you can't come into this country at all, insane, and a recurring theme of this country. So that's just a little context, and setting the backdrop as we talk about Little Hazel

Ying Lee growing up in America. She will be remembered as a witty and daring young girl, and when she gets older, her peers will describe her as a quote bubbly optimist with a mischievous streak, and a taste for fried chicken. Same.

Wow. We've been doing this for a decade, but Hazel Ying Lee will become known for much more

than any of that, because she will make history as the first Chinese American woman to get

her pilot's license and fly for the US military. Wow. Today, I'm telling you about the story of Hazel Ying Lee. It is sources used today, or 2003, associated press article by Gillian Flackis, a 2025 PPS Organ Experience Documentary entitled Hazel Ying Lee, and related to an Oregon Public

Broadcasting article written by Emily Hamilton. And the rest, I'm not going to tell you the titles of those, because they give things away, but the rest are in our show notes. So it is now at 1932, and in Hazel's hometown of Portland, Oregon, aviation is actually a big deal.

There's multiple airports around the city, like in and around the city, that regularly host air shows. It's actually aviation so big that the Oregonian newspaper has a dedicated aviation editor.

Yeah.

“And it's basically the time of Amelia Earhart, and like that discovery, then kind of expanding”

out into who else could fly all those things. So Hazel is 20 years old when she goes to an air show with her friends.

And there she gets a chance to ride in an airplane for the very first time.

Can you imagine? Right? And that's when she gets hooked. Wow. This is the year after Amelia Earhart, and some of her constituents, or cohort, form an

international organization for female pilots called the 99s, and it's 10 years after Bessie Coleman becomes the first Black woman and the first native person to get a pilot's license. Because her episode 474, an episode 312, respectively. So being a lady pilot is not inconceivable for Hazel, but even with a tangible path to follow

their serious barriers to entry, of course, money being the biggest one. And Hazel, being the daughter of hardworking immigrant parents with eight children, flying lessons are way down at the bottom of anybody's must-do list. Yeah. Mommy, I want to fly.

That's nice. And then her sister was like, and I want polo lessons. Let's get this America dream going. And yet she still was able to finally do it. Wow.

She's pretty amazing. I couldn't get my dad to drive us to the roller rink on Saturday as him being a first-generation American that was impossible for him. There aren't many employment options at this time for Hazel either. Her sister Francis will later explain, quote, either you'd be a stop girl, an elevator

operator, or you might work in the theater's restroom in a costume. It was very difficult for an Asian person to find a job. So Hazel becomes an elevator operator at a downtown Portland Department Store and she saves up her money to pay for private flying lesson.

“So she basically, that's what she uses all her money for.”

Around the same time, Hazel's father passes away. Her bereaved mother doesn't like the idea of her child flying in planes, but his Francis later says, quote, there was nothing mother could do. She said to Hazel, you're not afraid of the wind, you're not afraid of the water. And that was that.

Wow. Their mom couldn't deny that Hazel was this daring. I kept thinking of Ramona Quimbee because she's also from that area. But like that idea that's this little girl that's just totally unafraid, a big adventure like wants to do that stuff.

And it's like, well, there's kind of nothing I can do. Yes. Late 1932, when she's just shy of 20 years old, Hazel finally gets her pilot's license. And she is the first Chinese American woman ever to earn one, wow, a very cool picture

of her. Oh, my God. What a beauty high. Right? Look at her.

She looks so happy. Yeah, she's just like, check this out. That is just like the coolest photo. The cool. It's so good.

“And listeners, she's leaning on the wing of a by plane.”

Yeah. So it's the most old fashion looking plane of all time.

And then she's got this amazing, like, the directors, joggers and a great flying hat.

And the goggles on her head and a fucking cell for old cigarette. It is cell for old cigarette and her left hand couldn't look cooler. She looks so happy. But there is political tension in the world and in China at this time. And Hazel cares about it deeply.

So the year before she gets her license before this all happens, Japan invades Manchuria igniting the brutal second Sino Japanese war. 20 million Chinese people die in this conflict over the next several years. And Hazel cannot sit by and watch on the sidelines. Like many other Chinese American pilots, the vast majority of whom are male, Hazel travels

to Canton, China, and tries to volunteer with the Chinese Air Force. But because she's a woman, she is repeatedly turned away. So she takes administrative jobs until she actually is forced to flee to Hong Kong as Japan escalates the brutal air campaign. And she basically is forced to return to America, but she still wants to find ways to serve.

And that opportunity will come just a few years later when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. So as the U.S. enters World War II and the fighting intensifies overseas, there's an increasing shortage of military pilots, all of whom are men. And that's a serious problem because the war effort requires non-combat pilots for transport

and you never think about stuff like this.

How do they get supplies over there? Totally. There was a big thing of fearing damaged aircraft for repairs. They had to get the aircraft out and fix it and then get it back. And even just moving people, moving soldiers from place to place, yeah, requires a non-combat pilot.

Right? Or newly manufactured bombers, like basically the planes get flown out by these people. And they use them for training, for maintenance, all of it. So to deal with the pilot shortage, the military finally opens those roles to female civilian pilots.

And when they do 25,000 women apply to join the volunteer program known as Women Air Force

So even though thousands of women apply, only a little over 1800 women are accepted into this program. Wow.

“And what they have to do is they go for six months at a Texas airfield in the relentless”

heat of a Texas summer. Hazel and our peers are put through the same basic training that male pilots complete on top of classes and navigating aviation mechanics, physics and meteorology. Sometimes in upwards of 115 degree heat. No, because it's summertime, Texas.

It's brutally challenging and in the end, over 750 of the trainees drop out or are cut. Hazel Ying Lee makes it through and becomes one of the few female flyers now authorized

to fly the world's most powerful military aircraft.

So she makes it in. Jesus. But when we talk about the Wasps, what you say is that they fly with the military, not for the military, because again, they're not technically enlisted. They're civilian volunteers.

But other than that, small detail, they're virtually indistinguishable from their military counterparts. They're subject to all the same rules. They have to wear the same uniforms, literally the Wasp units had to use flight suits that were made for men.

So most of them were ridiculously oversized and the women referred to them as their suit suits. So here's-- I can't do a picture. Maybe not the suits.

“Well, that's Hazel when she became a Wasp.”

That's her portrait. Actually, has a pin that says Wasp on it. Yeah, they love it. Then the other one is her and so those are their forties, military uniforms that they had to wear.

They're also cute. Good. They're hanging out waiting to fly. Just let us fly. Just let us fly.

Just let us fly. The time in our lives. OK. Hazel becomes a beloved member of this group. She's known for her charm and her personality.

A fellow pilot says she was, quote, in our room, more than she was in hers. She would come bouncing in laughing with the latest information or joke.

She was always very jolly.

Oh, my God. How fun. When they have downtime, and so they have to travel around the United States flying these planes around. So she ends up taking her fellow pilots to local Chinese restaurants.

And it's described years later by the Associated Press with Hazel wowing her peers by ordering and quote, rapid fire Cantonese. So she goes in and just says, like, we're going to get this. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

It's going to be amazing. It's so cool. But of course, these moments are few and far between because the Wasps are constantly on assignment, often flying seven days a week with no rest. And over the next year, Hazel and the other Wasps will deliver more than 12,500 aircrafts

to 122 bases all across the country. They also tow the shooting targets for artillery training, a dangerous job that, so basically it's like something is flying up there and it's like they're towing like a flag or something that they have to hit with machine gun. No, it's like putting an apple on your head and someone has to shoot it off.

No. Thank you. Let the gals go do it. The Wasps will go do it. Oh, my God.

They also help carry out mission simulations. And a huge part of the job is transporting war-battered airplanes, some without working navigation systems back to bases to be repaired. So they end up learning to guide themselves by spotting landmarks on the grounds. They have to be their own GPS.

Yeah. Because most of the job is flying damaged planes from bases to mechanics, engine and system failures. So dangerous. It's so fucking dangerous.

And that's a reality they just have to constantly deal with. So there's a story where one time Hazel is transporting a plane, it goes down over a Kansas cornfield and she is able to like there's emergency landing, she survives it. But then the farmer who's property, she lands on thinks that she is a Japanese enemy, and he chases her down with a pitchfork and traps her.

And basically they hold her hostage until his son can call the local army base and prove

that she actually is an American. Holy shit. Would you know when she got back to the base, she got drunk and told everyone that story hilarious. I mean, sorry.

I'm editorializing on this person, but you get that vibe from her where she's like, I got this. Yeah. I'm sure she was just like, sorry, I first of all, I'm Chinese. Just first starters.

Just first starters. So after all that, Hazel and the other wasps, of course, receive little recognition for their bravery and dedication to the war effort, actually they're treated without right hostility by the male military personnel on the basis that they end up having to work out.

Being a pilot in World War II, of course, is seen as this very serious badge of honor. So many of the men have a real problem seeing women in the cockpit.

“I think they have a picture of Hazel in the cockpit working with somebody that just, oh, wow.”

Uh-huh. Well, that's so badass. He seems nice. He does look at the look on her face, just like, yeah, I know, I know how to, I'm a pilot too, sir.

So they're grit and bravery and sacrifice are just, of course, dismissed outright. Even though dozens of wasps make the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty over the length of the wasp program, 37 female pilots die serving in the United States. Holy shit, that's a lot, especially because it's not on the battlefield or what you call it in the war.

Yeah, but they're doing all the dangerous stuff and they're flying like broken planes. Yeah. Hazel Yingli is one of those people. Oh, no. In late November, 1944, she has to deliver an aircraft from Niagara Falls, New York, to

Great Falls, Montana, and as she approaches Great Falls, a radio dispatch comes through warning her that the air strip is busy and she has to delay her landing. She pulls her plane upwards, not knowing there's another plane directly above her. The pilot was sent the same message, but his radio was broken. He does not change course.

So she flies thinking that everyone's flying the same way because they all, right. The two planes collide in the fiery crash. Somehow Hazel actually survives this crash, but she dies later at the hospital on Thanksgiving day. She's just 32 years old and sadly, at horribly her younger brother, Victor, who was serving

in the war in France, dies in combat the same week. Oh my god. Yeah, Hazel is not given a military funeral. The government doesn't even pay to transport her body back home to Oregon or cover any of the funeral expenses.

And when Hazel's loved ones try to secure a specific burial plot for her that looks out over the Willamut River, they're told that Hazel cannot be buried there because she's not white. Of course, her families, I rate, they file suit against the cemetery and the details are fuzzy on like the step by step of it.

What we know for sure now is that Hazel today is buried at this site and she is buried next to her brother. Wow. Yeah. So it takes a very long time for the women Air Force service pilots to receive any recognition

at all for their service. But as the years pass, after the war, interest and admiration in the group grows.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter finally gives the wasp military benefits and veteran status.

And much later, in 2009, President Barack Obama awards the surviving wasps, the congressional gold medal. Wow. At the signing ceremony, he says, quote, the women Air Force service pilots courageously answered their countries call in a time of need while blazing a trail for the brave

women who have given and continued to give so much service to this nation since. Every American should be grateful for their service, and I'm honored to sign this bill to finally give them some of the harder and recognition they deserve. Miss him.

“And, quote, I mean, remember, President?”

No. Hazel gang leaves like a sea now looms large, reflected in recent music, exhibits, books, documentaries, and in March of 2025, composer Derek Wang, debuts an opera that he wrote about Hazel's life entitled Fearless. Oh my God.

Her memory lives on with those who knew her and who loved her, with a fellow wasp telling the Associated Press that quote, "I'm sure she would be some kind of leader now." She would be enjoyed her so very much. She would have been such a cool grandma, grandma, what did you do during the war? I flew, I smoke fucking swirlies, smoke in some rollies, I wore great outfits, and I

fucking flew plays all. And I was scared of nothing. Hazel's sister Francis has spoken publicly about her sister many, many times over the years. A PBS organ documentary, she says that her sister Hazel was destined for greatness.

It was in her name, because her Chinese name Ying means heroic. And that's the story of trailblazing pilot Hazel Yingly.

Oh my God, right, that was incredible.

I've never heard of her. I've heard of the wasps, like a little bit, but not in detail of like, these are women volunteering and giving everything, and there's people being like, "Thanks, go on." It's a historical. Yeah, that was incredible.

“Do you remember when Diana Ross, double-tap little Kim's boobs at the VMAs?”

Oh, what went kind, Hazel said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking, what the hell does George Bush got to do a little Kim? Well, you can find out on the lookback at a podcast. I'm Sam Jet, and I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a hair, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how he survived

it. The recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the eighties. To be clear, 84 was big to me, not just 'cause of crack. I'm down to the talk about crack, oh, David. No, I'm not.

Put just so y'all know.

I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack.

So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have eights on the table right now, so. Thank you, President Sintin. Yes, I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really?

“Yeah, for me, it's one of the most important years for black people.”

American history.

get your podcasts.

May is mental health awareness month, and your 20s, they can feel like a lot.

On the psychology of your 20s podcast, we unpack the anxiety, the overthinking, the heartbreak, the identity crisis, all of it that comes with being in your 20s, because if

“you've ever thought, is anybody else feeling this way?”

They definitely are. I feel like my 20s was a process of checking off everything that I was not good at to get to what I was good at. Oftentimes, we take everything a little bit too seriously, and we get lost in things that we later on decide weren't even important to us to begin when there was a large chunk

of my 20s that I was just so wanting to like be out of that phase out of my skin, and I just like really regret not living in the present form. Each week, we break down the science behind what you're going through and give you real tools to navigate it. Your 20s aren't about having it all figured out.

They're about understanding yourself just a little bit better. Listen to the psychology of your 20s on the Ihard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea, with me, Chelsea Handler, we have some fantastic guests like Amelia Clark.

When like young people come up to me and they want to be an actor or whatever, my first

thing is always, can you think of anything else that you can do rather big?

Because, for today, do that, Dennis Leary. I wake up, and I'm hitting him in the head with a water ball, and Bruce Jenner is on the aisle in a karate stance like he's about to attack me like, they can karate noises. And here's the tie, the Kardashians and we over there, everybody's going, and the air morse is trying to grab my arms and screaming.

I immediately know that I've been in sleepwalk. David, oh, yellow, I love this podcast, whether it's therapy or relationships or religion or sex or addiction or you just go straight for the guts. Guy, Brannam. So anyway, Nicole Kidman broke up with Keith Serban.

Being half of a country couple was always a hat she was going to wear, not like a life she was going to leave. Oh, interesting. I like that. Did you practice that on your way?

Gating moderato from Stranger Things.

Sanam moju, Camilla Morone, Carrie Kenny Silver, and more.

Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm going to go in a different direction. Okay. That's pretty common.

But you're going to like this one. Great, because it's a high story. Love a good high story. Love a high story. Love a high story.

“So, did you know that LA used to be the bank robbery capital of the world?”

Yeah. I would think it would be Fort Knox or somewhere like that. Yeah, maybe it is now, but it used to be. Yeah. So, congratulations to us.

Was it like the downtown era when everything was down there? That's where we're at today, reading my mind. So it's just past midnight on Saturday, September 12th, 1997. And we are at the non-descript warehouse of the Dunbar Armored Depot. And do you know Dunbar Trucks?

It's like the Brinkstruck. Yeah. It's another one of those brands of moving lots and lots of cash around in an armored truck. Okay. And so, the Dunbar Armored Depot is in downtown Los Angeles, kind of the warehouse area, not

much going on around there. And that's where Dunbar's armored trucks are loaded and unloaded as an intermediate stop between wherever the cash is. Coming from and wherever it's going. So like, you know, where they take the cash and then put it into the ATMs.

It stops there.

“And between gets counted, gets, well, I could be wrong, but I think I've seen a terrible”

guy richy movie about this place. Really? Yeah. Instead of robbing a bank or robbing a Brinkstruck, we're going to go into where they have the money.

This is exactly what the plan is here. Okay. So, it's Friday night. And Friday nights into Saturday morning are one of the busiest ships because it's where the most cash is being moved in and out of the vault, you know, for the weekends to go

to those ATMs. And in fact, it's so busy that the staff just keeps the vault door open this time, instead of opening and closing it just to kind of bring all the money in, like they're bringing so much in that extra stuff of opening, closing the door isn't going to work for them. Yeah.

Who's suggestion was that right? And even though we're talking about more cash being handled than a bank would have over $100 million. Oh my god. It's also less security than in a bank.

And in fact, the ship has the fewest number of security guards scheduled to work, even though it's the most amount of money. It's not great. Common sense. Plansada.

Logistically. Exactly. And I guess it makes sense because it's like, well, of course, a bank would have more security because people off the street can come in.

fucking money. It's just money. Yes. Money.

Working and he's in the lunch room, taking his lunch break, but the CCTV monitors are in

there as well. So he's keeping an eye on what's going on. He sees no sign of anyone trying to enter the facility. So he's taking completely off-guard when five men dressed in all black wearing ski masks burst into the lunch room with guns drawn.

This is the story of what was until very recently the largest cash robbery in U.S. history, one that the perpetrator is very nearly got away with if it weren't for some very rookie mistakes. This is the Dunbar armored depot heist. Hell, yes.

The main source of the story is an episode of the show, "Pistories Greatest Heist," hosted by Pierce Brosnan, and a 2020 medium article by Alyssa Kelly Rose, and the other sources can be found on our show notes. So the heist starts and ends with a Dunbar employee named Alan Pace. He's 27 years old from a middle class family in Compton.

He has no criminal record.

“He actually works at the depot as a security specialist, and that's what his career has”

been up to then, is like various security jobs. He has idly toyed with the idea of how he might rob the facility. But not with any seriousness, and it's kind of his job to know how someone would rob the facility. He's not that weird.

Also, don't you think about that every time you see like a brings truck horse? We're just kind of like, where are they just standing outside? I did this on that. Yeah, exactly. And he's an affable guy, he's a jokester, everyone seems to love him, and at some point

he starts dating a co-worker who's also on the security staff, a woman named Tamiko Garnes. And while they're both in security, Alan's job revolves around inspecting the trucks, while Tamiko is monitoring the video security system. And no one really knows how seriously Alan and Tamiko discuss the idea of perpetrating this robbery.

But what we do know is that in July of 1997, Tamiko gets fired under suspicion of theft. She's seen on a security camera placing a money bag in a known camera blind spot. It's all allegedly. It's totally not clear.

“She actually was going to steal anything, or if she had any plans to, or even knew about”

this heist at all.

And she was never brought to trial or anything like that, so just want to make that clear

up. But what does happen is she gets fired for this security breach, whether it's on purpose or not. And this is what kind of sends Alan pace into a tailspin with the idea of, like, fuck this place.

Yeah, I'm going to actually see, like, can do a heist. So in August of 1997, Alan starts by recruiting friends. None of them have ever robbed any kind of security facility before, none of them even have criminal records. They're all like nice boys who go to church and come from nice, respectable families.

They're all just Alan's buddies. The first one he calls is a childhood friend named Eugene Hill and another one named Freddie McCreeory Jr., so Eugene Hill, Freddie, and Alan have all known each other since they were around 10 years old. So Alan is like, these are guys I can absolutely trust and they won't tell anyone.

And Freddie also works as a security guard, so he has relevant experience. And then Alan also recruits a man named Terry Brown, also a security guard. So Alan, Freddie and Terry have all worked together on private security jobs at, like, events and nightclubs. They've done some bouncer work, that sort of thing.

So one day after church, the group gathered around in the parking lot and started drawing out a plan and chalk on the pavement. And Alan is showing them all how the facility works, kind of, a layout of the whole place, noting where each camera is and where the team will have to walk in order to not show up on those monitors.

So there is like a, you know, you're like up against the wall, like, super burglar style. You know, like a spawn like a friend and then you run, run, run, run, run, run, run to the next one. Yeah, exactly like that. Exactly.

And it seems like they do it in broad daylight in the church parking lot. And then other pressures like don't suspect anything because they're good boys. Not a church. Yeah. And so later he recruits an additional man named Tommy Johnson.

So next, well, Alan is at work. He starts taking Polaroids around the facility of every room and every camera. But he's a security guard, so it doesn't seem weird. It's almost like it seems like he's just doing research. Yeah.

Takes photos of his like co-workers who are just like, hey, I love Alan. I love Alan. I love Alan. I love Alan. Yeah.

Alan, you're so great. No, he likes the specs. Alan, he's Alan. And he uses these Polaroids to create a detailed floor plan with visual references so that the rest of the group will know exactly where they're going.

So there are 25 cameras, but only around six monitors.

“So they kind of just like, pop in and out of like whatever camera is on, you know what I mean?”

Sure.

He instructs them on how to travel so that they never show up in the feeds that are on

the monitor at the moment.

“It's kind of a lot of choreography and it takes some time.”

So the plan is to keep practicing this choreography until September. That's when they're going to have to do the heist. So Alan's original plan is to not participate in the heist at all since he works there. Smart. He gives them such detailed information and they have such a long time that they should

be able to do on their own without him even being there. He goes to bed. He wakes up the next morning and goes to work and he's just as shocked as everyone else that the place got burgled. So it's plausible deniability.

Exactly. He's kind of building anything where it's like he doesn't have to worry about seeming guilty. Right. Exactly. The plan is for him to give them the key because he has the keys to the place because

he's a security guard there and then they go and do it. So that is a great plan until early September when Alan gets fired. Oh, he gets a call saying he's been fired because he's suspected of tampering with trucks and that he'll need to come back in and hand in his key. And so Alan decides it's now or never because he does earlier than we planned, but I have

to get rid of my key. So we have to do this and also he's like, all come along with you guys now since we haven't had as much time as we mean and I know the layout so well.

I just got to say first of all, do you think at a place like that they do, they replace

the locks every time they fire somebody? I bet they don't. Probably not because you could just get a copy, right? It's not the thing. And the other house movies where they shove it into some clay or whatever.

There's all these keys that say like do not copy. I've gotten so many of those copied. Yes. I mean, no one gives a single shit. It's like, it's the shit.

No, it is for the landlord. Yeah, exactly. For a place like that, it would be interesting just to know, because this is pre-tech anything. Right.

Like, every piece on their honor. And then when you're firing people and they're like, yeah, well, fuck you. Totally.

“Like, there's not like the badges that you have to like sign in and out with.”

It's just a key. A key. That like, yeah. Okay. Hundreds of millions of dollars.

So he also then recruits one more person, his brother-in-law named Eric Boy. So on the night of Friday, September 12th, they were like, it has to be tonight. The group splits up into two vehicles, some ride in Eugene Hills car and some ride in a U-Haul that they had rented earlier in the day. They don't go straight to the depot.

Here's what they do. There is a friend having a house party in Long Beach. So they go to the house party and they're like, what's up, everyone? It's us. Yes.

You're out. We're here at the house party. Exactly. And then around 1145, they all like, tiptoe, Irish goodbye, yes. Get into the car and to the U-Haul and drive to the depot.

Right? Is everyone's getting a little slurry? Exactly. Yeah. That's right.

And so they get to downtown LA. They park on a nearby street and then they drive the U-Haul up to the depot. Everyone changes into all black clothing and puts on the ski masks and then Eric, the brother-in-law stays behind with the U-Haul. And the Jews, sorry, for your heist.

Yeah. Would you be the driver? Would you be. I'd be the getaway driver. I'd be the getaway driver.

Yeah. Yeah. What do you think? What would you be? I'm too bossy.

I had to be in charge.

“I can't let other people fuck my heist up.”

I would trust you to be in charge. Thank you. And I would definitely be like, no one is the driver of a me. Oh, I would not hire. I would not hire.

Fucking person to be the driver. No way. But I also would absolutely know you would get us out of there. Oh my god. Absolutely.

Especially downtown LA. I'm baby driver. That's my nickname. That's right. I'm a driver influencer.

I'm a getaway driver influencer. Here's how to run a red light in three fun steps. And then Vince can count the money because he can't have money facing the wrong way. Oh, he bank faces everything. So obsessed about that.

So I would trust him to count exactly how much money there is. Yes. And like be in charge of the money and how much and getting everyone the right. Yeah, that's right. He's the banker.

So the three of us. We've done it. Let's do it. We just gave it away. Well, cut that out.

So in the parking lot, they sneak up to the front door and the security cameras. Blindspot. And they use the key to open the door. They sneak through the deposed maze of corridors, you know, doing the thing we said up against the wall.

I'm sorry. But the idea that they have continual blind spots like they're firing people for going into the blind spot. Right. Not fixing the blind spots.

It's like the money is still there. The issues still remain. Absolutely. My high school work. Okay.

That's against the wall. It's the wall. Stripe shirt. Tipto. Maks.

Agerator. Tipto. Big tips. Tipto.

Their first destination is the lunchroom because they've timed everything around the security

guards lunch break. This poor fucking guy is trying to use sandwich. He's like, I microwaved this old TV dinner. That's right. This fish dinner.

And they know where he'll be exactly a bit night.

They subdue the security guard immediately. They get them on the ground. Duck tape is wrists together. Take any of his weapons. They also bring weapons, but they are very clear on nobody gets hurt.

You can't control that always, but that's their plan.

They then take his key to the vault prep room. Alan checks the security monitors and verifies that there are only three people that he's expecting to see working in the vault room. Those people who took fucking followers of. But that's the proceed down the hallway, a driver of one of the truck drivers who's basically

a train security guard emerges from the vault prep room. That's a surprise. But the driver's unarmed and so the group gets him on the ground and they ducted his wrists together. And so one member of the group stays behind to watch the guards.

And then in the vault prep room, there is one dispatcher and two bookkeepers counting the money doing the events. Exactly. The group goes for the dispatcher first because he has a panic button under his desk. So they subdue the rest of the employees.

There is one female employee who's at the depot and is understandably terrified, but also

“I think she gets her shoulder hurt when they wrestle her to the ground and so she starts”

crying.

And she hears one of the thieves, one of the mass men say, don't worry, baby.

Like calming her down and she's like, I feel like I know that voice. Like he. Don't worry, baby. He's just trying to be nice. Don't worry, baby.

Don't worry, baby. Don't worry, baby. They're going to rob you a little bit more. Exactly. So Alan, then radio's Eric, who's me back in the U-Haul.

He backs the U-Haul into the loading dock and Alan starts to pick out what packages of cash the group is going to take from the vault. He knows to skip the crisp new bills that cause they're in sequential order and they're more traceable and these are big shrink wrap blocks of cash like giant blocks. Yeah.

You know, like we're in super Mario Brothers, like hitting our heads on the top. So they're shrink wrapped, they throw them into trash bags and then throw them into wheelbands and then stuff them all into the U-Haul and the whole thing takes about only 30 minutes. And after 30 minutes, the U-Haul is so full of cash to the fucking tippy top that the whole group isn't going to be able to fit back inside.

Oh, they didn't plan that out. They sure did. They got greedy, didn't they?

“They remove all the security footage, including the secret security footage that, you know,”

they shouldn't have known about and they hadn't actually worked there. Then they smashed a bunch of things around the office to try to make it look like a more random burglary. Like they were looking for the key. You know, they'd be like, yeah, they do when they pull out the dresser drawers and stuff

where it's like, make it look like a robbery. Yes, totally. I just keep thinking about the fact though that they didn't plan the ride home because also you're downtown. So that's the thing too.

Okay. They're in and out about 30 minutes and then they're like, there's two guys who don't fit back into the truck, they're going to get away cars, like, you know, a few blocks away, but it's the middle of the night in downtown LA and it's two black men in fucking all black and masks, like you're not, they're not safe.

It's not safe for you to be out there. You're going to get immediately caught. So essentially what they do is there's other security guard who was having his lunch. His beloved pickup truck is in the parking lot and this security guard is so in love with his pickup truck that he had had one of the cameras trained on it at all times.

So they take the keys to his truck.

“They get in his truck and they pick out and it's a little mini movie about them stealing”

his truck. Yeah, but they don't get caught from that way because they did take all the film. So it does work, but it also means that security camera wasn't on the door where it was supposed to be. It was on his truck.

Oh, he changed it because he's such a gear head. So they all go back, they meet up back at Eugene's apartment, they changed back into the regular clothes and this is really smart, they go back to the party. Yes. Right?

Yeah. They don't just leave at midnight. Also not just for their alibi, but just to party.

Let's get back there and see what the third wave is about.

Everyone is fucked up. They're just dancing. They're so fucked up. And they bring that you haul full of cash and park it right in front of the house. It's to be like, I'm not letting this out of my sight.

Yes. And they're back within 90 minutes of leaving the party. So wow, I don't think anyone would have said anything. They're like, listen, we had to go run to you haul really thick because we don't know. We might buy new catches.

Exactly. Okay. So then afterwards there's so much fucking cash and they didn't expect that they bring the you hauled to a storage unit, they buy a storage unit and put much to the cash in there. They keep just a little bit of cash just to have, just to play with.

Sure, it's a really aware that the way to get caught is to start spending all that cash. So they're careful about it. When the cops arrive to the depot, they find in the parking lot right outside the depot a broken piece of tail light.

into the, he hit something and broke a tail light. I know. So rookie, rookie, you would not have done that, but also that's so strange.

“What are the odds where it's just kind of really so nervous?”

Yes. And stressed out. Yeah. And so that's the cops first bit of evidence and then they look at the lock that, you know, where they had actually used the key, but then afterwards they had used a drilled kind of

damage it to make it look like they got in without the key. Yeah. But the cops are like, this is obviously just to cover up the fact that you had the key. It's probably an employee. Yeah.

Immediately. Also, it's at a fucking the Brink's rival or whatever. It's an employee. Yeah. It's the people who have to sit there and stare at it all day long.

Right. Like, how do they know exactly where the security stuff was to destroy it or to take it? It's not good. So it's not until a few days later that Dunbar officials are able to figure out how much cash is actually missing, how much was actually stolen, doing it, guess how much was stolen?

Yes, I do want to. Okay. It's 1997, you said? Yeah. It was the largest cash robbery in US history.

So how much do you think? $59 million. See, I was going to say to you like, don't go overboard because it's going to sound better. Hold on.

Give me a chance to go underboard $30 million dollars.

Well, so $2 million dollars. $18.99 million dollars. Oh, that's not bad. That's a lot of fucking money. It's just a microwave dinner.

They stole that off that guy and the truck. Right. It's all they got. However, in today's money, that $18.9 million is upwards of four million dollars. $38.8 million.

Oh, yes. Very close. Very close. Right. All along.

So that makes it the largest cash robbery in US history to date. And that record isn't broken until 2024. Wow.

“So these guys, I think almost like they overdid it and didn't realize it.”

They overdid it and they also did it without the aid of modern technology. Right. They did it the real way. They earned it. They went to the party.

They got the yellow haul. They planned it. They didn't work in a parking lot. Doing your plan in the church parking lots, genius. Yeah.

Yeah. And then also like only recruiting people that you know and trust, I think, is obviously a huge part of it. And that aren't criminals. Yeah.

They're like, this is going to be the one thing we do. It's going to set us up for the rest of our lives. Never again. It's every highest movie. It's a high movie.

Come back for just this one last one before you retire. Exactly.

So it was $18.9 million in that the time.

And the police and Dunbar keep that number out of the press, worrying that copycats are

“going to be like, oh, that's how much money I can get from this easiest fuck.”

Guys. Yeah. So they just tell the press that it was more than a million dollars. I have been taken. Wow.

Which is an understatement. They're like, oh, just that one warehouse under the overpass. I can go down there. So the police in the FBI have their two main clues, which is the fact that the robbers clearly used a key and that broken tail light.

They're quickly able to tie that broken tail light piece back to a U-Hall truck. Yeah. That's pretty fucking easy. And so Allen, the guy who got fired recently is immediately a suspect with that one employee also saying that she recognized his voice.

I don't think she realized it was his voice until later. So he and every other employee who had quit or been fired recently, about 30 people all are given polygraph tests and Allen and his girlfriend to Miko are the only two that fail. Oh.

But there's really no solid evidence that can tie Allen to the crime. And so two years past where he's like, I got away with this. But wouldn't you have an acid stomach, the entire time? Absolutely, especially because you took a polygraph test there like on to you and you know that.

You know, it didn't go well. Some of our announces that they will have an award of $250,000 for anyone who gives them information, leading to an arrest, which gives you a clue that it's more than around a million dollars. Yeah.

Exactly. You're just like, how much? Yeah. Well, we just want that back. Well, give you a quarter of what they stole.

Right. But the group stays into the radar. No one spends a crazy amount of money. You know, they go to Vegas and use cash on those to help wander the money. But no one, you know, buys a pink Cadillac like in good fellows or does anything crazy.

Like the good fellows looped Fossa, heist, which I covered in episode 454. They don't do that. They're smarter than that. They find instead a local immigration lawyer named David Matsumoto, who along with his

assistant, agreed to be paid a million dollars each to help wander the money.

Oh. So they just find a lawyer who's willing to very smart. And so they do that through real estate purchases and like kind of small purchases. And then also they open a small business called Extreme Entertainment. So that they're able to take a salary from the business and make the money look legit.

Stepbrothers. Oh. Yeah.

What was the stepbrothers one?

I don't know. Prestige worldwide. Thank you. Oh, Prestige worldwide. Molly had that at hand.

She did. She was an Aristotle. I'm sorry. She came for on that. She was an Aristotle.

“Basically what the company does on the surface is they rent party equipment, jet skis,”

and limoes. So they are like Prestige worldwide. Extreme entertainment. That's what they do. And that's how they wander the money.

And it's also a front to pay the crew big salaries with the stolen money. And then it becomes a wonderfully successful business. Exactly. Does it? No.

It seems like it. It seems like it. It does seem like it. On the surface, it seems like they're making a shit ton of money, and it's all legal money.

Yeah. Taxed and everything. Yeah. They're doing it right. Unlike the rice pudding store in New York, there was a rice pudding store that opened.

Rice to riches. I fucking had this. Yes. I have had rice pudding from those places before.

“And we did a field piece at Ellen, we're like, what, you can do?”

This is crazy. Because we're just scraping the bottom of what can we do for a field piece. And then, like, two years later, it's like, this is a front for some mafia thing. I was actually really surprised by that because I went there one time, I got rice pudding. And it was so good that I was like, how could that be a front if it was so fucking good?

Like, I was actually shocked. I wonder if it's not that hard to make a rice pudding. It was terribly souffle of a rice pudding and it was fucking excellent. But I also see that most people don't like rice pudding. So.

Yeah. It's very specific. Yeah. I picked something that would keep people away. Not the course lines are on the fucking block.

Exactly. I loved it. I was just like, this is one of my favorites. Does that? Yeah.

It was fucking hilarious. So extreme entertainment. We're taking a fuck with that. Where are we? We're okay.

So they might have actually gotten away with it at this point.

But Eugene Hill, the old friend, the first one who Alan brought into the plan, makes

an error. Let's say. Pretty big error. So, in trying to make a down payment on a property, because we're putting a lot of this money into real estate to make it look legit, he offers another lawyer $100,000 in cash,

which is already suspicious. But also, he leaves the branded money strip on the $100,000 cash that says Dunbar. No. You know, the like, the bundling, the bundling money paper, he doesn't take it up. And it says Dunbar on it.

Dunbar cash and stuff. So, understandably, this lawyer is suspicious. Yeah. And it calls the police, probably finds out about that $250,000 reward, the cash is examined by the authorities.

And they find that those Dunbar branded straps that still on it have been stamped with the date they were counted, which just so happens to be September 11th and 12th of 1997. And then, when they have the name of Eugene Hill, they're able to go back into the U-Haul rental records and find that it had been rented under his name. Oh.

Yeah. Ooh.

“Here's the thing, though, about heists that I've learned over years of watching many”

films and maybe doing a couple of heists myself. Human error has to get folded in. Yes. And if we don't do that, and if people don't think about every single possibility, we're just like, no, we're going to go over it again.

If you're going to spend the cash, what are you going to do? Put the band out the cash. Don't be excited about bands like all those kinds of things, which, you know, if it's just a bunch of amateurs, they can't think of every way. So once Eugene is arrested, police threaten him, because they've all agreed that if one

of them gets caught, they're going to just take the blame and go down and then their families will be taken care of with the money that was stolen. Unfortunately, Eugene is arrested and he had been using his sister's bank account to launder money through. And so as soon as he's told that she's going to be charged as an accomplice, he picks

his family over his friends. Yeah. And he winds up admitting to participating, and he names everyone else. Everyone is arrested, one by one, with Allen actually turning himself in at the end in February of 2000.

Can I just say that that was clearly Eugene's older sister? Because I was like, what else is the story that got to give a shit? He's like, it's right, me if you want. It's the older sister. It's like, my son has to turn everybody in.

I'm, there's no coming back from this. Yeah. That's a real scared of our older sister. Dead. We afraid of our older sisters.

So when the group is indicted in court, this is the first time they hear how much money they had stolen and I guess all of their faces fell because they hadn't counted all the money.

So when they hear that they stole $18.9 million dollars, like the blood rushed out of

all of their faces. And they were like, oh, we are in so much trouble.

Like, they had stolen a million. I feel like after taxes. Yeah.

They had never counted all the money.

So four of the group, everyone except Allen's brother-in-law, Eric Boyd, wind up testifying against Allen. Allen pleads not guilty and actually from when I can see to this day he denies being involved at all, which is interesting. He says that he was framed by one of the other defendants quote because I was messing

with his wife. So he just refused this to take any response. He just says he's not involved. Yeah, yeah. He ends up serving 24 years in prison.

Wow. Yeah. Well, everyone else serves about 12 years. And so that was in the year 2000-ish, so he's out now. In the end, only around $7 million is ever recovered.

Oh. Yeah. The rest of the stolen money was believed to have been either squandered by the robbers at gambling tables in Vegas. Some of it was burned because they found that some of the bills were sequential.

And so they could get caught with them and easily traced or invested in other things in other people's names.

So that big sister, you know, she's living somewhere.

Nice. I hope so too. She's the end of the movie. Fucking live in paradise. She's like, that's right.

That's it. Don't use my bank account if you're not going to pay me back. This is why you scare the shit out of your younger siblings from birth. Yeah. And they won't fucking ride on you.

And they serve you for the rest of life, essentially. And actually, I found in 2020 this producer named Khalib Pinkett, who is fucking Jada Peepin. It smits brother. Yes.

His production company, like we're going to make a movie out of this, but I didn't find anything any updates since then. So I'm not sure where that went, you know, how it probably would. Yes. Ticks forever.

And that is a story of the Dunbar Armored Depot Heist. Man. That was good. Yeah. That was great.

I mean, I don't know, there's only a couple of high stories that I've heard where

the story is and the money has never found.

Yeah. There's only a couple of those. I feel like. Yeah. It was kind of a success, depending on how you want to look at it.

Yeah. A little bit.

“I feel like these days, we used to look at highs a little bit different, but I think”

these days, people are just like stick it to the man. Yeah. Well, these were the good guys. They were not criminals. They were all buddies from when they were young, working their houses off and we're finally

like, let's, let's take advantage of how dumb this fucking corporation is. And also, along the way, you're welcome for showing you like your security issues. Yeah. Constant security issues that you refuse to fix, right? Just like you can't keep firing people.

Yeah. Apparently, your video camera won't turn to the right or left very far. And then let's keep in mind, of course, the people who were working there that night were scared out of their minds. They had guns pulled on them.

No, that's not good. That's about they. Yeah. That's a lot of trauma. That's a lot of trauma.

And let's rethink our next ice. When we use ice, let's do it in a more caring way. Sure. Please. I feel like this has been almost like a college class in this podcast today.

Totally. Just bringing the full, every facet of the world to you. American history, baby. Yeah. Get into it.

What's what we do here on my favorite murder? That is, yeah, our true crime podcasts. That's right.

“That's why we both graduated college with degrees in American history.”

That's right. Advanced degrees. From CSUN. From CSUN. Matterdors.

They're going to send us a CSUN justice. A CSUN justice. Care. Come on. I had to do this like years in the making.

I'm so happy about it. Ponds against my will. That's my new autobiography. That was fun times. Listeners, thank you for being here with us.

We appreciate you so much, everyone. If you have any high questions, please write in to my favorite murdergmail.com and until then, stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye.

Elvis, do you want to clicky? Ah! This has been an exactly right production. Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer is Tessa Hughes. Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

This episode was mixed by Leonis Quilacci. Our researchers are Mary McLashon and Ali Alkin. Email your hometowns to my favorite murder at gmail.com and follow the show on Instagram at my favorite murder. Listen to my favorite murder on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

get your podcasts. And now you can watch my favorite murder on Netflix. And when you're there, hit the double thumbs up and the Remind Me buttons.

“That's the best way you can support our show.”

Goodbye. On the look back at the podcast. The next seminar that was big moment for me, 84 was big to me. I'm Sam Jack and I'm Alex E. Grish. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we

With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite others, like Mark Lamont Hill on the

80s.

“I don't think there's a more important year for black people.”

Listen to look back at it on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

When you feel uncomfortable, what do you put on?

Biggie. You put on biggie when you feel uncomfortable? I want to get confident.

“This is DJ Heaster Prince Music's Therapy, a weekly podcast from me, a DJ and licensed”

therapist.

It's mental health month.

Let's figure out what actually works. I didn't care about my life circumstance when I listened to that stuff. It didn't matter to me. This isn't just a podcast.

“It's unconventional therapy for you every day.”

Open your free iHeart Radio app, search DJ Heaster Prince Music's Therapy, and start listening now. Sometimes a suspect is found guilty before a verdict is ever read in court. On the WickedWords podcast, I talk with the writers who dig deep into the cases that changed history, including Marsha Clarke, who went from prosecuting one of the most famous murder

cases to writing crime fiction. It doesn't matter that you didn't take part in the murder. If you were at the scene at all, you're guilty of murder. Every week, the real story is revealed, join us every Monday for new episodes of Wicked Words.

Listen to WickedWords on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.