Dirty Money

On dating apps, Derek Alldred seemed like the perfect match. A decorated veteran or sometimes surgeon with a heart of gold and a healthy bank account. But what his many victims didn’t realize is that he was a prolific con artist, tapping into their credit cards and retirement accounts to finance his lavish lifestyle. The scam lasted for years until a few persistent women brought him down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Investigative journalist Max Marshall joins the show to discuss his new book, “Among the Bros,” which delves into the bust of five College of Charleston Kappa Alpha fraternity members and their friends who were part of a multi-million dollar narcotics network. And if that doesn’t sound dirty enough for you, the arrests came as the result of an investigation into the murder of a former student who was the son of a luxury real estate developer. It’s a story of greed, entitlement, and as Max writes, the consequences of living a life without any consequences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

You’ve heard of Alexander Hamilton—but how about his great grandson Ray? In this episode, we dive into the tawdry tale of how a descendent of one of the Founding Fathers was conned by a schmeing prostitute into marrying him using an infant purchased from a baby farm. Historian Bill Shaffer joins the show to talk about this mostly forgotten story, which was a tabloid sensation at the turn of the 19th Century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

On August 20, 1989, Jose and Kitty Menendez were brutally murdered in their Beverly Hills mansion. Their sons Erik and Lyle were accused of the murder in what seemed like an open-and-shut case — they wanted to collect their parents’ insurance. But a sensational trial revealed that there was something even more nefarious going on at their mansion on Elm Avenue. Nearly 25 years after the murders that shook the world, we revisit this notorious case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

On Thanksgiving Eve of 1971, a hijacker known as D.B. Cooper parachuted out of a commercial airplane with $200,000 in ransom money and was never seen again. It’s the only unsolved commercial airline hijacking in U.S. history, and the FBI officially closed the books on the investigation nearly a decade ago.  But while the Feds have thrown in the towel, citizen detective Eric Ulis is still fighting to learn the truth. For years, Ulis has been working on his own to keep the case alive and, thanks to a recent discovery, says he is on the verge of a breakthrough in revealing Cooper’s true identity. All he needs is a little cooperation with the FBI, which he is suing the agency to get. In this episode, we speak with Ulis to get the amazing story of this daring and dangerous heist and delve into the modern detective tactics he is using to put some heat on this cold case. Ulis has made some incredible discoveries that could, at last, reveal the identity of the hijacker — all he needs now is for the Feds to give him access to a clip-on tie, one of the few pieces of evidence Cooper left behind when he jumped out of that plane. Whether you’re fascinated by historical crimes or fascinated by modern detective work, we can guarantee this: you will be fascinated by this episode! Thanks as always for listening. Please rate and review us, and if you want to learn even more about D.B. Cooper, be sure to check out Kevin Ulis’s CooperCon events [https://cooperconevents.com/]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]