D'oh! Operation Flagship
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Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and Jerry's here too, and this is Stuff You Should Know, the Freeze Edition. Yeah, you know what the edition this is? This is the law enforcement sometimes thinks they're so cute and clever edition. Right. Man, I can't wait to point out how many cutesy little names and acronyms pop up in this story. And this, and a lesson. If you're a criminal...

and you ever think something might be shady and it might be a sting operation, just look at any name that they've given you and like read it backwards or see if it spells an acronym that says like, we nabbed you buddy or something like that. Like that's how cutesy they got is, then you'll see. I'll just throw that out there and we'll talk about them as they pop up. Yeah. And there's our daily assistance in helping criminals evade capture by law enforcement. Yeah.

Yeah. Was that what I was doing? I certainly was. All right. Moving on. So we're talking about one specific operation, Operation Flagship, which was conducted by the U.S. Marshal Service back in, I think, 1985. And...

It's just kind of mind-boggling. Where did you hear about this? Did somebody write in or did you already know about it being an NFL fan? Yeah, you know what? I'm not sure. Now that I think of it, this may have been a listener request. And I'm going to look that up real quick because I hate not shouting people out. Yeah, I'm with you. When that happens. Well, I keep talking while you...

Look. OK. So the U.S. Marshal Service, they're one of the first American law enforcement agencies. They were founded back in 1789. Dave helped us with this. It's Dave Week, by the way. Yeah. As Dave put it in the time of George Washington.

So they've been around quite a bit. And over the course of this history, like they've done a lot of different really kind of great stuff. They they escorted students into the first segregated schools, black students to segregated schools. They protected them.

They enforced prohibition, which I guess depending on your views on prohibition, it was great or not. They operated the U.S. Census, which seems like they were at the time just really looking for busy work for the marshal service. Yeah, just give them a bunch of pencils. And then turn them loose. And then famously, Chuck, anytime you hear somebody call like a Wild West law enforcement guy marshal,

They were a U.S. marshal. That was one of the roles they played. They served as the long arm of the law in the Wild West era of American history. Yeah. So they did a lot of things. They found a lot of busy work for them to do over the years.

These days, did you mention witness protection? Not yet. Yeah. I mean, basically, these days they take care of witness. The witness they run the witness security program, a.k.a. witness protection. If you see prisoners being transported like to court or something, those are marshals doing that.

And since 79, they've been in charge of fugitive investigations, which is to say basically anybody with an outstanding warrant is a fugitive. You don't have to have, like, escaped prison. If you're charged with a crime or have been summoned to testify or something like that and you jump bail, you don't appear in court, if you escape from custody, then you're a fugitive. And the U.S. Marshals are going to try and find you and either put you back in

in jail or put you in jail for your very first time. Yeah. And Tommy Lee Jones doesn't care if you're innocent. His job is to get you and bring you back to jail. No, no, no, my wife. I don't care. That's so great, man. One of the great lines in movie history.

Um, so yeah, you can be a fugitive all sorts of ways. And regardless of how it is, the U S marshals are out there to get you. Um, and for the most part, when they get you, it's because they've tracked you down. Um, maybe they got a tip. Uh, maybe they just started looking for you and they found that you're actually at your last known address and they arrest people quite frequently. I think I saw that.

They rounded up like 75,000 fugitives in 2023 or 24. They arrest a lot of people. But for some reason, during the early to mid 80s, the U.S. Marshal Service went on what can only be described as a cutesy streak.

Yeah. He said, hey, guys, let's have a little fun with this. They clearly did. I mean, like these. Oh, yeah. This whole thing was hatched hours into an office Christmas party in 1979. That's the only explanation for this. Yeah, for sure. We'll start with our first QT acronym. In 1981, they launched a program called the Fugitive Investigative Strike Team, a.k.a. FIST.

Because they're going to use their fist to get you. Right up your bum. That's right. And their goal was to do fugitive investigations, not just like one person at a time, but like, let's see if we can get a lot of these people at one time, high concentrations of these fugitives, and round them up and bring them in. And how are we going to do that? We're going to do that with these really kind of wacky sting operations. Right.

Which, you know, it's not like they were just out to have fun. There's a lot of merit to doing something this way. They're generally cheaper than just one at a time going after somebody. Resource wise, they're safer because usually when you launch something like this, they're

They're going to be unaware. They're not going to be they're not going to have a weapon on them like they might, you know, behind the door of their own home that they barely crack open. So, you know, it's cheaper. It's generally a little safer. We're going to talk about a few examples of these before we get to flagship. One very successful one was a program called Mr. Zip. And this is just very lo-fi. They would have marshals dressed up as U.S. mail carriers and.

And they would just knock on your door and say, I got a package for Mr. Homer Simpson. And they would produce their ID and sign their name. And they would say, thank you. You're under arrest. Yeah. It is you. I think that was actually in The Fugitive, too.

Yeah, that sounds familiar. Yeah, I mean, it's been in a lot of different movies, but... Like Here Are Your Roses, that kind of thing? Uh-huh, exactly. Yeah. So I don't know if this is actually the origin of it or not, but it certainly seems to be because I don't get the impression that they did a lot of this stuff before this era. Yeah, what about Puno Airlines? I love this one. That was pretty fun. So Puno means fist in Spanish. Uh-huh.

Right. Sorry. It's just it's also like it's almost like they wanted people to figure it out. Yes. That is inherently the problem behind this whole thing is a lot of this. I was about to say steps, but I'm just going to say missteps. Yeah. Happen to work out in their favor. We're just basically like, hey, criminals, do you speak Spanish? Right.

Do you think anybody would ever name their airline Fist Airline? Well, they want to give you a free weekend to the Bahamas. That's right. That was the Puno Airlines thing. And I love it. Like, I think it's cool, like in retrospect. But when you stop and actually think of it from a law enforcement perspective, you just end up pinching the bridge of your nose. But it actually worked.

Yeah, it did. They mailed these fake letters saying they had won that trip, plus 350 bucks in spending money. 14 fugitives fell for it. And, you know, they send a limo to your house. It's like a big sweepstakes, basically. And most of them were arrested in the limo, like the limo driver is a cop and they just pull over and say you're under arrest.

One guy did make it to the airport at Miami International, and they did have a fake Puno Airlines ticket counter. So they saw it through. I'll give them that much. Yeah, for sure. I think it was right next to Air Haiti. Right. No, for real. Oh, was it? Okay. I never know when you're joking anymore. So I know. I'm sorry. I've really messed with reality. That was 1985. There was another one the year before, Fist 7. Yeah.

Right. But they would spell it with Roman numerals to make it look super cool. It's so funny. Because I think this is, yeah, this is the era of the Rocky sequels. Yeah. Roman numerals were everywhere. Yeah.

That one was enormous. It was a multi-state, multi-agency sting operation. There were 113 marshals involved, five ATF agents, 105 police officers, all from across eight different states. And it involved a bunch of different scams that really all together were part of this one big sweep that was just coordinated by the Marshal Service.

There was one pretty straightforward in Buffalo, California.

Where they wrote letters to fugitives and said, hey, you don't know this, but you won $10,000 in the lottery. You know that lottery you may or may not have ever played? Well, you won $10,000, but we can't give you the money unless you come to the lotto office and show us your ID and then you can claim your prize. That's right. That was one of them. One was a job scam. It was called the Prior Offenders Employment Opportunity Act.

program where they would say like, hey, are you a prior offender? Like, I know it's hard for you to get a job. We can get you a job, 15 bucks an hour. Just call our number and tell us who you are and where you are and we'll set you right up. That one actually seems like the most effective one because it almost has like a scam sense to it, like outwardly, like overtly. It may be the meanest too.

I think so, too. I thought the same thing. Because you might think it's mean to say you've won tickets to the Bahamas, but it's really mean for someone to be like, I really want to start my life over and get a regular job. Right. It's all called this number. Have we got an opportunity for you? Yeah.

I agree with you. In New York, part of Fist 7, their sting was called the Brooklyn Bridge Delivery Service. Not to be confused with New York's finest taxi service, but it's basically the same thing. Their motto was, don't mess with the rest, come to the best.

And it was essentially the same thing as Mr. Zip as far as the scam goes. But they would just leave like we missed you slips on their door saying you have a package that you need to come pick up. And there was a guy involved in this scam.

I can't remember his name, but oh, Robert Leshorn. He was one of the chief or deputy chief marshals. And he's he this was his scam. And so part of it was the criminal would call to find out where to pick up their package. And depending on what they were wanted for, he would tailor what was supposedly in the package. So.

He said, like, if you were wanted for robbery or theft or something, it would be like a brand new stereo or something. So he would tailor it, which made sense. And apparently that worked to a certain extent. But all of these, all of them pale.

In comparison to the one that they ran in Hartford, Connecticut. Oh, man, I thought you were going on the flagship. I was like, are you not going to mention this one? No, not a chance. As a matter of fact, we should probably just stop after this one because no scam in the history of law enforcement has ever been greater than this one. Yeah, this is part of Fist 7 in Hartford, Connecticut. This was, hey, let's do a fake TV station giveaway where you can win two tickets to a concert plus dinner and a limo ride.

And, hey, it's 1984. You're going to see Van Halen on their big, huge rock tour? No, no, no. Boy George. And Culture Club. You have won tickets to see Culture Club in 1984. And it worked. I don't know why they chose. I don't know if it was geographical, if Boy George was just like,

Sure, I'll take part in this. He probably didn't know anything about it. Or if they did some research, did a little re and found out that these dudes love boy, love culture club. I don't know. I have no idea. But that's who it was. I saw that part of the package that they won was also a photo shoot. I saw that in a couple of places with the culture club. Yeah. And then and then.

One of the marshals who headed up the Hartford, Connecticut Boy George scam said it was just like one of the other ones where like when you went to get picked up by this limo, right when you got in the limo, they arrested you.

He said all these people that they got with this were all dressed up to go to the Culture Club concert. Oh, God. Can you imagine what they looked like when they arrived in jail? Like those feathers that you clipped to your ear. Yeah, yeah. Like glitter war paint like on your cheeks, like the whole the whole shebang.

I wonder if they said bad karma chameleon for you, my friend. I love all the extras, too. It wasn't just like tickets to a concert. It was always like and dinner and a photo shoot. Like, I guess they really thought they needed to make it something someone couldn't refuse, I guess. Right. How can you refuse a photo shoot with boy George? Yeah. But we laugh. Fist seven.

netted 3,300 arrests and is the largest fugitive roundup in American history still to this day. Yeah. 3,200 of them came from the Boy George scam. That feels like we have to take a break right there, right? I think we would be violating some sort of unwritten rule if we didn't right now. All right. We're going to come back and talk about one that netted fewer arrests, but was definitely fun in Operation Flagship right after this. ♪

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Okay, Chuck, so we're back and we're finally talking about the titular scam, Operation Flagship.

That's right. How do you like that? That's pretty good. I love the word titular. Thank you. It's arousing. I can't think of another word for it, but let's just say arousing. Yeah, yeah. This was thought up. It was a brainchild of a guy named Howard Safir. He was head of enforcement operations at the time. FIS 7 was a big, big success.

And he's like, at the Christmas party, he's a little toasty, and said, what has everybody got? He had too much of Grandma's Christmas breath. And he said, what's everyone got? I need some fun ideas. And Robert Leshorn, the guy, the Brooklyn Bridge Delivery Service guy, still basking in the glow of those tailor-made packages to the criminals, he apparently came up with this idea that

And it was football tickets. One of the hottest tickets in football at the time in 1985 was there at RFK Stadium for what was then the Washington Redskins. I'm now the Washington commander since the name change. But they were the Redskins then. They had won the Super Bowl, beat the Dolphins in 83, lost to the Raiders in the Super Bowl in 84 and 85.

expectations were high. Season tickets, 25-year waiting list for season tickets. Every game is sold out at RFK. And so offering up free tickets to criminals in the D.C. area seemed like a no-brainer. Yeah. This particular game versus the Bengals on December 15th, 1985,

It was to whoever won was going to win a wild card playoff berth. Yeah. Which has significance. So it was an important game. Oh, I feel like, I don't know, you should get a little gold star for your football knowledge right there. Thank you. Also, not to mention, too, I mean, even looking back, you're like, wow, these guys were great. But at the time, these two were at the peak of their careers. It was Theismann versus Esiason as far as the quarterbacks went.

These men. Is it really these men? Yeah. The story goes it was Joe These men. And in college, he changed it to Theismann to rhyme with Heisman. Oh, really? That's what they say. I'm not sure. Did he win the Heisman? I mean, the Heisman. Oh, you know, I'm actually not sure if he did or not, but his leg got snapped on national TV. I was watching that game. It was horrific. Wasn't that a Super Bowl?

No. No, no, no. It wasn't a Super Bowl. Yeah, that was horrific. I mean, it was a compound fracture that came out of his thigh, right? I don't think it was his thigh. I think it was a lower leg. But I just, I remember it was, that was the first horrific injury that I saw on TV that, even though I didn't know it at the time, activated my mirror neurons in a way that was quite striking. One of the ones that got me, there was a Miami Hurricanes player in...

Early 2000s. And he was like running down the sideline and somebody dove to knock him out of, well, out of... Bounce. Bounce. And they got him right in his knee. And his knee turned into like his whole leg, but the apex was his knee, just turned into a rubber band that went really far to the left. It's always so disturbing. It was. They kept showing... Like this was...

This is the zeitgeist at the time. They showed that injury in slow motion 15 times while the dude was laying on the field. They didn't cut to anything. They just kept showing it over and over like it was a new volume of Faces of Death or something like that. Yeah, they did that for up until not too, too long ago. And then they stopped anytime there's a serious injury like that. They're like, we're not, you know, we don't show the replays of these things anymore. We probably shouldn't feed the bloodlust.

Yeah, exactly. But yeah. So anyway, that was that was it's forever burned into my brain that that image. And I don't think he broke anything. He just apparently is like the most flexible, resilient leg of anybody's. So he was fine. Yeah. I don't know if he was fine. I don't remember that. I just remember like I don't think he was like anything broke. It just went boom.

Oh, was that old rubber knee Richards? Yeah. Yeah. But ironically, I think he had the nickname before that because he could play the rubber bands on his knee. This has gotten so off the rails. Oh, yeah. We're talking about the cops. Yeah, that's right. All right. So we're back to Robert Leshorn. He's the one that came up with this idea to give away these tickets. He said...

Here's what we'll do. We'll create a fake TV station, like a rock music TV station, like a local MTV, basically WROC video. And that's going to head up this whole thing. The prize. And this is where they get cute again. The prize letters that they sent out were signed by station manager. I am Detnaw. If you'd spell that backwards, it is I am wanted. Get it? Yeah.

And then the guy who they said you had to call in or whatever, the business manager that took the phone call, his name was Marcus Cran, C-R-A-N spelled backwards as NARC. No. Yes. And supposedly, and I did not verify this, but there was one source that said the whole music was.

When you called was I fought the law and the law won by Bobby Fuller. Yeah. I was like, come on. Like, really? Right. So even if even taking that one out, it is 100 percent confirmed that they signed it. I am wanted backwards. I am debt and all. Yeah. The Kran thing is that pretty much 100 percent?

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's in the NFL Films documentary. You see the guy typing that name in a computer. Yeah. So like this is like these are the things that they're doing to just make it like a whole teehee thing. Right. Right. Yeah. To where if you again, for no reason, back, no reason, but to amuse themselves like there's no reason. As we'll see, I'm sure part of the reason also is for the media blitz that they knew was coming after they showed this off. Yeah. Yeah. But.

Not only is there really no reason for it, you're actually sacrificing potential captures. Yeah. Because there's. You're tempting fate. Some of these people have wives. All you had to do was show your wife that letter and say, this is wanted backwards, you know. Hey, you dummy. Yeah. How many of these people were like fell through the dragnet because they saw that Dettnaw is wanted backwards. And they're like, I think this is not legitimate. Yeah. Yeah.

They mailed out 3,000 of these letters to fugitives for a total of 5,117 outstanding warrants between those 3,000. Said, you won this thing, plus a grand prize drawing for Super Bowl tickets that year. The flagship international sports television was the fake station, FIST. So they did it again. About half the letters came back returned to sender. The others, again, were told to call Marcus Cran,

to confirm their attendance. And a few of the people that called in were like, wait a minute, this is the cops. But out of the 3,000, it's not very many, apparently about 160 people RSVP'd, which would still be a pretty good take, I guess. Sure. And they said, all right, come on down to the Washington Convention Center at 9 a.m. on game day. We're going to have a big brunch and a big party and then shuttle you over to the game. Yes, absolutely.

And I thought something you mentioned is worth emphasizing, that being entered in a grand prize drawing for tickets to Super Bowl XX in New Orleans. Yeah. That actually struck me as a really nice touch. Yeah, yeah. Because now you've moved the focus a little further out.

And you're diluting the focus that's being paid to this most immediate thing. So they're thinking about something else as well. Really, I thought that really was a good touch. Yeah, I agree. So to get prepared for this whole thing, they held three different dress rehearsals. That's dedicated for sure, because this was a big production. And it was smart that they held three different dress rehearsals, because again, there's a lot of moving parts. There's a

ton of different cops. I think 166 different agents were involved. They were all cops. Everyone there was a cop, like the busboy was a cop. The person serving your drink was a cop. Yeah. The janitors were cops. Everybody was cops. Like when you walked into the Washington Convention Center that day, there was no one who wasn't a cop.

A wanted fugitive or the plus one of the wanted fugitive who had the haplessness of being brought along to this whole show. Yeah, the real victims. Yeah. So they rehearsed it many, many times. And one of the things I saw of these 166 law enforcement agents that were part of this, a lot of them were brought in from out of state because they didn't want to risk

some of these fugitives from recognizing the marshals who say like were in the courtroom with them when they were first brought to trial or had escorted them from jail to prison before they escaped or something like that. So they brought in a lot of ringers from around the country. So there was a lot of cops working from a lot of different offices, all for this one huge scam operation flagship. Yeah, they had to shave a lot of about half of their mustaches.

Yeah. If you watch, I mean, you can see this whole thing. It's only like 12 minutes long, an NFL Films documentary on this on YouTube or wherever. And you can watch the whole thing play out. It's incredible. But it looks like a room staffed with 166 cops dressed up as different things. Yeah, I made it through up to, I think, minute three. I was like, I cannot watch law enforcement try to play it tongue in cheek. It's just, I can't do it.

Yeah. Even the cheerleaders who were not dressed as cheerleaders, they were dressed in tuxedos like everyone there was wearing a tux, which was hysterical. Right. Because, you know, it was 1985. That's the epitome of class. But the they were all cops in the one of the women class.

that was interviewed, she was like, I didn't want to do a cheerleader. She was like, I was in this, I was a U.S. Marshal. I was rough and tumble and I wanted to, you know, throw some guys on the ground and put the cuffs on them. But they were like, no, we need you to be a cheerleader. And you're actually the first line of defense because what they did was they hugged these guys upon greeting like, hey, we're cheerleaders, hug, hug, hug. And they're sort of patting them down and feeling for weapons, which is amazing. What was that?

There's some movie where they do that to great comedic effect.

Really? Yeah. I can't remember. But they're like hugging people while patting them down, but like just clearly patting them down. Man, that's going to drive me crazy. You'll think of it later. Or somebody will email in. I'll bet at least one person does. Yeah. So, yeah, like we said, everybody there who was in this building was a cop, including the San Diego chicken. Yeah. Was armed, was an armed cop.

That just goes to show you how big the San Diego chicken was in the early to mid 80s, that they were like, bring the San Diego chicken in for this Washington Cincinnati football game on the other side of the country. Make sure the San Diego chickens there just to legitimize things. Yeah, because that was the chicken was for the Padres, not the Chargers even at the time. The only explanation I saw in the video was they said something about Santa Claus was going to be there. Yeah.

And I don't know why this is the part that has no explanation. He said, oh, we were like, we can't have Santa Claus. So let's get the San Diego chicken. I was like, he said that as if that was the most reasonable statement he could make. Really? That's hilarious. It's very funny. That is that shows a little heart. Yeah, for sure. I should also say I poked fun at law enforcement trying to be funny. So I looked up to see if there's any cops turn comedians. And there are. Sure. I bet there are. And I bet that's their whole act.

I don't know if it is or not, but I can just tell you to go out and check these guys out. There's Kevin Jordan, Chad Ridgely, who went on to be a groundling, Jim Perry, and Alfie Moore. And I defy you to find the one Brit out of those. Yeah, I bet it's not Alfie.

All right, so I'm a Bobby, right? Wow, that was a great Alfie Moore impression. He's the kind of guy that talks like that, I think. Anyway, I just wanted to toss that out there because... Very nice. Thanks. Leshorn, as for his part, he's in the video. He's saying, like, nobody can act like a cop here. We got to smile. And he says...

In this, in the NFL film scene, he goes, I know we're not used to smiling at bandits, but today we need to. I was like, bandits? What is happening in 1985? That's right. Yeah, he said no one can act like a cop. Kill them with smiles. Right. Yeah, not...

With a planted gun. Right. Oh, my gosh. So, like I said, there's a lot of moving parts in a sting where you're trying to nab 160 or so criminals all at once. Again, they rehearsed it three different times, but there's still tons of X factors that can crop up that you just can't plan for. And one of the reasons why they were really kind of on edge is some of these criminals who they'd invited were criminals

Pretty hardcore. There were armed robbers, rapists. There was one murderer in particular who had escaped from prison. He and two other guys had dressed up as prison guards. From what I was reading, they have no idea where they got these prison guard uniforms, but they managed to escape. The other two guys got caught. The other guy, Charles Watkins, again, who was in on murder, he had become a fugitive and was wanted...

as a top 10 fugitive in the D.C. area. So he was a big fish that they were trying to reel in. But at the same time, this guy's a murderer on the run. You have no idea what he's going to do. So they really had to kind of keep it tight as much as possible. I say that before we get to the actual day, December 15th, 1985, we take another break. All right, let's do it. ♪ music playing ♪

Ready to celebrate the magic of live music? South by Southwest Music Festival returns to Austin, Texas this March 10th through the 15th with a fresh lineup of legendary and rising talent. Join a global community of music lovers, artists, industry professionals, and creatives at the 2025 South by Southwest Music Festival.

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That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash S-Y-S-K, code S-Y-S-K at checkout. All righty. We are back. It is not Christmas, but it certainly feels like it in 1985. It's December 15th. The Washington Convention Center is decked out.

There's a big TV playing highlights of the Redskins season thus far. There's music playing. Everyone's in those tuxes. They got red and gold balloons they're handing out. It's really fun to watch this thing play out. You've got these cheerleaders hugging and patting these guys down. One guy is, like, leaning in trying to kiss one of the women, and she's just, like, pulling her face away. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And still has her armor on. In fact, she actually, Stacia Hilton, she was a U.S. Marshal, the cheerleader that they interviewed, or fake cheerleader. And later on, she had gotten out and was brought back into the service as an appointment as director of U.S. Marshal service by President Obama. Yeah. But so for this day, she's a Redskins cheerleader. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

So what they would do is the cheerleaders would hug you as you were coming in, would not accept kisses, it turns out, but they would hug you, pat you down. Although you weren't supposed to know that you were being patted down, they would direct you toward a table. She's a good hugger. Right, exactly. Very thorough. So they would point you to this table where you would check in and to claim your prize, to make sure you were you, you had to show positive ID.

And then when they verified that you were on the list, meaning that you were a wanted fugitive who just showed up to claim your two free tickets to the Washington Redskins football game, they would give you a name tag. And the name tag would say confirmed winner.

And then if you were a dangerous criminal, they would give you a name tag that said double winner. And I could not find anywhere how they would explain why somebody was a double winner and not just a confirmed winner. Like, hey, what does that mean? Right, exactly. Like, why me? I have no idea what they said. Surely they had to say something, but I could not find it. It's lost to history.

He said, you're dangerously close to winning the Super Bowl tickets, too. That was great. That's how they do it in the movie, at least. So one person came that was not expected. It was an attorney from a local TV station that had the local broadcast rights to the games. He heard about this flagship international sports television company.

A.K.A. Thist. And he was like, wait a minute, they can't do this. I'm going to go give them a piece of my mind. Exactly. He shows up with a cease and desist letter and the cops got him out of there. They were like, here, why don't you go have a talk with these two cheerleaders? You're like, buddy, you're going to blow our cover here. Yeah. They shot him in the leg. Yeah.

He hobbled out of there. No, they took him outside. They had to keep it under wraps. So, okay, you want to talk about unexpected guests? Sure. Do you want to know the definition of a scumbag? Sure. A fugitive who gets caught up in the dragnet of a scam carried out by the U.S. Marshal Service in 1985 and shows up without bothering the RSVP. There were 15 of them. Wow.

That's funny. They just they just came. Yep. They just showed up. Didn't even bother to RSVP. It just got under my skin when I saw that. This is bad manners. For sure. So there was a decent amount of people in this convention center. I mean, 100 and something, 150 cops, I think, 160 people.

a little over one cop to one fugitive. And then most of these fugitives had a plus one, if not all of them. So there is hundreds of people in this convention center. And like you said, it was a big party atmosphere, but right under the surface, there's a bunch of people with guns ready to like take you to jail. But the problem is you can't just round everybody up all at once, right? So what they did was pretty clever. They would take 15 to 20 winners at a time,

to one of like the separate conference rooms in this convention center, which really, it made me nostalgic, Chuck, because we played a show or two in the conference room of a convention center, you know? Yeah.

Australia loves those. Yeah. Yeah. And they would sit them down and they would present them with some, I guess, spiel to start as they shut the doors and everybody was settling into their chairs. Yeah. This is Louis McKinney. He's on a stage. And then again, this is just like, hey, this is the party room where you're going to get your actual tickets. And he's the emcee. He's the master of ceremonies. He's wearing a top hat, a literal black top hat.

And he doesn't just go up there and say you're all under arrest. He settles everyone down. He said he wanted everyone to kind of get settled in and calm. So he's just doing a bit. He's doing stage work about how excited everyone is and getting everyone, like, pumped up. And then – and you can literally watch this happen. He says –

On behalf of Flagship International, we have a big surprise for you this morning. Everybody's under arrest. And you see behind the doors, you see all these like SWAT cops. It's their version of the SWAT. They're SOG, Special Operations Group. That doesn't spell anything clever. They're like literal, have literal shotguns. And they're just like, they're right behind the door. Hup, hup, hup.

Yeah, exactly. Hut, hut, hut. That's right. They rappel in through the windows, you know, break through the windows. No, they just, they literally just like kick in the door and go running in with shotguns. And you see these guys that like,

About a third of them like immediately sort of put their hands on their heads as they were being directed to and get on the ground. And about a third of them are like, what's happening here? Is this part of the prize? Yeah, they didn't know what was going on. But, you know, soon enough, they had them, you know, face down on the floor. Yeah, sometimes violently.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Fifteen people at a time. Then escort them out a different door and just, you know, keep doing that over and over until they got everybody. I have to say something really quick while I was researching this. I had a great little brush with coincidence that I was reading. I got to that part where McKinney says everybody's under arrest.

And I just happened to be listening to the Beach Boys Smile album at the time. Oh, yeah. It's not something I listen to a lot. I just happened to decide to listen to that while I was researching this. And within seconds of reading that part, it reaches the part in the Beach Boys album where they say, you're under arrest. Wow. And that it's worth. I mean, that's something. Right. I mean, that's not your everyday coincidence. Yeah.

No, I love stuff like that. I do too. So anyway, back to the story. Dave, like I said, helped us with this and he wondered something that I did as well. What happened to all the guests on

Who are like the crowd of plus ones are getting left behind in larger and larger droves as this party room is like, you know, set and reset and people get taken out of the back door to jail. Yeah. And no one knows. I mean, no, at least no one ever covered what happened. Yeah. I mean, I imagine it was.

I've got some bad news and some more bad news. Like there is no good news. It's like your friend has been arrested and you're also not going to this football game. And you also have to find your way home somehow. Exactly. Surely they gave him a ride home at least. Oh, I don't know about that. I don't know about that. I mean, I was laughing about they're their victims, but they really are. I mean, what a bummer. For sure. Especially those wives that found out that their husbands didn't let them read the letter. Right. From I am Detnaw. Yeah.

And didn't want to go to the game to begin with. Right. Yeah. Oh, my God. There are definitely plus ones like that. Yeah. Oh, man. So when this whole thing was pulled off, the reason why the NFL Films little mini documentary is so thorough is the media was there. And it would make sense the media was there because this is supposed to be some big deal celebration. So you see people...

who are like fugitives about to be arrested coming into the convention center, like party, like into the cameras that are really like there to film their arrest, but they think they're there to film this big celebration because they won these tickets. Um,

The LA Times was there. CBS News was there. Washington Post was there. They were like journalists were allowed to go basically everywhere. They're allowed to interview all of the all of the higher ups conducting this thing. I guess they were just required to basically play it straight and pretend like

They didn't know what was going on. But as a result of this direct involvement of the media, there was a huge national celebration for how great the U.S. Marshal Service was and how well they pulled off this amazing sting with not a single shot fired. And aside from violently throwing some of these people to the floor, totally nonviolent roundup of 100 plus perps. Yeah, I mean, that's the...

That's why you do it like this for the for the safety and for the money savings or the efficiency, rather, I guess, financially. But the PR aspect of this should not be overlooked. Like they wanted them to film this. They wanted them to know all the cutesy stuff. So one day NFL Films would release a mini doc and future podcasters would talk about it and sort of make fun of it, but also bring them some attention. So the PR part of it was a very purposeful big deal.

The guy, I've seen lots of different numbers bandied about by how many people they actually got. I think 144 arrests is what Dave saw. But in the documentary, the guy whose brainchild it was said it was 101. Really? But if you do the math on 101 arrests, it cost them $22,100 to pull this off. That breaks down to just $218 if they got 101 arrests.

And the average cost of just a per fugitive cost of nabbing a single fugitive is about almost $1,300. So that's a, you know, that's a big, efficient haul if you really look at it that way. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's super efficient. And again, not a single shot fired. And don't forget, they nabbed Charles Watkins, the big fish they were trying to reel in. The murderer who had escaped from prison dressed as a prison guard, which...

Really, if you're going to escape from prison, that's a real black eye to that particular prison, dressing up as one of their own guards and escaping. So it was a big deal that they caught this guy. And Stanley Morris, who was the head of the Marshal Service at the time, was quoted in the L.A. Times saying, it's a safe, clean, and creative way to get these people off the streets. There's no safer way to make an arrest than away from the home environment.

Yeah. I mean, he's probably right as far as Charles Watkins goes. And Dave got some of this, by the way, he wanted to shout out the podcast Criminal. Huge shout out. Yeah, because they covered this and I think Dave, they've listened to that and got a couple of these things in the end here from there. Yeah, it was a December 2024 podcast.

So what I'm guessing is that the listener wrote in after hearing the criminal episode. Maybe. He said, I've got a great idea for your episode. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so go check that out for criminals point of view. I'm sure it's pretty great because it's a great podcast. Uh-huh.

But apparently there was a producer from CBS News named Alan Goldberg who went back at the footage and was like, I think he just thought some of this stuff was a little fishier than it was made out to be as some big, huge success. And he saw footage on there of Charles Watkins, a 50-year-old man, saying like, you got the wrong guy, you got the wrong guy. And it's like,

And it turns out they got the wrong guy. They got Charles Watkins Sr. Charles Watkins, the murderer that was the felon or rather fugitive and felon, was his son. He was 20 years old. They got the wrong person. Yeah, apparently. The big fish was the wrong fish. Yeah, according to criminal, like he he finally was able to convince him by showing like some ID and some other like identification saying, like, I'm not the guy you're looking for. You're looking for my son.

And huge, again, hat tip to Criminal. They did some serious digging. Like I was listening to it and Alan Goldberg, who is a huge source for this, they're the ones that he talked to. This is not like all over the place. Like they found this guy and managed to just completely turn all of the coverage of Operation Flagship. Still today, when you read contemporary stuff about Operation Flagship, it is unquestioningly amazing.

written about as just this perfect success. And they found this guy who was like, this is not actually how it went at all. There's actually, in addition to getting the wrong Charles Watkins, the other big fish they were trying to get, Lloyd Golden, he was a top 10 wanted fugitive for armed robbery. And this Alan Goldberg, you know, God bless him for his journalist streak. He dug into Lloyd Golden and found that he was wanted for selling some drugs, not armed robbery. He wasn't on any kind of top 10 list.

So, that's bad enough. But when you really start digging into it, you're like, well, this is not only a waste of money, it turns out, even though it was super efficient, it's actually legal, but pretty unethical considering who they actually did nab in this dragnet.

Yeah. I mean, it was mainly misdemeanor offenders, a lot of parole violations. There were six traffic offenses in there. And now remember, a lot of these people were thrown to the ground regardless of their of what they were wanted for. They were a fugitive and they were thrown to the ground violently in some cases for traffic offenses.

Yeah, exactly. There was one guy and you can see him in the NFL film stock as they're bringing him out. He was like, man, he's like, you know where I live. You could have come to my house. Basically, like, why did you drag me down here and make me go through all this? Just come knock on my door and arrest me. He's like, I want to speak to Mr. Dettnaw now. Right.

This turned out to be sort of the beginning of the end, though. It is, again, still praised as a success if you look at any U.S. Marshall stuff. But they, I think, like...

FIS 9 was just regular police work over a period of eight weeks. They got a bunch of more fugitives, which is great. Yeah, pretty impressive. 3,500 fugitives in eight weeks over four states and parts of Mexico. That's with no scams whatsoever. Yeah, no scams. But they just they don't do this stuff anymore. I guess this is sort of the golden age of that kind of thing. They're still out getting fugitives. I think last year they captured more than 3,000 violent fugitives in

Right. Yeah, not the rum punch. Right, right. Yeah.

So, one of the things about Operation Flagship is that it is so nuts that it actually happened. And when you just step back and look at it from the, you know, from the total outside and how great it was and everything, it's extremely entertaining. Yeah.

Cops smart, criminals stupid. Can you believe they fell for this? There's football involved. Like it has everything you could possibly want. Right. So it did actually inspire some stuff. Like we said, that whole Mr. Zip thing inspired like the, I've got some, a rose delivery for you, fugitive. Yeah. This specific operation flagship inspired apparently the opening scene in Sea of Love with Al Pacino. Yeah.

Where Samuel Jackson is among the fugitives who were tricked into a meet the Yankees scam. Yeah. Yeah. That was copped directly from this, I'm sure. There was. So have you seen the movie Trap? M. Night Shyamalan's vehicle for his daughter's musical career? Yeah. Have you seen it? No. OK. I just want to talk for one quick minute about this because I heard this movie on two different movie podcasts I listened to. Scott hasn't seen it.

He covered this with Mike Castle, husband to Lauren Lapkus as the guest. And then it was also on The Flophouse, one of my favorite shows that I've listened to forever on the Max Fund Network where they cover bad movies. Elliot, Dan and Stu. So Trap is bad then?

Yeah, yeah. It's wonderfully bad, though. Like, I heard both of these before I saw it, and I was like, I've got to watch this movie now because it's so funny bad. Wow. And it is. I highly recommend the M. Night Shyamalan, Josh Hartnett movie Trap because it is so ridiculous and awful. And the choices that are made as a movie are just bonkers and hysterical. Okay, so...

So I know I am a sentient adult human being. And I know that a lot of M. Night Shyamalan's, some of his films are bad. Yeah. Yeah. Just bad. Terrible. I hated Signs.

hated signs. Although that was largely because of Mel Gibson's acting or overacting. Most of them are pretty bad to me. Huh? He's got a handful of pretty good ones, but yeah. Well, that's what I was going to say. I will still watch every movie that that man puts out because they're so imaginative, so creative. I also love the cinematography in his films. It's always so dark and moody. Yeah, they look pretty good. The Sixth Sense is one of the greatest films of all time. Yeah. And, um,

And even like you can give up on him and then come back years later and watch the stuff that you missed. And you're like, man, I love this stuff. It's such a great thing to watch on like Saturday afternoon or something like that. Yeah. I like the Unbreakable movie and the Split, whatever. There was like a trilogy in that world. Glass and Split. Yeah. I thought all those were pretty good. But yeah, a lot of his movies are really bad, but still well made enough to the point.

be worthwhile, even if it's just sort of like a cringe fun watch. And Trap is one of them. And, you know, whenever he pops up in his own movies, it's always so bad and dumb and obvious. And he does so in the funniest, worst way in Trap. Okay, good. I got to see this. It's really a fun, bad movie watch. I highly recommend it. Have you seen A Knock at the Cabin Door? I have not seen that one. That's good. I don't see them all. Have you ever seen Servant, the show he made? Uh-uh.

Good? Bad? No. It's really good. It's a really good show. Like, he does a great job. He's a confounding filmmaker. Yeah. You know? Just watch Servant. I think you'll like it. I haven't seen all of the seasons. I might have seen the first three, and then I stopped. But I can tell you the first three are definitely worth watching. I think you'll get sucked in pretty quick. Yeah. We cannot finish, though, even though I did mention Homer Simpson earlier. One of the great, great Simpsons episodes is...

They had a sting operation where they were giving away a boat, right? Yeah. Yes. I'm sorry. I've watched it yesterday. I guess I was watching it. I noticed something that I'd never noticed before. What was it? At the head of the scene, at the beginning, as they're pulling up to the police station, Homer's falling for a scam like Operation Flagship, but instead of Redskins tickets, it's a free motorboat. Yeah.

So he's all ready for this. He's wearing a captain's hat, driving the family up to the police station to claim his free motorboat.

And at the beginning of the scene, as they're pulling up, Lou, one of the cops, has the door kind of like slightly jarred and is peeking out. Right. When he sees Homer pull up, he like closes the door real quick. Yeah. Oh, my God. You have to see it. Like, I can't do it justice. It's just this extra quick little thing that did not need to be added at all, but makes that whole scene so just perfect. Just the heyday of that.

that show. Yeah, season nine. And the whole episode, by the way, too, Lisa the Skeptic is like one of the more heartfelt episodes around, too. So good. Hello, why are the pretty ones always insane? One of my favorites. Also, a little nugget on the end, if you're ever in Fort Smith, Arkansas,

And why else would you be there but going to the U.S. Marshall Museum? You can see Louis McKinney's M.C. black top hat on display. Very nice. That was a nice little nugget. Yeah. Thanks, Dave, for that nugget. Yeah. Thank you, Dave. That was great. We appreciate the assist on this one and on Harry Belafonte. It's Dave Week, everybody. That's right. And since I said it's Dave Week again, that unlocked listener mail.

So

And by the way, this totally vindicates you because when you were like pie for breakfast and I was like, that sounds so crazy. And you said most breakfast foods are...

And I was like, what are you talking about? You're completely right. I wasn't thinking about all the stuff. Oh, I love it when you say stuff like that. I was thinking about eggs and bacon, but I forgot about the sweet side of breakfast. And all that stuff is dessert.

Same goes for cake and pancakes. Flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder with a sweet condiment. French toast is plain white bread dipped in a sweet cinnamon custard, griddled, and then you drizzle sugar syrup on top of it. I love that stuff. So guys, Josh is right. Lots of breakfast foods are pretty much dessert. And I say, if it makes you happy, there's no reason to keep away from dessert foods at breakfast. Your stomach doesn't know what time of day it is. Thanks for all the amazing information. I've learned so much from you guys.

And I always have a great time listening. That is from Aaron Brittingham. And Aaron, thanks for proving me wrong. I forgot about all this sweet breakfast stuff. Thanks for proving me right. Yeah, and not to even mention cereal. I mean, what is Captain Crunch besides a bowl of dessert? That's right. I like to have a balanced breakfast. I like the dessert part with a bunch of pancakes or French toast and syrup. Then I also like the eggs and the bacon part too. Breakfast is my favorite meal that I never eat. But when I do, by God, I love it.

Well, yeah, I'm the same way. I don't typically eat breakfast, so if I'm going to eat breakfast breakfast, like, it's going to be something like that. Agreed. I gave up cereal, and I'm the better off for it, I just have to admit. Yeah, I don't eat that stuff anymore, but if I'm on vacation and there's a good breakfast place, I'm going to party down, and then I'll skip lunch. That's right. Nice work, Charles. Well, if you want to be like Aaron...

And vindicate me, bring it on. You can send us an email to stuffpodcasts at iheartradio.com. Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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