Shownotes Transcript
Wow. What's up? I just bought and financed a car through Carvana in minutes. You? The person who agonized four weeks over whether to paint your walls eggshell or off-white bought and financed a car in minutes. They made it easy. Transparent terms, customizable down and monthly. Didn't even have to do any paperwork. Wow. Mm-hmm. Hey, have you checked out that spreadsheet I sent you for our dinner options? Finance your car with Carvana and experience total control. Financing subject to credit approval.
Meanwhile, at Xfinity. Hey Steve, why are you on the roof? Product research. We engineered the Xfinity mobile network to have super fast Wi-Fi on the go, plus reliable 5G where you need it. So you've been streaming movies all day? Yep, product research. Xfinity Internet customers. Now through March 18th, get the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus on us with qualifying trade-in.
Learn more at XfinityMobile.com. Restrictions apply. Taxes and fees extra. Xfinity Internet required. It's November 17, 2015, at the Windward City Shopping Center in Kaanahui, a town near Honolulu, Hawaii. A clear, dry evening. Shoppers are wandering in and out of the mall as are youngsters, doing what youngsters tend to do. Strolling, chatting, and hanging out at the popular vape store.
Among them, Caleb Miske and Jonathan "Johnny" Fraser. Laid back, good kids and best friends since high school. They've bonded over a mutual love of weed, pitbulls and fast cars. The pair have lived together with girlfriends in an apartment near Pearl Harbor. They've even christened their own race team Mad Motor Industries.
And on this particular evening, Miski, 22, is showing off his new toy, a black 1993 Honda Civic, which he's bought a couple days previous on Craigslist for a bargain $2,250. Pals gather round. It's a new whip, but it's also the end of an era for Caleb and Johnny. Caleb's wife is pregnant, and who knows what will happen to the friendship when the kid comes along.
Caleb invites Johnny for a spin in the Civic. Johnny hops in the passenger seat and they take off, speeding down a main street, hairpin turning, then looping back to the mall. It's 7.54pm. Caleb's life will effectively end in a few seconds. As the pair approach the mall, bystanders hear the Civic's engine roar. They're guessing it's doing around 90 miles per hour.
At that moment a white 1998 Chevy S10 pickup turns into the street. There isn't even time for Caleb to hit the brakes. The Civic plows into the side of the truck, leaving a two foot long gouge in the road and it sends both vehicles spinning like tops. The truck screeches across 37 feet of tarmac before it comes to a rest.
The Civic goes airborne, flying like a crumpled boomerang into a row of palm trees on the opposite side of the street. Responders pull Johnny's body from the wreckage and transport him to a nearby hospital where doctors place him in a medically induced coma. Caleb is trapped in the chassis. He has to wait until firefighters break him open with hydraulic jaws of life and then he's rushed to the ICU.
Both men's families rush to the hospital too. It's there that tensions first boil over. A police report claims Caleb had been behind the wheel of the Civic. But his father, a six-foot-tall, gym-sculpted, 41-year-old businessman named Michael Miske, refuses to believe them. You could feel the turmoil, says Johnny's aunt, Jean Tangaro. She's nervous, and for good reason.
Tangaro has grown up around Hawaii's tight-knit underworld of drugs and theft and corruption. And she knows that Michael Miske isn't just any old entrepreneur. His boat, the Painkiller, travels frequently between Oahu and California and he doesn't often come back with any fish.
His pest control firm is rumored to be getting kickbacks and there's a hell of a lot of weird stuff going down at his glitzy Honolulu nightclub, M. Miski's entourage includes a surprising number of ex-cons for a legit empire. Gene Tangaro knows well you do not want to get on this guy's bad side. And four months later when Caleb's body finally gives up, Michael Miski swears blind it was Johnny Fraser behind that will.
He bans Johnny from Caleb's funeral. Johnny withdraws, smoking more heavily and not even bothering to work on cars. Caleb's daughter is born and Johnny's girlfriend also falls pregnant. It seems like Michael Miske has extended an on-if branch in July 2016 though, when he gives Johnny a car and pays for him and his girlfriend to live with Caleb's widow. But it's all a dark ploy. Johnny Fraser's life is in grave danger.
And the fallout from his disappearance, just days later, will light the touch paper on a criminal case unprecedented in Hawaii's history. At the center of it, a mortal grudge, and a criminal empire that reached into the highest levels of the island's power. Welcome to the Underworld Podcast. Underworld Podcast
Hello everyone, this is the Underworld Podcast, a weekly deep dive into the very dark world of organised crime by two journalists who stayed on the beat far too long and don't spend enough money on therapy. I'm Sean Williams, a freelance writer and reporter based out of Wellington, New Zealand, and I'm joined by the incredible, the dependable Danny Gold, who I think
is about to trade in the snow and grey spires of New York City for somewhere a little bit hotter with machete, yoga, and starlink. You got enough tattoos to be a digital nomad in Mexico? You gonna get into, I don't know, Paderbor or something? I just, I can't make a decision, dude. I think I'm just gonna go to Puerto Escondido, you know, chill, surf poorly, get work done with decently high-speed internet, but I'll keep you updated. We should also look into, I don't even know which cartel controls that area, but...
If we've done an episode on you and negative things have been said, it was all Sean. I'm on your side. Yeah, you're worrying whether to go to a surf paradise in Latin America. And I yesterday was cleaning up diarrhea from a nappy. And I'm not going to tell you whose it was. Anyway, quick housekeeping as ever. If you haven't subscribed to the pod already, liked, rated and shared to all your friends and family, then done it again. We don't like you. So do it. Do it now and kidnap them and make them do it again as well.
Yeah, and patreon.com slash underworldpodcast for bonus episodes or sign up here on Spotify or on iTunes. Yeah, we've got a really cool bonus coming up that I recorded yesterday as we're doing this with Lindsay and Nathan. They've done a bunch of stuff before with us. Very interesting there. How's your shitcoin investing going? Yeah, maybe don't tell me about this actually because I'll respond with something about football, my golf swing and nobody cares about that. I lost it all in 2.5 days. Anyway...
underworldpod.com for merch the underworld podcast at gmail for emails and I think that covers everything up to speed
Yeah, yeah, I won't mention golf again, I promise. Anyway, yeah, everyone's listening to this for death, crime and cruelty. You are, aren't you, filthy animals? And we give it to you each and every week. And this week is no different. It is about the life and crimes of Honolulu's Michael Miski and how his decades-long empire was brought down by a lust for revenge over the tragic death of his son, Caleb.
A tale that could have been ripped straight from the pages of a Shakespearean tragedy. And I should know, Danny, I spent years studying the bar. Do you learn about Shakespeare in America or do you all just watch Will and Grace in school or something? We just watched the Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo and Juliet, which absolutely rules. Leigh Wasamo kills it in that. I think I was actually in a Shakespeare play when I was very young, like eight or nine. The Taming of the Sheru, and I'm pretty sure I tamed that broad. Like, that was my role. Wow. And now...
Our story today, not the taming of the shrew, began, of course, with the car crash that led to the death of Caleb Miskey. But before we get back into that, the disappearance of Johnny Fraser and that tragedy's spectacular fallout, I want to set the scene a bit.
it. Did you know about any of this stuff, by the way, Danny? It's crazy they didn't get more traction in the US. Gigantic case and opportunity for countless trouble in paradise headlines. Catnip for any self-hating newspaper hack. Thanks to friends of the show, by the way, Kevin Knodel, for getting me back into this story. We're actually about to publish a piece at Newlines together about Pacific Drugs, me and Kevin, so watch out for that one. I didn't know too much about it, but I think Kevin actually sent me a few articles on it a while ago.
Yeah, it's really fascinating. A lot of this episode comes from reporting by Ian Lind at non-profit outlet Honolulu Civil Beat, by the way. Links to a ton of Ian's writing on the Misky case are in the reading list available to all of you who do the very right thing and sign up to the Patreon.
So Hawaii, if you didn't already know, a collection of 137 volcanic islands around 2000 miles southwest of California. It's actually the top of the so-called Polynesian Triangle, with the two other corners being Rapa Nui or Easter Island, that one with the big stone heads, and New Zealand. And Hawaii's native language actually shares a lot with Te Reo Rauri, the native tongue here. Anyway, Hawaiians stabbed Captain Cook to death. So well done them for that.
And it was an independent kingdom until 1893, which is when American and European businessmen overthrew its king and it became the 50th US state in 1959, which is the last and most recent to do so.
Quick trivia. Did you also know that Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii, aka the Big Island, is technically the world's highest mountain from its underwater base? I don't know why I'm going into all this stuff. I just love it. Taller than Everest. Pub boars around the world, you are very welcome. Now.
Hawaii might have a reputation as a pretty calm and stable place, bushfires notwithstanding, but actually the Aloha state has a long history of coziness between crime and politics, and the concept of Aloha itself isn't too far from the reason why. Yeah, I feel like I've heard stories of a seedy underbelly, right, involving like gangs and meth and whatnot.
Yeah, yeah, there's there's tons of that going on. I mean, it's similar across the Pacific and we'll do more on that further down the line this year. But the biggest reason, of course, is always, always money. But Aloha, which means roughly fellowship, is a stone's throw from another Hawaiian concept, which is Kokua, which translates literally as help.
But it has a deeper meaning, quote, to extend help to others in a sacrificial way with no intent of personal gain or to cooperate and pitch in without regard for self and to have consideration for others.
It sounds nice, right? And it is. But Kukua, combined with tight-knit island communities and big-man politics, often means that political corruption and organised crime go hand in hand. Again, anybody wanting to know more about that and the narcos there should read Kevin and My Peace coming out soon. But there have been countless examples of this over Hawaii's recent history, and nobody embodies it more than a man named Larry Miho –
And I'm going to tell you his story now. Shout out to former reporter James Dooley for this part of the episode, whose book, Sunny Skies, Shady Characters, Cops, Killers and Corruption in the Aloha State. That is.
That is a long book title, mate. Should have shortened that. It's an A to Z of Hawaiian crime. A to Z. Larry Miho is born in Hilo, a town on the Big Island in 1929, just 11 years before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that gets the U.S. into the Second World War. He graduates high school in 1948 and he attends university for two years before dropping out to become an officer with the Hawaii Police Department, the HPD.
Pretty soon after, he's enlisted as an undercover agent and he quickly gets assigned to the vice squad. Can kind of see where this one is going, huh? Yeah, it's not tough to see. Miho is a pretty big guy. He's six foot, 300 pounds, tough, built like a linebacker. And he wins a state sumo championship in 1957 before winning five of six bouts in Japan, which is fantastic.
pretty badass. Remember, Japanese are the second largest ethnic group in Hawaii. There are over 300,000 of them among the state's 1.5 million inhabitants. And Japanese culture is dominant, including crime. More on that shortly. Yeah, the Yakuza love to set up shop there the last few decades and wash their money as well.
Oh, yeah, I think there was some stat in the 80s or 90s that like 80 or 90 percent of hotels were owned by Japanese. I think quite a lot of that was being washed. But in 1957, Miho also shows off his karate skills, chopping bricks at a national police chief's convention in Honolulu. Quoting from James Dooley's book here, quote, Sergeant Miho broke single bricks in half with bare handed karate chops.
He then moved on to double stacked bricks, but they crumbled instead of breaking cleanly. Miho, described in an advertiser news story as a determined man, kept whacking new pairs of bricks until, quote, stomachs began turning in the audience.
So yeah, he's a tough guy. And one whose police work flies a little too close to the sun. In 1958, Miho is suspended for quote, irregular but not illegal activities. This is basically that vice squad members are paying informants cash for tips, a process known as sweetening the bird.
But pretty soon, Miho is back and powerful. And part of his job is providing personal security to screen and politics stars coming through the state. Robert Conrad, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, the kings of Nepal and Thailand, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, and Indonesia's President Sukarno. Dignity's got to get on their Mai Tais and big waves, like you, Danny. Yeah, I mean, I'm more of a paper planes guy these days and probably very tiny, small waves, but
But same spirit, you know. Watch out, Sayita. It's around this point that Larry Miho seems to have leveraged his position on the force to get tight with those running stuff down at the state capital in Honolulu. He ditches the HPD and he flips his private security work into a private business.
He bags a ton of big contracts in dubious circumstances. During the 60s and 70s, there is a massive boom to tourism in Hawaii. And combined with the demand by local station, U.S. Navy personnel for gambling, narcotics and prostitution. What is up with those sailors? Organized crime takes off.
bringing in a combined $3 million, according to a local newspaper. That's around $32 million today. And that is not bad for a state with a then population of just over 600,000 people.
In 1970, the Honolulu Advertiser runs a series on something it calls the Hawaiian Syndicate, reporting that since 1962 there's been 14 known murders, two possible murders, five gangland disappearances, five attempted murders, and for attacks that cops believe were also murder attempts. I mean, that doesn't sound like the spirit of Aloha at all. It sounds like the opposite, actually. Yeah, what would that be? Alo...
Horror? Alohora? Is that? Alohola? Yeah. Alohola? Yeah, alright. Yeah, perfect. Yeah, let's move on. Again, this ain't 1926. It's been a long time since either of us were working for tabloids. This is
is not 1920s Chicago, but it is pretty significant for a very small place. And the plot thickens. In the late 1970s, the Hawaii Crime Commission says that this syndicate is just a distraction from a shadowy figure, quote, who is clever and sophisticated enough to develop ties with the captains of street crime, exerting influence over them, but insulating himself from implication in blatant criminal activities.
The organized crime leader skillfully creates the illusion of leading a law-abiding life and ingratiates himself with powerful and respectable personalities. Now, this report demurs on who the shadowy figure actually is. Not, however, a local reporter who goes rogue and identifies, well, of course, Larry Meho, calling him a, quote, godfather of crime in the state.
Miho is the bridge between politics and Hawaii's underworld. It's Charon if you're into Greek mythology, which we all are, aren't we? Miho's private security firm is going gangbusters. He's pals with every politico and cop in town, and they've helped him bring in the biggest contracts going. Airports, harbors, the kind of places you might want to oversee if, for example, you might want to bring in drugs.
One of the men in Miho's orbit, the reporter says, is behind a huge heroin shipment that's recently been busted by feds at Honolulu's main military cemetery, which is a pretty strange place to do a deal or not, I guess. Miho's response? A $51 million libel suit and cocoa.
That theory. He's just a generous guy, he argues. He doesn't have any sway over what his friends in high places do. We are straying dangerously into Robin Hood territory here, guys. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Who do you guys turn to when you need support or help changing your mindset or your life? I know...
Both Sean and I have dealt with pretty topsy-turvy careers that have been rollercoaster rides, you know, with the added anxiety of covering wars and violence and the PTSD that results from that. And I personally, you know, when things have gotten too much, found it helpful to speak to a therapist. It really helped calm me down, deal with pressure, and move past things when I was stuck.
BetterHelp is a fully online, diverse network of 30,000 therapists that makes therapy easy and affordable, and it can help you get unstuck. And they've got 5 million clients they're working with.
worldwide. Build your support system with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash underworld today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash underworld. All right, guys, let's talk factor meals.
I've told you guys I've used them before. They were even a sponsor. That's how good they are. We're talking chef-made gourmet meals that make eating well easy, and they're all ready to go in like two minutes. They've got great macros. You've got 40 options across eight dietary preferences. You can up your protein. You can go low calorie. They're going to help you feel your best all day long with wholesome smoothies, breakfasts, grab-and-go snacks, and more add-ons. You can reach your goals this year with ingredients you can trust and convenience that can't be beat.
Eat smart with Factor. Get started at factormeals.com slash factorpodcast and use code FactorPodcast to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. That's code FactorPodcast at factormeals.com slash FactorPodcast to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. You're not going to find a better deal than that.
Your data is like gold to hackers. They're selling your passwords, bank details, and private messages. McAfee helps stop them. SecureVPN keeps your online activity private. AI-powered text scam detector spots phishing attempts instantly. And with award-winning antivirus, you get top-tier hacker protection. Plus, you'll get up to $2 million in identity theft coverage, all for just $39.99 for your first year. Visit McAfee.com. Cancel any time. Terms apply.
By the mid-1980s, all kinds of organized criminal groups are getting involved in Hawaii, and governors seem to be in bed with all of them. In 1984, the DEA launches Operation Firebird, which aims to connect Hawaii's politics with a string of assassinations back in the 70s, carried out by a confessing hitman named Ronald Ching.
These deaths include the son of the state prosecutor who goes after Miho and Hawaii Governor George Ariyoshi, says the prosecutor, quote,
The natural desire for revenge runs pretty heavy. You have to set it aside and trade that for the evidence that gets the guy who does the hits. That guy leads you to the people who run organized crime here. Ching is on the lower end of the ladder. If you want to leave it at the street level, he's the guy. I'd rather take it all the way up to the people who run organized crime in the state.
As part of Operation Firebird, agents follow Larry Miho to meetings in L.A. with known gangsters and shady business people, and he's accused once more of being a broker between Hawaii's legitimate and illegitimate markets.
miho actually doesn't deny being friends with the mob but he instead says he's helped law enforcement by diffusing underworld conflicts before they've begun he might have been a karate champ but uh you could say miho's pr style was that of judoka am i right danny uh this guy stinks yeah i mean you oh brother thank you thank you very much um
have a lovely Saturday now. Apologies everyone for that terrible joke that daddy really enjoyed. Firebird runs for two years but ends with
without charges for Miho. Surprise. At the same time, organized crime is running absolutely wild on Hawaii. You might remember our two-parter on the Yakuza from about four years ago, in which case, well done, I barely do, but in it was a mad story about the Yamaguchi Gumi, which is the largest Yakuza organization, which is very active in Hawaii, putting money into hotels and all sorts of legitimate businesses. In 1985,
A few of its members buy a stack of weapons, including three rocket launchers for £52 a meth and £12 a heroin worth a combined $56 million today.
Only, the buyers are actually FBI agents. Pretty open and shut case, you might think. But no. Or rather, yes. Because the defense argues that the Japanese word, hai, doesn't mean yes, but quote, I understand what you mean. And the jury agrees? And this Yakuza guy gets off the hook? I mean, this is
Insane. What a great defense. Well done to that lawyer. Anyway, Larry Miho continues working alongside Hawaiian state governors and other bigwigs throughout this time. And apart from Kokoa, nobody can make any Godfather accusations stick.
And he gets to live our old age on a ranch and a bunch of other properties. Now, I'm giving you this background to show how well organized crime in Hawaii has managed to survive and thrive for decades, partly because the cops are notoriously corrupt.
Thanks for the background, brother. It's good context. All right. That was a positive comment. We'll take that. We are almost up to Michael Miske now, guys. But before him, we get to the crazy case of Catherine and Louis Kealoha.
Hawaii's ultimate law enforcement power couple. In 2009, Louis, Louis, I'm going to call him Louis, it's better, Kealoha is appointed chief of HPD, despite rumors he's linked to some shady characters in Honolulu's power structure. Catherine, meanwhile, is Hawaii's deputy prosecutor. Big role, very important.
But in 2011, she's accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from her grandmother, Florence Puana. Now, Florence and her brother Gerard file a suit against Kealoha. Fair enough. But this is where shit gets weird. In June 2013, Kealoha alleges that none other than Gerard Puana
has been caught on surveillance camera stealing from her mailbox, a crime punishable by up to three years in prison. This is a big deal. But on the first day of Puanas trial, Louis Kealoha identifies the man on the camera recording this Puanas and then immediately causes a mistrial by telling the jury about his previous conviction for unlawfully entering a neighbor's home. I'm kind of confused. Like, what is this all? Can you just explain this real quickly? Like what what's happening here?
So this is a really weird case. So let's say there is an inheritance dispute in the family. And then, oh, suddenly there's a case about stealing a mailbox with this guy, Gerard, who's our uncle. And then her husband, Louis Kealoha, causes a mistrial by immediately telling the jury something they shouldn't know, which is pretty sus from a top cop, right? He should know better than to do that. And the court thinks so, too.
And it turns out Kealoha has done this deliberately, calls the mistrial, because Puanha has been framed by his wife all along at a not guilty verdict would undermine his civil case against him. The one about all that money she allegedly stole from her grandma. Louis Kealoha retires from the fall soon after picking up a half million severance payment, despite the massive legal cloud hanging over his head. So pretty, pretty corrupt.
In 2017, the couple are arrested at home by FBI agents and charged with conspiracy, obstruction, making false statements, bank fraud and identity theft. And in 2020, Catherine Kealoha is sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for her role in this Coen Brothers worthy farce. There
There ain't no Magnum PI around here, folks. These are the guys in charge of law and order while Michael Miske is making his way through the criminal ranks. Kokoa, remember? You rub my back, I'll rub yours. And the Kealohas? We're not done with them in this episode because now we're up to the rise and fall of Michael Miske.
whom a Bloomberg Businessweek feature calls, quote, perhaps the most powerful crime boss in Hawaiian history. A man whose evident influence with prosecutors, unions and cops recalls a species of mobster somewhat faded from memory.
He's a crook who'd operated almost entirely in the shadows for decades until that fateful night in November 2015 from the intro and his grief ridden response to it brought his empire crashing down. How did it happen? I'll tell you why it's happened. That's literally why you listen to a podcast about organized crime rather than those Spanish lessons or meditation apps you've been promising yourself you'll do. So here goes. You're getting funnier.
Alright, well, there's a low bar. Miski is born in Honolulu in 1974. When he is six years old, his father dies by suicide, but Miski's mother, Maydean Stancil, doesn't want to tell him that, saying instead he's been in a car crash. Aged 12, Miski finds his dad's death certificate and discovers the grim truth.
He falls out with his mum and moves in with an aunt, while his mum remarries and has another son called John with her second husband.
Everyone in this tale is poor and they live in housing projects in Waimanalo. Here we go, guys. Here we go. We've got our first Hawaiian word. Waimanalo. Waimanalo. A town on the east side of Oahu, a short drive from Honolulu. Waimanalo. That's a pretty cool word. In a late court reference, Miski's cousin says that, quote, when his mother remarried, he struggled to find a place in his new home. He would often stay at my house, sleeping on my parents' couch or even at the beach.
Miskey gets into petty crime early on, and he seems to have a knack for sniffing out local drug dealers whom he can rob.
In 1993, age 19, Miski and a friend steal a red Honda Prelude, I mean, like pretty much the ultimate drug dealer's car, from a Honolulu parking lot. They strip it, steal its tires and rims, stereo, 40 CDs, two dozen cassette tapes, nice tune selection, bro, and a bunch of jewelry, and then they flee in a separate getaway car. But a police officer tracks them down and arrests them both. Big trouble.
In 1994, Miski's son Caleb is born, and then in 1995, he cops another lucky break when he takes a plea deal for the conda theft that keeps him out of prison. But that May, Miski is stopped while speeding his black BMW, and when he opens the glove compartment to grab his license, a quote, package falls out.
Miski hides the package, pulls his key out of the glove compartment lock, and fires up the BMW. When the officer goes to the driver's side of the car, Miski grabs him by the wrist and speeds off, dragging the officer for around 20 feet before letting him go. Oh, and this car is stolen too, allegedly from a tint shop owner named Rick Calho, who's supposed to be one of Miski's friends. Guy does not seem like he's cool under pressure.
Not cool. Yeah, not cool, but effective. He's pissing people off. In 1995, authorities charged Miskey with class A felony, first degree attempted assault, speeding and kidnapping for dragging the cop down the street.
Again, he's in big trouble. While awaiting trial, he's arrested again for second-degree terroristic threatening, basically threatening witnesses, alongside Rick Calho, the guy whose BMW he'd been taking for a spin. The charges are dropped when the complainant fails the show in court, so kids, witness tampering really works.
Miski cops probation for the kidnapping, which is nuts, and he lands a job as part of his terms with a firm called Oahu Termite and Pest Control. Apparently termites are a huge issue on the island. Rick Calho and Miski had been partners in crime for years, according to cops, but in November 1996, Calho disappears, never to be seen again.
And under two years later, in 1998, Miskey registers a tint shop under the exact same name Calhoun's one had used. So the assumption is basically that he murdered Calhoun, yeah? Yeah, yeah. Which is not a very nice thing to do to a friend, is it?
By the end of the 1990s, it's probably the worst thing you can do to a friend, actually. Yeah, it's just not cool. It's not cool. No, it's not cool. By the end of the 1990s, Miski's a real up-and-comer in Hawaii's underworld. A narco several levels above the street. He sends underlings to do deals, which scuppers federal stings against him, and he builds a legitimate business empire, too, christening his own pest control firm, Kama'ina Termite. Ahem.
I'm going to say that one again. Sorry, guys. Kama Aina termite with the know-how he picked up on probation. Kama Aina does well. Tagline, we got you covered, which is good because they use tents, right? So get it. And before long, Miski adds solar panel, plumbing and dumpster companies to the Miski roster. Now, Kama Aina isn't after contracts to get rid of termites from your granny's kitchen. He wants big industrial contacts.
And that means booting out the competition, which he does gangster style. In one episode, Miski confronts a rival exterminator who, according to FBI testimony, he threatens by warning the guy he knows where he lives and telling him he'll cut open his fumigation tents, which...
I believe in the pest control industry is a, that's like a really bad thing, I guess. Shortly after somebody does slash this guy's tents while he's on a job leading to a leak of deadly Viking gas. Oh yeah, it is bad, but luckily nobody's hurt.
In 2012, Miski, flying high now, opens M Nightclub and uses it as a venue for political fundraisers, cosying up to power just as Larry Meho once had. But this isn't the Bellagio, right? And multiple assaults are logged at M. In one wild case, John Stancil, Miski's half-brother, breaks the rib of a guy passing out flyers to a rival club outside.
And another, Miskey, who is six foot tall and built like the amateur boxer he is, bashes NFL Pro Bowl offensive tackle Trent Williams over the head with a champagne bottle. Williams is a six foot five, 320 pound beast of a man. No fear. In a third incident, Miskey gets his goons to beat up a Navy veteran over an unpaid bill. Says the vet, quote, he was trying to flex his authority. No shit. And
Another way Miskey flexes his muscles is by hiring, well yeah, muscle. Over the years he collects a group of lost boys, which makes them sound way more innocent than they are, which is basically a gaggle of extremely violent criminals. Miskey's top boy is Wayne Miller, an armed robber. Two others are Jacob Smith, a
a 6'6", 200-pound martial arts expert, and Lance Bermudez, who's in trouble enough he gets a tattoo of the number of Miski's favorite criminal defense attorney. That's kind of amazing. And also, Lance Bermudez is a great name for a henchman in an island sort of Caribbean. Well, not Caribbean, but you know what I mean, like a tropical island crime syndicate. Lance Bermudez, that's perfect. Lance Bermudez with the attorney's tattoo.
on his arm and yeah that's about as funny as he's going to get so yeah let's just soak that up these guys are dispatched to shake down rivals and collect debts of course but they're also employed to grab drug shipments and stick up local gangsters
Cops don't think Miski has a steady supply of meth, which is Hawaii's main drug of choice, and the Pacific's, I guess. Rather, he gets the odd package here and there, steals others, and gets some smaller packs delivered from the mainland US.
Something even more key in Miski's rise, and something folks have said about him since he was a teenager, is his ability to get cops on his side, not by dragging them alongside a BMW, but by making sure, just as he's doing with M Nightclub, that he has all the right friends in the right places.
Remember, by the mid-2010s, we're into the tenure of Louis K. Aloha and his wife Catherine, who are mired in that weird mailbox scandal. So we're not exactly dealing with a pair of Harvey dents here. And in November 2015, this alleged nexus between criminal, cops and politicians appears to reach its summit.
One afternoon that month, a Honolulu cop named Jared Spiker, again, great name, tries to stop Miski for using a cell phone while driving. I thought we could do that in the States, despite how batshit it is. No, dude, you get tickets and they're expensive. Land of the free my ass. Oh, man, I thought that was okay out in the States. Anyway. Daredevil is born again on Disney+. My name is Matthew Murdoch. I'm a lawyer. Exactly what kind of a lawyer are you?
Hey, really good one. Everyone agrees it's the best Marvel television series. Gritty, intense, and elevated. It's Daredevil at his best. If you step out of line, I will be there. Marvel television's Daredevil, Born Again. Don't miss the two-episode premiere tonight, only on Disney+. The next time you fly, upgrade your comfort to Emirates Premium Economy.
Sink into soft leather seats with raised leg rests and adjustable headrests. Elevate your dinner plans with delicious regional dining, all served with complimentary premium drinks. Enjoy endless entertainment with up to 6,500 channels, including live sports. There's no other premium economy like it. Fly Emirates. Fly better.
Still getting around to that fix on your car? You got this. On eBay, you'll find millions of parts guaranteed to fit. Doesn't matter if it's a major engine repair or your first time swapping your windshield wipers. eBay has that part you need, ready to click perfectly into place for changes big and small. Loud or quiet? Find all the parts you need at prices you'll love, guaranteed to fit every time. But you already know that. eBay. Things. People. Love. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.
Miski clearly doesn't agree with me or Spiker or you because he drives off and Spiker heads to M nightclub with his partner to find Miski. Basically, he does police stuff. A bouncer says his boss is indeed inside the venue. But when he returns, oh, whoopsie. Actually, Miski isn't there after all. Forty five minutes after that, Spiker gets a call on his phone. It's Michael Miski.
Don't be going over there throwing your guys weight around, Miskey tells him, threatening to go to the, quote, top of the food chain. Before he adds chillingly, quote, trust me, Jared Spiker, you better be careful for the threats you've made. That's a cop, guys. Here's what happens next. Miskey calls the special assistant to the prosecuted attorney for Honolulu. There's a guy named Roger Lau.
Shortly after that, Jared Spiker gets a call from Catherine Kealoha. She tells him, back off Miski. He's helping the prosecutor's office with an ongoing investigation. Kealoha hangs up. Then she sends an email to Roger Lau. As requested, she writes, I spoke with Jared this morning. He will stand down at this time.
Remember, Spiker's top boss in the HPD is Kealoha's husband, Louie. According to court docs, quote, Spiker feared if he disregarded Kealoha's instructions, his career would be in jeopardy. There was, quote, cause for concern among multiple HPD officers who fear if they assist the FBI in the investigation of Miski's criminal activity, their careers will suffer. Here's Bloomberg's Chris Pomorski speaking to a former federal public defender about the force, quote,
I always called Kealoha the Jaya Gahoover of Hawaii because she seemed to have something on everybody. HPD was always considered a potential link because everybody knows everybody. It's not corruption locally considered. The issue with MISCIA has always been who can you trust in law enforcement and who can you not? It was long felt MISCIA connections inside HPD, inside the prosecutor's office.
But of course, this is now November 2015, the month Caleb Miske slams his Honda Civic into that truck, putting him and Johnny Fraser in the ICU. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Michael Miske won't believe that his son's at fault for the wreck. And by all accounts, the wheels start to fall off his operation.
Feds uncover five murder-for-hire plots that Miske orders his lost boys to carry out, but all five are nixed, one of them at the last moment when Wayne Miller, Miske's right-hand man, realises he's forgotten to remove a GPS tracker from the Marks car.
Miller is Miskey's guy, and while Caleb and Johnny are in the hospital, he vows to murder Johnny in revenge for the crash. Caleb dies, of course, in February 2016, but Miller backs out of murdering Johnny, starting to decline in his relationship with Miskey. A second guy refuses the contract too, saying that Fraser's, quote, a kid.
Look at these guys. A little bit of morals coming through. Yeah, they're coming through, but Miski does not like that. So in March, he gets in touch with a third unnamed assassin. He tells him he can name his price for killing Johnny. Then he waits.
Remember, Johnny is grieving too. He's lost his best friend and he retreats into himself, hanging out at the vape store every day because that's where he and Caleb used to hang out. Oh, I thought the vape store thing was a bit you were doing. No, they're actually vape boys. Vape buddies. Yeah, they're vape buddies. Ex-vape buddies, I guess.
And then in July 2016, like I mentioned in the cold open, Miski gives Johnny a vehicle and lets him and his heavily pregnant girlfriend, Ashley Wong, move in with Caleb's widow, Delia Fabro Miski. I know there's a lot of names here, guys, but I really can't really do it any other way. On July 30, Fabro Miski takes Wong on a spa day around 35 miles away to ensure that she's away from Johnny.
When they get back, Johnny is nowhere to be found and he's not answering his phone. Remember Johnny's aunt, Jean Tangaro, the one who's grown up around Hawaii's organized crime scene? She says that around this time she gets a call from an underworld associate. They told me Johnny was killed, she said, and they got rid of him in the ocean. Eight days later, authorities find Johnny's car on a rural highway 10 miles outside Honolulu. He doesn't know anybody there, Wong says. She's fearing the worst.
For months, nobody knows what has happened to Johnny. Then, in November 2016, a witness comes forward. This is James Borling Salas, 23, a small-time crook who knows a couple of Miski's lost boys, namely Jacob Smith, who does stick-up jobs on drug dealers, and Lance Bermudez, that guy so prolific he's got a lawyer's number tattooed on him. Borling Salas has come forward at the behest of his grandmother, a former corrections officer.
He's also intimately aware of the Miski Enterprises drug operation. He knows, for example, that a message that Miski was, quote, happening meant he was about to receive a shipment of drugs, which by this point also includes large quantities of cocaine, which suggests that he's getting in bed with the cartels. Most drugs come to the office of Kama'ina Pest Control, or M Nightclub.
Around late July or early August, Borling Salas says he's visited Jacob Smith's house, but something's up. Here's his affidavit, quote, At that time, he noticed another male individual in the outside bathroom underneath the stairs as he approached the house. The individual had long hair and a scar on his face. This will later be identified as Johnny Fraser. And the affidavit continues, quote,
Fraser was tied to a green plastic garden chair with zip tie restraints and duct tape. Duct tape also covered Fraser's mouth. Fraser's had a bloody face and Smith repeatedly kicked Fraser about the head.
Then Smith and Bermudez pull out a propane gas torch, quote, Smith and Bermudez started burning Fraser's feet and hands and eventually worked their way up Fraser's body with the torch. While this was taking place, CS2, that is Borling Salas as a cooperator, observed the tripod was set up and a phone was mounted to it. The phone recorded the torture as it occurred.
Balling Salas is, quote, extremely disturbed by this. I mean, yeah, of course he is. He makes his excuses and he leaves. Days later, he returns. Smith explains that Michael Miski has ordered them to torture Johnny Fraser for Caleb's death, and he attempts to show Balling Salas the phone footage from days previous. Yeah, I mean, recording that footage is just...
I guess he wanted evidence of it, but just not smart, you know? Because it is evidence. It's what it is. It's not ideal tradecraft. No. Yeah. Imagine you're just going around your pal's house to play PS4 and there's a guy being tortured in the back room. I mean, you would probably make your excuses and leave at the least. Anyway, bawling Salas refuses to see the phone footage. I don't believe that. And he heads to the kitchen.
Bermudez is there, tending to a large cooking pot on the stove. The water is a shade of orange-red that Balling Salas has never seen before. There's a bone sticking out of the broth and flesh is falling away from it. Balling Salas believes it is Johnny Fraser's and he gets the hell out of there.
With balling Salah's account, the noose is tightening around Michael Miski. He decides to go dark, removing his name from businesses and putting others in the names of family members like Delia Fabromiski.
But that doesn't mean he's going to disappear altogether. In fact, he's about to carry out an act of terror. M Nightclub is shuttered in November 2016 after a string of violent incidents. But Encore, which opened shortly after in the same location, is also owned by Miski. Problem is, there's a new spot down the road called Ginza and folks are streaming through its doors instead of Encore. So Michael Miski hatches a pretty wild plan.
In March 2017, two of Miski's lost boys, one of whom is actually a former women's volleyball star, hook up with his half-brother, John Stansil, and pick up two bottles of chloropicrin. I think I'm saying this right. Now, this stuff isn't very nice. In fact, it had been used as a chemical weapon during the First World War, but it's since been demoted for use in fumigation ops, which is why Miski has a bunch of it, of course.
The pair pick up the bottles and head over to Ginza.
At around 1.30am, they enter the club and decant the chloropicrin onto the dance floor. Choking fumes rapidly spread through the venue, sending punters running through the exits, coughing and vomiting with tears streaming from their eyes. Crazily, this isn't even the first chemical attack Michael Miski has carried out on rival clubs. There have been a slew of them all the way back to 2015. The attack on Ginza nightclub, however, is the one feds can nail him on for sure.
And it's for one huge, huge reason. In the fallout of Johnny Fraser's disappearance, Miski's lost boys are beginning to turn on him. The biggest turncoat is Wayne Miller. He's basically fallen out with Miski having refused to kill Johnny. And he tells FBI agents all kinds of stuff about the Miski Empire's inner workings. Here's Bloomberg quote.
Miller described how, while imprisoned in Colorado for armed robbery, he'd built a relationship with a member of the Mexican mafia. Upon returning to Honolulu, he negotiated a cocaine supply line with the contact. Miskey, Miller said, agreed to fund an initial $400,000 purchase of some 10 kilos.
Miller also offered a scenario for Fraser's disappearance, somewhat different from those provided by a bawling Salas, telling investigators that Miskey had confided in him that he'd lured Fraser out onto his boat where Lance Bermudez was hiding. After they'd travelled a distance from shore, Miller said, Bermudez emerged and shot Fraser to death. Miskey, Bermudez and perhaps others, Miller said, put Fraser's body in a weighted bag and dropped it into the sea.
Now that would track with what Gene Dangaro's underworld associate had told her about Johnny's death over the phone. But James Balling Salas' story is the one that seems to check out the most, and it tears him up. In the aftermath of his interview, Balling Salas grows despondent and he tries to kill himself. He even tries retracting his statements, terrified of what Miski and his crew could do to him. But a search of Smith's home at the end of 2016 turns up some pretty damning evidence.
including a rib bone, hair, a lint trap, a zip tie and a folding chair and section of drywall, all of which appear to be contaminated with DNA. Using luminol spray, forensic officers discover blood invisible to the naked eye. On another occasion, cops recover a stolen BMW with Bermuda's fingerprints on it.
Inside, there are zip ties, duct tape, ammunition, ski masks, HPD pepper spray and a copy of a eulogy for Caleb Miskey, which is almost like a setup. It's pretty nuts. Now, the net is really closing in on Michael Miskey.
But feds don't bring him in right away. Instead, they initiate a string of busts on his drug operation, shining a light on conspiracies to sell meth, cocaine, oxycontin and heroin. Smith, Miller and Bermudez are hauled in by the summer of 2018. Incredibly, despite cooperating with investigators, they're continuing to sling on Honolulu's streets.
By 2020, police are officially calling Johnny Fraser's death a homicide. And in July that year, they arrest Michael Miske and his half-brother John Stancil on a huge range of charges, the most serious of which are the conspiracy to kidnap and kill Johnny, racketeering, drug distribution, robbery, bank fraud, and using a chemical weapon, which is not a charge you hear about that often. It's unlikely he's going to cop probation for any of this.
Delia Fabro-Miskey, Caleb's widow, is charged a full year later for racketeering and fraud relating to businesses Miskey has put in her name. Ten other members of the Miskey enterprise are charged. All of them reach plea deals to testify against their former boss. Nonetheless, Miskey, Stansel and Fabro-Miskey all plead not guilty, probably because they think they can intimidate enough witnesses to get off the hook.
Some jurors express fear for their lives. One writes that they do not want their, quote, body to be found on the field somewhere or worse, yet missing and never found.
One witness who doesn't take the stand is James Borling Salas. In December 2019, he's sent back to prison for violating the terms of his parole. He's allegedly already been warned about snitching by members of the La Familia drug cartel, of which he'd once been a member, and placed in protective custody. But for unknown reasons, corrections staff let him back into the jail's general population, and in early 2020, he's beaten to death by fellow inmates. ♪
I'm ready for my life to change. ABC Sunday, American Idol returns. Give it your all, good luck, come out with a golden ticket. Let's hear it. This is a man's world. I've never seen anything like it. And a new chapter begins. We're going to Hollywood. Carrie Underwood joins Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan, and Ryan Seacrest on American Idol. Season premieres Sunday, 8, 7 central on ABC and stream on Hulu.
Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast with Benjamin Boster. If you're tired of sleepless nights, you'll love the I Can't Sleep Podcast. I help quiet your mind by reading random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. Each episode provides enough interesting content to hold your attention, and then your mind lets you drift off. Find it wherever you get your podcasts.
That's I Can't Sleep with Benjamin Boster. The information that I am providing today is coming from higher dimensional consciousness. Things got so weird during 2020 and it wasn't just the QAnon conspiracy theorists. This new age channel told us... Donald Trump is a massive...
and powerful lightworkers. A lightworker? And then what about this Oprah-endorsed, best-selling feminist health icon talking about heavy metals... That are in vaccines that make our bodies literally into an antenna with 5G. As we continued studying what we now call conspirituality, it only got more intense. This is the cult...
And it culminated with that shaman dude showing up at the Capitol insurrection. But it didn't stop there. Every week on Conspiratuality Podcast, we track the overlaps between New Age spirituality and far-right conspiracy cults.
Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? If you're curious, I've got just the podcast for you. Conspiracy Theories. Every episode, they investigate what people choose to believe and why. The archive of over 400 episodes digs into everything from aliens to secret societies to murder cover-ups to whatever the FBI said happened. Plus, they have expert interviews and special guests. Tune into new episodes of Conspiracy Theories every Wednesday, free, wherever you listen to podcasts.
I can't find any more information than that, so it's perfectly possible he was killed by Miski's orders. But affidavits have also identified Jacob Smith and Lance Bermudez as members of La Familia, which isn't an organization you want to piss off, so it could be an inside job. Wait, is it? I mean, La Familia, Michio Akan, like what are we, like what are they? Yeah, yeah. So were they like on loan? Was Miski a local affiliate? Were they just kind of like under them and doing business with them?
Like, uh, distributors, something like that. It's, uh, that's interesting. I don't think of guys named Jacob Smith as being members of La Familia Michoacan. No, but as far as I can see, yeah, like they're the bridges between Miski and, and La Familia Michoacana. So,
It seems like he was getting deeper and deeper in with the with the Mexican cartels to sort of supply coat lines into Hawaii. And that's about the time when he was scuppered. But yeah, it's it's pretty it's pretty sort of misty around Miski. And I think there's a lot more to come out. But we'll find out shortly why that's going to be a difficult thing to figure out.
Anyway, Michael Miske funds a lavish court defense, partly by renting out for 90 grand a month one of his mansions in the wealthy Portlock district of Honolulu, including for the filming of Amazon's I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot, which has a stinky 5.4 out of 10 on IMDb.
But I know what happened last summer, Danny. Last July 18, to be precise. Which is that after a mega complex trial, millions of documents and hours of audio and video evidence, a federal jury finds Michael Miske guilty on 13 criminal counts, including those relating to Johnny Fraser's murder. Here's the DOJ summary quote.
During at least the late 1990s and through July 2020, Miski and other co-defendants conspired to conduct and participate in the conduct of the affairs of a racketeering enterprise, the Miski Enterprise, for a pattern of racketeering activity.
The racketeering activity, including acts involving murder, kidnapping and robbery. It also included acts relating to murder for hire, chemical weapons, interference with commerce through robbery and extortion, wire fraud, fraud in connection with identification documents, financial institution fraud, the Currency and Foreign Transaction Reporting Act and obstruction of justice. Now that is a rap sheet.
Miski is ordered to forfeit two properties, a 2017 Ferrari, almost four million cash, and his Boston Whaler vessel, which is called The
the painkiller it's a good name for a boat yeah that's that's what uh tony should have called that boat where he killed pussy um anyway miski sent the stugats is a better name come on now take that back all right all right all right fair enough miski sentence here and he's set for november 26 then it's pushed back to january 30 2025 which is frequently close to when you're listening to this show right
But the reason you haven't heard about that is the final twist in today's tale, which is that on December 1st last year, officers discover Michael Miske dead in his jail cell, allegedly from an overdose of fentanyl and a similar synthetic opioid called parafluorofentanyl.
Co-defendants have been sentenced since, but I guess the biggest questions still hanging over the Miski case are how he was able to get away with all this shit for so long and what role the corrupt HPD and Louis and Catherine Kealoha played.
One prosecutor has told Honolulu Civil Beat that, quote, one of the things that came out in the Kealoha case was people learned a lot more information about the Kealohas at the trial progress that they didn't know. I think this case will be something similar to that. I think it's going to leave a buzz in the community.
So folks, that is the epic tale of Hawaiian organized crime, island corruption, and how Michael Miski's criminal empire was brought down by his own burning rage and desire for revenge. Yeah. Thanks for listening, guys. I think there's more to come from this trial, by the way, and we'll do a bonus on it further down the line. But I am going to go outside and touch grass. Nice. Patreon.com slash underworld podcast. Thank you guys for tuning in until next week.
♪♪ ♪♪