Transcript
Crazy Eddie - Part I
A New York City upstart becomes a legend in the city that never sleeps. But his greed leaves him teetering on the edge of fame, wealth and death.
This transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors. Edited transcripts replace generated versions when they are available.
00:00This is World's Greatest Con. I'm Brian Brushwood.
00:04With all due respect, sir, I'm not a complete moron.
00:09It's 1pm on a Tuesday, fall of 1997, and I'm just trying to explain to this customer why RAM is different than a hard drive.
00:28Earlier that year, I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a prestigious honors humanities degree.
00:36So naturally, I did the first logical thing, which was go work in a call center for $12 an hour.
00:43An extended warranty company.
00:45I come into the cubicle farm staring at a rogues gallery of weirdos.
00:51Somebody's a first generation immigrant from Japan.
00:53A 56 year old out of shape dude with a bald head and a white beard down to his belly.
01:00Might have been Santa Claus.
01:02A dialed out manager who once a month, I'm not kidding, would show up in a kilt and battle armor.
01:08Day one, I get an orientation.
01:09Here's how you log the calls, here's how you check to see how many times customers have called, here's how you look up what they said. That's weird.
01:16They didn't even ask me about my computer expertise.
01:20Must be because I know my stuff. Heh, me.
01:25But as I started the job, I noticed weirder and weirder things.
01:31Phone calls, where people ask me how to fix their fax machine.
01:36I had never used a fax machine, much less knew how to fix one.
01:41After a couple of months, I noticed trends.
01:44Lot of Packard Bells.
01:46Lot of HP Laser Jets.
01:48A lot of consumer electronics that were sold at Sears.
01:53And I noticed how annoyed people got.
01:57How almost everybody who made it onto my phone and in my ear had already called at least once before.
02:03And man were they riled up.
02:06Which brings us to Mr. Moron.
02:09I have had it with you guys.
02:12I was told by the sales guy that you guys would handle all of this stuff.
02:15I called five times, last time it was over an hour long.
02:19Check your notes, check your notes.
02:21Oh, I see it right here, sir.
02:23And I am done.
02:24My friend's a lawyer and we're gonna sue you. What's your name?
02:29And with absolute confidence I reply, Bobby. Bobby Burns.
02:37And then I hear it. The forbidden sentence.
02:44Let me talk to your manager.
02:47One brief hold later, one walk over to the battle armor wearing kilt dude, and I walk back with great news.
02:57We can send out a service tech immediately.
03:00And that's when I cracked it.
03:02It was Mr. Moron who made me realize it was convenient that I knew what I was doing when it came to computers.
03:08It was good that I was able to talk people through and occasionally fix stuff over the phone.
03:14But at the end of the day, our job was not to grant wishes and send out service techs.
03:20Our job was only marginally to even fix the problems people had.
03:25The money, whatever money there was, was already made, commissions paid to the folks over at Sears.
03:33Our job was to be the ones holding the bag and cost effectively keep those customers on the line until they either gave up or threatened to sue.
03:46I made it six months before I got offered a job to test video games for a living. I was out.
03:57Are extended warranties a scam?
03:59When it comes to electronics, if you know how to download a podcast, you probably don't need one.
04:04By the way, that call center, it was no accident that they kept mentioning Sears products.
04:10The company was owned by Sears.
04:13I was thinking about those days, how I started all starry-eyed and ended up a brutal cynic.
04:18In fact, it got me looking at the practice of extended warranties writ large.
04:23And friends, do I have a story for you.
04:27When you think you're ready, come down to Crazy Eddie, the man who's got most everything in stereo sound.
04:37So come on down...
04:39We're going to break down the legendary tale of Crazy Eddie, a small-time electronics retailer who conquered the largest retail market in the world based on a lie that left him an international fugitive.
04:56A street-level tsunami of scams and familial betrayal.
04:59This is a story that could only happen in New York City.
05:04Skimming off the top, elaborate inventory tricks, tax evasion.
05:09Every dollar in the register was part of this hustle.
05:13And when each scheme spawns 12 more, and each one has to cover up the last one, what do you keep from your secrets spilling out everywhere?
05:22The only way this gets bigger is if there's a biblical story of a betrayal of a son from his father, and the father striking back.
05:32Cons don't fool us because we're stupid.
05:35They fool us because we're human.
05:37And the con we're about to tell you, it's insane!
05:42And if you can find a better story, bring it in and we'll beat it, because the unmitigated greed of Eddie Antar just might be...
05:58the world's greatest con.
06:04¶¶ ¶¶ A man lays face down on the pavement. He's been stabbed.
06:59We don't know where.
07:01We don't know exactly why.
07:03But we do know that the cops are on their way.
07:07This man's been living fast. Drinking, drugs, women.
07:10He's literally got more money than he knows what to do with. And he's bleeding.
07:17He is Eddie Antar.
07:21And he's at a crossroads.
07:22Does he slow down his fast life, or does he continue down the path he's on?
07:29As his brain scrambles, desperately clawing for that answer, where to go now, how to get past this, he remembers how it all began.
07:40There, on the streets of New York City.
07:44¶¶ It's 1969 in New York City, and Eddie Antar is about to get his first big break.
08:04At 21 years old, Eddie is as hungry for money, power and success as you can be.
08:10He didn't go to college.
08:12Heck, he didn't even graduate from high school.
08:16Young Eddie works everywhere, from Times Square to the Port Authority bus stop.
08:21He sells trinkets, and he gets used to that uncomfortable space that a salesman has to live in.
08:27Eddie's out there hustling with his uncle, but his father, Sam, does not approve.
08:32Sam's the patriarch of the family, the son of Syrian Jewish immigrants, and he believes in taking care of your own.
08:40Practically everyone in the Antar family works for one of Sam's businesses.
08:44Take care of your own means that everyone else, every other human, is suspect.
08:51That includes all those people at the federal level, the state level, even your local government. They're not us.
08:59They're not one of ours.
09:01Now, Sam isn't violent or anything.
09:03I mean, skimming is just the name of the game.
09:07If Johnny Law comes snooping around, just show him those fraudulent books you've been keeping.
09:11Show him that you never made money in the first place.
09:14Because in an America where cash is king, I mean, who'd be the wiser?
09:18And Sam was into all sorts of cash merchant businesses, from shoes to toasters to transistor radios, all of it small-time stuff.
09:27Sam wants to be slow and steady. Eddie is aggressive.
09:32He's used to making hundreds of dollars a day, selling barely functioning merchandise to confuse tourists simply by telling them this is a rare deal you can only get in the big city.
09:44And Eddie has no intention of slowing down.
09:52By 1969, Eddie had proven himself well enough that Sam was finally willing to enter a business partnership.
10:04With guardrails, of course.
10:06Now 21 and already married, Eddie becomes a one-third partner in ERS Electronics.
10:13He's now a full partner with his cousin Ronnie and his father Sam.
10:19This gets him off the street and brings his wife some peace of mind.
10:24And saving this storefront would be the perfect opportunity to teach Eddie what it means to follow in his father's footsteps.
10:32And Eddie is all in.
10:34He sees electronics stores as the future.
10:36The world is filled with baby boomers just like him, eager to buy their first television.
10:41And by God, Eddie knows he's the man to sell it to them.
10:46But what Sam knows, and Eddie is about to find out, is that there are powerful structures that are built to keep Eddie from making that big money in the electronics game.
10:56Now he has to deal with manufacturers, distributors, and these guys want to make as much as possible on every single item.
11:05And they're conspiring with the government to make sure they get paid.
11:11For decades, the electronics industry has been building a web of fair trade laws that protect companies like General Electric and the other massive retailers, all while leaving small shops like ERS struggling, gasping for air.
11:27It goes like this.
11:29You walk into a store and the TV is $200.
11:33Now the TV costs the manufacturers $70.
11:36But of course, that's not their only expense.
11:39They've got a whole bunch of manufacturer business to cover, so they add 30% to cover their expenses.
11:45They sell it to the distributor for $91.
11:47Now the distributor, they've got to make a buck.
11:50I mean, they're moving the TVs in bulk from point A to point B.
11:54So they mark it up 50% and they sell it to the retailers for $140.
11:58The retailer, in turn, sells it to you for $200.
12:02All of that seems fair, but that price only holds if everyone believes it's the lowest price available.
12:09If a wily shop owner decides to drum up business by selling a TV for $175, well, now the distributor needs to sell it for a little bit less, which means they have to ask the manufacturer to sell it for less.
12:23This very much upsets the manufacturers, so they came up with a clever solution, a little thing called regulatory capture.
12:31These fair trade laws force retailers to list their TVs at $200 no matter what.
12:39Eddie is bound by law to sell his products at the manufacturer's suggested retail price. MSRP, baby.
12:47No discounts or else.
12:49So for the first two years, Eddie, Sam, and Cousin Ronnie barely scraped by.
12:55They don't get a lot of people through the door because everybody's going to the big chains.
13:01Who's going to make the trek all the way out to ERS just to pay the exact same prices you'd pay somewhere else?
13:07Sales are so weak, Ronnie pulls out.
13:10He sells his shares to Eddie for $25,000.
13:13Eddie's now the majority stakeholder.
13:15Now that he owns two-thirds of the company, Eddie changes the name from ERS to Sight & Sound, and it's all on Eddie now.
13:24If he believes he can make electronics work in New York City, he's got to prove it.
13:32The manufacturers have regulatory capture?
13:35Well, Eddie has a little trick of his own.
13:39It's called flagrantly violating fair trade laws.
13:42He turns to connections he's made with the mob and in Canada, neither of which care at all who they sell to.
13:51And he pays just enough to keep his in-store prices lower than the competition.
13:55And suddenly, Sight & Sound gets a pulse, but they still have to move this merchandise.
14:00Now that he has an angle, a legitimate benefit over the other guys, he's selling like a crazed animal.
14:07He won't allow customers out of the store until at least they ring up something.
14:12This is where Eddie's street instincts kick in.
14:14He is super aggressive with the customers, and in a very specific way.
14:19The kind of way that everybody in the New York area would eventually come to recognize, so much so that it becomes lampoonable in this iconic Saturday Night Live sketch.
14:31Is satellite dish from Pinnacle.
14:33Pinnacle satellite dish, beautiful for TV.
14:36Who is guessing, huh? Who, you?
14:39Let's go, let's go.
14:41I don't think that looks like a satellite dish.
14:44What, what, what, you don't think, huh?
14:46Oh, so now I have to explain how a satellite works.
14:49Now come on, come on, this is thousands of dollars.
14:51I don't have time. You, you, you. Thousands?
14:53Yes, yes, of course.
14:54It's just I never heard of the company Pinnacle. Oh, so Pinnacle.
14:58This is just the same hustle Eddie mastered in Times Square, selling junk cameras as premium deals.
15:22Eddie can't let a single prospect slip through his fingers.
15:26Those display models all over the store, let's say a customer likes one of those, but Sight and Sound doesn't have them in stock.
15:34Eddie closes the sale, sends the customer out to wait in the car, and then tells an underling go have lunch.
15:41Lunch means wiping down all of those fingerprints off the display model, making it look brand new, wrapping it in plastic to make it seem like an original, and using specially colored tape to reseal the box.
15:54Eddie even has his staff keep the staples from the original box to make everything look legit.
16:01This is a brand new unit.
16:03Eddie's aggressive sales techniques earn him the name Crazy Eddie.
16:07He loves it, takes out a full page ad announcing that Sight and Sound is the home of Crazy Eddie.
16:14Then he realizes, forget Sight and Sound, let's change the name of the business to Crazy Eddie.
16:22You know what else becomes a thing of the past? Fair trade laws.
16:28They're banned by Congress in the mid-70s.
16:30The era of the retailer markdown is officially upon us.
16:33Eddie Antar is a pioneer with a wind at his back and a reputation for deals.
16:39Soon, Crazy Eddie's becomes the neighborhood spot for discount electronics.
16:45By 1973, Eddie's brand recognition rivals Coca-Cola in the tri-state area, mostly thanks to a relentless ad campaign.
16:54Customers are flooding the store, TVs and stereos of varying quality leave with them, and bundles of cash pile up wherever Eddie can hide it.
17:06But Eddie wants more.
17:08The print ads work, the radio ads spread the word, but Eddie sees the future in television.
17:16After all, he's selling TVs, so why shouldn't he be on them?
17:22His name broadcasts to thousands, millions in glorious red, blue and green.
17:27In 1974, Eddie hires Larry Weiss to direct his advertising campaign.
17:33He tasks him with bringing Crazy Eddie's low prices to an even wider audience.
17:40Meanwhile, Larry discovers gold, a second revenue stream.
17:44Because of a co-op ad program, every single Crazy Eddie's ad is an opportunity to mention a manufacturer's name, at which point the manufacturer has to give Crazy Eddie's a little taste of that cash, because it's free promotion for them.
18:01Eddie mentions a Sony Walkman, Sony writes a check to help cover the cost of the ad.
18:08Now Eddie's getting paid by the manufacturers to make ads with the exact message the manufacturers didn't want out there, that they were willing to sell below MSRP.
18:18Larry sees the potential in this program, so he earmarks over a million dollars for future advertising in his first few weeks.
18:26In 1975, people are still figuring out where the lines are in TV advertising.
18:32To find out, the Crazy Eddie team shoots two totally different ads.
18:36The safe one is a doo-wop ad with a shadoopa-doop in a bathroom.
18:41I'm sure it was the perfect ad if you were watching TV while driving on Dead Man's Curve.
19:08But at the same time, they're shooting another ad in Eddie's Sixth Avenue store, and it's a completely different pitch.
19:15This one is more like the radio spots, a passionate, high-energy pitch, with the announcer Jerry staring straight into the camera, unbroken eye contact with the viewer.
19:23And the results are undeniable.
19:25It's a Crazy Eddie blowout blitz!
19:28Crazy Eddie's not playing with the full deck because he's practically giving away TVs, VCRs, microwave ovens, stereo rack systems, video camcorders, anything and everything...
19:36Larry says, hey, why not end the segment with just a simple line?
19:40Crazy Eddie, the man is insane. Eddie hates this.
19:43I mean, Eddie's not insane. But his prices...
19:46His blowout blitz sale prices are... INSANE!
19:49The doo-wop ad b-b-b-buzz its way to the airwaves and even gets nominated for a Clio award.
20:01But it's the insane ad that defines Crazy Eddie to this day.
20:04Get a color TV or a Sony Betamax or a TV video game, get it now, because Crazy Eddie can't be...
20:11I mean, honestly, 1980s TV in New York City is defined by Crazy Eddie.
20:16February, when we honor three great American leaders, Lincoln, Washington, and Crazy Eddie. Yes, Crazy Eddie...
20:22Mob murders not only mess up sidewalks...
20:25Crazy Eddie's gone Sony crazy! Of New York... Crazy Eddie's... Crazy Eddie... Crazy Eddie... His prices are... INSANE!
20:32These ads air constantly and the public can't get enough.
20:38The setup is simple, it's easy to reproduce.
20:42They become so notorious that people start parodying it everywhere, from local improv clubs to Saturday Night Live.
20:59It seems like everybody's going crazy.
21:02You think you're cuckoo?
21:03Then I must be out of my mind!
21:06Hi, I'm Crazy Edelman, the discount psychiatrist, and my prices are absolutely insane! Schizophrenia?
21:11Eddie's gamble has paid off big time.
21:13Underneath all that bomb ass, the brutal, simple message stays the same.
21:20Eddie will not be undersold.
21:22He's gonna have the cheapest prices on any electronics.
21:26The commercials work like magic, driving scores of customers into the stores.
21:31All of them convinced they're gonna get the deal of a lifetime.
21:38And sometimes, they do.
21:39But while Eddie's pulling them in with promises of insane prices, it's his more underhanded tactics that keep the profits rolling in.
21:47More skimming, more doorbusters, more bait-and-switch, and of course, yes, more extended warranties.
21:53In 1976, Eddie partnered with a company called Acoustiphase.
21:59They created an in-house brand to steer customers away from Sony and Bose.
22:06These bigger margins made the bait-and-switch tactics even more profitable. But nobody notices.
22:11No one catches on.
22:13Eddie isn't just selling electronics.
22:14He's selling an experience.
22:16And that experience, mixed with the chaos of his pricing schemes and his relentless advertising, they all turn Crazy Eddie into a full-blown New York phenomenon.
22:28And all that success starts going to Eddie's head.
22:32As the 1970s drag on, his behavior becomes more and more erratic.
22:36He's drinking more, he's trusting people less, and he's hitting the clubs harder than ever.
22:43He walks through the stores, tearing into employees over the smallest mistakes.
22:47He's obsessed with fitness.
22:49He's even working out in his office during meetings.
22:52Everywhere he goes, he brings his German Shepherd with him.
22:57Eddie's always been a little bit odd, but now he's, well... Insane.
23:01But for real, his paranoia is eating away at him.
23:05After years of pushing every boundary, Eddie believes his empire could collapse at any moment.
23:16He's getting drunk, screaming at his wife.
23:18He even misses the birth of his fourth daughter in 1978.
23:22Eventually, he starts seeing a mistress. Her name? Debbie.
23:24Just like his wife.
23:26He even calls her Debbie, too. What a charmer.
23:29During all of this, Eddie becomes more and more obsessed with his piles of skimmed cash.
23:36He opens overseas bank accounts, pumping his money into places like Israel, just like his father used to do.
23:44Any cash that doesn't make its way overseas is hidden anywhere Eddie can find.
23:48Then, in early 1977, family gets a phone call in the middle of the night.
23:53Eddie's been stabbed after a night of clubbing. He nearly dies.
23:59He refuses to talk to the police.
24:02Whatever argument that led to a knife in his abdomen, he's taken that to his grave.
24:08Whatever lesson he was supposed to learn clearly doesn't stick.
24:12He just gets angrier.
24:13Eddie survives, but something shifts.
24:15His reckless behavior just gets more and more desperate.
24:18While Eddie's slowly unraveling, the store just keeps printing money.
24:23And that means more skimming, which means more stores, which means even more skimming.
24:31New Crazy Eddie stores pop up all over the tri-state area.
24:36Coney Island Avenue, Paramus, Westchester, Long Island, and Manhattan.
24:39Hold on to your beanies!
24:50Crazy Eddie's coming to Princeton, New Jersey, with his greatest man-opening frat party ever!
24:56Thousands of free t-shirts and baseball caps!
24:58Toga, toga, toga, toga, toga!
24:59Thousands of New Yorkers show up for grand openings, lining up just to get inside.
25:04Free t-shirts are handed out all over the place.
25:07And over an opening weekend, they can see as many as 30,000 patrons cross through those doors.
25:12And as the 1970s close, Eddie looks out at his empire with a smile.
25:16He's taken his father's modest little racket and turned it into a goldmine.
25:21But really, I mean, how impressive is that?
25:24It's just a super-sized version of what his dad was doing.
25:28I mean, that's not going to be the legacy of Crazy Eddie, is it? Oh, hell no.
25:36Because Eddie's next plan?
25:37Take his schemes to the next level.
25:40Because skimming isn't enough anymore.
25:42Eddie wants Crazy Eddie to go public.
25:45He wants an IPO.
25:46Oh, is this a bad idea?
25:49Eddie, I cannot believe you're doing this.
25:52Yes, an IPO would be huge.
25:55Yes, an initial public offering, taking your company public, could bring a lot of money in.
26:03But boy, are there a lot of hurdles.
26:05You gotta be squeaky clean. There's regulatory jibjabs.
26:08I guess it could help you go legit.
26:10Get big enough, stop being dependent on all that skimmed cash.
26:13I guess there is precedent.
26:16Oh, what was the name?
26:18There was a company that got hit by a tornado. Oh, that's right.
26:23It was Sound of Music. Opened in 1966.
26:26Expanded to nine stores by 1978.
26:29And while they're not as famous as Crazy Eddie's, Sound of Music had their own marketing tricks.
26:36After a tornado damaged one of the stores in 1981, Sound of Music held a tornado sale.
26:43They heavily promoted it on local radio, offering the best buys on whatever inventory survived.
26:49By the time they went public in 1985, the name Best Buy had stuck.
26:54At its peak in the 2010s, Best Buy had over 1,400 stores and brought in $50 million in revenue in 2011 alone.
27:05We know from the Best Buy story that a discount local electronics chain going public and expanding like crazy works.
27:15It's a smart idea.
27:17But Best Buy wasn't run by Crazy Eddie.
27:21The IPO is the brainchild of Sam E. Antar.
27:25Yes, it's another Sam.
27:27This one is Eddie's younger cousin. Sam E.
27:31is just getting out of finance school.
27:36The Crazy Eddie IPO from the very beginning was just about survival.
27:41Cousin Sammy knows what Eddie knows.
27:43If they don't find a way to bring in legit money soon and clean up these books, the cracks are going to start to show.
27:53Best Buy was a legit operation just looking to expand.
27:57But Crazy Eddie's is going public as a lifeline.
28:00If they offer stock to the public, they can inflate the value of Crazy Eddie's, which means the Antar family can cash in, sell stock, ensure their personal holdings increase even if the company isn't making the profits they claim.
28:15All of which is very illegal.
28:17If skimming cash is jaywalking, something that a lot of businesses do but nobody really talks about and it's not worth enforcing, then what Eddie wants to do is commit a triple homicide at the policeman's ball.
28:32All without them noticing.
28:34Out with the old, in with the new.
28:36Eddie calls Debbie One to let her know he wishes he could be there but he won't be ringing in 1984 with her.
28:53Sure, it's New Year's Eve but he's got to meet all these investors for the IPO.
28:59That, of course, like so many other things Eddie says, is a lie.
29:02In reality, he's taking his mystery Debbie Two out for the night.
29:07Debbie mentions to her sister-in-law what Eddie said.
29:10Word gets to Sam, the patriarch of the family, and he shakes his head in disgust.
29:17I mean, what has this family come to? Eddie's a maniac.
29:21He's humiliating the mother of his children.
29:24And maybe worst of all, he's about to invite the SEC to audit the books that are rife with fraud.
29:31This has to stop.
29:33Like a thunderclap, everything's clear to Sam.
29:35Sam tells Debbie there is no IPO meeting and that he knows where Eddie's taking his mistress Debbie Two.
29:42Debbie grabs her sister-in-law and heads into Manhattan.
29:46Years of anger and resentment lead to this moment.
29:51She's going to confront Eddie.
29:52And there he is, just standing in the street, waiting for a stretch limousine.
29:58It starts off loud, but then it gets louder.
30:02Shouting, accusations, Debbie kicks the limo door and threatens to bring everything crashing down.
30:08She isn't just talking about the marriage.
30:11She's talking about the frauds, the secrets, the money.
30:15All of the lies.
30:17Everything is on the line.
30:20Eddie leans over to the limo driver, says maybe you should bail before the cops arrive.
30:26Eddie knows how Debbie found out, so he confronts his father the next morning in Brooklyn.
30:34Sam looks at Eddie with the innocence that only a father could muster.
30:40As Eddie rants and raves, Sam keeps a placid look.
30:45But behind that facade, he knows that Eddie's right.
30:48Sam did want to orchestrate a blow-up.
30:51He wants Debbie to divorce Eddie.
30:53If they get divorced, Debbie gets 50% of the stake in the company.
30:58Eddie would cease to be the majority stakeholder.
31:02And finally, Sam and Debbie together could force Eddie out as the sole decision maker.
31:08I mean all of this.
31:09Son, this is for your own good.
31:12The good of the family.
31:14We take care of our own even when our own don't want it.
31:20After a tense few months, Eddie agrees to give Debbie what she wants. A divorce.
31:25Well, technically it's a separation agreement, but it's basically the same thing as a divorce.
31:31See, you'll get everything that you want.
31:35Eddie won't be around to ruin it anymore.
31:39It's the exact same thing as a divorce.
31:42It's just called a separation agreement.
31:45It doesn't start until after the IPO.
31:47But it's basically the same thing as a divorce. Divorce guts. Divorce guts.
31:51As I'm sure you're picking up on, this is yet another bait-and-switch from Crazy Eddie.
31:55Eddie's document is a separation agreement.
31:57Just not the one Debbie would sign if she had her own lawyer.
32:02Despite the promise of riches, the agreement caps child support to just $35,000 a year and not one cent more.
32:12And most importantly, Debbie's share of the ownership in Crazy Eddie will be exactly 0%.
32:17Just like he did with so many tourists in the Port Authority.
32:22Just like he did with so many countless customers at Crazy Eddie.
32:27There he stands, living in that uncomfortable moment. Until... Debbie signs.
32:33And in that moment, Sam the Elder's hopes of taking back Crazy Eddie for the good of the family and for Eddie himself...
32:42Those hopes exit the picture.
32:46But meanwhile, Sammy the Cousin's plan to take this company public... That's just beginning.
32:55What follows is a fraud so elaborate, it involves everything from insurance scams to inventory fraud, even worldwide monetary manipulation.
33:02And it all happens right under the government's nose.
33:07A scheme so brazen, it leads to an international manhunt and a decades-long quest to recover millions of dollars.
33:17This finale of the saga of Crazy Eddie just might be...
33:21The World's Greatest Con.
33:23The World's Greatest Con.
33:25You all have questions, and we want to answer as many as we can, so hit us up directly at world'sgreatestcon at gmail. com.
33:37Speaking of which, we got an email from Lee.
34:04Love the Q-Ship episode, however I do feel like you guys missed out on the conniest part of the Q-Ships.
34:36Germany had a few as well.
34:38The SMS Kaptrafalger was a German ocean liner converted in a similar fashion to the Q-Boats.
34:44The goal was to sneak into supply convoys and, if I remember correctly, wait until nightfall to open fire on the supply ships.
34:51The Germans were clever about it too.
34:54They disguised her to look like the British HMS Carmania, another ocean liner.
34:58This way she wouldn't raise suspicion until it was too late.
35:01Thank you so much for writing in, Lee.
35:04Yeah, man, this is the problem with military-based cons and tricks.
35:07That is the beginning of a rabbit hole that just keeps going down.
35:12I'd like to believe that we're going to do this long enough that we can get to all of them.
35:20But until then, please, you guys keep sending in nuggets like this one.
35:24Next time on World's Greatest Con...
35:26That's coming up next time on World's Greatest Con.
35:28We'll see you there.
35:29Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this broker.