550 - Short and Problem-Based

0:16 Hello.

0:17 And welcome.

0:18 To My Favorite Murder.

0:19 That's Georgia Hardstark.

0:20 That's Karen Kilgareth.

0:21 And this is a true crime podcast.

0:24 We bring it right to your door.

0:26 For 10 years.

0:27 Knock, knock.

0:28 It's been a decade, bitches.

0:29 Let us in. Do you have snacks?

0:32 Do you have treats for us? Treats?

0:33 Can we have a treat?

0:34 It is spooky season coming right up around the corner. Only two months to go.

0:39 What's up? How are you? I'm good.

0:41 How are you?

0:42 Good. Good. Is this natural? No, I don't remember what we do next.

0:47 We do different stuff every time.

0:49 Okay.

0:49 It's usually different.

0:50 I've actually never listened to this podcast before.

0:52 It's not good.

0:52 So I don't know the format. Hey, you want some kind of good news, I guess, from the dark side?

1:00 Yes.

1:00 Okay. So remember a couple episodes ago in episode 541 called House or Wife? Yes.

1:07 I remember every moment.

1:09 I covered the guy who was imprisoned for like 30 years for allegedly starting a flood in Mississippi, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1993. His name was James Scott. Well, he was up for parole and he was granted parole. He was 25 years old when he went to prison. And he's been in so long, he's now 56 years old.

1:29 Yeah.

1:30 And so he's going to finally get out.

1:32 Wow.

1:32 I mean, I wish they would look more into that. The evidence was shit.

1:37 That's an incredible update. That's the update we're looking for.

1:41 Yeah. So that's good. It is good.

1:44 Well, this is a little bit an additional update, not as good as someone finally getting out of jail. But I went again to Sephora.

1:54 Congratulations.

1:55 Thank you. And I let someone help me.

1:58 Oh.

1:58 And it was such a delightful experience. We stood in the hair aisle laughing and talking about having bobs.

2:05 Amazing.

2:05 And it was so funny. And as it was happening, I was like, you are the architect of your own fate.

2:11 Yeah.

2:12 If you're not going to.

2:12 Talk to people.

2:14 Or you're like, that's how you always complain.

2:16 Right.

2:16 If you're not going to be in the game, then you're always going to be like, I don't like this game.

2:20 Yeah.

2:21 But you go and you're actually, someone goes, do you need help? And it's like.

2:24 Yeah, actually. Actually, I do.

2:26 Can you help? Actually, it wasn't just the woman in the hair area because I was looking at a new, very expensive skin tint, which I do not need. And I was looking at it. I was like, have you tried this? Do you like it? And she goes, we'll give you a little tester. Basically, I realize people work at Sephora.

2:44 And they actually want to help you.

2:45 They really do want to help really bad.

2:47 She didn't say at the end, I'm a listener. No. Because I had an experience. You reminded me that a couple weeks ago, I was in Portland for the weekend, just having a vacay, decided to change my flight to earlier in the day. And I couldn't get the website to work on my phone. My Wi-Fi was shitty. So I had to call a fucking customer service line in this day and age.

3:08 How?

3:08 I know. And I give this woman, this, you know, nice, normal woman at Alaska Airlines, my name. And she goes, she fucking recognized me. That has never happened before. On the phone? Yes. In the 10 years where I've like made hair appointments and made Botox appointments and made doctor, I was just like, assuming at one point, one of those young girls at those, at a med spa, was going to be like, I listen. Never has that happened.

3:34 So when she did that and said, are you from My Favorite Murder? I freaked out as much as she was freaking out. She still charged me the change fee. She was like, I'm sorry. I wish I could waive it, but I can't.

3:45 She's like, listen.

3:46 Yeah. So Nancy in Alaska. Hey. Hi.

3:50 That was really exciting. Nancy, thanks for listening. This is Nancy. Being on the phone with you is like, A podcast kind of, but short and problem-based. Right.

4:00 She solved my problem and she was lovely the whole time. That's great. I know.

4:04 That's really nice.

4:05 First time.

4:05 That's also very fun.

4:06 It was really fun.

4:08 Because doing stuff like that is usually such a drag.

4:11 Right.

4:12 And you're just like, Nancy.

4:14 Nancy. We're already friends. I've been waiting for this for 10 years.

4:17 Nancy, this is wonderful.

4:19 I mean, I've been recognized at multiple estate sales, but never on the phone.

4:23 That's right.

4:23 So it was exciting for me.

4:24 It's a harder, it's like you leveled up. It's a harder thing that you unlocked.

4:28 Totally.

4:28 Yeah.

4:29 Yeah. Okay.

4:30 Something that is true to my heart, TikTok.

4:34 Okay.

4:35 A delightful TikTok. I got sent it on TikTok personally 30 times. My sister showed me when I went home last weekend.

4:42 Mm-hmm.

4:43 I thought you'd like it because it's right up our alley.

4:46 Let me see. Let me see.

4:47 Okay.

4:48 Here's what to do if you don't want to get murdered.

4:50 Oh, I love her.

4:50 It's been a while since we've done one of these and I just think it's time. First of all, don't honeymoon on a boat.

4:56 What are you doing?

4:59 Don't honeymoon on a cliff. I get that people like to hike. I get that. But if it's like some kind of like really like risky cliff hillside hike. I don't think you should go. I don't care if he's the greatest living human man. I don't think you should go. Don't go jogging late at night. Don't go jogging. Don't go jogging. Don't be like six to 15 weeks pregnant.

5:26 Don't be full term and meet someone on Facebook. If I was pregnant, I wouldn't even open Facebook. Absolutely no Craigslist.

5:36 Absolutely no. She basically, like, summarized the last 10 years of this podcast.

5:42 In one TikTok. And then the last 2,000 years of women's lives. So that was Jen Curran, and hilarious. I've seen her on TikTok several times, but then Allison looked it up, and she actually follows us on Instagram.

5:57 Yeah.

5:57 So there is a chance she is a listener.

5:59 Love her.

6:00 Or she's hate-following us.

6:02 She might be hate-following us.

6:03 Either way, we support what she does.

6:04 Might be rate-paging?

6:06 No.

6:07 No. Bait?

6:08 Rage baiting.

6:09 Wow. Perimenopause just had a moment. Right?

6:13 It's mosquito brain time.

6:15 Wow. Perfect. I hate when that happens.

6:17 For podcasting.

6:18 Definitely.

6:19 All you have to do is read now.

6:20 You know what's fun is trying to find an outfit to wear on perimenopause.

6:24 Oh, God.

6:24 Fuck everything.

6:26 Truly the other day, I actually had to call Craig and I was like, I don't know what happened, but every single item I put on, I had to take back off. And I was getting increasingly more upset.

6:36 Yep.

6:36 Because it's like, it's not going to get better from here. No.

6:39 I settled on this and had to pull it from under a cat, which I won't disturb a cat who's sleeping. That's how bad it was. You know what I mean? Like, the fact that I disturbed a cat, there's probably still cat hair on it, tells you how bad a day I was having trying to find something to wear.

6:53 This was one of the things I was talking to the woman at Sephora about.

6:56 Yeah.

6:57 These things that happen pre-menopause or menopause where suddenly your hair changes. You don't know what your hair's doing anymore. Yeah. It's falling out or it's getting weirdly curly or wet. Like, That whole thing.

7:08 My shoulder hurts. Can I blame?

7:10 Now I have knife shoulder.

7:11 Tinnitus is a fucking thing.

7:12 Yeah.

7:13 Have you had any hot flashes?

7:14 Yes, but the patch has been helping. The estradiol patch has been helping with hot flashes. Oh, okay. So those are fine. But my vision's fucked up.

7:23 I mean.

7:23 It's just.

7:24 Or like energy battery on the video game is just dwindling down.

7:28 And I yeeted my uterus. So you'd think that it was like not as crazy.

7:32 No, they'll still get you.

7:33 It's pretty fucked.

7:34 They'll get you on a technicality is what they'll do.

7:36 They really will.

7:37 Hey.

7:38 Fuck them.

7:39 Fuck them. When we say them, we mean your ovaries. If you're in perimenopause or menopause, write to us at myfavoritemurderatgmail.com.

7:47 Let's play a game of how many eggs do you have left? How many viable eggs do you have left?

7:52 And how much are you sweating for no reason?

7:55 All right. Well, should we get into the podcast, the actual podcast? We might as well.

8:00 No, I think we should sit here and watch TikToks.

8:02 I know you do. We have a podcast network called Exactly Right Media. There's podcasts on it. Here are some highlights from them.

8:09 This week on Bananas, Kurt and Scotty are joined by Mo Welch to discuss West Seattle's freelance beaver detective.

8:15 That's right.

8:16 A teacher who arranged her classroom by zodiac signs, and a Spider-Man thief who learned his tricks working as a Power Ranger.

8:23 Wow. And over on Wicked Words, Kate sits down with crime journalist Maria DiLorenzo to discuss her book, Confessions of the Green River Killer.

8:31 And over on The Knife, Hannah tells Pasha about an online knitting community rocked by the sudden and suspicious death of one of its own. But as the community starts piecing together what happened... The story begins to unravel.

8:45 Wow.

8:45 That's a play on words because it's.

8:47 A knitting community. I love it. Okay. And if you haven't listened to our limited series, Royal Swindle, yet, all the episodes are now available. So you can binge the whole wild story from beginning to end. And make sure to like and subscribe, please.

9:00 And if you're like us and you love Michael Foote from our legal podcast, Brief Recess, then you will be very excited to hear this news. The TV show The Traitor's New Blood premieres today.

9:10 I am so excited. Fucking excited for this.

9:12 September 17th on NBC, and it streams tomorrow on Peacock.

9:16 We're going to be live posting along with the premiere on Threads, and Michael will be recapping all of the drama on Brief Recess.

9:23 Yeah, you're immediately going to get a contestant's experience. on a podcast.

9:28 He's going to be so good. Like, I was thinking about going up against him on The Traitors. I would quit. Yes. I'd be like, I can't. No one can outsmart him.

9:36 No, and also, but he's so charming.

9:38 Yes.

9:39 Like, I'm sure he's just charming the hell out of everybody and they don't ever see anything coming.

9:44 Exactly. He's a worthy adversary. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. I'm excited.

9:48 And finally, we would like to thank you, Murderinos, because the fuck politeness and the wheat woo whistles are officially sold out And we are going to be donating the proceeds to the national immigration lawsuit.

10:00 Yay.

10:00 Good job, everyone. Yes.

10:02 Thank you for that.

10:02 That's so cool. Love doing that in your name. So this is a story that I don't want to read the subject line for you like the way we do on Minisodes because it'll give it away. Okay. So I'm just going to say this is a story that would have been considered a cold case if were it not for a father who refused to ever let it go.

10:24 This is the story of the murder of Kalinka Bamberski. Wow. I don't want to tell you the tagline because it's just so gripping. Okay. But I'm going to tell you the story instead.

10:34 You have to tell me the story before the tagline.

10:36 Okay. The main sources for this story are a documentary on Netflix called My Daughter's Killer and an article in The Atavist by Joshua Hammer and the rest of the sources can be found in the show notes. So, Let's start in July of 1982, and we are in Toulouse, France. Toulouse, France, a pretty big city in the south of the country.

10:58 You know, there you go, France.

11:01 France stuff.

11:02 Andre Bomberski is a 42-year-old accountant, so such a normal, organized dude. Everyone describes him as exceedingly organized and detail-oriented. He's a person who likes to see tasks through to the end.

11:16 Not me. Couldn't be me.

11:19 Can you imagine us as accountants? We would crash the stock market.

11:22 Bad news about your taxes this year.

11:24 Did you want to pay in Skittles? Because I'd be, I think you should pay in Skittles.

11:28 The good news is you don't have to pay them. The bad news is you're supposed to.

11:33 I traded all your money for Skittles.

11:36 And this cow.

11:36 You're welcome.

11:37 Yeah. Let's see what happens.

11:39 And some seashells, but they're beautiful. Okay, so Andre is divorced and has two children, an 11-year-old son named Nicolas. and a 14-year-old daughter named Kalinka. The children spend the majority of the year living with their mother in Lindau, Germany, which is a beautiful historic town on the shores of Lake Constance, not far from the Austrian border and across the lake from Switzerland. I knew you were just going to say that.

12:04 I mean, I wanted to. I wanted to say it. Thank you for not interrupting me.

12:07 Okay. Their mother, Danielle, but in French, Danielle, Danielle, had remarried a German doctor named Dieter Krambach, who she had actually had an affair with her new husband when she was still married to Andre. They had a pretty messy divorce over it, and the kids went to live with her and the new husband in Germany. And so as it stands now, in 1982, things are pretty amicable again.

12:36 The past few years, Andre has only gotten the kids for vacations. But Kalinka, you know, originally from France, is feeling isolated in her German school. And so by the end of the summer, she's planning to move back to Toulouse to live with her father. He's looking forward to that. But this all comes crashing down on the morning of July 10th when Andre gets a phone call from his ex, Danielle, who is hysterical. She tells him that Kalinka has died in her sleep. 14-year-old Kalinka, and that her husband Dieter tried to revive her, but he couldn't. Andre asks what could have happened to his vibrant, healthy daughter. And Danielle says that Dieter's best guess is a heat stroke. That's what he suggests it could be. Or possibly undiagnosed complications

13:23 from a car accident she had years earlier. But they're not sure why this healthy, vibrant 14-year-old girl would have died. So on July 9th, The day before, the last day of Kalinka's life, she had gone windsurfing on Lake Constance. It had been around 84 degrees that day, and according to her mother and stepfather, she had been complaining about feeling unwell that evening. She ate dinner at 7.30, went to bed, and then came out of her room at around 10 o'clock for a glass of water and read in bed until midnight when Dieter says that he told her to turn off the light. That's his story, basically. Mm-hmm.

14:00 The next morning, Dieter and Kalinka were supposed to go horseback riding together in the mountains, and he says when he tried to wake her up, he found her unresponsive. He had tried to administer several stimulant injections to revive her, but they hadn't worked. And he's a doctor.

14:16 Yeah, I was just going to say.

14:18 Okay. So, you know, him diagnosing her and him giving her injections, not totally suspicious. Right. Immediately upon learning of his daughter's death, Andre flies to Lindau, and early the next morning, he goes to view his daughter's body and then brings his son, 11-year-old Nicolet, home to Toulouse to prepare for Kalinka's funeral. And here's a photo of Andre holding a photo of Kalinka. So you can see them.

14:44 She just was this bright, beautiful, blonde, lovely girl. They said she was always smiling. And he's such a dad.

14:51 Yeah.

14:52 Okay. All of Andre's friends and neighbors rally around him to support the family during this horrible time and a seemingly random and unavoidable tragedy. After Kalinka's funeral, Andre, still trying to piece together what on earth happened, requests the autopsy report from the German medical examiner. It takes a while to get a copy, and then Andre has to get it translated from German.

15:16 And so.

15:19 He actually doesn't read the document until October of 1982, so three months after Kalinka's death, and it generates far more questions than answers. The first unusual thing Andre notices about the autopsy report is that in addition to the medical examiner and two police officers being present, Dieter, the stepfather, had also been present during the autopsy. In the report, Andre also finds out that by the time Kalinka's body had been found, a little after 10 a.m., rigor mortis had already set in And this raises the question of why Dieter had tried to administer any life-saving injections at all.

15:54 As a doctor, he would have known they would be ineffective. But Kalinka had actually been brought to the medical examiner with a needle still in her upper arm. Like, that's how frantic he was trying to revive her, supposedly. Okay. Andre reads that one injection had been administered to Kalinka by Dieter the evening before. It had been iron cobalt.

16:17 which is not really a standard injection for anything aside from severe anemia. And Dieter had said that he gave it to her intending to help her tan. It was just super fucking, what are you talking about, Rose? Immediately. Yeah.

16:34 You'd stop me cold that he was in the autopsy.

16:36 Totally. I mean, he's a cardiologist, so it's not like he's a pretty high up doctor.

16:41 Yes. Right, but it's his stepdaughter, right?

16:45 No, and it's totally inappropriate. And it doesn't help people tan. Like, I looked it up on Google. It's just not a thing. So him saying that that's why he did it doesn't make any sense. No toxicology tests were performed, though. Although some tissue samples had been taken. Like, he's just injecting her with shit and you don't do a toxicology report?

17:02 Well, and is it because he's in the room? Right.

17:04 Exactly. There had been some physical evidence that would generally lead to further investigation as to whether a sexual assault had taken place. This evidence included some blood and there was also a small vaginal injury as well as an unidentified substance found in her vagina, which never gets identified.

17:23 It's just... What's happening? Totally.

17:26 Like, what is this?

17:27 And most confusing of all is the fact that the autopsy mentions that food particles had been found in Kalinka's lungs, a clear sign that she had vomited and asphyxiated, which would have caused her death. Like, that caused her death, clearly. That's... What did it? But the autopsy does not draw this conclusion and leaves her cause of death as unknown. So Andre calls his ex-wife brimming with questions. And while she is genuinely devastated, she doesn't seem to have answers. She lets Dieter handle everything because she doesn't speak German. And she's 100 percent behind her current husband that he would never do something like this and is upset that Andre is even looking into it.

18:10 Right.

18:11 So Andre petitions the German government to test the tissue samples and have a Munich medical examiner analyze the findings along with the autopsy results. And in early 1983, that report is released. And this medical examiner says that the iron cobalt injection could have caused vomiting and cardiac arrest, especially after eating. So because of a lack of immune response in any of Kalinka's surrounding tissues, the The medical examiner believes that Kalinka asphyxiated and died very shortly after being administered this injection. So meaning when he tried to revive her that morning with multiple injections, I guess the sight of them, they can tell that she hadn't been alive for quite a while just based on the marking.

18:57 And yet he's a cardiologist giving those injections.

18:59 Totally. And his timeline now doesn't add up. Because with this information, then him seeing her around midnight telling her to go to bed doesn't make any sense. Him waking up, you know, it just completely blows it out. But German authorities still decline to prosecute Dieter, which leaves André dumbfounded. Yeah.

19:20 And there's definitely in the documentary this, like, you know, mention of this, you know, permanent kind of adversarial relationship with Germany and France and them Germany not wanting to listen to this guy from France tell them what to do, you know, tell them to go after one of their own citizens. It's political. It sucks. And Andre kind of knows that.

19:45 That's insane, though, that that would even come into a discussion.

19:49 Totally.

19:50 Someone, a young girl is dead. Yeah. It's not about that.

19:55 So a few months pass and Andre regroups. He's come to the conclusion that Dieter murdered his daughter. And in July of 1983, a year after his daughter's death, he returns to Lindau and starts to distribute flyers around town. The flyers say, quote, people of Lindau, you should know that a murderer, Dieter Kronbach, is living in your city.

20:17 He raped and murdered my daughter on July 10th, 1982, and his crime has been covered up by doctors, the police commissioner, and the prosecutors. Please help me obtain justice. end quote. Wow. So he goes full on. Ballistic. Yeah.

20:33 Wow. I mean, he's desperate.

20:37 He's just a desperate person. He's desperate.

20:39 And the first thing it made me think of is, you know, in the some cults, the way that they like get revenge or they keep people in is they fly your neighborhoods.

20:49 Yeah.

20:50 Because when people get like out of the blue a piece of paper, then it's like, this is the story. And that kind of almost like sets the context of the story.

20:58 Yeah.

20:58 So doing, I bet that was, I mean, you're going to tell me, but it just like, what a shocking thing to people.

21:04 In his town where he lives and is a doctor. Yes.

21:08 So even if that, if the father, we know probably he's not crazy, but if he was and did that, there would be that result.

21:15 Well, guess what? What? Andre is arrested. and winds up being charged with defaming Dieter, disturbing the public order, and injuring the reputation of the prosecutor. So, yeah, that's exactly— So everyone says— So 100% the opposite.

21:32 Yeah.

21:33 Wow. He doesn't come back to Germany for his court date and is sentenced in absentia to six months in prison. But Kalinka had been a French citizen. And so once presented with the evidence by André, the French government— opens their own investigation. Oh, wow. That's his in. An investigation that Andre keeps pushing along with his constant requests for updates.

21:55 I mean, if there's anyone you want on your side, detail-wise, it's an accountant.

22:00 An angry, like, how-dare-you accountant.

22:03 Father.

22:03 Yes. But he's right in that way that, like, you didn't do the basic, give the basic respect to this death.

22:11 Totally.

22:11 Because it's a young girl's dead... Figure out what happened.

22:16 And I'm sure he feels, you know, as any parent would, like somewhat responsible.

22:20 Sure.

22:20 That he let his young daughter go off with. I mean, this is what's so crazy to me about, you know, divorce and then the parents getting with someone else. You have no idea who that person is that they're getting with or what they're like, what they're about. And you just have to trust that your kid's going to be OK and that they are not monsters. Right. That sounds so difficult. Yes.

22:43 Horrifying.

22:43 Yeah. So I'm sure in a way he feels like he needs to atone to his daughter.

22:49 I mean, it's just such a gigantic loss like that.

22:53 Yeah.

22:53 That, yeah.

22:55 And I feel like she was such their, like, his beam of light in this, like, fucked up world. At least he gets to see his, you know, beautiful daughter succeed in life. And it's just taken away from him. Trigger warning. There's some upsetting details coming up. So in 1985, French authorities exhumed Kalinka's body. And at this point, it is discovered that Kalinka's genitals had been completely removed from her body before she had been buried. And German authorities say they have no idea why or how this happened or where this part of Kalinka's body had gone.

23:31 I mean, like, what?

23:33 What are we talking about? Exactly. Exactly.

23:36 And sorry, then the autopsy doesn't reflect anything?

23:40 It says stuff. It's the tear, the blood, some fluid. But there's no way to, you know, see if the tear was like when that happened, if it was from sexual assault, because it's not there. It's just gone.

23:55 God.

23:55 I mean.

23:57 That's so extreme. That's so horrifying.

23:59 Yeah. The investigation takes years with those same tissue samples being analyzed. And the findings being similar to those of the Munich medical examiner. And ultimately, in 1993, nine years after Kalinka's death, a French court charges Dieter with voluntary homicide. Oh. But Germany refuses to extradite Dieter. So he's tried in absentia. Mm-hmm. Right?

24:25 He's tried in absentia, found guilty, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Wow.

24:31 In France.

24:32 Uh-huh. So, of course, he never has to serve the sentence as long as he never sets foot in France again, which he doesn't plan to.

24:42 What are the connections this guy has? Are you going to explain this to me?

24:45 Because you know how they treat doctors like fucking gods. For real.

24:49 This is like Alec Baldwin in that movie where he's like, I don't play God, I am God. Because he's a cardiologist.

24:55 Yeah, and just that cocky, like German attitude of sorry. Easy, easy.

25:00 But also, it is the weird thing of, because you said it earlier, it's like hierarchy.

25:05 Yeah.

25:06 Where it's like, it's the cardiologist in the room with the.

25:09 Yeah. With the. So I'm sure he outranks.

25:11 Coroner or whoever.

25:12 Totally.

25:13 And is calling the shots and saying what needs to happen.

25:15 Absolutely. Which is why he shouldn't be in the autopsy room. Right. And this guy is so cocky and so like such a creep. So then in 1997. A 16-year-old goes to Dieter's practice for an endoscopic examination. Yep. When she gets there, his assistant is out to lunch, so he's alone in the office, and he tells this 16-year-old girl that the examination is uncomfortable, so he's going to administer an anesthetic.

25:45 We all know where this is going. When she wakes up, he is sexually assaulting her. Dieter seems to believe that this girl isn't going to report him, but she does as soon as she gets home. And her parents pressed charges. And over the course of this trial, several other victims come forward, saying that the doctor had also given them injections that had knocked them out and he had assaulted them, although he's not prosecuted for these additional cases. So it's a pattern now. He is found guilty of the assault of the 16-year-old girl and sentenced to two years in prison. However, even though multiple women have testified that he also drugged and raped them, the judge chooses to suspend his sentence.

26:26 Allowing him to go free without doing any time in prison. So clearly they're all in some fucking secret club.

26:32 I mean, what is that, though? What is the, this is a person who has intentionally harmed multiple people?

26:39 What is it? It's men covering each other's fucking tracks. I know, but I mean, yeah.

26:43 Yeah. Yeah.

26:46 I'm not going to argue with you on that one. I mean, Jesus Christ. But it's like, I honestly, it's like, but why? Like, what is the ultimately, so you can do it later? What is the value of that?

26:58 Well, it's the same thing as when they say like, well, we don't want to ruin the rest of this young man's life.

27:02 Right.

27:03 Fuck you.

27:04 Right.

27:05 Without a second thought to the victim.

27:06 Yeah.

27:07 But don't worry, he does lose his medical license. He does.

27:11 Yeah. Okay.

27:12 But.

27:12 That's something. I mean, I truly thought it was like, And he was supported in his practice and, you.

27:18 Know, whatever. I mean, the good thing is that a lot of the German public in that town were very upset about him not getting any prison time. And I guess it was a big, big deal. So thankfully.

27:30 And what was the year?

27:31 At this point, it's 1997 or 8. Yeah. Yeah. So now knowing this is Dieter's pattern, Andre becomes even more obsessive. He's like, This proved my point. I'm not crazy for going after him the way everyone has been saying, not everyone, but the way people have been saying I am. And so once again, he sees Dieter tried and convicted and not serving any prison time. And he's trying to keep an eye on Dieter's movements within Germany, but he seems to be moving around different towns a lot. So Andre has a network of people who have his back and they're willing to help him keep eyes on Dieter. And he learns that Dieter is living in the town of Scheidegg in Germany, right by the Austrian border. And at

28:14 this point, there's a ticking clock for Dieter to face justice in France. The statute of limitations on Dieter's French charges will run out in 2012, which we've talked about before. Why are there statute of limitations on any violent crime? In the fall of 2009, André hears from his network that Dieter might be preparing to move back to Morocco, where he had lived before. And also he finds out that Dieter is still practicing medicine as like a traveling doctor, despite the fact that he lost his medical license. So knowing that Dieter is going to leave, this is his last chance to keep track of him in Germany and seeing no other options, Andrei starts going around to every cafe and bar in town and has loud conversations with

29:00 anyone who will talk to him, proposing a scenario in which someone might kidnap Dieter. And bring him to France.

29:08 Oh, I didn't think we were going to go there.

29:10 We're going there. Okay. This is the subject line. I couldn't read you. Okay. Okay. We're bringing in Jason Statham if he were in a metal band at this point right now. Okay. That character. I'm 100%.

29:19 I'm 2,000% in now. It's suddenly become a Jason Statham movie.

29:24 Great. This is the story of the dad who got his daughter's murderer kidnapped so he could face charges in France.

29:31 Yeah.

29:31 Fucking amazing.

29:32 He went into an old... an old bar where it just was old guys in fisherman sweaters who had their back to him and then he told his story and they all rose up behind him.

29:42 I mean, this guy's a character. So in early October, Andre gets a call in his hotel room in Austria. The man on the phone introduces himself as Anton, and he says he will bring Dieter to France, and he's going to do it for free just for humanitarian reasons, he says. Oh. Yep. He doesn't want any money. And he asks for money to cover his expenses. Basically, the expenses are he has to hire two, like, Russian gang members to help him. Right. It's so bananas.

30:14 But also I love, and sorry, but in this, the idea that potentially there's like a psychopath out there that's like a killer for hire that's like, hold on a second, you've offended my sensibilities. Like, I don't have any of that moral compass, and I'm still horrified by what you people have done.

30:33 It's like, I'm going to do, I'm going to use my powers of evil. For good. For good. Yeah.

30:39 It's the show Barry. It's why you love the show Barry.

30:41 This is basically a passion project for Anton. He will later say that he is deeply affected by Andre's story and his persistence over 30 years to bring his daughter's killer to justice. So Anton and André meet on a park bench, and André asks, like, what are you going to do? And Anton's like, it's better that you don't know any details.

30:58 Like, it's a fucking total, like— Plausible deniability.

31:01 Spy movie. Yes. So Anton tells him to go back to France and await a phone call. Wow. So the call comes on October 17th. That night, André picks up the phone, and he's basically told to call the police in a town called Malouse, France, which is right over the German border. And Dieter is there tied up, and so he calls the police and tells them where to find him.

31:26 Just in, like, a ditch or something?

31:27 No, they basically— Dieter, who's now 74 years old, he's found bruised and bloody and dumped in the street.

31:35 Oh.

31:35 Like, in the street.

31:36 Just put into France.

31:37 Yep, just like they— yeah.

31:39 Yeah.

31:40 He tells police he had been kidnapped from his home, driven through the night, and was dumped on the street. And when he's found he's in pretty bad shape, he's trussed and gagged and bleeding— And so the way Anton tells the story is that he had rung Dieter's doorbell, backed up a few paces. As soon as Dieter came out of the door, his two accomplices tackled him, dragged him into the car. He doesn't explicitly mention that in his altercation they had injured Dieter's head. I mean, they kind of roughed him up. Yeah. You know?

32:09 Yeah.

32:11 Neighbors found blood on the ground, Dieter's glasses, and a slipper.

32:14 Oof.

32:15 Yeah. That said... He's found alive in France and he recovers from his injuries in a prison hospital. And in 2011, he's actually brought to trial in France for Kalinka's murder.

32:26 Wow.

32:27 At the trial, Deere's lawyers argue that vigilante justice cannot lead to legitimate lawful justice. Like if they try him, like based on how he got here, it's vigilante justice or it's like, OK, OK, vigilante justice. And we're like, fuck that.

32:43 Well, it's just that. They tried regular justice and it did not work. It worked only for the bad guy.

32:51 Right. The prosecution presents all of the evidence from Kalinka's death. At least five women testify for the prosecutor saying that Dieter had raped them after giving them injections that had incapacitated them. It's really upsetting that the mother, up until this point, is still... They've divorced at this point and she's still totally backing... Dieter.

33:14 She's in denial.

33:15 She's in total denial. Also because like if it's true and it happened right under your nose and then from this trial she finds out that there's multiple young teenage girls who have been injected and sexually assaulted and raped by him and that also an old neighbor comes forward saying that she had an affair with him while he was still married to the wife and he would give her sleeping pills and So they could have the affair in the house without her waking up.

33:46 So the wife was also being drugged. Yeah. Just so that he could do what he wanted.

33:49 Yeah. So he's just an evil man.

33:52 He's a monster.

33:53 During the preparations for this trial, Kalinka's tissue samples had been retested with modern techniques. And they revealed the presence of benzodiazepine, which demonstrates that Dieter had injected benzodiazepine. Kalinka and likely his other victims, not only with iron cobalt, but with a substance specifically meant to incapacitate her, which is why you do a tox screening on a suspicious young girl's death. Like, they would have found that then.

34:18 That's why you do the same thing every single time for everybody, no matter who they are.

34:22 Totally.

34:22 And no matter what doctor is standing in the room.

34:24 Exactly. So family members of both Dieter and Andre testify with Dieter's, his children stand by him and defend him, adult children. Imagine.

34:33 Imagine if it was a truth. I mean, it's just— I.

34:37 Just feel like even though it's your parent, you have to look at the evidence. You can stand by him and say he's done bad things and still stand by him. Right.

34:47 But then they're on the inside with this, like, sociopath charming you and telling— and also they've lived with this person.

34:56 Yeah.

34:56 Like, they're in the cult already.

34:57 Yeah, that's very true. Danielle, now divorced from Dieter, testifies. And while she doesn't say she explicitly thinks Dieter killed her daughter, she's no longer defending him. And she says he was attracted to teenagers. After the trial ends, the jury deliberates for four hours before finding Dieter guilty. He's sentenced to 15 years in prison. After the trial, Andre says, quote, Obviously, my first thought is for Kalinka. Justice has been done in her honor. And now I will be able to grieve for her. Dieter launches multiple appeals, all of which are rejected. He's released due to health problems in February of 2020 and dies a few months later in September at the age of 85 after finally serving time for

35:43 murdering Kalinka. And then Andre and Anton are both charged for Dieter's kidnapping. Anton is sentenced to one year in prison, which he serves in Austria. And in the documentary, he's just like, he goes home and he's like, My parents are proud of me. Everyone is proud of me. Like, he's a local hero.

36:01 Yeah.

36:02 Yes.

36:03 He took care of business when the system wouldn't do it.

36:08 Yeah. I fucking love that guy. At his own trial, Andre openly admits to his participation. He says, quote, something had to be done. You know the expression, I made the omelet, but it was also necessary to break the eggs, end quote. He's found guilty. The judge sentences him to one year in prison. and immediately suspends the sentence.

36:27 Thank God. I was going to get so mad if he had to do it.

36:31 Yeah. Yeah. And that is the story of the murder of Kalinka Van Berski and her father's 30-year quest to bring her killer to justice.

36:41 That is, it's so sad, and then it's so satisfying.

36:45 Yeah.

36:45 It's like, there's these monsters in the world. Then there's also these great people in the world that are like, you know what? Because also a father having to do all that by himself. In grief.

36:56 Yeah. You know what I mean?

36:57 Trying to figure out what to do. And it's like to get a call in the middle of the night, it's like, don't worry, the bad guys are going to take care of the worst guy.

37:04 We're on your side.

37:05 Yeah.

37:06 That's the bad guy. Yeah.

37:08 Nice one.

37:09 Yeah.

37:09 That was really good. Let's turn so far left.

37:16 Please.

37:16 Let's go all the way around the block and then out of this neighborhood into a very different A lighter neighborhood. Yeah. Where different things happen.

37:25 Okay.

37:27 You're going to like this.

37:27 Okay. I think.

37:30 This story starts just outside of London at Elstree Studios during a taping of the TV show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? You know, that's where it started. Okay.

37:41 Oh, yeah.

37:42 Yeah, originally. Okay. Over the years, there have been many international versions of the show, but it first aired in the U.K. in 1998. And by its peak in 1999, British Millionaire is a huge cultural phenomenon. About 19 million people watch every episode. That's about a third of the UK's population at the time.

38:04 And that's when you couldn't record TV. You had to tune in.

38:08 Yep. They called it appointment television. You all had to meet up at the right time.

38:13 It sucked.

38:15 Pre-TVO. It was a dark time.

38:17 Pre-TVO. So.

38:19 Because everybody, quote unquote, wants to be a millionaire, getting through the screening process of that game show to be a contestant is a feat in and of itself. If you are selected, you join nine other contestants at your taping, and then you have to beat them in a time trivia question known as The Faster Finger Round.

38:37 Oh, my God.

38:37 Do you know Millionaire enough to know any of that?

38:40 I'm probably not.

38:41 It's basically like there's an opening question and the person that gets it the fastest and correct, it becomes the contestant of the main show.

38:50 Wow.

38:51 So even if you make it to the studio as a potential contestant, there's no guarantee you will end up in the hot seat. But someone always does. And on September 9th, 2001, a British Army major in his late 30s named Charles Ingram— is the fastest finger. So he ends up going down to the stage and taking his seat opposite the Regis Philbin of England, but first a man named Chris Tarrant. I'm sure that people get pissed off if I compare Chris Tarrant, who is the OG who wants to be a millionaire host, to our secondary.

39:25 And yet still a big deal, We just built it. Did I ever tell you that my dad... Every time Regis Philbin was on TV, my dad would get mad and leave the room.

39:33 Why?

39:34 He hated Regis Philbin?

39:35 He had some serious, there's some people he doesn't like.

39:38 I love that.

39:39 Regis was one of them.

39:40 That's like when two cats don't like, come in the neighborhood, don't like each other. You're like, why? Way far away.

39:45 But this would be like, and one cat's just walking by having a great life and the other one's just like. Okay, so Charles, the contestant, is wearing a colorful patchwork polo shirt. And a goofy smile. We do have a picture of him. So this is the person that this is all built, this whole story's about.

40:03 That is such a 90s t-shirt, like a 90s shirt. Yeah. I can't even.

40:08 Multicolor.

40:08 Yeah, we love color block.

40:10 Color blocking. It came right before hypercolor.

40:12 Yeah. Colors.

40:15 Chris Tarrant asks Charles if he wants to play millionaire, and he excitedly shouts back, quote, is the Pope Catholic? Classic.

40:24 Good one already. Off to a good start.

40:25 Right?

40:26 It's going to be good TV. So now Charles will be asked 15 questions that increase in both value and difficulty as the game goes. If he can make it to the last question, he wins one million pounds. At this point in the show's roughly four-year history, only two people have ever gone that far on who wants to be a millionaire. So the odds aren't great. But this is where the lifelines come in. So that's basically if Charles doesn't know an answer— He can either take his winnings and walk away, or he can risk it all and use a lifeline, either 50-50 where two of the answers go away, so it's like one of, you know, or phone a friend, which you call a smart person you know, and have them help you, or you can

41:12 ask the audience. So that's how it normally goes. But Charles Ingram will prove to be no ordinary player. And he's about to go down, for better or worse, in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire history.

41:24 Oh, shit.

41:25 This is the story of what's been called the most British crime of all time, the 2001 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire scandal.

41:33 Wow.

41:34 Yes.

41:34 I don't know this. You don't at all? Not off the top of my head. Oh, yay. Like, there's a vague, you know, memory of something like this. Right. But I couldn't tell you anything about it. Okay.

41:43 That's so exciting.

41:44 Yeah.

41:44 Because I kind of thought when I said Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, you'd be like, yeah, yep.

41:47 No. Okay, great.

41:49 So there's a book written by authors Bob Woffenden and James Plaskett, and it's called Bad Show.

41:56 They wrote a whole book about this? They wrote a book.

41:59 Apparently, in England, this is such a huge story. Everybody knows it. Like, everybody.

42:04 It's because it's, like, rude.

42:06 First of all, rude. They love their trivia.

42:08 Yeah.

42:09 Right?

42:09 They're obsessed with that bar trivia and their trivia teams and all that.

42:13 Like, cheating on a trivia thing is, like, you know, something bad. Right? Yeah.

42:18 Would 007 do it? Well, then I shouldn't do it. There's also a documentary called Millionaire, colon, A Major Fraud. So the rest of the sources are in our show notes. So we are back. We are in the studios.

42:31 We are there.

42:32 He's just won his seat. He's kind of been dorky. He begins to play the game now. So Charles does fine on the first few questions. But at question number five, which is worth a thousand pounds, he starts to look shaky. He quickly burns through the ask the audience and the phone a friend lifelines.

42:51 How many questions are there again?

42:53 Fifteen.

42:54 Okay. So that's pretty early to get through two of your lifelines.

42:56 Way too early. Like you wouldn't normally do that. But he just had no options.

43:02 I want to know the questions. Would I get them? Probably not.

43:06 Well, they increase in difficulty. So in the beginning, like it's kind of like New York Times crossword. It's like I can do this.

43:12 Yay, Monday.

43:13 Hooray for Tuesday. By Friday, I'm nowhere to be found.

43:16 Okay.

43:16 I think it's like that.

43:17 Okay.

43:18 So it is a very bad sign that that early he's, because then once those are gone, they're gone.

43:23 Yeah.

43:24 So he's down to one remaining. So he, and he slows to a crawl telling Chris Tarrant, quote, one of my sub strategies is to take a long time. Right.

43:37 Thanks for great TV.

43:38 I mean, so from here on out, That's exactly what he does. He just goes super slow. Question after question, Charles slowly reads his multiple choice answers out loud and mulls them over, adding commentary and, to be blunt, not coming across as all that bright. That's Marin's editorial. I'm just reading Marin's work. But just basically that for a person who's in this game and needs to go all the way, it's like, uh-uh. But in the end, he always chooses the right answer. Eventually, Charles arrives at question 10, so he gets pretty far. For 32,000 pounds, it's, quote, who had a hit UK album with Born to Do It released in 2000? And then the options are Coldplay, Top Loader, Craig David, or A1.

44:31 I don't know the last three of those. I've never heard the last three.

44:34 I've never heard of that song.

44:35 Top Loader? Someone named their band Top Loader?

44:38 I loved Top Loader so much in 1997. And then someone.

44:41 Named it after a steak sauce? Their band after a steak sauce?

44:44 There's A1 and it's just all sauce. Okay, so Charles immediately reveals he has no idea and that basically he burns his final lifeline, which is the 50-50. So his choices are now, A1 Steak Sauce and Craig David.

45:00 Okay.

45:01 Craig David is a musical performer.

45:03 Okay.

45:04 I have not heard of him. Charles says that he thinks it must be A1 because he's never heard of Craig David. But then he says, quote, 80% of the time I'm wrong when I guess. So you know what? I'll go with Craig David.

45:17 Wow. He's just fucking winging it.

45:19 It's his final answer, and he is correct. This is a very weird way to play millionaire.

45:25 Yeah.

45:26 Charles had banked $ 16, 000 at this point. If he missed that question, he would have been eliminated and left the show with 1,000 pounds. If he admitted he didn't know it, he could have walked with 16,000.

45:38 Right. And then they're always like, go with your first answer. And that, yeah, he didn't.

45:43 So most contestants probably would have taken the money. This reckless approach that Charles has to basically playing this and gambling with it makes for great TV. Chris Tarrant will later say, Quote, he was extraordinary to be opposite. My read was that he was sort of a mad major, brave as a lion, but completely barmy. We should have got this translated.

46:06 Sorry, what now?

46:07 In today's money? All of these words. Barmy in today's money is $ 30, 000. But completely barmy, you know, probably a bit thick.

46:15 Okay.

46:16 Dim but nice sort of thing. End quote.

46:19 My God. Damn. Damn.

46:22 The millionaire production crew does not know what to make of what's happening. And over the next few questions, as the stakes get higher, Charles continues to answer in this meandering kind of cavalier way, never seeming to consider walking away with the increasingly large amount of money that he is accumulating. Instead, he's totally guessing his way through the highest dollar questions with no lifelines yet. So no one does it that way.

46:48 Yeah.

46:48 Somehow Charles stumbles his way to question 14. There are now just two correct answers separating him from the million-pound jackpot. He's asked, quote, Baron Hussman is best known for his planning of which city?

47:04 Oh, I know this one. No. Do you? No.

47:06 That would have been— suddenly you're just like, this is the one thing I kept from high school. Yes, you can. But you have four options.

47:12 Okay, give me four options.

47:13 Rome, Paris, Berlin, or Athens?

47:17 Berlin. Berlin.

47:20 Charles immediately says Berlin because he thinks the name Hausmann sounds German.

47:24 Oh, yeah.

47:25 Still, he goes through the other options, chats them all through, eliminates some from contention before zeroing in on Berlin as his final answer. But before he confirms it, because that's what they always do at the end, he suddenly changes his answer to Paris. Final answer, and he's right.

47:44 Oh, I was so close to being right.

47:45 You were really close. You came in second place.

47:48 If he had said Berlin, I would have been right. That's right.

47:51 Charles has made it now to question 15, the million-pound question. The host reads the question. Are you ready?

47:57 Yeah.

47:58 Quote, a number one followed by 100 zeros is known by what name? A Google, a Megatron, a Gigabit, or a Nanomole?

48:10 Jesus. It's just me guessing, so let's not do it. Okay.

48:15 Once again, Charles admits he's unsure. He thinks it's Megatron, maybe Nanomole. He's never heard of Google. Just a reminder.

48:23 Isn't that so funny? I know. It's going to be one of the biggest fucking things in the world in a minute.

48:27 Right?

48:27 I've never heard of Google.

48:28 I've never heard of Google because it's the 90s, and I have no idea what the very near future is about to bring. Just a reminder, Charles can still walk away with the money he's earned.

48:39 Right.

48:40 It's half a million pounds up until this point. But then, in direct conflict with what he's just announced to everyone— Charles locks in on Google as his final answer. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire showrunner Rod Taylor will later say, quote, it became obvious that he wasn't under the pressure that he should have been. It didn't make sense. He should have been very careful and very certain, and he wasn't.

49:05 Yeah, the odds of just guessing all of those questions correctly is very high.

49:12 The number's low. It's less than a Google.

49:15 I don't know math, but it's low.

49:16 It's very low.

49:17 It's less than a Google.

49:18 I don't do odds. I'm not a statistic.

49:20 It seems unlikely it's like more of a yahoo than a well and the.

49:23 Other part is he's talking through how he doesn't know this and he doesn't know that and he's never heard of this yeah um But it turns out Charles' answer is correct. And with that, confetti drops from the ceiling and Charles Ingram has just become the third, only the third winner of British Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

49:43 But the vibe in the studio is off.

49:46 Is it? Sorry. Is it live?

49:48 Live to tape.

49:49 Okay.

49:50 It's live to the people in the room.

49:51 Okay.

49:51 Yeah. Charles' wife Diana, who has been watching– yes, Charles and Diana– who has been watching from the audience, looks shaken as she steps onto the floor to hug her husband. And around the studio, members of the millionaire crew are visibly seething, certain that Charles has just cheated right in front of their eyes.

50:14 They know.

50:15 They just don't know how he did it. Whoa. Charles has even searched on set to make sure he doesn't have any devices on him. He doesn't. So he and Diana are sent backstage with a bottle of champagne where they disappear into a dressing room. Staffers will allege that they can hear the couple arguing from the hallway, claiming Diana in particular sounds pissed, but they can't make out what either person is saying. A member of the Millionaire production crew will later say, quote, these two people had just won a million pounds. They should have been ecstatically happy.

50:49 They should have wanted to speak to their children. They should have wanted to speak to the dog. They should have wanted to do something other than be as miserable as they seemed.

50:57 Yeah, you're not fighting over after a million-dollar win. No.

51:01 On stage, the show goes on. The remaining contestants compete in yet another fastest finger. So that's actually part of it, too, is that if someone wins, that's over. Because someone could actually lose on, like, question four.

51:12 Right.

51:12 And they need more contestants. That's why they have all the contestants and they play fastest finger.

51:17 Okay.

51:18 It's a great idea.

51:19 Yeah.

51:20 So they go on to yet another fastest finger first round to determine who will play the next game. And the winner of that round is 51-year-old college lecturer Tequin Wittek. But he only makes it to the 8,000-pound question before he is eliminated. As the taping wraps up on stage, behind the scenes, Millionaire's production team is mobilizing to investigate Charles.

51:44 I love that nobody's like, Happy for him.

51:47 Yeah.

51:47 Good for you. It's just so impossible.

51:49 But like picture it where it's like, what's the largest lake in America? And someone's like, well, it could be. That's what he did wrong.

51:58 Instead of being like, I know I'm only whatever, but I'm super smart. Yeah. I know the answers.

52:04 He faked it wrong.

52:05 Yeah.

52:05 It's the same reason why the ads on TikTok, no one will ever believe those are real people talking to each other.

52:11 Yeah.

52:12 Because it's just like we've all seen real people talk to each other. This is not real people talking to each other. We know it doesn't pass the sniff test. So a few days later, on September 14th, the executives at Who Wants to Be a Millionaire call Scotland Yard. And they share their suspicion that Charles Ingram somehow cheated.

52:33 They're refusing to pay out his prize money until the police look into the matter. So they escalate the whole thing. Whoa.

52:39 Is that an illegal thing to cheat on a game show?

52:41 Yeah.

52:42 Okay. Fraud? Yeah.

52:43 It's just bad vibes.

52:44 Yeah.

52:45 And they've already shelved his episode, which was supposed to air the following week. That's not good. An official investigation kicks off, and Charles gives a statement to the Guardian saying, quote, I have no idea why they're investigating me. I don't know what there is to investigate, end quote. So he's claiming complete innocence.

53:04 You want to phone a friend to find out, dude?

53:06 Phone a friend with a better alibi than that? The millionaire crew is already working out its own theory. So they start looking through the footage from Charles' episode. And when they get to the 32,000-pound question about the album Born to Do It, where Charles claims not to know who Craig David is but then picks him as the final answer, Charles' wife Diana is being filmed for her reactions to her husband's game. So she's in the audience. And, of course, the cameraman is on her the entire time because whether her husband wins or loses, they need that shot.

53:41 Sure.

53:42 Here's an interesting side note. Diana comes from a trivia-obsessed family. Her brother Adrian is on the British game show circuit.

53:51 Oh. That's a thing. Okay.

53:53 You could do it, too, if you wanted.

53:54 Yeah, right. Let's get over there.

53:57 Having made it onto several game shows himself, including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

54:02 Okay. So he's played it already. Okay.

54:04 And when he played it, he won 32,000 pounds. He got to that question. Also, Diana has already been in the hot seat herself. She has made it through the fastest finger and made it into the seat.

54:16 Okay, that seems hard. Right?

54:18 Like her brother, she won 32,000 pounds just a few months before Charles made his appearance. And in the interim between Diana and Charles' appearances, they together were selected as potential contestants for a couple's edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, but they never got into the hot seat.

54:36 So the millionaire crew goes back and watches the footage from the audience cameras. And because they're focused on Diana for her reaction, they notice that she suddenly develops a cough just as Charles runs through the multiple choice answers.

54:51 I wish it were something brilliant. Can we?

54:55 No.

54:55 Can you lie to me? No, I can't. Tell me it was like telepathy.

54:59 I won't.

55:00 Never. Never.

55:02 Her coughs seem to come whenever Charles reads the name.

55:04 What the fuck? Craig David.

55:07 It's such a good system.

55:08 Okay.

55:08 You have to admit it.

55:09 Okay.

55:10 And she's not alone. There's another cougher, and it's Tecwin Wittek, the other guy who, the guy who won the game after him.

55:18 Oh.

55:19 Tecwin also coughs right as Charles reads the correct answer to various questions out loud.

55:26 Oh.

55:26 So some coughing, of course, is expected during a studio taping like this, but a man But a millionaire crew member will later describe seeing Tequan cough in real time. And he'll later say, quote, he was only about 10 or 15 feet directly in front of me. And the way he was coughing was rather bizarre. He was actually turning toward the set to cough.

55:49 I want to try it. Can we try it? Yeah. Like that? You go. Yeah.

55:56 Like it's that.

55:57 Yes. Okay.

55:57 Okay.

55:58 Yeah, that's— Because you have to have— this guy has to hear it.

56:02 Like, at some point, the guy next to you that doesn't know you is going to get annoyed with you. It's going to be like, can you get this fucking coffer out of here?

56:10 Assistant director, can I speak to you for a second? But this is pre-COVID. Sorry, mid-quote. At one point— turning toward the set to cough. At one point, he was chatting to the contestant to his left in a whispered way. And then he'd turn around a full 90 degrees and cough toward the hot seat, end quote. The entire Millionaire set audience is heavily mic'd, so the crew can isolate and enhance audio captured near Tequin. At one point, they hear him chatting with the contestant sitting next to him.

56:43 The whole thing is on cameras and mics, obviously. About the question Charles is trying to answer, which is, quote, what type of garment is an Anthony Eden? Is it an overcoat, a hat, shoes, or a tie?

56:57 A tie.

56:58 Hold on.

57:00 Okay.

57:00 This is Charles' 13th question. He's playing for 250,000 pounds. And like he has before, he reads through the four possible answers as he does.

57:10 Slowly.

57:10 Right? That's what that's all about. Tequin coughs three times. Each one comes right after Charles says the correct answer, which is, what did you guess?

57:19 A tie.

57:20 Hat.

57:20 Okay. Okay. I think you only needed to cough one time.

57:23 For real? Bro.

57:24 Like, sorry to teach you how to cheat, but, like, you didn't need to do it every single time.

57:28 You're in a silent studio audience that's required to be silent for the taping of the people talking on the stage.

57:35 You only need one confirmation. Right?

57:39 Insanity.

57:39 Yeah. Okay.

57:41 And this is just one instance of this happening, of many. As one crew member will say, it's not that hard to explain a cough here and there, but, quote, When you're talking about 17, 18 persistent calls at specific points that appear to be leading somebody, you back yourself into a corner.

57:59 Can I tell you about cheating one time? Yes. In high school. It was English. So, of course, I had read the book because I fucking love reading. It's like the only class I did okay. And a bunch of my friends hadn't. There was a quit pop quiz and it was yes, no answers. So I put my I'd put my feet down on the ground if it was yes and put my feet up if it was no.

58:21 That's genius.

58:22 And she didn't notice. It was like my favorite teacher, so I'm not even going to say it, but like I feel terrible.

58:27 And everyone passed or everyone like did good?

58:29 Just thinking of like three of my friends.

58:31 That's really good.

58:32 Yeah. And I was so subtle about it. Just like, oh, I want to put– You're just trying to adjust. I just have ADHD. I can't sit still. You know how I am.

58:40 Yes.

58:41 My feet and my seating.

58:43 Yeah. Okay.

58:45 So– The example that's often cited as the most suspicious, if not egregious, happens during the question about Baron Hessmann for 500,000 pounds. And this is when Charles nearly answers Berlin before he goes back and picks Paris, which he had just verbally written off to everybody.

59:03 Right, because he goes like, I'm going to pick Berlin.

59:06 That sounds like Berlin to Paris.

59:09 But I wonder if it's... Yeah. Fuck, dude.

59:11 When the production crew isolates and enhances the audio from the now classic moment, they think they hear Tecwen cough and then follow it up with the word no.

59:23 So he's... No! Bro! It's a silent audience. Yes. Uh.

59:29 I mean, I wonder if there's like, if there's sound effects or it's like something they're trying to beat.

59:34 Yeah.

59:35 Maybe it wasn't perfectly silent, but still. Sure enough, instead of saying Berlin, he then basically rereads the options and goes with Paris.

59:45 Sneeze would have been better.

59:46 This time, Tecwin coughs and blows his nose when Paris is read aloud. So, let's just go for, oh, weird.

59:54 Weird. Yeah.

59:55 Something to do with snot. I'm trying to fix this. I'm trying to make it seem.

59:59 Yeah, no. Oh, my God.

1:00:00 So that's when Charles picks it as his final answer. So now it is November, a couple months after Charles's taped appearance on Millionaire. Scotland Yard's investigation concludes with the arrests of Charles Ingram, Diana and Tequin. They're accused of conspiring to defraud the show of the million pound prize.

1:00:21 So I bet that's what it was. It's like, oh, if it was just a Yeah. It wasn't that big of a deal. It's fraud. But it's so much money.

1:00:27 Yeah.

1:00:28 Though each defendant adamantly denies the charges against them, they all plead not guilty.

1:00:33 Huh.

1:00:35 Guilty. The prosecution makes a strong case in court as they have the material evidence, the coughing audio. The Guardian reports that the first time the recording of Tequin's cough no moment is played aloud, quote, Every journalist and member of the public burst out laughing.

1:00:52 Yeah, no, you're going to plea. You're going to go ahead and plea.

1:00:53 You've got to.

1:00:55 You want to be humiliated?

1:00:56 And also, here's the thing, and people always do this. They double down.

1:01:00 Totally.

1:01:01 You get caught, you double down. Take the hit, you're going to end up taking it anyway.

1:01:05 And the guy who's going against you is like, okay.

1:01:07 Yeah, if you want to, here we go. Let's roll the tape.

1:01:10 Say the wife did it. Let's see what happens. Ooh.

1:01:15 They present footage that appears to show Diana repeatedly looking over to the area where Taekwon is seated while Charles is playing as if for reassurance. So she's like, should we be doing this?

1:01:27 Should we be doing this?

1:01:30 All on film. They also bring in other contestants who claim that they too had noticed Taekwon's suspiciously timed coughs. And then they share Diana's phone records. She'd been in contact with Taekwon a handful of times in the weeks leading up to the show. including a five-minute phone call made on the day Charles' episode was recorded. Police put forward the theory that the trio's motive is money because.

1:01:54 They— I mean— Sherlock, literally Sherlock.

1:01:57 It wasn't—and it wasn't trivia. We did it to learn. It's money because both the Ingrams and Taquin are in significant debt.

1:02:07 Sure.

1:02:08 Who is it? They also suggest that the argument between Charles and Diana— backstage after the taping may have been about Charles and Tequin going rogue and advancing further in the game than was planned.

1:02:22 Totally.

1:02:22 Which risked exposing the entire scheme.

1:02:24 Yeah, she knew that, like, you only win a little bit. Yes. And people don't question it.

1:02:28 Don't get greedy.

1:02:29 Don't get greedy.

1:02:30 And don't be crazy.

1:02:30 No, they fucked around and found out.

1:02:32 That's right. British style, which was politely. But the defense hits back. Charles denies arguing with his wife after the show and maintains that he picked the correct answers fair and square. He claims that talking through each possible answer was genuine strategy. He and his lawyers try to establish that Charles is smart enough to have correctly answered all the questions without help, though it's unclear if they are successful. Yeah.

1:02:59 The Guardian adds in its court reporting, quote, nobody notices that Charles is wearing a Mensa badge. He put it on as a special touch, but it is so tiny. Just a little M on his lapel that the jury can't spot it.

1:03:14 Oh, my God.

1:03:16 What eagle-eyed Guardian reporter got in there and was like, you know what he's trying to do?

1:03:21 Totally. I'm the only one who noticed.

1:03:23 And also just, he's like, I'm real smart.

1:03:27 I got a pin.

1:03:27 I found this M on the street.

1:03:29 They gave me a badge. They called them badges. They gave me a badge.

1:03:31 Good one.

1:03:32 And now I'm.

1:03:33 And my badge makes me spot.

1:03:35 This is my proof. Yeah.

1:03:36 And so, Craig David, I am your number one fan. Tequin testifies that he suffers from allergies and legitimately has a coughing issue.

1:03:44 Oh, my God.

1:03:45 Usually, it's less coughing and more sneezing, but okay. When it's pointed out that his cough seemed to vanish when he took the hot seat himself, he claims that he'd had some water just before and cleared his throat.

1:03:56 Yeah, you know, water cures everything.

1:03:59 It cures allergies.

1:04:00 Yeah.

1:04:01 Tequin and Diana also explain that they did know each other at the time of the taping, though not well. Months prior... Tequin had reached out to Diana through her brother Adrian, asking for tips on how to get onto the show. Diana and Adrian both have been on Millionaire at this point, and they both are becoming self-styled experts.

1:04:21 In fact, they're writing a how-to book called When a Million Went Junk. So they're basically trying to teach people how to get on this show. Imagine writing a book of, like, how to get on Jeopardy.

1:04:33 It sounds like a pamphlet at best.

1:04:34 I mean, it's just like you read some books.

1:04:37 Booklet. That's it. Like a large font, maybe a booklet.

1:04:43 If you're in Las Vegas, take the pamphlets being handed to you and read them. Oh, so they were in the process of writing this how-to book when Charles makes it into the hot seat.

1:04:53 Mm-hmm.

1:04:53 The publication of that book is axed.

1:04:56 No.

1:04:57 They lose the book deal. So it turns out there is not much hard evidence proving that Charles Ingram knew Tequin. The defense also points out that it would have been difficult for him to differentiate Diana or Tequin's individual coughs during the taping as opposed to any other random cough that was heard.

1:05:15 Yeah.

1:05:15 A sound expert will testify.

1:05:17 Sound expert?

1:05:18 A sound expert.

1:05:19 I'm a sound expert.

1:05:20 Yes, you are.

1:05:21 Can everyone be a sound? Anyone?

1:05:22 Everyone in that control room is a sound expert. We got a lot of them around here. There is one, and they testify there was a total of around 192 coughs during the taping of Charles' episode. Although a notable amount, 19 coughs were attributed to Tequin alone.

1:05:42 Okay. Okay. Is that a lot? Like, I don't know.

1:05:45 I don't know what.

1:05:47 The number is supposed to be. It seems like a lot.

1:05:50 Well, they're basically saying, I think it's very common because in that situation, you know, you're not supposed to cough.

1:05:55 Right.

1:05:55 And then that's when you really have to cough.

1:05:57 Right.

1:05:57 So it's probably kind of common and they're used to editing them out. But usually everybody gets one or two.

1:06:03 Sure.

1:06:04 Not 19. Like cough 19 times. That's how you realize how obvious and insane it is.

1:06:10 Yeah.

1:06:11 In another fun trial moment. A coughing expert is put on the stand.

1:06:16 What? Oh, my God.

1:06:16 What if the sound expert and the coughing expert started dating?

1:06:18 Oh, my God.

1:06:19 And they have a baby and it's a baby expert.

1:06:22 And the baby is an expert about himself. But when the coughing expert gets put on the stand, court has to be put on hold because two jurors go into coughing fits.

1:06:34 No.

1:06:34 Because it's also suggestible.

1:06:36 Yes, totally, totally.

1:06:37 It's the yawning thing. I just took the yawning thing, applied it to coughing.

1:06:41 100%.

1:06:41 Thank you.

1:06:42 Now I feel like I need a cough.

1:06:44 Do it.

1:06:45 Do it.

1:06:46 Cheat me into the end of this story. In the end, though, the jury finds Charles and Diana Ingram and Tequin Wittek guilty. Charles and Diana each receive an 18-month suspended sentence and are fined a collective 25,000 pounds.

1:07:01 Okay.

1:07:01 So they don't get the money. They don't get their winnings.

1:07:05 Oh, they never got the money. Oh.

1:07:07 Mm-mm.

1:07:08 Mm-mm.

1:07:08 Tequin, meanwhile, gets a 12-month suspended sentence and his fines and fees total £ 17, 500. The Who Wants to Be a Millionaire scandal breaks at a time when British tabloids are particularly ruthless, right? Late 90s.

1:07:24 So mean.

1:07:25 So bad.

1:07:26 And so naked, like just tits everywhere.

1:07:28 Yes, that's right. The media attention in this scandal is overwhelming. The public do not treat the Ingrams kindly. They're disgraced. They're financially ruined. Charles loses both his military status and his pension.

1:07:44 Wow.

1:07:44 Loses everything.

1:07:46 Wow.

1:07:46 And the family are subjected to near constant harassment. Charles later talks about their windows being broken, bags of vomit hurled at their house. Ew. And even their pets being attacked.

1:07:58 No.

1:07:59 Their three young children are bullied at school.

1:08:01 Oh.

1:08:02 It is for them like a nationwide scandal. Everyone knows about it.

1:08:07 It's huge. Yeah.

1:08:09 Techlin loses his job and, like Charles and Diana, becomes the butt of a nationwide running joke. At one point, he has to trademark his own name after a company tries to use it for a line of cough drops.

1:08:23 Oh, my God. For a line of cough drops. They got canceled. They got 2000 canceled.

1:08:29 They got 90s canceled, which is like, The bullying.

1:08:33 Yeah. It's okay. They can say anything about you. Be evil. Yeah. Yeah.

1:08:37 Then in 2003, ITV airs a documentary about this case called Major Fraud that is heavily weighted towards the prosecution's version of events. It's watched by nearly 17 million people.

1:08:49 Wow.

1:08:50 So almost as much as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire with the highest ratings for a non-fictional TV program since Princess Diana's funeral.

1:08:58 Holy shit.

1:09:00 This documentary arguably helped solidify Charles' guilt in the minds of the public. But over the years, more and more journalists and writers have questioned whether the prosecution's evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that these three genuinely cheated.

1:09:14 Yeah, I thought it was going to be not guilty, honestly. Right.

1:09:17 Because it's like, it's vague enough to be like, there's... It's like, it's.

1:09:22 Opinion, really, rather than fact.

1:09:25 Well.

1:09:26 Like, it's very nuanced.

1:09:27 Or it's almost like, do these, does A plus B equal C?

1:09:32 I mean, I obviously believe it. It's true. They cheated, but.

1:09:36 Yeah. But you can't prove it. Yeah.

1:09:38 Yeah.

1:09:38 You're saying court-wise. Today, the story of the coughing major is alive and well in Britain. The reason we don't know it well... is because this incident happened two days before 9-11.

1:09:50 I noticed that.

1:09:51 It's one of those lost things where everyone in England knows it very well. There was a recent miniseries starring Matthew McFadden and Fleabag's Sean Clifford, the sister from Fleabag, as the Ingrams.

1:10:08 Okay. Yes.

1:10:10 And the real Charles and Diana Ingram have appeared on other game shows here and there as novelty contestants.

1:10:14 Aww.

1:10:15 But mostly they live a private life, and they reportedly sell custom-made jewelry at craft markets. They still maintain their innocence, with Charles Ingram emerging in the press around the time Quiz was released, saying, quote, I should make one thing clear, and I'll only say it once and then move on.

1:10:33 We didn't cheat on that show. There was no plan to cheat on that show. I won that money perfectly, honestly, and fairly and squarely.

1:10:45 No. Allegedly.

1:10:48 And that is the story of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire cheating scandal.

1:10:52 Wow. I didn't know that one.

1:10:55 Crazy.

1:10:55 Yeah. Right? I thought I had some crazy idea. So when you said coughing and it was that simple because I thought it was like a multi-level, like people who worked there were in on it. No. Computers. Computers, like a fucking buzzer on your leg or whatever.

1:11:10 No, it was old school.

1:11:11 Coughing.

1:11:12 It was Georgia in high school level.

1:11:14 Yeah.

1:11:15 Right? Which is like— But yours was way better. You can't do something audio.

1:11:19 I just think that getting greedy was the fucking thing.

1:11:25 They had the perfect plan up until 32,000.

1:11:27 Yep. That's why she was mad at him.

1:11:29 Yeah.

1:11:30 I feel bad for them, though, now that they were so ripped apart. Like, that just sucks.

1:11:36 Because also it's like trying to get money on a game show.

1:11:40 Yeah.

1:11:41 It's like, you shouldn't be the worst person in the country.

1:11:44 I would have thought they were like heroes a little bit, like hometown heroes kind of.

1:11:47 Right, but it was the toxic 90s, 2000s.

1:11:50 Right.

1:11:50 Where it was just like, here's the latest person we're going to crucify. Let's all go, everybody, brainlessly and mindlessly.

1:11:59 I feel like at some point it's going to change and they're going to be beloved by their people.

1:12:03 We're going to start it right now.

1:12:05 Yeah.

1:12:05 Guys, England. England.

1:12:07 Hear us out.

1:12:07 We've made a lot of mistakes with your pronunciations.

1:12:10 What is the UK and what isn't the UK? Sometimes we don't know.

1:12:13 I think about that twice a week, that I made the mistake of calling Ireland the UK. Why am I saying it again? But this is what I'm saying. It's just like this is what happens when you fucking volunteer to put yourself on TV.

1:12:27 When you fuck around, you usually find out.

1:12:30 You get found out often.

1:12:32 Often.

1:12:33 So true.

1:12:34 Wait, did this ever air? No. Okay.

1:12:36 So we do, of course, have pictures because it was all filmed. Yeah. So this is when Diana was a contestant.

1:12:43 Okay. She made it.

1:12:45 And then here's when Teclan was a contestant.

1:12:48 Okay. They don't look like cheaters.

1:12:51 They really don't.

1:12:52 They look like teachers.

1:12:53 But I think that's the thing about British people.

1:12:55 Right.

1:12:55 It's just like you're so polite and you look so kind.

1:12:59 You sound smart. Your accent makes you sound really smart.

1:13:01 And yet you colonize the entire world.

1:13:04 Sorry.

1:13:04 Sorry.

1:13:06 And yet, she won't give Ireland its own country back.

1:13:10 Give Ireland back to the Irish. They're not a part of the UK. We've learned that on this show. We've learned that here. And then here's the couple together.

1:13:20 Okay, let's see. I mean, they win because they found love. Like in everyone else's face, they're still together.

1:13:28 I would like to be their defense lawyer for one second and just say, Look at that lovely kitchen that they came up with this stupid idea in where they're like, we're going to game the system a little bit.

1:13:39 Yeah.

1:13:39 We've already been on there. We can't go again. We need that money.

1:13:43 Yeah.

1:13:43 That's what it feels like to me.

1:13:44 We need to remodel this kitchen. I'm sick of this kettle. It's the old kettle that we got for our wedding.

1:13:51 This kettle, you don't hear anything, and then all of a sudden it sounds like a train's coming through the front.

1:13:54 So let's cheat. So let's go.

1:13:57 Let's go cheat the dumbest public way we possibly can. So public.

1:14:02 Just rob a bank.

1:14:04 And also it is, I think when people get mad about stuff like that, it's because it's this overt disrespect to their intelligence. Where it's like, you think we didn't notice Coffee McGee over here the whole time?

1:14:18 Right. Or they're mad that they didn't think of it. Amazing.

1:14:24 Right?

1:14:25 That was fun. I know.

1:14:28 We tried to balance it out.

1:14:30 Yeah. Yeah.

1:14:30 Whenever I hear these ones, all I think about is like a couple on a road trip. And she's like, just you have to listen to it. I know this is like horrible and we're talking about like really bad stuff. But the second story is always a little lighter.

1:14:42 They do something different in the second one. But the first one's important and you will listen to what it is like.

1:14:48 The juxtaposition is amazing.

1:14:51 It's part of the producing.

1:14:52 Right.

1:14:54 Also, it's important to talk about the things of– It was the 90s. It was this. But now it's kind of like a cardiologist in the autopsy calling the shots.

1:15:07 Yeah.

1:15:07 And all the young people from this era who are now becoming forensic pathologists.

1:15:15 Oh, I love it.

1:15:17 And whatever else they're becoming to basically be the people that are like, uh-uh, it doesn't work that way anymore.

1:15:23 I love it. I love when someone comes up to us and says– I'm a criminologist. I'm going to school for forensics or something.

1:15:29 Yes. Yes.

1:15:30 You're going to change the world.

1:15:31 They're going to go in and represent.

1:15:33 Hell, yeah. Yeah. We support you. Yeah.

1:15:36 Marjorie, you're doing great with your studies and all the ways that you fight back.

1:15:41 Yeah. Great work. We're fans.

1:15:44 Yeah, we really are. Thank you. Welcome to another installation of Honking Hooray's brought to you by Hyundai.

1:16:00 Wow.

1:16:00 You want to go first? Sure. This is a good one. This is from Clove and Hound on Instagram. Hi, Karen and Georgia. I was just elected president of my all-volunteer search and rescue team.

1:16:12 Whoa.

1:16:13 And stepped into the role of head trainer at 33 years old. Wow. SAR, search and rescue, is a very male-dominated field, and as a woman with anxiety, leadership always felt impossible to me. But I've been listening to MFM, that's us, since before I ever started training, and the strength and resilience in the stories you tell Help me push through fear in every tough scenario. Wow. Isn't that beautiful?

1:16:35 Yeah, it is.

1:16:36 Thank you, Cloven Hound. Congratulations. Good job. Kick some ass. Hooray for you.

1:16:40 Well, this one, this hilarious one's from Kate Towery on Instagram says, I tried out for a part in a local theater production and.

1:16:48 Got the lead.

1:16:50 I'm 40 and it's the first time acting since high school.

1:16:53 That is incredible. And you know what? She's playing Annie. Is she? No.

1:16:57 Wouldn't that be amazing?

1:16:59 She's a little girl. She's 40.

1:17:01 Just a 40-year-old with a weird curly wig on.

1:17:04 Okay, this one is from Kristen Loves Cats. Good for her. Yeah. I only have two weeks left at the office I'm now at before I get to go to a job with better pay.

1:17:13 Oh, Chloe.

1:17:14 Nice. Good job, Chloe. Congratulations, Chloe. You've done it. Take a vacation. What are you going to buy?

1:17:21 This one says, from kates286 on Instagram... As an eldest daughter putting up boundaries with the fam, no more organizing or planning for me.

1:17:30 Wow. Sometimes you can just be the person who shows up. Just show up. As the youngest daughter. That's right. That's what we say you can do. That is what you're bringing to the party is yourself. That's plenty. Okay. This one is from Taylor Caslin. It says, I bought bedside face wipes at Georgia's recommendation for lazy bedtime makeup removal.

1:17:50 She did it. That's it. Hooray. Hooray for that.

1:17:51 It's the simple things in life. This one's from Karen S. It's from Fan Cult, and it says, I found a picture of an Irish relative from the early 1900s I put it somewhere safe and promptly forgot where it was. It's been quote unquote safe for a couple of years. I was cleaning out old books the other day and I found the picture back. It is now safely framed and on a shelf for display.

1:18:12 Amazing. Always check your books before you donate them because you never know what you stuck in there. Cash. Cash. Most likely cash. Treasure maps. Well, thank you guys for sending us your hoorays. We love them all. And thank you again to Hyundai for presenting them. Stay sexy. And don't get murdered.

1:18:28 Bye.

1:18:30 Elvis, do you want a cookie?

1:18:40 Email your hometowns.

1:18:40 To myfavoritemurder at gmail.com.

1:18:43 And follow the show on Instagram at My Favorite Murder. Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:19:07 Or watch new episodes every week on Netflix. Search for My Favorite Murder, add us to your list, and hit the double thumbs up button. Goodbye.