0:00

Time is precious and so are

0:02

our pets. So time with our

0:04

pets is extra precious. That's why

0:06

we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24-7

0:08

access to licensed vets with unlimited

0:10

virtual visits and follow-ups for up to

0:13

five pets. You can message a vet at

0:15

any time and schedule a video visit

0:17

the same day. Our vets can even

0:19

prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping

0:21

is always free. With Dutch you'll get

0:23

more time with your pets and year-round

0:26

piece of mine when it comes to

0:28

their vet care. Something

0:32

unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott

0:34

confessed to killing Michelle Schofield

0:36

in Bone Valley Season 1.

0:38

Every time I hear about my dad is,

0:41

oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil. I

0:44

was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott

0:46

and the son he'd never known. At

0:48

the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer. Listen

0:51

to new episodes of Bone Valley Season

0:53

2 on the I Heart Radio app,

0:55

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

0:57

podcasts. I'm

1:01

Soledad O 'Brien, and on my

1:03

new True Crime podcast, Murder on

1:05

the Towpath, I'm taking you back

1:07

to 1964 to the cold case

1:10

of artist Mary Pinchow -Meyer. She

1:12

had been shot twice in the head and

1:14

in the back. It turns out

1:16

Mary was connected to a

1:18

very powerful man. I

1:20

pledge you that we shall neither

1:23

commit nor promote aggression. John

1:25

F. Kennedy. Listen to Murder on

1:27

the Toe Path with Soledad

1:29

O 'Brien on the iHeartRadio

1:31

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

1:33

you get your podcasts. We

1:39

live in a divided country and our

1:41

media couldn't be more polarizing. That's why

1:43

we started the middle with Jeremy Hobson.

1:45

It's about bringing voices not from the

1:47

extremes, but from the vast middle into

1:49

the national conversation. Each week, we hear

1:51

from ordinary Americans from all over the

1:53

country. And when you subscribe to the

1:55

middle, you also get an episode each

1:57

week called One Thing Trump Did that

1:59

focuses on just one item from the avalanche

2:02

of news. Listen to the middle with Jeremy

2:04

Hobson on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

2:06

or wherever you get your podcasts. Would

2:13

you do that to me when I thought

2:16

we were friends? We are friends. I got

2:18

scammed by a professional con artist who was

2:20

a neighbor of mine at the Villa Carlotta,

2:22

a really high -end building where I thought

2:24

I was safe. This is a place

2:27

where people work in this industry and,

2:29

you know, rely on their reputations to

2:31

get jobs, whether it's acting, consulting, video

2:33

editing, what have you. And a

2:35

man I trusted with everything I had

2:38

scammed us all. Why would you say

2:40

that shit to me? Why?

2:59

and this is Once Upon a Con,

3:02

episode two. If

3:04

you live in hope, you die in

3:06

shit. And

3:14

Bloom was there during lockdown? No,

3:16

so he came probably

3:19

like a year after I

3:21

was there. I'm talking

3:23

to my BFF, Hammy, about the first

3:25

time I ever met David Bloom at

3:27

the Villa Carlotta. I was

3:29

there for like three years, so he came

3:31

like halfway through towards the end of my

3:33

stay. It was

3:35

April 8th, 2021. I'll

3:38

never forget that day as long as I live.

3:40

I was hanging out by the pool, doing some work

3:42

on my laptop. It was a

3:44

gorgeous sunny day. And all

3:46

of a sudden, I noticed David Bloom

3:49

on the other side of the pool. Holding

3:51

court was some of my neighbors. They're

3:53

all laughing with him and having a good

3:55

time. He looked like a guy in his

3:58

early 60s, kind of short, maybe like five,

4:00

five or five, six, with a thick

4:02

shock of silver hair. He really seemed

4:05

like the life of the party. You

4:08

hear him laughing from across the pool, like,

4:10

you know, talking to everybody. It seems like

4:12

he knows everybody. He walks over

4:14

to me. I had heard that,

4:17

you know, I had this company called Pizza Girl,

4:20

and he had gone and

4:22

bought my sauce at the

4:24

supermarket next door and was

4:27

so impressed with my company,

4:29

you know. So

4:32

Pizza Girl is the name of my

4:34

organic pasta sauce that I started selling

4:37

back in 2020. I'm Italian

4:39

and this sauce is a guarded family

4:41

recipe and it tastes amazing. Pizza Girl

4:43

is also the nickname they called me

4:45

when I was a kid, helping my

4:47

dad deliver pizzas, and you know what,

4:50

it kind of stuck. I've

4:52

been pouring my blood, sweat, and tears

4:54

into Pizza Girl ever since. Little did

4:56

I know that having my life story

4:58

out there on the internet and in

5:01

magazine articles and news reports... What makes

5:03

your sauces unique? Well,

5:05

it's all locally sourced ingredients. It's

5:07

literally like homemade in a jar.

5:09

...would come back to bite me

5:11

in the ass. Enter

5:15

David Bloom, a mega

5:17

-rich, successful businessman who had just

5:19

moved into my building. He had had

5:21

this story that he was staying at

5:24

the Villa Carlotta because he was going

5:26

to buy it. He

5:28

had this house, supposedly, that

5:30

was right below the Chateau.

5:33

I remember he had this story

5:35

of how the Chateau, it's the

5:37

only house where the Chateau has

5:39

to deliver food. The Chateau

5:41

I'm talking about here is the Chateau

5:44

Marmont, a world famous hotel

5:46

in the foothills of West Hollywood.

5:48

A super wealthy neighborhood where stars like

5:51

Johnny Depp and Katy Perry have homes.

5:53

So that's where David Bloom told me

5:55

his house was. I even

5:57

saw pictures of it. I had

5:59

no reason not to believe him. After

6:01

all, he just moved into the Villa

6:03

Carlotta. and was hobnobbing with all my

6:06

wealthy, accomplished neighbors, some of whom were

6:08

paying 10 grand a month to live

6:10

there. I'm the one who actually felt

6:12

like an imposter, you know? Because I

6:14

was only paying a little over two

6:16

grand. Remember I got that COVID rent

6:18

special? David Bloom seemed like

6:21

the real deal to me. And

6:23

he knew your boyfriend at the time,

6:25

and he knew everything and everybody. So

6:27

was like a perfect playground for him.

6:29

Exactly. He just had a big

6:32

presence and everybody seemed to know

6:34

him and like him. So I

6:36

had no reason to think anything,

6:39

you know? And it was

6:41

very well known. I mean, I was on the hills

6:43

and, you know, a lot of my personal life was

6:45

already out there. It was known that I went through

6:47

a divorce. It was known that I had this company

6:49

that I was trying to get off the ground. And

6:52

he, you know, comes to me

6:54

with like, he's heartbroken, knowing that

6:57

I'm heartbroken. And we kind

6:59

of bonded on that. And he was

7:01

like my ex -girlfriend. She broke my

7:03

heart. You know, it just devastates me.

7:05

I even remember one day he

7:08

cried actual tears to me about

7:10

how sad and, you know, lonely

7:12

he was. I felt for this

7:14

man. And

7:17

then he really showed interest in Pizza

7:19

Girl, being that I was this like

7:21

wild party girl that everyone kind of

7:23

knew of as just this party girl.

7:26

It meant a lot to me.

7:28

I had to fight to like

7:30

be taken seriously as a CEO

7:32

and as a businesswoman. I really

7:35

had to overcome all of that,

7:37

you know, that time in my

7:39

life. For sure. So to have

7:41

this businessman, you know, respect my

7:43

business side. He never hit on

7:45

me, which was refreshing. You

7:47

know, he really just seemed like, he

7:50

said, if you ever need advice, I'll take

7:52

meetings with you. I'll kind

7:54

of mentor you exactly. So we

7:56

would start taking meetings down by

7:59

the pool. I was looking for funding.

8:01

So I showed him, you know, my deck. That

8:03

was the sweet spot was like

8:05

treating you as like a reputable

8:08

business person. Yes. That's what was like,

8:10

that's what made your ears perk up

8:12

with him. Yes. Absolutely. He

8:15

really showed an interest in

8:17

pizza girl in me as

8:20

a businesswoman. And that felt

8:22

fucking amazing. And he

8:24

definitely did his research on my

8:27

industry because, you know, he had

8:29

mentioned his close friendship with Ron

8:31

Berkel. Ron

8:33

Berkel is this billionaire

8:35

supermarket titan. He's one

8:37

of the richest men in the world. And

8:40

David Bloom convinced me he was

8:42

good friends with him. And

8:45

what's even weirder about the Ron Berkel of it

8:47

all is like, We're all sort

8:49

of like one degree of separation away

8:51

from Ron, you know, I've been to

8:53

his house for dinner like it all

8:56

it felt so close and it felt

8:58

like he actually had this forged friendship

9:00

with him and like he just ran

9:03

with it I had met Ron years

9:05

ago a person that I was kind

9:07

of dating a little he was best

9:09

friends with him You know, I was

9:11

even on his private jet one time

9:13

million years ago. So I knew I

9:16

Knew of him And he was like, let

9:18

me reach out to him and see if

9:20

there's any way he could help you in

9:22

any way. And I was like, holy shit,

9:24

like, wow, like, I can't

9:26

even believe it. Even just a meeting

9:28

would be incredible. Thank you so much,

9:30

David. He would show

9:32

me text messages from Ron.

9:35

And he'd be like, oh, I'm talking to Ron

9:37

right now. He's like, oh, he remembers you, pizza

9:40

girl. And then he'd be like, oh, I'm going

9:42

to send him this picture of you. Oh, Ron's

9:44

laughing. He says, hi, pizza girl. And I was

9:46

like, oh, that's so cool. I never thought twice,

9:48

like, should I call my friend who knows him

9:51

and, you know, and confirm? I'm like, but no,

9:53

that's bizarre. You know what I mean? Like, I

9:55

never thought of that at all. And

9:58

for the record, I googled David

10:00

Bloom a bunch of times

10:02

during our friendship. And I

10:04

found David Bloom, the journalist.

10:07

Wildfires raging across the American

10:09

West. David Bloom, the

10:11

economics professor. And it's projected

10:13

to rise to more than 400 million by

10:15

the year 2050. David Bloom,

10:18

the artistic director of New

10:20

York's queer urban orchestra. But

10:27

I never found my neighbor,

10:29

David Bloom, the wealthy

10:32

businessman I recently met. I

10:35

can relate to that name because my name

10:37

Tom Hamilton. It's like a John Smith. It's

10:39

like a David Bloom. Like there's a million

10:41

Tom Hamilton's. There's only one Caroline de

10:44

Morey. So it's like a Google search

10:46

into you and it's like an open

10:48

book of your life shows, movies, things

10:50

you've done, whatever your personal life, all

10:52

of it. But like when you have

10:55

that sort of generic name like a

10:57

David Bloom or David Grant or like

10:59

there's so many Different paths

11:01

and outlets in a Google search will

11:03

just be so full of things from

11:05

all around the world You know and

11:07

so that's I think he's kind of

11:09

skated by under just his simple name

11:12

And I was very upfront and honest about

11:14

everything. I said David How come

11:16

when I Google you nothing shows up

11:19

and he would say well people like

11:21

Ron and I The only place we

11:23

want to be known is the bank.

11:25

He was like we don't want anybody

11:28

having our information Totally.

11:30

Flying under the radar. This is

11:32

how money people really are. And

11:35

he had this story about his ex -wife

11:37

who was in politics who I was able

11:39

to Google and I did see photos of

11:41

them together and she's this beautiful woman in

11:43

politics and that totally validated him to me,

11:45

you know? And he said that she tried

11:48

to wipe him from the internet or

11:50

to help wipe him a little bit

11:52

from the internet because they were being reached

11:54

out all the time for investment and whatnot.

11:56

So all of that made sense to me.

11:59

I really thought I had

12:01

not just a friend but a

12:03

mentor and someone who really looked

12:06

at me like a, you know,

12:08

a legit businesswoman for the first

12:10

time. I thought

12:12

David Bloom was an angel from

12:14

heaven. He offered to use his

12:16

close connection with billionaire Ron Berkel

12:18

to help get my pizza girl

12:20

pasta sauce on the shelves of

12:22

a giant supermarket chain. And

12:25

I remember, he said to me, he

12:28

knew I was financially strapped. I was

12:30

so broke after my divorce. I was

12:32

truly left with nothing. And when I

12:34

said that on the hills, I had

12:36

people being like, how dare you? You're

12:39

like this rich girl, your dad pays

12:41

for this and that. And it's actually

12:43

not true, okay? My dad

12:45

can't pay for this and that. And

12:47

I was left with nothing. I had

12:49

a terrible divorce where I just finally

12:51

gave up and said, take everything. And

12:54

he did. You know, I got no child support, no

12:56

alimony, and had to figure out how I was going

12:58

to make money every month. So when

13:00

David came along, he said he was

13:02

going to be my investor. He's going to

13:04

invest in Pizza Girl. He's going to hook me

13:07

up with Ron Berkel. But in the meantime, he

13:09

was like, you need some fast cash. He goes,

13:11

I'm a really good investor. And

13:13

I have this IPO. Just

13:15

round up as much money as you can.

13:18

It's for the Soho House, going public. And

13:20

you can look and see that the

13:22

Soho House was about to IPO, you know?

13:25

Soho House is a private social

13:27

club that's popular with rich people

13:29

and celebrities. They have locations all

13:31

over the world. And in

13:33

mid -2021, they were gearing up

13:36

to go public. And since David's

13:38

good friend, billionaire Ron Berkel, who

13:41

was part owner of Soho House, David was

13:43

offering to get me in on the ground

13:45

floor of their IPO. He

13:47

was like, you know what, if you can

13:49

only put together a thousand dollars, you know,

13:52

that'll help you out. He was like, but

13:54

if you can put together more, it's gonna

13:56

be worth 29 or 28 times whatever you

13:59

put in in a couple months. I was

14:01

like, wow, that's it. He's like, so let's

14:03

get you this so that you can survive

14:05

until, you know, the investment and the deals

14:08

with Ron's and everything come together. I

14:11

took out money from my company.

14:13

You know, you put in 2 ,500

14:16

into I remember I Venmoed you. Yeah.

14:19

Venmoed to nowhere. This

14:24

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15:46

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15:51

That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides

15:53

24 -7 access to licensed vets with

15:55

unlimited virtual visits and follow -ups for

15:57

up to five pets. You can message

15:59

a vet at any time and schedule

16:01

a video visit the same day. Our

16:04

vets can even prescribe medication for many

16:06

ailments and shipping is always free. With

16:09

Dutch you'll get more time with your pets and year

16:11

-round peace of mind when it comes to their vet

16:13

care. Something

16:18

unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed

16:20

to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone

16:22

Valley Season 1. I just knew

16:24

him as a kid. Long, silent

16:27

voices from his past came forward.

16:29

And he was just staring at

16:31

me. And they had secrets of

16:34

their own to share. Gilbert

16:37

came. I'm the

16:39

son of Jeremy when

16:41

Scott. I was no longer

16:43

just telling the story. I was

16:46

part of it. Every time I hear about

16:48

my dad is, oh, he's a killer. He's

16:50

just straight evil. I was becoming

16:52

the bridge between a killer and the

16:54

son he'd never known. If the

16:56

cops and everything would have done the job properly, my dad

16:58

would have been in jail. I would have never existed. I

17:01

never expected to find myself in this

17:03

place. Now, I need to

17:05

tell you how I got here. At the end

17:07

of the day, I'm literally a son of a

17:10

killer. Bone Valley,

17:12

season two, Jeremy.

17:15

Jeremy, I want to tell you something. Mary

17:41

Pinchomeyer was a painter who lived

17:43

in Georgetown in Washington, D .C.

17:45

Every day, she took a daily

17:47

walk along a towpath near the

17:49

ENO Canal. So when she was

17:52

killed in a wealthy neighborhood... She

17:54

had been shot twice in the

17:56

head and in the back behind

17:58

the heart. police arrived

18:00

in a heartbeat. Within 40

18:03

minutes, a man named Raymond Crump

18:05

Jr. was arrested. He was found

18:07

nearby, soaking wet. and he was

18:10

black. Only one woman

18:12

dared defend him. Civil rights

18:15

lawyer, W. Roundtree. Join

18:17

me as we unravel this

18:19

story with a crazy twist,

18:21

because what most people didn't

18:23

know is that Mary was

18:25

connected to a very powerful

18:27

man. I pledge you that

18:29

we shall neither commit nor

18:32

provoke aggression. John F.

18:34

Kennedy. Listen to Murder

18:36

on the Topat with Soledad O

18:38

'Brien on the iHeartRadio app, Apple

18:40

Podcasts, or wherever you get your

18:43

podcast. You

18:49

know, was like, all right, I guess it's like

18:52

a game. I'll just play. You're so excited about

18:54

it. I don't even know if I met him

18:56

at that point. But I remember how hyped you

18:58

were on him and the Ron Berkel of it

19:00

all. So I convinced my

19:02

boyfriend at the time, my friends and

19:05

family and my business partners to go

19:07

in on this incredible investment with me.

19:09

And we all managed to come up

19:11

with $35 ,000 cash. And

19:13

I gave it to David Bloom to

19:15

invest in that Soho House IPO, with

19:18

the understanding that that $35 ,000 would

19:20

be worth nearly a million dollars in

19:22

just a few months. That

19:25

was the start of the

19:27

cancer that David Bloom kind

19:29

of planted. That's Aaron

19:31

Koot, my business partner. I

19:34

didn't even know what IPO stands

19:36

for. It stands for intelligent people

19:38

only. Clearly.

19:42

Sorry, I couldn't help it. Oh, wow.

19:45

You're an asshole. Aaron,

19:48

along with his wife, Rebecca

19:51

Williamson. Everybody calls me Beck.

19:53

Invested in Pizza Girl and became my

19:55

partners. I actually first met Beck

19:58

and Aaron at the Villa Carlotta. We'd

20:00

sold a company about a year before

20:02

maybe and several people had come to

20:05

us for looking for investment or looking

20:07

for partners and we'd said no to

20:09

everyone and then our mutual friends said

20:11

you need to talk to Caroline she's

20:14

got something good going on. We were

20:16

at a place where we were actually

20:18

looking to invest in a company we

20:20

thought had potential. Generally what

20:22

we do is we invest and then work in

20:24

a company we feel like that's the best way

20:26

to make our money work. And

20:28

it wasn't long until David Bloom

20:30

infiltrated their lives too. Thanks

20:33

to me. I

20:35

remember you saying, my friend

20:37

David, my friend David, my friend David a

20:39

couple of times. The first time I didn't

20:41

think about it, but because it came up

20:43

a couple of times, I'm like, my friend

20:46

David, who's this David that's suddenly your friend?

20:48

I didn't know whether you'd known him for

20:50

a long time or who this David was,

20:52

but he was, remember, he was fixing your

20:54

credit for you. Yeah, so

20:56

because I used to be somewhat of

20:58

a party girl when I lived in

21:00

Vegas, my credit was bad.

21:03

At the time, David told me

21:05

he owned a credit repair business.

21:08

One of the many businesses he said he

21:10

owned, by the way, and he said he

21:13

could fix my credit. No problem. And

21:16

then he actually did. My

21:18

credit score improved dramatically. So

21:21

that just reinforced to me that David

21:24

Bloom was who he said he was.

21:26

I mean, if he could magically improve

21:28

my credit score like that, what other

21:30

magic could he do? David

21:33

Bloom was so good at what he did,

21:35

he fooled us too in the beginning, he

21:37

was strategic about it. So

21:39

by this point in 2021, I

21:42

had known David now for a

21:44

few months. He became like a

21:46

father to me, offering me advice

21:48

and direction with my company. and

21:50

helping me get in on this

21:53

phenomenal investment opportunity with Soho House,

21:55

then suddenly, one day, David

21:57

tells me, he wants

21:59

to invest $2 million

22:02

in Pizza Girl. I

22:04

was ecstatic. And so

22:06

were my business partners, Beck and Aaron. Of

22:09

course we believed. In Villa Colorado, was full

22:11

of people who really got to know each

22:13

other well, because they lived together. There was

22:15

an innate trust. And that's how we met

22:18

Caroline. So then she met this guy who

22:20

was mentoring her. It made sense.

22:22

And he then, you know, dangled

22:25

the carrot of like he would

22:27

want to invest in the business.

22:30

Bottom line, everybody that lived Villa

22:32

Carlotta had money and connections and

22:34

were doing amazing things. So whatever

22:37

we thought of him personally, we

22:39

were very careful not to blow

22:41

any opportunity. And that's the thing.

22:44

Beck and Aaron never liked David

22:46

personally. They thought he was kind

22:49

of weird. He

22:51

was the center of everything, like wine nights

22:53

on Friday night. It was all around

22:55

David. Everybody was him. Everyone was around David.

22:57

David was the center of everything. It was

23:00

bizarre. How does this

23:02

guy, like this sort of uncharismatic,

23:04

like guy that drinks from 9am,

23:06

he starts having his vodka? But

23:09

he'd never seen wasted, which is interesting. And

23:11

he was drinking so heavily. And I used

23:13

to talk to him about it because I

23:15

cared about his health. I'd be like, David,

23:17

this isn't right. Like, I feel like you're

23:19

getting older. Like, you know, and I would

23:21

literally try to help him not harm himself.

23:24

I started to get really suspicious when he

23:26

would name drop people that I actually knew.

23:28

And I would say, and I started pushing

23:30

him on it and say, oh, yeah, I've

23:32

known them for years. I saw them last

23:35

week. And I would see a little panic

23:37

in him. but it just gave me an

23:39

odd feeling. And also in

23:41

his quest to make Caroline, you

23:44

know, put her on the pedestal, make

23:47

her the center of everything, he would

23:49

push me out more and more. I

23:52

had no idea that we were

23:55

all quickly becoming victims in

23:57

David's psychological chess match, where the

23:59

end game was to isolate

24:01

us all from each other. So

24:06

it did feel as if what

24:08

he was saying was like putting

24:10

me on a pedestal, right? When

24:13

it felt like at the time, because I wasn't

24:15

aware of what was going on, that you guys

24:17

were kind of kicking me down a notch, right?

24:19

So I think that's where the... We had many

24:22

of those conversations. You were like, why are you

24:24

always so negative? And we're like, okay, we're just

24:26

trying to tell you the truth. This is what

24:28

the business is and this is what it needs.

24:30

And he's trying to tell you what you want

24:33

to hear. Like several times.

24:35

Caroline would say to me in tears that

24:37

I thought this was my chance to be

24:39

lucky. I thought this was my chance for

24:41

someone to save me. I wanted the part

24:44

of gold at the end of the rainbow

24:46

and I'm not ashamed to say it. And

24:49

it was heartbreaking to watch and

24:51

in my head do you remember

24:53

what I said to you? The

24:56

luckiest people are always the hardest

24:58

workers. I've always got

25:00

to take it back to we look after ourselves

25:02

it's you know That's the only thing we can

25:05

control. The rest is just, you know, it might

25:07

be luck, but it's just a lot of waiting

25:09

and hoping. And my old school teacher used to

25:11

say, if you live in hope, you

25:13

die in shit. I

25:17

find this part of the business

25:19

quite triggering to use a buzzword

25:21

because a lot of the times

25:23

I felt unsafe because I had

25:25

no say or I didn't have

25:27

a voice in or a strong

25:29

enough voice. when this other guy

25:31

was manipulating his way into the

25:33

business. Aaron's right.

25:37

David started dividing us, whispering things

25:39

into my ear about Beck and

25:41

Aaron not being the right business

25:43

partners for Pizza Girl. I

25:45

disagreed, but I respected

25:47

his opinion. After

25:49

all, he wanted to invest $2

25:52

million in our company, so I

25:54

had to be diplomatic. But

25:57

then things quickly came to

25:59

a head. Time

26:04

is precious and so are our pets. Time is precious and

26:06

so are our pets. So time with

26:08

our pets is extra precious. That's why

26:10

we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24-7 access

26:12

to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits

26:15

and follow-ups for up to five pets.

26:17

You can message a vet at any

26:19

time and schedule a video visit the

26:21

same day. Our vets can even prescribe

26:24

medication for many ailments and shipping is

26:26

always free. With Dutch you'll get more

26:28

time with your pets and year-round piece

26:30

of mind when it comes to their

26:32

vet care. Something

26:35

unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed

26:37

to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone

26:39

Valley Season 1. I just knew

26:42

he was a kid. Long,

26:44

silent voices from his past

26:47

came forward. And he was

26:49

just staring at me. And they had secrets

26:51

of their own to share. Gilbert

26:54

came. I'm the

26:56

son of Jeremy when

26:58

Scott. I was no longer

27:01

just telling the story. I

27:03

was part of it. Every time I hear

27:05

about my dad is, oh, he's a

27:07

killer. He's just straight evil. I was becoming

27:09

the bridge between a killer and the

27:11

son he'd never known. If the

27:13

cops and everything would have done their job properly, my dad

27:15

would have been in jail. I would have never existed. I

27:18

never expected to find myself in this

27:20

place. Now, I need

27:22

to tell you how I got here. At

27:25

the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer. Bone

27:28

Valley, season two, Jeremy.

27:32

Jeremy, I want to tell you something. Mary

27:57

Pinchow -Meyer was a painter who

28:00

lived in Georgetown in Washington, D

28:02

.C. Every day, she took

28:04

a daily walk along a towpath near

28:06

the ENO Canal. So when

28:08

she was killed in a wealthy

28:11

neighborhood... She had been shot twice

28:13

in the head and in the

28:15

back behind the heart. The police

28:17

arrived in a heartbeat. Within

28:19

40 minutes, a man named Raymond Crump

28:22

Jr. was arrested. He was

28:24

found nearby, soaking wet, and

28:26

he was black. Only

28:28

one woman dared defend him.

28:31

Civil rights lawyer, W. Roundtree.

28:34

Join me as we unravel this

28:36

story with a crazy twist, because

28:39

what most people didn't know

28:41

is that Mary was connected

28:43

to a very powerful man.

28:45

I pledge you that we

28:47

shall neither commit nor provoke

28:49

aggression. John F. Kennedy.

28:52

Listen to Murder on the Topat

28:54

with Soledad O 'Brien on the

28:56

iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever

28:59

you get your podcast. We

29:05

live in a divided country. I am

29:07

a lifelong Republican with all kinds of

29:09

different people. You know, I'm a mother.

29:11

I'm a grandmother. That's why

29:14

we started the middle with Jeremy Hobson.

29:16

It's about bringing voices not from the

29:18

extremes, but from the vast middle into

29:20

the national conversation. Each

29:22

week, we bring together an all -star panel.

29:24

Mark Cuban, so great to have you on

29:26

the middle. Thanks for having me, Jeremy. Neil

29:29

deGrasse Tyson, welcome to the middle. Thanks for

29:31

having me. And here from ordinary Americans from

29:33

all over the country on the most important

29:35

issues. Hi, my name is Venkat. I'm calling

29:38

you from Atlanta, Georgia. And when you subscribe

29:40

to the middle, you also get an episode

29:42

each week called One Thing Trump Did that

29:44

focuses on just one item from the avalanche

29:46

of news. We should be examining what our

29:49

government spends its money on and are these

29:51

jobs necessary and what are we doing here.

29:53

But that doesn't seem to be what we're

29:55

doing in this situation. Listen to the middle

29:58

with Jeremy Hobson on the iHeart radio app,

30:00

Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

30:05

We had a fight that night

30:08

at a fancy LA restaurant off

30:10

Melrose called Craig's He had his

30:12

weekly table at Craig's right every

30:14

Wednesday night, which was around the

30:16

corner It's the celebrity hangout. Oh,

30:18

yeah, they knew him the owner

30:20

knew him. Yeah, he'd go and

30:22

that was one of the things

30:24

you told me you're like You

30:27

know, when you had your doubts, you're like, everyone

30:29

seems to know him though, like at that place.

30:32

He's obviously been going there for a while.

30:34

He's a regular. We, in our minds, he'd been

30:36

going there for 10 years. Yeah.

30:39

Craig's is one of the hotspots in

30:41

LA. I mean, the night

30:43

we went, I got paparazzi. Because

30:46

you were with me. Right, exactly. And

30:48

like, David, when you walk in there, He

30:51

literally, he has this thing where he makes

30:53

it seem like he has known everyone for

30:55

decades. And he can do it to you,

30:57

to me, to everybody in a room. He'll

31:00

be like, oh yeah, that's so high. Yes,

31:02

it's so and so. And he would pretend

31:04

like he knew the owner and like, I

31:06

know Craig. So it just never made me

31:08

ever think twice. So

31:11

we all meet at Craig's in the

31:13

summer of 2021 to discuss David's $2

31:15

million investment in Pizza Girl. Beck and

31:17

Aaron had put together a detailed proposal

31:19

of where that money will go and

31:21

how much of a return David can

31:23

expect to see on his investment. But

31:26

David never wanted to talk business.

31:29

Like, at all. I was

31:31

telling you, you shouldn't mix business and pleasure

31:33

and become friends. Which was hilarious because that

31:35

dinner was supposed to be the dinner about

31:37

the business, about the investment and everything. And

31:40

Aaron and I had prepared and even bring

31:42

it up. So at that

31:44

dinner, I'm sitting there waiting for our

31:46

opportunity. and waiting for the

31:48

conversation to come up or waiting to try

31:50

to segue in and then I'm just watching

31:52

the tension building and I'm watching Caroline and

31:55

David and Beck all kind of starting to

31:57

argue with each other. I'm going, job to

31:59

do here, job to do. Like, let's keep

32:01

our eye on the prize. And,

32:03

you know, as it turns out, there was no

32:06

job to do. The only one doing the job

32:08

was David by kind of needling everybody. They

32:10

remember he said to Caroline, They are

32:13

so in the wrong. You should not

32:15

discuss anything about your business at the

32:17

table. And I'm saying, but hold on,

32:19

we came for it. He's

32:21

going to invest. He needs to know everything.

32:23

And he will know everything. That

32:26

was a turning point for me, that dinner.

32:29

David was planting in me that

32:31

you guys weren't substantial enough investors.

32:33

and he was planting in you

32:35

guys that I wasn't living up

32:37

to whatever standards I needed to

32:39

live up to. He pinned everybody

32:41

against each other in one dinner

32:43

to the point where Rebecca and

32:45

I stormed out separately and I

32:47

wasn't sure if we were going

32:49

to recover and if Pizza Girl

32:51

was going to remain. But

32:53

he sat back and let it happen. He sort of

32:56

built it to that point, right, that it was going

32:58

to have a blow up. Yep. We

33:00

left, she walked out with him, and he

33:02

was all like, oh, don't worry about them.

33:04

That was another end for him. When you

33:07

guys stormed out, he was like, see what

33:09

I told you? He was like, they're not

33:11

right for this business. This feels

33:13

a lot more like therapy than a podcast. I

33:16

think it will be, honestly, at the

33:18

end of it, yeah. I'm feeling stuff

33:20

here. Right, me too. It's

33:22

pretty full on. Yeah, I

33:24

don't know. I've felt angry. I've had tears

33:27

in my eyes a couple of times, and

33:29

it's... feel like I have a voice that

33:31

I didn't have within our dynamic. At

33:35

this point, no one had any idea

33:37

who David Bloom really was or what

33:39

he was up to. And

33:42

weeks after that dinner at Craig's

33:44

where we all stormed out hating

33:46

each other, David magically got us

33:48

all back together and got us

33:50

excited at the prospect of getting

33:52

my pizza girl pasta sauce on

33:54

the shelves of one of the

33:56

most popular supermarket chains in the

33:58

country. Whole Foods. He

34:01

kept dangling this carrot, which

34:03

was what we wanted. David

34:06

had been promising that he was

34:08

going to get us this very

34:10

big meeting based on his relationship

34:12

with Ron Berkel. So he says,

34:14

that Ron hooked him up with

34:17

the president of Whole Foods, A

34:19

.C. Gallo. He's telling me that,

34:22

you know, A .C. Gallo and

34:24

Whole Foods have this program for

34:26

emerging companies and they invest a

34:29

little bit of money and help

34:31

you grow within Whole Foods. And

34:33

we actually found this online. It

34:36

was something you could find on the internet.

34:38

So he tells me that he is going

34:40

to get this big meeting with AC Gallo,

34:43

right? And that all three of us are

34:45

gonna be in this meeting. And

34:48

shortly after that, while Beck and Aaron

34:50

are conveniently for David out of town,

34:53

David suddenly gets AC Gallo on the

34:55

phone to talk to me. He

34:58

starts telling me, he's like, listen, these guys are

35:00

so at the top that they don't do things

35:03

the way that, you know, you're used to. I

35:05

was like, why can't we do a Zoom meeting?

35:07

Why can't we do, especially at the height of

35:09

COVID? It's like everybody's on Zoom right now doing

35:12

meetings, right? So he was like, no, listen, they're

35:14

just so busy. He calls me and he goes,

35:16

Caroline, I need you to come up to my

35:18

apartment. He goes, AC has this long drive and

35:21

he's willing to get on the phone with you

35:23

to talk about this, but you have to do

35:25

it now. So my thought was,

35:27

okay, I'm going to record this so that

35:29

I can play it for Rebecca and Aaron,

35:32

right? Or so that I can

35:34

even transcribe it and try to remember every

35:36

single detail because this is such a big

35:38

meeting, right? That recording I

35:40

made that David consented to of

35:42

me talking to the CEO of

35:44

Whole Foods, A .C. Gallo, is

35:46

just unbelievable. I actually

35:49

submitted it to the Los Angeles

35:51

District Attorney's Office. A

35:53

.C.? Yes, David, I'm gonna put you on

35:55

speakerphone and introduce you to Caroline, all right?

35:58

Hold on one second. Hi! Hi,

36:01

how are you? Next

36:04

time on Once Upon a Con. David

36:07

gets us all to board a plane

36:09

and fly to Texas for the opportunity

36:11

of a lifetime. I've never been to

36:14

a meeting in my whole career of

36:16

walking in completely blind from or by

36:18

the person who set it up. It's

36:21

zero background. Other than Whole Foods are

36:23

going to give us money, my question

36:25

is why? But things end up going

36:28

horribly wrong. I'm so nervous. just feel

36:30

like closing up. I just feel like

36:32

I'm running panic attack. This

36:38

podcast is dedicated to the memory

36:40

of my amazing mother, Bonnie

36:43

Major, who would be super proud of

36:45

me standing up for myself. Once

36:48

Upon a Con is a

36:51

production of AYR Media and

36:53

32 Flavors, hosted by me,

36:56

Caroline Demore. Executive producers, Aliza

36:58

Rosen for AYR Media, Alex

37:00

Baskin for 32 Flavors, and

37:03

Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton

37:05

Productions. Written by

37:07

Jonathan Walton. Producer,

37:10

Caroline Demore. Senior Associate

37:12

Producer, Jill Poshesnik. Coordinator,

37:16

Milena Kroyaski. Sound

37:18

Design by Tim Mulhern. Edited

37:20

and Mixed by Tim Mulhern. Supervising

37:23

Editor, Victoria Chang. Mastered

37:26

by Victoria Chang. Engineering

37:28

by Justin Longerbeam. Legal

37:30

Counsel for AYR Media,

37:33

Gianni Douglas. Our theme

37:35

song, Freshly Served, was written

37:37

and performed by the incredibly

37:39

talented Maddie Noise and is

37:41

available on her SoundCloud. This

37:51

podcast is supported by BetterHelp,

37:54

offering licensed therapists you can

37:56

connect with via video, phone,

37:58

or chat. Here's better help

38:00

head of clinical operations, Heshew

38:03

Joe, discussing who can benefit

38:05

from therapy. That

38:23

could be a sign that maybe

38:26

you want to go talk to

38:28

somebody. There's always a benefit in

38:30

talking to someone because we can

38:33

all benefit from improved insight about

38:35

ourselves and who we are and

38:37

how we behave with other people.

38:39

So if you're human, that's

38:41

like a good indicator that you

38:44

could benefit from talking to somebody.

38:46

Find out if therapy is right

38:48

for you. Visit Time is precious

38:50

and so are our pets. So time

38:53

with our pets is extra precious. That's

38:55

why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24-7

38:57

access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual

38:59

visits and follow-ups for up to five

39:02

pets. You can message a vet at

39:04

any time and schedule a video visit

39:06

the same day. Our vets can even

39:08

prescribe medication for many ailments betterhelp.com today. That's better help.com. and shipping

39:11

is always free. With Dutch you'll get

39:13

more time with your pets and year-round

39:15

piece of mind when it comes to

39:17

their vet care. Something

39:21

unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed

39:23

to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone

39:25

Valley Season 1. Every time I

39:27

hear about my dad is, oh,

39:29

he's a killer. He's just straight

39:31

evil. I was becoming the

39:33

bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd

39:35

never known. At the end the day, I'm

39:37

literally a son of a killer. Listen

39:40

to new episodes of Bone Valley Season

39:42

2 on the I Heart Radio app,

39:44

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

39:46

podcasts. I'm

39:49

Soledad O 'Brien, and on my new true

39:51

crime podcast, Murder on the Toe Path, I'm

39:53

taking you back to 1964 to the cold

39:56

case of artist Mary Pinchow -Meyer. She

39:58

been shot twice in

40:00

the head and in

40:02

the back. It turns

40:04

out Mary was connected

40:06

to a very powerful

40:08

man. I pledge you

40:10

that we shall neither commit

40:12

nor provoke aggression. John F. Kennedy.

40:15

Kennedy. Listen to Murder on

40:17

the Toe Path with Soledad O 'Brien

40:19

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,

40:21

wherever you get your podcast.