March 5, 2026
WHERE THE MURDER LIES: Death & Deception in West Hollywood
A murder in Los Angeles. A teenage suspect. A conviction that came too fast. In 2004, the killing of a retired Los Angeles schoolteacher barely made the evening news. Within hours, police made arrests, prosecutors filed charges, and Jimmy Kitlas, an incredibly shy special-needs teenager with no criminal history, was swiftly convicted and sent to prison.
But what if the story everyone accepted was only the surface? In this haunting episode of Death by Misadventure, Jacy Nova sits down with acclaimed true crime authors Burl Barer and Frank C. Girardot to discuss their explosive book Where the Murder Lies, an investigation that reopens a case many believed was long settled.
Twenty years later, a woman named Kelley Leigh approached the authors with a chilling suspicion: the speed of the conviction may have buried a far darker truth. What they uncovered was a labyrinth of lies, manipulation, hidden motives, and a shocking disregard for justice.
As the evidence unfolds, the story spirals far beyond a body discovered on a bed. The trail leads into an astonishing underworld of stolen gold, an MDMA smuggling plot, and alleged connections to both the American Mafia and the Russian Mob, all tied to a scheme that may have reached as far as an attempt to defraud the U.S. government out of billions of dollars.
And at the center of it all lies one haunting question: Did the wrong person go to prison for murder? This is a story about buried truth, vanished justice, and how some murders disappear not because they lack answers, but because the wrong answers came too quickly.
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Kosmic Media Production
Producer - Jacy Nova and Thom Dre
Audio Producer - Christopher Lang
Sound Engineer - Parker Ginn
Website - Death by Misadventure
Contact - jacynova at gmail.com
WEBVTT
00:06.477 --> 00:12.150
[SPEAKER_01]: In 2004, the murder of retired Los Angeles school teacher barely made the evening news.
00:12.871 --> 00:25.600
[SPEAKER_01]: The case seemed open and shut, within hours a rest were made, and a speedy conviction sent Jimmy Kittless, a shy special needs teenager with no criminal record, straight to prison.
00:25.580 --> 00:40.483
[SPEAKER_01]: But 20 years later, a woman named Kelly Lee approached investigators Burl Bear in Frank Gerardo with a haunting suspicion that this rapid resolution was actually a mask for a much deeper rod.
00:40.582 --> 00:50.966
[SPEAKER_01]: She was right, of the last three people to see the school teacher alive, only one had the motive and the opportunity to kill him, and it wasn't Jimmy Kittless.
00:52.389 --> 00:58.303
[SPEAKER_01]: What starts with the body and a bed spirals into a bizarre fortune and stolen gold.
00:58.283 --> 01:07.056
[SPEAKER_01]: MDMA smuggling and a staggering alliance between the American mafia and the Russian mob to defraud the U.S. government of billions.
01:07.938 --> 01:20.357
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm chasing over and today, I'm joined by authors, Bro Bear, and Frank Gerardo to discuss the explosive new book where murder lies, death and deception in West Hollywood.
01:21.038 --> 01:23.802
[SPEAKER_01]: This is death by misadventure,
01:29.553 --> 01:30.754
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, Berlin, Frank.
01:30.794 --> 01:32.216
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks so much for being on the show.
01:32.977 --> 01:37.121
[SPEAKER_02]: So I want to take a moment and talk about the victim, Alexander Marksitesur.
01:37.441 --> 01:45.590
[SPEAKER_02]: And he was a retired Los Angeles school teacher, living in a modest apartment in West Hollywood, just off a Santa Monica Boulevard in Fairfax.
01:46.191 --> 01:51.777
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you tell me a little bit about who he was and what his life looked like in 2004 before he died?
01:52.338 --> 01:53.259
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thank you.
01:53.659 --> 01:56.522
[SPEAKER_00]: So Alec, who went by Sasha,
01:56.705 --> 02:03.313
[SPEAKER_00]: was one of, you know, any number of Russian immigrants who live in this neighborhood of West Hollywood.
02:03.333 --> 02:04.694
[SPEAKER_00]: In his case, he'd been a teacher.
02:04.714 --> 02:05.715
[SPEAKER_00]: He was retired.
02:06.536 --> 02:14.365
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a small apartment, you know, he didn't have a great deal of hobbies or, you know, wasn't involved in the community.
02:14.405 --> 02:16.307
[SPEAKER_00]: He did like to drink.
02:16.327 --> 02:24.737
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a few friends, including guy named Mark Gaitya, who would frequently, you know, stop by his house with another Russian immigrant.
02:25.055 --> 02:30.661
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Alec, really wasn't a guy who made a huge impact on the people around him.
02:31.462 --> 02:38.570
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you tell me a little bit more about what happened that evening and what led up to his murder and who were the last people to see him alive?
02:39.291 --> 02:55.028
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, the last three people to see him alive who marked ITL into homeless street teams from the streets of West Hollywood.
02:55.801 --> 02:59.767
[SPEAKER_03]: Jimmy had been working in quotes here, quotes for Mark.
03:00.067 --> 03:01.109
[SPEAKER_03]: His kind of his go-for.
03:01.930 --> 03:04.153
[SPEAKER_03]: He would do whatever Mark asked him to do.
03:05.075 --> 03:08.259
[SPEAKER_03]: And he thought Mark was kind of like his bed and factor.
03:08.319 --> 03:12.546
[SPEAKER_03]: And he hanging with Mark was somehow giving some respect.
03:12.646 --> 03:19.556
[SPEAKER_03]: Although he couldn't be a member of the Russian mob, he could at least maybe get some street clad and maybe have a career.
03:19.616 --> 03:24.323
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, in that night, Jimmy and his girlfriend
03:24.944 --> 03:27.327
[SPEAKER_03]: Sit down the quarter, watch the world go by.
03:27.868 --> 03:36.981
[SPEAKER_03]: When here comes the mark, one direction, one that is dark, and from the other direction, comes Sasha, Alex, already have drunk.
03:37.662 --> 03:40.305
[SPEAKER_03]: He sees Mark, gets all excited.
03:40.646 --> 03:41.567
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, how you doing?
03:41.587 --> 03:52.943
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to the liquor store, get some more vodka, and introduce him to the kids to the Sasha.
03:54.087 --> 03:54.547
[SPEAKER_03]: down there.
03:54.567 --> 03:57.951
[SPEAKER_03]: She even goes up to his apartment as the chicken because she was hungry.
03:59.152 --> 04:03.816
[SPEAKER_03]: And what the deal is, she doesn't know this, Jimmy doesn't know this.
04:05.097 --> 04:15.487
[SPEAKER_03]: But Mark has kind of convinced Sasha that if he lets the two teams stay in his apartment overnight, he could have sex with Audrey.
04:15.947 --> 04:22.153
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's how all of them wind up kind of together.
04:22.437 --> 04:30.807
[SPEAKER_00]: Marks with these teenagers in Sasha's case, I think he sees an opportunity to have sex with this young woman.
04:31.648 --> 04:46.825
[SPEAKER_00]: And Mark's case, he sees an opportunity to perhaps either take something from Sasha or manipulate Jimmy and Audrey into taking something from Sasha.
04:46.805 --> 04:50.070
[SPEAKER_00]: And in Jimmy's case, he's a homeless guy.
04:50.631 --> 05:06.855
[SPEAKER_00]: It kid really who's been in Hollywood for just a few months and has been working to prove himself in this sort of hierarchy of mobsters and homeless people and predators and girlfriends and the whole thing.
05:06.835 --> 05:21.233
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think he sees this as a situation, especially as he's prompted by Mark, as a situation and an opportunity to maybe take over this apartment and move in throwing Alec to the street.
05:21.803 --> 05:38.108
[SPEAKER_00]: What happens is that out gets progressively more drug and more interested in sleeping with Audrey and Jimmy gets more and more frozen out from this sort of conversation for a good part of the
05:38.813 --> 05:41.016
[SPEAKER_00]: the evening, he's not even in the apartment.
05:41.036 --> 05:42.398
[SPEAKER_00]: He's outside the apartment.
05:43.119 --> 05:54.155
[SPEAKER_00]: Mark entices him to come in and show his manhood by taking the apartment from Alec, that Jimmy really kind of steps into the picture.
05:54.896 --> 06:03.128
[SPEAKER_00]: What happens is that he confronts Alec, grabs him kind of a wholesome before throwing him to the ground.
06:03.909 --> 06:07.234
[SPEAKER_00]: He's convinced that he's knocked the guy out.
06:07.214 --> 06:18.338
[SPEAKER_00]: And Mark tells him like, look, now that you've made a man of yourself, let's get some stuff and get out of here and they start ransacking the apartment.
06:18.875 --> 06:27.925
[SPEAKER_00]: Following the ransacking, Jimmy is doing the ransacking, leaves, and out in front, there's Mark and Audrey standing there.
06:28.826 --> 06:33.291
[SPEAKER_00]: And he expresses to them that his concern that he may have gone too far.
06:34.151 --> 06:37.916
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, maybe he hit Alec too hard or held him too hard.
06:37.936 --> 06:42.020
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, did something that caused Alec to be hurt.
06:42.801 --> 06:48.527
[SPEAKER_00]: However, he also said that when he left, you know, he locked the door to the bedroom that Alec was in.
06:49.385 --> 07:18.733
[SPEAKER_03]: They all went down by a convenience store and Mark said I have to go back, well someone goes back into that apartment and discovers the bedroom door has locked and has to fight their way into that bedroom so much so the door knob is practically totally ripped off the door to get in.
07:19.304 --> 07:47.202
[SPEAKER_03]: He didn't call the police, he called his attorney, because what the other people all the street didn't know is that in addition to Mark being a low level Russian mobster with his specialty and identity theft and bank fraud in Czechwashing, he was also the registered
07:48.042 --> 07:52.011
[SPEAKER_03]: He called his attorney and said, call my handler the DEA.
07:52.552 --> 07:59.308
[SPEAKER_03]: I have a murder to report and where to find the couple that killed him and where to have the arrested.
07:59.989 --> 08:02.215
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's who called the police was his attorney.
08:02.235 --> 08:04.600
[SPEAKER_03]: They called the West Hollywood Sheriff's Office.
08:04.951 --> 08:08.616
[SPEAKER_03]: And said, I have some confidential informant information.
08:09.117 --> 08:11.320
[SPEAKER_03]: This is their handler's name and number.
08:12.041 --> 08:13.263
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's been this murder.
08:13.784 --> 08:15.847
[SPEAKER_03]: And the people who murdered him is this couple.
08:16.347 --> 08:18.230
[SPEAKER_03]: And they're staying in such and such a hotel.
08:18.971 --> 08:20.974
[SPEAKER_03]: And go get him.
08:20.994 --> 08:22.095
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's what happened.
08:22.897 --> 08:24.359
[SPEAKER_03]: Do it a hotel.
08:25.060 --> 08:30.908
[SPEAKER_03]: Sheriff's deputy has come and bark at his uncle Gary are waiting outside.
08:31.242 --> 08:35.656
[SPEAKER_03]: Make sure they can get in and they arrest Jimmy and Audrey.
08:36.639 --> 08:43.682
[SPEAKER_02]: So why do you think if Jimmy says he didn't kill Alex, why do you think Mark said him up?
08:44.017 --> 09:02.768
[SPEAKER_00]: Mark's uncle was a high ranking member of the Russian mob, and he'd been arrested in connection with the scam, where basically he stole gold from a lab in Massachusetts posing as a scientist working at Caltech.
09:02.748 --> 09:11.883
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was also involved in a scheme to smuggle MDMA and make counterfeit viagropills in the LA.
09:12.244 --> 09:19.215
[SPEAKER_00]: So those two things put Mark's uncle, Meyer ITF, kind of in the jackpot of federal authorities.
09:19.956 --> 09:24.904
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the time that this murder took place, Meyer was in federal custody.
09:25.786 --> 09:28.350
[SPEAKER_00]: It was Mark's belief.
09:28.465 --> 09:43.449
[SPEAKER_00]: And Mark's other uncle Gary, it was their belief that if they have informed on certain kinds of crime, that they would earn reduced sentence for their uncle Meyer.
09:44.511 --> 09:47.115
[SPEAKER_00]: And I liken it to a dim sum, many.
09:47.770 --> 09:58.921
[SPEAKER_00]: where, you know, they believe that if you, you know, take a couple items from Calamay and a couple items from Calambee, that in Calamsey, Meyer would be released from custody.
09:59.662 --> 10:16.258
[SPEAKER_00]: So by calling in this homicide and reporting it to the authorities, they were of the firm belief that the FBI, the DEA, and the other agencies that they were working for would work to release their uncle, Meyer.
10:16.424 --> 10:20.011
[SPEAKER_02]: So how quickly did it take for police to arrest?
10:20.472 --> 10:23.418
[SPEAKER_02]: We said that they arrested Jimmy and Audrey right away.
10:24.019 --> 10:32.556
[SPEAKER_02]: Did they even look at any other suspects or they just arrested him and based on Marx, eyewitness, testimony, he was taking it away.
10:32.576 --> 10:38.348
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, well, with a lot of force when arrive to get the boat's help, Mark and Gary were waiting for them.
10:38.767 --> 10:51.122
[SPEAKER_03]: and Gary gragged about them being informants and how they solved so many cases and how he booked the room, he gave permission for the law enforcement to let it arrest the two.
10:51.355 --> 10:57.343
[SPEAKER_03]: The only information the arresting office has had was provided by Park and Garrett.
10:58.004 --> 11:07.496
[SPEAKER_03]: So they went to the crime scene where they discovered there was no forced entry in the door, but the situation of the bedroom door being ripped off as hinges.
11:08.177 --> 11:10.721
[SPEAKER_03]: So they thought there was a major battle of the bedroom door.
11:11.962 --> 11:19.472
[SPEAKER_03]: They arrested, of course, after questioning the arrested Audrey was going to be
11:19.739 --> 11:20.901
[SPEAKER_03]: the rest of first of all.
11:21.602 --> 11:22.664
[SPEAKER_03]: Now this is kind of rude.
11:23.205 --> 11:26.571
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you want to Jimmy and said, if you don't confess, we're going to blame Audrey?
11:27.974 --> 11:31.941
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, that's an old tactic for getting the false confession and, of course, who worked.
11:32.902 --> 11:41.037
[SPEAKER_03]: Jimmy could stand the thought of, president Audrey being arrested from murder, so it would be really confessed, though I get it, to protect her.
11:41.758 --> 11:44.683
[SPEAKER_03]: Meanwhile, if they also charge Mark,
11:44.933 --> 11:56.309
[SPEAKER_03]: because the homicide detective who interviewed him already knew about this deal, the Vibbing of Confucian format and the deal to help his uncle.
11:56.429 --> 11:57.510
[SPEAKER_03]: You got that from Garrett.
11:58.412 --> 11:59.914
[SPEAKER_03]: So he was not impressed.
12:00.815 --> 12:06.002
[SPEAKER_03]: So both Jimmy and Mark were charged with the murder and they had separate trials.
12:06.803 --> 12:09.507
[SPEAKER_03]: Now here we get to something very, very important.
12:10.617 --> 12:13.781
[SPEAKER_03]: and Jimmy didn't know this until just before the trial.
12:14.202 --> 12:21.011
[SPEAKER_03]: He didn't know that Mark and Gary were the law enforcement informants, didn't know that until then.
12:21.051 --> 12:25.758
[SPEAKER_03]: The prosecutor contacted the DEA of the FBI.
12:26.259 --> 12:30.484
[SPEAKER_03]: They said, gee, we don't want their identity as informants revealed.
12:30.965 --> 12:33.028
[SPEAKER_03]: We want that information suppressed.
12:34.510 --> 12:36.793
[SPEAKER_03]: This wasn't explained to Jimmy.
12:37.769 --> 12:44.397
[SPEAKER_03]: And he and his family, to G if he's a law enforcement guy, this is a clear case of a trapped man.
12:44.837 --> 12:56.510
[SPEAKER_03]: He was the entwrapment of fence, but his attorney refused to do so, because there were never going to mention that Mark was an agent of law enforcement, and they never did.
12:57.311 --> 13:00.355
[SPEAKER_03]: And the jury never heard about the battle of the bedroom door.
13:00.415 --> 13:07.523
[SPEAKER_03]: They never heard about Mark big and informants or about his uncle Meyer getting released
13:07.925 --> 13:12.416
[SPEAKER_03]: the judge do the truth, prosecutor do the truth, defense attorney do the truth.
13:12.816 --> 13:15.483
[SPEAKER_03]: The only ones who never heard the truth was the jury.
13:16.285 --> 13:17.888
[SPEAKER_02]: So how did you get involved?
13:17.908 --> 13:19.632
[SPEAKER_02]: How did you get involved in the case?
13:19.713 --> 13:26.288
[SPEAKER_02]: I believe your friend Kelly, 20 years later, said there's something wrong with this case and brought it to your attention.
13:26.723 --> 13:27.925
[SPEAKER_03]: she sure did.
13:28.386 --> 13:37.460
[SPEAKER_03]: She handed me a stack of a printout of 12 transcripts called documents or whatever, and said, this case stinks.
13:38.221 --> 13:40.344
[SPEAKER_03]: I said, I know this kid.
13:40.805 --> 13:43.389
[SPEAKER_03]: I was a surrogate mother on the streets back there.
13:43.990 --> 13:45.092
[SPEAKER_03]: Totally shy.
13:45.613 --> 13:51.482
[SPEAKER_03]: Non-violence, scared of violence, would never murder anyone.
13:52.171 --> 13:56.296
[SPEAKER_03]: And I also know this spark, and this is a real problem here.
13:56.937 --> 13:58.800
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know exactly what the problem is.
13:59.160 --> 14:01.223
[SPEAKER_03]: But I do know it was a confidence and format.
14:01.583 --> 14:02.945
[SPEAKER_03]: I do know that was suppressed.
14:03.866 --> 14:04.907
[SPEAKER_03]: Please investigate.
14:05.909 --> 14:11.055
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, Dr. Guadalupe looked at it with a whole boy called Frank as they should want to get it on this.
14:11.636 --> 14:14.219
[SPEAKER_03]: And we started from there, six years later.
14:14.960 --> 14:16.963
[SPEAKER_00]: It's six years later, we had a bug.
14:17.112 --> 14:45.195
[SPEAKER_00]: There were so many moving parts, you know, when you look at this, you think it's, as we talked about early on here, you think it's just a simple thing, you know, you got this, this teacher living in an apartment who gets strangled and within hours, the police making a rest and, you know, within months that there's a conviction and within 20 years, the, you know, the perpetrator has done his time and in, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to
14:45.327 --> 14:49.012
[SPEAKER_00]: eyes of the justice system, it's an open and shut case.
14:49.813 --> 15:13.545
[SPEAKER_00]: But as we dug deeper, we realized that this wasn't an open and shut case, that there were all these wheels within wheels and the confidential informant system that essentially created this dim sum, and you like bring
15:13.711 --> 15:19.662
[SPEAKER_00]: to take this homeless kid and pin something on him that he may not have done.
15:20.483 --> 15:33.166
[SPEAKER_00]: It made it powerful, and then as we done deeper into it, the wheels within the wheels kept getting more and more elaborate, for example, I mentioned this gold scam.
15:33.186 --> 15:37.373
[SPEAKER_00]: Myer worked with an old-time kind of combat.
15:37.353 --> 15:53.718
[SPEAKER_00]: and enforcer to set up this elaborate scheme to get gold for free and these companies in the East Coast would ship it to them and they would take it to the diamond district, melt it down and make money off it.
15:54.459 --> 15:57.403
[SPEAKER_00]: They were also involved in the
15:58.193 --> 16:08.271
[SPEAKER_00]: threatening of a reporter who worked for the Los Angeles Times, who was doing a series of stories on a PI and his connection with Steven Seagull.
16:08.291 --> 16:13.640
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the guys in our book was directly involved in some of the threatening of that reporter.
16:14.341 --> 16:16.725
[SPEAKER_00]: When you read the book, you'll see how that all turns out.
16:17.446 --> 16:22.395
[SPEAKER_03]: What are the challenges in writing this book that Frank and I grappled with?
16:22.460 --> 16:31.563
[SPEAKER_03]: is some of these stories at first blush to not seem to be connected to this word or any way, but they are.
16:31.623 --> 16:33.749
[SPEAKER_03]: Everything is connected.
16:34.531 --> 16:37.819
[SPEAKER_00]: I liken it to the, you know, LA woman by the doors.
16:38.373 --> 16:41.699
[SPEAKER_00]: Motel, money, murder, madness, right?
16:42.140 --> 16:43.302
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell us where it is.
16:43.322 --> 16:45.426
[SPEAKER_00]: It's seem connected, but here you go.
16:45.506 --> 16:47.250
[SPEAKER_00]: Motel, money, murder, madness.
16:47.330 --> 16:48.512
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of all in this book.
16:49.093 --> 16:52.359
[SPEAKER_00]: And the thing is, the Russian mob hasn't gone anywhere.
16:52.539 --> 16:55.605
[SPEAKER_00]: It's still there, and there's still forces
16:55.585 --> 17:04.062
[SPEAKER_00]: at work within law enforcement that rely heavily on the informant system to solve cases.
17:04.723 --> 17:07.469
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not the first book that Berlin I've written together.
17:07.529 --> 17:08.912
[SPEAKER_00]: We wrote a couple of others.
17:09.433 --> 17:12.058
[SPEAKER_00]: And one of them was about a woman who
17:12.038 --> 17:15.964
[SPEAKER_00]: poisoned her husband in order to cache a life insurance policy.
17:16.605 --> 17:26.279
[SPEAKER_00]: And in that case, she was largely convicted because a jailhouse informant gave the whole plot to Sheriff's homicide detectives.
17:26.920 --> 17:32.709
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just that that seems to be our traditional understanding of the way the informant system works.
17:33.210 --> 17:36.455
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you get right down to it, it's not quite the way it works.
17:36.475 --> 17:39.379
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot more
17:39.359 --> 17:46.130
[SPEAKER_00]: It's sort of like one of those things where it's like the lamest of crime stories is like the greatest of crime stories because it, you know, it is.
17:46.190 --> 17:51.519
[SPEAKER_00]: It's it's not a murder that drew any attention when it happened.
17:51.539 --> 18:02.818
[SPEAKER_00]: The L.A. Times, for example, runs a thing called the homicide report and they, since, you know, maybe the early 2000s have chronicled every homicide that takes place in the L.A. County.
18:03.102 --> 18:10.454
[SPEAKER_00]: most of them get, you know, a couple of paragraphs and, you know, some, some feedback from victims, families or friends.
18:10.995 --> 18:25.498
[SPEAKER_00]: In this case, Sasha got a sentence, and nothing more, and this trial was not covered by, you know, any form of media, be it local, national, international, just kind of happened.
18:26.221 --> 18:34.392
[SPEAKER_00]: and we're fortunate enough that Kelly felt that it was something that needed to be brought to it.
18:35.614 --> 18:39.900
[SPEAKER_02]: How many years was he sentenced to and what where is he now?
18:40.821 --> 18:48.091
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, he wound up serving 20 years of a potential life sentence.
18:48.772 --> 18:50.915
[SPEAKER_03]: He was eligible for a role.
18:51.816 --> 18:56.042
[SPEAKER_03]: He did be with the parole board.
18:56.208 --> 19:04.181
[SPEAKER_03]: is that when you go before the parole board, you pretty much have to be aligned with the official story of the crime and whatever.
19:04.201 --> 19:09.709
[SPEAKER_03]: But the parole board was perceptive enough to see that the kid was set up.
19:10.310 --> 19:13.115
[SPEAKER_03]: He even mentioned that if you read his parole hearing.
19:14.437 --> 19:17.642
[SPEAKER_03]: So he was parole about years ago.
19:18.955 --> 19:27.968
[SPEAKER_03]: And Mary, he was able to reconnect with Cadet for the first time, with the child that he fathered with Audrey Lane.
19:28.429 --> 19:32.034
[SPEAKER_03]: He hasn't seen her from Audrey since the arrest, really.
19:32.996 --> 19:34.458
[SPEAKER_03]: But they had a daughter.
19:34.498 --> 19:43.191
[SPEAKER_03]: The daughter and the mother are her strays, but she and she have connected his father and daughter and are getting along famously.
19:44.065 --> 19:49.012
[SPEAKER_03]: Jimmy it turns out as an incredible gift for languages.
19:49.493 --> 19:54.160
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe we now have speech that it says about 10 languages fluently.
19:55.502 --> 19:58.747
[SPEAKER_02]: Brilliant, that's crazy.
19:59.628 --> 20:02.592
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, and presumably, it all everything about the destruction trade.
20:03.854 --> 20:12.587
[SPEAKER_03]: Wonderful, compassionate fellow, great guy.
20:13.175 --> 20:26.863
[SPEAKER_03]: is really very bright, very kind, mature, and strongly connected to this spiritual heritage of American Indian, very active of the activity, and really impressed with it, very proud of it.
20:27.417 --> 20:36.349
[SPEAKER_03]: And he, of course, was incredibly helpful in the book, as was Kelly and other people, some who wish to remain anonymous.
20:37.211 --> 20:48.647
[SPEAKER_03]: Some people ask how did we get such a degree of cooperation from people of the Russian mob, which we get, and from people who were formerly the American mafia.
20:49.388 --> 20:51.130
[SPEAKER_03]: That's because they trust us.
20:51.430 --> 21:00.966
[SPEAKER_03]: They know that we're not going to let them endanger themselves by talking about anything or with substantial limitations as I got off.
21:00.986 --> 21:05.253
[SPEAKER_03]: And we've advised them, this has been less than seven years, don't tell me about it.
21:06.155 --> 21:07.177
[SPEAKER_03]: So.
21:07.197 --> 21:08.479
[SPEAKER_02]: That's an incredible story.
21:08.539 --> 21:10.222
[SPEAKER_02]: Where can listeners get your book?
21:10.883 --> 21:16.172
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, they can buy where murder lies by their favorite bookseller online.
21:16.507 --> 21:25.494
[SPEAKER_03]: Amazon, bars, and no book, books, and millions, wherever they buy new books, preferably buy a new, because if you buy a used, we don't make any money.
21:27.961 --> 21:28.061
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
21:28.081 --> 21:31.090
[SPEAKER_02]: So are you working on any new books or new cases with Frank?
21:31.694 --> 21:41.928
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, as a matter of fact, we were just talking about one that we first looked at many years ago that Frank has been continuing to investigate.
21:42.668 --> 21:54.644
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know more about that soon, if we're going to go ahead and take that one on, but I believe it's a fascinating murder case in Las Caros for several years ago that people don't know about.
21:55.405 --> 21:57.448
[SPEAKER_03]: We tend to find these cases that
21:57.766 --> 21:59.208
[SPEAKER_03]: haven't gotten a lot of coverage.
21:59.848 --> 22:07.697
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, if it's a big publicized case, usually there's a quit-of-dirty food climb book, written, you know, within 48 hours.
22:08.398 --> 22:12.262
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's what we like finding cases that people aren't there familiar with.
22:13.904 --> 22:17.067
[SPEAKER_03]: Plus, as he said, I have to deal with West Wheel.
22:17.568 --> 22:20.010
[SPEAKER_03]: I was convicted of murder, Mark West.
22:21.012 --> 22:22.373
[SPEAKER_03]: And he really does,
22:23.551 --> 22:34.657
[SPEAKER_03]: take emotional responsibility, he thinks of that Sasha every day, thinks of praise on his progress of his soul, etc.
22:35.078 --> 22:38.927
[SPEAKER_03]: every day, he takes it off very personally, of course.
22:40.477 --> 22:51.990
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, that's he's incredibly gracious and it sounds like prison helped him mature and find himself and he's making the best of his life right now.
22:52.030 --> 22:56.015
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm really happy to hear that he was able to reconnect with his daughter.
22:56.055 --> 22:58.137
[SPEAKER_02]: It's such a fascinating story.
22:58.178 --> 23:02.923
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today.
23:02.903 --> 23:04.345
[SPEAKER_03]: all as a great pleasure then.
23:04.365 --> 23:22.469
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe that people reading this book, hopefully, will find it not only informative, but we tried to tell the story in a simple, conversational matter so that you could kind of like if we were all just sitting around and Frank and I said, hey, we got a great story to tell you.
23:22.509 --> 23:24.451
[SPEAKER_03]: It's sort of telling it.
23:24.471 --> 23:27.375
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think people will enjoy reading the book.
23:30.680 --> 23:38.433
[SPEAKER_01]: The book where murder lies, death and deception in West Hollywood can be purchased at amazon.com or your favorite bookstore.
23:39.174 --> 23:44.042
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't forget to like and subscribe so you never miss another episode of Death by Miss Adventure.
23:44.663 --> 23:48.409
[SPEAKER_01]: And check out our YouTube channel at Death by Miss Adventure podcast.
23:49.150 --> 23:49.671
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm G.C.
23:49.691 --> 23:50.112
[SPEAKER_01]: Nova.
23:50.512 --> 23:51.574
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for listening.
00:06.477 --> 00:12.150
[SPEAKER_01]: In 2004, the murder of retired Los Angeles school teacher barely made the evening news.
00:12.871 --> 00:25.600
[SPEAKER_01]: The case seemed open and shut, within hours a rest were made, and a speedy conviction sent Jimmy Kittless, a shy special needs teenager with no criminal record, straight to prison.
00:25.580 --> 00:40.483
[SPEAKER_01]: But 20 years later, a woman named Kelly Lee approached investigators Burl Bear in Frank Gerardo with a haunting suspicion that this rapid resolution was actually a mask for a much deeper rod.
00:40.582 --> 00:50.966
[SPEAKER_01]: She was right, of the last three people to see the school teacher alive, only one had the motive and the opportunity to kill him, and it wasn't Jimmy Kittless.
00:52.389 --> 00:58.303
[SPEAKER_01]: What starts with the body and a bed spirals into a bizarre fortune and stolen gold.
00:58.283 --> 01:07.056
[SPEAKER_01]: MDMA smuggling and a staggering alliance between the American mafia and the Russian mob to defraud the U.S. government of billions.
01:07.938 --> 01:20.357
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm chasing over and today, I'm joined by authors, Bro Bear, and Frank Gerardo to discuss the explosive new book where murder lies, death and deception in West Hollywood.
01:21.038 --> 01:23.802
[SPEAKER_01]: This is death by misadventure,
01:29.553 --> 01:30.754
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, Berlin, Frank.
01:30.794 --> 01:32.216
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks so much for being on the show.
01:32.977 --> 01:37.121
[SPEAKER_02]: So I want to take a moment and talk about the victim, Alexander Marksitesur.
01:37.441 --> 01:45.590
[SPEAKER_02]: And he was a retired Los Angeles school teacher, living in a modest apartment in West Hollywood, just off a Santa Monica Boulevard in Fairfax.
01:46.191 --> 01:51.777
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you tell me a little bit about who he was and what his life looked like in 2004 before he died?
01:52.338 --> 01:53.259
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thank you.
01:53.659 --> 01:56.522
[SPEAKER_00]: So Alec, who went by Sasha,
01:56.705 --> 02:03.313
[SPEAKER_00]: was one of, you know, any number of Russian immigrants who live in this neighborhood of West Hollywood.
02:03.333 --> 02:04.694
[SPEAKER_00]: In his case, he'd been a teacher.
02:04.714 --> 02:05.715
[SPEAKER_00]: He was retired.
02:06.536 --> 02:14.365
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a small apartment, you know, he didn't have a great deal of hobbies or, you know, wasn't involved in the community.
02:14.405 --> 02:16.307
[SPEAKER_00]: He did like to drink.
02:16.327 --> 02:24.737
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a few friends, including guy named Mark Gaitya, who would frequently, you know, stop by his house with another Russian immigrant.
02:25.055 --> 02:30.661
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Alec, really wasn't a guy who made a huge impact on the people around him.
02:31.462 --> 02:38.570
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you tell me a little bit more about what happened that evening and what led up to his murder and who were the last people to see him alive?
02:39.291 --> 02:55.028
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, the last three people to see him alive who marked ITL into homeless street teams from the streets of West Hollywood.
02:55.801 --> 02:59.767
[SPEAKER_03]: Jimmy had been working in quotes here, quotes for Mark.
03:00.067 --> 03:01.109
[SPEAKER_03]: His kind of his go-for.
03:01.930 --> 03:04.153
[SPEAKER_03]: He would do whatever Mark asked him to do.
03:05.075 --> 03:08.259
[SPEAKER_03]: And he thought Mark was kind of like his bed and factor.
03:08.319 --> 03:12.546
[SPEAKER_03]: And he hanging with Mark was somehow giving some respect.
03:12.646 --> 03:19.556
[SPEAKER_03]: Although he couldn't be a member of the Russian mob, he could at least maybe get some street clad and maybe have a career.
03:19.616 --> 03:24.323
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, in that night, Jimmy and his girlfriend
03:24.944 --> 03:27.327
[SPEAKER_03]: Sit down the quarter, watch the world go by.
03:27.868 --> 03:36.981
[SPEAKER_03]: When here comes the mark, one direction, one that is dark, and from the other direction, comes Sasha, Alex, already have drunk.
03:37.662 --> 03:40.305
[SPEAKER_03]: He sees Mark, gets all excited.
03:40.646 --> 03:41.567
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, how you doing?
03:41.587 --> 03:52.943
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to the liquor store, get some more vodka, and introduce him to the kids to the Sasha.
03:54.087 --> 03:54.547
[SPEAKER_03]: down there.
03:54.567 --> 03:57.951
[SPEAKER_03]: She even goes up to his apartment as the chicken because she was hungry.
03:59.152 --> 04:03.816
[SPEAKER_03]: And what the deal is, she doesn't know this, Jimmy doesn't know this.
04:05.097 --> 04:15.487
[SPEAKER_03]: But Mark has kind of convinced Sasha that if he lets the two teams stay in his apartment overnight, he could have sex with Audrey.
04:15.947 --> 04:22.153
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's how all of them wind up kind of together.
04:22.437 --> 04:30.807
[SPEAKER_00]: Marks with these teenagers in Sasha's case, I think he sees an opportunity to have sex with this young woman.
04:31.648 --> 04:46.825
[SPEAKER_00]: And Mark's case, he sees an opportunity to perhaps either take something from Sasha or manipulate Jimmy and Audrey into taking something from Sasha.
04:46.805 --> 04:50.070
[SPEAKER_00]: And in Jimmy's case, he's a homeless guy.
04:50.631 --> 05:06.855
[SPEAKER_00]: It kid really who's been in Hollywood for just a few months and has been working to prove himself in this sort of hierarchy of mobsters and homeless people and predators and girlfriends and the whole thing.
05:06.835 --> 05:21.233
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think he sees this as a situation, especially as he's prompted by Mark, as a situation and an opportunity to maybe take over this apartment and move in throwing Alec to the street.
05:21.803 --> 05:38.108
[SPEAKER_00]: What happens is that out gets progressively more drug and more interested in sleeping with Audrey and Jimmy gets more and more frozen out from this sort of conversation for a good part of the
05:38.813 --> 05:41.016
[SPEAKER_00]: the evening, he's not even in the apartment.
05:41.036 --> 05:42.398
[SPEAKER_00]: He's outside the apartment.
05:43.119 --> 05:54.155
[SPEAKER_00]: Mark entices him to come in and show his manhood by taking the apartment from Alec, that Jimmy really kind of steps into the picture.
05:54.896 --> 06:03.128
[SPEAKER_00]: What happens is that he confronts Alec, grabs him kind of a wholesome before throwing him to the ground.
06:03.909 --> 06:07.234
[SPEAKER_00]: He's convinced that he's knocked the guy out.
06:07.214 --> 06:18.338
[SPEAKER_00]: And Mark tells him like, look, now that you've made a man of yourself, let's get some stuff and get out of here and they start ransacking the apartment.
06:18.875 --> 06:27.925
[SPEAKER_00]: Following the ransacking, Jimmy is doing the ransacking, leaves, and out in front, there's Mark and Audrey standing there.
06:28.826 --> 06:33.291
[SPEAKER_00]: And he expresses to them that his concern that he may have gone too far.
06:34.151 --> 06:37.916
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, maybe he hit Alec too hard or held him too hard.
06:37.936 --> 06:42.020
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, did something that caused Alec to be hurt.
06:42.801 --> 06:48.527
[SPEAKER_00]: However, he also said that when he left, you know, he locked the door to the bedroom that Alec was in.
06:49.385 --> 07:18.733
[SPEAKER_03]: They all went down by a convenience store and Mark said I have to go back, well someone goes back into that apartment and discovers the bedroom door has locked and has to fight their way into that bedroom so much so the door knob is practically totally ripped off the door to get in.
07:19.304 --> 07:47.202
[SPEAKER_03]: He didn't call the police, he called his attorney, because what the other people all the street didn't know is that in addition to Mark being a low level Russian mobster with his specialty and identity theft and bank fraud in Czechwashing, he was also the registered
07:48.042 --> 07:52.011
[SPEAKER_03]: He called his attorney and said, call my handler the DEA.
07:52.552 --> 07:59.308
[SPEAKER_03]: I have a murder to report and where to find the couple that killed him and where to have the arrested.
07:59.989 --> 08:02.215
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's who called the police was his attorney.
08:02.235 --> 08:04.600
[SPEAKER_03]: They called the West Hollywood Sheriff's Office.
08:04.951 --> 08:08.616
[SPEAKER_03]: And said, I have some confidential informant information.
08:09.117 --> 08:11.320
[SPEAKER_03]: This is their handler's name and number.
08:12.041 --> 08:13.263
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's been this murder.
08:13.784 --> 08:15.847
[SPEAKER_03]: And the people who murdered him is this couple.
08:16.347 --> 08:18.230
[SPEAKER_03]: And they're staying in such and such a hotel.
08:18.971 --> 08:20.974
[SPEAKER_03]: And go get him.
08:20.994 --> 08:22.095
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's what happened.
08:22.897 --> 08:24.359
[SPEAKER_03]: Do it a hotel.
08:25.060 --> 08:30.908
[SPEAKER_03]: Sheriff's deputy has come and bark at his uncle Gary are waiting outside.
08:31.242 --> 08:35.656
[SPEAKER_03]: Make sure they can get in and they arrest Jimmy and Audrey.
08:36.639 --> 08:43.682
[SPEAKER_02]: So why do you think if Jimmy says he didn't kill Alex, why do you think Mark said him up?
08:44.017 --> 09:02.768
[SPEAKER_00]: Mark's uncle was a high ranking member of the Russian mob, and he'd been arrested in connection with the scam, where basically he stole gold from a lab in Massachusetts posing as a scientist working at Caltech.
09:02.748 --> 09:11.883
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was also involved in a scheme to smuggle MDMA and make counterfeit viagropills in the LA.
09:12.244 --> 09:19.215
[SPEAKER_00]: So those two things put Mark's uncle, Meyer ITF, kind of in the jackpot of federal authorities.
09:19.956 --> 09:24.904
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the time that this murder took place, Meyer was in federal custody.
09:25.786 --> 09:28.350
[SPEAKER_00]: It was Mark's belief.
09:28.465 --> 09:43.449
[SPEAKER_00]: And Mark's other uncle Gary, it was their belief that if they have informed on certain kinds of crime, that they would earn reduced sentence for their uncle Meyer.
09:44.511 --> 09:47.115
[SPEAKER_00]: And I liken it to a dim sum, many.
09:47.770 --> 09:58.921
[SPEAKER_00]: where, you know, they believe that if you, you know, take a couple items from Calamay and a couple items from Calambee, that in Calamsey, Meyer would be released from custody.
09:59.662 --> 10:16.258
[SPEAKER_00]: So by calling in this homicide and reporting it to the authorities, they were of the firm belief that the FBI, the DEA, and the other agencies that they were working for would work to release their uncle, Meyer.
10:16.424 --> 10:20.011
[SPEAKER_02]: So how quickly did it take for police to arrest?
10:20.472 --> 10:23.418
[SPEAKER_02]: We said that they arrested Jimmy and Audrey right away.
10:24.019 --> 10:32.556
[SPEAKER_02]: Did they even look at any other suspects or they just arrested him and based on Marx, eyewitness, testimony, he was taking it away.
10:32.576 --> 10:38.348
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, well, with a lot of force when arrive to get the boat's help, Mark and Gary were waiting for them.
10:38.767 --> 10:51.122
[SPEAKER_03]: and Gary gragged about them being informants and how they solved so many cases and how he booked the room, he gave permission for the law enforcement to let it arrest the two.
10:51.355 --> 10:57.343
[SPEAKER_03]: The only information the arresting office has had was provided by Park and Garrett.
10:58.004 --> 11:07.496
[SPEAKER_03]: So they went to the crime scene where they discovered there was no forced entry in the door, but the situation of the bedroom door being ripped off as hinges.
11:08.177 --> 11:10.721
[SPEAKER_03]: So they thought there was a major battle of the bedroom door.
11:11.962 --> 11:19.472
[SPEAKER_03]: They arrested, of course, after questioning the arrested Audrey was going to be
11:19.739 --> 11:20.901
[SPEAKER_03]: the rest of first of all.
11:21.602 --> 11:22.664
[SPEAKER_03]: Now this is kind of rude.
11:23.205 --> 11:26.571
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you want to Jimmy and said, if you don't confess, we're going to blame Audrey?
11:27.974 --> 11:31.941
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, that's an old tactic for getting the false confession and, of course, who worked.
11:32.902 --> 11:41.037
[SPEAKER_03]: Jimmy could stand the thought of, president Audrey being arrested from murder, so it would be really confessed, though I get it, to protect her.
11:41.758 --> 11:44.683
[SPEAKER_03]: Meanwhile, if they also charge Mark,
11:44.933 --> 11:56.309
[SPEAKER_03]: because the homicide detective who interviewed him already knew about this deal, the Vibbing of Confucian format and the deal to help his uncle.
11:56.429 --> 11:57.510
[SPEAKER_03]: You got that from Garrett.
11:58.412 --> 11:59.914
[SPEAKER_03]: So he was not impressed.
12:00.815 --> 12:06.002
[SPEAKER_03]: So both Jimmy and Mark were charged with the murder and they had separate trials.
12:06.803 --> 12:09.507
[SPEAKER_03]: Now here we get to something very, very important.
12:10.617 --> 12:13.781
[SPEAKER_03]: and Jimmy didn't know this until just before the trial.
12:14.202 --> 12:21.011
[SPEAKER_03]: He didn't know that Mark and Gary were the law enforcement informants, didn't know that until then.
12:21.051 --> 12:25.758
[SPEAKER_03]: The prosecutor contacted the DEA of the FBI.
12:26.259 --> 12:30.484
[SPEAKER_03]: They said, gee, we don't want their identity as informants revealed.
12:30.965 --> 12:33.028
[SPEAKER_03]: We want that information suppressed.
12:34.510 --> 12:36.793
[SPEAKER_03]: This wasn't explained to Jimmy.
12:37.769 --> 12:44.397
[SPEAKER_03]: And he and his family, to G if he's a law enforcement guy, this is a clear case of a trapped man.
12:44.837 --> 12:56.510
[SPEAKER_03]: He was the entwrapment of fence, but his attorney refused to do so, because there were never going to mention that Mark was an agent of law enforcement, and they never did.
12:57.311 --> 13:00.355
[SPEAKER_03]: And the jury never heard about the battle of the bedroom door.
13:00.415 --> 13:07.523
[SPEAKER_03]: They never heard about Mark big and informants or about his uncle Meyer getting released
13:07.925 --> 13:12.416
[SPEAKER_03]: the judge do the truth, prosecutor do the truth, defense attorney do the truth.
13:12.816 --> 13:15.483
[SPEAKER_03]: The only ones who never heard the truth was the jury.
13:16.285 --> 13:17.888
[SPEAKER_02]: So how did you get involved?
13:17.908 --> 13:19.632
[SPEAKER_02]: How did you get involved in the case?
13:19.713 --> 13:26.288
[SPEAKER_02]: I believe your friend Kelly, 20 years later, said there's something wrong with this case and brought it to your attention.
13:26.723 --> 13:27.925
[SPEAKER_03]: she sure did.
13:28.386 --> 13:37.460
[SPEAKER_03]: She handed me a stack of a printout of 12 transcripts called documents or whatever, and said, this case stinks.
13:38.221 --> 13:40.344
[SPEAKER_03]: I said, I know this kid.
13:40.805 --> 13:43.389
[SPEAKER_03]: I was a surrogate mother on the streets back there.
13:43.990 --> 13:45.092
[SPEAKER_03]: Totally shy.
13:45.613 --> 13:51.482
[SPEAKER_03]: Non-violence, scared of violence, would never murder anyone.
13:52.171 --> 13:56.296
[SPEAKER_03]: And I also know this spark, and this is a real problem here.
13:56.937 --> 13:58.800
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know exactly what the problem is.
13:59.160 --> 14:01.223
[SPEAKER_03]: But I do know it was a confidence and format.
14:01.583 --> 14:02.945
[SPEAKER_03]: I do know that was suppressed.
14:03.866 --> 14:04.907
[SPEAKER_03]: Please investigate.
14:05.909 --> 14:11.055
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, Dr. Guadalupe looked at it with a whole boy called Frank as they should want to get it on this.
14:11.636 --> 14:14.219
[SPEAKER_03]: And we started from there, six years later.
14:14.960 --> 14:16.963
[SPEAKER_00]: It's six years later, we had a bug.
14:17.112 --> 14:45.195
[SPEAKER_00]: There were so many moving parts, you know, when you look at this, you think it's, as we talked about early on here, you think it's just a simple thing, you know, you got this, this teacher living in an apartment who gets strangled and within hours, the police making a rest and, you know, within months that there's a conviction and within 20 years, the, you know, the perpetrator has done his time and in, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to
14:45.327 --> 14:49.012
[SPEAKER_00]: eyes of the justice system, it's an open and shut case.
14:49.813 --> 15:13.545
[SPEAKER_00]: But as we dug deeper, we realized that this wasn't an open and shut case, that there were all these wheels within wheels and the confidential informant system that essentially created this dim sum, and you like bring
15:13.711 --> 15:19.662
[SPEAKER_00]: to take this homeless kid and pin something on him that he may not have done.
15:20.483 --> 15:33.166
[SPEAKER_00]: It made it powerful, and then as we done deeper into it, the wheels within the wheels kept getting more and more elaborate, for example, I mentioned this gold scam.
15:33.186 --> 15:37.373
[SPEAKER_00]: Myer worked with an old-time kind of combat.
15:37.353 --> 15:53.718
[SPEAKER_00]: and enforcer to set up this elaborate scheme to get gold for free and these companies in the East Coast would ship it to them and they would take it to the diamond district, melt it down and make money off it.
15:54.459 --> 15:57.403
[SPEAKER_00]: They were also involved in the
15:58.193 --> 16:08.271
[SPEAKER_00]: threatening of a reporter who worked for the Los Angeles Times, who was doing a series of stories on a PI and his connection with Steven Seagull.
16:08.291 --> 16:13.640
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the guys in our book was directly involved in some of the threatening of that reporter.
16:14.341 --> 16:16.725
[SPEAKER_00]: When you read the book, you'll see how that all turns out.
16:17.446 --> 16:22.395
[SPEAKER_03]: What are the challenges in writing this book that Frank and I grappled with?
16:22.460 --> 16:31.563
[SPEAKER_03]: is some of these stories at first blush to not seem to be connected to this word or any way, but they are.
16:31.623 --> 16:33.749
[SPEAKER_03]: Everything is connected.
16:34.531 --> 16:37.819
[SPEAKER_00]: I liken it to the, you know, LA woman by the doors.
16:38.373 --> 16:41.699
[SPEAKER_00]: Motel, money, murder, madness, right?
16:42.140 --> 16:43.302
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell us where it is.
16:43.322 --> 16:45.426
[SPEAKER_00]: It's seem connected, but here you go.
16:45.506 --> 16:47.250
[SPEAKER_00]: Motel, money, murder, madness.
16:47.330 --> 16:48.512
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of all in this book.
16:49.093 --> 16:52.359
[SPEAKER_00]: And the thing is, the Russian mob hasn't gone anywhere.
16:52.539 --> 16:55.605
[SPEAKER_00]: It's still there, and there's still forces
16:55.585 --> 17:04.062
[SPEAKER_00]: at work within law enforcement that rely heavily on the informant system to solve cases.
17:04.723 --> 17:07.469
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not the first book that Berlin I've written together.
17:07.529 --> 17:08.912
[SPEAKER_00]: We wrote a couple of others.
17:09.433 --> 17:12.058
[SPEAKER_00]: And one of them was about a woman who
17:12.038 --> 17:15.964
[SPEAKER_00]: poisoned her husband in order to cache a life insurance policy.
17:16.605 --> 17:26.279
[SPEAKER_00]: And in that case, she was largely convicted because a jailhouse informant gave the whole plot to Sheriff's homicide detectives.
17:26.920 --> 17:32.709
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just that that seems to be our traditional understanding of the way the informant system works.
17:33.210 --> 17:36.455
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you get right down to it, it's not quite the way it works.
17:36.475 --> 17:39.379
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot more
17:39.359 --> 17:46.130
[SPEAKER_00]: It's sort of like one of those things where it's like the lamest of crime stories is like the greatest of crime stories because it, you know, it is.
17:46.190 --> 17:51.519
[SPEAKER_00]: It's it's not a murder that drew any attention when it happened.
17:51.539 --> 18:02.818
[SPEAKER_00]: The L.A. Times, for example, runs a thing called the homicide report and they, since, you know, maybe the early 2000s have chronicled every homicide that takes place in the L.A. County.
18:03.102 --> 18:10.454
[SPEAKER_00]: most of them get, you know, a couple of paragraphs and, you know, some, some feedback from victims, families or friends.
18:10.995 --> 18:25.498
[SPEAKER_00]: In this case, Sasha got a sentence, and nothing more, and this trial was not covered by, you know, any form of media, be it local, national, international, just kind of happened.
18:26.221 --> 18:34.392
[SPEAKER_00]: and we're fortunate enough that Kelly felt that it was something that needed to be brought to it.
18:35.614 --> 18:39.900
[SPEAKER_02]: How many years was he sentenced to and what where is he now?
18:40.821 --> 18:48.091
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, he wound up serving 20 years of a potential life sentence.
18:48.772 --> 18:50.915
[SPEAKER_03]: He was eligible for a role.
18:51.816 --> 18:56.042
[SPEAKER_03]: He did be with the parole board.
18:56.208 --> 19:04.181
[SPEAKER_03]: is that when you go before the parole board, you pretty much have to be aligned with the official story of the crime and whatever.
19:04.201 --> 19:09.709
[SPEAKER_03]: But the parole board was perceptive enough to see that the kid was set up.
19:10.310 --> 19:13.115
[SPEAKER_03]: He even mentioned that if you read his parole hearing.
19:14.437 --> 19:17.642
[SPEAKER_03]: So he was parole about years ago.
19:18.955 --> 19:27.968
[SPEAKER_03]: And Mary, he was able to reconnect with Cadet for the first time, with the child that he fathered with Audrey Lane.
19:28.429 --> 19:32.034
[SPEAKER_03]: He hasn't seen her from Audrey since the arrest, really.
19:32.996 --> 19:34.458
[SPEAKER_03]: But they had a daughter.
19:34.498 --> 19:43.191
[SPEAKER_03]: The daughter and the mother are her strays, but she and she have connected his father and daughter and are getting along famously.
19:44.065 --> 19:49.012
[SPEAKER_03]: Jimmy it turns out as an incredible gift for languages.
19:49.493 --> 19:54.160
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe we now have speech that it says about 10 languages fluently.
19:55.502 --> 19:58.747
[SPEAKER_02]: Brilliant, that's crazy.
19:59.628 --> 20:02.592
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, and presumably, it all everything about the destruction trade.
20:03.854 --> 20:12.587
[SPEAKER_03]: Wonderful, compassionate fellow, great guy.
20:13.175 --> 20:26.863
[SPEAKER_03]: is really very bright, very kind, mature, and strongly connected to this spiritual heritage of American Indian, very active of the activity, and really impressed with it, very proud of it.
20:27.417 --> 20:36.349
[SPEAKER_03]: And he, of course, was incredibly helpful in the book, as was Kelly and other people, some who wish to remain anonymous.
20:37.211 --> 20:48.647
[SPEAKER_03]: Some people ask how did we get such a degree of cooperation from people of the Russian mob, which we get, and from people who were formerly the American mafia.
20:49.388 --> 20:51.130
[SPEAKER_03]: That's because they trust us.
20:51.430 --> 21:00.966
[SPEAKER_03]: They know that we're not going to let them endanger themselves by talking about anything or with substantial limitations as I got off.
21:00.986 --> 21:05.253
[SPEAKER_03]: And we've advised them, this has been less than seven years, don't tell me about it.
21:06.155 --> 21:07.177
[SPEAKER_03]: So.
21:07.197 --> 21:08.479
[SPEAKER_02]: That's an incredible story.
21:08.539 --> 21:10.222
[SPEAKER_02]: Where can listeners get your book?
21:10.883 --> 21:16.172
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, they can buy where murder lies by their favorite bookseller online.
21:16.507 --> 21:25.494
[SPEAKER_03]: Amazon, bars, and no book, books, and millions, wherever they buy new books, preferably buy a new, because if you buy a used, we don't make any money.
21:27.961 --> 21:28.061
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
21:28.081 --> 21:31.090
[SPEAKER_02]: So are you working on any new books or new cases with Frank?
21:31.694 --> 21:41.928
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, as a matter of fact, we were just talking about one that we first looked at many years ago that Frank has been continuing to investigate.
21:42.668 --> 21:54.644
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know more about that soon, if we're going to go ahead and take that one on, but I believe it's a fascinating murder case in Las Caros for several years ago that people don't know about.
21:55.405 --> 21:57.448
[SPEAKER_03]: We tend to find these cases that
21:57.766 --> 21:59.208
[SPEAKER_03]: haven't gotten a lot of coverage.
21:59.848 --> 22:07.697
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, if it's a big publicized case, usually there's a quit-of-dirty food climb book, written, you know, within 48 hours.
22:08.398 --> 22:12.262
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's what we like finding cases that people aren't there familiar with.
22:13.904 --> 22:17.067
[SPEAKER_03]: Plus, as he said, I have to deal with West Wheel.
22:17.568 --> 22:20.010
[SPEAKER_03]: I was convicted of murder, Mark West.
22:21.012 --> 22:22.373
[SPEAKER_03]: And he really does,
22:23.551 --> 22:34.657
[SPEAKER_03]: take emotional responsibility, he thinks of that Sasha every day, thinks of praise on his progress of his soul, etc.
22:35.078 --> 22:38.927
[SPEAKER_03]: every day, he takes it off very personally, of course.
22:40.477 --> 22:51.990
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, that's he's incredibly gracious and it sounds like prison helped him mature and find himself and he's making the best of his life right now.
22:52.030 --> 22:56.015
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm really happy to hear that he was able to reconnect with his daughter.
22:56.055 --> 22:58.137
[SPEAKER_02]: It's such a fascinating story.
22:58.178 --> 23:02.923
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today.
23:02.903 --> 23:04.345
[SPEAKER_03]: all as a great pleasure then.
23:04.365 --> 23:22.469
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe that people reading this book, hopefully, will find it not only informative, but we tried to tell the story in a simple, conversational matter so that you could kind of like if we were all just sitting around and Frank and I said, hey, we got a great story to tell you.
23:22.509 --> 23:24.451
[SPEAKER_03]: It's sort of telling it.
23:24.471 --> 23:27.375
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think people will enjoy reading the book.
23:30.680 --> 23:38.433
[SPEAKER_01]: The book where murder lies, death and deception in West Hollywood can be purchased at amazon.com or your favorite bookstore.
23:39.174 --> 23:44.042
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't forget to like and subscribe so you never miss another episode of Death by Miss Adventure.
23:44.663 --> 23:48.409
[SPEAKER_01]: And check out our YouTube channel at Death by Miss Adventure podcast.
23:49.150 --> 23:49.671
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm G.C.
23:49.691 --> 23:50.112
[SPEAKER_01]: Nova.
23:50.512 --> 23:51.574
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for listening.