Leslie | Betrayal Weekly

Hi everyone, we have some exciting news to share. ABC News Studios has turned Caroline Berega's story from betrayal season four into a docu-series. You'll get to meet the people involved. You'll hear from people who have never spoken before, and you get to see where the story took place. We are so proud and excited to share it with you all. Stream betrayal dirty secrets now, on Hulu, or Hulu for Disney Plus. This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus, or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I choose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Munga Shateekeler, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, curmudgians, blues owners, super seniors, and go as top cryotherapy lab to try to understand the obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. - I'd say probably start bone smashing. - That doesn't work. - Make you look more defined. - They say it works, I don't know. - Listen to Skyline Drive, how to live forever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. - Dancing with the Stars is looking for a new pro. And since last season, I came in eighth place. I'm basically an expert. I'm Daniel Fischel. - And I'm Val Chmerkovski. - And we have a new podcast called Stepping on Toes with Daniel and Val. - Every week, we're breaking down Dancing with the Stars the next pro. To find out who I'll be sharing the boring with next season. - Listen to Stepping on Toes on America's number one podcast network iHeart. Follow Stepping on Toes and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today. - I am talking to a felon right now with face tattoos and I cannot decide if I like him or not. - That was a caller from my podcast, Therapy Gecko, where I speak with anonymous callers about their problems, relationships, and anything else in the depths of their mind. It all happens on my show Therapy Gecko. So if you're trying to get out of your own head and into someone else's, this is the podcast for you. Listen to Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. - I just felt like all the breath had been stolen out of my body. How do we have these completely different stories? Do I have my own story wrong? - I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything. Marianne grew up in Ontario, Canada in a story book town called Grimsby. - Grimsby's about as close to Star's Hollow as you can get in real life. And especially in the 1970s, it was fruit orchards, cherry trees, peach trees, canaries. The kind of town where everybody knows you, they know your name at the supermarket and it felt safe and orderly. - She lived in an old historic house with her brother, sister, parents, and grandmother. - My bedroom was pink and it was the whole front of the house and I had my own balcony and the view for my balcony was of Lake Ontario and the newly constructed sand tower. - Their yard was dotted with cherry trees. - I used to go sit in the cherry trees, pick them and then go up to my balcony and eat them. - Her friends' houses were filled with framed family portraits and neat piles of books. Marianne's childhood home, on the other hand, looked a little different. Her dad, Jean, collected unusual antiques. - We had a real live, honest to God sarcophagus in our family room. We had a real authentic medieval suit of armor. We had a tarantula encased in glass. - They were the kinds of things that could give a kid nightmares, but she found ways to befriend them. I would go to bed and I would always conjure up these stories about how the mummy princess would come after us because she didn't want to be in our living room, but the night would save us from her. - Her house transformed into a fantasy world. One ruled by Marianne's imagination. For most of her childhood, her older sister Margot was at boarding school, so Marianne spent her days with her older brother Brad. - Brad and I were thickest thieves. We did absolutely everything together. We used to roam the town like free-range kids. We'd go on these epic bike rides. We'd be living off of chocolate bars and chips and soda. And it just felt like a really ideal childhood. Except our parents were never home. And I desperately wanted the attention of my parents. I was very focused on gaining the attention of my father. - Her dad was often busy with work. - He owned a shopping plaza, a furniture store. He was a jeweler, but he was also a concert promoter. He promoted big bands like Pink Floyd. He brought Johnny Mathes to town, Bob Hope, all these big name celebrities. - And her mom did the bookkeeping. My mom and dad would go to the office early in the morning and they wouldn't come home until 9 or 10 o'clock at night. - Marianne loved being around her dad. - My dad was like a lighthouse. He'd walk into a room, scanning and searching and lighting people up. He would engage with everybody. He would pull you in. - Jean stood out in a crowd. My dad had long, permed hair. He'd wear these t-shirts and bell-bottom jeans. He rode a motorcycle. He was Italian, but he was born in France. So he had a very European way about him. He spoke with a thick French accent. - Jean's three businesses and work as a concert promoter kept him busy. - He was just like hustling all day and all along and always on the move and always around important people. - But on the weekend, he would slow down and spend time with his family. - Every Sunday, he would take over the kitchen. - Marianne would hang out with him while he prepared Sunday dinner. - I love to watch him cook. You'd always have a cigarette in his hand and the opera music would be playing in the background. He made the kitchen seem like theater. The way he would tear the basil and then put it under my nose and say, "Smell this. "This is fresh food. "You only cook with fresh ingredients. "You always buy the best." And he'd be making his big pot of famous sauce. - It was clear that her dad was special. - But the first time that I knew he was extraordinary, I think I was about 11 years old. - Through his work as a concert promoter, Jean would bring in acts like Paul Anca. Many of his songs, like Put Your Head on My Shoulder, are part of the fabric of pop culture. ♪ Put your head on my shoulder ♪ - It was a big deal that Paul Anca was coming to town. Marianne's grandmother took her and one of her friends to the show. - And it was at a place called Hamilton Place, a big theater. There were thousands of people there. The auditorium was filling with people that you could feel it was palpable. - As the excitement bubbled around them, Marianne and her friend got to go backstage. - And I remember seeing my dad, when everybody was listening to him, and then he took me into Paul Anca's dressing room. And he said, "Say hello to Mr. Anca." - Marianne was too young to be a true Paul Anca fan, but she knew that he was a big deal. - This guy's really important. This Paul Anca, I've heard him, I've heard his records. And here's my dad in charge of all this. It all came to me like, wow, he is a really important person, and he's really special. - One day, when Marianne was 12, she was on her way home from school. - I got off the bus, and it was a short walk home, and I get to our driveway, and I see a big white moving truck in our driveway. And I see police on our front lawn. And I see movers moving our furniture out of the house and onto the truck. - She stopped in her tracks. - My brain can't process what's happening. And my mom and my grandmother and our Adoberman penny are on the front lawn with suitcases. - She rushed over to her mom. - And she says, "Get in the car. We're going on a trip." Marianne had a million questions. me were getting the car. What do you mean we're going where are we going? Where's my brother? Where's my sister? Where's my dad? What is happening? But her mother didn't have any answers. She's just like, "Marianne, get in the car." Her mom and grandmother crammed a few suitcases in the trunk of their Pontiac lemons and started driving. Marianne looked out the window as her familiar cozy town of Grimsby whizzed by and faded into the distance. I was scared. Like, what are my friends going to think? I didn't even get to talk to my friends. My life is blowing up, but I don't know why, and my mom wouldn't talk. All her mom told her was that they were going to America. In fact, they were going all the way down south to Florida. The drive took almost a week. And we ended up at this really crappy motel on Fort Lauderdale Beach on A1A, and it was right out of a bad horror film. TV's blaring from next door. There's like nefarious characters in the parking lot. This was nothing like her pink bedroom back home. It was like being flown in a spaceship to another planet. I'm feeling totally displaced and terrified. After a week at the motel, Marianne started pushing her mom for answers. She was in sixth grade. Their family had never been separated before. She didn't understand where her siblings were. "What's happening? Where's Brad? Where's Marco? Where's Dad? When are they coming? Like, what are we doing? Are we just living in this motel for the rest of our lives?" And finally she said that Brad had dropped out of school. Your father thought it was best he'd go work for the carnival. So there was a traveling show called Conclin Shows and it traveled across Canada. And he was a carnie at 15 years old. My sister, Margot, was living with my aunt and finishing high school. And then she would join us. And she said my dad was doing business. That's all the information that she would give me. It seemed odd to Marianne that her parents sent Brad to go work for a traveling circus. I guess that could be fun, but shouldn't he be in school? It left more questions than answers. As the weeks turned to months, Marianne kept waiting for her dad to meet up with them. She found ways to entertain herself at the motel. I bought an orange proline skateboard at a yard cell for $10 and I spent all day riding that skateboard by myself outside in the parking lot, observing people and swimming in the pool. Finally, after two months, my mom says, Oh, well, we're moving into a house and not just any house. It's in probably and I would dare say it's still to this day is the most exclusive neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale. It's called Harbor Beach. It's a series of islands connected by bridges. And just about every one of these luxury homes has a yacht in the backyard in the canal. And suddenly we're living there. One minute they were living in a roadside motel. The next, they were living in luxury. Okay, things are looking up, but I was still terrified and I was still incredibly lonely. I'm a kid. I have nobody to talk to. I'm a fish out of water. It was strange living in such a big house with only her mom and grandmother. Marianne was 12 years old at the time without anyone else her age to talk to. When the summer ended, her mom told her she'd be starting middle school here in America. Marianne was excited. Maybe she could make some new friends. They sent me to a private school and we are registering for school and the lady who's sitting across from me says, so Leslie, are you excited about starting in a school? And I'm like, who's Leslie? And my mom says, that's your name. You know, that's your name. I'm like, I've never heard that name, before in my life. Yes, you have. My name's Marianne. She said, no, no, that's your middle name. I like, what? Her mom just stared straight ahead. And from that moment on, everyone called her Leslie at home and at her new school. I showed up for my first day in school and a plaid tent dress with brown clogs and pigtails. And the girls in my class were wearing George Ash jeans, had highlighted hair with a full face of makeup. And day one, the bullying started. I felt so alone. When Christmas rolled around and they'd been living in Florida for six months, something amazing happened. Her dad finally showed up. He rolled in in the Rolls Royce. And then it wasn't long after that that Brad and Margot came. I was so excited to see them. Finally, Leslie breathed a sigh of relief. Their family was back together. The world made a little more sense. As soon as Jean arrived in Florida, he got to work. He was a savvy businessman and saw the move as an opportunity for him to start new ventures. My dad started setting up businesses pretty much on day one. He went to a busy intersection and rented this warehouse and painted in large black letters along the side of it, model home furniture. And that wasn't the only new business he started. He was finding people to teach him how to run a boat maintenance company. He wanted Leslie's brother Brad to run the business with him. So he bought him an old pickup, diving equipment, had him get his diving certificate, and then he set up this business called DNB diving. DNB for dad and Brad. And they would go to marinas and hand out cards, and my brother would clean barnacles off the bottoms of yachts and change propellers and zanks and shafts. Of course, starting a business is a lot of hard work, but Jean always made it look easy. He would always say, you can start a business anywhere you land in the world with 50 bucks and a classified ad. Leslie was happy to be around her dad again. His optimism made the world feel big, like anything was possible. He also established himself as a jeweler. He would come home for Miami, and he'd lay out these velvet rolls. And they'd be, for example, a whole roll of patek Philippe watches or Rolex watches, or he'd have all these pouches in their full of diamonds. Sometimes Jean took Leslie with him to deliver jewelry to a client. He explained to her that this was a very important task. And they had to be careful. The jewels were expensive. He developed his own strategies for keeping them safe. He always transported jewels in a paper lunch bag, because he said people will rob a briefcase, but nobody's stealing your lunch. I remember going to the international building with him in Miami, and he'd fill that bag with diamonds and gold in it, like all these jewels. And then leave when we be walking downtown Miami with this paper bag with hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewelry. Over the next few months, Leslie's dad started making new friends. Some strange men were coming in and out of the house, and my dad would have me call them all uncle, Uncle Pateco, Uncle Georgia, Uncle Eduardo. And they'd be smoking Cuban cigars and drinking at the bar, laughing, and there'd be hushed tones. Around that same time, Leslie started noticing some changes around the house that scared her. They were hang guns in our planters inside the house. Like in every room, there was a gun in every single room. I'd never seen a gun before. And that was a bit scary. One day at breakfast, Leslie shared her concerns with her dad. I said, "Dad, I'm scared. Why do we have so many guns in the house?" And he said, "All you need to know is that daddy will always protect you." The days stretched on, humid and empty and repetitive. She missed her home in Canada. It felt like she'd been plucked out of her familiar life and dropped into an upside down world. She felt untethered and was searching for purpose. I felt like an outsider everywhere in my life. I felt like an outsider in my home and I felt like an outsider at school. And I had no safe place to belong. I was deeply, deeply lonely, profoundly lonely. As they got older, Leslie and her brother grew apart. Brad was pulled into the family business. He didn't have time to be a playmate. My brother or my dad were hanging out the marinas and it was just me and nobody ever thought to check in on me. But then one day, her dad told Leslie, "You needed her help." My dad said that he had an important job for me and my brother. And I was like, "Ha! I'm in! An important job!" "What? Me? I can be helpful? Yes. I'm there." Brad and Leslie went with their dad to the new river canal. There, they walked up to a yacht. "I think it was probably about 70 feet. It was a big yacht." On the dock, Jean stopped and turned to face Leslie and Brad. "And he said, 'You and Brad, I want you to keep the guy busy on the deck. I'm going to be going below and doing a little tour and I'm going to pretend that I have somebody interested in buying this boat. You just keep the guy busy. I'm like, 'Yes, I have a job. I'm definitely up for this job.' They walked on board and Jean introduced the kids to the yacht owner. Then he excused himself and went down below deck. He says, 'I'm just going to have a look around.' Leslie knew this was her cue. She got straight to work, asking the yacht owner questions. "I'm like, have you ever seen a shark? Have you ever swam with sharks? Have you seen pirates? And how does it work when you're out at sea and your engine stops working?" Finally, her dad emerged back onto the main deck and they left. "I didn't know really why we're there and it's just me and my brother talking to this guy. But I felt special and I felt seen. I felt like I had purpose." For her 15th birthday, she got her driving permit and a gift from her dad. "My dad bought me a 1962 Cherry Red Skylark convertible. It had white seats and a white top and beautiful shiny hub caps. It was just the most beautiful car." On top of that, he had another job for her. He said, "You're going to do a delivery for daddy. I want you to take this stone. It was a lemon care diamond." He said, "I just want you to go over to Los Olis Boulevard, park your car in front of Polypocox antique shop and just wait there. Somebody's going to come sit in your car and he's going to give you a package of money." Leslie was eager to help. "My wow, did I ever feel important? I felt so grown up. I was on top of the world. I got to do something for my dad." So she got in her Cherry Red convertible and drove across town to the antique shop. "I parked there. I don't remember how long I was there. I was daydreaming about boys as 15-year-old girls do." Suddenly, a man walked up to her car. "This guy gets in the car and slides in next to me and he pulls out a gun. And he presses it to my bare arm and he says, "I'll take that stone now." Hey, this is Dave Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook, on the Big Money Players Network. Our show is extremely accessible to first-time listeners. Each week we talk to someone in show business, aka The Biz, and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show. "We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, not that great." "Can you help me shape this? How about we flip it on his head? How about we flip this around?" "What is the surprise one, man? Actually, you think it's the straight man. It's actually the one who's acting weird." Adam Scott, this entire time, you've been expecting Adam Sandler to come to visit the show. "I would never accept that. I would never set expectations for something like that. If the universe allows for something like that to happen, I'm open to it." "I'm always going to accept. You know, Danny McBride, fine." "Yeah, it's all this fragile masculinity exuding. I could smell it walking on the hallway to be honest with you. I was like, "Is that what you need?" "No, it's fragile masculinity." "Ben Stiller, no." "I think there's a lot of times out of context people don't get it or even know what a circle is. You know what I mean? I'm like, "Girl, I go like this so stupid." "Everyone's so dumb and fake." "Right, fake and also not interested or just like, "Oh, I've got my life. I don't care about your life." "It had a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us." "Oh, and by the way, Will Ferrell told us personally he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode, but he's just so busy. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts." If your bookshelf and your four-year page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Pro's Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. "I'm gonna have to look up this story." "Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed." From best-selling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, and that is a Trojan horse, whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro's Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and health captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the survivor files. I just remember this low taunting voice next to my ear saying, "Shut up. Don't say anything." Every week, I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced, but these aren't stories about what's taken from them. Their story is about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the survivor files with the Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I choose option B. I'm Julie Piñero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people, and they were like, "You smile good, that's not a lot of people smile around here." It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is, and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran, or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. One day, when Leslie was 15, her dad told her he needed her help delivering a valuable jewel to a client. Leslie was eager to help. She drove her new car across town, and parked outside of the antique store, where her dad's client was supposed to meet her. But when he arrived, things took a turn. This guy gets in the car and slides in next to me and he pulls out a gun, and he presses it to my bare arm, and he says, "I'll take that stone now." Leslie was in shock. I was terrified. I thought he's going to kill me. I gave him the stone, what else was I going to do, and then he quickly left. Leslie drove back home in a panic, and frantically told her dad what happened. I thought when I went home that my dad would call the police, but that is not what happened. My dad was so disappointed in me. He said, "How could you let that happen?" I gave you one simple job. How did you let that happen? Leslie stared at her dad's stunt. Hadn't he promised to protect her? Why was he mad at her? He was letting me come into the inner circle, but now there was a gun and somebody could have shot me. That was a new level of terror for me. A few weeks later, her parents went out of town. While they were gone, Leslie borrowed her dad's car. And I popped the trunk and the trunk was full of these bags. Let's just say they were all about a kilo big. Everything started to click into place, the strange men in her house, the guns, the secrecy. I think my dad's a drug dealer. I think my dad's a drug dealer, and I have to get him to stop because he's going to end up in jail or dead. Leslie felt a self-righteous anger. Even though she was only 15, she realized her dad wasn't the safe person she thought he was. Her first plan and was to try to convince him to stop. One night after her parents got back in town, Leslie found herself alone in the living room with her dad. - And he was putting a record on the turntable, like opera areas or something. - While he fiddled with the record player, Leslie took a deep breath and gathered her courage. Then she blurted out. - I think you're a drug dealer. I don't like what you're doing. I want you to stop, Daddy. I want you to stop. Her dad snapped around to face her. - And he said, "If you don't like living in my house with my rules, you can get the fuck out." - Defiant tears began to form in her eyes. She didn't like his rules. - I thought, "Okay, game on, old man." - So at just 15 years old, Leslie left home. She moved in with a friend of a friend. - And they lived in a really ratty house. And it was crawling with cockroaches. This was now my new life. - She already had a part-time job at a diner. She got a second job at the mall to a Ford rent. But to keep up with both jobs, she had a dropout of high school. - I didn't think about the future. I was just thinking about how am I putting food on my table? How am I paying my rent? - A year passed like that with Leslie in survival mode. It was hard to live on her own as a teenager. But she knew she couldn't live at home with her dad. - Life was adjusting and I was feeling very independent. I was broke, but I felt in control of my life for once. - Until one night. - It's about four in the morning. And there's a pounding at the front door of my apartment. And I get up and I look through the keyhole and it's my dad. I'm like, "What is my dad doing here at four in the morning?" And I opened the door and he said, "Get in the car right now, your brother's been in an accident." We have to go to the hospital. - On the drive there, teen explained, Brad was in a bad car crash. - We get to the hospital. And my brother doesn't look like my brother. His head is wrapped in white bandages and it's huge. And he's hooked up to all these machines. The doctor said, "Brad is brain damaged. There's nothing functioning in his brain anymore. And he'll never recover." And your two choices are to keep him on a ventilator for the rest of his life, however long he lives. Or to disconnect him from the life support. And as a family, we decided that he would not have wanted to be plugged into a machine. - Brad died in the hospital. - And after that, everything really changed. - It was too painful to be in Fort Lauderdale and around their family without Brad. Everything felt even more broken without him. - I knew that nobody was coming to save me. I thought my dad was a drug dealer and I wanted to build something for myself. And my brother loved the sea and loved the ocean. And I thought, "I want to join the US Coast Guard." - Not only was the Coast Guard a ticket out of Florida, it was also a way to rebel against her dad. She wanted to stop drug runners and enforce the law. - That was gonna be my mission in life. I wanted to do good, I wanted to save lives. I wanted to go after the bad guys. It was the only course I could see for myself. It was almost just like a natural progression of things. - At the age of 17, Leslie was accepted into the Coast Guard and started boot camp. Being in the military opened so many doors for Leslie. And her assignments took her across oceans. - I had a lot of adventures in the Coast Guard. When I was stationed at Oregon inlet, North Carolina, you get 25, 30 foot seas. But they were very dangerous because he'd had currents coming from all different directions. And I loved it, I thrived on it. - While she was in the Coast Guard, she met the man who would eventually become her husband. He was a green beret in US Special Forces on a temporary detail in Miami from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. - They started dating and got married shortly after. Leslie lost touch with her parents as she focused on building her new life. By the time she turned 21, her life felt the most stable it had ever been. But then her phone rang. - And it's my dad. - Over the last four years, she and her dad had grown increasingly distant. She hadn't heard from him in six months. Leslie picked up the phone. Her dad sounded scared. - He said, "I need you to come to Montreal right away and pick me up. Do not tell your mother, do not tell your sister, do not tell a single soul. There's bad guys after me and I'm in danger." Now, this is my dad, I'm his daughter. Bad guys are after him, I'm going to get my dad and I'm going to take my badass new Special Forces husband and we're going to break him out. - Despite all the years that had gone by, this was still her dad, asking for help. She didn't hesitate. - I went into rescue mode. I think a lot had to do with my training in the Coast Guard. It was like it became a mission. - Leslie and her husband rented a car and drove through the night to Montreal. And it's very late when we get there. - Leslie's dad had instructed her to meet him in a bar downtown. - I walk in, I don't recognize my own father. My father, who was handsome and full of life and sparkling, he was really thin and it was like somebody took a vacuum and sucked out all the life from him. His face was hollow, his eyes were sunken and he was just crumpled in this booth of a bar. That was a shock. That floored me like who is this man? - They sat down next to him at the bar and Jean began to talk. - He was jittery, he was very jittery. He said you're going to take me to the border of Vermont and Quebec. You're going to drop me off in the woods. You're going to check into the first hotel you come to on the other side of the border and I will find you in the morning. But he wouldn't tell us anything else. - So that's what they did. - It was black out. There was not much light and we dropped him off in the woods. Didn't see sad. There was only one motel. It was like an inn on the other side of the border. Checked into this little two story inn. - Going to sleep that night, Leslie was anxious. When she was involved in brisky operations for the Coast Guard, she always knew the goal of the mission but with her dad, she didn't know what the mission was or her part in it. - In the morning, we get up and I stretch and yawn and walk to the window 'cause I don't know what this town looks like 'cause it's dark. - She pulled back the curtains and immediately froze. - We're surrounded by a SWAT team. And next thing I know, the door opens and my husband and I are tackled to the ground and there's a knee in my back and handcuffs are going on me. It just all happens so fast. And then they instantly separated me for my husband, put us in different rooms. Wouldn't tell us anything about my dad. - They interrogated her and her husband. But Leslie didn't know anything. - I am literally clueless. My dad says bad guys are coming to murder him. And then all of a sudden, they left the room, they left me alone. And then when the door opened again, the guy came back with my husband and he says, we're free to go. - Leslie's mind was spitting, trying to figure out what just happened. - Okay, well, the last time I checked, I thought he was a drug dealer. So does this have to do something with drugs? - She started calling each member of her family. - I called my sister Margot and I said, "This is what happened. Do you know anything about this?" And she said, don't ask any more questions. - Her sister said she didn't know anything, but their mom did. - She said your dad had been arrested and was on trial for conspiracy to import cocaine into Canada. - Her mom said that in the middle of his trial, Jean disappeared. That explained why her dad asked to meet in obscure locations and had her drop him off in the middle of the woods. He had been on the run. After Jean was captured, he faced trial for importing narcotics and was sentenced to 15 years in an Ontario prison. - I thought, I guess I was right. My dad's the bad guy. My dad is a drug dealer. - With her dad in prison, Leslie tried to put him out of her mind. Throughout her 20s and 30s, a lot changed for Leslie. She had two daughters of her own got divorced and moved back to Canada. Her dad got out of prison, but she kept her distance from him. She did rekindle a relationship with her mother who had separated from Jean. Then one day, Leslie got news that her dad's health had declined quickly. She drove to CM and attended a doctor's appointment with him. - We went to the appointment and the doctor said to my dad, you have cancer in every bone in your body. Go home and do whatever you want. want to do. There's nothing we can do. Leslie could hardly process the words. Her dad was dying. It was three weeks that he lived from that diagnosis, and I sat and held my dad's hand every day. Soon, Jean couldn't leave his bed. It was clear he didn't have much time left. Leslie's daughters traveled in to see Jean and say they're goodbyes. And my father, who no longer was that charismatic, larger than life figure, he's just this defeated shell of a man that I no longer recognize. And we're all sitting up in his bedroom, and he's on the morphine drip. And he's pointing at the ceiling. And he says, "Tell those fuckers to go. Tell them to go. Get them out of here." But there was nobody in the room except Leslie and her daughters. We're like, "Dad, who? Who? The FBI, the CIA. They're here to get me. Don't let them take me. Don't you see them. They're right there. And me and my girls are like turning our heads and like giggling. Like, that's pretty good morphine." Jean kept talking nonsensically. "The guns are in the canal. I dumped all the guns in the canal. They're still there." Leslie and her daughters gave each other a look. "Oh, okay, dad. The guns are in the canal." Just days later, Jean died. Leslie did her best to process her complicated feelings, the grief, anger, and regrets. She stayed in touch with her mom. And one day, a few years later, her mom came to visit. She usually came with a trunkful of crap from her basement to unload on me. But this time, she only had a blue binder and a small cooler. Once she was inside, Leslie's mom dropped the binder onto the table in the hallway. "And it's massive. It weighs a ton. And it just clunk." I said, "Mom, what's that?" She said, "Oh, it's your dad's prison manuscript. He wrote that in prison." Leslie wasn't sure she heard correctly. "Oh, like what? Is what?" Leslie's mom sounded almost bored. "Yeah, yeah. He wrote it in prison. I didn't read it. It's probably full of lies. It's just garbage. Just burn it." Leslie looked at the binder, laying on the table in front of her. It had to be several hundred pages. I picked up the book, and it was so heavy, and I opened the first page. And there were ten words on yellowed paper. And it said, "To Brad, may you find peace. There is none here. Love dad." Leslie slammed the binder shut. Tears rushed to her eyes. I could feel my past rushing back to me. All the things I tried to forget felt like they were coming back, like a force. She wasn't ready to confront whatever was inside. So I stuffed it away in my hat and mitts drawer, and I ignored it for about six months until the day I needed a hat and submits in November. And I thought, "Oh, I think it's time. It's time." She pulled the binder out of the drawer, sat down, and began to read. Once she started, she couldn't stop. Finally, she had accessed her dad's side of the story. Maybe somewhere in here, she could find the truth. Then she read something that made her freeze. My dad claimed that he was an informant for the CIA and the FBI and the INS, and that he was forced into criminal behavior because of corrupt police in Canada, who forced him into the situation of having to work for the US government, and that he was innocent all along. And I thought, "Oh, my God. Was my dad a hero or not a villain?" Traveling alone as a woman. I choose Option B. I'm Julie Bignero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people and they were like, "You smiled at us, not a lot of people smile around here." It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You just remember this low-taunting voice next to my ear saying, "Shut up, don't say anything." Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed and I just started screaming. Hey, this is A's Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook on the big money players network. Each week, we talk to someone in show business, aka The Biz, and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, not that great. Can you help me shape this? How about we flip this head? Okay, what is the surprise one then? Actually, you think the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird. Adam Scott, this entire time, you've been expecting Adam Sandler to come to visit the show. If the universe allows for something like that to happen, I am open to it. I'm always going to accept, you know, Danny McBride, fine. Yeah, it's all this fragile masculinity, exuding. I was like, is that what you need? No, it's fragile masculinity. Ben Stiller, no. I think there's a lot of times out of context, people don't get it or even know what a circle is, you know what I mean? Like, you're like, oh, it's so stupid. Everyone's so dumb, it's for you. Right, fake and also not interested or just like, oh, I've got my life. I don't care about your life. And a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Oh, and by the way, Will Ferrell told us personally he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode, but he's just so busy. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're bookshelf and you're for you, page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. I'm gonna have to look up this story. I'm obsessed, so obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. So like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters and that is the Trojan horse, whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro's Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. For years, Leslie believed her dad was a drug dealer, but one day, years after his death, her mom came to her house with a manuscript Leslie's dad wrote while he was in present. And in it, he claimed that he was an informant, the CIA, FBI, and other government agencies. Reading his words, Leslie was floored. wrong? Was my dad keeping this a secret because he was protecting us from the bad guys? He was protecting his family? Leslie kept reading. Her father had typed up his life story, starting from the very beginning. He said it all started when he got involved with local politics in Canada. According to Jean, he was targeted by politicians and police who didn't want their own corruption exposed. That's why the family had to flee and abruptly moved to Florida. And once we were in Florida, because of his connections in Canada and his understanding of the jewelry business, he was recruited into being an informant. Jean claimed he got involved with criminal activity in order to report information back to the CIA. He became an insider in the world of organized crime, rubbing elbows with the mafia and drug runners, all to fulfill his role as an informant. My dad said that he first started with the CIA, leveraging his marina contacts. Him and my brother would go to the marinas and suss out drug runners. And they were very successful. I guess it was really easy to find drug runners back then in the Fort Lauderdale marinas, so they were informing on all of them. Leslie's eyes were glued to the page. She kept reading. According to Jean, he had been involved in global arms deals. It's like, are you kidding me? What? So much of what her dad wrote in the manuscript felt completely outlandish. But then, she stumbled upon a scene that was familiar. Jean described going to a yacht with Leslie and her brother Brad. My dad wrote about the day that he asked my brother and I to go and keep the guy busy on deck while he went down in the cabin. Leslie leaned in. She still remembered every detail of that day. The questions she asked the man on the boat. How important she'd felt helping her dad. Now she was reading about that day from her dad's perspective for the first time. He writes that that man who was on the boat was the head of the Montreal Mafia. And he was sent by the FBI to go down in that boat and find any evidence, any clues that could get their hands on. I was so shocked. In his manuscript, Jean detailed what he did below deck on the yacht. He stole the guy's rolodex with all his contacts. He went through his garbage. He stole stuff from his garbage. And he specifically brought my brother and I as decoys. Leslie stared at the word decoys. Her heart sank. He said it so casually. He wrote about it so casually. Like it was nothing. It was like I just sent my kids to the store to get Brad. We can't confirm if the man on the boat was the head of the Montreal Mafia. But either way, it's clear. Jean had no concern for his kid's safety. In that moment, any hope she'd had that her dad was a hero faded away. As Leslie kept reading, she recognized another story. The time her father asked her to make a jewel delivery and someone pulled a gun on her. In her father's manuscript, the story was all wrong. Completely different story. In her dad's version, Leslie had been conned out of a jewel he didn't trusted her with. His takeaway was that it was Leslie's fault. He wrote, "I wouldn't have been conned, but I felt bad for the kid so I tried to make her not feel bad." That was where his account ended. Leslie blanked. Where was the mention of the gun that was pulled on her? Where was the mention of her life being at risk? Am I remembering things wrong? But Leslie still remembered the feeling of the gun. It was undeniable. Her dad had involved her in criminal activity. He sent her and Brad into dangerous situations and hardly batted an eye. You're using your kids as pawns? What has wrong with you? Leslie wanted to believe her father's story, that he was an innocent informant. But the manuscript revealed small details that made her realize it wasn't that simple. She learned that the odd antiques that filled her childhood home weren't just a core. They're part of her father's money laundering scheme. That wasn't just my dad collecting. That was a way of hiding illegal money. She had her own memories of her childhood, and now she had her father's memories. As the two versions came together, a new picture emerged. My dad was telling a story about my childhood where everything made sense and nothing made sense. She needed to know what was real. She called her family to see if they could corroborate anything her dad wrote, but nobody wanted to talk to her. My mom wanted nothing to do with it. She didn't want to know about it. She didn't want to hear about it. My sister just kept saying the same thing. Why do you want to hurt daddy? Leave it alone. Don't bring this up. If you bring this up, you're just hurting daddy. And she wouldn't talk to me. I called everybody in my family. I reached out to my cousin, my aunt, nobody would talk to me. Not a single person. But this time, she refused to stop asking questions. I thought, no, I have to know the truth. I have to figure this out. I got to get to the bottom of the story. If her family wasn't going to tell her the truth, she'd have to contact Jean's friends and his enemies. She started with a name she'd heard her whole life, Detective Ken Robertson. He was the one that my dad said was the corrupt police because of him we had to leave Canada. In his manuscript, Jean mentioned Detective Robertson over 70 times. He said everything was his fault. It turned out, Detective Robertson was still alive. Leslie got in touch with them. Over the course of a long phone call, he told her everything he knew about her dad. And he opened a whole new door. It completely blindsided me. According to Detective Robertson, there were a series of Italian bakery bombings in Ontario in the 1970s and 1980s. It was all part of Amphia Turfor. And some of this criminal activity was being run out of her father's furniture store. So the police initially went in. They started surveilling his furniture store. They saw the Mousetana and Lupino crime families going in and out of my dad's furniture store on the regular. And because of that surveillance, they were able to get the joint task force funded by the City Council. Canada's first joint task force. And that is what led them to being able to bust up that crime family's hold on the city. The police investigation into Jean's furniture store ultimately led to his arrest for fraud. This is why the family had to abruptly move out of Canada. Jean wasn't on a work trip after all. As a kid and young adult, Leslie was in the dark about all of this. Who her father was, the fact that he was arrested. Now you have to remember everything that happened happened before the internet. I was in Florida when a lot of this stuff went down. I would have never heard about that. It would have been in the local paper. You wouldn't just go online and look it up. Leslie asked the detective if her dad was in the mafia. This is all he knew. He wasn't in the mafia, but we don't know if he was working with the mafia or he was being extorted. We still don't know. And I asked Ken Robertson. I said, do you know anything about my dad being in a format? He said, well, I don't know anything about it. However, he was ripe for picking. He was the perfect person to be in an format because he had connections. He knew jewelry. Leslie really wanted to talk to someone who was close to her dad. So she reached out to one of his old friends who were going to call Leonard. As they sat across from each other at a cafe, Leonard told her what he had learned about her dad's jewelry business over the years. What he said left her astonished. According to Leonard, the jewelry business was always a front for an armed robbery ring. After Jean made an expensive jewelry sale, he would target the wealthy client for robbery. He then had his employees dress as police officers and knock on their front door. They'd say there's been a robbery in the neighborhood. Can we come in and talk to you? But once they were inside, they dropped the act. And then they would tie these people up in their chairs and force them to open the safe. Then almost offhandedly, Leonard said something that knocked the wind out of Leslie. He says to me, "You know, I don't know if you know this, but you dad told me that brad." That wasn't an accident. I'm like, huh? He said, yeah, that was a hit. That was a revenge killing because of your dad. I just felt like all the breath had been stolen out of my body. When Leonard left, the weight of his words hit her. And I just lost it. I couldn't even get myself together. My dad was at the hero. My dad was a worse villain than I ever imagined. Jean involved his son in his crimes. And that may have been what killed him. This is the most shocking and devastating thing of all. But we can't confirm if Brad's death was a hit or an accident. I'd like to think it's not true. But there's no real way of knowing my brother's gone. He's been gone for a long time. It doesn't change anything. Leslie learned so many shocking things through her investigation. After talking with everyone, she returned to her family one more time. My mom always said that she knew nothing about my father's dealings. She never saw anything suspicious. But if everything Leslie heard was true, then her mom had to know about it. She kept the books for her dad's businesses and spent every day with him for years. Bit by bit, I could pull on threads. For example, I said, are you sure dad never mentioned the CIA or the FBI? You know what? Yeah, actually, he did mention that back. Yeah, but I never paid any attention to that. My mom, I came to understand, was in survival mode. My mom buried everything she didn't want to see. And so she turned a blind eye to everything. Finally, Leslie went back to the one person who had never cracked. Who had never shared anything about what happened or what she felt or what it all meant. Her sister, Margot. I asked Margot again, even though she shut me out. I took another run at her. I said, this is what I found out. This is what I found out from everybody I interviewed. Do you know anything about this? And she said, it's true. Yeah, it's all true. I'm like, you knew all along. It was a lonely realization. Her family knew Gene was involved in criminal activity and didn't tell Leslie. Even when she was a kid, asking them for answers. Her dad may have been the one to put her directly in harm's way, but the rest of her family had failed to protect her too. When every family member keeps the secret, they may not have committed the crime, but they're all in on the betrayal. All of them. They all own it. Even after their admissions, Leslie's family didn't have the concrete answers she wanted. Was her dad an informant? How involved was he in the mafia? Those truths died when her father did. But one thing is clear. He put her in harm's way. He involved her in his crimes. When she trusted him the most, he sent her off into situations that risked her life. And that is the biggest betrayal. Parents are supposed to protect their children. The world is not a safe place. The world is a very dangerous place, but when it's inside your own home and it's the person that you're supposed to trust the most, that they're the most dangerous person in your life, that's damaging. After she exhausted all the leads in her investigation, she realized there was more to this search than finding concrete answers. There was an emotional truth. One, she'd have to answer for herself. In investigating my dad, I was realizing that I was investigating myself, my identity in relationship to my dad. This is my story, this is my life, this is my childhood, this is my family. A few years ago, Leslie decided to write a memoir about her childhood, her father, and his crimes. It was published in May of this year. It's called The Liars Playbook. Writing my book is the first time in my life that I stopped and I looked back and I did not see a monster. I saw a man simple, brilliant, dangerous, flawed. Leslie returned to her dad's manuscript now with clear eyes and what she saw this time was someone she recognized. Just so many things that we shared and that made me feel less lonely. He's a risk taker, I'm a risk taker. He's a visionary, I'm a visionary. He has big ideas, I have big ideas. My dad's best qualities are my best qualities. His worst qualities are my worst qualities, but I have that awareness and now I can break those patterns and that's the biggest gift of all. Leslie spent her adult life building stability and safety. Today, she lives on the shores of a lake in Ontario. She has close relationships with her daughters. In a way, her life is a reaction to the chaos her father created in her childhood. She doesn't take it for granted. I live in a beautiful little brown writer's cabin and I spend my days writing. I'm writing a work of fiction. I'm writing a holiday suspense novel based on the exact same themes about family dysfunction, about trust, about fraud. And this next part of my life is going to be about being an author, about being a full-time writer. We end every weekly episode with the same question. Why do you want to share your story? The truth is highly destabilizing, but once you blow everything up, you can take those fragments and build something durable, you can build something honest, something true, and that is freeing. Where we're born, who we're born to, that's all a lottery. We have no control over that. We have no control over the DNA we get, but we get to choose what genes to express. Our family might shape us, but we get to define ourselves. - On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly, - I just remember feeling gutted, completely gutted. This was my darkest year. A member of my family had been taken. - I am living in a twilight zone. I just want the truth to come out. Everything else can stop. - If you'd like to share your story on Betrayal, please email [email protected]. That is [email protected]. Please note that we are not a mental health organization. If you are in crisis or currently experiencing domestic violence, we encourage you to seek local help or dial 911. Please contact organizations that offer immediate support. In our show notes, we've included a list of US-based resources. You can follow us on Instagram at betrayalpod or find me at its Andreia Gunning. To access our newsletter and additional content and to connect with the Betrayal community, join our substack at betrayal.substack.com. We're grateful for your support. One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. Big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group and partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fiesen, hosted and produced by me, Andreia Gunning, written and produced by Olivia Hewitt. Our story editor is Monique LeBord, also produced by Ben Federman. Our associate producer is Leah Jablot, production management by Kristen Melcuri, booking support by Curry Richman. Our iHeart team is Ali Perry, and Jessica Crinecheck, audio editing by Tanner Robbins with additional editing and mixing by Matt Ovechio. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines, music library provided by my music. And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering the ride on his motorcycle. I choose option B. I'm Julie Pignero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. Listen to Solita on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Munga Shatee-Gatherer and I'm back with a video. the new season of my podcast Skyline Drive. This time I talk to scientists, biopunks, curmudgians, blues owners, super seniors, and go as top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. - That doesn't work. They say it works, I don't know. - Listen to Skyline Drive, how to live forever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Daniel Fischel. - And I'm Vouch Murkowski. - And we have a new podcast called Stepping on Toes with Danielle and Val. - Every week we're breaking down Dancing with the Stars the next pro to find out who I'll be sharing the born with next season. Listen to Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. - This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.