Ramon | Featured on ABC's Betrayal: Secrets and Lies

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hi, this is Kylie breakman, Angel Jaretana. Jeremy Cole, Hank Cash McDonald. And we're the hosts of the artist on artist on artist on artist podcast. The improvised character comedy podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of Eurovision participants. And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? Hi, he, he winks on Halloween. It's right up next to the microphone. You get, I hear you get the elbows here. The eyelashes hit each other. You never seen it least so quiet. As when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists every Thursday on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're seeking to try to understand the forensic science behind these cases that we hear about in the news, body bags is where you need to turn. There's no fluff. We do a deep dive into the forensics. Listen to body bags with Joseph Scott Morian on America's number one podcast network iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search body bags with Joseph Scott Morian and start listening. Hey, what's up? I'm Tony Gonzalez. And I'm October Gonzalez. But you can call me Toby. We want you to join us on our new podcast. No safe words with October and Tony Gonzalez. We get real about marriage, parenthood, sex, divorce, and all the nitty gritty stuff we all think about, but just don't say out loud. You're probably just going to be some rich guy and he's going to whisk you away. Listen to no safe words with October and Tony Gonzalez on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. It's the US Open, which means the tennis world is about to lose its mind. And I'm here for every second of it. Join me, Renee Stubbs on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, as I break it all down. The matches that matter, the drama that doesn't, and the stories everyone's talking about. No cliches, no sugarcoating, just host analysts, from someone who's actually been there. Coco, looking real good, her serve looks so much smoother than it has in the past. I was really happy to see you go back to what she looked like a couple of years ago when she was winning dominantly. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, it's Andrea. And we are re-releasing some of our past weekly episodes, and there's a good reason why. For the last year, I have been working with ABC on turning some of your favorite episodes of Betrayal Weekly into a TV show. The show was called Betrayal Secrets and Lies, and it airs every Sunday at 10 p.m. on ABC. When Ramon shared his story on Betrayal Weekly, it felt different, not just because of what he went through, but because of who was telling it. At the time, we weren't hearing many men speak openly about Betrayal, and for a lot of men, there's this unspoken pressure to stay quiet, to move on, to not name the hurt. Ramon chose to do the opposite. He chose to speak up, to be honest, to be vulnerable about something deeply personal, and that choice had a ripple effect. After his episode aired, more men wrote in, more stories came forward. Because for the first time, they saw themselves in someone else's experience. Ramon helped create that space. And what makes his story even more powerful is what he had built, a life rooted in purpose, mentoring young boxers, creating community, finding love, until someone from his past walked back in, and everything unraveled. What happened to Ramon is heartbreaking, but the impact of him speaking out, it's bigger than just one story. So please check out Betrayal's secrets and lies on ABC and Hulu to see Ramon and where his story takes place. Enjoy the episode. They take me in a blacked-out SUV to this location where they had already dug out this shallow grave. When I get there, they tell me, okay, I need you to strip down to your underwear. They show me how to pose in my hands. I'll be on my back, and I looked like I was a little bit swollen. They put more blood on me, and they went through dirt on me, which I thought it was so degrading, and closed my eyes. The only thing that I could remember was the sound of a 35-millimeter as it went around me just clicking, taking pictures of me. I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most, and the deceptions that change everything. Ramon's sister's story is one of those stranger-than-fiction kind of tales. It's a Betrayal that threatens everything, including Ramon's life. Ramon grew up in Puerto Rico, the only son in a traditional and tight-knit family. Ramon idolized his father, who was a professional wrestler. Like the kind you see on WWE, and WWE, and I actually see him on TV all the time in Puerto Rico. He was big, muscular, and had this aura about him when he walked into the road. As a kid, Ramon tagged along with his dad to the gym, and it was there where he fell in love with what he calls the real thing, boxing. I started boxing about seven years old in Puerto Rico. That was my life. School boxing home, school boxing home. That was it. It takes a lot of discipline and boxing if you want to do it right, and that's what it taught me. And all of that discipline started to pay off for Ramon. He fought in hundreds of amateur matches as a teenager, and he was winning a lot. A lot of the trainers that worked with me said that I had a lot of natural talent, and people started saying, "You know, be good when you grow up. For my size, I hit very hard." He's careful to point out that even though he was a champion in the ring, he never fought outside of it. He felt like it was his responsibility as an athlete, to maintain a strong sense of right and wrong. I don't fight in the street. Boxing is a skill, and when you get in that ring, it's like a chess match. He dreamed of going pro and taking care of his family. The SOS moved from Puerto Rico to Houston, Texas when Ramon was a teenager. After sweeping the amateur leagues, Ramon went pro. My father actually had to side my contract to turn pro because I was under age. He was a professional boxer for a few years before he eventually settled into a new career, coaching and training young boxers in the U.S. But when it turns into a business and you see like everybody wants to make money from you, everybody wants a piece of the pie, it was tough and it started getting to me. In his early 20s, he fell in love and got married. He and his first wife had three kids. I mean, praise to all the mothers that stay at home with their kids because you know what? That is a tough, tough job. It's a full-time job. Raising three kids together strained their relationship. They moved to Houston to be closer to Ramon's parents. That's where he still lives today. But even with his parents' help, Ramon and his first wife knew that they weren't a match. They needed to separate. It did not work out. Even though we couldn't work it out, we did the best that we could for our kids. And to this day, you know, now we have great kids together. So I respect that she respects me. Ramon missed being a full-time dad. With more free time on his hands, he decided to start a nonprofit, an after-school boxing program for at-risk youth. I know we're picking them up after school, taking them to the gym. They would get a snack, homework help, and then box, and then we also talked about life situations. He loved being involved with the community and helping kids who needed a positive influence in their lives. That's how he met a close friend. His name is Mondo. That's his real name. That's the name that he would buy. As a teenager, Mondo had been involved with a gang and went to prison. Now that he was out, he was turning his life around, looking for a purpose. And he always loved boxing. He saw a sign about the after-school program, and he asked for a loan if he could volunteer. And he said, "Ah, can I start today?" I said, "Start today." He said, "Right off the bat." He said, "Yeah, I want to start today." So he went to his truck. Got some workout clothes, and he went running with my kids. Mondo kept coming back day after day, and Ramon liked how he related to the kids. He was honest with them about the bad choices he'd made. He had all these tattoos with his gang name on his back. He'd never hardly ever took off his shirt, because he didn't want people to see that kind of stuff and the kids to see that kind of stuff. That's what I liked about him, that he meant to or so many kids in the gym, to not go through the same thing that he went through. Ramon and Mondo became close friends. They ran the after-school program together, and Mondo even started working alongside Ramon at his day job, training professional boxers. He became kind of like my right-hand man, and I would tell people when he went to the boxing tournament, saying, "He shows with me." There, this is my other sign. I mean, that's my third sign. He we can't really really close to me. He called me pops, as I was like a father figure to him. Ramon and Mondo worked side-by-side, training professionals, and then running the after-school program. It went on like this for years. That was until Mondo got married and had a kid of his own, and Ramon moved to the other side of the city. Eventually, the two slowly fell out of touch. Ramon was now seven years out from his divorce and he wanted to find someone to share his life with. That's when a friend told him about a new dance club in Houston. He goes, you know, he could play that salsa verangue, you know, that kind of stuff that you like. I want to go check it out. I hear there's a lot of beautiful ladies there too. It was a Saturday night and a weekend where Ramon didn't have his kids. So he decided to go check it out. I mean, it was packed. He was going on, you know, and music was kind of music of that I liked and the dance floor was packed. There she was. He was mesmerized by this one woman on the dance floor. So I kept looking at this lady on the dance floor, she danced very, very well and I might think you're like, well, she looks Colombian or from the Caribbean, the way she's dancing. She was wearing a tight, meaning black dress, it looked like it was painted on her. Beautiful, all this key is she had all black hair. Next thing I know, I see her walking towards me and I said, okay, I'm trying to be cool about it. And she steps on my toe. She had high heels on and there was three inch heels and I'm like, oh, like, didn't I just go down? I had a beer. I just went down. I mean, Spanish, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, but you okay? And then we'd say, all I could do was just look up, stand my hand and say, which is dance with me. And she said, of course, that dance with you and that's when it all started. Her name was Lulu. Her real name is Maria, she went by Lulu. They had an instant connection after that night on the dance floor, Ramon and Lulu started going on dates. And she admitted she hadn't stepped on Ramon's toe by accident. She said, yeah, I did that on purpose. I wanted to get to know you. And that's exactly what they did. We had a lot of comments, but she told me that she was of the worst mother or two, had recently moved to Texas or Mexico City for a better life for herself and her kids. After a few dates, Ramon explained to Lulu that his career as a boxing coach was very demanding. It meant working late nights and traveling to tournaments on the weekends. He knew it was the kind of schedule that could make dating difficult if not impossible. But it didn't scare Lulu off. She was supportive of his career and she wanted to help him succeed. She started going to those tournaments with me, sit there the whole time, supporting me, helping me with the kids. And I liked that about her. Just like Ramon, Lulu was a hard worker. The way she was making ends meet to try to take care of her family was working on the ground. She would clean houses. Lulu was determined to become a U.S. citizen. In addition to cleaning houses and raising her kids, she went to night school to improve her English. And I would help her to talk into her English when I could. She would just talk to her mother in English because I wanted to learn English. Ramon was impressed. They both had young kids from their previous marriages. After about six months of dating, they started getting to know each other's families. There was family gatherings on her side. In my side, Lulu was always there helping out, cleaning, helping, you know, with the food. She was always very helpful with everybody. And my mother and family, they liked her and they saw how she treated me. And they saw that I have been in love for seven years now. And they kind of saw something in her that she might be the one. Seeing his mother's approval sealed the deal for Ramon. One night in 2009, after a year and a half together, I wouldn't want me and I'd propose to her. First she said yes before us and then she started crying and crying and they said, "What's going on? Are you okay?" And all she kept saying was that after all she went through with her ex-husband, she thought it would ever happen again. She saw it in me that I was a good man and she's going to believe that I asked Mary her. During their engagement, Lulu doted on him, "Oh my goodness. There was times where I would have a drink and I wasn't even halfway done and she would go give me another one. Guys were like, "Man, how do you find a woman like that man?" She's beautiful and she treats you like a king, you know, kind of like make you stick your chest out a little bit too. Like, wow, that's my lady. You know, that kind of stuff." The couple had a quick engagement. It was a second marriage for both of them, so they opted for a simple courthouse ceremony with a backyard reception. "It wasn't my sister she had something in her face, she wanted to give me that as a present sheets, that a big celebration for my marriage, a lot of family and friends were there, her family and mother and her sister and brother and mother were all there." In the middle of the reception, surrounded by family, music and food, something strange happened that Ramon will never forget. Lulu's mother approached him and she had a stern look on her face. Her mother walks up to me and then she just whispers in my ear, "Now she's your trouble." And walks away. I mean, wow, that's the first red flag was at their red or our wedding night. 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. 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 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 stories about what it takes to make it out alive, listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's the Jonas Brothers with the Hey Jonas Podcasts. We've been catching up with some great friends, Paul Rod, Michael Bubley, Seth Meyers, Nile Horan, Jake Shane, and making some new friends while getting into what's really like to have sisters, like Alex and Ashton Earl. She likes to control everyone and tell everyone to- Okay, well, control is a harsh word. I would say that's a harsh word. I am more outspoken, growing up a lot of the times because she was so- quiet. I would speak for like the both of us. Now I'm working on like thinking a mom is really needed and I could take you before I speak. And Joey King. You know if your like mom is yelling at your sibling and even if you're annoyed with your sibling, you just like won't let that slide. It's like, you only can yell at your sibling. I'm like, you can't do that here. That is not what I want about her like, I just want to talk about her like that. Plus, we've been taking your calls, listening to your voicemails and giving advice or at least trying to. But if you've got catching up to do, now's the perfect time. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeartReadyWap Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your for you 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, I'm obsessed, I'm obsessed. From bestselling 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 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 iHeartReadyWap Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. Hi, this is Highly Breakman, Angel Jaretana, Jeremy Colhane, Patrick McDonald, and we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artist Podcasts. The Improvised Character Comedy Podcasts were each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of wellness influencers. What I try to do is foe journal, I don't know, I think I sort of foe journaling. Yeah, it's reading, it's called reading, so you're, so we don't like to use that word anymore. Okay. A panel of New Yorker cartoonists. Have you guys done Terry Gross' Peloton class? No! I've been dying too. I'm so sorry, I'm seeing a reading of Sadako in the Thousand Paper Cranes by Audrement Donalds at the Wonderland Bookstore, 14th. That's crazy, I went to the Wonderland Bookstore yesterday and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of Zero Doctor 30. No way! You have to come to the last bookstore though, Kim Catrol is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday. A panel of Eurovision participants. He, he winks on Halloween. He gets right up next to the microphone. I hear, you'll get the ovals here, the eyelashes hit each other. app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2009, Ramon Sozo was newly married to his second wife, Lulu. She was hardworking, supportive of his career, and she went above and beyond to make him happy. Instead of a honeymoon, Lulu wanted to take a more practical approach. She wanted to invest in becoming a citizen. That's what she wanted. I was okay, well, that's what you wanted, I always had before her because she was just tired of cleaning the houses, and she wanted to get a regular job and be here legally. It was a mountain of paperwork. First big hurdle, the couple faced together. And it's that cheap, and we did it. We went over there to the immigration attorney, and I signed all the papers, seemed like it was about 300 pages, yes, a lot of responsibility that you take when you sponsor a person to be in this country legally. With Lulu's immigration paperwork underway, they started their new life together. The first years of our marriage, what you call the honeymoon years, were wonderful. I was still very involved with boxing, I had my nonprofit. She supported that also. She cared a lot about me, she cared that I was a father figure to her son and her daughter. Early on in their marriage, Ramon told Lulu about his career dreams. He wanted to open his own boxing gym in Houston, a place where he could coach and train the city's best boxers. But he knew this dream was a few years away, he didn't have the money for all the upfront costs. I told her how much it was going to cost, and she goes, "I can get that for you." And I said, "What are you talking about?" Lulu was determined to help Ramon's dream come true. She was barring money for family and also she maxed out all these credit cards that she had, and that's how we were able to open up our first gym and buy all the equipment. The plan was dubious, but it worked, and he was grateful for it. The gym quickly became a full-time job for both Ramon and Lulu. He did a head coaching and training, and she handled the business side of things. She told me that back in Mexico City, she used to work for Ford, and she was an executive secretary, and she knew how to keep the books. And she was good at it. So I was very happy that I had somebody that didn't because I mean, I'm not good at that part. I'm good at training people. I'm good at teaching them how to fight a box. She was. His gym became de-place for elite boxers to sharpen their skills, and it was growing quickly. The business took off. It took off and it took off quick. My day started at 4 in the morning, and I was till 9 in the evening, where he decided it was 2 in the morning. I mean, that was literally exhausted every day, but that's surprisingly paid when you're in a business. Within a year, he had already paid Lulu back, and they were starting to make real money. I just kept saying to myself, like, wow, this is what I wanted. I mean, I didn't become a world champion. I didn't go to the Olympics, but I was still doing something with boxing, and at the same time, I'm making money. And we were financially doing very, very well. We were to the point where we ended up buying a big house, cars, vacations, so everything was good. And to me, life was good. One day, Ramon got an unexpected visitor at the gym. His old friend, Mundo. And I was like, "Mundo, it was like we picked up right where we had let off." Mundo asked to come work with Ramon again, but Lulu wasn't so sure about him. She didn't like his look or his criminal background. She told me, "I don't know about having somebody like that around our business." She saw the tattoos. I had to be honest with her that told his background, "Everything that happened to him, if you had been released from prison back in the day, being shot at, gang member, but he cleaned his life. He wanted to live a different life." But then, when Mundo started coming around helping me and helping with the gym and helping the weekends, so we could have days off, when she saw the benefits in him, then she said, "Okay, well, we're making use of." So Mundo started working nights and weekends at the gym. It was a relief. The so-so's really needed the help. They were beginning to struggle at home with the pressure of parenting and managing their business. So at home, racing the family was getting difficult. And Lulu would take the issues that she had with her kids, not on me. So yeah, the family, the dynamic, we were seeing cracks. For the first three years of marriage, Ramon started noticing that Lulu was changing too. She was becoming more demanding. She did want my kids to come around, she did want my family, even my family started coming to my house because they saw how she changed, how she was in the same person, they're very nice lady that they had met when her first met her. Lulu was getting controlling about how Ramon spent money, while she was spending more than ever. She would go shopping and come back from the ball with all these bags, I said, "What are you doing?" Mone's concern was amplified when he discovered. I started noticing that the books were not adding up to the number of people members we had in the gym. And every time I would bring up that situation, I said, "Hey, what's going on here? This is not adding up to the bottom line." And she would always say, "I don't worry about it." And I was upset. So he hired someone else to take over the books. One night, Ramon came home from the gym to find that Lulu was hosting a party at the house. A party he hadn't heard about. There were balloons and a cake. Lulu's entire family was there. And I can tell that she had been drinking because she was just learning a little bit, and she had a bottle wide in one hand and a cup and the other, and she said, "Say hello to your new American wife." And I was like, "What are you talking about?" Lulu had applied for citizenship, and she was approved. Earlier that day, she'd gone to her naturalization ceremony and officially became a U.S. citizen, but she hadn't mentioned it to Ramon, her husband, and the sponsor of her visa. And I said, "Wait a second. You're here legally in this country because of me. Your kids are here legally because of me. And you don't have the respect to asking me, like, "Do you want to go to the celebration?" They got to the poor and were, "I asked her, point blank, did you marry me just to be here legally with your family, the money, the American lifestyle?" And she came back with, "Look at me, I'm beautiful. Look at my body. I can get anybody I want and men to have a lot more money than you, but no, I chose you. I want to be with you and I love you." He wanted to believe her, but he was still disturbed by her choices, not to mention her controlling behavior, not wanting his kids around, her spending, the discrepancies in the books, and now she hadn't even invited him to her citizenship ceremony. And I said, "No, this is that cool, I like the way his marriage is going." Ramon pulled away emotionally and physically. He knew something was wrong, but he was too busy with his gym to take immediate action and file for divorce. In the meantime, the couple started sleeping in separate bedrooms. We were still married, but living in separate lives, basically, in the same house. He didn't expect Lulu to be the one to file for divorce, but one day, she came to him with the papers, and she had a bold request. She wanted to keep the house and the business. I said, "No, I don't think so." I said, "We're going to go half. Everything is going to split down the middle. You're way out, going my way, but all the money and time I have invested in this marriage and everything that we have, no." He said, "No, this is my house." So I told her, "We can work it out or we can go to court, and that's what I got my attorney and we'll fight it out." He had been through a divorce before, and although the first one was difficult, it had been fair and respectful. But this divorce was about to take a devastating turn. I remember I was driving, and Mundo calls me. Mundo explained that the night before, he'd been closing the gym when he overheard Lulu talking about hiring a hitman. And you know, Mundo was being funny when we were joking around before all the time. I said, "Mundo, you know, quit joking around, man. You know what we want, 'cause this is that cool to be joking like that." He said, "No, no, no, pops. I've seen that look in people's eyes when they want to kill somebody." And she has that look. Mundo approached Lulu to ask about what he overheard. And he walked up to her and I said, "You guys need to be careful what you say, because you never know who's listening." And he said, "Are you guys talking about remote?" And said, "Yeah." Mundo said, "You want him gone or you want him to disappear?" And Mundo did the pistol side with his hand. And he said, "You want him gone like this?" And she said, "Yeah, I'm tired of him, I wish he was going to disappear." Yeah, like that. [BLANK_AUDIO] I've been gone out of my life in Wungoera to tell you what, you know. I've got some people that can do the job for you. 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 live through the unthinkable. We've been catching up with some great friends Paul Rod, Michael Bubley, Seth Meyers, Nile Horan, Jake Shane, and making some new friends while getting into what's really like to have sisters, like Alex and Ashton Earl. She likes to control everyone and tell everyone to do it. Okay, well control is a harsh word, I would say that's a harsh word. I am more outspoken, growing up a lot of the times because she was so quiet. Now I'm working on thinking a mom is really mad at me, not thinking before I speak. And Joey King. You know if your mom is yelling at your sibling and even if you're annoyed with your sibling, you just won't let that slide. It's only you can yell at your sibling. That is not what I want to talk about her like that. I just want to talk about her like that. Plus, we've been taking your calls, listening to your voice mails and giving advice or at least trying to. So if you've got catching up to do now is the perfect time. Listen to Hey Jonas on the I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're bookshelf and you're for you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is pros 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 going to have to look up this story, I'm obsessed, so obsessed. So like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters and that is of 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. Send to pros society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is highly breakman, Angela Jaretana, Jeremy Colhane, passion McDonald and we're the hosts of the artists on artists on artists on artists podcast. The improvised character comedy podcast were each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. What I try to do is foe journal, I don't know if you guys are to foe journaling. Yeah, it's reading. It's called reading. So you're so we don't like to use that word anymore. Okay. No. I've been dying too. I'm so sorry. I'm seeing a reading of Sadako in the thousand paper cranes by Auderman Donald at the Wonderland bookstore. That's crazy. I went to the Wonderland bookstore yesterday and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of Zero Dark Thirty. No way. After the last bookstore though, Kim Catrol is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday. He winks on Halloween. I hear you get the elbows here. The eyelashes hate each other. You never seen Italy so quiet as when the pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists on the I heard radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Munjo told Lulu he could help. That he knew someone who could do the hit. Instead of calling up a connection, he went straight to his good friend Ramon. I was upset. I was so upset. I mean, I had to put over. I had so much rage. I didn't know what to do. That was like, man, what I do. So I called the police. He said, no, he used to do. I talked to her and I'm going to start meeting with her. And I'm going to record every day at all a phone and see how far she's willing to go. And then I want to want to do is take all these recordings to the police and see what they want to do. Ramon was skeptical that this plan would work. And taking Munjo at his word meant Lulu was dangerous. So right after that phone call, he decided to go to the police. And I told him the situation, what happened. And he responded with, you know what? You guys are going through a divorce. Women and men sometimes say things when they're upset, even that they want to kill their wives or their husbands. But it's just saying it out of anger. There's really not a lot of evidence to do anything with that. He wasn't sure if Munjo's plan to use secret recordings would be admissible or even legal. It sounded kind of like entrapment. So he asked the detectives about it. I told him what was black when we were doing it and he said, "You guys keep getting more evidence?" And I said, "Okay, apparently that is legal. So that's what we did." So they moved forward with the plan. Munjo would meet with Lulu in private places like cars to see if she was actually serious about hiring a hitman. And all the while, he was secretly recording on his phone. For this to work, she'd have to believe that Munjo was in 100 percent. But why would she trust Munjo? One of Ramon's best friends. Ramon has a simple answer. Lulu so desperate and everything that's going on, the worst that going her way, her life is slowly crumbling. The most difficult part of their plan was that Ramon would have to play dumb and spend a few more days sleeping under the same roof as Lulu. Pretending that he didn't know what she was planning. Ramon remembers turning into his driveway that day, something he'd done a thousand times before, and he always felt comfort and relief when he got home. But now it was all so eerie. His house would be crime scene, and him an unsuspecting murder victim. Even though we're sleeping in separate rooms, I had to go home and see this lady and look at this lady, knowing that she wanted to have me kill. He barely said a word to her. That night, he locked his bedroom door. He tried to sleep, but he was wide awake with thoughts racing. People say things they don't mean during a divorce all the time. Could she just be fuming, or could she actually go through with it? The next day, Ramon got his answer. It turns out, Lulu was in a hurry. She wanted to take Mundo up on his offer right away. Lulu wanted me dead before our divorce was finalized because she said to Mundo, "Look, if he dies after our divorce is finalized, my kids get everything." But if he dies before the divorce is finalized, she gets everything. And our divorce was going to be finalized in about a month, so she wanted me dead as soon as possible. Ramon had spent seven years with Lulu. From most of that time, he genuinely adored her. He wanted to give her that second chance at a loving partnership. And he dreamed of seeing her succeed alongside of him. Instead, she was throwing it all away. And Ramon heard everything, captured on tape. I could believe what I was hearing from Lulu. She's telling Mundo how she's practicing how she's going to cry when the police calls her after they kill me. And she's literally making crying sounds, and she starts laughing after that. In one of the first recorded conversations, Lulu dropped a bombshell. Lulu was planning to have me kill two years prior to our divorce. I was like, "What?" And Mundo said, "Yeah, I have it on one of the recordings, and I'm listening to it." And I said, "I can't believe what I'm listening to." Two years earlier, they'd taken a family vacation to Mexico City. Ramon thought their relationship was in a good place. She was so happy to show me Mexico City and go to the Pyramas, she had a whole itinerary for everything we were supposed to do in Mexico City. She told Mundo that she was planning to kill Ramón on that trip. Lulu wanted his savings, his business, and his life insurance. She was conspiring to commit the crime with a friend back in Mexico. And the plan was yeah bring them over here we'll disappear people disappear here all this time. What we can do is have you guys help for ransom and they're going to Chigo and then we're going to disappear him and then Mundo asked Lulu and so how come you didn't go through within. And Lulu said well I didn't have the heart to do within on how I do. This chilled him to the bone. He didn't recognize this woman. He'd never heard his wife speak like this before. The coldness and her voice her laughter. They never crossed my mind that Lulu had this whole bloodied heart. Through our good times and our marriage I never would have ever thought in a million years this person had that kind of mind to do this kind of stuff. He became genuinely terrified for his life. Ramón let the house and stayed with his parents who lived across town. In the meantime Mundo asked Lulu if she wanted him to reach out to one of his guys if she was ready. And she said she was so Mundo called his contacts. He called one of them John Boy and the other one Puckel. If those sound like characters from a crummy action movie it's because they are. Tell me that he saw blood in blood out. And those are those two characters right from that movie. But Lulu bought it. So Mundo texted Paco. There was actually Ramón using a burner phone. Then I said well Mundo I'm not a street guy so he's already teaching me how to talk or text in that ganglingo. To pass as a criminal basically. He's meeting with Lulu and the person I do have text Mundo say hey the boss lead ready to do this we need $200 for the toy. Mundo explained that the hit would cost $12,000 but the guys would need $200 upfront for the gun. She went to our bank. We still had a account together. She went to our account got the $200 out of our sables which is basically my money too and gives Mundo $200. As soon as the money changed hands they had enough to go to the police. The moment was both a relief and a horrible betrayal. And with this evidence the police were finally ready to move on Ramón's case. They took it very seriously. They had to get all these different agencies together and come up with a plan. Safe troopers. They shared with the part with FBI. They got real quick. Mon enforcement wanted to collect evidence of their own. They decided to see if Lulu would make a down payment for the hit and if she would exchange the money with one of these fictitious hitmen in person. The state police brought their own undercover police officer to play as one of the hitman's to start meeting with Lulu in person. I mean this guy if you saw in the street you thought that he was really a gang member. Hitman you know you fit everything to the tee. You had all the tads, you know how to talk. You had a mean look like you would be scared of him. Lulu met him in a car which of course was an undercover police car full of cameras. She said she didn't have the cash to pay him just yet. But she brought my own jewelry as a down payment from her own order. Bracelet's watch is just some stuff that I have left behind at the house and she gave that to him as a down payment and then she also had the nerve to tell him. Look and he also wears this really nice watch and if he has it on you can keep that too because it's worth something in there and after he dies I'll give you the rest of the money and he said okay we'll take care of business now. That night the police asked Ramon to come to the station right away and I said what about Mungo? He's not coming. He said no we just need to talk to you. When I arrive at the station go to a special room that we always met and when I get in I started noticing like wait a second there's a lot more people in this room than before. The FBI guy was there at the state police detective at DA or assistant DA was there so it was a packed room and they started telling me say okay Ramona we feel that we have enough evidence to arrest Luna right now but here's the deal you guys want a business here locally she's a mother she's never been in trouble and we need to make this a slammed-on case and I'm afraid that if we go to a jury trial we might have one of the jurors for her and just want to make sure it's a slammed-on case so we have decided to stage your death and show her your picture and then record it. It sounded over the top he'd never heard anything like it and to be honest neither of I. The police told Ramon that they need him for three days so he quickly went home and packed it back. He was advised not to tell anyone where he was going that mundo, not his parents, not his kids. He returned to the police station the next morning and was surprised when the police started doing special effects makeup. To make it look a kid had been shot in the head. The police even had a reference image a photo of a real murder victim whose body had been dumped in the desert. They take me in a blacked-out SUV to this location where they had already dug out this shallow grave and when I get there the detector tells me okay we need to strip down to the underwear. They show me how to pose with my hands bound be on my back and I looked like I was a little bit swollen. They put more blood on me and they've been through dirt on me which I thought it was slowly creating and closed my eyes and the only thing that I could remember the most from that scene was the sound of a 35 millimeter as it went around. We just clicking, taking pictures of me and then the detectives helping Mr. Shosa we're doing here to close on and they took me away to a hotel. He sat in the hotel room for two days not able to contact anyone just waiting for the police to arrest Lulu. I couldn't sleep. All I did was pace back and forth thinking about all the different situation what if he doesn't happen whether she doesn't fall for it. What are my kids going to think when they see this my parents everybody I mean all I mean it's so many things going through my head. Meanwhile back in Houston. The undercover police officer was in the car with Lulu and he shows Lulu the picture of me in the shallow grave. So that scene she does she starts racing up her hands up like doing the racing the roof like she's laughing like yeah I'm about to get paid I hit the lotto and then watch out of the car closes the door. No idea whatsoever the whole time she was talking to another undercover police officer. Lulu was arrested right there for solicitation of first degree capital murder. After the arrest was made the police called Ramon's hotel room to let him know. I literally sat on the edge of that bed and tears started coming out. Tears of anger tears of sadness not because I was still in love with this person but she didn't think about me being a son me being a father you know a friend a brother all those seeing think about I know that you taking me away from my kids my mother my father that hurt me a lot. Ramon says the worst part of this entire betrayal was what happened next he hadn't been able to talk to his family for three days and explain where he was going or what was going on he's the kind of son who calls his mom nearly every day he knew she'd be panicked so as soon as he could he dialed his parents house. My father says the phone and my dad never answers the phone my dad is not a phone person. He says what's wrong with yet and I can hear the crack in his voice. In the back row I hear my mother screaming crying kind of cry you hear funerals with somebody passes. His parents had just heard the news of Lulu's arrest, but they didn't know it was a setup. The only thing they knew was that they hadn't heard from Ramon, and that his wife had just been arrested for soliciting his murder. And I try to drive as fast as possible trying to get to her, and when I get there my dad opens the door and my dad's eyes were bloodshot. I've never seen my dad cry ever. He just hugged me and I was straight to my mother. She was the only catcher. She can't catch her breath, and she's crying. I said, "I'm calm, that's okay." I mean, I'm okay, you know, I tried to explain to her, that I was gonna be okay, but she still couldn't catch her breath. She was basically hyperventilating, you know, because she was so anxious. This is the moment that still haunts Ramon. Seeing his own mom grieve his death, it's something few people ever see, and it's extremely difficult to process. You know, I'm the only son, and they'll forget that it's gonna be the picture that always Bill and I was my dad holding my mouth in. Tell you it's gonna be okay. Even though Lulu was being held on a million dollar bail, Ramon couldn't shake this fear that she'd somehow find him. I didn't know if Lulu had a plan B or C, so I was sleeping with a loaded shotgun next to my bed. Then I had another loaded gun on the counter of my kitchen, which was a 40 millimeter, that I had a 9 millimeter loaded in my vehicle at all times ready to go. In the year following Lulu's arrest, he didn't leave the house unless he had to. Over time, all of that fear turned to anger. That's so much bottled up anger inside of me, my family, my kids, my mother, all of that anger I had bottled up inside of me. Anybody that has gone through something so traumatic like I went through? You can't live with that much anger. I couldn't continue to live the way I was living. With that anger, with loaded guns around me all the time. I was a ticking bomb, but I was afraid of myself. After 15 months in jail, Lulu pleaded down to second degree solicitation of capital murder. Ramon channeled his anger into writing a victim impact statement to deliver at her sentencing hearing. I mean, I was going to let her have it verbally of all the pain and anger that she had cost me and my family. When they let me talk, I was packed, a lot of people were there from the press. I get up, I took a deep breath. I forgave this lady. This was about him. It wasn't about making Lulu feel better or letting her off the hook. It was about making this moment into a ceremony for himself. A ceremony to release all the anger he'd been carrying. And once I did that, it was as if all that anger just was gone, like all that air went out of the blood and I was able to breathe in. You know, life was beginning to be more normal now. Lulu was sentenced to 20 years but ended up serving eight and a half. She was released in November of 2023 and she'll serve another 12 years on parole. She's on the very, very strict rules with the Texas State Parole Board. She misses up. She's going right back in. Ramon decided to move on from the spaces they shared, which meant selling the house and the gym. It was just way too many memories. I just need to move on. As for Mundo, they're still friends today. He doesn't think about Lulu every day, like he used to. It's in part because. I mean, love again. Yes, yes, it's been wonderful to me. It's just Puerto Rican too. I say that because we have a lot in common because of our cultures. Ramon is determined to turn his betrayal into a positive force. He wrote a memoir about his experience. It's called, "I walked on my own grave." And he wants to tell his story on stage as a one-man play. I'm not an actor. I'm not a professional speaker. But when you speak from the heart, it means something. And I think I like to do that till my story on stage. The real deal here with him that happened. Part of his healing process has been understanding that there's a term for what Lulu did to him. The terror he lived with for years afterwards. It's domestic abuse. Even though his story has so many twists and turns, that's what it boils down to. His own spouse tried to have him killed. As you know, we end all of our weekly episodes with the same question. Why did you want to tell your story? My hope is that my story helps men and women that are caught in difficult situations in their marriage. And I go through what I went through, because I was a victim of domestic abuse. And it's hard for people to understand that. What is it? You're a boxer and you're this and you're that. So I advocate for men that are victims of domestic abuse to never give up, get help. I mean, just like women, men should be getting the same type of help. On the next episode of Betrayal, who wants to file a police report against their father? You know, I didn't want to put my dad in jail. I really didn't, like, I didn't want to be the kind of person who did that. If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email us at [email protected]. Also, please be sure to follow us at Glass Podcasts on Instagram for all Betrayal content, news and updates. 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. A big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with I Heart Podcasts. The show was executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Laborde, also produced by Ben Federman. Associate producers are Kristen Melcuri and Caitlin Golden. Our I Heart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crine check, audio editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio and Nico Aruka. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines, music library provided by my music. And for more podcasts from I Heart, visit the I Heart radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is Kylie Breckman, Angela Jaretana, and we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists Podcasts. The Improvized Character Comedy Podcasts were each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. I hear you get the elbows here, the eyelashes hate each other. You never seen it least so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists every Thursday on the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. There's no fluff. Listen to Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan on America's number one podcast network. I Heart, open your free I Heart app and search Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan and start listening. Hey, what's up? I'm Tony Gonzalez and I'm October Gonzalez, but you can call me Toby. If you want you to join us on our new podcast, No Safe Words with October and Tony Gonzalez. We get real about marriage, parenthood, sex, divorce and all the nitty gritty stuff we all think about, but just don't say out loud. You're probably just going to be some rich guy and he's going to whisk you away and wow. Listen to No Safe Words with October and Tony Gonzalez on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Join me, Renee Stubbs on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast as I break it all down. The matches that matter, the drama that doesn't and the stories everyone's talking about. No cliches, no sugarcoating, just host analysts from someone who's actually been there. I was really happy to see you go back to what she looked like a couple years ago when she was winning dominantly. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the I Heart Radio app. hard radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Guaranteed Human.