0:15

Pushkin previously

0:23

on Deep Cover. Stephen

0:25

Kaylish the gentleman's smuggler, the

0:28

guy who orchestrates every single detail

0:30

of operations. He gets

0:33

arrested. Let's start walking away

0:35

knowing something's up, and I get about.

0:38

I don't know a quartermall away, not even

0:40

that, and I'm surrounded by fete.

0:44

Stephen was the right hand man of the

0:46

big Boss, the top guy,

0:48

the guy that Ned Timmins had yet defined.

0:56

Ned's starr. Informant Clinton

0:58

Shine Anderson tells him that the syndicate's

1:00

top boss was a guy named Lee

1:03

Rich. Not an outlaw biker

1:05

or a dive bar musician, but

1:07

more like a member of a fancy beach

1:09

club with a sweet house and

1:12

a big yacht, and for the time

1:14

being, mister beach Club was

1:16

hiding out down in the Cayman Islands. Unbeknownst

1:20

to Ned, Lee was rattled by

1:22

Stephen's recent arrest. He hadn't

1:25

just lost a partner, He'd lost the

1:27

entire smuggling arm of his operation,

1:29

and he wondered what if Stevens started

1:32

talking ratting him out. Lee

1:35

was also worried that the FEDS might be watching

1:37

him or listening to his phone. Calls. What

1:40

he needed was a counter intelligence

1:42

expert, someone who could sweep his

1:44

house for bugs reassure him

1:46

that he was safe. This

1:49

created an opening for Ned. He

1:51

could travel down to the Cayman's with Shine,

1:53

posing as Ed Thomas, the

1:56

badass biker, an ex military

1:58

guy with special knowledge of modern

2:01

spycraft. He would also

2:03

claim to be Shine's cousin. That's

2:05

right, cousin Ed. This

2:08

would be It's big moment, his chance

2:10

to step in as Lee's night and

2:12

shining armor. But

2:16

this plan wouldn't be easy for Ned

2:18

to pull off. You see, at the time,

2:21

the FBI typically didn't work

2:23

internationally, and since the came Ins

2:25

was a British territory Scotland,

2:27

yard had to be looped in. While he

2:29

waits around for the paperwork to clear, Ned

2:32

rushed to get everything in order. He obtained

2:34

a passport for Ed Thomas, he

2:37

got debugging equipment and even took

2:39

a crash course on how to use it. We're

2:41

ready to go. We didn't get

2:43

approval. I've got airline tickets and

2:46

it was the night

2:49

before, about three o'clock

2:51

in the afternoon. The assistant

2:53

Special Agent charge calls me and he says

2:55

they just ocayed the project. This

2:58

is like three o'clock and we're supposed to leave at seven

3:00

or eight the next morning. Great,

3:03

I'm psyched we're gonna go. So

3:06

I go out to check on Shine. He's

3:08

drunk and he had a three

3:10

wheeler ATV He

3:12

had flipped it and broke

3:15

his collar bone, and the

3:17

bone was almost through the skin. You could

3:19

see the pointed edge of the bone protruding

3:22

where it was broken. If

3:26

I tell the bureau he's got a broken shoulder,

3:29

it's off time out. So

3:32

Ned he's got to tell his bosses and

3:34

risk losing the whole operation. Either

3:37

that or come up with a very

3:39

last minute plan. Unbeknownst

3:42

the Bureau, I had a friend that was a dodger out there. I

3:44

said, Doc, I've got to take him in the morning. I can't

3:46

tell I got to travel with him. So

3:48

Doc tapes him

3:51

up the shoulder a broken

3:53

shoulder, and gives

3:55

me tons of Perkadan. So

3:59

just to recap here, Ned

4:01

the FBI agent goes to his doctor

4:04

buddy to get some major pain killers

4:06

for his informant in order to go undercover.

4:08

And we're in country where there was no field

4:10

office and no backup. Just

4:13

Shine the stars

4:15

are never going to align again for

4:18

this to go. The next morning, I

4:20

flew him all with a broken shoulder, just

4:23

taped him up and fucking took him.

4:31

I'm Jake Halberd and this is

4:33

Deep Cover, Episode

4:36

five, A different kind of animal.

5:07

When Ned and Shine got to the kne

5:09

means looking for this mister beach Club

5:11

Lee Rich, he was nowhere to be

5:13

found. Lee was apparently off

5:16

island. Ned

5:18

and Shine started hanging around at a nightclub,

5:20

a place called Look Club that Lee

5:23

Rich owned. The club was right

5:25

on the beach, place where locals, celebrities,

5:27

and tourists all mingled, sitting

5:29

around drinking strong dakeries

5:32

and eating Jamaican jerk chicken. And

5:34

then there was the hostess, the

5:37

one girl always had a parrot on her shoulder. The

5:39

parrot would you say dirty words to

5:41

anybody that pulled up for that parrot

5:44

would look at some guy in

5:46

go small dick, Small dick.

5:50

That spent a few days there getting

5:52

to know the regulars. He wanted to

5:54

learn as much as he could, but he couldn't

5:57

ask any questions because well,

5:59

he didn't want to draw any suspicions. As

6:02

far as he could tell a few of the guys

6:04

seemed to work for Lee, though it's

6:06

unclear what exactly they did for him.

6:09

To Ned, these guys, they seemed a

6:11

bit like out of work lumberjacks

6:13

on skid row, just biding

6:15

their time into the next job offer from

6:17

Lee materialized. Lee

6:20

was handling hundreds and hundreds of

6:22

millions of dollars. People do a lot

6:24

for that money. The trouble is the

6:27

nature of the business draws

6:30

killers. Ned says

6:32

he was pretty much always on guard.

6:35

You know, wherever you were, even if you're at the club,

6:37

sitting at the table, you know, you're watching

6:39

everybody around you. You're watching what's

6:41

going on. And

6:45

then one afternoon he's hanging out at

6:47

the club having drinks when

6:50

some unexpected guests arrive

6:53

and incomes the people from the cruise

6:55

ship. And I look in the line and

6:58

here's an agent that works about two deaths

7:00

over from me. Yeah,

7:02

a guy named Bob from the Detroit FBI

7:04

office on his honeymoon, an

7:07

office made of Ned's who didn't know the

7:09

deal that Ned was here not on holiday,

7:11

but as an undercover agent. And

7:15

his wife is with him, and she's in a little tiny

7:17

bikini and she's a knockout, and these

7:19

guys are all Oakland her and I'm

7:22

just choking. I mean, this isn't going to be good.

7:24

Because there's like six

7:26

or eight Ali's guys sitting around this table. Bob

7:29

and his wife start heading in Ned's direction.

7:33

The wife comes over and puts

7:35

her bag on a picnic table and

7:37

then turns around and bends over to do something

7:39

in the bag, right in front of these guys. And

7:41

I mean, the bikini was barely

7:43

covering anything. In

7:46

that one second, like clockwork, the

7:48

gaze of every guy there shifted to Bob's

7:51

wife bent over her beach bag, except

7:53

for Bob, who finally sees Ned.

7:56

And I just went to my throat and

7:59

had the look of death on my face. And

8:03

he caught on right away. I mean, he

8:05

caught in a split second. And so

8:07

Bob steers his wife away and catastrophe

8:10

is avoided. But

8:17

after this encounter, Ned is really

8:19

on edge. In his FBI reports

8:22

from the time, he notes that Lee's guys

8:24

seem to be on high alert. One

8:26

of them keeps telling Ned that US law

8:28

enforcement is putting intense heat on

8:31

the whole island. Ned isn't

8:33

sure what to make of this. But what he does

8:35

get is that this guy is paranoid,

8:38

which isn't good, right, because that means

8:40

he's looking for plots and conspiracies,

8:43

and here's Ned basically conspiring

8:45

against him. The stress is

8:48

unbelievable, the mental stress.

8:50

You don't sleep, You're worried about your

8:52

daughter getting kicked in any minute. You

8:54

have no weapons down there, You

8:56

have no backup. And

8:59

if all of a sudden, want of Lee's guys get

9:01

jealous or gets drunked up

9:03

or coked up and decides

9:06

to go fuck you up, you

9:09

don't have much to defend yourself.

9:12

There's no backup. You're not gonna really hit

9:14

the radio and call nine one one. You're nine. You're

9:17

not gonna be able to call for help because

9:19

nobody's coming. Ned

9:22

had little to do other than sit around

9:24

and wait for Lee to show up, but

9:27

he never does. So Ned heads

9:29

back to the US and then returns

9:32

to the Caymans ten days later, and

9:35

this time Lee's there. His

9:37

guys tell Ned Lee wants his offices

9:40

at the club swept for bugs. Immediately

9:43

presto Ned was in business,

9:46

So Ned and Shine they do their

9:48

sweep. They don't find any bugs,

9:51

and then Finally Ned gets his

9:53

chance to meet Lee face to face. Lee

9:57

looks like well, a guy who owns

9:59

a beach club, tans, smiling,

10:02

with a mass of brown, curly hair. Think

10:05

David Hasselhoff on Baywatch, only

10:08

not quite as Ned

10:10

and Lee. They get on well. They grabbed dinner

10:13

that night at a local Spanish restaurant, and

10:15

the next day Ned sweeps Lee's house

10:17

for bugs. It's also clean. Things

10:20

are going well. It seems like Lee's slowly

10:22

letting Ned in and Ned he

10:24

seems to almost admire Lee. That's

10:27

what it sounds like in his novel anyway. He

10:30

was a handsome man, his features

10:32

strong and well formed. Ned

10:35

knew from shine that women loved him,

10:37

and it wasn't hard to imagine there

10:40

was quality in Lee. He was a wholly

10:42

different kind of animal. When

10:48

we come back after the break, Ned

10:50

gets his big chance to really know his

10:53

man of mystery, and so do I.

10:55

When I pay a visit to Lee rich myself

10:58

and we go window shopping for smuggling

11:00

boats. I

11:16

track Lee reached down a few months

11:18

ago in a small coastal town in

11:20

Florida. He didn't want to meet at

11:22

his house, so we took a drive. Lee

11:25

wanted to give me a tour of the area. We

11:27

passed a bunch of boat marinas. You

11:29

see that boat right here, the

11:32

big blue Hall Hunner with the

11:34

two masts over here on the right, straight

11:37

straight down the dot. That's an old

11:39

golf Star forty four. That's the first

11:41

boat I ever went on, just identical

11:43

to that. Lee tells me that he grew

11:46

up in Tampa around boats. Both

11:48

his father and his grandfather were sea captains.

11:51

He himself built boats as a teenager, knew

11:53

them inside out, and that's why when

11:55

he was around eighteen, he was offered

11:57

a job as a smuggler on a golf Star

12:00

forty four, just like the one that he's

12:02

currently pointing out to me. They had a big

12:04

Perkins engine in him

12:06

that you could motor sail, you know, you just run

12:08

a real low rpm and you'd still get

12:10

a couple of extra knots out of it.

12:13

Was it a good smuggling boat. Yeah, Look at

12:15

that thing. It's like a tank that hold twelve

12:17

thousand pounds twelve

12:20

thousand pounds of marijuana. So

12:22

yeah, that's a serious smuggling job.

12:25

But Lie says he didn't initially get into the

12:27

marijuana business to get rich. He

12:30

started off as a teenager selling

12:32

dimebags here and there, just making

12:34

enough cash to support his life as a surfer.

12:37

Like I said, my dream was to go surfing every

12:39

day, make ten grand, selling some bags

12:41

of pot, and get out of it and that was

12:43

it. But it didn't pan out that

12:46

way. By

12:49

the time that he was in his early twenties, he

12:51

had his own smuggling boat and he began

12:53

making runs down to Columbia. So

12:56

it was an opportunity to make easy money.

12:58

Who wouldn't have done it just about in those

13:00

days. Eventually he connects

13:02

with a legendary supplier down in Barankia,

13:05

Columbia named Julio Caesar

13:07

Nasser David, who went by the nickname

13:10

the Old Man. He was

13:12

to marijuana what James Dole

13:14

was to pineapples. The big

13:17

grower. Lee and the Old

13:19

Man they got close. Lee

13:23

was a great smuggler. He was very successful.

13:26

He hung out with celebrities and rock stars,

13:28

but his real talent was finance, specifically

13:32

moving cash. We're talking about

13:34

huge loads of crinkled fives

13:36

and tens. All those buys

13:39

from stoners across the country. They

13:41

added up. Lee would often personally

13:43

move the money from the organization's safe

13:45

house in Tampa down to the

13:48

Canans, and here he relied,

13:50

at least in part, on a pilot

13:52

named Shelley Levitts. Shelley

13:55

was not a smuggler, She was just someone

13:57

who fell in love with flying as a girl.

14:00

Oh it was magical. I

14:02

remember rolling down the runway

14:04

and that the feel of lifting off like

14:06

it was yesterday. She gets her

14:08

license when she turns eighteen and starts

14:10

flying for an aircraft charter operation

14:13

out of Tampa. One day she

14:15

gets a referral for a new client, Lee

14:18

Rich. I just thought he was a

14:20

successful businessman, or just a

14:22

successful guy and a successful family.

14:25

He was very dynamic, very

14:27

easy going, laid back, handsome

14:30

guy, real friendly.

14:35

She started flying him all over the place,

14:38

Louisiana, North Carolina,

14:40

Michigan, Georgia, Texas.

14:43

It was a little while before I

14:46

had any suspicions that there might be something

14:48

beyond just a businessman.

14:51

Her suspicions about who Lee really

14:54

was came to a head one night when an airport

14:56

employee tipped her off that the

14:58

FEDS had put a transponder in her

15:00

plane. They were watching her, and

15:03

I remember saying, oh, well, thank you for

15:05

the information. I appreciate that Shelley

15:10

did have a hunch about why the FEDS

15:13

might be tracking her plane. Shelley flew

15:15

Lee Rich to the Caymans regularly. He

15:17

would bring these heavy briefcases.

15:20

So I kind of put two and two together

15:23

to figure that, well, there might be money in there, because

15:26

Shelley knew the Caymans were famous

15:28

for one thing in particular, banking,

15:31

lots of banks. Small island, a

15:33

few houses, and a lot of banks downtown, a

15:36

small island with a small airport,

15:38

just a few buildings. Lee would get

15:40

off the airplane or grab a bag or

15:42

two and literally just kind

15:44

of walk right into customs and

15:47

right through it to the other side. And

15:49

Shelley says that they could do that in part because

15:52

Lee Rich was so well connected in the Caymans.

15:54

He knew everyone on the island, including

15:56

the customs officers. Plus

15:58

he and his associates looked so clean

16:01

cut and well put together. I

16:03

would have considered them very polished

16:06

executives. They just happened to ultimately

16:08

be involved in smuggling. This

16:10

is how Lee moved his money, posing

16:12

as a perfectly respectable businessman with

16:15

his briefcases and a few

16:17

coolers. I mean literally,

16:19

you go into the airport. You had one of those big hundred

16:21

court coolers as stuffed with hundreds

16:24

or fifties or twenties. We'd always

16:26

pack some steaks or something on top

16:28

of it or something. They opened a thing

16:30

or something. You give him a couple of steaks or whatever

16:33

and smile and walk on through.

16:37

From the airport. Lee would take his coolers

16:39

of cash directly to the Bank of Nova

16:41

Scotia. He was tight with one of the

16:43

bankers there who would arrange for the cash

16:46

to be counted. The bank would take a one

16:48

or two percent cut, and then Lee's

16:50

money was clean. For

17:00

a long time. This system worked very

17:02

well for mister Beach Club. He

17:05

was the man down in the can ins. In

17:07

fact, in nineteen eighty three, when Queen

17:09

of England visited the island on her tour

17:11

of the Western Hemisphere, she took

17:13

a ride on his yacht. It

17:17

all came to a screeching halt when

17:19

Lee's right hand man, Stephen Kaylish, the

17:21

gentleman smuggler, got arrested in

17:23

Tampa. With

17:27

Stephen in jail, Lee now had all

17:30

kinds of problems for one. He

17:32

was worried Stephen might start talking to the

17:34

Feds, you know, revealing secrets.

17:37

But also they were logistical nightmares.

17:39

They had one million pounds of

17:41

marijuana just sitting in Columbia

17:44

waiting to be moved. Lee had committed

17:46

to selling it, but without his master

17:48

smuggler, how exactly was he

17:50

going to do that. I usually

17:53

built people around me that I

17:55

could trust, and then by me

17:57

trusting them and them trusting me, I

18:00

trusted what their word was. I

18:02

had lost one, Kayliss,

18:05

who was a guy that did everything for me,

18:07

whether you tell him to do it or not, and

18:10

a couple of other people. I

18:12

was vulnerable at that time. Even

18:15

before Stephen Kalish was arrested, Lee

18:17

had big problems. The US

18:20

was starting to take a closer look at offshore

18:22

banking hubs like the came An Islands.

18:25

Lee still remembers the day his man at

18:27

the Bank of Nova Scotia broke

18:29

off their relationship. He

18:32

flat out said, Lee, I'm not taking any more your

18:34

money. Lee

18:37

Rich was stressed and a bit

18:39

desperate, and that's when Shine

18:41

called offering the services of cousin

18:44

ed the counterintelligence expert.

18:47

Well, that was an opening. He needed somebody that he could

18:49

trust. Ned played that

18:51

role to the hilt. He swept Lee's

18:54

house for bugs, but then stuck

18:56

around ready to pitch in when needed,

18:58

because well, Lee needed all

19:01

kinds of help. He soon asked Ned

19:03

if he could get him fake documents a

19:05

birth certificate, passport, and driver's

19:08

license. Said he'd look

19:10

into it gladly. So trust

19:13

was building, But

19:15

then there were these other moments

19:18

when it seemed like Lee might just be a little

19:20

bit suspicious, like maybe he

19:22

was having doubts about who Ned really

19:25

was. More

19:27

on this. When we come back after the break,

19:44

Ned remembers this one day on the island

19:46

when Lee asks him to come on a little trip

19:48

to the bank. He starts talking

19:50

about a rumor he'd heard that federal agents

19:53

were snooping around, and then

19:55

Lee turns to Ned and says, one

19:57

of these agents looks a lot like you, So

20:00

you know, I didn't know what was going to happen. We

20:03

got to the bank and he just says, wait here. So

20:05

I'm sitting alone in the car and thinking,

20:07

Okay, this is it. You

20:09

know. Lee walks back

20:12

out of the bank and nothing,

20:15

but Ned can't shake the feeling that

20:18

Lee might beyond him.

20:20

Even a little moments seemed like they could have

20:23

sinister implications like

20:25

this. One day, Lee suggests that

20:27

Ned should go fishing for conk with

20:29

his butler, a guy named Burtley, so

20:32

they can make a dish called sea pie.

20:34

This all seemed kosher until he and Burtley

20:37

walked down to the shore to a small skiff,

20:39

just the two of them, and get

20:42

in there. You know, Burtley throws his three

20:44

foot my chatty through

20:46

it in a boat and I'm like, oh, this isn't too

20:49

cool. So they paddled out into

20:51

the mist to this site where Bertley

20:53

supposedly knows the conk are. When

20:55

they get there, Burtley points at the spot

20:58

where Ned should dive to get the shellfish.

21:00

Ned eyes the machete again, and

21:03

he looks at the oars, and then he looks

21:05

down at the water, and then he glances

21:07

at Burtley. That's thinking

21:10

house is going to play out. Finally,

21:12

he just jumps in the water and dives

21:14

for the cock. He sees the cock, grabs

21:17

it, and all the while he's thinking about his

21:19

next move. He was planning

21:21

this out in my head. If I come up and

21:24

he's got the machete. He ready to chop my head off. I'm

21:27

thinking, okay, I'll rock the bolt and then reach

21:29

over the edge and try to get hold of this or

21:32

to defend myself. When

21:35

he surfaced, there was Burtley

21:37

smiling, relaxed, perfectly

21:40

friendly. But Ned was

21:42

spooked. It

21:45

was very tense, and there was always tense minutes

21:48

like that that that Lee hadn't said,

21:50

Hey, Burtley, get rid of

21:52

this guy. Well, you'd

21:55

be eaten by the sea life, you know, sharks

21:57

and crabs and snappers

22:00

and ship would just eat your body. You'd be gone.

22:13

In Ned's mind, it began to seem

22:16

like it was just a matter of time before he

22:18

was outed. He started anticipating

22:20

the would be assassins, especially

22:23

when he returned home to the condos where

22:25

he and Shine were staying on the island.

22:28

Recently, I went down with Ned to the

22:30

Caymans and he showed me around. Okay,

22:34

well I don't see where Arabic. I think

22:36

they've changed the numbers around. But we

22:39

retraced his steps and we visited

22:41

those very condos. Ned

22:44

pointed out a set of stairs that led up to a

22:47

room where he slept, or actually

22:49

didn't sleep, No, you're

22:52

always half awake waiting waiting

22:54

for the door to kick in, you know, and you don't have a gun, you

22:57

know, you couldn't have a gun here, so no,

23:01

you're pretty vulnerable. There

23:03

was hardly any people here, so

23:06

we wanted to know if somebody was coming in the night. We would

23:09

some beer cans on those steps

23:11

here, so they hopefully stumble over

23:13

and when they came up and make a bunch of noise, you know, a

23:16

bunch of beer cans on a dark and stairwell.

23:19

That's where Ned was at. While

23:22

Ned and I were in the Caymans. We had

23:24

a few quiet mornings. We just

23:27

chilled out in the living room of his rental condo

23:29

and talked. Being there

23:31

seemed to stir up all kinds of memories

23:34

for him. He seemed more open,

23:36

and so I just kept asking questions.

23:40

Let me let me go back. I have some more earlier

23:43

questions before

23:46

working on this case, before kind

23:48

of arresting Toby, had

23:50

you ever gone undercover before? Not

23:54

really, not with the FBI. I

23:57

did a lot of undercover work in the army in

24:00

Korea with drugs buying and

24:03

penetrating drug

24:05

organizations. This

24:08

was new to me. Ned had mentioned

24:10

serving in Korea before, but never

24:13

in any great detail. Now he went

24:15

on to tell me that for a while he was investigating

24:18

North Korean agents who were sneaking

24:20

down across the border and selling drugs

24:22

like heroin to US servicemen.

24:25

In order to stop this, Ned teamed up

24:27

with his counterparts in the South Korean Military

24:31

Republic of Korea Criminal Investiga

24:33

ANITY Detachment and

24:35

their boss his name was Tiger, and

24:39

Tiger he wanted to be on his

24:41

good side because

24:43

he was a mean son of a bitch. So

24:47

Ned goes under cover to make some buys

24:50

and bust these North Korean agents. Did

24:53

you have any dicey calls or

24:55

dicey situations? Yeah?

24:58

Yeah,

25:00

I had a North Korean crack off,

25:03

a forty five round of the pistol and an alley

25:05

that hit about six inches above my head he

25:08

missed. Ned arrests

25:10

this North Korean agent and then turns

25:12

him over to Tiger and his men.

25:15

Over there we had when it got cold, they had

25:17

oil burning heaters. As

25:19

you're close to him, there as hot as hell, So

25:22

they put him in a push up position

25:25

in front of that heater and just

25:27

a ball cook him and then kicked the ship out of his

25:29

rib zoom beat him and did

25:32

you witness that? Oh yeah,

25:35

he got burns on a skin. I

25:37

never checked his skin, but I know as hot as hell. So

25:40

I mean he's swatting and

25:44

quivering. You know, he knew

25:46

if he if he broke the push up position,

25:48

he was going to get his ribs caved in. So

25:54

yeah, I can get real ugly, you

25:58

know. In the end, I don't know what they were did with the guy. They took

26:00

him away, so I don't know what they

26:02

did to him.

26:06

Does witnessing something like that change you? I

26:10

don't know. You

26:13

know, Um, I

26:22

guess I was always around a lot of violence, starting

26:25

with the army, and and

26:30

I guess I didn't think about it at the time. Let

26:33

me ask you a question. You

26:37

watch this so you're and

26:39

some of this is making you aware of what

26:42

people can do to someone if they fall

26:44

into the wrong hands. Is

26:48

this crossing your mind at all when you're basically

26:50

the one that's behind enemy lines in the Caymans.

26:52

I mean you've witnessed what

26:56

can happen, right, Yeah,

26:59

And

27:02

you know you don't want to be taken

27:04

prisoner. I have

27:07

to believe in your mind that you're

27:09

you're not going to be taken captive. When

27:16

Ned told me all this, I've been talking

27:18

to him for over a year on

27:20

weekends, early in the morning, often

27:23

several times in the same day, and

27:25

honestly, he could be very guarded.

27:28

There were some places he just would not go.

27:31

And now I kind of understood

27:33

why. As

27:36

Ned is struggling to hold it together and the

27:38

Cayans back home in Detroit,

27:41

Ned's wife Kathie rarely heard

27:43

from him. She had to rely on Ned's

27:45

handler at the FBI to get updates,

27:48

and he would call me like once every couple of weeks

27:50

and go, oh, I saw Ned, and he gave

27:52

me the signal that everything's okay.

27:55

And that would be about as much contact

27:57

or even knowledge that the bureau had of

28:00

where he was, whether he was alive,

28:02

whether he was well, you

28:04

know, So that really started wearing

28:06

on me. But she does recall

28:09

at least one occasion when she did manage

28:11

to talk with Ned. He told her about

28:13

a fancy dinner that he'd had with Lee and

28:16

some celebrities. He told me,

28:18

oh, I had dinner with Ringo

28:21

Star and Barbara forget

28:23

the lady's name now, who he married who's

28:26

ringo star married too? She was one of the Bond

28:28

girls. And I said to him, how

28:30

on earth do you think that I can

28:33

compete with

28:35

the kind of people that you are I'm

28:37

sure running with, because I'm confident she

28:39

wasn't the only woman at that dinner table.

28:43

You know, everybody else is in sitting there as couples,

28:45

and Ned is sitting there alone. That doesn't

28:47

even make sense, of course, not,

28:50

of course not. Cathy thought

28:52

that Ned had always been very good at playing

28:55

Ed Thomas, his fictional persona,

28:57

but maybe he was too good at

28:59

it. If you're going to do an undercover

29:02

assignment like that, you

29:04

are going to have to completely absorb

29:08

yourself in that

29:10

life. And in order

29:12

to do that, you have to lose this

29:16

life at least for a while. And

29:18

to think that you can you

29:22

can do that like an actor does in

29:24

a movie. Oh, I, you know, immersed

29:26

myself in the role of so and so. Yeah,

29:29

but in this life, no one is yelling

29:31

cut. You know. Cathy

29:35

voiced her concerns to Ned, and he

29:37

didn't object or argue with his wife.

29:40

Just you know, listen to

29:42

it, and and uh, who's

29:45

saying is really true? That when

29:48

you get that deep undercover

29:50

with a bunch of gangsters,

29:53

drug dealers and murders and bombers

29:55

and whatever, that you

29:59

know you're you're losing track of reality

30:01

of what you really are. This

30:03

possibility was not entirely lost

30:06

on Ned's bosses at the FBI. The

30:08

b RO eventually decided to send another

30:11

agent named Lynn Stonebridge

30:13

down to the Caymans just to check

30:15

on Ned. I mean, they knew where

30:17

he was, but who knew what was really going

30:20

on. There was nobody else sort

30:22

of on his side that was there. And

30:25

then it also gave him a little stress released

30:27

by telling me what's going on. And

30:29

you could see he was worked up about some of

30:32

the stuff too, So he just needed someone

30:34

to talk to that he could trust. She

30:36

was only on the island for a few days,

30:39

and even she sensed the danger. You've

30:41

start getting paranoid and watching everyone around

30:43

you. It sounds like a

30:46

pretty wretched existence, but

30:48

Ned was still determined. It's

30:51

not like you can call it time out and get out

30:53

of the game. You know,

30:56

they say you're in it to win it, not to play

30:58

armchair psychologist, but like do

31:00

you have to push your real self

31:03

and your real feelings like down

31:06

and kind of bury them. On some

31:08

level, I think he would become hardened, you

31:11

know, just like the

31:14

rock Cid beating the hell out of this guy. I mean

31:16

they heard him. They broke his ribj getor the ribs

31:18

break. You know, this

31:21

is the North Korean that was tortured. You

31:24

have to suppress your feelings and go for the

31:26

greater cause. And

31:32

you know, and also it's a challenge, it's

31:35

it's a challenge. What

31:39

made it worth it for Ned was that slowly

31:41

he was making progress. He was climbing

31:43

up the ladder, way up the ladder. He'd

31:46

started off at a roadside biker bar Detroit

31:48

with Toby. Then he got Shine,

31:51

who vetted everybody. He had a line

31:53

on Mike Vogel, the Detroit grocery

31:55

guy. And now here he was

31:57

in the Canaans. He'd found

32:00

Lee Rich, the big boss, mister beach

32:02

Club. Not just that he'd earned

32:04

his trust, Lee had told him that he was

32:06

in the process of setting up a second base

32:08

of up rations in the Bahamas.

32:12

The scope of Ned's investigation was

32:14

expanding exponentially. It

32:16

seemed Ned had learned who Lee's

32:18

supplier was. The old man done

32:20

in bearing Kai at Columbia. But what

32:23

was he supposed to do with this intel? Anyhow?

32:26

Officially legally that

32:28

was none of Ned's business. This

32:31

was way beyond his purview as an

32:33

FBI agent. But

32:35

still he had questions. He wanted

32:37

to know where was the money going if

32:39

it couldn't be banked in the Caymans. He

32:42

wanted to know where did this

32:44

all end? Next

32:59

time on deep Cover, Ned's

33:02

undercover identity had been compromised

33:06

and they had to put a hit

33:08

on Ned and they were going to lure

33:10

him to a location and give him a

33:12

hot shot of drugs

33:15

and kill him. And

33:18

they also knew where we lived.

33:38

Deep Cover is produced by Jacob Smith

33:41

and edited by Karen Shakerji. Our

33:43

story editor is Jack hit. Original

33:46

music and our theme was composed by Luis

33:48

Gara and Flawn Williams is our engineer.

33:51

Fact checking by Amy Gaines. Mia

33:54

Lobell is Pushkin's executive

33:56

producer. Ned's novel is read

33:58

by Walton Goggins. Special

34:00

thanks to Julia Barton had their fame,

34:03

Carly mcgliori, Leeta mullatd

34:06

Maya Caning, Eric Sandler,

34:08

Aggie Taylor, Kadija Holland,

34:10

zuwek Winn and Jacob Weisberg

34:12

at Pushkin Industries. Special

34:14

thanks also to Jeff Singer at Stowaway

34:17

Entertainment. Additional

34:19

thanks to Joseph Betty check out

34:21

his terrific artwork. If you ever get down to the

34:23

Caymans, I'm

34:25

Jake Albern