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Murder in Miami is a production of

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I Heart Radio. In

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this week's special Bonus, I wanted to share

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a little bit of a personal and cultural timeline

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and some interesting perspective from a smuggler

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not linked to Miami or the Coconut

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Grove guys. Bill Stanford's

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introduction to drug smuggling Miami

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style would occur nearly a decade

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after Nixon announced his offensive

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against drug addiction, and the nineteen

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eighties would see his mission morph into

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an outright declaration of war,

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with Reagan's White House and his crusading

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First Lady leading the charge. Nancy

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Reagan and I answered, but

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not everyone across the country was just

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saying no. My introduction to

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cocaine came very early on and

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lived in infamy when in nineteen

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eighty I learned through my parents

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hissed and hushed tones, that our neighbor

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had been convicted, along with his two

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brother in laws, of buying nineteen

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thousand dollars worth of cocaine from

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a federal narcotics agent posing

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as a drug dealer. One

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of those brother in laws millionaire

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movie producer Robert Evans. Because

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Evans film credits included movies

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like The godfather and Rosemary's

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baby. His privileged punishment

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was to be placed on special probation for

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a year and tasked with

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using his skills as a producer to

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address the nation's growing narcotics

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problem. The result

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one of the most notorious and some

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might argue cringey anti

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drug TV specials of the nineteen eighties

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and maybe ever titled Get

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High on Yourself. It

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started a staggering number

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of celebrities like Muhammad Ali,

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Paul Newman, Carol Burnett, Magic

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Johnson, John Travolta, and Burt

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Reynolds and is well

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worth a google and perhaps a

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giggle. But drugs

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had already proved a profitable pastime,

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and as with the nation's previous attempt

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to go dry with prohibition, the

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war on drugs actually increased

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their value and the potential

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for corruption. That just

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brings out the evil and people in prohibition

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and just creates so many problems more

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than it ever prevents. That's

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Mr Jerry Lee Wilson. He's a former

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marijuana smuggler who was based out

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West which is where he linked

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with Phil Stanford, who profiled him for

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a magazine article A quick aside.

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Mr Wilson is also the mastermind

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and inventor behind solo Flex,

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the groundbreaking machine that forever

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revolutionized home fitness in the nineteen

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eighties and created the world's

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first infomercial that sold it, along

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with the no Pain, No Gain Body

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by Soloflex print campaign featuring

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that iconic shirtless male model

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with impeccable pecks and abs. Wilson's

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a fascinating guy. We're

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dealing with the story of nineteen

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eighties Miami as it switched

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from pot to cocaine. But

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just the corruption, it's

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fascinating that prohibition

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just breeds corruption and crime

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well India, and it breeds opportunity. There's

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so much opportunity for you know, on both sides

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of the defense. But it did

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open up an economic opportunity.

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Before he'd make millions with solo Flex,

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Jerry was jailed in Oklahoma, facing

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bail to the tune of a half a million dollars

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for flying in quote the largest

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load of pot in history unquote.

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Here's how we got there, So tell

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me how you fell into smuggling. I

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never really wanted to have to work for

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a living, you know, because I tried work several times,

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never paid much, and it was hard. And then

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I got to thinking maybe I should just become a

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pilot. That didn't seem like work at all, and

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so that's what I did. I mean, just loved

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anything get up off the ground. And

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so that's what I did for twelve years, as I slew

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professionally five of the years, and I flew

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the night air mail up to Tornado

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Alley without a radar,

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and that was pretty scary. And then

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I got a job flying lear jets in Las Vegas,

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where I got to meet all the mafia guys that I read

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about. One of them was an attorney

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from El Paso and

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a gambler and notorious gambler and high

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roller, big steakes,

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gambler and big tipper. But

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I started flying him, shuttling him back and

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forth between El Paso and Las Vegas

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and uh. And then I got a charter

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from his younger brother, who I hadn't

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met yet, to just fly back

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east, you know, with only one pastor

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on board. And then they wouldn't

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even tell me where we were going, you know. And and actually

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I was going out to collect cash,

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hard currency, and buckets and big

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steamship trunks full of just cash

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that I would bring back and they would take

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to Caesar's and they had weigh it when

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they get credit on books. But these

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guys were The younger brother was a smuggler, marijuana

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smuggler. I got a call

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to go down and pick up leash agra in El

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Paso, and so I was waiting at the airport. He

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was usually laid, We've been there about

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an hour, my copt and me. Then

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here comes Jimmy and it was the first time I had met

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his younger brother, the actual smuggler,

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And so he says, Lee's looking for some pilots,

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and I thought,

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damn, that sounded like a

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lot of flun for one time, and

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maybe the lucrative and there's

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certainly nothing wrong with it that I could see,

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And so I went to work for him.

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But Jerry Lee Wilson would eventually find

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himself on the wrong side of the law and

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at odds with the cops who arrested him,

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who were also on the wrong side

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of the law. I was finding myself

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in jail, you know, and the cops

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having stolen all the dope. That

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happens more than one would think, but

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but just explained. So there the

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cops are not stupid, you know, they're you

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know, how valuable it is. They also know every

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dealer in the area, you know, so

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I mean I get the natural connection to sell

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it. You know, there was a d e age in Albuquerque

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that got busted selling the same uh

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load of pot hit hit hit busted and

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then resell it and get and busted reselled.

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That breeds opportunities on both sides

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of the defense. You know, cops don't

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get paid that much, and they all think they're

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overworked and harassed at

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treasury agents that once you know, he's my

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balls were a little bigger, you know, I'd be doing what

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you're doing. Yeah, and

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it's like, well, hey, what can

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I say? Get some balls

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man. Jerry

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shares many of his smuggling adventures and

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innovations in his autobiography

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The Solo Flex Story, an American parable

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which Wilson cleverly dedicates

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to the Statute of Limitations.

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It is a great Ready

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for more podcasts for my Heart Radio,

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visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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or wherever you get the stories that matter

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to you.